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Freedom Quest A Love Story From Debora Masterson The Real Almost Famous Adventure · Arroe Collins Like It's Live

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Speaker 1: your exploration. Let's talk about freedom quest. What's going on
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Speaker 1: with this and how did it come into being? Because
0:46
Speaker 1: I'm an author and I know that those things just
0:49
Speaker 1: don't fall into your lap. You've got to construct it
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Speaker 1: and then you've got to maintain it, right.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it's been a real learning experience to whole
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Speaker 2: publish side of it. And uh, you know, going from
1:02
Speaker 2: writer to author is a whole new ball game. But yeah,
1:09
Speaker 2: let's start back at the beginning. So Craig Ingraham. That's
1:13
Speaker 2: his real name, And in the book, I changed all
1:15
Speaker 2: the names, so he's Michael Michael Griffin totally made up. Yeah,
1:21
Speaker 2: and he had a very unusual, very adventurous life. He
1:27
Speaker 2: was a rock and roll musician. He he was one
1:31
Speaker 2: hundred percent musician. Uh, he really couldn't do anything else.
1:35
Speaker 2: He tried McDonald's when he was you know, a summer
1:39
Speaker 2: summer a job out of high school and and you know,
1:42
Speaker 2: lasted five days and quit. The only jobs he ever
1:47
Speaker 2: had in his life outside of music were odd jobs
1:52
Speaker 2: like gardening and grip on TV or film because we
1:59
Speaker 2: lived in our in order to make enough money to
2:03
Speaker 2: go back into the studio and record his songs. He
2:05
Speaker 2: was a songwriter and he has over probably one hundred
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Speaker 2: and fifty to two hundred songs written and recorded before
2:16
Speaker 2: he passed away. Yeah, yeah, And he was the love
2:20
Speaker 2: of my life. He was the life of the party.
2:24
Speaker 2: He's the type of was the type of guy that
2:26
Speaker 2: everybody wanted to be around. He had this uncanny ability
2:32
Speaker 2: to be able to listen to everything. It listened to
2:34
Speaker 2: anything he heard and remember it. And so young when
2:41
Speaker 2: he was very young, like he started playing piano when
2:44
Speaker 2: he was like six or seven, and then he graduated.
2:47
Speaker 2: We played drums. He had drum set when he was five,
2:50
Speaker 2: and then he started playing guitar about the age of twelve,
2:55
Speaker 2: and then got his first real to reel tape deck
2:59
Speaker 2: at the age of fourteen, and that was in like
3:03
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty two, sixty three. Wow. And from nineteen sixty
3:12
Speaker 2: three until he died in twenty twenty, he never stopped
3:18
Speaker 2: writing songs and recording songs. It's phenomenal.
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Speaker 1: That doesn't shock me because creativity is creativity. There's no
3:26
Speaker 1: such thing as age when it comes to creativity. And
3:28
Speaker 1: you've got to feed that beast or it's going to
3:30
Speaker 1: eat you.
3:34
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, so he yeah, so he learned, he said.
3:41
Speaker 2: I asked him one time, I said, how do you
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Speaker 2: remember all the words to all the songs? Because he
3:45
Speaker 2: was the life of the party. You know, we'd go
3:47
Speaker 2: to a If he pulled out his guitar at a party,
3:50
Speaker 2: he would play for three hours and people go, oh, Craig,
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Speaker 2: play this, pray this play that you know, and he'd
3:54
Speaker 2: go okay, and he would remember all the verses. He'd
3:57
Speaker 2: be able to play the entire song. And I said,
4:00
Speaker 2: how did you do that? And he said, well, you know,
4:04
Speaker 2: when I was young, the music going through my head
4:07
Speaker 2: you used to drive me crazy. And I started listening
4:10
Speaker 2: to a transistor radio at night to help me go
4:13
Speaker 2: fall asleep, to go to sleep, and he said, I
4:17
Speaker 2: realized when I woke up in the morning, I had
4:19
Speaker 2: memorized all the songs. So we'd listened to top forty and
4:22
Speaker 2: then he would memorize. He knew all the words, and
4:26
Speaker 2: he had a band already at the age of fourteen,
4:29
Speaker 2: and of course, you know, they were doing all the
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Speaker 2: songs of the popular songs of the period. You know,
4:34
Speaker 2: Beatles came in sixty three, so a lot of Beatles songs,
4:37
Speaker 2: and he could remember all the words, and you know,
4:42
Speaker 2: so he was quite an amazing character. And again, you know,
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Speaker 2: his life was so crazy. I just had to write it.
