November 24, 2024 • 60 mins
D&A Live - Season 3, Episode 48 "Russ Miller - Multi Platinum Recording Artist / Drummer". Hosted by Danny & Althea. Tonight's guest is artist Young MC. D&A Live is aired live from Paradise Studios NY via the Strong Island Entertainment Network. www.strongisland.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
I'm Danny and the Mautha and we all DNA live Baby,
what's up live? Okay. So first we're gonna do our
little shout out. I'm actually gonna shout out a belated
birthday to our girl, Natasha's mom, Judy, Judy, Judy, thank you,
Happy birthday, my girl. Also, I wanted to give a
(00:36):
shout out to our sponsors, y n VS, Slap Woods, Villain,
natural Born Clothing Brand, and Madick Global Distribution. Okay, So
I'm gonna make the short and sweet go ahead, okay,
because we got a really good guest coming on ahead, okay,
and I want to I want to siphon as much
time with him as I can. So when we come
(00:57):
back from commercial break, uh, we will introduce mister Russ Miller,
mister multi platinum recording artists drummers. So stay tuned and
don't move. It has been.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
No care no.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Vera we do this, he does it is Bere. I
think about you all the time.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
But it's been.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Two years now since Salas sa you in no Salista.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
Right now we're inside the war with ourselves. You America.
Speaker 5 (02:09):
We're gonna wake up from this where the real Americans
out behind where we act.
Speaker 6 (02:16):
Man, you blinded and you lie, You just send suicide
your own. Everyone pretenses love you for messing you upping homes,
laughing with that the way you can't even afford food,
and everybody looking at you acting so rude, they thinking
that they love you. Your skin, that's what they see.
They stilln't understand. The militant want to speed, but they
ain't good that they got it.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
They just play for each other.
Speaker 6 (02:37):
I said of water trying to come for us, kill
one another.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
But I woke up last night.
Speaker 6 (02:42):
I gotta talk to my parts, tell them listen, we
gotta marching. What do we get you laughing? You cry
and you angry, you feel in the skating, say you
went all the time. They just them and the cause
they don't want to see you leave you lock doors,
bringing your jaws over there. They're gonna have you put
you onside with a lock and spend no block.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
It's all you want to hear.
Speaker 6 (03:03):
It is the cop streaming likes us now all the side.
And when we're thinking prices and putting that too there.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Because crashing the prices now they hate didn't have the
way how they even look. They try to lock us
up and go with Dawn.
Speaker 6 (03:16):
Trying to play the one that get his chick every time,
trying to get him.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Fuck oldshup, pretell ain't got us?
Speaker 7 (03:21):
They have and love it.
Speaker 6 (03:22):
They try to be turning that we're close with the
phone next two weeks other's hears.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
But we in my social distance say.
Speaker 6 (03:28):
Go how many years and try to acting like we
ain't one inside our home. We acting like that we
ain't wanted wide.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
I said, God, looks fine.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Hold you can't say to us an did you ain't
no DNA in the house. Make sure you check out
(04:05):
the radio station that what Miss Jay and the Misfits
are on.
Speaker 8 (04:08):
Let's go.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
And we're back, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
I just love that commercial with Miss Jay.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
I was great.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
So anyway, please welcome mister multi platinum recording artist drummer
Russ Miller to the show.
Speaker 6 (04:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
I was so excited, you know, no, but I was
just so excited. And I don't get really, I mean,
I do get excited with, you know, most of our guests,
but I got excited with him.
Speaker 8 (04:40):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
You just you know, you know why, because I appreciate
everything that you have done in your career.
Speaker 8 (04:48):
Thank you you.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
I mean, it's not just about reading the bio on
you was like reading a book.
Speaker 8 (04:58):
I'm old see up after a while.
Speaker 5 (05:01):
You know, I'm looking at it going what the accomplishments
are amazing?
Speaker 1 (05:05):
You know, it's just it's not even accomplishments. It's everything
that he wanted to do, his passion and he just
did it all. I mean he's internationally recognized. You know
he has Okay, go ahead, I'm sorry.
Speaker 8 (05:20):
No, you're making then you're making me nervous. Now what
do I do?
Speaker 1 (05:23):
You don't know how I've been for the last like
half hour waiting for you to come on. You have
no idea because you know when you have it's not
about it's star quality. Okay, absolutely, you're talking star quality here,
and you're talking about I mean I watched the videos
that with that you did because you also teach, you
(05:45):
also innovate. I mean the list of the things that
you have designed. Yeah, right, flabergasted. I was like what, Yeah,
I didn't even know how to pronounce half. Well, I
have done it all all.
Speaker 7 (06:07):
You know, the all those inventions are it's the necessity
of the is the mother of invention thing. You know,
you're just in the middle of doing stuff, right, just
run into something and go, you know, Like I was
doing these recordings with Mike Elizondo and all the guys.
(06:27):
They were doing Doctor Dre and Macy Gray and we
were that whole hip hop era.
Speaker 8 (06:34):
They a lot of the.
Speaker 7 (06:36):
Stuff was being programmed on drum machines, and they would
ask us to come in to play real drums on
it to make it feel better, you know, because the
machine didn't feel that good. But those machines they had
like Godzilla sounds, you know, it all sounds, and and
(06:56):
so you'd hear these incredible sounds and then you go
play the drums and it sounds of like boxes and toys.
So I literally was like, I got to come up
with a way of getting the bass drum, the real
bass drum, to sound like this huge low end wrap
R and B bass drum that we all know, you know.
So and that's when we used the trick of taking
(07:19):
a big speaker and wiring it backwards. Because every microphone
is a is a little speaker, right, So it's it's
that's what it is. The sound comes in, it shakes,
and then you amplify it. So we took a bigger
speaker and turned it into a microphone, and I made
that subkick with Yamaha, and it became like an industry
(07:40):
standard product for capturing the low end of real bass
drum so that we could record in style of music.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
You know, is this guy a genius?
Speaker 4 (07:49):
So what I would have never thought of that. I'm
not gonna lie not him, I would never know. I'm
just being honest with.
Speaker 8 (07:54):
You, Moro.
Speaker 6 (07:54):
Brother.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
I liked I liked the way basically you were like,
there has to be a way to make this much.
Speaker 8 (08:00):
It's yeah, well we you know, we didn't invent that.
Like Paul McCartney put a speaker in front of his
bassamp on.
Speaker 7 (08:06):
The White album with the Beatles, but nobody had ever
packaged it and put it in a thing that was
usable where you could take it. They were hanging like
a speaker on a hangar with a mic scamp, you know,
in firing it, soldering it together. So I put it
in a drumshell and and it made it so that
you could take it places and you know, set it
(08:28):
up and plug it in and it was protected. And
the other thing was cool was because we put it
in a drumshell with drumheads. You could tune it pitch
of it, so if it got in the way of
the bass or it got in the way of the
synthesizers on the track, you could change the pitch. And
so it just became a very viable use of that thing,
and it it ended up blowing up. So, I mean,
(08:49):
just one example of where you're just doing stuff and
you're like, man, we gotta we gotta get this to work.
Speaker 8 (08:54):
And that's it. That's right.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
He took something and made it more magical. He made
it not just to make it better, but to make
the sound quality of something. You know. He just took
a simple little thing and said, hey, I can do
something else with that.
Speaker 8 (09:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (09:12):
And you know, because everybody always says every time you
bring something out that works, everybody says the same thing.
Speaker 8 (09:18):
Like, how could we not have done that? I'm like,
we're doing it. Yeah, that's it. It's our turn.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
You did a lot with Yamaha, Right, I got the
other name. I don't remember the other name. I listen.
I would need like five pages to list everything that
he has done. Okay, but okay, just listen to this
because I have no idea what I'm talking about. I
have no idea He designed the Yamaha Yes Mounts, vintage
(09:49):
wood wood hoops, Satellite Kick drum drum trigger system. I
don't know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 7 (09:56):
Yeah, it's a lot of stuff. I was I I
was twenty years old and I was working in a
drum store in Florida. I went to the University of
Miami School of Music, and I went I was working
in a drum store. And you know, Yamaha is a
humongous company, right, They have a they have probably forty companies,
(10:19):
and they're one of the few businesses that just name
them all Yamaha, right, because they got they make the
They're the biggest manufacturer of one piece bathrooms in Japan,
their biggest manufacturer of mopeads in Southeast Asia like Taiwan,
all those places and course pianos and drums and you know,
(10:39):
just everything you know them for. So what happened was
I was working in a drum store. They took all
the guys that were in charge of literal clarinets, bassoons,
like school band work stuff, and they took the whole
drum set and guitar division and said, Okay, you guys
are going to sell this stuff. So it was like
(11:02):
these clarinet guys are like, hell's a amp and what
the hell? You know, what is all this stuff? The
guy who was in charge of Florida, he came into
the drum store and he said, listen, I'm a clarinet
player with the Air Force Band, and I'm I'm now
in charge of selling Yamaha drums to the biggest drummers
in the world. No idea, what the hell I'm doing?
(11:27):
And I hang out with you for a week, right,
and and learn about drums, because right.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
So that's how you that's how basically you started.
Speaker 8 (11:35):
In Yeah, I started, you know, while I was in college.
Speaker 7 (11:39):
I got a gig at a drum store, just helping,
you know now stuff, and I was, you know, uh,
just you know, to pay for college. And so anyway,
He's like, I want to hang out with you for
a week and learn about drums. So it sparked in
my brain. I'm like, this guy works at Yamaha, it's
the biggest usic company the world. Chance to like get
(11:59):
him to dig what I'm doing. So I was really
cool with him. I took him on like these educational
clinics that I was doing to try to spark you know,
spur students up and showed them lessons and showed them
these things and blah blah blah, and it was great
and we really hit it off. And his name was
Jim Murphy. He ended up becoming such a crucial part
of my life for a long time. I ended up
(12:21):
being at my wedding.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
You know, wow, oh wow.
Speaker 7 (12:23):
But he he at the end of the week he
was leaving, He's like, man, thank you so much. I
appreciate everything you did. I'm like, great, man, it's just
nice to meet you. A week later, I get a
call from the artist relations department at Yamaha that listen,
we know you play Yamaha drums.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
We know you.
Speaker 7 (12:41):
You know you're doing something there, and Jim recommended you
to become a Yamaha artist. So I signed an endorsement
a contract with Yamaha when I was about twenty one
years old, and and that you know, for twenty almost
twenty four years, I was a Yamaha artist and we
did about eighty different products, and you know, I toured
(13:05):
the world.
Speaker 8 (13:06):
They supplied everything.
Speaker 7 (13:07):
I did tons of all star events as the Yamaha
house band and playing for everybody from you know, the
Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys, Oh my god, you know,
to Sarah McLaughlin, to Natalie cole.
Speaker 8 (13:23):
To you know, I mean, just goes on and on
and on, like, oh, I know.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
I read the list, Yeah, list I read. I saw
Tina Turner, Natalie cole Way, Charles, Bobby Caldwell, Andrea Pachelli,
Nni Fatado, Psychedelic First, Hillary Duff, Steve Steve, go ahead,
Michael Boublay. This man has seen it all. That's all
I gotta say.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
Why do we get to the videos?
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Okay, you know what, We'll get to the video so
we can show everybody.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
We want to show everybody who is his career, his career.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
There you go, come on, let's do it.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
Go ahead, go to the videos, show everybody.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Let's go. Let's go home.
Speaker 7 (14:01):
I love you, ge.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
I came back to let you know, bet you know,
I gotta thing you.
Speaker 9 (14:12):
I can't.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
Find only one of the.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
I can't beatyn Day.
Speaker 10 (14:22):
You know you.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
Hey you you?
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Oh my god, I went the next one. I went
the next one. This is the next one.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Day three Orchestra onward, big group out there, almost one
hundred players, and we're excited to be here with these
amazing filmmakers and this great band, this great band.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Okay, next one, next one, let's go, let's go.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
A whole scarlet, so.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
A war.
Speaker 7 (15:23):
Us the whole.
Speaker 8 (15:38):
More one more.
Speaker 10 (15:44):
To every few. So let you speak your much strange sleep.
Don't want to within fat Santimes. I'm the only one.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Okay, That's all I gotta say. I was looking at it,
and every time I saw one of the videos, I
was like, this was there.
Speaker 7 (16:22):
It goes over God.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
And you actually did the Pro Bowl. I saw the
video with that.
Speaker 8 (16:26):
Too, Yeah, with Jennifer. Yeah, the Pro Bowl halftime.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (16:30):
I mean, do you have missed the world. It was
like three days, you know, in Hawaii with a suite
at the hill. Four thing played for three minutes and
that was it.
