Musician Galo Pacheco Interview

Executive Director Kirk Detwiler and musician Galo Pacheco spoke with Eric Mosley about the upcoming All 4 One concert at the Palace where Galo will be the opening act.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Joining me right now is Kirk Dettweilerfrom the Marrion Palace Theater, the executive
director, and Kirk has come into talk about big show that's coming up
on Friday. Yes, and it'ssomething I'm personally looking forward to because it's
right in my era of music andwhen I grew up. So talk a
little bit about that. Well thatthat's why we booked All for One,

(00:22):
because we are you know, we'retrying to go to give you know,
kind of expand our demographics, youknow, expand our music choices. So
you know, we booked All forOne, which who was great. I
won't call them a boy band,but they were, you know, like
boys to men in sync. Theywere one of the boy bands of the
nineties and early two thousands and andthey've they've won Grammys and they got a

(00:46):
name and so yeah, we're tryingto pull those you know, post baby
boomers into the Palace, the genxers, so x y Z all of
them. All the letters can come. Yeah, the the gen alphabet will
just say that there we go.But today you brought in someone that that
you know very well, who's goingto open for Off for One tomorrow.

(01:07):
It is actually, this guy I'mabout to introduce, he actually was my
connection to off for one and let'sintroduce him now. His name is what
is your name? Gallo Pacheco.He was telling me when he was a
kid, the kids in school calledhim Jellis. Let's put that in radio.
That's perfect love that it's there foreveryone to remember. I mean that

(01:29):
could be a stage name, yeah, like a kid or not or not
yeah or not, or it couldbe a commercial somewhere someday. I mean,
if they're going to pay you,you'll call yourself whatever. Look at
the time, everybody, I gotto go, So Gallop, thank you
for coming in, Thanks for havingme, and just tell us a little
bit. First of all, letus get to know you, uh,
your background, where you started,how you started. You kind of talked

(01:52):
to me a little bit about itoff air. It's very interesting, but
let everybody know. Yeah, well, god, I've been into music ever
since I was a little kid.My mom and dad bought me a drum
set when I was four because theynoticed they had a lot of rhythm and
it was just one of those thingsthat was just shot in the dark.
Ya. It looks like it wasrhythm let's get them a little toy drum
set. And I took to itlike water, you know, and it
was. It was a lot offun for me as a kid. But

(02:15):
we struggled as a family growing up, and so I asked a lot of
questions and I found out in ashort period design that my parents were all
about me getting a good education andsurviving out there. And the way that
I was taught to do it isled a job, work really hard to
climb up the corporate ladder, besuccessful, and then you could always do
music on the side. So Ialways put music on the back burner and
just kept it as a hobby formany many years. Fast forward to later

(02:38):
on in life, where I forfun I would sing karaoke around town,
met a few people. They connectedme to somebody that was doing an audition
for a cruise line, and justfor fun, I decided to show up
and I wanted to know what thatwas all about, never taking it seriously.
As a matter of fact, Ididn't tell you this, Kirk.
I turned down the job the firsttime because I didn't think. I didn't

(03:00):
think I was going to take I'mgoing to actually get hired or be offered
a position, so I auditioned fora cruise line called Rural Caribbean and ended
up landing the spot, took offfor about seven months and did a cruise
ship stint where I met Kirk andYEP, had a blast performing on stage.
And eventually, once that contract wasdone, I went back to Corporate

(03:21):
America, suit and tie, wentback to my regular living and would just
bop around town every once in awhile and do karaoke nights or play guitar
at home with some friends and thatwas it. That was about it.
That was twenty one years ago.Yeah, it was the adventure of the
seas. You were in the takeoutcast, right, But it came it
came out to November December two thousandand one that the claim to fame of

(03:43):
that ship was it. I'm goingon to Tangent here. It was the
first ship allowed back in New YorkHarbor after nine to eleven. Yeah,
oh wow, Yeah, that wassome experience. I remember when that ship
actually did the Atlantic crossing. Weended up in New York. Remember being
on that top deck and just thatfeeling of overwhelming feeling of seeing where the
twin towers were that I'll never forgetthat it was probably still smoking too.

