Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / "I Love Grunge: 'Grunge Is Dead' Outtakes"/Greg Prato [Episode 150]

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"I Love Grunge: 'Grunge Is Dead' Outtakes"/Greg Prato [Episode 150] · Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

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We're totally booked. Rollo. I think I'll leave you. You're reading Little
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Hands Is It's time to run and roll Rollo. We are totally booked.
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Welcome back to Booked on Rock, the podcast for those about to read and
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rock online. A Booked on Rock dot com, exclusive videos, blogs,
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links to all of the social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
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and TikTok. You can find every episode of Booked on Rock there, along
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with links to your favorite listening platforms. Back on the podcast is Greg Prato.
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Greg has released I Love Grunge Grunge Is Dead Out Takes. This is
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a follow up to his two thousand and nine book Grunge Is Dead, The
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Oral History of Seattle Rock Music. As for that one, the new book
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is packed with quotes from the people who were there when the Seattle music scene
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exploded in the early nineties. Greg shares some of what's in the book in
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this episode. To hear a playlist of the music we discuss in this episode
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To make sure you head over to the show notes page. Greg, Welcome
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back to the podcast. Man. Great to see again, Eric, Thanks
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for having me back on. Before we get to what's in the book,
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let's talk about what led you to writing this book? This is I love
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Grunge, Grunge's Dead Outtakes. This is a follow up to a book that
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came out way back in two thousand and nine. So what led to this
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one? Yeah, Well, what it is is the book that came out
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in two thousand and nine, Grunge Is Dead. That's been one of my
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most popular books. I think that, like I've ever put out as far
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as sales and as far as people continually you know, telling me that they
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just got turned onto the book, or that they keep showing it to people
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and stuff like that. So that book, I put a lot of work
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into it back and I did it like over several years. It was like
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around two thousand and five, six, seven eight even, I guess at
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that point, and it took a while for the publisher to put it out.
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But what I'm getting at is there was so much there were so many
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quotes and so much info that had to get cut from that, and it
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was just sitting on a hard drive for all these years. And about a
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year ago, I just had a lot of time on my hands and I
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was like, you know what, I wonder if any of that leftover material
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is actually worthwhile. So I went back, I pulled up the file,
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and to my surprise, I had pretty much a whole entire other book with
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all quotes that were not in the first book. And it's almost like a
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alternate. It's like an alternate Brune is Dead kind of. It's we talk
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about a lot of the same topics, but there is also a lot of
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also cool info that wasn't in the first book as well. There's a lot.
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Definitely enjoy the first book. You're absolutely gonna love this book as well.
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Yeah, man, a lot of great quotes in this. This is
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like a good deep dive type of book. Yes, if you're a fan
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of this era, you're getting some stories that I don't know, maybe you
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never heard before. It is interesting to see how long this music had been
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bubbling before it blew up in the early nineties. After reading your book,
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it goes all the way back to the early eighties. Bands like Black Flag
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and Sonic Youth would come through and they made an impact on the then young
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musicians in Seattle who would go on to form their own bands. The late
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Bill reeflan drummer of the Blackouts and later Ministry, had a great quote he
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said, quote, nobody was concerned about being musicians as a living. People
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at that age just want to be in a band because it's like eating something
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you need to do. And that stood out to me because so different from
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the eighties rock mentality. Right, start a band, become a rock sog,
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get famous, get the girls. What comes to mind for you from
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the comments that you got regarding the early eighties Seattle scene, Well, not
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those many touring bands would really visit Seattle. I mean, like the big
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arena bands would, but as far as like punk bands and stuff, it
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was such a drive from say La all the way to Seattle that a lot
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of bands didn't make it. So when bands like Black Flag, Meat Puppets,
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the Wipers, when they actually played there, it was definitely appreciated by
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the people that lived there. And as a result, it was almost like
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I know people have said in the book that you would go from show to
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show and it would be the same group of people going from show to show.
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So you go to see one punk show, say on Monday, of
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like a local band, would be the same people. Then you'd go see
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like I don't know, like Devo or something like that. It would be
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that same group, plus also other people as well, So it was definitely
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a sense of community, you could say. And as a result, again
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they didn't at that point people forget punk rock was not mainstream. There weren't
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like the biggest punk bands in the US weren't really mainstream. It was like
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the Sex Pistols. And maybe this is right before The Clash became really popular
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with the Combat Rock album, So even the Clash was kind of considered not
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really mainstream, Like they weren't, you know, like on par with Oreo
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Speedwagon, Like you weren't going to hear some of like some of the songs,
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like they're like early Clash songs, you weren't going to hear on the
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radio, for instance. But I think that a lot of the people from
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Seattle and the era associated with those bands and as a result inspired them to
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also form their own bands. And that's how you got a lot of those
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early great grunge bands are actually proto grunge bands, you could say. At
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the time, it talk about this band malfunction. They are the subject of
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chapter two in this book. This was a cool clash of nineties grunge and
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eighties showmanship. Yes, there's a it's a misconception, and also there is
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some truth to it that people say that there was a big difference between grunge
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and also glam. I'd say grunge had a bit more in common with the
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glam of the seventies, where it was more kind of like proto punk,
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like the New York Dolls, the Stooges, Circle like raw Power, that
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they were kind of glamy at that point. Bowie that early seventies glam had
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more to do with punk rather than if you think of eighties glam. That's
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more pretty much to how I looked at eighties glam. Most of it is
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just guys dressing feminine, but they're just trying to sound like Van Halen pretty
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much, is how I kind of saw it, or how kind of how
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I kind of hear it. So to me, that was I think that
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a lot of those grunge bands associated with the seventies glam and the band Malfunction
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featured Andrew Wood on vocals and he also played bass at the time, and
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of course a lot of people will know that name because he eventually became the
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lead singer of the band Motherlove Bune, which then later turns into Pearl Jim
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after Andy sadly died in nineteen ninety but yeah, but malfunctioned. They sadly
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never put out an album, but they put out a bunch of demos and
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there's some YouTube bootleg type videos, but from people I speak to, they
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never really got properly documented, and in fact, some people who were friends
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with the band say that they maybe weren't as good as you remember them,
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but like experiencing it at the time, they were definitely a cut above a
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lot of the other bands, and they were doing something a little bit different
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because they were doing glam metal punk type stuff, but they were playing in
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front of audiences. They had like mohawks and stuff like that, and they
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also Andy Wood, he had like white face. You pretty much had looked
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like a member of Kiss, but without like any of the black designs,
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like like no star or anything. It was just like the white face is
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all you had. So it was kind of like a Kiss punk band playing
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for mohawk type audiences. Is there footage on YouTube of that band, Yes,
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there is some. It's not pro shot or anything, but you can
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definitely make it out that they were very energetic, very unpredictable and if you
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compare what they were doing in the early eighties to what like mainstream rock was,
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like the type of rock bands that you would read about in circus or
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hit parade or they were definitely doing something different. You cover some of the
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most important bands of that era, the Melvin's, Green River, Soundgarden,
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or Vana, Mother Love Bone, Alison Chains, Mud Honey, and Pearl
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Jam A Green River is an interesting one. Some may not know about this
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band, but super important to that era. Can you talk about this band,
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who the members were, and how as you right blurred the lines between
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punk and metal because some of the comets you got indicated that they went a
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little too metal at times, which is why they split up. Yeah,
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similar to Malfunction, Green River, and you could also say Melvin's. The
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thing that was so great at these bands too is they were not one dimensional.
