Latest / The Bob Lefsetz Podcast / Gina Schock
Transcript
- 0:08Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Sets podcast.
- 0:13Speaker 1: My guest today is the drummer for the Gil Goes,
- 0:16Speaker 1: soon to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
- 0:18Speaker 1: of Fame, the one and only Gina Shocked. Gina, good
- 0:21Speaker 1: to have you here. Hey Rob, thank you my friend,
- 0:24Speaker 1: but you'll be on your show. You have this new
- 0:26Speaker 1: book Meet in the Hollywood. It's a picture book in
- 0:29Speaker 1: the story book. What motivated you to do that at
- 0:31Speaker 1: this time? Well, um, it's something that I've been wanting
- 0:34Speaker 1: to do for decades and I the thought of trying
- 0:38Speaker 1: to get all of those photographs and ephemera that I
- 0:42Speaker 1: have collected over the years was like overwhelming. So I
- 0:47Speaker 1: was looking for a person to help me do it.
- 0:49Speaker 1: I finally found the right person to help me, this guy,
- 0:51Speaker 1: Steve in l A. He came up, I pulled out
- 0:53Speaker 1: all of my photographs, had him all in in my
- 0:56Speaker 1: living room floor. He walked and he said, Gina, this
- 0:59Speaker 1: is a credit. Sure, this is incredible. We got to
- 1:02Speaker 1: go right up. We're going to write up uh what
- 1:04Speaker 1: he called it, what he caught makeook. Yeah, Well we're
- 1:07Speaker 1: gonna do make a coffee table photo coffee table book anyway,
- 1:10Speaker 1: So we we wrote wrote up a what do you
- 1:13Speaker 1: call why can't I think of that? Proposal? Proposal Jane,
- 1:16Speaker 1: there's christ my senior moment lasted for ten minutes. Okay, yes,
- 1:20Speaker 1: a proposal for a photo book. So we wrote one up.
- 1:24Speaker 1: We set it to a couple of book publishers and
- 1:27Speaker 1: we right away we got back, you know, right away
- 1:30Speaker 1: that black Dog Hachette was interested and talked to them.
- 1:34Speaker 1: They wanted to do the photo book. But then they
- 1:36Speaker 1: started talking to me about, Hey, we used to feel
- 1:38Speaker 1: like writing a little and I was That was of
- 1:40Speaker 1: course overwhelming to me. Once again, I'm not a writer.
- 1:43Speaker 1: I don't write books. But when we started putting all
- 1:47Speaker 1: these photographs together, it's, um, it became very easy to
- 1:52Speaker 1: write about what was happening that time. It was very fluid,
- 1:56Speaker 1: very very easy because when I look at these photographs,
- 1:59Speaker 1: I remember everything that was going on, and you know
- 2:03Speaker 1: what I didn't remember, like maybe perhaps dates and where
- 2:06Speaker 1: I may have been. I keep a daily planner that
- 2:09Speaker 1: I've had. I've had daily planners since seventy nine, so
- 2:15Speaker 1: I referred back to them for dates and places, and
- 2:19Speaker 1: it was invaluable. I mean, I had everything written down
- 2:22Speaker 1: so I could refer to that, and I just and
- 2:24Speaker 1: then I have all the September I had, buttons and posters,
- 2:27Speaker 1: you know, you name it, I've got it. I just
- 2:29Speaker 1: all this stuff means something to me. I'm I'm a
- 2:33Speaker 1: very sentimental person. I like I keep cards and letters
- 2:36Speaker 1: and things from people that I love. And you know,
- 2:39Speaker 1: this is a part of my history and a part
- 2:41Speaker 1: of my life, and I wanted to keep it, you know. Um,
- 2:45Speaker 1: And so I have it all my possession. Finally found
- 2:50Speaker 1: the right person, help we put it together, and boom
- 2:52Speaker 1: it happened. Okay, can you make any money with a
- 2:55Speaker 1: coffee table? Book? Ers? Just a labor of love for
- 2:58Speaker 1: you and the fans. It is a labor of love.
- 3:01Speaker 1: I don't I'm gonna want up spending more money than
- 3:04Speaker 1: I make on this whole this whole endeavor. Um, But
- 3:09Speaker 1: you know what this, I know it's a pichete, but
- 3:13Speaker 1: it really has been a labor of love. Uh. Going
- 3:16Speaker 1: through all of these photos, it just made me so grateful,
- 3:22Speaker 1: so happy that that this has been my life and
- 3:27Speaker 1: I've captured it and the girls in the band with photographs,
- 3:32Speaker 1: and now I can share these photographs with our fans.
- 3:35Speaker 1: The general public. You get to see what I was
- 3:38Speaker 1: seeing a band member, someone in the band, you know. Um.
- 3:43Speaker 1: And then when I started writing about this, I feel
- 3:46Speaker 1: like anybody that picks this book up and starts to
- 3:50Speaker 1: look at the photos and reads a little bit, it's
- 3:52Speaker 1: gonna want to read the whole thing because it's honest
- 3:56Speaker 1: and it's true. It's ask anybody. I'm a pretty upfront person,
- 4:00Speaker 1: no bullshit with me, so and I write that way
- 4:02Speaker 1: and these are my words and these are my photos,
- 4:05Speaker 1: and um, I'm really proud of agree with you. I mean,
- 4:10Speaker 1: and first I'm looking through the pictures, but you get
- 4:12Speaker 1: intrigued in the story. It's anything but a burden. You
- 4:15Speaker 1: cover the major points you could even want to know more. Now,
- 4:18Speaker 1: let's talk about the ephemer and the photos. Bill Wyman
- 4:22Speaker 1: of the Stones famously kept one of everything. The irony
- 4:27Speaker 1: being all these years later he's not auctioning some of
- 4:29Speaker 1: that off. Was that your procedure? Did you tend to
- 4:33Speaker 1: keep one of everything? Um? It wasn't as though I
- 4:38Speaker 1: was grabbing one of everything. I was just grabbing whatever
- 4:41Speaker 1: was in reach within my reach. Um, I didn't necessarily
- 4:44Speaker 1: cover all everything that came out, but I do have buttons.
- 4:48Speaker 1: I just and if I could grab one thing, I
- 4:51Speaker 1: grab as many as I can. Whatever. I just these
- 4:53Speaker 1: are all memories. I like looking at it. This stuff.
- 4:55Speaker 1: It's it's it's my life, you know. And okay, the
- 5:00Speaker 1: Bill by the way, I had the Bill Wyman book,
- 5:03Speaker 1: which and it's really beautiful. Okay, if you could only
- 5:07Speaker 1: keep two pieces of memorabilia, they'd be what uh, they'd
- 5:12Speaker 1: be the poster that I have of when we play
- 5:17Speaker 1: with the Rolling Stones in Rockford, Illinois on October one one,
- 5:23Speaker 1: I believe. And it's a huge, big poster that I
- 5:28Speaker 1: had framed that I have it in my office. That
- 5:31Speaker 1: is worth a million bucks to me. You can put
- 5:34Speaker 1: that in the casket with me, you know. I love that.
- 5:38Speaker 1: Um And you know what, I guess the other thing
- 5:41Speaker 1: would have to be my book because it's it's taken
- 5:44Speaker 1: me forty years to get this together. So it's all
- 5:47Speaker 1: right there. You know. It's funny because uh, at one
- 5:52Speaker 1: point a couple of years ago, I threw out all
- 5:54Speaker 1: my lamin It's it just became. I didn't want to
- 5:57Speaker 1: be one of those guys. But I've only the couple.
- 6:00Speaker 1: One is all access to the Rolling Stones. That is
- 6:04Speaker 1: really cool. He got it. Yeah, of course it is.
- 6:07Speaker 1: And you know what, I keep all my lambin It's stupid.
- 6:10Speaker 1: I got a million of them, you know. And I
- 6:13Speaker 1: don't know if I can let go of all this stuff.
- 6:15Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know there's I mean, I'm not
- 6:17Speaker 1: a hoarder. My house is not like a crazy space,
- 6:20Speaker 1: you know, where you have to figure out how to walk. Uh.
- 6:23Speaker 1: In my home, I have everything in its place. I'm
- 6:25Speaker 1: a virgo. I'm very organized, and I don't know. These
- 6:30Speaker 1: things are just important to me and I and I
- 6:33Speaker 1: still have all the labments. I keep them from every
- 6:35Speaker 1: tour and from any other you know band that I've
- 6:38Speaker 1: ever going to see when they give you a v
- 6:39Speaker 1: I P P S. I have all that stuff. Okay,
- 6:42Speaker 1: you talked about going to l A. Where is all
- 6:44Speaker 1: this stuff? Is it in your house now? Is it
- 6:46Speaker 1: in storage? It's in my house. Where is your house?
- 6:50Speaker 1: I don't need the address, but the generally I live
- 6:53Speaker 1: in San Francisco, but I did live in l A
- 6:55Speaker 1: for twenty seven years, and uh, I moved to just
- 6:58Speaker 1: go in to us in five um and I bought
- 7:03Speaker 1: a nice little Victorian up here and I'm having a
- 7:05Speaker 1: nice life and I go to l A to work. Um,
- 7:08Speaker 1: I do as much work as I can up here,
- 7:09Speaker 1: but l A is sort of the home base for
- 7:12Speaker 1: the Go Goos, and when anything's going on, that's where
- 7:15Speaker 1: we all meet each other. We all meet up there,
- 7:18Speaker 1: uh Like, for instance, we're gonna be meeting their uh
- 7:21Speaker 1: the beginning of December to start rehearsing for the for
- 7:23Speaker 1: the seven shows that we have at the end of
- 7:25Speaker 1: the year. So that's home base for the band. So
- 7:28Speaker 1: how did you decide to move to San Francisco and
- 7:30Speaker 1: after all those years in l A? Give me a
- 7:33Speaker 1: direct comparison to those two. Well, the thing is is,
- 7:36Speaker 1: I I felt like I had lived there long enough
- 7:40Speaker 1: and I was starting to become like a recluse. It
- 7:42Speaker 1: was weird. I just I got tired of the whole
- 7:45Speaker 1: scene in the town. Um, and I wanted a place
- 7:48Speaker 1: where I could walk, where I could step out my
- 7:53Speaker 1: front door. You know. It was it was either gonna
- 7:55Speaker 1: be San Francisco to New York and San Francisco one out.
- 7:58Speaker 1: Because the weather. I love the weather here in Sandarich
- 8:01Speaker 1: is because my favorite weather in the country. I love it.
- 8:03Speaker 1: It's kind of like it feels like fall all the time,
- 8:06Speaker 1: and that fall rolls in every night. Man, I love
- 8:09Speaker 1: the weather here. So um, this was an easy thing
- 8:12Speaker 1: to do, moving from l A up to San Francisco.
- 8:14Speaker 1: And it's so close, you know. I mean I can
- 8:17Speaker 1: hop down the Standardist go you know, it's at our
- 8:19Speaker 1: flight or drive down, which I prefer to do. I
- 8:22Speaker 1: like driving. Okay, So now that you're in San Francisco,
- 8:26Speaker 1: are you a recluse or forgetting COVID? Leave that era
- 8:29Speaker 1: out and you've been in San Francisco for a while,
- 8:31Speaker 1: are you the type of person who goes out? Are
- 8:33Speaker 1: you still end up staying home anyway? I do go out,
- 8:37Speaker 1: but I am kind of more of a homebody, to
- 8:40Speaker 1: be honest with you. Um, I love getting my place
- 8:43Speaker 1: the way that I want it. I'm comfortable, it's it's
- 8:45Speaker 1: by safe paven. I don't know if that's because I
- 8:48Speaker 1: spent so many years in the public, you know, And
- 8:50Speaker 1: I just I value my time. I'm honestly kind of private, um,
- 8:57Speaker 1: and I appreciate the time that I can have to myself,
- 9:00Speaker 1: uh in a place that feels safe. So what do
- 9:04Speaker 1: you do in your house? What do I do? Oh?
- 9:07Speaker 1: I write to write a book, like you know, made
- 9:11Speaker 1: in Hollywood. That's what I worked on the last year
- 9:13Speaker 1: and a half. Um, I'm constantly doing something on you know,
- 9:17Speaker 1: I'm constantly on the phone and doing a ton of emails.
- 9:19Speaker 1: Every day. I get up, I walk my dog. I
- 9:21Speaker 1: do do that around the neighborhood. I have a lovely
- 9:24Speaker 1: The neighborhood I live in is fantastic and it's sort
- 9:28Speaker 1: of a neighborhood with all sort of a lot of
- 9:30Speaker 1: kids and dogs. And I'm up on a hill. Uh I.
- 9:35Speaker 1: And if i'm if I'm not in the house, I'm
- 9:37Speaker 1: out walking around. When I'm in the house, I'm I
- 9:40Speaker 1: stay busy. I don't know. I cook. You know what
- 9:42Speaker 1: do you do when your your home? Your cook You
- 9:44Speaker 1: clean it up, You do your emails every day? You
- 9:48Speaker 1: know your friends stop buying, make dinner or yeah, okay.
- 9:53Speaker 1: Do you have a significant other? Um? Well, yeah, I'd
- 9:58Speaker 1: say that I have a person in my life. He
- 10:00Speaker 1: is uh, He's become very important in my life. And
- 10:04Speaker 1: his name is Wendell. And he you know, I took
- 10:06Speaker 1: care of my parents when they were sick, and I
- 10:14Speaker 1: brought him here take care of him. I'm sorry a minute.
- 10:19Speaker 1: Wendell took care of my father for the last three
- 10:22Speaker 1: years of its life. And he's a very important person
- 10:25Speaker 1: in my life because I watched what a real man
- 10:27Speaker 1: can do. You know, he was a wonderful god. He
- 10:31Speaker 1: is a wonderful guy. And I'm sorry, but we became
- 10:35Speaker 1: very close and I can't imagine not ever being in
- 10:38Speaker 1: my life. You know, we have a very deep connection.
- 10:42Speaker 1: He's definitely my soul mate. I'm sorry. Now you talk
- 10:46Speaker 1: about your parents. I know it's a tough subject, but
- 10:49Speaker 1: your father's passed you you said when your parents, well,
- 10:52Speaker 1: was your mother ill and she's still with us? Or
- 10:54Speaker 1: she going? Mom? My mom thought about three years ago
- 10:57Speaker 1: and they were like my rocke. You know. I I
- 11:00Speaker 1: had a very type connection with my parents. I mean,
- 11:03Speaker 1: I feel like I owe everything to them because they
- 11:06Speaker 1: gave me. They instilled in me, uh to be in
- 11:11Speaker 1: the mind that that that I could achieve anything, that
- 11:14Speaker 1: anything was possible if I put my mind to it.
- 11:16Speaker 1: I was was willing to put the work into it
- 11:19Speaker 1: that it required. And so I feel like a lot
- 11:22Speaker 1: of just everything that I am and I've become. Um,
- 11:25Speaker 1: I wanted to uh that that this was my way
- 11:28Speaker 1: of paying them back by trying to do something that
- 11:30Speaker 1: they would be proud of and you know, and I
- 11:33Speaker 1: feel like I succeeded in that and it it brought
- 11:37Speaker 1: me great joy to have them involved and bring them
- 11:39Speaker 1: into my life when I became a rock star, you know. Um,
- 11:43Speaker 1: it was wonderful to have them around. And you know,
- 11:46Speaker 1: sitting on the side of the stage at Madison Square
- 11:48Speaker 1: Gardener at the Hollywood Bowl, all these things were very
- 11:52Speaker 1: important to me. And I know that they were super proud,
- 11:55Speaker 1: you know, and I felt like I had to take
- 11:58Speaker 1: care of them. And they started getting sick, you know,
- 12:00Speaker 1: I had to step up, and so I moved them
- 12:04Speaker 1: from Baltimore, which is where I grew up for the
- 12:07Speaker 1: last six years of their lives, and I, uh took
- 12:11Speaker 1: care of them. Did they live with you in the
- 12:13Speaker 1: Victorian or do they have a separate places? Yeah, because
- 12:15Speaker 1: it's it's it's two it's two stories. And uh so
- 12:18Speaker 1: I had the downstairs uh fixed up for them, made
- 12:22Speaker 1: to make it safe. You know. I had the bathroom
- 12:24Speaker 1: redone and the floors, get rid of the carpets, all
- 12:27Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. Um. Yeah, so I had it.
- 12:29Speaker 1: I had it fixed up for them, and and it
- 12:33Speaker 1: was great to be with them the last year of
- 12:35Speaker 1: their life and see them every single day. Um. And
- 12:38Speaker 1: I also, you know, had caregivers and where that's where
- 12:40Speaker 1: Wendell came into the picture because he was I don't
- 12:44Speaker 1: know what I would have done with that, this man.
- 12:46Speaker 1: And how did you meet Wendell to have him involved
- 12:48Speaker 1: with your parents and another caregiver? You know. I mean, look,
- 12:52Speaker 1: I don't want to get into this big deal back caregivers,
- 12:54Speaker 1: but it is the toughest thing. If anybody has to
- 12:56Speaker 1: take care of their parents or anything, you know, or
- 12:59Speaker 1: a loved one, it is very difficult to find a
- 13:01Speaker 1: good caregiver. You go through tons of them. Anybody will
- 13:04Speaker 1: tell you that. Um. And because I you know, it's
- 13:08Speaker 1: my parents, they gotta they gotta have the best, you know.
- 13:11Speaker 1: And I was just watching all the time. If I
- 13:14Speaker 1: saw something I didn't like, to get rid of them.
