Latest / Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast / PODCAST: Episode 908 - Kyle Thomas (Exhorder) on the Unforeseen Circumstances Tour 2026

Transcript

PODCAST: Episode 908 - Kyle Thomas (Exhorder) on the Unforeseen Circumstances Tour 2026 · Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast

• 0:00
  There's a handful of people that are the old days, the old days.
• 0:07
  So the band's bigger than it's ever been.
• 0:10
  We've charted just as well on the last album, if not better in
• 0:14
  some areas than more in the southern skies.
• 0:17
  So that says it all right there. People are still buying it and
• 0:20
  interested. I've I've met so many young
• 0:23
  people and the young people are coming to our shows.
• 0:26
  So what screams growth more than your audience getting younger?
• 0:38
  Kyle Thomas, welcome to Ghost Cult Magazine and for talking
• 0:41
  man. Thanks for doing this dude.
• 0:43
  Happy to be back Don Appreciate it.
• 0:45
  Good seeing you, man. I had to commend you for this
• 0:46
  because it was after the hurricane, you were out there
• 0:49
  delivering meals and doing all this great stuff and like, I
• 0:52
  just thought that was so incredible that you were doing
• 0:54
  that. Like did you get something out
• 0:56
  of that? Like not just personally, but
• 0:59
  was that something that kind of also maybe could have spurred a
• 1:02
  little bit of creative influence?
• 1:06
  So being from Southeast Louisiana, natural disaster is
• 1:12
  just kind of like Tuesday. So I've been, I've been in, I've
• 1:18
  been in the position of need more than once in my life and
• 1:23
  had to rely on other people to help me in a bad situation.
• 1:28
  I had a home that flooded during Katrina, wasn't able to get back
• 1:32
  to it for three weeks. Mole took over.
• 1:35
  It was only a foot of water, but it really made a mess.
• 1:38
  I ended up foreclosing on the House.
• 1:40
  I had two small children by myself bouncing from family
• 1:44
  members house to family members house to friend's house.
• 1:47
  Just trying to to to keep keep my head above water like no pun
• 1:54
  intended. Pun intended.
• 1:55
  Yeah, perhaps. But yeah, so paying it forward
• 2:02
  is just something that Louisiana residents tend to embrace.
• 2:06
  We we like to try to help others, especially, you know,
• 2:10
  coastal, coastal communities from, you know, all through the
• 2:15
  Gulf S really. And it's not that we aren't
• 2:20
  interested in helping other people, but we feel it a little
• 2:23
  more than other people might. So, you know, I've, I've helped
• 2:28
  put together benefits before the taking part of other people's
• 2:31
  benefits to try and provide relief for this and that I I
• 2:36
  don't do it for glory. I really don't it, it's, it's a
• 2:40
  lot of work. So if you're doing that for
• 2:42
  glory, you're, you're searching glory in the wrong places.
• 2:47
  I, I like to cook So, you know, if I have a house full of
• 2:51
  guests, the, the bigger satisfaction I get from cooking
• 2:54
  a meal isn't God, this tastes so good.
• 2:57
  It's which I do enjoy it when I get it right, but it's when
• 3:00
  other people say, man, thank you.
• 3:02
  You know, I feel, I feel so stuffed that this was really
• 3:06
  good. And, and I don't know it, it's,
• 3:09
  it's just a, a caretaker thing in me.
• 3:12
  Maybe I'm a, I'm a parent, I'm a father.
• 3:14
  So I, I do enjoy the task of filling people's bellies and,
• 3:21
  and you know, whether someone has nowhere to go and need
• 3:26
  something to eat or if they're busy pulling sheetrock out of
• 3:31
  their house because it got flooded and you got to get rid
• 3:33
  of it or it's going to create a mold problem in your house.
• 3:36
  You know, pulling up carpet, these kind of things, you know,
• 3:40
  in before power is restored, people are sweating.
• 3:43
  It's August in Louisiana, it's hot.
• 3:47
  So it was the least I can do in my situation that I was in where
• 3:52
  I didn't get flooding in my house.
