TSO's Joel Hoekstra chats with Renee DiNino!

The Trans Siberian Orchestra is coming!!!! Joel Hoekstra takes time to chat with iHeartCommunities Renee DiNino about this years show at Mohegan Sun on Sunday November 26th for two shows 3pm and 8pm! See ticket information below and don't miss out on the $39 ticket sale! Joel and Renee also reveal the Connecticut charity of choice for the CT shows: The Hometown Foundation!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, it's Joel Hokstra. Hey, Joel, it's Renee Denio. How
are you? Renee? You're likethe number one fan? How bad can
I be when I get to tartYou know what, I will take that,
because yes, I am the numberone fan since day one. In
fact, since you've been coming toConnecticut, I've had the honor and privilege
of introducing every single show with acharitable angle. It's always great when TSO

(00:22):
comes to town. Well, thankyou so much. I mean, we
love you, guys, always feelthe love when we visit. SO.
Looking very much forward to being backout this year and can't wait to get
there. All right, Joel,So, you've been on our program a
million times to talk all about TransSiberian Orchestra, about the event of what
we're going to see on stage.Now we know that you're coming Sunday,

(00:43):
November twenty six, Mohegan send twoshows three pm and eight pm. I
have to ask, because this isalways my favorite question and it's always the
same answer. Is it even biggerand better than ever before? I mean,
that's always been Polonio's philosophy from thebeginning, and the truth beat old
as the musicians we don't know.I mean, we're not in the know

(01:03):
in terms of what the stage lookslike until we get to rehearsals and we
see them assembling it. That's usuallywhen we get really excited and you know,
revved up about like, oh,you mean I'm going to be like
at the ceiling of the arena withPyro going off on each side of me,
and like, I mean, soyou know, but yeah, listen,
I guess I can guarantee anything itwill be that because that was always

(01:25):
Paul O'Neal's thing, and everybody reallywants to respect his vision for this and
the tradition of TSO SO production wise, get ready to have your jaw on
the floor. Oh it never disappointsthe ghosts of Christmas Eve, the best
of TSO and more coming to Connecticutnow on tour. When we announced TSO
here in Connecticut, it is likethe holidays are on. You know what,

(01:46):
put up the reeds, let's go. It is the best way to
kick off the holiday season. Now, you have talked to me in the
past, and I am a bitof an animal person? Did I in
fact here an animal? Did Ihear dog? I am a cat person?
Or did I hear a cat.I thought I heard annoys. Yeah,
yeah, two cats, So youknow they're I called them the inmates

(02:07):
around here. Yeah yeah, sothe inmates maybe got a little restless,
all right, I thought I heardsomething. Well, we like that.
Now listen, I'm gonna unveil withyou for the first time on the Trans
Siberian Orchestra tour for Connecticut. Anyways, the charity of choice, which Paul
O'Neill gave me the distinction every year, and now it has been transferred over
to management, but I get topick the charity, and so this year

(02:30):
we're going to do the Hometown Foundation, and I think you're gonna like this,
Joel. They help not only allof our military and veterans. They've
a huge pillar into the military,veterans and law enforcement community. They help
special Olympics not only here in Connecticutbut around the world. And they have
a huge animal advocacy platform dogs andcats. So just so your clear cats

(02:51):
are involved in that stay. Thisorganization has been around Connecticut for many,
many years now, very respected andso apportion the proceeds from your ticket sale.
As you know, we'll benefit theHometown Foundation this year. So I
wanted to let you know that.Yeah, I mean again, you know
you knew Paul and the probably themost generous person you'd ever meet. And
the fact that you know, adollar from every ticket Soill goes to a

(03:12):
local charity, something that we're veryvery proud of. It very much in
line with the Christmas spirit. Ithink we've now over the years got eighteen
million dollars to local charities through doingthis, which is just you know,
it's it's a feather in our capfor sure. Now, tickets will go
on sale here in Connecticut Friday,September fifteenth at ten am. You can
go to ticketmaster dot com. Wecan put all the links live up everywhere.

(03:35):
But you're offering a specially priced ticketfor one week, well supplies last.
Can you talk a little bit aboutthat, you know, I this
was not in front of me,but I've heard that there's a special ticket
price of thirty nine dollars. Isthat what you have in front of you?
Yeah, that's what I haven't read, so thirty nine dollars. And
you know what I'll do, Jill, I'll save you from this. I'm
gonna let everyone know because now thatI've opened that can people are going to

(03:58):
want to know about that. I'llput all the information up online at the
riverwet five nine dot com and mycommunity Access dot com. I'll put links
up to the Hometown Foundation of courseall the videos of Tso let's get back
to some of the music and someof the things on tour. What's it
like embarking on this tour? Thatreally just it takes you to the end
of the year, right, Soyou're coming back to Connecticut again and you're

(04:19):
getting in shape and you're getting readyfor this incredible performance that must take a
lot out of you, right yeah. I mean I refer to it as
the Marines of Rock, where wedo our h shows of weeks, and
so you know, when I goout with White Snake, I feel like
I'm on a clubbed vacation. WhenI'm doing three four shows a week,
I go, gosh, there arewe not doing two shows today? That's
it. It's one. So,I mean, it's definitely a labor love.