- 13:16Speaker 1: That's it they're at you know. Um. And Wendell, through
- 13:23Speaker 1: another caregiver, said oh I got somebody that can help,
- 13:25Speaker 1: you know, because I did. It's a twenty four hour shift,
- 13:27Speaker 1: so so you know, somebody for twelve hours and somebody
- 13:30Speaker 1: for another twelve hours. And Wendell came in that way,
- 13:34Speaker 1: and he was like a star man. He was just
- 13:38Speaker 1: he and my dad had this connection. My mom had passed,
- 13:41Speaker 1: but he had a connection with my father. They were
- 13:44Speaker 1: best friends. And uh, it's very important to me. Now
- 13:49Speaker 1: let's go back. You tell you san Francisco, your friends
- 13:51Speaker 1: might come over, you know, when somebody goes towards the
- 13:55Speaker 1: other end of the spectrum and age very hard to
- 13:58Speaker 1: make new friends. So who were these friends who you're
- 14:01Speaker 1: seeing in San Francisco? Did you know him previously or
- 14:04Speaker 1: you met him since you've been living there. I've had
- 14:06Speaker 1: a couple of friends up here, not not many, but
- 14:08Speaker 1: that I have made some friends. I you know, like
- 14:11Speaker 1: I said, I'm a little private, so I'm not like
- 14:13Speaker 1: out there trying to meet friends, trying to meet people
- 14:16Speaker 1: all the time. Um you know, you meet someone else
- 14:19Speaker 1: through a friend and and I have a small group
- 14:22Speaker 1: of friends up here that are that are really great
- 14:25Speaker 1: because honestly, Bob, all the majority of my friends are
- 14:28Speaker 1: all in l A. I lived there twenty seven years, Okay,
- 14:32Speaker 1: so you know that's sort of home base really besides
- 14:36Speaker 1: where I grew up my Baltimore. But um, yeah, I've
- 14:42Speaker 1: taken my time meeting people up here, and I feel
- 14:45Speaker 1: like it's some very quality friends here, not quantity quality, Bob.
- 14:51Speaker 1: You know. Yeah, let's go back to Wendell. Your closest
- 14:55Speaker 1: one thing, which was surprising in the book is you
- 14:58Speaker 1: go into your c shoes and relationships, which a lot
- 15:03Speaker 1: of people tend not to. So what was it like
- 15:08Speaker 1: being a rock star, having crushes, having fans? What was
- 15:14Speaker 1: it like being a woman? We don't hear that too much.
- 15:17Speaker 1: We hear the guys perspective. Yeah, well, it was just
- 15:20Speaker 1: like being a human being that has dropped into being
- 15:24Speaker 1: a rock star and you're and you're young, you're in
- 15:26Speaker 1: your early twenties, and you're having the time of your life,
- 15:30Speaker 1: and you're making good money and you're playing in front
- 15:33Speaker 1: of thousands of people every night. I mean, it's a
- 15:36Speaker 1: dream come true. So you know, you have to figure
- 15:40Speaker 1: out what you want to partake in. And you know,
- 15:44Speaker 1: thank god, I'm still here to tell the tale. But
- 15:46Speaker 1: of course I did a lot of stupid things that
- 15:47Speaker 1: I would never do in retrospect. But that's just par
- 15:52Speaker 1: for the course, I think. You know, Uh, it's it's
- 15:56Speaker 1: you're like on a wild ride and you're loving it,
- 15:58Speaker 1: and why not it does? It doesn't happen to everyone,
- 16:01Speaker 1: you know, it's okay. But you know, let's be a
- 16:05Speaker 1: little specific. You You you talk about famous musicians, you
- 16:08Speaker 1: have crushes on, the people you have relationships on, you know,
- 16:11Speaker 1: the men they famously interact with women in different cities
- 16:16Speaker 1: before the cell phone camera, and you're certainly a star
- 16:19Speaker 1: before that where they have relationship with fans that might
- 16:22Speaker 1: be sexual only. What's it like from a woman's perspective,
- 16:25Speaker 1: It's the same. It's exactly the same, exactly the same.
- 16:29Speaker 1: You might have casual sex with a fan in St.
- 16:32Speaker 1: Louis and that and then next night you're in Kansas City.
- 16:36Speaker 1: I have done that. I would admit to have have
- 16:38Speaker 1: done that. Not my proudest moment. Okay, let's go back
- 16:42Speaker 1: and taking here your parents. You know, the dollars can
- 16:44Speaker 1: add up. How are you doing financially? If you never
- 16:48Speaker 1: earned another dollar, could you make it to the end?
- 16:53Speaker 1: I think I could. Yeah. So the money or assets
- 16:57Speaker 1: you have, are you the person me manages that or
- 17:01Speaker 1: do you have somebody for How involved are you in that? Well?
- 17:05Speaker 1: To tell you the truth, I'm now starting to get
- 17:08Speaker 1: involved in everything. As I said I was, you know,
- 17:11Speaker 1: taking care of my parents would just consumed me. And
- 17:14Speaker 1: I'm starting to feel like now it's my time to
- 17:19Speaker 1: get myself back and you know, do what I'm doing
- 17:22Speaker 1: right now, um as they would want it. Um you know,
- 17:28Speaker 1: I don't know. I feel like this is just my
- 17:30Speaker 1: time to sort of regain things that I might have
- 17:35Speaker 1: moments of time where that I couldn't be uh, that
- 17:42Speaker 1: I couldn't fully be in. And as far as the
- 17:44Speaker 1: money thing goes, I have people that I've been with
- 17:47Speaker 1: for years and years and they've handled my money and
- 17:50Speaker 1: my parents and my brother. You know, I feel pretty
- 17:53Speaker 1: comfortable with that set up. Yeah, I mean money, you know, Bob,
- 17:56Speaker 1: I don't even like talking about it because money is
- 17:58Speaker 1: not important to me. I mean it is, but it's
- 18:01Speaker 1: like I've never done anything for money. I've done it
- 18:04Speaker 1: because I love to do it. I wrote this book
- 18:06Speaker 1: because I love doing this, because I love taking these photographs.
- 18:09Speaker 1: It wasn't I don't, it's not what motivates me. I agree,
- 18:14Speaker 1: But you know, we're reaching an age. You know, if
- 18:17Speaker 1: you're a performer, if you're physically able, you can work forever.
- 18:21Speaker 1: But there I've unfortunately known some of my parents friends
- 18:25Speaker 1: in their eighties and nineties, they were out of money,
- 18:28Speaker 1: you know, and you can't get a job when you're
- 18:30Speaker 1: in your eighties or nineties. So I know a lot
- 18:32Speaker 1: of people who I know a lot of people who
- 18:34Speaker 1: are unprepared. That's why I asked that question, not that
- 18:38Speaker 1: you will Christ you know, Bob, I don't know how
- 18:40Speaker 1: long I would have lived, but I think right now
- 18:42Speaker 1: I'm okay. Um I. You know, it is a great
- 18:46Speaker 1: thing that that that the Gogs are still able to
- 18:49Speaker 1: play as much as we all want to. I myself
- 18:53Speaker 1: like to play a lot. The rest of the girls
- 18:56Speaker 1: don't feel that way, or some of the girls don't,
- 18:58Speaker 1: but um, I mean this being in the go Gos
- 19:03Speaker 1: has allowed me a lifestyle that I only dreamed of.
- 19:05Speaker 1: And you know it's I feel like I look at
- 19:10Speaker 1: all this stuff, when I look at this book, I
- 19:11Speaker 1: feel like I've been on this incredible journey that has
- 19:16Speaker 1: where I've met people that like I grew up. I
- 19:19Speaker 1: grew up loving David Bowie, idolizing him or idolizing the
- 19:22Speaker 1: Stones and and Charlie Watts. I get to meet these people,
- 19:26Speaker 1: you know, hang out with them. Uh. It's a big
- 19:29Speaker 1: deal for me because I've always always been about music.
- 19:32Speaker 1: I love everything music, you know, every time I got
- 19:35Speaker 1: When I was a kid, I spent on buying instruments,
- 19:38Speaker 1: or buying tickets to concerts, or buying UM albums, you know,
- 19:43Speaker 1: and I loved I'd always spend extra money to get
- 19:45Speaker 1: the British imports because I really loved British music. Um.
- 19:49Speaker 1: You know, this has been like this magical journey and
- 19:52Speaker 1: I look at this and I can't believe that it's me,
- 19:55Speaker 1: Like because I'm the biggest fan I really am. Okay,
- 19:59Speaker 1: let's just go for one second. You talked about playing
- 20:03Speaker 1: in a perfect world, how often would you want to
- 20:05Speaker 1: play me? I could be on tour. I could be
- 20:09Speaker 1: on toward ten months of the year easily. And if
- 20:12Speaker 1: you're not on the road, do you play the drums?
- 20:15Speaker 1: Now that's that's not how long does it take you
- 20:19Speaker 1: get back in the groove? So what I'm gonna do
- 20:22Speaker 1: what I always do. However long we have set up
- 20:25Speaker 1: to the band rehearse to go on tour, I usually
- 20:28Speaker 1: go two weeks before that and just play on my own.
- 20:31Speaker 1: I you know, I have our shows are taped, so
- 20:38Speaker 1: I'll just I'll put that, put my headphones on to
- 20:41Speaker 1: play along with the show. UM, so that I get
- 20:44Speaker 1: like at least a good hour and fifteen minutes of
- 20:46Speaker 1: straight playing UM. And that's what I'll start doing before
- 20:50Speaker 1: we do this this December show shows UM. And then
- 20:54Speaker 1: of course before before we do UM the Rock and
- 20:57Speaker 1: Roll Hall of Fame, I'll just probably take a couple
- 21:00Speaker 1: of days where I'll just sit down and go over
- 21:01Speaker 1: the three songs, just to get loose and limber and
- 21:03Speaker 1: remember how it feels, get that muscle memory going, you know.
- 21:14Speaker 1: Talk about going back to the other point about meeting
- 21:16Speaker 1: your heroes. Have occasionally gone somewhere with my girlfriends. Just
- 21:20Speaker 1: why are you talking to that guy said he was
- 21:23Speaker 1: the drummer. He was a bass player in this band.
- 21:25Speaker 1: You don't understand. And when I get it in my inbox,
- 21:28Speaker 1: same way. But one thing I've known is some of
- 21:34Speaker 1: these people are good when you meet them. Some of
- 21:36Speaker 1: them are not so good. Okay, some of the household names,
- 21:40Speaker 1: very sensitive people. You hang with them, they are not fun.
- 21:45Speaker 1: So what hey, I don't know many musicians like that, Bob.
- 21:48Speaker 1: You might be talking about actors or something. I don't know.
- 21:51Speaker 1: But the musicians that I everybody have met, they've always
- 21:54Speaker 1: been wonderful. Let's not talk musicians, Let's talk Starrs. You
- 22:00Speaker 1: mentioned David Bowie, not the person in the band that
- 22:04Speaker 1: they may be just as responsible, but the front person
- 22:07Speaker 1: or the singer songwriter. Okay, Yes, there's a musician mentality.
- 22:11Speaker 1: All musicians get along. It's different from the everything. But
- 22:14Speaker 1: I'm talking about the household names. I mean I I
- 22:18Speaker 1: have been backstage with Cat Stevens couldn't be nicer. I've
- 22:22Speaker 1: been backstage with a couple of times with people who
- 22:24Speaker 1: are the most famous in the world, and they're jerks. Okay, No,
- 22:30Speaker 1: I don't. I don't want to mention me. Know you're
- 22:33Speaker 1: asking me, Hey, let me ask you, Okay, Okay, I
- 22:39Speaker 1: I think that I don't know if I'll spill the negative,
- 22:43Speaker 1: but I'll go with the I'll work my way up
- 22:48Speaker 1: to it, you know, just like I'll get you to.
- 22:51Speaker 1: In terms of someone who lives up to the legend,
- 22:55Speaker 1: my most positive experiences have been with Steven Tyler. He
- 23:00Speaker 1: is that guy. He's fantastic, that made his full life
- 23:04Speaker 1: and he doesn't mind throwing around compliments you know exactly,
- 23:08Speaker 1: and then you know, but you know, he'll leave a
- 23:10Speaker 1: message on the phone that is just wild, and then
- 23:13Speaker 1: you pick him up and he'll go straight into you know,
- 23:15Speaker 1: it's like that who he is. He's always nice, he
- 23:19Speaker 1: lives up to the legend. And we've crossed pans a
- 23:23Speaker 1: couple of times. And I think Jane met him at once.
- 23:26Speaker 1: I don't know where it was she met him, and
- 23:28Speaker 1: he said that he called us like rock goddesses or
- 23:31Speaker 1: rock icons or something, and Jane Coke came back and said,
- 23:34Speaker 1: you're not gonna believe with Stephen. Stephen Tyler said about us,
- 23:37Speaker 1: We're like U Steven Tyler. Yeah, Oh my god, are
- 23:40Speaker 1: you kidding? I love Aerosmith so much. I love that band.
- 23:45Speaker 1: Name the two best experiences of meeting famous musicians? Well,
- 23:51Speaker 1: David Bowie. So you met Bowie? What were the circumstances?
- 23:56Speaker 1: Did you have a conversation? All right? So I've met
- 23:58Speaker 1: him a couple of times, but the first time I
- 24:00Speaker 1: met him it was actually the most the best of
- 24:04Speaker 1: all the times was the first time because I got
- 24:06Speaker 1: to really hang out with him and spend time talking
- 24:08Speaker 1: with him, even though I was scared, shipless, I could
- 24:11Speaker 1: barely speak, but it was We had done a show
- 24:14Speaker 1: at where the hell in Sam in New York City.
- 24:19Speaker 1: I don't even know if we had a record deal yet,
- 24:21Speaker 1: but we did a show at when Dell what's the
- 24:25Speaker 1: name of that venue? He looked it up the other day.
- 24:27Speaker 1: I couldn't think of it in New York City, God,
- 24:29Speaker 1: damn it not whatever. I'll come back to that. But
- 24:35Speaker 1: at our show was John Lennon. Where was the Where
- 24:38Speaker 1: was the venue that we played at? When I said
- 24:40Speaker 1: John Lennon was at? Was there? And oh the Ritz
- 24:44Speaker 1: you remember the Rits Okay, so we were playing there.
- 24:47Speaker 1: So it was John Lennon, Yoko Ono um um um,
- 24:53Speaker 1: David Bowie, all the dudes from Manus, all the guys
- 24:56Speaker 1: from Manus because we had just finished playing with them
- 24:57Speaker 1: in England, and the who else, Pete Townsend. They were
- 25:05Speaker 1: at our show and after the show they came back.
- 25:08Speaker 1: In the night, they came back and we've met them
- 25:11Speaker 1: in the VI I P Room at the reds Now.
- 25:14Speaker 1: Unfortunately John and Yoko had left it during the encore
- 25:19Speaker 1: and it was but only a couple of months later
- 25:21Speaker 1: when he was murdered. Um, so you know that was horrible,
- 25:26Speaker 1: that whole thing. But I didn't get to meet him,
- 25:29Speaker 1: but did get to hang out with David and his
- 25:32Speaker 1: assistant Coco, who was seen to be with him. At
- 25:34Speaker 1: all times. Um, and there was a lot going on.
- 25:37Speaker 1: We were all for taking in various uh substances. Uh.
- 25:43Speaker 1: It was fun, it was great. It was perfect for
- 25:45Speaker 1: the time. He was such a gentleman, very conversational, and
- 25:49Speaker 1: he was super cool. He was He was everything I
- 25:52Speaker 1: had hoped he would be. This is really super cool guy,
- 25:57Speaker 1: very approachable. He wasn't a dick. It was a nice guy.
- 26:01Speaker 1: And Pete, God Blessing. Pete was was kind of out
- 26:04Speaker 1: of it. He was draped on two He had a
- 26:08Speaker 1: woman on under under each arm sort of holding him up,
- 26:11Speaker 1: walking him around. I think he hadn't had a little
- 26:13Speaker 1: too much that evening. And the guys from man is
- 26:16Speaker 1: raw about saying hi to everybody because we just finished
- 26:20Speaker 1: toward with them, and uh my, the bass player, Mark
- 26:24Speaker 1: Bedford was my boyfriend at the time, so it was
- 26:28Speaker 1: all great playing the drums and all of a sudden
- 26:33Speaker 1: seeing John lynnon I mean my body spikes. Would you
- 26:36Speaker 1: tell the story? Hey? Hey, I mean I couldn't see
- 26:40Speaker 1: him or anything when I was playing, But to know
- 26:43Speaker 1: that he actually came to a go go show and
- 26:47Speaker 1: saw us play, you know, that's a big one in
- 26:50Speaker 1: my book. That's a big one. Okay, so meeting David
- 26:54Speaker 1: Bowie was great. One other rock star great experience, oh well,
- 26:59Speaker 1: meeting the Rolling Stones meaning Stones when we opened for them,
- 27:03Speaker 1: and getting to spend a little time with Charlie Watts
- 27:05Speaker 1: and Bill Wyman. Although Charlie was my hero growing up,
- 27:09Speaker 1: you know what I mean. If it wasn't for Charlie
- 27:10Speaker 1: wattson John Bottom, I don't know if I would continue
- 27:13Speaker 1: playing drums um They were I mean, I idolized them.
- 27:18Speaker 1: And when I met him, it was another one of
- 27:20Speaker 1: those moments where I, you know, could hardly speak, but
- 27:22Speaker 1: I did because I had to, had to say something.
- 27:25Speaker 1: And once again I don't know if it's just being
- 27:28Speaker 1: English or what the deal is, but he was such
- 27:29Speaker 1: a gentleman, very very quiet and soft spoken, perfect gentleman.
- 27:36Speaker 1: Do you remember what you spoke about? Hell now, No
- 27:39Speaker 1: I don't, No, I don't, but it doesn't matter. Uh.
