Episode 12: Richard Blade on KROQ, SiriusXM, New Wave, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and a Life Lived in Music

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Joey Stuckey (00:00):
Welcome once again to Stuck on Sound.
And so today is a special dayfor me.
It's not all about me, it reallyisn't.
But in this instance, I have theman the myth, the legend,
Richard Blade, with us today.
And I'm such a fan of Richard.
Welcome to the program.
Thank you for making time, myfriend.

SPEAKER_00 (00:16):
Hey, Joey, thank you so much for having me on.
I appreciate it.
I really do.

Well, you are a real renaissance man.
And I gotta tell you, I mean,I've been a fan of yours.
Um you know, to be honest, likeI I lived in uh a small southern
town when I was uh the child ofthe 80s, so they didn't have
Richard Blade on their stations.
But uh with Sirius XM, I I Istarted uh you know following

(00:41):
you and enjoying you and justhaving such a a respect for for
your your your talent and yourknowledge of music.
And you know, then I read theaudiobook, World in My Eyes, and
what a book.
I mean it's I don't you probablywill not remember this, but I
reached out at you on Twitterand said, hey man, is it gonna

(01:03):
be an audiobook?
Because I'm a blind dude thatwants to read it.
And and you said, uh, yeah, I'mabsolutely recording it right
now.
And uh so I I you know startedfollowing you from that moment
on on Twitter and stuff likethat.
And you know, we've we'vechatted a few times via the old
Twitter verse there.
Um I refuse to call it X.
Uh so so uh but the uh the thingis your your life has been so

(01:25):
fascinating, and I I want togive people a chance to
appreciate your journey.
So I always like to start withthe origin story of the guests,
and so you know you you wereraised in in England, you went
to Oxford, uh, you know, you youuh and then you started DJing.
I mean, how does that sort ofhappen?

(01:46):
I know, I know I rememberreading in the book that you
were obsessed with yourtransistor radio and uh you know
that you that you you lovemusic, of course, at an early
age, but you know, how do you gofrom studying at like Oxford and
then you you become this DJingphenomenon?
You basically pack up your carand just go across Europe for
two years DJing.

(02:06):
Like tell tell me how thatthought process occurred to you.

SPEAKER_00 (02:10):
Well, when I went to college, I didn't really know
what I wanted to do.
Um I knew I loved music, butthere was very I wasn't
musically talented.
I'm I can't play an instrument,for example.
I wish I could.
That's why I play the records onthe radio.
But uh on the side, I alwaysloved DJs and uh the outlets in

(02:31):
England at the time when I was akid, well, there was only one,
and that was BBC Radio One, andthey had like seven DJs and 50
million people living in thecountry, so the odds of you ever
becoming a DJ on BBC Radio Onewas uh almost impossible.
So I used to go to clubs a lot,and DJs in there, okay, that was

(02:52):
fine.
And then when I went to college,they had uh dormitories, and in
my dorm there were 13 bedrooms,and in one of the gu one of the
dorms was Norm Holmes, who wasthe college DJ, and he was in
his final year and just kind ofdid it for fun, and I started

(03:14):
helping him out and I wassaying, Hey Norm, you know you
want me to set up the gear, youwant me to learn to play the
music for you for the firsthours, and you yeah, yeah, I
don't want to come in early.
And so uh I started off as hiswarm-up DJ, and then you know,
on some of the Saturday nights,he'd be like, uh, can you just
play the night for me?
And I was like, sure, noproblem.

(03:36):
And so I took over from Norm,and then when he left, I became
the college DJ and the head ofthe social club, and I figured,
you know, we're doing thesenights twice a month, and this
gear is just sitting here doingnothing.
Why don't I put up flyers arounduh Oxford because there's 27

(03:57):
university colleges in Oxford,it wasn't just mine.
Um, you know, there'sChristchurch, there's Exeter,
there's a uh Lady SpencerChurchill, there's so many, it's
crazy.
And so I put flyers in all oftheir social clubs saying, Hey,
you want to uh DJ for the night?
We've got the gear, we've gotthe lights, we've got the music,
uh, call this number.

(04:17):
And the number was for thepayphone in our dormitory,
because there was no cell phonesor anything then, you know, it'd
ring and people, hey Richard,you know, or Dick, as well as
now and then, hey Dick, there'sa call for you.
And so uh suddenly I got bookedto all the colleges around
Oxford, and it was crazy.
I was turning gigs down, and I'dbe driving there, and I just had

(04:38):
a little unex inexpensive sportscar I'd bought.
It was very used, but very good.
It was an MG midget, and somehowI had to get all this gear and
speakers into it.
It was crazy.
Um, you know, they were on thefront passenger seat.
I could never take anyone withme to a gig, and I had my
records in stuck into the trunk.

(04:58):
It was just ridiculous.
But I started DJing at all theuh colleges, and it became
something I loved doing.
And I came from a seaside town,a holiday town in England called
Torquay.
If ever you speak to an Englishperson, say, Have you heard of
Torque?
And they'll give you one of twoanswers.
They'll either say, Oh, my mumand dad went there on their own

(05:21):
e moon, or they'll say, That'sfaulty towers.
That's where I've said, yeah.
So but poor Basil.
Yeah, never mind, he's fromBarcelona.
Exactly.
But it was great.
But there was a lot of clubsthere in the summer, and very
quickly I got into the uh clubcircuit in Torquay and DJed

(05:45):
there, and then started workingfor a mobile company because
they were paying a lot moremoney than the clubs, and uh
DJing parties at the holidaycamps there, and um I went up to
Exeter to DJ a graduation frommilitary school, you know, it
looked like something out of topgun, but with uniform you know,
with old-fashioned uniforms.
And so I was really got into theDJing side of it, and my studies

(06:11):
at Oxford really started tosuffer, and I would have to cram
and cram and cram before the uhexams in my third and fourth
year.
But when I left college, I hadall this uh kind of DJing uh
skills that I'd learned, and Ithought, God, I I think I'd want

(06:31):
to do this for a living, ratherthan go to uh become a teacher
or try and become an actorbecause I did uh drama and um
drama and psychology.

Uh well, I mean they go together because people
are crazy.

SPEAKER_00 (06:45):
That's exactly right.
I love it.
The one of the things aboutTorquay at the time, it was
really big for Scandinavianstudents to come over in the
summer.
And so I was DJing for all theseSwedish and Norwegian and Danish
girls.

I mean, that's a good gig if you can get it, my
friend.

SPEAKER_00 (07:05):
Oh my god.
Well, in my third and fourthyear, my father, who was a
teacher, he uh spoke to thepeople at SIS, Scandinavian
International Summer Schools,and said, uh, do you need
English teachers for the uhSwedish students?
And they said, Yeah, well,absolutely.
And the Swedish students and theDanish and Norwegians they all

(07:28):
spoke good English, but theywere over there to become
immersed and learnconversational English.
So it got to the point, it wasjust ridiculous, Joey.
In the mornings, from nine untileleven, I would teach Swedish
girls conversational English,and then from one until five, I

(07:51):
was a lifeguard at one of thebeaches they took over, a
private beach called ElburyCove.
And then from eight untilmidnight, I was their DJ in a
private club.
No one out, no, no otheroutsiders could get in.
You had to be eitherScandinavian or me, and that was
it.
And it was just ridiculous.

(08:11):
It was like shooting ducks in awater barrel, you know.

Your book, your book indicates that you had some
uh a lot of female companions.

SPEAKER_00 (08:21):
It was a good time for a I'm I'm jealous.

I mean I I can't see them, but I I I understand
that the the uh the Swedishgirls are pretty attractive.
So I I you know.

SPEAKER_00 (08:33):
Well all all the Scandinavians are.
I mean it's it's crazy.
And then and then and they speakgreat English.
And I I learned um you can tella uh bitosvensk, but it was very
hard for me to speak Swedishbecause when I went over to
Scandinavia, which I'll get toin just a second, uh you go into
uh I would go in to ask for someyou know loaf of bread and uh

(08:54):
can you have umbrud?
And they would look at me andgo, sure, would you like white?
Would you like wheat?
Would you like salad?
I'm like, God, my Scandinavianis so bad.
But um so at the when I leftcollege, I thought, what am I
gonna do?
You know, I I don't really wantto work, and I was immediately
the day after I graduated fromcollege, I was DJing in uh

(09:16):
Torquay back back in the WestCountry, and as the season began
to wind down, which in Englandis at the end of August,
beginning of September, Ithought maybe I should go and
visit some of these girls inScandinavia, because they were
all asking me to come over andsee them.
So I went over first to uhJuteburg in uh Sweden, uh

(09:39):
Gothenburg, and then stayed witha girl there, and then uh went
up to uh Oslo in Norway, andthat was where everything my
life changed in Oslo becausethis lovely girl that I was
staying with, Tova, took me touh the key club, and I walked
into the key club and you know,ready to go dancing and

(10:00):
everything, and the music'splaying, Barry White is cranking
and Barry White's fading down,and suddenly I hear the DJ come
on and say, Hey, I hope you'reall having a great time tonight.
Right now, let's get into uh aterrific song that's I think
been written for disco dancing.
It's called The Hustle from VanMcCoy.
And he puts it on.
I looked at Tovin and went, Washe English?

(10:24):
Oh yeah, all the good DJs in uhOslo are English.
And I was like, Oh my god, Icould work in Oslo, that would
be great.
So I lined up an audition, anduh at the audition there was uh
an agent, not just for the club,but an agent for a DJ agency and

(10:47):
uh called Europa Booking.
And he came up to me and hegoes, Don't sign with the club.
Don't do it.
He said, I will sign you.
He said the club's not gonnagive you a work permit, you're
gonna DJ there for a while, andthen when they get tired of you,
they're not gonna pay you, andyou want me to do anything
because you're workingillegally.
He said, I have clubs all overEurope, and I will book you and

(11:10):
I get you work permits ahead oftime, and it's all gonna be
taken care of.
You'll get your accommodation,you'll get your food, you'll get
your money, and it's gonna begreat.
So I said, All right, sign meup, Tor.
His name was Tor Tendon, and umfirst club he stuck me into was
a crap club in Norway.
He wanted to test me out andmake sure I could, you know,

(11:32):
pull it off for a month.
And I under Yeah, I understandthat.
It was in Tunsburg.
And then he sent me uh and sothis what that was November, and
then in December he sent me upto Bardefoss, and I said, Is
that far?
And he goes, Yeah, you won't bein a drive, you're gonna have to
fly.
And like, wow, I'm like afucking rock star.
And uh I got on this uh plane,and I remember that people carry

(11:57):
chickens on the plane and allthat kind of stuff back in the
70s.
And we flew from Oslo up to uhum Tromsa and then took a a bus
down to Artaf uh to umBarterfoss, which was about
sixty miles north, but all ofthis was not explained to me by

(12:19):
Tor.
When he said it was a littlenorth, he didn't mention it was
five hundred miles north of theArctic Circle, and this was
December.
So for the entire month ofDecember, and then for the next
two months, because I stayed upthere uh up north, I didn't see
the sun because it doesn't comeup.
It sets it sets at the beginningof November and doesn't rise

(12:42):
again until February the 24th,and then it only comes up for
about 30 seconds.
So it's pitch black.
You can wake up at two o'clockand you don't know if it's two
in the afternoon or two in themorning because it's that dark.
But I spent uh a month in uhBardifos or Anself because two
towns at once, uh little towns,and it was great, and then I

(13:05):
went to Tromse, which is a muchbigger town, and that was
fantastic.
The club was great, the womenwere great, the music was great,
and uh they had me stay on for asecond month because it was so
popular, and so I did two monthsin Tromso, and then I went down
to Bergen on the um west coastof Norway, and that was south,

(13:28):
and that was lovely, fantastictown.
If put it on a bucket, let'svisit Bergen, it's gorgeous, and
that so are the women and makingnotes.
Yeah, and uh they they lovedwhat I was doing there, and they
had me stay on for a secondmonth, and then Tor called me up
and he said, uh, okay, you'regonna go back to uh Tunsburg
next, and they're gonna pay youmore money.

