Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / Rock Legends & Landmarks, Paul Rodgers' Memoir News w/ Author Chris Epting [Episode 312]

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Rock Legends & Landmarks, Paul Rodgers' Memoir News w/ Author Chris Epting [Episode 312] · Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Coming up on this episode of Book Don Rock author
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Chris Epting. He's written books with Phil Collin of def Leppard,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: John Oates, Tom Johnson, and Pat Simmons of the Doobie
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Brothers Dave Mason. He's traveled to some of the most
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: legendary sites in rock history, including the site of the
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Buddy Holly plane crash, the site of James Dean's fatal
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: car crash, and if you're a fan of Paul Rodgers,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Chris has some major news to share with you. All
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: that coming up next.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: I'm lie, I know dialogue. How's a fountain?
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: The conversation That's a geyser?
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Interesting? Interesting, as provocative. Taddy Man's back Man Rock and Roll.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to Book Don Rock, the podcast for those
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: about to read and rock. I'm Eric Senich. We are
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: back with another chapter in the Dialogue series. It's a
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: chill and chat with authors, fellow podcasters, musicians and more,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: and our guest is author, TV host photographer Chris Epting.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: He's the author of over forty books, including James Dean
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Died Here, Roadside Baseball. Hello, It's me Dispatches from a
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: pop culture junkie. Led Zeppelin Crashed Here, The Rock and
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Roll Landmarks of North America, and many others. He's also
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: co written Bear with Me here. This is a long intro, Chris,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: bear with me. You've got quite quite a list of credentials.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: He's co written several memoirs, including Adrenalized with def Leppards
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Phil Colin, Change of Seasons with John Oh, It's Long
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Train Running with Tom Johnson and Pat Simmons of the
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Doobie Brothers, Only You Know and I Know with Dave Mason,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Son of a Milkman, My Crazy Life with Tesla with
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Tesla Basis Brian Wheat, and Idle Truth with Leif Garrett.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Chris was also the co host and executive producer of
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: the Reals TV series It Happened Here. Chris, Welcome to
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: the podcast. Did I cover them all?
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: I think you did a very generous job. I'm humbled
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: and thank you very much for that.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Oh, this is so cool to have you on. You
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: have so many stories. Before we get to the story,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: let's talk about where you're from, what led you on
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: the path to your career. And I'm also curious to
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: hear about this story. You ran into Alfred Hitchcock.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, when I was well, I grew up in New York.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: I've lived in California since the nineteen mid eighties, but
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: I grew up in New York, north of New York City.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: A huge music fan from the get go. I will
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: tell you I have a very heavy bias towards the
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Rolling Stones, who from the time I was about six
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: or seven years old, something just happened. I heard Get
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Off my Cloud. It was the first song I remember
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: on the radio, and from there there was no turning back.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: And I am an absolute Stones devotee, always have been,
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: always will be, and that My first concert was June
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: twenty second, nineteen seventy five, twelve years old, Madison's Garden Night,
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: one of the Stones six night stent. But from there again,
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: I always love rock and roll. I like a lot
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: of us of that generation. You know, pre MTV, there
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: were if you lived in a you know, close to
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: a fairly major city, you could see anybody and everybody,
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: and I would you know, from things like The Stones
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: and Zeppelin at the Garden In the mid to late seventies,
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: I discovered bands like the Ramones and Blondie and Patty
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Smith and talking Heads and television down in places like
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: CVGB in Maxis, Kansas City. So I was kind of
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: had both of those worlds, the smaller kind of thing
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: that was about to explode and then the major artists.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: And from there, I you know, it's college. I got out.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: I wrote and directed commercials for a bunch of years,
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: but but always kind of wrote freelance and photographed freelance,
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: and then in my late thirties kind of shifted gears
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: started writing books and becoming a music journalist, which kind
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: of opened me up into this whole other world where
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: I could get to know a lot of these people,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: write about them, photograph them, and help them tell their stories.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Who was your first big get for an interview in
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: life musician actor?
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: When I was I was I think it was a
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: freshman or a freshman soup in high school and we
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: had an assignment where you had to interview somebody, anybody
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: from your life. And you know, most people would be like,
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: you know, they might talk to one of their parents
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: or the carpentry, somebody in their little circle. And I
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: had a different thought, and I knew I just read
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: in the paper that Fred Gwynn, who was Herman Munster
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: and the Monsters lived by us and I said to
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: my teacher, if I could talk to him, would that
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: be okay? And he's great, Yeah, of course, whoever interests you?
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: So I looked him up in the phone book and
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: I called him and that voice answered the phone, and
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: I explained what I was doing. He goes share, you know,
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: come on over. Great, and so my mom brought me
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: over and dropped me off there and there I was
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: in the home of Fred Gwynn. And he was amazing,
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: and he was really friendly and nice. But the issue
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: with him was is he cursed a lot. Not of anger,
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: it was just the way he spoke. So I had
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: this tape I've got it somewhere. I've got it a
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: TDK tape somewhere of him laughing and telling stories. Every
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: word is f this and I didn't know what. I
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: went to a Catholic high school and I said a teacher,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: you know, is this okay? And he said, well, you know,
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: you can blot it out, you know, don't put the
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: words in, but let us know the accuracy of the conversation.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: And so that was my first real moment. You know,
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: you mentioned Hitchcock. Our first trip to California in about
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy four, my folks were checked My dad
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: had a business trip in La we all got to
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: it was a vacation for us as well, and checking
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: into the hotel. My parents were checking in, my sisters
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: and I were running around the lobby of the Century
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: Plaza hotel. I wasn't looking where I was going, and
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: I ran flush into an adult stomach, and I remember
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: thinking that there is adults that are cool with that
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: and let it go, and then there is this guy
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: that's gonna make a thing out of it. And I
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: recognized as Zephyr Hitchcocks. I had just seen him on
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: television but a week before on PBS giving an interview.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: And it's weird, that sounds strange. It was the only
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: time he had a mustache. It was like wow, and
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: I recognized that. And he took me by the back
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: of my head and he marched me over to my parents,
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: who were like did a double take as they saw
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: us coming. And he made this little speech about people,
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: kids and public behaving properly. But then as he walked
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: away kind of tussled my hair and he lightened it
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: a little bit.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: So that's so I don't think there's any photos of
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: him with a mustache.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: I I think I found one years later. It was
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: kind of a mustache. But again, this PBS interview he
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: had that and he must have shot it right around
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: this time, because I get the face was so recognizable.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: That is so cool man.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: So yeah, But but Fred Quinn was the first one.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: And then you know, as I got into music journalism,
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: I don't know who the frost. I mean, I was lucky.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: I got to talk to a lot of people because
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: I wrote for fairly big outlets, so I could get
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: you know, I could make a pitch to somebody, it
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: was usually you know, approved, So that opened up all
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: kinds of doors. I mean, I remember, you know, certain people,
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: you know, sitting down and talking to Jackson Brown a
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: couple of times was a big deal for me as
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: a huge Jackson Brown fan. There's people like that that
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: I I was a fan of, but I also respected
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: what they did and so I enjoyed being able to
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: help tell their story. And then when it happened with Phil,
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: with Phil Colin, you know, that was a little different
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: because I had never written a book with anybody, and
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: I had written about Phil quite a bit. We had
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: developed a friendship, we were driving down to San Diego,
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: I think to a show, and I mentioned in the
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: car and said, hey, everything about maybe doing your book
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: because I was thinking about as a writer, what's next.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: You know, what are the opportunities, because you know, you
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: always have your freelance, so you're always looking for things.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: And I had read some great music memoirs and I
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: wondered about that process and Phil said, yeah, let's give
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: it a shot. So we did, and I just fell
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: in love with that process. You know. Having the trust
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: that build up with Phil was really cool and made
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: me appreciate that process, and I thought, you know what
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: I want to I want to think of more of
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: these to do, and that really set me off. I
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: think I've done eight or nine of those.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: I picked the books that I wanted to ask you
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: a out just starting with I think. I don't know
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: if I think I went with the most recent and
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: then we go backwards, but whatever, we'll get to all
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: of them. We'll just start with a twenty twenty two book,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: Long Train Run in Our Story of the Doobie Brothers
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: by Pat Simmons and Tom Johnson, talk about what the
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: guys had to say about the band, contemplating the end
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: of the row. They were only seven years into their
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: career and they were at this point where it was
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: going to be over. But things changed, as we know,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: they were able to get Michael McDonald in.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: So it's one of the great I mean, really, that
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: story I thought was so undertold. I had met Pat first.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: I was writing an article about Pat's wife, Chris, who
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: was a motorcycle enthusiast, and they had pitched me I
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: think it was for AOL or the La Times or something,
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: and she was in this cross country race where their
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: ride antique carle an amazing story, and I went down
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: and met her and Pat was there and we were
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: all talking and they invited me to dinner that night,
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: and no. Over dinner, Pat was telling stories that I'm like, dude,
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: I mean, and Chris, I've always told him she write
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: a book, so that at least opened a door and
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: then we would chat about it. And then I wrote
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: John Oates's book with him, and he and I were
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: doing the book event in San Francisco and Tom Johnston's
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: wife was the wives get everything done. I have learned
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: that you want something done, you deal with the wives. Yeah,
