Latest / San Joaquin Sound / Marc DeLeon: Jack of All Trades, Master of Drums

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Marc DeLeon: Jack of All Trades, Master of Drums · San Joaquin Sound

• 0:32
  This is the San Joaquin Sound Podcast. I'm your
• 0:35
  host, AJ Rodriguez. I'm here with Mark DeLeon,
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  who was a promoter in Bakersfield all throughout
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  the 80s. He was also a part of the Gilman Street
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  scene. He has owned a tattoo shop here in town
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  for over 30 years, and he has the coolest Kiss
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  -themed van in the world. Thank you. So let's
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  go back to the start. What was growing up in
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  Bakersfield like for you? It was pretty... Pretty
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  hard. I lived in a neighborhood called La Moma,
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  and me and my brother were into rock and roll,
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  and we're Hispanic, or Mexican, however you want
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  to say it. We got called the Coconut, got chased
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  down, gotten fights over just us liking Kiss
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  and music like that, Van Halen and stuff. It
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  was pretty challenging, I could say. Like I said,
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  we were called Coconuts, brown on the out, white
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  on the in, you know? Yeah. You know, it was rough,
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  but my brother, my older brother, who just passed
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  away a few weeks ago, he played guitar. He started
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  at the age of 13, and there's a five -year gap
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  between us, which really got me into playing
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  guitar and bass and whatever I did, because I've
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  kind of been a jack -of -all -trades, master
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  of none, you know? Sometimes many is better than
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  one. Yeah, because sometimes you just got to
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  have a bass player, and okay, I'll put down the
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  guitar and play bass, you know? Yeah. So growing
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  up, what type of music did your parents listen
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  to? You know, my mom listened to traditional
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  Mexican music and oldies and a little bit of
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  disco. And my dad, he liked Led Zeppelin and
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  stuff, but he also liked Freddy Fender and Cornelio
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  Reyna and Vicente Fernandez and Antonio Aguilar,
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  you know. So it was pretty diverse, you know.
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  And then, you know, my uncle, one of my uncles
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  is a pretty famous Latin jazz player. So we always
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  had the music, plus, you know, there was other
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  guitar players in our family and stuff. That's
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  cool. So do you remember the first concert you
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  attended when you were a kid? Uh, yeah. You know,
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  at the fair, I'd see all kinds of bands come
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  through Grand Funk Railroad. Man, anybody that
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  was popular. This is when they were playing Sam
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  Good or when it was during the fair times? During
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  the fair time. Okay, yeah. Because at a really
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  early age, that's when I could see, like, rock
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  bands. Yeah. I'd been to concerts, but they were
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  more ranchera concerts. Like, you would go to
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  the fairgrounds where they do the rodeos and
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  stuff. Yeah. There would be, like, Antonio Aguilar
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  would be in town. they would do mariachis and
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  music out there while riding horses and stuff.
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  So that was my first kind of culture thing with
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  that. And then being at the fair, we'd go to
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  the fair every year, and I would see whoever
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  was playing at the auditorium out there, the
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  Budweiser Pavilion as they know it now. I don't
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  know what it was called back then. But I got
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  to see a lot of stuff. And then even at an early,
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  early age, I think I was maybe 10 years old,
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  I stumbled in on a sound check. The Baker's Saloon
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  had a Chinese restaurant in it. And my dad was
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  a big part of the American Legion, and they were
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  having some kind of Legionnaires dinner there.
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  And the other part of... where the dinner was
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  in the other banquet room was quiet riot doing
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  a sound check before they were famous and i went
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  in there as a little kid and i was like man you
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  guys got marshalls and mpeg svts and tom you
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  know i was like naming off the drum sets and
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  like oh, you got 26 -inch bass drums. And they
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  were like, wow, is this kid know all this stuff?
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  So they let me hang out and watch it. And that
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  kind of worked for me for a lot of, I mean, I
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  got to do that with Night Ranger. And a lot of
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  bands would say, hey, kid, you know a lot. You
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  want to watch a sound check and stuff? And this
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  was like at the Civic and stuff. That's cool.
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  I got to see a lot of cool things just by, I
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  was the kid that had the balls to get in there
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  and do what I had to do to go check out the band.
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  And I wanted to go see, you know, I didn't get
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  to see Quiet Riot play. at the baker sam but
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  i got to see him play for soundcheck you know
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  yeah it was cool front row seat then yeah by
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  myself you know yeah so were you already playing
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  guitar by this time because like you said and
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  my condolences about your older brother but was
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  he like your guitar teacher no he didn't want
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  me to play guitar oh he my brother was a little
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  difficult He hated me wanting to play guitar
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  or anything. I was working in the CETA program,
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  working at BC in my freshman year, which you're
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  not supposed to. You're only supposed to get
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  into that your senior year. But no internet,
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  they didn't check my age, so I'm a custodian
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  all summer long at BC, and I made enough to buy
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  a Charvel guitar. Nice. You know, about 1984,
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  83, 84. And I took it home. My brother was so
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  jealous, he hit me with the guitar, which broke
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  my arm, and then he smashed it on the porch,
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  you know? Oh, no. It was one of those kind of
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  brother things, you know, that just kind of,
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  you know, it was hard. Some real sibling rivalry.
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  Yeah, but we loved each other, but I don't know,
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  man. I don't know why he had such a problem with
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  it, but I did it anyway, and I've been around
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  the world playing music, and, you know, I don't
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  know if that bugged him, you know, but... I did
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  a lot with it. What was your first band? My first
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  band was with Todd Thompson, who was later known
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  as Big Jed or Rory Todd Thompson. And it was
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  called SMD. And it was a thrash metal band without
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  knowing what thrash metal was or thrash hardcore
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  punk or whatever. And it was lightning super
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  fast. I was 11 years old, 12 years old, and when
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  people look at, like, I have video of it, and
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  they look at the date on the video, and they
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  hear the band, like, Ron from the Record Store
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  is like, what made you play like that, you know?
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  And I was like, I don't know, we just did. And
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  it was with him and a guy named Greg, who's a
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  pro skateboarder, and we just played where we
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  could and got to, you know, give out. tapes to
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  people hey this is our band let us play and it
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  would be some random stuff and they let us play
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  and they'd hate us and you know at these regular
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  rock gigs and uh that was uh smd was short -lived
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  it lasted a few years but it was pretty short
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  -lived and we had about 300 meanings for it the
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  main meaning was pretty crude you know suck my
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  blah and then like As the time went on, it was
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  Sean and Madonna's divorce, spaghetti and meatball
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  dinners, shitty messy diapers. You could just
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  say whatever for a joke. You could fit whatever
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  you wanted. Satan's my dad. Whatever. That later
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  on moved to... I had a band called IUD. That
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  lasted maybe about a year. Hoss Bruton was a
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  band that I had for a lot of years and reincarnated,
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  you know, as even ten years ago and five years
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  ago, back and forth. And then I've always known
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  the mentors. I would go to Hollywood and hang
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  out with them, and El Duce would teach me how
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  to play drums, and I'd jam with them, and later
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  on... replaced l after he he passed away yeah
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  and they were just good friends you know that's
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  all that mattered it wasn't about you know the
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  music and anything which i love the music it's
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  rock and roll it's ted nugent with and and ufo
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  and all those amazing rock bands of the 70s a
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  little harder but with super funny and dirty
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  lyrics you know which sometimes nowadays isn't
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  too proper So let's go back to Haas Bruton. Okay.
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  So what year is that, do you think, when you
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  started that? I think it was 86. And you came
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  out with a record, right? We came out with, well,
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  we had demo cassettes that we'd sell, and we'd
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  been on records. California got it, Volume 1
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  or Volume 2, a few other compilations. We didn't
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  make... We didn't have the money to make full
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  -on records. We did the tape trading and tape
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  sales, which was... That's what got us through
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  any tours to any gigs or anything, and that's
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  the only way we made money was shirts and cassettes.
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  And at the time, having a record wasn't feasible
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  to travel with the way we traveled in a station
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  wagon. When did you start throwing your own shows?
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  How did you learn to do that? Well, my dad...
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  Like I said, he was in the American Legion and
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  he ran the American Legion Hall. And I would
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  get, you know, through people just would contact
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  me and call me at my house and find my number.
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  Hey, I'm in, this is so -and -so from this band
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  and we need a place to play. And then I'd ask
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  my dad, I go, can I rent the hall out for bands?
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  And it was kind of hard, but he let me do it.
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  And he says, as long as you clean it up and there's
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  no destruction. which the city hated it. The
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  Bakersfield City, I mean, we always had to change
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  our production name to something else. and and
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  get a you know a permit which my dad would help
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  me and they couldn't really turn down the permit
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  because they would have to turn down all the
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  permits for the legion hall you know whoever
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  rented it for a dance or something so they were
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  kind of stuck in a rock and a hard place where
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  they had to grant me the permits you know the
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  fire department could say oh there's not enough
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  electricity or what i don't know what what what
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  it all entails but They couldn't do that. They
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  couldn't do that to the American Legion, which
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  is across the street from the Fox Theater and
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  stuff. So they just had to let me do it. And
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  it just so happens that people just knew that
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  there was this crazy kid in Bakersfield that
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  can, you know, whether it's a backyard party
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  or something, could get you a gig. But I never
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  did the backyard parties. Me and my buddy Steve
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  Langston and Kevin Williams would just rent halls
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  and throw punk rock shows. That's cool. So that's
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  the first venue that you're really doing shows
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  at, American Legion Hall? Yeah, the American
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  Legion Post 26. So what are some of the best
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  shows that you threw there? Mad Parade was really
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  good. That was a really good show, really packed.
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  Battalions of Saints was really good. My friend
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  Pete, we did sound mainly for him because he
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  had Hyrax, Excel, Final Conflict play there.
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  And I was a part of it, but just in a roundabout
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  way through my dad's place. So it wasn't just
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  me throwing them, but I was a part of that whole
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  group of people that would do them. And some
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  of the other shows were like at the fraternal
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  hall because there would be somebody. would already
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  have the 24, I mean, post -26 already rented
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  out, so we'd go to, like, the Fraternal Hall,
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  and that's where I had, like, Terminal Holocaust
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  and Sacrilege, and a lot at San Juan Juarez Hall
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  off of Baker Street, we had Sacrilege and Black
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  Death. The Mentors, the first show of The Mentors
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  was there. And that was just a blowout. It was
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  fantastic. And that was probably one of the funnest
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  shows with Mentors, Chaotic Evil. SMD was supposed
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  to play. We broke up. And then I jumped in playing
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  bass for a band called The Grogaholics. And they
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  ended up playing. So let's so let's talk about
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  like geographically. You've got Salon Juarez,
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  which is more on the east side off Baker Street.
