Social Distancing Party Unplugged

Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand.

And here we are back again and again.

I'm not singing. I'm not. I, I know my limitations. I know what my skill set is. Oh my, oh my God, the nun checks are back! If you missed it last week He had nunchucks, and now they're— I guess they're a sponsor of this week's show.

You know, uh, I think that, uh, what, what are you?

He's our prop guy.

Well, this, um, this is my coronavirus, um, hat, um, that I use, um, I go out in the stores, and as you can see, it looks pretty cool. Um, see, so you can do this, you know, um, kind of like a bridal veil except it's really great. This thing, um, if someone spits at me, it'll stop it. So it's—

Oh

yeah.

And is, is that a problem? Do people spit on you, spit at you with regularity? Is this something that— I mean, because you obviously had this before the coronavirus came about.

I, I keep this thing in my car everywhere I go. You just, you just never know.

Everybody's a critic. I get it. I understand.

They are. And let me just state for the record, you never know when you have to be a witch.

And you know what, you know, I, I wanted to ask this. I'm sorry, Bryan, you were going to do the introductions and stuff.

Oh, it's fine. Go, go, go, go.

But, but Rafi, King Rafi, is a, a Bay Area broadcasting legend, but you also have a, a DJ business where you, you do weddings. And, uh, do you do funerals? Do funerals have music? Um,

but,

but I, I, I sit, I sit back and look at this stuff and I, I haven't— I, the last time I DJ'd, I was in college. I did it for extra money and all I ever did was, uh, parties and, and high school homecomings and stuff. So I never dealt with weddings. Have you had experiences with the mythical bridezillas?

Oh my gosh, are you kidding me? Yes.

Okay, I gotta hear those stories. Yeah, give us— that's what I want to hear.

I want to hear one of those. Give us one.

If you want to hear one I can give you one. Let me give you one. Okay, otherwise we'll be here for days otherwise.

Oh no, I got my drink, I'm ready.

Okay, Brian, do you have your drink ready?

I got my drink. Cheers.

Okay, so this was probably about 10 years ago. It was, um, a wedding. I had met with a couple. Bride was, um, hyper psycho, um, like planner, even though she wasn't a planner, she was a CPA. But she gave me Leading up to the wedding, there were probably about 14 revisions to her her wedding planning. She gave me like these docs, spreadsheets, Excel docs that were just out of this world, and it went on and on and on. And we met, and and it was like at 3:10 we're gonna do this. At 3:12 I'm walking down the aisle. At 3:14 I'm gonna say this. At at 4:15 cocktails are gonna start. 4:17 I'm gonna take more pictures. Ba ba ba ba ba. And so during our consultation, I said to her, I go, you know, um, with all due respect, I go, I totally hear where you're trying to go with this and trying to keep everything on schedule. I said, but you know, I have to be honest that, you know, it takes one thing to throw this thing, you know, someone has to go to the restroom or something's gonna happen that your timeline's gonna go off. And she goes, it She goes, trust me, it's not going to. And I said, okay. I go, I'm just telling you, you've got 150 guests, family, friends. The percentages are high. Something— she goes, don't you worry. She just kind of cuts me off nicely, but cuts me off.

I said, but now, did you say she was in the, in the, in the wedding business? Is that—

No, she was a CPA, but her documents looked like— they look seriously— well, you're going like, this is off the charts, literally off the charts. So, so I start the ceremony. I, I hit the first song for the, the groomsmen to all walk in. The guys all walk in. The bridesmaids are gonna walk with the bride. So I start the song, the boys all come in, and they're standing there. Okay, start the next song, which is going to be for the wedding party, uh, for the girls to come down. Oh, yeah. Everyone's waiting, waiting, and I'm starting to sweat because I'm going Oh my gosh, did I play the wrong song that everyone's looking at me going, what's going on? Looking at notes, nope, this is it. So I just let the song play. Then I'm going, I started again. I'm going, this— I mean, that song's like 6 minutes. I'm going, how come no one's coming? So I start the second time and I run to where they were, and I noticed that the bride's— everyone's panicking around the bride. They're all around her. Turns out the zipper snap thing on her dress Broke. So guess what? We were running a little over 6 minutes late now because we're going into that song twice. And so I ran back down, grabbed some black gaffer's tape, even though her dress was white, and on the inside we were able to tape the— tape it all together to hold it all in. And then I ran back downstairs, started the song again, she came down the aisle. Ceremony goes off, the rest of it perfectly. Sees me after the— after the ceremony, she just goes, yeah, I guess I probably should have listened to you. And I said, maybe you should.

Don't you love that? Okay, you've had one wedding, all right, with the exception of if you're like Elizabeth Taylor or something, but you've had one wedding. Let's disregard the guy who's literally done hundreds, and, and anybody who's done events of any kind I do charity auctions, and I always tell everybody, because they're always like, oh, we're running late, we're running late, and I'm like, I know, I've done that. Nobody runs on time.

I want to throw out some hellos out here. We've got Debbie Vega, Karen Navarrian— that sounds familiar. Hey, I think you know her. Amy McBride says hi, Gary. We've got Brad Friedman. This wedding talk sounds very familiar. Uh, Patricia Sommer. Yes. Yep, that's a CP— that's a CPA for sure.

Yes.

Uh, Lisa Corral Becker. I'm sorry if I—

your

name. Uh, she says hello and loves the mesh covering. We've got Janet Deeny, Paul Tumason, a good friend of mine, Mahaley Thomas. I think, uh, Gary—

My sister. Her— my sister.

