Masters of Nashville Series: Lonnie Wilson's Nashville Conquest :: Ep 241 The Rich Redmond Show

Episode Transcript
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Unknown (00:02):
Mike coming to you from crash studios in Music City,
USA, Nashville. This is the richRedmond show on
this episode, Legacy Nashvilledrummer Lonnie
Wilson and now rich Redmond.

(00:28):
What is up everyone? RichRedmond here. This is the rich
Redmond show. As always, I'mjoined by my co host and CO
producer Jim McCarthy, how areyou pal? Yes, still so hot here
in Nashville, it is. I'm readyfor it to cool off, of course,
by the time this airs, it'llprobably be pretty frigid. It
might be because at night, nicefall, feel we're way ahead on

(00:49):
our podcasts, which is great. Ifeel like an overachiever. We've
actually got 23 of these in thecan, and we did that in six
weeks. Yes, see what happenswhen you set your mind to
something. I never knew that,and I never set my mind anything
you're highly accomplished. Forthose you guys that don't know
Jim McCarthy, Jim McCarthyvoiceovers calm. He has worked
at a million radio stations. Hedoes station ID, imaging, call

(01:13):
waiting, what's like? Press onefor That's right. That's right.
Press one to speak to a realperson. I've done over 200
million appearances. Mike,
well, who is my guest? My guesttoday is an award winning
musician. Mr. Lonnie Wilson, howare you? My friend? It is just

(01:34):
wonderful to have you here.Thank you so much at my studio.
And the idea if I had known this24 years ago, when I moved to
Nashville, that that you and Iwould become friends that hardly
ever see each other, becausewe're always so busy swatting
the drums in different parts ofthe town or different parts of
the country, that you would behere and we'd be sharing some
bubbly water together. Cheers.This is so fantastic. Your

(01:56):
success. Thank you just it'sawesome. I mean, you're killing
it well, that absolutely thankyou knocking down, man. Well, it
is, it is. It's such a fun storybecause, like, one of the last
times I saw you was, you know,backstage at the Academy Country
Music Awards in Vegas. And thenbefore that, I said, Lonnie, I
take acting classes, like, rightnext door to your studio. I'm
coming over. We're gonna breakbread. We're gonna do something.

(02:18):
So you made a pot of coffee. Wedrank that entire pot of coffee.
Oh yeah. And we just, you justtold me stories of the old days
about the music business, whenit was like the red the velvet
rope studio, 54 era of the musicbusiness, which you experienced.
It was fun firsthand. So thankGod he was fun. It is fun.

(02:39):
Absolutely, you printed out someof your accomplishments. This is
incredible. I guess you got
bored one day. It's prettycrude. Bored, and said, let me
print out all myaccomplishments.
As a drummer. You have recordeddrums and percussion on 118
number one songs so and then,addition to that 282

(03:02):
top 10 singles, 345, top 20singles, and 446
top 40 singles, all adding up toover 200 million units sold. So
your heart, your soul, yourgroove, your musicianship, help
the careers of countless peoplethat have been recording and

(03:25):
writing songs in Nashville forover three decades. Thank you.
Pretty cool. Thank you, man,thanks. It's been awesome. And
in working with so manydifferent singers and artists
and being on the ground floor,yeah, I mean, that's, I mean, I
mean, with you, with Aldean. Imean, that's in that a great
feeling. It's wonderful
because, you know, you see liveschanged, and families and just

(03:49):
the ripple effect of it iscrazy. Yeah, I tell people all
the time, you know, my purposein life is to affect people in a
positive way and change lives.So if I can, so that gets me out
of bed every day. The drums arefun. Playing music is fun, but
it's also ultimately in linewith that purpose. I'm in line
with my purpose. And you are.You are such a multi talent

(04:12):
because you you're a singer, youare a songwriter, you are a
producer, and you've done allthose things at the highest
level in this Music City, USA,you're like some of your
drumming. You know your drumminghelped define a sound of modern
country. Of course, our friendEddie bears, both of you guys

(04:32):
amazing. So sweet to me when Imoved to town and two, two
different styles. Of course,obviously, what you would have
in common is servitude of thesong, staying out of the way,
painting the picture, bringingthe song to life, and you had
almost like this,
kick butt loose. Hi Hat, morecrashes, aggressive style that

(04:52):
brought the rock to country.Now, who are some of your
influences as drummer, becauseyou're, I feel like you're a
rock drummer.
Sure. Man, that's veryinsightful. I mean, you know,
you're a teacher. And
I mean, I grew up in the 70s.Finished high school in the mid
70s, 76 so the music was sogood. Yeah, so many great

(05:15):
players. I mean, gosh, so manygood drummers. Chris McCarthy,
no doubt. Yeah. I mean, who, whohasn't been influenced by Sure?
And then there was, like, local.My dad is a great drummer.
You're from Monroe, Louisiana,yes. And I grew up watching him
play, listening to him play,from the time I was, well, like

(05:36):
a baby. That's incredible. So itwas in your blood. They my
parents had her top 40 coverband for years, and
my uncle played in Monroe,Louisiana. So, yeah, I was, I
was going to rehearsals from thetime I can remember. Yeah, so
that, so dad's number one, nodoubt. Bill Wilson. Shout out to
Wild Bill Wilson, right? WildBill, where's he in Monroe? He's

(05:59):
in Monroe, Louisiana. You everget back? Oh yeah, yeah. Great
singers. Are Nancy Wilson's hername, and they're 84 and 81
years old. Still Have yourparents. I love Yeah, and
they've been playing. I mean, upuntil about three or four years
ago, they were playingregularly. But they're proud of
you. God bless them. They'reamazing parents. Did they ever

(06:20):
tell you to get a real job?
Well, kind of
probably because they realizedhow difficult it was. Well,
yeah, my dad was a chemist in ahospital and played on the
weekends, so it was good rolemodel, and they encouraged me to
go to college, which I did, andI majored in marketing, of all

(06:40):
things. But I played in a greattop 40 cover band based out of
Natchez, Mississippi, which weplayed all that area,
Mississippi, Louisiana, parts ofTexas, parts of Arkansas, and we
played all that fun. I mean,Commodores, Bee Gees, just that
era. If you don't move to thatstuff, you're dead. Yeah, yeah.

(07:01):
It's just and then, of course,all the, you know, the 60s and
50s rock and stuff, which, ifyou go to parties now, you still
what people want to hear. Didyou like no, yeah. Did you like
Motown? I love Motown becausethey're there you have for the
drummer nerds out there. Youhave a vocabulary idea they use
a lot the six stroke, roll, getout, boom, which is like, you

(07:23):
know, which is the start ofthis. No, you want to leave me.
I just hear that is avocabulary. Now check this out.
Why used to be in the predatorshouse band, and we would go and
we would, we'd get a hot meal,we'd have a chance to be on

(07:45):
ESPN, and we make 100 bucks, andit was like Jay al Dean's band.
And we would, we would go playfor the predators, and we would
back up chick singers. EmilyWest was one of them, and we
would do this song. I stole thisright from you, and I put it
right into my back pocket. You.

(08:13):
Okay, that track, I have to tellyou about this track. So
I had the flu that day, yes, Imean, I was, I was literally in
the drum booth, laying in afetal position. I hate that, and
and trying to tough out thesession, you know. And Dan Huff

(08:33):
comes and opens the door to thebooth and slams it because he
sees me on the floor, issweating, and then he cracks it
back up. He says, Hey, man,we're ready to track this song,
man, I gotta. And I just, I justgot up and that came out, yes,
and I was in one take, yeah, oh,yeah. Oh, thank God, yeah. It

(08:54):
had to be, thank God. NowLonnie, that Phil, others gonna
Don Corleone.
It
was a desperate feel. It waslike, I've got to get this, you
know, desperate feel it was, itwas like, I've got to nail this,
because I got one take in me andand I did, I love that you went

(09:16):
to the session, you know, thatyou didn't send a sub. You just
like, I got this. I'm gonna godo this well, man, you know,
you hate to cancel on people,and Martina was so gracious and
loyal for years to me, and I'llalways be thankful for her for
that. Well, that's how you goton my radar. Was a lot of those

(09:36):
Martina McBride records. But youknow, a lot of times when I
teach my crash concept forsuccess, one, you know, one of
the parts of the acronyms isrelationships. And you seems
like you have this careerdefining track record with all
these people that you have mademusic with, not on just one
single or one album, but alltheir albums. So Brooks and Dunn
Tim McGraw, John and MichaelMontgomery, Tracy Lawrence,

(09:57):
faith, Hill, Martina McBride,year.
After year, album after album,hit after hit, they kept
inviting you back to the party,yeah? And they eventually change
up, and that's cool. I mean,that's part of the evolution,
yeah, and, but, but you'reright. I had many artists that
were incredibly loyal for a longtime. And of course, it's

(10:20):
reciprocal, yeah, you know, I'mgonna bring it for those people.
We, we bring it for everybody,right? I mean, that's, that's
our nature. We're it's such acompetitive business, and
there's so many great players.You have to show up and be on
every time. Once you crack thedoor and get in, you want to

(10:41):
stay in the party. You don'twant to get kicked out or be
like, No, this guy isn't veryfunny. More fun. Let's get a
more funner guy. That's true,right? You once you want to stay
there, you want to stayrelevant. You want to, you know,
once you taste the the blood ofthe guys from drum paradise
coming up and setting up yourdrums, and you go get a hot cup
of coffee and drink your water,and you can catch up with

(11:02):
everybody in this session. Drumparadise, yes, yes, yes. We
actually Harry and John Michael,Harry and John Michael. We had
Harry on. Yeah? That was a greatthe great episode. The man,
yeah, go check it out. You don'thave to go back to schlepping
your own drums. You don't wantto have to do that. Do, yeah, I
still do the
rich Redmond show. We'll beright back.
Learn by Doing, I definitelythink resonates with what we're

(11:26):
about here at the School ofRock.
I'm Angie McCarthy and I'm theowner of the School of Rock in
Franklin and Nashville. I wouldsay that the majority of kids
that come in have either beensitting in their bedrooms
watching YouTube, learning howto play, or they've taken music
lessons at some point in theirlife. We do have a lot of

(11:47):
beginners. It doesn't matterwhat level you're at, you can
participate in our programs,whether you're a beginner or
you're advanced. We don't teachmusic to put on shows. We put on
shows to teach music. Connectwith School of Rock today.
Search School of Rock Franklinor Nashville.

