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TMP322 OVI GIRON JUMPS IN · Troubled Men Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Foreign listeners, welcome back to the Troubled Men podcast. I am Renee Coleman, sitting once again in Snake and Jake's Christmas Club lounge with my co host, the original troubled man for troubled times and future mayor of New Orleans, Mr. Manny Chevrolet. Welcome, Manny.
• 0:32
  Speaker B: Hey, what's happening, man?
• 0:33
  Speaker A: Oh, not too much. We all made it here. It was.
• 0:35
  Speaker B: Yeah. What a buildup.
• 0:36
  Speaker A: Tough sled sledding out there. We're going to have to do streets of New Orleans.
• 0:40
  Speaker B: If they're going to start tearing up.
• 0:42
  Speaker A: The streets, they're not coming here. We'll figure out a.
• 0:45
  Speaker B: You know, the pipes are already out in front. They're going to dig up this.
• 0:48
  Speaker A: We'll have to figure it out week, week to week here.
• 0:51
  Speaker B: Yeah, I'm not doing it.
• 0:52
  Speaker A: Okay. All right, all right. Well this will be Manny swan song perhaps, but we'll have to have to see. So what's the mayor's campaign is still going on?
• 1:04
  Speaker B: Yeah, everything's going.
• 1:05
  Speaker A: Any mayor, any campaign news?
• 1:07
  Speaker B: I was invited. This is how stupid this city is. I was invited to a ribbon cutting ceremony for a new roof.
• 1:16
  Speaker A: Really?
• 1:17
  Speaker B: Yeah, at. Down there at the Armstrong Memorial. What do they call that place? The. I forget what it's called, but it's down there off of Rampart or whatever.
• 1:29
  Speaker A: Auditorium or something.
• 1:30
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Over down there.
• 1:32
  Speaker A: Oh yeah.
• 1:32
  Speaker B: It was a ribbon cutting ceremony because they finally got a new roof.
• 1:36
  Speaker A: Yeah. Over the dilapidated building, you know.
• 1:38
  Speaker B: Right. Yeah, right. Big deal. Well, I think that's some of the cares.
• 1:42
  Speaker A: I think that's some of that $500 million that they've been sitting on is my. Some might be.
• 1:47
  Speaker B: I was invited and I said no.
• 1:49
  Speaker A: Sure. Well, what was that going to do?
• 1:51
  Speaker B: Yeah, what was that going to do?
• 1:52
  Speaker A: Good for me, I guess.
• 1:53
  Speaker B: They got a new roof and it'll probably be. Probably was made by Brad Pitt's company and it'll probably fly off the next big storm.
• 2:01
  Speaker A: Yeah, it was make it right. Houses didn't.
• 2:03
  Speaker B: Who has a ribbon cutting ceremony for a roof?
• 2:06
  Speaker A: Right.
• 2:06
  Speaker B: Well, it's like only stupid people. Just like this city stupid. They're so stupid here in this town, man. Pissing me off.
• 2:16
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 2:17
  Speaker B: Here you keep electing the same criminals and I'm here giving them radical change. Smart change. The exact change. The correct change. Loose change.
• 2:27
  Speaker A: Loose change.
• 2:28
  Speaker B: You know. And they keep voting for the same criminals, you know. So what are you going to do?
• 2:32
  Speaker A: I don't know. I don't know. Well, I hear Trump on the news today says he's possibly sending troops to New Orleans. Mentioned us by name.
• 2:43
  Speaker B: Oh, okay. Well, good for him, who gives a. I don't know.
• 2:48
  Speaker A: I don't know. It's just something that now the. They.
• 2:52
  Speaker B: Like I said before, he's a big disappointment.
• 2:54
  Speaker A: He's a big disappointment.
• 2:57
  Speaker B: I thought he was going to be a lot wiser and smarter.
• 3:00
  Speaker A: Right.
• 3:01
  Speaker B: He's a big. And all I see now is people talking about his hand. His hand is swollen.
• 3:09
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
• 3:10
  Speaker B: His hands got bru.
• 3:11
  Speaker A: Bruising and stuff.
• 3:12
  Speaker B: Yeah, bruising or whatever. I think it's chronic masturbation.
• 3:16
  Speaker A: Probably it's on that, you know, Cuz.
• 3:18
  Speaker B: His wife ain't putting it out for him anymore. Right.
• 3:20
  Speaker A: The top of his hand.
• 3:21
  Speaker B: Epstein, the biggest pimp in the world is not scoring for him anymore.
• 3:25
  Speaker A: Right.
• 3:26
  Speaker B: Who would have thought that would have been the biggest pimp in the world? Well, you know, you know, you know, Hefner was a very good pimp. And I got to meet Hugh Hefner in the 80s at the.
• 3:37
  Speaker A: @ the. At the Mansion.
• 3:39
  Speaker B: At the Mansion, Yeah. I. In fact, I work. You know, in 1984, the Summer Olympic games were in Los Angeles and Hefner decided to do the Bunny Olympics.
• 3:52
  Speaker A: Uhhuh. Yeah. The Playboy Olympics.
• 3:54
  Speaker B: Yeah. And I got to the art director for it was a friend of mine. He said, come on, let's work it. So I basically, you know, as an art director, I just got to hand out towels to the Bunnies.
• 4:03
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 4:04
  Speaker B: Now it was fun.
• 4:05
  Speaker A: Chuck Woolery, was he involved in. In I doing commentary? Play by play.
• 4:10
  Speaker B: He might have been involved. I don't know. I was too busy jerking off.
• 4:14
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 4:14
  Speaker B: Or trying to get late.
• 4:15
  Speaker A: That's why.
• 4:15
  Speaker B: Because it was a week. It was a whole weekend. Yeah. And in fact, I knew actual Some of the Bunnies. I knew some of them.
• 4:24
  Speaker A: Yep.
• 4:25
  Speaker B: You know, so it was fun to hang out. And you know, Hugh. Hugh always had a great cater to fair. The best catered food ever. Oh, you know, always the best. And then the Grotto, right? What happens in the Grotto stays in the Grotto, baby.
• 4:41
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 4:41
  Speaker B: You know what I'm saying? Yeah. You're smiling. Oh, yeah, I. All right, so. Yeah, so we'll see what happens.
• 4:50
  Speaker A: Well, I saw they had a big press conference, maybe a Senate or a congressional hearing with a lot of the Epstein victims there and at the Capitol. And Trump sent fighter jets to go circle the Capitol and then buzz it, apparently.
• 5:09
  Speaker B: What do you mean by buzz it?
• 5:10
  Speaker A: Well, like get really low, you know, like really low.
• 5:12
  Speaker B: They couldn't hear what they were saying.
• 5:13
  Speaker A: Well, just. It's kind of an intimidating move. At any rate, I don' Know, it's a weird thing to do.
• 5:19
  Speaker B: Yeah. I don't know. He seems like he's got problems.
• 5:24
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not going well, man.
• 5:25
  Speaker B: Yeah, it's not going well for him. In fact, China had a parade today that made his parade look like a, you know, a schoolyard second line.
• 5:37
  Speaker A: Right, right. I saw that they had. Had all the authoritarian, uh, regimes there. You had Putin, you had, uh, Kim. It was in China. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, Kim Jong.
• 5:48
  Speaker B: Where was Castro, though? I didn't.
• 5:50
  Speaker A: You know, Castro's. Castro's dead, man.
• 5:53
  Speaker B: No, but his brother's brother.
• 5:54
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. I don't think he has the cloud he once did, you know, he's over. He's lucky. Could get fuel to. To fly anywhere and.
• 6:02
  Speaker B: Oh, from.
• 6:03
  Speaker A: From.
• 6:03
  Speaker B: Got all those great 50s vehicles in Cuba.
• 6:06
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. You can't. Can't.
• 6:08
  Speaker B: Running on squirrels and rodents.
• 6:10
  Speaker A: Right. It's gonna be hard to make it to China. Yeah, one of those things, man.
• 6:16
  Speaker B: Slow boat to China.
• 6:17
  Speaker A: Right?
• 6:17
  Speaker B: Isn't that the old thing they used to say?
• 6:19
  Speaker A: Yeah. Slow boat to China would be a very slow boat.
• 6:21
  Speaker B: What does that mean? I don't know what that means.
• 6:23
  Speaker A: I think, you know, like a. Like a freighter or something. You know, it's like a. It's a cheap ticket. You know, it wouldn't be like a fast trip, but, you know, you kind of got to go through all the ports. But I don't know.
• 6:35
  Speaker B: Now, the Orientals, they're crazy people.
• 6:37
  Speaker A: The Asians, I think they like to call them nowadays.
• 6:40
  Speaker B: Yeah. They make great cameras and computers and phones.
• 6:43
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 6:44
  Speaker B: Which I want none of them. Well, you know, because that's the problem with this world, is the computers.
• 6:51
  Speaker A: Well, the phone could help you get to Snake and Jake's.
• 6:55
  Speaker B: Well, I tried.
• 6:56
  Speaker A: Well, yeah, but you didn't want to use the map, so I did use.
• 6:59
  Speaker B: The map, but it kept buffering. Well, now my phone's, like, from 2010.
• 7:04
  Speaker A: Yeah. That's pretty old phone.
• 7:06
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 7:06
  Speaker A: I mean, I don't really, you know.
• 7:08
  Speaker B: I don't want a new phone. What do I want? A new. A new phone brings new problems, if you ask me.
• 7:12
  Speaker A: Might say solve that problem, you know.
• 7:15
  Speaker B: But it's not going to tell me which road is being paved and gutted. Some.
• 7:19
  Speaker A: Some of them will. Yeah. If you use the Ways app, our. Our guest was saying the ways. Yeah. W A's Y Z. I think it's spelled. It's a.
• 7:28
  Speaker B: What's an app? You know, I don't know what an app is.
• 7:31
  Speaker A: It's one of Those things, the buttons you press on the. The screen of your phone, you know, it opens up and allows you to do different things.
• 7:37
  Speaker B: You know, I just call people on my phone.
• 7:40
  Speaker A: Well, you can do other things with it besides make calls.
• 7:43
  Speaker B: Like the sound of that.
• 7:44
  Speaker A: I'll have to. I'll have to show you.
• 7:45
  Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know.
• 7:46
  Speaker A: I'll be happy to give you a short tutorial. Well, went to a great gig last night. You know, went. Saw terrific Alejandro Escovedo, punk rock prince from, you know, start off in the Nuns out there in San Francisco, you know, opened for the. The last Sex Pistols gig ever there at the Winterlands. And, you know, he's had a terrific career. So he played over at. Brought a solo group over to Chicki Walk.
• 8:20
  Speaker B: How can that be a solo group?
• 8:22
  Speaker A: Well, a band backing him is. It's. It wasn't. It wasn't the Nuns. It wasn't the True Believers.
• 8:26
  Speaker B: So it was his band.
• 8:27
  Speaker A: His band brought his band. Yes.
• 8:30
  Speaker B: So when you say solo, I get confused.
• 8:32
  Speaker A: Okay, gotcha.
• 8:33
  Speaker B: Because he has a group, he's not solo.