There you go. There you go. Kim Stevens, good friend of mine. I went to high school with her. And I think, uh, I think we all— we, uh, uh, uh, Rafi knows her as well. And so lots of good people. We've got a lot of, a lot of fun people on here.

Yeah, let me just say Carolyn, my sister-in-law Carolyn, um, from Studio City is, uh, in queue there. Um, Julie Reisinger. Julie, uh, old high school friend of mine from Monta Vista, um, and a great, great friend. And, um, hey, who's, who's drinking the martinis? Uh, my wife's wanting to know. It says it looks amazing.

That would be Gary.

This is, and again, let me let me explain it to you. I have regular martini glasses, but I have a dear friend who his name is Joel Fioc in case anybody you know. And when you go over to his house, he always had the largest martini glasses I've ever seen in my

life,

and called them the Fioc fish bowls because that that's what they are. They're not martini glasses. Well, on about December 23rd of last year, a knock on my door. I open the door, and he goes, "Hello, my friend," and hands me a box that's wrapped, and he goes, this is your very own Fiac fish bowls, and these are the largest martini glasses. Let me tell you.

Wow.

These are, these are, as, as Bryan's wife likes to point out, this is one of the sayings I have, uh, martinis are like to be in delicate breasts. One's too few, 3's too many. All right, and so you, you just want to make sure that if you have the Fiac fish bowl Never make the mistake of having the third martini, and I'll give you. I'll give you a little quick story. We're over there for my wife's birthday, right? And he's like, "Here, have a martini." We're laughing and talking. Here, have another martini. We're laughing and talking. Here, have another martini. Okay, because I literally they live a block from me where it's no driving involved. It's walking. Did I go?

No, you're there.

We can hear you.

I lost. We can hear him from here.

I lost a picture on my side. But anyway, so so what what I what I'm saying is is I'm like, okay, I I don't know if. I should have had the third martini. But all right. So we go out and we're laughing and talking. He goes, here, let's have a glass of wine. And we get that glass of wine. Then we go home and I'm like, whoo, man, that was something. And woke up the next day and I'm like, you know, I think I had a little bit too much to drink. I told my wife, I said, I think it was that last glass of wine that got me. She said, we had 3 bottles of wine. Whoo! And you're like,

Oh,

no, thank you. So no, thank you. I've learned my lesson. And again, you would think at this age I would have learned it by now. But no.

Oh, boy. Hey,

so guys, we got it. We got a guest waiting for us. I'd love to, I'd love to bring her on and introduce her and have some, some fun and break up a little bit of what we're doing here. With that said, I'm gonna bring on Sierra. Sierra, how are you doing today?

I'm doing well. How about yourself?

Doing well, doing well.

Look at her, she's got a studio. As I told her earlier, I'm so glad that you have higher standards than we do.

Yes.

I'm sitting in my son's bedroom and here you are with a studio. Uh, Sierra, okay, you know what we forgot to do? How— there's 3 ways you can say your last name. Is it Bernal, Bernal, or Bernal?

It's Bernal.

Bernal. 4 ways you could say the name. I'm just

happy you said the first name right, then we would have had a little discussion. No, I'm kidding.

You know, in my business, I am so used to getting the names wrong, because no matter what you do, somebody will say, you know, you'll see their name T-I-M, and you're like, OK, hi, Tim. No, no, that's Eddie. We pronounce it Eddie where I'm from.

For me, it's Bryan Kramer. I don't know how people come up with this stuff.

Bryan Kramer.

So, Ciara, you're in Texas, right?

I am in Texas, yes.

What part of Texas are you in?

Uh, near Houston.

What's the name of the town?

Tomball. Well, that's where I am. Yeah, Tomball.

Tomball. I know where Tomball is, but, uh, yeah, it's, it's small, but, but that's where everything— I'm from a little— there was 38 people in my graduating class. Trust me, I know small. Uh, but now, when did you figure out first of all, that you could sing, and second of all, you wanted to?

I would say that I— this is what I always call it. I always call it my Legally Blonde moment because I was about 12 and I was watching— I don't remember what it was, the award show, something music related. And I was sitting there and I was like, man, that's what I want to do. That's what I want to do for the rest of my life. That's I want to do that. And so I went into my parents' room and I said, I want to play guitar. And they, you know, were like, oh, okay, sure. And I started playing guitar, and a week or two later I wrote my first song, and then I just never stopped doing that.

Hold on, in 2 weeks' time you decided to play guitar and you wrote a song?

Oh, I was very obsessed. It was just— I would play until I literally could not play anymore. My fingers would bleed. And I just— that was, that was my thing.

You are so lucky to figure out what you want to do at an early age. Uh, I, I've known so many different people who have been in their 30s and 40s and still trying to figure out what it is they do. What a, what a, what a blessing for you that, that you've been able to figure it out, and you have— you had the drive to go with it. I mean, how long did it take you to learn to play guitar?

Well, I mean, that's kind of a tricky question only because there's so many different things when it comes to guitar. I don't think you've ever really fully learned everything when it comes to the guitar, but I would say I felt very comfortable with it around— I want to say 15, 16 was where I didn't really have to look anymore and I could kind of do more complicated things. So I'd say probably around there.

And Sierra, you, you've, you've written now over 200 songs, is that right?

Yes. I don't remember all of them, so if you wanted me to name them, I could not.

Wait, but wait a second. Hold on. We ask this question now, Sierra, every week.

Okay.

Um, we've had— you're our third. So what was the very first song that you wrote, and could you sing it today if you had to?