4:50
Speaker 2: It was like somebody had to write it. He wanted
4:53
Speaker 2: his his story written. And actually a friend of his
4:58
Speaker 2: in high school they started writing it together, and he's
5:02
Speaker 2: a professional writer. He's done very well. They started it,
5:06
Speaker 2: but then he got busy on another project and I
5:11
Speaker 2: ended up writing it and I learned how to write.
5:14
Speaker 2: It was my first book. You know, it's my debut novel.
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Speaker 2: So you know, I made a lot of beginner mistakes.
5:21
Speaker 2: It's it'll be six years in August that I started it,
5:27
Speaker 2: and uh yeah, so it's it's a great story. It's
5:31
Speaker 2: getting really good reviews. I can't believe it. I'm totally
5:34
Speaker 2: blown away.
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Speaker 1: Well, it's because you've got honesty in this book, because
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Speaker 1: we all have our interpretation of what a musician or
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Speaker 1: a rock star should be like. And you're sharing an honest,
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Speaker 1: honest to god picture of what it's like to be
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Speaker 1: a musician and in love at the same time and
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Speaker 1: in love with life, in love with just everything, and
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Speaker 1: to be able to stay true because how many people
5:54
Speaker 1: do we know that were musicians or songwriters and they
5:57
Speaker 1: walked away from it and they didn't come back to it.
6:00
Speaker 1: And I love the fact that he continued all the
6:02
Speaker 1: way up to twenty twenty, continuing to do that because
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Speaker 1: it doesn't go away.
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Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, exactly. You know he was And you know
6:13
Speaker 2: they say about artists, if you can do something else,
6:16
Speaker 2: do it, yes, because you know, the chances of becoming
6:20
Speaker 2: successful are so slim. You know, it's like playing the lottery,
6:24
Speaker 2: you know, and you see all these big stars and
6:26
Speaker 2: you think, oh wow, you know, I'm going to be
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Speaker 2: like that person. Well, they're one in a million, you know,
6:32
Speaker 2: the Screen Actors Guild actors, you know, there's only like
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Speaker 2: one percent of the actors in the Screen Actors Guild
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Speaker 2: that make enough money to live off of their acting.
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Speaker 2: All the other ones have one or two additional jobs,
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Speaker 2: you know, waiting tables or whatever. You know. Just but
6:52
Speaker 2: you know, really the adage is if you can turn
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Speaker 2: away from art and do something else, you do it.
7:00
Speaker 2: But you know, then you've got these artists like Craig,
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Speaker 2: you know, Michael in the book, who just couldn't He
7:07
Speaker 2: just could not do anything else. And not that he
7:12
Speaker 2: was stupid. I mean he was a very intelligent person.
7:16
Speaker 2: Not only you know, was able to remember all the
7:18
Speaker 2: words to songs, but he could really remember anything he heard.
7:23
Speaker 2: So if you got in a political argument with him,
7:25
Speaker 2: for example, or a philosophical argument with him, he could
7:29
Speaker 2: spout off statistics you know, oh well there's you know,
7:33
Speaker 2: fifty thousand people that died in more and there's you know,
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Speaker 2: and it was hard to argue with him because he
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Speaker 2: could remember all these statistics and all this stuff that
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Speaker 2: he had heard, but he couldn't read interestingly enough. I
7:48
Speaker 2: don't know if you've read the book, but there's a
7:51
Speaker 2: part where he was in second grade, and you know,
7:54
Speaker 2: before he died, he dictated some of these earlier stories
7:57
Speaker 2: to to me. Thank goodness, Beaker, because I met him
8:02
Speaker 2: when he was eighteen, so you know all of his
8:04
Speaker 2: elementary Yeah. Yeah, I was fifteen. Wow. Yeah, So that
8:12
Speaker 2: was difficult. You know, I couldn't drive yet. I wasn't
8:15
Speaker 2: I hadn't even started high school. He had just graduated
8:19
Speaker 2: from high school. And you know, back in the day
8:22
Speaker 2: the musicians used to get fake id's, so right out
8:27
Speaker 2: of high school at the age of eighteen, who were
8:29
Speaker 2: playing all the bars and clubs, and he was off
8:33
Speaker 2: on the road. They already had a manager, and you know,
8:36
Speaker 2: he would call me from pay phones at night. You know,
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Speaker 2: I love you, and you know, I'm.
