November 19, 2025 • 62 mins
Hall of Fame drummer Matt Sorum returns! We discuss his upcoming "Sound and Vision" Awards. Plus, saving the Arts in public schools, new Aerosmith/Yungblud EP, Velvet Revolver with Macy Gray, GNR's cover of "Sympathy for the Devil," what the 40th anniversary of Guns N' Roses means, and more!
More info:
https://adoptthearts.org/
https://www.instagram.com/mattsorum/
Our website: www.afdpod.com
More info:
https://adoptthearts.org/
https://www.instagram.com/mattsorum/
Our website: www.afdpod.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I remember that feeling that I had when I was
in probably GNR, when it was a lot of stuff
and it's hard to navigate, especially when you're young. Jesus.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Welcome to the podcast Appetite for Distortion. My name is Brando,
Episode number five hundred and forty two. Welcome back to
the podcast, mister Matt Soorm. How are you, sir?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Wow? Five hundred and forty two. That's quite an epic
journey you've been on.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Amazing, yeah, journey, to say the least, I am. I am
lucky enough to have been in radio for twenty plus
years in this six degrees of GNR Bacon podcast. That's
kind of just like a passion project that was to
get me out of depression. To do I've been doing
for nine years. And I started out as a single
(00:48):
man thirty three and now forty two. And you may
hear my two and a half year old in the background.
So but my wife is here, so he may say hi.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
I don't know. So if you want lou to come
say high.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Maybe we in school, lose off to school. She's uh
four and a half now, so she's pre k. We'll
get there. Okay, I actually got I actually got lou
in school when she was two.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Oh wow, okay, she was preschool. It's a little first day.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
The first day, I cried like a baby, no pun intended.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
I'm waiting today.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
I was like, let's leave her in a little longer.
And then she just was having the best time in socializing.
And that's when they start to realize they have power,
you know, these these girls and boys, and they got
they can talk to people. And now she's just just
a little bubbly, little spirited gem so fun. But I
(01:45):
think she got all that from being around other kids
and socializing and stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Right, And this is this is going to parlay into
our conversation today about Adopt the Arts. And last time
we were on we were talking a little bit before
the air that you gave me swaddling advice or nickis
you told me about the conversation we have with Nicky
six about the best way to swaddle. And now he
actually just came back from music class. He's not in
(02:12):
school yet. I'm while I work basically two jobs, like
two full time jobs essentially, and this podcast. I'm also
like a house dad because I work from home, so
I'm also his teacher. But we take him out to
so many different things to interact, especially music classes.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
We took him.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
This was I think last Sunday there was a classical
kids festival at the Queen's Museum.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Here in New York.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
And so I'm curious because it's much different for you know,
growing up around a musician. You know, my wife and
I we want to be musicians, but we're not. Did
she grab We're talking about four and a half you.
I'm sorry if I get if I this is a secret,
but sixty five years old as we're putting this episode out.
It's a happy birthday by the way. I know we're
(03:01):
recording it the day before, but I mean I can't
even know.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Are you putting it out tomorrow? Okay, that's my birthday.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
I wanted to.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
As soon as I was told that it's your birthday,
I'm like, I got to put it out and say
happy birthday so the world can say happy birthday to you.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Thank you. I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
So, I mean, it's one thing.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
It's interesting. Having my daughter late in life was definitely,
you know, a thing, but for me it was the
right time. It was like, you know, I sewed my
wild oats. If you will and if anyone who you
know knows my story, you know we all went through
(03:37):
stuff and then finally come to a place where you know,
I'm feeling pretty even keeled and ready to take on
the challenge of having a child without screwing it up, basically.
And you know, once I had lou everything changed for me.
It's just you know, and you understand this because you
(03:58):
know we're all on this mission for our careers and
trying to make something of ourselves. And you know, obviously
I had a pretty good run with many bands, but
this has been the greatest accomplishment of my life, being
able to try to be a father and not try
to be a father I am a father and raise
(04:18):
my child and try to do it all right and
experiencing I'm experiencing way more life than I do before.
I mean, I had an amazing life in rock and roll,
and I still play rock and roll, and I'll talk
about getting back into rock and roll. But this is
like an adventure. And this summer, we took her to Hawaii,
(04:39):
We took her to Lake Tahoe, we took her to
Santa Barbara, we took it to Laguna because you got
to do stuff with kids, and it brings you back
to your youth when you were a kid and your
parents would take your camping or down to the beach
or whatever. And it's that same feeling, which is why
we live life. Really. When get caught up in work,
(05:02):
coming something, you know, pushing and driving to be this,
you know, rock star or the best podcast or whatever
it is, the kids like takes you out of yourself.
Now you're all about them, right, You know that you
wake up in the morning, the first thing you think
about is the kid, not you. It's like, I got
to even get breakfast. I gotta get And that was
(05:26):
the amazing thing that happened because my head was always oh,
what am I going to do for Matt today? What
am I going to do to get going? I got
to do this, I got to do that. Now it's
like the first face I see is lou Ellington. And
you know with your child too, you're like, what's your
what's your kid's name?
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Harrison?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Rex cool and we just took him to his first
I don't want to see his first context opposite.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Rex Harrison, the very doctor Doolittle.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yes, that was a happy accident because we and you'll
appreciate it because it says you named your daughter after musicians.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
I we wanted to because my wife and I we
both love music.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
You know.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
She's a dance teacher for little kids and obviously me
being in radio. So but we playfully, even though she said,
if we ever have a second one, maybe we should
consider this name Axel Matthews because her favorite band is
Dave Matthews and obviously Gin and R with me.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
But I couldn't be the guy with It's bad enough.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
I'm nerding enough with the GNR, pock. I can't name
my kid act. So it's a great name, but I
couldn't do it. So yeah, we met on the Beatles
and we actually happened. She had seen Paul McCartney before.
I had never seen him. We just went to Pittsburgh.
We took our son to go see Paul McCartney. He
slept through half of it, had headphones on and ever whatever.
So we were like, okay, here's what name. We didn't
(06:46):
want to do Paul. We didn't want to do George,
not Ringo, you know, not Lennon. It reminded me of
the Dictator. So let's we arrived at Harrison and since
we kept both of our last names that are long.
We needed a shortened little name. So I just liked
the name Rex. And then it was after that, I'm like,
oh yeah, Rex Harrison. So it was that's my short,
little boring story.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
People listening to this mine remembering Rex harrisonboy.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
He was a great actor, my fair lady.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
I mean, I grew up watching a lot of those
movies with my grandmother. I mean she'd always say.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
And lou kind of came to us very strange. It
was my grandmother's middle name was Ella, and her first
name was Josephine, and there's actually a song on my
second solo album called Josephine written about her. If anyone's interested,
it's on Spotify. My grandmother was a ballerina and my
(07:37):
grandfather was a trumpet player, professor of music, an amazing musician.
But then I already given the debt name Ella away
to my French bulldog. My wife was like, we can't
use Ella, so, uh, Lou just kind of came at us.
(07:58):
I don't know if that happened with you with her,
and it just kind of starts to percolate and then
we're like lou lu. And I did some research on
the name, and it's older. It's an older women's name,
of course, Betty Lou all that kind of stuff, but
it was French originally. And then and then I was,
I have a lot of jazz records here, like you know,
(08:19):
Duke Ellington and you know Miles Davis and John Coltrane.
I looked over and I said, Lou Ellington. So I
like the ring of it. And I thought about this,
and I already got the dot com. Okay, if she
ever wants to cut the sorem off, she's got her
own stage name, right elling And because a lot I've
(08:39):
thought about artists of famous musicians, how they carry that moniker,
Like you know, my friend Jason Bonham, He's going to
be Jason Bonham, and that's great, and he carries a
legacy and he does that. With other people that come
up under under famous people of musicians or whatever, they
want to be their own person. It's harder for them
(09:00):
to kind of get their own recognition, you know, like
if you look at John Lennon's kids, you know, Sean,
he's you know, he's had a relative career, but or
or I mean Julian especially. So I thought about those
guys and I'm like, I'm going to give her own
kind of stage name. It's like and then I right
away got on and got the dot com.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Oh that's I love that.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Well, you'll give her a dot com for her fifth birthday.
Maybe she's like, wow, what is what is this? But yeah,
he already has Harrison rex Is. If he does make
an appearance, his hair is already down to here. I mean,
he's we're training him to be a rock star.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
So yeah, I mean, I'm gonna I'm gonna talk to
you a little later about something I'm working on. I
don't want to do it in this episode. I want
to focus on on the the Awards show that I'm
doing with Deezer Butler and Paul Rodgers. Okay, I'm working
on something for kids. It's going to blow your mind,
It's all I'm gonna say.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Oh, okay, see I'm excited for that. Then all right,
because I so, let's let's start then with because I
was going there to make the transition to adopt the
Arts and Elementary school, but we can switch. Since you've
already brought up the awards ceremony that's happening in March,
let me just bring that up on my little screen
here the Sound Envision Awards, and this looks amazing. I'm
(10:15):
grateful that I've had some of these people on my podcast.
Paul Rodgers finally in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Bless you.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
I don't know if you've heard my I don't know
if you heard my wife's sneeze. I feel like a
bad husband if I didn't say bless you. I'll leave
that in So Paul Rodgers sadly that he was not
well enough to make the event, but that's another story.
Geezer Butler, Lizzie Hale, Corey Taylor, Nuno, Bettencourt, Glenn Hughes,
who actually did meet my son. He crashed my interview
(10:44):
with with Glenn, Robert de Leo, who's been on the podcast,
Billy Duffy who's been on Phil X, Steve Stevie Sallas.
I mean, this is historic. This is in the historic
Plaza Theater. Tell me more about this and how this
came together.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Well, as you know, I've been doing a charity called
Adopt the Arts for fourteen years and I had schools
in la and I still do, and then I moved
to the desert about eight years ago, got married, twelve
years ago, and I decided that I want to kind
(11:20):
of be, you know, a guy in the community giving back.
So I brought my charity to the desert. Now we
have six schools in the Coachella Valley and that happened
a lot quicker than my tenuyear run or my about
eight year run in LA was a lot harder to
navigate the politics my vision was. My vision is K
(11:44):
through five. You go to adopt the Arts dot Org
you can kind of see what I'm up to. But
basically it's become a real passion project for me, and
I'm day to day. I mean I speak every day
to my co executive. We work really hard together. I'm
not just a guy that walks down a red carpet
and waves I'm in it at a big event. The
(12:05):
other day, I show up. I announce the kids, I
you know. So basically it's K through five public schools.
Where in California, especially in across the nation, a lot
of music is being cut for kids at that level,
and they just don't look at it as a as
a as a brain thing. They look at it as
an extracurricular activity. And I completely disagree. I see, so
(12:29):
my idea is these are the formative years. The K
three five is when the kids go, oh, I like this,
this is who I am? And they said, you know,
they gravitate towards You see that with your kid at
two and a half. But wait until she gets to
be Wait until he gets to be like, you know,
four or five, and then they start the brain starts,
(12:50):
you know, telling them things. They start to see stuff
that they wanted singing, dancing, you know that kind of thing.
And maybe she wants to be an engineer. My kid
likes to dabble and play with Like she goes to
recording studio and she messes with the knobs and wants
to do that. So who knows. She might be an
recording engineer. He might be a producer. I don't know.
(13:11):
But so anyway, I've got eight schools now in total.
And John Staymows just took over one of my schools
in LA because I can't be there as much. He's
a drummer as well and plays in the Boys. And
Jane Lynch, Bammy Awarding winning actress is my co executive,
(13:31):
my co founder, and she's very in it. She does
a lot of great stuff for us because on TV
talks about it, does a lot of you know, events
with us, and then we have a you know, a
really great board of people. If you look online and
you can see I've got everyone Metallic has been involved
with us, def Leppard, Alice, so many people have contributed
(13:55):
to Adopt the Arts and the last big Sound and
Vision award I did was for Moby pre Pandemic, and
then I had another one set up that got shut down,
Pandemic Era with Chad Smith and Geezer Butler and I rebooted.
(14:16):
This will be the first big fundraiser, big event, fundraiser,
gig rock and roll show that I've done since the pandemic,
being as we just launched two new schools in Coachell
Values that were doing a big fundraiser and I thought,
oh my god, Paul Rodgers worked with us. If you
go online, you can look at Paul Rogers and the
(14:38):
Changels Adopt the Arts Changels Choir with Paul Rodgers doing
rock and Roll Fantasy. If you can look it up
on YouTube, it would say Paul Rodgers and the Adopt
the Arts Changels, and we did. I took him all
to my studio and then recorded that song, and I
also did another song with Ringo, one of Ringo's songs,
(15:00):
and I'm planning to do the next Woe with Macy Gray,
who's also a part of Adopt the Arts, who's a
you know, amazing artist. So the Sound and Vision Award
is basically honoring people I love, you know. I always
look at it like, people go, can you get Billie Eilish,
I go, I don't know Billie Eilish. Can you get
(15:23):
Ariana Grandick? I don't know where Ariana Grandick? But I
know Geezer Butler, I know Paul Rodgers, and I just
stay in my lane. I reached out. I talked to
Kelly Clarkson yesterday. I don't know the girl, but I'm
trying to get her for Janie's Mone, for Steven Tyler.
