Fred Pellegrini & John Merx

This week's episode we have:

Fred Pellegrini:
With over 30 years of experience, Fred is the lead recording and mix engineer for Munck Music, Inc.  When not on the road with Munck, he's a local musician, a freelance live/studio audio mixer, and a stagehand for Hershey Music and Theater.  Fred also is the lead sound engineer at The Englewood.  Fred attended Berklee College of Music as a Guitar Performance major and the University of Miami for Audio Engineering.  Fred was also a 2020 Grammy Nominee for the Regional Roots Music Category, and Grammy Winner in 2023!
https://soundcloud.com/fred-pellegrini
https://www.grammy.com/artists/fred-pellegrini/52590


John Marx:
John Merx has been performing music since 1997. 22 years later, John started his solo artist career in 2019 with his first single I Am Real. Since 2015, John has been performing almost thirty original songs, and a few covers, with a cast of world class musicians in the funk and blues band Switch Fu. John’s work as a recording artist may also be found on the harmonica and vocal tracks of various blues, funk, rock, jam, punk and even EDM releases. Creating art is the end game. All music is art.
https://johnmerx.com/

You can find out more about the CPMHOF @ https://cpmhof.com/

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http://darkerwithdaniel.com/

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Central Pennsylvania Music
Podcast Tonight Fred PellegriniJr and John Merckx.
This episode is sponsored byEnglewood Brewing.
And now your hosts, daniel Kimeand Alan McCutcheon sitting

(00:30):
here with fred pellegrini.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Fred, you're an awesome guy from central
pennsylvania.
You are grammy award winning uhinvolved with the central
pennsylvania music hall of fame.
You play in a band.
We're going to jump into allthese different topics
separately, but first of all Iwanted to thank you for coming
on the show and spending yourtime with us here.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
Great to be with you guys this evening.
I really enjoyed my involvementwith the CPM, hof and Brandon
and everybody, and I'm justhappy to help.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Well, hey, we're happy to have you here.
Thank you for, for you know,supporting our local music
community and being a part of itfor all these years.
I named a couple things hereopening up, so let's kind of
dive into that.
So you were 2024 Grammy Awardwinner my notes are correct
Regional Roots Music category.
Can you elaborate on that alittle bit and tell us a little
bit more about that?

Speaker 3 (01:16):
2023.
We were nominated again in 2024.
But 2023, we won.
I am a recording engineerMicrophone, I need a boom.
Uh, the grammy thing.
Um, I am, uh, the leadrecording engineer for a company
called monk music.
Um, and uh, we do the annualnew orleans jazz and heritage

(01:42):
festival every year and werecord whatever bands will work
with us.
This year we did 160 bands intwo weekends.
A lot of huge names, a lot ofregional stuff and that's where
we kind of specialize and that'swhere the Grammy came from in
2023.
The band was Ranky Tanky.

(02:03):
Ranky Tanky is out of northcarolina, it's gulla g-u-l-l-a-h
music, which is um africanmeets appalachia.
Uh, in a way, that's interestingyeah, and this band is uh one
of the few that tours nationallydoing it.
Um, I have uh.

(02:24):
Our other nominations are foramericana and for zydeco, which
is also a regional rootscategory, so I deal a lot in
that.
And then I um we started by uhworking with the allman brothers
.
We were the official recordingguys for the Allman Brothers
band for since 2008 or 2008 till2014, and I came on board in

(02:49):
2011, so I got to do the lastcouple tours with those guys as
well wow, that's amazing.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
It's work well.
I mean, that's a, that's a bigname and a legendary name to get
the opportunity to work with.
How did you get get involvedwith, with the?

Speaker 3 (03:04):
I started in New Orleans.
One of my dear friends fromHarrisburg uh went to uh Loyola
and volunteered to work jazzfast and got involved with them
as a volunteer and startedrecording.
And they were shorthanded and Igot a call, uh in the spring of
2011,.
Hey, you want to come to NewOrleans and do some recording.

(03:24):
And I said yeah, and after thatit was well, we have to go on
the road with the AllmanBrothers.
Do you want to come do this?
Yeah, and then we do PeachFestival and we did Wani
Festival and a bunch of otherstuff.
But, yeah, a little bit of timeon the road in the hotel rooms.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
I'd say so Wow.
And then you worked your way upto head engineer as well.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
Well, there's only with the technological changes
in recording.
There's only three of us now.
It used to be six of us, butcomputers have gotten faster.
Digital recording has improved.
I average four CDs a day.
The guys behind me are at leastthree cds a day.

(04:10):
I don't know if you guys haveever recorded.
No one does a cd in a day.
I do four.
That's insane.
Wow, I mix way faster than wecall it combat mixing.
Is there imperfections?
Yes, there's imperfections.
There's imperfections in theperformance.
There's bad mic cables.
There's bad microphones.
After a weekend at jazz festwith 4 000 players on 13 stages,

(04:35):
shit breaks.
Yeah, excuse me, stuff breaks.
You know whether it's booms,whether it's marshall amps,
whether it's Marshall amps,whether it's SM 58, it all goes
down.
And that's a testing groundbecause we just beat it into the
ground.
So we have failures.
I can tell you someheartbreaking.

(04:56):
We didn't get that recording.
Artists dying A lot of the realfamous artists are getting
older and passing away, dying.
A lot of the real famousartists are getting older and
passing away.
Famous band called the funkymeters, a legendary funk band in
the united states and inhistory.
Um, their final recording welost because of a drive.
Died in the middle of the showoh my goodness and that was

(05:17):
their last show.
it was their final show and welost it and you go yeah, you
know how do you get past.
This is, on the other hand,we've captured going into COVID
2019.
I did a toots into my towels.
Toots died of COVID duringduring the pandemic I did.

(05:42):
There was three or four of them.
I got to just stop and thinkback, but we lost several
artists during pandemic that Idid their last shows and it's
hard.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yeah, it's not just all when you're the archivist as
well.

Speaker 3 (05:57):
you're not just hey, I'm making a CD, you're
capturing the time.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
Yeah, capturing the time is a good way to put it,
and you don't think about thatfrom an outside perspective.
You think it's all justunicorns and rainbows.
I guess it's all good times,but we're here at the festival,
let's go.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
But the New Orleans Festival is a real big picture
of America every year.
If you're not familiar, it'snot just jazz by any means.
This past year, Foo Fightersplayed, the Stones played, you
name it.
If I pulled it out, it'sestimated 4,000 artists play a

(06:39):
year.
Wow, and it's all the big namestraveling across America Willie
Nelson I've been with Williethere several times.
I've been with Bonnie Raitt.
Earth, Wind, Fire you name theblues legends they've all been
there.
How long does it go on for?
It's two weekends.
It's the last weekend of April,a couple days off, then the
first weekend of May.