(12:09):
This is the rich Redmond show
we have the aging brain.
What was the guy saying lastnight? You're old. What was his
name? Vance, right? What wasthat Jim, he was talking about,
we were at the party last night,and he was talking about how,
because he's been playing bass.Oh, that's Vale Johnson. Vale,

(12:29):
bass player for Kenny G, Kenny Gfor 30 years. And you know you
were talking about your cataractin your eye. And he's like, you
know why that is rich, you'reold.
I mean, what did you think thatwhen, when I moved to Nashville
at 26 years old, I was thisyoung buck, I had a fire in my
eye, reached out to you and whatI would have a cataract? No, I

(12:51):
gotta get it lasered off. Man,it happens. It looks like I'm
looking through milk. It wentfrom a fire in your eye to a
cloud in your That's horrible.
So yeah, the petty junkies isone of the funnest bands. And
Mark hills, our band leader, andwe were doing a session a couple
of years ago, and he weretalking about petty and he

(13:12):
brought up doing a cover band,and I sort of filed it away, and
I called him up one day, andhe's, I said, Hey, are you
serious about that? So anyway,great band. Lot of fun. That
stuff, so much fun. It's fun toget out and play live. And I
know that for you were tellingme for around 30 years, you just
went to the session every day.Drum set up, air conditioning,

(13:34):
make magic for that artist. Andthen in recent years, you
started doing a Vegas residencywith Reba and Brooks and Dunn,
and now you're playing for Mr.George straight, King George
man, yeah, 60 number one songs.Oh, god, yeah, it's amazing. I
mean, you can't play 60 songs ina show. There's no way. There's
no way do all this hits, yeah,but it's, it's a, it's a joy

(13:58):
working a great band, thoseguys, they've been with him for
years.
And so Mike Kennedy, God, resthis soul. Tragic. Was with with
George, a phenomenal drummer for30 years, yes, and
about a year ago, lost his lifein a car accident. And I never
knew Mike. You probably, youprobably knew Mike. I met him

(14:20):
when I came to town right away,because there was a jam session
down at this nightclub that isnow the Sixth Avenue Shoe
Warehouse on the roundabout, youknow, yes, and right there that
was a nightclub. And so Jim orme, Jim Riley and Patrick Pat
McDonald and all these new guysthat had moved to Nashville
would go and do jam sessionsthere. And Mike was the house

(14:42):
drummer. Oh yeah, yeah. Greatplayer, yeah. And so I got the
call Glen Whorf, bass player,well known studio bass player,
yes, he's out with Mark Knopflerright now. Okay, great. And he
called me up and and said, Hey,man, you know.
This. This might be a good fitfor you. It's going to be tough,

(15:04):
you know, going into thatsituation, but
if you, if you want to do it, Ithink you have talked to George,
and so he sort of laid thegroundwork, and it's nice. So
it's worked out great. Yeah, I'menjoying it. Do you guys keep
the same set list for the entireyear? He changes it all the
time.
He changes it from gig. BigGeorge changes up the show quite

(15:28):
regularly. Keeps me on my toes.A little, little chart book up
there, or, like, what do youhave it on? My little, little
stick man charts, you know, withthe drum talk on it, I do the
same thing. Nobody else couldread, yeah. Drum talk, yeah. So
it just and then you have italphabetized, and so you could
pull things up on the fly. Or,No, I'm not that organized.

(15:48):
Well, if he gives you the setlist, you know, the day of, or
do you guys sound check? We do,and we usually get a set list
three, four days ahead of time.No, okay, so it's not bad.
That's really cool, yeah,because we kind of usually, at
the beginning of the year, werehearse for about two a week or
two, and miss, set it and forgetit. And the only thing that
happens is, as a new singlecomes out, we'll run that at a

(16:09):
sound check and stick that inthe show, right? And, and Aldean
just likes to have a nice,tight, 8990 minute show leave
and wanting more. You know, yes,it's crazy. Oh, you guys are
great, man. I love I am sograteful, you guys. I am so
grateful because, you know, oneof the things that brought me to
Nashville, and I forget thestory super specifically, but in

(16:29):
addition to, like, playingaround Dallas, you know, I had
graduated with my master'sdegree from North Texas, and I
had moved into Dallas, and I wasplaying smooth jazz and big band
music and top 40 stuff in Superchurches, and I would teach drum
lessons. And I taught this kidthat was good friends of yours
that knew your brother, yes, yesin Dallas, right, right, yeah.

(16:52):
And then he goes, Well, I knowLonnie Wilson. I said, Who's
that? And he goes, what? Howdare you? You don't know, where
is your head under a rock and sothen I look up your discography.
I was like, Oh my God, this guyis making the sound of modern,
modern music in Nashville. Hegoes, you want to meet him? Give
him a call. And I called you,yes, and you answered the phone,

(17:14):
and you said, Hey kid, it'salmost like you had a cigar.
We'll see you when you come toNashville and you and Eddie
listen to my demo tape, and youwere like, it's okay, man,
you'll do okay. You might haveto work some day jobs for a
while, which I did well, but, Imean, I remember your package
being very impressive. Oh, man.I mean, I put it on like, wow,

(17:36):
this guy's I always like whengirls tell me my package is
impressive. I knew that.
Yes, thank you. Sorry,
but, but then I ran with it, youknow, and then it's so crazy. I
was probably,
I was probably, you wereprobably around my age right
when I moved here. I'm, well,maybe younger. I'm 49 see, when

(17:59):
you would have been younger. Imoved here 23 years ago. So
maybe you were, maybe you were
60 now, okay, yeah, you were 40years old killing it, or you
were like 3030, or somethinglike that, yeah, oh, my god,
yeah, yeah, you know what? Ican't remember anything. I can't

(18:20):
remember my band members. Ican't
but you know what, look at this.I put a little just so people
can get a sense, and I'll justtake play little snippets of
this. But it's like this, Brooksince I got a chance to play a
television show with Brooks andDunn and these iconic voices, I
mean, looks to this.

(18:41):
And fire in your church and theflame in your
eyes, I'm born. That's gorgeous.And then you got,
yes, that's you
okay now, but this is how yougot on my radar, right here.
Martina, the beginning of theSean Hannity show.

(19:02):
Now is
now,
feta, yeah, hey baby, let's
go to Vegas.

(19:24):
I really like this one.
Yeah,
such good songs. I mean, thisdefine an era. Mr. Cries out
now, Jason is such a huge fan ofTracy Lawrence. We do an
acoustic show before the likethe VIPs come to and we play an

(19:44):
acoustic version of time. Let'sgo like a Jim Bay. And then, as
a songwriter, I believe if wikiis correct, you wrote this.
You wrote this.
Has co wrote

(20:06):
it, my clothes thrown
everywhere. I think it's PaulRyan. What about this? You wrote
this now, Holly Dunn, lot ofrecords. Holly Dunn, like a
decade and a half of being arecording artist.
Go

(20:29):
that's beautiful. And then I sawI did the Earl Thomas thing
yesterday, we did the Earl wedid like an Earl Thomas
Connelly, benefits, slashtribute, slash funeral. Event
yesterday at the Country MusicHall of Fame, and I got this, I
saw Joe Diffie. And then howabout,
is this you? Or is

(20:52):
this Paul? Yeah, check sugartree now. Now, Pam, tell us that
was my first job in Nashville,right? So I got to play, forget
that track. It was, it was thelast song on a demo session in
tree at the old tree studio,Sony tree for Chapin Hartford.
She wrote it, and it was justthis wacky little song, and she

(21:12):
threw it, she said, I don'tknow. And Blair, Larry Paxton
was on it, yeah, I don'tremember who else was. I
remember Larry, and we just cutit was like, one take, just like
running out of time, yeah. Andnext thing I know,
Pam was cutting right? And thenI get word that they took the
demo and used it as the record.So that's that's actually a

(21:35):
house kit at tree studio.
Last song or a demo session,just kind of everybody just
winging it. Well, a lot of greatdrum parts and musical parts
happen in those last minuteslots as demo sessions where
you're not overthinking things.Oh, bingo, right. And then
sometimes the guys that areplaying on the masters have a

