September 16, 2025 • 40 mins
In this week's episode, I have a conversation with Tom 'Tommi' Gallo, former drummer with 80s hard rock band Spread Eagle, first about how he joined the band, and then how his life changed significantly when the band was over. Now, Tom is getting back... OUT THERE... This is his story!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Nobodies are somebodies.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
All right. This is in fact the Nobody's are Somebody's podcast,
and I am, in fact, the one and only Chad Weiss,
and I've been looking to talk to this guy for
a long long time. It is tom Tommy Gallo, the
former drummer, original drummer of the band Spread Eagle, one
of my favorite bands that I've loved since I was
(00:25):
a teenager, since I discovered them in the way too
late early two thousands, but it's never too late to
discover great music. And I discovered their first record that
I had discovered, I should say, not the first record
of theirs, but the first one I discovered open to
the public, which was a great record and unfortunately was
the Swan song at the time of the band Spread Eagle.
(00:46):
They would get back together in two thousand and six,
but not with Tommy.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
He was not part of the band anymore, and to
this day in twenty twenty five, is still not although
would he ever do something with the band again, be
a part of anything, a show, a record, a song,
You never know, actually you might know. I'm going to
get his answer about this and a lot more here
on Nobody's There's Somebody's podcast. The main focus though, was
talking to Tommy about where he went and what he did.
(01:12):
He was off the grid after nineteen ninety five when
the band said good night, What did Tommy do? Where
did Tommy go? He's going to tell you about it
all in his own words, and I'm looking forward to
having you hear this conversation. Tommy was a great sport
and just a wonderful man and a great great personality,
just very forthcoming, very direct, very honest. And that's what
(01:33):
I love about doing these podcast interviews, just connecting with
musicians who may not be in the limelight anymore but
just have a great story. And just a lot of
people out there who are discovering the music from the past,
are coming into it now bringing it around again a
whole new resurgence. And that's what it's all about here
on the Nobody's or Somebody's podcast. So connect with Tommy.
(01:54):
He's got a brand new band out there called out There.
He's out there doing mostly cover but they are writing
some original music. Can't wait for that. Boston's own. Tommy
is going to tell you about him all in his
own words. Thanks so much for listening to this show.
It's Nobody's or somebody's podcast, it's me Chadvice. Connect with
me on social media over on the Facebook page Nobody's
(02:17):
Are Somebody's on Facebook? Email me directly chad Vice at
SEBCAMCO dot com, s E b C, a MC dot com.
And I want to know what story you got, if
you want to tell your story, or if you know
somebody that would make a good story, or questions, comments
(02:38):
or concerns about the stories you've heard here on the podcast.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
I want to know.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
I gotta know, I gotta know if you want to
hear more of Tommy and not me talking here on
the Nobody's or Somebody's podcast with me Chadvice. Have a
pleasant day, everybody. Recording in progress one to past time
one two three. All right, I don't do big intros.
(03:03):
I just go right into it. So here we go. Yeah,
tom it's good to talk to you, man. How are you.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
I'm doing very well? Thank you doing very well.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Very well. It's good to hear. I can see that.
I'm looking at all your stuff, seeing your posts for
a long long time. Now that wasn't always the case.
So I want to talk to you about how that
all happened. But with the time we have, Man, I
know there's not a lot a time forty minutes or
so was Zoom, But there's some main points I want
to hit on, and not a lot of it is
Spread Eagle, actually believe it or not. So if you're
(03:32):
cool with that, I want to talk more about you.
Thank you Ako.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
That works totally for me.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yeah, I will start there though, so for the most
part and again for a time. I know you had
a couple of bands, I think before Spread Eagle, but
I want to know at the start of the band
a spread ego, how did you get involved? How did
you get involved with those guys? Where did it start
for you as far as you joined that band. Were
you already in New York? Did you already know rob or?
Speaker 1 (04:00):
It began in Boston in nineteen eighty late nineteen eighty five.
I had followed my dream and moved to an apartment
in Boston and I found a guy who had a
band that was called Bang. They were kind of van
haleni ish, but they had a great following a lot
of girls too, So it was always always fun. And
(04:22):
what happened we ran our we were the band ran
its course, we got really popular, in Boston. We were
all over the radio, we were in all kinds of contests.
But after a while it just started to get sour
and we got bored. So the guitar player Paul uh
Spread Eagle, he moved to Boston, moved to New York
(04:44):
with his girlfriend and found a good band with a
great singer named Ray West, and he called Rob and
I into New York. We moved in there, and that's
where it all started with Spread Eagle.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
That's around eighty eight, eighty nine kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Yeah, eighty nine. Yeah, in the winter. I remember arriving
in a blizzard.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
O nice. Yeah, welcome to New York. Welcome to New York.
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
And yeah, well so I went up the stairs to
my apartment, but not before being hit over the head
by a crackhead who rolled me and took my wallet.
But oh, that's that's the Lower East Side for you.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
That's broken City for you, right.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Broken City, to be exact, exactly for you.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
It's all there. So obviously you probably know. I've talked
to Ray and Rob at Nausem about the band. They've
been on the show many times. Ray especially can't get
enough of me. He's always on Paradise City or he's
on the podcast What's Up.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
He's fun.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, he's fun. He's fun to talk to. We know how,
we know how it ends, how it how it plays out,
but for you personally, So let's say it's about ninety
five ninety six, it's after the open to the public record. First,
going to that record itself real quick. I'd read a
long time ago that maybe you were or weren't as
involved on that record. Can you set record straight on that?
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Yeah? I was involved in demoing some of the songs
that made it, which was like maybe two songs, and
then I, uh, I just had a follow it falling
out with them and uh, mostly with Paul at the
time because he was steering the ship.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
And uh, Paul who don't know Paul.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Di Bartolos who became Salvador Poe.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Yes, have you spoke to him? I have not. He's
the last guy. I don't know if he does interviews.
I don't know if he's in that. I know he's
not in that world anymore, this world.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
But yeah, you know I I I thought about that today.
Earlier I was wondering would he do that? Ah?
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Maybe if I play my cards right, if I'm nice enough.
He's a nice guy, yeah for sure.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Yeah, and he and you know what, he is, removed
as he is from the situation. He does honor the
legacy of spread Eagle.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
That's where I've heard. Yeah, that's the impression that I guess.
So it's good to hear too.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Yes, so he's well, keep everybody's keeping it alive. Yeah,
I'm friends with them. So getting back to that question, Uh,
what was it?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Well, basically, how involved were you? Because I had read
I'd asked this question to Rob too, I asked him
basically flat out, I said, did Tommy play on Open
to the Public? And he said, yeah, he did. Yeah,
so you played on all the songs? You were there
for the recording, right, it's not me on the album,
That's what I thought. Okay, it's it's it's.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Session guys keeping the best of what I did and
performing it. So, uh, yeah, you know who's on it,
Tommy Price from Jone Jet and Billie Idol.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Okay, well he got the Tommy right. Yeah. Yeah, but he.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Spells weird like I do. He spells a th h
O m m y. He played on Preacherman and Faith,
He's on I Hate myself for loving you and rebel.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yet really okay, it's that big sound, yeah yeah, fantastic player, fantastic.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
And then there was the guy that used to play
in TNT, John Mcalouso. He's he's a Grammy Award winning drummer.
He lives in Italy. Now, a guy named a guy
named Kirk Blanket Ship. He's a fantastic.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I heard that name too, That's one of the names
I had heard too. That's why I kind of asked
the question. I was wanting to see if you what
you would say about that, because I didn't want to
jump in there and just assume. But did you So
you didn't do the tour? Did you? Like you said
you had a falling out?
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Actually I did the tour. I didn't do the album.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Okay, so you did the tour.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
They sent me a cassette when I was staying at
my mom's for a while and they and I just
learned it, which was which really was just me aping
a perfect version of what I already did.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Nice. How come you didn't actually play on the record.
You mentioned a falling out? But is that the reason
why falling out?
Speaker 1 (08:36):
And I think there was a it was there were
two things. There was a struggle with the news songs
because it was a new direction. It was more, it
was less straightforward rock. There was some tricky stuff in there,
and I became Stephen Adler to guns n rows is
suddenly it was like, okay, we need maths torum.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
And also there was a personal there was a personal
falling out too. I was I still had some growing
up to do.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I get you, I get you. So the band is
done after the tour. We all know that story. So
what I want to know, and this is a big
part of you that I really want to hear about
for sure when it comes to Tommy is where did
you go from this? I mean the band obviously that
split up. Robin Ray did different things. They kind of
left the scene a little bit. Where did you go?
What kind of made up your life to the rest
of the nineties and two thousands?
