November 4, 2025 • 23 mins
Join us as Takin A Walk-Music History on foot host Buzz Knight talks with Jeremy DeBardi of Steel Beans, a creative force who’s blending unique style with fresh sonic experimentation. In this musician interview, Jeremy opens up about his distinctive artistic vision, the creative process behind his new music, and how he’s carving out his own lane in today’s landscape. From the inspiration that fuels his sound to the risks he takes in pushing boundaries, we explore what it means to stay true to your creative instincts while constantly evolving. Steel Beans is developing a following of famous artists in music history including : Lenny Kravitz, Jack Black (Tenacious D), and Jason Momoa and we are sure that list is growing as we speak. Jeremy DeBardi collaborated on his new release with Anderson Paak, and Troy Van Leeuwen from Queens of the Stone Age and he discusses the surprisingly unique influence of Steve Winwood, Traffic and Blind Faith. Whether you know him from Steel Beans or you’re just discovering his work, this is an intimate look at an artist who refuses to play it safe.
Takin A Walk-The Music History Podcast with Buzz Knight is part of The IHeart Podcast Network and celebrates the fine art of storytelling on this music interview podcast.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I wouldn't say I learned to play drums and guitar
at the same time, but I just had. I'm just
a drummer that happened to pick up guitar, that happens
to be insane enough to think it was a good idea, you.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Know, on Buzz Night and welcome back to the Taking
a Walk Podcast. We love to talk with musicians and
just see where this conversation takes us. Now, today we've
got one that is pretty wild. It's a one man
musical phenomenon. He plays guitars, drums, sings simultaneously or while
(00:35):
wearing an open robe.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
You're not gonna believe him. You're gonna love him.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
We're gonna talk next to Jeremy Debarti, better known as
steal Beans.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Taking a Walk.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Well, Jeremy Debarti, steal Beans, welcome my friend to the
Taking a Walk Podcast. It's an honor having you, honor.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
This is fantastic.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
So since we call this little podcast Taking a Walk,
you're not going to escape our signature question here, which
is befuddled people from time to time and made them
smile from time to time. The question is, Jeremy, if
you could take a walk with somebody living or dead,
(01:23):
and no wise remarks about hey, dead people are not
fun to walk with.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
I'm kidding who I walk with it dead every night
when I write music.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
There you go, well, who would you take a walk with,
living or dead? And where would you take that walk
with him?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I'd say living. I'd walk with Steve Wynwood through like
an English countryside, just talk about songs and spirituality. I
think dead. It definitely the either Jappa or John Lennon,
and maybe walking through I don't know. I don't know
if you could walk with those guys anywhere anywhere good
(02:02):
wherever they choose. I don't know what to show those guys,
you know.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Yeah, anywhere would be good. Wow, Steve Winwood, Well what
a great pick. What a guy that the legacy is
so incredible. Is there a favorite period of music of
Steve Winwood's that you can highlight?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
You know what changed my life was hearing Traffic and
preem It's like where I found my voice, and so
Jack and Steve really like It's where I learned to
project and finally sing without hurting my voice. I would
say the Traffic era but I also love Spencer Davis group.
(02:44):
I love Blind Faith, and he's one of those guys
that transitioned into the production of the eighties, but the
songs were still good. I was just talking to this
about the younger guys of the band that Arc of
a Diver is fantastic, and I just hear songs I
don't hear like you know, a lot of songwriters got
into the eighties era and the production like kinda like, uh,
(03:07):
does the snare have to sound like that?
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Man?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I love Steve. He's one of the best songwriters ever
for sure.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Oh that is so that is so special. So you
have set the world on fire.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Lad You've recently inked a record deal with Anderson Pack
on Ape Shit Records, and there's just been so much
amazing things happening. You know, I was thinking about this.
The art of branding and differentiation is so critical. Who
(03:46):
taught you this insightful way to just be unlike anybody else?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Well that you know it would be me with the
help of the small village. It takes to raise some
There's some people that have been major inspirations at making
me like all inhibitions of my imagination, like my parents,
split when I was two, and so the inner voice
(04:15):
and the artistic voice and the inner child, those things
never went away, and so I was fortunate enough to
make the strengths of all those weaknesses and turn it
into like I'm still a child, but I'm like aging
like wine, because now I'm just refining the same thing
I've been working on for thirty five years. Like in
(04:40):
high school, I was a good drummer, but I didn't
know how to write songs really, you know. Eighth grade,
I started trying to write solids, like this is really hard.
