Latest / San Joaquin Sound / The Gate Part 1: Rob Allison - From Bassist to Starting a Venue

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The Gate Part 1: Rob Allison - From Bassist to Starting a Venue · San Joaquin Sound

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You're listening to the San Joaquin Sound Podcast,
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the podcast about music in Bakersfield and the
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surrounding valley. I'm your host, A .J. Rodriguez.
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Rob Allison, a .k .a. Bobby Del Rey, was the
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bassist in the Christian hair metal band Traxtor,
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but he also oversaw the venue known as The Gate.
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Although it featured Christian music and was
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located in a church, The Gate hosted all kinds
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of music, including capitalist casualties, ceremony
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and madball. plus Bakersfield legends like Mentoburu,
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The Lebecs, Juice, and Only You. Let's start
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at the beginning. I know you grew up with your
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mom. What music did she listen to? Well, she
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listened to Johnny Mathis, Glen Campbell, you
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know, that whole genre of 50s -type music, Simon
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and Garfunkel, you know, from the 60s, that type
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of stuff, yeah. That's cool. Simon and Garfunkel
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is one of the few CDs that my parents had when
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I was growing up. I would listen to their greatest
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hits a lot. Yep. So how did you get into heavier
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music? Well, I didn't play music. My family wasn't
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musicians. There was no musicians in my family.
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And so I only knew music from just listening
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to it. My mom was really heavily into musicals,
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like sounding music. Camelot, these type of theater
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things. So she would be playing music in the
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house, and that's how I kind of got into music.
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I discovered her 45 records and would listen
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to those things as well. But I wasn't into playing
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music as far as that goes. It wasn't until later.
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in my life about 18 years old when i came to
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faith in jesus and uh and everyone was playing
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music and uh and i wanted to learn how to play
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guitar so i could play that type of music as
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well and that's when i discovered um playing
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an instrument so i was about i was 18 years old
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Wow. So I know you dropped out of high school,
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right? And you were a skateboarder. I've seen
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pictures of you skating pools in the 80s when
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not that many people were doing that, right?
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Man, this was like the typical high school kid.
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I started skateboarding when they had clay wheels
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back probably in 1974, 75, somewhere like that.
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And I was in junior high. And then... the urethane
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wheel was created and it changed everything.
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And then Skateboarder Magazine came out and I
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started seeing those covers and people skating
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in swimming pools. And I just fully got into
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it. When I was in high school, my biggest dream,
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like any other high school kid, if you're into
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something, you want to do it as your career.
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And so I wanted to be a professional skateboarder.
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And so I just lived the whole skateboarding life.
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The Dogtown Z -Boys, that whole genre, they were
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huge in the scene and they were a big influence
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in my life. And, you know, they were all bad
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boys. And so I really leaned into that bad boy
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attitude and, you know, got into doing things
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that I shouldn't have been getting into, you
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know, as a young boy. But, yeah, a big part of
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my life was skateboarding in those days. I know
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a big thing changed in your life when you went
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to see Benny Hester at the Civic, right? Yeah,
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man, you're deep diving. Thank you. Yeah, so
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in 1979. I had dropped out of high school, you
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know, halfway through my senior year. So that
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was in probably early, late 78 or early 79 when
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I dropped out and just didn't have the credits.
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I just blew off my high school years, just wanted
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to skateboard and get high all the time. I was
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invited that summer in August, August 2nd and
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August 3rd. They were doing a big concert at
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the Civic Auditorium and this guy, Benny Hester,
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was playing. uh he he sounded kind of like uh
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his style of music was kind of like seals and
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croft in that genre yeah and so uh but his sound
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was much more raw rather than while he became
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much more polished as a as he released more music
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but man his music just spoke to me the lyrics
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and all that and So that was August 2nd, August
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3rd, 1979. And during his concert, I gave my
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life to Christ, and it changed my life completely.
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So that really made you interested in playing
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music, too, at the same time? Yes. When I came
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to faith in Christ, I started going to Calvary
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Chapel here in Bakersfield. That was located
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at... 17th and O Street. And so I started going
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to church there, and a lot of people were playing
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acoustic guitars, and we were singing these little
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praise songs, and they were powerful at the time.
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And that's what I wanted to do. I just wanted
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to go home and play these type of songs, and
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so that caused me to pick up the acoustic guitar
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and start playing. So that was probably about
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three months into my Christian faith when I started
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picking up the guitar to play it. And how did
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that lead to the band Traxtor? Well... I would
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shed for a long time just playing my acoustic
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at home by myself and just learning songs and
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doing that. I really wanted, because Benny Hester
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and that whole genre of music really impacted
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my life for my faith. I wanted to do the same.
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So as I progressed as a musician, I started writing
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songs and started covering songs. I put together
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a band. The first band I put together was called
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Covenant and was just band members for people
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I went to church with. Very contemporary sound.
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It wasn't real rock -based. That's when I started
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really playing music live. And then in the Christian
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world, metal music started arising. striper that
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came out which was like mind -blowingly good
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music you know it was like these guys were legit
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and that stirred in me I want to play that kind
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of music and so I started reaching out to different
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people. Our drummer that was in the band Covenant,
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he was into that music heavily. His name's Anthony
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Cutshaw. I think he played with the Jews and
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others here in town. He and I got together. He
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had a friend named Danny Beasley, who looked
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like Oz Fox from Striper. He just had long, curly
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black hair, you know, and he had that feel in
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his guitar playing. And so we started playing
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in my back bedroom, and we needed singers. Well,
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There was like an open mic night at a place called
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Aunt Sherry's Home that was across the street
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from Bakersfield College. And so I went to Aunt
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Sherry's Home to the open mic, and I was playing.
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And there was a guy that was running sound, and
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he had long hair. And I thought, well, maybe
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he knows a singer because he's running sound.
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He knows people. So I went up and asked him,
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and he goes, oh, I play. I sing. I play guitar.
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And I thought, well, who knows if he does or
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not? People could have a lot of wind in their
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voice. But anyway, that was our singer, Terry
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Fisher. And he goes by T -Fish, or he goes by
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T. He goes by Teases. So he has a lot of aliases.