- 27:43Speaker 1: I was in his presence and I actually got to
- 27:46Speaker 1: sit on his drum kit and full around with his
- 27:49Speaker 1: drums at sound check, which was a big thrill for me.
- 27:52Speaker 1: And I've said this story many times, but that's when
- 27:55Speaker 1: his drum text said to me Gina that that that
- 27:58Speaker 1: rug that his drums any one. The drums are pittings
- 28:02Speaker 1: compared to what that rug cost. And in fact, that
- 28:05Speaker 1: was so that was so very Charlie Watts, wasn't it. Yeah, yeah,
- 28:09Speaker 1: of course it was. Okay, let's go back to Baltimore.
- 28:13Speaker 1: How many generations was your family in Baltimore? Oh, Christ,
- 28:20Speaker 1: I don't know really. I uh well, let's see my
- 28:23Speaker 1: mom's sided the family. My grandfather Mitchell Muskawsky, Mitch Mskowski,
- 28:30Speaker 1: he was. He came over when he was a boy
- 28:33Speaker 1: on a boat, cabin boy or where the leased to
- 28:37Speaker 1: call him, and he he came over to the support.
- 28:40Speaker 1: Baltimore is where he got off, and you know, grew, grew,
- 28:45Speaker 1: became a man and met my grandmother, Jane Hill. Her
- 28:50Speaker 1: family was from Ireland, um, and that's who I'm named after,
- 28:54Speaker 1: Regina Hill Um. And my father's side of the family,
- 28:59Speaker 1: uh uh, the Shocks were all German. And I actually
- 29:05Speaker 1: found out that my father's aunts and uncles were in
- 29:09Speaker 1: the vaudeville circuit um and so there was a little
- 29:14Speaker 1: bit of that show biz h in my blood. Maybe, Okay.
- 29:19Speaker 1: I always thought when you broke the shock was a
- 29:22Speaker 1: made up name. So that is the family German it's
- 29:26Speaker 1: german Man and it was it was shocked when it
- 29:28Speaker 1: was in Germany. It wasn't changed in America. You don't know,
- 29:32Speaker 1: do you know what? I'm not positive, but it's something
- 29:35Speaker 1: I want to look up. I think that our name
- 29:36Speaker 1: was shook sc h O O K and it got
- 29:42Speaker 1: changed the STO c K. I think it was shook.
- 29:47Speaker 1: But you know what, now that you remind me of that,
- 29:48Speaker 1: I want to look up. And I don't know why
- 29:49Speaker 1: I think that, but there must have been something that
- 29:52Speaker 1: I found, uh that leads me in that direction. Okay,
- 29:58Speaker 1: how did your parents meet? Oh? Well they were. My
- 30:04Speaker 1: mom went to Catholic school twelve years, as did I.
- 30:07Speaker 1: I did my brother. Um. My mom and dad met
- 30:12Speaker 1: when she was in high school and they were high
- 30:15Speaker 1: school sweethearts. When she graduated high school, Uh, she was
- 30:23Speaker 1: eighteen and married my father, who was twenty one. And
- 30:26Speaker 1: my father was the first sweetheart she ever had. She
- 30:30Speaker 1: had never had a boyfriend. She met my father and
- 30:33Speaker 1: that was that and they lived the next seventy two
- 30:35Speaker 1: years together in marital bliss. They were the most beautiful
- 30:40Speaker 1: couple you'd ever want to me because they were so
- 30:42Speaker 1: in love. I mean, that doesn't happen often. But I'm
- 30:46Speaker 1: going to tell you what minds. Like the storybook thing, Like,
- 30:48Speaker 1: my parents were crazy about each other, and they were
- 30:51Speaker 1: both really good looking, and they loved to dance, and
- 30:53Speaker 1: they loved to get dressed up and like to go
- 30:55Speaker 1: to New York and shake it up. You know, they
- 30:57Speaker 1: were really happening. So what did they do for a living? Um,
- 31:04Speaker 1: my father worked on the waterfront. It was a steved
- 31:06Speaker 1: or or alongshore or whatever, you know on the waterfront.
- 31:10Speaker 1: When you don't watch that film, that's my father, Marlon Brando,
- 31:12Speaker 1: that's my father. Because my dad was offered a lot
- 31:15Speaker 1: of money to go to New York and work take
- 31:17Speaker 1: care of you know, work on the docks up there,
- 31:19Speaker 1: and he wouldn't do it because we all know it's
- 31:22Speaker 1: run by the mafia. All that was and uh so
- 31:25Speaker 1: it's not run by the mafia in Baltimore. Uh, not
- 31:29Speaker 1: so much. It wasn't at the time, not so much.
- 31:32Speaker 1: New York was boom. That was it. You were in
- 31:35Speaker 1: when you went to New York and you can't get
- 31:37Speaker 1: out once you get in. We all know that. So,
- 31:40Speaker 1: um no, Dad said no to this huge opportunity, this
- 31:44Speaker 1: opportunity to make a hell of a lot more money.
- 31:48Speaker 1: And I remember that it was a big deal about
- 31:49Speaker 1: moving to New York and he finally said no, he
- 31:51Speaker 1: wasn't going to do it. Stayed in Baltimore. He was
- 31:53Speaker 1: the you know, he became the head of the pier
- 31:56Speaker 1: one um um and treated everybody the way they're supposed
- 32:00Speaker 1: to be treated. Because there were some folks that worked
- 32:04Speaker 1: doc workers that signed an X on their paycheck. Okay, um,
- 32:10Speaker 1: and my father treated everyone the same. Um. And my mom,
- 32:17Speaker 1: she was a model and then a beautician and then
- 32:25Speaker 1: a homemaker, and then she decided she wanted to uh
- 32:29Speaker 1: hang out with my dad a little bit more. So.
- 32:32Speaker 1: My father least some property right next to the pure
- 32:35Speaker 1: One where he worked on Clinton Street in Baltimore, which
- 32:39Speaker 1: I got a story about. I don't tell you about
- 32:41Speaker 1: the wire about the building that he built. He was
- 32:43Speaker 1: a builder. He could build anything anyway. Um. He least
- 32:46Speaker 1: this property and he built a little carryaut shop so
- 32:51Speaker 1: that my mother could work there. And he was right
- 32:54Speaker 1: next door. And you know, I worked there during the
- 32:59Speaker 1: summer and the hour from from six am to three pm.
- 33:02Speaker 1: And that's what I would do every summer. And my
- 33:05Speaker 1: mom did that for many years. And then she step
- 33:06Speaker 1: four with that, and so we sold that business, and
- 33:09Speaker 1: then Mom became just a homemaker. You know, she was
- 33:12Speaker 1: very good. Her cooking was really good. And Okay, So
- 33:16Speaker 1: what kind of neighborhood you grow up in? Very blue collar,
- 33:20Speaker 1: middle class neighborhood, Dundocum. Everyone knew each other. Uh, we
- 33:25Speaker 1: left our doors open at night. Uh. We'd sometimes sleep
- 33:28Speaker 1: on the front porch when it was too hot before
- 33:31Speaker 1: we could afford air conditioning. Um. And it was I
- 33:35Speaker 1: really had an idyllic childhood. I really, I really have
- 33:38Speaker 1: to say that. It was all kind of beautiful. And
- 33:42Speaker 1: what kind of kid were you? Shy? The group was
- 33:46Speaker 1: a rotten kid. My mother said she loved rotten kids.
- 33:49Speaker 1: I was bad, not really bad, but I was rambunctious,
- 33:53Speaker 1: you could say whatever. I I was always okay. I
- 33:56Speaker 1: grew up from a tomboy, grew up with I didn't
- 33:59Speaker 1: have any girls in the neighbor hood. It was all guys.
- 34:01Speaker 1: So I grew up riding bicycles with them, you know
- 34:03Speaker 1: what I mean, and running around and busting windows out,
- 34:07Speaker 1: and you know, I had a little dirt bike all
- 34:12Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. You know, I didn't think there
- 34:14Speaker 1: were no girls you know, until in high school that
- 34:17Speaker 1: I got to have other girlfriends, you know, but man,
- 34:21Speaker 1: it was a wonderful childhood. And uh you know, my my,
- 34:25Speaker 1: my dad's mom lived with us for many years and
- 34:29Speaker 1: it was all good. It was always and it was
- 34:32Speaker 1: our house was sort of the main base on the
- 34:35Speaker 1: street because my father used to love to take all
- 34:37Speaker 1: the kids on hay rides and you bring them down
- 34:40Speaker 1: our shore home and you know there were something else.
- 34:44Speaker 1: Let me tell you about they were really something else. Um, okay,
- 34:48Speaker 1: so you had a vacation home on the shore. Yeah,
- 34:51Speaker 1: that was chest be Baby. My mom and dad had
- 34:53Speaker 1: to borrow a thousand dollars from uh my my father's sister,
- 34:59Speaker 1: and they bought property on the chest Peak Bag and
- 35:02Speaker 1: my father built the home, the shore home down there
- 35:05Speaker 1: with a couple of buddies from work. He'd work on
- 35:06Speaker 1: the weekends and built this home that is still there,
- 35:09Speaker 1: that is gorgeous on a beautiful piece of property, um,
- 35:14Speaker 1: right on the water. And uh so we'd spend a
- 35:17Speaker 1: lot of time there every summer um fishing and crabbing,
- 35:21Speaker 1: and they would have their friends down. They'd be drinking
- 35:25Speaker 1: gin and tonic and the kids would be running around
- 35:26Speaker 1: you can have a little sip of that, and oh man,
- 35:29Speaker 1: it was just wonderful, you know. And he he had
- 35:32Speaker 1: a Super eight camera that he would take. He would
- 35:34Speaker 1: take pictures on them because he and Mom would go
- 35:36Speaker 1: to New York a lot and they were on the
- 35:38Speaker 1: prices right and Mom want to make a maxstol and
- 35:41Speaker 1: he won a super eight camera. So that's when he
- 35:44Speaker 1: started taking super rate videos. I had all that film, Uh,
- 35:50Speaker 1: put it on the DVD, so I had that. I
- 35:52Speaker 1: have all those super rates. Okay, so your brother is older.
- 35:56Speaker 1: What was he like growing up? Oh my god, Well,
- 35:59Speaker 1: my brother's seven years older than I am, so he
- 36:03Speaker 1: was protective of me. It was my brother and my
- 36:05Speaker 1: cousins that lived across the street, Henry Dennis, and I
- 36:08Speaker 1: ran with them. Well, they hadn't sort of take me.
- 36:10Speaker 1: My brother had to sort of watch out for me.
- 36:12Speaker 1: Um and I just ran around with them and he
- 36:17Speaker 1: was good. And then then came a time when you know,
- 36:20Speaker 1: he was like nineteen or twenty and he was out
- 36:23Speaker 1: the door all the time. So I was just sort
- 36:25Speaker 1: of left my own devices, which was sitting in my
- 36:27Speaker 1: bedroom putting headphones on and playing with every song that
- 36:30Speaker 1: I loved. Um, I was just immersed in music. Well,
- 36:34Speaker 1: what what would happened in the next fifty years for
- 36:37Speaker 1: your brother? What's he been up to? My brother, he
- 36:43Speaker 1: got he went to college. My parents were disappointed I
- 36:45Speaker 1: didn't go to college, but I made that all right,
- 36:47Speaker 1: so they were happy with the ending story here. But yeah,
- 36:50Speaker 1: my brother is a pretty bright guy. UM. He wanted
- 36:54Speaker 1: to be a professor. UM, and he did work out
- 37:00Speaker 1: that way. He spent a lot of time traveling, and
- 37:03Speaker 1: then he worked on the waterfront. Excuse me with my father,
- 37:07Speaker 1: and you make a lot of money working on the waterfront.
- 37:10Speaker 1: And my brother worked there for like ten years and
- 37:12Speaker 1: made it, made a ton of money, and bought a
- 37:15Speaker 1: bunch of apartment buildings. UM in a neighborhood uh in
- 37:19Speaker 1: Holland Town in Baltimore was right over Patterson Park, which
- 37:24Speaker 1: is this huge, big, beautiful park. I bought a bunch
- 37:27Speaker 1: of buildings that were facing the park. And at the
- 37:30Speaker 1: time it was kind of ghettot but it changed over
- 37:34Speaker 1: the years, UM, and it butted right up against the
- 37:36Speaker 1: neighborhood called Fell's Point, which is kind of famous. You
- 37:39Speaker 1: may have harder Fells Point in Baltimore. UM. So John
- 37:42Speaker 1: has his apartment buildings and that's they're all paid off
- 37:45Speaker 1: and he's living the life. You know, he travels and
- 37:47Speaker 1: does whatever he likes and he's good. My brother is good.
- 37:52Speaker 1: He I didn't get along that great, but it's okay.
- 37:55Speaker 1: Did he get married, did he have kids? No? No,
- 37:58Speaker 1: neither one of us are married. It's like, you know
- 38:00Speaker 1: what Bob, I think about I don't know why, because
- 38:05Speaker 1: I think the institution of marriage is kind of great,
- 38:07Speaker 1: but it wasn't. It never worked out for me that way.
- 38:11Speaker 1: And my brother, I guess he's the same. I don't know.
- 38:15Speaker 1: I kind of think maybe it had a lot to
- 38:17Speaker 1: do with growing up seeing the perfect marriage. There's nothing
- 38:22Speaker 1: that you could ever you could never compete with that.
- 38:25Speaker 1: I don't know. You know, you tend to, you know,
- 38:28Speaker 1: when you're in a relationship, you tend to say, oh,
- 38:30Speaker 1: is he liked my father and she liked my mother? Whatever?
- 38:34Speaker 1: You do those things. I don't know why. You just
- 38:36Speaker 1: do and UH be tugh to to live up to
- 38:40Speaker 1: the expectations that you have, of of of of some
- 38:45Speaker 1: of of what you would think you would want your other,
- 38:48Speaker 1: your significant other to be like. When you watch the
- 38:51Speaker 1: perfect love affair happened, your entire life. And did your
- 38:55Speaker 1: parents ever lament that they didn't have grandkids? Yeah, my mom,
- 39:00Speaker 1: And I said, Mom, listen, if I had grandkids, I'd
- 39:03Speaker 1: never be able to hang out with you as much
- 39:04Speaker 1: as I do. He wouldn't be able to do all
- 39:06Speaker 1: these It's true, we wouldn't be able to do all
- 39:08Speaker 1: these fantastic things that we do together. I bring my
- 39:10Speaker 1: mother on tour, on tour with us. She'd be on
- 39:12Speaker 1: the tour bus with the girls and and they all
- 39:15Speaker 1: loved her, you know. And my parents they were there
- 39:18Speaker 1: for everything. They were in a lot of shows. The
- 39:20Speaker 1: band knew my parents very very well and loved them. Okay,
- 39:25Speaker 1: being as Steven Doore, that's a as you mentioned, lucrative
- 39:28Speaker 1: because because it's so physical, h did did have an
- 39:32Speaker 1: attrition to it. You know, we're father and brother and
- 39:36Speaker 1: their body somewhat beat up because they did. My dad's
- 39:39Speaker 1: body was beat up. Um. Yeah, he had terrible authoritis. Um.
- 39:43Speaker 1: But my father was like a little bull man. He
- 39:45Speaker 1: was strong as a horse. He loved work. He loved
- 39:49Speaker 1: to work. Okay, I mean they had to pay him
- 39:52Speaker 1: to get him to quit the job, to quit being
- 39:55Speaker 1: a Steven Doore, you know, they had to offer him
- 39:57Speaker 1: a lot of money to stop working so they could
- 39:59Speaker 1: bring younger dude and to do what he does. My
- 40:02Speaker 1: dad loved to work. He didn't like to sitting still.
- 40:04Speaker 1: He was always building something. He was always doing something.
- 40:07Speaker 1: And I tend to be more like my father because
- 40:09Speaker 1: I like to stay busy. I like to Sitting around
- 40:11Speaker 1: for me is like death. It's like sucks, man. I
- 40:15Speaker 1: like to be busy all the time. Okay, so what
- 40:17Speaker 1: were your first exposures to music? Oh? Well, you know,
- 40:24Speaker 1: my parents were always playing music and they loved the dance,
- 40:27Speaker 1: which used to embarrass the hell out of my brother
- 40:29Speaker 1: and I they started dancing, we were so embarrassed. Um.
- 40:32Speaker 1: But they listened to a lot of big band music.
- 40:36Speaker 1: I grew up with big band stuff. They loved count Bastie,
- 40:39Speaker 1: Cat Callaway, all these who you know, everybody, Benny Goodman,
- 40:43Speaker 1: you know, anybody was playing big band stuff. They were
- 40:46Speaker 1: always playing and dancing too, which was hard to take,
- 40:49Speaker 1: but yeah, it was that house was full of music
- 40:53Speaker 1: all the time. And how did you get into popular
- 40:58Speaker 1: music as opposed to the big band Because I still
- 41:02Speaker 1: love big band stuff. That's kind of some of my
- 41:04Speaker 1: favorite genre of music. Uh that Uh, I just it
- 41:10Speaker 1: was I was drawn to it. I don't know, man,
- 41:12Speaker 1: I When I was a kid, Uh, you know, I
- 41:16Speaker 1: had that little transistor radio, you know, am stuck to
- 41:20Speaker 1: my ear waiting to hear my favorite songs of the day,
- 41:23Speaker 1: you know. Um. And then I called into the radio
- 41:27Speaker 1: station and request something that I wanted to hear and wait,
- 41:30Speaker 1: you know, seven hours to hear at two o'clock in
- 41:33Speaker 1: the morning. Um. You know. I had that transistor radio
- 41:36Speaker 1: under the covers, um. Um. You know. And as I
- 41:41Speaker 1: got a little bit older, I just I started to
- 41:43Speaker 1: want to go. After my brother took me to my
- 41:45Speaker 1: first concert, which was led Zeppelin opening for the Who,
- 41:49Speaker 1: and then it was NonStop. That was an addiction that
- 41:52Speaker 1: never ended. Many people have a transitional moment where they
- 42:05Speaker 1: really get the bug. Was it the Beatles? Was it
- 42:08Speaker 1: something you heard on the radio? What made you go
- 42:11Speaker 1: all in? You remember, yeah, seeing led Zeppelin opening for
- 42:16Speaker 1: the Who in nine nine Mary with the post pavilion. Yeah,
- 42:20Speaker 1: but you were listening to you were listening to the
- 42:22Speaker 1: radio before that. What got you started doing that? I
- 42:28Speaker 1: don't know, it just it spoke to me. It was
- 42:31Speaker 1: something that that I felt that was important. To me.