• 8:35
  Speaker A: Yes, you're. You are correct. It was not a solo performance, but his. His. His band. And from stage, he. He dedicated a song to the iguanas that played the song of his sensitive boy and dedicated to. To the iguanas and. And called us all each individually out by name. I was very touched, very moved there.
• 8:57
  Speaker B: So did you have sex with him after the show? No, no, no, no.
• 9:00
  Speaker A: He. He's. He's married, straight guy, but we are friends. He's a lovely.
• 9:06
  Speaker B: Sounds like one of the worst gigs ever.
• 9:08
  Speaker A: Well, it was. It was a packed gig and everyone stayed till the very end.
• 9:12
  Speaker B: It was extremely. How much was the tickets for that gig?
• 9:15
  Speaker A: You know, I think they're about $40 or something.
• 9:18
  Speaker B: But you didn't have to pay.
• 9:19
  Speaker A: I was on the guest list.
• 9:20
  Speaker B: Oh, I see. So it was a better show for you.
• 9:23
  Speaker A: Well, it was a.
• 9:24
  Speaker B: Because if you had to pay, you wouldn't think it was such a good show.
• 9:28
  Speaker A: No, it was. It was still a great show. Yeah, I would have.
• 9:30
  Speaker B: Now, I don't know who this Andre Escavat is.
• 9:33
  Speaker A: Alejandro.
• 9:34
  Speaker B: Alejandro Escovedo Escovedo? Yeah. I've never heard of him.
• 9:38
  Speaker C: I do got to ask that. That's Peter Scoveto's sibling, right?
• 9:41
  Speaker A: Yeah, it's his brother.
• 9:42
  Speaker C: Yes, yes.
• 9:43
  Speaker B: And now who is Pete?
• 9:44
  Speaker C: Oh, tremendous percussion player.
• 9:46
  Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
• 9:48
  Speaker C: All the Latin rock scene.
• 9:49
  Speaker A: Yeah. And. And Sheila E's father. So. So Sheila E is. Is Alejandro's Niece.
• 9:54
  Speaker C: And Coquiscovedo, which was the. That passed away, but he did all the Santana Malu.
• 9:59
  Speaker A: That's the older brother, correct? Oldest brother, yeah.
• 10:01
  Speaker B: Now, who was the guy in Santana who ended up being homeless? I saw a story about a year ago where Santana hooked up with the guy who was his. One of his players in early Santana, like Woodstock, and he was homeless. Santana came to visit him in his like, tent in Oakland, California. Berkeley or something like that.
• 10:28
  Speaker A: Yeah, it could have been almost anybody. You know, musicians, you know, if they say a musician without a girlfriend, you know what you call that person? Homeless. Needs to find a girlfriend, I guess. What else? Let's see. We have. NFL season is starting tomorrow.
• 10:46
  Speaker B: That's right.
• 10:47
  Speaker A: I know you must be excited about that, man.
• 10:49
  Speaker B: Oh, yeah, I'm very excited.
• 10:51
  Speaker A: And how. What are the prospects for your Raiders this year?
• 10:55
  Speaker B: Slim and none.
• 10:56
  Speaker A: Okay. About like the Saints.
• 10:58
  Speaker B: Yeah, the Saints. Well, the Raiders have a better shot than. The Saints are going to suck big time.
• 11:03
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah? Yeah, yeah.
• 11:04
  Speaker B: And I hear rumors that the Saints are. This is how stupid the Saints are. They're thinking of tanking all year because they want the number one pick who will be Arch Manning.
• 11:16
  Speaker A: Well, we'll see. I mean, they had.
• 11:18
  Speaker B: Arch Manning sucks.
• 11:19
  Speaker A: They had high hopes for Arch Manning, but now he struggled in that first game. But it's just the first game and he's playing against the reigning championship team.
• 11:26
  Speaker B: I know, but he's, He's. His team was number one.
• 11:29
  Speaker A: Well, they.
• 11:30
  Speaker B: Number one rated.
• 11:31
  Speaker A: Ranked number one. Just because of the expectations on him.
• 11:34
  Speaker B: Yeah, it's. I think it's the brand they think he's going to be like. And Peyton. Well, you know, Archie Manning sucked as a quarterback.
• 11:41
  Speaker A: Well, Archie Manning was running for his life with the Saints. You know, he didn't. Didn't have a line to protect him. And you know it. Had he been on a good team, he could have had a lot more successful career, I think.
• 11:54
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 11:54
  Speaker A: But anyway.
• 11:56
  Speaker B: Anyway, I'm excited. I. You know, I can only do this show on Tuesdays now that the NFL is starting.
• 12:02
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 12:03
  Speaker B: Only on Tuesday.
• 12:05
  Speaker A: All right.
• 12:05
  Speaker B: If I can make it here.
• 12:06
  Speaker A: Okay. Well, we'll have to plan out a route. Well, you know, last week you were talking about the. Those conjoined twins.
• 12:15
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 12:16
  Speaker A: And I saw the story after the episode and realized that they. I was thinking that they were just attached at the heads and they had separate bodies, but no, they actually just have one body and the two heads coming out. So. Yeah, when the guys. When the guys. When the guy's Banging one of them. He's banging both?
• 12:34
  Speaker B: Yeah, he's banging both now. And he's getting a double blow job, too.
• 12:39
  Speaker A: Well, I don't know about that, but the possibility is there.
• 12:42
  Speaker B: Well, you could put. He could put his testes in one month because they're conjoined at the top of the head. I've seen them.
• 12:51
  Speaker C: My question is, what if one of them is not in the mood and one is?
• 12:53
  Speaker B: Well, that's what we talked about last week.
• 12:56
  Speaker A: Yeah, I guess, you know, you double your chances of, you know, getting somebody who.
• 12:59
  Speaker B: Yeah, you're always going to get laid with conjoined twins no matter what happens. One's got to be in the mood. You got to get one of them horny. I don't know. Now, do they have four boobs?
• 13:10
  Speaker A: I think it's just the two.
• 13:11
  Speaker B: Just two boobs?
• 13:12
  Speaker A: Yeah, because it's just one body.
• 13:14
  Speaker B: Yeah. Well, that guy who married them is a freak.
• 13:17
  Speaker A: You got.
• 13:18
  Speaker B: Yeah. You know, but he's also a good guy.
• 13:21
  Speaker A: Sure.
• 13:22
  Speaker B: These women would never find love.
• 13:24
  Speaker A: Right?
• 13:25
  Speaker B: You know, they. They're like the Elephant Man.
• 13:27
  Speaker C: I wonder if they got married legally, like. Oh, yeah, register both names. Is it.
• 13:32
  Speaker A: I think it's just the one. No, no, it's the one girl. Because it's. They. They each have, you know, separate passports, I would guess. I don't know. I mean, not that they can go anywhere, you know, alone, but, yeah, they do have separate brains, so.
• 13:47
  Speaker B: Well, they always say two heads are better than one.
• 13:49
  Speaker A: They do. I don't know.
• 13:50
  Speaker B: You know, it's an old slogan.
• 13:51
  Speaker C: That's.
• 13:51
  Speaker B: Yeah, I used to. I heard, back when I was in grades.
• 13:53
  Speaker A: You know, thinking about it, I'm not sure that's true. I'm not sure that I would want a second head, but I get the sentiment.
• 14:00
  Speaker B: But two are good, too.
• 14:02
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 14:02
  Speaker B: For a chick.
• 14:03
  Speaker A: Oh, okay.
• 14:04
  Speaker B: Chick loves two. Well, they've got three holes. You might as well fill them.
• 14:08
  Speaker A: All right.
• 14:09
  Speaker B: You know what I'm saying?
• 14:10
  Speaker A: Keeping it classy this week.
• 14:11
  Speaker B: Yeah. You know, now, I don't know how many times you've been with two women at one time. You know? We'll get into that later.
• 14:21
  Speaker C: Yeah, we're gonna do that. It's on air.
• 14:23
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 14:24
  Speaker A: Well, you got anything else?
• 14:27
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 14:27
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 14:28
  Speaker B: Oh, dude, I don't know if I talked about this last week or so. Did I talk about the Make a Wish Foundation?
• 14:35
  Speaker A: I can't remember what about it.
• 14:39
  Speaker B: Well, you know, they'll do anything to help dying children or dying people. And the Make A Wish foundation, there was this young kid who's a baseball fan, and this is kind of crazy, going nuts, but he got this dying kid, got a all star pitcher to pledge to give up a home run. Now, that's crazy. You always want to, you know, make a wish. It's like, hit a home run for me. But this guy hates this pitcher so much that he wants to. His wish is to have him give a home run to his favorite player.
• 15:26
  Speaker A: Huh?
• 15:27
  Speaker B: To his favorite team.
• 15:28
  Speaker A: How is the player going for that?
• 15:30
  Speaker B: Apparently it's in negotiation.
• 15:32
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
• 15:33
  Speaker B: The kids about four days from dying.
• 15:35
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 15:36
  Speaker B: And the guy doesn't pitch for till three days, so, you know, the rotation stuff like.
• 15:40
  Speaker A: Right, right.
• 15:41
  Speaker B: You know, but we'll see what happens.
• 15:43
  Speaker A: It's kind of a big, big request, I think. But who knows? Maybe. I mean, they do give up runs all the time, so maybe.
• 15:50
  Speaker B: But he wants them to give up the game winning.
• 15:53
  Speaker A: Oh, well, now you're really.
• 15:54
  Speaker B: That's crazy. There has to be a situation, you know?
• 15:58
  Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely.
• 15:59
  Speaker B: Now you like a baseball?
• 16:00
  Speaker C: You like the baseball my dad did? Me, not so much. Me, not so much. I mean, I know some stuff, but I'd rather play it. Even though I got hit in the bat as a kid.
• 16:09
  Speaker B: Yeah, I think we got hit by a bat.
• 16:11
  Speaker C: Yeah, like. Like with a baseball bat.
• 16:13
  Speaker A: Let me.
• 16:14
  Speaker B: Someone hit you over the head with it?
• 16:15
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 16:15
  Speaker C: Yeah, I was. I was catching, whatever you call it, accidentally. Not accidentally. Yeah. After that, I kind of, like, let it go. I was like. When I was to, like, hey, you know, this is fun, but I might. Might.
• 16:24
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. You learned. You're. You're a fast learner.
• 16:26
  Speaker C: That's right.
• 16:27
  Speaker B: Okay, so now we understand why you. Who you are.
• 16:30
  Speaker C: Exactly.
• 16:31
  Speaker B: You got hit over the head with a baseball bat.
• 16:33
  Speaker C: That's what my wife says. Oh, it all makes sense now.
• 16:35
  Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. It all makes sense.
• 16:36
  Speaker A: Your path to the Troubled men podcast.
• 16:38
  Speaker C: Yeah, there we go.
• 16:40
  Speaker A: Ran through a baseball bat to the head.
• 16:42
  Speaker B: Well, you got hit in the head. And now you wear loud shirts.
• 16:46
  Speaker C: This is a. Actually a new trend. I think I've enabled dad mode 100%. So I. I started with, like, one tropical shirt, then some Venom, some Buc Ees, and now I got a whole closet full of, like, 12 shirts, and my wife bought a bunch of them on clearance and.
