Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / Surviving the Storm: The Resilient Journey of The Continental Drifters [Episode 217]

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Surviving the Storm: The Resilient Journey of The Continental Drifters [Episode 217] · Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We're totally boomed rock and roll.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: I mean gotta leave you.
• 0:05
  Speaker 3: You're reading little hands this, It's time to rock and roll, rock.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Roll up.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: We are totally booked. Welcome back to book don Rock,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: the podcast for those about to read and rock. Find
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the podcast at bookdown rock dot com. Every episode of
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Booked on Rock is there in both audio and video.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Got exclusive video segments from each episode a blog. Also
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: find out what the latest rock book releases are. Check
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: it all out at bookdon rock dot com. Well, what
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: a great show this was. Sean Kelly and Mark Walton.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: They were this episode's guest, and Shawn is the author
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: of White Noise and Lightning the Continental Drifters Story. It's
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: the authorized biography of the Continental Drifters. It's dueout September
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: twenty seventh. There's also a best of album throughout September
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: thirteenth that we're going to talk about. Mark is the
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: band's basis and founding member. The book follows ten disparate
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: musicians from humble beginnings at a dive bar residency in
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Los Angeles, through lineup changes, addiction, marriages, the forces, and
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: industry letdowns. They were composed of members of the Bengals,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: the cow Hills, the Dream Syndicate, the DBS and more.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: They found each other because they've been burned by the
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: music industry and sought refuge in a free wheeling environment
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: where they could experiment without constraint. When everything fell apart
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: in New Orleans a decade later, they ended up with
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: so much more. A playlist of the Continental Drifters is
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: on the show notes page. First, let's talk to Sean
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Kelly and Mark Walton. Sean and Mark, welcome to the podcast.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Great to meet you guys.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: Thanks, nice to meet you.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: To Eric.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Sean and your introduction. You like in the band's chemistry
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: to that of Fleetwood Mac how many highs and lows?
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: A lot of turmoil as you write, yet the musical
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: chemistry undeniable. Band member Pete Hull's apple Is that pronounced correctly?
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Peter Wholesapple likens the band to a quote locomotive going downhill.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: So could you take us back to the formation of
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: the band and where did this all take place? How
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: did the band come together? If you guys want to
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: kind of share back and forth on that story.
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: Mark that to you because I was, like, I think
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: I was born like a month before the band started.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: So Mark was only like six or seven when he
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: was than wow, child prodigy.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Yea. So so well, you know, the band was not
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: you know, we didn't do it on purpose. You know,
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: we just did it out of you know, friendship first
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: and foremost. We uh, Carlo Nucio and myself had been
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: playing with a different band and you know, they kind
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: of got thrown out of that band and Carlo quit,
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: and you know, we started talking about maybe putting a
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: band together, but not really. It was more like Carlo
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: at that time was playing all these songs in the
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: living room. We were living together and trying to figure
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: out what to do. But he started writing these songs
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: were just incredible, and I was like, dude, you got
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: to do something. He was like, well, well, will you
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: be my bass player if I put a band together.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah, of course I will. Carlo, but then
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: he would never do it. And one night we were
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: at Molly Malone's pub on Fairfax and I signed him
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: up for a one of these open mic night kind
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: of things, and he didn't know it. He wasn't there yet.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: He shows up and also they call his name and
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: they pull him up on stage and he's kind of
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: mad at me for it, but you know, he started
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: playing these songs and he was doing in the living room.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: People just freaked out. They were loving it, and so
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: I think at that moment he realized, yeah, maybe we
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: have something there. But then, you know, his friend Ray
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: Ganishau from the Louisiana moved to Los Angeles because he
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: was working for a software manufacturer and he's great, and
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: we just started just playing these songs in his basement
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: for you know, like a week or two, and then
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: we went, wait, this is really good. So we started
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: just finding other friends to come and play. And we
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: didn't do anything. We didn't go to a club, we
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: didn't do that. We just sat in our bachelor pad
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: and played these songs until one day we thought, well,
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: let's just go find a show to play. So we
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: booked a gig at the club Lingerie in Hollywood and
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: that was it. It was right before Christmas of nineteen
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: ninety one. And so starting nineteen ninety two, we set
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: up a you know, Roger's a every Tuesday night show
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: that we didn't know what it was going to do.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: We just set up and did this you know show
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: that we would put together friends and family and whoever
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: wanted to show up because there was no opening band
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: any night. It was incredible because we had never done
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: anything like that before in our previous band. So it
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: was nice to be able to sit and just play songs.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: And it was covers. It was our own songs, it
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: was our friends songs, it was anyone. Everything was up
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: for grabs at that point.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: It reminded me of the Tuesday Night Music Club. It
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: was Sheryl Crow's album title. I think that was she
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: was jamming every Tuesday. But yeah, the rajis every Tuesday,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: but every Tuesday. It was organic, right, just oh.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: It was very organic, you know. It was funny the
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: Tuesday night thing. It was funny because I had friends
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: that we would go to bars to say, hey, we
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: just want to hang out and have our friends come over.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: And we would say, you know, we don't want anything,
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: we just want to be able to, you know, play
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: and do stuff. And it was always Tuesday nights. We
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: moved from like five different bars to do that. So
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: it was funny that when you know, Carlo is the
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: one who talked to Roger used to, you know, see
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: if we can actually get in there and do it
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: he uh, so he organized it and didn't realize I
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: already had been doing something similar to that on a
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Tuesday night. So it was a good extension for me
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: and then you know, for the band. At that point
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: it was a fun experience.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: And then a lot has happened since then. I was
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: going to say, Sean, how did you get involved with
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: this and what led to this book? But go ahead
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: if you have some thoughts.
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: Oh no, I was just going to add that also,
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: like part of the reason that I think, I mean,
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: based on my research and all this mark you can confirm,
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: like I think part of the reason that like this
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: call this all ended up where it did at roger
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: specifically was because they were kind of the only venue
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: that wasn't doing pay to play at the time, because
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: that was still a big thing like late eighties or
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: early nineties. That was that was kind of what was happening,
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: and all these like you know, at the Whiskey and
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: all these other venues in LA and like Roger's was
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: kind of like, we don't give a shit.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a good punk It was a punk
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: rock club. In fact, everybody around us was like, what
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: are you doing? You're not a punk band you should
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: be playing. Well, we have punk, we are punk, you know,
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: for exactly more than more than those punk bands. But again,
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: you know, it's one of those things where we were
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: very happy to get in there and do that. So yeah,
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: the other clubs were calling, though, they were saying, hey,
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: we want you to play. I'm like, well, I don't
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: like your politics, I don't like the way you do business.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: I was really in their face about this. Until you
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: change that, we won't play your club. I was just
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: adamant about it. I was never going to play any
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: of those clubs that we're going to say, you know,
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: you know, they would give us carte blanche to come
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  Speaker 2: in and play, but not anybody else. So no, we refused,
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: and Roger's became our home away from home. And it
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: was more fun that way too, because we had the
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: whole night, We had the whole bar of beer as
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: much as we wanted to drink, and you know, so
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  Speaker 2: it was a good fun place for us to be.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, and again, so much has happened since then.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: We're going to try to cover as much as we can.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: But what led to this book? And Sean, how did
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: you get involved with the project.
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so I've been telling the origin story like a
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: few times now, and I try to get it a
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: little shorter every time because I can. It's it could
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: get really long. But basically, like I somebody joked that
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: I might be the only person who ever who discovered
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: the Drifters before I knew like Dream Syndicate and the
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: Bengals and the DBS and stuff in the Cowsels, which
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: probably is I don't know if that's actually true, but
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: like it's highly possible. Maybe yeah, that knew of the
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: Drifters before any of the other stuff, But that's really
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: the case, like I was. I mean, I honestly I
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: have basically Hooting and the Blowfish to thank for it.
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: Because when Crackterview came out, I was probably three years old.
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: This was like ninety four, and they were kind of
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: the band that every house in America had the CD
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: and you know, in their CD player for a year basically,
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: and my family was no different. And the biggest thing
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: that Hoodie gave me was they introduced me to Ram
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: because they were big Ram fans, and so the what's
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: the link between those two bands was always Peter Hoholes Apple.
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: So like I, by the you know, I'm like seven
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: or eight years old at this point, and I'm slowly
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: discovering bands, and you know, I don't know, somehow the
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: Drifters kept like popping up like in various places or
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: I just kind of started, like it became this thing
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: that I would see the band name or like there,
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: you know, Hoody. I go to a hoodie show or
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: something and Peter was wearing the Drift a Drifter shirt
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: or whatever. So it became kind of a little mysterious.