All these lyrics sound lame, and I listened to like
Pink Floyd Overhead the Albatross he motionless upon me. I'm like,
(05:00):
I'm not going to write anything that good. I should
just give up. And then I heard like a couple
of Zappa songs, and melodically they were so good, but
they were just not taking themselves seriously, and I was like,
all right, I can make some stuff with silly And
then from then on out it was just open. I
could write about whatever, I could make a love song,
I could make a silly song. And then I'm naturally
(05:24):
like really hyper and spastic. Seeing guys like Iggy and
the Stooges performances or ODP or any of these people
that their stage presence is so just open. That made
me feel okay being myself and not like trying to
stand still or calm my energy or anything. You know,
(05:44):
I'm sorry for the long answer.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Never apologize for any answer, short or long.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
First of all, we are open to it all.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
That's why I'm honored and loved doing this every day,
every moment, and so no apology necessary. So let's go
back to the beginning of something here. So you learned
to play drums and guitar at the same time because
your bandmates were late to rehearsal. Can you tell us
that story.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Yeah, I can say it was never intentional to learn necessarily.
But you know, I'd go over to my grandparents' house
here and there, and I was always banging on pots
and pans, and so they put a little drum set
in front of me and I started banging on that,
and my grandpa he'd just strum a couple of chords,
keep it simple for me, and I'd go gee. And
(06:40):
so that was the beginning there. It's just, you know,
I never had any lessons. I just slammed the drums,
and I listened to all the stuff that I grew
up as a young boy. There Nirvana, soundgarden Stone, Tuble Pilots,
and Alison Shanes. And I got into guitar around middle school,
and by that time I was a pretty good drummer,
(07:02):
but not a good guitar player. So for me, I
never really learned to play guitar as much as I
learned a few chords, some simple leads and songwriting, and
guitar was like the hand in hand thing for me.
Fast forward to about two thousand, I'm doing like rock
and roll house shows with the only other guys I
could find in my town that played and started steel
(07:25):
beans in around two thousand and five, playing my songs,
getting my friends in and twenty ten they were just
they were late, these are my friends and they were
getting hammered and not showing up and stuff. I sat
down at the drum set like texting them like yo,
where the folk are you? And I had my guitar
around my neck and I just picked up a stick,
(07:46):
set the phone down. I just went started strumming and
I went, oh, I guess that's the thing I could do.
It was years later before I ever did it, cause,
you know, I like to tell people that I never
wanted the band to be about me. That's why I
gave it a band name. I didn't even tell people
I wrote all the songs and did all the back work,
(08:09):
as I just wanted it to be about the songs. Well, whoops,
the solo show now has kind of taken off, and
now I'm I'm drawing t shirts of my face on them.
But that's okay. But yeah, it's it's so I didn't
really learn it. I think if it was anything that
I ever worked to learn, if there was a book
how to play drums and guitar, I would have never
read that. I've never read an instruction manual in my
(08:29):
life past, like the introductory. So it's just by path
of leads, resistance and inspiration that it happened. But it's
been a lot of fun doing it. I enjoyed doing it.
It's it's so bizarre because in the live show, I
can just really it's a stream of consciousness to just
(08:52):
do whatever. I'll stop in the middle of the song
and like have a salad delivered to my rack Tom,
and then I'll just start eating it and asking the audio,
it's like how they're doing it's pretty obnoxious to say
the least. Oh, it's amazing, but yeah, so I wouldn't
(09:14):
say I learned to play drums and guitar at the
same time, but it just had I'm just a drummer
that happened to pick up guitar that happens to be
insane enough to think it was a good idea. You know.
In twenty ten, a couple of months after I discovered
that our drummer was snowed in in eastern Washington and
(09:36):
the high Desert at a job site, and I looked
at the bass player at the time, I was like, no,
fucking let's do it. And so I showed up and
I did that, and that's the first show I did
like that. It wasn't as good as what it's become now,
but there was three years later before I really did
like a show like that by myself.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Now, I do have to tell our audience since this
has taken a walk, were literally somewhere in your neighborhood
taking a walk, and you're one of the few people
who have done that in a while.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
I absolutely love it. Where are you taking a walk?
