Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / [EP 425] Howard Stern: Rock Star Friendships, Feuds, and Fallout with Greg Prato

Transcript

[EP 425] Howard Stern: Rock Star Friendships, Feuds, and Fallout with Greg Prato · Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I remember Howard Stern said at the time, in 1997,
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: he approached Van Halen for the Private Parts soundtrack and said,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: how much to give me a brand new Van Halen
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: song with David Lee Roth as the singer? And Howard
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: claims they came back and said, we'll do it for you,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: but for a million dollars. And Howard was like, a
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: million dollars? Get the fuck out of here. So they
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: didn't do that. In fact, I remember Howard was even like,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: what are they, like, hard up for money? They need
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: like a million dollars?
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: We're totally booked. Rock and roll! Wow.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: I think I'll leave you to your reading.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Little hand says it's time to rock and roll. Rock
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: and roll! We are totally booked. Welcome back to Booked
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: on Rock. Conversations with authors, musicians, and insiders revealing the
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: stories behind classic rock's greatest songs, albums, and artists. I'm
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Eric Senech. Thanks, as always, to everybody who supports Booked
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: on Rock on Patreon, backstage past members. You can now
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: get every episode in audio and video completely commercial-free, along
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: with early access to new episodes. If you'd like to
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: get in on this, it's just $ 5 a month. Click
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: the link in the show notes or go to booktonrock.com. Now,
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: on to our guest. Greg Pareto returns to talk about
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: his brand-new book, The Great American Nightmare, An Oral History
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: of the Howard Stern Show. The book covers all areas
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: of Howard's career, but we're going to focus on the
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: parts of the book that get into all the great
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: bands and artists that Howard has had on the show. Hello, Greg. Hello, Eric.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: How are you doing? Thanks for having me back on.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: I am doing good, man. This is such a cool
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: idea for a book. The title is interesting too, The
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Great American Nightmare. It captures Howard's rebellious image. What made
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: rock music such an important part of the story that
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: you wanted to tell in this book?
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Well, it's funny that you mentioned the title because the
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: title right off the bat is related to rock. That's
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: the title of the song that Howard did with Rob Zombie,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: which was on the Private Parts soundtrack and also in
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: the movie. and which has become a, well, it's played
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: almost every day, I believe. That's his theme song, pretty much,
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: when he goes on the air. So, right there, just
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: the title alone is a nod to rock. But, yeah,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, rock music has been such a big part
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: of the Stern Show. Maybe not as much now as
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: it was, but especially back in the 80s and 90s,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: he was on K-Rock here in New York, and that
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: was a classic rock station for many years. Then in
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: the mid to late 90s, it turned into a like
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: alternative heavy metal. I think it was called like modern
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: rock was the name at the time. So they would
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: play like Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, but also play like Metallica
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: and Ozzy. So it was metal and also harder alternative rock.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: And Howard always was a big supporter of those bands.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Like he could point to Howard played a major role
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: in breaking Marilyn Manson's career. He was an early supporter
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: of Marilyn Manson. He also really got behind a band
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: called Enough's Enough in the late 80s, a band that
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: a lot of people put in the same category as
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: like King's X and bands that they feel like should
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: have been a lot bigger but weren't. One thing that
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: a lot of people talk about with Enough's Enough is
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: their image probably hurt them because they were a full
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: on glam metal band. And that was right when glam
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: metal was about to go down the toilet. So if
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: their look was not glam metal, they probably could have
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: potentially had a bigger career. But yeah, I interviewed both
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: the main guys from that band for this book, Chips
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Enough and also Donny V. And I also interviewed several
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: other rock people. I interviewed Kim Thiel from Soundgarden, John
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Popper from Blues Traveler, David Elfson from Megadeth, and Tommy
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Thayer from Kiss as well. And there's probably one or
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: two other people I'm missing. But yeah, and there's a
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: chapter in the book called The Stern Show Rocks, which
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: focuses strictly on the rock aspect of The Stern Show.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: Kirkwood from Meat Puppets, right?
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: How could I forget? The Meat Puppets are my favorite
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: bands of all time. And he was extensively interviewed.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah. You talked to Kevin Cronin too, didn't you?
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: What it was, was I did 35 all original interviews
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: for this book, but there were three instances where I
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: republished interviews that were previously published, but interviews that I
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: conducted for other sites. So Kevin Cronin, I interviewed for
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Song Facts several years back, and he had some pretty good,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: like the subject of Howard Stern came up and he
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: had some pretty good quote. So I was able to
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: use that in this book. Also interviewed Dave Mustaine from
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Megadeth recently for the site called Ultimate Guitar. And I mentioned,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, I reused that quote in this book as well.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: And then also a brief quote from the late, great
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: David Crosby from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, talking about
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: how Howard Stern is a good interviewer. That was also
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: in this book as well.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: Kevin Cronin, he opens with some pretty outrageous personal questions.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: What was his story that he shared?
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Well, he said that it was back in, I think,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: the late 80s was when Kevin Cronin first appeared on
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: The Stern Show. And back then, what Howard would do
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: is he wasn't on many other markets. So I think
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: like a few times a year, maybe once a year,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: The Stern Show would fly out to California and they
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: would have these like radio type things where it'd be
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: a bunch of radio stations in like either a ballroom
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: or something like that. And a rock musician would come
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: to the ballroom and just go from table to table
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: and doing interviews with all the different radio shows. And
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: that's how Kevin Cronin first appeared on The Stern Show.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: And he said, the first quote, or the first thing
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: that Howard ever said to him was something along the
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: lines of, Kevin, people tell me all the time that
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: you and I look very, very similar. Do you also
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: have a anal fissure? Because Howard suffered from something called
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: an anal fissure at the time. And then Kevin Cronin said, oh,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: when I heard that, I was like, oh, this is
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: going to be good. From just that alone. Yeah, so...