(04:42):
It's something that we're very proud of. We worked very hard with Singular
Vision and given everybody the best possibleshow, and that's the coolest thing.
Everybody there knows. It's not aboutthem. It's about Trent Siberian Orchestra,
and it's about the fans, andwe have a special relationship with our fans.
I mean, as big as we'vegotten having you know, I guess
played the eighteen million people now sincewe started touring, and seven hundred and

(05:04):
fifty million audio video streams and soldover twelve million CDs, it still somehow
feels like we're like a local bandwhere we have this like first we're on
a first name basis with a lotof the fan bases. It's like,
I can't really describe the way itworks, just a touchback. I'm gonna
rewind because thirty nine bucks, I'mbuying a ticket to see myself at thirty

(05:27):
nine bucks. I mean I thinkI'm getting a ticket. I think I'm
made, Like just see if Ican sit down and play my guitar like
seated and like just check out theshow myself while I play it. Because
that is fully incredible. Man,I can't believe the generosity of the O'Neill
family is magnificent. That's you know, so that Paul O'Neill resisting that whole
Ticketmaster Gold Circle thing where tickets weregoing to be you know, twenty five

(05:51):
grand to sit in the front row, and I mean, just it's amazing
how they've been able to keep itso that the diehards are upfront and we're
just I'm just so grateful to bea part of something like TSO, and
not just the generosity aspect of it, but just the tradition of getting to

(06:11):
spend my holidays with my friends playingmusic that I love, and spend a
time with the fan base and seeingeverybody and making everybody happy. And it's
almost like for a performer in thisChristmas really gets to last about two months,
which is it's an incredible feeling.I know we don't have a lot
of time with you, but Iwant to talk a little bit about the
music and about the choices. Imean, when you first hear about Trans

(06:32):
Siberian Orchestra, if you've never gone, you can't even possibly imagine. But
once you go, it is anaddiction because it transcends the quote unquote holiday
music, It transcends ages and demographics. It is it is something really for
everyone. And I love the factthat you do have to do two shows.
It's almost that it was warranted todo two shows in most of the

(06:56):
cities that you play in because onejust wasn't enough, and it gives an
opportunity for people of all ages togo, like here in Connecticut, you're
going to do one at three,You're going to do one at eight,
And just to give people a littlebit of you know, a reality check
on it, it's literally forty sixdays that you're going out on tour.
But in those forty six days you'revisiting sixty two cities and doing one hundred
and four concerts. That's ridiculous.That's ridiculous. Yeah, I mean I

(07:21):
think, well a lot of thatis out of necessity. I mean,
nobody's going to go see a Christmasshow on July Well okay, right,
yes, yes, but you know, yeah, we have a lot of
people that go to boll shows thatone isn't enough form and they want to
see both. But also, youknow, it just speaks to how well
it actually does sell commercially and howmuch people do want to be there.

(07:42):
And yeah, you know, italways feels incredibly cliche when I say it's
a show with something for everyone,and people will go yeah, yea yeah,
right, But I'm like, yeah, but look at if you look
at the production alone, you gotthe video screen width of the arena.
You got a pink Floyd laser lightshow going on. It's knowing indoors,
you've got Pyro going off all overthe place. The performers are out on

(08:05):
hydraulic lift side over the crowd inthe back of the arena. So kids
are just like they're happy just lookingat it. They're just like, hey,
wow, this is like the coolestthing I've ever seen. And then
you get the story on the fronthalf. So a lot of our older
audience really enjoys that. They feellike they're getting something. You know.
I guess that puts them in theholiday spirit. But truly, I look

(08:30):
on on a regular basis and seefamily's three generation seep out there. You've
got the grandparents, the parents,and the grandkids, and everybody's going to
smile on their face. It's likeit's not a hostage situation or no kids
that's talking at the parents, pleasego on? Is it almost over?
Why don't we leave it? Youknow? You see, like everybody's actually
happy. So it's like, youknow, Paul was just this mad scientist

(08:50):
that had this ability to see thatthis was gonna work like this on such
a level and I'm just incredibly fortunateto be a part of it that and
very grateful for it. Well,I will also say, Joel, he
did have a vision with the musiciansthat he chose and handpicked, and many
of you are are seasoned veterans andpros from from really the rock arena,