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  Yeah. And where's the fraternal hall? The fraternal
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  hall is still there. It's next to. It's on California.
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  A half block east of Union, right next to the
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  Welfare Department, which used to be like John
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  Deere Tractor at that time. And it's just a small
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  hall. We did a few on the Jeffrey Street Hall
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  off of Union and Jeffrey. It's on the west side
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  of Union. There's like a little half block before
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  the canal. There's a Veterans Hall there. And
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  we had shows down there, too. Yeah, so what year
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  did you start doing shows then? How old were
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  you? Man, I think it was 85. 1985 really started.
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  Started out doing that, and I was connected in
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  some way or another because, one, I had a PA.
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  Everything I did in my life was for music, so
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  I would buy a PA. If your band's playing, Mark,
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  we need a PA for this. Okay, I'll bring my PA
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  down. Or my friend Todd, Big Jed, had one half
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  of the PA, and I'd have the other half, and we'd
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  combine it. You know, so we can do it. I mean,
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  we were really working with just the bare minimums
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  that we could get by with, which I look back,
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  I'm like, God darn, how did we pull this off?
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  But, you know, we did it, you know, and that
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  was about 85, I think. What were the crowds like
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  at this time? I know we've talked about how at
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  the time a lot of different scenes were coming
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  together. Well, the early crowds. In Bakersfield,
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  sorry, the early crowds in Bakersfield, it was
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  a lot. And we were known in Maximum Rock and
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  Roll Magazine and a lot of other places to have
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  insane shows, fights, violence. And a lot of
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  that was perpetrated by the Bakersfield Californian.
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  Like the night Hyrax came and played. down the
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  street close to what is now uh samco which was
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  there was that the one where there was an assault
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  yeah they blamed it on on the show yeah so that
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  was a circle k back then so a homeless lady got
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  assaulted sexually by a home like a homeless
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  man or two homeless man and they put in the paper
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  rape at punk rock show and that was the hyrax
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  excel final conflict show And it made it really
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  hard on us because it was a total fabrication
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  other than they just didn't want these kind of
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  shows going on. But when we did these shows,
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  everybody would come out. Every part of the death
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  rockers, which is now considered goth now, death
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  rock was the term back then, we would get the
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  punk rockers, we'd get some of the metalheads,
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  more extreme guys, and then the skinheads started
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  showing up. So we had to pretty much get rid
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  of them, but it was a rowdy time. But this was
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  not like sharp skinheads that were cool. No,
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  there was a few Jake Chavez and a few of his
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  other friends, but these were, you know. Nazi
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  skinheads, you know. And, you know, it's funny.
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  I still see a lot of them around now, and they're,
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  you know, popular in the scene. I'm like, once
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  a Nazi, always a Nazi in my eyes. It was violent.
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  There was a lot of fights because there's a lot
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  of pent -up, you know, not a lot to do, so there's
• 16:53
  a lot of pent -up aggression with some of these
• 16:55
  people, so they would fight. Yeah. And then later
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  on, What luckily came to be was I found a guy
• 17:09
  who opened up a little all -ages coffee house,
• 17:14
  disco. Are you talking about John Bentley? Yeah,
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  yeah. About John Bentley. Bam Bams. Yes, Bam
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  Bams. And he opened up originally next to the
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  Notorious Cellar, which was a gay bar in town
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  that was under. broadway or brocks i think it
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  was broadway right there on the corner eight
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  on 20th and chester in the back side there was
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  a cellar like a basement bar called the cellar
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  was gay bar yeah and uh all the punk rock kids
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  would go there and people would cruise chester
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  and that's where they'd loop around on 19th to
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  get back on chester and they'd throw their beer
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  bottles at the people in front of that was hanging
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  out because they'd you know yell obscenities
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  at him like we didn't care we were hanging out
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  and have a good time we didn't care about what
• 18:01
  people liked or anything we just yeah you know
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  those people were our friends just as much as
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  anybody else and uh and then john opened this
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  like kind of disco -ish thing and and i got to
• 18:14
  know him pretty good and he liked me because
• 18:15
  i was a big guy and i was already going back
• 18:18
  and forth to san francisco and i would make sure
• 18:22
  nothing would happen because i was used to taking
• 18:25
  care of things when they happened stopping flights
• 18:27
  and stuff So, you know, it became Bam Bam's later
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  on when he got the new the new location. So I
• 18:35
  was already in San Francisco knowing so many
• 18:39
  bands going to Los Angeles knowing. I mean, I
• 18:41
  saw Primus before they were huge, like major
• 18:44
  years, like at the club and got their numbers,
• 18:46
  got to know their manager. You know, I. all kinds
• 18:50
  of bands you could that are now huge like you
• 18:53
  know like operation ivy which turned into rancid
• 18:56
  and i lived at the house with them you know and
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  that's cool jesse was my my roommate or i crashed
• 19:02
  on on in his living room for you know forever
• 19:06
  you know and the dwarves and you know i even
• 19:09
  you know had association with gg allen and guar
• 19:12
  and the mentors and crime and neurosis and they
• 19:18
  were all my friends you know they were yeah so
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  i'd try to get them all into town and my and
• 19:23
  a good friend of mine named jimmy green opened
• 19:25
  up previous to bam bam's a club called the mask
• 19:28
  the mask i haven't heard of that one yeah it
• 19:31
  was uh it was a great club a lot of bands play
• 19:35
  there cadillac tramps played there uh a lot of
• 19:38
  the The really early stuff played there. And
• 19:42
  I got to say, it just came to my mind, one show
• 19:46
  that I didn't have anything to do with was one
• 19:49
  of the earliest shows I went to. Because I went
• 19:52
  to a lot at the Bakersfield Inn, you know, like
• 19:54
  Love Canal and Black Flag. And there was even
• 19:57
  shows at the Fox. But at the Encore Dinner Theater
• 20:02
  three blocks from my house, RKL and No Effects
• 20:07
  played. Oh. And Fatal Vision and a band called
• 20:11
  Deicide, which was a local band featuring, you
• 20:15
  know, a lot of my good friends, R .B. Contreras
• 20:18
  and Tom Ratcliffe and David Butler. I've seen
• 20:22
  the flyer for that show. And I was there, and
• 20:26
  it was right after, see, a lot of people don't
• 20:29
  know this, NoFX had a singer. before that who
• 20:33
  passed away and they had to do the show as a
• 20:35
  three -piece show a three -piece band i should
• 20:38
  say and uh that show was done by dan sites and
• 20:43
  danny sites was the one that did all of rkl's
• 20:47
  album covers and flyers and a lot of that early
• 20:50
  nardcore artwork who also ended up doing artwork
• 20:56
  for metallica when they got really big and guar
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  and everybody else that you could possibly think
• 21:03
  of you know there's oh there's so many connections
• 21:06
  to everything because yeah like even me living
• 21:08
  in san francisco doing you know working at the
• 21:12
  clubs there i got to know liz fairbain who was
• 21:15
  the manager of war and danielle from guar and
• 21:18
  you know it's just a big mush of just nobody
• 21:22
  was famous yet and we were all friends You mentioned
• 21:25
  NoFX. I heard that Fat Mike had a really big
• 21:30
  beef with Bakersfield for something or other.
• 21:32
  Do you know what that was about? Well, he had
• 21:35
  a beef with me once. Oh. He came to play Bakersfield
• 21:40
  and needed a stop on a Wednesday, and he gave
• 21:45
  me the price that they would do it for, and I
• 21:47
  said, I don't know how many people I can get
• 21:49
  on a Wednesday. I've never done a Wednesday before,
• 21:52
  and I don't think it's going to be good. And
• 21:55
  so he kind of talked me into it. He says, you
• 21:58
  give me this Wednesday, I'll give you a better
• 22:00
  gig. The next time we come back, I'll give you
• 22:03
  a Saturday. And I said, no effects on a Saturday
• 22:05
  night would be amazing, and I'll pay what you're
• 22:08
  asking. So we had a contract that said they were
• 22:14
  going to get $800. Now, $800 back then was a
• 22:19
  lot of money for me. I didn't have a normal job.
• 22:24
  I was a punk rock kid just hoping that I can
• 22:26
  get, you know, I kept the tour price down at
• 22:28
  four or five bucks to get in. I had to give John
• 22:32
  money for the club and the sound system and everything.
• 22:35
  So it wasn't just, just no effects as money.
• 22:37
  I, you know, I had to come up with money because
• 22:40
  like a lot of them early punk rock shows we'd
• 22:42
  throw, we'd rent Pacific West Sound, which was
• 22:45
  called Sounds Unlimited back then. And we were
• 22:48
  into him for a thousand bucks right off the bat,
• 22:51
  no matter what, you know. if we wanted a decent
• 22:54
  PA at these shows. So NoFX played, and it was
• 22:57
  on a Wednesday, and it was a fabulous turnout.
• 22:59
  It was packed. I got paid off for the last shows
• 23:01
  that I did with John, because I owed him money,
• 23:04
  and used that money to square up. And he's like,
• 23:08
  well, we want $2 ,500. I said, we have a contract
• 23:13
  for this much, and there was nothing on the back
• 23:17
  end for these shows. It really kind of bummed
• 23:21
  me out with his attitude about it. And I was
• 23:24
  like, man, I was taking a chance here to offer
• 23:27
  you the money I did. And I covered my ass with
• 23:30
  the sound and everything I had to do. And I don't
• 23:34
  know if that's the beef everybody's talking about.
• 23:38
  I don't know if that's the only time he had a
• 23:40
  beef. Yeah. I just remember in the Bones of Brundage
• 23:44
  documentary, people talked about how he was telling
• 23:46
  people don't play Bakersfield and stuff like
• 23:50
  that. Maybe so. I mean, a lot of people talked
• 23:54
  about not playing Bakersfield because Dr. No
• 23:57
  played at Poncho's Gym on Edison Highway. There
• 24:03
  was a little punk rock gang called the Eight
• 24:06
  Ballers. And Choddy ended up getting in a fight
• 24:12
  with Kyle, the singer at the time. Dr. No was
• 24:15
  a three -piece band with Kyle, Ishmael, and the
• 24:18
  original drummer, who I don't remember his name.