• 17:02
  Speaker A: All right.
• 17:02
  Speaker C: I think I've. It's literally two months ago, I started this trend, and people at work, I was like, what's. What's up with that? I'm like, I. I think. I think I'm full. Dan. Mode.
• 17:10
  Speaker A: Okay. Right, right, right. Well you got the two.
• 17:13
  Speaker B: How many children do you have?
• 17:14
  Speaker C: I got two. I got two. I got a three year old little girl and just.
• 17:19
  Speaker B: Are they embarrassed to walk you through with those shirts?
• 17:21
  Speaker C: Oh, they got matching shirts.
• 17:23
  Speaker B: Oh, you're one of those families. Oh God. Really?
• 17:27
  Speaker C: She talks, but she doesn't talk enough.
• 17:29
  Speaker B: You got season tickets to Disney World.
• 17:31
  Speaker C: No, I don't, I don't. I'm not that rich. But. But I am going to November for a long time. But they didn't get me until I had my skip.
• 17:39
  Speaker B: Epcot. Epcot sucks.
• 17:40
  Speaker C: They underpour, I will tell you that. Yeah, Epcot sucks every drink and I didn't get buzzed at all.
• 17:45
  Speaker B: And I told my wife ye. They especially in the Italian area. Italian area, they oh come on in and drink wine. It's. It's like.
• 17:54
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 17:54
  Speaker B: And even the British area they under.
• 17:56
  Speaker C: Poured at the Irish pub. There was a great, great different like beers and lagers that I liked and then those I felt oh, these are a little strong. But other than that even Mexico under poured their margaritas and I had like four of them straight. I'm like, yeah, this is nothing.
• 18:11
  Speaker A: Yeah, it's not, it's not really Mexico.
• 18:13
  Speaker B: It's just, it's just, just listeners avoid Epcot.
• 18:17
  Speaker C: There you go.
• 18:18
  Speaker B: You know, I'd like the original Disneyland the best. Oh, and I like the Hollywood land too. That was cool.
• 18:25
  Speaker C: They do adult nights now so.
• 18:26
  Speaker B: Yes, they do.
• 18:27
  Speaker C: They have a.
• 18:28
  Speaker B: In fact they in in at universe at, at the Orlando Disney World.
• 18:33
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 18:34
  Speaker B: You go to that one park, the Hollywood park where they have Star wars and all that. They have really good bars there.
• 18:40
  Speaker C: It's. It's something cantina which is something with the new movies and yes. They're like, like smoking out and yeah. All the. Yes. I got tipsy.
• 18:49
  Speaker B: That's the only caters to adults that area.
• 18:51
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 18:51
  Speaker B: But the rides cater to the kids too.
• 18:53
  Speaker C: That is correct.
• 18:54
  Speaker B: Really cool.
• 18:55
  Speaker C: They have a after 11pm adult only and we're going relieving. They have something that now the nannies and the daycares come to the, to the resort.
• 19:03
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 19:04
  Speaker C: And they take care of your kids for 30 bucks an hour.
• 19:06
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 19:06
  Speaker C: So we're paying them for three hours and I'm going just me and my wife for my birthday.
• 19:09
  Speaker A: Okay, very nice.
• 19:10
  Speaker C: And then we come back. So they've made it adult and they.
• 19:12
  Speaker B: Have that, that adult friendly. They have star.
• 19:16
  Speaker C: They have that and they got ass too.
• 19:18
  Speaker B: Good.
• 19:18
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 19:19
  Speaker B: Stars where you and the wife can, you know, mingle, switch in The Cana. Yeah, brother, exactly. You walk in and everyone looks at you.
• 19:34
  Speaker A: Man, oh, man.
• 19:36
  Speaker B: He's not allowed in here.
• 19:39
  Speaker A: Things have really changed over there.
• 19:41
  Speaker C: Yeah, it's gotten different.
• 19:43
  Speaker A: Right, Right.
• 19:45
  Speaker B: Well, good times.
• 19:47
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, enjoy that. Enjoy that. Well, maybe we should get our guest in here.
• 19:51
  Speaker B: Sure. Who is our guest?
• 19:52
  Speaker A: I'm gonna let you know right now. He's a terrific third generation musician, Multi instrumentalist, drummer, percussionist, vocalist. Also plays bass and keyboards. Grew up in his father's band, OVG and the Froggies, playing Guatemalan and Caribbean music. He currently plays with a number of bands in the area, including Cuba Heat, Margie Perez, Los Tremolo Kings, and he recently subbed for me with the Iguana. Well, subbed for Doug Garrison on drums with the Iguanas, and even sub for me with Los Tremolo Kings on bass. And he's also a computer whiz working in the tech industry. And we're gonna hear about all that and much more. But without further ado, the great Mr. Ovi Giron. Welcome, Ovi.
• 20:42
  Speaker C: Thank you. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.
• 20:44
  Speaker A: Man.
• 20:44
  Speaker C: That's.
• 20:44
  Speaker A: That's a big introduction, ovg.
• 20:46
  Speaker C: Yeah, that's right. No, yeah. No one has obg.
• 20:48
  Speaker B: Oh, it's a big introduction because it's all lies.
• 20:51
  Speaker A: So it's the build up to the letdown.
• 20:53
  Speaker C: There you go. That's. Yeah, yeah. It's too much hype. Way too much hype. No, no. Thank you guys for having me here. It's always fun playing with you, Rene, and all these like, random and cool gigs we do.
• 21:04
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, we. You came into my orbit recommended by Margie Perez. I guess you play in a number of groups with her, and so she was aware of your massive talent and you came in subbed and without any rehearsal and. And killed the gig. And then we just gotten you on other projects as. As we need a percussionist or something else. And actually you've been rehearsing with the Tribe Nunzio group for our. One of our reunions that's coming up like September 19th at the broadside. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So let's get into, you know, your background. So tell us, where were you born?
• 21:43
  Speaker C: So I was actually born in Guatemala.
• 21:45
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 21:45
  Speaker C: A lot of people think I was born here, but my family, when they came to the country. I won't stop. I'll stop. When family came to out here, I was like six months. My mom has a lot of family in Virginia.
• 21:56
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 21:57
  Speaker C: And so my father, which is pretty known in Central America, with a lot of Original music. In fact, he moved out there back five years ago after he split up with my mom. And so he had, like, a big deal song, singer, songwriter. I put like six, seven instruments. He plays like, 15, 20. So he's a talented guy. And some business didn't go right. And he's like, we're going to the U.S. and Virginia.
• 22:20
  Speaker B: And why Virginia?
• 22:21
  Speaker C: Because my wife's family. She has my wife, My mom's family.
• 22:25
  Speaker B: She's got mom's family.
• 22:26
  Speaker C: Five, four sisters up there that been.
• 22:27
  Speaker B: You have a mama complex.
• 22:28
  Speaker C: Yeah, well, I don't know. I don't know, but we were supposed to go to San Francisco.
• 22:33
  Speaker B: So your mom's American and your dad's Guatemalan?
• 22:35
  Speaker C: I don't know. They're both. So my mom is actually. Her family's from Spain. But like my dad, you know, Guatemala's where they were, you know, raised and everything, so. And then on my dad's side, because.
• 22:46
  Speaker B: They were coal miners, they wanted to go to Virginia.
• 22:49
  Speaker C: That's what they have in Virginia. Coal mining, that.
• 22:51
  Speaker B: Coal miners.
• 22:52
  Speaker C: Really?
• 22:52
  Speaker A: It's West Virginia.
• 22:54
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 22:56
  Speaker A: Regular Virginia.
• 22:57
  Speaker C: Yeah, because that Richmond area. Close. And Also close to D.C. is where.
• 23:00
  Speaker B: Okay, so you were in Virginia. What city in Virginia?
• 23:04
  Speaker C: Richmond. Richmond area. And we were supposed to pass by as my dad's X band was touring. They're like, hey, they really want you in this show. It used to be. I think they still do it, Carnival Latino. It was a big festival back in the 90s, 2000, and here in New Orleans, right where the old Harris used to be. And it was a big deal. And so, like, hey, you want to make some money? You know, and we'll go the long way and go to San Francisco, where my dad had signed a job, a contract for a record label, and he was just gonna retire and produce music, because that's what he does. And somehow, somewhere, he ended up staying here. Someone offered him to be a producer at a Spanish radio show, which he did for five months. Never got paid. And then 34 years later, we're here.
• 23:48
  Speaker A: Now, is that carnival or that radio station? Is that Ernesto Schweikart?
• 23:54
  Speaker C: Oh, actually, yes, he had started. He wasn't completely the owner. I think it was a family member. Fun fact. Ernesto and my dad are from the same town in Guatemala.
• 24:04
  Speaker A: Really?
• 24:04
  Speaker C: They have fact, they have stories. It's called Tecpan. It's like a little town of a lot of marimba players and a lot of swordsmen. Yeah, I said that they, like. They fight with swords and stuff in it.
• 24:16
  Speaker B: How is Your wife Guatemalan?
• 24:18
  Speaker C: No, actually, my wife is from Honduras, so she's actually born and raised out there. Her daddy's I met.
• 24:24
  Speaker B: She can make a puppet.
• 24:25
  Speaker C: No, that's. That's Salvador.
• 24:27
  Speaker B: Oh, Salvador.
• 24:27
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. So they do baladas, which is.
• 24:30
  Speaker B: Oh, okay.
• 24:31
  Speaker C: The tortilla with the. Yeah, but she don't do it. She does all the fancy smancy stuff. So she does like. Oh, I'll do pastas, I'll do burgers.
• 24:39
  Speaker B: And so I don't want that.
• 24:41
  Speaker C: But we go eat at the Honduran spot. She knows where that.
• 24:43
  Speaker A: Okay, right, right, right. Because somebody else.
• 24:45
  Speaker B: A good Honduran spot in this town.
• 24:47
  Speaker C: There's a little place, and it's. They have one in New Orleans, but the best one is in David Drive and mety.
• 24:53
  Speaker B: I know that place.
• 24:54
  Speaker C: Los Ca.
• 24:55
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 24:55
  Speaker C: Oh, it's so cheap and so lit.
• 24:58
  Speaker B: There used to be one before Katrina on the west bank.
• 25:01
  Speaker C: That is correct.
• 25:02
  Speaker B: Do you know that? What was the name of that place?
• 25:04
  Speaker C: Ah, I know what you're talking about.
• 25:05
  Speaker B: That was so good, that place. But the one on David Drive is really good.
• 25:09
  Speaker C: They have one in New Orleans, and. But I've been to it, and it's not the same thing. We can go out there and get three balas and spend like eight bucks maybe.
• 25:17
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 25:17
  Speaker C: And so it's. But the quality of the food is great.
• 25:20
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 25:20
  Speaker C: And they just, like, threw down a wall and expanded. And the wait times are still ridiculous. Sometimes you got to wait in an hour for some. But it's worth it. And since I've been to Honduras, I'm like, okay, this is legit. I see why my wife likes it.
• 25:33
  Speaker A: It's quicker than going to Honduras.
• 25:35
  Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely.
• 25:37
  Speaker A: So you came here as an infant?