You know, I have to. I have to reach out
to people anyway. The lineup came to be together pretty
(15:46):
quickly because Geezer and I had a short lived band
called Deadline Ritual, and we were We shared a tour
bus through Europe, which is amazing. If I can tell
you what he told me about Black Sabbath, the stories
were endless. Geezer is a of a more soft spoken guy.
But we were on a bus together. It was just
amazing being with him because I sap, come on, yeah,
(16:08):
it was my band. And I've told you this before.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
I can't even imagine what it was like, you know,
hanging out with Geezer.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
So I'm like, okay, Paul Rogers just got inducted. He
lives here in the desert in the wintertime. He'll be
here next month, and I speak, I've had dinner with
them many nights. He recorded with my kids. Just the
sweetest man on planet Earth. And I'll tell you right
now that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for
him was very stressful, and I know that he's so
(16:37):
bummed he couldn't be there, but I think it was
just a lot for him after his situations. People know
he had a stroke a few years back. But he
and his wife Cynthia made sure that Paul's going to
perform at least one or two songs at hit Off
Yards Sound and Vision Award because I feel like it's
(16:59):
it's just less stress and he's going to come in
and he lives close by and no travel that makes sense,
So it's looking super positive. Paul's going to perform and uh,
Deborah Bonham, John Bonham's sister, come out with Paul, which
(17:20):
will be really cool. And if anyone's interested in checking
out at Debora Bonham. John Bonham always got the limelight,
but Debort Bonham is a badass, So go on the
line and look at Debora. I will.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
I'm not familiar sister, so so we'll do a set
of songs and basically Nuno Bent and Court, who obviously
is an amazing guitar player, and I've been playing a
lot with lately.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
With Steven Tyler, we've done the Jane's Fund event last year. Together,
we've done a couple of privates for Janie's Fund where
we're raising money for Steven Tyler's charity. So Stephen only
wants to go play shows helped fund his charity, and
we've done a couple of those, and I've done him
(18:04):
with Nu novent in Court okay, and then Phil X
has been on second guitar a couple of times and
Phil's great, and James Lomonzo has been playing on that
gig from Megadeth. But this particular gig we got Robert
de Leo because from myself I felt that Robert de
Leo was the perfect fit for Bad Company and the
(18:28):
free music that we're going to play. Paul was also
in a band called Free all right now wishing well,
and so de Leo will probably play most of that
set on bass, and then we'll mix up the guitar players.
We'll be new know on some Billy Duffy, my old
bammate from the Cult. A lot of people don't know this,
(18:48):
but Free was his favorite band, okay, second to Bad Company.
So he's if you ever listen to the Cult, Billy's
got that rhythm and that tone that will lay down
that music perfectly. And I'm gonna make this great. And
then's talk about Sabbath. Geezer wants to come up. I said, Geezer.
(19:11):
Geeze is gonna play probably half the set, and that's amazing,
and we're gonna tear it up. And of course you
know be on that stuff. And then Phil X I
did it once with Geezer with fell X and Stevie Sallace.
People don't might not know Stevie as much, but he
was in Jagger's band. He played with Terrence Rerunt Darby
(19:34):
a lot of amazing guitar player. We did wore pigs together.
And it was those two together and Geezer and I'm
not sure. I'll probably give Corey that or Lizzie. Let's see, Okay,
Lizzie al I mean, come on, I know it's just
amazing and she's so sweet and she's coming from Nashville.
(19:57):
Corey Taylor's in. I just confirmed Charlie from BlackBerry Smoke.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
BlackBerry Smoke, great band.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Yeah, Okay, here's a predicament about Paul Rodgers. Okay, not
a lot of people can sing like him. Nope, So
you gotta be really cautious about who you let go
after it. So I looked up BlackBerry Smoke, and I'm
familiar with the band. Great band. One of those bands
is just out there working. They've been out there a
(20:30):
long time and great and they do well in their
own lane. But they play classic tones, classic rock and roll.
So I talked to Charlie through Billy Duffy and I'm
like yeah. And then Glenn Hughes, I mean, come on,
I his voices of rock.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Ever, I talked to him about how Stevie Wonder called
him his favorite white singer.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Oh man, I mean, imagine that kind of part, because he.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Can do that thing. He's got funk. Like a lot
of those those English dudes when they listened to music,
they were listening to R and B. You know. Paul
Rodgers was listening to Otis Redding and like, you know,
the old stuff to get his vibe. Same with Glenn.
A lot of the early rock and roll singers were
listening to blues, that kind of music. That's why you
(21:24):
say their voice has got a rock blues feel to it.
It's got a bluesy feel, you know. And they were
listening to just old classic singers and uh so Glenn
came up through that that too. So he has that
that kind of R and B background. You know, if
you listen to a lot of his music, he's got
a lot of soul in it. It's a lot of
(21:45):
soul in the singing. So he's a perfect guy. And
he had a short stint in Black Sabbath. Yeah, sure
they do that, so Glenn will do that. And then
there's a couple other singers I can't say yet, but
a couple other big names guys that are going to
kind of pop in last minute. Okay, so we're super excited,
and then basically what happens is it's a brand new
(22:06):
theater here in the desert that was redone from the twenties.
They just finished the remodel. It's only got six hundred
and twenty seats and we've already sold about two hundred seats.
We need to sell it out for the charity, and
we'll have an amazing auction of like rock and roll items.
I'm going to reach out to all my friends of course,
(22:26):
blacks out with memorabilia, you know. I'll have some guns
and roses stuff there, all the different bands that are represented,
and a lot of our friends from you know, hopefully
Metallica always. Metallica is always giving. Those guys always send stuff,
and I reached out here, but I know they will.
They're just good like that. And def Leppard always does
(22:48):
like a meet and great and you know, all my
friends over the years are very supportive. So there'll be
a lot of killer auction items and hopefully we'll get
some of those up online where the show even starts.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
So, okay, I was gonna ask about that because if
we're not proleged enough, I mean, even if you are
from the area, this only, like you said, six hundred
and something seats. I don't know, I don't think you're
is it prepared enough to be I don't want to
say televised, like a big event like the Rock and
Roll of Fame, I know not. But is there gonna
be like maybe a YouTube stream or videos afterwards?
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Like how? I don't know where? You know, we'll get there.
We got a few months to figure it all out,
you know. I just literally nailed down the line up fair.
You know. I think we're going to add a couple
more bigger name singers. You know. I don't want to say,
but I got a couple of guys. Uh but we're
good with the band, a killer band, and uh so
(23:45):
I'm excited about that. We're going to rehearse sound great,
put on a great rock and roll show, have an
auction in the middle, and we're doing a private dinner
the night before, and I think there's a few seats
left or that with all the band members there with
a really an amazing host. And you can go to
adopt the arts and look all that up and see
(24:06):
what that costs to come in and join that party.
I think it's about five thousand dollars per couple, and
that's sort of a big ticket for a lot of people.
But you get seats with that, and you get an
amazing dinner and we're all going to hang out and
there'll be some acoustic performances and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Right yeah, right on. That's so cool.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
And it's all again stems from what you're able to
do and put together from adopt the arts and the
kind of go back to that and the journey where
it's led you to now you know, like me, I mean,
you became a dad later in life than me, and
I thought I was late forty. But the giving back
and starting with the elementary school and the formative years
(24:50):
and then again, this is what it transcends to. It's
almost like you knew you were going to have a
kid in a way, like what was the mission statement?
Is somebody you know you didn't have kids? Did you
just have a lot of nieces and nephews or did
you just liked being around, you know, whenever you go
to a concert and you liked seeing little young rock
and rollers. Harrison, I just taught them to do I
(25:11):
call it rock and roll the metal horns. I don't
want them to teach them to design the devil just yet.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
So is that all?
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Is that kind of like the driving force behind it
all is like the next generation, the next Matt Sorum,
the next.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Everything in the philanthropic world happened organically. Okay, my life
has been driven by intuition and I feel, and I
say this in posts on my Instagram. It's what you
imagine or what you manifest in your life is what
you want to do. It's not a joke about dreaming.
(25:47):
When you say dreaming, dreaming is yeah, okay, I'm dreaming
or I had a dream. My belief is manifestation and
setting the stage for yourself, even if it's a little kid.
I used to draw pictures of myself on my peachy
folder on a drum set with my arms up like
this and the little stick figures of band guys.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
I a would say, you sent your intentions and you know,
what's your north star? The word north star is where
are you going? Well? I believe that speaking to the
universe in that sort of a way guide you. And
you know, we all get off track. I've got off
track many times. But now I wake up in the morning,
(26:30):
what am I going to do today? And what's what's
my what's my goal? What's my purpose? And when I
got the charity together. It was something that was more
of a purpose than anything I've ever had in my life. Now,
playing drums and getting on stage and putting on a
good rock show, that's still something I'm very you know,
(26:51):
into When I get up there, I want to do
the best possible job. I'm not getting up there, you know,
looking at a time clock going okay. It's pure passion,
and I drive my life the same way and everything
I do that and that's probably a lot of what
I'm teaching these kids. And when you find that passion
(27:12):
or you find something you're good at, you need to
go after it and you focus on I'm good at this.
And when I talk about teaching kids music and art,
doesn't mean you're going to be a musician, but then
you get creative and it unleashes your mind to think
creatively and outside the box. But you're also working in
(27:36):
a social environment during the day in the school. It's
the only time you're working together. I have one hundred
and twenty kid choir called the Changels.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
I like that name, by the way, The Changels.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Yeah. My old friend Laney Cordola from a band called
Chifrea and House the Lords remember them.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Oh wow, that's a memory unlocked.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Okay. He was the first guy that I saw that
went off to help people. He left Hollywood, got going
on over ten years ago, twelve years ago, and he
took off and he went to Afghanistan to start a
school for girls. Oh wow, look him up. It's called
(28:22):
the documentary is going to be called Girl with the Guitar,
but they haven't finished it yet, but miraculous love kids,
look up Landy the guy. He just left Hollywood and
he took this mission. They'll help these girls and teach
them how to play guitar. And the Taliban came back
in and they all had to move out and get
(28:42):
the heck out of that country and moved to Pakistan.
It's a long story, but I just wanted to say
he was a very inspiring guy for me because he
just gave his life completely on, wholeheartedly while I was
like whoa. And he helped me come up with the
name for the choir. The idea was the Angels of Change.
You know. It's like and these kids, when you see
(29:05):
the choir, it's not just them, it's their parents. Their
parents come to me and go, You've changed their kids life.
You've changed their life or him like the way they
feel they're in a community. They're like part of something.
Remember that when you became part of something. Yeah, I'm
in this is my thing, man, with my friends and
(29:25):
we're like yeah, yeah. It's not like they're a lone
or they're not on this. They're not by themselves. So
many kids in school are like, who am I? What
do I do? Where do I go? Who do I
fit in with? The Changels are a group of kids
that are communicating through music and creating something bigger than
(29:47):
just themselves. So I love that and when I see it,
I'm like, man, I I get really hopeful for the
little bit that we can do. But those one hundred
and twenty kids and we served thirty six hundred are
going to go on to understand that they can do
(30:07):
whatever they need to do to get to the next
point in life because they've learned they have potential. And
that's all we that's all we can do is give
people the opportunity to number one, to know that we
care about them. Yeah, because in the public school system,
(30:28):
I got to say, the public school system here in
the Coachella Valley is pretty great. We're just here to
sort of help elevate and bring more community. So this
year we're doing the parade again. Last year I was
a grand marshall.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Okay, that's right, and kids were behind me.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
I had hundred kids behind me.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
The coot viper.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Yeah. Yeah. This year, I'm going to be on a
big float. Of course, I'll have my kid. She loves
She's ready to go. She gets dressed up, she's like
and then you know, the community, we'll see what we're doing.
And I feel that public schools, the situation in America
with public schools, the mindset has to change. It's not
(31:17):
about oh, I'm gonna put my kid in charter school,
private school, not going to deal with those crappy public schools.
In the old days, it was the community's job to
take care of that school. And when you moved into
a neighborhood, you want all your kids went to that school.
And now people just kind of look at it and
(31:39):
go to some other school and don't think anything of it.
So I'm like, no, we have to all pitch in
on what's happening to this world. Little little, the smallest
bit doesn't matter because we know what's going on out there.
