Latest / The Bob Lefsetz Podcast / Orianthi

Transcript

Orianthi · The Bob Lefsetz Podcast

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Steps Podcast.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: My guest today is Ori Anty, guitarist artist songwriter orianthy
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Good to have you on the podcast.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me on. I really
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: appreciate it.
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: Okay, I read in a recent interview with you, but
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: you said you love music, but you hate the music industry.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: Can you tell me more about that?
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: It's forever changing? Is that the wild West? Right?
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: I think you know, once streaming began, it kind of
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: all lost its value, you know, because I grew up
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: kind of in a time walk, you know, my dad's
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: record collections and the value of like going you know,
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: lining up at a record store and waiting for your
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: favorite record to come out and opening it and reading
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: the liner notes, and you know, there was just so
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: much more gravity to that to now where everything's like
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: instant gratification, which is cool and all right, because we
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: all love that. But I think kids that are now
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: born with iPhones in their hands, essentially, you know, they
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: don't know what it was like to sort of experience
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: music the other way where you go to a store
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: and you buy a jacket, and you pay for the jacket.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean, and it's like now it's
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: like music's so free, but everything you know, costs the same.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: And then the business side of things as well, it's
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: very different just how people operate. And when I first
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: got signed to now it's like I think everyone's sort
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: of famous, right, like so many which is great. I mean,
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: having the platform of TikTok and Instagram and all that
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: to be able to self promote, right, but the mystique
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: I think is kind of gone because you kind of
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: know what everyone's had for breakfast these days.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: You know, so okay, but your experiences in the industry.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: You had to deal with Geffen, you had a hit record,
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: you dealt with managers, you dealt with agins. Did that
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: leave a bad taste in your mouth?
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, absolutely yeah, if you don't have a good
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: lawyer to begin with. Yeah, yeah, you know, I came
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: off a boat from Australia, you know what I mean,
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: So I didn't know what I was getting into. I
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: signed within just go Jimmy Ivan, who's amazing. I have
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: utmost respect for him and Ron Fair and everybody. But
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: then you get this circus that surrounds you, right, so
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: you don't know where all your money is going. You
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: don't know what you're doing is essentially a very big loan.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: You don't realize that when you're a kid and you
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: just see all the flashing lights. We've got multi platinum
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: record here, I'm traveling you know, the world on this single,
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: and and you know, just there's tons of money being
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: thrown at you. You're making tons of money. You're getting
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: all these different sponsorships and whatnot, and from Colgate Commercial
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Commercialist to Panasonic to Hayundai to whatever, you know, clothing lines,
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: all that kind of stuff, and you sort of lose
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: your mind. And I was probably the most unhappiest back
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: then as a kid, you know, to what I am now,
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: I feel I feel like I'm finding balanced as I'm
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: getting older. You know, it's just like really, you know,
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: being more present. I think that's the key, you know,
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: to being like creating and being in the moment and
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: going back to what I was like as a kid
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: in my living room or in my bedroom with my
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: Keishar and creating because that's what it's all about, you know,
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: It's all about that joy and reaching people and serving people.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: And yeah, the spiritual aspect of music and creation is
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: where my head and heart and spirit lays better than
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: the business aspect of things.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: So okay, in that go round, you had it interscope.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: To what degree did they tell you what music to
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: make or want to change what you wanted to do personally?
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: You know, It's funny. When I first moved over here,
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: I self produced a record when I was like, i'll
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: say fifteen or sixteen, and I learned how to engineer.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: I learned how to produce, I learned how to play drums,
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: bass keys, everything, and I did this record called Violet
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Journey I was in. It was actually off Universal Records
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: in Australia, and then I got I sent it to
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: everyone over here in the US, and I got a
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: deal from Jimmy Ivy. You know, He's like, I love
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: what you're doing, you know, come over here and perform
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: for me. So I came over and I performed at
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: the NAM Show. Then I went to Jimmy's home in
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: bel Air and performed for him in the basement, and
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: he was sitting on a bean bag in his kid's
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: basement and he was like, perform for me with a
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: backing track. It was the craziest thing. And his kids
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: were having a party everyone's dressed and I remember dinosaur
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: gear and I don't know what's going on, and I
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: was playing my songs and he's like, I want to
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: sign you. And then then Ron Fair was like I
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: want to sign you to then went back to Australia,
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: came back and moved over. I was like eighteen nineteen,
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: so you know, that was pretty It was a pretty
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: wild sort of time. And then you know, I learned
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: kind of how to do everything myself. So I knew
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: how to write songs, and you how to produce. And
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: then when you get put into that big sort of machine,
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: you know, of a major label, they all want to
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: put you with different riders, rightly, so so you can
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: get hit songs. But then you feel like you can't
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: do it yourself. You feel like you're not good enough
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: to write by yourself, you know what I mean. You
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: sort of lose this thing like you always need somebody
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: to help. So I had to get out of that mentality.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: That was one thing that was like, yeah, sometimes it
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: does call for another songwriter. But this new record I've
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: just done, I've predominantly written every song myself, you know,
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: lyrically and musically, and I'm really proud of it too.
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: So yeah, okay, we'll get into your new work. But
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: since we started on this experience, this whirlwind, they forced
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: you to write with people. When the record was recorded,
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: were you happy with the music that was made, both
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: the songs in the way the recording and production ultimately came.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: Out, some of them, not all, you know. I think,
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: according to turned out really well because that song had
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: a really strong message. It was very empowering for women
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: and men. And I think putting a is about self worth,
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: you know, you know what I mean, It's like just
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: standing up for yourself. I thought the message was really strong.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: When the songwriters came in and showed me the song
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: and then I contributed to it and we finished it
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: up together in the studio. I'm like, I'm putting a
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: guitar solo on this, like you know, it could be
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: like a like an eighties guitar solo on a pop song.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: And everyone at first I was like, I'm not doing something.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: I play that on the radio and I'm like, well,
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: that's the point of difference, you know what I mean
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: for me, because I'm a guitar player and it'd be
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: really cool to do that and to inspire girls, you know,
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: because it wasn't that many female guitar players back then,
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: you know, when it first came out to pick up
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: the guitar and and just you know, my whole thing
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: was just to inspire and uplift, and I thought that
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: that song really embodied both things, you know, really did.
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: How then with the major label, well it.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: Was actually really sad. My A and R guy Tao Hertzberg,
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: he passed away from cancer and he was one of
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: my main guys there with Runfair and then Ron Fair,
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: i think went to a different position, and it's sort
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: of everyone sort of got different, you know. That's sort
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: of what things changed, vastly, right, who's in control? Who
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: signed you? Everything sort of slightly not falls apart, but
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: sort of does, like people take on different things. And
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: then we just sort of parted ways. There wasn't anything crazy.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: It just sort of happened where it was like, you know,
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: off the label now. So yeah, and then I went
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: straight in and made a record with Dave Stewart in Nashville,
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: so they went to Blackbird.
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: Okay, this is you know something people talk about a
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: lot today. People say, oh, the business is screwed. You
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: can't get signed to a major label. Since you've been
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: up both sides of the fence, Yes, did you end
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: up making any money from the major label?
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: I did in the sense of what they brought to
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: the tap. I mean, they really promote you in such
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: a massive way, right, So you reach so many people
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: people with how much money they put behind you. So
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: you make money from endorsements and sponsorships and all that
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: kind of stuff. So for me, I was making money
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: from like commercials and you know, clothing lines and shows
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: and all that kind of stuff. So absolutely, and I
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: did definitely make a lot of money, but a lot
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: of money got, you know, it sent out because you're
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: paying all these people. You have like the circus, you
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: have hair and makeup, you're flying the business class, you've
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: got parties going on. Honestly, I didn't know where half
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: my money was going. Now I do, thank god, but
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: back then I did not know. But you can make money.
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, you're talking about the the number of the other
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: opportunities that came. Did you make any record royalties and
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: you get any royalties today?
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: Right now? I do receive, Yes, money I did every month.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: I don't know the exact amount, but it changes all
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: the time. I can't say that it's an incredible amount
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: of money. No, No, it isn't, even though I've had
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: a lot of success, especially in Japan predominantly it was
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: my biggest market. I have a best stuff record over there,
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: and we streamed I don't know, according to you stream
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: that for a song. I don't even know how many
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: millions you had, like on even TikTok and all these
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: different things at like one hundred something million hits and
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: all this stuff. So yeah, I mean, it really doesn't
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: amount to much. No, I can't. I can't say. And
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: nowadays it's even worse because I had, as I said,
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: hard copies back then too.
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: So okay, the amount of money you make from royalties,
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: can it pay your mortgage or rent in a month? No?
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: Probably not. No.
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: No, Oh, okay, you're an attractive woman play guitar in
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: a world where that's a rarity. To what degree did
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: you feel pressure to trade on your sexuality? Were people
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: forced you to tread it on your sexuality? Oh?
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: I never really felt forced to do anything, you know.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: I mean people can say and say to me what.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: I hate it when actually people tell me what to do,
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: because then I do the opposite. It's my personality, so
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: I guess being this sort of hard headed six year
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: old I was as soon as I picked up the guitar,
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: I'm like, this is what I want to do. And
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: I told my parents this is what I'm doing, and
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: I'm going to go and live in America. I'm buying
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: myself a Cadillac and I have a number one song and
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: travel the world. And I was like, so sad on
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: that like kind of manifested. But I also put, you know,
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: like you have to put like inspired like action behind
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: your like thoughts. Of course, you know, so I work
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: my ass off, but I think that you know, I
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: don't like of course, when I was first signed, I
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: did listen to a lot of people, and it hurt
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: my brain and spirit, you know, because everyone has an opinion,
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: and even now, everyone has an opinion about what, you know,
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: I should be wearing, doing everything, and it's because they
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: and sometimes I mean really well, and sometimes I just
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: want to be part of the you know, I don't
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: know just to say something I don't really know anymore
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: as ego or whatever. But the people that I love
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: and trust I listened to, I'm like, hey, what do
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: you think about this song. Yeah, I dig that like
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: eel one better at whatever, right, you know, And I'm
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: totally cool with that. But you know, ultimately, as I
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: said before, I'm pretty strong, like kind of minded. So
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: I mean some things like, yes, I listened to a
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: lot of people and did some weird things in the beginning. Absolutely,
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: I mean my second video clip was weird. It was
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: very weird. It's like I didn't even want to watch it.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: That second single was bizarre. But anyway, you know, I
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: had my thoughts about that. I thought that there could
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: have been a stronger second single off the record, belief,
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: but the label went with what they went with. So
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: you know, you can't do much sometimes with you know,
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: you don't really have even though you have success with
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: the first single, you don't really have much of a
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: voice when you know, the powers that be have their opinion.
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: To what degree. And we've lived through the me too era?
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: Was this something you experienced in your time in the
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: mainstream up to today?
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: No, there's some weird people. Honestly, whenever I have a
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: gut feeling, and my parents really instill this to me
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: as a kid, whenever you feel like something's weird, just
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: just leave you know, just go there's a door. There's
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: always a door.
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: And I always feel that, you know what I mean,
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: if you feel anything weird or anything strange or like
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: with anybody you know and that you know goes with
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: anyone in this business or whatever in life. It's like,
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: if you feel weird about something or uncomfortable, I think,
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: just you know, have the strength just walk out. And
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: you know, even if it's you know, egos are bruised
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: or whatever happens, just get out of there. You know.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: That's why I look at it. As I said, I'm
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: a pretty strong sort of personality. I should say I
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: always have been.
