#106 - Kelly Meyer - Project Find Your Fire

Hello Friends,

In this engaging conversation, Kelly Meyer, founder of Project Find Your Fire, shares his journey from academia to personal growth coaching.

He discusses the importance of igniting one's passion through the Ikigai principle and how many people fall into a cycle of redundancy in their lives. Kelly emphasizes the significance of accountability in coaching, offering a unique approach that includes homework and regular check-ins with clients.

He also reflects on his musical journey, sharing valuable life lessons learned along the way, including a memorable encounter with Alice Cooper that shaped his perspective on performance and identity.

In this engaging conversation, Kelly Meyer shares his diverse musical journey, including collaborations with iconic artists like Johnny Cash and Marie Osmond. The discussion delves into the challenges faced during the production of his third album, the search for lost music, and the evolution of recording techniques. The trio explores vocal techniques, sound engineering, and the importance of musical passion, while also touching on personal stories of family life and the legacy of bands.

The conversation wraps up with reflections on the significance of continuing one's musical journey and living with love and passion.

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Find our all about Kelly's coaching services at the link below.

https://www.projectfindyourfire.com

Episode Transcript

(00:41):
So there boys and girls, this isthe Chris and Mike show.
I'm Chris. He's Mike.
And this is Kelly. The mayor, right?
They said the right mayor Meyer.Meyer, Damn it, it's Kelly
Meyer. Nice to meet you, Kelly.
Kelly Meyer from Find Your Fire,we're going to have an
outstanding conversation becausehe's a really cool dude and
we're just going to dive right into it.
Kelly, give us a little background of who you are, what
you do, and what you're all about, man.

(01:03):
Well, there's a lot of long stories that go to that.
That is that I come from an academia background.
My wife and I run Project Find Your Fire, a business based on
personal growth development. We have we are both certified
board certified coaches, a number of other areas.

(01:23):
We do one-on-one coaching group coaching, travel all over the
place doing workshops, keynote speaking, that kind of things.
Have been doing it for almost 30years not.
Quite that, yeah, that's a preference.
Yeah. We, we were talking before you
jumped on Mike that, that he's like ahead of the curve because
that's kind of just been more, more of a relevant thing to do

(01:45):
in the last decade or so. You were.
Way ahead of your time. Yeah, right on, dude.
So you want to, what do you wantto talk about?
You want to talk about your, your, your like high school,
post high school adventure 'cause we're all about life
resumes here and where you've, where you've come and where
you've, where you've come from and where you're heading, things
like that. Because that's what we find the

(02:06):
most interesting, where you talkto people.
Well, I would kind of like to start with what do you what does
that project do? There you go.
You know. So what we do is we help people,
you know, ignite their own spark, you know, light their own
fire. Find what excites you in life,
man. If you can find what you're
passionate about, what excites you in life, you are so far

(02:27):
ahead. The problem is that most people
end up in this vicious cycle of redundancy.
Wake up, you'll live the same life every you go to bed and
it's just you relive the same emotions over and over and over
again and you never get really excited about life.
And so one of the things, Speaking of which, one of the

(02:49):
things we take our clients through is sort of the icky guy
principle. And I don't know if you've heard
of icky guy. Icky guy is icky.
Guy yeah, I haven't heard. It's a Japanese concept and it
means the reason for living. OK, now they're they're icky guy
principle and it's whole is a little bit more complex where

(03:11):
you start to discover all of these different areas of your
life and then when it comes intothe center, that's your reason
for living. So I've discovered a quick and
easy version of that that helps our clients, you know, find what
light life on fire. So imagine, you know, a couple
of different quadrants. This this square grid in one of

(03:35):
those quadrants are the things that you're good at and you love
doing, which is your passions, right?
Makes sense? The next quadrant over is the
things that you're good at but you don't love doing, which is
typically our jobs. Sure.
Unfortunately for most people, yeah.
Right. The next quadrant is the things
that you're not good at that youlove doing.

(03:58):
Like, there are a lot of people who like, for an example,
golfing. I enjoy going out to golf, but
I'm going to lose more balls than I start, Right?
Sure. And the 4th quadrant then is the
things that we don't love doing and the things we aren't
necessarily good at, which is our chores, you know, laundry

(04:19):
doing, paying the bills. I'm not great at that stuff.
I just do it because it has to be done.
Right, it's a part of life. Problem is that most people
spend most of their time in quadrants where their jobs are
and where the floors are. So it think left and right.
So it'd be like the right side of this block.

(04:39):
Sure. Those are the things we have to
do, OK. The left side of the block are
the things that we are passionate about, the things
that we are good at and we love doing.
Those are the things that light us up, make us excited, and we
all have those things in our life, right?
Right. All these different areas, when
we're doing them in our life, whether it be fishing or hunting

(05:01):
or on the motorcycle or whateverit be that we just feel alive.
The problem is that more people are spending time on the other
side of the quadrant than on thethings that really light them
up. Now, the most successful people
in life spend more time in theirpassions than they do with their
jobs and their chores. These people are successful

(05:26):
because they're spending more time with their passions instead
of spending more time with theirpassions because they're
successful, in other words. They're not looking at it as
work, right? Right, right.
So if whatever it is that lightsyou up in your life, let's say
going for a motorcycle ride or amore successful would spend more

(05:48):
time on a motorcycle ride than they would in their jobs and
their chores. Kind of like Neil Pert, because
Neil Pert used to follow the Rush rush the Rush tour bus
around on his motorcycles. Right, right.
Exactly like. As soon as the show is over,
man, he's out. He's gone, he's on his bike and
he's he's tuned to the next show.
Yep, because that's what fires you up.

(06:09):
And if you can spend more time in your life fired up and
excited about life, when you getto your chores, when you get to
your job, you're still fired up about life.
You just carry it over. And my wife always analogy like
I'm down here working with clients most all day long.
I just got off 1 and when I'm done, guys, I'm going to jump on
another one. Yeah, that's what fires me up.

(06:30):
I love this stuff. I love.
And it's obvious. You can see that in people you
know. You can hear it in your voice,
you can see it in your eyes. For those of you that are
watching, when no one really believes in what they're talking
about, it conveys to the listener as well, right?
I can feel it. The listener can feel it, right?
Now, if everybody was going in that direction, imagine what

(06:54):
difference, what a different world it would be, right?
Just in our mindset and what we thought was important.
I agree with you in spades. I think Chris was a good
example. I mean, he says I'm a real
estate agent for my job, but it's painfully obvious he loves
doing. Oh, absolutely.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get. Not everybody has that.

(07:14):
No. In their life, right?
They're like, oh fuck, I got to go to work again, right?
Here we go again another day. I'm going to make my coffee.
I'm going to drudge through thisday, get to 4:00, and then I get
to do what I want for two hours,right?
Or three. Hours.
Right, that's most people's day.And that's unfortunate.
True. And see what?
See, this is one of the things that Mike and I were poking at.

(07:37):
MM was talking about doing this podcast.
So we went back and forth. I don't know for how long,
right? Not too long because it's when
he asked. I'm like, hell yeah.
It was a few months. Yeah.
But so this is something that heand I both look forward to now
because we've done it. This is I think 100.
It's like 105 or 105, something like that, yeah.
So, but it's, it's legit like wejust started doing it where it

(07:57):
was just once a week and then welike evolved because the
schedule changed like, well, hell, let's just do 2 a week.
And then like today, because, because the, the, the desire to
be on people shows I, we have three people today.
So we're recording 3 episodes, which we've never done before.
So it's, it's kind of fun because we're going to learn.
We're going to learn from three different people from different,
all different walks of life. And that's the beautiful thing

(08:19):
about this, like. So here's how I look it not to
interrupt. You.
No, you're foot. You're good.
This is a great segue into this day for me.
Used to be not non productive, but it was just different,
right? So now today, instead of
watching documentaries or playing my guitar, you know, I
still did productive things. I get to talk to somebody that
I've known since 1993 for whatever, you know, a lifelong

(08:43):
friend. And like he said, I'm learning
from you now. I would have never known what
you did, that you had this organization.
I'd like to hear that there's positive human beings doing
positive things still, right? Because all we hear is negative,
negative, negative all day long.It's just pushed on us through
the media for whatever stupid reason.
But I want to be the antithesis of that in that it's not always

(09:07):
going to be a positive message, but we're going to find a way to
get there eventually, right? Yes, Yep.
Absolutely. It's oh, go ahead, Mike, sorry.
No, you're fine. I just, no, that's what I hear
out of your organization is, youknow, you're teaching people to
think. Like I finally learned to think.
Chris learned to think that way before I did.

