Latest / The Chris and Mike Show / #193 - Debora Masterson - Author
Transcript
- 0:05It's still relevant today lyrically, which is crazy.
- 0:08Chris, Chris, are you a drummer? No, I was a singer.
- 0:12Singer. I'm a singer.
- 0:13I'm a guitar player, obviously. And he's a guitar player.
- 0:16What do you play my guitar? I play guitar do.
- 0:20You guys listen to the Freedom Quest music at all?
- 0:23No, but I'm going to now on your recommendation.
- 0:34My brother had a band like this I remember back in the day.
- 0:37Yeah. Nice.
- 0:38It's a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun.
- 0:41He was a lot of fun. Yeah, that was this guy.
- 0:45Yeah, it was a lot of fun swinging from Raptors and
- 0:49getting the crowd riled up. You know where my extrovert in
- 0:55this shined? Yeah.
- 0:59Hey, boys and girls, welcome to the Christian Mike Show.
- 1:01I'm Chris. He's Mike.
- 1:02And with us today is Deborah Masterson.
- 1:04She's super cool. She has an amazing life resume.
- 1:06But before, before we get to there, a portion of the show is
- 1:10brought to you by Riverside FN, the one and only choice for your
- 1:13podcasting platforms. Remember, we are streaming live
- 1:15right now on Twitch, YouTube and Chris and mikeshow.com and, and
- 1:20Hey Phillip, can you see us? Phillip connected us with
- 1:23Deborah, so he came. So we got to say hi to Phillip
- 1:26because he's supposed to be on the YouTube right now watching
- 1:29us live and in person. And we're also now almost, I
- 1:33think so over 80 countries around the world growing,
- 1:37countries growing like, like wildfire.
- 1:41And for sure, welcome Vietnam because they are now over 10% of
- 1:45our listenership. Right, right.
- 1:49And we and we don't even speak Vietnamese, Vietnamese.
- 1:52I don't have to say that. Vietnamese.
- 1:57No, thank you. Welcome, Vietnam.
- 1:58We're on an elevator 30 floors up with Deborah Masterson.
- 2:01She's going to tell us why she's here, what she's all about, and
- 2:03then we're going to dive into just a fantastic conversation
- 2:06with this woman who has just an absolute amazing life resume.
- 2:09You ready, Deborah? Yeah.
- 2:11I'm ready go all. Right.
- 2:13Oh my gosh. Well, the reason I'm here is
- 2:15because I wrote a book which I never thought I would do, but I
- 2:19did. And so it's called Freedom
- 2:21Quest. There it is.
- 2:23Woohoo, nice freedom. Quest a love, a love story.
- 2:27And yeah, I mean, I, I don't know how much you want me to
- 2:31talk about my career. I mean, I've done a lot of
- 2:33things. You could talk you.
- 2:35I know, I know you have that's Yeah, I know you have.
- 2:37That's why when I I kind of gave Mike the summary, 'cause you
- 2:40really have a really cool life resume.
- 2:42So this conversation goes however you want to go with it.
- 2:45So you want to talk about your book, We'll talk about your
- 2:46book. You want to talk about going
- 2:48from Elliot to Chicago, We can talk about that.
- 2:49We'll talk about your music. We can talk about the new book
- 2:52you're writing. Anything you want, Deborah,
- 2:54Anything sounds. Good, The world is your oyster.
- 2:57Well, yeah, so I, you know, everybody asked me, oh, you
- 3:02know, was writing a book like something you you had, you know,
- 3:05on your wanted to do for the for your whole life.
- 3:08And this is, you know, like, and actually, no, I never thought I
- 3:12would write a book, but kind of looking at my background, it
- 3:18makes sense. I love to read.
- 3:20My whole life I was a dancer and French major, so I had a double
- 3:29major all the way through school.
- 3:30I started studying French when I was 12.
- 3:34What kind of dance? And all, all kinds of dance.
- 3:37I mean, I started when I was 7 with tap and ballet.
- 3:40I took ballet my whole time, you know, when I was dancing.
- 3:45I don't dance anymore, but yeah, I so, but I, I, but I always
- 3:51love to sing. So I, I grew up in a very
- 3:54musical family. My dad played classical piano.
- 3:57And also all of the standards, you know, the pop songs.
- 4:02And my mom was a singer. She wanted to be a singer, but
- 4:07the world, the end of World War 2, her mom ended up getting
- 4:11divorced and her only brother died in Iwo Jima.
- 4:16So she had to go to work and help her mom out.
- 4:19So it was just the two of them at that point.
- 4:22And so, you know, she wasn't able to pursue this musical
- 4:27career she wanted to do. But you know what?
- 4:29My dad had all these records 'cause he was a radio announcer.
- 4:32After the war, he was in New Caledonia.
- 4:36And then he came back to Hollywood and he started out as
- 4:39a radio announcer. And he back in the day, they
- 4:42used to, like, they were able to cut records at the studio.
- 4:47And really, yeah. So my brother and I inherited a
- 4:52bunch of records from my dad. And some of them were just
- 4:54records that he used on his shows and stuff.
- 4:57But we found my brother was listening to them one day.
- 5:00And he goes, Oh my God, we have a record of Mom singing with a
- 5:04big band in Long Beach. Right on.
- 5:07It was so great, and the only way we knew it was her was
- 5:10because at the end of the song the announcer goes and that was
- 5:14Adele Masterson singing and mighty fine, mighty fine.
- 5:18I mean, we're talking in 19. 30. 3535.
- 5:23Wow, that's. 1935. That's so cool.
- 5:27So came up grew up with a in a in a musical family.
- 5:31You know, I remember we'd all hang out around the piano and,
- 5:36and we'd sing, you know, my dad would play and we'd all sing.
- 5:39And then my mom, God rest her soul, she would sing the harmony
- 5:44in my ear. And she would sing the hard
- 5:47parts, the hard, you know, like 3 part harmony with stuff.
- 5:51And she would sing it in my ear. And so I became a really good,
- 5:55really good at harmony singing it, which is my favorite.
- 5:58I love singing with other people in groups, you know, like 3 or 4
- 6:01part harmony. So, yeah, so.
- 6:06So then, you know, I started dancing.
- 6:09Well, I started dancing when I was young.
- 6:12Yeah. Basically, you know, my parents
- 6:13gave me dance lessons so that I would be graceful enough to get
- 6:17a husband. So that's.
- 6:23That's totally the sign of the times back then, right?
- 6:26Because that was absolutely. I was born in 1950.
- 6:32Oh, right on. Oh, you had a that's a great
- 6:3521st 20 years of a life to live. Right, that's a great year
- 6:38because that's the year my parents were born.
- 6:42Yeah. Wow, that's awesome.
- 6:44My my brother's got guitar less got music lessons.
- 6:47But I they would, they didn't want their only daughter hanging
- 6:50out with musicians. Yeah, of course I had to become
- 6:53graceful to get a, a husband. So unfortunately I didn't get
- 6:57music lessons. But I, I, so I, I went into
- 7:00dancing, but I realized I had, I loved to sing, so I couldn't
- 7:04Just Dance. So I thought musical theaters
- 7:06for me where I could dance and sing.
- 7:08So I went into musical theatre and that's how I ended up on the
- 7:12road with Sammy Davis Junior, right?
- 7:15So. Let's talk about that.
- 7:16Let's talk about Sammy. Because Sammy, Sammy picked you
- 7:20specifically, right? Yeah, well, I was hired, you
- 7:24know, through the, the production company, you know,
- 7:28Sammy and Hillard Elkins, and they had this show called Sammy
- 7:32Stops the World. It was in 1978.
