April 8, 2026 • 51 mins
Carmine Appice and Cactus have unleashed "Temple Of Blues II," featuring Bumblefoot, Dee Snider, Tracii Guns and several other rock legends. We talk to the drumming icon about his new record, Vanilla Fudge, The Doors, Steven Adler, Ozzy, Eddie Van Halen, turning 80, and more!
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More info:
https://www.cactusrocks.com/
https://www.facebook.com/cactusrocks
Our website: www.afdpod.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Stephen Alla came with his mother and came with Slash
and he didn't get into the top ten, so he
was pretty upset about.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Welcome to the podcast Appetite for Distortion. My name is Brando,
episode number five hundred and fifty eight, So welcome back
to the podcast. Mister Carmen apiece, how are you, sir?
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Carmen Carmine.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Carmene is usually the last name that car.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
This is why I named my son Nicholas. People wouldn't
call him Carmen and he just had a baby in
his His name is Luca Karmen.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Didn't I say Carmen? Where did I say, We'll go
back to Carmen, Cormen Carmen. Then that's I know that's
not your name. So that came out.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
I know that's what you said. A lot of people
do that.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I believe you, but that's not I know that's not
your name. I actually think that's funny. I'll blame that
on the lack of sleep. I know it's Carmine. It's
I was going to make a whole thing about the
last name when everybody does.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
That piece is another one that get both ends, you know,
And they said Carmen apissy, and I said that was
good for nineteen seventy three and two.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no one.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
With a piece and it was Carner piece, you.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Know, yeah, yeah, for sure, no, because we assure it.
I mean, I'm going to go back and listen to
this because I own my mistakes. I wear them like
a badge. So I'm curious if I if I cut out,
if it's my lack of sleep, because my my almost
three year old just went out with my wife to
go with super market shopping so we can have this moment.
(01:37):
You can potty training all morning and it's been going okay.
So I'm I don't know. I'll blame it on that
if I cancel. Because we met. We met right before
the world changed, one of the reasons the many times
the world has changed over the last several years. So
right before COVID. Yeah, you're probably one of my last
in studio interviews. Carmine was on the show. It was yeah,
(02:00):
it was on the show. It was in studio because
I work for iHeartRadio and sometimes you know, I'm working
from home now I'm in Barestales, Queens, but sometimes I'm
able to I go in studio, and these things changed
you got a nice Yeah. They set me up. Well,
they set me up. Well. Yeah, so I'm lucky. Last
(02:20):
time we came in and you're voting the guitar zeus
we launch.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
That's a while ago.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, life has changed.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yeah. And I did my own show with him my brother,
called Hanging and Banging during COVID, and we did eighty
five episodes and that was a lot. So you're at
five hundred. It's a lot of episodes too.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
I know, it's it's what I like doing. You know,
I'm lucky to kind of keep it up with, you know,
my my radio career and your only job.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
You know, you're doing other things too.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
No, I have radio. I also have a part time
another part time radio, part time job that of and
talk about on this podcast. But I have no problem
talking about it.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Where's the radio job?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Well, iHeart now. So when we met, it was it
was in Tribeca and I would go in every day.
And obviously things changed since COVID, so now I have
a whole mixing board here. Uh and and those studios
moved to Midtown. I go I go in occasionally, you know,
to do live events and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
So it was on this podcast. I'm just lucky enough
to I started as a passion project and if you
could tell guns a Roses themed appetite for distortion. We
talked about Bumblefoot last time, which we'll get to talk
about again this time because he's on your new album
of course. So so yes, it's been it's been a
lot of fun. So in addition to that, you ever
call it your credit card company or your cable company
(03:45):
and you hear that phone that recording that goes this
phone call may be recorded for quality assurance. Yeah, yeah,
I that's my second part time job.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Oh you do that.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
I'm not the voice of the recording. I listen in.
I listen in between customer service agents and in customers.
So those are that's not all.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
They actually they listen live, they don't record it both.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
That's a combination of both could be live. I mean,
it depends on the on the company.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
So I work like you don't butt in though you
just listen.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
In the past, I pretended to be a customer and
called somebody that.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Is so all the things that I do to support
my radio career and I fail into doing this podcast,
which is I'm trying to make into a third job trying.
You know, I have some really nice people who donate
to the podcasts, and I make money off social media
because I got people like you to get to talk
to me. So it's cool.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
My wife was in radio in New York and the
radio chick.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yeah, of course, of course leve Levely gold.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Right, today's our twenty third anniversary.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Actually, Mazel tough.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Yeah, so she went down here. Now she just sold
her apartment in New York. Okay, New York.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Is and it's yeah, you're saying, I know I lived here,
and I'm saying, yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Lived in La forty years that Scrooge as well. Here
at Florida, man rocking, We're.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
In Florida are if you don't mind me asking West Palm.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I mean, I got a canal there, and I got
a lake over there, and I got land, got two dogs,
get run around. I just had a grand kid a
couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Ago, like Mazeltov. Also, and here's another connection radio as.
I love this because it's an organic conversation, segueing into
the record I had when I worked on I had
a few radio lives on Long Island, and I worked
for a radio station that bought property in West Palm Beach.
I started a radio station down there, so very short lived.
(05:43):
I was a program director of twenty four to three
the Bar it was named at the time in West
Palm Beach, and I was planning to move down there,
but they didn't want to pay me more than twenty
two grand a year.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
So they, oh, yeah, you live for two months down here?
Three months maybe?
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yeah, So thankfully, well, thankfully they fired me and they
ended up I ended up here somehow. Uh, enough of
my story. Let's talk about the the Temple of Blues too.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
I'm so excited for this for the come out. And
you actually had, as we're recording, you had a big
show last night.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Right in uh Friday night, Friday night.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Friday night. Okay, So I'm looking at the excuse me,
I'm looking at bumblefoots post from last night. So I
make I said my date's wrong. So talk to me
about that show because my wife is from Chicago and
she's I told her about that theater.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
It was in Saint Charles, Illinois, which has the theaters
called the Acada Theater, and I'll own it there forever.
I played there many times, and unfortunately We had a
donor that sent money to us to do this thing
(06:54):
because we did it for different charities, and you know, yeah,
talk into somebody today and said, you know, if he
took the money and just gave it to the charities,
they would have made more money, but you know, they
wouldn't have had a show, you know, to go with it,
and all these guys together. It was a unique show.
(07:16):
And we put this together. And say it wasn't easy.
I'll tell you it took a lot of time. Just
like these albums, they don't just like go easy. It's
a lot of a lot of work. You know. You
got to figure out you got to call people, I'm
doing this album, who's available? You know, what are you
going to do with the songs? You pick? How about
you do this one? You want to do that one
with with this guy and that guy. It's it takes
(07:40):
took like nine months to finish this project, and the
last one too easily, you know. And even when you're done,
then the record label needs to set it up, you know,
so then it's another three months after that. So we
probably finished this thing at the end of that in December,
you know, started it maybe in February.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
You know, there's a lot of questions in there, and
we're grateful as fans that you do put in the
hard work and the time for it to come out
and for us to enjoy. The album is out now
as of April third, Temple of Blues two. And so
when you mentioned about what friends to call, you know,
we mentioned before Bumblefoot. He's on this project again. And
I'll just talk about some of the names that have
(08:24):
also been on this podcast as well. Who are on
your record. Billy Shean, D. Snyder is on there, Alex Kulnick,
Tracy Gunns. I mean you also have Ted Nugent. I mean,
so how do you I mean, Carmine, you have a role.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
I know everybody you know and Cactus was the kind
of band that influenced a lot of musicians. I mean,
this is one of our beginnings of our songs, let
Me Swim. If you listen to the intro, Van Halen
took it and made it I think called eruption. Right. Yeah,
(09:02):
So when we did the last album, I had the
Doug auldrage on it and I said, Doug, just play
what you do against these chords and against this and
we extended it so it sounds like eruption, but it's
the beginning of one of our songs. You know. We
had a copywritten and all that, and I never knew
(09:22):
it because I was a Rods to it at the time,
you know, I was out playing. I never listened to
Ben Hele and they were new. I didn't listen to
him until later years later. Somebody said, did you know
Eruption was swim Intro? I said no, and I listened
to I said, oh my god, it is. But I
know they were big Cactus fans. So Cactus was a
(09:44):
kind of band that everyone loved. De Schneider loved that,
Ted Nugent loved it. Uh van Hale, all those van
Halen guys loved it. Everybody on his record loved it.
The only one that may maybe not they're familiar with Cactus,
but familiar with me was Eric Aales. You know, it
was it was too young for Cactus, you know. But
(10:07):
you know where Billy she And when Tim Boga died,
Tim Bogan was his idol. He said, anything you do
with Cactus of Vanilla Fudds, I'm available, let me let
me know. So that's why he did two albums and
he's done other albums I've done too, because we know
each other a long time, and and because I played
with Vanilla Fudge and Cactus and Beck, you know, I
(10:29):
had my rep and he loved the way I played
out of the way he played. So I'd call him
up and go, hey, am, I'm playing this track, and
the son yeah sure, let me know, you know. And
that's how the hardest thing is you call a bunch
of people and some of them say I can't do
Like Ted Neutcher couldn't do it. He was out doing
some speaking gigs. I said to a guy from Detroit,
what's he talking about? He says, probably talking about killing
(10:52):
animals and killing democrats, probably because you know, like you know,
did you see the video? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Yeah, I thought the video with with D and Tracy,
that's the one I did watch.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
So when the when the rooster walks into this place
and changes into a woman, I was gonna have a
big sign called gender change, right mm hmm, I think, well,
I don't want to be political. Maybe I should have
kept it. I probably would have got some slack back
on it from the tam.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
You're at the age a.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Little extra press, but I decided not to do that.
So we thought we thought it something else, so I
would I would get a list of people. I thought
D would like this song, so I gave him two
or three songs to pick from it. He picked Little
Red Rooster. But he sounds freaking great on it.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
He does.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
He doesn't sound like Twist his sister D you know.
And same thing with Evil on the last one. But
he was a Pig Cactus fan, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Any up to this point, we got the last thing
he's ever recorded, you know, D. Yeah, he quit the business.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Right, So I want to ask about that. But a
couple of things quick before I lose it. One because
some show and tell, because I did see you once,
because I know I'm young with Vanilla Fudge, but it
was going I think he was with Vanilla Fudge. I
still have my ticket the Doors of the twenty first Century.
You guys were opening Jones Beach Mountain was there. I
(12:25):
was there with my dad. Uh.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
He was a good show. The whole tour was a good,
good tour. I hold, m'ma stop the DRUMA stop the tour.
He said, you can't use the doors.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
That's right then? More yeah, yeah, so that's why they
It was the doors of the twenty first century. They
were going with uh.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
First century, it's different. Oh well, big business. He could
have done it, but he didn't want to do it.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Right, He didn't want to do it at the time.