(09:27):
But we all got there in a different vehicle.
But it it's great that you have a way for people that don't have
that Ave. to travel. OK, here I can change my life,
right? I can think in a positive
direction too. I think that's awesome, man.
So what's, what's the name of? OK.
So how do people find your company that's centered around
what we're talking about the? Easiest way is to just go to the

(09:50):
website it's project, find yourfire.com and from there you
will have links to all of our social media of my personal
Facebook and our business Facebook and all the Youtubes
and different. Links.
So do we have a chat? Going with him, Chris.
I we don't have a chat going with, I mean, no, I mean him and

(10:10):
I on Facebook. Yeah, we have a conversation
going. OK, if you can send Chris the
links, I'll post them when we post them.
Absolutely, absolutely. So I want I want to stay on on
this part of your life before webefore we transition to the
stuff other stuff we talked about South project finds your
fire is it is it's it's obviously a coaching platform,
right? And then you do stuff.
If somebody's within your, your where do you live?

(10:34):
Wisconsin. Wisconsin.
Are you just north of me? I'm down here in Illinois.
Yeah, so we got Illinois, Wisconsin in the the dry, boring
desert of Arizona. That's cool.
You got to love. You got to love technology with
that. Are you a Packers fan then?
Oh God no. I like this guy even more.
It was just God. No man, I like him even more.

(10:57):
Did I see tell you I'm not a Bears fan either?
I grew up in Nebraska. Oh, so you're Nebraska
Cornhuskers? All we have is the Huskers like
die hard. I will kill for my husband.
Oh yeah. But just just just so you know,
I'm not a Cardinals fan. I'm a Giants fan.
And there's a whole reason for that.
But so I'm, I'm not a Cardinals fan.

(11:17):
My my team is all the way on theEast Coast, you know, which
poses a challenge, but what is what is so?
Who do you root root for as a pro pro team?
So my adopted pro team, ever since I was a little little tyke
was the Vikings. It always that's my team and
it's been hard. Rd.
Well, you know, you and you and me alike, Giants, you know, I

(11:39):
mean, you haven't won any championships in a while, but at
least at least you put better product on the field than the
Giants have or the Bears have inthe last couple years.
The Bears kind of had a little bit of fun last year and then
they I'm with. You, you're right there with
you. I agree with that statement.
Yeah, OK, so project find yourfire.com is where you can
find your business side of life.So if anybody's in Wisconsin and

(11:59):
they want they want to find their fire, they can do face to
face or is 1 on ones. So my clients who are local,
they do have the option of meeting face to face here in
office, OK, a majority of my clients because they are across
the world. Weakness.
And and it works out really wellthat way.

(12:20):
Yeah, so with your with when youdo your one on ones with people
like say, I decided after this episode, holy shit, Kelly's
amazing. I want to find my fire.
I don't have fire. I'm you know what?
What does that look like? Give us an idea what that looks
like. So people listening and watching
us on YouTube right now can get a feel for that and then, you
know, see if it works in their in their life.
Sure. So what I would do is guide you

(12:41):
to the web page in the coaching section and there is a place to,
you know, ask about more coaching and so you can fill out
a very short questionnaire whichwould give me just an idea of
who I'm talking to. Sure.
What's bothering you? What do you want?
What do you look for? And then we would we would hook
up with a a one hour consultation call.

(13:04):
OK, no charge. Absolutely.
We just talk for an hour. I love that.
Me too. You tell me about you and then
we have to decide, you know, if we're a match.
If if I'm not a match for you. That's fair.
I get that. Yeah.
Not. Every, every.
Yeah, this is a very personal thing, right?
Absolutely. But, and, and I've done and I've

(13:24):
done coaching throughout my realestate career and that's the
first time I've ever heard somebody say we're going to have
a conversation for an hour just to see if we're a fit.
I used to do that with my guitarstudents.
Oh, yeah. Your first lesson was always
free for the same reason that Kelly just brought up, because
you may not feel comfortable with me for whatever reason, You
know, like our energies may not click.

(13:45):
That's interesting, I like that approach.
Not a great approach, right? It's not because you're not a
good teacher. It's not because you're not a
good student. It's just because the energies
just don't. Yeah, align.
And that's fair. Yeah, my mom told me 100 years
ago, not everybody's going to get along.
And what fun would it be if theydid right, Right?
And I didn't. Understand that for a long time,
but it makes sense to me now. And I kind of have that approach

(14:06):
with real estate and doing it for 25 years.
There's been people I've worked with that we just personalities
don't work, you know, so for lack of better term, we fire
each other because it just doesn't, it just doesn't work
right. So it's not as, it's not, I
don't like you as a human. We just, you're not listening to
me. You're not following my
guidance. So therefore you're wasting my
time and I'm wasting your time. You need to find somebody else
that you can relate to better. It hasn't happened that often,

(14:29):
you know, maybe 5 * 5 six times in, in my entire career.
But it does happen and it's OK. It's OK to say no.
It's OK to say we don't work together.
So I, I love that approach. Kelly, kudos to you for that.
Thank you. Thank you.
After that conversation, what would happen is that if we
decide that this is going to work and let's take a shot at

(14:50):
it, there are a couple differentprograms that you can go for
like a six session or a twelve session.
And then we'll just get set up and we go and we'll try to meet
every other week or so. Sometimes people like to, you
know, jump head on and I want todo 3 sessions this week because

(15:11):
I like, no, you don't. Because when I work with you,
different than talk therapy is that I don't want to hear about
your past. We're not talking about your
past. We need to know it too.
Yeah, we need to understand where you came from.
But it's all from this point forward.
Think of this point forward. That's.

(15:31):
Love that dude. I love that.
And so that's the work and I will give you work, you will
homework. This isn't going to be tell me
about your problems. Tell me about your childhood.
OK, I'll see you in a couple weeks.
No, I'm going to put you to work.
I see. Yeah, I like the homework aspect
because of the coach I had recently that I'm no longer

(15:52):
with. There is no like we would have a
conversation, right? We would talk about, OK, here's
here's a checklist, here's thesethree things you need to do.
So I would do those three thingswas really good at doing
everything, anything and everything he asked, right.
But then the following week phone call, there was no follow
up to those tasks. There was no, there was no
accountability, which I always thought, well, you know, like

(16:15):
just because I said I did it, you're not verifying I did it.
I mean, you can see some of the stuff on social media, but there
was no real accountability to it.
And then stepping back and looking at it, the whole reason
I hired this guy is because I wanted to go from 10 million in
production to 20 million production a year, which has
always been my hurdle getting, you know, closing that gap,

(16:35):
which after three years, I'm like, OK, didn't do it, you
know, breaking ties. I'm like, you know, and now that
I look back at it, I learned a lot.
I did gain business from the coaching and my, some of my
approaches have changed. Like I've consistently dropped
reels on YouTube for 210 days, which is unheard of.
Like there's. You know.

(16:57):
There's people have a problem dropping one reel right when
Mike and I started this show, when Mike and I started this
show. For those of you who are just
listening, I just threw myself under the bus.
Chris has done amazing, if not only his business side of it,
but the podcast side of it too. Our podcast page has grown leaps
and bounds since March just because of this consistency.