(06:59):
Okay, so eight days total fourand four Thursday through Sunday
, and it's 11 to 7 every day.
It doesn't go late.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
Oh man.
Well, I'm sure after workingthat kind of shift you're kind
of glad it ends at 7 o'clock.
Go home, get some shut-eye.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
It's 12 to 15 hours every day, two weeks straight.
Oh my goodness.
So, it's a challenge, but Ilove it.
The food's awesome.
I believe, yeah, the food islegendary.
The first year you go youanticipate the New Orleans
juices, they say, and BourbonStreet will suck you in,

(07:39):
especially as a beginner.
And after the first year or twoyou learn you also need to
sleep once in a while.
But New Orleans doesn't come tolife till 10 a or 10 pm, uh,
and they go regularly till threeor five in the morning and it's
amazing music till five o'clockin the morning and a lot of the
bands that play jazz fest leavetheir night gig, keep drinking

(08:00):
and come straight on in themorning um, so now, outside of
new orleans music festival, youdo, or Jazz Festival, you do, a
lot of other stuff.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
You're in your own band.
Right now You're in a GratefulDead tribute band.
Yeah, crippled, but Free.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
Crippled but Free.
We're a rather popular localGrateful Dead tribute band.
Mike Banks, aaron Daniel Gall,jeremy Pierce, travis Warlow and
Jimmy Aguzzi Great guys to playwith.
We are in year 12.
We're between 11 and 12 rightnow.
We got to play City Island thissummer.

(08:37):
That was a lot of fun.
We did New Orleans or NewCumberland's St Paddy's Day when
they closed down Main.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
Street.
Oh, I was there.

Speaker 3 (08:46):
We were with Martini Brothers, we were after Martini
Brothers.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
I saw you play.
Didn't even know it was youyeah.

Speaker 3 (08:51):
Okay, that was a hoot .
The stage was a little wobbly,but other than that, as were the
people, but we all had a darngood time.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
I heard they're going to expand it a little bit more
next year.

Speaker 3 (08:59):
I hope so.
Thad Eisenhower did an awesomejob.
The people of New Cumberlandreally knocked it out of the
park.
There was something foreverybody A lot of kids, a lot
of family stuff.
Of course, some shenanigansthat I heard some of the locals
didn't like too much.
But hey, what are you going toget?

Speaker 2 (09:18):
It's St.

Speaker 3 (09:18):
Paddy's Day and I think a good time was had by all
.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
Exactly, man.
You got the community together.
You time was had by all.
Exactly, man, you know.
You got the community together.
You got some live music.
You know a little bit ofstuff's gonna happen.

Speaker 3 (09:31):
But you know what?
I think the good certainlyoutweighed the bad.
With that I mean boom,absolutely the good far
outweighed the bad.
Um and uh, let's hope they itgrows oh yeah, I, I hope so too.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
I love that town and you know, just seeing live music
thrive and flourish, that's you, that's what we're all about
here, right?
You know so how long.
So OK, let's go back a littlebit further.
How did you get started inmusic?
Where did your music careerbegin?

Speaker 3 (09:56):
I've always been the skinny and kind of ugly and I
figured the guitar was the onlyway I was ever going to get a
girl.
I figured the guitar was theonly way I was ever going to get
a girl.
It started when I got my firstguitar at 16.
I think I got to give ashout-out to Shay here because,
truthfully, I think it was theSharks that I saw first at the
Hershey Italian Lodge.

(10:16):
My sister was a fan.
I think I snuck in at 14 yearsold because I know it was before
I could drive and it was theSharks playing and all the girls
my sister's friends were goingcrazy and I was like, yeah, yeah
, I think I could do this.

(10:36):
And I got my first guitar at 16,for my 16th birthday, and I
just sat in the corner andplayed it and played it and it
and played it and played it andgot accepted to berkeley college
of music when I was 18 oh, mygod, I must have played it a lot
, and just no, looking back, Istarted playing acoustic guitar

(10:58):
you know the james taylor, neilyoung, the eagles stuff back
when you could make money doingit four nights a week um, is
this while you were at berkeleyplaying four nights a week?
no, no, no, when I was incollege.
I was in college and then,after two semesters at berkeley,
I transferred to universitymiami for audio engineering.
Um, I must have adhdundiagnosed, because the first

(11:21):
time I saw a 48 channel mixingconsole with all the knobs and
the faders it was, it was theholy grail moment, you know, I
mean honestly, I, I had to touchuh-huh and I haven't I still to
this day when I see a bigconsole, I, I, I literally have
a collection of mixing boardpictures, like some guys have
porn, or some guys have cars, orwhatever your thing may be.

(11:43):
I have a scrapbook of mixingboards over the years, of ones
that I've worked on for sure.
Wow that's, that's awesome,that's, I mean hey man
everyone's got their, got theirstick, you know there used to be
a music store down 83 on theway to york called big z music
on the left side, and I hadgotten uh early 70s gibson

(12:05):
firebird while I was at berkeleyand I like my strat more, so it
was my second guitar.
But uh, I went down and I saw apv 24 by 4 channel board and
traded the guitar, which wasprobably worth three times as
much for that mixing board.
you know, because I it was likethe biggest one I could find and
buy at the time and I didn'teven have 24 microphones.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
I was going to say what are you running through
then?

Speaker 3 (12:31):
I think I ran my cassette player or two cassette
players and Ian was at theat-home DJ.
But yeah, weird obsession withthe knobs and stuff.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
Just so you know, these actually turn over here on
the fridge.

Speaker 3 (12:44):
Englewood has the same one in the green room.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
Oh, you know what they do.
I saw that we were there.
Stevie was giving us a tour theone day.

Speaker 3 (12:51):
Yeah, they were used to seeing the Marshall Foo
Fighters have one on stage.
Only they took the Marshallthing off and it says Foo
Fighters.
Oh, that's awesome.
Yeah, there's a video out there.
I just spotted it and it was atHershey.
I spotted it going up besideDave at the Hershey show.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
And you just saw them recently, didn't you?
Hershey show?

Speaker 3 (13:11):
I worked with them down in New Orleans this year.
They were the second weekendday after the Rolling Stones,
and then they came a coupleweeks later we were all up in
Hershey again.

Speaker 2 (13:23):
So what do you do at Hershey?

Speaker 3 (13:23):
I'm a stagehand, I'm a union stagehand, along with
120, 150 other guys.
My goodness, yeah, a great crewto work with Seven-year
apprenticeship.
So by the time you're in thecrew, you're pretty good.
Yeah, Excuse me, big concerts alot of stuff that can kill you.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
Yeah, I believe that A lot of big stuff hanging up
high, I'm sure there's a lot ofsafety, safety, safety, safety.

Speaker 3 (14:00):
You always have a hard hat on while guys are up in
the air trusses moving.
My goodness, yeah, a lot ofstuff will kill you.
Hat on, while guys are up in theair, trusses moving, my
goodness, yeah, a lot of stuffwill kill you.
There's speakers hanging up inthe air, a couple tons, yeah,
and not like there's noelectricity running around.
When it starts raining, youknow, go ahead and disconnect
that 30-amp.
You know 14-kilowatt generatorGet close to it.

(14:21):
You can feel the sparkle.
Yeah, get your.
Get close to it, you can feelthe sparkle.
Yeah, get your rubber boots out.
Cirque du Soleil comes to her.
She pulls more power than youcan believe.
God knows why.
But they bring their owngenerator trucks, but you can
hear the buzzing through the30-amp cables of it just drawing
juice during the show.

