May 25, 2026 • 38 mins
Oklahoma based HILLBILLY VEGAS are a high energy southern rock band that mixes outlaw country with a healthy dose of the blues. Originally formed in 2011, the band has been steadily building a global fan-base through successful songs at rock radio, backed up by constant touring in the US, Canada, the UK and Europe – as well as playing major NASCAR events, music festivals and huge bike rallies. The band is influenced by classic rock legends like Bad Company, Free, and ZZ Top, with modern sensibilities - steeped in soul and American roots music.
- Album Focus track is “Miss America” (Track 1)
- The band has just released a song written by and Featuring Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Paul Rodgers (Bad Company, Free, The Firm, Queen) – “Mr. Midnight” (Listen Here): https://open.spotify.com/track/6UfpBRla79Z0H06YawYJ00?si=bf071aa6ea654fe9
- Lead Singer Steve Harris could talk about the long road from playing bars and state fairs in Oklahoma, to sharing the stage with Rock and Country stars including Blackberry Smoke, The Kentucky Headhunters, Ted Nugent and Wolfsbane; along with country icons Alabama, Lee Brice, Travis Tritt, Blake Shelton, and Wynonna Judd.
- Steve has a wide variety of interests: He makes his own jewelry, is a member of the Cherokee nation, is an adventurous eater/foodie, and actively works to support military veterans through an organization called Operation Vet NOW.
- The band has added some Rock ‘N Roll pedigree: Geraldo Dominelli - Guitar/Keyboards is formerly of Loverboy/Paul Rodgers band, and Todd Ronning - Bass was formerly with Bad Company.
- They are managed by David Spero (Joe Walsh, Cat Stevens/Yusef Islam, Bad Company, Former Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Board Of Trustees and Senior Program Director).
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- Album Focus track is “Miss America” (Track 1)
- The band has just released a song written by and Featuring Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Paul Rodgers (Bad Company, Free, The Firm, Queen) – “Mr. Midnight” (Listen Here): https://open.spotify.com/track/6UfpBRla79Z0H06YawYJ00?si=bf071aa6ea654fe9
- Lead Singer Steve Harris could talk about the long road from playing bars and state fairs in Oklahoma, to sharing the stage with Rock and Country stars including Blackberry Smoke, The Kentucky Headhunters, Ted Nugent and Wolfsbane; along with country icons Alabama, Lee Brice, Travis Tritt, Blake Shelton, and Wynonna Judd.
- Steve has a wide variety of interests: He makes his own jewelry, is a member of the Cherokee nation, is an adventurous eater/foodie, and actively works to support military veterans through an organization called Operation Vet NOW.
- The band has added some Rock ‘N Roll pedigree: Geraldo Dominelli - Guitar/Keyboards is formerly of Loverboy/Paul Rodgers band, and Todd Ronning - Bass was formerly with Bad Company.
- They are managed by David Spero (Joe Walsh, Cat Stevens/Yusef Islam, Bad Company, Former Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Board Of Trustees and Senior Program Director).
Click Here to Subscribe to The Adventures of Pipeman for PERKS, BONUS Content & FREE GIVEWAYS!
Take some zany and serious journeys with The Pipeman aka Dean K. Piper, CST on The Adventures of Pipeman also known as Pipeman Radio syndicated globally “Where Who Knows And Anything Goes.”
Would you like to be a sponsor of the show?
Would you like to have your business, products, services, merch, programs, books, music or any other professional or artistic endeavors promoted on the show?
Would you like interviewed as a professional or music guest on The Adventures of Pipeman, Positively Pipeman and/or Pipeman in the Pit?
Would you like to host your own Radio Show, Streaming TV Show, or Podcast?
PipemanRadio Podcasts are heard on Pipeman Radio, Talk 4 Media, iHeartRadio, Pandora, Amazon Music, Audible, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and over 100 other podcast outlets where you listen to Podcasts. The following are the different podcasts to Follow, Listen, Download, Subscribe:
- The Adventures of Pipeman
- Pipeman Radio
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- Pipeman – The Wandering Jew
- Positively Pipeman – Empowerment, Inspiration, Motivation, Self-Help, Business, Spiritual & Health & Wellness
Click Here to Subscribe for PERKS, BONUS Content & FREE GIVEWAYS!
Follow @pipemanradio on all socials & Pipeman Radio Requests & Info at www.linktr.ee/pipemanradio
Stream The Adventures of Pipeman daily & live Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays at 1PM ET on W4CY Radio & Talk 4 TV.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, you love done to censure.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
See wow for you young dumb done.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Tom is the right chom.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
This is the tite man here on the Adventures Man
didn't work?
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Why Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I'm here with our next guest to h and they
have some killer music. We're going to talk about their
new album. And you know, we're lucky to have them
today because they're in Oklahoma, kind of like it is
here in Florida. We're supposed to talk to them the
other day and Mother Nature would not have that happen.
(00:57):
So now Mother Nature is happy both of us because
neither one of us have any storms, which is very rare,
especially here in Florida. I mean, we have a storm
three to four o'clock. You can set your clock by
it from April till November every day. So we're blessed
today to have Steve Harris from Hillbilly Vegas on the
(01:22):
show How are You Hey?
Speaker 1 (01:24):
I'm doing good? How are you good? Good?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
And I love the name of your new album too
a La mode as somebody who is a chocoholic and
sugar addict like that. That's the first day I think
of it, like that's a pretty sweet band.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
That's right, that's that's what it's all about, you know,
we did. I did a French magazine interview the other
day and they wanted to know because to them, it
means something totally different. Well, yeah, me, it means you
see somebody coming around as the ice cream on top
of your pie.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
So those are good times, so load out like, I
love that too, you know, when you have different languages
and different things have different meanings to them.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I got laughed at once because our studio up until recently,
for like eighteen years was in Wellington, Florida, which is
a big equestrian community, and we had somebody that did
show on our station. They were Argentinians, and they were
talking about the whole equestrian stuff, and they would come
into the studio and they'd have like this green herb
(02:32):
that they were doing stuff with. And I heard them
talking and I thought they said mata, which in Spanish
in Mexican Spanish means pot. But really what they were
saying was Monday, which is this Argentinian herb that they
make tea out of that they drink like all day long.
(02:52):
So they were preparing us and they laughed at me
because I walked down like oh, you can't do that
shit in the studio.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
That what.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, language sometimes.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
I know, right, But you know what's cool about it
is that there is really not much of a language
barrier when it comes to music. Like you go perform
in these other countries. They don't speak an English, but
they can sing your lyrics right back to you, no problem.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
I hear all American songs in the stores and restaurants
and everywhere overseas, So you know.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
It's wild. It's wild too to me because like I
do festivals all over the US, UK and Europe, and
when I go to Europe to do festivals, I'm driving
down the road. I feel like I'm back in the eighties.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Yes, it's wonderful though, right, it's it's great. I mean,
the fans are just rabid, you know, and and uh,
it's just it's amazing to experience that overseas. They just
they just think of it a whole different way. You know.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
It's amazing for a few things. Man. First of all,
like yet a lot like I was in the height
of the Sunset Strip days in La with all those bands,
and a lot of the bands they disappeared off the
face of the earth. I thought until I started doing
the festivals in Europe. But like always, shit, they've just
(04:14):
been in Europe all this time.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Oh listen, I just did a festival. We just did
a festival in Europe with wast and Lead to flour nice.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
So Lena Ford's been in our studio because she lives
here in South Florida, right. And then Chris Holmes and
I and he's not in WASP anymore, obviously nobody.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
We hung out with him in England just recently too.
Chris is a good guy, the friend of us.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah. I saw him for the first time in like
forty years at Hell's Heroes and I used to hang
out with him at the mall. Him and Mick Mahers
we used to hang out at the mall. So hey,
it is cool though, man like. And then when you
go to these festivals over there, I always do like
(04:58):
the dedication these people, like people over here can make
all the complaints if they're like, campsite isn't the most
plush thing in the world, and these people are walking
for like five miles with all their camping here just
to set up a tent.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I know, I love it. I love the way they
react to music and the way they they are about it,
so oil and everything, and of course you know it
has its challenges obviously, but it's not the people. The
people are great.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
But I will tell you I have all the festivals
I do. One of my favorite ones, especially the camping part,
is Oklahoma.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Oklahoma is right down the road from us from where
I'm at right now. It is about ninety minutes from
me right now. Yeah, Oklahoma, I've never been. Really no,
I don't want to spend three days outside in the summertime.
