October 16, 2025 • 61 mins
We sit down with Bruce Franklin of Trouble to trace a 40-year path from garages and Chicago clubs to international festivals, digging into tone, songwriting, and the business choices that shape longevity. He opens up about gear, Rubin-era lessons, the new record, and why Europe still shows up for heavy music.
• Trouble’s origins and early influences
• Building a signature tone with Marshall and Clone Theory
• Metallica sightings and scene myths
• Finding a drummer and auditioning with a click
• Recording shift from tape to Pro Tools at home
• New album direction across doom, groove, and prog-leaning tracks
• Lessons from Rick Rubin on structure and economy
• Onstage “oh shit” moments and recovery
• Setlist design across eras and fan respect
• In-ear monitors versus loud amps for feel
• Contracts, catalogs, and why a lawyer matters
• Leaving Deaf American and the one big regret
• Rehearsal habits and staying tight with age
• Europe’s festival strength and U.S. decline
• Defining Trouble for first-time listeners
See Bruce's complete bio at franklinsgaragetostage.com
Thank you and please visit our social medial sites to leave feedback and or support our project.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Rob Franklin (00:01):
Hi, welcome to Franklin's Garage to State
Podcast.
My name is Rob WardrumsFranklin, and my co-host, my
friend, my brother, my bandmateis Dana Thunderbase Franklin.
How you doing, man?
Dana Franklin (00:15):
Good, good.
Rob Franklin (00:16):
Hey, good.
Hey, this episode is somethingwe've been looking forward to
and talking about for almost ayear, so I'm really, really,
really excited about doing thisone.
His dad and my dad used to gettogether and make us laugh so
hard my stomach would hurt.
That's kind of like a littleteaser where we're going here.
But uh David, you want tointroduce our uh very special
(00:37):
guest today?
Dana Franklin (00:38):
Oh, I'd love to.
Um not only a fellow musician,but you know, as as our name
implies, you know, our with ourshow is Franklin's Garage of
Stage.
And uh, you know, like like Robsaid here, it's you know, when
we first started this podcast,uh we had in mind the one person
that we you know thought wouldreally uh show and be a special
guest for us, and and we'rewe're pleased to have him with
(01:00):
us today.
And and you'll notice the lastthing because the last thing is
Franklin also.
Um Mr.
Bruce Franklin, who's uh youknow one of the founders and
guitar players for uh you know,in my opinion, one of the best
bands out there, but um also uhuh what is classified as a doom
metal band back in the day, butyou know listed alongside Black
(01:24):
Sabbath Candomass is one of themain influences of death of Doom
Metal and the band Trouble.
Mr.
Bruce Franklin, how you doing,man?
Bruce Franklin (01:34):
Doing great.
Great to see you guys.
Rob Franklin (01:36):
Uh good to see you, really good to see you.
It's it's been a minute.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
It's been a long time.
Yeah.
Rob Franklin (01:42):
So, Bruce, you know, I searched high and low on
your website and your socials,but I didn't really see uh a
specific bio for you.
So could you tell our all ourlisteners uh basically your
start and and how you got to thepoint you're at today?
Bruce Franklin (01:59):
Yeah, sure.
Um try to not ramble.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
No, ramble away.
Go for it.
Bruce Franklin (02:06):
Um well, so I started like a lot of people do
uh when I was in high school.
I got together with a bunch ofguys, and it was our all of our
first band, and we did coversongs and played a handful of
gigs, you know, and uh it was agood experience to get going.
I'm sure you guys went throughthat same thing.
(02:27):
Um, but then I it was at apoint where I wasn't satisfied
with that, and I was looking todo something more serious, and
it just coincided withgraduating high school and
choosing not to go to college.
I go to I had opportunities,but I chose to go for music, and
(02:49):
um about a month after my 18thbirthday, um the singer and I
from this band were lookingthrough ads in um Illinois music
paper, actually reallyconcentrated in the Chicago
area, and we found so this is1979.
We found some guys playing thekind of music we wanted to play,
(03:13):
which was at that timeincreasingly smaller because New
Wave was kind of what was in,you know, and we found I still
remember the ad reading the ad.
Um, you know, uh uh the name ofthe band was Trouble, uh guitar
player, bass player, drummerseek uh second guitar player and
(03:37):
singer.
And like, well that's us.
Influence, X Sabbath, UFO,Judas Priest, then Lizzie.
And I was like, I'm down forthat, man.
Because that's exactly what Iwanted to do.
I mean, at least to start offwith, you know, you're talking
about cover songs.
So we went and auditioned anduh we got accepted and joined
(04:02):
the band.
Um and this so when I said thesinger from my first band, who
was the original singer introuble, Eric Wagner.
So we we joined in 1979, andthat's when that's when it kind
of got to more like the title ofyour podcast, the garage to the
(04:22):
stage.
Where I mean we you know, wehad our time where we had to
learn all our songs, and westarted writing originals, and
so we started gigging out likefairly frequently eventually,
um, and uh the more originals wegot, the more we s we saw more
people coming to see us.
(04:43):
People were interested.
This is again obviously thatthat isn't today, but this was
that and people really weredigging our originals, and you
know, at some point we switchedto almost all originals and just
a couple of covers.
But that so that's when it kindof got more serious, and I knew
that I I made the right choice,at least in my mind, maybe not
(05:07):
financially, but but uh what Iwould love to do, I felt like I
made the right choice.
And it went from thereeventually.
I don't want to go through thewhole thing because you probably
have other questions, buteventually we got a record deal
in small label, and theneventually on a big label, and
anyway, that's how I got towhere I'm at.
Um, like a 40-some-year careerwith trouble.
Dana Franklin (05:31):
Awesome, awesome.
Um, so I remember us you knowas kids, of course, and you
know, parents' backyard runningaround and doing our stupid
little games that we did as kidsand shit.
Um, but you know, and myearliest recollection, I
remember you you know startedplaying guitar, you know, you
must have been nine, ten yearsold, maybe a little bit later,
I'm not sure.
Can you tell us a little bitabout you know when that started
(05:53):
for you?
And and uh you know, the secondpart of this question is at
what point did you realize, youknow what, music is the path I
want to take in my life, andevery everything else sucks.
It's gotta be music.
Rob Franklin (06:05):
Good question.
Good question.
Bruce Franklin (06:07):
Well, okay, so so here's the thing.
So the Monkeys TV show is whatlooked like six years old.
Now I didn't start playing yet,but that's I told my parents I
wanted to actually they got me alittle kind of toy drum kit.
Uh it was kind of real, kind oftoy.
(06:27):
It wasn't 100% real, butanyway, I drove them nuts with
it the making noise with that.
And at some point they said,uh, you know what, you're gonna
change instruments to guitar.
They got a guitar and theystarted me guitar lessons, and
by this time I was eight.
So that's I started when I waseight.
I took uh guitar lessons forabout two years or so, and you
(06:52):
guys remember my parents gotdivorced, um, and money was
tight.
My mom couldn't really affordto keep doing lessons, so I you
know, I had the foundation ofwhat I learned in those couple
of years of lessons, and I juststarted teaching myself from
records, which a lot of peopledo, you know.
Rob Franklin (07:09):
Yeah, oh yeah.
It's obviously worked for you.
Bruce Franklin (07:12):
But so to the point of so I knew I didn't
know, you know, maybe you know,when you're 11, you might not
know it's what you want to dofor the rest of your life and
your career and everything,maybe, but I knew that I loved
music and wanted to do it, youknow.
So it would be later on, maybe,when I really decided this is
(07:36):
what I really want to do for mylife, you know.
Rob Franklin (07:38):
Nice, you're kind of about two-partner here.
Uh, who are your like earliestinfluences besides the monkeys,
and then how has your equipmentprogressed from that time to to
now, basically?
And what do you currently playthrough as far as axe, amp, man,
effects?
Bruce Franklin (07:53):
Yeah.
Um, well, so I did like um, nowwe're talking young.
Um, I did like some of thepsychedelic music that I would
hear.
And then my mom, I remember mymom had a Mamas and Papa's album
and a Beatles album and a fewMotown albums.
So that was like my early,early, like really young, like
(08:16):
six, seven, eight, nine yearsold.
Um and then I think it wasabout 11 years old, is when I
really found rock and roll.
I started listening to theradio and then started getting
albums.
And so I liked hard.
At first I liked kind ofpopular rock, but uh not long
(08:38):
after that I started gettinginto the like and it was big for
the time.
Rob remembers this obviously,um like in the early 70s 70s
there was a lot of hard rock, alot of great hard rock.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Oh yeah, yeah.
Bruce Franklin (08:55):
So that's that was a big influence in shaping
where I wanted to go.
Um, as for equipment, uh I hadsome piece of junk little lamp.
I couldn't even tell you whatit was.
I mean, I'm talking about earlylike when I was nine years old,
ten years old.
Um, and uh and a piece of junkuh telecaster copy.
(09:17):
You know, and I had that untilI bought a real guitar when I
was about 17.
Um about 17, I got my firstflying feed.
Um and I had graduated to acustom amp, you know, the brand
custom with K.
Um and uh it was a lot betterthan the piece of crap little
(09:41):
amp I had, but it still wasn'twhat I I really wanted in the
end.
But um, so I had that for alittle while, even at the
beginning of this first bandthat I was in, I had that that
amp.
But I had by that time I hadgotten that fairly decent
guitar, and uh then um the endof my first band that I was in,
I got a Marshall Stack.
(10:03):
Um my mom helped me finance,she didn't pay for it.
I had to pay her, she boughtit, and I had to make the
payments to her.
Um, but so that was I had myfive yen Marshall Stack, and
that was the beginning offinding the sound that I
eventually would have withtrouble.
Um yeah, and just developed itwith trouble.
(10:26):
Um so um, yeah, all the earlydays I was playing this uh it's
actually an Ibanez rock androll.
Um, and it's not a cheap copy.
It's it's so there's a wholestory behind this Ibanez guitar,
Ibanez rock and roll.
It's it's the closest you couldget to the original 57 Gibson,
(10:50):
that wood grain with the whitepick guard Gibson.
They it was the original 57,that's what they copied, and
they copied it so close, andit's so good that Gibson sued
them, and they only made thosefor two years.
So I've actually got two ofthem.
Dana Franklin (11:07):
Nice.
Bruce Franklin (11:09):
And there's great guitars.
So a lot of times people likesee my guitar up close and they
go, Oh, it's an Ivanz.
Man, this Ivaniz is better thanmost Gibson's, you know.
There are some years, some goodyears of Gibson's that are
really good, but anyway, so thatthat was the early days of
trouble, especially.
I was playing that guitar onMarshall, and I found this
(11:31):
pedal, this is another big partof it, this uh electroharmonics
pedal called the clone theory.
And it's uh it's like a chorus,it was chorus and flange.
I never used the flange, I usedthe chorus, and it also gave
this little edge to the sound,like a bite to it almost, almost
(11:51):
like a little bit of a boost.
And that was like I still havethat very same one, that pedal
that I got in 1979.
Is that right?
Wow.
Still use it to this day.
That was a key ingredient of mysound.
Okay.
Dana Franklin (12:07):
Awesome.
Well, go well, going to yoursound, you know.
I've I've read or heard storiesabout, you know, and you know,
maybe you can elaborate on thisa little bit about times where
you know certain members ofMetallica would try to get on
stage because they loved yoursound so much and wanted to copy
it and and see what you weredoing as far as amp settings and
(12:28):
stuff like that.
Is there any truth to that?
Bruce Franklin (12:30):
Well, I don't know if it's as as uh you know
as much as what you just said,but one time, so you you saw us
play at the stone, Kirk.
Dana Franklin (12:40):
Yes, yes.
I was gonna bring that up too.
Bruce Franklin (12:42):
One of the times we were playing at the stone,
it was early on.
It may have been when we in1987 we were we toured with King
Diamond and we played there.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Nice.
Bruce Franklin (12:53):
Lars and James and Kirk were all there, and it
may have been that time.
Reason I'm not sure becauseJames came and seen us three
times there, but I think thatwas the time in '87.
And so he and we had done soundcheck but didn't play yet.
And after we finished our soundcheck, I saw them walk up on
(13:15):
the stage and they're looking atour amps.
Now that doesn't mean that, oh,we need to steal their sound,
you know.
But I'm sure but they werecurious, I'm sure, because you
know, it it it's a fairly uniquesound.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Pretty heavy sound, and fairlyunique.
I'm sure they were curious, youknow.
And anyway, they were bothlooking, they looked at both of
our marshals, you know, RickBortel and myself, both of our
(13:40):
amps, and yeah, I please so thisstory gained legs because Eric
Wagner, the singer, in aninterview once said something
more like what you said in thebeginning.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
And I don't know if that's maybe that's where I got
it from.
Bruce Franklin (13:54):
Yeah, maybe I don't know if that's completely
the case, but they were lookingat our amps, like definitely had
to have been curious.