- 7:36And I that I was the least prepared for that audition of
- 7:41any audition I had been to. And I, that's what I did.
- 7:43I mean, I got, I went to auditions and then I, you know,
- 7:47did the show. And then the show would end and
- 7:49I'd think, Oh my God, I'm never going to work again.
- 7:51I'm going to get that. And, you know, I was going to
- 7:54all these, you know, yeah. And and so anyway, I was, I was,
- 7:59I would go up to on Hollywood Blvd.
- 8:01I, I grew up in LA, Hollywood Blvd. pick up the magazine,
- 8:05casting call magazine every week.
- 8:07And I go through and I jot down all the auditions.
- 8:11And so, you know, I think it was a Monday morning and I go up
- 8:14there and get the casting call. I get back in my car and I'm
- 8:16kind of leafing through it and I'm see Sammy Davis Junior
- 8:19audition for Sammy Stops the World in two hours.
- 8:22I'm like, Oh my God, I got to be there.
- 8:25So I ran home and showered real quick, went back and truly I was
- 8:29the least prepared for that audition of any auditions I had
- 8:33ever been to. And I cut the job.
- 8:35And I think that that's that's a good lesson to learn.
- 8:38You know, it's like I went in there casually.
- 8:41You know, it's like, how old are you at?
- 8:42This point. I was 27.
- 8:46I was towards the end of my career.
- 8:49I I finally after after that, yeah, yeah.
- 8:52I mean dancers, you know, doesn't.
- 8:54Oh yeah, yeah, that's definitely so hard on the.
- 8:57Body young person's game. Well, yeah, and you know, it's
- 9:01like you can't do what you used to do.
- 9:03I mean, by the time you're 3035 years old, you usually dancers
- 9:07are like, OK, what am I going to do now?
- 9:10You know, same thing with gymnasts and athletes.
- 9:12So high, high end athletes, you know.
- 9:15So anyway, yeah, so I, I walked in and I'm like the what do you
- 9:20they either go, what do you want to sing?
- 9:21I'm like, I don't know, summertime in the QC, you know,
- 9:25and I was so casual about it. I think that helped.
- 9:27Too that they, Oh yeah, I'm sure didn't.
- 9:30Do this, you know, Anyway, I, it was in a very heady experience
- 9:36on the road. We were on the road for four
- 9:37months in San Diego, LA, Chicago.
- 9:41My first time in Chicago, 1978. So how was, how was, how was
- 9:46Chicago? How was Chicago back in the 70s?
- 9:50Well, I was, I was only there, you know what, couple weeks or
- 9:53something like that. I remember I stayed in a hotel
- 9:57and I used to jog on lake. Now you guys are in Arizona, is
- 10:01that right? I'm in Arizona, Yeah, Mikes in
- 10:04Illinois. And where?
- 10:06I'm in central Illinois, around Peoria in Illinois.
- 10:09Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
- 10:10All right. And I'm in Arizona.
- 10:11I'm in Arizona, yeah. OK, yeah, I knew.
- 10:14That's the desert behind me. We're about an hour east of
- 10:18Peoria. You're hour east of what?
- 10:20Peoria. Peoria, OK, I'm kind of I'm
- 10:23starting to get my bearings. You know, I I've been here.
- 10:26It'll be 3 years, May 30th. I'm I'm in Rogers Park.
- 10:30OK, so I'm about two hours South of you.
- 10:33South, OK. Straight down 55.
- 10:35OK. OK, great.
- 10:37Got it. Yeah.
- 10:39See, so you guys can go have lunch together sometime.
- 10:42Sure. If I'm ever around Chicago,
- 10:43we're going to do that. Please do.
- 10:46I'm, I'm up in Rogers Park. I love it up here.
- 10:48It's great. Lot of lot of music, a lot of
- 10:50artists. It's writers.
- 10:52You know, it's great. Yeah.
- 10:54Anyway, so, yeah. So, you know, I ended up on the
- 10:57Sammy Davis Junior tour and we were at Lincoln Center.
- 11:00Are you kidding me? We we got to dance.
- 11:02Fantastic it. Was amazing.
- 11:04Yeah, it was amazing. And then I so, you know, I
- 11:08should back up and talk a little bit about prior to that so that
- 11:12that happened towards the end of my career.
- 11:14But the Freedom Quest book is really the story.
- 11:19It's like I said, it's a love story and it's about me and my
- 11:22first boyfriend and I met him when I was 15.
- 11:25And it's really his story because he was such a unusual he
- 11:30had such an unconventional, crazy, crazy life that his story
- 11:35really had to be told. At 15, he had a crazy life.
- 11:39No, I met him when I was 15. Right.
- 11:42But this is the story of his life.
- 11:45But it happens to be I'm in it too.
- 11:47Because we're so. We're so.
- 11:49Part of his life, right? All right, I got you.
- 11:52I I'm calling it a novel based on a true story, though it
- 11:56change all the names except for some, you know, people that I
- 12:00mean, you know, but Pop, what would you say?
- 12:05Well known figures, you know, that that have their names
- 12:08stayed. But other than that,
- 12:10everybody's. But I met him when I was 15.
- 12:14He was my brother's guitar teacher.
- 12:17Nice. So, yeah.
- 12:18So how old was he? How, how, how?
- 12:20How old? How old is he?
- 12:21You were 15. How old was he?
- 12:23He was 18. OK, OK, let's see why I went
- 12:26there. Well, but see back then it but
- 12:29back. I went down that road.
- 12:31Myself. It really was Deborah, right?
- 12:33You're right. That's right.
- 12:34Yeah. Back then, it wasn't that big a
- 12:37deal. Now you go to jail.
- 12:40I mean. Oh, yeah.
- 12:41Really different now. Really different.
- 12:43In fact, that was one of the notes I kept getting on this, on
- 12:47this book was like, I'm, I'm I'm afraid for Grace.
- 12:50What's happening? He's, you know, she's with this
- 12:53older man and I'm like, I, I didn't get it.
- 12:56But anyway, I fixed it. I fixed the problem.
- 12:59But so we met. He was my brother's guitar
- 13:03teacher. So the way that happened was my
- 13:05brother on the way home from school one day.
- 13:08He was in junior high, middle school, stopped in at the local
- 13:12music store and was introduced to Craig Ingram, who's the
- 13:17Michael in the book. And he's got a big, giant
- 13:23bandage on his arm. And Michael says, whoa, man,
- 13:27what happened to your arm? And he goes, oh, my big sister
- 13:29did it. So he decided he had to give
- 13:33lessons over at the house instead of at the music store
- 13:37because he wanted to meet me. I found out about this later, of
- 13:40course. So anyway, it was, it was love
- 13:44at first sight. I fell in love with him.
- 13:47He, he was extremely talented. I mean, just an incredible
- 13:51guitar player, knew all the words to all the songs.
- 13:54I think I he had, he had what's called hypophonegia.
- 13:59He was able to remember anything he heard, which was this thing.
- 14:07Yeah. And so we used to call him Mr.
- 14:09Jukebox. I mean, he could play for three
- 14:13hours, you know, he could play all the way through from the 50s
- 14:16to the 80s. And it was like, holy all that.
- 14:19Yeah, it was. Really amazing.
- 14:21Yeah, Yeah. So I, I fell in love with this
- 14:24talent. I mean, I, I, he was, I he was
- 14:27just amazing to me. And so we went together for
- 14:30seven years and it was such a crazy time.
- 14:35You know, it was the Vietnam War and, you know, sex drugs
- 14:40rock'n'roll, they say sex drugs rock'n'roll, you know.
