The Rich Redmond Show

Unknown: Don't approach it.
Don't think of it as networking.

Just like, just get out there
and just meet people. But that's

what it is. Well, that's what it
is, but they just don't want to

use the word. But there's a
different approach. Well,

there's, I've seen

it happen with some business
people use it exactly, going out

that network Exactly. Well, you
come out. It's the

thing of and I'm sure this has
happened to probably both of

you, where somebody comes to you
like, Hi, my name is so and so,

and I've done this, this and
this, and this, and they lead

with their resume. Yeah?

Well, that's not good
networking. Yeah, exactly. But

they're

kind of told that that's what
you have to do. No for speed

dating,

yeah, but, but, but that the
main thing is to, is to find a

common reality with the person
and find out what interests

them. You

know, despite your success in
all this rich I'm gonna, I'm

gonna challenge you on that. I'm
gonna say that it's actually

finding, what problem do you
solve?

But that's more of a hard promo
sexual pitch. No, it's, it's

basically what's your problem
and I can solve it. Well,

not only that, it's, well,
what's your problem? I want to

listen and I want to find out
what is the biggest thing you're

dealing with, and if it's
something that I could

accommodate, or I know somebody
that that could accommodate it,

I just want to be a resource for
you. How can I help you? Being a

being a connector.

This is the rich Redmond show.
What's

up, folks? Yep, it's that time.
It's time for another exciting

episode of the rich Redmond
show, where we talk about all

things like music, motivation
and success. A lot of drummers

on this show, Jim McCarthy and I
are celebrating over 200

episodes. It's a major
accomplishment. But today we've

got a bass player, and now bass
players are a drummer's best

friend, and this guy is a best
friend. It's gonna be so great

to talk to him. It's long
overdue. It's like herding cats

trying to get musicians to drive
to Spring Hill to do this thing.

So there's a lot of
rescheduling, especially if

they're busy and they're
popular, like today's guest,

Jim. Before we go too far, what
are you wearing? It's a little

forward thinking and a little
crazy. This is a this is a

today's guest knows we both have
an affinity for the designer,

John Varvatos, just because
everything that he designs, it

fits the human body, and it
complements the human body, and

you feel so good in it you walk
a foot taller. It's a little

crazy, and this is the first
public appearance of this crazy

post apocalyptic olive sweater.

It looks like it was attacked by
a string trimmer. I know

it's a little crazy, but it was
on sale, and that's the key to

wearing John Varvatos, is that
you, but you have to wait till

the

sale. It's like you've almost
got, like a ghillie suit on. You

know what? Those are? Not fat
Ghillie No, no, no, not fat

Gilly. Not me. The ghillie suits
that, like the snipers and

hunters wear, and they blend
into the, oh, yeah, the forage

is it? Is it complimentary? Does
that look good in it? It's

interesting. Okay, it's
interesting

that a new shirt. That's

Jim. And I's thing, if he buys a
new shirt, I'm like, Yeah, is

that new shirt?

Means that rich doesn't like it?
No. But Jim, Jim,

Jim is on a, like, a health and
fitness journey for his 50th

birthday. That's coming up. I
was gonna say for your 50th

time, no, no, no, and it's gonna
be great, because you're gonna

The funny thing is, is that when
you get your new BOD, you're

just gonna want to go buy a new
wardrobe. It's gonna be great.

And who John Barbados I should
go for, yeah. I mean, you can

get a lot of stuff on Amazon,
you know, especially his, like,

graphic tees and stuff. You just
wait till

they're on sale. I go through
the very exclusive, um, Kohl's

and get really good or, uh,
track tour supply, silent

H at the on the coals, yeah, you
know, also, a Nordstrom Rack is

good. You can get some good,
totally stylish har heart car.

It's all the kids are doing,
yeah, you know, um, today's

guest, I mean, this is, you
know, he lets us preface on the

previous episode. He kind of
crashed it. Well, yeah, he was

and, and it was, and it was
cool. It was totally cool. I

love it. It's the first time has
ever happened on the history of

our show, but I played a lot of
music over the years with this

gentleman. He's a multi faceted
bassist, great musician,

originally hailing from Sebring,
Florida, calling Nashville home,

just like me, 27 years and he's
all over the place. He plays

upright, he plays electric, he
plays fretless, he does the

whole thing you want pedals.
He's got pedals you want

straight into the amp. He'll do
straight into the amp. But he's

been on soundtracks for
television shows like Roswell,

Smallville, King of the Hill.
He's been on film score

soundtracks like squat and
American Wedding. He's played on

video games like Need for Speed,
Hot Pursuit two and Project

Gotham Racing. And then look at
this. Look at these artists.

He's worked with, Bailey
Zimmerman, Michael Martin

Murphy, we're talking John
party. Brett Eldridge, Leanne

Womack, Jody, Messina, Ty
Herndon, Lee Greenwood, trace

Atkins, Jamie O'Neill, Jimmy
Wayne, Lindsey. L Pam Tillis,

Gavin DeGraw, Tom Keefer of
Cinderella. He's been out with

the guest who he's played with,
Johnny Hyland, he's worked with

cowboy Troy cold Ford, and you
will he will say yes to a

session we've done a lot of
times. My friend Luis es Fauci,

What's up, buddy? Hey, man,
thanks. Thanks. It just gives

everyone a nice cross section
and a little bit of like, wow.

Look at this body of work. This
guy's been in Nashville. Your

Nashville career is 27 years.
And you do it all, man, you do

it all, and it can't. You kind
of have to, right? Well, that's

the thing, is like, and you know
this better than anybody, too.

It's just like, we're, you know,
subcontractors for hire folks.

You know, we're not the artists
in a lot of capacities, yeah.

And the way to, like, you know,
this is the dream, as they say.

So you have to say yes to the
dream. When opportunity presents

itself, it's like, when the door
opens, you have to walk through

it, yes, so yeah. And honestly,
it's like, because, you know,

you know how this goes with a
lot of people, where we talk

about things where, well, I've
reached a certain point in my

career, so I can't do this.
Lower Level, lower paying

usually involves money, you
know, lower paying gig or

whatever, yeah. But honestly,
it's like, well, why are you

doing this? You know, it's like,
we do it because we love it.

Yeah, and, and there's many
times where all of us, I know

you've done it too, where it's
just like, you that's not even

the question. It's just like,
Are you available for blah,

blah, blah. Well, that sounds
like fun. And then you don't

ask, like, oh, how much does it
pay? Or, or who else is on it,

or whatever it's more about. You
know, I have an opportunity.

I've never done that before, and
I would really like to, yeah,

and regardless, and, you know,
the bonus is like, Oh, by the

way, you're getting paid. So,
like, a lot of

time we have a day rate in mind,
you know, and we do that,

hopefully you get to the point
as a musician where, you know,

you can, you can have some sort
of a day rate, which is a, which

is kind of like a model, or it's
kind of like a starting point

for a negotiation. But nine
times out of 10, we love music,

and we're gonna make it work the
first you know, the phone rings.

And so speaking of which, you
know, you studied, you graduated

from the Berklee College of
Music, which is great, because a

lot of guys go there for a
semester or a year, and then

they go like, this is great, but
do I really want to spend a

quarter of a million dollars?
And then, you know what I mean,

but you did it, you graduated,
which means you could finish

something and see it all the way
through. You got tons of

training playing all sorts of
different kinds of music. But

what did it we could talk about
that Berkeley period. Because, I

mean, wow, that's amazing,
because

it's a girls school.

Do you smell that? That's
sarcasm.

Berkeley. You mean the Berkeley
in California? No, no,

I'm being funny. Oh, sorry. I
think can

elaborate on that. He's like, as
soon as I'm like, that I was

told this, like, literally
before I even, like, God, I

gotta do

this to myself. Do it

nice. Jim, you know, in

the kids today won't get that
reference.

So true. It's very true. I'm so
spoiled, and this is something I

look to every year, and it
happens so quickly. It will be

at this concert again and this
December, but you tour with

Brett Eldridge. You know, Brett
Eldridge is known as, like a

country pop recording artist.
He's had tons of success, but he

realized, oh my God, he's got a
good, you know, Frank Sinatra,

kind of, like crooner, boob lay
kind of a thing. So every

Christmas he's been going out
and building this kind of, like

big band thing. So Brett
Eldredge sings the classic

country hits, and you're playing
electric bass, upright bass.

You've been touring with him for
how, two

years. Well, let me preface that
too. Also, I don't normally tour

with him like he does. You know,
he's been around, and I've met

him even early on his career.
But you did the con. Do you do

the Christmas thing? I do just
the Christmas thing, yeah, and

the Christmas Big Band thing, if
you want to call

it that, it's exceptional. And
we saw you at the Ryman last

year, and it's a great date
night. You like hooked Karen, I

up, and then this year you guys
were at the Bridgestone. Yep,

amazing. Yeah, it was amazing.
And that's something that I'm

grateful to be involved with,
that to some capacity, I can

take no credit for that. That's
all Brett, and good for him,

because he genuinely that. You
can tell when you talk to him

about the Christmas show and
everything else. He loves it. He

loves being that guy. He loves
singing in that style. He's a

huge fan of that, yeah, and it
shows because he does it well

and and you've seen it. I mean,
you saw us last year and this

year, you can see his energy,
and you can see that it's

genuine. He loves what he does,
and he still does the country

thing. Actually, he just
released a new country single

last week, so I'm sure he's
gonna be kicking that off again.

