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Transcript

Courtney Gains · On with Mario Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: On with Mario Lopez. What's up, y'all?
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Mario Lopez joining me right now. You know him from
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: films like Children of the Corn, The Birbs, Can't Buy
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Me Love, Colors, so many more.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: My man.
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  Speaker 2: I haven't spoken to him in a minute. I'm so
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: happy I get to catch up with him. Actor and
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  Speaker 2: singer Courtney Gaines. How you doing, Courtney?
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: What's up, brother?
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: So good to see you.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, it has been.
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  Speaker 1: It has been forever.
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  Speaker 2: And, you know, as I as I intro you to
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  Speaker 2: I just as I intro. give you your intro and
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  Speaker 2: talk about some of the stuff that people can recognize
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  Speaker 2: you on. I smile because that just classics and they
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  Speaker 2: hold up. And I, I just, it's, it's just such
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  Speaker 2: a great golden era.
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  Speaker 3: It is.
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  Speaker 2: It really is such, I'm really glad we grew up
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  Speaker 2: in the era that we did.
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  Speaker 1: When people come up to you, Courtney, what do they
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  Speaker 1: tend to mention the most?
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  Speaker 3: Well, certainly Children of the Corn, right? No living that down.
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  Speaker 1: So Children of the Corn, huh?
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, right. Oh, yeah.
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: I've been doing horror conventions for like 15 years or whatever, too, right? But,
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: you know, certainly Back to the Future, people remember me
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: from that. Yeah, that's right. Of course, Colors, especially if
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: I do a convention like, say, like San Antonio, everybody
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: wants a Colors picture.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Everyone wants to color 2-1, 2-1 forever. Exactly.
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  Speaker 3: Exactly. That's right.
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  Speaker 2: And you know, I saw, and I speak with every
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: once in a while, Gerardo Mejia, who was both in
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Colors and Can't Buy Me Love.
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  Speaker 3: We did three movies in a row together. You did three?
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: What was the third one?
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  Speaker 3: Well, so we did the first thing we ever did
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  Speaker 3: was a movie called Winners Take All, a motorcycle dirt bike,
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: you know, motorcycles, motocross movie.
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  Speaker 4: Oh, wow. I never thought anybody saw, but there's a
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  Speaker 4: whole fan club for that. They're celebrating the 40th anniversary
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  Speaker 4: next year. So that's like turned into a whole thing
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  Speaker 4: I didn't even know existed. But then, yeah, then we
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  Speaker 4: did Camp Family Camp I May Love, which will also
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  Speaker 4: be 40 next year.
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  Speaker 1: And holds up and is better than ever.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you. And then colors.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah. How I got colors was because he knew I
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: grew up in the neighborhoods, you know, we were, and
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  Speaker 4: we were doing camp. I mean, he's like, Hey man,
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  Speaker 4: I just got this script, you know, and there's a
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  Speaker 4: white boy in the gang.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: You got to get in here.
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: And my mentor, Virgil Fry, who's a Soleil Moonfry, Punky
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  Speaker 4: Brewster's father.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: He knew Dennis Hopper very well. He helped him make
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  Speaker 3: Easy Rider back in the day.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, wow.
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  Speaker 1: What a great story.
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  Speaker 3: And so, of course, they were.
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  Speaker 4: Having trouble finding a white boy to play the role.
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  Speaker 4: So literally as soon as I flew in from Arizona,
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  Speaker 4: I literally the next day went there, took a meeting,
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  Speaker 4: didn't have to, you know, didn't have to do any lines.
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  Speaker 4: They just said, you know how to do this. I'm like, yeah, man,
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  Speaker 4: I grew up in this shit. I know this stuff.
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  Speaker 3: And that was that.
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  Speaker 1: Dude, that's so good.
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  Speaker 3: And you know what?
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  Speaker 2: It's such an accurate character, too, because I was a
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: border town kid, grew up in Chula Vista, obviously all Mexicans.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: but there was some white boys that they were down
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  Speaker 2: with the Rasa and they were, and they were you
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  Speaker 2: in the character of my boy Dana.
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  Speaker 3: Always the crazy white boy.
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  Speaker 4: That's why I was excited because yeah, I literally grew
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  Speaker 4: up with a guy who was not only just a
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  Speaker 4: white gangbanger, but a redheaded white gangbanger named Billy Red
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  Speaker 4: that I went to grammar school with all the way
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  Speaker 4: through high school. And I was like, this dude's going
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  Speaker 4: to lose his shit when he sees it. Cause I
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  Speaker 4: basically just stole him.
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  Speaker 3: You know what I mean? That's the best, man.
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  Speaker 1: That's the best. Well, congratulations.
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  Speaker 3: I got to ask you, I got to ask you
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: a question. How old were you when you did that movie?
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  Speaker 1: When I did Colors, okay, that was 1988. I was
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  Speaker 1: born in 73. What's the math on that for sure? Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it was like 14, 15. Yeah, 14, 15, 14, 15.
