September 7, 2024 • 58 mins
What if one in three individuals suffering from epilepsy found no relief from current treatments? Tune into this heart-wrenching episode as Mike Gomoll, founder of Joey's Song, shares his deeply personal journey of turning the pain of losing his son Joey to a rare form of epilepsy into a powerful mission for change. Mike joins Andy McNamara on Code Zero Radio's Fox City's Core to discuss the genesis and evolution of Joey's Song, a nonprofit that has rallied the music community to support epilepsy research and patient services. From releasing CDs featuring artists like REM and Roseanne Cash to organizing the much-anticipated Freezing Man concert, discover how music becomes a lifeline for those battling epilepsy.
We also uncover the harsh realities faced by epilepsy patients, particularly the third of them who find no respite from current treatments. Mike shares the innovative and creative fundraising efforts Joey's Song spearheads, including the adaptation to digital events during the pandemic. Listen as he recounts memorable moments with artists such as Rick Nielsen and Charlie Barron, and explore the behind-the-scenes magic that makes Joey's Song events unforgettable. The episode emphasizes the importance of continued research and community support, giving hope and resources to those who need it most.
Excitement escalates as Mike reveals the festival's new format, transforming Freezing Man into a week-long musical extravaganza. With performances from iconic bands like Soul Asylum and The Bangles leading up to an All-Star Jam, this year's event promises to be one for the books. Mike also discusses the logistical challenges and strategic goals of expanding Joey's Song events beyond Madison. Don't miss this inspiring conversation brimming with passion, dedication, and the power of music to make a meaningful difference. Follow our podcast, leave a review, and help us spread the word to amplify Joey's Song's impact.
Visit www.joeyssong.org to learn more about Joey's Song and the work we do and get details on our next set of shows. Also be sure to follow us on all popular social media platforms with our handle @joeyssong
Joey's Song is a federally registered 501(c)3 charity that raises money to fund research into treatments and cures for epilepsy. Joey's Song is 100% volunteer with no paid staff, so we are able to convert more dollars into life saving research.
Our Joey's Song family of artists include Rock N Roll Hall of Famers, Grammy and Emmy winners and Top 40 hitmakers.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hey everybody, welcome to the Joey Song Podcast
.
I'm your host, mike Gamal.
For those of you that are newto Joey Song, we're a 501c3
charity that raises money tofund research into treatments
and cures for epilepsy.
We also direct funds to supportpatient services and community
programs as well.
Our fundraising vehicle ismusic.
Every year, we hold a series ofconcerts that feature Rock and
(00:30):
Roll Hall of Famers, grammywinners and Top 40 hit makers.
These amazing artists all cometo Madison, wisconsin, each
January for a festival that wecall Freezing man.
You should know that every oneof the artists that plays at our
event donates their time andtalent.
None of our performers take apenny to join us.
We have no paid staff.
We are a 100% volunteerorganization.
(00:52):
The next Freezing man isscheduled to take place January
8th through the 11th 2025, withsix amazing shows scheduled over
four days.
To find out more about Joey'sSong, you can find us at our
website, joey'songorg, or followus on social media, where all
of our handles are at Joey'sSong.
(01:19):
Hey everybody, this week, on theJoey's Song podcast podcast,
the tables are turned.
Instead of me asking thequestions, I'm the one being
asked the questions thereof.
Is that the right sentence?
Grammar words.
Right order never been mystrength.
Anyway, I joined our buddy,andy mcnamara, on cold zero
radio uh up in appleton for anhour-long discussion.
(01:42):
We walked, walked through someof the Joey song history and he
asked me a bunch of reallyinteresting questions and I gave
a bunch of really boringanswers.
But if you got some time, stickaround and listen to my
interview on Code Zero Radio upin Appleton.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Wisconsin.
You're tuned in to Fox City'sCore on WCZR Code Zero Radio.
For the show that gives you anopportunity to call in and be a
part of the show.
For the show that gives you anopportunity to call in and be a
part of the show, Our call inline is 920-358-0795.
Core.
(02:37):
My guest today is Mike Amal.
He's the founder and presidentof Joey's Song.
That's a nonprofit organizationthat uses the power of music to
fight epilepsy.
Joey's Song was named afterMike's son, Joey, who had a rare
and devastating form ofepilepsy that took his life at
the age of five.
Joey had a passion for musicand remarkable talent for
remembering songs.
Mike wanted to honor Joey'smemory and spirit by creating
(03:00):
Joey's Song.
The foundation has grown overthe years, bringing together
musicians, supporters and theepilepsy community to work
towards better treatments and,ultimately, a cure for epilepsy.
Joey's Song is continuallyevolving and I can't wait to
talk to Mike about what's tocome.
Mike Ma, welcome to Fox City'score on Code Zero Radio.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Thanks, Andy.
Hey, I was watching your intro.
There are a lot of familiarfaces on there too.
You've had a few of the JoeySong family join you.
I saw Frank and Jay and lots offolks.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Well, that's one of the really neat things about
Joey Song and seeing the show isyou've got people from up in
Appleton, You've got a big baseof Madison musicians Pi Cohen
and Jay Moran and just many.
It's pretty neat to see themperforming with these huge
musicians that everybody knows.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Well, and then of course we've got the Viroqua
contingent with Mr Vig as well,so we've got all the corners of
the state covered and WallyIngram's from Beloit.
So really we could do one ofthose little pin maps.
And I'm sure there's someconspiracy theorists that if you
connect them they probablyspell out something or other.
But we do have a lot of, andthen a lot of the other guests
(04:12):
that are national have Wisconsinties as well.
I'm sure we'll talk about thatover our time together as well.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
So the Joey song.
It's been going on for quite awhile and kind of alluded in the
intro what it was about.
But can you let us know how theidea came to you to start this?
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Yeah, well, first of all so I don't get too much
credit for being any type of agenius the live concert event
involved truly by serendipity,and I'll explain that as well.
So Joey's Song started out asCDs.
If you put your mind back to2010, which is when we started
floating around the idea ofdoing this, the idea was to put
(04:53):
out music CDs.
For those of you of a certainage, that's how music used to
come to us.
It didn't come to us over thephone, but right around that
time.
And there was a thing, back inthe early 2010s, of the
compilation CD for a lot ofcharitable causes, political
causes and whatever.
And what you do is you wouldget artists, would give B-sides
(05:14):
or rare tracks so they'd recordsomething new, put it together,
and then you you know, your 1095or 1495 or whatever CDs used to
cost would go to whatever thatpolitical cause was or that
charitable cause, and that'swhat we were looking to do was
to do just that.
Unfortunately, 2010 was rightaround the time when the entire
world decided they were nevergoing to pay for recorded music
(05:36):
again or not pay anything morethan 0.00075 cents per stream.
So we released a bunch of theseCDs, Tons of really cool people
the guys from REM, RoseanneCash, Crash Test Dummies, Della
Mitri, Freedy, Johnston, tons ofreally great people donated
some really unusual tracks to us.
Problem is, nobody bought thedarn things.
(05:58):
And anybody that's in the musicbusiness that's listening to me
right now knows the effort thatit would go into to clear 15,
30 tracks, you know, gratis,from publishing to writers, to
record companies, to labels,knows that that's no mean feat
just to be able to, you know,get the music for free.
But every time we would releasethese CDs, we would have a CD
(06:20):
release party, which is alsosomething you kind of did back
in the day, and so we would haveas we'd release them, we'd have
musicians Freedy appeared, andMichael McDermott and Rhett
Miller and lots of really coolfolks showed up and we'd do kind
of these standard, you know, 30, 35 minute, 45 minute singer,
songwriter sets and they weregreat.
Well, we found out pretty earlyon as the direction that the
(06:43):
entire music business has gone,we were making more money off of
the live events than we wereoff of the recorded music, which
is very much.
You know, unless you're thekind of person we refer to by a
single name Taylor, Beyonce,Rihanna, Bruce, you're not
making a lot of money these daysoff of recorded music and so
that's why you know guys are onthe road, when there's not a
(07:04):
global pandemic, for 200, 250days a year and they're meeting
you back at the merch table tosign CDs and all that.
The music business flipped andthat's right when Joey's song
kind of came online.
So we started doing theseevents and then right around the
time when I was kind ofscratching my head, going what
are we going to do about this?
(07:24):
Because we were putting a lotof time and effort into the CDs
and they weren't selling and itwas the live thing, but I really
wasn't sure where I was goingto go.
Right around that time Garbageplayed a dual headlining show
with Flaming Lips at Warner Park, which is the minor league park
here in Madison where theMallards play Sorry, I'm showing
(07:44):
my age by calling them theMuskies where the Mallards play
and BV and I ran into each other.
We had known each other back incollege.
I was at Headliners, he wasworking with Spooner but he went
on to win Grammy Awards and MTVMoon Men and I did not go on to
do either of those things.
But BV and I, with Freedy, kindof ran into each other
(08:06):
backstage, started talking.
I'll cut the story a little bitshorter than that.
Long story short is one of thethings that Butch agreed to do
is have his kind of side project, the Know it All Boyfriends,
come and play.
One of our benefits.
We did that back in 2015, 2016,I think.
At the Majestic we had Chaser,a local band, open up, and over
(08:30):
time we developed this modelthat we're at now, which is we
have the KIAB serve as a houseband and then we have all these
folks kind of come and join us.
And really, once we moved tothe Barrymore, which was a bit
of a bigger stage, it's justkind of multiplied.
And now you know, the artiststhat play one year not only want
to come back, but theyrecommend friends.
(08:51):
And now we've got what is aboutto be announced as a multi-day
event happening in January of2025.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
How was the process of putting a CD together
compared to trying to put a showtogether?
Speaker 1 (09:03):
process of putting a CD together compared to trying
to put a show together.
Well, the CD was easier in manyways because it's a pretty
standard process.
There's standard contracts andreally all you're asking of the
(09:24):
artist or, in some cases, theirmanagement is, you know, sent,
see.
The other thing, andy, you haveto remember, is back in 2010,
you couldn't get every song thathad ever been recorded or
released on your phone right.
So getting that rare b-side orthe live cut, that was a big
deal, at least to you know,dorky completists like me.
But the process of getting itwas pretty straightforward.
So you either got to the artistor their management said hey,
(09:46):
we're looking for something thatyou know is no longer in print,
and everybody had something intheir drawer or something that
was a B-side to a single a longtime ago.
So that part of it was easier.
Now, the part of it that wasdefinitely difficult and time
consuming was getting all ofthose gratis sign offs on the
release Right, and in some cases, you know the problem is all it
(10:08):
would take is one person inthat chain.
You know if there were threewriters and you know the two
publishing, or each of thewriters had their own publishing
and you know, add on to thatthing.
All it would take is, you know,one of those people to say, no,
I'm not going to give up myroyalties.
And you know, there's a bunchof tracks sitting on my hard
(10:28):
drive that I wish the worldcould hear.
And they maybe will.
They just won't hear it fromJoey's song because of that.
So the CDs were much more timeconsuming and laborious.
The music events is a lot morefree form and there's a lot more
ups and downs to it as well, sothey're kind of apples and
oranges.
I'm much more enjoying doingthe live events now because
(10:54):
there's a little bit more ofthat buzz with it.
I guess is the best way to sayit.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Well, we should kind of set some background about why
this is such an importantconcert every year.
Epilepsy is.
Obviously you've got aconnection to it.
I think a lot of people haveconnections to epilepsy because
it has been historicallyunderfunded, but so many people
are diagnosed with it.
Joey Song has done a huge, hugething.
(11:21):
They've raised over a milliondollars, which.
Can you tell us what that goestowards?
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Yeah.
So my son, joe, as you said inthe intro, passed away just shy
of his fifth birthday in 2010.
He had a particularly rare andheinous form of epilepsy called
Dravet's syndrome, and there's afamily of these rare pediatric
epilepsies.
Epilepsy is like a spectrumdisorder, very much like autism
or cancer, in the sense thatthere's not just one of them,
(11:49):
there's not just epilepsy,there's multiple causes and
multiple ways that epilepsymanifests itself, and so the
type that Joe had was achromosomal kind of stuff that
even after you know almost 18,19 years of being aware of it, I
still can't properly explain it.
But that's more on me thananything else.
(12:10):
But while there have been a lotof treatments that have come
out over the past 10, 20 years,all they've really done is kind
of minimize the side effects.
It has been a buzzword in theindustry that one in three
people that have epilepsy don'tget relief from their seizures
(12:31):
through medicine or surgery ordiet or other lifestyle changes.
That number hasn'tsignificantly changed over the
last 20, 25 years, even thoughmany new treatments have come on
the market and what that reallysays is the side effects have
been lessened.
