John Vento, The Chameleon of the Pittsburgh Music Scene

From: https://johnvento.com/about/

John Vento is best known as the front man for the high-energy, rhythm and blues group, The Nied’s Hotel Band (www.niedshotelband.com). NHB is quite a collection of great players that has built a stellar reputation for killer original music and live performances. Away from the band Vento works closely with producer/multi- instrumentalist David Granati in creating more stripped down recordings. ”The Nied’s Hotel Band is like a powerful wall of sound, with two guitars, keys, drums, sax, etc., when I create with David we usually just stick to drums, guitar, bass, and voice, the tunes are stripped back for the most part” says Vento.”

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You knows it. This is annvideo and you are Oh, bless your
heart. This is the Coda PodcastCall it in Pittsburgh's music scene. Welcome
in. I'm your host, Johnnyheart Well along with Andy Pugar. Today

(00:22):
we talked to John Vento from theNeeds Hotel band be you good? Testing
Testing Testing? Hello, Hello,Hello, Hello John Vento? How you
doing, buddy? Johnny? Howabout you? Man? All right,
So normally we we kind of go, you know, the earliest music memory,

(00:44):
but I want to go, like, what's happening now? You have
so many irons in the fire.Really, I was like, let's start
with that. Let's go okay,well, like the current stuff, because
you're doing so much, You're you'rethe busiest and this isn't your full time
gig. No no, no,no, it's not. But it's not
just me. You know, wehave a great team. I'll take some

(01:07):
credit for being a decent quarterback coordinator, but as you know, because we've
now worked together these past few yearson with Joe Waterick and your team on
the y Insurer Christmas right, weare so blessed with such great people behind
the scenes that do so much worklike a band together Pittsburgh. We have
an army of just volunteers and peoplethat donate or dedicate themselves to it.

(01:33):
And then in my musical world,it's the same thing. You know,
I kind of just Joonvento dot com. Yeah, you just you could spend
days watching videos and things like that. Weh my god, he has so
many irons in the fire. Howdo you do that? Well? From
the music thing, twenty four yearsago, I met Buddy Hall right who
we all knew and loved, andwe lost him, and then I went

(01:53):
on a path thanks to Buddy's encouragementof creating original music with all kinds of
different avenues, and I've never stopped. Currently, I'm working very closely with
David Garnadi, and I mean rightnow, we got three or four songs
in the hopper. I just neverstopped. It's how often do you write?

(02:15):
Well, I write or collaborate,Oh, of course every week,
every single week. Recording is almoston a weekly basis. Also, to
some degree, I'm doing a littlemore acoustic stuff now, but we've got
a new Needs Hotel Band song comingout, and I'm trying to encourage some
of our band together Pittsburgh Kids,to record their own music. So you

(02:38):
know, well, you know there'sguys that do fishing, write bowling,
or hunting or take these exotic safaritrips. I spend time and money on
creating music. Some people go golfing, yigo. I used to be a
golfer. Right, that's a timeconsuming thing. But bit music has music
always been your passion? Well,my family, my mother's family, dating

(02:59):
all the way back to the earlynineteen hundreds, were professional musicians and or
gamblers or both. And in nineteenoh nine, my mother's great uncles,
Oh you really serious, I'm veryserious. No, no, no,
In nineteen oh nine, my mother'sgreat uncles they had a band called the
Amen Brothers. They opened Forbes Field. They performed at the grand opening of

(03:23):
Forbes Field. Yes, these areyour uncles. These are my mother's great
uncles. Also in our family.Were we their names? What were their
names? I just knows. Theywere a band. And then another relative
went on to become Mayor Laguardi inNew York City during the twenties, thirties
and forties, his private pianist.He was famous. But I think the

(03:45):
most famous musical relative was Ron Anthony, who was from Pittsburgh. From Duquane,
a great jazz guitarist who just recentlypassed. Ron was with Frank Sinatra
for close to twenty five years,no way, Yeah, and he he
would come back to Pittsburgh for manyyears and he would have a jazz symposium
on guitar. So a lot ofthe current Cats, from Kenny Blake to

(04:10):
Dwayne Dolphin, they all knew RonAnthony and knew Ron's resume. And has
he related to you? He's mymother's second cousin, which would make him
my third or fourth. Yes,cousin. Were you close? Were you
in? I never? I methim once or twice. I met him
when Billy Eckstine, the great misterb Right, who my family were very

(04:30):
close with, especially miuncle Anthony,when Billy Exstein came to Pittsburgh, had
to be twenty years ago, Roncame to perform with Billy. I mean,
you're talking about legends of the forties, you know, in the fifties.
So yeah, that's my family legacyof music. What about your mother
and father? Were they musical?No, they didn't play any instruments,

(04:53):
but music was everywhere everywhere. Ofcourse, what were you listening to?
I was listening to Motown as ayoung person, from Motown to Perry Como.
My mother absolutely loved a Frankie Valley. My dad worked seven days a
week, so I don't know whateverwhat did he what did he do?
He was a landscaper. Okay,Yeah, so you know music was a

(05:15):
giant part. My mother loved JohnnyMathis. She loved Johnny Mathis. Yeah,
so you know, and in theseventies you work similar ages here.
We're all in our forties here atthis. Yeah, you know, in
the seventies you're awesome. Math.I love you math But you know,
with the Stanley Theater, and Iwas kind of drug still am drug free,
alcohol free. So my friends wholiked to toke here and there would

(05:40):
get me tickets to concerts because Iwas designated driver. And we probably were
at the Stanley Theater two or threenights a week in the seventies. All
right, So what shows did yousee in the Stanley Theater? Well?
I saw one of my great legends. We don't have time, but let's
start with Thin Lizzie and Graham Parker. Nothing, all right, So breakthrough

(06:01):
concerts of Frank Zappa five or sixtimes, rush Sticks, Thin Lizzie Graham
Parker, and on and on andon, but a breakthrough. My mother
had died in August of seventy eight, and my cousins called about two weeks
after she died. And that wasa devastating experience. She was only thirty
eight and I was seventeen. Youknow, it was horrible. So my

(06:26):
cousins called me and they said,hey, uncle Jay got us front row
tickets. Uncle Jay was Jay Costa, the county treasurer at the time,
front row tickets to see Bruce Springsteenat the Stanley Theater, Darkness at the
edge of town. I said,I don't even know who Bruce Springsteen is,
never heard of him, and Ihave no interest in going. Cousin

(06:46):
Catherine said, well, it doesn'tmatter, because we're picking you up tonight.
You're going, So of course Igo. And here we are in
the front row the Stanley Theater,for which was Springsteen's, in my opinion,
the peak his career. And thenwe went back. That was August,
and then he came back in Decemberand we did it again. Right,

(07:06):
So I fast forward forty five years. But see, knowing how you
perform, I can see that influence. Oh, definitely. Oh yeah,
yeah, I love Bruce and there'sdefinitely a physical influence. Sure, James
Brown and so on. I wishI could do that, but I get
to know Rich and Cindy Angler overthese past ten years. Just a few

