Terry Luttrell (REO Speedwagon, Starcastle lead singer) Interview 3/31/25

An in depth conversation with the former lead singer of REO Speedwagon and Starcastle.  Terry amazing recollections about his friendship with Eddie Van Halen, Bill Graham, and Hugh Hefner (Playboy), meeting Walter Cronkite (CBS News) and Rod Serling (Twilight Zone), touring with Boston, Fleetwood Mac, Journey, Kansas and Rush among others, ups and downs of his personal life, becoming a born again Christian, his new record out on Metallic Blue Records with the REO Classics Band , his huge concert coming up Saturday June 14th at the State Farm Center at the University of Illinois in Champaign, the controversy surrounding Kevin Cronan's reaction to the reunion taking place without him, and so much more.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Okay, this is Coley Bryce. You're listening to my podcast
Open Mike, and I'm talking to Terry Lutrelle, who doesn't
really need introduction. He was the original singer for Rio Speedwagon.
He did several albums with a very prominent progressive rock
band called Starcastle from nineteen seventy three to nineteen seventy nine.
He's back with Rio Speedwagon doing a really big concert soon,

(00:23):
and We've got so much to talk about, and Terry,
I'm so grateful for your time and I can't wait
to talk to you because I've been reading your Wikipedia
page and you've really lived quite some life.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah, yeah, quite a bit.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
So you're based in Nashville now, Yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Live in the Nashville area, been down here for going
since twenty eighteen. Came down to do my daughter in
center law's recording project, and unfortunately my daughter lost her
second grand'm my second grandchild, and I kind of stayed to,
you know, kind of comfort her. Yeah, and then COVID

(01:04):
hit and I ended up staying here and becoming a
resident in Tennessee.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
So well, maybe God's not done with you there yet,
and you're gonna end up writing some song with somebody
and try and make sense of out of everything.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah. Yeah, it's always always in a songwriting mode, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
So, But you started off in Champagne, Illinois, right correct.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yeah, that's my hometown. And uh, that's where the that's
where Ario Speedwagon's pawned back in the day, and and.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
And a lot of a lot of really good rock
musicians have come from Champagne, Illinois.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Oh yeah, I mean back in that era, in that
time when Ario was on its way up. Uh, there
was all kinds of people there. Danny Fogelberg and and
the guys from Head East and Mike Murphy and the
One Eyed Jack's and there's just there were I mean,
the bands were. It was unbelievable. And there were maybe

(01:59):
six or so in different bars you could play in.
Didn't really have to leave town, you know, you can
make a living just playing in town.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
Is that what you think provided the base there, that
there was some place for people to make a living
so that they could invest in their creativity. Because it's
really not a huge city, but it's really known for
being very prolific and producing musical talent.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, I mean it's it was just really kind of
an unusual thing at the time. I mean, there was
a very high degree of competition between all the bands,
you know. I mean a lot of people came out
of there and went into other portions of the record
industry as far as being managers and stuff. You know.
Irving azof you know, came from Danville, Illinois to Champagne, Illinois,

(02:44):
and him and Bob Nutt form blythe and Limited, which
was the catalyst that you know, really booked a lot
of those bands that were happening at the time, including Ario,
and you know, as time went on, you know, when Ario,
after we got done with the first album and Irving
decided he was going to move to California, him and

(03:06):
Bob moved to California, and of course we all know
where Irving went after that. Her Heavy ends up with, yeah, everywhere.
I mean, he ends up with, you know, the Eagles
and Lenronstad and just you know, just tons of talent,
you know, I mean just Michael McDonald and and just
tons of talent. So, you know, it was it's amazing

(03:29):
what was spawned out of Champagne, Illinois, you know.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
So it says here in your page that you joined
Ario Speedwagon in nineteen sixty eight. How did that come
to be?

Speaker 2 (03:41):
Well, the guys, it was really kind of an interesting
thing because Alan and Neil had been playing you know,
frat parties and an occasional bar date and that kind
of thing. And and UH, when a couple of the
guys from the band Uh graduated, Joe and Matt, the

(04:02):
bass player and guitar player, they were searching for people
and they ended up, you know, we ended up. Neil
came to me and asked me if I would sing
for the band, and I said, well, yeah, you know,
so it was Alan Neil and I mean Alan and
Neil and I and I said, well, we need a

(04:23):
guitar player, and we ended up getting a guy by
the name of Bob Crownover who was an excellent jazz
guitar player, but he wasn't really a rock player.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
And you played the guitar yourself back then, right, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
I was a guitar player originally, you know, playing in
and out of a few bands in Champagne that you know,
we're just kind of bar band kind of things. But
I couldn't play and sing well together, so I decided
to drop playing the guitar and just focus more on

(04:56):
just being a lead singer. I still play guitar to
use it to write with and you know that kind
of stuff. So but yeah, I mean that's that's kind
of how the format happened. And then we got Bob
and and and we hired Greg out of a band
that was the house band, uh at the Red Lion,
in a band called Elsie Borden's Condensed Orchestra. And we

(05:20):
got Greg in the band and Bob crown Over left
and we hired at that time he's known as Duke
Tomato now it was Bill Fiurio, and we played together
for you know, quite a while. We added horns and
stuff to the band, and we were basically a cover band.

(05:40):
It got to the point of where Bill decided he
wanted to go an opposite direction. And when that happened,
I told Alan and Neil, I said, you know, we
ought to start focusing on writing our own material. Now
get a guitar player. And that's when Steve Scorfina came
into the mix. We started writing our own material, kind

(06:01):
of changed our listening audience a little bit. It started
gathering more people and and uh, you know, we were
doing a lot of stuff for the students for Democratic
Society for the rallies and stuff, you know with Kent
State and that whole nine yards when that happened and
we ended up playing the War War Tourium for Chicago

(06:24):
in Chicago and Chicago, Illinois, and that was a tremendous day.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
I mean, a very historical event.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
Oh yeah, I mean it. You know, it was really
kind of strange because you know, it all started from
Hugh Hefner. Hefner was the one that asked us to
play that date, and you know, he kind of was
a sponsor of what was going on with that, and
half went to school there at the U OFAI and

(06:54):
it wasn't uncommon for him to come to our dates
there in Champagne and chance Are and some of the
other bars. He would show up, So I mean we
were kind of friends and we ended up going to
that you know, that whole that whole thing was just unbelievable.
We were told at the time to be very careful

(07:16):
because the Black Panthers were going to take the stage,
and I mean there the crowd was just enormous as
far as you could see up and down the streets,
and they had a you know, out at our mixing console.
They had cameras like you wouldn't believe. I thought the
whole cat walk up there was going to collapse. It
was bowing was pretty bad, and so the police warned us.

(07:38):
They said, hey, those guys are going to take the stage.
And sure enough, right down at the end of the set,
we used to close with a song called Sympathy for
the Devil by the Stones, and you know, it had
backing bits of like the do do do do those
kinds of things. We're in the middle of that song.
I looked to the right man and they busted the
police line and up come these guys to the stage.

(08:02):
And the first guy looked at me like he was
going to kill me, and I just handed him some
moroccas and I said here, I said, get on that
microphone and saying do do do do? He looked at
me like I was totally crazy. I said, singing, damn it.
And he got up there. And the next guy came up.
I gave him moroccas, I said, join him, singing do too.
They started singing those background bits, and instead of it

(08:24):
turning it into a riot, it turned into a peaceful march,
and they marched off down the street singing that Doo
do do do.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
Oh, thank god you were so quick witted. That could
have gone another way.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
Oh. It was unbelievable. And and that night, you know,
Haffner had a at the time, it was one hundred
dollars a plate dinner, and I mean that was a
lot of money back in those days.

