DOUG Talks To TOMMY CLUFETOS about playing with The Biggest Bands in the World and The Upcoming Show at The Token Lounge

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Yeah. Hey, they're Detroit Wheels. Tom calling for mister Doug Podell.
All right, Tommy, the heckargument. How I'm doing good? How
about yourself? Thank you for havingme on? Yeah, thanks for joining
us here on Wheels. Yeah.Things are well and you know, I
mean, we got a beautiful dayto day, so what could go wrong?
Right? A lot in Detroit.So I saw online it says Tommy

(00:25):
Cliffto's part Man, part Beast,and I think they I think they nailed
it there, Tommy, because Ican't argue with that. You know,
it reminds me of the old TVshow that was called Have Gun, Will
Travel, And I thought, manTommy's book should be called Have Drum Will

(00:46):
Tour. Uh be sure, exceptnobody would read it. Doug. That's
the problem I don't know about that. You've been hanging with some pretty heavy
duty artists here for the past fewyears. Congratulations on just everything, Tommy.
You know I first met you withTed Nugent, you know, eons
ago, and he used to reallytalk you up a lot. Uh.

(01:08):
He put his money where his mouthis and you delivered. And you know,
you've really taken off over the years, and now you're coming to town
with your very own band. AndI think people know that you've, you
know, done some extensive touring withso many great artists like Rob Zombie and
Alice Cooper and and Ted and Sabbath. But what's it like now for you

(01:30):
actually putting in your own band togetherand you know, kind of coming out
and doing some touring on your own. It's a total paint in the ass.
Dog, I'm gonna be honest withyou. No, I'm just no,
I'm having it, you know.I just we just finished a rehearsal
here. Literally my closer drench issweat, and I wouldn't have it any

(01:51):
other way. You know, it'sbeen a blast. I found three young
people. Don't know I've moved tothe Nashville area. I would living in
Los Angeles for about twenty years.I met a beautiful California girl. I
stole her away from there and wejust a couple of years ago moved just
south of Nashville. I found threeyoung Nashville rockers and we're coming your way.

(02:15):
So they're all about twenty years youngerthan me, and I'm showing them
how it's really done. We getin my rehearsal room, and we turn
up the amps and we run theset over and over and over and over
and over, because that's how it'sdone. So by the time we get

(02:38):
to the Token Lounge on March twentyeighth, we're going to be firing on
ten on all cylinders. And Ihope people have a great time. I
just want them to come out andenjoy themselves. I hope they like the
music. I hope they are takenback to what Detroit music is all about,
because I put out a record whereI replaying some of the tunes off

(03:00):
that record, and I think thatthe music that I made with my own
group has that Detroit rock and rolledge because I can't get away from it.
It's in my blood. It's whatI was brought up, and it's
heavier rock, but it still hasthat blues, hard working edge to it.

(03:21):
So I really think and I reallyhope that people enjoy what they hear.
We're working our butts off to givethem the best show that they've ever
seen at that place. So Ijust hope people have a great time.
They come out and they feel fulfilledand they're happy that they got out of
the house. Because I go onat nine five at night, and I'll
be honest with you, it's hardto get me out that late my bedtime.

(03:45):
Well, well, people have beentalking about the show. I was
up at the club not too longago, a couple of weeks ago,
and and people were pointing out thisshow to me. I mean, I
didn't know that you had some newmaterial out, So that's going to be
one fantas to hear. Yeah,I want to call it new. I
did a record a couple of yearsago of my own, just because I've
never done anything like this, kid. It was all kind of a new

(04:08):
venture, if you want to say, leading a band or my own.
You know, I've never really I'mtotally fulfilled in playing for other people.
But when there's a hole in myschedule, I go, you know what,
I got an opportunity to do arecord. I said, you know
what, I've never written a song, I've never done anything my own.
Why not? And you know what, it was something that I was proud

(04:30):
of. I'm not saying it's thegreatest thing in the world, but I
like it. So we're bringing someof that music. We're going to play
about seven or eight tunes off thatalbum. I like the music. I
hope people like the music. We'regoing to play some tunes of bands that
I've been involved with, and Ithink we're going to play some other tracks

(04:50):
that people are going to be surprised, Oh okay, that I'm going to
play, but I think people aregoing to It all ties into one big
ball of rock and roll, intoone big ball of Detroit rock and roll,
which I've learned is very unto itself. Since moving out of Detroit living
in Los Angeles for a long time, I realized I was different than the