(07:30):
months ago, I said to Rich, hey, man, I was at
the Stanley front row for Springsteen.My uncle would get us tickets to do
this, to go here. Hesays to me, well, how do
you think your uncle got those tickets? I said, I have no clue.
Oh no, they weren't from Rich. They were from Rich's mother,
because Rich's mother worked in the CountyTreasurer's office with my uncle. I said,

(07:53):
you gotta be shitting man in asmall world. What a small world.
So that's how Uncle Jay got thetickets. Did you become a Springsteen
fan that oh that night, ohcome on Darkness on the Edge of Town
nineteen seventy eight. Absolutely? Hekind of lost me when he started going
to the stadiums and yeah, butyou know, but still he's fabulous.
When I did not get Springsteen tillI saw him live, right, and

(08:16):
you're like, oh, oh,oh, I get it now. Yeah.
Did you guys see Billy Joel lastSunday Night on CBS. No,
that's past my bedtime, but I'veseen it usually has passed my heard.
I couldn't turn it off. Butwhen you listen to that music, it's
the greatest pop music ever created.I saw that post you you did it?
Yeah, So you compare a BillyJoe to Springsteen. In my opinion,

(08:41):
Billy Joe has fifty times more bettercomposed, beautifully created songs right and
that voice right. However, it'sthe live performance that elevated Bruce Springsteen to
iconic status right one percent? Iagree versus John Mellencamp telling his customers to

(09:01):
f off. You know, there'sjust a handful of people I've met that
that just were like miserable people.He's top of the list for everybody.
I have no idea, but everythingevery time I've had I was going to
say pleasure or displeasure to meet him. He's just a grumping human being.
I mean, dude, you've gotthe greatest job in the world, just

(09:24):
the greatest job on many So allright, forget him. How about you.
I've never seen you would not havea good time on stage. Oh
it's just isn't it? A blessing? And a gift that we can still
do this now. The music businessand the things that you do. I
don't put those two words together.You know where I'm going though, Right,
yeah, right, it can be. It can be if you didn't

(09:48):
enjoy that moment on stage. Itcan be frustrating because you're dealing with with
you know, the you know,the buildings, the managers, the everything,
and it's just a a musicians absolutely, you know. Yeah, it's
uh. I will say that mybusiness experience in management has helped me in

(10:09):
my management of the world of music. We were joking earlier when I first
met Annie nine ten years ago,whenever it was and I returned her call,
she must have said five times,thank you for calling me back.
I'm like, isn't that what we'resupposed to do? But now I know
what she means in wrestling musicians right, yes, cats, hearning cats?

(10:33):
Yes? All right, So takeus back. So the music that was
formative to you did you did youbuy records? Did you listen to the
radio? What? What were youwhat all you above? Yeah? What
radio stations did you listen to asa kid? Three ws of course KQV
right, trying to think of theother ones I probably don't remember the old

(10:56):
names. You have to help me. Did you ever make a call in
for request? No? No,no, because I loved it all and
then we'd have records. Wasn't itexciting to run the national record mark ouroasis
when that new Rush album or Springsteenor whatever? Was the first record you
bought? Oh, that's a greatquestion. The first record I ever bought,

(11:18):
I think was fog Hat. Ireally I think your You're You're.
I was a Rush fanatic of Courts, then became a Springsteen. I cleaned
up on all that stuff, Ibelieve it. I mentioned Graham Parker and
he was just in Pittsburgh because Bonniewas at Bonnie Dyver was at the show.
And I loved Graham Parker. ThinLizzie were my that was my guy,

(11:39):
Phil I not. It was sosad when he passed away. Yeah,
but you know what that the thethe band had been had peaked,
but it was you know, andhe had struggles. He did right,
he did. So it had toeither be fog Hat or Thin Lizzie,
one of those two. And thenit just kept piling up. I didn't

(12:00):
save all the records. I cankick myself in the ass because final is
coming back. I didn't save myforty fives. I couldn't kick myself too.
I didn't have my LPs, butnot the forty fives. When did
you? When did you start performing? The late eighties, I was at
a karaoke thing and a guy cameup to me and said, Hey,
there's a band here in Penny waslooking for a singer. So he said,

(12:22):
they're auditioning tomorrow morning. And Iknew, I wasn't you sound good
in karaoke? You're singing to theireighties right? So I went and I
don't know why, but they hiredme and I did it for all of
about three and a half years,a cover band called Exposure. But I
was getting married, so I promisedmy fiance slash soon to be wife,

(12:43):
I would never do music again,because she was not happy about that time.
It's ei there's other elements of music, as we know, drugs,
alcohol, other women and so on. I didn't have that issue. I
had the issue of time away frommy wife and family. So I promised
her. And beside that, wewere pretty terrible with songs. Do you

(13:05):
remember playing? We were all coverband, We did some Springsteen, We
oh j. Giles. That's anotherone. I love right stuff that would
fit my scratchy voice. And thenwe had a keyboard player that could sing
real well, so we could doyou know, higher pitch stuff like hard
like bon Jovi and that stuff.But we were really bad. So if

(13:26):
you were karaokeing, uh, didyou have any kind of training? Did
you know? You just had youjust had the love of music. Yeah,
and passion and energy. And thatlater came to cost me, you
know, with vocal court issues laterthat we can chat about in a bit.
But the band was so bad.I'll tell you two quick stories.
One a gig that we had andmy friends went to pay the cover charge

(13:48):
and the guy at the door saidto them, this singer is so bad
and this band sucks you. Weshould pay you to listen to them.
But my favorite all time story wasthe Spare Room in the North Hills.
Do you guys remember that place?It was? It was in the North
Hills and it had a staircase longstaircase into the venue, which meant equipment

(14:11):
down and equipment up. And toalleviate that, they would book bands Thursday,
Friday, Saturday, three day gig, one load in correct, so
we get the gig. We bookedthe gigs, and Thursday night we finished
our first set. The owner cameover to me. He said, or
the manager. There's no other wayfor me to put this. He said,

(14:33):
you're so bad you have to leavenow or you're going to ruin my
weekend. I'm gonna bring a DJin. Oh yeah, he said,
please don't do a second set,and I'll pay you your full thing,
right, So yeah, oh yeah. I had plenty of those moments the

(14:54):
El Dorado. You know, somy uncle Anthony, the uncle my mother's
side of the family. I wouldsay to them, Uncle, I'm not
meant for music, and he wouldalways say, you're just starting. You're
just starting later than everybody else.You have to keep working at it like
anything. So I continued, gota little better, and then in October

(15:16):
of nineteen eighty nine, I gotmarried and that was my last gig.
I quit done, never to domusic again. Oops. Four years later,
I get a call from one ofthe fellas, Bill Hibbert, who
was a guitar player in that bandExposure, and he calls me out of
the blue, and we were friends. He said, Johnny, he was

(15:39):
from Kentucky. He said, Johnny, I got some songs I'm writing and
I'd like you to sing them andmaybe we can record on some original music.
I said, Bill, why wouldyou want me to sing your songs?
I suck? He said, well, you suck trying to sound like
Billy Joel or Elton John. Butmaybe if you sang your own songs you
would suck as much. And Ilike bulb I went wow, I never

(16:06):
thought of that original music, right, I don't have to sound like anybody
else. And that was nineteen ninetysix, so that's a lot of years
later. And we went to workand with with Billy, with Tim Hadley,
who is a very well known Wegot Tim Hadley in the fold,
great guitar who's with me to thisday. First nineteen eighty nine to nineteen