• 25:40
  Speaker C: Yeah, about six months. So three months to Virginia, and then six months here in New Orleans. And I grew up. I say, I'm from Laplace. That's my town.
• 25:49
  Speaker A: Right.
• 25:50
  Speaker C: We lived in Kenner for a few years, and my parents built a house in Laplace, which I have now the blessing of buying a house. Five years ago, four years ago, whenever Ida was, the house I was renting got destroyed. First time ever getting hit by a hurricane. So my parents, like, hey, you know, we're selling our house, and we're like, ah, I'll take it. And that house has not been brought down in Laplace. Fun fact. Which is a very heavy area for hurricanes.
• 26:14
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 26:14
  Speaker C: Nothing has hit that house. No. No flooding, no wind damage.
• 26:17
  Speaker A: All right.
• 26:17
  Speaker C: So I say we got some little. Some luck going on there. So, yeah, I'll take it. And so, yeah, Laplace is where I went to school. And then somehow in between that, we would drive all the way to Noka with my sisters and us, and we were in a jazz program. One of them was in the opera program.
• 26:34
  Speaker B: Okay, so you're still in Laplace.
• 26:37
  Speaker C: So I. I spent all my life living there. In around 20, 23, 22, I finally said, I'm out of here. Lived in Kenner, lived in Luling, lived in Metairie. And then four years ago, the circle of life went back to.
• 26:52
  Speaker B: My wife has relatives in Laplace.
• 26:55
  Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
• 26:56
  Speaker B: It's horrible there.
• 26:58
  Speaker C: Well, let me tell you this. It's a lot better now since all these hurricanes. I. I call it the shuffle, shuffle equation.
• 27:05
  Speaker B: Did you bring this moth with you?
• 27:06
  Speaker A: From up.
• 27:07
  Speaker C: You see it?
• 27:08
  Speaker A: Yeah. It's really menacing us. And it likes you.
• 27:10
  Speaker C: I was actually in the west bank, so. Might have followed me. Oh, I'm just playing. I got cousins on Belches. I like to mess with them all the time. And Vanilla plus has grown since Katrina, since Ida. We. I know it's dumb, but they got.
• 27:22
  Speaker B: A stop sign now.
• 27:23
  Speaker C: Well, we got lights. Yeah, we got, like. We got a wing stop coming. We got Chili's. We got La Greta. And there was a lot of things.
• 27:31
  Speaker B: You have an EDL market there.
• 27:33
  Speaker C: No, we don't. We don't.
• 27:34
  Speaker B: You gotta get it.
• 27:35
  Speaker C: We gotta. It's called 504 Latino.
• 27:38
  Speaker B: Oh, so. And it's pretty.
• 27:40
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 27:40
  Speaker C: And it's like, wow. Was it do. It's a market. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. They should have researched 985, but. All right, it's all right. It's all good. But it's growing. But eventually, I think my wife, she's got some cousins at Vanderville and, you know, kids and education. Like, maybe. Maybe I'll leave my little town and go to a place where they don't eat anything really out there. They got it all.
• 28:02
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 28:03
  Speaker C: So, like, we still got to travel either to Br or to Kenner. New Orleans.
• 28:07
  Speaker B: So you gotta go back to Laplace tonight.
• 28:09
  Speaker C: Oh, yeah. Usually every night.
• 28:10
  Speaker B: We'll drink up.
• 28:11
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Well, well. So you were at noka. Who were you studying with at noka?
• 28:17
  Speaker C: So peep this. I got a great story for you. The great Mike Polera.
• 28:21
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 28:22
  Speaker C: Which I found out is a teacher to a bunch of other great musicians.
• 28:26
  Speaker A: Oh, sure.
• 28:26
  Speaker C: I was. I was about 15, almost 16, playing with this Latin band back from day called Freddie Omar.
• 28:33
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Freddie Omar.
• 28:35
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 28:35
  Speaker A: Sure.
• 28:35
  Speaker C: My dad was the keyboard player for many years. Between him and this other fellow named Ralph, they would like sh. And I grew up with a little bit of Michael Skinkos dongle, a Cuban player. There was a bunch of different guys, and we were playing Latin music. And I knew it, but I also grew up in church. And I grew up, you know, my dad played a lot of covers, Rock, funk, Tower of Power, and then, you know, ZZ Top. He had a big, big, big, you know, repertoire. No, that's what he played in Guatemala, Salvador. And in church. Well, church, but also, like I said, my dad, like, he had a big record collection. And so he made me play that when I studied music. You're gonna learn blood, sweat and tears. You're gonna load, you know, Cool. You're gonna learn some Boston. So they came and it was half Honduran, half American. The bride and the groom, and they're like, hey, we want American music. And Mike Polari had just finished his trio jazz playing for them while, you know, people ate and everything. And so I'm like, can I play something? And, you know, my dad starts playing funky and the timbalero Donko's like, I don't know what to do there. I'm like, well, there's. There's a kick. Get off the timbales. And I start playing funk. Then we start doing shout. And, you know. And, you know, my daddy's mostly, like, driven all this thing. And Polaris stood there and I didn't know who he was at the time, and. And he came in and he's like, hey, kid, where's school you go to? I'm like, and at the time, I was at home school after fifth grade. So not a lot of great public schools in Laplace.
• 30:05
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 30:05
  Speaker C: So I got blessed to be private, but up to fifth grade. And he's like, hey, man, I'm actually teach at noka. We don't have a drummer this year in a jazz program. It's a weird thing, you know?
• 30:15
  Speaker A: Right, so he recruited you.
• 30:17
  Speaker C: And I'm like, guess what? My two sisters are already in the program.
• 30:19
  Speaker A: Oh, man.
• 30:20
  Speaker C: My bass player sister, Susie, Shout out to my sister. She's the OG bass player in the family. She was on jazz and. And the other one, my sister, was in opera. And he's like, what's the last name? Well, it's Jaron this and that. You know what? Come in here, we're gonna get you in. And he made an exception. Got a special badge, you know, that's it. Like, kind of like A guest volunteer. I don't know what he gave me.
• 30:40
  Speaker B: Like, handicap park.
• 30:41
  Speaker C: Yeah. Kind of like. Like, special. Like this dude got hit in a. By a baseball bat.
• 30:45
  Speaker B: Exactly. Now, your sister's still playing, or.
• 30:49
  Speaker C: So they do. My dad's band, that was like, literally, we did music for a living for, I want to say, for about 15 years before and after college. And then eventually you all got degrees and day jobs and play with bands. But my dad's bands hasn't been around for about seven, eight years, and so they kind of, like, retired after that. One of them is in Virginia, and she plays bass for a couple of big churches. The other one kind of, like, plays in her church, but I always encourage her, like, hey, can you sub for me? Because sometimes I got a lot of gigs, and I'm like, can you sub? And she thinks about it, and she can read great. She's a better sight reader than me. She knows all the stuff. And she's like, you know what? I haven't played in a while. So they're kind of like in and out of music. Only me and my dad are the ones that are.
• 31:32
  Speaker B: Are they single or married?
• 31:34
  Speaker C: One of them, the oldest, has just gotten married three years ago. The second one is single and ready to mingle in Virginia. Richmond area. She's. She's a. I call. She's the nerd of the family. She's masters in business, going law school. She's like. She just loves to study and. Which me and my other sister were not that way. We're, like, listening. You barely get out with an associates and make it work, you know, so.
• 31:59
  Speaker A: So when you. So when you were growing up, your dad was training you and all these instruments just part of homeschooling you and the. In the. The being in the band business.
• 32:09
  Speaker C: Yeah. So, like, I got homeschooled because of music. I started playing. My first band was Julian Caesar, which I think they're still around.
• 32:16
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 32:17
  Speaker C: It's a. Well, Guatemalan guy. It's about three towns where my dad's from. And I was 8 years old, and they used to play in this place in Covington that's now La Coretta, but it was another name. And they're like, hey, we need a percussion player. And my dad's like, well, you're gonna learn bongos and congas. And I learned, like, 20 songs. They would pay me 12 bucks every Tuesday. And I thought that was crazy. I'm like, oh, my God.
• 32:39
  Speaker A: I got all this money and you're eight years old.
• 32:40
  Speaker C: I Was. I was eight years old and it was a lot of like, I couldn't even carry the drums. They were heavier than me.
• 32:45
  Speaker B: And that's when the heroin addict.
• 32:47
  Speaker C: No, that, that came out during college. So I kind of like just started and it was like. My dad just really wanted me to stick to drums. He didn't like Kong as a percussion until the opportunity presented. He never taught me really piano or bass or marimba. But it was kind of like, okay, you want to learn how to do it, use your ears. Because I got the pleasure. My dad's got absolute pitch. So he always like encouraged me to find that I don't have that I got a good relative pitch.
• 33:16
  Speaker A: Right.
• 33:16
  Speaker C: I don't have it, but it runs in the family. And so he's like, yeah, just learning. And then when I had questions, he would answer. But he gave me the, like, the freedom to just explore. And if I came out, let's say I took out a chicore song and he would come and he knows that the chord's wrong. He would say, you're close, but you're not there. And I love that because not many people with perfect pitch, I don't know if you met them.
• 33:37
  Speaker B: But he also taught you how to score, right?
• 33:39
  Speaker C: Oh, man.
• 33:44
  Speaker B: You'Re Latino, baby. Come on, man.
• 33:47
  Speaker C: Hey. It took me 27 years to find my wife.
• 33:50
  Speaker A: There you go.
• 33:50
  Speaker C: But in between that.
• 33:52
  Speaker B: Yeah, a lot. You had lots of banging.
• 33:56
  Speaker A: Well, you meant, you mentioned, you mentioned the marimba.
• 34:00
  Speaker C: Yes.
• 34:00
  Speaker A: And I know that, that your family, as I mentioned early on, you're. You're a third generation musician. And so can we go back to, to Guatemala, the beginnings of the, the first band that, that your grandparents generation had? Yes, that was, Was that Los Reynas.
• 34:19
  Speaker C: Los Reynas, yes, sir. Yes. That's actually my grandpa, the German. He is an. It was an immigrant in Guatemala. Legit German. Hence when if you see me like, you know, Guatemalan's not really that tall, but I'm, I'm about 6, 2. My grandpa's about 6, 7. Every picture I have of him, he's over the houses. Yeah, because we're talking about indigenous, Right, Right. Third world country. And so he was a musician, slash instrument maker. So he would make trumpets, marimbas, drums, and he had los ranas, which is indigenous because my grandma is indigenous.
• 34:51
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 34:52
  Speaker C: You were looking at a 4, 8, 49 woman.
• 34:55
  Speaker A: That was his wife.
• 34:56
  Speaker B: Well, you know, after World War I, the Germans came to Central America. They did that is started populating. It was all part of the plan.
• 35:05
  Speaker C: Yeah, it Was like some execute order 66 or something like that.
• 35:08
  Speaker B: Exactly. My. My family on my mom's side is Mexican.
• 35:14
  Speaker C: Word.
• 35:14
  Speaker B: And we have a. I have a lot of blonde cousins. Because of the Germans. Yeah, the Germans came after World War I and they were already. Hitler was. Already had his plan after that. That was happening all over Mexico, all.