But that's not what I do, right?
I'm not involved with that side

at all. It's just more and it's
it goes for the same for the

other musicians in the Christmas
tour as well.

And your rhythm section partner
is Derek Phillips, amazing job.

Oh, and

he great. You guys are great
together, yeah? Well, thank you,

yeah. And Derek, actually, Derek
is responsible for kind of being

the foot in the door for that
gig for me, nice. He had asked

me about doing because we had
done a lot of session work

together. Derek and I, and I
think we've done maybe one or

two live things, but not much.
We primarily have seen each

other in the studio. And he had
asked me before the pandemic,

this is when Brett was starting
to do the Christmas thing. And

he says, Hey, are you available?
Because you play upright, and

this is what the gig requires.
At that time, I was doing

another Christmas tour, or a
Christmas show with trace

Atkins. Atkins, yeah. And that
was a Celtic Christmas thing,

and it was a residency here in
Nashville, yeah. But it was

great because we had four string
players. It was really a nice

thing. That was with Johnny the
clock, right? Johnny Richardson

was there. And then the last
time I did it, it was John

spittle, nice. So it was, you
know, as well, so, and it was

great. It was, I did it two
years for that, but then when

the pandemic happened, and then
I parted ways with trace. I

happen to be having lunch with
Derek at sunflower cafe in Berry

Hill. Oh yeah, one of our
typical like, mid session lunch

places, nice vegan lunch, great
vegan lunch. So we're sitting

there, and I said, Hey, remember
that thing you asked me about?

Is that I'm actually available
this go around that sounds like

fun, is that? And he goes like,
good to know. And I'm not making

this up. This is going to sound
like I made it up, but 60

seconds later, Brett walks in to
the restaurant, and literally,

we look at him, go like, what
are your ears burning? Or, you

know, yeah. And then, sure
enough, like that. Few months

later, I got the call and did
it. And then so that was 22 and

then 23 we did again, and 24
this year, we did it again. And

it's been great. And the good
thing about it now is that since

22 it was Brett's call to try to
keep the same band, and that

means the rhythm section and all
eight horn players. Yeah, so

what you saw is exactly what you
saw last year, as far as the

personnel goes. And everybody on
that stage are session players.

Like, nobody's really like a
touring guy per se, like couple

the horn players. They went out
with Josh stone and some other

artists. But primarily it's
session guys doing this thing.

Yeah, that

horn section is playing on a lot
of big film scores, exactly.

And they, I mean, constantly,
like, even, like when we were

during the Christmas tour,
flying back and forth, like they

made sure they had the early
flight, because all this horn

players, like, man, we gotta
remember last year, last year it

was, Oh, we got to go get in
town to do John Wick four and

stuff like that, you know. So
there's that. But that being

said, we weren't even sure how
our personalities were going to

mesh between what we call stage
right and stage left side,

dropping the rhythm section
stage left, being the horn

players. And like Lindsay
Miller, who is our who is our

guitar player in that she's
great. She works at the symphony

all the time, and everything she
knew those guys prior, but and

Derek did a little bit 91 or
two, but not really. So we're

like, okay, but now we have to,
like, be together and tour.

How's this gonna work? Couldn't
ask for anything better. It's a

bus tour, right? No, it's
primarily a fly tour, but we did

bus a day or two, just for
logistics sake. So you're flying

the same day of the show, the
day before, day before, if we

can, that's so good. And you're
helping all major markets, New

York, Chicago, Yep, great. So
you know what's your thing on

the road? Like? For me, I'll try
to try to fill in some

educational event or something.
I'll try to get my work out. But

as some guys have rituals like I
want, some guys want to find the

best certain type of food in the
city. Some guys want to hit all

the indie LP stores. Some P
people just want to visit with

their homies in that city. So
what's, what's your thing that

you try to do? Well,

it's, well, first of all, I'll
say that I truly admire what you

do with that, because you make
the most of your time. You make

sure it's like, I'm going to do
a clinic. I'm going to do this.

And I'm like, Man, I wish I
could do that. I but the food is

good too. The food is great.
It's my routine. Has always been

for years, and this goes well,
dare I say decades at this

point, is always, I always get
outside and go for a walk, a

long, long I call it urban
hiking, like, if it's a city I'm

gonna go, especially New York.
And that's how I learned New

York was walking. It just taking
subway. Chicago, same thing. So

I always walk, usually in the
morning. I never I didn't used

to be like a coffee shop guy,
but now I kind of do that. So

the first thing is, I get up,
get dressed, go to the coffee

shop. Where's my coffee? Where's
my coffee? Go have it. But then,

like, within the coffee shop,
like the person behind the

counter, hey, I don't live here.
Give me some recommendations for

maybe a lunch later or
something. So I love doing that.

If there are friends and family
in town, it's always meet up

with them, yeah, for lunch or
dinner, depending on their

schedule. But that's kind of my
keep myself sane routine when,

when I used to tour a lot more
frequently, yeah, when I was out

with the band Eve to Adam on
Sony, years ago, the tour

manager called that. He's like,
Oh, you're gonna walk about. So

that's what he would tell does
he call it? Yeah, he would see

me, like, you know him and the
crew up early, and they'd see me

kind of like, starting to walk
outside. He's like, Oh, Luis you

gonna walk about? I'm like, Yep,
go walk about. You need anything

cool? That's your

thing. That's my thing. Yeah, my
our friend Jason Sutter, used to

call it the Sutter strut. So
he'd just get out and just like,

double time, just like, and just
walk that city and go, you know,

you do your thing, man, go to a
nice vintage clothing shop, go

buy some used records, get the
best cup of coffee in town. Meet

up with some friends. That's one
thing that is so great about the

road after all these decades, is
you kind of sort of create a,

kind of, like a street team,
like, like, a community of

people that live in every
different city and and a lot of

times they'll remind you, hey,
so you're gonna be in town on

such and such a day. You wanna
meet up for a coffee or

whatever? I'm like, yeah. And
then you put it on them, you're

like, Okay, well, we're gonna
be, I'm gonna wake up on the bus

in the parking lot of the arena.
So can you come by and grab me

and then you take me to your
favorite coffee shop.

Amen. Yeah, that's exactly what
to do it. And most people are

very respectful of the fact, at
least friends and family that I

have are very respectful. Well,
we're gonna, you know, we'll do

it on your schedule. We know
you're here and you're on the

clock, yeah. So whatever works.
So they're very good about it.

But then you get those people go
like, they'll send you a text or

a email. You. You were in town.
Why didn't you tell me? Yeah, I

know it's like, I don't have
enough hours in the day to,

like, notify everybody from and
look at my tours if there was a

tourist schedule. Oh, Chicago,
it's this, this, and this. New

York, it's this, this, this, you
know, Springfield, Illinois,

it's this, this,

and this. What else I saw your
name and went, Oh, yeah,

exactly. You came up

with my caller ID and I sent it
right to voicemail. Well,

ouch. I will say there's this
whole thing and you know, and I

try not to dwell on it too much,
but maybe you've experienced

this as well. But you know,
there's these after the fact,

because thanks to social media,
there's people that you might

have gone to high school with
that you didn't, they weren't

friends of yours or whatever,
but they can find you,

but they're friends all of a
sudden, aren't they exactly,

Hey,

buddy, you're in town. Can I
come to share what I'm gonna

get? Seven tickets. Yeah, and
you're like, you were not nice

to me.

It's like that episode where
Brad Pitt guests on friends Yes,

and he's all thin and sexy yes
and but Jennifer Aniston was

such a jerk to him. Remember, in
high school, and she's like, I

he's like, Rachel Green, I hate
her. Oh my god, she was so mean

to me. But now he's like, Brad
Pitt. He's all gorgeous and

everything. She's like, Oh my
God. Who is that? The funny

thing is, they were dating at
the time, though, aren't they in

real life? I don't know. My God,

I did they did date. They did
date. Okay, so that's very

possible

that is so cute. Can you imagine
how I don't want to say life is

easy for Brad Pitt, but when you
look like that, women open doors

for you. Oh, the whole world
opens doors for you, yeah, like,

literally and figuratively.
What?

Okay, here's a good question for
you guys of you know people,

caliber of caliber of people
that look like Brad Pitt. Who do

you think would be a good beer
hang? I think Brad Pitt would

be.

I actually think Brad Pitt would
be a good hang, because he

genuinely it seems like he's one
of those guys. I can tell by his

personality. This goes with
musicians too, but really actors

and you know, this rich where
you can tell is like, Oh, you

actually like the craft. You're
not in it to be just a movie

star, you actually like the gig.
And I think that personality

makes it where I'm like, Oh, we
could hang one person. I did get

to hang with. You mentioned him
earlier, and his happenstance

was Billy Bob Thornton, nice.
And it was one of those where,

like, obviously it was, I was
with trace, and the box masters

were opening, nice. And I he, I
was like, I want to meet him,

but I don't want to, like, you
know, be that guy. Be that guy,

right? Didn't have to. He came
right to me and introduced

himself because he's a musician
as well, and he is, but he was a

super nice guy. We realized
these mutual friends we had and

everything else, and then he was
already, by the end of the

night, was telling me, like, oh,
have you seen this funny YouTube

video? Oh, dude, Google this.
Check this out. You're gonna

love it. You know, he was a bass
player at the wrong gig or

something. Oh, that's funny. No,
it was, what do you say the the

West Virginia ninja was the one
he Yeah, look it up. It's this

dude from West Virginia who says
he's a ninja, and that I found

that out from Billy Bob

Thornton. Oh, my God. He's just
approachable. He just seems to

me like he would be. He's like
an everyman. Well, he was,

and I think maybe had to start,
you know, if we talk about the,

really, the beginning of his
career, where he blew up, like

sling blade, that was kind of
something he created.