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They were influenced by metal, punk, garage, rock, or the
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sixties, a wide, wide variety of stuff. I even hear a little
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bit of soul music and also of some of these bands, especially with like
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the vocals. Chris Cornell to me, I always thought was a very soulful
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singer. I don't know, maybe like the average listener could hear that,
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but I could definitely hear that. And also, of course later Lane Staley
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I thought, was also very soulful in his vocals. But getting back to
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bands like Green River, they were they were a merger you could say,
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of punk and also metal. You had Stone Goss and also Jeff Amant,
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which we all know from the band Pearl Jam. They were leaning more towards
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maybe the metal side, but that said, I know they also had punk
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roots and hardcore roots, so it's not as clear cut. And then you
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had Mark arm who was the singer who later went on to be the lead
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singer of the band mud Honey, and he was definitely more of the punk,
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rode rock faction of that that band. He also had Steve Turner briefly
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in that band for like I think one album, and he later went on
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to be in the band mud Honey with Mark, and the all said Bruce
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Fairweather replaced him would later turn up in Mother Lovebone with Stone and also Jeff.
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So it's it's a little bit incestuous, like a lot of these bands
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are kind of interwoven with each other a bit. You could say, Yeah,
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you can connect the dots between a lot of these bands, Yes,
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they'll end up in other bands or form Yeah, like Pearl Jam is basically
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yeah, it's Mother love Bone. Who was in Mother love Bone that ended
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up in Pearl Jam, Mother love Bone, it's only two. Two guys
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that were in Pearl Jam for Mother love Bone were Jeffer Meant, the bassist,
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and also Stone Gossips and guitarist Bruce Fairweather. He wasn't invited into Pearl
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Jams. He wasn't in Pearl Jam, but he was in a few smaller
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type bands. I know, Greg Gilmour was the drummer. He also played
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in some other bands that were never as popular as Paul Jim. But he
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I believe, got a songwriting credit on a Sound Garden album, the song
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Never the Machine Forever, because he's friends or was I don't know if he's
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still his friends, but with Kim Thile, the guitarist from Sound Garden,
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and they I think we're jamming one day and they came up with the riff
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that later became Never the Machine, or maybe it was the drum pattern or
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the guitar if. I forget what, but I know he got some kind
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of credit for that song called Never Never the Machine Forever from down on the
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Upside. Here's one that blew my mind because I had Steve Turner on and
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he mentioned Dan Peters, the drummer was in Nirvana for like yes, like
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I don't know a summer, you know, it wasn't even long. Yeah,
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they're actually I feel like he was in He was the drummer briefly.
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And then also Dale Crover from the Melvins was also briefly a drummer also just
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before Dave Grohl joined. Just there's a picture online of of Dan Peters there
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with you know, with Kurt and Chris, and uh, yeah, that's
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that's so cool. And I've see everybody's heard of sound Garden and they've been
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around for a while. They formed in late eighty four, early eighty five.
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That's interesting. Megan Jasper of sub Pop told you quote the first time
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I saw a Soundgarden, they gave me a migraine headache, so I knew
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it was good stuff. I think one of the highlights of the book has
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to be this chapter. It offers some insight into the band's very early days.
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Can you talk about some of the standout comments you include in the book
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regarding sound Garden Chris Cornell was on drums early on. Actually what he did
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back and forth vocals drums, I think like half the set split. Yes,
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it was people maybe to like the average person doesn't know that Soundgarden originally
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was a trio. Was Kim Thile on guitar, hero Yamamoto on bass,
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and then Chris not only sang, he also played drums. So it was
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like a Phil Collins type Yeah, and like an artsy band is what the
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guy said exactly. And I forget who in the band likened early Soundgarden to
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sounding kind of like Bouhouse. They were more bouhousy or like joy Division ish.
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They were a little more gothy at the time. If you listen to
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on the Screaming Life album, there's a song called Entering. If you listen
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to that, the beginning of the song actually sounds just like bella Little Goosie's
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Dead if you listen to both those songs side by side. So yeah,
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sound Soundgarden early on was definitely more of like a goth punk type band.
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But then similar to the other bands that are just mentioning, there was definitely
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a metal element to what they were doing, like Sabbathy type stuff and then
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also when Black Flags started slowing down their punk to kind of a slower crawl,
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that was also a big influence on what later became Soundgarden. Soundgarden was
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a very very important band. And as far as this book, you know,
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I think there may be more about early sound Garden in this book than
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in Grunge Is Dead. So if you're a fan of the early sound Garden,
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which there's not that much information on, this book definitely has pretty cool
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info in it, which to me is kind of a fascinating error of the
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band because that's when there they were the first Seattle band to get signed to
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a major from that from that group of bands to get signed to a major
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label. Because I was going to say the first Seattle band get signed to
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a major label, but that's not true because Hart was from Seattle, ye
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Jimi Hendricks was from Seattle too, so they weren't the first, but they
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were the first grunge band, and then Marther love Bone would have been the
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second band to get signed to a major label now Nirvana. Here's another one
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that's interesting that I got from this book. Kurt Cobain's supposed first ever public
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performance, Brown Cow. When was this and what did Kurt do at this
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performance? It was supposedly like a spoken word type thing where it was it
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was kind of improv and him just reading I think over music is all it
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was. And yeah, I don't think there's any audio. And what's funny
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is Nirvana is like one of the most bootlegged bands. If you go on
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YouTube, there's like countless bootleg shows and stuff. But to the best of
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my knowledge, I mean, I haven't dug that deep, but I never
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heard of anyone have any having any Brown Cow boot legs. So that's I'm
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wondering if anything really exists. In fact, one thing I'm always on the
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hunt for. I always keeping my eye out for Mother love Bone. Shortly
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before Andrew Wood died, Stone Gossard had written the music to the song even
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Flow. It was called something Else and he was called Dollar Short was the
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name, and Stone Gossard has said that he knows they that Mother love Bone
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played that live once or twice. And Andrew Wood had totally different lyrics and
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totally different vocal melody. And he always wants he's always asking, wellout,
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always asking if I know he's put it out there that if anyone ever has
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that he would love to hear it because that's you know, I guess that's
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just been lost over the sands of time kind of thing. And I would
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love to hear that as well. That would be a great historic footnote type
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thing to hear. Oh absolutely, Yeah. Yeah. You talked to Kurt's
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girlfriend Tracy Miranda and she talks about seeing Nirvana play their first show A seven.