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He's a very nice guy. I love Terry. And so we
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started Traxtor in my back bedroom. He came in
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for an audition, and it was just like, oh. In
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those days, he sounded like Rick Emmett from
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Triumph. Just a great tone in his voice, good
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songwriter, good player. And that's how Traxtor
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began. Out on the streets and forgotten You're
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so lonely Empty heart and nowhere to turn Lonely
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Caring no, no, no more for life Lonely When you
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think about nowadays, Christian music has a Christian
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version of every single type of music. Like even
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I've seen Christian death metal. But back then
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it seems like maybe not everyone would be accepting
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of heavier... Christian music. Did you face any
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obstacles from that? Yes, definitely. When we
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started playing, most of the Christian bands
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in those days, they kind of played and they were
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like shoegazers. They would just stand there
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on the stage and look down at their instruments
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and play. When Striper was out, there was other
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bands that were a big influence of my name. One
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of them was Baron Cross, and those guys would
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perform while they played. It was just like,
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that's what we wanted to do. So when we played
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shows, we... put on the full -on spandex. We
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had our long hair. We had our earrings in our
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ears. And tattoos weren't real big in those days,
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but if they were, we would have gotten tattoos
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and went for it. We performed our music. We just
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didn't play. So there was a particular church
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in town that invited us to come out and play
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at the park that's next to West High School.
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And so they had a stage set up, and we went in
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there. And we're performing our songs and doing
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that. And they just thought that we were just
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full of ourselves. And they pretty much blackballed
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us from playing anything. They were hosting a
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lot of shows back then as well. Wow. And so we
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weren't really accepted in a lot of churches.
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A few of them would let us play and do that.
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And so it wasn't like we were blackballed everywhere.
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But yeah, people couldn't get over the spandex,
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the long hair, and the performance of the music.
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They thought we were bringing too much attention
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to ourselves rather than to Christ, which we
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didn't agree with because we were really very
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vocal about our faith. And that was what it was
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like back in those days. Yeah. I know you took
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your stage show seriously because I think I read
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that you had mirrors in your practice studio
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so that you could write. something like that
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yeah yeah we would uh uh when we would write
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a song it was all about just the mechanics of
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getting the song down yeah then after we had
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the song down and we're really comfortable with
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it underneath our fingers and everything and
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with our vocals. Once we had that comfortable,
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then when we would practice, we would practice
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in our studio as if we were playing live. So
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we would set up with the drums behind us on a
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drum riser and we would practice and get all
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of our vocal parts. We would have choreography
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in certain songs and that we would, you know,
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do. you know, the choreography thing. And so
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that way, when we played live, we were comfortable
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running around playing our instruments and not
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having to worry about, you know, being accurate
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with hitting the frets correctly. And it paid
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off because you won Battle of the Bands here
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in Bakersfield twice in a row, right? Yeah, thank
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you. Yeah, they actually had Battle of the Bands.
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They got... I think it was Shafter High School.
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They were able to use that building. So they
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promoted the whole thing. And so bands would
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go out there. And yeah, so two years in a row,
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we had won the Battle of the Bands, which in
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those days was significant. For us, especially
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being a Christian band, to be at the top of those
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ranks, we were always playing with non -Christian
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bands because churches weren't open to us. So
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that was a great thing because what that did
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is that drove us into working with other bands
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that were not Christian bands to book shows like
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with the Parks Districts. And so then we would
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work also with... clubs that were in high school
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for a fundraiser for the club. And so we would
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play at North High Auditorium. We would play
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East High, Highland, West High. We would play
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different gymnasiums here in town because of
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the Parks District. And they were all bands that
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were not, for the most part, not Christian bands
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that we would play with, which actually, because
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of that, led to me starting The Gate. Yeah, that
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makes sense. I heard that all your guitars got
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stolen at one time. Can you tell me about that?
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Man, you're crazy with your good research. Thank
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you. Yeah, so we rented a warehouse studio. It
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was like a big three -car garage or so off of
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East 21st Street. and that's where we practiced
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and so one day we showed up and our door was
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broken in and somebody got in there and and stole
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mainly our terry fisher's guitars there was a
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couple other things that that went missing and
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so it's like we need to get this back well because
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bakersfield is a pretty small town and local
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music scene is pretty you know small as well
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uh we got word through word of mouth that um
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who stole it. And they said that our equipment
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was in his back garage at his house, actually
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at his mom's house. And so we found all this
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stuff out, we cased the place, we looked at it,
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and then we went in and broke into his garage
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and we got all of our stuff back. The drag was
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that he had a Gibson Explorer, very nice, and
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they spray painted it white with just this. cruddy
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white spray paint. Oh, man. Yeah, it was really
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lame, but we got all our equipment back for sure.
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That's good. I had a question because I couldn't
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find them, but I read you shot a couple music
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videos on the artist production soundstage at
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14th and P. Did those ever come out? They did.
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We have them on VHS videos somewhere. I think
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my son Stephen may have. uh those videos and
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um yeah so i i don't even know if those buildings
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are even there any longer yeah i don't know yeah
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when uh we met a guy named bill bill i think
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his last name is johnson And he's the one that
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filmed us and edited those videos and put them
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all together for us. We did a show at North High
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School in O 'Neill Hall. And it was crazy. We
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had a band named Still Rage that was good friends
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with us. And they were all in high school. And
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so they opened up for us. And so when we booked
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that show, we promoted it. He had still rage
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that was going to open up for us. We're going
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to play. They're videotaping the whole thing
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with cameras. And I think it was promoted that
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we were trying to get this on MTV at the time.
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And so we had a big line of people outside. And
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the principal of the school was there. And he
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saw all these people that weren't just North
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High students. And he freaked out and closed
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the doors and didn't allow it. a bunch of people
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to come in and so that was really lame but we
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still put on the show still did it still had
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a lot of people inside and filmed that whole
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thing so i haven't seen those videos in years
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man i have no idea So you had an album, Rockin'
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Race. That album has a lot of respect in the
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Christian metal community, right? For being one
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of the first albums that came out from that scene,
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right? Well, by the time we released Hours in
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1990, it was all over the place. So there was
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a lot of bands that were playing. Yeah, so when
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we released that, it got released. We were with
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a Christian label called Lorz Records, and it
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got released throughout all of the United States.
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and into Canada because of Canada with their
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people that lived in France as well. So we got
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fan mail from Canada, from France, all over America,
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all that stuff. But our album really didn't do
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good in the music scene as far as what we was
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wanting it to be. And there's various reasons
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why. The label wasn't really good at promoting
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it. And so whatever, it was meant to be. So it
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never made it real huge in the Christian market.
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But it does have a pretty large following because
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we did a podcast a couple of years ago with a
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person that says, man, we tried to find you guys,
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hunt you down, finally found you. This is an
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incredible album. We love it. And so a lot of
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people chimed in. We got a lot of... you know
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reports back so that was encouraging for us because
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we you know we sold a lot i can't remember how
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many we sold but it wasn't we never made it like
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huge and into the market as far as that goes
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oh yeah so how did trackster end up breaking
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up well um i would say it was basically that
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the album came out and we could see that it's
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not going anywhere And we could pursue it. But
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also part of it was my fault because I started
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really focusing on my faith more and more. And
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I was having a personal call in my life to be
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in ministry full time. And so I just felt led
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that I should leave the band. And so I did. And
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then I think the next day or so, our guitar player,
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Leonard Bennett, left as well and then terry
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tried to keep it going with our drummer uh darren
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kirkendall who later became the drummer of the
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smoking armadillos cool and um and so they tried
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to get something going and that just didn't work
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out and so they just moved on but darren had
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a great career with smoking armadillos yeah that's
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cool they're part of that 90s bakersfield sound
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resurgence yeah yeah with big house and smoking
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armadillos and stuff That's cool. So Traxter's
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broken up. How did you get the idea for the gate?