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: and Tom's wife was lovely we talked to me after
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: and said, wow, you know, I liked how you talked
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: with John, and I think Tom, you know, might be
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: a good thing. And then I thought, well, they could
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: each do individual books, but how cool would it could
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: be to have I just read a book by Ann
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: and Nancy Wilson, their memoir, and they definitely intertwined both voices.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: I hadn't seen that done before. I loved that device,
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: and I thought this would be a good opportunity for that.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: And so so you know, we got that together, and
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: you know, and talking about the part you brought up
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: is a tough part of the band because Tom can't
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: play for a while, and of course Jeff Skun Baxter
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: just like you know, we had this background vocalist and
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: steely Dan he's okay, you know, he's not that. He's
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: not not gonna replace Tom, but we can maybe continue
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: the tour if we all split vocals, if he sings
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: a little plays a little piano. I think we can
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: because Pat was gonna collapor. They were like three shows
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: into this tour when Tom had the medical issue. And
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: that of course is Michael McDonald who comes in and
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: they do this tour and it's like, you know, this
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: guy's pretty good, and they Tom comes back for a
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: little bit and they have I think, one tour together,
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: and then Tom goes off on his own, and of
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: course the rest is history. Michael's in there for a
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: long time. But then they in the eighties, the band
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: comes back with Tom and Pat at at home and
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: now they're all together. I think they're to me. In
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: the back of that book, I write an essay about
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: how underappreciated I think the DeBie Brothers are sure. Think
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: about original members being in a band, of what they've done,
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: of how they've started, and what they've been through, and
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: you know, I think they're incredible. I really think when
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: you talk about great American bands, for me, whether it's
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: the Eagles, the Dead, you know, Kiss, Metallica, whomever you
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: have to for me, put the Dope Brothers in that mix.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: They're substantial for what they've done and what they continue
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: to do. They just released a great new record, you know,
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: and it's like, how many legacy artists at that level
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: are doing that well they're doing it.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: I haven't heard it. I haven't heard that. I don't
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: think i've heard that anything off of that album, But
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: I did watch on YouTube a recent concert that they had.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: This is maybe two three years ago. They're just so tight,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: you know, just amazing on stage.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: The show they put on, no pre recorded anything, that
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: is as real a rock and roll show as you're
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: going to get. That celebrates every form of American music
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: and then some and again. I you know, when you
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: write a book with people like that, one of the
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: really fun parts is you get to see them play
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: all the time because oftentimes you're doing some work on
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: the road. You're just sort of absorbing getting into that
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: circle and immersing yourself in that world, which as a writer,
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: for me, that's something I rely on to really get
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: a sense of what that world is like. And Seal,
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: I want to see all the shows.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I don't blame you. You keep in touch
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: with all of these guys. I know obviously phil Colin,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: you're a friend with him.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: Now I'm going to see Pat. I'm leaving tomorrow to
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: visit family in New Hampshire. I'll see Pat. I don't
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: know when this is airing, but a week from right now,
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: I'll see Pat. Now. I heard the new record a
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: number of months ago. I was on MAUI visiting Dave
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: Mason and went to Pat's house and he played us
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: the album. Now they I don't believe you can go
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: through that kind of writing process if it produces a
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: good book, and not be friends for life, because what
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: you go through writing it, I mean, it can be heavy.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: You know, you're sharing things in many cases you've never
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: shared before. So there's a bond that develops of trust
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: that goes beyond a book. You become good friends. And yeah,
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: you know, I'm proud that most of the books I've
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: written they're brothers, I mean, their family. And that's how
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: I hope it'll always be.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Podcasts will be back after this.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: Surely you can't be serious. I am serious, and don't
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: call me.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: Surely let's talk about the Dave Mason book only you
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: know and.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: I last week up into vat. I mean again, these
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: are relationships that you visit like you visit family. And yeah,
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: Dave's book, but see Dave's is funny because this is
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: where I began learning that if you do well on
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: someone's behalf. Like the Simmons. They called me one night
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: and Pat and Christ said, we had dinner with Dave Mays.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: They're good friends. At that point on Maui and the
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: subject of book came up and we told them about you.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: Would you talk to Dave Mason? And I said, like,
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: are you kidding me? Like I grew up a huge
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: Dave Mason fan. Again to me, he's another unsung person
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: in the Rod family tree when you really look at
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: his story. And so I met Dave and then the
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: same thing happened.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: Feeling Alright is a song that will be forever, that
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: will outlive all of us. Everybody knows that song, but
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: not just that. I mean, he's He's on all these
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: recordings by the Spencer Davis Group, Give Me Some Love,
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: and George Harrison's All Things Must Pass album. He's on
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: There the Stone Street Fighting Man, All Along the Watchtower.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: Hendra the Man said with Paul McCartney.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: Yep, yep, co founder of the band Traffic. He's got
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: some untold tales in this book.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: He does. And to that end, his book was really
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: fun to write. You know.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: He had a complicated relationship with Steve Winwood.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: That's being polite, Yes, very complicated. And that's all in
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: the book. I mean. But as the strangest thing happened
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: when I was in high school in the seventies. I
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: went to see Dave Mason. There was a girl I
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: was trying to take out who was a Dave Mason freak.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: I was, I think a senior nigh school, junior high school.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: And Dave every year would play. There was a very
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: famous music festival in New York City at the Woman
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: Skating Rink. It was the Schaefer Festival to the Doctor
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: Pepper Festival, and Dave played it every year. Everybody played.
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: It was the greatest festival. Four dollars for orchestra, two
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: dollars for balcony outside under the stars. So we go
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: see Dave Mason, Pablo Cruz open. It was a great
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: kind of early yacht rock sort of show in seventy
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: eight were right up front and that was a great men.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: So I'm at Dave's house. We're going through boxes looking
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: for pictures for the book, and I find an envelope
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: that says CP seventy eight. I'm thinking, can that be
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: Central Park seventy eight? The pictures are taken from backstage
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: looking at and I find myself and Kathy in the
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: third row. I said to Dave, that's.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Me and my day.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: So sometimes these circles complete in ways that you can't
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: even see coming. You know, it's really something.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: What was his issue with Steve Winwood? Was it over
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: was it over money? Creative decisions?
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, my opinion and the way he speaks in
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: the book and my take on it is that when
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: Traffic started, you had Chris Wood, Steve Winwood, and Jim
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: Capaldi and Date. Those were the four and they went
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: off to a cottage where they kind of cut off
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: from society and made the album No Electricity like again
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: Generator and worked on it out there, and I think
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: right out of the gate, Dave's song writing disciplines and
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: styles were a little more commercial. Those guys want to
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: just kind of evolve and see where it went. Dave
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: did too. But Dave wrote this song called Hole in
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: My Shoe, which became a hit while they're making it
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: dumb and everybody seemed to resent that in the band,
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: saying well, that's not the sound we want, this kind
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: of poppy, and Dave's like, well, we shouldn't have a sound.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: Anything should be and they were like, well, yeah, anything
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: but that, and Dave was like, well wait a minute.
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: I know some friction started there, and there may have been.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, look, when would at that part point is
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: a huge star when traffic starts. The other three guys
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: no one's heard of, essentially, and I'm not sure. Again,
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: this is my opinion. I've never spoken to step one't
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: about it, so I would never want to represent his view.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: But if you look at the activity and listen to
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: Dave's part of it, I think there may have been
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: some sense of kind of threat that this guy can
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: write big songs, and maybe that would have created a
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: challenge for any kind of band leadership. Perhaps, I don't know,
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: could be. It looks when was a genius. I'm not
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: gonna read into his things because I'm a Steve Winwood fan,
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: but I think there were other things as well that
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: led to it. And also Dave left the band, I
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: mean after I don't even know if the first album
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: was out yet, but he left. He didn't, he couldn't,
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: he felt too much pressure. He's like nineteen years old.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: He has his brutal breakup with a girl. He goes
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: to a Greek isle and that's where he writes feeling
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: all right, yeah yeah, And coincidentally he's in New York.
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: A few months later, he runs into the guys in
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: Traffic and making the second album. They kind of make
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: up and they make and that's on the second Traffic album.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: But then other thing. The book opens with this incredibly
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: dramatic scene which is kind of like, uh, I don't know,
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: it's like outas the Sopranos where Dave Ghost is invited
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: to a band meeting, which is really kind of a
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: hit because he goes in there. They're all on one
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: side of the room, Dave's on the other, and they
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: fire him from the band and he's like he thought
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: they were going to be discussing a new tour or
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: something and uh, and that's how that went down. So
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: it's like I said, it's I think it's a really
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: interesting book with a lot of cool stories like that.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: What did he have to say about we just disagree, Well, he.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: Didn't write that. That was you know, a guy named
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: Jim Kreeger, who was his guitar player, who who's who's
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: since passed away, amazing singer, guitar player who brought Dave
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: that song and Dave said, I mean, Dave I thought
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: was great because he was open to that from another
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: band meet because he thought it was a good song.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: So that's actually Kreeger's song and it's Dave's biggest hit.