Speaker 8 (16:43):
Hung out with all.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
He was in Hawaii.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
Yeah, but I saw him do the one with that guy.
Remember that he sat in Now and play that one?
Speaker 9 (16:53):
Do we play the Andre I love This guest is
an international singing superstar who sang at the NBA Star
Game this past weekend. He sold nearly fifty million ceds worldwide.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
He's got new c the Amori. Please welcome Andrea but
Cheli everybody by many.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Bys Moon.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
Comocy for us not demons.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Okay, okay, okay, yeah, I just can't anymore because my my, my,
my brain is like going crazy right now.
Speaker 8 (17:53):
With this band Andrea's.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Oh my, how I was working with that with him?
Speaker 7 (18:01):
You know, there's there's moments a lot of times, you know,
you get these star bands together and all these heavy
guys are in the band, and the the artist is
the weakest person on stage, you know, on some of those.
But when you're with Andrea Avocelli or or you know,
Al Giroux or people like that, they're the strongest person
(18:22):
on stage. You got superstars in the band that have
done all these things, a million things, and this guy
is still the strongest cat up there. And I never
a bad note ever, And and you know, he's a
ridiculous concert level pianist, like oh, I mean, he's unbelievable
and just a super talent and you know, real pure
(18:45):
artistry right because it's because of his you know, handicap
of being black like that, all of that, the visual
aspect of it is sort of out the window, which
is sort of but you know a lot of music
is based on now right where you have these artists
that if there's one.
Speaker 8 (19:01):
Hundred percent the visual vibe hook is ninety of it.
Speaker 7 (19:06):
The music is ten, you know, and his is like
the music is ninety five and five of it is
you know, elegant, you know. And so it's like a
flip flop of a lot of things you see. But
he's he's a monster. Yeah, you know you can see it.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
You can see it in his stage presence.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Yeah, on TV. I don't remember him playing piano, but
I mean every my mom and dad loved him.
Speaker 7 (19:30):
Yeah, yeah, killer, just great music, you know, playing like
the Vienna Symphony and Tuscany with outside with him.
Speaker 8 (19:39):
You know, how did this happen?
Speaker 1 (19:42):
You know why? Why wouldn't we Like I would have
been related to this man. I would have been all
over the place.
Speaker 7 (19:50):
Yeah, my wife, you know, my wife used to go
with me all the time, and now she's just now
now she goes, I'm like, okay, I'm going over here.
She's like, well they famous people there. I'm like, yeah, okay,
you know, like we've just got nominated.
Speaker 8 (20:02):
For a Grammy for Record Produce Engineer.
Speaker 7 (20:07):
And he's like, okay, I'm looking for my Grammys now,
And I'm like, okay, now you want to go because.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Yeah, well I I you could take me anywhere you want.
I don't start it. I'll go anywhere you go. I
don't care. I wouldn't know, wouldn't bother me. I'm like,
you know what it is because I'm I'm not musical, right,
I'm not. I have no skills with music, but I
(20:33):
but I love it. But I love it. And and
everybody that you have enjoyed in your career, I you know,
every Natalie Cole. I'm like, yeah, they're Andrea, all the
people that you have interacted with. And I'm sitting there ground,
Oh look at me. He's over there. Oh my god,
Oh my god, that's us. It's Russ, you know. And
(20:56):
you're probably because you know what the good thing is
about being a drummer where and you have a singer
in a band, the drummer is always behind the.
Speaker 8 (21:04):
Artist, Yeah, right behind him, right. You know.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
It's like they may get to the saxophone fay on
the sex, the saxophone player on the right, maybe the
pianist on the you know, the left, and everything, but
the drummer you see all the time. So it's like
your right head on. So whatever video that I saw
the drums are right behind.
Speaker 8 (21:23):
Yeah, I make do that too.
Speaker 7 (21:24):
I would hook the guys up, you know, on the
stage crew with stuff from back, like here's some cookies
from the green room.
Speaker 8 (21:30):
You got some, you know, make sure I'm right behind Jennifer.
That's the best for sure, So make sure I'm right behind.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Was there any any there was? Was there any like
any one of them that was your favorite? I mean,
because you've played for all different types of genres too,
I mean you've done it all.
Speaker 7 (21:51):
Yeah, I mean they all you know, I think one
of the keys to all of music, you know, doing
especially what we do, which is play different stuff, you know,
different people. It's not like I was in one band
like I was in Rush for forty years or something,
you know, or Journey or it's yeah, yeah, I mean
if you were in one band like that, you know,
(22:12):
like it's just I think the thing is finding the
art in all of it. Like I was watching Danny's video,
Like the artistry of that, like the rhythmic force of
the lyric, the groove, the feel, the attitude, what's happening
in there, Like that's the art of that. Right then
you go like you showed the thing from one of
(22:34):
the sessions for the movies, like like that's like playing
making the right sounds and things that lift the movie,
but don't draw attention to you.
Speaker 10 (22:46):
You know.
Speaker 7 (22:46):
It's you shouldn't hear the music. You should, but if
it was gone, it would change everything.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
Right, Yeah, I love it. I love it because you
know what so cool about you is that you understand
the technical side of everything.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
Yeah, and I was And what I really liked though,
is you just basically like you watched the video and
you just analyze the whole thing in a standpoint of
a real good And I always say this, Man, only
real good artists and people that are really good produces.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
The drummer people got to know something. Man, without that
drum kick, half of them beats would not be nothing.
Speaker 7 (23:25):
There they're saying is there's no great bands with bad drummers,
you know, because the drums are so powerful and the
groove is such a big part of it that I
don't care if you got Stevie Wonder and Eric Clapton
in the band aren't happening, It's in shambles. And you know,
if the drums are there and it's pounding and the
groove is happening, everybody just sits on it like a
(23:46):
couch and and goes, you know. So it's it's crucial
to you know, making sure that the whole unit comes together.
And uh, you know what you were saying earlier. It's
funny because one of the things I love about being
the drummer is that I don't I can walk around
Walmart and Home Depot like nobody knows who I am,
(24:08):
you know, and I'm listening like I might be on
the radio at home Deepot, I'm like paying for my
stuff and I'm here and like I'm like a Nellie
Fortado or something, you know, and I'm just paying. And
it's great because it's like if Nelly was there, there'd
be a big hoop line. And I've been through that before,
where it's like, you know, we're leaving the hotel and
(24:29):
you know, the advanced security crew is making a path
for the artists and Doria Estefan and she's gonna come down,
We're gonna she's gonna go this way, and we're and
you know, all we're just sitting at the bar.
Speaker 8 (24:39):
Nobody knows it, you know.
Speaker 5 (24:40):
And I don't want to great though, because It's like
I've done all this stuff. I have all the accolades
and stuff, so when the main people like come and
see me, they already know it's about business.
Speaker 6 (24:53):
And I ain't got to deal with any of that
extra stuff. People coming and China attack me, yes.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Back all the time.
Speaker 7 (25:01):
I have fans rushing me all the time, go all
over They just syndicating every which way, sideways, upside. Now,
you guys are going to be you know, you're you're
not going to be able to walk around over there
pretty soon.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
Are you kidding me?
Speaker 10 (25:15):
Now?
Speaker 1 (25:16):
You know what I like to be hidden. I like
to be hidden. I don't go out much. I like
my little studio. Right, we do our show and I
go home. That's it. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
No, we're very happy with just having the normal life
because uh.
Speaker 7 (25:32):
Yeah, I'm around it a lot, you know, and.
Speaker 8 (25:38):
It's enough for me to be around it.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (25:41):
And and like you know, there's times where like Andrea,
you know, they they they won't even let those guys
fly commercial but the plane, the airlines will not take
the liability on.
Speaker 8 (25:53):
They don't want to deal with it. They don't yes
of everybody you know, making the plane late because they
want to stop and talk to people all that.
Speaker 7 (26:01):
So there's some moments where like they you know, people
don't think about some of that stuff. But it's like
there's been times where restaurants they're like, yeah, no, we don't,
we don't want that tonight.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
It's like yeah, because they know that it's going to
be a bum rush, you know.
Speaker 8 (26:15):
Whole thing.
Speaker 7 (26:16):
You know, I remember sitting at a restaurant with Jennifer
Love HEWITTT and and it leaked, and you know, it
was totally cool. We were just sitting in a restaurant,
you know, me and her and two other people, and
it leaked, and like now there's six hundred people at
the window with their nose.
Speaker 8 (26:30):
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
No, I can't deal with that. I can't deal with that.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
We had an incident with somebody I'm very close with it, right,
and he was in a what do you call it,
not gage He was in one of the guitar guitar center, right,
and his single just came out and he started playing
the piano the same dumb song. Right, So he's just
you know, playing it.
Speaker 5 (26:55):
All sudden he plays his song bottom Steak, somebody recognizes him.
Speaker 4 (26:59):
We couldn't get out.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
I could get out the building.
Speaker 8 (27:01):
Yeah, of course, yeah, you.
Speaker 4 (27:02):
Know what I'm saying. And I look at him and
I'm like, man, he's looking at me. He said, this
is something I can't.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Stand song man, Like, you know, it's actually got an
hour to get to my car.
Speaker 5 (27:13):
Yeah, it'sokus an hour to get out because people would
just chasing him and chase noneing like this.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
Yeah, yeah, I don't understand it.
Speaker 8 (27:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (27:22):
I actually I dealt with it last weekend because I
played I Play. I played the Percussive Art Society UH
International Convention, so that's it's like the biggest convention for
the drum and percussion industry. So I was one of
the featured performers and like there I walk in. Everybody
(27:43):
knows you because you know, yeah element yeah, and it's like, okay,
you're a big deal for twenty four hours and then
get out.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
But it's gotta kind of feel a little good.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
Listen, man, at the end of the day, your music
got heard for thirty two million people. Yeah, probably plus
and then go ahead. No, I'm just saying the one
thing that impressed me.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
I just wanted to know which season, okay, because I
also saw that you were the house band for American Idol,
which season for.
Speaker 8 (28:13):
Four seasons, but the first season was the one that
Philip Phillips won.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Kelly Clarkson won the first one.
Speaker 8 (28:20):
Yeah, so I was seasoned.
Speaker 7 (28:23):
We went in so there was one band, Ricky Minor
and those guys were They went to the Tonight Show
in twenty fifteen. It was season eleven is the first
so they went to the Tonight Show and then we
were the new band on Idol.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
So I didn't have the judges then at that time.
Who were the judges?
Speaker 8 (28:46):
Lopez and.
Speaker 7 (28:52):
Was it Randy Jackson, Jennifer Lopez and I can't The
last year I did it was Mariah and.
Speaker 8 (29:02):
Tried it time.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Yeah when when Mariah and was it Nicki Minaj when
they were both on together. Yeah, you didn't get along.
Speaker 8 (29:10):
No, and they did it on purpose.
Speaker 4 (29:12):
You think it was all it was like, No, it
was all entertainment, all enter the ratings come.
Speaker 8 (29:19):
On in the world. That has nothing to do with music.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Okay, but I didn't know that.
Speaker 8 (29:27):
But you know, coll it was cool.
Speaker 7 (29:29):
I actually had a great time on there. It's it's
a it was a real it was. It was a
lot of pressure though, because there was a lot of music,
a lot of playing a lot of stuff. And it
got easier as it went on, right because when they
first start, we're playing thirty songs with thirty people, and
then like they'd kick somebody off. Now it's twenty nine.
I was twenty eight, twenty okay, so the last couple
(29:50):
of weeks, it's only four or five things, there's no problem.
But bick In, you know, it was a lot. And
I mean they were writing. There was times where I
would be sight reading, literally sit reading the song on
television like I never we never rehearsed it. They gave
me the like on the on the music stand and
fight reading it. And I'll tell the story really quick. Jimmy,
(30:13):
I Bean was working on the Beats headphones right and
with doctor Dre and Jimmy used to be.
Speaker 8 (30:18):
You gotta wear the Beats headphones. But I'm like, oh man,
we don't really dig those that much.
Speaker 7 (30:21):
But you know, we had the real high end in
your monitors that are like molded for your ears and
they're like three grand, and you know it sounds amazing.
So I was like, okay, I told my Justin that
my drum check that works for me. He he like, listen,
I'm gonna wear my in ears. I'll put the beats
over my in ears and I'll cover them up. So Jimmy,
you'll think I got it.
Speaker 8 (30:42):
You know, I'm wearing them.