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: So yeah, Okay, where are you from in Australia.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: I'm from Adelaide, South Australia. I'm a Southerner.
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: Okay, I've been a couple of times. I've not been
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: to Adelaide. How far is Adelaide from Sydney or Melbourne.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: It's about an hour thirty plane trip. And Adelaide is beautiful.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: I got to tell you, growing up there it was wonderful.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: I had kind of the best sort of childhood. My
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: parents allowed me to have many animals, so I essentially
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: grew up on a farm and my studio and just
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: having my cousins. I'm half Greek, so is that my
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: big fat Greek wedding? The way I grew up with
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: my parents home, my auntie's home, my grandma's home, all
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: in a row, and we're playing sports in the street, jamming.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: My cousin's are guitar players as well. My dad's a
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: guitar player. And I used to you know, I quit
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: school when I was fourteen to play in the pubs.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: So I used to pretend I was older than what
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: I was. You know, I put on more makeup than
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: I'm wearing now, and I used to tease my hair
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: up and wear crazy stuff and pretend I was like,
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: you know, eighteen to get into the clubs. And the
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: worst was when they're like fourteen year old guitar player.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: I'm like, ah damn, and then that body girl's like
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: you're out. So, you know, but I used to play
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: three nights a week in Australia, so that was I
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: made a pretty good living, I must say. As a kid.
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: Okay, let's go back to the beginning. How many kids
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: in the.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: Family, just me and my sister.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: Since you're older, younger, she's.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: Younger, but she definitely acts older, that's for sure.
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: And what is she up to teach days?
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: She's an art teacher. She's an incredible artist. She is
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: so amazing. She actually designed my oth symbol that I
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: use on everything, my signature guitars, I see nature amplifiers,
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: my signature vodka which I have about now too many things.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: She's just incredible, and she's very much no, she's very
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: centered kind of being like, she's very calming energy, she's
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: very she can work on an art piece for like
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: ten to twelve hours or not move, whereas I can
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: sit with my for six hours and and be, you know,
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: completely content. So we were definitely very artsy sort of kids,
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: and having parents that supported that. It was wonderful, truly.
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: What did your parents do for a living?
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: My father was in finance. He's actually retired now so
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: he's he's very happy. And my mom, she has had
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: many jobs. She was for a model. My mom's also
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: a romance writer from Mills and Boone. She's a bestseller.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: And she also works for the government in this really
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: sort of a position of working with Aboriginal employment and
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: many different things and financing businesses and everything. So she's uh,
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: she she works her butt off like my mum. I
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: don't even know how she funds time for herself, but
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: you know she's a I guess I get being a
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: workaholic from her too. Am I am my dad too.
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: But you know, are your parents still together?
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: They are?
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: Yep. Okay, let's back up a little bit. You're a
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: little kid. You're just starting to go to school. What
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: kind of kid are you? Are you a tomboy? You
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: talk about playing in the street. Are you someone who's
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: a nerd. Are you someone who is isolated, someone with
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: a million friends? What kind of kid do you like?
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: Kind of all of that, I'm going to tell you
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: I was really weird. I was completely artzy, into the
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: music down on the flip side. I was obsessed with sports.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: I was a tomboy. I was on a winning basketball team.
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: I love basketball. I love playing. I was a football
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: team as well. I played baseball, and you know, I
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: used to do everything. I just I thought I was
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: like one of the one of the guys when I
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: was a kid, because I was so many like you know,
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: I all like cousins and friends that picking up the
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: guitar because my dad, I wanted to like bond with him.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: And when I saw him playing like Hendrix's one day
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: in the living room, I'm like, what's that? Like that's cool,
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: you know, like I want to be able to do that.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: And then he played me like the Santana records. So
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: it became obsessed with playing guitar. So, you know, wearing
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: Jimmy Hendrix's Tired Eye T shirts and Santana kind of
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: inspired crocheted sort of hats and all that kind of
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: stuff to school doesn't win you many friends, you know,
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: definitely not. And then putting out posters on you know,
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: wolves going I want to start a band, you know,
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: inspired by BB King, Jimmy Hendrix, DV Ray, Santana. People
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: like what is going on?
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: You know?
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: So I definitely grew up in a time what There's
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: no question about that.
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: So when did you pick up the guitar?
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: I was six years old and I remember my dad
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: taught me like three chords and I was like, this
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: is awesome. I'm going to write songs now. So I
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: was after the Racis and the first thing that I
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: was obsessed with was actually songwriting because of Elvis Presley,
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: the Beatles, Roy Orbison, you know, John Lennon, just listening
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: to Bob Dylan, listening to you know, just a lyric
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: and the storytelling of it all. I really got into
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: that first, and then Jimmy Hendrix and Santana and then
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: you know, I studied classical guitar. I played in an
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: Orchestra Oklahoma production as a ten year old. I went
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: to university when I was ten and studied classical. So
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: I studied theory. I yeah, I just always had to
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: kind of keep on like learning things. You know, for me,
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: I just had to always be a busy body and
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: do stuff. But for me, classical guitar and learning theory
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: was like going to school. And I hated school because
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: I hated like people telling me what to do, and
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: so it became like very confined. So I got out
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: of there. I got past level two with a credit
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: and I passed really well. But that was enough for me.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: And my teacher was a bit of an ass as well.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: He was just a real hard ass on me. So
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: out of there. Then listened to Santana records and my
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: dad took me to a Santana show. Danced the Rainbow
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: Dance of the Rainbow Serpent Concert, and I remember were
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: sitting in sort of like the back area and he
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: went into Europa and those opening notes were so beautiful,
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: and I'm going, man, like that is so amazing, Like
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: it's like heavenlyless tone and just everything. I want to
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: be able to do that, you know. And so I
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: quit classical, became obsessed with playing electric and just learned
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: every Santana song basically, and then bb King and CEV
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: Ray and all that. But it just kind of put
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: me on this sort of tangent of just exploring an
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: adventure and just a calling. I think more than anything,
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: it was like a calling and purpose and I wanted
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: to be able to do that for the rest of
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: my life because I think i'd be five from anything else,
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: So, Okay, can you read music at this point?
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes I can. Yeah, that was part of the studying.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: I mean, I haven't done it for a minute. And
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: it's funny you kind of want to unlearn all of
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: that because when I'm soloing now, especially making records and
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: two records right now or completing two then really done.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: But when you're in the studio and I'm playing a
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: solo or coming up with stuff, I don't want to
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: think about theory. I don't think about thinking about, oh,
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: I'm playing this kind of mode or I'm doing whatever.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: But sometimes when it came in handy. When I was
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: working actually with A. R. Rahman, he did some dog
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: Millionaire and we did the soundtrack for it was a
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: number one movie in India, a rock star, and I
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: played the guitar and on that, and he called me
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: in to do Sata Hark which was actually a big
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: anthem in India. It was number one for a very
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: long time. So I played all the guitar parts for that,
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: so the actor had to come in and learn them.
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: But it was all Indian scale, So learning that was
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: a whole situation, you know, for a couple of days.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: And then you know, yeah, and then recently doing some
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: stuff with a Colombian artist who's a major pop star,
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: Carol g and she had some stuff in her music
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: too which was all these different scales and whatnot, which
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: was really interesting. We played rock and rio together. It
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: was like two hundred thousand people. That was a couple
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: of months ago. But you know, that kind of stuff
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: comes in handy for I don't know, just knowing the scales,
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: I guess, so yeah.
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: Okay, there's a strong Australian music scene, a lot of
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: legendary rock acts, also some pop acts. You're talking about
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: acts from an earlier era Santana, BB King Hendrix to
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: what deg Weed. Were you paying attention to the Australian
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: music market or pop market or were you paying attention
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: to the classics?
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: You know, I loved, obviously listening to quite a few
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: Australian bands like growing Up. My mom is a massive
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: to me Barnes fans, so you know, I loved listening
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: to Coltrees or my dad as well, and then Tommy
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: Emmanuel who's an amazing guitar player, so I used to
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: go to his shows, and yeah, I mean Savage Garden
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: as well. I used to listen to them because I
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: thought they were like really cool. It had some really
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: good pop songs, and you know, playing out a cover
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: band too, I had to learn a lot of pop
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: songs and learning how to put like a guitar solo
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: in a Kylie Minogue song or like, you know, stuff
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: like that, because you're playing until three am and you've
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: got to play you know, songs off the radio. So
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: that's when I actually started listening to the radio when
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: I was in a cover band.
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: Okay, you pick up the guitar, you're a songwriter. Does
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: your father have a slow of equipment you could just
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: use or when do you get a guitar.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: My dad's left handed, so I learned left handed first,
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: and then he was like, I think you should learn
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: right handed because you're going to have more choice and
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: guitars because you get to a guitar store and there's
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: like two crappy lets in your left handed ones in
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: the corner. The rest are all you know, right handed.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: So he was right about that, but absolutely he converted
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: a couple of guitars for me to use as a kid.
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: I must say I was pretty spoiled. When I was
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: six years old. I had one two five Gibson to
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: use and it was red, and I loved it so much.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: And my dad's like, just be really careful with this, okay,
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: just use it at home. And I would sneak it
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: and take it to school and play assemblies and with
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: the songs I've written, because I thought the songs were
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: so great. I had backup dancers and I would take
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: his amp, his nineteen seventy something Bendor ramp with me
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: with that you know, old one two five and put
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: it in the back of the car and my mum
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: was like, what's going on. I was a Dad's that's
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: cool with that. Sorry. And then one time my dad
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: saw me coming home, He's like, what are you doing.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: I'm like, nothing, nothing to see here, you know, carrying
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: my guitar, carrying his guitar and app but he actually
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: gave it to me and he was very supportive. And
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: then after you know, seeing Santana, I really wanted a
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: Pori smith and for my Christmas and Birthday and I
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: don't even know what, my dad got me a PRS.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: It was very very generous and they were very supportive,
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: and then I just saved up for my own gear
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: from then on, you know, because you just we're working
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: three nights a week, so I definitely contributed.
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: Oko. How did you actually learn how to play?
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: My dad taught me first a few chords, then I
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: studied classical. I did have one teacher at the rock shop.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: His name was Rath, remember him. He was great. He
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: was so he was so excited about music and I
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: used to love just jamming with him and bringing songs
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: to him and he would teach me in different things
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: and I'd be like, I want to learn this, and
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: he would give me assignments and then after that it
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: was mostly I would say I learned the most from
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: just listening to records, from putting them on and learning
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: all videos VHS and I would want I would wear
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: out VHS my favorite ever. And I say this to
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: people to always check out Sacred Fire live in Mexico, Santana.
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: Okay, you know, supposedly Dwayne Allman took the guitar to
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: the bathroom. You know, how much did you practice? How
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: devoted were you five.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: To six hours a day or more? And you know
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: I used to do things like not all kind of
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: bad things that my parents are like, don't do this
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: or exam and I would do it purposely. Started get
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: sent to my room. That means perfect, I can go
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: sit with my guitar, you know, for hours, because if
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: I was just in there for hours, my parents were like,
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: sometimes you should come out, you know, it's not healthy
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: for you'd be in your room for like, you know,
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: six seven hours, and so yeah, I think that, you know,
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: for me, I was just obsessed with it. Like you
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: can't force anyone to really do anything, but as a kid,
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: when you find something to be really like just intriguing.