But whatever, I mean, it was a fun memory for
someone to remember.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
That show one decades. I think it was called it
was basically Big Shows on there did the whole show,
but he stopped it. Yeah, it cost a million dollars
to produce the show.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
That's a shame. I mean, it was still a wonderful
memory for me, but a shame. And before I lose it.
I mean, I don't know if you've talked about in another
interviews and forgive me, you mentioned how eruption was influenced
by cactus. Did you ever get a chance to talk
to Eddie about that or that kind of well, let
me not.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Talk about it. I mean there's things like I talked
to Eddie. I said, we just put vanilla fudts together
and I said, fuck that, put cactus together. You know,
I mean stuff like that. Okay, cool, But you know
I talked to Alice. I said, Alice, did you get
influenced by parchment phone? For Hafer teacher? He says, oh yeah,
(13:52):
you listen to it. It's the same drum groove, you know.
And that was the first one to do that groove
back in the those days nineteen seventy nobody had the
fast double bass drum groove like that, and Billy Cobham
had it two years later, and they did it whenever
they did it.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
You know, you're you're a pioneer and you hear that,
I'm sure daily. So what's the thing that keeps you
most motivated that you just you love it. It's in your heart.
It's it's because you mentioned how d he's retired. I
can't see you hiring willingly.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
If I can't play anymore, that's when I'm not key.
He can't sing anymore. That's why he retired. Same with me.
You know, I keep going till I can. I mean
I do. I have on my walls here and if
you can see that, I can see a little piece
of odd there for sure, over the drumb city. It's
called drum city. There's another piece over there. I lost you.
(14:53):
Where do you go here?
Speaker 2 (14:55):
But still I'm still here?
Speaker 1 (14:58):
There here another piece over day. I can see that.
It's called drumhead.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Okay, I do see that.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Yeah, so yeah, I do that. And you know, we
use a piece of that out on my solo album
with my friend Fernando Pidomo. It is called a piece
of Perdomo project. You look it up. It's awesome. It's
a drum city. It's called on YouTube. And we used
the background my artwork as the background instead of we
(15:25):
had a green screen. Then we put this artwork as
a background and the song is called drum City, you know,
and it's awesome. So yeah, I just like to do things.
I write the drum books. I did clinics. I was
the first one to do that stuff. You know, Vanilla
Fudge did a lot of first. I just kept going,
you know, because it was wide open spaces, you know,
(15:45):
to do new things. And now still, you know, I'm
doing this kind of stuff. I did guitarsus. You know,
no drummer did something like that. That did a guitar album.
That was my idea. You can do press with drum
and harm magazines. And you know, I just like doing
crazy stuff because I wasn't in one big band. You know,
(16:08):
even if I wasn't one big band, I probably still
do this crazy stuff because a lot of guys you know,
they just did one big band, and that's their big band.
I didn't have one big band. Every band I did,
something happened to break it up, you know, so I
had to move on or went on ideas.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
You know, yeah, because you're forced to. You know, absolutely, I.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Do a go work at a gas station.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
You know, and I respect that so much. You mentioned
something else, and I was hoping that you can tell
the story maybe this time around, because when we spoke
six seven years ago whatever, that you were the one
that invented the drum clinics. So you just mentioned that,
and that I.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Invented drum clin I was the first rock musician drumlin
Jazz guys did drum clinics all the time, but nobody
did drum clinics because a lot of the drummers and
rock were never studied and they didn't know how to teach.
You know, I did it, and then before you know,
(17:12):
cause your pal did it, and then and then everybody
started doing it, and then the drum clinic became big.
And you say, you make a drum deal with a
drum company, it included twenty drum clinics a year that
they guaranteed the payment on, you know, and then my
drum book sold a lot. I got the biggest drum
book deal ever, you know, and you know it just
(17:35):
I didn't even know. I mean when I wrote the book,
I just wrote the book. Is I saw a book
in sam ash Was. It was a terrible drum book
and played rock. It was just terrible. So I'm going
to write one because I'm I'm doing rock. That's what
I do. And I wrote the book. I had a
studio Long Island. Nobody had a rock studio anywhere, you know.
(17:56):
And Bobby ron Dinelli came out of my studio. Joe
came out of my studio. Joe Calzone who owns cal
Zone cases and Anvil cases. Here's the drummer from my studio.
Just a lot of people that went on to do
great things. You know.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
You remember there was a young He told me a
story about the young Stephen Adler that you thought, Yeah, actually,
can you tell me that your mind? Tell me that's I.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Invented the guitar, sent a drum off. We did five
years of the commin to piece drum off, and then
they stole it from me. But while I was in well,
I was still doing uh mine we had different guys
in La was contestants, you know. And Stephen Alla came
(18:42):
with his mother and came with Slash and he didn't
get into the top ten. So he was pretty upset
about it, you know. And but that's pretty well. He
came with him and Slash came to my drum off
before they made it, you know. And and the guys
that made this guy some Emery went on to play
(19:02):
with Artoin to Fire and other people. And Eric Singer
came from my drum off. So a lot of people
came from my drum off.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Have you ever made any sort of like a family
tree of like is a drumming tree. People would come
from Carmine.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
There's a lot of people. I didn't come from me,
but I influenced. I mean John Bottom, sure, and that
came from him to a book called Under Her Drums.
And before I couldn't talk about it, people think I
was a maniac. Nobody taught John Bottom. He was the god,
you know. Like Joe Morella said, nobody has it all.
(19:41):
Everyone takes from each other.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
I said, I agree, Yeah, he took for me.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
I toured with Ozzy and and Tommy Lee was on
the tour of moder the Cruz doing some of my stuff,
and I said, what you get there? Said from John Bottom.
I said, well, when you went down with this this
before he was like really wealthy and brief famous, you know,
before he married all was Hollywood chicks and you know,
and became big. It came to my house and I
(20:10):
showed them a video of an olaf that Sullivan Show
and doing all the toils and grabbing a symbol that
what John Bonham did. He said, what was this? I says,
about a year before Bonzo even came out, you know.
I showed them the other another one shot at the
end of Rock and Roll on it on the Ed
Sullivan Show, and the next year, you know, so he
was like, dude, I can't believe it, you know. I
(20:32):
mean everybody, you know, nobody has it all. You know.
I took from you know, people took from me. That's
the way it is, you know. But I had a
lot of people take from me back in the day
because I invented the big drums, the big, big overdrone
oversized drums, and a lot of drummers had it. I
remember when Tommy Orden's had the kids just like mine,
(20:55):
you know, and you know, but that's the way it is.
And I'm still here.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Yes, you are guys that well.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
The infant I think. But the guys that were the
influencers of drumming was chin Jia Baker, Mitch Mitchell, Keith Moon,
myself and Tino Danelli.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
And they're all gone, oh, I mean, god, you're gonna
laugh at me. I mean, I'm I'm gonna be forty
three later this year, and I'm going through my I
guess because I had my kid, who's gonna be three
in a couple a couple of weeks. I'm thinking about
life and all that stuff. But how are you planning?
Are you looking forward to your eightieth birthday or are you
(21:35):
ready ready to celebrate it? Or how are you.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Living in my ais here right now? Okay, so I'm thinking,
you know, maybe we'll maybe I'll get saving doing eightieth symbol.
When I was seventy five, d jumped in a snare drum.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Okay, I was.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Just talking to a guy. I used to have a
wild wat snare drum, which I still have, I don't use.
I was talking to Moley. They make wa was they
made the snare dront walk? They said, why don't we
re release that? Yeah, maybe that could be my eightieth birthday.
Wah wah release.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Okay it, yeah, it's fine.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
I just re released my drum Book. And you know,
when I first got the deal for the Drum Book,
my lawyer said, I got your five hundred dollars advance
in nineteen seventies. It's like five grand advance today, he said,
But the good thing is you owned the copyright. I
didn't even know what that meant. And I found out
that book has made lots of money. And you know,
(22:36):
in the back of my book, I have people that
endorsed it, you know, Kenny on Off chat Chat, Chad Smith.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Chat Chats, Chill Coppers Story, Greg.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Bissonet Chat, Dave, Dave Weckl, I mean, even Andrew Dice Clay,
you know, Ian Pace. I mean, just you know, all
these people that I influenced, what the book. I love that,
Like I said, but I'm still here, you know, And
it's like doing the guitars is doing the Cactus record.
(23:07):
He's all my friends, you know, because I'm still here. Yeah,
I mean, I didn't know Eric Gales, but now he's
my friend. His wife is my friend. She's a percussion,
so plays on it. We talked drums and now we're friends,
you know, so I could call Eric and say, hey,
we're doing another album. We're doing another gig. I'm trying
to get the guy that donated all the money to
(23:28):
make this gig happen to do another gig, a cactus
you know, a cactus all saws gig with the money
going to charities. You know, when you do it charity,
all the money don't go to charities. You know, you
got to pay everybody, like go I Vanilla Fudge is
doing a charity at the end of the month. But
you know, all the money don't go you know, Vanilla
(23:50):
Fudge gets paid, people get paid, and the leftover us
go to the charity. That's the way it works. You know,
it would have been better if the guy gave all
the money to that charity front. But then you wouldn't
have the gig. You wouldn't have all those people being happy.
You wouldn't have free cactasy these being give out. You
wouldn't have all the camaraderie of all these people coming
(24:11):
together to do all these songs from the album that
they played on and even like doug Alders didn't play
on it, but he loved it. He wants to do
a Blue Murder tribute.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Yeah, yeah, I love that, you know, but I.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Didn't know if Tony wanted to do that, and maybe
he does now after we played. You know, I think
if you look at Doug Golder's Facebook, there's us playing
the song Blue Murder, no vocals, just meeting him and
Tony and it was fun, you know, and we get
dedicate it to John Sykes. Maybe set up a fund,
(24:47):
you know, to give to charities to give to it.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
You know, it's a double eg sort.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Set up a go fund me for the Bloo Murder
tribute tour. Everyone that comes in could donate to it,
and then we can give it the kids musical you know,
music like a little Kids Rock used to be. They
call the music cares. Yeah, they called music Will.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Okay, because he's a care still exist, but yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Something else, sure, music Will. I used to work for
a Little Kid Rock. I was a board of directors.
I go to a school. We're in a bad neighborhood
where the kids would come to school every afternoon instead
of going being in a gang. Yeah yeah, so that
was what they do. So you know, to do something
like that, it'd be great Nicole it. You know, John
(25:35):
fun the John Sykes Fund.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
You know, the ideas never end.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
I just things just pop in my head like this.
I just thought of it now, you know. I love it.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Well, if you forget it and you'd be like, oh,
what was that idea, just reach out to me and
I'll go back to me and I'll tell you.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
But you know, I love doing this album, every little
by little, the gig, the one we did with Melanie
that's on the record, doing Purple Hayes with Cactus awesome, right.
