The Rich Redmond Show

Unknown: And I'm tempted
sometimes to learn the new

cheese diddles and stuff, but I
also realize, do I really need

this? I don't think so, but I
think it's really cool that

what's a cheese

diddle? First and foremost,
it's, well, they

sell them in the chip aisle,
yeah, are

they? Are they a new item at
buckies Cheese dittles

are like, like, a flam with a
drag and then another. You know?

It's

like, imagine a paradiddle.
Okay, right, left, right, right.

So put a flam on the first
right. And as well as a diddle,

dig it, that, dig at it, that,
dig it, do that. He loves me.

And then once you get used to
that, now start it the other the

other hand. Because even though
you're alternating right to

left, so on and so a lot

of people think you're just a
leather jacket wearing long

haired rock drummer that rules,
but no, but you're, you're

actually the guy that was like,
Okay, now I'm gonna do this

exercise with my feet. I

would get, I would get, part of
the reason that I can do a lot

of the stuff I can do is, like,
I get bored middle school, I was

playing drums seven hours a day.
Yeah,

this is the rich Redmond show.

Hey, man, you know, it's the
drumming and doing what you'd

love for your life is your youth
pill.

We did. We have a guy here who
works for us. You met him

before. His name is DC, and he's
a professional bearder,

competitive bearding. It's a
thing. And I mean, his beard is

amazingly beautiful, but the
work,

the work that goes into that
beard,

beard grooming, the oil, I

do that with my beard. Do you do
that? Like the oils? Yeah,

my wife makes some concoctions
and stuff, and I'll put them in

there. By the way, those are
amazing

truffles. It's a box of
truffles, right? The

main thing is, I wanted to get
them out of my house, yeah?

I'm like, don't do that. My
mother brought over. I don't

know why she had them, but she
had those Ferrero shades. Yeah,

those things are,

like, those are incredible,
because I got a little crunch in

them. She don't have the crunch,
but they're richer. Like, the

milk is like, these cows are
like, princes, kings, or

whatever she

brought over the multi pack
original dark chocolate and

coconut Yeah.

Oh, coconuts, my jam, like
coconut milk, coconut shavings,

coconut shrimp, anything,
coconut carrot cake. I'm with

coconut flake on top, and it's
got to have the cream cheese

frosting, not the confession,
not sugar, nope. If you're gonna

go

do

Oh, do do it. Go, big, just do
it. Yeah, do it. You're gonna do

it. Do it, right? I tell you
what, Jim,

what did you think of the

truffles? Do you like the
truffles were good? I had I had

one, and only one. That's good,
because I'll eat that whole box.

You're

doing your thing. You know where
it came from? It came from my

friend Stan Z Stan's lot, Koski.
I want to give him some some

praise on the show, because he's
kind of like a, oh God. He is a

supporter of the arts, an Erie
PA, Cleveland, you know, I did,

just did the weekend with him.
He had me in for my kind of,

whatever you call it, Master
Class clinic, one man show,

motivational event, and he
hosted, and he had it catered,

and he was showing me all around
town, and it was just a great

time. And he said, Here, take
these truffles. And I just

wanted to get them out of my
house, because sounds like it's

your kind of party, you know,
you Oh, boy, you gotta. This is

what I tell everyone. You gotta,
if you don't have to get ready,

if you stay ready. And our tour
is one month away. So, you know,

I've been hitting the gym and
drinking tons of water, doing my

vitamins, doing my stretching,
lifting the weights. Got the

paradiddles going, so I'm ready
to go, but you need to play on a

kit, though, right? Yeah, you
know, all my friends at Remo

love you. Chris Hart, I've been
with Remo since 1995 dinosaurs

roamed the earth, but I just
ordered a set of those silent

stroke heads so I can practice,
you know, because I just moved

into a new crib, and I haven't
built a studio yet, and I want

to be sensitive to the
neighbors. I just don't want

them to be eating me right out
of the gate.

Is dw, they've got the
electronic kit out now, yes, and

they offer to send me one, and I
got to take them up on it. There

you go. Yeah, do it. There's
your answer. There's all sorts

of answers. Bluetooth thing. So
who's that? Who's that that's

talking to me across the way
from the Rosenberg 90th

anniversary drum. Case, you
know, while we're here, let's

give props to our friend. Mike
Berg, it's an American company,

90 years in business.
Congratulations, Mike,

absolutely. And you're also an
artist, right? Chris, I am all

right. So here's the deal on
Chris. Christopher Williams,

hailing from Greenville, South
Carolina, calling Nashville home

since 2008 he's not even 40
years old. He's a rock star.

Look at all the people that he's
played with. Gene Simmons, Ace

freely, except Andrew W K Rex,
brown, Derek, saying homes we

share. That did a little bit
with Derek. Derek, Mick, Mars,

Blackfoot, Lee green. Kid Rock.
Peter Stroud, what a player her

1000 horses. The list goes on
and on. He's played with members

of P funk, lit love, those guys,
the stones. We have to hear that

story. Kiss, slaughter
Cinderella. He works a lot

around town and on the road with
Phil s house and Jeremy as

Brock. Sort of like the as
Brock, don't say that too fast,

the kind of like, sort of like
the three kings of like classic

rock. You guys disagree. Yeah,
doing the thing, man. And we're

gonna talk about his education
and his background and what he's

doing. But really, the latest
thing is, since 2015 celebrating

10 years, he has been the
drummer with the legendary metal

band, except you got your balls
to the wall kick. We're talking

about our friend Christopher
Williams, What's up, buddy,

Brother, how are you rich? I
appreciate you making the trip

out here. Absolutely.

Where's you coming down from?
Where do you live in Hermitage?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a
bit of a drive. That's all

right, but

you're right by the airport,
which is great. That's the

best part. Yeah, and there's
several means to get to the

airport from Hermitage. Yes,

it's very, very convenient,
speaking of the three kings,

when we are all kind of living
in those houses, living in those

houses, and Donaldson and
Hermitage, you know, we all

lived in these band houses, and
then we had to get to the

airport. It was, like, amazing.
And of course, this was pre

Uber, pre lift. So we would call
those cowboy cabs the the

minivan, yeah. And we'd be like,
we've got a lot of gear, and we

have a flight to catch. Don't be
late. They were always every

like, so it was, there was like
a 20 years ago, it was difficult

to get reliable transportation.
Now everything is in our pocket.

Uber Lyft. You can order it the
night before. I always get

worried, like, I got still late,
dude, 3:45am sometimes my pickup

is like, 3:45am and I'm like,
Who is going to do this? And you

can't blame

them around here, though,
because Nashville became

Nashville and it's overcrowded.

Yeah, as soon as those three
through three cabs showed up,

that's when the game changed,
really. That's when it was when

you you started seeing them pack
the the parking spaces on broad

and all that, and the cops would
pull in and have to shove them

out. That's around that time is
when Uber and all that started

in the city, yeah, and then it
was completely different. You

could get what's now a $20 ride.
You could get it for three, four

bucks. Oh, wow. You could go
from I lived in Inglewood for a

period, and to go from there to
five points. It's like three

bucks. Wow, really? Yeah, I used
to go to Red Door East all the

time because of that. So

what is this? A different thing
that I don't know about, a

different type of cab. Is what
you're saying. No, no,

I say. And that's what Uber used
to be, yeah, back when the first

came in, because all those cabs
were taken over and they were so

much money, yeah,

they were trying to get market
share by offering it cheaply.

But

now they're just like, we all.
You all love us. You need us.

We're integrated over your life.
Rape,

you're gonna, yeah, what part of
your delta sky miles account?

Because

as soon as I land in Nashville,
I hurried to the baggage claim,

and as soon as I physically have
that bag in my hand, I'm

already, like, pre ordering,
because then it's surges, yeah.

Yeah. So

you're doing that from that from
the airport to Spring Hill now,

yeah, that's a that's a lofty
price, 70 bucks. Oh, my God

bless

you. I know 70 bucks. Do you get
to expense that tax return?

Yeah? Well, yeah, totally

keep a track on it. But a lot of

times I'll drive, and then I'll
park at one of the parking flies

or whatever. And then, while
you're there, you can get your

car washed, and then you come
back to a nice, clean, tidy car,

because who wants to wash their
car?

So basically, you're looking at
$140 to and fro, right? Yeah, I

wonder how much would be cut to
just park

that's why I asked for so much
money when I play drums. Well,

it

used to be nice.

It used to be, it was like 27
bucks a day or something for,

like, the VIP parking. Yeah,

I actually, I do the off, like
the park and fly, park and fly,

but I use trade bank. What's
trade bank? Funny, you should

ask rich trade bank
nashville.com, go check them out

there. I'm just gonna give them
a little bit of a plug. If you

have a business and you've got
extra things lingering on the

shelves. And, you know, you
can't really move them. You can

trade them with other
businesses. So that's what I do.

I trade my voiceover services
such as on hold and automated

attendant messaging, yeah, with
other businesses who need it,

and I get trade dollars. And I
could trade those trade dollars

in for vacations, for parking,
whatever. It's

a great idea, isn't he a promo
sexual it's incredible. Love it.

No idea what you're talking
Kevin Murphy gave me that

nickname, and then I almost said

to Jim, and you had to give him
a nickname in return, the

delightful curmudgeon,

yes, yeah, that's good. I mean,
he would have a killer podcast,

amazing podcast, because he's
not afraid to say anything. No,

I love Kevin. Kevin. Kevin and I
get along great.

He's very entertaining because
of that. Yes, yes. He just

doesn't care. Kevin myself and
Russ Whitman.

Russ Whitman, yeah, man, he's in
that click. It's the only time

I'll ever see him if I see Ben
Caesar, Keo, Kevin and Russ.

Yes, crazy, yeah,

Russ and Kevin and I sent some
stuff to each other that will

not be repeated

now, hopefully no one catches
your browser history or your

text

messaging incognito.

Thank you, Google. So you know
how you came

on my radar. I really thought it
was early on, like I moved here

in 97 so I really thought, like
in 2000 or something. Our our

mutual friend Paul, aren't the
bass player the place for Lee

Greenwood was telling me, you
know, he always had some sort of

side metal project, and he's
like, man, there's this new kid.

I've been playing with him. He's
fantastic. He's like, so young.

He's like, 19 or 20 or
something. I'm like, oh, yeah,

cool, cool. And then must have
but it was 2008

2008 Yeah, late, 2008 when I met
him. And what's funny is, I

remember meeting you prior that,
yeah, Danny Archer put us in

touch. And I think we went to
frothy monkey or something like

that, yeah, just briefly, and
you're like, Oh, well, there's

forks. Go there. Meet people. Go
to, you know, third and lensley.

Go to these places around town.
That's where you're gonna start,

the network, the watering holes.
Yeah, it's where you're just

gonna meet your community and
get your foot in the door.

And you did. Man, yeah, what was
the first non Paul ARNs

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Drumtensive.com

What was your first you know,
were you playing around town? Or

did you get a road gig right
away? Or,

yeah, well, I moved to town. I
was already planning to move,

but a couple weeks ahead of
winter Nam, I was looking around

Nashville Craigslist for jobs
still living in South Carolina,

yeah, and I saw an ad for
percussion specialist wanted,

and I clicked it and said, Oh,
what's sure, you know, and you

know, sent in a resume and all
that. Here's what I do. At one

point in Greenville, I worked
for pin tech who manufactures

electronic drums and cymbals and
triggers and pads. Yes,

I remember those, those trigger
pads. Ray Gray was using them

for

a little bit. Were they similar
to heart dynamics back in the

day? Very were they Okay?

Dows pads and all that. Yeah,
yeah. Dan, Dows, what's up?

Yeah,

shout out. So I was
manufacturing, and whether it

was drilling aluminum castings
or soldering or doing any of

that stuff. And so I sent that
in, you know, I have a

background in this, background
in that. And then it came back.

It was Juan over at minel, Juan
Barrios. And he goes, Oh, and I

go, Oh, actually, I'm going to
be at winter Nam in a couple

weeks, if you just want to meet
up and talk. Yeah. So I did an

unofficial, official interview
for vinyl as a sales rep during

winter Nam. And then it becomes,
okay, well, you got the gig. Can

you start March 3? Okay, well,
that's four weeks I have to find

somewhere to live. And I reached
out and met a couple people

online. One of those was the
definite, I'm moving in. Then

that fell through a week before,
like, Okay, who else do I know?