• 24:22
  And it ended up being all of the Eight Ballers
• 24:27
  jumped on Kyle and the band, and they didn't
• 24:30
  end up playing. You know, luckily I saw the soundcheck
• 24:34
  and I got to see Dr. No for the first time back
• 24:37
  then. But that led to a lot of the dark cloud
• 24:43
  over Bakersfield, which was that. Because once
• 24:48
  word gets out among some musicians, like we said,
• 24:52
  it's all connected. Yeah. And everyone knows.
• 24:54
  Yeah, it's all connected. And, you know, it was
• 24:57
  a rough scene. We were a hick town back then.
• 25:01
  Bakersfield is big now, but, I mean, we're talking
• 25:04
  back then 74 ,000 people in this town, and Rosedale
• 25:09
  Highway was still fields, you know? Yeah. And
• 25:12
  that's where we partied at a place called The
• 25:16
  Couch or The Dreads or wherever, and it would
• 25:19
  be, you know, pretty primal. It was like watching
• 25:22
  Apocalypto with everybody dancing around a fire,
• 25:24
  you know? it's hard to control all that and when
• 25:27
  you're in charge too you have a lot of responsibility
• 25:29
  but what were your plans when there was like
• 25:32
  it felt like there was going to be a riot or
• 25:34
  something what did you do well we had to hire
• 25:36
  security straight up transwest security and then
• 25:40
  we'd have our own friends helping out so it wasn't
• 25:45
  the fights happened but they were stopped pretty
• 25:48
  quick because people knew that You know, we'd
• 25:52
  even put on the flyers, if you guys keep your
• 25:55
  shit together, we'll be able to have more shows.
• 25:57
  So no fights, you know, leave your bullshit at
• 25:59
  home. You know, we'd put that stuff on flyers
• 26:01
  all the time. That was pretty much how we tried
• 26:05
  to diffuse it. And we went on like that for a
• 26:09
  long time. And Bam Bam's was definitely, I mean,
• 26:13
  the first show we had there, we brought the mentors
• 26:15
  back. And it sold out. And it was a blowout again.
• 26:21
  And it just opened the doorway for so much more.
• 26:25
  And I was like, I do not want to throw shows
• 26:28
  anymore. Because it was, I did have to put my
• 26:34
  name out there. And if the show didn't go good,
• 26:38
  because at that time, we started having shows
• 26:40
  every weekend, which was a good thing, but it
• 26:43
  was also a double -edged sword. People were getting
• 26:47
  too used to having shows. So, oh, I'll go to
• 26:51
  the next one. They didn't really have to live
• 26:54
  through the 80s. This was already the beginning
• 26:55
  of the 90s, so they didn't have to live through
• 26:57
  the 80s where the cops would... shut down shows
• 27:02
  yeah or make sure you didn't have it like current
• 27:05
  county fair had primer gray in 1984 and big jed
• 27:10
  todd thompson was singing at that time and the
• 27:13
  sheriffs went on stage and yanked them off stage
• 27:16
  for no other reason that they just didn't like
• 27:18
  the way they looked it was funny todd had the
• 27:21
  mic going This cop said he's going to hit me
• 27:23
  with a billy club if I keep talking. Oh, he's
• 27:26
  getting the billy club, you know, and giving
• 27:28
  play -by -play. He said he's going to take me
• 27:31
  to jail and beat me up, you know, and giving
• 27:33
  a play -by -play of the whole thing. But once
• 27:36
  I saw that circle pit going around with a bunch
• 27:38
  of kids with mohawks and stuff, you know. They
• 27:41
  flipped out, and it was honky -tonk back then.
• 27:46
  It was a honky -tonk situation, and police didn't
• 27:48
  like it. So come the beginning of the 90s, it
• 27:52
  got lighter. It got lighter. We were able to
• 27:55
  do it more often, and people didn't understand
• 27:59
  that, oh, well, now there's going to be shows
• 28:02
  all the time. They kind of took it for granted,
• 28:05
  where before, if there was a show, there would
• 28:07
  be a year, maybe two, before the next one. You
• 28:11
  know, so it was quite different, and, you know,
• 28:16
  and everybody would let out their anger, and,
• 28:19
  you know, a bunch of rednecks would come just
• 28:21
  to start problems, or a gang of cholos would
• 28:26
  come to start problems, you know, out front,
• 28:28
  you know, with the punk rockers, you know. So...
• 28:34
  I also heard there was an incident with the Deftones.
• 28:37
  Was that at a show you threw? No. Matter of fact,
• 28:40
  I know what happened at the show, but I wasn't
• 28:45
  at that show. I was living in San Francisco at
• 28:47
  the time. I've only heard one side of the story,
• 28:51
  well, from two members of what was BPD. It was
• 28:57
  a rap group with R .B. Contreras and his brother.
• 29:02
  And I guess something happened early in the set
• 29:06
  where Arby got hit with the mic stand. And it
• 29:12
  was either a member of the Deftones or their
• 29:17
  crew. Well, you don't mess with a local guy in
• 29:22
  their town. So I guess the poor Deftones, you
• 29:26
  know, Choddy spent... I guess, a month at the
• 29:29
  hospital here in town. RB got charged with it
• 29:33
  and stuff. Yeah, it was a nasty situation. And
• 29:36
  me and RB grew up together. One of our first,
• 29:39
  you know, kind of endeavors of trying to start
• 29:42
  a band was with him. And so I pretty much was
• 29:47
  around that. But I was living in San Francisco
• 29:50
  at that time, so I wasn't at that gig. Even with
• 29:53
  all these obstacles, You stayed in the music
• 29:56
  business, and you kept having shows for a long
• 29:59
  time, right? Yeah, definitely. That was the whole
• 30:02
  thing I wanted to do. I'd take the Greyhound
• 30:07
  of San Francisco. I'd work at the clubs there.
• 30:11
  I mean, I worked at so many clubs there, mainly
• 30:14
  the Gilman Street Project, which later changed
• 30:18
  to 926 Gilman when this guy Lou Everett took
• 30:21
  it over. Yeah. And I worked for both. I'd come
• 30:25
  back, and Heather from Gilman would come pick
• 30:30
  me up and drive me back because I was good at
• 30:33
  defusing problems there. Or Kamala would come
• 30:39
  get me and get me back over there. She's the
• 30:43
  one that got me in with the Operation Ivy guys,
• 30:45
  living with them. And she was in a band called
• 30:49
  Kamala and the Carnivores. And they were, you
• 30:52
  know, on Lookout Records too. So they'd get me
• 30:55
  over there and then I would help out with whatever
• 30:58
  I could there and then come back and try to do
• 31:01
  that same thing with the list of music groups
• 31:04
  that I had from there. But the problem was that
• 31:08
  Bakersfield was such a rough place that a lot
• 31:12
  of those Northern California bands were kind
• 31:13
  of scared to play here. We'd always get the L
• 31:17
  .A. punk bands because they were rougher, or
• 31:20
  the Orange County bands, or Fresno bands like
• 31:25
  Capital Punishment, because they're used to that
• 31:28
  world. San Francisco East Basin was more laid
• 31:33
  back. But I'm really proud that, shoot, I got
• 31:37
  to see Green Day's first show as Green Day. I
• 31:42
  knew them as Sweet Children or Sweet Baby before
• 31:44
  that with the original drummer, Al Sobrante.
• 31:47
  I knew the first time I saw them that they were
• 31:51
  going to be huge. I'm like, I'm looking at the
• 31:53
  Beatles and Cheap Trick of punk rock. These guys
• 31:57
  are going to be huge. And people would, ah, no,
• 31:59
  they'll never sell out. Well, yeah, they did.
• 32:01
  They sold out major auditoriums. They sold out
• 32:04
  in a good way. What was their first show like?
• 32:09
  Well... I don't know technically. It was a Gilman.
• 32:12
  Yeah, what do you remember from that show? Their
• 32:14
  first show, I seen them as Green Day because
• 32:17
  I seen them before at like a party and stuff.
• 32:21
  There's a lot of kids there, real young. Like
• 32:24
  I'm talking baby kids there, like 13, 14. And
• 32:28
  probably six rows deep in front of the stage
• 32:32
  at Gilman was girls. all girls screaming like
• 32:38
  they're watching the Beatles. I mean, tears in
• 32:41
  their eyes, you know, and that's how I knew.
• 32:44
  I'm like, man. And my job, you know, during the
• 32:49
  show was watch the side door, which is the load
• 32:51
  -in door, which is directly off the side of the
• 32:54
  stage. So I had to stand. If there's a band playing,
• 32:57
  I'm standing there. On the stage, watching that
• 33:01
  door and the side of the stage and making sure
• 33:03
  nobody staged diving because Gilman was one of
• 33:06
  the big things there against their insurance.
• 33:10
  They couldn't have that. It was kind of a thing.
• 33:13
  I think they got rid of it later because the
• 33:17
  insurance companies really didn't understand.
• 33:19
  But seeing Green Day. was really watching the
• 33:24
  beginning of the Beatles at the Cavern Club.
• 33:26
  To me, it was. That's cool. Not that I was into
• 33:29
  them. I knew they were good. I'm into bands like
• 33:32
  Cheap Trick and stuff, so I see the similarities,
• 33:35
  but into rock and roll. They were a little different
• 33:39
  than everybody. They were pop. I was like, man,
• 33:42
  they're pop punk. It was crazy. It was how big
• 33:47
  they were. I've been a part of some big shows
• 33:50
  at Gilman. I remember... After the Descendants
• 33:54
  stopped playing, they started doing a band called
• 33:57
  All. And All and Operation Ivy played together.
• 34:02
  It was the only show at Gilman, I think, but
• 34:04
  there was really some tension because Bill Stevenson
• 34:07
  wrote all the songs for Descendants and All.
