March 24, 2021 • 41 mins
On this episode of Fitness Disrupted, Tom welcomes musician Mike Massé to the show to talk about his approach to music to illustrate the power that passion plays in our approach to what we do..
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of I Heart Radio.
I am Tom Holland and this is Fitness Disrupted. A
friend of mine shared a video with me a while back,
(00:20):
and it was of a singer, a singer in a
pizza place and he was performing with another friend. So
it was a bassist and a guitarist in a pizza place,
live music, and it was a cover of Toto song Africa,
(00:41):
and it absolutely blew me away. Now, if you've listened
to some other podcasts of mine, I also have a
creative side of musical background, performance background, love it, which
is why what I do today makes complete sense. It's fitness,
it's performance, and there's even music involved. I played drums
(01:02):
and bands for years, did a lot of things in
the creative side when it came to music and performing.
So not only was I blown away by this performance,
as you will be too if you have not seen it,
assume many of you have, and if you haven't, uh,
(01:23):
I will give you the information so that you can
and you go. What does this have to do with fitness?
This has everything to do with health and wellness and
human behavior and something called deliberate practice that I did
an entire show on because it's what we do when
(01:46):
a people aren't looking or very few, as in the
case of Mike muss So Mike Mussay performer and in
this pizza place, delivered a performance to a handful of
ball and I'm gonna let him tell the story because
I don't want to give too much away. But the
bottom line is he was performing as if he were
(02:11):
in front of a packed Madison Square garden. And far
too often, when it comes to fitness and nutrition, you
see someone who's in shape, or you compete against someone
in any sport who's really good at what they do,
and you assume that they were just born that way,
(02:33):
and of course their genetics involved when it comes to
sports performance and artistic you know ability, But it's what
we do when people aren't looking. And the ten thousand hours,
as Malcolm Gladwell puts it, and it's those workouts, hundreds
(02:53):
and thousands of workouts that people do when no one
is looking or very few. Again, so for multiple reasons,
I'm having Mike Massay on. But when you see that
video and all of his videos after that, but when
(03:14):
just a few people were watching the performance, he delivered
the comments at the end. There are comments on the
YouTube video, which by the way, over fifteen million now
are I was gonna say just as good, but not
even close. But they're worth reading. And a common comment
is that they cannot believe that it's just a handful
(03:36):
of people applauding at the end. It sounds like two
or three people. But that's the whole point, is that
Mike performed every time at this pizza place as if
he were in front of record executives, as if he
were in front of a crowd of fifty thousand people.
(03:57):
I guess what it paid off, the pay eat off.
So I'll do shows on strength training and cardio and
the studies involved in nutrition and sports nutrition, but we
also have to talk about human behavior and practice and performance,
(04:19):
because that, at the end of the day, is everything.
We know we need to move more, we know we
need to eat healthy. How do we get the motivation
and how do we get motivated when no one is watching.
When we come back from the break, Mike mus say
we'll be right back, and we are back. As I
(04:51):
said in the intro, you know I do shows about
exercise and shows about nutrition. But one of the biggest
parts of this whole journey. And you know, process is
the human behavior side. And you go, how does Mike
Massay work into that? Well, guess what. As I said
in the intro, it's what we do when people aren't
looking or a few people are looking. That I would
say makes all the difference in the world where it
(05:12):
comes through exercise and nutrition, and Mike just exemplifies, uh,
you know, integrity and delivering a great performance, whether it's
you know, two people or fifty thousand. So Mike, thank
you so much for taking the time and and we
go a little back. Yeah, right, it's good to see
you man, it's great to see you again. Great to
(05:32):
see you. So I'm gonna read your by real quickly
for those who don't know. So here we go again.
Mike must say. He's an internationally acclaimed artist who performs
epic acoustic classic rock. His YouTube channel has over a
hundred and twenty five million views and over three hundred
thousand subscribers. His covers are beloved by many original artists,
including Boston Sticks, Sarah McLaughlan rush In. Asia uh Toto
(05:57):
cited Mike's cover of Africa as their favorite, and it
has As we're speaking over fifteen million views and counting. Uh.
The success of his YouTube channel allowed him to quit
his day job as a public defender in two thousand
fourteen and become a full time musician. Mike's acoustic arrangements
are praised for their originality, creativity, accuracy, and simplicity. He
is careful to remain true to what is beloved about
(06:18):
the original recordings while bringing his own masterful musical flair
to each rendition. He has performed with members of Boston, Toto,
and Survivor. He has been featured on BBC Radio and
other national and international media outlets, and he now performs
free live stream concerts by the way, we'll talk about
it like one of the greatest things. You can watch
from his home studio on Friday and Saturday nights, and
(06:40):
he soon will be seen again at private and sold
out public events around the country and the world. Again, Mike,
thanks so much God, you know, uh, let me let
me give I didn't tell people that. Not only did
I see you so a friends shared you know your
video way back when I was absolutely blown away, and
we'll talk about that. But then I had Mike come
(07:00):
out and play my fiftieth birthday party, and Mike I
often talk about like, I'm not a big person who's
into stuff. I'm into experiences, you know, collecting experiences, whether
it's races around the world or Mike Massa playing my
fiftieth birthday party, you know, to pull you out of
my computer late at night and bring you, you know
to that party was amazing. So tell people it was great, right,
(07:23):
I mean, um, and a small venue. It was like
everything that I'm about. So thank you again for that.
I will never forget it. I'm gonna have you out again.
As we talked about Selfish, but let's talk pie Pizzeria.
Let's go back to where you know, the craziness at
least started. Tell people about that. So you were playing,
(07:44):
as I said in the intro, uh was it a
monthly gig at a pizza joint? And just talk about that. Yeah.
I was, um, you know when I started, when I
was in college, I just at this little place in
Salt Lake City and as you know, one of the
few places that paid musicians anything. That was like fifty
bucks a night, you know. But I was like right on.
For a college kid, I was like, yeah, I'll do that.
So it's it's started off a long time ago where
(08:06):
I just you know, would play monthly gigs. They're doing
my acoustic covers. And eventually, you know, my repertoire grew
and and I went on to law school, and I
maintained the gig at the Pizza place, and then I
became a lawyer, and I still had the gig at
the pizza place. It was just kind of my way
to to you know, not forget all the music I
had learned and to kind of hone my craft. And eventually,
(08:26):
in two thousand and eight, I started filming those gigs
and posting some of the highlights on my YouTube channel
or what became my YouTube channel, and um, and it
just kind of took off from there. It got, you know,
noticed by first was a lot of fellow musicians are like,
what a cool arrangement. I love how you did that.
And and then um, we posted the Africa cover. I
say we because a lot of the early videos featured
me and a guy named Jeff Hall, who was a
(08:47):
fellow attorney. I was a public defender and he was
a prosecutor and we both you know, just would meet
up at the gigs for on Monday nights and he
was like an old friend from college and he he
played bass and and sang backing vocals for me, and
and yeah, we had a good time just kind of
entertaining the world through our little you know, a little
video portal of our of our video camera. And uh yeah, eventually,
(09:07):
I you know, I took off to the point where
I'm like, I think I can do this full time,
and so I kind of created my own dream job,
if you will, you know, it's like I was thinking
about that the other day. We can talk more about that,
but like sometimes you have to kind of make your
own dream job dream job. You dream it and then
you're like, well, I don't know if anyone's gonna pay
me to do it. I'm just gonna do it and
see if it works. You know. That's kind of what
I did. I you know, I just like I quit
the day job, quit the salary, and became self a
(09:29):
self employeed musician. And now I I still you know,
post videos on YouTube, and uh and I was, you know,
traveling around doing a lot of shows, and then you know,
I had to kind of pivot to the live streams
when everything shut down. But that's kind of where I'm at.
But when you were doing those gigs, Mike. This was
pre YouTube. This was your just videotaping, what just for yourself?
Actually no, I mean I started the gigs for YouTube,
(09:49):
but I started filming them and kind of the early
days of YouTube. But it was like two thousand eight
was when I started posting videos, and that was like
YouTube was in its infancy. I think it maybe started
in two thousand six or something. I'm not sure exactly,
but but it was enough where I just I actually
visited my sister and she had me over and and
uh and it's like, hey, will you, um, you know,
maybe play a couple of songs for some of my
friends who have enjoyed, you know, hearing your recordings that
(10:09):
I've shared with them, and and uh So, while I
was playing for her friends, she's like, you should start
a YouTube channel. And I was like, m And I'd
already been like recording you know, the audio a lot
of my gigs just to kind of, you know, for posterity.
And I was like, well, it probably wouldn't be too
hard to sync up a video to these recordings and
just post them. And and you know, the early days,
it's kind of grainy, you know, standard definition video and
then the video quality kind of improves over time, as
(10:30):
you can see my channel evolve. So yeah, that's good.
I started what I have to tell you listeners, Mike
is a perfectionist, because one thing that brew me away
is the quality of the audio recordings that I played
in bands, and I love the equipment. I was a drummer.
I mean so wait, wait, wait, way down the total
poll musicians go, but no, like it is. It is
(10:52):
so unbelievably well done. And as Mike saying, like, yeah,
the video and and and we could talk about Mike, like,
you know, the people walking in front of the uh
the shot, and I found out half of the fact
that that's because that's where the bathroom was across the
front of the camera to the bathroom. Ye, people always
like down in front. I'm like, hey, they're just going
to the bathroom slack, And yeah, exactly. And it's a joint.
(11:14):
And you know, I was saying, Mike, when you read
the comments that are so fantastic on so many levels,
but one of the common refrains is that you can't
believe the three the smattering of applause at the end
of this unbelievable performance, and you and and Jeff lath
right laugh. I heard some time, but you still delivered
like this crazy performance. So every video you share, you know,
(11:37):
oh there's there's gonna be one where, you know, you
don't stay at that level or to that caliber of performance.
Like what inside you said, I don't care if it's
two people or fifty thousand. This is what I do.