Speaker 7 (30:43):
But what was happening was there was so much music
coming at us and it was so fast. We ended
up putting YouTube in the Beats headphones. So I had
my monitors in for me to play and listen and
play with the band, but in my Beats headphones I
had YouTube, so that when they put the chart on
the on the stand, he would go to YouTube and
I would have about twenty five or thirty seconds to
(31:05):
hear the original song of what We're Gonna do before
we would have to site read it and play it.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
That's that's insane.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
Yeah, you have to be you're pro to do that.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Man.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
It was to be a bro a lot of well
look what we're talking to him?
Speaker 5 (31:19):
Yeah, but listen, man, at the end of the day, man,
think about all them records, right, you haven't heard anything.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
So now you've got to go through that pattern.
Speaker 6 (31:26):
Ain't sap And you got to say, Okay, I gotta
do it like this, do like and everyone's got to
be a sync at the same time, oh.
Speaker 7 (31:33):
My, and a lot of it was like, well, you know,
I grew up playing a lot of in bar bands
and wedding bands, so we like if you called motown songs,
like I know all those songs, Michael Jackson songs, I
know all that.
Speaker 8 (31:46):
It's like when they go, what's the new Lady Gaga song,
I'm like, I don't know that.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Yeah, I don't even know the new ones either.
Speaker 7 (31:53):
Yeah, and you have to be like, oh hey, justin
we got to have a handclap on electronic padd we
gotta have a finger click, and we gotta have we
got to like program it real fast, and it was it.
Speaker 8 (32:03):
Was kind of a lot of pressure.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
You know when you do all those sessions and stuff
like that. How how long are you away from home?
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Uh?
Speaker 8 (32:13):
What?
Speaker 10 (32:14):
You know?
Speaker 7 (32:15):
I used to be gone a lot when I was younger,
with my with my wife and before I was married,
maybe one hundred and fifty days a year minimum, And
and then once I got married, I rolled it back
a little bit. And then once my daughter was born,
I tried more in LA doing a lot more movie
stuff and TV stuff, not tour as much for long
(32:36):
periods of time, or I would do stuff with people
like Andrea or somebody that they don't want to go
do big runs anymore. You know, they couple three weeks, right, yeah,
you know, but when we were younger, we'd leave for
five six months.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
And you know, oh, you ain't even for five six months.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
I've done that when I was younger.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
I'm not doing it. But you know what I noticed
all this time we were sitting here and I'm looking
behind him. Yeah, so he's this nice drum set behind
him right now? Does that play it?
Speaker 8 (33:09):
Does?
Speaker 1 (33:11):
I'm just trying to coax him. He wants to get behind.
Speaker 8 (33:17):
Our microphones, but I can. I'll do something before we split,
for sure.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
I love this guy, ide I do.
Speaker 10 (33:24):
So.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Anyway, now, with the aspect of you do look like
a professor, Okay, he does look like a professor. I
can see him as a musical professor.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
Oh, absolutely right.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
He has that tenacity. But do you enjoy that? I mean,
is that something that you are more you know, broadening
right now with the teaching and the consulting and stuff.
Speaker 8 (33:52):
Yeah, you know, I do enjoy it.
Speaker 7 (33:55):
I mean, I there's I kind of I talked privately
a lot when I was younger, and then I taught
at a couple colleges. And the one thing that I
have done a tremendous amount is a lot of the
instrument companies Xilgient Symbols and Yamaha drums and Mapex drums
and all these big companies. They would ask us to
(34:16):
do educational clinics all over the world, and I have,
literally I I think I've been in maybe one hundred
and fifteen or one hundred and twenty countries doing educational seminars,
and I mean everywhere. I mean Mongolia, Madagascar, like there,
(34:38):
you know, like everywhere you can think of where there's
these music schools and music stores. You mentioned Guitar Center
for years and use our centers all over and then
tons in Europe. And I really enjoy giving information and
all that teaching privately. You know, there's a window of
(34:59):
time that I think is in your life that you
can deal with that, because there becomes like this now
there's a liability like if this person is working on
it or not. You know, you give them all this
stuff and do they work on and come back or
do they come back and like they're just as bad
as they were last week, you know, and it's like
now I'm like trying to beat you into submission, to
(35:19):
get you to get this thing. It's so I had
tolerance for it more when I was younger. But I
really love to do I love to give the information
and do master classes and big things.
Speaker 8 (35:31):
I really enjoy that. I've done a lot of that
over the years. So that's cool, you know.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
I mean, he's just like I could he was like
when he was talking before, I was like, he could
be my professor. It's interesting to you know when I'm
when I could listen to you too, but only for
so much.
Speaker 10 (35:48):
No.
Speaker 4 (35:50):
When I were happy with him, though, is because he
knows the technical side. Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5 (35:54):
And I would love to hear a lot about the
technical side because being an artist, like being you know,
like a DJ and being a rapper with the lyrics
and so all that that I really don't get in
crazy with the technical side.
Speaker 8 (36:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
So when you say all that, I'm very intrigued.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
When I hear that the thing maybe take one of
his classes.
Speaker 4 (36:12):
I think, I am ok.
Speaker 8 (36:15):
I love that style of music.
Speaker 7 (36:16):
I mean, I think the biggest challenge is, you know,
there's there's a lack of harmony in that music. Right,
So that I think the exploration of that style is
in in the development of harmony, because there's you know,
you'll go through some of those tunes and it's like
literally two chords and like just a very basic bass
(36:38):
movement or something. The other thing that happens is that
music style is often written from the rhythm section upward,
and most great songs are written from the lyric melody downward.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Right.
Speaker 7 (36:52):
So you take a Billy Joel, He's going to sit
at the piano and write this incredible melody lyric and
then put chords to it, then figure out what drum
beat and guitar and strings or horns or.
Speaker 8 (37:05):
Whatever, right, Whereas a lot of the R.
Speaker 7 (37:07):
And B hip hop they come up with a beat
first and then write the other stuff to it. So
what I want to encourage them to do is write
downward and see the way that it changes the way
you approach music. Because yet, at the end of the day,
the great songs that you're still singing and still hearing
(37:30):
at a wedding, like you go to a wedding now,
it's still Elton John, Billy Joel, you know all the
stuff that we grew up with. You know, you don't
hear the latest Beyonce thing until the DP like. And
the reason the bands don't play it is because a
lot of that music is not formulated around ensembles of
(37:51):
guys playing. It's formulated around some programming and things, so
it just doesn't translate the same way. So it's funny
that what we consider like the classics or the fundamental
songs that we listen to are still stuff that were
written that way. You know, the Elton Johns and Billy
Joels and all that stuff that was written that way
(38:12):
twenty five years ago. So what I'm looking for out
of that style is the ones that are gonna break
the ground and go I'm gonna write it from the
top down and not worry about that beat until I
got such an incredible story and an incredible lyric and
melody that I'm going to carry that whole thing if
there was no beat at all.
Speaker 8 (38:31):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
I really like that concept me too.
Speaker 5 (38:35):
I never thought, honestly, I never really thought about that,
because when you're doing it, you're doing it in a
different type of environment. Because nowadays, do you see the engineer,
he doesn't go and play a live tune. You don't
have a live band behind you. What they do is
they take everything electronically and digital you to go. I
(38:56):
never took that in a perspective.
Speaker 6 (38:57):
How being live bin would have kind of not issues,
but it won't coincide the way that it will if
it was actually recorded live inside the studio.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
I took it like that.
Speaker 8 (39:12):
The other.
Speaker 7 (39:14):
The other challenge too, is you know, the more programming
and electronics there are, the more serendipitous things are taken away,
right because these things going, I'm gonna play these notes,
these notes, these notes, are gonna put them all together.
It sounds great and it feels great, and that's all fine.
But there's moments where we were in the studio making
(39:39):
a you know, like you know that song I'm Like
a Bird from Nellie, like a yeah, I played on that,
and we were doing Nelly's first record, and you know,
Nellie's nineteen years old at the time, and we we
(40:00):
just had ideas back then to if you listen to
that song, she wanted the verses to feel programmed, So
I said, well, listen, we wanted to feel good. So
I'm going to play the beat and then let's go
back and sample it and then loop it even though
I could just play it, it's going to have a
(40:20):
different feel right for that verse. But then in the chorus,
I'm just going to come in like big fat bottom
drum John Bonham led Zeppelin drums, And what's going to
happen is the whole chorus is.
Speaker 8 (40:33):
Going to explode.
Speaker 7 (40:36):
Even though I play that something that much different because
it went from this loopy programming thing to you know,
and it's it's a big thing and it really lifts
the chorus.
Speaker 8 (40:49):
So like, those are things that don't happen if.
Speaker 7 (40:53):
We're not all in the room and people playing and
and interacting and and and and inspiring each other. You
hear somebody play that and you go, dude, that's dope.
Let's let's add it. We're going to change this, and
I'm going to change what I play because you did this.
And you know the other part is you've got to
make sure that you're not taking a bunch of parts
(41:15):
and trying to assemble music. You're allowing music to happen.
And music happens because it's it's communication between people. So
like when you're in there, man, you know, don't ever
do it unless another cat's in there. And you guys,
can interact with like a piano player or something, you know,
(41:35):
so that like it, that's what it inspires me to
do that.
Speaker 8 (41:39):
And you it's so fun.
Speaker 7 (41:41):
I mean, you show that video of Jeff Dana, who's
one of the great film composers. And I've done probably
forty or fifty movies with Jeff, everything.
Speaker 8 (41:50):
From Resident Evil to Onward to I don't know what
we we just we've done, you know.
Speaker 7 (41:57):
And but being in that room and having the orchestra
and that's all playing, and yeah, things are moved. Like
you mentioned Blue Blay, like on that last Michael blue
Blay record, he did that live and I mean live,
full orchestra on the floor at the Fox Newman's Stay
and he sang live on a pedestal in front of
(42:19):
the orchestra like Sinatra used to. And we played that
whole thing live, uh, and and even the lead voice live,
which that's never right. Everybody knows ben and then the
lead vocalist goes in and does three million takes and
they comp it together.
Speaker 8 (42:35):
And blah blah blah. It's like old school.
Speaker 7 (42:39):
And and if you listen to a track like Smile,
which is the you know, the piece we recorded Smile
on the Fox Newman stage with Michael blue Blay live
and I was in the same spot where they recorded
it with Charlie Chaplin when he did it the first time.
Speaker 8 (42:56):
Wow, same room.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
Cow So that that was really monumental.
Speaker 8 (43:02):
Yeah, really cool.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
That is monumental. But Michael, I love him too. I
love I love like most of like everybody that he's
especially when I heard Bobby Caldwell, I was like, oh, yeah,
you know, I'm old school.
Speaker 8 (43:17):
Yeah, you know. We always every gig with Bobby, we'd
start playing which we walk out the first tune and
every the first five ros you could see everyone mouth
into each other. He's white.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
He does have yeah he does. Yeah, but I never
said that. But yeah, no I could understand because he
has that Yeah, what's I grow du al duaux kind
of voice? Right, Yeah, can you compare that to absolutely
(43:52):
absolutely he had that powerful voice.
Speaker 8 (43:55):
Yeah, we just lost Bobby. He was a super talented guy.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (44:00):
It was awesome and a lot of good times. We
did a lot in Japan. He was huge in Japan.
We used to play Buddha Khan and and twenty five
nights at the Blueo Tokyo, like sold out two shows
a night, like really really popular over there.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
You know. And I remember also Andrea Bocelli, he did
a song with Ed Cheron, yeah recently, right, because I
was seeing that and I was like, you know, because
sometimes you never know, the old school comes with the
new school, yea, and sometimes the collaborations that that that happened,
(44:37):
but it happened.
Speaker 7 (44:39):
Yeah, I mean the one the prayer that we did
with with Celine Dion, that one's ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
Yeah, And you know what the funny thing is, wasn't
I not just playing that the other night?
Speaker 4 (44:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (44:48):
I was just playing that the other night. I was like,
you gotta living on the prayer. The prayer song is
probably hold on a second. Okay, there we go. Yeah,
oh okay, that's what he's telling me. Oh okay, he's
like drummer time, Oh, drum like, play the drum time,
play the drums.
Speaker 8 (45:09):
Okay, all right, what do you you know? How long
do we have? Can I we got a couple of
minutes or no.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
We got we got we got like ten minutes for you.
Speaker 8 (45:19):
Okay, all right, I'm gonna play something real quick.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
Okay, go ahead, let me turn this on. I'm dying
for this. What are you kidding me. Keep it going.
Speaker 4 (45:27):
I love stories.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
That's a beautiful drum set too.