Speaker 3 (08:44):
Salary, right, yeah, I mean he invited us to come
to that, and so of course we go to the
to the mansion or in Chicago, and I mean it's just.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
Loaded with people and all kinds the celebrities. I mean,
I was standing there talking to you what the heck's
the guy's name and from the Twilight Zone. Man, I
can't think of his name right now, but I was
standing there talking to him about, you know, my most
favorite episode of the Twilight Zone and to Serve Men,

(09:20):
and he says, yeah, that's my favorite too. Rod Serling
now Rob Sturling, And you know he's standing there in
his sharkskin suit and smoking a cigarette. All of a sudden,
I feel this tap on my shoulder and I turn
around and it's Walter Cronkite and he says, man, how
does it feel to stop a major riot in downtown Chicago?

(09:40):
And I said, well, I said, I didn't even think
about that. I said, all I could think about was
getting those guys involved so that, you know, we could
get off the stage. And I says, as it turned out,
they marched off peacefully. He says, man, we were expecting,
we had cameras on rooftops, and we were expecting the
whole thing to go up. But he said, you guys,
you guys, it's made him come off peacefully. And we

(10:03):
had a pretty good chat. It was really kind of
great to be able to talk to him. He's always
was one of my favorite newscasters because he always told
it like it was and never you know, never did
anything or he gave his opinion. It was just always yeah, journalism.
And so, I mean, it was a crazy night. And

(10:24):
then then after we finished that that Meil, we ended
up playing at a place in Chicago was called Mothers,
and you know, they always had some kind of good
band or something. We ended up playing with Rod Stewart
in the small Phass that night. And so, I mean,
all in all, it was a pretty incredible day that

(10:45):
day for sure.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
Wow. So, I mean, so he went from doing covers
and bars to being in the middle of cultural events
that changed the shape of the nation. That's kind of
a big leap of events there in a short time
us have been surreal.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
Yeah, it was. I mean it was amazing, you know,
as the crowd began to follow us, as people began
to follow us, and of course, you know, we wrote
some songs that were very you know, protest type songs,
anti establishment man and Golden Country. Gary and I worked

(11:22):
on that. We didn't get that on the first album,
but they did put it on, you know, the second
album after I left the band.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
So well, how did the first album come to be?
It was on Epic Records, right.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, the first album came to be. We were you know,
even with Steve Scarfina and the band, we were being
watched and looked at from different record labels. Irving had
been working very closely with Ronnie and Luxembourg at Epic Records.
Ronnie and the guys there, and they came to they

(11:55):
came to our show at the auditorium. We sold out
the auditorium at the end of the squad in Champagne, Illinois,
on the campus there, and you know, we were waiting
for Steve to show up, and Steve, Steve was kind
of having problems with his family, and it was very
kind of a difficult time for him. But he come

(12:15):
running down the quad, started up the steps of the
auditorium about ten minutes before showtime, tripped and fell on
his guitar and broke that thing in two and he
screamed bloody murder and took off running in the opposite direction.
Oh my god. When Oh yeah, it was just amazing.
I'm yelling, hey, Steve, come back. You know, we we
can get a guitar for you. Don't worry about it.

(12:37):
We got guitars. So we end up had to end
up giving up back all the money to people that
showed up for the show. And of course Irving was there,
and Ronnie and Luxembourg was there, and I'd already been
talking Ronnie and Ronnie says, call me when you get
your act together. And I mean it was just like,
you know, Alan and Neil came to me and said

(12:58):
we're quitting. I said, well, we can't quit, because I said,
we're just a sixteenth of an inch away from having
a record deal. And they said, well we're quitting. We're
going back to school. He says, what are we going
to do for a guitar player, and I said, well,
you know, I told him, I said, you know, I'll
start looking for somebody. And I had some people in mind,
and Gary Richrath was one of them. And you know,

(13:22):
Greg and I we talked to other the bass player
and I Greg Pilman and I had talked to some
other players, but they weren't they weren't ready to leave
their bands. And I said, well, I said, I know.
Gary's playing in a band called Feather Train, and I
said they're playing in Peoria quite a bit, and they
had a date that there was another Second Chance. It

(13:44):
was an offshoot of Chances Are in Champagne. And we
went to that show that night and I approached Gary.
We were a little bit late getting there. I think
we started right around their second set, and and when
they took a break, I approached Gary and told him,
I said, you know, we're looking for a guitar player.

(14:05):
Would you be interested? I said, I normally don't go
to a band and try to steal somebody out of
a vand but you know, you're a logical choice. And
Gary kind of, you know, kind of bocked at it
at first. And Bruce Hall was playing with him in
that band, and Gary kind of bocked at it. And
Greg told me, he says, you'll never get him to

(14:26):
leave that band. And I said, well, I'm going to try.
So we waited till the end of the show and
I went back to the dressing room and approached him
again and I said, you know, I said, how about this.
I said, I have fifty dollars left in my pocket
and I said, I'll give you this fifty for gas
and expenses. I said, you come over and you jam

(14:48):
with us, and if you like it, you know, we'd
sure like to have you on board. If you don't,
you know, we'll just look for somebody else. Well, as
it turned out that following Sunday, he showed up. He
called me in, showed SI, I'm coming. His mom drove
him over there. He didn't even have a driver's license.
It was kind of funny and I thought, I know,
that's kind of weird. And so he showed up. His

(15:10):
mom says, don't let him drink, don't let him do
any drugs, and I said, well, okay, and yeah, and
I said okay, And so we went to the rehearsal
hall and spent about three hours, you know, jamming around
and doing stuff, and carry said, yeah, I kind of
like this. It feels good. And so he says, what

(15:35):
do I do? And I said, well, I said, you know,
get your clothes. I said, there's an apartment next door
to me. It's open, and the house that I was
living in, And I said, we'll pay for your rent
until you get up on your feet and we'll get
you going. So he went home packed this gear, came back,
his mom dropped him off, and you know, we put

(15:55):
him up in the apartment there and then we just
took it from there and you know, another three or
four months. You know, we were pretty tight as far
as what we were doing. The songs were all came
together really well, and we called Epic again and they
came back out and saw the band and decided they
wanted to sign the band.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
What was it about his playing that that you liked
that made you solicit him?

Speaker 2 (16:20):
Well, he was you know, you know, I mean, he
had a good look to him. You know, he was
very charismatic and his guitar playing was high energy, which
is what you know we were all about. And you know,
his he just had a characteristic style about him that.

Speaker 1 (16:39):
He was flashy, but he's also very melodic.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yeah, yeah, he had a very characteristic style about him
that just seemed to fit what we were doing. And so,
I mean it worked out. You know, we finished that
first album and we're talking about moving to LA with Irving,
and we went out to LA to work on the
second project, and we were working on songs, and unfortunately

(17:09):
Gary was had spoken to a couple of music attorneys
and his attitude. You know, we had it set up.
I set it up with the guys that we all
shared equally and publishing songwriting royalties and and equal you know,
gate receipts regardless of who brought what to the table.
You know, because any song that I brought to the table,

(17:31):
but by the time there were the guys supplied their
parts and modified things. You know, it became all. It became,
you know, all of us. So you know, to keep
everybody's head in the game, you know, we made it.
I made it so that they would share equally in everything. Well,
Gary wanted. Gary wanted his songwriting royalties. Period. He didn't

(17:52):
want to you know, he didn't want to share it.
If I bring a song to the table, it's my song.
I want all my royalties and him and I battled
over that for you know, maybe a month or two.
I finally just said to him, I said, Gurras, and
I'm just not there with that. I said, uh, you know,
if you feel you got to have your way, I'm

(18:13):
bowing out gracefully. And I did you know, wow, of
the guys, I was leaving and and you know, I mean,
that's that's where it went. And you know, I stayed
in California for a while and had a couple offers
to do some things and ended up meeting some people
that eventually that I would know later, especially Ainsley Dunbar

(18:36):
and and and the guys in spirit, you know, Jay Ferguson,
And you know, Jay's still a very good friend of
mine to this very day. Yeah. Yes, Jay's a great,
great person. I really I've always enjoyed him. We've always
been able to talk to. Matter of fact, he let
me stay at the house that Jojo Gunn was living

(18:57):
in at the time, and that's when, you know, they
were out on the road, they were over on the
East coast. That some quick hit and that was it.
I was out of there. The ground started shaking. I said,
I'm leaving, and I did. I went back to Champagne and.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
You went to dodgs and tornadoes instead.