And I, you know, I just I guess I always
just kind of did that. I was always like, you know,
I was I was serving the music, you know what
(11:57):
I mean. It was just like that, I just love
these songs too much to just kind of do it halfway,
you know, And so I would, Yeah, I would. I
would always perform, you know, sing my brains out, regardless
of how many people were in the room. And then
when the you know, when we started filming it, I
had that additional motivation. I'm like, well, you know, even
if these folks don't get it, maybe somebody out there will,
you know, when they see this later. And so it
(12:18):
kind of just, you know, the audience sort of shifted
and and um, but yeah, it was just it was
just my love for the music, I think, in my
respect for it, and and I always wanted people. My
My goal was like, if they liked the original song,
I don't want them to have any reason not to
like my cover of it. You know what I mean.
It's like if I want to maintain everything they loved
about the original and then just you know, it's me.
(12:38):
It's through the filter of me. I can't avoid that.
But you know, and so I didn't want people to
be like, you know, oh, I like the original, but
I didn't like what he did with it. Actually, the
opposite has happened. I've had a lot of people say,
you know, I didn't like the original, but I really
liked your cover. You know, so that which is great.
You know, that's kind of the opposite. It's good. And
it almost plays in a little bit like to what
I do as far as exercise in that, you know,
I'm all about the simplistic stuff, as you're saying, like
(13:01):
it's push up. So the stuff that works works right,
and so you don't reinvent the wheel, especially when it's
worked now you could be all. You know, you have
an amazing voice. We have to say so even though
Mike saying he doesn't change you know, the songs around
the way you watch on you know, other shows or whatever.
When you hit that course in Africa, I mean, it
gives gives people chills. I mean that was like insane,
(13:21):
So you know, you don't you don't have to change
it in that like your instrument and your guitar playing
everything is like you make it look easy. You make
it look so easy. And let's talk about that, Like
when did you start playing? I mean, were you you know,
into music as a kid. Yeah, I mean I grew
up listening to music. I was in a very you know,
music fan household. I won't say musical household because nobody
(13:43):
really played anything. My sisters all kind of you know,
dabbled with piano lessons, but I was the one who
kind of was trying to play by ear and figure
out songs that I liked, you know, and and m
and eventually it was like kind of in high school
where I, you know, got my first acoustic guitar and
started I'm like, you know, there's just a bunch of
Beatles songs. I wanted to know how to play, you know,
even for my own enjoyment. You know, I didn't really
care if anyone was listening. I'm just like, I want
(14:04):
to do this for me. And so I, you know,
sat down and like the Beatles were my guitar teachers basically,
and this was before the internet where he could look
up tab and see how to play. You know, I
was I gonna do it like a lot. You know,
I had some song books, but those are those are
piano book those are a guitar books, you know, something like.
I was pretty much on my own and trying to
figure things out. And you know, I taught myself Blackbird
and Yesterday and you know, Rocky Raccoon and all those,
all those those songs taught me how to fingerpick, you know.
(14:26):
And then I went through you know, let the cablog
and just learned a bunch of songs. And it was
just from my own enjoyment. And uh and I never
envisioned myself being a professional musician at that time, and
not at all. I mean I thought, you know, and
I definitely couldn't sing when I first started to sing.
I could carry a tune, but I had no technique,
and so you know, I had to kind of unlock
my instrument. It was just my desire to sing that
kept me, you know, driven to do that. And so
(14:48):
I came a long way and it was through training
and practice. It wasn't just like I wasn't a natural
born singer, you know, and at least if I was,
it was it was a latent talent that I had
to kind of develop. And again, I'm gonna guess, not
having heard you sing as a kid, that you were
going I was, I was okay, I was okay, But
yeah I listened, and I'm like, but you know what
(15:09):
that that goes to? You know, again, just with the
fitness and athletic performance analogies, like give me someone who
is kind of good Mike as a coach, um when
I was a trainer, but as the work ethic, right,
just but it's passionate about like you were, right, because
the person who hasn't as a gift. And I'm sure
you've met the musicians and people like that and all
walks of life, they tend to not work as hard,
(15:29):
right because it comes too easy. I'm sure you're probably
being hard on yourself with your level of talent. So
in the early days when you practiced a lot, was
it like hours on end or what was your like
typical you know, I didn't really practice singing and when
I first started, but like I actually, you know, I
joined a choir in high school. I was in a
couple of choirs, and that kind of like showed me.
I'm like, oh, that's what good voices sound like, and
(15:51):
that's what you know, it should be happening. And so
I I kind of surrounded myself with people that kind
of knew what they were doing and and kind of
tried to you know, draft behind them a bit, you know,
and just kind uh you know, figured out that way.
And then eventually I started taking voice lessons and then
I actually auditioned to be a voice major in college,
and you know, I became of a voice major in college,
and that was where I really started learning a lot,
(16:12):
you know. I was I was learning you know, traditional
you know, legit singing, you know, you know, slash opera
almost and I was in some really good choirs in college,
and so that just taught me a lot that, you know,
just surrounding myself again with a lot of talent and
and you know, seeing the opera singers who would just
you know blow the doors off of the songs, I
was just like, I'm never gonna be able to do that,
you know, And so I was just like it was
(16:33):
just you know, I had my pop sensibilities, my rock sensibilities,
and I'm like, I'm I'm comfortable where I am. But um,
but yeah, but you know, you can learn a lot
from all the different styles and and it's important, I think,
to expose yourself to that just so you have kind
of a you know, a well rounded view of take
on music or whatever you're doing, you know, figure out
what what's out there and and uh, and then I
was just kind of driven to kind of, you know,
(16:54):
like I said, to work up my own repertoire and
and just for my own enjoyment. And then as an attorney,
you know, it just kind of kept me saying it
was sort of my break from the grind of the
day job, you know, and and being a public defender,
you know, in criminal working in criminal law, you get
you get a lot of secondary PTSD. You know, you're
exposed to a lot of horrible situations and and um
(17:14):
sad situations, and so it's it kind of you know,
it was my escape. Music was my safe place, you
know that I kind of came back to um just
to kind of, you know, just kind of get my
mind off of other things I would work, you know,
I'd come home and sometimes work late at night and
just kind of work on recordings and at my own pace.
I didn't have a schedule or you know, now I'm
more motivated as a self employed person. I'm like, I
have to be, you know, I have to kind of
(17:34):
keep myself moving all the time. And and so that
was a transition for me, was you know, becoming self
employed and and uh, but I think I've made the jump.
It took a couple of years to kind of get
my group, but I think I feel like I'm I'm
in a good place now where you know, I kind
of balance the self employment with the home life and
literally home life all the time now. But yeah, it's
it's been good. When did the piano and get torque?
(17:57):
You even skipped over that? I mean people need to
realize that. Like again, I know just enough guitar, not
even piano to be dangerous, like not even but like
you you I read the comments like by guys who
I know must be great guitar players piano players, and
their reverence for you're playing again the simplicity you know,
you miss nothing like with the music and the vocal parts.
(18:19):
So was that just music school with the vocals came at. Yeah,
you know, I think a lot of that was just
I don't know, I think of a lot of that's
just listening. I've always been a really good listener, and
I sometimes it surprises me that other people don't hear
what I hear because I'm just like, it's just there.
I'm just like, I'm not I take it all back,
like you're ridiculously gift. No, it's just I'm serious though.
(18:41):
Like when I do a cover, I'm like, you know,
I I hear when something's missing, and you know, I
can hear the difference between what I'm doing and what
they're doing if it's not the same, and like and
if I'm dissecting recording, if I'm like piecing together like
you know, like my own arrangement of something, I go
back through the original, and you know, I just I
try to you know, sometimes I'm not just duplicating the
piano part or the guitar part, because it's a whole
(19:02):
band arrangement that I'm converting to guitar piano. So you
have to bring another elements of the music. You have
to kind of hear what the drums are doing and
hear what the bass is doing. And you know, I've
done covers, like I did a rush cover of a
song called Mystic Rhythms, and when I when I arranged
that acoustically, I realized, I'm like, I have to ignore
the guitar part and I'm just gonna basically do what
the bass and the keyboards are doing because that's where
(19:23):
the core changes are and that's where the root of
the song is, and the guitar parts just kind of
like you know, uh flair, you know, it's it just
was just kind of a different you know. So that's
just like one example where sometimes you kind of have
to you know, you have to imagine, like what how
do I bring this song to life with only my
guitar or you know, I've introduced to I have a
a stomp pedal now that is as a kick drum
(19:43):
kind of you know, to just kind of keep a
simple beat. Sometimes it kind of helps me. But like
you know, I don't have a lot to work with,
so I'm just but I want people to feel that
same energy from the original, and you know, and that's
kind of you know, that's sort of my mindset and
my approach to it. Yeah, So you have an ability
as you're describing to just what the essence of the song, right,
and make it as big as it can be with
(20:05):
one person. Right, So let's just talk about you alluded
to it or spoke about it. Um, when you made
that decision when it's you know, you're a lawyer, you
got a family, and you're like, you know what, I'm
passionate about this. I think I could make a go
of it. That's scary. I don't care you know how
well you're doing on the other side that choice. Yeah,
it was a kind of a big, kind of a
big leap, you know. And I was sort of to
(20:26):
the point where when I made that decision, I was
kind of a little bit of hybrid. I mean, I
was kind of working as a musician on the side,
and I had you know, I was traveling for gigs
and I you know, did even did some public gigs
and and you know to some places, and I kind
of had the fan base and and um, actually what
happened was my cover of Africa had sort of a
little viral outbreak. I hate saying that these days, but
(20:49):
that's a different meaning. But yeah, you know went viral
and and you know, and that kind of raised my
exposure level, and I was getting inquiries from you know,
more people and stuff, and I was just like, oh,
you know, oh my god, that if I put my
you know, heart and soul and and mine to this
full time, that I could I could do this. And
and so you know, it's kind of a family decision,
you know. I had to make sure my wife was
(21:09):
cool with it and everything, and and we, yeah, we
decided to make the leap. And um, it's it's just
been great. You know. Um, let me just ask you.
