December 6, 2025 • 55 mins
A backyard barbecue, a long orange extension cord, and a beat-up VHS of Woodstock. That’s how Andrew Verkamp accidentally started a movement in a tiny Indiana town, one that grew into Kayana Woodstock—a decades-long tradition that packed hundreds into his yard, then graduated to the Lincoln Amphitheater with live bands, giant screens, and a stubborn commitment to peace and love. We sit down with Andrew to unpack the true story behind his book, Kayana Woodstock: One More Day of Peace and Music, and how a private screening ritual became a regional stage for rock history and community.
Andrew takes us back to 1969’s gravity, the reel-to-reel tapes from a brother in Vietnam, and the Beatles album that rewired his life. He explains why the book blends memoir with cultural history, and how he honored song lyrics through clever word scrambles while navigating an eye-opening education in music licensing. From ASCAP and BMI coverage to the hard stop on screening rights, we trace his mad dash through Warner Bros. calls, estates, and the workaround that made a public Woodstock showing possible. Then the story turns electric: a storm show where rain hammered the stage, fans hauled drums and amps inside, and fireworks boomed through thunder while the crowd sang on.
Along the way, we explore what it means to keep a scene alive—passing the hat for local artists, doubling donations to a school music fund, sponsoring a summer stage, and inviting young bands to make their first leap from garage to stage. Andrew reflects on hearing loss at an Aerosmith concert, concert pilgrimages to the places where legends fell and rose, and his belief that everyone carries a version of sex, drugs, and rock and roll—whatever their passions may be. He also hints at a second book that trades the backyard for the world, connecting travel, empathy, and the same relentless question: can we still build spaces where strangers choose trust for a night?
If you love rock history, festival lore, or stories of DIY culture that scale into community, you’ll feel right at home. Listen, share with a friend who needs the spark, and leave a review to help more people find the show. Peace and love—see you at the next show.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Rob (01:02):
Hi, welcome to Franklin's Garage to Stage podcast.
My name is Rob WardrumsFranklin, and my co-host is Dana
Thunderbase Franklin.
How are you doing, man?
Damn good.
How are you?
I'm doing really well.
Unfortunately, we have abrother that's in uh critical
care right now, so our thoughtsand prayers go out to him.
His name is Johnny Franklin, soplease uh share your prayers
(01:24):
with him or for him.
Uh basically, um I start theseepisodes with a quote that are
both uh music related or just uhor just quotes for life in
general.
And today's quote is by DePakCopra, and it is if you focus on
success, you'll have stress,but if you pursue excellence,
(01:47):
success will be guaranteed.
Dana (01:49):
Nice, like it.
Cool.
Rob (01:51):
Well, Dana, who do we have with us today?
Dana (01:53):
Well, with us today, we have uh Mr.
Andrew Verkamp, who's an authorof a book called Kayana
Woodstock One More Day of Peaceand Music.
How are you doing, sir?
Andrew (02:06):
Okay, doing all right.
Thanks for the opportunity tospend some time with you,
gentlemen.
Dana (02:09):
Oh, absolutely.
Thank you for joining us.
Um, so before we really getinto this, it's it it from what
I'm read, it it sounds like thatthis whole thing started from a
barbecue, like a mega barbecuethat just turned into an annual
festival with bands.
And so how how did that come tocreation?
Andrew (02:30):
All right, so we'll we'll ramble on here a little
bit.
Of course, uh so I uh I'm I'm achild of the 60s, actually born
in 1960s, so kind of caught thewave, maybe the back end of the
wave.
Uh the book's called KaynaWoodstock because the town I
live in, a little bitty town, isKayana, Indiana.
(02:51):
Uh play on uh Kentucky andIndiana.
Uh downtown has seven people,and I live way out in the
summer.
Rob (02:59):
That is fall.
Andrew (03:01):
Yeah, yeah, small town.
Uh so growing up in the 60s, mymy brother was in Vietnam,
summer of 69.
I'm an eight-year-old, soon tobe nine.
He sends home a reel to reel ifyou remember the old
technology.
Rob (03:16):
Oh, yeah, of course.
Andrew (03:17):
Uh and uh he had recorded some music, and I
listened to it as aneight-year-old.
It probably didn't reallyclick.
I listened to it a lot, though.
And uh years later it hit me,though.
The one album on there was uhThe Beatles Rubber Soul, and I'm
I'm a Beatles fan.
Uh that's probably why I'm aBeatles fan.
(03:38):
Anyways, that that that startedrock and roll.
Years later, I started figuringout this thing called
Woodstock.
So Kayana Woodstock, um, mybackyard in Kayana Woodstock.
The 25th anniversary was backin 1994, ancient history at this
point.
Uh the technology then was VHStape, and for the first time
(04:05):
they they released the Woodstockmovie on VHS.
So I bought it and uh ran a25-foot extension cart or
100-foot cart in the backyard toa TV, and we watched it a dozen
of us.
Uh, and every year it got alittle bigger and a little
bigger and a little bigger.
(04:26):
Uh ended up with uh live bands,uh fireworks, a giant screen.
I I uh rode the wave oftechnology.
Uh so 25 years or 24 in mybackyard until my wife said, No
more, we're kicking you out.
Uh we we literally packed five,six hundred people into my
house, this open house,backyard.
(04:49):
Um I said, here's the deal, ifwe're gonna do that.
We we moved down to uh uh we welive in southern Indiana.
Abraham Lincoln uh grew up insouthern Indiana, barned in
Kentucky, and then spent hislife in Illinois before becoming
president.
So he spent about a dozen yearsjust a few miles from where we
(05:10):
live, and they they got a bigbig amphitheater down there
where they run a summer seriesto celebrate his life, uh, or
did for years, and then it kindof went uh drifted off, and then
a new group came in.
Anyways, we we are now sponsorsof the stage.
Uh it's a 2200-foot amp, 2200people amphitheater, uh
(05:31):
beautiful venue, and they dolive music during the summer in
addition to the Lincoln store,and they do Kyanna Woodstock.
Uh we do it every five years,but we sponsor the stage for the
whole summer.
So 32 years of uh history ofrock and roll.
Uh we'd watch the Woodstockvideo, and then we started
(05:53):
inviting in uh the local livemusic.
Uh I I thrive on uh theadrenaline uh straight to the
vein of uh live music.
Uh good, bad, anybody who triesit.
But uh so that that's the storyof uh the book, or at least
part of the book, and um thethis this party that became a
(06:17):
book.
Rob (06:19):
Cool, very cool.
Um, I like one of the lines inthe book where it says this is
more than a memoir, it's uhheartbeat of a generation.
Could you kind of explain that?
Andrew (06:31):
So I I uh during that 25-year history, technology
moved on, and somewhere in themiddle of it uh started doing
little email blasts to to togrow that five, six hundred
people away from just immediatefamily.
And people started saying, Man,you ought to write a book
because they would love thelittle uh most of that
(06:54):
propaganda was around the themeof uh of Woodstock, peace, love,
togetherness, uh uh the numbersall the way from 300 to 500,000
people with another 500,000trying to get there, and nobody
got hurt.
It was it was the epitome ofpeace and love.
(07:15):
Uh so I started writing a bookand on and off, on and off.
So that's um the first part ofthe book is 69, uh, and uh
you're gonna catch a bunch of 69theme here, 1969.
Uh 69 short stories about uh alittle bit of memoir here of my
(07:37):
life growing up, uh, all tied torock and roll.
Um the that section of the bookis called Here I Threw Up.
Uh the play on the words ofHere I Grew Up, which Abraham
Lincoln uh it's one of hisfavorite famous quotes on
Southern Indiana, Here I GrewUp.
And then the second half of thebook chronicles the what you
(07:59):
ask about the the the uhbasically a beer blast party in
the back back party back uhbackyard growing into um an
event uh where we sponsor andsponsor local music.
So the the theme of uh it's inand out of a memoir, but the
overriding theme is is peace andlove and the the gray hair of
(08:24):
uh one of the people who rodethe way with that.
I I think we we were livingthrough the very end, and I rock
and roll will never die, but wewe live through a period of
time that uh, and not trying tooffend anybody or whatever, but
I I think 2,000 years from nowthey're gonna look back, just
(08:45):
like we look back 2,000 yearsand we're about to celebrate it
as we do every year.
I think we just live through aperiod of time where peace and
love uh and unfortunately uh Iguess the foundation isn't
holding.
We got all kinds of you knowpolitical and everything else
(09:06):
going on, but peace and love forsure, back in that weekend in
August 15, 16, 17, 18, 1969, andon and off throughout.
Uh so in the book and what I'mjust preaching throughout, it
keeps tying this.
Okay, we we we uh I don't know,we we you know we uh we lived
(09:29):
in Bethlehem, we lived inJerusalem.
This this was rock and roll,and we we had the disciples, we
had John Paul George Ringo, wehad uh Mick and Keith, and I can
you know go on to uh we had thewho we had the uh in fact I'm
sitting in my basement herewhere they're all hanging on the
wall.
I I I live in Solita.
(09:50):
Yeah, yeah.
Um I actually ironically, as Iwas growing up, I would I would
meet people and they they theywere elvis nuts or um I don't
know, some baseball or football.
They were obsessive, and I go,ah, it's never gonna happen to
me.
Uh but what you asked, so thethe book uh yeah, it's got a I
(10:14):
call it a work of fictionbecause other than uh few local
people, it's it could befiction.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Okay.
Andrew (10:20):
Uh but interwoven in that is this this uh to me a
just a giant awakening of uh wewere there at the epicenter of
something that that hopefullyholds on and finds its way back
to the front and and maybe yetbecomes them the the mantra that
saves the world, if you will.
(10:40):
Because for a few short times,uh I I've been to Woodstock the
site multiple times.
Uh I didn't make it the firsttime.
Uh I was eight years old andmom was worried about the
traffic.
I think that dad said go, justdon't come back.
Let's go.
Yeah.
Anyways, I uh something uh songlyrics, something's happening
(11:05):
here, but something washappening there that hopefully
continues to happen.
So that's where the uh variousI tie it to song lyrics.
Uh I got a whole education onuh copyright protection.
So the song lyrics in the bookare actually word scrambles.
Uh I the title usually, if yougrew up in the generation, it's
(11:26):
gonna it's gonna play in yourhead.
Oh yeah.
Uh if not, you can look it upon the internet.
But I I took the words andscrambled them all.
So I uh I'll credit and I don'twant to steal the copyright,
but the spirits in there.
So that's where the spirit ofuh the theme of the book is is
that whole overriding journey uha bunch of us live through, and
(11:51):
hopefully there's people whoread it who can uh read about
it.
Just and again, bad analogy,but just like you read the Bible
to learn what happened backthen.
Maybe you can read the bookhere to learn a little bit about
what happened in um mygeneration.
I like that.
I like that, yeah.
Yeah, you hit a good point.
My ji-ji-j generation.
Dana (12:15):
You you hit a good point about that, you know, the whole
piece of love, obviously, of the60s and 70s.
But you know, you try to get400,000 people together now, and
there's no way it's gonnainteract like like it did back
then.
I wouldn't I wouldn't thinkit's I think that was a once in
a once in a lifetime thing thatever that happened.
And you know, I would love tosee it happen again, but it's
(12:37):
doubtful with the whitesociety's going out.
But the one thing that I youknow, you threw the number 69 in
there a lot with the whole youknow, the year of 69.
And and you know, I read thatyou when you printed this book,
you did 69 first edition copiesfor selected individuals.