My record company, that was their idea. She died. They
had the rights of her vocal and they found this
(26:13):
vocal with Purple Hayes, and he said, I think you
could do Purple Hayes if we give you the vocal
and put Cactus to it. I said, yeah, of course
I could do that. Yeah, I'm a good producer. I've
done all these crazy things all my life. You know,
I know how to produce, you know. And when they
said yeah, I can do that, I'm a good producer.
(26:35):
I can take her voice. And with my partner Pat Reagan,
who's a great producer and engineer, and he can take
her voice and stretch it over a click and then
I'll put the drums to it and make the arrangement,
you know, and then we'll bring in Tony Franklin to
play bassis. Our bass player was out on the road
doing something else, and my guitar player, Ardie Dillon, played
(26:55):
guitar and they have it, and then Pat mixed it
great mix and we have an amazing thing. And her
voice was like, it's a long way from the roller
Skates song. Yeah, her voice sounds like Channish chaplain when
she's doing these these screams, Like I couldn't believe it
was her. You know. That was another great thing. So
(27:18):
I got to go all these different people, play with
different people, you know, like really she had never met
Eric Gales but played with him on my album, and
now he met Eric Gales and everybody became friends and
say hey, let's do some stuff together. It's really a
great vibe. You know.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
I'm the car line for networking. Also we can have networking.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
It is networking. It's it's fantastic, you know, like everybody,
like my merch girl we had whenever we go in
the row, we always get these multi texts with everybody,
you know, be downstairs in the lobby at three forty
five or you know, and now that everything's done, everybody's
still doing it. You know. Like I had a great
review of the show. I sent it to everybody under
(28:02):
text and then our merch girl who said, you know,
I never met anybody any of these people. I didn't
know anybody. Some people I didn't know who they were.
But after I got to know everybody, I saw everybody
putting everything together. It was like a puzzle being put together.
And at the end of the puzzle it was a
great picture. You know. That's how she worded it. And
(28:23):
everybody chimed in and said, wow, what a good way
to just describe it, you know, and it's really good.
And Eric said something at the end of it, said yeah,
we all had a good we all had a piece
of it. Yeah, and it was great. You know. Like
I said, I got to know Eric and everybody else.
(28:44):
I knew everyone. He was the only one I didn't know.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
With the people that, you know, I just want to
relate that have been on this podcast, and I want
to relate in the experience I had with them and
kind of throw a question back at you. It'll make sense.
Like when I had doug Aldrick John he told me
a quick story about like his guns and roses audition
or it wasn't much about it. It was like Dizzy
Reid called him and he's like, hey, would you want
(29:10):
to try out for like Flash's position, and he was
with he was with David Coverdale and he's like, we're
working on a record, tell him go away, And that
was it. That was it. So that was just a
funny like okay, like a what if did he join
this band? I'm sure you had a lot of what
ifs like you I had.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
I had with Coverdale too, and John Sykes came up
to me at the party said, hey, listen a while
and we'd love for you to play on it. I said, dude,
I'm with King Kobra. I can too, and I'm signed
to Capitol Records. Say had my own snake to deal with.
Once you get like Ainsley or somebody they got a
twenty seven million records, My King Cook record did nothing,
you know. And I was years ago. I was playing
(29:49):
a quick called KGP and Rishid Blackmore asked me to
join Rainbow and I couldn't. They got cozy again. You know. So, yeah,
it happens a lot, and that stuff happened a lot.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
It does, and it's always fun to hear that, like
with the actors, like you know, who could play what role?
Like who turned down Batman and things like that. So
it's just fun. And obviously you're successful regardless, but those
I mean, you.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Know the thing, it's a funny story with you know,
when Ozzie when I when they fired me from Ozzie,
she said my name was too big and she s
taught my own bands. I started King Cob and then
I went to see Coverdale, you know, in Mike Sneak
and funny enough, he was Doug Olders. I think he
was playing with the Dead Daisies. They opened up for them.
(30:35):
So I was back there talking to Whitesnake, you know.
So when they fired me, they got Tommy Alders back, right,
So I mean, look, I didn't have anything against Tommy.
You know, a musicians working, he's working, you know. So
I went to see Coverdale and those guys at Westberry
(30:55):
down Long Island, you know that place, And I was
back there and dressed me talking to Coverdale's bullshit. I
know him for a long time, you know, so Tommy
comes in and I said, hey, Tommy, what's up. He says,
I'm good. He goes, hey, you're not here to get
my gig, are you? I don't know. I don't like
(31:17):
I don't really like being Sideman. So I like to
have my own thing. I have, you know, the fuds,
I have Cactus. You know, I'm basically running both to those.
And they have My Rod Show, which is awesome. Yet
Johnny Rod from King.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Kobra calling, Okay, so I'll let you go.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
In a little bit, right, we got we got five minutes.
You know, the Rod Show is awesome because this guy
Rob was the MC of the whole show that night,
because I knew he knows how to handle an audience.
He was awesome. But I said, don't look like Rod.
His hair isn't it's his hair? He looks like Rod.
(31:58):
You know what he does is I said, comic down,
put a hat on, and don't wear Rod show clothes.
So he did. He did a great job. But anyway,
that show is great because he he loves Rod and
he like lives Rod. And you know, the sax player
with the band was Catcher writing I played with Rock
(32:19):
fourteen years, right and me. I was with him seven years,
so we got, you know, Rod, twenty one years of
Rod on the stage. I tell stories we do you
keep me hanging on that I did with Rod, and
we do. It's always the highlight of the show. And
you know, we gave Rod a picture of him and
(32:39):
and and he's dressed like Rod in there. So he's
Rod said, he's boy, he's dressed like me. He looks
like me. And we said, and he sounds like you.
He does, he sounds like you. So when I'm playing
with him, it still feels like I'm playing with Rod again.
So we changed the name. He used to be called
Tonight's Tonight. Some of the younger audience don't know what
that is, you know, do you know what that is? No,
(33:02):
it's one of his hit songs, Tonight Tonight.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Okay, yes, yes, yes, yes, sir, I forget me.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Yes, yes, young girls didn't know what it was. I said,
we got to change the names. We're calling now Rod
the Show. Do you know what it is? If I
said Rod the Show, what would you think.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
Of Rod the Show? Yeah, that's Rod Stewart exactly.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Yeah. Yeah, So that's what we do. So we're doing it.
Rod the show celebrating the music and legacy of Rod Stewart.
I like it not the Rods to a tribute, but
it were not a tribute, man. I was involved in
all these songs. I did vocal, I did background vocals,
I played drums. I co wrote things. I wrote do
you Think I'm Sexy? And Your Turk? I co wrote those.
(33:46):
So I'm not a tribute, right. So I gave that
to Rod on email. I said, what do you think?
He says, I'm honored. I said, wow, I'm honored that
you're honis you know? So we used with the advertiser
that Rod himself is honored that we're doing the show
Me and Catcher and this guy Rob sounds like Rod,
(34:09):
looks like Rod. Where's the same clothes? He goes out
and buys the same clothes, you know, So when you're
looking at look at rodthshow dot com. Sure what I'm
talking about? Okay?
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Anyway, I think that's cool as hell.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
It was his thing for twenty years. He was called
Tonight's and I. But now we're building it bigger and better.
We have a show. Now, we have background video, we
have fire. When we do hot legs. I mean it's a.
It's a production now, you know, man, And I basically
am in charge of that too. I'm not a side man,
you know what I'm saying. I like being in charge
of stuff unless something huge comes along, like I've Rod
(34:48):
Stewart asked me to tour them.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Sure, sure, you know, man, there's no slowing down with you,
car Mine. And that's it's so I admire that so much,
and it's it's You're really an inspiration, you know. I
can see why so many people are inspired by you,
not just musically. I just think as as a person.
You're You're always very kind. Now it's my only my
(35:10):
second time speaking with you, but you're very kind. And
it's funny I spoke. I asked Bumblefoot, just like I
thought he would have something funny specific Oh anything that
should ask Carmine. He's like, you won't have to ask
any questions. His stories are endless.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Man. He's a good guy and he makes that taco
sauce or whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
I thought about him, I mean obviously several times. But
when you were talking about how you know you didn't
have that one big band, even though that could be argued, yeah,
he was in guns and Roses, but he he wasn't
like guns and Roses like you like that, so he's
he does a lot of other things. So it's like
Bumblefoot's like a younger version of you, one of the
guitar That's how I got to look at it.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Didn't like stuff with. Yeah, yeah, it's awesome.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
One quick thing where I let you got out of
here because it was just one of the fun questions
I had, and it relates to the new video Little
Red Rooster with a former guest Tracy guns Also with
my Guns and Roses connection, you know, it's funny. Somebody
commented on my page like Tracy Gunns wrote everything guns
and Roses ever wrote, and I was like, that's it's insanity. Obviously.
(36:20):
What is there anything you ever read about yourself that
you're like, this is insane. Is there a rumor over
your career that you can't believe ever got out there?
That's just like, wow, people believe this about me? Or
this was said about me?
Speaker 1 (36:33):
Yeah? Yeah, I got a letter up there for Fred
Astaire just there, okay, and at the Rochester show all exactly.
She's come Gregor RePEc came Fred Astaire. When I was
doing my drum solo. Fred looked at Gregory. I said,
that's the best solo I've seen since Jane Cooper. You
(36:53):
know who Gene Cooper is?
Speaker 2 (36:54):
I do because my grandma.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Yeah, I said, wow, So this is a party. Greg
repects walking towards me. He's a big guy, and I said,
this guy, he goes hi, I'm Greg. I said, yeah,
I know who you are. I said, my mother would
go nuts if she is here right now. And so
he told me that and he said, you know, Greg,
Fred plays drums. I didn't realize he did, but he did.
(37:19):
And he don't know how to play rock, so you know,
I said, well, look I have a book. So and
he said, oh, give me the book and autographic to Fred.
I said, okay, Greg, you know he looked next sort
to Rod. So I gave him a book. And I
got a beautiful letter from Fred Astaire saying to come
(37:41):
on the piece, thank you so much for the book,
with a nice message inside it. I've enjoyed your work
many times, Love Fred Astare.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
Oh that's about rumor. That's a true story that happens.
That's great, Yeah, awesome, all right, awesome.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
I'm believed. But that will end you stop that.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Thank you, Carmine Piece, Thank you so much. The Temple
of the Blues is out now, and I hope we
got to do this again and see you on the road.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Let go, okay, man, you have a great day, alright,
bye bye bye, bye bye.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
So I went back and listened, and I totally said, Carmen.
I know his name is a Carmen. I've interviewed him before,
Carmine A Piece. I've been in radio for over twenty years,
almost twenty five years, classic rock radio for a couple
of decades, had conversations about a PC nap to see.
(38:34):
I know it's a piece. I know that's the joke. Carmen.