Have you seen that? Um, have you seen Stanley Tucci
searching for Italy on CNN? Have you seen any of that? Okay,
it's awesome. It's like, yeah, it's awesome. It's basically like
Stanley Tucci going around Italy and visiting all these beautiful
(21:30):
places and just eating all the great food. And I'm
just like, I'm like, what a what a great job
that would be to have that job. You know. It's
just like it's, you know, like that's an example of
a dream job. And it's like, you know, and no
one's gonna like necessarily pay you to do that, but
you have to make it. And I'm sure he was like,
I want to do this, and and he figured out
a way to get paid to do it. And it's
it's awesome. It's a great show, and it just it'll
make you hungry, but it's a great show. But but
(21:52):
to me, I was I was thinking about that. I
was just like, you know, that's kind of what I did.
I'm like, I love you know, a lot of musicians
are like, you know, I need to have original music
and you know, I need to h make it, you know,
make my own identity and stuff. And I was like,
I've never been that guy. I'm just like, I love
this music from the past, and I love doing it
for people. I love these acoustic arrangements and and and
That'm like, if I can figure out how to do
that for a living, that's awesome. And and that's kind
(22:14):
of what I did. I just kind of made my
own path and and it's been it's been great. I
could not have scripted that better, Mike, because exactly, you know,
and that's why I think I connected with you over
the computers so quickly. It's about passion. You know. I'm
actually back in school at about Harvard, studying a bunch
of different cources human behavior, and the course right now
it is motivation, and you just hit on you know
(22:36):
three things people are looking for, you know, autonomy, the
ability to do what we want, you know, mastery to
get good at doing what we want, and then purpose
right to hopefully have a bigger cause. And you know,
you're entertaining people, making people happy, I'm hopefully making people healthier,
and so like, I just love that because I have
people stick their head in my office all the time
(22:56):
and they look around and they go, you know, what
the hell do you do for am? Because I made
my passion my vocation and there was no and still
is no road map, and I'm I'm constantly hustling. You're
still hustling, but I'm sure the alternative is so much worse. Right,
there's no going back. I don't fall back on right
because we're passionate about what we do. You have to
(23:16):
be willing and you have to be comfortable with making
decisions because you're the only one that you're answering to
most of the time, you know what I mean? Like you,
I mean, you have your family or supporting perhaps, but like,
apart from that, it's just kind of like I'm my
own boss, Like literally in a way that not everybody's
comfortable with that. Some people just like I just want
to go to work and have people tell me what
to do and then go home, and like I don't
want to like engage on that level. And I get
that too, you know, but but some people are like, no,
(23:38):
I'm just like I got these ideas, I've got this,
you know, I have all these things I would do
if I had the time, you know, and it's just
like I made the time, you know, like I had.
That was a big thing for me because there's like
so many songs that I wanted to like record and cover,
and I'm like, I'm never gonna get to all these
if it's part time. I'm like, there's so much music
that I want to share with people the way I
hear it and the way I do it. And and
that was another great thing about the live streams is like,
(23:59):
you know, in the past, I would work on, you know,
a couple of songs a month, and you know that
would be all I could do, you know, just because
each one I crafted all perfectly, and you know, I
just I spend time on arrange the recording, backing vocals,
whatever it would be, you know, and then when the
live streams. Sit I'm just like, hey, world, check out
all these arrangements, you know. Like I was like I
would just be able. I was able to unload all
these songs that I just kind of like, you've never
(24:20):
heard me do this song before because I never recorded
it yet, you know. And so it's like I've done
I've I've sung over six hundred different songs on my
live streams. I've done a hundred and I think a
hundred and forty something episodes, and um, I learned probably
in the past year, I learned at least maybe I
(24:40):
don't know of those for the first time, like at
least over a hundred songs or maybe more, maybe two hundred.
A lot of them. I was like digging back through
my catalog. I'm just like, I'm gonna I want to
bring this one back. I want to bring this one
back because I was always trying to find it, you know.
I wanted people to have repeat viewing, have have that
be interesting to them, you know, and and so I
you know, I had a large repertoire, but I've expanded
it so much and it's been fun, and not everything
(25:01):
works equally. You know. It's like it's kind of like
my and that's what I used to do with the Pie.
When I would play at the Pie, I would arrange
something and I like this work, you know this kind
of you know, I try it and be like, now
that didn't work, or you know, like that's awesome, and
I want to do that again. All right, I'm like
I could do that better. I'm gonna keep doing it.
And so that's kind of the live streams of all
like the Pie for me in a way where I
just kind of give myself. I'm in my own basement,
so I give myself permission to make mistakes and and
(25:22):
just kind of roll with it, and it's live and
people kind of I think they like seeing the human
element of of me not being you know, as perfect
as I've always been on YouTube up to that point.
And so but you know, you know, I take requests
on the fly, and you know, sometimes I'm like, I
don't know if I remember that well enough to try it,
you know, are sometimes I'll I'll be like I think
I can do this, and then like afterwards, I'm like,
I guess I didn't remember that as well as I
said I did. You know, it doesn't it's all just
roll with it. But it's you know, I think people
(25:43):
appreciate that that human element and just kind of seeing that,
you know, musicians are human and and even once we
were professionals, you know, they're not. They don't know everything
equally well. You know, there's some songs I've done hundreds
of times that I could just do in my sleep,
and there's other songs I'm just like, I need a
chart in front of me, you know, just because I
don't know these words yet or what ever, you know.
So it's just, yeah, it's it's been it's been a
fun experience for me. And like you know that I
(26:04):
try to look at the bright side of being locked down,
and that's that's what it's been for me. It's just
expanding my repertoire and and uh also just kind of
having a family of a fan base. I've got, you know,
live chatters who are regulars that come to my show
all the time, and it's like they're the little micn
Say show family, you know, and and they support me
with their donations, you know, and and it's just it's
been awesome building that kind of community, and it's gonna
(26:26):
be great for me to get back on the road.
And actually see these people in person. I can't wait
so many things I gotta pull out real quick. So
you talked about time, right, and that's the number one
excuse for exercise, right, don't have time? We all have time.
We gotta be passionate about what we do. And like
how many people artistically right, Oh, I have a great
idea for a book or a movie screenplayer, I just
can't find the time. And like, you get up earlier
(26:47):
or you work later, like I, I'm I don't know
about you, but I'm up pretty late and I'm up
pretty early, right because I need to do things. I'm
so passionate about what I do. If you told me
I couldn't do those things, I'd be annoyed, right as would.
But I also love you talked about and I hate
the term there's no failure, right, And I so appreciate Mike,
and I see that. I think again, you're that kind
(27:08):
of musician. I get it when you and Jeff are
playing or something and I see you laugh, and I
know you're laughing because you did something wrong that I
don't even know. Right, you missed a note. You guys
look at each other, but I know I didn't hear it.
So like again, it's it's all relative, but people need
to hear that, like there is no failure, you know.
(27:28):
And I love that about you because I did the
same thing back when I was doing my first fitness
videos Mike. I did them in real time because I said,
I want people to see me stumble. Now it also
was a lot cheaper, so we're on so many levels.
But people, you know, still to this day, Mike say,
you know, when you fell or stumbled whatever it was,
I did too right, And that's you know, you gotta
(27:49):
be there is no perfect, especially in this world of
Instagram right where everything is is perfect. So just know
that I so appreciate that. And people need to hear
that message that your failure is not trying. Yeah, exactly.
You have to give your self permission to not be
perfect and and uh, you know, hopefully the quality of
your work outshines any minor and perfections, you know, And
(28:11):
that's kind of you know. I try to be consistent
and um, and if I do something, if I play
a song where it didn't go great, then I'll be
sure to play something better the next song. I'm like,
I'm gonna go back to something don't go back to
a safe place and redeem myself a bit. You know what.
I can say that, I'm like, I need to redeem myself.
I'll even say that, you know. So it's just, yeah,
it's just kind of pushing myself. We just did a
Pink Floyd show a couple of weeks ago where we
I learned like seventeen songs in like a week and
(28:33):
a half, you know, And you know, I did the
same thing for a Genesis show and you know, and
so it's like, and I just did a youtubo show
last night for St. Patrick's Day and and so yeah,
it's like I'm I'm constantly pushing myself and like, I
gotta learn new songs. I gotta keep going. And it's
just been part of my drive and it's yeah, and
I'm I'm not gonna stop. Yeah. And by the way,
I saw all those shows, I didn't know half of
(28:54):
those Pink Floyd songs went deep yeah, well you know,
yeah it was for the fans. Yeah, constantly improving, Like
I mean, I don't know what I don't know. Like
if you watch my YouTube channel, like you can literally
scroll and you can name the songs within the time
bar right, I mean so just oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
which is awesome. Yeah, I know, right, it's like little chapters. Yeah,
(29:16):
you can just put chapters in it. Yeah, from the description. Yeah,
that was that's a cool thing. I picked up on
that tip. Yeah, so you can skip through and see
like I always put the whole set list in the
description of the video. And when you do that, if
you put zero like zero cal and zero zero as
the first time, it'll set chapters out for the whole video.
And it's just and so people can skip through it
and it's and uh yeah, I have a PDF file
(29:36):
which has got all the six songs I played on
it sorted by artist or by song, where it's got
every single performance linked and you click on it and
you can like watch that performance like in it's got
them by episode numbers, and it's just like, yeah, it's
it's I'm kind of utilizing the technology in a way
that just kind of makes it easy for people to
enjoy and and come back to, you know, when they
find favorites. It's cool, but you could you could sit
(29:56):
back on your worlds, right, And that's what I love,
and that's I think when people truly passionate about what
they do. We want to constantly improve, right, and and
that means we're not going to be perfect. That means
we're going to screw up right because it goes with
the territory. So that's I think the message that I
love that you bring to this, Mike, and why I
wanted to have you on all of these things, and
that you know, I used to say this when I
first came out with those videos. My family and friends said,
(30:18):
you're an idiot, like, why who are you? Were you
another fitness right? Who are you to sing these songs? Right?