- 14:43Well, you OK, I want to break that down because we've already,
- 14:47we've always had sex, right? I mean, that's not.
- 14:50That's how we all got here. What happened?
- 14:52Was. Women got, yeah, women got birth
- 14:54control for the first time. I remember I took one of the
- 14:58first birth control pills at in 196768 and they were super
- 15:05strong by the way, that I could. It was crazy.
- 15:07But they, you know, now they're better.
- 15:09But women got birth control for the first time so they could
- 15:14actually have sex without fear of getting pregnant.
- 15:18But that kind of really opened it up, you know, the hippie era
- 15:21and the freeze backs and all that.
- 15:22That's what women could, you know, enjoy themselves on a.
- 15:28On a better, yeah. Yeah.
- 15:30On their terms? Right on.
- 15:32Their yes. On their terms, yes.
- 15:34On their terms, yes, Hopefully. Right.
- 15:37Yeah, yeah, right. And and then psychedelic drugs.
- 15:43Oh yeah. Right, so I just finished a book
- 15:46by Michael Poland called How to Change Your Mind.
- 15:51It's the history of of psychedelic drugs.
- 15:54I've read it Well. I didn't realize they were
- 15:55invented in 521952. You're talking Mike's language,
- 16:00Deborah. OK.
- 16:02Been there, done that. OK, yeah, me too.
- 16:05And you know, I, I, I think you only.
- 16:08Need. I don't think you need more than
- 16:10one or two trips. You know, if you're if you're in
- 16:12the right environment, it really opens up your mind.
- 16:18But what happened, you know, is it got, it was being used very
- 16:22successfully and is now starting to be used again very
- 16:25successfully with PTSD veterans, alcoholism, depression, save.
- 16:32Me from addiction. Right.
- 16:34It works really well, but what happened was it got out of the
- 16:40laboratory and doctor's offices and into everybody was taking it
- 16:47and everybody was taking too much of it and the street stuff,
- 16:51nobody knew what you were really getting I you know, so it
- 16:56unfortunately and then and then everybody clamped down on it and
- 17:02the good things that could come from it were lost, literally
- 17:08lost. And Al finally.
- 17:10Coming. Back, Yeah.
- 17:13So. So.
- 17:14Yeah. So.
- 17:15Sex, drugs, Rock'n'roll. And then the Vietnam War, you
- 17:18know, all of us, We have the draft.
- 17:20My brothers were afraid they were going in.
- 17:22Michael Craig Ingram, in the book, he ends up getting his
- 17:27draft notice and one of his best friends died and.
- 17:34Yeah, so that part of the story, too.
- 17:38And OK, so his best friend was they went scuba diving together.
- 17:45They did everything together. And just before he left for boot
- 17:50camp, Michael and this, this guy Bill Perkins, they've got in a
- 17:56fight over a girl. It was a fist fight.
- 18:00It was bad. Oh, wow, It was a bad fight.
- 18:03It was a bad fight. Then he Bill Perkins left for
- 18:07Camp Pendleton boot camp. And they never got to say.
- 18:11They, they make amends who never got to say.
- 18:13And he died in Vietnam. And he's the only combat
- 18:17photographer in our nation's history to receive the Medal of
- 18:21Honor. He was a combat photo.
- 18:22Wow. He went to high school.
- 18:26So, so, so I, I need to move from that.
- 18:31OK, so then you know Craig and I?
- 18:34And just and and and understand, I don't want you giving up too
- 18:36much of the book because we want people to read it.
- 18:39Right. So don't go deep into the to
- 18:41the, to the whole concept of the book.
- 18:43But I mean, obviously you can brush it over because we don't
- 18:45want, we want people to go buy your book.
- 18:47So we're kind of dangle the carrot a little bit.
- 18:48Yeah, yeah. Yeah so so then his friend dies
- 18:54in Vietnam and Craig or Michael in the book goes from a short
- 19:00haired good Catholic boy. He was so angry over Bill's
- 19:05death get to say he was sorry over this girl.
- 19:10He ended up a radical writing protest songs here down to the
- 19:17yeah. And it just really, really
- 19:19changed him. So then in 1973, we were living
- 19:25in San Diego together, and he started this band, Freedom
- 19:30Quest. And that's the name of the book.
- 19:32And it it was arguably, looking back at his career, probably the
- 19:38best music he ever made. He was 27 years old.
- 19:45He was at the pinnacle, you know, of his, of his musicality,
- 19:50creativity, and it was unbelievable.
- 19:53I can't wait for you guys to hear this music and some of the
- 19:57band members. You may recognize the names.
- 20:01David Benoit. David Benoit is a jazz recording
- 20:05artist. He also has a jazz show on the
- 20:11jazz station in LA. K Jazz called K Jazz and uh huh.
- 20:17And so, you know, he was the keyboard player and he played,
- 20:22he played keyboards and he also played Hammond B3 through Leslie
- 20:26speakers. It was so good.
- 20:29And then Brian Mcnest was on bass and he was, he's a killer.
- 20:33I, I, I, I'm, I'm in. I'm in touch with David.
- 20:36I can't find Brian, the bass player.
- 20:38I'm dying to to talk to him but I hope.
- 20:41He maybe he'll maybe he'll find this.
- 20:43Maybe he'll stumble on this. Like like Philip.
- 20:45Did. Hope I get to talk to him and
- 20:48and and celebrate, you know, really, he was such a an
- 20:52integral part of of this band. And then I was singing
- 20:56background and Bill Richardson. We had it was a nine piece band,
- 21:01violin, flute. Damn, a percussion and rhythm
- 21:06section and three 3 background vocals.
- 21:09It was killer killer band. OK.
- 21:12That must have sounded amazing. Short lived because Greg got
- 21:17busted for pot. All that damn devil's limits.
- 21:21Yeah, he was. He was.
- 21:25Never an alcohol drinker, you know he didn't drink alcohol at
- 21:28all. Ever.
- 21:29But he loved his cannabis. And So what happened was they
- 21:34were recording and they were trying to Craig wanted to get a
- 21:38record deal. So they were they were in the
- 21:40studio recording and he ran out of money.
- 21:44Craig ran out of money. Or Michael in the book, he ran
- 21:47out of money and he the roadie overheard, you know, that he
- 21:50needed to get some more money. And he goes, hey, man, he goes,
- 21:54you know, I got a connection. We can turn around a couple of
- 21:57kilos, a pot, and you can have the money to finish the album.
- 22:01And he said yes. And the roadie was working with
- 22:05a cop. Damn it, man, damn.
- 22:08It he set him up, he was on probation and he said, yeah,
- 22:12that's a lot of that happened back then, a lot of that.
- 22:15Happened. That's such a drag, man.
- 22:17So he ended up in jail. I mean the the minute the the
- 22:22marijuana past hands. Yeah.
- 22:25That was it form of police cars got thrown in jail and he was
- 22:30there for three days. He said three of the scariest
- 22:32days of his life. And then he went before the
- 22:35judge and and you know, now I was going with him at the time.
- 22:38I mean, I had to find the the bail and, you know, pick him up
- 22:41at the bail. What was the bail?
- 22:43What was the what was the bail back then?
- 22:44Oh God, I don't even remember. For 2 kilos a pot I.
- 22:47Mean our rent was $50.00 for. A Well, that's what I was
- 22:50saying. So, so it was probably 100.
- 22:52So there's probably 100 bucks. Like why am I going to get 100
- 22:54bucks man? That was a lot of money back
- 22:56then. Trying to find that money, you
- 22:58know, and, and yeah, so you know, I go pick him up and he
- 23:04stands in front of the judge and the judge is like, son, I can
- 23:09see you're not a pardoned criminal.