Speaker 2 (10:11):
I'm going to try to sit down for you. But
I'm actually here in Hollywood, in LA. I'm actually I'm
aware I recorded this album that we just put out,
but I'm excited for that because that been stuck in
my house for the last year and a half. So
any time I can leave my house, grocery store, you know,
(10:33):
the walk in clinic, any of those things are better
than being stuck at all.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Yeah, you got that right.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
You brought, you bought your instruments when you had three
hundred dollars to your name. That's that's a bit of
a commitment. What made you think this is what the
heck I'm going to be doing.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
What really happened is I had a concert that I
went to in Denver in my minivan. They booked a
tour down the coast with three hundred dollars to my name,
which was just largely ambitious and reckless, but a tour
(11:12):
down the coast three hundred dollars to my name. My
friend Sean, who's the basis in the band, is gonna
come with us. I had a video randomly go viral
a week before this tour down the coast that probably
nobody was going to go to, and I would have
got like halfway down through that and ran out of money,
and it would have been a nightmare. So it was
(11:33):
really this miracle that, you know, three hundred dollars is
hardly enough money to get to Oregon, let alone California,
and these venues that took a chance on me were
now calling me and saying, we're getting calls off the
hook asking if you're really playing here. I was like, wow, okay,
(11:54):
but no. Most of my instruments I've ever had were all,
like you know, mostly from pawn shops and stuff like
if it looked cool, I get it. I had some
amps that were forty dollars and I use those on
stage for years. Tour changed my life, and it's I
think that the decision to just do that and take
(12:17):
that risk is what pushed it over in the universe.
Was like, all right, here you go kind of But
to have that happen when you're thirty five and doing
music for twenty years. The thing is, before I had
gone viral with that video, which launched me in a
way I'd never seen, I had my son was already
(12:40):
six years old. I had been running a lawn care
company I started right before he was born, and I
kind of was artistically and spiritually developed and content with
where I was. I was like Almo Lons for the
rest of my life and just write songs. Like I've
never really chased my career any of that stuff that much.
(13:01):
I just love writing songs. But it was all a
big bonus to be like, wow, okay, we'll be right back,
and thank god it can walk twenty one that that
would happen, because that'd be terrible.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
You know, welcome ready.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
I've been ready for I wouldn't have had the discipline
to not crash a car or overgost. There are all
those fun things you do in your twenties when things
go well.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
You know, you mentioned spirituality when you talked about Steve
Winwood and you just mentioned it. Can you, you know,
share a little bit more on your view of the world,
and I know you have incredible gratitude for the position
that you're in right now in terms of what's happening
with your life and your career.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
You know, I I'm letting it slip a bit. I
try not to mention it. I don't want to get
in like I'm careful where I say it or something.
But I'm not like a part of any real religion
in particular. But I am a big believer and a
very blessed person, and I'm just kind of one of
those guys. I'm making it up as I go along.
(14:09):
I'm listening for the cues and I'm seeing signs, and
sometimes they're subtle, sometimes they're like directly in my face.
And I always tell people that, like, you know, I
had different experiences throughout my life, some actually within the
last year, but a lot of them when I was little,
where like I saw things fly across the room and stuff,
(14:32):
and you can't turn back from that and be like, well, no,
that was just in my hair. It wasn't. But I
you know, I was kind of a believer in something
going on before I ever saw anything fly across the room.
That just kind of made it where I was like, okay, fine.
But to me, I look at music as my religion,
(14:54):
and at this point, I think of the guitar or
any instrument as this tool that is it's not unlike
a Ouiji board or something. You know, like you're not
writing a song, you're just sharpening your relationship with an
instrument that becomes the filter for ideas that are coming
from somewhere, and it's really not about being a good player.
(15:17):
It's about being a good listener and filtering those ideas
through something and you just happen to be some conduit
for it. That's the nut job world I live, and
that's my I believe it though. You know, it's like
it's too good to be true. You know, we're not
responsible for anything. We're just having things happen. And how
(15:41):
fluent you are on your guitar or your race car,
whatever it is that you take pride in that you're
good at every day, there is something cooler going on
than just you. You know, I don't know. That's what
I think.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
That's very well put and makes the appreciation for thing
that we stare in at in this universe a deeper appreciation.
Congrats on the new album and you got some select
run of West Coast dates. It's got to be so exciting.
