Producer Mandi Wimmer gets Brian’s take on Davey Johnstone's legacy to Rock n' Roll with the perfect union of Elton’s remarkable singing and piano playing and Dave’s masterful guitar riffs that lead to so many hits. They chat about how its possible for Elton to go from very shy to larger than life on stage and the importance “trust” plays in longevity of bands. Not to be missed, they cover two hysterical stories about the times Brian met Her Majesty The Queen, once standing next to Elton John cracking jokes and the other next to Ozzy Osborn. They wrap up with the great bonding moment Brian had with Etta James, what do when things go horribly wrong on stage and how to adjust to “normal” life after a long tour.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
You're listening to the After Show, the bonus episode series
for on Tour with Brian Ray. This is a production
of I Heart Radio and Black Barrel Media and I'm
your host Mandy Wimmer. And the after Show we dive
a little deeper into Brian's thoughts about certain parts of
the interviews, as well as expound a bit more on
his own experiences on tour. In this episode, we get
into Davy Johnstone's legacy on rock and roll with his
(00:32):
epic guitar riffs on some huge Elton john songs. We
also chat about the importance trust plays and longevity of bands,
and how Elton john can go from very shy to
larger than life on stage. We wrap up with two
hysterical stories of the times Brian met the Queen, which
you definitely don't want to miss. One standing next to
(00:54):
Elton John cracking jokes, and the others standing next to
Ozzy Osbourne. Here's my conversation with Brian. Good afternoon, Brian,
how are you? I'm fine, Mandy here we are again.
(01:15):
Good to see you. Davy Johnstone no way a fellow
guitar slinger. So you guys never really got into this.
How do you and Davy even know each other. How
do you mean? Yeah, I feel like we should have
gone into this and it's a wild story. A long,
long time ago, I was in a band with friends
of mine here, a local band in Los Angeles called
(01:37):
Charm School, and we were anything but charming, That's why
the name seemed to work. But yeah, it was a
fun rock band playing our original music. A couple of
covers in there as well, and we were getting courted
by Columbia Records. At the same time, we got courted
by some different managers, one of whom was named Roger Veduras,
(02:01):
who used to be a singer songwriter I think got
Warren Brothers records back in the seventies or something like that. Well,
he was now trying his hand as a manager, and
he got together with Joe Esposito of the Memphis Mafia,
Elvis's band of merry soldiers that hung out with him
in Memphis. So Joe Esposito was really Elvis's right hand man.
(02:25):
He's the one that didn't do it, tell all. He
wrote a book way at the end, after all of
the other guys had, you know, spent all their bullets
right dishan and cashing in well, Joe held his fire
and and and wrote a loving book finally at the end.
Very nice guy, very gentle, and you can see why
Elvis kept him sort of the closest because he was
(02:48):
the most trusted member of Elvis's inner circle. Wow. And
so but then how did you You and Davey were
in that band then together? So Roger Doris and Joe
Esposito got together as managers, found us Charm School and
wanted to manage us and brought a demo of ours
(03:10):
to Columbia Records, and uh, we were working together for
about a year. And during that time, Roger Vidor said,
I'd really love to introduce you to Davy Johnstone because
he might be a helpful co producer with you. And
so we went over to a studio where where Davy
Johnstone was, you know, held up with all of his
(03:32):
guitars and he was doing some overdubs there, and uh, yeah,
it was just a blast to meet him. And he
came out to one of our shows and we just
became friends. We we we sort of clicked right off
the bat. I can I can see that. I can
definitely see that. So how old were you guys around
that time. Oh jeez, I would say I was around Oh,
(03:56):
I would say thirty at that time. Wow. Okay, so
you guys have known each other so yeah, I mean
you guys have known each other a while while. Yeah.
Well it's just his story about when he met Elton
was just remarkable to me. So he he walks into
the studio and he there's a young, shy Elton John
behind the piano and talk about me. Davy just come
(04:20):
from Scotland if I remember it correctly, and you know,
talk about when talent meets preparation meets right place, right time.
I mean, the very first song that Elton blaze him
is Tiny Dancer Insane. Yeah, insane, And that's right and
and uh and Davy really knew he was onto something
great and something very special was going to happen. When
you've got Elton, who's this iconic, masterful pianist, piano player,
(04:45):
I mean, just unbelievable, and then you've got Davy, who
is an amazing guitar player. And really it was the
two of them that came together that made these songs
so remarkable. I mean, obviously everything started with Elton, but
then there's some ridiculous guitar riffs that I think that
did Davey write them or how did those come about? Yeah,
Davey would have come up with a whole slew of
(05:09):
guitar licks. And and to say something about that, Elton
was really smart to to understand that as a piano
playing singer songwriter, that's not enough for radio. It's not
enough for what was called FM airplay back then. On
FM radio, you needed driving butch guitar parts, guitar lecks
(05:34):
to drive some of these songs. And he was very
smart and uh it was it was an act of
humility to take on such a strong guitar flavor that
uh that Davy provided. He provided a lot of creativity,
great feel, as we say in music, a great feel,
(05:55):
great time, great tone, and wonderful ideas. I mean, it
was Davey guitar parts that really made so many of
Elton's biggest radio hits, especially in those earliest days, when
you talk about things like I don't know, like a
funeral for a friend, slash Love Lies Bleeding, there's just
(06:16):
some ridiculous guitar hooks and they're driven by the guitar.
It's not like a guitar comes in later. I mean,
these guitars start the song or let's say Saturday Nights
all right for a fight. I've heard of that, yeah,
I think everyone has. And it starts with a badass
guitar rhythm lick and um. You know that's Davy's work.
(06:40):
That's his contribution to the music that you know became
all cliches aside sort of the d n a of
of of seventies and eighties rock and roll. When you
talk about people clicking right away, it sounds like Davy
and Elton also kind of had that same vibe that
you and Davy had when you first met, Elton immediately
(07:01):
trusted Davy. There were two stories that Davy tells about
how Elton was unsure about a couple of things. I
think one was related to guitar and one was how
to start a song, and Davy basically came up with
both of those and immediately there was that trust factor
built between Elton and Davy. And you asked him a
great question in the interview about you know, how have
(07:24):
you guys stayed together for fifty years? I mean, things happen.
I mean you see bands fall apart all the time,
you know, or they fall apart, they get back together,
people are leaving, people are coming back, or they're just
they just don't make it. To be together for fifty years,
you have to you have to really get along first
of all. And you have to trust those people on stage.