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Uh life one oh one boat camp. This is what
it was. I met somebody down in Florida who was
involved in the music industry. They moved up to Massachusetts
with me. This was a relationship for a while that
it no longer exists. I got myself a factory job
that paid really well, but in the meantime, I started painting,
(09:45):
I started getting into poetry in folk music, and all
of that stuff really filled in the hole within me
that I needed to fill.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Seriously, that's good to hear. It's funny. It's funny too,
because that was the time. If we're talking with the
late nineties early two thousands, we know that's when the
Internet became a big thing, not what it is today,
but that became a thing too for me personally, to
discover music, to find bands, and that's when I kind
of I came late to the party best when I
discovered Spread Eagle, among other bands. That's why I discovered
(10:14):
your music, for sure. But it's kind of funny in
that sense because I believe around this time, as the
Internet is coming out becoming a thing, people are jumping
on it, We're discovering new things. You're going the opposite direction.
You're kind of staying away from that. You're living, for
lack of a better term, off of great. Is that
kind of fair to say it is?
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Yeah? But I have a lot of friends on Facebook,
and they they can keep tabs on what I'm when
I'm up to. Right now, I'm playing in a I'm
playing at a great local cover band, but I'm also
I'm also filling in for other people too, so sometimes
I get paid to practice with the other bands.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Yeah really neat Yeah, Yeah, you've definitely embraced it too,
and that's kind of where I'm going with that. So
at some point you decided to jump on this thing
called the Internet, and that's when I kind of connected
with you. That's when you kind of came back and
started embracing your spurty go past. You're doing the I've
seen the drum videos, the practice shoots, the things you
got your band that you have now when you went
(11:09):
full force, When did that kind of change for you?
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Well, twenty eighteen, my partner she died of her heart failure,
and next thing you know, I'm living my own life
for the first time, which was like drinking out of
a fire hose to just take have everything come at
(11:33):
you have bills, we'll just about everything. And next thing
you know, I get on Facebook and the whole world
has opened up for me through Facebook. So Facebook's great.
I don't care, you know. They It's got a funny
reputation depending on who you talk to, but it's great.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Yeah, absolutely, It's opened my.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Life up, it really has. Thank you Facebook.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yeah, you're welcome. It's good. Good to see you out there.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Like I said, well, thank you Chad too, thank you
so much.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Yeah, for sure. And we'll get to your band of
course out there too. I want to touch on that.
So one last thing on spread Eagle. We know and
I've talked to obviously Ray and Rob about this. They
got back together in two thousand and six with Rick,
that would be Rob's cousin. Were you ever approached, did
you ever get invited to come back? What's your what's
your story on that? Well?
Speaker 1 (12:24):
I got the I got the news from a lot
of people when I got back, when I got on
social media that Rob has been trying to get in
touch with me, but I've been off the grid. Uh
my life before then was is there a contact with anybody?
I was like a hermit, I really was, but in
(12:47):
a strange way, it really molded me into the person
I am now. When when I got on social media,
I was the person I needed to be to be
able to handle it all and bring it all in
and make it work for me. That's but a best
I can put it.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Yeah, do you think if you had to jumped in,
jumped in all In when it first became a thing.
Do you think it might have changed your outlook today?
You think you might not be in that same ground,
that same headspace if you had to jumped all in
back when it was all in.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Yeah, who knows what band I'd be in right now,
or even if I would choose.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
This, you can still be drumming professionally.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Possibly, No, there was, there's definitely been a downside to leaving,
but I don't I don't. I don't spend time dwelling
on that anymore because it's hypothetical.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yeah, I got a lot to be thankful for right now.
As my wife, she's my best friend. I'm really tight
with my family, type with a lot of people now.
It's it's really nice because it makes the seconds. Like
they talk about being in the moment, it does make
the seconds really nice and comfortable with people.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
That's good to hear. That's good to hear. Do you
still you're welcome? Do you still have contact with the band,
with the former guys with the guys, Yeah?
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Yeah, they robbed Deluk in particular invited my wife and
I to be on the guest list the last time
they came up here, and I know they're doing tour
to promote or celebrate the thirty five thirty fifth year
anniversary of the debut album. But we had some issues
(14:24):
and I and some health issues, so we decided we
should probably stay home. So that's so I had a
feeling maybe something might happen if we went up there,
and it would have been nice.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Have you ever seen them live since you've been out
of the band, have you ever actually gone to see them?
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Yeah? I've opened up for them with my first band ever,
Iron Rage. We get together, the first garage band. It's
the guy John Williams who wrote all the songs and sings.
He's brilliant. He's like Tony Iomi. He's just got a
sick amount of riffs. We opened up for Spread Eagle.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Ah really, I didn't know that. What year was it?
How long ago was this?
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Twenty eighteen? You can actually find the whole concert on YouTube.
You can find our performance on YouTube it if you
look up our Iron Rage at Sammy's in Revere.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Okay, I think I'll find it. I'll put a link
when this goes up too, so people can check it out.
So they know what we're talking about as well. Twenty
twenty twenty before I.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Yeah, yes, a matter of fact, I don't think I
was feeling that well during that show. I happen to have.
I'm always I always play my best show sick, I
really do, but I don't. I don't know how many
people don't. I don't know how many people I might
have made sick that day. But I know one thing.
They enjoyed my performance.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Hey, you infected them with rock and roll, man, That's
all that matters.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
That's it. You got it?
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Is that band still octave? Are you still doing things
with Iron Rage?
Speaker 1 (15:55):
As a matter of fact, we should change your name
to the Iron Rage Reunion because we get together for
re you in its own. We did something recently with
a singer named Mike bor Finkel. He's a He's a
really great powerful singer around here. He's been out of
commission for fifteen months. I think he had an operation,
and he got together with us and we did a
(16:16):
UFO cover of Doctor No Lights Out.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Oh nice, one of probably my favorite UFO song, next
Time' a Loser. Wow. That's cool.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Yeah, that is a great song. Although I think I
think honestly their biggest poppuyist song, Only You Can Rock
Me is probably my favorite.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Oh that's a nice song too. Yes, yeah, is your
cover out there?
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Like?
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Can people stream it? Is it on YouTube?
Speaker 1 (16:40):
You look? Yeah, it's on YouTube and the name is
Mike boor Finkel. B Oh you are e boor uh
Finkel f I n k l E Mike bor Finkel,
Michael is and Mike I would go Michael bor Finkel.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Okay, easy to find. That's that's very very cool.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
There's a band out there for him, I know there is.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
So I want to hear about what you're doing currently
now where you of course the band that I've seen
the most that you post about most recent months or
maybe years, I can't remember the timeline, but it's the
most one that seems active right now. And you're talking
about the most that would be out there. You're putting
yourself out there. You're out there. Talk to me about
that band, How it started? What what it is? Basically?
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Well, it's funny that I, uh, well it started. I
got a call from Sean Gatz, the bass player, uh,
the hot and soul of that band, and uh he
asked me if I would come over and if I'd
be interested in I think we jammed. Yeah, it was
a jam and uh. I got a good vibe from them.
(17:40):
They listened, Uh, they were in. They they had a
lot of questions. Uh. And and I love the name out.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
There, bring yourself out there.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
My boss at Silgean, I work at Siljean. Yes, he
sees me in my my out there your shirt. Now
you know, I don't share myself a lot with people
at work, although it's all very nice. He saw the
shirt and he said, you know, Tom, that shirt and
I was like, oh, here we go. You goes a
perfect shirt.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
But you because you're out there and I love it,
but you know.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
What you have. I'm not completely out there. I'm very
respective of reality and other people. And I listen very carefully,
very respectful people. But you can't really be creative in
the way I am if you spend all your waking
moments in reality. You have to drift sometimes in order
to be creative exactly.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
That's why we're the sunglasses on these interviews. That's my creativity.
That's what I bring to the table.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
You've definitely got an aura about you.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Yea, that's right, thank you, So do you well, speaking
of Aura, then, so at your regular job, do people
recognize you? Do they from past experience? Do they know
who you are or were like you used to play
in this band in New York whatever? Do they have
a a history lesson on you?
Speaker 1 (19:02):
They do. They've asked questions and uh.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
How do you feel about that?
Speaker 1 (19:06):
And I'm Facebook friends with some of them too.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Do you feel comfortable talking about that kind of thing
back in the past, talking about here yougo stuff like that.
You're okay with that?
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Yeah? I'm comfortable because it because it really lets people
know who you are. They see that you've had a
crazy life, but they see you now and who hasn't
had a little crazy in their life?
Speaker 2 (19:25):
True?
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Really? You know? So? Uh, and you're in you're being
watched through other people's eyes, so everybody, most people are
very forgiving of things like that and accepting. So yeah,
I wrote sometimes it's like my second family sometimes at work.
I don't want to get too carried away, but they
are kind of like second family.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Yeah, no, it's true. How did you get involved in
that company? How did they approach you? Did you apply
for that job? How did you get involved?