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Yep. She actually people don't realize that she is the photographer that took
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the picture that is on the cover of Nirvana Bleach. Okay, that is
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that is her photo. Yeah, and she was a great interview. She
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told some really good stories again about the early days of Nirvana, what it
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was like seeing them, what also it was like living with Kurt. She
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tells a good story about they had these pet I think it was I think
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it was rats. Pet it was I was gonna say ratic. I'm pretty
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sure it was pet rats that they kept in a big cage that was multi
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leveled or something like that, and it seemed like they were very big pet
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lovers. Yeah, what I could gather. Yeah, how about Nirvana playing
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to like what two three people? Jonathan Pontoman of sub pop Yeah talks about
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that it was just him the bartender, and I think that was I think
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that was probably people. I mean that that was the thing too that paints
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the picture of Nirvana when they first started weren't really that good, but then
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they just they got so good so fast, right. I know. Mark
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arm from Mud Honey is honest. In the book he says the first time
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he saw it, I think it was quote is honestly, they really weren't
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good when he first saw them. There's very noisy and very loud. But
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yeah, they got very good, very very fast. Something happened to something
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clicked. Great Eddie Vetter quote. Just to hear him talk about seeing Nirvana
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at a club is cool. Seeing them play smells like teen Spirit too.
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There are definitely some great quotes from Eddie Vetter that we're not in the first
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book. Yeah, he talks about a really good quote he says, is
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you know, when he was younger, he would read about things like being
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at them, what it must have been like to see Jimmy Hendricks at Monterey
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Pop or see the who It Woodstock, or like to be at a place
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when something is happening, or for instance, to be in San Francisco in
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nineteen sixty seven and to actually experience like what's going on and to be in
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the middle of everything. And he says, and meanwhile, one day he
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realizes that he is actually in the middle of what's going on. Now,
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how Seattle was such a concentrate there was such a concentrated focus in ninety two,
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ninety three, ninety four, that that was definitely the hot spot of
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like all of the world pretty much when it came to pop culture and music
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and fashion and everything. I know. I once interviewed Charlie Benyonte, the
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drummer from the band Anthrax. This quote wasn't in this book. It was
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in one of my other books. I think it was the book called Survival
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of the Fittest Heavy Metal in the nineteen nineties, and he said, it
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was so weird that Anthrax would tourt that time. And it used to be
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that you would go to far away countries and for instance, fans in England
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would be dressed differently than say, the fans in Portland, and the fans
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in New York would be different dressed definitely than the fans in Paris. And
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he says, in that time period, it was just all Seattle. It
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was no matter where you went in the world, whether it be like I
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said, Paris, England, New York, at Portland, LA wherever,
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it was all flannels Doc Martin's it was all and and I'm thinking back to
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it, and you know, absolutely I'm thinking how people were dressing, like
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like back when I was back in the early nineties, like I was even
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wearing Doc Martins. And I speak to my wife now and she even was
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wearing Doc Martins. I was definitely affected by it. You know, I
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worked at the mall in those days, and every other store, clothing store
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had flannel. Yeah, but but you know it's funny, but then there's
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people like you know, I honestly was wearing flannel before even grunge, so
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you know, and I still were flannel to today. So you know,
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certain things it just happened to be. You know, you were flannel when
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it's you know, very cold outside. You know it's not. But for
18:40
instance, Doc Martins, I definitely have to thank Chris Cornell for turning me
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went to Doc Martens. Yeah. Staying on the topic of Nirvana in Soundgarden
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actually because Kim Thyle of Soundgarden talks about the comments that he gave you about
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when they heard of Kurt's death, and Thyle talks about people who normally punch
19:00
holes into walls are sobbing, you know, like some tough people and they're
19:03
sobbing. I mean, is there a comment that really stands out to you
19:07
regarding Kurt's death and the reaction that people had. Because you did talk to
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the DJ from k XRX, right, Scott Sanderpool, he gave you a
19:14
detailed account when the news hit. I thought that was interesting. But anything
19:18
that stands out to you from what you got from the book, yeah,
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I mean, just the thing that's so weird is you know nowadays we think
19:23
about oh, with news, you get it like within a few seconds.
19:27
But like whereas what happened with Soundgarden was playing a show in France. I
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leave Paris and they had a tad opening up and Kurt Danielson, the bassist,
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somehow got a message or I think a member of the Screaming Trees,
19:44
because I think Kurt may have been married to I think a sister of one
19:48
of the Screaming Trees members. I'm not one hundred percent short with that,
19:51
but they had some kind of connection and he got a message saying yeah,
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hey, just to give you a heads up. Something is going down here.
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We don't know exactly what, but you know, I'll be in contact.
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And then it led to Kurt has been missing. Then it came to
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there's been a body discovered in Kurt's house. We don't know if it was
20:10
him or someone else, and then eventually it was yeah, it's been confirmed
20:12
that it was Kurt Cobain who died. And then I believe it was the
20:17
Tad guys who then waited for Sandguard to come off stage and they had running
20:22
a room. They closed the door and they told them what happened, and
20:26
I know that some of the guys yeah, started to cry. And then
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I remember in the first book I did Colt Grunge is dead. Susan Silver,
20:33
who was Chris Cornell's then wife and was also Sandguard manager. She said,
20:37
eventually they got kind of belligerent and violence started destroying the room, and
20:41
our instructions to the tour manager would just to let them go, let them
20:45
get it out, because that was really all that they could do because they
20:48
were so far away from home at that point, there was nothing they could
20:52
really do to more or anything. At that point, you remember in our
20:56
band Blind Melon. Shannon Hun in the documentary he was filming everything. You
21:00
had the handheld camera. Do you remember in that documentary when the day of
21:04
Kurt's the news of Kurt's death arrives and Shannon Hun is just like he's in
21:11
a just a state of shock, like he's Ye, that was that was
21:15
the day they were, they were they were appearing and actually David Letterman and
21:18
they did the song change and Shannon Hun with the magic marker drew a question
21:25
mark on his forehead. Yeah, and yeah, that's in the book.
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I of course did the earlier book about Shannon Hun called a Devil on one
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Shoulder and an Angel on the other. That was the first one, and
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then I did a second book about Shannon simply titled Shannon, which came at
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about a couple of years ago. I remember where I was. Do you
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remember where you were the day you heard Kurt died? Yes, I do.
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I remember. I was in my cousin's house and a friend came in.
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He said, oh, did you hear about Kurt Cobain? And we
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all thought he was lying. He said, no, I'm not, I'm
21:52
not lying. Turn turn on, turn on MTV and we all went downstairs
21:56
in the basement and I remember Kurt Loder was talking about it and they stopped
22:00
playing videos. We just Kurt Loder talking, you know about the thing.
22:07
The other thing is I have to be honest. I mean he was you
22:10
know, he was live, so he was trying to do the best he
22:12
could he could do. But remember one thing that he said, which like
22:15
I always was like, well, I don't know if I totally agree with
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that. He's like, you know, Kurt Kobain died and that's you know,
22:21
picture Pete Townsend dying before he wrote Tommy or like he was making it
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seemed like that Kurt Kobain hadn't reached his artistic peak yet. Ye remember that,
22:32
and it's like, okay, you know, it's that's always possible.