Um, I don't know if I could sing all of it. Maybe I can maybe do a chorus, but It was, it was called Come Back. And it was about an intense fake breakup with my fake, not make— or my fake make-believe boyfriend that I had. And I was so mad at this fake person. And the whole song was just a very detailed description of our breakup and how I wanted them to come back.

That sounds like a Billie Eilish song that's out today.

Hey, I love her, so that's a compliment.

Yeah, me too.

Well, I know you were ahead of it. She was ahead of it, Gary. She's ahead of it.

Well, she has written a number of songs, and, and we're gonna get back because I, I think she should play for us. But she's written with some people. Uh, Brian asked me, he goes, do you know who this is? And, and it would be like somebody in the computer world going, have you ever heard of Steve Jobs? That's, that's what it was like when he asked me about that. But right now, Sierra, if you're ready, if you're ready to sing us a song, well, we're ready to hear it.

All right, I'll go ahead and play one. Let me take a drink of water.

All right, you go ahead.

Okay, while she's doing that, that drink was brought to you by our friends at, at Heitkem Honey right here in Wheel O' Gun. Uh, if you're looking for honey, Craig's your guy. Heitkem Honey right here in the 95125. Okay, Sierra, take it away.

All right, I love honey, by the way. Real quick, if you want to ever try something kind of good in your tea Put some ginger powder in your honey, mix it up, and put that in your tea. Just try that. I promise you you'll enjoy it. But this song is called Hopeful Broken Me, and I wrote this with Brass Dylan. I don't. This song is actually for sale, so figured I'd go and play it for y'all here. I don't do it too often, but I really love the song. So here's Hopeful Broken Me. The rust of unbroken love stares back at me. Cracks don't hide holes that I just can't reach. The bathroom tile feels haunted. Till I have some concrete and I wrap myself in the thoughts that rock me to sleep. I was hoping you would know who I am. Will you turn the piano off? Hoping you would save me from the places that I'm in, but here we go another round in the Say, oh, let me pour out of a headache, a hurt heart, and a whole broken— Empty echoes of an empty room than it used to be. Me. But lately my tired mind doesn't seem to go to sleep, worrying about what's bound to come and trying to break the damn streak. Lately my tired mind doesn't seem to go to sleep. I was hoping you would know who I am. I was hoping you would save me from the places that I've been. But here we go, another round in the same old merry-go-round of a headache, a hurt heart, and a hope for broken knees. If he were here, maybe he could stop these walls from giving in. Then again, maybe not. Thought he was the fix for this rut that I've been in. Looking at Myself, I see he's not. I was hoping you would know who I am, what I'm doing here. I was hoping you would save me from the places that I've been. But here we go, another round in the same old merry-go-round of a headache, a hurt heart. And a whole broken me. I was hoping you would know who I am. I was hoping you would save me from the places that I'm in. But here we go around and around in the same old merry-go-round of a headache, a hurt heart.

Thank you so much, Sierra.

Dang.

So now we were saying that you had, uh, the songwriting process is something I'd love to discuss with you because I, I think it's fascinating. I think what songwriters do is capture smoke and show it to you.

Uh,

and, and, and I think it's that— and Bryan, the name he came up to me in my business, he sat back and asked me the other day, he goes, have you ever heard of Dean Dillon? And again, that's like asking somebody at their first football game, have you ever heard of Tom Brady?

Mm-hmm.

Or Brady, you know, or, you know, you'd be just like, well, of course I've heard of him. He's legendary in our business. And you've had the chance to work with him or see him, or just— I know he thinks really highly of you. How did that happen?

Well, I actually hadn't really talked about this too much, but, um, not that I haven't wanted to. I loved it. It was such an amazing day. Um, so I was— I think I was 16 at the time. And we ended up getting a chance to play some songs for him. And I played some songs and he was like, okay, play another one. Played some more songs. And then later we got to see him. He was playing a songwriting song swap. And then he called me up on stage and he had me play 2 more songs. And I was so excited because the room was Pitch black except for like some candles, and it was nice and scenic, and Dean Dillon was right there, and I got to sing my songs, and it was so great. And he ended up paying me some, um, very appreciated compliments. And I actually wrote a song about that night. I don't play it anymore because that was a while ago, but it was a very, very happy night for

me. Well, when it comes to sit back and trying to write songs, and you've written with a number of different people in, in the genre that, that I know well, how do you Do you sit back when you go down to it, when you have a songwriting session, are these ideas you have, you have written them down, or does anything ever come organically from the writing session? I mean, like that last song, where did that come from?

So I wrote that song with Brass, which is actually Dean's son. And I kind of toyed with the idea in the chorus. I didn't have too much of it, but I thought, man, I think he would really like this. This kind of sounds like something he would enjoy writing. So when this session came, I said, okay, I have this idea. It's called Hopeful Broken Me. It's about a— well, we wrote it for the perspective of a man. And I said, it's about a man who's talking to himself in the mirror. And he's basically just lost. And he's depressed. And he's just trying to figure out what's, what's going on. Like, he thought he was going to be in this completely different place. And we just ended up talking about it more. And we ended up making it sort of he's talking to himself, but later on you find out that he's actually talking about a woman. And, um, so, but that was a super fun process. That one was very— we, we had the chorus kind of done before we did the rest of the song. That's right. It was really good. Wow. Really awesome person to write with.

When you think back about all the songs that you've written, uh, which one stands out for you as the one that you really, um, Just, just absolutely adore because of the way that it came out sounding and the words that it used and just everything about it?

