June 21, 2024 • 35 mins
Ray Herndon is the legendary vocalist and guitarist for the award winning group McBride and the Ride. As a part of the 90's group, McBride and the Ride shot to the top of the charts with hits such as Love on the Loose, Heart on the Run, Sacred Ground and Going Out of My Mind. His life is defined by a very diversed approach to the music industry.
Ray has worked with Lyle Lovett from the start. He lived in Nashville for 13 years.
He did a solo album in 2007. Eventually Ray moved back to Scottsdale, Arizona to help manage the family bar/restaurant/recording studio Handlebar J.
Ray recalls the final 10 years of his Mom's life, caring for her in Arizona. What a noble role.
Hear Ray's admiration for his Dad and his hard work ethic. He regrets never telling his Dad "I love you."
Enjoy hearing Amarillo Sky and many other diverse songs on their newest EP.
Visit www.mcbrideandtheride.com to see where they are in concert and hear their newest music.
THEY LAUGH A LOT AND MAKE A LITTLE MUSIC.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/legends-extraordinary-lives--5351541/support.
Ray has worked with Lyle Lovett from the start. He lived in Nashville for 13 years.
He did a solo album in 2007. Eventually Ray moved back to Scottsdale, Arizona to help manage the family bar/restaurant/recording studio Handlebar J.
Ray recalls the final 10 years of his Mom's life, caring for her in Arizona. What a noble role.
Hear Ray's admiration for his Dad and his hard work ethic. He regrets never telling his Dad "I love you."
Enjoy hearing Amarillo Sky and many other diverse songs on their newest EP.
Visit www.mcbrideandtheride.com to see where they are in concert and hear their newest music.
THEY LAUGH A LOT AND MAKE A LITTLE MUSIC.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/legends-extraordinary-lives--5351541/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
He just takes a tractor on anotherround. Buzz found Ron Glad sounds up
another were he says a lot ofbad. I'm never ast why he's doing
that. My grands run by Hony, Honny this Camarilla. Hey, welcome
(00:28):
back to success made the Last Legends. I'm Rick Tokeinney. On this day,
we're going to be interviewing all threemembers of McBride and the Ride as
they are excited to release their newtrack this fall called Amarillo Sky. First
up is Ray Herndon, known forhis vocals and guitar mastery. H Ray,
(00:51):
it is an honor to get tohonor you today. Why Rick,
I appreciate you having me on,And you know, I'm always excited to
do an interview from you know,Austin, Texas, one of my favorite
cities besides the city I'm in.That's good. That's good, Okay.
(01:14):
So give us your backstory, startingwith where you're from. Originally, I
am an Arizona native. I grewup here in Phoenix Scottsdale area, and
you know, I've been here mostof my life. Moved to Nashville and
ninety five after McBride and the Ridesfirst five years of being together, and
(01:36):
we took a bit of a hiatusand I took that opportunity to move to
Nashville, and I lived there aboutthirteen years and got really immersed in the
songwriting community and doing session work,and also, you know, I was
still on the road with Lyle loItt during those years as well. I've
(01:56):
been with Lyle since the beginning ofhis career. We can talk about that
later if you want, but wedid Lyle's first record out here in Arizona,
and they were demos at the time, and then he took them to
Nashville and got signed to a recorddeal. But I've been doing that,
gosh, since I was fairly young, and continued you know, before McBride,
(02:22):
after McBride, after the second incarnationof McBride. So anyway, I've
been playing with Lyle all these years. I haven't done that last few years
just because of my schedule. Butanyway, I moved to Nashville for that
thirteen years and decided that Nashville waskind of going a direction that you know,
(02:43):
I'd kind of been there, donethat, and seen the movie more
times than I'd care to, soI was ready to make a move and
I had a manager. Her namewas is Carol Jumkis, and she worked
for at the time, Sirius Radioin New York. That's how I met
her, and when I did mysolo record in two thousand and seven,
she was very instrumental in getting someof those songs played on Sirius, which
(03:07):
was very exciting for me at thetime, and I wanted her to be
my manager, but it didn't workout. So fast forward to about two
thousand and eight, she was leavingSirious and going back to Los Angeles,
and she said, Hey, whydon't you come out to Los Angeles and
let me be your manager. We'llwork your career from this angle out here.
I said, wow, Well,I had just bought a place in
(03:30):
Nashville, and I thought, well, you know, okay, So I
sold my place in Nashville, movedto La lived in Santa Monica for about
a year and that was great.I loved always wanted to live in California,
so I got my fill in thatyear, and then I moved back
to Arizona because of our restaurant,longtime legacy restaurant bar called Handlebar Jay,
(03:52):
which my mom at the time hadbeen running for forty years. My mom
and dad bought it in seventy five. So I came back. I reckon
nice that she needed some help,and I was kind of the guy that
was just a little too old tobe trying to make it in LA at
that time, even though I was. Actually I had a agent to try
(04:12):
to do some voiceover work, becauseeverybody always says, you know, you've
got a face for radio, youshould try voiceover work. And so I
went down that road for a whileand it was great fun. I did
a ton of interviews or not interviews, but obviously, and that's a numbers
game. I probably had I stuckwith it for another few years, maybe
(04:34):
I could have landed something, butI, you know, I had to
get back to Arizona help my mom. That was the best thing I'd ever
done, really was to spend thelast ten years of her life with her
here in Arizona. I wouldn't tradethat for any amount of success in any
business, because that was, youknow, just being with her was amazing
and she was an amazing person.But anyway, I just stayed out here,
(04:58):
so that's why I'm here now now. And then, you know,
back to doing McBride's stuff and everythingelse I do, which my fiance was
just saying, why are you doingso many things? Well, one of
those things is funny because I waslooking at your podcast, and you know,
(05:20):
one of those things I wanted totalk about, you know, if
we had the opportunity, was thediversity that it takes to be in the
music business. So I guess that'swhat I'm doing, diversifying, You got
it? So keeping keeping keeping avery serious purpose, but a fun purpose
(05:41):
with with the music, especially withMcBride and the right and man, what
you just mentioned about taking care ofyour mom the last ten years, that's
that's truly amazing. It's also inspiringto us that are some times caught in
the Sandwich generation. As a Sandwichgeneration, and talk about having your priorities
(06:06):
straight. I don't want to,I don't want to glance off of this
topic because it's it's something of greatsignificance for those of us that are still
blessed to have parents. Just giveus a little advice on how to spend
those last several years kind of relishingevery minute of time with our parents.