Somebody called somebody that
had a room for a month. I was

like, Okay, that'll just get me
there. I'll start the job the

first what led to the first
opportunity was a co worker of

mine was actually playing at
Legends, and I went down to see

him one night. They had a
substitute drummer who

introduced me to the power trio
he'd been playing with. He had,

he was expecting a baby, he and
his wife, so he was unable to do

the Summer Tour. Three of us got
on stage, sat in jammed, and

then we talked afterwards, and
then it's like, yeah, cool.

Well, let's do it. Yeah, you
know, well, we'll meet at Si,

our room five, and we'll jam
some of the material, just to

make sure. But yeah, if you're
Kane, let's go. And that was

Richie Shoal.

Oh yeah. Richie Shoal, like an
American artist, yep.

Yeah. Awesome dude. Ozzy
Queensland, yes, you know, does

he so? Does he live here? Yeah,
okay, and he and I are still in

touch. Good man. That was, but
that was the, the first

Nashville like

gig. Give him my pass, because I
think I've known a lot of

drummers who've come through his
band. Yeah, it's like a rite of

passage. Yeah, you know, it is
cool, man. And your background

in in Greenville, when did,
like, when did you start

playing? Because it says, Here
you remember the Carolina gold

gold, Carolina gold drum and
Bucha amazing on snare drum,

yep. And then you did some you
won a gold medal during the

annual individual and ensemble
competition. Yep, for drum set.

Nice. Yeah. So when did it all
start? Were you coming? Coming

out of the womb? Did you have a
musical family? It was

in the womb. My mother tells
stories of, you know, she and

dad would be spinning records,
and, you know, they'd push the

furniture to the wall and dance
in the living room or whatever,

and I'd be kicking and when the
song stopped, I would stop. Wow,

something going to concerts, and
so, I mean, and then, of course,

what

were they listening to, like
Kenny Rogers Greatest Hits, that

kind of thing, or staying alive,
bit

of that. But it was a bit of
everything, the real one, what,

what mom calls what always gave
her happy feet, long before the

Disney thing was Stevie Ray, oh
yeah. I attribute being able to

swing and shuffle to Chris
Layton all day, every day.

Stevie's. Stevie's, one of my
dudes. What

a great artist, just regardless
of the genre. And they have

Chris Whipper, Layton shuffle,
have you been did you meet him?

Have you ever met him?

Once I met him at the fender
booth. He was playing with Kenny

Wayne Shepherd, nice during an
am show, yeah. And just got to

shake his hand and say, Thanks,
man. Because of you and Stevie

and Tommy, I know how to boogie,
yeah, so I appreciate it, yeah.

And that's what I was playing
and listening to even before I

got my first drum set, you know,
while watching Motley Crue. I've

got a brother that's five years
older than me, so there was that

musical influence from him.
There was mom and dad's record

collection. Dad passed away when
I was really young, and so mom

couldn't listen to that music
anymore hurt her too much. So

then she got into the country of
the late 80s. So Alabama,

Alabama, Tanya, Tucker, Clint,
black. My first concert was

actually the Kentucky head
hunters, the picking on

Nashville too. Yeah, because I
was born and raised in

Greensboro, North Carolina until
I was 11. I think just before my

12th birthday is when we moved
to Greenville, so, and those

were my formative years in
Greenville. So that's why I

always just kind of say that's
home, yeah, even though all the

families in Greensboro, yeah. So
it's two homes. I

always get those, you know. I
get Charlotte and Charleston,

you know? And I get Greenville
and Greensboro. Well, there's

also a Greenville North too.
Yeah, that's really confusing.

Greenville

north in North Carolina. Yeah,
it's by the coast.

No, it's, I think it's near
Winston Salem, is it? I think

it's on that on the western
side. I could be wrong. It's

getting back to you mentioned
shuffles before rich, did you

know that Christopher can put a
feather in his cap? By he is my

biggest influence on shuffles.
We discussed, you know, I've

been, I've been deep diving
shuffles because of the Huey

Lewis gig may 28 the city winery
in Nashville. Don't miss it.

Don't miss it. Get your tickets
now,

while it lasts, hey, if you
don't promote yourself, nobody

else will. No

one cares as much about you. I'm
horrible

about right? So he came in
horrible. You know, we practiced

a little bit, and it's kind of
like I appreciate these podcast

episodes, because we keep on
talking about my journey up to

this monumental event, which
happens to you guys all the

time, and learning, you know,
because not it's not a very

typical like, not many drummers
going, Oh, I'm going to pick up

the sticks and learn to shuffle.
You know, it's the boom smack

that they want to get into,
typically, right? Yeah. And I

was told, Well, hey, you get
you're almost there, but you

need to make it bounce. We want
you to kind of fall a little bit

behind. Bit behind the beat. And
I told you this, and you kind of

scoffed a little bit, if you
did, you scoff. I heard a scoff

when, when we were talking
about, like, playing behind the

beat, or ahead the beat, or
something like, I just try to

play in time, right? You know?
And then, and I So Christopher

walks, and I said, you know, I'm
trying to figure out what they

mean. He's like, Oh, it's just
like, this play like a flam, and

I'm going, Oh,

but this, Christopher, did you
guys? You guys already spent

time together today.

We did, like, deep dive, man, I
don't know where you were. Oh,

my God,

I was, well, I was probably
peeing because, you know, the

bladder over 50,

it happens, dude. So, so kudos
to you. Thank you. Thank you.

Christopher, absolutely.

Yeah. Plus, he's got a, probably
a really mean double bay

shuffle.

Teacher, the Simon

Phillips, Jeff Beck, thank you.
Jeff Beck, yeah, and Virgil was

huge for me. Billy Cobham,
spectrum, oh yeah, I, I don't

even know if I had my first
drums. That when my uncle gave

me that album, Uncle Peter
turned me on a Cobham and just

said,

what so many drums that three
floor toms, two bass drums. He

put so many hurdles. He put the
LP

on one side of a cassette. So
there was Billy Cobham spectrum,

and the other side was Herbie
Hancock, head hunters. Oh, wow.

And I don't know if I even had
my first drum set that was

Harvey Mason, yeah, but I
remember at one point just

sitting to the kit and just
jamming those records, because I

knew them from listening to them
for a few years already.

Now, when you do your double
bass shuffle, do you do left

foot lead depends, depends
either one it really, yeah.

If I'm, if I'm doing the Van
Halen stuff, it's always left

foot lead, yeah? Because if you
listen to Al, it's that gallop,

yeah. And that left foot, his
left kick drum was always

important

on the right. That's what I got
from Greg bisni. Because Greg

business, like, here's the
secret, you know, you're always

using syncopated rhythms on the
upbeat, or whatever, on your

right hand, on your right foot,
and then you're always keeping

time with your high hat on.
That's always doing the

downbeat. So now all you got to
do is put your foot over on the

double pedal, and literally you
are doing this, doing the same

thing. Yeah? So

I learned the hot for teacher
shuffle, just the opposite a

buddy of mine. You remember Jeff
vidy, yeah, yeah, up in

Connecticut, right? So he was a
drummer and guitar player, a

big, huge influence from Eddie
Van Eddie Van Helen, and they

had a double bass electronic kit
back when I was starting to

play. And I thought I was like,
maybe salivate to play double

bass, yeah. And he's like, you
know how to play hot for

teacher. I'm like, hell now. He
says, Think about if you if you

only have a single kick, just do
the gun to gun them. Yeah, I'm

like, Oh, I can do that. He's
just didn't add any other foot.

That's nice. He's already a good
teacher.

Oh, okay, that new accept record
that you guys did in 2014 you

tracked the drums your house
sounds amazing. It's got the,

you know, the road so clean
dudes, just driving it, killing

it, driving it. And then when
you go to do the fills, and

that's, that's the challenging
part, keeping that so clean

while you're doing hand stuff.
But you've been doing it a long

time. I mean,

it was, it's just practice. It's
yeah, everybody wants the the

quick and easy, yeah? And what's
the hack? It's not, yeah, you

know how to get

to Carnegie Hall practice, yeah?

But you buy a ticket. But, I
mean, it's, you know, it's the

thing of you practice, you
practice, you practice, and then

at some point the light bulb
just goes off. Yeah, for me

anyway, and I've been fortunate
in that sense, where when the

idea clicks, then it's there,
whether it's doing the virtual

stuff, or just, you know, like
crazy, whatever you can think

of, or the split lick, you know,
right hand, right foot, left

hand, left foot. But that thing
that took forever goes but I

never practiced it, yeah, and
then one day, I sat down with

the double pedal in the pad for
about an hour, walked away, came

back and figured rhythmically
and feeling, not just thinking

about it, but felt the
relationship and those gaps in

your spacing in your body, yeah,
boom. It's

a cool lick too. It's a great
it's a it's like, I've been, I

sit there, like this morning at
my BNI business meeting. I'm

just, like, just just doing that
whole thing. They loved it,

yeah, yeah. Well, that makes
turn. It really does.

But the cool thing with that one
too, as as with anything, you

know, I'm, I'm of the School of,
if you can play it this way,

play it backwards, nice. Oh, you
know, because with drum corps,

that was one thing that we
learned, if you've got 300 guys

auditioning for 10 snare spots,
and you've got seven of those

snare spots returning, even
though they still got a re

audition, it's pretty much a
shoe in, yeah. So there's two

open, three open spots or
something, yep, or right? And 10

snare drummers, yeah. And when
they start making cuts, you

know, you'll have a line of 20
people. And the caption head is

walking up and down and cutting
people stick high, or is looking

at or if everybody's perfect, if
they've got it down to the final

12, they'll go, all right. Play
it off the left, reverse the

sticking in your brain like
that. Go now, oh my

god, do it. That'd be
interesting.

That never had, that never
happened to you. Well, now going

back to, you know, because
you're North Texas, core and

marching band are different
things I did eight years of

marching band, right? But, you
know, I had a conversation with

Greg Bissett about this. I was
like, hey, you know all the, all

the advanced rudiments that the
ones that are 46 and above your

cheese diddles and Flam didles
and all that. I said hybrids.

Those are the real those are the
get you fired rudiments. And he

goes, You're so, right? Yeah,
you know what I mean. So I like

my hands, and I'm. Attempted
sometimes to learn the new

cheese diddle and stuff, but I
also realized, do I really need

this? I don't think so, but I
think it's really cool that

what's

a cheese diddle first and
foremost, it's,

well, they sell them in the chip
aisle, yeah.

Are they a new item at buckies?
Cheese diddles

are like, like, a flam with a
drag and then another. You know?

It's

like, imagine a paradiddle.
Okay, right, left, right, right.

So put a flam on the first
right, and as well as a diddle,

dig it that, dig at it, that,
dig it, do that. He loves me.

And then once you get used to
that, now start it the other the

other hand, because even though
you're alternating right to

left, you're always going to
have the weaker hand and your

brain as soon as you walk start
with the opposite hand. But that

by that training is

universal, which goes back to
George Lauren Stone's book,

which is like, look at if you're
going to go right left, right,

left, you want to go left,
right, left, right. And if

you're going to go right right,
left, left, you're going to want

to go left, left, left, right,
right, and

you better go between the
exercises seamlessly, without

stopping and without changing
tone, because you go

right, right, left, left, right,
right, left, left, right, right,

left, left, right, left, left,
left, left, right, right, left,

right, left, right, left, right,
right, left, right, left, right,

left,

right, right, left, right, yep,
yeah, that's how, that's how I

would build my feet, build my
hands. Nice, all that stuff. Was

doing pyramids, just Yeah,
committed plate, singles,

doubles, triples, quads, Quince,
all the way up to 10 or 12, and

then come back down. And then do
it on the left hand, and then do

it with the feet. Double the
note value, half the note value,

so on. And so

a lot of people think you're
just a leather jacket wearing

long haired rock drummer that
rules, but no, but you're,

you're actually the guy that was
like, Okay, now I'm gonna do

this exercise with my feet. I
would get,

I would get, part of the reason
that I can do a lot of the stuff

I can do is, like, I get bored.
When middle school I was playing

drums seven hours a day, yeah?
Like, wake up, play the pad half

an hour. Go to the bus stop.
Play the pad. Get on the bus.