Speaker 1 (19:51):
I've got a friend named Dennis Catterat I went to
school with. He's fantastic drummer around here. I've been in
touch with him. He's also a Facebook friend and see
what Facebook.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Does meant to connect people. That's when it started.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Yeah, he just he just recommended me. And uh, I
trained for a little while as a lath operator. That
is an extremely technical job and they need immediate results
right away, so they put me on a couple of
other machines that are more forgiving, and uh, I've been
(20:26):
there for almost two years now. It's nice and you know,
you learn things as you go along. You learn different machines.
You'll learn how how you start to figure the place out.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Yeah, exactly when you're happy doing that. This is uh,
this is your next phase of your career besides playing
music on the side. But this is your this is
your career.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
This is my bread and butter. But the drumming, the
drumming is my side hustle because that's that's where I
could do the firing no Ah, that's.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
My firing goes through or the hiring manager of your bands.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
That's my God given gift. And I can't see myself
not playing the drums now that I'm backing it. It
brings people together. Uh, and my name that I've made
for myself over the years does come into play. People,
people do come check me out. Yeah, he's still doing it.
(21:26):
He's still got it.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Yeah, that's why. Again, that's why I noticed too, with
your your stories that you would post on Facebook. That's
I think when I first connected with you on Facebook,
I always see the stories of just you taking I
don't know if you're at home or where you were
in your personal studio and just playing the drums and
showing that you still had your chops, playing different beats,
different things. Right, you just were just again for the
(21:48):
black of a better term, out there showing people, Hey man,
I'm still a drummer. I'm still here playing it was you.
It's very good.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Yeah, thank you. And you know what, i'd really, I
really don't go to any great lengths to make sure
that it's a professional looking thing. It's spur of the moment.
It's sometimes I only have a few minutes in the day.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Right, Well, if I have you even find those two
minutes or ten minutes whatever, just to far up the
drums and uh push out a beat. I mean, that's
that's pretty cool too, just for the fun of it,
not because someone told you to, not because you're trying
to promote anything. You're just saying, Hey, I'm a drummer.
I play drums. This is my passion. Check me out.
This is what Tommy does, This is what tom.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Did, and I and I when I just did for you,
I haven't practiced in three weeks and look away, okay,
I could do.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Yeah, there you go. Like riding a bicycle. It's like
riding a bike.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
A bike, you know, you don't you never forget right exactly.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
So to that, and did you when you were off
the grid doing your own thing and you had other
things going on in your life, you're working on a factory,
did you still own a drum kit? Did you still
play on the side of it or did you just
put them away once you onceready.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Was over thirty years with no drumming.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
No drums. You sold your drums your kids. You didn't
touch them, you didn't pick up things.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
So my drums kind of were technically owned by my
manager and he was and he was my landlord. This
was back in the Spread Eagle days. Unfortunately he's passed away.
He's passed on his name was Charlie Gambetta.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
I know, yeah, I know that name from uh well,
he's in the liner notes of the records. But Rob's
talks extensively, extensively, extensively. There's a word on the podcast
about him and how much he meant to the band
at the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he was cool.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
He looked like Bick Jagger.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
That's why I heard.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Yeah, yeah, they said that too. Well, there you go.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Yeah, I don't know if I well, I think they
said it or I think I looked up pictures, but yeah, yeah,
I can see it.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
So he owned your drums, so he took the drums back.
You stopped playing when you left Spread Eagle. That was
into drums for you at the time.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Little little side note. I found out he had a
hard time get rid of them because they were all
chipped from all my knocking them over every night.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Wow. Seeing that scratch like a cat video, I'm sure
they were holy shit man.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Yeah, I mean, you know, Keith won't did it?
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Why can't I do exactly? I think she stayed out
of the pool. Yeah yeah, stand up.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Well then, and I didn't lose my front tooth.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
There you go. That helps too and diet thirty three. Yeah, yeah,
that's true too. You're still here with us. Thank God
for that you U. When did you first pick it
back up though? When did you get yourself a drum
coat around? What time is this that you decided, okay,
I'm going to play again, even for fun at home?
When did you actually say, you know, I'm gonna sit
down play some drums?
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Can I railroad you for a second? Can we stare
to the left here?
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Sure? I played banjo from I don't know that.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
From ninety six to two thousand and three. I remember
shortly after nine to eleven I went up to the
hills of Hills of Hillsborough, West Virginia and got an
actual lesson in a log cabin with a guy named
Dwhite Dillar who's passed on now too. He was a
bit of a like a state treasure it was. I
(24:49):
really took it really seriously. I got into it. It
filled the hole that I had with drumming as well
as painting. Painting also did a big thing for me.
I went to a an art showing, just a local
showing in out in Sheffield, Massachusetts, and I took a
look around and I'm just looking at everybody's stuff, and
I'm going I can do this because you know, I've
(25:11):
been drawing since I was like five years old, strong
on everything I would draw on my school ward.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
I yeah, so, uh drawn a. So you already got it.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Yeah, I'm rowing apple drawing a. That's a good one.
And I learned in fortunately my mother's signature too.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
But that's where the true artistry comes from.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Right, And you have to know your parents signature.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
How are you going to get out of it? Yeah, exactly.
If you don't do that, you deserve whatever's coming to you.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Thank you. And so I really the creative thing was
still there. And what I didn't realize at the time,
I didn't realize what was going to come up was, Uh,
in twenty eighteen person that's now my wife, who was
an old girlfriend of mine, we all got back together
again and we started dating the next thing, you know,
(26:04):
or a couple, and uh, everything just seemed to come together.
Everything just seemed to come together during this downtime, and
it was a lot of spiritual growth. I'd embraced Buddhism, uh,
which is which is fundamental. I mean, it all starts
from within. Things really just got so much better during
that time. For me, it was meant to happen. When
(26:28):
people fire you for being a waiener, well not not
like an actual waiiner, but it through their eyes. Uh.
You you need to do some thinking, You need to
go through some stuff. You need to grow up.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
You found that? Did she did your who is your
current wife? Now? Did she introduce you to that? Or
did you find that together? The Buddhism and stuff and
the spiritual growing.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Actually she's not the one that introduced me to Buddhism,
but she's more Buddhist than the person that did, which
was a partner that has passed on, okay, really passed
on from a heart problem in the past. But all
this was coming together. Do you You know, experiences teach
you things anyway. A lot of times you don't have
to study Buddhism to learn things. There's so much common
sense in it anyway, And.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
You find that's helped you, It's really guide you, and
you keep you keep that in your heart and in
your head. Now as you move along, as we get
years away from that major change in year twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Yeah, uh, things that are only getting better, strong, and
I'm getting older, and I'm dealing with I'm dealing with
health issues. But this is all important because when when
you go through all this guy, but she teaches you
to be more tolerant of the moment of what's really happening.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Mm hmm. You wouldn't know it. Man, you look stronger
than ever. Like I say, you're like you're out there,
you're drumming. You look like you're killing it as far
as that goes, So you wouldn't know it if you
have something going on, I mean you hide it.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Well, it's not I'm sure there's a little drama in
my head too, because it's new, right, you know what
things are new sometimes this.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Yeah, it's exciting to go full force. You try to
do everything in your power to keep it going. Right,
it's just the main focus that you have, right yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Right now, I have to get used to bland foods.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
That's fun, not fun at all.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
That it's not bland. Not only planned, you have to
cut it in half.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Well least she only got smaller portions of bland foods.
That's the only thing. I think it would be. The
saving grace for that is like you don't have to
have a huge surplus supply at least to cut it
in half a little bit. It's I have a little
piece of that's not so bad.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
There's a silver lining to everything.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
That's it, the silver line. So the word I was
looking for a saving grace, silver lining, the silver line
to everything. So about out there? Going back to that again,
the most that's the most recent thing you're working on.
Is that a that's not? Is that a cover project?
Is that an original? Tell me about out there?
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Can I just this is what I see for First
of all, I see this. We're we're developing a big
following through both parties. Those two guys and me, Uh,
there seems to be a charm about to this band.
(29:09):
The Bassis is said, swagger. Uh, there's there's something charming
about us. It's just three guys. There's there's chemistry between us.
It's it's like a funky dance thing. But yet it's
we use rock instrumentation. I'm bashing away the you know.
The Bassis has got a lot of gain on his amp.
The guitarist plays loud, but he's he's a Berkeley crat,
(29:31):
so he's he can he knows his way around the
fretboard and he's got a really good, deep, deeper voice.
And we know what we've done. We've we've found out
what works for us. Like well, I recommend that the
bad that the singer only sing the songs in his range. Right,
So we're doing stuff like David Bowie and Roxy music
(29:54):
and stuff. I mean, he can sing cheap trick and
stuff too, but you got you gotta know what works
for you. So we have nothing but cool, catchy songs,
not the not the average, not the average meat potato
stuff that you hear and from your average cover.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Yeah, made the big hits, the songs everybody knows. Right,
you try to go a little deeper and bring up
music out there.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
It's funny because I was just about to say, you know,
like so and so, and it was like, oh, we
do cover so and so. But yeah, but we try
to we try to keep it kind of cool. We
picked songs that are like cool secrets that people can't
wait to hear, you know, like like Roxy music, Love
is the Drug. That's a very cool so but not
(30:38):
everybody knows it.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Yeah, you're right, and we're doing something.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Else that I like, again speak for anybody else, but
I've been doing a lot of background singing, you know,
harmonizing and I tend to do the high stuff all right.