Your experience with Anderson Pack is incredible and he's part
(16:17):
of the collaborations as well, along with some other folks
Troy from Queens of the Stone Age. So it's really
it's a monster situation that is happening for you and
it's so outstanding. Tell me about how you look forward
to the live performances coming up.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
I'll preface this by saying I've always done the band,
and then I started doing the solo thing. I would
do a couple solo shows in taverns in the middle
of nowhere while I still had the band going. And
now I've done the solo thing for the last couple
of years, and I love it and I'm not about
to jump shit. It's what I'm known for. But the
(16:58):
last year, what I've moved towards is we did a
couple shows back home where I do thirty minutes of
the solo show and then I have Sean come up
on bass and West come up on drums, and the
second half of the show is the band and I
get to dance around and do what I do normally.
(17:19):
Now I tell the guys this is like Dylan goes electric,
but instead it's like the guy. Instead of oh he
sold out, he went solo, I'm doing the reverse. I'm
cognizant that people will be like, oh, what is he
just doing a band because I still haven't seen his solo.
Maybe I'm overthinking it, but that's the format for these shows,
(17:42):
and frankly, it's a relief because I just love to
be dancing around the whole time I'm playing. And I've
never written a song to be played for the solo thing.
I just sit down and play it and then if
it works, it works. These songs on the album are
not like, they're not humanly possible, able to play without
multiple guys, you know. And so far the shows have
(18:06):
been great. It's a little tough in this day and
age to cut through the noise of marketing and promotion
the way that socials are and we haven't been out
in a while, so these aren't like, these aren't blowout shows,
but they're These audiences have been They've been good size
in these rooms, and the audiences respond very well. Shows
(18:27):
are going great. I've really enjoyed it. The energy is fun.
The audiences are a little different in California because there's
a little more of an entertainment industry here and people
are like housebroken on shows where back like you play
a show in Seattle, it's not like the music scene
it once was. People are kind of like everyone's talking
(18:48):
to each other and they're not paying attention. These shows
have been like hyper focused, locked in and pin drop
silence when I go to say something, and I told
him like, this is crazy, like I'm not used to
doing a joke or are rambling a little, and it's
that good of they're really listening. That means the world
to go somewhere, and now people do that.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
Well.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
In closing, I was noting that I just saw adding
on to folks that discover you and have become fans.
I saw Lenny Kravitz like in your feed just you know,
that's crazy, just you know, it's so, how does this
make you feel?
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Yeah, it blows my mind to post a story of
me playing in the snow with my son in the backyard,
and then in the little thing of who saw your story?
It's like Jack Black and Jason Momoa and Lenny Kravitz.
You know that's insane. You know, when we were on
that viral tour coming down the coast, I would hand
(19:48):
the phone to Sean and be like, will you reply
to Johnny Knoxville for me tell them where the show is.
And we had only had that stuff start to happen
to us for a few days. So where fourteen hour
drives in my minivan going oh, Bruto commented. I would
also say that on the other side of the coin,
(20:10):
being the age I am and having certain wisdoms and
realizations is like I think it's a part of like
a path as an artist is reaching a point where
you can say, I'm one of these guys and I'm
not as famous as them or whatever, but as an artist,
I am in the conversation they like, these guys are
(20:32):
on this other level. But if I think, if you
work hard enough, I'm standing on the shoulders of giants,
Like I don't strive to be famous. I strive to
be as good of a songwriter as the Beatles and
all these guys that I that I would fucking worship,
you know, but at some point you have to be
like you put your song next to their songs and
(20:53):
you go, there's still a lot of room for work,
But I am getting there. These are like kind of classic.
It blows my mind, but also you kind of think
it's cool because I feel like I belong that much more.