Speaker 9 (45:30):
I like that.
Speaker 4 (45:32):
All right, dope, I'm gonna.
Speaker 7 (45:37):
M h I'm gonna play something light so I don't
blow the microphone up.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
Because don't play too light. Okay, go ahead, see.
Speaker 4 (46:53):
Yes, a gentleman. That is somebody that has no. Two billion.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
I got my own personal routine.
Speaker 4 (47:14):
There that was and it looked like it was effortless.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
He was actually serenading me, you know, serenading me. Let's
leave the drumming to him.
Speaker 4 (47:28):
Okay, hey man, let's just at the end of at
the end of the day. That looked effortless.
Speaker 1 (47:34):
I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 4 (47:36):
That looks effortless. You have seen a basketball player where
they have muscle memory. That's what it looked like. It
just looked like he was just then at the D
T T easy.
Speaker 1 (47:47):
You would see that's him. If you were behind the drums,
you would look like, like, what's his name? Animal from
the Muffets.
Speaker 4 (47:54):
That's what I was just thinking. You know what I'm saying,
co Indian Devil as made the Devil.
Speaker 1 (48:02):
That wouldn't be a drug set left, Oh no, no,
it would be. But I you know, I just think
you're You're just phenomenal.
Speaker 4 (48:10):
Yeah, man, you guys are great talent.
Speaker 8 (48:12):
You guys are too kind. It's fun, you know.
Speaker 7 (48:14):
I always tell everybody like the goal it when I
see somebody like Tom Brady, Not that I'm referring myself
to him, but when I see somebody like a Tom
Brady or one of those great quarterbacks or great sports people.
Which strikes me about somebody like that is that everything
(48:37):
in his life is a byproduct of his skill set. Right, Like,
he never played football to be rich. He never played football.
To Mary Giselle, he never played football, you know, get
TV commercials. He played football to be the best quarterback
he could be. And that was always like my focus.
Speaker 8 (48:55):
When I was a young.
Speaker 7 (48:57):
Person, like about eleven or twelve yearyears old, I said,
you know, I want to play the drums.
Speaker 8 (49:02):
And no one in my family was in music.
Speaker 7 (49:05):
I grew up in a really small town just south
of Cleveland, so there's nothing there, and but I was
always in my mind a professional drummer, even if I
had to work at Wendy's. I was a professional drummer
who was working at Wendy's. Right, Yeah, I've ever working
at Wendy's wanting to be a professional drummer.
Speaker 1 (49:28):
I love his concepts, I really do.
Speaker 7 (49:31):
And I like, you know, that got me and I
you know, and I told my wife, like when we
got married. Listen, there's times when there's money. There's times
when there's a lot of money. There's signs when you're famous,
there's times when you're not. It just doesn't matter. Like,
I'm here to play music at the highest level I
can and and try to, you know, make the best
(49:54):
music with the best people. And if I succeed at that,
you will have everything you ever dreamt of. I don't
because I don't want any of that. All I want
to do is play the music with the people so great.
We got a big house and car. That's awesome.
Speaker 8 (50:10):
I don't care. It's not for me.
Speaker 1 (50:13):
Well, if you got room for one more, I'm available.
Speaker 8 (50:16):
I can. We can set that up.
Speaker 1 (50:17):
We can see it. I'm moving out, baby.
Speaker 4 (50:20):
You're funny.
Speaker 8 (50:20):
Okay, it's only fifty degrees here, come on.
Speaker 1 (50:25):
I'm fine with that.
Speaker 4 (50:25):
You know. You know what's cool too, is that like
you're behind the drums, right, and you don't like you
have so many accolades, right, Like with the plaques and
all of that, and you to just normally around the drums, relaxing,
doing your thing because you love music so much. Then
you love your accolades.
Speaker 5 (50:44):
But you love music so much see it and you
And that's why you used to see the hide and
a lot of people, probably because you let the music
take me.
Speaker 7 (50:52):
Literally, that's it and great the great musicians. One of
the most important components is human because it's super important
that you let everyone around you shine and you support everybody.
My job with Ray Charles is to make sure that
Ray Charles can be who he is and do what
(51:14):
he's supposed to do, not to prove myself or anything.
And what happens is by doing that, you end up
executing at a really high level. And that's what draws
people in rather than trying to, you know, make sure
that like, oh man, I'm recording with Ray Charles, I
got to play like the most wicked drum fill in history,
(51:37):
you know. I love that, So everybody remembers this drum fill,
you know, but then it doesn't make great music. So
it's that's the thing where I when I hear we're
talking about I'm like a bird, you know, when I'm
standing in Target and I'm like a bird.
Speaker 8 (51:55):
You know, it's like, you know, it just in my brain.
Speaker 7 (51:59):
I think, like, wow, what we did there was it
meant something and to people to a point where it's
be that particular piece, for instance, has become a staple
of the past twenty years.
Speaker 8 (52:11):
You hear it all the time.
Speaker 7 (52:14):
I didn't think anybody was gonna buy that record, I told,
I told, I mean, you know, sometimes you do stuff
like listen, you know we did that first record with Nelly,
and I'm like, nobody's gonna buy this milk albums and
like you know, Grammys.
Speaker 8 (52:28):
Jennifer Love Hewitt, who's a sweetheart and she can sing.
Speaker 1 (52:32):
Yeah, you know, I forgot about that.
Speaker 8 (52:34):
Yeah, and I and I told, I.
Speaker 7 (52:36):
Told Andy Goldmark, he was that a guy at Interscope
we were doing the record. I said, listen, Love is great.
She she can sing great, She's a superstar. I mean,
this is like, if we can't sell this, we might
as well we're bad. That record went Plywood with an
anchor tied to it, like it didn't there was nothing.
Speaker 8 (52:58):
She she's a huge star, but it just take.
Speaker 4 (53:00):
You know, can I ask you a question from from
just understanding, like marketing motion.
Speaker 5 (53:05):
Right, there's a lot of records fall because of the
way that the campaign rolls out.
Speaker 4 (53:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (53:14):
Yeah, a lot of times. What happens too is you
know they've got you know that quarter or that half
a year. They're like, Okay, the Country division has this money,
and the R and B division has this money and
this and I mean even you know with American Idol
and some.
Speaker 8 (53:33):
Of that stuff. It's like Interscope isn't going to sign
four years in a row nineteen year old.
Speaker 7 (53:40):
African American female. Yeah, it's like they're all going to
compete against one another.
Speaker 8 (53:45):
So it's like, we got a white country singing female
last season. We need a you know, R and B.
Speaker 4 (53:53):
Right, So they they do need the versatility they have
the agenda. Usually some sounds like which when they gonna
be pigging or does it just vary on the talent.
Speaker 8 (54:02):
I'm not gonna say that publicly, but I can no.
Speaker 4 (54:07):
I'm not talking about American Idol. I'm talking about labels.
Speaker 7 (54:10):
Oh absolutely, because because they they're there there, there's a
there's a budget set aside.
Speaker 8 (54:17):
And the other thing too, you gotta watch out for.
Speaker 7 (54:19):
That started to happen in the later years that never
used to happen when we were younger was the ar
guys who are working at the label started to try
to play songs on the artists that they were signing,
so they were the songs that they were involved in
and had writers credits on placed on those records. So
if the if the if the artist pushed back, then
(54:40):
the AR guy would pull back a little bit and go,
well this I don't here on I'm not gonna make
money on the side hustle.
Speaker 4 (54:46):
Uh okay.
Speaker 5 (54:48):
I see I see a lot of them two being
a DJ, I see a lot of them going okay,
I wrote this right here for the publishing and then
they dig into publishers and they ain't getting the deal right.
Speaker 7 (54:58):
So that that's an And what happened is like say
a new AR guy came in. Now he's got all
his people. They'd shelf all the stuff the old guy
was doing, you know. And so there's a lot you know,
there's a lot of things that we always we always
would say, Man, a lot of things got to go
right for this to work. Yeah, you know a lot
of things have to fall in place, and it's not
(55:19):
just the music sometimes and that's why we would always
tell artists and say, listen, just make the music that
you want to make that makes you you want to
put out, because if you try to chase all these fools,
they'll chase you, they'll take you right down in the
super like. Just do what you want to do, make
it correct, be proud of it, and then that will
(55:41):
carry what you want to do and you will make
that make sense.
Speaker 8 (55:45):
But try to go what do they want? I want
to make it sound like Beyonce, I want to do that.
Speaker 1 (55:51):
You know what, we got to do it. I know
we got to do a part two with him or
something and he's just so you know. But in closing, okay,
I didn't want to wish you a happy belated birthday.
November sixteen.
Speaker 7 (56:04):
Yeah, I was playing at the Basic Thing on my
birthday night, so that that was fun for me. To
watch the PASIC Convention, the Drum and Percussion Convention when
I was a boy and want to play there and
I and I played there many times now. But to
be one of the headlining guys on my fifty fifth birthday,
(56:27):
this is cool.
Speaker 1 (56:29):
I know, rough? Rough is it? Did you know what
I'm talking about?
Speaker 3 (56:34):
Right?
Speaker 8 (56:35):
Oh? That was awesome?
Speaker 7 (56:37):
Go ahead, A rough is a drum rudiment, right, It's
like a It's like drums. It's like one of the
drum rudiments. They call it a rough because like prep
when you play, you know, that's like a rough. So
Kirsten Matt from the Xilgian Symbol Company, she goes to
the bakery and the and the girl couldn't speak English.
Speaker 1 (56:58):
And said russ and he she wrote on his birthday
cake rough, it's really.
Speaker 8 (57:04):
Truss rong are uss? All right?
Speaker 7 (57:06):
She gets the cake back and it says rough on it,
and she just saw when it said rough, she goes,
this is too perfect.
Speaker 8 (57:11):
So she's just cute.
Speaker 1 (57:12):
It was too cute. But you know what that that
happened to me. My girlfriend went to get a cake
for alphea and then when they opened it, it said othello.
Speaker 8 (57:23):
Nice right, So I I I was, I was.
Speaker 1 (57:26):
With you right there. I was like when I saw
that video, I was like, oh my god, that's so adorable.
Speaker 8 (57:31):
Yeah it was classic.
Speaker 1 (57:33):
Yeah that was classic. But I didn't know that there's
a behind story on that. So that's pretty cool actually,
But again, it's been a pleasure I enjoyed.
Speaker 8 (57:41):
Then you guys are awesome. Behind let's come out.
Speaker 4 (57:46):
Oh god, oh, I'm gonna come.
Speaker 1 (57:49):
Out plane right away. He won't he won't stop. He'd
be like, honey, I'm going to Russ's house.
Speaker 4 (57:53):
Okay, yeah, I'm going over there.
Speaker 1 (57:55):
Man.
Speaker 4 (57:55):
We about to go record a different song, different jams.
Speaker 1 (57:57):
Oh now, now he's got a hold button. You got
a whole new body of Okay, let's do it this
way now, okay.
Speaker 8 (58:03):
Real quick.
Speaker 7 (58:04):
I gotta tell you one thing. I in twenty twenty,
I wanted to stay home more with my daughters. So
I came up with this idea of having a company
that made online concert events. So and we developed a
specific software I work with these guys I know in
Germany that allows people on any device anywhere in the world,
(58:27):
they can watch online concerts, and they can switch the
cameras and watch any camera. They can switch the audio,
listen in stereo at most spatial surround, and you can
put on a VR headset.
Speaker 1 (58:39):
Right.
Speaker 8 (58:40):
We put three hundred and sixty degree VR cameras on
the stage, so when you put on the headset, you're
standing on the stage from anywhere. My gosh, you're doing.
Speaker 7 (58:49):
It's called hitcore Hi taor okay, got it out?
Speaker 8 (58:57):
And we've been in business now for five years. I
took a bunch of my dough and invested in.
Speaker 7 (59:02):
We have an investment board, a bunch of heavy guys,
and we've had about eighty or ninety shows everybody from
en Vogue to Ministry to Filter to you know, uh,
Jordan Sparks are just there a couple of weeks and
it's really really cool, and we love to have artists
on there, and really especially young artists, and and it's
a great way to watch if you're a fan of
(59:22):
the artist, it's an incredible way to watch the artist
in a way you've never been able to do.
Speaker 1 (59:26):
Well. We'll definitely, we'll definitely check it out. Okay, again,
I really appreciate you coming on. Everybody, go check out
Russmiller dot com. You can't. You can't get any better
than that. Russmiller dot com. Go check this man out.
He's a genius. Thank you everybody for watching. We'll see
you next Sunday.