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But then you think about, like how many bands have you have? You
22:37
have we heard over the years that they peak and you're looking forward to the
22:41
next album, and it just sucks. I'm not saying that that would have
22:45
happened with Nirvana, but you can't really throw out comments like that. You
22:48
can't say, oh, you know, their next album would have been there
22:52
or a ten million seller. You can't. You don't know what's going on
22:56
with artists, you know, mentally, or how the band is getting along.
22:59
I know, for instance, Nirvana was on the edge of splitting up
23:03
at that point. So even if Kurt survived, there's a lot of people
23:06
who have said that Kurt we've just went off solo or he was looking to
23:11
replace Dave Grohl, and like, there was all these crazy things I actually
23:14
talked about in this book and also the first book, Grunge Is Dead.
23:17
That was one thing that I remember when Kurt Loders said that. I just
23:19
remember thinking, I don't know if I really agree with that. Yeah,
23:22
it's funny because I remember watching the MTV when they broke the news. I
23:27
was at I was home from college in New Haven, came home and there
23:32
it was, and I don't you know, I remember just a surprise,
23:37
but then not surprised because you all the stories about his drug habit and all
23:44
this talk about him being suicidal and all that stuff. So that that yeah,
23:48
it was just yeah, I mean the thing, yeah, the thing
23:49
that people talk about in this book called I Love Grunge, and also the
23:53
first book, which is called Grunge Is Dead. People I for instance,
23:56
Mark arm is very honest, and he says, you know, the record
24:00
companies, the management, all these people. He felt that they were not
24:06
looking after Kurt's best interest. It was all about just making money. Mud
24:10
Honey tour with Nirvana in the fall of nineteen ninety three, and they said
24:14
it was an awful, awful experience because the people that they surrounded themselves with
24:18
weren't, like I said, looking out for their best interests. It was
24:22
all just about making money. How can we get this tour to keep going
24:26
on, how can we get as many shows and all this other stuff.
24:30
Then they then Mud Honey a few months later toured with Pearl Jam, and
24:33
mud Honey said they were absolutely stunned how it was the complete opposite. How
24:37
Pearl Jim was run so much better. It was such a better environment.
24:41
Everyone got along, everyone looked at for each other, the management and the
24:45
band. Everyone had everyone in their own best interest or was looking out for
24:48
their best interest. So it's just funny how the press made it seem like,
24:53
you know, Nirvana is this more organic, punk rock, true to
24:57
their roots type thing, whereas Pearl was this fabricated professional thing. But then
25:03
Matni says that it was absolutely the opposite. I remember Steve Turner said here
25:08
that people that were working for Pearl Jam then are still working for them now.
25:14
It was that strong of a of a family unit there. Yeah.
25:18
Chapter seven covers one of those standout what could have been bands, And you
25:22
were mentioning Mother love Bone before Andy Wood was the singer, Stone Gossard on
25:26
guitar, Jeff Amant on bass, and then you mentioned Bruce Fairweather also he
25:32
was on guitar, And you're right quote many figured Mother Love Bone was going
25:36
to be the band to introduce grunge to the masses before tragedy sadly intervened.
25:41
What did people have to say about why they felt that this band was going
25:45
to be huge and what was it that this band and Andy Wood had that
25:49
stood out from the rest. What's funny is I remember RIP Magazine at the
25:53
time I first read about Mother Love Bone. It was actually after Andrew would
25:57
die, so it would have been in the summer or fall of nineteen ninety
26:00
and Ritt Magazine was just totally going off on this band, saying there were
26:06
it was such a tragedy because this band was the greatest band or could have
26:10
been such a great band. And as I probably discussed in one of my
26:14
previous appearances my favorite all time rock band is Queen, and they compared what
26:18
they were doing to Queen, and they said that also Andrew would reference Freddie
26:22
Mercury and some of the lyrics and things like that. So that totally caught
26:26
my interests and I ran out and bought the record, bought the CD.
26:30
I remember when I was a college and It's funny is at first it didn't
26:33
hit me. I just, you know, I was just so fed up
26:37
with horrible hair metal and glad metal at that point that I couldn't see that
26:41
it was different from from a lot of the glad metal at the time,
26:45
So I just kind of passed it off. But then later when I got
26:48
really into Pearl Jam, I went back and heard it with like a different
26:52
set of years, and then I could totally hear it for what it was,
26:56
and what it was was they looked kind of glammy, but Andrew Would
27:00
was a larger than life character, and he was drawing more from the seventies
27:03
type glam, not you know, like Poison or Warrant or any of those
27:07
garbagee bands. He was pulling more from early Queen, early seventies t Rex
27:14
Bowie. In fact, you could really say that the most obvious thing is
27:18
he was doing piano things, which none of the hair metal bands or glam
27:22
metal bands the eighties were doing. Like I said earlier, it was to
27:25
me, to my ears, they were just doing fourth grade Van Halen ripoff
27:29
type stuff. Is like all they were pretty much doing. Whereas Andrew Wood
27:32
was trying to write epics on the piano, and he was pulling in like
27:37
Zeppelin type things. But it wasn't like a bad Zeppelin ripoff, because you
27:41
think back to the late eighties that they had had all those horrible Zeppelin ripoff
27:45
bands. But hearing them now, I definitely hear what they were doing with
27:48
something interesting and different, and that would have been I would have been curious
27:52
to hear what they would have gone on to do. But again then we
27:55
wouldn't have Pearl Jams. So I guess everything happens for a reason. The
27:57
book Done Rock Podcast. We'll be back after this. Greg Crato here to
28:03
talk about his brand new book, I Love Grunge. Grunge is Dead Outtakes
28:07
and Andy Wood died in March of nineteen ninety heroin overdose. You spoke to
28:11
a Seattle journalist Don Anderson, and she said Andy had gotten clean, but
28:18
then when he went back to doing drugs, he went back just as hard
28:22
as before, rather than building it up. And a lot of times that
28:26
happens. So when you go back that strong, it's too much for your
28:30
body to handle, you know. But here's the what if question for you.
28:33
I mean, if Andy Wood doesn't die, how different would we be
28:37
looking back on the nineties. You just mentioned no Pearl Jam. That's true,
28:41
we wouldn't have Pearl Jam. Marther love Bone could have I think appealed
28:47
to like the hair metal glad metal band like fans of those bands. So
28:52
in fact, I remember there's video footage of Andrew Wood from like eighty nine
28:56
ninety where he's talking about like, you know, give us any tour gives
28:59
it or like with warrant, We'll open up for warrant because he's saying that,
29:03
you know, warrant you could just like when you're on those types of
29:07
tours, you could just say anything to a to an arena full of people
29:11
and they'll just like cheer back, kind of like you know, blindly.