• 3:54
  I was able to run my refrigerator and air
• 3:57
  conditioning units the, the, the single units, you know, the, the
• 4:02
  window units run, run that off of generators.
• 4:05
  I have gas for the, for the range top of my stove.
• 4:10
  So I was able to cook and I had stuff that I was able to, to get
• 4:14
  a hold of and cook for people. So that's what I did for that
• 4:19
  was my way of helping out was I, I just made a post for anybody
• 4:24
  that had signals that if you're, you know, if you're hungry and
• 4:29
  got nothing to eat or, you know, you just need a break from what
• 4:32
  it is that you're doing, let me know.
• 4:35
  And, and I basically just loaded up ice chests full of pre made
• 4:41
  plate lunches and went around and, you know, people trying to
• 4:44
  give me money for it. I was like, I, I don't need
• 4:47
  this, you know, like I actually, we had a GoFundMe that we raised
• 4:50
  some money for that sort of thing and.
• 4:54
  I remember when I when you did that.
• 4:56
  Yeah. Yeah, You posted that, Yeah.
• 4:58
  So like it's like, no, keep your money.
• 5:00
  This is what this is for. Like the effort here is it's
• 5:05
  satisfying to me that I'm able to give somebody, even if it's
• 5:08
  just red beans and rice, cornbread and a couple of
• 5:12
  cookies and pieces of fruit, if that's if that's the best I can
• 5:17
  do to take somebody's mind off of the suffering that they're
• 5:22
  going through. I don't know for about you, but
• 5:26
  like the fastest way to my heart is through my stomach.
• 5:31
  And my wife always laughs at me. She's just like, I wait, she
• 5:34
  wakes up, I've been up for a few hours and I start telling her
• 5:37
  what I'm planning for lunch and dinner and she's like, I just
• 5:40
  woke up. I haven't had coffee, I'm not
• 5:42
  even hungry for breakfast and here you are talking about what
• 5:46
  you're going to cook for dinner. I don't care right now.
• 5:48
  Come back to me in an hour. You.
• 5:50
  Know, you know, it's so funny, Kyle, you were just talking
• 5:52
  about that, you know, you know, being from Metairie and stuff.
• 5:54
  Is that like I feel like that that is just the comfort.
• 5:58
  That's what we do like because there's really nothing else you
• 6:02
  can do. Like if you people are having
• 6:05
  rough times, we have we eat man, right?
• 6:07
  Because it's. Right, I forgot you're a metal
• 6:09
  boy. Yeah, man.
• 6:11
  Dude. Archbishop Brummel, 9th grade
• 6:13
  man you. Know right?
• 6:15
  I didn't last though, but you know, it was we moved to Atlanta
• 6:19
  after that though. But but you know, like I said,
• 6:21
  like, you know, just having family and whatever.
• 6:23
  Like that was just the big thing was it like it was a very
• 6:26
  communal, very social kind of thing, you know, and but you're
• 6:30
  right, it's it's healing, man. You know that like we heal with
• 6:34
  food. That's what we do.
• 6:36
  You know, yeah, and I think that probably starts with a lot of
• 6:41
  the communities here in Louisiana are, you know, lower
• 6:48
  middle class to to lower class in in in the income bracket.
• 6:53
  So what better way? Like growing up as a kid, you
• 6:58
  know, like we played outside in the street and you know, I
• 7:02
  wasn't poor, but we definitely weren't like upper middle class
• 7:07
  or anything. So I remember opening our pantry
• 7:12
  when I was a kid and you know, there's peanut butter and tomato
• 7:16
  paste in there and, and it's like, I'd rather eat a peanut
• 7:18
  butter sandwich than a tomato paste sandwich.
• 7:20
  So that was my snack after school, you know?
• 7:23
  And usually a box of saltines too, yeah.
• 7:26
  Yeah, so, so, so the weekend seafood boils or barbecues or
• 7:33
  somebody's whipping up a big old kettle full of jambalaya or
• 7:40
  gumbo, that that's how people here share and socialize and
• 7:45
  celebrate. So it is a normal course of
• 7:48
  action for us. You know, I love that, but
• 7:52
  again, I had to commend you for that dude, because I was like, I
• 7:54
  know at the time, but you, you were knee deep in it.