(17:19):
Sorry to interrupt. You no, but that's but I was
going to prove this. Point for sure.
Right. But I was going there because
when I, Nick and I were talking about this the other day.
So I've been in real estate, like I said, 25 years.
So I've had a web, a YouTube page probably since 2004 or
five. So to put in comparison, I just
really started like hyper focused on the Chris and Mike

(17:39):
show page probably in November, December, right, even though we
were you. Really turned it up in March.
Though, right. So just from that alone we're,
we're I think we're almost near or just past 80,000 views now to
put it in comparison. Yeah, 82 now, I believe closing
on 83. Yeah, we're it'll be 100 soon.
So comparison my personal real estate Chris Dunham YouTube

(18:02):
page. I'm only, I'm just under 500,000
and I've been around for 20 years.
So the difference in how you approach things now, nobody back
then knew what the hell YouTube was about.
Nobody understood SEO content, nobody understood hashtags and
keywords and none of that. So taking everything I know now
and applying it towards the Chris and Mike show page, it's

(18:22):
mind boggling the success and the and the trajectory it's
going and it's all organic, likeall of it.
Yeah, we're not paying big moneyfor advertising.
This is just him doing this on his own, you know, using his
brain and saying, OK, I'm just going to be consistent and I'm
going to do it at the same time every day and blah, blah, blah.
But consistency is the keyword that we both keep using.

(18:44):
So all that being said, when you're doing your stuff, I'm
assuming you have a YouTube pageand, and, and all that kind of
jazz. OK.
So we one of the things we do, we like to go like each other's
stuff and subscribe because thenit helps everybody grow
organically. So on your YouTube channel,
because we're not looking at it right now, do you have, do you
have training videos? Do you have kind of give us an

(19:06):
idea what that's about? And then I'm going to change our
subject in about 10 minutes. OK, first I want to go back to
what you said before is that oneother thing that I give to my
clients that very few people do is that I, I hook them up with
an app every Monday. I check in with every one of my

(19:29):
clients. I'll send message.
Now, I don't schedule clients onMonday is my office day, my
administrative day, but I take, I check in with every one of my
clients on Monday. Here's your homework.
How's your homework going? Do you have any questions?
Give me the highs, give me the lows.
What's going on in your life right now?
Check in with me. Let me know what's happening

(19:50):
every single Monday. Does everybody respond to me?
No, but they have 24/7 access tome.
That doesn't mean that I'm goingto answer your question at 3:00
in the morning, right? Right, right, right, right,
right. But at the same time, I'm not
leaving you hanging. I need you to know that I'm
jumping off this bridge with you.
Yeah. And so.
That's awesome, man. We're going to get through that

(20:11):
now. So, so there's, there's a whole,
there's a total level of accountability on a weekly
basis. Regardless, regardless if if
I'm, if you're coaching me and I'm not responding you still, I
still see that you're you're poking at me.
I feel that you're saying. He's in the back of your mind.
Yes, I dude. Absolutely, and it's not that

(20:32):
hard. It's not that hard, but it's,
it's a missed concept, man, because I've, I've done the
Buffini Fairy, Joe Stump, just all kinds of coaching real
estate platforms in 25 years. And I'm not bullshitting you,
Kelly. You're the first one that has
ever said up front, number one, it's an interview first and
foremost. And then it's all about now

(20:52):
moving forward. Your past is your past.
Stop dwelling on that shit because so many people do and #3
I'm going to hold you accountable.
You're going to get work, you'regoing to get homework.
You're going to be that's. I love that.
Here's a quick example. So when I was given lessons, I
would give you your lesson for the week and I would be very
clear. If you come back next week and
you haven't done the work, we'regoing to learn the same thing

(21:14):
next week that we learned this week.
That was upfront too, right? And you're going to pay me
again? Yep.
I'm not going to be mad. I'm not going to lose my temper.
I'm not going to be disappointedin you on any level.
But this has got to be clear. If you haven't done the work,
we're going to do the same thingnext week.
Because I already know how to play, right?
That's why I'm not disappointed.That's why I don't care.
You're not hurting me. You're hurting you.

(21:36):
Yeah, because you just lost another $20.
Right. Yeah, yeah.
You know, and going back to thatis one thing that what you guys
don't see on camera is that on that side of the camera I have
an, my entire wall is whiteboardand I have little notes to
myself. Spinning around.
Spinning around, man. Let us see it.
Is it possible? I guess, too.

(21:57):
Is it possible to spin around? Let's see.
Oh, there's the books. The wall.
Oh, there you go. That's awesome.
For those of you. Who are just listening.
He's just that's proved his point.
He's got notes and different colors all over the way.
Right on. And what is what's what's the
project find your fire? What's the statement behind you?
Because that's been that's been poking at me this.
Entire time. This is actually just a banner.

(22:19):
OK, yeah, I figured. When I do public speaking or
something. We want to know what the
statement. We want to know what it says
though. Be fearless in the pursuit of
what sets your soul. Dude.
I love that. That is awesome be.
Fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire.
Yep. And then a little bit of what we
offer. Games, public speaking, books,
workshops, coaching and personaldevelopment.

(22:41):
And what kind of games do you play, man?
And of course, what what musician wouldn't have an office
without? That's see, now that's the
perfect segue because this is Kelly Mayer, is it right?
We got to talk, Mayor. Yeah, for sure.
I. Don't know why I'm looking at
that saying Mayor Meyer, Kelly Meyer project finds your fire.

(23:02):
He's with us today and he's got some sleeve art going on.
Not only he's a coach and a yourfather.
A4. A father of four and a husband
33 years, I think you said, which is fantastic, actually.
Congratulations. So let's let's segue into the
Rock'n'roll man. Yes.
Let's go back into Wayback Machine.

(23:24):
Yeah, Wayback. Machine.
Wayback Machine, Yeah. So Kelly's in high school.
He doesn't give a crap about school and learning.
What year did you graduate? For Because he wants to be a
rock star. 88 is when I. Graduated 8989. 91 There you go.
So we're all within three years.We're all within three years.
So where'd you go to high school?
Just South of Lincoln, NE in Beatrice.

(23:46):
OK, so terrible student could care less because you had
aspiration to do something that those aspirations were.
To be a rock. Star, there you go.
And when did you? I had a backup plan, OK.
Me too, I did too. My backup plan was it was
Rockstar or I was going to be a stuntman or a rodeo clown.

(24:06):
Nice, brilliant. Because all of those are that's
like me. I went when I went to school for
journalism. I'm like, I'm going to be a
writer and I won, I won some internship and realizable.
This sucks because you don't make any money for busting your
ass for 20 hours writing an article.
So that's so brilliant me. Let's go from journalism, which
is hard to break into good. Let's go to acting because
acting is a surefire way to makea living.

(24:27):
So and then, you know, then thattransitioned into musics like,
OK, so pick the three most difficult things in the world to
actually be successful at because why not, right?
And so now I'm ending up sellinghouses for a living and, and,
you know, changing people's lives.
So there's no, there's no anger with that.
What what, what, what instrumentdid you play?
What was your role in the band? Guitar.

(24:47):
OK, cool. Lead Rhythm.
Lead. OK, right on.
How many? How many members in the band?
5. Five.
OK, So what were the what were the breakdown?
2 guitars, bass, drums. Singers, bass, drums.
Cool. And what kind of music?
Metal right on metal. Well, it was hair band.
It was. Oh, man.

(25:09):
So it was like one of those times when through the late
80's, the greatest generation ofmusic.
Yeah. And then what happened was
graduated in 88. The band, because of our age and
whatever, just sort of late to the party.

(25:29):
OK. Did not get into the grunge
thing, could not do it. So we stayed metal thing, you
know, denim and leather and you know.
George Judas Priest All out. Judas Priest.
Motörhead. Yeah.
Saxon. Saxon for sure.
They wrote the song Denim and Leather, right?
And brought us all the time. I think that, you know, we were

(25:54):
just wrong time, wrong place left what we were doing.
But So what happened was I have to I have to go back earlier
because this is a life story too.
And this is changing point in mylife and I didn't realize it at
the time, but when I was about 14, I wasn't even in high school

(26:16):
yet and I started spending time in a place that I probably
shouldn't have been, especially considering that I was supposed
to be in school during the day. But I loved playing pool, so
that's where I ended up spendingmost of my days.
I was in a state strip club, butyou know, same line of thought.
Yeah, same point. Hall for sure.

