August 15, 2025 • 42 mins
Part 2 of our visit with Billy focuses on his battle with Focal Dystonia and his decision to switch from a world-class right handed guitarist into a world class southpaw. Unreal story.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Thank you for tuning into theKindness Chronicles.
The guest that we had this week,Billy McLaughlin, was so
fascinating that we decided todo it as a two-part program.
What's the deal with nobodyleaving Voicemails anymore?
(00:23):
All righty.
Welcome to The KindnessChronicles, where once again, we
hope to inject the world with adose of the Minnesota kindness
that it desperately needs.
And this is part two of ourinterview with Billy McLaughlin.
I had a couple of buddies say,man, if your hand's feeling
weird, you know, you should justtake some time off.
And I did.
And three months later, I, not,maybe not three months, it was
(00:47):
maybe two months later, I wentto pick up my guitar and start
to play some stuff.
And I, my pinky and third fingerhad curled up underneath the
neck.
And I'm like, well, this isfing.
That's not good.
This is completely weird.
What is going scary on?
I couldn't play any of my, Imean, I'm, I'm a university
educated guitarist.
(01:08):
You can play his scales at 16th.
No.
At 140 beats a minute.
You know, like just ripeverything.
Mm-hmm.
And here I'm going like, I can'teven play my own songs.
Oh boy.
What is this all about?
And I immediately, you think,okay, well you had a hand
injury, you gotta go back to thehand doctors.
Okay.
It's gotta be mechanical.
(01:29):
Yeah.
Tendon was messed up forsomething.
Yeah.
It's be me something mechanical.
That's the mechanics of thehuman, uh, you know, healthcare
system are are are the, theguys, the or orthopedic guys?
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
So you go find the orthopedicguys and they, it, the
structures worked out.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Exactly.
And they looked at, they lookedat everything.
I kept going back and saying,there's something wrong.
You guys, there's something youmissed.
(01:50):
They're like, after like beingsent home four or five times.
Being told, there's nothingwrong with your hand.
Excuse me, sir.
We think that you might havestage fright.
And I'm like, dude, this ishappening when I'm playing in my
basement.
You know?
Right.
Yeah.
This has nothing to do withanxiety or anything like that.
(02:12):
And I was, I was baffled.
The doctors weren't able to tellme anything, so I went through
the, I, I got in touch with LeoCooch.
Leo says, go to this, uh, uh,acupuncture guy at 33rd, and
Linde, who's, he's still theredoctor way Lou, he's fantastic.
But the acupuncture didn't help.
Um, quitting caffeine didn'thelp, you know, no more beer for
(02:37):
a couple years.
That didn't help.
Mm-hmm.
You know, nothing.
Seemed to help.
Mm-hmm.
And I couldn't.
When something goes wrong as amusician, there's one way and
one way only to get it figuredout.
You practice.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
It's the P word, everybody.
Mm-hmm.
You practiced.
Mm-hmm.
And that's how we fix things.
And the more I practiced, theworse it seemed to get.
(02:57):
Really?
What year would this have been?
Um, this was 98.
Okay.
And, uh, it took, so I wentthrough, uh, two years of not
knowing what the heck was wrongand canceling shows'cause I
couldn't play.
Oh God.
Most of the stuff.
Um, I remember one woman I wasplaying, uh, out near Milwaukee
(03:18):
and in Cedarburg, and she says,you're drunk.
And I'm like, and I said, youknow what, man?
I am not, but I really kind ofwish I was right now.
Yeah.
After your, because I wasstruggling, you know, and, and
when you're playing solo guitar,if something doesn't sound
right, it's, it's, it's him.
Oh, right.
Yeah.
He's, he, there's somethingwrong with, especially when
(03:39):
you're solo and, uh, I rememberwatching interviews and people
questioning you right and leftand you started then
questioning, am I going outta mymind?
You know?
'cause you're starting tobelieve what you're hearing.
And that's part of what I, why Ithought your story's inspiring.
'cause we all have those boutsof self-doubt sometimes when you
go through the ups and downs oflife.
(04:02):
And did someone suggestpotentially a neurological
thing?
Yeah.
And you, you go ahead.
So Andy York, uh, is one of thefinest classical players in the
world.
Um, if you're into classicalmusic, you know, his and Andy
was here playing, um, a show atThe Cedar, I think with this
Indian guitar player, MohanVish.
(04:24):
ACH, I think was his name.
And, um, a wonderful guitaristfrom Brazil who I'm spacing on
his name right now.
But the important thing was Iwent out with these guys, um,
after the concert and talked toAndy, was a very dear friend at
from USC and I was telling himabout my symptoms and the guy
from Brazil goes, I know whatthat is.
(04:47):
No, you guys have been lookingunexplainable issue for almost
three years.
This guy looks at me, he goes,that's focal dystonia.
And I never heard those wordsuntil this guy we were at, uh,
what, what's the Yeah, isn'tthat near Latvia?
No.
Oh no, that's us.
Sorry.
Yeah.
Right, right, right.
(05:08):
No, I remember when we weresitting at, um, what's the place
across the street from theCedar?
It was that Graham from 400 orsome there, the 400 or something
like that.
Yeah.
I forgot it was called too.
When, when he says to me, focalde Sonia, I just saw, and he
says, you need to look it up.
And it's not as uncommon as youmight think.
Hmm.
And so I'm, uh, you know, ableto start looking around on the
(05:33):
internet.
Mm-hmm.
And I go, I better get in andsee this.
And luckily here in the TwinCities, we have, um, at the time
it was called Sister Kenny.
Mm-hmm.
Institute at, um, uh, at Abbott.
Yeah.
Um, had a musician's clinic andhad a very experienced
neurologist who had me bring myguitar in.
And she, she diagnosed me in 30seconds.
(05:55):
She said, wow, that's focaldystonia.
It's classic.
Um, whether it's on the piano,whether it's on the violin,
whether it's on, um, the oboe,it's characterized by two,
typically the pinky and thirdfingers losing contact with the
brain.
Hmm.
There were never was a problemin my hand.
(06:16):
The, the orthopedic eyes wereright, the finger, the braking
never had anything to do with itin that No, no, no.
It, it's indicated that a lot oftimes when this neurological
condition happens that there canbe, it, it can be proceeded like
bike accident.
Okay.
Or, or, or, or something likethat, you know?
Mm-hmm.
Trauma of some a, a trauma ofsome sort.
(06:36):
Yeah.
And, and so clearly I'm thinkinglike what you're thinking was,
well, you just had dislocatedfingers, you know?
Must, it must be mechanical.
Yeah.
It turns out it's not.
It is the right side of my braincontrols my left hand and that
pathway to my pinky and thirdfingers is gotten screwed up
(06:57):
and, and I, through all therepetitive fast movement.
No, actually that's, that's,it's not, okay.
That's not, that's not aninteresting, that's not an
indication because, um, ahundred guitarists could have
played everything I played asoften as I did, and I'm the only
one out of it.
So we've.
By serving with the DystoniaMedical Research Foundation, if
(07:18):
you're interested in dystonia,and it does sound like a, a
country song.
Mm-hmm.
You can't buy my, my line is youcan't buy a plane ticket to
dystonia.
Dystonia.
Dystonia.
You wouldn't want to.
It's the third most commonmovement disorder.
And other forms of dystoniainclude the most common one,
which is Writer's Cramp severeWriter's cramp where your
(07:38):
penmanship is so bad.
You, you know, you really can'tsee the yips in, in, in the, in
the golf world are considered,huh?
Form of dystonia.
Really.
Yes, absolutely it is.
I think I might have that.
Well, maybe just a bad golfer.
Maybe that's it.
Uh, so, so getting a diagnosiscan be so helpful sometimes.
(08:00):
Um, and one of the great thingsshe said to me, even though I
immediately went into denial andI didn't accept what she was
telling me,'cause she said,you're gonna have to figure out
what else to do'cause it's gonnaget worse.
And it did.
But the other thing that, um.
She shared was, you know, uh, wedon't have any cures for this at
(08:21):
this time, but you did nothingwrong to dis this dystonia is
not something you, because youwere living wrong or Right.
You know, or playing, playingwrong or anything like that at
all.
She says it just happens.
And often times in certainethnic groups, especially kids
(08:43):
are born with it throughouttheir entire body and they're
initially diagnosed withcerebral palsy and it's not,
it's, it's what's calledgeneralized dystonia.
Mm-hmm.
And the dystonia MedicalResearch Foundation pioneered
the work that has led us todiscover 19 different genetic
markers that are, that in areindicated in different forms of
(09:04):
dystonia.
They haven't found the gene for,for hand dystonias yet.
Wow.
Yeah, so, well, I can't wait tosee my friends at the mi, the
Masonic Institute for theDeveloping Brain and drop a
little dystonia talk on Yeah,we're learning all kinds of good
stuff to share now, John.
Well, when I was diagnosed, Iwas, I would get out and, and
(09:26):
you know, after I startedplaying left-handed, I was
invited to start speaking allaround the world.
And, and I would say, I wouldask audiences, you know, how
many of you have heard ofdystonia?
And there would be one out outof four or 500 people, there'd
be one hand.
Back when I started.
Now when I speak about it and Iask, have any of you heard of
(09:47):
dystonia?
I'll get like 20% or 20 timesmore than that.
I'll, I'll get 30 people saying,yes, I have heard of dystonia.
That's, no, you just quicklyglossed over.
When I started playing lefthand, that's like burning
question.
How did that, how does thathappen?
You know, I'm a like a baseballguy and the idea of going from
being a right-handed pitcher toa left-handed pitcher at a
(10:09):
competitive level at a competilike world class level.
Yes.
How the hell does that happen?
What a shift in your brain youhad to do just a motivational,
like what?
How did that work?
Like at what point did youdecide, you know what, this
ain't working, I'm gonna.
Flip.