• 7:57
  But. I was just happy to help man.
• 7:59
  Kudos dude, that was incredible man.
• 8:02
  Always makes a New Orleans kid proud when we're doing good, you
• 8:04
  know? Absolutely, Absolutely.
• 8:07
  So I did want to talk about Real Quick was a defective omnium
• 8:10
  that came out on 2024. Did I even say that?
• 8:13
  Right. I hope.
• 8:15
  OK, good, good. You know, you never know, man.
• 8:17
  I talked to all these Swedish bands and they're like, yeah,
• 8:19
  no, you're not even close. But I'm like, OK, you know, it's
• 8:23
  like I got PTSD about saying words that are big, you know?
• 8:27
  But I had to tell you because I didn't get to talk to you when
• 8:29
  it came out. But I love the fucking record.
• 8:31
  And thank you. It was it was a bit different
• 8:35
  from the previous one that had come out.
• 8:37
  And this one actually kind of helped had at least this is to
• 8:41
  me had more of a vibe that kind of threw back a little bit to
• 8:44
  slaughter in the Vatican. But the writing was so much
• 8:48
  stronger. And do you know what I'm talking
• 8:50
  about? So it was like, so I mean, was
• 8:52
  that kind of a am I kind of off the field here talking, saying
• 8:56
  that because it felt like basically it's like again, a
• 9:00
  smarter slaughter in the Vatican, like a more sure.
• 9:04
  Does that make sense? I.
• 9:04
  Appreciate that. Yeah.
• 9:05
  So, well, obviously as an artist, you should always strive
• 9:10
  to make your next creation the best it can be and better than
• 9:16
  what you've done in the past, you know, and again, this is a
• 9:18
  taste of subjective thing. So for us, we always, we were
• 9:24
  never a pure thrash band. We've got billed as that by
• 9:28
  Roadrunner, RC Rd. Racer back in the day.
• 9:31
  But that was how they sold us and presented us because I don't
• 9:34
  think they really knew what else to do with us.
• 9:36
  We were we were kids that grew up in the punk rock community
• 9:40
  and but that's where this band debuted and that's where our
• 9:42
  roots were formed. So one thing we felt like was
• 9:47
  very important more in the southern skies.
• 9:49
  Strong album, really good comeback album.
• 9:52
  And it was probably fair to say that that's the evolution we
• 9:56
  were heading towards after the Law, like it or not.
• 9:59
  You know, I, I know a lot of our OG fans feel like, oh, you know,
• 10:04
  those first two albums are what Exhorter is.
• 10:06
  And anything outside of that is not true to Exhorter.
• 10:09
  That's wrong. If, if, if more than Southern
• 10:11
  Skies had come out in 93, that's where we were heading.
• 10:15
  Less, less thrashy, more groove, like more melodic, you know,
• 10:21
  song structures. The making of the Law was a
• 10:27
  nightmare. It was chaotic, it was hurried.
• 10:29
  So some of those songs are really, if if you ask me, it's
• 10:34
  the most disjointed album that we have.
• 10:36
  I know a lot of people are like, that's the greatest 1 and that's
• 10:39
  the one they hang their hat on as our classic album.
• 10:43
  But to me, it's just it it's, it's a a physical manifestation
• 10:49
  of what the band's state was at the time, which was chaos.
• 10:53
  So we were like what we listened to when we were touring and we
• 11:03
  weren't like listening to thrash that much on the road.
• 11:05
  We were listening to a lot more melodic, groovy stuff.
• 11:09
  You know, Bad Brains, 24/7, Spies, Soundgarden, Melvin's
• 11:15
  very different stuff than what we were known for or expected to
• 11:20
  play. So the evolution from the law to
• 11:28
  mourn the sun in the skies is honest and sonically the
• 11:32
  production, you know, I know some people like, oh, now exhort
• 11:36
  has got this big modern production that's not exhorter.
• 11:38
  Well, that's the exhorter that we were trying to do back then
• 11:41
  and we just didn't have the budget for it.
• 11:43
  So like, yes, this is exhorted. This was the plan.