(06:31):
Yeah, well absolutely, And that'slike I said when I recognized you know
at the time I was in LAshe would have been in her mid eighties,
I guess at that point, andshe was running a bar restaurant that
she'd ran for years, a cowboybar restaurant, highly respected woman running a
(06:53):
place like that, you know,just it was just her. It would
have been her hundredth birthday the otherday, and I post did something on
Facebook and so many people commented onwhat an amazing inspiration she was to them,
even and she was like their momtoo, you know, So it's
very endearing. But for me tocome back, I recognize that at that
(07:15):
age she was slowing down and wehave this viable business that needed some help.
And I do have two brothers,but they weren't necessarily quite as interested
maybe in going down that path.I wanted to keep that legacy alive long
after she was gone, if possible. So when I came back, I
sort of jumped into that pretty heavily, but also playing music too, because
(07:38):
that's really what I do. That'smy priority really in life is music.
But this restaurant has also been instrumentalin keeping me involved in music in a
lot of ways. My dad wasa musician and that was also his dream
was to have a place like that, which he also played it at the
restaurant, you know, from sixtyseven to the day he passed in nineteen
(08:01):
eighty one, pretty much for hisboys to be able to have a place
to perform and exactly what's happened.But anyway, you know, getting back
to my mom, I recognized thatshe was just getting older and needed help.
So I came here and moved backand lived. I bought a house
(08:22):
a couple doors away from her,and at the time, you know,
she was living by herself, andso we basically just spent all of our
time together. I would drive withher to work. It was a fifteen
twenty minute drive each way, sowe had a lot of time to visit.
We've always been close, but whenI moved away and being on the
(08:43):
road for all the time that Iwas on the road prior to that,
you know, twenty year gosh.I started on the road with Lyle in
probably nineteen eighty five, So everysummer I was gone for months at a
time, and sometimes in the fallas well, so you know, I
didn't get to be around her asmuch as I wanted to be. And
so that last ten years when Imoved back to Phoenix, I got to
(09:05):
be around her a lot, andit was just it was great. I
learned tons from her. She wasmy best friend. And you know,
a lot of people unfortunately don't havethat relationship with their parents, but I
did and very fortunate to have hadthat. My mom was very supportive of
my music career. She wasn't everone of those parents that was trying to,
(09:28):
you know, force me to geta real job. She encouraged myself
and my two brothers to be themusicians and all that stuff that we are
that we are and we're so I'mgrateful for that. So, yeah,
you know, to answer your questionspending time with your parents, you've only
got two parents. I lost mydad in nineteen eighty one when I was
(09:52):
twenty one years old, and thatwas tough, and I kicked myself and
I still do for not telling himI loved him. You know, he
knew that, and I knew hedid, but you know, at that
age, you just it's hard tosay those words sometimes for whatever the reason.
I don't know why, but Irealize that and it hit me really
(10:15):
hard. And so from that pointon, I made sure to tell my
mom every day that I loved herand how much I appreciated her. So
I have no regrets there. Thankyou for sharing that. Here's to your
mom and your dad and of allthings you get you wrangle the group to
go down to Handlebar Jay to recordAmarillo Sky tell us about that experience of
(10:41):
bringing the three part Harmony back tolife. Well, this is again,
this is our kind of our thirdtime to do this. The first time
was obviously in the nineties, andwe had our hits from about eighty nine
to ninety four, I think,and the band split up unfortunately due to
record label stuff that happens. Youknow, We've all heard about it,
(11:05):
read about it, and it's true. They want to mess with the success
of what's going on and change things, and so it just didn't work out
for us at that time. Sowe went our separate ways, and I
always stayed friends and in touch,and in two thousand and two we got
back together and recorded an album alongwith my pal Matt Rawlings, incredible piano
(11:26):
player also played with Ale of it. But Matt and I have been playing
together since he was seventeen years old, and he's just gone on to do
great things since then. But heproduced the m Roiless Guy record. I
found the song Emerless Guy, bythe way, when we were headed out
to Matt's studio to record one day. We'd had a shoe box full of
(11:48):
songs from publishers that were pitching songsto McBride and Ride, and that was
one of the songs that was inthat box and I pulled it out.
I said, emoreralless Guy, thatsounds interesting, and I liked the look
of the CD. CD don't seetoo many of those these days, or
cassettes for sure. Yeah. Anyway, I popped it in the CD player
and I was riding with Billy Thomas, the drummer, and we heard the
(12:09):
song and I looked at him andI went, man, that sounds like
it. And that's what we werelooking for, hit songs, you know,
songs that are timeless. And Ifeel like at that point we'd had
a lot of experience with that,so we could be our own A and
R guy. You know, anR for those of you that don't know
what that is. That's artists andrepertoire. So the A and R people
at the record labels find songs forartists to cut if they don't write their
(12:33):
own, or even if they dowrite their own, they find those great
songs. But that was one ofthose songs. I played it for the
guys. They loved it, Terryloved it, but they didn't love the
last verse. And so we foundout that Big Kenny and John Rich and
Randy Claus and there's another writer andI'm sorry, I'm not can't recall his
name right now, but they haveco written that song. And this was
(12:56):
before Big and Rich were Big andRich. They were kind of small and
poor at that point. But theywere excited that we were going to record
their song. But they came outand in about thirty minutes we wrote that
last little verse, which was justan incredible line in the song, one
of the best lines in the song. We recorded the song and that whole
(13:18):
album at Matt's. Unfortunately, atthat time, radio was still kind of
in flux. They didn't know reallywho to play terrestrial radio, who to
play, who not to play,And we'd been from the nineties. They're
like, you know, so wecouldn't get arrested on radio at that point.
But we knew Avarilla Sky was ahit. It just the record label
(13:39):
couldn't make it happen. So,like I said in two thousand and two,
I was kind of responsible for gettingthe band beat together at that point
too. And here we are fastforward to a few years ago. I
guess twenty nineteen. Terry had comeout here to do a solo show at
the Musical Instrument Museum, which isa wonderful museum here in Scottsdale. He
(14:01):
was doing a solo show and hecalled me up on stage and we both
sang Sacred Ground together, and afterthe show, I said, Man,
you know, we're still young enoughand dumb enough to continue this thing.
We should we should be doing it. You know, I think, wouldn't
it be fun. We should justget out there, maybe seeing some stuff
(14:22):
together, maybe try to record something. He said, well, you know,
I'd be interested. Let's call Billyand see, and so Billy decided
as well. So we got backtogether. So a long story, longer
story shorter was, yeah, wewe came back together right right during COVID
was happening, So that kind ofput us off a year. But we
got together actually during the week thatthat COVID was getting ready to kind of
(14:46):
change all of our lives. Butwe didn't know it yet, but we
got back together and sang and itwas just like we you know, never
left off and fun laugh. Imean, we laugh and have a great
time. Matter of fact, Itell a lot of people they say,
well, how is it out there? I said, well, we laugh
a lot and make a little bitof music. That's kind of the way
it is. But since then,we have recorded a lot of stuff,
(15:09):
including an EP, and we've beenout touring some those the last two years
and just kind of getting back intoit. So when the opportunity came for
us to come out west, thanksto a friend of mine that actually kind
of underwrote the show. He lovesmcbriden and right a huge fan. He
(15:30):
said, hey, it's cheaper forme to fly you guys out here than
for me to hop on my privatejet and fly to see you guys.