(13:49):
And I went, No, I'm not goingback there, Tor.
It was a crap place, and I knowit was a test.
And he goes, But gonna pay youmore money, I said, No, no, no.
Uh why can't I stay on in umBergen?
And he said, No, we got anotherDJ already signed to go in, so
that's that's it.
But you you've got to go back toTunisburg.
And I said, Well, let me thinkabout it.

(14:10):
And that night I had uh dinnerwith the manager of the uh club
at Hotel Norga, and I said, uh,you know, I'm gonna miss you.
And he goes, Yeah, I know, wewanted you to stay on for the
summer.
Oh and I went you you what?
And he said, Yeah, we wanted youto stay all the way through the
summer, right through till uhSeptember.

(14:32):
And I thought, God, being inthis fantastic place right on
the water, and a great apartmentthey got me.
And there was it's so muchhistory there.
I was big into Vikings, andthat's where uh the Vikings
would sail out from.
If you ever watched or listenedto the TV show Vikings, um it
was set um right there inBergen.

(14:53):
That's where Interesting.
Yeah, and so I was like, So youtold Tor that you wanted me to
stay on?
And he said, Yeah, we want youto stay right through summer.
So I called up Tor and I go,Dude, you're not being straight
with me.
They want me to stay on.
He goes, Yeah, but I I own thecontract with the owners, not
the manager.
And so I put in who I want, andI promise these other people

(15:15):
they're coming in.
So uh I said, So you're gonnascrew the manager over and screw
me over, and he said, Yep.
And I said, Okay, I quit, done.
And I went back to England andwas really bummed.
By the way, I'm I'm greatfriends with Tor now, great
friends, and he did his ownaudio part in the book.
I remember I do remember thatyou had a lot of people do that,
which was very Yeah, that wasJohn Taylor's idea from Duran

(15:37):
Duran.
But yeah, but he um but anyway,I went back to England and it
was pissing with rain.
It was May, and by the 7th or8th of May, I was like, I'm
done.
I'm I'm what what am I gonna donow?
I'm I can't stay here.
I don't have a gig in Torquayyet for the summer, and I don't
want to stay in this Britishweather.

(15:57):
And so I went I went to thetravel agent and I said uh I
need to go somewhere sunny.
And they said, Okay, uh when?
And I said, Tomorrow.
And she looked at me like I wasan idiot and she goes, where?
And I said, Somewhere sunny.
She goes, I don't have time forthis.
And I said, Well, here's 400pounds, where can I go?
She goes, Oh, okay, now I havetime for this.

(16:19):
And um she actually got me adeal for about£110 for a flight
for a week down to Spain toLorette de Maa.
And so uh next day I was I said,Mum, bye mum, bye Dan, love ya,
and uh flew down to Lorette deMa and that night, uh May 10th,

(16:40):
uh I was walking around lookingfor a disco and I saw one right
by the hotel called Moby Dick.
And I went to the door at MobyDick and I said, Hey, uh, can I
get in?
Uh did you do discounts for DJs?
And I gave him my littlebusiness card, Dick Shepherd,
International DJ.
And um the guy goes, Oh, you'rehere for the job.
Hang on.

(17:00):
And he went inside and broughtout the manager who was English
from Yorkshire.

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 (17:06):
And uh he said, Um, so uh you come for the job?
And I said, And I should justcame for a drink and a dance.
And he I but if there's a job,and he said, Well, I'll tell you
what, why don't you DJ tonight?
We got all the records andeverything, and uh you can drink
for free.
And I'm not a big drinker, so hedidn't know most big DJs drink

(17:26):
until they fall over.
I one or two beers is my limit.

So yeah, blind and drunk or bad combos, I believe
that as well.

SPEAKER_00 (17:32):
Yeah, I know the segues are cramped, yeah.
You know, you walk into a wall,right?

But I I have enough problems.
There you go.

SPEAKER_00 (17:40):
You're not like Daredevil, right?
No, no, I wish that'd be great.
Matt Murdoch, one of my heroes.
So I DJ'd that night, and at theend of the night, uh Tony said
to me, Um, all right, well, yougot the job then.
I was like, okay.
And so uh I one one of thebartenders had uh a couple of

(18:01):
spare rooms at his place, and soI I rented from him, and I I
stayed in Spain for the summer,and that was fantastic.
And uh loved, loved that, youknow, sunshine, blue skies and
holidaymakers.
It was a great club.
And then at the end of that, Iwent back to England to see Mum
and Dad, and then I got a callfrom a rival agency to Europa

(18:24):
Booking saying that they wantedme to come over, Alan Laurie,
with IDA, uh International DiscJockey and Entertainment Agency.
It's actually IDEA, but we wouldalways just call it IDA because
people would go, What's youridea?
And I'm like, Oh, anyway.
Yeah, that's all uh I spent twoyears with him uh touring Europe
and did uh Norway, Denmark, uhuh Sweden, Austria, Switzerland,

(18:52):
Italy.
It was fantastic.
So uh but all the time I startedthinking, I can't keep doing
this.
I I should get onto the radio.
And while I was in Austria, uh Iwas approached uh at the gig and
by uh the people that run um anational broadcast there called
Utrei, Usterreich 3.

(19:13):
Uh and they said on Fridaynights we do a rock show, we'd
like you to DJ it for us, um,which would be kind of fun for
you.
And so I was a novelty act, youknow, some English speaking in a
German language.
Gotcha.
And I knew I'd never really beto take off unless I spoke
fluent German and and that wasnot going to happen.
And so but I got hooked on theidea of doing radio, and so I

(19:37):
sat down with my girlfriend atthe time, a girl called Taxi,
who was a model there, lovelylady, and I wrote a list on a uh
scrap of paper and it said umUnited States, Canada,
Australia, New Zealand, SouthAfrica.

She said I noticed all these are sunny places.

SPEAKER_00 (19:57):
Yeah, yeah, sunny and and and English speaking,
because that's what Taxi said.
Uh I I she said she didn't putEngland on there.
I said, No, I um no, definitelynot.
I'm not going back there.
I'm gonna go somewhere theyspeak English and they have good
radio.
And so uh I I I thought, okay,has to be the state, so start at
the top, biggest, and they got5,000 radio stations.

(20:20):
If I can't get a gig a radiostation there, I suck.
And so uh I liked it.
Yeah, and then I looked, wheream I gonna go?
And so I looked at the sunnyplaces like Miami, but Miami
wasn't developed.
This was 76, it was still kindof, you know, it wasn't what
South Beach is today.
Otherwise, maybe I'd be I'vegone to Miami.

(20:42):
And I looked at New York, ofcourse, but New York I'd just
seen Death Wish with CharlesBronson.
And I I did not want to get, youknow, it was a I love New York
now, but it was it was ashithole then.
It was not a place you wanted togo to.
Not a place.
All the spammings, yeah.
Yeah, terrible, terrible.

(21:03):
And so uh I thought, well, LA,let's go there, you know,
Hollywood, let's do it.
And so uh in November of 76, Iflew over to LA with uh a
suitcase and again$400.
That's what I had.
I didn't have that much money atthe time, so I spent a lot of it
and$400 with me.
And uh that was my decision.

(21:25):
I was gonna try and make it inLA.
And so I love that.
Yeah, I went to all the radiostations, I had cassettes, and
everyone turned me down.
They said you'll never work inthis town with an English
accent.
It was all, you know, allAmerican.
Hey, if you don't speak likethis, you're not gonna get on
the radio, baby.
And uh so I thought I either goback to England or I do what I

(21:47):
do, which is work in a club, andI got a gig at the Plank House
in San Pedro and uh worked therefor a year.
Lovely people, they got me mygreen card, and then yeah, then
I went to the Red Onion andbecame uh in charge of all five
Red Onion clubs in LA.

But people said Were you doing more paperwork
then or DJing for all that?

SPEAKER_00 (22:09):
I was doing both.
Okay.
I was I was DJing uh four nightsa week, but I was also getting
the music and sending it out tothem.
And I didn't like telling theDJs what to play.
I did not like that.
You know, it's like you gotta dothis, you gotta do that, and
it's like a little corporate forme.
And then I started gettingapproached by people asking if I
would do private parties forthem.

(22:31):
And the Red Onion had just donea big remodel and were getting
rid of a load of gear, and theyhad these old Sir Win Vegas
speakers that worked, and theyhad a meteor mixer, and I was
like, okay.
And so I bought myself a littleskill saw and some plywood and
some fabric covering, and Ibuilt my own DJ console, and I

(22:54):
built got two turntables and setthem in there.
They weren't technics, Icouldn't afford technics
turntables with variable speed.
They were uh BSR turntables, andI cut out for them and they set
them in, and I built my ownmobile console.
And so I did a couple of partiesand they really took off, and

(23:14):
the caterer at one of them wascalled um Movable Feast, and she
approached me and she said, I'vegot a client whose son has a bar
mitzvah coming up.
Would you DJ the bar mitzvah?
I grew up in a small town.
I did not have many Jewishfriends, I did not know what a

(23:34):
bar mitzvah was.
I but I'd worked in so many barsthat I figured I could work it
out.

SPEAKER_03 (23:40):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (23:41):
So I said, Yeah, I could do that.
And she goes, Well, the clientwants to meet you.
Um just we'll we'll you and Iwill uh not carpool, but you can
follow me up to her place, andthen I'm gonna stay on and do
some design, and if she likesyou, then uh you you go home and
we'll do the booking andeverything.
So uh we went up to a place andit was out by Malibu, across

(24:03):
from this lovely beach I used togo to all the time, Paradise
Cove.
There was a private drivewaygoing up into the hills.
So we went up this privatedriveway and went, ooh, this is
nice.
And then we get to a gate, andthe we go through the gate, and
there were three homes there.
And apparently uh the client hadbought a home there, and then
she bought the other two as wellfor privacy when they went on

(24:26):
the market.
So she had this massive areacomplex.
Yeah, complex, and right inbetween the three, where it
would have been like acul-de-sac, she was gonna uh
have it covered with athree-ring circus tent,
three-pole circus tent.
And uh that's where they weregonna have the the bar mints
first.
So I get out and the the uh ladyfrom Moveable Feast gets out,

(24:46):
and the client comes down andshe goes, uh I'd like you to
meet my client, this Barbara.
This is uh Dick Shepard, and Igo, Hi, and um she goes, nice to
meet you, and I go, Great tomeet you as well.
I was not overimpressed becauseI was big into disco at the
time.
If I'd been meeting Anita Ward,uh I would have been you know,

(25:07):
like you can ring my bell, Iwould have been fantastic.
But yeah, I I only played slowsongs from Barbara Streisand.
Right to me, she was just yeah,you know, I know she's super
famous and everything, but uh soI wasn't like swanning over her,
but I was really nice.
And I I mean I knew how big shewas, let's face it, you know,
one of the biggest singers onthe planet.

(25:28):
Yeah, and she booked me and shesaid um uh how you she didn't
even ask the money.
Um that's always nice.
Yeah, she didn't ask about moneyor something.

But the clients don't ask well they don't ask
for how much it is, that's agood day.

SPEAKER_00 (25:41):
Yeah, well she's Barbara Streisand, you know.
That's that's why she has thepeople from Movable Feast
coordinating everything.
But she and we we hit it off andwe talked about everything, and
uh she said about having theghila and a chair being lifted
and her son being on the chair,and I'm like, what the hell?
I'm gonna have to read aboutthis.
And so uh after she she gave mekind of her seal of approval, I

(26:03):
walked back to the car and thegirl from the movable feast came
up and she goes, uh so how muchyou uh do you want for this?
And I said, Uh how many peopleare gonna be here?
And she said, 500.
And I thought, I think BarbaraStreisand can afford a dollar
per person.
So I said, I would think so.
Five hundred dollars?
She goes, Done, right, goodeach, fantastic.

(26:25):
Like that.
I was like, shit, I should havegone higher.
You should have.

You might have been there, my friend.