• 11:48
  So come, you know, Fast forward to Defective Omnium.
• 11:54
  It was very important to us, with me being the final and last
• 11:57
  remaining original member, that every single song on the record
• 12:02
  in some kind of way had earned the right to be under the logo
• 12:08
  of Exhorter. Because there were a handful of
• 12:11
  songs that were really good that we kicked out because it just
• 12:14
  wasn't right for this band. And there's nothing wrong with
• 12:18
  progressing. Some bands stay in their box,
• 12:22
  you know, the ACD CS, the Slayers, every time Slayer went
• 12:25
  outside the box and try to do something different, the fans
• 12:28
  went nuts and erupted. And it's, I always felt bad for
• 12:30
  Slayer like that, like, you know, because Metallica did it
• 12:33
  and, and excelled, but for whatever reason, Slayer was
• 12:36
  expected to stay Slayer. And and so when they did it
• 12:39
  worked the best for them and ACDC definitely in the same box
• 12:44
  they've been for most of their career.
• 12:47
  And it works, but I, I'm not the same that I was when I was 1516
• 12:53
  when we started this band. I, I think differently.
• 12:57
  What I listen to is different. So, and I've gotten better as a
• 13:02
  musician and singer and songwriter.
• 13:04
  So, you know, that I feel like we've got a very, you know, kind
• 13:09
  of a polarized audience in a way.
• 13:11
  Like there's a lot of people that are just discovering the
• 13:13
  band with our newer stuff. And then like, wow, now let me
• 13:18
  dive back into this amazing discography and see, you know,
• 13:22
  and some people have come to me and said, I I prefer the newer
• 13:24
  stuff. And then there's people like the
• 13:26
  newer stuff bridged me to the old stuff.
• 13:29
  And then you've got some of the older fans that love the
• 13:32
  progression that we made. And then you've got some that
• 13:35
  kind of just want to hang their hat on the 1st 2 records.
• 13:37
  And I don't have a problem with that, man.
• 13:39
  If, if, if that's what makes you happy, then go listen to it.
• 13:42
  Stay home, listen to the records.
• 13:44
  But we got work to do. You know, it's interesting that
• 13:47
  you said that about the whole progression, right?
• 13:50
  Is it like, you know, fans, fans are kind of fucked up when it
• 13:53
  comes to that kind of shit, right?
• 13:54
  Like you're either can be, you're either going to like,
• 13:56
  like you said, hang your hat on on on something that you love
• 14:00
  and that you feel like is the pinnacle of a band versus like
• 14:03
  someone like me who like I'm one of those music listeners that
• 14:07
  when I'm a fan of a band, I'm a fan of a band, right.
• 14:11
  As long as you're putting out stuff that I feel is good, like
• 14:15
  I'm going to love it. I don't have to like it if it if
• 14:17
  it if I feel like it's not. But so but exhorter how you were
• 14:20
  talking about it just now. It's like, I feel like I that
• 14:23
  was like when I first got into maiden and of course I got into
• 14:25
  maiden like around Peace of Mind.
• 14:28
  But then all of a sudden I went back to the Diano albums and I'm
• 14:31
  like. That's how I did.
• 14:32
  It fucking awesome, right? But then like I totally
• 14:35
  understood though, like how some of the earlier Maiden fans were
• 14:38
  like, oh fuck Bruce Dickinson. He's not, you know, but like
• 14:41
  with Exhorter, when you put out more in the more in the southern
• 14:44
  skies like that was the album I was hoping you would make
• 14:47
  awesome in this time because. Then our evil plot worked, yeah.
• 14:52
  Well, I mean, you made slaughter in the Vatican already.
• 14:55
  You made the law already, and it sounds like it needed to be in
• 14:58
  those times. But yes, yeah, these two albums
• 15:02
  I don't think would have sounded great had they come out right
• 15:05
  after the law, because you would have had that that gusto, that
• 15:09
  knowledge that, you know, you're grown musical ability to
• 15:13
  actually like, it's like you're from the law to this one.
• 15:16
  I'm like, good God, man. It's like, you know, that's
• 15:19
  that's how I would like to have heard you guys when that album
• 15:22
  came out. So fans, it's a funny thing.