- 23:11And I'm going to give you 6 weeks in honor camp, and I don't
- 23:14want to see you back here again. So now what was what was hold on
- 23:18hold on, what was honor camp? Honor camp was out in East San
- 23:23Diego, way out. Beautiful, I mean beautiful.
- 23:27He was out there with the, you know, oak trees and the
- 23:30squirrels and the and, and basically, you know, they, it
- 23:35was low security. They cut fire trails for the
- 23:41firemen and you know, it wasn't bad, wasn't bad at all, but OK,
- 23:47the band. Well, yeah, I mean, he's at,
- 23:50he's an honor camp. The band's not going to stick
- 23:51around back then because it's so, you know, it's free love.
- 23:54Let's go to this. Let's go travel to, you know.
- 23:57They had other jobs and stuff and they, they, you know, the
- 24:00band broke up and I left him. At that point.
- 24:06I broke up with him. I was, I got scared.
- 24:10I got scared. I, I mean, it was just, there
- 24:12were so many groupies, so much, you know, so many drugs.
- 24:17I mean, I remember there was like a bowl of chocolate
- 24:20mescaline on our kitchen table. Chocolate Mescaline.
- 24:24Yeah, I mean, I, I just got scared, you know?
- 24:28And I loved him. I still loved him.
- 24:29But I was like, I think, you know, a typical woman.
- 24:33I was sort of like, So what? Where are we going?
- 24:38What's the plan? Yeah.
- 24:41Where's our future? And he would just look at me and
- 24:45go, we're playing music and having a good time.
- 24:49That was it, right for him and I.
- 24:51And so, you know, I mean, I'm sure you've been in that
- 24:55situation. So, yeah.
- 24:59So anyway, I broke up with him. The band broke, you know,
- 25:03disbanded. And the record deal, of course,
- 25:06you know, fell away. Faded away.
- 25:08He but there were 7 seven songs recorded with her streaming.
- 25:13You know, you can find them everywhere.
- 25:15And so he put those seven songs and the only person that stayed
- 25:19with him was the percussionist Sodi Arcia, who, by the way,
- 25:23just passed away February 1st. God rested.
- 25:26Yeah, he just passed away, which is kind of sad because he helped
- 25:29me. I interviewed him.
- 25:31He helped me with band stories and things.
- 25:33And. Yeah, but he didn't get the
- 25:35final book. You know it's.
- 25:36Funny because drummers latch on to people like it's almost like
- 25:40a marriage. They don't always latch on to
- 25:41the same member, but the bass player and the drummer are
- 25:44usually attached at the hip, or sometimes it's the guitar
- 25:46player. It's weird because they have to
- 25:48have an instrument, you know? The drums are not really an
- 25:51instrument. Yeah.
- 25:53I always say it takes a certain kind of personality to want to
- 25:55beat the shit out of something for hours on end, you know?
- 25:59I agree you're not making. You have always been the
- 26:01craziest ones in the band, you know?
- 26:04I know they're all yelling at me right now.
- 26:05We're musicians. I didn't say that.
- 26:07I said you're just making beats right Without the.
- 26:10Drums or old joke? The old joke.
- 26:12Why do drummers hang out with musician?
- 26:15No. Why do drummers join bands?
- 26:17So they can hang out with musicians.
- 26:20Yeah, but I finally, I was just in touch with the drummer, LV
- 26:26Odira, just in touch a couple of days ago for the first time.
- 26:31I just tracked him down and he finally called me back and he
- 26:39was like I told him, I said, well, I changed all the names
- 26:42and he said and, and oh, and then he told me he goes, well,
- 26:45you know, when I joined the band, he said I was really, I I
- 26:49didn't feel comfortable. He said Craig was just too
- 26:52crazy. He was too wild.
- 26:54And he said, I grew up in a very strict family.
- 26:58My father was like, you know, very strict, that I was an
- 27:01immigrant from Algeria or no Tunisia.
- 27:05And so, you know, very strict family.
- 27:08And he said, Craig, he rubbed me the wrong way.
- 27:12And so I didn't know any of this, right.
- 27:16So anyway, in the book, cause in my experience, you know, the
- 27:20drummer's always kind of the like the craziest 1, you know,
- 27:23he's full, right? So, so in the book, I don't
- 27:27know, this just came out when I was writing.
- 27:28It was like, what am I going to call the drummer?
- 27:30Ah, Neon because he has pink hair.
- 27:34He called him Neon because he's got pink hair.
- 27:36So I told Elvio this on the phone three days ago when he
- 27:39went what he was Oh. My.
- 27:43God, I said, you know, look, you know, don't worry.
- 27:45It's, it's not a big deal, you know?
- 27:47I were you the bass player in this band?
- 27:49No, no, you were singing, I playing bass Well, 1414. 14
- 27:55years ago you started. Playing bass, yeah.
- 27:58No, I just was a singer, yeah. OK, OK, so I want to, I want to
- 28:03rewind a bit because because we cannot not touch on the fact
- 28:06that she went on tour with Sammy Davis Junior.
- 28:08Like you just breezed. You just breezed over that like
- 28:11you were driving through an In and Out burger, got a burger and
- 28:13fries and went home and ate it. So we got to kind of back that
- 28:16up and talk about, you know, Sammy Davis Junior.
- 28:19Did you get to hang out with him?
- 28:21Did you, I mean, did you guys be kind of form a friendship in
- 28:23that short amount of time? You know, what were the
- 28:25performances like? All that kind of stuff?
- 28:27Because I know him, Mike knows him.
- 28:30You, the guy's a legend. The original Rat Pack, right?
- 28:33And back then it was so uncommon for someone of his Woody.
- 28:39Woody I don't want to say black, but it was so uncommon to have
- 28:42to have, you know, a non white guy in the in in the group that
- 28:48he was with because it was him, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, right.
- 28:54Yeah, you. Listen, the Rat Pack.
- 28:56Now, I guess now I'm drawing a blank because we're sitting
- 28:58here. You guys here, Dean?
- 29:00Martin. Frank Sinatra.
- 29:02Frank Sinatra. Frank Sinatra.
- 29:04That's right, Frank Sinatra. And there's one more we're
- 29:07missing. Yeah.
- 29:08Very efficient. I don't know anyway, but yeah.
- 29:11Talk. Yeah.
- 29:11And, and, you know, there was, there was a lot of prejudice,
- 29:14you know. Right there you go Here.
- 29:16Yeah, yeah. A lot of racism.
- 29:18And I remember stories about how, you know, he, he, the, the
- 29:23guys in the Rat Pack stood up for him, you know, and made sure
- 29:27that he could, you know, go to the restaurants and hang out
- 29:30with them. And stuff, right?
- 29:34So yeah. So yeah.
- 29:35Did I hang out with him? You know what, I was so like,
- 29:39insecure at that point and so blown away by the fact that I
- 29:46had gotten this job that I probably didn't, you know, take
- 29:52advantage of, of of the time as well as I should have.
- 29:57But yeah, I mean, there were only eleven of us in the cast,
- 30:02so it's a small group and. I treat you guys well.
- 30:05Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, It's a really.
- 30:08What? What kind of band leader was he?
- 30:10How did he talk to you like? He was just, he was very quiet.
- 30:15He was a very quiet man. Yeah.
- 30:17But, you know, he, I remember when we we were on stage at the
- 30:23end of a rehearsal in Chicago and all of a sudden some of his
- 30:29entourage showed up with big giant boxes, cardboard boxes,
- 30:35and they pulled them out. They started open them up.
- 30:38And we were getting like all these presents we got.