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: And I guess I was probably seven or eight, and I,
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: you know, looked the band up and this is like,
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: you know, I don't remember the name of Like there's
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: some jukebox like app or something on the Windows computers
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: at the time that I would like it's like Internet
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: radio app, and I would look up bands and that's
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: kind of where it started. And I just loved the
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: records and and I think I bought for million like
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: maybe like a year or so after the band actually
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: broke up. So that was when I got a little
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: older and I could actually like save up a little
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: allowance money or whatever and go buy my own CDs.
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: That's what I was doing. And then I met Susan
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: Cowseil and there's a whole you know, they all got
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: into the band at Roger's and stuff. That's the whole
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: other thing that kind of happened. But I met Susan
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: at a Hoodie show. She was opening for Hoodie, and
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: it was like completely she wasn't supposed to be on
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: the bill, Like it was some freak thing where she
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: happened to be in Buffalo, New York at the same time,
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: and they threw on the book because the direct support
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: dropped out or something. So I was like thirteen years
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: old and I'm walking in and I and she's sound
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: checking and I heard her voice and I was like,
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: is that Susan Cowsel? And I was like freaking out.
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: And my dad saw her at the merch table after
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: the set, and he was like, you got to go
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: up and talk to her, and I was like, I can't,
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: I'm too shy. So he kind of pushed me over
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: there and I told her. I was like, Hi, my
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: name is Sean, and I'm a I'm a big fan
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: of the Drifters. And she her response was something to
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: the effect of like bullshit. She she she I think
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: she may words, yeah she does. Yeah, I think she
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: probably thought my dad put me up to it or something,
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: but I was aspe to god, I'm really a fan
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: and I had just started writing songs, so I kind
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: of told her that and then we stayed in touch
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: and I sent her like demos I was working on.
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: And long story short, met Peter the next year kind
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: of under similar circumstances, and I sent them some demos,
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: and you know, that whole like Wholesapple Castle Brussard family
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: kind of became over the course of the next few
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: years like family friends basically. So and then like you know,
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: they played on my band's record and like like several
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: of our records actually, so yeah, and then it's like
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: two thousand and nine, the Drifters did a reunion show
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: in New Orleans at Carlton Station, and we were like, oh,
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: we should asking go down and open that show. So
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: I think we called Peter or something and he must
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: have convinced the rest of you guys to let us open.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: And I didn't convince us. We just said yes, yeah, yeah.
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: Basically, you must have been like, well, if they want
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: to drive from New York to New Orleans to open, sure,
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: go for it. That's what we did. We drove down
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: there and and it was it was the best. It was.
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: It was amazing, and it was like that that lore
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: of the Drifters that I'd always heard they played these
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: four hour shows and shit, and it was just like
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: it was incredible. And then the book kind of came
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: into play. I had flown out to la to see
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: the Reaunion show in twenty fifteen, the two shows that
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: they did at the Morgan Wickson Theater and Santa Monica,
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: I think, and it was all ten people who'd ever
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: been in the band. It was the first time that
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: they'd ever been on stage together. And I was like,
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: I gotta go out and see those shows. So I
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: flew out saw those shows and I stayed with Vicky
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: Peterson and and it was a blast. And I remember
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: sitting there and thinking, like just thinking about the history
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: of it and thinking like, why the fuck hasn't anybody
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: written a book about this band? And but it's kind
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: of going like I'm sort of thinking like I can
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: never be me, I guess, you know. And in the interim,
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: my day jobs were all like journalism and stuff like that,
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: So I don't know, I just I just it was
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: an idea. And then maybe three years ago something or
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: three years later, about twenty eighteen, I was actually out
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: playing bass with the cow Sills and the idea had
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: kind of popped into my head again, and so I
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: was like, man, I should just ask him. And I
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: asked Susan and Russ, kind of thinking that like if
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: they say yes, it might be cool. Like if Susan
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: and Russ are enthusiastic about it, then it maybe everybody else,
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: maybe you would be And they said yeah, So that's
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: kind of how it started.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: But you know what, Sean, when you told me you
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: wanted to do it, because because first of all, you
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: told your mom told you you have to write a book.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: That why, That's what convinced me that you have to
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: do it.
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: So it is My mom's growing up was always like
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: you're you're going to write a book one day, and
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: and she died. She died in twenty seventeen, in July
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: twenty seventeen. It was like a year before kind of
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: this started for me. And yeah, that her voice was
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: kind of like in my head a little bit like
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: that's awesome, should probably do this.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: Podcasts. We'll be back after this. Now you wait here,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: I'll be right back, Mark, I would say, Sean is
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: a perfect guy to write the book. I mean he's
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: got obviously, just from what he's telling us now, I
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: mean he could write. But also he's he has a
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: genuine passion for the band, knowledge for the band and music.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: So I mean, you couldn't find a better person to
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: tell the story, right.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: It's just it is funny that we have somebody that
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: wasn't even born when we started that. Ye.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: Well, that's what I was going to ask you Mark
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: about because part of your story, Sean, is is that
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: you came along at a time when when Internet is
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: taking off and you have YouTube and you have all
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: these avenues there. Yes, there are downsides to the current
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: state of music, the business side of things with streaming
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: and all that, But on the other side of it
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: is you can discover these bands through YouTube and through
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: various avenues. Am I right about that? Is that? Is
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: that a benefit? Mark? Did you find you get more
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: fans because of the East it's easily too easy accessibility
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: to your band and other bands?
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, to a certain degree. I think the Internet is
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: good for the people that are looking for something specific, right,
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: So are they looking for us?
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: I don't know that, But algorithms could take take them
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: to you. It could, right, it could, you know.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: I mean we've been out of commission for quite a
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: few years, so I mean, you know, we weren't really
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: on anyone's lips or you know, in their fourth you
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: know there. I don't even know what I'm thinking, but
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: I don't think they they didn't know that we were
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: there to even look for.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: I think as well, Yeah, well, there's something though to
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: the idea of like having to go to a record
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: store to find somebody's record like that. I remember, like,
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: I mean, I grew up at the at the tail
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: end of that essentially, where that just kind of stopped
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: happening by the time I was thirteen or fourteen and there.
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: But there is something to that of like like if
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: you find a band, you have to kind of go
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: get the record to find it, and uh, there's something
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: fun about that. But yeah, I do think, I actually
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: really think like part of this project that made sense
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: to me was that there was a potential for people
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: to maybe find the Drifters through a new avenue. I mean,
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: I think like part of the thing that we talk
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: about in the book a lot is like how the
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: band kind of pushed against a little bit the idea
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: of marketing itself around like Bengals Coucils, Stream Syndicate, dbi's
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: like all that stuff, because it was kind of reductive,
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: and you know, I think sometimes even people probably showed up,
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: you know, Bengals family would show up thinking the Drifters
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: were gonna play walk like in Egyptian or something.
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: Like that, and they did all the time.
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And so it's like there's that element of it too,
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: where like like you can find the Drifters through those bands,
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: but it's kind of fun to like, I mean, and
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: that's the thing that's fun about it, is the family
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: tree kind of thing. But like it when you live,
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: when you discover them, you kind of go, oh, this
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: is not that at all. This is kind of different.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: Well, this book's going to help. And then I put
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: a playlist of the Continental Drifters in the show notes page.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: You click the link you can go listen to this
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: band because there's such an eclactic mix there, like a
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: song like when you dance, it's like I'm hearing like
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: Neil Young and Crosby Stills A Nash and Don't Do
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: What I Did as one of my favorites, like A
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: straight ahead rocker. But there's country, there's Americana. So Mark,
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: how would you best describe the music of the Continental Drifters.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: I think we are just a good family band that
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: likes to play music. It's rock and roll to me,
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: you know, I do think, Yes, we were on the
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: forefront of Americana before it existed, and people were pushing
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: us in that direction. But again, we had pop songs,
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: we had you know, psychedelic songs. We had all kinds
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: of things that are in our wheelhouse. That was, you know,
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: part of what we are. So we don't we can't
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: ignore that either. We didn't want to say, oh, we're
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: just an Americana folk band, which you know, we are that.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: But you know, I think we just we we're a
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: music band.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Rock and roll, the rock and roll.
