Social Distance Music Party Unplugged - Tonight 5pm PST

And we're live. Hello everybody, how are you doing? Gary, how's it going?

It is going wonderful. It is a beautiful day. We've got the Bay Area air conditioning that's kicked back in, which is great. If you guys watch around the world, we've had a heat wave all week where it's been 100 degrees, and then the Bay Area, it's like after 2 or 3 days, even the Bay Area goes, okay, we're done with that, and now it's 20 degrees cooler.

Isn't that weird? I don't know if I, if I've seen this. I've lived— I was born and raised here and I've never seen the spike like this. I know it's first world problems though, what we're talking about.

Well, you know, we're pretty good about being gradual. My, uh, my wife was at her brother's house, uh, a week or two ago, and they literally would go from 92 degrees one day and the next day 49. I mean, they have these weird temperature swings that we really don't get here in the Bay Area, which is why we pay $4,000 a month. Y'all, come on. Come on, we got room for you. Come on.

Speaking of temperature, I wonder where Rafi's at.

Hi, hi, hi, hi, hi.

Oh, we are still on board the crazy train.

Oh my God! There can be only one. This is a really long entrance though.

Oh, you've lost weight.

He's looking a little old, don't you think?

Are you doing keto? Is that it? Intermittent fasting?

I know Rafi's been doing like 10,000. Those 10,000 steps a day are working, huh?

What did I do now? What?

That 10,000 steps a day, those are working, huh?

They sure are,

because we, we saw that. We're like, wow, you lost weight. Have you been doing keto? Is it intermittent fasting? What is it? What is it called?

What is it called? Palermo? No, uh,

paleo.

Yeah, no, I'm not doing paleo,

but Palermo would be a pretty cool diet too. I guess that'd be just nothing but pasta, right?

Yeah, Palermo, wasn't that— that was the restaurant downtown, remember? You guys remember Palermo's downtown San Jose?

I do, yeah.

It was on, um, it was on, I think, 3rd Street, maybe 2nd or 3rd, somewhere around there.

Yeah,

you know, San Jose never had the reputation for being the real foodie town, uh, but we're getting better now, right? I mean, we're getting new restaurants downtown.

It's kind of— it's true. And, and interestingly enough, and I know this only because I worked on the Downtown Marketing Association website and we had 140 restaurants within, um, within 12 blocks. And you would never know that about downtown San Jose. That's just not something that you actually think. But, uh, to have that many restaurants downtown, you're right, you don't think foodie is San Jose. I'd love to see that changed.

Well, you know, before the day of Uber, back when things was— everything was light rail, uh, my buddy Sal Pizarro from the Mercury News And yes, look, I've dropped another name because it's what I do.

Sal.

Can I say

Sal too? I know Sal too.

Yeah, everybody knows Sal. You love Sal.

It sounds like a TV show.

The martinis in honor of Sal Pizarro. That's what— when Sal and I get together, this is what we do. But we were talking about who's going to do a column, and we were going to do a light rail food and pub crawl. And, and we never got around to doing it because, you know, he had kids, I had kids, life got in the way. But we were always gonna do that. Well, now who does light rail? I mean, it's all about Uber and Lyft, isn't it? But I still think it'd be fun. My wife and I talk about that, going downtown, grabbing the Kramer's, and maybe we'll get Rafi and Karen and all go down there and just do a food and pub crawl.

Oh my God, that would be so much fun.

You guys can do the pub part, I'll do the food part. How about that?

Well, you know, they have food at pubs. Have you never heard of them? Have you ever been to the pub menu?

You can do the drinks, I'll do the food. How about that?

And I'll do the crawl.

Okay, touché, my friend, touché. Cheers to you on Friday.

Cheers, everybody.

I was gonna say, Brian, where's your drink?

Oh, there it is. My drink is delivered 10 minutes before the show, uh, faithfully by my girlfriend, uh, Courtney. Thank you, Courtney, wherever you are.

I went downstairs and made my drink. I had my preamble, so all I had to do was go and assemble it right before showtime, y'all. So this is— and, and this week I'm on time. Thank you for my— thank you for allowing me to be tardy last week, uh, but it's good to be on time this week and be here with all of you guys.

I was gonna talk to you about that, uh, Garrett. You know, I mean, if we had one more week of that, I was gonna have you come mow my lawn. Um,

you're gonna dock my pay? Is that it?

That's it. I mean, we can't keep carrying, you know, Brian and I cannot keep carrying the rock every time. It's like, you know, it's just, come on, let's get with— let's get with it. Come on.

Got that hourly wage going on, so yeah, yeah, yeah, that's all any of us could afford right now.

This segment, by the way, is brought to you by Biofreeze.

Oh, look at you! You're stealing one out of the old Rafi Play Bug. How did you do that?

