Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / From Drummer To Spy: An 80s Metal Band's Secret Tale [Episode 296]

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From Drummer To Spy: An 80s Metal Band's Secret Tale [Episode 296] · Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

0:00
Speaker 1: Coming up on Booked on Rock, the story of an
0:02
Speaker 1: eighties metal band drummer who is about to have it
0:04
Speaker 1: all absurd wealth, global fame, and a dream girlfriend, but
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Speaker 1: an unwinning role as an international spy. That's next.
0:12
Speaker 2: We're totally rock and roll. I mean gotta leave you.
0:16
Speaker 2: You're reading Little Hands says it's time to rock and roll.
0:19
Speaker 1: Band up. I totally booked. Welcome back to Booked on Rock.
0:28
Speaker 1: I am Eric Senich. We've have a first time guest
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Speaker 1: to the podcast. Travis Kennedy is the author of the
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Speaker 1: brand new novel The White Python World Tour. Travis, thanks
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Speaker 1: so much for being here.
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Speaker 2: Oh thanks so much for having me. Eric. This is
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Speaker 2: this is really exciting.
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Speaker 1: The promo for this book reads called Ricky Thunder, twenty
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Speaker 1: two year old drummer for the scorching new eighties metal
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Speaker 1: band White Python, is about to have it all absurd wealth,
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Speaker 1: global fame, and a dream girlfriend, but an unwinning role
0:55
Speaker 1: as an international spy. That was definitely not part of
0:59
Speaker 1: the plan. All right, tell us what led to the
1:01
Speaker 1: idea for this story, What inspired it?
1:05
Speaker 2: I've been writing this story my whole life. I'm a
1:08
Speaker 2: kid of the eighties. I grew up during the era
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Speaker 2: that the hair metal bands were on top of the world.
1:14
Speaker 2: I was probably about eight years old during the time
1:17
Speaker 2: that this book takes place. So to me, you know,
1:20
Speaker 2: watching MTV when I probably wasn't supposed to, they were
1:23
Speaker 2: these muppets. They were just wild party animals, and I
1:27
Speaker 2: wasn't picking up on the double entendres and the music.
1:29
Speaker 2: It just looked like guys who were zany monsters. But then,
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Speaker 2: you know, in my twenties, I started to pick up
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Speaker 2: the autobiographies and there was just something about the musicians
1:41
Speaker 2: of that genre at that time that was fascinating, which
1:44
Speaker 2: is that more often than not, they were misfits. They
1:48
Speaker 2: came from hard childhoods, and a lot of the time
1:52
Speaker 2: they were outcasts. They didn't have great opportunities. They were
1:56
Speaker 2: working menial jobs. If you watch the film Decline of
2:00
Speaker 2: Western Civilization Part two, that shows these bands very early,
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Speaker 2: and you see them, you know, they're like pimply kids,
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Speaker 2: and then they put on the makeup and the hair
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Speaker 2: and the leather and they become these rock gods up
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Speaker 2: on stage. For that couple of hours, they've become totally
2:19
Speaker 2: different people. And so that just stuck with me for
2:22
Speaker 2: a long time. About twenty years ago, I started thinking,
2:26
Speaker 2: I want to write a book in this world, and
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Speaker 2: I want to play on that whole There's two different
2:31
Speaker 2: people in these characters and these guys in the band.
2:35
Speaker 2: So then about five years ago I heard a podcast
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Speaker 2: called Wind of Change and it was developed by a
2:42
Speaker 2: guy named Patrick rad and Keith, who was a brilliant
2:44
Speaker 2: investigative reporter. He does most of his work with The
2:47
Speaker 2: New Yorker. And the whole premise that he was investigating
2:50
Speaker 2: is this very long held rumor that the CIA wrote
2:54
Speaker 2: the song Wind of Change by the Scorpions. You now
2:57
Speaker 2: all have it stuck in your head.
2:59
Speaker 1: I have to listen to the podcast. I remember it.
3:01
Speaker 1: Never listened to it.
3:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's great, And I mean the one thing that
3:05
Speaker 2: he was sort of saddle by is he's a reporter.
3:08
Speaker 2: He's trying to seek the truth. And if the CIA
3:11
Speaker 2: doesn't want you to know that they did it, you're
3:13
Speaker 2: never totally going to find out. So it becomes an
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Speaker 2: awesome sort of study of culture at the time and
3:19
Speaker 2: how the CIA may or may not have got themselves
3:23
Speaker 2: involved in other pop culture moments, but they couldn't prove
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Speaker 2: that they wrote Wind of Change and so I thought, well,
3:29
Speaker 2: take out any responsibility to tell the truth, and that
3:32
Speaker 2: could be a really fun story. And that's where that's
3:35
Speaker 2: where the idea came from. And really, once I started
3:37
Speaker 2: writing it, the pages just flew. It was so fun
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Speaker 2: and so easy to dive in that world and have
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Speaker 2: fun with it.
3:45
Speaker 1: This is your first novel.
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Speaker 2: It's not the first one that I wrote. It's my
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Speaker 2: debut novel. I have another one that will come out
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Speaker 2: after that's unrelated to the White Python World Tour that
3:56
Speaker 2: actually wrote first. So because there's film projects in development,
4:01
Speaker 2: and there's a whole bunch of moving parts with the
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Speaker 2: books and with the sort of greater world around both
4:06
Speaker 2: of them, my team decided that we would lead with
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Speaker 2: the White Python World.
4:10
Speaker 1: Wow. Oh wait, so this book is there's a possibility
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Speaker 1: we're going to get a film project.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, oh wow. This so Paramount bought the development rights
4:21
Speaker 2: at the same time that Doubleday bought the publishing rights.
4:23
Speaker 2: So I've been working in tandem with the folks at
4:26
Speaker 2: Paramount and with the publishers at Double Day for a
4:29
Speaker 2: little over a year now. And congratulations, Yeah, thanks, it's
4:34
Speaker 2: really exciting.
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Speaker 1: I mean, this is Taylor made for film. Taylor Made
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Speaker 1: for film.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's fun. I mean a lot of people
4:40
Speaker 2: who read it say I feel like I was watching
4:42
Speaker 2: it exactly exactly.
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Speaker 1: But here's my question. I was wondering because reading your
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Speaker 1: bio on Amazon. Your work has been featured in the
4:50
Speaker 1: Best New England Crime Stories and Best American Mystery Stories anthologies,
4:54
Speaker 1: Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and McSweeney's Internet Tendency Grand Prize
4:59
Speaker 1: win of Screencrafts twenty twenty one Cinematic Book Contest for
5:03
Speaker 1: Sharks in the Valley to be published as Welcome to Redemption.
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Speaker 1: So I get leading to my question, which is is
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Speaker 1: this the first time you've incorporated music into a story.
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Speaker 2: Yes, it took a lot of research to try and
5:15
Speaker 2: understand that world. It's funny. I have two sort of
5:18
Speaker 2: two books are in this one story which is a
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Speaker 2: rock biography and a spy adventure. And I cared a
5:26
Speaker 2: lot more about getting the rock biography material right because
5:29
Speaker 2: you can say whatever you want about the CIA, You
5:31
Speaker 2: can accuse them of anything if they say that they
5:34
Speaker 2: didn't do it, and that just makes them look all
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Speaker 2: the more guilty. So I said, the spy stuff can
5:40
Speaker 2: be fun and it be the research can come from
5:43
Speaker 2: movies and other books, but the rock stuff I did
5:45
Speaker 2: a pretty deep dive into a lot of biographies and
5:49
Speaker 2: autobiographies and films of the era to try and understand
5:52
Speaker 2: what life was like for a struggling metal band in
5:56
Speaker 2: LA in the eighties.
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Speaker 1: The book begins with Ricky and his band hitting the
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Speaker 1: state agent about to perform in front of a pact arena.
6:03
Speaker 1: He's bleeding, probably some broken bones, and someone is trying
6:07
Speaker 1: to kill him. I'm hooked right away. Tell us about
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Speaker 1: the main character, Ricky Thunder.