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: Uh you can hear Creaker singing background on it, and yeah,
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: so that's I mean, Dave's written a lot of amazing
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: songs only you know and I know you know, let
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: it flow. But but but we just disagree. I mean,
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: feeling all right, but we just disagree was actually written
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: by his bandmate.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: Now, one more question about Dave Mason before we move
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: on to the next one. But he did play in
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Fleetwood Mac. And I believe that was early nineties. Wasn't
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: that right before right before they reunited with that famous lineup.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: Well, and to hear the story about it, it was,
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: you know, Dave got brought in.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: Not a lot of people know about that.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: No, and it actually they released an album. It was
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: Christine mcvee, John mcvieh Mickfleetwood Beca Bramlett, Bonnie Bramlett's daughter.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: And you know what's interesting about it, Dave would play
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: some of his songs at the show. They weren't packing
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: arenas like Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac, but they did with
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: Crossing Stills and Nash. They did play a lot of
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: shows and they toured a lot.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember they played at Toad's Place in New Haven,
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: which is a small club two three thousand people.
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: And I think what happened is that ended up inspiring
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: Lindsey and Stevie to kind of come back. I think
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: having it out there, in some way it became a
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: pathway to the dance, the famous reunion in the early nineties.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: So it did serve kind of a weird purpose in
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: helping to spark the reunion of the band. But they
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: I loved that. He and Mick Fleetwood are great friends.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: Mick I spoke to him for the book. Mick wrote
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: a really nice piece for the book, and you know
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: they go back to late sixties with traffic and early
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: feet with Mac, Peter Green and all that. But yeah,
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: Dave did was a member of Fleetwood Mac.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: That's cool. Tesla one of my favorite bands to come
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: out of the eighties. You co authored the twenty twenty
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: book with bassist Brian Wheat titled Son of a Milkman,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: My Crazy Life with Tesla, and he lived the sex, drugs,
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: and rock and roll life style to the hilt, but
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: it came into cost that took years for him to repair.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: And tell us about that, he really opens up in
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: this book.
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: Whenever you write a book with somebody, for me anyhow,
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: I like to find, Like I always say, if someone's
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: really well known, My first speech to the Mozeau is,
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: let's write a book as if nobody knows who you are.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: Let's take that point of view to really explain things
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: and share things, almost like it's a fictional tale, because
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: most rockstar lives do read like fiction. My point always
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: the fans will always get the book, but what about
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: people that don't know about you? What can we share
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: that's going to pull in people. That's just like a
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: good story that maybe you've never listened to Tesla And
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: with Brian, what I'm very happy he was open to
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: was sharing health issues that came up, and things like
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: shaming and being overweight and having anxiety, things you don't
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: normally associate with that with that lifestyle. To Brian, it
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: was important to put that in the book, especially to
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: let other people know they're not alone. And that made
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: his memory, I think, very different from other ones, and
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: that there was this human element of very non rock
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: star related traits and stories.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: He was out when he was promoting the book, he
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: had a story I believe it's in the book. I'm
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: a huge fan Halen fan. So the story was that
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: David Lee Roth was going to manage Tesla. Am I
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: getting that right?
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah? I have to look at the book, but yes,
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: that's absolutely true. He was involved, thought loved them, and
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: it was almos almost like the way Geene Simmons first
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: got involved with Van Hale and like you see a
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: band that you think is gonna I don't know what
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: happened to reroute that, but no, he was absolutely there
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: and present. There were a lot of people early on
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: that really loved Tesla. I mean, def Leppard took them
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: out on the Hysteria tour, you know, and they were
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: almost like the baby band for def Leppard back then,
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: you know, because def Leppard loved them. Phil Colin wound
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: up producing some Tesla later on. But yeah, Brian and
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: Brian also had a really good memory for stories. That's
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: not always the case in some cases you've got to
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: do a lot of interviews to substantiate things or fill
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: in some holes. But you know, Brian was really sharp
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: with those stories and that was a fun, slightly easier
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: to book book to write as a result.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Leif Garrett his story is pretty well known I mean,
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: this is a guy who's survived a lot of teen
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: idol on top of the world drugs let him down
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: a dark path. What can you share from this book
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: from twenty nineteen you co authored with him. It's called
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: Idle Truth.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I could probably write a book about writing that book. Yeah,
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of things.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: When you how did that come about? By the way,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: how'd you team?
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: Uh, there's actual story behind it. When I was growing
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: up in the seventies, I wasn't a teen idol fan.
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: I mean I was in the late seventies into the
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: Rolling Stones and the sex Pistols, the Ramones. But I
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: was aware of who Leife Garrett was. How could you
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: not have been? It was really he was the heir
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: apparent to Shaun Cassidy. And I was at a party
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: in I must have been a senior in high school
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: and this girl and I were sitting on a couch
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: watching the TV and that was the night that the
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: Leafe Garrett Variety special was on. He was the youngest
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: network star to ever. I was on Variety and talking
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: about like time changing, was Bob Hope, Flip Wilson, Laithe Brookshields,
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: Marie Osmond, real pop cultures now and we're watching the
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: show almost ironically like it's a spoof. But I remember
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: saying the girl I was talking to, you know, it's
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: almost like he gets the I think he seems actually
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: pretty cool, like he's he knows there's this is all fake.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: He had a real kind of innate sense that struck me,
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: and then I learned we're basically the exact same age.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: And then all through life in the eighties and nineties,
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: when he would pop up on the news infamously for
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: like a drug arrest or an accident or something, I
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: always looked at him. I thought, what happened? You know,
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: like when you when you're the same age, you've gone
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: through guy, but twin sister, we go through things at
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: the exact same pace. And I kind of felt that
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: with Laife, and I felt bad whenever I would see him.
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: I thought, you know, there's a story here, that many
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: stories here. And then in the UH it was around
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: two thousand and so a VH one did that Behind
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: the Music episode, which was like, I mean, everybody, I
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: think it was the highest rated episode.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: It was mind blowing. Yeah. Yeah, he meets up with
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: the front of his that was in a wheelchair because
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: that for those who may not know that story, talk
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: about it.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: When Laife was completely at the apex of his fame,
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: he was driving his Porsche. A buddy was in the car.
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: He rolled the Porsche down and his buddy was permanently paralyzed.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: He died just a few years ago.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: Oh I didn't know that. And he was a dancer, right.
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: God while we were writing the book. In fact, oh Man,
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: I told Laife that he died.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: He was a dancer, right, that was he wanted a career.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And they weren't actually really good friends.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: Was he a biker, a dancer, a skateboarder? It was something.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: He was a dancer, and just sort of like la
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: had a lot of these people. They'd all hang out
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: and it was a place called Flippers. It was like
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: a roller disco place i Los Boulevard, and so anyways,
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: I saw that episode about Laife and I hadn't thought
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: about Lafe in forever, but it really struck me because again,
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: were of the same age, and at that point I
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: married a couple of kids and gave a life, and
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: I'm looking thinking what's happened to this guy? So a
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: few I want to say after I've written a few
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: of these co written memoirs, I thought, what the hell,
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: you know what, I hope Lafe is telling his story.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: I found out whose publicist was, and I wrote her
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: this letter about if he ever wanted to write his story,
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: an approach that I think would be effective to take,
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: and I laid out a whole thing just cold call.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: I'd never done that. I had never any book I'd
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: written at that point developed out of a personal relationship.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: I had never cold called anybody, essentially, And she wrote
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: me back a nice don't and said, you know what,
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: he doesn't really want to write a book, but we
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: liked your note, like it really was touching and thoughtful,
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: and we appreciate that. And that was maybe a couple
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: three years later. She writes me back and she says,
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: you know what, I don't know if you remember us,
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: but I'm Lave's person and he wants to write a book.
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: And we never let go of this letter. And Lafe's
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: been approached by a lot of people, but he'd like
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: to talk to you, and he didn't talked to anybody
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: about doing this. So I go up into the mountains
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: overlooking Malibu, up into Pancacauson and it's an end of
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: the road, like I mean, no GPA, no nothing, you know,
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: and it's this end of it, literally the end of
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: the road. There's a trail that starts there off into
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: the woods. And that was the first day I'm at life.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: And we bonded that day. He made me breakfast and
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: we just started talking about our favorite albums in the
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: seventies and we were just like instant best friends. And
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: he's like, would you please write my book with me?
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: And he said, dude, we're doing We're going to do this,
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: and thus led into this couple of two or three
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: year process that are lots of ups and downs. I'm
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: very proud of that book. I think that book tells
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: a very gritty and raw story. But it wasn't easy.
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: And like I said, there's a story within the story
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: that me I may write about at some point. It's
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: tough when you work with somebody who signed what's called
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: the Collaboration Agreement that protects certain privacies. And I've never
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: ever gone against that, you know what I mean. People
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: are entitled your own business and privacy. But it was tumultuous.