Speaker 2 (19:17):
Yeah, I'd rather dodge them than you know, you can
see those unlessons at night, you know that kind of
thing when the ground starts shaking and freeways start collapsing.
I don't want to be part of that, no way.
And so you know, I went back to Champagne and
ended up, you know what'sing around with a few guys
that I knew, and we had a bar band or two,

(19:38):
and I got asked to sing for a band called
Mad John Fever and Mad John Fever was the nucleus
to Star Castle and I said, well, the only way
I'll do that is if I can take Matt Stewart
with me, who was playing with me in these different
bar bands. And Matt's dad was, you know, the director

(20:02):
of WDWS radio station in Champagne, Illinois, and his dad
really kind of asked me to watch over him, and
I did because he knew his dad was going to pass.
And so I said, the only way I'm going is
if I can take Matt. So you know, Matt and
I joined that band, and Mad John Fever was.

Speaker 1 (20:26):
Please correct me if I'm wrong. But in that late
seventies period, star Castle was probably a bigger pan than
Orio Speedwagon. You were doing some really big shows.

Speaker 2 (20:36):
Yeah, I mean, that's what happened. Mad John Fever became
star Castle, and of course Epic chased me for quite
a while to do a solo project, and I kind
of put it down. I didn't, you know, really have
enough material completely to do that totally by myself. But

(20:56):
you know, when we started doing Imagining, we were a
bar band which began to write progressive music and you know,
Gary Strater, the bass player, and I teamed up quite
a bit on a lot of that stuff and one
of the guitar players, Steve Hagler, and we began to

(21:18):
start thinking about you know, taking a different direction and
and contacting Epic about it. They listened to us, came
out to see us. Once we developed, you know, a
complete set of our own music. We were playing the
bar band music and then we switched it to our
own music, which we were able to still retain the audience,

(21:38):
which was great, and they seem to like it and
made way for us to you know, start a recording
project with them, and it worked out really well.

Speaker 1 (21:52):
You guys did start four albums right.

Speaker 2 (21:55):
Right, correct. Four albums, and yeah, it was really kind
of cool because, you know, Epic it never really got
into cover art, and we were one of the first
bands that they did cover art. You know. Our first
album was done the Keith illustrator of Walt Disney did
the Castle and all that stuff. You know, it was

(22:16):
Suspended on the Clouds and all that thing. And the
second album was done by the same guy that did
Jefferson Starship Dragonfly that album, and then the third album
was done by the Hildebrand brothers that did all the
artwork for Star Wars, and that third album cover was

(22:39):
actually in I can't remember what series of the movie
it was, but it was in one of the Star
Wars movies as job of the HUDs Castle, which was
really kind of a cool thing that so it really
came off that. And then for some reason they decided
they were going to put our faces on the fourth album.
It was like the same guy that did Fleetwood Max

(23:02):
Rumors album did the photography for that, and so, I
mean they treated us exceptionally well.

Speaker 1 (23:10):
What were some of the touring experiences you had back then?
You play with some the biggest acts of the day.

Speaker 2 (23:17):
Oh my gosh. I mean, you know, we were handled
by Contemporary Productions, which was Serving Zuckerman and Steve Shankman
out of Saint Louis. They managed us, and you know,
we're booking us to a degree. And I told Irving,
I said, you know, we really need to have some
sort of of a national booking agency. Now, we really

(23:39):
need to, you know, get out find some people that
we can tour with. And and and I went to
New York and made friends with Frank Barcelona at Premier Talent.
And the reason why I made friends with him was
really we had done a show or two with with

(24:01):
oh gosh, one of his acts, one of his actually
was Eddie van Halen. It was van Halen and Eddie
and I became really good friends.

Speaker 1 (24:12):
Wait wait wait wait you almost forgot it was van Halen.

Speaker 2 (24:15):
Yeah, well I just haven't re memoried Flash Year man.
I was not playing last Night Dodgson Tornadoes, Moose.

Speaker 1 (24:23):
People would remember playing with Eddie van Halen.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
Well, it's it's just like I said, I mean, we
became really good friends. And you know, Eddie and I
had talked about a lot of things, and and so
I mean I ended up going up talking to Frank,
and Frank decided he was going to take us on.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
I mean, she hold on, we have to talk about
Eddie a little bit more.

Speaker 2 (24:45):
I mean he was oh well, I mean ed Eddie
really helped me do some tremendous things later on, which
you know, after we did the the four Starcastle albums,
I left the van, you know, because I was helping
a friend of mine produce his band, a band called Screams,

(25:08):
and it was a band that was out of the
Midwest and they were kind of, you know, a little
bit ahead of their time as far as their songwriting ability.
They wrote some really cool stuff. And you know, we
were done. I think I can't remember what tour. I
think we just finished the West of the Rockies tour,

(25:31):
which just were tall. And we had a period of
time where we were laying over thinking about the fifth
Star Castle album and I had some material portions ready
and you know that which allowed me to have time
to go to the studio to produce this band, and
so I did. And and Ronnie Luxembourg at the time

(25:54):
had left Epic and joined MCA Universal in a division
and called Infinity Records. And I played the demo tapes
for Ron for this Screams album and he liked it
and wanted to sign the band. So I told the
guys in Starcastle, I said, yeah, I'm going to go
to the studio do this recording for thirty days. I said,

(26:15):
I'll give you my material and stuff that I have
parts of the songs and stuff, and you guys, can
you know, blend that stuff together as we always did.
And it kind of upset and I said, well, I've
already committed to this, guys, I got to do this,
you know, I mean, Wantie's expecting me to do this,
and so it ends up that they got upset with me,

(26:39):
and I said, well, I'm sorry, I'm committed, and we
just decided that it was best that we parted ways,
and so I left, kept maintaining my production company. Finished
the album, went to New York to master it at
Strolling Sound, and you know, I'm staying at the Gramercy

(26:59):
Park Hotel and I had my appointment to go do
the mastering with my mastering friend there. And I started
down the elevator and when I got to the first floor,
the elevator door opens in his eddy. Then hele and
he says, what are you doing? Man, I haven't seen it.
He says, I see you're not playing with stark House.

(27:21):
I mean, Moore, what's up with that? And I said, well,
I explain the time I had my production company who
was doing this, and getting ready to go over to
He says, well, have you got some music I can
listen to? And I said, well yeah, but I said
I got an appointment going on. He says, I'll call
over there, and he called over and talked to George
Marina and said, well, Terry's not coming for you know,
about an hour. He says, back him up a little bit.

(27:44):
So he did, and we went up to his room
and I played him three songs from the Screams album
and he looked at me and he listened to that stuff,
and he was kind of quiet about it. And he says,
do you think these guys could open for me? And
I said, well yeah, I said, I think I could
make a phone call and make something happen. And he says,

(28:07):
I think I'd like to have these guys open for
my seventy nine world tour, which was just incredible.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
I mean, wow, they were on fire then.

Speaker 2 (28:15):
Oh yeah, forty three dates they did with you know,
and I mean they went to England with them, and
it was all set to go to Japan. I was
going to go to the Japanese leg of the thing,
but anyway, ed he put him on. And you know,
like I said, he's always we've always just been really
great friends and.

Speaker 1 (28:34):
Question for it. I mean, arguably, many people would say
he was perhaps the greatest guitarist who ever lived. And
most people are aware of his incredible achievements in the industry,
both as you know, in the manufacturing of gears as
well as record sales. But what could you remember about
him personally as a human being non musically that made
him special to you?