I mean, you're playing live. You have to trust that
(07:46):
you know when something goes wrong that they're going to
handle it correctly. You know you're gonna trust them musically,
you gotta trust them personality wise. I mean how big
do you feel like that? Do you also feel like
that's a huge dynamic in keeping bands together. Yeah, I mean,
first of all, it takes that immediate sort of chemistry
and and then a trust develops. Someone like Elton John
(08:11):
is going to be sequestered away from the other guys
a lot of the time, and you need to trust
that the guys in the other dressing room are on
your side and are with you. Um And in the
case of Davy and Elton, Elton sized him up early on,
and with those early examples that you just gave in
(08:32):
the studio where Elton gave Davy a little bit of
rope to see what he would do with it and
give him some room and got you know, a hundred
and back from Davy. As a result of that, he
saw that what he was getting in Davy Johnston was
built in hook machine. I mean popular music in the
(08:53):
sixties and seventies is all about hooks, and just to
get back to it really quickly. You have like bluesy
stuff that he had it to Madman Across the Water.
Those really great uh rhythm guitar parts he did on
Don't Go Breaking My Heart. You know that answered the
lead vocals bitches back. I mean that's a stone cold boss,
like a rolling Stones, you know, proper guitar riff, not
(09:18):
a piano riff. You know. So Elton was wise enough
to put guitar front and center and it it launched
his career well. And props to Elton to not having
any sort of intimidation factor about really letting Davey shine
in that way exactly. That's when when I when I
say humility, you know, not being threatened that you know,
(09:40):
have this you know, tall Scottish Adonis with long, long
blonde hair in the middle of the stage when Elton
is sitting down over on the side. You know, that
could be threatening to a man if he had a
you know, insufficient ego right right out of control ego.
So basically what we're saying is that Elton John is
the perfect tune in. He is as you would say,
(10:02):
he's quite we not we have stature, we have spirit,
we have spirit. I love that, you know. And speaking
of that, another remarkable thing about going back to that
first meeting is that it sounded like and I don't
want to label at stage right because obviously I don't know.
I wasn't there, but Davy really hits on the fact
(10:23):
that Elton is very shy, and at that point in
his life he was very shy. He was young also
and then but also very shy and didn't really talk
a lot, like really kind of takes takes a minute
now even to still open up to people. And I
think it's mystifying how artists, and I've worked a lot
of actors and actresses in various roles in my life
(10:44):
that really are shy, and that in front of thousands
of people, they somehow turn it on. And I've just
I've never really understood how you can go from zero
to sixty, but it happens all the time. I think,
you know, it's very different when you have someone like
Elton John whose real name is Reginald. We can't talk
about that. Yeah, well everyone knows it. But in any case,
(11:07):
Elton was smart enough to recognize that he was painfully
shy and that, but he had the goods that we're
going to prove him and be very, very successful for him.
So what he did, wisely and again with a bit
of humility, was to adopt sort of these bigger than
live characters. And he would put on these giant sunglasses
(11:31):
shaped like a star, and put on these crazy hats,
crazy wigs, you know, a Dodger uniform, a duck suit.
He would do anything. And now he's jumping on the
piano like a madman because now he's someone else. And
so someone like say, Paul McCartney is great because Paul
McCartney is so Paul McCartney. And he stands there in
(11:54):
his shoes in front of a hundred thousand people at
Coachella and it's blowing rain out there. It looks miserable
and he's in rain boots just standing there. So it's
a very it's the opposite, right, and not everyone has
that sort of I don't know, um uh, you know,
confidence to do that. But Elton needed to find a
(12:16):
separate personality. That is so interesting. I never really thought
about it like that that once he kind of gets
made up in that way. Now it's like he gives himself,
you know, the you know, I guess, the authority or
the right to just be someone else. Yeah, it's license. Yeah,
it's licensed to be something. The license. That's the right word.
(12:37):
I was going for, thank you, just to be completely
other than yourself. It's Superman syndrome. I mean literally, before
going on stage, he goes into the phone booth and
suddenly Clark Kent is Superman who comes out. That's amazing. Wow,
that is such a good point. Have you ever met him? Yeah?
(13:05):
I sure did. Oh god, it's the funniest story. We
did the Diamond Jubilie for her Majesty, the Queen, and
uh it was on her what would that have been
her year of marriage? Who was all involved in the
Diamond year as queen? Okay? So who was involved in
the Diamond Juliet First of all? Well, okay, so we
(13:27):
did the Golden Jubilee and then the Diamond Uh many
years later, Diamond Jubilee. I I remember as being Elton
Grace Jones Paul McCartney, Um, oh gosh, so many other people,
Stevie Wonder, Tom Jones, you know, most of them knighted.
(13:53):
But anyway, we're there after the show and we've been
having a hoot. We've been having a great time. Grace
Jones is walking around flirting and it's just been really fun.
Now we're in a greeting line. We're in a greeting circle. Uh,
we're in a greeting circle all of the artists to
meet the queen. We have just played and I'm standing
(14:13):
next to Elton and he starts chit chatting. Was very
open and very funny. The guy is hilarious, NonStop with
the jokes. And I know someone else in his band
who says, you got to be quick when you're around
Elton because he's just always moving and he just wants
to laugh. So I was doing my best to keep
(14:34):
up with him. Anyway, Now the Queen is like three
people away and he starts peppering me Elton with the
funniest stuff you've ever heard, and all of it is
completely filthy, And now I'm dying laughing, and I see
like ten people away as Paul and Rusty and Abe
and wicks. Uh. You know, they've already met her and
(14:54):
now it's my turn. They're like looking at me, like,
what's going to go? Don't mess up? And well that's
basically what I'm saying to Elton is like, what do
I not do? What do I do? And I can't
say some of the things that he said, but I
will say this, after she left, after having not done
the wrong thing, and you did the right thing. I
(15:17):
did the right You didn't embarrass that. She offered me
her hand and I shook it and I bowed my
head and I was just very pleasant. I let her lead,
and then she passed on to the next person. I'm like, boy,
I did. And then he said some more dirty stuff.
But before leaving, you said, so, how does it feel
(15:38):
to have met the queen and the other queen because
it was your first meeting of both queens. Ah, he
is quick. Oh, that's very cute. So, I mean, I'm
sure you had to have been very nervous, I mean
something meeting the queen. I guess it's so. I mean
he had to have helped with that a little bit,
with all of his jokes. Yeah, he did. He helped
take the edge off a little bit. But it's not
(15:59):
as it's not as anxiety producing for me as an
American as it would be for just about any British subject,
because you know, it's sort of like people of my
generation meeting Paul World. He's like a deity, were Elton.
But for an American to meet the Queen, we don't
(16:20):
have the same reference. We don't have the same sort
of We haven't been raised with her as the queen. Okay,
so clearly the Queen and rest in peace, Prince Philip,
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Uh, we are binging the
crown right now, we are. Now you met the Queen.