Yeah.
Rob Franklin (14:03):
Speaking of band members, uh, your new drummer,
Gary Naples, what was the uhaudition process, or was it more
like you already knew who hewas and what he could do, or did
you actually have an auditionprocess?
Bruce Franklin (14:15):
We did have an audition, um, but um so our bass
player knew him, and the bandthat we knew he's in a few
bands, but the band we reallyknew him from was a band called
November's Doom.
And we had played uh justplayed a show where they were
opening the show um like a yearearlier.
(14:36):
Um, and then our bass playerknew him, said he's a great guy,
says he's a great drummer.
I had a friend of mine,actually the guy that supplied
me with this computer tonight,and uh he's an older guy like
me.
Um, and those were the only twoguys that we auditioned because
we knew they were both gooddrummers, and in the end, um it
(14:58):
was it didn't end up even havingto be a choice because the
older guy decided that heprobably couldn't really commit
to as much as we were gonnaneed, and he kind of bowed out.
So that left Gary.
And so um we we liked that hewas younger because he's 38, or
maybe he's 39 now.
Dana Franklin (15:18):
Oh, the kid in the king's thirty.
Bruce Franklin (15:20):
He's a puppy.
I I'm old enough to be hisfather, yes.
But we liked that uh he broughtenergy, and what we really
liked, I mean he he has chops,but what we really liked is um
his timing's impeccable.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Nice.
Bruce Franklin (15:37):
Um and we found this uh, in fact, part of the
audition was learning two of ournew songs from our new record
and um playing with a clickcheck to these new songs.
Rob Franklin (15:50):
Next question.
Bruce Franklin (15:51):
Well, that's what he nailed.
Um, and then we had then weasked him to play some of our
hardest, more progressive songsfor the callback kind of thing,
you know.
And he did those really greattoo.
And then we we said, Well, wethink he's gonna work, you know.
We we knew that he had enoughthat as long as we worked with
(16:12):
him that it would work out, andit has.
Cool.
Dana Franklin (16:15):
Awesome, cool, very cool.
Now going back to the the tothe young kids and stuff, me and
Rob had uh experience with youknow, when we were starting to
get playing again out here, youknow, when Rob came back out
here in North Carolina, and umwe had a couple young kids we
were playing with, you know,actually one was 18 and one was
20, so real young talent.
But the funny story is uh youknow, this 20-year-old singer
(16:36):
comes up to us, and me and Robhappened to be talking about the
podcast and what we were doingand stuff, and you know, and
somehow I think your name ortrouble came up, and he's like,
oh shit, that's your cousin.
And he went out to his car,pulled out a CD, and sure as
shit, it was trouble.
And it was just I mean, it'sit's great to see you know the
young, a younger kid, you know,listening to Trouble, you know,
(16:59):
well, things, you know,everybody our age is 50s or 60s,
whatever.
You know, so how do you feelknowing that number one, you're
uh classified as one of the bigfour of the doom metals
alongside, like I said,Candlemas, like Vitus, you know,
Black Sabbath.
You know, but that you're alsoinfluencing you know the younger
bands that you know that diggedyour stuff and they're like, oh
(17:21):
shit, yeah, I used to listen toor still do and you know try to
emulate you know trouble.
I mean, how how does that feelknowing that kids are trying to
copy you?
Yeah, yeah.
Bruce Franklin (17:31):
Yeah, well, it it feels great.
Yeah, I mean, you f feel like Ididn't waste 40 some years, you
know.
I can tell you some storiesthough.
Um the last so um we went forlike a five-year span where we
didn't play, mostly because wewere writing songs and then
COVID hit, and so we just wentlike five years without playing.
(17:53):
Not because we were broken up,but all because of those
reasons.
And then so when we playedagain, um the last three times
we've played Chicago, probably60% of the audience are 40 or
under.
Rob Franklin (18:11):
Oh well, nice.
Bruce Franklin (18:12):
So it's not a bunch of 50, 60 year olds, but
man, I remember you in 1980, youknow.
And that well, that is reallyencouraging when you're looking
out and seeing a crowd likethat.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
That's awesome.
Bruce Franklin (18:28):
Knowing you know how old we are and how long
we've been around.
Um, so we we I mean we knowthat and we're thankful for that
big time.
Um, yeah, I mean, and I mean,yeah, I know we I hear things
from other bands, and we knowthe influence that we've had.
It's it you know, it's verynice.
I'll tell you one thing though,there's Black Sabbath, and then
(18:50):
there's everybody else.
Yeah, very nice.
Yeah.
Rob Franklin (18:55):
Yeah, yeah.
So speaking of uh uh recording,how has your recording process
changed from like say when youfirst started to now?
Bruce Franklin (19:07):
Oh, plenty.
That's what I assume.
Well, I mean, if you even wantto start like in our first
record, um our first two recordswe went out to LA and recorded.
Um and it was of course it wasanalog tape, right, you know,
and and now the last two recordswe've recorded uh in a house,
(19:33):
our soundman, you know, has ahundred plus thousand dollars of
equipment.
Um and we've so the last recordthat actually we released like
a dozen years ago or whatever,uh and then someone we have both
recorded like that in a housewith his with his stuff.
Um we didn't mix it there, wemixed it in a real place with a
(19:57):
with with somebody else, but um,and we will do the same with
this new album.
But of course now it's digitalPro Tools and so it's cheaper as
long as you've got goodequipment, you know.
You can't you can't skip andbuy shit.
You know, you gotta have butyou know, um yeah, it's cheaper
(20:20):
and you can record when youwant.
You're not like well we got thestudio blocked out for 20
hours, we gotta get the um so Imean that's what's changed.
So we're taking months torecord this album because we
actually all have in one way oranother have jobs.
(20:41):
Um so I I record on Sundays,like one day a week.
Um and so I mean we did thebasic track together and then
didn't use the guitars, justkept the drums and um, and then
we've been redoing like rhythmguitars.
We're almost done with that.
But I mean, so that's that'sthe difference.
(21:02):
Now we can record like that andstill not lose our life that we
have, you know.
Rob Franklin (21:07):
Right, right.
Well, speaking of recording, Imean, uh, as a follow-up
question, uh what would yousuggest to like new musicians
just getting it just getting tothe process of recording that
maybe on a budget?
Since you've experienced likeall different levels of it, it
sounds like what would be youradvice to those particular
people?
Bruce Franklin (21:27):
Yeah, uh I'm probably not the best person to
ask this because I am not a techhead.
Um but um microphones andpreamps are huge in in the
recording process, superimportant.
Okay, um and um yeah, like Isaid, I'm not I'm I'm not so
(21:49):
much a tech guy, um, and Icouldn't tell you all the
greatest equipment to have, butum I do know that much.
Um the my microphones and andpreamps are huge to to getting a
good sound uh and and a protype sound and not a bad cheap
(22:09):
demo sound.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Okay.
Rob Franklin (22:22):
Good advice.
Dana Franklin (22:23):
Thank you.
Absolutely.
Um so going back to yourrecordings, I mean, every every
fan has, of course, theirfavorite albums and favorite
times with you know every band.
Um and you know, same goes withtrouble, of course.
And then even in my opinion, Imean I love your early stuff.
Uh the era I really love themost, I think, is when you're
with Deaf American and you know,Rick Rubin and some, I mean, it
(22:43):
was just a different changefrom, of course, your like you
said, your first three albums.
Um, but it's it's great to seethe progression.
What what do we what do we havein store for your new album?
What's what direction are youheading with this new one?
Bruce Franklin (22:58):
Uh it's so it's natural, whatever it is.
It isn't like, hey, we're gonnado this on this album.
We're just writing songs, firstof all.
Um so I would say even so withthe last record that we did, um,
with Kyle singing, our currentsinger.
Um uh it's very, you know,probably in the same vein,
(23:20):
although I feel like we have afew better songs on this record.
Um, but so it's kind of anamalgam.
Um so thinking of just the thesongs on the new album, I mean
there's a couple of Doom things,there's a couple of uh longer,
slightly more progressive.
When I say progressive, I don'tmean yes, or dream theater, but
(23:43):
more progressive than ournormal stuff.
Um and then there's somegrooving stuff like the Deaf
American era, like with the likecatchy chorus, not necessarily
sell out, just like we I I justcall it groove metal, you know.
Um and so there's a combinationof of all of that, and I mean
(24:05):
we have more songs than we'regoing to use also.
Um, so um I want to say we have11 originals and we'll probably
use eight on vinyl and maybenine or ten maybe on the on like
CD and digital.
Um so like not every I don'tknow every song that's gonna
(24:29):
make it, but but I got a goodidea what most of them are.
Uh so anyway, it's just a acombination of like the Deaf
American Era songs and kind oflike the early record songs, but
we're just better players thanwe were then.
I mean, we were we were kids.
I was I was 22 when I recordedour first album.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Wow.
Bruce Franklin (24:51):
And it I mean, and people a lot of times a lot
of lot of fans into Doom Metal,that's their favorite record
from Joel.
And like sometimes people ask,well, why do you write songs
like that anymore?
For one thing, I'm not 22anymore.
And I'm a better songwriter anda better player now, you know,
(25:13):
and I just don't want to.
I mean, there like I said,there's a couple songs that are
pretty doom metal on the newrecord, but but it's not gonna
be like the first record,though, you know.
Um, so anyway, it we you know,you grow, you grow as a band,
and Rick and I have been playingtogether, two guitar players
have been playing together fromthe beginning.
And we've grown and done a lotof things.
(25:35):
Um, and so it it just comesnatural.
We we write songs, and that'swhat it is.
Isn't like, well, we need towrite one of these songs, and we
need to write we just writesongs and it ends up being what
it is.
And we've kind of always donethat, to tell you the truth.
Even the Deaf American records,um, the very first one, um we
(25:56):
you know, we kind of buttedheads with Rick Rubin, and uh,
because we had a little bit moreprogressive and longer stuff,
and he wanted to trim that downand make them more like
four-minute songs that get tothe point.
Um, and he let us have a littlebit of the stuff that we wanted
to do, but like he wasinstrumental and kind of a lot
(26:17):
of song keeping like firstchorus bridge first chorus.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Yeah.
Dana Franklin (26:24):
I was gonna ask how much you butt with the
producers and how the fight goeswith that and who ends up
winning.
Bruce Franklin (26:30):
Well, I fought I fought plenty with Rick Rubin,
to tell you the truth.
Um and uh it was it was acompromise.
Um but I wasn't unhappy in theend.
I was happy in the end, to tellyou the truth.
Um and he's helped helped um usgrow as songwriters, actually.
(26:51):
From so I don't want to makeevery song a three and a half or
four-minute song with versechorus, verse chorus, you know.
But um I learned how to writesongs though.
Um and and it helped.
Um and even our even makingthat record, so uh the song
Psychotic Reaction, he reallyliked it.
He thought that's a single, youknow.
(27:12):
He's like, he's like, but thebut the record needs another
psychotic reaction.
So I was like, all right.
I went we were this is likepre-production, we were in LA,
you know.
We're slated to start recordingas soon as he thinks we're
ready.
Um, so we're staying in asuite.
We had two suites because youknow there's five of us.
(27:34):
Um, and I went into thebathroom and I closed the door
because I could hear my guitarin there because of the tile
floor and stuff.
You know, because I didn't havean app in the suite.
And I wrote a song that Ithought was in the vein of
psychotic reaction, but didn'tsound like psychotic psychic.
And uh that ended up being atthe end of my days, and he liked
(27:59):
it so much.
Ruben wanted to lead the albumoff with that song.
Rob Franklin (28:02):
Very cool.
That's a great story.
Hey, speaking of stories, wehave uh a thing we call Oh shit.
It's kind of when something'shappened to either you, the
band, or whatever during eitherrehearsal or a live performance
for you just had no controlover, and it was an oh shit
moment.
unknown (28:19):
Yeah.
Bruce Franklin (28:21):
There's probably a lot of small ones.
I was trying to think of clueme in that you were gonna ask
this.
So I was trying to think of umbecause there's plenty of small
ones that you get through okay,you know.
Um and I could think of a two.
Um one one, so we were playinguh on uh this heavy metal cruise
(28:44):
called 70,000 tons of metal.
Oh yeah, one of the videos.
Yeah, we saw that.
So this particular we've playedit three times.
This particular time was thefirst time we played it, like
about 15 years ago or so.
And so because you fly down toMiami and get on the uh the
ship, you know, and then go onthe cruise, uh, you know, we
(29:07):
didn't have equipment and we hadto go on a plane.
So we didn't want to bring anextra guitar guitar, like you
know, in case something goeswrong or you break a string.
So we didn't have an extraguitar, but we put new strings
on, you know, and like you onlyhave to play two times on the
cruise.
(29:28):
Like, you'll never break astring.
I broke a string.
And we also didn't have crewbecause because of the situation
with the crews.
I mean, they're not paying forus to bring a crew, yeah.
