It’s the weekend and time for another edition of Metal Mayhem ROC!
Tonight-- show host Jon “The Vernomatic’ Verno has two fun informative interviews to share.
Resist & Bite was formed in early 2019 by Tommy Skeoch (Formerly of Tesla) David Parks, Steve stokes, Brian Powell and Nathan Utz (Formerly of Lynch Mob).
The band spend most of 2019 writing and recording. They made themselves public to the world in February 2020, just in time for the pandemic.!! The band self-produced and released their first song “The Myth I’m Living” on Metal works, 105.9 The Rock in Nashville TN. The track gained momentum and positive attention worldwide.
In June 2021, saw the band release another single and video for the track “Fate”. The song was recorded and mixed by Michael Rosen at Sound Stage Studios in Nashville and is one of 13 new original tracks on the just released self-titled debut album Resist & Bite.
Vernomatic takes a deep dive into that album band members Tommy Skeoch and Steve Stokes.
The guys cover the formation of the band, their unique chemistry of writing and the “Magic “behind the tracks on this album. It’s a fun chat with a great band that has its roots in classic 80s style rock but yet still has the sound and feel of a current 2021 hard rock band.
Vernomatic, then has an exclusive interview with Rock photographer Timmy McCrum as he shares his once-in-a-life-time experience of photographing both Van Halen and the Rolling Stones in one concert.
Van Halen capped off their 1981 Fair Warning by opening up for the Rolling Stones on two sold out stadium shows October 24th and 25th at the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando FL 40 years ago this week.
Tim shares how he planted his photography equipment in an empty stadium days before the event to get past the strict security system. Tim relives the excitement and euphoria as a un stoppable VAN HALEN went toe to toe with the legendary rolling stones. It’s a great story with an even better ending.
We invite you to rate and review this and all past episodes at www.podchaser.com Simply enter Metal Mayhem ROC in the search box, scroll down, press the MMROC logo and rate the episode and leave a review
As always, we encourage you to listen, like and share this and all past episode to your metal and NON metal friends. Thank you for your support, you can follow us at https://www.facebook.com/groups/409879766475870
Tonight-- show host Jon “The Vernomatic’ Verno has two fun informative interviews to share.
Resist & Bite was formed in early 2019 by Tommy Skeoch (Formerly of Tesla) David Parks, Steve stokes, Brian Powell and Nathan Utz (Formerly of Lynch Mob).
The band spend most of 2019 writing and recording. They made themselves public to the world in February 2020, just in time for the pandemic.!! The band self-produced and released their first song “The Myth I’m Living” on Metal works, 105.9 The Rock in Nashville TN. The track gained momentum and positive attention worldwide.
In June 2021, saw the band release another single and video for the track “Fate”. The song was recorded and mixed by Michael Rosen at Sound Stage Studios in Nashville and is one of 13 new original tracks on the just released self-titled debut album Resist & Bite.
Vernomatic takes a deep dive into that album band members Tommy Skeoch and Steve Stokes.
The guys cover the formation of the band, their unique chemistry of writing and the “Magic “behind the tracks on this album. It’s a fun chat with a great band that has its roots in classic 80s style rock but yet still has the sound and feel of a current 2021 hard rock band.
Vernomatic, then has an exclusive interview with Rock photographer Timmy McCrum as he shares his once-in-a-life-time experience of photographing both Van Halen and the Rolling Stones in one concert.
Van Halen capped off their 1981 Fair Warning by opening up for the Rolling Stones on two sold out stadium shows October 24th and 25th at the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando FL 40 years ago this week.
Tim shares how he planted his photography equipment in an empty stadium days before the event to get past the strict security system. Tim relives the excitement and euphoria as a un stoppable VAN HALEN went toe to toe with the legendary rolling stones. It’s a great story with an even better ending.
We invite you to rate and review this and all past episodes at www.podchaser.com Simply enter Metal Mayhem ROC in the search box, scroll down, press the MMROC logo and rate the episode and leave a review
As always, we encourage you to listen, like and share this and all past episode to your metal and NON metal friends. Thank you for your support, you can follow us at https://www.facebook.com/groups/409879766475870
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
W l v DD Radio. Areyou ready? Live from the Metal Mayhem
Studios in Rochester, New York.We are gold and heard around the world
by metal heads just like you.This is Metal Mayhem ROC Heavy metal music,
your weekly dose of metal music interviews, album reviews, news and more.
(00:25):
I want to be part of theshow, Send us a message through
our website Metalmayhem roc dot com orhit us up on Facebook and Twitter search
Metal Mayhem Roc. It's good,nice and heavy and now welcome to night's
host, John the Verna Madic Verno. Good anything, everybody, and welcome
to the last week of October,the preferred month of thrashers and fashers around
(00:49):
the world. As always Thursday nightsbrand new content drops. Visit the Metalmayhem
roc dot com website. There you'llfind direct streaming link to Spotify, Apple
podcast, Stitcher. While you're there, download some past shows, subscribe,
review That kind of stuff always helps. Sign up for our email list.
(01:11):
This way you'll receive weekly updates onnew shows, merch promos, free giveaways.
But more importantly, I'll give youa notification for our Monday night live
radio show that I host on thatmetalstation dot com. It's a three hour
live radio show. I play musicfrom the last fifty years. There's a
chat room where you could sign upand get in there and talk with bangers
(01:34):
from around the globe. It's reallycool. It's a great way to bring
your metal Monday in for a landing. Tonight's show, I have the band
Resistant Bite. Tommy Skio formerly ofTesla. He started up a new band
in twenty nineteen. Tommy and SteveStokes, the other guitarist, called me
(01:55):
up the other day. We hada great conversation to explain how the band
got together. Are their unique chemistryon writing, and we pretty much take
a deep dive into the debut album. They give us their input onto different
songs. I share my input.This is a great band. They have
that classic eighties sound, but yetthey stay current with the new landscape of
(02:16):
twenty twenty one. The second halfof tonight's show, I do an exclusive
interview with rock photographer Timmy McCrum.Now this is a good one. Forty
years ago. This past week,van Halen opened up for the Rolling Stones
down in Florida at the Tangerine Bowl. Van Halen was finishing up their eighty
(02:38):
one Fair Warning tour. The Stoneswere on tour for their Tattoo You track
across America and van Halen opened upas one of the last times van Halen
has ever opened up for anyone.Tim went there as a young rock photographer
and he's here tonight to share hisstory about I'm not gonna let too much
out of the bag, but howhe got creative about getting his equipment into
(03:02):
this concert because it was a verytight security show at the time when they
first started using the metal ones.So Tim's here to tell us about how
he got it in there, thescene that was going on, and how
van Halen went toe to toe withthe legendary Stones in this show. So
that's what we got tonight, Anddo us a favor, We invite you
(03:24):
to visit podchaser dot com Punching MetalMayhem roc right in the search box and
we will come right up. Pleaserate and review these episodes. We're trying
to get some traffic on the reviewsites for the show and it really helps
in all the analytics. So that'swhat we got tonight. Resistant Bite Tommy
(03:49):
Skio and Steve Stokes and Tim McCrumtalking about van Halen forty years ago opening
for the Stones I'm the Vertomatic.This is Metal Mayhem Roc. Let's get
at it, heyst now, getthat pop going, ready and grab a
sea as the Verno Medic present thisweek's feature interview exclusively here on Metal Mayhem
(04:13):
Roc. So let's see today wegot an exciting one. We have on
the line from Nashville, Tennessee,I believe, or somewhere in the South.
We have Tommy Skio and Steve Stokesof Resist and Bite. New album
just dropped. It's a fantastic pieceof rock and roll, hard rock,
however you want to label it.Let's get him on here. Tommy and
(04:35):
Steve. Welcome to Metalmahem. Howyou doing man, We're in Nashville.
Yeah, what's going on man,Verno? You both are in Nashville,
then, I take it we are. We're working on some new songs,
just having some food, Yeah,dude, we're already. We're already working
on the second album today. That'sgreat. We're gonna get a quick recap
(04:55):
of the band. Tell us abouthow you guys came together, give a
roster line up of the excellent newband, and then we'll take a deep
dive into that debut album. Yeahdude, Well, we you know,
we were all introduced by a friendof ours who was our drummer, Dave
Parks. He is the he's thegreat connector, and uh yeah, he
connected us all and Tommy and uhDave did the skin Tude record a couple
(05:20):
of years ago, and then andthen Dave was like, man, let's
do this for real, like let'syou know, let's do let's do a
full on band with with you know, members and everything. So basically,
Tommy gave David CD and uh Davecame over to my house about two years
ago for Thanksgiving and popped it inthe CD player and I was like,
(05:40):
and I didn't know it was Tommy. I just was like, you gotta
check this out, man. SoI checked it out and I was like,
dude, we got to do this. This is badass. So I
took the song and put it inpro tools and chopped it up and added
some stuff in it and nailed itback to Tommy. He didn't know Tommy.
Tommy did know me, and he'slike, who is this guy?
(06:00):
Man? We got to do this. This is this is a bad ass.
So and that song ended up beingthe first song that we put out
the Myth I'm living. So whoknew each other? Tommy knew Dave Well,
I knew Dave Yes, and wehad done a record, and Steve
and Dave were in a band forthe longest time, so they knew each
(06:21):
other, and they knew Brian.We all kind of knew each other except
Nathan, and we had another singerat the very beginning were but that didn't
work out. So then that's whenNathan came in. Was after we were
already together for a few months,and then that's when it really just happened.
I mean, I met Nate.I drove up to Atlanta, we
got in the car, I playedthem all the CDs with vocals, without
(06:44):
whatever, and we just really kindof bonded and became friends in four or
five hours on the drive up toa Kentucky where we were working men.
And it's been on till the breakof dawn untill then. So let's see,
let's get a geographical Tommy, youlive in Nashville, Steve, where
do you live? I live inFlorida. Actually, yeah, Tommy's in
Florida. I'm in Nashville. BrianPowell, bass player, he's in Nashville.
(07:08):
He's kind of my neighbor. He'swon holler over, as we say.
And Nathan Newts is a singer andhe's he's in Atlanta, Georgia.
And Dave you know, he plays, uh, he plays all He's always
playing everywhere all over the world.Dad, you never know where he is.