Wow! So I was telling you guys, did you know what happened today? I went to a restaurant. It's the first time I have sat down at a restaurant since March, and it was wonderful. And we were all on the patio, and we were the first, first people to arrive and to go out for breakfast. And, uh, and then as we were leaving, there were 2 other tables, and I said, folks, it's so good to see you. Let's do this again. One table completely ignored me, but the other table made up for it. They were like, yay, we will see you, you know. Wait, where were you? I was at Scrambles over off Alameda Expressway.

Oh yeah, of course.

And, uh, it was, it was wonderful. And you could see, I mean, uh, the, the, uh, uh, Britannia Arms was putting out their tables. Uh, I think you're gonna see everybody, you know, as I was telling the staff, I'm like, I think you're gonna be so busy this weekend. I think it's gonna shock you how busy you're gonna get because everybody's— yeah, yeah, everybody's just looking forward to it.

Yeah, we're gonna, uh, we're gonna go to Jack Kohler's.

Yep, that's right by you, isn't it, Brian?

Yeah, yeah. And they're doing a whole— they're gonna put a tent up almost the size of the restaurant and take over the whole parking lot. They've already done it. Did they do it already? I'm excited.

Yeah. And it's just good to get these— to get things going back. Our sports start again next week. So we start practicing. And again, you're gonna see, as I've said, I don't think we're gonna come out like this. I think we're gonna come out like that. Well, we're gonna take big chunks. And because we can look around the rest of the country as far as the states that have opened, and we're seeing a lot of good things. Trust me, if there were a lot of bad things, You would have heard of it by now because they're happy to tell you about the bad things.

Yeah.

So when you don't hear anything, that's good news. Yeah. So it's it's it's it's fun. I think we're so close to really seeing things start to take off because I know we're all ready, and even and even the health professionals are going, "We need to get out. Y'all need to get out. You need to see you just need to see hello and stuff." And and if you're afraid and if you have fears, please. You, you do you. Nobody's gonna shame anybody. You do you.

I might, I might shame you.

I like—

you're too nice.

I like to, I like to do my own.

All right, hey guys, so I'm, I'm actually pretty amped up, uh, today. I, I have such the honor of bringing on a, a great longtime friend, a phenomenal musician, great singer-songwriter, and, uh, he hails from right here in San Jose. And, uh, in fact, he and I worked together with one of the bands he was, uh, in— gosh, I want to say back in the '90s. Um, Chris Landon. Chris, there he is right there, everyone. Give a nice hand to Chris Landon. So Chris, um, the great thing is about Chris is he was in Chris, I'm trying to remember, was your— what was the band before? Were you in a band before Shovelhead, or was that your first band in, in the early '90s?

That was the first major— that was the first band. Yeah, the first one. Just bypassed the garage right onto the thing. That was with Caballero, Steve Caballero, local skateboarder.

No way!

Yeah. So,

yep,

didn't need to go to the garage.

Wow. Like this garage.

Now I'm in the garage.

You finally have your garage band.

That's right, that's right. No, it was, um, yeah, Chris was the, um, lead singer, and, uh, Stevie Caballero was on, uh, bass, and John Ha was on guitar.

Oh my God.

And then John Testani was on, um, drums. And you probably know John Ha from the days of Metro. If you knew anyone down there, Brian, you would probably—

I had a Caballero skateboard, so this is like totally—

Yep.

This is messing with my head right now.

Yeah, it was super fun.

So, and, uh, and then, and then as you fast forward, he was in several other bands and still playing. And, and if you don't catch him live, you will, uh, at least performing live, you will catch him live at Original Joe's. When do you guys, when do you guys open back up? Have you heard yet?

Well, uh, we got the, we got the call attentively around the 12th or something. Don't quote me on that.

All right, all right.

But somewhere around the 12th to 15th, we're really excited. It's gonna— there's some big changes and, you know, the outdoor stuff that we kind of messed with a little bit back in the day. But I think we're all going there. We're gonna have a little fun outdoor seating situation. We're excited.

Because I told you, the best eggplant Parmesan on the planet. You love eggplant Parmesan.

It is really great. Yeah, one of my favorites.

We've done so much stuff. Chris and I didn't know we knew each other because, yeah, we've— I've done so much stuff at Original Joe's and he's been there too. And you just— the last person, last person you got to hang out with was who?

Uh, with Nate?

No, no, the, the, the star you got to hang out with, you were telling me.

Oh, I told you, but now I'm blacking out. I'm blanking out. Um, Nate Shelton?

Blake Shelton.

Blake Shelton. Sorry. Yeah, Blake Shelton. And it seems like I've met every— I'm a rock and roll guy, but I've met the most incredible country artists. And I've got to go over there to the club down the street and see some shows and everything. It's been really fun, actually. Yeah.

Well, they grew up on the same music you did. I mean, you know, I can't say Blake grew up on Shovelhead. Yeah.

But Although we did, we did play with, uh, his wife's band at the Cactus Club.

That's, uh, you mean Gwen Stefani?

Yeah, we played with her for the, the big band.

So they're not, they're not technically married yet.

Okay.