It adds something to the music.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Have you always have you always sang? Have you always
been using singing? Have you always harmonized something new?
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Always? Yeah, harmonizing has always been the one thing I
could do because I guess I never had the courage
to be a lead singer, although I've been told I
have what it takes. But uh, the harmony, the harmonizing
has always come easy to me. And you could play
drums and harmonize singing leads a little more different, a
(31:20):
little more.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Trickier, especially while drumming. I mean, it can be done.
We've seen it with the famous drummer is Don Henley
comes to mind. But I mean, yeah, it can't be
It can't be easy, for sure.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
John Henley had it easy in one way. His music
is straight, there's no odd meters, there's no tricky changes.
Phil Phil Collins.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Had Yeah, that's a good one. Kelly Keegey from Night
Ranger two when he doesn't sing lead all the time.
But I mean, Sister Christian is one.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Dad is an unbelievable song.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Sister, it's all him. Yeah, it's amazing. I didn't realize
at the time. I always thought that was jack and
then I saw the video. I'm like, why is the
drummer singing the jacks parts, Like what's going on with this?
And it turns out it was actually his song. He
wrote it, he came up with the title. They changed
it a bit for it was supposed to be sister Christie,
but it turned the sister Christian. Uh yeah, yeah, I
(32:09):
was supposed to be after his sister, Like his sister's
name is Christie, so he was saying sister Christy, and
I guess the way he was pronouncing the word Christie
sound like Christian so or something in the tone. So
Jackson's like, oh, sister Christian, I love that. He's like, no, man,
it's my sister, sister Christie. He's like, nah, forget that,
it sounds better as sister Christian. He's like, but that's
my anyway. I guess Jack one and his sister Christian
(32:31):
as we all know it, But it was supposed to
be sister Christy, which is how it was hilarious. They
just bullied him into changing the name of the song.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
I think sister Christian also was more euphonious. Yeah, I'm
not using the word, but it sounds better.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Uh where I can't pronounce, but it's perfect.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
I saw them live. I saw them live opening up
for Kiss on the Creatures at the Night Tour and
the trauma was sideway so.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
You can see him. Yeah, yeah, amazing.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Christian. That song Sister Christian is a funny little story.
I remember it was in the sports radio. There was
a guy that used to be on the Patriots named
Christian Fourier. I don't know if you've ever heard of him.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
I've heard of him.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Yeah. They used to play the song christs. They used
to call him sister Christian when he it's a hazing
when he first joined the Patriots.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Yeah, it makes sense. It's funny.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
There's sports radio is big up here in Boston.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Oh yeah, for sure, absolutely it is. For sure. Boston
has a great heritage in team so I mean, obviously
that makes sense, right.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Especially after two thousand and four when the Socks won
and all.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Yeah, exactly ever since then, I was on vacation.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
I was on vacations up in the mountains of New
Hampshire when they took it. I remember watching it on TV.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
That's a good feeling, for sure. For sure, so be
with the time you do have left for running out tonight,
there's always stuff I can dig into with you, Tom.
But for the future, I want to know what you
got going on. Do you have plans coming up for
music wise?
Speaker 1 (33:53):
I know that original stuff, thank you excellent. Second way,
we got rehearsal tonight around seven o'clock. We're going to
start writing originals and the whole idea is to capture
the vibe that we have on stage with these songs
and translated into new stuff.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
And that's what's out there. Correct, this is your main
gig now to be fair to say that out there.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Out there, it's my main gig. But but you know,
in my free time when I'm not playing with out There,
I'm totally open to supporting other bands and in stuff,
getting extra sidework stuff because I have to keep playing.
And every time I every time I start up with
a new band or even play a gig, I meet
new people.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Mm hmm, make any connections, make new friends, doors open
for you never know where you're going to meet, right so,
or who you're going to see on the road or
out of shows or whatever otherwise.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
Right and you know what it gets more and more
unique the older you get.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
It really does, I can, because.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
You can feel the ache and the pull of life
that you wouldn't do, you wouldn't feel when you were younger.
When you're young, you've got the whole world again ahead
of you, and it's all magic and it's coming at you.
But as you get older, does the fish that are
swimming by you swim slower?
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Yeah? I don't know if that's no. It makes sense
to me too, I mean, yeah, no, it makes perfect
sense to me too. And you're you're living to the
fullest now, which is great because now is the time
to enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Right.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
You could be going the opposite direction, slowing down, But
at least you're uh yeah, drumming faster and faster. Yeah,
you're picking up the speed. You pick up the temple
as you get older.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Yeah, tomorrow, I don't have anything to do, but I'm
sure I'll scrub the toilet or at the tub or something.
I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Well, yeah, see, I appreciate they have future goals. That's
what my wife, My wife telling me.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
My wife is telling me to stop.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
That's funny. Oh you're good. The last thing on spread
I'll ask you, can you ever see a situation, let's
say there, you guys are all relatively still in good shape,
You're still out there playing, you and them. Can you
ever see a scenario where you would ever if they
had a final show, a final tour, final whatever, come
(36:04):
down and do a guest on a record. Would you
ever see yourself playing behind the drums at some point
some way for the band let's bread. Yeah, yeah, definitely,
no offense to Rick who does a great job, obviously
obviously holding down the drums. But would you ever if
they said, hey, man, hey Tom, can you come over
and do this? You're down to do that?
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (36:22):
Definitely Do they know that?
Speaker 1 (36:26):
I think they do? When they I think they do. Uh.
One time I showed up a couple of gigs ago
when they had Hunter Malnatti on there. I hope I
pronounced that right. I know I got the Hunter right
on guitar, Johnny. It took some time off.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
Yes, yes, that's right.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
I showed up in a cane because I had recently like,
twisted my ankle over again. You roll your ankle once,
it's bad, you roll it twice to can about.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
It and not great for the drummer.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
It wasn't good. Yeah, but I've managed to do it anyway,
There's been some talk about me coming up there, and uh,
I would do it. I stay in touch with them,
I know, Uh, I know. There was a recent video
Q and A sent my way through email that I
did on video with them that I believe is going
(37:13):
to be used in the future for maybe a Bontus CD.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
That you did with them, like you like talked with
them and in the same room or just uh the online.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
Rob de Luke asked me if I would participate and.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
What looks like is it a documentary or.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
It appears to be the history of the band?
Speaker 2 (37:33):
Okay, it's like a documentary then maybe.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
And it was about twenty questions sent to me email
and I was asked if I could put together, you know,
get a nice setting behind me much like this and
it's perfect, thank you and uh and I answered about
twenty questions candidly and uh, from what I understand, they're
going to it's going to be used for some sort
of commercial fan related purpose in the future.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Okay, that's nice to hear it. So that's great to
hear that that you still have good terms, you're still
good connection, that you're still on the same page as
far as like, the friendship is what matters most, and
it's not always the same in bands. It could be
a big marriage and sometimes marriages don't last, as we
all know, right, But it's good that you still have
a connection with them.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
And yeah, you stay out, you stay friends with them,
but you keep your nose out of their business and
you just you're there for them when they want to communicate.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
Yeah, that's great to hear. It's good. That's positive. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
So people want to check out if people want people
find you on socials? Which ones are you on? Where
can people find out there? Where can they get out there?
Speaker 1 (38:35):
I'm only on Facebook. I'm afraid of my phone.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
I keep thinking soon, I see, that's the first old
man thing you've said today.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Oh I told myself to stay out of the old
man weeds today and managed to get one in there.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
You go. I appreciate that so much.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
Oh. So, you know, I'm curious if this podcast goes through.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
Oh what's going through?
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Go to? Is it live right now? No?
Speaker 2 (39:01):
It's not live? No?
Speaker 1 (39:02):
No, okay, because I would like to send some close
friends the link to your.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Show when it goes up, Like when this one for sure. Yeah,
I'll send it to you. I can't. I'm shooting for
this week coming up to get it live as it
were online. But I'll definitely let you know what it
is for sure, and you'll be the first one to
get the link. Rob will be the second, but you'll
be the first. You'll be the first. Rob will be
the second.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Oh, Dad, you're too nice.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Thank you, Temmy, You're too nice. Man. It's good to
talk to him. Glad you agreed to do this. I
wasn't sure if you were down for interviews, but it's
always good to, like I said, connect with you personally
and see how you're doing. So I'm glad you did this.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
You make it so easy.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
I try my best, man, I try my best. Next
next time my hit list is mister Salvador Poe as well.
He's next. So if you, if you talk to him,
let him know I'm gunning for him. Let him know
I'm who I am and I'm headed his way.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
I'll put it in a good word for you.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
Appreciate it. Man. Anytime you've been listening to the Nobody's
or Somebody's podcast with Chad Weiss, and this podcast has
been voted as the number one podcast by people that
don't vote.