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At the time that I was in Traxter, I wasn't attending
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the garden. I was going to a different church
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at the time. And so when Traxter broke up, there
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was a group of about 25 or 30 of us. A lot of
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us were musicians. that were meeting in a home.
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And we're basically like a home group, but we
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were just pursuing the Lord's presence, pursuing
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a life of doing the best that we can to live
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for Christ. We ended up starting a church called
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The Dwelling Place at that time. Pep Roby played
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in Sozo with Mark Davis. He would be the main
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leader of the group. And so he would be the pastor.
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And I would be like the second guy with him as
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well. And so we met Pastor David Goh, who's the
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pastor of the garden, and he invited us to come
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to the pastor's prayer meeting. And so we went
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to that prayer meeting and got to know other
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pastors, got to know Pastor David. And then Pastor
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David invited us to come and lead worship at
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one of their revival meetings that they were
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doing at the time. So we came in and did that.
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The presence of God. as we would say in our christian
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circles especially charismatic his presence fell
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very strong powerfully in the room you could
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feel that tangible presence of the lord was there
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and uh so pastor david went home that night and
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he stayed up all night drawing up a document
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about having our little church merge in with
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the garden and be and take over the um the worship
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music and ministry there at the church And so
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he hit up Pep about that, and Pep prayed about
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it for a few days and then talked with me. And
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then we ended up meeting with the leaders of
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the garden, and we made a decision, well, let's
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just merge our church in with the garden, and
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that's what we did. Now, when we met with Pastor
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David, he walked with me around downtown, around
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where the garden is, where the gate is. And Pastor
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David talked about having a vision of a coffee
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house named The Gate. And when he said that,
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something started in me that was like, you know,
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I could lead something like that. Because I had
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this whole background of putting on shows and
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booking bands while I was in Traxter. And so
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I presented to them me starting up that ministry
21:00
called The Gate. And to book Christian bands,
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non -Christian bands, it didn't matter. The thought
21:05
was this. in the Christian circle is that there's
21:09
evangelism, which is reaching the loss for Christ.
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And so a lot of churches was putting on Christian
21:18
concerts and they would call it evangelism, but
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only Christians were showing up. So my idea was
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like, let's open up our doors of our church and
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invite. anyone to come in and play. That way
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we will always have those that need Christ in
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our congregation, or in the shows, that we could
21:36
in some way influence to follow Christ. And so
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it went through our main leaders of our church,
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the board of directors, elders, we call them.
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And it was a tough call because they were of
21:51
an older generation that this was like... That
21:54
was risky, what I was asking. And they gave the
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approval for it. And so that's pretty much how
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the gate began, was through their generosity
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and their trust in me to be able to lead something
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like that. Very grateful for that. Yeah. Did
22:11
you ever think it's interesting that the song
22:13
that meant so much to you was called The Door,
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right? Yeah. And then the place you... worked
22:21
on was The Gate. It's kind of like a similar...
22:23
I never thought about that. That's a very cool
22:26
insight. Yeah, that song, The Door by Benny Hester,
22:29
I'm in that room at the Civic Auditorium. There's
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one line in that song that's repeated over and
22:35
over, I want to thank you, Jesus, I want to thank
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you, Jesus. And so when I'm in that room and
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I'm... I'm seeing people around me that are praying
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and singing to God as if He's really in the room.
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And I'm feeling things in my heart. And I wasn't
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living a life that was very godly at all. I was
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a lot of hate in my heart and a lot of drug abuse.
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And when I saw these people living like that,
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I thought... I want what they have. And I made
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a decision. I'm going to be a Christian now.
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And it was as simple as that for me. So that
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song, The Door, made a big impact in my life.
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And I never thought about The Gate and that song
23:17
being kind of attached together. Thanks for that.
24:17
Talk to me about the first show, because I feel
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like whenever you're doing something new, the
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first one is always the hardest. The first show
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had crushing, violent jumping trains and green,
24:28
I think, in night. February 21st, 1997. Yep.
24:32
So I was approved to do the gate like in September
24:36
of 96. We had no money. We had a skeleton, you
24:42
know, sound system. So what I did is I started
24:47
just sharing my vision with people and people
24:50
started donating money towards it. And so we
24:54
were able to upgrade our sound system, upgrade
24:56
our lighting with the generous donations of those
25:00
people that caught the vision that I was bringing
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to them. That's cool. Probably around probably
25:05
November or so. Well, I remember this. I remember
25:08
there was a flyer that was out from a band named
25:12
Focal Point. That was from up north and they
25:15
were playing Jerry's. And so I thought I need
25:18
to get back in the local music scene. So I contacted
25:21
the guy that was promoting the show and I was
25:24
asking him about. you know, Focal Point. They
25:26
were a hardcore band and a great band, you know.
25:29
And so I asked him about Jerry's Pizza, and he
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said he didn't have a sound system. At that time,
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Jerry's Pizza didn't have sound. Yeah. And so
25:37
I said, hey, I can bring a sound system down
25:40
there and run sound for you. So that's kind of
25:42
how I got back into the music scene. And so while
25:45
I was there, I started telling people that were
25:48
playing music that I'm getting ready to open
25:50
up a venue called The Gate here in 1997. And
25:54
so I got the word out. And so someone mentioned
25:57
to me one of the bands, Crushing Violet. And
26:06
I remember reaching out to them. Of course, this
26:08
was before the internet. It was all just landlines.
26:11
I called them up, got their number somewhere,
26:13
and asked them if they would like to play. They
26:16
knew any other bands, and so that's how I got
26:18
in contact with the bands, is just word of mouth.
26:20
And then we did our first show, and they promoted
26:25
it very well on the Bakersfield Californian,
26:28
on the entertainment section. Big picture of
26:31
the band and all that stuff on there. So we got
26:33
a lot of good... publicity through the Bakersfield
26:36
Californian at that time yeah and uh so once
26:39
I did the first show and at that time I was looking
26:42
at doing shows once a month and have three bands
26:45
play I started getting phone calls from bands
26:48
and I had to carry an address book with me so
26:51
I keep track of them all, writing them down with
26:53
pencils because people's phone numbers were changed
26:55
and all that. But yeah, once we did our first
26:58
show, then it was like the venue was discovered
27:00
and people just started making phone calls. And
27:02
so I didn't really have to start searching out
27:04
bands. They sought me out. Well, that shows that
27:07
people liked the show if they wanted to play
27:09
it. Was that your first experience booking concerts?