(05:14):
people in Los Angeles, and thencoming to coming from Los Angeles to Nashville,
I realized I'm different than the peoplein Nashville. There's something about that
Michigan way, that Detroit way.It's very black and white. It's very
it did you get it done?Or did it you get it done?
And that's how I'm approaching That's howI approach music. I'm either going to

(05:36):
do it to the best of myability. It doesn't matter if there's five
people there or one hundred thousand.I'm going to play to the best of
my ability. So if people canhave ever seen me play before, maybe
on some of the bigger stages withwell known artists and they like how I
played. You're going to get thatwhen you come to a small rock and

(05:59):
roll, killer, dingy rock androll club like the Token Lound. Yeah,
you're going to get the same effortthat I would play in a stadium.
And I think you get to seethat up close. You're going to
get to feel that energy. SoI think people will dig if they come
out to the show, and Ilook forward to seeing everybody. Yeah once
again, that is at the Tokenon Thursday night, March twenty eighth.

(06:20):
It's coming up, and you'll bepulling not only from your own you know
music that you mentioned, but fromSabbath and Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie and
Ozzie and Ted NuGen. So Imean, how can you go wrong with
a setlist like that. I mean, yeah, we'll see what happens.
I don't know what's going to happen, but I do hope that people enjoy

(06:42):
themselves and I do think people aregoing to have a good time. Tommy,
you grew up here in Detroit.What were what were your influences?
What you know drove you to thedrumsticks and then you know just going from
there. Sure, like I said, I mean it came from an honest
place. I started playing at ayoung age. I wasn't chasing girls.

(07:03):
I wasn't I didn't want to befamous. All of those things worked out
just fine. None of it happened. I just there was. My dad
was a musician. I started playingin his groups at a young age,
and my parents were always my heroesgrowing up. They supported me, and
even today, my dad is mybiggest musical influence. And I don't really

(07:30):
listen to other drummers. I mean, of course, you know, when
I talk about my influences, it'skind of my experiences have been my influence.
Day coming up playing in clubs inDetroit five six nights a week.
When I was doing it, itwas still the old school away. You
played four forty five minute sets,and you did that five days a week,

(07:53):
and you do that for ten years, you start to get pretty good.
And I did that, and Iwould play like kind of what's called
these old these shows with my dad'sgroup where you're back up five six,
seven acts and you get experience outof that, and then you start playing
in Mitch Ryder's band out of that. Yeah, well, then you know,
I started playing for the Great Godrest his soul, alto Read.

(08:18):
I started doing some gigs with himafter he saw me play, and he
recommended me to Ted Nugent. ThenI started playing in Ted's band. So
it's all this slow, gradual hopefullygoing up and learning as you're going and
taking it in for what it's worthand really soaking every experience in that you

(08:41):
can. I think I've been prettygood at that of grinding it out again.
It's that detroit energy attitude of slowand steady and grinding it out.
That's been my biggest influence of justkeep pushing and I always try to focus
on being the best that I canbe at any given task that I try

(09:03):
to do. I want to bewhen I play in somebody's band, I
want them to walk away saying that'sthe best drummer I've ever had. And
that's not in a technical way ornot in a showing off drum way.
I want whoever I'm working for tofeel confident in what I'm doing, that
they can go up and do thegive the best show they have. We

(09:24):
have a great drummer behind you.It can make you feel confident in doing
the show. It's like if youhave a great engineer twirling the knobs for
you, dougs. It makes youconfident to go do your radio. Yeah,
yep. So it's the team aroundyou. So that's been my biggest
influence people. I've worked for experiencesgood and bad, and learning and taking

(09:46):
the best out of those things tobe the best that I can be.
Well, we talked to a lotof musicians, you know, all throughout
the year and over the years,and it always seems like there's some sort
of Detroit connection. Either it's agood time player or the lead singer or
in many cases for yourself, thedrummer, you know, playing here in

(10:07):
Detroit all those years. What wasthat reaction for yourself when you got that
call about joining the Final Black SabbathTour. I mean, I can't even
imagine picking up the phone. Wasit like Tony, Hi, Tommy,
this is Tony Iomi? I mean, how does that go down? Well,