I told you guys, I, I, I'm in alove affair with my guitar and
I, you know, really, it's So Youhad the feeler up actually.
(10:30):
It's, well, yeah.
Well, it's, it's surprisingthough that it took me as long
as it, as it did, and people doask, how long did it take from,
you know, when you started to,when you, you know, got out and
did your first left-handed showand it was about six years.
Okay.
But, um, it would've beenquicker, but over the first year
(10:51):
and a half or two years, I wouldgo at it for a week or maybe two
weeks and it would just f itwould be so painfully
frustrating and torturous for mykids to hear me trying to do
this.
'cause I was, I was trying tolearn, like, like the, the title
track from Finger Dance was theone I started with.
(11:13):
So I figured if I can't playthat left-handed convincingly,
then I'm not, I'm well, I'mjust, John, think of it this
way.
YI, I'm, he, he, it's music hewrote and knows, and now he's,
he has to do it in a totallydifferent way, but it's all in
him.
So how frustrating that must be.
I, I can't imagine picking up aguitar playing the opposite way.
(11:34):
I I can barely play it as is andto do that the other way.
Hey, but we, we actually, sowhat, what a shift in your brain
that would be.
Yeah.
It took a long time.
We actually have a listener thatleft a voicemail question
knowing that you were gonna bein the studio.
Uh, that kind of leads intothis.
Okay.
Do you mind if, is it okay if Iplay it well?
Yeah.
It's a good technology.
Let's try it.
Alright, let's see here.
(11:55):
Hey, kindness Chronicles crew.
This is Marty here.
I've been loving the showlately.
Back when I was in college atUMD with Jeff, I saw Billy play
on campus and I've been a fanever since.
Hey, Billy, in your toughestdays trying to play again, did
you ever want to quit?
What kept you going?
Um.
His name's Marty.
Hi Marty.
(12:16):
Um, thanks for that question.
Um, an unexplainable love for,it's a love affair, man, music
and, realizing that I, I wasn'tdone yet.
I just, I, I heard a, a storythough that you, you put your
guitar in the closet.
Yeah, that's a true story.
So I'm working on finger dance,like I'm working on it.
(12:37):
Like I've been really afterlike, so during the first year
and a half when I was kind of onagain, off again, deal with it.
Then about about year two, Isaid, I'm really, I'm, I can't
be wasting time.
I've either have to do this andreally give it my absolute best
shot, not knowing what theoutcome would be.
But I'm working on finger dance,and I had it worked out you guys
(12:58):
where I would take the kids.
I, at this point, my marriagehad fallen apart.
Oh, you know, I, I, I had nobooking agent.
The label dropped, you know, weparted ways and so no income.
It was really a, a really tough,yikes, tough time.
But I had it worked out that Icould get the kids, I would
drive the kids to school when,you know, when they were with
(13:19):
me.
And I'd practice up untillunchtime.
I'd go have a quick lunch, comeback and practice and go pick'em
up around three o'clock.
I'd have like about five hours aday, and I would keep up the
five hours on the weekends too.
By the way, but there was a daywhen I had spent the whole
morning on the bridge sectionfor finger dance and I just
(13:40):
absolutely could not do it.
And I broke man.
And I'm, I'm telling you, youknow, what keeps you going?
Well, sometimes you, you have,you have to go through those
breaks, is what I'm saying.
I had to go through'em.
I, I literally, I like, I wasweeping, you know, like I was
just, I, I've been lying tomyself.
I'll never, nobody could do thisis never gonna happen.
(14:04):
I'm, I'm crazy and I was so mad.
I just shoved my guild, my dreadknot into the, the, the front
closet.
I, I knew it wouldn't break.
'cause there's all the snowcoats in there, you know, the
winter coats are all in there,but you can't break those
guitars too easily either.
Yeah, the gills are, yeah,they're beasts are so great.
They're so awesome.
So you punished your guitar forwhat it was doing?
(14:24):
Well, I just threw in the, inthe closet and I slammed the
closet door, which is right bymy front door and I stormed out
and, um.
I, I said, I gotta cheer my, I'mgonna go have some chicken green
curry, man.
I gotta have some Thai food.
So I went to the little Thaiplace right up by Kowalski's.
And um, Sam knew me, um, realwell.
(14:44):
And when he brought the bill,I'm looking at that fortune
cookie and I don't ever eat'em'cause I have guilt, Catholic
guilt of wasting the food.
So I never, I don't open them.
I never open them.
And Sam knew this and he saw me,he saw me open it up.
And this is the, the littlepiece of paper is taped to the
(15:08):
dashboard of a very sexy 2006town and country.
Rust Bucket.
Sweet minivan.
Sweet minivan.
And what did it say?
It said, many people failbecause they quit too soon.
Oh boy.
That day, boom.
That day.
That day.
I got goosebumps right now.
So do I.
That's cool.
And.
(15:29):
It hit me like a ton of bricksand Sam's looking at me like,
uh, Billy, you okay over there?
You know, because I was, I, Igot emotional.
'cause I, I, I could not believethat I got that message.
Geez.
Half an hour, half an hour afterdoing what I had just did.
You threw your girlfriend in thecloset?
Yeah, I threw her in the Thinkabout what you've done.
Yes, of course.
(15:49):
And, and so I, I get thismessage and I go, okay, number
one, God does get into fortunecookies.
And, and I got, I just got one.
Yeah.
I just got, that was, to me,that was a message from God, I
think it was.
And, and that's what she neededto hear either way.
Right?
Well, well, and so the rest ofthe story goes, I went home, I
(16:10):
got the guild out of the closet.
It's never been back in thecloset ever since.
It's a great story.
So I pushed through, I learnedthat piece, and then, okay, here
we go.
I'm playing pretty well.
And the doctors say, Billy.
Well, I just want you to knowthat all the um, um, writer's
cramp people that we had'emlearn with their other hand, 90%
(16:30):
of'em got dystonia in the otherhand.
Oh, Jesus.
So what?
Yeah.
So o over the course of it wasabout 20 year study.
Oh geez.
Well, that's, We'll talk alittle bit more here about,
about this, but they said ifthere's anything you've ever
wanted to do in your musiccareer, now that you're, if you
feel like you're at that pointwhere you're gonna start playing
concerts, whatever it is, do itnow.
(16:52):
Wow.
And the one thing that neverhappened at USC was they never
that incredible orchestralprogram at USC and an incredible
guitar program.
And there never was an acousticguitar, uh, meetup with the
orchestra.
All the orchestra kids were overthere and the guitar kids are
over.
Yeah.
Sort of separated guitar.
(17:13):
Yeah.
And I was, I was like, you knowwhat?
Yeah.
I love the orchestra.
I wanna do this.
I'm gonna have somebodyorchestrate my comeback concert.
So cool.
And luckily, one of the bandmembers, older brothers that was
the national composer of Mexicoat the time, EO Toussant, took
(17:35):
on my project to provide stringcharts for six tunes that were
either relearned pieces where Ihad, I I I had to transfer it.
Right.
Or there were some newcompositions now that I had.
That's nice to have somethinglike that.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And I, I, I, I had to book theevent at Maplewood Performing
(17:56):
Art Center.
I, I booked it about a year inadvance.
'cause I, I, I said I gotta havea target.
Right.
Give yourself some time.
Yeah.
Put the stink in the ground.
Okay.
Guess what happens, uh, aboutthen a local filmmaker said, we,
we need to, we need to tellBilly's story of what's going.
It's a story going on here.
Yeah.
They know what they're lookingfor.
And so, um, if.
(18:18):
We'll, we'll have to talk abouthow to try to get people access
to, there's a couple ofdocumentaries that have been
done about me.
We'll link them to your websiteand some of the strategic links
there.
Yeah.
Um, so some of this is Cap is cais captured on film, but, um, a
a longtime fan caught wind of iton, on my website.
(18:38):
It must have said somethingthat, you know, there, there's a
documentary happening.
This guy out of the blue fromConnecticut calls me, he goes,
Billy, I love your music.
I play guitar left-handed tooand I can't believe what you're
doing.
Um, if there's any way I canhelp with that documentary, if
your documentary, documentarycrew needs money or anything
like that.
Or more importantly, I have afull top end editing studio here
(19:02):
at my home in Connecticut.
I never use it'cause I'm on theroad with WWE all the time.
Oh, what.
Yes.
No, Doug, just, I gotta getthrough this one.
Yeah.
And this might, this, I might begoing over time here.
Go, go.
It's okay.
But here we go.
I'm a, I'm a year out from, froman event the documentary is
happening and the people workingon the documentary realize that
(19:25):
the best way to end the show,the documentary, is for me to
walk out and be, and, and havelive footage.
Sure.
Like, like real actual momentRight.
Of, of, of reckoning in my life.
Yeah.
Was to walk out left-handed forthe first time.
And, um, and so along the wayDave is getting the ideas, we're
(19:48):
getting to be friends, and I'mtalking to him and he's on the
road with WWE and we're talkingon the phone a lot.
And he's in the air, you know,airport after airport.
And then he says, when did yousay you booked that show?
And I said, well, it's gonna beApril 7th.
Um, of next year.
(20:08):
He goes, gimme a minute.
Hey, WWE only has four weeks offa year.
They do 48 weeks.
He said, we're gonna be inChicago doing WrestleMania the
weekend before.
(20:29):
And we're off that weekend.
The whole crew's off the entirecrew.
He convinced what?
19 people, two tour buses fullof WWE camera guys, audio guys.
Wow.
Billy, that's, yeah, that's abig production cost.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, but it was justunbelievable.
(20:51):
I had set the date a year aheadof time and he just goes, I
can't believe this.
We're gonna, I'm gonna make thishappen.
And he did it.
Dave Taylor did it.
And, and that was, that's a, a.
A DVD, um, called Coming BackAlive.
Yeah.
Because I felt like I saw someof the footage coming back
alive.