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Speaker 2: You know, it's funny. When I set out to write this,
6:15
Speaker 2: I thought that it would be have a more cynical
6:17
Speaker 2: tone than it ended up having. But something about Ricky
6:20
Speaker 2: right away. He took the story from me. He's an orphan.
6:23
Speaker 2: He grew up with a very hard childhood. He spent
6:26
Speaker 2: most of his time just sort of ducking and covering
6:29
Speaker 2: from the next person who's out to hurt him. But
6:31
Speaker 2: somehow he came out of that just a really positive person.
6:35
Speaker 2: And he channeled all of his fear as a kid,
6:39
Speaker 2: and his anxiety as a kid, and his fingertips and
6:41
Speaker 2: he just started drumming on any surface that he could
6:43
Speaker 2: find and that's where all of his anxiety and his
6:47
Speaker 2: rage went was into creating a beat and then creating music.
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Speaker 2: And as he got older, he found bands and he
6:54
Speaker 2: you know, he found his calling, which is to play
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Speaker 2: drums in a band. And I think that the fun
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Speaker 2: thing about Ricky and about his bandmates is the whole
7:03
Speaker 2: point about these guys being misfits and being seen is
7:07
Speaker 2: not having much much to offer to the world. That's
7:09
Speaker 2: the lives that they were all living until they started
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Speaker 2: playing music and found each other and it just unlocked
7:15
Speaker 2: their superpowers. And so Ricky is sort of central to that,
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Speaker 2: this idea that you know, somebody who you might not
7:20
Speaker 2: think has much value to them, they might have an
7:23
Speaker 2: amazing skill. They just have to find the right people
7:25
Speaker 2: who can help them unlock it. And so he's a
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Speaker 2: sweet guy, he's trusting, he's not perfect, but you want
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Speaker 2: to root for him because he's trying to do the
7:35
Speaker 2: right thing, even though he goes down the wrong road
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Speaker 2: by mistake all the time.
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Speaker 1: And the story takes place in nineteen eighty six, at
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Speaker 1: the height of the hair band era hair Metal Sunset strip.
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Speaker 1: You know that was very part much part of my youth.
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Speaker 1: As you said, you grew up on that as well.
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Speaker 1: So you were fans of bands like Poison and Warrant.
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Speaker 2: And oh yeah all this.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, you're perfect to choose white for the band name
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Speaker 1: because we had white Snake, we had white Lion.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. The guys make fun of that in a chapter
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Speaker 2: where where they think that white Snake is an unoriginal name,
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Speaker 2: you might as well just call the band white Animal. Yeah.
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Speaker 2: There's there's a lot of territory and arguing over what's
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Speaker 2: metal and what's not and the sense of of they're
8:19
Speaker 2: all kind of very aware of their their reputations that
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Speaker 2: I think comes through in the book too, and how
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Speaker 2: they how they chose the name they felt like meant
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Speaker 2: a lot about about what kind of band they were.
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Speaker 1: Book on Rock Podcasts. We'll be back after this.
8:34
Speaker 2: I'm gonna need some flyers and uh set of thirty
8:37
Speaker 2: white ball bearings. Black Fred gets here, mccorn back. You
8:40
Speaker 2: can tell the start without me. Hell, you need ball bearings.
8:43
Speaker 2: Come on, guys, it's so simple.
8:45
Speaker 1: Maybe you need a refresher course.
8:47
Speaker 2: Hey, it's all ball bearings nowadays.
8:52
Speaker 1: Hey, guys, thanks so much for checking out the book
8:54
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8:58
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9:01
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9:26
Speaker 1: at Booked on Rock. Thanks again for listening. Now back
9:29
Speaker 1: to the show. Your source material, spinal Tap? Was that
9:33
Speaker 1: one of the of course? Okay, yes, he's a Decline
9:37
Speaker 1: of Western Civilization? Part two? Spinal Tap? What other films, books,
9:43
Speaker 1: videos that you used to create not just Ricky's character
9:48
Speaker 1: but the band with.