He created the platform for
himself. He was probably waiting

for Hollywood to come to him. So
he just said, I mean, he was

really early on the scene as a
content creator, yeah, and he

hired his friends, Dwight
Yoakam, yeah, yeah, from

Hamilton, yeah. Who did all the
he created those plays. Whose

name I can't think of, right?

Lin Manuel, Miranda. And I have
a tie to that as well. Really,

yeah? Well, let us know. Well,
so Well, he

didn't finish the question.
Sorry. Who would you? Who would

you want? Sorry about I don't
want to cut you off. Yeah, no

worries, please. Who's how badly
Am I being rude? No, who would

you want to hang with?

You know, I really feel like
those two cats like Brad Pitt

and George Clooney, would be so
approachable and such nice cats.

Clooney really interesting. I
think Clooney, I mean, he's a

bona fide global, you know,
movie star. But I think that,

you know, if somebody, somebody
like vouched for you and you got

into the inner circle, he would
be very curious and

just fun. I've got two, yeah,
RDJ and Chris Hemsworth, who's

RDJ? Robert Downey, Jr. Oh,
okay, yeah, they'd be good

hangs. I think it's

funny that you referenced two
dudes from the MCU. Yeah. I

found that kind of interesting,
but I I'm inclined to agree with

you. Definitely an RDJ, for
sure, you'd be a great he'd be

fun. I think everything I've
seen of him that is not I

remember seeing a thing, was it?
It was a tour of his home with

his wife, yeah. And it was just
a few years ago, but it was

like, I can't remember what the
like, a farm, yeah, windmill

looking thing. But it was on one
of those YouTube channels, like

American homes or whatever,
yeah. And his personality, just

this is, you know, come in,
check out my living room, and

his wife's there too, or
whatever. And that's where you

get the sense of like, Oh, this
guy would be good.

Vince Vaughn. Maybe Vince
Vaughn. Vince. Wanna Be Cool,

yeah? Who are some other people
that are just like, Man, this is

a guy that is grounded. Who's
that? Barack

Obama? Oh, I'd do it anyway. I

mean, he went to mark Marin's
garage. Did he Yeah, he did.

That's right, the where's the
interview is in a garage in

Glendale. Sign me up. Now, did

he do that when he was sitting
president? At that time? He did

it while he was the president.
That's you imagine

the cavalcade of cars that would
show up in that neighborhood in

Glendale? Oh, sure, just black
cars. I'm

surprised Mark didn't make a
mention of, like, all the Secret

Service guys, like, parked in
his driveway or something like

that. It was

probably one of the most secure
locations, yeah, for him. I

mean, we don't get presidents on

our show of the United States.
We get presidents of, like, the

American Federation of Musicians
and stuff on our No, no. It's

like, it's no, it's, uh,
anything is possible in this

crazy life. I

got to put together a rush show
at Berkeley. Really rush,

where's the place? So the
cafeteria in Berkeley, what you

could do is kind of like a
library card check it out, like

a performance space after hours.
So we would do what was called

calf shows, you know, like fame

exactly at lunch, yeah, pretty

much, yeah. So I put, there's
two that I am Dean put together.

It was Queen and rush. And both
of them, I had Alex, like, a

more on nice and, you know, the
rush one, he he did second

guitar keys and bgvs on Queen,
he did primarily vocals and sang

lead, like he did the Bowie
Parton under pressure. And years

later I saw a sudden, you watch
his career explode with Lin

Manuel, kind of in together.
Yeah, yeah. And so much the

point that he just made a post.
I just saw it, like last week,

and he was like, oh, you know,
me and the wife are going to

London, whatever he he went and
had dinner with Getty Lee. Oh,

wow. So him and Getty are kind
of besties

like, I guess, or whatever, that
is very approachable too, as is

Alex. I think Alex,

Alex is great. I met Getty and
Alex in 2002 and this is right

because I brokered the meeting,
because I grew up listening to

Rush as well. But I got signed
to Atlantic Records in 2001 and

at that time, Russia was signed
to Atlantic and a friend of mine

at the studio at Ocean Way said,
you know, what do you want to

this is before paid meet and
greets and everything else. The

only time you did meet and
greets at that time was your you

knew somebody radio contest, or
you knew somebody like that. And

somebody at the studio is like,
Hey, let me type up a letter and

send it off to the management,
see what we can do for you.

Cool. And sure enough, I got the
meet and greet with them. And

this was I just gotten the
record deal. I just signed my

first record deal. This is an
Eve to Adam. This. No, this was

nice. And I so I met getting
Alex pose the photo. And I said,

Hey guys, I just got signed to
Atlantic, any advice he could

offer me. And Alex just kind of
looked at me. He's like, You got

signed to Planet records. Yeah,
I did.

You're screwed my band. And

then he could see that, I guess
my cheeks just went flush, like,

what? And he's like, Man, I'm
just kidding. Whatever. And then

he's like, yeah, do you have any
advice, and he's like, get a

good lawyer.

What was that supposed to mean?
Yeah. So I taught action cop. I

remember for a while our old
friend Ryan Hoyle played with

you guys, right? But Ryan
original drummer? No,

he was not. He subbed in, yeah.
So it's funny, you mentioned, I

haven't talked to Ryan on a

hot minute, many years. Yeah,
many years. So this

was either right around the time
or right before he moved to LA

Yeah, and we had to sub out
because our original drummer, I

think his wife's about to give
birth to a kid, or their second

kid, or whatever. And he came in
and subbed so we had Ryan for a

weekend. So

what was it like being an
assigned band on Atlantic

Records in the early aughts.

Interesting, yeah, it was very
educational. What were

the current bands at the time?
Was it like the Eve sixes and

the fuel and

well, on our division of our
label, which, which is lava

Atlantic, which was Jason floms
in print, Jason from any carp we

had. It was us, simple plan,
sugar, Ray, Matchbox 20, Kid

Rock, wow. And but then you had
things like the Blue Man Group

put out a record, Oh, wow. And
transit brew and orchestra.

These are all people on our

label. I mean, that Matchbox 20
record, I was kicking it

yesterday with Pete Coleman, our
engineer, you know, at Fauci,

he's here in Spring Hill as a
local watering hole, yeah? And,

you know, Matchbox 20, their
first hit comes on the radio.

It's 1995

that's a long time ago. Man was
a long time ago. Holy, it

did the early outs. Was a long
time they are a,

they are a legacy rock band,
yes, yeah. Classic

Rock, classic. Okay,

so, Jim, do you have a hot take
on this, like, what were you

consider at what point? How many
years before it becomes a rocker

thing becomes classic? Where it
gets that label? I think it's

generational. 2020, okay, so,
20, yeah, that makes sense. 20

years, yeah, gotcha so. And
also, during our time, because

hottish and cop was known as
being a rap. Rock Band there was

obviously your limp biscuits.
And you know those kind of bands

as well, nice

and so then, after hot action
cup, how many years before you

did the Eve to Adam thing?

E to add didn't roll around
until 2011

12? Because Didn't you guys play
the whiskey when I was living in

Los Angeles, you were there and
your bus was parked on Sunset

Boulevard, across the street.
And then I made the mistake of

coming to party with you guys,
and the next day was a big

hangover.

Well, I'm laughing because a lot
of things happened that night,

and that was just the tip of the
iceberg. Yeah, let me put you

this way, like you left and and
I remember so vividly. I still

have a very solid memory of
being on stage at the whiskey

and looking, and you were
sitting in the balcony. I

remember, still, I can look and
go like, there's rich. He's

right there. Just lean, you
know, in rich is, like, on that

rail, and just kind of just
rocking out, just checking out

the show. And I'm like, God, I
hope we're not sucking right

now. That was great. But I
remember the whole thing is, of

course, we wanted to play rock
stars, and we went to party at

the rainbow afterwards. I think
at this point you might have

already gone, you might have
left, yeah, but our whole goal

was to go meet Lemmy because,
well, no, he wasn't. He was

under the weather. But it's so
funny because all the staff

there, like, kind of knew why we
were it's like, yeah, you're

looking for Lemmy. He's we
already know he's not well, he's

just at home because

his home was about 30 feet away
behind, yeah, it's right there,

the rainbow.

But you know who we wound up
closing down the rainbow with

Billy Gibbons, not quite as
coolish, um, Ricky rackman, no.

Eddie Van Halen, no, yeah,

you're never gonna get this is
fun. This is not a musician, is

He?

Is he a host? No, is it like one
of the guys from the metal show

or something? Okay,

no, go for it. Eddie trunk,

Ron Jeremy,

kid you not. I'm not making that
up. He was there quite a bit.