So there's been great progresswith these medications and
keeping the terrible sideeffects that epilepsy drugs or
(12:56):
anticonvulsants can have.
We're really not hammering downthat number.
There's still a lot of peoplethat wake up every day and worry
every minute about if there'sgoing to be another seizure or
something.
So, joey Sung, we really focuson funding research for
treatments and cures, fundingthose really smart people you
know in the lab coat with theirlab coats, mixing test tubes.
(13:17):
I'm sure it's not done that wayanymore, but you know that
really smart lady with the whitething.
You know white lab coat mixingit and when it turns from green
to blue, somebody's life isgetting better and that's really
what we focus on.
So of that 1.3 million we'vebeen a part of since we started,
(13:39):
joey Sung, the lion's share ofthat has gone to the research
community.
We also fund other parts thatdo patient services and those
types of things, but we reallyfocus on the treatments and
cures because, having been apart of it, I know that that's
the real lifeline.
Certainly, the patient serviceshelp everybody live a better
life day to day and cope withthe disorder, but finding the
(13:59):
treatments is at least whatspoke to us and our family.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
And Joey Song does so much.
One of the things I enjoyedseeing was, a couple of years
ago, Fritty Butch and their oldboyfriends.
They wrote a song based on achild's idea it was a train, a
train to somewhere awesome.
Yeah, that was great.
Things like that, I think,makes what Joey Song is doing so
(14:24):
unique.
You guys every year gettingbigger and bigger and all of a
sudden a few years ago you hadthe Sylvie was coming up and
then COVID hit and so you guyswere forced to go all digital At
first.
Was that a thing that made youthink maybe we're not going to
be able to raise money this yearand meet the goals that we're
(14:46):
trying to trying to reach?
Speaker 1 (14:48):
yeah, that's always a struggle.
I have to.
You know, when I, when I don'thave my gosh, this is fun hat on
and get to talk with all thesecool people.
You know, the business side ofme does come out and that's
always a balancing act.
I try to balance the investmentbecause part of the reason we
can grow is making it bigger andbigger every year, being able
(15:08):
to add more folks and grow ourcommunity.
But it certainly has addedcosts.
It's not what it was, but youknow this is very much like a
business and very much like theconcert business.
You know it's about getting asmany people through the door as
we can and raising awareness aspart of what we do, but it is
(15:29):
certainly a balancing act.
As far as the costs come andyou've given me a great
opportunity, Andy, to talk alittle bit about something else
I need to point out that all ofthese artists that come and
perform do it for free.
Nobody that you're seeing.
These rock and roll Hall ofFamers and Grammy winners and
top 40 hit makers take a pennyfor their time, Right?
So, for example, I don't knowwhat Butch gets for five days,
(15:53):
which is what he's here with us,but it's certainly not.
You know a ham sandwich and twobeers, which is what he gets
from me to do it, so we are ableto keep our costs down.
We're also an all volunteerorganization.
There's no paid staff.
(16:15):
I don't take a salary, as youcan see.
We have our luxurious Joey SungInternational headquarters here
in my basement and the HighNoon.
All places that are going to beinvolved in the 2025 event
basically give us the venues atcost.
Obviously, the folks that areworking get paid, but otherwise.
So everybody kind of pitches inand I think that's a testament
to both the event and the causethat we're doing.
(16:37):
People can take it to heart andit's easy for people to give of
their time or of the resourcesthey have.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
These shows are phenomenal.
People should.
If you've never attended a Joeysong last year the show you
could purchase a live streamwhich, if you couldn't make it
down to Madison you could watchit from the comfort of your own
home.
But to actually be there inperson, it's a pretty unique
(17:07):
experience to see all thesedifferent Grammy winners and all
these local heroes up thereperforming together and just the
brainstorming that goes in eachyear to making it a unique
experience.
Last year was the no AdultGirlfriends versus no Adult
Boyfriends.
There's a big wheel, spin thewheel and then find out what
genre and then the bandscompeted for a big belt, which
(17:28):
is pretty neat, and it's astruggle to find out, to
brainstorm things, to get biggerand bigger.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
It's got to be a little stressful.
(18:00):
It is.
It's going on right now.
So even though we've got, youknow, members from the bangles
and we've got, you know, all ofthe members of garbage and cheap
trick and all these other folks, basically what they're playing
is covers because we puttogether these Frankenstein
monsters sort of bands, if youwill, Right?
So the you know the singer fromfountains of Wayne and, uh, the
(18:23):
Soul Asylum and the drummerfrom Garbage and you know the
two gals from the Bangles aresinging and then they're doing a
Camper Van Beethoven song orwhatever it might happen to be,
right.
So that's both the stressfulpart.
But the fun part is to figureout, you know, and especially
when somebody hits on an idea.
(18:43):
And so it's myself and JayMoran and Butch Vig and Gail
Greenwood from Belly that arekind of the core.
We got Alex Drosser joining us,appleton's own joining us this
year is kind of part of thatbrainstorming team.
But I remember when we hit onSon of a Preacher man for Kelly
Stewart to sing a couple ofyears ago and everybody knew we
had gotten that one right, itwas like, oh man, she is going
(19:05):
to kill this.
And then when we got Come on,feel the Noise this year with
Sierra Swan singing that one.
There's just some that you knowwhere you go.
All right, this is going to begreat, and so it's a lot of that
people throwing ideas back andforth.
Our biggest problem, to behonest with you, andy, is
keeping it under.
You know, four and a half hourslike last year's show was that
(19:26):
was too long and that would evenmake Springsteen or the
Grateful Dead cry.
You know, when you're doing afour and a half hour show, let
alone the audience members thatare standing through it all as
well.
So it's stressful.
But it's also a lot of fun whenyou kind of hit on it and go,
oh, that song's perfect youperfect.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
I love it when there's a new artist that comes
on board.
Last year you had Debbie andVicky from the Bangles and of
course they did a Bangles song,which is kind of cool when those
bands do mix up and then playsome of the original tunes that
you remember.
But yeah, you mentioned SierraSwan.
She has some pipes on her.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Oh yeah, well, you know, the really fun thing about
that bangle song is they didHero Takes a Fall, which Vicki
wrote, but Sue always sang it.
So last year was the first timeVicki had ever sang the lead on
her song live, and that wasthat's again.
One of the other cool thingsthat you kind of get to do on
this is people can flex theirmuscles a little bit and do some
(20:21):
stuff they don't normally getto do.
I remember I did our podcast afew weeks ago with Vicki and we
talked about that.
That.
You know, even though that'sher song, she wrote it.
That was a Sue Hoff's, you know, lead vocals.
So that's fun.
But yeah, I mean the discovery.
So we talked a little bitearlier about people
recommending other people andthere's a very Midwest ethos to
(20:43):
Joey song Cause that's where I'mfrom, that's where Butch is
from and that's where a lot ofthat built up.
But by adding Gail and Tanyafrom belly, we found like, uh,
gina Volpe from Luna chicks Imean she if, if it hadn't been
for Rick Nielsen last year, shewould have been the top shredder
on stage.
I didn't know anything aboutthem.
(21:04):
I'm now a huge fan and Gina'samazing Sierra came to us
through another connection and Iwas aware of her.
But you know, when she did thebaby, baby, baby on, come on,
feel the noise.
I mean that was a hair on theback of your neck kind of moment
.
So it's also introduced us inthe Midwest, to some of these
amazing folks as well.
(21:24):
It's super cool.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Has there been one artist that has just been
mind-blowing for you to playthis event that you never
thought you would get to Madison?
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Yeah.
So, rick, I mean I grew up inMadison, wisconsin, and I grew
up in the 70s.
I was in my teenage years andCheap Trick was our band.
I mean that was between theRockford Boys and Robin.
Being from Wisconsin Dells, Imean that was pride and growing
up being a teenager in the 70s,every show at the Coliseum until
(21:59):
Cheap Trick broke had CheapTrick open.
So I saw Cheap Trick open forQueen, I saw Cheap Trick open
for Kiss, I saw them headlined ahalf of the Dane County
Coliseum.
And I have to tell you, as youprobably know, andy, during the
show I am running around.
But when the Nielsen Trust didthat set, I went around and I
stood behind the speakers whereRick was and I just sat there
(22:22):
for the entire set going Rick,effing, nielsen is playing my
benefit.
And that was a mind blower.
That was one that we had beentrying for a couple of years to
get Rick to come and theschedules just didn't work.
And when it did, I pinchedmyself when he walked into the
venue that night, going holy man.
So yeah, rick.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
You mentioned, people were taking pictures of his amp
.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Yeah.
So even last year, the yearbefore, when Rick couldn't make
it, miles Nielsen, his son,brought the Budokan amp right,
the amp that Budokan wasrecorded on, and there were
people the year before takingpictures.
But then again this year, whenword spread, the amp is here and
there were literally folks withtheir cameras out, you know,
doing the selfie on the stage,because you know, once, once
(23:11):
they set up Rick's amp, uh, whenMark, his roadies or his tech,
set up his amp and hismicrophone with the pics, nobody
touched it.
It was like Nope, nope, youcan't go near it, can't go near
it.
And so everybody was takingpictures.
It was as close to the CharlieBarron's phenomenon, which is,
(23:32):
everybody wants their picture.
Charlie's one of our regularguests.
Everybody wanted their picturewith Charlie.
Well, every musician wantedtheir picture with the amp.
It's great, just great.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Charlie's done a really good job the last couple
years.
He a couple years ago did theauction for the tackle box or
something toolbox or somethingthat he found, and is he
normally winging his material?
Speaker 1 (23:54):
oh yeah um, yeah, well, I, I think, I think,
didn't.
I think the year first year hedid his wisconsin goodbye set,
so I think he pulled stuff outof his set.
And then last year they did heand Adam did some of the songs
from their album which I think Ihave around here somewhere, but
I'm not going to waste yourtime looking for it.
So that part is out of his set.
(24:14):
But you know the auction.
And then last year he alsohelped us with the big wheel
spin with Big Brian Butch.
That's all off the cuff.
So, um, and, and when I'msetting up the show and doing
the run of show, I just do 10minutes, charlie, and I just
assume he'll kill it, which hedoes every year.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
You mentioned your podcast, the Joey song podcast,
which I've been slowly digginginto.
Uh, lots of great episodes.
Some are about the artists thatare playing and then some are
interviews.
You've got one with a member ofthe Go-Go's.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Really Wow, yes, yes.
So you know not to turn thisinto a Ted talk on marketing,
but one of the issues that I nowI've got my marketing hat on as
opposed to my concertempresario hat on is helping to
educate people on who some ofthese folks are.
(25:10):
Because while folks like youand I, andy, are deep in the
woods music dorks, most peopleare casual listeners and know
what they like.
And especially folks of mygeneration and yours in the
generation behind me, know songs, maybe know artists, but
certainly don't know so-and-sowas the lead singer of right.
(25:31):
And so, because Joey's Song issuch a unique event, there's so
much to explain to thefirst-time person, right?
The example I always give andit's no slight to my pal Chris
is if I said to the person onthe street hey, chris
Collingwood is playing the Joeysong, benefit, ninety eight
percent of the people would giveyou the Scooby Doo, you know,
(25:54):
because they don't.
And so no, if I said ChrisCollingwood from Fountains of
Wayne is playing Joey song,you'd get maybe I don't know,
I'm making these numbers upThirty seven percent would say
oh, I've heard of Fountains ofWayne.
But if I told you the guy thatsang Stacy's mom is coming,
(26:18):
you'd go.
Oh, I love that song, right.
Well, to do that across all ofour bands with some of the folks
we've had in the past, pluslike again, if I just drop a
Vicki Peterson on you, you knowpast Plus, like again, if I just
drop a Vicki Peterson on you,you know, maybe bangles you
would know, you know.
So it's a long process and so Ireally look at the podcast as a
way over time to introducepeople to both the bands and the
people that are coming.
So then it's kind of more of aOK now, now I got it Collingwood
(26:41):
, fountains of Wayne, greatbangles, bangles walk like an
Egyptian or whatever.
It is kind of stuff.
So it really first of all it'sfun for me and it's a general
marketing tool because it alsomarkets to their fans.
But I also kind of look at itas an education thing to really
introduce some of these amazingfolks to people that might just
turn on the radio in the morningand turn it off when they leave
(27:01):
the office or get out of thecar.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Well, I do resemble that remark about being a music
dork, but I learned stuff when Iwas listening to the podcast.
There was the Fountain ofWayne's episode you mentioned I
think it was called Road Song,which I'd never heard before.
I looked it up on Spotify rightaway and started listening to
it.
It's a great song.
I'd never heard of it before.
So I think even people that arevery into music and
knowledgeable, they're going tolearn something with these
(27:29):
podcasts.