We we we they pay for us tobring our sound, man, that was
as far as they'd go.
So we're basically our ownroadies, right?
Now it is Reddit here, and theyhave it on the stage for you,
(29:51):
but um setting your pedals upand all that stuff, you're doing
yourself.
So, anyway, I break a string inthe middle of the show.
And I'm like, oh.
Crap.
And I I like I told the otherguys I broke a string, I gotta
go change a string.
So the whole crowd is sittingwaiting for me to change a
string on my guitar plug.
(30:12):
That is an ocean.
My hands are shaking becauseI'm like trying to bring up and
I'm nervous.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So that was a pretty old shitmoment.
Normally at a normal gig, Iwould have another guitar I
could use, and I would have atech who would change that
string while I'm playing theother guitar, but in this case,
no.
(30:32):
And then the other one Ithought of wasn't even playing
on stage.
Um we were in Britain, and sopower in Europe is 220.
So I still use that pedal I wastelling you about, that uh
electroharmonics clone theorypedal.
So I have a converter thatconverts the 220 to 110, so that
(31:00):
you don't fry your stuff, youknow?
Um I I just I don't know howthis happened.
I just spaced out and I pluggedmy pedal in without the
converter, and then I knew itimmediately and I plugged it,
but it was too too late.
I fried the pedal.
Oh, and so this is even beforesound check.
(31:22):
And this ended up being a greatstory, though.
Um so we're in London, and sothis is probably four hours
before the show, because this iseven before sound check.
We were just putting our stuffon the stage and setting it up.
And anyway, guy working theshow, a local guy working the
(31:43):
stage at the show, um, you know,he saw this and he heard me
like yelling about it.
And he's like, hey, hey, I knowthis really great uh repair guy
that if he has a part, he canfix it, I'm sure.
Like, oh man, let's go.
Well, there was these coupleother fans from one was from
(32:06):
Norway, one was from Sweden, oneone was from Spain.
And the the British guy that Ijust told you about that was
working the show, they allwanted to come with.
So they were there earlywaiting to get in to see us, you
know.
They were there all were thereearly, um, had traveled to
London.
So we all ride together on thetube to to wherever this place
(32:30):
is that he took us to to therepair guy, and we're talking
and and and I'm kind of laughingbecause like this is an amazing
story.
I got I've got uh Norwegian, aSwede, Spanish, local UK, me the
crazy American, like alltravelers.
We bring it and the guy says,Yeah, I can fix it.
(32:55):
You know, it might it's gonnatake me about an hour and a
half.
So we went and screwed around,walked around and came back, and
the darn if the guy didn't fixit.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
Nice.
Bruce Franklin (33:04):
Um, and still in that condition.
That's the last time it wasworked on.
Dana Franklin (33:10):
Oh, it's oh shit, uh he must have done it well.
Bruce Franklin (33:13):
Yeah, he did do it well, and I was never stupid
enough to do that.
But that was a big old shit,though.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
Yeah.
Bruce Franklin (33:20):
When I fried that pedal, because that is like
like I was telling you, a keyingredient to myself.
All right, all right.
Dana Franklin (33:28):
So I I gotta say, you know, I'm I'm a little
jealous, you know, not onlybecause you're huge and me and
Rob have been trying to do thisfor years also, but you know, I
saw this tribute that you did toChris Cornell, and dude, you
got a voice.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
Yeah, you do.
Dana Franklin (33:40):
I you know, it's like where the hell did you get
that from?
Nobody else in our family cansing like that.
So, y'all, so I'm jealous ofthat.
And and how did that come aboutwhere you did that whole, I
mean, shit, you played guitar,bass, I think everything but the
drums on that song.
And and how'd that come about?
How did how do you what youwhat made you do that?
Bruce Franklin (33:58):
Well, Chris passing away is what made me do
it.
Yeah, I'm gonna do that.
But really, what what reallymade me do it though?
So I was a big fan uh of hissinging, especially, but I I
like Soundgarden a lot.
Um and and um I saw all thewhen when he passed away, all
these different bands were doingtributes.
And I'm watching all these, andand I they're all terrible,
(34:21):
every one of them.
I was like, man, this isbrutal.
I'm talking about big bandstoo.
Like, I mean, maybe they didn'tspend a lot of time learning it
or whatever song they did, butI just saw a bunch of terrible
performances of Soundgardensongs, and I was like, man, I'm
gonna do a tribute, and I'm notgonna I'm gonna do it right.
(34:42):
I'm never gonna sound as goodas Chris Cornell, but I'm gonna
do it justice at least, youknow.
So that was my it was no itnever I didn't even release it.
I we just made a video and putit on YouTube just to pay
tribute to Chris Cornell.
It was awesome.
Yeah, it was awesome.
Dana Franklin (34:58):
I wanted to do it right, you know, and you didn't
could anyway, yeah.
Rob Franklin (35:05):
So getting back to Lake Songs.
Uh, what does your typical setlist consist of?
Uh do you like try to span yourwhole career or do you have
like do you stick with newerstuff?
And and how many songs are inyour typical set?
Bruce Franklin (35:19):
Uh typical set is probably about 14, 15 songs.
Um, yeah, we try to span thecareer.
Um seems like we never playanything from Run to the Light,
though.
Our third record.
Uh people complain.
I've tried the last I've trieda bunch of times to put the song
Run to the Light into a set,and it just ended up nothing
(35:42):
wrong with the song, but justended up it's messing up the
set.
You know, we take it out, theset's perfect.
Like, and we just but but yeah,for the most part, we try to do
stuff through most of ourrecords.
You can never do every singlerecord when you're only playing
14 or 15 songs, but um Yeah, wewe we do plenty from from our
(36:05):
first couple records, and thenplenty from the Deaf American
era, and then you know, we'll dos the some of our newest stuff.
Um I just saw Alice Cooper, andum I was really disappointed in
the set because he did a ton ofstuff from his last 15 or 20
years.
Rob Franklin (36:25):
Right.
Bruce Franklin (36:25):
Um, and most of it I didn't know, and I do know
like some, and he only did fiveof the original band, the Alice
Cooper group, which reallybrought him fame.
He only did five songs fromthat era, and the rest was all
like within the last 20 years.
Um, and I don't want to do thatto our fans, you know.
(36:46):
So we try to do the best wecan, like all our stuff, you
know, through the years.
Dana Franklin (36:54):
So going back to old videos and a shout out to
our little brother John, who youknow wanted to say big hi to
you also.
Um but back in the day, he Yes,he is.
And back in the day, he sentme, I think, one of your very
first videos of showing you knowa famous Black Sabbath member,
Bill Ward, throwing your drummeroff the jump kit and jamming
(37:16):
with you guys.
How did that come about?
And how did you get such a guylike him to be part of your
video?
Bruce Franklin (37:22):
Uh the guy that was shooting the video was
neighbors with Bill Ward.
Rob Franklin (37:27):
Uh oh, okay.
Bruce Franklin (37:28):
And so he asked us, he goes, probably knew that
we were influenced by BlackSabbath.
He asked us, hey, would youguys like like to have Bill Ward
in your video at all?
Wow, we were all all at once,like, hell yeah! So yeah, he got
them to come, and I do rememberum, so that was 87.
(37:50):
That was the run of the lightalbum.
Yeah, it was the run of thelight video.
Dana Franklin (37:54):
Yeah, that's yeah, that's what brought it up.
Bruce Franklin (37:55):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I do remember um thevideographer saying, Um, and I
wasn't really a drinker, butlike some of the guys were, and
he they were like, yeah, he waslike, Yeah, don't don't drink
around him because he's youknow, he's been sober for a
little while, and it's probablynot good to be like drinking a
(38:18):
bunch of beers around him, youknow.
And I so I remember that.
Um and no, and he was great.
He was great.
I don't know whose idea it wasfor him to throw the drummer
off.
I don't know if it was even ouridea, but that was a nice
touch, uh classic, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, I thought it wasgreat.
Rob Franklin (38:36):
Before show, how do you uh how do you warm up?
Do you just do scales or uhwhat's your pre-show uh
basically uh yeah, ritual,ritual, yeah.
Good work.
Yeah, yeah.
Bruce Franklin (38:47):
Yeah, yeah.
Get get in the dressing roomand just probably play a lot of
parts that I'm going to beplaying in the show.
Some of the harder things Iknow that I have to do.
And I didn't used to do a wholelot of warm-ups when I was
younger, but now, man, I got Igot some arthritis stuff going
on.
But if I warm up, I'm usuallyokay, but if I don't, I'm not
(39:08):
okay.
Um, so anyway, yeah, I usuallytry to play a bunch of stuff
that I know will be tougher inthe show and go over it, and
that's kind of how I usuallywarm up.
Okay.
Thank you.
Dana Franklin (39:21):
So uh I got this this one's kind of a two-parter
and nothing to do with anything,but with with your shows, uh I
see so many new guys, new bandsusing in-air monitors.
Are you a big fan of those?
Do you use those?
And second part of this is Isaw a thing with you can have
some upcoming shows in in Mexiconext year.
Um yeah, which I think if Iremember right, reading your
(39:44):
first time in Mexico.
And are you excited about that?
And how'd that come about?
Bruce Franklin (39:49):
All right, first of all, the inner in-ear
monitors, so I can tell you theexperience I have with that is
that I actually play in a churchband that's that does like
contemporary music, and they usein our in-ear monitors.
So I have plenty of experiencewith them.
I don't want to do it withtrouble, although if I was a
singer, I might, because man,you can hear yourself so good.
(40:12):
Um but I as a guitar player Idon't like not having the
ambient sound.
I want to hear my amp sound.
Dana Franklin (40:22):
Yeah, you know, yeah, I would think so.
That's been I see so many ofthese people were now to me that
just seems like a distraction.
Yeah.
Bruce Franklin (40:29):
Yeah.
And we play loud as hell, too,man.
I mean, I still Marshall Stack.
Speaker 3 (40:35):
Nice jump in.
Bruce Franklin (40:38):
Um and we get feedback and stuff, you know.
So anyway, I th that's the wayI want to hear it, you know.
Um, but I do understand forsingers, it really does help the
inner really help you uh getbeyond pitch, because you can
hear yourself so well.
I mean little you know, it itit's brutal honest, you know.
(41:01):
So if you're not hear how notgreat you are, but uh but uh it
really helps though because Ialso sing at w in the church
band too sometimes, not all thetime, but sometimes, and it's
super and it really helpsfinding your pitch having
hearing it like that.
Rob Franklin (41:21):
Hey, Frog.
Bruce Franklin (41:22):
Not so much throwing that rock and roll
stage, man.
You gotta just blast it.
Rob Franklin (41:25):
Yes, there you go.
Dana Franklin (41:28):
Hell yeah.
Rob Franklin (41:30):
And again, for those uh bands out there
listening, what would yousuggest to them as far as uh at
what point should you get likean accountant or a lawyer?
Bruce Franklin (41:40):
Uh lawyer, for if you're signing any contract,
you need a lawyer.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
Right.
Bruce Franklin (41:46):
Um, no matter how small or big.
Um accountant, even I don'tthink even we had the kind of
money where you really need anaccountant.
Um, I mean, I didn't get rich.
Um, but and it wasn't becauseof mistakes like um you know
(42:07):
having bad accounting.
Um so I don't I can't reallyanswer that.
We I don't think we're reallyat the level where you really
need that.
And there aren't many in thisday and age anymore.
So I mean we could have thiswhole discussion of um uh uh
when the legacy bands die out,man, there aren't gonna be any
more huge bands.
(42:29):
Yeah, the music business isjust nobody makes money off of
records.
I mean, you know, there's nonowhere near the money that
there used to be.
And that's why there's only acouple of record labels, I mean
major ones.
Um so anyway, I don't thinkanybody's gonna ru not many,
like like maybe a fraction of apercent of bands might have to
(42:53):
worry about accounting, youknow.
All right.
Dana Franklin (42:56):
Yeah, fair enough.
Yeah, the music industry haschanged so much.
I mean, it's it's it'sridiculous, it's almost sad, but
um Yeah.
Bruce Franklin (43:04):
Well, anybody anybody that asks me about like
doing it as a career, I tellthem don't make it your main
career because there's notenough money.
Dana Franklin (43:13):
Yeah.
So so going back to, you know,like said with your career, is
there you know, hindsight'salways 2020.
Is there anything you wouldhave changed 10, 20, 30 years
ago that you think might havebeen better for the band, or any
anything you would have changedthat might have made you get
over, you know, that thatplateau of being one of those
(43:34):
legacy bands like you weretalking about?
Bruce Franklin (43:37):
Well, there's one thing I would change.
Um so after uh the ManicFrustration album, guys in the
band were talking about we'renot getting enough money.
We you know, we want to get outof, we want to get out of our
contract.
Well, we want well, firstly, wewant more money from uh
(43:57):
American Deaf Americanrecordings, or we want out of
our contract.