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: It was there were a lot of great moments in there,
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: and you know, I guess that I'm very proud of
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: that book.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: How does he somebody like him in his position, there's
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: many who've gone through it financially, how do they what?
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: What does he do to to support himself? I mean
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: he's been on TV shows, I've seen him do.
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a good question. I'm not really sure because
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: the number of years have gone by. I know that
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: there was there was some property left in a in
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: a state. There's stuff like that that exists. To what
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: degree I don't know. I think there's probably still some
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: kind of royalty thing from other things he's done. There's
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: nothing really from part of a cookie by the way.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely, does he work steadily? You know? Does he
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: get gigs? Does he go out and tours? Does he
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: do like the Yeah?
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: Not to my knowledge. I mean, while we were writing
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: the book, he would occasionally do a little set at
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: the Whiskey Go Go couple of songs. But for Laife
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: it was always frustrating. Is him wanting to separate from
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: the nineteen seventy Leafe Garrett and society doesn't always let
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: you do that. They want you to be that person.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: And de Laife's credit. Artistically, I always thought it was
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: cool that he wanted to do new things and try
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: new things, that explore new things. I think you're as
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: an artist, you're entitled to that.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: And yeah, he's a rocker. I mean he's a rock
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: and roll guy, right.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean again, he and I grew up in
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: very similar mindsets. We saw the same concerts, we listened
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: to the same things. We were really tight. So yeah,
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: he's rock and roll through and through, but he wasn't
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: allowed to be that guy. They would when he I
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: mean he would secretly mix in some Zeppelin songs when
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: he would play back then, just to scratch that isch,
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: I think they mentioned that in the VH one special.
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he would do that, and that helped him cope.
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: It was like a coping mechanism, you know. But look,
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: being a teen idol is not easy. What you get
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: put through, what the expectations are, and the lack of control.
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: I'm sure for all of them back then, whether it
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: was David Cassidy or Shawn Cassidy or life, you know,
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: it's hard.
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: It's a really and the shelf life it's it's not long.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: Two years, yeah, two years, that's it.
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: But you know what, what I learned this is in
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: the book, so I'm not speaking out of school. After
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: the accident, he really couldn't do much here because the
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: accident was very infamous and there was gonna talks of
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: a trial and all this. So and at that point
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: he was kind of coming to the end. He's a
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: couple of years in now, so his life cycle as
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: a teen idol was sort of wrapping up. His management
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: was very shrewd back then. They realized there were parts
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: around the world, like in Far East Asia, that were
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: a couple of years behind us culturally, and they thought,
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: let's throw let's take him to Korea. Let's take him
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: over there, and it's like they've never had him. And
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: so they've basically created a new career to keep the
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: Golden Goose laying eggs for another year or two out
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: of this country, where the accident over there wasn't that
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: big deal, you know, And they got him in the
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: magazines and so for him, a lot of the things
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: restarted over there.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: Booked on rock podcasts. We'll be back after this.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: Don't go away, gentlemen, we may need all of you.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: Not too long ago, the news hit about the falling
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: out between Hall and Oates over their song publishing. You
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: co author John's memoir from twenty seventeen, Change of Seasons.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: How did he meet Darrell Hall? What was their relationship
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: like through the years? Were there was there always tension
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: between the two? Was that more recent.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: They met in Philadelphia, both going to school. There was
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: a battle of a band. It's basically, and I think
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: of the not the Uptown Theater, another theater in Philly.
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: Their bands are both going to play their backstage shots
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: ring out in the theater, and so John and Darryl's band
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: gets pushed into a service elevator where they're going to escape,
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: and they're face to face and they're like, what the
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: And they start talking in the elevator and they're like,
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: well we should hang out. And that's the spark of it.
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: That's really where it starts. And then one of my
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: favorite parts a lot of these books, for me, the
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: most interesting parts are before the people are famous, because
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: once they're famous, you know a lot of that stuff.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: But there's a fascinating sequence set of sequences in John's book.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: And John, I will tell you, of all the books
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: I've done, I think John's is always going to be
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: in a way. It's especial on a real, on a
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: big level because John as a writer, we collaborated, We
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: remain great friends. I am really fond of John. Oh
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: it's as an artist, as a writer, as a musician, everything,
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: and you know, we wrote very closely on this. But
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: the other secrets in the book I was referencing was
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: when John gets out of college in like sixty seven
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: or so, he does what a lot of them do
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: that he went to Europe and tradesed around for three months. Right.
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: He and Daryl are friends at that point, but that's it.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: They've not worked together. And Daryl gets his sister to
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: rent John's apartment while he's gone. John says, hey, would
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: Kathy sub let my place? Yeah, no problem. John comes
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: back three months later, there's a padlock on his door.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: She didn't pay the rent. So John's been evicted and
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: he's got nowhere to go. He walks down to Darrow's
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: place and says, your sister kind of did me in here,
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: and Daryl has got a little loft apartment and says,
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: just stay here. That's what put them in the place
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: to start making musics.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: Oh my god.
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: Right, so wow, that's we would walk the streets of
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: Philadelphia before the book came out, did a little video
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: series like Okay, here's the apartment. If you don't get
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: evicted from this place, maybe you don't get to this place.
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: And we went to Darryll's place and the fact they
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: were forced to live together, that's where they start really collaborating.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: That's the spark of I mean, the mailbox was haul
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: and oats.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: And when did things start to go wrong for them
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: long into their career.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I mean, look, I saw all on
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: outs play. If I saw them once, I saw them
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: sixty times working on the book. I mean again, they
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: put on great shows, sold out every arena, every theater. Whatever.
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: It caught me off guard too. I mean, look, there's
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: always artistic tensions that I think exist, or disagreements, but
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: I've seen that a million times. Sure, you know, so
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: what happened was nothing. I was privy to it, and
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: I was, you know, surprised, like everybody, was it that happened?
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: You know?
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, surprised for sure. When he's on CBS, I think
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: doing an interview with CBS's basically saying, you know, people
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: think that when you see these bands, they're all buddies
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: and everybody's getting along. Yeah, he goes, we haven't. We
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: would for the longest time. We'd show up at the
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: gig in separate buses or planes or whatever.
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, isn't a bad thing, because I think once you
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: understand the business of it and the dynamics, you don't
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: have to be friends. You know what you're there for.
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: You know, whether it's Jagger and Richard whomever. You know
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: what the gig is and what can help it keep
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: it going. Sometimes you don't get sick of each other.
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: You're there to work, And I think you can look
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: at it that way as well. One funny anecdote in
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: the book is, you know, they had a little stoop
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: at outside their apartment in Philly, this little little place,
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: and a girl walked by one day and John starts
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: chatting her up. And she's a flight attendant and her
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: name is Sarah Sandy actually, but she also goes by
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: Sarah And John writes a song for an album called
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: the Album's Abandoned Luncheonet and and she says, well, I'm
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: a fight attendant. I'm going to Las Vegas with a
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: bunch of gamblers. They call it a Las Vegas. Turnaround,
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: you just go and combat that night, and John says, wow, cool,
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: he writes a song cool, let's face turn around. I
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: think he may see her for a little bit, but
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: she ultimately goes with Daryl Hall and Sarah Smile is
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: written by her.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: Was another breakthrough single.
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, pretty much. I mean She's gone and started once
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: Aaris had to hit what She's Gone and sort of
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: put that back in and pushed it. But it's certainly
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: Sarah rich girl though that seventy five, seventy six. Yeah,
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: but yeah, Sarah Smile definitely was an explosive moment for them.
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: But uh, you know, she being in their lives really
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: affected their careers as well, because her younger sister, Jana
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: Allen wrote Kiss on My List and Private Eyes. So
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: these meetings you learn with these people is one second,
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: things happen and everything changes as a result.
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: So many hits their songwriting process. Did they get it?
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: Did he get into that a lot about that chemistry
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: between the two, how they wrote songs together.
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, the thing about them that I think really
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: helped was you'd a variety of sceos. They would write together,
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: they would write apart. Jana might have an idea, so
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: you had a female point of view, you had collaborations,
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: you had solo things. So if you listen to Hall
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: and Oates hits, none of them really sound alike, which
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: I think is interesting. If you look at She's Gone
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: versus Sarah's Smile versus out of Touch, they all sound different.
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: It isn't like a band where you can always tell
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: it's them, you know what I mean. There's not like
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: a signature sound, and I think that's because the inspirations
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: were coming from so many different sources.
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: Def Lepperd one of my favorite bands. So let's get
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: to Phil collins memoir Adrenalized from twenty fifteen. He's the
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: longtime lead guitarist for def Leppard, but not an original member,
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: and long before he joined the band, he was really
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: roughing it out in pub bands. To talk about that
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: and how he, along with def Leppard really had to
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: struggle and fight their way to the top. Work ethic
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: huge with def Lepperd to this day.