(04:03):
Yeah, it was. Yeah,it was everything that the feeling that the
despair attached to that experience, thateven the smell. I remember that and
we'll remember it for the rest ofmy life. It was pretty intense time.
But I remember that was the dayI was supposed to join the ship.
That day and I was saying withmy sister's on Long Island, and
it was a day that there wasa plane crash in the right off right

(04:28):
off New York, right off LongIsland. A plane crashed and they didn't
know what it was, so theymade the ship take off, So I
didn't join until you got to Miami. Anyway. That was a tangent.
Yeah, that's okay. We wecan talk about anything. But it's interesting
to me, Gallo that you youstayed in the corporate world like you,
like you say, did the musicon the side, but then you did

(04:50):
reach a point where you decided totake that plunge. Do you remember what
that was? Yeah, exactly howyou decided that, do I remember?
It was a very difficult decision forme to make because there was so much
stress attached to my job that overtime I was hospitalized a couple of times
in your insurance job or what didyou do? It was insurance. Yeah,

(05:13):
I was at the director level atthat point, had a lot of
responsibility and all of all of mymedical issues at the time were stress induced
and it was a wake up callfor me to say, dude, you
have to just pull back. Andwhen I decided to pull back, I
was still thinking how do I makethis work in a corporate environment? What

(05:34):
I I wasn't thinking music at thatpoint. But fast forward to the moment.
To answer your question. Once ortwice a month, I would work
out of my home office and mypersonal home, and I remember vividly in
my office, on each side ofmy desk, on one side, I
had a percussion instrument because I wasa drummer for many years, and on

(05:55):
the right side of my desk,I had an acoustic guitar. In that
day, I was reading through anemail that came through that was very stressful
because we were about to lose amultimillion dollar account, and I remember that
feeling just I was tense. Ididn't want to go through this. I
was at the point where I justwanted to walk away, but I knew
I couldn't. So I finished thatemail and I sat there for a few

(06:18):
seconds and I just naturally just leanedover, didn't even think about it.
I remember grabbing my guitar and Iput it on my lap and I just
started strumming, just like I woulddo around the house, just strumming,
not even thinking about it. AndI went back to the email and I
started reading it from the very topagain, and about halfway through the email,
I stopped. Second time reading itthrough, I didn't feel tense,

(06:42):
and I looked down, and thatwas the AHA moment. I'm going,
wait a second, this is howI connect with life. This is what
makes me feel good, this iswhat makes me feel happy. It resonated
in such a deep way that thatrealization was incredible, but also the scariest
moment because I had been living thewrong life the entire time, going what
have I been doing with my life? You know, from that point it

(07:06):
literally took me two years to pullthe plug because it was the scariest thing
because I knew that shifting the music, I had this paycheck that would come
every week, it was going togo from that to hardly anything coming in.
And so I finally made the change. Everybody in my life, especially
my bosses, thought I was amadman. They said, dude, you're
groomed for a top level position,maybe even CEO of this company. We're

(07:30):
working towards that. What are youthinking. At first, it was more
like he's just joking around. Andthen into the second year, because it
took me two years to make thedecision to pull the plug, they were
giving me a hard time and Ifinally pulled the plug and they were right
because in the first three years ofdoing music, I lost everything that I
owned, the houses, the cars, everything was gone. Was I literally

(07:54):
went into music making no exaggeration,I was making like twenty dollars in free
coffee because the first place that wouldtake me with a coffee house in the
area. But I stuck with itinto my third year. I remember talking
to my brother about it, andbecause at that point I was I started
I started looking at my decision asmaybe maybe I made a mistake, because

(08:18):
I was really struggling and I wentthrough a little bit of a depression.
I had a conversation with my youngerbrother and he said, well, he
goes, look it's three years inyou can go back into insurance, and
it might take you seven, eightnine years to climb back to where he
works. You could do it.You know the business. You can't just
step back into it. It's goingto take some work, but you can
get there. But ask yourself,where will you be in seven years?

(08:41):
How are you going to feel?And I thought about it for a few
days, and he was right.He said, the only difference between somebody
successful and somebody that isn't is somebodythat commits with action but doesn't waiver.
So I decided, you know what, I am going to be a musician
for the rest of my life.Going to think about it. Money shouldn't

(09:01):
be an issue, even if Ihave to downside and I end up living
in a small, little studio apartmentand I'm riding a bike around town.
But I'm getting to do what Ilove to do, that's living. So
I committed. And it wasn't longafter I fully committed. I said,
you know what, this is whyI'm going to be for my rest of
my life, no matter how itcomes together, this is me. It

(09:22):
took me maybe six seven months orso. I started getting some traction and
eventually I built my shows around townto about three hundred shows a year,
no exaggeration. I was doing doubleson Saturdays and Sundays, so I'll work
in almost every day of the year. And I mean, now I'm back
to it. Sounds weird to saythis as a musician, but I own
multiple properties now. It's just it'scrazy because I was doing so much of