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: And the guitar for me was and it was like
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: powerful and still now and a look at it's a
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: pretty intimidating instrument. Like it's not like I play it
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: the same every day. I don't, and I have I
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: have about fifty guitars in my living room right now,
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: which is kind of excessive, but you know, it makes
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: me feel comfortable. I sort of feel like they will
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: have different personalities and I sit with them and they
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: bring out different songs, and yeah, I mean I'm obsessed
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: with I'm obsessed with with music and guitar, and I
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: I don't think anyone could ever, you know, I don't
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: know like like distract me from that, either if I'm stuck,
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: if I'm in a writing mode, or if I'm rehearsing
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: that I'm going to be joining Alice Cooper for ten
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: shows coming up, so I'm learning like twenty five of
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: his songs right now. I'm definitely like, turn everything off,
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: leave me alone. Think you know, I'm not gonna be
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: pretty OCD like that.
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: If you are not writing a song or not preparing
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: for a tour, are you playing the guitar every day
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: or just when you know you have work coming up.
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: Some days I take a rest because if I've been
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: playing shows back to back or whatever it is, my
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: hands are pretty cut up, you know. And even in
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: the studio too. I've been working on two records. I've
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: been working with Eddie Kramer, who is a legend, you know,
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: and that's been a true honor. And by the end
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: of I think I did five or six hours of
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: guitar parts with him the other day, and I had
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: the indentse of like all the strings on my hands.
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: I'm like, I left the guitar alone for like a
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: day or so after that, because you know, it was painful.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: You know, you can't. I don't want to cut my
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: hands open. So but other than that, no, I love playing,
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: you know, and that's the thing that's the most important thing,
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: like what you do it for. I get to do
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: what I love for a living, and sometimes that what
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: I get paiper is like they're traveling and everything else,
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: because that's crazy sometimes, but I'm very grateful. Having gratitude
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: is everything, you know.
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: Okay, are you a gear head?
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: Somewhat? Not as much as some people. My dad is
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: far more than I am. He collects a lot of
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: pedals like my mom collects shoes. He has the pedal situation.
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: I collect some pedals and I get given some and
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: I use them like I have like a I wouldn't
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: say it's a crazy looking pedal board. It just has
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: like some really special pedals on there. That makes sense
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: to me right now, and I'll change things up later too,
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: you know. I think that, you know, it's the thing
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: where whatever sort of fits the set, you know, And
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: right now I'm kind of going for some pretty wild
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: sort of tones and working with different producers too, especially
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: Eddie and Kevin Shirley too, who produced my producer this
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: new record with me, because I've self produced half of
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: it and he did the rest. Working with him. He's like,
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: try this pedal or try that. So I'm taking suggestions,
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: you know. I'm always open hard and open minded with that.
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: I don't like too much stuff though. I like the connection,
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: but I always use the distortion from the amp. And
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: I have my own amplifier now, which is very awesome
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: to be able to have created my own signature model
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: with Orange, which is such a you know, incredible legendary
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: like AMP company coming out of England, working with Cliff
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: over there and Pat Foley, and it took about a
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: couple of years to make this amp, and I sent
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: back a lot of them and now it's it turned
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: out perfect and we sold out. We sold out of them,
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: so that was really cool.
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: Okay, were you an orange person before you made Rowning.
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: Up for a moment? Yes, I didn't.
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: Like.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: I tried them out for like about a year or
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: two or maybe more, maybe three years. I was using
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: Marshall Evh before that. I went through I have a
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: whole like amp graveyard of things because I go through
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: them and I'm like, this worked for this tour. I
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: didn't even know what I used for the Alice Kuper tour.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: I kind of remember, but really high gain ants and whatnot,
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: and they'll be out of control, you know. And I
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: wanted something that was sort of beastly but not too
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: beastly and then had the you know sound that's super
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: big and kind of powerful but not thin sounding. And
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: and then I went over to Alexander dumbles home he's
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: a very prestigious like ant maker, and spent some time
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: with him and when I got listened to his amp,
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: It's like whoa. That sound is like godly like, you know,
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: and then listen to vintage amps and you go, it's
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: about that the way it just sounds. You just plug
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: your guitar straight in and you don't need anything, you know.
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: It's that connection. And I wanted to create something like that.
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: And I knew that Orange had the power, you know,
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: and I love Marshall too, but the Marshals are newer ones.
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: I was using sounds a bit too thin, and I
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: don't know if it's just the ones I got, but
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: I just wasn't completely content at that point with them.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: So when Orange came along, I was like, this has power.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: It's kind of glorified Marshals that have found but that
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: British blues sound. And then we sort of modified it
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: and modified it more and more, and then they were like, oh,
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: we want to come out with your signature ramp. And
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: I'm like, well, I love I love reverb. Reverb is
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: one of my favorite things. So they were like, okay,
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: cool and it. So we called it the the Ori verb.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: So there's a lot of reverb going on and it's
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: it's really I love the amp. I really do. My
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: neighbors I don't think they really like the ant, but
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: you know it's loud.
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: So you say it's sold out. Do you have any
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: idea how many they made.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: A lot of them. I got to get the right,
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: I've got to get the number. But we sold a lot.
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: And now we've come out with a crush version which
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: is half the price, well actually a quarter the price,
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: so kids can afford it because the other one was
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: a little more expensive. And we always do that, like
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: with Gibson. I'm coming out with my epiphone, you know,
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: because we my my acoustic, my J two hundred, which
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: I did the red one. It was incredible. We created
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: it and it was a third biggest seller next to
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: Elvis and Bob Dylan for a J two hundred artist.
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: It was crazy that that happened. But they allowed me
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: to run wild in the battery and I'm like, I
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: want crystals, I want lotus flowers, I want right red.
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: I want to make it with a three forty five
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: neck on it. So it was an electric neck on
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: an acoustic body, and you know, I just really changed
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: stuff up. So it was I think it's the first
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: hybrid acoustic. So it's the playability of it. You can
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: play leads on it, right, so you can play whatever
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: you want. And the pickup too. I really sat with
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: LR bags and modified the pickup immensely too.
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: Okay, these guitars and amps that are selling so well,
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: are they selling purely on the fact that they're that
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: good or to what degree are you marketing them? Personally?
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: I just think they're just really good. They're quality, they're
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: not crappy. So I think that if they were like marketed,
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: because you know, there's been a lot of marketing behind it.
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: Of course, the companies have done an incredible job and
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: having a support of a lot of different outlets too.
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: But I think if someone bought it and I was like,
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: oh my god, this is a piece of crap that
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: I don't think it would have sold out, you know.
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: And plus I wouldn't put my name to it either,
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: because I would feel really bad about that, you know.
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: I don't just put out stuff for the sake of it.
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: Okay, you have a signature amp, we're in the studio.
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: Are you using other brands or only your own app?
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: Oh?
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: I'm using other stuff too. I'm using a vintage Champ
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: as well, which I I turn up to breaking point
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: and that sounds great with my klon And then I
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: used to dumble in the studio as well, and then
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: I also used what else did I use? That's probably
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: that's probably three amps, but mostly most of my leaves
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: were done with my orange.
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: You can say that, okay, yeah, unlike boast orange, APS
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: is not orange. So can you tell me about that?
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: It is not orange. It's an orange champ, but it's
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: not orange. That's all I can say. I mean, look,
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: I just wanted to make a cool looking amp and
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: I love the white with the you know, the design
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: on with the flowers and the black, and it just
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: looked very striking to me. With the gold, yeah, I mean,
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: I just wanted to change it up a bit. You know,
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: Glenn Hughes has a purple orange, so I wanted to
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: have a white and black and gold orange. There's nothing
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: really more to it than that.
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: So tell me about the fifty guitars.
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: They're in my living room right now. That's not including
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: my storage in it, or my closets or Australia my
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: studio there. But I have quite a few going on here.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: This is my beautiful purple PRS, which I've had for
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: a very long time. This is number one, and this
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: is my this is my number one guitar. I love
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: it so much, and it's one solid piece of like
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: Brazilian rosewood, and the pickups in it are the Paul
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: By Smith's magical pickups that I have no idea what
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: he put in them, but they're magical and I love them.
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: And I have like tons of the guitars over here.
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: This one here is made for the Alice Cooper shows
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: coming up, so I'm actually going to be auctioning this
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: off and Alice and I are going to sign the
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: guitars I'll be using for the tour, and I'm raising
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: money for the Children's Hospital, So I feel really good
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: about that because every night knowing that, you know I'm
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: going to be putting a lot of money towards that
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: foundation makes me feel good. So we've got three of those,
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: pretty gnarly looking and this one here was given to
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: me by one of my very very dear friends. This
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: is number two ever made of the Jimi Hendrix love
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: Drops guitars, so very very amazing, and I'll be using
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: that I don't know, a special performance so I'm waiting for.
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: And there's all these other guitars too, and more of
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: it the other side.
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: But yes, you know, I read you have a DS
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: three thirty five. You know certain people like Les Pauls
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: a certain vintage, certain stratocasters. Are you someone who collects
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: that stuff?
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: Yes, I have quite a few vintage guitars right now
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: which I love. My sixty two three thirty five is
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: an Argentina gray Burst, very rare. I've been looking for
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: a three thirty five for a very long time and
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: this one is just amazing. It's my one of my
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: favorite guitars ever. I gotta say, it's kind of like
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: a fifty nine less poll, but it's like, no, you know, so.
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: How did you find the ES three thirty five?
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: You know what? This one came out of a private
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: collection and it just appeared one day, so you know
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: I and I honestly I was like wow, like this
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: when I've actually played quite a few three thirty five
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: and I've been looking for the right one for a
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: really long time, and then when this one was put
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: in my hand, it was like, Okay, this is this
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: is the right one. And the same with the the
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: Telly I got in Japan. It's the nineteen seventy two.
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: I believe it. Yeah, it's incredible. This blue Telly, and
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: I loved it so much. Had to get that sixty
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: three strat as well. I had a fifty nine strat
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: which I loved for a minute. Then I got rid
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: of it because it wouldn't stay in shune. But you know,
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: it depends, you know what I mean. It's like sometimes guitars,
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: you need them for a minute and then and then
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: I will trade them all or change, you know, because
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: it's like I need to be able to play them live,
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: you know, if they can't stay in tune or they're
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: just for studio use only, and then they're not. I
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: don't think I should be workhorses because I've already been workhorses,
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: you know, like they're vintage for a reason. You don't.
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: I couldn't. Plus I would feel a bit weird taking
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: out in the road. Have had like six guitars solen
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: so fast, so I don't want anymore. No taken.
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: So you know, some people get a guitar and they
• 37:27
  Speaker 3: tear it apart, they change the pickups, et cetera. Are
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: you that type of person?
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: No? No, I don't like to change things up on
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: a guitar. If I'm going to get a gitar, I
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: don't and there's something is awful about it, and if
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: that awful thing was fixed it would be perfect. Then yes,
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: but I haven't. I don't think that's really happened with
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: a guitar. Yeah, I can really think of unless the guitar,
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: unless the tech of mine has done that. But I don't.
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: I don't recall anything being drastically changed to guitars i've purchased.
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: No, Okay, you have a deal with PRS, but you
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: made an epiphone. What's going on?
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: Yes, I have a deal with Gibson, have a deal
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: with pory Smith, and I have a deal with Orange
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: and yeah, I mean, but the thing is with with
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: the pory Smith situation, that's electric and with Gibson it's acoustic.
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: So I you know, yes, that's the situation there. So
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: I'm yeah, which is which is awesome because I was
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: with I was with Martin prior to being with you know, Gibson.
