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TMP339 THE ROB HUDAK GOES FULL TILT · Troubled Men Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Foreign. Listeners, welcome back to the Troubled Men podcast. I am Renee Coleman, sitting once again in Snake and Jake's Christmas Club Lounge in the heart of the Clempire with my co host, the original troubled man for troubled times, Mr. Manny Chevrolet. Welcome, Manny.
• 0:32
  Speaker B: Hey, how are you, man? What's going on with you?
• 0:34
  Speaker A: Oh, not too much. I had a little bit of time off, but here we are. Here we are. Yes, yes. Back in. Back in the heart of the Clampire. It's quiet here.
• 0:45
  Speaker B: Yeah, well, it wasn't quiet on Saturday. Were you here Saturday, man? It was fucking crazy going.
• 0:51
  Speaker A: No, what was going on?
• 0:52
  Speaker B: Well, our. Our friend Juan, he had his wedding.
• 0:57
  Speaker A: Oh, really?
• 0:57
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 0:58
  Speaker A: Huh.
• 1:00
  Speaker B: I don't know if they did their vows here, but the party was here and it was a party, man.
• 1:04
  Speaker A: Oh, I bet Juan Sanchez shout out to him.
• 1:07
  Speaker B: Yeah, it was a lot of fun. And I didn't even know he was. Had a girl. Yeah. I did not even know he had a girl.
• 1:17
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 1:17
  Speaker B: And I was very shocked.
• 1:19
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:19
  Speaker B: That he had a girl because he's crazy, going nuts.
• 1:22
  Speaker A: He's a wild guy, but he's got a lot going on.
• 1:25
  Speaker B: Yes, he does. And you know, but when I was here, Ian the bartender sent me a package. He said a package had arrived for me.
• 1:39
  Speaker A: Huh.
• 1:40
  Speaker B: And it was addressed to Manny Chevrolet. And it was a beautiful thing. It was a gift from one of our listeners, the great Jimmy V. Oh, okay. And he addressed it to me and he's a good friend. He may be my only friend, I think. I don't know. But he sent me a bottle of Bosco.
• 2:02
  Speaker A: Oh, nice.
• 2:04
  Speaker B: So there's someone out there thinking of me. Nice, you know. So I have a new bottle of Bosco. I just want to say thank you, Jimmy.
• 2:12
  Speaker A: Right on.
• 2:12
  Speaker B: And keep them coming, as they say, you know. Keep them coming.
• 2:18
  Speaker A: I actually found a place to buy Bosco in, in New Orleans. When I got back from, there was a bottle of Bosco on my desk that my wife had bought for me.
• 2:26
  Speaker B: Where was this?
• 2:27
  Speaker A: I bought it one of the stores that she goes to here in town. I'm not sure exactly which one, but yeah, it's available here.
• 2:33
  Speaker B: I have not seen it. I can't find it here.
• 2:35
  Speaker A: Oh, I'll have to ask.
• 2:36
  Speaker B: What's the name of this store?
• 2:38
  Speaker A: I'm not sure which store it was, but I'll have to ask her.
• 2:41
  Speaker B: Oh, yeah, you ask her. Let us know.
• 2:43
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Bosco's. It's not as. Not as hard to find as. As you might think.
• 2:50
  Speaker B: Well, I can't Find it. I've tried.
• 2:52
  Speaker A: Right, well, but now you have some.
• 2:54
  Speaker B: I have some Bosco.
• 2:55
  Speaker A: Have you been using the Bosco?
• 2:57
  Speaker B: I have, yes. I had a little chocolate milk on Sunday.
• 3:01
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 3:02
  Speaker B: With my breakfast, and it was good. So thank you again. Jimmy. He's a good guy.
• 3:08
  Speaker A: Jimmy or Eddie V. Eddie.
• 3:10
  Speaker B: Yo. It's Eddie V. Right?
• 3:12
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know Jimmy V. Is a guitar player that we had on the podcast, but.
• 3:16
  Speaker B: Oh, really? Eddie V. I'm sorry.
• 3:17
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 3:18
  Speaker B: Eddie Volnick. Yeah, yeah, that's it.
• 3:19
  Speaker A: Voynich.
• 3:20
  Speaker B: Yeah. Y. Voynick. Yes. I'm sorry, yes, that's Eddie V. Yeah. He's a good guy.
• 3:25
  Speaker A: He has a good guy. He's a very devoted listener.
• 3:28
  Speaker B: Yeah. So he gave me that and it was a great party. I met Juan's wife and she's from the Carolina area.
• 3:37
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 3:38
  Speaker B: I think they. The reason why we didn't really know much about her is because she lives there and he lives here.
• 3:44
  Speaker A: Oh, one of those long distance relations.
• 3:46
  Speaker B: Yeah. So I don't know what they're gonna do about shacking up, if he's gonna leave us or she's gonna come down here. I really don Know, but they seem happy. And other than that. Yeah, other things are going on. It was a good party and other things. What's happening with you? What?
• 4:04
  Speaker A: What's happening? Oh, you know, just played a bunch of dates there on the road. They all went. Well, I'm back here in town doing rehearsals, preparing for the festival season. It's coming up. You got, uh. Oh, yeah, French Quarter Festival and then, uh, uh, uh, Jazz Fest right on its heel.
• 4:20
  Speaker B: Places you won't see me at.
• 4:22
  Speaker A: Sure.
• 4:22
  Speaker B: You can talk if you wish.
• 4:25
  Speaker C: Yeah, I'll tell you. Bosco in town. I'll tell you.
• 4:28
  Speaker D: Okay.
• 4:28
  Speaker A: He's got a. He's got a line on the Bosco.
• 4:30
  Speaker B: Where is that?
• 4:31
  Speaker C: I believe. I believe it's at Whole Foods because I just finished my bottle of Bosco.
• 4:34
  Speaker B: Okay, well, I don't like Whole Foods because every time I go there, it's like whole paycheck.
• 4:39
  Speaker C: Yeah, sure.
• 4:40
  Speaker B: You know, it's a. So overpriced, that place.
• 4:43
  Speaker A: Maybe just go get the Bosco there and.
• 4:45
  Speaker B: Yeah, probably overpriced for cocktail it out.
• 4:47
  Speaker A: Ah, you know, you have to bite the bullet.
• 4:49
  Speaker C: Might not even have to pay for it.
• 4:51
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 4:51
  Speaker B: Oh, that's a good idea.
• 4:52
  Speaker A: Five finger discount.
• 4:54
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 4:54
  Speaker A: Go through the self checkout line.
• 4:56
  Speaker C: Yeah. Self checkout.
• 4:58
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 4:58
  Speaker B: Yeah, So I heard a beat, but
• 5:01
  Speaker A: well, well, you know, I did see over in the neighborhood where we Are now they. They're talking about tearing down the Frost top.
• 5:07
  Speaker B: Good. That was one of the worst restaurants I've ever eaten.
• 5:11
  Speaker A: It goes up and down. You know, at times they. They have. They. They'll get, like, a good line of ground beef on there. I like those. The. The hamburger poor boys they make there.
• 5:21
  Speaker C: I've had a good burger there. Yeah. It looks so cool, though. It's a shame that.
• 5:25
  Speaker A: Yeah. It's an iconic place. Well, the neighborhood's pushing back on it big time.
• 5:29
  Speaker B: Good luck fighting Tulane with that. They're not going.
• 5:31
  Speaker A: Well, it's not two lane. It's. It's a private developer. I mean, they're developing.
• 5:35
  Speaker B: Well, the guy who owns that neighborhood sold it to the private developer for the. For the only reason. Making dorms for two lane.
• 5:44
  Speaker A: Right.
• 5:44
  Speaker B: So Tulane's got a say in this. And you can't fight Tulane just like you can't fight city hall most of the time.
• 5:50
  Speaker A: Right.
• 5:51
  Speaker B: It's gone. It's gone. I'm glad. I think it's one of the worst places ever. I've eaten in this town.
• 5:56
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 5:56
  Speaker B: You know, and I've eaten at some shitty places in this.
• 5:58
  Speaker A: Sure, sure.
• 5:59
  Speaker B: You know.
• 6:00
  Speaker A: Well, it is an iconic place, so.
• 6:02
  Speaker B: Yeah, but that's the problem with one of the last. They don't want to tear down. You got to tear down some history in order to move on in this place. This city doesn't understand that. They want to keep old houses that are for crack heads to hang out. And look at that car wash out in the east. It was front for a crack lab. Did you hear that? Yeah.
• 6:22
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 6:22
  Speaker B: You know, so tear down history. You have to.
• 6:25
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 6:26
  Speaker B: In order to make new history, you have to.
• 6:28
  Speaker C: The rotten houses are. Yeah.
• 6:30
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 6:30
  Speaker C: That's tough to keep alive, you know, for anybody. And then you can't develop it. If you're a family, you want. You know, you have some money to invest in it, then you have to deal with all of that, and then it's like twice as much to tear it all down and, well, you know, fight all of it.
• 6:45
  Speaker A: It's a nuance.
• 6:45
  Speaker B: Just like our fearless leader wanted to end a civilization, you know, well, let's just get rid of the civilization, you know?
• 6:53
  Speaker A: Right.
• 6:53
  Speaker B: That guy's crazy going. But I thought it was apropos that our fearless leader addressed the nation on April Fool's day. I thought that was a hilarious.
• 7:04
  Speaker A: Sure.
• 7:05
  Speaker B: You know? You know, because he may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot, but don't let that fool you. He's an Idiot. All right.
• 7:13
  Speaker A: Hiding in plain sight.
• 7:15
  Speaker B: Yeah. But I have, you know, I find him very entertaining over these last 10 years or whatever. And I think he's, you know, he is what he is, and I've really never really been that angry with him until just a couple weeks ago when he stole my line. He stole my line. When that guy Mueller died. He said, good.
• 7:36
  Speaker A: Oh, he did? He did, yeah.
• 7:38
  Speaker B: That's my line.
• 7:39
  Speaker A: You know, I thought I thought of you when that happened.
• 7:40
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. That's my life.
• 7:42
  Speaker A: Because everybody was so aghast. Like, how could you possibly say that? I said, well, I know somebody that says that every time.
• 7:47
  Speaker B: That's right. Good. So I'm kind of pissed off with them with that.
• 7:51
  Speaker A: Okay, Stepping on your toes. Yeah.
• 7:53
  Speaker B: Stealing my line.
• 7:54
  Speaker A: Sure, sure, sure. Make up your own material.
• 7:57
  Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
• 7:58
  Speaker C: Right, right.
• 7:58
  Speaker B: So he did that then.
• 8:00
  Speaker A: Okay. Something on a totally different subject here, and this has been happening for a while and see if you've noticed this maybe about.
• 8:07
  Speaker B: Balls are shrinking.
• 8:09
  Speaker A: Well, yeah, I was wondering if you'd noticed, but when you go into a store or different places, the people would say, welcome or come in. In the last six months, this phrase, welcome in has popped up. Have you heard that?