Play the pad in between classes,
like, Race to the next class.

Play the pad, band room during
lunch break, like, finish up

early. Run in the band room.
Play the drum set, go to the

next class, pad, soon as you got
home. Play the kit for two

hours, get off the camera, do
your homework, get back on the

kit, be done by nine, and in the
evening, as a courtesy, it was

like seven hours a day. Love
that dedication. And then, yes,

I would get bored, and I'd set
the drum set up left handed and

play it like that for a week.
Oh, wow. I'll teach myself how

to play left but my right foot
hi hat still is not great, but

it doesn't need

to be. You ever have your main
kick drum pedal go out on you?

Oh yeah, you know,

several times I've never done
that where you're setting up the

kit backwards, but did you ever
work on that Gary Chester new

breed book? No, yeah, because
you would be great at that.

Because basically you're not
turning the drum set around. But

the whole idea is you have these
systems, like these melodies,

like an ostinato, and then you
do some reading against the

ostinato, and then you also he's
got, like, a counting thing

where your voice is the fifth
limb. So you might want to be

counting down beats. You might
want to be counting up beats.

And then you're leading what
sounds like, it's like what, you

know, we'll win. That's

the stuff that I like. You can
see the smile. That's kind of

stuff I might smile. Yeah,
that's,

that's a Time Eater. I mean,
it's like, oh my god, where did

the last 10 years go? Oh yeah,
the new breed. Yeah, you know

what I mean. I mean,

but, and the thing is, are you
gonna get hired for left hand

out in that chops or any No,
it's not

like the Thomas Lang thing,
right? You know, he's a monster

on the kit, yeah? And he can do
all sorts of Sure, can, you

know, all the things. But when
it comes down to brass tax, he's

just playing what needs to be
played. Yeah,

you know, I mean, Virgil, too.
Virgil had like, the Tina Marie

gig and all these pop gigs in
Australia in the 80s before

anybody knew who he was. Right
for being Virgil, yeah, before

any of that stuff. But you know,
that wasn't really where he

wanted his career to go. He was
just like, Man, this is what I

want to do. That's me.

Haven't heard from Virgil in a
while what he's he's still

doing, clinics, tours, his
original stuff.

I think his last album was,
like, 17 or something.

Well, he's a true artist in the
sense that he puts out, you

know, and that's something I
want to add to my repertoire.

That's something to check off
the list, which is sort of like

a solo drum record, but, you
know, very musical, yeah, you

know, where you where, you know,
it could almost be licensed, and

then it's not gonna be, it's
gonna be a, okay, it's gonna be

a Jazz, Jazz flute record. Yeah,
it's gonna be a jazz fusion

record, but like approachable,
polite fusion, like you could

still clap two and four, that
kind of stuff, just not one and

three. So I want to do that. No.
Well, that's, that's for our

debut at the Grand Ole Opry.
Yeah, exactly. Thank you.

So between the two of you guys,
hit the

symbol sweatpants,

I'm. And shut up and play two
and four.

So between the two of you guys,
I'd love to see more video

content on all those things that
you guys can do, because people

have, like, that preconceived
notion that this is all you can

do. Rich. You were like, Oh, you
rock, you play country music.

But I'm like, Oh no, yeah, I've
seen him riff before. He is, oh

yeah. He's got a deep well of
knowledge. And his chops are, I

mean, because, I mean all these
guys that are like, dominating

tick tock and the reels and all
this other stuff, they can't

hack it. They didn't put the
time in for the touring and

studio sessions like you guys
have. But they're circus guys on

online and like, hey, you know,
here's this, you know, really

lightning fast riff. We

met Ellis the parrio backstage,
right? Yeah, Alice The party is

the Spanish guy, right? That
smokes weed and plays with,

yeah, with one hand, right? I
didn't even know he was there.

He was playing with somebody
that day. I just came out of our

dressing room and he was in the
hallway. Yeah? Oh shit, dude,

yeah. Photo. Well, we could, we

could you and I could be
creating more content. But, I

mean, he's, he's out there, you
know, playing. He's got his

balls to the wall. He's, like,
playing the 20,000 people. He's

standing up with the kick drum,
getting people. I mean, you're a

freaking rock star. Well,

and, and, well, thank you. But I
it's weird for me, man. I don't,

I don't feel the rock star
thing, you know, I Well,

people tell me, Oh, you're a
rock star. Like, what I, I hang

out with rock stars, or

what we, we were lucky enough
that our dream came true. Yeah,

that shouldn't change who we are
as human beings, no. And I, I've

never felt myself as the person
to just throw myself out there

just because, yeah, like, if
anybody wants to ask a question

or anything great, yeah,
awesome, but I don't want to

bother anybody. Yeah, you know,
I'm terrible about self

promotion, yeah? Well, you did
all right, buddy, yeah, yeah,

but I need to be better. I've
got 10 years worth of drum cam

footage with accept. Well, you
could probably put all that on

YouTube, 15 or 20 terabytes of
raw footage. Would those

guys be okay with you putting it
out there? I don't know.

Maybe. I mean, it's, there's no
board feed, no mix, nothing like

that. It's just, it's two or
three cams on the drums.

Is it one shot? You got to
actually meld the shots? No,

it's, it's, it's three separate
go. So, yeah, I would have to

drop it into they're not
switched. No, okay, and I would,

I've thought about doing that
and throwing in Final Cut and

doing all that. But the other
thing too is, man, when I'm

home, I just want to be home,
right? Yeah, I get, I still, you

know, we have the studio at the
house, which is awesome, so I

can record remote in my pajamas,
and that's fun, or we can just

be creative, you know. And
that's I

want to get into, that. I

weld. I did to your woodworker,
woodworking business, yeah, I'm

getting into a bit of the vinyl
business for drummers.

Okay, okay, so many skill sets.
So you were telling me your big,

gigantic you have several drum
set, drum sets for except you

did the welding for your rack.
That's one huge hill skill set

in the story. But now you're
saying a woodworking business.

Are you like building furniture
for people? Yeah, yeah. Do you

have like, a website like
Christopher Williams

creations.com or something

the it's CDW Woodworks, and
that's with an X on the end,

yeah, W, O, R, X, you're

designing custom furniture for
people. Yeah,

that is key. Recognize the wood
of the table you're

sitting at. Yeah. This is what's
called an ambrosia maple. And

you know

where I got this on auction. I
think we have more of it in the

back shop. I want to talk price.
You You got pay pay attention to

mcmore auction. McCarthy more
auction. Okay,

see, we always breaks the fourth
wall. They used to reload it.

It's that sometimes

they'll have wood that comes up
because we just found rices are

not cheap, and they auction it
off for pennies on the dollar.

So we got a whole bunch of this
stuff. My guy who just worked

here, excited. I

just got wood, but actually, and
they backfilled it and

everything. All the wormholes
are back filled. Well, we

had a guy who worked here who
was a woodworker as well, yeah.

And he put this table together.
I told him how big this

is Star bond adhesive. I know
what that is right, because I'm

a dork,

because those are, those are two
layers of wood that are

sandwiched together. Yeah, you
do this

in your garage. Is that your
Yeah, shop

Nice. We've got so it's a, it's
a two car garage. Half of it is

the shop. And yeah, I mean, I've
got an armoire on the list to do

for my in laws as a wedding
present. Nice as a thank you for

them. Got a bunch of stuff to do
for the house. Next up, some

friends want a custom Island. I
just rebuilt a 20 foot stretch

of fence for a buddy of ours
because I grew up doing

carpentry and stuff outside of
music. I built my first deck

with my uncle. Lee, when I was
12 or 13, your

own hands. See, what did you
have the attitude of, even

though it is a form of a backup
plan, I'm not going to rely on

that. I'm still going to, yeah,
no, it's,

it's, it's just always been a
hobby. Yeah? I mean, I would

watch norm Abram on PBS, whether
it was New Yankee or this old

house. And then when TLC became
a channel, you know, they had

home time and all those shows
and, you know, get in there, get

your hands dirty.

You got to have a knack for it,
though, which you do? Obviously,

yeah, it's great. You've done

electrical work all kinds. Yeah,
I

do electrical. I was in the
trade for a season. But I love

hearing stories like that with
the welding and the woodworking,

because it reminds me of Troy
laketa, yeah? Like we were

interviewing him, and we all of
a sudden, he's like, oh yeah.

And I do a roofing business, and
you kind of went out, you kind

of went back in the drums. I'm
like, no, no, no. Hold on time

out here for a second stop.
What? What did you just say?

You're a roofer? He goes, Oh,
yeah, I've

done that too, right? Hard.
July, many moons. Oh, it sucked.

I did it in August. Oh, I did it
for about

which is the prime season to do
it, because you have to do it.

Talk

about a farmer's hand.

The only part that's where I
developed the fear of heights,

yeah, really, the only part that
ever really bothered me, aside

from that, was just doing tear
off, you know, because you're

tearing off all the shingles and
like, the inside of your elbow

is just coated with asphalt
chips and just

the well, and also it's, it's,
it's a hell of a way you can get

hurt easily.

Oh yeah, that's hard work. And I
left because the company was

taking steeper pitch roofs with
no safety harnesses. I mean,

we're talking toe boards five
feet apart, where you're like,

struggling to make that gap
happen. Wow. And I remember

being on a third story roof with
my brother one day overcast. We

shouldn't have even been up
there. He and I showed up to the

site. First the materials were
there. The supervisor said, go

ahead and he and I are sitting
off, hanging off the edge of

this house, with our feet
dangling, nailing on starter

strip over the gutters, and just
going,

I don't think I'm coming back
after race stories, man, I'm

pretty

and that was like, I was still
in South Carolina, but I was

starting to gig regularly. I had
just gotten picked up by the

booty band to do a fall tour. Is
yo mama's big fat booty band.

I was like, a funk, funk trippy
band kind of thing.

Seven piece, original, seven
piece funk band with a horn

section, yeah, we went out open
for P funk and fish bone Harris

brothers did all kinds of head
festivals and craft brew fest

when craft brew was just kind of
becoming a thing, yeah,

alongside podcasts,

you like the IPA? Oh, I love
IPA. Oh, yeah, if I have to go

craft I like a West Coast IPA,
like a, you know, Sierra Nevada

style. I

dig Well, Chris, the happier the
more bitter. Oh, he wanted, if I

could get away with drinking
space dust all night, I would.

Space dust is nice. It's home
style.

It's just 9% so you can't really
hang out and drink that well,

Voodoo Rangers like that, the
tall boy range, the green one,

they will. They've got you to
freaking sleep. They've got the

7% one, the orange version of
the IPA. Very fruity. That one's

really I love space dust. Yeah,
space dust and also means

a different thing now than it
did back in the day. Oh, yeah,

thankfully Yes. You

want a good podcast to listen
to, the ales and tails podcast.

Make sure you check

that out. Nice. Jim got in his
five promotional points. That's

right at the front of the show.

It's a podcast, a buddy of mine,
Mercurio. We're friends with

Mercuria. He's our financial
advisor and a beer expert. Oh,

he's a nice, very articulate,
very intelligent beer expert.

So you got a guy that drinks a
lot of beer hands,

but he's so thin you're like,
where you put it? Just kidding.

He's He's freaking real. He's a
gymnast in the making. But he

it's, it's makes you have an
appreciation for because I never

did. So like, Okay, what is
this, you know, what kind of

notes are you getting on the
nose? And I'd just be sitting

there looking at the other
people going, I don't know. It's

gotten to the point I was like,
burps. It's

like, it's like, wine and
bourbon, you're right, scotch

and stuff now, where you're just
like, what? Right? But it makes

sense, because if you think
about it, you go to the store,

there's that wall nowadays full
of craft beers. Yeah, you don't

know where to start, but having
something like that's cool. It

is because otherwise you just
reach for the same two or three

standbys, and

you figure out what you like and
everything, even, you know,

with, you know, the whiskey
having a couple of nips every

now and then, I'm like, I'm
getting a taste for this stuff.