You mentioned something in thatFountain of Wains episode about
seeing Glenn Tilbrook fromSqueeze and you said it was
possibly at the 930 Club, which,right away the nine 30 club, is
one of those iconic clubs inWashington DC.
(27:50):
But you didn't remember if, ifyou saw him at the nine 30 club.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
But either way, were you at the nine 30 club at one
point?
Yeah, yeah, I, I, I've, I'veseen a few shows.
So back in my pre long hair andtattoo days, um, I worked for
IBM and did a lot of travelingaround and the places I went
went were Bethesda, washingtonDC and New York were the two
places I went.
Well, great places to go ifyou're into music at all.
(28:12):
Right.
So I'd see shows at IrvingPlaza and you know all the New
York venues and I would seestuff I would go to.
930 was a place I went I'mtrying to think of this, this
getting old.
There's the Birchmere, which isin Virginia, somewhere that are
all within, you know, spittingdistance of Washington DC.
(28:34):
So I didn't.
I think 930 is where I sawGlenn.
I saw him a couple of times.
There was a time when Squeezewas on hiatus, whatever you want
to call it where Glenn was.
Just he had both a solo bandone of the all time great, glenn
Tillbrook and the Fluffers.
I'll just leave it at that.
And so I would see, see him dothat show.
(28:56):
And I saw him, like I said, atthe 930.
And he looks like my screen isfrozen, hasn't it?
But I hope you can still hearme I can still hear you.
Yeah, which is good.
Unfortunately, the expressionon my face on the frozen screen
is terrifying.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
That's the expression I had on my face when I heard
you say you were at the 930 Club.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
But Glenn would do these he used to call them
cabaret shows and so it would behim and an acoustic guitar.
I think his son might havejoined him on some of them and
he would just basically do a fewsqueeze songs and covers.
And he did Red Dragon Tattoobefore I had heard it and I'm
like, holy crap, what is this?
Because, again, it's just thatslice of Fountains of Wayne.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
I don't know what you would even call it.
You know reverential stuff.
It's, it's a.
It's amazing, it's trulyamazing.
Well, you worked at a club inmadison, uh yeah, in the 80s.
Right, you had to see somepretty spectacular acts coming
through there yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
So for those of you that were around madison in the
80s, uh, there was a club calledhead excuse me, the soda went
down the wrong tube Headlinerson University Avenue, next door
to where the Church Key was thenand is now, and it was about a
thousand seat venue and we usedto get a lot of the.
The easiest way for me todescribe it is MTV bands on the
(30:16):
way up and the 60s bands on theway down, right, so we would get
Savoy Brown and some of thosekind of bands on the way down
and then we would get a lot ofthe MTV bands on the way up, so
Joan Jett and John Cougar andREM and the Police.
U2 is a very memorable show.
I remember it was the boy tour,I think that U2 came through
(30:40):
and they just everybody knewthat this band won't be playing
here very long, and so what wewould get is a lot of the bands,
not to again.
Ted Talk.
Number two on how people used tobook tours, and they probably
still do.
In a way, for these 500 to 1000seat venues, they would book
Chicago, minneapolis, you knowthe detroit, and then they would
(31:04):
fill in the rest of the datesin smaller towns like madison or
dubuque or you know that kindof stuff in the smaller things,
which was the only way wasn'tthe only way, but it was a good
way where a smaller city with alower price point could afford
these bands, because if theyweren't playing they would be
sitting in a hotel and they'd bepaying, paying roadies and all
that other stuff.
So you would work out deals withagents to get them and so you
(31:27):
know we wouldn't, we wouldn'tget you two on Friday but we got
them on Tuesday.
You know kind of stuff and tonsof great bands and that's where
Spooner, which is the band thatButch and Duke were in, you
know back in the day would playand how I got got to know them
because we kind of hung aroundin the same circles but in the
(31:50):
day would play and how I got toknow them because we kind of
hung around in the same circles.
But yeah, headliners was greatfor Madison.
There was a much more robustlive music scene in Madison back
in those days.
I could name, you know, merlinsand Bunkies and OKs and you
know all these really greatclubs that were around and it's
a shame there's good ones aroundnow but it's not quite the same
as it was.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Yeah, it seems like Madison is very into destroying
their old historic buildingscurrently and putting up those
high-rise apartments all overthe place.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Man can't go up East Wash Avenue, and it does.
You know.
I am at the point, andy, in mylife where I am the old man
telling the kids to get off hislawn, so I freely admit that.
But East Wash Avenue now looksmore like it would in any big
city, with all the high rises,and I guess that's progress.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
We were talking about some of the people that have
performed a Joey song.
We did not mention your son Samwho's performed at Past Joey
Songs and he's really good, sothe music is obviously an
interest that the family shares.
Sam, I believe, he played anoriginal song a couple of years
ago.
Last year he did, I think,something from the Beatles and
(32:56):
it's cool to see him up thereagain with all these musicians
and just knowing what he's beenthrough it it puts a little more
kind of a personal spin on onthe show.
Not only that, but in betweenperformances you guys do a good
job of explaining what Joey songis and what you've been doing.
You've got I don't know whatthe correct word vignettes maybe
(33:18):
or something like.
That's a good one.
I'll go with that one who'sputting all that stuff together.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
So we're very fortunate Lots of folks.
Yeah, that's a good one, I'llgo with that one.
Who's putting all that stufftogether?
So we're very fortunate Lots offolks.
Well, let me do it this way Ifyou go to the Joey Song website,
joysongorg which you have beenputting up on the screen
frequently, which is great andclick on our board, there you go
A board tab job.
We have both a verydistinguished board of directors
and something we call ourindustry advisor group, which
(33:46):
includes many folks from themusic and film business, and one
of the folks that's both on ourboard of directors and our
advisor entertainment advisorgroup is a gentleman named david
michaels who is a filmmaker andhas tons of connections.
I met him through butch andDavid is a Hollywood filmmaker
and if you IMDB David Michaels,you will find that he worked
(34:09):
with Samuel Goldwyn duringGoldwyn's last few years at MGM
and lots of other stuff andcontinues to produce movies and
David helps with a lot of that.
He puts a lot of time andeffort into both creating the
concepts behind it and thendoing the filming.
If you watch some of the shortsfrom last year, he's the fella
in the stocking cap that'sasking some of the questions.
(34:31):
That's David and he helps andliterally brings in
Hollywood-level talent to helpus film and edit those.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
And talking about the event getting bigger and bigger
.
Not only are you playing theseclips in between, but last year
you recorded your thank yous sothat you didn't have to remember
the plethora of thank yous thatyou would normally have to
stand up there and read.
Did you like that method ofhaving that pre-recorded so you
didn't have to worry aboutforgetting anybody?
The pressure that comes withthat.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Yeah, that was exactly it.
That was exactly it, that wasexactly it.
And if I had done that live,that would have taken twice as
long, because I also cry atgrocery store openings.
So, uh, by thanking everybodyahead of time when I didn't have
to look at them and think aboutit, otherwise it would have
taken twice as long because Iwould have been blubbering like
a baby.
(35:22):
Have taken twice as longbecause I would have been
blubbering like a baby and itjust was.
It was a better way to do that.
No, when you know thelimitations of the talent in
that case me you try to findways around them so that you can
kind of keep things movingalong.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Has there ever been a big foobarb during?
Speaker 1 (35:46):
one of the shows where something started to go
wrong and somehow got fixed.
There were two from last year'sshow, the first of which was
when we were going through thejam set.
It was time to sing Feel LikeMaking Love, which our buddy,
dave Perner, was supposed to besinging.
I think the band was startingto noodle with it and there was
no perner oh, I remember thatyeah, and I, and there was
(36:07):
nobody that.
So the joey song is kind of aloose conglomerate of stage
managers and nobody was findingdave and I, literally and if you
know the backstage, at thesylvie, he was in the far
dressing room at the end of it,which was was more than my
63-year-old legs could take and63-year-old lungs, and so I had
to go running back there as theband's trying to keep playing
(36:29):
the intro over and over and I'mjust screaming.
Perner and I had looked in afew other places and I won't say
what they are because it'll bedisparaging today, but I finally
found him and dragged him out.
So that was one.
And then the second one was atthe end.
I'm not going to.
I think we were supposed to beplaying the weight or everyday
(36:51):
people, I don't remember whichone it was, but the, the.
The monitor was wrong, theteleprompter with the lyrics on
it, and so the band startedplaying the right song and the
wrong lyrics came up and somehowthe band got through it as well
.
So, and then there've been afew others that have, but those
are two memorable ones from lastyear where it's like what are
(37:13):
we doing here, kids?
But that's the, that's the funand that's the beauty of kind of
that.
Uh, do it on a shoestring waythat we do things.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
This year it seems like there's some changes.
I've seen Freezing man aroundas a name and it looks like the
whole thing is going to kind oftake on a different form this
year.
Are you able to talk about anyof that?
Speaker 1 (37:35):
I am.
I, you know, technically we'renot announcing the format until
September 9th, so I'm sure Iwill get in trouble with the
marketing folks, but what thehell?
You only live once and I'm theboss.
So if I want to change therules, I'm going to do that.
So one of the things Imentioned to you a little bit
earlier is the show last yearwent on to four and a half hours
(37:57):
, which is just too darn longfor any show, but especially one
that's geared towards olderaudience, shall we say, as ours
is.
Not that there's not plenty ofstuff for the kids, but if you
look at the acts of artists, itskews towards an older
demographic.
And the Sylvie is a gloriousvenue, perfect for what we do,
(38:18):
except for the fact that there'sonly about 150 seats in a 2,500
seat venue or capacity venue.
So one of the things that andI'll try not to sprain my elbow
patting myself on the back, buteverybody keeps wanting to come
back, which says something thatwe're doing something right with
the venue, all of our artists,and we always try to add new
(38:39):
artists every year, and we'veadded a couple, and we can talk
a little bit about what thoseare in a second, but we can't
keep adding artists and not dosomething to change the format.
But we also can't have theseartists, as I mentioned earlier,
that come in for four and fivedays and then come and play.
(38:59):
You know one song Not thatanybody has ever complained,
because not one person has evercomplained about not having
enough of a role at Joey song.
But I also want to berespectful.
These are not, you know, thisis not you and me, andy, with a
washboard and a you know a comband tissue paper singing.
You know Stanley brothers songs.
You know these are pros.
(39:19):
Um, so what we're expanding tois a series of full band shows
in the week leading up to it,and the Freezing man is a
takeoff on Burning man.
We're trying to come up with away to brand the festival that's
lighthearted and plays into theWisconsin in January, and
there's not one Wisconsin nativethat wouldn't recognize what
Freezing man is.
(39:41):
So we're going to do a wholebunch of shows and while it's
not a thousand percentsolidified between the Sylvie,
the High Noon and the Majestic,that week leading up to it we're
going to have sets by SoulAsylum, portugal, the man, a
version of the Bangles withDebbie and Vicky, letters to
Cleo Belly, the Know-It-AllBoyfriends, silver Sun Pickups,
(40:02):
laura Jane Grace and local heroup there by you, kenny Hoopla,
is going to be doing a set aswell.
There's a few other thingswe're working on as well, but
that's what Freezing man isgoing to evolve into, is going
to be more of a festival.
So then all of these bands andfolks that would join us on
Saturday will still join us onSaturday, but then it'll just be
(40:24):
the All-Star Jam, but they'llhave had a chance to play full
sets and kind of flex theirmusical muscles.
So that's the idea.
By September 9th we should beable to announce who's playing
with who and when, but right nowthat's kind of the
conglomeration that we'relooking at.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Well, that sounds really exciting and I'm
wondering, as far as the ticketsgo, is it going to be something
where people can purchasetickets for one event at a
smaller venue, or is there goingto be like a VIP ticket
available where they can get thewhole shebang?
Speaker 1 (41:05):
work in progress.
There is not going to be like afestival ticket, and one of the
reasons why that's not going tobe the case is, honestly, if we
did sell a package that you knowthis ticket gets you into all
the shows, that then that couldmean I don't know how to
describe this without soundinglike a goof Once the ticket for
the Soul Asylum Fountains ofWayne show is gone, on that
thing it's gone even if theperson doesn't use it, and so
(41:27):
that's a lot of concerts over afive day period, and so we know
there are going to be peoplethat aren't going to go to
everything, and because thesewonderful artists are donating
their time for free, I want tomake sure they're playing to a
house full of smiling faces.
So there isn't going to benecessarily a concert festival
ticket per se, but there will besome ways that if you purchase
(41:51):
one, perhaps you get a discountfor some of the other shows as
well.