SPEAKER_00 (26:29):
Yeah, but uh I I did that party and it was fabulous.
I mean, everyone, everyone wasthere.
Uh Larry Hagman was there.
Uh wow.
Uh, because you know, Dallas wasthe massive thing.
Uh Donna Donna Summer was there,Neil Diamond was there because
he'd just done a song with her,You Don't Bring Me Flowers.
Wow.
I mean, just it was like a who'swho.

(26:51):
And literally, two days later,because the next day was a
Sunday, on the Monday, my phonein my apartment rang non-stop.
And it was every kid's motherfrom the school that uh Elliot
Gould and Barbara Streisand'sson, Jason Gould, went to.

(27:11):
Every kid's, and they he was oneof the oldest in the school, uh,
in the class, but every othermother said, My kid's got a bar
mitzvah coming up.
Will you DJ it for us?
Because, you know, if Barbara,if it's good enough for Barbara
Streisand, they wanted me.
And then I had these calls.
My daughter has a bat mitzvahcoming up.
I'm like, no, God, my head'sgonna blow up.

(27:34):
Well, I don't even know what abar mitzvah is.
I mean, I'm running around withbats, and so um it was it was uh
but I I bought all the, youknow, I obviously bought all the
music for and ha have a negila,sunrise, sunset, and I did all
of that, lots of horrors, and soI was very attuned to it.
So suddenly I was doing allthese uh bar mitzvahs and bat

(27:56):
mitzvahs up in Calabasas and upin Bel Air and all these uh
fancy wet fancy places that Icould never afford anything, and
then I get the phone call frompara uh from uh Lorimar that
they're doing a rap party forDallas and that Larry Hagman
wants me to DJ that.
And I was like, wow, and I didthat at his place, and then
suddenly I was doing all thesecelebrity parties, so quit the

(28:20):
red onion because I was havingto turn down gigs at you know
everywhere.
Robinson's May Company was doinga fashion show.
They wanted me to MC the fashionshow, so it was all going
fantastic, and I was making ashitload of money as a mobile
DJ, and I was realized I wasn'tdoing what I'd promised myself

(28:43):
and then getting on the radio,and I wanted to get on the
radio, so I started making tapesagain and sending the tapes out
and getting turned down everysingle time.
No one wanted to meet with me,not even give me a I said, you
know, I'd work for free, I'd doan overnight shift Sunday night,
Monday morning, two till four,whatever they wanted.

(29:06):
Yeah, just to just try me out.
No, nope, no, don't want you forfree.
You don't even want you to comein the door.
And so I was like, oh my god.
And then K-West, which was arock station, it became Power, a
rap station later, but it wasK-West.
Uh, they were having the bestunknown DJ contest.

(29:26):
So they were a full-on rockstation.
So I put together a 10-minutetape, and then I put together a
10-minute remix.
I thought I'm gonna go out on alimb here and just screw with
them.
A 10-minute remix, Pink Floyd,another brick in the wall.
I thought they're either gonnathrow this out because I'm

(29:47):
messing with one of the biggestbands in the history of rock, or
they're gonna listen to it andgo, Wow, that was different.
You know, because this was waybefore digital.
Everything was it was justtwo-track.

What year was this?
Around 80?

SPEAKER_00 (30:02):
This is 1980, yeah.
Uh this is just two-track uh TACreel-to-reel recorder, wax
crayon, and a razor blade to cutit and edit.
It was no overdubs.
But I did that, and then I soI'm listening with my girlfriend
to the results one night whenthey're reading out the winners,
and they read, you know, thethird place, not me.

(30:25):
Second place, not me.
And then they come on and we gota first place winner, but and
I'm like, oh, we have two.
Oh wow.
I'm like, whoa, two first placewinners, and so they read out
one, and then that wasn't me,and then they read my name out,
and I was like, wow, I made it.
I won, I won, I won.

(30:46):
And they uh I I got uh fivethousand dollars, which was a
huge amount of money, but that'sbut that didn't matter to me.
Yeah, sure.
What mattered was I got an houron the air, and I was on with JJ
Jackson, who went later went onto MTV, big teddy bear of a guy,
lovely guy.
And uh we're sitting down and hegoes, you know, uh I helped pick

(31:11):
the winners, and I said, Yeah, Isaid, Does you had two winners?
And he goes, Yeah, he goes, Weall wanted you to be the winner.
He said, But we couldn't have anEnglish person beaten an
American, so we had two winners.
I know this was 1980, you know,because Brits weren't big on the
radio back then.
And so I did my hour on uh KWest and my girlfriend taped it,

(31:35):
but JJ, God bless him, you know,he's we lost him 15 years ago,
but JJ he uh taped it for me andhe also put together what they
call a scoped tape, which isjust me talking and then the
first two seconds of the song,and then it cuts, and then the
last two seconds of the song andme talking again because program
directors don't want to listento the song, they know the song,

(31:57):
they're playing it anyway.
So it's like uh uh here we gowith Led Zeppelin Stairway to
Heaven.
Doo-doo, cut, and then so uh Igot this, I got he gave me a
bunch of these tapes.
He said, Yeah, we d we could gotdubs here, you know, I'll give
you twelve of them.
So that was great.
And uh the next day I sent outten of the tapes, and two days

(32:18):
later I got a job offer fromBakersfield.
And so I I drove out toBakersfield and sat down with uh
Dave Lawrence, the programdirector, and he said, Yep, uh,
we want you to do evenings andbe the music director.

Oh, nice!

SPEAKER_00 (32:34):
And I looked at him, yeah, I'm like, Okay.
Didn't say it, but in my mind,I'm like, he's talking to Disco
Dick Shepherd, and here we areat a rock station.
I said, What's the criteria foradding music, Dave?
And he pulled out Double Live,Wang Dang, uh, Double Live uh

(32:56):
Double Live Gonzo by Ted Nugent,and he pulls out one of the
records and he puts the needleon a track called Wang Dang
Sweet Poontang, and he goes,That's as mellow as we get.
And I was like, we it washonestly, I I just mentioned
this song, but at night wecouldn't play Stairway to Heaven
because it was too mellow.

(33:17):
We'd have to day what's calledday party.
We play it during the day, andat night it was all black
Sabbath, Crazy Train came outwhile I was there, and that was
fantastic from Aussie, you know,all aboard.
Yeah, so that's what we weredoing there on Magic 98, and I
said to Dave and uh to theowners, I'll stay with stay here

(33:40):
for a year and uh take youthrough a couple of ratings
books and stuff, but I I I'monly gonna stay for a year
because I have to go back to LA.
I want to make it in big radio.
And I everyone told me withBakersfield, it's you can tell
the DJs in Bakersfield becausethey all have a U-Haul trailer
behind their car because they'reeither heading down or heading

(34:01):
up.
No, it's one of the two.
And I have a I have a questionfor you.

I don't want to interrupt your flow, but I no,
no, no.
I'm I'm I'm I I'll go all day.

SPEAKER_00 (34:09):
But so you please.

Well, I'm glad to know it.
So so here's the thing, Richard.
So I I really I'm curious abouttwo things in this in this
story.
Actually, I I want to say this.
Uh, I am a brain tumor survivor.
Wow, I'm well, I I have been uhchronically ill for 40 something
years, and uh I just keep ontrucking.
And the thing that I believe isthat if you want to live a

(34:36):
successful life of intention, inother words, a life that means
something to you, you have tohave the courage to follow your
dream, whether anybody else getsit, whether anybody else
understands, uh you have to beable to handle rejection.
Uh I I just I want to commendyou on that courage because a

(34:58):
lot of people I know are verytalented in my small town, uh,
but don't have the courage tostep out and follow their heart
and be completely happy in whothey are.
And, you know, it it's it, Imean, it's a risk, you know.
But I love the fact that yousaid, This is my goal, I'm doing
well, I'm making a lot of moneydoing bar mitzvahs, but this is

(35:21):
not what I want to do.
Uh I'm gonna have to move on.
I I love that you said, okay,I've made it to the radio, I've
been rejected, I've beenrejected, I've been rejected,
I'm gonna stay with you guys ayear, but at some point I've got
to go to LA.
I mean, this this is to me, thisis a real testament of your
story is the courage to go outand do what you said you were

(35:43):
gonna do.
And I love that.
I I just I think that's soexciting.
And and I I think your story isso powerful, and that's why I
think everybody should read thebook.
I cannot recommend it enough.
Um, but I just wanted to saythat that is to me, that's one
of the main things that I was soexcited about when I read your
book because I recognizedsomething in you that I also

(36:04):
have, which is like I have two,I have two speeds, full speed
ahead and off.
So I'm either I'm eitherknocking doors down or asleep.
And honestly, I resent having tosleep.
But but but tell me, like, youknow, it sounds like I know you
for the the 80s like mega stuffthat you you know kind of got

(36:24):
famous for in LA and and youknow, breaking Tears for Fears
and Depeche mode and stuff likethat.
But you have you went throughseveral different genres there
as a DJ.
I mean, so how how much did youlike the music you were playing,
you know, when you were doingthe rock station?
How much did you like the musicyou were playing when you were
DJing the clubs?
I mean, what was it hard to findlike the music?

(36:45):
Because to me, I remember as akid in the 80s, you know, I was
just a young kid and sick, youknow, but I listened to the
radio obsessively.
And the DJs mattered then.
They their their personalitieswere important.
They're they were also not, Imean, they had some control over
what they played as well.
Um, and I mean, I know therewere program directors and stuff

(37:07):
too, but you know, how did youhow did you navigate those
waters of like, okay, I've gotto, you know, I gotta play the
disco records, that's what theclubs want, but I don't do how
much did you love that?
How much did you not love it?
Like genre-wise, what was yourhome?
Like what what made you tick?

SPEAKER_00 (37:23):
Well, before I answer that, I just want to
commend you on what you saidabout you know being full on or
turned off, one of the two, youknow, you you're your mode,
you're either straight ahead orcrashed out, one of the two.
Because uh I agree with that.
And you also said about peoplekind of being frightened of
failure, and you've got to havea dream to make that dream come

(37:47):
true, which sounds like a linefrom a Disney song.
But if you don't have a dream,then you can't make anything
happen.
And dream as big as you can, anddon't be frightened to go for
it, because the worst that canhappen is they say no and you
continue where you were.
Damn straight.
If you want to guaranteefailure, if you want to

(38:10):
guarantee it, don't do anything.

That's exactly right.
If you don't ask, the answer isalways no.

SPEAKER_00 (38:15):
Yeah, that's that's my number one phrase in life.
The the answer to any questionyou don't ask is always no.
So ask that question.
I learned that when I was ayoung kid, you know, dating
girls.
Hey, you know, you want to comeback for a cup of coffee?
You know, no, okay.
Well, you weren't gonna comeback anyway, then thanks.
I understand, no problem.
You don't get mad about it.

(38:35):
But if someone says yes, can Iget this job?
Yes, you know, and I I've neverreally been money motivated.
I I when I was doing the mobilesbefore I went to Bakersfield, I
was you know, charging about 500for uh a mobile, which was a lot
back then, and doing maybe threeor four sometimes a week.

(38:57):
So I was making great money.
I all that stopped when I wentto Bakersfield and I made a
thousand dollars a month.
Oh wow, that was that's a bigchange.
Huge change, but I had to do itbecause I knew I had to learn.
Because, you know, in lifeyou're in competition, but yeah,
there's only one person you'rein competition with, and that's

(39:17):
yourself.
Yeah, because it's a race thatyou're running.
You're not running anyone else'srace, you're running your own
race.
And it's kind of I look back atat Dick, Dick Shepherd, and go,
thanks, buddy, for what you did,you know, because you you kept
it up, and I hope he would beproud of me, because I'm proud

(39:39):
of him, you know, for doing andabsolutely and it all came from
my parents.
Uh if if I hadn't had goodparents, um, and they they
didn't have a lot of money oranything, they're both teachers
and very underpaid in uhAmerica, I mean in England, just
about everywhere, teachers, butthey gave me a a great
upbringing and a great view onlife, and that was you know, you

(40:03):
go around once, make the most ofit.
And so there you go.
That that was uh that was whatuh my philosophy.
But you asked me about themusic.
I really liked disco at thetime.
I I tend to like the genre thatI'm into.
I don't think I could get intocountry.
I apologize if you're a you knowLuke Bryant fan or anything like

(40:24):
that, but I'm I'm not reallyinto country.
But I did enjoy disco and uh atsometimes at a live event, I'll
I'll do a little disco set, youknow, bust out some Dancing
Queen and Earth Wind and Fire.
Oh yeah and uh you know, um bythe way, Earth Wind and Fire,
not just disco, fantastic.
No, those are you listen to likedouble live gratitude and stuff

(40:45):
like that.