That are you know? And I said, you know what,
I'm passionate about what I do, and there's room at
the top for everyone who's good. Right, I'm not competing
with anyone. I'm competing with myself. And it's cliche to say,
but people have to really believe that. You know that,
if you're passionate about what you do, there's room at
(30:40):
the top for everyone who's good. Yeah, and I think
it's And the important thing is to find what is
that thing that you're good at that you can kind
of stand out with, because I mean, you have to
be sort of self aware enough to know when you're
like beating a dead horse or whatever, you're like like,
I'm like I shouldn't do this. That's not me, you know,
but you can try. If you want to do it,
try and if and maybe sometimes your passion will will
overcome your you know, lack of ability at first, and
(31:01):
you can you know, you'll get to where you want
to be and if you have the passion for it.
And so I think that's super important. I had a
million reasons not to have a YouTube channel. I had
a million reasons not to have a YouTube channel, mostly
the fact that it was a video. I'm just I
kind of want to be on camera, like it wants
to look at me play, you know. I'm just like,
you know, they can listen to me. But you know,
but so I you know, the the video is sort
of a necessary element and I just kind of overcame
it and I did the best with like I could
(31:23):
with it. But it's a the audio has always been
the focus, you know, like it's always been the product basically,
you know, like if you go on listen to me
on Spotify, I'm on Spotify, on I'm on Apple Music,
I'm on all those places. If you listen to my music.
It's just like it's basically the soundtrack to my YouTube
channel without the video. But it's just like not really
missing anything as far as I'm concerned, unless you want
to see what how it works, you know, I see
how how I play the songs or whatever. But yeah,
(31:44):
I think, as you said, Mike would absolutely stand on
its own. But again, I love I still revisit those
Pie episodes because to me, watching that performance, it's such
another level of you and just how special you know
your performances are, right, I mean appreciate that. I like
Jeff in your basement too. Actually, actually it's price lately
(32:07):
in my basement person. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and my friend
um Rock small would also comes in does lead guitar sometimes. Yeah.
I've had a few guests, you know, over the past years,
you know, sitting with me. It's been fun. And Jeff
still in you in Utah, but he wants to come
out and do some streams with me. I'm sure he will,
and I'm looking forward to that. The Simon and gar
Funkle you guys do, I mean, extreme whole just awesome.
(32:29):
So tell people I'm gonna obviously repeat it, but tell
people ahead how to watch you and see you and yeah,
well the easiest way to find me is just Google
Acoustic Africa cover and you'll find that's easier. Remember um,
because I'm usually the one the first result that pops up.
But it's just yeah, it's Mike Miss and it's just
YouTube dot com slash Mike Miss and Mike k E,
m A S. S E. My website is just mikems
(32:51):
dot com. So and again, obviously as we're reporting this,
we're kind of the hopefully the tale into COVID. But again,
I had Mike for a private showing, which one of
the greatest experiences I've had, so know that that's an option.
You're gonna be touring again, hopefully soon. Sad. Right, So,
lots of different ways watch you subscribe to your channel,
But if you have a special event and you want
(33:12):
to make it truly special, I can't recommend having Might
come play. And you can also have those other guys
as well, which is kind of Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah,
I I will travel and I will I'll I'll meet
you someplace and we'll do it. I've done weddings and Italy,
I've done charity events in Western Australia, I mean, I've
just you know, I've I've been all around said I'm
happy to do it. What's the next concert? What's coming up?
(33:32):
What do we have to I've got a show here
in Denver at the Buffalo Rose, which is a huge
venue in uh in Golden Colorado, and that's on April three,
and that's gonna be like my first in person gig
in a long time. And then I've got, you know,
I've got gigs scheduled in the summer that are probably
gonna get postponed and get a venue capacities don't lift.
But I'm hoping to make it out in the fall
to the to the gigs I have in the fall,
(33:52):
I hope those are gonna stick. So yeah, I'm heading
to the East coasts and I'm gonna be everywhere. So yeah,
just check out my schedule on my on my website
and what's the next live website show every Friday and
Saturday night nine pm Eastern and it's they're always free shows.
I just play requests for donations, So just tune in
and check it out. I gotta tell you, I've drank
more wine next to my computer, balling down the rabbit
(34:14):
hole of Mike, let's say, are fantastic and you know what,
it's truly special. Like so again I want to say
how grateful I am like to have met you and
you know, call your friends like you know, it's just
you hit on. You know, this show is not just
about fitness, but it's about you know, the mental side
and the performance side and you know, living your best life.
And you know this is every cliche meme Mike. You
(34:37):
have to do it right people, and it's scary. And
you know, as we're saying, find what you love, you know,
put yourself in and know that you're not going to
be perfect at the start, right and and I hope
you've cut your sister in for like a huge amount
of your all right, well, I was just gonna say
last night that like people when when when you check
out my YouTube channel, you'll see that, like I'm just
kind of an everyman guy like people. I think it's
(34:58):
one of the appeals is like people seem and they're like, hey,
if he can do it, I can do it. There's
like there's nothing special about you know, my appearance or anything.
And just like you know, and so yeah, just just
give yourself a chance and and see what you can do. Yeah,
regular guy with ridiculous talent. So again, thank you so much, Mike.
Look forward to uh get hoping to have you back
(35:19):
out in my neck of the woods soon. So thanks
again for taking the time, and we'll talk to Yeah,
good to see man. All right, we'll be right back.
I am Tom Holland. This is Fitness Disrupted quick break
and we'll be right back and we are back. I
(35:43):
want to thank Mike Massey again. Uh such uh a
unique talent and you know, probably not what you wouldn't
necessarily expect here on Fitness Disrupted, but expect the unexpected,
because that's how true long term change happens. It's not
just exercise, it's not just nutrition. It's the motivation, and
(36:07):
it's doing things that were passionate about and doing them
for the right reasons when no one's looking, and being
uh open to not being perfect. You know, I keep
wanting to use the word failure. I'm just tired of it,
you know, failures. It's it's just a misunderstood, misused term.
(36:30):
You know. Let me just throw this out real quickly.
You know, not only music, I did stand up comedy
for years. I did acting and I remember back, you know,
when friends from college said, you know, I started out
with Jim gaff again. We worked together, and they said,
you know, you were a failed comedian. No, I wasn't.
It was part of my process. It's what allows me
(36:50):
to do today what I do and love to do.
It was all part of the process. And you have
to be willing, as Mike said, to take chances, to
take risks, to constantly grow. And let me tell you
real quickly about Jim Gaffigan. Jim Gaffigan was just like
Mike Massay in that he was always trying out new material,
you know, back in the day, way before he was famous.
(37:13):
And for those of you don't know, look up Jim
Gaffigan the comedian. You know who he is, you've seen him,
and such a talent, not just a comedian. It's been
on Broadways, written books, phenomenal, But he was always trying
new things. Most comedians, myself included, back in the day,
you get twenty thirty minutes where you you know the
jokes work, and you stick with that. Especially when things
go wrong right, you tend to fall back to the
stuff you know works well. Yeah, Jim would do that occasionally,
(37:35):
but he was always trying out new things, and that's
how we get better. That's how we get better. So
the two things I want to really pull out amongst
many Mike's interview is, you know, what we do when
people aren't looking makes a huge impact on what people
see when they are. And that goes for eating healthy
(37:58):
of the time right and ominantly, as I said in
a quick fit tip, when you're not with people, so
you can enjoy the food when you're with family and
on holidays and with friends. And Mike is just underselling himself.
He is such a talent and I feel so fortunate,
as I said, to not only call him a friend now,
(38:19):
but to have had him perform at my fiftieth birthday party,
such a special moment. Collect experiences, stuff comes and goes.
Our health can't put a price on it, our happiness
can't put a price on it. And eating healthy and
exercising and believing in yourself and doing things that you're
passionate about and realizing that no matter what that is,
(38:40):
there's room at the top if that's what you want
to do. But you gotta give a time, just like
exercise and weight loss, and you've got to be willing
to not be perfect. I will say that over and
over again because it is so crucial. You know, back
to the stand up comedy, and I'll leave you with this.
Trying to do stand up comedy in front of people,
(39:01):
you have to bring your friends when you're not good invaluable.
You know. Did a podcast and wrote an article recently
about that first huge audition I had for a huge
P ninety X style DVD program, and long story short,
I knew I was going to get it, and they
had auditioned hundreds of people for that, and I got
(39:22):
a call from someone who knew what I did and
they said, you know, Tom, there's this opportunity to think
you're probably perfect. And it was all the stand up comedy.
It was all the quote unquote failures, hundreds and hundreds
of auditions and time on stage and classes and teaching
hundreds and hundreds of classes. Fitness wise. I was passionate
about it. And you gotta find the time, as he said,
(39:44):
number one excuse for not exercising time. Find what you
love to do, do it. Whether or not you make
that you're living is up to you. But realize that
when you put in the time, when you give it time,
and when you're passionate about it, you can chief amazing things.
And that's for your health, and that's for your family,
(40:05):
and that's for your finances everything. Thanks again to Mike Massa.
Go to Mike Masse dot com is he said, that's
m A S s E YouTube, same thing, Mike Masse,
just Google. I love that. That's how huge that video is.
Twitter he's on it as well. Mike Muss Instagram, Mike
Muss Music, so that's the only different way to find him.
(40:27):
Mike Masse Music for Instagram. But Mike Muss m A
S s E. As it says in the show notes.
Thank you again, and remember there are three things we control,
how much we move, what we can tour mouse and
our attitudes, and that is awesome. You want to reach
out to me, Tom h Fit is Twitter and Instagram
for me Tom h Fit. And by the way, I'm
(40:50):
launching brand new news, big news, my own virtual Jim
Tom Holland Fitness dot com. Go to Tom Holland Fitness
dot com and work on this for years. All the
content I have worked on for decades, we'll be put
up there slowly soft launch. Check it out. Tom Holland
fitness dot com and you can also go to fitness
disrupted dot com. So lots of ways to help you
(41:11):
become the best of you. All right, I am Tom Holland.