Speaker 2 (28:54):
Oh? Man, his personality was just unbelievable. I mean he
was he was the nicest guy. I mean, he didn't
have to do what he did for me, but you
know he did just out of the kindness of his heart.
I mean, Eddie and Valerie both, you know, two really
special people in my heart. And you know, when farm
Aid came about in Champagne, you know, Eddie was there

(29:16):
and I got to sit on the side of the
stage with him and with Valerie and stuff. And you know,
they've always just been the most kindest, generallest people that
I've ever known, and to be able to have that
insight and that personal friendship with him was meant a
lot to me. And then you know, fortunately, you know,

(29:36):
at the time I had taken on a I was
still playing music on weekends when I was driving a
big truck for FedEx in the interim through the week
And when Eddie passed, it really upset me because I
couldn't get away from that job to go to his funeral.
And oh man, yeah, I mean it really broke my heart.

(29:59):
And I mean I I spoke to Valerie about it,
and you know, she said, well, I can understand. You know,
they just wouldn't let me out out of the position
because I'm running from Champagne to Atlanta, Georgia. I was
doing the Number one Atlanta Run, and you know, pulling
those two trailers up and down the road. It was
just not easy work.

Speaker 1 (30:21):
No mean, would you say in your life as a musician,
with all the peaks and valleys. I mean, I compare
it sometimes to like Gulliver's travels, Like in one spot
you're a giant and another spot you're an ant. You're
like up and down, and every like one day you're
in the king's court. The next day you're the court jester.
How has it been for you like riding all these

(30:42):
mountaintops and valleys in your career.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
Well, you know, sometimes you do what you gotta do.
I did the driving job to put my daughter through
school and you know, to help with that. You know,
you do what you just you gotta do. Sometimes. You know,
you drift sometimes, but it's still never took away from
my real heart, which is music. I mean, it's just

(31:08):
like anything else, it's in your.

Speaker 1 (31:10):
Well, if anything, enduring life as as a songwriter, any
experience you have is gonna add depth and character and
all things. Like for instance, like you know, well I'm
here in New Jersey and everyone it's you have to
sign a contract when you're born, to pledge your allegiance
to Bruce Springsteen. Great songwriter. But do you think there's
something when a songwriter actually has to live the songs

(31:32):
he writes about and not just imagine him.

Speaker 2 (31:35):
Well, yeah, I mean you know those those the songs
that you write are the footprints of your life. Really.
You know a lot of people ask me about the
change between the hard rock side of Areo Speedwagon to
the progressive side of Starcastle. What made you do that?
I said, well, there there are times when you know,
you you you feel this want and a need as

(31:59):
a music to experiment with different forms of music. And
I mean the star Castle thing, it was really gratifying
because even though we wrote, we wrote pieces of music,
We wrote you know, long pieces of music, and to
be able to fit together some of the thoughts and
ideas that we had, you know, was pretty amazing.

Speaker 1 (32:22):
Right, these are just songs. These are compositional.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
Approach, compositions exactly. And I mean it's you know, it's
like you know, people either you either loved it or
you were puzzled by it and you know, let it
go by the wayside. But I mean still the audience
is a listening audience that came to see us. Uh,

(32:45):
they were into it. And I mean there were times
that you know, shooting, we played with Journey, and we
played with Fleetwood Mac and Boston Tour and you know,
as a matter of fact.

Speaker 1 (32:55):
You played with Journey, Boston and Fleetwood Mac.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
Oh my gosh, if if you go to if you
go to Starcastle's page, I think the last year we
probably out of that year we played probably two hundred
and eighty five, maybe two hundred and ninety days out
of that year. We the tours that we had, and
thank god it was Frank Barcelona that put them put

(33:20):
them together for us. I mean, we did dates with
Fleetwood Mac, we did dates with Starship, We did dates
with Jesser tall Ian Anderson West of the Rockies tour,
we played outdoors, you know, all the major stadiums and outdoors.

Speaker 1 (33:36):
Included Mental, Giant, Kansas.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
Giant, Kansas, Yeah, Rush, Rush, you name it, man, I
mean anybody that was anybody during that period of time.
It seemed like we either played in front.

Speaker 1 (33:50):
Of those acts, which was the most intimidating to share
the stage with which one made you guys primed and
ready to fight.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
Well, we always, you know, we always took our shows
on as the best that we could. I mean a
lot of times when you open you only get half
of the PA, half the light second and stuff, but
you still, you know, you try not to be disturbed
by that and just deliver the best performance that you can.
The toughest tour was the Boston tour, and I mean

(34:23):
quite a few dates that we did with them, and
Tom Shoals was you know, pretty finicky because you know,
we'd open the show obviously, and the audience would just
be pumped up, you know. And Tom got to the
point of saying, well, you can't do this song, you
can't do that song, you can only do this song.
And so in order to comply or he says, you

(34:45):
either do that or you're off the tour. So we
complied with him. We complied with him, and I remember
it got down to the point there was one date
left and it was a make up date at Virginia Beach.
And because I think you know that winter, I mean,

(35:06):
we were doing all the Midwest stuff. But it was
a horrible winner and we were very lucky to get
to some of the dates, both bands were, and unfortunately
the snowstorm that happened prior to that Virginia Beach date
was just horrendous. We couldn't get to it, so they
made us make it up. At the end. It was

(35:31):
I told Tom at one point in time, I said,
you know what I said, Tom, I said, we'll comply
with what you're doing, but you know, karma is going
to catch up with you. And I always would say
that to him, and he just kind of brushed it off.
So we did that last date. I told the brodies,
I said, I want you to call every baker you

(35:51):
can find and find all the lemon meringue pigs that
you can get. And they brought back they you know
baker you know the rollaway bakery things and trays with
these things, and they brought them in. I mean there
must have been five or six rollaways with pires on
every level of that dog. I think. I said, take

(36:12):
them in the dressing room. Don't let those guys see it. So,
you know, we we opened and we did our thing
and got you know, excellent crowd reaction, and we did
play the songs that Tom told us not to, you know,
like Lady of the Lady of the Lake and all
those songs. So, I mean, I knew he was really
hacked off at that. And so they get up and

(36:32):
they play, and they get down to the end of
the night. I told the roadies, I said, you take
those pies and get on both sides of the stage,
and I said, when they finish, I said, We're just
gonna let them have it. And so at the end
of at the end of his show, I took a
lemon meringue pie on my left hand and right hand
and at the end of their encore, you know, he's

(36:54):
taking this big bow and stuff, and I walked up
behind him, and the audience got saw me standing back
there with the pies, and he didn't turn around. He's
just taking it on like that. You know, there's this
extra burst of energy from the crowd because they.

Speaker 4 (37:08):
Saw me with the pies and started he started to
take a bow, and I just came up under his right,
you know, the neck of his guitar and smacked him
right in the face with the pie.

Speaker 2 (37:19):
And he turned around. All that stuff was dribbling down
over the front of him, and I let him have
it with the other one. And then the roadies started
throwing the pies left and right from the side of
the stage and the and it's been you know, Sidney
and Brad, you know, they they didn't like what you know,
Tom was doing to them half the time. Anyway, they
got into it. They were throwing pies at at Uh

(37:42):
at shoals ow. Oh man, was he hacked up? Boy?
He called uh he called the guy's at epic and
and you know, Ronnie calls and calls me. He says,
what did you do? I said, well, and I explained
it to him about how he treated us, and I said,
you know, I told him, I said, Karmen's going to
get you. And I said, and it did. And then

(38:06):
Ronnie started laughing. He says, I got to hand it
to you man. He says, that made said news so much.
He says, he says, if I would have been you,
I would have done the same thing.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
Sometimes Peacock feathers, right, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:20):
So, but I mean, you know, Tom made a statement
to you know, to uh Frank, never will never have
them open for us again, that kind of thing, so,
which was okay, but it was just funny to see
the look on his face.