Uh, but she's, uh, because, uh, she's very devout Catholic, and so she's trying to get the, uh, marriage to— who's it, what's his name— Gavin Rossdale? Is that who it was?

Yeah.

Uh, trying to get that annulled.

Oh,

oh really? They're not—they're not divorced?

Not divorced. They're—they're trying to get to the nold. She wants to get to the nold in that way because she wants to get married in the church.

Ah, good knowledge. Good knowledge right there.

You'll—you'll learn, Chris. I have so much worthless stuff that this is the only chance I get to throw it out.

Now, you know, before we—before we jump into the first song, guys, you know what we forgot to do? What?

Well, where are they?

Oh, careful.

Oh,

here it comes.

This is— are those, are those made of Styrofoam or are they real? Can you hurt yourself with that?

Oh no, you'll— I can hurt myself with them, absolutely. Don't that look like I've hurt myself a few times with these things?

Have you actually, uh, did you at one point in your life know how to use them or—

yes.

Really?

It's probably been— let me think— yeah, it's probably been about almost 30 years since I— Wow.

What could— give us a visual picture, uh, not a reenactment, a visual picture of what— or a reenactment— what could you do?

Um, well, you know, with nunchucks, you're, you're supposed to be able to fly through your, through your arms, you know, like this, around your Your back and all kinds of— see, I'm gonna kill myself. But yes, I did do all that stuff for a long time. I was actually pretty decent.

Have you ever Googled something on YouTube and just pulled up nunchuck fails?

No.

You'll spend a half hour. This is one of my hobbies. I will come up with a name and then just put fails. So nunchuck kicking ballet, it doesn't matter, and fails. It's amazing. It is. And the nunchuck fails are the best of all because, I mean, they crack. I mean, whether it's, it's, it's, it's banging gonads or literally knocking themselves out, it's amazing.

Yeah, yeah. No, no, you can maybe put fail, just put my name and write Rafi, um, singing fail. That would probably be really good.

I, I don't know if you have that much of a reputation. Maybe, maybe. But, but you could You could come up with anything and go fails and just add to it. And it's amazing what will show up. You could do bartending fails or music fails or construction fails. I mean, anything, anything you come up with, and they have videos that will just line up. And this is how I waste my time.

Does your wife know you do this stuff? Like, you're supposed to look like you're busy when you get home. Does she know that you actually go on to YouTube and look up Ridiculous things.

Let me, let me show you something. This is my wife's computer, right? This is my wife's. There's mine. She sees everything I do.

Oh, okay. Well, all right.

She's well aware. She's well aware of my proclivities.

All right, all right, all right. Let's do this. Hey, um, let's get, let's get right to the music. Let's, let's let Chris launch into something kind of fun here, huh?

What do you want me to play, Roth? How about that?

Um, how about some Johnny— I'm kidding. Do you want to start with, um, the— that song?

We got Sweet Child of Mine, is that right?

Let's go.

Yeah, let's do it. This is my version. I kind of— I'm one of those guys that likes to do things his way, even though there might be some lighters going across the Well,

she got a smile that it seems to me reminds me of childhood memories. Everything was fishes and bright blue sky. Now and then when I see her face, she takes me away to that special place. If I stay too long, I'll drive you big down and cry. Oh, sweet child of mine. Oh, sweet love of mine. Oh, sweet child of mine. If they thought of rain. I care to look into those eyes, see an ounce of pain. Her hair reminds me of a once safe place where, as a child, I'd hide. Pray for the thunder and the rain to quietly pass me by. Sweet child of mine, sweet love of mine. Oh, sweet child of mine. Oh, sweet child of mine. Oh, sweet love of mine. Oh, sweet child of mine.

How much?

I cut that song about, you know how they the whole thing is just lead stuff and all that stuff. I just I chopped it down to about what two minutes there or something like that.

That's pretty amazing. You cut right to the chase.

Right to the chase.

Throw yourself on a top hat, be Slash.

Slash, you know what, who needs Slash? You just hit a couple of those parts and you're on your way.

Gary, I might be twanging it up just a little bit because KRTY's in the house.

Hey, listen, I'm, I'm, I, I don't know of anybody who actually strives to have a Southern accent because it's never done me any good. But, you know, you come in with a Southern accent, the first thing people do, unless you look like Matthew McConaughey or Blake Shelton, the first thing they do is like, all right, let's take off 20, 30 IQ points right there. I'll take that.

Oh geez.

You know, so—

oh no, no.

Oh, that's the first thing. Listen, anybody who's stupid in a movie, think about any movie from the '90s and the early 2000s, anybody who was stupid talked like that. Right? The world's worst people talk like that.

But he knew what love was.

Yeah. Meanwhile, you got Tom Cruise or, you know, or Ben Affleck going, how you like them apples? I mean, nobody, nobody goes with the Southern thing to make it go sweet. Even the movie Sweet Home Alabama, the guy who was from Alabama had no accent. Anybody notice?

Uh, I'm from— real quick, I'm from Ohio, Gary.