- 42:36Speaker 1: You know, I don't know why do you love doing
- 42:38Speaker 1: what you do? It just it speaks to you. It
- 42:40Speaker 1: touches you in a way that other things don't. I
- 42:43Speaker 1: knew as a kid that I wanted to be involved
- 42:47Speaker 1: in music. I didn't know what part I would play,
- 42:50Speaker 1: but I, like I said, it spoke to me, It
- 42:53Speaker 1: touched me, It was important in my life. Okay, so
- 42:57Speaker 1: tell me how you ended up going to that led
- 42:58Speaker 1: Zeppelin who gig. My brother had the babysit may and
- 43:02Speaker 1: so he took me and I just remember, you know what,
- 43:11Speaker 1: see led Zeppelin. That was our first tour of the States,
- 43:15Speaker 1: and that was mind blowing. But then to see the
- 43:17Speaker 1: who come out and play and then destroy their instruments
- 43:22Speaker 1: at the end of the show. I mean, I'm a kid,
- 43:25Speaker 1: I'm eleven years old or eleven or twelve, and I
- 43:28Speaker 1: that blew my mind. I was like, I want to
- 43:31Speaker 1: be on that stage. I don't care what I'm doing,
- 43:33Speaker 1: if I'm singing or playing the dramas or playing bass,
- 43:36Speaker 1: whatever it is, I want to be up on that stage.
- 43:39Speaker 1: This is what I want to do. I never thought
- 43:41Speaker 1: about gender. That didn't I didn't even think about that
- 43:44Speaker 1: for a second, Oh I'm a girl. That never occurred
- 43:46Speaker 1: to me. It was like, I want to do what
- 43:48Speaker 1: they do. I love this, this is what I want
- 43:50Speaker 1: to do. So you went home. What was your first step?
- 43:55Speaker 1: Did you buy the Zeppelin album? Do you get an instrument? No?
- 43:58Speaker 1: I uh. First think for me was I got a
- 44:02Speaker 1: base a bass guitar because I thought, oh, it's only
- 44:05Speaker 1: four strings, that will be easy. And it didn't. It wasn't.
- 44:10Speaker 1: I wasn't crazy about it. So I bought a guitar,
- 44:12Speaker 1: took a couple of lessons, and that was too slow.
- 44:15Speaker 1: I could like listen to the things bob and figure
- 44:17Speaker 1: out how to play it. You know. I think I
- 44:19Speaker 1: have an ear. That was a gift, I think. And
- 44:21Speaker 1: then I thought, well, I'll try drums. So I saved
- 44:25Speaker 1: up all my allowance money and I bought a drum
- 44:28Speaker 1: set and what kind of drum set, what brand? And
- 44:31Speaker 1: that they were leto supremes. And I bought him at
- 44:35Speaker 1: Old Man Petro and his his music store up on
- 44:38Speaker 1: Eastern Avenue. To ride my bicycle up there. And you
- 44:42Speaker 1: remember how much you paid? I don't, but I bet
- 44:46Speaker 1: you I have. I think I had those receipts around here, somewhere.
- 44:48Speaker 1: I didn't save it. I had that. I'm not kidding you,
- 44:52Speaker 1: I do have that bob um. I got those drums
- 44:57Speaker 1: and put my head phone and I had the drums
- 45:00Speaker 1: set up in my bedroom and I started playing. And
- 45:06Speaker 1: I knew right away that this was going to be
- 45:09Speaker 1: the instrument that I would choose to to spend my
- 45:13Speaker 1: time trying to get good at it, you know, be
- 45:15Speaker 1: better at And because it felt really easy, it felt
- 45:20Speaker 1: like I didn't have to think about it. Uh, it
- 45:26Speaker 1: felt it felt easy. And you know, when you're eleven
- 45:29Speaker 1: or twelve years thirteen years old, you don't want to
- 45:32Speaker 1: you don't have time to mess around with stuff. You
- 45:34Speaker 1: just want to go out and do it. And so
- 45:36Speaker 1: playing drugs, I didn't have to think. I just put
- 45:38Speaker 1: headphones one and it came very naturally to me. So
- 45:41Speaker 1: you never took a lesson, never took a lesson. Okay,
- 45:45Speaker 1: so you're playing at home. Then how do you get
- 45:48Speaker 1: in a band? Oh? Well, first of all, there weren't
- 45:54Speaker 1: a lot of girls playing drums during that early seventies,
- 45:58Speaker 1: late sixties, early seven, so that it was easy to
- 46:04Speaker 1: get in bands. And I'll tell you what I was.
- 46:05Speaker 1: I remember being in a couple of bands and these
- 46:08Speaker 1: and the guys it was always guys, um. You know,
- 46:10Speaker 1: they were in their twenties and they would have to
- 46:12Speaker 1: sneak me in the backtor because I was under age, um,
- 46:16Speaker 1: and they were all doing we're doing covers, you know, um.
- 46:20Speaker 1: And that went on for several years, and then I
- 46:24Speaker 1: got into a band and these were guys in my
- 46:25Speaker 1: neighborhood called we and our band was called Scratch and Sniff,
- 46:30Speaker 1: and we were Baltimore's first punk new wave band and
- 46:37Speaker 1: it was great. I learned a lot from George and Charles.
- 46:42Speaker 1: They were really based on guitar player, really good musicians,
- 46:45Speaker 1: and it opened up my world to like Brian Eno
- 46:49Speaker 1: and Roxy music, and you know, I started listening to
- 46:52Speaker 1: more than just Aero Smith or Leonard Skinner or the
- 46:55Speaker 1: Stems or the Beetles all of that. Um. And yeah,
- 47:00Speaker 1: it was pretty incredible. We would do we played four
- 47:03Speaker 1: sets a night. We do two sets of original songs
- 47:06Speaker 1: and two sets of covers. That was a big deal
- 47:10Speaker 1: and we got We did a couple of shows at
- 47:12Speaker 1: the Marble Bar, which was the premier punk club to
- 47:14Speaker 1: play in in Baltimore because like bands would come in
- 47:17Speaker 1: like the ramoons or talking heads. They play at the
- 47:21Speaker 1: Marble Bar. So that was a big deal. And were
- 47:25Speaker 1: you getting paid? Yeah, but who remembers what that was.
- 47:29Speaker 1: It didn't I didn't care what if we were making
- 47:31Speaker 1: any money. It was just to be able to do
- 47:33Speaker 1: My question is if you got paid, what did you
- 47:35Speaker 1: do with What did you do with the money. I
- 47:38Speaker 1: probably bought clothes. I don't really remember, but I would
- 47:42Speaker 1: imagine that. You know, I probably bought some really cool
- 47:46Speaker 1: bell bottoms or something. I don't know. Yeah, I probably
- 47:49Speaker 1: brought clothes. Okay. So and what was your experience with
- 47:53Speaker 1: Catholic school? Now you're in high school, you're in a
- 47:57Speaker 1: how's that going? Yeah? I got suspended, you know, um,
- 48:04Speaker 1: but it was you know, I was just used that
- 48:06Speaker 1: the nuns used to scare the ship out of me.
- 48:08Speaker 1: I mean they were they were tough, and I guarantee
- 48:12Speaker 1: a man, I did my homework every night. It was
- 48:14Speaker 1: kind of a drag because everybody in the neighborhood when
- 48:16Speaker 1: they get home from school, you know, they were out
- 48:19Speaker 1: playing and having fun. But I'd be in there doing
- 48:21Speaker 1: my homework because I was afraid of those nuns coming
- 48:23Speaker 1: into school the next day and getting smacked in the facer,
- 48:27Speaker 1: having my hands mashed with a pointer. You know, I
- 48:30Speaker 1: mean they were rough, they were tough. But I'll tell
- 48:32Speaker 1: you what, Um, they're part of the reason why I
- 48:36Speaker 1: had the work ethic that I do. Uh. You know,
- 48:39Speaker 1: it's like if I you know, if you're gonna, I
- 48:41Speaker 1: feel like you're gonna do something, do it right. Don't
- 48:44Speaker 1: mess around with the half fast situation here? Why bother? Um?
- 48:48Speaker 1: And you know, so it was it was part. It
- 48:52Speaker 1: all worked out well in the end. Although I must
- 48:55Speaker 1: say that I would like to send by psychiatrists bill
- 49:00Speaker 1: to the Catholic Church because they did screw me up
- 49:03Speaker 1: in many ways, Like they filled me with guilt. I
- 49:06Speaker 1: was always I'm still guilty about everything. I don't know,
- 49:10Speaker 1: I don't know. So that was gonna be my next question.
- 49:13Speaker 1: So you go to the therapist, Yeah as an adult,
- 49:20Speaker 1: I know. So how long have you gone? How frequently?
- 49:22Speaker 1: When did you start? Oh, I've been doing it for
- 49:25Speaker 1: many many years. I haven't. I haven't done it for
- 49:29Speaker 1: a while though. I go not that frequently. But I did,
- 49:32Speaker 1: like in the nineties, go a lot because you know,
- 49:37Speaker 1: I had to deal with like the guilt of making
- 49:40Speaker 1: it and you know, oh my god, what people think
- 49:43Speaker 1: and all you know, it's there's a there's a Catholic
- 49:47Speaker 1: guilt and it's a real thing. It's it's real, um
- 49:52Speaker 1: and it definitely definitely got me. How does it affect
- 49:57Speaker 1: you today? If it all, it still does affect me. Honestly,
- 50:04Speaker 1: I feel like I'm not worthy of things. You know,
- 50:07Speaker 1: It's weird. It's like I put the time and I
- 50:10Speaker 1: do all the right things, but then I feel like, oh,
- 50:14Speaker 1: you know, you're not really worthy. You know there's people
- 50:17Speaker 1: that deserve that more than you do. Then I then
- 50:20Speaker 1: I draw strength from what the way my parents raised me,
- 50:23Speaker 1: that we're sort of kick ass and yes you can
- 50:25Speaker 1: do anything. This crazy dichotomy, you know what I mean.
- 50:28Speaker 1: But and they set meid to Cathoit school. So, uh,
- 50:32Speaker 1: I don't know. Okay, are you still a believer? Do
- 50:34Speaker 1: you still go to church? No? I don't go to church.
- 50:37Speaker 1: I might go a couple of times a year or something.
- 50:39Speaker 1: But when I walk into a church, I feel, uh
- 50:43Speaker 1: it's a good place that's to meditate or something. I
- 50:47Speaker 1: you know, I choose to believe what I believe. I Uh,
- 50:54Speaker 1: I feel like I'm a spiritual person, but organized religion
- 50:56Speaker 1: is a little disturbing to me. Um, I don't know.
- 51:02Speaker 1: I'm sort of mixed up about it all, to be
- 51:03Speaker 1: honest with you. Uh okay, So why did you get
- 51:08Speaker 1: suspended in high school? Oh? Jesus because the disciplinarian nune doctor.
- 51:14Speaker 1: Her her name was John Helene. How do you like that?
- 51:16Speaker 1: I just I don't believe I remembered her name, John Helene.
- 51:19Speaker 1: She was such a bit um. She didn't like me
- 51:23Speaker 1: because I was. I spent half my time trying to
- 51:26Speaker 1: figure out how to get how to get into trouble
- 51:29Speaker 1: without getting caught, and she knew that, and she she's
- 51:35Speaker 1: I was. I was suspended for having a bad attitude.
- 51:40Speaker 1: There was nothing that I actually did that she caught
- 51:42Speaker 1: me at. And actually my mother and father went up
- 51:45Speaker 1: there and we're like, what do you mean a bad attitude?
- 51:47Speaker 1: What is what does that mean? You know? It's crazy.
- 51:51Speaker 1: Catholic school was sucking nuts. I gotta say, so did
- 51:55Speaker 1: you gra? Did you graduate? Yeah? I did, Yeah, of
- 51:58Speaker 1: course I did. And he fought of going to college
- 52:01Speaker 1: or like, I'm done? What was going through your head? No?
- 52:04Speaker 1: I mean I you know, I couldn't wait to finish
- 52:06Speaker 1: school so I could just starting playing in clubs and stinky,
- 52:10Speaker 1: dirty clubs. All I want to do was be, you know,
- 52:14Speaker 1: a musician, be a drummer, and and and and work
- 52:18Speaker 1: and make some money, and you know, try to find
- 52:20Speaker 1: a band that I fit in that really spoke to me.
- 52:23Speaker 1: And you know, Scratch and Sniff was a band that
- 52:26Speaker 1: that I love those guys and I loved where we
- 52:28Speaker 1: were going. Um, But after I'm gonna get ahead of
- 52:33Speaker 1: myself because after that, I got the opportunity to work
- 52:37Speaker 1: with Eat the egg Lady from John Waters film Let's
- 52:41Speaker 1: Let's wait. I want to get into that. Let's go back.
- 52:43Speaker 1: One thing you put in your book is you basically
- 52:46Speaker 1: went to see everybody. Tell me about your tell me
- 52:49Speaker 1: about your concert going experience, where you got the money
- 52:52Speaker 1: for tickets, Who was good, who was bad? Well, let
- 52:55Speaker 1: me tell you something. I had albums full of photographs
- 53:00Speaker 1: with my instematic camera from all the continents I went to.
- 53:04Speaker 1: And I learned that, okay, they played, if they played,
- 53:09Speaker 1: the bottom were Civic Center, the hotel they were going
- 53:12Speaker 1: to stay and was gonna be the holiday and which
- 53:13Speaker 1: was right next door. So I was like, okay, how
- 53:16Speaker 1: am I going to meet these people? I got to
- 53:18Speaker 1: meet him. You know, I need to learn from them, right.
- 53:20Speaker 1: I'd see him on stage, I was just knocked out.
- 53:24Speaker 1: So I would go across the street and try to
- 53:28Speaker 1: get their autographs and take a photo with them. And
- 53:31Speaker 1: I figured out that the way to get to meet
- 53:33Speaker 1: them was you go up the service elevator and you
- 53:36Speaker 1: go on the floor. You get on the phone, and
- 53:38Speaker 1: you asked to be You asked to be connected to
- 53:42Speaker 1: either the bass player of the drummer, because they were
- 53:44Speaker 1: usually the guys in the band that gave their real name.
- 53:47Speaker 1: They didn't have an alias, and so I would ask
- 53:50Speaker 1: for them and i'd get the room. I get like
- 53:52Speaker 1: a four digit number. The last three digit was the
- 53:55Speaker 1: room number. So I would go and I'd have somebody
- 53:58Speaker 1: with me, you know, a friend, and we'd rap on
- 54:00Speaker 1: the door. I'd say, can I take a photograph? Can
- 54:03Speaker 1: I take a picture with you? And they always said yes.
- 54:06Speaker 1: But I remember, like Paul Rodgers um for Bad Company,
- 54:10Speaker 1: I have a photograph of him where he's putting his
- 54:12Speaker 1: arm up because he didn't want his picture taken, but
- 54:14Speaker 1: I took it anyway. And like I had pictures of
- 54:16Speaker 1: Ted Nugent and Aery Smith and at Rod Stewart, and yes,
- 54:21Speaker 1: and you name it. I was taking I was taking pictures,
- 54:24Speaker 1: and I was meeting these people and saying, I want
- 54:26Speaker 1: to do that, the guys in Jay Giles band, I
- 54:28Speaker 1: mean I it was all I lived for, Bob. I'm
- 54:33Speaker 1: getting excited just talking about where did you get the
- 54:35Speaker 1: money for the tickets? Save up my allowance? Dishes, doing dishes,
- 54:41Speaker 1: cleaning the house every weekend, cut the grass, taking the
- 54:43Speaker 1: garbage out, doing anything I could to make the money
- 54:46Speaker 1: to buy those tickets. So tell me the eat story,
- 54:50Speaker 1: the eating stories. So when I moved out of my
- 54:52Speaker 1: house at the age of twenty, I moved into Fell's Point,
- 54:55Speaker 1: which was sort of the Hit area, and eat at
- 54:58Speaker 1: a store on we called Edith's Shopping Bag. And I
- 55:03Speaker 1: would go in and visit her all the time, you know,
- 55:05Speaker 1: And she'd be sitting at a cash register with her
- 55:09Speaker 1: like hand, her servant, lady Jeannie, who looked like a
- 55:14Speaker 1: crazy old witch, but she waited on eady hand and foot.
- 55:17Speaker 1: It was a strange thing, but kind of great. Only Baltimore,
- 55:21Speaker 1: it's such. It was all John Waters film, the whole thing. Man,
- 55:23Speaker 1: It's incredible. Anyway, I'd go in there and I talked
- 55:26Speaker 1: to her be facing Oh Ganea, hell are you what
- 55:28Speaker 1: are you doing? And I gotta punk band I want
- 55:31Speaker 1: to put together. Are you you know if you want
- 55:32Speaker 1: to get in they I was like, yes, I want
- 55:35Speaker 1: to get in this band. We're gonna get to New York,
- 55:37Speaker 1: LA and San Francisco, of course. So we put together
- 55:42Speaker 1: this band, myself and two other girls and with Evie.