(16:30):
ninety six, were you doing anything? Yeah? Occasionally, I you know,
the guys were playing and plumb andI jump in and sing a song
or two. But you weren't writing. No, No, I didn't know.
I had no clue what that waswriting or nothing till Billy called and
then I started working with him andTimmy and Billy went to what kind of
was he writing? He had?He yeah, and what kind of music

(16:52):
was so classic rock or CD wewe got We got together Tim Adley,
Bill Hibbert, John Collins who's nowwith Curtis and are not Curtis but Jimmy
Franciscus and Jeanie shot a soul,Kenny Joy on drums, Brad Turner,
Jim McCullough, Dave Shuttz played sacksand we formed The Businessman I remember,

(17:15):
and we created with Phil Eisley,who recently died Klondike Studios and Mikey Polone
Mike Polone hard rocker scal We recordeda CD called The Businessman Good Good Stuff.
I mean we worked hard at it, spent a lot of time,
and then we went because at thetime I was a children's hospital old newsboy.

(17:37):
Do you remember that? Yes,they do. So if you were
an old newsboy, your job wasto raise money for the free Care fund,
so that was my job. Ialso had some friends with autistic children,
so I said, why don't wemake the CD, go to National
Record Mart and make it a charitablepromotional thing. And that's what we did.

(17:59):
And we then went to Robin foran End as a Rosebud for a
CD release party, and Robin waslike, well, I don't know you
guys, you know, you're notreally established. And so I said,
well, what if we did ahappy hour gig? You know, we
were all younger back then. Whatif we played from five thirty to seven
o'clock. We're out the door atseven thirty and you still have your Saturday

(18:22):
night Friday night gig. Wow.I never thought of that. So away
we went with the businessman and forprobably five or six years that's what we
did. Only played Rosebud, onlydid happy hours, and we raised a
lot of money for different charities.See that's the businessman in you. You're
thinking in a business way. Iknow you're fine music and business in one

(18:45):
sentence, but but what you didhas a business aspect to it. Yeah,
well, I guess so. Ithink Robin was so supportive, and
it was funny because his staff hatedus, you know, they it cool,
especially Carl Mellon, God bless him. You remember Carl Well, Carl

(19:06):
ran Rosebud and booked the band.He was a real leading edge guy and
I had nothing against him. Butpeople would call and say the businessmen playing,
and he would reluctantly say, yeah, but they're done at seven thirty.
But we made Robin a lot ofmoney, and we raised money for
charity, made a lot of friends, and that carried us in. We
released the album in ninety seven andby the early eighties, I'm sorry,

(19:30):
by the early nineties, no shit, In nineties some two thousand time,
you know, we were pretty wellestablished and we did three CDs. And
that's when I got serious about doingstuff on my own. Okay, that's
where I wanted to get into.When did you start And what was it
like the process of writing your ownsong and then presenting it to the businessman.

(19:52):
Well, I wasn't encouraged to writewith the businessman because Billy was the
primary writer Timmy Hadley was the primaryproducer. And so I had a bunch
of song ideas and I brought themto the businessman and I was, you
know, hey, just sing thewords we tell you to sing and shut
up, which was okay. SoI had written a bunch of ideas,
lyrical ideas, and I collaborated witha guy named John Fox who's a local

(20:17):
musician, and said, hey,I've got words, I got melodies,
but no music because I don't playa guitar or keyboard or whatever. So
together we created demos and I wentto Pianos and stuff one day and I
talked to Bob Sarah and I said, I need to find someone I can
work with to create music. RecordHe said, Buddy Hall and Tripper aka

(20:38):
Rob Garrison Buzz Poets. Oh no, no, no, those guys.
You know. Buddy, I knewwho he was. I knew who Rob
was. They're way above me.He said, no, no, you
need to meet them. At thetime, Rob aka Tripper right was living
at mister Small's, but he hadhis own little pro tool studio. Rob

(20:59):
and Buddy were amongst the first inPittsburgh det pro tools. So John and
I brought our little cassette tapes,brought our ideas, and those two guys
were nothing but supportive. Oh that'swonderful, encouraging, supportive. We can
make this work well, Rob.To this day I was just you know,
the buzz Poets had a big reunionjust with them. Buddy, of

(21:19):
course passed away three years ago,and I was Buddy and I were like
brothers. So away we went.And that was two thousand and one,
and I did a CD called Reflectionsof an Average Soul produced by Buddy,
recorded by Rob and Buddy and wenever stopped, literally finished that and then
started all over. And then mylife changed in music because I had a

(21:45):
big argument Buddy because he loved programdrums. He did not want to work
with live drummers. Hold onto yourhat, Annie, right, Yeah,
Sonny's spinning in his grade. SoBuddy and I finished an album called The
Way That You Roll, and Isaid, Bud and it was just basic
rock and roll. I said,can't I use a real drummer? No,

(22:08):
you can't. I don't have thefacilities. They're a pain in the
ass gotta bringing. But he goes, all right, I'll tell you what
I'll do. He said, it'syour money if you want to waste it.
He said, there's one guy intown that I'll use to replace The
album was done, So we're goingto replace all these drum tracks with a
live drummer, which is backwards,right you're supposed to do start. He

(22:33):
said, I'm gonna call Ron Bidel, he was with Wild Cherry, and
I'm going to bring him in andhe said, I think he's the only
guy that'll simplify enough to do this. Well. The rest is history.
Ron and I went on to begreat friends we formed. The way the
Needs Hotel Band came about is becauseRonnie played on my records and after like

(22:59):
two albums, he said, youknow, I like a lot of your
songs. Let me put a bandtogether for you. Wow. Well,
when ron Bidel Johnny, I don'tknow if you knew Ronnie, but I
know you knew of them. ThinkI ever met him, but I know
ron Bidel was not only the sweetestguy in the world, but the guy
played on a number one hit recordcalled play that Funky Music. Right,

(23:21):
Maybe I'm sure they all right.He was in that world. When ron
Bidel says, let me put aband together for you, it's a band.
Yeah. Suddenly you get Fred Deluon keyboards, and you get Russ
Obliger on bass, and you getTim Hadley back in the fold, and
you get Ronnie and you get Edgeon It on sacks. You're getting elite,
elite players, and that's what launchedthe Needs Hotel Band. So for

(23:42):
somebody who and you don't play anyother instrum, no, I'm starting to
screw around with the guitar, butdon't tell anybody because I don't want to
embarrass myself. So when when youwere writing. Do you write with any
kind of harmonies in the melodies?Melodies? Correct, okay, I do
so hear. What is your processthen, because so the the bus,

(24:03):
this is how Michael Jackson worked,you know. He he would have melodies
in his head and the musicians wouldhave to figure out what he was because
he was very musical. As faras his explanation, is that what you
do. That's what Buddy did forme and others do today. Dave Grenadi,
Yeah, I met Dave because ofAnnie. But your fault. He

