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Transcript

TMP 336 AARON WILKINSON: UP FROM THE SWAMP · Troubled Men Podcast

• 0:16
  Speaker A: Greetings troubled listeners. Welcome back to the Troubled Men podcast. I am Renee Coleman, sitting once again in Snake and Jake's Christmas Club Lounge in the heart of the Clempire with my co host, the original troubled man for troubled times, Mr. Manny Chevrolet. Yeah, welcome Manny.
• 0:32
  Speaker B: Oh yeah. Hey fella. Where can you skateboard in this town? The streets are so shitty, the sidewalks are so shitty.
• 0:41
  Speaker A: He says we'd be surprised. You'd be surprised because yeah, the streets are bad but like literally like every other street is. So they're paving, they're paving something in the town.
• 0:52
  Speaker B: So really.
• 0:54
  Speaker A: Okay, so you're picking and choosing.
• 0:57
  Speaker C: Gotta get it while it's fresh.
• 0:58
  Speaker A: Right, right.
• 0:59
  Speaker B: It's like before they collapse into the earth.
• 1:02
  Speaker A: Right, right, right.
• 1:03
  Speaker B: And the streets start to flood.
• 1:05
  Speaker A: Yes. Yeah, yeah, we had the big, the big boil water water in my neighborhood. Cause they had the 48 inch water main broke on Claiborne Avenue right in front of Hit and Run liquor and chicken and watermelon restaurant.
• 1:23
  Speaker C: Best wings in the city, I'm told.
• 1:25
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I hear good things about that place. I like both of those things. But yeah, man, seeing that neighborhood, it was flooding people's cars, there was so much water.
• 1:34
  Speaker B: Good.
• 1:35
  Speaker A: It was crazy. And yeah, I woke up to notice on my sink saying that there was a boil water advisory in place, but.
• 1:44
  Speaker C: Third world, baby.
• 1:45
  Speaker A: Yeah, well that's aspirational. You know, they used to, you know, talk about the third world and proud of it. Bumper sticker. No Third world. This is a failed state. Third world is aspirational. We're hoping to get up to that stat.
• 1:58
  Speaker C: Third and a half Third world countries.
• 2:00
  Speaker B: The kids know how to read and write, right?
• 2:02
  Speaker A: Exactly.
• 2:03
  Speaker B: You know, they know the arithmetic and right down here they can't even do that.
• 2:09
  Speaker C: They don't have as much fun as we do though, to be honest.
• 2:13
  Speaker A: Probably, probably true. Anyway, but that's all over the, the water main, the, the, the pressure has been restored on the street.
• 2:22
  Speaker B: You're not going to be able to go down Claiborne Weeks.
• 2:24
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, no, that's, that's going to be closed. Yeah, you have to find alternate routing there.
• 2:29
  Speaker C: Yeah, it's a tragedy.
• 2:30
  Speaker A: Yeah, well, I, I gave up on Claiborne years ago because it's, it's always like that. And, and even when the street is working, the lights don't work at Louisiana Avenue. And that causes its own nightmares.
• 2:43
  Speaker C: Those are just for show. Those don't really work.
• 2:45
  Speaker A: Decorative people. Then you get those, those intersections where it's like four lights in a row and in Going in two directions and people try to work that as a four way stop. It's impossible. Nobody can figure it out. Anyway, so we're back. Manny. We had Mardi Gras week off. So how was your Mardi Gras? Did you do anything? You went for Endymion? Did you make it to the.
• 3:10
  Speaker B: I went to the Carrie's house for maybe like 30 minutes and then I left.
• 3:15
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 3:16
  Speaker B: And then, you know, and I didn't go out for Mardi Gras at all. It's just like you see in one parade, you've seen them all.
• 3:23
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. It's more the, the, the fellowship, the
• 3:26
  Speaker B: big whole like St. Anne thing. I went to that a couple years ago and I didn't get it. It's just like, this is fun just watching, standing around, watching these people.
• 3:35
  Speaker C: I want to do Mardi Gras with you.
• 3:37
  Speaker A: Yeah, he's got the spirit. Yeah.
• 3:39
  Speaker B: You know, I, I just like what I realized this Mardi Gras is like, you know, usually people dying. I've always said this. Marty Gro kills.
• 3:50
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 3:50
  Speaker A: Not now.
• 3:51
  Speaker B: No, no, this year they're angry. Writer, Writers and people. Yeah, angry.
• 3:57
  Speaker C: That is disappointing.
• 3:58
  Speaker B: Yeah, a lot of. And I saw a lot on the, on the social media there, that there was a lot of people fighting on the route.
• 4:09
  Speaker A: Really?
• 4:09
  Speaker B: Saw tons of footage of people fighting, you know, because people are claiming their land. That's no good, you know?
• 4:15
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 4:15
  Speaker C: Not what it's about.
• 4:16
  Speaker A: Yeah, no, it's not what it's about. Man, I hate that with the, with the tents and the ladders that are all chained together. It destroys the family atmosphere. I mean. No, no, it's supposed to everybody be together and everybody gets to move around and.
• 4:29
  Speaker B: No, not in today's age because we're so divided.
• 4:31
  Speaker A: It's tough, man.
• 4:32
  Speaker B: You know, everyone's divided.
• 4:34
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 4:34
  Speaker C: No secret is to find a really cute, good looking kid, stage yourself right in front of them or near them and intercept.
• 4:43
  Speaker A: Oh, oh, really? You're trying to get. Still trying to get beads.
• 4:47
  Speaker C: The only way. That's the only way people like us are going to get anywhere. Yeah, guys like us, come on.
• 4:51
  Speaker A: The only reason I put my hand up at a parade is to keep the beads from hitting me in the face. I don't want to actually catch anything
• 4:57
  Speaker B: because they're angry riders hitting them hard.
• 4:59
  Speaker C: The best way to get it thrown at you is to look away.
• 5:02
  Speaker A: Well, yeah.
• 5:04
  Speaker C: Pay attention.
• 5:05
  Speaker A: Yeah. No, so. But I will put my hand up just as a parrying maneuver.
• 5:10
  Speaker B: You know, I put my hand up to flip them off okay, that works too, you know, because I don't want your Chinese beads who pollute our city.
• 5:21
  Speaker C: And they call that the latoya, don't they?
• 5:22
  Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know what they call that. Whatever happened to latoya? Ah, she seems like a good person. I don't know. She's.
• 5:30
  Speaker A: She'd be fun to Mardi Gras linked off. Oh, I don't know. Well, somebody thought so, but, yeah, to each his own.
• 5:37
  Speaker B: She's busy in court all day. Sure, they're doing that thing. But the only thing, I didn't go out there at all. I just, you know, I. I didn't want to deal with it. I, I. It's just, you know, to me, it's like, you've seen one parade, you've seen them all, and I'm not from here, so I really don't care, you know? But I did notice I was at home and I went out and I looked on out my front door on Mardi Gras day, and there was this Uber driver who had parked kind of like right on our street, right in front of my house. And he's just parked there, and he starts washing his car. He's got this towel, and he's wiping down the inside of his interior, and he's doing the window. He's doing the windows, and he's doing the doors in the front. Everything like that. And it's like, for a half hour, he's really going at it. Wow. You know, because he's got to make it because he's. I'm sure he's busy that day.
• 6:39
  Speaker C: I commend him.
• 6:40
  Speaker B: You know, I love that. And then after this half hour, he gets in his car and this is. This is crazy. Going nuts. I'm watching him this whole time. He gets in his car after doing all his cleaning, and he whips out this huge bottle of vodka and just starts chugging it. He just starts chugging it, huh?
• 7:01
  Speaker C: Yes.
• 7:01
  Speaker B: Charts. Chugging it and puts it down. And then he pulls away and it's like, well, I'm not gonna hire that guy for sure.
• 7:09
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 7:09
  Speaker B: You know, I don't know how you
• 7:11
  Speaker C: wash your car, but.
• 7:13
  Speaker B: Yeah, well, you gotta give yourself a reward.
• 7:16
  Speaker A: Is that what you're saying?
• 7:17
  Speaker C: Earned it, didn't he?
• 7:18
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 7:18
  Speaker D: Right.
• 7:19
  Speaker B: I usually pay people to wash my car.
• 7:21
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 7:21
  Speaker B: You know, but I thought that was crazy, you know, and, you know, good for him. He's enjoying Mardi Gras while working at the same time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 7:31
  Speaker A: Killing two birds with 1st.
• 7:33
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 7:33
  Speaker B: So it's over. I don't know what happened to you. I didn't go out there. I don't know if you did anything.
• 7:39
  Speaker A: Yeah, you know, it's. Well, my, my son had ACL surgery right at the beginning of the. The Friday before or 10 days before. So we kind of kept it low key this year, you know. Did, uh, went and saw the Muses parade. Took the uh, the streetcar down there. Had a car pre stage.
• 7:58
  Speaker B: Now Muses is the lesbian parade, right?
• 8:00
  Speaker A: Well, it's a ladies parade.
• 8:02
  Speaker B: Oh, it's a lady.
• 8:03
  Speaker A: I'm not sure what.
• 8:04
  Speaker B: El LGBQ high five parade.
• 8:06
  Speaker A: You know, it's. I think it's take all comers, man.
• 8:09
  Speaker B: They're the ones who have the ducks.
• 8:11
  Speaker A: No, they have the shoes and the ducks.
• 8:14
  Speaker B: Okay. They have those floats that.
• 8:15
  Speaker A: Look, they do have a float. That's. That's ducks.
• 8:17
  Speaker B: You're right, man.
• 8:18
  Speaker A: They throw some beads that have the ducks.
• 8:21
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
• 8:21
  Speaker A: But it's mostly the shoes. That's what everybody says.
• 8:23
  Speaker B: I don't understand that. Why would you want one shoe? You can't wear just one shoe.
• 8:27
  Speaker A: Right, right.
• 8:28
  Speaker B: You gotta wear both shoes.
• 8:29
  Speaker A: Yeah. Maybe you gotta wait till next year, get the other shoe.
• 8:31
  Speaker B: You know.
• 8:32
  Speaker A: I hope you get right. And a left.
• 8:34
  Speaker B: If the shoe fits right as they.
• 8:36
  Speaker A: Yeah, there you go.
• 8:37
  Speaker B: I don't know.
• 8:38
  Speaker A: So other than that, I, you know, I went to the toast parade. My son actually went to that. The one that goes on Magazine street there. It starts way uptown, Nashville or So it's a very low key parade. Anyway, and then Mardi Gras day, we walked over to Claiborne Avenue near my house and saw where the truck floats line up.
• 8:57
  Speaker C: Oh God.
• 8:58
  Speaker A: And they have like 200 truck floats out there. They have a lot of them lined up. And since the, the, my, my kids were little, they've gone out there and they, they like to watch that. And so since my son was in the wheelchair, we took him out there
• 9:13
  Speaker B: and left him there. So walk on.
• 9:17
  Speaker A: He got to walk on. He got to enjoy another parade
• 9:22
  Speaker C: image.
• 9:23
  Speaker A: Low impact. Yeah, yeah. No, I got photographs. No, it's. It was a scene. Yeah. We had had our lawn chairs out there on, on the neutral ground. It was, it was very pleasant. And then I went down to saw Michael D's made an appearance down there. Saw the carries down there and now.
• 9:39
  Speaker B: Is Michael still banging your sister?
• 9:41
  Speaker A: Well, I mean, they're still dating.
• 9:43
  Speaker B: Okay. You don't know if they're banging, I imagine.
