Latest / The Chris and Mike Show / #138 - Robert Mckay - Author/Musician

Transcript

#138 - Robert Mckay - Author/Musician · The Chris and Mike Show

0:01
Here we go. Got to wait for the music.
0:05
Let us fill the air. We're we're not hearing the
0:11
music. You're not.
0:13
No, no. Nor is the YouTube or Twitch
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followers. So welcome YouTube and Twitch
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followers. Wow, going.
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To you, just ready. Weird wild stuff, man.
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And I just figured out how to not have to put the music in
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later. Right on, man.
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So now I'm going to have to. Put him in later.
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You're welcome. Oh, he always keeps me on my
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toes, right? And whenever it works, you guys
0:48
got the book. Yeah.
0:55
Hello. Welcome to the Chris and Mike
0:57
show. I'm Chris.
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He's Mike. That's Robert McKay.
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You asked me a question, Robert. And I I didn't.
1:01
I didn't answer the question. What was that you asked me?
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Oh, I. Said, Did you get a chance to
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check out the book? We have not yet.
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Have not. We don't.
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Here's how we roll, man. We like to come into these
1:11
things organically because we don't.
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We want to learn about you as you share with us and those that
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are watching and eventually listening to the show so you can
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bring up whatever you want to bring up as far as your book.
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Don't give all the all the things away because you want
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people to go buy your book because that's one of the
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reasons why you're on here. You know, so that's kind of why
1:32
we do it the way we do it. It's not a typical thing.
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I'm sure you've watched this at some point in time, but we're
1:36
not normal. Let's let's interview Robert.
1:38
Hi, Robert. How are you today?
1:40
I'm good. Chris, what do you do for the
1:41
thing? I am a meat acquisition curator.
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What's that mean? I chop up cows so it's more fun
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just doing it this way. Yes.
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Absolutely so. So this is Robert McKay.
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Welcome to the show. Let's, let's give our, give our,
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our audience in what, 23 countries now, Mike?
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23 Thank you for coming on, Robert.
2:02
It's a pleasure. Yes.
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Yeah, definitely a pleasure, man.
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So give us a little insight of what you why you wanted to come
2:09
on this fantastic show and what we can share about you.
2:14
Yeah, just to share my story, pretty much.
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So I I've been playing guitar since I was 14 and I'm I.
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Started when I was 9, so congratulations.
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Thank you. I I actually started in 8th
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grade, I want to say 8th grade and no 7th grade.
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So I took lessons up until my senior year and I had the same
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teacher the whole time. Wow, so I, I was pretty quiet in
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school. I I was the kid walking around
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with the headphones on, you know not.
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Really. Yeah.
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I was a musician to her man. Yeah, so, but my brother, he was
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in school band, so I got into music right when Guns and Roses
2:56
came out, right when they used to.
3:00
And you guys probably remember this when they used to show
3:02
Knocking on Heaven's store on MTV.
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Damn right man. The right.
3:05
That was from Live at the Ritz, Yeah, in New York City, I
3:09
believe. Yeah.
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That was an awesome. That's still, I think, their
3:14
best concert. It's so, yeah, I totally
3:17
remember that video. I'm sure Chris does.
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Too. So that's what that's what got
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me into the tar plane and everything just kind of fell
3:24
into place because I was living at my grandma's house at the
3:27
time. So my uncle used to live there,
3:30
you know, too, until he got married and he moved out.
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So when he moved out, he left his acoustic behind.
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So right when I started to kind of watch MTV and got into Slash
3:40
and I, I saw him playing. I saw.
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So I'm like, oh, that looks really cool.
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How many people started playing guitar because of Slash?
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Yeah. So yeah, I wanted to, I wanted
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to do the same thing her. Brother.
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So I kind of put two and two together that, you know, where
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my where my brother got his rental for a band.
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Hey, they did guitar lessons too.
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And hey, you know, my uncle left his acoustic behind at the
4:08
house. Gee, you know, maybe I should
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ask them if I could use their full lessons.
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So I, I always tell this story and pretty much sums it up.
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One day he came over, I said Uncle Joe, and now I'm like 14
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at the time. I'm middle school.
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Uncle Joe, can I use your acoustic for guitar lessons?
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So, you know, being a cool uncle, he says, yeah, sure.
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Not a problem. So my mom was upstairs, so I
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literally ran up the stairs and I startled the hell out of my
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mom. She had a bath turn.
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I said mom. So she's like, she turned around
4:46
bad. And she's like, what?
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All those sites use this car and I take guitar lessons.
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She said yeah. And she was kind of fluctuate
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because I startled her so bad because I yelled mom and she
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didn't hear me come up. So, so, you know, of course, you
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know, she said yeah and whatever.
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So I had the same teacher for four years.
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Me too. And, you know, it was kind of
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cool because they kind of had a bond, you know, because I had
5:12
them for so long, you know. And you know, we did the Alfred
5:17
books to kind of because I didn't know anything about music
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up to that point. So I wasn't in band.
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I wasn't course, I really didn't have that much of a background
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on it. So, you know, so, so we started
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with the Alfred books and I used my uncle's acoustic.
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And then a year later, maybe less than a year, he said, you
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know, you should probably switch the electric percentage to two
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more because, you know, there's so many, so many songs I could
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show you on a hooster. So my mom got me my first
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electric guitar for my birthday, which I still have.
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I still use, I still play. That's awesome, I wish I still
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had my first. Guitar, yeah I I solely use it
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and I didn't change anything on it.
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The only thing I've seen trying is the guitar strings.
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My first real guitar was BC Rich Warlock.
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I love that thing. Oh, wow.
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OK, sweet. But so you know, yeah, I've,
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I've used it up up until now. I solely use it today and so,
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and then once he left, I stopped lessons and then, but I kept
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playing, you know, I, I kept learning, I kept thinking on
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YouTube and stuff like that. And then I restarted lessons in
6:37
2019 and I still take now and I've been with the same.
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Are you taking with the same guy?
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Lessons. What?
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Are you taking private lessons? Then?
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Yeah, OK. Yeah, so the private lessons I
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take now, I've been with the same person since 2019.
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That's awesome. Because I know, like, I know if
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I want, you know, to get to kind of get to that next level, I, I
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know I needed to go back to lessons because, you know, you
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can only learn. You can learn stuff for you
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stuff off of YouTube and stuff like that, but you can only
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learn. Yeah, if you have any questions,
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you can't ask me to. Right.
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You know, so I know I wanted that hands on kind of
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interaction to learn to learn it.
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And the accountability, it's too easy if you're doing it yourself
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to just say, you know, I'm going to skip today or I'm going to
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skip. It's no different than Chris
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working out. It's if he decides to not go one
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week, it's pretty easy to not go the next week, right, Right.
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So if you're not a self starter and you know that it's easy for
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you to just put something down and not pick it up again for a
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month, I totally recommend that people take private lessons.
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That's why I gave less. I still do to this day.
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If somebody really wants to learn, I'll teach you to play.
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It's not something my I don't want 100 students a month
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anymore. But yeah, I totally understand
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the wanting the hands on because a lot of times you, you want to
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see something two or three times before you pick it up, you know?
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Yeah. And you know, I and like, yeah,
8:14
especially with stuff like metallic and Guns and Roses and
8:17
stuff like that, you know, to really learn it the right way.
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I feel like if you, if you have someone there to kind of show
8:24
you it that knows it maybe better than you, it helps.
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Absolutely, you know. And you know, that's what kind
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of like why I like my guitar teacher so much is that he
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reminds me of my first teacher because my first teacher was the
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same life. What?
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Once we switched to the hour lesson, he did half, half
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lesson, half, whatever I wanted, whatever song I wanted to learn.
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That's what I used to do when I had a lot of time on my hands.
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Yeah, but the following, but the following week, the first thing
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we did was go over the week before.
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So I. Like this guy, that's very much
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how I used to teach. You know and and.
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Review, learn, fun. That's what I used to say.