(26:36):
So there one day I went to firstperiod which was banned because
I was a band geek you know. And right then I grabbed my pool
cue from my locker headed down the street to the pool hall.
When I walked into the door there was an old man getting off
of his bar stool at the very endof the bar and he started
walking towards the front door as I was walking towards back

(26:57):
towards the tables. Never seen this guy before in my
life and when he got to me he stopped dead in front of me and
he said this to me. He said who are you?
I said why? I'm Kelly.
I was just a little punk. Right.
Hey, come on, man. I'm Kelly.
You don't know me. Come on, dude.
What's up? Yeah.
And he looked at me for a long time and then he said this to

(27:17):
me. He said no you're not.
And this you figure that out, the better off you'll be.
And he walked out the door and Ithought, now here I am just a
pimply faced little junior high punk, right?
What a weirdo. That's deep.
That is deep. I just, I got chills when he
said that. Man, that's powerful.
I didn't even realize it at the time.

(27:38):
Well, how could you? Shortly after my encounter with
the old man, I started going through that weird teenage
phase, like the discovery phase,who you are and stuff like that.
It was actually that crazy old drunk man's words that came back
to my mind. The sooner you figured out, the
better off you'll be. And so I took a stand.
This is who I'm going to be. This is what I'm going to

(28:00):
represent and this is what fit into my life.
Cool. Was it right?
No. But at least I made a decision
and I watched my friends all, you know, try to figure out who
they were. It never fit the social norm.
It was always the hair. It was always the earrings, the
the nose piercings with the chains and the.

(28:20):
Oh, you had those two like Snake.
From from. Skid Row.
Skid Row. Yeah, right on.
Even before the ink, you know, Iwould draw all over my, I would
create my own tattoo sitting in class because when I didn't want
to do that, it is just like, I didn't even really care because
this is who I'm going to be and this is what I represent.
And so I think that fed into what I would ultimately become.

(28:45):
And actually at the age that I am now, I'm going to be 56 in a
couple of months. Congratulations.
I still hear that old man's words.
Well, you obviously because you brought it up.
Yeah, it was so important to me at that time and, you know,
throughout my life. But then playing in the band,
not being in school and thing how it turned out was that after

(29:11):
I graduated, I graduated I thinkby default, I think they just
like just go away. It's.
Too small of a town not to graduate, you be.
Done, Yeah, go away. Started playing with the bed and
was going really well and right away ended up opening for Head

(29:32):
East on a couple of shows like Never.
Been any reason? Yeah, like that.
They're from Illinois. Very 300 people kind of shows,
but at least it was headline or opening for a big name act
started picking up some momentumand in the process I did find

(29:53):
sort of an Ave. of escape is that there was a college that
had an audio and recording degree.
Oh nice learn. To be like an audio engineer,
Sure. So I did start doing that.
And why? I did that through the College
of. Yeah, I was.
I built my own studio twice, notthree Times Now.
Nice. While I was doing that, then we

(30:17):
started. We got picked up by management
and was, so we started opening up for more.
Alice Cooper was one of them. Nice.
Just sort of a local, regional, you know, we were the local band
opening for in a local like surewing alley bar room type of
thing. And I remember Alice giving sort

(30:40):
of this speech. He came into our dressing room
is. This when was Alice still
drinking? Or was he sober by now?
He was sober, OK, but yeah. OK, OK, I got it.
Alice. Yeah, yeah, Alice lives in
Arizona. I actually, I've, I've done my,

(31:01):
my, some of the past things I'vedone.
I actually met his original guitar player, Michael Bruce.
Oh yeah. Cool.
And, and actually had, you know,probably four or five really
deep conversations that we did. Anything with him, right?
Yeah, yeah. So super nice guy, just, you
know, so that's why I asked about the the Alice, where he
was at when he came in. So go ahead with your story,

(31:21):
your Alice Cooper story. What was the name of the band?
You didn't say that. Highlander.
Highlander. OK.
Highlander. Oh oh.
We didn't wear kills though. I love the series so I'm
automatically a fan. OK, so this is Kelly.
He's talking about his band Highlander and and when they
were on tour with Alice Cooper, Alice Cooper coming into the
dressing room or they open for Alice Cooper.

(31:43):
Alice Cooper. Yeah.
It was just like, what? Single show?
And so he's like, yeah, you guysseem really nervous.
Yeah, kinda. And.
So he gave us like, it was like this dad pep talk, like, yeah,
like the dad pep talk, like, it's going to be OK.
And here's, you know, here's sort of what to focus on and
it's going to be OK. And you guys are going to do

(32:03):
great. And so it was just one of those.
He was a really sort of nice guy.
I didn't get to know him much more than that.
But after that, as things progressed, we ended up doing a
show in where were we in Omaha again, at some ballroom and

(32:26):
there was an A&R Rep. There just happened to be a
great show. The crowd was into it.
Good. Don't.
You love that when that happens.Oh yeah.
Everything, everything's just onpoint and you just come off.
Stage like, like the energy was just right.
Yeah, that's the best how you'llever have in your life.
Absolutely. Yep.

(32:47):
And then after the show he talked to us a little bit and
said he would like to hear more and invited us to record some
demo material and they would seewhat they could do with it and
ended up with who. Was he in ANR for?
A capital. A capital.
And we ended up with a three album spot.

(33:10):
We ended up doing two of those who and between the 2nd and the
3rd, we had already had recordeda bunch of stuff, but nothing
really grounded. And that's when the accident
happened. We ended up rolling the bus down
the Interstate. And so Metallica, yeah, kind of

(33:31):
like Metallica, except, you know, everybody survived.
Wow. Then we, I and one other person
spent considerable time in the hospital sort of trying to think
about life's choices. That time it was, you know, we
had had a lot of fun. We had opened for, you know,

(33:54):
poison and Skid Row and, you know, a few other guys.
But we were like, I, when I tellthis story, I always tell people
don't get so excited because we were like the opening band to
the opening band, like the local, regional, Oh yeah, we're
familiar. Yeah, I've been there, done
that. We I mean, we our our shows we
played range from opening Tony McAlpine, Marshall Tucker Band,

(34:17):
enough's enough Sacred Rike. I mean, it's just we had we were
that type of music. I explained to people we were
Creed before Creed was Creed because that's how I wrote
lyrics. I didn't write songs about
getting laid and and you know, drinking and shit.
It was real life stuff. Mike had his own style.
He you couldn't compare Mike to anybody.
Mike created Mike sound but the crazy.

(34:38):
Thing about us, man, is we couldget booked from every he just
the list he named you. When you tell people that
they're like, Oh yeah, now I know you're lying.
We opened up for the Marshall Tucker Band right in front of
them and we opened up for Sacredright right in front of them.
You couldn't get a more further musical genres apart, right?

(34:58):
Right. But sometimes he's right.
We slid into that because we weren't so heavy that we
offended people that didn't likethat kind of music.
But we weren't bubble gum rock either.
You. Know yeah, we weren't I called
it we weren't what did I call itTucson or Tempe candy ass pop
rock. We weren't we were in that same
window of the gym blossoms and and the refreshments and and the

(35:21):
dead hot workshop that local Tempe Tempe Jingle jangle.
But we we weren't the Tempe Jingle jangle sound.
We actually had substance behindour music and we could play with
anyone like we just kind of talked about it didn't matter
like we our our songs could stand alone.
Even the one that starts the show Freeman lyrically that's
still relevant today. That's awesome.
It's insane. Like a lot of our stuff that we

(35:43):
wrote initially is could still be relevant and being played
today because of I don't want tosay I was ahead of my time, but
some of the social things I talkabout they didn't exist back
then and but they're still relevant and and more
significant in today's world than it was back then or back
then. I was just writing to write.
I always tell him, man, the thing that attracted me to his

(36:04):
lyrics were that you, anybody can take them and interpret them
how you want, right? A lot of people might interpret
them the same way, but then you put 10 people in a room, there's
going to be two people that interpret it 180° from everybody
else, and you're like, Oh yeah, now I see that angle too, right?
Yep, Yep. That's absolutely true.

(36:25):
And as a music professor, I usedto teach musicology.
And John Cage, there was a composer in the 50s named John
Cage. He was an experimentalist and
one of his quotes, and I love the quote as he says that people
can go to a concert and leave just as stupid as when they went
in. That's great.

(36:49):
So yeah, the the varying in styles it you know, I talked
about the metal band and the hair stuff, but on the side I
actually had a gig for playing with Johnny Cash and Marie
Osmond as a contract musician. Cool part of their band band
that would always hire these contract musicians.
So I did a couple of shows with each of them.