Speaker 1 (38:35):
As a lead singer, what's it like opening up for
Steve Perry at the height of his acrobatic powers.

Speaker 2 (38:44):
Well, you know, I'll tell you a story about that.
You know, we in the early days of Journey. I mean,
like I said, at one point in time, I already
had met Ainsley, done more and I knew Greg Raleigh
from you know, on the first to or we played
with Santana, So I'd met Greg and Neil and knew them,

(39:06):
you know, and they knew who I was at the time,
and and it just made sense to you know, for
both bands to play together in a way, you know,
it was it was a very good opportunity. But as
time went on, during that journey Starcastle Era and we
were playing quite a few days together, they were trying

(39:27):
to recruit me to sing for them. And it was
really I said, and I told Neil and and Greg,
I said, man, I can't. I can't leave these guys.
I said, you know, we've got a record on the charts,
and I said it's doing well, and you know, it's
just I can't. I just couldn't find my way to
do it, you know it. Ainsley kept hammering on me, oh, man,

(39:47):
you should do it. And it was but about two
weeks into I think it was about the second tour
that we did with them, that we were trading off
shows on that they had brought Steve Perry to the
show and Greg and Steve had, you know, sang a

(40:08):
I can't remember the name of the song that they did,
but it was one song where they shared vocals on it.
So I told Greg, I said, man, there is your singer.
That's the guy you should hire right there. And they did.
They ended up hiring hiring him, and of course they
would you know, it was all history from that point forward.

(40:29):
Steve's voice was just you know, just s fit what
they were doing excellently and yeah, and just had a
tremendous voice. So you know, it was a better choice
for them. It was an interesting fact that they asked me,
but you know, still.

Speaker 1 (40:45):
You just had the intuitive sense that that that was
a better fit.

Speaker 2 (40:50):
Yeah. Absolutely, I mean it took the pressure off of
you know, because here we are, we're getting ready to
do our fourth album and uh, you know, we're trying
to get that all together.

Speaker 1 (41:00):
You know.

Speaker 2 (41:01):
When Roy Thomas Vicker, he did the second and third album,
Queen's producer, did the second and third album for us,
and the third album we did in England. We went
over to England and recorded it there and mixed it
down at SARM Studios. And it was kind of interesting.
During the day Elton John was working and we were

(41:21):
working at night wow, and Roy Thomas Bicker introduced me
to Elton John and I had a really good conversation
with him about live and studio work and this that
and the other, and how what he felt about live
music versus recorded music and his presentation of it. And
very intelligent man, you know, he was really kind of

(41:43):
need to sit down and talk to him. And I
really liked the first two Elton John albums with Bernie Topping,
and he felt the same way. He says, you know,
during that period of time, he says, some of the
best music was written, you know, with Barnie and myself.

Speaker 1 (41:59):
Well during that era too, I mean you didn't have
the digital editing and auto tuning and looping and sampling
capabilities that you have now. So like recording studios were
precise places with great gear and really captured every nuance.
But it captured every nuance you were either good or
you weren't good. You could either you know, represent that

(42:20):
sound where the studio gear really brought out everything. So
I think we had a higher standard. Would you would
you say there was a higher musical standard in those times?

Speaker 2 (42:29):
Absolutely? I mean, you know, you didn't have that capability
of you know, in today's world, Like you said, you know,
digital recording, you know, where you could cut and paste stuff.
You didn't have that. I mean, you had to sing
your vocal spot on. If you did, if they weren't
spot on, you had to go back and redo them,
you know, I mean, it wasn't it wasn't one of
those things where you have auto tune and you can

(42:51):
correct the pitch and if somebody's off a little bit,
you can correct it. You know that kind of thing,
or like I say, have that capability of you sang
a first verse just spot on. You could cut and
paste with the new stuff. You cut and paste that
to the backside of the song and you know you're done.
You don't have to really work as hard as you

(43:11):
did back in the day. And you know, I think
some of the music that was recorded from you know,
from seventy through eighty before like I say, the digital
waves started happening and recording was some of the best
music because man, I mean all of that stuff was
you know, all the stark Castle stuff was done. You know,

(43:32):
we had to if it wasn't pitch correct, you had
to do it over, you know. Is that kind of
thing Until you really nailed it.

Speaker 1 (43:40):
And there was pre production. You had to rehearse together
for months and play the same song a million times
getting everything right there was. It really was an effort.
It wasn't just like, hey, let's just go bang this
out tonight and the computer will fix it right exactly.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
I mean, you know one thing about star Castle and
a lot of those songs that that you hear those tracks,
we rehearse them so much. They were played straight through.
They weren't you know, done like some Kansas would do
a part of a song and then you know, come
back and do another part of the song and then
splice the two together that kind of thing, or yes,

(44:17):
would do that, that kind of thing. But our work
was all done. I mean, we played it so well
and so tight that it was all done front to
back without you know, segmenting songs together and are segmenting
parts together of the songs. So I mean, it was
a lot of work back then, but you know, in
reality it paid off. And there were some things that

(44:40):
I felt could have been corrected mix wise and other things,
but for the most part, it all came off very well.

Speaker 1 (44:47):
You know, well it had to be so much more
satisfying having a workflow like that where you really had
to earn your results.

Speaker 2 (44:54):
Right exactly. It was that And you know it's like
I say, you know, for the mere fact that we
were able to play the dates and some of the
tours that we played, i mean across.

Speaker 1 (45:07):
Canada, and did you play Canada with Rush.

Speaker 2 (45:11):
We played Canada with Rush and Journey all the way
from Monkton, New Brunswick across Canada, uh the Olympic side
at Montreal Outdoors and you know, all across that. It
was a Donald K. Donald production. We played all the
way from the East coast all the way over to
you know, Calgary and and that stuff, and you know,

(45:32):
and the just Tall tour. We went up to the
West coast from San Diego Sports Arena to to uh
the place in La there at the new Coliseum there,
and then we went on up to San Francisco, played

(45:54):
the big Stadium there, played in the stadium and across
the bridge in San Francisco all the way up into Calvary.
The last date it was Calvary, Canada. And but it
was good. You know, I played a lot of dates,
played the cow Palace, you know with I can't think
of his name right now either.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
What type of repertoire, what type of music?

Speaker 2 (46:18):
Yeah, I mean he ran Fillmore East and Fillmore West. Oh,
Bill Bill Graham, Yeah, Bill, Bill and I became really
good friends. I mean, he for some reason liked Starcastle
and when we played up those those shows up there,
and when I had my production company. I did a
lot of work in record Plant in LA and San Francisco,

(46:40):
mostly in San Francisco there at Saslito. He would show up.
He would find out when I was in town, and
I don't know how he did it, but he'd call,
you know, record plants and find out my schedule. And
I'd be working with the band and he'd call me up,
Let's go to lunch, let's go to dinner. And I
mean because really close friends. And it was another guy

(47:02):
that you know, like like Eddie van Hill, and that
I felt really bad about when he passed. I couldn't
get out to get to his funeral. You know, it's
really a bad deal.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
We'll give you a lot of credit because a lot
of I think a lot of people who had had
career highs like that would have some real ego wounds
going to half. I mean, your father first, and you
do what you have to do to help support your children.
But it had to be quite a psychological adjustment to
take a regular job again after being anti stratkespheric heights

(47:34):
and and you know how was that psychologically like where
you have a driving across country and you had to
hear like you know, keep on loving you on the radio,
and like you're like, oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:46):
It's just like I'll remember, you know, when I was married.
My wife at the time said, you know, let's go
on vacation. And I said, yeah, I need a vacation.
I need to get out of this stuff for a while.
And so we went to Cancun, right because I want
to go down and check out the Mayan civilization thing
and the Chitsanitza and all that stuff. And I was
really enthralled by that. So we get on the plane.