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Speaker 2: The whole band? Yeah. So there's a great oral history
9:52
Speaker 2: of the music of the era called nothing but a
9:54
Speaker 2: Good Time? And I think they made it into a
9:56
Speaker 2: documentary series on maybe Paramount.
9:59
Speaker 1: Plat boujor right tom Bo.
10:02
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, and I know it's killing me that I
10:05
Speaker 2: can't say it, but yes, Tom is one of them. Uh,
10:08
Speaker 2: And so that that was an awesome piece of source material,
10:12
Speaker 2: especially for the early chapters where the band's just starting
10:15
Speaker 2: out and they're scrapping, and that whether they whether they
10:18
Speaker 2: starve to death depends on how many of the flyers
10:21
Speaker 2: that they print they can actually hand out before their show.
10:24
Speaker 2: Slash's book was great. Keith Richard's book was He's not
10:28
Speaker 2: really in the in the genre, but he's lived the lifestyle, sure,
10:32
Speaker 2: so that was great. The Dirt by Motley Crue was
10:35
Speaker 2: an another really good one. Between all of those, you
10:38
Speaker 2: could kind of piece together the main themes of who
10:40
Speaker 2: they were as kids and what the life was like,
10:42
Speaker 2: and what the life was like when they got too
10:44
Speaker 2: big for them.
10:45
Speaker 1: All right, So it's tom Bojore and Richard Beanstock, Yes,
10:49
Speaker 1: theologist Richard. Yeah, that's a that's a fabulous book. So
10:53
Speaker 1: there's a chapter that goes back to Ricky's childhood and
10:55
Speaker 1: it was his twelfth birthday. That was, as you write,
10:58
Speaker 1: the most important day of his life. This is such
11:01
Speaker 1: a great scene and you go back to it at
11:03
Speaker 1: the very end of the book. The bands Zeppelin the
11:06
Speaker 1: Who Rush are part of this story. It's a bittersweet
11:09
Speaker 1: moment for Ricky. Can you share with listeners this scene
11:13
Speaker 1: and if there was a moment like this for you
11:15
Speaker 1: as a kid, or where did this come from?
11:16
Speaker 2: There really wasn't a moment like this for me as
11:19
Speaker 2: a kid. But it's one of those things where I
11:21
Speaker 2: think a lot of writers will say they surprise themselves
11:24
Speaker 2: with what comes out when they just sort of relax
11:26
Speaker 2: and don't overthink the words that are coming out through
11:29
Speaker 2: their fingers. I was amazed at by the time I
11:32
Speaker 2: finished Ricky's backstory in that early chapter, how complete and
11:36
Speaker 2: real it felt to me because it didn't really come
11:39
Speaker 2: from my life, but quickly for the reader's sake. So
11:43
Speaker 2: Ricky is an orphan, never knew his parents. He's bounced
11:47
Speaker 2: around in foster homes around southern California for his whole life,
11:52
Speaker 2: never very good ones. He usually feels unsafe or just
11:58
Speaker 2: paranoid that he's going to be asked to leave sometime
12:01
Speaker 2: in the middle of the night. And he's in a
12:03
Speaker 2: house now that's the worst one. He's in with a
12:05
Speaker 2: bunch of bullies. They pick on him because he's the
12:07
Speaker 2: smallest and he's letting his hair grow long, and he
12:11
Speaker 2: likes he likes rock music, which they're not into, and
12:15
Speaker 2: so on his twelfth birthday, a disaster strikes in the house.
12:18
Speaker 2: Pipe bursts and everybody runs, and the plumber who comes
12:24
Speaker 2: to fix the pipe catches on that Ricky is just
12:26
Speaker 2: drumming away at the table and he hears that that
12:29
Speaker 2: beat just sounds perfect to him, that he's right on.
12:32
Speaker 2: And this plumber isn't a you know, he doesn't work
12:34
Speaker 2: for a record label or anything. He's just a nice
12:36
Speaker 2: guy who says, you should, really, you should really pursue music.