(37:12):
Very my style but it worked out so.
That's awesome though. But that's.
That's very cool. Definitely 2 American icons for
sure. Oh yeah, yeah.
So you said that between the 2ndand the third album you had this
accident, right? So did the third album ever come
out? What they did is they ended up

(37:33):
putting bits and pieces of stuffwe had already courted recorded
into the third album so that we could satisfy the contract OK,
but it really was trash. So was the band done before that
album came out? Because that's what happens a
lot. Yeah, yeah.
So what happened was I made the decision while I was still into

(37:56):
the hot in the hospital to just,oh, she got hurt.
Yeah, yeah. So I googled Highlander the
band. Dude, there's a there's a a
Highlander Celtic rock band. Celtic music.
That's not us. There's the Highlanders, then
there's Highlander Music, and there's HP Highlander Band.

(38:18):
There's Highlander. Are these albums still
available? That's why I was doing this.
I mean, I'm sure they're out of print, but they would belong to
Capitol Records still. You know, I don't know.
What so type in Highlander Capitol records?
Crazy you got to get specific with the.
Yeah, 'cause I was thinking maybe still on on podcast or not

(38:38):
podcast on Spotify or you know, Apple Music.
If they have no idea. Yeah, there would have to be
some representative. That's why we're not on there,
because you or I would be a representative of that music.
Yeah, it just, it just comes up Highlander Capital Management,
LLC. Yeah, he falls into the same

(39:00):
category as us when people say hey how can I find your stuff
while we were pre Internet, right?
Yeah, right. Yeah.
Our band and our music lives were definitely Chris used to
record us on what was it, a middle camcorder.
Yeah, like a JVC handheld camcorder.
And that was the highest technology you could have at the
time. Man, we were all like, holy
shit, you got a camcorder? Yeah, layaway.

(39:22):
Layaway from Service Merchandise.
Beautiful thing, man. Like a little Fostex 4 track.
That's what I had. I was.
Like yeah. And then I went to an 8 track
quarter inch reel to reel. It was a Tascam that was high
tech man. I had a 12 channel board in that
eight track. Chris did a spoken word on

(39:43):
there. And then we actually recorded
the song you're listening to in the beginning.
That was recorded partly in my apartment and partly it.
Was in the bathroom. Yeah.
You know, but you know, the the one benefit of singing in a
bathroom is you have a mirror. So you can, if you, if you know
what you're doing as a singer, you can actually, you just focus

(40:04):
on, on your mouth as you're singing in the mirror.
And because there's little handsand tips that people don't like
with the to sustain an E, you push the bottom, you push your
tongue down to the bottom of your, your bottom teeth and you
hold, you press it there while you're holding the note out.
Well, when you're standing in front of a mirror, because I
learned this in vocal when I wasin college, I did vocal voice
addiction because I was theater major after journalism.

(40:24):
Part of it was was we had to hold a mirror in front of our
face in the class when we're, when we're doing certain
exercises. So it's actually a benefit to be
standing in front of mirror whenyou're singing because then you
can, you can remember those little tiny nuances from a
singer standpoint that make sureyou don't go sharp or flat.
You just subtle little things you do with your mouth and your
lips and your tongue and this, you know, you know, So it was

(40:46):
fun. Plus I'm not in there by myself.
I'm singing to my my reflection and the downside of singing.
In a bathroom is during mix down.
You can't say, hey, can you takea little of that reverb out
right? I always had AI always had a
little bit of a little bit of a reverb on my voice because I
like that subtle, the subtle, I don't know, I don't know how to

(41:07):
explain it. Just he is so easy, Kelly,
because he has. A natural Southern drawl.
He doesn't talk that way, but hesings like he's in Molly
Hatchet, right? So it's easy to put a very light
delay just to carry out the end of every note into the next
measure, right? I I never needed to.

(41:27):
Like I would put a slight delay if there were things that had a
bunch of open spaces, right? But I would time it to the beat
so that you would really never even know there was a delay
there unless it was a wide open space, right.
Yeah, right. He just has a naturally good
sounding voice. Yep.
I love putting a little bit of that.
On my guitars too, is that you don't notice that it's a delay

(41:50):
there. It just thickens it up.
But it's if you take it out, people go something's different.
Yeah, it makes it a bigger soundlike you want to fill.
The space and I was just fillingspace.
I was just fascinated that you. Know as a musician, we
understand that music is mathematics right I never
thought after I became a recording engineer and a live
sound engineer that you have to subdivide those effects into

(42:15):
that same time signature right so now you have to time your.
Delays and. Your reverbs to the actual beat
of the song and they have to change as the song changes.
You know that guy back there running sound is not just
finding a happy medium and then standing there and watching the
show the rest of the night, right?
He's probably working harder than anybody else in that room.

(42:36):
Absolutely, because. Yeah, and see I can.
Contest to that a little bit, 'cause when I was doing the
theater major, I did all the facets.
So I ran lights, I did the sound, I learned all those
different things. It's a lot of work, man.
Yeah, it is a lot of work. You're not just sitting there
watching what's going on on stage.
You're and you have the cues andyou have these checklists and
these note cards. I got to do the lights here and
that and the music sounds effect, blah, blah, blah, blah.

(42:57):
So yeah, people think running sound and stuff.
Oh, that's a great gig. You're just sitting there
watching the show. Well, not really.
You are, but not really. So while we're talking about
this, I got to know. What?
What was your rig? What guitars did you play?
What amps did you prefer? So my go.
To amp setup was as a PVV TM120 and I ran through vintage and

(43:19):
pig cabs. 4 twelves OK, Very popular during that time.
That was, that was my. Setup I ran dry mostly.
I had a delay pedal and a compressor and that was really
it. And for people listening, a
delay just. Makes the sound ring out and a
compressor keeps it from feedingback.

(43:41):
You're just basically pinching the sound to make it fuller,
more bottom end, right? Yeah, I did.
I did the same thing. Nice and.
Tight. You want that speaker to just be
blowing air forward all the time?
Absolutely I have. That was side A and then my side
B was APV renown. That was my first amp that I

(44:03):
ever got A. Compliment on.
I took the. I took the the 212 speakers out
of it and also ran it through. Those were black widows, right?
Yeah. They were I.
Ran that back through the ampegsalso, but that was my acoustic
setup. So on my electric side I had the
VTM and my acoustics that I had the renown.

(44:28):
So here's one thing that I noticed.
PV has some of the most and that's the reason it's used in
country music a lot. For people that don't know that
PV is super popular in country music because they're clean.
Sound is probably only second toVox or no Roland, yeah.
James Hetfield has one of the most beautiful.

(44:49):
Clean sounds. And Kirk Hammett has one of the
worst how he can listen to James's all the fucking time and
then think that what his the shit that's coming out of his
when they're playing clean is a good guitar tone.
I don't get it. His ears don't work right, but
the PV renown had a beautiful clean sound.
Marshalls the same way. They're clean.

(45:10):
Sound sucks. Yeah, you have to.
Doctor it, I used to use a. Quadraverb GT because I met
Chris at a candle box concert and I loved Peter Klutz clean
sound. I've sent him messages on
Facebook giving him compliments on that.
I was like, I totally stole yourclean sound just because you
know you listen to Far Behind and You Beautiful.

(45:34):
Beautiful clean. Guitar.
I was like, I got to know where.That's a great sound.
Fantastic. Man.
It's the Quadraver GT. So I put that in my rack and I
bypassed the, you know, just stuck it in the effects loop on
the Marshall and just bypassed that clean channel and use that.
Yeah. Oh yeah, for sure.

(45:55):
So for my guitars I I prefer my Jackson.
I've got a a dinky Rev the USA mid 90s dinky red so we prefer
the same company my. Baby is a Charvel STX custom.
Yeah, my Charvel that I really. Love, Actually my Jackson got

(46:17):
stolen. Oh, that's right.
I remember that. Yeah.
You were there, yeah. My Jackson.
Got stolen too. Oh my God, maybe it's the same.
Guy when I started teaching College in.
HOCKINGVILLE, Kansas I had all my guitars in my office, came in
one Monday and one of them was gone.