27:13
Was that that show? As a promoter and venue operator,
27:18
it was. But it wasn't my first experience booking
27:21
shows because with Traxtor, I mean, it was all
27:24
do -it -yourself stuff anyway. So in those days
27:28
when Traxtor was around, there weren't any venues.
27:32
The venues that were there were top 40 bands.
27:35
And so it was just cover bands. That's all that
27:37
was there. So anybody that was playing their
27:38
own music, you just had to put your own show
27:41
together. So we had our own sound system. And
27:44
then when we did bigger shows and bigger auditoriums,
27:46
like the school auditoriums, we would get with
27:49
the bands that we were playing and we would mix
27:51
all of our sound systems together, our speakers,
27:53
and we'd plug it in. We would just make it work.
27:56
And so we would create our own venues. by using
28:00
what was available through the school districts
28:02
or through the parks districts. And towards the
28:05
end of our time with Traxtor, Bam Bam's open.
28:08
And we played there a few times. And so that
28:10
was like the first venue that was open to bands
28:14
that played original music, at least in my memory.
28:18
I noticed one of the things that you did is you
28:21
had different nights, like a punk night that
28:23
would be an all punk bill or ska night. And a
28:26
lot of the times it would be mostly local bands
28:29
that, you know, kind of making its own scene
28:32
there. Yeah. When we, when we first started,
28:35
you know, the alternative type scene was there
28:38
like Toe the Witt Sprocket, Jandra, you know,
28:40
that whole style was. was happening. And then
28:44
Ska really hit big during the late 90s, probably
28:48
at the end of 97 into 98. And so there was a
28:54
lot of Ska bands that were coming through. But
28:56
the Gates main focus was really not so much the
29:00
touring bands that came in. It was really focused
29:03
around the local musicians. Because in my heart,
29:06
because we had played with so many other bands
29:09
in town, we learned how to get our own monitor
29:14
mixes and be able to run our own sound and do
29:18
these type of things. And so when we had local
29:20
bands that would come in, most of them were young
29:22
players, high school students, or people in their
29:26
early 20s, and they never played with monitors.
29:29
And so at the gate, we had a complete full sound
29:33
system with monitors, and I would be able to
29:35
help train these young people how to ask. what
29:39
to ask for in their monitors. And it was also
29:44
part of that thing of my Christian faith is that
29:48
I wanted to make friends with people. And in
29:50
some way, through that friendship, that they
29:54
would get to know who I am, and I would hope
29:57
that they would get to know who Christ is, who
30:00
has done a work in my life. And so I was never
30:03
preachy at people. But I was very much into seeing
30:08
people come to faith like I came to faith, but
30:11
I never pressed that on them very hard. I would
30:14
let that be more organic. And so we had opened
30:18
up about a year after the gate started, we had
30:20
opened up a Tuesday night meeting. And so as
30:24
I got to know people within the music scene that
30:27
was interested, I would invite them to my Bible
30:30
study. group on Tuesday nights, and that's pretty
30:34
much how people would come in if they were interested
30:36
in the Christian faith. So the gate was actually
30:40
that. It was a gate into a possible relationship
30:44
with Christ, if people were interested in that.
30:48
The gate is similar to Traxter in that they're
30:51
both almost like on a line between secular and
30:55
Christian, you know? And so I was wondering...
30:58
Do you have people that didn't like what was
31:02
going on in the building because there were concerts?
31:05
Yeah, we had people leave our church because
31:06
they couldn't get over the fact that, in their
31:09
mind anyway, a person that didn't have faith
31:12
in Christ was on our platform bringing a message
31:16
that wasn't Christ -centered. And so I get their
31:19
perspective, but the gate was not a church meeting.
31:23
The gate was a venue. It was a concert hall.
31:26
And so that's what it was. And our church, The
31:32
Garden, has been very much an influence in Bakersfield
31:36
in many different ways. We just want to be not
31:39
isolated in our Christian faith, but actually
31:42
active in the community. And so when it comes
31:46
to music, we were active with me running the
31:49
gate. for the local music scene so my whole thrust
31:52
the whole time that we ran the gate all through
31:55
those 19 years was to be involved with the local
31:59
music scene and we were we were a true venue
32:02
yes we we were a faith -based venue but we didn't
32:07
require people to come to our venue that didn't
32:10
have faith and and we i mean we experienced a
32:13
lot of stuff That would happen on the platform
32:16
that was not Christian at all. And I would just
32:19
give grace to it because I just wanted to let
32:22
people know that there's a side of Christianity
32:25
that's not going to judge you for the person
32:27
that you are right now. We're just going to love
32:28
you anyway. You had some rules because it's in
32:31
a church. No drinking, no smoking, no drugs,
32:35
and no swearing. But not everyone is always going
32:39
to follow that. Yeah, when we first... we had
32:43
a no profanity clause that was there that actually
32:46
when I first started, I had a contract that people
32:49
would sign. And that was based on my memories
32:51
of doing the whole pay to play thing back in,
32:53
you know, down in the LA club circuit. And so
32:56
I would have, have that part of the clause and
32:58
I would actually list out the cuss words they
33:01
couldn't say, you know, which was more of the
33:03
profanity vulgarity type cuss words, you know?
33:06
Yeah. But as time went by at the gate, It became
33:10
more of a joke. Like if someone would say the
33:12
F word from the platform, people would look,
33:15
if I was running sound, people would look back
33:16
at me like, what am I going to do? You know,
33:19
and I realized it's just silly cuss words. And
33:22
so I would let those things go. It was when people
33:25
got up on the microphone and they just were purposely
33:29
just being outright vulgar to the audience. I
33:33
would just mute their mic, you know, just like
33:35
play your song. Yeah, definitely. We were in
33:37
an all ages venue. And so we didn't sell alcohol.
33:41
Therefore, we didn't allow alcohol there. But
33:43
alcohol always found its way there almost at
33:45
every show. At the end of the night, we would
33:47
go out there and having to clean up the whole,
33:49
you know, the whole property around our venue
33:51
from beer bottles, beer cans, cigarette butts.
33:54
We'd allow people to smoke, you know, so we had
33:57
ashtrays outside, you know, when people go outside.
34:00
And so there's people that are underage that
34:02
would be out there smoking. We never had a...
34:05
you know, made them stop or anything like that.