• 9:46
  Speaker A: I mean, we don't talk about that, but you know, they're Both adults. So. Yeah, they have an adult relationship. And she, she, I had missed her. She. I didn't get there till later. So she and her daughters were. Had already. They'd gone to the early parades, like you're saying. The St. Anne. Whatever goes on down there. Saw those and they had already, you know, hightailed it out of there, headed for the hills, as they say. But I did see. Michael, saw your wife briefly as I was coming in. She was. We're ships passing in the night there.
• 10:19
  Speaker B: Yeah, she goes to that shit. I don't want to deal with it.
• 10:21
  Speaker A: Right, right. Anyway. Anyway, all that's behind us now.
• 10:25
  Speaker B: Good.
• 10:26
  Speaker A: I'm taking off for New York. They have a big, huge snowstorm going on. I'm driving up into that. Playing there, playing there on Sunday, playing Western, you know, just. Just west of the city on Saturday night. We'll have to see. We got to see what's going to happen here.
• 10:44
  Speaker C: I think you are.
• 10:44
  Speaker A: Well, we're going. We're going to make every attempt, you know, the show must go on, Aaron. You understand?
• 10:49
  Speaker C: You got to show up to get paid.
• 10:50
  Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. You gotta, you know, if it's an act of God, at least. You gotta do your part.
• 10:54
  Speaker C: At least. Gotta be there.
• 10:55
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So take.
• 10:56
  Speaker B: Let me just be the first one to say it's been nice, know.
• 10:59
  Speaker A: Sure, sure, sure. And you get a week off next week. Good doing this.
• 11:03
  Speaker B: I'll be up maybe more than a week.
• 11:05
  Speaker C: Maybe.
• 11:05
  Speaker A: It might be. Yeah, it might, might be. You know, who knows?
• 11:08
  Speaker B: Yeah. You might end up like Jack Nicholson at the end of the Shining.
• 11:11
  Speaker A: Could be. You know, very well be. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 11:14
  Speaker B: Frozen to death.
• 11:15
  Speaker A: Right, right, right, right. Stuck against a hedge somewhere. Yeah. I'll be up there with the Iguanas and Sunny Landreth. We're doing another co build tour up there. I'll be playing with both bands, so I'll be. Have my hands full and double dipping.
• 11:29
  Speaker C: I like it.
• 11:29
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, it's, it's working out.
• 11:32
  Speaker C: I admire that.
• 11:32
  Speaker A: Thank you, thank you. But. So looking forward to that. But then we'll be back the following week. Now, we've had some. Some deaths, celebrity deaths since we were here last. We had the great Robert Duvall passed away. I know a friend of yours.
• 11:49
  Speaker B: Yes, Robert Duvall was a great guy. He was a friend of mine, amazing actor. But the best Robert Duvall story I have, okay, is in the mid-80s. I got this. I asked this girl out on a date and she said yes. And she goes, let's go see a movie. And we went and saw. And this is when Tender Mercies just came out. And it was getting rave reviews and all that Oscar buzz and all that kind of stuff. And we're there at a multiplex in west la and we're sitting maybe like third to the last row of this theater. And about at the halfway point of the movie, both of us realize that this movie sucks, okay? It's just so fucking boring, so off in the way. So we just start making out. She. Excellent. She comes to, she looks at me and I look at her and it was just like, boom, let's start.
• 12:49
  Speaker C: Well, this is getting better.
• 12:50
  Speaker B: Yeah, we, we start making out and basically we made out for the whole second half of the movie. Made out, you know, and you know, he's, you know, he's.
• 13:00
  Speaker C: How long is this movie?
• 13:02
  Speaker B: It felt like five hours, but I think it was only a two hour movie, you know, but that was the weirdest thing, was where people were staring at us, you know, as we kept making out and making out and making out. People. And her name was Gail. I remember that. She was a Greek girl.
• 13:21
  Speaker A: Shout out to Gail.
• 13:22
  Speaker C: Greek.
• 13:23
  Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, Gail. Farion. Farag.
• 13:25
  Speaker C: Okay.
• 13:26
  Speaker B: She was a Greek chick, man. And man, she had a tongue on her.
• 13:31
  Speaker A: Oh, well, okay, now we're getting.
• 13:33
  Speaker B: Yeah, you know, but anyway, people were staring at us and I think some people were actually getting off on us cuz they were bored with the movie but they weren't on a date.
• 13:41
  Speaker A: Let's get back to Robert Duvall somewhere, the story. Is Robert Duvall involved in the story somewhere?
• 13:47
  Speaker B: Well, it was his movie.
• 13:48
  Speaker C: That's.
• 13:48
  Speaker A: That's the only way. I thought you were going to say in the middle. Guy in front stands up and it's Robert Duvall and no. Okay.
• 13:56
  Speaker B: The guy in front of us said, you smell that?
• 13:58
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 13:59
  Speaker B: Getting hot, baby.
• 14:00
  Speaker A: Okay. All right, we're getting started.
• 14:03
  Speaker C: That's the popcorn, right?
• 14:05
  Speaker A: Right? Yeah. There you go. Buttered up, baby. Well, we also lost the great Jesse Jackson.
• 14:10
  Speaker B: Yes, I have a Jesse. I met Jesse Jackson.
• 14:12
  Speaker A: Okay. Make out in front of Jesse Jackson.
• 14:16
  Speaker B: No, I just said, run, Jesse, run.
• 14:18
  Speaker A: Run, Jesse, run.
• 14:19
  Speaker B: Run for your life, man. They're after. This is when he was running for president in 1984.
• 14:24
  Speaker A: Okay. Jaime Town, I worked at.
• 14:27
  Speaker B: Yeah, I worked at the Sunset Gower Studios in la. And me and a couple friends of mine went to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles.
• 14:35
  Speaker C: Okay.
• 14:35
  Speaker B: The original one, which was right across the street, right next to the Hollywood Palladium. And we're sitting there eating our lunch at sco's. We used to call it sco's. And all of a sudden, two guys in suits walk in and they look around and then Jesse Jackson and some entourage come in. They sit the table right next to us, and he orders chicken and waffles. And everyone there.
• 15:00
  Speaker C: As you do.
• 15:00
  Speaker B: Yeah. And I do remember, I said, hey, man, how you doing, Jesse? You know, I'm good. You know, I hope you win and all that kind of stuff. And I said, I hope you have a lot of bodyguards, you know, because this is. You know, it was Reagan. Reagan was the president.
• 15:16
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 15:16
  Speaker B: And stuff like that. So I met Jesse Jackson that way.
• 15:19
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 15:20
  Speaker B: And I heard he wasn't a very good tipper.
• 15:22
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 15:22
  Speaker C: Really?
• 15:22
  Speaker B: Yeah. I don't know.
• 15:23
  Speaker C: That's disappointing.
• 15:24
  Speaker A: Yeah, sure, sure.
• 15:25
  Speaker B: But, yeah, he died and there's a big controversy, like, will they. You know, they didn't want to. He. They asked that he would lay in state at the big thing capital, the Rotunda there. And they said no.
• 15:41
  Speaker A: Right. Mike Johnson, the.
• 15:42
  Speaker B: The Louisiana speaker of the House.
• 15:44
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Turned him down.
• 15:47
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 15:48
  Speaker C: What is he at?
• 15:49
  Speaker A: Yeah. I don't know.
• 15:50
  Speaker C: Who is he?
• 15:51
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I guess he's third in line, I guess.
• 15:55
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
• 15:55
  Speaker C: Third success that keep you awake at night, right? I know.
• 15:59
  Speaker B: Yeah, that.
• 16:00
  Speaker A: Well, then. Then a third person that we just lost someone I thought you may have crossed paths with. Robert Carty.
• 16:08
  Speaker B: No, I never met Robert.
• 16:09
  Speaker A: Okay. It seems like somebody.
• 16:11
  Speaker B: He was in one of my favorite movies ever, Revenge of the Nerds.
• 16:15
  Speaker A: Is that one of your favorite movies?
• 16:16
  Speaker B: Oh, I love that. Really?
• 16:17
  Speaker C: Which one was he?
• 16:18
  Speaker B: He was. He had glasses, kind of showing with the black hair. I don't know what his name was.
• 16:24
  Speaker A: Yeah, I guess a lot of them had glasses, but.
• 16:26
  Speaker B: No, this is why I love that movie so much. I was with my good buddy of mine in la, David Bowe, who's an actor, and he was a deadhead, and he said, we're going to Irvine to see the Dead. I said, I don't want to see the fucking dead. And he's like, come on, you got to check him out. And I'd seen him once or twice before, just didn't get it. And he goes, on the way there, we're about five minutes away from parking. He gives me a tab of acid, so I take the ass. I'm watching the Dead. I'm still not interested. But what happens is, after the show, we drive back to his place in Bel Air and we're fucking Frying like crazy. And I turn on the tv. This is when cable, cable tv, right? And this movie comes on. It's called Revenge of the Nerds. And me and my friend Dave just sat there peeing in our pants. We just thought this was the fucking funniest thing ever I've ever seen, you know?
• 17:24
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 17:25
  Speaker B: And then I watched it straight, you know, without, without being on acid. And it was still pretty funny.
• 17:31
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 17:31
  Speaker C: In other ways I liked it.
• 17:33
  Speaker B: And he was a good actor.
• 17:34
  Speaker C: Classic.
• 17:35
  Speaker B: And, you know, he comes from that Hollywood family of the Carradines and stuff like that. His brother Keith. And there was David. David and Keith.
• 17:43
  Speaker A: John.
• 17:44
  Speaker B: John Carradine.
• 17:45
  Speaker A: That's the, the kung fu, Kung fu guy, right?
• 17:49
  Speaker B: Yeah, that was Keith. Was that Keith?
• 17:50
  Speaker A: I think it was David. Huh?
• 17:51
  Speaker B: I'm calling David was the coming crew. Keith was the musician. Keith was also a musician and he was in, he was in a lot of movies. They find somebody in Hollywood.
• 18:04
  Speaker A: Last picture. No, no. What's the. Nashville.
• 18:06
  Speaker B: Yeah, he was in Nashville. That's right, Keith.
• 18:09
  Speaker A: Cuz I'm easy.
• 18:10
  Speaker B: Yeah. And somebody in Hollywood, some producer, thought it was a good idea to put all three brothers in a western together. And I don't, I can't remember the name of the western, but you probably needed to be on acid to watch it.
• 18:26
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 18:26
  Speaker B: Because it was horrible.
• 18:27
  Speaker C: I like that idea.
• 18:28
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 18:29
  Speaker A: Check it out.
• 18:31
  Speaker B: The dad was always in horror movies, right? Yeah, horror movies. Yeah, he was in that, his last film.
• 18:38
  Speaker A: Also some Westerns too.
• 18:39
  Speaker B: Yeah, Westerns and stuff like that.
• 18:41
  Speaker A: Big tall dude.
• 18:42
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 18:44
  Speaker A: Rangy.
• 18:44
  Speaker B: Yeah. Anyway. Yeah, so the Carradines are all dead.
• 18:48
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:49
  Speaker C: God restor souls.
• 18:50
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 18:51
  Speaker B: You know, but anyway, so also, the Winter Olympics have just ended.
• 18:55
  Speaker A: Yes, thankfully.
• 18:57
  Speaker B: Yeah, I liked it.
• 18:59
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 18:59
  Speaker B: All right. I love seeing those young chicks in those tight panties on the ice with those hard nipples. I love that, man. Who wouldn't. What guy wouldn't love that? You know? You know, but I remember, but I remember when I learned, I, I, you know, I'm not much on skiing or ice skating. I never tried it, but I remember when I learned to ski. It was a great way to meet people. Skiing, huh. You know that I met two paramedics and three nurses. There you go. Yeah.
• 19:34
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 19:35
  Speaker A: It's one of the sports that, you know, the, the cliche associated with it is someone with a cast on their leg sitting around the fire.