So we'll put together a fewpackages that make sense, but
it's going to really be whenyou're going to, when you go to
the Ticketmaster page that we'llset up for this.
You know, you'll just tick.
I need two tickets for this oneand one ticket for that one and
so on.
So but there's been a ton ofback and forth and again the the
(42:11):
talent team at Frank, alongwith Scott Leslie, the CEO there
, have been helpful in inhelping me kind of sort and
juggle this out and figure outwhat makes sense.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
As far as the again the festival this year, it's
going to be announced officiallyin a couple weeks.
The website already has someinformation.
As you mentioned, if peoplewant to go to joeysongorg, it's
January 8th to 11th, which thefirst year it's going to be a
multi-day event.
Is there anything that goes onotherwise throughout the year,
(42:51):
any events or things?
Speaker 1 (42:53):
Yeah, no, as of right now.
So now you're really gettinginto the long-term strategic
goal of Joey Song and I guess Ican take a minute to talk about
that.
Right now, no, there's nothing,it's a full-time gig.
This is what I do.
That right now, no, there'snothing, it's a full time gig,
this is what I do, and Iliterally spend several hours a
(43:14):
day from.
I usually take a week offafterwards of recovering to go
at it.
But having said all of that andthis may bore the pants off of
your audience, so, everybody, Iapologize for the next five
minutes while I talk strategyhere.
You know we could do Joey'ssong a different way and we
would have already had somelarger artists come into town.
(43:36):
Let me explain what I mean bythat.
You know artists, especiallythose that play big venues, you
know, have a schedule set andthere many of them have six,
eight, 12 months planned outahead of time.
And I am fortunate with some ofthe folks that, excuse me, are
part of our board and our listof artists.
(43:56):
We can get to just about anyartist.
We don't get them, but we canmake connections.
As you can probably guess, whenyou've got Butch Vig on your
team, people will answer thephone.
Guess, when you've got ButchVig on your team, people will
answer the phone.
Now, if what I said to and Iwill use a, you know, let's
pretend he was still alive ElvisPresley, if I said to Elvis and
(44:18):
Elvis was interested in ourthing, can you come to Madison
at your convenience and play ashow, I would have a higher hit
ratio than what I have becauseElvis may say, yes, I'm
available.
You know and please don't callthe National Enquirer that I'm
saying Elvis is alive.
But you know Elvis might say,yes, I can come any September
(44:38):
3rd and August 4th and, you know, july 18th.
Then we could put on a show,raise some money and move on.
But that's not what Joey's songis.
So what I have to do is findout who's available at that week
in January, and there's anumber of logistical reasons why
we choose that week.
Having said that, that doesn'tmean Joey's song couldn't evolve
(45:01):
and I would always like to keepthat as a very special Madison
thing because of as youmentioned, you know, all of our
local Madison musicians betweenJay and Pi, you know and I'm
blanking on the rest of thenames Alex and Frank and
everybody else and Corey.
There's a special thing to that, and I always want them to come
to Madison in the middle ofJanuary for multiple days.
(45:32):
But literally telling them, canyou throw your guitar in the
back of your car and drive downto the Avalon in LA or to, you
know, third and Lindley inNashville or Irving Plaza in New
York and play a set?
So there could be a day, Iwould like there to be a day
when we're doing multiple Joeysong events throughout the
(45:53):
country.
Um, they would not look likeMadison.
Madison is unique in so manyways.
Um, but there could be a day.
But right now, um, the the taskin front of me is figuring out
how to run a four-day event inmultiple venues and stay sane.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
Well, and you're also taking a risk with the January
dates, which you haven't runinto a problem yet.
I think there was some snow,but nothing that was like a
freezing rain or anything likethat.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
Yeah, well, and part of that and here's one more way
I will compliment these amazingartists Because of that,
everybody does come in a day ortwo before Now.
Part of that is so we canrehearse, which if you saw some
of the early Joey Song eventsyou would question whether that
ever happened.
But now you know we rehearseahead of time.
So in the old format, which wasa Saturday show, everybody
(46:47):
would come in Thursday night,you know, to give us that buffer
in case there was weather,because traveling through you
know all the hubs around Madison, whether it's Detroit,
minneapolis or Chicago.
You know all it takes is, youknow a cold front to come
through or something.
You know some bad weather andit can block a whole lot of
people out.
(47:07):
Everybody understands that somebad weather and it can block a
whole lot of people out.
And everybody understands that.
That's one of the beauties ofthis is, all of these people
travel for a living and theyunderstand what contingency
planning is, and so so far we'vebeen okay.
The only thing that stopped uswas COVID, and that was it
stopped more than more than justus.
But yes, we are taking a bit ofa chance and honestly, andy,
(47:27):
that's sometimes my biggest sellagainst people is yeah, it's
Madison in January, but you knowyou don't have to be outside
very much.
You know some of these LApeople don't even own a winter
coat.
So what are you going to do?
Speaker 2 (47:41):
You recently had a birthday.
Got a message from PaulMcCartney.
Speaker 1 (47:47):
Well, yes, technically I did.
Now we all know that to be aconcert promoter, you have to
have a little PT Barnum in you.
So I'm sure I'm sure, standingthere on the 45 back in whatever
, that would have been 65 or 66,when I was five years old and
(48:14):
was already a huge Beatles fanand I'd been a part of the fan
club, and I'm sure that's justsomething that's automatically
generated, but it popped up onmy watch and you know, paul
McCartney, like they say, it'syour birthday.
But I will tell you somethingfunny as a side note Back in
2019, when we played theBarrymore, one of our guests was
Brian Ray, and Brian's day jobis he plays bass and guitar with
(48:39):
Paul, and has for the last 20years.
And so I texted Brian with thatpicture and I said in my head
I'm going to imagine the bossgetting up, pouring himself a
cup of tea on July 22nd, goingoh, I got to make sure I text
Gamal.
To which, of course, brianlaughed and said you should
continue to think that.
(48:59):
So that's how I left it.
So in my mind, that's whathappened.
Paul woke up in his New Yorkapartment, poured himself a nice
cuppa, maybe made some toast,and realized that July 22nd was
my birthday.
What I'm really expecting it isnext year, when I turn 64,
because then I'm reallyexpecting a very specific text
from Sir Paul.
Speaker 2 (49:20):
Well, it's just again incredible, the people you've
got to come to.
Madison and do this.
Brian May, of course, playedguitar for Etta James to Madison
and do this.
Brian May, of course, playedguitar for Etta James.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
He's part of her touring band.
He was actually her musicaldirector while still a teenager.
Speaker 2 (49:35):
That's just pretty amazing yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
Amazing.
Speaker 2 (49:38):
So have you been an attendee at the Mile Music
Festival up in Appleton?
Speaker 1 (49:53):
You know I have not, and Frank and Dave and everybody
keep harping on me to do it andI have not.
I know very, very well of it.
That's quite a sentence there.
My english teacher is spinningin her grave right now for that
one.
Um, I do know that one of theyears when the baseball project
played up there uh, for those ofyou that don't know, that's
mike and peter from remEM, alongwith Steve Wynn and Scott McCoy
and Linda Pittman they preparedfor that show by playing a show
(50:14):
in my driveway earlier in theweek.
So that's my closest rub withMile of Music is that the
baseball project warmed up byplaying a gig in my driveway for
my neighbors.
Speaker 2 (50:28):
Mike, I'm sure you've got a lot of stories you're not
even telling us.
Is there somebody, a really bigname, that you're gunning to
get at a future Joey song butstill haven't been able to sink
the hook yet?
Speaker 1 (50:44):
Yeah, there's a couple of them.
I met Eddie Vedder in 2020.
So, not to dissuade many of ourlocal Wisconsinites, but I'm a
lifelong Cubs fan.
Now that's because I was bornI'm so old and I grew up, you
(51:05):
know, in those formative yearsliving in Racine when there were
no Milwaukee Brewers and we allgot Channel 9.
And I just never switchedallegiance and I met Ed.
We were both part of RandyHuntley's fantasy camp, which is
where old guys like he and I goto pretend we can still play
baseball like we did in highschool.
And I talked with Ed and I toldhim of our event and he signed
(51:29):
a bunch of stuff for me and said, yeah, maybe someday and I
haven't been able to close thatdeal there may be an opportunity
sooner rather than later wejust mentioned earlier, if Paul
(51:50):
McCartney played I mean, paul isour Mozart, right, so he would
be the person, but Ed's prettyhigh up on that list.
The other one that's high onthe list because of his
relationship with Butch isobviously Dave Grohl.
But those are not yet I say yetrealistic yet.
We kind of have to prove ourselfevery year and keep moving up
(52:11):
that, and I guess now would be agood time because it's not a
secret, because you can see iton our webpage.
But we've upped our game alittle bit.
So this year you mentioned theGo-Go's.
Jane Weedland from the Go-Go'sis joining us, so that's another
rock and roll hall of famer.
We've got John Resnick from GooGoo Dolls, so we've added
Go-Go's and Goo Goo's.
(52:35):
That's probably what I'll besaying at the end of the night
on Saturday, if I can get a wordout joining us We've got a
couple other folks we're pokingaround at that I'm not going to
disclose right now that are ofthat same stature, maybe even a
little higher, somebody that'splaying stadium shows right now,
and so every year it's kind ofan incremental rise.
(52:55):
So, but Ed's in that categoryand Ed has supported Cure, which
is one of the charity, the maincharity.
We give our money to this.
So I know Ed's got a soft spotfor the epilepsy community as
well.
So those are the kind of folks.
Obviously if Taylor or Beyoncewould like to come and play, I
(53:16):
think we can find a slot forthem as well.
Speaker 2 (53:18):
Well, it's got to be hard to limit the size of this.
It really had to get bigger,because once somebody plays it,
it seems they roll into theannual group that performs every
year because nobody wants tonot do it again.
Speaker 1 (53:33):
I'll tell you a really interesting story.
So, as I was putting togetherthe week of events and was
scheduling and slotting in folks, and right now, again, it's not
etched in stone.
It looks like we're going to dothe Bangles show on Friday and
I was talking with Vicki and wassaying so, if you know, you can
(53:55):
just come in on Thursday if youwant to.
You know, because she's aCalifornia gal, she lives in New
York right now, you know, andshe said, well, when's the first
show?
And I said, well, at least onWednesday, maybe sooner, she
goes.
Well, I'll come in on Tuesdayor Wednesday because of FOMO,
right, fear of missing out andthe family and again, not trying
(54:18):
to say it's me, it's them thatwe've created.
You know, now these people areall friends because they may
know of each other, but theydon't know each other all of
them.
I sit on social media, as weall do, and I'm friends and I
watch them now liking each other, but they don't know each other
all of them.
I sit on social media, as weall do, and I'm friends and I
watch them now liking eachother's posts, and there's a
really cool family.
That's kind of, you know,that's kind of come out of this
(54:41):
and it is People you know alwayswant to come back, and I mean
that seriously.
I can tell you, if you look atthe past list, especially since
we've started we were at theBarrymore moving forward If
somebody hasn't come back it'sonly because their schedule
doesn't make it work.
I've never had anybody tell menope, we're done, I did my time.
(55:02):
So it is a lot of fun and Iknow the artists have a lot of
fun not playing their songs andplaying other songs I was
delighted to see that the fullbelly band was going to be there
yeah, next year.
Speaker 2 (55:14):
And the full letters to cleo, which I saw you and sam
at that show.
Speaker 1 (55:18):
I saw you in attendance there yeah, yeah, um,
they're, they both, and I wasbasically told by k and I was
told by t.
You need to ask because I'm,I'm, I can be real aggressive on
some things and on other stuffit's like, well, they're already
giving a lot of their time, butyeah it, it's, it's great, and
(55:38):
there's going to be some others.
I guess I can talk about itright now.
I don't know if it'll happen,but Chris is going to try to put
Fountains of Wayne backtogether and do a full Fountains
of Wayne show.
Speaker 2 (55:55):
And there's some other stuff going on.
So, yeah, it's great.
I can't wait to hear moredetails on this Incredible job.
If people haven't attended theshow, go to it.
If you're from Appleton, it'sso cool to see Frank and Alex up
there with all the guys fromMadison.
It really is a uniqueexperience and it's another
thing that makes Wisconsin sogreat.
Again, the dates for Joey'sSong is going to be January 8th
(56:17):
through 11th 2025.
It's going to be calledFreezing man.
You can find out more atjoey'ssongorg.
Go and check out the Joey'sSong podcast and also check out
the Seriously Sun Prairiepodcast, which I try to catch
once in a while.
Michael, thank you so much.
I know you're a busy guy.
I appreciate you spending anhour with us.
And again, joeysongorg, michael, thank you.
(56:39):
You've been watching Fox City'sCore on WCZR Code Zero Radio.