• 35:28
  Speaker C: Over South America, a lot. Argentina.
• 35:31
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, it's Germans, man.
• 35:34
  Speaker C: It's somewhere in there.
• 35:35
  Speaker B: You make great cars, though.
• 35:36
  Speaker A: Hey, you like your car? Got you here?
• 35:39
  Speaker B: Yeah, I have a German car made by Mexican women.
• 35:43
  Speaker A: Right, right.
• 35:44
  Speaker C: What type of car you got?
• 35:46
  Speaker B: Jetta.
• 35:46
  Speaker C: A Jetta. Oh, look, a Volkswagen.
• 35:48
  Speaker B: That's what the salesman told me. This is a great German car made by Mexican women.
• 35:52
  Speaker C: I know a buddy of mine, he has a diesel one that lasted about 40, 50 years, if not more.
• 35:57
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 35:57
  Speaker C: And I'm like, wow, these are good. But. But yeah. So the German started the music. Played every instrument from the banjo to everything. Like the dude knew everything. And unfortunately I didn't meet him. It was. He passed away when my dad was like 12. But the one thing he left him was music. And because of that music, he was able to get in a conservatory in Guatemala on a full scholarship. Having perfect pitch helped him.
• 36:22
  Speaker A: Right, sure, sure. Well, tell us about that first. That first incarnation of the band, the first generation. So that was a marimba band?
• 36:31
  Speaker C: Yes, it was straight up marimba.
• 36:32
  Speaker A: Well, tell it, tell. Explain to the listeners what a marimba band is, what a marimba is and what. What the formation of the group would be.
• 36:38
  Speaker C: Absolutely. Marimba is kind of like a xylophone. The difference is instead of having tubing that's like metal, it's 100% wooden. And it's got like a little mesh on it. So it gives it like a little buzz, kind of like the drinks were drinking. So it goes like a. No pings at the end, especially in the lower mid registers. So that's what the indigenous invented marimba comes from Guatemala. So the German guy, grandpa, my grandpa learned how to play this instrument. And even though his step kids weren't musicians, he taught them in a very hard way, I've been told. But until this day, they're musicians and they live off of music. And they had between both of them about 12 kids. So my dad was the youngest out of the 12. And from the last marriage, which was with my grandma, so that they all played music. It was my Rimba traditional, but since I guess, you know, he was from Guatemala, they did a lot of covers of, you know, Glenn Miller.
• 37:39
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 37:40
  Speaker C: Frank Sinatra and marimba. And it was instrumental. And my dad's job was to have his brother, older brother would take one part of the song as it was playing the radio, write down the notes, and then he would take the other part, write down the notes and then go teach it to his sisters and cousins and brothers, transcribing it off the radio, out of AM radio. And so that, that changed a little bit because they would draw attention once because they were kids, you know, they had people from 15 all the way till my dad, that started when he was four.
• 38:12
  Speaker A: Now what was the instrumentation of this kind of band?
• 38:15
  Speaker C: So marimba, traditional marimba has drums, upright bass, and then the 2, 3 octave marimbas. So you have a piccolo that's very high, that you know, whatever, it's about two octaves. And then you have a three octave, that's mid to low range. So the mid to low range will mimic a little bit the bass. So you could get away with that without the upright bass.
• 38:38
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 38:38
  Speaker C: But they, they kind of go. And then they're doing the harmonies on the middle section. And then the high piccolo is doing all the melodies.
• 38:48
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 38:48
  Speaker C: And indigenous music is run that way. And then eventually it has evolved to like, you know, having percussion and trumpet. And my dad, his job was before marimba was drums, kind of like me. So you play the drums and in the ability of hearing notes. My grandpa put him on the trumpet. So they had his brother played drums while he played trumpet. And then he. Whenever my grandparents split up, they would turn into one marimba instead of two. And they all did it in one marimba. And that's when my dad learned how to play marimba about five.
• 39:21
  Speaker B: Your grandparents divorced?
• 39:22
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 39:23
  Speaker B: I don't know if they got back together.
• 39:25
  Speaker C: No, they didn't get back together together.
• 39:26
  Speaker B: They, they said they split up.
• 39:28
  Speaker C: They split up and she took her, her kids and about 12 of them. Yeah, about like half of them, I think. I think total together.
• 39:37
  Speaker B: Started her own band.
• 39:38
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 39:39
  Speaker A: Well, you know what?
• 39:39
  Speaker C: Fun fact, I think she didn't do any more music, but all her kids did, even though they were musicians. And they're registered as one of the biggest like marimba orchestras. Cuz that's the thing. There's orchestra marimbas, they have a full breast. Frank Sinatra, Glenn Miller with marimba. It was a trend of, you know, the Sinatra days.
• 39:57
  Speaker A: And like in the 50s, in the.
• 39:59
  Speaker C: 50S, 60s, my dad's time, you know, Tony Bennett music. But. And no singing, it's all sang by the marimba. But you have the whole Experience. So it's a weird combination that I encourage people to YouTube, put a marimba orchestra. And you're like, what is this? You know, you're playing, you know, marimba, and then you throw the horns and it's. It's a full thing. So that was like the first gen. Then my grandpa passed away. And then I guess, second gen, my dad and his brother, okay, at about 12, 13 years old, they kind of, like, lived on their own.
• 40:35
  Speaker B: They.
• 40:35
  Speaker C: They. You know, they couldn't find their mom. We were talking about times with. No, really, if there was phones, God. God knows where. So they kind of. They. My dad says he was actually kind of homeless for two days. And he fell in, like, literally, like, stepped into a building that was a conservatory. And he's like, well, I know music. That's what my dad taught me. He's along with me, let's go see what we can do here. And so they're like, you need audition, young man. We gotta do an audition. So, you know, he said those two days he was out in the streets, living under the bridge. Like, nothing in his.
• 41:07
  Speaker A: Nothing to do.
• 41:08
  Speaker C: He had nothing to do with him having his brother. So he auditioned the the following two days. And they asked, can you read? And he's like, I know a little bit. Because, you know, my grandpa did read. What do you play? Trumpet?
• 41:20
  Speaker B: Read or read music?
• 41:21
  Speaker C: Read music. Read music. Yeah, yeah, right. Now he could read. He still went to school up to, like, you know, 13, 14, and okay. And they're like, okay, well, now we're gonna do the ear section. We're gonna test your ear. And they say, young man, turn around. And they turn around. And the piano player plays a chord. And do you know what this is? And my dad's like, no, I don't know what this is. But left hand is playing this note. This note, this note.
• 41:44
  Speaker A: I can hear all the notes. I don't know what you call it.
• 41:47
  Speaker C: They start laughing, and my dad starts getting a little pissed. Like, man, why they making fun of me? You know, I'm the youngest kid. So they bring a trumpet, a trombone and a saxophone, and they all start harmonizing at the same time. And like, what is that? And my dad's like, I don't know. But the saxophones, like, this, this, this, this, this, this. And they laugh. And my dad say, all right, I'm out. And like, he just like, yeah, pretty much. He leaves. And like, no, no, son, come over here. Come over here. You have a rare ability. And until he was 14, he thought every musician could hear.
• 42:22
  Speaker A: Like him thought everybody could hear what little notes were just by hearing them.
• 42:25
  Speaker C: Because his dad did his brothers.
• 42:26
  Speaker B: So he was like a rain man, right?
• 42:28
  Speaker C: Pretty much A rain man, yeah.
• 42:30
  Speaker B: He was like a rainbow.
• 42:31
  Speaker C: He was. And so then he's like, oh. And so he got the full scholarship. They gave him, like, where to stay. He's like, I got a brother. Can y' all test him? Same situation, you know, perfect pitch. And so his. He lived off the one thing my grandpa did as a second gen musician. He doesn't know how to build instruments. There was a lot of trades my grandpa had. He would build houses, like from adobe. He did slice concrete work. Like the dude was, you know, a lot of trades. And the only thing he left was music. And because of that, my dad was. Till this day he's 67 and he's only done music all his life. Wow. That's all. So that was the sec. Yeah.
• 43:10
  Speaker A: Well, I'm loving the story and we got plenty more to go, but it's about that time, man.
• 43:16
  Speaker B: Yeah, we gotta take our break. We'll be right back.
• 43:23
  Speaker A: It. And we're back. Back with Mr. Manny Chevrolet. I am Renee Coleman, back with our guest, Mr. Ovie Giron. Now, Ovi, I know you've heard some of these shows and you are familiar with the fact that this is a listener supported operation. And we have links in the show notes of every show as well as the Facebook pages I put up to promote. It has The Venmo and PayPal links there. And our devoted listeners will buy us cocktails, help defray our operating costs. And this week we have a couple royal Roy and Ann Phelps are buying our cocktails for us. So thank you. Roy and Anne, they're big fans. Been listening to the podcast for a while.
• 45:40
  Speaker B: And where are they from?
• 45:42
  Speaker A: I'm not sure. You couldn't tell. It was just a Venmo, you know, Venmo thing. So you can't. It wasn't somebody sending us mail to the bar like, but anybody that wants to do that, it is. What? 7612 Oak Street, New Orleans. Orleans 70118. Snake and Jinx.
• 46:00
  Speaker B: Thank you. Roy and Anne. They seem like a nice.
• 46:03
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You have to be. You know, I like the couple together.
• 46:06
  Speaker B: For quite a while.
• 46:07
  Speaker A: Couples listening to the show together. It's nice.
• 46:09
  Speaker B: So bad.
• 46:10
  Speaker A: Could be.
• 46:11
  Speaker B: So that would be cool.
• 46:13
  Speaker A: Sure.
• 46:13
  Speaker B: Bed. Listen.
• 46:14
  Speaker A: Sure. Yeah. It's like doze off naked. Okay. Well.
• 46:19
  Speaker B: Summer sweat.
• 46:20
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 46:21
  Speaker B: That would be really cool.
• 46:23
  Speaker C: Could be Swedish.
• 46:24
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 46:24
  Speaker B: Right. And fill me in. On what's going on.
• 46:27
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 46:29
  Speaker C: So you love support, guys. This is a great show.
• 46:31
  Speaker B: We love your support, but I need more than your money.
• 46:34
  Speaker A: All right. Okay. Well, might be more than you bargain for, but also we have the. The. The link for the Patreon page there. Join the Patreon page. We have a handful of. Of supporters.
• 46:49
  Speaker B: Yes, thank you.
• 46:50
  Speaker A: Week after week. And also the. The link for the Troubleman podcast. T shirts that you can purchase for your loved ones for Christmas or whatever gift giving event you have or their burial. Sure. Also follow us on social media.
• 47:06
  Speaker B: Casket. That would be cool. An open casket with our T shirt.
• 47:09
  Speaker A: Yeah. To take a picture and send it.
• 47:12
  Speaker B: In the QR code.
• 47:13
  Speaker A: And also. So yeah, follow us on Facebook, Instagram and rate review and subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to it. Give us five stars. Cost you. Nothing helps us a lot. And what else? Also yes, that Tribe Nunzio gig that.
• 47:27
  Speaker B: Me and OVI is and also my mirror election. I could use your help.