Nobodies are somebodies.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
All right. This is in fact the Nobody's are Somebody's podcast,
and I am, in fact, the one and only Chad Weiss,
and I've been looking to talk to this guy for
a long long time. It is tom Tommy Gallo, the
former drummer, original drummer of the band Spread Eagle, one
of my favorite bands that I've loved since I was
(00:25):
a teenager, since I discovered them in the way too
late early two thousands, but it's never too late to
discover great music. And I discovered their first record that
I had discovered, I should say, not the first record
of theirs, but the first one I discovered open to
the public, which was a great record and unfortunately was
the Swan song at the time of the band Spread Eagle.
(00:46):
They would get back together in two thousand and six,
but not with Tommy.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
He was not part of the band anymore, and to
this day in twenty twenty five, is still not although
would he ever do something with the band again, be
a part of anything, a show, a record, a song,
You never know, actually you might know. I'm going to
get his answer about this and a lot more here
on Nobody's There's Somebody's podcast. The main focus though, was
talking to Tommy about where he went and what he did.
(01:12):
He was off the grid after nineteen ninety five when
the band said good night, What did Tommy do? Where
did Tommy go? He's going to tell you about it
all in his own words, and I'm looking forward to
having you hear this conversation. Tommy was a great sport
and just a wonderful man and a great great personality,
just very forthcoming, very direct, very honest. And that's what
(01:33):
I love about doing these podcast interviews, just connecting with
musicians who may not be in the limelight anymore but
just have a great story. And just a lot of
people out there who are discovering the music from the past,
are coming into it now bringing it around again a
whole new resurgence. And that's what it's all about here
on the Nobody's or Somebody's podcast. So connect with Tommy.
(01:54):
He's got a brand new band out there called out There.
He's out there doing mostly cover but they are writing
some original music. Can't wait for that. Boston's own. Tommy
is going to tell you about him all in his
own words. Thanks so much for listening to this show.
It's Nobody's or somebody's podcast, it's me Chadvice. Connect with
me on social media over on the Facebook page Nobody's
(02:17):
Are Somebody's on Facebook? Email me directly chad Vice at
SEBCAMCO dot com, s E b C, a MC dot com.
And I want to know what story you got, if
you want to tell your story, or if you know
somebody that would make a good story, or questions, comments
(02:38):
or concerns about the stories you've heard here on the podcast.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
I want to know.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
I gotta know, I gotta know if you want to
hear more of Tommy and not me talking here on
the Nobody's or Somebody's podcast with me Chadvice. Have a
pleasant day, everybody. Recording in progress one to past time
one two three. All right, I don't do big intros.
(03:03):
I just go right into it. So here we go. Yeah,
tom it's good to talk to you, man. How are you.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
I'm doing very well? Thank you doing very well.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Very well. It's good to hear. I can see that.
I'm looking at all your stuff, seeing your posts for
a long long time. Now that wasn't always the case.
So I want to talk to you about how that
all happened. But with the time we have, Man, I
know there's not a lot a time forty minutes or
so was Zoom, But there's some main points I want
to hit on, and not a lot of it is
Spread Eagle, actually believe it or not. So if you're
(03:32):
cool with that, I want to talk more about you.
Thank you Ako.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
That works totally for me.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yeah, I will start there though, so for the most
part and again for a time. I know you had
a couple of bands, I think before Spread Eagle, but
I want to know at the start of the band
a spread ego, how did you get involved? How did
you get involved with those guys? Where did it start
for you as far as you joined that band. Were
you already in New York? Did you already know rob or?
Speaker 1 (04:00):
It began in Boston in nineteen eighty late nineteen eighty five.
I had followed my dream and moved to an apartment
in Boston and I found a guy who had a
band that was called Bang. They were kind of van
haleni ish, but they had a great following a lot
of girls too, So it was always always fun. And
(04:22):
what happened we ran our we were the band ran
its course, we got really popular, in Boston. We were
all over the radio, we were in all kinds of contests.
But after a while it just started to get sour
and we got bored. So the guitar player Paul uh
Spread Eagle, he moved to Boston, moved to New York
(04:44):
with his girlfriend and found a good band with a
great singer named Ray West, and he called Rob and
I into New York. We moved in there, and that's
where it all started with Spread Eagle.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
That's around eighty eight, eighty nine kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Yeah, eighty nine. Yeah, in the winter. I remember arriving
in a blizzard.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
O nice. Yeah, welcome to New York. Welcome to New York.
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
And yeah, well so I went up the stairs to
my apartment, but not before being hit over the head
by a crackhead who rolled me and took my wallet.
But oh, that's that's the Lower East Side for you.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
That's broken City for you, right.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Broken City, to be exact, exactly for you.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
It's all there. So obviously you probably know. I've talked
to Ray and Rob at Nausem about the band. They've
been on the show many times. Ray especially can't get
enough of me. He's always on Paradise City or he's
on the podcast What's Up.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
He's fun.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, he's fun. He's fun to talk to. We know how,
we know how it ends, how it how it plays out,
but for you personally, So let's say it's about ninety
five ninety six, it's after the open to the public record. First,
going to that record itself real quick. I'd read a
long time ago that maybe you were or weren't as
involved on that record. Can you set record straight on that?
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Yeah? I was involved in demoing some of the songs
that made it, which was like maybe two songs, and
then I, uh, I just had a follow it falling
out with them and uh, mostly with Paul at the
time because he was steering the ship.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
And uh, Paul who don't know Paul.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Di Bartolos who became Salvador Poe.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Yes, have you spoke to him? I have not. He's
the last guy. I don't know if he does interviews.
I don't know if he's in that. I know he's
not in that world anymore, this world.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
But yeah, you know I I I thought about that today.
Earlier I was wondering would he do that? Ah?
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Maybe if I play my cards right, if I'm nice enough.
He's a nice guy, yeah for sure.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Yeah, and he and you know what, he is, removed
as he is from the situation. He does honor the
legacy of spread Eagle.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
That's where I've heard. Yeah, that's the impression that I guess.
So it's good to hear too.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Yes, so he's well, keep everybody's keeping it alive. Yeah,
I'm friends with them. So getting back to that question, Uh,
what was it?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Well, basically, how involved were you? Because I had read
I'd asked this question to Rob too, I asked him
basically flat out, I said, did Tommy play on Open
to the Public? And he said, yeah, he did. Yeah,
so you played on all the songs? You were there
for the recording, right, it's not me on the album,
That's what I thought. Okay, it's it's it's.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Session guys keeping the best of what I did and
performing it. So, uh, yeah, you know who's on it,
Tommy Price from Jone Jet and Billie Idol.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Okay, well he got the Tommy right. Yeah. Yeah, but he.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Spells weird like I do. He spells a th h
O m m y. He played on Preacherman and Faith,
He's on I Hate myself for loving you and rebel.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yet really okay, it's that big sound, yeah yeah, fantastic player, fantastic.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
And then there was the guy that used to play
in TNT, John Mcalouso. He's he's a Grammy Award winning drummer.
He lives in Italy. Now, a guy named a guy
named Kirk Blanket Ship. He's a fantastic.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I heard that name too, That's one of the names
I had heard too. That's why I kind of asked
the question. I was wanting to see if you what
you would say about that, because I didn't want to
jump in there and just assume. But did you So
you didn't do the tour? Did you? Like you said
you had a falling out?
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Actually I did the tour. I didn't do the album.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Okay, so you did the tour.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
They sent me a cassette when I was staying at
my mom's for a while and they and I just
learned it, which was which really was just me aping
a perfect version of what I already did.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Nice. How come you didn't actually play on the record.
You mentioned a falling out? But is that the reason
why falling out?
Speaker 1 (08:36):
And I think there was a it was there were
two things. There was a struggle with the news songs
because it was a new direction. It was more, it
was less straightforward rock. There was some tricky stuff in there,
and I became Stephen Adler to guns n rows is
suddenly it was like, okay, we need maths torum.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
And also there was a personal there was a personal
falling out too. I was I still had some growing
up to do.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I get you, I get you. So the band is
done after the tour. We all know that story. So
what I want to know, and this is a big
part of you that I really want to hear about
for sure when it comes to Tommy is where did
you go from this? I mean the band obviously that
split up. Robin Ray did different things. They kind of
left the scene a little bit. Where did you go?
What kind of made up your life to the rest
of the nineties and two thousands?