8:42
Speaker 3: In I'm in Visalia, I'm in Bakersfield, I'm in Reno,
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Speaker 3: I'm in Catalina Island, I'm in whatever, you.
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Speaker 2: Know, And that was kind of our relationship for about
8:57
Speaker 2: three years while I was you know, went into high school.
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Speaker 1: See I can relate with that story because I mean
9:03
Speaker 1: it's like when I go buy a payphone where one
9:06
Speaker 1: once was, I will still remember it, even all these
9:09
Speaker 1: years later that I remember calling the woman that became
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Speaker 1: my wife, and she's been my wife for thirty three years.
9:15
Speaker 1: I remember I called her from there. I called her
9:17
Speaker 1: from there. And that's the thing about it is that
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Speaker 1: you never forget about what those payphones were doing. And
9:22
Speaker 1: then to be a musician at it and to share
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Speaker 1: stories about it. My god, you're sharing that experience with
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Speaker 1: other people who can tap into and relate with you.
9:33
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a scene in the book
9:35
Speaker 2: where Grace I called myself Grace in the book. So
9:39
Speaker 2: Grace is in high school and she's a senior and
9:43
Speaker 2: she's getting ready for her senior prom. So she's here,
9:46
Speaker 2: what seventeen eighteen nineteen, So he's twenty, he's on the
9:50
Speaker 2: road and it's cold. He's up in a summer was
9:54
Speaker 2: he happened to be in working at San Francisco during
9:58
Speaker 2: the Summer of Love. He was up. He was in
10:02
Speaker 2: a motel along the south part of San Francisco, right
10:07
Speaker 2: along the ocean, cheap motel though it was cheap, and
10:12
Speaker 2: you know, they didn't even have phones in their rooms.
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Speaker 2: He had to go down to the lobby, you know,
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Speaker 2: down to the payphone outside or something, you know. Anyway,
10:18
Speaker 2: there's a scene in the book where he calls her.
10:20
Speaker 2: It's freezing cold outside, you know, the winds whipping off
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Speaker 2: the ocean. It's dark. He's got this like light outside
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Speaker 2: just you know, a street lamp just pounding down on him.
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Speaker 2: He's freezing cold. And Grace asks him, can you go
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Speaker 2: to my prom It's June twenty first, and you know,
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Speaker 2: can you be there? And there's silence on the other end,
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Speaker 2: and then he goes, oh, you know, man, I can't.
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Speaker 2: I'm on the road. And she's start sniffling a bit,
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Speaker 2: and she says, you love your music more than me, boy,
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Speaker 2: and he says, well, not exactly, I love you equally
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Speaker 2: to my music. And that's when Grace realizes that she's
11:13
Speaker 2: going to have to share him with his guitars and
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Speaker 2: his other musicians and his music if she's going to continue.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and the.
11:25
Speaker 2: Fans there you go. And that was one of the
11:29
Speaker 2: hardest things, is you know, when when we the pitch,
11:33
Speaker 2: you know, somebody says, what's the book about, I say, well,
11:35
Speaker 2: it's about two young kids, a fall in love rock
11:37
Speaker 2: and roll musician, and then they lose track of each other.
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Speaker 2: In the craziness of sex, drugs, rock and roll and
11:43
Speaker 2: the Vietnam War. And that's what happened because, you know,
11:48
Speaker 2: finally when I was living with him, I moved in
11:51
Speaker 2: with him, and he was living in San Diego at
11:54
Speaker 2: the time, so he was working at an expensive supper
11:57
Speaker 2: club and making really good mute money, making making really
12:01
Speaker 2: good money backing up this you know show. It was
12:04
Speaker 2: a it was a supper club show, right, And I
12:09
Speaker 2: moved in with him, and then he decided to take
12:13
Speaker 2: the money that he had made off of that gig
12:15
Speaker 2: and start a band again. And so the band was
12:19
Speaker 2: rehearsing at our house and there was a lot of
12:22
Speaker 2: marijuana and there was even a bowl of chocolate mescaline
12:27
Speaker 2: on the living room table, and you know, it was
12:33
Speaker 2: it was a scary time. Lots of people going in
12:35
Speaker 2: and out, lots of women. You know, it was really
12:39
Speaker 2: hard and it was scary. I got scared. And then
12:44
Speaker 2: you know, he got busted and the whole thing fell apart.
12:47
Speaker 2: The band disappeared. You know, they got busy on other gigs.