(24:27):
tells that story to everybody about thefood because I was driving it from New
York. All right, tell meabout this. Okay, we'll get well
and then we'll go back to thecreating. Okay. So Annie was kind
enough to invite me to be apart of their big Rhythm Rhythm FUNDRAI,
which was really an honor. It'san honor of meeting city or today because
I respect so much all these guysyou're you're including in this programming. So

(24:51):
she invites me, and I said, Annie, I'm going to be driving
back from New York. I'll bea little late a rehearsal. So I
walk in and Grenadi has this foolbread and this is a David studio at
the studio right at his restaurant studio. And he uses TV trays for tables,
right, so he strings together likenine right, yeah, yeah,

(25:12):
they're all on TV table. Yeah. And there's food on top of food.
There's pasta, meats all he makesit all right there, Granadi,
there's homemade wine. There's So Icall him and say, look, i'm
running little late. I'm going toswing by and get a sandwich and I'll
be there. No, no,no, no, He says, I
got all kinds of food. Ihad never met David Grenadi. Of course

(25:34):
I knew the Grenadi brothers. Notwonderful, right, he said, I
got you coverede just get here.Well, I go in and I'm starting
to the olives the food, right. I had a little glass of homemade
red wine. Before I could sayto him, hey, I've got some
songs i'd like to finish. Hegrabs a business card says, just in
case you need me. That wasseven years ago. We've never again,

(26:00):
We've never stopped recording. We didLove lest Another Wreckage, which went on
to be an independent uh too.It won Awards Independent Music Album of the
year, we did a bunch ofother stuff. Plus we just released Brick
by Brick last year. Right so, and right now my acoustic thing,

(26:21):
I've got three songs in the workswith David and Bobby Ziggarelli, who I
love, and Kevin McCarthy and shirleyn. Hawk. But it was because of
Annie and the food. Let's putit in the right order. Food attracts
a lot tracks flies, but italso occasionally, and let's face it,
if you give a musician or discjockey free food, we'll do almost everything.

(26:47):
I love it. But you know, with David with Buddy, they're
very unique. There's a lot ofgreat studios in town. There are so
many, but that doesn't mean thatthe studio owners or producers are great musicians.
So with a Grenadi or with aBuddy Haul, you get the mat,
you get the whole package. Becauseyou mentioned how I create a song.

(27:07):
So one of my favorite stories isThe Day the Lady Cried, which
I wrote after nine to eleven,which we still play to this day and
it's been featured a different nine toeleven memorial services. I had the words
in my head, I had anidea for a melody, and I just
started singing or mumbling, and Buddygrabbed an acoustic guitar, and then Rob

(27:30):
Garrison grabbed a and they just startedyou mean this right, and away we
go and we start the structure ofthe song. So when you start with
tell me the let's use that songas an example. Okay, did you
write any of the words? Oh? I wrote. All the words were
written. So the words for mecome first, and they drive tempo and

(27:53):
melody. But I collaborate a lot. It's it's I'm the furthest thing in
the world from a quote songwriter asan individualist. Guys like Dylan Springsteen,
Billy Joe, they're driving that trainright for me. I'll include Dave Grenaughdy
Ziggy you'll come in, or TimmyHadley'll come in. Wait a minute to
take it here, take it there? You know. So I'm a giant

(28:15):
collaborator. Matt Wolforth has been writinglyrics now for me and with me for
a couple of years. Bert Lobble, So I love and welcome collaboration.
Well, start, I want toknow the whole process with Okay, what's
John Vento's process? Words come first, and then I'll go to Dave and
say Okay, here's the style thatI'm hearing with. Where do you get

(28:36):
your inspiration? H Sometimes it couldbe you're just driving along, or I'll
tell you New Mexico Way, whichis a song that has been very great
for US, number two in iTunesradio in all places South Africa. But
right it's the internet. And onSaturday I ran into a sixteen year old

(28:56):
girl that said to me, Ilove your song New Mexico Way. I
sing it all the time, sothat tells me something. So I was
watching Here's a specific watching the Sopranos, which I had not seen, so
I'm catching up on it, andthere was a Stephen van z Ant song
at the end of one of theepisodes. I grabbed my phone and I

(29:17):
quickly record that song. So nowI have kind of a style, a
rock style in my mind. Wolfyand I had already finalized some lyrics in
New Mexico Way, and I hadan idea for a melody. So I
brought all those pieces to mister Grenadiand said, listen to the tempo here
and what the guitars are doing onthe Steve van Zant song. We're not

(29:40):
gonna lift it, sure, butwe're gonna get an influence. We've got
these words and I've got this ideafor a chorus. Got to get back,
Gotta get back New Mexico. Heyou know, David starts playing electric
guitar. It was one of thefastest songs we ever recorded. We were

(30:00):
literally done with the song within anhour. And then we start bringing in
We're working with George Preley on drums. You know George who toured with Michael
McDonald. Yes, right, Davidplays bass guitar, and we bring in
Shirtlen on vocals, and oh,she's brilliant. So you know, that's
how a song was created. Whereasa guy like Bill Thoms or Gusheky,

(30:23):
those kind of cats, they're strummingthat song and their acoustic guitar. They're
singing it to Ricky Wakowski who's layingit down, and then they bring it
to the band and say, herego learn your parts. Or if you
ever have seen ever Springsteen what hedoes with his band, I don't know
if you've ever seen this. It'sreally cool. He has the song,
he sings it and plays it onacoustic guitar. In the Eas Street Band

(30:45):
are sitting in a circle with notebooks. That's right, and they're all writing
down their notes how they're going toapproach that song. It's very cool.
Well, I don't do that.I don't do that. I do a
piece of a time because you know, I'm working with David primarily and creating

(31:06):
the song. What was it aboutthat song? You know? I've heard
people say, you know, they'llmaybe have like a led Zeppelin in another
room, and so they don't hearthe song, but they hear the rhythms,
and sure, you know, andthey kind of go, Okay,
this is the kind of rhythm Iwant for this song. And they're writing,
they're they're not plagiarizing, but they'rejust getting up there influenced. And

(31:26):
then if you hear that song,you go, okay, I can see
in a very abstract way how thatsong influenced, even though they don't sound
alike at all. Is there anyparticular music that you listen to today that
that influenced how you love a contemporaryartist? Well, that's what a contemporary

(31:48):
artists anymore. But I'm yeah,but I'm wow, this is gonna sound
really weird. I love Taylor Swift, Okay, I mean for an old
guy, but her music here melodiesor hooks. Ed Ed Sheeran say,
serone, I think he has moresoul than most young guys. So you

(32:09):
know, I don't really necessarily listento their music, but I really admire
They've got some old school hooks rightthat we all grew up on. But
as far as music that influences methat, I've got to be real careful
because it's easy to lift something withouteven realizing it. Sure, and the
Billy Joe's of the world will tellyou that it's in your head. You

(32:30):
can't you can't get it out right. But I think primarily where David Grenadi
is brilliant and Tim Hadley is brilliant, they have They are an encyclopedia of
music, so they have every referenceever imagine. Well, even Billy Joel
tells the story of one time hebrought this song to the band who was

(32:52):
his drummer back in the Liberty.So he plays the song in Liberty is
like, that's the coasters. Whereare you doing? Yeah, and he
goes, well, what if Idid this? And yeah, that would
work right. That's how honestly youknow, that's where something came out of
you know, like he's playing it, and he's like, yeah, that's