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We're going to review last week. We're going to learn, then we're
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going to have fun. Yeah, and I used to, and that's
9:15
the first thing we went over. So whatever theory, you know,
9:19
whatever exercise he gave me, we went back and played it.
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You know, whatever, whatever song, we whatever part of the
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song we learned, I went back and played it.
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Yeah. And there there was times that
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he called me right-handed. You did the song more than
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theory, didn't you? You can't lie because you know
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you're playing it, so you know he's going to hear it.
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For sure. You know, so it's not like, Oh
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yeah, just give me another shot. And you know, you know, pretty
9:48
much could say, yeah, you know, you acted strong one on the
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other. But he never got mad about it.
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He just made sure he went over to make sure I understood it
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pretty much. That's good.
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Yeah. So now and from, from what a
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little bit I did learn about you, you you've, you had thyroid
10:05
cancer. Yeah, I had the I had pap.
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I don't know if I'm saying sorry.
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Papytori. Thyroid cancer.
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But how long? How long did you have that?
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So I was diagnosed in 2011. I want to start around this time
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around October, November because I remember it was told the end
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of the year. So I had a goiter right where
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your thyroid betters. I didn't have any.
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Yeah, like right here. So your thyroid bed is like
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pretty much like, yeah, like the lungs.
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You have a left side, right side, but I don't have any.
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I didn't have any side effects. So basically I had a cough.
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I had a cough for like 2 weeks and I couldn't get rid of it.
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So one night I went to the ER and the doctor noticed it.
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He said you, you have a bump on your neck.
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Did you get that checked out? He said no, I didn't think
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anything over because it wasn't hurting or wasn't affecting me
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or anything like that, you know. So he said nice, she really got
11:06
it checked out. So I got it checked out and
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that's how I found out. I went to a primary doctor and
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she referred me to my endocrinologist and they did the
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fine needle biopsy and came back in.
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So. So and so, how long did you have
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to deal with that? So right after I had, I had my
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thyroid taken out and obviously the voider that there's
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recovery. Recovery wasn't that bad.
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It's more like a stiff neck. I was in a hospital overnight
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because I had the drain tube, which wasn't fun.
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When they took it out, it's like, oh, it's not going to hurt
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that much and Yang, but it's not going to hurt that much, don't
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worry. So I had that done and then
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afterwards I followed up with radiation oncologist, which I
12:07
had to get, and I had to get chemo, but I had to get
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radiation, radiation iodine, which basically water, polar
12:17
radiation. So you take it and you know, you
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don't feel any effects from it, But you guys stay isolated for
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48 hours usually Friday, yeah, Friday to Sunday, It's Friday to
12:33
Monday. And then they check your levels
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to make you know, make sure your radiation went down.
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So. So isolation is because they
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don't want you walking around and radiating other people.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't want to blow up and
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you know. It sounds like a villain for a
12:49
superhero movie, man. Glow in the dark?
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Pretty much, yeah. Yeah, that's crazy, man.
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Walking down the street and people are just dropping just
12:58
like, oh radiation man. I didn't even know that was a
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thing where you had enough radiation in you to make you be
13:04
isolated. That's the first time I've ever
13:07
heard that that's. Yeah, when you go.
13:09
Like, because my son was young at the time, like I was in a
13:13
hospital for two days because I didn't really have anywhere
13:16
isolate at home. So they did as a safety, you
13:21
know, as a safety promotion because you're really not, you
13:24
know, because you're really not supposed to be around people
13:27
once after you first taste it. Did you put yourself under a
13:31
black light? Yeah, yeah.
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I didn't feel any affection with though.
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How long did you have to do that?
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I I took on a Friday, first night there.
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I took on a Friday and outside. I think it means more of the
13:49
length of time, not just actually you did it for 40
13:51
hours, you did this treatment, you had the isolate for 48
13:53
hours, but. How?
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Radiation, iodine. And of course from then until
13:56
now I did it twice, OK, for the first time, and then one time
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after that. So then they like check your
14:04
levels after that and make sure that they got all the.
14:07
Yeah, so. Hard out or?
14:11
Yeah. So pretty much I get blood work
14:13
done every three to four months to check my levels and then I
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usually do PET scans once a year, every six months.
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I was frozen, wasn't I? You know, depending on blood
14:27
work, but not on what I haven't had anything done for a while.
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So how long have you been? Cancer for everybody.
14:34
Say hi to my wife. Hi, Nikki.
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Thanks for watching. Yeah.
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So Ted, technically, technically after you have your thyroid
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taken out, you're supposed to be at 0.
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Technically I'm at like 1 point between 1:00 and 2:00 on on
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blood work. So, but I haven't the last time
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I had something done I was last year, I had one, one small
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nodule taken out. So I set my fingertip because
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there's cancerous. They didn't want to leave it
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then, you know, took it out. But I haven't had anything since
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said my, you know, my skin's been clear and blood work's been
15:20
good, so. That's awesome.
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Congratulations man. Yeah, I I've had this same
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oncologist the same this whole time.
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I'm an endocrinologist to it. Endocrinologist.
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It's been the same person throughout all this stuff.
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That's good. So now from a so from a cancer
15:38
standpoint, you're free and clear.
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Now you're just going in for your annual check UPS.
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Yeah, pretty much, yeah. I got the blood work done every
15:44
three to four months, and I see my oncologist every same thing
15:49
every three to four months. And pretty much, you know, they
15:52
follow the blood work as long as the blood work's good, you know,
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they just keep an eye on it. That's awesome man.
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That's scary when you hear the you got cancer, you know, you
16:02
don't know yeah, how far it's gone.
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And that's awesome. I'm glad you're on the right
16:10
track now. Yeah, thank you.
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Yeah, it's definitely scary. But I'm, you know, luckily, I
16:15
mean, I don't know, luckily if somebody were.
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But yeah, there's four different types of thyroid cancer, and the
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one I had is the least least spreadable and most contained,
16:29
the most localized. So you had the best of worst
16:32
case scenario. Yeah, because I know there's,
16:35
although there's another one that's right, you know that
16:38
isn't localized and spreads for every use only.
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Yeah, that's definitely not the one you want.
16:44
I mean, nobody wants any of it, but.
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Right. The best you know.
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In your case, at least, it was something that they're familiar
16:52
with and they knew how to treat. And I'm really happy for you,
16:55
man, that your health nothing means I just was recently sick
17:00
for like a week. And I mean just like a chest
17:03
cold where you were no energy and down for the count and just
17:07
can't do anything if you wanted to.
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Every time that happens to me, it just really reinforces that
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that's it right there. Your health is everything.
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Yeah. And, and you know, like like
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last year I had a fib right, right around the time, right
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around the time the nodule came up, I also had a fib, so.
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My dad has that too, so yeah, I know that can be scary if you're
17:36
not medicated for that. Yeah.
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And then so I had a cardioversion done and that that
17:43
helped, that got rid of it. But the dot, you know, the
17:46
doctor warn me, he said, you know, cardioversions is could
17:49
there's a chance to come back and they have to get an
17:52
ablution. And that's exactly what
17:55
happened. Like the cardio version, we are
17:58
there for like 3 to four months and then right right around
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Thanksgiving it came back. So then I had to do the
18:05
ablation. This past January I did it.
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Chris will be right back. He he just texted me.
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He got kicked off his Internet. I will fuck and.
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He said he signed back on SO. I was wondering what happened to
18:20
him. Yes, it's weird, man.
18:23
His Internet, and for the people who are listening, we apologize
18:28
every now and then. It just goes crazy.
18:30
He's got a cable modem and he has Starlink.
18:33
He actually has two choices and where he's at in Arizona, it's
18:38
not really rural, but it is like a horse property community.
18:43
So they're kind of on the edge of the suburbs if I understand
18:47
him right. I think they just don't have the
18:50
same kind of dedicated lines that most communities have going
18:54
into them yet. Like he said, they're trenching
18:56
for fiber optic now. So Oh wow, that's what I have.
19:00
I have a 1 gig up and 1 gig down router sitting right in front of
19:04
me. Yeah, that's right.