• 19:43
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 19:43
  Speaker C: Not the worst way to stay at
• 19:45
  Speaker A: the lodge, but I thought, well, if that's the cliche, it's. I definitely don't want to do it, you know, it's like there's something else where you had a bandage around your head. That was the.
• 19:53
  Speaker B: Yeah, but you. Meet the hot toddies, man.
• 19:56
  Speaker C: I've just come from a ski trip. It was fantastic. Much respect for those people. My question with the, The Winter Olympics, you have the, the things where you, you jump on a sled.
• 20:07
  Speaker B: Yeah. The loom first. Yeah.
• 20:10
  Speaker C: The skeleton skeletons.
• 20:11
  Speaker D: Right.
• 20:11
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 20:12
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 20:12
  Speaker B: Okay, I don't get this. Are you. Yeah.
• 20:14
  Speaker C: Are you an athlete?
• 20:16
  Speaker B: Well, that's what. Yeah.
• 20:17
  Speaker C: Are you just an idiot?
• 20:17
  Speaker A: A daredevil?
• 20:18
  Speaker C: A daredevil.
• 20:19
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 20:19
  Speaker C: I think it's my question because for Maybe the first 10 yards you're running and after that you're just hanging on, right? Yeah.
• 20:24
  Speaker B: You're just. You must be afraid for your life.
• 20:27
  Speaker A: Must be trying to whatever you're weight from side to side. It's got to be something.
• 20:30
  Speaker C: A lot of them are athletes. I don't mean to disparage any of our Olympians, but are you. Are you an athlete? Are you.
• 20:35
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 20:36
  Speaker C: You know. Yeah. Computer programmer. Who. I get your point.
• 20:39
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 20:39
  Speaker C: Well, you know, like ice tube.
• 20:41
  Speaker A: If you're sailing every four years, like if you're in the America's cup and you're sailing a sailboat, are you an athlete?
• 20:46
  Speaker C: Same.
• 20:47
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 20:48
  Speaker C: Yeah, same.
• 20:49
  Speaker B: Well, our golfers athletes.
• 20:50
  Speaker A: Well, yeah. Yeah.
• 20:52
  Speaker B: You know, because I've known some baseball players that say they're not athletes.
• 20:56
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 20:57
  Speaker B: They're just ball players. They're not athletes.
• 21:00
  Speaker C: First baseman.
• 21:01
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 21:01
  Speaker C: Potbelly. Yeah.
• 21:03
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 21:04
  Speaker C: They're not jogging it out there.
• 21:07
  Speaker B: No. In fact, what's his name? The Philadelphia Philly, Smashing the ball. Philadelphia Phillies first baseman John Crook back in the late 80s, early 90s. He was so overweight, all meathead team. Yeah. And he was at a. He was at a. A bar eating chicken wings and drinking beer. And this fan, this woman came up to him. This is a true story. This woman came up to him and goes, why are you eating this stuff? You got a game tomorrow. I mean, you're an athlete. And he looked at, he goes, I ain't an athlete. I'm a ball player. You know, I just, you know, I just fucking swing at a ball, you know, and hopefully it goes where they ain't.
• 21:44
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 21:45
  Speaker B: You know, that's it. Right. You know, so anyway, like, chess players, are they athletes?
• 21:50
  Speaker A: No, definitely not. They wouldn't say that. They are.
• 21:52
  Speaker C: Well, so I'll ask you, like my. One of my kids asked the other day, did we win? Dale Hampex, did we win?
• 21:59
  Speaker A: Oh, sure. We're all Winners?
• 22:03
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 22:03
  Speaker A: You tell them we're all winners. We're all winners.
• 22:05
  Speaker B: No, you say they won. You didn't win, kid. You know?
• 22:09
  Speaker C: Yeah, somebody won some.
• 22:10
  Speaker B: Did somebody won someone. Yeah.
• 22:12
  Speaker A: Well, you got anything else, Manager? We get.
• 22:15
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 22:16
  Speaker A: We've been going kind of long.
• 22:18
  Speaker B: All right, we'll get to our guests. Let's get to this for. Yeah, yeah.
• 22:21
  Speaker A: Same for two weeks from now.
• 22:23
  Speaker B: Well, if I'm here.
• 22:24
  Speaker A: So we have a terrific guest here. Uh, he's. He's is already well in the mix of the. The podcast. He's a terrific, very soulful guitar, mandolin, harmonica player, singer, songwriter, frontman for the bayou Americana band, Honey Island Swamp Band, as well as a side project that's really getting ahead of Steam, the Riverbenders. It's also played with bands like Eric Lindell, Teresa Anderson, Papa Molly, Susan Cauzill, among others. The Honey Island Swamp Band are in their 20th year of playing together with their latest album, Custom Deluxe, still available out there. And the supergroup the Riverbenders with Jake Eckert, Miles Weeks and Russ Broussard just put out their debut album last year, and Guest and I were on the Big Easy cruise together, and we got to play together when he sat in with the Susan Cassill Band on our last performance there on the boat. We're going to get into all that and much more. But without further ado, the great Mr. Aaron Wilkinson. Hey, Aaron. Now, many people call you a Ron.
• 23:33
  Speaker C: They do.
• 23:34
  Speaker A: Now, is that something people do in jest? Is that something that you promote?
• 23:39
  Speaker C: No, it's. Well, probably a little bit of both.
• 23:41
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 23:42
  Speaker C: I'm sure they're just sort of making fun of me a little bit. Well, you know, there's. That's possible. That's. That's a theory I had not considered probably enough.
• 23:50
  Speaker A: But I know that now that you
• 23:52
  Speaker C: say that that probably is what's going on.
• 23:55
  Speaker A: Like, there was a skit on that
• 23:56
  Speaker C: show, the Key and Peele. Yeah.
• 23:58
  Speaker A: So a Ron.
• 23:59
  Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic. If there's anyone alive who has not seen it, you got to look it up. The Substitute Teacher. But in fact, one day I came home from a tour that we'd been on. There was a package, you know, anonymous package in the mail. I'm like, what is this? I opened it, and it's a T shirt that says, you done messed up, Aaron. I don't have no idea who sent it to me, but thank you, whoever it was.
• 24:22
  Speaker B: All right.
• 24:22
  Speaker A: Okay. So was that the. The genesis of.
• 24:25
  Speaker C: No. No. So. Well, when I was. When I was a little toddler, A little, A little tyke. My uncle used to call me a Ron.
• 24:32
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 24:33
  Speaker C: And it just kind of stuck.
• 24:34
  Speaker A: Oh, right on.
• 24:35
  Speaker C: You know, even my mom will sometimes call me a Ron. Although usually that's not the case. If I'm in trouble, which is a lot, I get the full name sometimes. The first and the middle.
• 24:45
  Speaker A: Right, right.
• 24:46
  Speaker B: My family used to call me Moron.
• 24:48
  Speaker A: Okay, well so, so not.
• 24:50
  Speaker C: I get that too. Even better. When I first went to college in Virginia, I went to kind of a hoity toity University. It was great. I shouldn't say that, but it was, it was a Washington and Lee University. Oh really like high minded, conservative sort of place. Which is not really a lot of
• 25:07
  Speaker A: New Orleanian they do Rex people go
• 25:09
  Speaker C: to Washington and Lee.
• 25:11
  Speaker A: I have a two nieces who.
• 25:13
  Speaker C: It's a fantastic school, beautiful place. But these people just thought it was hilarious that I showed up in a black like low T top Camaro, which is what I drove. I'm like a redneck from the Gulf coast and they just could not get enough of that. And I was like, you, what are you, what are you laughing at?
• 25:35
  Speaker B: So did you get.
• 25:37
  Speaker C: Hell yes, dude. You ever seen a. Yeah, badass dude. The dudes crucified me.
• 25:45
  Speaker B: And they call, well what were they driving?
• 25:47
  Speaker C: They called me Camaron. Camaron was my nickname.
• 25:52
  Speaker A: So you just had to really put it to their girlfriends.
• 25:54
  Speaker C: Even that much I still don't see what they were. They, they were still misled.
• 25:58
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well how'd you wind up going to that school? That's, that's a weird. Never even heard of that school school before going has got booked to play there one time.
• 26:07
  Speaker C: Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sure I can tell you how that probably went. Yeah, I, I, I was a, I was a football player. I was an athlete in high school and I got recruited by a bunch of schools and I had signed a scholarship to go play in a a school up in Massachusetts. But I wasn't really that into it. And so if I'm being honest, I was kind of just like taking. You get these free recruiting trips. They, they pay for you flight and they're a lot of fun. So even though I had already sort of dishonest to me, even though I'd already signed to go someplace else, I wasn't feeling real solid about it. So I took a trip to Washington and Lee and it was the springtime. It's gorgeous there in Virginia that time of year. And my buddies that were a couple years ahead of Me in high school. Some of them were going to school there, and they found out that I was going to be there. So I walk into the dorm room of the captain of the team who's supposed to be hosting me, and the phone rings. This is back in the days of, like, actual phones.
• 27:05
  Speaker A: Sure.
• 27:06
  Speaker C: And he says, it's for you. I said, what? Said it was for you. I'm there like five minutes. Phone rings. It's for you, Aaron. We're coming to get you, man. We're coming to get you. They came and got me. My buddies came and kidnapped me. We went and smoked weed and hiked in the mountains and swam in the rivers and had a wonderful weekend. Never did one thing football related and.
• 27:29
  Speaker B: Right, right.
• 27:30
  Speaker C: Monday. Monday morning, I.
• 27:31
  Speaker A: Celebrity visits here to the table.
• 27:34
  Speaker C: Monday morning, I showed up back at school, called the people in Massachusetts and said, look, I'm not coming.
• 27:40
  Speaker A: Okay. All right. I like that story. All right.
• 27:43
  Speaker C: I was out. So that's how I.
• 27:44
  Speaker B: What year was this?
• 27:45
  Speaker C: That would have been so. 1993.
• 27:49
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 27:49
  Speaker C: Yeah, 93.
• 27:50
  Speaker B: I'm showing they had a football team, this school.
• 27:53
  Speaker C: Yes, they did.
• 27:54
  Speaker B: Really?
• 27:54
  Speaker C: They did. Yeah. The ODAC Conference. The prestigious.
• 27:58
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 27:59
  Speaker C: Old Dominion athletes or something. What's that?
• 28:03
  Speaker B: It's still around.
• 28:04
  Speaker C: Oh, yeah, it's around. No, they. They Championship program. I'm surprised you haven't heard of it.
• 28:08
  Speaker A: No, no, no, no. Well, you know, I can't. I can't keep track of Nil.
• 28:11
  Speaker C: Deals are staggering.
• 28:12
  Speaker A: Right?
• 28:13
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 28:15
  Speaker A: Tens of dollars.
• 28:16
  Speaker C: You. Tens, I mean, twenties sometimes.
• 28:18
  Speaker B: Sure.
• 28:18
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 28:19
  Speaker C: Depending on who you know.
• 28:19
  Speaker A: Let's go back a little bit. Bit before that. That period. We'll work our way back to that. So you're not from New Orleans. Where did you grow up?
• 28:27
  Speaker C: I grew up in Pensacola, Florida. Not far from here.
• 28:29
  Speaker A: Okay. Yeah, Yeah. I love Pensacola.
• 28:31
  Speaker C: I do, too. Don't tell anybody about it.
• 28:33
  Speaker A: All right.
• 28:33
  Speaker C: Trying to keep it a secret now. I grew up there, went to high school. Booker T. Washington High School.
• 28:39
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 28:40
  Speaker B: And did your family have Booker T. Everywhere?
• 28:43
  Speaker C: Yeah, it's omnipresent.
• 28:45
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I mean, there's a Booker T. Everywhere, as their.