I have not met the Queen. Obviously, I have not
met either queen. So what do you think I mean
(16:43):
for the two seconds that you met the queen anything
like the Crown? Well, you know, first of all, the
Crown is is great, juicy fun it. You know, they
couldn't write this as a soap opera. It is really
juicy and really like oh my god, oh my god. Anyway, Uh,
I would say, there's she was very sweet and kind
(17:08):
of cute both times I met the Queen, and I
met her on her golden jubilee and in that line,
I was standing next to Rod Stewart and of all people,
Umz Osborne, what right? Show? That was hilarious. And she
comes up and she's very sweet to Rod. And Rod
(17:29):
has been knighted. Ozzy Osborne has not been knighted, never
will be. But anyway, she comes, she comes up to
Auzzy and and she says something very cute under her breath,
as does he, and it's just like she has these
little sort of cute private relationships with all of these
people because they've met so many times over the years.
(17:52):
Of course, at the end, at the end of the show,
I have to say this one little Aussie story. Ozzy
runs up to me the side of the stage and
now we've all been on stage for Hey Jude, and
they've all been non nying with us, and Stewart, Queen,
you know, Ray Davies from the Kinks. Everybody's up there
(18:13):
and we've all been swaying and playing, singing along and
now it's over. The whole show's over. It was the
last song. Ouzzy grabs me backstage on stage but behind
the gear, gets me by the shoulders and just starts
shaking me and he goes I just sang with Paul McCartney,
and he goes, people, my fans might not understand this,
(18:35):
but I wanted to be Paul McCartney when I was
a kid. That's so cute, I said, But I ended
up being the Prince of Darkness. I ended up being
And then he says it could have been worse. I
could have ended up a sting ship. Sorry, Gordon, Oh
that's hysterical. I still have to get the visual together
(18:56):
of you, Rod Stewart and Ozzy Osward meeting the Queen
like this is hysterical for me. I wanted I want
to be a fly on the wat you do. Okay, alright, alright,
we're gonna check that out. Maybe that's a social media
host for anyone, for anyone listening to this, check out
the social media. Okay, that is absolutely hysterical. So all right,
(19:27):
so I'm gonna have to move on a little bit,
even though I think we could tell queen stories all day,
as it sounds like I got to move on to food.
Davy in this episode talks about when we've talked about
band dynamics a little bit, but how a really big
bonding thing for bands as food. You guys are on
the road. You're all over the world. You tell a
story about how you and Eddie James bonded over barbecue.
(19:49):
Give us a little bit more insight into this. Well.
In her days with Chess Records, Eddie James was given
a house uh in Compton area central and not too
far away from there was the side of the l
a Riots. But she's on this sort of nice grassy
hill and there's pine trees in a double median street
(20:11):
and beautiful home on on the corner there. But anyway,
in the early days with Eda, you know, she would
have us over to the house to go swimming in
the pool. Uh. And this is when her first son, Danto,
was only three years old. You know, my first shows
with Edda James UH consisted of driving to Santa Barbara
(20:32):
with Edda James and her husband and Danto, her son,
in the backseat of the car at three years old,
with my guitar and my amp in the trunk. We
aren't you a godfather to one of her kids? Yeah,
the second one, Samato, that's correct. But anyway, so back
to the house on Athens, her family home, she would
have us all over there. We'd be swimming around and
(20:54):
she'd do a big barbecue. And the way she would
do barbecue, she would scru about the kitchen sink at
double kitchen sink and fill it with barbecue sauce and
start putting in all the things that she was about
to cook. But anyway, so there she is and we're now,
you know, feasting outside by the pool. And she looked
(21:14):
over at me after my second plate of barbecue, and
I might have weighed, you know, a hundred and ten pounds,
and most of that was hair brand new early days
with Etta, and I was a teenager. Anyway, she would
serve all this food. I'd be on my second plate
of whatever she had cooked, and she go, Ryan, you
can go and you where does it go? With? Where
(21:37):
are you putting all that? Because I was literally the skinny,
little white kid, you know, and she couldn't believe it.
Oh my god, amazing, But I think that yeah, food,
It's it's like, you know, it takes chemistry to choose
and to trust a band long term for an artist
like uh at A, for Elton, for Paul. I would
(21:58):
imagine trust goes a long way, and this goes way
beyond the non disclosure agreements that you're going to sign
later in your career with them. But early days are
built on can I trust this person? And do I
want to hang out with them for eight hours in
the van. Absolutely. Early days for Elton and for my
(22:18):
early days with at A, uh, not as much with
Paul were enclosed, you know, small vehicles traveling along ways.
You've got to get on. One of the earliest and
best ways to bond is over food. No, And it's
so interesting now that you bonded over barbecue, because now
you basically don't even eat me anymore. Yeah, I haven't
for gosh almost two years. Yeah, yeah, well all right,
(22:42):
so I have to ask this. I'd be remiss if
I didn't ask this. You and Davy have a very similar,
most embarrassing moment on stage, and that is that there
was this huge solo part in one of the songs,
one of Elton songs, and the spotlight goes on Davy
and everything else stops. It is boom him guitar solo. Yes,
(23:04):
and he's not plugged in, and he's and he's doing
what does he call it, like windmills and he's like
in it right, and he's not like and nothing's coming out,
so he yells for the tambourine, smart yells for the tambourine,
you know, to keep the song going something exactly exactly
and so, but I mean that we kind of talk,
(23:25):
we kind of touched on this in another episode. But
things go wrong when you're on stage. You know they
have to in this. Similarly, you had an experience where
that you spoke about how you were not plugged in.
What goes through your mind? What do you do? Absolute panic? Well,
I mean you can't, uh exactly what you shouldn't do.
(23:46):
You can't do what we do for as long as
we've done it without some of these experience happening to you.
You you see it happened to other people, and you think,
oh my god, I'm so glad it wasn't me, and
then one night it is you. Yeah, and uh yeah. Similarly, uh, well,
I I've told one story one of our episodes, and
forgive me, I don't remember which episode. I told the
(24:08):
story of dor Stadium with Paul, with my guitar not
being plugged in for a great big solo section like
you just described, all the lights are on you, The
whole crowds like waiting for this big moment. They loved
through their whole life and nothing. Well, what I did
in that circumstance was just keep strumming, because you never
(24:32):
know when it's going to come out, and also you
want to prove to the audience that it isn't you
just forget. If you keep strumming, you're hoping that someone
backstage notices and plugs you in. You really don't know
what the problem is. I didn't go until later, So
it could be the monitors, it could that out front
house sound, it could be an app over, it could
(24:55):
be a number of things. So you're strumming, smiling and praying.