(46:39):
Like I knew instantly, like all the cases were lined up, 12 of
them. All the cases were lined up.
I unlocked the door, turned the lights on.
I'm like something is different,something is wrong.
And I started looking around theoffice like what the heck is
going on? And I noticed my Jackson was
gone. Well, here's what happened to
me, man, I. Was working at a pre press

(47:00):
house. I was a scanner operator.
That was my backup plan. I was I went to school for
graphic arts and it was pouring down rain that day and I had a
gig right after I left work. So I had my guitar and all my
effects in the back. And the guy that was working
maintenance at the place came running in and he said, hey,
man, somebody busted your windowout.

(47:20):
And I can't believe it. Your wallet's still there
because my I had left my wallet.In the car.
And dude, I didn't even have to think about it.
In 1/10 of a second it hit my brain.
I'm like, I said it out loud, mywallet's still there because my
guitar and all my fucking effects are gone.
And sure shit. So.
That's how I ended up with this.STX Custom.

(47:42):
It's crazy how the universe gives you what you need
sometimes. This thing has been with me for
what, 35 years now? 32 years I would never get rid
of it because that thing can do I can get sounds out of I can't
get out of another instrument every other guitar just.
It's good, but it's not that oneright.

(48:02):
I'm sure you've experienced it the same thing being a player
for this many years. Yeah, I ended up getting my.
Jackson back actually, because Icalled the police the my Dean at
the college and you know, they sort of put together this quasi
task force, poor thing. Well, I started.
Watching Craigslist? Oh yeah, Craigslist was.

(48:25):
Huge back then, right? A guitar came up for sale on
Craigslist. I'm.
Like I recognize that guitar. I know that guitar.
In fact, I had a a case. That I put all of my pics in
inside the the guitar case and it was still there.
Like everything was there. So I called the Police
Department. I'm like, I have my guitar and
they said OK, I want you to go buy it, we're going to come with

(48:47):
you. So I ended up getting my.
Guitar. Back and the guy goes to jail.
Did you wear Did you wear a wire?
No, I didn't have to wear that would have.
Been cool dude. No, he took the.
Cops with him. He was gangster.
I was I was going to meet him ina parking.
Lot of some store at the public parking, Yeah, and so the cops

(49:07):
said to. Me, the detective.
Said to me. Excuse me?
Yep, we're going to watch from over here, OK, He said.
As soon as you pick up the case and walk away, that tells us
that that's your guitar. Right on, man.
Then we'll come. In swarmed.
Yeah. They did.
There was like, was he all? Was he all like hyped out,

(49:27):
strung out on drugs, one of those type of thefts?
He was actually. One of the janitors at the
college, Yeah. Ouch.
So of all the guitars? I knew then that he had already
gone through all of my all of mygirls.
Yeah. And that was the one that he

(49:49):
wanted. OK, how many guitars did you
have? 12 OK wow when I.
Was about how many I. Had at my height.
Wow, I'm down to 4 now. See, I had one.
Microphone 1 mic stand. And I was good.
Now you know I had this. Little I.
Had like forget what I forget what it was.
I had some little you had APA system, I know.
I but that was more for. Band purpose, but I had that one

(50:11):
effects thing I had remember that.
I don't remember what the hell it was, but it would it would
where I would you, you would fuck with it.
So the the the delay and reverb and stuff we played.
Oh yeah, he had. I forget what it was, I'll think
about it while we're finishing, but you told me to buy it, so I
went and found. It and he had the most bad ass
delay. Reverb at the time, and I can't
remember who made it, it was so simple.

(50:33):
All it was was a reverb and a delay.
It had like 2 buttons. But this thing sounded
fantastic, man Yeah. What 2 guitars do you have that
you just showed us when you werepainting your camera around the
room? Oh, this is my Jackson and my.
Is the Jackson the one that you bought?
That you had to go. That's awesome that you still
have it. Yep, I also.
Have a. I've got a couple Gibson's my

(50:58):
acoustic line. I love Alvarez.
So I've got a couple 6 strings and a 12 string.
I've got a couple Gibson's, but one of my Gibson's is the oh
shoot, what did they call it? It had it has a my gosh, I was
just it's got a, a Les Paul bodywith a flying V headstock and

(51:21):
they made them between 74 and 70.
A Marauder. Yes, I was trying to think of
what they called. Those things, yeah, Paul Stanley
used to play one every. Once in a while I got 1 and I
got that one from a buddy in high school.
His brother had it and he said, you know, my, my older brother's
off to college. His guitar's in the closet.

(51:42):
You want to buy it? I said, of course I want to buy
it. He said 100 bucks, it's yours.
So I bought 100 bucks. That's a smoking deal.
And then I got. The crazy idea of Mr.
Modification is that instead of the the humbucker single coil
and it it was the like the wax covered pickups or paraffin

(52:04):
covered or whatever they covered.
Those were awesome. Yeah, they were paraffin
covered. This is such a guitar geek part.
Of the show I waited 100. And six episodes to talk.
To another guitar player, I knowhe Mike's been on me for so.
Long to get a musician. I've been trying and then here
you are, Kelly. We didn't even know you're a
musician, so you're just feedinghis fire, which is fantastic.
That's what we So please continue.

(52:26):
Because it's all going right. Over my head, man.
But Mr. Mr. Modification. I thought I had the great idea
of throwing in a couple of humbuckers, You know, I don't
remember if they were probably. Friends for us ignorant folks.
What's a humbucker? So 2.
Pickup. Were there two sides?

(52:47):
Oh pickups? As soon as the pickup, I knew
what it. Was yes, so instead of having
one they're. Wired together.
OK, I just didn't realize that was the technical term was a.
Humbucker because that'd be a great name for a band.
So when they here's a here's a quick.
History on guitars. When they invented the guitar,
there was only the single coil. And when you plugged it into the
amplifier, there was a inherent hum in the amp that would never

(53:08):
go away. So as music got louder, the hum
got louder. And it's annoying, right?
Every time you stop playing, it's.
Yeah, yeah. Well, somebody just one day
said, I wonder if I stick these two together and I put extra
windings on them, if that won't make the hum go away because now
the polarity is being reversed, right?
You have positive, negative pushand get more away from each

(53:32):
other. And they plugged it in, and
that's why they call it a humbucker.
There's no more hum. Is that where Neil perk up the
line? Everybody got the.
Deviate from the norm, yeah. Reverse polarities, yes, OK.
I got a great. I I got a.
Great famous guitar player storyfor you.
So I'm working at Guitar Center in Phoenix.
Shout out to 152. And this guy comes.

(53:56):
In wearing a Hawaiian. Shirt and a pair of shorts.
You know, it's the middle of thesummer.
Just like like he looked like somebody's dad walking in off
the street, right? The only thing that made.
Him look a little different is he had.
Shoulder length hair. And he was probably, I don't
know, 50 some at the time. He's looking at, you know,
Guitar Center puts all their most expensive guitars at the

(54:17):
top where nobody can reach him. Obviously he kept looking up and
nobody was helping him. So I walked up and I said, hey,
you need some help? He says where you guys keep your
special guitars. And he had a thick English
accent. I said, well, that's as special.
As they get. Right there.
And he said no, no, no, you misunderstand.
Where do you keep your special guitars?

(54:39):
I was like, oh, I had only been working there for maybe six
months, 8 months. I really still didn't understand
what he meant, you know? So I went and asked my manager
and he said, Oh yeah, he's looking for like custom shop
stuff that we would keep, maybe even not here.
But he says ask him what he's specifically looking for.
So he was specifically looking for Gibson's and Fenders.

(55:02):
So we take him in a private roomand we had to get some stuff
from Scottsdale and Tempe. So there's like 20 to 25 minute
drive back and forth on a good day.
So I'm talking to him and he starts talking about his friends
over in England, specifically Jimmy and David and Robert.

(55:23):
And I'm like. You can't be meaning Paige.
Plant and Gilmore, he's like, Ohyeah, yeah, they're my mates,
you know, my, my mates sleep, get a guitar.
Go to get back home. Yeah.
Play with the boys in the band. What do you got for me, Mike?
What do you got? So we find him this.
Tom Murphy, you know. Do you know who Tom Murphy is?