• 34:11
  And Silly Girl, the song the girl was written
• 34:15
  about. was the singer jesse's girlfriend from
• 34:18
  operation ivy at the time so they were really
• 34:21
  like is there going to be a problem and you know
• 34:24
  it was kind of it was kind of but that show i
• 34:26
  mean you i couldn't believe how many people were
• 34:29
  in that place you know it was it was kind of
• 34:31
  wall to wall so all those shows were pretty memorable
• 34:34
  like I did RKL there, and I put Big Jed and Premonition,
• 34:38
  both from Bakersfield, in a band called East
• 34:40
  Bay Mud. Wait, they were playing in Gilman? Yeah,
• 34:43
  yeah. Big Jed? Yeah, Big Jed. I got Big Jed.
• 34:45
  That's so cool. I never knew that. So that's
• 34:48
  awesome that you were saying, look, to the people
• 34:51
  you grew up with, hey, come play at the scene
• 34:54
  I'm part of now. That's huge. I always try to
• 34:57
  do that, and I always try to congratulate, not
• 35:01
  hate. I got them there. it was amazing show and
• 35:07
  uh it was so crazy the difference of music you
• 35:11
  know you're talking big jed was bluegrass thrash
• 35:15
  you know i mean it was as as different from rkl
• 35:19
  as you can but rkl guys were also fan of big
• 35:23
  jed and premonition was also fans of rkl vice
• 35:27
  versa and then For a while in San Francisco,
• 35:31
  I was living at Cap Street Studios with Carol
• 35:33
  Lennon and all them. And that's where I was taking
• 35:37
  drum lessons also. And the bomber, the drummer
• 35:40
  of RKL, was a fantastic bass player and drummer.
• 35:43
  So I'd take lessons. You know, he'd be all, hey,
• 35:46
  Mark, let me session your bass. And he'd take
• 35:49
  my bass to go to jam or something, bring it back.
• 35:54
  a tampon taped to it well that's where you put
• 35:56
  your fingers because you don't have a rear pickup
• 35:58
  and you know he'd like that was his reasoning
• 36:00
  you know i want that staccato tone and and he'd
• 36:04
  he'd teach me a lot and on the drum so i live
• 36:07
  in there was kind of a beneficial thing too and
• 36:10
  That opened up a door for Big Jed to put a recording
• 36:13
  studio there, but that ended up falling through
• 36:15
  because we were in Bakersfield. We had a lot
• 36:19
  of people that mattered, you know, in San Francisco
• 36:22
  at the time and trying to take over the world
• 36:26
  there. And my friend had a band there, and he's
• 36:30
  from here, called Sonic Brain Jam. That was getting
• 36:34
  pretty popular. You know, they do a lot of shows
• 36:37
  with the dwarves. And where I lived, I lived
• 36:39
  with, like, paul hall the son of harvey hall
• 36:43
  oh wow you know in san francisco he was the original
• 36:46
  bass player forever in big jed which a lot of
• 36:49
  people forget about that he was a lot of that
• 36:52
  sound that malibu barbie funk that's when they
• 36:56
  were doing country funk punk you know and uh
• 36:59
  he was a major part of that sound and you know
• 37:04
  It's just weird because I'm constantly trying
• 37:07
  to play music there, like Noah from Neurosis
• 37:11
  after Christ on Parade. He was starting a band
• 37:15
  called Blister, and I was supposed to be the
• 37:16
  bass player for it, and I ended up going and
• 37:19
  joining a band called Crime, who's an old -school,
• 37:23
  really 70s punk rock band. And then doing that,
• 37:28
  rehearsing with those guys, that falls through,
• 37:30
  so I'm joining a band on... uh alternative tentacles
• 37:34
  called tragic mulatto and then you know come
• 37:39
  back and I go to LA for a while I start you know
• 37:42
  working with Roz Williams from Christian Death
• 37:45
  and and doing sound and stuff for them also and
• 37:50
  It's just funny how every time I would move,
• 37:53
  I'd see these people like Primus and like, I
• 37:56
  really want to get you in Bakersfield. And they're
• 37:57
  like, oh, you think Bakersfield is going to like
• 37:59
  us? You know, Les Claypool. I'm like, dude, I
• 38:02
  think you're going to be one of the biggest fans
• 38:03
  in the world. And they're like, ah, you know,
• 38:05
  there's like that was. It was just less than
• 38:08
  with two other guys, Curveball on drums and this
• 38:10
  guy that looked like he just came off the San
• 38:12
  Francisco homeless scene, you know, on guitar,
• 38:15
  you know. And it was like one of their earliest
• 38:17
  gigs. I'm like, dude, you guys are going to be
• 38:19
  huge. Did you get them to Bakersfield? No, nobody
• 38:22
  would book them. I tried to get them at some
• 38:24
  mask. I had their demo. They're all, oh, that
• 38:26
  sucks. It's called Prima Sucks, you know. They
• 38:30
  were ahead of their time. Oh, yeah. It was just
• 38:32
  so out there, nobody could understand it. Yeah.
• 38:35
  But yeah, I would always like get Bakersfield
• 38:39
  bands to come up wherever we could, whether we're
• 38:43
  booking in Fresno too. I mean, a lot of times
• 38:46
  had to throw shows in Fresno just so my band
• 38:48
  could get to Fresno because the promoters weren't
• 38:52
  familiar with us. So we'd throw shows in Fresno
• 38:55
  and, you know, open the door for my band to play
• 39:00
  and other bands from Bakersfield to play by.
• 39:03
  getting bigger bands from somewhere and they
• 39:05
  don't the punk kids don't know who you are but
• 39:07
  by the time you're done playing they do and they're
• 39:09
  your fan they're your fans now because well they
• 39:12
  must be your fans they played here with this
• 39:14
  band and this band you know they must be good
• 39:16
  you know you lived in san francisco you're part
• 39:20
  of the gilman scene after that did you did you
• 39:23
  come back to bakersfield in the 90s yeah yeah
• 39:27
  i lived in both places um so i didn't I could
• 39:32
  stay at Lou's Flat as much as I wanted to. He
• 39:38
  had this weird place off of University and Berkeley.
• 39:42
  And then I also had a place I could stay at in
• 39:45
  San Francisco. So I'd go to San Francisco for
• 39:48
  a month, come back to Bakersfield for two weeks,
• 39:50
  try to do something here, go back to San Francisco,
• 39:54
  come back for a few months here to have band
• 39:57
  rehearsal and play a few shows with Hoss Bruton.
• 40:00
  and tried to set up some shows over there, but
• 40:03
  had to rehearse here because everybody's here.
• 40:06
  So it was back and forth, a lot of Greyhound
• 40:08
  buses, a lot of Amtrak. I got real familiar with
• 40:11
  Amtrak, loved that the most. And so that's what
• 40:16
  I was doing all throughout the 90s. What about
• 40:19
  the corn explosion here? How did that affect
• 40:21
  the music? Well, it was all punk rock and regular
• 40:27
  heavy metal. And then everybody that I thought
• 40:31
  that was real, like down to earth, like these
• 40:34
  guys are hardcore punks. These guys are real.
• 40:37
  The next time I saw them, they got cornrows and
• 40:41
  Adidas on. Those guys, I grew up with those guys.
• 40:47
  I know them from their old glam bands. John.
• 40:52
  would sometimes sing in our band gel god which
• 40:55
  he considers the you know the best band of bakersfield
• 40:59
  i mean he wants to record us still he goes man
• 41:01
  we got to get in gel god gel god g -e -l -g -o
• 41:04
  -d oh that's dog lake backwards nice the corn
• 41:09
  explosion was was a little tough because you
• 41:14
  know i did spend some my dad lives in seattle
• 41:16
  so and that's where the mentors are from which
• 41:20
  I spent a lot of time there. It was like the
• 41:24
  grunge movement there where everybody was doing
• 41:27
  the same thing, dressing the same way. So a lot
• 41:30
  of the bands that I really had some respect for
• 41:33
  all went in a row and really played like a really
• 41:39
  watered down version of Korn, a real cliche version
• 41:43
  of it. And I mean, I'm talking everybody. The
• 41:46
  metal dudes. were wearing adidas the punk rock
• 41:50
  guys were wearing adidas and you know i don't
• 41:53
  i don't dislike corn i love corn i i'm so proud
• 41:57
  of those guys and john's one of my oldest dearest
• 42:00
  friends i mean we'd sit at his dad's music floor
• 42:04
  jam music together he'd be on drums and i'd be
• 42:07
  on guitar or vice versa whatever we did we always
• 42:10
  tried to play together like early like 10 years
• 42:14
  old and he's seven eight years old you know but
• 42:19
  we were in the music store all the time and and
• 42:21
  that was such a great great memories of that
• 42:24
  but i was very proud of them but i wouldn't ask
• 42:28
  them for everything anything i wouldn't ask them
• 42:30
  for anything because all i could see was my friend
• 42:33
  my friends and people i grew up with was always
• 42:35
  hey uh monkey get me a guitar you know philby
• 42:40
  give me a bass john can you hook me up with a
• 42:42
  record deal and and everybody was doing that
• 42:46
  And John always said, man, I would have always
• 42:48
  done it for you. I said, well, I'm sure you probably
• 42:51
  would have tried, but I wasn't going to ask.
• 42:54
  And maybe stupid me, but I didn't want to impose
• 42:58
  on my friendship with that guy where I saw everybody
• 43:03
  that possibly could know him and the rest of
• 43:07
  the band imposing on that. And that was my take
• 43:10
  on it. Everybody wanted to be. in that everybody
• 43:15
  wanted to be signed with that instead of finding
• 43:17
  like there was a band called spike 1000 that
• 43:20
  john helped out and rightfully so because they
• 43:23
  stayed the same they didn't change up they got
• 43:27
  a little heavier but they were still spike 1000.
• 43:31
  Yeah. And Cradle of Thorns was Cradle of Thorns.
• 43:35
  You know, that's why those bands got helped out.
• 43:38
  Because they didn't cornrow their hair. They
• 43:40
  didn't wear Adidas and totally cop them where
• 43:43
  everybody else in town did. And that's why those
• 43:46
  two bands got help. Even though Cradle of Thorns
• 43:49
  should have never changed their name from Cradle
• 43:51
  of Thorns. Because if you're talking about something
• 43:53
  that really brought the scene together in Bakersfield
• 43:55
  in the 90s, it was Cradle of Thorns. Hands down.
• 43:58
  You know, Ty Elam. Chris Coles, all those guys
• 44:02
  were the ones that brought the alternative scene
• 44:06
  that would have been closest to what I see the
• 44:10
  L .A. goth and San Francisco and Seattle scene.