Dave lives in his car. No, I'm just kidding. He lives
in Cincinnati, and but he comesdown to Nashville and plays gigs all the
(07:29):
time. So okay. So it'sa sort of a Southern connection. And
Michael Rosen produced this album his longhistory of working Tommy worked with him with
Tesla, Testament, Death Angel,some punk stuff. How did Rosen get
involved with this release? Um?You know what, man, We were
thinking about producers and all kinds ofpeople that you know, Dolaner, ourselves,
(07:50):
whatever, and I just one day, all of a sudden. Just
I mean, it's not like Mikewasn't on my radar, you know,
I mean we're friends. It's justI just thought, man, why in
my nine what about Mike Rosen?He would be great man to try and
get in here? And so Ijust called him see if he was free,
and he loved the idea. Andonce we sent him some songs.
He was just in you know,yeah, he was the perfect fit for
(08:11):
it. Two, he came andwatched this rehearsed a couple of times and
help us to rearrange the songs toget ready to record. And it just
Gael against any great engineer too,and just sounded the records of Testament to
that. He did a great job. So the new album debut, It
doesn't have a name. What isit? Just the debut album. That's
(08:31):
the name of it. Resist andBite. It's resist and Bite, resisted
bite. Fourteen songs, forty nineminutes, each song between three and four
minutes. The production is fresh,it's easy to digest. Guys. It
has a very old school sound toit, but yet not overly produced,
(08:52):
very live sound. That's interpretation.I got dude, you're you're nailing it,
man, that's awesome. We didit. We cut the album in
twenty days at sound stage, no, no weekends off, nothing, twenty
days straight, brutal, straight through, dude, twenty days straight at sound
stage in uh Nashville, which isa really really nice studio, great studio.
(09:13):
Mike got us a hook up thereand we camped out. Man.
So twenty straight days. Was ita live in studio or will obviously we
you know, we we went youknow, it was in Nashville, so
Brian and Steve were able to gohome and the rest of us. Nate's
sister was here, so he wentover there, and me and Michael Rosen
(09:33):
and Dave we're you know, whatdo you call it? Airbnb? Yeah,
airbnb thing. Yeah, so thatwas that. We just go there
every morning and knock it out allday long. Yet for twenty days,
twenty one days, three. Tommy, you're a veteran, you know,
you've been doing us thirty forty years, and congratulations on for sobriety. I've
(09:54):
done some research and you know,congratulations on putting that behind you. The
question and I have here and whatis the age difference of the band?
Tommy, You're probably closer to sixtyWhat what about the other guys. I'll
be sixty in February. Yeah,I'm I'm thirty five. He's a little
young and uh Dave and uh Daveand Nate and Brian are around the same
(10:18):
age. Uh, I guess Idon't I don't know how old everyone is,
but there yeah, okay, yeah, so yeah, yeah, Brian
David are about, you know,ten years older than me. So we
got the whole We have the wholespectrum. Man, we have you know,
two three decades almost of uh youknow, musical influence going on here.
Basically I was rocking when when whenSteve got spit out. Yeah,
(10:41):
Tommy, this is like your trophyband. You know, older guys get
married for the second time. Ihave a trophy wife. It's sure is
a special thing. I don't thinkof it so much like that as much
as just it's just been great.Everything just flows really easily. Everything we
do just seems to happen in justwe do stuff effortlessly and have really a
(11:03):
lot of fun doing it, andeverything turns out really cool, and I'm
just I'm really happy with that,and it's it's just a lot of fun.
And I never who knew that Iwould have another great band. I
mean, I thought, maybe,you know, Tesla was the last thing
for me. And I'm not areal smooze work kind of guy. So
to have another band have gotten togetherall natural high like things to happen is
(11:24):
kind of a big deal, youknow. And who would have thought that
I would have another band with thiskind of energy and this this this awesomeness
again you know it's it's it's great. Let's talk about these songs, how
they've come together, where they conceivedinto studio. Was it stuff that and
he leftovers or is it just freshresistant bitte material. Oh man, it's
(11:46):
it's it's all brand new. Um. Tommy was kind of the you know,
the the main songwriter on the album. We have some couple collaboration like
I and uh scream we we wedid together and uh yeah for the most
part, I mean Tommy's uh,he's got a little symbly line over.
Yeah. And it's not it wasn'tby design or anything like that. It
just that those are the songs thathappened. I mean, as we speak
(12:09):
now. Just last night we finishedthe song of Steve so trying to get
it incorporate and we want the nextrecord to be have a little bit of
a different vibe. So so yeah, but we're all right and stuff and
it just then again, it cametogether very effortlessly. We just would put
out a piece of music, Natewould write over and boom, beautiful song
and it would happened over and overand over. Pretty great. Yea.
(12:31):
When we you know, we fleshedall these songs out. We did like
pretty much full blown demos for himat my little studio, and uh,
actually that's how we did Myth.That's how that one came out. But
then we you know, we decidedto do a fully produced album, so
we we already had everything kind ofdemoed out, so we knew the parts
that we wanted to do when wewent to the studio. It is pretty
cool. What's interesting is like Mythis basically the very first song we recorded
(12:54):
together, that recording that we putout. It was a demo and we
had a radio interview, so wethought we'd better bring something and it just
happened that, you know, thatsong worked out. We put a video
to it, and that's like andthat's our first time first met Steve the
day we recorded that. I mean, there's just something there. Man.
It's been a good fit. Man, it's a good fit. Yeah,
(13:16):
all right, Well, right offthe start, I have two favorite songs.
One of my first favorite Till Tomorrow, very old school, kind of
happy eighty song. Sounds like ithas the perfect recipe for maybe the next
single if you'd ever want to gothat way. Who wants to standard face?
(13:41):
Who wants to do with the day? When ten friend then ten but
(14:01):
stag as the trust shots stats don'thope. I guess well, I'm really
(14:41):
actually surprised that that was the songthat I Usually it's a more rocking song
people go for. But I lovethat song, and you know what,
the way it's going, we're justputting out a video for every song,
man, I wouldn't be surprised ifwe get done with this record. We
have a video for more than halffor more than half the songs on the
record. But uh, that's agreat song. Love it, dude,
That's a great song. Has alot going on and there are a lot
(15:01):
of a lot of players. Ithink we might have driven Michael little crazy
with Scot that's got mandolin, acousticguitars. Oh dude. First time I
played at B three ever in mylife was on that record. On that
track, and man, it's likeoperating a spaceship. Man. It was
fun, A lot of fun.Don't get me wrong. I like a
lot of the heavier stuff up mytop two maybe today you know Saturday there
(15:24):
is two different ones. But thesong crazy, that's song really kicks ass.
I think it's just I think it'sjust something where it reminds me of
a better time. They're just upliftingsongs. That's so cool, man.
I'm glad you're you're getting again.You know, it's conjuring up a feeling
for me, because a lot ofour songs do that for me. They
(15:45):
conjure up colors and feelings and vibesand that song then it's like got a
pop thing going on, but itreally rocks at the same time. Love
it, man. I love howmy guitars with the vocal on the courses.
It's just pretty rad. Now thealbum starts off, I think the
heaviest song on the album a darkersong, Blood on Me. As I
(16:07):
digested it six or seven times,I started really feeling the sequence of the
album. Why Blood on Me asthe opener, I don't know, man,
it just kind of it kind ofjust kind of fell together that way.
We were contemplating having Fate the firstbut we didn't want to start it
with that kind of hip hoppy intro, you know, And there wasn't much
of a discussion. It was likeMike said, it should absolutely be that.
(16:29):
We were already kind of on thatpage. Everyone just like, yeah,
Yeah, it's got a killer introon it. It's just a nice
way to kind of ease into it, although it eases into it pretty quickly,
and then it turned gets pretty metalright off the bat. Yeah it
does. That's actually my favorite songon the album because it has it has
every element of music that I like. I mean, it's got it's got
eighties metal, it's got nineties metal, and it's got the the you know,
(16:52):
the harmonized priest solo in the middleand as a drum solo too.
Yeah, that long role he doesat the hands of rat. Yeah.
Well, I got to save therest of my end put on these other
songs. But that leads me toyour guy's favorite songs on this What holds
a Special place for You. Yeah, we were talking about that the other
day and I said, Fate andthat's still kind of a man there,
(17:15):
you know. And someone just postedon my Facebook thing today they love the
jams I'm doing in between all theverses and parts and faith and I really
like that. Man, Fate Skyjust a rock and thing. But man,
it's I can't say that truthfully,because of course I love the whole
record. Man, it's just crazy. Yeah. Man, it's got a
little bit of everything on there.It's it's kind of hard to choose what
(17:37):
your favorite song is because it's youknow, it's a depends on kind of
moved your end really, but Imean for me, I mean blood Blood
will be mine. With how tochoose the second favorite? I gotta I
gotta put away my inner metal headand I would want to say up in
flames, but put putting it outaside and Scream is a really bad ass
on and that one kind of felltogether. That's one that Dave kind of
(17:57):
came up with the idea and thenTommy wrote the riff and then and then
we kind of fleshed the rest ofit out in the studio, which is
kind of cool. Yeah, thatwas cool different for us. Yeah,
(18:22):
don't Papa when you be down inthe far every week I made time body
(19:11):
the only tickets and Dude at Homeis a really cool song. Um,
(19:52):
it's kind of a simpler song,but the way we recorded it was totally
badass. I mean, that isthe only full blown song on the record
that we recorded live. That whatyou hear there is completely live. Well,
yeah, I see what you want. The last song on the acoustic,
but Home is all live guitar soloslive. The only thing we overdubbed
(20:15):
was background harmy mean, his vocalslive. That's what my notes have.
Home eighties feel too ish, great, this must be a great live song,
totally impromptu, middle of the setkind of song. Dude, that's
so funny you say that because live, man, people seem to really eat
it up. But I never evensaw that. I don't know where that
(20:37):
comes from. But that's that's cool. Yeah. Yeah, we didn't think
that people would dig it live becauseit's kind of slower and we we just
busted it out in the show andthe we loved it went crazy. Well,
let's give your bass player Brian powellsomelove. According to the vernomatic UH
notes, let's see on bombs,there comes that bass again killer bass fate,
(20:59):
bass is grooven. Tell us aboutBrian, what kind of input did
he have in on this? Becausethat bass is killing. We just tell
him what to do, okay,Brian. Brian had never played with the
pick before, which surprised me becausehe's he's from um, he's from the
north Northwest, you know, justoutside of Portland, Vancouver, Washington's and
(21:22):
uh he's he's a he's a punkguy, punk metal guy. You know,
maybe I'm speaking too too much forhim here, but I mean I
was surprised that he never played,never played with the pick, and we
got him playing with a pick anduh yeah do so. Yeah the intro
on I think he uses a bassball on that he's got. Yeah,
yeah, it's it's really really cool. Yes, So that's a great way
to kick that one off. We'retalking with Tommy Scio Steve Stokes of the
(21:44):
band Resistant Byte, brand new album, the debut albums out everywhere. Visit
resistant byte dot com. There you'llfind all their socials and all that stuff
you need to stay in touch withthe band. Now, I have some
more quick questions about the album.Maybe you can answer them. You two
are the guitarists, So how doyou split up the leads? Is there
(22:04):
an arrangement you have? Is aninety ten Tommy Steve, No, we
don't. It's that's again just somethingthat just like in tests, So we
never talked about that stuff. Wejust kind of it's funny in this band
we talk about like at first Istarted doing a lot of the songs and
because of that, on the demos, I played a lot of the solos,
So at first I was doing alot of the solos. So if
(22:26):
we talked about it, ever,it's just like, we gotta get you
in playing more leads and more harmonies. And now we're starting to get there
with that, so it's it's cool. Yeah. You know, Tommy and
I both do full blown demos forthings before we show them to each other
or anyone else in the band,And by the fault, we usually go
ahead and you know, put aguitar solo on it because we can't.