It's great.
(21:11):
It looks great.
It was, you know, the one thing,the bummer was it was about
three months before, uh, WWEwent to high Res.
Oh.
So it, unfortunately, thatparticular documentary was
rejected by PBS.
It was shown locally here, butbecause it was, it was res Yeah,
(21:33):
but it wasn't high daf.
Yeah.
And they weren't, it was at thatcrossover time.
So wait, what year would thishave been?
Um, 2 0 6 2007.
Okay.
Oh seven.
Okay.
Yep.
Oh six Wow.
Oh seven, that period.
Yeah.
And it took, you know, it, ittook Dave about a year to, to
edit the whole thing.
It took a long time, but he.
He did it, uh, pro bono and itpretty exciting music.
(21:56):
It's really beautiful.
Yeah, it is.
It, uh, and they decked out theMaplewood Community Center
really well too.
They've got a nice backgroundand it looks good.
Yeah.
Uh, and you've been on CBS thismorning, or Gordon Morning
America.
I think I, I've seen you on TedTalks and it, you're all over
the internet.
If you wanted to search on him,you could find more about your
(22:17):
story.
Are you on a, like a, a Ted Talkkind of tour?
A talking tour?
No, you know, I only did one.
Okay.
I did Ted TEDx Atlanta, andwhich was run by a really,
really cool creative guy.
I can't pull his name outta theback of my head right now, but
he did it like on the fly, likethere was no contract.
He just said, well, I'm justgonna send you, you know, a
(22:40):
check.
And I said, that's cool.
You know, it was like ahandshake deal.
The next time I was contacted todo a TED Talk, the contract
included language that saidanything that I.
Say, or any music that I play ata, at a TED Talk, it's theirs.
We own it.
Yeah.
And I'm like, I'm not doing anymore of those.
Yeah.
(23:00):
Wow.
I'm gonna come over here and doa podcast with these cool guys.
Yeah.
You can own this.
We don't care.
I, I, I find, I find you guys tobe very, very kind.
You're very kind.
Well, that's part of the, that'swhat we're shoot for.
But I have to ask, this isalways my favorite question when
we're with somebody that, uh,you know, you mentioned Jimmy
Jam.
Just sort of throw that name outthere.
(23:22):
And so you've, in, you'veencountered some pretty cool
people over the years.
Well, tell us about some of the,the, the encounters that you've
had with what we would considerfamous people that were
particularly kind.
Um, well, I have to goimmediately to Jimmy Jam.
He seems like a lovely guy.
(23:43):
I just, so my high school justhad a, it's 100th anniversary
two weeks ago.
And great high school, by theway, Washburn High School, we
give a lot of scholarships toWashburn students.
Oh, okay.
Well, uh, it, it, uh, it was aformative place for both him
and, and I.
It was, you know, that beingable to play for your peers in
(24:03):
front of, you know, 2,400 peoplein the course of two nights,
it's kind of a big deal tomm-hmm.
To be.
Is he about the same age?
Jimmy?
Um, he left school in 77.
Okay.
And I, that was the year that Igot to Washburn.
Okay.
He would've been a senior thatyear, but, so we were both just
inducted to the Washburn Hall ofFame.
(24:24):
Cool.
And apparently there's thestatistics or something like,
you know, there's been 80,000.
Kids graduated from Washburn andthere's only 60 people in the wa
in the Washburn Hall of FameElite.
But Jimmy, but Jimmy, it was socool.
Um, he was so approachable.
(24:44):
This is just, again, just twoweeks ago, very, very
approachable guy I had been atto an event, um, a Tiger Woods
event that they, that I playedat, and I, I couldn't even get
close to him at that time.
Those guys were so hot.
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
That you, you couldn't get closeto him.
Now he's just so absolutelygracious, um, person and, and,
(25:06):
um, does he still live locallyor is he in LA No, he's, he's LA
full time.
Okay.
But his dad, cornbread Harris isnow Hi.
Almost a hundred And Palmer's isclosing.
Yeah.
And, and that's been cornbreadthat his Sundays.
Okay.
Yeah.
So he's only got three moreSundays left over there.
But his dad was, was on sceneand, um, yeah.
(25:30):
Um.
John loves to hear about, uh,celebrities and we'd love to see
the angles of kindness.
Well, I, yes, I did open forJeff Beck.
Oh.
At the state theater all bymyself.
Yes, I did.
Cool.
But never met him.
He wasn't, he didn't show upuntil, you know, after.
Yeah.
That's how it works.
A lot of times.
Been booted up.
He seems a little bit like adiva.
(25:51):
He just does to me.
I know.
He is.
He was really into cars.
So maybe, maybe one of thenicest moments with a famous
person happened at OrchestraHall.
I don't know why they selectedme, but I was, I was, I asked,
Sue McLean asked me if I wantedto open for Bebe King.
Oh, wow.
Cool.
And, and, uh, I'm, I'm out theredoing the, my last song and I
(26:18):
caught the fact that he waslistening to me, uh, where I was
gonna be walking off to.
And he was standing there justkind of moving his head and
everything like that.
And I was like, wow, this islike surreal.
That's so cool.
Yeah.
He king.
He's looking at you andlistening to you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, you know, everyone claps.
I said Bow head right to him.
Went straight up to him and Isaid, Mr.
(26:40):
King, Mr.
King, I'm so excited to meet youand I have to tell you we have
something really important incom in common.
And he says, what's that?
And I said, we both love theguitar like crazy, don't we?
And he said, you write aboutthat.
And I don't know what you'redoing with that guitar out
(27:03):
there, but it is something else.
Keep doing it.
Well, Billy, and that was all hesaid.
Billy, one of the other thingsyou do in addition to your
awesome guitar playing is yourtheme of just your musical
theme.
The stories there, there's,there's, and you talked about
reggae was an influence and.
Bob Marley.
And I remember one of the songswas All God's Children and the
(27:24):
whole UMD.
Oh yeah.
People were there singing withyou and it was just a cool
moment.
So that, I just felt that waswhy you're here.
Because not only do you performand play great music and people
love listening to it, butthere's a sense of connection
and kg and, and the sportsconnections.
And I love that.
'cause you're tying in, youknow, the kind sports and
(27:46):
athletes, but there's also awhole nother creative element
that brings in kindness.
Um, and that's, uh, it's a,these are just forms of
expression, whether you're agreat guitar player or you're a
great hockey player or a greatmusician or drummer.
Um, so anyway, I just thinkthat's such a cool, uh, the
fact, the fact that you broughtup all God's children is very,
(28:08):
very interesting because theword kind comes as I understand
it from.
To be kin as to become familywith someone.
Hmm.
And if you're kin, if I'm kin toyou, how will I treat you?
(28:29):
I will treat you kindly.
Hmm.
Kindred.
Yeah.
We're, we're like, we we're,that's where that, that's
something Spirit.
Somebody should really dig intothe, um, history of that.
I'm sure Jeff will by next weekpretty pretty po I'm pretty
positive that that time is, itsounds right.
It sounds good.
So to be kin it is to be kindAnd all God's children about
the, is about this idea thatwe're, we're all one family is
(28:50):
what that song.
And so I was just trying to tieit to the, the Kindness
Chronicles here and how.
To, to feel like family.
Is it etymology?
Is that the, the, yes, I thinkso.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Word oranges, etymology iseating intimate donuts or No,
that's bugs.
Or bugs one.
Yeah, either one.
(29:10):
So Jeff, uh, intern.
Jeff, if you could get on that,that would, would be true.
I'm sure that'll, I'll look intothat and maybe I'll find some,
uh, guests that can help usdevelop that point further.
Even so, Steve, you know, youknow that feeling when the, when
the band and the audience are soconnected that you feel like
you've created like an instantfamily kind of Yeah.
(29:33):
Thing.
Yeah.
That's, that's the goal forevery show is to have, to get to
that peak, that moment whereeither you're all singing along
together or people are singingthe song back to you, right?
There's nothing like it.
You get in a flow state.
Where the, the crowd and you arekind of together and you're,
you're doing this thingtogether.
That's the only reason why I doit, Billy is Right.
So you can get that thing going.
Otherwise, you're just up therelooking at your shoes, trying to
(29:56):
show people how good you are.
It's not about that.
It's about, yeah.
And once you felt it, you justcan't sell.
Oh, yeah.
For anything less than that,you, that's all you're ever
going for.
You just can't sell for Michaeleven, or Billy.
Even if it's Michael.
Michael, I mean, who's Michael?
Even, even if it's, you'rehaving a stroke over there, even
if it's one or two people in thebar, when you play for, uh, you
(30:16):
know, you're out on the road andyou're, you're, you have to, you
have to play.
You have a show to do.
Nobody shows up.
You have a bartender or awaitress or somebody who you
play your heart out for thembecause they will go, no one was
here, but man, you should seethis band from Minneapolis.
They're coming back through nextyear.
Whatever.
Yeah.
It, it does a lot.
And you have to find thatmoment, even if it's for two
(30:37):
people and once you've had thatexperience.
So along those lines, do youremember the first time you had
that feeling?
Uh, you know what it really was,uh, on the stage at
O'Shaughnessy Auditorium where Idebuted that song on children,
it all came together for you, itsounds like.
Oh, cool.
Yeah.
Maxed out a credit card.
So maxing out a credit card canbe, that's the answer thing.
(31:00):
You know, I got no credit carddebt anymore, but I did pay that
sucker off right away.
I was like, but you know, attimes Got you through at times.
Like I didn't come from a familythat had any kind of real
finance SA savvy.
Yeah.
My dad was a, you know, a, a a asalesman, you know, a
commissioned salesman.
(31:21):
That's all I ever did.
Um, but this idea that, uh.
Best Buy has to borrow moneysometimes.
Mm-hmm.
They have banks that wanna lendto them.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
The only thing I had was mycredit card.
You sure?