So I said, okay. Sohe offered to bring us out to Handlebar
and that's his favorite place, andit's a legacy Handlebar Jay is a legacy
places. We've had tons of artistsover the years. Waylon Jennings played there
(15:52):
before he was famous, and youknow, so it's got a lot of
history and it's got a great stagein a brand new, beautiful sound system.
So my friend Lie said, let'slet's bring the guys out here.
So we did two nights and whenwe did those two nights, we you
know, we sold out both nights, and it's a it's a small club,
(16:12):
you know, about one hundred andholds about one hundred and fifty inside
one hundred and fifty outside, butwe made sure not to sell overpacke it
because we wanted to have a goodintimate experience for the crowd. But anyway,
we played two shows and we recordedboth of those, and we were
considering doing another project of original songs, which we're going to do again.
(16:34):
But I got to listen into thesetracks and I said, hey, we
ought to consider doing a live recordbecause these tracks sound great, you know.
So that's what we did, andour first release was Amarelli's Guy,
and we're going to release I thinkwe're just doing an EP, so you
know, about six songs, andmost of those are our songs from our
(16:59):
you know, previous records, includingAmberless Guy. Amberalles's Guy became a hit
for Jason al Dean in about twothousand and nine, I believe, and
you know, we knew it wasgoing to be a hit. It needed
to be a hit for us,but it wasn't. So Jason went on
and made it a hit, andyou know, hey, so here we
are, what fifteen year fourteen fifteenyears later and songs come back around anyway,
(17:23):
So you know, we decided let'srelease it as a live record,
and we did, and so it'sout there now. We'll see what the
reaction is. Hopefully people will likeit. I think sometimes the people that
listen to country music are going togo, oh, that's a Jason al
Dean song. Well, yes andno, you know, because they basically
took our version and basically did thewhole thing, copied our version of it,
(17:49):
and just put his voice on it. So it's really I consider it
a mcbriden and Ride song. Thereyou go, and it should be.
Hey. In that song, there'sa mention of a hellstorm back in eighty
three that sure took a toll onit. And I'm sitting there going,
I've been in many a helstorm inTexas, So is this a true story
(18:12):
about a helstorm in eighty three?You know what, Rick, I couldn't
tell you the I guess I've neverreally investigated that. But now that you
mentioned it, I'll get on theinternet and see. I'm not sure,
but hell can be crazy out heretoo. I wish it was crazy enough
where I could replace my roof becauseI got a crappy roof and I need
(18:33):
a new roof and the insurance wepaid for it. What is your Let's
talk about great dance songs. Andbefore I ask you about you take my
heart there. What do you thinkis the one or two top dancing songs
that you have ever performed in yourcareer? Oh? Wow? Best dancing
(18:56):
songs? Wow? Well, itdepends on what kind of dance thing you
like to do. If you're atwo step wester, yeah, if you're
a two stepper. I personally lovetrick Rider, which is one of Terry's
tunes that he co wrote that wason our second record and it's going to
be on this live EP as well. It's a great two step song.
(19:18):
It's a cowboy song. And althoughmy musical background is very diverse as well
as my career, you know,I grew up listening to everything from Buck
Owens and Merle Haggard to zz Topand Aerosmith, so but owning a cowboy
(19:38):
bar as long as we have almostfifty years. I've played so many dance
songs in my life, including,of course, Amarilla by Morning is as
a cover tune, one of thetop dance songs ever even to this day.
If you're playing in a cover band, you play Amarilla by Warning packed
(20:00):
dance floor automatically, and I'm sureit's the same way in Texas, so
yes. Or Looking for Love andAll the Wrong Places is another one,
that's right. But you know,as far as these original tunes, you
know, the McBride and the ridestuff, it's very conducive for dancing.
A lot of the songs. CanI Can On You is a is a
(20:22):
dance song that we played a placecalled the Cotton Club there in Granger,
not far from you, and Iremember we played Can I Can On You
and Buoy Boom just like Amarella byMorning. That dance floor was packed.
Yep, that's right, that's right. You know. I'll give one nod
(20:45):
on this album to you take myHeart there. I thought that was the
best dance song. And I'm adrummer, so I listening for that that
beat that was. That is onegreat song you guys produced on this EPI
had a great song I love thatsong. It's another one of Terry's songs.
I think he wrote that with wellI'm not gonna guess, but you
(21:07):
know that was That's always been oneof my favorites and I mentioned it to
Terry. We need to rework thatsong up. I think Billy played that
on a pizza box, to behonest with you, on the record because
the snare was too much. Andyou know, I think he got a
pizza box and we miked get upand that's what he played it on.
But no, that's a great song. Dan Doug Moore played steel on that,
(21:30):
and Dan we call him steely DanDoug Moore and just a great player.
He played on several cuts of thatrecord. As a matter of fact,
a song that we co wrote calledwhen Somebody Loves You that we co
wrote with Gary Nicholson. Dan justplayed some beautiful stuff on that too.
(21:56):
But yeah, you take my heartthere every day. It's one of my
faves. Yeah, that's great.Okay, We're going to take a quick
commercial break mostly for you. Tellour listeners where they can find out information
on where you guys are performing otherthan Dennis and Texas, which I know
(22:17):
you're telling you to perform up there. What's your website where they can go
and learn about your concert? True? Well, mcbridenwide dot com and if
you get on some of these streamingplatforms, I've noticed even they have some
of our concert dates, so youcan find it. But mainly mcbridenaride dot
com. You'll always find what we'redoing in our concert dates or mcbriden the
(22:40):
Ride on Facebook. You can findus there. We're we're on most all
that social media stuff. Very good. Okay, we're going to be right
back and we're going to play outa couple of songs here as we go
to commercial and we will be rightback with our le juge. Ray Herndon
(23:02):
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Okay, we are back with RayHerndon, legendary vocalist and guitarist for McBride
(24:34):
and the Ride, and on theback half of the show we do a
couple of special things. One weask maybe a few more philosophical questions,
and then we leave the last ofthe show for you to talk to the
audience and tell them anything you've everwanted to tell an audience. Thank you
(24:56):
or stop overreacting to a particular whateveryou want to say, So let's start
with this one. Over the courseof your lifetime as a musician, I
would love to know if you havehoned your listening skill, how you've honed
your listening skills, and at thispoint as a musician, how much do
(25:19):
you depend on your gut instincts andyour experience to get you through a great
song. Well, that's a greatquestion, Rick, I've done a lot
of sessions. Fortunately in Nashville whenI lived there i was I did a
considerable amount of sessions. I playedon Lyle of Its records, I played
on McBride the Ride records, playedon my own record I've played on tons
(25:45):
of demos. And you know,it's like anything, the more you do
it, the better you get atit. And I think as a studio
player too, and songwriter and singer, all those things come together in a
way that at my age now,I would hope that have given me those
(26:07):
experiences to be able to make thoseget decisions like you're talking about. I've
been very instrumental in, you know, in a lot of the production of
this McBride and the Ryde stuff ina way from you know, just a
studio perspective. Everybody's certainly had theinput, but I tend to lean myself,
(26:30):
probably because I've done a lot ofthe directing in on session work and
stuff that I've done, so Itend to kind of just by nature take
the lead in a lot of thatstuff, arranging certain songs and kind of
making sure we get the parts right, editing whatever needs to be done.