Robert Delio from Stone Tuple Pilots, who's been a friend
(21:14):
the last couple of years, and like he's such a
down to earth guy. He really helped with that because
I talked to him and he's like, you know, the
same thing happened to me, and at some point I
was like, whoa, But you know, I'm just a guy
who was writing songs too, and it just helps me
think like, okay, cool, because I don't really like fan
(21:36):
out when I see somebody like, oh ha, let me
get your autograph. I can't believe I'm meeting Blake, but
I do get a little nervous, like to play guitar
in front of Troy or something. There is a section
of it wearing off, like Anderson, I'm such a fan
of his that it almost cancels out your own cool
(21:57):
because now I'm so comfortable around I'm just being myself
and we're almost like a similar type of person. But
the first time I met him, I was still kind
of like nervous to talk or something I would say
nervous to talk, but just a little bit like there
is a little bit of a wow factor when you're
talking to people. You have to overcome that and be like,
(22:19):
we're all we're all artists and weirdos here. Yeah, that's
the day it comes and goes.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
You're the best.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
Would you accept a viral high five or fist bump,
because there you go, amazing Jeremy, Thank you for being
on my friend. Congratulations and it's only just beginning, my friend.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends
and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking
a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
and wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Taking a Walk is made possible by the support of
our great sponsors, and we thanked them, including Chase Sapphire Reserve.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
My gateway to.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
The world's most captivating destinations is from Chase Sapphire Reserve,
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slash Buzz and Lexus Experience Amazing at your Lexus dealer
now
Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I wouldn't say I learned to play drums and guitar
at the same time, but I just had. I'm just
a drummer that happened to pick up guitar, that happens
to be insane enough to think it was a good idea, you.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Know, on Buzz Night and welcome back to the Taking
a Walk Podcast. We love to talk with musicians and
just see where this conversation takes us. Now, today we've
got one that is pretty wild. It's a one man
musical phenomenon. He plays guitars, drums, sings simultaneously or while
(00:35):
wearing an open robe.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
You're not gonna believe him. You're gonna love him.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
We're gonna talk next to Jeremy Debarti, better known as
steal Beans.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Taking a Walk.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Well, Jeremy Debarti, steal Beans, welcome my friend to the
Taking a Walk Podcast. It's an honor having you, honor.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
This is fantastic.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
So since we call this little podcast Taking a Walk,
you're not going to escape our signature question here, which
is befuddled people from time to time and made them
smile from time to time. The question is, Jeremy, if
you could take a walk with somebody living or dead,
(01:23):
and no wise remarks about hey, dead people are not
fun to walk with.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
I'm kidding who I walk with it dead every night
when I write music.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
There you go, well, who would you take a walk with,
living or dead? And where would you take that walk
with him?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I'd say living. I'd walk with Steve Wynwood through like
an English countryside, just talk about songs and spirituality. I
think dead. It definitely the either Jappa or John Lennon,
and maybe walking through I don't know. I don't know
if you could walk with those guys anywhere anywhere good
(02:02):
wherever they choose. I don't know what to show those guys,
you know.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Yeah, anywhere would be good. Wow, Steve Winwood, Well what
a great pick. What a guy that the legacy is
so incredible. Is there a favorite period of music of
Steve Winwood's that you can highlight?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
You know what changed my life was hearing Traffic and
preem It's like where I found my voice, and so
Jack and Steve really like It's where I learned to
project and finally sing without hurting my voice. I would
say the Traffic era but I also love Spencer Davis group.
(02:44):
I love Blind Faith, and he's one of those guys
that transitioned into the production of the eighties, but the
songs were still good. I was just talking to this
about the younger guys of the band that Arc of
a Diver is fantastic, and I just hear songs I
don't hear like you know, a lot of songwriters got
into the eighties era and the production like kinda like, uh,
(03:07):
does the snare have to sound like that?
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Man?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I love Steve. He's one of the best songwriters ever
for sure.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Oh that is so that is so special. So you
have set the world on fire.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Lad You've recently inked a record deal with Anderson Pack
on Ape Shit Records, and there's just been so much
amazing things happening. You know, I was thinking about this.
The art of branding and differentiation is so critical. Who
(03:46):
taught you this insightful way to just be unlike anybody else?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Well that you know it would be me with the
help of the small village. It takes to raise some
There's some people that have been major inspirations at making
me like all inhibitions of my imagination, like my parents,
split when I was two, and so the inner voice
(04:15):
and the artistic voice and the inner child, those things
never went away, and so I was fortunate enough to
make the strengths of all those weaknesses and turn it
into like I'm still a child, but I'm like aging
like wine, because now I'm just refining the same thing
I've been working on for thirty five years. Like in
(04:40):
high school, I was a good drummer, but I didn't
know how to write songs really, you know. Eighth grade,
I started trying to write solids, like this is really hard.