I went in and tried to get weinvested in yourself.
Yeah.
(31:41):
Yep.
And, and, and you do.
And sometimes it's a littlescary, but sometimes you gotta
take that risk and, and bet onyourself.
That's right.
You know, I'm not, I'm, I am.
I'm.
Only ever bet on.
I'm not a betting guy.
I'm so not good at any gamblingof any type at all.
But I'll gamble on myself if Ithink I have a good idea to go
(32:01):
after.
That's what my wife is withshoes, like she bets on those
shoes are going to pay hugedividends.
Do you have another questionfrom a a fan?
Would you like it?
Uh, yes, we do have one more.
I just did one more question.
Okay.
Alright.
And then I have a final, uh,comment.
Yeah.
Okay.
And by the way, if you everwanna call the show, uh, yeah.
It's shameless plug.
Yes.
But we have a new voicemail linefor the Kindness Chronicles
(32:24):
podcast.
We'll call it the podcastvoicemail line 61.
Be kind 22.
61 be kind, 22 or 6 1 2 3 5 4 6322.
So this is for our, our peopleout there to call, call us if,
if you do know, if we doannounce who the next guest is,
(32:44):
which we don't do that veryoften.
Yeah, we don't know.
But give us, uh, give us somefeedback on the show.
Give us some, so some ideas for,uh, future shows or any kind of
feedback you wanna get.
We wanna hear anything frompeople.
All right.
Here's another, uh, question forBilly from one of our listeners.
Hi, kindness.
This is Lucinda, daughter of theSteve Brown calling from Cottage
(33:05):
Grove.
Billy, what's some helpfuladvice you have for young
musician like myself?
Let me know.
Thank you guys.
Uh, I've always said the samething.
When people ask that question, Isay, the, the best thing you can
do is find your audience andplay for them.
And it could be two people atthe bar, but you have to, you
(33:28):
have to get.
Out.
You can't stay home.
You gotta get out and take itand offer it to people.
That's how this works.
If you, if you're too afraid toget out and do it, you might
wanna maybe think of doingsomething else, but if, if you
really wanna go for it, yougotta go for it.
(33:50):
Mm-hmm.
Go.
Everybody has unique, uniquegifts.
Everybody has unique gifts togive.
The, the lesson I took away fromyou is life works in mysterious
circumstances.
Way leads to weigh that fortunecookie.
Those love that stuff, you know,forcing yourself to uptown and
running into the UMD guy.
I mean, it just, it we couldCrazy.
Yeah.
(34:10):
I'm sure.
And you have a book out?
What's your book called?
I don't have it.
Okay.
I thought, I thought, I'm sure,I thought you had a book better
transcribed.
I was looking for it on Kindle,but, uh, we're ready for it,
Billy.
We'll, we'll watch for it.
Is, is, do you have upcomingshows?
Do you have a I do.
Um, I'll have, I'll have, uh,most of my current.
Larger ensemble at, uh, HildeAmphitheater this Friday opening
(34:34):
for the Rumors and Dreamstribute Project, which is Mary
Jane Alm.
And Pamela Pamela McNeil.
Cool Max.
And just such a great, greatband.
So we'll be doing that.
Um, and then we will be inChatfield, Minnesota at the
chat.
At the chat Chatfield.
Cool.
The Potter Auditorium, 600Cedar.
Um, the next big gig in themetro for me, we decided, um,
(34:58):
that we would, uh, at theParkway Theater the night of the
full harvest moon that we would,and regardless of what day of
the week doesn't matter.
This, this year, it's a Monday.
Okay.
October 6th, which is late forthe, for the harvest moon to
come that late.
It's usually in September, but.
What we did.
(35:18):
What we did, we've been doing itnow for a few years and last
year I decided these guys are sogreat coming out on weird
nights, I'm gonna do somethingnice for'em.
So everybody that came out tohear music from Neil Young's
Harvest and Harvest Moon albums,it's just the music, it's so
Harvest 1971, harvest Moon,1991.
(35:39):
So 20.
You know, it's a real wonderfullook into the uni talent That is
Neil Young.
Yeah.
It's just, it's really a reallycool show.
But last year, okay, everyonewho comes to the Parkway Theater
the night of the Full Moon, thefull Moon rose at 7 15, 15
minutes before the show started.
(35:59):
And at the end everybody leftwith a moon Pie.
Oh boy.
And the selfies of people withmy bus, the front of the bus
with the full moon right above,above Chicago Avenue and holding
the moon pie.
So we've got this tradition nowwhere we're looking.
We're, we're doing it again thisyear.
Okay.
We bought 300 moon pies lastyear.
(36:21):
We're gonna buy 400 this year.
And, uh, so that's a big one.
And then I've got my, uh, 22ndannual Christmas tour that I
self produce.
Uh, that will be 11 shows inseven different areas of
Minnesota.
Okay.
It's such a great band too.
One of my favorite songs you dois called Into the Light, I
(36:44):
believe.
Uh, and I, I was, I could notfind it, um, around this time
when you had your focal dystoniaand I saw on your website you
were practicing and making thecomeback, and then I read a
article that you had chosen notto record that.
And then it was sort of alesson, I hope I read this
right, but it was sort of alesson to you, like you never
(37:05):
know when something bad couldhappen and you can't record
something, and then you quickwent out and recorded it and I
found it on like a guitarmeditations, um, cd.
But I remember reading that youwere like, that was a lesson to
me when I got Focal Dystonia andI had sort of only saved this
song for live performances.
Do I have that right?
Yeah.
It was another lesson that Ikind of took away from you
(37:27):
reading about that.
Well, I had, you know, I come upwith some really dumb ideas that
I think are really smart.
Um, and I had this idea that.
I would start my concerts with apiece.
This piece you mentioned, it wasna it was titled by my friend
Linda Williams, um, down inMobile, Alabama.
That's what she said.
It made her feel like, you know,she was entering a, a, a
(37:53):
beautiful sun.
It is awesome.
Or something like that.
Awesome.
Yeah.
And I just had this stupidtheory that if I started all my
shows with that song and neverrecorded it, that they'd, people
would have to come to hear me.
if you want to hear that song,you're gonna have to come out to
actually come and hear.
There you go live.
And it was a completely stupidthing.
(38:14):
Of me to do.
That was cool though, but makesit unique.
But the, the cool, the, theneatest version of that is with
the orchestra.
Yeah.
On that, the night of my lefthand coming back, I, that was
the first one you recorded and Iwondered if that was why you did
that first.
Yeah.
So that was the opening piece.
Yes.
And, and it, it's all aboutcoming into the light.
Yep.
Beautiful.
So you mentioned that you taughtat Evans Music and, uh, kind of
(38:38):
a fun Evans music story for, formy family, my son Jack, when he
was like in fourth grade, hedecided I'm gonna start playing
the guitar and he was doing hislessons.
And I'll never forget, at hisfifth grade talent show, he
wanted to play the guitar.
And what he played was the firstlike two minutes of Metallica's
(39:03):
one.
Right on.
And every parent in that, likethe kids didn't know that, that
music.
Yeah.
But every parent was like, what?
Wow.
The, and it was spot on.
Wow.
And Jack had this, I mean,that's a tough little piece to
play, Jack.
Yeah.
At fifth.
Fifth grade.
Fifth grade.
That's, that's fifth grade.
He, he was, you know what hedid?
(39:24):
Do you know what he did afterthat?
Retired?
He said he went out on top.
He did.
He said, that was so cool.
I'm just gonna start throwing mybaseball more.
That's right.
Okay, so your children, uh, howold are your kids?
Well, I'm married into three.
Um, um, Kimmy is, let's see, uh,she's 43.
Holy smokes.
Just turned 43.
(39:45):
And then there's Ashley, who is40.
Then there's Cole, who's 38.
Duncan, who is gonna be 33.
And Blaze, who's 29.
Oh wow.
Yeah.
Are they all still around?
Um, yep.
They're all still local.
Yep.
Local in fact.
And my son, uh, blaze lives withme and has, uh, seizure
(40:06):
disorders.
Okay.
Which is not related to dystoniaeither, but, um, interesting to
have neurology be a pretty bigtopic on you bet on White Bear
Avenue.
Yeah.
Any other musicians in thefamily?
Um, yeah, there were, my brotherMichael was a professional
trumpet player.
I was lucky enough to do one ofthose, uh, life scapes projects
(40:27):
and include him, uh, playingtrumpet.
He had studied at Eastman, whichis a pretty prestigious, uh,
east Coast School of Music.
Okay.
Um, he, he's unfortunatelypassed, but every, nobody
playing professionally.
Mm-hmm.
Um, but, and you're, none ofyour kids are involved in music
or No.
Okay.
No.
Nope.
But my, my youngest blaze, he,he does.
(40:49):
A pretty nice John Bonum.
Oh, really?
S sloppy high hat, kind of.
He's got a great, feel fun.
That's cool.
But I don't know how, if he'syou, I wouldn't blame the kids
if they didn't really wannapursue music as a living.
I can see why they might have ajaded, uh, or, or, or certainly
a, a, you know, an uninformed.
(41:10):
Outlook on that.
The path is not easy.
Yeah.
No, it's not.
But you've made it look easyand, and have stayed nice and
kind throughout the wholejourney.
For sure.
So, well, on behalf of a verygrateful, uh, kindness
Chronicles crew, I just want tothank you for taking the time
generous with your time, youknow?
Yeah, man, if you even quithyperventilating, you got so
relaxed.
(41:30):
It was fantastic.
K G's gonna be pissed that hemissed this one, but he'll,
he'll get over it.
Well, tell, tell him I, uh, I,I'm a fan of how he calls the
games, you know?
Yeah.
He's something.
We miss him.
But we'll get him back soon.
Get him back soon.
Anything, any, uh, it's, it'ssuch a pleasure to sit down and
talk with you, Billy.
Thank you so much.