(48:09):
It's in February and it's freezing in the States, and
we get down there and it's nice and warm, and
I remember No sooner getting off the plane walking through
Kan Kuen's airport and I look up at the screen
and Rio speedwagons on the screen, and I looked at
her and I said, you know what, I can't get
away from it. It's just like you keep on loving you,

(48:31):
just playing just so I just, you know, ended up
that whole thing, just trying not to listen to any
music at all, you know, just laying on the beach
and trying to absorb some sunshine. But it was just funny,
you know, you can't. No matter where you went, you know,
you were reminded of what was going on in reality,
you know, musically and.

Speaker 1 (48:53):
Well, I read on your Wikipedia page that you'd become
a reborn again Christian at some point? Where did faith
come men in helping you cope with the highs?

Speaker 2 (49:02):
And Lewis, Well, that was a very interesting time myself.
I was very close friends with Michael Day and Rena Jones,
who were Michael Day was a keyboard player in the
band Champagne. I don't know if you remember that band
at all that had that big worldwide hit called how
About Us? And you know they had been on Soul

(49:25):
Train and all this stuff, and and you know what
I mean, I'll put it this way. I was my
mom raised me. I didn't have a father, so my
mom tried to keep me in a church. And I
knew who Christ was. I didn't I can't say is
that I had that personal relationship with him as I

(49:46):
do now at that particular point in time. And you know,
when I divorced my wife, of course, I'm taking care
of my daughter and making sure that we had time
to spend together and that kind of stuff, and and
you know, I started attending the church that Michael Day
and Rena Jones or the music ministry for the church. Well,

(50:10):
they had a play called Heaven's Gates and Hell's Flames
and it was about, you know, those that knew of
Christ and studied the Word of Christ realized that when
your name was written in the Book of Life, that
you would obviously if you followed the commandments that you
must be born again of spirit and water to enter

(50:32):
the Kingdom of Heaven, as Christ commands that you will
have the opportunity to go to heaven. If you ignored
those commandments then and something happened to you, then obviously
you would go to the opposite end of the spectrum.
And that night they had this play, like I said,
called Heaven's Gates and Hell's Flames. My daughter was five

(50:54):
years old at the time, and we sat in the
audience and watched it and it was pretty dramatic. I mean,
it was hit a lot of push pull tug stuff. Well,
why didn't you tell me about this weapon? You know
where they they performed the performance and my daughter they
had an altar call and my you know, had come

(51:15):
forward and accept Christ and bow your knee, and you know,
work towards being born again. Well, my daughter, I'm sitting
there with my head down on the back of the pew,
grabs my sleeve and says to me, come on, dad,
We're not going to be left behind. And I'm telling
you what. That just brought me to tears. And so

(51:37):
we went forward and we committed, and two weeks later
I was water baptized in the spirit. You know, you
must be born again with spirit and water. You know,
a couple of my friends that went to the church,
and you know, we should arrange that for you. And
then my daughter wanted to have that done, and my
ex wife fought that and fought it and fought it,

(51:58):
and finally she gave in. And uh, you know, so
Kristin became born again at that time, and my ex
wife battled. I said, you're not battling me. I said,
you know, you're you're battling the spirit of Satan. Under
the circumstances because of the way it is, her brother

(52:20):
married us. Her brother was a four square Gospel minister,
totally sold out to Christ. She she was agnostic, didn't
believe at all, and so she ends up meeting this
physical trainer who was sold out to Christ and convinced
her and she became born again herself. And this is

(52:43):
what this is what was really great about. It was
not only then she got involved in the church and
you know, began to have her own ministry inside of
the church, which you know led to the fact that
Kristen stayed in the church and actually became you know,
part of the worship band and the worship team and stuff.

(53:03):
So she was able to sing and you know kind
of following my footsteps and musically and some of this stuff. So,
I mean, it was it was just that whole nine
yards of the acceptance of Christ that you know, push
me forward, you know in that respect, you know, you
you begin to look at things a little bit differently

(53:26):
about you know, how things are in the world and
and what the timeline is that you're in, and you know,
there's there's perspective that has gained. The thing that got
me the most was is when after taking that dip,
when I began to read the Bible, things begin to
make sense completely. Beforehand, sometimes I thought, well, you know,

(53:50):
this seems to contradict itself. But once you're spiritualized, get open,
it all makes sense. And you know, it's like you
can't really, you know, tell people about that, because you
really have to be the one that's going to drop
your knee and be on board with Christ. And it's

(54:13):
that personal relationship with Him that matters. It doesn't not
necessarily that you have to go to church every day
and and you know, be a church going person. It's
that personal relationship that you have with Jesus that propels
you from that point forward. I just decided to let
him do the driving, I mean, and I will follow,

(54:33):
you know, that's the thing. And He's always made a
way for me. He's kept me, you know, in a
position where I've had a roof over my head. I'm
well fed, you know, everything's paid for. You know, it's
just by following his spirit and his rules, you know
things they have always been there for me.

Speaker 1 (54:55):
So I don't your spiritual surrender has led to a
person no sustainability.

Speaker 2 (55:02):
Yes, absolutely, And you know it's it's just that that
whole nine yards of looking at the good side of
things versus the evil side of things, even though you
know some some things in the industry are evil and
in the entertainment industry are evil, and you just have

(55:23):
to you know, float on the good side of it
and try not to be bothered by the bad.

Speaker 1 (55:29):
Side of it the world, but not of it.

Speaker 2 (55:33):
Yes, exactly exactly. I mean the thing that I think
is hard for a lot of people to realize is, yes,
you achieve stardom, you achieve lots of money, and I mean,
I'm broke. I don't have, you know, tons of money.
I've got a few royalties that come in and pay
for taxes and that kind of stuff. But you know,

(55:55):
it's you know, at this point of living on Social
Security and want a little bit. You know, we're almost
paying to play with the band that I'm my current band,
and you know, it's just one of those kind of
things for you know, but still, I mean, I'm pushing
at eighty years old, you know, after having a triple bypass.
I'm grateful for the fact that you know, my surgeons said, well,

(56:18):
now you got another twenty years, and I think if
I make it to ninety, I'm going to be very
grateful under the circumstances. But you know, it's all the
stuff that you acquire. Those people that do acquire millions
of dollars, like Kevin and Gronen and some of the
other guys that. You know, I have acquired that stuff,

(56:40):
and you know, you have those big houses, and I've
had a big house. I live on my boat now.
I live where I've always had that vision of living
on a boat in the inner coastal on the East coast.
And what kind of boat I want.

Speaker 1 (56:56):
To My son's a boat builder. Yeah, what kind of boat.

Speaker 2 (56:59):
Yeah, it's a Seiray. It's a thirty eight foot Sierray.
And you know, I've got a nice roof over my
head and two areas to sleep in and big screen TV.
I mean, I'm happy living on that thing. I love
sitting on the stern of it. Once in a while,
I go out into the you know, I live on
the Cumberland River and you know there's a couple of

(57:21):
lakes that have been dammed up over through that period.
I love getting on the back end of that thing,
throwing a line out, fishing a little bit, feed the seagulls,
you know that kind of thing. So, I mean, I'm
very happy with that.

Speaker 1 (57:33):
It's not that's awesome.

Speaker 2 (57:34):
I've had the big houses, I've had all that stuff,
but you know this is you know, I'm just thrilled
to death to be able to have this thing on
my bucket list that I've always wanted to do, you know, So.

Speaker 1 (57:46):
That's really cool. You do have a recently reissued record
out correct Well, it was recorded a while ago and
recently released via Pallick Blue Records.