• 28:48
  Speaker C: Well should be.
• 28:49
  Speaker A: Sure, sure. Now, does your family go back in that area of the Florida Panhandle?
• 28:55
  Speaker C: A bit, but, you know, it's.
• 28:58
  Speaker B: You don't want to talk about.
• 28:59
  Speaker C: No, no. Florida. There's nothing like that. Yeah, yeah. We generations deep in the Flora Pama.
• 29:04
  Speaker A: Okay. Florabama corridor.
• 29:07
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's famous. Culturally rich.
• 29:11
  Speaker A: Oh, it is, man. I mean, it goes down there. I mean, it's no Washington and Lee,
• 29:17
  Speaker C: but it definitely goes down.
• 29:19
  Speaker A: But I mean, that's a. It's a hotbed of activity. For years, I mean, the Gulf Coast Mafia was active in there. That corridor for. Probably still is.
• 29:29
  Speaker C: Yeah, I can't talk about it.
• 29:30
  Speaker A: No, no, I understand. I wouldn't ask.
• 29:32
  Speaker C: Implicate the innocent.
• 29:33
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, no, no, I understand. So was it. It was fun growing up there. Were you at the beach all the time?
• 29:39
  Speaker C: I was, but, you know, like any other, like, teenager, like, you kind of take. Take it for granted. And by the time I was senior in high school, I was like, fuck this place. I'm. Get out of here. As far, far away as I can.
• 29:51
  Speaker A: Now, were you. Were you already playing music at that point?
• 29:55
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, I started playing music. I think my dad bought me my first guitar when I was like, 11.
• 30:01
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 30:02
  Speaker C: He told me if I would stick with the acoustic guitar for a year, he would buy me an electric. But I had to get a year in on the acoustic because he didn't, you know. It was good advice.
• 30:14
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 30:14
  Speaker C: Because a lot of kids get an electric. They fiddle around with it making noise.
• 30:17
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 30:18
  Speaker C: You know, but the acoustic, I had to take lessons. I had to learn how to play it. And that gets your fingers in shape. You know what I mean? Gets your hand in shape. And then he bought me the electric. You stayed true to it, had the electric. Kramer.
• 30:30
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 30:31
  Speaker C: To show you the age, you know?
• 30:32
  Speaker A: Right, sure.
• 30:33
  Speaker C: Whammy bar.
• 30:34
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 30:34
  Speaker C: Dude, sick.
• 30:38
  Speaker A: Now, did you find other kids that were playing that to form a little high school?
• 30:43
  Speaker C: Yeah, we drove my mom crazy. Like 12, 13 years old playing at top volume in the garage.
• 30:48
  Speaker A: Nice.
• 30:48
  Speaker C: My parents didn't know anything about, like, sound dampening or anything. So it's just like concrete, right? Sheet. Right. They wouldn't even sheetrock. It was just like, sat in some studs and insulation. Metal roof is, huh. Is deafening.
• 31:01
  Speaker A: Now, what kind of stuff were y' all playing?
• 31:04
  Speaker C: Metallica. A lot of Metallica. Like maybe some Sex Pistols, like heavy, you know, but, you know, Crate Amplifiers. Strictly Crate Amplifiers.
• 31:19
  Speaker D: Okay. All right.
• 31:22
  Speaker C: Well, no, well, that was when I started playing bass, when I went to the dark side.
• 31:25
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 31:26
  Speaker C: The PVTNT. That's the next chapter.
• 31:28
  Speaker A: Yeah, man, but those TNTs. I still have my TNT 100, soldier. Yeah, man, those things never quit.
• 31:35
  Speaker C: Hell, no. No, but we. We did that. But, you know, I also had like, this other side. Like, I was really into the Beatles, you know, and shit like that. And my dad bought me a massive Beatles book. Like the comprehensive, like, A thousand pages. It was ridiculous.
• 31:52
  Speaker B: Right.
• 31:53
  Speaker C: And it had all the chords, you know, at the top. Sure. I just remember looking at how can there be so many chords.
• 31:59
  Speaker A: Right.
• 31:59
  Speaker C: You know what the.
• 32:00
  Speaker A: Especially over the whole course of their career.
• 32:03
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 32:03
  Speaker A: They get into so many different.
• 32:04
  Speaker C: Like, even a song is like, how are they this many chords anyway? Well, yeah, so I kind of always had that in one ear. But I was, you know, I would lock myself in my bedroom and listen to Master of Puppets and Pink Floyd the Wall for like a year.
• 32:18
  Speaker A: Right. And you're getting into smoking weed as a teenager, I'm sure.
• 32:22
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Mom, you little listening out there. Yeah. She knows. Yeah, yeah, she knows she can cut this out. Yeah, yeah. I mean, we did have, you know, I had friends with older brothers and.
• 32:31
  Speaker A: Sure, sure, sure. And so successful high school career. You're. You're, you're doing well in school at the same time.
• 32:38
  Speaker C: I did, I did well in school, man. I mean, I went to a public school in Pensacola. It was not rocket science.
• 32:44
  Speaker A: Yeah. Now, I'm not.
• 32:46
  Speaker C: I'm not as dumb as I look. I did all.
• 32:48
  Speaker B: No, no, no.
• 32:48
  Speaker A: I can tell by the way you talk you're quite intelligent. I'm very perceptive about this.
• 32:54
  Speaker C: I didn't find it. High school was a lot of fun.
• 32:57
  Speaker A: Oh, nice. Okay. Not the best years of your life, but. But still. Fine.
• 33:02
  Speaker C: Pretty close, really. No, I'm kidding. No, not the best years in my life, but no, it was, it was good, man. It was a good place to grow up because you.
• 33:09
  Speaker A: You talk to some people, I will say, oh, that was the best time of my life, you know?
• 33:12
  Speaker C: Really?
• 33:12
  Speaker A: That's so sad.
• 33:13
  Speaker C: No, no. Yeah, that. I'm very aware that that would be. That'd be pretty poor to say, say that.
• 33:18
  Speaker B: I mean, now, over the years, we've always, you know, poked fun at Florida and Arizona for, for being just crazy. Weird estates, weirdest states.
• 33:29
  Speaker C: You're not wrong.
• 33:29
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 33:30
  Speaker C: You're not wrong.
• 33:31
  Speaker B: So that's why you left. Have you gone back?
• 33:33
  Speaker C: Oh, yeah. Well, now I'm like, why did I ever leave here? This is awesome.
• 33:37
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 33:37
  Speaker C: Like. Like during co. I, I, they were jumping around here, but I kind of had a premonition of what was going to happen because I have friends in Italy.
• 33:46
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 33:46
  Speaker C: Things. And they told me. And so I kind of made a proactive move and I said to my wife, I said, let's get over here and let's. Let's just spend a week or two over here at the beach and just let things cool down.
• 33:57
  Speaker A: Right.
• 33:57
  Speaker C: Because I didn't want to be stuck in New Orleans if they closed down the city.
• 34:00
  Speaker A: Oh, geez.
• 34:01
  Speaker C: Within that two weeks, the whole thing went to. And I ended up living on the beach in Pensacola for a year. I'm sorry. That's an exaggeration. Seven months, maybe.
• 34:11
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 34:13
  Speaker C: During COVID Which was, let me tell you, fantastic.
• 34:17
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 34:18
  Speaker C: You strike me as a beach person.
• 34:19
  Speaker B: No, I grew up. I grew up in west la. Venice Beach. And I loved the beach. The boardwalk. But I hated the ocean.
• 34:29
  Speaker C: All the sand is like my keyboard player. See, I love. I love that, man. I. I grew up in it. That's. I'm a. I'm a saltwater dude. Man.
• 34:39
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 34:40
  Speaker C: Yeah, I love it. I love the beach.
• 34:42
  Speaker A: I could see that.
• 34:42
  Speaker C: So, yeah, I. I miss that part now. But, you know, there was nothing going on in Pensacola. I mean, there's, like, no culture. There was no music. I mean, it was. But it's underground. It's nothing like. I mean, it's obvious to say it's nothing like here, but no place is.
• 34:58
  Speaker A: Sure, sure, sure.
• 34:59
  Speaker C: But. So, you know, I went to college, blah, blah, blah. Played football, then moved here, you know. Now. What do you.
• 35:04
  Speaker A: What do you study in college at the Washington and Lee?
• 35:07
  Speaker C: Oh, well, this free program. You'll like this. So I. I got the very useful major in English and poetry.
• 35:15
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 35:16
  Speaker C: Yeah, I see what this. That's getting me. Well, I did some journalism that got me some paychecks.
• 35:22
  Speaker A: Yeah. Where would you do that?
• 35:24
  Speaker C: I wrote for the Times, mcu.
• 35:26
  Speaker A: Oh, okay.
• 35:27
  Speaker C: And I edited a magazine, a health and fitness magazine. I got a bunch of different odd jobs, you know, because I was like, you know, I was getting my feet wet. I didn't grow up here. I didn't know anybody, so I started to get jobs, and I was just trying to pay my way, you know.
• 35:38
  Speaker A: Sorry, we skipped over a part.
• 35:40
  Speaker C: So.
• 35:40
  Speaker A: So you. You're at Washington, Lee. What prompts you to get a degree in. In poetry?
• 35:45
  Speaker C: Well, I was just. That's just. What I was into is English, you
• 35:49
  Speaker A: know, you'd already been dabbling.
• 35:50
  Speaker C: Yeah, and it is. They do. Well, it's not. That's what your thesis is. Yeah, I did. I did not get a. A bachelor's of poetry. Although that would be fitting if I
• 36:02
  Speaker A: did in creative writing.
• 36:04
  Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah, Creative writing.
• 36:05
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 36:06
  Speaker C: And then there's.
• 36:07
  Speaker B: But it helps with the chicks, right?
• 36:09
  Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
• 36:09
  Speaker B: They love poetry.
• 36:11
  Speaker C: They love a guy who can write some poems and makes no money. Come on, line up.
• 36:16
  Speaker A: Yeah, well, Washington. It's a very specific sort of person that goes there other than you. I'm to going guessing.
• 36:24
  Speaker C: Well, fortunately, yeah, that's true. Fortunately. There. Here's what they don't tell you. Like on the brochure, like it's surrounded by four or five all girls schools.
• 36:34
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 36:34
  Speaker C: Washington and Lee used to be an all boys school.
• 36:37
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 36:38
  Speaker C: When I got there, I was like, where are all the girls? And they were like, you know, it's like 80% male, 20% female. And I was like,
• 36:47
  Speaker D: huh?
• 36:48
  Speaker C: It's like, what? I didn't really do my research.
• 36:50
  Speaker A: She had sister schools.
• 36:51
  Speaker C: Sister schools. Holland. Sweet Briar. Shout out. Sweet Briar.
• 36:55
  Speaker A: Okay. One of your faves.
• 36:57
  Speaker C: Yeah. One of my face.
• 36:59
  Speaker B: So you look like you got laid a lot. Well, yeah.
• 37:03
  Speaker C: Again, Again, I wanna, I want to temper that with, you know, 80%, 80% guys, 20 girls. And I thought Michael wouldn't.
• 37:16
  Speaker A: You sure, man.
• 37:17
  Speaker C: Well, well, I thought my car was very cool. I'm not sure that was, that was a widely held perception.
• 37:23
  Speaker B: Really?
• 37:25
  Speaker C: Sadly for them. Yeah.
• 37:26
  Speaker A: You know, underneath it all, those girls are seeing the guy with the, with the tea top.
• 37:31
  Speaker C: You guys gotta understand, like at that time, at that time, being a redneck was not cool. It was that. That had not happened yet.
• 37:37
  Speaker A: Oh, okay.