Speaker 4 (59:47):
He's gentlemen, Thank you, You're welcome.
Speaker 7 (01:00:00):
Six
I'm Danny and the Mautha and we all DNA live Baby,
what's up live? Okay. So first we're gonna do our
little shout out. I'm actually gonna shout out a belated
birthday to our girl, Natasha's mom, Judy, Judy, Judy, thank you,
Happy birthday, my girl. Also, I wanted to give a
(00:36):
shout out to our sponsors, y n VS, Slap Woods, Villain,
natural Born Clothing Brand, and Madick Global Distribution. Okay, So
I'm gonna make the short and sweet go ahead, okay,
because we got a really good guest coming on ahead, okay,
and I want to I want to siphon as much
time with him as I can. So when we come
(00:57):
back from commercial break, uh, we will introduce mister Russ Miller,
mister multi platinum recording artists drummers. So stay tuned and
don't move. It has been.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
No care no.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Vera we do this, he does it is Bere. I
think about you all the time.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
But it's been.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Two years now since Salas sa you in no Salista.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
Right now we're inside the war with ourselves. You America.
Speaker 5 (02:09):
We're gonna wake up from this where the real Americans
out behind where we act.
Speaker 6 (02:16):
Man, you blinded and you lie, You just send suicide
your own. Everyone pretenses love you for messing you upping homes,
laughing with that the way you can't even afford food,
and everybody looking at you acting so rude, they thinking
that they love you. Your skin, that's what they see.
They stilln't understand. The militant want to speed, but they
ain't good that they got it.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
They just play for each other.
Speaker 6 (02:37):
I said of water trying to come for us, kill
one another.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
But I woke up last night.
Speaker 6 (02:42):
I gotta talk to my parts, tell them listen, we
gotta marching. What do we get you laughing? You cry
and you angry, you feel in the skating, say you
went all the time. They just them and the cause
they don't want to see you leave you lock doors,
bringing your jaws over there. They're gonna have you put
you onside with a lock and spend no block.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
It's all you want to hear.
Speaker 6 (03:03):
It is the cop streaming likes us now all the side.
And when we're thinking prices and putting that too there.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Because crashing the prices now they hate didn't have the
way how they even look. They try to lock us
up and go with Dawn.
Speaker 6 (03:16):
Trying to play the one that get his chick every time,
trying to get him.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Fuck oldshup, pretell ain't got us?
Speaker 7 (03:21):
They have and love it.
Speaker 6 (03:22):
They try to be turning that we're close with the
phone next two weeks other's hears.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
But we in my social distance say.
Speaker 6 (03:28):
Go how many years and try to acting like we
ain't one inside our home. We acting like that we
ain't wanted wide.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
I said, God, looks fine.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Hold you can't say to us an did you ain't
no DNA in the house. Make sure you check out
(04:05):
the radio station that what Miss Jay and the Misfits
are on.
Speaker 8 (04:08):
Let's go.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
And we're back, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
I just love that commercial with Miss Jay.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
I was great.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
So anyway, please welcome mister multi platinum recording artist drummer
Russ Miller to the show.
Speaker 6 (04:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
I was so excited, you know, no, but I was
just so excited. And I don't get really, I mean,
I do get excited with, you know, most of our guests,
but I got excited with him.
Speaker 8 (04:40):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
You just you know, you know why, because I appreciate
everything that you have done in your career.
Speaker 8 (04:48):
Thank you you.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
I mean, it's not just about reading the bio on
you was like reading a book.
Speaker 8 (04:58):
I'm old see up after a while.
Speaker 5 (05:01):
You know, I'm looking at it going what the accomplishments
are amazing?
Speaker 1 (05:05):
You know, it's just it's not even accomplishments. It's everything
that he wanted to do, his passion and he just
did it all. I mean he's internationally recognized. You know
he has Okay, go ahead, I'm sorry.
Speaker 8 (05:20):
No, you're making then you're making me nervous. Now what
do I do?
Speaker 1 (05:23):
You don't know how I've been for the last like
half hour waiting for you to come on. You have
no idea because you know when you have it's not
about it's star quality. Okay, absolutely, you're talking star quality here,
and you're talking about I mean I watched the videos
that with that you did because you also teach, you
(05:45):
also innovate. I mean the list of the things that
you have designed. Yeah, right, flabergasted. I was like what, Yeah,
I didn't even know how to pronounce half. Well, I
have done it all all.
Speaker 7 (06:07):
You know, the all those inventions are it's the necessity
of the is the mother of invention thing. You know,
you're just in the middle of doing stuff, right, just
run into something and go, you know, Like I was
doing these recordings with Mike Elizondo and all the guys.
(06:27):
They were doing Doctor Dre and Macy Gray and we
were that whole hip hop era.
Speaker 8 (06:34):
They a lot of the.
Speaker 7 (06:36):
Stuff was being programmed on drum machines, and they would
ask us to come in to play real drums on
it to make it feel better, you know, because the
machine didn't feel that good. But those machines they had
like Godzilla sounds, you know, it all sounds, and and
(06:56):
so you'd hear these incredible sounds and then you go
play the drums and it sounds of like boxes and toys.
So I literally was like, I got to come up
with a way of getting the bass drum, the real
bass drum, to sound like this huge low end wrap
R and B bass drum that we all know, you know.
So and that's when we used the trick of taking
(07:19):
a big speaker and wiring it backwards. Because every microphone
is a is a little speaker, right, So it's it's
that's what it is. The sound comes in, it shakes,
and then you amplify it. So we took a bigger
speaker and turned it into a microphone, and I made
that subkick with Yamaha, and it became like an industry
(07:40):
standard product for capturing the low end of real bass
drum so that we could record in style of music.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
You know, is this guy a genius?
Speaker 4 (07:49):
So what I would have never thought of that. I'm
not gonna lie not him, I would never know. I'm
just being honest with.
Speaker 8 (07:54):
You, Moro.
Speaker 6 (07:54):
Brother.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
I liked I liked the way basically you were like,
there has to be a way to make this much.
Speaker 8 (08:00):
It's yeah, well we you know, we didn't invent that.
Like Paul McCartney put a speaker in front of his
bassamp on.
Speaker 7 (08:06):
The White album with the Beatles, but nobody had ever
packaged it and put it in a thing that was
usable where you could take it. They were hanging like
a speaker on a hangar with a mic scamp, you know,
in firing it, soldering it together. So I put it
in a drumshell and and it made it so that
you could take it places and you know, set it
(08:28):
up and plug it in and it was protected. And
the other thing was cool was because we put it
in a drumshell with drumheads. You could tune it pitch
of it, so if it got in the way of
the bass or it got in the way of the
synthesizers on the track, you could change the pitch. And
so it just became a very viable use of that thing,
and it it ended up blowing up. So, I mean,
(08:49):
just one example of where you're just doing stuff and
you're like, man, we gotta we gotta get this to work.
Speaker 8 (08:54):
And that's it. That's right.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
He took something and made it more magical. He made
it not just to make it better, but to make
the sound quality of something. You know. He just took
a simple little thing and said, hey, I can do
something else with that.
Speaker 8 (09:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (09:12):
And you know, because everybody always says every time you
bring something out that works, everybody says the same thing.
Speaker 8 (09:18):
Like, how could we not have done that? I'm like,
we're doing it. Yeah, that's it. It's our turn.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
You did a lot with Yamaha, Right, I got the
other name. I don't remember the other name. I listen.
I would need like five pages to list everything that
he has done. Okay, but okay, just listen to this
because I have no idea what I'm talking about. I
have no idea He designed the Yamaha Yes Mounts, vintage
(09:49):
wood wood hoops, Satellite Kick drum drum trigger system. I
don't know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 7 (09:56):
Yeah, it's a lot of stuff. I was I I
was twenty years old and I was working in a
drum store in Florida. I went to the University of
Miami School of Music, and I went I was working
in a drum store. And you know, Yamaha is a
humongous company, right, They have a they have probably forty companies,
(10:19):
and they're one of the few businesses that just name
them all Yamaha, right, because they got they make the
They're the biggest manufacturer of one piece bathrooms in Japan,
their biggest manufacturer of mopeads in Southeast Asia like Taiwan,
all those places and course pianos and drums and you know,
(10:39):
just everything you know them for. So what happened was
I was working in a drum store. They took all
the guys that were in charge of literal clarinets, bassoons,
like school band work stuff, and they took the whole
drum set and guitar division and said, Okay, you guys
are going to sell this stuff. So it was like
(11:02):
these clarinet guys are like, hell's a amp and what
the hell? You know, what is all this stuff? The
guy who was in charge of Florida, he came into
the drum store and he said, listen, I'm a clarinet
player with the Air Force Band, and I'm I'm now
in charge of selling Yamaha drums to the biggest drummers
in the world. No idea, what the hell I'm doing?
(11:27):
And I hang out with you for a week, right,
and and learn about drums, because right.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
So that's how you that's how basically you started.
Speaker 8 (11:35):
In Yeah, I started, you know, while I was in college.
Speaker 7 (11:39):
I got a gig at a drum store, just helping,
you know now stuff, and I was, you know, uh,
just you know, to pay for college. And so anyway,
He's like, I want to hang out with you for
a week and learn about drums. So it sparked in
my brain. I'm like, this guy works at Yamaha, it's
the biggest usic company the world. Chance to like get
(11:59):
him to dig what I'm doing. So I was really
cool with him. I took him on like these educational
clinics that I was doing to try to spark you know,
spur students up and showed them lessons and showed them
these things and blah blah blah, and it was great
and we really hit it off. And his name was
Jim Murphy. He ended up becoming such a crucial part
of my life for a long time. I ended up
(12:21):
being at my wedding.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
You know, wow, oh wow.
Speaker 7 (12:23):
But he he at the end of the week he
was leaving, He's like, man, thank you so much. I
appreciate everything you did. I'm like, great, man, it's just
nice to meet you. A week later, I get a
call from the artist relations department at Yamaha that listen,
we know you play Yamaha drums.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
We know you.
Speaker 7 (12:41):
You know you're doing something there, and Jim recommended you
to become a Yamaha artist. So I signed an endorsement
a contract with Yamaha when I was about twenty one
years old, and and that you know, for twenty almost
twenty four years, I was a Yamaha artist and we
did about eighty different products, and you know, I toured
(13:05):
the world.
Speaker 8 (13:06):
They supplied everything.
Speaker 7 (13:07):
I did tons of all star events as the Yamaha
house band and playing for everybody from you know, the
Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys, Oh my god, you know,
to Sarah McLaughlin, to Natalie cole.
Speaker 8 (13:23):
To you know, I mean, just goes on and on
and on, like, oh, I know.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
I read the list, Yeah, list I read. I saw
Tina Turner, Natalie cole Way, Charles, Bobby Caldwell, Andrea Pachelli,
Nni Fatado, Psychedelic First, Hillary Duff, Steve Steve, go ahead,
Michael Boublay. This man has seen it all. That's all
I gotta say.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
Why do we get to the videos?
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Okay, you know what, We'll get to the video so
we can show everybody.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
We want to show everybody who is his career, his career.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
There you go, come on, let's do it.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
Go ahead, go to the videos, show everybody.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Let's go. Let's go home.
Speaker 7 (14:01):
I love you, ge.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
I came back to let you know, bet you know,
I gotta thing you.
Speaker 9 (14:12):
I can't.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
Find only one of the.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
I can't beatyn Day.
Speaker 10 (14:22):
You know you.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
Hey you you?
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Oh my god, I went the next one. I went
the next one. This is the next one.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Day three Orchestra onward, big group out there, almost one
hundred players, and we're excited to be here with these
amazing filmmakers and this great band, this great band.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Okay, next one, next one, let's go, let's go.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
A whole scarlet, so.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
A war.
Speaker 7 (15:23):
Us the whole.
Speaker 8 (15:38):
More one more.
Speaker 10 (15:44):
To every few. So let you speak your much strange sleep.
Don't want to within fat Santimes. I'm the only one.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Okay, That's all I gotta say. I was looking at it,
and every time I saw one of the videos, I
was like, this was there.
Speaker 7 (16:22):
It goes over God.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
And you actually did the Pro Bowl. I saw the
video with that.
Speaker 8 (16:26):
Too, Yeah, with Jennifer. Yeah, the Pro Bowl halftime.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (16:30):
I mean, do you have missed the world. It was
like three days, you know, in Hawaii with a suite
at the hill. Four thing played for three minutes and
that was it.