(21:57):
hard time beating the demobecause the general guys were
under the clock, absolutelyright? Yes, yes. I've seen that
happen a lot of times. Yeah. Nowthat demo industry that we that
we thrived on for years, I mean,I had like, a, maybe, like a
eight year window where I wassometimes doing two demo
sessions a day with twodifferent drum sets set up in
different parts of Nashville.Was, like, awesome. It's not

(22:19):
happening anymore, because allthe kids are using virtual
instruments and loops andtrigger pads and all that kind
of stuff. It's a treat for themto book a rhythm section like it
used to be, yeah, butoccasionally you'd probably
doing some my son's a songwriterin Dallas, Dallas, and he's
there's a group of them that'llthey'll book they'll book

(22:41):
sections and but it was it,typically it might be one or two
songs, because you're right mostof the time they're building
tracks. Yeah, and a lot of ourtracks sound great, but it's
nothing like real players. Man,yeah, you know. And I've been to
your you've got, like, a nicecommercial studio. I love my
place. Your drums are all set upagain. Nice Pro Tools, Rick,
great microphones. You gotisolation, cozy and fun. Nice

(23:06):
coffee. Gotta have a coffee.Yes, nothing special, but yeah.
So what's that process for you?Like for somebody who's doing
four different things, you knowwhat? You started out as always
playing drums, but you were thelead singer of a group called
bandana from 1981 to 1986 right?I was, and that was awesome to

(23:29):
to have that situation come upand have a record deal, and
because I was torn
on being a singer when I movedhere, but I had a lot of
encouragement to do that, yeah,and accidentally wound up with a
record deal so long, too long astory to tell you, but it worked

(23:50):
out, and it was a great way tomeet tons of people, writers,
producers that I would havenever met that quickly had I not
been a singer, because I hadgreat songwriters pitching me
songs, so I got to know them.You're front man, so you're
going to attract the people thatare like, oh, right, this way,
Mr. Wilson.

(24:15):
But it was, it was we had enoughsuccess to where I really got to
feel like what it would be liketo go to that next level. And
for me, it was like, Man, I missplaying drums. I just, and I
think, you know, I was lookingat session players, and you
know, we'd be tracking thatcertain studios, you know,
soundstage being one of them,you know, Eddie bears and Larry

(24:38):
London and those guys, you know,having a ball down the hall,
tracking and like, man, that's,I kind of want to do that,
right? It's so it just kind ofeventually worked out. What
happened
I was, I mean, your music isn'ton Spotify bandana. Like, how
can people find that? Is itvinyl somewhere? Like.

(25:00):
It's, yeah, I don't know. Idon't know where it is. You
don't want in the bargain binsat Walmart, because that was
like 81 to 86 and you guys had10 singles on the hot country
charts. Yeah, that's prettycool. Yeah, yeah. We, we had
enough. We had we never crackedthe top 10, but we'd like to
1317,
you know, right in that era ofwhere we could, we could open

(25:22):
shows for bigger acts likeMillsap and experience that
whole thing. So it served itspurpose. Who was in your band?
Who was your drummer? Jerry RayJohnston, okay, great drummer.
He's from my hometown, yeah.Great singer. His son is Jaren
Johnston, you know Jerry,songwriter, yeah, and singer in

(25:42):
front man with Cadillac three,oh, yes, yes, great. And he
produced some rock band, yes,yeah. And I think he's doing
some country acts too. Now, it'sgreat, but yes, see, we had a
Tim Menzies, phenomenal singersongwriter, Joe Van Dyke on
keyboards, Jerry Ray on drums,and Jerry Fox played bass. Wow.

(26:03):
And are you in touch with allthese guys till this day? Keep
in touch with them pretty well.But you were the guy that went
to like, mega success. Well, youknow, all the guys went on to do
good things. I mean, Joe VanDyke played keyboards for Randy
Travis for years, and understandhe's moved back to town. He
moved away for a while,

(26:24):
and and every guy has gone on toplay and do other things music
related.
I see who? Oh, Tim, phenomenal.Tim Menzies, one of the best
country singers I've ever heardin my life. I'm just amazing
tone, great, great songwriterhas written quite a few hit
songs.

(26:45):
Check him out sometimes. Surehe's, he's doing gospel now,
wow, yeah, I've done it's sofunny. Nashville is like, a
steady diet of, like, obviously,it's the home of country music.
All of contemporary Christianmusic is produced here, and
there's southern gospel. It'sfunny how there's these little,
like, cliques of people. Andit's like, I always joke about,

(27:06):
like, well, where all thecontemporary can Christian
folks? Because I never run intothem. You never, like, see them
at a watering hole. And, youknow, at the red door, I don't
know if they get out, you know,I don't know if they get out. I
don't know if you find theChristian folk at the red, yeah.
Why not? You know, Jesus drankwine. It was his first recorded

(27:28):
miracle. What's that? Turningwater into wine? Yeah, wedding,
a Cana. I'm looking through, andI literally, if you watch the
video of the show, I had aspent, I think the last like, 15
minutes, thumbing through the
never a list of stuff thatyou've played on, and it just
keeps on going. It's like, I'mlike page after what comes to

(27:48):
mind memory wise. Becausereally, if you look at an era,
these are the sounds that definethat era. So Brooks and Dunn
brand new man. Tim McGraw,Indian outlaw John. Michael
Montgomery, I swear. TracyLawrence, time marches on Faith
Hill. This kiss thatIndependence Day, huge. Martina,
and you were the ACM drummer ofthe year in 2002 and 2004

(28:12):
amazing. Thank you. So what isthat? What is for somebody that
does wears four hats like I knowthat you'll produce records,
you'll go in and you'll cowrites songs with people. You're
doing the session drummingthing. What is a typical day
that you're not booked on arecording session playing for
somebody else to make theirdreams come true? Is that the
days that you decide to write,do you have hobbies? What? What

(28:34):
is, yeah, I love the lake. Yeah,
golf a little bit. Okay, helistens to the radio and goes,
That's me,
that's me,
and that's me.
That's cool. No, it's, it's.What else do I do?
I'm a homebody. Yeah, big timehomebody. But you know what? I

(28:57):
love my kids love I'm having aball with with them, you know.
And my son, Dallas is doingwell, has a publishing deal and
has a very successfulvideography company. They do
weddings, two weddings. And mydaughter's working full time
with him. She's doing all theediting, doing phenomenal job.

(29:18):
Family business, yeah,
singer, too. They probably needsome voiceovers. Oh yes, yeah,
yeah. Connected Jim mccarthy.com
where someone's getting married,
yeah, man, this day is the lastday of your single life. All
right, Dallas, okay, I can bringit. I'll bring the thunder.

(29:39):
Bring it thunder. But mydaughter's a great little
singer. I use her own backgroundvocals all the time, and so we,
you know, music's alwaysrunning. Yeah,
I'm looking at all the TimMcGraw
cuts here, and I'm thinking ofall the songs that I've played
on the drums that unbeknownst tome, I know, you know, you.

(30:00):
Were the one who, you're the onewho forged the fabric.
Yeah, I was there, and, youknow, all the songs, like even
the rascal flat stuff, harkensback to when my wife and I
couldn't agree on music, untilwe went on vacation to Florida,
Tampa, and we started listeningto country music, because moving
to Nashville, at the time,became a prospect for us. And we

(30:21):
were coming from Las Vegas. Iwas going to be working for mix
92 nine and Jack FM here beforeJack FM kicked off. And so in oh
five, we went on vacation toTampa, and because it's
Nashville, we started listeningto country station down there.
And all the hits at the timewere like, bless the broken
Road, fast cars and freedom. Alot of that kind of stuff was

(30:42):
out, you know, obviously havingno idea that it's the same guy
playing on all these things. SoI thank you for that. We
actually have Music Week at aground. I love rascal flats,
man. Those those records are somuch fun. Yeah? I mean, really
dynamic. Yeah. Those guys verytalented. So if somebody is
producing a record in this town,

(31:04):
you were in the room on some ofthat stuff. So we're talking,
who are these producers forthose eras? Dan Huff who else?
Don cook. Don cook? ScottHendrix, yeah. James Stroud,
Mark. Bright Mark Wright, yeah.Gosh, we had so much fun. Oh, my
God. I love the Brooks and Dunnstuff, and then so much and then

(31:26):
little, you know, our buddy Treygray goes out there. Trey ball
of fun, yes, man, you know, he'skilling it, you know. And he was
one of the first live drummersin Nashville that really brought
that youth oriented rock energy.It wasn't really happening in
live band. Yes, yes. And youknow, then he's playing with
Aaron tip, and he's playing withFaith Hill. Is like, Who is that

(31:48):
guy? He's having a ball backthere. And it really kind of
changed things. Yes, absolutely.Well, you asked me earlier about
other influences.
Gosh, man, look, of course,Larry London. I mean, when, when
I got here in 1980 Yeah, I was21 I was just like, listening to

(32:08):
country radio and trying to,trying to learn how to play the
current songs. And because I wasreally, I was a rocker, you
said, I mean, I was grew up onfunk and rock and roll and
Louisiana and soul music andcountry stuff I played would be
more like Merle Hackard MamaTried you like stuff we do as a
cover band, you'd have to dosome country, but it was

(32:30):
primarily rock and soul, right?So when I moved here, I really
had to dig deep and listen tocountry drummers like that
could, because it's an artthat's amazing to hear that. You
say that because I did this. Iwent out and I bought Merle
Haggard's Greatest Hits, and,you know, all the stuff, yes.
And I went down to this placethat's no longer there. It's

(32:52):
called two beat two boots pizzanow, but it used to be called
The Great Escape, and they hadused cassettes, yes. And I went
and bought Tammy wine. It'sGreatest Hits and everyone's
Greatest Hits. And I kind ofstudied that buddy Harmon stick
and brush things. I was like, ifI ever end up playing the Grand
Ole Opry, I wouldn't be able tospeak this language, you know,
no. So when I got the job withTillis and Pam and I got to back

(33:15):
up, you know, Vince Gill andstuff, was like, I could speak
that language, and we couldbreak the rules. And you broke
the rules. You're like, Allright, we're gonna use a piccolo
snare drum. Yeah, I'm gonna have20 inch crashes, big block to
block. The fills, big six strokerules, huge gated second, no
double bass riffs,
right? That'd be this guy.