• 37:38
  Speaker C: So then when that did. Oh yeah. When that did occur and that did occur, I was poised to benefit from that cultural shift.
• 37:48
  Speaker A: Nice.
• 37:48
  Speaker D: Nice.
• 37:49
  Speaker A: You had already pre positioned yourself.
• 37:51
  Speaker C: I spent years trying to deny it. Then I was able to just fully embrace.
• 37:55
  Speaker A: Nice.
• 37:56
  Speaker C: The red streak.
• 37:57
  Speaker A: Right. So you, so you, you, you graduate from Washington League. Congratulations.
• 38:03
  Speaker C: Thank you.
• 38:04
  Speaker A: Now what prompts you to come to New Orleans?
• 38:06
  Speaker C: So I was playing with a group of guys at the time. We had a band in college and one was from Little Rock, one was from Shreveport, one was from. Well, I guess the three. It was just three of us that ended up moving here together and we were kind of trying to. We decided we wanted to keep playing music together, spend a year or two somewhere. I wanted to go to San Francisco because I grew up in the South. I didn't really want to come back. I wanted to do something different.
• 38:33
  Speaker A: Yeah, sure.
• 38:34
  Speaker C: But for them, New Orleans wasn't so close to home. For me, New Orleans is three hours in Pensacola. We used to come over here in high school. Don't listen, mom.
• 38:44
  Speaker A: Right.
• 38:45
  Speaker C: We used to like sneak off and come over here during high school and. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wanted to get further away, but for them it made more sense. He used to live around. Right. But so I kind of lost out on that one. So that's how I ended up here. But it's a good thing because, you know, you go to San Francisco or New York, places like that, they're on my list. Like, you can't really. You can't play music. I mean, you can, but you got to work three jobs and then play music in your spare time just to make the rent.
• 39:14
  Speaker A: You have no spare.
• 39:15
  Speaker C: Whereas here at that time, this is 97, 98, whatever.
• 39:19
  Speaker A: So cheap to live here.
• 39:20
  Speaker C: So cheap. Like, you could actually really do it.
• 39:23
  Speaker A: Right.
• 39:23
  Speaker C: You could really, like, play music and, like, get by.
• 39:26
  Speaker A: You have to be semi employed and still live a very comfortable lifestyle.
• 39:30
  Speaker C: Do a few hustles here and there, remain nameless. But you could. You could, like, do it and actually spend your time playing music where those other cities. I wouldn't have been able to do that.
• 39:39
  Speaker A: Right, right.
• 39:40
  Speaker C: So I got lucky.
• 39:41
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Well, it was. It was a wound up being a wise choice. So. So you get down here, you. You find employment with the Times Picayune. The great.
• 39:51
  Speaker C: Yeah, the great newspaper. Mcu. It wasn't the Advocate then. It was the Times. Mcu. Yeah, I covered a lot of. Yeah.
• 39:58
  Speaker A: What kind of. What kind of beats were you on?
• 40:01
  Speaker C: Really exciting neighborhood meetings, talking about, you know, trash pickup and.
• 40:06
  Speaker A: Right.
• 40:06
  Speaker C: I don't know.
• 40:07
  Speaker A: Well, you get to learn the city from the inside.
• 40:09
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, the Times.
• 40:10
  Speaker C: Lots of complaining going on out there, Renee.
• 40:12
  Speaker A: Sure. Well, they had a lot of plenty to complain about.
• 40:14
  Speaker B: Hasn't stopped complaining, you know.
• 40:17
  Speaker A: We still have plenty to complain.
• 40:18
  Speaker B: So the Times hired you because if you. Your poetry degree.
• 40:22
  Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. Well, Washington Lee carries a lot of weight.
• 40:25
  Speaker A: Yeah. A lot of people know that school here, especially among, like, the Ashton Phelps
• 40:29
  Speaker C: of the world, also got me a job teaching English as a second language at Delgado, where I was hired over the phone.
• 40:36
  Speaker A: Okay. Because they could tell that you could speak English.
• 40:38
  Speaker C: And I walked in and.
• 40:41
  Speaker B: So what's the first language?
• 40:44
  Speaker C: My first language. Meathead. What's your first language? Caveman. No.
• 40:54
  Speaker A: You were teaching people to. For whom English was a second language.
• 40:58
  Speaker C: Yeah, but it just shows you the state of the city at that time or whatever. I walked in, they said, where'd you go to school? I said, washington Lee. They said, you're hired. Within 10 minutes, I was standing in front of my first class.
• 41:09
  Speaker A: Wow.
• 41:09
  Speaker C: I was like, what do I do? Yeah.
• 41:12
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 41:12
  Speaker C: And the director of the programs, I said, what do I do? He said, anything you do for them will be better than what they've had. Wow. Go get a kid.
• 41:21
  Speaker A: Wow.
• 41:23
  Speaker B: So you taught him how to sing, Dadu. Run run. Right.
• 41:28
  Speaker A: Start with the single syllables.
• 41:30
  Speaker C: Yeah, there were a lot of different, like, accents in that class. I don't think to do Run run would have been the best one to start with.
• 41:38
  Speaker A: Yeah, you got to start somewhere.
• 41:40
  Speaker C: But that was a great experience too.
• 41:42
  Speaker A: Building block.
• 41:42
  Speaker C: Yeah, but, but yeah, I mean, I think the point is, like, in New Orleans, there's a lot of opportunities. Another great hustle I just got to tell you about. Really?
• 41:51
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 41:52
  Speaker C: Because I think you'll dig this.
• 41:53
  Speaker B: Sure.
• 41:54
  Speaker C: So with this journalism degree. So like there was this magazine at the time called Shot in la. Do you remember it? You ever heard of that? Yeah, you wouldn't have, but it was, it was focused on the movie industry because, like, there was a lot of. Okay, there was a lot of stuff. And they had a calendar. There's not a movie business in the town at that time. They had a calendar section in the back where they did like, dining, concerts, you know, theater, whatever. I said, look, this would be a lot better if there was. If we focused on one thing each month. And so. And I did a little more of a write up than a listing, like, pop out.
• 42:31
  Speaker A: Right, right.
• 42:32
  Speaker C: And so in so doing, I was able to get myself a credentialed pass as a Saints beat reporter.
• 42:40
  Speaker A: Nice.
• 42:41
  Speaker C: So I was sitting in the Superdome, like getting in the. With like real journalists.
• 42:46
  Speaker A: Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 42:47
  Speaker C: I was able to press box. I was able to, to be a restaurant reviewer. Like Galatoires, Antoine's, like all the places.
• 42:57
  Speaker A: Very good.
• 42:57
  Speaker C: I doubt it.
• 42:58
  Speaker B: You were hungry.
• 42:59
  Speaker C: I would bring. Yeah, I was so hungry. I was, I was like in my 20s. And they would come by, they'd be like, sir, the chef would like to. This is. Was literally said to me, sir, the chef wants you to know you don't have to finish everything that we bring out. Right. You are.
• 43:14
  Speaker A: Bring more. But you were still a growing boy.
• 43:18
  Speaker C: So I was, I was, I had that, I had that metabolism still. But yeah, so that was quite a hustle of the hustles I've pulled off. That was, that was brilliant. That's.
• 43:26
  Speaker A: Well, you know, they taught you something at Washington la.
• 43:29
  Speaker C: Yeah, I remember, I remember interviewing Galactic at the time they were coming up.
• 43:36
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 43:36
  Speaker C: And I contacted them and, you know, I had multi purposes. I wanted, I wanted to interview them, but I also was trying to become a musician myself, so I wanted to know what they knew, you know what I mean? How are these guys doing it? These guys are not unlike me.
• 43:48
  Speaker A: Right.
• 43:49
  Speaker C: So I went over there and I met Houseman And. And Robert. Yeah, they're all the. Clewitt, Robert, Mercuria. Robert. So they said, well, let's meet over here. And we went to the JP Superette on Eagle Street.
• 44:00
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 44:01
  Speaker C: Before we went back to House Man's house. Nice. And so. And we ordered like the most. I don't know if you know, but the J and P Eagle over there, like most poboy shops, they got the 6 and the 12, the 24 inch. They have the 8, the 16 and the 32.
• 44:17
  Speaker A: Wow.
• 44:17
  Speaker C: Okay. Over there. Yeah. And among other things, you know, you should get all your weird meats and stuff.
• 44:23
  Speaker A: Right.
• 44:23
  Speaker C: But yeah, so I sat there with the Houseman and Rob and ordered our PO boys and went back to Houseman's. Darrell's house.
• 44:33
  Speaker A: Right.
• 44:33
  Speaker C: Sat at his table and picked his brain and wrote an article and learned a few things myself, you know. Cool, man. So it was a good way to, like, get your feelers out in the city.
• 44:42
  Speaker A: Absolutely, absolutely. Starting to meet people. Yeah. I was going to ask, you know, how. How do you start meeting musicians in the city?
• 44:47
  Speaker C: People making things happen.
• 44:48
  Speaker A: Right, right, right. Well, let's see. Yeah. Manny, it's. It's. I could feel it. It's about that time. Why don't you tell.
• 44:55
  Speaker B: Yeah, listen, the Nation knows what we're gonna do and we'll be right back. Wait.
• 45:00
  Speaker A: Well, we'll tell them what we're gonna do.
• 45:01
  Speaker B: We're gonna take a break.
• 45:03
  Speaker A: Oh, okay.
• 45:03
  Speaker C: What are we gonna do on a break?
• 45:04
  Speaker B: We're gonna piss.
• 45:06
  Speaker A: Refresh your cocktail.
• 45:07
  Speaker B: Yeah, refresh our cocktails. You know, the Nation does that, too. So we'll be right back.
• 45:12
  Speaker C: See you soon, Nation.
• 45:37
  Speaker D: I hop the highway and it goes to glass and steam I shiver like a banshee at the wheel Miles to go yet Touch up regret Trouble in my mind Chase the sunset down behind the Georgia line
• 45:59
  Speaker C: I could swing the
• 46:00
  Speaker D: hammer I could drive a nail I could drive for 16 hours not breaking jail
• 46:10
  Speaker C: I don't ever wonder who I'm
• 46:13
  Speaker D: meant to be Every shadow I meet Looks just like me.
• 46:22
  Speaker C: I guess I've been gone Gone down
• 46:26
  Speaker D: Gone, gone, gone Gone, gone, gone.
• 46:45
  Speaker A: And we're back. Back with Mr. Manny Chevrolet.
• 46:48
  Speaker B: Yes, you are.
• 46:49
  Speaker A: I am Renee Coleman. Back with our guest, Mr. Aaron Wilkinson. Aaron, as his mother sometimes calls him. Now, Aaron, you're probably not aware since you're kind of new to the podcast, but this is a listener supported operation. We have PayPal and Venmo links in the show notes of every show, and our devoted listeners will use those links to support the podcast buy us cocktails that we're enjoying here. You're having cocktails of yourself.
• 47:19
  Speaker C: Damn straight. They will know what's good for them.
• 47:21
  Speaker A: And. Okay. I like the confidence. He's gonna bully y' all a little bit.
• 47:26
  Speaker C: I have to. We hope it doesn't come to that.
• 47:28
  Speaker A: Right, Right. I know I always do. We could do this the easy way or the hard way. Right? So, yeah, we have the. The PayPal and Venmo links there. And as well as the Patreon link, we have a handful of patrons that are supporting the show week in and week out. That's what we're running on this week because we, again, have no. No outside support. Thank you, Patriots running three or four or five weeks in a row here. So come on, people, wake up. Get some skin in the game. Somebody's listening to the show.
• 47:54
  Speaker C: Want it. Act like you want it.