This is Fitness Disrupted. Believe in yourself. Fitness Disrupted is
a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
my Heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of I Heart Radio.
I am Tom Holland and this is Fitness Disrupted. A
friend of mine shared a video with me a while back,
(00:20):
and it was of a singer, a singer in a
pizza place and he was performing with another friend. So
it was a bassist and a guitarist in a pizza place,
live music, and it was a cover of Toto song Africa,
(00:41):
and it absolutely blew me away. Now, if you've listened
to some other podcasts of mine, I also have a
creative side of musical background, performance background, love it, which
is why what I do today makes complete sense. It's fitness,
it's performance, and there's even music involved. I played drums
(01:02):
and bands for years, did a lot of things in
the creative side when it came to music and performing.
So not only was I blown away by this performance,
as you will be too if you have not seen it,
assume many of you have, and if you haven't, uh,
(01:23):
I will give you the information so that you can
and you go. What does this have to do with fitness?
This has everything to do with health and wellness and
human behavior and something called deliberate practice that I did
an entire show on because it's what we do when
(01:46):
a people aren't looking or very few, as in the
case of Mike muss So Mike Mussay performer and in
this pizza place, delivered a performance to a handful of
ball and I'm gonna let him tell the story because
I don't want to give too much away. But the
bottom line is he was performing as if he were
(02:11):
in front of a packed Madison Square garden. And far
too often, when it comes to fitness and nutrition, you
see someone who's in shape, or you compete against someone
in any sport who's really good at what they do,
and you assume that they were just born that way,
(02:33):
and of course their genetics involved when it comes to
sports performance and artistic you know ability, But it's what
we do when people aren't looking. And the ten thousand hours,
as Malcolm Gladwell puts it, and it's those workouts, hundreds
(02:53):
and thousands of workouts that people do when no one
is looking or very few. Again, so for multiple reasons,
I'm having Mike Massay on. But when you see that
video and all of his videos after that, but when
(03:14):
just a few people were watching the performance, he delivered
the comments at the end. There are comments on the
YouTube video, which by the way, over fifteen million now
are I was gonna say just as good, but not
even close. But they're worth reading. And a common comment
is that they cannot believe that it's just a handful
(03:36):
of people applauding at the end. It sounds like two
or three people. But that's the whole point, is that
Mike performed every time at this pizza place as if
he were in front of record executives, as if he
were in front of a crowd of fifty thousand people.
(03:57):
I guess what it paid off, the pay eat off.
So I'll do shows on strength training and cardio and
the studies involved in nutrition and sports nutrition, but we
also have to talk about human behavior and practice and performance,
(04:19):
because that, at the end of the day, is everything.
We know we need to move more, we know we
need to eat healthy. How do we get the motivation
and how do we get motivated when no one is watching.
When we come back from the break, Mike mus say
we'll be right back, and we are back. As I
(04:51):
said in the intro, you know I do shows about
exercise and shows about nutrition. But one of the biggest
parts of this whole journey. And you know, process is
the human behavior side. And you go, how does Mike
Massay work into that? Well, guess what. As I said
in the intro, it's what we do when people aren't
looking or a few people are looking. That I would
say makes all the difference in the world where it
(05:12):
comes through exercise and nutrition, and Mike just exemplifies, uh,
you know, integrity and delivering a great performance, whether it's
you know, two people or fifty thousand. So Mike, thank
you so much for taking the time and and we
go a little back. Yeah, right, it's good to see
you man, it's great to see you again. Great to
(05:32):
see you. So I'm gonna read your by real quickly
for those who don't know. So here we go again.
Mike must say. He's an internationally acclaimed artist who performs
epic acoustic classic rock. His YouTube channel has over a
hundred and twenty five million views and over three hundred
thousand subscribers. His covers are beloved by many original artists,
including Boston Sticks, Sarah McLaughlan rush In. Asia uh Toto
(05:57):
cited Mike's cover of Africa as their favorite, and it
has As we're speaking over fifteen million views and counting. Uh.
The success of his YouTube channel allowed him to quit
his day job as a public defender in two thousand
fourteen and become a full time musician. Mike's acoustic arrangements
are praised for their originality, creativity, accuracy, and simplicity. He
is careful to remain true to what is beloved about
(06:18):
the original recordings while bringing his own masterful musical flair
to each rendition. He has performed with members of Boston, Toto,
and Survivor. He has been featured on BBC Radio and
other national and international media outlets, and he now performs
free live stream concerts by the way, we'll talk about
it like one of the greatest things. You can watch
from his home studio on Friday and Saturday nights, and
(06:40):
he soon will be seen again at private and sold
out public events around the country and the world. Again, Mike,
thanks so much God, you know, uh, let me let
me give I didn't tell people that. Not only did
I see you so a friends shared you know your
video way back when I was absolutely blown away, and
we'll talk about that. But then I had Mike come
(07:00):
out and play my fiftieth birthday party, and Mike I
often talk about like, I'm not a big person who's
into stuff. I'm into experiences, you know, collecting experiences, whether
it's races around the world or Mike Massa playing my
fiftieth birthday party, you know, to pull you out of
my computer late at night and bring you, you know
to that party was amazing. So tell people it was great, right,
(07:23):
I mean, um, and a small venue. It was like
everything that I'm about. So thank you again for that.
I will never forget it. I'm gonna have you out again.
As we talked about Selfish, but let's talk pie Pizzeria.
Let's go back to where you know, the craziness at
least started. Tell people about that. So you were playing,
(07:44):
as I said in the intro, uh was it a
monthly gig at a pizza joint? And just talk about that. Yeah.
I was, um, you know when I started, when I
was in college, I just at this little place in
Salt Lake City and as you know, one of the
few places that paid musicians anything. That was like fifty
bucks a night, you know. But I was like right on.
For a college kid, I was like, yeah, I'll do that.
So it's it's started off a long time ago where
(08:06):
I just you know, would play monthly gigs. They're doing
my acoustic covers. And eventually, you know, my repertoire grew
and and I went on to law school, and I
maintained the gig at the Pizza place, and then I
became a lawyer, and I still had the gig at
the pizza place. It was just kind of my way
to to you know, not forget all the music I
had learned and to kind of hone my craft. And eventually,
(08:26):
in two thousand and eight, I started filming those gigs
and posting some of the highlights on my YouTube channel
or what became my YouTube channel, and um, and it
just kind of took off from there. It got, you know,
noticed by first was a lot of fellow musicians are like,
what a cool arrangement. I love how you did that.
And and then um, we posted the Africa cover. I
say we because a lot of the early videos featured
me and a guy named Jeff Hall, who was a
(08:47):
fellow attorney. I was a public defender and he was
a prosecutor and we both you know, just would meet
up at the gigs for on Monday nights and he
was like an old friend from college and he he
played bass and and sang backing vocals for me, and
and yeah, we had a good time just kind of
entertaining the world through our little you know, a little
video portal of our of our video camera. And uh yeah, eventually,
(09:07):
I you know, I took off to the point where
I'm like, I think I can do this full time,
and so I kind of created my own dream job,
if you will, you know, it's like I was thinking
about that the other day. We can talk more about that,
but like sometimes you have to kind of make your
own dream job dream job. You dream it and then
you're like, well, I don't know if anyone's gonna pay
me to do it. I'm just gonna do it and
see if it works. You know. That's kind of what
I did. I you know, I just like I quit
the day job, quit the salary, and became self a
(09:29):
self employeed musician. And now I I still you know,
post videos on YouTube, and uh and I was, you know,
traveling around doing a lot of shows, and then you know,
I had to kind of pivot to the live streams
when everything shut down. But that's kind of where I'm at.
But when you were doing those gigs, Mike. This was
pre YouTube. This was your just videotaping, what just for yourself?
Actually no, I mean I started the gigs for YouTube,
(09:49):
but I started filming them and kind of the early
days of YouTube. But it was like two thousand eight
was when I started posting videos, and that was like
YouTube was in its infancy. I think it maybe started
in two thousand six or something. I'm not sure exactly,
but but it was enough where I just I actually
visited my sister and she had me over and and
uh and it's like, hey, will you, um, you know,
maybe play a couple of songs for some of my
friends who have enjoyed, you know, hearing your recordings that
(10:09):
I've shared with them, and and uh So, while I
was playing for her friends, she's like, you should start
a YouTube channel. And I was like, m And I'd
already been like recording you know, the audio a lot
of my gigs just to kind of, you know, for posterity.
And I was like, well, it probably wouldn't be too
hard to sync up a video to these recordings and
just post them. And and you know, the early days,
it's kind of grainy, you know, standard definition video and
then the video quality kind of improves over time, as
(10:30):
you can see my channel evolve. So yeah, that's good.
I started what I have to tell you listeners, Mike
is a perfectionist, because one thing that brew me away
is the quality of the audio recordings that I played
in bands, and I love the equipment. I was a drummer.
I mean so wait, wait, wait, way down the total
poll musicians go, but no, like it is. It is
(10:52):
so unbelievably well done. And as Mike saying, like, yeah,
the video and and and we could talk about Mike, like,
you know, the people walking in front of the uh
the shot, and I found out half of the fact
that that's because that's where the bathroom was across the
front of the camera to the bathroom. Ye, people always
like down in front. I'm like, hey, they're just going
to the bathroom slack, And yeah, exactly. And it's a joint.
(11:14):
And you know, I was saying, Mike, when you read
the comments that are so fantastic on so many levels,
but one of the common refrains is that you can't
believe the three the smattering of applause at the end
of this unbelievable performance, and you and and Jeff lath
right laugh. I heard some time, but you still delivered
like this crazy performance. So every video you share, you know,
(11:37):
oh there's there's gonna be one where, you know, you
don't stay at that level or to that caliber of performance.
Like what inside you said, I don't care if it's
two people or fifty thousand. This is what I do.