Um, what what's that what'sthat all about and how did that
come to be as far as you knowthose certain individuals?
Andrew (13:01):
So part of this journey uh uh pushing 10 years now ago
when I said, okay, I'm gonnawrite a book, and it it was in
the background, it was uh atbest a hobby.
I'd uh I traveledprofessionally, uh consultant,
so I I I'd uh I'd end up inhotel rooms or sitting on an
airplane or layovers, and I'dwrite a little bit, write a
(13:24):
little bit, kept writing thebook.
Um and then this this past yearwhen we finally took it over
the edge, uh uh I guess a littlebit of the tariffs and world we
live in, my consulting gigsdried up, so I said, okay, let's
let's go into thissemi-retirement.
I go in and out, and I finishthe book.
(13:47):
Uh there's a whole world outthere.
I I mean we're we're notpublished by some giant
publishing house, but you canrelatively uh almost stumble
through the what's the word, uhjust follow the bouncing ball on
Amazon and you can write abook.
We took we took it in the stepin the middle and and got some
(14:10):
professional help, learned alot.
Um but I had a couple plateaus.
When one plateau was okay, I'mgonna finish a book, just uh
bucket list.
Um Ultimate Plateau is a it'suh it's a million seller, I'm
making a little money that helpsfund more kind of Woodstock.
We donate a lot to the localmusic scene.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Oh, that's great.
Andrew (14:32):
Uh and help spread that word we just talked about.
Uh the middle plateau, when youasked specifically about the 69
copies, uh and the eye getfixated.
The uh first set of books I uhit wasn't actually a book, it
was just a manuscript of 400some pages.
I sent to 19 people and said,here, read this and tell me how
(14:54):
bad it is, and they helped.
But the the 69, and and again Iprobably played with the
numbers a little bit.
Uh that's my the my inner core,uh, brothers, sisters, in-laws.
Uh in fact, uh my themethroughout this whole Woodstock
(15:14):
was uh uh kind of peace and loveon the the local stage, my
stage.
It was family, friends, thosewe meet along the way, and those
who understand.
So I there there's 69 books outthere that okay, if I if I
don't make it to the thatultimate plateau, at least
(15:35):
there's 69 people who uh I Iguess they're the apostles.
They they have the book, theyhave the story, and it's there
for them.
So that was the magic of 69.
And that that part's done.
We uh we officially publishedon uh September 30th.
The goal was the Woodstockweekend, but uh I I learned a
lot and missed the goal.
Rob (15:55):
So okay.
How how long was that processfrom your initial thought of
writing a book to to getting tothe point of being published?
Andrew (16:05):
Yeah, yeah, I'll repeat it.
It literally was uh I'll hitand miss momentum on and off
nine years.
It first started, I just tookall those emails and put them
together.
Okay, and then I startedwriting, and then I started
hitting that kind of globaltheme of wow, we just were
living on the tail end of uh ofa generation that at least touch
(16:30):
peace and love, probablyprobably more than any
generation, maybe even includingthe one where uh 2,000 years
ago where it had a littlefoothold.
And again, it's it's not there.
Um two two years ago is when Ipublished those 19 copies to
some people, and then as I said,this year I probably spent all
(16:52):
of uh most uh half the year, sixmonths plus uh deep in learning
how you publish, how you edit,uh, how you clean it up and and
uh make it a book.
Dana (17:07):
So with with all the music that you've encountered along
the way, and uh who would be theone band that influenced you
the most as far as you know whenyou first heard them?
You know, I know you mentionedthe Led Zeppelin, the Who and
stuff like that.
Is there one particular bandthat is dear to your heart?
Andrew (17:26):
So I'll I'll give you uh if I heard the question right,
I'll give you one sidebar here.
Um I I have two adult sons now.
The the oldest is named JohnHyphen Paul.
Okay, okay, you know where thatcomes from.
Uh and uh nothing to do.
There was a couple of popes ina row that were John Paul.
(17:46):
Uh I I think the second datewith my wife, I I said, okay, if
this is going anywhere and ifwe have children, I get the
naming rights of the first one,and it's John Paul.
Rob (17:57):
Wow, that's planning ahead.
Andrew (17:59):
Um, and I said, you can have the naming rights of the
second one.
Um and a sidebar there, uh uhlast minute cesarean, nothing
serious, but my wife'sunconscious.
Uh the nurse hands me thislittle guy, and uh she said,
What do you want to name yourson?
So I had a John Paul, so Isaid, George Ringo.
(18:22):
Uh they started writing it onthe birth certificate.
I was like, let's wait until mywife wakes up.
So uh my second son is Max MaxAndrew, but uh for a little bit
it was John Paul George Ringo.
Uh the the Beatles, I don'thave to preach on the Beatles.
That's Bullseye.
(18:43):
Uh hanging on the wall is fourgiant uh oh, the same pictures
from the White album.
If you got the little eight anda half by 11, if you're a
Beatles fan, uh they're they'reover there, they're uh two foot
by four foot giant.
I had a engineering prints cutand paste, big ones.
Uh the Rolling Stones, uh LedZeppelin, the Who.
(19:06):
Uh then on the other wall overhere, I go back to uh by the
way, I've been to all theirgraves, the ones that are gone.
Uh I've been to StrawberryFields dozens of times.
Uh I stood at the gate, was thelast gate that George Harrison
went through.
He he passed in uh PaulMcCartney's house out in Los
(19:27):
Angeles area.
Um been out in the mud three,four times now uh in the middle
of a cornfield where um whereBuddy Holly and the Big Bopper
went down.
I I got some gravel from JimiHendrix's grave.
I got some uh I got a coupleseeds from a um uh uh pine tree
(19:52):
or whatever it is from a benchwhere you can look up into the
window where uh Kurt Cobain leftus.
Uh uh I've been to the grave.
Uh we had to hunt it down.
Actually, I've been to thehouse where uh Jim Morrison did
not die.
That's what hangs on thewindow.
Uh but I've been to his grave.
I took two Heineken's along.
(20:14):
You had to hunt for it, it's inParis.
Well, one for him I was gonnapour in a grave and one for me.
Uh but you couldn't quite getto the grave.
They had it blocked off at thetime.
So I drank I drank Jim's beer.
Uh uh.
Rob (20:28):
He drank it in spiritual, I'm sure.
Andrew (20:30):
So so the when you said genre, it's uh and that's
another journey.
As I as I grew up in our era,uh I didn't know how many
beadles.
I didn't you couldn't find outanything.
You had to stumble, especiallyin the middle of nowhere where
we live.
You had to stumble intodiscovering the next album, the
(20:51):
next whatever.
Uh where uh in this day and ageI can halfway think a thought
and I'm boom, it it's it'spopping up on my phone.
So so the bullseye was uh the60s, and it's a little bit of
so '69 was about 15 years.
(21:11):
1954 is kind of where rock androll says, yeah, it started
here.
Uh Bill Haley, Elvis started,Chuck Berry came there, yeah,
and yeah, it's got some roots.
So 15 years after that was1969, and that was the peak.
Uh that was the journey.
And the peak continued formaybe another 15 years, and now
(21:33):
you're into Kurt Coban in the90s and all that.
And then it's uh it's not gone,but it's it's it's drifted.
So the the bullseyes, uh thereis no other music.
And when I travel and talk tomy clients and I get to know
them, uh and they're all youngernow, or a lot of them are, I
(21:55):
try to find that common groundof music, and usually we get
spotted around Metallica.
That that hits even a young kidnow.
Yeah and yeah, I can understandMetallica, I can I can do that.
Um But I I I some of them I I Ilose uh the Beatles.
Uh the one gentleman, his namewas uh uh Carl Wilson.
(22:18):
His name literally was CarlWilson, and I said, You're
you're you're you're you're uhyou're a beach boy, and he
didn't know who the hell thebeach boys were.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Oh wow.
Andrew (22:28):
So uh when I left the gig with him, he had uh a full
collection of the beach boys,and I said, Here, you you're
you're gonna learn what thebeach boys are.
You're uh I I've been on thepodcast journey here a little
bit, trying to uh just like youguys, I'm sure, yeah, inch our
(22:50):
way into okay, let's let's let'sbecome rich and famous with
this stuff.
Uh but I I I saw your garage tostage, and okay, I I uh I I I'm
damn good at air guitar.
Rob (23:04):
Actually, that was my next question because I saw a
picture of you a littlelong-haired kid with a guitar,
and I was gonna ask you ifyou're still a musician.
Andrew (23:12):
No, I I I I now on the other hand, uh I I'm I'm looking
at my uh back window um patioor it goes out onto the
backyard.
We live on a hillside down inthe trees of southern Indiana.
Rob (23:26):
Sounds beautiful.
Andrew (23:27):
Uh for 12 years I I would just play the Woodstock
movie and people would come.
And then Indiana did a funkything where we changed our uh
the time zone.
And we used to never change thetime.
We just moved from eastern towestern.
I I live right on the orcentral to central to eastern,
whatever.
I live right on the dotted linewhere the time zone changes.
(23:48):
Really?
Oh wow.
But they they changed it theone year, so it got dark later,
and I needed darkness to run mybig screen on the backyard.
Uh a giant screen, by the way.
Um uh drive-in movie scale of ascreen.
Oh, nice.
Uh so I said, okay, we can dolive music.
So there was uh one locallittle band called Time Peace,
(24:10):
uh, T-I-M-E-P-E-A-C-E.
Uh Vietnam veteran agent.
I love him rock and roll.
And he played, so they theyplayed, and over the years I've
sponsored them on differentshows.
Uh so that was year 13 over thenext three or four years.
(24:33):
I I still did the big video.
Uh in fact, some years I playeda video in the back where the
bands played, but we went tolive bands, uh local live bands.
Uh and again, we're we're notNew York City or Memphis or
anywhere, but there's still amusic vibe.
So uh actually one in uhrelation, it's a nephew.
(24:55):
He he's uh he's got 21 yearsbecause four years ago he
released his first signal uhsingle.
Uh so 25 years he's in the rockand roll hall of fame, but uh
he keeps growing, he played uh alittle local band called 86, uh
(25:16):
which has got a bad connotationbecause of politics, but uh 86.
They called it that because theuh the lead singer got fired
from one band.
He said, fine, well, or my ownband called 86.
Rob (25:29):
I'll tell you there's got to be a backstory there.
Andrew (25:31):
And they would play here.
So so literally the last seven,eight years, I I had five live
bands interspersed as they wouldswitch with some theme of uh
live live on a video.
Uh another band was called TheHigh Road.
(25:51):
Uh they're incredible vocals,but they're they're all local.
Uh some old-aging hippiewannabes, and then some young,
definitely garged his stage.
Uh one gentleman who playedover the years was uh an RIP,
wherever he's at, uh was aVietnam vet.
(26:13):
Uh Paul Michael Ash was hisname.
Just incredible, kind of a folkAmericana thing.
Uh so when he passed, uh by theway all these bands I I would
coerce and I didn't pay him.
This was free, this wasbackyard.
But I said I'll I'll we'll passthe hat and whatever we raise.
(26:35):
Uh my wife and I willpersonally double whatever we
raise.
And it's uh it's called thePaul Michael Ash Foundation.
It's a local, it spends themoney on the local schools and
stuff to encourage music.
Uh we sponsor the stage at theAMP.
Uh 2,200 people, six, seven, orI guess 10 shows every summer.