• 47:32
  Speaker A: Yes. Yes, Manny vote Vote early and often for Manny Chevrolet. Maybe your. It's your last chance.
• 47:38
  Speaker B: This is my last go round.
• 47:39
  Speaker A: Last go round. So last chance to. To correct correct course on. On New Orleans. Disastrous direction here.
• 47:47
  Speaker B: Speaking about the election, one of our favorite people, Jeff Crower.
• 47:52
  Speaker A: Oh yeah, your. Your body Jeffrey.
• 47:55
  Speaker B: That guy. But he, he's doing a mayor. He's doing a candidate form.
• 48:01
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 48:03
  Speaker B: In about two weeks at all places. De La Salle High School.
• 48:07
  Speaker A: De La Salle High School. School. Okay. Or have you been invited Capital of.
• 48:11
  Speaker B: The world for high school girls.
• 48:12
  Speaker A: All right. It's a boy school. I guess they do have girls.
• 48:16
  Speaker B: Yeah. Anyway, he's invited me and I, he gave me the email yesterday and I responded because he's a, you know, guy's a jerk.
• 48:28
  Speaker A: And I said but he invited you in spite of all the things you said about him over the years.
• 48:32
  Speaker B: No, I said, I will be a part of this for forum if you admit that you're homosexual.
• 48:38
  Speaker A: Well, we'll see. Maybe you'll go to the forum and get some closure.
• 48:41
  Speaker B: Yeah, I'm not going until he admits it.
• 48:43
  Speaker A: Okay, well, you can work that out between y'.
• 48:46
  Speaker B: All. Anyway, he's a good guy.
• 48:47
  Speaker A: Right on. Right on.
• 48:48
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 48:48
  Speaker A: Well, so yes, I was mentioning we have that. That Tribe Nunzio gig coming up on September 19th. Now who is tried Nunzio Tribe Nunzio. It's a band that with Jeff Traffinger is one of the songwriters and guitar player and singer and have Holden.
• 49:04
  Speaker B: He's still holding on to that youth.
• 49:06
  Speaker A: Well, you know, we enjoy playing Music.
• 49:08
  Speaker C: It was fun stuff. It's a great time with them. Have fun.
• 49:11
  Speaker A: Yeah, we had a great rehearsal and.
• 49:12
  Speaker B: Oh, you're playing with them.
• 49:13
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. OB's playing percussion with us this time.
• 49:16
  Speaker B: That's one gig I'll miss.
• 49:17
  Speaker A: That's fine. But what else? Something I was going to say. Oh, yes. The Iguanas continue our. Our Carousel residency at. Every Sunday at Circus Circus.
• 49:29
  Speaker B: Carousel.
• 49:30
  Speaker A: Carousel Bar at Hotel Montley. Oh, okay, enough of that. Back to our guest, Mr. Ovi Garon. Yeah. Now, so you were talking about your.
• 49:39
  Speaker B: Father, OV or Obi?
• 49:40
  Speaker C: Ov.
• 49:41
  Speaker B: Ov.
• 49:42
  Speaker C: Yes, sir.
• 49:42
  Speaker A: O Video is your full name, so.
• 49:44
  Speaker C: Actually, O Video is my dad's name.
• 49:46
  Speaker A: Your dad's name?
• 49:46
  Speaker C: His nickname growing up was ovi. So when I was born, he actually named me. So I'm OV the first.
• 49:51
  Speaker A: Okay. All right.
• 49:52
  Speaker C: My son is actually Ovie the second.
• 49:54
  Speaker A: Oh, all right.
• 49:55
  Speaker B: Oh, Video. Like Video Tape.
• 49:57
  Speaker C: Like, over. Like. Like old Video. Blockbuster Video. Like, that's.
• 50:01
  Speaker B: Your dad. Goes all. Your dad's that young from Blockbuster.
• 50:04
  Speaker C: I. I'm from Blockbuster.
• 50:06
  Speaker B: I know, but, yeah, dad was O Video.
• 50:08
  Speaker C: Yeah. Oh, Video. It's Romanian.
• 50:10
  Speaker B: How old is your dad?
• 50:12
  Speaker C: My dad is 67. He just turned.
• 50:14
  Speaker B: So he was way before Video. Yeah, so they called him Video Before Video.
• 50:19
  Speaker C: But they said, oh, Video. Maybe to come. What's to come? Oh, they were peeking into the future.
• 50:25
  Speaker A: Okay, pressing a name. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 50:28
  Speaker B: Those Guatemalans.
• 50:29
  Speaker C: I think the background is that somehow in Hispanic culture, they. If it's like the, like, August or September, you go through the saint of that month, and it was supposed to be like, martico, something weird. But my grandpa was too drunk to remember and lost a paper. So his drunken buddy said, hey, you should name, like, the poet, the Romanian Ovidio. It's a famous poet. And so that's how he ended up with that name, which was very uncommon. And now, because of his music and everything, there's a lot of Videos in Guatemala.
• 51:01
  Speaker A: Huh?
• 51:02
  Speaker C: Oh, Video, like the musician, you know?
• 51:04
  Speaker B: So religion's to blame for all that?
• 51:06
  Speaker C: Yeah, religion, alcohol, Grandpa.
• 51:10
  Speaker A: So. So to move the story along a little bit, so your father finds refuge in the. In the. The conservatory. He gets a tremendous music education. With all this natural ability, he. He. He continues on or has a second generation of the band. El Grupo.
• 51:27
  Speaker C: Yes, Grupo Rana. That's right. You got it. Which means frog. And so, fun fact. Frogs, Los ranas, all that. That's a, like, good, good Hispanic. Every family has a nickname. Apparently, my grandpa the German stepped on a frog, and in the Town where my dad grew up, they say, hey, you're a frog. And now you're known as frogs. So that's where Loz Ranas, the frog killer. Yeah, he stepped on it. He's a frog killer. You're a frog. And so, yeah, so my dad, after, like, you know, all that with conservatory, some earthquake and back in the 70s of Guatemala, took him to Salvador. He was in a bunch of COVID bands of 70s music. The greatest time to be a musician, you know, Earth, Wind and Fire, Gino Vanelli, Tower of Power, all the stuff that I grew up, he lived it and played it. And then he went back to Guatemala and he did his project with his brother called Grupo Rana, which the record label at the time with. Their policy was no original music. We only do covers.
• 52:21
  Speaker B: What record company was this?
• 52:23
  Speaker C: It's called it.
• 52:24
  Speaker B: I think it was called Covers Only.
• 52:27
  Speaker C: No, that was the. The club. He had covers. Only in Bourbon street, anyways. No, so it's a. It's some. Some record label. And my dad always aspired to make music. He had. He was the only one in, like, in his family that, like, I want to create music. I want to create music. So they did covers. They do a lot of covers of like, Colombian artists, stuff that was very far away. And he started marimba band. Well, so this is the thing. It was not marimba. They evolved to like, you know, when, like Latin band, salsa.
• 52:57
  Speaker A: Okay, right, right, right, right.
• 52:59
  Speaker C: But he came up with the rhythm that's called Soca, which is from Trinidad Tobago, Caribbean. There's an area of Guatemala, it's very tiny. It's actually smaller than Louisiana. But you get like. If you go to like, the south side, you got mountains and it's snow, and you go to like the other side and it's hot and it's islands, and in the middle it's always spring. They don't use ac. It's like, beautiful. The capital city. So he went to the other side, the hot side, and he found a bunch of island people playing this music. So he decided to cover a band called Arrow, which is Lasoka, and also Byron Lee and the Dragoneers. So big Caribbean stuff. And he took out two songs that were out of. It was kind of covers, but he put his twist his Spanish songs and change the melody. And they. They say, oh, yeah, it's from this artist. And they put it in and guy. The record deals like, you know, let's do it. And then he started making music and then he started doing his own stuff and he started creating stuff where to the point where he dragged some songs with marimba and merengue and soca, and to the point that that record label changed their policy in two years where only original music.
• 54:08
  Speaker A: Oh, okay, you're out.
• 54:09
  Speaker C: Wow. Wow.
• 54:10
  Speaker B: Now, you mentioned Gino Vanelli.
• 54:13
  Speaker C: Oh, yeah. Huge fan.
• 54:14
  Speaker B: My wife is a huge Gina.
• 54:17
  Speaker C: I saw him at the Joy Theater in 2015. I'm a huge fan.
• 54:21
  Speaker B: I think she saw him back in the 80s.
• 54:24
  Speaker A: I actually saw him in New Orleans a couple of times because my father was into the band because they had all keyboards. And at the time, people were thinking, oh, yeah, that's the future, man.
• 54:33
  Speaker C: Giovanelli.
• 54:35
  Speaker A: All keyboard bands, you know. Well, it didn't pan out that way, fortunately for all of us.
• 54:40
  Speaker B: Now, is he still alive?
• 54:41
  Speaker C: Oh, he's still going.
• 54:42
  Speaker A: Still alive.
• 54:43
  Speaker C: He's Canadian. He does a lot of stuff down here. Joe Vanelli was the keyboard player that. Because of him.
• 54:48
  Speaker B: But he's charging tariffs because he's a Canadian. Well, no.
• 54:52
  Speaker C: So I think. Well, this is 2015. I feel like I pay 40 bucks to get good seats at the Joy Theater. What? They had just renovated the Joy Theater.
• 55:00
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 55:00
  Speaker C: So it's like, brand new. And I made a mistake of recording the whole thing on a. On those videos. Video cameras that you still hold and your iPhone. And then I.
• 55:09
  Speaker B: So you bootleg.
• 55:10
  Speaker C: I know, I got it. I said, this is great. I'm never gonna forget this. I plugged into an old Mac and I forgot to eject the hard drive and the SD slot, and I erased the whole concert. I'm like, no, but it was great.
• 55:22
  Speaker B: Now, what was his big hit?
• 55:23
  Speaker A: People Gotta move.
• 55:25
  Speaker C: People gotta move. I just wanna see.
• 55:28
  Speaker B: That's it. Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 55:30
  Speaker C: He also did a song from Mardi Gras here, because he came a lot here. He did a song, something about Louisiana. It's a very, very hardcore gospel, not gospel, progressive type of thing. He had. He also did Brother to Brother.
• 55:49
  Speaker A: Yeah, you don't. You don't hear Gino Fideli mentioned in. In. In glowing terms very often. So it's interesting that a young kid.
• 55:57
  Speaker C: Well, my dad would cover his music.
• 55:59
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 55:59
  Speaker C: In Guatemala and Salvador, and they would have, like, cover. And they. They had the afros. They had the whole thing.
• 56:05
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 56:05
  Speaker C: You know, he played with, like, they.
• 56:08
  Speaker B: Did it to the nines.
• 56:09
  Speaker C: They don't know what they were saying.
• 56:10
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 56:11
  Speaker C: But they were singing it, and that's the funny part. And you can YouTube a lot of the bands he played with. And you see my dad and AF were singing, playing trumpet.
• 56:18
  Speaker B: Now they're playing the tourists or just local.