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: Then I was with Taylor Acoustics before that as well,
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: and I had my own Maiden sorry Martin, which was
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: an eco friendly Martin. Then I was promoting this Taylor
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: Acoustic which they were all great. But when I had
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: the opportunity on says A, the owner of Gibson approached
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: me and we had dinner with him and his wife.
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: It's like, I want to tell Gibson with you. I'm like, okay, well,
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: i've been so lord a PRS for twenty something plus years.
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: I can't do electric, but we could do a hybrid
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: acoustic that would be really cool. And he was like, yeah,
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: that'll be awesome. And then went to the factory in
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: Montana and I was going to go with a white one,
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: but apparently white guitars are very hard to put in production,
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: so everyone was steering me away from white. They're like,
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: whatever you do, tell Veron to do a white one.
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: Unlet's what we're doing doing a white guitar. Of course,
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: it's suppressing. I wanted them. Then I saw the red.
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: They had this red colored guitar. It's like a one
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: went off or something in the corner. I'm like, oh no,
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: we're gonna go with red. So everyone was really happy
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: when I said I changed my mind. And then I
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: was like, I want to change a pit guard. I
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: want to put lotus flowers all over it, and I
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: puts the train and amethyst crystals on there and and
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: make it like a guitar that like no one's really
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: seen before. So you know, when it's on a when
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: it's next to other guitars, that stands out and people
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: want to buy it. You know, like when you're a kid,
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: you want to see a red fire engine, you know,
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: it's like or a red car race car. It's like
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: for me, I just kind of went with that, and
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: I sort of thought like the kid and me, like
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: I I would want to buy that guitar.
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: So, okay, you've mentioned a couple of times being a
• 40:05
  Speaker 3: kid playing Three Nights Out, Tell me about that.
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that was pretty wild. My mom would pick me
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: up sometimes at three am, bless her, and it was
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: a great group of guys that I would be much
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: older than me playing, you know, when I was playing
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: those cover of gigs and they were long evening three sets,
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: you know, and you play in front of drunken, rowdy
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: Australian pub scene of craziness. And yeah, that's why I
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: quit school because you know I would show up West
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: very West wil Weare the next morning at school, you know,
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: and what's wrong with you? And like I just you know,
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: played night before and I'd still have like, you know,
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: bright blue eyeshadow on and glitter all over me still
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: and tried to scrub it off and be sent to
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: the detention room because I'd be unruly or something, because
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: I'd be always getting into it with the teachers like oh,
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: you don't why are you looking so weird? Like I
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: don't know, man, like you know, it was always weird
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: for me. So I just I had enough of that
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: kind of authority situation at school. It was just I
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: don't know, at one point, I just felt like they're
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: just picking our meat. It It wasn't just the kids,
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: because I got bullied at school, but it was it
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: was kind of the teachers too, that went very nice.
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: Some of them were, but some of them weren't. They
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: were very conservative, and I guess they were thinking, oh,
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: this is a very strange, strange child. You know. So
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: I had enough of that.
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: How did you join that behind? What was the trajectory
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: in terms of playing out and then finding these gentlemen
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: that you were playing with continuously?
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I just sort of I don't actually
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: know how it really happened through a friend. I guess
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: I met this songwriter friend when I saw my first
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: management deal when I was like fourteen, and then he
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: got me into playing acoustic shows. Actually yeah, his name
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: was Roger, I remember this. So we started writing songs
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: together and then he was like, we should do an
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: acoustic duo thing and pubs, and then that sort of
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: sprout into doing cover band stuff. So yeah, it was
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: a friend. He was much older and a songwriter in
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: our lat Australia.
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: So okay, So you continued to play with the same band,
• 42:17
  Speaker 3: the same guys pretty much.
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a couple of different sort of lineups. I
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: should say it because we had like three nights a
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: week with different bands and one was Cooled Drop D
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: which is a cover band and I would share vocals,
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: and then the other one was with another friend of
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: mine that I'll do the acoustic duo thing as well
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: with my friend.
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: How much money could you make?
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: God, I think it was quite a bit. I think
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: for a kid. I don't know. It was like three
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: p fifty a night to four hundred. Yeah, so I
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: was making a lot more than other fourteen year olds,
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: so you know.
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: Okay, So at what age do you start making your
• 42:59
  Speaker 3: own record?
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: Fourteen? First record?
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: And what do you do for equipment? How do you
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: learn how to use it? How do you do it.
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: So my dad he learned how to use recording gear.
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: He had a task can so he cleared out the
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: living room, which is called the rumpus room at the time,
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: and we got some musicians, the best ones in Auvlade
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: and my dad he was like, let's do a record
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: and I was like, hey, cool, and so we did
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: some covers on there, like Eric Clapton covers covered Santana
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: and then I had a couple originals on there and
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: it was called Under the Influence and I did that
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: at fourteen, and you know, it's just kind of weird
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: to name it that, but it was because it was
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: under the influence of these amazing, you know, guitar players,
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: and I covered their songs. So we got the band
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: in the living room and blessed my mother because it
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: looked like terrible, like we've destroyed the whole kitchen living
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: room area, and my dad miked everything up and he
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: recorded it. So I recorded that with my dad. Yeah,
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: my first first ever EP.
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: Okay, was this the record that was signed to Universal
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: Australia or is this before that?
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: No, that was way before that. We're not way I
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: shouldn't say.
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: So.
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: I was about sixteen seventeen when I actually learned how
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: to engineer and produce myself. So my dad's like he
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: took me to a studio, one of the top studios
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: in Adelaide, Australia, and I sat with the people there
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: and I learned how to mic things properly, how to
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: you know, learn how to use this role In twenty
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: four eighty so I had two of those and I
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: lined them up together. So I had two twenty four
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: track recorders digital workstations, and I would hook them up
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: to these NS tens and learn how to you know,
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: mic everything correctly. Find the right A vocal microphone was
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: really important too, which I used E Rhodes, which is
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: Australian brand, and then just different you know, compressors and
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: different things, and then how to play the drums and
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: how to mic drums. And I would spend hours sitting
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: at the studio with the guys there at I think
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: it was Cooled Fat Tracks Recording studio in Adelaide, and
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: then some friends would come over and show me as well.
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: My dad would help me a lot as well, so
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: I kind of just absorbed all of that also reading
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: about it, got books on it, and then I was like, Okay,
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: I'm going to learn how to play all these instruments.
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: I'm going to do everything myself. Prince was a big
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: influence on me because Prince would do everything himself. So
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: I was like, I'm going to do that too.
• 45:24
  Speaker 3: Say okay, the original EP. Did you sell it to
• 45:28
  Speaker 3: people or just make it?
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: We just sent it out to everyone. I think my dad,
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: my mom. We sent it out too different. I don't
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: even know who I got signed to. Sorry, a management
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: team in Australia, so different different labels in Australia, and
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: I got a lot of rejection letters going, we don't
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: know what to do with a young fourteen year old
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: girl who just plays instrumental music. You know that's not
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: really going to work. And then I got that's when
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: I send it to Pori Smith Guitars and Santana management.
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: I got a message back from actually Santana's brother, you're
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: Agay Santana and then hey, you say in yeah, and
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: so he would. He wrote me back and said we've
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: been listening to it in the office and Carlos absolutely
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: loves it. And that was a huge honor. In the
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: email back from him, and then from Poris Smith guitars.
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: He wanted me to come over to the Nam Show,
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: but I was way too young. And then I finally
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: did go over there and I was a bit older,
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: but getting the support of you know, Pori Smith Guitars
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: and Santana Management. I got like a review in Classic
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: Rock magazine or Classic Guitar Magazine in the UK. They
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: did a review on it, which was awesome. And then yeah,
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: I mean, I guess I just got to I got
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: to management sort of deal out of that too. In Australia,
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: so I got to open for Zizi Top when I
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: was like fifteen sixteen, and then opening for Steve Via,
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: playing Adelaide, five hundred car Race, Suzi Quatro, like tons
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: of things, and I think that Coca Cola Festival. I
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: did a lot of like things in Australia before coming
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: over here. Yeah, it was a wild ride for sure.
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: And so you know, knowing Billy Gibbons since I was
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: like sixteen, I'm playing his birthday party tomorrow at the Tributor,
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: So that's going to be cool.
• 47:25
  Speaker 3: Okay, So the record that you made that you made
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: a deal with Universal, did you play all the instruments.
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: Are the one in Australia. Yeah, that's the one. I yes,
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: So I did everything myself and then we distributed, got
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: to deal with Universal after it was done.
• 47:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and your experience with management at that time good
• 47:47
  Speaker 3: or bad?
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: Interesting? Yeah. It was three people and they all had
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: different opinions and they were all pretty connected in Australia
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: and Adelaide, and it was it was interesting. Let me
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: leave it at that.
• 48:03
  Speaker 3: So yeah, okay, So what year do you ultimately come
• 48:10
  Speaker 3: to America.
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: God, I think it was two thousand and three, less
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: than two, but I got it. I don't even know,
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: to be honest with you, it was really Yeah, it
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: was early on.
• 48:24
  Speaker 3: Okay, how did you make it to the point where
• 48:28
  Speaker 3: ended up being in Michael Jackson's band.
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: Well, I was signed with Interscope, I was making my record.
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: I was in the studio with the legendary Diane Warren.
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: I was cutting a song with her, and I had
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: my Space going on. I think everyone had my Space
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: that are going at that point, and I was checking
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: my messages and we had a break. I needed a
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: vocal break or something, and I was checking messages and whatnot,
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: and message came up. Michael Jackson saw you at the
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: Grammy Awards with Carrie Underwood. You're exactly what he's looking for?
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: Or can you learn his songs and come in tomorrow?
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: You know he wants to hire you. I'm going this
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: is crazy. So I went over to Diana. I said,
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: do you think this is real? Do you think this
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: is some I think it's crazy. She was like, it
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: looks kind of real to me. I was like, Okay,
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: call my manager. I was signed to nineteen Entertainment. I
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: was the first non idol to be signed to Simon
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: Fuller and so my manager at the time, I said, hey,
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: could you respond to this presson because I think this
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: is real? Because this looks pretty cool. I'm like, yeah,
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: I know, I'm kind of making an album with like Interoscope,
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: but like this would be kind of cool to play
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: guitar for, you know, Michael Jackson. So he wrote him
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: and he was legit and Michael called me that night
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: and it was from Michael Bearden, who was a dear
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: friend of mine and Michael Jackson. They both called me
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: and they were like, could you come in tomorrow learn
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: beat it want to be starting something and Dory Diana
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: and then we're going to start like rehearsals. So I
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: was like, okay, that sounds amazing and oh my god, okay,
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: so got home cranked up my amplifier. I was living
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: at the Plaza at the time, which is a crazy
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: building in West Hollywood, and I just was up all
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: night trying to learn to beat it solo. And that
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: was quite something. And I think my neighbors were like,
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: oh my god, we've moved in next to a crazy
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: Michael Jackson back and I had a Pomrangeum dog barking.
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: It was pretty insane. And next morning, next afternoon, she
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: say went down to Center staging, Michael Jackson walks in
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: the room. I want to hear beat it. I'm like,
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: oh my god, I'm so nervous. I was like crazy.
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: And then afterwards he's like, okay, you're hired. I'm like,
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: oh my god, I don't even know. It was wild.
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: It was a crazy time. So that's how that came about.
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: And then I signed a non disclosure form or whatever,
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: you know, and I couldn't tell anybody that I got
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: the gig, so the label found out later.