Yeah,

and I don't know what God blessed my people from Ohio, but you know that that that weird Fargo mom and dad Uncle Bob and that whole thing. I don't know. I don't know what's what's a little you know.

Well, now when you see trees, when you hear that the Ohio or even that Midwest accent, you know when you hear Wisconsin and going to cheese, people think salt of the earth, hardworking people. You know, when they hear the southern accent, you hear banjos and Deliverance. That's what you hear.

My, my wife is from Michigan, and one time I turned a corner really hard and she said, Bryan, you're gonna make me vomit.

Vomit?

And I was like, wait, first of all, who uses the word vomit? And second of all, vomit?

Vomit?

That's a Michigan thing. You, eh, you gotta, eh.

Does she work her car or wash her clothes?

Yeah, and she uses the clicker instead of the remote.

Yes. And what about, um, does she wear sneakers or tennis shoes

or trainers?

I think, I think it's sneakers.

Okay. Does she have a pop or a soda?

She's a pop and coffee. Coffee.

See, in the South everything's Coke. So just so you go, give me a Coke. What kind of Coke you want? I'm a Dr Pepper. All right.

It's actually pop. Pop. Can I?

Right.

Pop.

Yeah.

Awesome. Hey guys, can we send out a few hellos?

Let's do it.

Absolutely.

All right. So in fact, you know what? I've got the Southern California constituency going right now. I got my got my sister-in-law Carolyn down in Studio City. And a longtime friend of mine, a guy Antonio McKay. I met him at the Coffee Coffee Bean and Tea on Ventura, and he is one of the stars of a show called Sangre Negra that you can catch. I believe it's on Amazon. That's where I've watched it. Met him a number of years ago, him and a guy Frank, and we've become great friends over the years. Also want to say hey to Marty Flanagan, Kyle DePriest. Len Konechny, old radio friend Carrie Itsumi from 6th grade, and my daughter's old teacher Maria Shepherd is watching. How about that? How about that for a bunch of people checking in?

Wow, 6th grade.

Did you say Leanne Isaacson? Because she's here.

I didn't get to— no, I'm scrolling. You know what, I'm scrolling, uh, on my phone doing this. Sorry, I didn't go all the way up. I just saw what was on my screen here. Um, no. So, oh, Lee Isaacson, yes, from Australia.

Yep. And then we got Matt Salazar and Dina D'Angelo and, um, uh, this— these 2 ladies, Courtney Smith Kramer and Karen Navarrian. Um, I don't know.

I know her.

Um, yeah, cool people.

Can I say one more thing? Um, really important one, uh, Bryan. So Sarah Duarte, who is the, um, choir, uh, music teacher at Willow Glen Middle School is listening, and she is— if you've got a kid getting ready to go there to Willow Glen Middle, make sure they take the choir class with Sarah Duarte. She is an absolute rock star, best teacher you'll ever have for any type of music or anything in general. She's by far and away the best teacher there. So

we also have Chris's family on Ohio listening right now. Dennis Landry,

that's my brother,

said hello.

Yeah,

and Stu from Canada.

Where's Stu? What part of Canada are you in?

Yeah, did you know— do you know Shannon from Newfoundland?

Hey, he might be from Moose Jaw. Could be from Moose Jaw, who knows?

And don't forget, we've got Sandy McKeithan.

Sandy, another one of my great friends. Sandy.

Yeah, all you folks, uh, watching and being a part, here's the thing we were going to ask you today because we've all been going through this, you know, 3 months now. I was going to ask you who you want to thank or give a shout out to, and we will do that for you on the show today. We all have. I mean, you know, my family, my wife and kids have been so darn patient. They're all down there right now, you know, waiting till Dad stops yelling. That's what they call this, Dad's yelling. So yeah, I mean, Who, who are some of the people that you want to give a shout out to? And we'd love to have you, uh, answer that. Come on, Bryan, tell me, tell me who you want to give a shout out to.

Bryan?

I don't know, that's a, that's a hard question. Who do I want to give a shout out to that, that got, got me through all this? Um,

or who's helping you now? Or, you know, if you want to say Amazon, feel free to say Amazon. I mean, that's okay.

You know, uh, well, yes, uh, they are a huge part of my house and my daily activity. Almost every 2 days I do see a talented, uh, Amazon driver. I want to thank, um, I want to thank the, uh, the, the butchers at Lunardi's. Um, they are amazing. I, I love those people so much. Uh, if you're not here in the Bay Area, let me just— trust me, when you go to a local grocery market, grocery market, and you walk in and you go to the Butchers. This is the meat counter of all meat counters to me, and these guys are just so helpful, so awesome. I bought my first, uh, uh, what do you call it? Um,

tomahawk.