(55:44):
He's a master builder for Gibson.
Beautiful. This guitar was $12,500 and 2003
so you can imagine what it wouldcost now, he starts.
Playing this thing, Kelly I. Can't tell you how much that day
showed me what a 3000 guitar $3000 guitar sounds like and a

(56:07):
$12,000 guitar sounds like. So much so that he tried
different cables and because he was the one playing it, you
could. Totally hear.
You know all the nuances that hewas looking for.
Come to find out, this guy's name was Ted Turner.
He played in a band called Wishbone Ash, and he's rated by

(56:30):
Rolling Stone magazine as not only the inventor, him and his
buddy of the twin guitar attack that Judas Priest used, that
Iron Maiden used, that Def Leppard used, that everybody
adopted, your band adopted. He is credited with being the
originator of that particular. Here's how Rock'n'roll is going
to be presented to the world. That is cool I.

(56:53):
Knew who he was because I workedwith a.
Guy in the graphic arts industrynamed Daryl Haldane.
He was from South Africa and he worshipped Wishbone Ass.
So he had already introduced that band to me years before and
he, the guy told me he's like, you probably don't know who we
are because we were significant about the time you were born,

(57:13):
you know, I said, oh, I know whoyou are and that.
Fascinated him so he's that was my street.
Tread right there. Oh yeah.
That's awesome. So.
We got about 15 minutes left here.
What's what's like? Because Mike and I like, we like
to deep dive in things. So.
So you're married, 4 kids. How old are the kids?

(57:34):
My oldest is 29 and. Then 2521 and 18.
My baby just graduated high school.
OK, all boys, girls mix. My oldest 2 are boys, my
youngest. 2 Are girls OK? Yeah, so my daughter's.
That was born in 96. My son was born in 2001.
My son's a Marine. My daughter's giving us our 2

(57:55):
little grandchildren, school, school, being a nurse and stuff.
Is everybody still kind of staying in the Wisconsin area
where you live or they venturingout Like we've had some guests
that the kids are like all over different parts of the world.
No, I've got. My oldest is in.
Pittsburgh. And are they?
Are they excited about the AaronRodgers pick up?
He's not much of A. Football fan so he he could care

(58:17):
less. Gotcha, Gotcha 4.
Steelers, Aaron. Rodgers just needs to go away.
Fine, right? Thank you.
Just just call it a day. Man, I.
That's like when Brett Favre didthat shit, Like just just call
it a day. Your last two years weren't
productive like LeBron James. Go away now, go away.
You're destroying the NBA every time you open up Facebook,
Instagram. I saw a real last night of the

(58:38):
greatest actor in the NBA and itwas LeBron.
All his like a 15 minute collagebasically of all the stupid shit
he does, you know, one was was aphantom punch.
He was going around a basketballplayer and then like nothing,
nothing touched his body. The guy with the ball didn't.
Touch him at all, LeBron. Yeah, it's like, dude, just.
Go away now you're. Just you're trying to get stats

(59:00):
go away. Emmett Smith, would he?
We left the Cowboys. He was gone for stats, Yeah.
And it's time, you know, for a lot of.
People for a lot of different things, you know, and I watch
you know, come around here we'vegot a lot of casinos in the
area, you know watch some of thebands that we played with back
in the day in their their greatness right now they're

(59:20):
reduced to playing for crowds of200 at the casino and I'm like
and just but but is that but seebut see there's a thing.
Though, Kelly, is that their fire?
What you going to say Is that their fire?
Man. Because if that's.
Their fire they're going to continue because I believe it or
not, if, if, if, if, if our bandnemesis was still together and
we had rode that crescendo, we'dstill be playing shows pot of

(59:41):
playing Casino, right? I mean, just because if, if
that's if that's your passion, right, then you have to do what
you love. Just like you preached earlier
on your on your thing. So we played it.
You knew what I was going to say.
You just walked right into that.I knew you were going to come
back because pizza. Joint where?
They were advertising People's Johnson Party of Five, your
pizzas ready while we were jamming, you know.

(01:00:05):
I think we've all. Had gigs like that.
Absolutely. That's the fun of it, man.
That's the. Fun of playing in front of the
three people that play in front of 2000 people.
And the difference of your performance is exactly the same
because you're playing and doingwhat you love.
It doesn't matter how many people are there.
Here's where I'll. Here's where I'll.
Agree with you and disagree withyou.
I completely agree with what Chris said.

(01:00:26):
You walked right into that one. But here's where I'll agree and
disagree with you if the band isstill.
Able to play the songs. Effectively agreed.
I don't care if they're playing for. 5 people and five.
Million, right? If they're doing what they love
and they're making a living in it, that's great.
But when they become a parody ofthemselves, like Axel Rose and

(01:00:49):
David Lee Roth. Then I have a problem with it.
I. Agree with that 100%.
That was the caveat. To that was the asterisk.
Do you not go out there and ruinthat band's image?
The only one that I'll throw outthere right now that people seem
to have a problem with, and they've eased off, thankfully,
is the Pantera reunion. We can't get Darrell and we
can't get Vinny up there anymorebecause they're dead, right?

(01:01:10):
Right. Let let the people who never got
to see it, they picked the two best people on the planet to
represent those two people who are no longer with us.
If you didn't get to see Pantera, this is the next best
thing, right? And there's a difference of that
then. Like like say Foreigner, because
Foreigner still touring. There's not one single original
memo from Foreigner touring. No.
What are you doing? What are you doing?

(01:01:31):
You're a cover band. Yes, go away.
Go, go away. Then it becomes.
A real. Revelation of or.
Exposure of what is business versus music because now it's
the brand and it doesn't who's representing the brand, it's the
brand. You know, Levi's jeans will

(01:01:53):
always be Levi's Jean. But let me ask you this before
we get too. Far away from that subject, how
do you feel about that? Like if all the members of
Foreigner are unable to represent that music anymore, is
there anything wrong with their blessing?
These people. Carrying it on because KISS
wants to do the same thing, right?
I think, see, I think it's bullshit if you're not if

(01:02:13):
you're. Not if there's not an original
member in the band. There's no point in it's Led
Zeppelin. OK, Why did Led Zeppelin stop?
Bottom died, right. Boom.
Right. Aerosmith stopped touring wide.
Aerosmith stopped touring recently because Steven Tyler's
voice. You're not replacing Steven
Tyler. Now, Lincoln Park took a decade
to replace to replace Chester, but I don't think that does the

(01:02:34):
band any justice because she's not Chester.
She will not sing like Chester. They got a check because of the
range she needed to be able to, but they're in the same boat.
Where? You can't because he's dead.
It's the same thing exactly. It's like NXS has.
Gone nowhere since Michael Hutchins died.
So ACDC John, bottom of NXS you can't replace.
That dude exactly ACDC. Was lucky they had two

(01:02:56):
lifetimes. Bon Scott and Brian Johnson
right? But I mean, name, name other
bands that have been able to carry on without an integral
part. And I aside from ACDC, I don't
really. I can't really.
OK, Yeah, yeah. Van Halen.
That was a whole. That's the only rather 1 though,
right? So there's two.
Out of all the. Bands everywhere couldn't agree
with you more so I think. Foreigner just needs to hang it.

(01:03:17):
Up, but I want his opinion on it, yeah.
I don't even Van Halen was able.To carry on without their
original formation because we'reactually more successful
monitor. It was a different styles.
Different music. It was a different.
I'm not going to disagree with you there.
More popular though, I think that.
Van Halen. After Dave left, I think Van
Halen was done. And then it's great that those

(01:03:40):
musicians got together because they produced something that was
really outstanding. Yeah, it wasn't Van Halen.
It was Van Hagar or Sam Halen. I agree with that.
Oh that's a cool 1. Sam Halen I like.
That that's I never heard that one before.
I agree with that, but in the 2 examples.
That we brought up Chris is right.

(01:04:03):
They were both more successful on the flip side, ACDC and Van
Halen. But every musician in the world
will say exactly what you just said.
Van Halen was dead after David Lee Roth left the band.
It didn't have the same energy to it, right?
What is different because and because I've seen.
We've all seen clips of Van Halen in their heyday, David de

(01:04:25):
Roth, just he, he would never stay on track with the songs.
He would never sing in key live.He just, some of the stuff I
watched like 2 just well, he wasdrunk a lot for sure right?
So that's the thing I. Think I think Sam Halen will
call because I love that. Kelly.
They they put on a show where you could, you knew what you
were going to get every night. Yeah, You know what I mean?