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: It's all rock and roll to me, you know. It's yeah,
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: all those albums, you know, they you know, the last one,
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: Better Days, more of our probably a rock record more
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: than the other ones. But there's still, you know, beautiful
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: ballads and I think there's something for everyone.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: Book on Rock podcast. We'll be back after this when
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: when patients absence makes the heart grow fonder. You mentioned
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Chris Susan cow Hills. We did mention Peter Holz Apple
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: worked with Rim hooding the blow Face Vicki Peterson. The
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: band goes how did they end up entering the Continental
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Drifters story because Peter it was a little hesitant to
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: join another band when he met the guys. Right, so
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: they're not all original members. They kind of joined, They
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: jine in in some jam sessions, right, That's kind of
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: how it starts.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: Well again, our Tuesday Night Roger's was that we invited
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: everybody that we you know, our friends and other people.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: I mean, I owned a rehearsal studio and it's still
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: there in Los Angeles, but you know, I had so
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: many great bands coming in and out and I knew
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: them all, you know, like, hey, what are you doing
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: tomorrow night? You know, once you come down and hang
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: out and if you want to play, you can just
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: you know, we would give people our instruments or you know,
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: a solo artist they can go up there and sing,
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: or we would just back them, you know. And they
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: was like, oh, we'll take that option. You should play
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: my song and I'll sing it. We're like, great, we'll
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: do that. So that happened all the time. I mean
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: every Tuesday night that was going on, so you know,
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: we played the whole night usually with you know, ourselves
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: playing three hour sets, and then we would have all
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: our friends and I guess some people would just show
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: up and heard, hey, I hear you guys, will let
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: us play? And we're like, well kind of, but sure,
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: why not come up? We don't know who you are.
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: There was a band called Ancient Chinese Penis that showed
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: up where to God, and I said, sure.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Of course, can I google them? Let's see what we
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: can find.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: I don't know if you'll find.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I want that my search history.
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: Wow, well I'll just add to that though. Like the
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: I think the thing that was so fascinating about like
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: Vicky and Susan and Peter are joining the band specifically,
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: is that it like, yes, there were a lot of
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: people showing up on any given Tuesday, but something like
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: was different. I guess with them it was different enough
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: where like there was some someing that maybe clicked in
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: them that like there was it was a chemistry I
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: think that probably was exclusive to everyone that was between
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: these people that all became members actually members. And the
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: weird thing is like they everyone kind of knew each
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: other a little bit, like Peter and Vicki had met
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: like on the road somewhere in the mid eighties, and
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: I don't they might have both been on the same
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: label at that point, like like dream Sendic Get Like
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: you guys, I think you played with the DB's at
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: some point you both for the rim, like the Peter
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: when he met Susan and Vicki was producing Barry Cowcil
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: and that's how he met Susan, and Vicky had been
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: writing with Susan. And then you Mark, you already knew
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: the cow Sils because they were rehearsing at Uncle and
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: all this stuff. It's like everybody kind of knew each
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: other a little bit, like either like well or kind
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: of like peripherally knew each other. And then but it
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: was like this draw of Raji's, like they go there
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: and watch the show or sit in, and it was
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: like this hook that kind of drew everyone in and
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: then all of a sudden, like you're just in a
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: band together. It's kind of this weird thing where it
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: was like this like it was like as if they
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: were being pulled to Raji's, like everything that they had
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: gone through in the music industry and in various bands.
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: Was kind of pulling them towards Raji's in nineteen ninety
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: two or something.
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: It's kind of freakyated, like, yeah, it was funny because
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: you know weird, you know, Susan, it was. You know,
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: the castles were actually rehearsing one night and Vicky was
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: in the room with them. They came back out and
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: I mentioned to them, Hey, we're playing Roger's tomorrow. Once
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: you come down, we do this thing and if you
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: want to sing, and they're like, you know, I mentioned, like,
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: you know, you know, we have all these people like, well,
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: who comes down? I said, well, like Peter holes up
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: and they're like, oh my god. So Peter was the
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: hook when I cause he was. He came down one
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: night and he just thought it was the greatest thing
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: he's ever done, and he just wanted to come back
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: every week. So he was there every week that we
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: you know that he could make it at least, so
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: you know, Peter brought them in and you know, when
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: I told him that Peter was producing Barry, that was
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: it kind of because they they the councils hadn't actually
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: talked to Barry. It a while. At that point, he
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: kind of disappeared, so they're like, what Barry's So it
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: just this whole winding tale just got really depth, you know,
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: a lot of depth to it. And I wanted to
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: make sure that everybody was happy when they came. So,
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: you know, you want to play five songs, ten songs,
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: will do. It doesn't matter. And we because we didn't
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: want to play our songs all night long anyways, we
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: wanted to just hang out and and play with as
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: many people as we could. And again, they were all
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: we all knew each other, but we didn't know each
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: other that well, and it was the music itself that
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: everybody was addicted to at that point. They had to
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: come back for more and they wanted just to be
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: a part of it. And it was just a really
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: weird feeling for me, you know, like because that's what
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: I always wanted to do, and I'm like, this is it.
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: I'm happy and it's only a punk club in Hollywood
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: and I'm only making enough money to buy my beer
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: for the night. But yeah, hey, I was fine with that.
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: I just wanted to have that last forever, that that feeling,
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was I was bummed when I looked up
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: Rogie's and it says it was a nightclub. So when
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: did they close down?
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: Well, it got destroyed in one of the earthquakes.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: And yeah, in the nineties.
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he was the ninety six or something maybe.
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't remember exactly what year. It was after
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: I moved to, you know, to New Orleans, so it
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: was definitely after ninety three.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: It was inside of a hotel building, Is that what
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: it was.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it was. It was the basement of a hotel.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and so many bad I'm just going by a
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: quick search here online. Green Egg, Guns and Roses played
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: their Flaming Lips.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, everybody Jane's addiction.
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: Photo of Nirvana on stage at Raji's at one point. Yeah,
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: there's like there's those little photo you can find, like,
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: oh yeah on the single photos of bands on stage yet.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the Dream Syndica we recorded a live record there.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: Carlo Carlo was front of house that night, right.
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well he was the front house engineer when he
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: wasn't playing there.
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, right right yeah.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: If everything Sean, If people are wondering that Nirvana single,
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: you mentioned that they're on it. The picture is seen
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: on the cover of their seven inch single for a Sliver.
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: Oh is that right?
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, according to this here on mine. So yeah, yeah,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: So life on the road for the band, let's talk
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: about that. It's not all glamorous. And there's a photo
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: in the book of Susan cow Hill taken by Vicki Peterson,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: and the caption reads, Susan during a stop on the
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: drifters infamous April nineteen ninety two RV trip to New Orleans.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: And it looks like she's standing on train tracks I
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: think a wide open land the mountains behind her. And
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: there's another of drummer Carlo and Nuccio's legs sticking out
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: from prevented v which was a common sight during that trip.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: Funny story, at least funny now, but.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: He was not happy about.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what's the story about the cockroaches that that's quite
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: a story.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: Well, that's a long story. But basically, you know, Carlo
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: was he's the no a all okay, So he you know,
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: he's the guy that always wants to, you know, have
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: his word be the last word kind of thing, and
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: uh we we we would argue a lot and say no,
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: you know, like you don't understand, and we would get
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: into like these yelling kind of things. But he was
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: always insisting that no matter what his opinion or fact
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: is fact. And uh so we were driving and the
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: car started, you know, losing power and it would die
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: and he's like, oh, it's a fuel filter. I know
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: it's a fuel filter. Like, oh, come on, Carl, how
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: do you know it's a fuel filter. He goes, well,
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: stop at the next stop, you know, we'll buy you
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: know something and installed. And I was like, okay, So
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: I fell asleep, but I think Gary was driving to
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: somebody and all of a sudden it just died in
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: the middle of nowhere. And of course Carlo got you know,
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: woken up, and he's like, you what you didn't stop
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: at the store to get the goddamn fueld shell right.
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: No shell shell shell gas. He was insistent about not
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: putting shell gas in the RVY.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: Because he was like, oh, it's crap gas. It's you know,
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: too much you know impurities. That's what the fuel filter.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: It gets all blocked up by that shade. Can't put
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: that kind of gas in there there. And so so
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: he ended up getting out of you know, waking up
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: getting out of the RV climbing under the RV, taking
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: the fuel filter off and getting gas spewed in his
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: face because of it. And then he would, you know,
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: he took out some water and he tried to clean
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: the filter and blew it with his mouth and he
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: got all this gas everywhere. He was just so miserable
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: and pissed off at everybody.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: But I have a feeling Vicky was laughing while she
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: took that.
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: You were all laughing.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: As soon as he gets out. Everybody's serious.