• 44:16
  They brought that style to Bakersfield, which
• 44:19
  was a lighter style than I did, which was a way
• 44:22
  less violent style. But they still had some problems
• 44:26
  because they were anti -fascist and stuff like
• 44:29
  that. There was still a lot of gay people that
• 44:32
  would come to these shows because it was okay
• 44:35
  to, you know, and they were welcomed. And hell
• 44:38
  yeah, they're welcomed. You know, they were welcome
• 44:40
  to my shows too. But the skinheads were a problem
• 44:43
  for Cradle of Thorns and stuff. And that was
• 44:45
  the only negative part about that whole thing.
• 44:48
  I think that's why they deserve the help that
• 44:51
  they got from Korn and Spike 1000, also because
• 44:53
  they were two, and then I had my band Gelgot
• 44:56
  at the same time, but we were partying a little
• 44:58
  bit too much to do anything, and we didn't really
• 45:01
  want to ask, you know? We had our own thing going
• 45:04
  on, you know? Yeah. But you did kind of join
• 45:08
  some new metal type, because you played guitar
• 45:12
  for Adima for a little bit later on. Yeah, later
• 45:15
  on. 2009 to 2014, I think it was. I didn't join
• 45:24
  them as their permanent guitar player, though.
• 45:29
  Yeah, you were just doing some rhythm for them.
• 45:31
  Yeah, and the sound effects stuff on guitar.
• 45:35
  I did that because at the time, I don't really
• 45:40
  want to mention his name. He's not with us anymore,
• 45:42
  but they had a guitar player that had a really
• 45:44
  bad drinking problem. And you might not think
• 45:47
  a bad drinking problem could be this bad, but
• 45:50
  it seriously passed out on stage, passed out
• 45:54
  at the club. Really couldn't maintain it to do
• 45:58
  this. So it was really at a crazy part of their
• 46:03
  career, which I had to, I got a phone call. Dave
• 46:07
  said, hey, man, can you play guitar for us? Yeah,
• 46:11
  where are you? We're leaving Texas. Our next
• 46:14
  show is in Baltimore in a couple days. Or, no,
• 46:19
  it was like they already left Texas. They were
• 46:21
  going to Baltimore. And the show was the next
• 46:24
  night in Baltimore. So I had to jump on a plane,
• 46:27
  learn the stuff on the plane, and then play the
• 46:31
  gig, which I've been really good at that. And,
• 46:34
  you know, I'm forgetting that. I wasn't really
• 46:39
  familiar with Adima's songs. I've only really
• 46:43
  listened to them one time before. I mean, I'd
• 46:45
  go to the recordings and stuff and watch them
• 46:47
  rehearse, the recording sessions and stuff. And
• 46:50
  there was a lot of people on their tip too, so
• 46:52
  I really didn't want to bother them and go, even
• 46:55
  though Dave's been one of my best friends forever,
• 46:57
  and Chris and all of them. And there was a time
• 47:02
  where Dave had an issue where he couldn't be
• 47:04
  at a show. I actually was in a demo with Marky,
• 47:08
  which is funny, and had to play bass. So they
• 47:13
  came down here. It was a situation. They came
• 47:16
  to my tattoo shop because they rehearsed in my
• 47:18
  basement, and they said, you've got to play bass
• 47:21
  for us tonight. I said, well, I don't know your
• 47:22
  music. They said, well, let's go rehearse. I'm
• 47:24
  like, okay, how long is it? We're going to do
• 47:27
  it in an hour. Okay. So we rehearsed here, went
• 47:30
  to the show, and played the show, and that was
• 47:32
  the end of it. But that was with Marky. That
• 47:36
  was earlier. Earlier, yeah. And then four or
• 47:39
  five years later, I ended up marking bells out
• 47:43
  on them. So Tim's going to vocals because there
• 47:49
  was a situation. Yeah, he's still singing now.
• 47:52
  Yeah, he's back to singing now. And their original
• 47:58
  guitar player's not in the band. Mike Ransom,
• 48:01
  he's doing something else. I ended up playing
• 48:04
  with them. You know, as a guitar player, I had
• 48:07
  to learn the songs on the flight. And, you know,
• 48:10
  which if you don't rehearse a song forever, you
• 48:13
  know, I knew them well enough to where I was
• 48:14
  familiar with the changes and stuff, but I didn't
• 48:17
  really know them. I didn't pay attention to them.
• 48:18
  It wasn't my bag. I'm into punk rock. I'm into
• 48:20
  harder stuff. And, you know, ended up doing the
• 48:24
  tour. We did the Hell Tour, which, man, we were
• 48:26
  in the snowstorm of the century. playing you
• 48:31
  know the east coast for three months and promoters
• 48:34
  still talk about this tour like we can't believe
• 48:37
  you made it through this this they call it the
• 48:39
  hell tour and edema is known for making it through
• 48:43
  this i mean there's some major stuff that made
• 48:46
  world news with edema when i was in the band
• 48:49
  you know i really don't want to mention what
• 48:51
  it is because the band knows and and uh If you
• 48:55
  weren't around at that time, you know, it was
• 48:57
  it was a crazy time, but I didn't do that to
• 49:00
  get into new metal And I didn't follow playing
• 49:04
  new metal after edema i was doing mentors at
• 49:08
  the time of edema so i'd do three months with
• 49:10
  edema come home do a three -month tour with mentors
• 49:13
  go back to playing on the road with edema while
• 49:16
  having my tattoo shop at the same time yeah you
• 49:19
  were like a hired gun yeah yeah you know they
• 49:22
  had me down as a member of wikipedia you know
• 49:25
  and wikipedia and stuff which thank you guys
• 49:27
  uh appreciate that and i did get uh You know,
• 49:32
  free guitars from Schecter for it and stuff.
• 49:34
  And it was nice, you know, getting that. And
• 49:38
  I could give a writer list to somebody saying,
• 49:41
  I want this kind of amp and this kind of amp
• 49:43
  and have it here. And I want the head mic, even
• 49:46
  though the head doesn't make sound, just because
• 49:47
  I want the tube noise to come through. You know,
• 49:49
  a bunch of silly stuff. And I only want green
• 49:51
  M &Ms, you know. It was kind of nice, you know.
• 49:54
  Yeah, that's cool. You know, I got to enjoy,
• 49:57
  you know, going on tour with it. you know like
• 50:00
  i said the mentors for months which was insane
• 50:03
  tours and then edema which is insane tours and
• 50:07
  it is it's just crazy it was it was busy it was
• 50:11
  it took some years off my life i'm pretty sure
• 50:14
  but i've never been a druggie so i you know i
• 50:17
  i was always the sober guy i didn't drink or
• 50:19
  anything so i haven't drank alcohol since i was
• 50:22
  25 years old yeah wow So you mentioned your tattoo
• 50:27
  shop. You're running a tattoo shop at the same
• 50:29
  time in the 90s, right? This opened in the 90s?
• 50:32
  94. And how did that start? It started with Bill
• 50:36
  Van Boney. And we were in bands together and
• 50:40
  stuff, so he ran a spot that we would rehearse
• 50:44
  at at Above Guthrie's Alley Cat, and that became
• 50:47
  Mad Dog Grammographics. And he had a partner,
• 50:54
  which... immediately dropped out, which I bought
• 50:58
  that partner out. So me and Bill were partners
• 51:00
  in Mad Dog, and then Bill moved to Los Angeles,
• 51:03
  and then I got stuck with it, you know, but not
• 51:07
  stuck with it in a bad way. I've been tattooing.
• 51:10
  I mean, I did my first tattoos probably 86, 87
• 51:13
  on my friends Mike Sims and Matt Tolles and a
• 51:15
  bunch of other people. I was tattooing people
• 51:17
  with a homemade machine at Jefferson Park on
• 51:20
  my uncle's friends, you know. With a homemade
• 51:23
  machine. I was already tattooing, and I didn't
• 51:27
  think of it as something that would be a business.
• 51:30
  And then it ended up as a business. So Bill moved,
• 51:37
  and I kind of just did my own thing with it,
• 51:40
  and I'm still here. I've owned a shop longer
• 51:44
  than anybody else in Bakersfield. People have
• 51:49
  been tattooing. Just as long, but I mean, I have
• 51:52
  the oldest shop with the consistency, 30 years
• 51:55
  of the same person running it and owning it,
• 51:58
  not being sold to 15 people along the way. There's
• 52:02
  shops in town that have been sold multiple times,
• 52:05
  and they're, you know, oh, we're the oldest one.
• 52:08
  No, no, you're not, you know? And you're like
• 52:10
  the first tattoo shop that kind of did alternative
• 52:13
  styles? I don't know if that's the right word.
• 52:15
  i wouldn't say i mean we we were doing graffiti
• 52:18
  tattoos with you know cave and and stuff back
• 52:21
  in the early days and and a lot of color work
• 52:24
  and and stuff that that wasn't um that's pretty
• 52:27
  much what any any tattoo shop going through that
• 52:30
  time was doing because that was popular you see
• 52:32
  fads and tattooing like the lower tribal tramp
• 52:35
  stamps and and then for a while we had you know
• 52:39
  Man, so many fads, the Hurley logo, you know,
• 52:43
  you just, things would be in fashion. They wouldn't
• 52:46
  be in fashion. The jewelry tattoo under the boobs,
• 52:49
  the under boob tattoos, you know. you know, the
• 52:53
  neck tattoos, which I call them the man stamps,
• 52:56
  the ones on the throat, you know. And then you
• 52:58
  see the tramp stamp goes from above the butt
• 53:02
  to the chest and then below the chest, and who
• 53:05
  knows where it's going. But, yeah, there's fads
• 53:07
  in tattooing. So, you know, we couldn't control
• 53:10
  what was popular at the time, but we did custom
• 53:13
  stuff, which a lot of shops didn't do. You either
• 53:16
  pick it off the wall. or or you didn't and then
• 53:19
  i did the friday the 13th special back in 97
• 53:24
  before anybody even thought of it And that became
• 53:28
  a worldwide phenomenon. People that were known
• 53:32
  now, like Oliver Peck and stuff, for Friday the
• 53:37
  13th, people would ask me at conventions, you
• 53:39
  do what? You offer $13 tattoos on Friday the
• 53:42
  13th? Yeah, with a $7 tip. Yeah, but those people
• 53:46
  will come back. They end up being valued customers,
• 53:50
  and they do that. But I can say that Mad Dog,
• 53:55
  I remember... working in Reno because I also
• 54:00
  worked in Reno and uh I got let go because the
• 54:06
  guy found out that I wasn't white I was Mexican
• 54:08
  I was Mexican so uh he he didn't have he didn't
• 54:12
  like that so I had to go get an apprenticeship
• 54:15
  at a different tattoo shop in San Francisco and
• 54:18
  and uh so I could say that Mad Dog was one of
• 54:25
  the first shops In the United States. Well at
• 54:30
  least California. Had. An African American working
• 54:35
  at it. Because that was a big hell no. Back then.