But I say to people, don't just sit on and
(32:00):
bitch and moan about what's going on out there. If
you get bitch and moan on it, get on your
Instagram and stay on your phone all day bitching and moaning.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
It doesn't do anything.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
Get off your phone and start doing something for other people,
even if you text about that, you know, or or
Twitter or ex or whatever, that it is right about
something positive right. And people say to me, I can't
give any money, I can't help take it off the
(32:32):
arts and talk about it or talk about if you're
into animal welfare or whatever it is, but push the positive.
Don't get on there. And you know, yeah, sourpus, it's like,
I hate this and I hate that, you know, it's
just such a drag.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
I agree with you, And that's why I want to
have the conversations here on my podcast because I've been
so ingrained to being that negative person growing up in
that world. You know I call myself. I've a little
bit of George Costanza in me, like, you know, he's
good complaining, but I don't want to make that my
public persona.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
There's enough of that. So that's why I was excited
to talk.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
To you about this kind of stuff today and my son,
I think, is finally taking a nap. But it goes
with the sense of community where he goes to this
class called Musikita, and since we're in Queens, it's bilingual.
It has Spanish and English music and he my wife
takes him like once a week and it's a sense
of community as we talk about what are we gonna
(33:32):
when he does go to school, what are we going
to do because we are big in the community. And
she's an inspiration because she'll get grants from the City
of Queen's to go to different schools and do like
an interactive dance performance with the kids. So it's like
I hear that and you're doing it on a different level.
So I mean, your your daughter is really getting a
(33:54):
great foundation of just the way to look at life.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
It came to me the other day we had a
show with one hundred and twenty kids in this park.
It was a big family day and my kids performed.
They did sing that really great song Sing and then
they did Beautiful by Macy Gray and they did another
song in Spanish for the movie Coco. Because my kids,
(34:18):
I would say eighty percent or Latinos Hispanic kids, and
then I've got an African American kids, and I've got
you know, I've got white kids too. But basically, you know,
our community is diverse. It's Palm Springs and the Coachella value.
I think it's a bunch of white people playing golf.
(34:40):
It's basically, you know, the guys that are the families
that are out there are hard working families that have
come here some you know, first generation immigrants, a lot
of different people that have come to Palm Springs to
make a life for themselves. You know, the guys that
take care of the golf courses, and the guys take
(35:01):
care of your house and your yard, and that's their kids,
and they're all Hispanic families are beautiful people. Man, They're
the most family driven people I ever met in my life,
and I know a lot of them. And with what
was going on in the country recently, it was even
more important for us to focus on what we do
(35:21):
and our music. And there's I have some stories about
what happened during that very difficult time when ICE first
started infiltrating this community, and it was really scary for a
lot of these families. And I don't want to get political,
But what I want to say is a lot of
these people are very good people and they're not this
(35:44):
perception of what we've been told they are. That's not
the truth at all. And so I'm just standing up
for the rights of the people that are here, you know,
to get education and help this country moved forward in
whatever aspect that is. And those kids being you know,
(36:07):
second generation, let's just say their parents came here or
there maybe their grandparents before that, are going to go
on to be citizens of the United States of America,
and then you're going to do their part to be
the best they can be. So we have to nurture
every single one of them, you know. And my old
friend Wayne Kramer from the MC five, he ran jail
(36:29):
guitar doors, and we used to have this conversation all
the time. I'm at the front and you're at the back,
because Wayne used to go to jails and prisons with
like guys like Tomrell, and I went with him. Education
in the United States of America is the most important
aspect in keeping those kids out of our prison system.
(36:50):
And that starts early. That's young, and I get like
really deep on this stuff. But basically a small statistic
for you. People can fighte this one off when they're
paying their taxes. This year, in the state of California,
we pay about seventy five hundred dollars a year for
a child's education in the public school system. Taxpayers, A
(37:11):
lot comes from property tax soon comes from the state,
and then when it comes to a prisoner, incarcerated prisoner,
and a privatized prison, forty five to sixty five thousand
dollars per prisoner. Now that's your money too, So spend
an however you want. But the system needs to be
(37:32):
changed because basically what's happening is the public school education system.
If it fails, you will pay more. So what's happening
is it's unequal and it's not sustainable. So I fight.
My knowledge of what the real thing and the numbers
(37:52):
are needs to be shifted with criminal justice reform and
more education in the public acceptor and getting these kids
the chance they deserve, giving them all the tools available
to excel as a human being when they walk out
that door and have a life as an adult. That's it.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
I mean, thank you for doing that and fighting this
fight and using the power and the influence that you have.
You know, I'm a mockstep with you, with everything you're
saying and with the because it is true.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
It is scary.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
I mean, just like a minor story my my babysitter,
because I'm the babysitter. We have a babysitter that comes
once a week. She's legal, she's Mexican, you know, Mexican.
But her husband is also legal, but he has like
a work visa thing. And she's telling me how nervous
he is even though he's a citizen.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
He's married. And it's a scary people.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
You're walking up to people because they have brown.
Speaker 3 (38:43):
Skin, because it's right, that's not fair.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
That's I never thought I would live in a world
like in my I know, we've lived in a world
where that's obviously happens, but in my timeline, my purview,
that's very scary.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
You're the acceptance speech for the original bass player of
Sound Garden.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
Yeah, I did.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
I did. He came up in a time when his
parents were locked up in you know, detention camps during
World War Two because they were Japanese, right, And you know,
it's just ridiculous. And I just love my kids and
I love their families, and you know, I'm in it.
I see it and my nanny, this lady, she's the
(39:26):
hardest working woman. And you know, this is a country
of immigrants.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
Man, you know this planet.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
That's how the way I look at it, we all are.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
We're all immigrants of the planet.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
Was built on immigrants. Yeah, that's your liberty. Yeah, you
go there, you've been there.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
Yeah. Yeah, when you walk.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Through that, when you walk through Ellis Island, you're like
anybody that has some kind of other belief in what
we're talking about right now, do yourself a favor. Go
to New York and walk through Ellis Island and think
about what they went through to get here. Number one
and they walk through that island and have their names changed.
Oh you're a blacksmith. Your name is going to be Smith. Okay,
(40:10):
I'm in Where do I got to sign up? Because
they wanted to come to America where people can say
whatever they want to say about this. Those country sucks.
I'm moving to Italy, Okay, whatever, move to Italy. I
love to visit Italy. Great, great pasta. You don't get
fat when you pasta in Italy.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
I don't know what it is that is also true.
Something in with the food here in America.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
It's weird. Okay, we got weird shit in our food
here too. I get it. But anyway, I just I
love America. I love California. I'll pay the state tax.
I don't give a shit I write. I drive my convertible.
The sun's out, I'm like, what a life. I'm in
Palm Springs and buy my pool in the winter. It's like,
come on, get grateful, get in line, and just do
(40:58):
something positive and get out of the dual drums. The
world's not endy, not yet. We've got time.
Speaker 3 (41:04):
We got time.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
I got time to do cool shit, you know. And
I look at it, you know, I look at my friends,
like Steven Tyler, who I've been playing with, you know,
and he's such a youthful guy. And before he went
to Black Stab, if we had a conversation on the phone,
I was gonna go with him. I wish I would have.
But when he got up on stage and just ripped it,
(41:32):
and I just was so proud of him at seventy
seven years of age. That's rock and roll. That is
like rock and roll is the youth, you know, it's
like youthful. It makes you He's still like a kid.
I feel that way too, Like it's my lifeblood. That's
(41:52):
where it all comes from. You know that that idea
of rock and roll, the way you feel you know
the uh don't you feel that way rock is now?
Speaker 3 (42:04):
I'm seeing it with my son.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
It's kind of like that the group that you belong
to that you were talking about before, Like it's just
that that rock and roll spirit doesn't die. It's part
of you. It's more than just the music itself. It's
some sort of connection. It's an attitude. And I that's
why I gravitated toward it my entire life, you know,
(42:27):
like I can't.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
I can energy.
Speaker 3 (42:29):
That's why I can't play an instrument to save the
life of me.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
But I always wanted to be like a rock you know,
radio personality, and that's just the my persona. And I wish,
I know I can keep you here forever. But this
is a good place to to pivot and maybe safely
because I know we don't want to go too too
deep into politics because you never know, people get angry.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
But with talking about Steven Tyler and staying young young blood,
can you tell us how that came to be because
you're you know, we're talking about Steven Tyler in the
seventies seven and how did yeah, how did you come?
Because are you kind of like an unofficial member of
Aerosmith now?
Speaker 1 (43:07):
And I can't say that I'll touch off by saying this,
as I was talking about Manifestation and uh, you know
you're a north Star and putting yourself in a on stage.
After my daughter turned four, I decided that I was
going to really kind of like open the floodgates and
(43:29):
put myself out there, you know, in a in a
sense like not making calls and going hey, I'm available,
none of that, just like setting my intentions about where
I want to go. And I said to myself, I
want to play rock and roll in a band. I
want to get out there. If someone wants me to
go on tour, give me a call. We'll figure it out.
But I've been kind of laying low with my kid.
(43:49):
I've had the foremost amazing years watching development. Now she's
speaking in full senses, so I'm like and talking about
so I'm like, okay, I'm going to figure it out.
Let's get wrong. So last year I took a tour
with a band called the Guitar Player Room band called
the Bees, the biggest Japanese band, talked Matsumoto. We played
(44:13):
thirty thousand seats in Japan, and I had Eric Martin
under lead vocals and Jack plays on bass. We made
a record it's called TMG TMG two. It's on Spotify.
And we toured Japan for a month and I took
my kid. I was there for six weeks. I took
my kid and I toured and I did like two
shows a week in Japan, lived in Tokyo. It was amazing.
(44:36):
And then I'm like, I can't can come with me?
This would be amazing. So with that mindset, I'm like,
I'm back. I'm getting back in you know. I'm like
people would call me and to do stuff, and I
was like, I got my kid, I'm cool, I don't
want a tour. So since then I got this call.
(44:59):
I got this DM on Instagram from young Blood DM
me Direct message wow. And I was driving back. I
had a gig with Billy Gibbons in Vegas and I'm
driving through the Mohave Desert, which is four hours over
the desert. Got this cool truck and I'm driving and
I'm like, young lady. He's like, hey, man, and I
(45:19):
met the kid one time at an Interscope party during Coachella.
He said, well, you played drums on We've come in
and played drums on this stuff. And I said, oh cool. Yeah,
when he goes, can you be here tomorrow? So drove
into LA and then right about that time, Steven called
me and he said, hey, you're coming. I go what.
(45:42):
I had no idea that it was together at the time,
got it, and then Joe and you know everyone else.
But basically the session that I was on was Joe,
Stephen and Young Blood and we were recording the vocals,
and so I cut My Only Angel. The very first
track I cut was this first single and super solid,
(46:06):
just straight ahead rock beat with this role. The Young
Blood kept going do that and went into NRG where
I recorded Velvet Revolver. I recorded my favorite drummer. They
asked me where I wanted to record the drums. I'm
like NRG, but they did Lincoln Park. They did Velvet
Revolver like a lot of big rock albums. Great drummer,
(46:29):
my drum tech, Mike Cassano set everything up. I walked
in there, Steven, there's Joho, there's Young Blets, Like this
is awesome, what's going on you guys, like we're collabing.
And I looked at Stephen, I'm like, awesome. And then
then I recorded a ballot that's going to be on
the EP that, in my opinion, is an amazing song,
(46:50):
and that is a killer track. That one is called
I'll think of it in a second. And then then
I went back and I recorded a read imagine version
of Back in the Saddle. Okay. Basically, it's the original
(47:13):
tracks with new drums, new bass, and young Blood's vocal.
Have you heard it.
Speaker 2 (47:21):
I haven't yet. I don't know if it's out yet.
It comes out next week, okay, killer. And I looked
at Steven and Joe and I'm like, hey, you guys,
this is cool for you guys, and they're like, yeah,
we love it.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
And and I'll say this to any kind of rocker
that's out there. They think it's sacrilege. I'm just going
to say this. This is the point in life where
rock and roll could be forgotten if we don't keep
refreshing it in the classic sense. Now, a record like
(47:58):
Back in the Saddle was made in nineteen seventy two
for us, you know, purveyors of rock and roll, the
guys that are in it all the time. I'm not
talking about you. I think we're looking at a general
audience that's going elsewhere, you know, into Kpe, Demon Hunters,
and Grunde and you know, you know about that day yet.
Speaker 3 (48:21):
I haven't watched it, but I know I'm aware of it.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
Yeah, yeah, every other kind of music that's out there,
but classic rock, and it's becoming. Is it old? It's old?