- 55:48Speaker 1: We rehearsed a couple of times, put a couple of
- 55:50Speaker 1: songs together. I even remember they were. It was all
- 55:53Speaker 1: slapped together quickly. It was just the thought of getting
- 55:56Speaker 1: to play at cebe GEB's Max's Kansas City, and then
- 56:00Speaker 1: getting the first time I ever flew on a plane, okay,
- 56:03Speaker 1: find across the country to play in Los Angeles and
- 56:06Speaker 1: l a Hollywood whoo um, three nights, three shows, one
- 56:10Speaker 1: night at the Neward Theater, and then up to San
- 56:12Speaker 1: Francisco to play at the Newer at the Sorry the
- 56:15Speaker 1: Warfield Theater. This was like a dream come true, and
- 56:20Speaker 1: I could thank Eadie for that, which ultimately goes down
- 56:22Speaker 1: to thanking John Waters, you know, for for discovering Eadie,
- 56:27Speaker 1: who was just the sweet, old, kindly lady that loved
- 56:30Speaker 1: all the attention she was a doll, you know. Um,
- 56:35Speaker 1: So we did the Eating of the eighth shows. That
- 56:37Speaker 1: was fantastic. Uh. You know, I couldn't believe all that
- 56:41Speaker 1: I was experiencing. And the punk scene was thriving great.
- 56:45Speaker 1: And came back to Baltimore and I was I knew
- 56:49Speaker 1: that it was time to make a decision and I
- 56:52Speaker 1: had to leave. I had to go. Uh after experiencing that,
- 56:57Speaker 1: there was no turning back. Um Ok, I saved up
- 57:02Speaker 1: money for like a year, and then I asked my
- 57:05Speaker 1: friend Babs from high school, you want to go to
- 57:08Speaker 1: l A. And she was like yeah. So we got
- 57:13Speaker 1: my dad's pickup truck everything I own and and flew
- 57:17Speaker 1: across I mean, and drove across country. And at that
- 57:22Speaker 1: point I still had like an instematic camera that I
- 57:24Speaker 1: was taking photographs with. UM drove across country and in
- 57:30Speaker 1: search of a band. I didn't know who it would be,
- 57:33Speaker 1: where I knew it was going to be in l A.
- 57:35Speaker 1: Um that was the easiest place. The cost of living
- 57:38Speaker 1: was easier in l A than in San Francisco to
- 57:40Speaker 1: New York. And yeah, so that was it. We we
- 57:45Speaker 1: we started our journey across country and I was taking
- 57:48Speaker 1: taking pictures all the time. Okay, you land. What's the
- 57:53Speaker 1: journey from there to getting into Go Goes. Well, I
- 58:00Speaker 1: was staying with a guy named Steve Martin, not the
- 58:03Speaker 1: Steve Martin UM. He's a filmmaker. And Steve and his brother,
- 58:09Speaker 1: Doug Martin, they're identical redheaded twins. Um had done the show,
- 58:16Speaker 1: produced the shows at the newer So I stayed with
- 58:19Speaker 1: Steve and he was taking me around to all the
- 58:22Speaker 1: clubs and I got into bands right away. I put
- 58:25Speaker 1: my name up at all the stores, you know, the
- 58:26Speaker 1: music stores and um so and Steve started taking me
- 58:31Speaker 1: around to different different venues to see bands. And he said,
- 58:34Speaker 1: there's this band, the Go Ghost Genia. You need to
- 58:36Speaker 1: see them. You need to get the band kicked the
- 58:38Speaker 1: drum round, you need to be the drummer and then
- 58:40Speaker 1: and then you're gonna be You're gonna be big stars.
- 58:42Speaker 1: And I was like, okay, Steve. So he took me
- 58:45Speaker 1: to Club eighty eight to see the Go Those play
- 58:47Speaker 1: and it was fantastic. I they were having such a
- 58:53Speaker 1: great time on stage. It was like such a joyful experience.
- 58:57Speaker 1: It was like I, because I was so seri sarious
- 59:00Speaker 1: about music, everything had to be perfect. I was way
- 59:03Speaker 1: too serious and they injected this this whole fun thing
- 59:08Speaker 1: which I never thought about. Oh, this can be fun
- 59:10Speaker 1: as well. They were having the best time on stage.
- 59:12Speaker 1: They were making mistakes, it didn't matter um and people
- 59:16Speaker 1: were loving it. Mistakes and all, you know. And and
- 59:19Speaker 1: I also heard something in the songs that they were
- 59:23Speaker 1: playing that I felt I had value. And I just
- 59:28Speaker 1: was like, I told Steve verywait, yeah, I want to
- 59:30Speaker 1: get in this band. So his brother Doug was having
- 59:33Speaker 1: a party that weekend and his place down in Santa Monica,
- 59:36Speaker 1: and he invited the girls and whoever else was in
- 59:39Speaker 1: the scene at that time, the punk scene, and they
- 59:42Speaker 1: were there and I met I think I met Belinda,
- 59:45Speaker 1: Margot and Jane and they were said they were looking
- 59:50Speaker 1: for a drummer. Uh, and I said, well, I'm looking
- 59:53Speaker 1: to join the band. And I invited them over to
- 59:56Speaker 1: Steve's house that weekend. They were the following weekend, and uh,
- 1:00:00Speaker 1: Steve was so good to me. He allowed me when
- 1:00:03Speaker 1: I dream across the country. I had all my vinyl,
- 1:00:05Speaker 1: I had a p A system and that drop all
- 1:00:07Speaker 1: my clothes, everything I owned. I had a p A
- 1:00:09Speaker 1: set up in his living room in the house on
- 1:00:11Speaker 1: Beverly Glenn and I brought amps with me as well,
- 1:00:15Speaker 1: So the girls came in. We started playing, and a
- 1:00:19Speaker 1: couple of songs later, I knew that this was going
- 1:00:22Speaker 1: to be the right, the right fit for for all
- 1:00:24Speaker 1: of us. And and it was and everything changed. It
- 1:00:28Speaker 1: all changed after that. Who was the who was the
- 1:00:31Speaker 1: drummer before you? How did they get rid of that drummer? Um?
- 1:00:33Speaker 1: They got rid of a Lisa. I don't know. I
- 1:00:35Speaker 1: don't as I was told. I don't think she was
- 1:00:38Speaker 1: like really into playing drums. I think it was just
- 1:00:42Speaker 1: the fun thing she was doing. Not that they were
- 1:00:44Speaker 1: that serious side of um. They just want to hang
- 1:00:46Speaker 1: out with their friends and have fun. But I don't
- 1:00:48Speaker 1: know whatever the problems were. But I was more than
- 1:00:51Speaker 1: happy to step in because when I stepped in, they
- 1:00:53Speaker 1: thought I was like a big shop because I could
- 1:00:55Speaker 1: actually play, you know what I mean. I was like
- 1:00:57Speaker 1: really serious, and I was like, you know, guys, we
- 1:00:59Speaker 1: need to rehearse, you know, every night after work. They
- 1:01:03Speaker 1: were used to rehearsing a couple of times a month,
- 1:01:04Speaker 1: and I had come for this background where you know,
- 1:01:07Speaker 1: you rehearsed after work every day, like four or five
- 1:01:10Speaker 1: nights a week. You gotta you gotta play to get better.
- 1:01:13Speaker 1: It's not gonna happen unless you spend the time and
- 1:01:16Speaker 1: put in the work to make yourself better at your
- 1:01:18Speaker 1: instrument or at your songwriting, whatever it maybe, or you're singing,
- 1:01:21Speaker 1: whatever it is. You gotta put the time in. And
- 1:01:25Speaker 1: they went right along with it. They were happy. They
- 1:01:28Speaker 1: were happy to uh to change their ways about that.
- 1:01:31Speaker 1: They were they were willing to put the time in
- 1:01:33Speaker 1: because I think everybody kind of knew that we were
- 1:01:36Speaker 1: something different, something special, and if we if we put
- 1:01:38Speaker 1: the time in, it was gonna it was gonna happen
- 1:01:43Speaker 1: for us. Okay, this was at the tail end of
- 1:01:46Speaker 1: a huge scene in Los Angeles. All the you know,
- 1:01:50Speaker 1: the only ones who really broke through were the Knack,
- 1:01:52Speaker 1: but a million bands were sign right Motels. They made it,
- 1:01:56Speaker 1: they actually got a deal with they were But it
- 1:02:00Speaker 1: will happen even a little later though. But in any
- 1:02:02Speaker 1: of that, you know, got all those bands. I have
- 1:02:06Speaker 1: those records, like Danny Wilde had his band and God
- 1:02:10Speaker 1: and then there was the other band on Arastuty. You know,
- 1:02:13Speaker 1: you know all those things, such a scene. But you're
- 1:02:16Speaker 1: playing gigs. What's going through your mind in terms of
- 1:02:20Speaker 1: the next step forward. Obviously people knew who the Go
- 1:02:24Speaker 1: Goes were, but you weren't getting signed and it wasn't happening. Yeah,
- 1:02:30Speaker 1: it was um, you know, I guess some of the
- 1:02:34Speaker 1: labels wanted to take a take a chance on this
- 1:02:37Speaker 1: old girl band because there had never been an all
- 1:02:40Speaker 1: uh female band that had been hugely successful. And we
- 1:02:45Speaker 1: all know how record labels are. They want to they
- 1:02:47Speaker 1: find a formula that works and then they stick to it,
- 1:02:50Speaker 1: you know, um, because they figured, you know, they're gonna
- 1:02:54Speaker 1: make plenty of money. It's all about making that's the
- 1:02:56Speaker 1: bottom line. Are they going to make money. We came
- 1:03:00Speaker 1: into the picture and we were sort of like it
- 1:03:03Speaker 1: or not. We're here, We're not going anywhere. Look at
- 1:03:06Speaker 1: the crowds that are coming to our shows. You can't
- 1:03:08Speaker 1: deny that we're getting We're getting bigger and bigger. You know,
- 1:03:12Speaker 1: the line is now around the block. It's got to
- 1:03:16Speaker 1: start like registering that this something's going on here. And
- 1:03:20Speaker 1: you know, it did finally, but only with I R.
- 1:03:23Speaker 1: S Records, who was sort of as indie label that
- 1:03:26Speaker 1: was distributed through A and M, which was fantastic UM
- 1:03:29Speaker 1: and John Cornaria is a guy that worked at I R. S.
- 1:03:32Speaker 1: Who who came to see us play, and then he
- 1:03:33Speaker 1: told Mill Scope and You've got to see this band.
- 1:03:36Speaker 1: Of course, Miles came and we signed with Miles April
- 1:03:39Speaker 1: Fool's Day of nineteen, Okay, and that was it. Okay,
- 1:03:46Speaker 1: let's go back a little bit slower because I'm on
- 1:03:48Speaker 1: the other side of the fence. I'm reading the news
- 1:03:50Speaker 1: back when you read a physical paper. There wasn't even
- 1:03:52Speaker 1: article in the l A Times. Why have the Go
- 1:03:56Speaker 1: Goes not gotten a record deal? Really? Okay? Yeah, well
- 1:04:00Speaker 1: that makes sense because nobody would give us a deal
- 1:04:02Speaker 1: and we were goddamn selling out every club we played
- 1:04:04Speaker 1: in And we're going to San Francisco and we played
- 1:04:07Speaker 1: in New York. We're selling out all these places. What's
- 1:04:09Speaker 1: the problem. So did you sign the deal with I
- 1:04:13Speaker 1: R S before you went to England or did you
- 1:04:15Speaker 1: go to England first? Yeah, we went to England. That
- 1:04:18Speaker 1: really got the ball rolling because when we went to England,
- 1:04:22Speaker 1: we toured with Madness and the Specials. So we got
- 1:04:25Speaker 1: really tight during those tours because it was I mean,
- 1:04:28Speaker 1: it was rough. Those those the audience did not want
- 1:04:31Speaker 1: to see us. They hated our guts and let us
- 1:04:34Speaker 1: know by throwing bowels and spitting all over us all night. Um.
- 1:04:39Speaker 1: So we came back and we you know, we had
- 1:04:41Speaker 1: been we had we just finished the School of hard
- 1:04:43Speaker 1: Knocks when we played the UK. Um so uh, when
- 1:04:48Speaker 1: we came back here, it was crazy. We thought we
- 1:04:51Speaker 1: were going to really happen in the UK, and as
- 1:04:53Speaker 1: it turns out, we didn't. We kind of flopped over there.
- 1:04:57Speaker 1: But when we when we came back to the States,
- 1:04:59Speaker 1: we got the beat. The single on Stiff was happening
- 1:05:03Speaker 1: in the club scene. People were playing it and it
- 1:05:05Speaker 1: was really starting to, you know, become a club favorite.
- 1:05:11Speaker 1: People were knowing who the go goes were. And we
- 1:05:15Speaker 1: get back to l A and that's what it really
- 1:05:18Speaker 1: It really did change because then then it was like,
- 1:05:21Speaker 1: instead of playing one night at the star Wood, you
- 1:05:23Speaker 1: have to do two or three nights. Uh. It changed
- 1:05:27Speaker 1: a lot. And we were really tight by that time
- 1:05:30Speaker 1: because we've been playing every night. Um. And that was
- 1:05:35Speaker 1: a pretty cool time. We played playing the Rosy and
- 1:05:38Speaker 1: the Whiskey and the star Wood and then going up
- 1:05:41Speaker 1: to Sandwich is gonna play with buo Hey And then
- 1:05:42Speaker 1: then the venue stop bigger and bigger. It was. It was,
- 1:05:45Speaker 1: it was. It was all welcomed. Okay, the Stiff single,
- 1:05:50Speaker 1: we got to beat the original version that was done
- 1:05:53Speaker 1: before the I R S deal, right, Yes, yeah we
- 1:05:57Speaker 1: did that. Regarding Dave Rock, I think it was a game.
- 1:06:00Speaker 1: Robinson Sift Records, Yeah, um uh yeah, he saw the
- 1:06:05Speaker 1: band play and he had talked with Ginger several times
- 1:06:08Speaker 1: about doing a deal he wanted. Our publishing with Ginger
- 1:06:11Speaker 1: was like no way. Um, but we did do that
- 1:06:14Speaker 1: that single deal with him. And you know, as much
- 1:06:16Speaker 1: as we were like, oh, that's such crap, we don't
- 1:06:19Speaker 1: really care about that, it worked to our advantage when
- 1:06:22Speaker 1: we came back to the States because, like I say,
- 1:06:24Speaker 1: it was happening in the clubs, they were playing it,
- 1:06:27Speaker 1: so people all over the country were here in the
- 1:06:29Speaker 1: go those for the first time. Um. Being an English import, fine,
- 1:06:34Speaker 1: whatever takes um. So when we came back here, I
- 1:06:37Speaker 1: think that the crowds that were showing up at our
- 1:06:42Speaker 1: conscious were so big that people couldn't ignore it. And
- 1:06:46Speaker 1: you know what what's funny is that I'm thinking about this,
- 1:06:49Speaker 1: all the major labels offered up several major labels offered
- 1:06:52Speaker 1: us uh EP deals nobody will offer us an LP
- 1:06:56Speaker 1: deal except the I R. S Records, So we signed
- 1:06:59Speaker 1: with them. Okay, you signed, You went to the u K.
- 1:07:03Speaker 1: You came back. What was the process in the time
- 1:07:06Speaker 1: period of getting it together and recording the album? Okay,
- 1:07:11Speaker 1: so we get back to l A. We signed our deal. UH,
- 1:07:15Speaker 1: milescope and had an idea of bringing in Richard Gotterer,
- 1:07:19Speaker 1: a very famous songwriter, a great producer. He he had
- 1:07:22Speaker 1: produced a couple of Blondie records. I thought it were
- 1:07:25Speaker 1: a perfect fit and it was. Um. So we packed
- 1:07:29Speaker 1: up and we went to New York for several months
- 1:07:31Speaker 1: to work on our first album, Beauty and the Beat,
- 1:07:35Speaker 1: and Richard was was guiding us and helped us to
- 1:07:44Speaker 1: UH realized that what we needed to do was slow
- 1:07:48Speaker 1: everything down a little bit. You could actually hear the melody,
- 1:07:51Speaker 1: the vocal melody, which was sort of flying by so
- 1:07:54Speaker 1: finished you couldn't appreciate it. We slowed it all dawn.
- 1:07:57Speaker 1: We're still a punk band at heart, but we'd be
- 1:08:00Speaker 1: came what was happening. He had these great pop mullies
- 1:08:02Speaker 1: over top these punk punk chords, and you know, we're
- 1:08:06Speaker 1: playing really fast. Um. He helped us change that up
- 1:08:09Speaker 1: and make it more accessible to the general public. And
- 1:08:13Speaker 1: it was at first when we heard our record we
- 1:08:15Speaker 1: hated it. We thought, oh god, this isn't what we
- 1:08:18Speaker 1: really sound like. What has he done to us? And
- 1:08:21Speaker 1: then seven or eight months later, when the records number one,
- 1:08:23Speaker 1: we were like, Richard is genius. What a trade guy.
- 1:08:26Speaker 1: He knew exactly what to do, and we didn't, you know, whatever,
- 1:08:31Speaker 1: Richard is genius. He's a great song man, and he
- 1:08:34Speaker 1: did know what to do with those songs, and he
- 1:08:36Speaker 1: gave it a very classic sound. Okay, it wasn't exactly
- 1:08:38Speaker 1: what we wanted, but it's classic. Cool. Okay. When when
- 1:08:42Speaker 1: you showed up in New York, were the songs already written? Yeah,
- 1:08:48Speaker 1: they were. They were already written when we got there.