This is kind of dangerous. Oh
yeah, it's all dangerous. And

then we got into dude, the Evan
Williams eggnog. We

got, we also got in cigars. I
got in cigars about five years

ago.

Are you an eggnog guy when it
comes to the dude? Neither was.

I I've Evan Williams just, I'm
telling you two words, two

words, China, China. Evan
Williams, Wuhan.

Wuhan. China's the popularity
has dipped. It's

the China virus is terrible,
terrible. Oh, I'm working on my

trump impersonation. Hey,

the kid from Nashville. You know
the does Trump on SNL is spot

on. I

had a guy in here yesterday,
Brian, Austin, whatever his name

is, on my on my podcast, the
mostly Middle Tennessee business

podcast. Check it out. MMT
bp.com, I

love it. It's, I can't wait to
read the show

notes. Jim promotes. Jim
promotes. Jim promotes.

I thought this was the rich,
rich Redmond, oh, my God,

that's so funny. Man. That's
like, he's on fire right now. I

love it. So, so listen, we do
want to hear some we do want to

hear some stories about, like,
you know what? The, you know,

the what it's like working with
except, I mean, and they, I'm

sure you listen to him as a
young man, and now you're on

stage with him, which is, which
is amazing. But you also want to

hear about, you know, some gene
and a stories. You know, you're

working with your rhythms. Did
you ever get to work with Paul?

He seems like he's, no, you know
he's, he's like, less out there,

yeah, but he'll go and he'll be,
my mom saw him in Toronto. He

was, he did the Phantom of the
Opera, yeah? Like, he'll

do that was 99 Yeah, yeah. 99 I
remember notes and everything.

Okay? I guess he went into, he
went into voice training for

that, and when they did the
farewell tour with the original

lineup in 2000 you could
definitely tell the difference

in his voice, really, yeah,
because

it was Michael Crawford in the
original cast, and he hits that

one note when they're down in
his area, the Phantoms basement,

whatever. Yeah, and he's got
Christine talking about at the

end, you know, no, it's actually
in, I want to say the first he

takes her down, first time he
takes her down,

yeah, my wife will watch that,
and the hair will stand up on

her arms. Yeah, that's that kind
of a note, yeah. So, I mean, for

someone to hit that with the
power

Gerard, Gerard Butler in that
movie, nothing were awesome. No,

no,

no, he could not hit that.
Remember

when le Miz, all the actors, the
big Highland actors, did le Miz,

you know, Hugh Jackman. Hugh
Jackman is a song and dance man,

for

sure. Yeah, even the greatest
showman. I mean, they had,

there's a video on YouTube where
they're playing, they're

rehearsing from now on, which is
a great song, very deep. And he

just wanted to stop by,
encourage the cast and make an

appearance. And he just had,
like, sinus surgery or some sort

of cancer removed from his nose,
and they told him not to sing,

and he did it anyway. Oh, and he
just belts the crap out of it.

Man, gorgeous performance.
Sebastian

Bach did Jekyll and Hyde. Yeah,
I think on Broadway.

Wow. People will go out of just
out of curiosity to see how they

do, yeah, totally. And it's
like, they're like, Hey, I don't

care, like, if they nail it,
they just want to go see it. I

just found out recently, your
boss did a rendition of, I

remember you. Do you recall
that? Wow, oh yeah.

It was one of the first things
that we ever recorded with Dean

in 99

Yeah, yeah. Speaking of Aldean,
yeah, I've talked to you about

it before, but how loud

my click is? No, it's because
remember what? Remember one time

you said I heard the click
coming from your ears.

They're one feet away. There's
that we produce the

volume now we, I'm on, like,
straight up at like noon, on the

ears, on the pack.

I'm I start there and go down as
the show goes, nice, bro, yeah,

I mix. I put the pack on noon,
set the mix myself on an iPad,

yeah. And then just try to bring
it as the night goes. Just let

my ears re attenuate so I don't
blow them out. Great.

I don't usually go above 1pm on
the on the

that's, that's overkill. If you
need to. You're vibrating your

brain. Then don't go

to two. Don't do it. Your
cochlea is being rocked. This

goes to one

major, I got to give major
props. We've talked about it

before, and I listened to it
again in the car. Your drum part

on back in this cigarette.

Oh, fucking brilliant. Oh,
thanks fucking bro. So long,

long ago,

but I remember hearing that
shortly after moving to town and

just going, this is a new breed
of like sessions country,

because there's like you're lick
going into the second verse. But

Acton. But the way you execute
it, the Hi Hat foot splash on

the outro, where you're playing
on the rim, and then you go to

the snare March and all that
stuff, just swampy, almost like

second line outro thing, dude.
Thanks. Before you kind of

gracefully bow out with the
symbols and. Little side stick

on the edge of the cymbals. Nice
man. Appreciate Phil's

everything in that song is just
perfect.

I appreciate it, man. You know
what's so funny is, is that it

was all done in like, under an
hour. And, you know, I got to

give props also to Michael Knox
for being so encouraging and

open minded to percussion,
because for the first nine

records we would get. I mean, he
would say, Yeah, bring in your

stuff. And I would dump out my
toy box of all my interesting

stuff that tracks got like an
like some shakers and

tambourines, finger snaps and
suspended symbol rolls, and

got that constant right off the
get go.

Shakers are so powerful. I mean,
for 20 bucks, or an old Advil

bottle that you fill with rice,
it's just one of my favorite

instruments. That's

the cool thing with it too, is
you can have so much fun. You

can go out. And I remember going
into forks a couple years ago.

There was a minor double row,
uh, brass jingle. That's like

the 10 inch one with the little
inset handle. And getting so

excited over that, because it
was the first time I remember

hearing such a clean tone for
your tambourine, yeah, for a

tambourine. No mics, no nothing.
Just in the corner, just it,

just Oh. And then I got you a
minor guy. No, oh, Sabian.

Sabian.

Okay, we're both with Sabian.
Shout out, Chris. Thank you.

Yeah, isn't it nice, like to be
able to have a friend in the

business where you're like, Who
you calling? Who you on the

phone with? Oh, just my buddy
and Burbank. I'm just getting

some new symbols. I mean, it's
just so cool.

Yeah, man, yeah, I love stinky.
He's just, he's a lifer. He, he

took a chance on me when I was,

I don't know younger, yeah,

20 in your 20s, 2011

I was with Leroy Powell, yeah,
we had just gotten a tour

opening with Kid Rock and stuff,
because he used to come down on

Broadway and jam and stuff. And,
you know, Leroy had, I guess, I

don't know if it was through
shooter Jennings, yeah, but

Leroy had some connection in
there

now, now, Pearl is celebrating
75 years in business today,

yesterday or today, we had Jason
Hartless on, yeah, some of your

colleagues, Keo, um, so you've
been with them, and you got a

lot of drama. So when you order
a new kid, it's like, I need a

1020, need a 1012, 1316, 18,
220, fours. Call

the bank, get a loan, second
mortgage. Yeah, yeah, it's a,

it's a big drum set lot.

And then you're, I mean, you're
going like, like, 15 inch hats,

16 inch hats,

14 inch hats. Oh, why use the AX
accelerators. Oh, nice, but big

crashes, but it's double hats.
Because I don't I could do the X

hat thing over here, but the
honest truth is, when you have

an X hat here versus playing
cross, believe it or not, you

hit the symbols differently, and
now you've got a secondary mic

that's got all this additional
bleed from whatever else is over

it. And sometimes your band
mates don't want a pan or any so

I do the Tommy Aldridge thing
where I've got the closed hat on

top of the open the pedal hat.
Yeah. So if we're doing double

bass, I don't do a drop clutch
or any of that. I just have it

barely sizzling for French
kissing, yep, and just do that.

But they're both right here, so
I can play open or crossed on

them, yeah, depending on what
I'm doing. But I've got two

nineteens and the and the models
change year to year, but two

nineteens up front, 219 inch
China's hovering over that 80s

style, yeah, and then 220s
usually thinner. Crashes back

here, the big wash, but then
they're all pitched, you know,

bing, bing, bing, bing. So
depending what riff is being

played, or whatever, I'll play
the symbols. Nice attention to

detail. Not that anybody's gonna
hear that, but I hear it when I

record the song. Yeah, anyway.
And that's kind of the muscle

memory and

everything with a band like,
except you need a giant mega

bill, the mega Bill ride,

the HH power bill, yeah, Vinnie
Paul ride. So that

used to be, that's kind of like
sabian's equivalent of the zill

Bell, yeah. I mean, no,

that's, that's like the Zildjian
mega belt. Zildjian did a 21

right? And they still do. They
just reintroduced the Z custom

line. But Z thinks that's nice.
I think that's kind of where it

started. And then Vinnie went to
Sabian, and they did that for

him. I could be wrong, but if
I'm not mistaken, I

finally got to break some bread
with will Calhoun. I mean, I had

vivid, living colors, vivid on
cassette Yeah, in 1988

or 89 visit and time's up.
Amazing,

yeah, dude, sorry, but he had
that mega Bell ride. Yeah, it

was just all Bell. The whole
thing was a bell cult

of personality got me fired from
a bit.

Well, no, he was using back then
he was using either the earth

ride. Or he was using the Z
heavy power. I've got a couple

of those 20 fours, and I, I'm
just waiting for the Sabian

custom shop to open up so I can
get the Roy Mayorga ride. Ooh,

because it's, it's basically
that, it'll give you tennis

elbow and break all your sticks.
But you will hear that ride the

next county over.

Oh, I used to even at a younger,
younger weighs 14 pounds.

Oh, my gosh, it's a 24 inch
ride, though, 24

inch 14 pound ride symbol,
because I

used to have the 24 the AA bash
ride,

but it wasn't 14 pounds.

Yeah, go. Just look up Roy
Mayorga, whether it's with stone

sour or ministry or eighth inch
easily. Oh, that's crazy, yeah.

So it's dumb, and I've been
telling stanky for years. I'm

like, Dude, come on. Come on. He
goes once custom shops pumping

out. We'll get you on nice,

because I had, back in the day
when limited to green, green

tractor hit the airwaves. I
think it was like oh eight or oh

nine. I had a 24 inch Sabian,
heavily a rock ride. Very Pinky,

huge bell. You can still wash it
a little bit, but mostly ping

you late. You know, you shoulder
crash it. That was, was that

when you, that was when you had
the natural kit, wasn't it the

natural flats tour, yeah,

yeah. I don't know who's got
that. Now, you know, I sold a

lot of my sonar stuff to Gary
Asher, the drum collector. Yeah,

slash drum. I don't even call
him the drum pusher. They called

Don, they called Don Bennett the
drum pusher, because he buys, he

bought car mines, Kitty bought,
you know, ringos kits. Today,

it's the last big purchase that,
because I just got to spend some

time with Don. He bought all of
aerosmith's their warehouse. He

bought everything, wow, in the
Aerosmith warehouse. And then

slowly but surely, took the time
to trickle everything out and

sell each item one by one. And
of course, he's patient, and he

was able to, like, quadruple his
profit.

Oh yeah. I knew he had, he had
Kramer's, the purple swirl DW

with the white hardware for
ever, yeah. And I always was

like, man, love that color
combo.

Were you into the aposy a piece
brothers? Did you like those

guys? Yeah, yeah,

yeah, respectively, on their
own. I mean, I mean, I had the

realistic rock book with the
poster totally, you know, with

his leopard Pearl syndrome,
yeah, concert, Tom's right up

front. I love

Carmen. I love, I love his, you
know, his vocabulary is his

vernacular. Yeah, it's good
stuff. Absolutely, he invented

all that shit. Okay, well, what
about some of these stories? You

got any funny stories here?
Working with Gene, working with

ace, working with Mick Mars
lives in town. Of course, you

can always tell the Lee
Greenwood story about how you

how you had to prepare for that.
There's

that one. Yeah,

we could start with that one.
Start with that one. It's

kind of odd though. Even like
all you have all these heavy

acts John Karabi, except Gene
Simmons, ace, really? And then

you have the one that stands
out, Lee Greenwood, yeah, this,

one of these things is not like
the other.