But even worse than that one time which I pulled
it off, that you act as if that is the key.
You act as if you're fine, this is part of
the show. I You'll probably hear music soon. I'm just
gonna keep smiling and looking like I'm doing what I'm
(25:16):
supposed to do. Anyway, But another time there was an
instance where in funny enough back to Scotland, Davy Johnstone's hometown. Uh,
HiT's from Edinburgh, but anyway, in Glasgow we were doing
a great big show with Paul and in this tour,
my twelve string acoustic guitar started the whole show. And
(25:40):
I go to start and it's a giant stadium. There's
probably seventy people. And I go to strom those first
chords and the whole bands. They're ready to come in.
About eight bars later, and nothing's coming out. Nothing's coming
You're sharing the whole show. This is the whole show,
(26:00):
and it's just silent and and it's excruciating. Finally, what
had happened was my, uh, my acoustic guitar has batteries.
Many of these electric acoustic guitars have batteries. Uh, sort
of back where the strap comes in the back of
the guitar. They had Inadvertently, there's a little door that
(26:23):
snaps clothes and to batteries just fell out. So you
talk about all of this stage gear, all of this
expert you know, my forty years playing music, all of
it comes down to a couple of little batteries, batteries.
So what happened? What you do? At a certain point,
(26:44):
I could see that Paul was really ready to start
the show, as is his right of course, and I
just yelled for an electric guitar. You know, stop trying stuff,
give me an electric guitar. I'll play the same part
on a different on a different guitar, which is completely
different sound, of course, and you want to honor the record,
(27:06):
but at a certain point you just go give me
a guitar, right, just do something like we've got to
get this moving. Do you remember what song? Yeah, it
was Venus and Mars Rock show Man by Party and Wings. Wonderful, wonderful,
uh piece of music. Oh my god, that's horribly embarrassing. Yeah,
(27:26):
it's a tough one. Thank you for pointing that out again.
I'm so grateful for that. May come up again now
that I know that, Go into the corner and bow
my head and feel badly again. Okay, good, so well
you're doing that. We'll move on to audience questions. All right,
So what is from the audience? As I just said,
(27:49):
what is the longest period of time you've ever been
on the road longest tour. That's a great question. I
would say in the early days of large scale touring,
I would be out for three months at a time,
really good long tours. Um. I did a tour with
(28:10):
a band called Kracking that was on Warren Brothers Records,
and we were the opening act for the Doobie brothers,
and we did a whole national tour and it was
at least ten weeks long, you know, and we played
every arena in the US and a few in Canada.
So the sub question that this audience member wanted to
(28:32):
know is, then, so when you're out that long, do
you miss home? Do you just kind of let it
go and enjoy the world travels, or you know what,
what's your mindset when you're on their oad. Yeah, it's
really interesting. It's a great question because people can't imagine
that people who are real family types and very h
raised in sort of a close knit family. That would
(28:54):
be a hard thing to even imagine. But in my case,
we were not close to mine. We weren't. In my case,
we were not close knit. We were great. My family
was wonderful, but there was some way in which I
sort of acclimated to being okay, being a part. And
(29:16):
it starts with a week away and you have a
lot of fun and you enjoy it, and there's new
energy coming in now and you're twenty years old and
a new world has opened up, and you have this
feeling of autonomy. You're out there ripping it up and
getting a lot of attention for it, so you get
used to it. Then the tours get longer and longer,
(29:36):
and pretty soon you're just used to it, and so
you have to change a little bit. And is it healthy?
Not really, But you know it's not for everybody either,
and you either have to get good at it and
get comfortable with it or it's not a life for you. Well,
there's there's got to be an adjustment period when you're
(29:58):
out on the road for so long and then you
come back and all of a sudden orient the actually
talks about this, how if she has too much time off,
nobody wants to be around her, you know when you
come back. She actually said, then how do you be normal?
You know, it's just it's you're kind of this superstar,
you know, on the road, and then you come home
and and it's trash night. Yeah, no, it's it's so true.
(30:19):
And when I was done for coming home, take out
the trash, get that trash out of here. But you know,
after my first group of my first year with Paul,
was was really hot and heavy. You know, we're really
hitting it hard, and it was a big life changer,
you know, all of a sudden sort of like you said,
there's a lot of attention, a lot of adrenaline. Every night,
(30:43):
you're just filled with more adrenaline that your body used
to ever produce in a year. And this is every night, right,
and then it comes down the next day, and then
it goes back up, and you know, you get in
that cycle of adrenaline and ripping and running, a lack
of sleep and too much sleep, and then you come
home and like I said, it's trash night. And I
(31:05):
remember coming home and saying, I need some help. I
went to therapy because it was just such a Yeah,
I said, it's kind of like taking coming into a
train station for which that train doesn't stop and stepping
off onto the hunt the plank anyway. Yeah, it's like
taking a step off a moving train. That's that's a
(31:26):
really good analogy. So interesting. Well, we're gonna have probably
more to talk about on that topic, but we are
going to wrap this up with the Lightning Round. I'm ready,
who you're ready? Okay, last time, I feel like you
needed a little time, So okay, here we go. So
the Lightning Round. You asked Davy this, I have to
ask you this because I'm dying, snow. What is the
one thing you cannot live without while on tour. Oh,
(31:50):
foam rollers. Believe it or not, those sort of very
dense uh you know, uh, cylindrical foam rollers that you
use for your back in your eye. Tea bands gotta
have them. Well, you guys, I mean your shows are long. Yeah,
they're like three hours. They're like grateful dead long. Right,
So you guys are out there for a long time.
So yeah, straight to your phone roller. Yeah, yeah, no,
(32:11):
got it. Okay, this one's gonna be tough for you,
so be prepared. You have to give something up. There's
two things I'm gonna ask you between No, I don't, yes,
you do. You have to give something up. It's between
coffee or WiFi. Which one goes? Wow, that's a tough one. Oh,
I guess I'd have to do without coffee because WiFi
(32:34):
these days really does connect you to the world around you.
I don't know if I want to see that. Well,
I'll go away to a coffee rehab somewhere. I'll come
back drinking Macha green tea. Oh Lord, here we go. Okay,
(32:55):
we're going to wrap up on that note, but we
have to do ceremonies. Tea ceremony pretty well. Yeah, you'll
be kneeling and bowing like it's the Queen. You'll have
more to talk to You'll have more to talk to
the Queen about next time. I mean, can I just
say coffee is my one vice? Don't ever ask me
to give it up again. Why do you think I
(33:15):
just asked you because you're trying to I'm trying to, George,
are you maybe a little bit alright? On that note?