That's what I've been doing with this, even this live record, is doing
(26:52):
a lot of listening and editing,but you know, just learning to hear
just parts that don't seem right,or things that aren't lining up right,
that sound weird you want it.In today's world, in our digital recording
world, you know, you havethe ability to use the digital you know,
(27:17):
editing stuff and hopefully not overusing it. A lot of people do that
too. You have to be carefulnot to do that. But I grew
up in a time where we wererecording on two inch tape, you know,
so those parts were when you hadto overdub something or fix a part,
you literally had to engineer, hadto punch it in, punch it
out really fast. You know.Now it's it's so much easier, thankfully,
(27:41):
But you know, I was justlistening to one of Lyle's records the
other day thinking about that. Iwas thinking, Man, we recorded this
on two inch tape. It wasn'tpro tools, you know, like we
used now. But my ears havegotten keener in that way, I guess
you could say so thankfully. AndI hope that continues to grow. That's
what I'm all always aspiring to do, is get better at all these things.
(28:03):
I think it's a lifelong, youknow, expectation. For me,
it is always improving, always soundinggreater. Speaking of Lyle love It,
he is a fellow Aggie and Isaw on Saturday night when we went to
Carl and I went to the GeorgeStrait concert and to the jamming Kyle Fielder,
(28:26):
and Lyle has a quote that's overat the Former Students Association, and
I swear the right that we Carland I heard him at the Memorial Student
Center in a coffee shop in theseventies and just playing his guitar. And
(28:52):
my my one Aggie question for you, Lyle love It was would be from
that great experience of being a partof that the band, the Lard Band
and all that Le Love It standsfor. Well, what is that one
great life lesson that you might sharefrom that experience. Well, from my
(29:15):
experience with Lyle in the band typeof thing, we were so young when
we started, well, I guessI could say young. I was twenty
four, twenty three or four whenI met Lyle in Luxembourg for the first
time. And you know, hewasn't he hadn't had any success really either.
He'd only been playing coffeehouses. Andwe met him in Luxembourg on a
(29:40):
show we were all doing together,and we heard his music and he was
kind of getting lost in the shufflebetween our band and another big band at
this fair in Luxembourg, and sowe were like, this guy's got great
songs. Let's getting up to playwith the band. So we learned some
(30:00):
of his material, and the bandincluded myself, Matt Rawlings, who's I
talked about earlier that produced mcbriden theRight Amiral Sky record, Billy Williams,
who went on to produce Lyle's records. But we were all young guys,
and we were jazzers and country guysand all those diverse musical backgrounds that I
(30:22):
spoke about. Matt Rawlings was reallya jazzer and had gotten sort of coerced
to be in our band when heheard the band, he heard how great
the band was. It was acover band, you know, six Me's
band. But anyway, we justall hit it off with Lyle. His
music, his music led itself toblues and jazz and country, and that's
what we were and so it justworked. And so, you know,
(30:47):
throughout those early years of recording thatstuff, along with Billy Williams, Like
I said, Billy had had experienceas a producer prior to that. He's
a bit older than us. He'sprobably twenty years older than I am,
I guess, and so he taughtus kids sort of you know, earn
why you learn, learn why youearn in the studio. So when we
(31:10):
were recording that, Lyle of itstuff, and Lyle was, you know,
very adamant about what he wanted,which is great, that's a true
artist. But you know, I'mI'm playing intros to Get Back My Heart
and you know a lot of thesongs on that first record. But you
know, so I guess, toanswer your question, just the educational part
(31:33):
of learning how to play in thestudio with a songwriter like Lyle, which
you know, none of us knewat the time that he was going to
have the career that he's turned outto have, thankfully for all of us,
for him and for all of usthat have been in the band,
for anyone, you know, allthose years. Like I said, I've
been in the band all these years, off and on here and there.
(31:53):
But the biggest lesson is is probablyfor me, was that studio experience.
And then we went on to recordPontiac and I got to play on you
know, Joshua Jesse's Ruth. Iplayed on pretty much most all of his
records for the most part. There'sa few I didn't play on, but
(32:15):
thankfully including this last record, Twelfthof June that he did right before COVID
hit, we played on that.But all that studio experience and then getting
to play with guys like Russ Kunkleand Leland Sklarr and my heroes, you
know, my musical recording LA recordingmusician heroes, Dean Parks, you know,
(32:35):
and then becoming friends with them besidesbeing musical you know, teammates Just
and Matt Rawlings. Of course,man has gone on to produce two or
three Willie Nelson records, He's producedand worked with Larry Carlton for years.
Who's my guitar hero, you know. So all these like connections that have
(32:55):
come to my world musically is justit's amazing. I have to pinch myself.
I'm blessed, Yes, sir,you are indeed. Okay, this
is a rap on our show today. This is you take the stage,
say anything that you've ever wanted tosay to your audience. I just have
(33:19):
to say, you know, I'mgrateful to people that appreciate music, that
support music, and continue to supportsupport music, irregardless of what's going on
on the radio or whatever that is. Live music is. I believe live
music is here to stay, atleast until I'm off this earth, you
(33:43):
know, and I'm going to praythat it continues that way. I will
never stop playing. I mean,I got my guitar right here, and
I was out here this morning onmy patio just just playing songs and trying
to learn more. But I'm gratefulto those audiences still at my club Handle
Barjay on a pretty regular basis whenI'm not on the road or doing something
(34:05):
else musically, and so I'm gratefulto have that experience. And we have
a lot of fans that come tosee the Herndon Brothers, which is my
band here in town. I've hadfor since nineteen eighty six. So just
keep coming out and supporting live music. That's all I can hope for.