And I remember thinking, man,you guys are nuts.
Like we fought our way to gethere, and we're here at you
know, like the highest level,you know, not the highest of the
highest level, the lowest ofthe highest level, but we made
it to the highest level.
And and you know, uh I thoughtit was a mistake, but I was
(44:23):
outvoted, and so we ended upleaving Deaf America.
We so a lot of people think wegot dropped.
We did not get dropped.
The band asked out of thecontract.
Speaker 3 (44:34):
Oh okay.
Bruce Franklin (44:35):
He I think he was pissed, but he was like, All
right, you know, and um and wedid get more money for one
record, you know, and then likethen our career kind of
nosedived, you know, like I meanin you know the amount of I
mean we weren't getting his highprofile tours and and that kind
(44:58):
of stuff, you know.
Um and I don't know how muchwould have changed because you
know the you know the wholemusic scene was changing anyway.
It went through the grungething and then new metal, and
maybe it it wouldn't have helpedif we had stayed on Deaf
American, but it sure couldn'thave hurt.
Um because the you have thoseresources of a major label,
(45:21):
yeah, you know.
Um so I think maybe that wouldbe the one thing that I would
change and would like to see ifit would have made a difference,
but we'll never know, you know.
Rob Franklin (45:32):
Okay, you said you're not a tech guy, but uh as
far as like rehearsals, do youguys ever send files back and
forth to each other to likeconstruct the song, or is it all
live when you're together?
Bruce Franklin (45:44):
It's live when we're together, but so we did
rehearsals in the same housewhere we're recording, and our
sound guy would record ourrehearsals of our new songs and
send them to everybody, and sowe'd have recordings and be able
to talk about it.
And so in that way, yes.
Um but we don't record like atour house, you know, and then
(46:10):
send them to everybody and say,look, here's a new song I'm
working on, you know.
Okay it's we get together in aroom and play it.
Rob Franklin (46:16):
Right.
And how often, if you don'tmind me asking, do you guys
rehearse?
Bruce Franklin (46:20):
Um, we never rehearse unless we have gigs or
if we're working on a record.
Okay.
In the beginning, we rehearsedfour nights a week no matter
what.
And that's what made us areally great tight band.
Like we were like the tightestmetal band in Chicago because of
that.
Speaker 3 (46:40):
Yeah.
Bruce Franklin (46:41):
Um not that you know, we don't do that, but so
for we we played last time weplayed live was in May.
We have these shows in Mexicoat the end of February.
We'll probably start rehearsalmaybe in late January, one time
a week.
Rob Franklin (46:58):
Okay.
Dana Franklin (46:59):
Oh, alright.
Um, so with your huge catalogthat you've got and all the
songs and albums, you know, I'mgonna ask you that one question.
What is your favorite album andyour one favorite song?
If there's a if there's to pickone album and one song, what
would it be?
Bruce Franklin (47:18):
Of Trouble?
Yes.
Or anything.
Dana Franklin (47:20):
No, of trouble.
Of your of your own material.
Bruce Franklin (47:24):
Alright, so the song will be harder to choose,
but the album for sure for me isthat first deaf American
record, the trouble 1990s.
Dana Franklin (47:32):
Nice.
That's awesome, because that'smy favorite too.
That it's that manicfrustration out low.
Bruce Franklin (47:38):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I um I was super involved withthat record.
I I wrote um, I don't know,probably 80% of the music on
that record.
I was in the studio for everyminute of the recording, of no
matter who was recording.
Um, and I just saw this, sawthat record as this is our shot.
(48:01):
Because we were on, you know,Metal Blade Records was indie
label, you know, and then we getsigned to a major with Rick
Rubin producing, and I was thisis our shot.
I'm gonna I'm gonna doeverything I can to make this
great, you know.
And I was actually, so you guysmay have heard stories about
Rick Rubin, like when he'sproducing, he's not always
(48:24):
there.
I don't know if you've heardthose stories.
Yeah, I've heard lots of peopleI've told.
Speaker 3 (48:29):
Yeah.
Bruce Franklin (48:29):
Um, and it was it was no different with us.
He wasn't there much of thetime.
Rob Franklin (48:34):
Really?
Wow.
Bruce Franklin (48:35):
So I was actually producing the vocals
with Eric every day, and I puthim through the ringer, man.
Um, but it was the best he eversounded.
Um, because I knew we had to dothat.
This was our shot, you know.
And he sometimes he was kind ofmad at me because I'd make him
(48:55):
do stuff till it was as as goodas he could possibly do.
But um, so that whole record, Ihad that attitude, like, you
know, like do everything can tomake this great, you know.
So and then and I feel likethat's the way it turned out.
Um, so that's why it's myfavorite record.
Dana Franklin (49:14):
Okay.
Um now I think in talking withyou, you said something, you
mentioned something about youknow, selling your catalog, and
you've got a new company youwere at Hammer, Hammerhead,
Hammerheart.
Uh how did how did that comeabout?
And you know, what what whatmade that happen?
Bruce Franklin (49:34):
Uh he contacted us.
So uh there's a guy that ownsthe label, and he contacted us
um and he was interested inreleasing everything we had.
And at the time we told him,well, we don't have everything,
you know.
Um we have some stuff we couldand he wanted everything.
Um so anyway, a couple yearswent by and it got to the point
(49:59):
where we basically ownedeverything except for one
record, the run to the lightrecord, Metal Blade Record,
still owns and probably will befor life because we because of
the contract we signed, but theythey did re-release that record
and gave us some money and wehad some input on the
re-release.
Um, so anyway, at least theydid that.
(50:20):
But the whole rest of thecatalog we basically owned.
So we ended up selling to thisguy for uh 10 years, and he gave
us uh in advance, um and it wasin the tens of thousands.
Um and Rick and I both thoughtthis is you know, I we were both
(50:45):
hoping we'd maybe get more forour catalog, and we were both
thought we'd never see anothercent.
But here's the good part.
So it took about two and a halfyears to recoup that advance,
and now we're getting likeregular royalties because
(51:05):
they're still selling.
Rob Franklin (51:07):
Very cool.
That's great.
Bruce Franklin (51:09):
That's been a huge blessing, and also that's
what's a lot of those youngpeople that you were talking
about are like buying our stuffbecause they're just getting
turned on to trouble.
They want to they want to buythe vinyl, they want to buy the
CD, and they're buying fromHammerheart, you know.
Cool.
Um so yeah, it's been great.
(51:29):
I mean, I I I have nothing badto say about them, and that's
maybe the first label I couldever say that about.
Rob Franklin (51:39):
Well, Bruce, we don't want to take your whole
night here, but uh what advicewould you have for like new
musicians just getting ready tolike start hitting the stage?
What's what would be your mainpiece of advice to those
individuals?
Bruce Franklin (51:53):
Uh spend plenty of re time rehearsing and
knowing that you have yourmaterial together as a band.
Um and as a band is the key,not just yourself.
Yeah, you know, if you yougotta listen to your other
players in your band, and ifsomething's not right, you gotta
make it right.
Not you can't only worry aboutyourself, you know.
(52:14):
Um, but that's the key, yeah.
And then you come out, and ifyou sound great as a band and
what you're doing, good thingsusually happen, you know,
whatever degree that may be, youknow.
Dana Franklin (52:27):
Awesome.
Um with uh now what now what doyou plan?
I know you you have a biginfluence overseas, and you've
done a lot of stuff overseaswith me at festivals or
whatever.
What what do you think has madeit to where you know overseas
you might have a bigger namethan here in the States?
Is it just because they knowtheir music better over there?
Which I mean I I would agreewith because they got a lot of
(52:49):
great bands over there.
But what do you what do youthink is is the focus on you
know why they love trouble maybea little bit more than the
states?
Bruce Franklin (53:01):
Well, it wasn't always that way, so I think a
lot of it has to do with umheavy metal still does good
business.
Uh last I knew it.
We haven't been to Europe in afew years, but I mean heavy
metal still is alive and well inEurope.
Oh it is Britain and you andrest of Europe.
(53:23):
Um and it died in America.
I mean, you know, there's somefans, but it's it's nowhere near
what it was.
Rob Franklin (53:32):
Yeah.
Bruce Franklin (53:32):
So I would say, you know, like in the eighties
and nineties, we were muchbigger in America than we were
in Europe.
But in the last 20 years, 20,25 years, we've become bigger in
Europe.
Only because that kind of musicis still popular over there.
You go over there and playfestivals to you know, tens or
(53:54):
hundreds of thousands, you know.
I mean, we played the biggestfestival we ever played was uh
this was was actually in thelater nineties, but um uh we
played a festival in theNetherlands um and it was a
hundred and ten thousand there,and there was about seventy-five
thousand watching us when weplayed.
(54:16):
And that that's never gonnahappen in America, not you know,
not for us.
Dana Franklin (54:22):
Well, yeah, not for anybody anymore, actually.
Bruce Franklin (54:26):
But they're not that big, you know.
Even the ones where like say uhPoison and Molly Crew and those
kind of bands play, and theremight be 50,000, you know, maybe
40,000, but there ain't no ahundred thousands.
And I mean we've played Walkenalso, like you know, like forty
(54:47):
thousand there, and um andthere's bigger ones, even like
the ones a couple of the ones inuh Britain are pretty big, and
in German, there's some more inGermany.
I'm trying to remember themall, but um, there's just tons
of festivals and they draw tensof thousands of people, you
know, and it just that doesn'thappen in America, you know.
Not uh not now, not these days.
Dana Franklin (55:09):
Yeah, which is which is too bad.
You know, it's yeah.
Bruce Franklin (55:14):
Yes, but not not anymore.
Dana Franklin (55:18):
Well, you know, it's it's I I can't even say how
how awesome this has beentalking to you.
Not not only just catching upwith you, cousin, but just you
know, having a having a memberof such a prominent band, you
know, on our podcast is like Isaid, from day one, we're we
were hoping to get you and talkto you.
So any any any last words toyou know, what would you say to
(55:38):
people out there like trouble?
Who who who is trouble?
How would you introduceyourself to a new listener?
Bruce Franklin (55:45):
Great question.
Uh so it depends.
So if it's somebody that knowsmetal is one thing, if it's just
a person that doesn't likereally know a ton of like the
details about heavy metal, I'lltell like regular people when
they ask about my band, I'llsay, well, it kind of sounds
like a cross between BlackSabbath and Led Zeppelin and a
(56:08):
little bit of Metallica mixedin.
Um but like people that knowmetal, I you know, I would tell
them more, you know, like BlackSabbath and Judas Priest, you
know, kind of mixed and youknow, similar with the vocals of
like Robert Plant.
(56:28):
I mean, our original singer waslike that.
Dana Franklin (56:33):
So you're you're your first show.
Um I I think I saw a poster oflike the first time you ever
opened, and I think it was forMegadeth.
Is is that it, or was there ashow that preceded that?
Well, I mean, first I guessmajor show of opening for a
major band.
Well, okay, who was it?
Bruce Franklin (56:52):
Um maybe uh well, they weren't a major band.
That was their very first show.
Speaker 3 (56:56):
Oh, okay.
Bruce Franklin (56:59):
So you know, Dave Mustaine had been kicked
out of Metallica before thefirst record, you know.
Um, so he wasn't a huge name.
I mean, he wasn't a big name.
Dana Franklin (57:11):
So you're you're I don't know.
Yeah, your first I would I'dsay I okay, let me rephrase
this.
Your first show with the with abig name at the time.
Bruce Franklin (57:19):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, and it was in SanFrancisco, so that's where he's
from.
Yeah.
That's where they were based.
So yeah.
Um I'm trying, well, you knowwhat?
Is that I'm trying to rememberthe the years because we went
out to LA to record our firstalbum, and then we went out six
months later to out to LA againto record our second album.
(57:40):
And one of those times, and Ican't remember which time, it
probably was the second time.
So we did four or four or fiveshows with Slayer.
I think that was the secondtime though.
That was the second time wewere in California.
The first time was when we didthe show you're talking about.
So maybe that was um I'm tryingto think if we played with
(58:03):
anybody back here in Chicago.
Um I can't can't I don't wantto take too much time to think
about it.
I I d that may have been maybethe first uh uh but Megadeth
really wasn't anybody yet, andthey were off.
I mean they were bad, man.
It was their very first show,they were terrible.
(58:26):
I remember I remember thinkingthis band's never gonna amount
to anything, man.
They're terrible.
Uh and they were, but I meanthat was their first show, and
they, you know, obviously theythey took it from there.
Rob Franklin (58:41):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, Bruce, this has beentotally outstanding.
And like Dan and I saidearlier, you know, we've wanted
to do this for a year now.
In fact, our anniversary for ayear is uh the 20th.
So uh thank you, thank you verymuch.
And in closing, uh all I've gotto say is I really appreciate
you doing this for us.
Bruce Franklin (59:01):
All right, well, thank you guys.