Where did that come from? Did I watch Where in
the world is Carmen san Diego right before I interviewed
carmina Piece? No, I did not. I will chalk that
up two years of weed abuse. I don't know. I'm
sorry I didn't believe him. So I'm sorry for a
(38:57):
mispronouncing your name, Carmine, but not leaving you that I
mispronounced it. I mean I make mistakes a lot. I
mean a lot a lot, but I own them like
it's part of my charm. I don't know that's an
excuse for me being an idiot. Uh, that just was
(39:18):
Where did that come from? Anyway? I needed to go
back and end the episode just to confirm that, Yeah,
I did say that, and I know it's it's like, uh,
Carmine Falcone, the Batman, enemy I Jesus and the niggas
sound like. I was like, he doth protest too much? Like, oh, yeah,
you know my name. We got off with a whole
(39:40):
tangent about his name, which I did not want. There
were more questions, I you know, more pertinent questions I
wanted to ask him, but I kind of just rode
the wave of the of how it started. I wanted
to talk to him more about Tracy Gunns and Bumblefoot
and Slash. But next time, hopefully, actually I want to
go back to hear him talk about bumble Foot and
(40:00):
Slash more so or Slash at all. Go back to
our first interview from two thousand and nineteen, and hopefully
next time I spected Carmine a piece, no name issues.
My god, I've been doing this. It's gonna be ten
years next month. Ten years this podcast is going on
next month. Have I gotten any better? That's for you
(40:24):
to decide. We're still getting fans and cool guests that
I could tell you, so coming up is gonna be.
It's cool how this happened because it's like a fan
and a band. So if you're from Canada, the Truths
you might be familiar with. It's interesting. I'll bring this
(40:45):
up to them. I had never heard of them until, like,
you know, this is like many years ago when I
was dating a Canadian girl and we bonded over guns
and roses and stuff. She's like my two favorite bands,
or she loved a lot of bands, but she's like always, well,
talk about the Truths and I'm like, I never heard
of them. I also never heard of the Trailer Park
(41:05):
Boys before her, and that's obviously super popular. So I
don't know if it's a Canada America thing. It's like
me smoking not the right weed kind of thing. I
don't know, because we'll talk about that with the Truths.
They reached out to me this that this has been
going on for ten years. How have I never known
about this podcast? We have awesome stories about opening up
(41:26):
for GNR and hanging out with Axel, and that was
like twenty years ago when they opened up. Maybe a
show or two for the Guns, that version of Guns
or Roses. So I look forward to that and Vicky
Hamilton is coming back on the podcast, so we're gonna
be talking about the night for Jennifer. A recent event
that you're probably aware of, especially if you follow on
(41:47):
social media. It was a recent reunion, not between Slash
and Duff but I mean they're obviously in GNR still,
but Stephen Adler and Bilby Clark. They performed with the
Tamy down on vocals. Just it's so easy. It was
a whole event, but they just as a collective, they
just played one song and it was all put on
(42:07):
by Vicki for her friend Jennifer, who actually lived with her,
her roommate when the whole Geffen war, the signing bidding
war was going on for guns and Roses. So I
said to Vicki, I would love to know more about
her and tell us this story, you know. So there
was a lot of and seeing the video is awesome,
seeing Steved behind the kit, and this is something I
(42:27):
wanted to bring up to Carmine. I saw a lot
of comments about Steven's tempo and being slower, and that
kind of bothered me, just enjoy the show. Guys and gallas,
just enjoy it. It could be with age, it could
be with all the things that he's been through. It
doesn't need to sound like appetite like that. It just
doesn't just enjoy the atmosphere. So I wanted to get
(42:49):
to Carmine and ask him some questions about that. And
is aging a dirty word? I always almost hesitate to
say that, but we bring that up a lot, especially
with Axel's voice. Stupid Instagram today another unclever uh poser.
Because I've talked about this on the podcast before. When
somebody will it's the thing where they showed the stage.
(43:09):
I'm an ag artist or somebody who's they think doesn't
sound good or look good, and they'll pan back to
them and be like mm hmm, shake their face or
shrug their shoulders. Hmmm, look at the successful person not
being as successful as I think they were. M I'm
gonna go back. I'm gonna get my million. This person
got a ton of Instagram likes or views, like a
(43:30):
million views, so maybe you'll get five bucks from Meta.
Good for you, he won over Axel that you were
making fun of his voice. Uh, it's just ridiculous. So
whether it's Stephen, whether it's Axel. Can we just try
to enjoy these people while they're here. I mean, the
Carmine's talking about all his dead friends. It's good. I'm
(43:52):
wearing a BB King's shirt. I got this at his
eighty six I don't know if it was on his
eighty sixth birthday, but he was eighty six at the time.
I got it at the show. Well, I'll be true
if anyone wants to do research. This was a shirt
that was sold at the show. I didn't buy it.
I had to buy it later online, so but I
still want this I got. I saw him at the
Paramount on my island. But these are then I hear forever,
(44:15):
and he was in he was in a chair for
an hour. I know that's different, you know, than Axel.
I know it's different now everyone's we talked about these
nighter retiring. Everyone's different. I know there are artists older
then both of them. They are still out there doing it.
But it's I think we know. The perspective was the
(44:35):
word that I used. But I did those actual voice
episodes and that relates to I meanbe I'll talk about
it when the choos are on, but perspective was big
when Melissa Reese announced that she's not gonna tour with
Guns and Roses this year. And you know that by
now by the time you're watching this this podcast, and
(44:55):
she's since come out with with no specifics, but I
got health related issue because she posted on her Instagram
pictures of her in the hospital and c CBS prescriptions
and uh blood blow blood, sugar, sugar, you know this.
She wants to work on herself. That's awesome, that really
(45:15):
is And that's that was the That was the vibe
I got when GNR announced that she wouldn't be coming
on tour with them. But there was just too many comments,
too many. It wasn't just like a stray troller here
or there. Obviously plenty of love and not just on
my site but wherever blabermouth or even on gnr's own
social media. Who GNR has a girl? What does she
(45:39):
even do? She just stands there. You're just being a
troll or you're dumb. That's it. If you have the
the mindset of, like I guess, Guns of Roses is
five guys, is he and Steve need to be there?
If it's not that it's not gun to Roses. That's cool, man,
(46:01):
That's that's cool. I'm not going to argue with you
with that. Uh, there are specific certain facts that you
can argue who the original Guns or Roses members were,
Rob Gardner, Ollie Bike, Tracy Guns. Those are the things
I argue on, but not like what you prefer. That's
that's not a big deal. That's a that's taste. That
would be silly to argue. But that's that's you argue.
(46:24):
Are you over that like a recess in school? Like
you know, my my my dad could beat up your
dad kind of conversation. I don't care about that. But
when it's putting her down or or trying to put
out false rumors about Melissa, you know what does she do?
She just hops on stage. She's energetic, bouncing around while
she's doing all the things that she does, singing backup vocals,
(46:49):
doing keyboards, doing synth, everything that she does.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (46:53):
And and the biggest thing that I will miss is
the way the band reacts, especially Axel, to her. It
seemed like almost like a big brother, little brother, a
little sister thing. When you would see videos of them
backstage or pictures backstage. You know, so I'm sure she
is missed, and that was announced before the tour. Now
(47:13):
where a couple of shows into the tour and she
came out on Instagram saying that she doesn't owe us
any more of an explanation than that. She said she'd
be more active on Instagram and maybe she'll tell more
in time, but she doesn't owe us anymore. I hope
she gets better, and I hope she's okay, and hopefully
she can rejoin Guns and Roses down the road. And
if she doesn't, as long as she's cool, as long
(47:35):
as she's healthy, that's the most important thing. But it's again,
it's the people like what does she even do? And
putting her down? Who who? You're an owl? Who like
it's you think I'm new to the internet. I'm just
over it. I'm over it. If it wasn't for this podcast,
I would log off everything. I'm glad that you don't
(47:57):
so I could talk to you over it. All these
people that think they're clever and funny and you're just
a bunch of parroting posers saying the same bullshit over
and over again, whether it's jokes about Axel, whether it's
dehumanizing Melissa. There are many of you. Chances are, if
(48:18):
you're listening to me, you're not that person to find out,
especially if you're a long time listener, you're not that person.
I'm not talking to you. It's the stray trolls that
I see, and I try not to. I don't want
to go on Twitter any of these things and have
a big die tribe and all whole long speech, and
I don't want to share that on social media because
(48:38):
then just adds to the it adds to it, and
the people are fighting back and forth about occasionally. I
did put up something about Melissa because it's enough already.
I don't like doing that too often. And I like
this to be my mouthpiece, my little mouthpiece, this microphone here.
So that's what I get to do, and I'm gonna
do it again soon. So coming up again. And we
got the trus, We got Vicky Hamilton on the way.
(49:01):
I did speak to Rod Jackson on the phone, the
Rod Jackson Slash the Snake Pit. He wants to come on.
He actually tried to get me to come out to
a casino in California to do the podcast there on
like this Native American Land, which sounds like I'm completely
(49:21):
making it up and I'm not because Rod Jackson is
something else. I was like, I can't. My wife loves
to travel, but I don't think I can just do
a random podcast in some random town in California right
now with the three year old. Maybe in the future,
so hopefully we'll get Rod on Zoom in the future.
(49:42):
We've only interviewed him on the phone. That was years ago.
So Rod Jackson coming up. I would love to. I
wish I could do more the fan reviews. It's just
time is hard, man, time is hard. That's when it's
been a couple weeks. In between episodes. I'm currently potty
training baby Brownstone. It's a it's going okay. It's just
(50:03):
going okay. I guess don't need he crashes my interview
sometimes I just don't need him to do that with
a potty emergency, right see, I I do have guidelines,
so I look forward to that. Thanks again to Carmine
piece Uh. Follow along on the podcast. Conversation continues in
between the broadcasts. Facebook, Twitter x, Instagram, follow on on YouTube, Patreon.
(50:27):
I'm gonna get more active on and if you are
one of these subscribers on there, a thank you and
b including this episode, anything that I produced, or me
and my buddy Graham, my behind the scenes partner from
from Scotland. We produce, whether it's a shorts video, whether
it's a compilation of like a bunch of like we've
been doing that lately, likes best Axel stories, slash stories,
(50:51):
busy stories. I just put one about a lot of
like Velvet revolver, audition stories, riot stories. These are all
stories we got on this podcast. I'm putting them together
in different compilation videos so you can see them on YouTube.
But before then, and like this episode, you could see
it on Patreon and if you sign up with your
paid member for as low as a buck, so for
(51:14):
a buck you can see these things before they get
put out into the public universe. So anyway, lots to
get to, lots to do, and more podcasts to come.
Sorry about the again the break in between, but sign
on sign on social media. I hate it, I said,
I hate social media, but I'm on it every day
talking to you about guns and roses. That part I
(51:35):
do like. So anyway, that doesn't put this episode of
Appetite for Distortion, When will you see the next one?