(09:45):
what I loved. I got goodat it simply by me just doing what
I loved every day. Eventually youbecome an expert at it because you do
so much of it. When youbecome an expert in other people's eyes,
they'll pay you for it. Itsounds so silly to when people have told
me in the past, this isbefore I made my decision. They used
to say, do what you loveand the money will come. It sounds
so cheesy, but it's absolutely true. Eventually the money comes, so I'm

(10:11):
getting to do I'm living my dreambasically. It's amazing. That is amazing,
and I love hearing those stories.I always like to tell people when
you're doing something that you love,it's not work, and I think we've
all heard that. For me personally, being able to work in radio and
all that, I don't consider thatwork because I'm not out digging ditches,

(10:33):
I'm not out doing something that isreally tough mentally physically. It has its
stresses, but as I'm sure yourcareer in music has stresses, But there
are more days that are just sittingback, going, wow, this is
what I get to do every day. And I imagine when you wake up
like that pretty much every day.Yeah, definitely. I mean, there

(10:54):
are some days that are going tobe stressful, but you see it much
differently because look, I'd rather bestressed doing what I love to do than
stress doing something that I absolutely hate. Right, And the stresses that I'm
referring to is, oh god,I only have two weeks to learn this
new catalog for this private event,and I still don't know my lyrics,
or or you end up having toconnect with somebody that you don't jive with

(11:16):
personally, maybe the sound guy isa real jerk or whatever it is,
and you just so it's just morework to have to deal with that kind
of personality. Whatever. That's justlife stuff. But I'll take those stresses
any day knowing that every day I'mgoing to wake up I get to do
what I love to do, whichis music. I feel blessed to do
it. It's amazing. Tell himabout the pirate job. Oh my goodness,
let's not even go down there.Oh boy, Yeah, sometimes you

(11:39):
have told me. I was like, you don't want to talk about it.
Yeah, he called FaceTime me.We've all had jobs that we've agreed
to do that are are just hitme, hit me. It's not always
what you imagine. But then again, at the end of the day,
I got to do and here's thething about that, and then we'll leave

(12:00):
it alone, because that was adifficult time for me. I was,
for all intents and purposes, theperson that offered me the job lied through
their teeth, and I gave upa lot of work for it. The
money was great, that was aneasy part of it. The whole idea
of me being highlighted as a singerwas great, and that was all true.
But everything else that came along withit was so far from the truth

(12:22):
that I literally when I got thereand I found out what the truth was,
I actually called all my folks backin the only I say that I'm
coming back. Here's a thing,and I'm glad I did this. I
will always look back at this ashaving made the right decision. As soon
as I realized that the gig wasn'twhat I was told it was, I
called and I said, look,I'm going back, and they said,

(12:43):
great, we'll take you back.This was the accounts that I have back
in southern California, where I hadresidencies. They said, but we gave
your gigs to other musicians because yousaid you'd be gone for these four months.
We're gonna have to tell them thatthey no longer have those gigs.
And that's when I stopped. Isaid, wait, I don't want to
do that to somebody else. Andit was a really difficult decision to make,
but in retrospect, it was theright decision because I wasn't gonna I

(13:05):
wasn't gonnaive somebody gigs and then takethem away because they then have to go
scramble to find their own work.And so I powered through. Part of
me hated those four months, butthe other part of me felt like it
was an opportunity to assess who Ireally am as a person, and so
that part of it was great.That's awesome. Yea, so are you

(13:26):
as a person? Jelo pistachio,Jelo pistascha, Ye we are speaking with
Gallo Pacheco, who will be openingfor All for One on Friday night here
at the Palace Theater. Gallo,it sounds like you are extremely busy in
the music business. What are someof the different things other than performing that
you do, either in entertainment orin music. So interestingly enough, this

(13:50):
is something that kind of fell intomy space, not because I was chasing
it, but because I built upso many great relationships with these venues.
I found myself in a position wherethey were offering me more gigs than I
had time for, and I hadanother aha moment. I said, wait
a second, I don't want tojust say hey, I can't do it.
I have other talented musicians that Iknow that I could plug into these

(14:13):
shows. So the first few showsactually started as hey, you know,
hey John Listen, I got suchand such and I send them the business.
But then I got smart and Ithought, wait a second, I
could set myself up as an agent. So I set up a small booking
agency and I ended up at onepoint I had about thirty five different musicians