12:39
Speaker 2: You have a great sense of rhythm. And he does
12:42
Speaker 2: a kind thing. He goes home and he packs up
12:45
Speaker 2: an old record player that belonged to his kid and
12:48
Speaker 2: a few albums and he leaves it on the doorstep
12:50
Speaker 2: for Ricky. It's a random act of kindness that a
12:53
Speaker 2: nice person did for a kid who he saw could
12:55
Speaker 2: use it, and that sends Ricky on his musical journey.
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Speaker 2: He become just completely He just vanishes into these albums
13:03
Speaker 2: and he finds the thing inside him that he didn't
13:07
Speaker 2: even really know that he was looking for. And so
13:09
Speaker 2: that kicks him off becoming Ricky Thunder. And without getting
13:13
Speaker 2: into too much detail, yes, at the end, Ricky revisits
13:17
Speaker 2: that moment and I think poignant and hopefully sort of
13:21
Speaker 2: healing way for him and for us reading him, coming
13:24
Speaker 2: back around to that moment where it's led him.
13:27
Speaker 1: And I always have to be very careful when I do interviews,
13:29
Speaker 1: and I've done a few now and they're always fun
13:30
Speaker 1: to do on novels, you know, to ask questions without
13:34
Speaker 1: giving way too much. Yeah, you leave the people guessing
13:37
Speaker 1: because you want them to check this out. But you
13:39
Speaker 1: really did your homework on this. And I bring this
13:44
Speaker 1: up because I'm a big Van Halen fan and I
13:45
Speaker 1: couldn't help but notice the parallel on the storyline where
13:48
Speaker 1: Gene Simmons from Kiss is showing it just in Quicksand,
13:52
Speaker 1: which is the pre White Python band, And that's exactly
13:56
Speaker 1: what happened. Gene discovers Van Halen and wanted to call
14:00
Speaker 1: the band Daddy long Legs real life. In the book,
14:03
Speaker 1: he wants Quicksand to change their name to Gerbil where
14:07
Speaker 1: purple unitards with long tails and chew cardboard on stage. Yeah,
14:13
Speaker 1: and then this is where the band White Python comes
14:15
Speaker 1: in lo and behold you draw comparisons to this band
14:18
Speaker 1: with Van Halen. There you go. They are the hottest
14:21
Speaker 1: band on the Sunset Strip as was van Halen. How
14:24
Speaker 1: does Ricky land the gig with this band thanks to
14:27
Speaker 1: his girlfriend?
14:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, so Ricky is now playing in this garage band.
14:34
Speaker 2: They're playing for dinner. But he's happy because he's playing
14:37
Speaker 2: music and he's living with his buddies and he's living
14:40
Speaker 2: his dream in an abandoned paint store by the way.
14:43
Speaker 2: But that's that's life. It's it's one of the fun
14:45
Speaker 2: details from the books of that era, by the way,
14:47
Speaker 2: which is that they were they would squat in these
14:50
Speaker 2: unsafe places. Nobody would kick.
14:53
Speaker 1: Them out of guns n' roses. That story about how
14:56
Speaker 1: they use Steven Adler's drumsticks to make a fire so
14:59
Speaker 1: they can he you know, put a little hamburger meat
15:02
Speaker 1: on it and just distribute it evenly among the band members.