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  Speaker 1: It was right before Say Oh The Bell, I remember, yeah.
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  Speaker 4: And I remember thinking, this guy is way too cute
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  Speaker 4: to be a bank.
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  Speaker 1: Hey, but I grew up in neighborhoods like that. So yeah,
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  Speaker 1: that's funny.
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  Speaker 3: Who is this, El Guapo? Who is this guy?
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  Speaker 1: Hey, we had real gangbangers on there. Remember they were
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  Speaker 1: stealing some of the equipment and stuff?
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  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 4: And the one guy we had in our gang, he
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  Speaker 4: was great. I can't remember the guy's name, but like
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: he would literally, he'd be like, oh, your crease is wrong, Holmes.
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  Speaker 4: And he'd get out his comb and re-crease my pants
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  Speaker 4: by hand.
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  Speaker 3: Dang. And then it would look real. You know what
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  Speaker 3: I mean?
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  Speaker 1: He was method.
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  Speaker 3: He was like our consultant on set, you know?
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  Speaker 1: Dude, that's the best. That's the best.
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  Speaker 3: I love this.
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  Speaker 1: But all this time, Courtney, I did not know you
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: were so musically inclined.
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  Speaker 2: Congratulations. You got a new album out called... Liberation Day.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: Let me do that clean. You've got a new album
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  Speaker 2: out called Liberation Day. For people who haven't heard your music,
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  Speaker 2: how would you describe your sound?
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  Speaker 4: Well, this record has got a lot of stuff. It's
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  Speaker 4: got some pop rock in it. It's got some Americana
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  Speaker 4: in it. It's got some bangers and it's even got
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  Speaker 4: one metal song. And I'll kind of explain that for
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: a minute. So The song been forgotten. We put out
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: in spring. That's a song I had for a long time.
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  Speaker 4: I knew that that could be like a pop rock hits.
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  Speaker 3: We do.
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  Speaker 4: We put it out on top 40 radio and it
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  Speaker 4: got to 61. My, my, my joke is we were
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  Speaker 4: ahead of Shabuzy for like four weeks.
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  Speaker 1: Hey, there you go. That's significant. And have you always
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  Speaker 1: been musically? Was that always something along the lines when
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: you were acting and stuff?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, man, I was always playing in L.A. First, I
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: had an acoustic band called The Gathering. And we used
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  Speaker 4: to play when the whole Sunset Strips thing was metal
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: scene was going on. We were playing all the coffee
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  Speaker 4: house stuff. And and that was when I first got
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: there to see if people would like our original material.
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  Speaker 3: And I thought they would. And that went over well.
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  Speaker 4: And then I started a band called Ripple Street that
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: ran for like 10 years. And and then really in
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: the pandemic, when everything slowed down like everybody else, I
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: was asking myself, what's the unfinished business?
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 4: Like, hey, like the immortality is in my face. Yeah,
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  Speaker 4: it's the unfinished business. It was like the music. You
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  Speaker 4: haven't put out enough of your music. So I was like,
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  Speaker 4: so I started and I put out a five song
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  Speaker 4: acoustic record, did a bunch of podcasts, got good response.
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  Speaker 4: So then I put out a five song EP called
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  Speaker 4: Safe Haven. got a good response again got some nice
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  Speaker 4: write-ups but then i was like okay next step is
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  Speaker 4: a full lp and radio ready like so i could
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  Speaker 4: actually go after radio so we said radio's dead i'm
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  Speaker 4: like well i grew up on radio it matters to me.
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  Speaker 1: It's thriving they're crazy they.
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  Speaker 4: Don't hear for me to hear a song on the
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  Speaker 4: radio that like really matters to me so to get
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  Speaker 4: been forgotten on there then we got wandering dream came
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  Speaker 4: out in spring as well that got to 52 on
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  Speaker 4: the secondary rock market The song Fear the Boogie, I
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  Speaker 4: wrote it for a film I'm in called The Barn 3.
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  Speaker 4: It's doing really, really well in the festivals. It got
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  Speaker 4: into Sidges. It got into Fright Fest. They're the two
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  Speaker 4: biggest ones in the UK. And that's coming out on
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  Speaker 4: DVD and Blu-ray on Halloween.
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  Speaker 3: And it's a great banger song.
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  Speaker 4: And then I just put out the single for Liberation Day,
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  Speaker 4: Liberation Day. And that just got in the top 50
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  Speaker 4: in the secondary rock market. So I'm very excited about that.
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  Speaker 1: Congratulations, bro.
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  Speaker 2: And this is great. Obviously, you've been playing a bunch
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  Speaker 2: of shows, but You're doing a Halloween.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Cruise called the Booze Cruise.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, as opposed to booze drinking, it's the Booze O-O-O-S Cruise,
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  Speaker 4: though I'm sure there's going to be plenty of drinking.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure there will be. Have you ever done one
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  Speaker 1: of these cruises before?