- 30:43Each got a watch and a a radio, you know, one of those like boom
- 30:48box radio alarm, you know, the alarm radio.
- 30:55Yeah. And, you know, I mean, it's just
- 30:58all these all these presents that was interesting and.
- 31:01That was all. From him.
- 31:02And then he cooked for us in Chicago.
- 31:07He invited us over to his apartment downtown.
- 31:09It was right by the water tower and, you know, big high rise.
- 31:12And he was in the kitchen with his entree.
- 31:15He cooked pasta for us that night.
- 31:17And I remember Jesse Jackson was there.
- 31:20Nice. That's gone.
- 31:22So everything I looked at, everything I looked at from Rat
- 31:24Pack wise, there's five people, but the most 3, the most images
- 31:28are just of Sammy Frank and Dean Martin.
- 31:32Yeah, those are the most three. Those are the three that kind of
- 31:35because that's what I think of when I think of Rat Pack are
- 31:37just those. So I didn't know Joey Bishop and
- 31:38and Peter Lawford were those are the other two, right, Those are
- 31:42the other two. But but the most of the photos
- 31:44are just of the three. Well, yeah, which makes sense,
- 31:47Meg. Stars.
- 31:48Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
- 31:50And that was towards the end of his career too, you know, 1978.
- 31:53He died 4-5 years later. Maybe something like.
- 31:58That long? Yeah.
- 31:59So I remember him and Dean Martin and Cannonball Run.
- 32:01They were hilarious. Oh, yeah.
- 32:03They were the, the, the, the priests, The the just the
- 32:06alcoholic priests, just, you know, and all the stories from
- 32:11that movie from Burt Reynolds and stuff is.
- 32:13I mean, all that stuff was real. They were hammered the whole
- 32:15time, just having fun, improv and everything.
- 32:19Have you ever seen? I'm sorry to interrupt.
- 32:21No, you're good. No, you're good.
- 32:23Have you ever seen what? Sammy when he was a kid tap
- 32:26dancing. Yeah, yeah, I've seen all that
- 32:28old reels. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 32:30Talented. Very.
- 32:32Talented. Incredibly talented.
- 32:33Yeah, yeah. Well, threat, you know.
- 32:36Yeah. Totally right, you know.
- 32:38Well, it's yeah. And see, back then you had to
- 32:40have the full thing. If to be a star, you had to be
- 32:42able to do everything. You had to be able to sing and
- 32:45dance in the charisma and the presence on stage.
- 32:48You know. Yeah, yeah.
- 32:50There was no second takes. You couldn't get away with lip
- 32:53sync, right? That stuff.
- 32:55No backing tracks? Nope.
- 32:57That's where the period I come from, you know?
- 33:00Yeah, man, here's a funny story. So my dad, like I said, he was a
- 33:03announcer, you know, he's over in New Caledonia.
- 33:07During the war, they were running the Armed Forces Radio
- 33:10Network down at South Pacific. And then he came back to
- 33:14Hollywood and he got into, you know, it was radio.
- 33:18And then he got into television and he had his own local
- 33:21television show on ABC in Las Angeles.
- 33:26And so I'm about 6 or 7 years old and he invited me and a
- 33:30couple of my friends from the dance class to go on the show.
- 33:35And it's live, right? And so, you know, he's, we, we
- 33:41show up with our little costumes and everything.
- 33:44And I'm nervous, right? I'm 6-7 years old and we get on
- 33:50the sound stage. And I don't know if you've ever
- 33:52been on a sound stage, but it's, it's black.
- 33:55I mean, the whole place is so dark except for the one place
- 33:59where they're filming, which is really bright lights.
- 34:03And then back in the day, the cameras were huge.
- 34:07I mean, just huge. The eye on the camera was huge.
- 34:11The kind that follow you, they fall, you're going to die.
- 34:13Those kind of things, yeah. So, you know, they my dance
- 34:18teacher. OK, come on, little girls.
- 34:19You know what I mean? So they get pushed.
- 34:21She pushes us onto the stage and the music starts and we start
- 34:25dancing. Yeah, we're dancing.
- 34:29And the music stops. And my dad and I'm, I'm like,
- 34:32scared half to death of this big giant eye, you know, this this
- 34:35camera. Sure.
- 34:38And it's all black, you know? And so that's the music ends,
- 34:43and my dad walks over to me with this big giant microphone.
- 34:46I mean, it was big back in the day.
- 34:48Big Yeah. Yeah.
- 34:50What's bends over, puts it down in front of my face and says,
- 34:53and what's your name, little girl?
- 34:56And I burst into tears because I thought, what?
- 35:01My dad doesn't know who I am. All of a sudden, yeah, yeah,
- 35:04I've. It was live.
- 35:07And everybody, you know, everybody's like Koch, Koch.
- 35:10Well, you think your dad would have said, hey honey, I'm going
- 35:12to come up to you and say what's your?
- 35:15Name blew it. You really blew.
- 35:16It Yeah. Wow.
- 35:18What's? Your name, little girl.
- 35:19Oh my God, I felt so bad, but it was like I I was nervous anyway,
- 35:24right? You know, it's like.
- 35:25Right, Yeah. I mean, what are you going to
- 35:26do, You know, anyway, So what? What?
- 35:30So. So you, you, you got the book.
- 35:33What made you leave LA and come to Chicago?
- 35:36Yeah, well, Craig Ingram passed away.
- 35:40You know the. Lead.
- 35:41Oh, OK, yeah, right. The lead in.
- 35:43The back so, so you know, we break up, he loses everything,
- 35:50right? Loses me, loses the band, loses
- 35:52the record deal and he gives up and sells his equipment and a
- 35:57friend of his is moving to Hawaii, so he moves over to
- 35:59Hawaii because. That makes sense.
- 36:02Let's just hop the pond and go live in a in an island
- 36:05surrounded by water. Yeah, yeah, He was like, I mean,
- 36:09and they were like, come on, man, bring your guitar.
- 36:11You know, you'll lie on the beach and play guitar.
- 36:14Lots of beautiful women play tennis all day and sounds great,
- 36:18right. So he gets over there and.
- 36:21And. It's the opposite A.
- 36:22Lot of tennis. They were playing tennis all day
- 36:24long at Diamond Head Tennis Center.
- 36:27And you know, and Craig, Craig had nothing.
- 36:30He had one guitar, no car there lived.
- 36:33They found a little apartment and they're playing tennis all
- 36:38day, having a good time. And he, he meets this guy on the
- 36:41tennis courts and really incredible player, very
- 36:46enigmatic, charismatic and all that.
- 36:50And the guy starts learning all about him.
- 36:53And Craig was an open book, told him everything.
- 36:55He goes, yeah, you know, cool girlfriend left me.
- 36:58My fan broke up. I, you know, I was close to
- 37:01getting a record deal. It all fell apart and just gave
- 37:04up, blah, blah, blah. It turns out that guy was a cult
- 37:07leader. And he gets it right on.
- 37:12That's awesome. If you know anything about us,
- 37:13we're all into that kind of stuff.
- 37:15Like, I have a shirt. I have the Jim Jones shirt that
- 37:17says drink up, and nobody's recognized.
- 37:20Nobody's recognized what that is yet.
- 37:23Mike knows. Yeah, Mike knows.
- 37:25My wife knows. When I say we have a gallow
- 37:28sense of humor, Deborah, yeah, that's all.
- 37:31It's a whole nother level. Yeah, I did.
- 37:32I did have a friend when I took a picture of it, he's like, is
- 37:35that who I think it is? I was like, yeah, he's like,
- 37:36you're a sick bastard. But it was funny.