15:06
Speaker 2: It's amazing and it is I mean, you know, those
15:09
Speaker 2: stories were the thing that got me thinking. They're willing
15:12
Speaker 2: to live anywhere, they're willing to and they're clever enough
15:17
Speaker 2: to do things like that. I mean, that's pretty creative,
15:19
Speaker 2: and nobody sees them coming. They would actually make really
15:22
Speaker 2: good spies because nobody would nobody would ever suspect that
15:26
Speaker 2: they're that they're smarter than they let on. But so, yes,
15:29
Speaker 2: Ricky's living life basically, you know, sort of homeless but
15:33
Speaker 2: not really playing in this band, and then he meets
15:36
Speaker 2: a beautiful woman and everything changes, and I had some
15:39
Speaker 2: fun with you know, there's always the classic rock story
15:42
Speaker 2: cliche about the guy gets a girlfriend and the whole
15:46
Speaker 2: band is suspicious of her, Yoko oh no that she's
15:48
Speaker 2: trying to break up the band. So I thought, okay, Well,
15:51
Speaker 2: the phone with satire is take the cliche and make
15:53
Speaker 2: it true. So in this case, he meets a beautiful woman,
15:57
Speaker 2: she changes his life. Within a couple of months, she
16:01
Speaker 2: gets him a tryout for White Python, which is sort
16:04
Speaker 2: of the Van Halen of the universe in this book,
16:07
Speaker 2: and how that job opens up all of a sudden
16:10
Speaker 2: they need a drummer days before they're recording an album.
16:13
Speaker 2: She might have more to do with than Ricky is
16:15
Speaker 2: aware of, but she has her boyfriend and she sees
16:19
Speaker 2: a chance to get him in this band, and lo
16:22
Speaker 2: and behold, it works, and then his life turns up
16:25
Speaker 2: to eleven.
16:28
Speaker 1: Final tat Yes, and he's in White Python, who are
16:31
Speaker 1: on their way up just the right time for the
16:32
Speaker 1: government to use them as their number one tool. Of course,
16:36
Speaker 1: how does Ricky and his band White Python find themselves
16:38
Speaker 1: tangled up with the CIA?
16:40
Speaker 2: So that girlfriend is skilled a lot more things than
16:44
Speaker 2: Ricky knows, and she is actually an undercover officer with
16:49
Speaker 2: the CIA, and she's chosen him, and she's chosen White Python,
16:52
Speaker 2: and she realized she had to put them together. And
16:55
Speaker 2: they determined that the category of metal is not taken
17:00
Speaker 2: seriously enough in the Eastern Bloc that they would allow
17:04
Speaker 2: it to be sold in stores. But they also don't
17:06
Speaker 2: really they don't police it that hard. They don't track
17:08
Speaker 2: it down and throw it out because they just think
17:10
Speaker 2: it's stupid. And so this band is coming up at
17:14
Speaker 2: the exact right time where they can still be manipulated.
17:17
Speaker 2: Their lyrics can be manipulated, and their look and all
17:20
Speaker 2: of the things that they would want it that the
17:22
Speaker 2: CIA would want to inject into a psyop in order
17:26
Speaker 2: to win the hearts and minds of people in the
17:29
Speaker 2: Eastern Bloc nations, they can do through this vessel of
17:32
Speaker 2: White Python without the band ever knowing about it. And
17:36
Speaker 2: so there's so you've spent a couple of years. The
17:39
Speaker 2: book takes place between eighty six and eighty nine of
17:43
Speaker 2: White Python blowing up and becoming really famous, and at
17:47
Speaker 2: a certain point Ricky has to be clued into what's
17:50
Speaker 2: happening because they need him to start producing songs for
17:53
Speaker 2: the band to play on a world tour that coincidentally
17:58
Speaker 2: pretty much stretches from Mosque now to East Berlin.
18:01
Speaker 1: Now, our name is Tawny by the way, that's one
18:03
Speaker 1: of her names. That's our cover ye, Tawny, Tawny Katine.
18:08
Speaker 1: I'm assuming is.
18:09
Speaker 2: Well, it's a good place to grab a name from me.
18:13
Speaker 1: Now, I was gonna ask you if who do you
18:15
Speaker 1: see playing these characters if there was a movie made
18:17
Speaker 1: on this, So I don't know, you gotta be careful.
18:19
Speaker 2: Maybe actually yeah, you know it's funny. If you had
18:21
Speaker 2: asked me this when I was writing it, I would
18:23
Speaker 2: have given you names. But now I don't think I can.