A tomahawk. My first tomahawk there like 3 weeks ago or 2 weeks ago, and I had been visiting them almost every day on my daily walks. I walk in and then I visit the butchers and I look at the tomahawk and then I walk out again and I don't buy the tomahawk, and that's been going on for 3 And I came in and William looked at me, he goes, today's the day, huh? And I go, yes, it is. And I bought the tomahawk and I brought it home and I cooked that tomahawk and it was— oh, and I love it. So yes, thank you for asking that. I'm going to give it to the Lenardi's Butchers. Yes, my family. Yes.

Yes. Yeah, yeah, you guys are great, but let's talk about tomahawk steaks.

But wow, that was a great steak.

How about you, Chris?

Oh, let's see. I'd like to thank my good friends, Atteika and Christy Huckaby, dear friends of mine who I happen to live with. And we've— they put up with me and we've all put up with each other. And this is just making us all better people. It's gonna make us all appreciate everything that we got outside of these homes. And literally, when I do get out and I get to see people at the grocery stores and all that, I give them a little piece of my heart every time in whatever way I can and just thank them for working, for doing it, for putting their lives on the line. So I'd like to say hi to my daughter Sierra Marie. Without, you know, it's my joy in life is my daughter. And my brother Dennis who's listening, I love you Dennis. Yeah.

All right.

And one quick last one, I'd like to say what would have been her 27th birthday, Breonna Taylor. Just Just to put that out there.

Yeah.

Happy birthday, Brianna.

Yeah.

When was her birthday?

It was today.

So she was the young lady who died in a— well, just a tragic situation involving law enforcement where they went into the wrong house.

Right.

So it was— yeah, it was— it was a— it's a rough time. How about— but happy birthday. Good, good call on that. How about you, Rafi?

Um, you know, uh, let me think. Thankful— oh gosh, you know what, honestly, I'm thankful for my family. That's what I'm, uh, that's what I'm thankful for, and, and my friends. And it's just, uh, just great to be able to communicate and, uh, catch up with, uh, friends and family, you know. And, and, uh, I'm lucky enough to have, you know, my mom and dad around, so that makes it great. My sister and, uh, my kids, you know, my wife, all that good stuff. So, and, and, you know, Bryan also, Bryan, um, uh, offline called me out on some stuff last week, which was good. And we had a great heart-to-heart and it was, uh, it was very enlightening. How about that? And when I say called me out, it wasn't a bad thing. It was actually a really good thing. So thanks, Bryan.

Cheers, buddy.

Well, I, I, I get— Leanne thought you were talking about an axe, Bryan. No, if you don't know what a tomahawk steak is, It is this huge flipping steak and it is the most amazing thing, but you better be hungry and you better be committed before you jump on the tomahawk. And I love the fact that you weren't the only guy who did that, Bryan, that he knew there's been a phalanx of men and women who've been coming in there and staring. It's like the Mercedes dealership where the people come in and stare at the car before they buy it. Yeah. They've been doing that at Lonardi's. They come in and they stare at that tomahawk and they're Like, should I, should I pull the trigger?

It's awesome.

I'm gonna do it again. I'm gonna have you guys all over and I'm gonna buy a whole bunch of them. We're gonna do some tomahawk steaks. Are you guys in?

I'll, I'll Venmo my copy because those are expensive. So yes, I didn't know you might— my steak. Yes, I absolutely will.

All right.

Hey guys, I'll put up Joe's original Joe's rib steak Over that mesquite almond broiler.

Oh, no. Okay, now that's an unfair advantage because— come on, everybody— the way you guys cook steak— I know of one country star who comes to town just to have Original Joe's steak because he's like, it's— there's nobody who cooks it like, like Original Joe does.

I probably served him. Let's just put it that way.

Absolutely. Well, are you ready to play another song? Because my God, it's 5:30 already.

Let's do it.

Let's do it. You're gonna do the old, um, Shovelhead, uh, piece?

Yeah, I, I actually— I— this— so this is— it's called Everything I Need, uh, and I wrote this, um, uh, 30 years ago, but the music was loud, really loud and fast. And I went and listened to it the other day, and it doesn't sound exactly like I play it now, but this is, uh, the acoustic sweet version that I've been playing ever since that.

Not afraid.

Yes! Wow. Was that anything like the old version?

Much different than the old version. I wish— you know what, I mean, I love that version. I still, though, my— the original original, the rockin' version of that song, to me It's still one of my favorite all-time songs. It would stand up to any rock song that's out there.

Any other— listen to it. I listened to it. It's awesome.

It's awesome.

Thank you.

Yeah, nice work, Chris Landon from San Jose. Legend here in the, uh, San Jose music scene. So hey, quick shout out to our friends, um, at Orange. Let's see, Sean Hurley. Who knows Sean Hurley?

Sean Hurley.

Brian?

No, I hope I don't because— But

so shout out to our gym Orange Theory Fitness for hosting, uh, at-home workouts on Zoom, Instagram, and YouTube, um, uh, for us to stay in shape. Well, you know, Sean, I gotta break the news to you, um, not looking so good right now. So if you want to talk to me about, you know, losing a few pounds, we should talk after the show.

You know what though? You— how many days have you done 10,000 steps in a row?