Wrapping up after show number five, Thank you David Johnstone,
what an amazing interview. We will see you next week, Brian,
all right, see you later. For more information about on tour,
(33:47):
visit our website black Barrel Media dot com for behind
the scenes photos from these interviews, or to submit questions
for the after show. Visit our social media at ontour
pod on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are For more shows
from I Heart Radio and Black Barrel Media, visit the
I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get
your favorite podcast. H
You're listening to the After Show, the bonus episode series
for on Tour with Brian Ray. This is a production
of I Heart Radio and Black Barrel Media and I'm
your host Mandy Wimmer. And the after Show we dive
a little deeper into Brian's thoughts about certain parts of
the interviews, as well as expound a bit more on
his own experiences on tour. In this episode, we get
into Davy Johnstone's legacy on rock and roll with his
(00:32):
epic guitar riffs on some huge Elton john songs. We
also chat about the importance trust plays and longevity of bands,
and how Elton john can go from very shy to
larger than life on stage. We wrap up with two
hysterical stories of the times Brian met the Queen, which
you definitely don't want to miss. One standing next to
(00:54):
Elton John cracking jokes, and the others standing next to
Ozzy Osbourne. Here's my conversation with Brian. Good afternoon, Brian,
how are you? I'm fine, Mandy here we are again.
(01:15):
Good to see you. Davy Johnstone no way a fellow
guitar slinger. So you guys never really got into this.
How do you and Davy even know each other. How
do you mean? Yeah, I feel like we should have
gone into this and it's a wild story. A long,
long time ago, I was in a band with friends
of mine here, a local band in Los Angeles called
(01:37):
Charm School, and we were anything but charming, That's why
the name seemed to work. But yeah, it was a
fun rock band playing our original music. A couple of
covers in there as well, and we were getting courted
by Columbia Records. At the same time, we got courted
by some different managers, one of whom was named Roger Veduras,
(02:01):
who used to be a singer songwriter I think got
Warren Brothers records back in the seventies or something like that. Well,
he was now trying his hand as a manager, and
he got together with Joe Esposito of the Memphis Mafia,
Elvis's band of merry soldiers that hung out with him
in Memphis. So Joe Esposito was really Elvis's right hand man.
(02:25):
He's the one that didn't do it, tell all. He
wrote a book way at the end, after all of
the other guys had, you know, spent all their bullets
right dishan and cashing in well, Joe held his fire
and and and wrote a loving book finally at the end.
Very nice guy, very gentle, and you can see why
Elvis kept him sort of the closest because he was
(02:48):
the most trusted member of Elvis's inner circle. Wow. And
so but then how did you You and Davey were
in that band then together? So Roger Doris and Joe
Esposito got together as managers, found us Charm School and
wanted to manage us and brought a demo of ours
(03:10):
to Columbia Records, and uh, we were working together for
about a year. And during that time, Roger Vidor said,
I'd really love to introduce you to Davy Johnstone because
he might be a helpful co producer with you. And
so we went over to a studio where where Davy
Johnstone was, you know, held up with all of his
(03:32):
guitars and he was doing some overdubs there, and uh, yeah,
it was just a blast to meet him. And he
came out to one of our shows and we just
became friends. We we we sort of clicked right off
the bat. I can I can see that. I can
definitely see that. So how old were you guys around
that time. Oh jeez, I would say I was around Oh,
(03:56):
I would say thirty at that time. Wow. Okay, so
you guys have known each other so yeah, I mean
you guys have known each other a while while. Yeah.
Well it's just his story about when he met Elton
was just remarkable to me. So he he walks into
the studio and he there's a young, shy Elton John
behind the piano and talk about me. Davy just come
(04:20):
from Scotland if I remember it correctly, and you know,
talk about when talent meets preparation meets right place, right time.
I mean, the very first song that Elton blaze him
is Tiny Dancer Insane. Yeah, insane, And that's right and
and uh and Davy really knew he was onto something
great and something very special was going to happen. When
you've got Elton, who's this iconic, masterful pianist, piano player,
(04:45):
I mean, just unbelievable, and then you've got Davy, who
is an amazing guitar player. And really it was the
two of them that came together that made these songs
so remarkable. I mean, obviously everything started with Elton, but
then there's some ridiculous guitar riffs that I think that
did Davey write them or how did those come about? Yeah,
Davey would have come up with a whole slew of
(05:09):
guitar licks. And and to say something about that, Elton
was really smart to to understand that as a piano
playing singer songwriter, that's not enough for radio. It's not
enough for what was called FM airplay back then. On
FM radio, you needed driving butch guitar parts, guitar lecks
(05:34):
to drive some of these songs. And he was very
smart and uh it was it was an act of
humility to take on such a strong guitar flavor that
uh that Davy provided. He provided a lot of creativity,
great feel, as we say in music, a great feel,
(05:55):
great time, great tone, and wonderful ideas. I mean, it
was Davey guitar parts that really made so many of
Elton's biggest radio hits, especially in those earliest days, when
you talk about things like I don't know, like a
funeral for a friend, slash Love Lies Bleeding, there's just
(06:16):
some ridiculous guitar hooks and they're driven by the guitar.
It's not like a guitar comes in later. I mean,
these guitars start the song or let's say Saturday Nights
all right for a fight. I've heard of that, yeah,
I think everyone has. And it starts with a badass
guitar rhythm lick and um. You know that's Davy's work.
(06:40):
That's his contribution to the music that you know became
all cliches aside sort of the d n a of
of of seventies and eighties rock and roll. When you
talk about people clicking right away, it sounds like Davy
and Elton also kind of had that same vibe that
you and Davy had when you first met, Elton immediately
(07:01):
trusted Davy. There were two stories that Davy tells about
how Elton was unsure about a couple of things. I
think one was related to guitar and one was how
to start a song, and Davy basically came up with
both of those and immediately there was that trust factor
built between Elton and Davy. And you asked him a
great question in the interview about you know, how have
(07:24):
you guys stayed together for fifty years? I mean, things happen.
I mean you see bands fall apart all the time,
you know, or they fall apart, they get back together,
people are leaving, people are coming back, or they're just
they just don't make it. To be together for fifty years,
you have to you have to really get along first
of all. And you have to trust those people on stage.
I mean, you're playing live. You have to trust that
(07:46):
you know when something goes wrong that they're going to
handle it correctly. You know you're gonna trust them musically,
you gotta trust them personality wise. I mean how big
do you feel like that? Do you also feel like
that's a huge dynamic in keeping bands together. Yeah, I mean,
first of all, it takes that immediate sort of chemistry
and and then a trust develops. Someone like Elton John
(08:11):
is going to be sequestered away from the other guys
a lot of the time, and you need to trust
that the guys in the other dressing room are on
your side and are with you. Um And in the
case of Davy and Elton, Elton sized him up early on,
and with those early examples that you just gave in
(08:32):
the studio where Elton gave Davy a little bit of
rope to see what he would do with it and
give him some room and got you know, a hundred
and back from Davy. As a result of that, he
saw that what he was getting in Davy Johnston was
built in hook machine. I mean popular music in the
(08:53):
sixties and seventies is all about hooks, and just to
get back to it really quickly. You have like bluesy
stuff that he had it to Madman Across the Water.