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: Howard back then, it was a totally different show back
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: in the 80s, 90s and also 2000s. You could say
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: he was totally different until, well, when he got divorced
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: and also married Beth was when people kind of point
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: to the show changing. I'm not saying it's for bad
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: or good. It's just a different show now. He's also
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: a lot older now. He's in his 70s. So what
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: he was doing in the 80s and 90s, being an
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: old man doing that wouldn't, you know, it'd be like
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: he'd come off like a dirty old man. So I
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: can totally understand why he doesn't. really do what he
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: used to do and he doesn't have strippers on anymore
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: and porn stars and things like that. It's, um, not
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: a family show because like I was like, sometimes still
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: they post highlights on, um, YouTube and some of the
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: things that Richard Christie and also Sal Governale do a
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: pretty out there.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, absolutely. My brother loves those guys. The prank
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: calls are classic.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: I do too.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Um, but did Cronin talk about too, once they
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: were off the air, there's a different Howard and Howard
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: is really, Really nice guy, laid back, pretty low key.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: He's a different person than when they were on the
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: air back in those days.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: He has a chapter in the book where we talk
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: about Howard Stern on the air and also off the air.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: And I'd say the vast majority of people say he
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: is different off the air. He's a lot quieter. Well,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: this is also back in the day. I'm not talking
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: about now. Back in the day when he was getting
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: all the uproar from the FCC and all these other groups,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: he was definitely very outspoken on the air. Some would
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: say even maybe a little bit crude. But off the air,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: he was very soft-spoken. Some even said he was a
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: little bit shy off the air, if you could believe that. Yeah,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: so there were definitely two Howard Sterns, according to people
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: that knew him at the time.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: You talked about Enough's Enough. Let's talk about them a
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: little bit more. Their members credit him with record sales
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: going up. He could make that kind of difference with them.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: But what made him get so invested in this particular band,
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: Enough's Enough, which I was a fan of too, Flying
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: High Michelle and New Thing. New Thing, yeah.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what happened was Howard had a bad experience with
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Bon Jovi in the 80s, that he had Bon Jovi
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: on his radio show in early 86. This was several
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: months before Slippery When Wet came out. And people forget, well,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: not people, but I'm sure that some people don't know
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: that Bon Jovi was not a success right out of
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: the gate. They put out two albums that sold okay,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: but they weren't big blockbusters or anything. They were opening
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: for bands. I know Bon Jovi opened up for Rat
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: in 1985, 86, early 86. So they were pretty much
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: known as like an opening band. They also opened up
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: for Kiss, I know, in 1984 and also the Scorpions.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: So they were a band that was looked at as
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: like an opening band that hadn't had a big break yet.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: And Howard had them on in early 86 before they
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: were really known. And what happened was then later in 86,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: they became massive with Slippery When Wet and You Give
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Love a Bad Name and also Living on a Prayer.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: So Howard, I think, just assumed like, oh, now that
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: they're very big, they'll come back on my show. But
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: it was the opposite. They were nothing to do with
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Howard for many, many years. In fact, they only came
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: back on the show in the early 90s after you
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: could say grunge was really popular and there was a
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: period of time where people looked at Bon Jovi as
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: like a has-been band, but they really never were because
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: they were still able to play huge arenas and things
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: like that. And especially overseas in London, they were still
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: able to headline like Wembley Stadium in like 1995. So
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: but so Howard felt very hurt by that. So he
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: discovered the band Enough's Enough. And I guess it would
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: have been 1989 is when their debut album came out.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: And he, I guess, saw them as potentially the next
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Bon Jovi. Like he thought that they were the next
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: big thing. And to be honest, I think I may
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: prefer Enough's Enough's music more than Bon Jovi. I know
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: definitely I could listen to Enough's Enough, Enough's Enough's music now.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: more than Bon Jovi. I really, you know, I'll be honest.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: I'm not a big Bon Jovi fan.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: His interviews with Joey and Marky Ramone are classic. I mean,
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: he got, he got them. I mean, he brought the
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: tension out between those two where I don't think anybody
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: else could. I mean, they, they were arguing about things
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: that are rarely discussed on the radio. You know, I mean,
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: they were talking about, you know, one guy accusing the
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: other of wearing a wig or Right. I mean, it
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: was just classic. But what was it about Howard, do
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: you think, that just could get that out of his guests?
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: You know, when I interviewed John Popper for the book,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: he said that appearing on The Howard Stern Show was
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: almost like a truth serum. That was his quote. And
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: I also interviewed Sam Kinison's widow. Her name is Malika.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: And she said that Howard had a way when you
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: went on his show. you just couldn't like hold back.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: Like you had to tell the truth, even if it
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: was like to the detriment of you or your like
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: personal life. So I don't know what it was. It
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: was just something about Howard Stern that, yeah, he really
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: is one of the best, I think one of the
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: all-time great, um, interviewers and his, uh, talent was that
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: he was able to totally pull things out of you
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: that maybe you weren't that other interviews you wouldn't really
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: be willing to, you know, talk about.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: So, But you're onto something there though, because it's also,
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: they probably felt like I'm never going to get out
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: of here unless I just tell him what he wants
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: to hear.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Otherwise, you know, I could actually tell you from personal experience.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: I remember I was once interviewing, uh, Billy Corgan from the, uh,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: smashing pumpkins. And I started to ask him questions about
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: like old guitar cells. And he just flat out said,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: I don't want to talk about old things, but smashing
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: pumpkins is like, all right. So then we just kept
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: on talking about other stuff. Meanwhile, he goes on Howard
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: Stern and he'll answer any old smashing pumpkins question that
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: Howard Stern asks him.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: So.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: But then again, I do admit the Howardster name is
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: a lot bigger than the Greg Prado name.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: Well, listen, I don't know. I beg to differ, but
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: that's okay. We could talk about that another time. Yes.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: Leslie West. That was another one. A beloved regular. This
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: was long after Mountain's commercial peak. That was what was
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: cool about Howard too. What made the chemistry between Leslie
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: and Howard so special?
