Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / 'Slayer 66 2/3' Reborn & Re-Remastered! [Episode 347]

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'Slayer 66 2/3' Reborn & Re-Remastered! [Episode 347] · Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

0:00
Speaker 1: The definitive Slayer biography has just gotten even better. Author
0:03
Speaker 1: d x Ferris is back on the show to talk
0:05
Speaker 1: about his reborn and re remastered version of Slayer sixty
0:09
Speaker 1: six and two thirds, a metal band biography. We're totally
0:13
Speaker 1: rock and roll.
0:16
Speaker 2: I meant to leave you. You're reading. Little Hands says
0:18
Speaker 2: it's time to rock and roll.
0:21
Speaker 1: Roll up, I totally booked. Welcome back to Booked on
0:29
Speaker 1: Rock Everybody, the podcast for those about to read and rock.
0:33
Speaker 1: The very first episode of twenty twenty six. A happy
0:36
Speaker 1: new year to all of you watching and listening. And
0:39
Speaker 1: we've got my man d x Ferris back from here.
0:43
Speaker 1: D x Ferris has returned.
0:45
Speaker 2: I can't believe me.
0:47
Speaker 1: This is the sequel. Yes, well, you reached out to
0:50
Speaker 1: me and let me know that you've got an even
0:52
Speaker 1: bigger and batter version of your book, Slayers. Things are
0:57
Speaker 1: two thirds.
0:58
Speaker 2: Now, this giant book, This six hundred and thirty nine
1:02
Speaker 2: page book, one hundred and seventy thousand words, give or
1:05
Speaker 2: take now, you don't even have to read it.
1:07
Speaker 1: It's version four point one point one, right, yes, okay.
1:12
Speaker 2: Clinton always typos typos. This is going to sound crazy
1:15
Speaker 2: to people that are not in the game, but I
1:17
Speaker 2: swear it's true. I know for a fact. Typos are malevolent,
1:23
Speaker 2: supernatural mystical entities that are four dimensional, and they travel
1:28
Speaker 2: through time and they go back and manifest in places
1:31
Speaker 2: where they did not exist before. There's just no way
1:35
Speaker 2: to stop them thoroughly. You smash one down here and
1:38
Speaker 2: they pop up over there.
1:40
Speaker 1: Well you brought an outside source this time.
1:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, the first I mean, this is the fourth
1:45
Speaker 2: edition of the book. The first one was self published
1:48
Speaker 2: way back in twenty thirteen, shortly after the death of
1:52
Speaker 2: Jeff Annamon, and I had a lot of innovative ideas
1:55
Speaker 2: for how I could crowd source the copy editing, and
1:57
Speaker 2: that never worked. And I found happening was I thought,
2:01
Speaker 2: if I had twelve different people read the book, they
2:04
Speaker 2: would all catch all the errors and it would be fine.
2:07
Speaker 2: But proofreading and copy editing are very different processes than
2:12
Speaker 2: actually reading and editing something. So everybody, uh yeah, I
2:17
Speaker 2: guess to the book's credit, everybody wound up reading it.
2:20
Speaker 2: They just got drawn into the story and next thing
2:22
Speaker 2: you know, they're reading it as a reader, not as
2:24
Speaker 2: a proofreader. So the first version of the book, if
2:28
Speaker 2: you read Amazon reviews from the old one. Everybody's like,
2:30
Speaker 2: there are typos, There are typos. You know, people would
2:33
Speaker 2: write reviews about it complaining about typos with typos in it.
2:37
Speaker 2: It's tough, you know, your fingers in your hands don't
2:39
Speaker 2: work it the whole time or at the same time,
2:42
Speaker 2: at the same pace. So that's why this time I'm
2:45
Speaker 2: calling attention to the fact that we had a dedicated
2:48
Speaker 2: proofreader that did nothing but proofread it.
2:51
Speaker 1: I had you back in July on the show, So
2:54
Speaker 1: for those who want to listen to that episode, we
2:56
Speaker 1: get into the overall body of the of the book
3:00
Speaker 1: and the first edition, or at least the edition that
3:03
Speaker 1: was out at that time, So you can listen to that.
3:05
Speaker 1: But let's get into what's in this new edition. One
3:08
Speaker 1: of the chapters gets into some newly discovered details from
3:12
Speaker 1: the group's early days. Can you share some of what
3:15
Speaker 1: you found out that's in the new version?
3:17
Speaker 2: Yeah. Always. This version of the book has I present
3:20
Speaker 2: their invasion of New York as a campaign. You know,
3:23
Speaker 2: they arrived in New York and they played a series
3:26
Speaker 2: of shows, you know, at big nightclubs. They played one
3:30
Speaker 2: with a legendary group of metal fans called the Old
3:33
Speaker 2: Bridge militia that were instrumental in putting Metallica on the map.
3:39
Speaker 2: I mean, these guys, if they gave you their stamp
3:43
Speaker 2: of approval, you were in. You were pretty much nationally accepted,
3:47
Speaker 2: and you know, their imprimiture was important. But they also
3:53
Speaker 2: wouldn't get behind you if you were a bad band.
3:56
Speaker 2: So these guys putting their arms around you and saying yes,
3:58
Speaker 2: we approved, meant that you had the goods. So these
4:01
Speaker 2: guys were intake role from Metallica's career and they really
4:06
Speaker 2: helped splayer come along. So part of what we have
4:09
Speaker 2: is we have more detailed accounts of Slayer's early gigs,
4:13
Speaker 2: how they went into New York as somewhat of an
4:17
Speaker 2: unknown entity and they left haven't absolutely devastated the state.
4:22
Speaker 2: In venues that were big, in venues that were medium,
4:25
Speaker 2: and venues that were small, and in venues that were tiny.
4:29
Speaker 2: They played the Old Bridge Militious Basement essentially, there's a
4:33
Speaker 2: great tape of that out there that I don't think
4:36
Speaker 2: it was an instrumental show, but the tape is instrumental.
4:40
Speaker 2: So we get you know, through the book. You know,
4:42
Speaker 2: I essentially do six things. I don't know if i'll
4:45
Speaker 2: list them all, But we go into the historical record.
4:49
Speaker 2: What happened when? What are the dates? When did the
4:51
Speaker 2: records go than two? What are the people like? What
4:55
Speaker 2: are the individual players, individual pro files of people like
5:00
Speaker 2: Carrie King, Jeff Hannam, and Tom Mariah. Then later Gary
5:04
Speaker 2: Holt who filled in. So who are the people like?