(26:58):
We sponsor part of a local folkfest at one of the towns.
Um the what whatever we can doto help keep that seat of music
going.
So awesome.
That's great.
Dana (27:12):
That's great.
Yeah, like you mentioned, it'slike you know, our podcast is
you know, mostly you know,geared towards the musicians who
are starting out the like thename says, garage the stage.
And you know, that's what we'vebeen pushing a lot.
And it's it's it's nice tobasically get the other side of
the coin where you know we'rehearing from you know people
like you that are haveappreciated all that music and
(27:33):
you know and and are involvedwith keeping that music going.
So my question is with thatwith the Lincoln Amphitheater
that you guys have a part of, doyou have any say in any of the
musicians that get on stagethere?
I mean, I've I've seen you knowKenny Wayne Shepard, you've got
some great bands that haveplayed there.
Um do you have any input onthat?
Andrew (27:55):
Uh what is the saying, pay to play?
I um I'm sure we would orcould, uh, but but but I don't.
Well what once every five yearswhen we do, or I guess we've
done it twice now, but uh whenwe when we do the Kayana
Woodstock show, uh in fact uh meand the director Bud Heads,
(28:16):
because I keep uh I I wentlocal, I went live.
Uh but other than that, I I tryto stay out of uh oh out of his
way.
He does a great job of uhmulti-country rock all across
the board.
Uh here, a sidebar story.
(28:36):
So the back to copyright.
Uh he he told me when we firstmoved it down there.
He said, I want to warn you,Andy, uh, you can't do on a
public stage what you do in yourbackyard.
And I said, Don't worry, we'renot gonna get naked and spied in
the mud or anything.
Right.
Uh so they they have uh what isit, A S-C-I-B-M-I, they have
(28:59):
the the rights to play themusic.
So we were covered there.
But when you start going intothe video side of it, I wanted
to play snippets of theWoodstock movie.
Uh I wanted um I wanted JimiHendrix, and by the way, this we
did the same screen there.
(29:19):
It was a 20-foot-tall, 30-footwide stage.
Rob (29:22):
Wow, that's huge.
Andrew (29:24):
Uh damn, my brain always does to me.
Uh Richie Havens.
I wanted a 20-foot-tall RichieHavens.
Freedom! Freedom! Right on theground where uh Abraham Lincoln
grew up.
Uh but you can't do that.
So I started um it's uh WarnerBrothers.
(29:45):
I got to Warner Brothers, Iwould write, I would call.
I finally got to a vicepresident of S T I L S stills,
where you can, but she said ifyou want to do that, you gotta
contact everybody in the videoand get their permission and pay
them.
Oh that there isn't a uh thereisn't an ASCI license for for
(30:08):
video.
So I uh she finally I I Iwouldn't give up.
She finally said, I I wish youcould find something more
constructive to do with yourtime.
And she said, just forget it.
So I I I found uh it was inAustralia.
It was one of the I collect theDVDs, and this was an obscure
(30:29):
uh the other side of Woodstockor something.
So I got that for uh like athousand bucks or something.
The guy in Australia was gonnalet me do whatever I want.
So I said, Maybe I better checkwith Warner Brothers, and they
said no.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Yeah.
Andrew (30:41):
So then I contacted the Jimi Hendricks uh uh
association, whatever the rightword is.
Uh and I finally got to a ladythere who said, Yeah, we'd love
you to use our music.
We're excited about what youdo.
So I sent that to uh, or shesaid, Well, you got to get
Warner Brothers permission.
Okay, I got that.
So I got the two of themtogether and gave up.
So what we finally did is uhthere's uh company out there
(31:09):
called Swank, S-W-A-N-K.
If you want to run a movie forHalloween in front of the local
uh you know, park or whatever,summer movies and all that, you
pay them and then they they theycan handle the rights.
So I bought the rights to playthe Woodstock movie uh during
this event.
(31:29):
And I guess I cheated a littlebit.
Uh in the old days I hadsomebody up in the sound stage
forward, backward.
But I I cut and paste, andeverybody got a every I paid for
it.
Everybody on the stage got towatch the Woodstock movie.
They didn't watch all fourhours, but I gotta we had a we
we had we had a giant uh RichieHavens.
(31:53):
We had a um we had the wholecrowd singing to uh oh Joni, not
Joni Mitchell, uh We ShallOvercome.
Help me here.
Joan Baez.
Rob (32:07):
Okay, okay.
Awesome.
That's that's a pretty involvedprocess, isn't it?
Well, we have a we have aportion of all of our episodes
that's called Oh shit.
And it's basically usually wehave musicians on, but usually
it's uh during the process foryou, I guess, of uh you know
putting the book together oreven you know putting the event
(32:28):
together.
Did you have one of thosemoments where something went
terribly wrong or somethingterribly embarrassing?
Dana (32:37):
There's gotta be some story out there.
Andrew (32:39):
So you can uh buy the book and there's a bunch of uh I
actually if I go to the 24years we had it here in our
house, it started with a dozenand then ended up literally the
peak year, you couldn't move.
600 some people, but nobody uhnobody got hurt.
(33:01):
It was Woodstock, it was it waspeace and love.
Nobody stole anything, ourhouse didn't get trashed.
I had to clean up, but it youknow, we didn't have uh we had
one gentleman kind of a oh shitone night.
He was uh a little too much onthe enjoying himself side.
I did that too, but he was overthe edge.
Dana (33:20):
Uh he was grabbing everybody and probably drummer
they walked him out.
Andrew (33:26):
That was a little oh shit.
Oh, whatever the word is.
Uh I actually if I go when wetook the leap and started
sponsoring it down on the bigthe real world, if you will.
Uh I guess fortunately therewasn't many.
We we we uh we made it throughthat.
(33:47):
You know, you you got me on azinger there.
If I I can uh a whole bunch ofuh little old shits.
Um I I guess maybe not quite onthe old shit, but uh the one
reason uh uh uh my wife, my yingto my yang or whatever, uh she
(34:09):
gave me enough rope over theyears to uh uh literally just
pack the house with uh but it itstarted the uh oh shit was
you'd be out in the little localtown and go, wow, that was a
great party, Andy or Cheryl.
And I didn't know who the hellthey were.
That was a little bit of ohshit.
Very cool.
Dana (34:28):
Yeah, I gotta say, your your wife's definitely a keeper
of she put up with all that.
That you know what you started.
I mean, that that's amazing.
Not not not too many womenwould back that.
So that's pretty amazing.
Andrew (34:43):
We uh actually I'm trying to think.
We we had the local police showup one night.
That was oh shit, but it was uhthey just wanted to unblock the
road because you got we'd liveout in the middle of nowhere,
but you still got to pack 500cars with 500 people or whatever
that was.
So we had to unblock the road.
(35:04):
Uh there was one night thatprobably was it's Mother Nature,
so a little predictable, but ohshit.
So the it was the band I saidearlier, the high road had just
hit the stage.
I don't know, that might havebeen 400 people.
We weren't at the peak yet,four or five hundred.
And uh one of our friends whohad left said, Andy, the storm's
(35:27):
heading your way.
I'm in the little town next toit, and it's his poor now.
So I walked out to the middleof this, I said one song and get
in, and they said, No, we'replaying.
And then it it just came downin sheets, just uh a proverbial
biblical flood.
Um, so the hundreds of peoplethat are here that are under the
(35:49):
cover of my patio and house,they all go out and grab drum
kits and guitars and amplifiersand and they all pull it in uh
as the rain's coming down.
Everybody's just going nuts.
Uh, we we ended up going tothree in the morning in the
garage.
Um my one friend uh who was myfirework launcher, and of
(36:11):
course, I'm deaf, and I had afew to drink, and he he he grabs
me by the head and yells in myface.
He goes, Andy, I can launch inthe rain.
So I I reset everything andliterally out in the pouring
down rain, he's launchingfireworks, uh, Mother Nature's
blasting uh lightning andthunder.
(36:34):
Uh, and that was probably ohshit.
Oh yeah.
That sounds like fun.
I wish I was her.
That sounds like a lot of fun.
What was the move?
Uh uh Titanic, the movie.
If you remember, there's ascene in there where they're
they're on the lower levels andthey're trying to get to the
upper levels, and they'regrabbing on the metal framework
around the doors, and they can'tget in.
(36:56):
That that was the front door ofmy house.
The wind pressure had collapsedit and bent it, and people were
on the outside trying to get inand they couldn't.
And I just stood there laughingmy proverbial ass off because I
rock and roll.
Rob (37:22):
So I don't want to give away the hope.
I don't want to give away thewhole book, and I people I
encourage people to uhdefinitely uh get your book.
But can you explain a littlebit about the romper room?
I found that shape chapterextremely entertaining.
Andrew (37:40):
Actually, my uh my my my family, my son read the book
and he said, Dad, I didn't Ididn't know.
Dana (37:52):
He saw the new side of it.
Andrew (37:53):
Yeah, we were teenagers in the 60s and I guess teenagers
in the 70s.
And uh we went and uh strippedevery little building we could
find in the local community ofBarnwood.
Some they donate, some we justkind of borrowed, and we built
this cabin and we'd hang aroundin the cabin.
And uh as we were building it,I uh and this is teenage
(38:20):
hormones kicking in.
And then uh I said, why don'twe put a room in the the ridge
up above the it was a smallcabin 16 by 24, and we we could
line it with foam and oldmattresses and we could do what
we want up there.
Rob (38:38):
I know where that's going.
Andrew (38:40):
So it became the romper room, and if if you're a child
of uh, I think an album back inthe 60s, uh it was uh PBS when
school was out in the summer,you got your little workbook,
and every, I don't know, Tuesdayat 10 in the morning or
whatever it was, you had to turnon PBS, and it was uh
educational program called theRomper Room.
(39:03):
So we were teenagers and doingour equivalent of the romper
room.
You're uh a little sidebar.
Uh so the books about music,the books about peace and love
and the good feeling and all thevibe of that.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
Right.
Andrew (39:22):
And then the book in the middle is about um so I I told
you I travel a lot.
Uh when I I connect withpeople, uh uh over the last 10,
12 years as a consultant, I'veworked in 89 different
businesses.
You parachute in, you gottalearn people fast.
Uh and I I tend to learn themfrom the ground up versus just
(39:44):
hanging around with the peoplein the carpet office.
Uh, and I usually music's whereI zero in on, but what I really
like to find my passion is isrock and roll, obviously.
I I try to find people'spassion, be it fishing, hunting,
uh baseball, uh uh knitting, Idon't know.
But everybody's got a passion.
(40:05):
So I I used to preach that.
Uh and it it's the by the way,I uh uh sex, drugs, and rock and
roll is the correct order.
I used to have rock and rollsex and different orders, but
it's sex, drugs, and rock androll.
Uh I I used to I I I preach itand I tell it to my wife and
(40:25):
other people.
Everybody's got a sex, drugs,and rock and roll.
Everybody does.
Yeah.
No, no, no.
I said no, the Pope.
The Pope, take him in as anextreme.
He has a sex, drugs, and rockand roll.
And in his case, it's probablynot sex.
Uh maybe it is.
That's that's another story.
Sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
Everybody's got one.
Uh, mine just happens to besex, drugs, and rock and roll.
(40:47):
That's my period.
Dana (40:49):
Love it.
So give us a good story aboutsex, drugs, and rock and roll.
There's gotta be one night thatwell, maybe you don't remember
it, but there's gotta be onenight that stands out among
amongst the rest that you knowthose three items in particular
just it it all came to fruition,and you just had the best night
of your life.