Yes, he was apparently he was
there. We closed down the bar

with Ron Jeremy. Ron still
alive, right? Yes,

okay, yeah, yeah. I actually
worked with his niece, really?

Yeah, okay. Did you ever read

his biography book? Not

interesting? Yeah? He heard,
yeah. I'm sure it's probably,

like, just got tons of ups and
downs. Like, the only Yeah, I'm

sure yeah. The only
conversations we had were very

middle of the road, common
stuff. Like, I so badly wanted

to kind of ask him about his
career a little bit. But we

never, we never went there. Oh,
my god,

yeah, that was it. That was
like, before you had to be thin

and shave your body

hair. Yeah? No, he didn't care.
Yeah, the Hedgehog,

exactly. Thank you. Helps you
pick up her. So he, I mean, did

you feel like you had to, you
know, use some hand sanitizer,

maybe.

So, yeah, yeah. He just I
literally, when we walked out

and our bus, our beds, our
busses parked right there. We

actually, like, I can't believe
I'm about to say this, but good

night, Ron Jeremy,

and he literally point me to the
nearest car wash that I can walk

through. Yeah, exactly.

He literally. We watched him
walk out into the darkness of

sunset. We I'm not this is
literally, like a movie. He just

walked and just disappeared in

the darkness. He and his three
legs. Yeah, exactly. He probably

lived close by as well. I think

he did. My understanding is he
did, yeah, now

you're now you have Dominican
and Puerto Rican roots, yes. Why

music? Why the bass? Is your
musical family?

Not really, yeah, not by
profession, yeah. My entire

family love the arts and love
music, and always have, and are

very driven by music. But
professionally, no, my dad's a

retired surgeon, like he went to
medical school at an early age,

and he's very business minded,
and that's all good, but he

always my entire family, both
sides, had a passion for the

arts always. So even if I didn't
choose this as a profession, my

mom made it a mandate, because
my I'm the oldest of my

siblings, and my mom's like,
Okay, here's what we're gonna

do. We're gonna get you into oil
painting classes, into piano

lessons. We're gonna do and I'm
gonna do it with you. We're

gonna do the arts. Wow, because
she wanted to have what she

called, like, a well rounded
education, which is great. It's

like, yeah, we can do the
academics, and that's important,

but we want you to have all the
aspects, all the things that's

so cool. And it just, I mean, my
mom called it, she says it's

like, I called it. It's like,
you know, early on, she's, like,

within a few years, like, before
I was even, like, 10 years old,

she's like, you're gonna, you're
gonna be a musician. And she

called it, she was right, yeah.
So when the bass, when the bass

occurred later and later,
meaning, like, middle school,

high school, really? Yeah. Well,
I mean, I started with piano

lessons. I did horn stuff in
middle school, high school, for

band and whatnot. But I think I
really fell in love with the

sound of the instrument right
out of the gate. Yeah. And my

approach for it was one of those
things where, like, Well, I

mean, look, you know, I already
understood music even as a kid.

It's like, All right, well, it's
four open strings and it's

chromatic. How hard could it be?
Then you find out it's not like,

you know, you know, even with
drums, it's like, well, you hit

this and you hit that. How hard
could it be? And you realize

there's a lot more to it than
that. But the thing with bass

is, once I, you know, I took
some Christmas money and bought

myself a bass or whatever, and
it was just like, almost meat.

Is like, Oh, this is my voice.
You know how it is? Is like, as

me. Musicians, we all we can
dabble in other things we

understand, like what people do
and whatever. But there's this

thing about the conduit of us as
a musician, like, No, this is my

voice, yeah, this is who you
know. This is how I contribute,

and this is how I express
myself. Yeah, that's

how it was for me in the mouth
harp. There you go. See, down,

down, down.

Did you start with the mouth
harp? You didn't

know that. I didn't know that.
It's because it didn't happen,

okay? But

I like how you sold it. You sold
it like a total straight man.

I want to be Jim when I grow up.
What's the secret to comedy

timing? Amazing.

Amazing. So

were you working after Berkeley?
Did you kick it in Boston for a

while? Or did you I

did. I stayed not long, like, a
year, because I think it was

more out of a necessity of like,
Oh, crap. What do I do now? And

money and everything else. And,
you know, it was just like,

Okay, I graduated. I'm here. I
know people here. I have some

gigs here, but I got to find a
job, and I did, and so I stuck

around for a little bit, and it
wasn't until another drummer,

friend of mine I went to school
with, comes to my apartment in

Somerville, Massachusetts, which
is right kind of just north of

Harvard, and said, Hey, moving
to Nashville, you want to buy my

furniture? And then he's like,
wait a minute, you want to be a

studio musician, that's one of
your goals. You should really

look at Nashville. And he can,
in two hours, convince me

nice and before even checking it
out, yeah, well, we flew down.

That was early that year, and
then July of that year we flew

down. He's, like, come with me
to like, he's, he was scoping a

place to live. And a couple of
our mutual buddies who still

live here to stay, like, are
here, we're already here. And we

scoped it out, and it didn't
take long. It's like, No, I

gotta make this happen, because
you and I didn't

meet right away in 1997 now it
happened after like, I feel like

I've known you forever and ever
and ever, but we have a similar

story in the sense that we took
everything that came our way, we

crashed parties, we did all the
right things we were supposed to

do, trying to get into the right
circles, creating opportunities,

answering the call for
opportunities. What was that

first opportunity for you? Were
you playing around town? Did you

do lower Broadway? What was your
first road gig?

I never did lower Broadway. And
that wasn't like it was part of

me. It wasn't like I was poo
pooing it or anything. It just

like it just worked out. And
honestly, it was like, it's a

lot of work. I mean, I have a
lot of respect for those guys,

because the repertoire that they
know is off the chain, and just

holding your P for so long,
yeah? And that's and that, you

know, it didn't used to be that
way, you know, back in the day,

you know, you could actually
take a break. Yeah? It was like,

it was a typical like, here
you're gonna do three hours and

you're gonna take a 10 minute
break every hour, okay, cool, or

five, or whatever. Now it's four
hours, no breaks and and I even

friends of mine, like, how do
you take a break? I'm like, I

hope to hell that one of my
buddies who plays my instrument

is there so I can go pee. I say,
you know, if

you're a drummer, he's like,
please do an acoustic song.

Exactly, right? Not just beer in
those bottles. Exactly, yeah,

those

aren't pillows. So the those
aren't pillows, exactly. I, you

know, I my first opportunity
came about. It's hard because I

just kind of jumped, actually,
no correction, here it is. My

first opportunity was within 48
hours. And this, I have to thank

that's incredible. A friend of
mine who's still friends of mine

to this day, another bass
player, Tommy Mac Tommy

McDonald, hey, what's Tommy? So,
yeah, so you know, that guy's

great, but it was, I didn't have
any connections prior, other

than a couple fellow Berkeley
guys who beat me to the punch

here by a few months. Yeah, and
there was a merch guy, this is

gonna sound weird, like, who was
friends with a guy who was

friends with my step mom's dad
and, you know, right down the

line or whatever, and he's been
a merch guy since the 70s.

Actually did it. Went out with
rush at one point. So there you

go. There's your rush connection
again. But he was out with

Sting and slinging that, yeah.
But he was,

you know, he was, I think he was
working for Richardson sutland,

you know, the big merch company,
big one and big one. And he was

working with David Lee Murphy at
the time, just on the bottle,

exactly. So, you know, he's
like, you know, it was the I was

told say, hey, contact this
guy's name is Carson. Contact

him. Call him up. Here's his
number, that way. It's another

person you know in town. So I
called and left them a voicemail

about, you know, 10 hours later,
whatever, he's like, Hey, what

are you doing tonight? Like,
nothing. He's like, all right,

you come to see this band with
me. And so we went and saw Laura

darling, who is a writer, and
she was playing, and Tommy

McDonald's playing bass, nice.
So we went to the thing. We met

Tommy, and I met and Tommy's
like, Oh, are you looking for a

gig? And I'm like, Duh, yeah,
yeah. And he literally, like,

sitting down after any motions
to the stage, like, do you want

this gig? I'm like, Well, sure.
Why. He's like, Well, I have to

go out with David Lee Murphy.
David Lee Murphy, so I need

somebody to cover this. And
that's, that's how he's off to

the race I'm

quitting right now. Pretty much
it's yours. But

I mean, that is example of of
the, you know, the Keough Stroud

system, not just like, be out.
And really, could we

have not gone through this
entire interview without

mentioning kiosks? I. I just
such

a smart Guinness, you know,
because the first 15 years in

Nashville, I would go out every
single night as part of, like, a

business model. It's like, you
gotta go, you gotta go to the

writer's nets, you gotta go to
the showcases. You gotta see the

regional bands that come
through. You gotta be pressing

the flesh. And here he is, 20
something years in, and he just

continues to do it. And he's
always top of mind and I'm like,

Keo, great business model,
exactly. You know, no,

he's really good at that. It is,
right? There is a certain thing

about it. But, you know, we talk
about the dirty word networking,

yeah, you know. And to me, and
I've told this now that, you

know, we're on this side of the
coin and now where people are

asking us for advice and
whatever, and say, Hey, don't

approach it. Don't think of it
as networking. Just like, just

get out there and just meet
people.

But that's what it is. Well,
that's what it is, but they just

don't want to use the word. But
there's a different approach.