• 54:38
  The tattoo scene was different. It was a white
• 54:41
  honky tonk tattoo scene. You didn't really have
• 54:44
  Chicanos. In a tattoo shop. It's common now.
• 54:48
  Had Chicanos. When I had. A homosexual. Guy tattooing
• 54:55
  for me. Openly. flamboyantly homosexual. I didn't
• 55:00
  care. He was a great artist, still a great artist,
• 55:03
  Ricky. Man, I got a lot of shit for it from other
• 55:08
  people in the industry. Like, oh, you know what
• 55:10
  kind of door you're opening here? What kind of
• 55:12
  precedent you're saying? I had a trans person
• 55:14
  doing piercing for a while. People gave a shit
• 55:19
  for it. It becomes a little bit normal after
• 55:21
  a while and people realize, oh, that person's
• 55:23
  cool and stuff. And it's all about, you know,
• 55:28
  I think I'm more known maybe for that. And some
• 55:33
  people could say it's a good or a bad thing.
• 55:35
  And the Friday the 13th thing and stuff, more
• 55:39
  so than changing what style of art people got.
• 55:43
  You know, because we did that. I did that. And
• 55:48
  I don't care. There was nobody to do it back
• 55:52
  then. Other people who are famous tattooers right
• 55:56
  now, really famous, they have their own line
• 55:59
  of ink, would bully him out of the shop because
• 56:03
  he was gay. You know, stuff like that. And boy,
• 56:08
  if people knew that now, they would boycott him.
• 56:11
  You know, especially being he still owns a shop
• 56:14
  in Hollywood. You know, now he owns a shop. you
• 56:19
  know it's stuff like that the tattoo scene is
• 56:21
  like the punk rock scene and it has its own weirdness
• 56:27
  about it which kind of disappeared now it's a
• 56:30
  it was really honky -tonk and a real it was kind
• 56:33
  of a free -for -all thing but it had its rules
• 56:35
  you didn't open up next to somebody If you wanted
• 56:40
  to tattoo in a town and there's a tattoo shop
• 56:42
  there already, you got to call and kind of ask
• 56:45
  permission. You can't be on the same street.
• 56:48
  You can't be within a certain miles from them,
• 56:51
  you know. And back then there was less than 100
• 56:53
  shops in the United States. Now there's 100 shops
• 56:58
  almost in Bakersfield, you know. Yeah. That's
• 57:01
  crazy. But I did do the tattoo shop to pay to
• 57:07
  do music. Okay, so it was kind of like the funding
• 57:11
  to keep your music going. Yeah, the tattoos paid
• 57:14
  for my music gear, PA gear, because I did PA
• 57:18
  sound for so many bands, Papa Roach, anybody
• 57:22
  that came through the Montgomery World Plaza
• 57:24
  when we were doing those shows there, I did sound
• 57:27
  for Tim Gardea, all those shows, Freak Fest,
• 57:30
  all kinds of shows. So did you do sound for the
• 57:34
  Deftones when they finally came back? No, because
• 57:37
  that was too big of a show. Oh, too big of a
• 57:39
  show. I just thought because Tim Gardea threw
• 57:41
  one of those. Yeah. It's either got to be Pacific
• 57:44
  West Sound. Okay. But if the venue was small
• 57:46
  enough, I wouldn't say small. If it was a smaller
• 57:49
  venue that I can handle, I would do the sound.
• 57:53
  Because PacWest didn't want to do them. Yeah.
• 57:56
  And would charge way too much for them. Just
• 57:59
  because they had to have a certain budget. And
• 58:02
  it was nothing against them. It's just the way
• 58:03
  the industry is. Brent was more happy that I
• 58:07
  did those shows than I wasn't considered competition.
• 58:12
  So I would do all the Montgomery World. I did
• 58:16
  almost all the Dome shows except for I didn't
• 58:20
  do COC and Motorhead because my band American
• 58:25
  Standard just got to Cleveland, Ohio that night
• 58:28
  to play our first show. I wasn't here, but most
• 58:33
  of the shows at the Dome I did, unless it was
• 58:37
  like My Chemical Romance, if the writers in this
• 58:40
  band was at such a statute that they needed,
• 58:43
  we want this Midas board. You know, I had a Midas
• 58:47
  console, but I didn't have the big, big one.
• 58:50
  And a place like the Dome took, I mean, I had
• 58:55
  a pretty good -sized PA system, sound system.
• 59:00
  But that place needed a lot of sound reinforcement
• 59:03
  to stop the echo and the bad sound of that place.
• 59:07
  Well, it was a dome, so it was round, right?
• 59:09
  So the sound has got to be insane. Yeah, it was
• 59:11
  insane. What's your top three shows you did sound
• 59:14
  for? Oh, man, I couldn't even tell you. One of
• 59:19
  the reasons I ask these types of questions is
• 59:21
  because a lot of people, especially younger people,
• 59:24
  don't even know how many legendary bands played
• 59:27
  right here. Flock of Seagulls. I did sound with
• 59:32
  that with Front Porch Music. That was at VDALS.
• 59:36
  So a lot of times I would help Sounds Unlimited
• 59:41
  at the time, which ended up being Pacific West
• 59:43
  Sound. So with him, I did RKL and Beyond Possession
• 59:47
  at VDALS. I mean, this is early on, and I helped
• 59:51
  him do sound there. That wasn't my sound gear.
• 59:55
  I worked for somebody else. But doing that was
• 59:59
  awesome, Flock of Seagulls. And then I did sound
• 1:00:01
  and ended up going on tour with him for a little
• 1:00:04
  bit of a band called Exposé, which was three
• 1:00:07
  beautiful girls from Miami and a tape player.
• 1:00:10
  For some reason, they liked the way I did it
• 1:00:12
  and asked me to come along. Didn't realize I
• 1:00:14
  was only 15 years old. So I had these, like,
• 1:00:17
  22 -year -old girls in lingerie every night singing
• 1:00:21
  and then would be, oh, you're so cute. Messing
• 1:00:25
  with me. And I was like, man. And they're just
• 1:00:27
  doing cocaine everywhere. But they were huge.
• 1:00:30
  They had, like, the song, you're taking me to
• 1:00:33
  the point of no return. You know, it was like
• 1:00:35
  a huge 80s hit. Wow. And so. 15 years old, you're
• 1:00:40
  already doing sound for a big band. Yeah, they
• 1:00:42
  were huge. They were huge. So you're really...
• 1:00:45
  Submersed? Submersed in it? Yeah, you've been
• 1:00:48
  fully immersed in music your whole life. My whole
• 1:00:51
  life. Reflecting back, what's the top three concerts
• 1:00:56
  that you played at? Okay. I would say the Einhoven
• 1:01:05
  Metal Meeting. We played with Creator, Exodus,
• 1:01:11
  Dark Angel. We're on a major stage. Wow. I'm
• 1:01:18
  the lead singer -drummer. I have the original
• 1:01:21
  two other members of the mentors, which Sikki
• 1:01:25
  on one side and Heathen Scum on the other. It's
• 1:01:29
  a roar that you feel the pressure of the audience
• 1:01:32
  roaring back at you. Sold out. You know, you're
• 1:01:36
  in Holland, the Netherlands, and it's amazing.
• 1:01:40
  And they got me whatever drum set. I asked for
• 1:01:44
  a big Ludwig double bass kit, you know, just
• 1:01:47
  to ham it up a little bit. And they asked me
• 1:01:50
  what equipment. I want Marshall Stacks on the
• 1:01:52
  stage and stuff. So it was a rock concert. It
• 1:01:55
  was a bone, like, I have arrived kind of moment.
• 1:01:58
  Even though we had other big shows before, like
• 1:02:01
  we did the Legend stage at the Punk Rock Picnic.
• 1:02:05
  which was amazing too and you all you see is
• 1:02:08
  a big circle of people just moving when you play
• 1:02:11
  and and that was those two shows were amazing
• 1:02:16
  another another shows that were amazing was um
• 1:02:21
  and it was a big hell to get there i left with
• 1:02:26
  edema to play in el paso get on a plane which
• 1:02:32
  we there was problems with it being delayed and
• 1:02:35
  stuff so we have to do this other plane and it
• 1:02:40
  was i remember if it was a propeller plane or
• 1:02:43
  not so we have to land in arizona and in phoenix
• 1:02:47
  during a sandstorm and we have to get on the
• 1:02:52
  off the plane on the tarmac and it was like being
• 1:02:57
  in a blow dryer like crazy hot winds like i've
• 1:03:01
  never felt with sand i mean enough to take your
• 1:03:05
  your pain off the car then we finally get to
• 1:03:09
  el paso we play oh the speaking rock casino two
• 1:03:15
  nights in a row The first night we're playing
• 1:03:18
  with Jackal. I don't know if you know who Jackal
• 1:03:20
  is. I'm not sure. If I told you the song, you
• 1:03:22
  might. They had that song with the chainsaw.
• 1:03:24
  I'm your chainsaw, baby. Yeah, it sounds familiar.
• 1:03:28
  And then we played the second night with Buck
• 1:03:30
  Cherry. I remember them from the 2000s. Yeah,
• 1:03:35
  that song all lit up again. So what's crazy is
• 1:03:39
  the Edema guys know those guys. the guys from
• 1:03:44
  the band buck chair is like mentors you know
• 1:03:48
  like they point me on they're like you know tripping
• 1:03:51
  out that i also do that which happens all the
• 1:03:54
  time people will never pick me out from being
• 1:03:57
  with edema people like famous people like Prince's
• 1:04:01
  band members, Wendy and Lisa, and I have witnesses
• 1:04:05
  to this. I'm in Amoeba Records, and they see
• 1:04:07
  me with a Mentor shirt, and they're all, you're
• 1:04:09
  a mad dog. You're the singer of the Mentors.