(14:42):
Oh my.
God To the point where yourhair's you know when you're
going by your hair startsstanding up.
Lady Gaga we brought 12, 14kilohertz generators in to run
her show and had to run all the30-amp feeder, Wow.
The biggest one, though, is theRV show For the parking lot for

(15:04):
Hershey.
When the RV show comes in, 58miles of 30 amp cable get
weighed down.
58 miles.
58 miles of 30 amp, that's mywork.
Commute and back, that that'stelephone or, uh, you know high
power wire, that you see 58miles how long does it take to
set up something?

(15:24):
like that Four days to run itout to all the different
generators.
There's one generator per whatthey call a block and 30 amps
run to each individual RV that'shooked up on there.
It's three day back on with bigboxes on the back of a pickup

(15:44):
truck, two guys on the back of apickup truck, two guys on the
back, two guys walking alongwith it and he backs and you
just pull and you're putting itin the boxes and you're pulling.
Wow, you're pulling it'sphysically and you're pulling
some more.
I turned that gig down this yearI don't I don't have to turn

(16:04):
that twice and not being able towalk the next day.

Speaker 2 (16:07):
I don't know if I blame you for that one.
That's yeah that that's still agood old heavy so question for
you what would you say is youknow to someone you know an
untrained eye, someone thatdoesn't know anything about
music production or musicengineering or something like
that, what do you think issomething that would be the most
surprising or baffling to thema fact about that topic or

(16:30):
specialty?

Speaker 3 (16:32):
people have in the world of concerts, which I I
it's kind of my specialty, Iguess I've worked in recording
studios a long time, but as faras live concerts, people have no
idea what goes on behind thescenes at a concert.
There really needs to be a gooddocumentary about what goes on,
and I've seen some really goodones.

(16:53):
Rush has a really good two-partdocumentary out about behind
the scenes and what the riggersdo and what the—it's a factory.
I mean it's literally a factorywhere everybody has their part
of a production line.
When we go in just as stagehands, you'll show up and our BA
business administrator goesyou're on stage carpentry,

(17:16):
you're on stage electrics,you're on audio, you're on video
wall, you're on lighting wehave the different categories or
electrics, and today you may beaudio, tomorrow you may be
lighting, but that team you'llthen very often get color-coded
T-shirts.
So the traveling guys go hey,that's my crew, you do this.

(17:38):
Don't worry about what's goingon over there.
Don't talk to the sound guy andtell him that your buddy used
to play in Led Zeppelin or youknow, whatever the thing may be
there's like an etiquette to it.
You're going to Hershey Factoryand you're working on the
wrapping machine, or you'regoing to the Shipsports Depot
and you're driving the forklift.
Today that's your gig.

(18:00):
Okay, you get assigned to it.
Okay, our specialty is whatgoes on in concerts gig.
Okay, you know, you getassigned to it.
Okay, our specialty is whatgoes on in concerts.
But there's seamstresses,there's people that do nothing
but fill up, uh, the co2 tanksfor the, the pop guns and the,
the confetti streamers.
And then there's guys that donothing but connect four rows of

(18:21):
lights.
That's that guy's entire jobfor the tour.
You know it's very mundanethings, but it's very corporate
yes it's very.
It's not like one cool band witha couple of hang-on buddies who
get everything done.
Then they get on the bus andthen they go do everything again
it's a full production.
It's a it's chop, chop, chop,chop yeah in the world of

(18:43):
recording.
Um, I think we all need to bereal scared of AI.
I think and I'll say that goingboldly, we've gone too far with
loops, with manipulation ofvocals, with pitch correction.
We are losing creativity in themasses and getting real cheap

(19:06):
enjoyment on TikTok quickiestuff.
I believe that, firmly, peoplecan criticize me and say, hey,
I'm old, get off my lawn andI'll say it to myself too.
But um, what new orleans hastaught me is that this is a very
.
It depends on where you're from.
Uh, new orleans kids proudlywalk around with trumpets and

(19:26):
trombones.
You don't see people walkingaround harrisburg with trumpets
and trombones no um, the zydecoculture down south is very real
part of their heritage, probablythe way appalachia was with
bluegrass it was at one time.
However, there it's still gotreal hard roots.
People still go out on thefriday night to the local dance

(19:50):
hall.
Uh, we're losing that in a bigway.
Uh, but the what I can do withanybody walking off the street
and make an album.
I, I can make an album withanybody walking in off the
street.
You don't need a horse's ass oftalent and and we're starting
to see that in it coming intothe live thing.
Oh, I had to do 120 takes toget my guitar lead right, you're

(20:15):
not good, no, quite.
Honestly, if you have to do100,.
I'm sorry it may sound rude, itmay sound, get off my yard, but
walk on stage and play the gigwith your band.
If you can't do it well, youshouldn't be there and you

(20:36):
definitely shouldn't be tryingto sell a cd yeah, I agree.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
I mean, it's an art.
People practice it their entirelives.
They work their their butts offfor it to try to get their name
out there.
And you have these people outthere using ai to correct their
voice and they're not practicingtheir music at all, and then
they're just trying to getmonitors so I can play along
with the click track.

Speaker 3 (20:55):
I had a band come in the very big band in the late
90s, early 2000s.
Four or five big top 10 charthitters in the ears in the
record, uh bob verse chorus intheir in-ear monitor feed along
with the click track.

(21:15):
Now you guys have made millionsof dollars doing these
four-minute pop songs.
You are telling me you can'tremember.
When guitar lead is that it'sverse, verse, chorus, verse.
Uh-huh.
This is going a little too far.
Bob, give me an acoustic guitar.
And there's so many good youngtalent.

(21:37):
Addie Grace is a popular one inthe area.
Addie Grace is one in the areaNoah Gibney is another really
excellent musician.
These guys are doing it.
Don't get swept up in the badstuff, the not merit or
meritless stuff.

Speaker 2 (21:59):
No, exactly and look not.
Uh, you know, I'll tell you.
You know you can't use newtechnology to make good music.
That's not at all what we'resaying.
We're just saying it is an artand we believe that.
You know it's, it's sacred andshould be practiced, and you
should at least make an effortto be good rather than buy
yourself to be good.
You know, it's like talon davinci.
Someone got famous off drawinga stick figure, right?

Speaker 3 (22:19):
yeah, the satisfaction comes from your
heart.
You know, um, I'm a golfer andwhen you play a good game of
golf, it's not because you beatyour buddy, it's because you did
really well yourself.
And when your band plays reallywell on a night, you know it,

(22:40):
you feel it, it's a magic in theair that this click, check, do
it over and over again.
It's just not that same senseof victory that really in your
heart and in your, your ethos,your spirit and and your
collective spirit as a band withyour mates.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
Yeah, it's an electric feeling you can all
feel and it's like oh, and theaudience?

Speaker 3 (23:01):
yeah, of course, yeah , yeah I mean, you can feel it.
I the one of the things I loveabout being on a stage, being a
stagehand and being on stage,although in a hidden spot, when
you hear 30,000 people erupt, iterupts, it's volcanic, it's
spiritual in nature and it'sreally cool.