• 50:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, so you're working with Michael Jackson. One has
• 50:56
  Speaker 3: to ask up close and personal what's Michael Jackson?
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: Like, Wow, his energy was was wild, Like he walked
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: into a room and it's like, oh my god, that's
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: Michael Jackson. Like being a kid and watching his shows
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: on TV, you know, larger than life. He comes in.
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: He's just freaking star, I mean, you know. And he
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: was so sweet. It was very very sweet. And he
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: was very obsessed with making everything perfect. He was a perfectionist.
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: So I learned so much from him. Attention to detail
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: was very important, just taking things even more seriously than
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: I did, I think, you know. And and just when
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: he honed it on tones, he was very particular about
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: everything when it came down to, you know, guitar tones,
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: it just drum sounds. Everything. He would tell me, you
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: know what, I don't like that amp could he change
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: the ampower tomorrow. I'm like, okay, all right, I don't
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: like the guitar, or I like that guitar. Keep that one,
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: you know. And so he would be listening to everything,
• 51:55
  Speaker 2: which I found to be quite amazing, and he's like,
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: just don't be don't be scared, like step out like
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: into people like give you all, like really be what
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: you're meant to be, what you're born to do. He
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: gave me a lot of confidence. A lot of people
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: don't I think. I think the media really tore him apart,
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: which was not cool in a lot of ways because
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: he was very eccentric, very eccentric man, of course, but
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: he cared about a lot of people, and the way
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: that he treated everyone was very kind. So I have enough.
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: I don't have any bad things to say about him
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: or weird things to say, aside from towards the end,
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: he just seemed really worn out, very tired, and I
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: was concerned about him for sure.
• 52:36
  Speaker 3: How did you find out that he died?
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: Mourning of We were rehearsing until twelve or one am,
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: and he was excited. He said, I can't wait to
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: see you guys tomorrow. Were days away from leaving for London.
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: We had our apartments and everything, and he said, I
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: remember him coming up to me giving a big hard gooing.
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: I'm so excited about doing this, you can't imagine. I
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: can't wait for my kids to see this, to see
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: me perform again. You know, I can't wait for the fans,
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: he said. I'm a bit nervous, he said about you
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: know how you know the reviews will be I know,
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: I know he was nervous about it because he was
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: coming back out again and this was a big thing.
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: But he said, you know, this show is going to
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: be incredible like no one else has ever seen before.
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: And it was. It was wild, all the stuff that's
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: being added. But he was very excited. And that's what
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: the craziest thing was. I think he just he couldn't
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: sleep and he was stressed out, and there's a lot
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: of pressure on him. There's a lot of money put
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: into it. There was, you know, I mean I feel
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: the pressure, you know, on a much smaller scale. He
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: had like hundreds of millions of dollars put into this situation.
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: He couldn't sleep, and he wore himself down everyone, I
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: mean around. It was like this pressure cooker, you know,
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: and he really just spent too so much time. I
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: don't think he took time for himself. I really don't.
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: I think he as a lot of artists, you know,
• 53:58
  Speaker 2: we are quite obsessive about things, so you want things
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: to be perfect. And I think he was such an
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: extreme artist like that that, you know, it was a
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: lot on his shoulders and he just wanted to be incredible.
• 54:09
  Speaker 2: So I feel ardored that I spent that time with
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: him truly.
• 54:13
  Speaker 3: So how did you find out and how did you
• 54:15
  Speaker 3: cope thereafter?
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: Found out? For my manager, he called that morning because
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: I was getting ready to go to rehearsal. He goes,
• 54:23
  Speaker 2: did you hear the news? And I'm like, no, what's
• 54:25
  Speaker 2: going on? He goes, Michael's past and I'm like what,
• 54:30
  Speaker 2: Like I was like no, like no way, Like are
• 54:34
  Speaker 2: you joking, dude? Like, what's going on? He goes? And
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: then I literally was like in shock. Like everyone was
• 54:41
  Speaker 2: just completely I don't even know how to plain it right,
• 54:43
  Speaker 2: like with someone that evening to one am nothing wrong.
• 54:48
  Speaker 2: Get there to the rehearsal, Everyone's like crying and I'm going,
• 54:52
  Speaker 2: what happened? And then there was just no one really told,
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: no one really said anything. You know, it was weird.
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: It was really weird. Can't I can't explain to you
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: the amount of weirdness and sadness and disbelief and shock
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: that that still stays with I think everyone that was
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: a part of that, you know, because we became family.
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: We were together for like four months or something like that,
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: three or four months like rehearsing, and you know, it
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: was intense. So yeah, it was like we're losing a friend,
• 55:21
  Speaker 2: you know, someone that you saw every day, like your
• 55:23
  Speaker 2: fast friend. Then you know a legend as well, and
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: and then you're just like wow. So it was pretty
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: pretty crazy.
• 55:32
  Speaker 3: So how soon after that did you go back to
• 55:35
  Speaker 3: work doing whatever?
• 55:37
  Speaker 2: Well, my album was done with Interscope, so that was
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: ready to go, and I had to fulfill that obligation
• 55:46
  Speaker 2: of putting out my record, you know, with into Scope
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: so they, to be honest with you, I didn't have
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: enough time to really and kind of stick with my
• 55:58
  Speaker 2: emotions really, so it wasn't healthy. I'm not going to
• 56:01
  Speaker 2: say it was, because it was like, okay, he passed away.
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: I'm on the news everywhere. You know, It's like that
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: clip was played everywhere. You know, it was wild and everyone.
• 56:10
  Speaker 2: I was hounded, like I'd never seen anything quite like
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: quite like it, you know, even going to rehearsals. We
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: have paparazzi rehearsal following us everywhere. Once I found out
• 56:19
  Speaker 2: who was part of the band, everything, and I want
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: to know a lot about it. Once he passed, I
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: was hounded. I couldn't even walk down the street, arrived
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: at an airport without you know, like people with things
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: for me to sign, or cameras on me asking about
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: him or what had happened and all this stuff, and
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: it was insane. And then on top of that, the
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: labels like, okay, we're putting out your record. So having
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: the record, you know, come out according to you, come
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: out without doing very well, but then you have on
• 56:47
  Speaker 2: the flip side this darkness which I hadn't dealt with
• 56:50
  Speaker 2: emotionally from him passing it. I wasn't happy, to be
• 56:55
  Speaker 2: honest with you, like I had a lot of success,
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: but I wasn't happy because I didn't know how to feel.
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: You know. It's weird to process, you know.
• 57:04
  Speaker 3: So originally you were going to go for months in
• 57:07
  Speaker 3: England to play with Michael Jackson. Was the record going
• 57:11
  Speaker 3: to be delayed until you were done? And then they
• 57:14
  Speaker 3: moved it up after Michael passed.
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: I don't know the plan. I don't know what the
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: plan was, to be honest with you. Maybe it was
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: going to be put out as I was out there
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: in between, right so I would I would put out
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: a single, I'll still be playing the shows and I'll
• 57:27
  Speaker 2: be promoting over there. I don't know what the whole
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: plan was, to be honest, with you. I don't know,
• 57:32
  Speaker 2: but probably.
• 57:34
  Speaker 3: Okay, if you come to LA at two thousand and three,
• 57:39
  Speaker 3: when is that meeting with Jimmy I being at his house?
• 57:46
  Speaker 2: Gosh, I don't even know. It was a wild time.
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: I kind of remember.
• 57:51
  Speaker 3: I guess what I'm asking is this, you come to LA,
• 57:53
  Speaker 3: what's your personal plan? What work do you get after
• 57:57
  Speaker 3: you come?
• 57:58
  Speaker 2: Okay, So when I first came to LA, I was
• 58:01
  Speaker 2: playing in the nam Booth with PRS guitars, right, so
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: I would play in the Nambooth and then so twenty
• 58:07
  Speaker 2: other three four five. Yeah, then I got a deal.
• 58:10
  Speaker 2: So around then so came here, coming back and forth
• 58:13
  Speaker 2: all the time. Then I actually moved when I got
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: the deal. So when I got signed to Jimmy and
• 58:19
  Speaker 2: he was like, okay, we're making the record. That took
• 58:21
  Speaker 2: a while, of course, back and forth to you know,
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: get the deal done. And then I made the move
• 58:27
  Speaker 2: for I don't know the exact time, to be honest
• 58:29
  Speaker 2: with you. It was such a craziness, like going back
• 58:32
  Speaker 2: and forth. But after playing for Jimmy, playing for Ron Fair,
• 58:36
  Speaker 2: they decided they gave me actually a really good deal.
• 58:39
  Speaker 2: I've got a great publishing deal too, with Universal and
• 58:42
  Speaker 2: it was all kind of happening at once and then
• 58:46
  Speaker 2: and then it was just straight into writing.
• 58:49
  Speaker 3: Okay, you mentioned that you played with Kirie Underwood. Had
• 58:54
  Speaker 3: you been going on the road with other racks or
• 58:58
  Speaker 3: was this just a one off with Kirie under.
• 59:00
  Speaker 2: No, we had the same manager, someone Fuller. So she was,
• 59:04
  Speaker 2: you know, in the offices walking around and she's like,
• 59:08
  Speaker 2: I'm going to do the Grammy Awards because I heard
• 59:11
  Speaker 2: your hard playing girl. Would you join me? That'd be awesome.
• 59:13
  Speaker 2: I'm like, the Grammys. That sounds amazing. So I was
• 59:16
  Speaker 2: like totally blown away that she would ask me. And
• 59:20
  Speaker 2: she's so sweet, I mean incredible. I just saw her
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: the other day at her Vegas residency and what an
• 59:25
  Speaker 2: incredible talent she is and such a down to earth person,
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: you know, and it was so kind of her to
• 59:31
  Speaker 2: invite me. And I remember walking up on stage with her,
• 59:35
  Speaker 2: and you know, BB King was sitting there in the
• 59:39
  Speaker 2: green room eating a bunch of crawfish and I don't
• 59:42
  Speaker 2: even know he had this bib on eating and I
• 59:46
  Speaker 2: was like, oh my god, BB King And I said, hey, like,
• 59:49
  Speaker 2: I'm such a massive ban I don't want to annoy
• 59:51
  Speaker 2: you by anything. She goes, hey, young, young lady, what
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: can I do for I'm like, can I have a
• 59:54
  Speaker 2: photo with you? I know you're eating and stuff. He's like,
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: He's like absolutely, he said, what are you doing here?
• 59:59
  Speaker 2: I said, I want I played tonight. He goes, will
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 2: you go right there? A new rocket? Okay? And I
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: was like all right, And I remember him saying that
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 2: it was so sweet as he was eating and he's like,
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 2: took a photo with me. And then I went out
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 2: there and I rehearsed and then we played and Paul
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 2: McCartney was in the audience, Keith Urban, all these people Bono, Like,
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 2: you know, you look out there and you go, what
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 2: the hell is going on here?
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 3: You know?
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 2: So I'm very thankful to carry Underwood because after doing that,
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 2: that sparked, like, you know, Michael Jackson saw me and
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 2: I got, you know, that opportunity and and yeah, I can't.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, Simon Fuller was an incredible manager too, and
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 2: and that whole team nineteen were great when I was
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: with them for a while. And then then I made
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: the record with Howard Benson and he was awesome to
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 2: work with. Desmond Child was one of the first songwriters
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: I worked with which was insane. Yeah, Desmond and I
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 2: became very fast friends. He was awesome.