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Well, it turns out Howard was a huge fan of
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Mountain back in the early 70s. And yeah, what happened
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: was Leslie West. Yeah, the band Mountain is absolutely amazing.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: The fact that Leslie West by himself is not in
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is completely outrageous
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: because he has influenced such a wide range of guitarists.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: He influenced everyone from Randy Rhoades to Johnny Ramone. Everybody.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: I know Ace Furley was a big fan of his.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: Eddie Van Halen was a big fan of his. I
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: believe Michael Shanker, like all the big, big names loved him.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: And yeah, if you're not familiar with Mountain, go back
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: and check out like the early Mountain or even like the,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: there was a Greatest Hits, like a best of that
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: came out in 73, I think. And they're fantastic. Leslie
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: West got really fed off with drugs. And I'm not
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: saying to be mean, and I'm talking as a fan,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: I think it affected his guitar playing because he was
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: absolutely amazing in the early 70s. He had such a
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: great tone, one of the all-time great guitar tones. which
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: I later found out was him playing through like a
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: speaker system. It wasn't even through an actual guitar amp.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: It was through like a PA or something. Go back
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: and listen to that early stuff. It's the greatest tone.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: And then by the 80s, he was just embracing like
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: the whole shredder thing, but he wasn't a shredder. So
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Mountain put out an album in 85 that really I
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: did not like at all. But that would have been
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: right around the time that Howard, I guess, Mountain and
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Leslie West came back on Howard's radar. And that was
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: perfect timing because he was on K-Rock and they were
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: embracing the whole classic rock thing. So by 86, Howard
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: had Leslie West on for the first time. And he
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: was a great interviewer. He was very honest. He would
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: always talk about like touring and playing shows with Black
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Sabbath and Yes and talking about all these stories about
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: recording with The Who and all this stuff. So he'd
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: come on and he would bring his guitar and play
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: along to the songs, which was really cool and tell
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: all these stories. And he became a pretty regular guest. So, yeah,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: from about 86 onward, Leslie West was on a lot. And, yeah,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: it was always memorable. I'm pretty sure you can go
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: on YouTube and listen to a lot of those things
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: back in the day.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: Unmistakable voice, too. That raspy voice. Yes. The New York accent.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: And he was total New York, man. Yeah, he was.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: He was so cool.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: Most recognizable would be Mississippi Queen. That was their biggest song. Yeah,
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: Mississippi Queen.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: But honestly, he has so many other songs I love
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: just as much. Like I love Never in My Life,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: a theme for Imaginary Western.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Nantucket's Sleigh Ride is probably my favorite mountain song. I
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: absolutely love that song. That's one of my all-time favorite songs.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: Meat Puppet singer and guitarist Kirk Wood recalls Howard joining
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: them on stage to play Lake of Fire. What's the
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: story behind Howard stepping into that band's world?
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: Well, I'd say Meat Puppet's one of my all-time favorite bands.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: They're without a doubt in my top 10 all-time favorite bands.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: I just saw them earlier this year. They're still amazing live. Um,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: if you're not, people primarily know them just really through Nirvana,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: but if that's all you know about them, you got
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: to go back and check out some of their earlier albums,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: like Me Puppets 2, Up on the Sun, Too High
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: to Die. Those are all fantastic albums. And yeah, what
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: happened was Howard probably discovered them the same way a
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: lot of people did in 1994 through their appearance on
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: Nirvana's MTV Unplugged. They did two songs live that they aired,
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: but they actually did three songs that came out later
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: on the CD version of that. It was, uh, Plateau, Omi,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: and also Lake of Fire. And Howard went to go
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: see Stone Temple Pilots play the Beacon Theater here in
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: New York City. And the Mii puppets were opening that night.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: And yeah, Howard went. It was backstage. And Kirk Kirkwood
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: happened to see him. And he talked to him. And
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: they really hit it off. And Howard was like, I
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: don't know what I'm going to do. When you guys
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: are playing, I can't go out and be with the
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: crowd because they'll recognize me. So Kirk Kirkwood's like, well,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: why don't you come out and play with us? And
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: he's like, oh, I'd love that. So they gave him
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: a guitar. And he came out during Lake of Fire
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: and played. And then what's interesting is they appeared, I think,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: the next day on the Howard Stern show, the whole band,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: and they played again. And I think the drummer said
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: that Howard's guitar was mistakenly not plugged in or something
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: like that. There was something funny that happened that I
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: didn't know until I actually saw that appearance. I saw
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: it again. So, yeah, so they kind of hit it off.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: And they also came back on again a year later.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: And it's kind of like a sad story with the
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: Meat Puppets. They put out a great album that's very
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: underrated called No Joke that came out in 1995. And
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: that was kind of going to be the big follow-up
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: to their previous album called Too High to Die, which
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: went gold because it had the hit called Backwater on it.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: So the album No Joke was primed to be like
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: a big follow-up hit album. And what happened was at
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: the time in alt-rock and rock in general, heroin was
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: very popular, sadly. And heroin had gotten a hold of
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: their bassist, Chris. And he was really bad off. And
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: he was so bad off that the record label and
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: also management could see it. And he went to Kurt
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: and he talks about this in the book. And he said, look,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: you know, you got to get rid of your bassist.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: You got to get rid of your brother or else
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: we're not going to support this album. And Kurt said
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: that he was really concerned that his brother was going
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: to die on the tour. So that album just never
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: got the proper push and it just faded. So that's
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: like one of the great 90s overlooked albums. No joke. Wow.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: I did not know that story.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: I didn't know that that's what happened.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what happened. And Howard had them,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: which is kind of eerie in a way, Howard had
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: them on in September of 95, right around the time
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: the album came out. And I remember Howard asked them, like, yeah,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: none of you guys were on heroin, right? Because heroin was,
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: at the time, very popular with, sadly, Scott Weiland, Kurt Cobain,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Elaine Staley. So he actually asked that, I guess, as
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: a joke, and they were like, oh, no, no. Meanwhile,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: now we know behind the scenes, it was absolutely a
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: big part of the story, sadly, with the meat puppets.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: Wow. Matt Pinfield, great guy from everything that I hear,
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: and you've interviewed him. He is.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: He's always been, whenever I get in contact, he cannot
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: be a nicer guy, Matt Pinfield. Great guy.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: He recalls radio stations picking up Dave Grohl's acoustic version
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: of Everlong, Foo Fighters song, right, from Howard's show.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: I'm willing to say that Howard Stern has a major,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: major role in making the Foo Fighters as big as
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: they are, because if you think back to the late 90s,
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: the Foo Fighters were popular, but they weren't like stadium
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: headliner type band. Like they were like a co-headlining band
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: or like a theater. I remember they would play like Roseland,
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: which is like a large theater. But what I think
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: really took them to the next level was when Dave
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: Grohl appeared on the Stern show in the late 90s
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: and Howard loved the song called Everlong. And he said, hey,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: can you do this as a unplugged version? And I
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: remember even I remember listening and Dave Grohl was even like, oh,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: I don't think it's going to sound good because that's
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: a rock song. He's like, no, no, play it, play
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: it that way. So he did it and it came
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: out amazing. And I think a lot of people even
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: consider that to be the definitive superior version. And that
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: version was so stellar that other radio stations started playing it.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: And it's even, I believe, on the Foo Fighters greatest
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: hits album, I believe. So, yeah, so. And that, I think,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: really took their career to the next level because after that,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: then they just got bigger and bigger and bigger. The
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: albums got bigger and bigger to the point that now
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: they're able to play huge stadiums. Wow.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And then in 97, I think it was, Private
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: Parts came out, the movie, right? Yeah. That also had
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: a huge rock and roll presence. I mean, you had
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: ACDC in the film, but then the soundtrack became a
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: big thing. Who was going to be on it? And
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: I believe, was Van Halen on that?