29:14
So it would have been interesting to see if Martha love Bone could have toured
29:18
with some of those bands if they would have been able to fit in,
29:21
and maybe you know, who knows, maybe they would have been more of
29:23
a bridge from the glad metal of the eighties to the grunge of two you
29:30
know, because that's the word. Yeah, yeah, yeah, because it
29:33
could Because if I'm sure you'll remember how it was just like one day MTV
29:37
was playing Poison, the next day was over and they were playing Nirvana.
29:41
Yes, it was just boom, yeah, bridge the gap that might have
29:45
been that might have be the case. Yeah. And and what would the
29:49
nineties be like without laying Staley, right, I mean if he didn't live
29:55
as long as he did, because he could have been gone soon too.
29:57
I mean he although he got into the I think he got into the heroine
30:03
kind of late in the game. I think it was more towards like the
30:04
mid nineties. I think if I recall correctly that, yeah, I think
30:07
he started getting into it. Yeah, And I went into view Jerry Cantrell,
30:12
he that talks about it in this book or the previous Scrunch book that
30:15
they dabbled a bit. But it wasn't until European Tour in nineteen ninety or
30:19
ninety one that they all tried heroin for the first time, and yeah,
30:23
that was the big You know. It's like said, how some people can
30:26
experiment and it's nothing. Then there's some people that just try it once and
30:30
they're just hooked and they can never get off it. And sadly that's what
30:33
happened with Lane Staley. He just could never get off heroin. Whether if
30:38
it's just him, if it was like a mental thing, or it's just
30:42
if it's a physical thing. You know, you could say addiction is almost
30:47
impossible to figure out because each person is built so different. What a voice,
30:52
What a freaking voice, man, Lane Staley. And he made it
30:55
to two thousand and two. I mean he didn't he lived into the two
30:57
thousands. He did. Yeah, he was virtually a hermit from say the
31:03
late nineties through his death. He would just pretty much stay in his apartment,
31:07
his condo, and wouldn't I don't think he'd really come out, especially
31:10
the last few years, would very rarely ever come out. And I know
31:14
Susan Silver said that he physically his appearance changed so much that you wouldn't have
31:18
even recognized him. That he looked very old yea. Towards the ends,
31:23
you spoke to his mother, Nancy Lane McCallum. I did. I interviewed
31:30
her at length of the first book. I only used one quote in this
31:33
book, the middle name change. You quoted her on him changing his middle
31:37
Yeah, that was because I remember that quote for the first book. I
31:41
wanted to include it really badly, and then I didn't include it for some
31:44
reason. And that's one quote I've I always regretted not including, so this
31:48
time I had to include just to get it out there, which is maybe
31:51
I don't give it away that why Lane changed his middle name, right,
31:56
Yeah, I mean there's a connection there. I guess you'd be surprised to
32:00
find out. But how did you How did you get a hold of her?
32:06
Honestly, I forget because it was so long, Like the interview with
32:07
Heart took place in like two thousand and seven ish. It's been so long
32:13
I really don't remember. But what was she like? She? Oh,
32:15
she's very sweet, very nice. Yeah, yeah, very very very nice
32:20
woman. Of course, you feel you feel so bad for what she's had
32:22
to have gone through. When you you know, when you're a mother who
32:24
loses her son, that's what the book humanizes these guys because they're like rock
32:30
gods, and you realize they had a mom and dad. They get parents
32:34
that that was her little boy, you know, and then he goes on
32:38
to become a huge rock star and you know the tragedy of it all.
32:44
Yeah, that's you spoke too, you spoke to Shannon Mom. I did,
32:51
Yeah, I did. Yeah. I mean there's a misconception that I
32:54
often read or kind of I kind of I kind of kind of feel from
32:59
people that if you become famous, enriched and that solves all your problems,
33:02
and that's not true. I mean, I know Gene Simmons, I think,
33:07
has said that that obviously worked for him. But if you say,
33:12
if you were addicted to something, you get more money than you may just
33:15
put all your money towards your addiction. Or if something horrible happened to you
33:21
in the past, just because you get money, that doesn't fix you.
33:23
It could only make it worse. So, you know, just you know,
33:28
people all have the same problems and just becoming you think of this way
33:32
too. If you have social anxiety, if you're suddenly very famous and you
33:36
have stalkers and people always following you around, it's only going to make it's
33:39
only going to make that worse for you. So absolutely, yes, person
33:45
is different. Let's go back to Pearl Jam Eddie Vetter talking about seeing mud
33:49
Honey. This is when he was in a band called Bad Radio and this
33:52
is actually the very first quote to start off chapter ten. By the way,
33:57
is that a coincidence? Ten? Yeah, you know what, I
34:00
didn't think of that. Actually, thanks for pointing that out. That just
34:02
that's I think that's how it turned out. Pearl Jam ten. Yeah.
34:07
He goes into detail about his his track from San Diego to See All and
34:10
how it all leads to the formation of Pearl Jam. And that follows with
34:15
comments from guys like Alison Chain's guitarist Jerry Cantrell, who remembers when they brought
34:20
Eddie into the band and they formed Mookie Blaylock later to later to become Pearl
34:24
Jam. What was the overall impression that musicians from that scene thought of Pearl
34:29
Jam and Eddie when they first saw them perform. Someone that used to work
34:35
for Kelly Curtis's management company, and that's who is Pearl James manager to his
34:38
day, I'm pretty sure. And at the time they hooked up with Eddie
34:44
and they played one of the first couple of shows, and Eddie Vetter was
34:47
not His back was turned to the audience. It was not the Eddie Vetter
34:52
that we all know, or even the Eddie Vetter that you'd see in the
34:54
even Flow video where he's climbing in the rafters and diving the audience and everything
34:59
like that. He was still a little shy or still kind of feeling his
35:02
way. And funny enough, the person that worked for Kelly at that point
35:07
said, there was actually some internal talk about is Eddie Vetter the right singer
35:12
for this band. They were thinking, I don't know, should we give
35:15
how much of a chance are we giving him before we have to look at,
35:19
you know, somewhere else. If he kept turning his back to the
35:22
audience, who knows, maybe he wouldn't even lasted long enough to make an
35:24
album with Pearl Jam. But luckily he did turn around, and we got
35:28
Pearl Jam with Eddie Vetter. Yeah, and they're doing okay, They're still
35:30
around. They are struggling right, yes. Chapter twelve insight into how the
35:37
residents and bands of Seattle coped with all of the unexpected attention that the region
35:40
got in the nineties. It seemed like a mixed reaction, like some thought
35:45
it was really cool and they're proud of the fact that Seattle was getting recognition.
35:49
But then there were those who were so put off by it that they
35:51
literally moved out of Seattle. Stand out comments from that chapter for you,
35:55
Why no, Jeff Emant fled, he said as soon as What's funny is
36:00
he left. He was from Montana. Originally he left Montana because he couldn't.