(33:14):
that's a that's one hundred coasters.You did not make that up. So
even the best have done that.Sure. Now I had the opposite of
that happened just a few weeks ago. We're out our band Together Pittsburgh Open
Mic and Justin Capazzoli, who's oneof our really experienced musicians and a really
talented kid. He starts to playa song on piano real slow. He

(33:35):
starts singing the words. I'm like, well, I like this song,
and then I start to listen tothe words. I'm like, oh my
god, I stole these lyrics becauseI realize they're the lyrics to my song
New Mexico Away. I'm like,did I steal them from somebody? Is
there a? And then when thesong ends, Justin announces that was John

(33:59):
Vento's song Mexico. I just madeit a lot prettier. He turned it
into a ballad, which is thehighest honor, Yes, highest flatter,
flattery, flattery in the world.Yes, so how about that? Yeah,
all right, let's get into you. You brought up band together.
You talked about you know, puttingeven back, going back to the businessman,

(34:23):
you know, doing some sort ofcharity thing. Have you always had
that thing? And what what drivesthat that interest? Well, we joke
with the businessman that we did thecharity gigs because we were new. Maybe
not that good, and who's goingto criticize a band working for charity,
right, that's our joke. Butthe band was good. My greatest influence

(34:44):
of music is Harry Chapin. Nowwe all know, and if you don't
know, google this guy. Youngfolks out there listening and look at the
work he did. He literally workedhimself to death. He did, he
did he and I had the honorof sitting next Harry Chapin on a flight
in nineteen I believe it was nineteeneighty one, because he I think that

(35:06):
was. Yeah, it was eightyone. I was on a plane flying
from New York City to Detroit,and I'm sitting next to this guy who
was very talkative, even bigger mouththan me, And I finally said to
him, does anyone ever tell youyou look like Harry chap He says to
me, I get that all thetime because that's my name. And I
went, h Now, if you'refrom Pittsburgh and you remember the Bill Burns

(35:30):
Children's hospital telethons. Harry Chapin performedalmost every year for Bill Burns on those
telethons, So I knew Harry Chapinvery well, and I knew his music.
So this was quite an experience tohave this one hour flight with this
guy. Well, we're halfway overOhio and we hit this turbulence that is

(35:52):
like off the charts scary. Now, I'm, of course a hyper guy,
and I'm Harry's a cool hippie musician. He gently puts his hand on
my knee and he says, hey, mar relax, we are a lot
safer up here than we are downthere. A month later, he was
killed on the Long Island Expressway ina car accident. That impact of that

(36:13):
meeting and that discussion. All hewanted to talk about was his work on
the World Hunger Council. That's allhe talked about was his charitable work.
And you realize the legacy that thisman left behind. So, you know,
when it came to music and charity, it was just a natural extension.
We don't always you know, wedon't always do everything for charity.

(36:36):
We have plenty of gigs where welike to be paid, right, But
when the opportunity exists where we cantie them together, which is frequently we
do that, and that's how BannedTogether was created. Music at Moondogs and
autistic kids coming as a guest andno way we went. How did it
start? How did what was thatmoment? That moment was almost eight years

(36:59):
ago. It was on the stageof Moondogs. It was a gig with
the Needs Hotel band. Prior tothat gig, I had met some young
people friends of mine, children whowere musicians, a drummer, a keyboard
player and a guitarist. It wasChris, Bobby and Justin and the three
of them were pretty good. SoI said to the band in rehearsals,

(37:19):
I said, it'd be cool ifwe have these young kids sit in for
a couple tunes of Moondogs in acouple of weeks. Yeah, the guys
were cool with that. Now imaginethis. You've got a group of professional
musicians that are going to sit downin the middle of the show, Ron
Byde on drums, Fred Delou onkeyboards, Tim Alley on guitar, and
they're going to let three teenage kidscome up and as a guest. So
the night came and we did it. I invite. They got three young

(37:43):
guests. We're going to do acouple tunes. I never said autism.
So we do it. Place wentcrazy. At the end of the night,
Moondog comes back. He had seenthis. I mean, because he's
not always there, you know,Moondog runs the starlight. He's running two
places. So he comes back andhe says, what the hell was who
are those kids? I saw otherchildren of friends of mine. I said,

(38:05):
and here's one other little secret.They're all autistic. You went what
I say? Had The drummer's nonverbal, he doesn't even speak. Moon Dog
said, we need to do thismore often. That moment was the birth
of Band Together Pittsburgh. And Isaid, okay, so what do we
do? I said, they canjoin us at any time. And he
said, well, maybe we're gonnahave an open mic or do something like

(38:29):
that. I said, great.That was the birth of Band Together Pittsburgh.
So when you did the open nightopen mic? Yeah, yeah,
so what how many? How many? I remember, like it was yesterday.
We put a post on Facebook autisticfriendly open mic. We're gonna have
instruments blah blah blah, and Moonand I got there r early and I

(38:51):
look at him. He looks atme. I said, do you think
anybody's going to show up? Ihave no clue. Well, when it
came magic time, the flung openand they started pouring in kids right right,
I pour it in. We wereat Steamworks. That was the first
open mic, was at Steamworks andthey just started pouring in. The place

(39:14):
was packed and away we went.Now ninety percent of our kids sing karaoke
tracks, you know, because theycan do whatever they want. A couple
play drums, some play acoustic guitar. We had keyboards, and so we
started to have the monthly at Steamworks. Outgrew Steamworks quickly started to take it
to Moondogs and then other locations,which now we go to different places.

(39:38):
And it just kept growing and growing, and the Lord guided us every step
of the way. And as younow know, and both of you know
about Band Together, we have allkinds of programs. I'm leaving you guys
today to go to Mount Lebanon forRepresentative Dan Miller's Disability summit. Governor Shapiro

(39:58):
is speaking. I'm going to makea presentation on Band Together, and our
kids are going to perform. That'sgreat, wonderful, wonderful and of course
Christmas, how incredible is that?That is just But it's to see some
of those kids perform, because ifyou're not familiar with some of the kids
on the spectrum, is that it'sit's not their disability, it's their abilion

(40:23):
and they find this music is sucha it's it's magic. It's magic and
and it's and it's and it's sadthat people don't realize that there's magic inside
a lot of these kids. Andyou have given them an opportunity to release
that magic on stage because you,like you said, there are some kids

(40:45):
kids, and there are some Ithg you it can be nonverbal. Yet
well, it's a different part ofthe brain. That's that's what happens,
you know with music, it's adifferent part. Can I stress? Also,
it isn't about the performance or theability or the experience. The music

(41:07):
is the condit to create a socialopportunity that a lot of these will say
kids and families otherwise don't have.So many of these parents didn't even know
each other three, four or fiveyears ago, and now they're going bowling
together and they're going to the movies. So you know, we've got to

(41:27):
it. We try to be realcareful because you hear a Justin or a
Cello right, or a Benge andor Patrick and Joey. I mean they're
very experienced in performance. Right.They represent a small small percentage of Band
Together Pittsburgh. We have a bunchof kids that come just to hang out.
Well, that's social network that you'recreating, a face to face network