34:07
But the drinking, if we saw people drinking,
34:10
I'd go over there or we'd have a security. We'd
34:13
go and ask them to take that off the campus,
34:16
you know, but. You can't stop that stuff. People
34:19
come in anyway, and we'll drink, and they'll
34:23
do drugs. One of our big festivals that we did
34:25
at one time, we had a guy that overdosed on heroin
34:28
out there on our lawn. Oh, man. And, man, we
34:31
thought, I mean, he was blue. And I just knew
34:34
he's dying right here. And we called the hall
34:37
ambulance, and they came out. And, man, the guy
34:40
wasn't breathing. And, man, they stabbed him
34:43
with one of those. They gave him something. I
34:45
mean, he came right out of it completely sober.
34:48
It was just like, what a relief. But there was
34:51
a lot of fights that broke out as well. And so
34:53
when you're looking at the gate, some people
34:57
would say, well, it's a safe place for kids to
35:00
come to. And it wasn't a safe place, really.
35:04
It felt safe for people that were in the music
35:06
scene that would play at different venues like
35:08
Jerry's or whatever. We were a completely different
35:11
vibe. Again, we had people there that were not
35:16
Christians. People that was doing drugs, people
35:20
that was drinking, people that liked to fight.
35:22
And we experienced all that stuff. It's a lot
35:25
of responsibility that you assumed to have to
35:28
care for all these people and try to build up
35:31
a community of musicians. It's amazing that you
35:34
ran it for 19 years. That's a long time. Most
35:37
venues don't last that long. No, they don't.
35:40
And the reason why ours lasted for so long. Part
35:46
of that was my tenacity to be faithful to something
35:49
that I was passionate about. But the other thing
35:52
of it is that our costs were very low. I didn't
35:59
have rent because people that go to church there,
36:03
they give of their money and their resources
36:06
to keep the church going. And part of those resources
36:10
are outreach, and that's what we were. you know,
36:13
on our church level. And so the people there
36:16
would give money. Of course, I would charge money
36:18
at the door, but that money at the door, most
36:21
of that went to the bands that played. And so,
36:24
because that was one of the things that when
36:25
I was in Traxter, we seldom ever got paid to
36:29
play. And even if we got paid to play that, we
36:33
were lucky if it even paid for our gas money
36:35
to build a play. So that was one of my first
36:39
things on my agenda. as I presented to our board
36:43
of elders to approve this, is that I wanted to
36:46
pay the bands. If they got the crowd there, I
36:49
wanted to reimburse them with money. So we did
36:52
that through the whole history of The Gate. That's
36:54
cool. One of my favorite things that I saw when
36:57
researching The Gate is I saw flyers for fundraiser
37:01
shows so people could record their own album.
37:04
And I thought that was really cool that all the
37:07
bands would donate their time to... be able to
37:10
raise money for an album. That's cool. Yeah,
37:12
we did that for bands, and the bands would promote
37:16
their shows and get people out there. I had a
37:19
paid staff that I would pay through the money
37:22
that came in through the door, and it was at
37:24
a certain amount of money, which was very cheap
37:26
at the time. It was just covering them and covering
37:28
any expenses that I would have, like broken microphones
37:31
and broken mic cables and mic stands, whatever,
37:35
so I could replace. And so, yeah, the band would
37:40
take home a pretty good chunk of money to be
37:42
able to go out and record. And on that as well
37:47
is that as the gate progressed, there was needs
37:52
that the gate had, like with sound and with lighting.
37:55
And even to raise our stage up higher so that
37:59
people could see the bands play their instruments,
38:01
we would put on a show and ask the bands that
38:04
they could play for free as a fundraiser for
38:06
the gate. And then what the bands are getting
38:08
out of it is better sound quality, better monitors,
38:11
a higher stage. And so all of that stuff was
38:14
raised by the local musicians, the local scene
38:17
in town. Yeah, that's really cool. Very, very
38:20
cool. So what are some of your highlight shows
38:23
that you booked at the gate? Probably a lot.
38:28
Yeah, it's hard to... In the early days, I really
38:33
liked this band, a Christian band called Stave
38:35
Zaker. And I loved all their music. And so, you
38:40
know, it's always a scary thing. When you're
38:43
a fan of a band, and then you bring them in,
38:45
are they going to have attitudes, and suddenly
38:47
you just don't like the band anymore? But these
38:49
guys were cool. They got along with them very
38:52
well, and they played. The first time that we
38:55
had Stave Zaker play, we had a band, Zach Davidson,
38:58
who played in the acrylics, and he was in a band
39:01
called Plebeian Cry. And so Zach was a guy that
39:05
I just loved. I just loved him as a person, as
39:08
a personality. But every time he got on the platform,
39:11
he would always use the F. for it you know and
39:13
it's just like zach come on man you know and
39:16
he's i know man i'm performing i can't help it
39:18
it's just and you know i love the guy and so
39:21
we had staves acre play which had a pretty big
39:23
christian following you know and and they were
39:26
great band and so i had plebeian cry open up
39:29
i suffer from nightmare induced insomnia due
39:38
to the insistent lumen presence of my own Of
39:58
course, that gets up there being Zach and doing
40:01
what he does. And then I had some young guys
40:04
that came up to me afterwards, just really upset
40:07
that I had booked this man that was using profanity
40:10
on the platform. So I remember having this conversation
40:13
with these guys and kind of holding their feet
40:15
to the fire on like why they're being so judgmental
40:19
over this type stuff. That was a highlight. There
40:22
was a band, which we haven't talked about the
40:25
Boiler Room yet, but there was a band that came
40:27
in called the 1AM Radio. And so they came in
40:30
and they had violins and, I mean, their four
40:34
-part vocal harmonies. And, I mean, they started
40:37
playing and it was just like mouth drop open.
40:39
I can't believe the awesome talent that is in
40:43
this room right now. That was a big highlight.
40:46
So I went out, you know, at that time I got all
40:48
their... Well, tapes back then, cassette tapes.
40:52
Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. I heard the MXPX show
40:57
was pretty big. One of the things about me running
41:01
the venue, and I promoted shows, I booked shows,
41:04
did a lot of that, but I also had promoters that
41:07
came to me. And so I would work with them directly,
41:10
and then they would book the shows, and I would
41:12
just open up the venue for them to do it. Tim
41:16
Gardea was the one that booked MXPX. And he had
41:20
a couple other bands. I think the Hippos played
41:21
that show, maybe? I'm not sure. Anyway, my memory's
41:26
not... solid. But yeah, MXPX came in and they
41:31
had their own sound, brought in their whole tour.