• 8:27
  Speaker B: No.
• 8:29
  Speaker A: Have you heard that?
• 8:29
  Speaker C: I haven't heard it yet. Welcome in.
• 8:31
  Speaker A: I first noticed it on a podcast that somebody doing from la and it caught my ear right away. Welcome in.
• 8:40
  Speaker C: That doesn't sound very la. It sounds more like.
• 8:42
  Speaker A: It sounds foreign almost, but like it's from a different language or something, you know? But so I thought, well, that's really odd. And then I started hearing it going into stores other places in other cities. People said, welcome in. Welcome in.
• 8:58
  Speaker C: I mean, it's like Dutch or something.
• 8:59
  Speaker A: And then. And then. Well, it's not like German, like, you know. Yeah, yeah, but welcome in. And then just this weekend, I was down at some art openings on Julia
• 9:11
  Speaker C: street
• 9:14
  Speaker A: and CAC and two different people, and I've been mentioning this to my wife. Two different people said to us, welcome in. And she looked at me like, it's reached here. So anyway, keep your ear out for that.
• 9:29
  Speaker B: Welcome in.
• 9:30
  Speaker A: Welcome in.
• 9:31
  Speaker C: I'll be here all the time, for sure.
• 9:32
  Speaker B: I've never heard of it.
• 9:33
  Speaker A: It's weird. Now that I've mentioned to you, listen for you. You may start hearing it.
• 9:37
  Speaker B: Yeah, I don't like people that say that, you know. What. What does that mean, welcome in?
• 9:42
  Speaker A: It's. It's a weird.
• 9:44
  Speaker B: And you heard it first on podcast.
• 9:46
  Speaker A: I heard it first from someone saying, you know, like the guest Would show up and he'd go, welcome in. So and so. Welcome.
• 9:53
  Speaker B: Maybe it's the new. What's the generation that. The newest. The Gen X's or the XV Y? The Gen Z? Maybe it's something they're doing. Maybe it's the 6, 7 thing.
• 10:04
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 10:04
  Speaker B: I don't know.
• 10:04
  Speaker A: Maybe it's a 6, 7 related to that.
• 10:06
  Speaker B: I don't. I don't know.
• 10:08
  Speaker A: Perhaps.
• 10:08
  Speaker B: Welcome in. So you had welcome out, right? Right, welcome, Matt.
• 10:13
  Speaker A: Sure.
• 10:14
  Speaker B: You know.
• 10:16
  Speaker A: Well, so we had Easter this past. Did you? They had parades down in the French Quarter. They had the. The regular used to be Chris Owens parade. Then they also have the.
• 10:28
  Speaker B: The game. I saw that. They put her. She still. She still. They carried her dead body around. Yeah.
• 10:34
  Speaker A: Huh.
• 10:35
  Speaker B: Or his dead body. I don't know what the hell. Sure.
• 10:37
  Speaker A: Sure. Okay.
• 10:38
  Speaker B: No, I don't. You know, who cares about Easter?
• 10:40
  Speaker A: Take it out for a ride. All right. It's just.
• 10:42
  Speaker B: It's like, who cares? The gay parade and stuff. I was too busy with March Madness.
• 10:49
  Speaker A: Oh, okay.
• 10:49
  Speaker B: You know, I like the March Madness. Yeah. It's a lot of fun.
• 10:53
  Speaker A: Did you have a favorite team going?
• 10:54
  Speaker B: Well, I always root for my local teams like UCLA and stuff. And they got into the Sweet 16, but that's about as far as they got. But my Lady Bruins won it all in the Lady March Madness. And. But there was a funny thing that happened during March Madness. It was during, I think the field of 32, there was a team. I think it was Illinois playing. I can't remember what. But, you know, if you ever been to a basketball game, a live basketball pro game, a college game, they have these horns for timeouts. You know, team will take a timeout, a horn will blow, and then once the 30 seconds is over and the timeout, the horn will blow, say, hey, get back on the court, and the ref gets the ball. Well, apparently it was at some St. Louis arena where they were having these regionals and the horn would not turn off. It went on for. They timed it. It was nine and a half minutes of.
• 11:56
  Speaker A: Right.
• 11:56
  Speaker B: Can you imagine that? For nine and a half minutes in an arena? Because they're loud.
• 12:01
  Speaker A: Sure.
• 12:01
  Speaker B: I mean, it's loud. Nine and a half minutes, man. That's like the Chinese water torture or something.
• 12:11
  Speaker C: That's the madness part, you know, so
• 12:13
  Speaker B: the teams, the coaches didn't know what to do, so the teams had to, like, go back to the locker room and stuff because you can't have, you know, because, you know, you're so psyched up for this. Game and you're in it, and all of a sudden there's a timeout called. And the timeout's supposed to be 30 seconds, 45 seconds, but it's nine and a half minutes of you start cooling
• 12:34
  Speaker A: down,
• 12:36
  Speaker B: you know, it's crazy. Going nuts, man. Welcome out, you know.
• 12:40
  Speaker A: Yeah, no kidding, you know. Yeah, I heard they kept saying, unplug it. Unplug it. Well, you know, it's a little harder than. It's not plugged into the regular outlet.
• 12:51
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's not like old days, you know, it's not like that at all. But I, I, I, I. That sounds, you know, nuts, man. But that's what I saw. And that was the highlight of my Easter, actually.
• 13:05
  Speaker A: Okay, the buzzer.
• 13:06
  Speaker B: All right, the buzzer. Right on. You know, so. And that would have been great, though, if it was the buzzer at the last second of the game with the last shot in a tie game. And he goes. He shoots for the win. He hits it. And it goes on for nine and a half minutes, man. That would be funny, you know. Anyway, other than that, I. I heard in Europe, these Germans, man, they're crazy, going nuts. I think it's the Germans. But some Eastern European countries stole 3 tons of KitKat bars. Did you hear about that?
• 13:43
  Speaker A: No, I didn't.
• 13:44
  Speaker B: And they, they were. They stole them. And they were found in Poland.
• 13:48
  Speaker A: Now, the country stole them or a person stole them.
• 13:50
  Speaker B: Somebody from Germany.
• 13:52
  Speaker A: A person.
• 13:53
  Speaker B: Are people a group of thieves.
• 13:56
  Speaker A: It wasn't a state organ necessarily.
• 13:59
  Speaker B: I don't know.
• 13:59
  Speaker A: Private operation.
• 14:00
  Speaker B: But as someone who likes Kit Kats, sure. Who doesn't love a good Kit Kat?
• 14:04
  Speaker A: Sweet tooth.
• 14:05
  Speaker B: I like it. I like the Kit Kat. Sometimes I like them when they're frozen.
• 14:09
  Speaker C: Huh.
• 14:09
  Speaker B: You know, are just chilled a little bit. I put them in the fridge.
• 14:13
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 14:13
  Speaker B: You know, for a while, the KitKat bars.
• 14:15
  Speaker A: You got a sweet tooth, Manny? You like the.
• 14:17
  Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Oh, my. Yeah, my teeth are rotting because of sweets.
• 14:22
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 14:23
  Speaker B: I'm gonna be Shane McGowan in a couple years.
• 14:25
  Speaker A: All right.
• 14:26
  Speaker B: You know, I guarantee you that. Because I hate the dentist. I can't stand the dentist.
• 14:31
  Speaker C: I don't know who likes the dentist,
• 14:33
  Speaker B: you know, and yeah, because it's drills.
• 14:36
  Speaker A: I think they have a high suicide rate. That's what they say the highest do. Yes. One of the highest of any profession. Yeah.
• 14:41
  Speaker B: Really?
• 14:42
  Speaker A: People are kind of hate them so much, they're never happy to see them.
• 14:47
  Speaker B: Well, I'm not, you know.
• 14:48
  Speaker A: Well, you know, it's.
• 14:49
  Speaker B: Except the last time I went better
• 14:51
  Speaker A: to see them than not to see them.
• 14:52
  Speaker B: But anyway, when I was taking my daughter when she was a young kid to get her teeth clean, we take her to the Mid City Smiles.
• 15:01
  Speaker A: Okay?
• 15:01
  Speaker B: That's a great place. It's on Canal Street. So if you're wanting your teeth clean, go to Mid City spouse. Especially if you're a young single man who like Latino women. Nothing but cute, hot Latino women at Mid City Smiles.
• 15:14
  Speaker A: Like your daughter?
• 15:15
  Speaker B: Yeah, well, yeah, like her, but she was getting her teeth clean, but she wasn't working there.
• 15:19
  Speaker A: Oh, working there, you're saying?
• 15:21
  Speaker B: Yeah, work there. Yeah. All those little. What do they call the assistants? I don't know if they're actually hygienists. The hygienist. Yeah, the hygienist. Yeah, exactly. Man, I said put me under, baby.
• 15:33
  Speaker A: Okay?
• 15:35
  Speaker B: You can have your way with me.
• 15:37
  Speaker A: Okay. Take liberties.
• 15:40
  Speaker B: Take liberties while you're.
• 15:41
  Speaker A: While you're under the gas.
• 15:42
  Speaker C: Yeah, welcome in.
• 15:45
  Speaker A: Yeah, welcome in.
• 15:46
  Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, exactly, exactly. But so, yeah, yeah, that's about it with that. Other than that, I only have one other thing to say. While you were gone, I, I. Well, no, I got quite a few other things. While you were gone, I saw this thing, you know, we always tease. Florida. You from Florida?
• 16:07
  Speaker C: No.
• 16:08
  Speaker B: Okay, good. Arizona?
• 16:10
  Speaker C: No.
• 16:11
  Speaker B: No. Okay. Gompers, California.
• 16:14
  Speaker A: It's worse than that, but we'll get to that. Yeah, we'll get to that in. In due time and we'll go. All right.
• 16:25
  Speaker B: A Florida woman was arrested in the beach communities of Florida. She was renting Airbnbs, you know, and she was found that she was urinating on the furniture at these Airbnbs and then posted it on her page. She had some page, I don't know what they're called, X page or. But she was getting paid. Guys who like to see chicks pee, you know, everyone has their own little fetish, I guess. And so I don't know what these sites are called, but she.
• 17:00
  Speaker C: Guys were paying her only fans. I think I did see this article.
• 17:04
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. She, you know, she was making money going to Airbnbs and peeing on furniture, like the couch.
• 17:13
  Speaker A: Oh. And filming herself and then filming this. Only fans.
• 17:16
  Speaker B: Well, guys would say, click, click. You know, they would give her 10 bucks or 20 bucks and then she would. She peed. Apparently this one owner realized that she had peed on her rug, peed on her bed. She peed on her typewriter. Oh, who has a typewriter these days? I don't know.
• 17:31
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 17:32
  Speaker B: And paid on the coffee maker, the tv, the record Player and the toaster.
• 17:39
  Speaker A: Jesus.
• 17:39
  Speaker B: Yeah, That's a lot of urine.
• 17:41
  Speaker A: Yeah, man.