18:25
Speaker 2: We're at a stage now where we have a writer
18:28
Speaker 2: who is working on a draft, and I think that
18:30
Speaker 2: if the studio and the production company are happy with it,
18:33
Speaker 2: they'll start taking it around to talent. So I really
18:35
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, we've talked a little bit about
18:37
Speaker 2: who we'd like to share it with, but I feel
18:40
Speaker 2: like I've said literally exactly the total amount that I'm
18:44
Speaker 2: allowed to about the movie.
18:45
Speaker 1: These things can take some time, right, Is there an
18:49
Speaker 1: estimated time as to when you foresee this coming out?
18:52
Speaker 1: Could it be a while?
18:54
Speaker 2: I don't see it for see a time yet, but
18:55
Speaker 2: it's moving so far. And you know, the important thing
18:58
Speaker 2: about a movie is that a thousand things have to
19:01
Speaker 2: go right to get it made, and one thing has
19:03
Speaker 2: to go wrong to slam the brakes on. So I'm
19:06
Speaker 2: cautious about any predictions. But it hasn't really had a
19:09
Speaker 2: time where it's sort of fallen off the map and
19:12
Speaker 2: been quiet. They really have been moving along. The production
19:15
Speaker 2: company's gold Day, who had just made the Dungeons and
19:17
Speaker 2: Dragons movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, they wrote,
19:21
Speaker 2: they made Game Night. So they make these sort of big, fun,
19:26
Speaker 2: active comedies, and so they you know, they get to work.
19:31
Speaker 2: We started interviewing screenwriters at the end of last year,
19:34
Speaker 2: I think, and we have one on board, and I mean,
19:36
Speaker 2: the steps that need to happen are happening, but I
19:39
Speaker 2: couldn't guess when you know when cameras will roll. I
19:42
Speaker 2: think the first big first step is getting a good script.
19:45
Speaker 1: So great stories. While White Python is on the road,
19:47
Speaker 1: so he's hanging out. Now, Ricky's hanging out with some
19:49
Speaker 1: big timers. He's hanging out with Steven Tyler Poison. You
19:52
Speaker 1: describe Brett Michaels as the handsome man in the room
19:55
Speaker 1: and possibly also the prettiest woman. It's an idea of
19:59
Speaker 1: the huge What we're talking about.
20:00
Speaker 2: The name of the.
20:01
Speaker 1: White Python album is all Squeeze no venom. That's perfect.
20:06
Speaker 1: It goes to number one. But eventually Ricky finds out
20:08
Speaker 1: that all of this success came with some help from
20:12
Speaker 1: the CIA. They want White Python, as you said, to
20:15
Speaker 1: be a huge success. They want Ricky to do something.
20:20
Speaker 1: They want him to write a song.
20:21
Speaker 2: They want to write a song with his help. Yes,
20:24
Speaker 2: they know exactly the messages that they want to get across,
20:27
Speaker 2: but beyond that, they want to dress the band in
20:31
Speaker 2: ways that are provocative to people in those nations that
20:34
Speaker 2: maybe bring to mind the image of their flags. They
20:37
Speaker 2: want to send all of these subversive messages that say
20:41
Speaker 2: we're on your side and follow us. And the path
20:45
Speaker 2: to freedom, the path to a beach in southern California
20:48
Speaker 2: with blondes and bikinis, is through an open democratic government,
20:53
Speaker 2: and they sort of weave all of this into the
20:57
Speaker 2: whole White Python image and into the lyrics, and there
21:00
Speaker 2: are lyrics in the book that I think grab It
21:04
Speaker 2: sounds like it could be an eighty song, But you
21:05
Speaker 2: can also see as very much a you know, a
21:08
Speaker 2: syop in action, and they just want to make White
21:10
Speaker 2: Python the life that people in these nations are so
21:14
Speaker 2: close to grabbing, and we'll do the last things to
21:18
Speaker 2: push toward oak fair elections, to push against their leadership,
21:22
Speaker 2: to run underground spy missions of their own, and White
21:26
Speaker 2: Python inspires them, which is hilarious to think about, but
21:30
Speaker 2: also again, nobody sees them coming, so you can imagine
21:33
Speaker 2: that it would be a good way.
21:35
Speaker 1: In he's on a secret mission to win the Cold War.