5:08
Speaker 2: And then what was it like to be there? You know,
5:12
Speaker 2: I saw them as early as nineteen eighty eight, but
5:14
Speaker 2: so many people saw them before that. So we try
5:17
Speaker 2: to give you, through the book a sense of what
5:20
Speaker 2: it was like to be a Slayer fan and watch
5:22
Speaker 2: the band happen and see it unfold before your eyes.
5:25
Speaker 2: So this version of the book has more details, more
5:31
Speaker 2: very detailed accounts of early shows where people did things
5:34
Speaker 2: like dive off of balconies and land on the stage
5:37
Speaker 2: and crash through the stage.
5:39
Speaker 1: Wow, Where does this information come from? Do you find
5:43
Speaker 1: it on your own? You have people, you have fans
5:46
Speaker 1: that know you well enough to feed you some new information.
5:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, a little bit of everything. The band's legendary, their
5:54
Speaker 2: very first He doesn't like the title tour manager. Doug Goodman,
5:59
Speaker 2: figure of Summer now in the music business. He was
6:03
Speaker 2: their first tour manager. He calls himself tour guide. Uh,
6:07
Speaker 2: you know, real early on he went on tour with
6:09
Speaker 2: the band and he was trying to help out, be useful,
6:13
Speaker 2: and they gave him a drum case to carry, and
6:16
Speaker 2: see starts carrying it up or down a series of
6:19
Speaker 2: steps and he drops it and it goes clunk clunk,
6:22
Speaker 2: clunk clunk clunk clunk clunk down the stairs and they say,
6:25
Speaker 2: you know what, why why don't you leave the drums alone?
6:28
Speaker 2: Go figure out how we get paid. And that launched
6:31
Speaker 2: him into a whole career of working with guys like
6:36
Speaker 2: there's a very famous picture of Billy Corgan on a
6:40
Speaker 2: roller coaster, you know what I'm talking about, And it's
6:44
Speaker 2: it's it's damn near iconic. I use that word a lot,
6:48
Speaker 2: but it's a picture of Billy Corgan on this roller
6:50
Speaker 2: coaster and the guy next to him is going ye,
6:54
Speaker 2: and Billy Corgan sitting there going look very dour, and
7:01
Speaker 2: the the guy having a good time in that picture
7:03
Speaker 2: is tour manager Doug Doug Goodman.
7:06
Speaker 1: Oh wow.
7:07
Speaker 2: Yeah. So if you if you know Slayer tapes, if
7:10
Speaker 2: if you follow Slayer bootlegs, you've heard of tour manager Doug,
7:14
Speaker 2: Like He's one of the guys. A lot of fans
7:17
Speaker 2: like Mike Schutzman, the guy that Slip disc Records in
7:21
Speaker 2: Valley Stream, New York. He was the guy if you
7:24
Speaker 2: know Metallica or Overkill Slayer, if they were doing an
7:30
Speaker 2: in store signing, it was probably at his store. You know,
7:34
Speaker 2: guys like that, just super fans. But I've met over Facebook,
7:39
Speaker 2: you know, exchanges, that kind of thing. Super fan named
7:42
Speaker 2: Jay Levitz. Real smart, articulate guy. This guy is a mailman,
7:49
Speaker 2: so he spends a lot of time just roaming the
7:51
Speaker 2: earth with nothing but his thoughts to keep him company.
7:55
Speaker 2: And this guy has like forty years of thoughts about
7:59
Speaker 2: Slayer and opinions, but he's never been able to share
8:01
Speaker 2: with anybody to the degree that he has with me.
8:04
Speaker 2: So I've stumbled into a lot of these excellent super
8:07
Speaker 2: fans that saw the band in nineteen eighty four, and
8:10
Speaker 2: saw them in twenty eighteen, and saw them in twenty
8:14
Speaker 2: twenty three.
8:15
Speaker 1: I love getting the fans perspective.
8:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, listen, that is a big part of what we
8:21
Speaker 2: do with it. Another thing like maybe number four of six,
8:23
Speaker 2: as I talked about, is I think we talked about
8:27
Speaker 2: this last time we talked a little bit. The earlier
8:30
Speaker 2: versions of my books are very opinionated, and this one
8:33
Speaker 2: is two, and so many people took that personally.
8:37
Speaker 3: They'd say, you like this album and you don't like
8:40
Speaker 3: that album, but I love this album. That album reminds
8:43
Speaker 3: me of ninety five, and I'd listen to it and
8:45
Speaker 3: the jeep with my pal Joey Man good times.
8:48
Speaker 2: What do you mean you don't like it? Well, I
8:50
Speaker 2: don't know, Man, I don't know Joey. I can't testify
8:53
Speaker 2: that album doesn't remind me of that. So part of
8:57
Speaker 2: what I I did not to address those people directly.
9:00
Speaker 2: But I've conducted over the past twenty twenty six. Now, uh,
9:06
Speaker 2: this is getting scary. Over the past like eight years,
9:09
Speaker 2: I've conducted like three major fan surveys, asking people like,
9:13
Speaker 2: what are your favorite records, what are your favorite songs,
9:16
Speaker 2: favorite albums? Who do you think is the MVP and
9:19
Speaker 2: the band most valuable player? What do you like? What
9:23
Speaker 2: do you not like? So this time around, if I'm
9:27
Speaker 2: saying that undisputed attitude, they're very polarizing punk covers album.
9:32
Speaker 2: If I'm saying that it is one of the high
9:34
Speaker 2: points of Western culture. For my money, do other people agree.
9:40
Speaker 2: So for every different album, I say, well, here's how
9:43
Speaker 2: fans voted on it. You know, this percentage of people
9:46
Speaker 2: said it's their least favorite, this percentage of people said
9:48
Speaker 2: it's their most favorite. This is how it compares to
9:52
Speaker 2: these other ones. So I try to make it more
9:55
Speaker 2: clear when my opinion, it just my opinion. You can disagree,
10:00
Speaker 2: you can disagree, And I'm right up front always with
10:03
Speaker 2: the disclaimer that like, hey, if you have a different opinion,
10:07
Speaker 2: you're right and I'm wrong, Like, I don't need to
10:10
Speaker 2: be right. I'm just telling you what I think. You know,
10:12
Speaker 2: And I always assumed people would understand that, but they
10:16
Speaker 2: did not always. So now it says right up front
10:19
Speaker 2: in the book, if you have a different opinion, you
10:22
Speaker 2: are right. I am wrong. But here's the other fans too.
10:26
Speaker 1: You know, the new version has the results from three
10:30
Speaker 1: fans surveys.
10:31
Speaker 2: Generally, what does the fan base think of this record?