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: Van Halen was on it. Yes. With, I believe, Jamie's Crying.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: Right. That was a big deal too. I mean, he
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: drew all those huge bands. ACDC and who else?
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: ACDC, Van Halen. Then there was also Porno for Pyros.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: There was Marilyn Manson. LL Cool J did a song
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: with Red Hot Chili Peppers. Um, there was, I think
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: like cat scratch fever was on that. Uh, the Ramones, um,
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: I pinhead was on it. Oh, and also Howard, uh,
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: did the song called the great American nightmare, which is
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: the title of this book right here.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: There you go. I love the cover again. Uh, Mary Prado.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: No, actually, I'll be honest. This I'm going to make
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: a confession. This is one of the first ones that
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: my wife did not do. This is, Oh yeah.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: You know what?
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: I take that back. This was this, um, image. It
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: was by chat gbt i hate to uh give chat
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: gbta a plug but hey this image i said a
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: silhouette of howard stern that's what it came up with
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: but my wife did uh fool around with the colors
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: because she's a master at the whole um you know
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: art side of stuff so she uh did that and
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: then yeah we came up with the uh font and
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: the title and everything like that on the top so Yeah,
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: so this is a Chachi BT, Greg Prado, Mary Prado collaboration,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: you could say.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: I tell people Chachi BT, man, it's a great tool.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: It is. It is a great tool. It is. Absolutely.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: That movie was 97, and around that time, you mentioned
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: Van Halen being in the film or that song.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: Oh, let me actually jump in for a second, because
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: you'll definitely enjoy this. I remember Howard Stern said at
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: the time, in 1997, he approached Van Halen. For the
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: private parts soundtrack.
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: How much to give me a brand new Van Halen
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: song with David Lee Roth as the singer? And Howard
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: claims they came back and said, we'll do it for you,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: but for a million dollars. Yes. And Howard was like,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: a million dollars? Get the fuck out of here. So
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: they didn't do that. In fact, I remember Howard was
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: even like, what are they, like, hard up for money?
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: They need like a million dollars? So that was actually
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: kind of funny. But yeah, we could have had either
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: possibly MeWise Magic or what was the other song that
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: was on the greatest hits? can't get this stuff no
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: more maybe that or maybe there's like a third one
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: in the vault that we never heard who knows.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah because he did have dave on quite a bit
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: he did at that time and that's that's what i
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: want to get to next but greg prado is our
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: guest your brand new book titled the great american nightmare
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: and oral history of the howard stern show and dave
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: was a guest on the show at a time and
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: he needed the publicity i mean he was really struggling
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: and he would have dave on and he would always
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: tell dave how much he wants dave back in the
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: band and all the thing But we get the 1998
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: version of Van Halen that features Gary Cherone. And they
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: visited Howard. That was an unusual.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: That was such a fascinating appearance. That was one of
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: the most absolutely fascinating for all the wrong reasons appearance
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: I've ever seen. People watching this, if you have not
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: seen that, finish watching this interview. Please, don't you dare stop.
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: When you're done with this, go on YouTube and look up.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: Van Halen, 1998, Howard Stern on YouTube. And you will, well,
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's like sad because Eddie Van Halen's out
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: of his mind. He is. He was obviously bad off.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: I don't know what he was doing, but just making
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: no sense, getting up, walking around. You could tell it's
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: like the other members are a little like uncomfortable, like
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: what the hell's going on? It was very, very odd.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: Quite revealing because looking back now, it reveals where Ed
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: was at that point in his life. But then you
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: had the Sammy and Dave tour, right? Sammy Hagar, David
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: Lee Roth.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: But they both were very unguarded with Howard. That's hard
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: to do with Dave because he's in Diamond Dave mode.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Sammy appeared on the show and I think David
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Lee Roth called in. They didn't appear together yet to
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: promote that tour together.