We can't help ourselves, right,you know. So and Tommy just he
(22:48):
already had you know, he hadmore more time to write on the last
album, so he ended up takinga little bit of the lines share on
it. But we're trying to uh, you know, we just we just
go for it, man, likehe said, we don't really, we
don't really. We try and keepeverything natural and flowing and we don't really
talk about stuff much and just kindof let it happen. Maybe say hey,
let's get together, and then youknow, we just go from there,
man, and we just rock likethat. It's awesome. We love
(23:11):
harmonized leads that we try not tooverdo it. You know. Uh,
this probably maybe a Nathan question,But who is Mary? That's the mother
Mary, that's uh, that's Jesus. No, man, that's some Jesus
shit in a Nate's mind or something. I'm not sure what's going on there.
Tell you the jeth but I loveit. It's a song about I
don't it's way. This is definitelyNate's Sally, but I mean, you
(23:32):
know, it's rosary beads in there, and you know, it's very it's
very much Uh. It's one ofthem songs that conjures up a vibe again
like we were talking about earlier,which is what I love about it.
Although I don't know exactly what he'ssaying, and we're not we're not a
Christian band, but uh, Nathandefinitely is into that, very very spiritual
and it comes out in his lyricson a few of the songs. Well
my notes for that um has avery Western twang to it. They're definitely
(23:59):
reach for something anything. Yeah,that was Mike. I think that you're
referring to probably that little acoustic thingin the beginning. That was Mike's addition.
Mike's like I pick up the acoustic. Go go do some some licks,
you know, like you're on thefront porch stare or something too.
Yeah, yeah, that's what itwas. It was like, um,
yeah, that's a twanging kind ofthing. Let's see the instrumental afterneath conscious
(24:23):
effort to have an instrumental? Wasit a just read lyrics as happened there?
As it was a song that Idemoed and Nate never or no one
ever put any lyrics to it.And one day Dave just said, you
know what, that that song couldbe an instrumental, And we thought about
it and kind of tossed the ideaaround for a while, and by time
(24:45):
we got to the record, wewere sold on it. It became an
instrumental, and now we're thinking aboutputting them one on the next record.
And also not by design, justbecause we happen to have another song like
that that didn't get used lyrically andjust stands on its own musically. So
it's kind of happening naturally really,just like I said, And that's a
real key thing in all this,I believe. Yeah, each of these
(25:07):
songs has its own vibe. Ifit's a rocker, it rocks. If
it's a mellow hate the way usethe term poppy. It's it's good,
it's it's it's fantastic. There's likerocking stuff that's has different in like crazy
Word, it's got a pop influence, but it's definitely rocking and that that
kind of mixture. I love thatstuff, like Up in Flames, Oh,
(25:30):
dude. Up in Flames is kindof a throat to Judas Priest.
It begins with the you know,the big scent thing, and then Tommy
comes in on the tremlow guitar,you know, and then Dave kicks it
off. I saw no time.I gotta laugh because my notes Up in
(26:33):
Flames dames, Dave's drums kill.The song's a rocker. What is this?
Tempton and k K yeah, Twaynegets our atak swear to God those
are my notes. So um,that's funny, dude. It's funny recording
though one Uh. I was doingthat harmony on the on the verse,
and I was doing it every othertime. Tommy's like, do it every
(26:55):
time. You gotta do it everytime. We gotta do this the right
way. I don't know, Ijust love it. Last song on the
album, Say what You Want Myinterpretation another eighties kind of song. Is
there a ukulele in it? It'sa mandolin? Okay? That was another
moment song. That was the verylast thing that we did in the studio
(27:18):
last day on the twentieth day,after celebrating finishing the album all night the
night before. Yeah, in midtownNashville, and we weren't in and Mike's
like, hey, man, howabout that acoustic song. I got all
the mic set up. Why don'tyou guys just go jam it out?
So we did it alive and thereit is. Last little bit of comment
goes to the say what you wantsong again has a little bit of a
(27:41):
Zeppelin Tangerine feel. Were you guyswhen you were doing it at the end
where you now? They explained thescenario. We're all sitting there one take,
just do it? Is that howit was? Rock? I love
that song. I didn't man,Yeah, thank you very much. As
a compliment, I love do Tangerineis one of my one of my favorite
(28:02):
songs. That's weird that you said, that's that's pretty. That's a pretty
B side song. Well, ithas that feel that um, it's not
too serious, and sometimes those songsthat are just thrown together, not out
of non preparation, but just thefeeling of it. Those are the best.
You know. It's just a song, by the way, that that's
they wrote that a long time ago, a song he's had. He's a
(28:23):
he's a beach guy man, andthat's it's got a kind of a beachy
vibe to it. And uh,he's been holding on to it forever man,
and and that's you know, itwas it was time to cut it.
So played it for us one dayand we're like, dude, we
should rock that. So you startedthe interview off the phone call saying that
you're into studio doing stuff for thefollow up. Um, we're just some
(28:44):
songs over at stage. Yeah,what's the tell us a little bit about
this Halloween gig you got going onthis weekend with Eddie Trunk in the costume.
Well, what's this all about?October thirty, first Halloween. We're
gonna be at mad Live in Woodstock, Georgia, which is right outside of
Atlanta and seven Year which is goingto open up and Eddie Trunks is going
(29:07):
to host the show, which isgonna be awesome. We are super excited
about it. We've been rehearsing allweekend for it. Actually, so now
we got we're using our bonus dayhere to track some tracks, some songs.
But yeah, we definitely want toinvite everyone to go go get tickets
if you're in the in the area. You know it's gonna be if or
not, I'm flying it. Youknow what is now you haven't had much
(29:30):
chance to play consistently. What arethe touring plans? What's twenty twenty two
involve? What's the landscape looking likeas we speak. We're trying to get
on anything we can get on alittle tour where we can get seen by
someone else's fans. Anything. Really, we're just we got another show in
January at the beginning of next year, but in between them, we're just
(29:51):
trying to play wherever we can.Man, even if it's one off spot
shows, we'll do that. Wecan get on a little run that would
be good. Whatever. We're justkeeping it open. You know, times
are still a little, uh,a little weird, getting less weird.
We had big plans last summer,you know, we had a little run
schedule and obviously that didn't work out. But yeah, we're we're ready to
(30:12):
get back at it. And uhjust you know, just uh just the
times man again. The band ResistantByte debut album is out. Visit resistant
Bite dot com. There you'll findall their socials and all that stuff you
need to stay in touch with theband. I've been talking with Tommy Skio
and Steve Stokes. Guys. Thanksfor spending the afternoon with me. Um.
(30:36):
I hope this interview has laid downa template for the listeners. It's
uh. It's a fantastic release.And again, congratulations on making uh instantly
my one of my top ten ofthe year. Thank you, thank you,
thank you very much for having us. Man Burno, we love you,
man, thanks for having us.You're welcome, guys. We'll stay
(30:57):
in touch and always remember keeping ayall right man, rock on see you
guys. Attention metal heads, weall want to return to concert venue soon.
Introducing Metal Mayhem, ROC Metal ForeverFreedom X sanitizer. This sanitizer product
is water and film based manufactured withproprietary h y i Q solution. That's
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(31:40):
Metal at the Freedom X checkout storefor a show discount now now that Metal
Mayhem ROC. Just want to remindyou folks, Monday nights, I host
the Metalmayhem ROC Live Radio Show onthat metalstation dot com. It's three hours
of live metal from the last fiftyyears from the Vernomatics vault. We have
(32:02):
a chat room where you could setup an account, come in, talk
with other bangers around the country,send me requests and it's just a good
time. It's a great way tobring your metal Monday in for a landing.
Talking about a good time, mynext guest had the chance to capture
Van Halen with his camera forty yearsago this weekend. This past weekend,
(32:25):
Van Halen finished up their Fair Warningtour opening for the Stones down in Florida.
Let's welcome photographer and Van Halen fanatic, Tim McCrum to Medal Mayhem RLC.
Hey Tim, how are you,buddy? Hey brother? Greetings from
Long Island, New York. Areall doing well? We're doing all right?
It's as we taped this conversation,it's about forty degrees and rainy,
(32:49):
so it looks like we're ready forour eight month of dreary weather. But
other than that, things are good. We're ready to talk. Van Halen.
So I hear you got a storyand a half to share. Whether
us just gonna let you go?What do you got for us? Bud
Well? Back when I was nineteenyears old, I saw a need and
searched out a way to make aliving, and I wanted to be a
(33:10):
rock and roll photographer, and Ithought the best thing to do is go
out and shoot the bands that werepertinent and taking them to, you know,
places where I could sell these photos. Back then, it was a
place called Flea World, which wasin Sanford, Florida, right outside Orlando,
and it had over eleven hundred tablesand it was open Friday, Saturday,
(33:36):
and Sunday. So I took myphotos of Prince Madonna, whoever I
thought would be you know, someonethat would make it big. Duran.
Duran was big, and I wouldmake enlargements and just sell photos, and
you know, being right in thecenter of the state, I would travel
to Tampa, you know, withina couple hours, you know, and
(33:58):
try to see the band one ortwice to get a feel for the show
and try to you know, capturethe moments that you remember that stuck out
in the show, so you'd havethem, you know, memories of them
in print. Sure, Now,Tim, were you a professional photographer or
hobbyists? I wasn't even an amateur. I was a photographer wanna be that
(34:22):
was just out of high school.And I did take photography in high school
as one of my courses, youknow, black and white, going in
the dark room and developing your ownfilm. So I fell in love with
it, and I loved rock androll. I love music music as a
big part of my life. Youknow, it makes me, sets me
(34:42):
free and covers up the bad timesand makes everything feel a little bit better.
