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Respecting The Musical Legacy Of JOHN SYKES With MARK ALEXANDER-ERBER From GOLDEN ROBOT RECORDS · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I having years Please to welcome Mark Ale Alexander Herber
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: from Golden Robot Global Entertainment to discuss an upcoming Golden
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Robot release of the first new original music from former
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Whitesnake and Did Lizzy guitarist John Sykes. Mark, welcome and
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: thanks for joining us.
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  Speaker 2: Is thanks for having me brother, good to see him
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  Speaker 2: a man, nor is it right?
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  Speaker 1: So this is a pretty important bit of a conversation
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  Speaker 1: we're going to have here.
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  Speaker 2: Bro.
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  Speaker 1: So for those who don't know, John Sykes is an
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  Speaker 1: English I was an English guitarist and singer, best known
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  Speaker 1: as a member of White Snake, Did Lizzie and Tigers
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  Speaker 1: and Pantang but we tragically lost in January this year
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  Speaker 1: to cancer. But the man has released a lot of
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  Speaker 1: music over the years with various bands of solo projects.
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  Speaker 1: So firstly, tell us about the relationship between Golden Robot
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  Speaker 1: and John Sykes.
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  Speaker 2: Well, John was introduced to me in the very early
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: days of Golden Robot and we struck a deal up
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  Speaker 2: in about Golden Robot started at about two fifteen and
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  Speaker 2: when he struck a deal up about to seventeen for
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  Speaker 2: an album, and it was really his first album in
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  Speaker 2: many many many years, and during that period over eighteen
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  Speaker 2: nineteen twenty, I got to know him pretty well because
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  Speaker 2: I traveled. I was traveling to Los Angeles so much.
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  Speaker 2: Many dinners introduced a family. I did a NAM with
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  Speaker 2: him in LA which is the big event, and I
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  Speaker 2: walked NAM with him, and he was honestly like a
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  Speaker 2: god walking through there. He was like the Red Sea
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  Speaker 2: Party for Jesus. It was unbelievable how well revered this
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  Speaker 2: guy was and how loved he was. And at that stage,
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  Speaker 2: we were putting together a band for him to go
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  Speaker 2: out on tour, et cetera, et cetera. So what was the.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Actual original deal and original contract between the three parties.
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  Speaker 2: The original deal was for John to deliver an album.
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  Speaker 2: That was as simple as that. And we had paid
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  Speaker 2: him a certain amount of money to deliver up to
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  Speaker 2: a certain point and that was happening, and then we
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  Speaker 2: would deliver him to deliver him more money past another
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  Speaker 2: certain point, which wasn't happening. So, look, I've dealt with
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  Speaker 2: many rock stars and many artists and many people over
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  Speaker 2: the last ten years, and you know, you've got to
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  Speaker 2: do things in tranches. He's got to be give and
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  Speaker 2: take on both sides. So what we paid for and
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  Speaker 2: what we were waiting for was two different things. But
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  Speaker 2: we worked our way through it, like we did with
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  Speaker 2: many of bands in those days.
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  Speaker 1: Quite a lot of documented back and forth between the
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  Speaker 1: two review like the essence of the contract.
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  Speaker 2: Did he yet to be fulfilled at the time? And
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  Speaker 2: John passed? So what was still contractually owned? An album?
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  Speaker 2: A full album? All right? Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: And that's that wasn't delivered in any capacity at all.
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  Speaker 2: No, the album wasn't delivered, only demos. Good demos were
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  Speaker 2: delivered up to a certain point.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: You also you mentioned earlier at the top this show
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  Speaker 1: that you also had a personal relationship with John outside
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  Speaker 1: of business, So tell us a bit more about that
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  Speaker 1: personal relationship and some of your fondest memories of him.
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  Speaker 2: I don't have a bad word to say about John.
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  Speaker 2: There were some things in business that I wish were
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  Speaker 2: taking care of better, but overall he was a great guy,
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  Speaker 2: very knowledgeable. I mean to hear the story of the Whites,
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  Speaker 2: the eighty seven White Snake album from him was incredible.