So that came about with our
buddy Paul arts, who was, I

think he still is with
Greenwood, I think so. But

forever, what's up? Paul? Paul
arts, woo, woo, but I was

renting out his house, and there
was a studio downstairs. We had

a band together, like a little
metal side project. We jam and

stuff. And there was a casino
gig, I think in Oregon, maybe it

was where, last minute, whoever
their artist for that weekend

was got sick and bailed and they
needed a band ASA, bless you.

Lesson, yeah, so

Andy wasn't available. Their
their drummer at the time, and

Andy Hall, yeah, yeah. And their
keyboard player wasn't available

either. So Paul calls me and
goes, Hey, they just called

Greenwood and asked, What's up
with this gig. Can you do it?

You know, well, I'm missing a
couple people, but let me see.

And Paul calls me, and I said,
Yeah, man, cool. He goes, All

right, let me confirm it. I'll
call you back. So I'm like,

eating nachos, watching TV.

Paul calls nachos. Yeah. Paul
calls back. A half

hour later. He goes, Okay, the
gigs on. I'll send you the set

list as soon as I get it. Okay,
so now it's like 10am 10

o'clock, something like that.
And he goes, Okay, here's the

set list rehearsal tomorrow, 9am
S I R, God, get like 22 songs

we're doing. 20 of them get 11
hours. Learn this, learn these

other two. Yeah. And I go, okay.
He goes, go downstairs to the

studio. The center drawer on the
desk there's. Two iPods. One has

the board tapes, the other one
has the album versions. What's

an iPad? Yeah, he goes listen to
the board tapes, but reference

the album versions as well. So I
did, and just did the best I

could, skeleton charting, but

specifically you read specific,
you obviously read notation.

Yeah, yeah. Big, help,

massive, massive. But I didn't
have enough time to actually do

a full transcription of every
song. It's a guide chart, so it

was, yeah, skeleton sheet,
certain licks, you know,

signature parts, whatever. Bang.
Bang. Just got through it. Slept

a few hours, got up, Paul came
over, and we went through tunes,

basically, ins and outs, and
he's like, okay, went to, sir,

do the rehearsal. Lead. Didn't
even play through the full

songs. We get, like, up to the
bridge, maybe halfway through

the bridge, and you go, all
right, that's good, fine. Yep.

We're like, Becky on keys. She
and I are like, Becky priest,

yeah, sorry. And we're like, No,
we need to do this for our sake.

And he goes, No, you'll be fine,
nice. Okay, so the gig comes,

so

we leave, yeah, we leave, sir,
at 6pm we've got a 6am flight to

Oregon. Yeah, get there. Quick
line check, and then just again,

just study study study study
study do the gig. Two minor

mistakes the whole time. One was
a rhythmic figure I played

backwards on a fill, and it was
something quite literally like

instead of Pat Boone, Debbie
Boone, Debbie Boone, Debbie

boom. Pat Boone. The only other
mistake which was not

technically a mistake. Yes, Lee
would start this ballad

downstage, right on a keyboard,
and he starts it himself, all

the board tapes I referenced, he
just starts free form. He turns

around and looks at me and goes,
give me a tempo. Brain fart,

yeah, deer in the headlines felt
like 20 minutes. Yeah, it's

probably like two seconds. He's
give me a tempo and go, you got

it. And he just, he laughed, and
just started coming in play,

just playing pads. You're
playing pad chords while you're

talking to the audience. You
don't need a tempo like, are you

just messing with

so great to be here again. This
is a beautiful theater that was

literally it beautiful crowd.
But

he wanted me to, he wanted me
to, to count him in for that.

Yeah, and I didn't have it free.
It's, I didn't have a tempo

marking on that one because I
didn't play on that song. Yeah?

So I'm like, Cool. He's good. He
starts it himself. He's got it.

So did you only do one gig with
him? Yep. But the main thing is,

is that you were given that
opportunity. The door was

cracked. You end up kicking the
door open. Then now you have

Paul, who's championing you. All
the other people that were in

the band are championing you.
And that's that thing that just

gets that ball roll. Absolutely.
Yeah, man, do your homework.

Kids, preparation. And I say
over preparation is the key to

success. But the thing is, is
you were willing to not sleep

for one evening of your life,
yeah, to get the ball rolling

through your career. And

I and played with a Grammy Award
winning artist like, yeah, man,

after being in Nashville less
than a year, yeah, I think it

was 11 months at that point,
1011. Months, were you doing

the day job over at the mineral
at that time I was out. Yeah.

Now tell us how you came across
Phil and Jeremy, your brother,

rhythm section brothers, yeah.
So

that was, I was playing with an
artist at the time. Her name was

Missy Johnson. Missy McCarthy,
now married to shaker, who was

with Southland shaker. Yeah.
What's he doing? I don't know. I

haven't talked to him in years.
Yeah, me either. But I was

playing with Missy, doing her
original stuff, and she and I

are also like, major Zeppelin
heads. Yeah, we have a tattoo.

Yeah, I got the I got the rings,
yeah? But so we had this tribute

night coming up where we were
calling the band Roberta plant,

you know, nice, and that's
great. We'd worked up all the

material, and the mighty Dan
halen was going to be

headlining. And that was Phil.
That was Phil schus on guitar,

Paulie Simmons on drums. Phil's
wife, Raquel, who played with

Maggie rose for a while, nice.
She was on base. And then rest

in peace, our friend Matt
Harris, who did a lot of writing

with Leon Russell. Wow was our
Dave, and he was Dave, like,

like the ashless chaps,

not that far. But, I mean, just,
but like talking to him in

general, he was Dave, and he
could do the wow, that split

vocal thing. Oh, but so anyway,
we're all set. They're gonna

headline. We're gonna open flood
hits, May of 2010

May of 2010 the 100 year flood.
Yep, flood hits.

And you. I guess Polly's
something at Polly house had

gotten flooded. Phil's basement,
where they rehearsed on 12th

South had gotten flooded, and
they pulled out of the gig, and

I I called in desperation. I got
Phil's number because I had met

him once or twice before playing
with when he was with Karabi.

And I was like, Dude, I know
that that Dave era, like the

back of my hand. Let's do this.
And he goes, Nah, man, that's

cool. And, you know, to his
credit, if you don't know

somebody, that's, that's a lot.
So he's no thanks. So we ended

up just, we still did the gig,
but we did a mixture of Zeppelin

and missy's original material,
but those guys still showed up

to support at the Rutledge,
yeah, and that's where I met

Jeremy for the first time, and
Matt and Raquel, and they were

just like, Damn dude, yeah, we
should hang out. We should, like

do some more playing. And that's
where, sorry, I doubted you.

Yeah, yeah. And that's where
that started. And a week or so

later, Phil invited me over to
the house. We're hanging out and

talking music. And you know,
what's your favorite record? Oh,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And it's my turn. And I go,

Well, nobody really knows it, I
said, but it's King biscuit live

flower hour 1973 at Winterland,
humble pie, wow. And Phil

Frampton, oh, no, I know. After
Frampton, post Frampton, Clem

Clemson and he had the
blackberries, which were Ray

Charles backup singers. Marriott
had started playing lead guitar

again and harmonica and b3

totally obscure, but he was down
with it. He knew Phil

knew it. And he goes, dude,
what? And goes over and throws

it on the turntable. And I go,
you know that records just

freaking out. And next thing you
know, we're air guitaring and

jumping off the couch like
children, and it always reminds

me of the scene from Step
Brothers. Did we just become

best friends? Yes, do you want
to do karate in the garage? Yes,

look at all this room for
activities. It was that, hey, do

you like guacamole? It was that
moment, and that solidified the

bond. And then through Phil and
Jeremy, I was brought into that

rock and roll community, which
really threw the doors open.

Yeah. I mean, because, you know,
I mean, I fancy myself an

overeducated rock drummer, but
there is this underbelly of rock

and roll in Nashville more than
ever. But I mean, you three guys

have really made a name for
yourself in a country town being

the go to rock guys, absolutely.
And what was, what was the Rock

and Roll residency? Is that
still happening?

Sometimes they're, they're
actually doing what, I'm not

sure when this will air, but
they're doing one Friday

actually,

okay, this is probably come out
in what, seven weeks, or

something like that. Okay, yeah,
yeah. Well, never mind Strike

that. But anyways, this Friday
would have happened. So this

Friday is where East

Side bowl, oh, the East Side
bowl, because now they they do

it once, twice a year.

Hey, man, that East Side bowl is
becoming quite a popular venue,

like rad. Man, a lot of music.

There's three different stages
in that place, and they're all

completely different. Who owns
it? Does Grammy own? That chark

Ken solving, I don't know him.
So chark built and designed the

sound and the stage and
everything over at basement east

with grimy Gotcha. But chark
also did cannery mercy, high

watt and several other venues.
So

he's a total venue entrepreneur,

and he is, you can ask him any
question about any band, and he

can give you all the details.
He's

that guy. He's that guy. So he's
a student and fan of the genre

Absolutely,

and he's a killer guitar player
too. Shark, yep, something.

Hopefully doesn't listen

to this and go red man, you're
an asshole. I met you two years

ago, like, but I don't know
well, he still might call you an

asshole either way. But yeah, I
mean, I get, I'm sure I'm being

called things as we speak. So
well, that's great, man, man.

And so you guys have got this
thing, and so where you kind of

like, lift each other up, and
you got this three headed Hydra,

you know, and

then you've also got, I've got
to give a major shout out Jared

Pope, because he's actually,
he's the drummer for

the rising role residency. Yeah,
who did do some work with

Thompson square? Yep, he was

with Thompson square for a
while. Brother Kane whiskey

falls Tom Kiefer's drummer,
yeah, for years now. Jared,

what's up? Man, we'll get you in
here. Damon Johnson, we had

David Johnson early. Okay, yeah,
yeah. Man, Jared killer, too.

Man, total rocker, but Vinny
chops, oh, nice, like, yeah,

he's a bad dude. Nice, yeah.
What's up? Jared? Whoo, we'll do

the thing. Man, yeah. So who
else dude?

Funny stories here,

ace, I guess I mean, Ace is a
character. Come on.

Yeah, anybody that's ever been
around ace can do aces voice,

it's like that guy, but like a
serious, Long Island accent.

Yeah, deep. He's

from the Bronx. He's Bronx

boy tuxedo junction in
Connecticut all the time. Yeah,

and buddies of mine, the guy I
told you about, Billy Willie,

yeah, yeah. They used to go see
him all the time and do the

exact things that we're doing
now, kind of, yeah, mimicking

them and stuff like that. He's
greatly comet. Fraley's

Comet, yeah, with Anton, yeah.
But yeah, we were in Japan with

ace. We did three nights in
Tokyo double shows, and then a

night in Osaka double show. And
so the last night in Tokyo, we

had finished the final
performance there. And, you

know, Ace is all over the place.
I've got one of those Gene

Simmons vaults, because we had
just played with gene in

Australia. And Ace opened, and
then he would come out at the

end of the night, and we were
the band for both gene and Ace.

Yeah, myself, Phil s, Jeremy
asbrook, and Ryan cook. What's

up, Ryan? So I get this 40 pound
wooden box full of all these

unreleased CDs of demos and
stuff, fly it to Japan, because

there's no way I can ship it
home, and it's cheaper just to

pay the extra baggage fee. So
I've got it backstage last

night, and Ace sees it and goes,
Oh, what's that? I go, Oh, it's,

you know, Gene's vault. You want
me to sign it? And I go, Yeah,

man, that'd be great. This is
great. I roll it over and Gene

when he would, when you'd
purchase one, he would sign the

top of it and do this little
meet and greet and stuff. Well,

mine was a gimme from the record
label. You know, hey, we've got

some extra ones. And I pestered
the rep long enough there. He's

like, here, I don't want to ship
this home. You take it so a sees

it, and he goes, Oh, Gene didn't
sign it. I go, No, Gene doesn't

know I have it. And it goes,
good for you. Don't give him any

more money.