So I was actually there to seethe Stones because they had Halen in
nineteen eighty one, had been aroundfor a couple of years, and you
knew they were going to make thescene. But I had never seen them
live and I did not have thatnineteen seventy nine album that came out they
(35:02):
Healen one. So I'm looking forwardto shooting them. But I was really
there to see the Stones, Butboy was I fulled when I saw Van
Halen. I just snapped everything thatI could of the band from their very
first song. The set lasted maybean hour and a half and I had
taken three rolls of film with me, thirty six exposure. Back then,
(35:27):
everything was on film. It wasn'tno digital, and I actually shot over
two of my roles of film ofVan Halen. It was just I couldn't
stop, and I knew I hadto say some film for the Stones.
I left maybe a half maybe twentypictures of film for the Stones. But
(35:47):
it was quite a show, andI had heard they had said that they
would be using metal detectors at theshow when you come into the gate,
because the Stones had history with peoplebringing knives and stuff in and violence.
So I went there the day beforethe show and scoped out tinker Field,
(36:09):
slashed the Orlando Tangerine Bowl and wentunder the stand and buried my camera and
my two lenses under the stand wherethey had the concession stand carts, and
buried it in the mulch and thepigrit and wrapped it in like eight plastic
(36:30):
bags and taped it up all real, real airtight. I still did ruin
one of my lenses, my bestlens. But that's how I got my
equipment in and the rest is history. Now let me ask you so to
set this table here. They're playingthe Tangerine Bowl in the Capacities anywhere between
(36:50):
for a concerts sixty to seventy thousandpeople, I would imagine correct, that
is correct. Sixty five is likeseating capacity. They sold eighty thousand tickets
for the two days shows, aSaturday show and a Sunday show. Tickets
were seventeen dollars and fifty cents.Henry Paul Ban was the opening act,
(37:12):
and then Van Halen and then theStones. It was ninety plus degrees with
eighty thousand people jammed in on theground. Everything was general admission. There
was no you know, a signseating and I got as close as I
could. Dude. Did they havea lot of shows at the Tangeri Bowl?
I remember they did. Zeppelin wouldsell out there, and I'm sure
(37:37):
the Grateful Dead did their thing downthere. I know. It's the late
or early eighties, coming off theseventies with these big stadium tours. Yeah,
they were well. Van Halen andthe Stones were the only show that
did a you know, two daygig there. But they did have you
know, bands like Boston, theDoobie Brothers come through Fleetwood Mac, John
(38:02):
Cougar, bands like that, thewho played there. They were one of
the bigger bands that stick out inmy memory. But yeah, they would
have probably maybe six or eight showsa year there from the late seventies.
They graduated in seventy nine, andI'm gonna say they probably stopped around eighteen
(38:24):
seven or eighty eight, like theFleetwood Mac show I think was one of
the last shows they had there.I don't know why they stopped what they
did. The concert landscape changed andit was arenas and whatnot, right,
so they got the two dates there. You find out that they're have enhanced
security. So you come up witha plan to go to the stadium a
(38:47):
couple days before and securely package yourequipment. You bury it now right now.
You go back to the stadium theday off. Quick question, how
much did you get the night beforeanticipating getting up early and going there.
Well, I didn't know what toexpect. So the concerts started at either
(39:09):
noon or one o'clock. Gates openedwere supposed to open at ten. They
didn't open to like eleven. AndI went to my spot where all the
carts were parked, and they weregone. But unfortunately it was kind of
where it was now roped off whereI couldn't get to it, and like
(39:30):
I just had to kind of waittill there was nobody around, and just
it was in pigrit so it wasn'tdirt. But I went over there and
I saw where I had planted alittle piece of a little plastic flag the
market, and I just pulled thebag up and just kind of put it
under my t shirt and walked awayand then put everything together. And then
(39:53):
my goal was to get as closeas I could, you know, it
was get up close. And Igot within maybe twenty feet of the stage,
uh just by you know, justwhatever I had to do to get
up there. And I was upto the stage probably by noon, right
(40:15):
in time for you know, HenryPaul, this big song back then with
Great Ghosts. You know, itwas it was, it was incredible,
It was you know for Henry Paul. Wasn't crazy. But when Van Halen
took the stage, they were hosingpeople off with the hoses. Hype,
you know, high power water hoses, cannons like water cannons to try to
(40:38):
keep the people calm down and maybepush them back a little bit because the
crush was on to get up stagecoming from halfway back, you know,
coming from the fifty yard line upto the stage, crushing people. And
they were ended up having to youknow, take people out over the barricade
to get them aid because they wereand crushed, you know, and pass
(41:00):
them out from the heating stuff.So the holders were the cool people off.
Have you ever shot a concert likethis, like one of these harder
acts or more, No, nothingsimilar to it at all. My first
show was a Duran Duran show atLakelands Civic Center where they had maybe ten
(41:21):
or twelve thousand people. And atthat show, my camera got confiscated by
security and not given back to meto the end of the show. But
unfortunately they took my film out ofthe camera. They maybe give up my
film, what was not happy with. So I ended up going the next
night to another show and I learnedmy lesson you make your way up.
(41:42):
How close were you for Van Halenwhen I'm gonna say fifteen to twenty people
deep? So I'm gonna say withintwenty feet of the stage, maybe thirty
feet. What was it like whenthe band was announced and they come out
and you're trying to shoot? Well, yeah, well there was no shooting
involved when they came out. Itwas a crush of being everybody you know,
(42:05):
trying to slide through, but therewas you were packed in like starting
and when they came out, itwas just it was kind of like just
hang on for your life, soyou know. And I had my camera
equipment, That's all I cared about, but there was no way to even
take pictures until you know, aftereverything calmed down, maybe into the second
(42:25):
song. Before it got calmed down. You know, I was once year
in that spot you are moving.You were there for you know the rest
of the set, which was finewith me. I couldn't have got any
closer. I couldn't have even backedout of there if I wanted to.
You are, you know, skintight with whoever you know, covered and
sweat getting shot every once in awhile with the water and uh, you
(42:51):
know, it was it was fun. So Van Hamlen comes that eighty one
set less was fantastic. They runthrough, um, you know, about
ten to twelve songs. Would theyhave some you know, the bass solo,
drum solo. Eddie did his thing. Dave came out and told his
story about the newspaper critic. Ifound out that that was something that he
(43:14):
normally did. And then when hewas done with the story, he showed
us back to the stage and likewhat the fuck are you gonna do?
He pulls his pants down, bendsover and sent a full moon for the
newspaper critics. They said, here, this is for you, same thing
like a hangish young did and anACDC concert. And I do have a
(43:34):
shot of his ass bent over allwhite. That one hasn't been posted yet,
but I do have it. Sovan Halen kills it and between the
SATs, now the stones come out? How are the stones? The stones
were awesome. They opened up withtime is on my side. There's actually
video footage of that song on YouTube. But there's not one piece of video
(44:00):
of the Van Halen Show ever produced, ever strown, and not one piece
known to mankind. And I knowthis because of a museum in Orlando was
asking me if I knew anybody.You know, they have some of my
working up in Orlando from the tBowl concert series, but not one piece
(44:22):
of video was shot that anybody knowsof other than a couple of stone song.
So time is on my side.As one under my thumb was another
one that someone shot pretty good qualityfor back then for eighty one. But
we keeps saying there's gotta be bootleg, there's gotta there's no bootleg even of
(44:42):
that show. And I don't evenknow if there's any audio of Van none
none known to mankind. It's justif anybody knows, please share it with
me. Yeah, wow, youknow Van Halen hads Uh. We've been
looking for the holy g all anyvideo footage or audio footage of that eighty
run tour. There's some boots outthere. There's a high quality Carolina one
(45:07):
and Memphis and whatnot and right,but so now they hit they played two
dates. Did you make it tothe next day tours? I wanted to,
but I was just exhausted and musedand abused. I had my pictures
developed that night through one of theprocessing places, and I was pretty happy
(45:31):
and surprised with the results because mylenses they had got some moisture in them,
so I didn't know how they weregoing to turn out. But being
that it was bright light, youknow it was the lighting was awesome because
it was, you know, rightin the middle of the day, and
I was happy with what I hadhad and I just couldn't wait to get
(45:52):
out to the flea market. SoSunday I took. I had triplicates of
every shot, so instead of justgetting one good, I made them have
made three and I sold that everypicture I had that Sunday of the Saturday
show, tim Where can people goand see these pictures? Do you have
a platform where they can view them? Well, if you want to go
(46:13):
to my Facebook page, I'm noton there that much anymore, but they're
there. And my Facebook page istissue Timmy. I'm a car salesman,
so tissue. When you sell acard invoice, it's called tissue, So
I kind of picked that name upmany years ago, but tissue Timmy McCrum
McCrum. And you could see themthere. And also the Van Halen Newsdesk
(46:38):
that's Van Halen Newsdesk has a storyand maybe fifteen or twenty of my pictures
from that show. I'm there andyou could see them there. And I
also still have the negative every shotand if you're interested, you could cheek
(47:00):
me out. I'm not looking tomake a lot of money, just looking
to share the love of Van Halen. I got him eight by tens and
some canvases eight by ten and elevenby fourteen and sixteen by twenty. People
listening to this will have the Tim'slinks that he just mentioned in our show
notes on this episode, so don'tworry about jotting it down or whatnot.
(47:22):
We'll have direct links to it beforewe get out of here. You your
photography career kept going after this weekend, and you had a chance to shoot
Van Halen again in nineteen eighty four. Yes, I did very very well
with the van Halen photos, sowhen the eighty four album tour got announced,
(47:45):
I was sure to go. Openingnight was in Jacksonville, Florida,
a little ten thousand seat arena righton the river there at the Saint Johns
River And I got to catch allthree shows in the Florida area, which
was Lakelands, Lakelands Civic Center andthe Hollywood Sportatorium. And I had the
(48:07):
pleasure of being beaten up by thesecurity at the Hollywood's Hollywood Show because I
was, you know, selling myenlargements out of my trunk of my sixty
nine Firebird, and they made surethey ripped up all my pictures and put
a little bit of a beating,and then they served me with the court
(48:27):
summons to appear for bootlegging, whichthey never followed up on, nor did
I. But I, you know, shot eighty four, very very carefully
tried to get a prest pass,but they would not grant me one back
in because I was a nobody,twenty four year old kid, and I
got awesome, awesome, awesome forall three shows. So there's some of
(48:52):
my best work that I have probablya couple hundred shots from each show,
beautiful ful shots and these could beviewed at your on Facebook page two.