• 17:44
  Speaker B: She's drinking a lot of water, I guess. I have no idea. I don't. Coffee? I don't know. But she was arrested and she's looking. She was looking at time and she's also the owner. There's a couple of owners she did this to, and they're. They're looking to try to recoup their losses for the toaster. Filthy record player and the bed and the tv. You know, I remember I had a roommate who had a girlfriend who used to like him to pee on her. Oh, really? Yeah, but he would. She'd have him wear a diaper first, and he'd soil the diaper and then give it to her. We called him Diaper Dave.
• 18:22
  Speaker A: Oh, man.
• 18:23
  Speaker B: He's a good friend of mine.
• 18:25
  Speaker A: People are strange.
• 18:26
  Speaker B: Yeah, people are strange. Anyway, so that's happening in Florida.
• 18:32
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 18:32
  Speaker B: And we. We've got. We've got other crazy things going on, but we can move on.
• 18:38
  Speaker A: Yeah, let's. Let's move on. So our guest has been very patient here. I have a terrific guest here. He's a singer, guitar player, songwriter, with his own band, the Hotsies. Also Newborn Naturals, Cosmic Americans, Boogeyman Smash. He's the owner and CEO of Full Tilt Records. He's also a current partner in the Chicky Wawa Club. And he's played on the Clash Day tribute shows that we've done for the last four years. And recently he was in New York City on a bill with his new project, Loaded, playing the music of the Velvet Underground. And we're going to get into all that and much more. But without further ado, the great Mr. Rob Hudak. Welcome, Rob.
• 19:24
  Speaker C: Hey, thanks for having me. Renee.
• 19:25
  Speaker A: The Rob Hudak.
• 19:27
  Speaker C: That's right. Yeah. Yeah. If you want to. My manager, Steve Rahaj, you know.
• 19:31
  Speaker A: Oh, is that.
• 19:31
  Speaker C: To incorporate that in my.
• 19:33
  Speaker A: Is that where that came from? Steven Ray.
• 19:34
  Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah.
• 19:35
  Speaker B: Welcome in.
• 19:37
  Speaker C: Anytime I leave the B off, I have to get a message from him about it. So I just keep it on there now.
• 19:44
  Speaker A: So I wasn't sure what that was about. I thought it was weird when I first saw it. And then I started, then I realized that. Does that have something to do with the Ohio State University?
• 19:54
  Speaker C: I think from Rahaj. Yes, I would guess, yes. I mean, there's a lot of other Rob Hudaks in the world. I think there's some, you know, hypnotist and a politician or something. Huh.
• 20:02
  Speaker A: Really? Because I've never heard that name, other
• 20:04
  Speaker B: than you, what is it? What is that?
• 20:05
  Speaker C: Hudak is a Czech Czechoslovakian name and it means fiddle player, apparently, or poor man, depending on how you know. Well, if they go together, sure. Back in the. But it's a pretty common name. It's like Smith, so. Really?
• 20:18
  Speaker A: No kidding.
• 20:18
  Speaker C: When I was growing up, my dad's like feminine Hudex. We're not related to him. Huh.
• 20:22
  Speaker A: No kidding.
• 20:22
  Speaker C: I don't know if that was just because he was trying to avoid his family or because we actually weren't related to him.
• 20:27
  Speaker A: Right, right. Well, now, do you know what. When they say the Ohio State University, you know what that's about?
• 20:34
  Speaker C: Probably distracting from all the pedophilia over there, but. Yeah, I mean, they're nuts over there. I don't know what. What are they doing.
• 20:44
  Speaker B: Program started doing back in the 80s.
• 20:47
  Speaker C: Well, they have Ohio University. I mean, Ohio has a couple. Universities are just like generic kind of names like that.
• 20:53
  Speaker B: There's Miami of Ohio, too.
• 20:55
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
• 20:56
  Speaker B: And there's Ohio State. But I. Yeah, it started back in the 80s when Ohio State players made it into the pros and you know, like when a game, football game starts in the NFL, they put the lineups for the offense and then the guy they would go to the player. Hi, my name is Archie Griffin, the Ohio State University running back.
• 21:20
  Speaker A: Right.
• 21:21
  Speaker B: This is. Hi, I'm Kenny Stable, Alabama University. It's just something. I think it was just a publicity thing that someone came up with on campus to just differentiate themselves from other programs.
• 21:31
  Speaker A: Other. No. Other. No. Other.
• 21:33
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 21:33
  Speaker A: No. Nobody says the Alabama.
• 21:35
  Speaker B: Yeah. Nobody said.
• 21:36
  Speaker A: Yeah, The University of Alabama.
• 21:38
  Speaker B: Yeah. The Harvard. They don't say that.
• 21:41
  Speaker C: Maybe Steve Rahaj told him to do it.
• 21:43
  Speaker B: Yeah, maybe so. But there was some. There was some ad, I guess, in the 80s, you know, who came up with this thing and it stuck. Maybe he was, you know, maybe they were Dutch or something. You know, I. I don't know. I have no idea why, but I started seeing in the 80s while watching pro games where there was Ohio State graduates playing, you know. You know, but it stuck. So the guy did. Well.
• 22:06
  Speaker A: Okay. Well, back to you, the Rob Hudak.
• 22:09
  Speaker C: Hello.
• 22:09
  Speaker B: So.
• 22:10
  Speaker A: And so to. To coming. Coming around. You're not from New Orleans.
• 22:15
  Speaker C: No, I've been here 20 years. Moved here in 2006 from after 10 years in New York, but from the New York City. My hometown is Youngstown, Ohio.
• 22:25
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 22:26
  Speaker C: Up in the Northeast.
• 22:27
  Speaker A: The Youngstown.
• 22:28
  Speaker C: The Youngstown, Ohio, it's like an hour from Cleveland.
• 22:30
  Speaker B: So you came right after Katrina.
• 22:32
  Speaker C: We Did.
• 22:32
  Speaker B: Yeah, to clean up.
• 22:34
  Speaker C: No, no, we had family reasons. My father in law was sick and, you know, we were up in New York and he was like, why don't y' all come down here? And.
• 22:42
  Speaker B: Oh, he lived down here.
• 22:43
  Speaker C: He lived in. He lived in St. Joseph at the time. But, you know, for the work I was doing in New York, you know, this was the only place to kind of move to, you know, be employed at the time. So I got a job at an ad agency as their, like, creative director on, like, the digital side, which is what I was doing in New York to afford a practice space and taxi cabs and all that stuff.
• 23:05
  Speaker A: Well, let's go back before we go back.
• 23:07
  Speaker C: We'll rewind, though. But that was. Yeah, that was so.
• 23:10
  Speaker A: So Youngstown, Ohio now. Youngstown, Ohio, that's kind of the rust belt, huh?
• 23:15
  Speaker C: It is the rust belt. Yeah, it is.
• 23:17
  Speaker A: It's a hardscrabble town.
• 23:19
  Speaker C: It was. Yeah, it was one of the, like, top steel producers for a long time. You know, I came from a. My mom's Italian, and, you know, the Italians moved there. It's kind of the same story as Dean Martin in Steubenville. The Italians moved there to work for the steel mill, in the steel mills. And then, you know, some of them were like, what the hell are we doing working for the man? And they started the rackets and. And, you know, basically started Steubenville. They started the. Yeah, well, they started the. The racetrack out there, Thistle down in. In Steubenville and. And the, you know, whorehouses and the gambling places and, you know, basically, you know, started the. The mob, the whatever, you know, families out there.
• 23:59
  Speaker B: Who was the big mob boss?
• 24:00
  Speaker C: What was the name in our town? It was Joey Naples.
• 24:03
  Speaker B: Joey Naples.
• 24:04
  Speaker C: Yeah. So I went to school. I went to grade school with his nephews. You know, there was a lot of. A lot of criminal activity everywhere in our own way, but it all went back to the. In the community. Like, I had buddies who used to, like, steal the money from, like, the candle boxes at church, where you put
• 24:19
  Speaker B: the money in there.
• 24:21
  Speaker C: You figure out that you can take the candlestick and stick it in there and you just shimmy it around. And all of a sudden, if $1 starts popping out, you grab it and it all comes out like a big seller.
• 24:29
  Speaker B: We get those big long matchsticks.
• 24:32
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 24:32
  Speaker B: And choose some gum.
• 24:34
  Speaker C: Oh, that's good. That's smart.
• 24:35
  Speaker B: Take out the coins.
• 24:36
  Speaker C: Yeah, these guys did. Without the gum. I was always lookout. I was looking for the nuns. You know, I'D be like, I was. I was lookout. Because we do it after.
• 24:45
  Speaker B: We serve you and the priest who'd rape you.
• 24:47
  Speaker C: We do it after morning mass. Yeah. Luckily we had. We didn't have that going on. I think maybe they used to pass
• 24:54
  Speaker B: around the hat, you know, down the aisles and stuff.
• 24:57
  Speaker C: Oh, yeah, yeah. They passed the basket.
• 24:58
  Speaker B: I just put it on my head and walk out, you know. But we had a mobster in my town named Joey Bag of Donuts.
• 25:06
  Speaker C: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 25:07
  Speaker B: You know, yeah, Joey Bag. He's in every town.
• 25:10
  Speaker A: Well known, well known character. Well, so tell us about your family there in Youngstown.
• 25:15
  Speaker C: Yeah, well, the only options there were to either work in the steel mill or work for the mob. So, you know, my father worked in the steel mill and my mom was a housewife. And, you know, we used to take him to driving down to work in the morning or at, you know, in the morning. When I say in the morning would be like 12 midnight, you know, and I was like 3, 4 years old. I'd be sitting in the front seat in the middle with no seat belt, staring right at the radio. We drive down this hill and the. All the mills are in a valley and the sky would be orange at midnight.
• 25:43
  Speaker B: Well, that's because the steel mills never close. Yeah, you would work the day shift, the mid shift or the graveyard.
• 25:48
  Speaker C: And my dad would walk in there dressed like he was going in a winter storm into this, you know, flame. You see flames through the windows. I was like, dad, why you. Why are you wearing all those clothes? It looks really hot in there. He's like, well, I sweat. And then it keeps it in here, and then it insulates me, and then it keeps me cool, you know. He was a scarfer. So he stood up on the rigs and like shot hot, flaming sparks out of a stick and cleaned off the molten steel off the sheets and tubes. He worked at the Youngstown Sheet and Tube. And so he did that. He got paid. Paid well, I mean, me and my older brother had all the Star wars toys, sometimes two of them, you know, one for each of us and stuff like that. And then. And then I basically saw, you know, Reaganomics hit from my front yard, you know, and it was really idyllic. Like, I was. I was like the only white kid on a block for about like 5 block radius. Then if you cross Belmont Avenue, you know, it was. It was a different story. But, you know, it was. It was very idyllic, I think. You know, I think in the early 70s, people were just tired of all the bullshit. And everyone had gotten, you know, wiped out. Martin Luther King and Sam Cooke and Kennedy and everybody. So, like, the kids were all. We were all just chill and hung out and enjoyed each other. Talked about, you know, what was on HBO. And then in the 80s, the mills closed. And the town. It was like. When I moved here in 2006, it reminded me of Youngstown when the mills closed. Because there's this town built for, you know, 500,000 people and suddenly only have, like 100,000 people.