I'm not interested.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
I live right exactly. That's same for me, like here
in South Floria. But that that campground is insane though,
Like they have actually literally this local strip club has
a big site and so at the end of the
day after the headliners, there's a strip show out in
the campground.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
There you go, there's like all.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Kinds of shenanigans.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
It's pretty wild, uh, camp I know, I'm surprised that
they had since your Oklahoma based they haven't invited you
to play that festival because I think it right.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
In We've been invited a couple of times, you know. Unfortunately, unfortunately,
uh it always uh interfered with something else that we
were doing yeah, so so it's just never worked for us.
But yeah, we've been invited a couple of times, and
(06:50):
I think the last time we invited we were actually
uh out on tour with Ted Nugent, so nice, and
we couldn't go back and do that. But yeah, it's
just a couple of times. Just like the old south
By Southwest, we missed out a couple of times because
of scheduling as well, So so we missed a couple
of them, but we've played most of them.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Well, there you go, And so tell us about this
new album. Hell, is it the same? How is it
different from stuff you've done in the past, from you
as the artist? How do you look at it?
Speaker 1 (07:23):
I just look at it as a continuation. I don't
look at it as any different than you know. One
of my favorite things that that was ever said in
rock music is somebody was trying to be rude to
Angus Jung and said, you know, ac DC's made the
same album twelve times, and he said, no, you're wrong,
We've made it fourteen times. So I wouldn't say it's
(07:43):
the same album, but I would say it's the same
must It's just it's like a continuation of a story
or a continuation of anything you learn more, characters change,
perspectives change sometimes, but it's still you and so it's
you know, at the core, it's still us. Got some
different influences in the band now, some guys that are
(08:03):
new to this album that been in the band the
last couple of years, and so they bring a different
story to things, But it's all our story, and it's
all character driven, and just like TV shows and things
like that, new characters come and go and things like that,
So you just continue the story and let their experiences
and their perspective have a piece of it too. So
(08:24):
I just say it's a continuation of what we've always been.
You know.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
I love that, see, because the way I look at
is a true musician doesn't necessarily change. They evolve and
just get better.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Sure, Sure, and truly I don't want to change. I
like what we do. I just want to do. I
just want to make sure that we do it the
way that we feel good about it and the way
that we want people to hear us. And as long
as we do that, I'd say the biggest difference this
time is that we didn't go to a recording studio.
We didn't have any producer helping us on anything, or
(09:02):
or input or anything. We did it all by ourself
in our own studio. Mixed master, not master, excuse me. Everything.
We just did it ourselves. There's no way, there's no
outside influences this time. I would say that's the biggest difference,
if there's anything.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
I think that's the beautiful thing about nowadays, right that
you as an artist can make it sound exactly what
you like. I'm like, you know, like I think of
Metallica and when they did kill them all that they
couldn't even go in for the mix and have any
say in the mix of the album. And I'm thinking
the artists should have all the say now.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
And normally that doesn't happen. We've been there to quite
a few times. That's why we got out in Nashville
because you know, I listen, there's no problem with Nashville.
I just it's not for us. I mean, it's a
machine there, it's a factory, and there is along the
assembly line. There is jobs. There's writers, there's producers, there's engineers.
(09:59):
Their studio meansusicians and there's some guy at a label
that tells you everything you're doing is wrong. And so
if you interrupt any of that by writing your own
songs or playing your own instruments, or wanting to self
producer any of that, they suddenly don't like somebody being
taken off the line because that's how they make their living.
You know. It's like, yeah, Pittsburgh and steel, Nashville and music.
(10:22):
It's just it's just a business. It's a factory city
if you really think about it, for music, and it
just didn't work for us, and so they would first
album we did with that label in Nashville, we left
thought we had a really good product, and when we
got the finished product that had been had oh, studio
musicians and studio background singers to it and things that
we never even heard. And that happened to us a
(10:44):
couple of times. And then finally we said enough of
this and we're not doing that anymore. And you know,
oddly enough, we've had our biggest success since we got
away from all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
I love hearing that because we need true musicianship. It's getty.
It was getting away from that. I think it's starting
to come back. You know, people like yourself and other
people that are taking a stand that like, Hey, this
is how I want my music to sound, and I
think the artists should have that creative control.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Well. Sure, and if you listen to our album, everything,
everything is a first or second take. We didn't go
any further than that on anything on the entire album.
The rhythm section was recorded together and live. My vocals
are continuous vocals, all of them. There's not a vocal
on there that went past two takes. And most first
takes were just sound level takes. And we don't use
(11:36):
auto tune or any tricks or tracks or anything like that.
It's just it's how we are. And I know some
of it sounds pretty smooth, but that's just that's just
what we made. But it was recorded that way record
even though it was undone on pro tools. We recorded
it as if we were using two inch tape, by
doing continuous takes instead of piece and words together here
and there and things like a lot of those guys
(11:57):
a lot of times, especially vocally, they want you to
sing it five perfect times and then I'll pick out
a word from each version to make up a sentence.
And it feels so sterile and so not real anymore,
and created and uh, so I don't like doing that.
So I didn't sing anything five times, and in fact,
(12:18):
I sang five songs a total of five times would
be five songs nice to be honest with you. And
if I get it, if I hit a wrong note
or something cracks in my voice, you know what, God
must have wanted it that way.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
So I'm well, I think about some of my favorite
albums from the past, and there are definitely mistakes on
their Like even Zeppelin. That scream he does on the
Presence album that wasn't on purpose. He was in pain
because he broke his legs in the accident and they
stood up, you know.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
And the same the same band. How could let be
let Zeppelin those albums be those albums without the squeak
and John Bonham's pedal.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
And you know, we used to think, you know, we
used to think everybody in the seventies put that wooden
block in there that was actually their uh it was
actually their metronome going back and forth, and they just
left it in there, you know, because now we take
the click tracks out and all that kind of stuff.
But I mean, that's all that stuff was, and it
was natural and you heard it like they wanted you
(13:23):
to hear it. You know, those guys were those guys
were champions going in there and recording them two itch tape.
And you can't just punch in and out of everything
and do the things that people do today. You know,
now today somebody can sing one chorus and they'll plaster
on the song five times, and so you're not getting
anything different in the song. You're getting the same exact
(13:43):
performance four or five times to the song because they
just sing the chorus once and just paste them in,
you know, and musten, that's fine. People want to create music,
they should create however they want. For us, that feels
horrible to.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Me, even with doing what I do and when I'm
doing voiceovers and stuff, if I do it like different
takes that are pieced together, it doesn't sound right because
you have a different tonality. The tonality is different unless
you're continuous. So I'll just keep going and you cut
(14:16):
out what you want to cut out. But I'm keeping going, right.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
And I think I just think, I just think there's
something to doing it the way that it was intended
to be done. And there's nothing wrong with technology. You
can still use technology and still do it the right way. No,
that's I mean, we try that's what we try to do.
We try to be as I'll say, take about our
music as we can. And and it wasn't a budgetary
thing because we had unlimited studio time. We could have
(14:40):
taken a year to record the scene if we wanted to,
but we recorded it in six days.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Oh man, that's amazing that that That is the art
of a true professional musician that could do that, for sure.
So hats off to you.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Thanks, I think, I think unfortunately that's also code for
your getting old and you've learned some things so you
might hold you there's this sweet spot when your brain
and your body line up when you're at your your
your your your intellectual best and you're at your physical best.
And there's a very very short period of time when
(15:20):
you're in that window, and so you have to take
advantage of that when that happens. And that's that's happened
for us lately, especially on this.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Albums no doubt. So I how else I want to
talk about? I like to talk about you know, ours
passions outside of beings sick and I love that you
make your own jewelry. Tell me about that.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Well, I wouldn't say it's good enough to sell to anybody.
I wouldn't anybody that. I don't know, man, I I'd
like to have stuff that that is just mine, you know.
I mean, you can go on Amazon and say turquoise bracelet,
you get the same turquoise ba and listen, there's nothing
wrong with that. But I see so many guys out
on the road wearing those same bracelets and the same
(16:03):
things and the same conco things you see on Amazon
or you see in the store or whatever. I don't know,
I'm just I want to be different. So you know,
I remember when I was in seventh grade, I took
leather work in a leather class, and I learned how
to do that, and I thought that was so cool.