(33:37):
Before I came to town, I saw,you know, hick town on video,
and I was like, opposite of youguys, like coming into being
humble and learning thelanguage. I was all like, Oh, I
could totally do this, yeah, andthat's why I wanted the radio.
Yes, you know. But Jim is a, heis a hobbyist drummer. I say
he's actually a wonderful feel.He actually, we shot a video of

(33:57):
him playing the song kick downfrom memory. He did a great job.
Yeah, I'm sure you did. Youknow, if I say, okay, great. Do
you want to vote devote 20 yearsof your life to go out and
riding a tour bus and bringingthat to life every night? He
goes, No, no, no, yes. Was thatdifferent for you going out from
being a session drummer for 30years and then going out with
Now George Strait

(34:19):
living out of a suitcase? Well,that the the
first gig I took was Reba andBrooks and Dunn in two in 2016
Yeah. And
literally, what happened I was,I was barbecue joint, next sound
Emporium,
the one, yeah, yeah, I'm eatingbarbecue. And I heard old Brooks

(34:41):
and Dunn record. And I'm like,oh man. I texted Roddy. I said,
Man, I just heard one of therecords. It's so cool. Just wow.
Where's time going? And hecalled me, yeah, and he said,
Man, I can't believe
you called, because I was withReba last night and we were
talking about.
Uh,
we need a drummer. And in yourname, came up and thought, you

(35:05):
might want to go to Vegas. Andthat's not, I thought, sure. Why
not? Man, why not? Let's do it.I mean, that is the way the
universe works. Yes, that law ofattraction, where you think
about someone and the next thingyou know that you got a text. It
was pretty wild, yeah. And ofcourse, you know, it was
perfect, and it was, it waslike, riding a bike. It's like,
oh man, okay, this is fun. Let'sget back out here. Do it? Was

(35:28):
there anything that you reallywanted to do that you haven't
done?
Like, you know? Yeah, a lot, alot of guys that want to be you
wanted to aspire to be you. ButI mean, sometimes that are you
guys that are you like, did youever just want to be a welder?
I would be terrible anythingwith my hands so bad,

(35:50):
Rich. Just gave me the look oflike, Why? Why do I have you on
this show? I picked this up andI was gonna, I was like,
tightening up this thing, right?And Jim looked at me like, I
always wanted to ask somebodylike Keith Urban, you know, and
somebody of, like, you know, alist status, yeah, like, Dude,
you ever just want to be the guythat just gets to do his his
thing at night and stocking theshelves at Home Depot? You know,

(36:13):
it's just anonymous, wow. You
ever want to not, you know, notbe recognized? I can tell you
this. I wish Uber would havebeen around when I moved to
town. Yeah, I think about thatevery time I could you be an
Uber driver? I would, man, yeah,that's a great way, a great
little funny video series. Youwere starving, bro. Oh yeah, I
was a kid because, you know, Iparked cars. I didn't know

(36:34):
anybody. I was like, I waitedtables, yeah, and I was a
substitute teacher. And I feltso bad at myself. I said to
myself, Oh, my God, I worked onmy craft so much, and now I was
a big fish in Dallas, and now Imove here, and I got to start
all the way at the bottom,
like you humble, yeah? And I'venever forgotten that feeling,
man, I don't know about you, butfor me, it's like, Man,

(36:57):
I never I'm sorry. Man, it'scocky is not allowed in our
business. Yeah, there's too muchtalent. That's why I didn't make
it. You know, no, it's not that.It's to know that someone as
successful as you had to kickand claw, and it didn't land in
your lap. And most successfulpeople don't make it through
that nice separatism.
I couldn't read music, man. Ijust never got into it. You

(37:19):
don't do a lot of that. I justhad a funny video idea, like,
having, like, would you, wouldyou drive for Uber? I mean, is
that kind of something that youwould do back then? No doubt.
Yeah, of course, right. That's aperfect gift. But the funny
thing is, what if he didn't you,like, had, like, you know, maybe
your son sets up, you know,incognito cameras, and you just
have nothing but country radioon and, like, for everybody that

(37:41):
gets on the in the car, that'sme, Hey, do
you like country music? Yeah,you ever heard of my team
McCarthy played on this? Youhear the song, that's me, but
you pick them up in somethinglike a gremlin from the 70s. Oh
yeah. It's got, like, rust. It'sgot rust. It's all that's
kind of what I had.

(38:03):
That's a great little viralvideo. It is the new barista
waiting tables. I telleverybody, try for try for Uber,
because you're going to learnthe city, and you're going to
set your own hours. It's prettygood money, and you're going to
meet people. And people are thekey to anything. Yes, you know.
I mean, who knows if I hadn'thad you and Eddie give me that
little letter of recommendationand listen to my tape and pump

(38:26):
me up and tell a few peopleabout me. You recommended me.
You got me a job
with a girl named Amy Dally.That was my first Amy, she's so
good. She got you. She wassigned to curb records. Who's
about to be signed a curbrecords. Now, Amy is married to
our guitar player, JackSizemore. They've been married
for like, a decade. You'rekidding, and that crazy. Okay,

(38:48):
so I can refresh my memory,because I remember getting your
package, okay? And I rememberbeing very impressed. Oh,
thanks. And then we talked,right? Did you call me? Think I
called you? And you're like,yeah, man, come to town. You
know, this is how it works. Irecommend you to Amy, because I
can't remember, yeah, and thenI, and then I, then I reached
out to I was like, Hey, there'sthis girl named Mila Mason Dark

(39:08):
Horse. She just re recorded theAmanda Marshall hit called Dark
Horse, and she's looking for adrummer. Can you get me? I don't
know what happened. It neverhappened. But guess what? Years
later, I ended up meeting MilaMason, because I got a
publishing deal writing songsfor magic Mustang publishing for
five years. But the very firstwriting session I ever booked
was through Myla Mason, becauseshe became a publisher, and she

(39:32):
connected me with one of herright and I did a right for one
of her artists. And so, like allthese years later, I was able
to, like, give her a hug. It waslike crazy, but that was a you
thing. And then Eddie got mesomething, like you got me my
first job. Wow, that's so cool.And that's the thing that I'm
noticing about both of you guys.And I wrote this down early in
the show,

(39:53):
you guys are so, you know, basedon the stories that you've been
telling, so warm andaccommodating, you know is that
something you always practicedin.
With
anybody who came to town.
But just just as far as isdialog and hanging with you mean
helping people, yeah, yeah, man,I think, you know, I think
musicians and writers are theare the

(40:17):
lifeblood of this town, ofcourse. I mean and real estate.
Most giving and most humblepeople are the musicians and the
writers, because I truly believethat and and we're just, we help
each other.
We're we're friendlycompetition, but we still help

(40:38):
each other. We look out for eachother, and I think it's a big
part of what makes our townreally cool. You see that in the
voiceover business, too? Yeah, alot of people just help each
other out. It's not sobackstabbing, like acting and
stuff like that. You know? It'sthey just write. They're just
it's a good community becausethey're not based on their
looks. They're based on theirtheir vocal performances, yeah,

(41:01):
and they understand what partswill be good for somebody else,
maybe not necessarily them, andthey'll champion somebody else.
Well, you know, with this beingthe songwriting capital of the
world, you know, the the thewriters, without the writers,
the musicians have no jobs. Oh,yeah, you know, it's like, we're
hired to bring those things tolife. That's right. So for
someone like you, you're you'rea muse, you're a song writers,

(41:24):
drummer, you recognize the powerof the song and the storytelling
and staying out of the way andknowing what's going to work on
the radio when you're actuallywriting songs. What's your
process? Do you write in guitar,keyboards? You've melodies,
lyric. I'm like more. I'm like,a lyric guy, big picture guy,
it's all of the above, yeah,depending on what you got, yeah,

(41:46):
sometimes it's a track, yeah,sometimes it's a title, yeah,
and, but usually I mean,
I love it when somebody has agreat idea. So a title or an
idea that just lends itself towriting itself. You know, just I
remember I had a co wrote a songwith Ronnie Dunn and Kim

(42:09):
Williams, who was we lost him afew years ago, amazing writer.
And so I will give away thetitle, because here's, here's
how we found the title. We'vestarted writing a drinking song
with Ronnie, always works acouple days, you know, prior,
and I was kind of questioningeven writing a drinking song at