• 27:06
  Speaker B: So going back to a kid, though, your parents giving you music.
• 27:11
  Speaker C: Well, there's always the radio on and all that. And I was watching American Bandstand. Catalyst was like. I was watching the. They were syndicating the Beatles cartoons from the 60s, early 70s. And like, it's like 1976, maybe. I was watching them and I'm watching these cartoons for weeks, you know. My mother comes in and she's like, I have one of their records. And I, like, turned her. And I'm like, they're not real. And she pulls out and meet the Beatles, of all things. And it's like, there's their five heads. And I'm looking at the TV and looking at them and it. Or four heads.
• 27:46
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 27:47
  Speaker C: And I was like, yeah, sorry, I'm a little loopy today. Gotcha. But I'm like, man, it was like someone being like, I know Fred and Barney Rubble, you know, like, pulling out a picture of them. I was like, what the hell? So I grabbed the record and I'm like, yeah, I'm a little kid, so the record's giant, you know. And so I picture them on the back, standing real cool with their boots and shit. And I'm like, wow, what? And after that, I just was on the record player for a while. Like, I mean, I was always stuck in front of the tv, but we had this mono hi fi. And I was just big enough to reach it and put the arm on. And so that was. That blew my mind, you know, And I couldn't, you know, quite read yet. But I was, you know, just fascinated, just studying that cover and, like, listen to that music. It was. That was a real. A real game changer for me. And. And then it turned out I started going to the record cabinet and finding stuff and turned out they had a couple really cool things. One of them was they had Huey Smith and the Clowns, Popeye with the B side with Skull Dog and I. And. And. And I. Another cartoon, always distinctly like. So. And I. And it. It hadn't hit Me until recently that I think I set this intention here in the Popeye because it was, you know, as soon as you put that thing on, it's kind of like double shot, my baby's love or it's like a party going on and like, hey buddy, let's Popeye. You know, and then, but then they, they, they give it away. They're like down in New Orleans where it got it start. We are going to show you what the Popeye is all about. And then they start screaming, Popeye. And I was like, where is this party? Like, I want to go there like as, as like a 4 year old. I was like, I want to be taken up by this spaceship, like wherever this is going or wherever it is, like that's where I want to be. And then, you know, I kind of put that aside and my mother tells a story that when Elvis died, I was, you know, watching TV and they were playing all the, you know, visuals of Elvis live. And my family's all gathered around TV and everybody's kind of sad and telling me, oh, Elvis, Elvis. And I was like, who's this Elvis guy? You know, I was watching him, he's got a guitar and stuff. And I used to always get these earaches as a kid. And anytime I got an earache and we went to the pharmacy, I'd be able to get a toy because I was miserable. You know, it's just like little, little cheer me up thing, you know. And this time I was like, I want that. And it was this little like, I don't know, 12, 19, like plastic guitar. It had like plastic strings on it. And, and I was trying so hard between like, you know, that age, which was like 7 and 10, to like get sound out of this thing. And then finally my parents were like, oh, maybe he should take lessons or he's serious about, about it. So they got me this 19 Stella guitar out of the JCPenney catalog. And I took lessons with our cousin Rocky Suriano, who ran a music store and played in lots of bands out there.
• 30:33
  Speaker A: Oh, cool.
• 30:34
  Speaker C: And nobody in my family played an instrument, you know, like my immediate family. Like there was, you know, there was music around and, and, and they loved having like sock hops there and stuff. And there's old video, them dancing in the living room and having a ball and stuff. But yeah, like my mother would sing a little bit in the kitchen or something. But I was, even as a kid, I was like, you know, I'd hear the trains from the mills and I was into like, I'VE been working on the railroad, dying to blow your horn stuff as a kid. So I would sit and make up. I would sit and like make up songs with my little guitar on the. On the stoop, in the kitchen while my mom and grandma were in there and you know, sing about the mills. And they had me up all night, like I remember. Like they wouldn't, they wouldn't let me sleep, you know, like they were just. They're all just night owls, like drink coffee all day. They sleep from like 4am to 10 or something like that, you know. So they didn't bother putting me to bed until I like started going to school. So it's like I was always an insomniac. But yeah, back then it'd be like, you know, the TV would go off and they'd play the national anthem. That shitty. It was even like it looked old back then. It was like some shitty like 20 year old film of a flag and like traffic recording national anthem. And then, then the TV would cut off and go to snow and I thought the world had ended, you know. You know, I like, ah, you know, I'd freak out anyways after I learned to play some guitar and I was learning string by string and how to read and just, you know, real clunky kind of stuff. I was also like, I. I'd started buying, buying records, you know. And I. One of the first things I bought was Lou Reed's Transformer. Oh wow. Which was on cassette, you know, crazy first. And I was like one of my
• 32:07
  Speaker A: favorite records of all time.
• 32:09
  Speaker C: Like I had no idea that like, you know, you could do all of that, you know. And I thought it was kind of neat. Like I remember like, like in like New York telephone conversation, these things. It's like, you know, kind of story like. And you know, because I had already. I mean there were already some things before like, like the Popeye soundtrack. I was super into like as a child and I didn't realize till later that was Harry Nilsson that wrote all that. But. But something about, you know, those tunes. And I was listening to Walk on Wild side. I was also very into the whole. And then I had like a AC DC metal, you know, not metal but just rock and roll phase starting to
• 32:44
  Speaker A: play along with that stuff.
• 32:45
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. And I would get. I was getting Guitar Player magazine and I was learning really the who, like the Pete Townsend stuff was like the first stuff I really learned. So for a long time I was sort of like a plugged in acoustic player almost, you know, like that kind of, like, sort of. Yeah, you're just like, kind of like Neil Young or Pete Townsend, where it's more about the strumming and less about, like, individual notes or soloing. And so I always kind of like, had more of a rhythmic approach to things.
• 33:10
  Speaker A: Like, Lou, too.
• 33:11
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Until, like. Until much later, you know, I. As I developed, you know, probably not until my, like, 30s that I start to really get into, like, you know, theory and jazz and stuff, like. But really, I was just kind of, like, there, you know, my. My goal was to write songs. I was also obsessed with recording, tape recording, and I'd, like. I'd wrangle my cousins in to do these recordings. We had a band called Too Cheap to have a Name, where we would just, like, basically take the piss out of, like, whatever was playing on MTV at the time. So it ran the gamut. Like, we'd make our attempt at, like. At the time, they were playing, like, Tom Waits in the neighborhood. So we were just banging on pots and pans and making noise, and my cousin was singer. And.
• 33:48
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 33:48
  Speaker C: Yeah, we would just. We would do the song, but we would do it as like, we were kind of sending it up.
• 33:53
  Speaker B: Right, right.
• 33:53
  Speaker C: I mean, I still have some of those floating around. Funny to bust those out, but. But, yeah, so I was always kind of wrangling together a band and recording it and. Right. And then we. Then we wrote a rock opera about this. This, like, story was like a five and dime. It was like the D and K was called. And we had this whole story about, like, the towels at D and K giving people malaria because there are always flies stuck between the towels and the window. And so, yeah, this whole thing that was like Tommy, but it was about, you know, this guy Chet, and it was like, Chet, Chet. You know, the military. And so I wrote this whole rock opera when I was, like, you know, 12. And. And then. But then my brother went to college right before I went to high school. We were four years apart, and he met these guys and they were hanging out. They were buddies of his from college. And we were outside the best barbecue restaurant ever in the world called the Pit in Youngstown, no longer there. And they asked me to be in their band. And they said they're looking for a guitar player. And I told them, I said, I'm the best blues guitar player in Youngstown.
• 34:55
  Speaker B: Which.
• 34:56
  Speaker C: I don't even know what that meant. I wasn't, you know, but I was just, like, full of it, you know? Sure. And I wanted to be in the band because I Had heard of it through a friend that this guy was forming, this man called Boogeyman Smash. And it was supposed to sort of like hearken back to like childhood days. And they were just gonna do like really sort of primitive music and they're gonna play like the wonderful thing about tiggers and stuff like that. I just, I was just like, I was just fascinated someone was actually forming a band, you know, And I thought the name was fun. And it came from our friend's like 7 year old nephew or whatever. And he drew a picture of the thing, Boogeyman Smash, whatever. And so I was in that. I was the guitar player and I was happy to be. And it started out, it was like, it was just like two guitars and a drum, no bass player, you know, and we were just sort of like out of tune and primitive and playing all these songs. We'd play like, you know, when we do like Dead Flowers and Johnny Cash. But then we had these originals that were all sort of like, you know, these. Our singer was in the Jack Kerouac and stuff like that. So the lyrics were great and the songs were pretty, just rhythmic and, you know.
• 35:57
  Speaker B: Where did you play?
• 35:58
  Speaker C: We played. So there was a place called the. The Penguin Pub in town. And you know, my brother brought me in there, kind of like test the waters. I was 14 and I just waltzed right in and I'm like, what do you do? You know, I ordered a rum Coke, you know, and then I was like. But the bands that came, the bands were cool as because they had, you know, they had Lux Interior's brother Mike Push Geyser had a. A band called the Walking Clampets there and had this dude Johnny Teagle on guitar who used to work at Chelsea Guitars and he wrote a book on Fender.
• 36:31
  Speaker A: Lux is from Ohio.
• 36:32
  Speaker C: Yeah, everybody's from like Ohio, man. Like right next door to like Akron. Yeah, Akron had Devo, Christy Hine, Robert Quine, who's one of my heroes.
• 36:41
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
• 36:42
  Speaker C: So it was ripe with that and like all the older dudes. Yeah, take us. Yeah, we got a lot of the Dead Boys. The Dead. Well, the Dead Boys, yeah. Stiv Baiters. Went to my high school around the Stiff Baiters High School, however you look at it.
• 36:55
  Speaker A: Yeah, same high school.