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Uh life one oh one boat camp. This is what
it was. I met somebody down in Florida who was
involved in the music industry. They moved up to Massachusetts
with me. This was a relationship for a while that
it no longer exists. I got myself a factory job
that paid really well, but in the meantime, I started painting,
(09:45):
I started getting into poetry in folk music, and all
of that stuff really filled in the hole within me
that I needed to fill.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Seriously, that's good to hear. It's funny. It's funny too,
because that was the time. If we're talking with the
late nineties early two thousands, we know that's when the
Internet became a big thing, not what it is today,
but that became a thing too for me personally, to
discover music, to find bands, and that's when I kind
of I came late to the party best when I
discovered Spread Eagle, among other bands. That's why I discovered
(10:14):
your music, for sure. But it's kind of funny in
that sense because I believe around this time, as the
Internet is coming out becoming a thing, people are jumping
on it, We're discovering new things. You're going the opposite direction.
You're kind of staying away from that. You're living, for
lack of a better term, off of great. Is that
kind of fair to say it is?
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Yeah? But I have a lot of friends on Facebook,
and they they can keep tabs on what I'm when
I'm up to. Right now, I'm playing in a I'm
playing at a great local cover band, but I'm also
I'm also filling in for other people too, so sometimes
I get paid to practice with the other bands.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Yeah really neat Yeah, Yeah, you've definitely embraced it too,
and that's kind of where I'm going with that. So
at some point you decided to jump on this thing
called the Internet, and that's when I kind of connected
with you. That's when you kind of came back and
started embracing your spurty go past. You're doing the I've
seen the drum videos, the practice shoots, the things you
got your band that you have now when you went
(11:09):
full force, When did that kind of change for you?
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Well, twenty eighteen, my partner she died of her heart failure,
and next thing you know, I'm living my own life
for the first time, which was like drinking out of
a fire hose to just take have everything come at
(11:33):
you have bills, we'll just about everything. And next thing
you know, I get on Facebook and the whole world
has opened up for me through Facebook. So Facebook's great.
I don't care, you know. They It's got a funny
reputation depending on who you talk to, but it's great.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Yeah, absolutely, It's opened my.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Life up, it really has. Thank you Facebook.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yeah, you're welcome. It's good. Good to see you out there.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Like I said, well, thank you Chad too, thank you
so much.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Yeah, for sure. And we'll get to your band of
course out there too. I want to touch on that.
So one last thing on spread Eagle. We know and
I've talked to obviously Ray and Rob about this. They
got back together in two thousand and six with Rick,
that would be Rob's cousin. Were you ever approached, did
you ever get invited to come back? What's your what's
your story on that? Well?
Speaker 1 (12:24):
I got the I got the news from a lot
of people when I got back, when I got on
social media that Rob has been trying to get in
touch with me, but I've been off the grid. Uh
my life before then was is there a contact with anybody?
I was like a hermit, I really was, but in
(12:47):
a strange way, it really molded me into the person
I am now. When when I got on social media,
I was the person I needed to be to be
able to handle it all and bring it all in
and make it work for me. That's but a best
I can put it.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Yeah, do you think if you had to jumped in,
jumped in all In when it first became a thing.
Do you think it might have changed your outlook today?
You think you might not be in that same ground,
that same headspace if you had to jumped all in
back when it was all in.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Yeah, who knows what band I'd be in right now,
or even if I would choose.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
This, you can still be drumming professionally.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Possibly, No, there was, there's definitely been a downside to leaving,
but I don't I don't. I don't spend time dwelling
on that anymore because it's hypothetical.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yeah, I got a lot to be thankful for right now.
As my wife, she's my best friend. I'm really tight
with my family, type with a lot of people now.
It's it's really nice because it makes the seconds. Like
they talk about being in the moment, it does make
the seconds really nice and comfortable with people.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
That's good to hear. That's good to hear. Do you
still you're welcome? Do you still have contact with the band,
with the former guys with the guys, Yeah?
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Yeah, they robbed Deluk in particular invited my wife and
I to be on the guest list the last time
they came up here, and I know they're doing tour
to promote or celebrate the thirty five thirty fifth year
anniversary of the debut album. But we had some issues
(14:24):
and I and some health issues, so we decided we
should probably stay home. So that's so I had a
feeling maybe something might happen if we went up there,
and it would have been nice.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Have you ever seen them live since you've been out
of the band, have you ever actually gone to see them?
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Yeah? I've opened up for them with my first band ever,
Iron Rage. We get together, the first garage band. It's
the guy John Williams who wrote all the songs and sings.
He's brilliant. He's like Tony Iomi. He's just got a
sick amount of riffs. We opened up for Spread Eagle.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Ah really, I didn't know that. What year was it?
How long ago was this?
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Twenty eighteen? You can actually find the whole concert on YouTube.
You can find our performance on YouTube it if you
look up our Iron Rage at Sammy's in Revere.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Okay, I think I'll find it. I'll put a link
when this goes up too, so people can check it out.
So they know what we're talking about as well. Twenty
twenty twenty before I.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Yeah, yes, a matter of fact, I don't think I
was feeling that well during that show. I happen to have.
I'm always I always play my best show sick, I
really do, but I don't. I don't know how many
people don't. I don't know how many people I might
have made sick that day. But I know one thing.
They enjoyed my performance.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Hey, you infected them with rock and roll, man, That's
all that matters.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
That's it. You got it?
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Is that band still octave? Are you still doing things
with Iron Rage?
Speaker 1 (15:55):
As a matter of fact, we should change your name
to the Iron Rage Reunion because we get together for
re you in its own. We did something recently with
a singer named Mike bor Finkel. He's a He's a
really great powerful singer around here. He's been out of
commission for fifteen months. I think he had an operation,
and he got together with us and we did a
(16:16):
UFO cover of Doctor No Lights Out.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Oh nice, one of probably my favorite UFO song, next
Time' a Loser. Wow. That's cool.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Yeah, that is a great song. Although I think I
think honestly their biggest poppuyist song, Only You Can Rock
Me is probably my favorite.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Oh that's a nice song too. Yes, yeah, is your
cover out there?
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Like?
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Can people stream it? Is it on YouTube?
Speaker 1 (16:40):
You look? Yeah, it's on YouTube and the name is
Mike boor Finkel. B Oh you are e boor uh
Finkel f I n k l E Mike bor Finkel,
Michael is and Mike I would go Michael bor Finkel.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Okay, easy to find. That's that's very very cool.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
There's a band out there for him, I know there is.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
So I want to hear about what you're doing currently
now where you of course the band that I've seen
the most that you post about most recent months or
maybe years, I can't remember the timeline, but it's the
most one that seems active right now. And you're talking
about the most that would be out there. You're putting
yourself out there. You're out there. Talk to me about
that band, How it started? What what it is? Basically?
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Well, it's funny that I, uh, well it started. I
got a call from Sean Gatz, the bass player, uh,
the hot and soul of that band, and uh he
asked me if I would come over and if I'd
be interested in I think we jammed. Yeah, it was
a jam and uh. I got a good vibe from them.
(17:40):
They listened, Uh, they were in. They they had a
lot of questions. Uh. And and I love the name out.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
There, bring yourself out there.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
My boss at Silgean, I work at Siljean. Yes, he
sees me in my my out there your shirt. Now
you know, I don't share myself a lot with people
at work, although it's all very nice. He saw the
shirt and he said, you know, Tom, that shirt and
I was like, oh, here we go. You goes a
perfect shirt.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
But you because you're out there and I love it,
but you know.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
What you have. I'm not completely out there. I'm very
respective of reality and other people. And I listen very carefully,
very respectful people. But you can't really be creative in
the way I am if you spend all your waking
moments in reality. You have to drift sometimes in order
to be creative exactly.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
That's why we're the sunglasses on these interviews. That's my creativity.
That's what I bring to the table.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
You've definitely got an aura about you.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Yea, that's right, thank you, So do you well, speaking
of Aura, then, so at your regular job, do people
recognize you? Do they from past experience? Do they know
who you are or were like you used to play
in this band in New York whatever? Do they have
a a history lesson on you?
Speaker 1 (19:02):
They do. They've asked questions and uh.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
How do you feel about that?
Speaker 1 (19:06):
And I'm Facebook friends with some of them too.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Do you feel comfortable talking about that kind of thing
back in the past, talking about here yougo stuff like that.
You're okay with that?
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Yeah? I'm comfortable because it because it really lets people
know who you are. They see that you've had a
crazy life, but they see you now and who hasn't
had a little crazy in their life?
Speaker 2 (19:25):
True?
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Really? You know? So? Uh, and you're in you're being
watched through other people's eyes, so everybody, most people are
very forgiving of things like that and accepting. So yeah,
I wrote sometimes it's like my second family sometimes at work.
I don't want to get too carried away, but they
are kind of like second family.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Yeah, no, it's true. How did you get involved in
that company? How did they approach you? Did you apply
for that job? How did you get involved?
Speaker 1 (19:51):
I've got a friend named Dennis Catterat I went to
school with. He's fantastic drummer around here. I've been in
touch with him. He's also a Facebook friend and see
what Facebook.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Does meant to connect people. That's when it started.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Yeah, he just he just recommended me. And uh, I
trained for a little while as a lath operator. That
is an extremely technical job and they need immediate results
right away, so they put me on a couple of
other machines that are more forgiving, and uh, I've been
(20:26):
there for almost two years now. It's nice and you know,
you learn things as you go along. You learn different machines.