Whatever they want to say. If they're younger, let's just
say they're younger, twenty five and younger. Even how do
we reintroduce these great songs to a younger audience. Well,
(48:46):
young Blood, he's the vehicle. And the perfect scenario was
this kid, young Blood saying, I want to say rock
and roll. It might not be the perfect fit for
some people, like I don't know about this kid, whatever
they want to say, but in my opinion, it is
because the world changes. But he he wants to have
(49:10):
that that greatness of what Aerosmith contributed to world rock
and roll, wise as a feather in his cap or
being associated with these great artists and Stephen Tyler, one
of the greatest rock and roll singers of all time,
in a collaborative effort. I think it's great for both parties.
(49:32):
It's like and the world. In my opinion, it's a
modern take on what we did and it has to
be that way. And I like the way it came out.
I think it's really cool and I was happy to
be part of it, and I am still part of it.
Speaker 2 (49:52):
And I understand what you're saying, and you I respect that.
You're aware enough that some people might consider it sacrilege.
I mean, I I get it. I know what you're saying.
I mean the other the original isn't going away. You know,
it's not being replaced. I always find that funny. Here's
just another option to introduce the next thing.
Speaker 1 (50:12):
Well, I'll say this about Sympathy for the Devil. When
Guns and Roses cut that, I was like, why do
we want to cut that? I said it okay, Stones,
the Stones did it perfect. It's a perfect piece of music,
Sympathy for the Devil by the Rolling Stones. Why would
you want to do a remake? Well, we were the
young bloods of that generation. We were like the Stones were.
(50:35):
That song was at that time twenty five years old.
So David Geffen called for the Meybia Interview with the
Vampire and wanted the Darlings of the Moment Guns n'
Roses to be the soundtrack. That was the exact same
sort of idea. How could we bring this forward, even
(50:56):
though the Stones version wanted to have been killer But anyway,
we cut it. We cut the song and it's the
very end title of Interview with the Vampire. You know
the movie?
Speaker 2 (51:06):
Oh yeah, no, I love the movie, And honestly I
love the cover. I know it's famously the quote of
the sound of the band breaking up, but I like
that cover. And again I like the stories.
Speaker 1 (51:17):
I'm a rocky version. It's different, but I guess similar idea.
But the thing's cool about this version, it's not a remix,
not a DJ thing. Sure, the band oversaw it and
that's the way it came out, and it's heavier and
it's more modern sounding and bigger, and I think it's
really cool. It's just another take on it. And then
(51:38):
the other song on the album is called wild Woman.
That's coming out as the single. I believe in about
two weeks I played on that as well.
Speaker 3 (51:47):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (51:48):
My version is the single, and young Blood's the drummer
on the version. On the EP.
Speaker 2 (51:54):
Oh wow, okay, I mean, this is God. There's so
much stuff to talk to you about. Just to wrap
up the the Aerosmith portion of it obviously, you know,
sadly they can't tour anymore because of Stevens. Will have
those spots starts like you did back to the beginning.
Is there any talk of maybe doing a performance all
of you together, you know, any of these songs in
(52:17):
the future.
Speaker 1 (52:18):
You know, I couldn't even be able to comment on that.
I'm not in charge, you know, America. I'm just happy
to be around those guys. You know, really, I feel
so honored to be even asked to hang out and
do what I do and be I mean, I came
up with that band, and I've been in so many
great bands. Sometimes I just slap myself when I'm I'm
(52:41):
getting phone calls from that guy or you know, Stephen
calls me. I'm like, I still get weird to that.
I like Fane, you know, but it's the most bitching thing.
It's like rock and roll bucket list for me. I mean,
look at my career has been so incredible, you know,
and it makes me feel good when I get back
in the game. Then I'm then I'm staying at an
(53:02):
upper echelon like that. It's like, you know, I'm not like,
you know, a huffing. I'm trying to find the gig
and I've got I put myself in this amazing position
to be in this this project that's coming out with
Young Oh. I didn't put it myself in the universe
did but I got I got invited. I got invited
(53:22):
to the party. And when you get invited to the party,
it's nice. It's a nice feeling and rock and roll
and collaboration and that feeling I got when I was
in the room, this is exciting, and we all had
that exciting, youthful I looked at Steve and he was like,
you know, it's like Joe was like, come on, we
all still have that. It's still have that twenty year
(53:43):
old kid. It's down there going yeah, come on, it's rock.
You know. It's like, it's.
Speaker 3 (53:47):
All I love that.
Speaker 2 (53:49):
I'll try to make these three quick questions. I don't
know if you hear my son crying in the back,
you don't. You haven't heard him at all.
Speaker 1 (53:55):
He's uh, it's good. You got a good compressor on them.
Speaker 2 (53:58):
Awesome, awesome, because soon I'm gonna have to play babysitter
when my wife goes off to teach. That's how I do.
Just like you, you're fitting this interview thankfully. In between
all the stuff you do. I'm doing the same thing.
But I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that
young blood recently announced that he's taking the rest of
the year off, the kind of rest. So you kind
of hope because there's somebody who seemed like he burned
(54:19):
yourself with the candle at both ends for a long time,
so I don't did you hear about that? And just
like just want to put out and wishing him well.
A young blood, that young blood he took the rest
of the year off because he's kind of exhausted himself.
Speaker 1 (54:31):
Yeah, the kid, the kid's got the most amount of energy,
you know. I remember I remember looking at Steven in
the studio, going, man, he's the kid is just running around,
jumping around. He's just so excited to be in it
and it's and now the world. I mean, he's been
at it for a while, but it's really exploding for
(54:52):
him now. So a lot of people are coming at him,
you know, a lot of sort of stuff, And I
remember that feeling that I had when I was in
probably gn R, when it was a lot of stuff,
and it's hard to navigate, especially when you're young. You
got to kind of like it's overly what's the word
(55:13):
where your brain's just like, you know, got a lot.
Speaker 2 (55:15):
Going on, just overwhelmed. You can just get overwhelmed, it's
a better word for it.
Speaker 1 (55:19):
But yeah, it's a lot of stimulation, and it can
be scary, you know, at times, because not only is
there a lot coming at you, but there's a lot
of people coming at you, and there's a lot of
new people, and a lot of people want you when
they're pulling at you, and you know, your phone's blowing up,
and everyone wants to be your friend. And he's dealing
(55:41):
with all of it because he's a big star now,
and uh, he wanted to be a big star, but
now you've got to deal with the the repercussions of
what it takes to stay somehow focused with within all that.
And as you know, in the history of rock and
roll and so not everyone does well. But I'm hoping
(56:03):
and I feel like he's a very well adjusted kid,
and I see that with younger musicians that they're not.
They didn't do the kind of stuff we used to do.
And I think he has a couple of beers and
stuff from when I could see he's he's very focused.
He knows he wants to be the best he can be,
and so I wish him well. And I actually texted
him the other day and so he's going to be
(56:27):
He's going to be fine. He just needs to rest him.
He was hitting it hard. He was out there hitting
it hard.
Speaker 3 (56:31):
Yeah, right on.
Speaker 2 (56:32):
And I respect the musicians now that do that. In
this world where I talk about mental health all the
time that I call it in my secondary theme. There's
another artist who I really respect, Lola Young, who took
off some dates to focus on her life, and I
really just I respect it.
Speaker 3 (56:46):
You know a lot.
Speaker 1 (56:46):
You have to know I would say no. In the
music business, the business will push you. They'll keep pushing you.
The agent, the management, they're making everyone's making money off
of you. Yeah, so they're just going to keep you
work and keep going while they're sitting back by the
pool hotel. It's like everyone's making money. So that becomes
he's just the vehicle. And I'm happy you said no.
(57:10):
I commend him. You know, saying knows is a big deal.
And when you can't keep going even though people are
telling you to keep.
Speaker 2 (57:20):
Going, well, I know I want to keep going. So
hopefully I can squeeze if you have to leave, but
I can want to squeeze in two more questions if
you have Yeah, because we brought up Macy Gray a
few times, I know you're working with her. I would
always I've always wanted to know the story behind Velt
Revolver recording with Macy.
Speaker 3 (57:37):
That song kissed Him. I love that song. Yeah, it's
it's not brought off. I think it to me, it's
a hit.
Speaker 1 (57:46):
Go on Spotify everyone to listen to Kissed It by
Macy Gray. It's Me, Slash and Duff Macy. We've all
been friends in LA and we love Macy. She's an
old soul. I feel like her voice comes from another time.
She's She's got the most incredible, soulful voice. Wait to
hear the new stuff. I played on four new tracks
(58:07):
for a new record and a whole different style for me.
I got to play groovy and tucked in. I'm not
going like this, it's more groovy. So she had this
idea to get together with Slash and me and Duff
and I'm like, okay, So we went to my studio
and we cut the drums and I did that kind
(58:28):
of kind of a Gary Glitter kind of beat, and
that's what came of it. And ever since then, me
and Macy have been close and I love her dearly
and she came out here to help with my charity.
And then the other project I just finished was Tom
Thomas Raggy from Mona Skin Okay, and that's produced by
(58:52):
Tom Morello. Killer record. It's coming out December fifth. If
you know that band, Minus Sure and he's a great
guitar player, young I think he's twenty three now maybe
and a rocker like his intentions are rock. And Chat
(59:14):
Smith's on the record. I'm on the record. Nick Chester from.
Speaker 2 (59:20):
Jet Oh Jets, Nick Chester from Jets. Wow, I haven't Yeah,
they haven't been in my Yeah, he's back.
Speaker 1 (59:26):
He's back, and he's saying on the record and it's killer.
And Luke Spiller's on the record too, you know Luke Spiller.
Speaker 2 (59:37):
I want to I'm not going to try to be
a poser. The name is going over my head and
we're not going to pretend to be like, oh yeah,
I know who that is. Struts, the Struts, all the Struts,
I know all the Struts. I didn't know any of
their the band members' names.
Speaker 1 (59:50):
So that's a Luke's the lead singer. And he's performed
many times in food Fighters.
Speaker 2 (59:55):
Okay, see unless it's Guns and Roses, a Revelve Revolver.
I don't know all the members of the It's just
it is what. I'm sorry, I know I like this.
Speaker 1 (01:00:03):
I just don't know about this I've talked about. You know,
look this kid, young Blood. People know him by his
name because it's it's a name you can remember, right,
And he's a solo artist.
Speaker 2 (01:00:13):
And now I know his name is Dominic Harrison because
they hasn't changed his shares a name with my son.
Speaker 3 (01:00:17):
So that's why it sticks with me.
Speaker 1 (01:00:19):
You know, it's like these names like Alice Cooper and
Steven Tyler and Axel Rose and you know, Robert Plant
and I don't know, they stick out more than some
of these young young singers, these young rock singers. So
you want them to be able to build that too,
and we want people to represent Oh hey, that's the
singer from st Luke Spiller.
Speaker 2 (01:00:41):
Right right, I know, Harrison Rex, you have a rock
and roll name. Do you want to say hi to
Matt's arm?
Speaker 3 (01:00:47):
Sime?
Speaker 2 (01:00:47):
Here, buddy, he's wearing his Rolling Stones T shirt. Came here,
handsome come?
Speaker 1 (01:00:53):
Whoa look at the hair on that kid?
Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
Yea, he is his hair similar to your daughters almost
believe it or not.
Speaker 3 (01:01:00):
Do you want to do rock and roll? Look, he's
doing rock and roll? Can you do it? Yeah? He's
doing rock and roll with Matt Sore And this is
a dream cool.
Speaker 2 (01:01:08):
So you know, let me ask this one final question,
as this is a bucket list for me. Forty years
this year for of Guns and Roses. They started in
nineteen eighty five. You are obviously a part of that history,
a major part. Just what does forty years of GNR
mean to you? I mean, you were you have a
unique perspective that you were a name before GNR uh
(01:01:29):
and then GNR is a major part of your story
and you're We talked over an hour about everything that
you're doing now and you've done since then. So just
curious when I say forty years of Guns and Roses,
what comes to your head?
Speaker 3 (01:01:42):
What do you think about? Is that enough? You're just
fun to go ah, that's that's an answer. I guess.
Speaker 1 (01:01:52):
Yeah. Let me let's use that. Let me do it going.
Speaker 3 (01:01:54):
Okay, okay, that's the best answer. Wow, okay, fair enough.
I love that.
Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
Matt.
Speaker 3 (01:02:02):
Thank you. That was the best answer ever.
Speaker 1 (01:02:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:02:04):
I'm gonna go.
Speaker 2 (01:02:05):
I'm gonna be a good father right now. I'm gonna
go play with you. I'm gonna go say yeah, Matt,
thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 1 (01:02:11):
Yeah, clean it up a little bit, you know. I
screwed up some stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:02:13):
Yeah, we all do, so, thank.
Speaker 1 (01:02:15):
You, you know. Sixty five forty two.
Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
I don't know if that's the same excuse. So I mean,
I'll just do my little wrap up here. You can,
you can give a straight face so no one reads
too much into it. So that does it for this
episode of Appetite for Distortion. When will you see the
next one? And the words of Axl Rose concerning Chinese democracy?
I don't know as soon as the word, but you'll
see it.
Speaker 1 (01:02:37):
Thanks to the lamb ass security. I'm going home.
I remember that feeling that I had when I was
in probably GNR, when it was a lot of stuff
and it's hard to navigate, especially when you're young. Jesus.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Welcome to the podcast Appetite for Distortion. My name is Brando,
Episode number five hundred and forty two. Welcome back to
the podcast, mister Matt Soorm. How are you, sir?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Wow? Five hundred and forty two. That's quite an epic
journey you've been on.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Amazing, yeah, journey, to say the least, I am. I am
lucky enough to have been in radio for twenty plus
years in this six degrees of GNR Bacon podcast. That's
kind of just like a passion project that was to
get me out of depression. To do I've been doing
for nine years. And I started out as a single
(00:48):
man thirty three and now forty two. And you may
hear my two and a half year old in the background.
So but my wife is here, so he may say hi.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
I don't know. So if you want lou to come
say high.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Maybe we in school, lose off to school. She's uh
four and a half now, so she's pre k. We'll
get there. Okay, I actually got I actually got lou
in school when she was two.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Oh wow, okay, she was preschool. It's a little first day.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
The first day, I cried like a baby, no pun intended.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
I'm waiting today.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
I was like, let's leave her in a little longer.
And then she just was having the best time in socializing.
And that's when they start to realize they have power,
you know, these these girls and boys, and they got
they can talk to people. And now she's just just
a little bubbly, little spirited gem so fun. But I
(01:45):
think she got all that from being around other kids
and socializing and stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Right, And this is this is going to parlay into
our conversation today about Adopt the Arts. And last time
we were on we were talking a little bit before
the air that you gave me swaddling advice or nickis
you told me about the conversation we have with Nicky
six about the best way to swaddle. And now he
actually just came back from music class. He's not in
(02:12):
school yet. I'm while I work basically two jobs, like
two full time jobs essentially, and this podcast. I'm also
like a house dad because I work from home, so
I'm also his teacher. But we take him out to
so many different things to interact, especially music classes.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
We took him.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
This was I think last Sunday there was a classical
kids festival at the Queen's Museum.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Here in New York.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
And so I'm curious because it's much different for you know,
growing up around a musician. You know, my wife and
I we want to be musicians, but we're not. Did
she grab We're talking about four and a half you.
I'm sorry if I get if I this is a secret,
but sixty five years old as we're putting this episode out.
It's a happy birthday by the way. I know we're
(03:01):
recording it the day before, but I mean I can't
even know.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Are you putting it out tomorrow? Okay, that's my birthday.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
I wanted to.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
As soon as I was told that it's your birthday,
I'm like, I got to put it out and say
happy birthday so the world can say happy birthday to you.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Thank you. I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
So, I mean, it's one thing.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
It's interesting. Having my daughter late in life was definitely,
you know, a thing, but for me it was the
right time. It was like, you know, I sewed my
wild oats. If you will and if anyone who you
know knows my story, you know we all went through
(03:37):
stuff and then finally come to a place where you know,
I'm feeling pretty even keeled and ready to take on
the challenge of having a child without screwing it up, basically.
And you know, once I had lou everything changed for me.
It's just you know, and you understand this because you
(03:58):
know we're all on this mission for our careers and
trying to make something of ourselves. And you know, obviously
I had a pretty good run with many bands, but
this has been the greatest accomplishment of my life, being
able to try to be a father and not try
to be a father I am a father and raise
(04:18):
my child and try to do it all right and
experiencing I'm experiencing way more life than I do before.
I mean, I had an amazing life in rock and roll,
and I still play rock and roll, and I'll talk
about getting back into rock and roll. But this is
like an adventure. And this summer, we took her to Hawaii,
(04:39):
We took her to Lake Tahoe, we took her to
Santa Barbara, we took it to Laguna because you got
to do stuff with kids, and it brings you back
to your youth when you were a kid and your
parents would take your camping or down to the beach
or whatever. And it's that same feeling, which is why
we live life. Really. When get caught up in work,
(05:02):
coming something, you know, pushing and driving to be this,
you know, rock star or the best podcast or whatever
it is, the kids like takes you out of yourself.
Now you're all about them, right, You know that you
wake up in the morning, the first thing you think
about is the kid, not you. It's like, I got
to even get breakfast. I gotta get And that was
(05:26):
the amazing thing that happened because my head was always oh,
what am I going to do for Matt today? What
am I going to do to get going? I got
to do this, I got to do that. Now it's
like the first face I see is lou Ellington. And
you know with your child too, you're like, what's your
what's your kid's name?
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Harrison?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Rex cool and we just took him to his first
I don't want to see his first context opposite.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Rex Harrison, the very doctor Doolittle.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yes, that was a happy accident because we and you'll
appreciate it because it says you named your daughter after musicians.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
I we wanted to because my wife and I we
both love music.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
You know.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
She's a dance teacher for little kids and obviously me
being in radio. So but we playfully, even though she said,
if we ever have a second one, maybe we should
consider this name Axel Matthews because her favorite band is
Dave Matthews and obviously Gin and R with me.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
But I couldn't be the guy with It's bad enough.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
I'm nerding enough with the GNR, pock. I can't name
my kid act. So it's a great name, but I
couldn't do it. So yeah, we met on the Beatles
and we actually happened. She had seen Paul McCartney before.
I had never seen him. We just went to Pittsburgh.
We took our son to go see Paul McCartney. He
slept through half of it, had headphones on and ever whatever.
So we were like, okay, here's what name. We didn't
(06:46):
want to do Paul. We didn't want to do George,
not Ringo, you know, not Lennon. It reminded me of
the Dictator. So let's we arrived at Harrison and since
we kept both of our last names that are long.
We needed a shortened little name. So I just liked
the name Rex. And then it was after that, I'm like,
oh yeah, Rex Harrison. So it was that's my short,
little boring story.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
People listening to this mine remembering Rex harrisonboy.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
He was a great actor, my fair lady.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
I mean, I grew up watching a lot of those
movies with my grandmother. I mean she'd always say.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
And lou kind of came to us very strange. It
was my grandmother's middle name was Ella, and her first
name was Josephine, and there's actually a song on my
second solo album called Josephine written about her. If anyone's interested,
it's on Spotify. My grandmother was a ballerina and my
(07:37):
grandfather was a trumpet player, professor of music, an amazing musician.
But then I already given the debt name Ella away
to my French bulldog. My wife was like, we can't
use Ella, so, uh, Lou just kind of came at us.
(07:58):
I don't know if that happened with you with her,
and it just kind of starts to percolate and then
we're like lou lu. And I did some research on
the name, and it's older. It's an older women's name,
of course, Betty Lou all that kind of stuff, but
it was French originally. And then and then I was,
I have a lot of jazz records here, like you know,
(08:19):
Duke Ellington and you know Miles Davis and John Coltrane.
I looked over and I said, Lou Ellington. So I
like the ring of it. And I thought about this,
and I already got the dot com. Okay, if she
ever wants to cut the sorem off, she's got her
own stage name, right elling And because a lot I've
(08:39):
thought about artists of famous musicians, how they carry that moniker,
Like you know, my friend Jason Bonham, He's going to
be Jason Bonham, and that's great, and he carries a
legacy and he does that. With other people that come
up under under famous people of musicians or whatever, they
want to be their own person. It's harder for them
(09:00):
to kind of get their own recognition, you know, like
if you look at John Lennon's kids, you know, Sean,
he's you know, he's had a relative career, but or
or I mean Julian especially. So I thought about those
guys and I'm like, I'm going to give her own
kind of stage name. It's like and then I right
away got on and got the dot com.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Oh that's I love that.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Well, you'll give her a dot com for her fifth birthday.
Maybe she's like, wow, what is what is this? But yeah,
he already has Harrison rex Is. If he does make
an appearance, his hair is already down to here. I mean,
he's we're training him to be a rock star.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
So yeah, I mean, I'm gonna I'm gonna talk to
you a little later about something I'm working on. I
don't want to do it in this episode. I want
to focus on on the the Awards show that I'm
doing with Deezer Butler and Paul Rodgers. Okay, I'm working
on something for kids. It's going to blow your mind,
It's all I'm gonna say.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Oh, okay, see I'm excited for that. Then all right,
because I so, let's let's start then with because I
was going there to make the transition to adopt the
Arts and Elementary school, but we can switch. Since you've
already brought up the awards ceremony that's happening in March,
let me just bring that up on my little screen
here the Sound Envision Awards, and this looks amazing. I'm
(10:15):
grateful that I've had some of these people on my podcast.
Paul Rodgers finally in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Bless you.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
I don't know if you've heard my I don't know
if you heard my wife's sneeze. I feel like a
bad husband if I didn't say bless you. I'll leave
that in So Paul Rodgers sadly that he was not
well enough to make the event, but that's another story.
Geezer Butler, Lizzie Hale, Corey Taylor, Nuno, Bettencourt, Glenn Hughes,
who actually did meet my son. He crashed my interview
(10:44):
with with Glenn, Robert de Leo, who's been on the podcast,
Billy Duffy who's been on Phil X, Steve Stevie Sallas.
I mean, this is historic. This is in the historic
Plaza Theater. Tell me more about this and how this
came together.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Well, as you know, I've been doing a charity called
Adopt the Arts for fourteen years and I had schools
in la and I still do, and then I moved
to the desert about eight years ago, got married, twelve
years ago, and I decided that I want to kind
(11:20):
of be, you know, a guy in the community giving back.
So I brought my charity to the desert. Now we
have six schools in the Coachella Valley and that happened
a lot quicker than my tenuyear run or my about
eight year run in LA was a lot harder to
navigate the politics my vision was. My vision is K
(11:44):
through five. You go to adopt the Arts dot Org
you can kind of see what I'm up to. But
basically it's become a real passion project for me, and
I'm day to day. I mean I speak every day
to my co executive. We work really hard together. I'm
not just a guy that walks down a red carpet
and waves I'm in it at a big event. The
(12:05):
other day, I show up. I announce the kids, I
you know. So basically it's K through five public schools.
Where in California, especially in across the nation, a lot
of music is being cut for kids at that level,
and they just don't look at it as a as
a as a brain thing. They look at it as
an extracurricular activity. And I completely disagree. I see, so
(12:29):
my idea is these are the formative years. The K
three five is when the kids go, oh, I like this,
this is who I am? And they said, you know,
they gravitate towards You see that with your kid at
two and a half. But wait until she gets to
be Wait until he gets to be like, you know,
four or five, and then they start the brain starts,
(12:50):
you know, telling them things. They start to see stuff
that they wanted singing, dancing, you know that kind of thing.
And maybe she wants to be an engineer. My kid
likes to dabble and play with Like she goes to
recording studio and she messes with the knobs and wants
to do that. So who knows. She might be an
recording engineer. He might be a producer. I don't know.
(13:11):
But so anyway, I've got eight schools now in total.
And John Staymows just took over one of my schools
in LA because I can't be there as much. He's
a drummer as well and plays in the Boys. And
Jane Lynch, Bammy Awarding winning actress is my co executive,
(13:31):
my co founder, and she's very in it. She does
a lot of great stuff for us because on TV
talks about it, does a lot of you know, events
with us, and then we have a you know, a
really great board of people. If you look online and
you can see I've got everyone Metallic has been involved
with us, def Leppard, Alice, so many people have contributed
(13:55):
to Adopt the Arts and the last big Sound and
Vision award I did was for Moby pre Pandemic, and
then I had another one set up that got shut down,
Pandemic Era with Chad Smith and Geezer Butler and I rebooted.
(14:16):
This will be the first big fundraiser, big event, fundraiser,
gig rock and roll show that I've done since the pandemic,
being as we just launched two new schools in Coachell
Values that were doing a big fundraiser and I thought,
oh my god, Paul Rodgers worked with us. If you
go online, you can look at Paul Rogers and the
(14:38):
Changels Adopt the Arts Changels Choir with Paul Rodgers doing
rock and Roll Fantasy. If you can look it up
on YouTube, it would say Paul Rodgers and the Adopt
the Arts Changels, and we did. I took him all
to my studio and then recorded that song, and I
also did another song with Ringo, one of Ringo's songs,
(15:00):
and I'm planning to do the next Woe with Macy Gray,
who's also a part of Adopt the Arts, who's a
you know, amazing artist. So the Sound and Vision Award
is basically honoring people I love, you know. I always
look at it like, people go, can you get Billie Eilish,
I go, I don't know Billie Eilish. Can you get
(15:23):
Ariana Grandick? I don't know where Ariana Grandick? But I
know Geezer Butler, I know Paul Rodgers, and I just
stay in my lane. I reached out. I talked to
Kelly Clarkson yesterday. I don't know the girl, but I'm
trying to get her for Janie's Mone, for Steven Tyler.