(10:28):
I mean that one is a differentone because there's so many parts and
so many people involved that I mean, it worked out that I played on
the tour, and I was happyto do it. But you know,
I don't hold anything more important.If I was so on, I hold

(10:50):
it's very important to me because thoseguys are great musicians, not that it
was Black Sabbath, and I reallymean this, And if any younger kids
are listening out there, the pointthat I'm trying to get to is the
reason that I got to play withBlack Sabbaths or do certain things is because
when I was in Detroit playing toa club for four nights in a row

(11:13):
and there was nobody there, Iapproached it the same as if I was
playing a stadium with Black Sabbath,and I took in every little piece that
I could, if that makes anysense. So as awesome as it is,
I don't really Everything is important tome and everything is in the highest

(11:35):
regard, but playing on their tourand playing with them because they were such
great musicians, that's the honor forme. I love playing with great musicians
who get it and it just gels. And I'm playing with three young guys
getting ready for my gigs coming up, and they're not the most accomplished players,

(11:58):
but that's okay. The important thingis that the attitude and the working
together to be the best that youcould be. We're going in the same
place. So that's a reward.Unto itself. To me, it's that
distinction between success makes sense to thelisteners out there. I hope it does.

(12:20):
It's great to play with Black Sabbath, but you can't get to do
those things unless you take every littlemoment very seriously, just like they did
to be one of the biggest bandsin the world. Because Tony, Ozzy
and Geezer, they're all focused onthat gig. When they're backstage, they're
not screwing around going hanging out.We're all focused on the gig. We're

(12:43):
all on the same page moving forwardto go have the best gig that night.
So for those reasons, it wasan awesomely, insanely successful tour that
I was so proud of. Ispart of the job that I did on
it. Oh yeah, no,I was at that show at the Palace

(13:05):
of Auburn Hills. Actually, sadlythat's gone now, but I know it's
crazy. I was. I rememberI was at one of the first ever
gigs when I was a young kid, and that was torn down. You
know what that means. That meansI'm old. Yeah No, I don't
think so. I think there's otheryou know, factors involved in that that
would take way too long to getinto. But uh no, Tom,

(13:28):
you're you're going to be there onthe twenty eighth th I am going to
be there, and I want tosee these young guys that you've got lined
up. Where did you? Wheredid you find them? Now in Nashville
and stole them all from the sameband, and I'm turning them into Detroit
rockers. You know, they've neverdone it this way where there's no you
know a lot of bands now they'replaying to click tracks, they're playing to

(13:50):
backing tracks, they're playing to somekind of there's some filter going on with
the music and there is absolutely noneof that happening. In order for us
to get it right, we doit again. Then we do it again,
and then we break this part downand we do it again and again
and again. We're building it fromscratch and that's really fun. So through

(14:11):
the grinding it out, they're gettingthe reward of It's just like anything you
put the work in, and ifyou're willing to get past that point,
a switch turns and then you see, oh, yeah, this makes a
lot of sense. So we're weare primed and ready to rock. Dock
of rock. Yeah, Well,these Nashville Gunslingers. You know, they

(14:33):
definitely come through in the end ofthem. But there is nothing like the
Detroit rock Baby, Well, it'snothing like that. It doesn't exist anywhere
in the world. Detroit. Thereal Detroit guys rock harder than anybody.
I'm talking anybody. That's the truth, and you know what, I'm one

(14:58):
of them. Yeah, we're gonnaget a little taste of it at the
Token Loans. Yeah, definitely.You're a big part of Detroit rock,
Tommy, and we're all excited tosee you Token Lounge on Thursday, March
twenty eighth. We'll all be there. You'll be doing some of your own
stuff and then like I said,music from Sabbath and Cooper and Ozzy and
Rob Zombie and Ted NuGen and manymore. I'm sure. So it's going

(15:22):
to be an exciting night. Andget back there, do a little rehearsing
and we'll see you here in acouple of weeks. Buddy. Hey,
I'll be there. I look forwardto it, Doug, thank you so
much. I look forward to seeingeverybody at the gig. I'm looking forward
to see it. Yeah, weappreciate it, no problem, buddy,
I'll see you there, make sureyou come back and say hello, I
will, I will. All right, Well there you go, Detroit's own

(15:45):
Tommy Cleffetows. Thank you all rightman, thanks for checking in. We'll
see you there at the Token