41:34
The venue was packed out, great show, and really
41:37
kind of landed us in those early days on the
41:40
map. We did a couple more shows with Tim Gardea,
41:44
and there was also another guy, I can't remember
41:46
his name, but he had a company. called 415 productions
41:51
and they booked some shows as well but we didn't
41:55
sell alcohol and we wouldn't allow them to sell
41:57
alcohol and so they liked it that we were a we
42:00
had a nice big venue and um But because we didn't
42:04
sell alcohol, there was a lot of money that wasn't
42:07
made on that end of things. Plus, some of the
42:10
touring bands liked to be able to drink before
42:11
they played or drink on stage. And so there was
42:14
a lot of complaints about playing at an all -ages
42:18
venue that didn't serve alcohol. And so they
42:22
pretty much had the conversation with me. Yeah,
42:24
we're probably not going to book any more shows
42:25
with you because of that. And for me, it's like,
42:29
well, so be it. We are who we are. That really
42:32
drove me. more and more to focus on the local
42:34
music scene rather than touring bands. And I
42:37
booked some touring bands myself, but that wasn't
42:40
the biggest drive for me. Do you have some good
42:42
memories? Because we talked about some of the
42:45
out -of -town shows that you booked. Do you have
42:47
some good memories of some of the local bands
42:49
playing that were really special? That's just
42:52
a tough... Yeah, it's such an open -ended, yeah.
42:56
Yeah, and what's tough about it is that we put
42:58
on so many shows that in those days... I'm just
43:02
putting on a show. I'm running so much of the
43:06
memories are of a particular show. I remember
43:09
putting on a show and there was a local band.
43:11
They were high school band named Fat Chance.
43:13
And they played the whole like pop punk, skate
43:16
punk type genre. And so they had a lot of high
43:21
school kids that were there. I may have had a
43:24
ska band play. So there was that whole, like
43:26
Skinhead, that's what I'm looking for. Yeah,
43:28
so Fat Chance was a skate punk band, pop punk,
43:33
skate punk. band and uh from high school and
43:35
they had uh or they were high school students
43:38
and so they had a pretty good following of high
43:40
school kids girls and guys that came to their
43:42
shows i think i had a ska band playing so people
43:45
were skanking to that band and but there was
43:48
um people that were into the skinhead type vibe
43:51
of the of that culture of of um of ska that just
43:57
wanted to fight. And so fighting was breaking
44:01
out, and I would have to get there. At that time,
44:03
I remember that night, I didn't have any security.
44:06
And that was pretty common in those days, not
44:08
to have any security. And for the most part,
44:10
the audience would do security themselves. People
44:15
would pull their friends off their friends if
44:17
they were fighting, you know. There was two groups
44:19
of people that were outside that were getting
44:21
ready to fight. And I remember going out on the
44:24
grass lawn and standing between both of them,
44:27
holding my hands up like I'm a cop or something,
44:30
and telling them, you're not going to do that
44:32
here. You're going to go somewhere else. And
44:33
I stopped the fight from happening. But there
44:37
was one time a fight broke out, and I went over
44:40
there to try and stop it, and this guy threatened
44:42
me. And I realized, well, I'll just let him fight,
44:45
whatever. I put my hands in the air. Hey, no
44:47
problem. I just backed off and let him fight.
44:50
And then it ends, and everybody leaves. And it's
44:52
surprising, out of the 19 years with the fighting,
44:57
the bloodshed, we haven't got into any stories
44:59
about the shindig and all of our skateboarding
45:01
stuff, that we never ran across any type of...
45:06
or a parent calling us and threatening us in
45:09
any way. The shows happened, and things just
45:12
moved on, and we went for the next show. Is there
45:14
some stuff you wanted to talk about with the
45:16
boiler room? The boiler room is actually because
45:20
our church venue was the old YMCA building. It
45:25
was built back in the 40s. So it used to have
45:27
a swimming pool, and then it had, because it
45:31
was a gym, and you had... basketball being played
45:35
and all that. They had showers and all that.
45:37
So the boiler room was, that's what it was called,
45:40
the boiler room. And that had these big boiler
45:42
tanks to bring hot water to the showers. It had
45:46
a lot of asbestos there. And so we wanted to
45:49
open up that venue and have a smaller venue because
45:52
a lot of our local shows would draw, you know,
45:57
25 people into the room, some of them. And in
46:00
that big cavernous gym that we had, it would
46:04
be demoralizing for the bands that would be playing.
46:06
It's like, you might have 25, 30 people in the
46:08
room, but it felt like the room was empty and
46:11
nobody showed up. And so when you had a smaller
46:14
venue, you could have 25 or 30 people in there
46:17
and it felt good. So we got the brainstorm, hey,
46:21
let's remodel the boiler room. So we had to hire
46:27
welders and come in there. Well, first of all,
46:31
we had to get rid of all the asbestos. So we
46:32
hired a contractor that came in to get rid of
46:36
all that legally. And then we ended up removing
46:39
all the tanks out of there, all the piping out
46:42
of there. We built a stage in there. We built
46:44
a counter that had a coffee house type vibe.
46:46
We installed a chandelier, put soundproofing
46:49
all around the room because it was just, the
46:51
sound was bouncing everywhere. And we did in
46:54
the sound in there. So this was five years after
46:57
the gate started when we opened up the boiler
46:59
room. And so now we had a nice small venue that
47:04
we could house shows in there all the time. And
47:08
the setup and the cleanup and the tear down and
47:10
all that stuff was done really easy because it
47:13
was a small venue. We didn't have to set up for
47:15
church the next day or anything like that. And
47:18
then that opened us up to where we could start
47:20
booking things throughout the week, weeknights.
47:23
And so that opened up. um other promoters like
47:27
my sons you know were getting into um the music
47:31
scene and then and they they started liking other
47:33
bands and so you know people would hit them up
47:36
about doing shows at the boiler room and other
47:39
people would come in that that had connections
47:41
and they'd ask me if they could book shows in
47:44
there and i would i would help them tell them
47:48
what they need to communicate to the bands that
47:50
they're booking, how our system worked with pay
47:53
and stuff like that. And so I was the go -between
47:57
of the promoters and the bands that were being
47:59
booked. And so I was very much involved on the
48:02
day -to -day throughout all the 19 years with
48:04
that. But the Boiler Room opened, and we started
48:07
doing a lot of weeknight shows for touring bands
48:10
that were coming through. And then we'd get local
48:13
bands to be able to play with them. And so when
48:15
we would do bigger shows that we knew that it
48:18
was too much for the boiler room, we would do
48:21
our shows at what we called the main stage. So
48:23
the gym that we started the gate in was called
48:27
the main stage, and then the boiler room was
48:30
called the boiler room. So then we would do festivals
48:33
to where we would have a weekend. We would just
48:35
book. a bunch of local bands and touring bands
48:38
and we would open up the main stage and the boiler
48:41
room and we would have bands and the people that
48:44
would come in and out of both those venues to
48:46
to watch all the bands that would be playing
48:48
if anything was memorable for me in those days
48:51
was just hosting those big weekend events that
48:54
uh that were fun to do other things that were
48:57
memorable for me was um was doing cover band
49:01
nights. And so we would get bands that would
49:04
specifically learn and cover certain bands, like
49:07
Federal Space Cadet in those days, they said
49:11
that they would do Radiohead. Lebex did... Kiss.