Speaker 2 (58:01):
Yes, that is a very interesting thing. Mike Mese the
drummer in an Rio Classics band, which is our latest venture.
He was Chuck Berry's drummer for years up until the
time Chuck died, and he had played in Head East
on a couple of albums, and Mike kind of pulled
me out of the woodwork to do this thing. I

(58:22):
met him at one of the I think it was
the fiftieth anniversary of the Red Lion where all the
bands from Champagne collected and they had a big teen
night affair where everybody got to play. And I met
him and Steve Scarfena and him came from Saint Louis
and Mike said, man, you know now that Chuck has died,

(58:43):
he says, and I kind of like to do something
with you. And I kind of put it off for
a while, and he kept bugging me and calling me,
and you know, we decided to put something together. It
took almost a year to find players, but we did
find players that fit perfectly well together, good chemistry. And uh,
Mike says, well, you know, I think we ought to

(59:03):
do a recording so that we have something that we
can give to these agents to book the band. And
I agreed to that, of course. Then shortly after that
I had to have my surgery and that took up
about eight or nine months of time, but the guys
stayed dedicated to the project that we're involved. Mike went

(59:23):
to the studio and in one afternoon they did seven
songs that first out off the first Rio album, and
a couple other songs that were roll with the changes
and riding the storm out that kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (59:39):
And uh, okay, these these were older songs that were
recorded later.

Speaker 2 (59:45):
Yes, and Mike called recorded by Rio. But we also did,
you know, songs like Sophisticated Lady, which came off the
first album. Uh, anti establishment man, and revisited all that stuff. Wow,
and just to show agents what we sounded like. Well,
Mike said, man, I think you better listen to this.
He says. We did this all one take, and I

(01:00:07):
mean no overdubs. It was all done, you know. Mike
Bowery who just absolutely channeled Gary Richrath.

Speaker 1 (01:00:14):
I mean otherwise, So you thought you were making a
demo for getting bookings, and then you guys realized, wow,
we just made a record.

Speaker 2 (01:00:21):
Well yeah, basically that's what happened. And Mike says, you know,
this is this has turned out to be a little
bit more than why I anticipated. And so you know,
I'm still into recovery. You know, four months after my operation,
I went to Saint Louis to the studio and sang
all seven of those songs in one afternoon. You know, wow,
pushed them out there and we had you know, myself

(01:00:42):
and Greg and Mike do the backing vocals on the stuff.
And all we did was rough mix it and pulled
it together, and Mike took off with it to England
to Abbey Road Studios and had it mastered with Sean
McGee out there. The guy did the beatles and so,
I mean it was really kind of cool. And then

(01:01:03):
shown even said, hey, wow, this is you know, it's
rock and roll. Man. He says, we need more rock
and roll. So, I mean, we put that thing together
and mixed it and had it all mixed, and he
came back home and sent me the recording, and I
had spoken to you know, Dane and I had been

(01:01:25):
friends forever because he reissued some of the Stark.

Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
Years talking about Dane Spencer from song House Music and
former bass player of Sojourn.

Speaker 2 (01:01:33):
Absolutely And I mean I knew Dane from back in
the day, and and and I called him up and
I was talking to him, and I said, you know,
you might want to listen to this thing. Just tell
me what you think. So I sent it to him.
A day goes by, he calls me up. He says,
what would you think if I said to you, I
think we'd like to sign your band? And I, well,

(01:01:57):
that's exciting, I said, I was just say asking for
your input. Wasn't trying to you know, do anything about
looking at doing a record or anything. Well he ends up,
you know, talking to us about it and presenting a
contract to us. And it was good because we you know,
it was the Led Zeppelin approach. We own our own masters,
we own everything. He even let us do our own

(01:02:19):
artwork and let us put together you know, the liner
notes and all that stuff. As it turned out, it
turned out to be, you know, a very viable piece.
He took it to Johnny Phillips to have it marketed
through I can't think of the name of the company now,
but it went out worldwide. We did a couple of

(01:02:39):
worldwide press releases on.

Speaker 1 (01:02:41):
It, but they distributed by Selecto Hits or something.

Speaker 2 (01:02:43):
Yeah, Selecto Hits exactly Johnny Gillips and Selective Hits, and
it took off like crazy. Even Johnny liked it. So,
I mean it started doing well. I mean, we still
were getting five star reviews on Amazon, and you know,
we were kind of surprised at that.

Speaker 1 (01:02:58):
So you're going to be eighty years old, you're seventy nine,
you're living on a cool ass boat catching fish, and
you're still putting out rock records.

Speaker 2 (01:03:06):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:08):
Well, I'll tell you, sir, to me, that's the rock
and rolls that get I salute you for those who
continue to rock. I salute you.

Speaker 2 (01:03:17):
Oh, thank you, man, I do.

Speaker 1 (01:03:20):
I've taken up so much of your time, and I'd
love to talk again some time if you're up for it.
But I also wanted to make sure that we talked
about this huge gig you've got coming up soon in June, right.

Speaker 2 (01:03:29):
Yeah, yeah, this thing happening in June. Pretty amazing event.
I mean, we could talk about it now or we
can talk about it later, that's up to you.

Speaker 1 (01:03:37):
Well, yeah, let's start plugging it. Let's let people know
about it. Some people might want to fly in.

Speaker 2 (01:03:42):
Yeah, I mean this this thing started out as a
date at the Virginia Theater. And you know, it's gonna
buy a date to play the there with Ario Classic
Span and invite Neil and invite Bruce to come play.
Because of all the hoop and going around the world
about what Kevin had done to Bruce. You know, it's

(01:04:05):
spoken to Larry Frederickson, the DJ at the radio station there,
and Larry and I had played together for ten years
in a band called Tons of Fun, you know, the
last really it was a horn band, and you know
we did a lot of show teams and stuff like that,
played some pretty good dates, you know, Summerfest and Milwaukee
and you know, some pretty good outdoor dates. And so

(01:04:26):
Larry says, well, I said, you know, can radio stations
sponsor it? Can we get some sponsors to do this
thing and so that you know, maybe we can make
some sense out of it. And he says sure. Well,
somehow or another he rubbed shoulders with the guys at
the State Farm Center, which is a big auditorium, they're
sixteen thousand seat auditorium and campaign at Basketball Stadium, and

(01:04:49):
you know, they do all kinds of stuff in their
big concerts. And the guys that run it, Jody Parado
and Grant, the guys that run the place, thought it
was a great idea, and they offered to donate the hall,
you know, and make at a charitable event and so
that Kevin wouldn't be upset about it, because that way

(01:05:10):
he couldn't throw a stick in this post even though it. Yeah,
they decided that they would do that, and in doing
that they had to have advertisement and stuff and put
the advertisement together, and unfortunately, Kevin nailed the advertising and
made him change all the advertising. But you know, they
formed the State and then they decided, you know, because

(01:05:32):
there was so much response to it, you know, then
typically do half of the hall for those kind of concerts,
sixty five hundred seats or so, they decided to shift
the position of the stage so that the suites upstairs,
all the corporate suites, would be facing this stage. And
doing that that opened it up to ten thousand people,

(01:05:53):
you know, ten thousand seats. Well, as I've heard here lately,
it's almost sold out. And well, oh, I mean people
had jumped on this thing because you know, the sad
part about it is, you know, I feel sorry for Kevin.
I mean, I've never said anything bad about Kevin. I
know that this thing turned into a pretty big soap

(01:06:15):
opera thing between Kevin and Bruce. But back in the.

Speaker 1 (01:06:18):
Day version of that for our listeners who might not
be aware of that conflict.

Speaker 2 (01:06:23):
What say that again, please?

Speaker 1 (01:06:24):
What's the summary of that conflict for our listeners who
might not be aware of that.

Speaker 2 (01:06:28):
Well, what happened was is, you know, Bruce had to
have back surgery and at that point in time, they
were down towards the end of their their concert tour
for the year, and Bruce went ahead and had the surgery,
and in doing so, you know, Kevin still had days
to play for the band. They hired Mike, I think

(01:06:50):
it was Mike, Mike Bassinette, a bass player to you know,
I'd been out with Elton John and stuff to you know,
sent in for Bruce. Well, as it turns out, Kevin
decides that he's not going to let Bruce back into
the band.