Oh man, yeah. So, uh, let me think. Uh, I started April 30th, and where are we now? June 4th, 5th. So every day. So well done, buddy. Well done. 34 days, something like that.

Great job, great job.

There you go. That's it.

That was kind of fun.

Um, hey Dennis, Dennis Landon, how is he related to you?

That is my brother. That's my— that's your brother? Okay, oldest brother. What is he saying? Nice things?

You owe him $9 from 1988. I'm kidding. Um, say hey to Marilyn. Marilyn looks like, uh, where is she? Marilyn Silva Dober says hey, Gary.

We got Adam Herbel. Uh, isn't he the Dallas Cowboy?

Yes, and, and he reminded me that I do know Sean. I know Sean. Sean, how are you, buddy? I'm sorry, I'm— me putting names and, and, and faces together takes a bit, you know. So once, once it all locks in.

Well, can I just say hey to my good pal, uh, Brent Schaefer, long, long time friend. Uh, Lynette Crumb and, uh, Darcy Arena, they're, they're checking in. Uh, Connie Ray Carr and, uh, and longtime friend Todd Turley is, uh, Is on the show, J.S. Gilbert. Man, there's a lot of fun people on with us today. I'm loving this. So hey, Chris, you up for doing another song?

Heck yeah! I mean, come on.

All right. What are you thinking you want to do?

I don't know. I could do another one of those incredible. I can do a song that I wrote, or I can do either.

Why don't you give us the modern English track that you?

I was just gonna say that too.

So yeah, I do this one. I did this one at a wedding semi-recently.

Oh, you did?

I do. I actually— I'm one of those guys that writes most of his songs, and then, uh, depending on if— are they rocking enough to play for the masses or whatever. So, but, um, so I, I do covers for— I've played, um, actually funerals and, uh, weddings and all kinds of things. But this is a song that I really like from back in the day.

All right,

excuse me.

Moving forward using all my breath, making love to you was never second best. I saw the world flashing all around your face. Never really know it, it was always messed up. I stopped the world and then with you. You see the difference? That was getting better over time. There's nothing you're doing I won't do. I stopped the world in memory. I dream of better lives, the kind which you never hate. Trapped in a state of madness. All the time, just up in you and I won't move. I stop the world and marry you.

I don't know if the future's open wide.

Nice. Do you guys ever— do you ever— again, let me, let me tell you how I use my internet. Do you ever go and look up the bands from like the '90s, like Modern English, and see them sing today? Because okay, some of them are sad, but some of them, some of them's voices are amazing. The guy from Modern English still sounds exactly like that. Uh, some of their— some of the people who can sing are still just jaw-dropping and how good their voices still are.

Yeah, I'm the same as what I was.

Could

you what?

I'm the same. I have the same voice as what I had 20 years ago.

Now Rafi will know what I'm talking about. Rafi, when you hear a boy— when you hear your voice from back in the '80s and '90s when you're on the radio, there's part of you that wants to cringe, but there's also a part of you that wants to go, oh, pop it! Oh, listen to you! Listen to you! You know what?

It's really weird. I found one of my old college radio air checks, and I cringed and was thinking like, man, I thought I was so cool back then. But it was an absolute—I mean, it's like blah blah blah blah blah blah. Oh, here's a song. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Oh gosh! But yeah, it's like, hey, how's it going? 90.7 FM KSS. How you doing, everybody? Woo! You know, now it's, hey, hey, how's it going? Woo!

Because what we all do is we look back and we put our today thoughts into that brain and that experience. But when you sit back and just take it for what it is, it's so delightful. I just want to go back and if I could go find that 18, 19-year-old Gary Scott Thomas and go, keep

after

it, dude. Keep after it. You just keep doing you. And Chris, same thing probably when you hear your vocals from 1993 and '94. I mean, there's part of you that goes, but isn't there a part of you that just goes— but isn't there a part of you that just makes you want to give him a warm hug?

Yes, exactly. I actually went from Shovelhead, which was this really loud punk metal thing, just screaming, and to this Beautiful acoustic harmony thing, which was my roots called Squeeze the Dog. And I so I went this drastic difference, but um and then done everything different. But yeah, it's kind of I'm a little bit like that sometimes when I hear myself.

Tiffany pointed out while we were talking about a while ago about the groups are still saying the same, and she's right. Colin Hay from Men at Work

oh

yeah sounds exactly the same way he did. Also the guys from uh uh. Uh, What Does It Take, This Broken Wing. What was that? What's that group? Remember that?

Oh yeah, Corey Hart. Was that

Corey Hart? That's Sunglasses. Mr. Mister. Mr.

Mister. Mr.

Mister.

The guys from Mr. Mister sounds exactly the same way he does now. They did that, that, uh, Ringo Starr where he took all of these, for lack of a better term, and it sounds dismissive, but one-hit wonders And they went on tour. And so he had the guy from Mr. Mister. He had Billy Squire, who Billy Squire sounds just like he does. He had Colin Hay from Minute Work. And it's it's you can find again those videos on YouTube too. And just to hear how great their voices. Thomas Thomas Dolby, remember that? She blinded me with sighs.