- 37:38He was comical. But yeah, I think you remember
- 37:41how we started this. We are of no threat to anyone.
- 37:44We just have a. No sense of humor.
- 37:46Right. We would never encourage someone
- 37:48to do that for real. If you're that stupid, we can't
- 37:51help you, you know? Right?
- 37:53Right. Right, right beyond our reach.
- 37:56Beyond our reach. We would advise you don't do
- 37:58that, but. Don't drink the green Kool-aid.
- 38:02Yes, if at all possible. And so he, you know, and
- 38:07meanwhile, so in the book, it's really interesting because
- 38:09meanwhile I move on and I meet a man and we ended up getting
- 38:14married and I was married for 26 years, raised 2 beautiful sons.
- 38:21And he's over there in the cult. So a couple, you know, there's
- 38:25like 3 or 4 chapters in the middle of the book.
- 38:28Where Don't give away, don't give away, don't give away,
- 38:29don't give, don't give it away, don't give it away.
- 38:31We want people to read your book.
- 38:34Just touch on the fact there's some cult, there's some cult
- 38:36conversations in the book you have to hear.
- 38:37Leave it there. Yeah, yeah, you got to read
- 38:41about the cult story. I'm listening to buy the.
- 38:43Book I want to hear. The story.
- 38:45But now I have to. Read the book too.
- 38:47Right. That's why, that's why you got
- 38:48to stop that. We let's, let's divert, let's
- 38:50talk about PBS and Bravo, because in your life resume, you
- 38:53did some stuff with PBS and Bravo, right?
- 38:55Here's one deal I'm going to start making authors.
- 38:58If you want to come back in a year and tell the whole story,
- 39:01you are more than welcome to do that.
- 39:03But I am 100% with Chris. We want people in the 81
- 39:06countries that are listening to this go by Deborah's book
- 39:08because she's an amazing human being in the story.
- 39:11When you get to a cult story, that's why Chris stopped you
- 39:14dead right tracks. I stopped right there with stop.
- 39:16Stop. How did it happen?
- 39:17Who was it and it and it just came out.
- 39:20Yeah. And it just came out this month,
- 39:22right? Yeah, today.
- 39:24Yeah, today. This is the.
- 39:26Debut. The irony official.
- 39:29Day. The online.
- 39:30Chris and Mike show we have a debut of.
- 39:32Someone's We have a debut of a book.
- 39:35Phillip just sent me I wish you guys were here if he sent me a a
- 39:38a dozen cookies for the for the book book release day.
- 39:44Today is the day. Cool.
- 39:46That's awesome. Congratulations, Phillip.
- 39:48Good job. Yeah, way to go now, what is
- 39:51what is Phillip? What is Phillip to you?
- 39:53Right, 'cause I need to understand that.
- 39:55OK, that's my thought. So that's my thought because
- 39:58because I saw PR in his tagline, but then he was also talking
- 40:02about I'll, I'll see you in the concession stands line.
- 40:04And I haven't seen him yet. And I told him that.
- 40:07So if you can, so if you can see the screen, boys and girls,
- 40:11there's your book Freedom Quest. It's a love story.
- 40:13If I Deborah Masterson, today is the day.
- 40:15It just released today. She came on our show just to
- 40:18taunt her book, which just, you know, that's amazing.
- 40:21Thank you for that. We love that.
- 40:22So, so go, go, go to atmospherepress.com or just type
- 40:27on like the I did Freedom Quest book and this came up, but
- 40:32there's there's a little synopsis for it 'cause we don't
- 40:34want to give it away. And this is obviously Phillips
- 40:36page. This is what Phillip is, is the
- 40:38atmosphere, this. Is the publishers page Yeah,
- 40:41cool. Go go to my dot.
- 40:43Go to my website deborahmasterson.com.
- 40:46OK. Yeah, and.
- 40:50It's. Deborah without an H Yeah.
- 40:51DEBORA. Yep, Yep, Yep.
- 40:53I saw. That I will tag that in your
- 40:55episode too. Deborah.
- 40:57Deborah. That's awesome.
- 41:00Debora, Debora, I'm talking to Debora, Debora Masterson, she
- 41:05wrote to. There it is.
- 41:08Oh, look at that. Can two young lovers torn apart
- 41:11by sex Drugs Rock'n'roll in the Vietnam War get a second chance?
- 41:17Coming April 21st, which is first day.
- 41:19Today. Today.
- 41:21Go get it. Right.
- 41:22So here's Freedom Quest on Spotify.
- 41:24There's the music. So that's going Deborah, Deborah
- 41:28masterson.com. Well, at the H there's Deborah
- 41:30right there. Little information about her.
- 41:33OK. But I I do want to know what you
- 41:35did with with with Bravo and PBS because Oh yeah, that was
- 41:39referenced. That was referenced.
- 41:40So, oh, look, there's Shammy. I was going to ask you about
- 41:43what is this over here? What is this over here?
- 41:45Is that an Oscar? That is an Oscar, and I had the
- 41:48great honor of being at the Oscars or.
- 41:53Shut the front door. No.
- 41:55Seriously. And that was my client, GAIL
- 41:58Ryan. I was, I was actually, I was
- 42:01running a talent agency for a while in Los Angeles while I was
- 42:05married. And this is the band.
- 42:07Yes, this is the nine piece band.
- 42:09See how I figured that out? There's nine people there.
- 42:11I think that's. Well, there's one.
- 42:13On them. There's more than OK, but you
- 42:15know, I just yeah, I just visually counted wrong.
- 42:18Thank you. And the watch, keeping secrets.
- 42:20OK. But we're not going to go there
- 42:21yet. We're still focused on this
- 42:24freedom quest. OK, alive and well on Amazon
- 42:28Prime right now. Go to Amazon and order the book
- 42:3081 Countries If you get Everybody in Vietnam ordered the
- 42:33book because it talks about Vietnam in the book.
- 42:36OK, yeah, yeah. So let me share, share it.
- 42:39OK, So remember I talked about how Craig and Bill were best
- 42:44friends and then he they got in a fight and he went to Vietnam.
- 42:47OK, so, so then I'm married and I'm running a talent agency and
- 42:54I one day I'm in the car. I picked my kids up from school
- 42:59and they're at they're like 15 and 13 or something like that.
- 43:06And we're singing in the car and I'm like, you know, guys, we
- 43:12should get some music lessons. You guys won't take guitar?
- 43:14Because I'd remember that they they were at my brother's house
- 43:16and they picked up the guitar you want.
- 43:18You want some guitar lessons? And they were like, yeah.
- 43:21So I wasn't. While I was married, I was not
- 43:24around live musicians at all. So I reached.
- 43:28Out, you're a looker. Friend, thank you.
- 43:32Yeah, back in the day. Yeah.
- 43:34Keep. Talking.
- 43:35I reached out for. Your photos.
- 43:36I reached out to a friend of a friend's and I said I'm looking
- 43:39for a guitar teacher has to be close by in the area because my
- 43:43sons are not driving yet and I'm working full time and he's like,
- 43:48oh, there's only one person I would I would I could recommend.
- 43:51He's the best. Craig Ingram.
- 43:56I'm 'cause I never knew where he.
- 43:58Was now, now, now Is Craig in this picture?
- 44:01Yes, he's in the yellow shirt. I was going to, I was going to
- 44:03say yellow shirt. Cool.
- 44:07So the guy on the left if you go back.
- 44:10I'll go. I'll go back on.
- 44:11The left with a hat, Bill Richardson, he was in the
- 44:14original band and me in the black and then also the the far
- 44:18right. Soda Arcia was the percussionist
- 44:21and he was in this last band that we were in.