Those really great uh rhythm guitar parts he did on
Don't Go Breaking My Heart. You know that answered the
lead vocals bitches back. I mean that's a stone cold boss,
like a rolling Stones, you know, proper guitar riff, not
(09:18):
a piano riff. You know. So Elton was wise enough
to put guitar front and center and it it launched
his career well. And props to Elton to not having
any sort of intimidation factor about really letting Davey shine
in that way exactly. That's when when I when I
say humility, you know, not being threatened that you know,
(09:40):
have this you know, tall Scottish Adonis with long, long
blonde hair in the middle of the stage when Elton
is sitting down over on the side. You know, that
could be threatening to a man if he had a
you know, insufficient ego right right out of control ego.
So basically what we're saying is that Elton John is
the perfect tune in. He is as you would say,
(10:02):
he's quite we not we have stature, we have spirit,
we have spirit. I love that, you know. And speaking
of that, another remarkable thing about going back to that
first meeting is that it sounded like and I don't
want to label at stage right because obviously I don't know.
I wasn't there, but Davy really hits on the fact
(10:23):
that Elton is very shy, and at that point in
his life he was very shy. He was young also
and then but also very shy and didn't really talk
a lot, like really kind of takes takes a minute
now even to still open up to people. And I
think it's mystifying how artists, and I've worked a lot
of actors and actresses in various roles in my life
(10:44):
that really are shy, and that in front of thousands
of people, they somehow turn it on. And I've just
I've never really understood how you can go from zero
to sixty, but it happens all the time. I think,
you know, it's very different when you have someone like
Elton John whose real name is Reginald. We can't talk
about that. Yeah, well everyone knows it. But in any case,
(11:07):
Elton was smart enough to recognize that he was painfully
shy and that, but he had the goods that we're
going to prove him and be very, very successful for him.
So what he did, wisely and again with a bit
of humility, was to adopt sort of these bigger than
live characters. And he would put on these giant sunglasses
(11:31):
shaped like a star, and put on these crazy hats,
crazy wigs, you know, a Dodger uniform, a duck suit.
He would do anything. And now he's jumping on the
piano like a madman because now he's someone else. And
so someone like say, Paul McCartney is great because Paul
McCartney is so Paul McCartney. And he stands there in
(11:54):
his shoes in front of a hundred thousand people at
Coachella and it's blowing rain out there. It looks miserable
and he's in rain boots just standing there. So it's
a very it's the opposite, right, and not everyone has
that sort of I don't know, um uh, you know,
confidence to do that. But Elton needed to find a
(12:16):
separate personality. That is so interesting. I never really thought
about it like that that once he kind of gets
made up in that way. Now it's like he gives himself,
you know, the you know, I guess, the authority or
the right to just be someone else. Yeah, it's license. Yeah,
it's licensed to be something. The license. That's the right word.
(12:37):
I was going for, thank you, just to be completely
other than yourself. It's Superman syndrome. I mean literally, before
going on stage, he goes into the phone booth and
suddenly Clark Kent is Superman who comes out. That's amazing. Wow,
that is such a good point. Have you ever met him? Yeah?
(13:05):
I sure did. Oh god, it's the funniest story. We
did the Diamond Jubilie for her Majesty, the Queen, and
uh it was on her what would that have been
her year of marriage? Who was all involved in the
Diamond year as queen? Okay? So who was involved in
the Diamond Juliet First of all? Well, okay, so we
(13:27):
did the Golden Jubilee and then the Diamond Uh many
years later, Diamond Jubilee. I I remember as being Elton
Grace Jones Paul McCartney, Um, oh gosh, so many other people,
Stevie Wonder, Tom Jones, you know, most of them knighted.
(13:53):
But anyway, we're there after the show and we've been
having a hoot. We've been having a great time. Grace
Jones is walking around flirting and it's just been really fun.
Now we're in a greeting line. We're in a greeting circle. Uh,
we're in a greeting circle all of the artists to
meet the queen. We have just played and I'm standing
(14:13):
next to Elton and he starts chit chatting. Was very
open and very funny. The guy is hilarious, NonStop with
the jokes. And I know someone else in his band
who says, you got to be quick when you're around
Elton because he's just always moving and he just wants
to laugh. So I was doing my best to keep
(14:34):
up with him. Anyway, Now the Queen is like three
people away and he starts peppering me Elton with the
funniest stuff you've ever heard, and all of it is
completely filthy, And now I'm dying laughing, and I see
like ten people away as Paul and Rusty and Abe
and wicks. Uh. You know, they've already met her and
(14:54):
now it's my turn. They're like looking at me, like,
what's going to go? Don't mess up? And well that's
basically what I'm saying to Elton is like, what do
I not do? What do I do? And I can't
say some of the things that he said, but I
will say this, after she left, after having not done
the wrong thing, and you did the right thing. I
(15:17):
did the right You didn't embarrass that. She offered me
her hand and I shook it and I bowed my
head and I was just very pleasant. I let her lead,
and then she passed on to the next person. I'm like, boy,
I did. And then he said some more dirty stuff.
But before leaving, you said, so, how does it feel
(15:38):
to have met the queen and the other queen because
it was your first meeting of both queens. Ah, he
is quick. Oh, that's very cute. So, I mean, I'm
sure you had to have been very nervous, I mean
something meeting the queen. I guess it's so. I mean
he had to have helped with that a little bit,
with all of his jokes. Yeah, he did. He helped
take the edge off a little bit. But it's not
(15:59):
as it's not as anxiety producing for me as an
American as it would be for just about any British subject,
because you know, it's sort of like people of my
generation meeting Paul World. He's like a deity, were Elton.
But for an American to meet the Queen, we don't
(16:20):
have the same reference. We don't have the same sort
of We haven't been raised with her as the queen. Okay,
so clearly the Queen and rest in peace, Prince Philip,
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Uh, we are binging the
crown right now, we are. Now you met the Queen.