10:34
Speaker 2: You know, maybe they disagree with you. I'm still not
10:37
Speaker 2: saying you're wrong. I'm just saying it's an outlier. I
10:40
Speaker 2: like some records more than other people. Some people like
10:42
Speaker 2: other records more than I do.
10:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm with you on the assumption though that everybody
10:46
Speaker 1: would pretty much understand that there's no right or wrong,
10:48
Speaker 1: and there's certainly nothing wrong with having your opinion.
10:51
Speaker 2: But boy, there are ser fans a little bit passionate,
10:54
Speaker 2: a little bit energetic, a little bit. Uh, it's a
10:57
Speaker 2: very important band of them.
10:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just I just I never take I just
11:03
Speaker 1: can't even imagine taking something personally if somebody says that
11:05
Speaker 1: they like an album that I don't like, Like, okay,
11:07
Speaker 1: that's cool.
11:08
Speaker 2: Slayer fans really like these records.
11:10
Speaker 1: Yeah. I just talked to somebody who wrote a book
11:13
Speaker 1: on Van Halen and he was talking about you know,
11:15
Speaker 1: he he got on board during Diver Down when that
11:18
Speaker 1: album was out, so that album means a lot to him.
11:20
Speaker 1: Now that's an album that most Van Helen fans will
11:22
Speaker 1: say is the least favorite of the first six during
11:25
Speaker 1: the day of era. Again, nobody's right, nobody's wrong, it's
11:29
Speaker 1: you know, as.
11:29
Speaker 2: I was discovering Van Halen, it never occurred to me
11:32
Speaker 2: that anything was wrong with that.
11:34
Speaker 1: Yeah. But but again, I think it's cool though that
11:36
Speaker 1: you have the fan surveys and the results in this
11:40
Speaker 1: latest edition, because you're giving the fans the opportunity to
11:43
Speaker 1: speak out it's not you're basically saying, it ain't just
11:46
Speaker 1: all about me. You guys matter too. Yeah, I would
11:51
Speaker 1: think the majority of the response is that you've gotten
11:55
Speaker 1: from this book over the years has been it's got
11:58
Speaker 1: to be like nine percent positive.
12:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, over thirteen years of Amazon dot Com reviews, like,
12:06
Speaker 2: it got three hundred and two Amazon reviews, which, like
12:10
Speaker 2: everything in my career, like, it's not an impressive number.
12:13
Speaker 2: It's not a big number, but for somebody of my
12:16
Speaker 2: relative stature, it is a lot. Sure, for somebody doing
12:20
Speaker 2: it on the level that I'm doing it. But across
12:22
Speaker 2: like thirteen years of reviews on Amazon, it averaged four
12:26
Speaker 2: point five out of five stars. So that's an AA minus.
12:30
Speaker 1: And they have to appreciate the efforts that you've gone
12:34
Speaker 1: through just to create this book, because not every publisher
12:40
Speaker 1: maybe would I don't know. I mean, it's Slayer is
12:43
Speaker 1: a hugely popular band, so there's certainly plenty of publishers
12:47
Speaker 1: that would want to publish a book on Slayer. But
12:49
Speaker 1: you've done this on your own.
12:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, I get to do what I do. I'm evangelical
12:55
Speaker 2: about independent publishing, independent media. Able to revise this book
13:01
Speaker 2: anytime I want, and I do. But you know, no
13:05
Speaker 2: publisher was telling me. While I know it seems like
13:08
Speaker 2: a good time to update the Slayer's story because they
13:10
Speaker 2: got back together obviously, but you know what, we need
13:14
Speaker 2: to sell these four thousand copies that we have, and
13:16
Speaker 2: then maybe we'll think about updating the book. So I
13:20
Speaker 2: was able to just pull the trigger and do it
13:22
Speaker 2: when not exactly when I wanted to. I mean, I
13:26
Speaker 2: was working on it when I wanted to, but also
13:28
Speaker 2: at the risk of crazy hippie talk, the book is
13:32
Speaker 2: done when the book lets you be done with it,
13:35
Speaker 2: So when the book would let me finish it, I
13:37
Speaker 2: was done. But I was able to set it in
13:40
Speaker 2: motion without worrying about somebody saying, no.
13:44
Speaker 1: Hey, guys, we'll get back to the show. But first
13:46
Speaker 1: I want to tell you about an exclusive deal for
13:48
Speaker 1: book done rock listeners get fifteen percent off any purchase
13:52
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14:10
Speaker 1: Booked on Rock also find a link in this episode
14:13
Speaker 1: show notes, or just go to booked on Rock dot
14:15
Speaker 1: com and click on my deals. Did this latest version
14:18
Speaker 1: surprise you? Did you expect? Did you think you were done?
14:22
Speaker 1: And then this information comes along and you're thinking, Wow,
14:26
Speaker 1: I guess I gotta do a new version or did
14:28
Speaker 1: you see this coming?
14:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, the book, in the new audio book version of it,
14:33
Speaker 2: in my podcast, all can three things dovetail together. I
14:37
Speaker 2: think that's a bad metaphor pardon me if you're being
14:41
Speaker 2: over precise with language or I'm being under precise. But
14:44
Speaker 2: the way the audio book started was in twenty twenty three,
14:51
Speaker 2: I launched a podcast called Talking Slayer. And if you're
14:54
Speaker 2: a Slayer fan, you know there's a phrase associated with
14:58
Speaker 2: Slayer that is something sla and I'm not going to
15:00
Speaker 2: say it in Mixed Company, not here, but it kind
15:05
Speaker 2: of rhymes with talking. So I launched my podcast, Talking
15:09
Speaker 2: Slayer as a weekly podcast, and every week I would
15:14
Speaker 2: read you one or two chapters of the book. And
15:17
Speaker 2: at that time, Slayer were broken up. They'd been broken
15:20
Speaker 2: up for or four years, basically, and it looked like
15:24
Speaker 2: they were going to be the one entertainment entity ever
15:27
Speaker 2: that would retire and stay retired. I mean, I'm a
15:30
Speaker 2: fan of pro wrestling, I'm a fan of music. Anytime
15:33
Speaker 2: somebody tells you it's a retirement tour, maybe it's not
15:37
Speaker 2: a lie at the time. Maybe it's not a lie
15:40
Speaker 2: at the moment, but they're not going to retire, you know.