- 1:08:49Speaker 1: We had, you know, several songs, and he chose what
- 1:08:51Speaker 1: he thought would be best on the record, and we
- 1:08:54Speaker 1: worked on him. We worked on the arrangements, which were
- 1:08:56Speaker 1: pretty close. But he really he was Richard, such a song.
- 1:09:00Speaker 1: It's all about the song. You gotta start with that
- 1:09:02Speaker 1: or you got nothing. You gotta have a great song.
- 1:09:05Speaker 1: So did he hear the stuff before you came to
- 1:09:09Speaker 1: New York? Did you work with you? No? He had
- 1:09:12Speaker 1: been sent tapes. Okay, so now you're in New York
- 1:09:15Speaker 1: for months, Needles just say, I hear kachin, kachin, kachin
- 1:09:18Speaker 1: the bill, which is ultimately being paid by you. But
- 1:09:22Speaker 1: you were also portray a wild time in addition to recording,
- 1:09:28Speaker 1: You're hanging out with people, Jodie Foster, going all around.
- 1:09:31Speaker 1: What was what was going on? Then? We were we
- 1:09:35Speaker 1: were kids having a great time in our early twenties.
- 1:09:39Speaker 1: We got a little money. Finally we're on our way
- 1:09:42Speaker 1: to perhaps being rock stars. And it couldn't get much better,
- 1:09:47Speaker 1: you know, we were. I mean that was sort of
- 1:09:48Speaker 1: when the rat Pack was happening, all with Rob Lowe
- 1:09:52Speaker 1: and Andrew Carthy, that whole bunch that was all happening
- 1:09:54Speaker 1: at the same time. We were all part of it.
- 1:09:57Speaker 1: I am so lucky to have been involved in all that.
- 1:10:02Speaker 1: It was great, Bob, it was great. You know. It
- 1:10:05Speaker 1: felt like, oh my god, we have arrived. Here are peers.
- 1:10:09Speaker 1: Look at everyone. I mean, we're all like, we're all
- 1:10:11Speaker 1: on our way up. We're all working. Everybody stuff their
- 1:10:14Speaker 1: ship together. We are partying, but we're young, and so
- 1:10:18Speaker 1: that makes a difference. And it was the eighties where
- 1:10:20Speaker 1: you're sort of I don't know that mentality was so
- 1:10:24Speaker 1: different than um. Okay, so let's just assume it's the
- 1:10:28Speaker 1: eighties for eaving today and I dry and I say,
- 1:10:33Speaker 1: there's gonna be this great party. You have to go alone?
- 1:10:36Speaker 1: Is that cool with you? Now? I have to have
- 1:10:42Speaker 1: my my group with me. I've had my girl gang
- 1:10:46Speaker 1: with me. I notice, anyway, what none of us went
- 1:10:50Speaker 1: anywhere alone. We always had somebody, a couple of girls
- 1:10:53Speaker 1: from the from the band. We're always hanging out together.
- 1:10:56Speaker 1: You know, safety and numbers, bob. Okay, So you go,
- 1:10:59Speaker 1: and it helps to have your wing people. But are
- 1:11:03Speaker 1: you the person starting the conversation making friends or are
- 1:11:06Speaker 1: you the one talking after they've already brought these other
- 1:11:09Speaker 1: people into the circle. I've probably talked after they've brought
- 1:11:12Speaker 1: into a certain because I am believe you're not kind
- 1:11:15Speaker 1: of shy, so I wait for introductions and let other
- 1:11:18Speaker 1: people do that, and then I'd sort of weasel my
- 1:11:21Speaker 1: way in there. Okay. So when we first got on
- 1:11:25Speaker 1: camera here, you were a ball of energy, really upfront,
- 1:11:30Speaker 1: really energetic. Then we touched upon your parents, you got sad.
- 1:11:36Speaker 1: So in terms of your personality, do you get depressed?
- 1:11:41Speaker 1: Are you always upbeat? How do you cope? What do
- 1:11:45Speaker 1: you like? Bob? I'm human, that's all. Of course I
- 1:11:48Speaker 1: get depressed. UM, but I try to stay as positive
- 1:11:53Speaker 1: as possible because you only go around once, and I
- 1:11:56Speaker 1: want I want to look back on my life as
- 1:11:59Speaker 1: as a as as a gift and and and try
- 1:12:04Speaker 1: to keep it a joyful experience because you know what,
- 1:12:07Speaker 1: there's so much crap going on that can bring you
- 1:12:11Speaker 1: down on a daily basis. And I tried to, Um,
- 1:12:15Speaker 1: I absorbed only so much and then I have to
- 1:12:17Speaker 1: shut it out because everything it affects me deeply. And
- 1:12:21Speaker 1: I you know, I just want to be happy and healthy,
- 1:12:27Speaker 1: and I want the people that I love to be
- 1:12:28Speaker 1: happy and healthy. And you know, I want to be
- 1:12:32Speaker 1: in the Rock and Wall Hall of Fame. It's happening
- 1:12:34Speaker 1: in a couple of weeks. Duh. I'm I'm pretty. I'm okay, Bob,
- 1:12:40Speaker 1: I'm okay, Okay. So the record comes out. When's the
- 1:12:43Speaker 1: first time you hear a song on the radio? And
- 1:12:46Speaker 1: what's that like? I'm in my car and I heard
- 1:12:51Speaker 1: I think it was our Lips are Steeled, and um,
- 1:12:55Speaker 1: that's what I felt like, Oh my god, we really
- 1:12:58Speaker 1: are going to make it like this is it. We're
- 1:13:01Speaker 1: on the radio. My parents can hear this, my friends
- 1:13:04Speaker 1: can hear this. I started getting calls from back in Baltimore.
- 1:13:07Speaker 1: Oh my god, I heard you on the radio. You know, Wow,
- 1:13:12Speaker 1: it's great. How incredible is that. I'm a kid from Dune, doc.
- 1:13:16Speaker 1: You know, I go to l A with everything I
- 1:13:18Speaker 1: have in the back of my dad's pickup truck, and
- 1:13:20Speaker 1: here it is. A couple of years later, I got
- 1:13:21Speaker 1: a strong on the radio. Pretty magical. Okay, you have
- 1:13:33Speaker 1: your story, but let's just assume the Go Goes didn't exist.
- 1:13:38Speaker 1: Would you have made it anyway? I don't know. I
- 1:13:43Speaker 1: had no idea. I know that I was very driven
- 1:13:48Speaker 1: and I was looking for the right people to work with,
- 1:13:54Speaker 1: But I have no idea. I really don't. I would
- 1:13:57Speaker 1: have kept playing and played until I found the right fit.
- 1:13:59Speaker 1: I know that. Okay, So over time the record builds
- 1:14:05Speaker 1: ahead of steam and it's mega successful. You were on SNL.
- 1:14:09Speaker 1: You know, you have the famous video where you're jumping
- 1:14:12Speaker 1: in the fountain. Were you moving so fast you couldn't
- 1:14:15Speaker 1: think about it? What was the experience? That's exactly, Bob,
- 1:14:19Speaker 1: That's exactly what it was. Things were happening at such
- 1:14:21Speaker 1: a rapid pace that I don't think any of us
- 1:14:23Speaker 1: had time to really take it all in. Um. You know,
- 1:14:27Speaker 1: we were just like just doing whatever we were told
- 1:14:32Speaker 1: to do. Uh. And it was all supposed to be
- 1:14:35Speaker 1: part of what it takes to make your record sell
- 1:14:39Speaker 1: and you know, to be a part of whatever of
- 1:14:41Speaker 1: whatever that rock stardom stuff is. We were just trying
- 1:14:45Speaker 1: to do what we were supposed to do. Um. And
- 1:14:47Speaker 1: we didn't that really, we didn't. We never took time
- 1:14:50Speaker 1: to really sit down and talk and think about it.
- 1:14:52Speaker 1: And you know, that's the way the record labels pushed
- 1:14:56Speaker 1: you back then. You would get off tour and have
- 1:14:59Speaker 1: a couple of weeks off and go right back on
- 1:15:01Speaker 1: on tour, go right back out on tour. When you
- 1:15:03Speaker 1: finished that tour, you come back and work on a record,
- 1:15:05Speaker 1: and then you go right back out on tour. That's
- 1:15:07Speaker 1: that's the way it worked, and that's what we were
- 1:15:10Speaker 1: used to you know. Um. You know, in retrospect, it's like,
- 1:15:14Speaker 1: oh my god, you need to take time off to
- 1:15:17Speaker 1: find yourself and to learn how to really communicate with
- 1:15:21Speaker 1: each other. Um. There wasn't a lot of time for that. Okay,
- 1:15:28Speaker 1: so who said when to make this second record, the
- 1:15:31Speaker 1: record company or the band? And was the band company
- 1:15:35Speaker 1: their record company the record company? Did you have the songs?
- 1:15:39Speaker 1: And when were they written? We had some of the songs, um,
- 1:15:44Speaker 1: but I think that most of that stuff was written
- 1:15:46Speaker 1: while we were on tour. We didn't have time to
- 1:15:49Speaker 1: go home and work on stuff. Um. You know that,
- 1:15:53Speaker 1: you know the old saying the first record is a
- 1:15:55Speaker 1: lifetime takes a life time, and make second when you
- 1:15:58Speaker 1: gotta quick get it out. And of course we're all
- 1:16:02Speaker 1: worried about the sophomore jinks. You know, it could never
- 1:16:04Speaker 1: be as good as the first winner. I mean, it
- 1:16:06Speaker 1: was incredible that our first album sold the way that
- 1:16:10Speaker 1: it did, so we knew the second one was going
- 1:16:13Speaker 1: to be tough. You know, we were going to get
- 1:16:16Speaker 1: there going to say, oh, the first record you sold this, maney,
- 1:16:18Speaker 1: what's the problem with the second one? We did the
- 1:16:20Speaker 1: best we could, that's all. Okay. The second album comes out,
- 1:16:25Speaker 1: Cathy's got this song vacation. You worked that up after
- 1:16:28Speaker 1: it comes a hit. What's the perception being in the
- 1:16:31Speaker 1: band of the second record. I think that we all
- 1:16:37Speaker 1: felt rushed with that. We did feel rushed on the
- 1:16:40Speaker 1: second record, absolutely, and thank god Kathy had written Vacation
- 1:16:46Speaker 1: and we brought it into the band, changed it up
- 1:16:48Speaker 1: a little bit, worked up the arrangement and it became
- 1:16:52Speaker 1: a go go song, and that, you know, was the
- 1:16:56Speaker 1: was the single, and thank god Cathy. And what about
- 1:17:02Speaker 1: the other songs? Were they written in the studio? No,
- 1:17:05Speaker 1: they were written on tour. Did you ever written in
- 1:17:08Speaker 1: the studio, Bob? We have to have come in with
- 1:17:10Speaker 1: it prepared. Did you consciously say we'd better be writing
- 1:17:14Speaker 1: because we're gonna have to make a record, or it
- 1:17:16Speaker 1: happens spontaneously. I think it happens spontaneously. I think we
- 1:17:20Speaker 1: were all too busy and wound up, you know, at
- 1:17:23Speaker 1: that particular time, with everything that's going on around us.
- 1:17:26Speaker 1: And that's what I say. What what I'm saying here
- 1:17:31Speaker 1: is that there wasn't a lot of thought put into anything.
- 1:17:34Speaker 1: It was just do it, do it, do it, get
- 1:17:36Speaker 1: it done, put the record out. You know. We we
- 1:17:40Speaker 1: should have been allowed a little bit more time to
- 1:17:42Speaker 1: do everything, but we didn't know any better. Okay, then
- 1:17:49Speaker 1: you make the third record with Martin Russian, who of
- 1:17:51Speaker 1: course had used success with the Human Leagues. No, longer
- 1:17:55Speaker 1: with us. How did that come together? Um, well, we
- 1:18:00Speaker 1: did have some time off then and Martin I adored.
- 1:18:06Speaker 1: I thought that Human League record Dare was a masterpiece.
- 1:18:10Speaker 1: And when his name was brought up, I think it
- 1:18:11Speaker 1: was Kathy and myself that really pushed for him. Um.
- 1:18:17Speaker 1: I mean that album like I say that, albam there
- 1:18:20Speaker 1: is a masterpiece. And Martin was you know, produced it.
- 1:18:23Speaker 1: So I was like, please, just let's do it the
- 1:18:26Speaker 1: record of everybody agreed to do it. Whatever to England,
- 1:18:29Speaker 1: um to work on that record. But unfortunately, this was
- 1:18:32Speaker 1: the hype of the drug intake and also everybody had
- 1:18:36Speaker 1: plenty of money and uh, and the band was splintering
- 1:18:41Speaker 1: at that point, where you know, there was a lot
- 1:18:44Speaker 1: of there was problems, and no, we weren't communicating, we
- 1:18:50Speaker 1: weren't realistic about our situation. Once again, we're just doing
- 1:18:53Speaker 1: what we're told to do, um and not stopping to
- 1:18:56Speaker 1: think about the consequences of not having enough time to
- 1:19:00Speaker 1: really work on things on ourselves, you know, on our songs.
- 1:19:05Speaker 1: We just had to get it together. I love that record. Nonetheless,
- 1:19:09Speaker 1: I love Talk Show. I love the way it sunds.
- 1:19:11Speaker 1: Martin was a great producer, a wonderful guy. Um, and
- 1:19:18Speaker 1: I love that record. I'm happy with that record. How
- 1:19:20Speaker 1: did you decide not to use Richard one more time? Oh?
- 1:19:24Speaker 1: That was done. It was time to move on. It
- 1:19:26Speaker 1: was time, it was we needed to change. It couldn't
- 1:19:29Speaker 1: be the same thing again. Come on. Okay, So the
- 1:19:31Speaker 1: third record comes out, there's no obvious single. Ultimately head
- 1:19:37Speaker 1: over Heels. Head over Heels was a single, okay, but
- 1:19:39Speaker 1: I'm trying to say it didn't have the level of
- 1:19:41Speaker 1: success of the previous tracks. And then ultimately Jane says
- 1:19:47Speaker 1: she's gonna leave. Did you feel that coming? Was that
- 1:19:51Speaker 1: a total surprise? What was happening there? Well, Jane wanted
- 1:19:56Speaker 1: to be wanted to sing one of the songs Forget
- 1:20:01Speaker 1: that day, and uh, we sat down and agreed that
- 1:20:07Speaker 1: it wouldn't be good. Belinda would feel her role would
- 1:20:11Speaker 1: be diminished as a lead singer, and so you know, Um,
- 1:20:17Speaker 1: that's the way that went down. And obviously Jane I
- 1:20:20Speaker 1: couldn't deal with it and told us that she was
- 1:20:24Speaker 1: going to quit. Of course, I felt that, you know,
- 1:20:30Speaker 1: if Jane wanted to do her own material and be,
- 1:20:33Speaker 1: you know, be the lead singer, she should. She could
- 1:20:36Speaker 1: go out and get a solo deal and still be
- 1:20:38Speaker 1: in the band. But like I said, things were going
- 1:20:41Speaker 1: so fast, and there was a lot of drugs and
- 1:20:43Speaker 1: there was just everybody had their own camp and people
- 1:20:47Speaker 1: that were pushing them to do this and that, and
- 1:20:49Speaker 1: our management was not guiding us. They weren't really taking
- 1:20:52Speaker 1: care of things the right way. Um. You know, they
- 1:20:56Speaker 1: got to focusing on Belinda and her and she could
- 1:20:59Speaker 1: be a star. It was just coming apart, so that
- 1:21:03Speaker 1: the Jay thing was it was not a surprise, but
- 1:21:06Speaker 1: I couldn't when it actually happened. It seemed like, oh
- 1:21:09Speaker 1: my god, I can't believe she's really doing this. And
- 1:21:12Speaker 1: then ultimately there's one more splinter with Charlotte and Belinda
- 1:21:17Speaker 1: going off. Yeah, well that that was the final. Yeah,
- 1:21:20Speaker 1: that was it. Uh, that was weird because, um, Kathy
- 1:21:25Speaker 1: and I were just trying to keep things together and
- 1:21:29Speaker 1: Charlotte and we didn't put Charlotte in rehab and she
- 1:21:32Speaker 1: was I thought would come out better and we'd be
- 1:21:35Speaker 1: more united and we worked together. As it turns out,
- 1:21:38Speaker 1: she came out and I don't know what her Blenna
- 1:21:41Speaker 1: we're talking about, but we were all called into a
- 1:21:44Speaker 1: meeting at our management office and walked in and were
- 1:21:48Speaker 1: told Charlotte when they said, you know, the band is
- 1:21:51Speaker 1: over and that's that. And Kathy and I were mortified
- 1:21:56Speaker 1: and couldn't believe it was happening. Um, and we just
- 1:22:01Speaker 1: had to deal with it. That's the way it went. Dan.
- 1:22:03Speaker 1: It wasn't it wasn't right. It wasn't done the right way.
- 1:22:06Speaker 1: You know, what disbandinged to do is take a year
- 1:22:09Speaker 1: or two off and come back and communicate and you know,
- 1:22:15Speaker 1: do what we need to do with each other to
- 1:22:16Speaker 1: make it all right. Now. Charlotte, I only spent one
- 1:22:20Speaker 1: night sit next to her at some gig and talking
- 1:22:24Speaker 1: to her. But based on that experience, I know this
- 1:22:26Speaker 1: is a stupid statement. She would be the last person
- 1:22:29Speaker 1: I would expect to get hooked on heroin. How does
- 1:22:32Speaker 1: someone like Charlotte get hooked on heroin? I don't know.
- 1:22:35Speaker 1: You have to ask her. You know, it's a personal thing.