19:05
I have. I have Verizon.
19:07
I have to, yeah. This is a company called Pavlov.
19:11
One guy owns this entire company that's based out of Champaign,
19:15
IL if I remember right. Either there, Denver, Co, I
19:19
can't remember which. I'm in Illinois.
19:21
Chris is in Arizona. I think you said you're in New
19:23
York. Yeah, I'm in New York.
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I'm in Long Island, New York. Oh wow, that's awesome, man.
19:28
So we're literally almost traversing the entire country
19:31
trying to do this. It's amazing it works at all to
19:33
be honest. With you, it's pretty cool, you
19:35
know. But yeah, so you know that
19:40
that's where I'm at now. You know, health wise.
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Knock on wood, I'm clear. So in the music side of things,
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have you played with a band? I know you said you're trying to
19:51
do like your own singer-songwriter thing.
19:55
Yeah, I haven't done bad. Hey, I don't know what happened.
20:00
To you. I don't know what happened
20:01
there, man. It's just everything went black.
20:02
I'm like, oh, OK. Yeah, I I saw a goat blurry and
20:06
I'm like, what happened? I, I think, I think my, my
20:09
normal, I have two Wi-fi's. I think the, I think the Cox one
20:12
just decided to disappear because I can't find it.
20:14
So it just blew me up for some reason, you know?
20:19
The other Chris is off in cyberspace.
20:21
Right, so I was. Just asking him on the music
20:26
side of things if he'd ever played with a band.
20:28
I know from following on Instagram he's working on a
20:32
singer-songwriter kind of deal. I just have you ever played with
20:35
a group or anything as a guitar player?
20:38
I've never played with a group. I'm always, I'm always looking.
20:44
I think I'm more comfortable doing it more now than I was in
20:48
the past, so I think part of it was self-confidence.
20:52
I get it. But I think part of it was,
20:57
yeah, that's part of the reason why I, we took up lessons, you
21:01
know, for exactly that reason to kind of because you gain some.
21:05
Comfort. Yeah, you know, I could play
21:08
chords, I could record stuff like that.
21:10
But you know, once you start getting to scales and different,
21:14
you know on that, on the theory part of it.
21:16
Yeah, don't worry about that shit.
21:17
Yeah, just have fun playing rhythm because that's the you're
21:20
going to play rhythm over 90% of the time.
21:24
Even if you're like, I was the only guitar player in the band I
21:26
played in with Chris, so I I pulled double duty, right?
21:31
You're still playing rhythm over 90% of the time.
21:34
And that's the most important thing.
21:36
It's so sad that a guy like Eddie Van Halen was so good as a
21:40
lead guitar player because he was actually a better rhythm
21:42
guitar player, but nobody talked about.
21:44
That I haven't thought about that yet.
21:46
His sense of timing is still untouched.
21:51
Yeah. You know, he would speed up and
21:52
slow down within the song and make it sound musical.
21:56
Yeah. That.
21:57
That's. Hard.
22:00
Yeah, he wasn't thinking about it.
22:01
He just knew what he wanted to hear and he did it.
22:03
But what he was doing, that swing feel where it's not on a
22:08
perfect beat, Yeah, you're playing ahead and behind the
22:12
beat. A/C DACDC is famous for that.
22:14
The drummer's always playing slightly behind the beat.
22:17
It's what makes you want to keep listening, right?
22:19
Yeah, it's like the solo to shock me too.
22:22
Yes, it's a part in a solo because I learned it now.
22:27
I learned it two years ago, whatever.
22:30
And I remember my guitar teacher saying, Oh yeah, this part kind
22:33
of does behind the beat. And then he comes back.
22:37
But yeah, it's that anticipation.
22:38
It keeps your listener wanting more.
22:41
Yeah, but those kind of things are hard to do if you haven't
22:45
spent countless hours playing with the metronome.
22:47
So that's why I said just concentrate on playing rhythm.
22:49
And when you get that down to where you're comfortable playing
22:53
with a drummer or a drum machine or whatever, those two things, I
22:58
can't stress enough. Spend more time playing rhythm
23:00
than anything, and make sure you're playing with the
23:03
metronome. Yeah, I'm, I'm always freaking
23:06
out. You know the macrodome or
23:07
something on YouTube? And I say that because I got
23:10
chastised by the drummer that Chris and I played with.
23:12
That was the first thing that he beat me up about.
23:15
He's like, I've never seen somebody who can play so well
23:18
that speeds up and slows down more than you.
23:20
Oh, really? And that, that's from doing with
23:22
the Metrodome and all that. For me, it's for me it was.
23:25
I didn't play with the metronome.
23:27
I just sat in my bedroom and jammed right.
23:29
So I didn't have a drummer. I wasn't really trying to play
23:32
other people's music, so I wasn't getting a sense of
23:34
timing. I was just, I had my own sense
23:37
of timing. Yeah, yeah.
23:41
Which, if you got a guy like this who wants to sing a song
23:44
and you're speeding up and slowing down within that same
23:46
song, there better be a damn good reason for it or he's going
23:49
to be pissed off. Flip out.
23:52
We would use it though. We would use that as part of the
23:54
dynamic of whatever song we were.
23:55
Right. You know, I, it became, yeah, it
23:58
became one of my better qualities.
23:59
But I have to credit Scott with that because he's the one that
24:02
taught me he you got to be on the beat first before we can
24:05
deviate from it. Before you, Yeah, you guys stay
24:08
on it before you offer. You cannot deviate from the
24:11
norm. Everybody got mixed feelings.
24:17
The vomits to rush there yeah, shut us down now YouTube.
24:21
So we put up a show, a couple of our 133rd show.
24:24
We we actually we shoot, we can screen share.
24:28
So we went to YouTube and we were, we were playing
24:30
Comfortably Numb live at Pompeii with Gilmore doing this, right.
24:34
OK. Even Rover's like, yeah, OK, So
24:38
we were talking about that. And then we we did the medley
24:41
that happened with Youngblood, Aerosmith at the MTV, wherever
24:48
the hell they were. Yeah.
24:50
In the other the other World and so but we were talking about
24:56
that and then so when we when we dropped the episode it it got
24:59
blocked YouTube blocked the whole thing.
25:01
So before you came on Mike and I were talking about it.
25:03
He think he he realizes now it was the MTV part of it.
25:06
So, so. I saw the I saw the post, you
25:10
guys. That's why anybody who posted
25:14
anything to do with that MTV Music Awards, if you read the
25:18
letter that they sent Chris, it says blocked globally.
25:22
That means anybody who shared any piece of that, MTV said,
25:25
shut them down. Oh, OK.
25:27
Which, you know, like you can go to you, you can go to you, but
25:30
you can go to YouTube and pull it up.
25:32
It's like the dumbest thing. And here's the thing.
25:35
And share it with. Us.
25:36
This is where I agree with Chris and I agree with a lot of
25:40
podcasters that I've heard before this that made the same
25:43
argument, and I can make both arguments.
25:47
But I think the fact that you're bringing attention to these
25:51
artists is far more important than even if we were making
25:56
money on this, which we're not right now.
25:58
So at this point in time, Robert Mckay's on episode, I think
26:02
we're on 138 or so now. We have not been paid to do
26:06
this. And that's not, it's not good or
26:08
bad, but if we're helping that artist promote themselves and
26:14
we're not being compensated for it, why should we have a
26:17
negative strike against us? I agree with your argument in
26:19
space. Yeah, because the other song we
26:21
had on there was Ultra Bridges new single The Silent Divide,
26:25
which was fantastic because they went, they went back to their,
26:28
you know, heavy side. So we had that going.
26:31
So those three things. But we think it's just the the
26:35
MTV 1. So we're going to have Mike cut
26:36
that down and see if that's. True.
26:39
Yeah, Like I said, I saw, I saw. I'm like, wow, that's wild.
26:43
Yeah. I mean, for the people who are
26:45
watching on YouTube and Twitch who are here every week #1 thank
26:48
you. We appreciate it.