Well,

there's, I've seen it happen
with

business. People use it exactly.
They were going out that network

Exactly. Well, you come

out, it's the thing of and I'm
sure this has happened to

probably both of you, where
somebody comes to you like, Hi,

my name's so and so, and I've
done this, this and this, and

they lead with their resume.
Yeah, well, that's not good

networking. Yeah, exactly. But
they're kind of told that that's

what you have to do. No speed
dating,

yeah, but, but, but that the
main thing is to, is to find a

commonality with the person and
find out what interests them.

You

know, despite your success in
all this rich I'm gonna, I'm

gonna challenge you on that, I'm
gonna say that it's actually

finding what problem do you
solve?

But that's more of a hard promo
sexual pitch. No, it's what's

your problem and I can solve it.

Well, not only that, it's, well,
what's your problem? I want to

listen, and I want to find out
what is the biggest thing you're

dealing with, and if it's
something that I could

accommodate, or I know somebody
that that could accommodate it,

I just want to be a resource for
you. How can I help you out?

Being a, being a connector.
Well, like, you know, for

example, this thing, these
things can kind of happen in an

organic way. And Jim and I go
back and forth on this. So, you

know, if you have a website and
you have all sorts of products

and services, do you have a cart
or a page where you list every

product and services and you,
and you put the price tag on

there. What involves? Are you
talking about merch or service?

I'm services, right? Okay, so
for me, like, I got a call the

other day and it's guys like,
hey, you know, I'm a, you know,

superintendent of the school
district, and there's going to

be 300 guests, and we're going
to do a, we're looking for a

keynote speaker in 2027 in
April. I'm like, Well, I don't

know my schedule is, but most
likely we are only touring June

to October, so most likely it's
not a problem. I already live in

Nashville, saving airfare or
saving Hotel. I'll come and goes

well, we already know that we
want you. We just got to talk

about budget and stuff, and then
get it started. We get into the

weeds. We're talking about
details. And then I'm, like I

said, Now also, I can emcee the
entire event for you. I could do

my keynote speech, and then,
since the event has a music

centric theme, I can put
together an all star band for

you. And they're like, Wow, we
didn't know you could do all

that. So Should these services
be listed on my website? Yes.

See Jim says, Well,

yes, and you're right about
that, because there is that. I

guess there's, there's got to be
an art to it. And I'm obviously

still figuring it out myself or
whatever, but making people

realize what it is that you do.
And one of the things, like, for

me, the biggest thing that
people weren't aware of and what

was playing

upright bass. Very few guys do
that.

Well, the assumption is that you
do one of the other, not both

and and. Like, obviously,
there's, it's not just me.

There's a batch of us that
double and, and some of those

guys, like, are monster
doublers, as we say, double on

upright and electric or
whatever. But the fact that you

still have to find that way of,
hey, I want to make you aware

that I do this. Yeah, it's like,
I, you know, the best example I

have from years ago was, you
know, I track out of the house

as well as, as we all do, we all
do remote recording. And I got

hired to do two upright tracks.
Okay, so got them done. All's,

well, oh, I didn't take a
picture. I didn't post. Should I

did it happen? Yeah, exactly. If
you didn't post, it didn't

happen. Like, we're

really good, like, when you and
I work a lot together with Chris

Condon. Chris Condon is nice
enough to call us. What's that,

Chris? He just called a guest on
the show. Should we call him

back? And yeah,

you should probably get him on
the air. He'll put,

like, his, his week of sessions
on Facebook, and I'll do a nice

mash up of all these photos. And
he puts a picture of all the

individual players. That's
great. Tags him. It's really

It's smart.

He's really good about it. And
it's one of those things where

it does make the Philippines
different. Sometimes we personal

branding, personal branding,
promo, sexuality, whatever you

want to call it. Kevin Murphy,

but he's not a fan of that, that
concept, no.

And honestly, look, if it's what
to me, it's like, I feel like

it's sometimes it feels it might
not be, but feels disingenuous,

like we don't want to like it
seems it comes from a place of

ego. I'm trying to sell you,
look how good I am. I don't want

to just be that guy, but at the
same time, how else do you make

people aware of what you do? But
I was

documenting some of our heroes
that I would never think that

would do that are now on the
game where, like, oh my gosh,

like, some of my heroes are,
like, every time they do a

recording session or teach a
lesson or do a clinic, that

there is a photo and a video,
we'll

look at the

how would you how do you pivot
that to make it valuable for.

Those watching, though. So
instead of like, I get what

you're saying, sure where it's
it's a, it's a braggadocio kind

of approach, black dossier, like
a light brag, yeah, humble brag.

What if you could just do a
video of like we do the the Fast

Five or a fun little trivia
question. Be like, Hey, man,

we're here with with so and so,
what do you think about, you

know, what's your favorite food?
And there's that kind of stuff,

yeah, facebrag.com, exactly.
Face brag, but it's just like,

it's just fun little stuff.
Yeah, that could be

a way to do that, where it's
more engaging, because if you

think of it from the concept of
what we now have content

creators and influencers, yeah,
kind of a dirty word, too, where

they like anything else, like
you're making a movie, you're

making a TV, you're making some
sort of program. It's the

engagement factor, like making
the connection, making the you

know, it's, yeah, I, I know that
they're selling something, but

this is entertaining to me.
That's got to be entertaining.

It's got to be entertaining. No,

all right, well, let's say I
think, I think that, you know,

Chris Condon comes to mind, just
because he's so consistent about

doing that. And I like it,
because you and I are always in

the photos. And, you know, I
like being photos. So with

things, I don't think it's
secret. It's,

it's funny, because we, well, we
were, we did a session with him

not that long ago over at
Southern ground. And I remember,

like, even, like, in the middle
of like, he's, you know, waiting

for people to do their punches
before, yeah, before he comes

back to do like his overdub, and
he just why he gets, puts the

guitar down real quick, and just
goes and gets all and we all

know what's happening, so we all
go, hey, yeah, smile. Make

sure we get our best side on
there. So interesting, because

we're all over the place. You
know, our roots are the things

we've done, our commonalities,
but what was some of the first

bands that you got excited
about? Like, for Jim and I was,

like, for me, it was like, the
police in Van Halen. For him, it

was like, Van Halen rush, Dream
Theater, kind of a thing.

Well, my first bands were Huey
Lewis in the news, Van Halen,

solid, yes, Ghostbusters
soundtrack. Oh yeah, okay, man,

that's kind of, he's, he's, I
mean, Jim's kind of in that same

wheelhouse as me. A lot of those
things do apply for me. Like, I

always tell people my earliest
influences were movie

soundtracks, and I'm talking
about the orchestral So, you're

John Williams, you're Alan
Silvestri, you're Jerry

Goldsmith, those guys, you know,
Howard Shore, etc, etc. Those

were, like, my first things,
because that was like, well, and

even being like, you know,
playing, bowing up, right? Like,

even before that, like, even
before I even dabble in that

thing, it was just something
that viscerally hit me. And

going to a movie, it was just
like, the soundtrack hit me, and

my parents were, like, Uber
supportive, because they're

like, oh, it's kind of like
classical music, but it's

filtered through that lens.
Well, without

that music, you'd have that Star
Wars conclusion on the first

movie that they made on the
internet that they removed the

music and sent the sound

effects in. Oh, I gotta see
that. I've not seen it. I've not

seen it, but I can imagine

all you hear is, like the
music's completely taken out and

they put like reverb effects
were on their footsteps. You

hear somebody in the background
going, somebody farts.

But yeah, exactly, that's,
that's, that's a big thing. So,

I mean, that's what I mean,
that's some of the first thing

is me that wasn't just something
that my parents liked or that

got me personally excited, yeah,
and then from there, yeah, we

can branch into, like, you know,
rock and roll and everything

else. Like,

I first think about you guys,
first thing that comes to mind

is that you and I, you know, I
tell people I'm a rock drummer

that is has an over education in
jazz and classical, but I'm a

rock drummer. I feel like it's a
lot of times you're a rock bass

player like you, we have that we
love our eighth notes, and we

lock so good on that. But is
there something we wouldn't know

about? Did you go through like,
a James Jameson phase? Or, of

course, all the, you know, the
the James Brown stuff, or, like,

what are some secret things that
you just love and admire that

are in the well that we wouldn't
think, well,

I mean, that's it well and
again. But I would venture to

guess you could, I challenge you
to ask any other bass player,

and there's going to be that
element as well, yeah, when we

found James Jefferson
specifically, or anything about

time, you know, Duck Dunn or, or
any of those guys, you know,

it's like, Ooh, this is, this is
like a warm and fuzzy and it's

cool because it's like, oh,
that's what makes you dance.

Yeah. Okay, so, I mean,
obviously it started with that,

with the James Brown in some,
like, disco e kind of stuff,

Lewis Johnson, that kind of
thing. But also then it kind of

went into some other areas as
well that were kind of adjacent.