(14:33):
I was booking. This is priorto COVID happening. Because there was a
lot of work and I ended upforming the small little agency, which I
still have and interestingly, interestingly enough, that's how I booked all for one
right, So I booked them throughmy agency that I own. So that's
within the music space. That's toanswer your question. That's another thing that

(14:54):
I do. I also do somestudio work I've got I've recently stepped into
doing some songwriting. So as amatter of fact, on May seventh,
I'm going to be writing with thekeyboard player for a band called Toto.
His name is Steve Madraw. SoSteve Majory and Steve Majory and I had

(15:16):
written in the past, but whenwe wrote in the past, he wasn't
with Toto. He just joined Toto. Steve Lucather authored him the job I
want to say about a year agoor so. Amazing band. Steve's also
part of another band with Steve Lucather'sson, Trev Lucather, band called The
Effect Killer band rock band. Youguys will hear about this band. They're

(15:37):
pretty amazing and the drummer in thatband is Phil Collins's son Nick Collins,
who covered for Phil during the Genesistour exactly this last time. Yeah,
so I got to hang with thoseguys at their show recently in North Hollywood,
and so I'm excited to write withSteve on the seventh. Still talking
to Mark McGrath about booking some otherstuff, some corporate events that are in

(16:00):
the mix for a potential twenty twentyfour run. And then aside from that,
I also I got smart because assoon as I left Corporate America,
my four to one k disappeared.Right, So I thought to myself,
well, I want to get tothe point when I do retire, I
want to be able to live offof some stream of income. So I
started investing in houses, and Iown multiple homes now. So that's the

(16:22):
other part of what I do iswhen I do have some downtown time,
I manage my own properties. SoI fled to I have places in Texas
and places in Vegas, and soI get to a little bit of that
too and set myself up for retirement. So yeah, and while you're in
Ohio, you can scout places thatyou might be able to buy and do
whatever you wanted to buy. Yeah, there you go, Kirk will be

(16:45):
your first one to take one.Well, I'm a good tenant, and
there you go. I'm really justimpressed by the drive that you have,
and it's it's obvious that you've you'vegotten to the point with a lot of
hard work. But I also wantto make sure everybody knows that you know
you are going to put on agood show tomorrow. What can they expect

(17:07):
when they come to see you openingfor All for One? Well, it's
interesting because it's not even in thesame space, and so normally I would
not set myself up as an openingact unless it was a similar style to
whatever the main act is going tobe performing. The way this is being
pitched, and I'm hoping that Kirkyou went with this because the way I
would have pitched it is this isa teaser for what could come in twenty

(17:30):
twenty four to the theater. SoDon Henley and his catalog of music is
more pop rock Americana in that space, and All for One is more of
the R and B type of thingfrom the nineties, but as a teaser,
and we have an intermission in betweenboth acts, so I think that
also let itself weld to not beingHey, this is kind of teeing up
what's to come, but it's ateaser from the perspective of Don Henley's music.

(17:55):
That catalog of music from the Eaglesand the stuff that he did as
a solo artist made such an impact, not just in the States but worldwide.
I mean, this guy, justjust talking about his solo contribution alone,
he sold over ten million records,ten million albums. I should say.

(18:19):
That's huge. And he's his voice. That's the other thing too about
Don Henley. It's so recognizable.I Mean, I can't imagine anybody that
hasn't at some point in time heardsomething that Don Henley saying and not understood
who that was. His voice isunique, you know. So I'm excited
to bring this to the theater becauseI think, first of all, I

(18:41):
think it really would work well inOhio. Classic rock is a style of
music that a lot of people inthis part of the States really appreciate.
That catalog of music for the Eagleswas tremendous, but also his solo stuff,
his pop rock stuff that he deliveredwas so great. But the way
that I'm actually unfolding this show isnot just a t from the perspective of

(19:02):
a band playing on stage and justdelivering a catalog of music. Part of
it is a sound, but whatI love is that in a theater setting,
I wanted to make sure that thedelivery was from the standpoint of delivering
something that was more production oriented.So there are a lot of old photos
that people have never seen that willbe presenting in this show and throughout I'm

(19:26):
gonna give some information and share somestories that people have never heard about how
these songs came about. And itties into the people that were involved in
Don Henley's life that actually brought thesesongs to life that would have never happened
had these things not lined up.So it's gonna be pretty cool. Wow,
that's you piqued me right at DonHenley. I'm a big Don Henley
and Eagles fan, So that thiscould have been a much shorter interview then,