Do you remember it?
Andrew (41:14):
Uh I I uh by the way, I'm uh I guess a one-hit wonder
when it comes to sex, but I I uhsex is still front and center.
Um drugs, I've been uh acrossthe board, but uh I'm a I'm an
alcoholic part-time.
Uh part-time like that.
(41:35):
I literally uh I I I go on apurge every year and I I stop on
January 1 and I don't drinkagain until uh I add one day
every year.
I'm now up to Memorial Day.
So and then I catch up.
I I catch up pretty quick afterthat.
Uh in fact, uh the there's astatistics in the book, how many
(41:56):
sex, how many drugs, and howmany rock and roll.
I'm I'm a I'm a businessman, soI do the math.
I I got a statistic.
So I I'll take uh I I told yougentlemen earlier, and I'm still
struggling a little bit.
I I'm deaf.
I I literally am legally deaf.
I got some electronic devices,I can read lips.
Uh without the electronicdevices, I live in a vacuum.
(42:19):
I cannot hear.
Uh when I go to rock and rollconcerts, uh and it's a good
excuse, I get to sit as far upas we can, uh, the golden circle
seats, because I don't hear it,I feel it.
And it's ironic.
Uh I'm pretty well sure I don'thear it at all anymore.
My my wife will sit next to meand she kind of clues me in.
(42:43):
She goes, uh, that's uh youknow, that's Led Zeppelin
playing or whatever.
The minute my brain hears or uhsomebody tells me what I'm
listening to, the instant I hearthat, instead of just I start
hearing the song.
So I'm pretty well convincedthere's a little guy in my brain
(43:04):
with a little turntable, andthe minute somebody tells him
I'm not hearing live, I'mfeeling it.
That's why we sit close.
I can feel it.
Rob (43:13):
Right.
Cool.
Andrew (43:14):
So when you talk uh if I go back to specifically, uh
here I got the date, November5th, 1978.
Uh they've torn it down since,but it was called the and they
took it out of my brain since.
There was a theater down inEvansville, Indiana.
(43:35):
And not my wife then, but sheis now.
We went to a concert.
It was Aerosmith.
Of course.
Uh and Aerosmith was new music.
Uh uh.
So we're at the concert.
Um the sweet emotion, I think,is what did it.
The their final encore was uhtrain kept a rolling all night
(43:59):
long.
But the the security guard isis shaking me and my my my now
wife and say, kids, you can'tsleep here all night.
So I kind of wake up, uh, youcan read between the lines uh
right in front of the speakerbank.
Uh and I remember going homethe next day and my my I just
(44:24):
got this ringing in the ear.
And uh I didn't dare tell momand dad because they did you
ain't going to no concert.
Uh but I think November 5th,1978, pretty sure it was sweet
emotion, and then I think fiveor six songs later they ended
with uh train kept a rolling allnight.
It it took out my hearing.
(44:45):
So that was uh there was drugs,there was rock and roll, and I
pretty well there was probablysex before and after.
So that makes for a good night.
Rob (44:57):
Unfortunately, not the hearing, but the rest of the
night was pretty pretty good.
Andrew (45:02):
That the irony of not being able to hear, and I in in
the business world, I go in andthe first thing I tell people,
okay, I'm deaf.
I'm gonna ask you, I'm gonnasay, huh, huh?
Uh so uh Superman, mykryptonite is I can't hear.
And on the other hand, it's mysuper strength.
Rob (45:20):
There you go.
Andrew (45:22):
Forces you to listen.
It's painful.
Uh you know, the world ofbusiness, people don't, I guess
in the world in general, peopledon't listen.
Rob (45:30):
Yeah.
So well, Andrew, do you haveplans for uh a second book?
Andrew (45:38):
So uh I'm I'm gonna be off on the statistics, but
there's somewhere between 20 andI don't know if it matters, 20
million to 30 million books outthere you can buy.
Uh the Amazon has them all.
And Amazon sells half the booksin the world in this day and
age.
Uh they did a great job.
Um about 4 million new books ayear, average about 250 sales.
(46:03):
So uh and we're climbing theladder.
But uh the trick is you gotta Istill don't know.
Uh I don't know if my uh infact I I got it in the I don't
know my book is the proverbialpiece of shit or if it's the
next uh Harry Potter.
I don't know.
Uh I think it's worth there'ssome moments in there where uh
(46:26):
you laugh, you cry, you get thatwhole vibe.
Uh so another book, uh the goodnews is I've stumbled my way
through understanding this.
I still haven't figured I guessif you figure out how to sell a
million copies, yeah.
If we do another book, it it'sprobably uh I guess same
overriding theme, peace, love,and in this case, instead of uh
(46:50):
a memoir kind of journey throughuh a party in a backyard that
became a local anthem.
Uh we we love to travel.
We we've uh we're dirt tree uhbackpack camp.
We we've hiked the GrandCanyon.
Very cool.
Uh followed my dad's World WarII journey down through the
(47:11):
Philippines, uh over went toHiroshima, went to Nagasaki.
Uh my my dad would have been inthe landing crew if we didn't
drop the bombs, and I'm peaceand love, but uh uh been to
Europe, got robbed in Europe, uhthrough Europe for six uh
(47:33):
ironically, in the world ofpeace and love, we uh we were at
a gas station, and when wepulled out back on their
interstate, whatever they callthem, it was in Spain, we had a
flat tire.
This guy comes up, hey, we'llhelp you, and then they
disappeared.
Uh and I thought I hadeverything, but they grabbed my
wife's purse.
Uh they they had stabbed ourtire, uh things came, so they
(47:57):
just did three cars.
They'll stab, they'll slit yourtire, the pressure holds until
you start driving, and then itgoes flat.
Dana (48:03):
They follow you in.
What a scam, man.
Andrew (48:05):
How rude.
So the other one, peace andlove.
I I literally I told you I livein uh suburbs of a town of
seven people.
Um one afternoon we're takinguh a nap.
Now you're back to sex anddrugs and rock and roll.
Um but I wake up and I or mywife, I can't hear my wife says
(48:26):
there's somebody in the house.
I said no.
So I go out and there wassomebody in the house.
We're in the middle of nowhere,and it's the what is it,
fentanyl or whatever the peoplethey he came in to steal
whatever drugs we might have inthe house prescription.
Uh ironically, he came backlater to apologize, and the
police took him away.
Really?
My friend's from friend livesin Houston, and he said, No,
(48:47):
statistically, your little townof Kayana has a higher crime
rate.
Well, yeah.
Dana (48:53):
Who goes to a town of seven people to rob?
Andrew (48:55):
I mean, that's like damn.
Uh so so back to if we're rightanother theme, it's uh and
again, I haven't uh I'm not aGulliver world traveler, but
we've seen a lot of the world,we've touched a lot of people,
and yeah, we got robbed, but uhI that was uh the majority of
the people, it's just incrediblethe the diversity.
(49:17):
And at the end of the day,everybody everybody likes drugs,
sex, and rock and roll,whatever that might be.
Uh their family, the communitythey live in, whatever.
So the if there's a secondbook, that's it's it's in fact,
uh it's not uh what do they callit?
Trip of a lifetime.
This is a lifetime of trips.
(49:39):
Um but it's around the theme ofpeople, peace, love, uh, all
the different places in theworld.
Uh uh little restaurant on aback street in Hiroshima.
We sort of got lost, orHiroshima, I can't pronounce it
right.
In this little uh middle of thepouring rain, the guy helps us
(50:00):
find where we're at.
We eat in this littlerestaurant, uh, language barrier
and all.
It was still it was incredible.
unknown (50:06):
Yeah.
Andrew (50:07):
And we shared a cold beer.
So uh no sex, definitely somedrugs, and rock and roll,
probably in the background.
Sounds like a great thing forthe next book.
Dana (50:16):
Sounds great.
Well, we want to thank you forhaving us on the show.
Any um, we're we're definitelygonna include any links to for
people to be able to buy yourbook, and we're gonna we're
gonna spread the word on it.
Any any last words to our toour audience to push your book?
Andrew (50:33):
Well if first of all, gentlemen, give me a real short,
tell me your backstory.
How did you go from garage tostage?
Your Franklin's.
I listened to some of yourpodcast, cool stuff.
Rob (50:43):
Right.
Well, basically, we were wewere sitting around.
Uh I was actually talking to mybrother here about what his
wife was listening to, and shewas listening to a podcast, and
I had never listened to apodcast.
I said, What's a podcast?
So he explained it to me.
I said, No, we should start oneabout our journey, because we
basically we've been musicians,like I said, for for 40 you know
(51:03):
years and around that number.
And we should we should start apodcast to help other musicians
about that journey, from likejust getting together, forming a
band, and to what it takes, thetrials and tribulations to
actually get on stage.
So that's basically the themeof our of why we what we do in
our podcast.
We try to meet with everythingfrom from musicians but
(51:27):
producers, uh, record labels,and just basically get
information from all thosepeople to help other musicians.
So that's kind of our theme.
And and with you, your yourbook is all about music, which
is why well, you know, primarilyit's got that music theme and
feeling.
So that's why we included youin our podcast to you know give
(51:48):
something for our listeners toread and in this case listen to
you about the book.
Andrew (51:55):
Cool.
Well, I appreciate theopportunity.
Uh thank you.
We've done a couple podcasts.
The one was uh that they werezeroed in on Bethel, New York,
Woodstock, Keep the Dream Alive.
The one I passed on, uh I guessread the book, and I I watched
his uh or listened to hispodcast, and his opening podcast
(52:16):
was uh Yeah, come on, you canbe honest, man.
We've all been in jail before.
So he took my uh I guess mydrugs part of the book and my
little journey with withalcohol, and I took it to an
extreme.
So uh so we're we're Christmasseason, uh the one Christmas
(52:37):
become uh I don't know, one ofthe movies people watching I
call Love Actually.
If you've ever seen that, it'sgot rock and roll and it's got a
nice soundtrack.
Uh uh and the one writing themein that is the guy takes the
it's uh Trogs, right?
(52:58):
Uh Love is all around you andthe feeling grows.
I can't sing.
Uh so they rewrite it to uhChristmas is all around you.
Anyways, long story.
There's a quote in there.
He says uh that he's on apodcast or radio podcast, and uh
they uh any closing words, anduh he he he he's not real happy
(53:22):
with them butchering hisoriginal.
So I my last word is uh I'mgonna quote him take this uh
festering turd of a book andread it because it's a good
book.
Speaker 1 (53:32):
Okay.
Andrew (53:34):
I I think there's parts in it.
Uh anyways, it's a journey.
I I I hope to keep bouncingaway at this.
I I'll take a few bucks so wecan travel the world and write
that next book.
There you go.
But what I really want to do isis get that that vibe out there
and keep going.
So cool.
Dana (53:51):
Awesome.
Well, thank you for being onour show.
I appreciate it.
You know, and I'm gonna closethis with a quote, and this kind
of fits the whole theme here.
And it's uh this one's by theone of the masters of music of
all times, Beethoven.
You know, he said, Music canchange the world because people
okay, I fucked that up.
I'm sorry.
So I'm gonna start over.
(54:12):
Music can change the worldbecause music can change people,
right?
Not out of Reddit, right?
Yeah, because I mean that'scool.
Music is just universal, soI'll I'll close with that since
I butchered that statement.
Rob (54:29):
Where are you gentlemen physically at?
Where's home?