12:52
Speaker 2: He went to jail for three days. The road he
12:55
Speaker 2: set them up, that was horrible. He was trying to
12:58
Speaker 2: make more money to finish the so we could get
13:00
Speaker 2: a record deal, and one of the roadies overheard that he,
13:04
Speaker 2: you know, was short on money. The manager of the
13:07
Speaker 2: studio was said, hey, man, you know, we got to
13:09
Speaker 2: get another three hundred dollars or you can't continue. And
13:12
Speaker 2: he's like, oh, man, you know, and the roady goes, man,
13:15
Speaker 2: I know how we can you know, turn around a
13:17
Speaker 2: couple of kilos, Man, you all have the money you
13:19
Speaker 2: need and be back in the studio immediately. And he
13:23
Speaker 2: fell for it. And the guy the roady was working
13:25
Speaker 2: for the Feds because he was on probation, and he
13:29
Speaker 2: set him up and the whole thing fell apart. It
13:33
Speaker 2: was so sad because the band was just so amazing. Wow,
13:38
Speaker 2: but it was short lived. They only recorded seven songs.
13:42
Speaker 1: Please do Not Move. There's more with Debora Masterson right
13:44
Speaker 1: around the corner the name of the book Freedom Quest,
13:49
Speaker 1: a love story. We are back with the author Deborah Masterson.
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Speaker 1: Are these the seven songs that when I was doing
13:55
Speaker 1: my research, I came across him such as my time
13:58
Speaker 1: has come? Because I mean, oh my god, I found
14:01
Speaker 1: this music and I thought, thank God for Spotify and
14:04
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio because when people pick up this book, and they
14:07
Speaker 1: start reading this book, they're going to be led to
14:09
Speaker 1: the music, and all of a sudden, now Craig has
14:13
Speaker 1: a second chance and a growing chance to be a
14:15
Speaker 1: part of futures that we won't even be part of
14:18
Speaker 1: because this book has been written and the music has
14:20
Speaker 1: been there, and it's such an open door for you
14:23
Speaker 1: to give this to him as probably one of the
14:25
Speaker 1: greatest gifts of love that you could share.
14:28
Speaker 2: Thank you, Ero. That's exactly how I feel. And I
14:32
Speaker 2: honestly I feel his presence. I feel his absolute joy,
14:37
Speaker 2: and he's so proud of me. You know, it's not
14:42
Speaker 2: I wrote this book. You know, he wanted the book
14:44
Speaker 2: to be written. He knew it was a great story.
14:46
Speaker 2: I knew it was a great story. And now for
14:49
Speaker 2: the public to recognize it as a great story is
14:54
Speaker 2: I can't tell you. It's just it's mind blowing. I'm
14:58
Speaker 2: just trying to stay really great, eight full and humble,
15:02
Speaker 2: you know. I mean, it's like it's heavy stuff, you know, people,
15:06
Speaker 2: I was like, oh my god, it's so great, so great.
15:08
Speaker 2: You know, it's like, oh my god. You know, I
15:10
Speaker 2: just have to, like, you know, settle down, take a breath,
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Speaker 2: and you know, be grateful. Stay in that gratitude. You know.
15:17
Speaker 1: You know what my wife told me, She told me
15:19
Speaker 1: the very beginning when we got together, all those chapters ago.
15:21
Speaker 1: She says, you have to understand one thing about musicians
15:24
Speaker 1: and rock stars. We all put our pants on the
15:26
Speaker 1: same They're just people.
15:28
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, yes, my mom told me that one time.