(41:50):
And you represent the show well.
Very well.
Glad to be on it.
Thanks.
And off we go.
Thank you for tuning into theKindness Chronicles.
The guest that we had this week,Billy McLaughlin, was so
fascinating that we decided todo it as a two-part program.
What's the deal with nobodyleaving Voicemails anymore?
(00:23):
All righty.
Welcome to The KindnessChronicles, where once again, we
hope to inject the world with adose of the Minnesota kindness
that it desperately needs.
And this is part two of ourinterview with Billy McLaughlin.
I had a couple of buddies say,man, if your hand's feeling
weird, you know, you should justtake some time off.
And I did.
And three months later, I, not,maybe not three months, it was
(00:47):
maybe two months later, I wentto pick up my guitar and start
to play some stuff.
And I, my pinky and third fingerhad curled up underneath the
neck.
And I'm like, well, this isfing.
That's not good.
This is completely weird.
What is going scary on?
I couldn't play any of my, Imean, I'm, I'm a university
educated guitarist.
(01:08):
You can play his scales at 16th.
No.
At 140 beats a minute.
You know, like just ripeverything.
Mm-hmm.
And here I'm going like, I can'teven play my own songs.
Oh boy.
What is this all about?
And I immediately, you think,okay, well you had a hand
injury, you gotta go back to thehand doctors.
Okay.
It's gotta be mechanical.
(01:29):
Yeah.
Tendon was messed up forsomething.
Yeah.
It's be me something mechanical.
That's the mechanics of thehuman, uh, you know, healthcare
system are are are the, theguys, the or orthopedic guys?
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
So you go find the orthopedicguys and they, it, the
structures worked out.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Exactly.
And they looked at, they lookedat everything.
I kept going back and saying,there's something wrong.
You guys, there's something youmissed.
(01:50):
They're like, after like beingsent home four or five times.
Being told, there's nothingwrong with your hand.
Excuse me, sir.
We think that you might havestage fright.
And I'm like, dude, this ishappening when I'm playing in my
basement.
You know?
Right.
Yeah.
This has nothing to do withanxiety or anything like that.
(02:12):
And I was, I was baffled.
The doctors weren't able to tellme anything, so I went through
the, I, I got in touch with LeoCooch.
Leo says, go to this, uh, uh,acupuncture guy at 33rd, and
Linde, who's, he's still theredoctor way Lou, he's fantastic.
But the acupuncture didn't help.
Um, quitting caffeine didn'thelp, you know, no more beer for
(02:37):
a couple years.
That didn't help.
Mm-hmm.
You know, nothing.
Seemed to help.
Mm-hmm.
And I couldn't.
When something goes wrong as amusician, there's one way and
one way only to get it figuredout.
You practice.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
It's the P word, everybody.
Mm-hmm.
You practiced.
Mm-hmm.
And that's how we fix things.
And the more I practiced, theworse it seemed to get.
(02:57):
Really?
What year would this have been?
Um, this was 98.
Okay.
And, uh, it took, so I wentthrough, uh, two years of not
knowing what the heck was wrongand canceling shows'cause I
couldn't play.
Oh God.
Most of the stuff.
Um, I remember one woman I wasplaying, uh, out near Milwaukee
(03:18):
and in Cedarburg, and she says,you're drunk.
And I'm like, and I said, youknow what, man?
I am not, but I really kind ofwish I was right now.
Yeah.
After your, because I wasstruggling, you know, and, and
when you're playing solo guitar,if something doesn't sound
right, it's, it's, it's him.
Oh, right.
Yeah.
He's, he, there's somethingwrong with, especially when
(03:39):
you're solo and, uh, I rememberwatching interviews and people
questioning you right and leftand you started then
questioning, am I going outta mymind?
You know?
'cause you're starting tobelieve what you're hearing.
And that's part of what I, why Ithought your story's inspiring.
'cause we all have those boutsof self-doubt sometimes when you
go through the ups and downs oflife.
(04:02):
And did someone suggestpotentially a neurological
thing?
Yeah.
And you, you go ahead.
So Andy York, uh, is one of thefinest classical players in the
world.
Um, if you're into classicalmusic, you know, his and Andy
was here playing, um, a show atThe Cedar, I think with this
Indian guitar player, MohanVish.
(04:24):
ACH, I think was his name.
And, um, a wonderful guitaristfrom Brazil who I'm spacing on
his name right now.
But the important thing was Iwent out with these guys, um,
after the concert and talked toAndy, was a very dear friend at
from USC and I was telling himabout my symptoms and the guy
from Brazil goes, I know whatthat is.
(04:47):
No, you guys have been lookingunexplainable issue for almost
three years.
This guy looks at me, he goes,that's focal dystonia.
And I never heard those wordsuntil this guy we were at, uh,
what, what's the Yeah, isn'tthat near Latvia?
No.
Oh no, that's us.
Sorry.
Yeah.
Right, right, right.
(05:08):
No, I remember when we weresitting at, um, what's the place
across the street from theCedar?
It was that Graham from 400 orsome there, the 400 or something
like that.
Yeah.
I forgot it was called too.
When, when he says to me, focalde Sonia, I just saw, and he
says, you need to look it up.
And it's not as uncommon as youmight think.
Hmm.
And so I'm, uh, you know, ableto start looking around on the
(05:33):
internet.
Mm-hmm.
And I go, I better get in andsee this.
And luckily here in the TwinCities, we have, um, at the time
it was called Sister Kenny.
Mm-hmm.
Institute at, um, uh, at Abbott.
Yeah.
Um, had a musician's clinic andhad a very experienced
neurologist who had me bring myguitar in.
And she, she diagnosed me in 30seconds.
(05:55):
She said, wow, that's focaldystonia.
It's classic.
Um, whether it's on the piano,whether it's on the violin,
whether it's on, um, the oboe,it's characterized by two,
typically the pinky and thirdfingers losing contact with the
brain.
Hmm.
There were never was a problemin my hand.
(06:16):
The, the orthopedic eyes wereright, the finger, the braking
never had anything to do with itin that No, no, no.
It, it's indicated that a lot oftimes when this neurological
condition happens that there canbe, it, it can be proceeded like
bike accident.
Okay.
Or, or, or, or something likethat, you know?
Mm-hmm.
Trauma of some a, a trauma ofsome sort.
(06:36):
Yeah.
And, and so clearly I'm thinkinglike what you're thinking was,
well, you just had dislocatedfingers, you know?
Must, it must be mechanical.
Yeah.
It turns out it's not.
It is the right side of my braincontrols my left hand and that
pathway to my pinky and thirdfingers is gotten screwed up
(06:57):
and, and I, through all therepetitive fast movement.
No, actually that's, that's,it's not, okay.
That's not, that's not aninteresting, that's not an
indication because, um, ahundred guitarists could have
played everything I played asoften as I did, and I'm the only
one out of it.
So we've.
By serving with the DystoniaMedical Research Foundation, if
(07:18):
you're interested in dystonia,and it does sound like a, a
country song.
Mm-hmm.
You can't buy my, my line is youcan't buy a plane ticket to
dystonia.
Dystonia.
Dystonia.
You wouldn't want to.
It's the third most commonmovement disorder.
And other forms of dystoniainclude the most common one,
which is Writer's Cramp severeWriter's cramp where your
(07:38):
penmanship is so bad.
You, you know, you really can'tsee the yips in, in, in the, in
the golf world are considered,huh?
Form of dystonia.
Really.
Yes, absolutely it is.
I think I might have that.
Well, maybe just a bad golfer.
Maybe that's it.
Uh, so, so getting a diagnosiscan be so helpful sometimes.
(08:00):
Um, and one of the great thingsshe said to me, even though I
immediately went into denial andI didn't accept what she was
telling me,'cause she said,you're gonna have to figure out
what else to do'cause it's gonnaget worse.
And it did.
But the other thing that, um.
She shared was, you know, uh, wedon't have any cures for this at
(08:21):
this time, but you did nothingwrong to dis this dystonia is
not something you, because youwere living wrong or Right.
You know, or playing, playingwrong or anything like that at
all.
She says it just happens.
And often times in certainethnic groups, especially kids
(08:43):
are born with it throughouttheir entire body and they're
initially diagnosed withcerebral palsy and it's not,
it's, it's what's calledgeneralized dystonia.
Mm-hmm.
And the dystonia MedicalResearch Foundation pioneered
the work that has led us todiscover 19 different genetic
markers that are, that in areindicated in different forms of
(09:04):
dystonia.
They haven't found the gene for,for hand dystonias yet.
Wow.
Yeah, so, well, I can't wait tosee my friends at the mi, the
Masonic Institute for theDeveloping Brain and drop a
little dystonia talk on Yeah,we're learning all kinds of good
stuff to share now, John.
Well, when I was diagnosed, Iwas, I would get out and, and
(09:26):
you know, after I startedplaying left-handed, I was
invited to start speaking allaround the world.
And, and I would say, I wouldask audiences, you know, how
many of you have heard ofdystonia?
And there would be one out outof four or 500 people, there'd
be one hand.
Back when I started.
Now when I speak about it and Iask, have any of you heard of
(09:47):
dystonia?
I'll get like 20% or 20 timesmore than that.
I'll, I'll get 30 people saying,yes, I have heard of dystonia.
That's, no, you just quicklyglossed over.
When I started playing lefthand, that's like burning
question.
How did that, how does thathappen?
You know, I'm a like a baseballguy and the idea of going from
being a right-handed pitcher toa left-handed pitcher at a
(10:09):
competitive level at a competilike world class level.
Yes.
How the hell does that happen?
What a shift in your brain youhad to do just a motivational,
like what?
How did that work?
Like at what point did youdecide, you know what, this
ain't working, I'm gonna.
Flip.
I told you guys, I, I, I'm in alove affair with my guitar and
I, you know, really, it's So Youhad the feeler up actually.