And thank you for continuing to listento McBride and the Ride and la I
(34:27):
love it, and the Herndon Brothersand Rick, thank you guys for having
myself, Terry and Billy on theshow. We appreciate it absolutely well.
Congratulations on this new EP. Itis fabulous and so folks, we encourage
you to to go go to McBrideand the Ride and see where they're going
(34:52):
to be in concert and enjoy allthat wonderful music, and especially for all
you two steppers here and access toenjoy great songs like you take my Heart
there man, what a great song. Thank you sir. We appreciate you
being on and looking forward to moregreat music from you. Hope to see
(35:13):
us soon. Rick, thank youso much, and as we always say,
we wish each of you great success, but on your way to significance,
have a good week. Go allthose drops every Sunday, sunny shining.
(35:37):
You know, the weak girl you'retaking my heart there every day.
He just takes a tractor on anotherround. Buzz found Ron Glad sounds up
another were he says a lot ofbad. I'm never ast why he's doing
that. My grands run by Hony, Honny this Camarilla. Hey, welcome
(00:28):
back to success made the Last Legends. I'm Rick Tokeinney. On this day,
we're going to be interviewing all threemembers of McBride and the Ride as
they are excited to release their newtrack this fall called Amarillo Sky. First
up is Ray Herndon, known forhis vocals and guitar mastery. H Ray,
(00:51):
it is an honor to get tohonor you today. Why Rick,
I appreciate you having me on,And you know, I'm always excited to
do an interview from you know,Austin, Texas, one of my favorite
cities besides the city I'm in.That's good. That's good, Okay.
(01:14):
So give us your backstory, startingwith where you're from. Originally, I
am an Arizona native. I grewup here in Phoenix Scottsdale area, and
you know, I've been here mostof my life. Moved to Nashville and
ninety five after McBride and the Ridesfirst five years of being together, and
(01:36):
we took a bit of a hiatusand I took that opportunity to move to
Nashville, and I lived there aboutthirteen years and got really immersed in the
songwriting community and doing session work,and also, you know, I was
still on the road with Lyle loItt during those years as well. I've
(01:56):
been with Lyle since the beginning ofhis career. We can talk about that
later if you want, but wedid Lyle's first record out here in Arizona,
and they were demos at the time, and then he took them to
Nashville and got signed to a recorddeal. But I've been doing that,
gosh, since I was fairly young, and continued you know, before McBride,
(02:22):
after McBride, after the second incarnationof McBride. So anyway, I've
been playing with Lyle all these years. I haven't done that last few years
just because of my schedule. Butanyway, I moved to Nashville for that
thirteen years and decided that Nashville waskind of going a direction that you know,
(02:43):
I'd kind of been there, donethat, and seen the movie more
times than I'd care to, soI was ready to make a move and
I had a manager. Her namewas is Carol Jumkis, and she worked
for at the time, Sirius Radioin New York. That's how I met
her, and when I did mysolo record in two thousand and seven,
she was very instrumental in getting someof those songs played on Sirius, which
(03:07):
was very exciting for me at thetime, and I wanted her to be
my manager, but it didn't workout. So fast forward to about two
thousand and eight, she was leavingSirious and going back to Los Angeles,
and she said, Hey, whydon't you come out to Los Angeles and
let me be your manager. We'llwork your career from this angle out here.
I said, wow, Well,I had just bought a place in
(03:30):
Nashville, and I thought, well, you know, okay, So I
sold my place in Nashville, movedto La lived in Santa Monica for about
a year and that was great.I loved always wanted to live in California,
so I got my fill in thatyear, and then I moved back
to Arizona because of our restaurant,longtime legacy restaurant bar called Handlebar Jay,
(03:52):
which my mom at the time hadbeen running for forty years. My mom
and dad bought it in seventy five. So I came back. I reckon
nice that she needed some help,and I was kind of the guy that
was just a little too old tobe trying to make it in LA at
that time, even though I was. Actually I had a agent to try
(04:12):
to do some voiceover work, becauseeverybody always says, you know, you've
got a face for radio, youshould try voiceover work. And so I
went down that road for a whileand it was great fun. I did
a ton of interviews or not interviews, but obviously, and that's a numbers
game. I probably had I stuckwith it for another few years, maybe
(04:34):
I could have landed something, butI, you know, I had to
get back to Arizona help my mom. That was the best thing I'd ever
done, really was to spend thelast ten years of her life with her
here in Arizona. I wouldn't tradethat for any amount of success in any
business, because that was, youknow, just being with her was amazing
and she was an amazing person.But anyway, I just stayed out here,
(04:58):
so that's why I'm here now now. And then, you know,
back to doing McBride's stuff and everythingelse I do, which my fiance was
just saying, why are you doingso many things? Well, one of
those things is funny because I waslooking at your podcast, and you know,
(05:20):
one of those things I wanted totalk about, you know, if
we had the opportunity, was thediversity that it takes to be in the
music business. So I guess that'swhat I'm doing, diversifying, You got
it? So keeping keeping keeping avery serious purpose, but a fun purpose
(05:41):
with with the music, especially withMcBride and the right and man, what
you just mentioned about taking care ofyour mom the last ten years, that's
that's truly amazing. It's also inspiringto us that are some times caught in
the Sandwich generation. As a Sandwichgeneration, and talk about having your priorities
(06:06):
straight. I don't want to,I don't want to glance off of this
topic because it's it's something of greatsignificance for those of us that are still
blessed to have parents. Just giveus a little advice on how to spend
those last several years kind of relishingevery minute of time with our parents.
(06:31):
Yeah, well absolutely, And that'slike I said when I recognized you know
at the time I was in LAshe would have been in her mid eighties,
I guess at that point, andshe was running a bar restaurant that
she'd ran for years, a cowboybar restaurant, highly respected woman running a
(06:53):
place like that, you know,just it was just her. It would
have been her hundredth birthday the otherday, and I post did something on
Facebook and so many people commented onwhat an amazing inspiration she was to them,
even and she was like their momtoo, you know, So it's
very endearing. But for me tocome back, I recognize that at that
(07:15):
age she was slowing down and wehave this viable business that needed some help.
And I do have two brothers,but they weren't necessarily quite as interested
maybe in going down that path.I wanted to keep that legacy alive long
after she was gone, if possible. So when I came back, I
sort of jumped into that pretty heavily, but also playing music too, because
(07:38):
that's really what I do. That'smy priority really in life is music.
But this restaurant has also been instrumentalin keeping me involved in music in a
lot of ways. My dad wasa musician and that was also his dream
was to have a place like that, which he also played it at the
restaurant, you know, from sixtyseven to the day he passed in nineteen
(08:01):
eighty one, pretty much for hisboys to be able to have a place
to perform and exactly what's happened.But anyway, you know, getting back
to my mom, I recognized thatshe was just getting older and needed help.