(41:52):
that's really important for people's mental health. Yeah, and I think that is
almost warm. It is more importantthan the music. Yes, I totally
get what you're doing. That isamazing what happens. So we're so sensitive
because the kids see, you know, injo Christmas beneem Center and Cello killing

(42:12):
it with Grinch, and maybe otherfamilies will get intimidated and say, oh,
my son doesn't you know, havethat talent or experience. So we're
constantly saying, hey, it's notabout that, okay, It's about participating
in the social The music's just thekind to it. That's what it is.
But it's not just for the kids'parents those caregivers when they see their

(42:36):
child performing, it's just the prideis just it's palatable and they could see
the taste it. You can seeit, and it's just an amazing event
and the love and the connection betweenthe different parents. And let me tell
you something on a sad note,So many of these people on the spectrum
are young people with a single mother. It's a significant percentage. Dads have

(43:00):
flown the coop. Okay, nowthere are some, we have a bunch
of wonderful dads that are there supportingtheir kids, but it's a minority.
So these single moms are not onlyjuggling paying the bills and running a household
and managing all this, then they'remanaging an autistic child. Right. It's
tricky as hell, you know.And uh, it's just amazing to see

(43:23):
how many of them dedicate themselves tothese these we say kids. Many of
them are in their thirties and nearlyforties and teenagers. It's all ages.
But uh, it just blows meaway when I see so many single moms
the work they do to support theirkids. It's beautiful. Where do you

(43:43):
want to where do you want tosee this go? Well, we're already
expanding. I'm proud to tell youthat we're in eerie. We're in Columbus,
Ohio, and the Columbus Group iskicking ass. They're modeled after us.
We met them because of a younggreat blues guitar player, Zay and
Harshaw on the Spectrum. The dudeis like uh Stevie ray Van and his

(44:06):
parents. We had him at theblues festival. We got to know the
family. See, that's the drivingforce, the grassroots, the parents,
the families that push all this.Uh and and so we have Columbus,
we have Erie. Do you managethose cities or no? No, no,
you have people doing Yeah, yeah, it's it's got to be decentralization
sufficient. We put the model together. Yeah, I'm a decentralization guy.

(44:31):
Right. The closer a business mottoof mine. The closer you get to
the customer, the more successful youare. Okay. So I'm not a
centralization big you know, corporate headquartersguy. So in Erie, we just
started in Erie. We just hadone or two events and we're starting to
be The name band Together is afantastic name. Are are they using that

(44:54):
name? So? Band together CentralOhio, band Together Erie. The other
Pittsburgh and we have band Together Americaalready trademarked. Originally I did the Band
Together Pittsburgh thing to act as anumbrella for all of our travel charitable endeavors.
So we would do a gig atlet's say the Fox Table Yacht Club,

(45:16):
and it was for Lupis, whichis near and dear to my heart.
Right, Well, folks, therewas no five O one C three
to attach to that event necessarily.So Moon had heard that I was doing
this, and when we started talkingabout autism, he said, look,
if you'll dedicate Band Together Pittsburgh toa mission solely around autism, I'll join

(45:39):
you as a partner. And soI took the mission statement of Band Together
Pittsburgh and obviously revised it to justbe for folks on the autom We have
been Yeah, it's been about sixyears. Seven years. Yeah, I
thought you were so yeah, bandTogether. It's cool. Our logo's cool,

(46:00):
and it's diversity and it's togetherness andwe need more of that. Man.
I'm seeing these Facebook posts political andpeople hating. I'm saying to myself,
before social media, no one evenknew what you thought and we all
got along. It breaks my heart. Man. We've got musicians that hate
each other now because of different politicalviews, and I'm like, just that

(46:22):
gets me upset. Man, allRight, let me switch gears back gears,
please, said John Vento. Becauseall right, so how many shows
have you played in your life?A goubba? How many? Shit?
Okay, so twenty years nowhere nearwith the guys like Norman and those guys
have played, or Joe. ButI'll say, uh, if we do

(46:45):
ten two hundred times three, Idon't know a couple thousand. So what
are some of your go to storiesof shows that were really meaningful for me?
Meaning for you? I don't knowsomething that. Do you have any
spinal tap moments? Do you have? Yeah? Yeah, we all do.
What are some of your go tostories? Well, one magnificent go
to story is years ago the Businessmanopened for three Dog Night at the Regatta.

(47:07):
Oh yeah, so I think Iwas at that show. I think
three s sponsored it, So,you know, ten thousand people. That's
really really cool and magical. Sothat's a go to moment. But we've
had plenty of moments where the soundsystem didn't work and it was a disaster
or whatever the case might be.But as far as you know spinal tap

(47:28):
stuff, I don't think we reallyhave had that. But we've had special
special connections. We did a showRosebud one time, and it was to
raise money for a charity. Ican't remember the name because it was a
very rare disease. And this womancame with her son who was in a
wheelchair, and the band's performing andwe were doing with a little help from

(47:52):
your friends with the Beatles, notthe Beatles, but Joe Cocker, Joe
Cocker, the Beatles song, theJoe Cocker version, and this woman picks
her son up from a shiver thinkingabout this right now, from the wheelchair,
and he was extremely it was justtremendous struggles, and of course she
starts to dance with him. I'mtelling you, everybody in the band had

(48:15):
to turn around because we would nothave been able to perform. Even our
drummer tried to turn around because itwas that powerful and that emotional. And
I've been blessed with those situations throughthe years. Now I will tell you
one that's not funny, okay,And we were just talking about it the

(48:36):
other night. So the Needs Hotelband does a great version of Looking for
a Love by Jay Gile's band,and you guys know the tune, and
it picks up real fast and itbreaks down and it is a long jam.
Well it's high paced. So Ikind of do this routine in the
middle of the song where I collapseas the singer. The band breaks tell,

(49:00):
you know, like a James brothday. I can't go in lot right,
I fall over. I grabbed mychest and the guys are you okay?
Then are you okay? And thenthe kick drunk is right to bring
it back up. Well, Igot it again, I got We did
that all the time, and wedid it at this one particular show and

(49:22):
it was a benefit for an organizationcalled Heart Camp and it was filled with
young people who had heart This isn'tfunny. It's not funny at all that
had heart problems. So I'm onthe ground doing the routine and in my
years, our sound man Lee Mark'sis screaming at me, what the f

(49:42):
are you doing? Get up?Get up? He's screaming. So the
reason I bring this up it washorrible, I know. So Saturday night,
this last Saturday night, our greatguitar player with the news Hotel Ben
Jay Max Jim McCullough just recently eightweeks ago, had unexpected triple bypass heart

(50:07):
surgery saved his life and he's gonnabe off until June. But he came
to the show Saturday night. Sowe're all backstage and Jim goes, hey,
guys, are you doing Are youdoing Jay Giles tonight? I'm like,
no, that's not a little listtoo bad, because I was thinking.
I was thinking, because everybody knowsabout his heart surgery. He said,

(50:28):
maybe I could come up in themiddle of it and I could collapse.
We're dying, right, I said, no, Jay, bad idea?
He was where you did it tothe heart campsids. I guess that's
a spinal tam moment. That's exactlywhat I'm looking for. Bill Thomson talked