Speaker 1 (01:07:05):
After how many years.

Speaker 2 (01:07:07):
After thirty five years or better. I mean, Kevin was there,
you know, in and out of the band two times.
Bruce was added to the band from the time that
Greg Philbin left. You know, during all that period of time,
he was there longer than Kevin was. Really he had
more seniority than Kevin, but Kevin kind of pushed everything

(01:07:28):
and ran everything, which you know, I always gave him
the respect and noise. Anytime people talk to me about it,
I always said, well, you know, I plugged Kevin for
keeping the brand alive, and you know it's obviously gone
on for a long time. But it turned out that
Kevin wouldn't let Bruce back in the band even after
he recovered from the surgery, and you know, it turned

(01:07:51):
into you know, a big soap opera effect. You know,
a lot of stuff were said back and forth and
still is at that point right now where you know
he couldn't get back into the band.

Speaker 1 (01:08:03):
That's unfortunately.

Speaker 2 (01:08:04):
Well, the talk was, you know, like I said, to
do the date originally at the Virginia Theater, and then
it turned into you know, Larry says, well, why don't
we contact everybody, Neil, Bruce, Allen, Mike Murphy, Steve Scarfena
and we do you know the history of the early
days and stuff of R O speed Wagon, which is fine.

(01:08:28):
I said, that's great, and so it's turned into that.
You know, they ended up calling it at first, they
were it was going to be a fan fest for
the fans because they you know, what Kevin should have
done was let Bruce back into the band and finished out,
you know, played a year with him and said, hey,

(01:08:48):
let's play for a year, let's do a farewell to it,
which made the most sense. Let's do a farewell to
our national cities, and then you know, we can call
it quits. I can go do my thing. That's what
he should have done. But for some reason he got
into this battle about keeping Mark Bissonette the bass player
and not letting Bruce back into the band. Well, that
turned everything upside down, and that turned the fans against Kevin.

(01:09:14):
And I really feel sorry for him, because, I mean,
if he would have been smart, the logical thing to
do would have been, Hey, Bruce, come on back into
the band, Let's do these dates to finish them out,
Let's do a farewell tour, Let's go home, kiss and
hug and go home. And have ice cream, you know,
let it be done well. The fans feel neglected that
there wasn't a farewell tour. So this date, once it

(01:09:36):
was announced, has turned into basically the homeocomass the homecoming. Yes,
and some people are excited about, you know, the whole
nine yards. I mean, they bought tickets so fast. I
was talking to.

Speaker 1 (01:09:50):
Them and how old were you when you started playing
rock and roll in Champagne?

Speaker 2 (01:09:54):
How old was I? Yeah? Oh, I started playing when
I was sixteen, seventeen years old, and a couple of
bands before.

Speaker 1 (01:10:01):
Our and you're seventy nine now seventy nine? Yeah, so
this represents a full circle of a life's journey for you.

Speaker 2 (01:10:09):
Well pretty much. Yeah. I mean it's it's just it's
fabulous that it has turned into.

Speaker 1 (01:10:15):
That, you know, and God bless you.

Speaker 2 (01:10:17):
Like, you know, we invited him, and we sent a
message to his manager, Tommy Consolo, and because you know,
Larry came to me. He says, you think we ought
to invite having. I said, yeah, I think you should
invite him. You know, if he can't make it, he
can't make it, because you know, I guess he was
playing out with sticks. We didn't know what the concert

(01:10:39):
tour was going to be you know what days he
was playing. As it turns out he's going to be
opening for Sticks somewhere in Oregon on that date, and
that has created controversy too, so that you know, he
says now that that we knew that we chose a
date that we knew that he could make it, you know,

(01:11:01):
Like I said, the invitation was sent to Tommy, his management,
and Tommy says, well, I never got the invitation. Well,
you know, if you if your email doesn't show up
in your in your main email address, you better check
your jump file. And so Kevin gets mad at Tommy
for not, you know, telling him that, and Bruce says, well,

(01:11:24):
we've got confirmation that the email was sent to you,
that you know, for your request to come join us,
and we just figured you'd turned it down because you
hadn't sent anything. You know.

Speaker 1 (01:11:34):
Well, it sounds like Kevin is doing just fine and
all the rest of you guys deserve a night of
glory and it's a wonderful thing for the fans, and
it's a charity event as well. What causes this for.

Speaker 2 (01:11:45):
Yeah, it's for Ario has a cancer research that Bruce's
son went through cancer treatments and was you know, given
a reprieved cury dis cancer. So the charitable side of
it goes to that also goes to a fund for
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Champagne, Illinois,

(01:12:08):
and you know, just a few charitable other charitable things,
you know. So it's we're not getting paid for the event.
We're just all showing up.

Speaker 1 (01:12:16):
We're going to just doing something cool for the right
reasons and getting together with old friends in front of
ten thousand of people that were part of the community
that witnessed the whole growth of the entire origins of
orio Speedwagon to the tumultuous fracture it is today.

Speaker 2 (01:12:36):
Yeah, exactly, And I mean it's you know, it's closure
for the fans, you know, and you know, it would
be great in my mind that if a promoter said, well, hey,
I think we ought to do this as a major
tour for major cities. We don't know, you know, you
don't know if something like that happens, but still on
the same side of the corner, and you know, Alan
and Neil.

Speaker 1 (01:12:56):
And so you would tour again under the right circumstances.

Speaker 2 (01:12:59):
Well, I think it would be good it would be
good for the fans to go out to those cities that,
you know. I mean I've had people tell me call
me from Mexico, from London, from Hawaii, say we're coming
to this show, you know, so I know there's there
would be an opportunity, you know, if it was properly

(01:13:19):
organized and put together, a tour could be established.

Speaker 1 (01:13:23):
Well, what's the date of this concert? It's in June,
but when June fourteenth? June fourteenth? Is there a particular
website where people could get the details or buy tickets
if they want to, if they want to come out.

Speaker 2 (01:13:36):
I think you could probably go to the State Farm Center,
you know, to their their site and there is a
link that you could buy tickets on that.

Speaker 1 (01:13:45):
Gotcha, And I'll research it and I'll include the link
in the show notes so that people can get to that.

Speaker 2 (01:13:52):
Yeah, you know, I mean, it would be great if
Kevin would show up, But I don't know, man, he
has heard his fan base so badly. It might be
kind of a difficult situation for him. You know.

Speaker 1 (01:14:03):
Well, maybe there'll be some kind reconciliation further down the
road and everybody can just kind of kind of be
growing up. I mean, everyone's pushing eighty. Maybe maybe you
can let by guns be good by guns.

Speaker 2 (01:14:14):
Yeah, well that's it, you know. I mean we're getting
to the head of the line, you know, sooner or
later we're all going to be pushing up daisies. But
you know, it's be nice to be able to reconcile
with everybody and just be happy at the end of
it all.

Speaker 1 (01:14:28):
So yeah, well, listen, I appreciate your time talking to me,
and I think we've only hit the tip of the
iceberg with the amount of stories you could tell. So
if you'd ever be inclined to come back on the show,
I'd love to have you. And in the meantime, I
will thank you again and again. I look forward to
helping promote this gig, and I congratulate you on your

(01:14:49):
recent record sales with with your signing with Metallic Blue.
And you know, I'm fifty six, I still play a
lot of gigs, and you've just taken away any excuse
I have for calling the quits, because you're still doing
it and you're taking names. So God bless you, and
thank you again, and I'll look forward to talking to
you again sometime.

Speaker 2 (01:15:09):
Thank you, Caly so much. Man, I appreciate you very much.

Speaker 1 (01:15:12):
Buddy, I appreciate you too, Terry, you take care all.

Speaker 2 (01:15:15):
Right, We'll talk to you soon. Bye bye bye bye