(10:30):
It's, well, yeah.
Well, it's, it's surprisingthough that it took me as long
as it, as it did, and people doask, how long did it take from,
you know, when you started to,when you, you know, got out and
did your first left-handed showand it was about six years.
Okay.
But, um, it would've beenquicker, but over the first year
(10:51):
and a half or two years, I wouldgo at it for a week or maybe two
weeks and it would just f itwould be so painfully
frustrating and torturous for mykids to hear me trying to do
this.
'cause I was, I was trying tolearn, like, like the, the title
track from Finger Dance was theone I started with.
(11:13):
So I figured if I can't playthat left-handed convincingly,
then I'm not, I'm well, I'mjust, John, think of it this
way.
YI, I'm, he, he, it's music hewrote and knows, and now he's,
he has to do it in a totallydifferent way, but it's all in
him.
So how frustrating that must be.
I, I can't imagine picking up aguitar playing the opposite way.
(11:34):
I I can barely play it as is andto do that the other way.
Hey, but we, we actually, sowhat, what a shift in your brain
that would be.
Yeah.
It took a long time.
We actually have a listener thatleft a voicemail question
knowing that you were gonna bein the studio.
Uh, that kind of leads intothis.
Okay.
Do you mind if, is it okay if Iplay it well?
Yeah.
It's a good technology.
Let's try it.
Alright, let's see here.
(11:55):
Hey, kindness Chronicles crew.
This is Marty here.
I've been loving the showlately.
Back when I was in college atUMD with Jeff, I saw Billy play
on campus and I've been a fanever since.
Hey, Billy, in your toughestdays trying to play again, did
you ever want to quit?
What kept you going?
Um.
His name's Marty.
Hi Marty.
(12:16):
Um, thanks for that question.
Um, an unexplainable love for,it's a love affair, man, music
and, realizing that I, I wasn'tdone yet.
I just, I, I heard a, a storythough that you, you put your
guitar in the closet.
Yeah, that's a true story.
So I'm working on finger dance,like I'm working on it.
(12:37):
Like I've been really afterlike, so during the first year
and a half when I was kind of onagain, off again, deal with it.
Then about about year two, Isaid, I'm really, I'm, I can't
be wasting time.
I've either have to do this andreally give it my absolute best
shot, not knowing what theoutcome would be.
But I'm working on finger dance,and I had it worked out you guys
(12:58):
where I would take the kids.
I, at this point, my marriagehad fallen apart.
Oh, you know, I, I, I had nobooking agent.
The label dropped, you know, weparted ways and so no income.
It was really a, a really tough,yikes, tough time.
But I had it worked out that Icould get the kids, I would
drive the kids to school when,you know, when they were with
(13:19):
me.
And I'd practice up untillunchtime.
I'd go have a quick lunch, comeback and practice and go pick'em
up around three o'clock.
I'd have like about five hours aday, and I would keep up the
five hours on the weekends too.
By the way, but there was a daywhen I had spent the whole
morning on the bridge sectionfor finger dance and I just
(13:40):
absolutely could not do it.
And I broke man.
And I'm, I'm telling you, youknow, what keeps you going?
Well, sometimes you, you have,you have to go through those
breaks, is what I'm saying.
I had to go through'em.
I, I literally, I like, I wasweeping, you know, like I was
just, I, I've been lying tomyself.
I'll never, nobody could do thisis never gonna happen.
(14:04):
I'm, I'm crazy and I was so mad.
I just shoved my guild, my dreadknot into the, the, the front
closet.
I, I knew it wouldn't break.
'cause there's all the snowcoats in there, you know, the
winter coats are all in there,but you can't break those
guitars too easily either.
Yeah, the gills are, yeah,they're beasts are so great.
They're so awesome.
So you punished your guitar forwhat it was doing?
(14:24):
Well, I just threw in the, inthe closet and I slammed the
closet door, which is right bymy front door and I stormed out
and, um.
I, I said, I gotta cheer my, I'mgonna go have some chicken green
curry, man.
I gotta have some Thai food.
So I went to the little Thaiplace right up by Kowalski's.
And um, Sam knew me, um, realwell.
(14:44):
And when he brought the bill,I'm looking at that fortune
cookie and I don't ever eat'em'cause I have guilt, Catholic
guilt of wasting the food.
So I never, I don't open them.
I never open them.
And Sam knew this and he saw me,he saw me open it up.
And this is the, the littlepiece of paper is taped to the
(15:08):
dashboard of a very sexy 2006town and country.
Rust Bucket.
Sweet minivan.
Sweet minivan.
And what did it say?
It said, many people failbecause they quit too soon.
Oh boy.
That day, boom.
That day.
That day.
I got goosebumps right now.
So do I.
That's cool.
And.
(15:29):
It hit me like a ton of bricksand Sam's looking at me like,
uh, Billy, you okay over there?
You know, because I was, I, Igot emotional.
'cause I, I, I could not believethat I got that message.
Geez.
Half an hour, half an hour afterdoing what I had just did.
You threw your girlfriend in thecloset?
Yeah, I threw her in the Thinkabout what you've done.
Yes, of course.
(15:49):
And, and so I, I get thismessage and I go, okay, number
one, God does get into fortunecookies.
And, and I got, I just got one.
Yeah.
I just got, that was, to me,that was a message from God, I
think it was.
And, and that's what she neededto hear either way.
Right?
Well, well, and so the rest ofthe story goes, I went home, I
(16:10):
got the guild out of the closet.
It's never been back in thecloset ever since.
It's a great story.
So I pushed through, I learnedthat piece, and then, okay, here
we go.
I'm playing pretty well.
And the doctors say, Billy.
Well, I just want you to knowthat all the um, um, writer's
cramp people that we had'emlearn with their other hand, 90%
(16:30):
of'em got dystonia in the otherhand.
Oh, Jesus.
So what?
Yeah.
So o over the course of it wasabout 20 year study.
Oh geez.
Well, that's, We'll talk alittle bit more here about,
about this, but they said ifthere's anything you've ever
wanted to do in your musiccareer, now that you're, if you
feel like you're at that pointwhere you're gonna start playing
concerts, whatever it is, do itnow.
(16:52):
Wow.
And the one thing that neverhappened at USC was they never
that incredible orchestralprogram at USC and an incredible
guitar program.
And there never was an acousticguitar, uh, meetup with the
orchestra.
All the orchestra kids were overthere and the guitar kids are
over.
Yeah.
Sort of separated guitar.
(17:13):
Yeah.
And I was, I was like, you knowwhat?
Yeah.
I love the orchestra.
I wanna do this.
I'm gonna have somebodyorchestrate my comeback concert.
So cool.
And luckily, one of the bandmembers, older brothers that was
the national composer of Mexicoat the time, EO Toussant, took
(17:35):
on my project to provide stringcharts for six tunes that were
either relearned pieces where Ihad, I I I had to transfer it.
Right.
Or there were some newcompositions now that I had.
That's nice to have somethinglike that.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And I, I, I, I had to book theevent at Maplewood Performing
(17:56):
Art Center.
I, I booked it about a year inadvance.
'cause I, I, I said I gotta havea target.
Right.
Give yourself some time.
Yeah.
Put the stink in the ground.
Okay.
Guess what happens, uh, aboutthen a local filmmaker said, we,
we need to, we need to tellBilly's story of what's going.
It's a story going on here.
Yeah.
They know what they're lookingfor.
And so, um, if.
(18:18):
We'll, we'll have to talk abouthow to try to get people access
to, there's a couple ofdocumentaries that have been
done about me.
We'll link them to your websiteand some of the strategic links
there.
Yeah.
Um, so some of this is Cap is cais captured on film, but, um, a
a longtime fan caught wind of iton, on my website.
(18:38):
It must have said somethingthat, you know, there, there's a
documentary happening.
This guy out of the blue fromConnecticut calls me, he goes,
Billy, I love your music.
I play guitar left-handed tooand I can't believe what you're
doing.
Um, if there's any way I canhelp with that documentary, if
your documentary, documentarycrew needs money or anything
like that.
Or more importantly, I have afull top end editing studio here
(19:02):
at my home in Connecticut.
I never use it'cause I'm on theroad with WWE all the time.
Oh, what.
Yes.
No, Doug, just, I gotta getthrough this one.
Yeah.
And this might, this, I might begoing over time here.
Go, go.
It's okay.
But here we go.
I'm a, I'm a year out from, froman event the documentary is
happening and the people workingon the documentary realize that
(19:25):
the best way to end the show,the documentary, is for me to
walk out and be, and, and havelive footage.
Sure.
Like, like real actual momentRight.
Of, of, of reckoning in my life.
Yeah.
Was to walk out left-handed forthe first time.
And, um, and so along the wayDave is getting the ideas, we're
(19:48):
getting to be friends, and I'mtalking to him and he's on the
road with WWE and we're talkingon the phone a lot.
And he's in the air, you know,airport after airport.
And then he says, when did yousay you booked that show?
And I said, well, it's gonna beApril 7th.
Um, of next year.
(20:08):
He goes, gimme a minute.
Hey, WWE only has four weeks offa year.
They do 48 weeks.
He said, we're gonna be inChicago doing WrestleMania the
weekend before.
(20:29):
And we're off that weekend.
The whole crew's off the entirecrew.
He convinced what?
19 people, two tour buses fullof WWE camera guys, audio guys.
Wow.
Billy, that's, yeah, that's abig production cost.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, but it was justunbelievable.
(20:51):
I had set the date a year aheadof time and he just goes, I
can't believe this.
We're gonna, I'm gonna make thishappen.
And he did it.
Dave Taylor did it.
And, and that was, that's a, a.
A DVD, um, called Coming BackAlive.
Yeah.
Because I felt like I saw someof the footage coming back
alive.
It's great.
(21:11):
It looks great.
It was, you know, the one thing,the bummer was it was about
three months before, uh, WWEwent to high Res.