And I, you know, I just I guess I always
just kind of did that. I was always like, you know,
I was I was serving the music, you know what
(11:57):
I mean. It was just like that, I just love
these songs too much to just kind of do it halfway,
you know, And so I would, Yeah, I would. I
would always perform, you know, sing my brains out, regardless
of how many people were in the room. And then
when the you know, when we started filming it, I
had that additional motivation. I'm like, well, you know, even
if these folks don't get it, maybe somebody out there will,
you know, when they see this later. And so it
(12:18):
kind of just, you know, the audience sort of shifted
and and um, but yeah, it was just it was
just my love for the music, I think, in my
respect for it, and and I always wanted people. My
My goal was like, if they liked the original song,
I don't want them to have any reason not to
like my cover of it. You know what I mean.
It's like if I want to maintain everything they loved
about the original and then just you know, it's me.
(12:38):
It's through the filter of me. I can't avoid that.
But you know, and so I didn't want people to
be like, you know, oh, I like the original, but
I didn't like what he did with it. Actually, the
opposite has happened. I've had a lot of people say,
you know, I didn't like the original, but I really
liked your cover. You know, so that which is great.
You know, that's kind of the opposite. It's good. And
it almost plays in a little bit like to what
I do as far as exercise in that, you know,
I'm all about the simplistic stuff, as you're saying, like
(13:01):
it's push up. So the stuff that works works right,
and so you don't reinvent the wheel, especially when it's
worked now you could be all. You know, you have
an amazing voice. We have to say so even though
Mike saying he doesn't change you know, the songs around
the way you watch on you know, other shows or whatever.
When you hit that course in Africa, I mean, it
gives gives people chills. I mean that was like insane,
(13:21):
So you know, you don't you don't have to change
it in that like your instrument and your guitar playing
everything is like you make it look easy. You make
it look so easy. And let's talk about that, Like
when did you start playing? I mean, were you you know,
into music as a kid. Yeah, I mean I grew
up listening to music. I was in a very you know,
music fan household. I won't say musical household because nobody
(13:43):
really played anything. My sisters all kind of you know,
dabbled with piano lessons, but I was the one who
kind of was trying to play by ear and figure
out songs that I liked, you know, and and m
and eventually it was like kind of in high school
where I, you know, got my first acoustic guitar and
started I'm like, you know, there's just a bunch of
Beatles songs. I wanted to know how to play, you know,
even for my own enjoyment. You know, I didn't really
care if anyone was listening. I'm just like, I want
(14:04):
to do this for me. And so I, you know,
sat down and like the Beatles were my guitar teachers basically,
and this was before the internet where he could look
up tab and see how to play. You know, I
was I gonna do it like a lot. You know,
I had some song books, but those are those are
piano book those are a guitar books, you know, something like.
I was pretty much on my own and trying to
figure things out. And you know, I taught myself Blackbird
and Yesterday and you know, Rocky Raccoon and all those,
all those those songs taught me how to fingerpick, you know.
(14:26):
And then I went through you know, let the cablog
and just learned a bunch of songs. And it was
just from my own enjoyment. And uh and I never
envisioned myself being a professional musician at that time, and
not at all. I mean I thought, you know, and
I definitely couldn't sing when I first started to sing.
I could carry a tune, but I had no technique,
and so you know, I had to kind of unlock
my instrument. It was just my desire to sing that
kept me, you know, driven to do that. And so
(14:48):
I came a long way and it was through training
and practice. It wasn't just like I wasn't a natural
born singer, you know, and at least if I was,
it was it was a latent talent that I had
to kind of develop. And again, I'm gonna guess, not
having heard you sing as a kid, that you were
going I was, I was okay, I was okay, But
yeah I listened, and I'm like, but you know what
(15:09):
that that goes to? You know, again, just with the
fitness and athletic performance analogies, like give me someone who
is kind of good Mike as a coach, um when
I was a trainer, but as the work ethic, right,
just but it's passionate about like you were, right, because
the person who hasn't as a gift. And I'm sure
you've met the musicians and people like that and all
walks of life, they tend to not work as hard,
(15:29):
right because it comes too easy. I'm sure you're probably
being hard on yourself with your level of talent. So
in the early days when you practiced a lot, was
it like hours on end or what was your like
typical you know, I didn't really practice singing and when
I first started, but like I actually, you know, I
joined a choir in high school. I was in a
couple of choirs, and that kind of like showed me.
I'm like, oh, that's what good voices sound like, and
(15:51):
that's what you know, it should be happening. And so
I I kind of surrounded myself with people that kind
of knew what they were doing and and kind of
tried to you know, draft behind them a bit, you know,
and just kind uh you know, figured out that way.
And then eventually I started taking voice lessons and then
I actually auditioned to be a voice major in college,
and you know, I became of a voice major in college,
and that was where I really started learning a lot,
(16:12):
you know. I was I was learning you know, traditional
you know, legit singing, you know, you know, slash opera
almost and I was in some really good choirs in college,
and so that just taught me a lot that, you know,
just surrounding myself again with a lot of talent and
and you know, seeing the opera singers who would just
you know blow the doors off of the songs, I
was just like, I'm never gonna be able to do that,
you know, And so I was just like it was
(16:33):
just you know, I had my pop sensibilities, my rock sensibilities,
and I'm like, I'm I'm comfortable where I am. But um,
but yeah, but you know, you can learn a lot
from all the different styles and and it's important, I think,
to expose yourself to that just so you have kind
of a you know, a well rounded view of take
on music or whatever you're doing, you know, figure out
what what's out there and and uh, and then I
was just kind of driven to kind of, you know,
(16:54):
like I said, to work up my own repertoire and
and just for my own enjoyment. And then as an attorney,
you know, it just kind of kept me saying it
was sort of my break from the grind of the
day job, you know, and and being a public defender,
you know, in criminal working in criminal law, you get
you get a lot of secondary PTSD. You know, you're
exposed to a lot of horrible situations and and um
(17:14):
sad situations, and so it's it kind of you know,
it was my escape. Music was my safe place, you
know that I kind of came back to um just
to kind of, you know, just kind of get my
mind off of other things I would work, you know,
I'd come home and sometimes work late at night and
just kind of work on recordings and at my own pace.
I didn't have a schedule or you know, now I'm
more motivated as a self employed person. I'm like, I
have to be, you know, I have to kind of
(17:34):
keep myself moving all the time. And and so that
was a transition for me, was you know, becoming self
employed and and uh, but I think I've made the jump.
It took a couple of years to kind of get
my group, but I think I feel like I'm I'm
in a good place now where you know, I kind
of balance the self employment with the home life and
literally home life all the time now. But yeah, it's
it's been good. When did the piano and get torque?
(17:57):
You even skipped over that? I mean people need to
realize that. Like again, I know just enough guitar, not
even piano to be dangerous, like not even but like
you you I read the comments like by guys who
I know must be great guitar players piano players, and
their reverence for you're playing again the simplicity you know,
you miss nothing like with the music and the vocal parts.
(18:19):
So was that just music school with the vocals came at. Yeah,
you know, I think a lot of that was just
I don't know, I think of a lot of that's
just listening. I've always been a really good listener, and
I sometimes it surprises me that other people don't hear
what I hear because I'm just like, it's just there.
I'm just like, I'm not I take it all back,
like you're ridiculously gift. No, it's just I'm serious though.
(18:41):
Like when I do a cover, I'm like, you know,
I I hear when something's missing, and you know, I
can hear the difference between what I'm doing and what
they're doing if it's not the same, and like and
if I'm dissecting recording, if I'm like piecing together like
you know, like my own arrangement of something, I go
back through the original, and you know, I just I
try to you know, sometimes I'm not just duplicating the
piano part or the guitar part, because it's a whole
(19:02):
band arrangement that I'm converting to guitar piano. So you
have to bring another elements of the music. You have
to kind of hear what the drums are doing and
hear what the bass is doing. And you know, I've
done covers, like I did a rush cover of a
song called Mystic Rhythms, and when I when I arranged
that acoustically, I realized, I'm like, I have to ignore
the guitar part and I'm just gonna basically do what
the bass and the keyboards are doing because that's where
(19:23):
the core changes are and that's where the root of
the song is, and the guitar parts just kind of
like you know, uh flair, you know, it's it just
was just kind of a different you know. So that's
just like one example where sometimes you kind of have
to you know, you have to imagine, like what how
do I bring this song to life with only my
guitar or you know, I've introduced to I have a
a stomp pedal now that is as a kick drum
(19:43):
kind of you know, to just kind of keep a
simple beat. Sometimes it kind of helps me. But like
you know, I don't have a lot to work with,
so I'm just but I want people to feel that
same energy from the original, and you know, and that's
kind of you know, that's sort of my mindset and
my approach to it. Yeah, So you have an ability
as you're describing to just what the essence of the song, right,
and make it as big as it can be with
(20:05):
one person. Right, So let's just talk about you alluded
to it or spoke about it. Um, when you made
that decision when it's you know, you're a lawyer, you
got a family, and you're like, you know what, I'm
passionate about this. I think I could make a go
of it. That's scary. I don't care you know how
well you're doing on the other side that choice. Yeah,
it was a kind of a big, kind of a
big leap, you know. And I was sort of to
(20:26):
the point where when I made that decision, I was
kind of a little bit of hybrid. I mean, I
was kind of working as a musician on the side,
and I had you know, I was traveling for gigs
and I you know, did even did some public gigs
and and you know to some places, and I kind
of had the fan base and and um, actually what
happened was my cover of Africa had sort of a
little viral outbreak. I hate saying that these days, but
(20:49):
that's a different meaning. But yeah, you know went viral
and and you know, and that kind of raised my
exposure level, and I was getting inquiries from you know,
more people and stuff, and I was just like, oh,
you know, oh my god, that if I put my
you know, heart and soul and and mine to this
full time, that I could I could do this. And
and so you know, it's kind of a family decision,
you know. I had to make sure my wife was
(21:09):
cool with it and everything, and and we, yeah, we
decided to make the leap. And um, it's it's just
been great. You know. Um, let me just ask you.