15:32
Speaker 2: So my dad was an ABC television big shot and
15:38
Speaker 2: we were at a some award ceremony function and my
15:43
Speaker 2: mom and I went to the bathroom and there was
15:45
Speaker 2: Lucille Ball in the bathroom freaking out because somebody had
15:50
Speaker 2: spilled some red wine on her ball gown and she
15:53
Speaker 2: was just all in a chizzy. And so, you know,
15:56
Speaker 2: we're like, oh my god, you know. So we go
15:58
Speaker 2: to the bathroom and as we're why looking back to
16:00
Speaker 2: the table, Mom leans over to me and she goes,
16:04
Speaker 2: everybody's got to go to the bathroom, everybody, you know. So, yeah,
16:09
Speaker 2: try to put this in perspective. And yeah, and I
16:12
Speaker 2: don't think Craig or Michael in the book, I don't
16:16
Speaker 2: think he wanted to be a star. He he loved
16:20
Speaker 2: his anonymity and kind of like every time he got
16:26
Speaker 2: close to becoming a star, something happened. He certainly had
16:31
Speaker 2: the talent. And then all the musicians that played with him,
16:34
Speaker 2: you know the guys, the guys in Freedom Quest. Two
16:37
Speaker 2: of them were driving all the way down, or maybe
16:40
Speaker 2: three of them. The bass player and the keyboard player
16:43
Speaker 2: for sure, David Benoit, who ended up having a great
16:46
Speaker 2: recording career and he's also a DJ. He does has
16:50
Speaker 2: a show on Cage Azz in La. David Benoit, he
16:54
Speaker 2: was the he was the keyboardist. He played uh, he
16:57
Speaker 2: played piano, keyboard and then also he played Hammond B
17:01
Speaker 2: three Oregon and put it through Leslie speakers. And he
17:06
Speaker 2: was only seventeen. It was one of his first jobs,
17:10
Speaker 2: first jobs. Yeah, so you know they were driving down
17:15
Speaker 2: to San Diego from La free of charge. Nobody was
17:19
Speaker 2: getting paid because it was all Craig's original music. Here,
17:24
Speaker 2: you know, Craig three octave range, shredded on guitar. You
17:30
Speaker 2: know the band. The bass player bet Brian mcness, just
17:33
Speaker 2: a killer, David Benroll on keyboards, percussion, Sodiarcia, drums, Lvo
17:40
Speaker 2: Dida flute, Maxine Sherman violin, Bill Richardson and three background voices. Wow, yeah,
17:50
Speaker 2: I mean killer. You know. Oh there's a video too, Erro.
17:54
Speaker 2: There's a video on YouTube. If you search Freedom Quest
18:00
Speaker 2: Craig Ingraham, you'll come up with this crazy video of
18:05
Speaker 2: us at in San Diego at an outdoor concert, and
18:08
Speaker 2: it's like it looks like it'd stopped. It's it's nuts.
18:12
Speaker 2: It's a lot of a lot of footage of the
18:14
Speaker 2: of the of the people and all the stuff going on,
18:18
Speaker 2: and yeah, so uh, it was so amazing and unfortunately
18:23
Speaker 2: it all fell apart. And then you know, later on
18:25
Speaker 2: in life, when we got back together again, Craig started
18:28
Speaker 2: a band called the Craig Ingram Band, and it was
18:32
Speaker 2: Craig on guitar and three voices, Bill Richardson from Freedom
18:36
Speaker 2: Quest me and then occasionally we had Sodiarcia the percussionist.
18:42
Speaker 2: And we were really getting some good gigs. We were
18:48
Speaker 2: getting like full sets at outdoor concerts, and then we
18:51
Speaker 2: got in the Battle of the Bands for the San
18:55
Speaker 2: Diego County Fair in del mar We were one of fifty.
18:59
Speaker 2: There were three bands that were chosen for the Battle
19:05
Speaker 2: of the Bands and then that you know what, they
19:06
Speaker 2: were going to choose the winner out of fifteen thousand entries.
19:11
Speaker 2: Oh my god, and we were one of the bands.
19:13
Speaker 2: But then Craig, Craig got a grandma seizure and ended
19:17
Speaker 2: up we had to cancel everything and he never could
19:20
Speaker 2: he couldn't, he couldn't, he couldn't perform anymore, and he
19:24
Speaker 2: went downhill from there. So when always something happened.
19:29
Speaker 1: You know, when you take a story like this and
19:33
Speaker 1: you turn it into a novel and you change the names.
19:35
Speaker 1: And I want to compare notes here because because my
19:38
Speaker 1: third book was actually about a band as well, and
19:41
Speaker 1: I changed the name. And the thing about it is, though,
19:44
Speaker 1: is that the people that were involved in that storyline
19:47
Speaker 1: they didn't like me anymore because they felt like that
19:50
Speaker 1: I got them wrong in the book. Are you facing
19:53
Speaker 1: anything like that when someone says, well, that's just not
19:56
Speaker 1: the way that Craig was. I know you got him
19:58
Speaker 1: as Michael, but I mean that's just I mean, is
20:00
Speaker 1: anybody fighting you on this at all?
20:03
Speaker 2: Not yet? You know, I'm I get you. I understand totally.