Yep, they're on there. Andif, like I said, the specific
band member that you like, Ihad snuck my lens into that show,
which was a three hundred millimeter andI was about ten feet away from the
(49:15):
stage on Eddie's side, and beautiful, beautiful shots and as well as some
of the most spectacular stage lighting becausethey I don't know, if you knew
they traveled, I want to saywith seven or eight or it could have
been seventeen or eighteen semi tractor trailerloads of equipment, stage and lighting for
(49:37):
that show. Huge stage for nineteeneighty four. Yeah, it was incredible
and they were on fire. Eightyfour has to be, you know,
their biggest album. I'm thinking ofsales wise, and just phenomenal music from
front to back. So it's allgood stuff. And I enjoyed two the
(50:00):
pictures and then the flea market teamskind of died out in the late eighties,
and that's when I started selling cars. I turned my salesmanship to selling
subarus, that kind of stuff,and enjoyed it. So I shot.
I'm still shooting. I got,you know, Van Halen worked from when
they just toured in fourteen and fifteenwith Wolfs Gang, so they played a
(50:27):
couple of shows here in Long Islandon Jones Beach, and I got,
you know, some great great shotsof Eddie doing what he does with his
son, you know, and Godrest his soul. One of the king
of rock and rolls has gone,but he's not forgotten. My favorite band
of all time, Van Halen andjust memories that I'll never forget. In
that show in eighty one, thelast show their Fair Warning tour, I
(50:52):
live in my life like there's notomorrow. I'm a Van Halen fan,
and for me, Van Halen's alifestyle. You know, turn it up
as loud as you can go andsit back and enjoy. That's right.
Tim McCrumb, thank you for sharingyour experience. Pleasures all mine. All
right, my friend, Well,thanks for joining us, and take care
of yourself. We'll be in touch. Yes, John, thank you for
(51:14):
your time and reaching out, andkeep on rocking, brother, all right
man, talk to you, begood. Peace medal for live. Thanks
for listening to Middlemayhem ROC. Checkout our websites at Middlemayhem ROC dot com
and metal Forever dot com for informationon upcoming concerts, podcast archives, and
(51:39):
all sorts of info. Please like, following, share with everyone, keeping
your non metal friends. Catch usnext time on wlf E DV radio
W l v DD Radio. Areyou ready? Live from the Metal Mayhem
Studios in Rochester, New York.We are gold and heard around the world
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your weekly dose of metal music interviews, album reviews, news and more.
(00:25):
I want to be part of theshow, Send us a message through
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Metal Mayhem Roc. It's good,nice and heavy and now welcome to night's
host, John the Verna Madic Verno. Good anything, everybody, and welcome
to the last week of October,the preferred month of thrashers and fashers around
(00:49):
the world. As always Thursday nightsbrand new content drops. Visit the Metalmayhem
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(01:11):
This way you'll receive weekly updates onnew shows, merch promos, free giveaways.
But more importantly, I'll give youa notification for our Monday night live
radio show that I host on thatmetalstation dot com. It's a three hour
live radio show. I play musicfrom the last fifty years. There's a
chat room where you could sign upand get in there and talk with bangers
(01:34):
from around the globe. It's reallycool. It's a great way to bring
your metal Monday in for a landing. Tonight's show, I have the band
Resistant Bite. Tommy Skio formerly ofTesla. He started up a new band
in twenty nineteen. Tommy and SteveStokes, the other guitarist, called me
(01:55):
up the other day. We hada great conversation to explain how the band
got together. Are their unique chemistryon writing, and we pretty much take
a deep dive into the debut album. They give us their input onto different
songs. I share my input.This is a great band. They have
that classic eighties sound, but yetthey stay current with the new landscape of
(02:16):
twenty twenty one. The second halfof tonight's show, I do an exclusive
interview with rock photographer Timmy McCrum.Now this is a good one. Forty
years ago. This past week,van Halen opened up for the Rolling Stones
down in Florida at the Tangerine Bowl. Van Halen was finishing up their eighty
(02:38):
one Fair Warning tour. The Stoneswere on tour for their Tattoo You track
across America and van Halen opened upas one of the last times van Halen
has ever opened up for anyone.Tim went there as a young rock photographer
and he's here tonight to share hisstory about I'm not gonna let too much
out of the bag, but howhe got creative about getting his equipment into
(03:02):
this concert because it was a verytight security show at the time when they
first started using the metal ones.So Tim's here to tell us about how
he got it in there, thescene that was going on, and how
van Halen went toe to toe withthe legendary Stones in this show. So
that's what we got tonight, Anddo us a favor, We invite you
(03:24):
to visit podchaser dot com Punching MetalMayhem roc right in the search box and
we will come right up. Pleaserate and review these episodes. We're trying
to get some traffic on the reviewsites for the show and it really helps
in all the analytics. So that'swhat we got tonight. Resistant Bite Tommy
(03:49):
Skio and Steve Stokes and Tim McCrumtalking about van Halen forty years ago opening
for the Stones I'm the Vertomatic.This is Metal Mayhem Roc. Let's get
at it, heyst now, getthat pop going, ready and grab a
sea as the Verno Medic present thisweek's feature interview exclusively here on Metal Mayhem
(04:13):
Roc. So let's see today wegot an exciting one. We have on
the line from Nashville, Tennessee,I believe, or somewhere in the South.
We have Tommy Skio and Steve Stokesof Resist and Bite. New album
just dropped. It's a fantastic pieceof rock and roll, hard rock,
however you want to label it.Let's get him on here. Tommy and
(04:35):
Steve. Welcome to Metalmahem. Howyou doing man, We're in Nashville.
Yeah, what's going on man,Verno? You both are in Nashville,
then, I take it we are. We're working on some new songs,
just having some food, Yeah,dude, we're already. We're already working
on the second album today. That'sgreat. We're gonna get a quick recap
(04:55):
of the band. Tell us abouthow you guys came together, give a
roster line up of the excellent newband, and then we'll take a deep
dive into that debut album. Yeahdude, Well, we you know,
we were all introduced by a friendof ours who was our drummer, Dave
Parks. He is the he's thegreat connector, and uh yeah, he
connected us all and Tommy and uhDave did the skin Tude record a couple
(05:20):
of years ago, and then andthen Dave was like, man, let's
do this for real, like let'syou know, let's do let's do a
full on band with with you know, members and everything. So basically,
Tommy gave David CD and uh Davecame over to my house about two years
ago for Thanksgiving and popped it inthe CD player and I was like,
(05:40):
and I didn't know it was Tommy. I just was like, you gotta
check this out, man. SoI checked it out and I was like,
dude, we got to do this. This is badass. So I
took the song and put it inpro tools and chopped it up and added
some stuff in it and nailed itback to Tommy. He didn't know Tommy.
Tommy did know me, and he'slike, who is this guy?
(06:00):
Man? We got to do this. This is this is a bad ass.
So and that song ended up beingthe first song that we put out
the Myth I'm living. So whoknew each other? Tommy knew Dave Well,
I knew Dave Yes, and wehad done a record, and Steve
and Dave were in a band forthe longest time, so they knew each
(06:21):
other, and they knew Brian.We all kind of knew each other except
Nathan, and we had another singerat the very beginning were but that didn't
work out. So then that's whenNathan came in. Was after we were
already together for a few months,and then that's when it really just happened.
I mean, I met Nate.I drove up to Atlanta, we
got in the car, I playedthem all the CDs with vocals, without
(06:44):
whatever, and we just really kindof bonded and became friends in four or
five hours on the drive up toa Kentucky where we were working men.
And it's been on till the breakof dawn untill then. So let's see,
let's get a geographical Tommy, youlive in Nashville, Steve, where
do you live? I live inFlorida. Actually, yeah, Tommy's in
Florida. I'm in Nashville. BrianPowell, bass player, he's in Nashville.
(07:08):
He's kind of my neighbor. He'swon holler over, as we say.
And Nathan Newts is a singer andhe's he's in Atlanta, Georgia.
And Dave you know, he plays, uh, he plays all He's always
playing everywhere all over the world.Dad, you never know where he is.
Dave lives in his car. No, I'm just kidding. He lives
in Cincinnati, and but he comesdown to Nashville and plays gigs all the
(07:29):
time. So okay. So it'sa sort of a Southern connection. And
Michael Rosen produced this album his longhistory of working Tommy worked with him with
Tesla, Testament, Death Angel,some punk stuff. How did Rosen get
involved with this release? Um?You know what, man, We were
thinking about producers and all kinds ofpeople that you know, Dolaner, ourselves,
(07:50):
whatever, and I just one day, all of a sudden. Just
I mean, it's not like Mikewasn't on my radar, you know,
I mean we're friends. It's justI just thought, man, why in
my nine what about Mike Rosen?He would be great man to try and
get in here? And so Ijust called him see if he was free,
and he loved the idea. Andonce we sent him some songs.
He was just in you know,yeah, he was the perfect fit for
(08:11):
it. Two, he came andwatched this rehearsed a couple of times and
help us to rearrange the songs toget ready to record. And it just
Gael against any great engineer too,and just sounded the records of Testament to
that. He did a great job. So the new album debut, It
doesn't have a name. What isit? Just the debut album. That's
(08:31):
the name of it. Resist andBite. It's resist and Bite, resisted
bite. Fourteen songs, forty nineminutes, each song between three and four
minutes. The production is fresh,it's easy to digest. Guys. It
has a very old school sound toit, but yet not overly produced,
(08:52):
very live sound. That's interpretation.I got dude, you're you're nailing it,
man, that's awesome. We didit. We cut the album in
twenty days at sound stage, no, no weekends off, nothing, twenty
days straight, brutal, straight through, dude, twenty days straight at sound
stage in uh Nashville, which isa really really nice studio, great studio.
(09:13):
Mike got us a hook up thereand we camped out. Man.
So twenty straight days. Was ita live in studio or will obviously we
you know, we we went youknow, it was in Nashville, so
Brian and Steve were able to gohome and the rest of us. Nate's
sister was here, so he wentover there, and me and Michael Rosen
(09:33):
and Dave we're you know, whatdo you call it? Airbnb? Yeah,
airbnb thing. Yeah, so thatwas that. We just go there
every morning and knock it out allday long. Yet for twenty days,
twenty one days, three. Tommy, you're a veteran, you know,
you've been doing us thirty forty years, and congratulations on for sobriety. I've
(09:54):
done some research and you know,congratulations on putting that behind you. The
question and I have here and whatis the age difference of the band?