• 47:55
  Speaker A: Right. Right. Thank you. And also we have the link for the Troubleman podcast. T shirts. And also follow us on social media, Instagram, Facebook, and rate, review and subscribe to the podcast wherever you're listening to it. Give us five stars.
• 48:11
  Speaker C: Cost you.
• 48:11
  Speaker A: Nothing helps us a lot. And yes, I'll be out on the road with the Iguanas and Sunny Landreth. And then we have. Festival season is coming up that's getting booked right up there. And French Quarter Festival, what, the third weekend of April, backed right up against Jazz Fest. Now it's three weekends in a row
• 48:34
  Speaker C: done actually, this year and committed to that.
• 48:36
  Speaker A: So. So, yeah, so I'm sure you're getting a lot of calls for those dates, booking up all those. Those free spots. So everybody keep on the lookout for those.
• 48:46
  Speaker C: Come.
• 48:46
  Speaker A: Come see both myself and Aaron with his. All of his bands. And you can find my dates there@theiguanas.com.
• 48:56
  Speaker B: you know what? You won't see me.
• 48:58
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 48:59
  Speaker B: We'll be at any of that, and
• 49:01
  Speaker A: he won't be there.
• 49:02
  Speaker B: I don't care for me.
• 49:04
  Speaker C: You don't mean that.
• 49:05
  Speaker B: I hate music.
• 49:06
  Speaker C: It's not you.
• 49:06
  Speaker B: The older I get, the more I hate music. That's just the stress, especially live music. Can't stand live music. Just so loud, man. That is true.
• 49:17
  Speaker A: Yeah, I hear you, Manny. Well, many people do still love it, thankfully. And, yeah, someone was asking about my. My show at Wolf Trap coming up next week. It's already sold.
• 49:26
  Speaker C: Oh, nice. At the. In D.C. yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 49:29
  Speaker B: Vienna, if you can make it there.
• 49:31
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
• 49:32
  Speaker C: Well, you know, you ever need a sub, by the way, on any of those iguanas. Or Sonny gigs.
• 49:39
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 49:39
  Speaker C: Raising my hand. I still have a bass guitar.
• 49:42
  Speaker A: Right on, right on. Well, you know, one thing about me is I do understand the, the foundational precept of show business, which is the show must go on. So I've played gigs with collapse. With a collapse long. I you not.
• 49:57
  Speaker C: I believe it.
• 49:58
  Speaker A: I will be there. But thank you for. I'll keep that in my back pocket.
• 50:02
  Speaker C: Those are good gigs. Congratulations. Those are great bands. Two fantastic bands.
• 50:06
  Speaker A: I, I, I, I'm so blessed, man. It's incredible. Very fortunate. Anyway, it seems like enough of that. Let's get back to our guest, the great Mr. Aaron Wilkinson. A Ron. So you're. You moved to New Orleans. You're starting to meet musicians. What's the first band? Or maybe what's the first big gig? I know you played with Teresa Anderson for a time. Was that one of the first ones?
• 50:29
  Speaker C: That was one of the first ones. And that was like a real educational experience because somehow it got to me that they were like trying out bass players. You know, it's like an audition now.
• 50:40
  Speaker A: Had you been playing bass before that?
• 50:42
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, I played. I. So I made the bad decision to pick up a bass and purchase a bass in high school. I don't know if this was your experience as a bass player too, but like, I was a guitar player. That was my thing. I was like the shredder experience. And then, well, then this will be, you know, illustrative to.
• 51:01
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 51:02
  Speaker C: To those guitarists out there. Like, don't buy a bass unless you're prepared to play it, because you will be the only person amongst all your guitar friends who owns a bass and you will therefore be the default bass player.
• 51:13
  Speaker A: Now, to me, that seems like the. That's the thing you want to be doing.
• 51:16
  Speaker C: Yeah, I'm with you. Well, well, but is, but it's very. You could make an argument. It's very interesting to have come from the guitar world of wanting to shred and step out front and be the focus and then go all the way to the dark side, as I like to call it. Okay. And. And then come back as I have now. Really do think you. It makes you a better.
• 51:40
  Speaker A: Oh, for sure.
• 51:41
  Speaker C: Communicator to both sides. Like you. You really get it. You know what I mean? I get very deeply the difference.
• 51:49
  Speaker A: I'm sure your time as a, as a front man is greatly enhanced by your time spent playing in the rhythm section.
• 51:58
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. I would almost say. I mean, look, if I had my way, I'd be back in the rhythm section.
• 52:02
  Speaker A: Right, right, right. It's so fun.
• 52:04
  Speaker C: Yeah, it is for me. I prefer that. But. But yeah, just it. I don't mean to digress, but. But yeah, it gives you a vocabulary for both things, you know, and it just makes you better to be able to understand both because the approaches are. Can be very different.
• 52:23
  Speaker A: They should be different.
• 52:24
  Speaker C: They should be. If they're the same, it's not fun.
• 52:26
  Speaker A: Yeah, no, they all have their. Yeah, you don't want to. A bass player who's trying to be a guitar player.
• 52:31
  Speaker C: No. And I was that. I was the guitar player playing the bass for a long time.
• 52:34
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 52:35
  Speaker C: Before I finally figured it out. But. But yeah, you know, Teresa was having auditions. I caught wind of it. I actually went and like try it out. Like there was like four different people trying out.
• 52:46
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 52:46
  Speaker C: I got the call and I got the gig. That was awesome. Nice. And I was right behind. Peter Harris had been in the gig for who I really loved.
• 52:54
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, excellent.
• 52:55
  Speaker C: As a younger guy, I would go out and see him play the Maple Leaf all the time. Really loved his playing.
• 53:01
  Speaker A: Sure.
• 53:01
  Speaker C: Yeah. So that was really cool. That was relatively short lived mostly because I was. Didn't really have my together at that point. So Teresa decided to be better. Better.
• 53:14
  Speaker B: She's a violin player.
• 53:16
  Speaker C: She is a violin player and singer and vocalist and. And great. And that, you know, I did. Did some touring with her. And the best part of that, beyond Teresa, who is just beautiful and wonderful, was I got to play with Robert M. Who is, you know, wonderful. Very well, amazing, amazing guitarist. Not particularly the easiest person on you as. As you're a young guy. Like, I am coming along.
• 53:40
  Speaker A: He won't hold back.
• 53:41
  Speaker C: He doesn't really hold back, but. But I needed sugarcoat, but I needed that. Renee.
• 53:45
  Speaker A: No, that's great. I love Rob. Robert and I are very similar and
• 53:48
  Speaker C: you know, like, like he, he, you know, we did. We had our moments then we had. We got off stage after one gig and he was like, you really killed it tonight. I was so proud of you. And it was literally like I was like beaming.
• 54:00
  Speaker A: Sure, sure.
• 54:02
  Speaker C: He said he was proud of me.
• 54:03
  Speaker A: Robert Mache, he was a guest on the podcast about maybe 15 months ago. Incredible guitarist guy who. Who revealed. I just learned kind of I'd known the guy for ever. And a couple of weeks before he came on the podcast, he said, oh, yeah, I lived in New York and you know, starting in like 1976, I was like, oh, you must have known the cramps or seen the Cramps. He goes, I was their Roadie. They lived at my house. Nick Knox and Brian Gregory lived at my house for two years. So, yeah, that guy's a little bit fascinating.
• 54:39
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 54:40
  Speaker B: You know, speaking of female fiddle players, did you see Amanda Shaw at the greasing of the poles?
• 54:46
  Speaker A: I saw that on the newspaper. She. She won.
• 54:49
  Speaker B: Well, yeah, but she lost. Her top came off and her boobs fell out. Did you see that? Man, it was hot.
• 54:57
  Speaker A: I'm sure.
• 54:58
  Speaker B: I've always had a thing for her. She was greasing.
• 55:02
  Speaker C: Are you sure?
• 55:02
  Speaker A: Is this really true?
• 55:04
  Speaker B: Yeah. You didn't hear?
• 55:05
  Speaker A: No, I totally miss them.
• 55:07
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 55:07
  Speaker A: They call it a wardrobe malfunction.
• 55:09
  Speaker C: Yeah. Kicking myself for missing that one.
• 55:10
  Speaker A: Oh, well, I'm always. You gotta get her on the show anyway, so. So then at some point, you. You wind up being in Eric Lindell's band. Are you the bass player in that band?
• 55:19
  Speaker C: I am. I went and saw Eric play at. But before. Before we get it, I got. I gotta say.
• 55:25
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 55:26
  Speaker C: Real quickly, I did not do a good job at Teresa's band. I was not taking it seriously enough.
• 55:31
  Speaker D: She.
• 55:33
  Speaker C: We won't say. She fired me. She invited me not to play with her anymore.
• 55:35
  Speaker D: Okay.
• 55:36
  Speaker C: Got a call from Irene Sage. I just. The whole point of this, I just want to mention Irene Sage because she's such a badass shout out to Irene. That was totally different thing. Rock and roll bar room sort of rock, like, Right. Definitely, like, feeling me up and somewhat close to. I don't think she would mind me saying, like, physically abusing me on stage.
• 55:54
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 55:55
  Speaker C: Sexually.
• 55:56
  Speaker A: And you liked it?
• 55:57
  Speaker C: Yeah, it was part of the show. I was for it. I was like 25, man. I was like, yeah, let's go. Irene's awesome.
• 56:04
  Speaker A: So.
• 56:04
  Speaker C: Love you, Irene.
• 56:05
  Speaker A: That was a good fit. That was a good fit for me.
• 56:07
  Speaker C: Oh, it was a good fit. And it was a good, like, you know, it was a good antidote. Like, it kind of, you know, to. To Teresa's thing, which is a lot more. This is. Teresa's thing was a lot more challenging. This is a lot more loose. Bar room sort of rock and roll. I went and saw Eric Lindell playing at the Lounge Lizard. God rested soul down there across from the House of Blues on Indicator. And the girlfriend, the girl I was dating at the time, I looked at her, I said, I'm going to be in this band. Nice. I said, I need to be in this band.
• 56:35
  Speaker A: Nice.
• 56:35
  Speaker C: And we met after the show. We talked, whatever. We kind of had a. You know, just stayed in touch. And one day I was sitting at my Desk editing this magazine, my day job or whatever. And he called me. He's like, aaron, you ready? I was like, what are you. What are you talking about? He's like, we're going. Like, where we're going. He's like, we're going to Key west, man. I need you. Like, I need a bass player. We're going. I was like, all right, man. Well, give me. You know, I'm thinking, like, give me a week or so. Get my good. When are we going? Tomorrow.
• 57:03
  Speaker A: All right, well, that's how Eric is, right? No, it is a last minute, you
• 57:08
  Speaker C: know, as I was to learn over the years.
• 57:09
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I was gonna say, you must have a lot of tales from.
• 57:13
  Speaker C: I have some tales now.
• 57:14
  Speaker A: How long were you with Eric?
• 57:16
  Speaker C: So I was with Eric about five or six years, I guess. Time.
• 57:22
  Speaker A: I mean, most people don't last that long.
• 57:24
  Speaker C: Well, you know, but we had a different relationship. It was for the. For the beginning of it. It was really just the two of us. Like, we would go out and, you know, it'd be me and him in the car and, like, we'd show up someplace and we'd be talking to the promoter, and he's gonna get mad at me for saying this, but I thought it was awesome. We showed the promoter and be like, yeah, we're gonna need, you know, some guitar amps and, you know, maybe a guitar. And do you know any drummers? You know, good drummers? We met some. But we met some incredible drummers. You know, we did some really amazing ones. I mean, that didn't happen all the time, but it happened a couple times. And, you know, we. We kind of built it together and.
• 58:07
  Speaker A: Right.