I have not met the Queen. Obviously, I have not
met either queen. So what do you think I mean
(16:43):
for the two seconds that you met the queen anything
like the Crown? Well, you know, first of all, the
Crown is is great, juicy fun it. You know, they
couldn't write this as a soap opera. It is really
juicy and really like oh my god, oh my god. Anyway, Uh,
I would say, there's she was very sweet and kind
(17:08):
of cute both times I met the Queen, and I
met her on her golden jubilee and in that line,
I was standing next to Rod Stewart and of all people,
Umz Osborne, what right? Show? That was hilarious. And she
comes up and she's very sweet to Rod. And Rod
(17:29):
has been knighted. Ozzy Osborne has not been knighted, never
will be. But anyway, she comes, she comes up to
Auzzy and and she says something very cute under her breath,
as does he, and it's just like she has these
little sort of cute private relationships with all of these
people because they've met so many times over the years.
(17:52):
Of course, at the end, at the end of the show,
I have to say this one little Aussie story. Ozzy
runs up to me the side of the stage and
now we've all been on stage for Hey Jude, and
they've all been non nying with us, and Stewart, Queen,
you know, Ray Davies from the Kinks. Everybody's up there
(18:13):
and we've all been swaying and playing, singing along and
now it's over. The whole show's over. It was the
last song. Ouzzy grabs me backstage on stage but behind
the gear, gets me by the shoulders and just starts
shaking me and he goes I just sang with Paul McCartney,
and he goes, people, my fans might not understand this,
(18:35):
but I wanted to be Paul McCartney when I was
a kid. That's so cute, I said, But I ended
up being the Prince of Darkness. I ended up being
And then he says it could have been worse. I
could have ended up a sting ship. Sorry, Gordon, Oh
that's hysterical. I still have to get the visual together
(18:56):
of you, Rod Stewart and Ozzy Osward meeting the Queen
like this is hysterical for me. I wanted I want
to be a fly on the wat you do. Okay, alright, alright,
we're gonna check that out. Maybe that's a social media
host for anyone, for anyone listening to this, check out
the social media. Okay, that is absolutely hysterical. So all right,
(19:27):
so I'm gonna have to move on a little bit,
even though I think we could tell queen stories all day,
as it sounds like I got to move on to food.
Davy in this episode talks about when we've talked about
band dynamics a little bit, but how a really big
bonding thing for bands as food. You guys are on
the road. You're all over the world. You tell a
story about how you and Eddie James bonded over barbecue.
(19:49):
Give us a little bit more insight into this. Well.
In her days with Chess Records, Eddie James was given
a house uh in Compton area central and not too
far away from there was the side of the l
a Riots. But she's on this sort of nice grassy
hill and there's pine trees in a double median street
(20:11):
and beautiful home on on the corner there. But anyway,
in the early days with Eda, you know, she would
have us over to the house to go swimming in
the pool. Uh. And this is when her first son, Danto,
was only three years old. You know, my first shows
with Edda James UH consisted of driving to Santa Barbara
(20:32):
with Edda James and her husband and Danto, her son,
in the backseat of the car at three years old,
with my guitar and my amp in the trunk. We
aren't you a godfather to one of her kids? Yeah,
the second one, Samato, that's correct. But anyway, so back
to the house on Athens, her family home, she would
have us all over there. We'd be swimming around and
(20:54):
she'd do a big barbecue. And the way she would
do barbecue, she would scru about the kitchen sink at
double kitchen sink and fill it with barbecue sauce and
start putting in all the things that she was about
to cook. But anyway, so there she is and we're now,
you know, feasting outside by the pool. And she looked
(21:14):
over at me after my second plate of barbecue, and
I might have weighed, you know, a hundred and ten pounds,
and most of that was hair brand new early days
with Etta, and I was a teenager. Anyway, she would
serve all this food. I'd be on my second plate
of whatever she had cooked, and she go, Ryan, you
can go and you where does it go? With? Where
(21:37):
are you putting all that? Because I was literally the skinny,
little white kid, you know, and she couldn't believe it.
Oh my god, amazing, But I think that yeah, food,
It's it's like, you know, it takes chemistry to choose
and to trust a band long term for an artist
like uh at A, for Elton, for Paul. I would
(21:58):
imagine trust goes a long way, and this goes way
beyond the non disclosure agreements that you're going to sign
later in your career with them. But early days are
built on can I trust this person? And do I
want to hang out with them for eight hours in
the van. Absolutely. Early days for Elton and for my
(22:18):
early days with at A, uh, not as much with
Paul were enclosed, you know, small vehicles traveling along ways.
You've got to get on. One of the earliest and
best ways to bond is over food. No, And it's
so interesting now that you bonded over barbecue, because now
you basically don't even eat me anymore. Yeah, I haven't
for gosh almost two years. Yeah, yeah, well all right,
(22:42):
so I have to ask this. I'd be remiss if
I didn't ask this. You and Davy have a very similar,
most embarrassing moment on stage, and that is that there
was this huge solo part in one of the songs,
one of Elton songs, and the spotlight goes on Davy
and everything else stops. It is boom him guitar solo. Yes,
(23:04):
and he's not plugged in, and he's and he's doing
what does he call it, like windmills and he's like
in it right, and he's not like and nothing's coming out,
so he yells for the tambourine, smart yells for the tambourine,
you know, to keep the song going something exactly exactly
and so, but I mean that we kind of talk,
(23:25):
we kind of touched on this in another episode. But
things go wrong when you're on stage. You know they
have to in this. Similarly, you had an experience where
that you spoke about how you were not plugged in.
What goes through your mind? What do you do? Absolute panic? Well,
I mean you can't, uh exactly what you shouldn't do.
(23:46):
You can't do what we do for as long as
we've done it without some of these experience happening to you.
You you see it happened to other people, and you think,
oh my god, I'm so glad it wasn't me, and
then one night it is you. Yeah, and uh yeah. Similarly, uh, well,
I I've told one story one of our episodes, and
forgive me, I don't remember which episode. I told the
(24:08):
story of dor Stadium with Paul, with my guitar not
being plugged in for a great big solo section like
you just described, all the lights are on you, The
whole crowds like waiting for this big moment. They loved
through their whole life and nothing. Well, what I did
in that circumstance was just keep strumming, because you never
(24:32):
know when it's going to come out, and also you
want to prove to the audience that it isn't you
just forget. If you keep strumming, you're hoping that someone
backstage notices and plugs you in. You really don't know
what the problem is. I didn't go until later, So
it could be the monitors, it could that out front
house sound, it could be an app over, it could
(24:55):
be a number of things. So you're strumming, smiling and praying.
But even worse than that one time which I pulled
it off, that you act as if that is the key.