Speaker 2 (23:24):
Yeah, there's no recreation of that other than
the raw real thing.

Speaker 3 (23:29):
It's catching the hail mary it is.
You know how everybody feelsgood for that one moment in time
.
You know everything.
It transcends everything elsearound us and and it's available
to us, and yet we try to usetrickery to get away from it, to

(23:50):
try to steal the same thunder,and you can't no, you can't
absolutely not.

Speaker 2 (23:54):
Well, I think that this, you know, this music scene
, there was nothing.
The music community as a whole,you know, whether it be central
pennsylvania or the entiremusic community across the
universe.
Um, you know, thank god forpeople like you that are still
keeping it true, and you knowteaching it down to the younger
generations, man, because I mean, if it, if it wasn't for people
that heart and soul into it,like yourself, you know, we
would just be sold off into aiand all of your music.

(24:16):
Would that be that nowadays,and you know it's, we need
people like you to pass?
Pass the torch down, man, youknow, and you know, keep things
rocking and rolling yourself,and that's what it's all about
man.

Speaker 3 (24:26):
Thank you, that's that's to me.
That is what it's about.
It's what we pass on.
Yeah, it's what we give to thenext generation, because, man,
it's made my life happy a lot oftimes and I want those people
to have the same thing of courseand that's why I love what you
guys are doing.
It's we're all on that same page.
Man, get it out there, tellpeople how good it is.
Come be part of it with us.
Yeah, participate with us.

(24:47):
I'll come support you, man, youknow there's so many good bands
in the area.
There's, and, and there a lotof us are really struggling to
keep it going, and and same with.
We had the earlier conversationwith the bar owners and, uh,
we've got to support them.
Yeah, go on the off night, goon the karaoke night, because
they got bands on the weekendand it costs a little more go

(25:08):
we're gonna support each other.
Support each other.
That's the only way we're gonnaget by If they got bands on the
weekend and it costs a littlemore go.

Speaker 2 (25:11):
We've got to support each other.

Speaker 3 (25:12):
Go do it.
Support each other.
That's the only way we're goingto get by.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
Yep, I agree, You've got to make sure every leg of
the table is supported 100%.
That's it.
That's it exactly.
Well, Fred.
Thank you so much for your timecoming on here, man.
I appreciate your wisdom andyour insight.
Thank you, man.

Speaker 3 (25:25):
Of course that was a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
I appreciate it as well, oh my goodness, I feel
like we could talk all night.
There's so much more that wecould have covered, but we'll
have you back on sometime.
We'll do more.
Oh my God.
Yeah, I would love that.

Speaker 3 (25:35):
All right man.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
Thanks, fred.
Thank you so much.
Have a great night you too.
It was awesome getting to sitdown and talk to Longtime friend
.

Speaker 6 (25:52):
John, thank you so much for coming on the show
tonight.
Appreciate you being here,thank you.
Thank you for having me.
They told me not to smell myhand after that.
See, we did.
Yeah, so thanks for having meon the show.
This is great.
My favorite part for anybodywho wants to know before he even
starts to interview me myfavorite part of this is that I
get to be here on the same nightas one of my one of my best
friends, fred pellegrini.
So I tried to talk fred intositting next to me, but he said

(26:16):
it's too close some.

Speaker 2 (26:18):
You know I understand both sides of that.
You know it'd be fun to havehim here, but you know also I
don't want to get too close toeither, no joke, so we have some
separate chairs here.
Now, that's true, john.
Speaking of being here, wewouldn't be here if it wasn't
for you.
I want to make sure we put thatout there, first and foremost
For anyone that doesn't know.

(26:38):
The reason how I met Brandon wasI met Brandon through John, and
I would also like to give ashout out to Brett Rudder,
because I met you through BrettRudder actually.
So I've known Brett Rudder foryears.
Brett Rudder put me in contactwith john merckx on our old show
darker with daniel, and wetalked about your band, switch
foo and a lot of differentthings, and then you were.

(26:59):
You brought up the hall of fame.
At that point I didn't evenreally know exactly what it was.
I'd seen it a couple times andhe said it was this awesome
thing and I should find out away to get involved and you'd
talk to brandon for me and seeif he'd want to come on the show
and brandon came on the show.

Speaker 6 (27:10):
I think he was your very next guest he was like two
or three weeks later.
I think he was the very nextshow, the next one, or there was
like one right between.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
But yes, you are correct, it was very short after
, and the rest is history.
I mean, we went.
I think we've told the story onhere several times about having
brandon on that show and thenhim, him, you know, getting this
organized in there, but I wouldhave never met brandon if it
wasn't for you.
So, john, I want to say thankyou for that, I mean I've.

Speaker 6 (27:35):
You don't.
If you do things for you,you're not going to get where
you want to go.
If you do things because you'remaking them better, right, like
does, then it does it matter.
If you succeed, you made itbetter Like what if?
What if?
Like music's not for you, right, like it doesn't mean you can't

(27:56):
make music better.
What if?
What if?
That's what you were meant todo.
So, so anytime, uh, just steala phrase from my bass player,
jay um, you know, like risingtide floats all ships, you know,
they all, they all go up.
So, in in a world where music,uh, at our level, is struggling,

(28:17):
um, you know, local bands, um,local venues, like, like any
opportunity you have to tocontribute more, and this, I
really think this is a great wayto do it.
I've watched a lot of them and,and you guys do such a
fantastic job, thank you of ofbringing fantastic local talent

(28:38):
into the lights.
You know that they're workingso hard, so it makes me happy
that they're in, out here anddoing this.
Yeah well.

Speaker 2 (28:46):
I mean, it definitely takes a village to.
You know, we're super gratefulfor our help from the, the hall
of fame and brandon and everyone, and we're grateful to have the
opportunity to do what we do tohelp support musicians.
The same way, you know, likeyou said, you know, are you
really making it, if you're justmaking it for yourself, if
you're helping other peoplealong the way?
I think that is a part ofmaking it as well.
You know whether you make it towhere you want to be.

Speaker 6 (29:05):
You made something happen right, and that's I mean.
Like, like, there's a reasonthat engineers get a grammy too,
you know, because you can't geton stage and play a song and
sound great by yourself, yes,unless you're sitting and
playing acoustically with noequipment.
You know you, you can't.

(29:26):
You have to have it.
Takes the team.
Everybody plays their part,everybody does their job, and
without the sound team you don'tsound good.
I don't care how great you are,you don't sound good if the
sound team doesn't do great.
And what those guys do at MonkMusic is amazing.
I've seen some of their work.
I mean hundreds of albums peryear.

Speaker 2 (29:49):
I mean, their portfolio alone is impressive
enough.
I would think they have to bedoing something right to be
doing what they're doing.
So you've been involved withthe Hall of Fame since pretty
much the beginning now, right,pretty much.
Yeah, you are on the SpecialEvents Committee Exciting Yep.
Tell us a little bit about that.
What are you doing?