Howard Jones sounds the same.

You know, um, you want to hear— you guys want to hear a great Howard Jones story? Um, he played The Edge in Palo Alto. This has got to be 1992-ish. The Edge. And he was on tour with him and this percussion player, and there was an older woman who was selling his t-shirts at the front, at the entrance. It turns out it was his mother. and his mom and dad were on tour with them in their tour bus, and she was handling all the merch, and dad was kind of helping out with waters and stuff backstage. Um, so, and at some point, uh, the mom would go up and introduce the band, uh, or introduce Howard Jones. So she was telling us a story how she was on the road, and she gets up on stage and says, hello, hi everybody, my name— I can't remember her name. Uh, but I'm Howie's mom. Called him Howie. And, um, and good evening, um, oh shoot, what city am I in? And the crowd's all, Cleveland! Good evening, Cleveland! And the crowd is just like— she said they were so incredibly nice to her. But she said every city she got introduced to, uh, introduced them. And, and I'm just going, how cool is that to have your mom and dad to be able to tour with you and And just have and let them enjoy the moment too, you know? Isn't that cool?

That's very—

that's the difference between touring now, especially— I can only speak to country music, but the touring now that you don't hear any— you don't hear any bad debauchery stories from the world of country music touring because they have their family with them. They have their kids with them on the summer. That's why they tour in the summer. They take their kids with them. They have their personal trainers. They have their dietitians. They get up in the morning to do their first 2-hour workout. They eat their prescribed meals. They take their 1.5-hour nap. Then they do their second 2-hour workout. Then they do their meet and greets, and then they do the show. And so everything's very regimented. So you don't see all the stuff that you did back in the day that I'm sure, Chris, you saw a lot of.

Hold on. So they work out twice?

Tim McGraw don't look like that because he's low carb, right? I mean, they are busting their butt. They are working out 2 to 4 hours a day.

Wow,

those country meet and greets! I've been to some country meet and greets with our friends over there at KRTY, and they are so cool. I, you know, they're really, really cool. That's a really nice thing.

Yeah, and, and that's what they, uh, because, and I've said this before, luckily they've had Garth Brooks. We've had almost 3 generations of singers now be taught How You Interact with Fans by Garth Brooks. And I've told him before, I think that's the greatest thing he ever did for our format is he taught stars how you interact with fans. And I remember when I was in pop radio, it was a different world. We were scared to death to bring fans back. I remember taking— I remember taking these group of 10, 11, 12-year-old girls backstage to a rock concert, one of the hair bands, right? And I was trying to talk to the guy and I said, so how do you have so much energy? And this was his answer. He looks at me and he goes, mainlining heroin, baby. And I'm like, well, I'm gonna take these kids back to their parents. Thanks. Bye now.

Oh my God. Wow. Oh

my

God. Oh my God.

Can we hit another song?

Can we hit another song?

Yeah, let's do it.

All right, uh, you want it? Do you want to do, um, you want to do My Kind of High?

Let's do it. My Kind of High. So I grew up, I grew, I did most of my early years back in Ohio. We had this big old pine tree, uh, in the back of the house that inspired me to write a song. Excuse me.

Take me back to the top of the tree, the only place where I feel free. Just my thoughts and me swaying in the breeze. This is my kind of high. This is my kind of high. Like a bluebird in the sky, I won't come down till the sunrise. Is my kind of life. Living in black and white, always running for My life. Looking for a real good place to hide, way up there on the top of the pine. This is my kind of life. Bluebird in the sky, I won't come down. There it is.

Top of the tree. Makana, makana.

I so enjoyed that.

Hey, look what your— look what your brother wrote. The pine tree you can see all the way downtown. Uh, at front— yeah, there it is. There you go. We can all see that now. Got sap in my eye all the time climbing to the top. Nice work, Dennis. Excellent. It's

my brother.

This is great, man. Chris, this has been so much fun. So stoked that you're, uh, joining us here today. And, um,

yeah,

got a lot of people, uh, tuning in for the first time today actually too that I've, uh, seen.

So, Rafi, you mind if I, uh, I gotta— I wanna jump in and ask, uh, Chris a question on

Sorry

about that, bro. No, no, no. Hey, Chris, I'm just curious, like, where you— where you got started. How did you get into music? What's your— what's your story?

Irish Catholic boy that went to Irish, you know, went to Catholic school and sang in the choir and was on stage from childbirth, basically. So that was in Ohio, and then came out on vacation In '85 and ended up staying. Mom said, you're staying. So got right into like the skateboarding scene in California and then was in a band with Cavalero. And, um, so just— and my mom's a piano player, classical, and then dad's like an acoustic, uh, New Age guy and all that. So—

So let's clarify, when your parents said you're staying, they stayed with you?