Speaker 1 (57:03):
Thanks for joining us for the Joey Song Podcast.
Remember to visit our website,joysongorg.
Follow us on all our socialmedia handles which are at Joey
Song.
We'll to visit our website,joysongorg.
Follow us on all our socialmedia handles which are at Joey
Song.
We'll see you guys at the show.
Oh, geez, sorry about therecord scratch.
Wait a minute.
I forgot one thing.
If you want to help us spreadthe word about Joey Song and our
(57:24):
podcast, there's a few thingsyou can do that are real simple
that will help us.
One of the things you can do isfollow the show wherever you
get your podcast.
Give us a five-star review Imean, why wouldn't you and write
a review.
All of these things help ourpodcast and our cause get more
traction and seen throughout thecommunity.
And if you wanted to tell a fewfriends about Joey's Song in
(57:47):
the podcast, that would be greatas well.
And, of course, you can visitjoey'ssongorg and follow us on
social media.
All of our handles are atJoey's Song.
Okay, I think that's it.
We will see you guys at theshow.
Hey everybody, welcome to the Joey Song Podcast
.
I'm your host, mike Gamal.
For those of you that are newto Joey Song, we're a 501c3
charity that raises money tofund research into treatments
and cures for epilepsy.
We also direct funds to supportpatient services and community
programs as well.
Our fundraising vehicle ismusic.
Every year, we hold a series ofconcerts that feature Rock and
(00:30):
Roll Hall of Famers, grammywinners and Top 40 hit makers.
These amazing artists all cometo Madison, wisconsin, each
January for a festival that wecall Freezing man.
You should know that every oneof the artists that plays at our
event donates their time andtalent.
None of our performers take apenny to join us.
We have no paid staff.
We are a 100% volunteerorganization.
(00:52):
The next Freezing man isscheduled to take place January
8th through the 11th 2025, withsix amazing shows scheduled over
four days.
To find out more about Joey'sSong, you can find us at our
website, joey'songorg, or followus on social media, where all
of our handles are at Joey'sSong.
(01:19):
Hey everybody, this week, on theJoey's Song podcast podcast,
the tables are turned.
Instead of me asking thequestions, I'm the one being
asked the questions thereof.
Is that the right sentence?
Grammar words.
Right order never been mystrength.
Anyway, I joined our buddy,andy mcnamara, on cold zero
radio uh up in appleton for anhour-long discussion.
(01:42):
We walked, walked through someof the Joey song history and he
asked me a bunch of reallyinteresting questions and I gave
a bunch of really boringanswers.
But if you got some time, stickaround and listen to my
interview on Code Zero Radio upin Appleton.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Wisconsin.
You're tuned in to Fox City'sCore on WCZR Code Zero Radio.
For the show that gives you anopportunity to call in and be a
part of the show.
For the show that gives you anopportunity to call in and be a
part of the show, Our call inline is 920-358-0795.
Core.
(02:37):
My guest today is Mike Amal.
He's the founder and presidentof Joey's Song.
That's a nonprofit organizationthat uses the power of music to
fight epilepsy.
Joey's Song was named afterMike's son, Joey, who had a rare
and devastating form ofepilepsy that took his life at
the age of five.
Joey had a passion for musicand remarkable talent for
remembering songs.
Mike wanted to honor Joey'smemory and spirit by creating
(03:00):
Joey's Song.
The foundation has grown overthe years, bringing together
musicians, supporters and theepilepsy community to work
towards better treatments and,ultimately, a cure for epilepsy.
Joey's Song is continuallyevolving and I can't wait to
talk to Mike about what's tocome.
Mike Ma, welcome to Fox City'score on Code Zero Radio.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Thanks, Andy.
Hey, I was watching your intro.
There are a lot of familiarfaces on there too.
You've had a few of the JoeySong family join you.
I saw Frank and Jay and lots offolks.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Well, that's one of the really neat things about
Joey Song and seeing the show isyou've got people from up in
Appleton, You've got a big baseof Madison musicians Pi Cohen
and Jay Moran and just many.
It's pretty neat to see themperforming with these huge
musicians that everybody knows.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Well, and then of course we've got the Viroqua
contingent with Mr Vig as well,so we've got all the corners of
the state covered and WallyIngram's from Beloit.
So really we could do one ofthose little pin maps.
And I'm sure there's someconspiracy theorists that if you
connect them they probablyspell out something or other.
But we do have a lot of, andthen a lot of the other guests
(04:12):
that are national have Wisconsinties as well.
I'm sure we'll talk about thatover our time together as well.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
So the Joey song.
It's been going on for quite awhile and kind of alluded in the
intro what it was about.
But can you let us know how theidea came to you to start this?
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Yeah, well, first of all so I don't get too much
credit for being any type of agenius the live concert event
involved truly by serendipity,and I'll explain that as well.
So Joey's Song started out asCDs.
If you put your mind back to2010, which is when we started
floating around the idea ofdoing this, the idea was to put
(04:53):
out music CDs.
For those of you of a certainage, that's how music used to
come to us.
It didn't come to us over thephone, but right around that
time.
And there was a thing, back inthe early 2010s, of the
compilation CD for a lot ofcharitable causes, political
causes and whatever.
And what you do is you wouldget artists, would give B-sides
(05:14):
or rare tracks so they'd recordsomething new, put it together,
and then you you know, your 1095or 1495 or whatever CDs used to
cost would go to whatever thatpolitical cause was or that
charitable cause, and that'swhat we were looking to do was
to do just that.
Unfortunately, 2010 was rightaround the time when the entire
world decided they were nevergoing to pay for recorded music
(05:36):
again or not pay anything morethan 0.00075 cents per stream.
So we released a bunch of theseCDs, Tons of really cool people
the guys from REM, RoseanneCash, Crash Test Dummies, Della
Mitri, Freedy, Johnston, tons ofreally great people donated
some really unusual tracks to us.
Problem is, nobody bought thedarn things.
(05:58):
And anybody that's in the musicbusiness that's listening to me
right now knows the effort thatit would go into to clear 15,
30 tracks, you know, gratis,from publishing to writers, to
record companies, to labels,knows that that's no mean feat
just to be able to, you know,get the music for free.
But every time we would releasethese CDs, we would have a CD
(06:20):
release party, which is alsosomething you kind of did back
in the day, and so we would haveas we'd release them, we'd have
musicians Freedy appeared, andMichael McDermott and Rhett
Miller and lots of really coolfolks showed up and we'd do kind
of these standard, you know, 30, 35 minute, 45 minute singer,
songwriter sets and they weregreat.
Well, we found out pretty earlyon as the direction that the
(06:43):
entire music business has gone,we were making more money off of
the live events than we wereoff of the recorded music, which
is very much.
You know, unless you're thekind of person we refer to by a
single name Taylor, Beyonce,Rihanna, Bruce, you're not
making a lot of money these daysoff of recorded music and so
that's why you know guys are onthe road, when there's not a
(07:04):
global pandemic, for 200, 250days a year and they're meeting
you back at the merch table tosign CDs and all that.
The music business flipped andthat's right when Joey's song
kind of came online.
So we started doing theseevents and then right around the
time when I was kind ofscratching my head, going what
are we going to do about this?
(07:24):
Because we were putting a lotof time and effort into the CDs
and they weren't selling and itwas the live thing, but I really
wasn't sure where I was goingto go.
Right around that time Garbageplayed a dual headlining show
with Flaming Lips at Warner Park, which is the minor league park
here in Madison where theMallards play Sorry, I'm showing
(07:44):
my age by calling them theMuskies where the Mallards play
and BV and I ran into each other.
We had known each other back incollege.
I was at Headliners, he wasworking with Spooner but he went
on to win Grammy Awards and MTVMoon Men and I did not go on to
do either of those things.
But BV and I, with Freedy, kindof ran into each other
(08:06):
backstage, started talking.
I'll cut the story a little bitshorter than that.
Long story short is one of thethings that Butch agreed to do
is have his kind of side project, the Know it All Boyfriends,
come and play.
One of our benefits.
We did that back in 2015, 2016,I think.
At the Majestic we had Chaser,a local band, open up, and over
(08:30):
time we developed this modelthat we're at now, which is we
have the KIAB serve as a houseband and then we have all these
folks kind of come and join us.
And really, once we moved tothe Barrymore, which was a bit
of a bigger stage, it's justkind of multiplied.
And now you know, the artiststhat play one year not only want
to come back, but theyrecommend friends.
(08:51):
And now we've got what is aboutto be announced as a multi-day
event happening in January of2025.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
How was the process of putting a CD together
compared to trying to put a showtogether?
Speaker 1 (09:03):
process of putting a CD together compared to trying
to put a show together.
Well, the CD was easier in manyways because it's a pretty
standard process.
There's standard contracts andreally all you're asking of the
(09:24):
artist or, in some cases, theirmanagement is, you know, sent,
see.
The other thing, andy, you haveto remember, is back in 2010,
you couldn't get every song thathad ever been recorded or
released on your phone right.
So getting that rare b-side orthe live cut, that was a big
deal, at least to you know,dorky completists like me.
But the process of getting itwas pretty straightforward.
So you either got to the artistor their management said hey,
(09:46):
we're looking for something thatyou know is no longer in print,
and everybody had something intheir drawer or something that
was a B-side to a single a longtime ago.
So that part of it was easier.
Now, the part of it that wasdefinitely difficult and time
consuming was getting all ofthose gratis sign offs on the
release Right, and in some cases, you know the problem is all it
(10:08):
would take is one person inthat chain.
You know if there were threewriters and you know the two
publishing, or each of thewriters had their own publishing
and you know, add on to thatthing.
All it would take is, you know,one of those people to say, no,
I'm not going to give up myroyalties.
And you know, there's a bunchof tracks sitting on my hard
(10:28):
drive that I wish the worldcould hear.
And they maybe will.
They just won't hear it fromJoey's song because of that.
So the CDs were much more timeconsuming and laborious.
The music events is a lot morefree form and there's a lot more
ups and downs to it as well, sothey're kind of apples and
oranges.
I'm much more enjoying doingthe live events now because
(10:54):
there's a little bit more ofthat buzz with it.
I guess is the best way to sayit.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Well, we should kind of set some background about why
this is such an importantconcert every year.
Epilepsy is.
Obviously you've got aconnection to it.
I think a lot of people haveconnections to epilepsy because
it has been historicallyunderfunded, but so many people
are diagnosed with it.
Joey Song has done a huge, hugething.
(11:21):
They've raised over a milliondollars, which.
Can you tell us what that goestowards?
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Yeah.
So my son, joe, as you said inthe intro, passed away just shy
of his fifth birthday in 2010.
He had a particularly rare andheinous form of epilepsy called
Dravet's syndrome, and there's afamily of these rare pediatric
epilepsies.
Epilepsy is like a spectrumdisorder, very much like autism
or cancer, in the sense thatthere's not just one of them,
(11:49):
there's not just epilepsy,there's multiple causes and
multiple ways that epilepsymanifests itself, and so the
type that Joe had was achromosomal kind of stuff that
even after you know almost 18,19 years of being aware of it, I
still can't properly explain it.
But that's more on me thananything else.
(12:10):
But while there have been a lotof treatments that have come
out over the past 10, 20 years,all they've really done is kind
of minimize the side effects.
It has been a buzzword in theindustry that one in three
people that have epilepsy don'tget relief from their seizures
(12:31):
through medicine or surgery ordiet or other lifestyle changes.
That number hasn'tsignificantly changed over the
last 20, 25 years, even thoughmany new treatments have come on
the market and what that reallysays is the side effects have
been lessened.
So there's been great progresswith these medications and
keeping the terrible sideeffects that epilepsy drugs or
(12:56):
anticonvulsants can have.
We're really not hammering downthat number.
There's still a lot of peoplethat wake up every day and worry
every minute about if there'sgoing to be another seizure or
something.
So, joey Sung, we really focuson funding research for
treatments and cures, fundingthose really smart people you
know in the lab coat with theirlab coats, mixing test tubes.
(13:17):
I'm sure it's not done that wayanymore, but you know that
really smart lady with the whitething.
You know white lab coat mixingit and when it turns from green
to blue, somebody's life isgetting better and that's really
what we focus on.
So of that 1.3 million we'vebeen a part of since we started,
(13:39):
joey Sung, the lion's share ofthat has gone to the research
community.
We also fund other parts thatdo patient services and those
types of things, but we reallyfocus on the treatments and
cures because, having been apart of it, I know that that's
the real lifeline.
Certainly, the patient serviceshelp everybody live a better
life day to day and cope withthe disorder, but finding the
(13:59):
treatments is at least whatspoke to us and our family.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
And Joey Song does so much.