15:46
Speaker 2: So Slayer looked retired. So I thought, I'm going to
15:48
Speaker 2: read the book and then we'll have an audiobook. I'll
15:50
Speaker 2: just bang out a couple chapters every week, do it
15:54
Speaker 2: as a podcast, and when it's all done there it
15:57
Speaker 2: is Boom audio book. So when that audio book was
16:01
Speaker 2: just about done, Slayer announced their return. They announced they
16:07
Speaker 2: were going to come back and start playing shows with Yeah, festivals,
16:12
Speaker 2: not tours necessarily. That's a real controversial point and how
16:16
Speaker 2: the band had sold their previous quote unquote final world tour.
16:24
Speaker 2: You know, did they bill it as a as a
16:27
Speaker 2: retirement tour, as a farewell tour, as final shows or
16:31
Speaker 2: how did they sell it? We talk about that in
16:33
Speaker 2: the book. So they got back together and at that
16:36
Speaker 2: point the book was like sixty two chapters something like that.
16:43
Speaker 2: It was about one hundred and thirty thousand one hundred
16:45
Speaker 2: and thirty one thousand words, and what year is this?
16:49
Speaker 2: That was twenty twenty three. So I dropped the version
16:53
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty three, and then the band promptly got
16:55
Speaker 2: back together. In twenty twenty four, they announced their retirement.
17:00
Speaker 2: So when they announced their retirement, I started adding this in.
17:04
Speaker 2: I started adding that in every week, like literally reading
17:07
Speaker 2: through my Slayer Book, like this thing occurred to me,
17:09
Speaker 2: and that thing occurred to me, and I caught this,
17:11
Speaker 2: and I fixed that, and I embellished that, and that
17:15
Speaker 2: just wound up spiraling into this massive update of the
17:18
Speaker 2: Slayer Book, where you know, the previous edition was three hundred,
17:24
Speaker 2: three hundred and fifty pages something like this. Now the
17:27
Speaker 2: longest version of it is six hundred and thirty nine pages.
17:31
Speaker 2: A previous edition had something like four hundred and fifty
17:34
Speaker 2: research citations and references and end notes. The new version
17:38
Speaker 2: of it has seven hundred and ninety five. It's a
17:42
Speaker 2: lot bigger.
17:42
Speaker 1: Well, you do get into the band's twenty twenty five
17:45
Speaker 1: surprising reunion in this new version too.
17:48
Speaker 2: The book book covers their first reunion season up through
17:52
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four when they came back, and the audio
17:55
Speaker 2: book has. The book itself is seventy two chapters, but
17:59
Speaker 2: the audiobook includes twelve bonus chapters, if that gives you
18:03
Speaker 2: an idea of how much bonus material you get with
18:05
Speaker 2: the audio book. And four of those are about the
18:08
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five reunion season. And you know, among the
18:13
Speaker 2: interesting metrics from that, Slayer were one of the headlining
18:17
Speaker 2: bands for Back to the Beginning, the final Sabbage show. Right,
18:22
Speaker 2: So the bands that played after Slayer were Black Sabbath,
18:28
Speaker 2: Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica, Guns N' Roses, I always get the
18:34
Speaker 2: order of Metallica ENGI and are reversed. And then number
18:37
Speaker 2: five on an all time bill of all time greats
18:41
Speaker 2: everybody who is anybody in the hard rock world except
18:45
Speaker 2: Dave Mustag. That's a different topic. We cover him in
18:48
Speaker 2: the book. Then number five was Slayer. So when you
18:52
Speaker 2: had all the heaviest, best hard rock bands in the world,
18:56
Speaker 2: number five on the bill Slayer, And we cover that
18:59
Speaker 2: in the audio book, and it's not in the paperback.
19:03
Speaker 1: What about the Rick Rubin not yet the Rick Rubin
19:06
Speaker 1: watch for those who don't know what that is. Talk
19:08
Speaker 1: about that and any new info in this version in
19:11
Speaker 1: the new version.
19:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, this one, I really expand my my profile of
19:15
Speaker 2: Rick Rubin. This is my second Slayer book. The first
19:19
Speaker 2: one is part of the thirty three and a third series.
19:22
Speaker 2: Kind of a big deal if you follow music writing.
19:25
Speaker 2: It's all about Rain and Blood, which was Rick Rubin's
19:28
Speaker 2: first real rock record that he produced. So at that point,
19:31
Speaker 2: you know, he was barely known for the Beastie Boys
19:34
Speaker 2: that record. Yeah, I mean it was just sort of out,
19:39
Speaker 2: you know, it certainly was not the all time great album,
19:43
Speaker 2: wasn't recognized as such, But at that point, Rick Rubin
19:47
Speaker 2: was very much known as some New York dude in
19:51
Speaker 2: a leather jacket and long hair who produced rap. And
19:56
Speaker 2: now all these years later, he's worked with something like
19:58
Speaker 2: ten percent of the induct He's in the Rock and
20:00
Speaker 2: Roll Hall of Fame. You know. The last time I
20:02
Speaker 2: did the Math, Phil Spector was like maybe half that,
20:06
Speaker 2: and Slayer was his first step into a rock and
20:10
Speaker 2: roll production career, working with bands like Metallica, Black Sabbath,
20:15
Speaker 2: Johnny Cash, Red Hot Chili Peppers, so many greats. So
20:20
Speaker 2: the Rick Rubin Watches something that I added in this
20:22
Speaker 2: version of the book. It charged a lot of the
20:25
Speaker 2: pivotal moments where Ruben and the band had meaningful interactions
20:30
Speaker 2: where he really shaped things or maybe where they parted ways.
20:34
Speaker 2: You know, as a rock and roll fan, as a
20:38
Speaker 2: rock and roll writer, I think I have my PhD
20:41
Speaker 2: in Donnie Iris history. We still got to talk about
20:44
Speaker 2: Donnie Iris and the Cruisers, but I wrote a book
20:46
Speaker 2: about them, Like that's what I consider my doctor roal
20:49
Speaker 2: level project slayers sort of my masters I maybe I
20:53
Speaker 2: could have if there's a degree in slayer writing. I've
20:57
Speaker 2: written essentially three books about them at this point, because
21:00
Speaker 2: this new version is so new. But I think my
21:03
Speaker 2: undergraduate focus like my primary interview or my primary interest,
21:11
Speaker 2: you know, and somebody that liked his music when I
21:14
Speaker 2: was a civilian and somebody that still likes his music
21:16
Speaker 2: as a professional. My primary undergraduate degree, if you will,
21:21
Speaker 2: is in what I call Rick Rubinology, Rubenology, the study
21:25
Speaker 2: of Rick Rubin. You know, I'm big on uh. I've
21:29
Speaker 2: written a couple of motivational books and how to books,
21:32
Speaker 2: and I'm always interested in success. You know, how do
21:35
Speaker 2: people become successful, how do they become big, how do
21:38
Speaker 2: they become iconic? How do they do how do they
21:43
Speaker 2: do things that buck conventional wisdom? And just learn to
21:48
Speaker 2: operate themselves. You know, how can you be somebody like
21:50
Speaker 2: Ruben who on one hand is so unconventional and on
21:54
Speaker 2: the other hand is so successful. You know, He's a
21:58
Speaker 2: guy that started off produced and Aerosmith and run DMC,
22:05
Speaker 2: Beastie Boys, Slayer, and he would rise up to become
22:08
Speaker 2: the co head of Columbia Records. He didn't really have
22:13
Speaker 2: a title with them. He he's a zen kind of
22:17
Speaker 2: guy who's chill and doesn't need to say like I'm
22:19
Speaker 2: the president. So we chart the band's long relationship with him,
22:24
Speaker 2: and it's you know, by the time that Rubin really
22:31
Speaker 2: hit the stratosphere. By that point, Slayer had long been
22:34
Speaker 2: his longest client, his longest creative partner, and eventually that ended.