• 1:04:11
  And I'm like, how do you know of the Mentors?
• 1:04:13
  They're all sick. Prince thinks Sicky Whitebeater's
• 1:04:16
  the greatest guitar player in the world. We all
• 1:04:18
  love the Mentors. It's hilarious. And I'm like,
• 1:04:20
  okay, which, you know. Tom Petty, and there's
• 1:04:25
  all kinds of people out there that are famous
• 1:04:27
  with bad taste that like us. But back to the
• 1:04:30
  speaking rock. So we played two nights out there,
• 1:04:33
  and I'm talking 30 ,000, 40 ,000 people each
• 1:04:39
  night. And we're treated like royalty, beautiful
• 1:04:44
  hotels. So this is Adima, what year was this?
• 1:04:49
  Oh, shoot, probably. 2011 maybe 2010 okay and
• 1:04:55
  uh you know i've done a lot of shows in new york
• 1:04:59
  and stuff and so those those the holland punk
• 1:05:03
  rock picnic and that that el paso i gotta tell
• 1:05:07
  you about this other el paso show okay so i think
• 1:05:11
  the guy was connected with the speaking rock
• 1:05:14
  casino he's an attorney And he's an attorney
• 1:05:18
  for the members of, I think, the cartels. He's
• 1:05:21
  a defense attorney. So if there's some crime
• 1:05:25
  or whatever, he's like a major attorney. He hires
• 1:05:30
  us to play in El Paso at a place that's the size
• 1:05:36
  of Dodger Stadium. And we're there with Kill
• 1:05:40
  Devil Hill and all these other... around that
• 1:05:46
  time, big bands, not anything to, I mean, Kill
• 1:05:51
  Devil Hill had Rex from Pantera, Benny Appesee
• 1:05:55
  from Dio on drums, and a bunch of other bands.
• 1:06:00
  I can't even remember. I need to go back and
• 1:06:03
  look at all the bands that played, but it was
• 1:06:05
  a huge to -do, and we're at a place that's the
• 1:06:08
  size of Dodger Stadium, and I'm like, Crazy.
• 1:06:13
  Okay. Okay. It's like two big stages. Well, right
• 1:06:18
  before showtime, they're setting up tables and
• 1:06:20
  stuff where the crowd would be. But it's just
• 1:06:24
  not that many tables. And we're there because
• 1:06:28
  the attorney hired all these bands to play for
• 1:06:34
  a quinceanera for his daughter's sweet 15 party.
• 1:06:38
  you know, the Quinceañera party because that's
• 1:06:41
  who she was into. So we go travel all this way
• 1:06:44
  thinking we're playing Dodger Stadium kind of
• 1:06:46
  place that's going to be 100 ,000 people there.
• 1:06:48
  No, there's about 50 to 100 people there just
• 1:06:51
  for this one girl, and her daddy just paid for
• 1:06:55
  it all and paid us buku money to go there. So
• 1:06:58
  that was a crazy gig. Wow, like a private gig.
• 1:07:01
  It was a private gig. For somewhat a rich person,
• 1:07:03
  I guess. Yeah, it was like having a transistor
• 1:07:06
  radio and a... in a school bathroom you know
• 1:07:10
  i mean it was like it was weird it was weird
• 1:07:13
  but yeah it that was kind of a crazy real it
• 1:07:16
  was surreal yeah definitely because like i'm
• 1:07:19
  upstairs hanging with you know the bass player
• 1:07:22
  pantera you know and stuff like that and you
• 1:07:25
  know and i've been in those situations a lot
• 1:07:28
  where you know you never he's always surprised
• 1:07:32
  at who you know and who you meet you know yeah
• 1:07:36
  you know it's crazy i've done a lot of gigs everywhere
• 1:07:39
  everywhere and man to pull to pull what what
• 1:07:42
  is my favorite is really hard yeah i bet yeah
• 1:07:46
  it's really hard because there's so many good
• 1:07:48
  ones and and lately i i i forget about stuff
• 1:07:52
  and then like An hour from now, I could probably
• 1:07:55
  tell you some crazy stories because I won't think
• 1:07:58
  about it until then, you know. I'll be back in
• 1:08:00
  an hour. Yeah. Now I'm just kidding. Yeah. And,
• 1:08:02
  you know, there's just so many, so many. We played
• 1:08:08
  Adema, had a situation. Dave, it's made national
• 1:08:14
  news, so I don't think it's going to be a problem
• 1:08:16
  to tell this story. It's all right. He doesn't
• 1:08:19
  listen to it yet. He will. We're playing in Hartford,
• 1:08:24
  Connecticut at the Hartford, at the main stage.
• 1:08:28
  And the crowd's in there. And Dave had a DUI.
• 1:08:36
  And why this went to this, I don't know why,
• 1:08:40
  but we're on tour. Well, Bakersfield gets aware
• 1:08:47
  of the tour and, you know, We're going to be
• 1:08:52
  back soon. Yeah. We're already in Connecticut
• 1:08:55
  heading back. And the Connecticut State Police
• 1:09:03
  come in on stage and take Dave off stage. Like
• 1:09:09
  he's a murderer. Yeah. And they give him a million
• 1:09:12
  -dollar bill. It makes all the news of CNN, Fox
• 1:09:17
  News. It makes it all over a DUI in Bakersfield.
• 1:09:22
  It was really surreal. It was like being in a,
• 1:09:25
  like, we can't believe you're doing this. But
• 1:09:28
  they did it. Well, they held them to the last
• 1:09:31
  minute and then extra added them back to California.
• 1:09:35
  So instead of letting them go. So that's the
• 1:09:37
  reason you had to replace him for the tour? No,
• 1:09:40
  this is the reason I had to stop playing guitar
• 1:09:44
  and go back to bass. So on that tour, I started
• 1:09:47
  as a guitar player, went back to bass. finished
• 1:09:51
  up the tour, came to Bakersfield, grabbed Dave
• 1:09:54
  back on guitar and did more shows. It was nuts.
• 1:09:58
  But there was no reason that they should have
• 1:10:01
  picked up Dave for something that was being taken
• 1:10:05
  care of. They just wanted to get the grandstand
• 1:10:09
  on it and to put out that they had the guy from
• 1:10:12
  Edema with a million dollar belt. That's a crazy
• 1:10:14
  gig. That was a crazy thing. And we had a lot
• 1:10:17
  of those kind of incidents on this tour. You
• 1:10:20
  know, but, you know, to remember old shows, I
• 1:10:23
  mean, it's hard because there's some, like, with
• 1:10:26
  the mentors that were really crazy, some with
• 1:10:28
  Haas Bruton, really crazy. American Standard,
• 1:10:31
  you know, American Standard toured. And during
• 1:10:35
  when Luke was in Edema, before I was, I had my
• 1:10:39
  band American Standard that was being looked
• 1:10:41
  at at Capitol Records, being looked at by Earache
• 1:10:44
  and a few other things. And we went on tour with
• 1:10:48
  Edema opening. And we got to play CBGBs, you
• 1:10:52
  know, before the club. Oh, that's cool. Yeah,
• 1:10:54
  so I'm one of the only few people, you know,
• 1:10:57
  that got from Bakersfield that's ever played
• 1:10:59
  CBGBs. I've played pretty much every famous club,
• 1:11:02
  you know. There is, you know, like the Whiskey,
• 1:11:07
  the Roxy, Troubadour, CBGBs. I've played, you
• 1:11:11
  know, BB King. Huh? Gilman. Gilman, yeah. the,
• 1:11:19
  the Peabody's in Hartford, you know, not in Hartford,
• 1:11:24
  Peabody's in, in Cleveland, Ohio, you know, I've
• 1:11:29
  done all these, like, you know, BB Kings, like
• 1:11:32
  I said, and stuff, but, I mean, I don't know,
• 1:11:35
  where was I, but. Basically, you just had a long,
• 1:11:40
  really successful, but also eclectic career just
• 1:11:44
  doing tons of stuff. Yeah, I've done a lot of
• 1:11:48
  stuff with a lot of different bands. I even forgot
• 1:11:53
  when Jim passed away from Karma Hit List, that
• 1:11:57
  was a band Ty was in with Cesario and stuff.
• 1:12:02
  I had the radio show at the time, and I had them
• 1:12:04
  come on the radio show, and I'm interviewing
• 1:12:07
  them, and they're talking about the history of
• 1:12:09
  Karma Hit List and how Sean Starkey was the second
• 1:12:12
  singer, and then they played some songs, and
• 1:12:16
  I'm all, okay, who's on that song? They're all,
• 1:12:18
  well, Sean on vocals, Jim on guitar, Cesario,
• 1:12:22
  and they're all, you're playing bass. I'm like,
• 1:12:25
  I'm playing bass? They're all, yeah, you were
• 1:12:27
  our bass player at the time. I'm like, I was
• 1:12:30
  in your band? Oh, yeah, I was in that band. I
• 1:12:33
  forgot, you know, and I forgot that I recorded
• 1:12:35
  bass on their demo in Hollywood for Johnny Love
• 1:12:39
  from the famous band Love Hate. You know, he
• 1:12:41
  recorded the band and produced it and stuff.
• 1:12:43
  That's cool. Like, I forgot because it's just
• 1:12:45
  so much and, you know, I'm getting older and
• 1:12:48
  I'm forgetting, you know, I'm the old man, you
• 1:12:50
  know. To sum up, you've been a drummer, a guitarist,
• 1:12:54
  a bassist, a singer. You've had a tattoo shop,
• 1:12:58
  a radio show. You've been a promoter. What else?
• 1:13:03
  A sound guy. Sound engineer. You practically
• 1:13:07
  have to, being a promoter, you also were a bouncer
• 1:13:11
  during that, right? I was a bouncer for a lot
• 1:13:13
  of major clubs in San Francisco. At the Stone,
• 1:13:17
  Pool Moon Saloon, the Covered Wagon, Gilman Street.