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: Right. Right. Yeah.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: Because David Lee Roth still to this day doesn't want
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: anything to do with Sammy.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: Right. But yeah, Dave was in the studio. Sammy called in.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: Called in the tour.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, to also talk about when David Lee
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: Roth would appear on Stern. I actually the other day
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: in my YouTube feed, a interview with David Lee Roth
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: from Stern for about 96 came up, 96 or 97.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: And I mean, I'm not saying it's too mean. It's
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: just the fact. He was so much more coherent then.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about David LeGroff. It was a good interview.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Howard's trying to ask him a question, and he would
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: give him thoughtful, interesting answers back. Whereas now, I don't
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: know if you follow Dave on Instagram and stuff. It
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: just doesn't make any sense what he's talking about or doing.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: I don't get it.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: No, I hear you. Yeah, that was, I think, when
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: he was promoting his book, Crazy from the Heat.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm a massive David LeGroff fan. I love it.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: To me, I only like Van Halen with David Lee Roth.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: I don't like them with any other singer. The Eat
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Em and Smile album is still one of my all-time
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: favorite albums. The tour is in my top five or
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: 10 shows I've ever seen. So that's coming from a
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: major David Lee Roth fan.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: In the 90s, as a Van Halen fan, that show
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: was like a treasure trove of footage. I mean, Sammy
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: would come on. Sammy came on right after he left
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: Van Halen. Sammy was just telling it like it is. Yeah.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: And I mean, I'm not a manager with Daniels and this.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: Is, and like, I'm not a fan of, uh, Van Hagar, but, uh,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: I do like Sammy Hagar as a person and he
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: was always a great interviewer. And I also loved his
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: book too. I thought his book out of all the
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: Van Halen ones, that one may be my favorite. I mean, the, the, uh,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: Alex Van Halen one is very good. And I also
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: liked the one that Noel Monk wrote as well. But
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: the Sammy Hagar one, I remember buying it at the time,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: and that was very revealing. And I think he's telling
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: the truth with his observations. There's really no reason for
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: him to lie about what was going on.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: Keith Roth, you mentioned he recalls an emotional meeting between
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: Ozzy Osbourne and Paul McCartney through Howard's show.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what happened was Ozzy was a guest with, I believe, Sharon.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: It probably would have been around the time that the
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: Osbourne show is very popular. And it just so happens
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: that Paul McCartney was coming in next, right after Ozzy.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: So I guess someone in the Osbournes camp was like, oh,
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: you know, Paul McCartney's here. So Ozzy or someone asked,
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: you know, can he just meet Paul McCartney quick? So yeah,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: there's actual video footage, which is a very, which is
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: very heartwarming because you see the side of Ozzy where
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: he is telling Paul how much the Beatles music meant
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: to him and everything. And Paul McCartney has expected as
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: a gentleman, he gives him a hug and says it's
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: great to meet him finally and everything like that. So,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: That's definitely a very sweet moment of the Howard Stern show.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: It's not... People tend to look back at the Howard
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Stern show as like a pretty intense show where there
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: was strippers and dirty deeds going on. And there is
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: definitely a fair amount of that, especially in this book
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: that we talk about. But there's also some kind of
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: nice tender moments such as that as well.
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: Sure, especially in later years now. Oh yeah, absolutely.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: It's a totally different show now, you could say.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they're really cool if you're into... how the songs
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: are created and the stories behind the bands and the
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: artists and the albums. I mean, he really gets into
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: that stuff. Uh, like kisses 2023 appearance was cool. Cause
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: Howard got into the harmony guitars and shouted out loud,
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: or he asked about it. Right. That's Tommy Thayer. Yeah.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: I talked to Tommy Thayer for this book and he
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: talks about that whole appearance where kiss appeared in 2023
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: to announce their last ever shows at Madison square garden.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: They did, uh, three songs that morning. They did a
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: Detroit rock city, shout it, shout it out loud and
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: rock and roll all night.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: That was also, I think that's when Paul made the
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: comment that made headlines. Uh, if, if we had all
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: the original four members show up and perform at the
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: rock hall, it would be like piss.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: Not kiss.
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: And I, I did ask Tommy Thayer about that. And
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: that's actually in the book. They, he, he, he shares his, uh,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: viewpoint about that. And, you know, um, I'm always pretty
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: much for me, Kiss is only the original four members,
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: but I can see Gene and Paul's point of view that,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: you know, they're the business guys and they always, you know,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: want Kiss to be a smooth running machine. Peter and
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: Ace were the rock and roll wild guys. So they're
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: going to not be easy to get on a schedule
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: and have everything running exactly the way they want it to.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: So I can see both sides of the story, but
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: me personally, it's, Really just the original kiss or nothing
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: for me.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: You know, he had a son a few briefly.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: No, you just had him on once on once.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: And that was the one where he got pissed off.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: It was very weird.
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: Richard.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: But he came on briefly. And that was also right
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: when I think Ace was just getting sober. So you
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: could tell he was not not like out of it,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: but like not as maybe focused as he would like
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: be later on in his life during interviews. And it was, yeah,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: a very strange interview. He was on very briefly, and
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: then he just got up and left. And, you know,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: it was one of the more weirder interviews. Also, Sal
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: Governali came out dressed as Ace Frehley in Ace Frehley makeup,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: which was a little strange.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: But he got pissed at Sal, didn't he? He got
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: pissed at Sal because I think Sal was asking Ace
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: too many, like, personal questions. He was asking for his.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: Autograph or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Something odd was going on, yeah.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: So that was kind of a strange appearance.
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: Gene Simmons, his appearance... And I'm trying to, I'm drawing
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: a blank on the hilarious. Craig gas, Craig gas. And
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: that is on YouTube where Craig gas does the Gene
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: Simmons impression, dress up as Gene and credit to Gene.
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: Cause he's laughing. He's a good sport.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: I haven't asked Tommy Thayer from kiss. What do you
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: think about the whole Craig gas gene thing? And he,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: he appraised it.
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: Oh, it's classic. I, yes, I believe it's still on YouTube.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: It is.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: It is.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it still is.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: But you mentioned after Howard's divorce, uh, that rebellious rock
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: and roll attitude seemed to soften. How did the people
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: you interviewed explain that change?