49:15
Kiss, and they dressed up like Kiss and all that.
49:17
Yeah, I saw a big spread in the Californian of
49:20
them in their Kiss makeup. Yeah, yeah. So those
49:24
were memorable, and those were fun as well. In
49:27
fact, when they... Federal Space Cadet. The only
49:30
song I knew at that time from Radiohead was Creep.
49:34
And so when Federal Space Cadet came up there
49:39
and they covered a lot of songs off of OK Computer,
49:43
that's when I really like, oh, I got to listen
49:46
to Radiohead. And I really got into OK Computer,
49:49
one of my favorite albums of all time, for sure.
49:52
Yeah, that's funny because it's the reverse.
49:54
Because most people don't ever go to a cover
49:57
show. of a band they don't know. But since you're
50:00
already there, you're going to listen to it.
50:02
And so you learned about the band from the covers.
50:05
Exactly. Yeah, it's the opposite of... Yeah,
50:07
it was great. Yeah, one year, I put together
50:10
a band with some friends, and we called ourselves
50:14
the Cheesy 80s. And this was the year that Adam
50:18
Sandler's movie, The Wedding Singer, came out.
50:20
Oh, yeah. So there was like a revival of 80s
50:22
music. because of that movie and so i just got
50:25
got in my head hey you know the next cover band
50:28
night we should um we i should put a band together
50:31
and call it and i came up with the name cheesy
50:33
80s and and we covered a bunch of uh uh you know
50:37
about 35 minutes set worth of 80s music and it
50:41
was a big hit man it was just really fun to play
50:44
on the venue that I usually run. Now I get to
50:47
play on the stage, you know, rather than watch
50:49
other bands play. So that was a great memory.
50:52
That's cool. Did you surprise some of the younger
50:54
people that didn't know you played music? I don't
50:57
know if I surprised them. Of course, you know.
51:00
At the time, I put on a wig, so I had long hair
51:02
on that. But I had a goatee at the time, so it
51:05
didn't fit the 80s metal thing. But I was trying
51:08
to. But we all dressed up in different 80s type
51:11
of... Each band member dressed up the same. We
51:14
had two females, so we did Burning Down the House
51:18
from Talking Heads. I think it was... Cool. We
51:21
had a good time playing that music. But yeah,
51:23
cover band nights were great. Loved all that.
51:26
Is there anything else that we missed that you
51:28
want to talk about? Five years after we started
51:32
the gate on the main stage, we started the boiler
51:34
room, which lasted about another five years.
51:37
And then in 2008, our church had an outpouring
51:44
of God's presence that was very powerful. And
51:47
I had a bunch of out -of -town bands that I had
51:50
booked, guaranteed them the specific nights.
51:54
you know the presence of god was moving very
51:56
strong in our church and so we were we opened
51:59
our doors from thursday night to sunday night
52:02
and people from all over all over started coming
52:06
experiencing the lord's presence and so i had
52:10
the choice at that time do i shut down the gate
52:13
or do i keep doing shows and the church is just
52:16
going to have to work around my shows but For
52:21
me, I'm like, a revival is happening right now,
52:24
which in Christian circles is a very coveted
52:30
time that you honor and you respect. There's
52:34
a genuine sovereign move of God happening right
52:37
now. I don't want to stop it because I got bands
52:41
booked, but I also don't want to burn the bands
52:43
that I already booked. So I had a conversation
52:45
with our senior leader. Pastor David, and I said,
52:49
hey, can we pay these bands not to show up? And
52:52
so, yeah, let's do that. So I sent them all money
52:55
not to show up, and we closed down the gate for
52:57
six months. In the meantime, we moved to our
53:01
other property at 2010 O Street, and I remodeled
53:06
in the history of that building. our original
53:11
church building, I remodeled the fellowship hall
53:13
and made it into the new gate at 2010 O Street.
53:18
So six months later, in 2008, six months later,
53:22
we moved over there and opened up the gate at
53:25
2010 O Street. And that's where we finished the
53:30
gate out for the next nine years. So for a lot
53:33
of people, the gate is the main stage. And then
53:37
a lot of people, the gate is the boiler room.
53:39
And to a lot of people, the gate is 2010 O Street.
53:42
So it just separates itself out by the different
53:46
eras of local music that happened. So my sons,
53:53
Bobby and Steven, they booked a lot of shows
53:56
in the Boiler Room because they started knowing
53:59
bands and people started reaching out to them
54:00
and I would just work with them. And then when
54:04
I opened up the doors at 2010 O Street, And Eman,
54:10
he was a part of that whole scene as well. And
54:14
so he started hitting up bands about playing.
54:16
And he was just another guy that was promoting
54:18
shows, and I would work with him. And then he
54:21
got actively involved with The Gate, and he got
54:23
actively involved with our church as well. So
54:25
because of that, I started releasing him to book
54:28
more and more shows. And then he became one of
54:31
the guys that was booking a lot of the shows
54:32
and really taking the load off of me. of having
54:36
to be the promoter and booking all of it. So
54:38
E -Man was a big help in relieving me of responsibilities
54:45
of booking bands and him becoming the contact.
54:48
But it wasn't just him. There was other band
54:50
promoters that would come in and do things, bands
54:53
that would come to me and say, hey, we want to
54:56
put on a show, record release show. We want to
54:58
book the whole thing. And can we just... you
55:01
know, make the money on the show. The gate always
55:04
got its small little cut and then the bands were
55:07
able to take that. So, you know, other people
55:09
would come in and, and promote the shows and,
55:11
and work with me through all that. But, um, but
55:14
yeah, my kids were really involved with the boiler
55:17
room and, uh, E -man was very much involved with,
55:20
um, uh, booking a lot of shows, especially towards
55:23
the end of the last couple of years of the, of
55:26
the gate. Yeah. Good memories. That's cool. Yeah,
55:29
I mean, and when I talk about my kids and I talk
55:32
about E -Man, there were quite a few others that
55:35
were just really involved with the gate as well.