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: Oh my god. They That's the thing with them is
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: that working class. We call it blue collar over here
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: in this country. But yeah, Phil was in a very
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: cool glam band called Girl before that heavily into Bowie
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: and glam rock like Joe Elliott and when Phil joins
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: the band. I mean, they've had some success, but it's
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: really I think, you know, uh, Paramania was obviously such
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: a huge breakout record and Mutt laying and everything, and
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: Phil's audition I think basically was the solo on they
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: played him photograph and he went home and played came
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: up with the soul and they're like, yeah, he gets it,
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: you know, and yeah. Having seen them and been with
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: them a lot, their brotherhood is real. I mean again,
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: it's like they're as loyal to each other. I love
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: watching them kind of communicate with each other. You see
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: it when they play. You know they've they've got it
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: all where everyone's got each other's back. Phil's like a
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: soccer team in a way, and they are. They're always
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: kind of even when they're not together, there's a lot
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: of communication and I think they're a very unique band
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: like that. I really do. In a day where so
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: many bands fragment, bad math, each other, break up whatever,
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: def Leppard, I don't think you ever have to worry
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: about that. You know, they're good friends, they respect each other.
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: You look at what happened with Rick because Phil would
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: say to me, you know, people always like would say, like,
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: we didn't think you were gonna keep your drummer after
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: the accident that caused him his arm. And Phil said,
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: it's so strange because it's the exact opposite. Our thing was,
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: why would it cost us our drummer? He can still
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: play and he's our brother. We're gonna figure this out.
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: They never thought for a minute that was it. It's
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: not how they think.
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: It's so awesome. They were talking about that in the
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: past and I love that. And that is a story
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: in itself. That is an inspirational story right there, the
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: comeback of Rick Allen.
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: Like anything else, I mean rock and roll, it's hard
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: to find a story like that. There really is where
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: that happened and they rallied and.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: What he's tapping the he had like a fun when
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: you're in the hospital bed to keep it from sliding down.
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: They have that foam thing at the bottom and he's
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: tapping that with his foot. His brother brought in a
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: transistor radio from to listen to tunes with and that's
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: when the idea came to Phil.
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: They first visited him in the hot was he and
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: Steve Steve Clark, uh, you know, they didn't know what
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: to how to prepare and they said right away he
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: started talking about how he was going to get big
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: in and do this, and they thought he was delirious
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: for medication. They didn't realize that was the plan. And
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: when they did realize, they were like, we're making this happen,
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: you know. And there again they're that band. There's such
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: a testament to that kind of togethernesstant just collective teamwork.
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: I think I love them for that.
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: And Phil does all the licks Steve Clark licks on adrenalized.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: When Steve Clark died, sadly he died, he could not
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: kick his drinking and he died. And does Phil talk
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: about that that was a difficult thing for him.
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: I'm sure, yeah, Yeah, they were like they were twins
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: on the road doing that stuff. And when Phil saw
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: the light and began a straightened out, he you know,
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: he couldn't get through. It was and nobody could get
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: through because you know, it's hard when somebody doesn't want
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: to do it, and it devastated him. I mean, there's
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: a scene about him breaking down in the freeway after
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: he's got to the studio to replace some parts and
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: he just Phil just breaks down crying at the behind.
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: It all hits him that seems not going to be
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: there anymore. And but again they got through that. You know,
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: they got through it. They figured it out, and it's again,
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: They're just such a remarkable band.
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: I love them and never gave up during the nineties,
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: all the changes, the grunge era, all these things happened,
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: and they could have Joe Elliott said, we could have.
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: I think he said somebody mentioned to him once, hey,
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: maybe if he just break up just so you can
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: have a comeback tour so you'll make more money or
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: you know, draw more attention because it's a comeback to
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: He's like, now we're just going to keep plugging away.
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: And then that paid off because now they're a huge draw.
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: And they they never altered what they did. I mean,
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: they stayed true to who they are.
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Slang was the only album where they kind of departed,
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: but that.
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: But it's funny. I was playing this time the other day.
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: I think that wreck. I like that record, really interesting
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: record and when they hung in and you know, they
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: were one of the first bands to really appreciate I
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: think years later the concept of co headlining today, it's
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: like nothing but their management to think. Okay, if you
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: took Journey and def Leppard, I mean that really changed
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: the landscape for a lot of bands and banged for
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: the fans buck when you go out.
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: Allowed you to play in big venues. Still yeah, the
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: first bands to do that.
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: So Death was like, I'm going to see them in
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: a week and a half. So all this cool, nice summertime,
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: chance to see old friends playing.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: Booked on Rock Podcast. We'll be back after.
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: This short pause. Hold your breast for the dynamic duo.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: Our guest is author, TV host photographer Chricepting. We haven't
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: gotten to the TV and photography part yet. We're getting there.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: But let's go back to two thousand and seven. Your
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: book led Zeppelin Crashed Here the rock and Roll Landmarks
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: of North America. You take readers on a journey across
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: North America to the exact locations where rock and roll
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: history took place, nearly six hundred landmarks, and I'm hoping
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: you can share a story or two, like the Bob
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: Dylan motorcycle accident location or the Buddy Holly crash site.
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: Did you go to these places?
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah. Yeah, that's the fun at writing a book
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: like that is really exploring, you know, what's there, and
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: I mean recording studios, concert sites, death sites, accidents, everything.
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: I think one of my favorites is a street in
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: New York City, Saint Mark's Place, down in the East Village,
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: and there's big building there that the Rolling Stones when
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: they did their famous Waiting on a Friend video where
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: Mika is sitting there and Keith down the street and
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: they connect and you look at the building and it's
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: the exact same building that was on the cover of
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: the Lad's Up and album Physical Graffiti. So here's a
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: landmark that kind of lives in two different rock history moments,
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: which I think is really cool. I located the exact
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: site of the stage at All Timont, using aerial photography
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: and all this to locate out on the it's still
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: an open field day by the racetrack, but I wanted
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: to identify the exact spot where the stage had been.
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: I went and found on the stage in Monterey, upstate
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: in northern California where Jimmy Hendrix neil and lit his
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: guitar on fire. So I'm into stepping into those kinds
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: of places. You know, and yeah, I did a lot
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: of those.
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: The Skinnered Plane crash site.
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: Did you go to Spinnard tickets to see them that year?
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: You know, in Madison's Hilly, I saw my ticket to
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: the show.
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: You go to places like like I mentioned the Buddy
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: Holly crash. I mean, there's there's an eerie feeling that
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: you must get when you're there.
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: Buddy Holly one is actually amazing because it's still kind
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: of the middle of nowhere, and fans have created kind
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: of little shrine to it, you.
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: Know, and that's where again that's in Minnesota.
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: Or where it's in North Dakota, North Dakota.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, you've been to so many of these places.
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: Well, that's the fun of it. I mean, when you
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: go into a recording studio Sunset Sound in LA and
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: you think about the Stone doing Excel on Main Street,
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: you think of Van haleing there, you think of the
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: doors there, little tiny as big as this room, not
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: big fancy studios, a little kind of out of the
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: way places, and you think about what happened in there,
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: and you begin to reflect on what it was like
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: when they were there, and what it sounded like and
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: what it felt like. And for me, that's really the
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: exciting part is stepping into those spaces and feeling that
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: energy that is oftentimes left behind, you know, And.
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: That's what I say, that's yeah, you get that eerie feeling,
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: you know, like that's just one of the books that
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: you've written on this before that.
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: You find places. Sometimes. There's a place in downtown La
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: called the Morrison Hotel was an actual hotel, yeah, and
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: the doors. Henry Dilts photographed them famously. He wasn't allowed to,
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: but they kind of got in and did the shot.
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: The back cover of Morrison Hotel is the band at
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: a little tavern that was called the hard Rock Cafe
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: in down a few blocks away. I think they walked
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: to it, and it's funny it's no longer there. But
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: when the album came out, some British entrepreneurs saw that
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: and Henry told me. He called him and asked, does
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: anybody own the name hard Rock Cafe? They didn't, and
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: that was the birth of the restaurant chain. But anyhow,
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: I wanted to go find again. For me, it's about
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: going and finding location. And I go and I find
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: what had been the hard Rock Cafe. Today it's a store,
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: but if you go in, it hasn't been gutted. The pillars,
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: everything's original, and it's like almost a little not a department,
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: a little sundry store, you know, it's some little food,
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: little items and things like that. What was really cool
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: about that, though, I think this is in that book
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: is it's sort of like the Stones Zeppelin side in
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: New York where it has a dual function as a
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: rock and roll landmark. Yes, the doors are photographed there
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: at the bar, but in the nineteen whatever, whenever Beat
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: It came out, is that what we tall eighty three,
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: the Beat It video the Billiard Hall, That's what that
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: was then. So you can line up the pillars of
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: the little store and that's where Michael Jackson too the
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: Beating video, and that's where the door has hung out.
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: So you've got this great cross, you know, intertwining of
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: rock and roll history.
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: Right, they have no idea. Yeah, yeah, James Dean don
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: but there are four altogether, right.