Speaker 8 (16:43):
Hung out with all.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
He was in Hawaii.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
Yeah, but I saw him do the one with that guy.
Remember that he sat in Now and play that one?
Speaker 9 (16:53):
Do we play the Andre I love This guest is
an international singing superstar who sang at the NBA Star
Game this past weekend. He sold nearly fifty million ceds worldwide.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
He's got new c the Amori. Please welcome Andrea but
Cheli everybody by many.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Bys Moon.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
Comocy for us not demons.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Okay, okay, okay, yeah, I just can't anymore because my my, my,
my brain is like going crazy right now.
Speaker 8 (17:53):
With this band Andrea's.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Oh my, how I was working with that with him?
Speaker 7 (18:01):
You know, there's there's moments a lot of times, you know,
you get these star bands together and all these heavy
guys are in the band, and the the artist is
the weakest person on stage, you know, on some of those.
But when you're with Andrea Avocelli or or you know,
Al Giroux or people like that, they're the strongest person
(18:22):
on stage. You got superstars in the band that have
done all these things, a million things, and this guy
is still the strongest cat up there. And I never
a bad note ever, And and you know, he's a
ridiculous concert level pianist, like oh, I mean, he's unbelievable
and just a super talent and you know, real pure
(18:45):
artistry right because it's because of his you know, handicap
of being black like that, all of that, the visual
aspect of it is sort of out the window, which
is sort of but you know a lot of music
is based on now right where you have these artists
that if there's one.
Speaker 8 (19:01):
Hundred percent the visual vibe hook is ninety of it.
Speaker 7 (19:06):
The music is ten, you know, and his is like
the music is ninety five and five of it is
you know, elegant, you know. And so it's like a
flip flop of a lot of things you see. But
he's he's a monster. Yeah, you know you can see it.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
You can see it in his stage presence.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Yeah, on TV. I don't remember him playing piano, but
I mean every my mom and dad loved him.
Speaker 7 (19:30):
Yeah, yeah, killer, just great music, you know, playing like
the Vienna Symphony and Tuscany with outside with him.
Speaker 8 (19:39):
You know, how did this happen?
Speaker 1 (19:42):
You know why? Why wouldn't we Like I would have
been related to this man. I would have been all
over the place.
Speaker 7 (19:50):
Yeah, my wife, you know, my wife used to go
with me all the time, and now she's just now
now she goes, I'm like, okay, I'm going over here.
She's like, well they famous people there. I'm like, yeah, okay,
you know, like we've just got nominated.
Speaker 8 (20:02):
For a Grammy for Record Produce Engineer.
Speaker 7 (20:07):
And he's like, okay, I'm looking for my Grammys now,
And I'm like, okay, now you want to go because.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Yeah, well I I you could take me anywhere you want.
I don't start it. I'll go anywhere you go. I
don't care. I wouldn't know, wouldn't bother me. I'm like,
you know what it is because I'm I'm not musical, right,
I'm not. I have no skills with music, but I
(20:33):
but I love it. But I love it. And and
everybody that you have enjoyed in your career, I you know,
every Natalie Cole. I'm like, yeah, they're Andrea, all the
people that you have interacted with. And I'm sitting there ground,
Oh look at me. He's over there. Oh my god,
Oh my god, that's us. It's Russ, you know. And
(20:56):
you're probably because you know what the good thing is
about being a drummer where and you have a singer
in a band, the drummer is always behind the.
Speaker 8 (21:04):
Artist, Yeah, right behind him, right. You know.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
It's like they may get to the saxophone fay on
the sex, the saxophone player on the right, maybe the
pianist on the you know, the left, and everything, but
the drummer you see all the time. So it's like
your right head on. So whatever video that I saw
the drums are right behind.
Speaker 8 (21:23):
Yeah, I make do that too.
Speaker 7 (21:24):
I would hook the guys up, you know, on the
stage crew with stuff from back, like here's some cookies
from the green room.
Speaker 8 (21:30):
You got some, you know, make sure I'm right behind Jennifer.
That's the best for sure, So make sure I'm right behind.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Was there any any there was? Was there any like
any one of them that was your favorite? I mean,
because you've played for all different types of genres too,
I mean you've done it all.
Speaker 7 (21:51):
Yeah, I mean they all you know, I think one
of the keys to all of music, you know, doing
especially what we do, which is play different stuff, you know,
different people. It's not like I was in one band
like I was in Rush for forty years or something,
you know, or Journey or it's yeah, yeah, I mean
if you were in one band like that, you know,
(22:12):
like it's just I think the thing is finding the
art in all of it. Like I was watching Danny's video,
Like the artistry of that, like the rhythmic force of
the lyric, the groove, the feel, the attitude, what's happening
in there, Like that's the art of that. Right then
you go like you showed the thing from one of
(22:34):
the sessions for the movies, like like that's like playing
making the right sounds and things that lift the movie,
but don't draw attention to you.
Speaker 10 (22:46):
You know.
Speaker 7 (22:46):
It's you shouldn't hear the music. You should, but if
it was gone, it would change everything.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
Right, Yeah, I love it. I love it because you
know what so cool about you is that you understand
the technical side of everything.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
Yeah, and I was And what I really liked though,
is you just basically like you watched the video and
you just analyze the whole thing in a standpoint of
a real good And I always say this, Man, only
real good artists and people that are really good produces.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
The drummer people got to know something. Man, without that
drum kick, half of them beats would not be nothing.
Speaker 7 (23:25):
There they're saying is there's no great bands with bad drummers,
you know, because the drums are so powerful and the
groove is such a big part of it that I
don't care if you got Stevie Wonder and Eric Clapton
in the band aren't happening, It's in shambles. And you know,
if the drums are there and it's pounding and the
groove is happening, everybody just sits on it like a
(23:46):
couch and and goes, you know. So it's it's crucial
to you know, making sure that the whole unit comes together.
And uh, you know what you were saying earlier. It's
funny because one of the things I love about being
the drummer is that I don't I can walk around
Walmart and Home Depot like nobody knows who I am,
(24:08):
you know, and I'm listening like I might be on
the radio at home Deepot, I'm like paying for my
stuff and I'm here and like I'm like a Nellie
Fortado or something, you know, and I'm just paying. And
it's great because it's like if Nelly was there, there'd
be a big hoop line. And I've been through that before,
where it's like, you know, we're leaving the hotel and
(24:29):
you know, the advanced security crew is making a path
for the artists and Doria Estefan and she's gonna come down,
We're gonna she's gonna go this way, and we're and
you know, all we're just sitting at the bar.
Speaker 8 (24:39):
Nobody knows it, you know.
Speaker 5 (24:40):
And I don't want to great though, because It's like
I've done all this stuff. I have all the accolades
and stuff, so when the main people like come and
see me, they already know it's about business.
Speaker 6 (24:53):
And I ain't got to deal with any of that
extra stuff. People coming and China attack me, yes.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Back all the time.
Speaker 7 (25:01):
I have fans rushing me all the time, go all
over They just syndicating every which way, sideways, upside. Now,
you guys are going to be you know, you're you're
not going to be able to walk around over there
pretty soon.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
Are you kidding me?
Speaker 10 (25:15):
Now?
Speaker 1 (25:16):
You know what I like to be hidden. I like
to be hidden. I don't go out much. I like
my little studio. Right, we do our show and I
go home. That's it. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
No, we're very happy with just having the normal life
because uh.
Speaker 7 (25:32):
Yeah, I'm around it a lot, you know, and.
Speaker 8 (25:38):
It's enough for me to be around it.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (25:41):
And and like you know, there's times where like Andrea,
you know, they they they won't even let those guys
fly commercial but the plane, the airlines will not take
the liability on.
Speaker 8 (25:53):
They don't want to deal with it. They don't yes
of everybody you know, making the plane late because they
want to stop and talk to people all that.
Speaker 7 (26:01):
So there's some moments where like they you know, people
don't think about some of that stuff. But it's like
there's been times where restaurants they're like, yeah, no, we don't,
we don't want that tonight.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
It's like yeah, because they know that it's going to
be a bum rush, you know.
Speaker 8 (26:15):
Whole thing.
Speaker 7 (26:16):
You know, I remember sitting at a restaurant with Jennifer
Love HEWITTT and and it leaked, and you know, it
was totally cool. We were just sitting in a restaurant,
you know, me and her and two other people, and
it leaked, and like now there's six hundred people at
the window with their nose.
Speaker 8 (26:30):
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
No, I can't deal with that. I can't deal with that.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
We had an incident with somebody I'm very close with it, right,
and he was in a what do you call it,
not gage He was in one of the guitar guitar center, right,
and his single just came out and he started playing
the piano the same dumb song. Right, So he's just
you know, playing it.
Speaker 5 (26:55):
All sudden he plays his song bottom Steak, somebody recognizes him.
Speaker 4 (26:59):
We couldn't get out.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
I could get out the building.
Speaker 8 (27:01):
Yeah, of course, yeah, you.
Speaker 4 (27:02):
Know what I'm saying. And I look at him and
I'm like, man, he's looking at me. He said, this
is something I can't.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Stand song man, Like, you know, it's actually got an
hour to get to my car.
Speaker 5 (27:13):
Yeah, it'sokus an hour to get out because people would
just chasing him and chase noneing like this.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
Yeah, yeah, I don't understand it.
Speaker 8 (27:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (27:22):
I actually I dealt with it last weekend because I
played I Play. I played the Percussive Art Society UH
International Convention, so that's it's like the biggest convention for
the drum and percussion industry. So I was one of
the featured performers and like there I walk in. Everybody
(27:43):
knows you because you know, yeah element yeah, and it's like, okay,
you're a big deal for twenty four hours and then
get out.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
But it's gotta kind of feel a little good.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
Listen, man, at the end of the day, your music
got heard for thirty two million people. Yeah, probably plus
and then go ahead. No, I'm just saying the one
thing that impressed me.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
I just wanted to know which season, okay, because I
also saw that you were the house band for American Idol,
which season for.
Speaker 8 (28:13):
Four seasons, but the first season was the one that
Philip Phillips won.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Kelly Clarkson won the first one.
Speaker 8 (28:20):
Yeah, so I was seasoned.
Speaker 7 (28:23):
We went in so there was one band, Ricky Minor
and those guys were They went to the Tonight Show
in twenty fifteen. It was season eleven is the first
so they went to the Tonight Show and then we
were the new band on Idol.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
So I didn't have the judges then at that time.
Who were the judges?
Speaker 8 (28:46):
Lopez and.
Speaker 7 (28:52):
Was it Randy Jackson, Jennifer Lopez and I can't The
last year I did it was Mariah and.
Speaker 8 (29:02):
Tried it time.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Yeah when when Mariah and was it Nicki Minaj when
they were both on together. Yeah, you didn't get along.
Speaker 8 (29:10):
No, and they did it on purpose.
Speaker 4 (29:12):
You think it was all it was like, No, it
was all entertainment, all enter the ratings come.
Speaker 8 (29:19):
On in the world. That has nothing to do with music.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Okay, but I didn't know that.
Speaker 8 (29:27):
But you know, coll it was cool.
Speaker 7 (29:29):
I actually had a great time on there. It's it's
a it was a real it was. It was a
lot of pressure though, because there was a lot of music,
a lot of playing a lot of stuff. And it
got easier as it went on, right because when they
first start, we're playing thirty songs with thirty people, and
then like they'd kick somebody off. Now it's twenty nine.
I was twenty eight, twenty okay, so the last couple
(29:50):
of weeks, it's only four or five things, there's no problem.
But bick In, you know, it was a lot. And
I mean they were writing. There was times where I
would be sight reading, literally sit reading the song on
television like I never we never rehearsed it. They gave
me the like on the on the music stand and
fight reading it. And I'll tell the story really quick. Jimmy,
(30:13):
I Bean was working on the Beats headphones right and
with doctor Dre and Jimmy used to be.
Speaker 8 (30:18):
You gotta wear the Beats headphones. But I'm like, oh man,
we don't really dig those that much.
Speaker 7 (30:21):
But you know, we had the real high end in
your monitors that are like molded for your ears and
they're like three grand, and you know it sounds amazing.
So I was like, okay, I told my Justin that
my drum check that works for me. He he like, listen,
I'm gonna wear my in ears. I'll put the beats
over my in ears and I'll cover them up. So Jimmy,
you'll think I got it.
Speaker 8 (30:42):
You know, I'm wearing them.