It depends because I'm slightly neurotic when it comes to music. I really, really break it down and I really analyze it. So it really just depends. I mean, the song that I just released, Ruined Plans Aren't Always a Bad Thing, that one holds a little special spot because it's the first happy love song I've ever released ever. And I actually wrote it for a book. A lady, her name's Megan Ryder, she approached me and she said, hey, I'm writing this book. And she told me, you know, about the book. And she said, and I want the characters to write a song. And I was like, okay, well, I can give you lyrics, but if you want a song, I'm gonna write you a real song and I'm gonna record it. She loved the idea. So I ended up doing that. And that was, that was a really fun project because I'm not gonna ruin the book, but It was interesting having to put all those characters into one song.

Wow, wow. Hey, um, really quick, can I just add some, uh, some commentary here? Um, Sierra, we, you know, there's 3 guys who sit here and blab all the time, and you may as well hear from some of the fans some commentary. Um, beautiful voice, Sierra, from Julie. Um, Jeanette wrote lovely. Um, oh, Gary, this one's for you. Glad to see you're doing well, Gary. That's nice from, uh, Cindy. Um, Lynette just said, love, uh, love this, Rafi. It's Easter, not Halloween. You need bunny ears.

Um, ears on the hat.

Yeah, I know. I gotta go find some. And then, um, Kathleen wrote, uh, are you a good witch or a bad witch? I don't know. That's a great question. Depends, I guess, who you're talking to.

I think of House Bunny.

That's right. Hey, so, um, question for you. What was the last concert you went to? What was the last show you went to?

The last show I went to— oh, it was Donnas Morris on Beaumont, Texas. Well, I opened.

Oh yeah.

That was, that was the last show I would say I probably went to.

Okay, what, what about as a fan where you just went to go hang out and enjoy yourself?

Mary Kyle. And then before that, Dina Carter.

Okay,

Dina Carter.

Yes,

she's a hurt. I've known her forever.

Do you, um, listen to— do you listen to anything else outside of country? Is there anything else that inspires you musically that you listen to that you love?

I listen to everything, and when I say everything, I mean I will go from AC/DC to country to bagpipes to classical music. I listen to everything. I actually On April 17th, uh, there's an artist, his name is Malibu Roo. He's releasing a song, a hip-hop pop song, and I collaborated with him on it, and so I'm featuring in that song.

Wow,

see, that's pretty cool. So hey, is there a— is there, um— so this is one for you. If you're hanging around your house by yourself and you want to play someone else's song, like a cool rock cover or something, what would be one that you love to play that just you know, in the comfort of your home? Is there anything, or any, any different thing outside of country? What do you like to play just for fun if you were, you know, gonna do a cover of something?

Well, my dog really loves Beyoncé, so I'll sing that a lot to get him to howl with me because he's a Siberian Husky.

So he likes that jelly?

Loves it. Ariana Grande, if I sing any of those, he will join me and he, he has so much fun and I like to watch him. So that's probably One that I do the most just because I really like to watch him sing.

What's your— can you play Ariana Grande?

I'm not going to do that now, but—

Okay, no, but what's one of your favorites from Ariana Grande?

Go. Do you have a favorite? I mean, I just like a lot of it. I'm trying to think of my favorite. What's the one I play the most? Like, it would probably be— man, I don't know which one's my favorite. It depends on my mood. Like, if I want to be kind of like feeling myself, you know, 7 Rings. If I want to be more kind of in my feels, you know, Ghostin' or Needy. Or if I want to be like way throwback Ariana, like The Way and Almost Never Enough. Like,

it's like you're reading my mind.

I'm glad.

Yeah, I, I, for some reason, I find it incredibly hard to believe that you're listening to Ariana Grande there, Gary. Please.

You never know, he's jamming, he's sitting there.

Absolutely, I'll lick a donut, I'll do it, right? Nobody got that reference. Nobody got that reference, did they? Forgot about Ariana Grande licking the donut.

Oh, that's right, very good pop culture knowledge there.

Hey, listen, I'm all about, I'm all about the young pop star girl singers. I mean, that's not creepy at all.

I don't think they mind. Did you—

hey, did you by any chance— hey, Sierra, did you happen to catch the, um, Taylor Swift documentary that she, um, had put out?

Of course.

It's fantastic.

What was your take on it? Did you, um, think it was pretty— what did you think of it as a performer on the way up? What are you— how was that for you looking at that?

I liked that it was— I mean, she's done something similar to that before when she did Journey to Fearless, uh, back in I don't remember exactly. I want to say around 2009. But so I've kind of seen her do something like that before. But I really like that she kind of had a bit of an inside look as to what's been going on lately with her and kind of showing her side of kind of what she was thinking throughout the years. Like, I had no idea that she was having, you know, body issues, like with her image of herself and It was very interesting to me, some of the points that she made, you know, saying like people want you to be nice, you know, they want a nice girl and they want you to smile. Because personally, I, I've dealt with some of that, you know. I have been told to smile more and I, you know, stuff

like

that.

I, I loved about, uh, the show how they showed when she first put her, uh, first political tweet out. Uh, she'd never been, uh, uh, publicly aware, uh, pushing out any kind of politics. And then all of a sudden she pushed the tweet out, and it was almost like everybody gathered around her phone when she pushed the tweet button. And then she just jumped up in the air and danced around the table and said, oh my God, I just did it, it's, it's done. Yeah. And it was the coolest thing because of everything that she'd been through, um, and the reason that why she was standing up for what she was standing up for. Um, it was very personal to her, and the way that she did that, I thought that was so— it— that, that That whole sequence was fantastic, the way that it really showed who she really is.