We are in uh North Carolina,currently right here in uh
Winston-Salem.
And my brother here he lives inKing, but we're basically in
North Carolina.
Yeah, our studio here is in uhWinston-Salem.
Andrew (54:45):
I love going out hiking in the woods down in that area.
Beautiful.
Oh, yeah, it's beautiful.
Rob (54:49):
All right, Andrew, thank you very much for your time.
And I hope people will uh go toAmazon or wherever they
purchase their books to get acopy of your uh Kayana
Woodstock.
Andrew (55:01):
Yeah, yeah.
Uh Amazon's got it, and it'salso on Kayana Woodstock.com.
Kayana Woodstock.com.
Uh our little bookstore.
So Amazon don't get theirmoney.
Rob (55:12):
All right, Andrew, and our listeners, thank you very much.
Andrew (55:15):
Bye.
Hey, take care, gentlemen.
Peace and love.
Thank you.
Bye.
Rob (55:18):
Bye.
Hi, welcome to Franklin's Garage to Stage podcast.
My name is Rob WardrumsFranklin, and my co-host is Dana
Thunderbase Franklin.
How are you doing, man?
Damn good.
How are you?
I'm doing really well.
Unfortunately, we have abrother that's in uh critical
care right now, so our thoughtsand prayers go out to him.
His name is Johnny Franklin, soplease uh share your prayers
(01:24):
with him or for him.
Uh basically, um I start theseepisodes with a quote that are
both uh music related or just uhor just quotes for life in
general.
And today's quote is by DePakCopra, and it is if you focus on
success, you'll have stress,but if you pursue excellence,
(01:47):
success will be guaranteed.
Dana (01:49):
Nice, like it.
Cool.
Rob (01:51):
Well, Dana, who do we have with us today?
Dana (01:53):
Well, with us today, we have uh Mr.
Andrew Verkamp, who's an authorof a book called Kayana
Woodstock One More Day of Peaceand Music.
How are you doing, sir?
Andrew (02:06):
Okay, doing all right.
Thanks for the opportunity tospend some time with you,
gentlemen.
Dana (02:09):
Oh, absolutely.
Thank you for joining us.
Um, so before we really getinto this, it's it it from what
I'm read, it it sounds like thatthis whole thing started from a
barbecue, like a mega barbecuethat just turned into an annual
festival with bands.
And so how how did that come tocreation?
Andrew (02:30):
All right, so we'll we'll ramble on here a little
bit.
Of course, uh so I uh I'm I'm achild of the 60s, actually born
in 1960s, so kind of caught thewave, maybe the back end of the
wave.
Uh the book's called KaynaWoodstock because the town I
live in, a little bitty town, isKayana, Indiana.
(02:51):
Uh play on uh Kentucky andIndiana.
Uh downtown has seven people,and I live way out in the
summer.
Rob (02:59):
That is fall.
Andrew (03:01):
Yeah, yeah, small town.
Uh so growing up in the 60s, mymy brother was in Vietnam,
summer of 69.
I'm an eight-year-old, soon tobe nine.
He sends home a reel to reel ifyou remember the old
technology.
Rob (03:16):
Oh, yeah, of course.
Andrew (03:17):
Uh and uh he had recorded some music, and I
listened to it as aneight-year-old.
It probably didn't reallyclick.
I listened to it a lot, though.
And uh years later it hit me,though.
The one album on there was uhThe Beatles Rubber Soul, and I'm
I'm a Beatles fan.
Uh that's probably why I'm aBeatles fan.
(03:38):
Anyways, that that that startedrock and roll.
Years later, I started figuringout this thing called
Woodstock.
So Kayana Woodstock, um, mybackyard in Kayana Woodstock.
The 25th anniversary was backin 1994, ancient history at this
point.
Uh the technology then was VHStape, and for the first time
(04:05):
they they released the Woodstockmovie on VHS.
So I bought it and uh ran a25-foot extension cart or
100-foot cart in the backyard toa TV, and we watched it a dozen
of us.
Uh, and every year it got alittle bigger and a little
bigger and a little bigger.
(04:26):
Uh ended up with uh live bands,uh fireworks, a giant screen.
I I uh rode the wave oftechnology.
Uh so 25 years or 24 in mybackyard until my wife said, No
more, we're kicking you out.
Uh we we literally packed five,six hundred people into my
house, this open house,backyard.
(04:49):
Um I said, here's the deal, ifwe're gonna do that.
We we moved down to uh uh we welive in southern Indiana.
Abraham Lincoln uh grew up insouthern Indiana, barned in
Kentucky, and then spent hislife in Illinois before becoming
president.
So he spent about a dozen yearsjust a few miles from where we
(05:10):
live, and they they got a bigbig amphitheater down there
where they run a summer seriesto celebrate his life, uh, or
did for years, and then it kindof went uh drifted off, and then
a new group came in.
Anyways, we we are now sponsorsof the stage.
Uh it's a 2200-foot amp, 2200people amphitheater, uh
(05:31):
beautiful venue, and they dolive music during the summer in
addition to the Lincoln store,and they do Kyanna Woodstock.
Uh we do it every five years,but we sponsor the stage for the
whole summer.
So 32 years of uh history ofrock and roll.
Uh we'd watch the Woodstockvideo, and then we started
(05:53):
inviting in uh the local livemusic.
Uh I I thrive on uh theadrenaline uh straight to the
vein of uh live music.
Uh good, bad, anybody who triesit.
But uh so that that's the storyof uh the book, or at least
part of the book, and um thethis this party that became a
(06:17):
book.
Rob (06:19):
Cool, very cool.
Um, I like one of the lines inthe book where it says this is
more than a memoir, it's uhheartbeat of a generation.
Could you kind of explain that?
Andrew (06:31):
So I I uh during that 25-year history, technology
moved on, and somewhere in themiddle of it uh started doing
little email blasts to to togrow that five, six hundred
people away from just immediatefamily.
And people started saying, Man,you ought to write a book
because they would love thelittle uh most of that
(06:54):
propaganda was around the themeof uh of Woodstock, peace, love,
togetherness, uh uh the numbersall the way from 300 to 500,000
people with another 500,000trying to get there, and nobody
got hurt.
It was it was the epitome ofpeace and love.
(07:15):
Uh so I started writing a bookand on and off, on and off.
So that's um the first part ofthe book is 69, uh, and uh
you're gonna catch a bunch of 69theme here, 1969.
Uh 69 short stories about uh alittle bit of memoir here of my
(07:37):
life growing up, uh, all tied torock and roll.
Um the that section of the bookis called Here I Threw Up.
Uh the play on the words ofHere I Grew Up, which Abraham
Lincoln uh it's one of hisfavorite famous quotes on
Southern Indiana, Here I GrewUp.
And then the second half of thebook chronicles the what you
(07:59):
ask about the the the uhbasically a beer blast party in
the back back party back uhbackyard growing into um an
event uh where we sponsor andsponsor local music.
So the the theme of uh it's inand out of a memoir, but the
overriding theme is is peace andlove and the the gray hair of
(08:24):
uh one of the people who rodethe way with that.
I I think we we were livingthrough the very end, and I rock
and roll will never die, but wewe live through a period of
time that uh, and not trying tooffend anybody or whatever, but
I I think 2,000 years from nowthey're gonna look back, just
(08:45):
like we look back 2,000 yearsand we're about to celebrate it
as we do every year.
I think we just live through aperiod of time where peace and
love uh and unfortunately uh Iguess the foundation isn't
holding.
We got all kinds of you knowpolitical and everything else
(09:06):
going on, but peace and love forsure, back in that weekend in
August 15, 16, 17, 18, 1969, andon and off throughout.
Uh so in the book and what I'mjust preaching throughout, it
keeps tying this.
Okay, we we we uh I don't know,we we you know we uh we lived
(09:29):
in Bethlehem, we lived inJerusalem.
This this was rock and roll,and we we had the disciples, we
had John Paul George Ringo, wehad uh Mick and Keith, and I can
you know go on to uh we had thewho we had the uh in fact I'm
sitting in my basement herewhere they're all hanging on the
wall.
I I I live in Solita.
(09:50):
Yeah, yeah.
Um I actually ironically, as Iwas growing up, I would I would
meet people and they they theywere elvis nuts or um I don't
know, some baseball or football.
They were obsessive, and I go,ah, it's never gonna happen to
me.
Uh but what you asked, so thethe book uh yeah, it's got a I
(10:14):
call it a work of fictionbecause other than uh few local
people, it's it could befiction.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Okay.
Andrew (10:20):
Uh but interwoven in that is this this uh to me a
just a giant awakening of uh wewere there at the epicenter of
something that that hopefullyholds on and finds its way back
to the front and and maybe yetbecomes them the the mantra that
saves the world, if you will.
(10:40):
Because for a few short times,uh I I've been to Woodstock the
site multiple times.
Uh I didn't make it the firsttime.
Uh I was eight years old andmom was worried about the
traffic.
I think that dad said go, justdon't come back.
Let's go.
Yeah.
Anyways, I uh something uh songlyrics, something's happening
(11:05):
here, but something washappening there that hopefully
continues to happen.
So that's where the uh variousI tie it to song lyrics.
Uh I got a whole education onuh copyright protection.
So the song lyrics in the bookare actually word scrambles.
Uh I the title usually, if yougrew up in the generation, it's
(11:26):
gonna it's gonna play in yourhead.
Oh yeah.
Uh if not, you can look it upon the internet.
But I I took the words andscrambled them all.
So I uh I'll credit and I don'twant to steal the copyright,
but the spirits in there.
So that's where the spirit ofuh the theme of the book is is
that whole overriding journey uha bunch of us live through, and
(11:51):
hopefully there's people whoread it who can uh read about
it.
Just and again, bad analogy,but just like you read the Bible
to learn what happened backthen.
Maybe you can read the bookhere to learn a little bit about
what happened in um mygeneration.
I like that.
I like that, yeah.
Yeah, you hit a good point.
My ji-ji-j generation.
Dana (12:15):
You you hit a good point about that, you know, the whole
piece of love, obviously, of the60s and 70s.
But you know, you try to get400,000 people together now, and
there's no way it's gonnainteract like like it did back
then.
I wouldn't I wouldn't thinkit's I think that was a once in
a once in a lifetime thing thatever that happened.
And you know, I would love tosee it happen again, but it's
(12:37):
doubtful with the whitesociety's going out.
But the one thing that I youknow, you threw the number 69 in
there a lot with the whole youknow, the year of 69.
And and you know, I read thatyou when you printed this book,
you did 69 first edition copiesfor selected individuals.
Um, what what's that what'sthat all about and how did that
come to be as far as you knowthose certain individuals?
Andrew (13:01):
So part of this journey uh uh pushing 10 years now ago
when I said, okay, I'm gonnawrite a book, and it it was in
the background, it was uh atbest a hobby.
I'd uh I traveledprofessionally, uh consultant,
so I I I'd uh I'd end up inhotel rooms or sitting on an
airplane or layovers, and I'dwrite a little bit, write a
(13:24):
little bit, kept writing thebook.
Um and then this this past yearwhen we finally took it over
the edge, uh uh I guess a littlebit of the tariffs and world we
live in, my consulting gigsdried up, so I said, okay, let's
let's go into thissemi-retirement.
I go in and out, and I finishthe book.
(13:47):
Uh there's a whole world outthere.
I I mean we're we're notpublished by some giant
publishing house, but you canrelatively uh almost stumble
through the what's the word, uhjust follow the bouncing ball on
Amazon and you can write abook.