Speaker 6 (30:08):
Well, I mean, for years people have been telling
me how special I am and now Iget to work with some of the top
talent buyers in the regionSarah Staub and Crystal Shearer
and Anne-Marie at BRP and we aretrying to take some of the

(30:33):
things that the the central PAmusic group, a hall of fame
organization, does and get it tobe something that's like
consistent and expected right.
That's one of the hardestthings in local music because
people's lives when, when you'rejust going to go catch a band
right, you kind of want to knowthat there's going to be an

(30:57):
event that fits your lifeschedule because everybody's
busy.
Yes.
Especially adults, and nooffense to anybody else, but
once your life starts to takeshape the way you wanted it to,
well, it's full and it's busy.
So like knowing that there'slike this thing you can get to
and you kind of know what it'sgoing to be and where it's going

(31:17):
to be, and you don't alwaysknow when, but you know it's
going to happen.
So like all you got to do isfigure out is it this friday or
that friday?
Right?
Um, trying to get that kind ofevent to be more regular and
recognized, that that's reallyour main goal.
We have a lot of great eventsnow, like the, the live
recordings that again amazingGrammy winning engineer Fred

(31:40):
Pellegrini doing the recordingfor Glenn Hamilton from the
river, also hosted by BrandonValentine at Appalachian brewing
company, and I mean that's afantastic event.
It gives these local artists achance to come in and live, also
hosted by Brandon Valentine atAppalachian Brewing Company, and
I mean that's a fantastic event.
It gives these local artists achance to come and live the
experience that those artists atthe New Orleans Heritage and
Jazz Festival get to live ofhaving that guy mix your song

(32:05):
and then it's on the radio andyou know, because of the speed.
Uh, my friends in logisticslike to say speed to market.
you know, it's on the radio fourdays later yeah, quick
turnaround yes and it and itsounds like it was intended,
like it wasn't just you showedup and they recorded you.
It sounds like it was at thatlevel and and that's a great

(32:29):
experience and we're trying tobuild more of that.
We want more consistentengagement with our communities
and not just Harrisburg.
We want Lancaster, we want York, we want Allentown, we want
Altoona.
We want Williamsport and allpoints in between.
We want the whole of Central PAto have their say, to have

(32:52):
their chance at the mic, to givethe people that support their
scenes something to go to, togive back to them, and it's for
the musicians, but we also wantit to be for the people who
support us.

Speaker 2 (33:05):
Of course, and it's great to give those people that
opportunity because it's themexpressing their passion and
their commitment and theirdedication to something that
they love and hold very dearly.
It's just great that we havethis opportunity and a great
person like you to lead that andhave great friends like Fred
himself to help give thesepeople just not just a platform,
but an awesome platform.
I don't know if I'm the leader.

Speaker 6 (33:27):
I'm the idiot.
I'm the idiot.
I'm the only Looney Tunesmusician who's on the team.
Everybody else is like aprofessional talent buyer.
Um, like they, they have marketcharts and know, what works
where and like know everybody atevery venue and I'm like if I
knew that I'd have more shows.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
Well, I mean speaking of more shows.
I mean you, you do keepyourself busy, you also, or
you've been in, you've had yourband switch food for quite some
time now.
How long, how long switch foodbeen around?
Uh?

Speaker 6 (33:56):
it's nine years.
Nine years, yeah.
We started practicing in Julyof 2015.
Um played our first show inDecember of 15.
Um, although, to be fair, likeI went through when you mean,
when you put it, I was talkingwith uh, everybody earlier and

(34:17):
um, it's hard to put a bandtogether.
It's especially if you want aband that's going to succeed and
grow right and the people inthe band are going to get what
they want out of being there.
So, like I went through over100 people in that first couple
years.
It took us, I think, two and ahalf years to get to the lineup

(34:38):
we have today.
Okay, so it is a lot of work.
Yeah, to keep it together.
But I have to say, if my bandended today, we did what I set
out to do and a lot of peoplesaid I couldn't do it.
Um, I wanted a band whereeverybody in the band owned the,

(34:58):
the name.
You know they all owned what wedo.
They all, everybody gets paidthe same.
We all do the same amount ofwork you know, everybody gets
the same level enjoyment ofenjoyment out of performing and
being in the activity and I'mnot the only band to do that
cripple but freeze a fantasticexample of that as well.
But like it's not as common asyou think and I set out to do

(35:24):
that because I had struggledwith that so greatly by being in
bands and I've.
I've want to thank andcongratulate eric slaughter,
bill wash, jay kearson, mikepiaskowski, jason mesha um for
for helping me accomplish thatdream, because those, those are

(35:45):
all the people who have been inswitch foo um over more than a
couple weeks, gotcha and well, Imean, it sounds you've built
one heck of a team there andthat's what comes with
experience.

Speaker 2 (35:56):
You know you can't just wake up one day say I'm
going to start a band.
That stuff doesn't just comeeasily.
No, you know it takes having alittle bit of skin in the game
and knowing what you want andhaving that, that mindset to set
out for on your mission andachieve.

Speaker 6 (36:08):
Right, and then add the other layer of and this is
where everybody said, oh well,you can make a band.
But I said I want to make aband that does mostly originals
and they're like no, Just no.
What kind of music are yougoing to play?
Blues?
One talent buyer said no onecares about blues.
That's what he said.
It's a bold statement.
You know, he was looking at achart, so he wasn't 100 wrong.

(36:33):
When it comes to demo, you knowmarket demographics so um, I get
that like people do care aboutthe blues and the ones who do
are amazing.
Um, but like when I said I wanta blues centric band who plays
a little bit of everything, theyjust looked at me like you're
nuts, you can't do that.
You need to pick a genre andplay that.

(36:53):
And you know what?
We play a mostly original showtoday.
We play punk, we play country,we play jazz, we play funk and
everything, and we play a lot ofrock, but every single thong
thong, every single thong, has avery thin thing holding it
together, um, and that's theblues.

Speaker 2 (37:13):
Okay, yeah, I mean, I did mean song, but yeah, I
figured yeah, but no, I meanthat's, and I love that I I find
myself listening to like latelymy kind of go-to genre has been
more indie rock, but I've kindof realized that a lot of them
have a blues roots to them and Ilove that and I see what you
mean how you can play all thesedifferent genres and still have
that blues root to it.

Speaker 6 (37:34):
I think that's very unique and and Muddy I mean
Muddy Waters, um, always saidthat blues was a vocal music and
, and the thing that I getconfused about today is a lot of
what people consider to beblues is a group of very
excellent musicians I meanvirtuosos, every single one of

(37:58):
them playing a 1, 4, 5, 12 barstructure with no deviation.
You know, there's no extramusic to it and the vocals are
are usually good, but like it's.
It's a great performance, butlike, I don't feel like the

(38:19):
connection that I feel when Ithink of blues and and that's
where, like a lot of people, Italk about this a lot with other
blues musicians and it's.
You know, blues doesn't have tobe a blues structure, it
doesn't have to be a blues minor, it has to be an emotional

(38:41):
undertaking.
It has to be an emotionalundertaking, it has to be a
connection and a release of youremotion that ties you to what
you live for or have lost.
And you know you survived anywayand a lot of playing blues was

(39:08):
always, you know, from thebeginning of it it was.
How do you live through thisunspeakable existence that you
have and the only thing you haveholding on to is music and a
vocal music and putting yourvoice in the air and letting
your pain out into the world.
Yes, and that doesn't require aspecific format or key or shape

(39:31):
or set of lyrics or chordchanges.
It can be jam bands, it can becountry music, it can be rap.
You know, blues music is streetmusic, rap street music.
There's no difference to me inthat if you are putting your
emotion out there yes, yeah,it's a blues souls.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
It's all coming from the soul.
You know it's, and I have tostop and say that has to be the
most beautiful and passionatedescription of blues I've ever
heard of my entire life and I amthe least worthy ambassador
that there ever was to say thatI wouldn't say that I am, I I'm
friends with I.