36:05
He just didn't like there was not enough. I guess he was like
36:07
the only fan that, like, the only person that like punk rock or
36:10
one of the few people. So he moved to the Seattle area to get
36:15
around more art people, like artsy people and more like like minded people.
36:19
And then once that happened, he said, he just fled right back to
36:22
Montana because he couldn't take it anymore with just the being such a focus at
36:25
that point commercialized commercial, yeah, or not like so much. He tells
36:31
a story I think it was in the first book Grungees Deady talks about that
36:36
Pearl Jim was on tours so much he couldn't really get a feel for how
36:39
much Pearl Jim had blown up because of like MTV playing their videos and everything.
36:44
And he once had a break from tour and he was in Seattle and
36:46
just went to like his neighborhood cafe just to get coffee and sit down and
36:51
read a paper, and he said, suddenly everything had changed, like everyone
36:54
was just staring at him. And you know, he said, suddenly when
36:58
they were on tour that point went back on tour, the band couldn't go
37:02
from just the backstage door to the actual tour bus. It was impossible that,
37:07
you know, just with so many people waiting and trying to get their
37:09
autographs and stuff. That was like that quick, and that must have been
37:14
crazy that that has to screw with your head. But but you really have
37:17
to give Pearl Jam credit because they're the only band that really was able to
37:21
weather the storm and came out of it. You know, they didn't go.
37:25
You know, you look at people like Chris Cornell, Layne Staley,
37:29
Kurt Cobain, Shannon Hune we talked about earlier, Scott Wiland. You could
37:32
say fame definitely had a bad. Fame had a detrimental effect on all of
37:37
them. With MTV, everybody you recognize, every single member of the band.
37:42
Yeah, you know, you could be maybe back in the day,
37:44
you could be a you know, the bassist or a keyboardist for a band,
37:46
and you could kind of walk in and out of a room and nobody
37:49
would know. Back in the days of say Super Tramp, you could go
37:52
into a store and people and know who the hell you were. Yeah,
37:55
hey, hello, I'm the keyboardist for Super Tramp. Yeah, that was
38:00
the thing. I kissed the guys and kiss used to tell FRALEI used to
38:02
get actually a little a little pissed off because when he would show up,
38:06
where did you show up at a concert? Once? And and he's like,
38:09
I'm Ace Fraley. You know I've kissed right? Yeah? Right?
38:13
Fuck off? Remember, because because they never saw him without makeup, right,
38:17
And I also remember I once read a pretty good interview with Brian Johnson
38:21
from the band ac DC. He said he once without an ac DC show
38:25
and he left and tried to get back in, and they stopped him because
38:29
they didn't recognize him, and because I guess it was when he was still
38:31
new in the band, right, So he eventually did get back in,
38:35
but he said from that point on, when whenever he was backstage or like
38:37
leaving. He would always try to wear something a little flashy, like a
38:42
scar for something, just to maybe set him apart from just, you know,
38:45
the regular concert goers. It looked like a rock star. Right.
38:50
Chapter thirteen tells odds and ends, and you read a variety of grunge related
38:53
topics for your reading pleasure, You include comments regarding the word grunge? Where
39:00
did it come from? So let's get into this. Was the former assistant
39:04
for Pearl Jam manager Kelly Curtis. I think it's is it? Crisia Christia
39:09
Chrisha Agarat, Yes, And she had a quote she said, grunge to
39:14
me, I always thought was a combination of garage and dirge. That was
39:17
what it meant to me, kind of a stooge zy garage thing. But
39:22
the quotes that you include indicate that they're really not sure where this comes from.
39:25
Didn't you start with Mark arm mud Honey is like back in eighty one
39:29
he called his band mister Epp and the calculations pure grunge right. Well,
39:32
supposedly, I believe people have said the first time that they've seen that they
39:38
saw the word grunge being used may have been in Cream magazine in the early
39:42
eight excuse me, early seventies. It may have been Lester Bangs, but
39:45
I'm not one hundred percent sure. I'm pretty sure that was something to do
39:50
with cream or some kind of magazine I think used the word grunge. And
39:53
then and then from there you don't it's it's hard to put your finger on
39:57
it. Somewhere along the way it was yeah, I mean, I do
40:00
kind of like the description that's a mixture of garage and also dirge. That
40:06
does sound kind of yeah. But then I remember, like I remember reading
40:09
quotes from Ben Shephard the Bassis from Soundgardens saying that they ripped off everything from
40:15
the band Black Sabbath. I remember that was his famous quote. He would
40:17
say as like a joke, which if you listen to early Black Sabbath,
40:21
it does sound a bit like Sound Garden. And then on top of it,
40:24
Charlie Benyonte, who I just mentioned before, the drummer of Anthrax,
40:29
has said that Chris Cornell always reminded him of Ronnie James Dio and also David
40:34
Carverdale from back when he was singing with Purple Deep Purple. If you listen
40:38
to what Ronnie James Dio is doing on the Heaven and Hell album. There
40:42
definitely are some Chris Cornell screams and stuff, so it's hard to pinpoint it.
40:47
You know. Yeah, there's the Sabbath influence. I definitely here,
40:52
definitely hear it Sabbath. And there's also certain Black Flag albums where they start
40:57
slowing down. There's an album called My War. I think it was the
41:00
second side of that album where they suddenly slowed it down, so it was
41:05
like it was pretty much it's like Sound Garden. It's sounded like I think
41:07
there's somebody throwing Aerosmith as an influence that like the early early you know,
41:13
it's it's it's a gritty streets. Yeah, it's funny. Aerosmith influenced so
41:17
many different I mean, Guns and Roses listed to them as an influence,
41:21
their vinylists them lists them as an influence. There's so many different you know,
41:27
wide sound Gardening always listed them as an influence, you know, and
41:30
then of course all the eighties hair metal bands like Cinderella loved Aerosmith. So
41:36
yes, it's funny how how many people that they've influenced. In fact,
41:38
I know even for a fact that a lot of like the Thrashman. I
41:42
know that James Hetfield was a big Aerosmith, Aerosmith fan, and also I
41:45
didn't know that, Yeah, Cliff Burton was a big Aerosmith fan. Yeah.
41:50
And then some previously unpublished interviews in the book. Who can listeners look
41:53
forward to hearing from in this chapter? And what are some highlights? Yeah?
41:57
Well what it was? Yeah, there's a chapter. It's just it's
41:59
just simply title twenty seventeen interviews. What happened was in twenty seventeen, I
42:04
tried getting back in contact with the publisher of Grunge Is Dead to see if
42:07
they wanted to do a expanded edition, because you know, this book has
42:09
been a steady seller and it's still popular. And that was sadly right after
42:14
Chris Cornell died. So I figured, you know, this book has been
42:17
out for so long, it's you know, been reissued a few times.