(09:13):
heavy metal arena, you know,not traditional. When you hear the word
orchestra, right, so there's sucha medley of musicians and a known a
lot of times with the different townsyou go, do you choose a local
orchestra or or strings to come upon stage with you as well? So,
I mean this is something like yousaid, it is. It really
is for all ages. But Imean someone of your background, White Snake
and I know Share and other groupsthat we've we followed you in the level

(09:37):
of musicianship on this stage. Imean the timing, the sound, and
the fact that you're flying in theair and there's fire shooting off next to
you. But the fact that it'ssuch an I have some musical ability and
not even in the realm of whatyou will have, but just to hear
that, I love the tightness andthe sound. It's it's truly something in

(10:01):
awe when you when you watch itdone on stage, well, thank you
so much. I mean, welook, that's that's what we want to
hear. I mean, we workincredibly hard to give everybody the best possible
show they can get. Our musicdirectors do an amazing job of getting us
ready, getting us to you know, the music that we're going to need
to know for rehearsals, which isusually a bit more than you guys actually

(10:22):
hear in the set. Our songlist usually is a little bit deeper because
they like to take a look atsome things and test it out with the
production before we decide on the actualset list during rehearsals. So it's not
like we come in knowing the actualset running order. There's usually a bit
more that we run. But ourgoal is, like I said, there's
a lot of talent up there,but everybody knows with Tso there's an understanding

(10:45):
that when you walk in the doorthat it's about Trans Siberian Orchestra, and
it's not like I'm walking in goingyou know, g I can't wait to
show everybody when I'm all about thisyear. It's like our our singular vision
is to give everybody the best possibleshow they can that we can and you
know, especially nowadays, you know, we know people are spending their hard
earned money to come out and seeus, and man, we want to

(11:05):
we want to blow you away.Well, we appreciate you. The Hometown
Foundation will be supported by this year'sTrans Siberian Orchestra concert that will take place
at Mohegan's Sun Sunday, November twentysix, two shows three and eight.
I'll be out there for both,so will the charity. I'll have all
the links up to getting tickets.Tickets officially on sale this Friday while supplies
last a special price of thirty nine, so I'll have everything that anyone needs.

(11:28):
If you're a TSO fan up therefor you. I will close with
this, Joel, because I ama rocker at heart, and I feel
like you can never cut your hair, dude, Like you could never cut
your hair, because like the dayyou stop flipping your hair and playing your
guitar, I've never seen anyone sohappy to play guitar in my life like
you. I feel like you cannotplay the guitar without smiling. You are,

(11:48):
like the joy that comes from youwhen you play is so contagious.
But you could never cut your hair. Deal. I mean, it's been
good to me. I don't feea situation and where I'm gonna in which
I'm gonna cut it. No,I mean it definitely has been good good
to me. It's funny. Ihad a section of my career where it

(12:09):
did get cut, you know,kind of everybody cut it a bit in
the nineties, and then I wentfull on short hair for a bit and
then you know, my career takingoff kind of coincided with that hair growing
back out. I think I'm keepingit just off a good luck. He's
like, hey, if it ain'tbroke, don't don't don't fix it,
as they say, right, ifit ain't broke, just flip it.

(12:30):
If it ain't broke, flip itright, flip that hat. But no,
you are truly and I know Iknow I have to wrap now.
So what I'm going to do toois also thank you because during during the
pandemic, and I know we've beenback trying to you know, everything,
but he's getting back to nor againwhatever. But you took it upon yourself
to do guitar lessons and you reallyshared some more interactive experiences with your fans.
So I know a lot of peoplemet you on different levels, so

(12:52):
I'm sure we're going to see evenmore new fans of TSO just because of
that relatability and the fact that youalways reach out. You're one of those
rock stars that is so approachable andyou reach out to your fans and appreciate
them so much. So you know, thank you, thank you for doing
that. And you're such a fantasticguitarist on your own, So thank you
so much for chatting with me today. I appreciate you. Oh what am
I supposed to say? That keepsup on that level? How do I

(13:15):
reply to that? And thank youalway? Thank you, thank you,
thank you so much. I meanwhat am I? Thank you for your
support, thank you for getting theword out, and that's all. It's
incredibly nice of you to say,so, thank you so much, really
all right, Joel Hookstra Trans SiberianOrchestra. It's official holiday season is underway
with the River one oh five ninethe Trans Siberian Orchestra. I can't wait

(13:37):
to see you this November, Jel. I hope you have a great day
to day you too. Thank youfor taking the time out and getting the
word out. Can't wait to seeeverybody throw up your rock fist. You
got it by Joel By