All these lyrics sound lame, and I listened to like
Pink Floyd Overhead the Albatross he motionless upon me. I'm like,
(05:00):
I'm not going to write anything that good. I should
just give up. And then I heard like a couple
of Zappa songs, and melodically they were so good, but
they were just not taking themselves seriously, and I was like,
all right, I can make some stuff with silly And
then from then on out it was just open. I
could write about whatever, I could make a love song,
I could make a silly song. And then I'm naturally
(05:24):
like really hyper and spastic. Seeing guys like Iggy and
the Stooges performances or ODP or any of these people
that their stage presence is so just open. That made
me feel okay being myself and not like trying to
stand still or calm my energy or anything. You know,
(05:44):
I'm sorry for the long answer.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Never apologize for any answer, short or long.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
First of all, we are open to it all.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
That's why I'm honored and loved doing this every day,
every moment, and so no apology necessary. So let's go
back to the beginning of something here. So you learned
to play drums and guitar at the same time because
your bandmates were late to rehearsal. Can you tell us
that story.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Yeah, I can say it was never intentional to learn necessarily.
But you know, I'd go over to my grandparents' house
here and there, and I was always banging on pots
and pans, and so they put a little drum set
in front of me and I started banging on that,
and my grandpa he'd just strum a couple of chords,
keep it simple for me, and I'd go gee. And
(06:40):
so that was the beginning there. It's just, you know,
I never had any lessons. I just slammed the drums,
and I listened to all the stuff that I grew
up as a young boy. There Nirvana, soundgarden Stone, Tuble Pilots,
and Alison Shanes. And I got into guitar around middle school,
and by that time I was a pretty good drummer,
(07:02):
but not a good guitar player. So for me, I
never really learned to play guitar as much as I
learned a few chords, some simple leads and songwriting, and
guitar was like the hand in hand thing for me.
Fast forward to about two thousand, I'm doing like rock
and roll house shows with the only other guys I
could find in my town that played and started steel
(07:25):
beans in around two thousand and five, playing my songs,
getting my friends in and twenty ten they were just
they were late, these are my friends and they were
getting hammered and not showing up and stuff. I sat
down at the drum set like texting them like yo,
where the folk are you? And I had my guitar
around my neck and I just picked up a stick,
(07:46):
set the phone down. I just went started strumming and
I went, oh, I guess that's the thing I could do.
It was years later before I ever did it, cause,
you know, I like to tell people that I never
wanted the band to be about me. That's why I
gave it a band name. I didn't even tell people
I wrote all the songs and did all the back work,
(08:09):
as I just wanted it to be about the songs. Well, whoops,
the solo show now has kind of taken off, and
now I'm I'm drawing t shirts of my face on them.
But that's okay. But yeah, it's it's so I didn't
really learn it. I think if it was anything that
I ever worked to learn, if there was a book
how to play drums and guitar, I would have never
read that. I've never read an instruction manual in my
(08:29):
life past, like the introductory. So it's just by path
of leads, resistance and inspiration that it happened. But it's
been a lot of fun doing it. I enjoyed doing it.
It's it's so bizarre because in the live show, I
can just really it's a stream of consciousness to just
(08:52):
do whatever. I'll stop in the middle of the song
and like have a salad delivered to my rack Tom,
and then I'll just start eating it and asking the audio,
it's like how they're doing it's pretty obnoxious to say
the least. Oh, it's amazing, but yeah, so I wouldn't
(09:14):
say I learned to play drums and guitar at the
same time, but it just had I'm just a drummer
that happened to pick up guitar that happens to be
insane enough to think it was a good idea. You know.
In twenty ten, a couple of months after I discovered
that our drummer was snowed in in eastern Washington and
(09:36):
the high Desert at a job site, and I looked
at the bass player at the time, I was like, no,
fucking let's do it. And so I showed up and
I did that, and that's the first show I did
like that. It wasn't as good as what it's become now,
but there was three years later before I really did
like a show like that by myself.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Now, I do have to tell our audience since this
has taken a walk, were literally somewhere in your neighborhood
taking a walk, and you're one of the few people
who have done that in a while.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
I absolutely love it. Where are you taking a walk?