You know, I have to. I have to reach out
to people anyway. The lineup came to be together pretty
(15:46):
quickly because Geezer and I had a short lived band
called Deadline Ritual, and we were We shared a tour
bus through Europe, which is amazing. If I can tell
you what he told me about Black Sabbath, the stories
were endless. Geezer is a of a more soft spoken guy.
But we were on a bus together. It was just
amazing being with him because I sap, come on, yeah,
(16:08):
it was my band. And I've told you this before.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
I can't even imagine what it was like, you know,
hanging out with Geezer.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
So I'm like, okay, Paul Rogers just got inducted. He
lives here in the desert in the wintertime. He'll be
here next month, and I speak, I've had dinner with
them many nights. He recorded with my kids. Just the
sweetest man on planet Earth. And I'll tell you right
now that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for
him was very stressful, and I know that he's so
(16:37):
bummed he couldn't be there, but I think it was
just a lot for him after his situations. People know
he had a stroke a few years back. But he
and his wife Cynthia made sure that Paul's going to
perform at least one or two songs at hit Off
Yards Sound and Vision Award because I feel like it's
(16:59):
it's just less stress and he's going to come in
and he lives close by and no travel that makes sense,
So it's looking super positive. Paul's going to perform and uh,
Deborah Bonham, John Bonham's sister, come out with Paul, which
(17:20):
will be really cool. And if anyone's interested in checking
out at Debora Bonham. John Bonham always got the limelight,
but Debort Bonham is a badass, So go on the
line and look at Debora. I will.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
I'm not familiar sister, so so we'll do a set
of songs and basically Nuno Bent and Court, who obviously
is an amazing guitar player, and I've been playing a
lot with lately.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
With Steven Tyler, we've done the Jane's Fund event last year. Together,
we've done a couple of privates for Janie's Fund where
we're raising money for Steven Tyler's charity. So Stephen only
wants to go play shows helped fund his charity, and
we've done a couple of those, and I've done him
(18:04):
with Nu novent in Court okay, and then Phil X
has been on second guitar a couple of times and
Phil's great, and James Lomonzo has been playing on that
gig from Megadeth. But this particular gig we got Robert
de Leo because from myself I felt that Robert de
Leo was the perfect fit for Bad Company and the
(18:28):
free music that we're going to play. Paul was also
in a band called Free all right now wishing well,
and so de Leo will probably play most of that
set on bass, and then we'll mix up the guitar players.
We'll be new know on some Billy Duffy, my old
bammate from the Cult. A lot of people don't know this,
(18:48):
but Free was his favorite band, okay, second to Bad Company.
So he's if you ever listen to the Cult, Billy's
got that rhythm and that tone that will lay down
that music perfectly. And I'm gonna make this great. And
then's talk about Sabbath. Geezer wants to come up. I said, Geezer.
(19:11):
Geeze is gonna play probably half the set, and that's amazing,
and we're gonna tear it up. And of course you
know be on that stuff. And then Phil X I
did it once with Geezer with fell X and Stevie Sallace.
People don't might not know Stevie as much, but he
was in Jagger's band. He played with Terrence Rerunt Darby
(19:34):
a lot of amazing guitar player. We did wore pigs together.
And it was those two together and Geezer and I'm
not sure. I'll probably give Corey that or Lizzie. Let's see, Okay,
Lizzie al I mean, come on, I know it's just
amazing and she's so sweet and she's coming from Nashville.
(19:57):
Corey Taylor's in. I just confirmed Charlie from BlackBerry Smoke.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
BlackBerry Smoke, great band.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Yeah, Okay, here's a predicament about Paul Rodgers. Okay, not
a lot of people can sing like him. Nope, So
you gotta be really cautious about who you let go
after it. So I looked up BlackBerry Smoke, and I'm
familiar with the band. Great band. One of those bands
is just out there working. They've been out there a
(20:30):
long time and great and they do well in their
own lane. But they play classic tones, classic rock and roll.
So I talked to Charlie through Billy Duffy and I'm
like yeah. And then Glenn Hughes, I mean, come on,
I his voices of rock.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Ever, I talked to him about how Stevie Wonder called
him his favorite white singer.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Oh man, I mean, imagine that kind of part, because he.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Can do that thing. He's got funk. Like a lot
of those those English dudes when they listened to music,
they were listening to R and B. You know. Paul
Rodgers was listening to Otis Redding and like, you know,
the old stuff to get his vibe. Same with Glenn.
A lot of the early rock and roll singers were
listening to blues, that kind of music. That's why you
(21:24):
say their voice has got a rock blues feel to it.
It's got a bluesy feel, you know. And they were
listening to just old classic singers and uh so Glenn
came up through that that too. So he has that
that kind of R and B background. You know, if
you listen to a lot of his music, he's got
a lot of soul in it. It's a lot of
(21:45):
soul in the singing. So he's a perfect guy. And
he had a short stint in Black Sabbath. Yeah, sure
they do that, so Glenn will do that. And then
there's a couple other singers I can't say yet, but
a couple other big names guys that are going to
kind of pop in last minute. Okay, so we're super excited,
and then basically what happens is it's a brand new
(22:06):
theater here in the desert that was redone from the twenties.
They just finished the remodel. It's only got six hundred
and twenty seats and we've already sold about two hundred seats.
We need to sell it out for the charity, and
we'll have an amazing auction of like rock and roll items.
I'm going to reach out to all my friends of course,
(22:26):
blacks out with memorabilia, you know. I'll have some guns
and roses stuff there, all the different bands that are represented,
and a lot of our friends from you know, hopefully
Metallica always. Metallica is always giving. Those guys always send stuff,
and I reached out here, but I know they will.
They're just good like that. And def Leppard always does
(22:48):
like a meet and great and you know, all my
friends over the years are very supportive. So there'll be
a lot of killer auction items and hopefully we'll get
some of those up online where the show even starts.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
So, okay, I was gonna ask about that because if
we're not proleged enough, I mean, even if you are
from the area, this only, like you said, six hundred
and something seats. I don't know, I don't think you're
is it prepared enough to be I don't want to
say televised, like a big event like the Rock and
Roll of Fame, I know not. But is there gonna
be like maybe a YouTube stream or videos afterwards?
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Like how? I don't know where? You know, we'll get there.
We got a few months to figure it all out,
you know. I just literally nailed down the line up fair.
You know. I think we're going to add a couple
more bigger name singers. You know. I don't want to say,
but I got a couple of guys. Uh but we're
good with the band, a killer band, and uh so
(23:45):
I'm excited about that. We're going to rehearse sound great,
put on a great rock and roll show, have an
auction in the middle, and we're doing a private dinner
the night before, and I think there's a few seats
left or that with all the band members there with
a really an amazing host. And you can go to
adopt the arts and look all that up and see
(24:06):
what that costs to come in and join that party.
I think it's about five thousand dollars per couple, and
that's sort of a big ticket for a lot of people.
But you get seats with that, and you get an
amazing dinner and we're all going to hang out and
there'll be some acoustic performances and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Right yeah, right on. That's so cool.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
And it's all again stems from what you're able to
do and put together from adopt the arts and the
kind of go back to that and the journey where
it's led you to now you know, like me, I mean,
you became a dad later in life than me, and
I thought I was late forty. But the giving back
and starting with the elementary school and the formative years
(24:50):
and then again, this is what it transcends to. It's
almost like you knew you were going to have a
kid in a way, like what was the mission statement?
Is somebody you know you didn't have kids? Did you
just have a lot of nieces and nephews or did
you just liked being around, you know, whenever you go
to a concert and you liked seeing little young rock
and rollers. Harrison, I just taught them to do I
(25:11):
call it rock and roll the metal horns. I don't
want them to teach them to design the devil just yet.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
So is that all?
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Is that kind of like the driving force behind it
all is like the next generation, the next Matt Sorum,
the next.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Everything in the philanthropic world happened organically. Okay, my life
has been driven by intuition and I feel, and I
say this in posts on my Instagram. It's what you
imagine or what you manifest in your life is what
you want to do. It's not a joke about dreaming.
(25:47):
When you say dreaming, dreaming is yeah, okay, I'm dreaming
or I had a dream. My belief is manifestation and
setting the stage for yourself, even if it's a little kid.
I used to draw pictures of myself on my peachy
folder on a drum set with my arms up like
this and the little stick figures of band guys.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
I a would say, you sent your intentions and you know,
what's your north star? The word north star is where
are you going? Well? I believe that speaking to the
universe in that sort of a way guide you. And
you know, we all get off track. I've got off
track many times. But now I wake up in the morning,
(26:30):
what am I going to do today? And what's what's
my what's my goal? What's my purpose? And when I
got the charity together. It was something that was more
of a purpose than anything I've ever had in my life. Now,
playing drums and getting on stage and putting on a
good rock show, that's still something I'm very you know,
(26:51):
into When I get up there, I want to do
the best possible job. I'm not getting up there, you know,
looking at a time clock going okay. It's pure passion,
and I drive my life the same way and everything
I do that and that's probably a lot of what
I'm teaching these kids. And when you find that passion
(27:12):
or you find something you're good at, you need to
go after it and you focus on I'm good at this.
And when I talk about teaching kids music and art,
doesn't mean you're going to be a musician, but then
you get creative and it unleashes your mind to think
creatively and outside the box. But you're also working in
(27:36):
a social environment during the day in the school. It's
the only time you're working together. I have one hundred
and twenty kid choir called the Changels.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
I like that name, by the way, The Changels.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Yeah. My old friend Laney Cordola from a band called
Chifrea and House the Lords remember them.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Oh wow, that's a memory unlocked.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Okay. He was the first guy that I saw that
went off to help people. He left Hollywood, got going
on over ten years ago, twelve years ago, and he
took off and he went to Afghanistan to start a
school for girls. Oh wow, look him up. It's called
(28:22):
the documentary is going to be called Girl with the Guitar,
but they haven't finished it yet, but miraculous love kids,
look up Landy the guy. He just left Hollywood and
he took this mission. They'll help these girls and teach
them how to play guitar. And the Taliban came back
in and they all had to move out and get
(28:42):
the heck out of that country and moved to Pakistan.
It's a long story, but I just wanted to say
he was a very inspiring guy for me because he
just gave his life completely on, wholeheartedly while I was
like whoa. And he helped me come up with the
name for the choir. The idea was the Angels of Change.
You know. It's like and these kids, when you see
(29:05):
the choir, it's not just them, it's their parents. Their
parents come to me and go, You've changed their kids life.
You've changed their life or him like the way they
feel they're in a community. They're like part of something.
Remember that when you became part of something. Yeah, I'm
in this is my thing, man, with my friends and
(29:25):
we're like yeah, yeah. It's not like they're a lone
or they're not on this. They're not by themselves. So
many kids in school are like, who am I? What
do I do? Where do I go? Who do I
fit in with? The Changels are a group of kids
that are communicating through music and creating something bigger than
(29:47):
just themselves. So I love that and when I see it,
I'm like, man, I I get really hopeful for the
little bit that we can do. But those one hundred
and twenty kids and we served thirty six hundred are
going to go on to understand that they can do
(30:07):
whatever they need to do to get to the next
point in life because they've learned they have potential. And
that's all we that's all we can do is give
people the opportunity to number one, to know that we
care about them. Yeah, because in the public school system,
(30:28):
I got to say, the public school system here in
the Coachella Valley is pretty great. We're just here to
sort of help elevate and bring more community. So this
year we're doing the parade again. Last year I was
a grand marshall.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Okay, that's right, and kids were behind me.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
I had hundred kids behind me.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
The coot viper.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Yeah. Yeah. This year, I'm going to be on a
big float. Of course, I'll have my kid. She loves
She's ready to go. She gets dressed up, she's like
and then you know, the community, we'll see what we're doing.
And I feel that public schools, the situation in America
with public schools, the mindset has to change. It's not
(31:17):
about oh, I'm gonna put my kid in charter school,
private school, not going to deal with those crappy public schools.
In the old days, it was the community's job to
take care of that school. And when you moved into
a neighborhood, you want all your kids went to that school.
And now people just kind of look at it and
(31:39):
go to some other school and don't think anything of it.
So I'm like, no, we have to all pitch in
on what's happening to this world. Little little, the smallest
bit doesn't matter because we know what's going on out there.
But I say to people, don't just sit on and
(32:00):
bitch and moan about what's going on out there. If
you get bitch and moan on it, get on your
Instagram and stay on your phone all day bitching and moaning.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
It doesn't do anything.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
Get off your phone and start doing something for other people,
even if you text about that, you know, or or
Twitter or ex or whatever, that it is right about
something positive right. And people say to me, I can't
give any money, I can't help take it off the
(32:32):
arts and talk about it or talk about if you're
into animal welfare or whatever it is, but push the positive.