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  Speaker 2: What happened during that period, how you know, before the
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  Speaker 2: album was finished, basically everyone was sacked. How he drove
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  Speaker 2: that David Coverdale and his jag best story, best story.
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  Speaker 2: And then he tell me that every year he go
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  Speaker 2: to his letterbox and then be a check for a
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  Speaker 2: million dollars in there every year at the same time
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  Speaker 2: royalty check. Yeah, so it was super cool. I had
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  Speaker 2: many dinners with him in La, got to know him,
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  Speaker 2: got to know his son, et cetera. But he was
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  Speaker 2: a really nice guy. Was you know, English gentleman. You know,
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  Speaker 2: got the raw prawn, the old saying, got the raw
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  Speaker 2: prawn on a few occasions, certainly with white Snake. But
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  Speaker 2: he just got on with it. He just got on
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  Speaker 2: with it. So you know, I was I was lucky
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  Speaker 2: and honored to be part of his life for that
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  Speaker 2: period that I was for sure for sure. And we
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  Speaker 2: had many great conversations on the phone and in person
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  Speaker 2: and nice.
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  Speaker 1: Now you imagine before demo recordings that you've ended up with,
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  Speaker 1: So what era were those recorded in it? And what
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  Speaker 1: did the demo versions sound.
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  Speaker 2: Like they were? On this new EP that we've got
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  Speaker 2: coming out, there's going to be two songs that have
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  Speaker 2: never been heard before which are absolute ball breakers. And
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  Speaker 2: there's two songs that would that have been out only
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  Speaker 2: on YouTube, and there these are a play on those songs.
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  Speaker 2: These are different versions of those songs. The demos were
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  Speaker 2: recorded beautifully, we've had them remastered and they are crackers.
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  Speaker 2: The two songs that have never been released before, I believe,
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  Speaker 2: in my professional opinion, is some of the first work
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  Speaker 2: he's ever done.
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  Speaker 1: All right. And then who's actually playing but him? I like,
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  Speaker 1: who's making up the band and he's playing with it
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  Speaker 1: on those.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a good question. It's different for all of them.
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  Speaker 2: I'd have to get you the list of who it is.
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  Speaker 2: But there's different musicians playing on everything, but well known,
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  Speaker 2: well known session guys out of La Sore.
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  Speaker 1: At the time when he gave you those demos, like,
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  Speaker 1: was there a plan then to have them and then
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  Speaker 1: released like in the near future or they just something
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  Speaker 1: that he wanted to put aside and hold on.
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  Speaker 2: Do for a bit. No, these were going to be
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  Speaker 2: part of the album, right, the full album that.
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  Speaker 1: He was doing for you.
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  Speaker 2: Correct? Nice? Nice, And I believe, sorry, Chris, I believe
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  Speaker 2: other tracks out there probably in his archives that never
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  Speaker 2: made it to us.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, right, so that at the time of John's passing then,
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  Speaker 1: Like it's a bit of a touchy subject and I
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  Speaker 1: hate to bring it up, but it's sort of relevant
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  Speaker 1: to what we're talking about, Like those songs because of
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  Speaker 1: the contract you had before, those songs remained and you well,
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  Speaker 1: they remained the property of Golden Robot Records.
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  Speaker 2: Is that correct? Correct? Yeah, No, we are absolutely the
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  Speaker 2: owners of those songs or of those recordings the songs.
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  Speaker 2: As you know, there's the music and there's the recordings.
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  Speaker 2: When you pay an artist for the songs, you either
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  Speaker 2: do it in two ways. You either pay them under
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  Speaker 2: a license and you pay them under the master's deal.
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  Speaker 2: We own these songs, We own the recordings of these songs.
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  Speaker 2: And you know, it's not our first rodeo and I
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  Speaker 2: have had it checked out in the US, in the
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  Speaker 2: UK and in Australia the contract to make sure that
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  Speaker 2: we're like, you know, we're right and the music is
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  Speaker 2: viable for us to release and there's no issue. It's
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  Speaker 2: one hundred percent right. And I've got so much documentation
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  Speaker 2: other than the contract and et cetera, et cetera, so
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  Speaker 2: there's no issues. This music's coming out. And let me
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  Speaker 2: just say that whatever proportion of the contract was meant
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  Speaker 2: to give to John, whatever percentage John was going to
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  Speaker 2: get the estate will get and mate you.