Well, you know, and let me tell you, and I'm sure probably Sierra can probably speak to this a little bit, but I don't know if you noticed how much pressure and friction there was with her management and PR team about what she wanted to do. And I mean, that was— and you saw it, they were like, if you do this, this is blah blah blah. And she was like, no, I'm not backing down. And I'm going At that point, that's when you know the musician— I mean, Taylor Swift is far more powerful than her manager, and she can do whatever she wants and however she wants. And at the end of the day, it's her call. I mean, they'll, they'll argue with her, but she, she won that fight, you know. So, um, it's pretty neat to see at that level. But how about all the performances, all those nights back to back to back, and having to be on and be engaged? I mean, I'm thinking you go across the country like that and around the world and she's got to be into her crowd. I mean, that every night, you know. And

you

know what, like you just said, Sarah, smiling, right? How do you go on that stage? I mean, I'm sure there's a great energy when you're on the stage and you see fans and everyone's excited. You— that's got to be adrenaline on its own, right?

It's amazing. There's nothing better, which is kind of a problem. Not necessarily that it's negative, but it's once You get off that tour, and once you don't have that adrenaline rush, that's where people start to have problems a lot of times because they're not getting that same sense in other aspects of their life,

right?

I mean, I've even dealt with it on a level because, um, you know, around the holidays, gigs pretty much shut down. And so for a good month, you don't have gigs, right? So even just that brief moment, even though I love, you know, hanging out with my family and I love having that time, it, it does really kind of mess with you in a sense.

Yep. Well, like they talk about athletes, right? You, you hear former athletes when they retire how they miss it. They miss— you know, you hear Jerry Rice, it's like when the guy runs back on the field and there's, you know, 65,000 people screaming your name, that there's nothing like it. I mean, there's just nothing like it.

Well, why don't we get her back to singing before our time runs Oh, 'cause, 'cause I— we've got— we want to hear more of it. She's got a number of songs lined up for us. And so I, I know you're a big, uh, you're a big Chris Stapleton fan.

Oh, I love Chris Stapleton.

So you're gonna do Midnight Train to Memphis after she has a sip of her, her whiskey she was telling us about?

Right now it's just tea, but maybe—

oh, it's just tea?

No, I need tea.

Yeah, me too. It's just tea.

Martini. You're, you're close.

Oh yeah.

I see what you did there.

All right, it's— we're both on that Ariana playlist wavelength.

Yeah, donuts, drinking martinis. All

right,

Midnight Train to Memphis, Cecira Bernal.

Gotta do a little spin. Judge looked down and gave me 40 days for a fine that I could not pay. Stead Rock Friday, you'll soon be home. Cross that line and you're on your own. Forty days. In those short guns, and follow what they ask us. Dirty nights we sit listening to the midnight train. This song blows when the sun comes up. Head to the floor. Keep your big mouth shut. Eat your breakfast on the ground. Work like hell till the sun goes down. Forty days, don't show guns. And by moi, bien, bien. Forty nights, c'est l'été. The midnight train. Sorry guys, my throat is so dry. I'm sorry. Ten from the giant, ten from the giant. Twenty more to forget my giant. When I get to thirty-nine. That's the longest day in a prisoner's mind. 40 days of shotgun and follow what they are saying. 40 nights of sitting listening to the midnight train. Midnight train of misfortune.

Woo! Okay, you don't— don't apologize. From now on, you always stop and take a drink during the middle of that song. You know what they call that? They call that style, baby. Style. And you threw some style. That was such a Sinatra move, what you did right there. That was— because you could just see old blue eyes going, these little town— give me a second. I mean, come on, come on.

I love— hey, by the way, uh, Courtney just said, I love that, uh, that your, that your mom is playing the tambourine in the background. But she's not, is she? You have the tambourine on your shoes, right?

Whoa!

How cool is that?

Whoa!

You know what? The guitar is such an underrated drum. I love, I love a guitar drum. There's nothing like it. It sounds great.

Yeah, it does. It sounds phenomenal.

And that's the fun when you're sitting there and finding, and finding all of trying to figure out who you are. And it seems like you have a pretty good grasp on who you are. That was always the thing about Taylor Swift. And I've, I've worked with her a number of times. We've had her— I always tell the story— we had her at Club Rodeo, which is a small little club here in San Jose. And we had her there twice. And so I've had, I've had a chance to watch her grow up. And the best thing about her is that she knew who she was. And she knew her target audience from the moment she stepped on the stage. And that's why she's, to me, has made that superstar status. Now, I always take the contrarian view, is that I'm fine with any kind of, any kind of tweets you want to write, but then you have to be fine with the criticism.

Yeah.

And as long as you, if you're fine with the criticism, I'm fine with anything you want to write because you are entitled to your opinion.

How many people though have shifted from— because she shifted from country to, uh, to pop. And, um, there's not many people that can do that.

We, we always figured that that was where she was going to go because she always had that pop sound and that's who she listened to. Uh, my thing is, is I'm not thinking she's— this is my personal opinion, I don't know anything about it, this is, this is just me talking. I think if she decides to ever have children, I think that country will allow her to be more converse with that emotion. And I would not be surprised to see her release a country album at some point in the future. I'm not saying I know anything. I'm not saying she will. I'm just saying if she does, because pop music, the way it's generated today, doesn't allow for that deep emotional thing that I think is what, what Taylor would have that happen. But again, I don't know anything. This is just me ranting.