42:21
Why don't we do a updated or a new expanded version. Maybe we could
42:24
change the cover, we can add some new interviews. So I just happened
42:29
to around that time interview Jeff Amant Pearl jam Ched Channing, who was the
42:34
drummer of Nirvana Bleach and also Robert de Leo the basis of Stone Table Pilots,
42:39
which interestingly, I did not interview any of the Stone Table Pilot members
42:44
for the first Grunge book, but I figured, you know, it would
42:47
be good to hear what he had to say, because I remember at the
42:50
time they kept lumping Stone Table Pilots in with all of the grunge bands at
42:53
the time, so it'd be curious to hear what he had to say.
42:57
So make a long story short, I did not get the hey from the
43:00
publisher, so those three interviews just sat on my hard drive again all these
43:05
years, and then when I started putting this book together, I thought,
43:07
oh wait, now was the opportunity to pull out those quotes and put them
43:10
in here. So that's what I did. And it was, like I
43:14
said, it was right after when you know, Chris passed away. So
43:17
Jeff Amnt was kind enough to talk about what was going He was still processing
43:22
Chris dying because that was when he had just worked with Chris in the Temple
43:27
of the Dog Reunion, which was twenty sixteen, I believe, late twenty
43:30
sixteen, so you know, he was definitely trying to process that, and
43:34
that was also shortly after when Scott Wiland died, so it was interesting to
43:37
hear what Robert had to say from Stunt Tumble Pilots about, you know,
43:42
Scott passing away as well. And that was right after Nirvana was inducted into
43:46
the Rock and Hall of Fame, which Chad Channing attended, so it was
43:51
good to also hear what Chad had to say some of his memories of crossing
43:54
paths with Dave Rawl that night and everything like that was pretty cool to hear.
43:59
Have you Stone type of Pilots now with the news singer Jeff I've just
44:02
seen videos, but he is very similar to Scott, isn't he? Holy
44:07
shit? Yeah, I was listening to a podcast and they were they have
44:13
it on video two and they were playing clips and I mean it, but
44:17
not in a good way. I mean it's like if you if you're a
44:21
Stone type of Pilots fan and you want to see the band like it was,
44:23
then yeah, then you'll be happy because it's not. He's not he's
44:29
not trying to be his own guy. I mean he even moves like him
44:31
and sing. I was gonna say it wasn't that his name? Gutt?
44:36
Yes? Yeah, yeah, because recently I was like, oh, you
44:39
know, I'm curious to hear what they sound like with the news singer.
44:42
And I watched it, and yeah, I was impressed that it sounds just
44:45
like they used to. But it's and I'm not saying it's to be a
44:49
jark, it's just honestly, if you don't agree with me, you could
44:51
watch it for yourself. The pretty much have like a Stone Tumble Pilots tribute
44:55
band singer, right wild is what it is. I mean, he looks
45:00
like it, moves like them, sound just like them. You know.
45:01
That's interesting because yeah, you could go one way or the other when you
45:05
have to replace a singer in a band you want do you want to have
45:10
do you want to have that singer be entirely different and go go a different
45:15
route, or is it not worth a risk and just let's have somebody in
45:19
there, like a cover, like a tribute band type singer. Yeah,
45:23
maybe it depends on when it happens, because like when a CDC gets Brian
45:29
Johnson, they were at that they were not at that point where they're playing
45:34
on their legacy. They still had something to prove. Van Hallen with Sammy,
45:38
you know, it's different for someone tell yeah, for some type of
45:40
pilots. Now, I think to try to go in a different direction really
45:45
wouldn't be beneficial for them to sell tickets. I guess, I don't know.
45:47
It's it's a tough call. The book done, Rock Podcasts. We'll
45:52
be back after this. Let's wrap up last chapter, chapter fifteen, and
45:59
it is quotes from elsewhere. So what's in this chapter and what are your
46:02
personal favorite quotes? Because I haven't. Yeah, So what it is is
46:06
besides writing books, I also write for a wide variety of sites and also
46:09
publications all right, for song Facts, Brave Words, Vintage Guitar Magazine,
46:15
Consequence of Sound, and from years back, I used to write for Rolling
46:20
Stone and Billboard and Guitar World. So I've pretty much name a publication or
46:24
website of the past twenty years, and I'm somehow connected. I mean,
46:29
I've prided something for them, or I wrote for an editor that later was
46:35
at that site or magazine or whatever. But again, when I was putting
46:39
this book together, I realized, you know, over the years, with
46:42
all these interviews I've done with all these people, there's been countless times where
46:46
some kind of grunge topic came up whether being talked about whether we're discussing Kirk.
46:52
I was once interviewing Kirk Hammett from the Bad Metallica, and he was
46:54
telling me how he crossed paths with Kurt Cobain back in the day and now
47:00
kerk Cobain was a huge Metallica fan, particularly the Rye the Lightning album and
47:02
also to Kill Him All album, and he told me a great story about
47:06
that, so I included that. And then also I just recently a few
47:10
months back into view Jeffer meant again. So Jefferman loved this year Jeffer Men's
47:15
feature throughout this book, and I got to ask him some questions about certain
47:21
Pearl Jams songs. He talks at the creation and what's good, it's not
47:24
the most famous Pearl Jams songs, and he gives some really cool insight into
47:30
how these songs were constructed and things like that, and he also talks he
47:35
talks about how he came up with the muted harmonic and the song even flow
47:39
very fascinating and the crank call from Kurt Cobain from Evan Dando from the talks
47:45
about being there's I mean there's not many people that can make that claim that
47:50
they were prank called Kurk Cobain, right, and uh yeah. And then
47:53
on the other side of that is that the sad story of the actor in
47:57
the Pearl Jam Jeremy video. You talked to the director of that video,
48:01
Mark Pellington, and also Chris Cornell from twenty fifteen. Yes, that was
48:07
great, Also Mark Landing and into I sadly intoed Mark Landing in just a
48:09
few months before he passed, So yeah, I was able to put that
48:13
in there. And Gary Lee Connor from The Screaming Trees. I included some
48:17
of some of his quotes, and yeah, I do think you know.
48:22
What I say in this book's intro is if you are not familiar with Grunge
48:25
Is Dead, I recommend reading that book first, then doing then reading this
48:30
book. This book is a perfect companion because Grunge is Dead is more chronologically
48:36
set up, whereas this one is not strict chronological. We're going like a
48:40
chapter will be just about sound Guard and a chapter will be just about Nirvana,
48:44
whereas Grunge Is Dead there is you go chronologically, so you'll get like
48:49
in the eighties, some sound Guard and the nineties, some sound guard and
48:52
you know it's like all spread out as it's going year by year. Yeah,
48:54
no, they must read. By the way, I don't think I've
48:57
ever asked you, what is your first ever published article? I started,
49:02
okay, I mean, were you in high school? Junior high? I
49:07
don't know what it was was I was. I took a job as a
49:12
customer service rep for a music magazine which I'm not going to say the name
49:15
because I wasn't treated particularly kindly by them. Okay, but so what it
49:21
is is I took a job as a customer service rep with them, and
49:24
I saw and I loved music. Music was my favorite thing, and I
49:30
saw how easy it was to be a writer from just some of the writers
49:32
that were there. So I begged my boss at the time to please let
49:38
me try writing, and they said, okay. They gave me like one
49:42
or two bullshit album reviews, and then I liked it so much I wanted
49:46
I wanted to do that more than just being a customer service representative. And
49:52
my boss made it very clear that I was not going to be able to
49:55
write for them, so I said, you know what, audios and I
49:59
quit. That was right when the Internet was starting to boom and really kind
50:04
of take flights, so I was able to get my foot in the door
50:07
with some publications and also magazines. So to answer your question, there was
50:13
a local free music paper here on Long Island called The Island Ear, and
50:19
I was able to it didn't pay anything, but I took it just to
50:22
get articles published, and I know some of the One of the earliest interviews
50:27
I ever did was Rick o'kask from the band The Cars. I know that
50:30
a cool So that was one of the first ones. And then from there
50:34
I called called All Music, which was kind of just launching their own website.