Don't get on there. And you know, yeah, sourpus, it's like,
I hate this and I hate that, you know, it's
just such a drag.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
I agree with you, And that's why I want to
have the conversations here on my podcast because I've been
so ingrained to being that negative person growing up in
that world. You know I call myself. I've a little
bit of George Costanza in me, like, you know, he's
good complaining, but I don't want to make that my
public persona.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
There's enough of that. So that's why I was excited
to talk.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
To you about this kind of stuff today and my son,
I think, is finally taking a nap. But it goes
with the sense of community where he goes to this
class called Musikita, and since we're in Queens, it's bilingual.
It has Spanish and English music and he my wife
takes him like once a week and it's a sense
of community as we talk about what are we gonna
(33:32):
when he does go to school, what are we going
to do because we are big in the community. And
she's an inspiration because she'll get grants from the City
of Queen's to go to different schools and do like
an interactive dance performance with the kids. So it's like
I hear that and you're doing it on a different level.
So I mean, your your daughter is really getting a
(33:54):
great foundation of just the way to look at life.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
It came to me the other day we had a
show with one hundred and twenty kids in this park.
It was a big family day and my kids performed.
They did sing that really great song Sing and then
they did Beautiful by Macy Gray and they did another
song in Spanish for the movie Coco. Because my kids,
(34:18):
I would say eighty percent or Latinos Hispanic kids, and
then I've got an African American kids, and I've got
you know, I've got white kids too. But basically, you know,
our community is diverse. It's Palm Springs and the Coachella value.
I think it's a bunch of white people playing golf.
(34:40):
It's basically, you know, the guys that are the families
that are out there are hard working families that have
come here some you know, first generation immigrants, a lot
of different people that have come to Palm Springs to
make a life for themselves. You know, the guys that
take care of the golf courses, and the guys take
(35:01):
care of your house and your yard, and that's their kids,
and they're all Hispanic families are beautiful people. Man, They're
the most family driven people I ever met in my life,
and I know a lot of them. And with what
was going on in the country recently, it was even
more important for us to focus on what we do
(35:21):
and our music. And there's I have some stories about
what happened during that very difficult time when ICE first
started infiltrating this community, and it was really scary for a
lot of these families. And I don't want to get political,
But what I want to say is a lot of
these people are very good people and they're not this
(35:44):
perception of what we've been told they are. That's not
the truth at all. And so I'm just standing up
for the rights of the people that are here, you know,
to get education and help this country moved forward in
whatever aspect that is. And those kids being you know,
(36:07):
second generation, let's just say their parents came here or
there maybe their grandparents before that, are going to go
on to be citizens of the United States of America,
and then you're going to do their part to be
the best they can be. So we have to nurture
every single one of them, you know. And my old
friend Wayne Kramer from the MC five, he ran jail
(36:29):
guitar doors, and we used to have this conversation all
the time. I'm at the front and you're at the back,
because Wayne used to go to jails and prisons with
like guys like Tomrell, and I went with him. Education
in the United States of America is the most important
aspect in keeping those kids out of our prison system.
(36:50):
And that starts early. That's young, and I get like
really deep on this stuff. But basically a small statistic
for you. People can fighte this one off when they're
paying their taxes. This year, in the state of California,
we pay about seventy five hundred dollars a year for
a child's education in the public school system. Taxpayers, A
(37:11):
lot comes from property tax soon comes from the state,
and then when it comes to a prisoner, incarcerated prisoner,
and a privatized prison, forty five to sixty five thousand
dollars per prisoner. Now that's your money too, So spend
an however you want. But the system needs to be
(37:32):
changed because basically what's happening is the public school education system.
If it fails, you will pay more. So what's happening
is it's unequal and it's not sustainable. So I fight.
My knowledge of what the real thing and the numbers
(37:52):
are needs to be shifted with criminal justice reform and
more education in the public acceptor and getting these kids
the chance they deserve, giving them all the tools available
to excel as a human being when they walk out
that door and have a life as an adult. That's it.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
I mean, thank you for doing that and fighting this
fight and using the power and the influence that you have.
You know, I'm a mockstep with you, with everything you're
saying and with the because it is true.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
It is scary.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
I mean, just like a minor story my my babysitter,
because I'm the babysitter. We have a babysitter that comes
once a week. She's legal, she's Mexican, you know, Mexican.
But her husband is also legal, but he has like
a work visa thing. And she's telling me how nervous
he is even though he's a citizen.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
He's married. And it's a scary people.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
You're walking up to people because they have brown.
Speaker 3 (38:43):
Skin, because it's right, that's not fair.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
That's I never thought I would live in a world
like in my I know, we've lived in a world
where that's obviously happens, but in my timeline, my purview,
that's very scary.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
You're the acceptance speech for the original bass player of
Sound Garden.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
Yeah, I did.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
I did. He came up in a time when his
parents were locked up in you know, detention camps during
World War Two because they were Japanese, right, And you know,
it's just ridiculous. And I just love my kids and
I love their families, and you know, I'm in it.
I see it and my nanny, this lady, she's the
(39:26):
hardest working woman. And you know, this is a country
of immigrants.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
Man, you know this planet.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
That's how the way I look at it, we all are.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
We're all immigrants of the planet.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
Was built on immigrants. Yeah, that's your liberty. Yeah, you
go there, you've been there.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
Yeah. Yeah, when you walk.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Through that, when you walk through Ellis Island, you're like
anybody that has some kind of other belief in what
we're talking about right now, do yourself a favor. Go
to New York and walk through Ellis Island and think
about what they went through to get here. Number one
and they walk through that island and have their names changed.
Oh you're a blacksmith. Your name is going to be Smith. Okay,
(40:10):
I'm in Where do I got to sign up? Because
they wanted to come to America where people can say
whatever they want to say about this. Those country sucks.
I'm moving to Italy, Okay, whatever, move to Italy. I
love to visit Italy. Great, great pasta. You don't get
fat when you pasta in Italy.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
I don't know what it is that is also true.
Something in with the food here in America.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
It's weird. Okay, we got weird shit in our food
here too. I get it. But anyway, I just I
love America. I love California. I'll pay the state tax.
I don't give a shit I write. I drive my convertible.
The sun's out, I'm like, what a life. I'm in
Palm Springs and buy my pool in the winter. It's like,
come on, get grateful, get in line, and just do
(40:58):
something positive and get out of the dual drums. The
world's not endy, not yet. We've got time.
Speaker 3 (41:04):
We got time.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
I got time to do cool shit, you know. And
I look at it, you know, I look at my friends,
like Steven Tyler, who I've been playing with, you know,
and he's such a youthful guy. And before he went
to Black Stab, if we had a conversation on the phone,
I was gonna go with him. I wish I would have.
But when he got up on stage and just ripped it,
(41:32):
and I just was so proud of him at seventy
seven years of age. That's rock and roll. That is
like rock and roll is the youth, you know, it's
like youthful. It makes you He's still like a kid.
I feel that way too, Like it's my lifeblood. That's
(41:52):
where it all comes from. You know that that idea
of rock and roll, the way you feel you know
the uh don't you feel that way rock is now?
Speaker 3 (42:04):
I'm seeing it with my son.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
It's kind of like that the group that you belong
to that you were talking about before, Like it's just
that that rock and roll spirit doesn't die. It's part
of you. It's more than just the music itself. It's
some sort of connection. It's an attitude. And I that's
why I gravitated toward it my entire life, you know,
(42:27):
like I can't.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
I can energy.
Speaker 3 (42:29):
That's why I can't play an instrument to save the
life of me.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
But I always wanted to be like a rock you know,
radio personality, and that's just the my persona. And I wish,
I know I can keep you here forever. But this
is a good place to to pivot and maybe safely
because I know we don't want to go too too
deep into politics because you never know, people get angry.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
But with talking about Steven Tyler and staying young young blood,
can you tell us how that came to be because
you're you know, we're talking about Steven Tyler in the
seventies seven and how did yeah, how did you come?
Because are you kind of like an unofficial member of
Aerosmith now?
Speaker 1 (43:07):
And I can't say that I'll touch off by saying this,
as I was talking about Manifestation and uh, you know
you're a north Star and putting yourself in a on stage.
After my daughter turned four, I decided that I was
going to really kind of like open the floodgates and
(43:29):
put myself out there, you know, in a in a
sense like not making calls and going hey, I'm available,
none of that, just like setting my intentions about where
I want to go. And I said to myself, I
want to play rock and roll in a band. I
want to get out there. If someone wants me to
go on tour, give me a call. We'll figure it out.
But I've been kind of laying low with my kid.
(43:49):
I've had the foremost amazing years watching development. Now she's
speaking in full senses, so I'm like and talking about
so I'm like, okay, I'm going to figure it out.
Let's get wrong. So last year I took a tour
with a band called the Guitar Player Room band called
the Bees, the biggest Japanese band, talked Matsumoto. We played
(44:13):
thirty thousand seats in Japan, and I had Eric Martin
under lead vocals and Jack plays on bass. We made
a record it's called TMG TMG two. It's on Spotify.
And we toured Japan for a month and I took
my kid. I was there for six weeks. I took
my kid and I toured and I did like two
shows a week in Japan, lived in Tokyo. It was amazing.
(44:36):
And then I'm like, I can't can come with me?
This would be amazing. So with that mindset, I'm like,
I'm back. I'm getting back in you know. I'm like
people would call me and to do stuff, and I
was like, I got my kid, I'm cool, I don't
want a tour. So since then I got this call.
(44:59):
I got this DM on Instagram from young Blood DM
me Direct message wow. And I was driving back. I
had a gig with Billy Gibbons in Vegas and I'm
driving through the Mohave Desert, which is four hours over
the desert. Got this cool truck and I'm driving and
I'm like, young lady. He's like, hey, man, and I
(45:19):
met the kid one time at an Interscope party during Coachella.
He said, well, you played drums on We've come in
and played drums on this stuff. And I said, oh cool. Yeah,
when he goes, can you be here tomorrow? So drove
into LA and then right about that time, Steven called
me and he said, hey, you're coming. I go what.
(45:42):
I had no idea that it was together at the time,
got it, and then Joe and you know everyone else.
But basically the session that I was on was Joe,
Stephen and Young Blood and we were recording the vocals,
and so I cut My Only Angel. The very first
track I cut was this first single and super solid,
(46:06):
just straight ahead rock beat with this role. The Young
Blood kept going do that and went into NRG where
I recorded Velvet Revolver. I recorded my favorite drummer. They
asked me where I wanted to record the drums. I'm
like NRG, but they did Lincoln Park. They did Velvet
Revolver like a lot of big rock albums. Great drummer,
(46:29):
my drum tech, Mike Cassano set everything up. I walked
in there, Steven, there's Joho, there's Young Blets, Like this
is awesome, what's going on you guys, like we're collabing.
And I looked at Stephen, I'm like, awesome. And then
then I recorded a ballot that's going to be on
the EP that, in my opinion, is an amazing song,
(46:50):
and that is a killer track. That one is called
I'll think of it in a second. And then then
I went back and I recorded a read imagine version
of Back in the Saddle. Okay. Basically, it's the original
(47:13):
tracks with new drums, new bass, and young Blood's vocal.
Have you heard it.
Speaker 2 (47:21):
I haven't yet. I don't know if it's out yet.
It comes out next week, okay, killer. And I looked
at Steven and Joe and I'm like, hey, you guys,
this is cool for you guys, and they're like, yeah,
we love it.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
And and I'll say this to any kind of rocker
that's out there. They think it's sacrilege. I'm just going
to say this. This is the point in life where
rock and roll could be forgotten if we don't keep
refreshing it in the classic sense. Now, a record like
(47:58):
Back in the Saddle was made in nineteen seventy two
for us, you know, purveyors of rock and roll, the
guys that are in it all the time. I'm not
talking about you. I think we're looking at a general
audience that's going elsewhere, you know, into Kpe, Demon Hunters,
and Grunde and you know, you know about that day yet.
Speaker 3 (48:21):
I haven't watched it, but I know I'm aware of it.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
Yeah, yeah, every other kind of music that's out there,
but classic rock, and it's becoming. Is it old? It's old?
Whatever they want to say. If they're younger, let's just
say they're younger, twenty five and younger. Even how do
we reintroduce these great songs to a younger audience. Well,
(48:46):
young Blood, he's the vehicle. And the perfect scenario was
this kid, young Blood saying, I want to say rock
and roll. It might not be the perfect fit for
some people, like I don't know about this kid, whatever
they want to say, but in my opinion, it is
because the world changes. But he he wants to have
(49:10):
that that greatness of what Aerosmith contributed to world rock
and roll, wise as a feather in his cap or
being associated with these great artists and Stephen Tyler, one
of the greatest rock and roll singers of all time,
in a collaborative effort. I think it's great for both parties.