So I came here and moved backand lived. I bought a house
(08:22):
a couple doors away from her,and at the time, you know,
she was living by herself, andso we basically just spent all of our
time together. I would drive withher to work. It was a fifteen
twenty minute drive each way, sowe had a lot of time to visit.
We've always been close, but whenI moved away and being on the
(08:43):
road for all the time that Iwas on the road prior to that,
you know, twenty year gosh.I started on the road with Lyle in
probably nineteen eighty five, So everysummer I was gone for months at a
time, and sometimes in the fallas well, so you know, I
didn't get to be around her asmuch as I wanted to be. And
so that last ten years when Imoved back to Phoenix, I got to
(09:05):
be around her a lot, andit was just it was great. I
learned tons from her. She wasmy best friend. And you know,
a lot of people unfortunately don't havethat relationship with their parents, but I
did and very fortunate to have hadthat. My mom was very supportive of
my music career. She wasn't everone of those parents that was trying to,
(09:28):
you know, force me to geta real job. She encouraged myself
and my two brothers to be themusicians and all that stuff that we are
that we are and we're so I'mgrateful for that. So, yeah,
you know, to answer your questionspending time with your parents, you've only
got two parents. I lost mydad in nineteen eighty one when I was
(09:52):
twenty one years old, and thatwas tough, and I kicked myself and
I still do for not telling himI loved him. You know, he
knew that, and I knew hedid, but you know, at that
age, you just it's hard tosay those words sometimes for whatever the reason.
I don't know why, but Irealize that and it hit me really
(10:15):
hard. And so from that pointon, I made sure to tell my
mom every day that I loved herand how much I appreciated her. So
I have no regrets there. Thankyou for sharing that. Here's to your
mom and your dad and of allthings you get you wrangle the group to
go down to Handlebar Jay to recordAmarillo Sky tell us about that experience of
(10:41):
bringing the three part Harmony back tolife. Well, this is again,
this is our kind of our thirdtime to do this. The first time
was obviously in the nineties, andwe had our hits from about eighty nine
to ninety four, I think,and the band split up unfortunately due to
record label stuff that happens. Youknow, We've all heard about it,
(11:05):
read about it, and it's true. They want to mess with the success
of what's going on and change things, and so it just didn't work out
for us at that time. Sowe went our separate ways, and I
always stayed friends and in touch,and in two thousand and two we got
back together and recorded an album alongwith my pal Matt Rawlings, incredible piano
(11:26):
player also played with Ale of it. But Matt and I have been playing
together since he was seventeen years old, and he's just gone on to do
great things since then. But heproduced the m Roiless Guy record. I
found the song Emerless Guy, bythe way, when we were headed out
to Matt's studio to record one day. We'd had a shoe box full of
(11:48):
songs from publishers that were pitching songsto McBride and Ride, and that was
one of the songs that was inthat box and I pulled it out.
I said, emoreralless Guy, thatsounds interesting, and I liked the look
of the CD. CD don't seetoo many of those these days, or
cassettes for sure. Yeah. Anyway, I popped it in the CD player
and I was riding with Billy Thomas, the drummer, and we heard the
(12:09):
song and I looked at him andI went, man, that sounds like
it. And that's what we werelooking for, hit songs, you know,
songs that are timeless. And Ifeel like at that point we'd had
a lot of experience with that,so we could be our own A and
R guy. You know, anR for those of you that don't know
what that is. That's artists andrepertoire. So the A and R people
at the record labels find songs forartists to cut if they don't write their
(12:33):
own, or even if they dowrite their own, they find those great
songs. But that was one ofthose songs. I played it for the
guys. They loved it, Terryloved it, but they didn't love the
last verse. And so we foundout that Big Kenny and John Rich and
Randy Claus and there's another writer andI'm sorry, I'm not can't recall his
name right now, but they haveco written that song. And this was
(12:56):
before Big and Rich were Big andRich. They were kind of small and
poor at that point. But theywere excited that we were going to record
their song. But they came outand in about thirty minutes we wrote that
last little verse, which was justan incredible line in the song, one
of the best lines in the song. We recorded the song and that whole
(13:18):
album at Matt's. Unfortunately, atthat time, radio was still kind of
in flux. They didn't know reallywho to play terrestrial radio, who to
play, who not to play,And we'd been from the nineties. They're
like, you know, so wecouldn't get arrested on radio at that point.
But we knew Avarilla Sky was ahit. It just the record label
(13:39):
couldn't make it happen. So,like I said in two thousand and two,
I was kind of responsible for gettingthe band beat together at that point
too. And here we are fastforward to a few years ago. I
guess twenty nineteen. Terry had comeout here to do a solo show at
the Musical Instrument Museum, which isa wonderful museum here in Scottsdale. He
(14:01):
was doing a solo show and hecalled me up on stage and we both
sang Sacred Ground together, and afterthe show, I said, Man,
you know, we're still young enoughand dumb enough to continue this thing.
We should we should be doing it. You know, I think, wouldn't
it be fun. We should justget out there, maybe seeing some stuff
(14:22):
together, maybe try to record something. He said, well, you know,
I'd be interested. Let's call Billyand see, and so Billy decided
as well. So we got backtogether. So a long story, longer
story shorter was, yeah, wewe came back together right right during COVID
was happening, So that kind ofput us off a year. But we
got together actually during the week thatthat COVID was getting ready to kind of
(14:46):
change all of our lives. Butwe didn't know it yet, but we
got back together and sang and itwas just like we you know, never
left off and fun laugh. Imean, we laugh and have a great
time. Matter of fact, Itell a lot of people they say,
well, how is it out there? I said, well, we laugh
a lot and make a little bitof music. That's kind of the way
it is. But since then,we have recorded a lot of stuff,
(15:09):
including an EP, and we've beenout touring some those the last two years
and just kind of getting back intoit. So when the opportunity came for
us to come out west, thanksto a friend of mine that actually kind
of underwrote the show. He lovesmcbriden and right a huge fan. He
(15:30):
said, hey, it's cheaper forme to fly you guys out here than
for me to hop on my privatejet and fly to see you guys.
So I said, okay. Sohe offered to bring us out to Handlebar
and that's his favorite place, andit's a legacy Handlebar Jay is a legacy
places. We've had tons of artistsover the years. Waylon Jennings played there
(15:52):
before he was famous, and youknow, so it's got a lot of
history and it's got a great stagein a brand new, beautiful sound system.
So my friend Lie said, let'slet's bring the guys out here.