Dana Franklin (59:02):
Uh, definitely been our pleasure, and we we
gotta we gotta catch up moreeven outside the podcast just to
stay in touch, man.
And you know, good luck with uhthe new album.
We expect some clips before thegeneral public.
I mean I mean stuff in our wayand you know, give us a little
taste.
Rob Franklin (59:20):
Okay.
All right, man.
Thank you, everybody, and bye.
Dana Franklin (59:24):
Yeah, peace out.
Thank you, Bruce.
Appreciate it, man.
Rob Franklin (59:27):
Yeah.
All right, bye.
Hi, welcome to Franklin's Garage to State
Podcast.
My name is Rob WardrumsFranklin, and my co-host, my
friend, my brother, my bandmateis Dana Thunderbase Franklin.
How you doing, man?
Dana Franklin (00:15):
Good, good.
Rob Franklin (00:16):
Hey, good.
Hey, this episode is somethingwe've been looking forward to
and talking about for almost ayear, so I'm really, really,
really excited about doing thisone.
His dad and my dad used to gettogether and make us laugh so
hard my stomach would hurt.
That's kind of like a littleteaser where we're going here.
But uh David, you want tointroduce our uh very special
(00:37):
guest today?
Dana Franklin (00:38):
Oh, I'd love to.
Um not only a fellow musician,but you know, as as our name
implies, you know, our with ourshow is Franklin's Garage of
Stage.
And uh, you know, like like Robsaid here, it's you know, when
we first started this podcast,uh we had in mind the one person
that we you know thought wouldreally uh show and be a special
guest for us, and and we'rewe're pleased to have him with
(01:00):
us today.
And and you'll notice the lastthing because the last thing is
Franklin also.
Um Mr.
Bruce Franklin, who's uh youknow one of the founders and
guitar players for uh you know,in my opinion, one of the best
bands out there, but um also uhuh what is classified as a doom
metal band back in the day, butyou know listed alongside Black
(01:24):
Sabbath Candomass is one of themain influences of death of Doom
Metal and the band Trouble.
Mr.
Bruce Franklin, how you doing,man?
Bruce Franklin (01:34):
Doing great.
Great to see you guys.
Rob Franklin (01:36):
Uh good to see you, really good to see you.
It's it's been a minute.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
It's been a long time.
Yeah.
Rob Franklin (01:42):
So, Bruce, you know, I searched high and low on
your website and your socials,but I didn't really see uh a
specific bio for you.
So could you tell our all ourlisteners uh basically your
start and and how you got to thepoint you're at today?
Bruce Franklin (01:59):
Yeah, sure.
Um try to not ramble.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
No, ramble away.
Go for it.
Bruce Franklin (02:06):
Um well, so I started like a lot of people do
uh when I was in high school.
I got together with a bunch ofguys, and it was our all of our
first band, and we did coversongs and played a handful of
gigs, you know, and uh it was agood experience to get going.
I'm sure you guys went throughthat same thing.
(02:27):
Um, but then I it was at apoint where I wasn't satisfied
with that, and I was looking todo something more serious, and
it just coincided withgraduating high school and
choosing not to go to college.
I go to I had opportunities,but I chose to go for music, and
(02:49):
um about a month after my 18thbirthday, um the singer and I
from this band were lookingthrough ads in um Illinois music
paper, actually reallyconcentrated in the Chicago
area, and we found so this is1979.
We found some guys playing thekind of music we wanted to play,
(03:13):
which was at that timeincreasingly smaller because New
Wave was kind of what was in,you know, and we found I still
remember the ad reading the ad.
Um, you know, uh uh the name ofthe band was Trouble, uh guitar
player, bass player, drummerseek uh second guitar player and
(03:37):
singer.
And like, well that's us.
Influence, X Sabbath, UFO,Judas Priest, then Lizzie.
And I was like, I'm down forthat, man.
Because that's exactly what Iwanted to do.
I mean, at least to start offwith, you know, you're talking
about cover songs.
So we went and auditioned anduh we got accepted and joined
(04:02):
the band.
Um and this so when I said thesinger from my first band, who
was the original singer introuble, Eric Wagner.
So we we joined in 1979, andthat's when that's when it kind
of got to more like the title ofyour podcast, the garage to the
(04:22):
stage.
Where I mean we you know, wehad our time where we had to
learn all our songs, and westarted writing originals, and
so we started gigging out likefairly frequently eventually,
um, and uh the more originals wegot, the more we s we saw more
people coming to see us.
(04:43):
People were interested.
This is again obviously thatthat isn't today, but this was
that and people really weredigging our originals, and you
know, at some point we switchedto almost all originals and just
a couple of covers.
But that so that's when it kindof got more serious, and I knew
that I I made the right choice,at least in my mind, maybe not
(05:07):
financially, but but uh what Iwould love to do, I felt like I
made the right choice.
And it went from thereeventually.
I don't want to go through thewhole thing because you probably
have other questions, buteventually we got a record deal
in small label, and theneventually on a big label, and
anyway, that's how I got towhere I'm at.
Um, like a 40-some-year careerwith trouble.
Dana Franklin (05:31):
Awesome, awesome.
Um, so I remember us you knowas kids, of course, and you
know, parents' backyard runningaround and doing our stupid
little games that we did as kidsand shit.
Um, but you know, and myearliest recollection, I
remember you you know startedplaying guitar, you know, you
must have been nine, ten yearsold, maybe a little bit later,
I'm not sure.
Can you tell us a little bitabout you know when that started
(05:53):
for you?
And and uh you know, the secondpart of this question is at
what point did you realize, youknow what, music is the path I
want to take in my life, andevery everything else sucks.
It's gotta be music.
Rob Franklin (06:05):
Good question.
Good question.
Bruce Franklin (06:07):
Well, okay, so so here's the thing.
So the Monkeys TV show is whatlooked like six years old.
Now I didn't start playing yet,but that's I told my parents I
wanted to actually they got me alittle kind of toy drum kit.
Uh it was kind of real, kind oftoy.
(06:27):
It wasn't 100% real, butanyway, I drove them nuts with
it the making noise with that.
And at some point they said,uh, you know what, you're gonna
change instruments to guitar.
They got a guitar and theystarted me guitar lessons, and
by this time I was eight.
So that's I started when I waseight.
I took uh guitar lessons forabout two years or so, and you
(06:52):
guys remember my parents gotdivorced, um, and money was
tight.
My mom couldn't really affordto keep doing lessons, so I you
know, I had the foundation ofwhat I learned in those couple
of years of lessons, and I juststarted teaching myself from
records, which a lot of peopledo, you know.
Rob Franklin (07:09):
Yeah, oh yeah.
It's obviously worked for you.
Bruce Franklin (07:12):
But so to the point of so I knew I didn't
know, you know, maybe you know,when you're 11, you might not
know it's what you want to dofor the rest of your life and
your career and everything,maybe, but I knew that I loved
music and wanted to do it, youknow.
So it would be later on, maybe,when I really decided this is
(07:36):
what I really want to do for mylife, you know.
Rob Franklin (07:38):
Nice, you're kind of about two-partner here.
Uh, who are your like earliestinfluences besides the monkeys,
and then how has your equipmentprogressed from that time to to
now, basically?
And what do you currently playthrough as far as axe, amp, man,
effects?
Bruce Franklin (07:53):
Yeah.
Um, well, so I did like um, nowwe're talking young.
Um, I did like some of thepsychedelic music that I would
hear.
And then my mom, I remember mymom had a Mamas and Papa's album
and a Beatles album and a fewMotown albums.
So that was like my early,early, like really young, like
(08:16):
six, seven, eight, nine yearsold.
Um and then I think it wasabout 11 years old, is when I
really found rock and roll.
I started listening to theradio and then started getting
albums.
And so I liked hard.
At first I liked kind ofpopular rock, but uh not long
(08:38):
after that I started gettinginto the like and it was big for
the time.
Rob remembers this obviously,um like in the early 70s 70s
there was a lot of hard rock, alot of great hard rock.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Oh yeah, yeah.
Bruce Franklin (08:55):
So that's that was a big influence in shaping
where I wanted to go.
Um, as for equipment, uh I hadsome piece of junk little lamp.
I couldn't even tell you whatit was.
I mean, I'm talking about earlylike when I was nine years old,
ten years old.
Um, and uh and a piece of junkuh telecaster copy.
(09:17):
You know, and I had that untilI bought a real guitar when I
was about 17.
Um about 17, I got my firstflying feed.
Um and I had graduated to acustom amp, you know, the brand
custom with K.
Um and uh it was a lot betterthan the piece of crap little
(09:41):
amp I had, but it still wasn'twhat I I really wanted in the
end.
But um, so I had that for alittle while, even at the
beginning of this first bandthat I was in, I had that that
amp.
But I had by that time I hadgotten that fairly decent
guitar, and uh then um the endof my first band that I was in,
I got a Marshall Stack.
(10:03):
Um my mom helped me finance,she didn't pay for it.
I had to pay her, she boughtit, and I had to make the
payments to her.
Um, but so that was I had myfive yen Marshall Stack, and
that was the beginning offinding the sound that I
eventually would have withtrouble.
Um yeah, and just developed itwith trouble.
(10:26):
Um so um, yeah, all the earlydays I was playing this uh it's
actually an Ibanez rock androll.
Um, and it's not a cheap copy.
It's it's so there's a wholestory behind this Ibanez guitar,
Ibanez rock and roll.
It's it's the closest you couldget to the original 57 Gibson,
(10:50):
that wood grain with the whitepick guard Gibson.
They it was the original 57,that's what they copied, and
they copied it so close, andit's so good that Gibson sued
them, and they only made thosefor two years.
So I've actually got two ofthem.
Dana Franklin (11:07):
Nice.
Bruce Franklin (11:09):
And there's great guitars.
So a lot of times people likesee my guitar up close and they
go, Oh, it's an Ivanz.
Man, this Ivaniz is better thanmost Gibson's, you know.
There are some years, some goodyears of Gibson's that are
really good, but anyway, so thatthat was the early days of
trouble, especially.
I was playing that guitar onMarshall, and I found this
(11:31):
pedal, this is another big partof it, this uh electroharmonics
pedal called the clone theory.
And it's uh it's like a chorus,it was chorus and flange.
I never used the flange, I usedthe chorus, and it also gave
this little edge to the sound,like a bite to it almost, almost
(11:51):
like a little bit of a boost.
And that was like I still havethat very same one, that pedal
that I got in 1979.
Is that right?
Wow.
Still use it to this day.
That was a key ingredient of mysound.
Okay.
Dana Franklin (12:07):
Awesome.
Well, go well, going to yoursound, you know.
I've I've read or heard storiesabout, you know, and you know,
maybe you can elaborate on thisa little bit about times where
you know certain members ofMetallica would try to get on
stage because they loved yoursound so much and wanted to copy
it and and see what you weredoing as far as amp settings and
(12:28):
stuff like that.
Is there any truth to that?
Bruce Franklin (12:30):
Well, I don't know if it's as as uh you know
as much as what you just said,but one time, so you you saw us
play at the stone, Kirk.
Dana Franklin (12:40):
Yes, yes.
I was gonna bring that up too.
Bruce Franklin (12:42):
One of the times we were playing at the stone,
it was early on.
It may have been when we in1987 we were we toured with King
Diamond and we played there.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Nice.
Bruce Franklin (12:53):
Lars and James and Kirk were all there, and it
may have been that time.
Reason I'm not sure becauseJames came and seen us three
times there, but I think thatwas the time in '87.
And so he and we had done soundcheck but didn't play yet.
And after we finished our soundcheck, I saw them walk up on
(13:15):
the stage and they're looking atour amps.
Now that doesn't mean that, oh,we need to steal their sound,
you know.
But I'm sure but they werecurious, I'm sure, because you
know, it it it's a fairly uniquesound.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Pretty heavy sound, and fairlyunique.
I'm sure they were curious, youknow.
And anyway, they were bothlooking, they looked at both of
our marshals, you know, RickBortel and myself, both of our
(13:40):
amps, and yeah, I please so thisstory gained legs because Eric
Wagner, the singer, in aninterview once said something
more like what you said in thebeginning.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
And I don't know if that's maybe that's where I got
it from.
Bruce Franklin (13:54):
Yeah, maybe I don't know if that's completely
the case, but they were lookingat our amps, like definitely had
to have been curious.
Yeah.
Rob Franklin (14:03):
Speaking of band members, uh, your new drummer,
Gary Naples, what was the uhaudition process, or was it more
like you already knew who hewas and what he could do, or did
you actually have an auditionprocess?
Bruce Franklin (14:15):
We did have an audition, um, but um so our bass
player knew him, and the bandthat we knew he's in a few
bands, but the band we reallyknew him from was a band called
November's Doom.
And we had played uh justplayed a show where they were
opening the show um like a yearearlier.
(14:36):
Um, and then our bass playerknew him, said he's a great guy,
says he's a great drummer.