You'll learn how how you start to figure the place out.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Yeah, exactly when you're happy doing that. This is uh,
this is your next phase of your career besides playing
music on the side. But this is your this is
your career.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
This is my bread and butter. But the drumming, the
drumming is my side hustle because that's that's where I
could do the firing no Ah, that's.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
My firing goes through or the hiring manager of your bands.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
That's my God given gift. And I can't see myself
not playing the drums now that I'm backing it. It
brings people together. Uh, and my name that I've made
for myself over the years does come into play. People,
people do come check me out. Yeah, he's still doing it.
(21:26):
He's still got it.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Yeah, that's why. Again, that's why I noticed too, with
your your stories that you would post on Facebook. That's
I think when I first connected with you on Facebook,
I always see the stories of just you taking I
don't know if you're at home or where you were
in your personal studio and just playing the drums and
showing that you still had your chops, playing different beats,
different things. Right, you just were just again for the
(21:48):
black of a better term, out there showing people, Hey man,
I'm still a drummer. I'm still here playing it was you.
It's very good.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Yeah, thank you. And you know what, i'd really, I
really don't go to any great lengths to make sure
that it's a professional looking thing. It's spur of the moment.
It's sometimes I only have a few minutes in the day.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Right, Well, if I have you even find those two
minutes or ten minutes whatever, just to far up the
drums and uh push out a beat. I mean, that's
that's pretty cool too, just for the fun of it,
not because someone told you to, not because you're trying
to promote anything. You're just saying, Hey, I'm a drummer.
I play drums. This is my passion. Check me out.
This is what Tommy does, This is what tom.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Did, and I and I when I just did for you,
I haven't practiced in three weeks and look away, okay,
I could do.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Yeah, there you go. Like riding a bicycle. It's like
riding a bike.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
A bike, you know, you don't you never forget right exactly.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
So to that, and did you when you were off
the grid doing your own thing and you had other
things going on in your life, you're working on a factory,
did you still own a drum kit? Did you still
play on the side of it or did you just
put them away once you onceready.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Was over thirty years with no drumming.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
No drums. You sold your drums your kids. You didn't
touch them, you didn't pick up things.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
So my drums kind of were technically owned by my
manager and he was and he was my landlord. This
was back in the Spread Eagle days. Unfortunately he's passed away.
He's passed on his name was Charlie Gambetta.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
I know, yeah, I know that name from uh well,
he's in the liner notes of the records. But Rob's
talks extensively, extensively, extensively. There's a word on the podcast
about him and how much he meant to the band
at the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he was cool.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
He looked like Bick Jagger.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
That's why I heard.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Yeah, yeah, they said that too. Well, there you go.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Yeah, I don't know if I well, I think they
said it or I think I looked up pictures, but yeah, yeah,
I can see it.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
So he owned your drums, so he took the drums back.
You stopped playing when you left Spread Eagle. That was
into drums for you at the time.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Little little side note. I found out he had a
hard time get rid of them because they were all
chipped from all my knocking them over every night.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Wow. Seeing that scratch like a cat video, I'm sure
they were holy shit man.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Yeah, I mean, you know, Keith won't did it?
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Why can't I do exactly? I think she stayed out
of the pool. Yeah yeah, stand up.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Well then, and I didn't lose my front tooth.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
There you go. That helps too and diet thirty three. Yeah, yeah,
that's true too. You're still here with us. Thank God
for that you U. When did you first pick it
back up though? When did you get yourself a drum
coat around? What time is this that you decided, okay,
I'm going to play again, even for fun at home?
When did you actually say, you know, I'm gonna sit
down play some drums?
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Can I railroad you for a second? Can we stare
to the left here?
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Sure? I played banjo from I don't know that.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
From ninety six to two thousand and three. I remember
shortly after nine to eleven I went up to the
hills of Hills of Hillsborough, West Virginia and got an
actual lesson in a log cabin with a guy named
Dwhite Dillar who's passed on now too. He was a
bit of a like a state treasure it was. I
(24:49):
really took it really seriously. I got into it. It
filled the hole that I had with drumming as well
as painting. Painting also did a big thing for me.
I went to a an art showing, just a local
showing in out in Sheffield, Massachusetts, and I took a
look around and I'm just looking at everybody's stuff, and
I'm going I can do this because you know, I've
(25:11):
been drawing since I was like five years old, strong
on everything I would draw on my school ward.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
I yeah, so, uh drawn a. So you already got it.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Yeah, I'm rowing apple drawing a. That's a good one.
And I learned in fortunately my mother's signature too.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
But that's where the true artistry comes from.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Right, And you have to know your parents signature.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
How are you going to get out of it? Yeah, exactly.
If you don't do that, you deserve whatever's coming to you.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Thank you. And so I really the creative thing was
still there. And what I didn't realize at the time,
I didn't realize what was going to come up was, Uh,
in twenty eighteen person that's now my wife, who was
an old girlfriend of mine, we all got back together
again and we started dating the next thing, you know,
(26:04):
or a couple, and uh, everything just seemed to come together.
Everything just seemed to come together during this downtime, and
it was a lot of spiritual growth. I'd embraced Buddhism, uh,
which is which is fundamental. I mean, it all starts
from within. Things really just got so much better during
that time. For me, it was meant to happen. When
(26:28):
people fire you for being a waiener, well not not
like an actual waiiner, but it through their eyes. Uh.
You you need to do some thinking, You need to
go through some stuff. You need to grow up.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
You found that? Did she did your who is your
current wife? Now? Did she introduce you to that? Or
did you find that together? The Buddhism and stuff and
the spiritual growing.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Actually she's not the one that introduced me to Buddhism,
but she's more Buddhist than the person that did, which
was a partner that has passed on, okay, really passed
on from a heart problem in the past. But all
this was coming together. Do you You know, experiences teach
you things anyway. A lot of times you don't have
to study Buddhism to learn things. There's so much common
sense in it anyway, And.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
You find that's helped you, It's really guide you, and
you keep you keep that in your heart and in
your head. Now as you move along, as we get
years away from that major change in year twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Yeah, uh, things that are only getting better, strong, and
I'm getting older, and I'm dealing with I'm dealing with
health issues. But this is all important because when when
you go through all this guy, but she teaches you
to be more tolerant of the moment of what's really happening.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Mm hmm. You wouldn't know it. Man, you look stronger
than ever. Like I say, you're like you're out there,
you're drumming. You look like you're killing it as far
as that goes, So you wouldn't know it if you
have something going on, I mean you hide it.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Well, it's not I'm sure there's a little drama in
my head too, because it's new, right, you know what
things are new sometimes this.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Yeah, it's exciting to go full force. You try to
do everything in your power to keep it going. Right,
it's just the main focus that you have, right yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Right now, I have to get used to bland foods.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
That's fun, not fun at all.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
That it's not bland. Not only planned, you have to
cut it in half.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Well least she only got smaller portions of bland foods.
That's the only thing. I think it would be. The
saving grace for that is like you don't have to
have a huge surplus supply at least to cut it
in half a little bit. It's I have a little
piece of that's not so bad.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
There's a silver lining to everything.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
That's it, the silver line. So the word I was
looking for a saving grace, silver lining, the silver line
to everything. So about out there? Going back to that again,
the most that's the most recent thing you're working on.
Is that a that's not? Is that a cover project?
Is that an original? Tell me about out there?
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Can I just this is what I see for First
of all, I see this. We're we're developing a big
following through both parties. Those two guys and me, Uh,
there seems to be a charm about to this band.
(29:09):
The Bassis is said, swagger. Uh, there's there's something charming
about us. It's just three guys. There's there's chemistry between us.
It's it's like a funky dance thing. But yet it's
we use rock instrumentation. I'm bashing away the you know.
The Bassis has got a lot of gain on his amp.
The guitarist plays loud, but he's he's a Berkeley crat,
(29:31):
so he's he can he knows his way around the
fretboard and he's got a really good, deep, deeper voice.
And we know what we've done. We've we've found out
what works for us. Like well, I recommend that the
bad that the singer only sing the songs in his range. Right,
So we're doing stuff like David Bowie and Roxy music
(29:54):
and stuff. I mean, he can sing cheap trick and
stuff too, but you got you gotta know what works
for you. So we have nothing but cool, catchy songs,
not the not the average, not the average meat potato
stuff that you hear and from your average cover.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Yeah, made the big hits, the songs everybody knows. Right,
you try to go a little deeper and bring up
music out there.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
It's funny because I was just about to say, you know,
like so and so, and it was like, oh, we
do cover so and so. But yeah, but we try
to we try to keep it kind of cool. We
picked songs that are like cool secrets that people can't
wait to hear, you know, like like Roxy music, Love
is the Drug. That's a very cool so but not
(30:38):
everybody knows it.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Yeah, you're right, and we're doing something.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Else that I like, again speak for anybody else, but
I've been doing a lot of background singing, you know,
harmonizing and I tend to do the high stuff all right.