Oh.
So it, unfortunately, thatparticular documentary was
rejected by PBS.
It was shown locally here, butbecause it was, it was res Yeah,
(21:33):
but it wasn't high daf.
Yeah.
And they weren't, it was at thatcrossover time.
So wait, what year would thishave been?
Um, 2 0 6 2007.
Okay.
Oh seven.
Okay.
Yep.
Oh six Wow.
Oh seven, that period.
Yeah.
And it took, you know, it, ittook Dave about a year to, to
edit the whole thing.
It took a long time, but he.
He did it, uh, pro bono and itpretty exciting music.
(21:56):
It's really beautiful.
Yeah, it is.
It, uh, and they decked out theMaplewood Community Center
really well too.
They've got a nice backgroundand it looks good.
Yeah.
Uh, and you've been on CBS thismorning, or Gordon Morning
America.
I think I, I've seen you on TedTalks and it, you're all over
the internet.
If you wanted to search on him,you could find more about your
(22:17):
story.
Are you on a, like a, a Ted Talkkind of tour?
A talking tour?
No, you know, I only did one.
Okay.
I did Ted TEDx Atlanta, andwhich was run by a really,
really cool creative guy.
I can't pull his name outta theback of my head right now, but
he did it like on the fly, likethere was no contract.
He just said, well, I'm justgonna send you, you know, a
(22:40):
check.
And I said, that's cool.
You know, it was like ahandshake deal.
The next time I was contacted todo a TED Talk, the contract
included language that saidanything that I.
Say, or any music that I play ata, at a TED Talk, it's theirs.
We own it.
Yeah.
And I'm like, I'm not doing anymore of those.
Yeah.
(23:00):
Wow.
I'm gonna come over here and doa podcast with these cool guys.
Yeah.
You can own this.
We don't care.
I, I, I find, I find you guys tobe very, very kind.
You're very kind.
Well, that's part of the, that'swhat we're shoot for.
But I have to ask, this isalways my favorite question when
we're with somebody that, uh,you know, you mentioned Jimmy
Jam.
Just sort of throw that name outthere.
(23:22):
And so you've, in, you'veencountered some pretty cool
people over the years.
Well, tell us about some of the,the, the encounters that you've
had with what we would considerfamous people that were
particularly kind.
Um, well, I have to goimmediately to Jimmy Jam.
He seems like a lovely guy.
(23:43):
I just, so my high school justhad a, it's 100th anniversary
two weeks ago.
And great high school, by theway, Washburn High School, we
give a lot of scholarships toWashburn students.
Oh, okay.
Well, uh, it, it, uh, it was aformative place for both him
and, and I.
It was, you know, that beingable to play for your peers in
(24:03):
front of, you know, 2,400 peoplein the course of two nights,
it's kind of a big deal tomm-hmm.
To be.
Is he about the same age?
Jimmy?
Um, he left school in 77.
Okay.
And I, that was the year that Igot to Washburn.
Okay.
He would've been a senior thatyear, but, so we were both just
inducted to the Washburn Hall ofFame.
(24:24):
Cool.
And apparently there's thestatistics or something like,
you know, there's been 80,000.
Kids graduated from Washburn andthere's only 60 people in the wa
in the Washburn Hall of FameElite.
But Jimmy, but Jimmy, it was socool.
Um, he was so approachable.
(24:44):
This is just, again, just twoweeks ago, very, very
approachable guy I had been atto an event, um, a Tiger Woods
event that they, that I playedat, and I, I couldn't even get
close to him at that time.
Those guys were so hot.
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
That you, you couldn't get closeto him.
Now he's just so absolutelygracious, um, person and, and,
(25:06):
um, does he still live locallyor is he in LA No, he's, he's LA
full time.
Okay.
But his dad, cornbread Harris isnow Hi.
Almost a hundred And Palmer's isclosing.
Yeah.
And, and that's been cornbreadthat his Sundays.
Okay.
Yeah.
So he's only got three moreSundays left over there.
But his dad was, was on sceneand, um, yeah.
(25:30):
Um.
John loves to hear about, uh,celebrities and we'd love to see
the angles of kindness.
Well, I, yes, I did open forJeff Beck.
Oh.
At the state theater all bymyself.
Yes, I did.
Cool.
But never met him.
He wasn't, he didn't show upuntil, you know, after.
Yeah.
That's how it works.
A lot of times.
Been booted up.
He seems a little bit like adiva.
(25:51):
He just does to me.
I know.
He is.
He was really into cars.
So maybe, maybe one of thenicest moments with a famous
person happened at OrchestraHall.
I don't know why they selectedme, but I was, I was, I asked,
Sue McLean asked me if I wantedto open for Bebe King.
Oh, wow.
Cool.
And, and, uh, I'm, I'm out theredoing the, my last song and I
(26:18):
caught the fact that he waslistening to me, uh, where I was
gonna be walking off to.
And he was standing there justkind of moving his head and
everything like that.
And I was like, wow, this islike surreal.
That's so cool.
Yeah.
He king.
He's looking at you andlistening to you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, you know, everyone claps.
I said Bow head right to him.
Went straight up to him and Isaid, Mr.
(26:40):
King, Mr.
King, I'm so excited to meet youand I have to tell you we have
something really important incom in common.
And he says, what's that?
And I said, we both love theguitar like crazy, don't we?
And he said, you write aboutthat.
And I don't know what you'redoing with that guitar out
(27:03):
there, but it is something else.
Keep doing it.
Well, Billy, and that was all hesaid.
Billy, one of the other thingsyou do in addition to your
awesome guitar playing is yourtheme of just your musical
theme.
The stories there, there's,there's, and you talked about
reggae was an influence and.
Bob Marley.
And I remember one of the songswas All God's Children and the
(27:24):
whole UMD.
Oh yeah.
People were there singing withyou and it was just a cool
moment.
So that, I just felt that waswhy you're here.
Because not only do you performand play great music and people
love listening to it, butthere's a sense of connection
and kg and, and the sportsconnections.
And I love that.
'cause you're tying in, youknow, the kind sports and
(27:46):
athletes, but there's also awhole nother creative element
that brings in kindness.
Um, and that's, uh, it's a,these are just forms of
expression, whether you're agreat guitar player or you're a
great hockey player or a greatmusician or drummer.
Um, so anyway, I just thinkthat's such a cool, uh, the
fact, the fact that you broughtup all God's children is very,
(28:08):
very interesting because theword kind comes as I understand
it from.
To be kin as to become familywith someone.
Hmm.
And if you're kin, if I'm kin toyou, how will I treat you?
(28:29):
I will treat you kindly.
Hmm.
Kindred.
Yeah.
We're, we're like, we we're,that's where that, that's
something Spirit.
Somebody should really dig intothe, um, history of that.
I'm sure Jeff will by next weekpretty pretty po I'm pretty
positive that that time is, itsounds right.
It sounds good.
So to be kin it is to be kindAnd all God's children about
the, is about this idea thatwe're, we're all one family is
(28:50):
what that song.
And so I was just trying to tieit to the, the Kindness
Chronicles here and how.
To, to feel like family.
Is it etymology?
Is that the, the, yes, I thinkso.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Word oranges, etymology iseating intimate donuts or No,
that's bugs.
Or bugs one.
Yeah, either one.
(29:10):
So Jeff, uh, intern.
Jeff, if you could get on that,that would, would be true.
I'm sure that'll, I'll look intothat and maybe I'll find some,
uh, guests that can help usdevelop that point further.
Even so, Steve, you know, youknow that feeling when the, when
the band and the audience are soconnected that you feel like
you've created like an instantfamily kind of Yeah.
(29:33):
Thing.
Yeah.
That's, that's the goal forevery show is to have, to get to
that peak, that moment whereeither you're all singing along
together or people are singingthe song back to you, right?
There's nothing like it.
You get in a flow state.
Where the, the crowd and you arekind of together and you're,
you're doing this thingtogether.
That's the only reason why I doit, Billy is Right.
So you can get that thing going.
Otherwise, you're just up therelooking at your shoes, trying to
(29:56):
show people how good you are.
It's not about that.
It's about, yeah.
And once you felt it, you justcan't sell.
Oh, yeah.
For anything less than that,you, that's all you're ever
going for.
You just can't sell for Michaeleven, or Billy.
Even if it's Michael.
Michael, I mean, who's Michael?
Even, even if it's, you'rehaving a stroke over there, even
if it's one or two people in thebar, when you play for, uh, you
(30:16):
know, you're out on the road andyou're, you're, you have to, you
have to play.
You have a show to do.
Nobody shows up.
You have a bartender or awaitress or somebody who you
play your heart out for thembecause they will go, no one was
here, but man, you should seethis band from Minneapolis.
They're coming back through nextyear.
Whatever.
Yeah.
It, it does a lot.
And you have to find thatmoment, even if it's for two
(30:37):
people and once you've had thatexperience.
So along those lines, do youremember the first time you had
that feeling?
Uh, you know what it really was,uh, on the stage at
O'Shaughnessy Auditorium where Idebuted that song on children,
it all came together for you, itsounds like.
Oh, cool.
Yeah.
Maxed out a credit card.
So maxing out a credit card canbe, that's the answer thing.
(31:00):
You know, I got no credit carddebt anymore, but I did pay that
sucker off right away.
I was like, but you know, attimes Got you through at times.
Like I didn't come from a familythat had any kind of real
finance SA savvy.
Yeah.
My dad was a, you know, a, a a asalesman, you know, a
commissioned salesman.
(31:21):
That's all I ever did.
Um, but this idea that, uh.
Best Buy has to borrow moneysometimes.
Mm-hmm.
They have banks that wanna lendto them.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
The only thing I had was mycredit card.
You sure?
I went in and tried to get weinvested in yourself.
Yeah.
(31:41):
Yep.
And, and, and you do.