- 44:23It was called the Craig Band. Yeah, OK.
- 44:26Yeah, awesome. And who's the guy with glasses
- 44:29and the mustache? So you know, I, I, I, I find
- 44:32out, you know, Craig Ingram has been living less than 4 miles
- 44:36away from me for 10 years. While I was.
- 44:39Raising my. Children crazy are.
- 44:41Are you in this picture with Sammy?
- 44:43Yeah, I'm out. Is that you?
- 44:44Directly behind his head. Right there.
- 44:46Right there. Yeah.
- 44:47OK, that's awesome. Who's this guy?
- 44:50Is that Ike Turner? Who's the choreographer?
- 44:53OK, He kind of looks like Ike Turner.
- 44:55Yeah. He does, doesn't he?
- 44:56He kind of looks like Ike Turner.
- 44:58I'm just saying no, you're. Right.
- 44:59I can't think, I can't remember his name right.
- 45:01Now it's OK. Well, you don't have to.
- 45:02You don't have to. It's OK.
- 45:04Oh, that's me with a A group before Sammy Davis Junior.
- 45:07This was a group I was in very Las Vegas style.
- 45:11Yeah. Yeah.
- 45:13Fun. He was in Los Angeles, though.
- 45:15Cool. Yeah.
- 45:16Keep keep telling your story. I just scroll through photos
- 45:18when I find them. So I find out he's been living,
- 45:23you know, a couple of miles away from me and his family home.
- 45:26He came back from Hawaii and I immediately called my brother.
- 45:31It's like, Oh my God. I found Craig Ingram and he's
- 45:33like, well, you're not going to talk to him, right?
- 45:35And I'm like. No, no, I'm not going to talk to
- 45:37him. I'm married.
- 45:38Well, that lasted about 10 days. And called him.
- 45:43And I told my husband, I said I'm going to go have lunch with
- 45:47Craig. And he's like, no, you're not
- 45:49because he knew about him. I said, yeah, I am.
- 45:53And I yeah, I was hoping it would just be, you know, a lunch
- 45:57and get kind of catch up. And I found out I was still in
- 46:01love with him and he was still in love with me.
- 46:02It was it was so powerful. Ended up.
- 46:06Yeah, that's that's why your that's why your husband was
- 46:08like, no, you're not. Yeah.
- 46:11And you know, they say that if you're in a happy marriage and
- 46:14everything is going well, that you can see an old boyfriend.
- 46:17It's not going to be a big deal. But our marriage was not in a
- 46:21good place at that point. And, and I, you know, I still
- 46:26loved him. There was no doubt about it.
- 46:28And he had never gotten married, never had kids, always talked
- 46:32about me. And so I went through a divorce.
- 46:35Luckily everything is good now. We're all good.
- 46:38You know, the kids are good. My, my husband, former husband's
- 46:41good. And so we got back together
- 46:44again. And one of the first things he
- 46:46told me is I want to make a documentary about Bill.
- 46:51Oh, OK. Now I am a talent agent and
- 46:55representing crew. So I was in a position to help
- 46:57him. But I truly told him, I said,
- 46:59look, you don't understand. You're a musician.
- 47:02You don't understand how expensive it is, how difficult
- 47:06it is to make a film. Forget about it.
- 47:09I tried to dissuade him and he said, no, I got to do this.
- 47:13I got to do this. So was this Was this on PBS or
- 47:16Bravo? Well, let me let me finish this
- 47:18story so OK. OK, Sorry, sorry, sorry.
- 47:19So he goes, I, I told him one day I said look, and I don't
- 47:24want to think about war. I just want to think about
- 47:26peace. And he's to me, you can't know
- 47:30peace unless you know war. And I went, OK, touché.
- 47:36All right, I'm I'll do this. And so we immediately reached
- 47:41out to. OK, so Bill Perkins is a combat
- 47:44photographer. He goes over to Vietnam.
- 47:48He they get into this horrible battle.
- 47:51He was he was assigned to this group, Company C, first of the
- 47:55first Marines. He was a Marine and he was
- 47:59assigned to this group and they took off.
- 48:02They were told to go out, you know, helicoptered out into the
- 48:06Highline Forest. And they ended up in this
- 48:10horrible battle. And Bill Perkins crawled forward
- 48:14and jumped on a hand grenade and saved the lives of oh.
- 48:18Wow, way to go, Bill. Absolutely.
- 48:22And so it was a powerful story. Sure reached out to the
- 48:28survivors that were around him and were invited us to their
- 48:33reunion in Washington, DC So I produced this thing all by
- 48:39myself. I got all the releases.
- 48:42I got all the, you know. Yeah, everything needed.
- 48:46Everything we needed, we hired a cinematographer in LA.
- 48:51So it was Craig, me and the cinematographer John Manishak.
- 48:54He in turn hired some of his friends that were still at
- 48:59Emerson College in Boston. We rented a van.
- 49:03They, they brought all the equipment down to DC, Washington
- 49:08and we filmed for three days in Washington, DC and it, it, it's
- 49:14a wonderful, wonderful document. They did a fantastic job.
- 49:18It was his vision. I just helped him with his
- 49:21vision and what's. It called.
- 49:23It's called Above and beyond the story of Corporal William T
- 49:28Perkins junior and he's he's a huge hero.
- 49:31I William T Corporal, William T Perkins Junior and so PBS.
- 49:39So oh, Bravo was something else. So PBS, we.
- 49:44Probably don't have time for Bravo because we were a 10
- 49:46minute mark, but but I wouldn't at least I I just wouldn't at
- 49:49least share this part of it. So we, yeah, this is the
- 49:52important part. So we once we have the
- 49:55documentary done, it's 30 minutes, by the way.
- 49:57It's not a long documentary, but it's perfect length, I think.
- 50:01So we reached out to all the, you know, production companies,
- 50:05Everything we're trying to get a distribution never happened.
- 50:08Fast forward last year, last year, 17 years later, Craig is
- 50:14gone. I'm in Chicago and PBS picks it
- 50:19up. Right on.
- 50:21So that's so that was amazing. So what is Dennis?
- 50:25Very good to me. What is Dennis Franz's role in
- 50:27it? He recites the Medal of Honor.
- 50:31OK, cool. Yeah, Dennis Franz is one of my
- 50:33all time favorite cop actors from Hill Street Blues, NYPD
- 50:37Blue, like you, you talk about an actor, he's kind of like like
- 50:41James Gandolfini before James Gandolfini hit the scene that
- 50:44that, that barely tough out for sure guy.
- 50:48And but then you just have this amazing vulnerability about him
- 50:52and it doesn't matter what he's what he's doing.
- 50:54You just, you felt everything that Dennis Franz did on.
- 50:57Screen he fell into that character.
- 50:59Yeah, to do, to do the narration.
- 51:02He invited us to the 20th Century Fox lot in LA.
- 51:06And so we, we, we show up and they, they take us to his, his
- 51:11trailer, which is like just this little trailer.
- 51:14And we knock on the door. It's like, you know, he's like,
- 51:18you know, trailer, trailer, you know, pictures of his family all
- 51:22over the place. And then he goes, OK, we're
- 51:24walking over to the studio. So we walk over and would you
- 51:26believe we were in The Simpsons studio where he recorded the
- 51:31narration? We were just like going oh, this
- 51:35is amazing. You know, that's cool, yeah.
- 51:38It. Was really cool.
- 51:40So, yeah, so you know, what I do now is I show the documentary
- 51:45and then I have local veterans on AQ and A.