I made it twenty wallets, you know on some coasters.
I think it's what you make in there. But it
just got me thinking about it, and it's just just creative.
(16:25):
I'd like to make necklaces. I like to make my
bracelets and my jewelry just because I like it to
be original, look different, and to be honest with you,
I end up giving away most of it over the
course of the of a tour, so I'm gonna say,
oh wow, that's really cool, and I'll take it off
and hand it to them nice, you know. And so
then I come home and I get to make a
whole bunch more. Listen, it's partly selfish. I like I
(16:47):
give a lot of things away, but I like it
because I get to come home and make more than
I don't have any excuse, and you know I have to.
I need more.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
And then those people they love it because they have
merch that you couldn't get anywhere.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Yeah, you know. And it's usually I don't know. It's
it's if I make a connection with somebody, you know,
through hearing their story or talking to them at a
meet and greet, or sometimes it's backstage and some some guy, oh, hey,
I'm the promoter of this, so good to meet you.
I love that thing you're wearing here. You can have it,
you know, thanks for having us in it. So it's
(17:19):
it's it's just something. My wife she used to hide
things from me, a band memorabilia from me, because she said,
if I don't, you'll never have anything to show that
you don't have anything left. But she gave up on
that because I just told her. Listen, I I don't
care about keeping stuff. I don't care. I would rather
have the memory of seeing somebody smile when you give
(17:40):
it to them or whatever. I'm not one that's going to,
when I'm done doing this, going to be sharing it
on Facebook. I used to look like this. I used
to sound like this, you know, when I'm seventy or
seventy five or whatever, trying to relive things people might
not even know I ever even did this. When I'm
done with it, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Yeah, totally. I also love the fact that you work
with military veterans, because we've done a lot with that
on the station throughout the years, and my son's almost
twenty in the military, and uh, I think the vets
need all the help they can get. So I want
to hear a little bit about your about the organization
(18:19):
Operation VET.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Now, Okay, I'll tell you about them, and I'll start
with how I came to Operation BET. Now. My brother
in law, Garrett Spencer, he's uh, he's a retired command
sergeant major. His son, Jackson, just graduated from OU law
school last Sunday. He's a he's a officer now, and
(18:41):
he'll be uh he'll be working in Washington, d C.
As AH and I like to tell you where, but anyway,
he's in the military and and everything. And Garrett when
he retired, he met Tony Operation Bett now and Garrett
is on their U their board directors. My brother in
law and I never met anybody that was a better
(19:01):
soldier and a perfect example of a soldier than my
brother in law and now his son. They're both just
amazing and I just thought, if they're part of that organization,
I want to be part of it. And Operation VET
Now they mostly just you know, they're just really about camaraderie.
They take care of their guys. They do it through music.
A lot of them get together and just jam, you
(19:23):
know what I mean, and play music together. They do rides,
and they just want to make sure that they're there
for each other when they're at home and dealing with
things that only they can deal that they know about obviously,
and those guys, I can't pretend to even know what
they've seen and what they've had to do the last
twenty five years that we've been involved in things overseas
(19:45):
and what have you. And so I think it's a
great organization and so we've always been pro VET because
they're veterans in all of our families. But I will
tell you there's something very special about the way that
they help each other in the world. Way that they
look out for each other and take care of each
other and make sure that they're good to go back
to their families and they have someplace to talk and
(20:07):
have a good time and just forget about some of
that stuff and just bond with guys. And so you know,
to me, the greatest thing you can do is help
people get past some of the things that they've done
and and make them feel better at home. And so
any small thing that we can do with Operation bet Now,
(20:27):
they always know that we're going to be there. I
believe they're based up in Pennsylvania, and so they come
to shows when we travel in the Northeast and things
like that, and they're just a bunch of really good guys.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
I love it. I love hearing that because you know,
there's good organizations as bad as you probably know, there's
a lot of political between the VET organizations. They all
like to fight with each other, and it's like, man,
you're all on the same page. Man, work together.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
I know we got involved with a couple of them
in our past, and we wanted to be involved with
and unfortunately we found out that they were more about
fundraising and less about helping, and so yeah, we we
you know, backed away from those things. And once we
found the guys that Operation Ben now we knew they
were genuinely. We knew they were the real deal and
(21:15):
that they really care and that they're in it for
the right reasons. So that's our organization. Those are the
guys we're gonna work with and stick with. Nice.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
That's very cool. And you know, so I also want
to talk real quick about Mister Midnight. That's a badass
song by the way, thank you. But you got Paul
Rogers helping out with that, and that's pretty cool. I
assume that happened because of your other new band members
and their connection to him.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Yes, partly, Geraldo's been in the band for seventy seven years,
but before that and well actually even now, Giraldo has
been a touring member of Lobber Boys since then and
Paul Dean the guitar so lover Boy his solo band,
Giraldo wasn't that with him, and so in the two thousands,
(22:09):
Giraldo started doing gigs with Paul Rodgers and his solo band,
and then Todd, who actually started in Paul's soloban as
well and then has been the basis for Bad Company
since twenty eleven or so something like that. So he's
the second longest tenured bassist in their history, next to Boss,
the original guy. And so yeah, when those guys came
(22:30):
to the band, obviously there was a line of communications
that we could use if we wanted to. We didn't
take advantage of it really much because there was no
reason to. But the other thing is we also share
a manager with Bad Company, with Paul and David Spiro,
(22:51):
and David's in Iraqi in the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame. He's He's Joe Walsh, Kat Stevens and Dickey
Bets and I mean Dave. It's great. And so David
and Paul have been business together for decades. And so
Todd said, hey, I got this song that we were
(23:11):
doing in rehearsal getting ready for Midnight Rows, the album
Paul just recently did a couple of years ago, and
he said, this one kind of got lost in the
shuffle and we didn't end up recording it, just listened
to tell me what you think of it. He sent
me an MP three of a rehearsal recording that was
made by the phone, made by a phone, you know,
And I'm listening. I'm listening to that thing, and I'm going,
(23:34):
my god, Paul Rogers doesn't even sound like a guy
in a rehearsal room with the phone. He sounds like
the guy on rock and roll Fantasy. Sounds like the
guy I feels like making up. He sounds amazing in
a rehearsal room on a phone, man, you know what.
I'm listening to that going wow, you know. And if
that's as far as the thing went. Just to hear
(23:54):
Paul in a rehearsal room, I was thrilled to just
be a part of that little fly in the wall.
And Todd said, what do you think about doing that song?
And I said, well, I think that for you guys
who are just playing the music, no offense. But that's
no pressure for you guys, you know. But if I
got to sing something that Paul wrote it I just
heard him sing, you know, we'll see see how we do.
(24:16):
But luckily I'm not afraid of anything, so I said, yeah,
let's give it a shot. So we put it together
and I talked to David, our manager. I said, hey,
Paul sing on this, and he said, yeah, I think
he would. He said, let me send it to him
and Paul. Paul loved it. He said that is fantastic.
He said, they don't need me to sing on it.
It's great, but he said, but we want you to
(24:36):
sing on it. And so Paul he put his vocals
there and send it back to us. And to be
honest with you, when he sent it back, I would say,
we sent in the truck and listened to just just
that little section that he did right there, just that
little section that he did probably twenty times in a row.
Not the whole song. Let's hear that, you know, It's
(24:59):
just one of those things. It's little famboition at the moment,
but once we got used to it, it just felt
really cool to have Paul come in and knock out
this really cool line and it's it's his song. And
he said he was really kind of disappointed that he
that that song got lost because he really wanted it
on that solo album, but if it couldn't make it there,
he was really happy that that it ended up where
(25:21):
it has and and so then Paul and I exchanged
some emails and he was really really lovely guy, and
I love it and yeah, yeah, because you know, he's
far away from me than Vancouver. He's in Palm Springs,
I think, in the winter time, in the Vancouver area,
Canada for the summertime. And so uh so he uh
(25:42):
he and I became kind of pinpalace for a bit.
He's just been a really great guy to get to
know a little bit and uh way more down to
earth than you'd expect one of the greatest rock and
roll singers in history to be. But I guess that's
why he's made it as far as he's made it,
because he's a good human being.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
That is what I say of time, Because I like,
I have interviewed I've done over three thousand music interviews,
but I've interviewed icons, and they're all almost all of
them are down to earth, Like they don't even have
any idea that they're like this legendary icon. You know,
they kind of do, but they don't act like they do.