26:49
Michael Cergeant, want to see that episode?
26:53
You can go to Spotify or their Apple.
26:54
Spotify has the video, Apple has the audio.
26:57
For some reason they're OK with that.
27:00
So on our on our live part of part of of of YouTube when we
27:05
did the show live that day, I wonder if it bled through or
27:08
they blocked that as well. Well, we'll have to go back and
27:11
look. I never thought about that.
27:12
It's an interesting. Question, I'll go on my phone
27:14
and do it because my wife, I just did the same thing.
27:17
So another thing I want to talk about Robert Wiley.
27:19
Wiley looked this up. You wrote a book or you're
27:22
writing a book. I wrote a book, so it's actually
27:25
out. OK, hold that up in a little
27:27
here. So people can see it, man.
27:28
There you go. It's actually out now on Amazon
27:31
and Barnes and Noble. OK.
27:34
And give us give us a synopsis about it.
27:36
Just I mean, I don't want you to give away because we want people
27:38
to come by it, but give give us a little.
27:40
Tell us why you. Wrote it in kind of a back
27:42
story. There you go.
27:43
So why I wrote it kind of fell into my lap.
27:47
I wasn't really planning on it. So I started writing it last
27:53
year when I had my nodule taken out.
27:55
So because I'm a butcher, when I had this done, I couldn't do, I
28:01
couldn't work for a week, so I couldn't do the lifting.
28:05
So because this one was so small, this stiff, the neck
28:13
stiffness didn't last that long, only lasted I think 2, two days,
28:18
two, 2-3 days the most. And so by the third day I felt
28:24
better. So I had empty notebooks.
28:26
I always have empty notebooks lying around just to write, so I
28:30
remember. Somebody else I don't know.
28:32
Most, most guitarists and singers do, man.
28:35
Yeah, I almost, I think I have at least two or three notebooks,
28:40
just cool. And I always carry one with me
28:42
in the car just to write whatever.
28:47
So it was like 2O clock in the morning.
28:49
I'm like, no, I don't have work in the morning.
28:52
And you know, I said I'm just going to write just to write,
28:55
you know, And I started to write, you know, you know what I
28:59
was saying before with the slashing on MTV And I stayed off
29:04
until like 4 O clock in the morning.
29:07
And I think I wrote like I want to say 10 pages in like 2 hours
29:12
because I just wrote, you know, and I hand wrote it.
29:15
So I didn't have a laptop at the time either.
29:18
So I literally hand wrote this in a notebook, pen and paper.
29:22
That's impressive. All into.
29:24
Itself, So yeah. So then a week later, my
29:27
birthday is August 26th. Mine's the.
29:30
Second surgery. So the surgery was set up the
29:37
first week in August was when we confirmed, OK, we're going
29:41
through the surgery, take it out because it's cancerous, we don't
29:44
want to risk it. So the girl calls me for the
29:48
surgery. She's like, hi, I'm calling to
29:51
schedule. I said OK.
29:52
She's like, well, the first date we have available is August
29:56
26th. That's my birthday.
29:59
So I'm like, you know, do you have anything else?
30:01
You know, that's my birthday. I don't want to have surgery on
30:04
my birthday. So, so then she's like, well,
30:07
the next date is September 9th. Well, I don't want to wait until
30:11
September to get this thing taken out.
30:14
You know, if we're going to take it out, let's get it taken out.
30:18
So happy. Birthday.
30:19
Yeah. Right, yeah.
30:22
So then she's like, well we have August 18th.
30:25
I said OK, I said this one, let's do August 18th.
30:28
So I had to kind of like clean my case a little to let's not do
30:33
it on my birthday type thing. So, but you know, we pulled it
30:37
off. So, so that's how we came about
30:42
and the, the week I was off, I got really nice these weather
30:49
wise. So I went down by the water for
30:53
three of the days. Wednesday, Thursday.
30:56
He lives on Long Island. Chris.
30:58
Yeah, OK, OK. Yeah, so I went down to Smith
31:01
Point and yeah, I wrote some of it there and I saw my family on
31:07
my birthday and when I saw my head, 29 page, 29 pages written
31:14
out, you know, hand roll. No, these are these eight half
31:18
by 11 pages like a normal notebook.
31:21
A regular? Yeah.
31:22
Notebook. OK, Yeah, regular notebook.
31:24
OK, cool. Is this fiction nonfiction?
31:27
What? Is this fiction?
31:29
Nonfiction. Are you writing like a fiction
31:32
book or a book about yourself? Biography.
31:34
OK, OK, there you go. So, so I had it.
31:39
I had it the whole thing right now, by the end of September.
31:44
And then I submitted it to a publisher first week in October,
31:49
got approved. And then, you know, a lot of
31:53
edits, a lot of random edits on it, sure.
31:57
But yeah, so it came out two weeks ago.
31:59
Cool. Congratulations.
32:02
And thank you. So, and it's basically, it's
32:04
basically about, you know, the, the cancer part, the music part
32:11
everywhere I've played, I tried out for America's Got Talent
32:15
twice. That's.
32:17
Awesome. Yeah, that that was before
32:19
COVID. So, so, so tell us about that
32:22
process, because we've never had somebody that's tried out for
32:24
that show been on our show. So what's the process like for
32:27
that? So that now, now it kind of
32:30
sucks. Now it's all virtual.
32:32
You know, but just go back to when you did.
32:33
I don't care about now, Robert. I want to know what your
32:36
experience was when you tried out.
32:38
So the additions was at the Travis Center in New York City.
32:44
So I did it two years in a row, the year 2018-2019.
32:50
So you go in and I never did it before.
32:55
So the first year I did, I don't know what I was walking into or
32:59
how many people or right. So, so take us to the first
33:02
year. So you go to the do you go to
33:04
the spot for the first year? What do you, I mean, what do you
33:06
see? Walk us through that.
33:07
Is there crowds so. You walk, you walk in.
33:09
You walk. Yeah, you walk in, you walk down
33:11
the stairs and there's a line and then there's a check in at
33:16
the, you know, we got there. So, so the first year I did it,
33:21
my aunt came with me and my son came with me and we're waiting
33:25
on line and there's two people in front of me, kids maybe
33:30
around 2022. So his friend keeps asking the I
33:36
look like, are you nervous? So he says no, no.
33:39
So at one point he says, you know, you should just forget
33:41
where you're going to play and you should just break out a
33:44
Taylor Swift song. I started laughing because I
33:49
wasn't into country at that point.
33:52
At that point, I was still on Slash, you know, Slash.
33:55
I wasn't really listening to country.
33:58
So I turned around to my aunt. I said, yeah, I I'm not, no way
34:02
you would catch me doing country.
34:03
I'll stick with, you know, Metallica or whatever.
34:07
Now I do contract, but so you sign in and then you go into I
34:12
guess like a big auditorium, not order, but open space.
34:20
So you just kind of hang out there and then you get called by
34:24
groups, I want to say groups of 20 and then you go into another
34:29
room to wait there and then they call you 10 at a time.
34:34
And I remember while I was waiting to get cold while you've
34:39
got while you're in a second room, I heard clapping.
34:42
So on the call man told me that this is going to be like on an
34:45
actual stage stage. You just have a clap and they
34:49
don't tell you really anything what kind of room is going into.
34:53
So then when they call, you go into a room with 10 other people
34:57
and it's like conference room. So you sit along the wall and
35:02
you know, the person's in the middle with the camera and you
35:06
get, you had 90 seconds to do whatever talent we're going to
35:11
do. So I was the only one doing
35:14
music. The guitar.
35:16
Everyone else was singing or I think, and I think there was a
35:19
dancer, but I was the only one really doing music.
35:24
Yeah. So I think Guns and Roses
35:26
Patience, because I knew it and I played enough that all right,
35:30
90 seconds, I could pull it off. So.
35:33
So the girl says, all right, you know, any volunteers?
35:36
So everyone's looking at each other.
35:40
So no one volunteer. Yeah.
35:43
And I'd be like, let's go, let's go.
35:45
Me too. Let's get it over.