55:38
And all the staff members that worked at the
55:41
gate, a lot of them worked for free. They just
55:43
wanted to be around the music scene. And all
55:47
through the years, I mean, I could go through
55:48
names and names, and I don't want to leave anybody
55:49
out, so I won't. But they were very much heavily
55:53
involved with our church, and they were very
55:55
much heavily involved. with the gate and they
55:58
loved it and they they caught the vision to not
56:02
be preachy but just to be kind to people love
56:05
people treat people with respect uh help bands
56:08
um you know if they needed help loading in loading
56:11
out whatever we just wanted to be there to serve
56:15
the local music scene in bakersfield and that
56:18
was really In a nutshell, what The Gate was really
56:21
all about is serving the local music scene. It
56:24
wasn't about making money. It wasn't about trying
56:25
to make ourselves a big thing. And in the process
56:29
of all that, if people were interested in who
56:32
Christ was in us, then we would share the gospel
56:35
with them. We would invite them to come to church.
56:37
We invite them to come to my Tuesday night meetings
56:39
if they wanted to. But we never force that stuff
56:43
on people in our shows. The gate wasn't about
56:46
forcing our belief system on people. It was about
56:50
loving people and be actively involved with the
56:53
local music scene in Bakersfield. Do you have
56:56
any future plans with music? Well, I still play.
56:59
And I just celebrated my 65th birthday, so I'm
57:03
officially old man. But I still play. That's
57:05
one thing that's beautiful about music, AJ, is
57:08
that you can play music. All your life. Yeah.
57:12
All your life, you could play music. And so now
57:14
I'm pretty much playing music through my church,
57:18
the garden, and playing acoustic guitar. Mostly
57:21
I play bass, but I'll sing as well. And so thankful
57:26
that I'm still able to do that and that people
57:29
still ask me to do that. And yeah, so love playing
57:35
music. Trackster got back together. You know,
57:39
two years ago, what was that? In 2024, we did
57:43
a podcast. The guy that was interviewed and has
57:46
realized, because it was only three of us in
57:48
Traxter that was being interviewed for that podcast.
57:51
It was myself, Darren Kirkendall, and Leonard
57:54
Bennett. And T, we didn't have him come in because
57:58
they reached out to that. It was a very Christian
58:00
podcast. Anyway, it was just us that was involved.
58:03
And so the guy realized that all four of us still
58:07
lived in Bakersfield. So he's like, why don't
58:10
you guys get back together and record some of
58:13
the songs that you guys wrote back in those days
58:15
that we had recordings of, but they were just
58:17
cassette tapes. Oh, yeah. Relearn the songs and
58:20
give us some more trackster. And so that stirs
58:23
something in us. And so we reached out to T.
58:26
And at the end of 2024. I think it might have
58:31
been November or December of 2024, the four of
58:34
us got together and we hadn't been in the same
58:36
room together for over 30 years. Wow. And so
58:39
we got together and we talked about, hey, we
58:42
got these songs that we can relearn. It'll be
58:45
a project. And why don't we get back together
58:48
and just record these songs and put them back
58:50
out in the world? And so we spent the better
58:54
part of... uh 2025 learning these songs and then
58:59
going in and recording them so we released an
59:02
ep called take heed that you can find on spotify
59:05
that has these songs that we originally wrote
59:09
in like 1990 and to the best of our ability we
59:13
stayed with the format that we wrote it we didn't
59:16
try to embellish new ideas on it we wanted to
59:20
take what we wrote back in those days and just
59:23
Let's record it professionally. And of course,
59:26
our singer, we've all aged. All of us have aged.
59:30
And so it was a tough project for us physically.
59:34
But he can't sing those high notes that he was
59:38
able to do back in those days. So basically,
59:40
a lot of this stuff was done an octave lower.
59:43
But it was still T's voice, very strong, very
59:46
powerful. So it's a different sound vocally.
59:49
But it captured. It really did capture. the music
59:53
that we wrote back in those days. So I'm very
59:55
proud. I'm very happy that as you know, back
59:58
then as a 64 year old man, be able to go back
1:00:01
in, record some metal songs again, get a great
1:00:05
bass tone. You know, I love that. And so I would
1:00:08
encourage anybody go on Spotify or YouTube and
1:00:11
check out trackster take heed. At the end of
1:00:15
the episode, we always talk about shout outs.
1:00:17
So do you have any Bakersfield music past or
1:00:21
present you want people to listen to? I don't
1:00:23
even know if they have their songs out on Spotify
1:00:26
or YouTube. They probably do. But yeah, anything
1:00:29
that the Lebecs put out, they were just great
1:00:32
guys that had a loyal following for years and
1:00:35
great hits. Johnny Come Lately. was a great band
1:00:40
as well. And Federal Space Cadet was one of my
1:00:45
favorite bands in that era. And Dan is still
1:00:48
playing music. In fact, my son Steven is in a
1:00:52
new band with Dan right now. Oh, cool. So they're
1:00:54
recording some music, trying to get things together,
1:00:57
but they don't have anything ready right now.
1:01:00
But if you play music, you could play music your
1:01:03
whole life if you have the ambition to do so.
1:01:05
And last thing. Do you have any advice for up
1:01:08
-and -coming musicians in Bakersfield? I would
1:01:11
say the biggest advice that I would have is to
1:01:14
stay humble. If you're a really good musician,
1:01:18
it's really easy to become arrogant and proud
1:01:22
of yourself. We all struggle with a little bit
1:01:25
of being intimidated, being around other people,
1:01:30
but to stay humble and treat people with respect
1:01:33
because your gift may get you in the room, But
1:01:37
it's your personality that keeps you in the room.
1:01:39
And so if you're a jerk, and I've met a lot of
1:01:42
musicians that were jerks that I never booked
1:01:44
again because it's just like, yeah, I don't care
1:01:47
to work with you. And you just burned a bridge.
1:01:52
And you're burning bridges constantly because
1:01:54
of your bad attitude and your arrogance. And
1:01:57
so keep yourself humble. Keep yourself likable
1:02:01
for people. And serve others. There's a big benefit.
1:02:05
when you have the attitude is I'm here, not for
1:02:08
myself, but I'm here for others. Let me help
1:02:11
another. That's one thing I loved about trackster.
1:02:13
One of our things that we did when we booked
1:02:15
shows and, and we did shows, we would come in
1:02:18
and our equipment was other people's equipment.
1:02:21
We would always have extra guitar strings with
1:02:23
this picks and those things because people would
1:02:26
break strings or whatever. And we would give
1:02:27
them our strings. We were there to help serve
1:02:30
other people in the music scene. And so, you
1:02:33
know, as a musician, Don't just be consumed with
1:02:37
yourself. Have a good ear. Listen to what your
1:02:39
other musicians are playing and accommodate what
1:02:42
they're doing. Don't step on their toes and serve
1:02:46
others. That's really a good life hack in general,
1:02:50
not just for musicians, but for people. Be about
1:02:53
others more than about yourself. Next episode
1:03:08
will be about The Boiler Room, featuring Bobby
1:03:11
and Steven Allison. Thanks for listening to the
1:03:14
San Joaquin Sound Podcast. Tell all your friends.