Speaker 2 (10:11):
I'm going to try to sit down for you. But
I'm actually here in Hollywood, in LA. I'm actually I'm
aware I recorded this album that we just put out,
but I'm excited for that because that been stuck in
my house for the last year and a half. So
any time I can leave my house, grocery store, you know,
(10:33):
the walk in clinic, any of those things are better
than being stuck at all.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Yeah, you got that right.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
You brought, you bought your instruments when you had three
hundred dollars to your name. That's that's a bit of
a commitment. What made you think this is what the
heck I'm going to be doing.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
What really happened is I had a concert that I
went to in Denver in my minivan. They booked a
tour down the coast with three hundred dollars to my name,
which was just largely ambitious and reckless, but a tour
(11:12):
down the coast three hundred dollars to my name. My
friend Sean, who's the basis in the band, is gonna
come with us. I had a video randomly go viral
a week before this tour down the coast that probably
nobody was going to go to, and I would have
got like halfway down through that and ran out of money,
and it would have been a nightmare. So it was
(11:33):
really this miracle that, you know, three hundred dollars is
hardly enough money to get to Oregon, let alone California,
and these venues that took a chance on me were
now calling me and saying, we're getting calls off the
hook asking if you're really playing here. I was like, wow, okay,
(11:54):
but no. Most of my instruments I've ever had were all,
like you know, mostly from pawn shops and stuff like
if it looked cool, I get it. I had some
amps that were forty dollars and I use those on
stage for years. Tour changed my life, and it's I
think that the decision to just do that and take
(12:17):
that risk is what pushed it over in the universe.
Was like, all right, here you go kind of But
to have that happen when you're thirty five and doing
music for twenty years. The thing is, before I had
gone viral with that video, which launched me in a
way I'd never seen, I had my son was already
(12:40):
six years old. I had been running a lawn care
company I started right before he was born, and I
kind of was artistically and spiritually developed and content with
where I was. I was like Almo Lons for the
rest of my life and just write songs. Like I've
never really chased my career any of that stuff that much.
(13:01):
I just love writing songs. But it was all a
big bonus to be like, wow, okay, we'll be right back,
and thank god it can walk twenty one that that
would happen, because that'd be terrible.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
You know, welcome ready.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
I've been ready for I wouldn't have had the discipline
to not crash a car or overgost. There are all
those fun things you do in your twenties when things
go well.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
You know, you mentioned spirituality when you talked about Steve
Winwood and you just mentioned it. Can you, you know,
share a little bit more on your view of the world,
and I know you have incredible gratitude for the position
that you're in right now in terms of what's happening
with your life and your career.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
You know, I I'm letting it slip a bit. I
try not to mention it. I don't want to get
in like I'm careful where I say it or something.
But I'm not like a part of any real religion
in particular. But I am a big believer and a
very blessed person, and I'm just kind of one of
those guys. I'm making it up as I go along.
(14:09):
I'm listening for the cues and I'm seeing signs, and
sometimes they're subtle, sometimes they're like directly in my face.
And I always tell people that, like, you know, I
had different experiences throughout my life, some actually within the
last year, but a lot of them when I was little,
where like I saw things fly across the room and stuff,
(14:32):
and you can't turn back from that and be like, well, no,
that was just in my hair. It wasn't. But I
you know, I was kind of a believer in something
going on before I ever saw anything fly across the room.
That just kind of made it where I was like, okay, fine.
But to me, I look at music as my religion,
(14:54):
and at this point, I think of the guitar or
any instrument as this tool that is it's not unlike
a Ouiji board or something. You know, like you're not
writing a song, you're just sharpening your relationship with an
instrument that becomes the filter for ideas that are coming
from somewhere, and it's really not about being a good player.
(15:17):
It's about being a good listener and filtering those ideas
through something and you just happen to be some conduit
for it. That's the nut job world I live, and
that's my I believe it though. You know, it's like
it's too good to be true. You know, we're not
responsible for anything. We're just having things happen. And how
(15:41):
fluent you are on your guitar or your race car,
whatever it is that you take pride in that you're
good at every day, there is something cooler going on
than just you. You know, I don't know. That's what
I think.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
That's very well put and makes the appreciation for thing
that we stare in at in this universe a deeper appreciation.
Congrats on the new album and you got some select
run of West Coast dates. It's got to be so exciting.
Your experience with Anderson Pack is incredible and he's part
(16:17):
of the collaborations as well, along with some other folks
Troy from Queens of the Stone Age. So it's really
it's a monster situation that is happening for you and
it's so outstanding. Tell me about how you look forward
to the live performances coming up.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
I'll preface this by saying I've always done the band,
and then I started doing the solo thing. I would
do a couple solo shows in taverns in the middle
of nowhere while I still had the band going. And
now I've done the solo thing for the last couple
of years, and I love it and I'm not about
to jump shit. It's what I'm known for. But the
(16:58):
last year, what I've moved towards is we did a
couple shows back home where I do thirty minutes of
the solo show and then I have Sean come up
on bass and West come up on drums, and the
second half of the show is the band and I
get to dance around and do what I do normally.