• 36:57
  Speaker C: When my brother was in, in high school there, the girls that ran the paper wanted to do an article on Stiv and the nuns wouldn't let them. He was. He had started Lords of the New Church at the time or whatever. But yeah, still a lot. Lots stories about Stair. Some of my friends had like. Like my friend Justin, he was in this band called Gutter Snipes. His mom dated Stiv. And he's like. I remember being on my. On my front porch, like, stiff coming up the driveway when I was like, a kid, you know? Yeah. Like. And so it was. Yeah, so. And then the older guys, when I started playing, you know, the singer left. He. He ended up just wanting to kind of go full Jack Kerouac route and write, be a writer and move to San Francisco. And so we were kind of. Yeah, and we were. And we were like. And I was kind of devastated. I'm like, what am I going to do? Like, I really liked being sort of like the quiet Keith Richards guy. And I had like, one. One or two songs I wrote that I sang. And, man, our drummer, Bill was like, why don't you front the band? Like, you know, you're. You know, you. You're all right, you know, like, do it, you know. So. So I did our first show, and I got, like, a phone number from this beautiful girl I ended up dating for, like, six years. You know, it's like. And. And. Oh, yeah, no, no. You know, but we were still. We were still playing to, like, all these crazy, like, drunk, like, like crazy, crazy people. And the. And. And the bar was, like. The bar was wild and rough, and we had, you know, skinheads and punks and hippies. And then you had all these older, like, regular guys. Then you had, like, all these sort of like lifetime students, you know, there's this guy, Tom Green, who looked like Santa Claus. We never wore a shirt. He always wore, like, Daisy Dukes, you know, and he's like, throw chairs into the mosh pit while he was holding a draft beer, you know, and just like, just standing there, you know, like. And. But it was a crazy group of people. I felt protected there, you know, just because, like, everyone was like, oh, you're. You know, they. As much as they heckled our band, they. They liked it, they enjoyed it. And then. And then our big break was we. We made a tape. We went in and recorded. We went to what was, you know, I guess, you know, a real studio. Looking back, it was like, you know, a dude with, like, a basement studio and a reel to reel, and he recorded us. And we pressed up, like, 300 these cassettes and. And we played a party one night, and, man, we played that party. And for some reason, everybody fell in love with us. I mean, we were playing these weird songs. Like, I didn't have any life experience, so, like, I was writing songs about, like. Like a. Like a. One was called Coffee Machine. It was about, like, a businessman falling with a secretary. And since I was coming off the Lou thing, I was always trying to put in these weird, like, you know, slice of gender. Like, gender things. So I was like. So I had, like, the choruses like, I want a girl in a suit and tie to share my world, you know, but it's. But, you know, you're looking pretty tired yourself. I think you need a little caffeine. I'm feeling pretty tired myself. I'll walk you to the Coffee Machine.
• 39:54
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 39:54
  Speaker C: You know, and then so I got. You know, all these songs were just quirky and weird. And we sounded like a weird, jangly. Like, you know, we. You know, our drum was great. I was. I was all right. I mean, I. You know, I was. I was definitely full of passion, you know. And our bass player, like, didn't really know all the right notes to hit. So it was a little, you know, it was a little dissonant and weird. Right, Right.
• 40:15
  Speaker A: Just weird enough that.
• 40:16
  Speaker C: Just weird enough. And so then the next time we went back to the pub. And then there was another place in town called Cedars Lounge that was really, you know, seminal kind of punk rock place for Youngstown.
• 40:25
  Speaker B: Well, it sounds punk rock. You guys really don't know what you're doing and how play your instruments.
• 40:31
  Speaker C: Meanwhile, like you're doing it. The band's coming through. Like, there was a band called Thin White Line from Pittsburgh who had this guy, Bobby Porter. There's our singer. He's like this five foot two, like, super, like, stocky, like, tough, like, little African American dude with, like. And he's saying. He's saying, like, Otis Redding, he had like, a couple missing teeth up front and. And his band looked like misfits from, like, the Alice Cooper Band. And, like, different, like, 70s. And then they had like a guy with a mohawk and the Drummer was like 6 foot 4 and wore like a tutu and had a tiny drum set. But they would rock. You know, they were like. It sounded. It was like the MC5 backing Otis Redding. And Bobby would. Like, when. When they take guitar solo, Bobby would get down and do like, push ups. Every singer, he'd do push ups. They jump back up. And he was always, like, off the stage in the crowd. He'd like, get up in your face. And man. And I love. They were. They were so cool. And they're. Their lyrics were all like, based on, like, books and stuff. Like, they were. They were big into the Beats too. So. But I remember like, so I. So I was, I was 15 at this time. And like 15, 16 and coming home, like we would do great. Like there would be a three dollar cover. The place was supposed to be 85 capacity. We come home with like 800 bucks, like stripper money, right? I go home and like, you know, I get home, like my brother would take me back home at like, you know, 2am and my mom would be at the dining room table. I'd be laying out this money and she's like, oh, so proud of you.
• 41:59
  Speaker B: Oh, excellent.
• 42:00
  Speaker A: Like you robbed another liquor store.
• 42:02
  Speaker C: But I remember like the big like Thin White lie one night and I would always, for some reason they always gave me the money. Like, even though I was the youngest one, like, yeah, well, I guess so, man. So. So yeah, Bill that ran the place, like, he'd always be like, hey Rob, here's your money, you know, and he just give it to me like it's ball of money, you know, and. And so he's like, go, you know, you go. Go square up with NY Line downstairs. You know, they're so. They're, you know, they had a downstairs green room or whatever. It's just the basement of the bar. And you know, because they were overdoing their capacity limit. Like we would be down there sometimes when like a band was playing and the floor would be Boeing to where like we were like, holy. We were like one day like we're just waiting for the day, like everybody like fall through the floor. Like we were, we like wanted it, you know, we were like, we're gonna make it happen.
• 42:46
  Speaker B: We're gonna be the one.
• 42:47
  Speaker C: And it's always like, who's gonna do. Is it gonna be us or Thin White Line? Is it gonna be the walking Clampets when they play Viva Las Vegas or what's it gonna be? But I went down and. And I go downstairs and I'm like, hey guys, I got the money, you know, And I. And there's like they want the entire band. A couple, couple of their girlfriends are down there and they, they all get their heads around this bar stool on down there in the basement. And I'm like, hey guys, got your money. So they all pick up their heads up off this stool and look at me and I look down there's. And there they are, the thin white lines. They had. They had lines of coke out on the stool. And I was like, 16. I'm like, oh, thin white line. They really got the. Never really got all that makes sense. I Mean, I guess that. I don't know. I'm assuming that's what it was from.
• 43:28
  Speaker A: But nice.
• 43:29
  Speaker C: And I was thinking about Bobby doing the push ups and stuff now.
• 43:31
  Speaker B: Wasn't P Car from Ohio too?
• 43:34
  Speaker C: He is, yeah. I mean, I love P Car. Yeah. Cleveland. God, he blew my mind on those. On those David Letterman appearances. Like, we fell in love with him. My brother has the NBC on Strike T shirt that Harvey P. Carr wore on Letterman. He won it at some comic convention he went to. You know, he was bringing home. My brother was a big catalyst for my music taste, too. There was a lot of stuff I found on my own. But, yeah, he was like having a library now.
• 44:02
  Speaker B: When P Car was hitting, the real MTV was following him a lot. Did they ever come to Youngstown? Because I know P Car had that friend who the. The kind of slow guy.
• 44:16
  Speaker C: Oh, man, Toby. Yeah, yeah. Y' all know better than me.
• 44:19
  Speaker A: Yeah, Toby Radloff. Yeah, yeah.
• 44:20
  Speaker B: And he became very popular.
• 44:22
  Speaker C: Yes. That's the guy who talks like this.
• 44:27
  Speaker B: Review movies or bands or something like that.
• 44:30
  Speaker C: Yeah. I wish you would have reviewed my van. Yeah, speaking of which, like, we, you know, we. We got some accolades, like Scott McCoy from Young Fish Fellows reviewed one of our records and really liked it. And then we got signed to a couple, like, little labels in Pittsburgh. And then we eventually got signed to Shimmy Disc, but we were doing the whole thing. We were.
• 44:48
  Speaker B: We were just.
• 44:49
  Speaker C: We were doing the Fort Econo line 150, and we eventually got a real bass player who he now, you know, helps run, like, accounting for some huge law firm. But. But going back to our band, like, he was the first person to, like, get us a bank account. We bought a van. He had all the triptychs from aaa, all the names of the places all the way.
• 45:09
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 45:10
  Speaker C: Just like all this Sharpie. We'd be in that fucking van and we went all over, you know, I mean, we. We had a great time.
• 45:16
  Speaker A: Like the regionally.
• 45:18
  Speaker C: Yeah. Because it was like, we did so well in Ohio that, like, when bands would come open for us to be like, oh, man, come on out and we'll take care of you. And so we. We got to do that all the way to, like, Detroit. And then we, you know, we paid cbgb.
• 45:29
  Speaker A: Your parents didn't mind you going, they
• 45:31
  Speaker C: didn't mind me doing that. I mean. And then, you know, at least you
• 45:34
  Speaker A: weren't in the mob, because.
• 45:35
  Speaker C: Yeah, right.
• 45:36
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 45:36
  Speaker C: There's a lot worse things. Yeah.
• 45:40
  Speaker B: And they couldn't sleep anyway. Right, right, right.
• 45:43
  Speaker A: Well, let me Let me stop you right there because Manny, it's. It's about that time.
• 45:47
  Speaker B: Yeah. We're gonna take a break. We'll be right back.
• 45:52
  Speaker D: Well I just wanna do some hell raising I don't wanna be good
• 46:01
  Speaker A: I
• 46:01
  Speaker D: just wanna do some hell racing do what I wanna not what I should well I work out there in a quiet old building the chairs don't even squeak I'm about fixin a jump out of my skin when it gets to the end of the week I know I just wanna do something Hellraiser I don't wanna be good I just wanna do some hellraiser do what I wanna not what I should well the monkey told Eve I won't bite that apple Just gonna hang here and shout the slave cold Eve now don't mind that monkey Bite that apple baby Learn what it' Wanna do some hell raising I don't wanna be good I just wanna do some hell raising do what I wanna now what I should Let me say that raising hell is my specialty Sitting on my hands won't do it for me there's one thing that I've learned the closer to the fire yeah the brighter
• 47:34
  Speaker A: and we're back. Back with Mr. Manny Chevrolet. Yes, I am Renee Coleman. You are back with our guest, Mr. Rob Hudak. The Rob Hudak.
• 47:44
  Speaker B: Now, Rob, which means Smith. Right?
• 47:47
  Speaker A: Right, Right.
• 47:47
  Speaker B: Doesn't it mean Smith?
• 47:49
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 47:50
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 47:51
  Speaker A: Or, or homeless person. Now. Now Rob, you are familiar with the podcast, so you know this is a listener supported operation here. We have the Paypal and Venmo links of the in the show notes of every show as well as the Facebook page. And we're, we're. It's a last ditch effort appealing to the listenership. I know there's a lot of people like Eddie V and Rob Piche and others who have supported the podcast over and over again. A lot of people that listen and, and still waiting for you. So now would be the time. And also we have a Patreon page you can join that takes the guesswork out of supporting the podcast. Also, we have the Troublemen Podcast T shirts and I want to give a shout out to one of our supporters and longtime listeners, David Monette, old friend of mine who wore a Troubleman Podcast T shirt in the latest Crescent City Classic 10k race, sent me a photograph of him running the race with this Troubleman Podcast T shirt on.
• 48:56
  Speaker B: Where can we see this photo?
• 48:58
  Speaker A: I'll maybe post it.