(26:19):
They don't think about it. They just them.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Well, I can give you a little insight. And I'm
no icon, obviously, but I can give you some insight
on that. When you're in the middle of the bubble,
you don't know really what's happening around you. You're just
doing your work, and like it's always a big surprise
when you find out, oh really, you know, I told Paul.
(26:43):
I told Paul, I said, you know, for me, I
wasn't of the age group for Elvis and Ed Sullivan
and the Beatles and all that stuff. I mean, I
love the Beatles, I love the Elvis, don't get me wrong,
But I didn't have the life shaging moment like come
out of those guys like Paul did when he heard
Elvis or Mike when he watched the Beatles on Sullivan
or whatever. But for me, I told Paul, might maya
(27:04):
Ed Sullivan Beatles moment is when I heard you for
the first time, and I thought, that is what I
want to do. That is amazing. He said he couldn't
believe somebody thought of him that way, and I was thinking,
how can you not believe somebody thinks of you that way?
But right, perfect example of what you're saying. You know
what I mean, Because when you're in the bubble, you
don't know, you don't know The most surprising thing to
(27:26):
me is, you know, we've had now we've had six
four top twenty and now a top ten and the
top twelve single in America and eight of them overseas,
and I don't even think about it. I don't think
that people know anything. And then you see him lined
up to see you four hours early at the menu,
or you see the first forty rows of people singing
(27:48):
your lyrics back to you, and you go, wow, how
they know that? And then you're like, oh, how they
know that? You know they've heard it? And so to me,
it's the same thing. I don't I'm always surprised. I'm shocked,
you know what I mean. But I say, four or five,
six hundred people right in front of me singing the along,
and the other thousand kind of you know, going with
it too. But but but I guess you just kind
(28:11):
of get insulated and you don't you don't really know
what's going on like that, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (28:16):
I yeah, And I even add to that, I just
think because those are the people that are in it
to become musicians, not rock stars, so they don't give
a crap about the whole rock star thing. They just
want to play their music.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Well, the rock star thing is very short lived and
fades very fast. And you know a lot of people,
like you said, a lot of bands you think you're gone.
You don't realize. Hey, you know there's a band I
loved in the late eighties, early nineties and I thought disappeared,
and I found out there in Europe all the time,
and that's Little Caesar. Do you remember them?
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Yeah, yeah, I remember them, love man.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
They were fantastic and they're still cranking it out overseas.
I do. So. I mean the rockstar part when they're
in America on MTV all the time, that kind of fades,
but the working musician part still goes. You've laid that
foundation right and you can do it for a long time.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
There you go. And yet my first concert, well my
first verse was beatle Mania, but I don't count that
because it wasn't actually the Beatles. But my first concert
was lover Boy opening for Journey. So you mentioned lover Boy.
It took me right back there, nineteen seventy nine, I think.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
All right, all right, and listen, those guys we were
just recently with him and not playing with them. We
just went backstage and hung out with them when they
came through Oklahoma, and Mike Reno and Paul Deine have
been just amazing friends to the band. They call when
we're on the road, they'll call us and just congratulate
us on the new single. Like Mike Reno just recently
(29:50):
called us and said, hey, man, love the new song. Congratulations.
And we hung out with them backstage when they were
in Oklahoma, and they were just the sweetest guys and
they've been very support of it. Yeah, they're they're they're
iconic guys because they just kept working, you know what
I mean, They just work and that's and they sound amazing.
I'm telling you, they sound amazing. I was just in
(30:13):
awe of how much they sound like their record still, Mike,
you know, I know they tune down, but but they
do it in a smart way. You can't hardly tell.
If you're not a musician, you can't tell. And my
kids everything. And I asked, because I can be a
little bit, you know, inside baseball, and I'll tell you
you won't mind, because but I asked, I say, is
(30:33):
he using any tracks or anything? Not a one, not
even on what's that one that he hits that?
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (30:39):
I mean, h's that huge incredible note? Is it turn
not turn me loose? I I can't remember, but anyway,
no love and every minute of it. He hits this
this incredible high note and love and every minute of
it on the album. And if I got hit it,
he hit it live too. And so those guys they work.
(31:00):
They they still sound great and they are just fantastic.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
So there's something like that, Yeah, there is. You know,
there's some that aren't like you know, listen, one of
my favorite bands ever is Slayer. But Tom can't hit
those notes he hit in the eighties when he was screaming.
He just does the growl now. But that I saw
it last year at Hellfest the Scorpions and the and
Priests played too. I thought the Scorpions blew Priest away
(31:27):
like they were so good. It was amazing.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Yeah, and that's well, I'll tell you Another one is
Ted News. We spent two and a half months with
Ted on the road, and unless she told me what
his age was, I would have no idea. There's I
ended up. We got along really good with Ted. He's
just a music encyclopedia and such a good guy backstage
(31:51):
and whatever is outside personality is I'm not here to
talk about that. I'm here to talk about the musician.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Yeah, who cares anyway? You know, that's actually bullshit.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
And what I'll tell you is is that he's not
one of these guys who wants you to be terrible
opening for him. He wants you to be great. And
when he heard us after the first night, he gave
us the same dressing rooms that he had, the same catering.
He let us he was his crew, lights and sound.
Everything didn't throttle the lights and sound, none of that.
And then I ended up the last month of the Torrey,
(32:20):
ended up singing with Ted every night with him. What
I can tell you about that guy is that when
you're standing next to Ted, there's this incredible vibration, this heat,
this energy. And I would have never believed it if
he just told me about it. But when I stood
next to him every night and sang next to the guy,
you could feel this energy and this heat. It's just
(32:40):
I can't even describe it, you know, coming off of
that guy, that was just like amazing. It was like electricity.
You could actually feel it standing next to him, you know,
he and I stole shoulder to shoulder I'm singing, it's
just like this voltage is going through you and the
guy has such energy and he he whips into stranglehold
or cat scratch fever or.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
I was saying, did you catch this cat scratch fever?
When you were saying about the heat. That's exactly what
must be.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
What it is, I don't know, but you just you
felt this energy with them, you know what I mean.
And it's just it's just one of those amazing things.
And listening to him play every night, and then I
mentioned one night backstages and then you know, I love
Dog Eat Dog, and he said, you know what, we'll
play it tomorrow. And the next night. Oh it was
a badass, you know what I mean. And so so no,
(33:30):
those guys that that that still do it at a
high level. There's just a certain amount of energy inside them.
And like I said, my example, my long explanation wasn't
just that he has that energy too, but you can
actually feel it radiating, you know, so very strange.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
See I love hearing that. I love hearing that because
forget all the hate on any artists for any reason
or whatever. I've found that artists are just normal, down
to earth people that happened to play music.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
Most of them are. Yeah, you know, you run into it.
You run into some of those guys that I think
highly of themselves. But I think those.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Are the ones you were referring to, though, because that's
how I I agree. The ones that were rock stars
for one song twenty years ago and still think they're
a rock star today, those are the ones.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
They were there. And they wear their Halloween costume from
the moment they get up in the morning until the
moment they go to bed and can't go out without it.
And it's always it's always like they're ready to go
trick or treating, even when they're walking McDonald or something,
you know what I mean. And gon, that's what they
want to do. I don't have the energy, man, you know.
I like these guys that just get up and act
(34:40):
like regular people and then they take their lunch bell
and they go to work, you know what I mean.
And that's yeah, that's really it's all the same stuff.
No matter what line of work you're in. You got
to go to work, and you you you come across
a lot of guys that do it right. And you know,
I'll tell you another one. You're right heat we played
with those guys overseas, and those guys are freaking amazing,
you know, such nice guys and just such a band
(35:03):
and a couple of the guys that I think the
singer is the same one since eighty five and the
guitarist is the original guy. And wow, I'm not well
versed on you, bry A Heap, I'll be the first
one to tell you, but I will tell you this,
what a joy hanging out with those guys and and
playing and playing with those guys and just spending time
with them. Such nice guys. You see.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
I love hearing that stuff, you know, I think the
listener is near to hear that. It's like one of
my favorite interviews ever, and I've interviewed them three times,
is Leonard Skinner.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Because they're just.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Good old boys and like they're laughing through the whole interview,
like it was just like they were just having a
good time. Man. They have no clue to their Leonards Skinner,
you know, they're just a good time man.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
This ain't real life anyway. This is just all make believe,
made up stuff anyway, So we might as well smile
and have a good time through it. Right. We get
to do something is completely absurd if you think about it,
what we do, it's it's goofy, but right, people like it.