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they're like a series. James Dean did here was
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: the first one. Meril Monroe died here, which is d
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: y ed. Each book has like five or six hundred places.
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: Elvis Presley passed here. It's not about where he died.
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: It's worried about he played flag football in LA. And
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: then I did one called it Happened right here, I think,
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: which is the whole kind of all kinds of locations
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: all over North America. So yeah, I you mentioned TV show.
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: There's a show called it Happened Here on the Reals Channel.
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: It was based on those books really about tracing footsteps
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: of pop culture events, which oftentimes involve rock and roll.
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: Well, there will be an easy way to find all
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: this stuff. We can get to the links that people
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: can go to afterwards. But the James Dean Died Here
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: book that, of course there's rock and roll songs, classic
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: songs like James Dean by the Eagles, and Don McClain
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: references it in his classic American Pie tell Us about
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: the location on that day that James d. Dowry. He
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: was at a gas station. Just bea wasn't a photos
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: taken of him? He was getting gas.
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I retraced the whole day in the book. What
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: happened was he was going up to Salinas in northern
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: California to race his new poor Spider. They were towing
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: the car, which was new on a trailer. They stopped
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: for gas in Shriman Oaks, California, and the mechanic says,
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: you know what, you haven't driven this thing much. Let's
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: take it off the trailer, drive it up so you
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: can get a feel for the car. You don't really
• 49:12
  Speaker 2: know this car yet. This is the decision that ends,
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: is like with several hours later, as they're up there,
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: the mechanic is riding with Dean in the car. The
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: other guys are in the truck that was driving the
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: trailer hitch and of course, in a little speck on
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: the map called Shalam between Baker's Field and Postle Robliss,
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: Dean comes up out of kind of a hill which
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: you can't see. A big car is turning. They collide.
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: Donald turnip Seed is the driver. Dean is not killed instantly,
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: he dies. They believe. I interviewed the two cops who
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: recovered his body before they passed O oh wow, believe
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: it or not, and they think he died. What's crazy
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: is after they put him in the ambulance, that car
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: had an accident on the way to the hospital. It
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: drove off the road, and you know, but they made
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: they thought Dean might have still been alive them, but
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: he died somewhere, probably en route to there. And I
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: just thought to call the book that because that represented
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: all of those places that we passed by every day
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: and you don't know what happened there. So the book
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: is about lots of those places, and to me, James
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: Dean Dieier, that's just sort of the He's always going
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: to be one of the great pop culture icons. And
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: that book for me was a game changer. NPR made
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: it like their Book of the Summer. It's weird, but
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: like in whenever it came out in two thousand and
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: one or so, offbeat travel wasn't really yet a thing,
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: that kind of road trip looking for movie locations and
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: all that kind of thing. There wasn't a lot of it.
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: And this book became kind of that, and it built
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: an audience pretty quickly, and it allowed me to do
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: sequels because clearly, you know, the book did well enough
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: improved that people wanted those kinds of places, movie locations,
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: crime scenes, accident sights, whatever, just to make sense.
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: For me.
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: It started as a kid in New York I read
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: an article about marily Monroe's dress and the seven year
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: itch word billowed up over the subway grading, and I
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: didn't really know who she was, but it said that
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: the subway grade was at the northwest corner of Lexington
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: Avenue in fifty second Street, And the next time we
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: were in the city, I like dragged my parents over
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: there just to find it. And I found it and
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: I thought, nobody knows this but me walking around that
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: day and that was the moment. That was the spark
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: where I thought, there's got to be a lot of
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: places that we walk over, but something happened there and
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: that literally I was about ten years old. I never
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: got that out of my system, and from that point on,
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: I was always if something happened, I would think, where
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: is that? How can I go find it? And that
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: propelled me off into kind of where we are today.
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: Book on Rock podcast. We'll be back after this suspense
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: is killing me. The Marilyn Monroe died here dyed is great.
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: I love this story because this is where she died
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: her hair blind. He went to the location there on
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: Hollywood Boulevard, which.
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: Doesn't some people might mean that's frivolous, But when Norma
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: Jean Baker becomes Meril Monroe and becomes a blonde, that
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: does in a lot of ways change cultural history. All
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: of a sudden this icon is born. So I don't
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: take that lightly. I think those moments do matter, you know.
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: And and again I think it's a little coffee place today,
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: same building, and I was in there. I think taping
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: a little documentaries thing was and talking to one of
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: the priests is like he was blown away. He loved
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: Meril Monroe and he could not believe that it happened there.
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: When people learn about these things, it redefines their feeling
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: about it, and it creates like an instant emotional connection.
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: Sixty five thirteen Hollywood Boulevard. Hey did you do the
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: Almond Brothers site where both Dwayne Almond and Barry Oakley
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: the bas is? One year later, same place.
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: I'm an a Brothers so when I selfishly love a band,
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: and I'll always kind of dig deeper. So yeah, I
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: have the accident sits I've got, of course, the house
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: where they lived. I went to the grave of Elizabeth Reid.
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: I went to the site of the wall where they
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: shot the back of the front cover of Live at
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: the Fillmore East. So yes, absolutely, the Almann Brothers factor
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: and a number of my books down to Macon primarily,
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: and I've been there number of times. In fact, I
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: think they've done a really good job in the city
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: of commemorating the Almond brother's history there.
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: Love that band. Love that band. Another title Elvis Great Band.
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: Elvis Presley passed here and this is he passed the
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: football there. He had touched football games with other celebrities.
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: This is where. What was the park?
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: It's called Denev Park. It's off of Beverly Glenn your
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: son set right in really nice area, a little small
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: park you would play Ricky Nelson's and I just helped
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: that with a book with Gunner and Matthew Nelson Ricky
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: Sons that comes out later this year. And they knew
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: about that, would tell me little stories about Elvis and
• 53:59
  Speaker 2: all that their dad, So that was always kind of
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: fun to kind of get their take on it.
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: That's cool.
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I love Elvis too. There are great Elvis sites,
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: of course, all over the place. And in that book
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: there is a whole chapter just on Elvis' locations.
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: The book on Jimmy Hendrix, this is one Hendricks fans
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: should get if they haven't got it yet. It's from
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty three it's called Jimmy and Me The experience
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: of a lifetime. A young screenwriter named Jonathan Stephachus with
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: just one movie credit to his name, is invited to
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: collaborate with Jimmy on a film, and then it leads
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: to one of the craziest trips in music history. Any
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: stories you can share from this? How did this guy
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: meet Jimmy?
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: He was a college kid in the late sixties who,
• 54:45
  Speaker 2: like a lot of college kids, would make a little
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: experimental film. He forgot about this movie even like in college,
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: and he kind of wrote it. It was like a
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: nothing movie. He gets a call one day. It's like
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: he's back living in his parents' house in like sixty
• 54:59
  Speaker 2: eight and uh, it's a He summoned to mid toim
• 55:04
  Speaker 2: Manhattan for a meeting. They don't say what bring him in.
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: Our clients saw your film and for the film, you know,
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: and then you remember, you mean that thing that Yeah,
• 55:15
  Speaker 2: what happened? Was it ran for either one or two
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: days in London. Whoever had financed this little film. If
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: it ran someplace, I guess you could recoup some of
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: the money you had to get it shown somewhere. Once
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: on that day, Jimmy Hendricks happened to be in the
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: theater and he fell in love, and he noted who
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: the quote writer was. Jonathan's like, I don't evemember what
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: I wrote. But they bring bring Hendricks in into the
• 55:43
  Speaker 2: room and he says, I love your film man, and Jonathan,
• 55:46
  Speaker 2: who's a Hendricks fan, is like really, and he says,
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: I want to I want to do a film with you.
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: I want to create. I want to collaborate with you,
• 55:55
  Speaker 2: and they do. But what happens is that, you know
• 55:58
  Speaker 2: Hendricks at that point, his time is kind of weird,
• 56:01
  Speaker 2: so we can't find a ton of time to collaborate.
• 56:03
  Speaker 2: So Jonathan just gets swept up in the storm at
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: that time. So there are really cool stories. If I
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: can share a quick one that's non musical related, but sure,
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: it's so crazy. Jimmy is up in Woodstock, New York,
• 56:19
  Speaker 2: getting I think he's getting ready for the festival, which
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: is going to be about thirty miles away in Bethel,
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: and Jonathan's up there, and Jonathan has a friend who
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: lives locally in Woodstock. He's a beekeeper, and he gets
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: called Jonathan's with Hendrix, and Jimmy says, where you're going?
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: Why my beekeeper friend got an emergency. Jonathan goes and
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: meets him, the beekeeper friend, who's got a truck, and
• 56:43
  Speaker 2: he says, listen, my girlfriend and I we're moving our
• 56:46
  Speaker 2: beekeeping thing up north, like I think, to Washington State.
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: We can't sell enough candles here. It's just not work
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: and can you lend us some money, like some seed money?
• 56:55
  Speaker 2: And Jonathan's like, do I go? Ask Kendricks and he says,
• 56:58
  Speaker 2: how much do you need to get? This is about
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: two thousand dollars that's all Jonathan has, which he has made.