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, don't make it that, don't don't do this. So
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: but it was so he got it running. So it
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: was the fuel filter, and of course we just said, okay,
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: it's working fine, and we start driving. We drive again,
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: and of course he said stop and get a fuel filter. Well,
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: of course we didn't. Then it happens again and we
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: actually get it, you know, we pull into a shell
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: station or some gas station. I think it probably was
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: Shell after all that, and uh so we buy a
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: filter and he gets he tries to get under the van,
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: but it was, you know, in the middle of the
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: desert and had all these thousands and thousands of cockroaches
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: and find bugs and all this shit everywhere because they
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: were attracted to the light. That was the only thing
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: in miles that had lights. That's where all these bugs were,
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: and they were all over the ground. So he just
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: got on his back and crawled under the var Yeah.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: So he was extremely pissed off. If he wasn't before,
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: he's now extremely mad and pissed off.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: So this wasn't like the led Zeppelin. You didn't have
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: your own airplane.
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: No, oh god, no, And I love he kind of
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: blamed it on Dave catching I don't know that part.
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: Kind of blamed it on Dave because I guess Dave
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: took a little piece of gravestone from all went to
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: New Orleans to get back with him Potter Potter's you
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: know it was Potter's. Yeah, and he kind of blamed
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: it on Dave.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: Oh man, you guys, you guys open for Dylan, right
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: Bob Dylan ninety two. Yeah, it's in the book. Talk
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: about that experience, Mark, how that almost led to Peter
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: actually getting a gig with Dylan.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: Well, actually that didn't lead to it. Actually, Peter's got
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: a great story about that. But the the basic story
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: is that Bob Dylan heard about Peter and wanted maybe
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: to you know, hang out and play with him, see
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: if he would be good for a band, or just
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: just because that's what Bob Dolan does. He likes to
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: just say, hey, I want to play you know. So
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: one day he actually drove over to Peter's apartment in
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: North Hollywood and sat with him all day long, like
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: eight hours and just playing throwing songs at Peter just
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: to see how he would play him and played with
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: him and then say hey, listen, you know I'm playing it.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: The pantas is coming up. You want to play it?
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: He sayes, well, you know my band, would you know?
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: He said, oh, yeah, that would be great. Yeah, And
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: so we did. We you know, we played that that night.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: And of course, because we were crazy, we didn't just
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: say well, let's make it easier on ourselves. We invited
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: all of our auxiliary drifters, not all of them, but
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: you know, Kevin Jarvis and Robert Lloyd and and all
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: these people. We became a ten piece band just to
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: open for Bob Dylan. And it was great. We played great,
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: We kicked ass, and we were very satisfied and happy
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: that we did what we did. But then of course
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: Bob Dylan said, well can you scale it down tomorrow night,
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: and then we said, Peter, why don't you just do
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: what you're supposed to do in the first place. It's
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: just played acoustic or a solo show, and that's what
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: he ended up doing. He played the next night by himself.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: But yeah, we was like, yeah, we don't want to
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: scale back down from that. That that's exactly who we
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: are and how people should have seen us. So we
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: were very satisfied and happy with them on podcasts.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: We'll be back after this. What about the creative differences
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: in the studio, because the book gets into that's around
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: the time of the first album. I think it correct
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: me for more so. The first album was recorded in
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: ninety three, but it's not released officially until.
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: It was recorded ninety two released in two thousand and three.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: Right, Okay, so their tensions during that time creative.
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: Tensions or I don't think. I mean, there's not that
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: kind of tension. The one thing is we were you know,
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: Peter was going to produce it because he wasn't in
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: the band officially at that point. No, he was that
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: the first single, he was not in the band. He
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: produced those singles and then later on he was in
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: the band, but we agreed to let him produce it.
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: And you know, the studio was kind of you know,
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: it was a good enough studio, but it was, you know,
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: a dead room. It wasn't a live room, and so
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: a lot of us really wanted to have that live feel.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: No matter what, we weren't getting that sound. It was
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: a little too pretty, you know, it didn't really make
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: any sense. It didn't sound as much like us live.
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: And of course, you know, I was telling Peter, I
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: thought it needs to sound more like us. You know,
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: it's it's a little too pretty, you know. I wanted
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: some edge and some grit. That's my opinion. I don't
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: know if anybody else had a different take on it.
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: But and and then Peter's response to me as well,
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: you know, I'm just trying to polish a turd and
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: so stuffing like that. I'm like, you know, come on, Peter,
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: it's not that bad.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: This was a monkey Hill? Is that the label?
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: That? Yeah, it was. It was. Our management actually turned
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: into a record label, and they were saying, hey, listen,
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: at least we can put something out for if you
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: want to do that right now, we want okay, But
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: that was after you know, our transition from having Gary
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: leave the band and then Ray left the band, you know,
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: for his medical purposes. And Gary, yeah, Gary, Ray Gray ganuchoodanow,
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: he's a he's a nice you know, Beckwoods, Louisiana.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: And yeah, so that's a self titled debut, so okay,
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: so yeah, not not too much great attention there, but
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: it was just it was the direction in which you
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: wanted to go sound wise, and and.
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: Then everybody just has opinions and we then we're not,
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: you know, careful.
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: Carlo well, Carlo didn't. Carlo was very adamant about like,
• 34:05
  Speaker 3: don't want to use REAVERB, don't want it, like he
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: just wanted everything really kind of clean.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: Well he's always been that way in all all the records,
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: and yeah, he was always like, no, wait, it's got
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: to be dry, it's got to be this, and I'm like,
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: oh god.
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: And if Gary was, I think Gary he told me
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: he was particularly like fuck that i't like, he wanted
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: to get into effects more and stuff, and I think
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: Carlo was. I think that's probably what. If there was tension,
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: it was that, Yeah, it's.
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: Always Carlo kind of being that bushy, over the top guy,
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: you know, and he was good at it, and usually
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: he's right, you know, for for But that's an opinion though, right.
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: There's different ways to mix a record, there's different ways
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: to you know, present yourself, and they're all valid. It
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: just depends on you know, how you, as a musician
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: want to be interpreted.
• 34:51
  Speaker 3: There's a story, there's a story in the book about
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: Carlo getting fired from a buck We decide to go
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: a session because he kept putting his ideas out there.
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: I think Buckley was like, no, we're not doing that,
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: and Carlo, no, man, you got to do this. And uh,
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: I think the producer Steve, yeah, he was. He was
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: kind of like, dude, you got to shut up.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: He was really outspoken. Yeah he was, but he was.
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: Kind of right about a lot of stuff.
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah he is, but that's not some people don't want
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: to to say, hey, it's my record, go sit down,
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: go No, just do your job and the drugs. Yes,
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: Carlo and I get hired by this Norwegian singer while
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: we're you know, doing the Roger Stint and they were like,
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: you guys are the greatest you know rhythm section, blah
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: blah blah, thank you so much. It's like we would
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: like you to use on our record. It's like and
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: there was a big deal record for her, and uh
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: we we went in there. We we you know, nailed
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: his first track and and then we started playing the
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: next one and they're like, well, listen, we can't you
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: just play it more like the demo kind of thing,
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: and we're like, what, that's a drum she first of
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: all on a keyboard bass. No, we can't, we won't
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: and forget that's not and that's it sounded like, you know,
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: you know, it's supposed to be a maracana the way
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: she was trying to record it, but it was coming
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: out like a pop record, and we're like no, and
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: and she finally started saying that, you know, well you
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: have to like no, we quit. We just walked out
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: of the room and said goodbye. I mean, it's funny.
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: The only song that she kept, and it was the
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: first single that did well for was the song that.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: I was gonna say, why why bother bringing you in?
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: If you want it to sound like the demo, which
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: is the real people.
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: If you want to sound like a drummer machine, you
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: don't hire Carlo. You want to sound like keyboard bass,
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: you don't hire Mark, Well, you can't do that.
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: We are like, you know, this liquid you know thing
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: that happens. You know, it's it's definitely a groove, but
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: it's not methodical and mechanical. It's very loose and goosey.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: What led to the band's move from l A to
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: New Orleans? And how did you feel about that move? Mark?
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: It's very different atmosphere right from that.