Oh, it's it's it's so good.
Yes, so good.

SPEAKER_00 (40:49):
But um uh when I get into the music, I try not to
cheat the audience.
If I'm gonna say something,there used to be an old an old
saying that I I saw on the wallat the BBC, which I never worked
at, but I saw it on the wall,and it said, Engage brain before
putting mouth into gear.

(41:11):
And I like it.
Yeah, so it I I tried to learnabout the groups, the artists,
the bands that I was playing.
And so it wasn't just you knowreading off a liner card.
It was sincere.
I I knew a little about them,and what I didn't know, I didn't
try and make up.
I I was honest about and certainthings happened while I was on

(41:36):
the air, like uh on December the8th, I was on the air and it
came over the the wire.
We had a you know teletype UPS,uh U UP, United Press.
Yeah and it came over it and itsaid uh John Lennon has been
killed.
And it was like, oh my god, andwe just I just stopped all the

(42:00):
heavy metal, everything.
And it just came on and I said Ican I can't believe it, you
know, that one of the greatestmusical talents ever.
And we played, you know,Beatles, we played Imagine,
which doesn't sound veryinnovative, but what if you're
used to just Ted Nugent and uhCrazy Train and stuff like that,
then hearing that when you'retuning in, and people called all

(42:22):
night and all the next day andthey were crying, and it's like
you just have to you just haveto be honest.
I couldn't have done a show thatnight and not referred to John
Lennon because I think that thatthat's absolutely right.

And I mean your your spirit is what I mean you
know the music's great,obviously, but it's the spirit
of the person presenting it thatthat makes it cohesive, that
makes it entertaining.
You know, that that's a realimportant thing.
And you've got such a greatpresence and spirit when you
communicate.
I mean, that's that's whatthat's what makes it special.

(42:57):
Um, but it's boy, it's it's hardto translate that sometimes into
work, you know.
And I I wonder, did you what doyou I mean I know you wanted to
be on the radio and I know thatwas your goal, uh, but uh what
what what did you love about thelive DJing and what did you not
love about it?
Because I for me, I have I'vedone radio and stuff my whole

(43:19):
life in my little hometown anddone TV and all this stuff, and
and you've you've done that at ayou know huge level compared to
what I've done.
But I mean, but but I I I neverdid want to DJ live.
I just didn't I just didn't wantto do it.
Uh it didn't speak to me, butbut it all part of part of that
is a blind man carrying a bunchof stuff, can't see where you
go.
It's not not really a fun night.

(43:40):
So I didn't want to haul thespeakers.
I didn't want to, you know, Ididn't want to also blind people
and vinyl, not as good a combo.
No, so so what but what what didyou like about it?
What did you not like about thethe live as and I mean you still
do these shows, I know.

SPEAKER_00 (43:53):
So yeah, you know what's uh what I like about
working live, and there's twodifferent ways of working.
Live.
There's one when I'm DJing andthen one when I'm now like uh on
the road with like Howard Jonesor Lost Eddie's Live.
Uh I don't I don't DJ.
I get out there and tellstories, and I I have a little
console where I drop in someaudio bites, boom, boom, boom,

(44:15):
or if they've got video screens,some video uh drop-ins to uh
back up what I'm saying, and Ilove doing that because that's
uh communicating with theaudience and you can you can
feel when you've got them, andit's fabulous.
Yeah, the the uh the DJing live,what I like about it is when

(44:37):
everyone's having a good time.
It sounds cliche, but forexample, if you're DJing a
wedding and people go, Oh god,wedding DJ, uh I always think,
even though it's very naive, youknow, that this is the only time
they're gonna get married, theymight get married in reality
three or four times, but youknow, I've but it's a very

(44:58):
special day for them.
They book me because they'veheard me on the radio and they
maybe grow up with me.
Their parents have no clue who Iam, not a clue.
And you want to make it aboutthem, not about you.
You know, I'll I'll say my nameonce when I walk out, usually
right before the first dance,and I welcome everyone, and then

(45:21):
I'll say, you know, if you'refrom Southern California and
anyone listen to K-Rock, I'lllet's say probably then K-Rock.
And uh that's right, and uh andthen for the rest of the night,
now I just focus on making itfantastic for the bride and
groom and for their family andmaking sure you know the
father-daughter dance is great,and uh the mother-son dance
brings a tear to everyone's eye.

(45:42):
So that makes me feel good thatyou've made everyone else feel
good.
When I'm working uh well, when Iworked in clubs, because I don't
do the club gigs uh as muchanymore, uh or at all, really,
um, that was different.
People are there just for adrink and to get laid.
And so you want to just keep theenergy high, keep people going

(46:04):
on the floor, keep the girlshappy, because when the girls
are dancing, then the guys willcome out on the floor.
And so that's really mydirection.
Okay, keep the energy pumping,keep the bar going, and make
sure that at the end of thenight people go, I want to come
back next Friday as well,because it was it was really,
really good.
What I don't like is people thatcome up and go, Hey, uh, do you

(46:29):
know what you should play next?

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 (46:31):
Because the answer is, yeah, I do actually, thank
you.
Yeah, yeah, but I but I don't dothat.
I go what, you know, if peopleoh uh could you play something I
could dance to?
And then it's like, well, theyalways say that at the moment
the dance floor is completelyfull.
There's no room for anyone.
Play something I could dance to,and you just want to go, oh,

(46:53):
because you've got no sense ofrhythm and you can't match, you
know.
But I don't I don't do it.
And the uh the third the thirdone uh that uh every DJ hates is
uh, do you have anything with abeat?
Oh god.
Oh my god.

Well listen, and I I you know I never DJed like
live, but I am a musician andI've I've played a lot of gigs
and and and I we get the samething.
Somebody comes up and says, Canyou play Taylor Swift?
Nope.

SPEAKER_00 (47:24):
Yeah.

I am not a new box.
Yeah, no, I mean I mean it's notthat I don't like Taylor Swift.
I'm actually a very big fan.

SPEAKER_00 (47:31):
Me too.

I I but I just you know, I I can't know every song
known to man.
I just you know, and if you'reat a if you're at a rock show
and then somebody comes up andwants, you know, electronica or
something, that just you know,that's just aggravating.

SPEAKER_00 (47:50):
But I agree with them.

I never let them know I just smile and go, gosh,
I'm really sorry I can't playthat for you.
We don't know it, I'm sorry, youknow.
But but inside, uh I'm I'm notreal thrilled.
And then the guys in my bandthink it's funny uh to leave me
on stage while they pack up thevan, uh and and have the drunks
accost me.
And uh and so I'm standingthere, and you know, all of a

(48:14):
sudden there's somebody in mypersonal space, I didn't know
they were coming, and all of asudden there's all these hands
on me, and you know, peopleslurring their words and sort of
drooling on my shoulder.
And uh the band thinks that'shilarious.
Um but but I I never react.
Like I always like, oh thanksfor coming out, appreciate it.
But inside I'm not happy.
But it's just you know, it'sit's a weird thing because you
can't see it coming.

SPEAKER_00 (48:35):
No, I I I can I can only imagine that.
And I'll tell you I'll tell youanother thing that you get asked
that I just hey, and it's soobvious that you it that is so
wrong what they're asking.
They'll come up and go, hey,there's this great song that you
should play that nobody knows.
Oh my god, it's really good.
And it's like, do you realize ifI put on a song that nobody

(48:56):
knows what's gonna happen to thedance floor, it's gone.
And then I gotta try and buildit all.
And they usually say it if thegigs go until midnight, they'll
say it like at about 11 10.
Of course.
And you know if you lose thedance floor, then you've lost
the rest of the night becauseyou don't everyone's like, oh
well, it's late, let's go home.
So that's when you have toreally kick into gigs.

That that would I that would that would push all
my buttons.
I yeah, I I'm listening, joy isa choice, and I I make that
choice on a regular basis.
But as a producer and someonethat owns a recording studio,
that's that's what pays for mebeing an artist, by the way, is
the is the is working for otherpeople as a producer.
But you know, I'm the same wayyou are.
I mean, I love whatever musicI'm doing.
Uh if somebody comes in and it'sit's hip-hop, I mean, I'm I'm

(49:38):
into it.
If if it's if it's you knowjazz, I'm into it.
I I'm with you.
I'm not a huge country fan.
And of course, country is a lotdifferent than it used to be.
My my dad raised me on theclassics like Hank Waves and
stuff like that.
And that was a little bit of adifferent sound.
Uh, but what I what I love umis, you know, when you made the
decision to go back to LA andand and say, look, this is where

(50:00):
I'm gonna make it or break ithere.
I mean, did you have a goal ofwhat station you wanted to be
on?
Did you did you I mean, what youknow, what was your plan at that
point?
Because you, you know, obviouslythe money wasn't a
consideration, and I'm I'm thesame way, the work is what I
care about.
I mean, I gotta eat, but otherthan that, I mean, you know, but
what what was your plan to to atthat point?
I mean, did you have a strategyor were you just gonna go

(50:22):
winging a prayer?
Or what was the you know, howdid it work?

SPEAKER_00 (50:25):
Well, I wanted to try and get on one of the big
stations.
I wanted to try either for KMET,uh, which was a rock station, or
for KLOS, which was a rockstation, because that seemed
good after getting decentratings in Bakersfield and San
Los Obispo.
And uh the other one was KISSFM, the top 40.

(50:45):
And I was I wanted that.
But then when I got back to LA,my dad had been sending me music
from England because uh havingbeen a DJ in Britain and Europe
for a while, I was on a lot ofmailing lists from the record
companies.
Oh, I bet so they continued tosend all of the uh records to my

(51:06):
my parents' house where I'dlived for a long time, but you
know, then uh as I moved around,they that's that was kind of
like my mailbox.
And so they continued to sendall this music, and the music
was changing.
Suddenly there was, you know,Depeche Mode, and suddenly there
was the Buzzcocks and BoomtownRats, bands that had never been

(51:29):
heard of before.
And these records would come,you know, two months before they
were being released to my house,and my dad would listen to them.
He would this this teacher, thismath and geography teacher,
would listen to all these 12inches that were being sent,
these promotional releases.
And he would write to me andhe'd go, D you should listen to

(51:52):
these, he said if you can getthem.
And I couldn't get them in theStates.
So once I got uh I said, when Iget to LA, maybe we can uh work
out something where you can sendme the best of the best, because
it was so expensive to mail backthen, uh to you know, first
class mail to uh from England toAmerica, you can send me the

(52:13):
ones that you think are really,really good, and uh I'll play
them on the radio, but I've gotto get a gig on the radio first
in LA.
And so when I got back to LA, Inoticed that at the Roxy and the
Whiskey that a lot of the musicbeing played was what was being
called post-punk.
It was punk, but it was going ina direction where they're mixing

(52:34):
punk and synthesizers, and I waslike, this is the music my dad's
been telling me about.
This is fantastic, and there wasonly one station in town playing
it, and that was K Rock.
And so K Rock approached mebecause I was working, I got an
overnight shift uh for even lessmoney than Bakersfield uh on
KNAC, a small station on thecoast uh in Long Beach, and uh I

(52:59):
was working there doingovernights and sending out
tapes, and K-Rock got a hold ofone of my tapes, and they had
K-Rock had no money at the time,and they were doing a vacation
for all of the DJs, and they'dsaid to the DJs, look, we can't
afford to pay you for avacation, but what we could do
is we've got together with atravel agent, and for every 20

(53:21):
trips that you can sell on theair, you can go.
So all the DJs like, Wow, tripto Hawaii for two weeks, all I
have to do is pump the shit outof me.
And so they did, and theyactually sold out one and a half
DC tens to go over to Hawaii,and so all the DJs were leaving,
all of them, gone.