Those guys are like, still,
yeah, right. They love each

other, but

it's still they got to give each
other crap, knowing full well,

could probably come back to him.
So gene

you know or so ace signs the
whole thing you know, Keith

LaRue, who you know works like
day to day, Paul Stanley's guy.

But he also is their official
photographer with Kiss. He runs

the website, does the contest,
conventions, all this stuff.

Awesome dude. He's asking ace.
He goes, acety, you have Oh

yeah, jank, I made one of these.
Have you listened to it yet?

Listen to what the box set the
vault. It's a box

ace. There's 10 DS and 10

discs in there. Why the hell do
I want to listen to his crap he

didn't put out like just die and
laugh. And so ace signs it. We

all say, you know, good night,
because the next day, we're

flying to Osaka, packing our
bags, and ACE has decided that

this band is going to go on the
kiss cruise in a couple months.

And so ace is leaving. He goes,
All right, fellas, we'll see on

the cruise. And I go, No ace,
we'll see you at the airport

tomorrow. And he goes, what? I
go, we'll see you tomorrow

morning at the airport. We have
two shows in Osaka tomorrow

night, sold out. And he goes,
Wow, we'll figure it out. So

wait,

so you're cool enough there to
figure out he wouldn't mind you

doing this impersonation. No,

okay, any anybody that knows ace
Does he still ace is great. I

see anytime. No, he's been clean
and sober, probably like 15

years good

for him, yeah. Now gene and gene
never touched a thing that is

insane. I

think the only time that gene
ever got messed up he there was

some after party early on in the
kiss, days like pre destroyer,

you know, first two or three
records, it was an after party

or something like that. And
there's jeans. Have got a major

sweet tooth. Ah, that's his
thing, sugar. There's two trays

of brownies. Oh no, yeah, hot
brownies. One's fully leaded,

the other one's unleaded. Well,
he starts digging into the

fully, you can't eat the full.
And he apparently had to ride

that out for a long time. Yes,
yeah. But according to him,

that's, that's the only time
he's ever been messed up.

What a businessman and were
those guys? Are those guys like

task masters to work for? Are
they pretty much like you guys?

Sound great. We'll see you at
the gig. Done. Gene

was great. Gene was totally you
guys are the band. You guys know

what you're doing. You're great,
awesome. I had a blast with

Gene, yeah, like from day one,
because Eric Singer is a good

friend of mine. Yeah, I was
gonna ask you, if you ever met

Eric. Oh, yeah, yeah. We text
all the time North Hollywood

guy, right? Yeah. He's, uh,
Vegas now. Oh, in Vegas. Okay.

Oh, really, yeah. So Eric really
that that may, that, in May of

that year, was at a we were at a
kiss convention, and Brent Fitz

was on the gig. He was, he was
Jean's guy. Love Brent, but

slash was getting ready to go
out and do the thing again solo.

And that's his gig. That's his
money maker. So Eric goes, dude,

Christopher, why don't you do
the gig? You know, all the

stuff, it's perfect for you. Why
aren't you on the gig? And I go,

Well, if you know Ryan and the
guys call me, Sure, great. Like,

you know, initially I was
supposed to do the gig and I was

on tour with accept, you know,
whoa is me. Yeah. So, yeah, then

that came about for doing the
gig. But Eric said, you know,

when you work with Gene right
out of the gate, just bust his

balls. Oh, he likes that. And I
was like, No, I can't, man,

that's, that's the dude, that's
the demon. I can't do that. And

he goes, No, trust me, do it or
he's gonna walk all over you.

He'll respect the hell out of
you for it. So he the first gig

we did. Gene walks into the
dressing room, sees the other

guys. He doesn't know me yet,
and, you know, I've got the long

hair down and everything. And
he's like, hey, guys dotted Oh,

Jesus, so good for you to join
us. And I go, behold, bu, I have

risen just for you. And he goes,
Ah, you know, you're one of us,

right? Meaning Jesus are Jewish
and everything. And I go, Yeah,

him, but me, not so much. Booby,
you know? And immediately, just

the rest of the night just
started ripping each other,

great. And then from then on,
traveling through airports, he

enjoys that. Oh, yeah, he's a
practical joker. Ah, Eric is

too. Eric's like, they just
constantly mess with, yeah,

yeah, a slapstick and stuff, you
know. I mean, if you ever left

your coffee around gene, he's
like, you paid $5 for a cup of

coffee and left it sitting
there, and he would just dump a

bunch of salt in it, you know.
Look at this, you know, like

Gene always keeps his phone
tucked down into his boot, yeah,

and then puts the leather pants
over the boot, and he goes, Look

at this. This is a $1,200 hand
computer, and people just leave

them laying around. But Paul
walks into a room and just sets

it down, as well as the keys to
his Porsche, and walks off.

Somebody could just take the
you're like, You got a point?

Yeah, he's not a point. Why does
he put in his back pocket? It's

harder to answer if it's tucked
into your boot. Leather pants.

Gotcha tight leathers. Tight
leather pants. I got my tight

pants. I got my tight pants on.

Now you see the leather pants,
don't you? Well,

yeah, Gene was a blast to two
are with man. He was absolute,

and he's a gentleman too,
believe it or not, yeah, believe

it or not. He's a really, really
good dude. And,

well, that's great to hear. And
then how did this accept thing

come along and give me the
history of accept? Because I

know that. You know the I know
that you've got your balls to

the wall 1983 which was like a
year or two before you were

born, and now you're playing
with this band, right? So that's

my

ball buster, by the way, because
I'm the youngest in the band by

10 years. Yeah, so. But

I mean, is it the original
singer, the original guitar

player? Like, what? What is made
up of Wolf's the

last original dude that's there,

Mark turnello from TT quick
marks, been there since 2009

when they reformed the band
after about 1015, years.

Is that the singer the original
guy? Yeah, look like, turn the

oil. So Joy Z boy, yeah. So he's
the original fellow, Sparky,

yeah, the way union guy. So it's
becoming,

um, sort of a foreigner,

kind of a there's only one
original member that's was

either Mick or Lou, yeah, and
then everybody else's side,

guys, yeah, yeah,

pretty much, yeah. With the
exception of, though, Mark, when

he joined the band, they put out
a record called Blood of the

nations, yeah, which still to
this day is one of their biggest

sellers, really and completely
reshaped the sound of the band,

yeah. So it went from, you know,
the Udo type vocals, so now

you've got a guy that can still
do all that, but this guttural,

powerful just

is that you're drumming in the
blood of the nations.

No, I joined. I joined midway
through the blind rage tour.

First studio record was rise of
chaos. Then we did too mean to

die at my place. And then we did
humanoid, which is the record we

just finished the touring cycle
on. Okay,

so those years are so I can look
them

up. Let's see. Rise of chaos was
2017, to mean to die, came out

January of 21 I think. And
humanoid was 24 nice. And then

there's two, I think it's two.
Might be three. No, yeah,

there's definitely two live
albums I'm on. We did a record

that came out early 2017 called
restless and live,

live record, yep. So how did you
guys? Was it truly live, like

you didn't touch it? Did you
just like a mobile recording?

Here's the set.

So, pretty much, yeah. I

mean, you have the technology.
If you want to tune a vocal a

little bit, you should the
vocal,

all that stuff was there, yeah,

minor stuff, if a guitar was
out. We did a festival in 2015

in balling in Germany called
bang your head, yeah? So when

you get restless and live, you
get the DVD of that show. That

thing's Full Tilt, yeah, the
audio from that, because there's

one moment where there's this
giant, long catwalk, this big

thrust going into the audience.
Peter baltis and Wolf are out on

the end of it. Peter's the
original bass player who's no

longer with the band. Peter and
Wolf are out there jamming, and

Wolf turns around and heads back
because, you know, we got to

sing. And Peter just jams a
little bit too long and realizes

it last minute. No, there's
about four steps going down from

the main stage level to the
thrust, and Peter's up there in

in shit kickers and cowboy
boots, runs like the wind to get

back up and caught the tip of
his boot on the top step at

stage level, face planted, slid
all the way up to the riser on

his base, and then just sat up
on his knees and threw his Hands

up,

like I meant to do that. If

you watch the DVD, I don't
remember what song that happened

in, but if you watch that DVD,
you'll see it shows Peter on the

catwalk. I think it cuts the
wall for Mark, then it cuts to

me, and I'm dying.

I am just in tears. And every
time he wasn't, he wasn't hurt.

No, he was

fine, and everybody else is in
tears. But the crazy thing was,

he got up and his base was still
in tune.

Amazing. Oh, wow. So did you
hear it like, oh yeah,

oh yeah. So we cut that part
out, yeah, we fixed that,

yeah. But amazingly enough, it
stayed playing. But

then there's also, there's two
CDs that come with it, which is

live audio board tapes from the
full year. So it was like, I

think there was a show or two in
Russia that we recorded that

year. There's some stuff in
Greece. There's stuff throughout

Europe, South America, maybe all
kinds of stuff. So it's, cool.

So that's restless. And live
from 2017 and then in 20 later,

2017 we headlined the vaak
festival in Germany. So that's

the biggest heavy metal festival
in the world. Wow. It's

something like over four or five
days, it's 300 bands or

something like that. Distortion,
the main, the

then, when you ran into anvil,
the story of anvil, yeah, one of

them,

the main. And it's one of these
where they do, you know, Europe

has its stuff together when it
comes to festivals. They know

what they're doing. Two giant
main stage, stages right beside

each other, and what they call
the infield. So that's the main

big act headliner. Stage, 85,000
people in the field beyond that

barricade, though you have all
the like elevated platforms that

can hold a handful of 1000s, and
they're scattered all over the

place, plus their delay towers
in the other field at different

stages, whatever bands not
playing on that stage, they're

streaming the live one the main
stage we played when we

headlined. We did it with the
Czech National Symphony

Orchestra, full on 60 piece
orchestra. Wow. Bombs fire. The

whole deal. 85,000 people in the
field. Over a million people

live streamed it, and it was
simulcast in seven different

countries. It's amazing. And my
mom and my now wife, yeah, you

know, were there to witness it.

So that was cool. Hey, tell us
about that. That COVID. Going to

get your Musk off the show. So

my wife, Ainsley, is an artist
rock and roll Americana, but she

also has a company called
ainslie's essential blends,

where she does all natural
cleaning products, smells and

you name it. And we came up with
this. It's a roll on scent for

him and her called Rock See,
he's breaking the fourth

wall now, yes, yeah, leather

tits.

It smells like leather. And I

joke, I said, just because you
look like a rock star doesn't

mean you have to smell like one
or no, just because you party

like a rock star doesn't mean
you should smell like one, ah,

it's great. But, yeah, it's,
it's leather and and a bit of

musk, but it's soft enough to
where, you know you smell it on

a woman like, Oh, hey. Well,

how do you get a leathers? How
do you get a scent of leather

into a bottle? Talk

to her. She knows all that
magic. I don't think she's gonna

divulge details that's
incredible. Is there a website

or anything? Ainsley central
blends.com? There we go, look

into the camera and say it now,
ainslie's essential blends.com.

Now say it

this, ainslie's essential
blends.com.

That's right, rock and roll on
yes

for him, and

yeah, dude, we even made, we
made a cheesy commercial because

we make fun of, like the perfume
and cologne commercials all the

time, like so dramatic like the
one where Johnny Depp buries his

damn jewelry in the desert and a
wolf house. What does that have

to do with a Sauvage? Sauvage,
yeah, or, like, the sausage,

what's her name, walking
through, like, the Egyptian

temple, and Joe del deal, yeah,

yeah, Natalie Portman, you know,
yeah, all that stuff, yeah.