I had a friend of mine,actually the guy that supplied
me with this computer tonight,and uh he's an older guy like
me.
Um, and those were the only twoguys that we auditioned because
we knew they were both gooddrummers, and in the end, um it
(14:58):
was it didn't end up even havingto be a choice because the
older guy decided that heprobably couldn't really commit
to as much as we were gonnaneed, and he kind of bowed out.
So that left Gary.
And so um we we liked that hewas younger because he's 38, or
maybe he's 39 now.
Dana Franklin (15:18):
Oh, the kid in the king's thirty.
Bruce Franklin (15:20):
He's a puppy.
I I'm old enough to be hisfather, yes.
But we liked that uh he broughtenergy, and what we really
liked, I mean he he has chops,but what we really liked is um
his timing's impeccable.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Nice.
Bruce Franklin (15:37):
Um and we found this uh, in fact, part of the
audition was learning two of ournew songs from our new record
and um playing with a clickcheck to these new songs.
Rob Franklin (15:50):
Next question.
Bruce Franklin (15:51):
Well, that's what he nailed.
Um, and then we had then weasked him to play some of our
hardest, more progressive songsfor the callback kind of thing,
you know.
And he did those really greattoo.
And then we we said, Well, wethink he's gonna work, you know.
We we knew that he had enoughthat as long as we worked with
(16:12):
him that it would work out, andit has.
Cool.
Dana Franklin (16:15):
Awesome, cool, very cool.
Now going back to the the tothe young kids and stuff, me and
Rob had uh experience with youknow, when we were starting to
get playing again out here, youknow, when Rob came back out
here in North Carolina, and umwe had a couple young kids we
were playing with, you know,actually one was 18 and one was
20, so real young talent.
But the funny story is uh youknow, this 20-year-old singer
(16:36):
comes up to us, and me and Robhappened to be talking about the
podcast and what we were doingand stuff, and you know, and
somehow I think your name ortrouble came up, and he's like,
oh shit, that's your cousin.
And he went out to his car,pulled out a CD, and sure as
shit, it was trouble.
And it was just I mean, it'sit's great to see you know the
young, a younger kid, you know,listening to Trouble, you know,
(16:59):
well, things, you know,everybody our age is 50s or 60s,
whatever.
You know, so how do you feelknowing that number one, you're
uh classified as one of the bigfour of the doom metals
alongside, like I said,Candlemas, like Vitus, you know,
Black Sabbath.
You know, but that you're alsoinfluencing you know the younger
bands that you know that diggedyour stuff and they're like, oh
(17:21):
shit, yeah, I used to listen toor still do and you know try to
emulate you know trouble.
I mean, how how does that feelknowing that kids are trying to
copy you?
Yeah, yeah.
Bruce Franklin (17:31):
Yeah, well, it it feels great.
Yeah, I mean, you f feel like Ididn't waste 40 some years, you
know.
I can tell you some storiesthough.
Um the last so um we went forlike a five-year span where we
didn't play, mostly because wewere writing songs and then
COVID hit, and so we just wentlike five years without playing.
(17:53):
Not because we were broken up,but all because of those
reasons.
And then so when we playedagain, um the last three times
we've played Chicago, probably60% of the audience are 40 or
under.
Rob Franklin (18:11):
Oh well, nice.
Bruce Franklin (18:12):
So it's not a bunch of 50, 60 year olds, but
man, I remember you in 1980, youknow.
And that well, that is reallyencouraging when you're looking
out and seeing a crowd likethat.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
That's awesome.
Bruce Franklin (18:28):
Knowing you know how old we are and how long
we've been around.
Um, so we we I mean we knowthat and we're thankful for that
big time.
Um, yeah, I mean, and I mean,yeah, I know we I hear things
from other bands, and we knowthe influence that we've had.
It's it you know, it's verynice.
I'll tell you one thing though,there's Black Sabbath, and then
(18:50):
there's everybody else.
Yeah, very nice.
Yeah.
Rob Franklin (18:55):
Yeah, yeah.
So speaking of uh uh recording,how has your recording process
changed from like say when youfirst started to now?
Bruce Franklin (19:07):
Oh, plenty.
That's what I assume.
Well, I mean, if you even wantto start like in our first
record, um our first two recordswe went out to LA and recorded.
Um and it was of course it wasanalog tape, right, you know,
and and now the last two recordswe've recorded uh in a house,
(19:33):
our soundman, you know, has ahundred plus thousand dollars of
equipment.
Um and we've so the last recordthat actually we released like
a dozen years ago or whatever,uh and then someone we have both
recorded like that in a housewith his with his stuff.
Um we didn't mix it there, wemixed it in a real place with a
(19:57):
with with somebody else, but um,and we will do the same with
this new album.
But of course now it's digitalPro Tools and so it's cheaper as
long as you've got goodequipment, you know.
You can't you can't skip andbuy shit.
You know, you gotta have butyou know, um yeah, it's cheaper
(20:20):
and you can record when youwant.
You're not like well we got thestudio blocked out for 20
hours, we gotta get the um so Imean that's what's changed.
So we're taking months torecord this album because we
actually all have in one way oranother have jobs.
(20:41):
Um so I I record on Sundays,like one day a week.
Um and so I mean we did thebasic track together and then
didn't use the guitars, justkept the drums and um, and then
we've been redoing like rhythmguitars.
We're almost done with that.
But I mean, so that's that'sthe difference.
(21:02):
Now we can record like that andstill not lose our life that we
have, you know.
Rob Franklin (21:07):
Right, right.
Well, speaking of recording, Imean, uh, as a follow-up
question, uh what would yousuggest to like new musicians
just getting it just getting tothe process of recording that
maybe on a budget?
Since you've experienced likeall different levels of it, it
sounds like what would be youradvice to those particular
people?
Bruce Franklin (21:27):
Yeah, uh I'm probably not the best person to
ask this because I am not a techhead.
Um but um microphones andpreamps are huge in in the
recording process, superimportant.
Okay, um and um yeah, like Isaid, I'm not I'm I'm not so
(21:49):
much a tech guy, um, and Icouldn't tell you all the
greatest equipment to have, butum I do know that much.
Um the my microphones and andpreamps are huge to to getting a
good sound uh and and a protype sound and not a bad cheap
(22:09):
demo sound.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Okay.
Rob Franklin (22:22):
Good advice.
Dana Franklin (22:23):
Thank you.
Absolutely.
Um so going back to yourrecordings, I mean, every every
fan has, of course, theirfavorite albums and favorite
times with you know every band.
Um and you know, same goes withtrouble, of course.
And then even in my opinion, Imean I love your early stuff.
Uh the era I really love themost, I think, is when you're
with Deaf American and you know,Rick Rubin and some, I mean, it
(22:43):
was just a different changefrom, of course, your like you
said, your first three albums.
Um, but it's it's great to seethe progression.
What what do we what do we havein store for your new album?
What's what direction are youheading with this new one?
Bruce Franklin (22:58):
Uh it's so it's natural, whatever it is.
It isn't like, hey, we're gonnado this on this album.
We're just writing songs, firstof all.
Um so I would say even so withthe last record that we did, um,
with Kyle singing, our currentsinger.
Um uh it's very, you know,probably in the same vein,
(23:20):
although I feel like we have afew better songs on this record.
Um, but so it's kind of anamalgam.
Um so thinking of just the thesongs on the new album, I mean
there's a couple of Doom things,there's a couple of uh longer,
slightly more progressive.
When I say progressive, I don'tmean yes, or dream theater, but
(23:43):
more progressive than ournormal stuff.
Um and then there's somegrooving stuff like the Deaf
American era, like with the likecatchy chorus, not necessarily
sell out, just like we I I justcall it groove metal, you know.
Um and so there's a combinationof of all of that, and I mean
(24:05):
we have more songs than we'regoing to use also.
Um, so um I want to say we have11 originals and we'll probably
use eight on vinyl and maybenine or ten maybe on the on like
CD and digital.
Um so like not every I don'tknow every song that's gonna
(24:29):
make it, but but I got a goodidea what most of them are.
Uh so anyway, it's just a acombination of like the Deaf
American Era songs and kind oflike the early record songs, but
we're just better players thanwe were then.
I mean, we were we were kids.
I was I was 22 when I recordedour first album.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Wow.
Bruce Franklin (24:51):
And it I mean, and people a lot of times a lot
of lot of fans into Doom Metal,that's their favorite record
from Joel.
And like sometimes people ask,well, why do you write songs
like that anymore?
For one thing, I'm not 22anymore.
And I'm a better songwriter anda better player now, you know,
(25:13):
and I just don't want to.
I mean, there like I said,there's a couple songs that are
pretty doom metal on the newrecord, but but it's not gonna
be like the first record,though, you know.
Um, so anyway, it we you know,you grow, you grow as a band,
and Rick and I have been playingtogether, two guitar players
have been playing together fromthe beginning.
And we've grown and done a lotof things.
(25:35):
Um, and so it it just comesnatural.
We we write songs, and that'swhat it is.
Isn't like, well, we need towrite one of these songs, and we
need to write we just writesongs and it ends up being what
it is.
And we've kind of always donethat, to tell you the truth.
Even the Deaf American records,um, the very first one, um we
(25:56):
you know, we kind of buttedheads with Rick Rubin, and uh,
because we had a little bit moreprogressive and longer stuff,
and he wanted to trim that downand make them more like
four-minute songs that get tothe point.
Um, and he let us have a littlebit of the stuff that we wanted
to do, but like he wasinstrumental and kind of a lot
(26:17):
of song keeping like firstchorus bridge first chorus.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Yeah.
Dana Franklin (26:24):
I was gonna ask how much you butt with the
producers and how the fight goeswith that and who ends up
winning.
Bruce Franklin (26:30):
Well, I fought I fought plenty with Rick Rubin,
to tell you the truth.
Um and uh it was it was acompromise.
Um but I wasn't unhappy in theend.
I was happy in the end, to tellyou the truth.
Um and he's helped helped um usgrow as songwriters, actually.
(26:51):
From so I don't want to makeevery song a three and a half or
four-minute song with versechorus, verse chorus, you know.
But um I learned how to writesongs though.
Um and and it helped.
Um and even our even makingthat record, so uh the song
Psychotic Reaction, he reallyliked it.
He thought that's a single, youknow.
(27:12):
He's like, he's like, but thebut the record needs another
psychotic reaction.
So I was like, all right.
I went we were this is likepre-production, we were in LA,
you know.
We're slated to start recordingas soon as he thinks we're
ready.
Um, so we're staying in asuite.
We had two suites because youknow there's five of us.
(27:34):
Um, and I went into thebathroom and I closed the door
because I could hear my guitarin there because of the tile
floor and stuff.
You know, because I didn't havean app in the suite.
And I wrote a song that Ithought was in the vein of
psychotic reaction, but didn'tsound like psychotic psychic.
And uh that ended up being atthe end of my days, and he liked
(27:59):
it so much.
Ruben wanted to lead the albumoff with that song.
Rob Franklin (28:02):
Very cool.
That's a great story.
Hey, speaking of stories, wehave uh a thing we call Oh shit.
It's kind of when something'shappened to either you, the
band, or whatever during eitherrehearsal or a live performance
for you just had no controlover, and it was an oh shit
moment.
unknown (28:19):
Yeah.
Bruce Franklin (28:21):
There's probably a lot of small ones.
I was trying to think of clueme in that you were gonna ask
this.
So I was trying to think of umbecause there's plenty of small
ones that you get through okay,you know.
Um and I could think of a two.
Um one one, so we were playinguh on uh this heavy metal cruise
(28:44):
called 70,000 tons of metal.
Oh yeah, one of the videos.
Yeah, we saw that.
So this particular we've playedit three times.
This particular time was thefirst time we played it, like
about 15 years ago or so.
And so because you fly down toMiami and get on the uh the
ship, you know, and then go onthe cruise, uh, you know, we
(29:07):
didn't have equipment and we hadto go on a plane.
So we didn't want to bring anextra guitar guitar, like you
know, in case something goeswrong or you break a string.
So we didn't have an extraguitar, but we put new strings
on, you know, and like you onlyhave to play two times on the
cruise.
(29:28):
Like, you'll never break astring.
I broke a string.
And we also didn't have crewbecause because of the situation
with the crews.
I mean, they're not paying forus to bring a crew, yeah.
We we we they pay for us tobring our sound, man, that was
as far as they'd go.
So we're basically our ownroadies, right?
Now it is Reddit here, and theyhave it on the stage for you,
(29:51):
but um setting your pedals upand all that stuff, you're doing
yourself.
So, anyway, I break a string inthe middle of the show.
And I'm like, oh.
Crap.
And I I like I told the otherguys I broke a string, I gotta
go change a string.
So the whole crowd is sittingwaiting for me to change a
string on my guitar plug.
(30:12):
That is an ocean.