(01:04:46):
You knew Sammy was. I mean, they're going to be
drunk and what not because they're a party man.
But he still performed at the level that that he held himself
accountable to. He was a professional singer.
He wasn't showman. Comparison.
David Lee Roth. No, we can all agree, I think
that David Lee Roth set the foundation as a front man in a
rock'n'roll band. Who to be, how to be what?
How to look, the persona, the charisma, the engaging of the

(01:05:07):
crowd. Right.
Because even though he wouldn't sing.
I saw something the other day. It was a compilation.
They were doing an interview with him and his back and forth
with their their music and stuff.
But you can't take away from thefact that when they were.
Good. They were good.
They were, they were good. Most nights he was on his game
and they just ruled the world with the fucking stacks all the
way to the Oh yeah, yeah, you know that Unchained.

(01:05:29):
Video that you always bring. Up I love that was one of the
first. Images.
That I saw that made me say holyshit, how can I do that too,
because I want to stand in frontall those that was that was that
was the first song the. First video I ever saw and I was
the same thing. Like, you know.
And but I also agree with your. Statement.
That I saw Van Halen two or three times with Sammy and it

(01:05:52):
was a quality product every right and I saw both I saw.
David Lee Roth on the Edeman Edeman Smile Tour, which was oh,
I did too. I saw him open up for.
Or no, Cinderella opened up for them and blew him off the stage
and he was he was flawless. Like he.
Was he was He was singing, he was in tune, he knew the lyrics.
He wasn't fucking around. Right.
He wasn't fucking around like heand then.

(01:06:13):
He he starts fucking around so much and it takes away, I think,
because being a singer, I want the singer to do their fucking
job. Not, you know, sit there with a
bottle. Because then later in life, I
saw him and Sammy on tour. The Sammy, Sammy and him would
rotate headlining nights, right?So Sammy kicked them off.
The Sammy just blew him off the stage.
From a performance standpoint, David Lee Roth comes out, he

(01:06:33):
headlined that night. Lights go dark and we're just
sitting there waiting. He comes out when this blue
sequins jumpsuit skin tight and has a bottle of Jack and he's
using the bottle of Jack as his penis the whole show like he's
singing and he's it's like, whatare you doing, man?
Just and we left. I we left like, I don't know, 20

(01:06:54):
minutes into a SEC because it was just, it's so embarrassing
and just like, dude, come on, like just do the do what you're
here to do. There's entertaining and
entertaining, and then there's just.
Being an idiot, right? And he was just being an idiot,
correct? It's just, it was.
Disappointing, but so I had seenand I've seen Van Halen with
David Lee Ross, so I saw solo with the band and I saw Sammy

(01:07:15):
Nick and I've seen Sammy a few times solo and then with Van
Halen. So yeah, it's just it's two
different products. On on.
Sammy is one of the best live rock'n'roll singers.
The world has ever heard Yeah, agreed.
He's just. Consistent night after he.
He doesn't have the biggest range, no, but at his age, to be
able to go out there and deliverlike he does, even to this day,
is fascinating. Yeah, because he's excellent. 70

(01:07:37):
age or. Something he's like the same
age. As Bill Clinton.
Yeah, look at look at Sammy and look at Bill Clinton, right.
Well, Sammy. Hasn't had, you know, 67% of the
people he's known killed to weigh on his soul.
He's probably had 67% of the people gotten drunk with him.
That's a good. Spreading love and.
Positivity into the world. Or or you know, and just

(01:07:58):
straight up murder. You know, and the dynamic of.
Of the life, you know? Yeah, I don't want to be on that
list. Oh yeah, we're all gone
tomorrow. Damn it.
Put a voice name. Hey.
So this is Kelly before we let him go.
You still play. Yeah, you know, I do still play.
But it's limited. Make it a priority.

(01:08:22):
Make it, well, most. Of my time.
Is, you know, working with people and talking with people.
And so put 10 minutes back into your day.
Every day. That's Well, I do I, but you're.
Going to you'll send me a. Message later on, you'll be
like, thanks man. I've been doing it every day and
now my life has changed. Yeah, this is your fire.
You need that for you. This is my fire.
This is my I had to do that for.Me.
That's why I'm telling you. When I'm this guy did that for

(01:08:45):
me. He made me accountable.
And start playing again. And I've got a full studio in
the basement too. That I record it still still,
But when I'm not traveling, doing workshops and keynote
stuff, I, I'm playing and, you know, I get calls lots of times
to, you know, sit in with a praise band or sit in with a pit

(01:09:05):
orchestra for a different production of something.
So I'll always pick a gig like that.
But, you know, I'm not looking to be in a band because I've,
I've lived that life. Right, Right.
OK, I'm OK. With where I'm at.
But yeah, Oh no, I'm never goingto stop playing.
And that's why I've got, you know, a couple of micro that is

(01:09:25):
awesome. So.
Before I wrap this thing up, I want to ask you, I want to go
back in time to our conversation.
You had the the you had the, the, the piercings from the nose
to the ears. Yeah, right.
OK. How do you blow your nose, man?
The same as. Everybody else.
But here's the thing. When I did it, I got my nostrils
pierced in. I could almost tell you the year

(01:09:46):
it was 80. I bet it was 89 OK before it was
a thing. Sure, kind.
Of like when I shaved my head in90s people.
Nobody was shaving their head freaking us all on OK.
And so I went. To a place where they did ear
piercings and I, I want you to Pierce my nose.
And they said, I don't think we can do that.
I said, well, I saw, you know, this in the magazine.

(01:10:08):
I think Snake already had. Yeah, I think that's where I got
the idea. I've seen the.
Thing, so I know you can do it. She literally called the doctor,
the hospital and asked if it wasOK to make sure it wasn't going
to paralyze my face. And so she stuck the gun like
right up in my nose. They're like hot.

(01:10:28):
Oh God. That hurt like hell, so I had
like a normal. Piercing like the giant post in
it and then I'm like, I'm already here, go ahead and do
the other one. So she stuck the gun up.
Oh dear. So I've got close and so I
could. Blow my nose.
Except when you get a cold, you know the snot just hangs off of

(01:10:53):
those big inside things, so you always have to keep it.
Closed. Keep it cleaned up.
So did you? Did you sleep with the chains?
No, I took the chains out OK because that.
Was my other thing like how do you?
Sleep with that shit man. Let me make you feel better
about that period. In your life, these kids today
are splitting their tongues. Yeah, you can't fix that.

(01:11:14):
Not. I could see.
Certain aspects of of. A dynamic that would be
beneficial to the female part ofthat relationship.
That would be it. That would be it, yeah.
What a. Great place to end the show.
Hey, we are Chris and Mike. This is Kelly Mayer.
He is project Find Your Fire andthat's project Find yourfire.com
Scoot this way. I want to read your thing.

(01:11:35):
I want to read your thing, Kelly.
There you go. Be fearless in pursuit of what
sets your soul on fire. Project.
Find yourfire.com. Check them out.
You're going to love them. We love them.
And we just met him. So this has been a great,
engaging conversation. We always so much.
Man. That's awesome.
Yeah. Yeah.
Thank you for very much for. Joining us and and letting us
have some time with you because it's valuable.

(01:11:56):
If you've watched our shows at all, you know, we always end
with don't let the bad days wind.
If you're feeling suicidal, depressed, find somebody to talk
to. Somebody will miss you tomorrow
if you don't wake up. So don't create the hole in
somebody else's soul. Reach out, get some help because
everybody loves you. Everybody needs you and and
don't be that person. Mike and I both had experiences
with somebody taking their reliance and it sucks.

(01:12:17):
So just don't do it. You can find us on Instagram,
Facebook and YouTube. Like subscribe, follow all kind
of jazz. Kelly's show will drop here in,
I don't know, a week or so, something like that.
We'll give you all the content we have from here, Kelly, so you
can share it all you want as well.
Until next time, Anything else you want to say, Kelly and wrap
it up? No Live with love and live with.

(01:12:38):
Passion that's all. Live with love, live with
passion. See you later everybody, have a
great day.