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 3: Okay, you talk about meeting bb K, what were the
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 3: two best experiences of meeting an idol?
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: Gosh, just say meeting meeting Santana for the first time,
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: you know, that was awesome. He's like my other dad,
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 2: he really is. I met him and he was so gracious,
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 2: and he was like, okay, you play my guitar and
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 2: I'll play yours, and let's jam backstage. And in Australian
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 2: Adelaide Memorial Drive fifteen thousand people, twenty thousand people was
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 2: playing too, and we jammed and he's like, okay, you're
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 2: joining me tonight on stage and I'm like, oh my god, okay,
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 2: and well songs are be playing. It didn't tell me,
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 2: so I was like, I followed him on stage, plug
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 2: me in. I stayed up for like most of the show.
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 2: I think it was like fifty minutes of the show,
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 2: and he would turn to me, Okay, you solo now,
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 2: you slo now, and thank god, I've learned his entire catalog,
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 2: so I knew what you know. But it was definitely
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 2: throwing me into the ocean to see if I could
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 2: swim and do it. And I guess you know, they
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 2: had that happened to them and when they were younger,
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 2: you know, they had to, you know, at a very
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 2: young age, get up on stage in front of a
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 2: lot of people and see if they could do it.
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 2: And they did the same thing. You know, Carlos believed
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 2: in me enough to have me on the stage, to
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 2: throw me into that situation to go, okay, girl, can
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 2: you can you bring it? You know, and in a
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 2: very loving way. But I was just like, man, after that,
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 2: I was like, oh I can do this. I got
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 2: never really nervous, but I can do it. And you know,
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 2: sometimes you got to do that. It's very zero to
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 2: one hundred. But that's that's life. It's like, you know,
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 2: it's not it's not normal.
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 3: Can you tell me about meeting another idol?
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 2: Another idol? Gosh, I've met so many. Paul McCartney I met.
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 2: He came to the studio when I was working out
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 2: in Vancouver and I actually went to his Auntie's ninety
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 2: ninth birthday party. That was really it was crazy. But anyway,
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 2: he came past the studio on his bike and I
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 2: was making a record there with Bob Rock, and Richie Sambora,
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 2: and he came in and I was playing acoustic guitar
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 2: in the control room. Didn't know it was I didn't
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 2: know it was Paul because he was dressed in the
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 2: tracks and a hat, and I thought he was one
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 2: of the I was very embarrassed, mind you, this very
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 2: embarrassing because he's one of my favorite songwriters. And I
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 2: turned to him and I had this guitar I was playing,
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 2: but it wasn't quite right. So I turned him with
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 2: a guitar and said, hey, can you get me another guitar?
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 2: And I was like, I was like, I'm not sure
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 2: about this one. It's kind of not really doing it
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 2: for me. And he's like, oh hi, and he had
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 2: this accident. I was like, oh my god, it's Paul.
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 2: Oh my god, I'm sorry. This is so bad. I
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 2: was like, oh my god, what an honor to meet you.
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 2: And and and then he's like, can you play something
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 2: for me? And someone actually filmed I have on my
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 2: iPhone somewhere me playing for Poul. He said can you
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 2: play me some things? And I was playing his fingerpick stuff.
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 2: He goes, I love that, it sounds great. And then
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 2: that evening we all went to his auntie's birthday party
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 2: and she was eating this chocolate mudcake at like twelve am,
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 2: and we all had martiniz me and you know, and
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 2: we'll actually not Bob Rocks sober, but Abe Laboria was there,
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 2: the drummer and his band and everybody, and we all
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 2: just hung out and yeah, it was awesome and Paul
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 2: was super super sweet, like such an awesome person and
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 2: so m again, not too long ago at the Sphere,
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 2: I went to the opening night of the Sphere to
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 2: see YouTube that was really cool. So yeah, he's definitely
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 2: an idol of mind the Beatles, I mean incredible.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 3: Okay, how did it end with nineteen and Simon Fuller?
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 2: Well, Simon he sold the company, right, so it changed
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 2: and that's when, yeah, things sort of I left. I
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 2: just left out that happened.
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 2: I guess people had allocated like managers there within the company,
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 2: but I decided to leave the whole thing, you know,
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 2: and the manager that I had assigned to me, the
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 2: day to day person and whatnot. But then I went
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 2: through a barrage of managers. I'm not going to say
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 2: how many managers I've been through, because that just sounds bad,
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 2: but a healthy amount of managers I have been through,
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 2: and all I can say is this, if a manager
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 2: understands exactly where you want to go, and they walk
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 2: beside you and you work together in harmony, and things
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 2: can really Like Alice Cooper and Chep Gordon were amazing
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 2: and together and you know, or it's like Joe Bonamaster
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 2: and his manager, and there's quite a few others too
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 2: as examples, but you know, Share and her manager, Roger Davies.
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 2: Then you understand each other and it works. But if
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 2: it doesn't, if the manager doesn't have quite the same vision,
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 2: or they don't bring anything to the table and they
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 2: just have their hands out and they take twenty percent
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 2: or fifteen percent of what you're making and your everything
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 2: in and they're just telling you what to do, not
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 2: going to work. So and my experience with managers has
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 2: been kind of that, to be honest with you, since
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 2: Salm and Fuller. I mean a lot of them tried
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 2: but didn't really understand exactly where I wanted to go
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 2: or what I wanted to do, you know, or they
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 2: wouldn't listen to me as much. You know, they had
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 2: their own idea and that's not that's not cool. They
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 2: should you should be able to work together as a
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 2: proper team. And look, I still am friends with most
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 2: of my ex managers, but some of them were distracted
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 2: with other artists that were massive and they were dealing
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 2: with things with them, and they didn't have the time
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 2: as well. So you've got to choose wisely, you know.
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 2: That's all I can say.
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 3: Okay, but your self managed now I am.
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 2: I have an incredible team though. I have an amazing
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 2: attorney and a whole team there. I have a great
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 2: tour manager he does my day to day as well,
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 2: and then I have incredible business management and I have
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 2: a lot of manager friends that will step in when
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 2: I need them to, so they're on call and I'm
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 2: very grateful for that.
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 3: How much time in a day do you spend on business?
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 2: Five hours? Maybe that's a lot of time off and on. Yes,
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 2: my phone sometimes will attack me if I wake up
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 2: late because I'm working on a song. I'm like, oh
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 2: my god, I got to deal with this. So a
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 2: lot many things. And now that I've launched my own
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 2: you know, vodka as well, that's I'm really excited about that.
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 2: My amplifiers we're doing some more stuff for that for press,
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 2: I'm you know, doing a lot of interviews and stuff
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 2: for Australian tour coming up. And then yeah, I literally
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 2: go to Australia, come home here for a day, that
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 2: I leave for Saudi Arabia, then I come back here
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 2: for a week, then I leave for Alice Cooper and
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 2: I come back here and I'm gonna take a short
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 2: break because I need it so don't combust. And then
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 2: then we're going to Europe. Then we're going to Brazil.
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 2: Then we're going to Japan, and then we released the
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 2: two albums. So I'm doing the three piece, which is
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 2: you know, the band.
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 3: That's all for that second we're going to get there.
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 3: So are you self managed because you're burned out on
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 3: all the experiences or if the right person came along,
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 3: would you try again?
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 2: If the right person came along, I'll definitely try again
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 2: one d percent. It has to be an energy thing though,
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 2: that would have to be very very driven, have a
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 2: very clear path as to what they saw they could
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 2: bring to the table. For me, I couldn't do myself.
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 2: And yeah, I just have a real understanding of who
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 2: I am as an artist and person too. They've got
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 2: to be your friend, you know, but definitely be bringing
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 2: stuff to the table. Have that gravity because and be
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 2: alpha two because I'm quite alpha myself. So if someone's
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 2: not sure, they're sort of like, yeah, let's do this
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 2: or that. I don't like that, and I can't work
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 2: with producers like that either. I've got to work with
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 2: someone who's very sure of themselves, very sure about what
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 2: they want to do, and that to me is very important.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 2: So I'm not ruling it out. If the right manager
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 2: comes along, I am totally open, hard and open minded
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 2: to that for sure.
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 3: So tell me about after the Interscope experience making a
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 3: record with Dave Stewart, how does that happen?
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 2: Well, I was invited by Dave to do the Stand
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 2: Up to Cancer event which is televised and many people
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 2: are part of that, Joss Stone and Heart and I
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 2: actually played with Heart. We played Barracouta together, Ceebee Wonder,
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 2: so many people, just Stone, just tons of people, and
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 2: then Dave and I and jos and everyone. We all
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 2: had a dinner afterwards. And I had been sober for
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 2: quite some time. I stopped drinking for about five years,
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 2: I should say five six years because I definitely did
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 2: my dash in a cover band, you know what I mean.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 2: So the lever was sort of bent out at a
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 2: younger age, and so Day put a Martini in front
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 2: of me, and that was I was like, okay, cool.
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 2: Had that Martini was very strong, and we all just
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 2: got into chat and we came like really fast friends meet,
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 2: you know, Dave and Martina McBride and John McBride who
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 2: had Blackbird Studios, and Johnson and then Dave and I
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 2: actually wrote this whole movie that evening, an animated film,
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 2: which I think should come out one day because we
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 2: had a we had an even green a green light
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 2: from DreamWorks to make this film, you know, together animated
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 2: under the Water Blues film. It was very cool, and
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 2: so we wrote this entire film together that evening. At
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 2: the dinner table, Abra Martini, a couple of Martini's baby,
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 2: and then he's like, we should make a record together.
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 2: I'm like that sounds awesome. So I'm just out, you know,
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 2: get out of my deal whatever, and that's kind of
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 2: what happened. Went over to a studio when he had
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 2: a studio on West Hollywood Bine Street, and it was
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 2: always wild over there. I would show up and then
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 2: I should say meeting another idol of mine, Mick Jagger
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 2: was working with him. So one day he invited me
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 2: over to the studio and didn't tell me that Mick
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 2: Jagger was laying down a vocal for like a super
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 2: heavy so much he was doing this project. And I
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 2: brought my mother with me, and she she went actually
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 2: to the door and I went to the bathroom and
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 2: he opened the door and my mom was like, oh
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 2: my god, it's big Jagger and uh and he's like,
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 2: come on in and he offered her. He offered her
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 2: like cookies and a tea and he's like what was
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 2: you like you need anything? Like he was so sweet.
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 2: Like that was wild. And then working with working with
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 2: day was a trip, Like there's always people coming in
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 2: and out of the studio that he never never knew
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 2: who was going to be. Like there like Andy Garcia
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 2: playing piano one day, I remember, and then like Justine
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 2: coming in and then he's working with you two. He's
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 2: working with all these different people. But we managed to
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 2: make a record together in Nashville and that was really fun.
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 2: It was a great record happened in as hell.
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 3: Okay, the record comes out in an independent label? What's
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 3: that like compared to being on Interscope that was.
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 2: Actually through Universal, So that one came out through Universal.
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 2: But it was as soon as I finished that record.
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 2: The day I remember the day we finished it in Nashville,
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 2: I get a call from Alicekeeper because I'd just done
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 2: the American Idol finale with him. We played Schools out
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 2: and he called me. He goes, Hi, my guitar player
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 2: left within Lizzie, will you will you be my lead
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 2: guitar player for the tour coming up? And going yeah,
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 2: that sounds awesome. You know that sounds amazing. So I
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 2: just finished a record. I was supposed to go out
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 2: and promote that, and then I decided I'm going to
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 2: go off with Alice Cooper. So yeah, that's that's kind
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 2: of what happened.