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  Speaker 1: So you did mentioned before that you had got the
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  Speaker 1: master's back. They've been remastered, they're ready to go. So
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  Speaker 1: how good are they?
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  Speaker 2: Like? How good do they sound? When I pressed play
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  Speaker 2: on one of them? It's very white snake esque. One
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  Speaker 2: of them is very white snake, one of them is
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  Speaker 2: very thin Lizzie. One of them's very tigers. It's got
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  Speaker 2: like everything that he's done in the past is there
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  Speaker 2: that balls out loud, guitar, chunky, his voice, I reckon
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  Speaker 2: he had one of the most underrated voices of all
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  Speaker 2: the time. He was a guitarist guitarist. Everyone that I know,
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  Speaker 2: you know, from the Steve Stevens with Billy Idol to
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  Speaker 2: all the different people that we dealt with over the
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  Speaker 2: years of the guitar players all loved John Sykes. John
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  Speaker 2: Sykes was the sort of the cornerstone of why a
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  Speaker 2: lot of people picked a guitar up in the first place,
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  Speaker 2: or got into music in the first place. So he
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  Speaker 2: was well revered across the world. And we're just extremely
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  Speaker 2: honored to have this music, and you know the music
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  Speaker 2: is coming out really in celebration of his life. That
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  Speaker 2: would be the real reason I just think if we're
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  Speaker 2: sitting on something. And there was a lot of conjecture
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  Speaker 2: over the years why we didn't release the album, and
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  Speaker 2: there's a lot of re is why we didn't well
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  Speaker 2: I want to go into it here, but there was
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  Speaker 2: a lot of reasons why we didn't release the album
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  Speaker 2: with John. But this music is too good to sit on.
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  Speaker 1: So just to clarify, is he singing and playing on
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  Speaker 1: all four songs or is he?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? Nice, nice four songs.
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  Speaker 1: Now you mentioned packaging them into an EP, so what's
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  Speaker 1: that Stratet're going to be like, you're going to release
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  Speaker 1: a couple of singles first or they just all coming
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  Speaker 1: out together into one package.
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  Speaker 2: No, we're going to do two singles, uh, And we're
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  Speaker 2: going to do two singles followed by an EP of
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  Speaker 2: four tracks. And at this stage I'm pretty confident to say,
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  Speaker 2: as a world exclusive to you, Chris, because I like
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  Speaker 2: you man, You're very supportive, the EP will be called
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  Speaker 2: my guitar very nice.
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  Speaker 1: And has that got relevance to any of the songs
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  Speaker 1: or is that just because he is who he is?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, it does, and I think it's fitting. You know,
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  Speaker 2: we used to talk about one of the songs that
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  Speaker 2: you'll find he sings in it. One of the one
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  Speaker 2: of the lyrics is thank God for my guitar. And
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  Speaker 2: he used to say that a lot, thank God for
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  Speaker 2: his guitar. It got him through a lot of a
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  Speaker 2: lot of things, got him out of a lot of things.
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  Speaker 2: And he's written a song about that, and we're lucky
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  Speaker 2: enough to be able to have it. And that'll be
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  Speaker 2: the first single.
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  Speaker 1: And have you got a release schedule four songs?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, we're looking at We're potentially looking at around June,
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  Speaker 3: late June for the first single, and then potentially a couple.
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  Speaker 2: Of months later the second single, and a couple of
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  Speaker 2: months later the EP. I'd like to do the EP
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  Speaker 2: on digital and CD.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, So where can people actually get himself as a
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  Speaker 1: copy or creorder or keep up to.