• 1:13:20
  berkeley square the omni everywhere you can think
• 1:13:24
  of in san francisco and then what was cool is
• 1:13:27
  i also worked at the mitchell brothers early
• 1:13:30
  on that's the club where the strip club where
• 1:13:33
  the owner killed his brother the other brother
• 1:13:36
  yeah it was like world news when i was there
• 1:13:38
  and and you know i even threw shows in reno you
• 1:13:42
  know and stuff like that you know wherever i
• 1:13:44
  could throw shows and get my bands playing or
• 1:13:46
  my friends band playing that's that's what it
• 1:13:48
  was all about back then Yeah. Well, that's awesome.
• 1:13:53
  Thanks for telling us all about Bakersfield history.
• 1:13:57
  So to end the show, we always talk about the
• 1:14:01
  local scene kind of now. Are there any local
• 1:14:04
  bands you recommend people to go check out? Well,
• 1:14:08
  there's kind of a rehash on a lot of stuff, and
• 1:14:13
  I really can't identify. With anything that's
• 1:14:19
  going on now, I really don't know what the music
• 1:14:22
  scene is like anymore. And I try to. I know the
• 1:14:26
  guys that have some bands, but they're always
• 1:14:28
  changing their names, so I can't keep up on it.
• 1:14:31
  So, I mean, I think there's one called Poser
• 1:14:34
  Holocaust, Lames and Flames. You know, trying
• 1:14:41
  to do this thrash metal revival. I really can't
• 1:14:45
  keep up with them. And my problem is I'm the
• 1:14:51
  epitome of the old punk that just thinks everything
• 1:14:56
  is a bunch of hipsters copping our style. And
• 1:14:59
  that's all I see now. That's all I see. People
• 1:15:02
  that change their hairstyle to be whatever concerts
• 1:15:05
  they're going to. Because as somebody that has
• 1:15:10
  the tattoo shop that sees people all the time
• 1:15:13
  that will lay judgment on me. for whatever I
• 1:15:16
  do or I'm old now or whatever, to lay that judgment
• 1:15:20
  on me and not know what I've done for this town,
• 1:15:23
  I pretty much say, fuck your band because your
• 1:15:28
  hairstyle is going to be different next week
• 1:15:29
  when you go to that other show. And you're just
• 1:15:34
  a hipster because you don't know what we had
• 1:15:36
  to go through. And you're lucky that nobody is
• 1:15:40
  the way that they were when we did it. And I'm
• 1:15:43
  the epitome of that old grouchy guy that feels
• 1:15:46
  that way, which I hate feeling that way because
• 1:15:48
  I want to see bands play. But it's hard for me
• 1:15:51
  now. I keep seeing the same thing. Like, oh,
• 1:15:58
  that's cool, but that's a straight cop of Hyrax.
• 1:16:01
  Or that's a straight cop of this. And I just,
• 1:16:05
  you know, I hope that I hope I'm wrong. I hope
• 1:16:08
  that I am. I think you're wrong in some cases.
• 1:16:11
  And that's fine. But I think you're right in
• 1:16:13
  some cases, too. I definitely think the type
• 1:16:16
  of people that you're explaining are out there.
• 1:16:19
  Absolutely. So to sum up what you've been saying,
• 1:16:23
  basically to you almost, you know, punk is dead,
• 1:16:27
  but you want to be proved wrong. absolutely i
• 1:16:30
  i would love to be proved wrong on that yeah
• 1:16:32
  and it's not really i feel it's dead but it deserves
• 1:16:36
  to die as jello would say you know i see you
• 1:16:40
  know but i i don't want it to be but um because
• 1:16:44
  it's the greatest thing that ever was and and
• 1:16:47
  it still could be the greatest thing i just i
• 1:16:50
  i love that spirit yeah i love all the early
• 1:16:54
  stuff that that wasn't necessarily had to be
• 1:16:58
  this sound you could sound like the b -52s mixed
• 1:17:02
  with the dead kennedys mixed with devo and and
• 1:17:06
  still be punk rock but not everything needs to
• 1:17:10
  sound like the dwarves but i really want to see
• 1:17:13
  a lot of more original stuff you know yeah and
• 1:17:16
  you know sad to say the last music i've seen
• 1:17:21
  that that was totally different was dubstep At
• 1:17:24
  least that had a different sound. Not that I'm
• 1:17:26
  a fan of it, but that robot. You respect how
• 1:17:30
  unique it was. Yeah, it was so unique that I
• 1:17:32
  had no choice but to respect it. And I just want
• 1:17:35
  to see that again. And not dubstep, obviously,
• 1:17:39
  but I want to see that uniqueness where it's
• 1:17:44
  still punk rock. It still has it all, but it's
• 1:17:47
  not a cop of something else. It can be influence.
• 1:17:53
  Because back then we had rock -influenced punk,
• 1:17:55
  and now we got everything after that, metal -influenced
• 1:18:01
  punk or pop. It's hard to say, but there was
• 1:18:05
  no one to base your sound off of in the original
• 1:18:08
  incarnation of it, and now it's become everybody.
• 1:18:14
  I mean, for a while, everybody sounded like Green
• 1:18:16
  Day, or they sounded like... Like The Offspring.
• 1:18:20
  And then everybody sounded like Korn. And everybody
• 1:18:23
  sounds like this. And it just leaves a bad taste
• 1:18:27
  sometimes. And I want to be proved wrong. I want
• 1:18:30
  to see a totally unique band that will make me
• 1:18:34
  want to buy a shirt. That will make me want to
• 1:18:36
  do a lot of things. I'd rather listen to Ghost
• 1:18:41
  a lot of times. Which is kind of a unique...
• 1:18:45
  take on something else that's kind of ABBA meets
• 1:18:48
  Metallica, you know? Yeah. At least that's original
• 1:18:50
  or something. So yeah, that's the way I, you
• 1:18:54
  know, I want to be proved wrong though. I want
• 1:18:55
  to see some great bands. I want to see some,
• 1:18:57
  I want to see some greatness, something that
• 1:19:00
  I can pull out and say that's unique and that's
• 1:19:03
  going to go somewhere. And, and hopefully that
• 1:19:05
  band will stay together, not change their name
• 1:19:08
  50 times and follow through because unfortunately
• 1:19:11
  a lot of Bakersfield bands don't follow through.
• 1:19:14
  Yeah. I mean, not to sound negative, but I really
• 1:19:19
  just want to see some greatness come out of some
• 1:19:21
  people who deserve it from a town called Bakersfield
• 1:19:25
  and prove me wrong and prove everybody wrong
• 1:19:28
  and be that band that changes so much. Because
• 1:19:32
  we've had that. We've had that with Korn. Korn,
• 1:19:35
  there was no that style before there was Korn.
• 1:19:39
  There was stuff they were influenced by, but
• 1:19:41
  there was nothing close to that. And that's why
• 1:19:45
  they deserve what they got. Not that I'm talking
• 1:19:48
  about bands making millions and millions of dollars,
• 1:19:51
  but a band like Plaid Retina and Visalia being
• 1:19:57
  a totally unique band that got on Alternative
• 1:20:01
  Tentacles. that you can still get their albums
• 1:20:04
  and they might be an old band but you new kids
• 1:20:08
  are still discovering them just like they are
• 1:20:10
  a lot of the metal like hyrax and and stuff they're
• 1:20:13
  discovering them and they're more copying them
• 1:20:17
  instead of being influenced by them to make something
• 1:20:19
  of their own and that's what i want to see yeah
• 1:20:22
  and i play with a lot of bands you know mentors
• 1:20:26
  play with a lot of new bands and and i just can't
• 1:20:30
  listen to all the opening bands all the time
• 1:20:32
  because a lot of times it's the same either they're
• 1:20:34
  screaming the same or they're cooking monster
• 1:20:35
  the vocals or whatever and it's like it's the
• 1:20:38
  same seems like from the last 10 bands the last
• 1:20:42
  10 gigs it's the same band but with a different
• 1:20:44
  name yeah yeah that makes sense so looking back
• 1:20:49
  from when you were just a kid playing guitar
• 1:20:52
  in your bedroom to now that you've played all
• 1:20:55
  over the world and been a part of All these important
• 1:20:58
  scenes in Bakersfield, in San Francisco. How
• 1:21:01
  do you feel that you've accomplished all that?
• 1:21:04
  I feel thankful. The only thing I don't feel
• 1:21:07
  thankful about is I should have had a camera.
• 1:21:11
  I hate that there was no iPhone back then. Even
• 1:21:16
  though I hate having an iPhone now. I wouldn't
• 1:21:20
  be a part of social media if I didn't have to
• 1:21:22
  be. God darn it, people are so lucky now that
• 1:21:26
  they have that. You know, something I'm going
• 1:21:29
  to tell all these people, document everything.
• 1:21:32
  Document everything you do. And if you're playing
• 1:21:35
  music, document that. And don't go in when you're
• 1:21:40
  older and look back and say, well, this is what
• 1:21:43
  I did, you know, my early 20s. And then I got
• 1:21:46
  a job doing this and doing that. You know, you
• 1:21:49
  can have a job doing this and that. But don't
• 1:21:52
  forget that you have a passion for music. And
• 1:21:55
  be something great that comes out of this town.
• 1:21:59
  Because there's no reason to ever give it up.
• 1:22:02
  If you've got a woman that wants you to give
• 1:22:04
  it up, give it to the woman. Because she really
• 1:22:06
  doesn't care about you. Or your partner. Whoever
• 1:22:10
  your partner is. Whether it be a man or a woman.
• 1:22:13
  Or if you're a woman and you're with a guy that
• 1:22:15
  doesn't want you to be in a band. You know what?
• 1:22:17
  They don't really care about you. Don't let nobody
• 1:22:19
  crush your dreams. Stay playing because you can
• 1:22:23
  be an EMT and still be in a band. I've seen it
• 1:22:27
  many a times. I've seen bands that have police
• 1:22:32
  officers in it. So don't stop playing. Document
• 1:22:35
  everything. Record everything because I wish
• 1:22:37
  I had so much stuff recorded. Take video. Take
• 1:22:41
  it all. We're at a time in our lives where...
• 1:22:45
  Our memories can always be there. And that's
• 1:22:48
  my biggest regret of not having all my memories
• 1:22:51
  and recordings and photos. But I feel so happy
• 1:22:59
  about everything I've done with music. And I
• 1:23:03
  was able to open doors for some people and be
• 1:23:08
  a part of something that was a lot greater than
• 1:23:11
  I am. And that's a perfect ending.