It's fun, you know, hey.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
And more power to you because I played drums, I
played guitar, and I sang it thrash metal and I
sucked at all three. So the fact that you can
be doing this stuff and giving us great music, I
always like my tip my hat to musicians like you
because it is not an easy road.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
For sure, No, it's not. But I guess musicians have
this mute button when it comes to getting kicked in
the stomach or getting knocked down, because we don't seem
to fill it. We don't seem to notice it. Yeah, no,
my wife. My wife said to me years ago, because
I don't know how you do it. I don't know
how you stand it. You get knocked down all the
(36:46):
time and you never seem to notice it. It drives
me crazy, and I don't notice. If you did, you
wouldn't feel to do it. Disappointed. But but you have
to be a forever optimist to be a musician in
the first place.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
True story, very true story. Anything else you want to
share with the listeners. We haven't covered yet. That you
got going on twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Now you know, we're just getting ready. We're getting ready
to go back out on tour. I believe forwards the
end of July and it will go through November in
America and then we'll be overseas in early twenty seven
back over there again. And the reviews for the album
have been very good. I think that makes me so happy,
because you don't decide what you are the people do.
You don't decide what kind of music you play. People decide,
(37:30):
and so we've been very, very fortunate that people are
playing the songs. Radio has been great to us, and
I just want to thank everybody for listening and think
thank you and all the people in the media who
have been so kind to us and have let us
share their air and talk about what we do and
appreciate it very much.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Well, thank you for giving us great music, because it
is great music, and everybody needs to check out all
the mode, get the new album, get your merch find
out your tour dates, all that stuff, and support you
guys because you guys kick ass.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Thank you so much. I appreciate you very much. Had
a great time today.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Thank you very much, and thanks for being on the
adventures of pipe Man. Thank you for listening to the
Adventures of Pipemin.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
I'm w for Cui Radio.
Hey, you love done to censure.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
See wow for you young dumb done.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Tom is the right chom.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
This is the tite man here on the Adventures Man
didn't work?
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Why Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I'm here with our next guest to h and they
have some killer music. We're going to talk about their
new album. And you know, we're lucky to have them
today because they're in Oklahoma, kind of like it is
here in Florida. We're supposed to talk to them the
other day and Mother Nature would not have that happen.
(00:57):
So now Mother Nature is happy both of us because
neither one of us have any storms, which is very rare,
especially here in Florida. I mean, we have a storm
three to four o'clock. You can set your clock by
it from April till November every day. So we're blessed
today to have Steve Harris from Hillbilly Vegas on the
(01:22):
show How are You Hey?
Speaker 1 (01:24):
I'm doing good? How are you good? Good?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
And I love the name of your new album too
a La mode as somebody who is a chocoholic and
sugar addict like that. That's the first day I think
of it, like that's a pretty sweet band.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
That's right, that's that's what it's all about, you know,
we did. I did a French magazine interview the other
day and they wanted to know because to them, it
means something totally different. Well, yeah, me, it means you
see somebody coming around as the ice cream on top
of your pie.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
So those are good times, so load out like, I
love that too, you know, when you have different languages
and different things have different meanings to them.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I got laughed at once because our studio up until recently,
for like eighteen years was in Wellington, Florida, which is
a big equestrian community, and we had somebody that did
show on our station. They were Argentinians, and they were
talking about the whole equestrian stuff, and they would come
into the studio and they'd have like this green herb
(02:32):
that they were doing stuff with. And I heard them
talking and I thought they said mata, which in Spanish
in Mexican Spanish means pot. But really what they were
saying was Monday, which is this Argentinian herb that they
make tea out of that they drink like all day long.
(02:52):
So they were preparing us and they laughed at me
because I walked down like oh, you can't do that
shit in the studio.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
That what.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, language sometimes.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
I know, right, But you know what's cool about it
is that there is really not much of a language
barrier when it comes to music. Like you go perform
in these other countries. They don't speak an English, but
they can sing your lyrics right back to you, no problem.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
I hear all American songs in the stores and restaurants
and everywhere overseas, So you know.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
It's wild. It's wild too to me because like I
do festivals all over the US, UK and Europe, and
when I go to Europe to do festivals, I'm driving
down the road. I feel like I'm back in the eighties.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Yes, it's wonderful though, right, it's it's great. I mean,
the fans are just rabid, you know, and and uh,
it's just it's amazing to experience that overseas. They just
they just think of it a whole different way. You know.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
It's amazing for a few things. Man. First of all,
like yet a lot like I was in the height
of the Sunset Strip days in La with all those bands,
and a lot of the bands they disappeared off the
face of the earth. I thought until I started doing
the festivals in Europe. But like always, shit, they've just
(04:14):
been in Europe all this time.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Oh listen, I just did a festival. We just did
a festival in Europe with wast and Lead to flour nice.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
So Lena Ford's been in our studio because she lives
here in South Florida, right. And then Chris Holmes and
I and he's not in WASP anymore, obviously nobody.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
We hung out with him in England just recently too.
Chris is a good guy, the friend of us.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah. I saw him for the first time in like
forty years at Hell's Heroes and I used to hang
out with him at the mall. Him and Mick Mahers
we used to hang out at the mall. So hey,
it is cool though, man like. And then when you
go to these festivals over there, I always do like
(04:58):
the dedication these people, like people over here can make
all the complaints if they're like, campsite isn't the most
plush thing in the world, and these people are walking
for like five miles with all their camping here just
to set up a tent.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I know, I love it. I love the way they
react to music and the way they they are about it,
so oil and everything, and of course you know it
has its challenges obviously, but it's not the people. The
people are great.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
But I will tell you I have all the festivals
I do. One of my favorite ones, especially the camping part,
is Oklahoma.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Oklahoma is right down the road from us from where
I'm at right now. It is about ninety minutes from
me right now. Yeah, Oklahoma, I've never been. Really no,
I don't want to spend three days outside in the summertime.
I'm not interested.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
I live right exactly. That's same for me, like here
in South Floria. But that that campground is insane though,
Like they have actually literally this local strip club has
a big site and so at the end of the
day after the headliners, there's a strip show out in
the campground.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
There you go, there's like all.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Kinds of shenanigans.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
It's pretty wild, uh, camp I know, I'm surprised that
they had since your Oklahoma based they haven't invited you
to play that festival because I think it right.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
In We've been invited a couple of times, you know. Unfortunately, unfortunately,
uh it always uh interfered with something else that we
were doing yeah, so so it's just never worked for us.
But yeah, we've been invited a couple of times, and
(06:50):
I think the last time we invited we were actually
uh out on tour with Ted Nugent, so nice, and
we couldn't go back and do that. But yeah, it's
just a couple of times. Just like the old south
By Southwest, we missed out a couple of times because
of scheduling as well, So so we missed a couple
of them, but we've played most of them.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Well, there you go, And so tell us about this
new album. Hell, is it the same? How is it
different from stuff you've done in the past, from you
as the artist? How do you look at it?
Speaker 1 (07:23):
I just look at it as a continuation. I don't
look at it as any different than you know. One
of my favorite things that that was ever said in
rock music is somebody was trying to be rude to
Angus Jung and said, you know, ac DC's made the
same album twelve times, and he said, no, you're wrong,
We've made it fourteen times. So I wouldn't say it's
(07:43):
the same album, but I would say it's the same
must It's just it's like a continuation of a story
or a continuation of anything you learn more, characters change,
perspectives change sometimes, but it's still you and so it's
you know, at the core, it's still us. Got some
different influences in the band now, some guys that are
(08:03):
new to this album that been in the band the
last couple of years, and so they bring a different
story to things, But it's all our story, and it's
all character driven, and just like TV shows and things
like that, new characters come and go and things like that,
So you just continue the story and let their experiences
and their perspective have a piece of it too. So
(08:24):
I just say it's a continuation of what we've always been.