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: He's a photographer too, he has sold a few Hendricks
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: pictures already. Jonathan's and the guy's look, i'll pay you
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: back double if we want to make the money back,
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: and we'll make it back. Jonathan gives him the money.
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: They load all the bees up. Jonathan gets stuck. Hendrick
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: says to him, what the hell happened? I got friend
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: with the Hendricks rolling his eyes. I did. You're never
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: gonna see that money again. He doesn't see the money again,
• 57:29
  Speaker 2: but the friend moves up north and after a couple
• 57:32
  Speaker 2: of years, the candle thing doesn't really happen. But his
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: girlfriend's like, we gotta shift gears. Here we got the
• 57:38
  Speaker 2: freaking bees. She reads a seventeenth century book about the
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: medicinal properties of bees wax, and she's like, you know what,
• 57:48
  Speaker 2: let's make something non candle. Let's think of some products
• 57:52
  Speaker 2: that would harness this supposed health benefit. His friend's name
• 57:56
  Speaker 2: was Bert no Way, and I urged, Yeah, that's the guy.
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: I used that stuff every days.
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: That's the company. Yeah, so that's again, that's a little
• 58:11
  Speaker 2: weird storing the book, but it's still at first efoughts
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: we put that in there. That's too good. You have
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: to you have to find a way to make sense
• 58:20
  Speaker 2: of it. And the fact that Hendrix was like commenting
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: on those things like okay, that's cool. That that that
• 58:25
  Speaker 2: gets it in. Because Hendricks acknowledged effect of the bees.
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: That is so wild. All right, let's talk about the
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: TV series it happened here? How did that all come about?
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: What was the show about? You know, maybe say, share some.
• 58:40
  Speaker 2: Ten episodes we did. I think they're on demand on
• 58:42
  Speaker 2: the Reals Channel. It's just you know, I had been
• 58:45
  Speaker 2: approached by a production company, but adapting those books of
• 58:48
  Speaker 2: retracing footsteps of famous places related to people, because I
• 58:53
  Speaker 2: was doing that anyway, so hey, let's take Jonas Joplin.
• 58:55
  Speaker 2: I'll go to the bar where she has her last drink.
• 58:58
  Speaker 2: I'll go lay on the bed where she does all
• 58:59
  Speaker 2: that guy thing. And that's what we did. So John Lennon,
• 59:03
  Speaker 2: Marvin Gaye, Kurt Cobain, Janice, it's I'm very proud of
• 59:08
  Speaker 2: the series. Got really good response, and it's me and
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: other guests related to the subject. I'm kind of a
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: storyteller that threads the narrative. But then we'll have like
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: Marvin Gaye's sister giving heritic, Richard Pryor's son, all that
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: sort of thing. And but what was a really fun
• 59:26
  Speaker 2: show to do? I like doing I like televised storytelling
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: like that. I like being out on location.
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: How long did it last? How many seasons? It was?
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: One season? Ten episodes. We talk about maybe another one.
• 59:38
  Speaker 2: COVID kind of got in the way of another one,
• 59:40
  Speaker 2: Like we do a lot of different projects. But we
• 59:42
  Speaker 2: were talking. In fact, the production company and I've been
• 59:44
  Speaker 2: talking about something similar to that, like an updated version
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: of it.
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: That great book podcast. We'll be back after this. Your
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: Pants Pockets Hold Kids in the Future were the pants
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: and sign out? Hey guys, thanks so so much for
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: checking out the Booked on Rock podcast. If you've just
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: found the podcast, welcome. If you've been listening, thank you
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: so much for your support, and make sure you tell
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: a friend, a family member, share on social media and
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: let people know about Booked on Rock. And if you
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: do like the podcast, make sure you subscribe give a
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: five star review. Wherever you listen to the Booked on
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: Rock podcast, We're on Amazon, Apple, iHeart, Spotify, Spreaker, tune In,
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: and on YouTube music. You can check out the full
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: episodes on video, along with video highlights from episodes on
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: the Booked on Rock YouTube channel. Find it at Booked
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: on Rock. Thanks again for listening. Now back to the show.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: There's a section on your website features your photography, so
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: let's talk about that. Some beautiful photos that I want
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: to ask you about. But first, how did you get
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: into photography?
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 2: Always been a hobby as a as a kid. I
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 2: like nature photography, but the more music journalism I started doing,
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 2: I would always like I would ask the subject if
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 2: I could fotograph them in portrait for the story, but
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 2: also to give me a deeper sense of what they
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 2: were about. Because it was a little photography session and
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 2: at first, you know, not everyone agreed to it, but
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 2: once they started doing it and saw that it actually
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 2: enhanced the story, I would shoot everybody like that, you know,
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 2: and it became a real fun part of any journalistic project.
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 2: And you know, I remember, like Steven Tyler, for example,
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 2: where I would shoot me, let me see, let me
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 2: seet me see. He looked again, let me do that,
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 2: and he started shaping the process just by looking at what,
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 2: you know, which was cool. And oftentimes this would be
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 2: after I had spent a little time with them, so
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 2: some trust had been developed where I don't go in
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 2: like interviewing. I would try and have conversations and if
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 2: that felt good, then they would, I think, give you
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 2: a little bit more as a visual subject, you know.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 2: And I was always fortunate. I was consider myself fortunate
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 2: to do that, and it made for some fun pictures too.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: And it turns out you took a picture of Ozzy
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: Osbourne recently, and we've obviously lost Ozzy. It's a great loss.
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: You took a photo of him. I think it's dated
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty five.
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 2: It's I think it's a little older than that.
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: It's a little older than that. What's the story behind.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 2: Me not that long ago, and it was like it's
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 2: a non it's like a non Azzi photo. I don't
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 2: know if you have it up, I can post it.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it's a very pensive because he was talking
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 2: about this something that happened that particular day. Some news
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 2: had come out that was unfavorable in a certain degree
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 2: to his livelihood, and some things related to to a
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 2: tour he was announcing, and you see it. I think
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 2: in his face it's a very serious, pensive kind of look.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 2: But I think it also presents a very sensitive part
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 2: of him that was there. I think our Ozzie was
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 2: a far more complex artist, and he gets creditor. I
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 2: think he understood who he was. I don't think he
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 2: was a caricature. I think he took himself more seriously
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 2: than he let on, and I think he worked really
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 2: hard at what he did. You know, I think his
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 2: relatability to people, it's kind of like def Lepard in
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: a way that workman like, working class, get it done thing.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 2: I think Ozzie was sort of the first of that.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: You know, you're preaching to the choir with Ozzie and
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: def Leppard two. But Ozzie to me was just brilliant
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: and the body of work is absolutely phenomenal, from Sabbath
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: to solo. Yeah, I'm sorry it was twenty fifteen, it
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: says here, not twenty twenty five.
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 2: I think it's earlier than I think it's later than that,
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 2: actually dated. And I've shot him numerous times too. Once
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 2: we did it once and Sharon liked it. Then you're in,
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 2: you know, Then she said, oh, shoot us, shoot us,
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 2: shoot us. I did it a number of times. And
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 2: same thing with Aerosmith and Gene Simmons lou Reid, which
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 2: huge was a am auge, huge lu read fan, And
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 2: that was difficult and challenging, but totally worth it because
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 2: he didn't like having his picture taking.
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: Evidently, I can imagine you. Was it Gene Simmons with makeup,
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: without makeup.
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 2: Without Well, I've done both, but it was without and
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 2: uh and I'm super proud of those. I'm a big
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 2: kiss fan, same hell and I mean I appreciate and
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 2: respect kiss and uh so yeah, you know, I like
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 2: I like that, And when I write a book with somebody,
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 2: I like to shoot them, you know, and like to
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 2: get that going. So I've shot John on anybody I've
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 2: worked with. I like to photograph just my own portfolio
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 2: or just kind of give them something back that they may.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: Like, beautiful stuff like the coyote and Death Valley.
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I guess I love nature photography and and
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 2: I shoot a lot of birds. That's really my favorite
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 2: aspect of nature is bird life, So I still shoot
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 2: a lot of those.
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: Well, people can see all of my percepting dot com.
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 2: And I was happy my son at that time, who
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 2: was in college, he took up photography and then he
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 2: would come all the shows I covered, and so he
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 2: and I had a great time seeing dozens, if not
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 2: hundreds of bands, and he shot everybody, I mean, just
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 2: from the biggest of the smallest, from punk stuff on
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 2: the Warped tour up to kissing def Leppard at the Forum.
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 2: He was always in the thick of it, which was
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 2: which is really cool to watch him kind of chase
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 2: his own dream there through Collin Booked.
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: On Rock Podcasts, We'll be back after this, think about
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: the future. Find the bookked on Rock website at booked
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: on rock dot com. There you can find all the
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: back episodes of the show, the latest episode in video
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: and audio links to all of the platforms where you
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: can listen to the podcast. Plus all the social media
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: platforms were on Blue Sky, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and x.