• 56:21
  Speaker C: No, they. So you. The influence of American music in Latin America was so big in the 70s that. That like a lot of people don't know the impact, how it influenced even the salsa R B stuff we do now that the New York Kings, like New Yorkians do with people here. Merengue. It's, it's all because our parents, like, especially musicians, introduced us to the music they were covering in their time. And that's something a lot of people don't know, which is American R B. American R B. It was, it was, you know, it was Boston, Kansas. They were rock bands.
• 56:51
  Speaker B: Worst bands ever.
• 56:53
  Speaker A: Yeah. Not, not, not, not me. Me and Manny are punk rock kids. We. We were rebelling against Boston and Kansas. Those were. Those are our most hated bands.
• 57:03
  Speaker B: Well, my most hated cities too.
• 57:05
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 57:05
  Speaker C: In Boston. Yeah. I dated a punk girl for a good while, A little while, I wouldn't say. But she got me into punk rock. 90s, punk rock, Goldfinger, Distillers, you know, Big Elephant and all these different guys. Oh man, I saw them live.
• 57:19
  Speaker B: Yeah, I've never seen them live, but they're good.
• 57:22
  Speaker C: Oh my God. They let me down because on YouTube they wouldn't use their horn section. And that was the whole thing that I was like, you know, the horn section. But they finally did a reunion back in after Covid 2021.
• 57:34
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 57:35
  Speaker C: Original guys. And they bought the three horn section and I was happy on YouTube. I don't know if they're still around.
• 57:40
  Speaker B: There's all the musicians were broke after Covid, so they all got together again.
• 57:44
  Speaker C: Oh yeah.
• 57:45
  Speaker B: No matter what my streams.
• 57:46
  Speaker A: But anyways, get back to your, your, your, your dad. So. And your dad becomes a, A big star in.
• 57:53
  Speaker C: In his.
• 57:53
  Speaker A: Guatemala and, and Honduras.
• 57:55
  Speaker C: Right, Honduras, Salvador.
• 57:57
  Speaker A: And touring all around there.
• 57:59
  Speaker C: And he would tour in the US Hence why he had been to Carnival Festival here, Louisiana. He has pictures with Celly Cruz. He's got pictures with Grant Combo. Big, big Hispanic people. And that he would open and. Or close. And so he did. Oh, you know, he didn't do Pancho Sanchez, but I do know I'm a Greek poncho guy. But for six, six, seven years, that's what he did. And then business didn't work out. His brother had a partner and they kind of kicked him out of his own band.
• 58:28
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 58:29
  Speaker C: It was a sad situation, but I see it's a blessing in disguise. Because of that I was able to grow up here.
• 58:35
  Speaker A: That brought. That's, that's, that's the Point where he came to the city.
• 58:38
  Speaker C: That's the point we came here. After doing all that journey of, you know, you know, different bands, his own, he decided, I'm not gonna stay in Guatemala and compete against my brother.
• 58:48
  Speaker A: Now, what was. Let me ask you, what was the. The political or social scene in Guatemala, like, when he was having a young family?
• 58:58
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 58:58
  Speaker A: And like, what was it? Was it a safe place to live and all?
• 59:04
  Speaker C: I don't know who the President was, but he was some guy that started assassinating a live TV whoever did, like, illegal stuff. Like, he. Like he had, like. I don't know what you call it when you get like five people and you put them against the wall and they shoot him. Firing squad, there you go. He did that, like, for a week. And all the murderers, all the gang members stopped. And that's why, I think, when my older sister was born. And it was a peaceful six, seven years while that guy was in office, because he was ex military, ex general, and he's like, we're cutting this. So. So it was a great time. You know, he didn't leave, like, as.
• 59:39
  Speaker A: Long as you weren't getting in front.
• 59:40
  Speaker B: Of a firing squad up against the President.
• 59:43
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
• 59:47
  Speaker B: It'S all good. Shut the up, right?
• 59:51
  Speaker A: It's good for you.
• 59:51
  Speaker B: That's cool.
• 59:52
  Speaker C: Because if you think like, ourselves. City's corrupt, man. Guatemala's worst. Every president's been there, I think, till this day, except that dude, which he. I think he retired and whatever, and after that, all went downhill. But. So that time is like, kind of when, like, he started having kids with my mom.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker A: Was that part of the reason your father left is that it's not necessarily still safe to be there?
• 1:00:13
  Speaker C: Well. Well, he left when it was safe. He left because of the bad business. Then again, years later, as I'm in school here. Remember Circuit City, guys? Y' all remember?
• 1:00:23
  Speaker A: Yeah, Yeah.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker C: I go to Circuit City and I see my dad's face on a Latin music, and it says, rana. Group of Rana. And I'm like, what the heck? Fifteen bucks. What's this? I didn't know much about my dad. I go, dad, is this you? And say, yeah. He found out his brother had been scanning him for royalties for like 20 years.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker A: Oh, man, the records out. Not telling him, not paying.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker C: He told Sony Studios and Sony like this, like the label. Hey, he died.
• 1:00:50
  Speaker B: You ever get back at him?
• 1:00:51
  Speaker C: Well, so he finally settled, you know, thanks to, you know, BMI and all these things. You know, him being here and, you know, being in kind of established musician and having resources with a lot of people, like, hey. So he fought it back, but for like, 20 years that this music was hot. He didn't get one penny.
• 1:01:05
  Speaker A: Oh, man. Didn't get any of that money.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker C: And out of, like, five albums, like, nine songs out of 12 were his. He sang them. He wrote him inspired by it.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker B: That's your uncle who did this?
• 1:01:15
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker A: He's still around.
• 1:01:20
  Speaker B: I, I, where is he? Because. Let's go get him.
• 1:01:23
  Speaker C: He's been in Guatemala. He's been in Guatemala, but. Well, I mean, he still has my dad's band, and till this day, he's like a retro band. And, you know, but my dad has gone back and people like, oh, that's the, the dude that sang. That's the dude that's. They had a. They had like, their signature scream was, they would say really loud. So my uncle doesn't even sing. So my dad just got on stage once in Guatemala and we went over to play his music for a benefit event. It's called the, It's a telethon, biggest one they have in Guatemala, 2014. And my dad went out there and, oh, my God, all ages know his music. We're talking about younger kids than me singing the music that I didn't even know. I had to learn it because I grew up in New Orleans, right? We, you know, I would rock, funk and everything, and we learned my dad's music just for that one show. And so anyways, they love him, hence why he's back there. So now he's back there, he's kind of like, not the best situation for my uncle, but he's starting to get a little bit of back of what he invested years ago. And he can't go out and about like us. We're in this bar, we're hanging. They'll be lining up in Guatemala. Mr. Video, Mr. Rana, photo, picture. Oh, my God.
• 1:02:33
  Speaker A: Oh, really?
• 1:02:34
  Speaker C: He's got to wear the scarf. He's got to keep his hat. A scarf.
• 1:02:37
  Speaker B: And I've seen pictures of your uncle.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker A: Recognizable dude.
• 1:02:42
  Speaker C: He's a very, very recognizable guy.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker B: Yeah, but the uncle's, like, wanted, right?
• 1:02:46
  Speaker C: Well, the uncle's still there. And as if nobody likes him as of this era, my dad shut him down where he cannot play one song from his, which is all his repertoire. So, like, like, he only has, like, four songs out of all the music. He said, so I go down, you grow some cojones. Because it's his brother. They grew up together, so I get it. But my sisters, they raised us Right. We would never screw each other that way. So.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker A: Right.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker B: So anyways, your dad got the money's back.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker C: Yeah, he's got whatever's left, but not the. Not the big enchilada. But so.
• 1:03:17
  Speaker B: So uncle's a jerk.
• 1:03:18
  Speaker C: Yeah, kind of. I don't like him. But God will do justice.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker A: There you go. There you go.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker C: It's a blessing disguise. I'm here.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker A: Water under the bridge.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker C: Water.
• 1:03:26
  Speaker B: If you believe in God, There you go.
• 1:03:28
  Speaker C: And if you don't, well, it's, you know, there you go.
• 1:03:30
  Speaker A: Every man for himself.
• 1:03:31
  Speaker C: That's right. But so that happens.
• 1:03:33
  Speaker A: Yeah, so. So. So we catch up to the point where your dad brings y' all here, you grow up here. So now you get out of noka and. And you go get computer training.
• 1:03:44
  Speaker C: Yeah, well, yeah. And right before that, my dad was playing with. With Freddie Omar. He was the director and composer for Los Babies, another band.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker A: Oh yeah, Los Babies.
• 1:03:54
  Speaker C: They did a lot of great stuff. They even got a nominate for a Latin Grammy. They were big time. And my dad was like, you know, I think I'm gonna go to church. You know, I found God. And so, you know, in between that we noka growing up music. And then the church said, no, we can't afford you and whatever. He leaves and go back to music. And he's trying to make his band, you know, and I'm fresh off. I play with Freddie, Julius Caesar. My sisters only knew church music. They didn't know salsa. They didn't know anything else. They didn't have the advantage of me. Dad, what's the song? Dad, what's this chord they played? But they were just whatever, you know, was in church. And so my sister, the bass player said, dad, he did two rehearsals with a bunch of musicians knowing people, and they were fighting amongst each other and who. Who's the star? And who gets to dress in white? You guys dress in. It's this whole thing. And my dad's like, what am I doing this for? Maybe I gotta go teach music or do something. And my sister was like, why don't you teach us how to play? My brother knows how to play already. And let's make a band. And you know, for 12 years we had the froggies.
• 1:04:59
  Speaker A: Wow.
• 1:05:00
  Speaker C: So the third generation of that girl was the froggies. Lonas was translated to the same thing.
• 1:05:05
  Speaker A: And when you showed up on the Iguanas gig, Rod Hodges, our guitar player, you know, didn't really know who you were. But as soon as I you we mentioned something goes. Oh, I remember the.
• 1:05:17
  Speaker C: The frog Froggies.
• 1:05:18
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 1:05:19
  Speaker C: And I was surprised because I'm a big fan of you guys, and I never know you. I knew the froggies. The. The iguanas knew the other reptiles, the froggies in it. And we were. I remember Gretna Fest.
• 1:05:29
  Speaker A: Frogs are amphibious.
• 1:05:31
  Speaker C: Yeah, amphibious. Very close home, guys.
• 1:05:33
  Speaker A: Sure, sure.
• 1:05:35
  Speaker C: Old school, guys. Spanglish. I get it. I got a. I got this called. There's a keyboard player named Rick Fletcher. I call it the Rick Fletcher Special. And it's. It's tequila on the rocks with the splash.
• 1:05:46
  Speaker B: Oh, well, you're. You're nursing it like, I got to.
• 1:05:51
  Speaker C: Drive back to Lasma.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker B: Well, then drink it up now. Then you.
• 1:05:55
  Speaker A: He's got to save it for the ride, baby.
• 1:05:57
  Speaker C: There you go. Save it for the ride.
• 1:05:59
  Speaker B: Yeah, but that getting pulled over.
• 1:06:03
  Speaker C: So we start the froggies. It's. It's kind of evolved from La Coretta had just opened. Not Caretta's Grill, La Coretta, which is one of the partners guys. And the dude had us playing in four of his locations. Hammond, Ponchatoula, the one he had in Baton Rouge. And.