You know.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
I love that, see, because the way I look at
is a true musician doesn't necessarily change. They evolve and
just get better.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Sure, Sure, and truly I don't want to change. I
like what we do. I just want to do. I
just want to make sure that we do it the
way that we feel good about it and the way
that we want people to hear us. And as long
as we do that, I'd say the biggest difference this
time is that we didn't go to a recording studio.
We didn't have any producer helping us on anything, or
(09:02):
or input or anything. We did it all by ourself
in our own studio. Mixed master, not master, excuse me. Everything.
We just did it ourselves. There's no way, there's no
outside influences this time. I would say that's the biggest difference,
if there's anything.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
I think that's the beautiful thing about nowadays, right that
you as an artist can make it sound exactly what
you like. I'm like, you know, like I think of
Metallica and when they did kill them all that they
couldn't even go in for the mix and have any
say in the mix of the album. And I'm thinking
the artists should have all the say now.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
And normally that doesn't happen. We've been there to quite
a few times. That's why we got out in Nashville
because you know, I listen, there's no problem with Nashville.
I just it's not for us. I mean, it's a
machine there, it's a factory, and there is along the
assembly line. There is jobs. There's writers, there's producers, there's engineers.
(09:59):
Their studio meansusicians and there's some guy at a label
that tells you everything you're doing is wrong. And so
if you interrupt any of that by writing your own
songs or playing your own instruments, or wanting to self
producer any of that, they suddenly don't like somebody being
taken off the line because that's how they make their living.
You know. It's like, yeah, Pittsburgh and steel, Nashville and music.
(10:22):
It's just it's just a business. It's a factory city
if you really think about it, for music, and it
just didn't work for us, and so they would first
album we did with that label in Nashville, we left
thought we had a really good product, and when we
got the finished product that had been had oh, studio
musicians and studio background singers to it and things that
we never even heard. And that happened to us a
(10:44):
couple of times. And then finally we said enough of
this and we're not doing that anymore. And you know,
oddly enough, we've had our biggest success since we got
away from all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
I love hearing that because we need true musicianship. It's getty.
It was getting away from that. I think it's starting
to come back. You know, people like yourself and other
people that are taking a stand that like, Hey, this
is how I want my music to sound, and I
think the artists should have that creative control.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Well. Sure, and if you listen to our album, everything,
everything is a first or second take. We didn't go
any further than that on anything on the entire album.
The rhythm section was recorded together and live. My vocals
are continuous vocals, all of them. There's not a vocal
on there that went past two takes. And most first
takes were just sound level takes. And we don't use
(11:36):
auto tune or any tricks or tracks or anything like that.
It's just it's how we are. And I know some
of it sounds pretty smooth, but that's just that's just
what we made. But it was recorded that way record
even though it was undone on pro tools. We recorded
it as if we were using two inch tape, by
doing continuous takes instead of piece and words together here
and there and things like a lot of those guys
(11:57):
a lot of times, especially vocally, they want you to
sing it five perfect times and then I'll pick out
a word from each version to make up a sentence.
And it feels so sterile and so not real anymore,
and created and uh, so I don't like doing that.
So I didn't sing anything five times, and in fact,
(12:18):
I sang five songs a total of five times would
be five songs nice to be honest with you. And
if I get it, if I hit a wrong note
or something cracks in my voice, you know what, God
must have wanted it that way.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
So I'm well, I think about some of my favorite
albums from the past, and there are definitely mistakes on
their Like even Zeppelin. That scream he does on the
Presence album that wasn't on purpose. He was in pain
because he broke his legs in the accident and they
stood up, you know.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
And the same the same band. How could let be
let Zeppelin those albums be those albums without the squeak
and John Bonham's pedal.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
And you know, we used to think, you know, we
used to think everybody in the seventies put that wooden
block in there that was actually their uh it was
actually their metronome going back and forth, and they just
left it in there, you know, because now we take
the click tracks out and all that kind of stuff.
But I mean, that's all that stuff was, and it
was natural and you heard it like they wanted you
(13:23):
to hear it. You know, those guys were those guys
were champions going in there and recording them two itch tape.
And you can't just punch in and out of everything
and do the things that people do today. You know,
now today somebody can sing one chorus and they'll plaster
on the song five times, and so you're not getting
anything different in the song. You're getting the same exact
(13:43):
performance four or five times to the song because they
just sing the chorus once and just paste them in,
you know, and musten, that's fine. People want to create music,
they should create however they want. For us, that feels
horrible to.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Me, even with doing what I do and when I'm
doing voiceovers and stuff, if I do it like different
takes that are pieced together, it doesn't sound right because
you have a different tonality. The tonality is different unless
you're continuous. So I'll just keep going and you cut
(14:16):
out what you want to cut out. But I'm keeping going, right.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
And I think I just think, I just think there's
something to doing it the way that it was intended
to be done. And there's nothing wrong with technology. You
can still use technology and still do it the right way. No,
that's I mean, we try that's what we try to do.
We try to be as I'll say, take about our
music as we can. And and it wasn't a budgetary
thing because we had unlimited studio time. We could have
(14:40):
taken a year to record the scene if we wanted to,
but we recorded it in six days.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Oh man, that's amazing that that That is the art
of a true professional musician that could do that, for sure.
So hats off to you.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Thanks, I think, I think unfortunately that's also code for
your getting old and you've learned some things so you
might hold you there's this sweet spot when your brain
and your body line up when you're at your your
your your your intellectual best and you're at your physical best.
And there's a very very short period of time when
(15:20):
you're in that window, and so you have to take
advantage of that when that happens. And that's that's happened
for us lately, especially on this.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Albums no doubt. So I how else I want to
talk about? I like to talk about you know, ours
passions outside of beings sick and I love that you
make your own jewelry. Tell me about that.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Well, I wouldn't say it's good enough to sell to anybody.
I wouldn't anybody that. I don't know, man, I I'd
like to have stuff that that is just mine, you know.
I mean, you can go on Amazon and say turquoise bracelet,
you get the same turquoise ba and listen, there's nothing
wrong with that. But I see so many guys out
on the road wearing those same bracelets and the same
(16:03):
things and the same conco things you see on Amazon
or you see in the store or whatever. I don't know,
I'm just I want to be different. So you know,
I remember when I was in seventh grade, I took
leather work in a leather class, and I learned how
to do that, and I thought that was so cool.
I made it twenty wallets, you know on some coasters.
I think it's what you make in there. But it
just got me thinking about it, and it's just just creative.
(16:25):
I'd like to make necklaces. I like to make my
bracelets and my jewelry just because I like it to
be original, look different, and to be honest with you,
I end up giving away most of it over the
course of the of a tour, so I'm gonna say,
oh wow, that's really cool, and I'll take it off
and hand it to them nice, you know. And so
then I come home and I get to make a
whole bunch more. Listen, it's partly selfish. I like I
(16:47):
give a lot of things away, but I like it
because I get to come home and make more than
I don't have any excuse, and you know I have to.
I need more.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
And then those people they love it because they have
merch that you couldn't get anywhere.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Yeah, you know. And it's usually I don't know. It's
it's if I make a connection with somebody, you know,
through hearing their story or talking to them at a
meet and greet, or sometimes it's backstage and some some guy, oh, hey,
I'm the promoter of this, so good to meet you.
I love that thing you're wearing here. You can have it,
you know, thanks for having us in it. So it's
(17:19):
it's it's just something. My wife she used to hide
things from me, a band memorabilia from me, because she said,
if I don't, you'll never have anything to show that
you don't have anything left. But she gave up on
that because I just told her. Listen, I I don't
care about keeping stuff. I don't care. I would rather
have the memory of seeing somebody smile when you give
(17:40):
it to them or whatever. I'm not one that's going to,
when I'm done doing this, going to be sharing it
on Facebook. I used to look like this. I used
to sound like this, you know, when I'm seventy or
seventy five or whatever, trying to relive things people might
not even know I ever even did this. When I'm
done with it, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Yeah, totally. I also love the fact that you work
with military veterans, because we've done a lot with that
on the station throughout the years, and my son's almost
twenty in the military, and uh, I think the vets
need all the help they can get. So I want
to hear a little bit about your about the organization
(18:19):
Operation VET.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Now, Okay, I'll tell you about them, and I'll start
with how I came to Operation BET. Now. My brother
in law, Garrett Spencer, he's uh, he's a retired command
sergeant major. His son, Jackson, just graduated from OU law
school last Sunday. He's a he's a officer now, and
(18:41):
he'll be uh he'll be working in Washington, d C.