It adds something to the music.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Have you always have you always sang? Have you always
been using singing? Have you always harmonized something new?
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Always? Yeah, harmonizing has always been the one thing I
could do because I guess I never had the courage
to be a lead singer, although I've been told I
have what it takes. But uh, the harmony, the harmonizing
has always come easy to me. And you could play
drums and harmonize singing leads a little more different, a
(31:20):
little more.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Trickier, especially while drumming. I mean, it can be done.
We've seen it with the famous drummer is Don Henley
comes to mind. But I mean, yeah, it can't be
It can't be easy, for sure.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
John Henley had it easy in one way. His music
is straight, there's no odd meters, there's no tricky changes.
Phil Phil Collins.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Had Yeah, that's a good one. Kelly Keegey from Night
Ranger two when he doesn't sing lead all the time.
But I mean, Sister Christian is one.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Dad is an unbelievable song.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Sister, it's all him. Yeah, it's amazing. I didn't realize
at the time. I always thought that was jack and
then I saw the video. I'm like, why is the
drummer singing the jacks parts, Like what's going on with this?
And it turns out it was actually his song. He
wrote it, he came up with the title. They changed
it a bit for it was supposed to be sister Christie,
but it turned the sister Christian. Uh yeah, yeah, I
(32:09):
was supposed to be after his sister, Like his sister's
name is Christie, so he was saying sister Christy, and
I guess the way he was pronouncing the word Christie
sound like Christian so or something in the tone. So
Jackson's like, oh, sister Christian, I love that. He's like, no, man,
it's my sister, sister Christie. He's like, nah, forget that,
it sounds better as sister Christian. He's like, but that's
my anyway. I guess Jack one and his sister Christian
(32:31):
as we all know it, But it was supposed to
be sister Christy, which is how it was hilarious. They
just bullied him into changing the name of the song.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
I think sister Christian also was more euphonious. Yeah, I'm
not using the word, but it sounds better.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Uh where I can't pronounce, but it's perfect.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
I saw them live. I saw them live opening up
for Kiss on the Creatures at the Night Tour and
the trauma was sideway so.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
You can see him. Yeah, yeah, amazing.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Christian. That song Sister Christian is a funny little story.
I remember it was in the sports radio. There was
a guy that used to be on the Patriots named
Christian Fourier. I don't know if you've ever heard of him.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
I've heard of him.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Yeah. They used to play the song christs. They used
to call him sister Christian when he it's a hazing
when he first joined the Patriots.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Yeah, it makes sense. It's funny.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
There's sports radio is big up here in Boston.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Oh yeah, for sure, absolutely it is. For sure. Boston
has a great heritage in team so I mean, obviously
that makes sense, right.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Especially after two thousand and four when the Socks won
and all.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Yeah, exactly ever since then, I was on vacation.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
I was on vacations up in the mountains of New
Hampshire when they took it. I remember watching it on TV.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
That's a good feeling, for sure. For sure, so be
with the time you do have left for running out tonight,
there's always stuff I can dig into with you, Tom.
But for the future, I want to know what you
got going on. Do you have plans coming up for
music wise?
Speaker 1 (33:53):
I know that original stuff, thank you excellent. Second way,
we got rehearsal tonight around seven o'clock. We're going to
start writing originals and the whole idea is to capture
the vibe that we have on stage with these songs
and translated into new stuff.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
And that's what's out there. Correct, this is your main
gig now to be fair to say that out there.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Out there, it's my main gig. But but you know,
in my free time when I'm not playing with out There,
I'm totally open to supporting other bands and in stuff,
getting extra sidework stuff because I have to keep playing.
And every time I every time I start up with
a new band or even play a gig, I meet
new people.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Mm hmm, make any connections, make new friends, doors open
for you never know where you're going to meet, right so,
or who you're going to see on the road or
out of shows or whatever otherwise.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
Right and you know what it gets more and more
unique the older you get.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
It really does, I can, because.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
You can feel the ache and the pull of life
that you wouldn't do, you wouldn't feel when you were younger.
When you're young, you've got the whole world again ahead
of you, and it's all magic and it's coming at you.
But as you get older, does the fish that are
swimming by you swim slower?
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Yeah? I don't know if that's no. It makes sense
to me too, I mean, yeah, no, it makes perfect
sense to me too. And you're you're living to the
fullest now, which is great because now is the time
to enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Right.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
You could be going the opposite direction, slowing down, But
at least you're uh yeah, drumming faster and faster. Yeah,
you're picking up the speed. You pick up the temple
as you get older.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Yeah, tomorrow, I don't have anything to do, but I'm
sure I'll scrub the toilet or at the tub or something.
I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Well, yeah, see, I appreciate they have future goals. That's
what my wife, My wife telling me.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
My wife is telling me to stop.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
That's funny. Oh you're good. The last thing on spread
I'll ask you, can you ever see a situation, let's
say there, you guys are all relatively still in good shape,
You're still out there playing, you and them. Can you
ever see a scenario where you would ever if they
had a final show, a final tour, final whatever, come
(36:04):
down and do a guest on a record. Would you
ever see yourself playing behind the drums at some point
some way for the band let's bread. Yeah, yeah, definitely,
no offense to Rick who does a great job, obviously
obviously holding down the drums. But would you ever if
they said, hey, man, hey Tom, can you come over
and do this? You're down to do that?
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (36:22):
Definitely Do they know that?
Speaker 1 (36:26):
I think they do? When they I think they do. Uh.
One time I showed up a couple of gigs ago
when they had Hunter Malnatti on there. I hope I
pronounced that right. I know I got the Hunter right
on guitar, Johnny. It took some time off.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
Yes, yes, that's right.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
I showed up in a cane because I had recently like,
twisted my ankle over again. You roll your ankle once,
it's bad, you roll it twice to can about.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
It and not great for the drummer.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
It wasn't good. Yeah, but I've managed to do it anyway,
There's been some talk about me coming up there, and uh,
I would do it. I stay in touch with them,
I know, Uh, I know. There was a recent video
Q and A sent my way through email that I
did on video with them that I believe is going
(37:13):
to be used in the future for maybe a Bontus CD.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
That you did with them, like you like talked with
them and in the same room or just uh the online.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
Rob de Luke asked me if I would participate and.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
What looks like is it a documentary or.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
It appears to be the history of the band?
Speaker 2 (37:33):
Okay, it's like a documentary then maybe.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
And it was about twenty questions sent to me email
and I was asked if I could put together, you know,
get a nice setting behind me much like this and
it's perfect, thank you and uh and I answered about
twenty questions candidly and uh, from what I understand, they're
going to it's going to be used for some sort
of commercial fan related purpose in the future.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Okay, that's nice to hear it. So that's great to
hear that that you still have good terms, you're still
good connection, that you're still on the same page as
far as like, the friendship is what matters most, and
it's not always the same in bands. It could be
a big marriage and sometimes marriages don't last, as we
all know, right, But it's good that you still have
a connection with them.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
And yeah, you stay out, you stay friends with them,
but you keep your nose out of their business and
you just you're there for them when they want to communicate.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
Yeah, that's great to hear. It's good. That's positive. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
So people want to check out if people want people
find you on socials? Which ones are you on? Where
can people find out there? Where can they get out there?
Speaker 1 (38:35):
I'm only on Facebook. I'm afraid of my phone.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
I keep thinking soon, I see, that's the first old
man thing you've said today.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Oh I told myself to stay out of the old
man weeds today and managed to get one in there.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
You go. I appreciate that so much.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
Oh. So, you know, I'm curious if this podcast goes through.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
Oh what's going through?
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Go to? Is it live right now? No?
Speaker 2 (39:01):
It's not live? No?
Speaker 1 (39:02):
No, okay, because I would like to send some close
friends the link to your.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Show when it goes up, Like when this one for sure. Yeah,
I'll send it to you. I can't. I'm shooting for
this week coming up to get it live as it
were online. But I'll definitely let you know what it
is for sure, and you'll be the first one to
get the link. Rob will be the second, but you'll
be the first. You'll be the first. Rob will be
the second.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Oh, Dad, you're too nice.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Thank you, Temmy, You're too nice. Man. It's good to
talk to him. Glad you agreed to do this. I
wasn't sure if you were down for interviews, but it's
always good to, like I said, connect with you personally
and see how you're doing. So I'm glad you did this.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
You make it so easy.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
I try my best, man, I try my best. Next
next time my hit list is mister Salvador Poe as well.
He's next. So if you, if you talk to him,
let him know I'm gunning for him. Let him know
I'm who I am and I'm headed his way.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
I'll put it in a good word for you.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
Appreciate it. Man. Anytime you've been listening to the Nobody's
or Somebody's podcast with Chad Weiss, and this podcast has
been voted as the number one podcast by people that
don't vote.
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