Well, I can tell you, um, Gary, I've seen her twice in the last probably 5 years with my, with my daughters. And, uh, I'll tell you what, she, you know, between songs she talks about, you know, she's all about girl power. And, uh, and Sierra, you can probably speak to that, right? I mean, she is all, she is all about that. And I was just like, you go! And I'm— and, you know, it's rare that you hear artists talking it up that way and, and, you know, telling young girls, it's like, hey, it's okay for someone not to like you, and it's okay for you not to have to be friends with that person if that person's a jerk, you know. And I'm going, all right, you know. So, but she's awesome. I mean, and she totally engages her audience. Like, I've— I don't know that I've seen many artists do that, and she's, she's phenomenal. That's like, that's a big takeaway. I mean, that's right in, you know, part with, uh, with Garth Brooks. And you look at country music, I mean, gosh dang. There is nobody who engages a crowd more than that dude, you know. I mean, he's unbelievable. But—

And she's always been that way. She's been that way since the moment she came back, that she would always super service that target audience. And she always knew who she was talking to. And when she writes those songs, she's talking to that certain audience. Now, Sierra, when you write a song, do you have an audience in your head, or are you just trying to convey an emotion?

It depends. Some— because Writing, it's something that's for other people, but it's also something that's for me. So sometimes there's a song that I just need to write to get it out there, and other times there's a song that I'm writing with the specific purpose of making somebody feel a certain type of way. So it just kind of— it depends on what it is and what I'm feeling, but I typically try to do a little bit of both.

Well, somebody just said less less talk more rock. So I I thought we would get back into singing more now. This is we've got your newly released single that that you're ready to do right now. I believe after you had after you wet your whistle one more time.

No, I'm so sorry.

No, no, no. Again, that was such a stylistic moment. Don't you ever remind that was and then that song was perfect.

Gary, well before go ahead Sierra keep. taking a sip there while I, uh, read this message to Gary. It says here, um, from Kathleen, uh, I see a great album title for Gary. It's called Licking Donuts and Sipping Martinis. What do you think?

Album title? Hell, that's a life mantra.

You've got the album cover, you have to be in a pool with a donut floating, you just have a martini.

Can you see it? I can see that right now. A donut in the martini glass.

Wow,

like a glazed, a glazed donut.

Yeah, well, by the time I finish this martini, I'm gonna be pretty glazed myself.

All right, Sierra, you're on.

Turn this up. Can y'all hear this okay? All right, I'm gonna take that as a yes. I'm sorry. Planting new roots. Water and dirt, growing from the places we were. Family photos covered in dust, frames turned down until we became us. When the sun came up and washed me now, I never thought it could look like you, but here we are. Stand face to face, my beautiful light. I wouldn't change a thing. 'Cause your kiss covers my eyes from the things in the world that aren't right. I wanna be with you all night and wake up with you next to me. If your heart is all I hold, I'll be the safest place to step alone. There ain't a word I'll leave untold to tell you how much you mean to me. I never planned on loving someone so deeply, but ruined plans aren't always A bad thing. Photos of us are scattered around a brand new home in the memories house, settling Settling down, I finally see what my story is about. It's finding you and it's finding me. And we had a rough start, but love ain't easy to figure out and it's hard to keep. But baby, loving you is my favorite thing. 'Cause your kiss covers my eyes from the things There's a lot of things in the world that aren't right. I wanna be with you all night and wake up with you next to me. If your heart is all I'll hold, I'll be the safest place you've ever known. There ain't a word I'll leave untold, tell you how much you mean to me. I never planned to love someone so deeply, but ruined plans aren't always a bad thing. 'Cause your kiss covers my eyes from the things I've seen. There's things in the world that aren't right. I wanna be with you whole night and wake up with you next to me. If your heart is all I hold, I'll be the safest place you've ever known. There ain't a word I'll leave untold to tell you how much you mean to me. I never planned on loving someone so deeply, but ruined plans aren't always a bad thing. Ruined plans aren't always a bad thing. Thank you.

Whoo! Plans aren't always a bad thing. And you know, and in this age of, of shelter-in-place, remember how all excited we used to be when plans canceled? Come on now, we don't.

And,

uh, and, and the fact that now I, I can't wait to have plans just to follow through on

them.

That and hugs.

That and hugs.

Oh, look at you. Oh, that's so special, Bryan.

I just had to insert that. I'm a hugger,

you know, and, and everybody loves hugs. I, I worry that, uh, I worry that the handshake is a thing of the past.

Yeah, yeah.

Because there is something to be said.

Even the fist bump isn't, isn't right.

Well, and you know, maybe it's a male thing, maybe it's a male thing, but there's something to be said about, about the handshake, you know. That,

I don't know, man. I, I'm, I'm all about just a big hug. I mean, handshakes seems like '70s and '80s.

Yeah, you can hug, but you don't want to meet somebody the first time and do a hug. And you know what, if, if I did have a daughter and—

Is that not right?

Huh?

You're not supposed to hug people the first time?

Yeah,

that's why people walk away.

Restraining orders.

Oh, now it's making sense.

But it looks good on you, Bryan.

Right. Um, hey, really quick, Um, the handshake hug segment is brought to you by, uh, Rosarita refried beans. Um,

I just had some of those on Taco Tuesday.

See, you can never have enough refried beans.

Or can you?

Well,

later,

maybe.

After your margaritas. That sounds like a really bad combination.

Yeah, wait a minute, what sounds better? Are you saying a hug and refried beans Or

both? I think both.

The hug and refried beans at once.

How this thing goes off the rails every week, I find fascinating. I love it.

I have nothing to do with it though, Gary. I have nothing to do with it.

We've had, we've had honey, nunchucks, and refried beans. I can't wait to see what happens in the next 12 minutes.

I've got time.

This moment is brought to you by Gaylord Focker.