So I just had one top my head,
and I completely blanked. But I

wonder

who the first bass player was in
disco that did the deed up, deed

up, deep up the octave thing.
God,

I feel like I should know this.
And I feel like people are like,

adding at me right now,
listening to this, going like,

you should know this, and we'll

take it out. Yeah,

you know, it's like, I blank,
but I

don't know. Stu Yeah, I don't
know either, but I mean, yeah,

exactly it. There's an

evolution. There's the warm and
fuzzies about that, in the funk,

and then, oh, here was the one I
was thinking of too, where it

was, and this is kind of going
into high school, getting into

college. Time. But, you know,
Rocco Prue from Tower of Power,

oh, yeah, because it was like,
the, okay, take, you know, the

Jameson thing, which has the
cool sick of patience, but gives

you the warm and fuzzies, and
give it another technical error

as well. Yeah, exactly, yeah.
But he knew how to make those.

It's like, Yeah, but try to do
that and make it feel good. Who

are the guys that played with a
pick really well. Well,

there's, you know, it. There's a
lot of rock dudes that play well

with a pick, you know. And
that's something that, again,

that was a skill set I had to
develop after the fact out of

necessity. But now I use it on,
I do, I do pick on country

sessions. Sometimes, you know,
if it's appropriate, if it's

appropriate, and sometimes it
just is, you know. Now, I wish I

slap

him. Slapping is that that's a
tech, that's a technique. Is it

a technique that gets really
rusty if you don't use it a lot,

it

can be. It depends on the
person, because there's and

everybody, even within that
people have different their own

technique. Within slapping and
popping, you know, where they're

positioning their hands is how
they do it, or whatever. I mean,

you know, I mentioned Lewis
Johnson earlier, you know who?

You know, he does a lot of
stuff, but then he wound up

playing on Michael Jackson
records, and he wasn't slapping

and popping on that, yeah, but,
you know, brothers Johnson, he's

slapping the Jesus out of it.
When were you in Boston again in

the 90s? Early mid 90s. Early
mid 90s. Yeah.

So did you ever hear of any of
the New York bands at all?

No, the one New York band like
so there was a I had a gig. I

used to work at a club called
the paradise when I was up in

college. I interned there, and
then they wound up hiring me for

a bit doing sound or being one
of the sound guys there. And the

Paradise is the equivalent of
exiting. Is here, it's been

around the same amount of time,
both national and local. X, the

one New York band that I
actually heard, that I'd never

heard before, and heard their
show went like I'm getting their

record immediately, is called
the Bogman. Interesting. They're

still around. I saw I follow
them, and I saw they're still

posting, but they're very a New
York centric band.

There's a band that I came up
with in the 90s, in when I was

with Connecticut white bread.
There was another band we used

to play with a lot called jam
syndicate. And I bring them up

from time to time. Yes, amazing
band. Ahead of their time. They

just never really had their due.
But the bass player was

phenomenal. Alessandro Nardone,
Sandy sardon, gotcha, Isabelle,

but

it does not but I'm definitely
gonna check it out for sure. So

thanks for the tip on that.
Yeah, I love checking out new

stuff, so, or stuff, no other

stuff. I don't think it's on
Spotify or anything you can find

it on YouTube. Yeah,

yeah. There's nothing more
painful than bad popping and

slapping, though. Oh,

there. There is, because there
is the danger of overplaying

like anything else. It's like,
it's a technique, and you can

easily overplay and slapping

and pop, but doing it out of
time, well, that's the

that's No, that's a big no no,
yeah, well, you can't slap it.

You got to stroke it.

I'll see myself out.

Thank you. There you go. It's
like, how quiet did the room

get? That was that amazing?
Yeah? Well, anything,

everything, should be played in
time. I mean, that's just like,

I don't care how simple or
anything. That's the key thing

that separates, like, like the
kids from the grown ups. It's

definitely like, feel something
like a laborial Senior, you

know, who's a big influence on
me being a bass player, you

know? He his whole mantra was
always like, yeah, you could do

that. And he's got all these
techniques too, you know? And

he's like, I don't care. You can
do that. You just do whatever

you want, just for the love of
God, feel something Yeah, and

feel, make it feel. So, you
know, make it feel. Yeah.

Here's a observation on
something recent that was in the

news with a bass player and a
professional drummer, both

professionals. What is your take
on the whole Primus thing?

Finding a drummer being that,
you know, are you a less clay

pool guy? I

am, yeah, I saw, I saw les live
in 91 open for

rush. I remember that. Yeah,
that was on the roll the bones

tour. Yes,

it was. And I saw that show
twice in Florida. I was still,

still in Florida before college,
but I remember seeing that, but

already he had made waves just
because his technique was

unorthodox, especially in more,
shall I say, commercial base,

taking the lead. Yeah, exactly.
They're not a commercial band,

per se, but they got the
notoriety, so they got in that

thing. So obviously we had to
see that. But that was the first

time I saw them. And you want to
talk about a guy again,

unorthodox technique, or a
different technique, or

whatever, his timing is,
impeccable, yeah, that's the one

thing, because they just let him
fly. He starts a song, just

slapping and popping himself.
And you're like, yeah, the you

know, Tim, Herb Alexander and
those guys, you know, or Larry

Leland, are just like, we don't
need a count off. We know where

it's at. He just said it, and
it's perfect. His timing is

great.

It's amazing. Is, am I right in
saying that this is almost like

they're making the audition.
It's almost like a publicity

junket. It's almost like they're
making it like national news,

Primus is looking for a new
drummer. Yeah, kind of like, who

did that? Dream Theater did it?
Dream Theater made

it. They made a whole
documentary on it. Yeah, you

remember that? Yeah, are you a
big John my young guy as well? I

do like John my young again,
very different thing, or

whatever. It's not, it's, it's
right, it's the right thing for

that band. It's not the right
thing for ever. Thing. But you

remember when Smashing Pumpkins
also hired the kid from

McDonald's for a drummer. The
kid was working at McDonald's,

and after Jimmy Chamberlain
left, right, right, the Billy

Corgan hired a kid that was
working at McDonald's to be the

new drummer in Smashing
Pumpkins. Do you remember that

Jim, it was, I don't remember
that was also national news. So

it's actually kind of a smart
thing, because all these

drummers are coming out of the
woodwork. Some are very

underground and unknown
drummers, and some are very

established, and some are
household names. They're all

auditioning. Dude. There's a, I
mean, we have a bunch of mutual

friends that sent in an audition
tape. What the heck? Why not? We

mentioned Keo earlier. He did
it. Did

he? I mean, what somebody's
going to get the gig? You

somebody got the gig. Who was
it? It's a he went with somebody

he had experience with, course,
Brian, brain, mancia, oh,

brain, but he's already done the
gig. And to be honest with you,

it's like, it's me, when Tim,
like, quit before this whole

audition thing. I'm like, Surely
he's going to be the new

drummer, because he's already
been

the drummer. Yeah, you know,
that whole thing. And then just

make a phone call to somebody,
you know, I think I got two

reasons

on that. One, publicity you
mentioned earlier. The other

thing is, like, it's an excuse.
Going, like, oh, I never heard

of this guy. It's good. I'm
discovering new talent, mining

talent. Mining talent. So that
way, even though you might not

take them into your main gig,
you might be able to partition

them off to another gig. I'd

be curious to interview less
about that, and kind of like

really get into the nitty gritty
and say, was it because this guy

had time in the trenches and
that kind of gritty upbringing,

maybe played in the garage band?
Because there's a lot of people

that did apply for the gig, who
are Instagram drummers, of

course, who have come up through
that route. There's

some Nepo babies that I'll get
into, you

know, just, you know, they're
not exactly seasoned, you

know, no, they're not. And we've
seen, and now we do live in the

day and age where we've seen
some of those people getting

those gigs. Yeah, we there's a
bachelor and drums specifically,

but in other avenues as well,
where they found them on

Instagram because they had a
kajillion followers, or

something like that, right? But
that doesn't make them good. No,

not necessarily, but sometimes,
and I mean, I might be thinking

this more like conspiracy
theory, but it might be one of

those situations where they're
thinking, hey, we can get some

extra publicity, because they
already have built in publicity.

Okay,

maybe Jones. Yeah. Wow. Okay, so

actually, yeah, funny that you
say that because there is a

drummer out there, and he's, I
think he's been featured on

drumeo and stuff like that. I
can't remember his name, but I

believe he's Spanish or Italian,
but he's, he's just got these,

he's got all the chops, very
clinical speed off the charts.

And he does like renditions,
like he did, Tom Sawyer, yeah?

Spanish guy, yeah, yeah. I don't
know, I don't remember his name,

but he's, he's one of these guys
who, yeah, dude, you can

overplay the crap out of it, but
you just completely remove,

remove the soul of that song.
Yeah, you took, you ripped it

right out. He got murdered in
the cup. So

many shops. But for what? So
many chops, what? Well, he's

making a great living because
he's selling

mugs, hats, hoodies. There's

that, yeah, and well, and also a
lot of the younger folks now,

they see that as a viable avenue
of of of occupation. You're

like, wow, I could just set up
cameras and lighting in my

space. Come down here, create
content, sell product, run a

business. Have the notoriety.
Get the free gear. They don't

have to jump on a tour bus. They
don't have to jump into a van.

They don't have to sleep at the,
I mean, the Holiday Inn, yeah,

with the one with the pool in
the middle, that's really noisy

with the kids. You know, it
smells like chlorine. They don't

have to do any of that rich.
It's funny,

because you're seeing a lot of
ideas that, quite frankly, you

and I thought of, yes, we tried
one. Which one the drumming

roulette idea? Remember that
years ago, where I'd throw songs

at you, oh, yeah, and you had to
play them.