So we did two nights and whenwe did those two nights, we you
know, we sold out both nights, and it's a it's a small club,
(16:12):
you know, about one hundred andholds about one hundred and fifty inside
one hundred and fifty outside, butwe made sure not to sell overpacke it
because we wanted to have a goodintimate experience for the crowd. But anyway,
we played two shows and we recordedboth of those, and we were
considering doing another project of original songs, which we're going to do again.
(16:34):
But I got to listen into thesetracks and I said, hey, we
ought to consider doing a live recordbecause these tracks sound great, you know.
So that's what we did, andour first release was Amarelli's Guy,
and we're going to release I thinkwe're just doing an EP, so you
know, about six songs, andmost of those are our songs from our
(16:59):
you know, previous records, includingAmberless Guy. Amberalles's Guy became a hit
for Jason al Dean in about twothousand and nine, I believe, and
you know, we knew it wasgoing to be a hit. It needed
to be a hit for us,but it wasn't. So Jason went on
and made it a hit, andyou know, hey, so here we
are, what fifteen year fourteen fifteenyears later and songs come back around anyway,
(17:23):
So you know, we decided let'srelease it as a live record,
and we did, and so it'sout there now. We'll see what the
reaction is. Hopefully people will likeit. I think sometimes the people that
listen to country music are going togo, oh, that's a Jason al
Dean song. Well, yes andno, you know, because they basically
took our version and basically did thewhole thing, copied our version of it,
(17:49):
and just put his voice on it. So it's really I consider it
a mcbriden and Ride song. Thereyou go, and it should be.
Hey. In that song, there'sa mention of a hellstorm back in eighty
three that sure took a toll onit. And I'm sitting there going,
I've been in many a helstorm inTexas, So is this a true story
(18:12):
about a helstorm in eighty three?You know what, Rick, I couldn't
tell you the I guess I've neverreally investigated that. But now that you
mentioned it, I'll get on theinternet and see. I'm not sure,
but hell can be crazy out heretoo. I wish it was crazy enough
where I could replace my roof becauseI got a crappy roof and I need
(18:33):
a new roof and the insurance wepaid for it. What is your Let's
talk about great dance songs. Andbefore I ask you about you take my
heart there. What do you thinkis the one or two top dancing songs
that you have ever performed in yourcareer? Oh? Wow? Best dancing
(18:56):
songs? Wow? Well, itdepends on what kind of dance thing you
like to do. If you're atwo step wester, yeah, if you're
a two stepper. I personally lovetrick Rider, which is one of Terry's
tunes that he co wrote that wason our second record and it's going to
be on this live EP as well. It's a great two step song.
(19:18):
It's a cowboy song. And althoughmy musical background is very diverse as well
as my career, you know,I grew up listening to everything from Buck
Owens and Merle Haggard to zz Topand Aerosmith, so but owning a cowboy
(19:38):
bar as long as we have almostfifty years. I've played so many dance
songs in my life, including,of course, Amarilla by Morning is as
a cover tune, one of thetop dance songs ever even to this day.
If you're playing in a cover band, you play Amarilla by Warning packed
(20:00):
dance floor automatically, and I'm sureit's the same way in Texas, so
yes. Or Looking for Love andAll the Wrong Places is another one,
that's right. But you know,as far as these original tunes, you
know, the McBride and the ridestuff, it's very conducive for dancing.
A lot of the songs. CanI Can On You is a is a
(20:22):
dance song that we played a placecalled the Cotton Club there in Granger,
not far from you, and Iremember we played Can I Can On You
and Buoy Boom just like Amarella byMorning. That dance floor was packed.
Yep, that's right, that's right. You know. I'll give one nod
(20:45):
on this album to you take myHeart there. I thought that was the
best dance song. And I'm adrummer, so I listening for that that
beat that was. That is onegreat song you guys produced on this EPI
had a great song I love thatsong. It's another one of Terry's songs.
I think he wrote that with wellI'm not gonna guess, but you
(21:07):
know that was That's always been oneof my favorites and I mentioned it to
Terry. We need to rework thatsong up. I think Billy played that
on a pizza box, to behonest with you, on the record because
the snare was too much. Andyou know, I think he got a
pizza box and we miked get upand that's what he played it on.
But no, that's a great song. Dan Doug Moore played steel on that,
(21:30):
and Dan we call him steely DanDoug Moore and just a great player.
He played on several cuts of thatrecord. As a matter of fact,
a song that we co wrote calledwhen Somebody Loves You that we co
wrote with Gary Nicholson. Dan justplayed some beautiful stuff on that too.
(21:56):
But yeah, you take my heartthere every day. It's one of my
faves. Yeah, that's great.Okay, We're going to take a quick
commercial break mostly for you. Tellour listeners where they can find out information
on where you guys are performing otherthan Dennis and Texas, which I know
(22:17):
you're telling you to perform up there. What's your website where they can go
and learn about your concert? True? Well, mcbridenwide dot com and if
you get on some of these streamingplatforms, I've noticed even they have some
of our concert dates, so youcan find it. But mainly mcbridenaride dot
com. You'll always find what we'redoing in our concert dates or mcbriden the
(22:40):
Ride on Facebook. You can findus there. We're we're on most all
that social media stuff. Very good. Okay, we're going to be right
back and we're going to play outa couple of songs here as we go
to commercial and we will be rightback with our le juge. Ray Herndon
(23:02):
from McBride and the Ride. Staytuned. Hi, this is Carla from
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(23:22):
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(23:45):
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(24:10):
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Okay, we are back with RayHerndon, legendary vocalist and guitarist for McBride
(24:34):
and the Ride, and on theback half of the show we do a
couple of special things. One weask maybe a few more philosophical questions,
and then we leave the last ofthe show for you to talk to the
audience and tell them anything you've everwanted to tell an audience. Thank you
(24:56):
or stop overreacting to a particular whateveryou want to say, So let's start
with this one. Over the courseof your lifetime as a musician, I
would love to know if you havehoned your listening skill, how you've honed
your listening skills, and at thispoint as a musician, how much do
(25:19):
you depend on your gut instincts andyour experience to get you through a great
song. Well, that's a greatquestion, Rick, I've done a lot
of sessions. Fortunately in Nashville whenI lived there i was I did a
considerable amount of sessions. I playedon Lyle of Its records, I played
on McBride the Ride records, playedon my own record I've played on tons
(25:45):
of demos. And you know,it's like anything, the more you do
it, the better you get atit. And I think as a studio
player too, and songwriter and singer, all those things come together in a
way that at my age now,I would hope that have given me those
(26:07):
experiences to be able to make thoseget decisions like you're talking about. I've
been very instrumental in, you know, in a lot of the production of
this McBride and the Ryde stuff ina way from you know, just a
studio perspective. Everybody's certainly had theinput, but I tend to lean myself,
(26:30):
probably because I've done a lot ofthe directing in on session work and
stuff that I've done, so Itend to kind of just by nature take
the lead in a lot of thatstuff, arranging certain songs and kind of
making sure we get the parts right, editing whatever needs to be done.