We took we took it in the stepin the middle and and got some
(14:10):
professional help, learned alot.
Um but I had a couple plateaus.
When one plateau was okay, I'mgonna finish a book, just uh
bucket list.
Um Ultimate Plateau is a it'suh it's a million seller, I'm
making a little money that helpsfund more kind of Woodstock.
We donate a lot to the localmusic scene.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Oh, that's great.
Andrew (14:32):
Uh and help spread that word we just talked about.
Uh the middle plateau, when youasked specifically about the 69
copies, uh and the eye getfixated.
The uh first set of books I uhit wasn't actually a book, it
was just a manuscript of 400some pages.
I sent to 19 people and said,here, read this and tell me how
(14:54):
bad it is, and they helped.
But the the 69, and and again Iprobably played with the
numbers a little bit.
Uh that's my the my inner core,uh, brothers, sisters, in-laws.
Uh in fact, uh my themethroughout this whole Woodstock
(15:14):
was uh uh kind of peace and loveon the the local stage, my
stage.
It was family, friends, thosewe meet along the way, and those
who understand.
So I there there's 69 books outthere that okay, if I if I
don't make it to the thatultimate plateau, at least
(15:35):
there's 69 people who uh I Iguess they're the apostles.
They they have the book, theyhave the story, and it's there
for them.
So that was the magic of 69.
And that that part's done.
We uh we officially publishedon uh September 30th.
The goal was the Woodstockweekend, but uh I I learned a
lot and missed the goal.
Rob (15:55):
So okay.
How how long was that processfrom your initial thought of
writing a book to to getting tothe point of being published?
Andrew (16:05):
Yeah, yeah, I'll repeat it.
It literally was uh I'll hitand miss momentum on and off
nine years.
It first started, I just tookall those emails and put them
together.
Okay, and then I startedwriting, and then I started
hitting that kind of globaltheme of wow, we just were
living on the tail end of uh ofa generation that at least touch
(16:30):
peace and love, probablyprobably more than any
generation, maybe even includingthe one where uh 2,000 years
ago where it had a littlefoothold.
And again, it's it's not there.
Um two two years ago is when Ipublished those 19 copies to
some people, and then as I said,this year I probably spent all
(16:52):
of uh most uh half the year, sixmonths plus uh deep in learning
how you publish, how you edit,uh, how you clean it up and and
uh make it a book.
Dana (17:07):
So with with all the music that you've encountered along
the way, and uh who would be theone band that influenced you
the most as far as you know whenyou first heard them?
You know, I know you mentionedthe Led Zeppelin, the Who and
stuff like that.
Is there one particular bandthat is dear to your heart?
Andrew (17:26):
So I'll I'll give you uh if I heard the question right,
I'll give you one sidebar here.
Um I I have two adult sons now.
The the oldest is named JohnHyphen Paul.
Okay, okay, you know where thatcomes from.
Uh and uh nothing to do.
There was a couple of popes ina row that were John Paul.
(17:46):
Uh I I think the second datewith my wife, I I said, okay, if
this is going anywhere and ifwe have children, I get the
naming rights of the first one,and it's John Paul.
Rob (17:57):
Wow, that's planning ahead.
Andrew (17:59):
Um, and I said, you can have the naming rights of the
second one.
Um and a sidebar there, uh uhlast minute cesarean, nothing
serious, but my wife'sunconscious.
Uh the nurse hands me thislittle guy, and uh she said,
What do you want to name yourson?
So I had a John Paul, so Isaid, George Ringo.
(18:22):
Uh they started writing it onthe birth certificate.
I was like, let's wait until mywife wakes up.
So uh my second son is Max MaxAndrew, but uh for a little bit
it was John Paul George Ringo.
Uh the the Beatles, I don'thave to preach on the Beatles.
That's Bullseye.
(18:43):
Uh hanging on the wall is fourgiant uh oh, the same pictures
from the White album.
If you got the little eight anda half by 11, if you're a
Beatles fan, uh they're they'reover there, they're uh two foot
by four foot giant.
I had a engineering prints cutand paste, big ones.
Uh the Rolling Stones, uh LedZeppelin, the Who.
(19:06):
Uh then on the other wall overhere, I go back to uh by the
way, I've been to all theirgraves, the ones that are gone.
Uh I've been to StrawberryFields dozens of times.
Uh I stood at the gate, was thelast gate that George Harrison
went through.
He he passed in uh PaulMcCartney's house out in Los
(19:27):
Angeles area.
Um been out in the mud three,four times now uh in the middle
of a cornfield where um whereBuddy Holly and the Big Bopper
went down.
I I got some gravel from JimiHendrix's grave.
I got some uh I got a coupleseeds from a um uh uh pine tree
(19:52):
or whatever it is from a benchwhere you can look up into the
window where uh Kurt Cobain leftus.
Uh uh I've been to the grave.
Uh we had to hunt it down.
Actually, I've been to thehouse where uh Jim Morrison did
not die.
That's what hangs on thewindow.
Uh but I've been to his grave.
I took two Heineken's along.
(20:14):
You had to hunt for it, it's inParis.
Well, one for him I was gonnapour in a grave and one for me.
Uh but you couldn't quite getto the grave.
They had it blocked off at thetime.
So I drank I drank Jim's beer.
Uh uh.
Rob (20:28):
He drank it in spiritual, I'm sure.
Andrew (20:30):
So so the when you said genre, it's uh and that's
another journey.
As I as I grew up in our era,uh I didn't know how many
beadles.
I didn't you couldn't find outanything.
You had to stumble, especiallyin the middle of nowhere where
we live.
You had to stumble intodiscovering the next album, the
(20:51):
next whatever.
Uh where uh in this day and ageI can halfway think a thought
and I'm boom, it it's it'spopping up on my phone.
So so the bullseye was uh the60s, and it's a little bit of
so '69 was about 15 years.
(21:11):
1954 is kind of where rock androll says, yeah, it started
here.
Uh Bill Haley, Elvis started,Chuck Berry came there, yeah,
and yeah, it's got some roots.
So 15 years after that was1969, and that was the peak.
Uh that was the journey.
And the peak continued formaybe another 15 years, and now
(21:33):
you're into Kurt Coban in the90s and all that.
And then it's uh it's not gone,but it's it's it's drifted.
So the the bullseyes, uh thereis no other music.
And when I travel and talk tomy clients and I get to know
them, uh and they're all youngernow, or a lot of them are, I
(21:55):
try to find that common groundof music, and usually we get
spotted around Metallica.
That that hits even a young kidnow.
Yeah and yeah, I can understandMetallica, I can I can do that.
Um But I I I some of them I I Ilose uh the Beatles.
Uh the one gentleman, his namewas uh uh Carl Wilson.
(22:18):
His name literally was CarlWilson, and I said, You're
you're you're you're you're uhyou're a beach boy, and he
didn't know who the hell thebeach boys were.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Oh wow.
Andrew (22:28):
So uh when I left the gig with him, he had uh a full
collection of the beach boys,and I said, Here, you you're
you're gonna learn what thebeach boys are.
You're uh I I've been on thepodcast journey here a little
bit, trying to uh just like youguys, I'm sure, yeah, inch our
(22:50):
way into okay, let's let's let'sbecome rich and famous with
this stuff.
Uh but I I I saw your garage tostage, and okay, I I uh I I I'm
damn good at air guitar.
Rob (23:04):
Actually, that was my next question because I saw a
picture of you a littlelong-haired kid with a guitar,
and I was gonna ask you ifyou're still a musician.
Andrew (23:12):
No, I I I I now on the other hand, uh I I'm I'm looking
at my uh back window um patioor it goes out onto the
backyard.
We live on a hillside down inthe trees of southern Indiana.
Rob (23:26):
Sounds beautiful.
Andrew (23:27):
Uh for 12 years I I would just play the Woodstock
movie and people would come.
And then Indiana did a funkything where we changed our uh
the time zone.
And we used to never change thetime.
We just moved from eastern towestern.
I I live right on the orcentral to central to eastern,
whatever.
I live right on the dotted linewhere the time zone changes.
(23:48):
Really?
Oh wow.
But they they changed it theone year, so it got dark later,
and I needed darkness to run mybig screen on the backyard.
Uh a giant screen, by the way.
Um uh drive-in movie scale of ascreen.
Oh, nice.
Uh so I said, okay, we can dolive music.
So there was uh one locallittle band called Time Peace,
(24:10):
uh, T-I-M-E-P-E-A-C-E.
Uh Vietnam veteran agent.
I love him rock and roll.
And he played, so they theyplayed, and over the years I've
sponsored them on differentshows.
Uh so that was year 13 over thenext three or four years.
(24:33):
I I still did the big video.
Uh in fact, some years I playeda video in the back where the
bands played, but we went tolive bands, uh local live bands.
Uh and again, we're we're notNew York City or Memphis or
anywhere, but there's still amusic vibe.
So uh actually one in uhrelation, it's a nephew.
(24:55):
He he's uh he's got 21 yearsbecause four years ago he
released his first signal uhsingle.
Uh so 25 years he's in the rockand roll hall of fame, but uh
he keeps growing, he played uh alittle local band called 86, uh
(25:16):
which has got a bad connotationbecause of politics, but uh 86.
They called it that because theuh the lead singer got fired
from one band.
He said, fine, well, or my ownband called 86.
Rob (25:29):
I'll tell you there's got to be a backstory there.
Andrew (25:31):
And they would play here.
So so literally the last seven,eight years, I I had five live
bands interspersed as they wouldswitch with some theme of uh
live live on a video.
Uh another band was called TheHigh Road.
(25:51):
Uh they're incredible vocals,but they're they're all local.
Uh some old-aging hippiewannabes, and then some young,
definitely garged his stage.
Uh one gentleman who playedover the years was uh an RIP,
wherever he's at, uh was aVietnam vet.
(26:13):
Uh Paul Michael Ash was hisname.
Just incredible, kind of a folkAmericana thing.
Uh so when he passed, uh by theway all these bands I I would
coerce and I didn't pay him.
This was free, this wasbackyard.
But I said I'll I'll we'll passthe hat and whatever we raise.
(26:35):
Uh my wife and I willpersonally double whatever we
raise.
And it's uh it's called thePaul Michael Ash Foundation.
It's a local, it spends themoney on the local schools and
stuff to encourage music.
Uh we sponsor the stage at theAMP.
Uh 2,200 people, six, seven, orI guess 10 shows every summer.
(26:58):
We sponsor part of a local folkfest at one of the towns.
Um the what whatever we can doto help keep that seat of music
going.
So awesome.
That's great.
Dana (27:12):
That's great.
Yeah, like you mentioned, it'slike you know, our podcast is
you know, mostly you know,geared towards the musicians who
are starting out the like thename says, garage the stage.
And you know, that's what we'vebeen pushing a lot.
And it's it's it's nice tobasically get the other side of
the coin where you know we'rehearing from you know people
like you that are haveappreciated all that music and
(27:33):
you know and and are involvedwith keeping that music going.
So my question is with thatwith the Lincoln Amphitheater
that you guys have a part of, doyou have any say in any of the
musicians that get on stagethere?
I mean, I've I've seen you knowKenny Wayne Shepard, you've got
some great bands that haveplayed there.
Um do you have any input onthat?
Andrew (27:55):
Uh what is the saying, pay to play?
I um I'm sure we would orcould, uh, but but but I don't.