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. You know, it's funny. I you know, the first
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: time I ever went to New Orleans in nineteen eighty
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: four of the Dream Syndicate. It was my birthday actually,
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: and I played Jimmy's and that night, you know, there's
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: our crew did a bunch of crazy stuff and got
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: in the bus and I'm like, God, this is this
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: is this city brings out the worst in everybody. I
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: would never move here kind of thing. So, you know,
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: fast forward all these years later with the Drifters and
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: then Carlo and Ray are both from there, and they
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: wanted to move home. They were homesick. That's what the
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: Mississippi song is about. That's on this record. It's they
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: miss home. They want to get back, and so that
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: was their goal, and so they did. They moved back
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: and Susan and Vic, Susan and Peter excuse me. Peter
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: and Susan were having their child and they didn't want
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: to raise it in Los Angeles. They thought it would
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: be a better vibe in New Orleans, more family oriented,
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: more fun stuff to do. And as I thought about it,
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: I was like, well, you know, I'm tired. You know,
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: my life wasn't going anywhere I wanted to It'll do something,
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: and I didn't want to lose the drifters. To me,
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: it was important that we can try to keep it going.
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: So I said, well, I'll move to and then, you know,
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: one by one we all started doing that, and I
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: was very happy to do it. I met my wife,
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: you know, and there are three lovely boys.
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: Can you move there on your birthday? Right?
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: I left Los Angeles the day before my birthday. I
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: celebrated it with my mom and dad in Vegas and
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: then I continued driving and I made it to New Orleans.
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: I lived in a little, you know, slave quarter in
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: the back of this house, and it was It's kind
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: of strange because the guy I found out died in
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: this house in this blue chair that was in the
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: They're like, are you sure you want to live here.
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: I'm like, I don't know.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: Is it haunted any paranormal stories you have for us,
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: mart I don't.
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: But it was a really strange, you know unit, and
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: I enjoyed living there. It was you know, yeah, it
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: was an.
• 39:18
  Speaker 3: And then Peter and Susan inherited that chair, I believe.
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, after I moved out, they were like, no, we'll
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: take the chair. O good somebody. I didn't want to
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: take it with me, but you know, but they left
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: it in the house and he died in it. So
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: I actually had it, you know, permittedally, you know, sealed
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: and cleaned and all shit, because I didn't I didn't trust.
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: I thought maybe bodily fluids came out, stained it out.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: But so yeah, that episode of the ghost Hunters, you know,
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: stop buying checking out.
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: I mean it was a very old, old house.
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: And yeah, but like I say, I worked out for you,
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: you know, on a personal side, Yeah, you got a family,
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: beautiful family. It's you know, all worked out. But yeah,
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: New Orleans can be for those who have a vice,
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: you know, like Shannon Hoon of Blind Melon, he had
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: his his struggles with addiction, and then when they decided
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: to record there, you know that was a dangerous thing
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: because the light, the nightlife there, it's twenty four to seven, right,
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: so what's funny?
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know after Katrina moved to Vegas, so everybody's like, oh,
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: I get you. You like that twenty four hour drinking? Yeah,
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: well I did, Yes, I have it for many years,
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: you know, stayed out all night long drinking.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: Peter Holsapple he struggled when he was asked to work
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: with Hooty in The Blowfish because it was a great
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: opportunity obviously, but his heart was with the band Continental Drifters.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: How does he end up working with Hoodie and also
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: RIM at an interesting time too, because this is the
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: RIM is about to go on a huge run there
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: in the nineties.
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they're mine, right when when when he was with RM,
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: it was like the Green Tour, I think, yeah, and
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: like just pre Drifters was already.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: But losing my religion. He plays a role, I believe
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: in that truck.
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he played the acoustic guitar on that.
• 41:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but whody did happen? Well, you guys were in
• 41:10
  Speaker 3: New Orleans already, I think.
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Well I remember when he got the call.
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: We were at Peter and Susan's house, and they were like, hey,
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: you know this this band wants me to maybe go
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: on tour and be their multi instrumental this kind of thing.
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: We're like, well that, well, of course they do. You know,
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: they're from the Carolinas, as you know, as he is,
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: and he's you know, very famous for you know, everything
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: he had done, and so he was in demand already,
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: you know, as far as from that, you know, they
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: just got signed, They're like, who who could we get?
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: Who would we want? Who's our first choice? And it
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: was Peter so and it worked out for everybody involved.
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: And that was also another thing because like, actually, you
• 41:50
  Speaker 3: we talked before we started about Tim Summer.
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: Tim Summer Atlantic Records.
• 41:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, he was the one who signed Hoody, but
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: he already knew Peter from years and years and years
• 41:59
  Speaker 3: before that. It was a separate thing where they were
• 42:03
  Speaker 3: big Rim fans and had seen Peter with Hoody in Columbia,
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: South Carolina on the Green Tour, like we want Peter
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: Holsapple and Tim I think Tim is kind of like, oh,
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: that's easy, just call him, and that's yeah, that's how
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: that happened. Yeah, And that was it was a good.
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: That ended up being a really interesting kind of thing
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: because Hoody kind of championed the Drifters over time as
• 42:23
  Speaker 3: well and took y'all out on tours. So you opened
• 42:25
  Speaker 3: for Hoody and stuff and like, and then recorded a
• 42:29
  Speaker 3: Drifter song like years later, so they kind of became
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: like champions of the band a little bit. So it
• 42:34
  Speaker 3: was like kind of mutually beneficial in a way.
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: It was very I mean for me, I mean what
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: they did for me from after Katrina. You know, they
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: came into There's that they they gutted my house, uh,
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: you know, down to the studs. I mean, they I
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: couldn't believe it. The pictures that they sent me when
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: they were done made me cry. You know, they came
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: in and they you know, cut the grass back down.
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: It was five feet tall, and you know, everything was
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: just a mess at that point. And they, you know,
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: they're just lovely, lovely.
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: People, and you know, that's a great story.
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: So I don't know, I have nothing bad to say
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: about them or any experiences. They've always been very kind
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: to the band and to us individually.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: Booked on rock podcasts, We'll be back after this.
• 43:21
  Speaker 3: I think you'd be glad later if you weren't here now.
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: Sean Kelly and Mark Walton are this episode's guest. Shawn's
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: the author of White Noise and Enlightening the Continental Drifters Story,
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: the authorized biography of the Continental Drifters. The book is
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: due out September twenty seventh. We also want to talk
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: about this a tribute album. We're going to get to
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: that in a little bit. And Mark is the band's
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: bassist and founding member Carlo, so let's talk about him
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: a little bit more. He suffered from addiction and that
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: was also difficult for the band. A beautiful soul, but
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: when he drank and he did drugs, that changes personality,
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: which you hear that happening a lot. There were a
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: few interventions, it didn't help him. He left band. How
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: difficult was that for you and the band during that period?
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: It was. It was devastating to me, you know, because
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: he was my brother, and you know, we were roommates
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: for a long time. We'd you know, all kinds of stuff,
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: played multiple bands. So when he started going down that
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: spiraling you know, death spile, I think, uh, you know,
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: we all work really hard to try to get him
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: to you know, jump ship and straighten up a little bit.
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: I mean again, we're he just thought we were hypocrites,
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: and we're like, yeah, I mean we like to have
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: a good time still, but you know we're not going
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: down that same path. I mean, he's he's been around
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: some things that you know, he drove his car into
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: a buy you one night and kind of blamed He
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: always blamed it on somebody else, and you know, that's
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: what you do. You know, you always find an excuse
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: for what you're doing wrong. So you know, when we
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: did have our intervention, you know, he took it as like,
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: you know, your hypocrites, you're an asshole. Uh, and so
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: he basically just walked away. You know, we were trying
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: to get to just clean up. We weren't trying to
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: fire him, you know, and he took it that way.
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: We're like, no, dude, you can't fire you. This band
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: is organic. We cannot fire anymore. That doesn't work, you know.
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: But he didn't take it that way, and we felt
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: really bad for it. And I hadn't seen him for
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: many years after that, which was really sad.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but it does have a it's a good ending
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: to it. I mean, sadly, he's passed, but it did end.
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: He did turn things around, which I want to ask him,
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: did I know? Yeah, yeah, yeah, But the band did
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: continue without him, and Sean you write quote there was
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: perhaps no stranger, yet more crucial year for the Continental
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: Drifters than nineteen ninety six. What happened that year.
• 45:44
  Speaker 3: That was the year that Carlo left. And it was
• 45:48
  Speaker 3: really transitional because they, you know, had made this the
• 45:54
  Speaker 3: self titled record and got some buzz, especially in Europe
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: around that record, and we're trying to figure out what's next,
• 46:01
  Speaker 3: and then Carlo left and they you know, they're there.