My hands are shaking becauseI'm like trying to bring up and
I'm nervous.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So that was a pretty old shitmoment.
Normally at a normal gig, Iwould have another guitar I
could use, and I would have atech who would change that
string while I'm playing theother guitar, but in this case,
no.
(30:32):
And then the other one Ithought of wasn't even playing
on stage.
Um we were in Britain, and sopower in Europe is 220.
So I still use that pedal I wastelling you about, that uh
electroharmonics clone theorypedal.
So I have a converter thatconverts the 220 to 110, so that
(31:00):
you don't fry your stuff, youknow?
Um I I just I don't know howthis happened.
I just spaced out and I pluggedmy pedal in without the
converter, and then I knew itimmediately and I plugged it,
but it was too too late.
I fried the pedal.
Oh, and so this is even beforesound check.
(31:22):
And this ended up being a greatstory, though.
Um so we're in London, and sothis is probably four hours
before the show, because this iseven before sound check.
We were just putting our stuffon the stage and setting it up.
And anyway, guy working theshow, a local guy working the
(31:43):
stage at the show, um, you know,he saw this and he heard me
like yelling about it.
And he's like, hey, hey, I knowthis really great uh repair guy
that if he has a part, he canfix it, I'm sure.
Like, oh man, let's go.
Well, there was these coupleother fans from one was from
(32:06):
Norway, one was from Sweden, oneone was from Spain.
And the the British guy that Ijust told you about that was
working the show, they allwanted to come with.
So they were there earlywaiting to get in to see us, you
know.
They were there all were thereearly, um, had traveled to
London.
So we all ride together on thetube to to wherever this place
(32:30):
is that he took us to to therepair guy, and we're talking
and and and I'm kind of laughingbecause like this is an amazing
story.
I got I've got uh Norwegian, aSwede, Spanish, local UK, me the
crazy American, like alltravelers.
We bring it and the guy says,Yeah, I can fix it.
(32:55):
You know, it might it's gonnatake me about an hour and a
half.
So we went and screwed around,walked around and came back, and
the darn if the guy didn't fixit.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
Nice.
Bruce Franklin (33:04):
Um, and still in that condition.
That's the last time it wasworked on.
Dana Franklin (33:10):
Oh, it's oh shit, uh he must have done it well.
Bruce Franklin (33:13):
Yeah, he did do it well, and I was never stupid
enough to do that.
But that was a big old shit,though.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
Yeah.
Bruce Franklin (33:20):
When I fried that pedal, because that is like
like I was telling you, a keyingredient to myself.
All right, all right.
Dana Franklin (33:28):
So I I gotta say, you know, I'm I'm a little
jealous, you know, not onlybecause you're huge and me and
Rob have been trying to do thisfor years also, but you know, I
saw this tribute that you did toChris Cornell, and dude, you
got a voice.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
Yeah, you do.
Dana Franklin (33:40):
I you know, it's like where the hell did you get
that from?
Nobody else in our family cansing like that.
So, y'all, so I'm jealous ofthat.
And and how did that come aboutwhere you did that whole, I
mean, shit, you played guitar,bass, I think everything but the
drums on that song.
And and how'd that come about?
How did how do you what youwhat made you do that?
Bruce Franklin (33:58):
Well, Chris passing away is what made me do
it.
Yeah, I'm gonna do that.
But really, what what reallymade me do it though?
So I was a big fan uh of hissinging, especially, but I I
like Soundgarden a lot.
Um and and um I saw all thewhen when he passed away, all
these different bands were doingtributes.
And I'm watching all these, andand I they're all terrible,
(34:21):
every one of them.
I was like, man, this isbrutal.
I'm talking about big bandstoo.
Like, I mean, maybe they didn'tspend a lot of time learning it
or whatever song they did, butI just saw a bunch of terrible
performances of Soundgardensongs, and I was like, man, I'm
gonna do a tribute, and I'm notgonna I'm gonna do it right.
(34:42):
I'm never gonna sound as goodas Chris Cornell, but I'm gonna
do it justice at least, youknow.
So that was my it was no itnever I didn't even release it.
I we just made a video and putit on YouTube just to pay
tribute to Chris Cornell.
It was awesome.
Yeah, it was awesome.
Dana Franklin (34:58):
I wanted to do it right, you know, and you didn't
could anyway, yeah.
Rob Franklin (35:05):
So getting back to Lake Songs.
Uh, what does your typical setlist consist of?
Uh do you like try to span yourwhole career or do you have
like do you stick with newerstuff?
And and how many songs are inyour typical set?
Bruce Franklin (35:19):
Uh typical set is probably about 14, 15 songs.
Um, yeah, we try to span thecareer.
Um seems like we never playanything from Run to the Light,
though.
Our third record.
Uh people complain.
I've tried the last I've trieda bunch of times to put the song
Run to the Light into a set,and it just ended up nothing
(35:42):
wrong with the song, but justended up it's messing up the
set.
You know, we take it out, theset's perfect.
Like, and we just but but yeah,for the most part, we try to do
stuff through most of ourrecords.
You can never do every singlerecord when you're only playing
14 or 15 songs, but um Yeah, wewe we do plenty from from our
(36:05):
first couple records, and thenplenty from the Deaf American
era, and then you know, we'll dos the some of our newest stuff.
Um I just saw Alice Cooper, andum I was really disappointed in
the set because he did a ton ofstuff from his last 15 or 20
years.
Rob Franklin (36:25):
Right.
Bruce Franklin (36:25):
Um, and most of it I didn't know, and I do know
like some, and he only did fiveof the original band, the Alice
Cooper group, which reallybrought him fame.
He only did five songs fromthat era, and the rest was all
like within the last 20 years.
Um, and I don't want to do thatto our fans, you know.
(36:46):
So we try to do the best wecan, like all our stuff, you
know, through the years.
Dana Franklin (36:54):
So going back to old videos and a shout out to
our little brother John, who youknow wanted to say big hi to
you also.
Um but back in the day, he Yes,he is.
And back in the day, he sentme, I think, one of your very
first videos of showing you knowa famous Black Sabbath member,
Bill Ward, throwing your drummeroff the jump kit and jamming
(37:16):
with you guys.
How did that come about?
And how did you get such a guylike him to be part of your
video?
Bruce Franklin (37:22):
Uh the guy that was shooting the video was
neighbors with Bill Ward.
Rob Franklin (37:27):
Uh oh, okay.
Bruce Franklin (37:28):
And so he asked us, he goes, probably knew that
we were influenced by BlackSabbath.
He asked us, hey, would youguys like like to have Bill Ward
in your video at all?
Wow, we were all all at once,like, hell yeah! So yeah, he got
them to come, and I do rememberum, so that was 87.
(37:50):
That was the run of the lightalbum.
Yeah, it was the run of thelight video.
Dana Franklin (37:54):
Yeah, that's yeah, that's what brought it up.
Bruce Franklin (37:55):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I do remember um thevideographer saying, Um, and I
wasn't really a drinker, butlike some of the guys were, and
he they were like, yeah, he waslike, Yeah, don't don't drink
around him because he's youknow, he's been sober for a
little while, and it's probablynot good to be like drinking a
(38:18):
bunch of beers around him, youknow.
And I so I remember that.
Um and no, and he was great.
He was great.
I don't know whose idea it wasfor him to throw the drummer
off.
I don't know if it was even ouridea, but that was a nice
touch, uh classic, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, I thought it wasgreat.
Rob Franklin (38:36):
Before show, how do you uh how do you warm up?
Do you just do scales or uhwhat's your pre-show uh
basically uh yeah, ritual,ritual, yeah.
Good work.
Yeah, yeah.
Bruce Franklin (38:47):
Yeah, yeah.
Get get in the dressing roomand just probably play a lot of
parts that I'm going to beplaying in the show.
Some of the harder things Iknow that I have to do.
And I didn't used to do a wholelot of warm-ups when I was
younger, but now, man, I got Igot some arthritis stuff going
on.
But if I warm up, I'm usuallyokay, but if I don't, I'm not
(39:08):
okay.
Um, so anyway, yeah, I usuallytry to play a bunch of stuff
that I know will be tougher inthe show and go over it, and
that's kind of how I usuallywarm up.
Okay.
Thank you.
Dana Franklin (39:21):
So uh I got this this one's kind of a two-parter
and nothing to do with anything,but with with your shows, uh I
see so many new guys, new bandsusing in-air monitors.
Are you a big fan of those?
Do you use those?
And second part of this is Isaw a thing with you can have
some upcoming shows in in Mexiconext year.
Um yeah, which I think if Iremember right, reading your
(39:44):
first time in Mexico.
And are you excited about that?
And how'd that come about?
Bruce Franklin (39:49):
All right, first of all, the inner in-ear
monitors, so I can tell you theexperience I have with that is
that I actually play in a churchband that's that does like
contemporary music, and they usein our in-ear monitors.
So I have plenty of experiencewith them.
I don't want to do it withtrouble, although if I was a
singer, I might, because man,you can hear yourself so good.
(40:12):
Um but I as a guitar player Idon't like not having the
ambient sound.
I want to hear my amp sound.
Dana Franklin (40:22):
Yeah, you know, yeah, I would think so.
That's been I see so many ofthese people were now to me that
just seems like a distraction.
Yeah.
Bruce Franklin (40:29):
Yeah.
And we play loud as hell, too,man.
I mean, I still Marshall Stack.
Speaker 3 (40:35):
Nice jump in.
Bruce Franklin (40:38):
Um and we get feedback and stuff, you know.
So anyway, I th that's the wayI want to hear it, you know.
Um, but I do understand forsingers, it really does help the
inner really help you uh getbeyond pitch, because you can
hear yourself so well.
I mean little you know, it itit's brutal honest, you know.
(41:01):
So if you're not hear how notgreat you are, but uh but uh it
really helps though because Ialso sing at w in the church
band too sometimes, not all thetime, but sometimes, and it's
super and it really helpsfinding your pitch having
hearing it like that.
Rob Franklin (41:21):
Hey, Frog.
Bruce Franklin (41:22):
Not so much throwing that rock and roll
stage, man.
You gotta just blast it.
Rob Franklin (41:25):
Yes, there you go.
Dana Franklin (41:28):
Hell yeah.
Rob Franklin (41:30):
And again, for those uh bands out there
listening, what would yousuggest to them as far as uh at
what point should you get likean accountant or a lawyer?
Bruce Franklin (41:40):
Uh lawyer, for if you're signing any contract,
you need a lawyer.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
Right.
Bruce Franklin (41:46):
Um, no matter how small or big.
Um accountant, even I don'tthink even we had the kind of
money where you really need anaccountant.
Um, I mean, I didn't get rich.
Um, but and it wasn't becauseof mistakes like um you know
(42:07):
having bad accounting.
Um so I don't I can't reallyanswer that.
We I don't think we're reallyat the level where you really
need that.
And there aren't many in thisday and age anymore.
So I mean we could have thiswhole discussion of um uh uh
when the legacy bands die out,man, there aren't gonna be any
more huge bands.
(42:29):
Yeah, the music business isjust nobody makes money off of
records.
I mean, you know, there's nonowhere near the money that
there used to be.
And that's why there's only acouple of record labels, I mean
major ones.
Um so anyway, I don't thinkanybody's gonna ru not many,
like like maybe a fraction of apercent of bands might have to
(42:53):
worry about accounting, youknow.
All right.
Dana Franklin (42:56):
Yeah, fair enough.
Yeah, the music industry haschanged so much.
I mean, it's it's it'sridiculous, it's almost sad, but
um Yeah.
Bruce Franklin (43:04):
Well, anybody anybody that asks me about like
doing it as a career, I tellthem don't make it your main
career because there's notenough money.
Dana Franklin (43:13):
Yeah.
So so going back to, you know,like said with your career, is
there you know, hindsight'salways 2020.
Is there anything you wouldhave changed 10, 20, 30 years
ago that you think might havebeen better for the band, or any
anything you would have changedthat might have made you get
over, you know, that thatplateau of being one of those
(43:34):
legacy bands like you weretalking about?
Bruce Franklin (43:37):
Well, there's one thing I would change.
Um so after uh the ManicFrustration album, guys in the
band were talking about we'renot getting enough money.
We you know, we want to get outof, we want to get out of our
contract.
Well, we want well, firstly, wewant more money from uh
(43:57):
American Deaf Americanrecordings, or we want out of
our contract.
And I remember thinking, man,you guys are nuts.
Like we fought our way to gethere, and we're here at you
know, like the highest level,you know, not the highest of the
highest level, the lowest ofthe highest level, but we made
it to the highest level.
And and you know, uh I thoughtit was a mistake, but I was
(44:23):
outvoted, and so we ended upleaving Deaf America.
We so a lot of people think wegot dropped.
We did not get dropped.
The band asked out of thecontract.
Speaker 3 (44:34):
Oh okay.