(49:32):
It's like and the world. In my opinion, it's a
modern take on what we did and it has to
be that way. And I like the way it came out.
I think it's really cool and I was happy to
be part of it, and I am still part of it.
Speaker 2 (49:52):
And I understand what you're saying, and you I respect that.
You're aware enough that some people might consider it sacrilege.
I mean, I I get it. I know what you're saying.
I mean the other the original isn't going away. You know,
it's not being replaced. I always find that funny. Here's
just another option to introduce the next thing.
Speaker 1 (50:12):
Well, I'll say this about Sympathy for the Devil. When
Guns and Roses cut that, I was like, why do
we want to cut that? I said it okay, Stones,
the Stones did it perfect. It's a perfect piece of music,
Sympathy for the Devil by the Rolling Stones. Why would
you want to do a remake? Well, we were the
young bloods of that generation. We were like the Stones were.
(50:35):
That song was at that time twenty five years old.
So David Geffen called for the Meybia Interview with the
Vampire and wanted the Darlings of the Moment Guns n'
Roses to be the soundtrack. That was the exact same
sort of idea. How could we bring this forward, even
(50:56):
though the Stones version wanted to have been killer But anyway,
we cut it. We cut the song and it's the
very end title of Interview with the Vampire. You know
the movie?
Speaker 2 (51:06):
Oh yeah, no, I love the movie, And honestly I
love the cover. I know it's famously the quote of
the sound of the band breaking up, but I like
that cover. And again I like the stories.
Speaker 1 (51:17):
I'm a rocky version. It's different, but I guess similar idea.
But the thing's cool about this version, it's not a remix,
not a DJ thing. Sure, the band oversaw it and
that's the way it came out, and it's heavier and
it's more modern sounding and bigger, and I think it's
really cool. It's just another take on it. And then
(51:38):
the other song on the album is called wild Woman.
That's coming out as the single. I believe in about
two weeks I played on that as well.
Speaker 3 (51:47):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (51:48):
My version is the single, and young Blood's the drummer
on the version. On the EP.
Speaker 2 (51:54):
Oh wow, okay, I mean, this is God. There's so
much stuff to talk to you about. Just to wrap
up the the Aerosmith portion of it obviously, you know,
sadly they can't tour anymore because of Stevens. Will have
those spots starts like you did back to the beginning.
Is there any talk of maybe doing a performance all
of you together, you know, any of these songs in
(52:17):
the future.
Speaker 1 (52:18):
You know, I couldn't even be able to comment on that.
I'm not in charge, you know, America. I'm just happy
to be around those guys. You know, really, I feel
so honored to be even asked to hang out and
do what I do and be I mean, I came
up with that band, and I've been in so many
great bands. Sometimes I just slap myself when I'm I'm
(52:41):
getting phone calls from that guy or you know, Stephen
calls me. I'm like, I still get weird to that.
I like Fane, you know, but it's the most bitching thing.
It's like rock and roll bucket list for me. I mean,
look at my career has been so incredible, you know,
and it makes me feel good when I get back
in the game. Then I'm then I'm staying at an
(53:02):
upper echelon like that. It's like, you know, I'm not like,
you know, a huffing. I'm trying to find the gig
and I've got I put myself in this amazing position
to be in this this project that's coming out with
Young Oh. I didn't put it myself in the universe
did but I got I got invited. I got invited
(53:22):
to the party. And when you get invited to the party,
it's nice. It's a nice feeling and rock and roll
and collaboration and that feeling I got when I was
in the room, this is exciting, and we all had
that exciting, youthful I looked at Steve and he was like,
you know, it's like Joe was like, come on, we
all still have that. It's still have that twenty year
(53:43):
old kid. It's down there going yeah, come on, it's rock.
You know. It's like, it's.
Speaker 3 (53:47):
All I love that.
Speaker 2 (53:49):
I'll try to make these three quick questions. I don't
know if you hear my son crying in the back,
you don't. You haven't heard him at all.
Speaker 1 (53:55):
He's uh, it's good. You got a good compressor on them.
Speaker 2 (53:58):
Awesome, awesome, because soon I'm gonna have to play babysitter
when my wife goes off to teach. That's how I do.
Just like you, you're fitting this interview thankfully. In between
all the stuff you do. I'm doing the same thing.
But I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that
young blood recently announced that he's taking the rest of
the year off, the kind of rest. So you kind
of hope because there's somebody who seemed like he burned
(54:19):
yourself with the candle at both ends for a long time,
so I don't did you hear about that? And just
like just want to put out and wishing him well.
A young blood, that young blood he took the rest
of the year off because he's kind of exhausted himself.
Speaker 1 (54:31):
Yeah, the kid, the kid's got the most amount of energy,
you know. I remember I remember looking at Steven in
the studio, going, man, he's the kid is just running around,
jumping around. He's just so excited to be in it
and it's and now the world. I mean, he's been
at it for a while, but it's really exploding for
(54:52):
him now. So a lot of people are coming at him,
you know, a lot of sort of stuff, And I
remember that feeling that I had when I was in
probably gn R, when it was a lot of stuff,
and it's hard to navigate, especially when you're young. You
got to kind of like it's overly what's the word
(55:13):
where your brain's just like, you know, got a lot.
Speaker 2 (55:15):
Going on, just overwhelmed. You can just get overwhelmed, it's
a better word for it.
Speaker 1 (55:19):
But yeah, it's a lot of stimulation, and it can
be scary, you know, at times, because not only is
there a lot coming at you, but there's a lot
of people coming at you, and there's a lot of
new people, and a lot of people want you when
they're pulling at you, and you know, your phone's blowing up,
and everyone wants to be your friend. And he's dealing
(55:41):
with all of it because he's a big star now,
and uh, he wanted to be a big star, but
now you've got to deal with the the repercussions of
what it takes to stay somehow focused with within all that.
And as you know, in the history of rock and
roll and so not everyone does well. But I'm hoping
(56:03):
and I feel like he's a very well adjusted kid,
and I see that with younger musicians that they're not.
They didn't do the kind of stuff we used to do.
And I think he has a couple of beers and
stuff from when I could see he's he's very focused.
He knows he wants to be the best he can be,
and so I wish him well. And I actually texted
him the other day and so he's going to be
(56:27):
He's going to be fine. He just needs to rest him.
He was hitting it hard. He was out there hitting
it hard.
Speaker 3 (56:31):
Yeah, right on.
Speaker 2 (56:32):
And I respect the musicians now that do that. In
this world where I talk about mental health all the
time that I call it in my secondary theme. There's
another artist who I really respect, Lola Young, who took
off some dates to focus on her life, and I
really just I respect it.
Speaker 3 (56:46):
You know a lot.
Speaker 1 (56:46):
You have to know I would say no. In the
music business, the business will push you. They'll keep pushing you.
The agent, the management, they're making everyone's making money off
of you. Yeah, so they're just going to keep you
work and keep going while they're sitting back by the
pool hotel. It's like everyone's making money. So that becomes
he's just the vehicle. And I'm happy you said no.
(57:10):
I commend him. You know, saying knows is a big deal.
And when you can't keep going even though people are
telling you to keep.
Speaker 2 (57:20):
Going, well, I know I want to keep going. So
hopefully I can squeeze if you have to leave, but
I can want to squeeze in two more questions if
you have Yeah, because we brought up Macy Gray a
few times, I know you're working with her. I would
always I've always wanted to know the story behind Velt
Revolver recording with Macy.
Speaker 3 (57:37):
That song kissed Him. I love that song. Yeah, it's
it's not brought off. I think it to me, it's
a hit.
Speaker 1 (57:46):
Go on Spotify everyone to listen to Kissed It by
Macy Gray. It's Me, Slash and Duff Macy. We've all
been friends in LA and we love Macy. She's an
old soul. I feel like her voice comes from another time.
She's She's got the most incredible, soulful voice. Wait to
hear the new stuff. I played on four new tracks
(58:07):
for a new record and a whole different style for me.
I got to play groovy and tucked in. I'm not
going like this, it's more groovy. So she had this
idea to get together with Slash and me and Duff
and I'm like, okay, So we went to my studio
and we cut the drums and I did that kind
(58:28):
of kind of a Gary Glitter kind of beat, and
that's what came of it. And ever since then, me
and Macy have been close and I love her dearly
and she came out here to help with my charity.
And then the other project I just finished was Tom
Thomas Raggy from Mona Skin Okay, and that's produced by
(58:52):
Tom Morello. Killer record. It's coming out December fifth. If
you know that band, Minus Sure and he's a great
guitar player, young I think he's twenty three now maybe
and a rocker like his intentions are rock. And Chat
(59:14):
Smith's on the record. I'm on the record. Nick Chester from.
Speaker 2 (59:20):
Jet Oh Jets, Nick Chester from Jets. Wow, I haven't Yeah,
they haven't been in my Yeah, he's back.
Speaker 1 (59:26):
He's back, and he's saying on the record and it's killer.
And Luke Spiller's on the record too, you know Luke Spiller.
Speaker 2 (59:37):
I want to I'm not going to try to be
a poser. The name is going over my head and
we're not going to pretend to be like, oh yeah,
I know who that is. Struts, the Struts, all the Struts,
I know all the Struts. I didn't know any of
their the band members' names.
Speaker 1 (59:50):
So that's a Luke's the lead singer. And he's performed
many times in food Fighters.
Speaker 2 (59:55):
Okay, see unless it's Guns and Roses, a Revelve Revolver.
I don't know all the members of the It's just
it is what. I'm sorry, I know I like this.
Speaker 1 (01:00:03):
I just don't know about this I've talked about. You know,
look this kid, young Blood. People know him by his
name because it's it's a name you can remember, right,
And he's a solo artist.
Speaker 2 (01:00:13):
And now I know his name is Dominic Harrison because
they hasn't changed his shares a name with my son.
Speaker 3 (01:00:17):
So that's why it sticks with me.
Speaker 1 (01:00:19):
You know, it's like these names like Alice Cooper and
Steven Tyler and Axel Rose and you know, Robert Plant
and I don't know, they stick out more than some
of these young young singers, these young rock singers. So
you want them to be able to build that too,
and we want people to represent Oh hey, that's the
singer from st Luke Spiller.
Speaker 2 (01:00:41):
Right right, I know, Harrison Rex, you have a rock
and roll name. Do you want to say hi to
Matt's arm?
Speaker 3 (01:00:47):
Sime?
Speaker 2 (01:00:47):
Here, buddy, he's wearing his Rolling Stones T shirt. Came here,
handsome come?
Speaker 1 (01:00:53):
Whoa look at the hair on that kid?
Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
Yea, he is his hair similar to your daughters almost
believe it or not.
Speaker 3 (01:01:00):
Do you want to do rock and roll? Look, he's
doing rock and roll? Can you do it? Yeah? He's
doing rock and roll with Matt Sore And this is
a dream cool.
Speaker 2 (01:01:08):
So you know, let me ask this one final question,
as this is a bucket list for me. Forty years
this year for of Guns and Roses. They started in
nineteen eighty five. You are obviously a part of that history,
a major part. Just what does forty years of GNR
mean to you? I mean, you were you have a
unique perspective that you were a name before GNR uh
(01:01:29):
and then GNR is a major part of your story
and you're We talked over an hour about everything that
you're doing now and you've done since then. So just
curious when I say forty years of Guns and Roses,
what comes to your head?
Speaker 3 (01:01:42):
What do you think about? Is that enough? You're just
fun to go ah, that's that's an answer. I guess.
Speaker 1 (01:01:52):
Yeah. Let me let's use that. Let me do it going.
Speaker 3 (01:01:54):
Okay, okay, that's the best answer. Wow, okay, fair enough.
I love that.
Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
Matt.
Speaker 3 (01:02:02):
Thank you. That was the best answer ever.
Speaker 1 (01:02:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:02:04):
I'm gonna go.
Speaker 2 (01:02:05):
I'm gonna be a good father right now. I'm gonna
go play with you. I'm gonna go say yeah, Matt,
thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 1 (01:02:11):
Yeah, clean it up a little bit, you know. I
screwed up some stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:02:13):
Yeah, we all do, so, thank.
Speaker 1 (01:02:15):
You, you know. Sixty five forty two.
Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
I don't know if that's the same excuse. So I mean,
I'll just do my little wrap up here. You can,
you can give a straight face so no one reads
too much into it. So that does it for this
episode of Appetite for Distortion. When will you see the
next one? And the words of Axl Rose concerning Chinese democracy?
I don't know as soon as the word, but you'll
see it.
Speaker 1 (01:02:37):
Thanks to the lamb ass security. I'm going home.
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