35:47
Now if now if you told me I would like, I'll go first.
35:51
Yeah. Problem, yeah.
35:52
But I just playing guitar, I'll put my.
35:54
But see, part of that I think could be the fact they want to
35:56
see how you perform in front of a crowd.
35:58
So when they're asking who was the volunteer, whoever threw
36:00
their hand up first, they okay, that guy is not going to have an
36:02
issue playing in front of people because he right away went pick
36:05
me. I'm good.
36:06
Let's. Right.
36:07
Yeah. And the ones that are kind of
36:08
like the ones they're doing, right?
36:09
That's what I'm saying. It could be one of those
36:11
psychological qualifying questions.
36:13
So they're taking notes of every group of 10 who automatically
36:16
said me, me, me, me, me, me. Me.
36:18
Yeah, I can tell you. An ACT group?
36:20
No. One we all did.
36:23
We all just looked at each other like.
36:25
And then that's like, OK, not this group.
36:28
Yes, I know. But I but everyone stayed in a
36:32
room while everyone performed. OK, so that that was kind of
36:37
cool. It wasn't like, all right, 90
36:40
seconds, you got to leave. So what was the so?
36:43
So what? So you get your 10, you called
36:45
into that conference room, That's where you did your
36:47
performance. Yeah.
36:49
OK. Was it the actual judges or was
36:51
it somebody else? Now it was someone else.
36:54
It was someone was an actual judge like you see on the shows
36:59
they had. The camera was the.
37:02
Was the clapping just a backing track that they were playing?
37:05
Is that? Not a word clap.
37:07
No no. Is everyone clap and.
37:10
OK. It was actually people that were
37:11
watching the performances, OK. Yeah.
37:13
So it's kind of like they had a Yeah.
37:15
OK. So it's kind of like you're
37:16
trying to get backstage in Metallica concert.
37:18
You got to go through the roadies before you go see you
37:19
get backstage. So that's who came up was the
37:22
roadie seeing if you if you were worthy of going to the next
37:26
step. OK, Yeah.
37:27
Yeah, pretty much. You think of a dialogue.
37:29
Imagine that. You got to see the band, unless
37:31
the band wants to see him. Right.
37:33
But imagine, imagine that job you're and now you didn't answer
37:35
the question you made like how many people were there?
37:38
Was there a hundred? Was there 1000?
37:40
Was there a land? Rent on the building, I would
37:43
say 1000 OK. He's he's right around New York.
37:46
City. So yeah, let's just try to skip
37:48
that. So imagine being that guy, the
37:50
roadie that has to go through these thousand people and pick
37:53
out a select number to take back to the band and say, OK, out of
37:57
these, this is who you're going to have the judge from.
37:59
That's pressure on the roadie, right?
38:01
Because what if, what if somebody has a bad 90 seconds
38:04
and they're phenomenal, no question.
38:05
They just had a shitty 90 seconds, right?
38:08
And then yeah, yeah. And at the time when at the time
38:14
when they did it in person, so they they went to all the
38:17
cities, yeah, they went to like 12 city, sure.
38:20
So. I remember that.
38:21
I remember that part of it. Yeah, Oh.
38:25
I'm sure I did it. Yeah.
38:27
And my aunt asked me on the way of she's like, how did you do?
38:30
I said, I don't know. I say, I hope I did it.
38:32
I kind of zoned out while I started playing.
38:34
Do they say anything when you're done, Like at all?
38:38
They, yeah, they just say thank you.
38:39
All the usual. Thank you for coming and thank
38:42
you for trying out. You know you'll go to e-mail
38:45
January, February. So what did the e-mail say when?
38:48
You said right, yeah, you're going to get an e-mail 1 zero to
38:54
60 days. So everybody like check an
38:55
e-mail, check an e-mail, check an e-mail.
38:57
Where's the spam? Where's the junk folder?
38:59
Oh shit, did I move the wrong one?
39:01
And. The e-mail was pretty generic,
39:04
you know, kind of like, thank you for trying out, you know,
39:07
You know, you haven't moved on to the next level, right?
39:11
Yeah. Thank you.
39:12
Bro it's pretty generic e-mail across the board.
39:16
In the world of e-mail spam, oh, you're just going to get an
39:19
e-mail from us? I was.
39:22
I would have called him every day.
39:23
Hey, I didn't get an e-mail. Did you send it yet?
39:26
Yeah, that's what's all she. Said did I win?
39:30
You know you'll you'll know by e-mail if you moved on or.
39:33
Not right. It's that George Costanza thing.
39:35
Costanza. I'm going to Burrow into your
39:37
brain every day. Hi, this is Robert McKay.
39:38
Did I get my e-mail yet? Yeah, No.
39:41
Hey, it's Robert again. Did I get my e-mail?
39:42
Yet no. Stanza I was in 58 days and yes,
39:46
Robert, you can come on the show. 06 days.
39:52
It's. Awesome.
39:54
So then you went back the next year?
39:56
I went back the next year. So when I went back in 2019, I
40:00
already started guitar lessons. I, you know, I restarted guitar
40:04
lessons. So I did.
40:07
Second year I did Mama 10. Oh nice.
40:11
Because I, you know, I just finished learning and I'm like,
40:14
all right, this is pretty, you know, pretty easy.
40:17
So I did that and the second time I wasn't as nervous because
40:23
I kind of, yeah, I kind of knew the setup.
40:26
For yeah. So what do you call it?
40:30
So the girl at the girl asks, you know, she asks you what are
40:34
you going to perform or what are you going to do?
40:36
So I said, yeah, I'm going to do Mama Kim by Aerosmith.
40:39
So it's like, oh, wow, OK, cool. So same thing.
40:43
I, you know, my aunt came the second time too.
40:45
And she's like, how'd you do? I said yeah, I saw.
40:49
I zoned out, you know, no, she said, you know, she said
40:53
whenever, whenever you're ready, start.
40:55
And then she kind of put your hand, you know, she put your
40:57
hand up when you're, you know, time is up.
41:00
But yeah, as soon as she said you whenever you're ready, I
41:03
just floored it and just kept on playing so.
41:07
That's the way to do it. I'll give you another tip that
41:09
will help you when you're nervous or you're having stage
41:13
fright. Remember that nobody can do what
41:17
you can do, right? Nobody is you.
41:21
And even worse than that, very few people in that crowd can do
41:25
what you can do. They're all in amazement.
41:27
Even if you're not as good as right, even if you're not 100%
41:35
up to par to being and playing in front of people, keep in mind
41:38
that very few people can do what you can do.
41:41
Yeah. And, and I think the more I've
41:43
done open mics and stuff like that over the past, because even
41:48
as long as I have complained, I just started to do open mics
41:52
three years ago, 3-4 years ago. So, you know, that's one thing
41:56
that's definitely you kind of realize over time.
42:00
And I think once you realize that, yeah, it makes a world of
42:03
difference. When you totally don't realize
42:06
what? You know, because I, because I,
42:07
it's like, you know, give me another one, you know?
42:13
Same thing with podcasting lately.
42:15
That very few people can do what you can do.
42:17
I always kept that in mind, like when you and I would get up on
42:21
stage. Not that I had to think about it
42:23
a lot. Because the one advantage that
42:25
we had, Robert, is we were probably too young and dumb to
42:28
know that we should have been scared.
42:30
Yeah. You know, we were so excited.
42:33
That's it. It's funny how we always take
42:35
the same word, but that was it. We were so excited to get up
42:40
there and show what we had done in the rehearsal space because
42:44
we rehearsed at nauseam, you know, like probably 10 times
42:49
more than any other band did because we wanted to be that
42:52
much better. So not only were we young and
42:56
not knowing that we should have been nervous to get up there,
42:59
but we were so polished that there was nothing to be afraid
43:02
of. Train wrecks for us became, wow,
43:06
I wish we could do that every night, but it was an accident,
43:08
you know, I was like, wow, that was really cool.
43:13
But we'll probably never be able to replicate that.
43:14
Yeah, like. What did you do?