But my thing was, right, you
could play at them, but I am

just such a stickler for
meticulousness and learning a

song.

You're not an ideal candidate to
be in the seat. Yeah, you're a

host, but the whole idea of host
it, you should totally host it.

Okay,

that's your friend, but you

definitely want Kevin Murphy on
the panel, right? Oh,

God, right. He would, yeah.

Well, and also, well, look, and
Kevin is, like, we know Kevin is

a person, but as a player, you
know he's also, He's amazing.

He's worth the salt. And that's
like, it's one of those guys is,

like, that's like, you know,
it's, you know, he says things

that we wish we could say. He's
just like, whatever this does

not care. He doesn't care. He's
given him. But it's, but at the

same time, it's just like, you
know, there's so many other

people that try to pull that and
don't have the goods to back it

up. And I go, Well, Kevin,
you're not wrong, and you're

really good. You're an amazing
player. And I love, I love

hanging and playing with that
guy whenever I got that

opportunity. Yeah, years ago,

I remember we were doing a
double bill. He's playing with

Josh Grayson, and he was just
that sounds like he's just like,

doing a one handed role on this
hand that he did a one handed

role between his right hand and
his right foot. And like, I'm

like, Oh my God, you're. Crazy
buddy, you're gonna get fired.

Don't use that well.

He's also the first guy to go
like he knows enough not to, you

know, he knows when and where to
do it. That's another push the

envelope, yeah, but that that's
also that skill set, and

whatever I think makes is what
makes you a good not just good

drummer or good musician. It's
like you you've got that skill

that's great, but you know not
to do well, you've

been on a million sessions with
a million cats. I mean, you're

working with everybody from, you
know, like on one day you might

be working with me, another day
you're working with Dan Needham,

another day you're working with
Andy Hull.

What are some of the skills we
didn't address something? What I

was down a little rabbit trick.
Oh,

shoot. We'll come, come back to
me. Let's finish this drumming

roulette thing. The drumming
roulette. But you see, I

apologize, guys, that's right.

Drumeo has kind of taken that
concept where they get these big

name drummers sitting in and
then, like, they took Mike

Portnoy, and he had played a
bunch of his stuff, they

interviewed him, and then they
threw like a tool song at him.

Yeah, that's right, right? I
have for 3045, minutes. He sat

there learning it. Well, they
threw

a couple like, and I think it's,
it's a very entertaining

concept, because you're going to
take a drummer who's known for a

certain genre and throw the
complete opposite genre and go

try this, right? And sometimes
it's like, the results, the ones

that I've seen is like, Oh,
that's a that's not the right

part, but that's a cool
approach.

It's amazing to watch because
they're, they're, they're,

they're just willing to put
themselves out there. You know,

they don't have to do that,
yeah, but I love the fact that

they do.

It's a little, it's a, you know,
actually have a clinic coming up

in Albany, and hopeful all the
flights make it and everything

with all this winter, get
winter, get them. But snowball

winter snow gets Yeah. Anyways,
if I make it there and

everything works, great. It's
going to be one, you know, one

of my little one man shows, and
the host is a great friend of

mine, Bobby angeletta, who's a
drummer, and he's got a rock

band that he's had forever. He's
been playing with these guys

forever, and he's going to have
his rock band there, and I am

going to chart out on the spot
one of their songs I've never

heard, and play it with the
band. Nice. That was his idea.

We good idea. Can you get that
videoed while I have another

friend? Stan Z, what's up? Stan
is completely ignored. Stan is

so no, no. Stan Z, he's your
friend. Is a great drummer, but

he's, he's a videographer, like
a professional videographer,

that a new shirt, and he's gonna
come out and film it. So, Jim,

I'm answering your question.
Stan z is gonna come

out film Jim McCarthy

at the first voice first rules
podcast interviewing is

listening. What were you saying?
Anyways?

Okay, so go back to your your
this television show that in the

making? Well, we

have the idea talk about this. I
don't think we should. I think

we got to keep it under wraps.
Okay, that's our little idea we

could talk to

copyright first. Yeah, who did
you ask for?

Luis? Luis, yeah. Okay. One time
he said, my name is not Lois. I

said, Luis, yeah, there you go.
He said, Yeah, you did. But what

time the fact

that you called me out on this,
that's great. I'm

used to it. I get it all the
time.

One time I spelled it, l, o, u,
i s, by accident. And you're

like, well, first of all, I'm
not Lois,

yeah. Well, I get that at
Starbucks all the time, so I'm

used to, like, Mitch

Mitch Mitch Mitch Redman, Mitch
Redman,

God, I love that. That's,
that's, I'm putting that in my

phone now, yes, I don't really
go to Starbucks, so,

I mean, I don't know what I
would get. Probably dick.

You want a dark Dick rose. Valid
question again. That's Jim at

Jim McCarthy voiceovers.com, all
your Starbucks now we return to

the show after the fact. He
talks about his time his

friendship with Diddy. Okay.
Yes. Continue. So yeah,

yeah, go back to your idea this
time. Are we going to talk about

it? Well, here's the thing, I
think that if we talk about any

of these ideas, yeah, they could
be stolen. Totally,

yeah, probably valid. Keep it
under wraps that way, just to

get someone

signs an idea worth pursuing,
basically,

I'm the host. No, Kevin Murphy
is going to be on the panel.

There's going

to be a panel. This is glorious
sorts. I whatever you're

selling. Sign me up. Yeah, you
just said panel. You Kevin

Murphy, and then he

could be a guest panelist as the

non drummer representative, the
rep, but you have a rhythmic

sensibility, so big time.

I'd love to sure if that's the
case. I'm in so with the

with the Dominican roots, yes,
did you? Did you ever have that?

Tell everybody. And this goes

for you too, Jim.

I love the fact you mentioned
panels. You just made me flash

back to a panel you and I were
on back in like, 2008 Belmont,

so rich and I were on a panel.
And when we're going around the

horn, introducing ourselves and
who we work with, trying to do

the resume thing, or whatever I
mentioned at that time because

I'd worked with Jamie O'Neill.
Yeah, every time I mentioned a

name that I had worked with or
was working with, rich

immediately started mouthing a
drum part from one of their

things. There is no Arizona,
yeah, that's exactly Jamie

O'Neill. And you start doing
that, I'm like, yeah, that song.

It was, and it's so funny
because the students are just

like, arms crossed, just like,
All right, get on.

Just entitled Belmont. Kids,
come on. Kids, it's like,

lighting up. People,

sorry, where were we rich? Is

world class at that? Oh, you
know what? I mean, you could

verbalize and vocalize drum
parts like nobody's business.

Oh, he's really good at it. I
mean, I admire most drummers I

know are good at it, but they
have their own version of it,

and Rich's version, like, is
very you can first of all

understand exactly what he's
talking about, right? But it's

rich doing it. So again, the
comedy timing thing, it's like,

you just have to kind of give
giggle a little

bit. The first time he told me
he's like, Oh yeah, falling

rocks. I'm like, Oh my gosh,
that's exactly what it sounds

like, Absolutely. Sneakers in

a dryer. Yeah, see that kind of
stuff. I

love when it slows down. And the
best was

Pat Boone. Debbie Boone, that's

how you buy a house, kids,
bucket of fish. We also have

kind of, like, a, you know, a
quick language where I'm like,

hey, you know, because we're a
lot of times we're not, it ain't

rocket science. We're playing
straight eighth, like a ballad

or something. Mid temple. I'm
like, Hey, intro, binka, pink

pinka. First verse, pinka,
pinka, pinka, pink binca. Pre

chorus, pink binka. And then
when we get to the chorus, four

on the floor, and he's like, got
it, he writes it in, boom, we're

done, you know? And that

works. And it's really, it
really does work that way. And

it's, it sounds silly if you're
on the outside looking in, but

honestly, it's like, oh, okay,
cool. Then we just saved a lot

of time me trying to figure out
your kick drum pattern. Did you

do that with other drummers
occasionally? Yeah, I've had to

do that with some other drummers
that you can tell. It's like,

fishing. And then it's like, one
of like, Hey, man, I got an

idea. How about this? And

I go, what kick drum pattern? Or
are you going to play,

yeah. Boom, smack, boom, boom,
smack. Yeah. Just, how about

boom, smack, boom, boom, smack.
In this one, just, boom, smack,

boom, smack. And we're good,
yeah, there was

one time I, you call them the
money beats, yeah. And I was

watching an off episode of The
Office, and Dwight actually

talks about, you know, him being
a beat farmer. He says, you

know, we don't take the bad
beats. We it's like the bad

beats we put down. We put the
beats out and by the road that

are the that attract the most
attention, something along the

lines of that. He goes, those
are our money beats. I'm like,

Oh my gosh. Well, we got to pull
that

clip. You have to use that as a
and I should put it on my

website. You

should totally do Yeah, let's
just get a trademark before this

episode comes out. Okay, let's

do that, Jim, making friends
everywhere. Yeah. Anyways,

speaking of what, you were
asking me about the Latino

stuff, but I digress. Yes, that
is so there was a big portion of

that, and I was trying, I was
gonna reference it earlier, but

obviously, growing up in that
household, and that was very

president, so present, not
President. Sorry. English, well,

that's on your mind right now,
it's not everyone's mind,

exactly we're talking about,
yeah. So it's, it's one of those

things where, you know, when I
first moved to the town there, I

got involved with the salsa band
pretty quickly, like there was a

thing, and it was one of those,
had I have I played a

professional before at that
point? No, but I knew enough

because of osmosis. And just,
you know, part of the thing of

learning a song, you know, the
majority that's listening.