20:09
Speaker 2: So far, I've was so Bill Richardson, the violin player
20:14
Speaker 2: and singer, he has stayed really close and of course
20:20
Speaker 2: we had the last band together with him, and so
20:23
Speaker 2: he is like a brother to me. And he read
20:26
Speaker 2: early early drafts and everything, so he's good. He thinks
20:29
Speaker 2: it's great. I recent just yesterday spoke with another keyboard
20:36
Speaker 2: player that Craig had worked with in the eighties and
20:39
Speaker 2: they were very, very close. So I was really nervous
20:42
Speaker 2: because he's he finished the book and he said I
20:44
Speaker 2: really would like to talk. I'm like, oh boy, you
20:47
Speaker 2: know what's this going to mean? But he was very
20:50
Speaker 2: complimentary auso. He says, I really think you did a
20:52
Speaker 2: great job. So but I have not been able to
20:56
Speaker 2: speak to like the bass player Brian mcnass, I have
20:59
Speaker 2: not been able to speak to. I can't find Maxine Sherman.
21:04
Speaker 2: I found finally found the drummer Lvo Dita, and we
21:06
Speaker 2: have spoken a couple of times, and he has not
21:11
Speaker 2: read the book yet, so I don't know how he's
21:13
Speaker 2: going to feel about it. That was kind of a
21:15
Speaker 2: funny story because I searched and searched for him, and
21:19
Speaker 2: I found him. I left a couple of messages on
21:21
Speaker 2: it on a phone that I thought was his, and
21:24
Speaker 2: he finally called me back and we spoke for like
21:27
Speaker 2: two hours and and he's like, you change all the names.
21:31
Speaker 2: So I said, yeah, I changed all the names, and
21:33
Speaker 2: he goes O, what's my name? Oh, I have I
21:35
Speaker 2: have to back up a little bit. So while we're
21:37
Speaker 2: on the phone, he says, well, you know, I was
21:40
Speaker 2: really straight back then, and he said, Craig, you know,
21:43
Speaker 2: was just too crazy for me. He said he was
21:46
Speaker 2: robbing me the wrong way. And I didn't know this.
21:49
Speaker 2: I mean, I was, you know, three years younger. I
21:52
Speaker 2: was a background singer in the band. I was Craig's girlfriend.
21:55
Speaker 2: I didn't really talk to the drummer that much, Lvo.
21:58
Speaker 2: I didn't really know he was older, you know, I
22:01
Speaker 2: was shy or whatever, you know, so I didn't. I didn't.
22:04
Speaker 2: I probably took said three sentences to him the whole
22:06
Speaker 2: time the band was together. So I didn't know that.
22:09
Speaker 2: And so anyway, so fast forward, so we're talking, Well,
22:12
Speaker 2: what did you name me? And I realized I said Elvio.
22:18
Speaker 2: I called you Neon because you have pink hair. He went, what,
22:25
Speaker 2: And I'm like, I'm sorry. I said, that's just what
22:28
Speaker 2: happened when I was writing. I said, I don't know
22:31
Speaker 2: where it came from. But you know, drummers tend to
22:34
Speaker 2: be that kind of the craziest people in the band.
22:39
Speaker 2: You know, they're they're usually pretty nervous and they're very
22:43
Speaker 2: like movement oriented. They can't sit still, that kind of thing, right,
22:47
Speaker 2: And so I said, I don't know where that came from,
22:50
Speaker 2: but I called, there's a line in the book. I said,
22:52
Speaker 2: a neon. We call him Neon because of his pink hair.
22:56
Speaker 2: He's like, oh boy, So he hasn't read the whole
22:59
Speaker 2: thing yet, and I'm waiting to hear, you know, what
23:03
Speaker 2: he has to say. And then the other thing I
23:06
Speaker 2: told so, I had to talk about the divorce because
23:10
Speaker 2: you know, I got married and started raising kids. So
23:14
Speaker 2: after you know, I got after Craig went to jail,
23:17
Speaker 2: I said, you know, I can't do this anymore. It's
23:18
Speaker 2: too crazy. And I moved on and I got married
23:22
Speaker 2: and I raised two children. I was married for twenty
23:24
Speaker 2: six years and then suddenly Craig walks back into my
23:28
Speaker 2: life now. And the way that I have to say this,
23:32
Speaker 2: this is one of the themes of the book is
23:34
Speaker 2: Sarah Dippity or Kismet or you know, how did these
23:37
Speaker 2: things happen? So the way I met Craig or Michael
23:41
Speaker 2: in the book the first time was he was my
23:43
Speaker 2: brother's guitar teacher. And that's how the book opens up.