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: You're losing a songwriter and like a primary vocalist. So
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: it's not like just losing a drummer, which on its
• 46:13
  Speaker 3: own is kind of a whole like you know, a
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: little bit of a mind fuck kind of but like
• 46:19
  Speaker 3: you're losing this entire personality in the band. So like
• 46:22
  Speaker 3: you know, Vicky talked about like she was worried that
• 46:25
  Speaker 3: they'd become a pop band, you know, because then you
• 46:27
  Speaker 3: have these three primary songwriters who are all pop songwriters,
• 46:30
  Speaker 3: and whereas you know, like you're losing that kind of
• 46:33
  Speaker 3: swagger that Carlo brought to the table. And so that
• 46:36
  Speaker 3: year was a lot of like you know, there was
• 46:38
  Speaker 3: a demo deal for Mercury that was kind of in there,
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: and it was like trying to figure out who the
• 46:44
  Speaker 3: band was and what they were doing, and you know,
• 46:48
  Speaker 3: that didn't take off, and you know, like they're still
• 46:54
  Speaker 3: trying to get maintain the momentum of this record, but
• 46:57
  Speaker 3: also trying to see if there was another there was
• 46:59
  Speaker 3: a label out there for them, because the Monkey Hill
• 47:01
  Speaker 3: thing was also kind of that also kind of went
• 47:03
  Speaker 3: down the drain around that time, and so it was
• 47:06
  Speaker 3: like I looked at it like when I was writing
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: it is sort of like kind of that point where
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: you either like you say, all right, we're gonna keep
• 47:16
  Speaker 3: going or like like I guess we're let's just move on.
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: And then they found Russ Broussard in that same year,
• 47:24
  Speaker 3: not found him because they all everyone kind of already
• 47:26
  Speaker 3: knew each other, but like there was that weird and
• 47:28
  Speaker 3: then you got married that year, right mark that was
• 47:30
  Speaker 3: your wedding and that's even Russ for your wedding was
• 47:32
  Speaker 3: a ninety six, that's correct. Yeah, So it was like
• 47:36
  Speaker 3: that was kind of what was happening was like this
• 47:39
  Speaker 3: like year I guess it was the year of trying
• 47:41
  Speaker 3: to figure out if what the Drifters were and if
• 47:43
  Speaker 3: it was still a going thing, and and and probably
• 47:47
  Speaker 3: probably could have packed it in at any point that year.
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: But I know, it's funny because that first time, you know,
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: we're like, what are we gonna do? We should try
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: to see if we can find a drummer. How are
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: we gonna do this? So, you know, I ended up
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: booking two shows in Los Angeles thinking, Okay, we'll just
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: find somebody on the West coast and we'll do these
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: shows with them and see if that will work out.
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: And so we called up DJ bone Break from the
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: band X and he agreed to come out and play
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: with us. Totally different kind of a drummer, you know.
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: And and it's funny. Steve Hawkman had written an article,
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: I think a review of the from The Times and
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: said something to the effect of they when they were
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: living here, they sounded like the most southern New Orleans
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: you know, kind of band that you can ever find.
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: And now they come back, they now they live in
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: New Orleans, now they sound more of like a pop band.
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: Like you just were saying, we didn't really want to
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: do that, but that's how he interpreted it, and which
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: was positive. But we're like, well, that's I guess the
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: drums really make that big of a difference and it
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: changes the whole field. So we're like, yeah, we got
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: to find somebody, you know else, And we did these
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: recordings for Mercury and brought somebody in from the Carolinas
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: and he was a great drummer. It was really technically
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: just better than any of us as musicians, probably, but
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: it sounded too clean and too proper to me, you know,
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: and that didn't seem to work with my style too well.
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: And it was still kind of pop, you know. So
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: that's why when when Russ was at the wedding, I
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: really felt that, you know, maybe he could be, you know,
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: our saving grace at this point, find somebody that knows
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: how to play that music correctly and not trying to
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: like pretend you know.
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, were the songs that ended up on Vermilion.
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: A lot of those, yeah, I mean, you know, we
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: ca Yeah, all those songs though were not all of
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: most of a good percentage of him were already you know,
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: done in our set list at Rodger's Rain song we Are,
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: and you know, we started you know, writing more That's
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: the thing is when we released the Monkey Hill record,
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: we didn't really want to release all those other songs
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: because we thought, Okay, this is a small label. We
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: don't want to burn our bridges too early or give
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: away all our good stuff. You know, we want to
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: wait till we have a decent record label that can
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: work it. So you know, we put half covers and
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: half originals on that first record that came out.
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: Well that but for million eight that was a hit
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: with critics.
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: They loved it, yeah, because they are all the great songs.
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: But you know, all the other ones that we didn't
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: put on, like Mississippi never got really released ever except
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: for on the very first single that we ever made,
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: so only time we ever got released, and it's one
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: of our fan favorites. We play it every show play
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: we have ever since. You know, just moved from Carlos
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: Ray singing it to Carlos singing it to Susan singing it.
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: So it's funny that's evolved throughout the time and it's
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: always remained in the in the band set list.
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: Podcasts. We'll be back after this.
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: Well, well, waiting.
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: Mark, you go through the difficult period there with Carlo
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: and then again you got another one that you have
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: to get through, which is and I'm referring to when
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: Peter and Susan's marriage, it's it's starting to head in
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: the wrong direction, and then they separate in two thousand.
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: They divorced. Soon after, they continued amicably amidst that split.
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: But but then Peter's drinking is becoming a problem, and
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: he's touring a lot with Hoodie and Vicki's working with
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: the Bangle. So Mark that how challenging was that period
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: for you?
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: And well, it was very frustrating because I, you know,
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: I was like, here we go again, right, Yeah, yeah,
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: it was. It was like I wish we could just
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: get a good run at it and keep going. We
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: had momentum, but it's always like you get that momentum
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: and we got kind of pulled back down and then
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: we're inactive for a while, And that kind of frustrated
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: me more than probably everybody else, because everybody else was
• 51:58
  Speaker 2: busy doing things right. And you know, again, I had
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: three young boys, so I was like, okay, I can
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: step back and be a father and do the things
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: I need to do, and which was fine, but you know,
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: the drifters is the reason I moved to New Orleans,
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: and I wanted that to continue if we could.
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: Something kept you going. I mean you didn't, you didn't
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: pack it in.
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: No, no, and the drifters never did. I mean, we
• 52:22
  Speaker 2: kept going. Okay, we you know, we can pull from
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: our ranks. We can always find somebody that you know,
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: is like minded, that can fill it in. But then
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: after you know, Susan and Russ left, it was a
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: tough tough time at that point. You know, it's like, well,
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: because we were offered to play a bunch of festivals,
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: the Jazz Fest and the Louisiana Festival and the Shreveport
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: and we did you know some you know, I don't know.
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: They were like please play and I'm like, well, I
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: don't know if I have a bad right, So right,
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: I ended up calling Ray and you know, and he
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: actually agreed to come back in the fold and play
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: these songs. This so that was like, okay, we got
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: to we'll switch out Susan Farray. That makes sense on paper.
• 53:05
  Speaker 2: And then we found another local drummer that we all
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: knew and friends with it, but it didn't have it
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: just didn't fit again, nothing mattered, and you know, I
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: was the first one to say, now it's not working,
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: because you know, I'm always the one is like, we
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: can make this happen. We can definitely do this, we can.
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: I just didn't feel like there was any more. I
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: think if you take too many you know, arms or
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: legs or fingers, whatever, you're gonna lose something. You were the.
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: Only original member right at one point, for you kept
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: the band going, but you were the other as.
• 53:41
  Speaker 2: Soon as Carlo left, I was the only original member.
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah wow, yeah. So what ultimately led to the other
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: members of the band leaving? Was it the European tour
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: in earlier two No.
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: Because you know, uh, let's say Ray. You know Ray,
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: when after we moved to New Orleans, Ray got a
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: bad aneurysm up in his neck shoulder area and it
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: was really really bad, and the doctor said, you know,
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: you can't play guitar. That the strap and all that's
• 54:13
  Speaker 2: causing more problems. And so his doctor basically said, it's
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: not good for you. You know, you shouldn't play right now.
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: So he quit at that point. And then Gary, because
• 54:23
  Speaker 2: he had a son, didn't want to move from Los
• 54:26
  Speaker 2: Angeles to New Orleans and it was becoming tough, and
• 54:30
  Speaker 2: Vicky and Gary, you know, were you going seeing each
• 54:34
  Speaker 2: other during all that? And that was they're having their
• 54:36
  Speaker 2: own problems too, And so based on the fact that
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: he didn't want to move and it was such a
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: hassle for him to get back and forth, and the
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: fact that he and Vicky are having their problems, he
• 54:48
  Speaker 2: decided to bow out and you know, say no, I'm out.