And sometimes it's a littlescary, but sometimes you gotta
take that risk and, and bet onyourself.
That's right.
You know, I'm not, I'm, I am.
I'm.
Only ever bet on.
I'm not a betting guy.
I'm so not good at any gamblingof any type at all.
But I'll gamble on myself if Ithink I have a good idea to go
(32:01):
after.
That's what my wife is withshoes, like she bets on those
shoes are going to pay hugedividends.
Do you have another questionfrom a a fan?
Would you like it?
Uh, yes, we do have one more.
I just did one more question.
Okay.
Alright.
And then I have a final, uh,comment.
Yeah.
Okay.
And by the way, if you everwanna call the show, uh, yeah.
It's shameless plug.
Yes.
But we have a new voicemail linefor the Kindness Chronicles
(32:24):
podcast.
We'll call it the podcastvoicemail line 61.
Be kind 22.
61 be kind, 22 or 6 1 2 3 5 4 6322.
So this is for our, our peopleout there to call, call us if,
if you do know, if we doannounce who the next guest is,
(32:44):
which we don't do that veryoften.
Yeah, we don't know.
But give us, uh, give us somefeedback on the show.
Give us some, so some ideas for,uh, future shows or any kind of
feedback you wanna get.
We wanna hear anything frompeople.
All right.
Here's another, uh, question forBilly from one of our listeners.
Hi, kindness.
This is Lucinda, daughter of theSteve Brown calling from Cottage
(33:05):
Grove.
Billy, what's some helpfuladvice you have for young
musician like myself?
Let me know.
Thank you guys.
Uh, I've always said the samething.
When people ask that question, Isay, the, the best thing you can
do is find your audience andplay for them.
And it could be two people atthe bar, but you have to, you
(33:28):
have to get.
Out.
You can't stay home.
You gotta get out and take itand offer it to people.
That's how this works.
If you, if you're too afraid toget out and do it, you might
wanna maybe think of doingsomething else, but if, if you
really wanna go for it, yougotta go for it.
(33:50):
Mm-hmm.
Go.
Everybody has unique, uniquegifts.
Everybody has unique gifts togive.
The, the lesson I took away fromyou is life works in mysterious
circumstances.
Way leads to weigh that fortunecookie.
Those love that stuff, you know,forcing yourself to uptown and
running into the UMD guy.
I mean, it just, it we couldCrazy.
Yeah.
(34:10):
I'm sure.
And you have a book out?
What's your book called?
I don't have it.
Okay.
I thought, I thought, I'm sure,I thought you had a book better
transcribed.
I was looking for it on Kindle,but, uh, we're ready for it,
Billy.
We'll, we'll watch for it.
Is, is, do you have upcomingshows?
Do you have a I do.
Um, I'll have, I'll have, uh,most of my current.
Larger ensemble at, uh, HildeAmphitheater this Friday opening
(34:34):
for the Rumors and Dreamstribute Project, which is Mary
Jane Alm.
And Pamela Pamela McNeil.
Cool Max.
And just such a great, greatband.
So we'll be doing that.
Um, and then we will be inChatfield, Minnesota at the
chat.
At the chat Chatfield.
Cool.
The Potter Auditorium, 600Cedar.
Um, the next big gig in themetro for me, we decided, um,
(34:58):
that we would, uh, at theParkway Theater the night of the
full harvest moon that we would,and regardless of what day of
the week doesn't matter.
This, this year, it's a Monday.
Okay.
October 6th, which is late forthe, for the harvest moon to
come that late.
It's usually in September, but.
What we did.
(35:18):
What we did, we've been doing itnow for a few years and last
year I decided these guys are sogreat coming out on weird
nights, I'm gonna do somethingnice for'em.
So everybody that came out tohear music from Neil Young's
Harvest and Harvest Moon albums,it's just the music, it's so
Harvest 1971, harvest Moon,1991.
(35:39):
So 20.
You know, it's a real wonderfullook into the uni talent That is
Neil Young.
Yeah.
It's just, it's really a reallycool show.
But last year, okay, everyonewho comes to the Parkway Theater
the night of the Full Moon, thefull Moon rose at 7 15, 15
minutes before the show started.
(35:59):
And at the end everybody leftwith a moon Pie.
Oh boy.
And the selfies of people withmy bus, the front of the bus
with the full moon right above,above Chicago Avenue and holding
the moon pie.
So we've got this tradition nowwhere we're looking.
We're, we're doing it again thisyear.
Okay.
We bought 300 moon pies lastyear.
(36:21):
We're gonna buy 400 this year.
And, uh, so that's a big one.
And then I've got my, uh, 22ndannual Christmas tour that I
self produce.
Uh, that will be 11 shows inseven different areas of
Minnesota.
Okay.
It's such a great band too.
One of my favorite songs you dois called Into the Light, I
(36:44):
believe.
Uh, and I, I was, I could notfind it, um, around this time
when you had your focal dystoniaand I saw on your website you
were practicing and making thecomeback, and then I read a
article that you had chosen notto record that.
And then it was sort of alesson, I hope I read this
right, but it was sort of alesson to you, like you never
(37:05):
know when something bad couldhappen and you can't record
something, and then you quickwent out and recorded it and I
found it on like a guitarmeditations, um, cd.
But I remember reading that youwere like, that was a lesson to
me when I got Focal Dystonia andI had sort of only saved this
song for live performances.
Do I have that right?
Yeah.
It was another lesson that Ikind of took away from you
(37:27):
reading about that.
Well, I had, you know, I come upwith some really dumb ideas that
I think are really smart.
Um, and I had this idea that.
I would start my concerts with apiece.
This piece you mentioned, it wasna it was titled by my friend
Linda Williams, um, down inMobile, Alabama.
That's what she said.
It made her feel like, you know,she was entering a, a, a
(37:53):
beautiful sun.
It is awesome.
Or something like that.
Awesome.
Yeah.
And I just had this stupidtheory that if I started all my
shows with that song and neverrecorded it, that they'd, people
would have to come to hear me.
if you want to hear that song,you're gonna have to come out to
actually come and hear.
There you go live.
And it was a completely stupidthing.
(38:14):
Of me to do.
That was cool though, but makesit unique.
But the, the cool, the, theneatest version of that is with
the orchestra.
Yeah.
On that, the night of my lefthand coming back, I, that was
the first one you recorded and Iwondered if that was why you did
that first.
Yeah.
So that was the opening piece.
Yes.
And, and it, it's all aboutcoming into the light.
Yep.
Beautiful.
So you mentioned that you taughtat Evans Music and, uh, kind of
(38:38):
a fun Evans music story for, formy family, my son Jack, when he
was like in fourth grade, hedecided I'm gonna start playing
the guitar and he was doing hislessons.
And I'll never forget, at hisfifth grade talent show, he
wanted to play the guitar.
And what he played was the firstlike two minutes of Metallica's
(39:03):
one.
Right on.
And every parent in that, likethe kids didn't know that, that
music.
Yeah.
But every parent was like, what?
Wow.
The, and it was spot on.
Wow.
And Jack had this, I mean,that's a tough little piece to
play, Jack.
Yeah.
At fifth.
Fifth grade.
Fifth grade.
That's, that's fifth grade.
He, he was, you know what hedid?
(39:24):
Do you know what he did afterthat?
Retired?
He said he went out on top.
He did.
He said, that was so cool.
I'm just gonna start throwing mybaseball more.
That's right.
Okay, so your children, uh, howold are your kids?
Well, I'm married into three.
Um, um, Kimmy is, let's see, uh,she's 43.
Holy smokes.
Just turned 43.
(39:45):
And then there's Ashley, who is40.
Then there's Cole, who's 38.
Duncan, who is gonna be 33.
And Blaze, who's 29.
Oh wow.
Yeah.
Are they all still around?
Um, yep.
They're all still local.
Yep.
Local in fact.
And my son, uh, blaze lives withme and has, uh, seizure
(40:06):
disorders.
Okay.
Which is not related to dystoniaeither, but, um, interesting to
have neurology be a pretty bigtopic on you bet on White Bear
Avenue.
Yeah.
Any other musicians in thefamily?
Um, yeah, there were, my brotherMichael was a professional
trumpet player.
I was lucky enough to do one ofthose, uh, life scapes projects
(40:27):
and include him, uh, playingtrumpet.
He had studied at Eastman, whichis a pretty prestigious, uh,
east Coast School of Music.
Okay.
Um, he, he's unfortunatelypassed, but every, nobody
playing professionally.
Mm-hmm.
Um, but, and you're, none ofyour kids are involved in music
or No.
Okay.
No.
Nope.
But my, my youngest blaze, he,he does.
(40:49):
A pretty nice John Bonum.
Oh, really?
S sloppy high hat, kind of.
He's got a great, feel fun.
That's cool.
But I don't know how, if he'syou, I wouldn't blame the kids
if they didn't really wannapursue music as a living.
I can see why they might have ajaded, uh, or, or, or certainly
a, a, you know, an uninformed.
(41:10):
Outlook on that.
The path is not easy.
Yeah.
No, it's not.
But you've made it look easyand, and have stayed nice and
kind throughout the wholejourney.
For sure.
So, well, on behalf of a verygrateful, uh, kindness
Chronicles crew, I just want tothank you for taking the time
generous with your time, youknow?
Yeah, man, if you even quithyperventilating, you got so
relaxed.
(41:30):
It was fantastic.
K G's gonna be pissed that hemissed this one, but he'll,
he'll get over it.
Well, tell, tell him I, uh, I,I'm a fan of how he calls the
games, you know?
Yeah.
He's something.
We miss him.
But we'll get him back soon.
Get him back soon.
Anything, any, uh, it's, it'ssuch a pleasure to sit down and
talk with you, Billy.
Thank you so much.
(41:50):
And you represent the show well.
Very well.
Glad to be on it.
Thanks.
And off we go.
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