21:38
Speaker 1: The song is written by the way who is Team
21:41
Speaker 1: face Melt And I'm curious as to how you came
21:44
Speaker 1: up with that name.
21:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, so Team face Melt are the CIA officers who
21:48
Speaker 2: are collected to work on this year's long mission, and
21:53
Speaker 2: the name comes from them being maybe maybe dumb enough
21:57
Speaker 2: to name their mission with something that sounds like a
21:59
Speaker 2: tear thing. The CIA may have actually done at some point,
22:03
Speaker 2: but they you know, it's just a it's a classic
22:05
Speaker 2: metal term of face melting. Guitar riff, and so that's
22:08
Speaker 2: why they called themselves that.
22:10
Speaker 1: And we eventually get to that moment at the start
22:12
Speaker 1: of the book, chapter seventy eights, where Ricky steps on
22:15
Speaker 1: stage bloody. So I'm not going to give away much more.
22:18
Speaker 1: We're going to leave that up to the people listening
22:21
Speaker 1: to get the book. Could you see a sequel?
22:23
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you know, I'll tell you Eric. The original
22:26
Speaker 2: title of this book was the White Python Reunion Tour.
22:29
Speaker 2: And I started to write the prologue of why this
22:34
Speaker 2: band getting back together could be dangerous, and the prologue
22:37
Speaker 2: just kept going and going, and it was one hundred
22:39
Speaker 2: and fifty pages, and I realized, Okay, I'm writing the
22:42
Speaker 2: origin story. But I do have a sort of three
22:46
Speaker 2: act arc in mind for White Python. So I like
22:49
Speaker 2: to think there could be a second and a third.
22:51
Speaker 1: Book Outstanding Outstanding. Now I'm thinking two of a soundtrack.
22:55
Speaker 1: I'm thinking of all these things.
22:57
Speaker 2: Man, Yeah, yeah, I mean, look, if we make a movie,
22:59
Speaker 2: we need to have the song is central to the
23:01
Speaker 2: whole story. So it's some of the early conversations we're
23:05
Speaker 2: having is how do we go about getting the song
23:07
Speaker 2: just right?
23:08
Speaker 1: And you see the success of that Motley Crue def
23:11
Speaker 1: Leppard Poison tour last year, two summers ago. I can't remember,
23:16
Speaker 1: but it was huge. So the interest in this era
23:21
Speaker 1: it's still there. People still love this genre of music,
23:25
Speaker 1: and to combine it with a great spy story, it's
23:28
Speaker 1: just fantastic. I love it. The White Python World Tour,
23:31
Speaker 1: it's out now. You can find it where books are sold.
23:33
Speaker 1: Find it at your nearest bookstore. Booked on rock dot com.
23:36
Speaker 1: You can look up your nearest independent bookstore. Where can
23:40
Speaker 1: people find you online?
23:41
Speaker 2: Travis Well, if you go to Travis Kennedy dot com,
23:43
Speaker 2: it's a quick way to find everything. Else. You can
23:45
Speaker 2: get to the books page on Penguin Random House. The
23:48
Speaker 2: band has their own website, White Python dot com. Remember
23:51
Speaker 2: to spell white with a y.
23:53
Speaker 1: Oh. That's so cool.
23:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, Double Day has been so fun to
23:56
Speaker 2: work with. They made a website for the band. I
23:59
Speaker 2: did a little like Tiger Beat Q and a which
24:01
Speaker 2: with each of the four band members. And there's a
24:04
Speaker 2: Spotify playlist that's like almost four hours long that I
24:07
Speaker 2: put together that's really kind of the soundtrack of the book.
24:10
Speaker 1: And that's whitepython dot com.
24:12
Speaker 2: White Python dot com. Why t all.
24:16
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, w h y t E. I'll put the
24:19
Speaker 1: link in the show notes. I gotta check that out.
24:22
Speaker 1: Travis Kennedy, thanks so much, Eric, thank you.
24:25
Speaker 2: This has been a blast. That's it. It's in the books.