Tommy, You're probably closer to sixtyWhat what about the other guys. I'll
be sixty in February. Yeah,I'm I'm thirty five. He's a little
young and uh Dave and uh Daveand Nate and Brian are around the same
(10:18):
age. Uh, I guess Idon't I don't know how old everyone is,
but there yeah, okay, yeah, so yeah, yeah, Brian
David are about, you know,ten years older than me. So we
got the whole We have the wholespectrum. Man, we have you know,
two three decades almost of uh youknow, musical influence going on here.
Basically I was rocking when when whenSteve got spit out. Yeah,
(10:41):
Tommy, this is like your trophyband. You know, older guys get
married for the second time. Ihave a trophy wife. It's sure is
a special thing. I don't thinkof it so much like that as much
as just it's just been great.Everything just flows really easily. Everything we
do just seems to happen in justwe do stuff effortlessly and have really a
(11:03):
lot of fun doing it, andeverything turns out really cool, and I'm
just I'm really happy with that,and it's it's just a lot of fun.
And I never who knew that Iwould have another great band. I
mean, I thought, maybe,you know, Tesla was the last thing
for me. And I'm not areal smooze work kind of guy. So
to have another band have gotten togetherall natural high like things to happen is
(11:24):
kind of a big deal, youknow. And who would have thought that
I would have another band with thiskind of energy and this this this awesomeness
again you know it's it's it's great. Let's talk about these songs, how
they've come together, where they conceivedinto studio. Was it stuff that and
he leftovers or is it just freshresistant bitte material. Oh man, it's
(11:46):
it's it's all brand new. Um. Tommy was kind of the you know,
the the main songwriter on the album. We have some couple collaboration like
I and uh scream we we wedid together and uh yeah for the most
part, I mean Tommy's uh,he's got a little symbly line over.
Yeah. And it's not it wasn'tby design or anything like that. It
just that those are the songs thathappened. I mean, as we speak
(12:09):
now. Just last night we finishedthe song of Steve so trying to get
it incorporate and we want the nextrecord to be have a little bit of
a different vibe. So so yeah, but we're all right and stuff and
it just then again, it cametogether very effortlessly. We just would put
out a piece of music, Natewould write over and boom, beautiful song
and it would happened over and overand over. Pretty great. Yea.
(12:31):
When we you know, we fleshedall these songs out. We did like
pretty much full blown demos for himat my little studio, and uh,
actually that's how we did Myth.That's how that one came out. But
then we you know, we decidedto do a fully produced album, so
we we already had everything kind ofdemoed out, so we knew the parts
that we wanted to do when wewent to the studio. It is pretty
cool. What's interesting is like Mythis basically the very first song we recorded
(12:54):
together, that recording that we putout. It was a demo and we
had a radio interview, so wethought we'd better bring something and it just
happened that, you know, thatsong worked out. We put a video
to it, and that's like andthat's our first time first met Steve the
day we recorded that. I mean, there's just something there. Man.
It's been a good fit. Man, it's a good fit. Yeah,
(13:16):
all right, Well, right offthe start, I have two favorite songs.
One of my first favorite Till Tomorrow, very old school, kind of
happy eighty song. Sounds like ithas the perfect recipe for maybe the next
single if you'd ever want to gothat way. Who wants to standard face?
(13:41):
Who wants to do with the day? When ten friend then ten but
(14:01):
stag as the trust shots stats don'thope. I guess well, I'm really
(14:41):
actually surprised that that was the songthat I Usually it's a more rocking song
people go for. But I lovethat song, and you know what,
the way it's going, we're justputting out a video for every song,
man, I wouldn't be surprised ifwe get done with this record. We
have a video for more than halffor more than half the songs on the
record. But uh, that's agreat song. Love it, dude,
That's a great song. Has alot going on and there are a lot
(15:01):
of a lot of players. Ithink we might have driven Michael little crazy
with Scot that's got mandolin, acousticguitars. Oh dude. First time I
played at B three ever in mylife was on that record. On that
track, and man, it's likeoperating a spaceship. Man. It was
fun, A lot of fun.Don't get me wrong. I like a
lot of the heavier stuff up mytop two maybe today you know Saturday there
(15:24):
is two different ones. But thesong crazy, that's song really kicks ass.
I think it's just I think it'sjust something where it reminds me of
a better time. They're just upliftingsongs. That's so cool, man.
I'm glad you're you're getting again.You know, it's conjuring up a feeling
for me, because a lot ofour songs do that for me. They
(15:45):
conjure up colors and feelings and vibesand that song then it's like got a
pop thing going on, but itreally rocks at the same time. Love
it, man. I love howmy guitars with the vocal on the courses.
It's just pretty rad. Now thealbum starts off, I think the
heaviest song on the album a darkersong, Blood on Me. As I
(16:07):
digested it six or seven times,I started really feeling the sequence of the
album. Why Blood on Me asthe opener, I don't know, man,
it just kind of it kind ofjust kind of fell together that way.
We were contemplating having Fate the firstbut we didn't want to start it
with that kind of hip hoppy intro, you know, And there wasn't much
of a discussion. It was likeMike said, it should absolutely be that.
(16:29):
We were already kind of on thatpage. Everyone just like, yeah,
Yeah, it's got a killer introon it. It's just a nice
way to kind of ease into it, although it eases into it pretty quickly,
and then it turned gets pretty metalright off the bat. Yeah it
does. That's actually my favorite songon the album because it has it has
every element of music that I like. I mean, it's got it's got
eighties metal, it's got nineties metal, and it's got the the you know,
(16:52):
the harmonized priest solo in the middleand as a drum solo too.
Yeah, that long role he doesat the hands of rat. Yeah.
Well, I got to save therest of my end put on these other
songs. But that leads me toyour guy's favorite songs on this What holds
a Special place for You. Yeah, we were talking about that the other
day and I said, Fate andthat's still kind of a man there,
(17:15):
you know. And someone just postedon my Facebook thing today they love the
jams I'm doing in between all theverses and parts and faith and I really
like that. Man, Fate Skyjust a rock and thing. But man,
it's I can't say that truthfully,because of course I love the whole
record. Man, it's just crazy. Yeah. Man, it's got a
little bit of everything on there.It's it's kind of hard to choose what
(17:37):
your favorite song is because it's youknow, it's a depends on kind of
moved your end really, but Imean for me, I mean blood Blood
will be mine. With how tochoose the second favorite? I gotta I
gotta put away my inner metal headand I would want to say up in
flames, but put putting it outaside and Scream is a really bad ass
on and that one kind of felltogether. That's one that Dave kind of
(17:57):
came up with the idea and thenTommy wrote the riff and then and then
we kind of fleshed the rest ofit out in the studio, which is
kind of cool. Yeah, thatwas cool different for us. Yeah,
(18:22):
don't Papa when you be down inthe far every week I made time body
(19:11):
the only tickets and Dude at Homeis a really cool song. Um,
(19:52):
it's kind of a simpler song,but the way we recorded it was totally
badass. I mean, that isthe only full blown song on the record
that we recorded live. That whatyou hear there is completely live. Well,
yeah, I see what you want. The last song on the acoustic,
but Home is all live guitar soloslive. The only thing we overdubbed
(20:15):
was background harmy mean, his vocalslive. That's what my notes have.
Home eighties feel too ish, great, this must be a great live song,
totally impromptu, middle of the setkind of song. Dude, that's
so funny you say that because live, man, people seem to really eat
it up. But I never evensaw that. I don't know where that
(20:37):
comes from. But that's that's cool. Yeah. Yeah, we didn't think
that people would dig it live becauseit's kind of slower and we we just
busted it out in the show andthe we loved it went crazy. Well,
let's give your bass player Brian powellsomelove. According to the vernomatic UH
notes, let's see on bombs,there comes that bass again killer bass fate,
(20:59):
bass is grooven. Tell us aboutBrian, what kind of input did
he have in on this? Becausethat bass is killing. We just tell
him what to do, okay,Brian. Brian had never played with the
pick before, which surprised me becausehe's he's from um, he's from the
north Northwest, you know, justoutside of Portland, Vancouver, Washington's and
(21:22):
uh he's he's a he's a punkguy, punk metal guy. You know,
maybe I'm speaking too too much forhim here, but I mean I
was surprised that he never played,never played with the pick, and we
got him playing with a pick anduh yeah do so. Yeah the intro
on I think he uses a bassball on that he's got. Yeah,
yeah, it's it's really really cool. Yes, So that's a great way
to kick that one off. We'retalking with Tommy Scio Steve Stokes of the
(21:44):
band Resistant Byte, brand new album, the debut albums out everywhere. Visit
resistant byte dot com. There you'llfind all their socials and all that stuff
you need to stay in touch withthe band. Now, I have some
more quick questions about the album.Maybe you can answer them. You two
are the guitarists, So how doyou split up the leads? Is there
(22:04):
an arrangement you have? Is aninety ten Tommy Steve, No, we
don't. It's that's again just somethingthat just like in tests, So we
never talked about that stuff. Wejust kind of it's funny in this band
we talk about like at first Istarted doing a lot of the songs and
because of that, on the demos, I played a lot of the solos,
So at first I was doing alot of the solos. So if
(22:26):
we talked about it, ever,it's just like, we gotta get you
in playing more leads and more harmonies. And now we're starting to get there
with that, so it's it's cool. Yeah. You know, Tommy and
I both do full blown demos forthings before we show them to each other
or anyone else in the band,And by the fault, we usually go
ahead and you know, put aguitar solo on it because we can't.
We can't help ourselves, right,you know. So and Tommy just he
(22:48):
already had you know, he hadmore more time to write on the last
album, so he ended up takinga little bit of the lines share on
it. But we're trying to uh, you know, we just we just
go for it, man, likehe said, we don't really, we
don't really. We try and keepeverything natural and flowing and we don't really
talk about stuff much and just kindof let it happen. Maybe say hey,
let's get together, and then youknow, we just go from there,
man, and we just rock likethat. It's awesome. We love
(23:11):
harmonized leads that we try not tooverdo it. You know. Uh,
this probably maybe a Nathan question,But who is Mary? That's the mother
Mary, that's uh, that's Jesus. No, man, that's some Jesus
shit in a Nate's mind or something. I'm not sure what's going on there.
Tell you the jeth but I loveit. It's a song about I
don't it's way. This is definitelyNate's Sally, but I mean, you
(23:32):
know, it's rosary beads in there, and you know, it's very it's
very much Uh. It's one ofthem songs that conjures up a vibe again
like we were talking about earlier,which is what I love about it.