• 49:00
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 49:01
  Speaker A: And let's see. Also follow us on social media, Instagram, Facebook and rate review and subscribe to the podcast wherever you're listening to it. Give us five stars. Cost you. Nothing helps us a lot. And let's see, I have some dates coming up, of course. French Quarter Fest is right around the corner. I'll be playing the first day with. With Susan Cassill and John mooney and playing BJ's at night with Loose Cattle. Then on Friday, I'm with Cole Williams and the Iguanas at the French Quarter Fest and with Tribe Nunzio at the Broadside that night. Then Saturday, I'm at the French Quarter Fest with Lynn Drury and then Sunday with the Iguanas back at the Carousel Lounge. All right, enough of that. Back to our guest, the Rob Hudak. So you're there and, you know, on Shimmy Disc Records, traveling around. Ford o', Connell, Econoline. Now, how do you get to New York City? Because we have to move this along.
• 49:59
  Speaker C: Yeah, I know. I'm like, yeah, I got, like, three lives in this whole scene. So New York, you know, the only sign out of Youngstown is New York City, Interstate 80, you know, and I saw that, you know, when I was again, like, five years old, I was planning all this.
• 50:12
  Speaker A: You knew you had to get out of Youngstown. Youngstown was a dead end.
• 50:17
  Speaker C: Yeah, well, I did. Yeah. I was, like, always running away as a kid, like, going down the corner with, like, a lunchbox and then realizing I couldn't. I didn't know how to live. I walked back to the house, you know. But as soon as I knew, someday you're gonna. Well, then actually I stuck around in Youngstown, you know, with the band, because the band was successful, and I stayed there and got a graphic design degree. And, Yeah, I did. I went to college, got a degree in graphic design. And then when the band, you know,
• 50:42
  Speaker A: you know, both of our wives are graphic design design.
• 50:44
  Speaker C: Is that right?
• 50:45
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 50:45
  Speaker C: Yeah, man. I'm like. Like a condensed version.
• 50:47
  Speaker B: And they're part. They're also yammering
• 50:53
  Speaker C: and. And, you know, so, like, I, So I, I, the band broke up, and I spent a couple years just kind of like, in this dark, you know, limbo. I wrote some songs and I did, like, some demos of them, but I didn't have a band, and I was such a band person, I think. Well, this time, you know, my girlfriend at the time was like, well, let's. Let's get out of here, you know, And I, I tried Cleveland first, and I moved to Cleveland in the winter, and I spent two days.
• 51:21
  Speaker B: This is the same girlfriend of six years.
• 51:22
  Speaker C: No, this is A different one. And then. And then, you know, I was like, fuck this. This is, like, worse than Youngstown. Like,
• 51:31
  Speaker A: stranger than paradise where you stand on the edge of the Lake Erie.
• 51:36
  Speaker C: Yeah, it was just cold. Like, she came up to visit me in this, like, apartment I was sharing with our friends band, the Revelers. They were a big, big part of my life, too. Great band from Cleveland. Not the Revelers that are around now,
• 51:46
  Speaker B: but where is she now?
• 51:49
  Speaker C: She's. I think she's married to an investment banker in, like, Spain. Madrid or something. Yeah, yeah. Good stuff. Anyway, like, we. We moved to New York and we. We quickly broke up. I was struggling real bad there, and she, like, you know, she was beautiful bartender. She went in there and just sort of cleaned house and got sick of me. And she. You fucking can't make money. And I was getting all these shitty temp jobs with my design degree, and I'm like, what the fuck? I should have bartended. And I couldn't. You know, I couldn't start a band. I couldn't afford a practice. I couldn't even afford my first month's rent. You know, I moved there with 800 bucks and, like, put some friends out and slept on their floors, and the 800 bucks went. I thought I was rich coming from Youngstown. Value of a dollar. We used to rent a whole storefront in Youngstown, a whole building. Like, that was the beautiful thing about Youngstown. It was so classically depressed and, like, everything was so cheap. Like, every artist moved there, and we had all kinds of great artists and. And musicians, and it was moving from. It was like, yeah. And then I got to New York and I'm like, this looks like. Everyone looked like 1980s. They're all going to work in their little suits and. And, you know, and the bar scene was all right. But luckily, my friends, the Revelers, again, who I didn't live with in Cleveland, they were. They were signed to a label up there in New York. And. And, you know, they introduced me to this bar, the Lakeside Lounge. And they're like, this is where you should go. Yeah. They were like, this is where you should go. Like, music's always been my arrow, you know? And, like, they were like, this is where you should go. This is where all the musicians hang out. Like, Iggy Pop lives across street. He's in here sometimes. Nick Tosh is the writers in here hanging out. Like, it's a cool place.
• 53:17
  Speaker A: And Lakeside Lounge was the sister bar to Circle Bar.
• 53:21
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 53:22
  Speaker A: Owned by Jim Marshall, the Hound.
• 53:24
  Speaker C: And. Yeah, all those lovely people. Yeah, I love those guys. They were like my mentors.
• 53:29
  Speaker A: Kelly Keller was bartending there.
• 53:31
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. All sweethearts. I remember meeting Kelly and she was. She was like one of the coolest people, you know, I remember giving her, like, one of my flyers and like, it's like, this is cool. I can. Want to talk to me about it,
• 53:41
  Speaker A: you know, Patron saint of this podcast.
• 53:43
  Speaker C: And then. Yeah, and then she. We ended up having. Ended up having, like, my wedding after party too, because I met my wife there, met my band there. I worked there. I'd go work. I'd go work these jobs. And I finally got a decent job doing, like, record and CD packaging for Universal Records subsidiary and then put some mayo. I did some stuff for them. I did some stuff for Shawnicke, the jazz label, and stuff like that. And then I leveraged that inside. Then everything became digital and I was like, designing websites. And I ended up with this career. Like, I ended up getting really paid really well. Everything sort of happened at once. I met my wife, I got the band together. I. You know.
• 54:20
  Speaker A: What band was this?
• 54:21
  Speaker C: This was Newborn Naturals. My friend Alex Feldesman, who's still over there in East Village.
• 54:26
  Speaker A: Is that where you were living? The downtown?
• 54:28
  Speaker C: Yeah, we were in. Yeah, I was in. I was on Ludlow street, actually. My first. My first solo apartment after I, you know, had friends help me out for about a year and a half. It was a long time, sleeping on floors and stuff. But I. I got into this studio apartment on Ludlow Street, 52 Ludlow. And I remember being in that studio apartment and I'm reading the book Uptight about the Velvet Underground. And I turned a page and there's a picture of the Velvet Underground on this stoop. Like, the very first picture of them before Mo Tucker was in the band. And Lou's got this weird, like, towel over his head. Like, I think I don't know what he's doing. And I'm looking at it. I'm looking at the thing and I'm like. And it's. And the caption says, the Velvet underground photo at 52 Ludlow street and it was my. It was my window. Like, I had the ground floor front. And it turned out. And it said in the caption, john cale lived at 56, where the band did their first rehearsal stuff. So I just had chills down my spine, you know? Anyway, and then I moved in with my wife. Avenue A and ninth street, right across from Tomlins Square Park. So we were just a zip and a jump to the lakeside. And so we had a ball. I mean, we were in our 20s. We had a fucking ball. And Alphabet City was still. It was still like. Yeah, still Alphabet City. Yeah, there was still like, kids getting cocaine bags out of hubcaps on the street. You know, they'd hide them in the hubcaps of the cars and go get him, you know, here you go. You know, kind of thing. And. But yeah, started the band in 98. You know, we were. We were set out to, you know, recreate the old rock. Are you. I'm 50. I'm gonna be 53 this year.
• 56:09
  Speaker B: Oh, okay. 98, I was thinking.
• 56:11
  Speaker C: Yeah, so. So we, you know, we set out to kind of do like, the television kind of thing. We're a little more, I guess, a little more raucous and dark. We. I don't sound more like, you know, that. That band Geese now or something. I mean, it was. It was a different kind of thing, you know, I was writing a little different. I was in New York. I was miserable. I was writing these sort of dark industrial sounding. But they were rock and roll songs, you know, like, we were. We were definitely influenced. We were all like, television, Velvet on the ground, like that kind of deal. So.
• 56:40
  Speaker B: Right, right.
• 56:42
  Speaker C: So we were doing. We started doing that. I remember these, like. I remember these kids hanging around their windbreakers watching us, and I'm like, who are these kids? Like, what? You know, and they were like, staring at my friends. I'm like, they're staring y' all down. Like. And like, my buddy Alex is like the. He's like the quintessential East Village. Like, doesn't care about anything. He's just. He's just like, oh, man, whatever. They're just whatever, you know, kind of thing. And. And then we're like. We got a rehearsal space at this place too. Casa. And like, you know, we're. We're rehearsing there, doing our thing, and we're still playing shows. We're playing like Mercury Lounge brownies. You know, we open for Drive By Truckers when they had their huge success play out to like a sold out room there. And like, it was a lot of fun. Like, we were having a lot of fun. And, and. And Todd Abramson, like, took to us, you know, he was running his record label and he had that. He had that Ohio band on there, the Greenhorns, which were one of the most fantastic live bands I'd ever seen. Jack White ended up stealing their rhythm section for his. His stuff, you know, or whatever. It's not stealing but yeah, they. They went with Jack White after all. Kind of broke up that band. But anyway, we were. We were having fun, and we're, you know, rehearsing two costume. And these kids are. They have a rehearsal space next to us. Those kids, they were, like, staring at us, you know. So then one day, I'm like, you
• 57:58
  Speaker B: know, we made our Kids on the block.
• 57:59
  Speaker C: Yeah. So we made our. We made our first 45. We put out a 45. And. And the. And the Great Jones Cafe put on their jukebox. And I was super psyched. Like, it was, like, such an honor because that place was, like, full of cool people. Like, Mark Reibold from Pavement was bartending and, like, you know, you'd always see, like, Fred Smith from television hanging out there, drinking with his wife and hanging, you know. And I was like, oh, my God, this is so great, you know, and then, like, I went down to, like, the corner store, and then I went to, like, the little magazine stand that had all, like, the music bags. And I saw this little CD thing there by a band called the Strokes. And I was like, oh, this looks pretty cool. Had, like, a picture of a 45 on it, on the COVID 45. And I was like, oh, no one was doing 45s. Then it was all CDs, you know, and like, oh, cool. I got a picture of 45. Take it home. And I'm like, oh, this is really, really fucking cool. You know, And. And so after that, like, you know, we're just still too. Around playing. And then I remember taking somebody to Great Jones to hear the record. I was gonna surprise him. I was gonna take him there, you know, we'd have some dinner. I put on this thing and I go over to the jukebox to play it. And we're. Our record was replaced with the Strokes. And I was like, whoa. And then next thing, you know, like, they're, like, instantly huge, you know, And. And. And they're. I remember the first picture I saw them, whether it was like in Rolling Stone or something or. It was pretty quick, you know, because they. They had, you know, they. They knew how to do it. Like, they had a show at the Mercury Lounge. They invited all the who's who. They had dialed up their thing. Their producer, like, put together their record and made them, you know, sound like the Cars, whatever, you know, it was all good. But I remember seeing that picture of them, and it was like. It was like. It was like that Beatles cover. Looking at the. The cartoon. I was like, alex, look at their guitar player. He had my friend's black dickies on his. The exact same, like, sort of check, you know, he had, like, a shirt, you know, and a white Stratocaster. And I mean, I was just like, whoa. Like, there were. You know, so. So I'm gonna say with the. Whether they know it or not. Whether they know it or not, they were. They were kind of influenced, I think. I think that, you know, we. We were. We were kind of there, and then they were there, and then they. Even one of their songs, that song last Night, sounds like one of ours, because I think they sort of, like, heard it. You know, when you hear something through the wall and you're like.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker A: So that was the band that was next to you in the practice?