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 3: So, oh, okay, you don't make another studio album for
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 3: seven years. What are you doing in that period of time?
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 2: I am touring with Alice for about five six about
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 2: five years with Alice Keeper. Then I join Richie Sambora
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 2: and we meet in Hawaii and I was, you know,
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 2: Richie said to me, he goes. He came up to
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 2: me and I don't know if he was showing up.
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 2: Actually that day, I was like Sammy Hagar and DeBie
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 2: Brothers and Stephen Tyler and you know, we're just it's
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 2: a New Year's Eve thing we do for Sheep, Gordon
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 2: over and Maui and Richie came. Last minute. He's like,
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 2: we're gonna jam together. I was like, okay, cool, awesome.
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 2: So we ended up jamming together, and then afterwards he's like,
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 2: have your number, like, let's let's write some stuff. Girl,
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 2: Like you know, I love your playing and my daughter,
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 2: you know, you know she's she's a fan of you
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 2: or she saw you when this is It film and
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 2: all of that. I was like, okay, cool, Yeah, sounds great.
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 2: And then he called me when I got home and
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 2: I went over to his place. We ended up writing
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 2: songs and hanging out, and I thought this is cool,
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 2: Like he's an amazing singer, songwriter, you know, a guitar player.
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 2: So we just wrote tons of songs and then he's like, hey,
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 2: like you know, he had Bob Rock come over one time.
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 2: He goes, how about you and I do a record
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 2: together or something that'd be really cool and go on tour.
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 2: And I was like that sounds great, but I'm still
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 2: with Alice, so I can't like, you know, so I
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 2: had to go I meet with Alice. It was kind
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 2: of tough, you know, to walk in there and say, hey,
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 2: you know, I really want to focus on this raport
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 2: I'm doing with Ritchie and and leave the band. But
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 2: I said, look, I'm not going to leave you on
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 2: the If you need me, I'm going to be here
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 2: until you find a replacement. Thank god, he found Nita Strauss.
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 2: He's amazing. She's a dear friend of mine. And then
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 2: Richie and I spent years on a record with Barb
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 2: Rock and we played some shows together. We you know,
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 2: we toured quite a bit. We played Australia, we went
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 2: to Brazil, we opened the Bad Company, we you know.
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 2: So yeah, we made the RSO record during that time,
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 2: which was wild.
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 3: Okay, in this inter realm, say say you work with
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 3: Alice Cooper. The dream of being successful solo artists? Does
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 3: that extinguished? Is that always in the back of your head?
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely. I needed to take a break, i think,
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 2: from being the captain of the ship. So, you know,
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 2: it was a nice sort of thing to be just
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 2: a guitar player. I had a blast. We got to
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 2: celebrate Halloween every night, party every night, you know what
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 2: I mean. But the show, very seriously, the show was perfect.
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 2: Then after the show, I'd be drinking tons and partying
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 2: with everybody. And I can't say I was a healthiest
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 2: on that tour, no, so you know, but I had
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 2: so much fun. I got to tell you, it was
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 2: just a blast. And the guys are like my brothers,
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 2: and yeah, I was. I was in my twenties and
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 2: I was having fun. I just I needed a break.
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 2: I think. I think being out on that tour and
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 2: not being the boss was something that I needed for
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 2: a minute, you know.
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 3: Okay, you talk about being sober for five years then
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 3: having the martini. Where are you with alcohol and substances today?
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 2: Oh, in a good place. Yeah, I don't abuse anything. No.
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 2: You know, you learn as you get older there's only
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 2: so much body can take, you know what I mean,
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 2: And you want to be clear minded. There's too much
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 2: stuff to do. When you're young and you're in your
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 2: twenties or your teenager and you're partying with your friends,
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 2: you're definitely like you can andle it more right. And
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 2: as you get older, you go, oh, man, I don't
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 2: feel so good. So you know, I'm all about I promote,
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 2: you know, health and a healthy lifestyle and eating right,
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 2: working out. I run six miles a day, which is
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 2: probably not healthy but excessive, but I love the endorphins
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 2: from it. And then you know, I eat very healthy,
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 2: and I'm all about just like self care and mindfulness.
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 2: I have spiritual healers. I'm very much about. Your mind
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 2: is very important. It's the most like whatever the way
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 2: you program your mind and your thoughts and the most
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 2: important thing. And speaking of truth and being authentic. I
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 2: think that, you know, when I was younger, if people
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 2: put stuff in front of me, you know, you're going
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 2: to just do anything, but kind of you know what
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 2: I mean. And so it was I definitely had my
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 2: party days, for sure. I'm not going to say I didn't.
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 2: But I learned from that, and I've learned from watching
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 2: other people that have taken a very bad road because
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 2: it's very easy and being a musician, everything zero zero
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 2: to one hundred, so it's never like this, never a
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 2: straight line. It's always like extremes like from in the studio,
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 2: then sixty thousand people, then TV. Then you know it's
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 2: like there's a lot of pressure too, not only from
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 2: other people but on yourself.
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 3: Okay, you make a couple of records for Frontiers, what
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 3: is that experience? Like?
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 2: That was interesting?
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 2: They were very very enthusiastic about signing me and everything,
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 2: and then once they got working with them, they wanted
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 2: a certain they wanted everything to be very heavy. So
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 2: that's where we kind of butted heads with them, you know,
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 2: and that's why I left them, because you know, I
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 2: didn't want to just make heavy records. I mean, rock
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 2: Candy I was very proud of and everything, but it
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 2: was a heavy pop record because it had to be
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 2: you know, we had some you know definitely when I
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 2: sent them through songs, oh like, it's got to be
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 2: this way, got to be this way. So yeah, that's
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 2: that's the reason why I left that label is because
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 2: they they would tell me what kind of record they wanted,
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 2: you know, and that's fine, that's fine if you're a
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 2: heavy band. But I wanted to branch out a bit more.
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 3: Okay, So tell me about signing with your new label
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 3: and making two records.
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 2: I'm only making one record with this new label, would Avenue.
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 2: I met Mark Nordam a while ago and through Norm
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 2: Rare Guitars, and he just was a really enthusiastic guy
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 2: that really believed in my music. And he was like,
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 2: I'm giving you free rein so sort of he has
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 2: a jazz label actually anything, but he's like, I'm giving
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 2: you free range to do whatever you want. I'm like, cool.
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 2: The deal was really straightforward, and that's kind of it.
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 2: He just believed in me as and believes in me
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 2: as a as an artist and gives me a free
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 2: rain to do what I want. And I think that's
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 2: the most awesome thing, you.
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 3: Know, So tell me about making that record.
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 2: Working at Robbie Kriege Studio has been awesome because it's
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 2: such a great vibe there and working with my band
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 2: and just going in and writing all the songs my
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 2: and just you know, just capturing that energy and it's
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 2: very organic. It's kind of like how old records were made,
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 2: I guess ages ago. We're just doing it that way.
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 2: And then Kevin Shirley came on board and he's been
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 2: producing and that's been awesome because I love Kevin. He
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 2: is a total legend and just awesome producer. He brings
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 2: out like great guitar tones and he knows how to
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 2: get the band rocking too, and you know, I trust him,
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 2: so we can't I can't wait to finish the record
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 2: with him too.
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 3: So how did Kevin get involved?
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 2: We had a dinner at the Marquee Sunset Marquee. He
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 2: came over here and we just hang out, actually his friends,
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 2: prior to anything. And I think I met Kevin through
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 2: Joe but a Master because we've been friends for a
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 2: long time. So yeah, and then Kevin was like, I
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 2: want to work with you, and I've wanted to work
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 2: with you since like twenty fourteen. I'm like, hey, cool,
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 2: So he finally got to working together and I'm really
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 2: I'm really proud of of the first well not the
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 2: first single, the newest single that's out now, of Feeling.
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 2: He did a great job on that. It's kind of
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 2: got the most sound, sort of organic sound to it,
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 2: like pop rock blues, but he really just brings it.
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 2: He knows how to mic everything and he's incredible. And
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 2: same with Eddie Kramer. I'm doing this side project with him.
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 3: Okay, let's talk about the Kevin Shirley record. So when
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 3: will the album be finished?
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 2: I'm planning on finishing it early March. Now, so the
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 2: last two songs we done early March and then the
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 2: record will come out April.
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 3: And what are your expectations of the album?
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 2: I hope people just like hear like a kind of
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 2: a different side to me, like more of a singer
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 2: songwriter sort of thing. Like it's not like heavy heavy,
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 2: Like some of the songs are heavy, but they're not
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 2: like it's more like, I don't know, it's got like
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 2: more motown soul in there. There's it's more about the storytelling,
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 2: you know. I think, you know, I've written every lyric myself,
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 2: and I think that it's freedom. I hope they find
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 2: freedom in the music that can hear it. It makes
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 2: people feel good. That's kind of my intention. I don't
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 2: have expectations, you know, at all. I want people to
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 2: like it and I hate it, of course, but you
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 2: know that's kind of it really, But.
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 3: To what degree will you promote it? Market it?
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 2: I've been doing a lot of press for it. It's
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 2: just one classic rock track of the week, which is awesome.
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 2: There's some great artists on that list too, and it's
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 2: been doing really well, and so I feel like I'm
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 2: going to be touring Australia with the new record. We're
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 2: doing a bunch of press now for that. In Australia.
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 2: All the shows inly sold out over there, which is awesome.
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 2: To the UK with it, to Japan with it, all
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 2: that stuff, and yeah, just by the big festivals. We've
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 2: got a lot of festivals lined up for the UK,
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 2: so I can't wait to do that.
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 3: So you have a band, regular group of musician I do.
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 2: I do, yes, I do have a like my main band,
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 2: I actually play more like a three piece. I actually
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 2: enjoy it a lot. But when I play some hometown
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 2: shows here in LA I have percussion, I've got keys,
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 2: I've got three background singers, I've got I just go
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 2: all out, you know, background, guitar, play everything. So it's
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 2: like a big band sound, which is great. But on
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 2: the road I do it three piece because I'm a
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 2: huge Hendrick C. B Ray fan, and I just think
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 2: that it sounds bigger sometimes just going three piece, I can.
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 2: I love playing all the guitar parts myself. I do
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 2: like the freedom in that, and we've dialed it in.
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 2: I'm really happy with that. So we've got Justin Andreas
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 2: on bass. You've got Elias Marlin on drums. He's amazing.
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 2: Demi and Ariaga sometimes plays drums with me sometimes as well,
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 2: but Justin's my main bass player and he also plays
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 2: guitar with me as well.
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 3: So yeah, so tell me about this Eddie Kreamer record.
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 2: I'm super excited about this. It's a it's it's an
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 2: all girl sort of band, a Gypsy's vibe thing, and
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 2: you know, it came together quite some time ago. And yeah,
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 2: I mean, I don't even know. Cindy has been a
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 2: Cindy Santana has been a dear friend of mine for
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 2: many years. And I never wanted to be an all
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 2: girl band, like never, Like it's been suggested a few times.
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 2: I'm like, oh hell no. But with her, I was
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 2: like absolutely, you know, I felt like this is going
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 2: to be something really special and I and I don't,
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 2: you know, I want to. And then when Eddie, I
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 2: called Eddie about it and we found Rhonda Smith was
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 2: available too. It just came together really organically and it
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 2: was wonderful. So we're nearly done with that record and
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 2: I can't wait for people to hear it. It's something
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 2: totally different from what I'm putting out. It's got a
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 2: lot of fire behind it. And we're playing our first
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 2: show in about five days at the halftime for the Raiders,
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 2: So no pressure, just sixty thousand people. You know.