50:38
At that point. They were pretty much noways just like having a these
50:42
big thick books which were just all like album reviews, And I just called
50:45
them and they let me start to do album reviews for them. And if
50:50
you look up my name to this, I haven't done album reviews for them
50:52
in many years. Do I still do interviews for them, But I've done
50:57
so many album reviews for them, Like still to this day, I've people
51:00
saying, oh, yeah, I came across this, uh Living Color album
51:04
review, You're all over it. I wrote that like back in nineteen ninety
51:07
nine. Yes, you're all over that website. Wow that Yeah, that's
51:12
that's cool. Now, one last question. Anybody that you've been wanting to
51:15
interview for a long time you just haven't been able to. You've gotten close
51:19
and just hasn't happened. Yeah, Brian May would be great. Yeah,
51:22
yeah, just because he's one of my favorite guitarists. He would be great
51:24
to interview. Did you ever interviewed, ever interviewed any of the Queen guys,
51:30
ever interviewed any the Queen guys and that that would be great to interview.
51:32
Also, never interviewed any of the main ac DC guys, never interviewed
51:37
Angus or Brian Johnson. The closest I got t ac DC was I've interviewed
51:39
Simon Wright, who was the drummer in the eighties. Yeah. In fact,
51:44
the first time I ever saw a CDC. No, I take that
51:46
back, The only two times ever saw a CDC the Flick of the Switch
51:50
Tour and then Who Made Who Tour? He was the drummer, and I
51:52
told him that he got a pretty big kick out of that. Yeah,
51:54
he's on Flying the Wall too. Yes, Yeah, but I'm just saying
51:59
personally, I just and he was also on Blow Up Your Video. But
52:01
me personally, I just saw those two tours. But and also Joan Jett
52:06
would be good to interview. Wow, I'm surprised you haven't had Joan Jett.
52:09
Yeah, and also probably James James Hetfield would be good to interview.
52:15
Yeah, I'm sure they're coming, I think. Also Howard Stern would probably
52:19
be pretty fun, right, Yeah, it would be a good one.
52:22
You get anyone else get to interview stuttering John? Yeah, I did,
52:27
and he had on his show, he did, he did, And also
52:30
David Lee Roth. I would probably be kind of weird though, but I
52:31
mean I would absolutely do it. Though, I would do it, but
52:36
I don't know. Is he playing with a full deck now? Yeah,
52:40
he's to keep up with he is. But I would absolutely interview him,
52:45
and I would absolutely tell him how I'm grateful for his music honestly. Yeah,
52:50
I know he's a bit of a larger than life character, but you
52:53
have to give him credit. Credits to the body of rock he created with
52:57
Van Halen is pretty much second to none, and he had such a huge
53:00
part of that. Amen to that man, Diamond Dave, and you know
53:04
we're talking grunge. A lot of those grunge bands love Van Halen, like
53:07
Pearl Jam plays Van Halen tunes. They play and talk about love they play.
53:09
Yeah, I love grunge. Grunge is dead Outtakes. It's out now
53:13
and it is available wherever books are sold, so you can go to Amazon
53:15
all the usual places, right, Yes, and it's available as paperback,
53:20
hardcover, kindle, and also audible audio so you can hear and it's narrated
53:25
by me. Yes, I love it. I love it, And I
53:29
always say that you could always hear my wonderful oil and accent narrating the whole
53:32
book to you. Where can people find you online if they want to reach
53:37
out to you? Yeah, well, I would say as far as my
53:39
books, and would you believe I've done over forty books at this point?
53:43
Wow, man, I'm so tired just thinking that the best place for people
53:49
to find my books Amazon. It's going to Amazon and do a search for
53:52
Greg Prats. That's really the best way. But I'd say go to Twitter
53:55
dot com slash Greg Krato writer. The only problem with that is is it
53:59
took hold Twitter? Is it called x at this point? Yeah? What's
54:01
up with that? What's I mean, are they phasing it to become X
54:05
or I don't know. I'm seeing X there and I know I've heard something
54:07
about it. I'm like, oh christ Yeah. On Twitter dot com spread
54:14
pratter writer, I think is probably the best way to yeah, because on
54:16
there, what I do is I have a link there is that. It's
54:20
a it's a pinned link that you can get all my books the Amazon link
54:25
and then also if you scroll down you'll see all my latest articles in interviews
54:29
and also want to put out there. I'm also on cameo now. I
54:31
saw that. Yeah, So if anyonets to hire me to do a message
54:35
or if anyone, if you know anyone that bought my books and is a
54:37
fan of my books, I will definitely do a goofy cameo thing. I
54:42
love it. I saw that. I love it. Yeah, cool man.
54:45
So before I let you go the prediction your jets with Aaron Rodgers,
54:51
What's I mean their record and how far will they go? Now it's impossible
54:54
to say their record, absolutely possible, I'll say I'm gonna I'm gonna think
55:00
positive and say they will make the playoffs. Okay, if of course all
55:04
goes accring a plan. I mean, of course, I'm trying to think,
55:08
well, no, you know what, the question, the real question
55:10
should be what at what game does Aaron Rodgers suffer the inevitable season ending injuries?
55:15
What? Yes? Yes? And of course, and of course,
55:20
in true Jets fashion, they don't have a serviceable veteran quarterback to back him
55:24
up in case that happens. Right, I know, he goes down,
55:29
the season, goes down the toilet, and that's that's a typical Jet season,
55:31
right. I'm banking on Kenny Pickett for my Steelers. I'm liking him
55:36
as the quarterback. I'm liking him as the QB the future. Which if
55:39
there are any Jets fans out there, I've done two Jets books. When
55:43
it's called Stack Exchange and then the other one I can't down the Top one
55:46
hundred Jets Top Debacles. Yeah, that's right. You can go on Amazon
55:53
and look that up. So I do mostly rock stuff. I've done a
55:55
few sports h you have you have all right, Greig? Thanks thanks man.
56:00
As always, this is awesome and we'll look forward to having you back
56:04
on again soon. Thank you, Eric, byebye. That's it. It's
56:14
in the books.