Speaker 6 (40:09):
I can't tell you how fortunate I feel to have some of
the friends I have in the musicindustry.
Um, friends with.
One of my first friends inmusic was patrick duty, who was
um 15 years.
Lonnie brooks drummer.
Oh, wow, wow, and that's myfirst real experience with
successful blues musicians washanging out with the Lonnie

(40:30):
Brooks family.
I'm still today friends withWayne and Ronnie and their
sister, who I have a terriblememory.
You knew that.

Speaker 2 (40:39):
You're young Cameron.
Oh my gosh, Stacy, Stacy Brooks.

Speaker 6 (40:43):
And their uncle, memphis Gold, and it's all one
family, all amazing people.
And I've had the good fortuneof meeting Mercy Morganfield,
who's Muddy Water's daughter,and she is one of my favorite
people in the world.
Really, she will tell you thetruth about everything and it

(41:04):
reminds me so much of living inChicago One of my favorite
people in the world.
Really, she will tell you thetruth about everything and it
reminds me so much of living inChicago.
On the East Coast, people gettheir feelings hurt.
You can't say things and Idon't mean in general, because
you've been to New Jersey youknow that's not true.
But in music it's really hardfor people to tell people the
truth.

Speaker 2 (41:25):
And not to hurt them, to help them help them grow.

Speaker 6 (41:26):
Exactly.
It's the harsh truth.
One of the reasons I love fredis because fred is one of the
people I met out here who tellsme what I need to hear to get
better.
It's what you need to hear, notwhat you want to hear right?
yes, and buddy guy that was.
That was him.
Lonnie brooks, that was him.
Everybody I met in Chicago.
They told you the truth but itmade you better.

(41:47):
If you listen to them and youmade the conscious decision to
make yourself better fromlistening to that, you got
better.
Yes, and not not as a musician,as a person.
And and if you develop as aperson, you write better songs,
you listen to the history better.
You know, like I know, becauseI'm I'm a very I feel I'm a very
unworthy ambassador for thatmusic.

(42:07):
I owe it to my listeners.
Every show is a history lesson.
You know, like we don't justsing hound dog, we tell you why
elvis is not hound dog, chuckberry is not hound dog, sister
rose out of tharp is closer, butit's really.
It's big.
Mama thornton, you know youhave to give people if they're

(42:30):
willing to listen to you.
You owe it to the music to tellthe story.
Yes, because if you're going toplay somebody else's song,
those are people.
When they played that music andwrote that music, they never got
their due.
They had no rights in court inthis country.
You know they.
They could get sued and losefor something they wrote.
You know I had uh, I'm hangingout with my friend dane paul

(42:54):
russell.
We got to hang out and it was aoh my gosh, I'm so bad at names
right now.
Uh, with Bobby Parker, who'sone of the kings of bebop, and
Carlos Santana credits learninga lot of how.
He learned how to play guitarfrom Bobby.
Okay.
And Bobby had a list of 57 bandslike Led Zeppelin who stole

(43:20):
riffs from him, but he didn'thave any rights what you know so
like right.
So he just kept a list becauseat least you know, at least at
least he knew, he knew I madeall of that, but that's all he
got from it, and what I can dois I can tell his story, yes,
and, and people should hear hisstory.

Speaker 2 (43:41):
I think that's really neat how you do that, give a
little history lesson with it,and I think that makes it a
little bit more of a like acalled an intimate experience
with the crowd, where they'relearning with you or not
learning with you, but learningfrom you and and just having a
full show rather than just alive performance, if that makes
sense.

Speaker 6 (43:58):
Well, and you know what?
I hope that when people hear metell a story like that and
that's the song that they leftliking that song go to a record
store and find a record, becausethere's a record for every one
of those people out there.
You're going to find thatrecord.
Go on iTunes, if that's howyou're going to listen to it and
download a song from thembecause, they played it better
than I did and you're going toget to hear it in their voice.

(44:19):
Hear their pain when they sangit, billy holiday.

Speaker 2 (44:28):
You want to hear someone with pain.

Speaker 6 (44:29):
Listen to her and it's beautiful.
It's one of the most beautifulthings you'll ever hear in your
ears it's like a religiousexperience or the opposite, oh
yeah, exactly so.

Speaker 2 (44:39):
Speaking of switch food, though, you guys do have a
new album coming out soon,right we?

Speaker 6 (44:42):
do?
We haven't named it yet.
Eric voted for.
Can we name the album I LikeFried Chicken?
Please give me fried chicken.
We're going to vote on it.
Fred voted for it.
He votes it was two votes forname the album I Like Fried
Chicken.
I actually wrote a song calledFoo Fried Chicken and the band
voted to change the name of thesong.

(45:03):
I actually wrote a song calledFoo Fried Chicken and the band
voted to change the name of thesong.

Speaker 2 (45:07):
To be fair, that was yesterday, so it's still to be
determined.

Speaker 6 (45:10):
Yeah, okay, we're going to change the key too.
They didn't like the key it wasin, so what can we get?

Speaker 2 (45:15):
It was a flat key.

Speaker 6 (45:16):
No, sorry, a flat.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
A flat.
It was an A flat, it was an Aflat key.
It it's a.
It was an a flat key, it was aa flat key.
Yes, it's both gotcha, gotcha.
What can, uh, what can yourfans expect from this?

Speaker 6 (45:27):
long album, short album uh yeah, we don't care
about current like I know thecurrent rules are.
You, do like the real.
The marketing trend says do forthe kids listening, do four or
five songs and do an ep.
If you do.
Well know, print something inyour fans requirements.
Like if your demographic wantsa CD, make a CD.

(45:48):
If your demographics playingvinyl, make vinyl.
If they're not using physicalmedia, don't do that.
Don't waste your money.
Yeah.
You know, like I love, I'm allfor more physical media.
Play records, kids play CDs.
Yeah, don't do cassettes, butdon't do cassettes.
But um, don't do that toyourself.
But you know, like, if, if yourmarket's not there, don't spend

(46:10):
your money.
Don't put all your money intoputting cds out.
You can't sell, sell, sell thedigital version and put money
into making more music yes butbut, uh, yeah, we have nine.
That ours is gonna be nine songs.
Um, it's eight of my songs andone from bill wash.
Okay, um, so it's all originals.
Of course, if you're gonnarecord, we're not doing.