43:16
There Yeah. And even my brother, my brother
43:18
said after the first time I re I remember I called him or he
43:22
called me because he couldn't come out because he had work.
43:26
So he's like, hey, how'd you do? So I said I guess I did all
43:29
right. I said, you know, they didn't.
43:31
You know, I was nervous, but I did it.
43:33
And he kind of said the same thing.
43:34
He said. You know, he takes a lot of guts
43:37
to do. Damn right.
43:39
You know, he said, you know, you say a lot of people say they're
43:43
going to do something and never follow through with it.
43:45
So that, that that's always stuck with me.
43:49
You know he he told me that after the first time I did it.
43:53
And that was always my comeback. If somebody criticized anything
43:56
that I did or our band did, I was like, start your own band
44:00
and do better, right? Yeah.
44:02
Yeah. Like, I'm not going to sit there
44:04
and argue and feed into it. I just look at him and say
44:07
you're welcome to start your own band and get up there and do it
44:09
too if you're so fucking smart, right?
44:12
Right. But that, that's always stuff.
44:14
And I, I tell him that all the time.
44:15
That's always stuck with me. It's true, Yeah.
44:19
It's true, though. I mean, because here's the
44:20
thing, at the end of the day, you know, you're even even the
44:24
bands that are out right now in the world, you pick a band,
44:27
there's not not one person could be defined as he's the best lead
44:30
singer ever, right? Or he's the best guitarist ever,
44:32
I mean. No, and that's not what music.
44:34
That's one of the things that attracted me to music to begin
44:37
with, as it wasn't a competition.
44:39
Right. It's just you as much.
44:40
As I like sports, I don't like that pick a team kind of thing,
44:45
you know? It's like, right, I like
44:47
everybody. The three of us are all
44:48
musicians. We're all talking the same
44:50
language right now. I'm just into whatever you're
44:53
doing musically as you would be what we are.
44:56
It's not where the Bears versus the Cowboys or whatever.
44:59
You know, it's there's no animosity.
45:01
And let's talk about how the bears destroyed them.
45:04
Oh my God. Thank you, cost me 50 bucks but
45:08
it was worth every bit of it. But yeah, that's all I was
45:12
saying was same thing, man. You, you, you know, I may not
45:15
have been the best singer in the world, but I was the best at
45:17
what I did and how I wrote. You were the best singer that
45:19
Nemesis ever had, and that's all we needed.
45:21
Yeah, thank. You and but that's the thing so
45:24
it's it's you own your space so the fear I mean everybody has
45:29
that fear of performing when they first start doing it.
45:31
Luckily a lot of my fears got got pushed out of the wayside
45:34
because before I was in bands, I was in acting and I was on
45:37
stage, you know, doing theatrical plays and stuff.
45:39
So the that that that nervous energy eventually just evolved
45:43
into excitement and just raw energy trying to burn that
45:45
energy before we go on. Because you know, when you're in
45:48
a band, you're always faster live, you're always faster live.
45:52
And we would play 3 songs without saying a word to the
45:54
crowd back-to-back to back. You know, when we get that I'm
45:58
already like oh fuck is sweating, you know, because you
46:02
just, you're just hyped. So the.
46:04
That every time he does this I want to get back up there.
46:09
Yeah, I mean, my first open mic, I I was nervous as hell.
46:12
My first open mic was was in North Carolina.
46:16
It wasn't even local. That's North Carolina.
46:18
That's good break. Get your, get your, get your,
46:22
get that, you know, one of the iron out the edges out of
46:24
Hometown and then come to hometown just dialed in, man.
46:28
They'll be like, holy shit, did you see Robert last night?
46:31
That was outstanding, man. Because they were nobody.
46:34
Nobody remembers when you play in front of five people, right?
46:37
And one of them is the janitor, one of them is the bartender,
46:39
and one's the waitress, right? So, but you got to start
46:44
somewhere. So that's cool, man.
46:46
You know, you just got to start somewhere.
46:49
We played Monday night at midnight too.
46:51
Yep. Trust me, there's not many
46:53
people out partying Monday night at No and.
46:54
Speaking, Speaking of Guns and Roses slash not too long ago
46:57
there was something populated on on I think a real whether it was
47:01
Instagram or Facebook. They actually had a 32nd clip of
47:05
Guns and Roses in what looks like a tip city.
47:08
Yeah, what looks like a 15 by 15 room.
47:10
Nobody was in there except somebody sitting on a chair next
47:13
to the stage. Like 6 people.
47:15
And they're playing, yeah. And they're playing.
47:17
And it's. And the capture was basically no
47:19
one real. No one remembers.
47:20
It always starts this way. Like you don't.
47:23
It always starts. It was like 1980, four, 1985,
47:27
you know, they broke. In six or seven.
47:30
Right, but that's the thing as. I said I don't tell you.
47:33
Yeah, well, yeah, because before appetite there were nobody.
47:36
There was just a picture that Chris was talking about.
47:38
Axel's hair was like 3 foot tall.
47:40
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
47:41
It was just, it was just like legit.
47:43
If you walked into a bar, they had a corner stage and there
47:46
they were on this tiny corner stage and you could see enough
47:49
space on the floor in front of them that there was not that
47:52
many people there. No.
47:54
But again, but you know, it was, it was when they were first
47:57
jamming, I'm sure when they first put the band together.
47:59
Everybody starts that way. Nobody, Nobody.
48:02
Nobody. Nobody.
48:04
Yeah. You just nobody starts any other
48:06
way. You just don't.
48:07
You they didn't hand us a national headlining no opening
48:10
spot right off the bat? No, no, they handed us Monday
48:15
night at midnight and said good luck.
48:16
Yeah. Yeah, and let's see.
48:18
What? We looked at each other and
48:19
yeah, we looked at each other and said how the hell are we
48:22
ever going to get anybody here when nobody's here?
48:24
That was the challenge. You know, how do I get a
48:26
following? And this was before the
48:28
Internet. This was before.
48:29
Facebook, yeah, we had. We didn't have the advantage of
48:31
the Internet. This is 1994 five.
48:34
Yeah, so there was no Facebook or anything like that.
48:37
No, hell no. It's old school.
48:39
Nobody had a computer in their house.
48:40
I mean very not nobody, but. Rare.
48:43
Jeez, that was really good grammar.
48:44
Not nobody clear to go my. So the one of the other things I
48:50
noticed about you, you had you while you were dealing with
48:53
cancer, you were still performing.
48:54
So how long was this entire ordeal from when you got
48:58
diagnosed and how long you've played over the years?
49:01
I saw that on I think your Instagram or your Facebook, one
49:04
of the. 2 The well, I was trying to I'm trying to I was trying to
49:10
in 2011. So the thing with with at least
49:15
my thyroid cancer, it's luckily it hasn't been.
49:20
I haven't had the effects of it to where it's really slowed me
49:24
down to where I couldn't get out.
49:27
You know, as long as I stay on top of it with the doctors and,
49:31
you know, do my tests and stuff like that.
49:35
Yeah, it's not. And I'm very lucky that, yeah, I
49:39
mean, I'm able to travel play as much as I have, you know, But as
49:47
far as playing out, that's been, I want to say three years, OK,
49:51
cool. Four years, right.
49:53
Right after I started lessons, OK.
49:55
Because that that kind of gave me the confidence to and my
49:59
guitar teachers in the band. In the band, right on.
50:02
So he's a he's a guitar. So don't believe in gross so.
50:09
So when you go out playing, it's just you and your guitar.
50:12
You're just playing. Are you doing acoustic electric?
50:15
Both. Both how long are?
50:18
Your set. Well, well, most of the open
50:22
mics you got to do 3 songs. OK, Film Festival.
50:27
I did Film Festival. I did one song.
50:31
I did a coffee shop this year. I was at two hours.
50:34
Oh nice. That so that that's the first
50:37
time I did a 2 hour. Set on.
50:39
Very nice. That's definitely different.
50:41
It is different because I never played inside a coffee shop
50:43
before, but. You can't.