- 1:22:38Speaker 1: I don't know, man. You just uh, maybe the people
- 1:22:43Speaker 1: that are around you are doing it and you sort
- 1:22:45Speaker 1: of play with it and then it becomes a habit
- 1:22:47Speaker 1: before you know it. I had an issue with it
- 1:22:50Speaker 1: the nineties, um, and that was out of boredom, and
- 1:22:55Speaker 1: my thing was like Oh, we're just smoking it. It's
- 1:22:57Speaker 1: not a big deal. Well, yeah, it is a big deal.
- 1:23:00Speaker 1: You know. Heroin is the fucking devil. It's bad news,
- 1:23:03Speaker 1: bad news. So how long were you doing heron and
- 1:23:06Speaker 1: how did you get off? Oh? I was in rehab
- 1:23:09Speaker 1: like three times and before I got it together. Most people,
- 1:23:14Speaker 1: that's one thing I have to say about charge. She
- 1:23:15Speaker 1: was in rehab once, since she stayed sober. Most people
- 1:23:19Speaker 1: would take several times. It took me three times before
- 1:23:22Speaker 1: I got myself together, and that's been over twenty years.
- 1:23:25Speaker 1: I'd never do that, never do it again. It's a
- 1:23:29Speaker 1: you just become a different person. I look at that
- 1:23:31Speaker 1: and I think, like, that's not That's not who I am.
- 1:23:34Speaker 1: You know, I'm not that person. It's dark. It's really dark. Okay.
- 1:23:40Speaker 1: You know it's especially prevalent heroin now as a result
- 1:23:44Speaker 1: of the OxyContin situation, and need to say, heroin is
- 1:23:49Speaker 1: much less that's one of the reason people take it.
- 1:23:50Speaker 1: It's much less expensive than OxyContin, which also is harder
- 1:23:54Speaker 1: to get. But what was it like? You know, if
- 1:23:57Speaker 1: people like David Crosby, who lose everything, you're taking heroin.
- 1:24:02Speaker 1: You know, traditionally people say they spend all day thinking
- 1:24:04Speaker 1: about where they're going to get their next fix. What
- 1:24:06Speaker 1: was your experience, No, I just get what I need,
- 1:24:09Speaker 1: that's all, and just stay at home and do it.
- 1:24:14Speaker 1: That's it. When I would do that drug, I was
- 1:24:18Speaker 1: I had a lot of it would give me a
- 1:24:20Speaker 1: lot of energy, So I was constantly doing something. So
- 1:24:25Speaker 1: if I had asked you at that time, if it
- 1:24:27Speaker 1: was open, you're doing heroin, and I said you shouldn't
- 1:24:31Speaker 1: be doing it, you would have said, mind your business,
- 1:24:35Speaker 1: mind your own business. It's that nothing to do with you.
- 1:24:38Speaker 1: And I'll tell you something. When you're doing that drug,
- 1:24:41Speaker 1: people would say whatever they want, and people around you
- 1:24:43Speaker 1: can die, can overdose from it. It It doesn't matter. You
- 1:24:46Speaker 1: stop doing drugs when you are ready to. And I
- 1:24:50Speaker 1: don't know exactly that when that happens or how that happens,
- 1:24:54Speaker 1: but everybody has that moment if they're lucky, I had
- 1:24:57Speaker 1: that moment and I stopped, and at the end of it,
- 1:25:01Speaker 1: for me, I would never I would never deal with
- 1:25:04Speaker 1: that drug again because, uh, trying to get off of
- 1:25:08Speaker 1: it is such a horrible experience. I couldn't live through it.
- 1:25:12Speaker 1: So I'll never that. That will never be in my
- 1:25:15Speaker 1: life again. Okay, so if you went three times, you
- 1:25:18Speaker 1: obviously relapse twice. What was going on there? It's easy
- 1:25:22Speaker 1: to relapse, you know. It's just it's familiar territory. It
- 1:25:26Speaker 1: numbs you up. It just makes you numb, so that
- 1:25:29Speaker 1: everything around you good, If there's any kind of anything
- 1:25:33Speaker 1: that's good or bad, it just evens it all out
- 1:25:36Speaker 1: and you're numb to everything that's around you. So, uh,
- 1:25:40Speaker 1: it's easy to live day by day that way. You
- 1:25:45Speaker 1: don't you don't hurt, You don't hurt. However, what about
- 1:25:51Speaker 1: the potential concept of odine? You just put that out
- 1:25:55Speaker 1: of your mind. Or you're trying to be if you're
- 1:25:58Speaker 1: if you're if you're iron, and if you're using a needle, Well, yeah,
- 1:26:01Speaker 1: I guess so. I don't know. I would have never
- 1:26:04Speaker 1: touched that. My stupidity on my behalf was that I
- 1:26:08Speaker 1: was smoking it, thinking oh, it's not such a big deal.
- 1:26:11Speaker 1: It's like smoking pot. But of course that's ridiculous. Okay,
- 1:26:16Speaker 1: the band breaks up. What goes through your head? You
- 1:26:18Speaker 1: ultimately get a deal with House of Shock. What's what's
- 1:26:22Speaker 1: going on there? Well, you know, when the band broke up,
- 1:26:26Speaker 1: I was it was so bitter about the way that
- 1:26:29Speaker 1: went down, and I couldn't. I don't gonna wallow in that,
- 1:26:32Speaker 1: so I bitterness. So I just thought, Okay, I'm gonna
- 1:26:36Speaker 1: get myself together, and I worked with Kathy for a while.
- 1:26:40Speaker 1: We tried to put a band together, and that didn't
- 1:26:42Speaker 1: didn't gel in the way I hoped it would. And
- 1:26:44Speaker 1: then I thought, okay, I'm just gonna start from scratch,
- 1:26:47Speaker 1: and uh, look for the right people. I found Vance Degenerous,
- 1:26:53Speaker 1: and Vance and I started writing, and then we found
- 1:26:57Speaker 1: other players to work in the band House of Shock.
- 1:27:00Speaker 1: I got Miles Copeland to manage us. We would rehearse
- 1:27:03Speaker 1: up in his ass, and we did a show at
- 1:27:06Speaker 1: the Roxy, and record labels were invited and we did
- 1:27:10Speaker 1: one show and got a record deal with Capitol Records,
- 1:27:13Speaker 1: and uh, yeah, that's pretty cool. Do one show get
- 1:27:16Speaker 1: a deal? Very very cool? And then how did it
- 1:27:19Speaker 1: play out after that? Well, then we got Richard got
- 1:27:22Speaker 1: I brought I said, I want Richard back to help
- 1:27:24Speaker 1: make sure the songs are all together. And Richard came
- 1:27:27Speaker 1: in and we did the record and then I brought
- 1:27:29Speaker 1: in Chas Stamford, who had written I Ain't missing you,
- 1:27:32Speaker 1: missing you whatever. I knew he was a good songwriter
- 1:27:35Speaker 1: and a good producer, or brought him into sort of
- 1:27:40Speaker 1: work on the single, fixed the track a little bit
- 1:27:44Speaker 1: more um um, and we put the record out and
- 1:27:48Speaker 1: did what it did not a hell a lot. Didn't
- 1:27:50Speaker 1: have a lot of I didn't didn't have a lot
- 1:27:52Speaker 1: of money behind it pushing it. But I did get
- 1:27:56Speaker 1: a call. This sort of makes me happy. I got
- 1:27:59Speaker 1: a call from Billy Steinberg, who was a great songwriter,
- 1:28:02Speaker 1: and he said to me, Gina, I just had to
- 1:28:04Speaker 1: call you to let you know. I was driving to
- 1:28:06Speaker 1: Palm Springs from l A, which is where he lived
- 1:28:09Speaker 1: at the time, and he said, the song came on
- 1:28:12Speaker 1: the radio and it was so good I had to
- 1:28:14Speaker 1: pull my car over and listen. And at the end
- 1:28:17Speaker 1: of it, they said, oh, this is house of Shocked,
- 1:28:19Speaker 1: Gina Shocked, and the go goes. He said, I gotta
- 1:28:21Speaker 1: tell you that single is fantastic, Gina. You've done a
- 1:28:24Speaker 1: great job and it was a song middle of nowhere,
- 1:28:26Speaker 1: and that meant so much to me and it still
- 1:28:30Speaker 1: does to this day. You know, you know whether you're
- 1:28:34Speaker 1: whether your record makes it or not, as it's all
- 1:28:36Speaker 1: timing and there's a lot involved in whether something happens money,
- 1:28:41Speaker 1: it's sort of out of your hands. Once you make
- 1:28:42Speaker 1: that record, you do the best you can to set
- 1:28:44Speaker 1: it all up and h so the record is not
- 1:28:50Speaker 1: as successful as you have as it happens, I'm disappointed,
- 1:28:53Speaker 1: were you? And what happened with the act and what
- 1:28:56Speaker 1: was your next step? Well, I was, yeah, I was disappointed.
- 1:28:59Speaker 1: And then to make matters worse, Uh, the whole regime
- 1:29:03Speaker 1: at Capital Records changed. Our guy who was the head
- 1:29:08Speaker 1: of Capital of the time he got asked, and even
- 1:29:11Speaker 1: my head of the A and R. Tom Wally who
- 1:29:13Speaker 1: signed me, who actually went on to help make UM
- 1:29:18Speaker 1: Much Records. I can't think of it um anyway, interscope,
- 1:29:23Speaker 1: thank you um And it was a tough time, but
- 1:29:27Speaker 1: I thought I've done the best I can and you know,
- 1:29:32Speaker 1: if this is what it's all about, I'm done with
- 1:29:34Speaker 1: this crap. So I just thought, nowhere bands, I'm done
- 1:29:38Speaker 1: with this. Then I went to New York and thought
- 1:29:40Speaker 1: I was just going to be a songwriter, and so
- 1:29:42Speaker 1: I got a record deal on I mean a publishing
- 1:29:45Speaker 1: deal with m c A in New York. John Alexander
- 1:29:48Speaker 1: signed me and then I just wrote for several years
- 1:29:52Speaker 1: and you know, worked on my songwriting skills and and
- 1:29:58Speaker 1: in the meantime, the go goes. We started playing and
- 1:30:00Speaker 1: again started getting together. Sorry, okay, a couple of things.
- 1:30:05Speaker 1: Ginger was the original manager, then you became part of
- 1:30:09Speaker 1: the h K Empire. Why did you get rid of Ginger?
- 1:30:14Speaker 1: And retrospect? Hole important? Was Ginger to your success? And
- 1:30:18Speaker 1: to what degree did her absence contribute to the breakup? Yeah,
- 1:30:23Speaker 1: Ginger was the glue when when we when Ginger left,
- 1:30:31Speaker 1: we didn't fire her. We didn't want her to go.
- 1:30:33Speaker 1: We thought that, you know, Jimer just started out with us,
- 1:30:37Speaker 1: and we thought like, wow, we've reached this point where
- 1:30:39Speaker 1: we might need a bigger management company to sort of
- 1:30:42Speaker 1: oversee things. Can we have Ginger work with a bigger company?
- 1:30:47Speaker 1: And you know, I guess a lot of things went
- 1:30:49Speaker 1: down that we weren't pretty to back then, And I
- 1:30:53Speaker 1: only found out since then when I talked to Ginger
- 1:30:56Speaker 1: um and all of a sudden, Ginger was gone. She
- 1:31:02Speaker 1: left l A and was in New York. I don't
- 1:31:03Speaker 1: know what happened. It was, you know, we were sort
- 1:31:07Speaker 1: of like, oh my god, we didn't want her to go.
- 1:31:09Speaker 1: We wanted her to work with with the newer management company,
- 1:31:12Speaker 1: a big company, you know, because we knew that her
- 1:31:15Speaker 1: input would be sorely missed and it was and as
- 1:31:19Speaker 1: it you know, turned out, the band broke up. I
- 1:31:21Speaker 1: feel like if Ginger was there, she would have guided
- 1:31:23Speaker 1: us the right way where things like that wouldn't have happened.
- 1:31:27Speaker 1: I don't know, Bob, you know, Okay, Ginger is out.
- 1:31:34Speaker 1: Is she bitter? Um? I think she. I don't think
- 1:31:39Speaker 1: she was bitter about the band. You have to ask her,
- 1:31:44Speaker 1: but I don't think she thought that we were sort
- 1:31:47Speaker 1: of behind the way she was being treated. Nevertheless, she's
- 1:31:52Speaker 1: being treated really shabbily, and I I just felt really terrible.
- 1:31:57Speaker 1: We all feel terrible about it because we didn't, like
- 1:31:59Speaker 1: I said, there were things happening that we didn't know about. Um.
- 1:32:02Speaker 1: When when Asoft's company came in, UM and we loved Irving,
- 1:32:07Speaker 1: he was great, you know, Irving, Irving such a trip. Yeah.
- 1:32:11Speaker 1: I don't know. I you know, I couldn't say one
- 1:32:14Speaker 1: thing that. You know, we're all friends and we love
- 1:32:18Speaker 1: Ginger and she's sort of back in the phone and
- 1:32:21Speaker 1: has been for a while, and it's really nice nice
- 1:32:24Speaker 1: to tap her back. Okay, let's stay with the songwriting.
- 1:32:28Speaker 1: Ultimately you have some success even today, like with Miley Cyrus.
- 1:32:32Speaker 1: So tell us about your songwriting career. Well, you know,
- 1:32:36Speaker 1: I wasn't a writer initially, and then I saw how
- 1:32:39Speaker 1: much the songers. Man, I was like, wait a minute,
- 1:32:41Speaker 1: you know what, I'm working just as hard. Please give
- 1:32:44Speaker 1: me a break. I don't know what we got. The
- 1:32:46Speaker 1: beat would beat without that drum beat, you know what
- 1:32:48Speaker 1: I mean. I just had all these It was I
- 1:32:51Speaker 1: couldn't figure it out, and I was really angry. And
- 1:32:55Speaker 1: that was that was a big part of why. That
- 1:32:57Speaker 1: being kind of I'm sure it was why of being
- 1:32:58Speaker 1: kind of broke up um a part of it. Um.
- 1:33:02Speaker 1: So I just continued sorry and trying to get better
- 1:33:05Speaker 1: at my craft. And you know, in the like the
- 1:33:09Speaker 1: two thousand eight or nine or whatever, I was writing
- 1:33:13Speaker 1: with a couple of guys um and we wrote. We
- 1:33:17Speaker 1: wrote a bunch of songs, and Miley Cyrus heard one breakout.
- 1:33:23Speaker 1: She had had a record done, but she heard that
- 1:33:25Speaker 1: song and love it. She went back in and recorded
- 1:33:27Speaker 1: that became the title track of her record. That was
- 1:33:30Speaker 1: where she was going for being like a kid into
- 1:33:32Speaker 1: a young adult. And then Disney called us and John
- 1:33:36Speaker 1: Allixander was like, Hey, I got this other young U.
- 1:33:40Speaker 1: Her name is Selena Gomez, can you write something for
- 1:33:42Speaker 1: So we were brought in to write for Selena and
- 1:33:46Speaker 1: we wrote, uh, the first thing, all the title track
- 1:33:49Speaker 1: and you know, four songs for her that record. Um
- 1:33:52Speaker 1: and uh. So I felt like, well, guys, I actually
- 1:33:59Speaker 1: can write, and let me just show you what I've done.
- 1:34:02Speaker 1: So I felt vindicated at the end of the day
- 1:34:07Speaker 1: because you know, um, if you're in a band and
- 1:34:11Speaker 1: the way some things are sort of setting stones. Certain
- 1:34:14Speaker 1: people want to write with certain people and I get that,
- 1:34:17Speaker 1: and when you bring another elements that might mess with
- 1:34:21Speaker 1: that formula or whatever. But it was tough to get
- 1:34:26Speaker 1: into their into the songwriting group with Charlotte and Jane
- 1:34:30Speaker 1: h it was difficult, and so I just would write
- 1:34:33Speaker 1: what I would write, and whatever was accepted by the
- 1:34:36Speaker 1: band was But when I wrote stuff out on my
- 1:34:39Speaker 1: own and other artists chose to record it, that made
- 1:34:44Speaker 1: me feel really good and made me feel like, you
- 1:34:46Speaker 1: know what, I am a goddamn songwriter and somebody's appreciating.
- 1:34:50Speaker 1: And I didn't feel that much from the band, but
- 1:34:53Speaker 1: just the way it goes, you know, I don't think
- 1:34:55Speaker 1: it was a conscious effort on their behalfor just sort
- 1:34:58Speaker 1: of the way things were working. I don't know. Okay,
- 1:35:02Speaker 1: are you still writing songs today? I have not been.
- 1:35:07Speaker 1: I haven't been for like I say, the last six
- 1:35:10Speaker 1: years have been all devoted to my mom and dad
- 1:35:13Speaker 1: and uh, but I'm gonna start getting back into that.
- 1:35:15Speaker 1: I've been just super busy with you know, the last
- 1:35:18Speaker 1: year and a half writing this book and uh, putting
- 1:35:21Speaker 1: the book together, getting the photos together, all that, um,
- 1:35:25Speaker 1: and then of course there's always something going on and
- 1:35:27Speaker 1: go go land and which I'm super happy about. I
- 1:35:31Speaker 1: feel very good about the band and the way that
- 1:35:34Speaker 1: we communicate with each other. I just can't believe it,
- 1:35:38Speaker 1: all these years later, we're still it's still a five
- 1:35:41Speaker 1: of us, and we still like care about each other,
- 1:35:44Speaker 1: and it's a it's a little family here. Man. It's
- 1:35:47Speaker 1: a good thing. It's a good thing. Okay, let's go
- 1:35:50Speaker 1: back to thirty years ago. You do an House of Shock.