Speaker 7 (30:43):
But what was happening was there was so much music
coming at us and it was so fast. We ended
up putting YouTube in the Beats headphones. So I had
my monitors in for me to play and listen and
play with the band, but in my Beats headphones I
had YouTube, so that when they put the chart on
the on the stand, he would go to YouTube and
I would have about twenty five or thirty seconds to
(31:05):
hear the original song of what We're Gonna do before
we would have to site read it and play it.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
That's that's insane.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
Yeah, you have to be you're pro to do that.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Man.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
It was to be a bro a lot of well
look what we're talking to him?
Speaker 5 (31:19):
Yeah, but listen, man, at the end of the day, man,
think about all them records, right, you haven't heard anything.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
So now you've got to go through that pattern.
Speaker 6 (31:26):
Ain't sap And you got to say, Okay, I gotta
do it like this, do like and everyone's got to
be a sync at the same time, oh.
Speaker 7 (31:33):
My, and a lot of it was like, well, you know,
I grew up playing a lot of in bar bands
and wedding bands, so we like if you called motown songs,
like I know all those songs, Michael Jackson songs, I
know all that.
Speaker 8 (31:46):
It's like when they go, what's the new Lady Gaga song,
I'm like, I don't know that.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Yeah, I don't even know the new ones either.
Speaker 7 (31:53):
Yeah, and you have to be like, oh hey, justin
we got to have a handclap on electronic padd we
gotta have a finger click, and we gotta have we
got to like program it real fast, and it was it.
Speaker 8 (32:03):
Was kind of a lot of pressure.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
You know when you do all those sessions and stuff
like that. How how long are you away from home?
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Uh?
Speaker 8 (32:13):
What?
Speaker 10 (32:14):
You know?
Speaker 7 (32:15):
I used to be gone a lot when I was younger,
with my with my wife and before I was married,
maybe one hundred and fifty days a year minimum, And
and then once I got married, I rolled it back
a little bit. And then once my daughter was born,
I tried more in LA doing a lot more movie
stuff and TV stuff, not tour as much for long
(32:36):
periods of time, or I would do stuff with people
like Andrea or somebody that they don't want to go
do big runs anymore. You know, they couple three weeks, right, yeah,
you know, but when we were younger, we'd leave for
five six months.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
And you know, oh, you ain't even for five six months.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
I've done that when I was younger.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
I'm not doing it. But you know what I noticed
all this time we were sitting here and I'm looking
behind him. Yeah, so he's this nice drum set behind
him right now? Does that play it?
Speaker 8 (33:09):
Does?
Speaker 1 (33:11):
I'm just trying to coax him. He wants to get behind.
Speaker 8 (33:17):
Our microphones, but I can. I'll do something before we split,
for sure.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
I love this guy, ide I do.
Speaker 10 (33:24):
So.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Anyway, now, with the aspect of you do look like
a professor, Okay, he does look like a professor. I
can see him as a musical professor.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
Oh, absolutely right.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
He has that tenacity. But do you enjoy that? I mean,
is that something that you are more you know, broadening
right now with the teaching and the consulting and stuff.
Speaker 8 (33:52):
Yeah, you know, I do enjoy it.
Speaker 7 (33:55):
I mean, I there's I kind of I talked privately
a lot when I was younger, and then I taught
at a couple colleges. And the one thing that I
have done a tremendous amount is a lot of the
instrument companies Xilgient Symbols and Yamaha drums and Mapex drums
and all these big companies. They would ask us to
(34:16):
do educational clinics all over the world, and I have,
literally I I think I've been in maybe one hundred
and fifteen or one hundred and twenty countries doing educational seminars,
and I mean everywhere. I mean Mongolia, Madagascar, like there,
(34:38):
you know, like everywhere you can think of where there's
these music schools and music stores. You mentioned Guitar Center
for years and use our centers all over and then
tons in Europe. And I really enjoy giving information and
all that teaching privately. You know, there's a window of
(34:59):
time that I think is in your life that you
can deal with that, because there becomes like this now
there's a liability like if this person is working on
it or not. You know, you give them all this
stuff and do they work on and come back or
do they come back and like they're just as bad
as they were last week, you know, and it's like
now I'm like trying to beat you into submission, to
(35:19):
get you to get this thing. It's so I had
tolerance for it more when I was younger. But I
really love to do I love to give the information
and do master classes and big things.
Speaker 8 (35:31):
I really enjoy that. I've done a lot of that
over the years. So that's cool, you know.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
I mean, he's just like I could he was like
when he was talking before, I was like, he could
be my professor. It's interesting to you know when I'm
when I could listen to you too, but only for
so much.
Speaker 10 (35:48):
No.
Speaker 4 (35:50):
When I were happy with him, though, is because he
knows the technical side. Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5 (35:54):
And I would love to hear a lot about the
technical side because being an artist, like being you know,
like a DJ and being a rapper with the lyrics
and so all that that I really don't get in
crazy with the technical side.
Speaker 8 (36:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
So when you say all that, I'm very intrigued.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
When I hear that the thing maybe take one of
his classes.
Speaker 4 (36:12):
I think, I am ok.
Speaker 8 (36:15):
I love that style of music.
Speaker 7 (36:16):
I mean, I think the biggest challenge is, you know,
there's there's a lack of harmony in that music. Right,
So that I think the exploration of that style is
in in the development of harmony, because there's you know,
you'll go through some of those tunes and it's like
literally two chords and like just a very basic bass
(36:38):
movement or something. The other thing that happens is that
music style is often written from the rhythm section upward,
and most great songs are written from the lyric melody downward.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Right.
Speaker 7 (36:52):
So you take a Billy Joel, He's going to sit
at the piano and write this incredible melody lyric and
then put chords to it, then figure out what drum
beat and guitar and strings or horns or.
Speaker 8 (37:05):
Whatever, right, Whereas a lot of the R.
Speaker 7 (37:07):
And B hip hop they come up with a beat
first and then write the other stuff to it. So
what I want to encourage them to do is write
downward and see the way that it changes the way
you approach music. Because yet, at the end of the day,
the great songs that you're still singing and still hearing
(37:30):
at a wedding, like you go to a wedding now,
it's still Elton John, Billy Joel, you know all the
stuff that we grew up with. You know, you don't
hear the latest Beyonce thing until the DP like. And
the reason the bands don't play it is because a
lot of that music is not formulated around ensembles of
(37:51):
guys playing. It's formulated around some programming and things, so
it just doesn't translate the same way. So it's funny
that what we consider like the classics or the fundamental
songs that we listen to are still stuff that were
written that way. You know, the Elton Johns and Billy
Joels and all that stuff that was written that way
(38:12):
twenty five years ago. So what I'm looking for out
of that style is the ones that are gonna break
the ground and go I'm gonna write it from the
top down and not worry about that beat until I
got such an incredible story and an incredible lyric and
melody that I'm going to carry that whole thing if
there was no beat at all.
Speaker 8 (38:31):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
I really like that concept me too.
Speaker 5 (38:35):
I never thought, honestly, I never really thought about that,
because when you're doing it, you're doing it in a
different type of environment. Because nowadays, do you see the engineer,
he doesn't go and play a live tune. You don't
have a live band behind you. What they do is
they take everything electronically and digital you to go. I
(38:56):
never took that in a perspective.
Speaker 6 (38:57):
How being live bin would have kind of not issues,
but it won't coincide the way that it will if
it was actually recorded live inside the studio.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
I took it like that.
Speaker 8 (39:12):
The other.
Speaker 7 (39:14):
The other challenge too, is you know, the more programming
and electronics there are, the more serendipitous things are taken away,
right because these things going, I'm gonna play these notes,
these notes, these notes, are gonna put them all together.
It sounds great and it feels great, and that's all fine.
But there's moments where we were in the studio making
(39:39):
a you know, like you know that song I'm Like
a Bird from Nellie, like a yeah, I played on that,
and we were doing Nelly's first record, and you know,
Nellie's nineteen years old at the time, and we we
(40:00):
just had ideas back then to if you listen to
that song, she wanted the verses to feel programmed, So
I said, well, listen, we wanted to feel good. So
I'm going to play the beat and then let's go
back and sample it and then loop it even though
I could just play it, it's going to have a
(40:20):
different feel right for that verse. But then in the chorus,
I'm just going to come in like big fat bottom
drum John Bonham led Zeppelin drums, And what's going to
happen is the whole chorus is.
Speaker 8 (40:33):
Going to explode.
Speaker 7 (40:36):
Even though I play that something that much different because
it went from this loopy programming thing to you know,
and it's it's a big thing and it really lifts
the chorus.
Speaker 8 (40:49):
So like, those are things that don't happen if.
Speaker 7 (40:53):
We're not all in the room and people playing and
and interacting and and and and inspiring each other. You
hear somebody play that and you go, dude, that's dope.
Let's let's add it. We're going to change this, and
I'm going to change what I play because you did this.
And you know the other part is you've got to
make sure that you're not taking a bunch of parts
(41:15):
and trying to assemble music. You're allowing music to happen.
And music happens because it's it's communication between people. So
like when you're in there, man, you know, don't ever
do it unless another cat's in there. And you guys,
can interact with like a piano player or something, you know,
(41:35):
so that like it, that's what it inspires me to
do that.
Speaker 8 (41:39):
And you it's so fun.
Speaker 7 (41:41):
I mean, you show that video of Jeff Dana, who's
one of the great film composers. And I've done probably
forty or fifty movies with Jeff, everything.
Speaker 8 (41:50):
From Resident Evil to Onward to I don't know what
we we just we've done, you know.
Speaker 7 (41:57):
And but being in that room and having the orchestra
and that's all playing, and yeah, things are moved. Like
you mentioned Blue Blay, like on that last Michael blue
Blay record, he did that live and I mean live,
full orchestra on the floor at the Fox Newman's Stay
and he sang live on a pedestal in front of
(42:19):
the orchestra like Sinatra used to. And we played that
whole thing live, uh, and and even the lead voice live,
which that's never right. Everybody knows ben and then the
lead vocalist goes in and does three million takes and
they comp it together.
Speaker 8 (42:35):
And blah blah blah. It's like old school.
Speaker 7 (42:39):
And and if you listen to a track like Smile,
which is the you know, the piece we recorded Smile
on the Fox Newman stage with Michael blue Blay live
and I was in the same spot where they recorded
it with Charlie Chaplin when he did it the first time.
Speaker 8 (42:56):
Wow, same room.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
Cow So that that was really monumental.
Speaker 8 (43:02):
Yeah, really cool.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
That is monumental. But Michael, I love him too. I
love I love like most of like everybody that he's
especially when I heard Bobby Caldwell, I was like, oh, yeah,
you know, I'm old school.
Speaker 8 (43:17):
Yeah, you know. We always every gig with Bobby, we'd
start playing which we walk out the first tune and
every the first five ros you could see everyone mouth
into each other. He's white.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
He does have yeah he does. Yeah, but I never
said that. But yeah, no I could understand because he
has that Yeah, what's I grow du al duaux kind
of voice? Right, Yeah, can you compare that to absolutely
(43:52):
absolutely he had that powerful voice.
Speaker 8 (43:55):
Yeah, we just lost Bobby. He was a super talented guy.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (44:00):
It was awesome and a lot of good times. We
did a lot in Japan. He was huge in Japan.
We used to play Buddha Khan and and twenty five
nights at the Blueo Tokyo, like sold out two shows
a night, like really really popular over there.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
You know. And I remember also Andrea Bocelli, he did
a song with Ed Cheron, yeah recently, right, because I
was seeing that and I was like, you know, because
sometimes you never know, the old school comes with the
new school, yea, and sometimes the collaborations that that that happened,
(44:37):
but it happened.
Speaker 7 (44:39):
Yeah, I mean the one the prayer that we did
with with Celine Dion, that one's ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
Yeah, And you know what the funny thing is, wasn't
I not just playing that the other night?
Speaker 4 (44:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (44:48):
I was just playing that the other night. I was like,
you gotta living on the prayer. The prayer song is
probably hold on a second. Okay, there we go. Yeah,
oh okay, that's what he's telling me. Oh okay, he's
like drummer time, Oh, drum like, play the drum time,
play the drums.
Speaker 8 (45:09):
Okay, all right, what do you you know? How long
do we have? Can I we got a couple of
minutes or no.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
We got we got we got like ten minutes for you.
Speaker 8 (45:19):
Okay, all right, I'm gonna play something real quick.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
Okay, go ahead, let me turn this on. I'm dying
for this. What are you kidding me. Keep it going.
Speaker 4 (45:27):
I love stories.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
That's a beautiful drum set too.
Speaker 9 (45:30):
I like that.
Speaker 4 (45:32):
All right, dope, I'm gonna.