Have you seen that? Um, have you seen Stanley Tucci
searching for Italy on CNN? Have you seen any of that? Okay,
it's awesome. It's like, yeah, it's awesome. It's basically like
Stanley Tucci going around Italy and visiting all these beautiful
(21:30):
places and just eating all the great food. And I'm
just like, I'm like, what a what a great job
that would be to have that job. You know. It's
just like it's, you know, like that's an example of
a dream job. And it's like, you know, and no
one's gonna like necessarily pay you to do that, but
you have to make it. And I'm sure he was like,
I want to do this, and and he figured out
a way to get paid to do it. And it's
it's awesome. It's a great show, and it just it'll
make you hungry, but it's a great show. But but
(21:52):
to me, I was I was thinking about that. I
was just like, you know, that's kind of what I did.
I'm like, I love you know, a lot of musicians
are like, you know, I need to have original music
and you know, I need to h make it, you know,
make my own identity and stuff. And I was like,
I've never been that guy. I'm just like, I love
this music from the past, and I love doing it
for people. I love these acoustic arrangements and and and
That'm like, if I can figure out how to do
that for a living, that's awesome. And and that's kind
(22:14):
of what I did. I just kind of made my
own path and and it's been it's been great. I
could not have scripted that better, Mike, because exactly, you know,
and that's why I think I connected with you over
the computers so quickly. It's about passion. You know. I'm
actually back in school at about Harvard, studying a bunch
of different cources human behavior, and the course right now
it is motivation, and you just hit on you know
(22:36):
three things people are looking for, you know, autonomy, the
ability to do what we want, you know, mastery to
get good at doing what we want, and then purpose
right to hopefully have a bigger cause. And you know,
you're entertaining people, making people happy, I'm hopefully making people healthier,
and so like, I just love that because I have
people stick their head in my office all the time
(22:56):
and they look around and they go, you know, what
the hell do you do for am? Because I made
my passion my vocation and there was no and still
is no road map, and I'm I'm constantly hustling. You're
still hustling, but I'm sure the alternative is so much worse. Right,
there's no going back. I don't fall back on right
because we're passionate about what we do. You have to
(23:16):
be willing and you have to be comfortable with making
decisions because you're the only one that you're answering to
most of the time, you know what I mean? Like you,
I mean, you have your family or supporting perhaps, but like,
apart from that, it's just kind of like I'm my
own boss, Like literally in a way that not everybody's
comfortable with that. Some people just like I just want
to go to work and have people tell me what
to do and then go home, and like I don't
want to like engage on that level. And I get
that too, you know, but but some people are like, no,
(23:38):
I'm just like I got these ideas, I've got this,
you know, I have all these things I would do
if I had the time, you know, and it's just
like I made the time, you know, like I had.
That was a big thing for me because there's like
so many songs that I wanted to like record and cover,
and I'm like, I'm never gonna get to all these
if it's part time. I'm like, there's so much music
that I want to share with people the way I
hear it and the way I do it. And and
that was another great thing about the live streams is like,
(23:59):
you know, in the past, I would work on, you know,
a couple of songs a month, and you know that
would be all I could do, you know, just because
each one I crafted all perfectly, and you know, I
just I spend time on arrange the recording, backing vocals,
whatever it would be, you know, and then when the
live streams. Sit I'm just like, hey, world, check out
all these arrangements, you know. Like I was like I
would just be able. I was able to unload all
these songs that I just kind of like, you've never
(24:20):
heard me do this song before because I never recorded
it yet, you know. And so it's like I've done
I've I've sung over six hundred different songs on my
live streams. I've done a hundred and I think a
hundred and forty something episodes, and um, I learned probably
in the past year, I learned at least maybe I
(24:40):
don't know of those for the first time, like at
least over a hundred songs or maybe more, maybe two hundred.
A lot of them. I was like digging back through
my catalog. I'm just like, I'm gonna I want to
bring this one back. I want to bring this one
back because I was always trying to find it, you know.
I wanted people to have repeat viewing, have have that
be interesting to them, you know, and and so I
you know, I had a large repertoire, but I've expanded
it so much and it's been fun, and not everything
(25:01):
works equally. You know. It's like it's kind of like
my and that's what I used to do with the Pie.
When I would play at the Pie, I would arrange
something and I like this work, you know this kind
of you know, I try it and be like, now
that didn't work, or you know, like that's awesome, and
I want to do that again. All right, I'm like
I could do that better. I'm gonna keep doing it.
And so that's kind of the live streams of all
like the Pie for me in a way where I
just kind of give myself. I'm in my own basement,
so I give myself permission to make mistakes and and
(25:22):
just kind of roll with it, and it's live and
people kind of I think they like seeing the human
element of of me not being you know, as perfect
as I've always been on YouTube up to that point.
And so but you know, you know, I take requests
on the fly, and you know, sometimes I'm like, I
don't know if I remember that well enough to try it,
you know, are sometimes I'll I'll be like I think
I can do this, and then like afterwards, I'm like,
I guess I didn't remember that as well as I
said I did. You know, it doesn't it's all just
roll with it. But it's you know, I think people
(25:43):
appreciate that that human element and just kind of seeing that,
you know, musicians are human and and even once we
were professionals, you know, they're not. They don't know everything
equally well. You know, there's some songs I've done hundreds
of times that I could just do in my sleep,
and there's other songs I'm just like, I need a
chart in front of me, you know, just because I
don't know these words yet or what ever, you know.
So it's just, yeah, it's it's been it's been a
fun experience for me. And like you know that I
(26:04):
try to look at the bright side of being locked down,
and that's that's what it's been for me. It's just
expanding my repertoire and and uh also just kind of
having a family of a fan base. I've got, you know,
live chatters who are regulars that come to my show
all the time, and it's like they're the little micn
Say show family, you know, and and they support me
with their donations, you know, and and it's just it's
been awesome building that kind of community, and it's gonna
(26:26):
be great for me to get back on the road.
And actually see these people in person. I can't wait
so many things I gotta pull out real quick. So
you talked about time, right, and that's the number one
excuse for exercise, right, don't have time? We all have time.
We gotta be passionate about what we do. And like
how many people artistically right, Oh, I have a great
idea for a book or a movie screenplayer, I just
can't find the time. And like, you get up earlier
(26:47):
or you work later, like I, I'm I don't know
about you, but I'm up pretty late and I'm up
pretty early, right because I need to do things. I'm
so passionate about what I do. If you told me
I couldn't do those things, I'd be annoyed, right as would.
But I also love you talked about and I hate
the term there's no failure, right, And I so appreciate Mike,
and I see that. I think again, you're that kind
(27:08):
of musician. I get it when you and Jeff are
playing or something and I see you laugh, and I
know you're laughing because you did something wrong that I
don't even know. Right, you missed a note. You guys
look at each other, but I know I didn't hear it.
So like again, it's it's all relative, but people need
to hear that, like there is no failure, you know.
(27:28):
And I love that about you because I did the
same thing back when I was doing my first fitness
videos Mike. I did them in real time because I said,
I want people to see me stumble. Now it also
was a lot cheaper, so we're on so many levels.
But people, you know, still to this day, Mike say,
you know, when you fell or stumbled whatever it was,
I did too right, And that's you know, you gotta
(27:49):
be there is no perfect, especially in this world of
Instagram right where everything is is perfect. So just know
that I so appreciate that. And people need to hear
that message that your failure is not trying. Yeah, exactly.
You have to give your self permission to not be
perfect and and uh, you know, hopefully the quality of
your work outshines any minor and perfections, you know, And
(28:11):
that's kind of you know. I try to be consistent
and um, and if I do something, if I play
a song where it didn't go great, then I'll be
sure to play something better the next song. I'm like,
I'm gonna go back to something don't go back to
a safe place and redeem myself a bit. You know what.
I can say that, I'm like, I need to redeem myself.
I'll even say that, you know. So it's just, yeah,
it's just kind of pushing myself. We just did a
Pink Floyd show a couple of weeks ago where we
I learned like seventeen songs in like a week and
(28:33):
a half, you know, And you know, I did the
same thing for a Genesis show and you know, and
so it's like, and I just did a youtubo show
last night for St. Patrick's Day and and so yeah,
it's like I'm I'm constantly pushing myself and like, I
gotta learn new songs. I gotta keep going. And it's
just been part of my drive and it's yeah, and
I'm I'm not gonna stop. Yeah. And by the way,
I saw all those shows, I didn't know half of
(28:54):
those Pink Floyd songs went deep yeah, well you know,
yeah it was for the fans. Yeah, constantly improving, Like
I mean, I don't know what I don't know. Like
if you watch my YouTube channel, like you can literally
scroll and you can name the songs within the time
bar right, I mean so just oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
which is awesome. Yeah, I know, right, it's like little chapters. Yeah,
(29:16):
you can just put chapters in it. Yeah, from the description. Yeah,
that was that's a cool thing. I picked up on
that tip. Yeah, so you can skip through and see
like I always put the whole set list in the
description of the video. And when you do that, if
you put zero like zero cal and zero zero as
the first time, it'll set chapters out for the whole video.
And it's just and so people can skip through it
and it's and uh yeah, I have a PDF file
(29:36):
which has got all the six songs I played on
it sorted by artist or by song, where it's got
every single performance linked and you click on it and
you can like watch that performance like in it's got
them by episode numbers, and it's just like, yeah, it's
it's I'm kind of utilizing the technology in a way
that just kind of makes it easy for people to
enjoy and and come back to, you know, when they
find favorites. It's cool, but you could you could sit
(29:56):
back on your worlds, right, And that's what I love,
and that's I think when people truly passionate about what
they do. We want to constantly improve, right, and and
that means we're not going to be perfect. That means
we're going to screw up right because it goes with
the territory. So that's I think the message that I
love that you bring to this, Mike, and why I
wanted to have you on all of these things, and
that you know, I used to say this when I
first came out with those videos. My family and friends said,
(30:18):
you're an idiot, like, why who are you? Were you
another fitness right? Who are you to sing these songs? Right?