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: Well, it's due to a few things that are Howard
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: gang divorced. Um, some people think that maybe his wife, Beth, um,
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: may have influenced him, but I think it's more just
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: that he got older. And just when, as you get older,
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: I mean, you're just, you're a different person now than
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: you were even like five years ago, let alone 20
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: years ago, you're a totally different person. So I couldn't
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: totally understand why the show would change. also there's a
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: woman named Marcy Turk that is never really mentioned on
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: the show, but a lot of Stern show insiders know about.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: And she came on the show behind the scenes and
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: she supposedly helped Howard remake the show into not a, it's, it's,
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: it's definitely not a family friendly show, but a different
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: type of show that, um, you know, no longer had
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: strippers on porn stars. Um, Howard used to have this
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: thing on where women would come on and ride this
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: sex toy called the Sibian, which, uh, is a pretty
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: insane thing. Now, when you go back and listen to
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: those shows, like, I don't know what, that's a pretty
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: intense thing, which I'm not even explain what that is.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: If you want to find out about that, just go
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: find some old footage and you'll see what that is.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: But it was a totally different show back then. In fact, um,
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: With this book, what I wanted to do with this
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: book is for it to be a tribute primarily to
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, because that was really my
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: favorite era of the show that I think was the
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: best of the show, the best time of the show.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: And as I was doing interviews, people would talk about
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: what they didn't particularly care for the show as well.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: And again, starting the interviews for the book, I was
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: not planning on really having a lot of people criticizing
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: the Stern show, but it became so prevalent through the
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: interviews that ultimately... I had to include it in the book,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: and there's a section in the book called The Dark
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: Side of the Stern Show, which has people talking about
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: some of the things that Howard Stern did back in
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: the day that have not aged particularly well, which I
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: can see, again, both... I'm always a both sides of
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: the coin type of guy. I can see, at the
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: time when Howard was doing these things, like having... girls
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: on and girls that wanted to be on playboy and
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: they would take off their clothes and he and other
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: people would like rate their bodies if they could be
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: on playboy or not or there was one instance where
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: he was throwing bologna at a girl's ass or something
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: you know stuff like that at the time listening to
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: it i didn't think it was like that outlandish or
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: wrong but now i hear it i'm like oh jesus
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: christ like that you know is pretty uh like that's
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: not a very nice thing to do to like a
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: uh you know poor woman to howard's credit he doesn't
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: do that anymore But the people that I talk to,
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: it seems like a lot of people would rather, they
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: think that it was funnier when he was doing those
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: types of things.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: Oh, sure. Yeah. I mean, Artie Lang talks about that.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: Yes, exactly.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: That was my favorite era when Artie was there.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a chapter in the book where I ask people,
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: which era do you prefer, the Jackie the Jokeman era
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: or the Artie Lang era? And I have people, it
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: seems like it's kind of 50-50, kind of. And I'm
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: kind of in the middle, too. I may lean more
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: towards the Jackie era just because that's when I listen
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: to the show the most. But the Artie era was
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: very good. It was very good for different reasons. Artie
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: was almost like a co-host with Robin and Howard at
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: that point. Jackie would just kind of, like, drop in
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: from time to time. And also, it's sad, too, is
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: the whole Artie thing. It was like watching an on-air
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: John Belushi situation with a guy just, like, slowly going
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: down the toilet, you know, with his life with, like,
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: you know, drug addiction and everything. But unlike John Belushi,
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: Artie was able to survive, and to the best of
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: my knowledge, he's still with us.
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, his battle with Sal, all that captured. Oh, Jesus.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that was... I had to include that in
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: the book. That was a pretty intense. Yeah. Where if
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: people don't know about that, you should look up on
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: again on YouTube that there's video of this. They almost
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: came to physical blows. Artie freaks out on Sal and
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: throw something at him. And they have to, I think,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: hold him back from lunging at him.
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah. He threw the CD cases at him, but also Teddy,
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: his assistant, Teddy.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: Teddy's assistant. That was a really bad one. They had it.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: Artie thought his assistant, Teddy, was taking money from him
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: or something like that, I think.
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: And yeah, they had to hold him back and it
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: got pretty intense. I mean, it's strange how though Howard would,
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: it's like he was kind of selective with who he
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: would give people second and third chances. Like in any
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: kind of workplace, if there was ever an instance like that,
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: the person would be fired automatically.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: But Howard definitely gave Artie a lot of chances, which
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: if he was working at any other job, he would
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: have been fired right away, or the radio station would
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: have fired him if it was any lesser show. So
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: who knows? Maybe now he's at a different place. Maybe
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: he would have fired him right away, but who knows?
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, as far as we know, apparently Howard has never
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: talked to Artie since.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: I don't think he has. And recently, this past week,
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: someone on social media shared a picture of Artie that
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: was a instance where he appeared publicly somewhere, not performing,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: but he went to like out to eat with some
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: friends or something. And there's a picture of him eating,
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: sitting with some friends at either like a restaurant or
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: something like that. And he's sitting down at a table.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: So it's good to see that he's still with us.
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: Of all the Whack Packers, Sour Shoes is my favorite.
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: And he does have that music connection because he'd call
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: in and do, he'd sing all these songs, like, I
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: don't know, whatever you name it, he would sing it.
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: And he is my favorite. And lately I just, I've been,
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: listening to because it's all on youtube you know when
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: he would do the impressions of arty or he'd do
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: mike and the mad dog or his impression of gary
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: i mean it's the best and i was telling you
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: before we recorded back in my radio days in fairfield
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: county he would call i did the night shift i
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: did 6 to 10 p.m monday through friday and he
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: would call and it would come up on the caller
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: id as uh del campo was like mike del campo
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: or something and it was i think it was like
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: from mount mount bedford or something he was he lives
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: up around there in that area right and i gotta
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: admit at first i mean he was annoying the shit
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: out of me because he he would always i'd pick
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: up and he's like how are you how are you
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: oh we do all that stuff and i thought it
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: was a woman at first and then he would break
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: into other character voices and i i finally got it
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: you know so i i put his stuff on the
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: air you know and then too but i got him
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: to break character once because i had the The day
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: before he called my studio, he was on Mike and
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: the Mad Dog, and he did this hilarious impression. I
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: think it was a Mad Dog impression. So while he's
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: going off and he's doing all these things, I'm like, dude,
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. I go,
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: I heard you yesterday on Mike and the Mad Dog.
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: Your impression was hilarious. And it was the first time
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: he ever just, he's being a real person. He's like, oh,
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: you heard that? Yeah. And then he went right back
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: into all of his voices.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: As far as the Whack Pack, I'm a big Beetlejuice guy.
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: Beetlejuice.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: Beetlejuice is my main Whack Pack guy. And he also
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: has a, to tie with all music things, do you
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: remember the Beatles song called This is Beetle, Bad as Can?
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: Do you remember that?
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: Oh, yes.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: That was a song that.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: Was written and recorded by none other than Richard Christie.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: If you could believe that. And he just had a
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: beetle just talk in the studio, I think. And he
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: just cut up the lyrics from what he, because one
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: thing about Beetlejuice, it's absolutely impossible to get him to
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: follow direction or repeat something. There is a lot of
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: footage on YouTube, which is fascinating where they're trying to
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: record a bit with Beetlejuice. Like, all right, so beetle
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: just say this and he can't, he just won't repeat
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: whatever you're asking him.