Speaker 7 (45:37):
M h I'm gonna play something light so I don't
blow the microphone up.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
Because don't play too light. Okay, go ahead, see.
Speaker 4 (46:53):
Yes, a gentleman. That is somebody that has no. Two billion.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
I got my own personal routine.
Speaker 4 (47:14):
There that was and it looked like it was effortless.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
He was actually serenading me, you know, serenading me. Let's
leave the drumming to him.
Speaker 4 (47:28):
Okay, hey man, let's just at the end of at
the end of the day. That looked effortless.
Speaker 1 (47:34):
I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 4 (47:36):
That looks effortless. You have seen a basketball player where
they have muscle memory. That's what it looked like. It
just looked like he was just then at the D
T T easy.
Speaker 1 (47:47):
You would see that's him. If you were behind the drums,
you would look like, like, what's his name? Animal from
the Muffets.
Speaker 4 (47:54):
That's what I was just thinking. You know what I'm saying,
co Indian Devil as made the Devil.
Speaker 1 (48:02):
That wouldn't be a drug set left, Oh no, no,
it would be. But I you know, I just think
you're You're just phenomenal.
Speaker 4 (48:10):
Yeah, man, you guys are great talent.
Speaker 8 (48:12):
You guys are too kind. It's fun, you know.
Speaker 7 (48:14):
I always tell everybody like the goal it when I
see somebody like Tom Brady, Not that I'm referring myself
to him, but when I see somebody like a Tom
Brady or one of those great quarterbacks or great sports people.
Which strikes me about somebody like that is that everything
(48:37):
in his life is a byproduct of his skill set. Right, Like,
he never played football to be rich. He never played football.
To Mary Giselle, he never played football, you know, get
TV commercials. He played football to be the best quarterback
he could be. And that was always like my focus.
Speaker 8 (48:55):
When I was a young.
Speaker 7 (48:57):
Person, like about eleven or twelve yearyears old, I said,
you know, I want to play the drums.
Speaker 8 (49:02):
And no one in my family was in music.
Speaker 7 (49:05):
I grew up in a really small town just south
of Cleveland, so there's nothing there, and but I was
always in my mind a professional drummer, even if I
had to work at Wendy's. I was a professional drummer
who was working at Wendy's. Right, Yeah, I've ever working
at Wendy's wanting to be a professional drummer.
Speaker 1 (49:28):
I love his concepts, I really do.
Speaker 7 (49:31):
And I like, you know, that got me and I
you know, and I told my wife, like when we
got married. Listen, there's times when there's money. There's times
when there's a lot of money. There's signs when you're famous,
there's times when you're not. It just doesn't matter. Like,
I'm here to play music at the highest level I
can and and try to, you know, make the best
(49:54):
music with the best people. And if I succeed at that,
you will have everything you ever dreamt of. I don't
because I don't want any of that. All I want
to do is play the music with the people so great.
We got a big house and car. That's awesome.
Speaker 8 (50:10):
I don't care. It's not for me.
Speaker 1 (50:13):
Well, if you got room for one more, I'm available.
Speaker 8 (50:16):
I can. We can set that up.
Speaker 1 (50:17):
We can see it. I'm moving out, baby.
Speaker 4 (50:20):
You're funny.
Speaker 8 (50:20):
Okay, it's only fifty degrees here, come on.
Speaker 1 (50:25):
I'm fine with that.
Speaker 4 (50:25):
You know. You know what's cool too, is that like
you're behind the drums, right, and you don't like you
have so many accolades, right, Like with the plaques and
all of that, and you to just normally around the drums, relaxing,
doing your thing because you love music so much. Then
you love your accolades.
Speaker 5 (50:44):
But you love music so much see it and you
And that's why you used to see the hide and
a lot of people, probably because you let the music
take me.
Speaker 7 (50:52):
Literally, that's it and great the great musicians. One of
the most important components is human because it's super important
that you let everyone around you shine and you support everybody.
My job with Ray Charles is to make sure that
Ray Charles can be who he is and do what
(51:14):
he's supposed to do, not to prove myself or anything.
And what happens is by doing that, you end up
executing at a really high level. And that's what draws
people in rather than trying to, you know, make sure
that like, oh man, I'm recording with Ray Charles, I
got to play like the most wicked drum fill in history,
(51:37):
you know. I love that, So everybody remembers this drum fill,
you know, but then it doesn't make great music. So
it's that's the thing where I when I hear we're
talking about I'm like a bird, you know, when I'm
standing in Target and I'm like a bird.
Speaker 8 (51:55):
You know, it's like, you know, it just in my brain.
Speaker 7 (51:59):
I think, like, wow, what we did there was it
meant something and to people to a point where it's
be that particular piece, for instance, has become a staple
of the past twenty years.
Speaker 8 (52:11):
You hear it all the time.
Speaker 7 (52:14):
I didn't think anybody was gonna buy that record, I told,
I told, I mean, you know, sometimes you do stuff
like listen, you know we did that first record with Nelly,
and I'm like, nobody's gonna buy this milk albums and
like you know, Grammys.
Speaker 8 (52:28):
Jennifer Love Hewitt, who's a sweetheart and she can sing.
Speaker 1 (52:32):
Yeah, you know, I forgot about that.
Speaker 8 (52:34):
Yeah, and I and I told, I.
Speaker 7 (52:36):
Told Andy Goldmark, he was that a guy at Interscope
we were doing the record. I said, listen, Love is great.
She she can sing great, She's a superstar. I mean,
this is like, if we can't sell this, we might
as well we're bad. That record went Plywood with an
anchor tied to it, like it didn't there was nothing.
Speaker 8 (52:58):
She she's a huge star, but it just take.
Speaker 4 (53:00):
You know, can I ask you a question from from
just understanding, like marketing motion.
Speaker 5 (53:05):
Right, there's a lot of records fall because of the
way that the campaign rolls out.
Speaker 4 (53:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (53:14):
Yeah, a lot of times. What happens too is you
know they've got you know that quarter or that half
a year. They're like, Okay, the Country division has this money,
and the R and B division has this money and
this and I mean even you know with American Idol
and some.
Speaker 8 (53:33):
Of that stuff. It's like Interscope isn't going to sign
four years in a row nineteen year old.
Speaker 7 (53:40):
African American female. Yeah, it's like they're all going to
compete against one another.
Speaker 8 (53:45):
So it's like, we got a white country singing female
last season. We need a you know, R and B.
Speaker 4 (53:53):
Right, So they they do need the versatility they have
the agenda. Usually some sounds like which when they gonna
be pigging or does it just vary on the talent.
Speaker 8 (54:02):
I'm not gonna say that publicly, but I can no.
Speaker 4 (54:07):
I'm not talking about American Idol. I'm talking about labels.
Speaker 7 (54:10):
Oh absolutely, because because they they're there there, there's a
there's a budget set aside.
Speaker 8 (54:17):
And the other thing too, you gotta watch out for.
Speaker 7 (54:19):
That started to happen in the later years that never
used to happen when we were younger was the ar
guys who are working at the label started to try
to play songs on the artists that they were signing,
so they were the songs that they were involved in
and had writers credits on placed on those records. So
if the if the if the artist pushed back, then
(54:40):
the AR guy would pull back a little bit and go,
well this I don't here on I'm not gonna make
money on the side hustle.
Speaker 4 (54:46):
Uh okay.
Speaker 5 (54:48):
I see I see a lot of them two being
a DJ, I see a lot of them going okay,
I wrote this right here for the publishing and then
they dig into publishers and they ain't getting the deal right.
Speaker 7 (54:58):
So that that's an And what happened is like say
a new AR guy came in. Now he's got all
his people. They'd shelf all the stuff the old guy
was doing, you know. And so there's a lot you know,
there's a lot of things that we always we always
would say, Man, a lot of things got to go
right for this to work. Yeah, you know a lot
of things have to fall in place, and it's not
(55:19):
just the music sometimes and that's why we would always
tell artists and say, listen, just make the music that
you want to make that makes you you want to
put out, because if you try to chase all these fools,
they'll chase you, they'll take you right down in the
super like. Just do what you want to do, make
it correct, be proud of it, and then that will
(55:41):
carry what you want to do and you will make
that make sense.
Speaker 8 (55:45):
But try to go what do they want? I want
to make it sound like Beyonce, I want to do that.
Speaker 1 (55:51):
You know what, we got to do it. I know
we got to do a part two with him or
something and he's just so you know. But in closing, okay,
I didn't want to wish you a happy belated birthday.
November sixteen.
Speaker 7 (56:04):
Yeah, I was playing at the Basic Thing on my
birthday night, so that that was fun for me. To
watch the PASIC Convention, the Drum and Percussion Convention when
I was a boy and want to play there and
I and I played there many times now. But to
be one of the headlining guys on my fifty fifth birthday,
(56:27):
this is cool.
Speaker 1 (56:29):
I know, rough? Rough is it? Did you know what
I'm talking about?
Speaker 3 (56:34):
Right?
Speaker 8 (56:35):
Oh? That was awesome?
Speaker 7 (56:37):
Go ahead, A rough is a drum rudiment, right, It's
like a It's like drums. It's like one of the
drum rudiments. They call it a rough because like prep
when you play, you know, that's like a rough. So
Kirsten Matt from the Xilgian Symbol Company, she goes to
the bakery and the and the girl couldn't speak English.
Speaker 1 (56:58):
And said russ and he she wrote on his birthday
cake rough, it's really.
Speaker 8 (57:04):
Truss rong are uss? All right?
Speaker 7 (57:06):
She gets the cake back and it says rough on it,
and she just saw when it said rough, she goes,
this is too perfect.
Speaker 8 (57:11):
So she's just cute.
Speaker 1 (57:12):
It was too cute. But you know what that that
happened to me. My girlfriend went to get a cake
for alphea and then when they opened it, it said othello.
Speaker 8 (57:23):
Nice right, So I I I was, I was.
Speaker 1 (57:26):
With you right there. I was like when I saw
that video, I was like, oh my god, that's so adorable.
Speaker 8 (57:31):
Yeah it was classic.
Speaker 1 (57:33):
Yeah that was classic. But I didn't know that there's
a behind story on that. So that's pretty cool actually,
But again, it's been a pleasure I enjoyed.
Speaker 8 (57:41):
Then you guys are awesome. Behind let's come out.
Speaker 4 (57:46):
Oh god, oh, I'm gonna come.
Speaker 1 (57:49):
Out plane right away. He won't he won't stop. He'd
be like, honey, I'm going to Russ's house.
Speaker 4 (57:53):
Okay, yeah, I'm going over there.
Speaker 1 (57:55):
Man.
Speaker 4 (57:55):
We about to go record a different song, different jams.
Speaker 1 (57:57):
Oh now, now he's got a hold button. You got
a whole new body of Okay, let's do it this
way now, okay.
Speaker 8 (58:03):
Real quick.
Speaker 7 (58:04):
I gotta tell you one thing. I in twenty twenty,
I wanted to stay home more with my daughters. So
I came up with this idea of having a company
that made online concert events. So and we developed a
specific software I work with these guys I know in
Germany that allows people on any device anywhere in the world,
(58:27):
they can watch online concerts, and they can switch the
cameras and watch any camera. They can switch the audio,
listen in stereo at most spatial surround, and you can
put on a VR headset.
Speaker 1 (58:39):
Right.
Speaker 8 (58:40):
We put three hundred and sixty degree VR cameras on
the stage, so when you put on the headset, you're
standing on the stage from anywhere. My gosh, you're doing.
Speaker 7 (58:49):
It's called hitcore Hi taor okay, got it out?
Speaker 8 (58:57):
And we've been in business now for five years. I
took a bunch of my dough and invested in.
Speaker 7 (59:02):
We have an investment board, a bunch of heavy guys,
and we've had about eighty or ninety shows everybody from
en Vogue to Ministry to Filter to you know, uh,
Jordan Sparks are just there a couple of weeks and
it's really really cool, and we love to have artists
on there, and really especially young artists, and and it's
a great way to watch if you're a fan of
(59:22):
the artist, it's an incredible way to watch the artist
in a way you've never been able to do.
Speaker 1 (59:26):
Well. We'll definitely, we'll definitely check it out. Okay, again,
I really appreciate you coming on. Everybody, go check out
Russmiller dot com. You can't. You can't get any better
than that. Russmiller dot com. Go check this man out.
He's a genius. Thank you everybody for watching. We'll see
you next Sunday.
Speaker 4 (59:47):
He's gentlemen, Thank you, You're welcome.
Speaker 7 (01:00:00):
Six
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