• 1:06:20
  Speaker A: Wow.
• 1:06:20
  Speaker C: He knew my dad from Julian Cesar and other bands. Like, I like you. I'm give you a chance. And we started on Tuesdays. Then we have from Tuesday to Saturday, we were booked every. Every day playing, you know, Freddie Fender playing Texas Tornadoes, playing a little bit of marimba. He would carry the marimba, which I own now.
• 1:06:40
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 1:06:41
  Speaker C: And we're playing.
• 1:06:42
  Speaker A: That's like a big giant marimba.
• 1:06:44
  Speaker C: So it's the tiny one. It's only two octaves.
• 1:06:46
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 1:06:46
  Speaker C: And it's a tiny one. And, you know, I was playing percussion slash drums. My sisters learned 30 songs between covers and Spanish music. And we. We aimed to have the crossover you guys have of the Spanglish game where, you know, here a little bit of blues, and then you'll jump to Kumbyen. And that was a big deal back in the day. You know, I think only you guys were doing that and maybe us as we started. Yeah. And I didn't sing or anything. And I remember the first song he got me to sing was I think Peter Franton. Oh, baby, I love you way.
• 1:07:19
  Speaker A: Yeah, and.
• 1:07:20
  Speaker C: And, you know, I'm not the greatest singer.
• 1:07:22
  Speaker A: Do that as a Latin tune.
• 1:07:24
  Speaker C: We did it in cumbia. We did a cumbia reggae thing going on. Yeah, that's right. Any which, by the way, iguanas take the idea of playing. It's a beautiful.
• 1:07:34
  Speaker A: We won't. You won't hear us doing that. But I can hear. I Can hear it in my head. Yeah.
• 1:07:38
  Speaker C: And so. So then he said, okay, well, you're gonna sing, and you're gonna see. Sing with your sisters. And I didn't want to. And I still don't consider. I consider myself a musician, not a singer. But somehow, somewhere, people always got me singing at a gig. And, you know, cool, I can do it, but so you got me doing that. Then we started doing, like, salsa versions of Earth, Wind and Fire, and we did Eagles music and bachata.
• 1:07:59
  Speaker A: And y' all are playing in all these restaurants.
• 1:08:01
  Speaker C: We're playing restaurants. We play French Quarter Fest first time. And I know the viewers can't see us, but in. In my right hand, I got a scar right here. And that would be 2012 French quadrufez in the Mint US All Mint. One of their cymbals was cracked. I played drums. I leaned to get my. My drumstick, and I scratched. Bled me right close to my vein. And so I'll never forget French Quadruped. So we started that journey of, like, these guys do Spanglish. These guys do a little bit everything and marimba and kind of cultural. But then we started messing with Zydec music, okay. And we started doing like, Keith Frank and Jake Paul Jr. But with SOCA. And my dad would mimic the accordion, the piano, and somehow we got some guy to play the washer in a couple festivals. And it was like, great. So it was like, you know, that's what we did for about 10, 11 years. And we got blessed to do just straight up, you know, that music. And in between that time, you know, like, you know, I studied computer, worked for a tech company, and my sister's got the careers and. Well, I never left music. I just started branching out to different artists. There's a guy named Javier Gutierrez. He plays Vivas. He was kind of like the guy I used to like. Oh, I would suffer his bass player, I would suffer his piano, Rick. I would suffer his team Balletto. But I was never really committed until I moved out and started paying for bills more. I was like, oh, okay, I got a day job. I need more money. And so that's when I started, like, gigging and, you know, playing with different cats and. But yeah, the third generation started there and with all type of music, but always the. It was the root was marimba and Hispanic feel to everything.
• 1:09:38
  Speaker A: You know, your dad went back to Guatemala, and so the froggies aren't active anymore. So you're musician about town, playing in all these different bands, playing with Margie Perez and the Cuba Heat. Yeah. And what. What other groups you're playing with?
• 1:09:57
  Speaker C: The Truffle Honeys Vivas with Margie, you know, with you guys Victor Campbell work with, huh?
• 1:10:06
  Speaker A: Terrific Cuban piano player, huh? Amazing.
• 1:10:08
  Speaker C: One of the best of the best all my life here. And that's one of the best keyboard guys in general.
• 1:10:12
  Speaker A: He's amazing player.
• 1:10:13
  Speaker C: He's amazing. Uh, I got blessed to meet him at my day job, and I'm like, hey, I know you and troubleshoot his Mac, troubleshoot his computers. And somewhere in between there, like, yeah, I play music. He's like, hey, I need a drummer. And we kind of met that way. And then he brought me to one of my closest, which I consider these guys my big brothers. Hafid Paris, he's a drummer for Preservation hall, for John Cleary. The dudes out there like. And somehow, just like you and. And, you know, just like Joe, y' all got fond of me and y' all spectacular, talented musicians, and. And I kind of just got in there and in there.
• 1:10:51
  Speaker A: My.
• 1:10:52
  Speaker C: My biggest thing is, like, they took me under wing, and I'm still learning so much from all you guys. And. And. And I. In between all that, I. I do work now. I'm. I'm. No, I'm still in the tech industry, but I'm. I'm in the business side. I manage accounts, and I do a lot of rough negotiations, and a lot of these guys. I was mentioned to you earlier, early. You know, English is not their first language, so I help them, you know, book gigs. I don't book the gig, but I help them negotiate the pay.
• 1:11:17
  Speaker A: Right, right.
• 1:11:18
  Speaker C: Which is a big deal because this is a great city. There's a lot of. There's a lot of gigs for everyone. You know, I know that.
• 1:11:25
  Speaker A: You know that, right? But they want to grind you down. They want to make you do it for nothing.
• 1:11:28
  Speaker C: Yeah. So my biggest motto, my biggest thing or my biggest thing is like, you know, you gotta get them to understand music business so that you can have a good music business flow. So that's my thing. And so these guys. And with another trumpet player, David Navaro, which is a phenomenal guy, plays with the Alice Marcel Orchestra.
• 1:11:46
  Speaker B: Dave Navaro from Jane's Addiction.
• 1:11:49
  Speaker C: No, no, no. You're talking. No, no, no. David Navaro. Same name, but no, This a Cuban fella. So I kind of, like, help them manage accounts, do my stuff and.
• 1:11:58
  Speaker B: Crazy. Those Cubans.
• 1:12:01
  Speaker A: I think you were mentioning that you did some gigs with Eric Lucero.
• 1:12:04
  Speaker C: Oh, trumpet player from the Iguanas. Eric Lucero played with the Froggies, but he also played with Freddy Omar when he was a kid. I think he was in college and. And then we've done. We. There was a salsa band that no longer exists where I started like playing on my own and. And he was always around. He's like one of the greatest trumpet players on here. Great guy, Eric Lucero. There's another gentleman which I recently got in touch with. We hadn't seen each other. He toured with my dad. We went to Oklahoma with my dad's original music, not the covers. And we went to Canada Service Fest one of the biggest festival. We went to Guatemala, we did Texas. Bryce Eastwood, he's a phenomenal. He's actually one of the one. He's actually from Santa Cruz area, California but he's on the Tiana's recording for all the jazz stuff and the rides and he's. He's painting the wall somewhere here in the city. Clarinet, saxophone. Cool kid, cool guy.
• 1:12:58
  Speaker A: Right.
• 1:12:59
  Speaker C: So like there's a lot of people you meet here that you know that, you know they're out there in Southern Europe and then the next day they're playing at you know, Dos Hefes or.
• 1:13:06
  Speaker A: Right, right, right. That's a town of working musicians. It is a hell of gigs.
• 1:13:12
  Speaker C: Yeah. So it's a great city. So I've been blessed to. To recently, the last three, four years, you know, bump it to you, Renee. Bump into a lot of great people and. And learn from everyone. You know, we have, you know, Doug. Doug's amazing. Both Doug's Doug Harrison and Doug Below Doug Garrison. Garrison. I'm sorry, Doug Below and Doug Below. Those are two people that in some way Dougie Fresh. Oh yeah, he's. He's a tremendous.
• 1:13:37
  Speaker B: Than all those other dogs you just mentioned, you know.
• 1:13:40
  Speaker C: And then like. And I feel honored that they like, hey, suffer me over. Come play with me percussion or oh, come do this. And I'm like, you guys are top notch and it's big shoes to fill. But I feel like every day that I have the opportunity to gig with you guys, I'm learning. And then the latest greatest was been with you on us because you know, you guys are like I said, I caught you on Gretna Fest, Jazz Fest. And I've always been a fan of the music and you guys got the perfect combination. I got a great team, you know, and I love that I can be a part of it in some way.
• 1:14:08
  Speaker A: You. You came and. And sub with us at that carousel bar.
• 1:14:12
  Speaker B: The ARP group loves it.
• 1:14:14
  Speaker A: Absolutely Killed it.
• 1:14:15
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 1:14:16
  Speaker A: While. While we're hanging on. While we're hanging on. Well, you know, you are in the tech industry, so AI is. Is all the, The. The buzz these days.
• 1:14:25
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 1:14:26
  Speaker A: How worried should Manny and I be?
• 1:14:28
  Speaker C: Oh, man.
• 1:14:29
  Speaker A: Look, are we gonna die before it becomes a problem, or is it gonna become a problem sooner than that?
• 1:14:35
  Speaker C: I.
• 1:14:36
  Speaker A: Now I could. Either one of us could die this week, so.
• 1:14:39
  Speaker C: Yeah. Or me. You never know. Well, sure, I. I'm not trying to alarm you guys, but I'm a little freaked out about it.
• 1:14:45
  Speaker B: I. I hate AI.
• 1:14:46
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 1:14:47
  Speaker B: The thing is, I've been working at the same job for 21 years now, and I hope AI takes over my job because I want to retire.
• 1:14:56
  Speaker C: The scariest part for the music industry, it's where it gets scary. Because I've had four or three songs thrown to me. Hey, do percussion. Hey, do some, you know, dub, Dub work, whatever. And I hear it, and I know it's AI right. And I know a musician can hear it.
• 1:15:11
  Speaker A: AI Slop, as they call it.
• 1:15:12
  Speaker C: Yes, exactly. And so they tell the computer, make a song, make it blues, put these lyrics in and it makes it in five minutes. And musicians can tell. I play to my wife, play it to my mother in law. They're not musicians. That's a great song. And I'm like, oh, yeah, creativity's dying. That's not good. So it's good and bad, but I guess it's how you use it.
• 1:15:32
  Speaker A: Yeah, it's gonna be bad. It's like, well, well, you guys, careers over. We have to. Manny's. Manny's expiring on us here, so let's wrap this up. It's been a terrific podcast. Thank you so much, Obi, for coming on. It's been a real pleasure. I look forward to playing with you some more. And as always on the Troubled Men podcast, we like to say trouble never.
• 1:15:53
  Speaker B: Ends, but the struggle continues. We'll see you later.
• 1:15:57
  Speaker A: Good night.
• 1:17:10
  Speaker C: La. We are Mommy.
• 1:18:26
  Speaker B: Sa.
• 1:18:52
  Speaker C: Luna.
• 1:20:14
  Speaker A: Mommy Produce.