(50:49):
about with when he was with grishekyuh, you know, performing it in
Ducane High School in front of likefive people were related to the sound guy.
Yeah, we've got plenty of those. I've had plenty of those.
Yeah. Oh god, that's funny. So all right, let's get back
to let's get back to the music. All right. Listen, you're so

(51:13):
you're you're a singer. When sowhen you were starting what kind of music
were you singing? What like inthe cover band and what what? How
did you develop your style? Itwas. It was all classic rock stuff.
I'll tell you what. I alwaysloved to sing Tommy James and Shawandell's
and I could hit some of thosenotes and uh, you know, developing
a style. I blame Springsteen forcreating voice. Well, I blame cancer

(51:37):
and Bruce Springsteen for my vocal cordproblems because my style was not healthy.
It was, yeah, you know, that kind of thing, which isn't
good for anybody, especially as weage. And then when I had my
cancer surgery and they remove my kidney, that was the last straw where the
you tubes get down your throat andthey do a little nicky nick and then

(51:58):
you're done. And I thought II thought I was done, and I
was in twenty seventeen where I struggledto speak, let alone sing, you
know, and had a couple ofdifferent surgeries. But I'm proud to tell
you today, through the work withBeth Clausen, a vocal coach who everybody
knows in town, I've developed acompletely new approach to singing. And it's

(52:22):
I have to I have to developa new approach. I've heard other musicians
who sing a lot go through somethinglike that and they have to retrain the
way they breathe in their voice andeverything. Yeah, had different diets,
and you know Pete went through it. The greatest singer. Cherry went through
Cherry went through it, Billy Pricewent through it. Do you remember Marine
bud Way? Of course, ofcourse. I want to tell you quick

(52:45):
Marine Budway story. Gub and she'sgone, and what a beautiful soul.
I didn't even know Marine bud Way. She was. Out of the blue.
While I'm having these struggles, shecalls me, John, it's Marin
Budway. I'm like, I knewwho she was, right wqed and all
the singing she did, and Isaw him Marrey Bidway. Why are you

(53:07):
calling me? She said? Iheard through a friend of a friend that
you're having vocal cord problems. Yes, I am, she said, I'd
like to give you some advice onhow to deal with this and what you
need to do and what kindness right? What beautiful Jack hunt Johnny Angel.
Jack calls me out of the blue, heard you're having problems. I went

(53:28):
through it. Man, Okay,here's what I want you to do.
Think about this, go see thisperson. This is what the Pittsburgh musical
community is all about. It's beennothing but love and support. And I'm
not even that good of a singer. Like you know, my gig is
trying to deliver that original music withpassion and connect with somebody, right,
But you know, the to me, the singers are the Billy Price Is,

(53:50):
the Frank Zories, the p Euleitzof the world. Scopp Lazy at
Steve Work's last week. Huh damn, that dude's a singer, all right,
you know. But all I wishI would have considered myself a singer
years ago. I'd be in bettershape today. You would have taken care
of You're damn right. I wouldhave. I would have, and I

(54:13):
would have gotten vocal coaching and donethe things I'm now doing. I go
twice a week for vocal lessons.I've been doing that for four years.
So what have you learned? I'velearned a lot. I've learned, Number
One, to calm down when you'reon that stage. Breathe properly. I've
seen you on stage. Is thatyour calm down version? Well, you

(54:36):
could still be physical and still berelaxed. Right. I've learned to breathe
better, and I've also learned thatwhen your go to used to be straining.
It's like, I'm not going tostrain, just kind of talk it.
I'm going to talk that line thatmade me nervous before. You can

(54:57):
just changes, just changes, bigchanges in the way I approach it.
Voice rest in rehearsal. When we'relearning that new song and you got to
sing it twenty times, I don'tdo that anymore. I'll just talk.
I'll reference it through the band andsay, okay, when we got this
tune, I'll give it one hundredpercent. Lots of changes. I mean,
you're a voice guy, so Imean you make a living with your

(55:21):
voice. So obviously I've been doingit for forty years. I can't stand
the sound of my voice still,really really, Yes, that's good,
isn't that something? Now? Seeingnow I'm self conscious? I know a
good psychologist. I give you anumber of a good psychologists that I probably
could use. So what's the problem? What what? You obviously are very

(55:44):
You've always been since I've known you, you've been a very passionate person.
That's probably the Italian in me,right, So what's what do you What
do you love? What's the process? Do you like everything about it?
Oh? Yeah, you mean themusic, and yeah, oh man,
everything about it, you know,helping young people when we we do now
these more acoustics, well not justacoustic with the band, we have young

(56:05):
people as part of the show allthe time. Right, What don't I
like about it? Someone said tome, do you get nervous because we've
had few high profile performances? Doyou like the Benedum? And my answer
is always, I'm never nervous.Unless I'm not prepared or the band isn't
prepared, then I'm nervous as hell. I love rehearsing, the grind,

(56:30):
of rehearsing the grind in the studio, the work of it, the process
I think is a lot of fun. The creation of it, you know,
is my favorite part. I'd saythe live performances. I love that,
but it's secondary to creating the music, the new original music. When
you see other people performed, doyou ever get jealous or self reflective at

(56:54):
all? Absolutely one percent? Iwouldn't. I don't know. Jealous is
the word I would say. Admiration. You know, I just mentioned Scott
Lazy was a steam where Wessie Ithink, you know, the imposter syndrome
is a good thing. If youdon't have it, then you are then
you've got a narcissist issue. Right. Uh. There's so many guys in

(57:15):
town that I admire. I mean, I can't stand listening to p Eulitt
makes we hate him. He knowsthat to what but he should have that
much talent. But I admire bandstoo, like Bill's Hard Rain. They're
so tight and I watch and Ilearn what kind of things that they're sure

(57:36):
they are. Yeah, I mean, but I got to tell you this
also because I do it. WhenI go see a newer band or maybe
a band that's just getting their footing, I admire them too because instead of
sitting out there criticizing or knocking themdown, most folks have no idea how
much work goes into that. SoI find myself being a lot less critical.

(57:57):
As I'm mature in music, Ifind myself being more supportive, and
I find myself being more, learningmore and admiring more the cats that are
out there, you know, andsome of the names I just mentioned.
I love Maul, you know Ido. So, Yeah, that's my
thing. Can I ask John aquestion? It's not musical? Oh no,

(58:21):
no, I know you you liketo do landscaping and like isn't the
word, but okay, okay,you did the landscaping for the memorial.
Yeah, they remember Me Rose Garden. Yeah, and uh I can't think
of the names. Yeah yeah,yeah, Well I was involved. We
had a team, so I didn'tthink you knew that. I didn't know

(58:43):
that. Have you seen it?Have you seen it? Yes? About
that? Well it's the third time, so quick, quick story, yes,
because it's just again the Lord hasa way of bringing people together.
My dear friend Bill Sink, wholost his son to pediatric brain cancer six
years ago. Bill's son, wayback when, like in twenty ten and

(59:07):
eleven, was an Eagle Scout andpart of his Eagle Scout project was to
raise money to put benches around theproperty that was to become the Remember Me
Rose Garden. So the Remember MeRose Garden is a quarter mile up Root
thirty from the National Memorial Flight ninetythree. And there was a local committee