- 51:48So we do 30 minute film and then we do AQ and a, you know, you
- 51:52know, questions from the audience and all of that.
- 51:55And and let the and this. Is and this is and this is in
- 51:57Chicago. Yeah, I've done it in Chicago.
- 52:00I've we did it in LA We've we've done it in a lot of different
- 52:04places. It's going to play locally here
- 52:06in my neighborhood for Memorial Day, and that's also going to
- 52:09play downtown Chicago at the center.
- 52:12OK, OK. So, so let us drop, drop share
- 52:15that, right? Where did you say to be?
- 52:16Playing those events are also on my website.
- 52:19OK, OK. May 27th event for the film.
- 52:23Oh, events. OK, I gotcha.
- 52:24Yeah, there's an events page. Yeah, I.
- 52:26See it now? I see it now, yeah.
- 52:29So I'm very, I'm very honored to be the steward of this film.
- 52:33I'm one of the few people that, you know, left the Bill Perkins
- 52:39family. There is no one left,
- 52:41unfortunately. It's a very sad, very tragic
- 52:45story. Bill Perkins senior and his wife
- 52:50lost their second their second son and only son.
- 52:54They had two sons. Their youngest son died 4 years
- 52:57after Bill died in Vietnam. But they lost both their
- 53:03children. And you know, there was no,
- 53:08there was no nobody left. It's very.
- 53:12That is unfortunate. Yeah.
- 53:14Yeah. And, you know, so just because
- 53:17it kind of ties in, even though it shouldn't really tie in, if
- 53:19you're feeling you're feeling sad and suicidal, depressed,
- 53:21don't do it to go go scream in a pillow.
- 53:24Go outside and go for a run, go workout, go find somebody to
- 53:26talk to. If you can't find someone to
- 53:29talk to, text 988. Someone is standing by to help
- 53:31you talk you off that ledge. We talk about it all the time.
- 53:34Don't leave a hole in somebody else's heart because you choose
- 53:36not to be here tomorrow because tomorrow is always a better day
- 53:38with you in it. So just do that.
- 53:42Text 988 For more information about Deborah Masterson.
- 53:45Again, the website is Deborah with no hmasterson.com.
- 53:50There's there's your site right there.
- 53:52You can look, you can find out more about the book.
- 53:54You can read about her. There's book clubs, there's
- 53:56events. We'll talk about the different
- 53:59things that she has upcoming. So later this week she's 3:00 to
- 54:036:00 PM at the Folk Art Rare Records.
- 54:06You can go meet her by her book that's in San Diego, CA on May
- 54:112nd she's in Hollywood, May 3rd she's in Chicago, May 17th she's
- 54:16in Evanston. And the May 30th is what we were
- 54:19talking about before with the 30 minute documentary she made
- 54:22about the story of Corporal William T Perkins Junior.
- 54:25So check those things out. She's definitely somebody that
- 54:28is going to come back on our show because Mike's already
- 54:30alluded to that you're going to come back in a year and you can
- 54:33tell us all about the show. We'll have you on a Friday
- 54:34because Friday we'd have we have more time to to to have
- 54:37conversations and we can really dive deep into your life because
- 54:40I feel like when we touched a little piece of it and, and and
- 54:44we would love to obviously learn more about you and more about
- 54:47what you've done in your lifetime, because really I
- 54:49didn't know about Dennis Franz. So you mentioned the the the
- 54:52documentary. Then I looked up the documentary
- 54:54and there he was. So I have AI have a suspicion
- 54:56there's a lot more little innie windows of people that you've
- 54:59met along your your lifetime Nuggets that would really be
- 55:03really fun to talk about because again.
- 55:05Yeah, you've been fascinating, Deborah.
- 55:06Thank you so much for. Doing that.
- 55:07Oh, thank you. Absolutely.
- 55:09And it's so cool. This is the day your buck came
- 55:11out. That's a first.
- 55:12Really cool. Yeah.
- 55:14We're honored. Really cool.
- 55:16And how? And.
- 55:17And before we let you go, how old are your how old are your
- 55:19sons now? What are they doing with their
- 55:20lives? Oh, now?
- 55:21You're yeah, they're 44 and 40. OK, OK.
- 55:27Congratulations. Nice.
- 55:28So one son is here in Chicago, One son is in LA Oh, you know,
- 55:33you asked why did I end up in Chicago?
- 55:35Well, I decided to downsize and I, you know, am I going to stay
- 55:39in LA or come to Chicago? And I just, I, I fell in love
- 55:42with Chicago. I kept coming back to this.
- 55:44It is an awesome city. You got public transportation,
- 55:47you got water. It's just an awesome city.
- 55:50You got great food. The great food, yeah.
- 55:53Yeah, Yeah. California is not the place to
- 55:55live anymore. I mean, I'm, you know, I live in
- 55:56Arizona and I sell houses for a living.
- 55:58So, you know, they turned our state blue 1 election because
- 56:01some of them came over here because they're just tired of
- 56:04California, which I don't blame them with the chaos that's going
- 56:06on there. Just from a political
- 56:08standpoint. I don't blame people from
- 56:10jumping ship from that state. It's just it's a matter.
- 56:13Believe it or not, when I grew up in the valley, the San
- 56:15Fernando Valley, it was rural. Well, yeah, but that was.
- 56:19We were riding horses. Right, right in.
- 56:21My lifetime and now you know you've.
- 56:23Never. Yeah, you know, Yeah, yeah,
- 56:26yeah, no, yeah, you're you're awesome.
- 56:29Thank you Phillip for connecting us and and we'll.
- 56:31Get a shout out to Phillip. We'll, we'll get you back on.
- 56:34I'll put you in my calendar to reach out to you and but anytime
- 56:37you want to come back and talk about something, just have
- 56:39Phillip or you shoot me an e-mail.
- 56:40We'll get you back on. We always kind of book a month
- 56:41ahead of time. So, but definitely next time
- 56:44it's a Friday so we have more time to chat with you and and
- 56:47dive deeper into your life resume because it's much more
- 56:50fascinating that I think that we even touched on Wow.
- 56:52Thanks you're. Welcome, absolutely.
- 56:55Best of welcome it. Was a pleasure meeting you.
- 56:57Thank you so much. And, and don't leave when Mike
- 57:00shuts us down. Don't leave because we got to
- 57:02make sure you're all uploaded and, and, and everything's good
- 57:04to go for Chris and Mike show. I'm Chris, he's Mike.
- 57:06And this is Deborah Masterson. Thank you very much.
- 57:08We appreciate your time. It's the most valuable commodity
- 57:10in the world. So we thank you for spending an
- 57:12hour with us, not only you, Deborah, but everybody in those
- 57:1581 countries love you, brother. Love you too man.
- 57:18Thanks again, Deborah. Have a great day.
- 57:20Peace, Peace. Feel the trail behind your eyes.
- 57:48Feel yourself and meet yourself. Take a moment, Look until you
- 57:57see it. Fight your battle, then you must
- 58:01weer. Fight your battle, but you must
- 58:05weer. Who is your baby to your?
- 59:29Come down here. We haven't bounced.
- 59:32All this in the sand. You can't fight him.
- 59:37Wait for the dead When he's closer out here for the wind.
- 59:42You ain't no creature. We're friends found you should
- 59:48you put it on the almighty man. You got a dream.
- 59:54Who in your life to keep our soul in every man?
- 1:00:01Take your turn behind your eyes. Feel the soul evolution now.
- 1:00:06Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 1:00:17Take a moment look at you, see you see you fight your family.
- 1:00:23To you more clear. You gotta, you gotta.
- 1:00:52You gotta, you gotta, you gotta.