22:40
Speaker 2: And that's a great story too, kind of sad, but
22:43
Speaker 2: you know, things have a lifespan.
22:45
Speaker 1: Eric, Yeah, those stories are interesting to me. I'd love
22:49
Speaker 1: to read more about. There's a couple projects that he
22:51
Speaker 1: was involved with that I would love to read more
22:53
Speaker 1: about find out more about. One is there was a
22:57
Speaker 1: U two project that he was part of, and that
23:02
Speaker 1: album ever happened, although I think a lot of the
23:06
Speaker 1: songs ended up surfacing in various versions if I'm remember correctly.
23:11
Speaker 1: But the other one that's interesting is ACDC, and he
23:14
Speaker 1: worked with them on the ball Breaker album. I think
23:19
Speaker 1: right right, that's the one. And what I find interesting
23:22
Speaker 1: there is Malcolm and Angus. They didn't have anything anything
23:27
Speaker 1: bad to say about him, but they just said it
23:30
Speaker 1: didn't click.
23:31
Speaker 2: Yeah. As I say in the book, interpersonal chemistry is
23:34
Speaker 2: a weird thing. You know. Slayer is one of those
23:36
Speaker 2: bands that the first time they played together, it just
23:39
Speaker 2: instantly jelled for them, like this is us, this is
23:42
Speaker 2: what we do. Like the four of us are exponentially
23:46
Speaker 2: larger than just the four of us alone. And Rick
23:49
Speaker 2: Rubin and Slayer jelled on Rick Rubin and so many
23:53
Speaker 2: artists have jelled and have not jelled. Rubens has been
23:57
Speaker 2: very forthright and saying at that point he was just
24:00
Speaker 2: the young dude, and he was leading the charge, going
24:03
Speaker 2: come on, come on, go, go, go, go go. This
24:06
Speaker 2: is what we young dudes do. I am young, and
24:08
Speaker 2: I have all the energy.
24:09
Speaker 1: In the world.
24:10
Speaker 2: Let's do this. And ac DC at that point were
24:13
Speaker 2: a little bit older, and they prefer to just relax
24:17
Speaker 2: and you know, get two good takes in an afternoon
24:21
Speaker 2: and Ruben wanted them to do like seventeen different work habits.
24:27
Speaker 1: So that album's Solid's got some great songs on there.
24:30
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, you know he's done some great work. You know,
24:33
Speaker 2: he very much applied the you know, famously he applied
24:37
Speaker 2: the ac DC sound and template to the Cult and
24:40
Speaker 2: to Danzig to change those bands and really affect how
24:44
Speaker 2: they sound. But in the book, I have running headlines
24:48
Speaker 2: it says Rick Rubin watch audio book, and the book
24:52
Speaker 2: like this is where Rick Rubin is. You know, there's
24:54
Speaker 2: a ten page index to My late great dad was
24:58
Speaker 2: a scholar, and he used to say that should be
25:00
Speaker 2: illegal to publish a book without an index, and he
25:04
Speaker 2: made the point that it should be a federal law too,
25:06
Speaker 2: not just the state law. Federal. So I try to
25:10
Speaker 2: make it really easy to find things that you want,
25:12
Speaker 2: like through short titles. I try not to get too
25:16
Speaker 2: clever with the chapter titles. Index is making it easy
25:21
Speaker 2: to find what you want in the band's history. And
25:24
Speaker 2: if you want to know about Rick Rubin, there he is.
25:26
Speaker 1: So Yet you don't necessarily have to read it from
25:28
Speaker 1: start to finish. You could, but if you want to
25:30
Speaker 1: just kind of they can choose some portions I don't.
25:34
Speaker 2: Write for people that read on the toilet explicitly, but
25:39
Speaker 2: if you are a toilet reader, most of my books
25:43
Speaker 2: have a lot of short chapters. I believe in that,
25:45
Speaker 2: you know, make something that is easy to use. One
25:49
Speaker 2: time I was reading a book on a classic rock
25:52
Speaker 2: band that I like a lot, and it had ten
25:57
Speaker 2: chapters and it was four hundred pages, and I made
26:00
Speaker 2: it like maybe into the second chapter, like come on,
26:05
Speaker 2: I just want to hear about the bob o O'Reilly part.
26:07
Speaker 2: Why are you making me hunt for it? Right? No? Right,
26:11
Speaker 2: well on no forty page chapters. If you sit down
26:14
Speaker 2: and you're reading on the toilet, you can get something.
26:18
Speaker 1: Find the bookdown Rock website at booked on rock dot com.
26:22
Speaker 1: There you can find all the back episodes of the show,
26:24
Speaker 1: the latest episode in video and audio, links to all
26:27
Speaker 1: of the platforms where you can listen to the podcast,
26:29
Speaker 1: plus all the social media platforms were on Blue Sky, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok,
26:35
Speaker 1: and x Also check out the booked on Rock blog.
26:38
Speaker 1: Find your local independent bookstore, find out all the latest
26:41
Speaker 1: hot rockbook releases, and before you go, check out the
26:44
Speaker 1: booked on Rock online store. Pick up some booked on
26:47
Speaker 1: Rock merch. It's all at booked on rock dot Com.
26:51
Speaker 1: I mentioned this last time you're on. But it's written
26:54
Speaker 1: in your own voice. You have a great style. I
26:57
Speaker 1: love the way you write. And it's when you're reading it,
27:01
Speaker 1: it's like I'm hearing you. Now that I've had you
27:03
Speaker 1: on the show a couple of times, it's it's in
27:05
Speaker 1: your voice. I can just hear you.