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: So it's impossible to do that. But yeah. So what
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: Richard did is I believe he just, had him talk
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: and he just happened to say, this is beetle bad
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: as can, you know, he's the best.
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: Oh my God. But what about crackhead Bob doing? Oh,
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: that was becoming the lead singer of Van Halen. That's
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: another one.
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: Oh my God. Did you ever see the video of
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: that on YouTube? Yeah, that is. Yeah. Howard Stern made a, uh, yeah.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: Howard Stern had a thing called the, uh, it was,
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: it was on the each channel. I think it was
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: just called the Howard Stern show and it would be
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: uh stand out moments of the show and but he
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: would also film bits and there was a bit where
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: it was this was right after uh the whole thing
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: where dave lee roth came back and left and sammy
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: hagar was that right before gary sharon joined and they
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: said um it was all things with could crackhead or
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: that crackhead bob should be van halen's next singer and
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: crackhead bob for people who don't know who that is
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: he was a guy who was a big fan of
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: howard stern who was later a whack pack member And
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: he was a crack addict at one point. And he
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: did so much crack that he gave himself a stroke
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: or multiple strokes. And it paralyzed one of his sides
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: of his body and also affected his speech. So you
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: couldn't hear him very clearly. And he couldn't say certain
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: words clearly and would have to come up with like
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: other like his his name is not Bob. It was
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: something else. But he couldn't say what he very said.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: He couldn't say his name anymore. So he would just
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: say his name is Bob. So they called him crackhead Bob.
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: But yeah, but they did a whole thing with him
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: trying to sing Van Halen songs like running with the devil.
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: People are not familiar with it. I highly recommend that
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: as well. I'm pretty sure that's still on YouTube.
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: And he, he was like, he was huge star, like
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: him and Hank, the angry dwarf ended up on WWE
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: one time. And yeah, Yeah, Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: Remember a guy called Kenneth Keith Callenbeck? Oh, sure. He
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: would smoke cigarettes and try to blow smoke out of
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: his eyes.
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: Do you remember that? Oh, another one, Elliot Offen. Oh,
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: my God. Elliot Offen. Howard would call him Offen. He's like,
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: it's Offen. Get it right, will you? Right, right. Oh,
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: my God. Where is that guy now? I don't know.
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: Most of them have passed away, sadly.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, yes, I'm trying to think. Crackhead Bob
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: is on with us. Kenneth Keith Kallenbach. Fred the Elephant Boy.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: I heard a rumor recently a gentleman by the name
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: of Big Black may have passed away. I'm not too sure, though,
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: but I think he passed away.
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, quite a star. Nicole Bass passed away.
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: Crazy Alice. Yes, yes. Bigfoot.
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: Quite a few of them, yeah. Yeah, man. There is
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: a chapter in this book called Whack Pack where we
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: analyze all... In fact, I have a WACPAC member analyzing
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: the WACPAC, and that is Melrose Larry Green. You remember him?
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: Sure. In fact, if you watch documentaries on O.J.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: Simpson's- Yes, he talks about that in this book. Yeah,
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: but go ahead.
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: And he's the one, if you ever see a clip
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: of the civil trial where O.J. 's getting out of
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: his vehicle to go into court, and you hear somebody go,
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: good afternoon, murderer.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: How you doing, murderer?
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: Exactly. That's him.
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: That is him. And he would hold up signs. His
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: whole thing is he would say, good morning, murderer, murderer, murderer.
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: Good morning, murderer, murderer, murderer.
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: And we talk about that in the book. And a
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: great story he tells in the book, which he claims, well,
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: Melrose Larry Green is on Facebook and he does a
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: thing every night where he plays piano and like sings
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: a little bit. And supposedly a few years back, he
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: got messages or saw something from someone named OJ Simpson.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: And he's like, this can't possibly be OJ Simpson. And
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: it turns out, according to Melrose Larry Green, it really
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: was OJ Simpson, but not for the reasons you think
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: he was saying like, Hey man, I dig your piano
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: playing something like that, which is crazy to think that
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: you go from, uh, Melrose is saying that supposedly OJ
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: was scared of him. Cause I guess he thought he was, uh,
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: dangerous or something like that. Cause he would, always show
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: up and always say good morning murderer and have these
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: signs and everything. But yeah, it's pretty funny that that's,
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: that's what happened. According to Melrose, that's what happened.
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: What else can people get from this book? Talk about
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: the great American nightmare and oral history of the Howard
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: Stern show. What else?
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: I mean, the thing I talked about before is I
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: wasn't really expecting to cut. Like, I didn't think that
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: there was any parts of the Stern show that may
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: not have, may not have aged well, but, there was like,
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: do you know the whole story with Dana Plato and
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: she appeared on the show?
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: Sadly for people don't know Dana Plato is the, was
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: on a different strokes. She was, uh, Kimberly, right. Wasn't
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: that the name of her character?
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: I believe so.
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: And she died of an overdose shortly after. Yes.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: What happened was she, after different strokes, she was really down,
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: down on her luck and didn't really act much or,
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: or she was acting, but not on anything really popular
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: of note, like as far as TV and movies. And, um,
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: I interviewed a gentleman by the name of Chauncey Hayden
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: for this book. He used to be a regular Stern
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: show guest. And he said in the book that, uh,
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: the Stern show is a double-edged sword for, uh, people that, uh,
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: actors that were down on their luck or just once
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: big celebrities that were down on their luck, because by
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: going on a Stern show, you were never going to
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: get the opportunity to reach as many people at one time.
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: So there's the, there's always the possibility you could rekindle
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: your career. But then if you go on and you bomb,
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: then it's the worst thing that could happen. And, um,
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: Dana Plato came on, I believe in 1999, when this
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: is like, she was living in a trailer. She'd been
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: arrested a few times.
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: Um, they're looking at a launch.
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. And she came
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: on and I listened back to it not that long ago.
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: And it wasn't so much that Howard was mean to her.
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: He had callers calling and talk to her and they
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: were ruthless. They were so mean to her. And then
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: they also on top of it, like they asked if
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: she was on drugs. She said no. And they're like, well,
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: can we give you a drug test to prove it?