• 54:52
  Speaker 2: So that's two people down now within the first like
• 54:55
  Speaker 2: half a year of living in New Orleans. And so
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: we just get a called up from our ranks. Robertshad,
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: you know, play Ray's role as far as guitar lead
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: guitar player. Uh and that worked out great because I've
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: been playing with Robert and Steve Wins solo band on
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: his records, so you know, I got along with him
• 55:16
  Speaker 2: really well and the rest of the band. You know,
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: I thought he was a great guitar player too. So,
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: uh so at that point we were pretty stable. I
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: decided to go down that path of drinking and drugging
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, so.
• 55:35
  Speaker 3: He meant Susan and rest well that what you what
• 55:38
  Speaker 3: you referred to with the European tour, that was that
• 55:42
  Speaker 3: was sort of like that was like right after Better
• 55:46
  Speaker 3: Day came out, or not long after Better Day came out. Uh,
• 55:49
  Speaker 3: Susan and Russ had gotten together after Peter and Susan divorced,
• 55:54
  Speaker 3: and there was some you know, it was right after
• 55:58
  Speaker 3: nine to eleven and the had a European tour booked
• 56:01
  Speaker 3: in like January of two thousand and two, I think,
• 56:04
  Speaker 3: and it was at just some apprehension about traveling and
• 56:07
  Speaker 3: I think probably like just some exasperation at that point
• 56:12
  Speaker 3: of just all the the some weirdness that it kind
• 56:15
  Speaker 3: of built up with between Peter and Susan and Russ
• 56:18
  Speaker 3: and just trying to coexist in this band together. And
• 56:21
  Speaker 3: and that's when Susan and Rust decided they were gone.
• 56:23
  Speaker 3: And so yeah, it was kind of like I think
• 56:26
  Speaker 3: the the having to cancel that tour was sort of
• 56:28
  Speaker 3: like the catalyst to say, like, well, this is probably over,
• 56:32
  Speaker 3: even though you did those festival shows that Vicky and
• 56:34
  Speaker 3: Peter both don't remember at all doing those shows, but
• 56:37
  Speaker 3: they happened. There's a photo somewhere.
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: There is It's funny. It's I saw a video. It
• 56:42
  Speaker 2: was like a whole concert, but it's not a video.
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: It's it's but it's a video of the audio only
• 56:48
  Speaker 2: from a show in Germany, and they used the picture
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: from the Festival of Louisiana that Ray was part of
• 56:58
  Speaker 2: for this video.
• 56:59
  Speaker 3: That's the one that's where I saw that photo.
• 57:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you saw that too there.
• 57:03
  Speaker 3: That's that's where I first saw that photo and I
• 57:05
  Speaker 3: was like, that's look a weird lineup, and then I
• 57:07
  Speaker 3: put it together. That was that was Yeah, I think I.
• 57:11
  Speaker 3: I showed Vicki that photo. She was like, I don't know,
• 57:12
  Speaker 3: I don't remember this at all.
• 57:15
  Speaker 2: Well I do, because I'm the one who kind of
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: pushed it through and made everybody do it, and everybody's like, yeah,
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: that wasn't really that good. You know. I didn't have
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: that magic and didn't so nobody remembers. And I remember
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: because you know, I worked hard to try to get
• 57:31
  Speaker 2: it to work.
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: What year would that have been.
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: That would have been too nineteen ninety nine.
• 57:39
  Speaker 3: Okay, No, that would have been two thousand and two, because.
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna say it's like from like A one till
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: oh seven. It was a long time ago, right, There
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: was that period there there were things being released. I
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: think A Better Day came out in one and then
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty three. The album titled ninety three was released
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: in three Uh. Then the self titled un issue debut
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: was finally released in two thousand and three. But we
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: get no we move ahead to two thousand and eight,
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: May tenth, to be exact, Carlo Nuccio got sober and
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of healing between the band members, and
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: in nine the Vermillion lineup reunites to play at a
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: jazz fest in New Orleans. The following show May second
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: sold out into the early morning hours. You guys play
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: not a dry in the house when the song Drifters
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: was played, which is really cool. Mark, What was that
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: reunionre like for you?
• 58:34
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to remember which one was that? The Carlton
• 58:37
  Speaker 2: Station one that you played.
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: That's the one, Yeah, played all the way into the
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: morning hours.
• 58:41
  Speaker 2: And Carlos, that's not any different than any other show.
• 58:46
  Speaker 2: We always played four hour shows, at least sometimes longer
• 58:49
  Speaker 2: Springsteen esque. Yeah, well, I think we played longer than
• 58:53
  Speaker 2: longer than Bruce.
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right, I think take that, Bruce.
• 59:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 59:01
  Speaker 2: So I don't know that you know, that was really
• 59:04
  Speaker 2: it was, you know for me, because I hadn't played
• 59:06
  Speaker 2: I was, you know, living in Vegas and just working
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: at a corporate gig, and you know, I hadn't really played,
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: and I lost everything. You know, I had no money,
• 59:16
  Speaker 2: and I had my three kids to try to get
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: back in schools and get them organized, and you know,
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: so we got good jobs, and you know, I had
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: never had a corporate job, so I was trying to
• 59:26
  Speaker 2: hold on to it to make sure I, you know,
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: didn't lose it somehow. And but I was always very
• 59:33
  Speaker 2: sad and and and I really missed playing. And so
• 59:36
  Speaker 2: when we actually decided to do a reunion and with
• 59:39
  Speaker 2: these guys, it was a very it was emotional for
• 59:42
  Speaker 2: me because I didn't miss them terribly. There was one episode,
• 59:48
  Speaker 2: you know, before that that started that healing, which was
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: New Year's Eve. The Bengals were playing downtown I think
• 59:59
  Speaker 2: or at the at the UH one of the casinos,
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: and Hoody and the Blowfish were playing at one of
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 2: the casinos, and the Cosciles were playing at one of
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 2: the I mean, it was the weirdest, you know, convergence
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 2: of drifters, you know, to be in Las Vegas at
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 2: the same time. So, I mean, everybody had sound checks
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 2: and things to do, but we all found an hour
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 2: to meet up, and uh, you know, we sat down
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 2: and hugged and made up. And I just had surgery
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 2: that that that morning, so I was I was swollen,
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 2: I was on many many drugs, and uh not not
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 2: too happy, but but I was very, very very happy
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: to see my friends and to know that, you know,
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: we didn't throw away that friendship and everybody still had
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 2: that in their hearts.
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: Podcast. We'll be back after this. How long had you
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: gone without talking to Carlo before you finally.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 2: Well, let's see, it was when he I talked to
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 2: him briefly when he had his solo record release party
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 2: at the helen Wolf. I went down to show him
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 2: my you know, support, and he saw me in the
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 2: audience and forced me to get on stage and play
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 2: some songs, which was great, but we didn't really talk.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 2: That was that was it, and then I left. And
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 2: you know, then I think it was when the nineteen
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 2: ninety three record was being you know, conceived. I wanted
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 2: to get everyone's approval first. I didn't want to just
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 2: throw it out there, and but everybody was very happy
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 2: and Carlo was happy, so, you know, we were talking
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 2: on the phone a bunch. I didn't see him in
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 2: person until I actually had money for him, and I
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 2: met him at the Mermaid Lounge outside and we sat
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 2: at a picnic table and had our first long conversation
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 2: in person, which was great.
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: And he did get clean and sober before he.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 3: Passed, yes, which was fifteen years.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's great. And before he passed. He passed in
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: late August twenty twenty two liver related complications. But there's
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: a story in the book, but I got emotional reading it.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: He fought like hell to make it to the gig,
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: and he does he did make it. Can you talk
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: about that show, which I believe was August twentieth, I
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: think at BJ's Lounge in New Orleans.
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, two days before.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you probably have more information on that Sean than
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 2: I did.