That's what I've been doing with this, even this live record, is doing
(26:52):
a lot of listening and editing,but you know, just learning to hear
just parts that don't seem right,or things that aren't lining up right,
that sound weird you want it.In today's world, in our digital recording
world, you know, you havethe ability to use the digital you know,
(27:17):
editing stuff and hopefully not overusing it. A lot of people do that
too. You have to be carefulnot to do that. But I grew
up in a time where we wererecording on two inch tape, you know,
so those parts were when you hadto overdub something or fix a part,
you literally had to engineer, hadto punch it in, punch it
out really fast. You know.Now it's it's so much easier, thankfully,
(27:41):
But you know, I was justlistening to one of Lyle's records the
other day thinking about that. Iwas thinking, Man, we recorded this
on two inch tape. It wasn'tpro tools, you know, like we
used now. But my ears havegotten keener in that way, I guess
you could say so thankfully. AndI hope that continues to grow. That's
what I'm all always aspiring to do, is get better at all these things.
(28:03):
I think it's a lifelong, youknow, expectation. For me,
it is always improving, always soundinggreater. Speaking of Lyle love It,
he is a fellow Aggie and Isaw on Saturday night when we went to
Carl and I went to the GeorgeStrait concert and to the jamming Kyle Fielder,
(28:26):
and Lyle has a quote that's overat the Former Students Association, and
I swear the right that we Carland I heard him at the Memorial Student
Center in a coffee shop in theseventies and just playing his guitar. And
(28:52):
my my one Aggie question for you, Lyle love It was would be from
that great experience of being a partof that the band, the Lard Band
and all that Le Love It standsfor. Well, what is that one
great life lesson that you might sharefrom that experience. Well, from my
(29:15):
experience with Lyle in the band typeof thing, we were so young when
we started, well, I guessI could say young. I was twenty
four, twenty three or four whenI met Lyle in Luxembourg for the first
time. And you know, hewasn't he hadn't had any success really either.
He'd only been playing coffeehouses. Andwe met him in Luxembourg on a
(29:40):
show we were all doing together,and we heard his music and he was
kind of getting lost in the shufflebetween our band and another big band at
this fair in Luxembourg, and sowe were like, this guy's got great
songs. Let's getting up to playwith the band. So we learned some
(30:00):
of his material, and the bandincluded myself, Matt Rawlings, who's I
talked about earlier that produced mcbriden theRight Amiral Sky record, Billy Williams,
who went on to produce Lyle's records. But we were all young guys,
and we were jazzers and country guysand all those diverse musical backgrounds that I
(30:22):
spoke about. Matt Rawlings was reallya jazzer and had gotten sort of coerced
to be in our band when heheard the band, he heard how great
the band was. It was acover band, you know, six Me's
band. But anyway, we justall hit it off with Lyle. His
music, his music led itself toblues and jazz and country, and that's
what we were and so it justworked. And so, you know,
(30:47):
throughout those early years of recording thatstuff, along with Billy Williams, Like
I said, Billy had had experienceas a producer prior to that. He's
a bit older than us. He'sprobably twenty years older than I am,
I guess, and so he taughtus kids sort of you know, earn
why you learn, learn why youearn in the studio. So when we
(31:10):
were recording that, Lyle of itstuff, and Lyle was, you know,
very adamant about what he wanted,which is great, that's a true
artist. But you know, I'mI'm playing intros to Get Back My Heart
and you know a lot of thesongs on that first record. But you
know, so I guess, toanswer your question, just the educational part
(31:33):
of learning how to play in thestudio with a songwriter like Lyle, which
you know, none of us knewat the time that he was going to
have the career that he's turned outto have, thankfully for all of us,
for him and for all of usthat have been in the band,
for anyone, you know, allthose years. Like I said, I've
been in the band all these years, off and on here and there.
(31:53):
But the biggest lesson is is probablyfor me, was that studio experience.
And then we went on to recordPontiac and I got to play on you
know, Joshua Jesse's Ruth. Iplayed on pretty much most all of his
records for the most part. There'sa few I didn't play on, but
(32:15):
thankfully including this last record, Twelfthof June that he did right before COVID
hit, we played on that.But all that studio experience and then getting
to play with guys like Russ Kunkleand Leland Sklarr and my heroes, you
know, my musical recording LA recordingmusician heroes, Dean Parks, you know,
(32:35):
and then becoming friends with them besidesbeing musical you know, teammates Just
and Matt Rawlings. Of course,man has gone on to produce two or
three Willie Nelson records, He's producedand worked with Larry Carlton for years.
Who's my guitar hero, you know. So all these like connections that have
(32:55):
come to my world musically is justit's amazing. I have to pinch myself.
I'm blessed, Yes, sir,you are indeed. Okay, this
is a rap on our show today. This is you take the stage,
say anything that you've ever wanted tosay to your audience. I just have
(33:19):
to say, you know, I'mgrateful to people that appreciate music, that
support music, and continue to supportsupport music, irregardless of what's going on
on the radio or whatever that is. Live music is. I believe live
music is here to stay, atleast until I'm off this earth, you
(33:43):
know, and I'm going to praythat it continues that way. I will
never stop playing. I mean,I got my guitar right here, and
I was out here this morning onmy patio just just playing songs and trying
to learn more. But I'm gratefulto those audiences still at my club Handle
Barjay on a pretty regular basis whenI'm not on the road or doing something
(34:05):
else musically, and so I'm gratefulto have that experience. And we have
a lot of fans that come tosee the Herndon Brothers, which is my
band here in town. I've hadfor since nineteen eighty six. So just
keep coming out and supporting live music. That's all I can hope for.
And thank you for continuing to listento McBride and the Ride and la I
(34:27):
love it, and the Herndon Brothersand Rick, thank you guys for having
myself, Terry and Billy on theshow. We appreciate it absolutely well.
Congratulations on this new EP. Itis fabulous and so folks, we encourage
you to to go go to McBrideand the Ride and see where they're going
(34:52):
to be in concert and enjoy allthat wonderful music, and especially for all
you two steppers here and access toenjoy great songs like you take my Heart
there man, what a great song. Thank you sir. We appreciate you
being on and looking forward to moregreat music from you. Hope to see
(35:13):
us soon. Rick, thank youso much, and as we always say,
we wish each of you great success, but on your way to significance,
have a good week. Go allthose drops every Sunday, sunny shining.
(35:37):
You know, the weak girl you'retaking my heart there every day.
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