• 15:26
  And the word fan is comes from fanatic.
• 15:31
  That says it all right there. I get it that people get
• 15:35
  attached to their favorite era or version of a band.
• 15:40
  You know, look, The Rolling Stones are the great career and
• 15:43
  then there's old fans that haven't ever since Bryan Jones
• 15:48
  died. That's not really the even The
• 15:49
  Rolling Stones anymore. But like the rest of the world
• 15:52
  disagrees. So, you know, I get that and,
• 15:56
  and that's fine, you know, and taste is subjective, but you
• 16:00
  know, a band has a right to continue working and, and do as
• 16:05
  they do. I think that sometimes the fans
• 16:10
  look at it more like pro wrestling and they, they want to
• 16:13
  create a, a rift between 2 bands competing with each other.
• 16:20
  And I got to tell you, there may be a few situations like that
• 16:24
  that are real, But for the most part, most bands and musicians
• 16:28
  are friends. They hang out together and they
• 16:31
  listen to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, listening
• 16:36
  while they're barbecuing and drinking beer.
• 16:38
  Like, it's a lot different than you really might think as a fan,
• 16:44
  you know, like, just like, you know, sports fans sometimes they
• 16:47
  hate this team, They hate this player.
• 16:50
  And it's like it's just some like today, these are kids that
• 16:54
  are into like anime and video games.
• 16:58
  They're just kids, man. Like, what are you so hateful
• 17:00
  and angry for? You know, I get the sports
• 17:04
  rivalry thing and I, you know, as a fan of my team, I hate the
• 17:10
  division rival, but I don't really hate them.
• 17:13
  But some people do, man. And I think they have a hard
• 17:15
  time separating the humanity that it takes to be an artist or
• 17:22
  a celeb or, you know, athlete, actor, what what have you.
• 17:27
  And, and understand that most bands are just mom and pop
• 17:31
  businesses trying to make it, trying to make it through the
• 17:34
  day. So if you don't like the
• 17:37
  product, don't buy it. Yeah, I mean, you know, again,
• 17:40
  like to not to go back to Maiden again, but like, you know, my
• 17:43
  favorite band of all time, right?
• 17:45
  I don't love everything they've done, but I'm sure that's how
• 17:47
  I'm not going to chastise them and just be like, Oh my God, I'm
• 17:50
  done with Maiden because you made book assaults.
• 17:53
  You know, right, you wrote something that I don't care for
• 17:55
  you. How could you?
• 17:56
  Right. I'm like, OK, didn't love this
• 17:58
  one. Next, you know, we'll see what
• 18:00
  you have next. You know, I mean, so it really
• 18:03
  is kind of like it's, it's a weird thing to feel like that.
• 18:05
  That's a grown up thing to do as a as a music listener and as a
• 18:10
  fan, you know, of a certain band, you know, because I want
• 18:13
  to see growth. Like that's what I like.
• 18:16
  I like seeing a band grow. I don't want to see you make the
• 18:18
  same album. If like if, like you said, if I
• 18:19
  wanted to do that, I'd listen to the Ramones or ACDC who had a
• 18:23
  formula, you know, You know, it's exciting to hear like how
• 18:27
  just in over 2 albums that X order made two distinct albums.
• 18:31
  Yeah, You know, it's just a different era for us.
• 18:34
  We're we're just putting our heads down and not putting too
• 18:38
  much stock. The The thing is, is there's a
• 18:40
  handful of people that are the old days, the old days.
• 18:48
  So the band's bigger than it's ever been.
• 18:51
  We've, we've charted just as well on the last album, if not
• 18:55
  better in some areas than more in the southern skies.
• 18:58
  So that says it all right there. People are still buying it and
• 19:02
  interested. We, I've, I've met so many young
• 19:06
  people and the young people are coming to our shows.
• 19:09
  So what screams growth more than your audience getting younger?
• 19:15
  Yeah. Exactly.
• 19:16
  That's that's the other thing is that like, you know, when you
• 19:18
  can kind of cycle out the age range of your fans or what
• 19:24
  happens is you got people bringing their kids, you know?