As AH and I like to tell you where, but anyway,
he's in the military and and everything. And Garrett when
he retired, he met Tony Operation Bett now and Garrett
is on their U their board directors. My brother in
law and I never met anybody that was a better
(19:01):
soldier and a perfect example of a soldier than my
brother in law and now his son. They're both just
amazing and I just thought, if they're part of that organization,
I want to be part of it. And Operation VET
Now they mostly just you know, they're just really about camaraderie.
They take care of their guys. They do it through music.
A lot of them get together and just jam, you
(19:23):
know what I mean, and play music together. They do rides,
and they just want to make sure that they're there
for each other when they're at home and dealing with
things that only they can deal that they know about obviously,
and those guys, I can't pretend to even know what
they've seen and what they've had to do the last
twenty five years that we've been involved in things overseas
(19:45):
and what have you. And so I think it's a
great organization and so we've always been pro VET because
they're veterans in all of our families. But I will
tell you there's something very special about the way that
they help each other in the world. Way that they
look out for each other and take care of each
other and make sure that they're good to go back
to their families and they have someplace to talk and
(20:07):
have a good time and just forget about some of
that stuff and just bond with guys. And so you know,
to me, the greatest thing you can do is help
people get past some of the things that they've done
and and make them feel better at home. And so
any small thing that we can do with Operation bet Now,
(20:27):
they always know that we're going to be there. I
believe they're based up in Pennsylvania, and so they come
to shows when we travel in the Northeast and things
like that, and they're just a bunch of really good guys.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
I love it. I love hearing that because you know,
there's good organizations as bad as you probably know, there's
a lot of political between the VET organizations. They all
like to fight with each other, and it's like, man,
you're all on the same page. Man, work together.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
I know we got involved with a couple of them
in our past, and we wanted to be involved with
and unfortunately we found out that they were more about
fundraising and less about helping, and so yeah, we we
you know, backed away from those things. And once we
found the guys that Operation Ben now we knew they
were genuinely. We knew they were the real deal and
(21:15):
that they really care and that they're in it for
the right reasons. So that's our organization. Those are the
guys we're gonna work with and stick with. Nice.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
That's very cool. And you know, so I also want
to talk real quick about Mister Midnight. That's a badass
song by the way, thank you. But you got Paul
Rogers helping out with that, and that's pretty cool. I
assume that happened because of your other new band members
and their connection to him.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Yes, partly, Geraldo's been in the band for seventy seven years,
but before that and well actually even now, Giraldo has
been a touring member of Lobber Boys since then and
Paul Dean the guitar so lover Boy his solo band,
Giraldo wasn't that with him, and so in the two thousands,
(22:09):
Giraldo started doing gigs with Paul Rodgers and his solo band,
and then Todd, who actually started in Paul's soloban as
well and then has been the basis for Bad Company
since twenty eleven or so something like that. So he's
the second longest tenured bassist in their history, next to Boss,
the original guy. And so yeah, when those guys came
(22:30):
to the band, obviously there was a line of communications
that we could use if we wanted to. We didn't
take advantage of it really much because there was no
reason to. But the other thing is we also share
a manager with Bad Company, with Paul and David Spiro,
(22:51):
and David's in Iraqi in the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame. He's He's Joe Walsh, Kat Stevens and Dickey
Bets and I mean Dave. It's great. And so David
and Paul have been business together for decades. And so
Todd said, hey, I got this song that we were
(23:11):
doing in rehearsal getting ready for Midnight Rows, the album
Paul just recently did a couple of years ago, and
he said, this one kind of got lost in the
shuffle and we didn't end up recording it, just listened
to tell me what you think of it. He sent
me an MP three of a rehearsal recording that was
made by the phone, made by a phone, you know,
And I'm listening. I'm listening to that thing, and I'm going,
(23:34):
my god, Paul Rogers doesn't even sound like a guy
in a rehearsal room with the phone. He sounds like
the guy on rock and roll Fantasy. Sounds like the
guy I feels like making up. He sounds amazing in
a rehearsal room on a phone, man, you know what.
I'm listening to that going wow, you know. And if
that's as far as the thing went. Just to hear
(23:54):
Paul in a rehearsal room, I was thrilled to just
be a part of that little fly in the wall.
And Todd said, what do you think about doing that song?
And I said, well, I think that for you guys
who are just playing the music, no offense. But that's
no pressure for you guys, you know. But if I
got to sing something that Paul wrote it I just
heard him sing, you know, we'll see see how we do.
(24:16):
But luckily I'm not afraid of anything, so I said, yeah,
let's give it a shot. So we put it together
and I talked to David, our manager. I said, hey,
Paul sing on this, and he said, yeah, I think
he would. He said, let me send it to him
and Paul. Paul loved it. He said that is fantastic.
He said, they don't need me to sing on it.
It's great, but he said, but we want you to
(24:36):
sing on it. And so Paul he put his vocals
there and send it back to us. And to be
honest with you, when he sent it back, I would say,
we sent in the truck and listened to just just
that little section that he did right there, just that
little section that he did probably twenty times in a row.
Not the whole song. Let's hear that, you know, It's
(24:59):
just one of those things. It's little famboition at the moment,
but once we got used to it, it just felt
really cool to have Paul come in and knock out
this really cool line and it's it's his song. And
he said he was really kind of disappointed that he
that that song got lost because he really wanted it
on that solo album, but if it couldn't make it there,
he was really happy that that it ended up where
(25:21):
it has and and so then Paul and I exchanged
some emails and he was really really lovely guy, and
I love it and yeah, yeah, because you know, he's
far away from me than Vancouver. He's in Palm Springs,
I think, in the winter time, in the Vancouver area,
Canada for the summertime. And so uh so he uh
(25:42):
he and I became kind of pinpalace for a bit.
He's just been a really great guy to get to
know a little bit and uh way more down to
earth than you'd expect one of the greatest rock and
roll singers in history to be. But I guess that's
why he's made it as far as he's made it,
because he's a good human being.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
That is what I say of time, Because I like,
I have interviewed I've done over three thousand music interviews,
but I've interviewed icons, and they're all almost all of
them are down to earth, Like they don't even have
any idea that they're like this legendary icon. You know,
they kind of do, but they don't act like they do.
(26:19):
They don't think about it. They just them.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Well, I can give you a little insight. And I'm
no icon, obviously, but I can give you some insight
on that. When you're in the middle of the bubble,
you don't know really what's happening around you. You're just
doing your work, and like it's always a big surprise
when you find out, oh really, you know, I told Paul.
(26:43):
I told Paul, I said, you know, for me, I
wasn't of the age group for Elvis and Ed Sullivan
and the Beatles and all that stuff. I mean, I
love the Beatles, I love the Elvis, don't get me wrong,
But I didn't have the life shaging moment like come
out of those guys like Paul did when he heard
Elvis or Mike when he watched the Beatles on Sullivan
or whatever. But for me, I told Paul, might maya
(27:04):
Ed Sullivan Beatles moment is when I heard you for
the first time, and I thought, that is what I
want to do. That is amazing. He said he couldn't
believe somebody thought of him that way, and I was thinking,
how can you not believe somebody thinks of you that way?
But right, perfect example of what you're saying. You know
what I mean, Because when you're in the bubble, you
don't know, you don't know The most surprising thing to
(27:26):
me is, you know, we've had now we've had six
four top twenty and now a top ten and the
top twelve single in America and eight of them overseas,
and I don't even think about it. I don't think
that people know anything. And then you see him lined
up to see you four hours early at the menu,
or you see the first forty rows of people singing
(27:48):
your lyrics back to you, and you go, wow, how
they know that? And then you're like, oh, how they
know that? You know they've heard it? And so to me,
it's the same thing. I don't I'm always surprised. I'm shocked,
you know what I mean. But I say, four or five,
six hundred people right in front of me singing the along,
and the other thousand kind of you know, going with
it too. But but but I guess you just kind
(28:11):
of get insulated and you don't you don't really know
what's going on like that, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (28:16):
I yeah, And I even add to that, I just
think because those are the people that are in it
to become musicians, not rock stars, so they don't give
a crap about the whole rock star thing. They just
want to play their music.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Well, the rock star thing is very short lived and
fades very fast. And you know a lot of people,
like you said, a lot of bands you think you're gone.