In the words of Axo Rose concerning Chinese democracy. I
don't know as soon as you're very but you'll.
Speaker 1 (51:45):
See it thanks to the lame ass security, I'm going home.
Stephen Alla came with his mother and came with Slash
and he didn't get into the top ten, so he
was pretty upset about.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Welcome to the podcast Appetite for Distortion. My name is Brando,
episode number five hundred and fifty eight, So welcome back
to the podcast. Mister Carmen apiece, how are you, sir?
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Carmen Carmine.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Carmene is usually the last name that car.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
This is why I named my son Nicholas. People wouldn't
call him Carmen and he just had a baby in
his His name is Luca Karmen.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Didn't I say Carmen? Where did I say, We'll go
back to Carmen, Cormen Carmen. Then that's I know that's
not your name. So that came out.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
I know that's what you said. A lot of people
do that.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I believe you, but that's not I know that's not
your name. I actually think that's funny. I'll blame that
on the lack of sleep. I know it's Carmine. It's
I was going to make a whole thing about the
last name when everybody does.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
That piece is another one that get both ends, you know,
And they said Carmen apissy, and I said that was
good for nineteen seventy three and two.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no one.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
With a piece and it was Carner piece, you.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Know, yeah, yeah, for sure, no, because we assure it.
I mean, I'm going to go back and listen to
this because I own my mistakes. I wear them like
a badge. So I'm curious if I if I cut out,
if it's my lack of sleep, because my my almost
three year old just went out with my wife to
go with super market shopping so we can have this moment.
(01:37):
You can potty training all morning and it's been going okay.
So I'm I don't know. I'll blame it on that
if I cancel. Because we met. We met right before
the world changed, one of the reasons the many times
the world has changed over the last several years. So
right before COVID. Yeah, you're probably one of my last
in studio interviews. Carmine was on the show. It was yeah,
(02:00):
it was on the show. It was in studio because
I work for iHeartRadio and sometimes you know, I'm working
from home now I'm in Barestales, Queens, but sometimes I'm
able to I go in studio, and these things changed
you got a nice Yeah. They set me up. Well,
they set me up. Well. Yeah, so I'm lucky. Last
(02:20):
time we came in and you're voting the guitar zeus
we launch.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
That's a while ago.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, life has changed.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yeah. And I did my own show with him my brother,
called Hanging and Banging during COVID, and we did eighty
five episodes and that was a lot. So you're at
five hundred. It's a lot of episodes too.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
I know, it's it's what I like doing. You know,
I'm lucky to kind of keep it up with, you know,
my my radio career and your only job.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
You know, you're doing other things too.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
No, I have radio. I also have a part time
another part time radio, part time job that of and
talk about on this podcast. But I have no problem
talking about it.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Where's the radio job?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Well, iHeart now. So when we met, it was it
was in Tribeca and I would go in every day.
And obviously things changed since COVID, so now I have
a whole mixing board here. Uh and and those studios
moved to Midtown. I go I go in occasionally, you know,
to do live events and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
So it was on this podcast. I'm just lucky enough
to I started as a passion project and if you
could tell guns a Roses themed appetite for distortion. We
talked about Bumblefoot last time, which we'll get to talk
about again this time because he's on your new album
of course. So so yes, it's been it's been a
lot of fun. So in addition to that, you ever
call it your credit card company or your cable company
(03:45):
and you hear that phone that recording that goes this
phone call may be recorded for quality assurance. Yeah, yeah,
I that's my second part time job.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Oh you do that.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
I'm not the voice of the recording. I listen in.
I listen in between customer service agents and in customers.
So those are that's not all.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
They actually they listen live, they don't record it both.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
That's a combination of both could be live. I mean,
it depends on the on the company.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
So I work like you don't butt in though you
just listen.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
In the past, I pretended to be a customer and
called somebody that.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Is so all the things that I do to support
my radio career and I fail into doing this podcast,
which is I'm trying to make into a third job trying.
You know, I have some really nice people who donate
to the podcasts, and I make money off social media
because I got people like you to get to talk
to me. So it's cool.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
My wife was in radio in New York and the
radio chick.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yeah, of course, of course leve Levely gold.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Right, today's our twenty third anniversary.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Actually, Mazel tough.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Yeah, so she went down here. Now she just sold
her apartment in New York. Okay, New York.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Is and it's yeah, you're saying, I know I lived here,
and I'm saying, yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Lived in La forty years that Scrooge as well. Here
at Florida, man rocking, We're.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
In Florida are if you don't mind me asking West Palm.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I mean, I got a canal there, and I got
a lake over there, and I got land, got two dogs,
get run around. I just had a grand kid a
couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Ago, like Mazeltov. Also, and here's another connection radio as.
I love this because it's an organic conversation, segueing into
the record I had when I worked on I had
a few radio lives on Long Island, and I worked
for a radio station that bought property in West Palm Beach.
I started a radio station down there, so very short lived.
(05:43):
I was a program director of twenty four to three
the Bar it was named at the time in West
Palm Beach, and I was planning to move down there,
but they didn't want to pay me more than twenty
two grand a year.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
So they, oh, yeah, you live for two months down here?
Three months maybe?
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yeah, So thankfully, well, thankfully they fired me and they
ended up I ended up here somehow. Uh, enough of
my story. Let's talk about the the Temple of Blues too.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
I'm so excited for this for the come out. And
you actually had, as we're recording, you had a big
show last night.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Right in uh Friday night, Friday night.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Friday night. Okay, So I'm looking at the excuse me,
I'm looking at bumblefoots post from last night. So I
make I said my date's wrong. So talk to me
about that show because my wife is from Chicago and
she's I told her about that theater.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
It was in Saint Charles, Illinois, which has the theaters
called the Acada Theater, and I'll own it there forever.
I played there many times, and unfortunately We had a
donor that sent money to us to do this thing
(06:54):
because we did it for different charities, and you know, yeah,
talk into somebody today and said, you know, if he
took the money and just gave it to the charities,
they would have made more money, but you know, they
wouldn't have had a show, you know, to go with it,
and all these guys together. It was a unique show.
(07:16):
And we put this together. And say it wasn't easy.
I'll tell you it took a lot of time. Just
like these albums, they don't just like go easy. It's
a lot of a lot of work. You know. You
got to figure out you got to call people, I'm
doing this album, who's available? You know, what are you
going to do with the songs? You pick? How about
you do this one? You want to do that one
with with this guy and that guy. It's it takes
(07:40):
took like nine months to finish this project, and the
last one too easily, you know. And even when you're done,
then the record label needs to set it up, you know,
so then it's another three months after that. So we
probably finished this thing at the end of that in December,
you know, started it maybe in February.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
You know, there's a lot of questions in there, and
we're grateful as fans that you do put in the
hard work and the time for it to come out
and for us to enjoy. The album is out now
as of April third, Temple of Blues two. And so
when you mentioned about what friends to call, you know,
we mentioned before Bumblefoot. He's on this project again. And
I'll just talk about some of the names that have
(08:24):
also been on this podcast as well. Who are on
your record. Billy Shean, D. Snyder is on there, Alex Kulnick,
Tracy Gunns. I mean you also have Ted Nugent. I mean,
so how do you I mean, Carmine, you have a role.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
I know everybody you know and Cactus was the kind
of band that influenced a lot of musicians. I mean,
this is one of our beginnings of our songs, let
Me Swim. If you listen to the intro, Van Halen
took it and made it I think called eruption. Right. Yeah,
(09:02):
So when we did the last album, I had the
Doug auldrage on it and I said, Doug, just play
what you do against these chords and against this and
we extended it so it sounds like eruption, but it's
the beginning of one of our songs. You know. We
had a copywritten and all that, and I never knew
(09:22):
it because I was a Rods to it at the time,
you know, I was out playing. I never listened to
Ben Hele and they were new. I didn't listen to
him until later years later. Somebody said, did you know
Eruption was swim Intro? I said no, and I listened
to I said, oh my god, it is. But I
know they were big Cactus fans. So Cactus was a
(09:44):
kind of band that everyone loved. De Schneider loved that,
Ted Nugent loved it. Uh van Hale, all those van
Halen guys loved it. Everybody on his record loved it.
The only one that may maybe not they're familiar with Cactus,
but familiar with me was Eric Aales. You know, it
was it was too young for Cactus, you know. But
(10:07):
you know where Billy she And when Tim Boga died,
Tim Bogan was his idol. He said, anything you do
with Cactus of Vanilla Fudds, I'm available, let me let
me know. So that's why he did two albums and
he's done other albums I've done too, because we know
each other a long time, and and because I played
with Vanilla Fudge and Cactus and Beck, you know, I
(10:29):
had my rep and he loved the way I played
out of the way he played. So I'd call him
up and go, hey, am, I'm playing this track, and
the son yeah sure, let me know, you know. And
that's how the hardest thing is you call a bunch
of people and some of them say I can't do
Like Ted Neutcher couldn't do it. He was out doing
some speaking gigs. I said to a guy from Detroit,
what's he talking about? He says, probably talking about killing
(10:52):
animals and killing democrats, probably because you know, like you know,
did you see the video? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Yeah, I thought the video with with D and Tracy,
that's the one I did watch.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
So when the when the rooster walks into this place
and changes into a woman, I was gonna have a
big sign called gender change, right mm hmm, I think, well,
I don't want to be political. Maybe I should have
kept it. I probably would have got some slack back
on it from the tam.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
You're at the age a.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Little extra press, but I decided not to do that.
So we thought we thought it something else, so I
would I would get a list of people. I thought
D would like this song, so I gave him two
or three songs to pick from it. He picked Little
Red Rooster. But he sounds freaking great on it.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
He does.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
He doesn't sound like Twist his sister D you know.
And same thing with Evil on the last one. But
he was a Pig Cactus fan, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Any up to this point, we got the last thing
he's ever recorded, you know, D. Yeah, he quit the business.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Right, So I want to ask about that. But a
couple of things quick before I lose it. One because
some show and tell, because I did see you once,
because I know I'm young with Vanilla Fudge, but it
was going I think he was with Vanilla Fudge. I
still have my ticket the Doors of the twenty first Century.
You guys were opening Jones Beach Mountain was there. I
(12:25):
was there with my dad. Uh.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
He was a good show. The whole tour was a good,
good tour. I hold, m'ma stop the DRUMA stop the tour.
He said, you can't use the doors.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
That's right then? More yeah, yeah, so that's why they
It was the doors of the twenty first century. They
were going with uh.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
First century, it's different. Oh well, big business. He could
have done it, but he didn't want to do it.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Right, He didn't want to do it at the time.
But whatever, I mean, it was a fun memory for
someone to remember.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
That show one decades. I think it was called it
was basically Big Shows on there did the whole show,
but he stopped it. Yeah, it cost a million dollars
to produce the show.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
That's a shame. I mean, it was still a wonderful
memory for me, but a shame. And before I lose it.