27:07
Speaker 2: Oh well, thank you.
27:08
Speaker 1: It's you that really, you know.
27:10
Speaker 2: I think other versions of the book, the previous three
27:13
Speaker 2: editions flirted with what this version is. You know. At
27:18
Speaker 2: the first version of it, I was trying to sound
27:21
Speaker 2: professional and write like I think a writer should write
27:23
Speaker 2: in doing the things that writers do. And over the
27:27
Speaker 2: year leading up to the rewrite of this book, I
27:30
Speaker 2: was literally reading it out loud in my own voice
27:34
Speaker 2: and talking to people about it. That's why it's called
27:37
Speaker 2: talking to layer, Like I'm kind of reading it. I'm
27:40
Speaker 2: kind of reading it to you, but I'm talking to
27:42
Speaker 2: you as well, and that just really, you know, Once
27:45
Speaker 2: and Frog gave me the I don't know if you
27:48
Speaker 2: want to say confidence, but like it was like, this
27:50
Speaker 2: is me, this is my voice. You know, I've given
27:52
Speaker 2: up aspirations of you know, New York University inviting me
27:58
Speaker 2: to teach and be a professor. I'm just I'm being
28:01
Speaker 2: me at this point.
28:02
Speaker 1: Well, I love it.
28:03
Speaker 2: By reading the book, That's how I wound up rewriting
28:07
Speaker 2: the whole damn thing, basically, thank you.
28:10
Speaker 1: A couple other new things in this latest version. You
28:14
Speaker 1: get into Slayers, hazy and temporary breakup. Also new photos.
28:19
Speaker 1: What can you tell us about the new photos in
28:21
Speaker 1: the book? How many? What are we talking about?
28:23
Speaker 2: The previous version of the book had something like thirty
28:26
Speaker 2: three photos and images and those were stunning. That's still
28:30
Speaker 2: like probably the best stuff in the book. I'm not
28:32
Speaker 2: gonna lie because you have photos from guys like Harold
28:35
Speaker 2: Ohmen Oy Men, I always pronounce his name wrong. Harold
28:38
Speaker 2: oh famous photographer. Half of the book that is murdering
28:43
Speaker 2: the front row. I played bass for dri for a while,
28:48
Speaker 2: famous character. He took pictures at the band, including the
28:52
Speaker 2: shot on the cover. They just captured their soul. I mean,
28:56
Speaker 2: you look into Jeff Hanneman's eyes and that picure and
29:00
Speaker 2: like you're seeing that guy. It's perfect. It's an absolutely
29:04
Speaker 2: perfect depiction of Slayer as they emerge in the book.
29:08
Speaker 2: And then you have things like unpublished, well previously unpublished
29:12
Speaker 2: artwork from Albert Quaar who did The Hell of Weights
29:15
Speaker 2: and Live on Dead Picture disc. But on this new
29:19
Speaker 2: one photographer photograph fee is so much easier now. I
29:25
Speaker 2: went to their first reunion concert in Chicago in twenty
29:30
Speaker 2: twenty four, and I was able to get really close.
29:33
Speaker 2: And I'm not a good photographer, not necessarily, but when
29:36
Speaker 2: you have an iPhone, you can take a lot of
29:39
Speaker 2: pictures and you can do it really quickly, and if
29:41
Speaker 2: you take two hundred three hundred photos, forty of them
29:45
Speaker 2: might come out all right. So I did that.
29:48
Speaker 1: Some of those are the new version.
29:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, so a lot of those, you know, we got
29:51
Speaker 2: some good archival ones, you know, people that know them
29:54
Speaker 2: over the years. So it's a big expansion from all
29:59
Speaker 2: over the years. Interesting things to see.
30:01
Speaker 1: All right, Well, what can you tell us about this
30:04
Speaker 1: upcoming performance in twenty twenty six? This is for their
30:07
Speaker 1: fortieth anniversary of the Rain and Blood album.
30:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, we don't know yet, but I'm guessing it's going
30:13
Speaker 2: to be Raining Blood in its entirety in some way,
30:16
Speaker 2: shape or form, plus probably other hits. It's not a
30:19
Speaker 2: long album. It's twenty eight twenty nine minutes, but they've
30:24
Speaker 2: stated the intention that they are celebrating its birthday, so
30:27
Speaker 2: I'm guessing we're going to get that live in its entirety,
30:32
Speaker 2: something that I is neat to work. We talk about
30:36
Speaker 2: their famous DVD Still Raining in two thousand and three,
30:40
Speaker 2: give or take. They had the idea, like, our signature
30:45
Speaker 2: song is raining blood, wouldn't it be cool if we
30:48
Speaker 2: actually staged a show where it rained blood. Somebody mentioned
30:54
Speaker 2: that to them. They thought it was a bad idea,
30:56
Speaker 2: and then they thought of a way to do it.
30:58
Speaker 2: Sounded like a good idea that time, but you know,
31:01
Speaker 2: on it looks better on the video, but live like
31:05
Speaker 2: a bunch of like red liquid coming out backlit, it
31:09
Speaker 2: just didn't look that good, you know. I mean, they
31:13
Speaker 2: went the full nine. It was an impressive production. They
31:16
Speaker 2: really thought it through. They did it the best humanly possible,
31:19
Speaker 2: but red stuff ripping out of the sky live on
31:22
Speaker 2: stage not that exciting. It looks cool in the video,
31:25
Speaker 2: But what they've done with these past couple reunion shows,
31:29
Speaker 2: you know, I thought something that really impressed me about
31:32
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty five reunion versus the twenty twenty four
31:36
Speaker 2: was how different it was, you know, they had a
31:39
Speaker 2: really good, really impressive visual presentation in twenty twenty four,
31:44
Speaker 2: and it would have been the easiest thing in the
31:46
Speaker 2: world to just dust that off and play it again.
31:49
Speaker 2: But you know, I think at least half of it,
31:52
Speaker 2: at very least was new, and probably more than that.
31:55
Speaker 2: And part of what they did was they really refined
31:58
Speaker 2: the reigning blood part of it. Between like the led
32:02
Speaker 2: backdrop and between the visuals and the red fog and
32:06
Speaker 2: the red lights, it really look like a three D
32:09
Speaker 2: Like now it all came together like it looked like
32:11
Speaker 2: a blood rain. You didn't have to look closely and
32:14
Speaker 2: realize like is that red blood? I guess, So, like
32:19
Speaker 2: now it looks like they can really put it together.