(42:32):
the time, you know, for theradio at that time, so like, mid
90s, and because she shouldnever question a drinking song,
because she music. But I wasthat night on the phone with
Kim. And Kim's reply to me was,yeah, but you know what, man,
that's that's the honky tonktruth. And when he said, write
that down, he said, Kim said,Honky Tonk truth. That's a great

(42:55):
title, and that's a great title.And then Kim goes, ooh, you know
what the honky tonk truth is?It's a lie.
It's a crazy town full of neondreams. Should we crank a little
bit of Honky Tonk? Oh, yeah,man, that was a good one. That
was fun. I

(43:20):
I'm
the life of the party, baby.Since you said goodbye,
just ask Oh Joe, he knows I'mhere every night, I said, don't

(43:41):
tell a piccolo you
every
night,
so much I put my
right hand

(44:03):
are. You can go into any HonkyTonk in the world
change,
and then if they slow it downand people want to get cozy,

(44:26):
real cross stick or a sample.That was a sample actually good
call, yeah. That was back whenwe were still using
samples, yeah. And it was alittle error that we we all did
that, yeah? Well, I rememberwith with Pam, I had a trigger
bed, and I would have a nicefrom the Elise's nice sample,

(44:47):
super clean. That way the frontof house guy could affect the
way he wanted, keep the snaredrum the way he wanted. And I
said, You know what? If I'mgoing to do this, I'm going to
make a show out of it. So I putthat pad.
I.
Of course, you are
really, really high, you know,I'm gonna do that with straight,
yeah, I need to do that. Youneed to hanging bass drums

(45:09):
behind you where it says,advertise here,
slaughter. You know, in light ofthe angel right before we
started
touring with Aldean the,basically the Aldean band,
backed up a girl named AmberDotson, and they were, they were
trying to make her the nextLeanne Womack. And we did the
straight tour, and we got to dofour songs in front of straight

(45:33):
for months. And it was so cool.And I got to play on Mike
Kennedy's drums and and just areally, really fun time. It was,
also was Amber Dawson, Dirks andGeorge Trey. This was 2000
Wow, yeah, man, I bet that wasfun. Lot of fun. Can I tell you
my kicks Brooks story? Yeah. Sowe went to a Vandy game one
time, long time ago, and he waswalking around the perimeter. I

(45:56):
recognized him when I walked upto him. And, you know, I'm an
idiot, so I'll tap him on theshoulder and say hello, and he,
you know, he turns around and hekind of looks at me
like, I love your wine. He'slike, Thanks. It was, like, so
refreshing to it, man, yeah,have you been out there? I

(46:17):
haven't been out there. Yougotta go. It's all right, buddy,
my friend Mike, goes out thereall the time, does meetings out
there. Yeah, amazing. Let's go.Let's we'll get an Uber out
there, perfect. And can we callhim right now, make him a
sponsor of the show? I think weneed to. Yeah, I got his number.
We'll call him. Yeah, we canactually do it for the board, if

(46:38):
you want to do that. I don'tthink so.
You know, my experience like,like, backing up celebrities.
You know, it's like, I got toback up Keith Urban on
television show. I got to backup Brooks and down on a
television show. And you see allthese people backstage year
after year. And you know, afterbeing here for 20 years, they'll
give you the, you know, Rebawill always like, or, how are

(46:59):
you nice to see you? Or like, Idon't think she they know my
name. It's like, it's nice to bein the same building with these
celebrities, and they give you ahead nod. Like, year after year,
this guy keeps showing up, so hemust be someone. But you never
got gurmy with people. I knowthat. You know the limit. I'm
not that person. I'm not gonnabe like, nah. You're not gonna

(47:20):
go up and tell them about yourlatest business venture in
Haiti. You know, I love thisguy's passion, man, yeah, I
just, I just get the biggestkick out of you. Man, it's so
cool. Ronnie, what do you wantto find out about rich
interview? Rich? I know a lotabout rich interview. Rich.
Hey, rich has got it going on.I'll tell you what. I tell you
what? There's no secrets. Ishare everything.

(47:44):
You know when I, when I meetpeople that are like, hey, my
I'm, you know, I'm a privateperson. I don't and I don't do
social media. I'm like, that'samazing. I want to be you. That
would be so great. You just findit exhausting sometimes. Well,
just keeping social mediahappening, keeping all the balls
in the air, and doing all thedifferent things that I do,
yeah, it does get a little time.Does get a little time. You

(48:04):
cover a lot of ground, bro,yeah. Now you when I went to go
drink that entire pot of coffeewith you, and when we were
hanging out, we were checkingout your Tama drums, all miked
up and everything you said, youmight get into doing some
teaching. I have done that.Yeah, I've got, I've got my
camera, yeah, above it, I'mgetting there. Yeah, I'm kind of
slow. You mean, like doing Skypelessons and stuff like that,
yeah, but I'm gonna count on youwhen I just can't imagine

(48:27):
something. I'm calling this guyright here when I'm ready to
Skype lesson. This is the guy Ijust can't imagine some kids
sitting in their bedroom inFargo, North Dakota with a drum
set, looking at it and going, ohmy god, I can get on Skype. I
can connect with a guy that'splayed on 118 number one songs.
I could pick his brain. I canask him about what piccolo snare
drum he used on, Hey, baby,we're going to Vegas. Crazy. No,

(48:48):
I love that, you know, I justgot to do it. That's the world
we're living in. And it's funnythat you're, you're, you're
endorsing tama, which is like,you know, the heavy metal you're
with a Yamaha drums for a longtime. And I remember having,
when I moved to Nashville withthat same drum set. It was a
Yamaha maple custom with thegold lugs. Yes, I had the smokey
black one with the gold looks.You had a green emerald green is

(49:11):
nice. Yes, still have it I do.Yeah, absolutely. And then what?
And what happened with Tama wasthat Aaron vishrio, or one of
the guys that asked you, it wasthat at a Nam show, or, Yes, it
was Aaron and yes, it drumparadise guys got me hooked up
with that, Harry and John, yeah,John, Michael, so they took care

(49:31):
of me.
Oh, man, they're my guys. Now,have you been able to get a Tama
vintage Bell brass out of them?Not yet, yeah,
$5,000
I'd have to pay a little bit forthat one. Yeah, the bubinga, is
that? What it is? The bubinga, Idon't have a bubinga, maple,

(49:54):
maple, yeah, I was used toMaple, so I didn't want to
change too much.
Yeah, did you do you mingle withsome of the other town artists
on occasion? Yeah, I was justdown visiting the guys at forks
drum closet. They were here acouple of weeks ago. Was down,
great guys, and
so there weren't many otherdrummers that particular day.

(50:15):
They were there for three orfour days. So it was great
hanging. I love the new drumshop too. Yeah, Steve Maxwell,
acquired it from hair Gary, andwe just had Gary on the show. So
we had Harry and Gary on thecons, and Franz, yeah, it was
like Sean paddock is the drummerfor he plays. And then our buddy

(50:36):
Jeff Marino with
one of my hoodie, who's Hootie?One of my favorite all time?
Tama Hootie in the blowfish, no,Harry's Rucker, sugar,
favorite all time. Tama artistshas been Charlie Benante, yeah,
from anthrax. Loved his play.Did you great? Oh, he's a great

(50:56):
player, you know, yes, not crazyabout that music, but you know,
it's colorful music, you know,and he writes a lot of it.
You're colorful.
I'm wearing all black. I'mwearing from my unstylish jMv,
ocean. Now, we just had us, wejust had a stylist, a custom

(51:17):
tailor. I don't know if you knowMcGill. He runs only one
tailoring down on Wedgwood andeighth. And
very stylish man sitting next tothese two. He's very stylish,
stylish. And I come in lookinglike, you know, Mr. Dad Bod over
here, with my collared shirt andmy jeans and, you know,
whatever, right? You know, Imean, it's, you're more stylish

(51:37):
than I am. I mean, my codicoshirt on this, you know, at the
end of that show, I felt like Ihad to crawl into my ashtray.
Are you tequila guy? GeorgeDrake gave us these shirts
because he is part our owner inthis company. Oh, really, yeah,
all these celebrities are buyingup vodka companies and tequila
companies and wine you need tostart your own cigar company.
Rich. That'd be great. You know,I don't know if you're a cigar

(51:59):
guy. The red moon, not
it's not a good habit you wantto pick up, but think of the red
moon. It'd be great. And it'slike a drumstick. I don't know,
but
I'm gonna, I'm gonna make that'sa, that's a great idea.
I have a lot of great ideas.Couple other names. James

(52:20):
Stroud, James Brown, JamesStroud, great drummer. Played on
rock and roll, right? Didn't hethink he did? Yeah, and he also
played on, remember Eddierabbit, those? Eddie rabbit, I
love a rainy night. He played onthat, yes, he produced,
oh gosh, he played on Paul Davisrecords. I'll go crazy. Remember
that? Yes, I'll go crazy, man. Igo crazy. I go crazy. Let me

(52:44):
pull that up. Paul Davis, checkout. I mean, James man, so who
played on a lot of like WillieNelson and Eddie rabbit stuff.
It was it like Larry London andLarry
some of that, probably. ButJames was the cool thing about
James, he he wound up beingproducing a lot of records, and

(53:05):
I wound up working with him,which was a thrill, yeah, and
it's fun working with a drummerproducer, because he's, you
know, it's like, we're, youknow, we're on the same plane,
but, yeah, I'll go crazy. Itsays that record was cut to a
Lin drum, and then James, andthen went back and replaced real
drums. But that particularrecord,

(53:28):
I remember being in college whenthat record was out, and it was
like, man, it just freakingdidn't move. It was like, this
is when this list on you put onyou want to score. No doubt.
Yeah, there's the chorus.Chicken.
Why don't we light some candles?