(53:42):
And so it's crazy.
Yeah, Rick Carroll was like,Well, let's get some people to
fill in and let's get localcelebrities.
So uh Elvira, Mistress of theDark, was uh I'm a big fan.

She's she's great.

SPEAKER_00 (53:54):
Yeah, she's lovely.
Cassandra Peterson, lovely, anduh Danny Elfman was picked, he
came on as Moscow Eddie, uh,Mike Ness from Social D was
there, uh Henry Rollins fromBlack Flag.
They were all picked, yeah, toDJ, do DJ shifts, and there was
one shift left open, and thatwas the nine until noon shift.
They couldn't get anyone forthat that would fit.

(54:16):
And so Rick, someone at thestation listened to my cassette
and said, Hey, this guy'sEnglish, he might fit in well.
Why don't we try him?
So Rick had me come in.
I met with Rick and he said,Okay, look, here's the deal.
Uh, we'd like you to come on theair for two weeks and uh fill
in.
I said, Great! You know, I'vebeen hearing a buzz about

(54:38):
K-Rock, you know, and I work ata little station called K and
EC, and he says, I know, I heardit on the tape, and he goes,
That is something I have to talkto you about.
And he goes, but first, we can'tpay you for filling in.
This is like a volunteer thing.
You just go on, no one's beingpaid.
And I said, That's all right,don't worry about it.
The money's not important.
He goes, and secondly, I can'thave you on KNEC and KROC.

(55:01):
He said, So you're gonna have toquit KNEC.
And I said, Okay, so you want meto work for free and not have a
job when all the DJs get back?
And he goes, that's correct.
And I said, Are you going toHawaii?

(55:22):
And he goes, No, I'm here.
And I said, So you'll get tohear me on the air.
And I remember him looking at meand he goes, Richard, or Dick,
Dick, you could sound like CaseyKasem and there wouldn't be a
job for you.
He said it's taken me two yearsto pick this staff.
He said, We're the Saturdaynight live of radio.
He said, Everyone's got theirposition.

(55:44):
And he said, when they comeback, there won't be a job for
you.
So you think about what you'redoing, and I said, Okay, I'll do
it, I'll quit.
Wow.
And he said, You understand whatyou're saying, and I said, Yeah,
because you'll hire me.
And he I love it.
Yeah.
And uh so I went on the air thatfirst day on the Monday, and I

(56:07):
didn't want to go on as DickShepherd because I just left
KNAC and they were great people,lovely, lovely, lovely people,
with a very small signal.
The FCC ruled that they couldn'tget more than 500 watts, whereas
most radio stations are 50,000watts.
And so uh I didn't I didn't wantto steal listeners, so I thought
I'm gonna change my name fromDick Shepherd, and I'll go back

(56:28):
to Richard.
I always wanted to go back toRichard, and then I didn't know
what last name to pick, and Iwas flipping through the LA
Times looking for inspiration.
Um Richard Hilbert, no, RichardLondon, that makes no sense.
Richard Scott, no, I'm notScottish, what are we talking
about?
And then I opened the uhentertainment section called the
calendar section, and there wasan ad for a movie.
No one had ever heard of thismovie, it was nothing because it

(56:50):
hadn't opened yet.
It said opening in two weeks,and it was a double page ad on
these back when newspapers werehuge things, big, big things.
And it was a double page ad.
It said opening in two weeks,blade runner.
And I went, oh Richard Runner.
That's what I'll call myselfbecause I can steal-
Alliteration.

(57:10):
Yeah, I can yeah, yeah,alliteration, I can steal the
Rolls-Royce logo for RichardRunner, it'll be that's
fantastic.
And the song was finishing,telecommunication from a flock
of seagulls was finishing, and Idropped the paper down, I back
announced the song, I said, I'mRichard, and I'd completely
forgotten Runner.
I was so nervous about being ona station that could be heard

(57:32):
all over Southern California,and I looked down and the paper
had folded on itself, and Runnerwas out of the sight, and it
just said blade, and no one hadheard of Blade Runner, so I just
I couldn't even think of thesecond word.
So I said, I'm Richard Blade,and and that and I got stuck
with it, and then so uh uh Icarried on and I did the three

(57:54):
hours on the air, and I signedoff and waited for Danny and
then waited for Danny andstarted the next song and
started the next song, and thenthe hotline rings, and yo, Danny
Elfman here, and I'm like, HeyDanny, uh what time are you
coming in?
And he goes, I'm not.
He said, Johnny Batos has us ina recording session and we're at

(58:15):
rehearsal session for theupcoming tour.
And he said, I can't get outtoday, I'll be there tomorrow, I
promise.
And I went, Okay.
He goes, Can you get someone tofill in?
I said, I'll stay.
So I did the next three hours.
So I've been on for six hours,and I'm about 40 minutes towards
the end of the six hours, andthe receptionist comes in.
She goes, I've got a note fromElvira, and I said, Oh, that's

(58:38):
nice.
What's it say?
It says the TV taping's goinglong for Mistress of the Dark,
and she can't make it in today.

SPEAKER_03 (58:44):
Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 (58:45):
I was like, Okay, I'll tell you that we're not
living right, yeah.
Yeah, so uh so I start at ninein the morning and now it's 5.25
in the afternoon.
You know, I've had lots ofwater, no tea.
I didn't bring any tea with me,and I went don't drink coffee.
And I was like, oh god, I'mgetting tired, uh, but uh it's

(59:07):
fine, it's fine.
This is what I wanted to do.
And I'm reading, I'm in acommercial set, 525.
I've done all the pre-recordedcommercials for movies and
Budweiser and concerts, and nowI've got a live read to do,
which is you do last, the liveread, because it's flat, it's
got no music behind it, and youcan you know the listeners are

(59:29):
most likely to tune out at thatpoint, but they probably won't
because if they've sufferedthrough the whole commercial
set, they know the songs arecoming back, so you pace it out
that way to the live read last.
So I I the McCalls at the ParrotPlace and Van Eyes are on sale
this weekend if you go in andsay K-Rock, and there's this
voice as his guide barges intothe studio with white hair, an

(59:50):
older guy, and he goes, Where'sFreddie?
I said, uh, hit the mic off.
I go, I'm on the air right now,I'm doing a commercial, okay?
Turn it back on.
I said the um if the McCall'sare on sale, 44 44.95, just
threw it and he goes, I need tospeak to Freddie.
I turned it off again.
I go, Freddy's not here, I'mdoing the commercials, I'm

(01:00:11):
filling in for him, and I punchback on.
But make sure you mention K R Igotta speak to Freddie, and I
went, turn the thing off, and Iwent, If you don't get the fuck
out of the studio right now, Iwill throw you out.
I got up and he looked at me,and for a moment I thought we're
gonna have a little fisticuffsgoing on here, and then he

(01:00:32):
walked, he walked out of thestudio and left, and I went back
to the uh thing and I said,Sorry about the interruption, a
little problem there.
But anyway, we've got theseMcCalls on sale and did the
whole thing.
And then 35 minutes later, I'm Ifinish the show and I walk out
of the uh radio studio, and RickCarroll, the program director,
is waiting in the hallway and hegoes, Good show, thank you for
filling in, appreciate that.

(01:00:52):
And I said, Yeah, well, betterthan six hours of dead air, and
he goes, Yeah, he said it was itwas a lot better than that.
And he goes, I got someone whowants to meet you.
I said, Okay, cool.
So I follow Rick to his littleoffice, tiny little office,
tiny, uh, just a desk, bigspeakers back in the day, and
records everywhere, and sittingbehind the desk, acting like he
owns the place, is thewhite-haired guy I told to get

(01:01:15):
the fuck out of the studio.
And Rick goes, I want you tomeet Ken Roberts.
He owns K-Rock.
I love it.
Oh my god.
Oh, my life is over.
Oh my god.
And then Ken won't look at me.
He does not look at me.
He looks at Rick and he goes,Ask him why he told me to fuck

(01:01:36):
off.
And Rick looks at me and goes,Um, why did you tell Mr.
Roberts to fuck off?
And I thought, I've only got onething I can do, and I step right
up to the desk, which was notfar, I was on the one step at
Tiny Office, put my hands on thedesk and leaned right into his
face.
And I said, From what I'velearned in radio, the only way a
station makes money is byselling commercials.

(01:02:00):
I was on the air reading a livecommercial when someone I didn't
know barged into the studiowithout any invitation and
starts talking over thecommercial.
I asked them nicely, two times,if they could let me finish the
commercial, and both times theyinterrupted me again.
So the third time I said, Getthe fuck out of the studio.

(01:02:23):
It was either that or I couldhave just started the music, had
a nice little chat, and theradio station wouldn't have made
any money from that commercial,and I said, And that's never
gonna happen when I'm on theair.
The radio station is never gonnalose money when you've got me
behind the microphone.
And he sat there and he lookedat me, and he didn't say

(01:02:46):
anything, and it was like fivehours it seemed before he spoke.
It was probably three seconds,but seemed like that, and he
looked at Rick and he goes, Ilike the kid, hire him.
And so I got hired on my firstday for telling the owner to
fuck off.

Joey Stuckey (01:03:02):
I love it.
And and and now let may I say uhfor for for listeners of the
podcast who uh uh Richard hadhis video on earlier.
Um and we record audio, only ofcourse I can't see it one way or
the other, but my wife uh waswas telling me about the room
you're in with all the goldenplatinum records on the wall,
and uh you also have a a star onthe Hollywood Walk of Fame.

(01:03:24):
So you you uh you did the rightthing, I think.

SPEAKER_00 (01:03:28):
It works out great because the thing was about
K-Rock, you had the freedom toplay a lot of your own music.
Rick Carroll did a music logevery day, you're for your
three-hour shift, and it had twoopenings, you could play
anything.
But he he also said, if you gotsomething better than the on the

(01:03:48):
log, you can play it.
But it better be better.

unknown (01:03:54):
Right.

SPEAKER_00 (01:03:54):
And so I was like, wow, and I had all this music
that my dad was sending me everyweek.
White labels of Depeche Mode, ofTalk Talk, of Tears for Fears,
of Duran Duran, of SpandourBallet, of Culture Club before
they happened.
Um all these groups, bow wow,wow.
And I would play them, and theother DJs would come in and go,

(01:04:16):
God that's what song is that?
What song is that?
I said it's it's UltraVox, it'sdancing with tears in your eyes.
Can you leave it?
I want to play it.
Jed would say, God bless him.
Jed would say, Leave it in thestudio, I want to play it.
And I'd say, I'll put it onto acart, I'll put it on tape,
because I'm gonna play ittonight in the club, because I
was still doing club gigs at thetime, because K-Rock was not
playing a lot paying a lot ofmoney.
But I was able to bring all thisnew music into K-Rock and people

(01:04:41):
like Freddie Snakeskin and Jedthe Fish and Dusty Street, who
have incredible ears andincredible talent, they were so
supportive about it and andloved, and they brought their
own music in.
You know, Dusty was big into thegoth scene, for example.
Freddie would throw in the mostuh wild um 60s stuff like James
Brown's would suddenly comeblaring out of Devo.

I opened for James Brown, that was quite an
adventure.

SPEAKER_00 (01:05:06):
I can I can only imagine, and then uh uh Jed was
huge into uh bands like Devo andOingo Boingo.
Yeah, yeah.
It was we all had our ownparticular style on the air, and
it was uh overnight K Rock.
Yeah, I was I was not the onewho made K-Rock, I was the
missing piece of the jigsaw.

(01:05:27):
Once I like that once becauseyou cannot knock the talent of
Romondo and of Jed and Freddieand Dusty, they were so
incredible.
And they just made you want tobe better.
But I was that English voice ina station playing ninety percent
English music, and suddenly itseemed okay, it's real.