Yes,

gaylordfocker.com. That's F-O-C-K-E-R.

Now, Sierra, I know you've played the, uh, Houston Livestock and Rodeo Show, right? I mean, okay, now in California it is very hard for us to imagine how big of a deal that is, but I'm telling you, if you ever got to go Uh, the Houston Livestock and Rodeo Show and the Wyoming Frontier Days are astounding because everybody goes. You have 2 to 3 weeks of you name it. The biggest stars in the world are going to the Houston Livestock and Rodeo Show. Uh, that had to be an amazing experience for you. What was that like?

Well, I got to play at the cook-off, so the cook-off Tents was where I got to play, but those are super, super cool. I it's good food. First of all, that's always a super big plus of the the cook-offs. But that that's that's where I got to play was the cook-offs.

Well, we'll have to have you out for the Garlic Festival when we get when we finally get to have the Garlic Festival back.

That would be awesome.

Yeah, they're they've they've unfortunately we we've We've postponed it this year up until next year. But yeah, we'll have to have you out for the Garlic Festival. That is, that's an amazing time. And listen, I know at Care2Wy, we've had a, we've had a big list of people at the, at the Garlic Festival, including Carly Pearce, Michael Ray, and Rascal Flatts. The Brothers Osbourne have been to the Garlic Festival.

Gary, with, with Rascal Flatts, his voice is phenomenal, but he never talks after he sings. Is there a reason for that?

His voice is so weak that he goes backstage to breathe in steam and rest. That's always been— it's always been the curse that Gary has had. It's Gary LaVox, who's an amazingly talented singer, but his voice is so fragile that they've had to figure out ways to give him breaks during the show. And kudos to them that they've done that. Uh, but yeah, it's, it's— and you know,

I thought he was just this introvert that just couldn't

hang. Well, the good news is, is the 2 other guys, Jay and, and Jodon, are extroverts. Uh, but Sierra, you've been, you've been fighting through issues today. And as I was just telling the guys off the air, that's the mark of a pro. Anybody can do it when it's easy. It's when, it's when you're having the issues and you fight through it. I give you You nothing but major props, honey. You are amazing tonight.

Thank you so much. I appreciate that very much. Sorry, I, I'm so sorry. I feel so bad. I'm so sorry.

Don't you apologize. You're doing wonderful. And again, we've— every— everybody has been there, you know. And that's when it's during times like that that you elevate your game. And you know what? Tonight you are elevating your game.

Well, and let me remind everybody, how much are you getting paid for this, Sierra?

Uh, compliments.

Right. Let's just hold up the, the number. Okay, there it is.

I'm still waiting to see— I'm still waiting to see some of the sponsor money from the honey and Rosarita's refried beans and nunchucks. I want to see some of that sponsor money.

Oh, I would totally— I can promote some honey. I use it all the time after show. Hey guys, I'll just right in the middle of Midnight Train to Memphis just take a sip on my teeth, say, hey guys, and then tea. There's this brand of honey. Like,

ding ding ding ding! We have a winner! We have a winner!

Hey Sierra, before we let— before we let you go, I wanna— I wanna make sure that we answer this one question because people are asking, uh, that was your last song, uh, was your latest song. What will you be releasing and when will you be releasing more?

So, so far the only thing that has an exact release date is the song I'm featuring on by Malibu Rue, uh, April 17th at 7 PM. But there will be more music soon, I just don't have an official release date.

That sounds great. I can't— I can't wait.

Wait, but she is on Spotify, so, um, and on your website, give us a big pop on your website and then find you. Um, I listened to your music on, um, Spotify the other day, so, um, which was great. So because I know Julie was asking about listening to more of it, so, um, is that where all of your music is or does your website have even more?

You can find all my music on Spotify, but, uh, if you were to go to my website, there's a bunch of good stuff, you can check out on there. That's just S-I-E-R-R-A-B, as in boy, E-R-N-A-L.com. And you can see all the good stuff.

Do you have a lot of videos too? YouTube stuff?

I do have some videos. That's something that I'm going to get more into. Because a lot of times when I do get a video, it's an iPhone recording, and the audio isn't always the best. But I have some cameras and stuff, which you can kind of tell now. And I'm going to start posting more videos soon.

And you now have a full studio. Right, right here.

I tried, I tried for you guys.

We can't, we can't thank you enough. I mean, what you, what you did today was awesome. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

You got it.

Thank you.

You got it. We'll see you soon.

Earn all. See you.

Oh, how amazing was that?

It's fun, and it's fun to see these kids, especially at the start of their careers. Uh, I mean, because that's the— and Rafi, you've been doing it Almost as long as I have. But it's, it's so much fun when you see these guys. My wife, one time, we were watching an award show. And she looks at me and she goes, I'm— I was smiling, and she goes, why are you smiling? And I said, because I saw the journey. I've seen the journey. I've seen them when they were nobody. I've seen them when, when they had no idea if this would ever happen. And then to watch it explode. I can literally remember Kenny Chesney sitting in the office, uh, of our building when nobody knew who the hell Kenny Chesney was. And he was sitting there and asking my boss, he goes, I, I just wish I could figure out how you become a big star.

Oh, wow.

And I wish I could tell you I gave him this wonderful advice. I believe my reply was, dude, do you think I'd be sitting in an office with you if I knew how to be a big star?

What about Keith Urban? Don't— I think, I think I remember you telling me that you sat with him and, and no one showed up.