One of the things I enjoyedseeing was, a couple of years
ago, Fritty Butch and their oldboyfriends.
They wrote a song based on achild's idea it was a train, a
train to somewhere awesome.
Yeah, that was great.
Things like that, I think,makes what Joey Song is doing so
(14:24):
unique.
You guys every year gettingbigger and bigger and all of a
sudden a few years ago you hadthe Sylvie was coming up and
then COVID hit and so you guyswere forced to go all digital At
first.
Was that a thing that made youthink maybe we're not going to
be able to raise money this yearand meet the goals that we're
(14:46):
trying to trying to reach?
Speaker 1 (14:48):
yeah, that's always a struggle.
I have to.
You know, when I, when I don'thave my gosh, this is fun hat on
and get to talk with all thesecool people.
You know, the business side ofme does come out and that's
always a balancing act.
I try to balance the investmentbecause part of the reason we
can grow is making it bigger andbigger every year, being able
(15:08):
to add more folks and grow ourcommunity.
But it certainly has addedcosts.
It's not what it was, but youknow this is very much like a
business and very much like theconcert business.
You know it's about getting asmany people through the door as
we can and raising awareness aspart of what we do, but it is
(15:29):
certainly a balancing act.
As far as the costs come andyou've given me a great
opportunity, Andy, to talk alittle bit about something else
I need to point out that all ofthese artists that come and
perform do it for free.
Nobody that you're seeing.
These rock and roll Hall ofFamers and Grammy winners and
top 40 hit makers take a pennyfor their time, Right?
So, for example, I don't knowwhat Butch gets for five days,
(15:53):
which is what he's here with us,but it's certainly not.
You know a ham sandwich and twobeers, which is what he gets
from me to do it, so we are ableto keep our costs down.
We're also an all volunteerorganization.
There's no paid staff.
(16:15):
I don't take a salary, as youcan see.
We have our luxurious Joey SungInternational headquarters here
in my basement and the HighNoon.
All places that are going to beinvolved in the 2025 event
basically give us the venues atcost.
Obviously, the folks that areworking get paid, but otherwise.
So everybody kind of pitches inand I think that's a testament
to both the event and the causethat we're doing.
(16:37):
People can take it to heart andit's easy for people to give of
their time or of the resourcesthey have.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
These shows are phenomenal.
People should.
If you've never attended a Joeysong last year the show you
could purchase a live streamwhich, if you couldn't make it
down to Madison you could watchit from the comfort of your own
home.
But to actually be there inperson, it's a pretty unique
(17:07):
experience to see all thesedifferent Grammy winners and all
these local heroes up thereperforming together and just the
brainstorming that goes in eachyear to making it a unique
experience.
Last year was the no AdultGirlfriends versus no Adult
Boyfriends.
There's a big wheel, spin thewheel and then find out what
genre and then the bandscompeted for a big belt, which
(17:28):
is pretty neat, and it's astruggle to find out, to
brainstorm things, to get biggerand bigger.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
It's got to be a little stressful.
(18:00):
It is.
It's going on right now.
So even though we've got, youknow, members from the bangles
and we've got, you know, all ofthe members of garbage and cheap
trick and all these other folks, basically what they're playing
is covers because we puttogether these Frankenstein
monsters sort of bands, if youwill, Right?
So the you know the singer fromfountains of Wayne and, uh, the
(18:23):
Soul Asylum and the drummerfrom Garbage and you know the
two gals from the Bangles aresinging and then they're doing a
Camper Van Beethoven song orwhatever it might happen to be,
right.
So that's both the stressfulpart.
But the fun part is to figureout, you know, and especially
when somebody hits on an idea.
(18:43):
And so it's myself and JayMoran and Butch Vig and Gail
Greenwood from Belly that arekind of the core.
We got Alex Drosser joining us,appleton's own joining us this
year is kind of part of thatbrainstorming team.
But I remember when we hit onSon of a Preacher man for Kelly
Stewart to sing a couple ofyears ago and everybody knew we
had gotten that one right, itwas like, oh man, she is going
(19:05):
to kill this.
And then when we got Come on,feel the Noise this year with
Sierra Swan singing that one.
There's just some that you knowwhere you go.
All right, this is going to begreat, and so it's a lot of that
people throwing ideas back andforth.
Our biggest problem, to behonest with you, andy, is
keeping it under.
You know, four and a half hourslike last year's show was that
(19:26):
was too long and that would evenmake Springsteen or the
Grateful Dead cry.
You know, when you're doing afour and a half hour show, let
alone the audience members thatare standing through it all as
well.
So it's stressful.
But it's also a lot of fun whenyou kind of hit on it and go,
oh, that song's perfect youperfect.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
I love it when there's a new artist that comes
on board.
Last year you had Debbie andVicky from the Bangles and of
course they did a Bangles song,which is kind of cool when those
bands do mix up and then playsome of the original tunes that
you remember.
But yeah, you mentioned SierraSwan.
She has some pipes on her.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Oh yeah, well, you know, the really fun thing about
that bangle song is they didHero Takes a Fall, which Vicki
wrote, but Sue always sang it.
So last year was the first timeVicki had ever sang the lead on
her song live, and that wasthat's again.
One of the other cool thingsthat you kind of get to do on
this is people can flex theirmuscles a little bit and do some
(20:21):
stuff they don't normally getto do.
I remember I did our podcast afew weeks ago with Vicki and we
talked about that.
That.
You know, even though that'sher song, she wrote it.
That was a Sue Hoff's, you know, lead vocals.
So that's fun.
But yeah, I mean the discovery.
So we talked a little bitearlier about people
recommending other people andthere's a very Midwest ethos to
(20:43):
Joey song Cause that's where I'mfrom, that's where Butch is
from and that's where a lot ofthat built up.
But by adding Gail and Tanyafrom belly, we found like, uh,
gina Volpe from Luna chicks Imean she if, if it hadn't been
for Rick Nielsen last year, shewould have been the top shredder
on stage.
I didn't know anything aboutthem.
(21:04):
I'm now a huge fan and Gina'samazing Sierra came to us
through another connection and Iwas aware of her.
But you know, when she did thebaby, baby, baby on, come on,
feel the noise.
I mean that was a hair on theback of your neck kind of moment
.
So it's also introduced us inthe Midwest, to some of these
amazing folks as well.
(21:24):
It's super cool.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Has there been one artist that has just been
mind-blowing for you to playthis event that you never
thought you would get to Madison?
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Yeah.
So, rick, I mean I grew up inMadison, wisconsin, and I grew
up in the 70s.
I was in my teenage years andCheap Trick was our band.
I mean that was between theRockford Boys and Robin.
Being from Wisconsin Dells, Imean that was pride and growing
up being a teenager in the 70s,every show at the Coliseum until
(21:59):
Cheap Trick broke had CheapTrick open.
So I saw Cheap Trick open forQueen, I saw Cheap Trick open
for Kiss, I saw them headlined ahalf of the Dane County
Coliseum.
And I have to tell you, as youprobably know, andy, during the
show I am running around.
But when the Nielsen Trust didthat set, I went around and I
stood behind the speakers whereRick was and I just sat there
(22:22):
for the entire set going Rick,effing, nielsen is playing my
benefit.
And that was a mind blower.
That was one that we had beentrying for a couple of years to
get Rick to come and theschedules just didn't work.
And when it did, I pinchedmyself when he walked into the
venue that night, going holy man.
So yeah, rick.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
You mentioned, people were taking pictures of his amp
.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Yeah.
So even last year, the yearbefore, when Rick couldn't make
it, miles Nielsen, his son,brought the Budokan amp right,
the amp that Budokan wasrecorded on, and there were
people the year before takingpictures.
But then again this year, whenword spread, the amp is here and
there were literally folks withtheir cameras out, you know,
doing the selfie on the stage,because you know, once, once
(23:11):
they set up Rick's amp, uh, whenMark, his roadies or his tech,
set up his amp and hismicrophone with the pics, nobody
touched it.
It was like Nope, nope, youcan't go near it, can't go near
it.
And so everybody was takingpictures.
It was as close to the CharlieBarron's phenomenon, which is,
(23:32):
everybody wants their picture.
Charlie's one of our regularguests.
Everybody wanted their picturewith Charlie.
Well, every musician wantedtheir picture with the amp.
It's great, just great.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Charlie's done a really good job the last couple
years.
He a couple years ago did theauction for the tackle box or
something toolbox or somethingthat he found, and is he
normally winging his material?
Speaker 1 (23:54):
oh yeah um, yeah, well, I, I think, I think,
didn't.
I think the year first year hedid his wisconsin goodbye set,
so I think he pulled stuff outof his set.
And then last year they did heand Adam did some of the songs
from their album which I think Ihave around here somewhere, but
I'm not going to waste yourtime looking for it.
So that part is out of his set.
(24:14):
But you know the auction.
And then last year he alsohelped us with the big wheel
spin with Big Brian Butch.
That's all off the cuff.
So, um, and, and when I'msetting up the show and doing
the run of show, I just do 10minutes, charlie, and I just
assume he'll kill it, which hedoes every year.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
You mentioned your podcast, the Joey song podcast,
which I've been slowly digginginto.
Uh, lots of great episodes.
Some are about the artists thatare playing and then some are
interviews.
You've got one with a member ofthe Go-Go's.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Really Wow, yes, yes.
So you know not to turn thisinto a Ted talk on marketing,
but one of the issues that I nowI've got my marketing hat on as
opposed to my concertempresario hat on is helping to
educate people on who some ofthese folks are.
(25:10):
Because while folks like youand I, andy, are deep in the
woods music dorks, most peopleare casual listeners and know
what they like.
And especially folks of mygeneration and yours in the
generation behind me, know songs, maybe know artists, but
certainly don't know so-and-sowas the lead singer of right.
(25:31):
And so, because Joey's Song issuch a unique event, there's so
much to explain to thefirst-time person, right?
The example I always give andit's no slight to my pal Chris
is if I said to the person onthe street hey, chris
Collingwood is playing the Joeysong, benefit, ninety eight
percent of the people would giveyou the Scooby Doo, you know,
(25:54):
because they don't.
And so no, if I said ChrisCollingwood from Fountains of
Wayne is playing Joey song,you'd get maybe I don't know,
I'm making these numbers upThirty seven percent would say
oh, I've heard of Fountains ofWayne.
But if I told you the guy thatsang Stacy's mom is coming,
(26:18):
you'd go.
Oh, I love that song, right.
Well, to do that across all ofour bands with some of the folks
we've had in the past, pluslike again, if I just drop a
Vicki Peterson on you, you knowpast Plus, like again, if I just
drop a Vicki Peterson on you,you know, maybe bangles you
would know, you know.
So it's a long process and so Ireally look at the podcast as a
way over time to introducepeople to both the bands and the
people that are coming.
So then it's kind of more of aOK now, now I got it Collingwood
(26:41):
, fountains of Wayne, greatbangles, bangles walk like an
Egyptian or whatever.
It is kind of stuff.
So it really first of all it'sfun for me and it's a general
marketing tool because it alsomarkets to their fans.
But I also kind of look at itas an education thing to really
introduce some of these amazingfolks to people that might just
turn on the radio in the morningand turn it off when they leave
(27:01):
the office or get out of thecar.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Well, I do resemble that remark about being a music
dork, but I learned stuff when Iwas listening to the podcast.
There was the Fountain ofWayne's episode you mentioned I
think it was called Road Song,which I'd never heard before.
I looked it up on Spotify rightaway and started listening to
it.
It's a great song.
I'd never heard of it before.
So I think even people that arevery into music and
knowledgeable, they're going tolearn something with these
(27:29):
podcasts.
You mentioned something in thatFountain of Wains episode about
seeing Glenn Tilbrook fromSqueeze and you said it was
possibly at the 930 Club, which,right away the nine 30 club, is
one of those iconic clubs inWashington DC.
(27:50):
But you didn't remember if, ifyou saw him at the nine 30 club.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
But either way, were you at the nine 30 club at one
point?
Yeah, yeah, I, I, I've, I'veseen a few shows.
So back in my pre long hair andtattoo days, um, I worked for
IBM and did a lot of travelingaround and the places I went
went were Bethesda, washingtonDC and New York were the two
places I went.
Well, great places to go ifyou're into music at all.
(28:12):
Right.
So I'd see shows at IrvingPlaza and you know all the New
York venues and I would seestuff I would go to.
930 was a place I went I'mtrying to think of this, this
getting old.
There's the Birchmere, which isin Virginia, somewhere that are
all within, you know, spittingdistance of Washington DC.
(28:34):
So I didn't.
I think 930 is where I sawGlenn.
I saw him a couple of times.