You don't realize. Hey, you know there's a band I
loved in the late eighties, early nineties and I thought disappeared,
and I found out there in Europe all the time,
and that's Little Caesar. Do you remember them?
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Yeah, yeah, I remember them, love man.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
They were fantastic and they're still cranking it out overseas.
I do. So. I mean the rockstar part when they're
in America on MTV all the time, that kind of fades,
but the working musician part still goes. You've laid that
foundation right and you can do it for a long time.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
There you go. And yet my first concert, well my
first verse was beatle Mania, but I don't count that
because it wasn't actually the Beatles. But my first concert
was lover Boy opening for Journey. So you mentioned lover Boy.
It took me right back there, nineteen seventy nine, I think.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
All right, all right, and listen, those guys we were
just recently with him and not playing with them. We
just went backstage and hung out with them when they
came through Oklahoma, and Mike Reno and Paul Deine have
been just amazing friends to the band. They call when
we're on the road, they'll call us and just congratulate
us on the new single. Like Mike Reno just recently
(29:50):
called us and said, hey, man, love the new song. Congratulations.
And we hung out with them backstage when they were
in Oklahoma, and they were just the sweetest guys and
they've been very support of it. Yeah, they're they're they're
iconic guys because they just kept working, you know what
I mean, They just work and that's and they sound amazing.
I'm telling you, they sound amazing. I was just in
(30:13):
awe of how much they sound like their record still, Mike,
you know, I know they tune down, but but they
do it in a smart way. You can't hardly tell.
If you're not a musician, you can't tell. And my
kids everything. And I asked, because I can be a
little bit, you know, inside baseball, and I'll tell you
you won't mind, because but I asked, I say, is
(30:33):
he using any tracks or anything? Not a one, not
even on what's that one that he hits that?
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (30:39):
I mean, h's that huge incredible note? Is it turn
not turn me loose? I I can't remember, but anyway,
no love and every minute of it. He hits this
this incredible high note and love and every minute of
it on the album. And if I got hit it,
he hit it live too. And so those guys they work.
(31:00):
They they still sound great and they are just fantastic.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
So there's something like that, Yeah, there is. You know,
there's some that aren't like you know, listen, one of
my favorite bands ever is Slayer. But Tom can't hit
those notes he hit in the eighties when he was screaming.
He just does the growl now. But that I saw
it last year at Hellfest the Scorpions and the and
Priests played too. I thought the Scorpions blew Priest away
(31:27):
like they were so good. It was amazing.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Yeah, and that's well, I'll tell you Another one is
Ted News. We spent two and a half months with
Ted on the road, and unless she told me what
his age was, I would have no idea. There's I
ended up. We got along really good with Ted. He's
just a music encyclopedia and such a good guy backstage
(31:51):
and whatever is outside personality is I'm not here to
talk about that. I'm here to talk about the musician.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Yeah, who cares anyway? You know, that's actually bullshit.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
And what I'll tell you is is that he's not
one of these guys who wants you to be terrible
opening for him. He wants you to be great. And
when he heard us after the first night, he gave
us the same dressing rooms that he had, the same catering.
He let us he was his crew, lights and sound.
Everything didn't throttle the lights and sound, none of that.
And then I ended up the last month of the Torrey,
(32:20):
ended up singing with Ted every night with him. What
I can tell you about that guy is that when
you're standing next to Ted, there's this incredible vibration, this heat,
this energy. And I would have never believed it if
he just told me about it. But when I stood
next to him every night and sang next to the guy,
you could feel this energy and this heat. It's just
(32:40):
I can't even describe it, you know, coming off of
that guy, that was just like amazing. It was like electricity.
You could actually feel it standing next to him, you know,
he and I stole shoulder to shoulder I'm singing, it's
just like this voltage is going through you and the
guy has such energy and he he whips into stranglehold
or cat scratch fever or.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
I was saying, did you catch this cat scratch fever?
When you were saying about the heat. That's exactly what
must be.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
What it is, I don't know, but you just you
felt this energy with them, you know what I mean.
And it's just it's just one of those amazing things.
And listening to him play every night, and then I
mentioned one night backstages and then you know, I love
Dog Eat Dog, and he said, you know what, we'll
play it tomorrow. And the next night. Oh it was
a badass, you know what I mean. And so so no,
(33:30):
those guys that that that still do it at a
high level. There's just a certain amount of energy inside them.
And like I said, my example, my long explanation wasn't
just that he has that energy too, but you can
actually feel it radiating, you know, so very strange.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
See I love hearing that. I love hearing that because
forget all the hate on any artists for any reason
or whatever. I've found that artists are just normal, down
to earth people that happened to play music.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
Most of them are. Yeah, you know, you run into it.
You run into some of those guys that I think
highly of themselves. But I think those.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Are the ones you were referring to, though, because that's
how I I agree. The ones that were rock stars
for one song twenty years ago and still think they're
a rock star today, those are the ones.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
They were there. And they wear their Halloween costume from
the moment they get up in the morning until the
moment they go to bed and can't go out without it.
And it's always it's always like they're ready to go
trick or treating, even when they're walking McDonald or something,
you know what I mean. And gon, that's what they
want to do. I don't have the energy, man, you know.
I like these guys that just get up and act
(34:40):
like regular people and then they take their lunch bell
and they go to work, you know what I mean.
And that's yeah, that's really it's all the same stuff.
No matter what line of work you're in. You got
to go to work, and you you you come across
a lot of guys that do it right. And you know,
I'll tell you another one. You're right heat we played
with those guys overseas, and those guys are freaking amazing,
you know, such nice guys and just such a band
(35:03):
and a couple of the guys that I think the
singer is the same one since eighty five and the
guitarist is the original guy. And wow, I'm not well
versed on you, bry A Heap, I'll be the first
one to tell you, but I will tell you this,
what a joy hanging out with those guys and and
playing and playing with those guys and just spending time
with them. Such nice guys. You see.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
I love hearing that stuff, you know, I think the
listener is near to hear that. It's like one of
my favorite interviews ever, and I've interviewed them three times,
is Leonard Skinner.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Because they're just.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Good old boys and like they're laughing through the whole interview,
like it was just like they were just having a
good time. Man. They have no clue to their Leonards Skinner,
you know, they're just a good time man.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
This ain't real life anyway. This is just all make believe,
made up stuff anyway, So we might as well smile
and have a good time through it. Right. We get
to do something is completely absurd if you think about it,
what we do, it's it's goofy, but right, people like it.
It's fun, you know, hey.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
And more power to you because I played drums, I
played guitar, and I sang it thrash metal and I
sucked at all three. So the fact that you can
be doing this stuff and giving us great music, I
always like my tip my hat to musicians like you
because it is not an easy road.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
For sure, No, it's not. But I guess musicians have
this mute button when it comes to getting kicked in
the stomach or getting knocked down, because we don't seem
to fill it. We don't seem to notice it. Yeah, no,
my wife. My wife said to me years ago, because
I don't know how you do it. I don't know
how you stand it. You get knocked down all the
(36:46):
time and you never seem to notice it. It drives
me crazy, and I don't notice. If you did, you
wouldn't feel to do it. Disappointed. But but you have
to be a forever optimist to be a musician in
the first place.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
True story, very true story. Anything else you want to
share with the listeners. We haven't covered yet. That you
got going on twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Now you know, we're just getting ready. We're getting ready
to go back out on tour. I believe forwards the
end of July and it will go through November in
America and then we'll be overseas in early twenty seven
back over there again. And the reviews for the album
have been very good. I think that makes me so happy,
because you don't decide what you are the people do.
You don't decide what kind of music you play. People decide,
(37:30):
and so we've been very, very fortunate that people are
playing the songs. Radio has been great to us, and
I just want to thank everybody for listening and think
thank you and all the people in the media who
have been so kind to us and have let us
share their air and talk about what we do and
appreciate it very much.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Well, thank you for giving us great music, because it
is great music, and everybody needs to check out all
the mode, get the new album, get your merch find
out your tour dates, all that stuff, and support you
guys because you guys kick ass.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Thank you so much. I appreciate you very much. Had
a great time today.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Thank you very much, and thanks for being on the
adventures of pipe Man. Thank you for listening to the
Adventures of Pipemin.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
I'm w for Cui Radio.
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