Although I don't know exactly what he'ssaying, and we're not we're not a
Christian band, but uh, Nathandefinitely is into that, very very spiritual
and it comes out in his lyricson a few of the songs. Well
my notes for that um has avery Western twang to it. They're definitely
(23:59):
reach for something anything. Yeah,that was Mike. I think that you're
referring to probably that little acoustic thingin the beginning. That was Mike's addition.
Mike's like I pick up the acoustic. Go go do some some licks,
you know, like you're on thefront porch stare or something too.
Yeah, yeah, that's what itwas. It was like, um,
yeah, that's a twanging kind ofthing. Let's see the instrumental afterneath conscious
(24:23):
effort to have an instrumental? Wasit a just read lyrics as happened there?
As it was a song that Idemoed and Nate never or no one
ever put any lyrics to it.And one day Dave just said, you
know what, that that song couldbe an instrumental, And we thought about
it and kind of tossed the ideaaround for a while, and by time
(24:45):
we got to the record, wewere sold on it. It became an
instrumental, and now we're thinking aboutputting them one on the next record.
And also not by design, justbecause we happen to have another song like
that that didn't get used lyrically andjust stands on its own musically. So
it's kind of happening naturally really,just like I said, And that's a
real key thing in all this,I believe. Yeah, each of these
(25:07):
songs has its own vibe. Ifit's a rocker, it rocks. If
it's a mellow hate the way usethe term poppy. It's it's good,
it's it's it's fantastic. There's likerocking stuff that's has different in like crazy
Word, it's got a pop influence, but it's definitely rocking and that that
kind of mixture. I love thatstuff, like Up in Flames, Oh,
(25:30):
dude. Up in Flames is kindof a throat to Judas Priest.
It begins with the you know,the big scent thing, and then Tommy
comes in on the tremlow guitar,you know, and then Dave kicks it
off. I saw no time.I gotta laugh because my notes Up in
(26:33):
Flames dames, Dave's drums kill.The song's a rocker. What is this?
Tempton and k K yeah, Twaynegets our atak swear to God those
are my notes. So um,that's funny, dude. It's funny recording
though one Uh. I was doingthat harmony on the on the verse,
and I was doing it every othertime. Tommy's like, do it every
(26:55):
time. You gotta do it everytime. We gotta do this the right
way. I don't know, Ijust love it. Last song on the
album, Say what You Want Myinterpretation another eighties kind of song. Is
there a ukulele in it? It'sa mandolin? Okay? That was another
moment song. That was the verylast thing that we did in the studio
(27:18):
last day on the twentieth day,after celebrating finishing the album all night the
night before. Yeah, in midtownNashville, and we weren't in and Mike's
like, hey, man, howabout that acoustic song. I got all
the mic set up. Why don'tyou guys just go jam it out?
So we did it alive and thereit is. Last little bit of comment
goes to the say what you wantsong again has a little bit of a
(27:41):
Zeppelin Tangerine feel. Were you guyswhen you were doing it at the end
where you now? They explained thescenario. We're all sitting there one take,
just do it? Is that howit was? Rock? I love
that song. I didn't man,Yeah, thank you very much. As
a compliment, I love do Tangerineis one of my one of my favorite
(28:02):
songs. That's weird that you said, that's that's pretty. That's a pretty
B side song. Well, ithas that feel that um, it's not
too serious, and sometimes those songsthat are just thrown together, not out
of non preparation, but just thefeeling of it. Those are the best.
You know. It's just a song, by the way, that that's
they wrote that a long time ago, a song he's had. He's a
(28:23):
he's a beach guy man, andthat's it's got a kind of a beachy
vibe to it. And uh,he's been holding on to it forever man,
and and that's you know, itwas it was time to cut it.
So played it for us one dayand we're like, dude, we
should rock that. So you startedthe interview off the phone call saying that
you're into studio doing stuff for thefollow up. Um, we're just some
(28:44):
songs over at stage. Yeah,what's the tell us a little bit about
this Halloween gig you got going onthis weekend with Eddie Trunk in the costume.
Well, what's this all about?October thirty, first Halloween. We're
gonna be at mad Live in Woodstock, Georgia, which is right outside of
Atlanta and seven Year which is goingto open up and Eddie Trunks is going
(29:07):
to host the show, which isgonna be awesome. We are super excited
about it. We've been rehearsing allweekend for it. Actually, so now
we got we're using our bonus dayhere to track some tracks, some songs.
But yeah, we definitely want toinvite everyone to go go get tickets
if you're in the in the area. You know it's gonna be if or
not, I'm flying it. Youknow what is now you haven't had much
(29:30):
chance to play consistently. What arethe touring plans? What's twenty twenty two
involve? What's the landscape looking likeas we speak. We're trying to get
on anything we can get on alittle tour where we can get seen by
someone else's fans. Anything. Really, we're just we got another show in
January at the beginning of next year, but in between them, we're just
(29:51):
trying to play wherever we can.Man, even if it's one off spot
shows, we'll do that. Wecan get on a little run that would
be good. Whatever. We're justkeeping it open. You know, times
are still a little, uh,a little weird, getting less weird.
We had big plans last summer,you know, we had a little run
schedule and obviously that didn't work out. But yeah, we're we're ready to
(30:12):
get back at it. And uhjust you know, just uh just the
times man again. The band ResistantByte debut album is out. Visit resistant
Bite dot com. There you'll findall their socials and all that stuff you
need to stay in touch with theband. I've been talking with Tommy Skio
and Steve Stokes. Guys. Thanksfor spending the afternoon with me. Um.
(30:36):
I hope this interview has laid downa template for the listeners. It's
uh. It's a fantastic release.And again, congratulations on making uh instantly
my one of my top ten ofthe year. Thank you, thank you,
thank you very much for having us. Man Burno, we love you,
man, thanks for having us.You're welcome, guys. We'll stay
(30:57):
in touch and always remember keeping ayall right man, rock on see you
guys. Attention metal heads, weall want to return to concert venue soon.
Introducing Metal Mayhem, ROC Metal ForeverFreedom X sanitizer. This sanitizer product
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Metal at the Freedom X checkout storefor a show discount now now that Metal
Mayhem ROC. Just want to remindyou folks, Monday nights, I host
the Metalmayhem ROC Live Radio Show onthat metalstation dot com. It's three hours
of live metal from the last fiftyyears from the Vernomatics vault. We have
(32:02):
a chat room where you could setup an account, come in, talk
with other bangers around the country,send me requests and it's just a good
time. It's a great way tobring your metal Monday in for a landing.
Talking about a good time, mynext guest had the chance to capture
Van Halen with his camera forty yearsago this weekend. This past weekend,
(32:25):
Van Halen finished up their Fair Warningtour opening for the Stones down in Florida.
Let's welcome photographer and Van Halen fanatic, Tim McCrum to Medal Mayhem RLC.
Hey Tim, how are you,buddy? Hey brother? Greetings from
Long Island, New York. Areall doing well? We're doing all right?
It's as we taped this conversation,it's about forty degrees and rainy,
(32:49):
so it looks like we're ready forour eight month of dreary weather. But
other than that, things are good. We're ready to talk. Van Halen.
So I hear you got a storyand a half to share. Whether
us just gonna let you go?What do you got for us? Bud
Well? Back when I was nineteenyears old, I saw a need and
searched out a way to make aliving, and I wanted to be a
(33:10):
rock and roll photographer, and Ithought the best thing to do is go
out and shoot the bands that werepertinent and taking them to, you know,
places where I could sell these photos. Back then, it was a
place called Flea World, which wasin Sanford, Florida, right outside Orlando,
and it had over eleven hundred tablesand it was open Friday, Saturday,
(33:36):
and Sunday. So I took myphotos of Prince Madonna, whoever I
thought would be you know, someonethat would make it big. Duran.
Duran was big, and I wouldmake enlargements and just sell photos, and
you know, being right in thecenter of the state, I would travel
to Tampa, you know, withina couple hours, you know, and
(33:58):
try to see the band one ortwice to get a feel for the show
and try to you know, capturethe moments that you remember that stuck out
in the show, so you'd havethem, you know, memories of them
in print. Sure, Now,Tim, were you a professional photographer or
hobbyists? I wasn't even an amateur. I was a photographer wanna be that
(34:22):
was just out of high school.And I did take photography in high school
as one of my courses, youknow, black and white, going in
the dark room and developing your ownfilm. So I fell in love with
it, and I loved rock androll. I love music music as a
big part of my life. Youknow, it makes me, sets me
(34:42):
free and covers up the bad timesand makes everything feel a little bit better.
So I was actually there to seethe Stones because they had Halen in
nineteen eighty one, had been aroundfor a couple of years, and you
knew they were going to make thescene. But I had never seen them
live and I did not have thatnineteen seventy nine album that came out they
(35:02):
Healen one. So I'm looking forwardto shooting them. But I was really
there to see the Stones, Butboy was I fulled when I saw Van
Halen. I just snapped everything thatI could of the band from their very
first song. The set lasted maybean hour and a half and I had
taken three rolls of film with me, thirty six exposure. Back then,
(35:27):
everything was on film. It wasn'tno digital, and I actually shot over
two of my roles of film ofVan Halen. It was just I couldn't
stop, and I knew I hadto say some film for the Stones.
I left maybe a half maybe twentypictures of film for the Stones. But
(35:47):
it was quite a show, andI had heard they had said that they
would be using metal detectors at theshow when you come into the gate,
because the Stones had history with peoplebringing knives and stuff in and violence.
So I went there the day beforethe show and scoped out tinker Field,
(36:09):
slashed the Orlando Tangerine Bowl and wentunder the stand and buried my camera and
my two lenses under the stand wherethey had the concession stand carts, and
buried it in the mulch and thepigrit and wrapped it in like eight plastic
(36:30):
bags and taped it up all real, real airtight. I still did ruin
one of my lenses, my bestlens. But that's how I got my
equipment in and the rest is history. Now let me ask you so to
set this table here. They're playingthe Tangerine Bowl in the Capacities anywhere between
(36:50):
for a concerts sixty to seventy thousandpeople, I would imagine correct, that
is correct. Sixty five is likeseating capacity. They sold eighty thousand tickets
for the two days shows, aSaturday show and a Sunday show. Tickets
were seventeen dollars and fifty cents.Henry Paul Ban was the opening act,
(37:12):
and then Van Halen and then theStones. It was ninety plus degrees with
eighty thousand people jammed in on theground. Everything was general admission. There
was no you know, a signseating and I got as close as I
could. Dude. Did they havea lot of shows at the Tangeri Bowl?