- 1:35:55Speaker 1: You're going through your thing. Meanwhile, Belinda has a couple
- 1:35:59Speaker 1: of very are you significant hits with videos? How do
- 1:36:03Speaker 1: you feel about that? Oh? I was piste off, but
- 1:36:07Speaker 1: then when I got my House a Shock deal, I
- 1:36:08Speaker 1: was fine because I was like, okay, I can do
- 1:36:11Speaker 1: this too. And I was just the drummer in the band.
- 1:36:14Speaker 1: It didn't get much songwriting in in in the go
- 1:36:17Speaker 1: goes um. But you know what, when pushed came to
- 1:36:21Speaker 1: a shove, I went out. I got a record deal,
- 1:36:24Speaker 1: and you know I can do that. I you know
- 1:36:28Speaker 1: where it ends up is I only have so much control.
- 1:36:31Speaker 1: But I still felt pretty good about what my contribution
- 1:36:35Speaker 1: was and what you know, what I tried to do
- 1:36:37Speaker 1: or what I did. So how did the band come
- 1:36:40Speaker 1: back together? Jane Fonda got this band back together. Jane
- 1:36:44Speaker 1: Fonda is the reason the band got back together. She
- 1:36:48Speaker 1: contacted contacted all of us Belinda initially about getting together
- 1:36:54Speaker 1: and wanting us to do a show at Universal for
- 1:36:58Speaker 1: a great initiative that she wanted to get on the
- 1:36:59Speaker 1: back it. And of course we said yes because we're
- 1:37:03Speaker 1: all environmentalists, and we also said yes because it's Jane Fonda,
- 1:37:08Speaker 1: you know, a hero of all of ours. And so
- 1:37:12Speaker 1: we met many times at her house in Santa Monica,
- 1:37:15Speaker 1: and uh, everybody just started talking. We started going out
- 1:37:19Speaker 1: to dinner, and you know it was a comfortable fit.
- 1:37:22Speaker 1: You know, we're fatily What could I say? And before
- 1:37:25Speaker 1: you know it, we're touring. We started touring a nine
- 1:37:28Speaker 1: nine haven't stopped. Okay, in the interim before Jane fond
- 1:37:32Speaker 1: it tracks you down, how much contact do you have
- 1:37:35Speaker 1: with the other four? And now since you've been back
- 1:37:38Speaker 1: together when you're not actually working, how much contact do
- 1:37:41Speaker 1: you have with the other four? Um? We we know
- 1:37:44Speaker 1: what we all Okay, we Lena's just has moved from
- 1:37:47Speaker 1: Bangkok now she's in Mexico City, Kathy's in Austin, Charlton,
- 1:37:51Speaker 1: l A. James in Hawaii, and I'm in San Francisco.
- 1:37:54Speaker 1: So it's not like we get to see each other.
- 1:37:56Speaker 1: We're not even the same place. But we do talk
- 1:38:00Speaker 1: quite a bit, believe it or not. Um And because
- 1:38:04Speaker 1: we have so much going on right now, so it's
- 1:38:06Speaker 1: it's a necessity that we all speak and get on
- 1:38:09Speaker 1: the same page about decisions that need to be made.
- 1:38:11Speaker 1: So it's it's like I said, it's pretty good now, Bob.
- 1:38:14Speaker 1: I feel pretty comfortable with everybody and happy the way
- 1:38:19Speaker 1: things are moving forward with the band. Where you know,
- 1:38:21Speaker 1: we're we're talking about doing some things next year. I'm
- 1:38:24Speaker 1: pretty excited about things. The other thing I have to
- 1:38:27Speaker 1: ask because I remember the final tour. Told I told,
- 1:38:33Speaker 1: I said, don't put final tour. The gogoes are never over.
- 1:38:36Speaker 1: Don't say final. That's ridiculous. Well, anyway, that happened, and
- 1:38:40Speaker 1: that was a stupid move. I feel. I'm just gonna
- 1:38:43Speaker 1: say it was really dumb, because you know what, we'll
- 1:38:46Speaker 1: just tour until we fall am and that's the truth.
- 1:38:49Speaker 1: We walk away from each other for six months or
- 1:38:52Speaker 1: a year, and then we come back together. We're like, Okay,
- 1:38:54Speaker 1: let's do some shows. Oh I miss you, Let's go
- 1:38:57Speaker 1: on a vacation together, Let's do this, let's do that.
- 1:39:00Speaker 1: Going was the decision? What? Why was the decision? Saying
- 1:39:05Speaker 1: it was a final tour because people thought they were
- 1:39:07Speaker 1: really out or you wanted to sell tickets was gone.
- 1:39:10Speaker 1: It wasn't a ticket thing. It was just a bullshit thing.
- 1:39:13Speaker 1: I don't remember who. It wasn't whatever that you know,
- 1:39:16Speaker 1: they don't want to work anymore. It doesn't matter. It
- 1:39:18Speaker 1: always resolved. And that was bullshit, and it's embarrassing. As
- 1:39:24Speaker 1: far as I'm concerned, that final show, final tour crap
- 1:39:27Speaker 1: that everybody does. I was not a part of that. Sorry,
- 1:39:32Speaker 1: I wasn't. Okay, Rock and Roll Hall of fame. Where
- 1:39:35Speaker 1: you at on that excited happy It's about time. I
- 1:39:41Speaker 1: didn't care initially, but now it's like when it actually happens,
- 1:39:45Speaker 1: it's pretty cool. I sing icing on the cake. Okay,
- 1:39:50Speaker 1: So looking back, you were progenitors all girl group. There
- 1:39:56Speaker 1: haven't been a whole hell of a lot since there
- 1:39:58Speaker 1: was the Bengals. A to you. Now we're in more
- 1:40:01Speaker 1: of a solo era. What can you tell us about
- 1:40:05Speaker 1: being a woman in the music business as a performer?
- 1:40:09Speaker 1: To what dick we are you held back to? What?
- 1:40:11Speaker 1: What have you learned? I don't figure how back so
- 1:40:15Speaker 1: much anymore. In the early eighties, late seventies, you worried
- 1:40:19Speaker 1: because you had something to prove um although there aren't
- 1:40:24Speaker 1: there still is not an all female band that has
- 1:40:29Speaker 1: done what we've done, and I'm waiting desperately for that.
- 1:40:32Speaker 1: We talked about this all the time. Why where's the
- 1:40:34Speaker 1: next goes? What the hell is going on? Well? There
- 1:40:38Speaker 1: may be some neat bands coming around the band that
- 1:40:40Speaker 1: are going to happen. I hope you know, um um like,
- 1:40:45Speaker 1: I love the Linda Lendas. Have you heard them? Bob? Yeah?
- 1:40:47Speaker 1: They're very good, aren't they great? I just I've spent
- 1:40:51Speaker 1: the weekend with them last last week last week in
- 1:40:54Speaker 1: l A and I actually did. I played they play
- 1:40:57Speaker 1: a go Goost they played tonight and so I played
- 1:40:59Speaker 1: drums that song with them and they they filled me
- 1:41:04Speaker 1: with joy. They are so wild and they're having such
- 1:41:07Speaker 1: a great time, and they remind me of us, except younger.
- 1:41:11Speaker 1: You know, they're so excited about everything. Oh man, I
- 1:41:16Speaker 1: hope they make it. What do you think, because there's
- 1:41:18Speaker 1: a huge buzz. Why do you think there's not a buzzle?
- 1:41:21Speaker 1: It hasn't happened already. I don't know. I don't know,
- 1:41:25Speaker 1: and you tell me. I have no idea, But it's
- 1:41:28Speaker 1: about time. I'm glad those girls are doing what they're
- 1:41:31Speaker 1: doing and they're serious about it. And their parents like
- 1:41:33Speaker 1: they're sending them to you know, they're they're all. They
- 1:41:36Speaker 1: take guitar lessons, they take piano lessons, drum lessons, like
- 1:41:39Speaker 1: their parents grew up watching us do what we do
- 1:41:43Speaker 1: and then started taking them as little kids. So they
- 1:41:47Speaker 1: know their history and they are excited about doing what
- 1:41:52Speaker 1: they do. They love it. Like the drummer is, she's
- 1:41:56Speaker 1: like eleven years old or twelve. It's crazy and all
- 1:42:00Speaker 1: this girl is sixteen. I love it. It's a beautiful thing.
- 1:42:05Speaker 1: It's about time. Okay. You know, we live in the
- 1:42:08Speaker 1: me too era? To what degree do you have your
- 1:42:11Speaker 1: own bad stories? So what degree do I have my
- 1:42:15Speaker 1: own bad stories? Me two moments where guys were doing
- 1:42:19Speaker 1: things that were inappropriate, I've never had that problem. I
- 1:42:24Speaker 1: think most guys are afraid of make and afraid of
- 1:42:26Speaker 1: this bam, and we're all together. The guys were always
- 1:42:31Speaker 1: afraid of us. When we bring them back into the
- 1:42:33Speaker 1: dressing room, they're like cowering in the corner. I mean,
- 1:42:37Speaker 1: when the five of us are together. I guess it
- 1:42:39Speaker 1: must be scary for guys. I don't know, but that's
- 1:42:41Speaker 1: the way it's always worked out. I don't need problem
- 1:42:44Speaker 1: with guys at all and getting you know, getting pushed around.
- 1:42:50Speaker 1: We stand our own ground. That's why we were successful.
- 1:42:53Speaker 1: That's why we've done what we've done. Okay, and the
- 1:42:56Speaker 1: hopefully thirty years you have left. Other than playing with
- 1:43:00Speaker 1: the go goes, you want to play until they bury you?
- 1:43:03Speaker 1: What else do you want to accomplish? Oh, God, Bob,
- 1:43:07Speaker 1: I don't know. You know, Um, I'm really happy to
- 1:43:12Speaker 1: be in this span and very grateful, and I hope
- 1:43:16Speaker 1: we play a lot longer, and I think we have
- 1:43:18Speaker 1: we have some things up our sleeve that perhaps will
- 1:43:21Speaker 1: be around next year. We're working on stuff all the
- 1:43:24Speaker 1: time behind the scenes. Um. All I hope for is
- 1:43:28Speaker 1: that I stay healthy and happy and I am allowed
- 1:43:32Speaker 1: to do what I love to do, which is music,
- 1:43:34Speaker 1: which will be writing, maybe some producing or you know,
- 1:43:38Speaker 1: and playing with the band. Um. I think I've I've
- 1:43:43Speaker 1: my life as far as been pretty fantastic. So I
- 1:43:47Speaker 1: don't know what else is in store for me. All
- 1:43:50Speaker 1: I know is that I'm gonna keep my ship together
- 1:43:52Speaker 1: and um, you know, be open to whatever may come
- 1:43:57Speaker 1: my way and be grateful about it. Well, Gina, you're
- 1:44:02Speaker 1: really a force of nature. I gotta tell you. I've
- 1:44:05Speaker 1: had a rough couple of days, been very busy, and
- 1:44:07Speaker 1: I was pretty fried. But as soon as you hit
- 1:44:09Speaker 1: the screen, blit right up right into the groove. I mean,
- 1:44:13Speaker 1: you could feel the energy, and I'm sure that is
- 1:44:16Speaker 1: part of why you're so successful. I don't know, Bob, everybody, everybody,
- 1:44:21Speaker 1: everybody tries the best way to know how. I'm tired
- 1:44:24Speaker 1: to hear myself sound like such a good T shirt.
- 1:44:26Speaker 1: I'm kind of an asso sometimes, But you know what, Um,
- 1:44:31Speaker 1: after being around for a while, I just, you know,
- 1:44:34Speaker 1: when I see somebody you know, becoming famous or you know,
- 1:44:37Speaker 1: I'm also happy for them because it's a tough business.
- 1:44:40Speaker 1: It really is, you know, And I would not want
- 1:44:43Speaker 1: to be trying to get a deal this in this
- 1:44:46Speaker 1: day and age. It is just so crazy. Um And
- 1:44:50Speaker 1: so I you know, I watched younger artists or bands
- 1:44:54Speaker 1: and I am I am their fan. I'm there in
- 1:44:58Speaker 1: the background going yeah, yeah, do it. Well, I you know,
- 1:45:04Speaker 1: I echo all that stuff. But being in Los Angeles
- 1:45:07Speaker 1: for forty five years and hearing everybody's bullshit and knowing
- 1:45:13Speaker 1: how hard it is to make it. Talent is at
- 1:45:17Speaker 1: most the other at work and drive. So anybody who
- 1:45:25Speaker 1: made it I have respect for because they really, they
- 1:45:29Speaker 1: really had to go through the mill. It doesn't happen
- 1:45:32Speaker 1: when people say, oh I was just in the right
- 1:45:34Speaker 1: place at the right time. I was lucky. That's just
- 1:45:36Speaker 1: horse ship. If you got there, you had to be
- 1:45:40Speaker 1: one minded. Yea, yeah, you had to be a little lucky.
- 1:45:43Speaker 1: But you have to make your own luck because this
- 1:45:46Speaker 1: is a town where everybody comes to make it and
- 1:45:49Speaker 1: almost nobody does. Think of all the bands you played with,
- 1:45:53Speaker 1: the Club eight eight, etcetera. Who knows where those people
- 1:45:56Speaker 1: are day They never even got signed, never mind, didn't
- 1:45:59Speaker 1: ever hit record. You're you're absolutely right. Yeah, it's uh,
- 1:46:06Speaker 1: it's scary. I mean, I can't imagine being one of
- 1:46:08Speaker 1: those first one of those people that that you know,
- 1:46:11Speaker 1: tried and tried and never really happened. Oh God, I
- 1:46:15Speaker 1: don't know what I do. I feel so lucky. And
- 1:46:19Speaker 1: you're right about all that. It does. You know, you
- 1:46:22Speaker 1: don't just you don't just you're not just in the
- 1:46:24Speaker 1: right place at the right time there. You have to
- 1:46:25Speaker 1: work to put yourself there, and you have to know
- 1:46:28Speaker 1: how to negotiate the situation. Yeah, because you know, what's
- 1:46:32Speaker 1: the other thing. You know, we're musicians, we're not lawyers,
- 1:46:36Speaker 1: we're not managers. That's not what we chose to do.
- 1:46:40Speaker 1: But yet you have to have a little bit of
- 1:46:41Speaker 1: that with what you're doing where you're gonna get screwed.
- 1:46:45Speaker 1: You've gotta you gotta learn the game. You gotta learn
- 1:46:48Speaker 1: how to play, and that takes that takes a while
- 1:46:52Speaker 1: before you really know the rules and you know how
- 1:46:54Speaker 1: to how to look out for yourself. Well, you talk
- 1:46:57Speaker 1: about you know, Charlie Watts and Bill. Why I'm in now,
- 1:47:00Speaker 1: Daryl Jones, You're anchoring the band. And I think the
- 1:47:04Speaker 1: most the most significant thing you were talking about is
- 1:47:07Speaker 1: when you joined the band, you were the pile driver
- 1:47:10Speaker 1: said we gotta rehearse, we gotta do this. I mean,
- 1:47:14Speaker 1: I can't lift the whole band, but I can light
- 1:47:16Speaker 1: a fire under you. Well, I just that was my way.
- 1:47:20Speaker 1: It was the only way I knew how to do things.
- 1:47:22Speaker 1: You know. Um, I didn't have the magic formula. All
- 1:47:26Speaker 1: I knew was that if we I felt like, if
- 1:47:30Speaker 1: this band rehearsed more something great, what's going to happen.
- 1:47:33Speaker 1: I really believe that. And I think the girls, you know,
- 1:47:38Speaker 1: adhered to that whole concept because they were they were
- 1:47:42Speaker 1: doing it, and they were excited about it, and they
- 1:47:46Speaker 1: felt that they believed in that idea and and and
- 1:47:51Speaker 1: you could see the band transforming, you know, from week
- 1:47:54Speaker 1: to week, month to month. Everybody was getting better at
- 1:47:57Speaker 1: what they do. And so that is something that really,
- 1:48:02Speaker 1: you know, propels you forward. It's like, Okay, well I
- 1:48:05Speaker 1: see a difference now from a month ago. Make sure
- 1:48:08Speaker 1: want to continue what you're doing and know that you're
- 1:48:10Speaker 1: doing the right stuff to make things better, to get
- 1:48:12Speaker 1: your songs out there, to be a better musician, to
- 1:48:15Speaker 1: be a better writer. All that goes into it. A
- 1:48:17Speaker 1: better performer, better at handling record labels, you know all
- 1:48:21Speaker 1: that stuff. It's a big picture. Well put and on
- 1:48:25Speaker 1: that note, I think we're gonna leave it. Gina, thanks
- 1:48:28Speaker 1: so much for doing this. Bob. It's a pleasure. You're
- 1:48:31Speaker 1: a sweetheart. I really enjoyed talking with you. Good luck
- 1:48:35Speaker 1: editing it, and um we are editors. We've really much
- 1:48:41Speaker 1: let her rip because we wanted to be honest. You
- 1:48:43Speaker 1: condensed it too much, you lose the essence. Yeah, I
- 1:48:46Speaker 1: don't know. Uh, I think it'll turn out pretty good. Oh,
- 1:48:49Speaker 1: I know it's good keeping You're like, you got some
- 1:48:54Speaker 1: energy up. That's good. Well, you know that's good. You
- 1:48:57Speaker 1: know I'm guiding and I'm judging whether it's good. That's
- 1:48:59Speaker 1: what I'm thinking about. Seven. As I say you earlier,
- 1:49:02Speaker 1: as soon as you hit the mic, I said, this
- 1:49:04Speaker 1: is gonna be no problem. Alright. Good. I'm glad you
- 1:49:07Speaker 1: felt that way. Dave Um and I appreciate your gians
- 1:49:10Speaker 1: through this. Okay, until next time, it's Bob left Sis