(46:32):
We have, I think we, we.
Our current playlist is like 49songs and I want to say 31
originals, oh, wow so like we'regonna go to the studio.
We're not doing somebody else'sstuff.
Yeah I get that now that thisalbum it's being produced by uh,
I, actually it's being producedby, uh, my guitar player, bill

(46:54):
wash, and my bass player, jaykearson.
Um, the capture is all beingdone by jay kearson.
Um, the mastering is gonna bedone by jayarson.
The mastering is going to bedone by Jay Kearson, but if I
bribe him with maybe a gift bagof Darth Vader stuff and
probably some money, I'm hopingthat Mr Fred Pellegrini, who was

(47:17):
on your show a few minutes ago,is going to be our mixing
engineer.

Speaker 2 (47:21):
Oh well, that would be phenomenal.
Hopefully you can talk.
Be phenomenal, hopefully youcan talk to him.

Speaker 6 (47:24):
So you get in a room with him.
He, he said.
He said he would do it if Idon't hug him.
That's true, he did, heactually did.
He mixed.
He mixed our first album oh,okay, well and actually, and and
jay mastered it, didn't he?
Yeah and yeah, and jay kearson.
So so Fred Pellegrini won theGrammy for Best Live Roots or

(47:50):
Blues, right, regional Roots,sorry, regional Roots.
Jay Kearson was nominated for aGrammy Best Live Regional Roots
, and I'm going to get the theyear wrong, but I think it was
1972.
He didn't win, but he was afinalist, wow that's 30 years

(48:11):
earlier and then fred learned,learned in part from jay and won
in that category, that'sawesome.

Speaker 2 (48:17):
Yeah, you can't go anywhere without teaching a
history lesson, can you?
No, I love that.

Speaker 6 (48:22):
History is my favorite subject and when the
truth is like, like, I'm not 25anymore, right, it's my turn to
pass it on to the next kid, alexwarner.
You know like I play bluesmusic.
Alex warner's blues, yep, um,it's my job now to say it's time
to teach.
Do what I can to give to him.

(48:42):
Yeah, right, right, like, he'sactually in Nashville next week
performing.
There's a, there's two.
I don't know a lot about theblues clubs down there.
There's not, like, there's nota whole lot of real blues clubs
in Nashville.
There's a couple of places thatput blues on the wall, but
that's not what's playing inside.
Yeah, memphis is more of thehub, but that's not what's

(49:11):
playing inside.
Yeah, um, but this is more ofthe hub for that, right?
Yeah, pop attorneys, though, um, east of the airport, and then
there's an elks club downtown,um, and alex, his drummer, is
actually pop attorney's grandsonand I believe that's where
they'll be next week.
Oh, wow, um, I'm, I'm gonna bethere in two weeks.
I feel really bad.
I'm gonna miss him, um, and I'mprobably gonna go to elks club
because I'm only gonna, I'm onlygonna be there for like 42
hours, so I don't have time tolike go very many places, uh,

(49:34):
hey, I mean, you'll make whathappen, what you can, you know,
yeah, so but but alex part youknow like it's.
But Alex part you know like it's.
Almost exactly 10 years ago,this guy came into a pizza shop
where I was helping host an openmic and I was just starting to
sing in front of microphones.

(49:55):
Okay, and he said, if you wantto learn how to do this, let's
get in the studio and teach youto do it right.
And you know what?
Guess who?
That was Fred Pellegrini, theman himself.
Yeah, so it's a.
It's a lot of it's a lot ofcallbacks to the same joke, but,
like you know, like it's.
Fred paid that to me.

(50:15):
I was able to put a bandtogether with people that paid
it to him, and they've taught mehow to be a better songwriter,
how to be a better performer,how to run a band, how to run
the business of the band.
And now it's my turn to youknow, teach the next kid pass
the torch, yeah, yeah and andthat's music is a cultural event

(50:38):
.
Right, it's not.
To some people it's a paycheck,it's a cultural thing.
I don't do music because I'mgetting paid.
Do I have to get paid to affordto keep playing it?
Yeah, yeah, but like, I do itbecause I have to yes I have to
write songs, I have to playmusic.

(50:59):
I record songs, I go to thestudio, I finish them.
I pay for it out of pocket.
I don't particularly care if Isell to pay myself back for it,
as long as I don't get introuble at home for what I spent
on the album.
But I have to do it.
If you paint, you have to paint.
Yes, if you write poetry, youhave to write.

(51:20):
So for me it's not just, Ican't just make a song, I have
to get the finished product done, you have to get it out there
to the world.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
You have to express yourself right I went.

Speaker 6 (51:29):
I have a friend in philadelphia who's amazing.
His name's adam.
Stare, he's actually frommechanicsburg.
Yeah, um, and like he'lloccasionally send me something
and I'll record it, or if I,every couple years, I'll get a
chance to stop by his house fora day and I'll just record
random harmonica stuff.
He's like I want this.

(51:50):
I'm not doing vocals, he's a.
He's a far better vocalist thanI am.

Speaker 2 (51:54):
Um, uh, you're a pretty good vocalist.
He must be pretty good if, ifit's s-t-e-h-r-e-o.

Speaker 6 (52:01):
If you look him up like by song, okay, you know
he's an amazing vocalist.
Um, I can't keep up with him.
But but, like, if he gives methe chance to put something on a
song, I'm gonna do it.
Yeah, if fred lets me, fred letme put something on his album
that he made a few years ago.
I'm showing up and I'm gonnarecord it.
I have a friend who I went tohigh school with, who's I want

(52:23):
to say the chair, vice chair oftheir chemical or chemistry or
chemical engineering departmentat University of Pittsburgh.
He has a bluegrass band.
He sent me a song and said puta harmonica track on here.
So of course I went to Fred'shouse and recorded it.

Speaker 2 (52:42):
And you even mentioned you're working on some
music right now with artistsyou can't even talk about, right
?

Speaker 6 (52:47):
I believe, to quote jay and bill, contractual
obligations.
I can't tell you anything aboutthe artists.
I can't really say much aboutthe song, but like this is two
people who are there.
When I found out I was on thesong, I was like I have their
albums, you know, like, oh, I'mgonna go in my, sit in my car

(53:11):
and listen to some of myfavorite bands right now.
If you can one of them, it'stough that they're not bands,
but yeah, you know, like artists, yes, there's some of my
favorite artists, there's someof my favorite music types that,
like this is like I'm excitedthat I'm even included and and I
I can't tell you about it yetbecause I don't know when their
pr plan starts that I'm allowedto, like I can't.

(53:31):
It's not like people going outand saying I'm in a movie, this
is the name yeah, I can't dothat yet no, exactly, if it
clears before this airs, and youknow, let us know, we'll link
it.
Yeah, yeah, right, no yeah, andand uh, to, to, to do to.
I'll throw the one plug in foradam.
Um, he just did a song withgrammatic, who I was trying to
find, uh, their next tour dates.

(53:53):
To plug that I couldn't, butthey're like, the first page I
pulled up was grammatic has likehalf a million followers on
this page.
Um, I don't, um, and they justreleased a single.
I want to say it's calleddante's paradiso and I'm
guaranteeing adams, the uhguitar player on it and maybe
the vocalist oh my god, and it's, it's great if you like.