• 58:07
  Speaker C: You know, I. I worked. He had. He had some drummers from back home in California that he loved working with. Jake Brown, Shout out guy that I loved working with too. And, you know, we just kind of. You know, sometimes we worked with Stanton, sometimes we. There was a few different drummers over the years that we worked with, and we kind of. But it was. That was a growing experience to kind of learn how to work with different people. And you have to be able to communicate on stage now. That's. Could not be more important.
• 58:33
  Speaker A: And being out on the road, roadman.
• 58:36
  Speaker C: And also, like, the fearless. The fearless thing about Eric, you know, I still have such crazy respect for this. Like, he would get on stage and just start a riff, just start going right, and it's like, all right, let's pick it up, let's go, and let's make it up. Then he'd start, you know, he'd start ad libbing, singing. I'd catch what he. We'd link onto something. I'd start harmonizing with him. And those became the songs.
• 58:59
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 58:59
  Speaker C: You know, eventually. But like that was all just done just like it, like we just, we were a trio. We didn't have a ton of attention material. So like we had to literally like fill some hours.
• 59:08
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 59:09
  Speaker C: You know what I mean?
• 59:10
  Speaker A: Yeah. And he is kind of fearless in that way. And like Eric, I remember when I, I played some, some gigs with him back when he was first playing at the Circle Bar.
• 59:19
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 59:19
  Speaker A: And same. And, and he'd say like, it's like, God, I love your guitar player. And he goes, he goes, I only know two licks. I was like, yeah, but they're both great, man.
• 59:28
  Speaker C: He was very. So yeah, he was very self deprecating about his guitar.
• 59:32
  Speaker A: I love him both and I never get tired of hearing them.
• 59:36
  Speaker C: That was, that was a tough time for him too because like, you know, he's out there with the trio and it's like once the verse and the choruses are over, what's going to happen? You got to take another guitar solo, man.
• 59:45
  Speaker A: Right, right, right, right. We break it down, we build it up.
• 59:48
  Speaker C: I took a lot of bass solos.
• 59:50
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 59:52
  Speaker C: That was. Not that. Nobody probably wanted to hear that. I didn't want to play.
• 59:55
  Speaker A: Nobody ever wants. Yeah, that's. That's the thing about Basil Close. Nobody ever wants.
• 1:00:00
  Speaker C: I can ask you. I'm going to turn the table on you as a bass player. Doesn't it drive you crazy when you're a bass player and like you support everybody while they're solo and you do everything to build them, then you go to solo and everybody just stops. There's the base by itself. No, look, I'm like, come on, man.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker A: I'm playing any, any kind of gig that I'm on these days. Like, you know, people like, oh, you want to take a course? I'm like, no man, absolutely not.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker C: No.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker A: I like, like why these people don't want to hear that. That's not what this is about. This is not, you know, it's not about being solo.
• 1:00:31
  Speaker C: You mean you want me to provide the background music while everyone goes and gets a beer?
• 1:00:35
  Speaker A: You know, let's not stick a monkey wrench in this proceeding here. Let's keep playing this. What we're. This dance music that we're playing here or whatever. This pop music that we're playing.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker C: We are of like minds.
• 1:00:47
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, no we're in the engine room. When you're playing the bass, you're down in the engine room, you got your. Your pants rolled up to your knees. You're walking in water. You're. You're, you know, you're. You're calling up to the, to the bridge, going, we're okay.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker C: We're good. Well, you know, you. You know what I always thought. And I'll leave it alone about playing the bass, though. I'm not looking at the people in the front of the room, the people right by the stage. I'm looking at the people at the back.
• 1:01:13
  Speaker B: Right.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker C: The people that aren't really moving, the people that aren't paying attention.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker A: Right.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker C: The people that are in a conversation and their brain is in a conversation, but their ass is moving.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker A: Right? Are they?
• 1:01:23
  Speaker C: If their ass is not moving, you're not doing it right.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker A: Right.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker C: But if they need to be doing. Yeah, you need to change what you're doing until their ass is moving.
• 1:01:29
  Speaker A: Oh, no.
• 1:01:30
  Speaker C: It's hitting them on a level that's below their consciousness.
• 1:01:33
  Speaker A: The same thing, man.
• 1:01:34
  Speaker C: You know what I'm saying?
• 1:01:35
  Speaker A: In the back of the room.
• 1:01:36
  Speaker C: Then you're doing it right.
• 1:01:37
  Speaker A: That's right. That's right.
• 1:01:37
  Speaker C: That means you're doing it right. That's the power of the dark side.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker A: Yes. Okay, so. So you. You put in your time with Eric Lindell.
• 1:01:46
  Speaker C: That was a fantastic band. It was a great time. We played on the Conan o' Brien show. That was. That was maybe the best band I've ever been in. It was awesome.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker A: Now, at this point, so that the band that you played on the Conan o' Brien show with. Who. Who at that point? Who?
• 1:02:01
  Speaker C: So I had. This is part of the Honey Island Swamp man story because I had met Chris Mule on an all that gig. You probably played with all that at some point. No, I never. But almost everyone else has. Yeah, so. Well, I'm proud of you, son.
• 1:02:15
  Speaker A: There's a, A, A benefit in. In Scarcity, you know. No, no. I play with a lot of people, but, you know, I gotta.
• 1:02:23
  Speaker C: The rest of us. The rest of us who are just slutting it up with all that, that's how I met.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker A: But no, everybody went through that band. So you met Chris.
• 1:02:30
  Speaker C: That's how I met Chris Mule. And so when it came time to be an Eric's band and we. We kind of got. I won't say we got tired of the trio thing, but we wanted to kind of expand. And so, like, you know, I pushed pretty hard to get Chris in the Band.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker A: Right.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker C: And Chris ended up in the band, and we cut a record together.
• 1:02:49
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 1:02:49
  Speaker A: You did a bunch of records.
• 1:02:51
  Speaker C: Yeah, we did a lot of writing together. And that was a really awesome experience, the three of us riding together.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker A: Cool.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker C: Which is really.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker A: Eric's a great writer, man.
• 1:02:58
  Speaker C: Great writer. Incredible writer. Terrific. Incredible writer. And so is Chris. And so that was. That was really awesome. And that was the band that kind of, to me, like our culmination, sort of. We play that Conan o' Brien show and.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker A: Yeah, man.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker C: And, you know, over the. I mean, it was. It was great action. That too. But over the years, that just kind of ran its course and. Sure, Katrina hit, and that's what really shifted everything right now.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker B: So.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker A: So you wound up, like, in Chicago. In San Francisco.
• 1:03:27
  Speaker C: We were in San Francisco for the summer with the Eric Lindell band, because Eric is from the West Coast. He's from Santa Rosa, just north of there. And so. Right. Bay Area, you know, good on him. He was spend the summer out there instead of slogging it out down here, you know.
• 1:03:41
  Speaker A: Right. Sweating it out.
• 1:03:42
  Speaker C: Yeah. In the misery. And so we were happy to be out there. You know, we were out there. We had gigs all summer.
• 1:03:48
  Speaker A: It was great places to play up.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker C: Yeah. Lots of places play up and down the coast. And so we were just kind of based out there. We were staying out there. And when the hurricane hit, you know, all of our. Was back here.
• 1:04:00
  Speaker B: Right.
• 1:04:00
  Speaker C: We. We each of us just had our instruments and the suitcase we had with us, and we watched the whole thing go down on tv. And it was like, okay, crazy, man. I guess I live here now. Yeah. It was literally like that.
• 1:04:12
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 1:04:12
  Speaker A: That doesn't exist anymore.
• 1:04:13
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 1:04:14
  Speaker A: Right now.
• 1:04:15
  Speaker C: Yeah. After a while, you watch it for 48, 72 hours, and you're just like, okay, well, I can't watch this anymore. I guess I'll start life again. Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:04:24
  Speaker A: Insane, man.
• 1:04:25
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker C: You know, that was tough, but it also. There was a lot of silver linings. And one of them is the Honey Island Swamp Band. We were sitting in a bar, the Boom Boom Room, out there in San Francisco, a couple months after it. And there's a bunch of New Orleans musicians out there. And there's Peters was out there. Kirk Joseph was out there. Tab was out in and out. But the Boom Boom Room is like, known as a. As I'm sure you know, is where all the New Orleans musicians play, you know, New Orleans bands. And so it's a natural place for us to go. At that time, there was no cell phone service. You Couldn't. If you had a 504 number, you couldn't talk to anybody. So you're. You were really, like, cut off, you know?
• 1:05:08
  Speaker A: Right.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker C: So me and Chris Millet are sitting there, and in walks Sam Price, bass player Sam Price, and Garland Paul, the drummer. I didn't know Garland at that time, but Chris did. And we're like, total surprise. Like, what. What the are you doing here? What are you doing here?
• 1:05:26
  Speaker A: Right.
• 1:05:26
  Speaker C: We sit there and we catch up, hug and drink and everything. And we're like, hey, we talked to Alex, Andrea Sander, the bartender, the owner, and we say, hey, man, we got a band here. Can we have a gig? And he was like, yeah, you can play every Sunday.
• 1:05:40
  Speaker A: Wow.
• 1:05:41
  Speaker C: We're like, yeah, more drinks and everything and party. And then. Then Monday morning, he calls and he's like, I need. I need a name for the listing in the paper. I'm like, what are you talking about? It's like, you know, the band that's going to play every Sunday. I'm like, oh, you didn't even remember that.
• 1:05:59
  Speaker A: You remember.
• 1:06:01
  Speaker C: So let me call you back. So, like, I called Chris, and Chris
• 1:06:04
  Speaker A: is like, one of those blackout moves.
• 1:06:06
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, exactly. No, it's exactly what it was. And Chris is like, oh, let me call you back. So he's like, honey island swamp, man. I'm like, that sucks. No. Like, give me anything else. Too many words. Too much. I couldn't think of anything else. I was hung over. I was like, honey island small band, Alex, for now. And it stuck. And we. We played the Boom Boom Room every Sunday for a year.
• 1:06:34
  Speaker A: Wow.
• 1:06:35
  Speaker C: Until the FEMA money ran out.
• 1:06:37
  Speaker A: Sure.
• 1:06:37
  Speaker C: Then we moved back to New Orleans.
• 1:06:40
  Speaker A: Now, you built up a following during this time.
• 1:06:42
  Speaker C: Built up a following that, I mean, everybody was so supportive.
• 1:06:45
  Speaker A: Made a recording.
• 1:06:46
  Speaker C: We recorded. Yeah. So the. The guys who did the sound at the Boom Boom Room, the sound engineers, they. All their day jobs, was working at the Record Plant studios in Salito where, you know, Fleetwood Mac rumors, like.
• 1:07:01
  Speaker A: Right.
• 1:07:01
  Speaker C: Songs in the key of life. Like, legendary studio, you know, that we could never, ever dream of sniffing to afford to record in.
• 1:07:10
  Speaker A: Right.
• 1:07:10
  Speaker C: And they were. Because there was this wave of, like, you know, generosity after Katrina, and they were like, come in here and record for free. Yeah.
• 1:07:18
  Speaker A: Wow.
• 1:07:18
  Speaker C: Literally.
• 1:07:18
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:07:19
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 1:07:19
  Speaker A: That shit. Like, that was happening after.
• 1:07:20
  Speaker C: It was happening, dude. It was insane. It was insane. And so, you know, we're out there. Kirk's. Kirk's on the record. Like, Anders was around. Unfortunately, we didn't get him on a record. But, yeah, we Recorded our very first debut record in this like, legendary studio for free. And it's still the best sounding record we've ever recorded.
• 1:07:38
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, well, everything so raw at that time too, you know, emotionally speaking. I mean, you were. Everything had been stripped away, man.