Bruce Franklin (44:35):
He I think he was pissed, but he was like, All
right, you know, and um and wedid get more money for one
record, you know, and then likethen our career kind of
nosedived, you know, like I meanin you know the amount of I
mean we weren't getting his highprofile tours and and that kind
(44:58):
of stuff, you know.
Um and I don't know how muchwould have changed because you
know the you know the wholemusic scene was changing anyway.
It went through the grungething and then new metal, and
maybe it it wouldn't have helpedif we had stayed on Deaf
American, but it sure couldn'thave hurt.
Um because the you have thoseresources of a major label,
(45:21):
yeah, you know.
Um so I think maybe that wouldbe the one thing that I would
change and would like to see ifit would have made a difference,
but we'll never know, you know.
Rob Franklin (45:32):
Okay, you said you're not a tech guy, but uh as
far as like rehearsals, do youguys ever send files back and
forth to each other to likeconstruct the song, or is it all
live when you're together?
Bruce Franklin (45:44):
It's live when we're together, but so we did
rehearsals in the same housewhere we're recording, and our
sound guy would record ourrehearsals of our new songs and
send them to everybody, and sowe'd have recordings and be able
to talk about it.
And so in that way, yes.
Um but we don't record like atour house, you know, and then
(46:10):
send them to everybody and say,look, here's a new song I'm
working on, you know.
Okay it's we get together in aroom and play it.
Rob Franklin (46:16):
Right.
And how often, if you don'tmind me asking, do you guys
rehearse?
Bruce Franklin (46:20):
Um, we never rehearse unless we have gigs or
if we're working on a record.
Okay.
In the beginning, we rehearsedfour nights a week no matter
what.
And that's what made us areally great tight band.
Like we were like the tightestmetal band in Chicago because of
that.
Speaker 3 (46:40):
Yeah.
Bruce Franklin (46:41):
Um not that you know, we don't do that, but so
for we we played last time weplayed live was in May.
We have these shows in Mexicoat the end of February.
We'll probably start rehearsalmaybe in late January, one time
a week.
Rob Franklin (46:58):
Okay.
Dana Franklin (46:59):
Oh, alright.
Um, so with your huge catalogthat you've got and all the
songs and albums, you know, I'mgonna ask you that one question.
What is your favorite album andyour one favorite song?
If there's a if there's to pickone album and one song, what
would it be?
Bruce Franklin (47:18):
Of Trouble?
Yes.
Or anything.
Dana Franklin (47:20):
No, of trouble.
Of your of your own material.
Bruce Franklin (47:24):
Alright, so the song will be harder to choose,
but the album for sure for me isthat first deaf American
record, the trouble 1990s.
Dana Franklin (47:32):
Nice.
That's awesome, because that'smy favorite too.
That it's that manicfrustration out low.
Bruce Franklin (47:38):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I um I was super involved withthat record.
I I wrote um, I don't know,probably 80% of the music on
that record.
I was in the studio for everyminute of the recording, of no
matter who was recording.
Um, and I just saw this, sawthat record as this is our shot.
(48:01):
Because we were on, you know,Metal Blade Records was indie
label, you know, and then we getsigned to a major with Rick
Rubin producing, and I was thisis our shot.
I'm gonna I'm gonna doeverything I can to make this
great, you know.
And I was actually, so you guysmay have heard stories about
Rick Rubin, like when he'sproducing, he's not always
(48:24):
there.
I don't know if you've heardthose stories.
Yeah, I've heard lots of peopleI've told.
Speaker 3 (48:29):
Yeah.
Bruce Franklin (48:29):
Um, and it was it was no different with us.
He wasn't there much of thetime.
Rob Franklin (48:34):
Really?
Wow.
Bruce Franklin (48:35):
So I was actually producing the vocals
with Eric every day, and I puthim through the ringer, man.
Um, but it was the best he eversounded.
Um, because I knew we had to dothat.
This was our shot, you know.
And he sometimes he was kind ofmad at me because I'd make him
(48:55):
do stuff till it was as as goodas he could possibly do.
But um, so that whole record, Ihad that attitude, like, you
know, like do everything can tomake this great, you know.
So and then and I feel likethat's the way it turned out.
Um, so that's why it's myfavorite record.
Dana Franklin (49:14):
Okay.
Um now I think in talking withyou, you said something, you
mentioned something about youknow, selling your catalog, and
you've got a new company youwere at Hammer, Hammerhead,
Hammerheart.
Uh how did how did that comeabout?
And you know, what what whatmade that happen?
Bruce Franklin (49:34):
Uh he contacted us.
So uh there's a guy that ownsthe label, and he contacted us
um and he was interested inreleasing everything we had.
And at the time we told him,well, we don't have everything,
you know.
Um we have some stuff we couldand he wanted everything.
Um so anyway, a couple yearswent by and it got to the point
(49:59):
where we basically ownedeverything except for one
record, the run to the lightrecord, Metal Blade Record,
still owns and probably will befor life because we because of
the contract we signed, but theythey did re-release that record
and gave us some money and wehad some input on the
re-release.
Um, so anyway, at least theydid that.
(50:20):
But the whole rest of thecatalog we basically owned.
So we ended up selling to thisguy for uh 10 years, and he gave
us uh in advance, um and it wasin the tens of thousands.
Um and Rick and I both thoughtthis is you know, I we were both
(50:45):
hoping we'd maybe get more forour catalog, and we were both
thought we'd never see anothercent.
But here's the good part.
So it took about two and a halfyears to recoup that advance,
and now we're getting likeregular royalties because
(51:05):
they're still selling.
Rob Franklin (51:07):
Very cool.
That's great.
Bruce Franklin (51:09):
That's been a huge blessing, and also that's
what's a lot of those youngpeople that you were talking
about are like buying our stuffbecause they're just getting
turned on to trouble.
They want to they want to buythe vinyl, they want to buy the
CD, and they're buying fromHammerheart, you know.
Cool.
Um so yeah, it's been great.
(51:29):
I mean, I I I have nothing badto say about them, and that's
maybe the first label I couldever say that about.
Rob Franklin (51:39):
Well, Bruce, we don't want to take your whole
night here, but uh what advicewould you have for like new
musicians just getting ready tolike start hitting the stage?
What's what would be your mainpiece of advice to those
individuals?
Bruce Franklin (51:53):
Uh spend plenty of re time rehearsing and
knowing that you have yourmaterial together as a band.
Um and as a band is the key,not just yourself.
Yeah, you know, if you yougotta listen to your other
players in your band, and ifsomething's not right, you gotta
make it right.
Not you can't only worry aboutyourself, you know.
(52:14):
Um, but that's the key, yeah.
And then you come out, and ifyou sound great as a band and
what you're doing, good thingsusually happen, you know,
whatever degree that may be, youknow.
Dana Franklin (52:27):
Awesome.
Um with uh now what now what doyou plan?
I know you you have a biginfluence overseas, and you've
done a lot of stuff overseaswith me at festivals or
whatever.
What what do you think has madeit to where you know overseas
you might have a bigger namethan here in the States?
Is it just because they knowtheir music better over there?
Which I mean I I would agreewith because they got a lot of
(52:49):
great bands over there.
But what do you what do youthink is is the focus on you
know why they love trouble maybea little bit more than the
states?
Bruce Franklin (53:01):
Well, it wasn't always that way, so I think a
lot of it has to do with umheavy metal still does good
business.
Uh last I knew it.
We haven't been to Europe in afew years, but I mean heavy
metal still is alive and well inEurope.
Oh it is Britain and you andrest of Europe.
(53:23):
Um and it died in America.
I mean, you know, there's somefans, but it's it's nowhere near
what it was.
Rob Franklin (53:32):
Yeah.
Bruce Franklin (53:32):
So I would say, you know, like in the eighties
and nineties, we were muchbigger in America than we were
in Europe.
But in the last 20 years, 20,25 years, we've become bigger in
Europe.
Only because that kind of musicis still popular over there.
You go over there and playfestivals to you know, tens or
(53:54):
hundreds of thousands, you know.
I mean, we played the biggestfestival we ever played was uh
this was was actually in thelater nineties, but um uh we
played a festival in theNetherlands um and it was a
hundred and ten thousand there,and there was about seventy-five
thousand watching us when weplayed.
(54:16):
And that that's never gonnahappen in America, not you know,
not for us.
Dana Franklin (54:22):
Well, yeah, not for anybody anymore, actually.
Bruce Franklin (54:26):
But they're not that big, you know.
Even the ones where like say uhPoison and Molly Crew and those
kind of bands play, and theremight be 50,000, you know, maybe
40,000, but there ain't no ahundred thousands.
And I mean we've played Walkenalso, like you know, like forty
(54:47):
thousand there, and um andthere's bigger ones, even like
the ones a couple of the ones inuh Britain are pretty big, and
in German, there's some more inGermany.
I'm trying to remember themall, but um, there's just tons
of festivals and they draw tensof thousands of people, you
know, and it just that doesn'thappen in America, you know.
Not uh not now, not these days.
Dana Franklin (55:09):
Yeah, which is which is too bad.
You know, it's yeah.
Bruce Franklin (55:14):
Yes, but not not anymore.
Dana Franklin (55:18):
Well, you know, it's it's I I can't even say how
how awesome this has beentalking to you.
Not not only just catching upwith you, cousin, but just you
know, having a having a memberof such a prominent band, you
know, on our podcast is like Isaid, from day one, we're we
were hoping to get you and talkto you.
So any any any last words toyou know, what would you say to
(55:38):
people out there like trouble?
Who who who is trouble?
How would you introduceyourself to a new listener?
Bruce Franklin (55:45):
Great question.
Uh so it depends.
So if it's somebody that knowsmetal is one thing, if it's just
a person that doesn't likereally know a ton of like the
details about heavy metal, I'lltell like regular people when
they ask about my band, I'llsay, well, it kind of sounds
like a cross between BlackSabbath and Led Zeppelin and a
(56:08):
little bit of Metallica mixedin.
Um but like people that knowmetal, I you know, I would tell
them more, you know, like BlackSabbath and Judas Priest, you
know, kind of mixed and youknow, similar with the vocals of
like Robert Plant.
(56:28):
I mean, our original singer waslike that.
Dana Franklin (56:33):
So you're you're your first show.
Um I I think I saw a poster oflike the first time you ever
opened, and I think it was forMegadeth.
Is is that it, or was there ashow that preceded that?
Well, I mean, first I guessmajor show of opening for a
major band.
Well, okay, who was it?
Bruce Franklin (56:52):
Um maybe uh well, they weren't a major band.
That was their very first show.
Speaker 3 (56:56):
Oh, okay.
Bruce Franklin (56:59):
So you know, Dave Mustaine had been kicked
out of Metallica before thefirst record, you know.
Um, so he wasn't a huge name.
I mean, he wasn't a big name.
Dana Franklin (57:11):
So you're you're I don't know.
Yeah, your first I would I'dsay I okay, let me rephrase
this.
Your first show with the with abig name at the time.
Bruce Franklin (57:19):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, and it was in SanFrancisco, so that's where he's
from.
Yeah.
That's where they were based.
So yeah.
Um I'm trying, well, you knowwhat?
Is that I'm trying to rememberthe the years because we went
out to LA to record our firstalbum, and then we went out six
months later to out to LA againto record our second album.
(57:40):
And one of those times, and Ican't remember which time, it
probably was the second time.
So we did four or four or fiveshows with Slayer.
I think that was the secondtime though.
That was the second time wewere in California.
The first time was when we didthe show you're talking about.
So maybe that was um I'm tryingto think if we played with
(58:03):
anybody back here in Chicago.
Um I can't can't I don't wantto take too much time to think
about it.
I I d that may have been maybethe first uh uh but Megadeth
really wasn't anybody yet, andthey were off.
I mean they were bad, man.
It was their very first show,they were terrible.
(58:26):
I remember I remember thinkingthis band's never gonna amount
to anything, man.
They're terrible.
Uh and they were, but I meanthat was their first show, and
they, you know, obviously theythey took it from there.
Rob Franklin (58:41):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, Bruce, this has beentotally outstanding.
And like Dan and I saidearlier, you know, we've wanted
to do this for a year now.
In fact, our anniversary for ayear is uh the 20th.
So uh thank you, thank you verymuch.
And in closing, uh all I've gotto say is I really appreciate
you doing this for us.
Bruce Franklin (59:01):
All right, well, thank you guys.
Dana Franklin (59:02):
Uh, definitely been our pleasure, and we we
gotta we gotta catch up moreeven outside the podcast just to
stay in touch, man.
And you know, good luck with uhthe new album.
We expect some clips before thegeneral public.
I mean I mean stuff in our wayand you know, give us a little
taste.
Rob Franklin (59:20):
Okay.
All right, man.
Thank you, everybody, and bye.
Dana Franklin (59:24):
Yeah, peace out.
Thank you, Bruce.
Appreciate it, man.
Rob Franklin (59:27):
Yeah.
All right, bye.
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