(19:48):
well, Don Henley, you couldhave said that, but then I
would have asked ten more questions probably, So no, that is great.
I really am excited about know notonly what you're doing, what All for
One is going to do, andobviously you telling us what this catalog is
going to be tomorrow for you,it just sounds extremely interesting. I am

(20:10):
so grateful that you're coming here andjust sharing your talents with us and Marion,
thank you well, I thank youfor Thank you to corktut bither it
for bringing me out here. Youknow you once you buy the house here,
you'll have to come aroun. Yeah, I'll be hanging doing the Henley
stuff in your backyard. There afire pit, you know. By the
way, I do want to saythat the guys from all for one.
First of all, not only arethey tremendous guys, but they're super super

(20:32):
talented. So anybody coming to theshow, and this is not I'm not
saying this just because I'm part ofthis show tomorrow night. I am being
honest when I say that talk aboutgetting a two fer the Hanley catalog is
tremendous, never mind the fact thatI'm getting to do it. Just I'm
excited. If I was a concertgoer, and I was if I saw
this being built at the at MaryPalace Theater, I'd be excited to go

(20:53):
see just the Henley stuff, right, But these people are getting a two
fur from the standpoint of for thesame ticket they're getting to see offer one.
Are you kidding me? Do youknow how many hits that Ben has?
The guys are super great on stage, super talented, singers, great
guys because I know them personally.I am so excited for this. Never
mind what I'm doing, I say, I can't wait to finish my set
to go on. Just sit downand watch these guys do their thing.

(21:14):
It's it's gonna be great. Doyou have a ticket? No? But
I know somebody that might be ableto hook me up. Oh, he
knows Morgan. That's what Kirk.I just I obviously I love it when
you come in and talk about what'sgoing on. So give us an opportunity,
or give you an opportunity to talkabout anything else going on. But
also remind people there's still tickets leftfor this show. Yes, so we

(21:37):
got a lot of tickets left forthe Friday night show November three, Offer
one and Gallo Pacheco with his isit six degrees of Henley's? What do
you call it? Six degrees?Six degrees Don Henley? So that six
degrees of separation is what that's pointingto, because when you when you watch
the show to marg you'll understand asix degrees of a separation really lent itself
well to Henley offering some the greatestmusic that we've we had a chance to

(22:02):
hear in the States. Yeah,so tickets will be available at the door.
So Gallipachicko and all for one.As he said, it's the two
for deal next weekend. Can Ido plug? Absolutely? Actually again,
I'm really excited. I mean,you know, we host the local high
schools. For the local high schools, we'll do their their summer or not

(22:22):
summer or fall or spring musical.Harding High School is doing le Meserabla November
tenth, eleventh, and twelfth.I caught a little bit of rehearsal yesterday.
It's going to be fantastic. Wow, you know, for high school
kids to tackle that piece of art. I mean it's it's a very complicated
show and it's going to be great. And of course we have Christmas at
the Palace Ride around the Corner Decemberone, two and three, Claire Cook's

(22:45):
extravaganza. This year's called Christmas Spectacular. It's hard to believe that it's that
time of year. And I knowa lot of people there in the show.
They started I think tap line startedlast year. Yeah, we started
to Yeah, there we go.Yeah I'm in the tapline. Yeah I
am not. And there's many reasonswhy I'll talk to Christy. Oh no,

(23:07):
no, no, no, nextyear. No. I think I'm
good, but it's it's just abusy time at the Palace. And I
was even looking ahead yesterday at theschedule, just trying to remind myself of
where everything's at for next year.And once we hit January, I mean
that that building is busy almost everyweekend, especially big shows, not just
movies or anything, but artists comingin, plays, musicals. It's going

(23:32):
to be quite a year for thePalace. Yep, it's amazing. Yeah,
and we just started putting together nextseason. Oh boy. Oh yeah,
well we won't announce that until nextApril, but yeah, yeah,
we'll have the big unveiling obviously.Yes, absolutely awesome. Well, Kirk,
debt Wiler, Gallo Pacheko, it'samazing to be able to spend time
with both of you. I enjoyedthis thoroughly. I hope you guys didn't

(23:56):
remember. Everyone still tickets available forthe show on Friday, November three at
the Palace Theater. Seven point thirtyis when the show starts, so you'll
want to get them as soon aspossible. You do not want to have
to stand in line outside beforehand.I always tell people get your tickets early
because it could be cold, andyou don't want to have to stand out
in line because it's packed because peopleare waiting until last minute, So please,

(24:19):
please, please go get your ticketsfor a wonderful show on November three,