I so we're like, man,

let's just get silly. We'll make
one of those, and we'll both dub

the voices, and I'll do the
super low, sexy,

and we'll just make it as silly
as possible. But it

works, yeah, man, that's like,
get remind you ever see the hype

reels of certain you know, like,
do you follow any of these like

gurus online now? No, so Well,
okay, I'll look at cats Cafe is

thought leader. Thought
Leadership type of videos. I

follow a lot of these guys. And
they'll do these things where

everything's in slow mo. They'll
have the the car, the Porsche,

will pull up and the the door
opens slowly, and they're

getting out and putting the
sunglasses on for some reason,

and then going to their and, you
know, and they're going to their

private everything, slow mo. And
it's just life, man, this is

just, this is just me every day.
And it's like, I want to make

one where I'm doing the same
exact thing, looking how I look,

getting out of my banged up 2008
Honda Odyssey. And just, you

know, if you want to learn more
about success, follow Jim,

that's really

funny. There's one out there,

you know, the the like Russian
blonde with the Bentley, or

whatever, scratching like the
ASMR AMS, whatever that thing

is, she's like scraping her
nails across the grill and bent

le, flicking, you know, the hood
ornament, bent le. There's been

so many parodies of that where
somebody comes up and, like,

knocks on the hubcap and

goes or slams the door.

Yeah. Like the knockoff of a
Honda. Man, yeah, hey, they came

a long way. Man, yeah. Man, Kia,
so you got C Williams,

drums.com, for people to reach
out to you, and you guys got to

tour this year, right?

Yeah, we actually accept
worldwide.com

Yep, except worldwide.com/tour

beautiful. I gotta say, I'm
looking at the website now, and

you guys look so metal. You're
not gonna bruise, you're gonna

rust. Well, you know what? The
the rule of heavy metal photos

is, smoke

back lighting, and you're not
really you're missing. You're

missing all of it. I'm but I'm
this is what I'm seeing. I'm

describing what I'm seeing.
You're not really smiling, but

you're not grimacing or looking
mean at me. You're kind of

smirking. All of you guys are
kind of like, like, you're

almost crazy, where

the Phil likes to joke that
we're the happiest metal band in

the world. Yeah, that's great.
And I love the

fact that you're not holding
drumsticks, yeah, you know,

because that it's like, I just
want to make sure that, you

know, I'm the drummer. Yeah,
those in shirt and the fact that

you also have a font that has a
voice Sabi on it, well, it's not

like that. It's more like

except is a German heavy metal
band

with legendary impact and an
iconic reputation. Nation

spanning over four decades. You
too can get

your thoughts to the proverbial
wall, yeah,

but that's it has that voice.
It's like a Trajan font. I want

to say, but I was going

to say the most important part
about taking photos with a heavy

metal band, the the underlying,
unspoken rule, first one that

smiles gets kicked in the nuts,

really? Yeah, no smiling. This
is working. You have to look

like you're holding a secret.
You're

holding you, or you just have to
go full on. But

it's really, it's really hard to
get a great press shot for so

many drinks, my last

beer, right? Did I just it's
like, you know, did I just drink

piss? Yeah, because that the
look.

It's like, you can't be by the
railroad tracks, you can't be in

the alley or against the

brick wall. Skid Row already did
all. It's like, Are

you guys familiar with the
building in Chattanooga? You

guys familiar with Chattanooga?
Yeah, that's the multi like, as

you make the curd the cover on
the river, it's on the right

side. They're destroying it now.
But every time I drive by it,

I'm like, That's a perfect place
for a heavy metal video. Yeah,

perfect. Yeah, just an old run
down industrial mill. Windows

are

broken somewhere in Franklin.
There's a building like that

that actually is a photo shoot
place where they've actually

curved the bottom of the wall
and painted it solid white so

they don't have to hang the
fabric. Oh, really. We did a

video shoot in there, like as a
promo release. When UVA and I

joined the band in 2015 we just
did a half of a song called fall

of the Empire. We did that
there, and we did the all the

press photos there as well.

What's a music video? Come to
think of it, now that we're

we're getting visually
descriptive, like, for some

reason I'm thinking like the old
war for territories video from

Sepultura. What's the one that
kind of resonates in your mind

as a favorite that kind of
inspired you as a drummer,

because, I mean, Igor was a
freaking beast. You mean? Video,

yeah, I don't, you know. I don't
know. Well, odd question. The

one that sticks out when I think
like metal. Video, just the

overall look and theme was Skid
Row monkey business, great,

where baz is standing out on the
railroad tracks, and then

they're jamming. How

about rat? Bobby, blots are
round and round. Funny. Well,

even

blots is like the king of the
Doom. Lay it down. I want to

bring that groove back, dude.
It'd be good missing that. Bring

that back. But yeah, the
shuffle, the mega, massive,

iconic one for me as a kid, was
wild side Motley, oh yeah,

watching that and the drums, and
just like I like

that shout at the devil video,
because the girls are just so

ready to go and looks. I was, I
was like, I was like, a, you

know, a horny pubescent teen. I
was like, Oh my gosh, she does

have

the looks that kill and she's
crawling over the rock

King Bell being Bing bell.

And I love it that he actually
hit a bell. The clock strikes

midnight, even though the bells
this big dude, Tommy.

Tommy is just such a rock. He's

such a drazor monster. Another

cool story born to be a rock.
So, you know, they always say,

don't meet your heroes and
everything. And for years and

years, like Tommy's top five for
me, I

was gonna ask you, so he's in
the top five, who? What's the

what's the list? Tommy

Lee, Randy, Castillo, Jerry
Shirley, uh, Bonzo, of course.

And then probably Vinnie,
because you just have to Vinny

Collier, Vinnie Paul. I mean,
Paul's in there, but if you're

talking about top five that
have, like, shaped me, it's

those dudes about

that Joe's Garage record.
Brother, oh, let me so we don't

go down either. What

is the Lars hate justified? Do
you think? I mean, he's not. I

mean, back when I used to listen
to them, like pre Black Album,

and even the documentary they
did, he was solid, man, is he

just kind of phoning it in. Now
he thinker,

no, I mean, it's just his meter.
You know, that's the thing. Like

his drum parts are solid, right?
He's great in that, but it's,

it's just his meter. Everybody
bags on, which, you know is

true, but there's no Metallica
without him, right? He's the

brainchild, yes, both he and
James, but Lars probably more.

So yeah, is the driving force
and

a spokesman for the band,
absolutely,

he's the business guy too,

you know, and it's, he's the
gene Absolutely,

isn't it funny

that, as drummers, usually have
some sort of second, third or

fourth, hustle, slash skills,
something else that we bring to

the band, whether it be like our
marketing or our socials or our

graphic design or. Or something,
you know. Voice, absolutely.

VoiceOver,

well, the thing with about Lars
is the fact that I think he he's

got to be aware of, you know,
with social media roasting and

stuff like that, he's letting

him all the way to the

bank. Does he care? He still
takes it? Well,

the pool, I get it, having a
cocktail, I

know, but you still, there's got
to be a level of where, you

know, it kind of stings, but he
takes it, at least on the

surface, he's a good sport about
it. You know, you got to give

him that, yeah, I'm sure, you
know, yeah. Because, I mean, you

see him on stage, he's pulling
kids out of the audience,

letting them sit with them.
It's, that's cool, man. I mean,

I don't have to do that. And

the other thing too, is, like,
think about it, and in this

sense, Tama drums, he single
handedly, drove the ship for

them, and still does
realistically, like, you know

how many 10s of 1000s or
hundreds of 1000s of drum sets

that guy's probably sold because
company, he is

kind of like the Ringo star of
that brand. Because, I mean,

sure, you love Billy cotton, you
love Simon Phillips, you love

Kenny Aronoff. They, they might
sell some Stuart Copeland, but

like Lars. Lars,

yeah, he's the back in the 80s,
it was the two top, the Pepsi

and Coke, if you will, were tama
and Pearl. You remember back,

that's what I got into. Yeah,
yep. Pearl was my first entry

into brand new drums, yeah, man.
And then you

had Ludwig. Was Ludwig was 70,
somewhere in there, trying to

compete, but they had

a big presence in the 70s thanks
to Zeppelin. You know, Neil was

a Slingerland guy at first. Then
he went to Tama he went to tam

two. And then, of course, you
had Alex playing Ludwig gene.

Alex

was always Tama hardware too.
Well. I thought

he was playing, I remember
reading an article with him. He

played ghost bass drum pedals.
And I've always wanted to look

those up. Those were

the tama pedals. Were they idea?
I think those were the the, if

I'm not mistaken, I I've got a
pair of Stefan Kaufman's old

Tama pedals, really, where it's,
you know, it's that 70s design

strap, leather strap, yeah, but
it's, but the spring assembly is

actually going up, and it's,

oh, yeah, but you're not going
to Ludwig for hardware. Let's

face it,

no, well, not back then anyway,
yeah, the Alice stuff's pretty

solid. But, I mean, he was all
Ludwig drums, but as soon as

they started making some cash,
it was Tama hardware, and that's

where the octa bands came in,
the bombs. Well, Tama was also

the rosewood snare. Did you

say Stuart Copeland? Yeah, okay,
yeah. Because he's the one who

kind of brought that to the
forefront too. And Tama became

aligned with being, well, Kenny
Aronoff was a Tama

guy. But what's cool though,
that a lot of people overlook,

you know, Stuart gets the credit
for the octo bonds or whatever.

It's actually Billy Cobham
really. COVID was the very first

one in the 70s to have the gong
drum and the octagons. And they

were the acrylic ones. Those
were the first ones for the

clear acrylic tubes. He's got

the history of drums right here,
man, hey, I tell you what. You

know, our friend Bart, Vander
Zee, he's got that drum History

podcast, oh yes, a couple couple
of 100 episodes. And what he

does is, I gotta, I gotta reach
out to him, or see him at a

trade show, or just get him on
the phone. I think it's a great

show. It's very it's very
buttoned up, it's very

researched. But he'll be like,
they'll do a focus like the drum

gear of Alex Van Halen, the drum
gear of of Nico McCarthy, the

drum gear of Ringo Starr. And
they do a deep dive. And he

brings on experts, and they talk
about what that guy had through

the different eras. And they'll
do like, the history of the bass

drum pedal, the history of the
high had something like the

history of electronic drums.
It's a really educational

podcast. That's

another world that I'm really,
really into is the electronic

drum world. Yeah,

love it. Did you guys follow?
Remember when we had How did I

unfollow this guy? That's weird,
vintage drum catalogs. You

follow that on Instagram.
Remember we had him on? Yeah?

Maxwell shaft. You know Maxwell
from person from KHS apex, and

then he plays down at Roberts
Western world. So much cool. He

collects all these vintage

they're great. It's such a great
walk down memory lane. It's

incredible. Hey,

what's your favorite color? We
got a red. Yeah, what's your

food or dish? Mexican, dude, Tex
Mex, or just straight up mole,

mole. Straight up Mexican.
Mexican. Where do you go in

Nashville? Where's the spot? Is

it? Nolensville road. I mean,
yeah, Galton road. It depends on

what I'm getting. Yeah, believe
it or not, like there's a spot

toward Mount Juliet. I don't
remember the name of it, but

it's one of the few places I've
had that have killer tamales.

Tamales, yeah, I like the green
around Christmas. Oh, my God,

because I grew up in El Paso,
yeah, yeah. I mean, it's, like,

fantastic, yeah. What about your
favorite cocktail? Favorite

cocktail?

Hmm, it used to be. Vodka
crayons used to be, yeah, went

to that phase. And then
something happened around 35

where this thing called the
hangover started, yes, yeah.

Ainsley was the same way. It was
right around the same time,

oddly enough, just like, Oh,
Jesus, what? How, yeah, you

know, and those hang around for
a

few days. She needs to make
something for that, right?

Tell me about, yeah,

I'm a Scotch dude. Oh, wow,
scotch and tequila. Don't mix

them. I haven't

experimented with

the scotch, but it's, you're
very sophisticated, and

something you could sip. It

is, yeah, it is. That's why I
dig it. Because, man, again, the

hangovers, yeah? Like great
movies. You can, you can give me

beers and it's like four or five
right off the bat, and then

mellow, yeah, and then just take
it slow. Can't do that with

liquor, yeah? You got to respect
it, or it'll kick you in the

face. Yes. So, I guess
margaritas, yeah, yeah, what

they would call skinny
margaritas, but a real

Margarita, yeah, where it's lime
juice, you know, some form of a

triple sec,

yeah. And do you like the
reposado or the BLANCO when

you're just doing your tequila?
Uh, we'll do reposado,

yeah. And then I'll sip on your
host and mezcan,

hey, get this. I got a friend,
Greg Sobel. He's I met him like

over 20 years ago in Southern
California. We were playing the

Galaxy Ballroom in Santa Ana,
and kept in touch on and off all

these years. And he just
developed the first kosher, the

world's first kosher tequila,
and he sent me a bot, two

bottles of stuff, a reposado and
a Blanco killer. It's kosher.