(53:48):
I mean, man, want to sit downPaul Davis's voice. Forget about
Yeah. Now, when I moved to town,also, another gig I picked up
pretty early on was a group ongiant records called Regina.
Regina. Oh, yeah, and Jamesstrat produced him. Did you
play? I did. It was like, a lotof back, yes, boom, yes,

(54:10):
student of all that stuff. And Iwould, I would play along to
your recordings, and I wouldtranscribe the recordings, and I
would steal the, you know, theysay the good composers borrow,
but great composers steal. So asa drummer, I would steal from
you and Eddie and Paul andeveryone you put it in. And you
know, I remember also when, youknow, Jim Riley and I moved here

(54:30):
the same week in the same year,1997 and we were listening,
watching CMT and the DixieChicks had their first single
out. We were like, is thatEddie? Is that Lonnie? He goes,
No, it sounds a littledifferent. We looked up awesome
guy named Greg Moore, anothergreat player, you know, yes,
yes, you guys are responsiblefor so much Sonic identity on

(54:52):
the radio. For the last 30years, it was, it's been great.
So much fun, man and Eddie, man,yeah, man, Eddie bears. Gosh, we
had so much.
Fun. Well, Larry took him underhis wing. Yeah, you mentioned
Larry, yes. And he said therewas this big, burly guy that
came and he was wearing aHawaiian shirt, and he said,
you're my guy. Yes, you know. Sohe mentored him absolutely, I'm

(55:13):
going blank guy who played onall the James Taylor hits back
in the Oh Russ Kunkel, Russ,dude, yeah, I've been trying to
I love see it's, I need morecoffee. I'm not awake.
Sorry, Russ, you're one of mybiggest influences. Yeah,
seriously. Russ Kunkel, come on,man. Big surfer, oh my gosh, big
surfer. And I met him the firstGeorge Strait gig I did in

(55:37):
Vegas. Yeah, I love it. And
I hadn't seen Russ in a longtime, but he's cool. He's got
the shaved head now, and yep,and he was kind of sitting his
drums up. And I went andintroduced myself. I didn't know
who he was, and I just like Iwas, became like a drum germ
immediately, because JamesTaylor and big Linda Ronstadt,

(56:00):
yes. And who else?
Jackson Brown. Jackson Brown,running on empty. Out, yeah,
running on Russ. Force gun onme. Good job. I mean, big, big
influence. Good job. Russ. AndI, you know, he's asked people
what their hobbies are, whattheir interests are. He's always
been a big surfer. And I askedhim, I said, you ever worry
about the sharks? And he goes.They're always there. They'll

(56:24):
always be there. Like I'm in themusic business, yeah, you need
your arms, you need your legs.But some people love it so much.
They love surfing so much. Theywill risk life in limb sky,
doing it. Look at skydiving.Yeah, I don't know very many
drummers. I dive.
Well, you look at I have, I havea guy that cuts my lawn. I make,

(56:45):
I make phone calls, I don'tchange my oil.
Check for that check that makesthe people do my things.
So what is what what is on thehorizon for you. What are you
excited about?
Well, what am I excited about?You got a good pension, right

(57:07):
from the union all those, notbad, yeah. I mean,
I still got to work, bro. Yeah.Still have to Yeah. Gotta show
up. Gotta show up. Coming offthose 200 million spins you got.
You got $1 recharge. I wish. Areyou married to the same woman?
Yes, my sweet wife, Donna.That's beautiful. I remembered

(57:27):
her name. So yeah, you betternot forget that one. I need to
write down all this stuff.What's the anniversary coming
up? 28th of September. Get outaround the corner, sir. 22nd for
us, it'll be Yeah, good. And howmany years was that? Let's see
3434
man, amen. You guys will seethat 50th. Easy man, I hope so.

(57:48):
My parents are celebrating thismonth their 51st wedding.
Congratulations. And I need toget them something big, because
for the 50th that's a big party.I'm the first born that is a big
party, so I set up this amazingparty. All my relatives were
coming in. Al Dean. We had ashow that got rained out, and

(58:11):
the makeup date was on the nightof the party. I had to scrap the
whole party. So I got to dosomething epic for my parents.
Brick of sticks, signed drumhead, signed photo and a 30
minute coaching session withyou. So silly. No,
my parents are gonna kill bythat. I need to send them on a
on a cruise. I need to buy themdiamond encrusted something.

(58:32):
Yes, you do to send them a car.Definitely do. I love hard. I
love you. No, that's not good.What's going on with you, man? I
mean, the Aldine thing is justkicking obviously. What else
we're on our ninth record. Sothat's a body of work there. I'm
super grateful. You know, talkabout a team of people that keep
champion. You heard the newsingle? We back? I have not
heard it. Oh my here. It's agreat tune. And Jim and I just

(58:54):
we have a contest where we aregetting the kids to play their
own version of the fill in thissong. There's like, a part of
the song where there's, like,one of those sexy films

(59:15):
gotta loop on everything, right?Oh, yeah, I love loops.
Where's a guy in steel toescovered in dirt, just back in
black, getting blasted intobleachers.
It's probably true what my mamasaid. I do it just like my daddy
did. We back, we
back, we back in

(59:41):
a saddle back on stage, makingthe whole place rail back
with the A train on the track.Thought we were gone, but you
wrong. Where's the fill? You gotthat coming up?
Yeah, it's coming up. Everythinggood comes.
Back around to stretch the twobars.

(01:00:13):
We're asking the kids to, like,what would you do during those
two measures? Right? And then wepick a winner, and then they'll
get, like, some fun stuff. Yes,a brick of sticks, a signed drum
head, a signed picture and a 30minute coaching session never
gets it doesn't get old hearingyourself in the supermarket or
in an elevator or in somebody'scar. It's so cool, man, because

(01:00:34):
we worked our whole lives. Itwas fun. We went camping last
weekend, and my Jim's thing, youlike camping. My kids come that
we went to a potluck at thecampground with a group of
people that we went with, andthe kids went into their camper.
They had the TV there, so theywere watching TV, and they come
running out. We're going, dad,yeah, we just heard you on TV.

(01:00:56):
Your voice, yeah, for acommercial, commercial that came
on. That's a big deal. You weretalking about mesothelioma. And
I'm going, I said Bart Durham.They go, yeah. I'm going, Yeah,
that's right. I got a greatstory about Bart Durham. So you
know, you see here aroundNashville, you see Bart Durham's
face on park benches, on theside of busses, on the side of
billboards. So here I am, one ofmy favorite places on Earth, my

(01:01:20):
favorite little eatery inMalibu, California, right? So
I'm getting something that'sgreen. There's greens on top of
greens. And I go to the bathroomto wash my hands. And peeing
next to me is bar Durham.
And I said, mistaken from thecamp mannequin. He goes, he
goes, he gives me one of thesethings. And I go, Hey, Bart, I

(01:01:41):
recognize you man from all overNashville. I live in Nashville.
I said, What do you live inMalibu? Yeah, you know, my son
took over the business and Imoved here. So he's just, like,
just wiping his hands with $100
pretty much. That's a smallworld. And, yeah, it's just, you
know, it's, it's, whenever mykids hear me, it's a little bit
of ambulance chasing, ambulancechaser disclaimers that I do

(01:02:04):
totally. Jim actually inspiredme, like a couple, like, 11
years ago, I met him on MySpace,and I said, I want to kind of
see if there's anything to thisvoiceover thing. So I took some
lessons with a another guy,because I don't know if I think
I could take him seriously as ateacher. It's like a parent
trying to teach their kid. So Iwent to someone else, and I took
a voiceover lessons, and I havea reel, and it's me doing

(01:02:24):
disclaimers and financials andcar commercials in a faux
McDonald's commercial and a fauxtarget commercial. Yeah, it's
pretty fun. I need to put a bestof Jim McCarthy video together,
like we Oh, Lonnie, has you havea great video on on YouTube of
all your your baby boy did?That,
man, I sat there, I think yousent us to me because you wanted

(01:02:45):
a video similar to that, and youwanted me to check this out.
Yeah, and I go, I watched it,and I was going, Oh my gosh. It
just kept on going. I knowthat's Thank you, Dallas, you
guys out there in in radio land.Listen to look up on YouTube,
Lonnie Wilson drums hits 2016it's got four and a half 1000

(01:03:08):
views. And there's also anotherone that's got 10,000 views,
that's called Lonnie Wilsonsession drummer radio singles.
Yeah, that's one you sent them.And you can get a real sense of
every all the Martina, all thefaith, all the Joe Diffie all
the rascal flats, wow. Let'sjust put in the description that
was my baby boy. Dallas did thatfor me. It's a little gift. And
I would have, you know, neverdone anything. So Dallas writes

(01:03:30):
songs, and he's in thevideography business. And your
daughters, he was in college inat the time, yeah, doing
projects. And so he might havedone it for a class project or
something. So
do you know who my dad is, typeof project? Yeah, he's, it's
fun, you know, it's fun havingkids that.