• 1:00:21
  Speaker C: It was those kids, man, that were staring at us and everything. Yeah, it was them. I'm like, there's those. I'm like, there's those kids. It's them.
• 1:00:28
  Speaker B: You know, I don't. What sort of big hit did they have, a band?
• 1:00:30
  Speaker C: I don't even know anymore. Like, they. They weren't really. Yeah, they were. I mean, they were. They. They kind of skyrocketed, I guess. They got.
• 1:00:36
  Speaker A: At this point that was like 15, almost 20 years.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, they had, like, a couple. One good record and another one. But. But what. What the. You know, the point of it was. It's like, in New York, it's all about, you know, it's all about fashion. It's all about, like, it and what it is and who's it. And so, like, the weird thing about that was our band was, like, everyone who saw us thought we were derivative of them, like, trying to be them.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker A: Sure.
• 1:01:02
  Speaker C: So I got kind of. And I was like. And I was already cynical because I'd already. You know, my first band, you know, we. If we would have stuck around, we might have been like, you know, the Radiators of Pittsburgh or something. You know, like, we could add that longevity and been, like. And, like, really, you know, done something. So like, had that little skip over and. And so, you know, it kind of took a little bit of the wind out of my sails. But, you know, I learned back in Ohio that, like, nothing was guaranteed in the music business. Like, my dad knew Ting from the band the Human Beings from. From Youngstown, and they had that hit, Nobody But Me, you know? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. So, you know, Ting had that hit.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker B: But isn't the music industry just like the Mob and it's.
• 1:01:44
  Speaker C: Yeah, it is, man. I mean, I wish I was Like Tommy James. I mean, I was adjacent to the mob enough to maybe get. Get some help from them, but. Nah, they didn't. No one helped me out with that except my uncle, who gave me like, a few. A few bucks. Oh, he gave me. Actually paid for our first CD that we did. But, you know, like, Tingo in a video store with his wife when video stores were big, you know, and my dad was like, that's Ting, man. Used to be in a famous band. I went to high school with him and. But, like, you know, he thought. He thought he'd go out on his own. It was a little. You know, he thought he was. He was bigger than his. Than his bandmates. But then, you know, nothing really happened, you know, and I was, you know, and I was under the impression. I was like. I remember, like, reading Harry Nelson saying, like, if you. He always thought when he was a kid, if your name was on the back of the record, like, your life was perfect and all your problems were solved. Like, if you had a credit on the back of an LP kind of thing, you know how you just have that idea as a kid. But so I learned early on, like, there was no guarantee in, like, the business and that even if you had a hit song like that and Gone to California, it didn't mean that you were gonna, like, you know, like, yeah, you have to do it because you love it. And I went, you know, and, like, you know, another band was in Youngstown, too, was a bandhead. Like, this guy was a. He was a mailman, but he was a singer for the new New Sam Witch Hunters. And he's still, like, bash the microphone on his head and bleed and, like, do all this crazy shit and, like. Like, that's the mail. He's like a mailman in Cleveland, you know. So I kind of got. Got this idea early on. Like, you. You know, you. You pursue music because you love it, and if you're successful at it. And I saw people in New York, like Roscoe, like, Eric Campbell, you know, like, he had a. A studio, he had a bar, he played music. He did session stuff. He. You know, like, you had to, like, diversify and do that. But I was always sort of just like, I wanted to, like, write songs and play my own songs and form a band around it, like an idea kind of thing.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker B: Right, right.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker C: So anyway, yeah, so. But New York was fun. Like, I don't want to make it sound like that. Like, you know, broke my heart or anything.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker B: They ripped you off.
• 1:03:30
  Speaker C: Yeah, but we got to play. I mean, I got to like, Meg White was at one of our shows and she hung out in the backstage with me and I remember like talking to her and she's like, can I buy you a whiskey? And I was like. And here's me, here's, here's, here's the Rob Hudak. I'm like, oh, Meg, I already have one. Because I did. I had like a full whiskey.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker D: Whiskey.
• 1:03:47
  Speaker C: I didn't go. Yeah, I didn't. You know, I didn't.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker A: Well, well, to, to.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker B: Cuz you were married, I. Yeah, yeah, that too. But you still wanted to bang that action, didn't you? Well, Free wis. She had her arm
• 1:03:59
  Speaker C: in a cast too. She just slipped outside.
• 1:04:01
  Speaker A: Very sexy.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 1:04:03
  Speaker A: So.
• 1:04:03
  Speaker C: But.
• 1:04:03
  Speaker A: But just to. To accelerate this a little.
• 1:04:06
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, let's go, let's go.
• 1:04:07
  Speaker A: So you start Full Tilt Records while you're still in New York?
• 1:04:10
  Speaker C: Yeah, we started Full Tilt.
• 1:04:12
  Speaker A: And then you move down to New Orleans.
• 1:04:13
  Speaker C: Move to New Orleans. I moved the LS Now.
• 1:04:15
  Speaker A: Why, why do you move down to New Orleans?
• 1:04:17
  Speaker C: Well, we, you know, we were up there, you were saying, my wife and I were like, both, both, you know, busting our ass up there. We'd only see each other on Sundays, like watch Sopranos and order in. And otherwise we were just busy like 247 with our crazy jobs, you know, And. Yeah, people call that a life. Yeah, so we were already kind of like, you know, by the time we were like 30 something. We were like 30, 31. We were already sort of like, what. What are we fucking doing? Like, pissing away our money on rent? What are we gonna do, move to Westchester and commute every day? And like, who are we trying to become? You know, people who we work for who are coming don't, like.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker D: Yeah, right.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker C: Well, no, it was like, yeah, like, people are intense, you know, in New York. Like, it's an intense thing, you know, and you're like doing your job. Like you're fucking like you have an anvil over your head, you know, like. And so like, you know, our. My father in law was. Was ill and he knew he only had like a short time to go. And so he was like, why don't y' all move down here? You know, I'll help y' all get. Get something to settle into, you know, housewives and stuff. And so, yeah, we made the move and, you know, we found this beautiful house on Napoleon. And I was just looking out there like, what the fuck are we doing? You know, like. Because the town was busted out. Nobody was back here except the musicians, like I'd go see like Johnny Budakovich. There'd be like two people there. But what was nice about is I get to talk to Johnny Vodakovich or. Or Jackie Fine, the trumpet player or
• 1:05:36
  Speaker A: whoever was playing, you know, came like in 2006, so.
• 1:05:39
  Speaker C: 2006? Yeah, yeah, we moved like, we moved here. Like we came down May and then we. And then I think, yeah, it was like pretty much it, you know, Like I started the job and my wife was pregnant. Like we, we were trying to get pregnant and she was pregnant. So we moved down pregnant with a dog and a car full of stuff and came down and so, yeah, so it all turned out great. I mean, my father in law, you know, he got to meet his grandson before he passed, which was, you know, kind of shortly after. Like he was. He was not. Not much. He was a couple years older than me at the time and like.
• 1:06:08
  Speaker B: So he was a couple of older than you?
• 1:06:10
  Speaker A: Yeah, he is now.
• 1:06:13
  Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:06:14
  Speaker A: Still a young man.
• 1:06:15
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. No, he was like back, you know, that was 20. So, you know, 20 years ago, you know.
• 1:06:20
  Speaker A: Sure, sure.
• 1:06:21
  Speaker C: And I know it's like time flies, man.
• 1:06:24
  Speaker B: It does.
• 1:06:24
  Speaker C: Except when you're doing a podcast. We run out of time.
• 1:06:26
  Speaker A: No, it's really flying. Well, so you come down to New Orleans, you have. Are you still working as a graphic designer?
• 1:06:34
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. And I. And I have a kid and so like, you know, I kind of took a break, but I was also still writing songs and I set up my home recording studio and I started, you know, to at least do a little bit. And then I did the one man band thing here like I did before I formed the band in New York. I did a one man band thing with like, kind of like. I know there's people who do one man bands. He put, you know, drums on the floor, you play guitar, you sing. It's very primitive. People dig it, you know, it's fun. I did that for a minute here. Played a couple shows like that. And then.
• 1:07:04
  Speaker B: What did you call yourself? Just.
• 1:07:06
  Speaker C: Just.
• 1:07:07
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:07:07
  Speaker C: I was always trying to think of a name, but I'm always Rob Hudak. I didn't have the. That was missing. That was later and then. Anyway, so then, you know, I, I was. My father. My father died then and immediately after our first. My wife's first cousin. It was, you know, young and it was the same like right back to back. And I was in the state and I'd had this flying Burrito Brothers CD. Live at the Avalon Ballroom, 1969. They're open for the Dead and they're playing all these sad, you know, George Jones songs. And they're playing all their sad songs. And it's a beautiful, beautiful cd. Like, all you hear is the kick drum and the pedal steel and Graham, you know, like, it's just like, board mix and, like. But I couldn't get it out of my. It was the only thing I could listen to. It was the only thing that was, like, the right mix of, like, Valium and Codeine and whatever I needed. Yeah, and death. Because I was just living. I was just living this, like, just void of death, you know? And it started to make me nuts. And I'm like, I gotta do something about this. So I remember talking to Danielle Dietz, who used to be on a magazine. She ran the White Roach record store. And I'm like. And I was just in there shopping.
• 1:08:19
  Speaker A: I'm like, shout out to Daniel Dates.
• 1:08:21
  Speaker C: I'm like, has anyone done a Grant Parsons tribute here? Like, it. He's, you know, he's buried out in Metairie. And, like, just like, let me see when his birthday is. And she's like, well, his birthday is coming up in November. So I asked, you know, if one of the dads at school, like, you know, if he wanted to play in a band. He had a band here in town, the Highway 78S. And, like. So I kind of adopted that band and started doing the. I put together that Grand Parsons tribute at the Circle Bar. And a bunch of people just jumped on it. Like, I had no idea anyone knew about him. I thought, like, I discovered something, you know, And I had all these bands that wanted to play it and let people know about it. I met a lot of the people who I, you know, still play with, you know. A lot of those guys are. Alex Pianovich, he's in the hot seas, you know. And anyway, that kind of got me kicked off before that, this little band called the 99s with a guy. We were just doing, like, you know, rock and roll stuff and then. But, yeah, that kind of evolved. And then we. We did some recordings over Covid. And then that band, you know, broke up. And then I started Hot Seas. I had this batch of songs that were kind of, like. They kind of lent themselves to R B. And I initially wanted to, like, you know, early. Who type R B? A little bit like punk rock. But we got a sax player in the band, which I never played with a sax player before. And he was from a jazz background. And we kind of, you know, it kind of Smoothed it out a little bit and became this other thing. And. And now that's what. You know, that's what I'm doing now.