• 19:26
  Yeah. It's just that now they're all
• 19:28
  standing in the dad section while their kids are out in the
• 19:30
  pit, you know what I mean? There's an old saying, old punk
• 19:33
  rockers never die. They just stand in the back with
• 19:36
  their arms folded. That's.
• 19:37
  What I was at a show, I think I was at Sepultura with a friend
• 19:42
  of mine when we were still living in Atlanta.
• 19:44
  That's remember, we're standing in the back holding our tall
• 19:47
  boys. You know, we're just kind of
• 19:48
  watching the pit. And he looked over at me, goes,
• 19:50
  is this where we've become? I was like, yeah, this is pretty
• 19:52
  much where we're at, and we don't have kids.
• 19:54
  Like I was like, but you could see just the dads all lined up
• 19:57
  in the back holding their beers and they're all going.
• 20:00
  Yeah, wearing wearing their friendly arch support shoes.
• 20:07
  Popping Advil before the show instead of whatever it was we
• 20:09
  used to pop going to show. That's a much different ball
• 20:12
  game. Well, so you got to pretty
• 20:15
  lengthy tour coming up with a Lewis Idol, ringworm phobia and
• 20:20
  slow slow hole. Slow hole, yeah.
• 20:22
  Yeah, that's, I mean, you should just name that tour face Melt
• 20:25
  2026. Like that's going to be a
• 20:27
  fucking banger, dude. It's going to be like, it's also
• 20:29
  a very diverse lineup. Do like none of the bands sound
• 20:32
  the same? Yeah, then that, well, that was
• 20:34
  part of the intention there for sure was was that we needed to.
• 20:38
  I don't know, I, I don't like it when things are the same all the
• 20:41
  time. I don't like having 5 bands of
• 20:47
  one genre on one bill. Like God's sake, this is too
• 20:51
  much. I can't deal with you.
• 20:52
  So in that instance, the diversity we, this goes back to
• 20:56
  the early exhorted days. We, we used to put together line
• 20:59
  UPS back in the late 80s, early 90s of bands that were very,
• 21:03
  very different. To me, variety is the spice of
• 21:06
  life, as they say. And I I don't want to see a show
• 21:10
  that's got 5 bands that sound alike.
• 21:13
  I want it to be like 1976 when The Rolling Stones, Hart Van
• 21:19
  Halen, the Neville Brothers, Earth, Wind and Fire are all
• 21:24
  doing these big shows together. Together.
• 21:26
  That's like a dream show to me. Yes, yes.
• 21:29
  So that's kind of where we're going with it.
• 21:31
  You know, we've got the legendary status of Lewis Idol,
• 21:35
  Ringworm and Phobia. These are bands that have been
• 21:38
  around and, and and carve their their names into the annals of
• 21:43
  history. And then we've got a band like
• 21:46
  slow hole, a young up and coming band.
• 21:47
  Don't sleep on them. Get there early.
• 21:50
  I've told everybody that they remind me.
• 21:52
  I even told them that they remind me of if if you could
• 21:56
  have a three-way bastard child of Butthole Surfers.
• 22:01
  I hate God and Sonic Youth, that slow hole.
• 22:05
  Good fucking God dude, I haven't even heard.
• 22:08
  I'm kind of sold on that dude. Oh, really good.
• 22:11
  You should be doing their PR, man, because that, that was like
• 22:14
  a good sell, man. I was like, because sometimes
• 22:16
  when people describe bands that I'm like, man, you're not
• 22:18
  selling that real well. You.
• 22:22
  Know well so the other thing too is you started playing guitar in
• 22:25
  2022 like well I mean not started but you know what I mean
• 22:28
  you started playing in the band do you miss just being the
• 22:30
  singer where you can get out and just rage and jump or do you is
• 22:33
  there something that's kind of I don't know I've.
• 22:36
  Got so many bands I'm just a singer in.
• 22:39
  I don't miss it. What What I don't miss
• 22:41
  especially is in order to just have the microphone with
• 22:46
  Exhorter. It's a very athletic
• 22:49
  performance. It's a very busy performance.