Dad moved out to California, and then I came to visit, drove out, and then Mom called and said, you're staying. And then I left and went right to the beach, and I never left.

Ohio beach, Ohio beach.

Be nice because my Ohio people are listening. I love you,

dude,

and I can't wait to get back to Ohio.

Getting back to Ohio, Pretenders.

Exactly.

We

thought

about

it, Gary. We thought about playing that one.

Oh, I love it. You got to have a bass guitar though. You got to have a bass guitar for Back to Ohio.

Yeah.

Can you play that on guitar? Can you, can you, uh, does that work on good? I guess it would work on guitar, right? Yeah,

I'm gonna say yes. I'm gonna say yes. I could figure it out.

One of the greatest bass riffs in the history of music.

What? One more time.

I said one of the greatest bass riffs in the history of music.

Oh yeah, so good.

Chris, what, what actually, um, inspired you to write your own music? You, you— I mean, the music you're singing here tonight is, is so awesome. Your voice is really good. You're— you have so much talent. What, um, what drove you to start actually doing your own music and really pick this up and, and take it, take it where you did?

Well, we constantly, we, we constantly had music around us all the time. And then, uh, I'm gonna say probably a little band called U2. As soon as I got to California, that was huge. And, um, in, in all those, all that U2 stuff and all that. And then, uh, actually, I've, uh, inspired by love. I felt like that was the only way to get the girl was to write her a song. And that's what I did. And now it doesn't quite work. You have to get the girl and then you have to write her a song. You can't just— because they're all like, you've written 90% of your songs are for the girls. It doesn't work quite the same way anymore. So I know, get the girl, then write her the song.

Yeah, to keep the girl now, you have to write her a song.

So the girls, uh, kind of got me into writing songs. Let's just put it that way.

Oh, that is great. That is great.

Where's my lighter? I need my lighter.

So, um, you guys want to try to get one more song in here?

Yeah, let's do it.

All right, so, um, this is— so the other night when, uh, Chris and I were sitting up at midnight sitting around talking about songs, this one popped up in both of our minds and we thought, what a great song to end the show with tonight. So, Chris, why don't you go ahead and take it away, introduce it, and let's go from there.

This one's called Redemption Song by Bob Marley, and it goes out to the Black people of the nation and of the world. And this is just what little I can do to promote and draw attention to the cause. Here we go. You know what? I should probably tune up. Sorry, you guys.

That's all right.

That's all right.

It's a live show.

You're doing great, Chris.

I'm using a capo. I forget why, but here we go. Oh, oh pirates, yes they rob I. Let's take that off. Sorry. Oh, sorry. Oh, oh pirates, yes they. One more time. Oh

pirates, yes they rob I. Sold out to the merchant ships. Minutes after day to die. From the bottomless pit, but my hand was made strong by the hand of the Almighty before I leave this generation triumphantly. Won't you help to sing songs of freedom? It's all I ever let. Attention, soul. Attention, soul. Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds. Have no fear for atomic energy. 'Cause nothin' can stop the tide. How long shall they kill our prophets while we stand aside and look? Some say it's just a part of it. We got to fulfill the book. We got to fulfill the book. We got to fulfill the book. Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds. Have no fear for atomic energy, 'cause none of them can stop the tide. How long shall they kill our prophets? While we stand aside and move, some say it's just a part of it. We got to fulfill the bull. We got to fulfill the bull. We got to fulfill the bull. What you have to say? Soul's a fade out, all I ever had. Temptation song, temptation song, temptation song.

Very, very good song to close the show with. That was awesome.

That really was.

Oh, I kind

of— This is a— this was a hard show to do. I mean, let's be honest, there's a lot of things going on between COVID, between the protests, between where the country is right now, and the angst all of us feel. And so thank you, Chris, for coming on, because this has been a wonderful little hour. To just take a breath and enjoy the blessings that we all have. Yeah, but you don't have a Kermit the Frog who's who's who's who's acting like he's singing along. Well, I'm hoping that next week. I hope we find some calm. I hope we all find some joy. I hope we find joy and peace as a nation, as a people. I hope we can all do that and not lose this moment in time to, to really understand that, that so many of us are on the same page. The majority of us are on the same page. And hopefully we can truly affect change.

Yeah,

starts with us.

Yeah,

don't ever forget that starts with one, right?

Yeah, absolutely.

Thanks for having me, you guys.

Thanks. Thank you, Chris.

Yeah. Hey, Chris, we'll see you down at OJ's soon, brother.

Come on down, I'll take care of you.

Bring me, bring me the extra large portion of eggplant Parmesan. But that's almost like a, uh, that's, that's what do they call that, redundancy? It's a redundancy to say the extra large portion. It's always an extra large portion.

That's the dang truth. That is the dang truth. Are we good, guys?

Yeah, we're good.

Let's do it. Thank you, Chris.

Yeah, of course. Thank you for putting it together, man. This is great. I'm a big fan, you guys. Thanks a lot.

Thank you.

Yeah, have a good night.

Have a good one, guys.