Well what once every five yearswhen we do, or I guess we've
done it twice now, but uh whenwe when we do the Kayana
Woodstock show, uh in fact uh meand the director Bud Heads,
(28:16):
because I keep uh I I wentlocal, I went live.
Uh but other than that, I I tryto stay out of uh oh out of his
way.
He does a great job of uhmulti-country rock all across
the board.
Uh here, a sidebar story.
(28:36):
So the back to copyright.
Uh he he told me when we firstmoved it down there.
He said, I want to warn you,Andy, uh, you can't do on a
public stage what you do in yourbackyard.
And I said, Don't worry, we'renot gonna get naked and spied in
the mud or anything.
Right.
Uh so they they have uh what isit, A S-C-I-B-M-I, they have
(28:59):
the the rights to play themusic.
So we were covered there.
But when you start going intothe video side of it, I wanted
to play snippets of theWoodstock movie.
Uh I wanted um I wanted JimiHendrix, and by the way, this we
did the same screen there.
(29:19):
It was a 20-foot-tall, 30-footwide stage.
Rob (29:22):
Wow, that's huge.
Andrew (29:24):
Uh damn, my brain always does to me.
Uh Richie Havens.
I wanted a 20-foot-tall RichieHavens.
Freedom! Freedom! Right on theground where uh Abraham Lincoln
grew up.
Uh but you can't do that.
So I started um it's uh WarnerBrothers.
(29:45):
I got to Warner Brothers, Iwould write, I would call.
I finally got to a vicepresident of S T I L S stills,
where you can, but she said ifyou want to do that, you gotta
contact everybody in the videoand get their permission and pay
them.
Oh that there isn't a uh thereisn't an ASCI license for for
(30:08):
video.
So I uh she finally I I Iwouldn't give up.
She finally said, I I wish youcould find something more
constructive to do with yourtime.
And she said, just forget it.
So I I I found uh it was inAustralia.
It was one of the I collect theDVDs, and this was an obscure
(30:29):
uh the other side of Woodstockor something.
So I got that for uh like athousand bucks or something.
The guy in Australia was gonnalet me do whatever I want.
So I said, Maybe I better checkwith Warner Brothers, and they
said no.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Yeah.
Andrew (30:41):
So then I contacted the Jimi Hendricks uh uh
association, whatever the rightword is.
Uh and I finally got to a ladythere who said, Yeah, we'd love
you to use our music.
We're excited about what youdo.
So I sent that to uh, or shesaid, Well, you got to get
Warner Brothers permission.
Okay, I got that.
So I got the two of themtogether and gave up.
So what we finally did is uhthere's uh company out there
(31:09):
called Swank, S-W-A-N-K.
If you want to run a movie forHalloween in front of the local
uh you know, park or whatever,summer movies and all that, you
pay them and then they they theycan handle the rights.
So I bought the rights to playthe Woodstock movie uh during
this event.
(31:29):
And I guess I cheated a littlebit.
Uh in the old days I hadsomebody up in the sound stage
forward, backward.
But I I cut and paste, andeverybody got a every I paid for
it.
Everybody on the stage got towatch the Woodstock movie.
They didn't watch all fourhours, but I gotta we had a we
we had we had a giant uh RichieHavens.
(31:53):
We had a um we had the wholecrowd singing to uh oh Joni, not
Joni Mitchell, uh We ShallOvercome.
Help me here.
Joan Baez.
Rob (32:07):
Okay, okay.
Awesome.
That's that's a pretty involvedprocess, isn't it?
Well, we have a we have aportion of all of our episodes
that's called Oh shit.
And it's basically usually wehave musicians on, but usually
it's uh during the process foryou, I guess, of uh you know
putting the book together oreven you know putting the event
(32:28):
together.
Did you have one of thosemoments where something went
terribly wrong or somethingterribly embarrassing?
Dana (32:37):
There's gotta be some story out there.
Andrew (32:39):
So you can uh buy the book and there's a bunch of uh I
actually if I go to the 24years we had it here in our
house, it started with a dozenand then ended up literally the
peak year, you couldn't move.
600 some people, but nobody uhnobody got hurt.
(33:01):
It was Woodstock, it was it waspeace and love.
Nobody stole anything, ourhouse didn't get trashed.
I had to clean up, but it youknow, we didn't have uh we had
one gentleman kind of a oh shitone night.
He was uh a little too much onthe enjoying himself side.
I did that too, but he was overthe edge.
Dana (33:20):
Uh he was grabbing everybody and probably drummer
they walked him out.
Andrew (33:26):
That was a little oh shit.
Oh, whatever the word is.
Uh I actually if I go when wetook the leap and started
sponsoring it down on the bigthe real world, if you will.
Uh I guess fortunately therewasn't many.
We we we uh we made it throughthat.
(33:47):
You know, you you got me on azinger there.
If I I can uh a whole bunch ofuh little old shits.
Um I I guess maybe not quite onthe old shit, but uh the one
reason uh uh uh my wife, my yingto my yang or whatever, uh she
(34:09):
gave me enough rope over theyears to uh uh literally just
pack the house with uh but it itstarted the uh oh shit was
you'd be out in the little localtown and go, wow, that was a
great party, Andy or Cheryl.
And I didn't know who the hellthey were.
That was a little bit of ohshit.
Very cool.
Dana (34:28):
Yeah, I gotta say, your your wife's definitely a keeper
of she put up with all that.
That you know what you started.
I mean, that that's amazing.
Not not not too many womenwould back that.
So that's pretty amazing.
Andrew (34:43):
We uh actually I'm trying to think.
We we had the local police showup one night.
That was oh shit, but it was uhthey just wanted to unblock the
road because you got we'd liveout in the middle of nowhere,
but you still got to pack 500cars with 500 people or whatever
that was.
So we had to unblock the road.
(35:04):
Uh there was one night thatprobably was it's Mother Nature,
so a little predictable, but ohshit.
So the it was the band I saidearlier, the high road had just
hit the stage.
I don't know, that might havebeen 400 people.
We weren't at the peak yet,four or five hundred.
And uh one of our friends whohad left said, Andy, the storm's
(35:27):
heading your way.
I'm in the little town next toit, and it's his poor now.
So I walked out to the middleof this, I said one song and get
in, and they said, No, we'replaying.
And then it it just came downin sheets, just uh a proverbial
biblical flood.
Um, so the hundreds of peoplethat are here that are under the
(35:49):
cover of my patio and house,they all go out and grab drum
kits and guitars and amplifiersand and they all pull it in uh
as the rain's coming down.
Everybody's just going nuts.
Uh, we we ended up going tothree in the morning in the
garage.
Um my one friend uh who was myfirework launcher, and of
(36:11):
course, I'm deaf, and I had afew to drink, and he he he grabs
me by the head and yells in myface.
He goes, Andy, I can launch inthe rain.
So I I reset everything andliterally out in the pouring
down rain, he's launchingfireworks, uh, Mother Nature's
blasting uh lightning andthunder.
(36:34):
Uh, and that was probably ohshit.
Oh yeah.
That sounds like fun.
I wish I was her.
That sounds like a lot of fun.
What was the move?
Uh uh Titanic, the movie.
If you remember, there's ascene in there where they're
they're on the lower levels andthey're trying to get to the
upper levels, and they'regrabbing on the metal framework
around the doors, and they can'tget in.
(36:56):
That that was the front door ofmy house.
The wind pressure had collapsedit and bent it, and people were
on the outside trying to get inand they couldn't.
And I just stood there laughingmy proverbial ass off because I
rock and roll.
Rob (37:22):
So I don't want to give away the hope.
I don't want to give away thewhole book, and I people I
encourage people to uhdefinitely uh get your book.
But can you explain a littlebit about the romper room?
I found that shape chapterextremely entertaining.
Andrew (37:40):
Actually, my uh my my my family, my son read the book
and he said, Dad, I didn't Ididn't know.
Dana (37:52):
He saw the new side of it.
Andrew (37:53):
Yeah, we were teenagers in the 60s and I guess teenagers
in the 70s.
And uh we went and uh strippedevery little building we could
find in the local community ofBarnwood.
Some they donate, some we justkind of borrowed, and we built
this cabin and we'd hang aroundin the cabin.
And uh as we were building it,I uh and this is teenage
(38:20):
hormones kicking in.
And then uh I said, why don'twe put a room in the the ridge
up above the it was a smallcabin 16 by 24, and we we could
line it with foam and oldmattresses and we could do what
we want up there.
Rob (38:38):
I know where that's going.
Andrew (38:40):
So it became the romper room, and if if you're a child
of uh, I think an album back inthe 60s, uh it was uh PBS when
school was out in the summer,you got your little workbook,
and every, I don't know, Tuesdayat 10 in the morning or
whatever it was, you had to turnon PBS, and it was uh
educational program called theRomper Room.
(39:03):
So we were teenagers and doingour equivalent of the romper
room.
You're uh a little sidebar.
Uh so the books about music,the books about peace and love
and the good feeling and all thevibe of that.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
Right.
Andrew (39:22):
And then the book in the middle is about um so I I told
you I travel a lot.
Uh when I I connect withpeople, uh uh over the last 10,
12 years as a consultant, I'veworked in 89 different
businesses.
You parachute in, you gottalearn people fast.
Uh and I I tend to learn themfrom the ground up versus just
(39:44):
hanging around with the peoplein the carpet office.
Uh, and I usually music's whereI zero in on, but what I really
like to find my passion is isrock and roll, obviously.
I I try to find people'spassion, be it fishing, hunting,
uh baseball, uh uh knitting, Idon't know.
But everybody's got a passion.
(40:05):
So I I used to preach that.
Uh and it it's the by the way,I uh uh sex, drugs, and rock and
roll is the correct order.
I used to have rock and rollsex and different orders, but
it's sex, drugs, and rock androll.
Uh I I used to I I I preach itand I tell it to my wife and
(40:25):
other people.
Everybody's got a sex, drugs,and rock and roll.
Everybody does.
Yeah.
No, no, no.
I said no, the Pope.
The Pope, take him in as anextreme.
He has a sex, drugs, and rockand roll.
And in his case, it's probablynot sex.
Uh maybe it is.
That's that's another story.
Sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
Everybody's got one.
Uh, mine just happens to besex, drugs, and rock and roll.
(40:47):
That's my period.
Dana (40:49):
Love it.
So give us a good story aboutsex, drugs, and rock and roll.
There's gotta be one night thatwell, maybe you don't remember
it, but there's gotta be onenight that stands out among
amongst the rest that you knowthose three items in particular
just it it all came to fruition,and you just had the best night
of your life.
Do you remember it?
Andrew (41:14):
Uh I I uh by the way, I'm uh I guess a one-hit wonder
when it comes to sex, but I I uhsex is still front and center.
Um drugs, I've been uh acrossthe board, but uh I'm a I'm an
alcoholic part-time.
Uh part-time like that.
(41:35):
I literally uh I I I go on apurge every year and I I stop on
January 1 and I don't drinkagain until uh I add one day
every year.
I'm now up to Memorial Day.
So and then I catch up.
I I catch up pretty quick afterthat.
Uh in fact, uh the there's astatistics in the book, how many
(41:56):
sex, how many drugs, and howmany rock and roll.
I'm I'm a I'm a businessman, soI do the math.
I I got a statistic.
So I I'll take uh I I told yougentlemen earlier, and I'm still
struggling a little bit.
I I'm deaf.
I I literally am legally deaf.