There was a time when Squeezewas on hiatus, whatever you want
to call it where Glenn was.
Just he had both a solo bandone of the all time great, glenn
Tillbrook and the Fluffers.
I'll just leave it at that.
And so I would see, see him dothat show.
(28:56):
And I saw him, like I said, atthe 930.
And he looks like my screen isfrozen, hasn't it?
But I hope you can still hearme I can still hear you.
Yeah, which is good.
Unfortunately, the expressionon my face on the frozen screen
is terrifying.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
That's the expression I had on my face when I heard
you say you were at the 930 Club.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
But Glenn would do these he used to call them
cabaret shows and so it would behim and an acoustic guitar.
I think his son might havejoined him on some of them and
he would just basically do a fewsqueeze songs and covers.
And he did Red Dragon Tattoobefore I had heard it and I'm
like, holy crap, what is this?
Because, again, it's just thatslice of Fountains of Wayne.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
I don't know what you would even call it.
You know reverential stuff.
It's, it's a.
It's amazing, it's trulyamazing.
Well, you worked at a club inmadison, uh yeah, in the 80s.
Right, you had to see somepretty spectacular acts coming
through there yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
So for those of you that were around madison in the
80s, uh, there was a club calledhead excuse me, the soda went
down the wrong tube Headlinerson University Avenue, next door
to where the Church Key was thenand is now, and it was about a
thousand seat venue and we usedto get a lot of the.
The easiest way for me todescribe it is MTV bands on the
(30:16):
way up and the 60s bands on theway down, right, so we would get
Savoy Brown and some of thosekind of bands on the way down
and then we would get a lot ofthe MTV bands on the way up, so
Joan Jett and John Cougar andREM and the Police.
U2 is a very memorable show.
I remember it was the boy tour,I think that U2 came through
(30:40):
and they just everybody knewthat this band won't be playing
here very long, and so what wewould get is a lot of the bands,
not to again.
Ted Talk.
Number two on how people used tobook tours, and they probably
still do.
In a way, for these 500 to 1000seat venues, they would book
Chicago, minneapolis, you knowthe detroit, and then they would
(31:04):
fill in the rest of the datesin smaller towns like madison or
dubuque or you know that kindof stuff in the smaller things,
which was the only way wasn'tthe only way, but it was a good
way where a smaller city with alower price point could afford
these bands, because if theyweren't playing they would be
sitting in a hotel and they'd bepaying, paying roadies and all
that other stuff.
So you would work out deals withagents to get them and so you
(31:27):
know we wouldn't, we wouldn'tget you two on Friday but we got
them on Tuesday.
You know kind of stuff and tonsof great bands and that's where
Spooner, which is the band thatButch and Duke were in, you
know back in the day would playand how I got got to know them
because we kind of hung aroundin the same circles but in the
(31:50):
day would play and how I got toknow them because we kind of
hung around in the same circles.
But yeah, headliners was greatfor Madison.
There was a much more robustlive music scene in Madison back
in those days.
I could name, you know, merlinsand Bunkies and OKs and you
know all these really greatclubs that were around and it's
a shame there's good ones aroundnow but it's not quite the same
as it was.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Yeah, it seems like Madison is very into destroying
their old historic buildingscurrently and putting up those
high-rise apartments all overthe place.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Man can't go up East Wash Avenue, and it does.
You know.
I am at the point, andy, in mylife where I am the old man
telling the kids to get off hislawn, so I freely admit that.
But East Wash Avenue now looksmore like it would in any big
city, with all the high rises,and I guess that's progress.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
We were talking about some of the people that have
performed a Joey song.
We did not mention your son Samwho's performed at Past Joey
Songs and he's really good, sothe music is obviously an
interest that the family shares.
Sam, I believe, he played anoriginal song a couple of years
ago.
Last year he did, I think,something from the Beatles and
(32:56):
it's cool to see him up thereagain with all these musicians
and just knowing what he's beenthrough it it puts a little more
kind of a personal spin on onthe show.
Not only that, but in betweenperformances you guys do a good
job of explaining what Joey songis and what you've been doing.
You've got I don't know whatthe correct word vignettes maybe
(33:18):
or something like.
That's a good one.
I'll go with that one who'sputting all that stuff together.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
So we're very fortunate Lots of folks.
Yeah, that's a good one, I'llgo with that one.
Who's putting all that stufftogether?
So we're very fortunate Lots offolks.
Well, let me do it this way Ifyou go to the Joey Song website,
joysongorg which you have beenputting up on the screen
frequently, which is great andclick on our board, there you go
A board tab job.
We have both a verydistinguished board of directors
and something we call ourindustry advisor group, which
(33:46):
includes many folks from themusic and film business, and one
of the folks that's both on ourboard of directors and our
advisor entertainment advisorgroup is a gentleman named david
michaels who is a filmmaker andhas tons of connections.
I met him through butch andDavid is a Hollywood filmmaker
and if you IMDB David Michaels,you will find that he worked
(34:09):
with Samuel Goldwyn duringGoldwyn's last few years at MGM
and lots of other stuff andcontinues to produce movies and
David helps with a lot of that.
He puts a lot of time andeffort into both creating the
concepts behind it and thendoing the filming.
If you watch some of the shortsfrom last year, he's the fella
in the stocking cap that'sasking some of the questions.
(34:31):
That's David and he helps andliterally brings in
Hollywood-level talent to helpus film and edit those.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
And talking about the event getting bigger and bigger
.
Not only are you playing theseclips in between, but last year
you recorded your thank yous sothat you didn't have to remember
the plethora of thank yous thatyou would normally have to
stand up there and read.
Did you like that method ofhaving that pre-recorded so you
didn't have to worry aboutforgetting anybody?
The pressure that comes withthat.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Yeah, that was exactly it.
That was exactly it, that wasexactly it.
And if I had done that live,that would have taken twice as
long, because I also cry atgrocery store openings.
So, uh, by thanking everybodyahead of time when I didn't have
to look at them and think aboutit, otherwise it would have
taken twice as long because Iwould have been blubbering like
a baby.
(35:22):
Have taken twice as longbecause I would have been
blubbering like a baby and itjust was.
It was a better way to do that.
No, when you know thelimitations of the talent in
that case me you try to findways around them so that you can
kind of keep things movingalong.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Has there ever been a big foobarb during?
Speaker 1 (35:46):
one of the shows where something started to go
wrong and somehow got fixed.
There were two from last year'sshow, the first of which was
when we were going through thejam set.
It was time to sing Feel LikeMaking Love, which our buddy,
dave Perner, was supposed to besinging.
I think the band was startingto noodle with it and there was
no perner oh, I remember thatyeah, and I, and there was
(36:07):
nobody that.
So the joey song is kind of aloose conglomerate of stage
managers and nobody was findingdave and I, literally and if you
know the backstage, at thesylvie, he was in the far
dressing room at the end of it,which was was more than my
63-year-old legs could take and63-year-old lungs, and so I had
to go running back there as theband's trying to keep playing
(36:29):
the intro over and over and I'mjust screaming.
Perner and I had looked in afew other places and I won't say
what they are because it'll bedisparaging today, but I finally
found him and dragged him out.
So that was one.
And then the second one was atthe end.
I'm not going to.
I think we were supposed to beplaying the weight or everyday
(36:51):
people, I don't remember whichone it was, but the, the.
The monitor was wrong, theteleprompter with the lyrics on
it, and so the band startedplaying the right song and the
wrong lyrics came up and somehowthe band got through it as well
.
So, and then there've been afew others that have, but those
are two memorable ones from lastyear where it's like what are
(37:13):
we doing here, kids?
But that's the, that's the funand that's the beauty of kind of
that.
Uh, do it on a shoestring waythat we do things.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
This year it seems like there's some changes.
I've seen Freezing man aroundas a name and it looks like the
whole thing is going to kind oftake on a different form this
year.
Are you able to talk about anyof that?
Speaker 1 (37:35):
I am.
I, you know, technically we'renot announcing the format until
September 9th, so I'm sure Iwill get in trouble with the
marketing folks, but what thehell?
You only live once and I'm theboss.
So if I want to change therules, I'm going to do that.
So one of the things Imentioned to you a little bit
earlier is the show last yearwent on to four and a half hours
(37:57):
, which is just too darn longfor any show, but especially one
that's geared towards olderaudience, shall we say, as ours
is.
Not that there's not plenty ofstuff for the kids, but if you
look at the acts of artists, itskews towards an older
demographic.
And the Sylvie is a gloriousvenue, perfect for what we do,
(38:18):
except for the fact that there'sonly about 150 seats in a 2,500
seat venue or capacity venue.
So one of the things that andI'll try not to sprain my elbow
patting myself on the back, buteverybody keeps wanting to come
back, which says something thatwe're doing something right with
the venue, all of our artists,and we always try to add new
(38:39):
artists every year, and we'veadded a couple, and we can talk
a little bit about what thoseare in a second, but we can't
keep adding artists and not dosomething to change the format.
But we also can't have theseartists, as I mentioned earlier,
that come in for four and fivedays and then come and play.
(38:59):
You know one song Not thatanybody has ever complained,
because not one person has evercomplained about not having
enough of a role at Joey song.
But I also want to berespectful.
These are not, you know, thisis not you and me, andy, with a
washboard and a you know a comband tissue paper singing.
You know Stanley brothers songs.
You know these are pros.
(39:19):
Um, so what we're expanding tois a series of full band shows
in the week leading up to it,and the Freezing man is a
takeoff on Burning man.
We're trying to come up with away to brand the festival that's
lighthearted and plays into theWisconsin in January, and
there's not one Wisconsin nativethat wouldn't recognize what
Freezing man is.
(39:41):
So we're going to do a wholebunch of shows and while it's
not a thousand percentsolidified between the Sylvie,
the High Noon and the Majestic,that week leading up to it we're
going to have sets by SoulAsylum, portugal, the man, a
version of the Bangles withDebbie and Vicky, letters to
Cleo Belly, the Know-It-AllBoyfriends, silver Sun Pickups,
(40:02):
laura Jane Grace and local heroup there by you, kenny Hoopla,
is going to be doing a set aswell.
There's a few other thingswe're working on as well, but
that's what Freezing man isgoing to evolve into, is going
to be more of a festival.
So then all of these bands andfolks that would join us on
Saturday will still join us onSaturday, but then it'll just be
(40:24):
the All-Star Jam, but they'llhave had a chance to play full
sets and kind of flex theirmusical muscles.
So that's the idea.
By September 9th we should beable to announce who's playing
with who and when, but right nowthat's kind of the
conglomeration that we'relooking at.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Well, that sounds really exciting and I'm
wondering, as far as the ticketsgo, is it going to be something
where people can purchasetickets for one event at a
smaller venue, or is there goingto be like a VIP ticket
available where they can get thewhole shebang?
Speaker 1 (41:05):
work in progress.
There is not going to be like afestival ticket, and one of the
reasons why that's not going tobe the case is, honestly, if we
did sell a package that you knowthis ticket gets you into all
the shows, that then that couldmean I don't know how to
describe this without soundinglike a goof Once the ticket for
the Soul Asylum Fountains ofWayne show is gone, on that
thing it's gone even if theperson doesn't use it, and so
(41:27):
that's a lot of concerts over afive day period, and so we know
there are going to be peoplethat aren't going to go to
everything, and because thesewonderful artists are donating
their time for free, I want tomake sure they're playing to a
house full of smiling faces.
So there isn't going to benecessarily a concert festival
ticket per se, but there will besome ways that if you purchase
(41:51):
one, perhaps you get a discountfor some of the other shows as
well.
So we'll put together a fewpackages that make sense, but
it's going to really be whenyou're going to, when you go to
the Ticketmaster page that we'llset up for this.
You know, you'll just tick.
I need two tickets for this oneand one ticket for that one and
so on.
So but there's been a ton ofback and forth and again the the
(42:11):
talent team at Frank, alongwith Scott Leslie, the CEO there
, have been helpful in inhelping me kind of sort and
juggle this out and figure outwhat makes sense.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
As far as the again the festival this year, it's
going to be announced officiallyin a couple weeks.
The website already has someinformation.
As you mentioned, if peoplewant to go to joeysongorg, it's
January 8th to 11th, which thefirst year it's going to be a
multi-day event.
Is there anything that goes onotherwise throughout the year,
(42:51):
any events or things?
Speaker 1 (42:53):
Yeah, no, as of right now.
So now you're really gettinginto the long-term strategic
goal of Joey Song and I guess Ican take a minute to talk about
that.
Right now, no, there's nothing,it's a full-time gig.
This is what I do.
That right now, no, there'snothing, it's a full time gig,
this is what I do, and Iliterally spend several hours a
(43:14):
day from.