(01:05:52):
That's why the station's playingthe music, you know, and the
people our our ratings just wentthrough the roof and within
Three months I was asked to do aTV show, broadcast TV show every
day, called MV3, which then uhturned into video one.
And so from uh January of uhJanuary 10th of 1983 through

(01:06:13):
till the end of 1989, I was onthe air every day at uh five in
the afternoon playing uh musicvideos on Channel 9, you know,
and had a huge audience becauseit's broadcast, you know, you
just turned on TV, and it was itwas great.

So and you and you also have done some some film
appearances, so you got otherguys to do some of the drama
stuff.
And and and I I want to say,like, I'm I'm a crappy actor
though, honestly.

SPEAKER_00 (01:06:36):
I I'm not I'm not being modest, I really am a
crappy actor.
Well you're just a handsome man,I guess that's what it is.
I'm crap at being somebody else.
So uh I'm I'm always honoredwhen that someone asks me to do
it, and I'll do my very, verybest.
But you know, when I've workedwith people like um Sarah
Jessica Parker or Helen Hunt orGabrielle Annois or Chase

(01:06:59):
Crawford, I'm like, oh, if onlyI could be a teacher.

That's a high ball then.

SPEAKER_00 (01:07:04):
Yeah, you know.

Yeah.
But I I think that it's so cool.
Well, I mean, people just likelike your your spirit.
I mean, that's that's the thing.
And and it's real, you know, asyou know, as you have actually
eloquently said already, is thatthere's a transmission uh in a
live situation between theaudience and the performer,
whether it's a DJ or a band orwhatever.
And and so, you know, you've gotthat that transmission, that

(01:07:28):
change, that exchange of energy,whatever you want to call it,
uh, but but you know, you haveyou have that thing, and it and
it's it's amazing.
And I I want to ask you um as weas we start to to wind our
conversation down, I'm not gonnalet you go just yet, uh, but I
want to ask you about whathappened to radio, what happened

(01:07:48):
to music, like your thoughts onhow the industry has has
changed, and uh, you know, anycriticisms or any praise that
you have.
Because I I you know the days ofthe DJs, you know, having any
kind of pull uh seem to besomewhat uh in the past.
I mean, maybe it's different onSirius XM, I don't know, but you

(01:08:08):
know, it it just seems likethere's not those big
personalities anymore.
There's you know, things are abit homogenized.
And uh so I I I wonder what youthink about that, and then and
then you know what's thedifference between the days of
vinyl and and and noweverything's digital.
I mean, how do you feel aboutthat?
So just wax philosophical.
I'll do that first.

SPEAKER_00 (01:08:27):
I'll do that first.
Yeah, I'm uh as pretty as vinylis, and I have some vinyl up
here, signed vinyl, uh ABC one,a wham signed vinyl, uh police
signed vinyl.
Uh save save them.
But uh, if you want to seesomeone with a bad back, look
for a DJ who does live gigs withvinyl.

(01:08:49):
There is nothing heavier on thisplanet than a milk crate full of
vinyl.
It is crazy.
And also, if you're de DJingoutside in the summertime, oh my
gosh, I I've watched the vinylwarp just go up.
Wow.
So I'm a big fan of digital, andI honestly people go, oh,
difference in quality of thesound.

(01:09:09):
Uh I don't have magic ears likeyou, Joey.
Uh I I can't hear the differencein the quality of the sound.
Uh so to me, and I'm alsodigital is great when I'm
editing and putting thingstogether because uh I can go
back 30 30 times, bum, bum, bum,bum, bum, undo.
You can't do that when you'reediting on tape.
That's impossible.

(01:09:30):
Oh god, no.

So I do not miss tape.
I'm I'm I'll just I'll tell you.

SPEAKER_00 (01:09:33):
Yeah, so digital.
But radio, when it comes toradio, uh I'll tell you, I'm
gonna do it in reverse order.
Let's do it.
Sirius is philosophy, Sirius XM.
The philosophy is everything wedo is done for our subscribers.
That's it.
It's gotta be you've got tothink about the listener and do

(01:09:56):
it for them because they arepaying money for the service.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (01:10:01):
So they are subscribers.
What do they want?
And that's what we try anddeliver just for the
subscribers.
Radio used to be like that.
K Rock used to be like that.
It used to be like I I rememberin the early days uh of the two
thousand uh of the nine uh 1990swhen Kevin Weatherly came aboard

(01:10:22):
K-Rock.
We were uh top of our gamestill.
We had the the buzz of the 80sstill, we were number one or
number two in the marketconsistently out of 60 radio
stations, and we were sold outwith commercials, sold out, 16
minutes an hour, and thenParamount would have a huge
release for a movie that hadblown everyone away the week

(01:10:43):
before, and they didn't know itwas going to be a big opening,
and they wanted to let everyoneknow how well it had done, and
they'd come into K Rock and say,you know, we want to buy um a a
spot on Richard's show, a spoton Dusty's, a spot on Freddy's,
and a spot with Jed.
And Kevin would say, Nope, can'tdo it.
It's sold out.
And the sales, general sale, thegeneral manager, the sales

(01:11:06):
manager would go, Look, man,they're offering us$10,000 for
60 seconds.
And Kevin would say, Nope, 16minutes is it.
He goes, That's too many, toomany minutes.
He goes, We're doing it for thelisteners.
That is incredibly, incrediblyrare, particularly these days in

(01:11:26):
broadcast radio.
In broadcast radio, most of theprogrammers came from sales,
they didn't come from being onair.
They consider the music to bethe interruption between the
commercials.
All they care about is thebottom line and making money.
And that's why broadcast radiois virtually dead.

(01:11:47):
You know, they they had tochange the way the Arbitron
samples the ratings just to havenumbers still, because virtually
nobody no kids.
You kids in the 80s, what's thenumber one way you get your new
music?
Oh, radio.
Number two way from my bestfriend.
Number three, oh, there's thismusic store I go into and they
play me songs.
Great.
Now you ask a kid, uh, howimportant is radio to you?

(01:12:10):
And they'll look at you and go,What what what do you mean?
How important is radio?
For what?
For music.
Oh, radio plays music?
Kids don't listen to radio.
You know, they they'll listen toSpotify, they'll listen to
satellite because they've gotthat in the car, and they'll
listen to uh and watch YouTube.

(01:12:31):
A lot of it comes on YouTube.
Radio is like ninth if you askkids where you get your music
from.
And that's shows how it'sdestroyed.
And the way that theseprogrammers, and I use that word
with air quotes, yeah, do it, isbecause they come from sales.
They got they don't care aboutthe artists.

(01:12:53):
There was one programmer that Iworked with, and uh one of the
biggest bands, it was when I wasat Star 98.7, the only time I've
I worked for money and Iprostituted myself.
Biggest band we had at the timewas Coldplay.
And I remember she would listen,we would listen to it in the
music meetings, and she'd go,Oh, Coldplay have a new song,

(01:13:14):
kill me now.
It was like, fuck you.
Yeah, it's a huge band thatpeople love, and they put on a
great show.
Listen to oh it uh it it wasawful, awful, awful.
And that's what that's what'shappened to radio.
It's it's destroyed radio, andit all goes back.
Um don't want to be political,goes back to Ronald Reagan and

(01:13:36):
uh deregulation.
It used to be you could only ownnine radio stations in America.
You couldn't own more than thatbecause they're a monopoly
commission and they didn't wantuh it was an old 50s thing, you
know, communists could take overand influence us.
We know what happens with peoplewhen they influence these days,
you know.
There's we do there's certain umcertain stations, TV and radio

(01:13:57):
that just talk one way and it'sinfluenced so many people.
And so it has come true.
But the mom and pop radiostations have gone because
they've been bought by the bigcorporations, and the big
corporations they'll have thesame DJ on 30 radio stations,
and they they never say the callletters, the call letters are

(01:14:18):
pre-recorded, so they go, Thatwas, this is, and uh, I'll be
back right after this on andthen whatever the call letters
are.
Yeah, yeah.
So it's put so many DJs out ofbusiness, and those kids that I
used to be a kid, uh they cameup through the farm system.
We all learned the hard way,what worked and what didn't

(01:14:40):
work.
Now you just sit there and youjust have my my breaking point
at Star 98.7 was in a meeting,and they said, Hey, we've uh
just had some research done anduh we've got a great idea what
we want from now on.
Uh when you hit the mic, youknow, there's a timer's gonna
start, and you've got sevenseconds.

(01:15:00):
And in that seven seconds, wewant you to back announce the
name of the song, give the callletters of the radio station,
say what's coming up, and thenif you've got something funny
you want to say, say it.
I said, Oh, in seven seconds.

That sounds crazy.

SPEAKER_00 (01:15:16):
I know.
And they said, Yeah, I said, howabout if I say I quit?
Nice.
You know, it was like justridiculous, ridiculous.
It wasn't about the music, itwasn't like you play a song.
Uh in 1984, late 84, FrankieGoes to Hollywood, Relax was one
of the biggest songs on theplanet, and Frankie was huge.

(01:15:38):
Yeah, and then they came outwith two tribes, and I got the
uh my dad uh the the recordcompany had sent me the
Armageddon mix nine minuteslong.
Oh my god, and I played thenine-minute mix of two tribes.
I said, It's a new one fromFrankie.
This is the follow-up to Relax.
Let's listen to it together.
I haven't heard it yet.
Let's listen to it.
And I played it at all nineminutes of it, and at the end of

(01:16:01):
it, I went, That's one of thebest mixes I've ever heard.
I said, I hope you will listenon good speakers, it sounded
great in the studio.
I'm gonna play it again.
And I put it on, played itthrough again, and the phone
lines are in update thisfantastic.
I just got my cassette going.
Can you play it again?
I played it nonstop for an hour.
Whoa.
One the one song.

(01:16:22):
And at the end of the hour, Iplayed top of the hour, I D,
Kara QFM, Pasadena, Los Angeles,Rock of the 80s, and went into
the next song.
Brick Carroll, the programdirector, opens the door and
he's standing in the door withhis arms folded.
Any other program director wouldhave said, uh, unplug your
headphones and get the hell outof here.

SPEAKER_03 (01:16:37):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (01:16:37):
He looked at me and he said, That was one of the
best hours of radio I've everheard.
Because I was amazing.
In between the songs, I'd punchthe listeners up and they were
like, Oh, this is fantastic.
I love it, I love it.
No one else would do this.
So that was how it used to be.
And now broadcast isn't, thankgoodness for satellite radio.
I'm I'm here in my home studio,and I put together all the

(01:17:01):
features, all of the features onmy show, which uh also rerun
later at night at uh likemidnight my time on Eagle Show,
uh, whether it's MagnificentSeven, uh, Tuesday's New
Sensation, Where Are They Now,Wednesday, Theme Thursday, or uh
Forget Me Not Friday, and alsothe This Is the Days.
I don't tell them who it is orwhat what it is.

(01:17:22):
I just send that in, bam.
Because that goes in ahead oftime, so they can put it into
the log.
Everything else I do live herein the studio.
And I don't tell them, and notonce have they questioned it.
Not one time.
And I just made a change twodays ago.
I realized that uh themeThursday I'd sent in the week of

(01:17:44):
June 15th, and June 18th is aThursday, and the theme was
going to be Songs with King inthe title.
And it was inspired by the factthat King was the first single
from UB40, and I justinterviewed them.
And then I thought, oh my god,June 18th is the anniversary of

(01:18:04):
DePesh Mode at the Rose Bowl,concert number 101.
So the theme Thursday I changed,and I got uh a live song from
the band Wire, that was thefirst band, a live song from
Thomas Dalby, who was second,live one from OMD, who was
third, and then two live onesfrom 101 from DePesh Mode, and

(01:18:26):
then I got an audience stadiumsound effect, put it behind the
other ones just to lift it upbecause the wire one was in a a
you know, a small club like theRoxy, so the applause was like
rather than Yeah, yeah.
And so I mixed it all togetherand I said, We're playing this
instead.
You want Sirius Ed?