50:46
You can't turn. I just kind of winged it.
50:48
You know you gotta. You can't turn up to 11 in a
50:51
coffee shop. Yes, but I just kind of winged
50:54
it, you know? Cool.
50:56
I, yeah, I, I kind of wrote out a set list and then I'm like,
51:00
because, you know, coffee shop is like people are coming in
51:03
their own type thing. Yep.
51:05
So I just kind of threw out that that out the window and I just
51:08
kind of wind it for 2. Hours.
51:10
So next time you do a 2 hour show at a coffee shop, come up
51:13
with songs that that can relate. Like when somebody's leaving,
51:16
you start playing Hey Joe, Hey Joe, where you going that
51:19
coffee? But you change the lyric, right?
51:21
Instead of gun, where you going with that coffee in your hand?
51:24
And so right, So then so so search the database of songs
51:30
that all relate to. You can point somebody out.
51:33
No, just that you can point somebody out with them.
51:34
Like, like, Hey, Joe, summon a crowd.
51:37
Because it could be called Joe. Right, Right.
51:40
So things like that, like, like, come on, Eileen.
51:42
Right. Come on, Eileen.
51:43
The the, you know, Dixie, the Midnight Runners, something like
51:46
that I think would be interesting because then you're
51:48
going to get the people engaged in the fact that they're going
51:51
to start catching on after two or three songs.
51:53
You're throwing stuff out there that people are like, oh, you
51:56
know, you're it's there. It's coming and going songs.
51:58
That would be clever, man. Yeah.
52:00
That would be, you know. I'll definitely yeah, yeah, let.
52:03
Us know if you can pull it off, that would be cool.
52:04
I'd like to know that set list, man, but you got to kick it off
52:07
with hey Joe because and then just tweak it instead of gun
52:10
coffee. Yeah, You know, like if I was in
52:14
a coffee shop, you'd be like, what?
52:15
What? What did he just do that would
52:17
help me stick? Around.
52:18
That's what I'm saying. I would talk like, wait, it's
52:20
like Weird Al Yankovic, but not, definitely not writing your own
52:24
song. You're just tweaking them to
52:25
kind of go with the vibe of the coffee shop.
52:28
Yeah, there's got to be there's got to be coffee songs and shit,
52:31
man. You know the.
52:33
Gambler. You could play the gambler,
52:36
right? That's like a one person
52:39
storytelling. It's like storytelling songs,
52:41
dude. Yeah.
52:43
Whoa, yeah, that's that's wow. Yeah.
52:46
Let us know how that works, Robert.
52:47
I think that'd be. Fun.
52:48
Yeah, definitely. I think that'd be fun.
52:50
So where do people find your book again?
52:53
Amazon, it's on Amazon and Barnes and no, I'll put up.
52:57
OK, yeah. And it's against all odds, and
53:02
it's about your journey through cancer and music and all that
53:05
kind of stuff. Yeah, yeah, everywhere I've
53:10
played, you know, America's, America's Got Talent.
53:15
The two times I did that, playing in North Carolina,
53:20
playing in Jersey. First time I played in Jersey
53:25
was a brewery. OK, So when, when I first start
53:31
to try to find places, I found a place local, but it's more like
53:35
open jam and trying to explain to the guy that listened, you
53:40
know, because I, I just started to write my own stuff.
53:43
Yeah. Well, you know, he's like, so
53:46
he's like, you know, I'll send you a list.
53:48
And, you know, if you don't know any of these songs, you know,
53:52
come up and play. OK, I got you open jam.
53:54
So everybody kind of comes up. Hey, we're going to play this
53:56
from, we're going to play knocking on his doors from Guns
53:58
and Roses. Who can play that kind of thing?
54:01
Yeah. So he sent me a list.
54:04
So I'm like, I know these songs, but I don't really know how to
54:07
play them because it's more like set, you know, some of your
54:09
stuff like that. Yeah.
54:11
Oh, yeah. That that didn't last too long.
54:14
I I tried, I tried going there two times.
54:16
And he showed me at the end of the night because I, you know, I
54:20
wanted to play by myself. So.
54:23
So then I found this place in Jersey, some on Facebook, you
54:27
know, all different music groups or different areas.
54:31
So I found a place that was a Tuesday night, Tuesday, and I'm
54:33
off on Tuesdays. OK, so I said know what?
54:36
I'll drive down, you know, you know, and I'll come back the
54:40
same night. It's not that far.
54:42
So and I just got in my amp. I have a Catalyst 200 amp nice,
54:49
my line 6 Catalyst. So I just got it like maybe two
54:53
months before that. So I text the girl, you know the
54:57
girl. So I'm like, I don't have a
54:59
sound pickup for my acoustic. It's OK if I bring my electric.
55:04
So it's like, yeah, yeah, not a problem.
55:06
I'm like, it's OK if I bring my own amp.
55:08
Yeah, yeah, not a problem. So I don't have to sound pickup
55:10
for my acoustic at the time. So I sent you the picture of the
55:14
amp and I'm like, is this OK? So she's like, yeah.
55:18
So I guess she didn't realize how big the amp actually was
55:22
when the picture. So I walk in and when you walk
55:27
in, so you had two entrances. I, I think he used to be old
55:31
repair shop or the repair shop. So where the beige used to be,
55:36
that was the bar part. So and where the office was,
55:40
that was like where the bathroom was, but they kind of put like 2
55:45
tables for kind of how like L then you had to walk down to the
55:50
bar and then the setup was in the corner.
55:53
So I went in through the office part, so she didn't see my amp
55:58
beforehand. You know, when I went off to
56:01
went off to her to say hi at the bar, she was bartending, you
56:06
know, she didn't see the amp so she didn't you know, so so she's
56:10
like, oh, how is the ride? Still wasn't bad.
56:12
It took me 3 hours. So a guy next to me heard me say
56:16
that and he's like usual 3 hours to still come play an open mind.
56:21
I said yeah, it wasn't that bad. So then he's like, are you
56:24
driving back afterwards? I said yeah.
56:26
I said I have work in the morning, but yeah, driving back
56:29
the same night right after this. So they, I, they all look like
56:33
kind of like you're crazy, like, you know, like you're driving 3
56:37
hours to do an open right. But so, and everyone else is
56:44
playing acoustic now. Everyone else is playing
56:46
acoustic lights off and here I am with the amp.
56:50
I I think I brought my Fender the first time, but I switched
56:56
it up to my friend and my Epiphone.
56:58
But yeah, I remember walking down with it and it's like, Oh
57:02
my God, that's, that's huge. I'm like, well, is it OK?
57:05
It's like, no, no, that's fine. It's not a problem.
57:07
And I remember looking up at the bar so bar was like AU and the a
57:12
girl looking like that, like Oh my God, like and I just cranked
57:17
it. But I was the only one that
57:19
played a what? You know, everything else was
57:24
playing acoustic. Everyone was playing later
57:26
stuff. And you are?
57:28
You are at least knighted by me as an official guitar player,
57:32
because that's what guitar players do.
57:34
And I cranked it and. It's too loud, you can leave.
57:37
Oh, I used to crank it too. And I.
57:40
Still do. Well, one of my biggest pipe
57:43
peas was, you know, chatter. When I played, I used to drive
57:47
me nuts. Like if I'm playing like I don't
57:49
want to hear fucking conversations.
57:51
Or you're not going to be able to talk if I'm playing a guitar.
57:53
Right, so because I had my AM, you know if I heard a chat, I
58:00
didn't make it obvious when I just want to pretend I'm messing
58:02
around, but meanwhile I'm just turning the volume up a little.
58:06
So you said you just got to do 3 songs, right?
58:09
Right, Right. So if you're chatting on here,
58:11
if you're shattering after the first one, guess why you you're
58:14
not going to be shattering by the time we get done, Yeah.
58:17
The only person that could ever make me turn down was the sound
58:20
man because he was bigger than me and he was the one making
58:23
the. Sound good?
58:25
Yeah. And a lot, I mean a lot.