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: And they supposedly gave her a drug test, I think
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: with her hair or something like that. And then the
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: next day, she died from a drug overdose. Some think
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: it could have been suicide, but I don't know if
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: that's ever been proven or not. I'm not 100% sure
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: about that. But she did die the next day. Howard
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: went on a few days later and says, oh, I
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: had nothing to do with it. Meanwhile, if you go
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: back and listen to it, it definitely didn't help her
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: state of mind, you know, because she was obviously a
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: very fragile, sad person. So we have people talking about that. Also,
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: Anna Nicole Smith was on the show, and she had
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: a pretty... troubled experience where they wanted to weigh her
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: to see how much she weighed, and she just flat refused.
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: And she also was on something, too. You could tell
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: she wasn't very coherent and wasn't very focused. And she
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: didn't pass away the next day, but not too long
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: after she eventually passed away. So, yeah, I mean, with
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: these celebrities, if you were a fragile person or weren't
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: in a good state of mind, the Howard Stern show
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: could be a kind of dangerous thing.
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: Could be pretty ruthless.
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: But it covers all the eras, 80s, 90s, into the 2000s.
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: And it's out now. Find it on Amazon. Anywhere else
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: you get your books, look for it.
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Amazon. It's available as a hardcover, paperback, Kindle, and
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: also audio version, which I narrate personally.
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: You narrate personally? Yeah. Yeah.
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: And we, uh, yeah. And like we talked about earlier, we,
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: I focus primarily on, on the eighties, nineties, 2000 and
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: two thousands, but it really comes, it goes up to the, uh,
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: modern day. There's people talking about how he recently, uh, Howard, uh,
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: has a new deal where he's only on once a week.
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: And also he, uh, highlights of the show are on
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: HBO max now. So that's what he's doing now. But yeah,
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, I did 35 interviews, all new interviews. And, um, yeah,
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: there's things about, we talk about Sam Kennison cause he's
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: He was such a big part of the Stern show.
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: I interviewed his widow, Malika, which I think is the
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: first time she's ever gone on record really being interviewed
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: at length. And she talks about his friendship with Bon
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: Jovi and all these other rock people. And yeah, we
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: also talk about the FCC battles that Howard had to endure.
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: We talk about that, how an intern supposedly once saved
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: Howard Stern's life from a potential person that was going
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: to try to shoot Howard Stern, if you could believe that. Yeah,
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: that's in the book. And that's talked about in the book.
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: We talk about also the birthday shows that Howard would
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: often have rock bands playing. We talk about... Dave Mustaine
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: talked about how Howard Stern rubbed him the wrong way
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: when Megadeth appeared on his birthday show in 1998 because
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: Howard said some pretty mean, cruel things that Dave Mustaine
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: took the wrong way. And also, talking about music, Howard
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: used to have a band called The Losers, and he
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: would have.
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: People that were celebrities that were in bands come on
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: and they would do a battle against them. And I
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: interviewed Chris Jericho for this book, who's best known as
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: a wrestler, also a podcast host with a talk is
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: a talk is Jericho. And he's also the singer of
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: the band Fozzy. So I interviewed him and he talked
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: about what it was like. He, he, he went on
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: with Fozzy up against Howard Stern. And that was supposedly
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: the last time that Howard ever had that because it
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: was clear that Fozzy was the better band, but they had, uh,
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: they had guest judges on that were usually people from
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: like record companies. And, uh, I think they kind of
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: favor with Howard cause it was on Howard show and
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: Howard's a very powerful gentleman. So, but he said, uh,
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: Chris Jericho says that was the only time supposedly that
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: any judge ever said Fozzie was better. So it was like,
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: I think one guy said, uh, Fozzie, one guy said
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: Stern and then the other one was kind of on
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: the fence, but ultimately went with Stern. So they won,
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: but that was the last time they ever had the
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: battle of the bands. Cause, uh, Chris Jericho claims that
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: Howard went up to him afterwards and he said, look,
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: I had to win because it's my show, but you
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: guys should have won. He actually told him the truth. Yeah.
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: That was a pretty interesting thing to learn that I
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: didn't know about before. It's also a healthy 400 pages.
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: This is a pretty thick book. It is. Stern fans
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: are going to love it. It would make a perfect,
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: perfect surprise holiday gift, wouldn't it?
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Stern fans are going to love it. Greg, where
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: can people find you online?
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: Go on Twitter or X, whatever it's called. Go on X.com
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: slash Greg Prater Writer. You can also go on Instagram, instagram.com
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: slash gregpraterwriter. But really, Amazon, if you just do a
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: search for Greg Prater, that's where you will find this
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: book and many of my other books. Yeah, so, I mean,
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: I have, this is my 54th book. Jesus Christ, am
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: I tired. I've taken that.
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, man, I was just going through my books the
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: other day, and sure enough, I still have the one.
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: Shannon Hoon?
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: Shannon Hoon book.
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: One called A Devil on One Shoulder. That was my-
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: I got both.
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: Of them, but I saw, yeah, that first one, it's
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: still there, man.
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: That was- That was my first ever book in 2008.
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: That was my first ever book. Yeah, and that's still
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: one of my more popular books. It still sells. I
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: still get emails about it. I think I mentioned this before.
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: Before I kick the bucket, I hope that someone makes
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: a Greg Prado book into a movie, and that one
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: I think would make a great movie. I really think
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: that the book A Devil on One Shoulder would make
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: a fantastic movie about Shannon. I also did a book
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: about Tommy Bolin called Touched by Magic, the Tommy Bowen story.
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: That would make a very good movie as well, I think.
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: So there's certain books they've put out there. Also a
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: book about MTV called MTV Ruled the World, the Early
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: Years of Music Video. That would make a good movie
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: as well, I think. But I'm a little biased because
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: I did write those books.
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: No, man, it would be. Just as long as they
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: didn't take it and go off on another direction that
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: the book you know, that can happen. It's like, Hey,
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: wait a minute.
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: As long as you get paid, you do whatever the hell.
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: You want with it. I love it. I love the honesty.
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: All right, Greg. Thanks so much, man. We will talk
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: to you again soon.
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Eric. It's a pleasure as always.
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: Adios. That's it. It's in the books.