I usually take a week offafterwards of recovering to go
at it.
But having said all of that andthis may bore the pants off of
your audience, so, everybody, Iapologize for the next five
minutes while I talk strategyhere.
You know we could do Joey'ssong a different way and we
would have already had somelarger artists come into town.
(43:36):
Let me explain what I mean bythat.
You know artists, especiallythose that play big venues, you
know, have a schedule set andthere many of them have six,
eight, 12 months planned outahead of time.
And I am fortunate with some ofthe folks that, excuse me, are
part of our board and our listof artists.
(43:56):
We can get to just about anyartist.
We don't get them, but we canmake connections.
As you can probably guess, whenyou've got Butch Vig on your
team, people will answer thephone.
Guess, when you've got ButchVig on your team, people will
answer the phone.
Now, if what I said to and Iwill use a, you know, let's
pretend he was still alive ElvisPresley, if I said to Elvis and
(44:18):
Elvis was interested in ourthing, can you come to Madison
at your convenience and play ashow, I would have a higher hit
ratio than what I have becauseElvis may say, yes, I'm
available.
You know and please don't callthe National Enquirer that I'm
saying Elvis is alive.
But you know Elvis might say,yes, I can come any September
(44:38):
3rd and August 4th and, you know, july 18th.
Then we could put on a show,raise some money and move on.
But that's not what Joey's songis.
So what I have to do is findout who's available at that week
in January, and there's anumber of logistical reasons why
we choose that week.
Having said that, that doesn'tmean Joey's song couldn't evolve
(45:01):
and I would always like to keepthat as a very special Madison
thing because of as youmentioned, you know, all of our
local Madison musicians betweenJay and Pi, you know and I'm
blanking on the rest of thenames Alex and Frank and
everybody else and Corey.
There's a special thing to that, and I always want them to come
to Madison in the middle ofJanuary for multiple days.
(45:32):
But literally telling them, canyou throw your guitar in the
back of your car and drive downto the Avalon in LA or to, you
know, third and Lindley inNashville or Irving Plaza in New
York and play a set?
So there could be a day, Iwould like there to be a day
when we're doing multiple Joeysong events throughout the
(45:53):
country.
Um, they would not look likeMadison.
Madison is unique in so manyways.
Um, but there could be a day.
But right now, um, the the taskin front of me is figuring out
how to run a four-day event inmultiple venues and stay sane.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
Well, and you're also taking a risk with the January
dates, which you haven't runinto a problem yet.
I think there was some snow,but nothing that was like a
freezing rain or anything likethat.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
Yeah, well, and part of that and here's one more way
I will compliment these amazingartists Because of that,
everybody does come in a day ortwo before Now.
Part of that is so we canrehearse, which if you saw some
of the early Joey Song eventsyou would question whether that
ever happened.
But now you know we rehearseahead of time.
So in the old format, which wasa Saturday show, everybody
(46:47):
would come in Thursday night,you know, to give us that buffer
in case there was weather,because traveling through you
know all the hubs around Madison, whether it's Detroit,
minneapolis or Chicago.
You know all it takes is, youknow a cold front to come
through or something.
You know some bad weather andit can block a whole lot of
people out.
(47:07):
Everybody understands that somebad weather and it can block a
whole lot of people out.
And everybody understands that.
That's one of the beauties ofthis is, all of these people
travel for a living and theyunderstand what contingency
planning is, and so so far we'vebeen okay.
The only thing that stopped uswas COVID, and that was it
stopped more than more than justus.
But yes, we are taking a bit ofa chance and honestly, andy,
(47:27):
that's sometimes my biggest sellagainst people is yeah, it's
Madison in January, but you knowyou don't have to be outside
very much.
You know some of these LApeople don't even own a winter
coat.
So what are you going to do?
Speaker 2 (47:41):
You recently had a birthday.
Got a message from PaulMcCartney.
Speaker 1 (47:47):
Well, yes, technically I did.
Now we all know that to be aconcert promoter, you have to
have a little PT Barnum in you.
So I'm sure I'm sure, standingthere on the 45 back in whatever
, that would have been 65 or 66,when I was five years old and
(48:14):
was already a huge Beatles fanand I'd been a part of the fan
club, and I'm sure that's justsomething that's automatically
generated, but it popped up onmy watch and you know, paul
McCartney, like they say, it'syour birthday.
But I will tell you somethingfunny as a side note Back in
2019, when we played theBarrymore, one of our guests was
Brian Ray, and Brian's day jobis he plays bass and guitar with
(48:39):
Paul, and has for the last 20years.
And so I texted Brian with thatpicture and I said in my head
I'm going to imagine the bossgetting up, pouring himself a
cup of tea on July 22nd, goingoh, I got to make sure I text
Gamal.
To which, of course, brianlaughed and said you should
continue to think that.
(48:59):
So that's how I left it.
So in my mind, that's whathappened.
Paul woke up in his New Yorkapartment, poured himself a nice
cuppa, maybe made some toast,and realized that July 22nd was
my birthday.
What I'm really expecting it isnext year, when I turn 64,
because then I'm reallyexpecting a very specific text
from Sir Paul.
Speaker 2 (49:20):
Well, it's just again incredible, the people you've
got to come to.
Madison and do this.
Brian May, of course, playedguitar for Etta James to Madison
and do this.
Brian May, of course, playedguitar for Etta James.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
He's part of her touring band.
He was actually her musicaldirector while still a teenager.
Speaker 2 (49:35):
That's just pretty amazing yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
Amazing.
Speaker 2 (49:38):
So have you been an attendee at the Mile Music
Festival up in Appleton?
Speaker 1 (49:53):
You know I have not, and Frank and Dave and everybody
keep harping on me to do it andI have not.
I know very, very well of it.
That's quite a sentence there.
My english teacher is spinningin her grave right now for that
one.
Um, I do know that one of theyears when the baseball project
played up there uh, for those ofyou that don't know, that's
mike and peter from remEM, alongwith Steve Wynn and Scott McCoy
and Linda Pittman they preparedfor that show by playing a show
(50:14):
in my driveway earlier in theweek.
So that's my closest rub withMile of Music is that the
baseball project warmed up byplaying a gig in my driveway for
my neighbors.
Speaker 2 (50:28):
Mike, I'm sure you've got a lot of stories you're not
even telling us.
Is there somebody, a really bigname, that you're gunning to
get at a future Joey song butstill haven't been able to sink
the hook yet?
Speaker 1 (50:44):
Yeah, there's a couple of them.
I met Eddie Vedder in 2020.
So, not to dissuade many of ourlocal Wisconsinites, but I'm a
lifelong Cubs fan.
Now that's because I was bornI'm so old and I grew up, you
(51:05):
know, in those formative yearsliving in Racine when there were
no Milwaukee Brewers and we allgot Channel 9.
And I just never switchedallegiance and I met Ed.
We were both part of RandyHuntley's fantasy camp, which is
where old guys like he and I goto pretend we can still play
baseball like we did in highschool.
And I talked with Ed and I toldhim of our event and he signed
(51:29):
a bunch of stuff for me and said, yeah, maybe someday and I
haven't been able to close thatdeal there may be an opportunity
sooner rather than later wejust mentioned earlier, if Paul
(51:50):
McCartney played I mean, paul isour Mozart, right, so he would
be the person, but Ed's prettyhigh up on that list.
The other one that's high onthe list because of his
relationship with Butch isobviously Dave Grohl.
But those are not yet I say yetrealistic yet.
We kind of have to prove ourselfevery year and keep moving up
(52:11):
that, and I guess now would be agood time because it's not a
secret, because you can see iton our webpage.
But we've upped our game alittle bit.
So this year you mentioned theGo-Go's.
Jane Weedland from the Go-Go'sis joining us, so that's another
rock and roll hall of famer.
We've got John Resnick from GooGoo Dolls, so we've added
Go-Go's and Goo Goo's.
(52:35):
That's probably what I'll besaying at the end of the night
on Saturday, if I can get a wordout joining us We've got a
couple other folks we're pokingaround at that I'm not going to
disclose right now that are ofthat same stature, maybe even a
little higher, somebody that'splaying stadium shows right now,
and so every year it's kind ofan incremental rise.
(52:55):
So, but Ed's in that categoryand Ed has supported Cure, which
is one of the charity, the maincharity.
We give our money to this.
So I know Ed's got a soft spotfor the epilepsy community as
well.
So those are the kind of folks.
Obviously if Taylor or Beyoncewould like to come and play, I
(53:16):
think we can find a slot forthem as well.
Speaker 2 (53:18):
Well, it's got to be hard to limit the size of this.
It really had to get bigger,because once somebody plays it,
it seems they roll into theannual group that performs every
year because nobody wants tonot do it again.
Speaker 1 (53:33):
I'll tell you a really interesting story.
So, as I was putting togetherthe week of events and was
scheduling and slotting in folks, and right now, again, it's not
etched in stone.
It looks like we're going to dothe Bangles show on Friday and
I was talking with Vicki and wassaying so, if you know, you can
(53:55):
just come in on Thursday if youwant to.
You know, because she's aCalifornia gal, she lives in New
York right now, you know, andshe said, well, when's the first
show?
And I said, well, at least onWednesday, maybe sooner, she
goes.
Well, I'll come in on Tuesdayor Wednesday because of FOMO,
right, fear of missing out andthe family and again, not trying
(54:18):
to say it's me, it's them thatwe've created.
You know, now these people areall friends because they may
know of each other, but theydon't know each other all of
them.
I sit on social media, as weall do, and I'm friends and I
watch them now liking each other, but they don't know each other
all of them.
I sit on social media, as weall do, and I'm friends and I
watch them now liking eachother's posts, and there's a
really cool family.
That's kind of, you know,that's kind of come out of this
(54:41):
and it is People you know alwayswant to come back, and I mean
that seriously.
I can tell you, if you look atthe past list, especially since
we've started we were at theBarrymore moving forward If
somebody hasn't come back it'sonly because their schedule
doesn't make it work.
I've never had anybody tell menope, we're done, I did my time.
(55:02):
So it is a lot of fun and Iknow the artists have a lot of
fun not playing their songs andplaying other songs I was
delighted to see that the fullbelly band was going to be there
yeah, next year.
Speaker 2 (55:14):
And the full letters to cleo, which I saw you and sam
at that show.
Speaker 1 (55:18):
I saw you in attendance there yeah, yeah, um,
they're, they both, and I wasbasically told by k and I was
told by t.
You need to ask because I'm,I'm, I can be real aggressive on
some things and on other stuffit's like, well, they're already
giving a lot of their time, butyeah it, it's, it's great, and
(55:38):
there's going to be some others.
I guess I can talk about itright now.
I don't know if it'll happen,but Chris is going to try to put
Fountains of Wayne backtogether and do a full Fountains
of Wayne show.
Speaker 2 (55:55):
And there's some other stuff going on.
So, yeah, it's great.
I can't wait to hear moredetails on this Incredible job.
If people haven't attended theshow, go to it.
If you're from Appleton, it'sso cool to see Frank and Alex up
there with all the guys fromMadison.
It really is a uniqueexperience and it's another
thing that makes Wisconsin sogreat.
Again, the dates for Joey'sSong is going to be January 8th
(56:17):
through 11th 2025.
It's going to be calledFreezing man.
You can find out more atjoey'ssongorg.
Go and check out the Joey'sSong podcast and also check out
the Seriously Sun Prairiepodcast, which I try to catch
once in a while.
Michael, thank you so much.
I know you're a busy guy.
I appreciate you spending anhour with us.
And again, joeysongorg, michael, thank you.
(56:39):
You've been watching Fox City'sCore on WCZR Code Zero Radio.
Speaker 1 (57:03):
Thanks for joining us for the Joey Song Podcast.
Remember to visit our website,joysongorg.
Follow us on all our socialmedia handles which are at Joey
Song.
We'll to visit our website,joysongorg.
Follow us on all our socialmedia handles which are at Joey
Song.
We'll see you guys at the show.
Oh, geez, sorry about therecord scratch.
Wait a minute.
I forgot one thing.
If you want to help us spreadthe word about Joey Song and our
(57:24):
podcast, there's a few thingsyou can do that are real simple
that will help us.
One of the things you can do isfollow the show wherever you
get your podcast.
Give us a five-star review Imean, why wouldn't you and write
a review.
All of these things help ourpodcast and our cause get more
traction and seen throughout thecommunity.
And if you wanted to tell a fewfriends about Joey's Song in
(57:47):
the podcast, that would be greatas well.
And, of course, you can visitjoey'ssongorg and follow us on
social media.
All of our handles are atJoey's Song.
Okay, I think that's it.
We will see you guys at theshow.
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