23:47
Speaker 2: There's one prologue scene and then it goes to you know,
23:50
Speaker 2: Michael getting ready for work and he goes to the
23:53
Speaker 2: music store and he's teaching guitar and my brother walks
23:56
Speaker 2: in and he finds out he has an older sister,
23:58
Speaker 2: and so the guitar lessons end up at our house
24:02
Speaker 2: and that's how I met him. Wat forward, yeah, twenty
24:06
Speaker 2: six years later, and this is the honest to god truth.
24:09
Speaker 2: My youngest son is fifteen years old and I didn't
24:13
Speaker 2: know any musicians at that time, and I called a
24:16
Speaker 2: friend of a friend. I said, Hey, I'm looking for
24:18
Speaker 2: a guitar teacher from my youngest son. He doesn't drive yet.
24:22
Speaker 2: It has to be somebody nearby because I'm working, and
24:25
Speaker 2: you know, maybe the guy can, whoever it is, can
24:27
Speaker 2: come over to the house. The guy again can come
24:29
Speaker 2: over to the house and teach my son. And he goes, oh,
24:32
Speaker 2: there's only one person I would recommend, Craig Ingraham.
24:35
Speaker 1: And I went, oh, oh my god, my god.
24:41
Speaker 2: So, you know, the guy on the other side of
24:43
Speaker 2: the phone really didn't know me that well. He goes,
24:45
Speaker 2: what are you okay, And I'm like, oh my god,
24:47
Speaker 2: oh my god. He can't be my son's guitar teacher.
24:50
Speaker 2: He's my old boyfriend. And he's like, oh okay, And
24:54
Speaker 2: I said, well, you know where does he live? And
24:56
Speaker 2: what are you sure? Maybe it's not him, maybe it's
24:59
Speaker 2: somebody else with the same name. He goes, well, call
25:01
Speaker 2: this gal Cindy and she'll she'll be able to tell
25:04
Speaker 2: you more about his personal life. She said, I just
25:06
Speaker 2: know him from, you know, working gigs. So I called
25:11
Speaker 2: this Gal Cindy and I said, Cindy, you don't know me,
25:15
Speaker 2: but I'm trying to learn a little bit more about
25:19
Speaker 2: about this guitar teacher, Craig Ingram. And you know where
25:22
Speaker 2: does he live? Oh? Yeah, he's back in his family
25:24
Speaker 2: home with his mommy. She help helping out with his mom.
25:27
Speaker 2: And I'm like, oh, you know over on Landon. I'm like,
25:29
Speaker 2: oh my god. She goes what I said, Well, that's
25:32
Speaker 2: my old boyfriend. Oh are you Debbie. They knew he
25:38
Speaker 2: had Craig had talked about me and said, oh the
25:42
Speaker 2: you know, the the biggest regret of my life was
25:46
Speaker 2: losing Debbie, Deborah, you know, losing her. So she calls
25:52
Speaker 2: her husband, Kevin, and Kevin, who is very very close
25:56
Speaker 2: friends with Craig calls Craig and says, Greig, great, we
25:59
Speaker 2: found your we found you're teddy. Yeah, so I had to,
26:05
Speaker 2: you know, I had to put the divorce in there,
26:07
Speaker 2: and I told and everything's good now. You know, my
26:10
Speaker 2: husband's remarried. He's better. I think he's in a much
26:13
Speaker 2: better place than he was. We were having trouble with
26:16
Speaker 2: our marriage, you know. And they say, you know, if
26:18
Speaker 2: a marriage is strong and you're in love, you can
26:21
Speaker 2: see an old boyfriend or girlfriend at some kind of
26:23
Speaker 2: do anything. But you know, our marriage was having trouble.
26:27
Speaker 2: And so I when the book came out, I told
26:31
Speaker 2: my husband and his new wife, my former husband and
26:34
Speaker 2: his new wife, I said, or his wife. They've been
26:36
Speaker 2: married fifteen years. But anyway, I said, it's a novel
26:40
Speaker 2: based on a true story. The book is out. You
26:43
Speaker 2: can deny everything if you want to, because it's a
26:46
Speaker 2: novel based on a true story. Right, So, you know,
26:51
Speaker 2: I hope he's okay. I don't know if he's going
26:53
Speaker 2: to read it. I don't even know if my sons
26:55
Speaker 2: are going to read it. I haven't really asked. I mean,
26:57
Speaker 2: they're very happy and very proud of their mom. But
27:01
Speaker 2: you know it's about the boyfriend that broke up the family,
27:06
Speaker 2: So you know, I get it, and but I think
27:11
Speaker 2: they everybody understand it was too strong. I love was
27:14
Speaker 2: just too strong. You know, we're soul mads.