32:21
Speaker 2: So I think, like it's really going to be literally
32:25
Speaker 2: worth seeing, Like what are they going to do to
32:28
Speaker 2: visually present this classic album? And I think it'll be good.
32:33
Speaker 1: They've got some time because it's not until late October. Yeah,
32:37
Speaker 1: and it's in Texas. I forget the venue.
32:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's one of them. I think they're doing a
32:40
Speaker 2: series of them, but Texas I think is going to
32:42
Speaker 2: be the first one back.
32:44
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, Well, for those who want to hear
32:47
Speaker 1: Faris talk more about the book, check out episode three
32:51
Speaker 1: hundred and four of Booked on Rock. Wherever you listen
32:54
Speaker 1: to the podcast, you can just go to bookd on
32:56
Speaker 1: rock dot com under the episode and search for it there.
32:59
Speaker 1: If you like, could also watch the episode on YouTube.
33:02
Speaker 1: But yeah, go out to see the.
33:04
Speaker 2: Happiest gorilla talk slayer. Check out the video of.
33:08
Speaker 1: Right that was when you were in you were in
33:10
Speaker 1: a different room or is it the same room you're
33:12
Speaker 1: in now, just for the same room, different angle, different angle,
33:15
Speaker 1: trying to switch it up, you know, giving you variety.
33:19
Speaker 2: If the whole house caught on fire, you know, once
33:23
Speaker 2: I got my kids out, this thing right there, this thing, Yeah,
33:28
Speaker 2: my dad had that in his office. He used to
33:31
Speaker 2: spend a lot of time in his office, and I
33:32
Speaker 2: would go down and visit him, Like, that's what I
33:35
Speaker 2: would say if the house caught on fire, Like my
33:37
Speaker 2: dad had that in his office and my my mom's
33:40
Speaker 2: mom once visited my office and she looked at it
33:44
Speaker 2: in horror. The ground was like, oh my god, this
33:48
Speaker 2: looks like Sumner Feris' office. Well I wasn't going for that,
33:53
Speaker 2: but yeah, okay, yeah, feel good well.
33:57
Speaker 1: Slayers sixty six and two third a metal Band by Eyes,
34:00
Speaker 1: the oversize edition, post reunion update, fourth edition, reborn and remastered.
34:06
Speaker 1: I think I got it all.
34:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a lot there. It's available in five editions.
34:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, tell us about that? Okay, so where can people
34:14
Speaker 1: go to get it?
34:16
Speaker 2: Like, I don't like asking for support, I'm not comfortable
34:19
Speaker 2: with it, but you guys got to help me out
34:21
Speaker 2: because I made this decision, which is the kind of
34:24
Speaker 2: thing you can do in independent publishing. I was so
34:27
Speaker 2: happy with myself when I thought about this, and I
34:30
Speaker 2: didn't realize how it would affect my Amazon charts and
34:33
Speaker 2: book performance. The book itself exists in four versions, and
34:38
Speaker 2: now there's an audio book. But I didn't realize that
34:40
Speaker 2: every one of those four versions would count as a
34:43
Speaker 2: different product. So instead of all my numbers being pushed
34:49
Speaker 2: in one source, like they're cut between four different versions.
34:53
Speaker 1: Oh I see.
34:54
Speaker 2: So yeah, but I still think it was the right
34:56
Speaker 2: thing to do. You know, as an independent publisher, I
34:59
Speaker 2: can do that. I can do it because it's cool.
35:01
Speaker 2: So it exists in an uncut version that has all
35:04
Speaker 2: the everything, that's like a six x nine edition. It
35:07
Speaker 2: exists in a coffee table version, and because that one
35:10
Speaker 2: is bigger, and it has larger type. There's a limit
35:13
Speaker 2: on how many pages you can have, so it doesn't
35:16
Speaker 2: have as many reference sections, and a lot of Slayer
35:19
Speaker 2: fans aren't in this for the bibliography of it all,
35:22
Speaker 2: you know, I get that it still has full references.
35:25
Speaker 2: So there's a coffee table side version. Some people don't
35:28
Speaker 2: want to hear all this stuff. Some people love Slayer,
35:31
Speaker 2: but they don't want six hundred and sixty six pages
35:34
Speaker 2: worth of it. So I wrote a version that is
35:37
Speaker 2: just the It's called the Long Story, short dot dot
35:42
Speaker 2: dot and cheaper version that has no kind of digressions,
35:46
Speaker 2: no kind of background about thrash metal, has a lot
35:49
Speaker 2: less about how Dave Mustain influenced that, a lot less
35:53
Speaker 2: contrast with Metallica and Slayer's career, and it's nothing but
35:57
Speaker 2: the chronological story of Slayers. So if you don't want
35:59
Speaker 2: to hear the sociological significance of Slayer and all this
36:04
Speaker 2: nerdy stuff, and you don't want to read the Review
36:06
Speaker 2: of Literature and Methodology, you can just have the short version.
36:11
Speaker 2: And then there's the e book, which is mostly in
36:13
Speaker 2: color for the pictures that were available in color. That's cheap,
36:19
Speaker 2: that has like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of live
36:22
Speaker 2: hyperlinks in it. So as you're flipping through the e
36:25
Speaker 2: book and I'm talking about this incredible show that happened
36:28
Speaker 2: in Philly in nineteen ninety three or whatever, you can
36:31
Speaker 2: tap it see the show right there. And then there's
36:35
Speaker 2: now the audiobook. The audiobook has a lot of bonus material,
36:39
Speaker 2: and like I said, it's a very long book, a
36:41
Speaker 2: lot of research, a lot of work went into it,
36:43
Speaker 2: but now you don't even have to read it.
36:48
Speaker 1: Hey, guys, thanks so much for checking out the Book
36:50
Speaker 1: down Rock podcast. If you've just found the podcast, welcome.
36:53
Speaker 1: If you've been listening, thank you so much for your support,
36:56
Speaker 1: and make sure you tell a friend, a family member,
36:59
Speaker 1: share on social media and let people know about Booked
37:02
Speaker 1: on Rock. And if you do like the podcast, make
37:04
Speaker 1: sure you subscribe, give a five star review. Wherever you
37:07
Speaker 1: listen to the Booked on Rock podcast, run Amazon, Apple, Iheartspotify, Spreaker,
37:13
Speaker 1: tune in, and on YouTube music. You can check out
37:15
Speaker 1: the full episodes on video, along with video highlights from
37:18
Speaker 1: episodes on the Booked on Rock YouTube channel. Find it
37:21
Speaker 1: at Booked on Rock. Thanks again for listening. Now back
37:25
Speaker 1: to the show. All these versions are on Amazon.
37:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, all these are on Amazon. For the audio book,
37:35
Speaker 2: band camp is the best place to get it. It's
37:37
Speaker 2: my favorite place to get it. Slayerbook dot Bandcamp dot
37:41
Speaker 2: com gives you a lot of different options for downloading
37:44
Speaker 2: it because it's a big file. But you can also
37:47
Speaker 2: get it at Amazon and Audible.
37:49
Speaker 1: All right, well, I'll try to get Okay, get the
37:51
Speaker 1: Amazon link up there, and I'll get the band camplink
37:53
Speaker 1: up there, and.
37:54
Speaker 2: Yes, in this show notes with an S on the
37:57
Speaker 2: endslare books dot com. We'll get you to all the
37:59
Speaker 2: Amazon on stuff.
38:00
Speaker 1: Oh okay, cool, all right, Slayer books dot Com, and
38:03
Speaker 1: then you have the band camp. I'll put a link
38:05
Speaker 1: up in the show notes there. All right, Dix Ferris Fairs.
38:10
Speaker 2: I hope you won't be embarrassed by this, but I
38:12
Speaker 2: gotta let your audience. No, you offered to do this
38:15
Speaker 2: interview December twenty third. I did gave you a pass
38:20
Speaker 2: on that. But that's the kind of dude that Eric is.
38:23
Speaker 1: I was stressing. I was like, man, I want to
38:25
Speaker 1: get I want to get I want to get him
38:28
Speaker 1: on during the holiday season to get some hot.
38:32
Speaker 2: But I mean, that's the hardest working man in the business.
38:34
Speaker 2: You're going to take time out of drinking coco and
38:37
Speaker 2: singing Carol put on a show for your people.
38:40
Speaker 1: That's right.
38:41
Speaker 2: But I wanted to have you back as far as
38:43
Speaker 2: I know, he's the only guy in the whole biz
38:45
Speaker 2: that really actually reads the books. It's crazy, isn't it.
38:49
Speaker 1: Isn't it? Well? And I should actually, now I should
38:52
Speaker 1: listen to your book. Yeah, no, you don't have to
38:55
Speaker 1: exactly now I was. It's great to have you back on.
38:58
Speaker 1: And hey know, are you predicting more versions of this
39:02
Speaker 1: in the future.
39:03
Speaker 2: I mean, the longest version is six hundred and thirty
39:06
Speaker 2: nine pages. I'm not going I'm not gonna stop within
39:09
Speaker 2: a stone's throw of six hundred and sixty six. You know.
39:13
Speaker 1: But in Donnie Iris book, is that something you said
39:18
Speaker 1: you already wrote a Donnie Iris book. Yeah.
39:20
Speaker 2: The Donnie Iris Book came out in twenty seventeen. It
39:23
Speaker 2: is before such a thing was trendy. It was a
39:26
Speaker 2: seventy five for seventy five book. Donnie had turned seventy
39:31
Speaker 2: five that year, and it has seventy five chapters.
39:34
Speaker 1: Because that's what I'd like to have you back on
39:36
Speaker 1: to talk about Donnie Iris.
39:37
Speaker 2: Have you accepted Donnie Iris as your personal savior?
39:41
Speaker 1: I have not yet.
39:42
Speaker 2: I have not yet. Let me tell you about the
39:44
Speaker 2: good news about Donnie Iris. If you like nineteen eighties music,
39:50
Speaker 2: Donna Iris is a guy that you probably have heard.
39:53
Speaker 2: But he's a guy you should know his career. He
39:56
Speaker 2: had hot one hundred hits with not one, not two,
40:00
Speaker 2: but three different acts over the span of like nineteen years,
40:04
Speaker 2: Still going Strong, Beat Cancer, Knock on Wood, Shandanie Donnie
40:09
Speaker 2: And It's just it's a story about a version of
40:13
Speaker 2: America that is not there anymore.
40:16
Speaker 1: Well, Alia is one of the best songs of the
40:20
Speaker 1: classic rock era.
40:21
Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying. A bliss one hundred and twenty
40:25
Speaker 2: audio tracks, gloriously stacked together, I mean, real world class production.
40:30
Speaker 2: Guys in the band played with Kiss, They played with
40:33
Speaker 2: Trent Reznor, played with Joe Walsh, played with made a
40:38
Speaker 2: record with Gamble and Huff. All sorts of colorful stuff there.
40:41
Speaker 2: But that's another story.
40:43
Speaker 1: Eighty two years and year old and still going from
40:46
Speaker 1: Elwood City, Pennsylvania.
40:48
Speaker 2: You cannot stop him. You can only hope to contain him.
40:51
Speaker 1: All right, now, Wait a minute, what Wild Cherry played
40:53
Speaker 1: the funky music. He's on that.
40:56
Speaker 2: Not that he and the bandly from the Cruisers met
41:01
Speaker 2: in Wild Cherry, but the band leader of the Cruisers
41:06
Speaker 2: joined Wild Cherry right after they had recorded that song,
41:10
Speaker 2: but before they had finished the record. To his credit,
41:14
Speaker 2: Mark Avsek, Donnie Iris's band leader, creative partner. He joined
41:20
Speaker 2: the band and the management said, hey, you're a good
41:23
Speaker 2: music guy. What would you do with this record? Play
41:25
Speaker 2: that funky music? It's pretty good, right, how would you
41:28
Speaker 2: change it? In two? Mark's credit, this is the kind
41:30
Speaker 2: of guy he is. Instead of saying, well, this is
41:33
Speaker 2: what I would do to put my stamp on it,
41:35
Speaker 2: he was smart enough to listen to it and go
41:39
Speaker 2: I wouldn't do anything to it. It's great. Leave it alone.
41:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, love is like a rock I forgot about two man.
41:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, that absolutely. It went on a tear. They have one, two, three,
41:52
Speaker 2: four Monster Records in a row and plenty of good
41:55
Speaker 2: stuff after that.
41:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll have a Donnie Iris episode. We'll make that happen,
42:00
Speaker 1: all right, Ferris, Thanks.
42:02
Speaker 2: Thanks man, Happy New Year, New Year. You didn't have
42:06
Speaker 2: to have me on twice, but you did. You didn't
42:08
Speaker 2: have to have me on once, but you did. I appreciate.
42:10
Speaker 1: I'm happy to do it. Man and all the best
42:12
Speaker 1: on the latest version of the book. Happy New Year
42:15
Speaker 1: and we will see you again soon.
42:17
Speaker 2: Marry New Year. Thanks for listening.
42:18
Speaker 1: Everybody.
42:27
Speaker 2: That's it. It's in the books.