• 1:07:47
  Speaker C: It was a trip. It was crazy.
• 1:07:49
  Speaker A: It was a. Thinking back on it now, 20 years later, it's.
• 1:07:54
  Speaker C: It was bewildering. It was crazy, man. We were biblical. We were in the wind, man. Yeah, yeah, you're out there in the wind. But. But yeah, it was sick. And we, you know, we. We spent a year. We'd play every Sunday at the Booma Room. We'd go down to la, we'd go up to Northern California, you know, we had. We weren't hurting for gigs. Everybody was felt sorry for us, to be honest with you.
• 1:08:12
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:08:13
  Speaker C: You know, and they were buying us gear. It was nuts. Dude, I'm not kidding, man.
• 1:08:19
  Speaker A: No, I believe you.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker C: I got the full. On the full dresser, the 810 cabinet with the Ampeg head and the whole thing. You know, I never could have afforded before, but. Yeah, yeah, but then we. You know, the funny part of all that was I had with me on the road, I had my bass. I was a bass player and my small suitcase and my clothes and. And I had a mandolin that my buddy Ashley Pennywell, shout out from Pensacola and from Washington and Lee, okay, had loaned me. Because a mandolin you can carry around on a. You can, you don't have to check it. Yeah, yeah, you can have it in the hotel room and play it. And so I just had this thing is treating it like a toy. I was just kind of fooling around. And then when we started the band, like, that was one of the few possessions I had with me. Me and Sam were both bass players at the time. So I said, well, look, I got this mandolin. I know how to play the acoustic guitar. I'll do that. You be the bass player in the Honey Island. Swamping. This is before dubstep funk with two bass players, you know.
• 1:09:19
  Speaker A: Right, right, right.
• 1:09:19
  Speaker C: And we didn't have that concept.
• 1:09:20
  Speaker A: And you're better off.
• 1:09:22
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah, better off. They're doing just fine with it.
• 1:09:24
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:09:25
  Speaker C: So. But yeah, so I started playing the mandolin.
• 1:09:29
  Speaker A: Oh, okay. That's the genesis of that.
• 1:09:31
  Speaker C: Yeah. And like two. Two months into our residency there at. At the Boom Boom Room, it's right across the street from the Fillmore, Susan Tedeschi and her band come over. They just played at the Fillmore. A couple sold out sets and they're like, susan Daneski's in the house, so call her up. So I was like, all right, I called her up. Call her up. Well, she comes up with her drummer and her bass player, and everybody in my band sits down, and I'm like, you. You just set. You sold me out. So then I'm there on stage with Susan Tedeschi and her band, and she sings the verse chords, whatever. She looks at me like she wants to trade licks. I've been playing the mandolin for, like, three weeks. Like, I could have been holding a 2x4. And she just, like, burnt me down, dude. Just, like. She was nice about it.
• 1:10:19
  Speaker B: Right?
• 1:10:19
  Speaker C: It was just. Just totally unjust.
• 1:10:21
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker C: Oh, you know, so humbling. Yeah.
• 1:10:25
  Speaker B: Well.
• 1:10:25
  Speaker A: But it's the. The moments like that where you have to figure out, am I going to wither or am I going to grow?
• 1:10:33
  Speaker C: Am I going to fake it or make it. I faked it.
• 1:10:35
  Speaker A: There you go. There you go. There you go.
• 1:10:36
  Speaker C: Anyway, that. That was. That's the story of how the Honey Island Small band started. That was 2006, you know, roughly.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker A: Right. You know, we're coming up on 20 years.
• 1:10:45
  Speaker C: Yeah. And this is just 20 years.
• 1:10:46
  Speaker A: You know, you guys had a. A terrific career. Made. Made six records. Have.
• 1:10:51
  Speaker C: Yeah. Like, what's the trip? It's like, none of that would have happened if it weren't for that. Some storm.
• 1:10:57
  Speaker A: And, you know, what. What's. What's a tragedy, you know, Again, the silver linings that. That, that. That.
• 1:11:03
  Speaker C: I think so promote themselves, you know,
• 1:11:05
  Speaker A: you just have to. Have to be ready to embrace whatever.
• 1:11:08
  Speaker C: Yeah. You got. You got to roll with it.
• 1:11:09
  Speaker A: Right. Right.
• 1:11:10
  Speaker C: Or else you're gonna get rolled by it.
• 1:11:12
  Speaker A: Yep. And now we're kind of on the downslope of the podcast here. You know, Manny gets up early. It's. It's getting ready, man. But, you know, so Honey Island Swamp band doing great business all this time still on the. On the. On the. On the Big Easy cruise. And that was so great seeing you all there. Fantastic, man. Love your singing, you know, so much. Great having you jump up and play with.
• 1:11:37
  Speaker C: So.
• 1:11:37
  Speaker A: Susan. Play, man.
• 1:11:38
  Speaker C: Susan's the best thing.
• 1:11:39
  Speaker A: Susan is. She's a rare creature, man.
• 1:11:44
  Speaker C: She's a bodhisattva.
• 1:11:45
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Yes, yes. But then. And then speaking of Susan, you. You had your side project, which started as a side project, I guess, the River Benders with you and. And Jake Eckert and Miles Weeks, started as, like, an acoustic trio, and then. I know, because I was playing with Russ, at the time, he said. Said, yeah, I'm playing with these guys. And he played one gig with. With y' all at the Maple Leaf, I think, where he sat in on drums, and then he was in the band after.
• 1:12:11
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. His natural fit.
• 1:12:13
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 1:12:13
  Speaker A: And band sounds so cool. And then now I know Susan has. Has wormed her way into your.
• 1:12:18
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. She's such a worm. She's so wormy.
• 1:12:20
  Speaker A: Well, you know, anytime you go, she goes, can I sing? And you go, sure. And you go, well, now you're in the band.
• 1:12:25
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Well, you're clearly the singer now. It's. It's almost embarrassing to even sing next to her. But, yeah, she's. She's amazing, and Russ is amazing, and so is Jake and Miles, and it's that. That was born out of a different world catastrophe. That was born out of the pandemic.
• 1:12:40
  Speaker B: Oh, right.
• 1:12:41
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 1:12:42
  Speaker C: We had known each other, me and Jake and Miles, forever, but, you know, you probably went through this, too. After that, there was a lot of need and, like, opportunity for sort of small format.
• 1:12:52
  Speaker A: Right.
• 1:12:53
  Speaker C: Sort of things, you know, and so we did that.
• 1:12:56
  Speaker A: Porch concerts.
• 1:12:57
  Speaker C: Porch concerts all day, baby. Crawfish boils.
• 1:12:59
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:13:00
  Speaker C: Every one of them. Yeah. Burger cookouts. Hot dog.
• 1:13:03
  Speaker A: Right, right.
• 1:13:04
  Speaker B: Bring back the pandemic.
• 1:13:06
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:13:09
  Speaker C: You're not all wrong. You're not all wrong.
• 1:13:12
  Speaker A: Well, you may get your wish, man.
• 1:13:13
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:13:14
  Speaker A: It might not be the.
• 1:13:15
  Speaker C: Hold your breath.
• 1:13:16
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:13:16
  Speaker C: Yeah. But, yeah. The Riverbenders is sort of the next chapter. And my story anyway, you know, I mean, Honey island small band is never going away. Sure. Obviously. But, you know, the Riverbenders is exciting. It's something that all the members are excited about because we're all in these big, loud, like, sort of sprawling bands that have been around forever.
• 1:13:34
  Speaker A: Right.
• 1:13:35
  Speaker C: And it's fun to come together and do something that's kind of small. Yeah. Kind of a reset.
• 1:13:39
  Speaker A: Precious.
• 1:13:40
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:13:43
  Speaker A: Like a Faberge egg or something.
• 1:13:45
  Speaker C: It just doesn't have the same history of, like, you know, I don't want to say egos, but the same history of just, like, you know, nobody's necessarily the boss. It's not anybody's band. You know what I mean? It's like, sort of like ours.
• 1:13:58
  Speaker A: You don't have any kind of legacy that you're trying.
• 1:14:00
  Speaker C: There's not a lot of pressure, and everybody's very easy about it. And, you know, maybe it won't always be that way, but I hope it is. And right now it feels great. And so we're we'll be. If I can shamelessly plug. Like, we're going to be playing at Jazz Fest with. With the River Benders on the first Saturday. Be playing with Honey Island Swamp Band on the second Saturday. I mean, God bless Jazz Fest, right? I mean.
• 1:14:23
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:14:24
  Speaker C: It's like the beacon on the horizon.
• 1:14:25
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah. French Quarter Fest. Jazz Fest. Noses.
• 1:14:28
  Speaker C: It's also a little bit like the. The If. If you're like a flat earther. Like, it's the end.
• 1:14:34
  Speaker A: It's like the drops off.
• 1:14:36
  Speaker C: The drop off. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:14:38
  Speaker A: The build up to the letdown.
• 1:14:39
  Speaker C: Yeah, it's a little bit of that, too.
• 1:14:41
  Speaker A: Yeah. You know, there's always. There's always something after.
• 1:14:44
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's always something.
• 1:14:45
  Speaker D: Well.
• 1:14:46
  Speaker A: Well, man, Aaron, I wish you just had some energy that you could bring to the podcast. Well, listen, I know you've done your best.
• 1:14:53
  Speaker C: Yeah, I asked me to talk and you might have made a mistake.
• 1:14:55
  Speaker A: I do appreciate. It's been so much fun, man.
• 1:14:58
  Speaker C: Thank you, guys.
• 1:14:59
  Speaker A: Really kicks, man. I love your playing. Love your singing, man.
• 1:15:02
  Speaker C: It's same man. Back at you. I love listening to you guys. Yeah, man.
• 1:15:06
  Speaker A: So it's cool to do this.
• 1:15:07
  Speaker C: Thank you for having me.
• 1:15:08
  Speaker A: Yeah, man, absolutely. It's been a blast. Trouble Nation knows. As always on Troublemen podcast, we like
• 1:15:13
  Speaker B: to say trouble never ends, but the struggle continues. Good night.
• 1:15:17
  Speaker A: Good night.
• 1:15:18
  Speaker C: Good night, people.
• 1:15:19
  Speaker D: Well, nothing lasts forever and life will show you the sign, you know, we got to live together Stop thinking about what is yours and what is mine. So I went out to California
• 1:15:48
  Speaker B: looking
• 1:15:48
  Speaker D: for a pot of gold. You know, I left the. That's my home in Georgia
• 1:15:59
  Speaker B: Looking for
• 1:16:00
  Speaker D: something I could hold on to yeah, can't you feel that wind is changing Mother earth is rearranging
• 1:16:16
  Speaker B: I'm gonna search
• 1:16:17
  Speaker D: my soul with the changing tide
• 1:16:22
  Speaker C: Gonna
• 1:16:22
  Speaker D: take a good look inside Gonna set my sail this time Gonna take this roller coaster right Na na na na na na na na na na na na na ti na na Singing like them sweet ladies sing. Sing it like them sweet ladies sing well, I've been up and down this highway
• 1:17:05
  Speaker B: from coast to coast more than
• 1:17:07
  Speaker D: 20 years it fought me love it brought me sorrow it bought me pain and it cost me tears So I went out to California looking for a pot of gold? You know I left my home in Georgia looking for something I could hold on to yeah, can't you feel that wind is changing? Mother earth is rearranging I'm gonna search my soul with the changing day
• 1:18:04
  Speaker B: Gonna
• 1:18:04
  Speaker D: take a good look inside gonna set my sail this time Gonna take this roller coaster ride. Singing like them sweet ladies Sing, Sing it like them sweet ladies. Singing like them sweet ladies. Nana. Sing it like them sweet ladies.