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  Speaker 3: I've never been on a cruise before, so this is
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  Speaker 3: going to be wild.
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  Speaker 2: Wow that's gonna be interesting that's gonna be so much
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  Speaker 2: fun man.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah and it's cool because we can all take our
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  Speaker 4: girls too so it's gonna be a great vacation for
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  Speaker 4: us i'm hosting doing some signing and the band's playing
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  Speaker 4: with a bunch of other bands and uh you know
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  Speaker 4: definitely taylor made some stuff for the halloween you know
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  Speaker 4: and uh doing some voodoo child and we're gonna have some.
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  Speaker 2: Fun man that's awesome well speaking of halloween you've got
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  Speaker 2: a new horror film out this month called the barn
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  Speaker 2: three what's that one about Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: I'm telling you, man, it's exceeded my expectations. It was
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  Speaker 4: just a little indie film, but it's literally been in
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  Speaker 4: like 50 horror festivals. And like I said, to be
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  Speaker 4: in Sigis, that's the biggest horror festival. That's just outside
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  Speaker 4: of Barcelona. That's the biggest one in Europe. To get
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  Speaker 4: in that is like top shelf. And to get in
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  Speaker 4: Fright Fest at UK is like top shelf. And I've
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  Speaker 4: gotten nominated for a couple of best actors. It's won
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  Speaker 4: best movies, won a bunch of effects ones. I always
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  Speaker 4: tell people, if you like old school movies, you know
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  Speaker 4: 1980s style fx not the not this new stuff not
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  Speaker 4: the cgi stuff which is most of what the horror
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  Speaker 4: fans love you're gonna love this movie because the whole
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  Speaker 4: second act is just a giant kill fest.
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  Speaker 2: Oh that's great i love that and you got a
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  Speaker 2: song on that uh the movie as well right fear.
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  Speaker 4: The boogie fear the boogie and it's a total metal
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  Speaker 4: song and uh actually how that idea came around was
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: when i'm I did. I was incisious two years ago
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: for the 40th anniversary of Trolling on the Corn. And
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  Speaker 4: when they were screening the movie, I was sitting outside.
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  Speaker 4: I've watched it too many times, right? I can't sit
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  Speaker 4: through it anymore. And the guy who was hosting it
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: came out and goes, I have to tell you something, man.
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  Speaker 4: He goes, when I was a kid, you were it.
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  Speaker 4: You were the boogeyman. We used to pass around your
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  Speaker 4: VHS from kid to kid. And you were known as
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: the boogeyman of Barcelona. And I was like, what? He's like,
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  Speaker 4: that kind of stuck in my head. And then in
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: the movie, there's a character called the boogeyman.
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  Speaker 3: And that was it. Fear the boogie. You know, just this.
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  Speaker 3: I was like, that's got to be what it is.
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  Speaker 3: I love it.
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  Speaker 1: My wife refers to our kids as children of the corn.
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  Speaker 3: Yes.
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  Speaker 4: Every time kids screw up, they're known as children of
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  Speaker 4: the corn, right?
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  Speaker 3: Exactly. If they're ever hungry, children of the corn, which
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: is amazing, right? It's like a cultural reference.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, exactly.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: And is it true you won the role of Malachi
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: by holding a casting assistant hostage with a prop knife?
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: It was a prop knife. Yes.
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  Speaker 4: It was like one of those little like, you know,
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  Speaker 4: he didn't know that because I put it under his
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  Speaker 4: throat real fast.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 3: I didn't know if I was going to do it
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  Speaker 3: or not do it, but I did it.
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  Speaker 4: And it was Jeff Greenberg who went on to be
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: a huge casting director, cast wings, cast and never cast
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: me in anything he ever did.
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  Speaker 3: Really?
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: After that?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. And he would tell people he wasn't the casting director.
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: He was on the corner. He was the reader and
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: he was the voice coach. Oh, God.
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  Speaker 4: He went on to be this huge casting director. And
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: he would tell people at seminars, like, never do that,
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: which he's absolutely right. You shouldn't do that.
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: But I was going like, wait a minute, but the
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: guy got the job.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: There are no rules. There are no rules.
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Oh, this is great. I'll tell you what. I really
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: enjoyed catching up with you. I'm so happy. Things are
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: going well. And listen, everyone.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: Be sure to check out Courtney's new album, Liberation Day,
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: which is now streaming, and his new horror film.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: The Barn 3, as well. Courtney, thanks for checking in, man.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: Hit me up if you're ever in the area, brother.
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: I will, for sure.
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: But before we get off, I've got to say a
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: public announcement of congratulations to you for getting inside the ring.
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: I know you're a big MMA and boxing guy, so
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: for you to get that gig is incredible.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Congratulations, man.
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: Can't wait to see you on there.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Thank you, brother. I appreciate you.
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Great job, Courtney. Good to see you, brother.
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: I'll see you.