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, from what I was told. I mean, I got
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 3: the story from his wife Carmen and Alex McMurray and
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 3: a couple other folks that were there, and basically he,
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 3: I mean, he was pretty like adamant that he wanted
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 3: to play that gig, and at that point it was
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 3: like it was not looking good. And throughout that day
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 3: there were several times where they're like, he's not gonna
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 3: He's not coming tonight, like he's not well enough to come,
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 3: and he showed up and played like I don't know,
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 3: forty five minute set or something, and maybe longer than that,
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 3: but I think it was like not a super long
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 3: set and basically played the show. There's a video somewhere
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 3: on Facebook the of Alex's last song that night that
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 3: he literally played the last song. They had a drum
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 3: set for him set up ready to go the way
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 3: he liked it, so he literally just got walked over
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 3: to a drum kit. He played the gig. Alex said
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 3: it was, you know, maybe a little slower than normal,
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 3: but he was spirited and you know, sang backgrounds a
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 3: little bit and stuff, and got up, went to the
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 3: car and I think when they got home that night,
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 3: like it got started going downhill and he went into
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 3: hospice I think like a couple hours later or something,
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 3: and then two days later he was gone. So it
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 3: was like he literally, like I remember before Carlo died,
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 3: a couple of the drifters and mean Mark he probably
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 3: said remark this to me, but a couple of folks
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 3: were like he is basically like he if he could
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 3: go behind drum kit, he would like that was basically
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 3: like it was kind of what he wanted and he
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 3: like essentially did really if you think about it, and
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 3: just right up till the end, just played and he
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 3: he did not want to miss the gig. And it's
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 3: it's kind of like incredible, but if you know anything
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 3: about Carlo at all, it kind of makes sense that
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 3: that's how it went down. And he was just like
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 3: he just wanted to keep playing music up till the end.
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 3: You know, that was like his whole deal. That's why
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 3: he had the fourth July party at his house some
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 3: months prior with like all his friends and stuff and
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 3: some of the drifters flew in and stuff. Danny Danny
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 3: was there, Danny McGoo and like, you know, they all
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 3: played with him kind of one last time. And uh, yeah,
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 3: that was that story and and uh and but that
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 3: basically kind of went out the way he wanted to.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: And it's like he completed he pleaded these relationships with you,
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: with you guys thankfully.
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: I can tell me if the last time he talked
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: to him was that intervention when he tells you guys
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: to you know, go to hell that you know, it
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: just would have been awful, right, I mean this.
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 2: Would have been. I'm glad we were able to, you know,
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 2: solve all those problems and it was nice. I actually
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 2: did fly out two weeks before then, and because he
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 2: was in the hospital at that point and they didn't
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 2: know if you would die that day or the next day.
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 2: So you know, I got on a plane, flew out
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 2: and sat with him for a few hours in the
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 2: hospital and and then of course, you know, I fly
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 2: home and then he calls me the next day says, hey, Mark,
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 2: I'm having a party this weekend, just like I just
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 2: came like the money to fly back out, you know,
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 2: twice in one week. So I didn't end up going
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 2: to the party, and I regret that, but at the
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 2: same time, I'm glad I had personal one on one
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 2: time with him. Yeah.
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: What will you remember most about him?
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 2: Well, his intelligence and he was very smart. He was
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 2: very smart, and you know, and he'd love to make
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 2: people happy. He did it was one of his But again,
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 2: he had that you know, streaking him that if he
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 2: wanted to make you pissed off, he could do it
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 2: in a heartbeat, you know. So he lived large, and
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 2: you know, he he did what he set out to
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 2: do in life. I think and I'm proud of him.
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, they talk about like, you know, we have
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: a journey, we have a reason to be here, and
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: it's like it does sound like he he he accomplished that,
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: you know, he just he got over his his addictions
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: and again completed those relationships with the people that mean
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: so much to him. So as for the Continental Drifters
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: story is not over right, Perhaps there's something more down
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: the road. What's what's the status of the band today.
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 2: Well, we're still in you know, in just reunion mode
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 2: at this point. But it's nice that, you know, again
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 2: people call us to say, hey, we want you to
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 2: play instead of us begging to play, so and and
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 2: and of course we're all pretty busy doing or other gigs.
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 2: You know, I'm playing with the Dream Cynic it a lot,
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 2: and I still have my full time job. And uh,
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 2: you know, Peter's doing a lot of you know, other
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 2: gigs with different bands and reunions with the DB's, and
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 2: Vicky's doing you know, her John Calcil and her solo.
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 2: I guess that's a solo album. Uh, and you know
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 2: Susan's doing the Cowcils pretty so it's it's hard to
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 2: get us all in one room these days. In fact,
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 2: I mean with the book coming out and the the uh,
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 2: all the different records, it seemed like a perfect time
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 2: to you know, go out and promote it. But of
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 2: course we're all too busy. We don't have the time
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 2: to do it. So we're trying to see if we
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 2: can get a good week of shows in New Orleans
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 2: for this coming jazz Fest and maybe some other things.
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 2: So hopefully and if there's you know, more interest because
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 2: of Sean's abilities and his writing, and they love it
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 2: so much that they want us, then.
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: Well we'll finish with Sean. Yeah, Sean, what did what
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: stands out the most to you? What did you get
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: out of writing this book?
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 3: Oh, I mean I think, uh, I think it. I
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 3: got out what I wanted to accomplish, which was, like
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 3: I wanted it to be a kind of an encapsulation
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 3: of a band that like it was a little multi tiered.
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 3: But like, what I really wanted was folks who maybe
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 3: weren't that familiar with the Drifters or who were, like
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 3: you could be a Drifters fan. You get something out
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 3: of it, right, You get the story if you're not
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 3: familiar with the Drifters, but you're kind of familiar with
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 3: some of the other stuff. You go, wow, I didn't
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 3: know that was a thing, and then you get the story,
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 3: and I think also, I really just wanted to I
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 3: think I wanted to show that, like all the you
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 3: know a lot of rock stories, a lot of music
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 3: biographies and stuff, you get them from like the upper
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 3: echelon of people that are you know, like with like
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 3: a Fleetwood mac right, there's no private jets in the Drifters.
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 3: There's no like seven miles of cocaine or whatever the
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 3: story is. And there is some cocaine, but not seven
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 3: miles worth, but like, like you know, it's it's a
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 3: relatable rock and roll story, like you kind of I
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 3: The goal is that you come away with from the
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 3: book feeling like I understand why somebody would keep the
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 3: band going through all of these things, because it's this
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 3: chosen family. There's the camaraderie that exists. It's it's not
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 3: just about making a record. There's no financial incentive to
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 3: keep the Condinal Drifters going concern it's like more than that.
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 3: And so that's what I I think I got out
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 3: of it that, like, Wow, all the reasons that I
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 3: have loved playing music and being in a band for
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 3: so long, Like those are valid because you read the
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 3: Drifter's story and you're like, that's what they're doing. They're
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 3: not chasing anything really, they're you know, they want to
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 3: get a record deal so that people can more people
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 3: can hear their music, but they're not. They don't care
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 3: about all the things you may have to sacrifice or
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 3: the kind of deals you have to sign to be
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 3: a big band or something. They're just doing it because
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 3: they love it and and it kind of validates like
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 3: the art side of music, especially when you get so
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 3: you can get it's easy to get bogged down in
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 3: the in the business and stuff, and it's like it
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 3: validates that there's more to being in a band or
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 3: playing music or doing art than just the chasing something.
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 3: And I think that's what I got out of the experience,
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 3: was like, yeah, you know, the last twenty years of
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 3: my life, since I was a kid, I have been
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 3: worthwhile because I got these experiences and relationships and the
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 3: people in the Drifters, you know, like like none if
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 3: I hadn't been in music and doing all that myself,
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 3: and none of that would have happened. Either, So you know,
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 3: it's kind of a validation of like what music is
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 3: and what it can be for people. That's what I
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 3: got out of it.
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: White Noise, Yes, very well said White Noise and Lightning
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: the Continental Drifter Story. It's out September twenty seventh. People
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: can pre order it now. Where can people go to
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: pre order the book? Also, there's a tribute album out
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: tell us about whatever you guys want to get out
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: there for those who are listening that are interested in
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: getting the book and the music and find out more
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: about the band.
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so continldrifters dot com or continldrifters book dot com.
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 3: They both have all the pre order links and stuff.
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 3: The tribute album is a companion to the book that
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 3: has a lot of folks that were kind of like
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 3: involved in the story in various ways. Rosie Flores, who's
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 3: an old Raji's friend, books like Marshall Cranshaw and who else,
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 3: the Iguanas, even people that like I know well like
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 3: Don Dixon is on it and Get as a Star.
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 3: It's a if. There's twenty five songs on it. It's
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 3: a it's a behemoth of and it's been it was
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 3: a behemoth of a project to put together, but it's
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 3: it's I'm really proud of it. And yeah, you can
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 3: pre order the bundle together right now. And then there's
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 3: the Omnivore Recordings Best of that's coming out a couple
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 3: weeks prior to.
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: The September thirteen.
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think all that you can probably get
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 3: all those links right on the Drifter's website.
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 2: Mark, Yes, they're all there too.
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: I'll put the link up on the show notes page.
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: Every're going to go there, Sean, Kelly, Mark Walton, thank
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: you so much.
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 3: That's it.
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 2: It's in the books.