58:26
A lot of the other open mics are acoustic, like the one I did in
58:30
North Carolina. I became friend, I became pretty
58:35
close with her. So she used to run.
58:38
She used to run 1, three times a week.
58:41
So whenever I went down, I always shout to her beforehand
58:46
to make sure she was around. So I always gravitated.
58:51
I, I went 2-3 times a year just to go down and play with her.
58:56
She's always so supporting of it, you know, and I, I became
59:00
really close with her. So yeah, I, I go down to three
59:04
times a year. Yeah, I go down to Carolina.
59:07
I play without. That's awesome, man.
59:10
What are you playing? Where are you all?
59:12
Go ahead. What shows you got coming up,
59:13
coming up? You know, open mics you're doing
59:15
coming up that people can. Go check out this yes.
59:18
So this year, this year, last year I I found more local stuff.
59:25
So, you know, which is kind of cool yeah.
59:29
So so I'm doing I'm doing 1 next Tuesday, do 1 the next Tuesdays
59:40
in a row. They do it once.
59:43
A month, So the the the 30th, September 30th, yeah.
59:47
And where's that at? That's at Great S Brewery.
59:52
OK, Patrol. OK, cool.
59:56
And then and then now since you're in no, if you're since
59:59
you're in Long Island, I got to ask the question Giants, Jets or
1:00:01
Eagles. Giants.
1:00:04
Thank you. Wait, what's Giants?
1:00:05
Jets or Eagles? Giants.
1:00:08
Giants. OK, thank you.
1:00:09
How? About this one Giants, right?
1:00:11
Thank you. Then Chris still likes you.
1:00:12
Yeah, so you heard They you heard they they're benching
1:00:16
Russell Wilson. Did you hear that?
1:00:18
I don't hear. Yeah, They benched him today.
1:00:21
Jackson darts. Oh, they did.
1:00:22
Jackson darts starting against the Chargers.
1:00:25
That Oh, sure. That's the rookie, right?
1:00:26
Yeah. Oh, sure.
1:00:27
Which, you know, I didn't. Hear about that?
1:00:29
They're they're oh, and three. So Dabel's got to do something
1:00:32
before he gets fired? I think he's fired.
1:00:35
Yeah, I know They were hanging on.
1:00:36
Yeah, right. It's just he was hanging on.
1:00:38
I. Don't know how he's still there
1:00:39
dude after five years of. Being actually, I don't three of
1:00:42
us. I mean, they're 31, they're
1:00:44
31114 and two since Eli left. Yeah, how is he still there?
1:00:50
Like no idea dude 100. And five years.
1:00:54
Right. 113 losses since Eli left.
1:00:56
It's like, come on. It's just come on.
1:00:59
Yes, Then that's surprising. I slit, you know, with that kind
1:01:03
of record. I know.
1:01:03
Stay at fight. I know it's ridiculous and the
1:01:06
amount of people that have left. Anyway, we get on football, be
1:01:08
here for another hour. So if you want to find Robert
1:01:13
McKay, just go on his Facebook page, which is just Robert
1:01:15
McKay, right? Yep, Yep.
1:01:16
As well as Instagram. Yep.
1:01:19
OK, and then you can find his book Against All Odds, Amazon
1:01:22
and Barnes and Noble. It's all about his triumphs and
1:01:25
of, of getting over cancer and playing music and all the places
1:01:27
he's gone and done and just coming and, and, you know, doing
1:01:32
what he loves, right? And you're also a butcher.
1:01:34
We didn't talk about you chopping things up, man.
1:01:37
So, so the butcher said, it's kind of like I, I could've same
1:01:43
thing. I kind of fell into it.
1:01:44
So I, I went to Suffolk Community College for business.
1:01:49
So while I, while I was going to school, I was sending out, you
1:01:52
know, faxing out resumes, whatever.
1:01:55
So I I wasn't getting really any hits and and I tried one place,
1:02:00
it really didn't work out. So I needed money just to have
1:02:04
right. So you know, I picked, you know,
1:02:07
grocery store, whatever. So I went down from the
1:02:11
interview and the guys like I really, because originally I
1:02:13
applied for grocery. I didn't even apply for my.
1:02:16
OK. OK guys, like I really don't
1:02:18
have anything for groceries. Anything else you want to do?
1:02:21
So I said I don't know me because my uncle was a butcher.
1:02:24
OK, OK. So, and he, he made a career out
1:02:28
of it. Yeah.
1:02:29
Are you guys what? Are you guys union?
1:02:34
Yeah, I figured. Yeah, what's 3-4?
1:02:37
What's the 3:40? Two, I'm 2096 UAW that's.
1:02:43
It I'm not. He'll, he'll sell you a house if
1:02:47
you want to retire in Arizona, right?
1:02:48
That's yeah, that's what I'll do.
1:02:51
I want to go down to tennis. Yeah, I'm eventually nothing.
1:02:54
Nothing wrong with Tennessee. Man, that's beautiful.
1:02:56
Yeah. I'm I'm going down there in 3,
1:03:00
going down there in three weeks. Playing the show I.
1:03:02
Want to see family? I'm going.
1:03:03
OK, well I'm trying to zigzag and so I'm going down to
1:03:08
Knoxville to see my cousins from Sunday to Wednesday and then
1:03:14
Wednesday I'm shooting over to Charlotte to do the open mic
1:03:19
with the with my friend and then I'm doing one Thursday and right
1:03:25
near Charlotte. So I'll be in Charlotte from
1:03:28
Wednesday to Saturday and Saturday I'm going to Nashville
1:03:35
and I found two open mikes Sunday, Sunday and Sunday and
1:03:40
Monday and then Tuesday I had bath.
1:03:43
So Tuesday I'm going to drive like halfway, you know, stay
1:03:47
somewhere cool at the halfway point, then come back Wednesday.
1:03:51
Right, so, so all you list of boys and girls out there, go to
1:03:54
Robert McCann on Facebook, Instagram, find out what he's
1:03:56
playing and go check him out, man, you know.
1:03:58
Yeah, I'm always, I'm always close to where I'm.
1:04:01
Playing, there you go, There you go.
1:04:02
All right. We always, we wrap everything up
1:04:04
like this. If you're feeling bad, if you're
1:04:05
depressed, you're suicidal, don't do it.
1:04:08
Go go for a run. Go for go screaming a pillow.
1:04:10
Go journal. Go find somebody to talk to.
1:04:12
If you don't, if you can't find somebody to talk to, you text
1:04:15
988. They're standing by waiting to
1:04:16
help you. Don't leave a hole in somebody
1:04:18
else's heart. Tomorrow will be be a better day
1:04:20
because you're waking up in it. Somebody does love you.
1:04:23
Somebody will miss you. So remember that.
1:04:25
He's Robert McKay. I'm Chris Dunham.
1:04:26
He's Mike Michaels. This is the Chris and Mike show.
1:04:28
Until next time, see you. Thank.
1:04:31
You guys. Don't leave yet.
1:04:33
Don't leave yet, Robert. We got to make sure I'll upload.
1:04:45
Feel the teeth, focus your eyes, long your journey.
1:04:51
This is the place where you will go.
1:04:59
Feel the trail behind your eyes, Feel the soap and need your
1:05:07
turn. Take a moment.
1:05:08
Look at. You see it, watch your bail and
1:05:12
see your boss. We Who is this baby?
1:06:41
Come down here. You haven't found something.
1:06:44
You see the sand. You keep on fighting.
1:06:49
Wait for the dead. Wait, it's closer out there.
1:06:53
You. Put in the wind, you went.
1:06:56
No quizzes, we're playing. Smile and you should.
1:07:00
You quit on the almighty day. You gotta do who in your life to
1:07:08
keep our soul in every man? Take the trail behind your eyes.
1:07:17
Feel the soul evolution now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
1:07:27
yeah, yeah. Take a moment.
1:07:30
Look at you. See it?
1:07:34
Fight the bail in two months. Clear.
1:07:59
You gotta, you gotta. You gotta, you gotta, you gotta.