(01:03:51):
I mean, the music business istough as y'all know, yes, tough
man. But you know, he's with agood bunch of guys, his own
business. Mitchell 10 Penny.Want to give him a shout out.
Mitchell was has a very he wasbasically the connection for
Dallas and his publishing deal.And Mitchell's coming off a

(01:04:12):
number one single, drunk me,phenomenal record, fantastic.
And I've played on a couple ofMitchell's new tracks on his new
record, right? So, so Dallas isalso writing songs. Oh, yeah,
yeah, yeah. He's actuallypretty, pretty much full time
music. You guys write together.We do a little bit. I need to

(01:04:32):
jump in there. He's getting hot,man. I got to get in there, in
the room with him. Yeah. You sayhey, you know, I raised you
writing session. He keeps tryingto, he's like, Dad, come on, you
got to show up. I said, I know,I know. I've written songs so
long, yeah, it's just I've takenquite a hiatus, probably pretty
much for the last 10 years.Yeah, I haven't written near as

(01:04:53):
much. And just trying to, youknow, enjoy, slow down, get out
and play live.
And what Lake Do you like to godown on?
Well, center Hill was our lakefor a long time, but we're at
temps forward now. That's apopular destination. Yeah, it's
great. It's deep. Yeah, it is.It's similar center Hill, but

(01:05:14):
yeah, a little closer to wherewe live now. So you have a
Stingray, or we have, we'remembers of the boat club. So,
right, okay, a member of acountry club. I'm a member
these.
Speaking of songwriting, I ranthis by this idea, by the guys
in Parma Lee, and they thoughtit was a bad idea for a song,

(01:05:39):
a song about writing a song, Ithink it's too inside.
Oh, that
was
trash.
I'm guessing.
Steve Turner,

(01:05:59):
another great player. Greatplayer. Played with Dolly for a
long time, played on all ofTravis's records back then, just
great. Turner kills it. We'refriends on Facebook, but like,
sometimes it's like, you know,Facebook is a wonderful tool to
like, open the door torelationships, but it takes the
effort to like, meet in realtime. But, you know, always wish
him a happy birthday on hisbirthday. And I know that he

(01:06:21):
would love to get togethersometime, but we just are all so
busy running around. You know,you definitely should introduce
him. Great drummer. Yeah, killerharder and Tommy wells, God rest
his soul. Tommy. Well, sweet tome absolutely. I took a drumming
class with Tommy wells and Jerrycroon. And I thought about
another great player, Jerry crewman, had a big influence on me,

(01:06:42):
on
the Vern Gostin records and allthe Earl Thomas, yeah. So I
thought about him yesterday,funeral, yes. And I was
wondering if he was out there inthe audience when. And I haven't
heard from Jerry in a long time,you know? I hope he's okay. He's
doing okay. Yeah, yeah. Saw himin a union meeting recently.
He's looking good, man, still,you got a lot of energy. Because

(01:07:04):
I remember when I met him 23years ago, he said, I'm gonna
retire. And that was 23 yearsago. He's not gonna retire.
Yeah,
well, I mean, who's? None of us.What creative person. What are
we gonna do? We love what we do.I mean, you know, hey, you have
your you have your day in thesun in this business, if you're

(01:07:25):
fortunate, you know. And youjust, you know, eventually
you're, you're gonna wind uphere or wind up there, and
you're not, maybe the guy thatyou were at one time. But man,
if you, if you even come closeto being
a first call on anything in thisbusiness. Enjoy it and and be

(01:07:47):
grateful for it, you know, andbe humble about it. Gratitude
and humility are something thatJim and I talk about a lot with
nearly every guest. You're oneof the product ideas you had was
gratitude rocks, a gratituderock, like gratitude rocks,
potential rocks, it's a rock,and you put it in your in your
in your pocket, and when you goto grab your change or your
keys, you feel that rock, and itreminds you to be grateful for

(01:08:09):
everything you have. That'sright? Like this other idea I
have for a song, right? I brandthis by the guys at Parma, Lee
again, yes, bearish, rich again,yeah. But what if you were to
make a song about the mostmundane of things, like ironing?
I think it'd be good for like achildren's show, but I don't
think people, like soccer momsare gonna want to listen to

(01:08:30):
that. They want us. They want tolisten to see that shirt over
there. It's really wrinkled.
You got to get the iron. Youshould get right jingles. You're
a jingle right? Jingles? Yeah,you cannot get this mind out of
marketing and advertising.You're a marketing and
advertising jingle stuff. Oh, myGod. Well, this is so fun, dude.
I could sit here all day. Youknow, I'm leaving out so many

(01:08:53):
people. That's the thing. Imean, I've tried, I've got a
million names, you know, like,Russ cockle, like, I sat here,
like, who's one of my big butyou know when, when you're
sitting there with you guys, youknow you're on the spot. I need
my cheat sheet. Is Neil one ofthe influences? Oh yeah. Well,
definitely. I mean, gotta say I,you know,

(01:09:14):
I like guys. I'm a fan of of
of guys like Russ and James andand Picard, who was to me that
John Robinson, maybe, oh,studio, great player. Love Jr,
yeah. I mean, those kind of guysthat just freaking lock it down,
yeah, that's, that's what,that's what moves me, you know,
and makes gets me excited. And,I mean, I love guys. I could sit

(01:09:37):
there and watch guys who, youknow, can burn and Lister and,
you know, like this guy, I mean,it's just like, like, Virgil
Donati, yeah, there's guys thatplay was way denser than, I
mean, like, the years go by.Thomas Lang play less and less.
Oh, who are some other greatsthat come to mind that are just
like, level Well, you know, fortutor missions, yeah. I mean,

(01:09:58):
when I think of Thomas.
Lying. You know, I taught one ofhis camps. There's those
kind of guys. These guys can doanything with their Steve Smith
with their feet. Yes, yeah,
a castron ovo. And it's funny,this is a very unpopular I put
this out on Facebook one time,and it just disturbed the pot. I
said, you know, I got to say it,guys, I know Smith is the
defining drummer of journey, butCastronovo blows him out of the

(01:10:21):
water
well, and I'll say that youguys, he brought it like a
visceral, sweaty, oh my gosh, hetoo, yeah, he brought energy to
that band, and then, like, it'sCarmen efficacy. I love Carmine.
I saw him when I was a freshmanin high school. He came to our
local

(01:10:42):
music store, and it was justlike a freshman in high school.
Oh, Tommy Aldrich, yeah. Ohyeah. Black Oak, Arkansas, yeah.
Let me
ask
you this, yeah. Do you listen toJason Bonham stuff he's playing
with Hagar? Yeah? He's great. OrHagar

(01:11:03):
son, oh, Zach Starkey with thewho, yeah, yeah. And my bum, one
of my buddies from college, isplaying bass with the who right
now. It's like everybody wentout. I was in college with Keith
Carlock. I mean, imagine fillingin
place. I watch him play, andlet's go. I mean, it's amazing.
It's mind boggling. Business.Dad, I love Greg the other, the

(01:11:26):
other one that comes to mindthat blew my mind. Never heard
of the guy before? Tonyverderosa, you was the
triggering guy? Yeah, he didamazing. Disappeared off the
face of the there's a guy thatplayed on he did a Twix
commercial.
What's his name for your love Igot back in the 70s. Gino

(01:11:46):
Vannelli. Gino Vanilli. That wasThat dude, Mark Craney. That
dude, Mark crane big influenceof, you know, that era. Here we
go to Stevie Dan records. Youknow, I really come to
appreciate since I I've beenable to sit down and talk with
him quite a bit. I did a podcastwith him as well. Sandy Gennaro

(01:12:06):
last night, seen him onFacebook. He's living here.
Yeah, just old Italian guycrashed in that room right over
there, living in Long Island andteaching at the drummer's
collective. I said, You gottamove here, man. He crashed in
the bedroom for a week, and he'slike, yeah, here's President
brother.

(01:12:30):
Yeah, see, that's what I was.What kind of style would you
love to be able to pull off?Like, I mean, I love that stuff,
yeah. I mean, I'd have to, I'dhave to wit shit. Oh yeah, I'd
have to, I'd have to pick it upto play that stuff. Play it
right, you know? But I love thattown and power dude, Tower of
garibaldi. Garibaldi come off.You know what's really funny,

(01:12:53):
Steve Ferroni,
I and who was the guy, who wasthe first guy on average wife
passed away. He was, he wasamazing, too. Average white fan.
Those were, I used to know allthis stuff, like most people
know football teams. Yeah, Iused to be able to call up. I
mean, I could see the the imagesin the magazine. I could tell
you what drummer played, what

(01:13:13):
symbols, sticks, everything,whoever played, who the dude who
played with three dog night.
Man was a great player still,probably still is,
anyway, that guy I got to meet,what's

(01:13:33):
going around? Yeah, yeah, thisis normal guy I saw Carmine my
freshman year of high school,too, with a band called King
Cobra. Was like it was theheight of heavy metal. Yeah, it
was his own little side project.But speaking of drummers that
write songs, Carmine wrote thebridge on this song.

(01:13:57):
No way. If you think I'm sexy,no way. God Stewart, so let's
see if we can find the bridge.He's probably played on that
right. Carmine, yes, Carmen,
here we go. He came up with this
melody.