• 22:55
  So I have to like when I do that gig at 55, I've got to do 30
• 22:59
  minutes of cardio, significant cardio before the show so that I
• 23:03
  can complete the show. So the guitar in my hands while
• 23:08
  I'm doing this takes away from that a little bit and allows me
• 23:11
  to, to deliver the show without having to worry about aesthetics
• 23:17
  as much. And I'm a musician first.
• 23:21
  I, I started playing musical instruments when I was nine
• 23:26
  years old, in 3rd grade, 8 years old, something like that.
• 23:29
  So. So it's where I belong.
• 23:31
  I never really wanted to be a singer that found me by
• 23:34
  accident. I'm just not that concerned with
• 23:38
  anybody that's, you know. Oh, it's not the same.
• 23:41
  Because Kyle should be doing us. Yeah.
• 23:43
  How do you know what I should be doing?
• 23:44
  You know, like for me, this is right because now the guitar is
• 23:50
  back in the hands of an original member.
• 23:52
  I'm not an original guitarist of this band, but I'm an original
• 23:55
  member. So the guitar in my hands, it's
• 23:58
  probably, I'm going to feel the songs differently than anyone in
• 24:02
  this band possibly could, whether they're better than me
• 24:04
  at their instrument or not. So that that I think helps keep
• 24:10
  the original sound and the original vision of this band up
• 24:16
  in the forefront. And I, I'm, I'm never one to
• 24:20
  care too, too much about what people think.
• 24:22
  So if you like, if you like putting on that show so much,
• 24:25
  then you start a band and you go jump around the stage for like a
• 24:29
  loose spring for 45 minutes to 75 minutes.
• 24:32
  I'm not doing it anymore. You're like, like, this is my
• 24:36
  way of kind of like, like rooting myself here so I don't
• 24:39
  throw my back out, you know, that's.
• 24:42
  Crap, it's hard. It's hard out from this way.
• 24:45
  Dude, it only gets harder after 50, man.
• 24:48
  Like, I can't even, I don't know, I remember talking to Tom
• 24:51
  Hunting from from Exodus one night and he was just like, man,
• 24:54
  after a show, like I've got my elbows and like bowls of ice
• 24:58
  you. Know I've seen it, I've seen it,
• 25:00
  I've seen it because we've shared bills together and and
• 25:02
  he, I think he's had terrible back problems.
• 25:04
  Yeah, yeah, he's had this for a while.
• 25:06
  So yeah, it's there's a process for him to do what he's got to
• 25:11
  do to get through the show. Yeah.
• 25:13
  And to recover from it. Whatever it takes, dude.
• 25:17
  The Bengay, the Advil, whatever, man.
• 25:19
  Somebody's got it like this. Hit it off, man.
• 25:21
  It's my choice of drug. Is Advil and Tylenol now.
• 25:24
  Yeah. And I actually mix the 2.
• 25:26
  So it's a, you know, it's a big night, so.
• 25:29
  Well, so the tour's kicking in pretty soon, right?
• 25:34
  When does the tour? I leave on Saturday for
• 25:36
  rehearsals and. Oh, that's three.
• 25:38
  Yes, Yeah, that's. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday will
• 25:41
  jam. Just kind of knock the rust off.
• 25:43
  We we've done, we played 80 something shows last year.
• 25:46
  So this is muscle memory at this point.
• 25:48
  We just got to, you know, get the juicers flowing again, get
• 25:52
  the chemistry back together, and we got to drive from Oxford, OH,
• 25:57
  right outside of Cincinnati all the way back down here.
• 25:59
  I'm going to fly up there so that we can drive back down to
• 26:02
  Louisiana. That is.
• 26:04
  It's. True.
• 26:05
  Lot of driving too. Yeah, yeah.