I mean, I don't know if you've talked about in another
interviews and forgive me, you mentioned how eruption was influenced
by cactus. Did you ever get a chance to talk
to Eddie about that or that kind of well, let
me not.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Talk about it. I mean there's things like I talked
to Eddie. I said, we just put vanilla fudts together
and I said, fuck that, put cactus together. You know,
I mean stuff like that. Okay, cool, But you know
I talked to Alice. I said, Alice, did you get
influenced by parchment phone? For Hafer teacher? He says, oh yeah,
(13:52):
you listen to it. It's the same drum groove, you know.
And that was the first one to do that groove
back in the those days nineteen seventy nobody had the
fast double bass drum groove like that, and Billy Cobham
had it two years later, and they did it whenever
they did it.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
You know, you're you're a pioneer and you hear that,
I'm sure daily. So what's the thing that keeps you
most motivated that you just you love it. It's in your heart.
It's it's because you mentioned how d he's retired. I
can't see you hiring willingly.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
If I can't play anymore, that's when I'm not key.
He can't sing anymore. That's why he retired. Same with me.
You know, I keep going till I can. I mean
I do. I have on my walls here and if
you can see that, I can see a little piece
of odd there for sure, over the drumb city. It's
called drum city. There's another piece over there. I lost you.
(14:53):
Where do you go here?
Speaker 2 (14:55):
But still I'm still here?
Speaker 1 (14:58):
There here another piece over day. I can see that.
It's called drumhead.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Okay, I do see that.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Yeah, so yeah, I do that. And you know, we
use a piece of that out on my solo album
with my friend Fernando Pidomo. It is called a piece
of Perdomo project. You look it up. It's awesome. It's
a drum city. It's called on YouTube. And we used
the background my artwork as the background instead of we
(15:25):
had a green screen. Then we put this artwork as
a background and the song is called drum City, you know,
and it's awesome. So yeah, I just like to do things.
I write the drum books. I did clinics. I was
the first one to do that stuff. You know, Vanilla
Fudge did a lot of first. I just kept going,
you know, because it was wide open spaces, you know,
(15:45):
to do new things. And now still, you know, I'm
doing this kind of stuff. I did guitarsus. You know,
no drummer did something like that. That did a guitar album.
That was my idea. You can do press with drum
and harm magazines. And you know, I just like doing
crazy stuff because I wasn't in one big band. You know,
(16:08):
even if I wasn't one big band, I probably still
do this crazy stuff because a lot of guys you know,
they just did one big band, and that's their big band.
I didn't have one big band. Every band I did,
something happened to break it up, you know, so I
had to move on or went on ideas.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
You know, yeah, because you're forced to. You know, absolutely, I.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Do a go work at a gas station.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
You know, and I respect that so much. You mentioned
something else, and I was hoping that you can tell
the story maybe this time around, because when we spoke
six seven years ago whatever, that you were the one
that invented the drum clinics. So you just mentioned that,
and that I.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Invented drum clin I was the first rock musician drumlin
Jazz guys did drum clinics all the time, but nobody
did drum clinics because a lot of the drummers and
rock were never studied and they didn't know how to teach.
You know, I did it, and then before you know,
(17:12):
cause your pal did it, and then and then everybody
started doing it, and then the drum clinic became big.
And you say, you make a drum deal with a
drum company, it included twenty drum clinics a year that
they guaranteed the payment on, you know, and then my
drum book sold a lot. I got the biggest drum
book deal ever, you know, and you know it just
(17:35):
I didn't even know. I mean when I wrote the book,
I just wrote the book. Is I saw a book
in sam ash Was. It was a terrible drum book
and played rock. It was just terrible. So I'm going
to write one because I'm I'm doing rock. That's what
I do. And I wrote the book. I had a
studio Long Island. Nobody had a rock studio anywhere, you know.
(17:56):
And Bobby ron Dinelli came out of my studio. Joe
came out of my studio. Joe Calzone who owns cal
Zone cases and Anvil cases. Here's the drummer from my studio.
Just a lot of people that went on to do
great things. You know.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
You remember there was a young He told me a
story about the young Stephen Adler that you thought, Yeah, actually,
can you tell me that your mind? Tell me that's I.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Invented the guitar, sent a drum off. We did five
years of the commin to piece drum off, and then
they stole it from me. But while I was in well,
I was still doing uh mine we had different guys
in La was contestants, you know. And Stephen Alla came
(18:42):
with his mother and came with Slash and he didn't
get into the top ten. So he was pretty upset
about it, you know. And but that's pretty well. He
came with him and Slash came to my drum off
before they made it, you know. And and the guys
that made this guy some Emery went on to play
(19:02):
with Artoin to Fire and other people. And Eric Singer
came from my drum off. So a lot of people
came from my drum off.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Have you ever made any sort of like a family
tree of like is a drumming tree. People would come
from Carmine.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
There's a lot of people. I didn't come from me,
but I influenced. I mean John Bottom, sure, and that
came from him to a book called Under Her Drums.
And before I couldn't talk about it, people think I
was a maniac. Nobody taught John Bottom. He was the god,
you know. Like Joe Morella said, nobody has it all.
(19:41):
Everyone takes from each other.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
I said, I agree, Yeah, he took for me.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
I toured with Ozzy and and Tommy Lee was on
the tour of moder the Cruz doing some of my stuff,
and I said, what you get there? Said from John Bottom.
I said, well, when you went down with this this
before he was like really wealthy and brief famous, you know,
before he married all was Hollywood chicks and you know,
and became big. It came to my house and I
(20:10):
showed them a video of an olaf that Sullivan Show
and doing all the toils and grabbing a symbol that
what John Bonham did. He said, what was this? I says,
about a year before Bonzo even came out, you know.
I showed them the other another one shot at the
end of Rock and Roll on it on the Ed
Sullivan Show, and the next year, you know, so he
was like, dude, I can't believe it, you know. I
(20:32):
mean everybody, you know, nobody has it all. You know.
I took from you know, people took from me. That's
the way it is, you know. But I had a
lot of people take from me back in the day
because I invented the big drums, the big, big overdrone
oversized drums, and a lot of drummers had it. I
remember when Tommy Orden's had the kids just like mine,
(20:55):
you know, and you know, but that's the way it is.
And I'm still here.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Yes, you are guys that well.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
The infant I think. But the guys that were the
influencers of drumming was chin Jia Baker, Mitch Mitchell, Keith Moon,
myself and Tino Danelli.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
And they're all gone, oh, I mean, god, you're gonna
laugh at me. I mean, I'm I'm gonna be forty
three later this year, and I'm going through my I
guess because I had my kid, who's gonna be three
in a couple a couple of weeks. I'm thinking about
life and all that stuff. But how are you planning?
Are you looking forward to your eightieth birthday or are you
(21:35):
ready ready to celebrate it? Or how are you.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Living in my ais here right now? Okay, so I'm thinking,
you know, maybe we'll maybe I'll get saving doing eightieth symbol.
When I was seventy five, d jumped in a snare drum.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Okay, I was.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Just talking to a guy. I used to have a
wild wat snare drum, which I still have, I don't use.
I was talking to Moley. They make wa was they
made the snare dront walk? They said, why don't we
re release that? Yeah, maybe that could be my eightieth birthday.
Wah wah release.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Okay it, yeah, it's fine.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
I just re released my drum Book. And you know,
when I first got the deal for the Drum Book,
my lawyer said, I got your five hundred dollars advance
in nineteen seventies. It's like five grand advance today, he said,
But the good thing is you owned the copyright. I
didn't even know what that meant. And I found out
that book has made lots of money. And you know,
(22:36):
in the back of my book, I have people that
endorsed it, you know, Kenny on Off chat Chat, Chad Smith.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Chat Chats, Chill Coppers Story, Greg.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Bissonet Chat, Dave, Dave Weckl, I mean, even Andrew Dice Clay,
you know, Ian Pace. I mean, just you know, all
these people that I influenced, what the book. I love that,
Like I said, but I'm still here, you know, And
it's like doing the guitars is doing the Cactus record.
(23:07):
He's all my friends, you know, because I'm still here. Yeah,
I mean, I didn't know Eric Gales, but now he's
my friend. His wife is my friend. She's a percussion,
so plays on it. We talked drums and now we're friends,
you know, so I could call Eric and say, hey,
we're doing another album. We're doing another gig. I'm trying
to get the guy that donated all the money to
(23:28):
make this gig happen to do another gig, a cactus
you know, a cactus all saws gig with the money
going to charities. You know, when you do it charity,
all the money don't go to charities. You know, you
got to pay everybody, like go I Vanilla Fudge is
doing a charity at the end of the month. But
you know, all the money don't go you know, Vanilla
(23:50):
Fudge gets paid, people get paid, and the leftover us
go to the charity. That's the way it works. You know,
it would have been better if the guy gave all
the money to that charity front. But then you wouldn't
have the gig. You wouldn't have all those people being happy.
You wouldn't have free cactasy these being give out. You
wouldn't have all the camaraderie of all these people coming
(24:11):
together to do all these songs from the album that
they played on and even like doug Alders didn't play
on it, but he loved it. He wants to do
a Blue Murder tribute.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Yeah, yeah, I love that, you know, but I.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Didn't know if Tony wanted to do that, and maybe
he does now after we played. You know, I think
if you look at Doug Golder's Facebook, there's us playing
the song Blue Murder, no vocals, just meeting him and
Tony and it was fun, you know, and we get
dedicate it to John Sykes. Maybe set up a fund,
(24:47):
you know, to give to charities to give to it.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
You know, it's a double eg sort.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Set up a go fund me for the Bloo Murder
tribute tour. Everyone that comes in could donate to it,
and then we can give it the kids musical you know,
music like a little Kids Rock used to be. They
call the music cares. Yeah, they called music Will.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Okay, because he's a care still exist, but yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Something else, sure, music Will. I used to work for
a Little Kid Rock. I was a board of directors.
I go to a school. We're in a bad neighborhood
where the kids would come to school every afternoon instead
of going being in a gang. Yeah yeah, so that
was what they do. So you know, to do something
like that, it'd be great Nicole it. You know, John
(25:35):
fun the John Sykes Fund.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
You know, the ideas never end.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
I just things just pop in my head like this.
I just thought of it now, you know. I love it.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Well, if you forget it and you'd be like, oh,
what was that idea, just reach out to me and
I'll go back to me and I'll tell you.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
But you know, I love doing this album, every little
by little, the gig, the one we did with Melanie
that's on the record, doing Purple Hayes with Cactus awesome, right.
My record company, that was their idea. She died. They
had the rights of her vocal and they found this
(26:13):
vocal with Purple Hayes, and he said, I think you
could do Purple Hayes if we give you the vocal
and put Cactus to it. I said, yeah, of course
I could do that. Yeah, I'm a good producer. I've
done all these crazy things all my life. You know,
I know how to produce, you know. And when they
said yeah, I can do that, I'm a good producer.