You act as if you're fine, this is part of
the show. I You'll probably hear music soon. I'm just
gonna keep smiling and looking like I'm doing what I'm
(25:16):
supposed to do. Anyway, But another time there was an
instance where in funny enough back to Scotland, Davy Johnstone's hometown. Uh,
HiT's from Edinburgh, but anyway, in Glasgow we were doing
a great big show with Paul and in this tour,
my twelve string acoustic guitar started the whole show. And
(25:40):
I go to start and it's a giant stadium. There's
probably seventy people. And I go to strom those first
chords and the whole bands. They're ready to come in.
About eight bars later, and nothing's coming out. Nothing's coming
You're sharing the whole show. This is the whole show,
(26:00):
and it's just silent and and it's excruciating. Finally, what
had happened was my, uh, my acoustic guitar has batteries.
Many of these electric acoustic guitars have batteries. Uh, sort
of back where the strap comes in the back of
the guitar. They had Inadvertently, there's a little door that
(26:23):
snaps clothes and to batteries just fell out. So you
talk about all of this stage gear, all of this
expert you know, my forty years playing music, all of
it comes down to a couple of little batteries, batteries.
So what happened? What you do? At a certain point,
(26:44):
I could see that Paul was really ready to start
the show, as is his right of course, and I
just yelled for an electric guitar. You know, stop trying stuff,
give me an electric guitar. I'll play the same part
on a different on a different guitar, which is completely
different sound, of course, and you want to honor the record,
(27:06):
but at a certain point you just go give me
a guitar, right, just do something like we've got to
get this moving. Do you remember what song? Yeah, it
was Venus and Mars Rock show Man by Party and Wings. Wonderful, wonderful,
uh piece of music. Oh my god, that's horribly embarrassing. Yeah,
(27:26):
it's a tough one. Thank you for pointing that out again.
I'm so grateful for that. May come up again now
that I know that, Go into the corner and bow
my head and feel badly again. Okay, good, so well
you're doing that. We'll move on to audience questions. All right,
So what is from the audience? As I just said,
(27:49):
what is the longest period of time you've ever been
on the road longest tour. That's a great question. I
would say in the early days of large scale touring,
I would be out for three months at a time,
really good long tours. Um. I did a tour with
(28:10):
a band called Kracking that was on Warren Brothers Records,
and we were the opening act for the Doobie brothers,
and we did a whole national tour and it was
at least ten weeks long, you know, and we played
every arena in the US and a few in Canada.
So the sub question that this audience member wanted to
(28:32):
know is, then, so when you're out that long, do
you miss home? Do you just kind of let it
go and enjoy the world travels, or you know what,
what's your mindset when you're on their oad. Yeah, it's
really interesting. It's a great question because people can't imagine
that people who are real family types and very h
raised in sort of a close knit family. That would
(28:54):
be a hard thing to even imagine. But in my case,
we were not close to mine. We weren't. In my case,
we were not close knit. We were great. My family
was wonderful, but there was some way in which I
sort of acclimated to being okay, being a part. And
(29:16):
it starts with a week away and you have a
lot of fun and you enjoy it, and there's new
energy coming in now and you're twenty years old and
a new world has opened up, and you have this
feeling of autonomy. You're out there ripping it up and
getting a lot of attention for it, so you get
used to it. Then the tours get longer and longer,
(29:36):
and pretty soon you're just used to it, and so
you have to change a little bit. And is it healthy?
Not really, But you know it's not for everybody either,
and you either have to get good at it and
get comfortable with it or it's not a life for you. Well,
there's there's got to be an adjustment period when you're
(29:58):
out on the road for so long and then you
come back and all of a sudden orient the actually
talks about this, how if she has too much time off,
nobody wants to be around her, you know when you
come back. She actually said, then how do you be normal?
You know, it's just it's you're kind of this superstar,
you know, on the road, and then you come home
and and it's trash night. Yeah, no, it's it's so true.
(30:19):
And when I was done for coming home, take out
the trash, get that trash out of here. But you know,
after my first group of my first year with Paul,
was was really hot and heavy. You know, we're really
hitting it hard, and it was a big life changer,
you know, all of a sudden sort of like you said,
there's a lot of attention, a lot of adrenaline. Every night,
(30:43):
you're just filled with more adrenaline that your body used
to ever produce in a year. And this is every night, right,
and then it comes down the next day, and then
it goes back up, and you know, you get in
that cycle of adrenaline and ripping and running, a lack
of sleep and too much sleep, and then you come
home and like I said, it's trash night. And I
(31:05):
remember coming home and saying, I need some help. I
went to therapy because it was just such a Yeah,
I said, it's kind of like taking coming into a
train station for which that train doesn't stop and stepping
off onto the hunt the plank anyway. Yeah, it's like
taking a step off a moving train. That's that's a
(31:26):
really good analogy. So interesting. Well, we're gonna have probably
more to talk about on that topic, but we are
going to wrap this up with the Lightning Round. I'm ready,
who you're ready? Okay, last time, I feel like you
needed a little time, So okay, here we go. So
the Lightning Round. You asked Davy this, I have to
ask you this because I'm dying, snow. What is the
one thing you cannot live without while on tour. Oh,
(31:50):
foam rollers. Believe it or not, those sort of very
dense uh you know, uh, cylindrical foam rollers that you
use for your back in your eye. Tea bands gotta
have them. Well, you guys, I mean your shows are long. Yeah,
they're like three hours. They're like grateful dead long. Right,
So you guys are out there for a long time.
So yeah, straight to your phone roller. Yeah, yeah, no,
(32:11):
got it. Okay, this one's gonna be tough for you,
so be prepared. You have to give something up. There's
two things I'm gonna ask you between No, I don't, yes,
you do. You have to give something up. It's between
coffee or WiFi. Which one goes? Wow, that's a tough one. Oh,
I guess I'd have to do without coffee because WiFi
(32:34):
these days really does connect you to the world around you.
I don't know if I want to see that. Well,
I'll go away to a coffee rehab somewhere. I'll come
back drinking Macha green tea. Oh Lord, here we go. Okay,
(32:55):
we're going to wrap up on that note, but we
have to do ceremonies. Tea ceremony pretty well. Yeah, you'll
be kneeling and bowing like it's the Queen. You'll have
more to talk to You'll have more to talk to
the Queen about next time. I mean, can I just
say coffee is my one vice? Don't ever ask me
to give it up again. Why do you think I
(33:15):
just asked you because you're trying to I'm trying to, George,
are you maybe a little bit alright? On that note?
Wrapping up after show number five, Thank you David Johnstone,
what an amazing interview. We will see you next week, Brian,
all right, see you later. For more information about on tour,
(33:47):
visit our website black Barrel Media dot com for behind
the scenes photos from these interviews, or to submit questions
for the after show. Visit our social media at ontour
pod on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are For more shows
from I Heart Radio and Black Barrel Media, visit the
I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get
your favorite podcast. H
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