(17:19):
Now I tell the guys this is like Dylan goes electric,
but instead it's like the guy. Instead of oh he
sold out, he went solo, I'm doing the reverse. I'm
cognizant that people will be like, oh, what is he
just doing a band because I still haven't seen his solo.
Maybe I'm overthinking it, but that's the format for these shows,
(17:42):
and frankly, it's a relief because I just love to
be dancing around the whole time I'm playing. And I've
never written a song to be played for the solo thing.
I just sit down and play it and then if
it works, it works. These songs on the album are
not like, they're not humanly possible, able to play without
multiple guys, you know. And so far the shows have
(18:06):
been great. It's a little tough in this day and
age to cut through the noise of marketing and promotion
the way that socials are and we haven't been out
in a while, so these aren't like, these aren't blowout shows,
but they're These audiences have been They've been good size
in these rooms, and the audiences respond very well. Shows
(18:27):
are going great. I've really enjoyed it. The energy is fun.
The audiences are a little different in California because there's
a little more of an entertainment industry here and people
are like housebroken on shows where back like you play
a show in Seattle, it's not like the music scene
it once was. People are kind of like everyone's talking
(18:48):
to each other and they're not paying attention. These shows
have been like hyper focused, locked in and pin drop
silence when I go to say something, and I told
him like, this is crazy, like I'm not used to
doing a joke or are rambling a little, and it's
that good of they're really listening. That means the world
to go somewhere, and now people do that.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
Well.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
In closing, I was noting that I just saw adding
on to folks that discover you and have become fans.
I saw Lenny Kravitz like in your feed just you know,
that's crazy, just you know, it's so, how does this
make you feel?
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Yeah, it blows my mind to post a story of
me playing in the snow with my son in the backyard,
and then in the little thing of who saw your story?
It's like Jack Black and Jason Momoa and Lenny Kravitz.
You know that's insane. You know, when we were on
that viral tour coming down the coast, I would hand
(19:48):
the phone to Sean and be like, will you reply
to Johnny Knoxville for me tell them where the show is.
And we had only had that stuff start to happen
to us for a few days. So where fourteen hour
drives in my minivan going oh, Bruto commented. I would
also say that on the other side of the coin,
(20:10):
being the age I am and having certain wisdoms and
realizations is like I think it's a part of like
a path as an artist is reaching a point where
you can say, I'm one of these guys and I'm
not as famous as them or whatever, but as an artist,
I am in the conversation they like, these guys are
(20:32):
on this other level. But if I think, if you
work hard enough, I'm standing on the shoulders of giants,
Like I don't strive to be famous. I strive to
be as good of a songwriter as the Beatles and
all these guys that I that I would fucking worship,
you know, but at some point you have to be
like you put your song next to their songs and
(20:53):
you go, there's still a lot of room for work,
But I am getting there. These are like kind of classic.
It blows my mind, but also you kind of think
it's cool because I feel like I belong that much more.
Robert Delio from Stone Tuple Pilots, who's been a friend
(21:14):
the last couple of years, and like he's such a
down to earth guy. He really helped with that because
I talked to him and he's like, you know, the
same thing happened to me, and at some point I
was like, whoa, But you know, I'm just a guy
who was writing songs too, and it just helps me
think like, okay, cool, because I don't really like fan
(21:36):
out when I see somebody like, oh ha, let me
get your autograph. I can't believe I'm meeting Blake, but
I do get a little nervous, like to play guitar
in front of Troy or something. There is a section
of it wearing off, like Anderson, I'm such a fan
of his that it almost cancels out your own cool
(21:57):
because now I'm so comfortable around I'm just being myself
and we're almost like a similar type of person. But
the first time I met him, I was still kind
of like nervous to talk or something I would say
nervous to talk, but just a little bit like there
is a little bit of a wow factor when you're
talking to people. You have to overcome that and be like,
(22:19):
we're all we're all artists and weirdos here. Yeah, that's
the day it comes and goes.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
You're the best.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
Would you accept a viral high five or fist bump,
because there you go, amazing Jeremy, Thank you for being
on my friend. Congratulations and it's only just beginning, my friend.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends
and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking
a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
and wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Taking a Walk is made possible by the support of
our great sponsors, and we thanked them, including Chase Sapphire Reserve.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
My gateway to.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
The world's most captivating destinations is from Chase Sapphire Reserve,
Claude Ai. Try claud for free at Claude dot Ai,
slash Buzz and Lexus Experience Amazing at your Lexus dealer
now
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