I remember they did. Zeppelin wouldsell out there, and I'm sure
(37:37):
the Grateful Dead did their thing downthere. I know. It's the late
or early eighties, coming off theseventies with these big stadium tours. Yeah,
they were well. Van Halen andthe Stones were the only show that
did a you know, two daygig there. But they did have you
know, bands like Boston, theDoobie Brothers come through Fleetwood Mac, John
(38:02):
Cougar, bands like that, thewho played there. They were one of
the bigger bands that stick out inmy memory. But yeah, they would
have probably maybe six or eight showsa year there from the late seventies.
They graduated in seventy nine, andI'm gonna say they probably stopped around eighteen
(38:24):
seven or eighty eight, like theFleetwood Mac show I think was one of
the last shows they had there.I don't know why they stopped what they
did. The concert landscape changed andit was arenas and whatnot, right,
so they got the two dates there. You find out that they're have enhanced
security. So you come up witha plan to go to the stadium a
(38:47):
couple days before and securely package yourequipment. You bury it now right now.
You go back to the stadium theday off. Quick question, how
much did you get the night beforeanticipating getting up early and going there.
Well, I didn't know what toexpect. So the concerts started at either
(39:09):
noon or one o'clock. Gates openedwere supposed to open at ten. They
didn't open to like eleven. AndI went to my spot where all the
carts were parked, and they weregone. But unfortunately it was kind of
where it was now roped off whereI couldn't get to it, and like
(39:30):
I just had to kind of waittill there was nobody around, and just
it was in pigrit so it wasn'tdirt. But I went over there and
I saw where I had planted alittle piece of a little plastic flag the
market, and I just pulled thebag up and just kind of put it
under my t shirt and walked awayand then put everything together. And then
(39:53):
my goal was to get as closeas I could, you know, it
was get up close. And Igot within maybe twenty feet of the stage,
uh just by you know, justwhatever I had to do to get
up there. And I was upto the stage probably by noon, right
(40:15):
in time for you know, HenryPaul, this big song back then with
Great Ghosts. You know, itwas it was, it was incredible,
It was you know for Henry Paul. Wasn't crazy. But when Van Halen
took the stage, they were hosingpeople off with the hoses. Hype,
you know, high power water hoses, cannons like water cannons to try to
(40:38):
keep the people calm down and maybepush them back a little bit because the
crush was on to get up stagecoming from halfway back, you know,
coming from the fifty yard line upto the stage, crushing people. And
they were ended up having to youknow, take people out over the barricade
to get them aid because they wereand crushed, you know, and pass
(41:00):
them out from the heating stuff.So the holders were the cool people off.
Have you ever shot a concert likethis, like one of these harder
acts or more, No, nothingsimilar to it at all. My first
show was a Duran Duran show atLakelands Civic Center where they had maybe ten
(41:21):
or twelve thousand people. And atthat show, my camera got confiscated by
security and not given back to meto the end of the show. But
unfortunately they took my film out ofthe camera. They maybe give up my
film, what was not happy with. So I ended up going the next
night to another show and I learnedmy lesson you make your way up.
(41:42):
How close were you for Van Halenwhen I'm gonna say fifteen to twenty people
deep? So I'm gonna say withintwenty feet of the stage, maybe thirty
feet. What was it like whenthe band was announced and they come out
and you're trying to shoot? Well, yeah, well there was no shooting
involved when they came out. Itwas a crush of being everybody you know,
(42:05):
trying to slide through, but therewas you were packed in like starting
and when they came out, itwas just it was kind of like just
hang on for your life, soyou know. And I had my camera
equipment, That's all I cared about, but there was no way to even
take pictures until you know, aftereverything calmed down, maybe into the second
(42:25):
song. Before it got calmed down. You know, I was once year
in that spot you are moving.You were there for you know the rest
of the set, which was finewith me. I couldn't have got any
closer. I couldn't have even backedout of there if I wanted to.
You are, you know, skintight with whoever you know, covered and
sweat getting shot every once in awhile with the water and uh, you
(42:51):
know, it was it was fun. So Van Hamlen comes that eighty one
set less was fantastic. They runthrough, um, you know, about
ten to twelve songs. Would theyhave some you know, the bass solo,
drum solo. Eddie did his thing. Dave came out and told his
story about the newspaper critic. Ifound out that that was something that he
(43:14):
normally did. And then when hewas done with the story, he showed
us back to the stage and likewhat the fuck are you gonna do?
He pulls his pants down, bendsover and sent a full moon for the
newspaper critics. They said, here, this is for you, same thing
like a hangish young did and anACDC concert. And I do have a
(43:34):
shot of his ass bent over allwhite. That one hasn't been posted yet,
but I do have it. Sovan Halen kills it and between the
SATs, now the stones come out? How are the stones? The stones
were awesome. They opened up withtime is on my side. There's actually
video footage of that song on YouTube. But there's not one piece of video
(44:00):
of the Van Halen Show ever produced, ever strown, and not one piece
known to mankind. And I knowthis because of a museum in Orlando was
asking me if I knew anybody.You know, they have some of my
working up in Orlando from the tBowl concert series, but not one piece
(44:22):
of video was shot that anybody knowsof other than a couple of stone song.
So time is on my side.As one under my thumb was another
one that someone shot pretty good qualityfor back then for eighty one. But
we keeps saying there's gotta be bootleg, there's gotta there's no bootleg even of
(44:42):
that show. And I don't evenknow if there's any audio of Van none
none known to mankind. It's justif anybody knows, please share it with
me. Yeah, wow, youknow Van Halen hads Uh. We've been
looking for the holy g all anyvideo footage or audio footage of that eighty
run tour. There's some boots outthere. There's a high quality Carolina one
(45:07):
and Memphis and whatnot and right,but so now they hit they played two
dates. Did you make it tothe next day tours? I wanted to,
but I was just exhausted and musedand abused. I had my pictures
developed that night through one of theprocessing places, and I was pretty happy
(45:31):
and surprised with the results because mylenses they had got some moisture in them,
so I didn't know how they weregoing to turn out. But being
that it was bright light, youknow it was the lighting was awesome because
it was, you know, rightin the middle of the day, and
I was happy with what I hadhad and I just couldn't wait to get
(45:52):
out to the flea market. SoSunday I took. I had triplicates of
every shot, so instead of justgetting one good, I made them have
made three and I sold that everypicture I had that Sunday of the Saturday
show, tim Where can people goand see these pictures? Do you have
a platform where they can view them? Well, if you want to go
(46:13):
to my Facebook page, I'm noton there that much anymore, but they're
there. And my Facebook page istissue Timmy. I'm a car salesman,
so tissue. When you sell acard invoice, it's called tissue, So
I kind of picked that name upmany years ago, but tissue Timmy McCrum
McCrum. And you could see themthere. And also the Van Halen Newsdesk
(46:38):
that's Van Halen Newsdesk has a storyand maybe fifteen or twenty of my pictures
from that show. I'm there andyou could see them there. And I
also still have the negative every shotand if you're interested, you could cheek
(47:00):
me out. I'm not looking tomake a lot of money, just looking
to share the love of Van Halen. I got him eight by tens and
some canvases eight by ten and elevenby fourteen and sixteen by twenty. People
listening to this will have the Tim'slinks that he just mentioned in our show
notes on this episode, so don'tworry about jotting it down or whatnot.
(47:22):
We'll have direct links to it beforewe get out of here. You your
photography career kept going after this weekend, and you had a chance to shoot
Van Halen again in nineteen eighty four. Yes, I did very very well
with the van Halen photos, sowhen the eighty four album tour got announced,
(47:45):
I was sure to go. Openingnight was in Jacksonville, Florida,
a little ten thousand seat arena righton the river there at the Saint Johns
River And I got to catch allthree shows in the Florida area, which
was Lakelands, Lakelands Civic Center andthe Hollywood Sportatorium. And I had the
(48:07):
pleasure of being beaten up by thesecurity at the Hollywood's Hollywood Show because I
was, you know, selling myenlargements out of my trunk of my sixty
nine Firebird, and they made surethey ripped up all my pictures and put
a little bit of a beating,and then they served me with the court
(48:27):
summons to appear for bootlegging, whichthey never followed up on, nor did
I. But I, you know, shot eighty four, very very carefully
tried to get a prest pass,but they would not grant me one back
in because I was a nobody,twenty four year old kid, and I
got awesome, awesome, awesome forall three shows. So there's some of
(48:52):
my best work that I have probablya couple hundred shots from each show,
beautiful ful shots and these could beviewed at your on Facebook page two.
Yep, they're on there. Andif, like I said, the specific
band member that you like, Ihad snuck my lens into that show,
which was a three hundred millimeter andI was about ten feet away from the
(49:15):
stage on Eddie's side, and beautiful, beautiful shots and as well as some
of the most spectacular stage lighting becausethey I don't know, if you knew
they traveled, I want to saywith seven or eight or it could have
been seventeen or eighteen semi tractor trailerloads of equipment, stage and lighting for
(49:37):
that show. Huge stage for nineteeneighty four. Yeah, it was incredible
and they were on fire. Eightyfour has to be, you know,
their biggest album. I'm thinking ofsales wise, and just phenomenal music from
front to back. So it's allgood stuff. And I enjoyed two the
(50:00):
pictures and then the flea market teamskind of died out in the late eighties,
and that's when I started selling cars. I turned my salesmanship to selling
subarus, that kind of stuff,and enjoyed it. So I shot.
I'm still shooting. I got,you know, Van Halen worked from when
they just toured in fourteen and fifteenwith Wolfs Gang, so they played a
(50:27):
couple of shows here in Long Islandon Jones Beach, and I got,
you know, some great great shotsof Eddie doing what he does with his
son, you know, and Godrest his soul. One of the king
of rock and rolls has gone,but he's not forgotten. My favorite band
of all time, Van Halen andjust memories that I'll never forget. In
that show in eighty one, thelast show their Fair Warning tour, I
(50:52):
live in my life like there's notomorrow. I'm a Van Halen fan,
and for me, Van Halen's alifestyle. You know, turn it up
as loud as you can go andsit back and enjoy. That's right.
Tim McCrumb, thank you for sharingyour experience. Pleasures all mine. All
right, my friend, Well,thanks for joining us, and take care
of yourself. We'll be in touch. Yes, John, thank you for
(51:14):
your time and reaching out, andkeep on rocking, brother, all right
man, talk to you, begood. Peace medal for live. Thanks
for listening to Middlemayhem ROC. Checkout our websites at Middlemayhem ROC dot com
and metal Forever dot com for informationon upcoming concerts, podcast archives, and
(51:39):
all sorts of info. Please like, following, share with everyone, keeping
your non metal friends. Catch usnext time on wlf E DV radio
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