(26:35):
I can take her voice. And with my partner Pat Reagan,
who's a great producer and engineer, and he can take
her voice and stretch it over a click and then
I'll put the drums to it and make the arrangement,
you know, and then we'll bring in Tony Franklin to
play bassis. Our bass player was out on the road
doing something else, and my guitar player, Ardie Dillon, played
(26:55):
guitar and they have it, and then Pat mixed it
great mix and we have an amazing thing. And her
voice was like, it's a long way from the roller
Skates song. Yeah, her voice sounds like Channish chaplain when
she's doing these these screams, Like I couldn't believe it
was her. You know. That was another great thing. So
(27:18):
I got to go all these different people, play with
different people, you know, like really she had never met
Eric Gales but played with him on my album, and
now he met Eric Gales and everybody became friends and
say hey, let's do some stuff together. It's really a
great vibe. You know.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
I'm the car line for networking. Also we can have networking.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
It is networking. It's it's fantastic, you know, like everybody,
like my merch girl we had whenever we go in
the row, we always get these multi texts with everybody,
you know, be downstairs in the lobby at three forty
five or you know, and now that everything's done, everybody's
still doing it. You know. Like I had a great
review of the show. I sent it to everybody under
(28:02):
text and then our merch girl who said, you know,
I never met anybody any of these people. I didn't
know anybody. Some people I didn't know who they were.
But after I got to know everybody, I saw everybody
putting everything together. It was like a puzzle being put together.
And at the end of the puzzle it was a
great picture. You know. That's how she worded it. And
(28:23):
everybody chimed in and said, wow, what a good way
to just describe it, you know, and it's really good.
And Eric said something at the end of it, said yeah,
we all had a good we all had a piece
of it. Yeah, and it was great. You know. Like
I said, I got to know Eric and everybody else.
(28:44):
I knew everyone. He was the only one I didn't know.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
With the people that, you know, I just want to
relate that have been on this podcast, and I want
to relate in the experience I had with them and
kind of throw a question back at you. It'll make sense.
Like when I had doug Aldrick John he told me
a quick story about like his guns and roses audition
or it wasn't much about it. It was like Dizzy
Reid called him and he's like, hey, would you want
(29:10):
to try out for like Flash's position, and he was
with he was with David Coverdale and he's like, we're
working on a record, tell him go away, And that
was it. That was it. So that was just a
funny like okay, like a what if did he join
this band? I'm sure you had a lot of what
ifs like you I had.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
I had with Coverdale too, and John Sykes came up
to me at the party said, hey, listen a while
and we'd love for you to play on it. I said, dude,
I'm with King Kobra. I can too, and I'm signed
to Capitol Records. Say had my own snake to deal with.
Once you get like Ainsley or somebody they got a
twenty seven million records, My King Cook record did nothing,
you know. And I was years ago. I was playing
(29:49):
a quick called KGP and Rishid Blackmore asked me to
join Rainbow and I couldn't. They got cozy again. You know. So, yeah,
it happens a lot, and that stuff happened a lot.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
It does, and it's always fun to hear that, like
with the actors, like you know, who could play what role?
Like who turned down Batman and things like that. So
it's just fun. And obviously you're successful regardless, but those
I mean, you.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Know the thing, it's a funny story with you know,
when Ozzie when I when they fired me from Ozzie,
she said my name was too big and she s
taught my own bands. I started King Cob and then
I went to see Coverdale, you know, in Mike Sneak
and funny enough, he was Doug Olders. I think he
was playing with the Dead Daisies. They opened up for them.
(30:35):
So I was back there talking to Whitesnake, you know.
So when they fired me, they got Tommy Alders back, right,
So I mean, look, I didn't have anything against Tommy.
You know, a musicians working, he's working, you know. So
I went to see Coverdale and those guys at Westberry
(30:55):
down Long Island, you know that place, And I was
back there and dressed me talking to Coverdale's bullshit. I
know him for a long time, you know, so Tommy
comes in and I said, hey, Tommy, what's up. He says,
I'm good. He goes, hey, you're not here to get
my gig, are you? I don't know. I don't like
(31:17):
I don't really like being Sideman. So I like to
have my own thing. I have, you know, the fuds,
I have Cactus. You know, I'm basically running both to those.
And they have My Rod Show, which is awesome. Yet
Johnny Rod from King.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Kobra calling, Okay, so I'll let you go.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
In a little bit, right, we got we got five minutes.
You know, the Rod Show is awesome because this guy
Rob was the MC of the whole show that night,
because I knew he knows how to handle an audience.
He was awesome. But I said, don't look like Rod.
His hair isn't it's his hair? He looks like Rod.
(31:58):
You know what he does is I said, comic down,
put a hat on, and don't wear Rod show clothes.
So he did. He did a great job. But anyway,
that show is great because he he loves Rod and
he like lives Rod. And you know, the sax player
with the band was Catcher writing I played with Rock
(32:19):
fourteen years, right and me. I was with him seven years,
so we got, you know, Rod, twenty one years of
Rod on the stage. I tell stories we do you
keep me hanging on that I did with Rod, and
we do. It's always the highlight of the show. And
you know, we gave Rod a picture of him and
(32:39):
and and he's dressed like Rod in there. So he's
Rod said, he's boy, he's dressed like me. He looks
like me. And we said, and he sounds like you.
He does, he sounds like you. So when I'm playing
with him, it still feels like I'm playing with Rod again.
So we changed the name. He used to be called
Tonight's Tonight. Some of the younger audience don't know what
that is, you know, do you know what that is? No,
(33:02):
it's one of his hit songs, Tonight Tonight.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Okay, yes, yes, yes, yes, sir, I forget me.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Yes, yes, young girls didn't know what it was. I said,
we got to change the names. We're calling now Rod
the Show. Do you know what it is? If I
said Rod the Show, what would you think.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
Of Rod the Show? Yeah, that's Rod Stewart exactly.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Yeah. Yeah, So that's what we do. So we're doing it.
Rod the show celebrating the music and legacy of Rod Stewart.
I like it not the Rods to a tribute, but
it were not a tribute, man. I was involved in
all these songs. I did vocal, I did background vocals,
I played drums. I co wrote things. I wrote do
you Think I'm Sexy? And Your Turk? I co wrote those.
(33:46):
So I'm not a tribute, right. So I gave that
to Rod on email. I said, what do you think?
He says, I'm honored. I said, wow, I'm honored that
you're honis you know? So we used with the advertiser
that Rod himself is honored that we're doing the show
Me and Catcher and this guy Rob sounds like Rod,
(34:09):
looks like Rod. Where's the same clothes? He goes out
and buys the same clothes, you know, So when you're
looking at look at rodthshow dot com. Sure what I'm
talking about? Okay?
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Anyway, I think that's cool as hell.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
It was his thing for twenty years. He was called
Tonight's and I. But now we're building it bigger and better.
We have a show. Now, we have background video, we
have fire. When we do hot legs. I mean it's a.
It's a production now, you know, man, And I basically
am in charge of that too. I'm not a side man,
you know what I'm saying. I like being in charge
of stuff unless something huge comes along, like I've Rod
(34:48):
Stewart asked me to tour them.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Sure, sure, you know, man, there's no slowing down with you,
car Mine. And that's it's so I admire that so much,
and it's it's You're really an inspiration, you know. I
can see why so many people are inspired by you,
not just musically. I just think as as a person.
You're You're always very kind. Now it's my only my
(35:10):
second time speaking with you, but you're very kind. And
it's funny I spoke. I asked Bumblefoot, just like I
thought he would have something funny specific Oh anything that
should ask Carmine. He's like, you won't have to ask
any questions. His stories are endless.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Man. He's a good guy and he makes that taco
sauce or whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
I thought about him, I mean obviously several times. But
when you were talking about how you know you didn't
have that one big band, even though that could be argued, yeah,
he was in guns and Roses, but he he wasn't
like guns and Roses like you like that, so he's
he does a lot of other things. So it's like
Bumblefoot's like a younger version of you, one of the
guitar That's how I got to look at it.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Didn't like stuff with. Yeah, yeah, it's awesome.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
One quick thing where I let you got out of
here because it was just one of the fun questions
I had, and it relates to the new video Little
Red Rooster with a former guest Tracy guns Also with
my Guns and Roses connection, you know, it's funny. Somebody
commented on my page like Tracy Gunns wrote everything guns
and Roses ever wrote, and I was like, that's it's insanity. Obviously.
(36:20):
What is there anything you ever read about yourself that
you're like, this is insane. Is there a rumor over
your career that you can't believe ever got out there?
That's just like, wow, people believe this about me? Or
this was said about me?
Speaker 1 (36:33):
Yeah? Yeah, I got a letter up there for Fred
Astaire just there, okay, and at the Rochester show all exactly.
She's come Gregor RePEc came Fred Astaire. When I was
doing my drum solo. Fred looked at Gregory. I said,
that's the best solo I've seen since Jane Cooper. You
(36:53):
know who Gene Cooper is?
Speaker 2 (36:54):
I do because my grandma.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Yeah, I said, wow, So this is a party. Greg
repects walking towards me. He's a big guy, and I said,
this guy, he goes hi, I'm Greg. I said, yeah,
I know who you are. I said, my mother would
go nuts if she is here right now. And so
he told me that and he said, you know, Greg,
Fred plays drums. I didn't realize he did, but he did.
(37:19):
And he don't know how to play rock, so you know,
I said, well, look I have a book. So and
he said, oh, give me the book and autographic to Fred.
I said, okay, Greg, you know he looked next sort
to Rod. So I gave him a book. And I
got a beautiful letter from Fred Astaire saying to come
(37:41):
on the piece, thank you so much for the book,
with a nice message inside it. I've enjoyed your work
many times, Love Fred Astare.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
Oh that's about rumor. That's a true story that happens.
That's great, Yeah, awesome, all right, awesome.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
I'm believed. But that will end you stop that.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Thank you, Carmine Piece, Thank you so much. The Temple
of the Blues is out now, and I hope we
got to do this again and see you on the road.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Let go, okay, man, you have a great day, alright,
bye bye bye, bye bye.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
So I went back and listened, and I totally said, Carmen.
I know his name is a Carmen. I've interviewed him before,
Carmine A Piece. I've been in radio for over twenty years,
almost twenty five years, classic rock radio for a couple
of decades, had conversations about a PC nap to see.
(38:34):
I know it's a piece. I know that's the joke. Carmen.