27:18
Speaker 1: It's such a perfect love story. It is a rock
27:20
Speaker 1: and roll love story. That's that that to me. I mean,
27:22
Speaker 1: it's it's like it's like when the Bay City Roller
27:24
Speaker 1: saying about a rock and roll love story. This is
27:26
Speaker 1: exactly what I will envision from now on.
27:30
Speaker 2: Oh that's awesome. I love that. Wow.
27:32
Speaker 1: Where can people go to find out more about you, Deborah?
27:35
Speaker 1: Because I want them to get excited about your writing.
27:38
Speaker 1: Because I know that you said this was your first book.
27:40
Speaker 1: This is not going to be your last book. I
27:42
Speaker 1: just feel in my heart that you're going to continue
27:44
Speaker 1: on with music stories and you're going to grow from it.
27:47
Speaker 1: I just want people to really fall in love with you.
27:51
Speaker 2: Oh that's so sweet. Thank you. Yeah. Actually, yes, in
27:54
Speaker 2: writing this book, I learned I really love to write,
27:57
Speaker 2: and I do have another novel, and I think I
27:59
Speaker 2: think I'm I'm shooting for the novel to come out
28:03
Speaker 2: next fall, so probably maybe November twenty twenty seven. I'm
28:09
Speaker 2: quite quite a long ways along on it. And so
28:13
Speaker 2: I'm July first. I told my publicist, I said, you
28:18
Speaker 2: know what I'm going I'm s questioning myself. I'm not
28:21
Speaker 2: going to is it okay? I don't want to do
28:23
Speaker 2: any more promo except for stuff that I've already maybe
28:26
Speaker 2: already scheduled. I said, I got to get back to
28:29
Speaker 2: this book. So I'm really excited about the second book too.
28:32
Speaker 2: And so yeah, they can go. Anybody can go to
28:37
Speaker 2: Deborah maasterson dot com. And Deborah is kind of a
28:42
Speaker 2: different spelling. It's d e b o r A.
28:46
Speaker 1: No h oh wow.
28:47
Speaker 2: So yeah, d E b o r A excellent.
28:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you got to come back to this show
28:54
Speaker 1: anytime in the future. The door is always going to
28:56
Speaker 1: be open for you. Deborah with no.
28:58
Speaker 2: Hfent with no age, right, Yeah, yeah, thank you. I
29:03
Speaker 2: appreciate it. Yeah, I would love to come back when
29:06
Speaker 2: I get this next book ready, you know, or maybe
29:10
Speaker 2: maybe maybe sometime else, you know. I also wanted to
29:14
Speaker 2: mention there's a documentary that Craig and I made when
29:19
Speaker 2: we got back together again. It was part of its
29:21
Speaker 2: redemption process, and it's a Vietnam story and it's a
29:25
Speaker 2: beautiful little documentary about the only combat photographer in our
29:30
Speaker 2: nation's history to receive the Medal of Honor. So they
29:34
Speaker 2: can learn about the documentary also, and it's going to
29:39
Speaker 2: be screened in Chicago at the Downtown Central Library on
29:43
Speaker 2: July twenty seventh. And he was a high school friend,
29:48
Speaker 2: so he you know, we knew him personally, Bill Perkins,
29:51
Speaker 2: Corporal William T. Perkins. So I just wanted to mention
29:55
Speaker 2: that too. So yeah, all of that is on my website,
29:58
Speaker 2: the Spotify link more information about me than you would
30:03
Speaker 2: ever want to know. And you know, so I would.
30:08
Speaker 2: And social media, you know, all of the Facebook, TikTok, Instagram,
30:13
Speaker 2: all that stuff is up there thanks to Phillip, and
30:18
Speaker 2: you know that that would be I would suggest where
30:21
Speaker 2: they go to learn more. I love links to how
30:25
Speaker 2: to buy it, how to buy the book. They can
30:27
Speaker 2: even ask. They can request a signed copy of the
30:29
Speaker 2: book on my website and hey via zell or PayPal
30:35
Speaker 2: and I will ship one out.
30:37
Speaker 1: That's amazing. Will you be brilliant today and you keep
30:41
Speaker 1: on writing? Okay, thank you
30:43
Speaker 2: Ero you too, Thank you so much.