(01:18:47):
Great.
And the other one would be like,well, we should research this
first and make sure, you know,it's like bullshit.
But Sirius XM is it is about thelistener.
They want the content to begreat for the listener.
And I I'm that's one thing I I'mI try and always do when I'm
like when I go out live on tour,uh, when I go out with the uh

(01:19:10):
Things Can Only Get Better tourin July with Howard and Wang
Chung and English speakingmodern English.
For my set, it's going to be acompletely different set from
what I've done three timesbefore, because I went out twice
with Howard last year and oncewith Lost 80s Live.
And uh with Howard the firsttime around, I did um how New

(01:19:31):
Wave was developed, how itstarted with craft work and went
all the way through.
And then on the second timearound, I did brackets where I
matched bands against each otherand had the audience decide
which would be the the mostpopular, and it was such a huge
hit.
This time I and I want I alwayswant it to be different because

(01:19:54):
I always figure that some of theaudience will have gone to you
know the previous show that Idid or Howard did.
And and so I spent a lot of timeon it, and I've got a video
version of it and an audioversion of it if there's no
screens in the venues, and we'regonna go through the entire
decade, starting in 1980 andfinishing in 1990, with the top

(01:20:16):
five songs from each year.
Wow.
So I'm gonna tease the audience,you know.
I'll be out there on stage,okay.
1984.
What were the biggest songs?
And then people will be yellingout.
Oh, did you been peeking at mylist?
You know, that kind of thing.
And then uh I'll say, All right,let's find out if you're right

(01:20:38):
or wrong, and then I have it allpre-edited.
Well, I hit the button and youhear this time machine go do do
do do do do 1984, number five,and then that song will come on
for like 20 seconds, then itgoes number four, and it goes
up, and then it goes to numberone, and there's a pause, and
then I stop it, or I will stopit, I haven't done it yet, stop

(01:21:01):
it and go, All right, you heardthe top five, but there's one
missing, and that's the numberone.
What is it?
And then you know you've got7,000 people all yelling out
different songs, and you go,Let's see who's right, and then
you hit it, and then people justthey just love that kind of
stuff because you're involvingthem, you're reaching out,

(01:21:23):
you're playing their music forthem and letting them have
feedback to you, which is whatit's all about, you know, that
energy on stage, you know.
So if if you are gonna come tothe things can only get better
too, I promise you, I'm gonnamake it as good for you as
possible.

I I wanna I want to come.
It's it's it's really great.
I mean that that is a fun, thatsounds like a fun experience.

SPEAKER_00 (01:21:46):
Yeah, and one thing I do at the uh all the shows is
a free meet and greet.
On the first tour, uh I wasapproached by the promoters and
they said, Would you do a meetand greet before the before the
shows?
And I said, Yeah, I love I lovemeeting the people, it's great.
And then um they sent me theparameters of the meet and greet
and I went, What what's thehundred and fifty dollars?

(01:22:07):
And they said, That's the thecost.
I said, The cost for what?
And they said, for the people tomeet you.
And I went, no, sorry, not doingit.
Done.
And they they get to meet me andthey get a free lanyard and 150
bucks.
It costs them 150 bucks.
I said, I'm doing it for free atall the shows.
And so at I'm at six o'clockwhen the door is open, if it's a

(01:22:30):
seven o'clock start for me, atsix o'clock I'm in the lobby.
And I got a table there, and uhjust so I can sign on it, I
don't hide behind the table.
And it's been such a joy meetingso many people because I talk
about it on the radio that hey,if you come in, come early.
If you've got anything of mineyou want signed, an old CD or

(01:22:50):
the flashback favorites, one ofmy books, just bring it, I'll
sign it, we'll take selfies, youcan ask me questions, whatever
you want to do.
And it it's been such a joymeeting these families that come
in early.
And uh, you know, I I I don'twant a penny from them.
I because I'm I'm getting morethan money from them.
I'm getting their smiles and I'mgetting a hug, and it's just

(01:23:13):
nice.

That is so cool.
And and you know, we we're thesame way.
We we uh I jokingly say we shakebabies and kiss hands, but we uh
but we you know I'll I'll stayas long as you want at the merch
table.
I I will come and and takepictures, I'll sign stuff.
My autograph's not thatattractive as a blind man, it's
just a cursive J as good as itgets.
Uh, but but I mean I believe inthat, and and I really and I and

(01:23:35):
I love it, and I love hearingtheir stories and you know,
trading stories.
I think that's such a big deal.
I I want to close on two things.
The first one is uh I you and Iare are Twitter buddies, and uh
and and uh you you know alreadyhow I feel about certain things

(01:23:55):
from what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00 (01:23:56):
Oh, by the way, before you say this, I just want
to jump in.
Yeah, if you listen to my showon Sirius XM and I ask for
suggestions, I always say youcan reach me on Facebook,
Richard Blade page, or threadsblue sky on Instagram at Richard
Blade.
I never give out Twitter or Xbecause I am open with my
politics there and I don't wantI don't I don't want the

(01:24:16):
politics to drift into the radioshow.
So when you don't want tocross-contaminate yeah, so when
people post I'm gonna write toSirius XM and complain about
you, I'm gonna feel free andtell tell them when you heard me
mention X or Twitter last.

I love it, I love it so much.
Well, I I was gonna say, youknow, I you know, I uh I get a
little grief um about the thingthat I've been sort of talking
about uh a lot lately, and thatis I think I feel like you would
agree with this.
This is not really uberpolitical, so we're not gonna
let it contaminate too much.
But it is related to music, andthat is uh I want to get your
thoughts on artificialintelligence, and I want to warn

(01:24:51):
you, I ask all my guests this,and I have pretty strong views
about it, but uh, you know, frommy perspective, I like the fact
that there's a possibility touse the technology to enhance my
interface with the world as asAI uh helping to replace the
fact that I don't have eyes.

(01:25:11):
That seems like a wonderful useof the tech.
If you use it to help beorganized, I can get behind
that.
I'm not real keen on it in thecreative spaces, and uh and
there's a reason for that.
My reason is pretty simple.
The machine has nothing of valueto tell you because it's not
alive, it has no livedexperience to draw from.

(01:25:32):
So music created solely by amachine, not interested.
What does Richard Blade think?

SPEAKER_00 (01:25:38):
I agree, and I'll add to that.
I think AI could be very, verydangerous if we allow it to be
used in a war situation.

SPEAKER_03 (01:25:49):
I agree.

SPEAKER_00 (01:25:50):
If we allow AI to decide when to fire and what to
fire at, that could be aterminator situation.

Well, what scares me is that the people that make
Claude stood up to our DefenseDepartment and said, We're not
taking the human out of thefiring equation.
And uh, you know, when we wouldknow better than them.
I mean, that's what I'm saying.
I mean and when but when whenthe big tech companies who lobby
our government very aggressivelynot to be regulated are the ones

(01:26:22):
with a moral center, that'sscary.

SPEAKER_00 (01:26:26):
No, I I agree with you, and and musically I agree
as well, because maybe there'llbe the occasional song or piece
of artwork that AI could come upwith that would be very, very
special, maybe, but it doesn'thave AI has probably not had its
heart broken and so it can'texpress it.

(01:26:49):
But the the thing that anotherthing that bothers me a lot
about AI is how brilliant it isat imaging.
Now you could have a picture ofof me blowing your brains out.

SPEAKER_03 (01:27:07):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (01:27:08):
And or being promiscuous with a sheep.
Oh yeah, exactly.
And well, don't talk about thatone.

You know, I heard I saw that on a bathroom wall
that you like the sheep, but I'mnot sure.

SPEAKER_00 (01:27:20):
But that that's a scary thing because how would
you know that it's fake?

Well, my parents are in their 80s and and they
you know use Facebook, kinda.
Um, but what I have been talkingabout a lot is that there is a
false veneer of professionalismand truth that is really hard to
pierce now.
And uh things appear real, theythey seem real, they look real,

(01:27:49):
they sound real.
And you know, the only thing Ican do when I tell my parents,
they'll say, Oh, I saw this onFacebook.
Say, Mom, that's you know, it'snot a real thing.
Uh, but the reason that I know.
Know that is because when I seesomething and it seems not
rational, I immediately checkthree or four sources to see if

(01:28:10):
I'm seeing it somewhere elsethat has some sort of legitimate
news uh you know credentials,which is getting harder and
harder to do.
I mean, you know, you look atCBS and you know, I I don't
trust that source anymore.
So, you know, it it it's reallyeasy to have.
I mean, any any you'll pardon myFrench, but any jackass can put
something on the internet andmake it look good, and you don't

(01:28:31):
know.
You know, they can claim to be adoctor, they can claim to be a
lawyer, they you know, you don'tknow.

SPEAKER_00 (01:28:35):
Yeah, well, that's the amazing thing.
Um when we had the pandemic,suddenly all these people that
spent 12 minutes watchingYouTube videos were more
qualified than doctors, nurses,and researchers.
It was it was like, wait aminute, uh I understand your
viewpoint that you're comingfrom it this way, but don't say

(01:28:58):
that these other people knownothing about it because they've
just they spent seven years inmedical school and you spent
seven minutes on YouTube.

Yeah, those are not non-equivalents.
That's exactly what I actuallysaid.
My wife's an advanced practicenurse, so uh she's she spent six
years in nursing school, has amaster's degree, and you know,
it's like and and I and youknow, I'm a professional
producer, and and I, you know,your 30-second Google search
does not equate my 30 years ofknowledge.
Right, you know, and and it'sit's really it's just real
dangerous.

(01:29:25):
And I mean, I have people comingto me all the time with
misinformation about music, andthat is not even you know,
taking that's not riskingpeople's lives.
Uh the medical stuff, I mean, ohgod, it's just it's so scary
because you know that that candestroy somebody, and uh it's
just a real scary thing.
So I I I thought you wouldprobably feel that way about AI.

SPEAKER_00 (01:29:47):
Um if it if it does get used to help find a
universal vaccine, uh a cure forblindness, sure.
Uh you know, a a way to get ridof gout, or you know, you name
it.
Uh it would it would befantastic, but it's good there's
an old Chinese proverb that is acurse and a blessing, and that

(01:30:09):
is may you live in interestingtimes.

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 (01:30:14):
I'm I would be quite happy to go back to some boring
times right now.

I sympathize with that profession.
I really do.
I'd like things to be a lotsimpler.
Yeah, well, the other thing Iwant to say what before I let
you go, and this has been such ajoy and a privilege, I want to
talk about your other booksbecause World of My Eyes is
absolutely I've read it uhtwice, uh, and I will read it
again.
Uh, you know, it's it's it's onmy one of my favorite

(01:30:39):
experiences.
And um, it really is.
And you and you did as a man whoonly can read audiobooks, let me
just say that you did afantastic job with the
audiobook.
Uh and and I did it all myself,right here in this code.
I know you did, yeah.
And and just absolutely, and Igenerally speaking, um, I like
for the authors to read theirbooks.

(01:31:00):
Uh, I I think they bringsomething to the table, even if
they're not a trained, I meanyou're a trained voice, but you
know, even even Stephen Kingback back in the 80s, uh, when I
was a you know little kid, hewas reading some of his books
like the Gunsligger books, like,you know, he's not a good his
voice is kind of weird, but itwas cool because he he was able
to put a lot of subtext as theauthor, you know, in the way he

(01:31:21):
expressed things.
So you but you've got besidesmusic books, I think there's
like what three or four musicbooks, um, but you have some uh
some other books, and I want tojust touch on that real quick
and and and have you tell usabout how you moved into into
that uh sphere.

SPEAKER_00 (01:31:36):
Well I written five novels and uh they're based on
screenplays I'd written and nothad made, but I thought they
were all pretty good stories,and I've had a couple of
screenplays made.
I I wrote for uh a sci-fi showon UPN called uh Seven Days, and

(01:32:00):
back in the day, remember UPNbefore it was a CW?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I had a movie made um forLifetime, which uh I actually
got a co-star in.
They they cast me in it, whichwas cool, and with Gabriel
Lamoir, Craig Schaefer, and uhChase Crawford, who went on he's
become a huge star on the boysand everything like that was his
first role, and that was calledLong Lost Son.

(01:32:21):
But some of these screenplaysjust sitting around after the
success of World in My Eyes,which blew me away, I thought
I'm gonna take a shot at writinga novel.
And so the first one I did wasone that uh called SPQR, uh the
Senate and Populist Key Romanus,the Senate and People of Rome.