• 1:09:53
  Speaker A: We'll have to jump in here and. And tell. Tell a little story, which is how. How you wormed your way into my heart, Rob.
• 1:10:02
  Speaker C: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:10:03
  Speaker A: The first time I remember me, I'm sure we probably met at the Circ or maybe, you know.
• 1:10:08
  Speaker C: Yeah, we did. Yeah.
• 1:10:09
  Speaker A: But. But when. When we started doing these Clash tributes, you know, it was put on by Chicky Wawa, you know, which you are a partner in. And. But I didn't know any of that thing about the back. You know, the. The partnership or any of that. You know, you. You just wound up on the bill. And when. When you would show up to do your. Your songs, not only did you know the material, it was clear that you really knew the material, like, because you love the material, and you played it with the correct spirit with the. And I thought, oh, I dig this guy, man.
• 1:10:49
  Speaker C: I dig this guy. That's great.
• 1:10:51
  Speaker A: And over the subsequent years, you've been involved in it every year, even up till this year, when you would come to every rehearsal and the singers that wouldn't show up for rehearsal, when the band was practicing, you would sit in and front the. You would take their place so that we would have somebody singing, you know, and look, that means so much to me, man. Somebody that's got a trooper, man. Somebody that, you know, is fearless and just wants to contribute and does contribute.
• 1:11:24
  Speaker C: Yeah. I think that's the whole thing about a band. Like, you got to contribute, you know, and not cause fuss and. And do your thing and get it right. And the Clash. Today's the actual anniversary, the first Clash record coming out. And so it's cool to be here with you. And it's been a blast playing with y' all on that. Like, that. That band's so killer. And. And actually, while I'm thinking of it, I want to invite you to play bass on this year's Grand Parsons tribute in November. If you're free that night, I'll figure out what the date's gonna be. I know.
• 1:11:51
  Speaker A: I know all that.
• 1:11:52
  Speaker C: We've talked about this, and. Yeah. So I'm gonna. I'm gonna offer that that on air here tonight. What's that? It's usually in November, sometime around his birthday, like. Like the first couple weeks in November, usually.
• 1:12:03
  Speaker A: I accept this year.
• 1:12:04
  Speaker C: Well, actually, this year, we did it the night before Thanksgiving, and that was a blast. We. They might stick us in that slot again. I don't know.
• 1:12:10
  Speaker A: That's a good night.
• 1:12:11
  Speaker C: Yeah, it's a good night.
• 1:12:12
  Speaker A: It's a night when everybody's in town already, but they're already sick of their families.
• 1:12:16
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:12:17
  Speaker A: Looking and they. They're. They're facing down the next day with them all day long. So they want to go out.
• 1:12:22
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. But we'll see. I might. I might have to put the kibosh on that. Unless I do that and then fly out. Because my first band, Boogeyman Smash, after 20 years, is reuniting for a show the Saturday after Thanksgiving in Youngstown. So just to plug that, too. This is the first time I'm announcing that as well. So it hadn't been. So, yeah, the old band. And like, we got a lot. 40 years and. Yeah, we should get some people from Cleveland, Pittsburgh coming out. Yeah. And, yeah, chickies was interesting. Like, chicky just was, you know, I think just because I like, you know, I just love music and I try to help, like you said, you know, I mean, I guess this is like, I, you know, jock. When. When. When Dale passed away, Jacques Furland, who does, you know, pan on the truck, the piano tuner, pairman was. Was help helping run it, uh, with Reggie ca, who was a lawyer for the family. And Jacques, like, oh, you can help us out promote it. We're trying to show the value of it. So I was doing their promotions and flyers, and I'd play shows there once in a while and get people involved. And in the meantime, some of my friends were looking into it, purchasing it. And then Jacques was really into my friend Brian Bailey runs a civic. He was very interested in him, and he's like, oh, Brian Bailey would be a good owner and stuff. So I'm like, yeah, man, cool. Like, yeah, send him a package, whatever. And so, you know, it just turned out that, like, three of my, you know, close friends ended up getting together along with some other friends and purchasing it. And I remember, like, my wife called being like, what the fuck are you doing? Brian's trying to get you on the phone. Like, I'm walking around going to get, like, takeout for us or something. And I don't have my phone. I never answer my phone. So I called Brian. He's like, we got chicky. He's like, I want you to be chairman of the board. I'm like, what? He's like, he's like, and you don't have to invest, but if you want to, we have a level you can la la la. And so at the time, you know, we. At the time, we had. We had the. The dough. And I was like, yeah. And it was cool. And, you know, my wife's like, let's do it. It'll be great. It'll be great for you. It'll be fun. And, you know, and it's been. It's been. It's been so great. It's been better than I'd even imagined. Like, the stuff we've been getting there, like, Lucinda, like, all. You know, I mean, Chuck Profit was just Chuck Profit. I mean, all these people, like Dan Penn. Like, I read about Dan Penn when I was riding that Econo line. The revelers gave me that sweet soul music book by Peter Goranick. I thought he was just gone, you know. I mean, I'm reading about him now.
• 1:14:49
  Speaker A: All these people are playing at your
• 1:14:51
  Speaker C: club, and I'm meeting him. I'm like, yeah. And he's like, in his overalls. He's like, me, one of your grandpa's buddies or something. He's so cool. He's so sweet and so. And just so good. And like Alejandro.
• 1:15:01
  Speaker A: So it's. It's the. It's the room that. That everybody that plays rock and roll comes and plays now.
• 1:15:07
  Speaker C: And so I'm going to tell you. And this. This might be the last thing I say or something, but I want to tell this story is like, so when I heard. When I heard the Popeye, When I heard Huey Piano Smith's Popeye on that. On that mono hi Fi that my family had, you know, I was probably like. I was living here. I was like 42 years old. And my friend William Gilbert, who I work with, who's also a great drummer, he has a band called Metronome, the City that's on the Full Tilt label and all that. And he was like, did you know that one of the clowns is from Youngstown? And I'm like, what? He's like, one of the clowns is from Youngstown. His name's Bobby Marchand.
• 1:15:50
  Speaker A: Bobby Marchand.
• 1:15:51
  Speaker C: And I look up Bobby Marchand, I'm like, oh, my God. He did the first, like. What do you call it?
• 1:15:57
  Speaker A: Transvestite show.
• 1:15:58
  Speaker C: Transvestite show at the Dew Drop. And he sang with the clowns. And he'd go out as Huey when Huey didn't feel like tour horn. And he had. And he helped out the cash money dudes, like, get all their publishing stuff together. Like, he kept involved, like, even in the 80s and 90s. He was like, sort of like a, you know, like a Someone to go, you know.
• 1:16:15
  Speaker A: Elder statesman.
• 1:16:16
  Speaker C: Yeah, elder statesman. And. And I just. And I was just like. I was like, what the hell? So when we get chicky, I'm like, chicky wawa. What is that? You know? Because I didn't even know. Like, I'm still learning about a lot of. A lot of things. But, like, it's like. Well, it's written by Huey Smith for
• 1:16:32
  Speaker B: one,
• 1:16:34
  Speaker C: and there's two versions, and the first version, guess who sings it? Bobby Marchand. Right. So I feel like I'm where I'm supposed to be when I'm at chicky. I feel like I'm sitting in front of my mono hi Fi, just digging everything that is playing on it, and I just feel. I mean, I'm fine, man.
• 1:16:53
  Speaker A: You're the luckiest man.
• 1:16:53
  Speaker C: Y' all can blow me up over here.
• 1:16:55
  Speaker A: You're the luckiest man in the world.
• 1:16:56
  Speaker C: I don't know. I mean, I don't know. Just. I just. I. I think I just set that intention and somehow, somewhere, like, I'm here sitting with y', all, and it's really, it's an honor to be with y', all, because, I mean, hell, I could start my own podcast just to, like, interview you, Renee, for, you know, seven episodes or something, because, like, I. Fantastic. You know, I mean, you know, I'm a big Alex Chilton fan, and I saw him.
• 1:17:18
  Speaker B: Don't start. There's too many.
• 1:17:21
  Speaker C: I know, I know. Y' all are the best, but you're the only one I listen to. I have to say, like, I, I'm not a big podcast fan.
• 1:17:27
  Speaker A: God bless you, Rob. Well, well, yes, I, I, I accept on the the Graham Parsons tribute.
• 1:17:33
  Speaker C: All right, all right. Oh, and let me plug. The Hotsees are playing the first Saturday at Jazz Fest outside Lausas, so as you're pouring out of Stevie Nicks, we're gonna be there rocking out for you for, like, a couple hours till nine. It's fun. We did it a couple years ago,
• 1:17:48
  Speaker A: and, like, that'll be a blast.
• 1:17:49
  Speaker C: Yeah, you. You play to, like, thousand thousands of people, and, you know, it's fun. Some of them stick around, like, 300, 400. Stuck around, danced around.
• 1:17:57
  Speaker A: Well, here's a couple of Troublemen podcast stickers for you.
• 1:18:00
  Speaker C: Thank you.
• 1:18:01
  Speaker A: Use them in good health. And thank you so much, Rob. It's been terrific, man. What a great story. What a great life you've lived. You're a lucky man. And as always on the Trouble man podcast, we like to say trouble never
• 1:18:14
  Speaker B: ends, but the struggle continues. Good Night.
• 1:18:17
  Speaker A: Good night.
• 1:18:20
  Speaker D: I know you have a voodoo doll Voodoo doll of me Just one poke and I'm on the ground Stop poking on me I reach the door then I'm on the floor and I can barely see see since you got bad Voodoo doll I feel it all over me Twist that fool and I'll be your fool Pull that string I do anything but when you get too loving on that dark have mercy on me Sam, I know you have a voodoo doll it looks just like me Just one poke and I'm on the ground Stop poking on me I hit the door then I'm on the floor and I can barely see now since you got that voodoo doll I feel it all over me now twist and pull and empty your fool Pull that string but when you get to loving all that dark have mercy on me. Sa. I know you had a voodoo doll Voodoo doll love me Just one poke and I'm on the ground Stop poking Everybody's poking on me I hit the door then I'm on the floor and I can barely see but when you love on that voodoo doll I'm in ecstasy Twist and pull and I'll be your fool Pull that string I do anything but when you get to loving on that doll have mercy when you get to loving on that doll have mercy when you get to loving on that dark have mercy on me, baby have mercy on me have mercy on me, baby have mercy on me have mercy on me have mercy on me, baby.