Where did that come from? Did I watch Where in
the world is Carmen san Diego right before I interviewed
carmina Piece? No, I did not. I will chalk that
up two years of weed abuse. I don't know. I'm
sorry I didn't believe him. So I'm sorry for a
(38:57):
mispronouncing your name, Carmine, but not leaving you that I
mispronounced it. I mean I make mistakes a lot. I
mean a lot a lot, but I own them like
it's part of my charm. I don't know that's an
excuse for me being an idiot. Uh, that just was
(39:18):
Where did that come from? Anyway? I needed to go
back and end the episode just to confirm that, Yeah,
I did say that, and I know it's it's like, uh,
Carmine Falcone, the Batman, enemy I Jesus and the niggas
sound like. I was like, he doth protest too much? Like, oh, yeah,
you know my name. We got off with a whole
(39:40):
tangent about his name, which I did not want. There
were more questions, I you know, more pertinent questions I
wanted to ask him, but I kind of just rode
the wave of the of how it started. I wanted
to talk to him more about Tracy Gunns and Bumblefoot
and Slash. But next time, hopefully, actually I want to
go back to hear him talk about bumble Foot and
(40:00):
Slash more so or Slash at all. Go back to
our first interview from two thousand and nineteen, and hopefully
next time I spected Carmine a piece, no name issues.
My god, I've been doing this. It's gonna be ten
years next month. Ten years this podcast is going on
next month. Have I gotten any better? That's for you
(40:24):
to decide. We're still getting fans and cool guests that
I could tell you, so coming up is gonna be.
It's cool how this happened because it's like a fan
and a band. So if you're from Canada, the Truths
you might be familiar with. It's interesting. I'll bring this
(40:45):
up to them. I had never heard of them until, like,
you know, this is like many years ago when I
was dating a Canadian girl and we bonded over guns
and roses and stuff. She's like my two favorite bands,
or she loved a lot of bands, but she's like always, well,
talk about the Truths and I'm like, I never heard
of them. I also never heard of the Trailer Park
(41:05):
Boys before her, and that's obviously super popular. So I
don't know if it's a Canada America thing. It's like
me smoking not the right weed kind of thing. I
don't know, because we'll talk about that with the Truths.
They reached out to me this that this has been
going on for ten years. How have I never known
about this podcast? We have awesome stories about opening up
(41:26):
for GNR and hanging out with Axel, and that was
like twenty years ago when they opened up. Maybe a
show or two for the Guns, that version of Guns
or Roses. So I look forward to that and Vicky
Hamilton is coming back on the podcast, so we're gonna
be talking about the night for Jennifer. A recent event
that you're probably aware of, especially if you follow on
(41:47):
social media. It was a recent reunion, not between Slash
and Duff but I mean they're obviously in GNR still,
but Stephen Adler and Bilby Clark. They performed with the
Tamy down on vocals. Just it's so easy. It was
a whole event, but they just as a collective, they
just played one song and it was all put on
(42:07):
by Vicki for her friend Jennifer, who actually lived with her,
her roommate when the whole Geffen war, the signing bidding
war was going on for guns and Roses. So I
said to Vicki, I would love to know more about
her and tell us this story, you know. So there
was a lot of and seeing the video is awesome,
seeing Steved behind the kit, and this is something I
(42:27):
wanted to bring up to Carmine. I saw a lot
of comments about Steven's tempo and being slower, and that
kind of bothered me, just enjoy the show. Guys and gallas,
just enjoy it. It could be with age, it could
be with all the things that he's been through. It
doesn't need to sound like appetite like that. It just
doesn't just enjoy the atmosphere. So I wanted to get
(42:49):
to Carmine and ask him some questions about that. And
is aging a dirty word? I always almost hesitate to
say that, but we bring that up a lot, especially
with Axel's voice. Stupid Instagram today another unclever uh poser.
Because I've talked about this on the podcast before. When
somebody will it's the thing where they showed the stage.
(43:09):
I'm an ag artist or somebody who's they think doesn't
sound good or look good, and they'll pan back to
them and be like mm hmm, shake their face or
shrug their shoulders. Hmmm, look at the successful person not
being as successful as I think they were. M I'm
gonna go back. I'm gonna get my million. This person
got a ton of Instagram likes or views, like a
(43:30):
million views, so maybe you'll get five bucks from Meta.
Good for you, he won over Axel that you were
making fun of his voice. Uh, it's just ridiculous. So
whether it's Stephen, whether it's Axel. Can we just try
to enjoy these people while they're here. I mean, the
Carmine's talking about all his dead friends. It's good. I'm
(43:52):
wearing a BB King's shirt. I got this at his
eighty six I don't know if it was on his
eighty sixth birthday, but he was eighty six at the time.
I got it at the show. Well, I'll be true
if anyone wants to do research. This was a shirt
that was sold at the show. I didn't buy it.
I had to buy it later online, so but I
still want this I got. I saw him at the
Paramount on my island. But these are then I hear forever,
(44:15):
and he was in he was in a chair for
an hour. I know that's different, you know, than Axel.
I know it's different now everyone's we talked about these
nighter retiring. Everyone's different. I know there are artists older
then both of them. They are still out there doing it.
But it's I think we know. The perspective was the
(44:35):
word that I used. But I did those actual voice
episodes and that relates to I meanbe I'll talk about
it when the choos are on, but perspective was big
when Melissa Reese announced that she's not gonna tour with
Guns and Roses this year. And you know that by
now by the time you're watching this this podcast, and
(44:55):
she's since come out with with no specifics, but I
got health related issue because she posted on her Instagram
pictures of her in the hospital and c CBS prescriptions
and uh blood blow blood, sugar, sugar, you know this.
She wants to work on herself. That's awesome, that really
(45:15):
is And that's that was the That was the vibe
I got when GNR announced that she wouldn't be coming
on tour with them. But there was just too many comments,
too many. It wasn't just like a stray troller here
or there. Obviously plenty of love and not just on
my site but wherever blabermouth or even on gnr's own
social media. Who GNR has a girl? What does she
(45:39):
even do? She just stands there. You're just being a
troll or you're dumb. That's it. If you have the
the mindset of, like I guess, Guns of Roses is
five guys, is he and Steve need to be there?
If it's not that it's not gun to Roses. That's cool, man,
(46:01):
That's that's cool. I'm not going to argue with you
with that. Uh, there are specific certain facts that you
can argue who the original Guns or Roses members were,
Rob Gardner, Ollie Bike, Tracy Guns. Those are the things
I argue on, but not like what you prefer. That's
that's not a big deal. That's a that's taste. That
would be silly to argue. But that's that's you argue.
(46:24):
Are you over that like a recess in school? Like
you know, my my my dad could beat up your
dad kind of conversation. I don't care about that. But
when it's putting her down or or trying to put
out false rumors about Melissa, you know what does she do?
She just hops on stage. She's energetic, bouncing around while
she's doing all the things that she does, singing backup vocals,
(46:49):
doing keyboards, doing synth, everything that she does.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (46:53):
And and the biggest thing that I will miss is
the way the band reacts, especially Axel, to her. It
seemed like almost like a big brother, little brother, a
little sister thing. When you would see videos of them
backstage or pictures backstage. You know, so I'm sure she
is missed, and that was announced before the tour. Now
(47:13):
where a couple of shows into the tour and she
came out on Instagram saying that she doesn't owe us
any more of an explanation than that. She said she'd
be more active on Instagram and maybe she'll tell more
in time, but she doesn't owe us anymore. I hope
she gets better, and I hope she's okay, and hopefully
she can rejoin Guns and Roses down the road. And
if she doesn't, as long as she's cool, as long
(47:35):
as she's healthy, that's the most important thing. But it's again,
it's the people like what does she even do? And
putting her down? Who who? You're an owl? Who like
it's you think I'm new to the internet. I'm just
over it. I'm over it. If it wasn't for this podcast,
I would log off everything. I'm glad that you don't
(47:57):
so I could talk to you over it. All these
people that think they're clever and funny and you're just
a bunch of parroting posers saying the same bullshit over
and over again, whether it's jokes about Axel, whether it's
dehumanizing Melissa. There are many of you. Chances are, if
(48:18):
you're listening to me, you're not that person to find out,
especially if you're a long time listener, you're not that person.
I'm not talking to you. It's the stray trolls that
I see, and I try not to. I don't want
to go on Twitter any of these things and have
a big die tribe and all whole long speech, and
I don't want to share that on social media because
(48:38):
then just adds to the it adds to it, and
the people are fighting back and forth about occasionally. I
did put up something about Melissa because it's enough already.
I don't like doing that too often. And I like
this to be my mouthpiece, my little mouthpiece, this microphone here.
So that's what I get to do, and I'm gonna
do it again soon. So coming up again. And we
got the trus, We got Vicky Hamilton on the way.
(49:01):
I did speak to Rod Jackson on the phone, the
Rod Jackson Slash the Snake Pit. He wants to come on.
He actually tried to get me to come out to
a casino in California to do the podcast there on
like this Native American Land, which sounds like I'm completely
(49:21):
making it up and I'm not because Rod Jackson is
something else. I was like, I can't. My wife loves
to travel, but I don't think I can just do
a random podcast in some random town in California right
now with the three year old. Maybe in the future,
so hopefully we'll get Rod on Zoom in the future.
(49:42):
We've only interviewed him on the phone. That was years ago.
So Rod Jackson coming up. I would love to. I
wish I could do more the fan reviews. It's just
time is hard, man, time is hard. That's when it's
been a couple weeks. In between episodes. I'm currently potty
training baby Brownstone. It's a it's going okay. It's just
(50:03):
going okay. I guess don't need he crashes my interview
sometimes I just don't need him to do that with
a potty emergency, right see, I I do have guidelines,
so I look forward to that. Thanks again to Carmine
piece Uh. Follow along on the podcast. Conversation continues in
between the broadcasts. Facebook, Twitter x, Instagram, follow on on YouTube, Patreon.
(50:27):
I'm gonna get more active on and if you are
one of these subscribers on there, a thank you and
b including this episode, anything that I produced, or me
and my buddy Graham, my behind the scenes partner from
from Scotland. We produce, whether it's a shorts video, whether
it's a compilation of like a bunch of like we've
been doing that lately, likes best Axel stories, slash stories,
(50:51):
busy stories. I just put one about a lot of
like Velvet revolver, audition stories, riot stories. These are all
stories we got on this podcast. I'm putting them together
in different compilation videos so you can see them on YouTube.
But before then, and like this episode, you could see
it on Patreon and if you sign up with your
paid member for as low as a buck, so for
(51:14):
a buck you can see these things before they get
put out into the public universe. So anyway, lots to
get to, lots to do, and more podcasts to come.
Sorry about the again the break in between, but sign
on sign on social media. I hate it, I said,
I hate social media, but I'm on it every day
talking to you about guns and roses. That part I
(51:35):
do like. So anyway, that doesn't put this episode of
Appetite for Distortion, When will you see the next one?
In the words of Axo Rose concerning Chinese democracy. I
don't know as soon as you're very but you'll.
Speaker 1 (51:45):
See it thanks to the lame ass security, I'm going home.
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