And nobody showed up. We're there for 2 hours, 4 people showed up. Uh, but you get to see— I, I, I've sat back and seen all these guys. I remember Tim McGraw at the Santa Clara County Fair. Nobody knew who the hell Tim McGraw was. I remember Toby Keith at the county fair coming out and talking to us at our booth. And Rafi, you remember the county fair when it used to be a thing? Yeah, we were out there for 2 weeks And Toby comes and stands in our booth, and nobody knew who Toby was. Nobody bothered him. And so when you get to see these guys— again, Taylor Swift. First time I met Taylor Swift was at Club Rodeo. Nobody knew who she was. And watching them go through this journey is— and so when I see them up there on stage living their dream, and I know how hard they worked. I remember years ago, we had Eric Church, now who's a big star in the industry today. But at the time, we literally had him standing in the parking lot. And the guy on the air said, hey, if you want to meet this new star, he's standing in the parking lot at KRTY at 750 Story Road, the old, the old address. Come by and say hello. And I was walking out the building and he's standing in the parking lot. And I looked at him and there's this famous David Allan Coe song called The Ride. And it has this This lyric, it goes, if you're big star bound, let me warn you, it's a long hard ride. And I said that to him. I said, you're living it right now. This is the long hard ride. And, and he, uh, and now he plays arenas.

Isn't it harder now to be, um, to, to, to get, get seen, to get noticed than ever before?

Easier. Easier now. Easier now. Because the, the record companies and everybody decided who they wanted to be, and you would have to look a certain way and sing a certain song. You didn't get to be this whoever. And now I literally had a guy on the air this morning, his name is Adam Hambrick, look him up, and he is so engaging and totally different, and yet very country, but yet very different. We had Nico Moon on this week, same thing, very different, still country, and you have so many different venues. The record companies now— used to be you come and sit down and we'll tell you what to sing. Nowadays you go in and, and they look at you and they go, so what do you do different?

Right.

What do you got that makes you different? Which is, for an artist like Sierra and, uh, and, and Brendan, who we talked to last week, that is literally— this is, this is the renaissance. This is the golden era for Wow. Because you get to be anybody. You get to, you get to bring your vision to the forefront now.

Well, look at, look at Billie Eilish. She— her whole album was recorded in, uh, in her brother's bedroom, you know. Um, so they basically took that record and shopped it, did whatever they want, and they, you know, they're— they did it the way they wanted to. And, and take it or leave it, this is, this is what's coming out. And I mean, huge, huge, huge, huge. Yeah,

the audience will find you and bring you to us now. Uh, and so yeah, for these artists, I, I mean, that's the best thing about the internet. We can always talk about the horrible thing about the internet, there's a litany of it, uh, but there— the access to express yourself. I mean, you know, there's, there's people playing video games and making $20 million a year on the internet.

What's wrong with that?

It's amazing. And meanwhile, we're sponsored by Honey.

Thank you, Hype Kim Honey. Um, hey, one more thing. Um, did a quick search. Um, she is also available on Apple Music. So, uh, I wasn't sure if she was going to be there or not, but she absolutely is on Apple Music. Um, and, uh, Tiffany, our friend Tiffany, just wrote Falafel Drive-In. Thank you, Tiffany, for the— um, are we supposed to promote the Falafel Drive-In?

I don't know, it just made me hungry when you said it.

Contact our sales rep, King Rafi.

That's right, I'll get you a deal, don't worry.

Is that a— is that a URL? Do you own King Rafi?

Uh, I do, I think. Yeah, kingrafi.com, I think. I don't know if there's anything on it, but, uh, yeah. Yes,

you gotta dot-com that.

I, I did dot-com it at one point. Look at us. So, um, anything else? Is— are we, uh, are we feeling good? Everyone's happy? I mean, a lot of great commentary. Um, a lot of people tuning in today, so, uh, it looks like it's been a fun day and no one says anything bad so far. At least, at least they didn't write anything bad. How's that?

Give them time, they will.

Give them time.

Yeah,

we're not on Twitter, are we?

It's been a— it's been a great week.

We're on Periscope.

Oh, okay.

It's been a great week. Brian and I were talking, it's been a— it's been an exhausting week, but it's been a quick week. And, and, and as I said, not to get too optimistic, but the numbers are looking amazing as far as what we're facing as a country. And it just goes to show what we did is working. And we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, which is amazing. So there's a lot to feel good about. There's a lot of optimism that you can have without being stupid about the Pollyanna word. I'm not trying to be that. But there's a lot of cool things going on.

No, there is a lot of cool things in there. John Krasinski, is that how you say his name? He just, he just started the Good News Network, and, uh, I think it's brilliant. There's so many different good things happening in the world right now that, that wouldn't have happened because of this. And I'm not trying to take away from the stuff that's happening right now, but, um, but there's so many different, uh, interesting things going on right now. I think it's really good that, you know, we highlight the good things. So really fun.

What's interesting is I'm looking at Dr. Fauci's, um, Uh, Twitter account right now. It says, I would love Gary Scott Thomas's drink, please.

Come on, Dr. Fauci, and I'll give you a big hug when you get here. Fellas, as always, I enjoy our little get-together every Friday night, and thank you everyone for coming on, and we appreciate it. Uh, look, my niece just said hello. Hi, my sweetheart Robin. Uh, and so thank you again for the week. Have a wonderful week, and next week will be better than this.

Uh, well, no, our musical content was fantastic. Everything else surrounding it was average.

No, no, I'm talking about the week we all are gonna have.

Oh, oh, okay. Uh, you guys didn't just hear that then. That's fine, no problem.

I'm being macro, he's being micro.

Thank you.

And, and I have the button and you don't. Goodbye, everybody.

Okay, bye.