(01:14:20):
He did
that melody. Wow. What a hook.That was a big old hit.
This reminds me of the movie.
So I Married an ax murdererwhere Mike Myers is the Scottish
father. He's like, if you likemy body, and it's like the guy
playing the bagpipes along withit, we got a Piper down. We got

(01:14:41):
a Piper down. Yeah, so you guysremember, okay, Grand Funk,
railroad drummer, oh, DonBrewer,
there's another one of mybiggest influence. I met him in
Vegas. Phenomenal player, realnice guy, thank you, yeah. See,
I should have made my list. Youguys are bringing up great
names.
One of the things that you know,one of the most underrated

(01:15:02):
drummers that we think in thelongest time doesn't get us due
is Alex Van Halen. Oh yeah,gosh, great
drummer.
How could that not be a saying?So good. Oh, great singer. And
then this is what got me really,really stomping music, making

(01:15:26):
play foot stomping music, okay,grandfather, let me say here,
Van Halen, 1984 this right here.What is that one? This, Van
Halen. Are they gonna play fatGilly? Are they on Spotify?
Who's here should be Van Halen
and this really, I mean, saywhat you want, but that just got
me I want to play music for mylife. I agree, iconic. It's a

(01:15:48):
great record. Now, what do you
want? What was it?
Fat Killy was stopping music?Yeah, fit something music.
Grandfather, that was my radioname fat Kelly. Oh, my God, foot
stomping music, yes,

(01:16:09):
shuffle. We don't hear shufflesa lot anymore. That was
van halens. Got one like thattoo.
Well, there's nothing new inmusic. It's all been done.
Everybody. Done. Carl Palmer,

(01:16:38):
for those of you listening, yougot to watch this part of the
video, because they're justgrooving to this right now. It's
hilarious. They're really lovingthis beautiful Oh, but that's,
that's center swing from VanHalen to Doom, Doom to doom to
doom to doom to do. It's thesame groove. Yeah, yeah. All
right, gotta find some, somerust. Kunkel, here. Wow. Okay,
here we go. Let's say, let'ssee.

(01:16:59):
Let's do running on empty. Ilove running. I think of the
forest, Gump, everything everytime.
Running On Empty, this is a songI just got the front cell on i
95
you just come on and be like,it's another little 40 minute
long set of i 95 rock coming uphere. We're gonna get the
weather coming up next, and I'mgonna hit the post on this song

(01:17:22):
eventually, when he startscoming in with the vocals you're
listening to, 95.1 the homerocket roll.
Oh man, I missed it,miscalculated. That's an eight
bar intro. So good.
Love it. It makes me think ofForrest Gump every time when

(01:17:43):
he's running across the country,Yes, yep, and then he did this.
Oh, good one, yeah. Doug Dan,Doug, more on steel.
When's he come in. Here we go.You? Bye

(01:18:07):
syndrome,
syndromes, pre Simmons.
I have a Dan dugmore story. Sofor those out there that don't
know, right, we usually keepthis show at about one hour.
We're having so much fun withthis encyclopedia of musical
history. Lonnie Wilson, Dandugmore is saying, well, because

(01:18:31):
he was a side man with JacksonBrown,
James Taylor and Linda Ron said,yes, all three, yeah, some of
the best music ever madeincredible, yeah. And one time
he said he was in the studio andthey were having cocktails
during the session during theday. No, like, like, it happened
all the time in the 70s. It wasjust a thing. And it just like,

(01:18:53):
his wife called, and the wife'slike, Are you drinking? And he
said, Of course, I'm drinking.I'm working. It wasn't
frowned upon. It was just partof the music making process. You
know, Doug Moore's treasure man.You know, great when we listen
to this, to the old faces music,when I listen to early Rod

(01:19:14):
Stewart, and I think about theseguys that went to the pub,
right? And they it's like theywent to the pub and then they
went and made the record, andthere's flams everywhere, but
they kept it. It was so, yo,yeah, cool. Every picture tells
a story. Here we go. So whenthis happened, when the band
comes in, it is a flam

(01:19:37):
of all flams, and they just keepit. It
doesn't happen anymore.
I'm sure they just came backfrom the
pub, right?
That would never happen. Butdude, for.

(01:20:00):
Voice
comes in, it's over. Yeah, yeah.I mean, there's a level of
forgiveness for that. Golly, Ilove me some rods too. Well.
This could go on and on forever.Jim, let's play our new game.
What did we learn today? Whatdid we learn? What did you
learn? Rich? I learned that Ihave a deeper love and
appreciation for my friendLonnie Wilson, and much like
having

(01:20:21):
a cold martini with Eddie bears.I've got to do something fun
with you. Yes, I don't knowwhat's gonna be, but maybe we'll
it. Yeah, it's gonna be, say,win man, I'm there. I'm coming
on the boat. Yeah, let's getEddie. Just get him to come. Get
the whole yeah, let's get themall. Get all these drummers. You
know them all. We'll do apodcast on a boat. What did you
learn? Drummer? Round Table on aboat.

(01:20:43):
I learned that, and I appreciatethis about Lonnie. He's not
above driving an Uber to makethings happen. I drive I drive
over tomorrow. I might have to,I think, talk to you.
I don't know. The thing is, Ihave a lot of really good ideas.
Trouble is most of them suck. Sowhat we got to do is actually do

(01:21:03):
that idea of the hidden cameras,and as you does, you know, put
on song after song after song,and that's me.
What do you mean? That's me anddrunk. Oh, yeah, you you
deepened. I also learned that,you know, you deepen that notion
that the show must go on. And Ithink there's a lot of people
out there that have pride intheir job well done, and they
want to keep their job, and theywant to stay relevant, they want

(01:21:25):
to keep getting asked back. Sowhen you have the flu or you're
jet lagged or you're dehydrated,or you have diarrhea or
explosive diarrhea, the showmust go on. The latter one might
be that's hard, a good excuse togo home. Yeah, I've done I've
done it. Man, you put a bucketnext to the drums and you just
got, oh yes, you're right,though, show up, man, pop a

(01:21:45):
modem like chicklets. Yes,that's what I learned. I just,
for some reason, I still think Isee Don Corleone coming through
the door and going, dear man.
Little bit, yeah, yeah. Dan, noone. Dan, it was more. Paul
early was producing, yeah, itwas kind of like, Hey, dude,

(01:22:08):
come on, man, we need you.
Ed. C was engineering, yeah, welie. We still laugh about that.
I'll get a call from Ed everynow and then, dude, I heard wild
angels every time I know, man, Iwas sick over at starstruck Ed's
over there a lot, right? Yes,man, yeah, boy, what a great
engineer, producer. Are we gonnalet Lonnie play the game? What
did you learn? What did I learn?Yeah, man, I learned that I'm

(01:22:31):
gonna start coming over here andhanging with you guys, because
this sure, like a cool place.It's like a drummer. Can I say
this? Sure, yeah, drummers livein this house. Yeah, nothing,
but drummers, yeah, no. You guysare kind. Thank you for having
me. I appreciate it fun and helpme remember names. Where can
people find it calm or anything?Or Lonnie Wilson, musician,

(01:22:54):
calm, beautiful. Yeah, thinkthat's what it is. Yeah,
it's easy to find. Are you
on the Instagram and Facebook?Instagram? Think it's Lonnie
Wilson, 01, okay, on Instagram,right? Um, I'm gonna look you up
and follow you. Follow me.Follow me back. Yes, sir. Jim
McCarthy, voiceovers, LonnieWilson,

(01:23:17):
calm. Believe it's what it is.
I've had an idea for a video.There it is. Lonnie Wilson,
musician.com, fantastic. What'syour idea, Jim, I go around
narrating people's lives.
Oh, that could be something,but, yeah, we should do that
with you one day. Okay, let's doit. All of a sudden, you know,
rich enters the coffee shop andwalks up to the barista and

(01:23:39):
places his order, and
then you place your order, and Igo. Now, rich walked over and
patiently waited for his order.Huh? I don't know, buddy, a lot
of good ideas. Most of themsuck. Nine out of 10. Yeah,
blueberry, I see the picturethere. And the other game that I
always I've been playing forsome reason, late. Oh,

(01:24:00):
doppelganger game. Yeah, thedoppelganger game. I have a an
odd propensity to pick outpeople that look like other
people, so and sometimes it maynot be flattering. So there was
one time it's gonna be flat.This guy helped me out years
ago. Come on, man, Throw me abone. Over here, there's a guy I
worked with you almost look youguys look like you could be

(01:24:23):
brothers. And I can't rememberhis name, but he's amused. He
used to be a musician here intown, but moved to Austin, but
he looked like Russell Crowe,and that's great. Yeah, he'll
take her, right? Yeah, I need toget a kilt. Gladiator. Yeah,
Gladiator. I love that. I'm intoit shadows and dust span. Yet
this was so fun, guys, we'llhave to keep this drum party

(01:24:44):
going. Thank you, man. Learn somuch today, guys. Lonnie Wilson,
who was a real treat today, weappreciate you stopping by. Keep
coming back for the good stuff.Be sure to subscribe, share,
rate and review, and we'll seeyou next time this has been the
rich Redmond shine, subscribe.We're.
Eight and follow along at richredmond.com forward slash

(01:25:04):
podcasts you.

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Dateline NBC

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

All Episodes

Masters of Nashville Series: Lonnie Wilson's Nashville Conquest :: Ep 241 The Rich Redmond Show

Stuff You Should Know