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 3: How did you connect with Eddie.
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 2: I've known Eddie for a long time. Actually, I met
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 2: him at Capitol Records and he was mixing some you know,
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 2: Hendrix stuff there and I walked in one day and
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 2: he was like mixing is you got to hear this
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 2: unreleased Hendrix stuff. I'm like, okay, it's wild. And then
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 2: we became friends. And then Janie Hendrix has been a
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 2: good friend of mine for many years, and I would
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 2: go and jam down at the at Paul Allen when
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 2: he was around. He was a good friend of mine.
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 2: He had the Jimmy Hendrix Museum. So i'd go jam
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 2: down there, and Janie and I were friends, and I'm sorry,
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 2: we're we're still friends. And we would, you know, just
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 2: jam a lot. And I got to play with Billy
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 2: Cox down there. I got to hold you know, the
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 2: Hendrix strat and everything, and Eddie I think he came
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 2: down there once as well. But yeah, it was just
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 2: it's been an amazing workingd with Eddie in the studio,
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 2: Like watching him dial in tones like the old school
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 2: way and compressors and all that kind of stuff. It's
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 2: pretty pretty intense and mod a legend. I feel very honored,
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 2: very honored now.
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 3: Eddie Kramer, Kevin Sure, we are both from South Africa.
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 3: They are, so what is special about the South Africans?
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I think you know what. I think
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 2: my great great grandfather is from South Africa too. I
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 2: don't know. So, yeah, I'm kind of a bit of
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 2: a European mutt and I have some I could ask
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 2: my mother exactly, but I don't know. They're cool. They're
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 2: very cool people. I've never been there, but both Eddie
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 2: and Kevin just have a way about them that's kind
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 2: of differently the same, but they're just both very sure
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 2: of themselves. They know exactly what they're going for, and
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 2: it's an honor to work with both of them. Love it.
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 3: Okay, how did the SCIRL group come together?
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 2: It was kind of it came together in this like
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 2: kind of haphazard way. We're going to tell the story
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 2: one down. I can't. I've been told not to give
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 2: out too much information about the situation right now, So.
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 3: Well, let me ask you this. How long have you
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 3: been working on the girl band?
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 2: About a year?
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 3: And what came first? The band the Idea or.
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 2: Eddie Kramer the Idea?
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 3: Okay and the Idea, and then Eddie Kreamer, and then
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 3: the band.
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 2: The Idea, Cindy Blackman, Santana. Then I think we found
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 2: Ronda or Eddie. Yeah, Eddie and Ronda sort of came
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 2: at the same time. And then yeah, so.
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, you're going to play at the Raiders game.
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 3: How has that even come to pass?
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 2: Got invited? I played actually play the national anthem in
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 2: Oakland for the Raiders. I've been a Raiders fan since
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 2: I was eleven, I believe it not in Australia because
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 2: I thought that was so cool. And I used to
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 2: go to the Royal show and they had the Pirate
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 2: hat and all the swag, and I was just into
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 2: American culture anyway, so I was like, yeah, go Raiders,
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 2: and I was always wearing like different Chicago Bulls hats,
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 2: Raiders swag. And then when I got invited to do
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 2: the halftime so the national anthem back in twenty fourteen,
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 2: I met Mark Davis. He's an owner and he's been
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 2: a very dear friend of mine. For many years. So yeah,
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 2: that was really cool.
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 3: Okay, you're going out with Alice Cooper. To what degree
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 3: do you have to work to pay the bills? Or
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 3: with all these endorsements and guitars, et cetera, there's enough
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 3: money coming in that you're comfortable.
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's enough money coming in. I'm definitely very comfortable
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 2: for sure. I mean, you know, it's funny. It's like
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 2: in this industry, you make a lot, you lose a lot.
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 2: You go through a lot of stuff that people don't
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 2: even know about, and you know, paying people off and
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 2: managers and the next amount of and things and lawyers. Yeah,
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 2: things are expensive, that's for sure. So you can make
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 2: a lot of money, lose a lot of money, make
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 2: it again, lose it. It's up and down all the time,
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 2: for sure.
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 3: Well, if you stop playing guitar today, which I know
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 3: you don't want to do, do you have enough money
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 3: to continue to live or you got to work?
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 2: Oh no, I'm still working. There's there's many things I
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 2: want to I want to do and buy, So you know,
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 2: for sure.
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 3: You want to buy? What do you want to buy?
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 2: A couple of houses that I'm looking at right now, So.
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, how many houses do you have now?
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 2: Well, the one I'm I'm I've got it quite a
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 2: few in Australia, and then I've got my place here
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 2: in LA and I would love to have a home
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 2: in I think I want to own a home in Vegas.
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 2: I think I do. And I also want to own
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 2: a place by the beach in Australia as well, So
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 2: and maybe maybe also maybe now sure but I'm not sure,
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 2: you know, yeah.
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 3: Okay, So how many homes do you own in Australia.
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 2: Well, personally with my family, we have quite a quite
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 2: a few homes. I don't know exactly that before.
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 3: But I just want to understand are you buying homes
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 3: as an investment or you're buying homes because you want
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 3: to have a house and live there yourself when you're
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 3: in that town.
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 2: It's honestly, if I buy a home in Vegas or
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 2: Nashville or out here in LA because I'm in this
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 2: condo right now, it would be because I want to
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 2: live here. So it's finding the right place where I
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 2: would it would be my sanctuary. So I've been searching
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 2: for years to find the right place out here in
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 2: America that I feel like this is the place I
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 2: want to be my main residence, you know what I mean.
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 2: So because I'm always touring, I'm always on the road,
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 2: so it's like it's convenient for me to have a
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 2: bunch of storage units here and condo, so you know
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 2: that's convenient.
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 3: So do you live in a house or a condo?
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 2: A condo here?
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, so you can just there's a door person
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 3: you can leave for months and you don't have to
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 3: worry about it.
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 2: Exactly. I was in a house before with my partner.
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 2: But then you know, I'm oveed this condo and it's
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 2: very secure and there's security everywhere, like it's Fort Knox basically. Here.
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 2: You know, you've got cameras and then if anyone was
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 2: to come into my place, immediately, you know, goes to
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 2: the police. I got like, it's pretty crazy their security
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 2: I have here for sure.
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 3: Now you talk about a partner, you've never been married, right.
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 2: No, I have not, but I have kind of it's
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 2: been like, you know, almost like a marriage. My longest relationship.
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 2: I've got her here, so I'd call it kind of
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 2: like a marriage. You know, we live together for.
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 3: A long time, but you're not with someone.
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 2: Now, No, I am I'm yeah, I'm dating around right now,
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 2: so it's all good.
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 3: And do you have a desire for children? Don't care
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 3: about children?
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 2: No? I don't. I don't think I want children. No,
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 2: I don't, because the thing is, you know, before I
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 2: was thinking about it, but now I'm like, No, if
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 2: I was going to be have a child, I would
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 2: want to be the best mother. Ever. I don't think
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 2: that I could be with what I'm doing, and you
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 2: know what I mean. And by the time I've accomplished
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 2: what I want to do with my life like and everything,
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 2: I don't think a child would fit into that. And
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 2: I don't want to be one of those parents that,
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 2: like you know, brings up an asshole child.
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 3: So you know, okay, if you're in LA, are you
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 3: the type of person who's connecting with friends all the
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 3: time and going out? Are you the type of person
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 3: staying home working on your stuff watching TV? Who knows both?
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah? I like to hit the Sunset Marquee a lot
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 2: with my friends and my other places around here or
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 2: MOUs strows or wherever I go. You know, it's like Craigs,
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 2: you know, I do go out. I do. I have
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 2: gatherings with my friends, my very dear friends who I
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 2: love and I have like sometimes like just dinners, organize
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 2: it once once a week or once every you know,
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 2: or just girls night out and or girls and boys
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 2: night out and we just go and we you know,
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 2: have a few drinks and it's wonderful to catch up
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 2: with friends. You know, it's hard sometimes because we're all
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 2: on tour, so it's just bying the moment where everyone's
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 2: in town. You know, your friends are all together.
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 3: So most of your friends are musicians, not civilians.
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 2: No, I have a couple that are not musicians, but
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 2: you know, it's like most of them are or agents
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 2: or they work in different industries or you know, just
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 2: in different fields. But they're mostly like in the entertainment
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 2: field for sure.
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 3: Okay, so you're a guitar player. Who's the greatest rock guitarist.
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 2: I don't know what who the Everyone's so different, they're
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 2: so great, you know, I'm saying that I can't. I
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 2: said that Jimmy Hendrix was great, and he was one
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 2: of the best, and he was an innovator. But then
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 2: there's Steve I, who's incredibly great technically and beautiful the
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 2: way he plays and got Santana who's one of the
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 2: greatest in my eyes, and then you go, you know,
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 2: I don't know, there's too many. I can't like, they're
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 2: all incredible. But for me though, inspiration wise, Santana is
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 2: definitely the reason why I wanted to play electric guitar.
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 2: So I would say Tantana if I had to.
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 3: If you listen to Santana, what album do you play?
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 2: You know what? I think that my favorite would be
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 2: Sacred Fire Live in Mexico. It's a live record, but
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 2: I would suggest to anyone to put that on and
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 2: it's so inspiring.
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 3: And if you're listening to Hendrix, what are you listening to?
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 2: Banner Gypsies or probably live with Buddy Miles at the
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 2: film All that was really awesome too. It's like a
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 2: three vinyl kind of set. Yeah, I don't know, there's
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 2: so many. There's so many with Hendrix, I kind of
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 2: love them all. That's the thing. So hard to pick one.
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 3: And what degree do you keep up on contemporary music?
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 2: I check in, you know. I mean, I really like
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 2: Teddy Swims. I think he's core. I really like country
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 2: music too. Yeah, but I would say right now like
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 2: Teddy Swims. For some reason, he has an old school sound.
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 2: His voice is so good that yeah, it's my favorite
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 2: new artists.
• 1:34:32
  Speaker 3: Okay, Australia certainly is not as big as the United States.
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 3: Is it like an Australian mafia where all the Australian
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 3: musicians know each other?
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 2: Kind of kind of?
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 2: I mean I haven't been back there for five years.
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 2: I'm going back for the first time.
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 3: But I mean in the US.
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 2: On the US, no, I mean no, I don't know
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 2: that many Australians out here, to be honest. One of
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 2: my guitar actually, my guitar player, Nick Mayberry, he's Australian.
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 2: But and then Vanessa Morosi, she's Australian, one of my
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 2: best friends. She's a great singer. But other than that,
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 2: not that many Australians know.
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 3: Okay, so you've accomplished so much, but what are the
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 3: dreams in the future.
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 2: To reach more people with the music I make? To
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 2: better myself as a singer songwriter? It is how play
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 2: everything you know? You never stop learning, you never stop searching, creating.
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 2: There's so much more to do, you know. I feel
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 2: like I've just gotten started. So that's the truth. I
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 2: just want to reach a lot of people and continue
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 2: to evolve and not bore myself and bore others. So
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 2: that's a plan.
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 3: Okay, Rimpi. I want to thank you for taking this
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 3: time to speak with me and my audience.
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me so I appreciate you.
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 2: A good time.
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 3: Thank you you bet Till next time. This is Bob
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 3: Left Sex sh