(59:30):
of folks who were going to buildthis garden and it was managed ironically by
some lady out of Oregon. Andthere was big plans They're going to do
a rose garden in Shanksville. They'regoing to do one at the Pentagon and
they're going to do one in NewYork City. So they started raising money.
Bill's son heard about this, theyhad the property, they cleared the

(59:52):
property. Bill's son had had differentstruggles with his health, and he said,
you guys need benches around the theproperty for people to rest while they
walk. So Ryan Sink went outand raced over forty thousand dollars and put
tink teak benches around this property.So now we're talking twenty eleven, twenty

(01:00:13):
twelve. Well, the bottom fellsout, fell out because the woman in
Oregon embezzled all the money. Ohah, so it's over. But those
folks in Shanksville, those are rednecksup there, never stopped dreaming. So
they kept mowing the property, keptmoving boulders. And we fast forward to
twenty and twenty one June of twentytwenty one, and I'm gonna I know

(01:00:37):
this is a podcast, but morewere done. I'm gonna show a couple
of pictures. So Bill calls me, Bill Sink. My friend tells me
the story that I just told you. He's man. We want to have
this rose garden ready for the twentiethanniversary of nine to eleven. He said,
you're a fanatical gardener. Maybe youcould help us. Do you know
any contractors? Do you know anybodyup there? I said, I don't.

(01:00:58):
Bill. I said, well,let me come up and see what
you need. Now, in mymind, I'm thinking it needs pruning,
it needs mulching, it needs love. Right, So I go up in
June of twenty one and I'm gonnahopefully be able to find this for you.
And what I walked upon was nota garden that I don't have it

(01:01:21):
on my phone, but I'll showyou later. We'll describe it. It
was a field with in the middleof the field, it was a field
of weeds that were being mode andit was surrounded by a bunch of big
rocks. There was nothing there.I'm not an expert landscaper, but I
would not constitute that as a rosegard. No, it was June of
twenty one. So I said toBill, I said, Bill, when

(01:01:45):
do you want this done? Hesaid September eleven. So I said it.
I said, we need like,first we have to kill the whole
field. Well, then we haveto do this, and then we have
to do that. And this isway beyond on my capabilities. I said,
but I know one person up here, a woman that I went on
a lunch date with six years ago. It's all cool. She lives up

(01:02:08):
this way. She knows a lotof people, so I call her.
Her name was Michelle. Ironically,Hey Michelle, John Ventau, and Hey
John, what's up? Good start? Hey Michelle. I got a crazy
question. Do you know any landscapersor excavators up in this area? You
know? And I'm at Flight ninetythree Memorial right now. And she saw,

(01:02:28):
my son just started in excavating alandscaping business. Honest to god,
this is all true. I saw. When did he start this business?
She said, oh, just yesterday. I went, and I guess he
has customers. She said, no, that's the problem. He has no
customers. But he's got equipment andhe signed leases and blah blah blah ah.

(01:02:51):
I said, Michelle, could youand your son meet me tomorrow morning
at eight o'clock at this tower,this cell tower on Route thirty quarter mile
exactly a quarter mile east of theNational Memorial. Yeah. Sure, So
away we went, and it wasJune, and I'm gonna find these pictures

(01:03:12):
to show you. I then puta post on Facebook and said I need
volunteers. We're going to try tobuild this garden. Bill went to work.
The folks up there went to work. They made connections with rose growers.
I made connections with some perennial peoplethat I knew, and over the
course of the next two months,you're ready. We planted four hundred and
fifty roses. We planted fifteen hundredperennials. We brought in six hundred ton

(01:03:38):
of soil, and by September eleventh, actually September tenth, the garden was
done. The garden was done.Bill put I hope he doesn't listen to
this, but he funded this thing, okay, and with all volunteer labor,
of course. So when you goto the is a pond in the

(01:04:00):
middle with a beautiful fountain, andthere's native rocks that surround the pond,
and engraved in every single rock isthe name of one of the heroes,
the forty euros of Flight ninety threethat brought that plane down. And you
did this all and just don't evenask me how. An army an army.
And then I was directing. Here'swhat gets funny. So I'm directing

(01:04:24):
this young man every day over thephone or i'd go up once or twice
a week because it's two hours forus, right right, it's hike.
So his name was Cameron. SoCameron, today, we're going to do
this. We're send me pictures.You know, great, okay, mister
Vento, outstanding young man. Sowe get to the third week of August,
Cameron's not returning my calls on aThursday afternoon. Now I'm getting worried.

(01:04:46):
So five o'clock he calls me him, mister Vento, it's camera.
I'm at the job site. Isaid, Cam, I just want to
make something real clear. Man,we got two and a half weeks to
go. You cannot take on anyother jobs. No, no, no,
sir, I was at school today. Where do you go to college?
He's, oh, no, I'min eleventh grade, he said.

(01:05:08):
I'm just starting my senior year athigh school. A high school student built
what is fast becoming a world renownedrose garden. Now that's the fifth for
the fifth time, John, allright, I'm gonna give you one morning.
I'm going to leave you alone.Now. The roses that we planted
that were donated called the Julie AndrewsRose and exactly that they were hybridized created

(01:05:34):
and named with the permission of JulieAndrews, and there were a world renowned
rows. We didn't know what wewere getting, but this Certified Roses in
New Jersey donated a tractor trailer ofroses Julie Andrews roses that we plant six
months later. We now fast forwardto the spring of twenty twenty two.

(01:05:55):
Bill Sink gets a call from aguy named Steven scan Yellow. He says,
Hi, I'm Steven Scaniello. I'mthe director of the Brooklyn Botanical Garden.
He said, I've heard about thisincredible rose garden from Certified Roses,
and I understand that you planned atfour hundred and fifty Julie Andrews roses.
Bill said, yes, that's alltrue. Stephen said, well, I
want to let you know. Juliewas so excited to hear about this.

(01:06:17):
Bill says Julie, who oh,I'm sorry. I'm Julie Andrews's private gardener
and I told her all about it. She has asked me to get involved,
so I'm coming later this month.I want to come and see the
garden, and I want to directyou guys on how to maintain it.
Am Stephen comes twice a year.He's coming May eleventh for a rosarian class.

(01:06:42):
And then we all go to thegarden and he directs us on how
to prune, fertilize, blah blahblah blah blah. And he was instructed
by Julie Andrews to keep involved withthis garden. What a story, what
a conglomeration of stories. So thereyou go. I'm glad, I asked,
I am, yeah, because itmeans a lot to so many people.

(01:07:04):
It's a miracle that had happened.Well, I'm not surprised. As
energetic as you are, I'm not. I'm glad to be part of it.
I think. I mean all thosepeople that that you mentioned and they
still volunteer and Bill moving this thingforward. And the folks up there,
I've gotten to know these people fromShanksville. They're the soult of the earth.

(01:07:27):
You know. We got to wrapthings up, and we normally wrap
things up with the simple question iswhat is your legacy? And there's a
number of things to name well,but but I want to hear from you
what what is John Venta. Ihave no clue. I just hope that
you know. I try to bekind everybody that's it. Just try to

(01:07:51):
be kind and nice and supportive anddon't be a dick. That's all