I got some electronic devices,I can read lips.
Uh without the electronicdevices, I live in a vacuum.
(42:19):
I cannot hear.
Uh when I go to rock and rollconcerts, uh and it's a good
excuse, I get to sit as far upas we can, uh, the golden circle
seats, because I don't hear it,I feel it.
And it's ironic.
Uh I'm pretty well sure I don'thear it at all anymore.
My my wife will sit next to meand she kind of clues me in.
(42:43):
She goes, uh, that's uh youknow, that's Led Zeppelin
playing or whatever.
The minute my brain hears or uhsomebody tells me what I'm
listening to, the instant I hearthat, instead of just I start
hearing the song.
So I'm pretty well convincedthere's a little guy in my brain
(43:04):
with a little turntable, andthe minute somebody tells him
I'm not hearing live, I'mfeeling it.
That's why we sit close.
I can feel it.
Rob (43:13):
Right.
Cool.
Andrew (43:14):
So when you talk uh if I go back to specifically, uh
here I got the date, November5th, 1978.
Uh they've torn it down since,but it was called the and they
took it out of my brain since.
There was a theater down inEvansville, Indiana.
(43:35):
And not my wife then, but sheis now.
We went to a concert.
It was Aerosmith.
Of course.
Uh and Aerosmith was new music.
Uh uh.
So we're at the concert.
Um the sweet emotion, I think,is what did it.
The their final encore was uhtrain kept a rolling all night
(43:59):
long.
But the the security guard isis shaking me and my my my now
wife and say, kids, you can'tsleep here all night.
So I kind of wake up, uh, youcan read between the lines uh
right in front of the speakerbank.
Uh and I remember going homethe next day and my my I just
(44:24):
got this ringing in the ear.
And uh I didn't dare tell momand dad because they did you
ain't going to no concert.
Uh but I think November 5th,1978, pretty sure it was sweet
emotion, and then I think fiveor six songs later they ended
with uh train kept a rolling allnight.
It it took out my hearing.
(44:45):
So that was uh there was drugs,there was rock and roll, and I
pretty well there was probablysex before and after.
So that makes for a good night.
Rob (44:57):
Unfortunately, not the hearing, but the rest of the
night was pretty pretty good.
Andrew (45:02):
That the irony of not being able to hear, and I in in
the business world, I go in andthe first thing I tell people,
okay, I'm deaf.
I'm gonna ask you, I'm gonnasay, huh, huh?
Uh so uh Superman, mykryptonite is I can't hear.
And on the other hand, it's mysuper strength.
Rob (45:20):
There you go.
Andrew (45:22):
Forces you to listen.
It's painful.
Uh you know, the world ofbusiness, people don't, I guess
in the world in general, peopledon't listen.
Rob (45:30):
Yeah.
So well, Andrew, do you haveplans for uh a second book?
Andrew (45:38):
So uh I'm I'm gonna be off on the statistics, but
there's somewhere between 20 andI don't know if it matters, 20
million to 30 million books outthere you can buy.
Uh the Amazon has them all.
And Amazon sells half the booksin the world in this day and
age.
Uh they did a great job.
Um about 4 million new books ayear, average about 250 sales.
(46:03):
So uh and we're climbing theladder.
But uh the trick is you gotta Istill don't know.
Uh I don't know if my uh infact I I got it in the I don't
know my book is the proverbialpiece of shit or if it's the
next uh Harry Potter.
I don't know.
Uh I think it's worth there'ssome moments in there where uh
(46:26):
you laugh, you cry, you get thatwhole vibe.
Uh so another book, uh the goodnews is I've stumbled my way
through understanding this.
I still haven't figured I guessif you figure out how to sell a
million copies, yeah.
If we do another book, it it'sprobably uh I guess same
overriding theme, peace, love,and in this case, instead of uh
(46:50):
a memoir kind of journey throughuh a party in a backyard that
became a local anthem.
Uh we we love to travel.
We we've uh we're dirt tree uhbackpack camp.
We we've hiked the GrandCanyon.
Very cool.
Uh followed my dad's World WarII journey down through the
(47:11):
Philippines, uh over went toHiroshima, went to Nagasaki.
Uh my my dad would have been inthe landing crew if we didn't
drop the bombs, and I'm peaceand love, but uh uh been to
Europe, got robbed in Europe, uhthrough Europe for six uh
(47:33):
ironically, in the world ofpeace and love, we uh we were at
a gas station, and when wepulled out back on their
interstate, whatever they callthem, it was in Spain, we had a
flat tire.
This guy comes up, hey, we'llhelp you, and then they
disappeared.
Uh and I thought I hadeverything, but they grabbed my
wife's purse.
Uh they they had stabbed ourtire, uh things came, so they
(47:57):
just did three cars.
They'll stab, they'll slit yourtire, the pressure holds until
you start driving, and then itgoes flat.
Dana (48:03):
They follow you in.
What a scam, man.
Andrew (48:05):
How rude.
So the other one, peace andlove.
I I literally I told you I livein uh suburbs of a town of
seven people.
Um one afternoon we're takinguh a nap.
Now you're back to sex anddrugs and rock and roll.
Um but I wake up and I or mywife, I can't hear my wife says
(48:26):
there's somebody in the house.
I said no.
So I go out and there wassomebody in the house.
We're in the middle of nowhere,and it's the what is it,
fentanyl or whatever the peoplethey he came in to steal
whatever drugs we might have inthe house prescription.
Uh ironically, he came backlater to apologize, and the
police took him away.
Really?
My friend's from friend livesin Houston, and he said, No,
(48:47):
statistically, your little townof Kayana has a higher crime
rate.
Well, yeah.
Dana (48:53):
Who goes to a town of seven people to rob?
Andrew (48:55):
I mean, that's like damn.
Uh so so back to if we're rightanother theme, it's uh and
again, I haven't uh I'm not aGulliver world traveler, but
we've seen a lot of the world,we've touched a lot of people,
and yeah, we got robbed, but uhI that was uh the majority of
the people, it's just incrediblethe the diversity.
(49:17):
And at the end of the day,everybody everybody likes drugs,
sex, and rock and roll,whatever that might be.
Uh their family, the communitythey live in, whatever.
So the if there's a secondbook, that's it's it's in fact,
uh it's not uh what do they callit?
Trip of a lifetime.
This is a lifetime of trips.
(49:39):
Um but it's around the theme ofpeople, peace, love, uh, all
the different places in theworld.
Uh uh little restaurant on aback street in Hiroshima.
We sort of got lost, orHiroshima, I can't pronounce it
right.
In this little uh middle of thepouring rain, the guy helps us
(50:00):
find where we're at.
We eat in this littlerestaurant, uh, language barrier
and all.
It was still it was incredible.
unknown (50:06):
Yeah.
Andrew (50:07):
And we shared a cold beer.
So uh no sex, definitely somedrugs, and rock and roll,
probably in the background.
Sounds like a great thing forthe next book.
Dana (50:16):
Sounds great.
Well, we want to thank you forhaving us on the show.
Any um, we're we're definitelygonna include any links to for
people to be able to buy yourbook, and we're gonna we're
gonna spread the word on it.
Any any last words to our toour audience to push your book?
Andrew (50:33):
Well if first of all, gentlemen, give me a real short,
tell me your backstory.
How did you go from garage tostage?
Your Franklin's.
I listened to some of yourpodcast, cool stuff.
Rob (50:43):
Right.
Well, basically, we were wewere sitting around.
Uh I was actually talking to mybrother here about what his
wife was listening to, and shewas listening to a podcast, and
I had never listened to apodcast.
I said, What's a podcast?
So he explained it to me.
I said, No, we should start oneabout our journey, because we
basically we've been musicians,like I said, for for 40 you know
(51:03):
years and around that number.
And we should we should start apodcast to help other musicians
about that journey, from likejust getting together, forming a
band, and to what it takes, thetrials and tribulations to
actually get on stage.
So that's basically the themeof our of why we what we do in
our podcast.
We try to meet with everythingfrom from musicians but
(51:27):
producers, uh, record labels,and just basically get
information from all thosepeople to help other musicians.
So that's kind of our theme.
And and with you, your yourbook is all about music, which
is why well, you know, primarilyit's got that music theme and
feeling.
So that's why we included youin our podcast to you know give
(51:48):
something for our listeners toread and in this case listen to
you about the book.
Andrew (51:55):
Cool.
Well, I appreciate theopportunity.
Uh thank you.
We've done a couple podcasts.
The one was uh that they werezeroed in on Bethel, New York,
Woodstock, Keep the Dream Alive.
The one I passed on, uh I guessread the book, and I I watched
his uh or listened to hispodcast, and his opening podcast
(52:16):
was uh Yeah, come on, you canbe honest, man.
We've all been in jail before.
So he took my uh I guess mydrugs part of the book and my
little journey with withalcohol, and I took it to an
extreme.
So uh so we're we're Christmasseason, uh the one Christmas
(52:37):
become uh I don't know, one ofthe movies people watching I
call Love Actually.
If you've ever seen that, it'sgot rock and roll and it's got a
nice soundtrack.
Uh uh and the one writing themein that is the guy takes the
it's uh Trogs, right?
(52:58):
Uh Love is all around you andthe feeling grows.
I can't sing.
Uh so they rewrite it to uhChristmas is all around you.
Anyways, long story.
There's a quote in there.
He says uh that he's on apodcast or radio podcast, and uh
they uh any closing words, anduh he he he he's not real happy
(53:22):
with them butchering hisoriginal.
So I my last word is uh I'mgonna quote him take this uh
festering turd of a book andread it because it's a good
book.
Speaker 1 (53:32):
Okay.
Andrew (53:34):
I I think there's parts in it.
Uh anyways, it's a journey.
I I I hope to keep bouncingaway at this.
I I'll take a few bucks so wecan travel the world and write
that next book.
There you go.
But what I really want to do isis get that that vibe out there
and keep going.
So cool.
Dana (53:51):
Awesome.
Well, thank you for being onour show.
I appreciate it.
You know, and I'm gonna closethis with a quote, and this kind
of fits the whole theme here.
And it's uh this one's by theone of the masters of music of
all times, Beethoven.
You know, he said, Music canchange the world because people
okay, I fucked that up.
I'm sorry.
So I'm gonna start over.
(54:12):
Music can change the worldbecause music can change people,
right?
Not out of Reddit, right?
Yeah, because I mean that'scool.
Music is just universal, soI'll I'll close with that since
I butchered that statement.
Rob (54:29):
Where are you gentlemen physically at?
Where's home?
We are in uh North Carolina,currently right here in uh
Winston-Salem.
And my brother here he lives inKing, but we're basically in
North Carolina.
Yeah, our studio here is in uhWinston-Salem.
Andrew (54:45):
I love going out hiking in the woods down in that area.
Beautiful.
Oh, yeah, it's beautiful.
Rob (54:49):
All right, Andrew, thank you very much for your time.
And I hope people will uh go toAmazon or wherever they
purchase their books to get acopy of your uh Kayana
Woodstock.
Andrew (55:01):
Yeah, yeah.
Uh Amazon's got it, and it'salso on Kayana Woodstock.com.
Kayana Woodstock.com.
Uh our little bookstore.
So Amazon don't get theirmoney.
Rob (55:12):
All right, Andrew, and our listeners, thank you very much.
Andrew (55:15):
Bye.
Hey, take care, gentlemen.
Peace and love.
Thank you.
Bye.
Rob (55:18):
Bye.
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