That are you know? And I said, you know what,
I'm passionate about what I do, and there's room at
the top for everyone who's good. Right, I'm not competing
with anyone. I'm competing with myself. And it's cliche to say,
but people have to really believe that. You know that,
if you're passionate about what you do, there's room at
(30:40):
the top for everyone who's good. Yeah, and I think
it's And the important thing is to find what is
that thing that you're good at that you can kind
of stand out with, because I mean, you have to
be sort of self aware enough to know when you're
like beating a dead horse or whatever, you're like like,
I'm like I shouldn't do this. That's not me, you know,
but you can try. If you want to do it,
try and if and maybe sometimes your passion will will
overcome your you know, lack of ability at first, and
(31:01):
you can you know, you'll get to where you want
to be and if you have the passion for it.
And so I think that's super important. I had a
million reasons not to have a YouTube channel. I had
a million reasons not to have a YouTube channel, mostly
the fact that it was a video. I'm just I
kind of want to be on camera, like it wants
to look at me play, you know. I'm just like,
you know, they can listen to me. But you know,
but so I you know, the the video is sort
of a necessary element and I just kind of overcame
it and I did the best with like I could
(31:23):
with it. But it's a the audio has always been
the focus, you know, like it's always been the product basically,
you know, like if you go on listen to me
on Spotify, I'm on Spotify, on I'm on Apple Music,
I'm on all those places. If you listen to my music.
It's just like it's basically the soundtrack to my YouTube
channel without the video. But it's just like not really
missing anything as far as I'm concerned, unless you want
to see what how it works, you know, I see
how how I play the songs or whatever. But yeah,
(31:44):
I think, as you said, Mike would absolutely stand on
its own. But again, I love I still revisit those
Pie episodes because to me, watching that performance, it's such
another level of you and just how special you know
your performances are, right, I mean appreciate that. I like
Jeff in your basement too. Actually, actually it's price lately
(32:07):
in my basement person. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and my friend
um Rock small would also comes in does lead guitar sometimes. Yeah.
I've had a few guests, you know, over the past years,
you know, sitting with me. It's been fun. And Jeff
still in you in Utah, but he wants to come
out and do some streams with me. I'm sure he will,
and I'm looking forward to that. The Simon and gar
Funkle you guys do, I mean, extreme whole just awesome.
(32:29):
So tell people I'm gonna obviously repeat it, but tell
people ahead how to watch you and see you and yeah,
well the easiest way to find me is just Google
Acoustic Africa cover and you'll find that's easier. Remember um,
because I'm usually the one the first result that pops up.
But it's just yeah, it's Mike Miss and it's just
YouTube dot com slash Mike Miss and Mike k E,
m A S. S E. My website is just mikems
(32:51):
dot com. So and again, obviously as we're reporting this,
we're kind of the hopefully the tale into COVID. But again,
I had Mike for a private showing, which one of
the greatest experiences I've had, so know that that's an option.
You're gonna be touring again, hopefully soon. Sad. Right, So,
lots of different ways watch you subscribe to your channel,
But if you have a special event and you want
(33:12):
to make it truly special, I can't recommend having Might
come play. And you can also have those other guys
as well, which is kind of Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah,
I I will travel and I will I'll I'll meet
you someplace and we'll do it. I've done weddings and Italy,
I've done charity events in Western Australia, I mean, I've
just you know, I've I've been all around said I'm
happy to do it. What's the next concert? What's coming up?
(33:32):
What do we have to I've got a show here
in Denver at the Buffalo Rose, which is a huge
venue in uh in Golden Colorado, and that's on April three,
and that's gonna be like my first in person gig
in a long time. And then I've got, you know,
I've got gigs scheduled in the summer that are probably
gonna get postponed and get a venue capacities don't lift.
But I'm hoping to make it out in the fall
to the to the gigs I have in the fall,
(33:52):
I hope those are gonna stick. So yeah, I'm heading
to the East coasts and I'm gonna be everywhere. So yeah,
just check out my schedule on my on my website
and what's the next live website show every Friday and
Saturday night nine pm Eastern and it's they're always free shows.
I just play requests for donations, So just tune in
and check it out. I gotta tell you, I've drank
more wine next to my computer, balling down the rabbit
(34:14):
hole of Mike, let's say, are fantastic and you know what,
it's truly special. Like so again I want to say
how grateful I am like to have met you and
you know, call your friends like you know, it's just
you hit on. You know, this show is not just
about fitness, but it's about you know, the mental side
and the performance side and you know, living your best life.
And you know this is every cliche meme Mike. You
(34:37):
have to do it right people, and it's scary. And
you know, as we're saying, find what you love, you know,
put yourself in and know that you're not going to
be perfect at the start, right and and I hope
you've cut your sister in for like a huge amount
of your all right, well, I was just gonna say
last night that like people when when when you check
out my YouTube channel, you'll see that, like I'm just
kind of an everyman guy like people. I think it's
(34:58):
one of the appeals is like people seem and they're like, hey,
if he can do it, I can do it. There's
like there's nothing special about you know, my appearance or anything.
And just like you know, and so yeah, just just
give yourself a chance and and see what you can do. Yeah,
regular guy with ridiculous talent. So again, thank you so much, Mike.
Look forward to uh get hoping to have you back
(35:19):
out in my neck of the woods soon. So thanks
again for taking the time, and we'll talk to Yeah,
good to see man. All right, we'll be right back.
I am Tom Holland. This is Fitness Disrupted quick break
and we'll be right back and we are back. I
(35:43):
want to thank Mike Massey again. Uh such uh a
unique talent and you know, probably not what you wouldn't
necessarily expect here on Fitness Disrupted, but expect the unexpected,
because that's how true long term change happens. It's not
just exercise, it's not just nutrition. It's the motivation, and
(36:07):
it's doing things that were passionate about and doing them
for the right reasons when no one's looking, and being
uh open to not being perfect. You know, I keep
wanting to use the word failure. I'm just tired of it,
you know, failures. It's it's just a misunderstood, misused term.
(36:30):
You know. Let me just throw this out real quickly.
You know, not only music, I did stand up comedy
for years. I did acting and I remember back, you know,
when friends from college said, you know, I started out
with Jim gaff again. We worked together, and they said,
you know, you were a failed comedian. No, I wasn't.
It was part of my process. It's what allows me
(36:50):
to do today what I do and love to do.
It was all part of the process. And you have
to be willing, as Mike said, to take chances, to
take risks, to constantly grow. And let me tell you
real quickly about Jim Gaffigan. Jim Gaffigan was just like
Mike Massay in that he was always trying out new material,
you know, back in the day, way before he was famous.
(37:13):
And for those of you don't know, look up Jim
Gaffigan the comedian. You know who he is, you've seen him,
and such a talent, not just a comedian. It's been
on Broadways, written books, phenomenal, But he was always trying
new things. Most comedians, myself included, back in the day,
you get twenty thirty minutes where you you know the
jokes work, and you stick with that. Especially when things
go wrong right, you tend to fall back to the
stuff you know works well. Yeah, Jim would do that occasionally,
(37:35):
but he was always trying out new things, and that's
how we get better. That's how we get better. So
the two things I want to really pull out amongst
many Mike's interview is, you know, what we do when
people aren't looking makes a huge impact on what people
see when they are. And that goes for eating healthy
(37:58):
of the time right and ominantly, as I said in
a quick fit tip, when you're not with people, so
you can enjoy the food when you're with family and
on holidays and with friends. And Mike is just underselling himself.
He is such a talent and I feel so fortunate,
as I said, to not only call him a friend now,
(38:19):
but to have had him perform at my fiftieth birthday party,
such a special moment. Collect experiences, stuff comes and goes.
Our health can't put a price on it, our happiness
can't put a price on it. And eating healthy and
exercising and believing in yourself and doing things that you're
passionate about and realizing that no matter what that is,
(38:40):
there's room at the top if that's what you want
to do. But you gotta give a time, just like
exercise and weight loss, and you've got to be willing
to not be perfect. I will say that over and
over again because it is so crucial. You know, back
to the stand up comedy, and I'll leave you with this.
Trying to do stand up comedy in front of people,
(39:01):
you have to bring your friends when you're not good invaluable.
You know. Did a podcast and wrote an article recently
about that first huge audition I had for a huge
P ninety X style DVD program, and long story short,
I knew I was going to get it, and they
had auditioned hundreds of people for that, and I got
(39:22):
a call from someone who knew what I did and
they said, you know, Tom, there's this opportunity to think
you're probably perfect. And it was all the stand up comedy.
It was all the quote unquote failures, hundreds and hundreds
of auditions and time on stage and classes and teaching
hundreds and hundreds of classes. Fitness wise. I was passionate
about it. And you gotta find the time, as he said,
(39:44):
number one excuse for not exercising time. Find what you
love to do, do it. Whether or not you make
that you're living is up to you. But realize that
when you put in the time, when you give it time,
and when you're passionate about it, you can chief amazing things.
And that's for your health, and that's for your family,
(40:05):
and that's for your finances everything. Thanks again to Mike Massa.
Go to Mike Masse dot com is he said, that's
m A S s E YouTube, same thing, Mike Masse,
just Google. I love that. That's how huge that video is.
Twitter he's on it as well. Mike Muss Instagram, Mike
Muss Music, so that's the only different way to find him.
(40:27):
Mike Masse Music for Instagram. But Mike Muss m A
S s E. As it says in the show notes.
Thank you again, and remember there are three things we control,
how much we move, what we can tour mouse and
our attitudes, and that is awesome. You want to reach
out to me, Tom h Fit is Twitter and Instagram
for me Tom h Fit. And by the way, I'm
(40:50):
launching brand new news, big news, my own virtual Jim
Tom Holland Fitness dot com. Go to Tom Holland Fitness
dot com and work on this for years. All the
content I have worked on for decades, we'll be put
up there slowly soft launch. Check it out. Tom Holland
fitness dot com and you can also go to fitness
disrupted dot com. So lots of ways to help you
(41:11):
become the best of you. All right, I am Tom Holland.
This is Fitness Disrupted. Believe in yourself. Fitness Disrupted is
a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
my Heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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