• 26:07
  So usually we have at least one show on the in between to kind
• 26:12
  of break it up. But we, we, we're doing 23 shows
• 26:16
  in 24 day, 25 days. We don't need to add any more
• 26:21
  shows to this. So what we'll do is we'll load
• 26:23
  up, you know, we'll jam Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, load up the
• 26:29
  trailer and RV on Wednesday, early Wednesday and probably mid
• 26:37
  late Wednesday afternoon, start start driving until we get tired
• 26:40
  of driving that night, sleep for a few hours and then get up and
• 26:44
  start hitting it again around sunrise until we get to
• 26:46
  Lafayette. Yeah, I'm, I'm looking at your
• 26:48
  schedule, man. And you you're, you guys are
• 26:50
  doing like 6 maybe even 7 shows in a row at some points like.
• 26:54
  And look, we're going from Lafayette down to what is the
• 26:59
  next one, McAllen. Texas and then.
• 27:01
  That's on the border of Mexico. Dude, that is not a.
• 27:05
  That's not a short drive. And then I think we're going up
• 27:10
  to what, To Dallas, maybe? You can see you go from McAllen
• 27:14
  to Austin to Dallas and back to El Paso.
• 27:17
  Dude, you're fucking. Dude, I will.
• 27:21
  I'm the night driver in addition to the tour manager and the
• 27:25
  merch vendor on this tour because my my wife or my
• 27:28
  daughter aren't available to help on this tour.
• 27:30
  So all I'm going to be doing is working and sleeping for that
• 27:34
  first week and a half. There won't be time for me to
• 27:39
  even have a beer, much less I shouldn't be having beer.
• 27:42
  I'm the night driver. So that's what we, I mean, we
• 27:44
  are the road crew. It's.
• 27:46
  True. It's true.
• 27:48
  Like Jason and our our sound guy, Jason Ogle by Brooks and
• 27:52
  Ogle, they both drive during the day and that gives me a chance
• 27:56
  to sleep and rest up so that I can do the rest of my duties.
• 27:59
  But that that's it, man. We, we, we got one crew person
• 28:03
  coming and, and everybody's just, you know, burning the
• 28:07
  midnight oil and make this happen, dude.
• 28:09
  I can tell you it's going to be a great show, man.
• 28:11
  It's going to be a great tour. And are you going to be adding
• 28:13
  some more shows? Because you're not too.
• 28:15
  You're not in my area man. Like.
• 28:17
  We're doing about a two, we're planning about a two week run in
• 28:22
  early April. Right now it's just in the
• 28:24
  earliest talks, but that's the plan.
• 28:26
  And then we're talking about going back out in June.
• 28:29
  But we're not going to beat it down too, too hard this year
• 28:31
  because we've got we're working on new material.
• 28:34
  Jason and Sasha are actually in the studio right now and I mean
• 28:38
  it like at this moment and they're tracking new music to in
• 28:42
  a in a pre production way to try and start seeing what is going
• 28:47
  to be viable for the next album and what we're going to kick to
• 28:51
  the side. That's this just the early
• 28:53
  process. It's how it works.
• 28:56
  Dude, well, I love it, man. I I love that you guys are back.
• 28:58
  I love that you're hitting the road again.
• 29:00
  Hopefully you'll make it out to the the southeast a little more.
• 29:03
  That'd be great. So.
• 29:04
  Yeah, Yeah, you know, we'll be back out that way for sure.
• 29:07
  I think that's the plan for for June is that we're probably
• 29:11
  going to be more on the East Coast side since we're doing
• 29:14
  since we're going out W 1st. Yeah, well, my wife and I ended
• 29:18
  up moving to South Carolina, so we'll check down to, I'll check
• 29:21
  down to Atlanta if I have to, you know, there.
• 29:23
  You go. There you go.
• 29:24
  And I know you love it when people ask you this though, but
• 29:27
  you know, you can go ahead and put me on the guest list and get
• 29:29
  me a. Right.
• 29:31
  Get me a catering ticket, you know.
• 29:33
  Absolutely +3. You'll be like, oh, Kyle Thomas
• 29:38
  has told me you have to pay double to get in tonight.
• 29:42
  So well dude, from the VFW halls in Metairie to the bigger
• 29:46
  venues, man, I'm proud of you. I'm proud to be a broker fan.
• 29:49
  And like, like I said, man, I can't wish you nothing, but best
• 29:52
  of luck and all the safety out there on the road, man.
• 29:55
  Always a pleasure talking with you my man.