(54:16):
If you like edm and you like,but you like like they don't
just do edm, it's edm with realinstruments okay, kind of like
real singers, kind of like grizzyou ever listen to grizz no
okay, is that like a bear thing?

Speaker 2 (54:33):
no okay I'll show you grizz.

Speaker 6 (54:35):
Then I did go into a bar once and there was a sign
about bears and I realized I wasin the wrong bar gotcha.

Speaker 2 (54:42):
Yeah, that's's the horse bar about the bears.
Yeah, I got you Okay.

Speaker 6 (54:45):
Yeah, no, that was with Mark Santana.

Speaker 2 (54:49):
Oh man, okay, I'll show you some, I'll show you,
I'll show you Grizz later.
G-r-i-z.

Speaker 6 (54:54):
Great band, okay yeah .

Speaker 2 (55:02):
I'll check it to you then I do.

Speaker 6 (55:03):
Unlike eminem, I do listen to techno, not much, but
yeah I'm right there with you,so real quick.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
I do know we have to wrap up here in a minute would
be remiss.
I know we had mentioned thisearlier.

Speaker 6 (55:14):
We got to talk about brett michaels man oh, that also
wouldn't have happened withoutyou, so oh well, and don't tell
brett that, because you know Idon't want to upstage him I'm
not talking.

Speaker 2 (55:26):
I mean, hopefully in the near future I'll get to talk
to him.
I don't know if that's gonna bethe front thing on my mind, but
you know, oh so fun.

Speaker 6 (55:32):
I have a funny brett michaels story, so I met him at
the at the the party graw pressthing, right yep yeah I didn't
mean to, because I'm like likeit's not my kind of music.
It's good, it's great music, Iappreciate it.

Speaker 2 (55:46):
You can appreciate the talent?

Speaker 6 (55:47):
Yeah, I just not.
I don't know.
It's never done anything for me.
I grew up in the 80s and Ididn't like 80s music of any
kind, really, unless you'retalking like Diggable Planet's
Public Enemy that I liked.

Speaker 2 (55:58):
I got you.

Speaker 6 (55:58):
But I don't know, it just wasn't speaking to me.
So I got in line when the thingended and everybody wanted to
go like say hi to him.
Um, I got in line to talk tosomebody who I had seen from
another event.
I wanted to talk to him aboutproduction.
You know, I missed.
You know, like we're what can Ido to help?
The next thing, um, and it wasthe, the joy to the Berg.

(56:19):
Uh, we were talking about, andby the time that our
conversation was like you know,oh, I've, what are we?
What are you doing over here?
He's like I'm waiting to meetBrett Michaels and I'm like, oh,
I don't need to do that.
And he's like we're next.
I'm like, and I like I'm at thefront of the line.
So, so it's at the point whereI'm like, oh, this would be

(56:41):
really rude if I just leave.

Speaker 2 (56:43):
And I'm like you don't want to walk away and have
Bret Michaels be like.
So who's this douchebag?
Yeah, who's that jerk Wow?

Speaker 6 (56:53):
that blues musician's really just a real like yeah,
who's he think he is?
So I went and talked to him.
I had no expectations, right,Because I've met a lot of people
in music and in the 80s and 90s.
They weren't all cool.
They just weren't, and I wasfloored at how genuinely nice,

(57:13):
how he's a wonderful human beingyes, and I feel so bad for
taking time up from him meetinghis fans, even if it was 30
seconds, but he's a great guy.
I'm glad he did, I'm glad I did, and and one of the funniest
things for music, uh, that'sever happened to me in my life
happened a little while afterthat, because I shook his hand

(57:36):
and get a picture taken, um, andI walk away and a little while
later, like I'm talking toeverybody else upstairs and I go
downstairs and you guys weregetting your pictures taken with
him and like they took thepictures and you were done
taking pictures and you'restanding next to brett michaels

(57:59):
and like just starting to likewalk away from him and you guys
saw me and you were like and youall ran over, you all ran over
and posed for a picture with me.

Speaker 5 (58:14):
Well, brett Michaels is standing there going who is
this guy?
And I'm like, if he only knewthat I'm nobody Like, just some
idiot that made you sweaty acouple years ago trying to give

(58:35):
an interview.

Speaker 2 (58:36):
I'm sweating right now, man, I'm always sweating
but you know At least, it wasn'tjust me it was a little bit you
, but no, oh my God, and youknow what's funny In the moment
I didn't even think about itthat way.

Speaker 6 (58:48):
I was just like Merckx I haven't seen you in it
was like the thin cheers, youknow, like Brett Michaels is at
the bar and Norm comes in andeverybody's like Norm and you
know, the famous guy is justlike who's that they're like
he's the guy that won't leave abeer on the bar.
I worked my butt off being aworld famous musician, writing

(59:13):
like number one, hitsmulti-platinum, multi-grammy,
one of the most famous people inmusic history and you guys are
more interested in that idiot.
Hey, man, you're our idiot.
we love you oh man, well, john,thank you so much, man less
awkward than when I met limpbiscuits drummer, but that's a

(59:33):
story that's not for the camera.

Speaker 2 (59:35):
That goes back to what we were talking about with
cheetahs earlier I'm reallycurious about this, so we're
gonna have to wrap this up soyou can tell me.
All right, john.
Thank you so much, man, makesure, uh, you know, we'll get
any of your information linkedin the description below so that
way people can check out yourmusic and support you guys,
because you definitely shouldand I don't know when this will
come out, but like we're at umplowman cider in gettysburg

(59:57):
tomorrow night, uh, which isseptember 27th- won't be out
tonight.
No, tomorrow won't be outtonight, that's probably it
won't be out tonight, that'sprobably good.

Speaker 6 (01:00:03):
Um, uh, we're at Wolf brewing the Friday after and
we're there 10 times a year.
It's fantastic place.
Uh, the week after that we'rein Philadelphia at twisted tail
and I think November 1st we'reat grotto and, uh, Wormley's
Berg, wonderful Um.
So come, come, hang out with us.
And if you can't come see us orblues isn't your thing go find

(01:00:23):
a different band, go supportsomebody.
Like, like Fred said, go to goto karaoke night and support the
places that support live musicor live art of some kind.
You know, like, just get outand experience that, because
it's not about watching a reelon your phone, it's about being
around human beings.
It's about, you know, makingyourself vulnerable to life and

(01:00:49):
and just live.
We said earlier, live in thatmoment for a minute, because it
helps you when you have to goback and sit at your desk all
day.
Or you have to carry lumber allday, or or you know, whatever
the job is, that you slogthrough all day, or you have to
carry lumber all day, or or youknow, whatever the job is, that
you slog through all day thatyou wish.
Even if you love your job, youalways there's always a piece of

(01:01:11):
you that wishes you weresomewhere else.
Let this be it once in a while.
Get out, be around humans, gosupport live music.

Speaker 2 (01:01:19):
Hey, thanks, man thanks for having me.
Well, guys, that does it forthis week.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
Huge shout out to John Merckxand Fred Pellegrini for taking
the time to come sit with us, asalways, I'm your host, daniel,
and thanks for checking us out.
Have a great night.
Outro Music.