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: Also check out the booked on Rock blog, find your
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: local independent bookstore, find out all the latest hot rock
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: book releases, and before you go, check out the booked
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: on Rock online store. Pick up some booked on rock merch.
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: It's all at booked on rock dot com. All right,
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: let's finish with And I asked you through email if
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: it's okay to talk about because I don't know how
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: many people know about this project, but current projects. You're
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: working on a Paul Rodgers book. Oh my god, okay,
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: Paul Rogers, a guy who deserves a book, tell us
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: about this. When is it coming out? When's a duout?
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: What's it going to be?
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 2: And he talked about us publicly, so I don't feel comfortable. Okay,
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 2: good while we were super quiet, but he talked about
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 2: us when he was on Eddie Trunk and I met Paul.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 2: I'm a interviewed him years ago and I wasn't sure
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 2: remembered that, but about a year or so ago, somebody
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 2: representing him contacted me, somebody I had worked with, and said,
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 2: you know, Paul needs a book. He's never really wanted
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 2: to do it, but would you at least talk him
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 2: about it? And I said, I mean, I'm you don't
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 2: have to ask twice. I mean, Paul Rodgers to me,
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 2: is you know if any Rock Royalty truly exists? And
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 2: he would hate me saying this, because he's very humble
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 2: and very modest, But come on, if you're if you
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 2: grew up when we up, you know, a bad company
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 2: and especially free for me, I was love free.
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: Everything else is bad company. The firm, the work he
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: did with the firm, everything solo work. The guy's voice
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: is velvet, legendary voice.
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 2: And so we had a zoom call and I could
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 2: tell he didn't want to do a book. We talked
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 2: about it and joked a little bit, and I think
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 2: he realized that the process could actually be fun, and
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 2: it could be wistful and a little nostalgic. And he'd
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 2: been through so many health things. I think that shifted
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 2: his perspective as well, because all of a sudden, now
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 2: no one's guaranteed anything.
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: And how is he doing? By the way, he had
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: a heart condition.
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 2: Great, he had a number of strokes and hard things.
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 2: He's done great, We've been working on this for a year.
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 2: Our hope is that it's out next year. A lot
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 2: of work's been done on it. I've done a ton
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 2: of interviews for it. Paul and I have had dozens
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 2: and dozens of sessions where he has shared wonderful stories
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 2: from growing up up through his entire career, from again
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 2: the early days into Free into Bad Company everything after that.
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 2: So I think we have photos that are absolutely incredible
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 2: and most people haven't seen. This book is going to
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 2: be really special. This was all culminating around the fact
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 2: that Bad Company finally got inducted into the Rock and
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 2: roll Hole. Ceremonial will be this fall, which is really
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 2: exciting and a good thing for the book, And yeah,
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 2: I am, I'm so excited. I think Paul is really
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 2: he's one of the most graceful rock stars you'll ever meet,
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 2: because he really is modest, and he really is He
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 2: doesn't carry himself in a way that some people do
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 2: at that level. His humble nature I think belies the
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 2: ferocity of what he brought us, The soulfulness, the blues
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 2: based just you know, unmatchable passion that he brought to
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 2: the those hits and deep cuts and everything so solid
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 2: and amazing guitar player, which people don't know a lot about. Really.
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: I saw a Bad Company with Leonard Skinner maybe ten
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: fifteen years ago up in the sight of Woodstock there Bethlee,
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: New York. Yeahah yeah, when he started when they broke
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: into Seagull. I mean the goosebumps, I mean just goosebumps
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: listening to him sing that song that is That is
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: my favorite deep track of his from Bad Company.
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 2: It's a new tribute record comes out this fall. It's
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 2: announced where a bunch of artists have done Bad Company
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 2: songs and Joe Elliott and Phil Collin do Segull. So
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 2: you'll love that.
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: Oh that's fantastic. Well, I cannot wait to have you
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: on to talk about the book when it's out.
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 2: I can't wait. Like I said, I am so excited.
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 2: I with Paul. It's like when you realize who you're
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 2: talking to and his seriousness to the That's the other
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 2: thing too, the way he embraced the project and the
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 2: seriousness with what he takes it. His wife Cynthia has
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 2: been a remarkable help. Longtime manager David Spirou the four
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 2: of us are kind of like this team and what
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 2: we've been working on the last year. I can't wait
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 2: for the world to experience it. I think it's gonna
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 2: be I know it's gonna be a really special project.
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 2: And we'll talk about it once it's out.
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: Can you say who the publisher is?
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 2: No, that's still still being discussed and arranged. So that'll
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 2: be out soon, sooner than later.
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: Does he does he think he can go out and
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: perform again or is that pretty much? I don't know.
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think he could, but I think part
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 2: of him likes his life now. I think, you know,
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 2: he lives in a couple of beautiful places, you know,
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 2: I think when you come out of what he did
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 2: from a hell standpoint, I mean, he's fine, but I
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 2: think he feels like, you know, we don't know what
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 2: we have left. I live in these beautiful places with
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 2: my amazing wife. Let's enjoy this, you know what.
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: I mean.
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 2: They've got they've got their life and plug that and
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 2: go on the road. I mean it's cool, but it's
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 2: really disruptive too.
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, good for him. If he's happy, man, that's all.
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 2: That's when the Doobies kind of blow me away. In
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 2: their mid to late seventies, the doobies. I don't know
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 2: what they feel like after you would think they're in
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 2: their thirties. It's right, it's weird, but but Paul can
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 2: do it. My favorite part of our our conversation sessions
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 2: or when he breaks into song, because we'll be talking
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 2: and saying, you know why I did that, and then
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 2: he'll just start singing, I feel like making love, oh man,
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 2: and you sit there, we all look at each other
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 2: like really and he but he does that just sort
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 2: of show you what he was doing, what he was thinking.
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, does he tell you about when they recorded that
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: first album there at the castle there and he's singing
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: Headley Grange and he's out under the moonlight with the microphone.
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 2: Out a song Bad Company.
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: They's singing the song Bad Company out there. They set
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: up the equipment outside outside ron Nevison.
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, took him up on a hill under full.
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: Moon and again goosebumps. I could see look at.
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 2: The hair like that lone voice. And that's a great
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 2: story in the book. But there's a ton of great
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 2: stories you learn all about Paul Cossof and Peter Grant
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 2: and all these other supporting players in Paul's life throughout
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 2: the years. And I've spoken to so many people you'll
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 2: be super surprised. I can't let onto the other voices
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 2: in the book, but it's like a it's a very
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 2: impressive group of people that really want to talk about Paul,
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 2: their stories about him.
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: Quite a teaser, maybe twenty twenty six, I'm gonna say.
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 2: I think so. Yeah, I'm very confident, and again I
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 2: so applaud what you do. Eric I seriously, thanks Chris
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 2: all the There's a million podcasts and a million things
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 2: to listen to, but but your content, what you focus on,
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 2: the way you give author's voice, and the way you
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 2: share stories yourself, it's really wonderful. So thanks for what
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 2: you do. Seriously, I'm sure every one of your guests
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 2: feels the same way that We're deeply grateful for the
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 2: energy you put into this.
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much. You don't know who's listening, you don't
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: know who's watching, and you sent me an email out
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: of nowhere. I was like, are you kidding me?
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 2: I was listening to your podcast, I'm listening recently, and
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, great episode. Great episode. Then I'm like
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 2: he and I should be talking, well yeah, and you
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 2: answered right back and it was like great, and here
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 2: we are.
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: So you've got to get your own podcast, man, you gotta.
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 2: I would love to continue our conversation because again I
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 2: realized is you're a great guy to talk to about it.
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 2: You're so knowledgeable, and I think you provide a really
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 2: great service.
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: I appreciate it. You got to get your own podcast.
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: You got a zillion.
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 2: Stories someday, but you know what, I'm going to give
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 2: them to you for now.
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: That's right. You give them all to me.
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 2: Some things when it comes to rock and roll stuff,
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 2: but you know, get really fun. And as I knew
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 2: it was gonna fly by, it's like, I feel like
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 2: we just started talking.
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, well, let's talk about now. Where people can
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: find out more about you. Probably the best thing is
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: to just go to your website because it's got links
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: to everything, all your books.
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 2: Yes, Chris Sting dot com. I have an Amazon author's
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 2: page that has every book and I've written again, and
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 2: if you just search my name, I've written so many
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 2: articles about music. Those will pop up on a whole
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 2: variety of places I've written for over the years. Huffington Post,
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 2: I wrote Ford Music Writing, n PR, Yeah, yeah, every place,
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 2: La Times.
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: How many times.
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 2: A lot of stuff out there.
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: Ye, Chris hepting dot com. I'll put the link up
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: in the show notes as well so people can go
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: right there. So Chris, thanks so much.
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 2: Man.
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: This is awesome.
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 2: Eric, I appreciate man. Thank you. No, no, that was
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 2: an adventure. I was quite assure you put onto the well.
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 2: Let me just close this conversation by saying you are
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 2: one unique individual