(01:32:42):
And it's uh an alternate historyone about what would have
happened if a group, a smallgroup of Romans, highly trained
uh soldiers, the were part of aninvasion force of Britain when
the Romans tried to invade inforty-four BC.
What would have happened if theyran into a storm and instead of

(01:33:02):
ending up in Britain, they wereblown across the Atlantic and
ended up in a strange country,which was America.
But it w it left me with a lotof problems because you can't
use the word America, can't usethe words North Carolina, can't
use the word Native Americans,you can't use the word Indians,
uh because none of those wereinvented over two thousand years

(01:33:25):
ago.
So uh a a really good friend ofmine is a uh an American a
Native American chief.
And I worked together and Isaid, Look, I how do I get
around this?
And he said, Oh, call them callthem savages, and as they get to
know them, call them natives.
And I was like, I like it.
Yeah, that's great, you know.

(01:33:46):
That's brilliant.
Then he told me a lot about thetribal customs and the the uh
the the way that the uh medicineman worked and the chief worked,
the hierarchy in the villages,and it's but it's a huge action
piece, huge action piece.
The last third of it is like thebiggest battle you've ever, ever
read.
And the book uh blew out Amazonnumber one for months, it was

(01:34:09):
fantastic, and so I thought,ooh, that's good, and uh um, and
so I wrote the second one, whichwas based on a true story that
I've been trying to make into amovie forever and ever.
Uh, true story of uh someone Iworked with at K Rock, Mike
Evans, and uh it was a story ofwhat he got up to in the late
60s, and it's called Imposters,and it's fantastic.

(01:34:32):
He was he was 4F, he couldn't goto Vietnam because of asthma,
but because he was an agitatoron the street, they pulled him
off the street and said, Uh,we're overturning your medical
records, and you've got to go toVietnam.
So he had to flee.
And he he did it byimpersonating a duo from the 50s

(01:34:55):
and uh touring as them with hisbest friend, the two of them,
like like a righteous brotherskind of thing.
And they were on their way toCanada, there was a gig waiting
for them and 600 bucks, and theyfigured they could live off that
for a year, and by then the warwould be over because everyone
was naive about Vietnam at theat the 66.
And uh, but the gig went so wellthat he went, let's stay on the

(01:35:19):
road, and tour America and wasspeak out at all the concerts
against Vietnam, and they touredfor three years with the FBI
chasing them, but the FBI waschasing Mike Evans, he they
weren't chasing Johnny and Joe,the impostors, and it's it's a
great story, fantastic story.

Now, now are these audiobooks too, Richard?

SPEAKER_00 (01:35:37):
Or not uh SPQR is audio, imposters isn't, because
Mike wanted to read it, uh, buthe never got round to doing it
and he still hasn't.
I might end up doing it.

Uh when you tell him there's a blind man that
really wants to read it now.

SPEAKER_00 (01:35:52):
Uh but there's another one called Birthright
that you would love, and that isuh an action one um that starts
with Jack the Ripper but thencomes up to date.
And if you imagine evil JamesBond versus uh Indiana Jones.

Oh my god, I love it already.

SPEAKER_00 (01:36:12):
It's uh a chase across uh two continents um as
uh the the uh the fate of theWestern world rests in in the
hands of this discovery thatthis professor has made.
And the evil James Bond wants tostop coming out.

(01:36:32):
No, but talking about readingauthors reading books, I gotta
tell you one that pissed me off.
Okay, really bad.
Morrissey wrote a novel and hereleased it, and he released it
as an audio book as well, readby Morrissey.
It wasn't him that read it.
It was not.
It was an actor called DavidMorrissey.

I read that book and I was highly disappointed.

SPEAKER_00 (01:36:57):
Yeah, David Morrissey's fantastic actor, the
best governor ever on WalkingDead.
He was fantastic, but forMorrissey to do that, that's
like a that's a bit of a cheatto me.
I don't I didn't like he'sgotten kind of weird his old
age.
Yeah, sad.
You know, why why wouldn't hejust take the time and read it?

You know I don't know.
I that's because when it saidread by Morris, I was like, oh
boy.
And I was like, uh okay, arethey related or what's the deal?

SPEAKER_00 (01:37:24):
Yeah, you know, I it again to me uh that's taking
away from the enjoyment of thelistener, and that's what my
life's always been about, tryingto make people happy, you know.

It's well I I was I was highly disappointed in
that as well, I have to tellyou.
I I I'm I'm glad to hearsomebody else say it.
I didn't want to be moaning andbitching, but it was
disappointing.
What when when you are youinfluenced by specific uh
authors or genres?
Or I mean sounds like you're asci-fi fan, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 (01:37:51):
Oh, a big sci-fi fan.
Um right now I'm reading all theReacher books.

Oh, they're wonderful, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (01:37:56):
Yeah, uh, and I'm very yeah, impressed with Lee
Child.
A he's British and he writesabout America better than any
American I've ever read.
I know there's uh my wife uhdownloaded for me on my Kindle a
six-pack of his books.
Um it was, you know, you buy itas a six-pack, and it had a
45-page introduction by LeeChild about how he got into it.

(01:38:21):
And I had no idea he wasBritish.
I he could have knocked me downwith a feather when I read it.

It does not read that way.
You're right.

SPEAKER_00 (01:38:28):
And he decided to make uh Reacher American because
Britain wasn't big enough, andhe wanted him to be able to roam
a massive country to get intoall these different exploits and
adventures.

And well, they they say the TV show's good, but
I hadn't seen it yet.

SPEAKER_00 (01:38:43):
So it is good, it is very good.
Um season one and three are thebest.
I didn't like two too muchbecause there was too much team
in it and not enough reacher byhimself.

I gotcha.
That's what it's all about,yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (01:38:55):
Yeah, but uh he's he's great.
As a kid, I read uh Ian Fleming.
Of course, but um the booksdon't hold up as much today.
Um and some of the languagecertainly doesn't.

Oh my gosh.
When I read it now, I'm like,oh, I can't believe he said
that.

SPEAKER_00 (01:39:11):
I know, but you know, persons of color are not
referred to by that word.
They are not, but but back backin 50 it was uh considered uh
okay.

You know, well and women women were certainly more
objects in the books than uhyeah.
I mean they they didn't havetons of personality, really.
Uh uh, but but I I do love this.
I just what well I just had to Ihad to ask about the books
because I thought that wasreally cool.
And and again, Renaissance man,that's what you are.
I mean, you you've got all thesedifferent self-makes.
I'd love to read it.

SPEAKER_00 (01:39:41):
I'm I'm trying to think about my next novel before
the sequel to World in My Eyes.
I'm gonna put the sequel out toWorld World in My Eyes.
I'm trying the next novel, I'mtorn between a comedy.
Okay, uh a alternate historysci-fi and the book version of
Long Lost Son, the one that wasmade into a movie for a

(01:40:03):
lifetime.
I'm I'm torn between the three.
So one of these days.

Well, that's so I have a minor scoop here.
So that's I appreciate that.
So that's well, I I've got totell you, um, you know, uh don't
forget that sci-fi and comedycan go together as well.
So you could uh you couldhitchhiker's guide it if you
wanted to.
You could you could but I Ithink that so so these days, you
know, you spend your time onSirius XM, you're writing uh

(01:40:28):
books, uh, you're still doingpublic appearances.
Uh is there anything you want toshare before I let you go that
we haven't talked about?

SPEAKER_00 (01:40:36):
Not really, just be kind to animals.
That's one of my big things.
My wife and I uh we we loveanimals.
That's our our big charity toyou know try and save dogs and
cats.
Yeah.
And uh, you know, to do thatkind of thing because you know,
we we if you can leave the worlda little bit better when I when

(01:40:57):
we're walking, our dog, if I seeother poop on the ground, I pick
it up.
And I've been asked a couple oftimes, your dog didn't do that.
And I'm like, yeah, but why notleave the street a little bit
better than you found it?
And that's why I think lifeshould be.
Try and I you know, I don't havethe capacity of a like a uh Bill
Gates or something like that touh uh you know help thousands

(01:41:21):
and thousands, but if you youcan make the world just a
fraction better, then why not doit?
You know, it's it's it's sillyjust to live just for yourself
and and walk past someone who'sin need or an animal in need or
something like that.

Try and try and I agree, and you know, small small
things can be profound.
And uh I have a song we'regetting ready to record.
I'm I'm gonna be in LA uh in acouple weeks and we're gonna
record.
I have I have uh convinced theLes Paul Studio, which is part
of United, uh, to let me be thefirst artist to record there.
Well uh because I'm I'm apersistent person, and uh you

(01:41:57):
don't you don't threaten me withan opportunity because I will
come and call it.
And uh uh I I just tell people'slike, don't offer me something
you don't mean because I'm good,I'm gonna I'm gonna remember.
Um so we're gonna do that.
And and I've just written a songand it's called Tiny
Redemptions, and and the song isall about uh the fact that when
I was in LA, I by the way, Ihate LAX with a passion.

(01:42:19):
If you have not been a well, ifyou've ever been a blind man
trying to get through LAX with aguitar, that is hell.
And uh I was uh working withAlan Parsons uh at the time, uh
headed towards a session, uh,and uh we were going had to fly
into LAX, then drive down.
And I was uh my wife and I werethere, and this woman, for

(01:42:41):
reasons unknown, uh decided toram her luggage cart into me
because I didn't move out of herway fast enough.
And so the problem with that isthat she knocked me into the
street and the luggage cartstarted falling on me, and there
were cars coming.
And and of course I can't see,so I'm just completely
bewildered, and I'm falling.

(01:43:03):
And I I have a metal shoulder tometal hip too, which is a latent
issue for the brain tumor.
And uh uh I was really upset,and these two like most people
just kept on walking.
Uh there were literally like youknow, a lot of people there, and
nobody just, you know, oh well,I guess he's gonna die, you
know.
I mean, just but these twopeople ran from out of the

(01:43:25):
crowd, grabbed me out of theroad, grabbed, helped my wife
pick up all the luggage, andwould not leave us until we got
into our rental car.
And and they didn't even tell metheir names.
And I I didn't ask, be honest, Ijust hugged them.
And and it was that moment whereI realized that like, you know,

(01:43:47):
small acts of kindness bycomplete strangers, you know, is
real important.
And uh and they made a bigdifference in my life that day.
And in the rest of that week andmonth, I was very concerned
because I was like, well, maybeI'm not maybe I'm not able to
function.
Like, maybe can I is this gonnahappen a lot?
Like, you know, it's like, youknow, I am is it too hard for me

(01:44:07):
to travel?
Is it too dangerous?
I mean, but anyway, it was justthat moment of uh, and I I think
that I thought it was a reallyprofound moment for me.
It was a moment of crisis ofdoubting the my ability to to
function without some crazyperson knocking me around.
And then, you know, but thenthese people come out of nowhere
and like they they helped.
They they just and I mean they Imean they rode with us to the

(01:44:29):
rental car lot in the bus.
I mean, they totally abandonedeverything they were gonna do
and stayed with us.
And that was a profound momentof kindness.
And so I believe in those, and II think I think that's more
people like that, please.
Yeah, me too.
So I I appreciate what you'resaying.
And and we uh we love dogs andcats, and uh uh currently I have
a cat because we're gone alittle a little bit.

(01:44:49):
Uh and I I feel like I need towalk a dog, and I feel like I
need to make sure that they getexercise.
And my cat is a little moreindependent, but uh yeah, we we
love we love animals too.
So listen, thank you for yourwork, thank you for your talent,
thank you for your time, myfriend.
It has been a pleasure.

SPEAKER_00 (01:45:04):
Chloe, it's my pleasure talking with you,
really.

Well, it's it's I appreciate you very much.
And listen, friends, if you'relistening to this podcast now,
uh there are so many incrediblepeople with incredible stories.
I invite you to explore them allwith me by going to
www.stuckonsound.com.

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Episode 12: Richard Blade on KROQ, SiriusXM, New Wave, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and a Life Lived in Music

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