What makes it kosher, though?
Um, he's gonna explain that, but

it's basically the idea,
whatever that process is where,

you know, like, involved in
animals whatsoever. There's no

clovid feet.

There's a process where it has
to do with the ingredients, and

then what, you know, what they
approve the priest, there's a

priest involved. Or, like, you
know, unless there's some sort

of a process, I know it's, it's
like, super clean, there's a lot

of rules. And so anyways, we
figure maybe we'll get him on

the show, because he's a true,
you know, he has an

entrepreneurial spirit.

He bring you some samples. Call
your boy. I'll tell you what.

Yeah, you know, I just can't
wait. That's I got the tequila

Jones from our Singer, Mark,
yeah, except he's a tequila

head. I see he's so there's for
for beer drinkers. There's an

app called untapped, yeah, where
you can kind of sign in, do all

that. There's one for tequila,
where, wherever we are in the

world, he gets on there and
looks at the map and finds

what's near us, because that's
that's our game, myself, Mark

and our rhythm guitar player.
UVA, if it's not Mexican, we

will find the Irish Pub. Ah, we
can be in the middle of a

desert, yeah, and around the
corner, there's somewhere with

Guinness on tap, and the lines
are clean so it doesn't taste

skunked. We will find that

place. Give Guinness another
shot, if we're

playing in your city, yeah?
Either, like, where, you know,

the grandmother is in the
kitchen, cooking, yeah? We're

either going to be eating that
Mexican food, yeah, or we're

going to be at the Irish Pub a
little

some fish and chips and a
Guinness. Have you been to the

Guinness factory in Ireland?

I was in Dublin once, yeah. But
we got in at like, six o'clock,

yeah. So I missed it, but I
went, I went drinking an Old

Town, which was maybe a half a
mile from our hotel, where all

that is, yeah, and it was the
most delicious Guinness I've

ever had in my life. It's also
where I discovered, like the

Jameson castmates before they
came here, and then, like the

Jameson single barrel, like the
Black Label, that's like, super

smooth and little bit sweet, but
not too much. Yeah,

what are your some of your
favorite spots to visit in

Europe? You're probably being
there so often that you have

your favorite go to spots in
each city, country, states, you

know, like,

I love Hamburg. It's a water
city. So just walking along, you

know, the docks and everything,
just, I love water in general.

It gives me peace, yeah,
especially in this crazy, hectic

thing that, that we do, that we
do, yeah, Hamburg is great.

There's a city called Leipzig in
Germany that they've got one of

these old beer halls that's a
couple 100 years old underground

called Auerbach Keller, and it
is the most amazing meal I've

ever had. Awesome. It's
reindeer. Oh, I've had reindeer.

Yeah, slow roasted, marinated
with the gravy. They've got the

red cabbage and canola, which is
like this. Puffed up potato

dumpling type thing, amazing.
You want to go to sleep right

after you eat it, but it's the
best thing. Yeah,

I had the reindeer in Stockholm.
Yeah, yep,

uh, Munich's great because of
hofbrow house. Yeah, I love

that. One of my favorite beers.
Have you

been there for Vegas? Did you go
to hofbra house, Vegas by

chance?

No, no, I didn't know they had
one. I knew there was, there was

like a replica in like Chicago
area, kind of like Rosemont, or

somewhere around there.

I play like Rome. We

not Rome. We've played PISA

Florence. What's Napoli? I
Milan. We played lots were the

most handful of times well
dressed people in the world, in

the cathedral, yeah, we

played there a handful of times.

Not much in Italy. And a great
spots to buy fashion, forward

fashion.

I

saw a pair of overalls, yeah?
Like a Versace label, or one of

these, like Mega monies, with
factory grass stains and scuffs.

And it was like five grand for a
pair of overalls. And looking at

it going, Dude, we can just go
to Goodwill and I'll walk on

them, yeah, if you want this

car hard it up. We'll just, you
gotta put, we gotta put Tractor

Supply in the map. We just

gotta buy, gosh, it, right? I
wouldn't do that, but I'm just

saying it's like, um, grow if
you're in Paris or Rome or

Milana, you're gonna, you're
gonna find some nice threads,

man, yeah,

no, I'll lose me. I'd

rather, I'd rather buy drums.

Snare drums are gonna last
longer, and they'll actually

appreciate, Hey,

Jim, ask your question, and we
then we have a bass player

coming in. Ooh, amazing, ooh.

So my question would be, what
part of a kids movie completely

scarred you? I'm sorry,

ouch. Of a kids it could be like
that. Could be like Pixar or or,

you

know, something you watched when
you were a kid. That was a kid's

movie.

Oh, I see, you know, that
scarred me. I don't know,

bambi's

mother gets killed, yeah, that
kind of thing. Now,

okay, how about this one,

stinker, I don't know it was
like horror. It makes

you think that does, dude, pet
cemetery scared

the hell out. Hi, there you go.

Upstairs.

My, my, my brother loved that
movie again. Five years older,

scared the hell out of me. I
didn't go to sleep that night. I

couldn't see the cassette tape
without getting scared. So my

mother would hide it on top of
the refrigerator. VHS, yeah. But

then my brother would also pull
crap, like, if he was

babysitting me, you know, I'd be
in mom's room watching TV, and

he'd reach in and cut off the
light and pull the door close

and go, Oh, wow, and scratch the
door. And I'm, you know, you're

like, five years old. You're not
thinking, I can get off this bed

and just go turn on the light.
It's just him, like, That was

Friday the 13th, right? Yeah,
all of those. He had the full

box set when they came out. Oh,
yeah, Freddie, all of them.

Jason takes Manhattan, all of
that stuff.

Michael Myers is quite a
character. But, I mean, that

question. Michael Myers, but,

but he grew up, you know,
watching it like Freddy Krueger

was hilarious

too. Yeah, I'm your boyfriend
now and

through the phone. Yeah,
hilarious, but yeah, it wasn't

until years later I got into
that genre. Now I love it. Oh, I

love it. Just messed me up.
Messed me up. I've seen them

all,

see that was a good question. It
yielded fruit, yeah? How dare

you throw shade. That was
fruitful. Yeah?

But the first one was, that was
a stand was, that was

a stinker. Yeah, it wasn't.

That was it went into a
different version of the

question, Hey, man, I'm just
Gene Simmons, and you, I know

you're freaking roughing me up
here. What's an issue you got?

We got to talk about something.
What do you

mean? I'm funny. What's so funny
about me? No,

no, no, he's a big boy. Do you
said it? He knows what. Let him

talk. Let him talk

when he's when he stabs him in
the trial, yeah, God, brutal. My

just go have then they just go
eat dinner. Sunday

dinner. Yeah, not much. It's
the, what do you call it? The

Paw, the paw, the hoof, the
hoof. Ma, it's a sin. It's a

sin. Great movie, all the good
fellas

and all the godfathers, dude,
I'm telling you, this was so

long overdue. Yeah, man. And I
appreciate you coming out.

Appreciate you having me have an
amazing tour this year. Thank

you, brother. Yeah, I get to
hope you get to visit. Are you

gonna be able to visit those
spots you're talking about?

Yeah, yeah,

yeah. Hopefully. So I know we're
doing,

we got like, four or five weeks
in Europe this summer. Now you

guys go to Asia. We're doing
Japan

couple weeks. Tokyo isn't gonna
be a bus. Haven't done it. I

love Tokyo the other planet,

right? Osaka is my favorite
other place in the world. If I

could live anywhere else, I'd
move to Osaka. We

got the Osaka Japanese
steakhouse up the street. It

looks actually little different,

topical. But by the time this
goes. Is out. It's not going to

be so topical. I want to go
visit Bangkok. Yeah,

never been to Thailand. Have

you guys seen the videos? I
connected

Shanghai once in China. That
sucked. Yeah, you mentioned we

had a flight connection. We were
flying to Australia from Tokyo.

Again. Connected in Shanghai,
China. Oh, wow. That sucked.

That was not fun. Did you guys

see those videos this week that
came out from the big earthquake

over there? Oh, my God. You see
like, all the like, the, oh, is

that the building? The building?
Yeah, the pools were splashing

out and falling down, and

all this happened so far away,
and the effects came all those

miles. Yeah. So get this one,
of, one of my gals went on the

roof, good friends, Sophie monk,
she's a celebrity. She's a huge

celebrity in Australia. She
hosts like, you know, Australia

has got this and, you know, the
dating shows over there. And she

was in Bangkok when it happened,
really, and survived, okay. She

got out of there. Yeah, yeah.

Because it reminded me when you
were talking about earlier,

being three stories up now, I
mean, imagine being up on a

building, and it starts swaying,

man, there was a video of, there
was a couple in, you know, it's

an infinity pool on top of a
roof, but at least there's a

glass wall, but they're on the
top of the building, yeah,

swimming. And then you see the
water

start swinging around. Don't
swim, guys kids, the guys

holding on for dear life. Yeah,
don't

do Nope.

There's this glass wall on the
edge. On the Edge,

yeah, in the infinity pools, it
gives the illusion of an edge,

but there's actually a splash
area on

a proper infinity pool. Yeah, it
flows over and there's actually

a basin, but it looks like it
just goes forever. Yeah, this

was that theme, but a giant,
thick, I guess, Plexi or acrylic

wall, probably the depth of the
pool, and maybe another four or

five feet above the deck, so not
that big, and you're swimming

and looking down at the Earth as
the water is no, I'm good, get

out of that pool. Are they
literally getting in that thing

anyway? You kidding me? They

got videos of the pool water
splashing down. I think one of

the pools, like, emptied
completely, and people on the

ground got like, washed away
like a tidal wave,

broken necks, probably, no, no,
God, that's horrible. I won't

even do the Chicago the ledge or
whatever, with the cracked

floor. And then there's, is it
in Vegas? There's like a room

you stand in that actually tips?
Oh, yeah, I think

that's Chicago too. It's not for
me. Yeah. No,

not for me. I'll keep my feet on
the ground. Christopher

Williams, C Williams drums.com,
also check out his woodworking

business. Check out his brides
business. It's just called

wensley's

essential blends. Yeah, love it.
Anglesley Music official.com.

Amazing. My personal socials,
YouTube, Facebook, all that

stuff is at C Williams, drums,
CDW, Woodworks with an X. CDW,

metal works with an X. Hey, bro.
And soon to be launched,

kick logos.com Oh, so you're
gonna start doing logos.

I've been doing custom heads for
myself and for years and years.

Great. What happens? You're a
remote guy, yeah, right. You're

a DW guy, right? You got a red
kit, right? You want a red logo

on a fiber skin head. But who's
got it? Where do you go? You got

anybody in town? No, not anybody
in town. You want custom

graphics to go along with that?
No, call your boy. How you doing

it? Like laser printing or
something, or is like, dicotter.

We gotta talk off and then
offline, and then graphics.

Yeah, I'm doing out

as well. Smart buddy. See,
you're really smart, and if one

of your revenue streams goes
away. You're cool because you

got five others, yep,

and Lord and out of the house.
Lanc studio, that's right.

Third. How

many inputs? 24 inputs. 3232

inputs of drums to your inbox.
By Christopher Williams, thanks

for being here, buddy. Thanks
for having I appreciate it, man.

Good to meet you. Likewise,
yeah, Jim, thanks for all you do

is brother. And to all the
listeners, we appreciate it. Be

sure to subscribe, share, rate
and review we there's you know,

it helps people find the show,
and we've been noticing that you

guys have been believing some
nice reviews. So keep it up. We

appreciate it. We'll see you
next time. Thanks so much.

Thanks. Chris, thanks, Jim, this

has been the rich Redmond show.
Subscribe, rate and follow along

at rich redmond.com, forward
slash podcasts. You.