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  Speaker 2: Date and do what's happening. Keep a look on our
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: website ww dot gold Robot Records dot com. The EP
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  Speaker 2: will be on the shop there and I'll also let
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  Speaker 2: you know as well what's going on so you can
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  Speaker 2: keep the listeners. But I'm pretty confident that this story
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  Speaker 2: is going to get picked up everywhere from the blab
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  Speaker 2: of Mouse to the rock pits to whatever and it'll
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  Speaker 2: be out there, so you know it's going to stir
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  Speaker 2: up a lot of emotion about John. I'm hoping it
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  Speaker 2: stirs it up in a good way because this is
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  Speaker 2: all about his legacy. And you know, I don't know
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  Speaker 2: what the estate is planning, if they're planning anything. But
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  Speaker 2: John was very, very extra, very sorry, very introverted. He
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  Speaker 2: was an introverted character. As extroverted as he was on stage.
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  Speaker 2: I found him quite introverted. So he didn't like a
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  Speaker 2: fuss on anything. The one thing he did love and
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  Speaker 2: he talked about a lot, and there actually is a
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  Speaker 2: video clip of me and him at NAM talking. He
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: was very well aware. It was a long time between
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: drinks for him, meaning music, not a physical drinks, but
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  Speaker 2: it was a long time between releases. And he was
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  Speaker 2: always really enamored that he's He was always very faithful
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  Speaker 2: that his fans stuck in there with him. He always
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  Speaker 2: loved his fans. There's one thing that we talked about
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  Speaker 2: a lot, how much he loved his fans. So this
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  Speaker 2: is really for his fans, and I think it would
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  Speaker 2: be wrong of us to sit on it and not
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  Speaker 2: put it out to celebrate his life. That's why I
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  Speaker 2: look at it and then the other thing too.
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  Speaker 1: Bro like a lot of people, because you're always going
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  Speaker 1: to get the haters no matter what you do. But
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  Speaker 1: the fact is, you could have released it straight away
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  Speaker 1: after he passed, and you could have cashed in on
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  Speaker 1: that tragic side of his life. But you've chosen to
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  Speaker 1: leave it at least six months later to even start
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  Speaker 1: mentioning it to people in public, so that in itself
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  Speaker 1: was going to show that you're doing it for the
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  Speaker 1: right reasons.
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  Speaker 2: Look, Chris, I could have released this while he was alive.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I could have done whatever I wanted and
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: it would have been a war. You know, he might
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: not want it to have come out. I mean, who knows.
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  Speaker 2: I know he loved these four tracks. I don't know
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  Speaker 2: what his mind his state mind state was a state
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  Speaker 2: of mind, I should say. Over the last couple of
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  Speaker 2: years we didn't speak that often. Our relationship was eighteen
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  Speaker 2: nineteen twenty one. But I always did the right thing
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  Speaker 2: by John. I just left it. Although we were out
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: of pocket, we were very much out of pocket. I
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: just left it. So when he passed away, I thought, well,
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: you know, let's do the right thing and put it out.
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  Speaker 2: But there's a timing as well. So by the time
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  Speaker 2: this comes out, the EP comes out, you know, it
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: will nearly been a year since he passed. And I
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: think if we just talk about the fans, you know,
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: I've been through so many different things of Golden Robe,
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: but I've been through the whole La Guns thing with
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: the two La Guns and the fight and all these
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: different things, and all these different things that we've done
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: over the years. And when you know, when you read
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: all the comments on social media, on blab of mouth,
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: on this or that, and at the end of the day,
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: there's so many keyboard warriors out there that I don't
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: give a fuck about, and I know a lot of
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: people don't. It just whittles down sometimes just to the fans.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: And I remember reading that about La Guns. If you
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: didn't like Riley LA's Riley's La Guns, don't buy the record.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: But if you're a music fan, by the record because
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: it's good music. And it's the same with this with John.
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: If you're a music fan and you love that era
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: of music, the White Snake and Thin Lizzy, et cetera,
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: then you're gonna love this music because it's for the fans,
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: and that's what this is all about see Marchael. Thanks
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: very much for your time, mate.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: I look forward to hearing it because twenty five years
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: between drinks and music from the guys a long time,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: but I'm sure it's.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: Going to be worth it. I look this EP, my
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: guitar is going to be wonderful and I'm really proud
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: to be putting it out. And thanks Chris for the support.