That's the key thing. Is
listening like, if you know,

more than anything else, than
figuring out the notes, figuring

out your part, if you listen to
something repetitively, you know

you already in your brain, kind
of already know what you have to

do on your instrument. So a lot
of those Latin rhythms were

natural to me, just because I
had heard it for so long,

immersion, immersion in that,
you know, and specifically with

like, we said, Dominican, like,
it's merengue, which is kind of

like, it's very much like a four
on the floor on steroids, you

know? And it very and that's it.
So I was like that, that part

sees, because everybody talks
about Latino music in the COVID

and and that little pushed for
feel, especially for bass, like

hitting the downbeat, like an
eighth note before the actual

downbeat, that kind of stuff. So
yeah, all that stuff. Again,

that was my lesson as a musician
to, like, listen,

was that here in Nashville with
Lalo Davila, his band? I did

play with

Lalo, but that was after that.
This was this gig. Was

beforehand. This was near early,
early aughts, and this was,

there was a place in printers
alley called Club caliente. Oh,

and it's now where the
underground places that British

pub is, and that was run by a
couple people, a couple from

Columbia, who are dance
instructors, nice, and they

hired me and a bunch of people
like we made a salsa band and

had a weekly gig there. Awesome.
And it was great because it

built the repertoire. My reading
chops got better, and just

playing with four percussionists
was always a blast. Oh,

my god, yeah, because it's like,
because when we, when we play

Latin rhythms on a drum set,
Jim, we're basically

impersonating four people. But
if you have the four, if you So,

you got a conga row, you got a
bun Garo, you got a guy that's

playing, maybe the the playing,
or maybe cowbell, yeah, and then

you got a guy playing Tim Bali,
and it's all broken up,

you know, who's actually a
drummer who has got a lot of

Cuban influence, and it comes
out in his music. Take a wild

guess.

At least expected he's Jr. No,

it's not. You. Always, he
actually is Cuban, but does not

really have a typical Cuban
name. It's almost an Italian

name. It kind of is a thing.
Well, I'm thinking

of one guy in particular, but
he's a bass player. And this is

somebody's rock bass player, but

somebody has been on our show.
No, this guy is a drummer,

renowned Heavy Metal, speed
metal drummer,

Dave Lombardo, Yep, there you
go. Wow. Okay, yeah, nice,

because you can actually hear
the Cuban influence, yeah, yep.

He'll do that kind of stuff.
Like, over like, he'll be like,

you know, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah,

yeah. So he's got all that to
add to the right. See, that's

the thing is, like, listen,
listen, listen, the things

incorporate everything. You get
cool crap like that, totally,

totally, and then, and, yeah,
I'm sure you had a jazz period,

like a straight ahead jazz
period. And now the funny thing

is, if I had to choose between,
like, I love playing big band,

but if I had to choose between
playing straight ahead, small

group, bebop or 70s, 80s, 90s,
fusion, I'm always going towards

fusion. Why is that? I just, I
mean, I love swing, but I'm not

as crazy about playing small
group swing as I am big bad,

oh, because it's a bigger thing,
and there's more, I guess, more

for you to do, per se, more
different things

so sexy and powerful about that
amount of people working

collectively. You know, April in
Paris, you know,

just I never tell you about the
time I used to get really upset

at the haters. Used to get on
YouTube, yeah, because they

thought all you could do was
that, yeah, like the country

stuff, all right? And I'm like,
You have not seen

a percentage of what this guy
can do.

But in their defense, what have
I done to show the world I can

do it? I haven't done it. I
haven't put out my jazz fusion

record, but sometimes the jazz
group, but

I've seen something of you. It's
like an old VHS tape where

you're doing, like, fusion
stuff. Oh yeah, you

were you're one o'clock, weren't
you? Yeah, you see, there you

go. I mean that alone, like that
carries weight. And what I'm

talking about is the whole
thing. When you when you say,

Oh, you're one o'clock, it means
you're in the one o'clock band

at North Texas State, which is
the heavy jazz, like, cream of

the crop guys. So it's one of
those things where that's almost

like a calling card amongst the
musical communities. Like,

that's why I just said it now is
like, you're one o'clock,

even, most of the guys go on.
He's gonna play jazz

professional. Of course they do.
And I like, I'm going to play

country

and west. There's nothing wrong
with that. Bissonnette was

right, yeah, yeah. And

then when you think of
Bissonnette, yeah, I mean, he's

great, Swingers, small, great,
covers all the bases. But you

know, when I think of Greg, I
think about David Lee Roth, of

course. Well, that's

what you saw him. That's the
thing. Is, like, we always

associate, and people do this
and they want to pigeonhole you

naturally, and it's just like,
with you, it's like, the country

thing, because they saw you
probably with Aldine, yeah? You

know, it's like, yeah, but you
know, he does other things too,

and I've, we've all been there,
yeah? And ask whoever, like this

person might know me from this,
and this person might know me

from that. It's like, oh, I
didn't realize you did. You

know, the first time I walked
into the Christmas rehearsal,

Lindsey Miller, who was also one
o'clock, you know, she knew

about me. We knew each other. We
never worked before, but she's

like, the motion was, like, she
comes, like, I didn't realize

you did this. Meaning, you know,
I'm air basing an upright bass,

taking it for a walk, because
she seen me do, like, session

work for country artists, yeah,
whatever. It's like, No. Or she

saw me with a rock thing, you
know, she didn't. It's like,

yeah, we, I think all of us,
basically, you can take a panel

of everybody working musicians
nowadays, and most everybody

what I is what I consider
overqualified, yeah, meaning

that, and they're not one trick
ponies, like they have the skill

sets obviously some people like,
well, I don't do Latin jazz as

well as this guy, sure, but
they're not just one trick

ponies. It's

hard to keep everything all
polished up. And equally, I was

gonna sharp,

yeah. I mean, very, how long is
will it take you to snap back

into full fusion swing mode? Oh,

just practice the material a
couple afternoons and make sure

that I get the sticks in my
hands like riding a

bike, kind of or,

yeah, is it? I think so?

Well, I mean, look, a good
musician is a good musician, is

a good musician, even if there
is an idiom or a genre style

that you're not familiar with,
you know your instrument, you

know the approach. So it would
be a matter of, Hey, I just need

to study up. I need to listen. I
need to do this and then figure

it out. You know,

is this something that you do in
preparation for gigs? For me to

learn stuff, I will chart it
out, because by charting it

helps me learn it, and it helps
me create a mental snapshot in

my mind. I could see the chart
in my mind's eye. Then the other

thing that I do, over the course
of however much I time I have

leading up to the gig, I will do
the immersion thing. So

commuting, listening to the
material, working out, listening

to material, cleaning the house,
listening to the material. So so

it's in my DNA in a deep way,
very

much, 100% 110% yes, it's
everything. I mean, it's it that

is in the last you know, I kind
of came off touring in 2020 and

I've been such a guy, but I've
subbed in a bunch, yeah. So

anytime there's a sub
opportunity, it's That's exactly

it is. Like I told you. About
going for a walk. It's just like

throwing the earbuds, go for a
walk and just put, you know,

create a playlist. Now that we
can create playlists just like,

okay, they sent me a set list,
and I don't have recordings, but

I have stuff off of the
streaming services. And just

make your playlist, put them in
order, let it run. Yeah, you

know, it's amazing. And, yeah,
it's just literally listening

and listening. And when it comes
time to have to sit at home and

with my instrument on to play.
It's like, I already know this

is the key of G. It sounds like,
Gee, I'm in the ballpark, you

know, it's that much, you know,
I did that specifically. I

subbed in speed and Kevin
Murphy, I subbed him for John

party for about a month in 21
and it was one of those, like, I

remember going for a walk,
earbuds just on repeat, the set

immersion, you know, did, did
that with Tom Kiefer, you know,

immersion. Here's the set. All
right, cool. You know, that's

all on streaming here. There

you go. Yeah, hey, we had
sterile on, and you guys were in

the Guess who together. Oh yeah,
see, there

was another one. The same thing.
It was like, when I got called

in for that, because that was
thanks to both stereo and Troy

laketa, who called me for that.
Yeah, even though Troy is like,

kind of also sub guy for that
gig. And same thing, it was just

like, Okay, we know, like, and
it's one of those, like, I went

through the list and immersion,
like, I knew American woman,

obviously, you know. But I
didn't realize, like, Oh, I do

know some of their stuff. I know
no sugar tonight. I know no

time. I you know, some of these
other things that were like,

kind of hits, and these eyes,
you know. And I completely

forgot

Jesus, which, by the way,

deceptively hard for both drums
and bass. Yeah. Like Gary

Peterson, the original drummer
from the guests who, like,

called me out, like normal,
nicest guy in the world. He

knows his stuff, and he's coming
up on 80 and he's been drumming

since he was good kid. He's
Yeah, and he still plays double

kick at like, 7770 Awesome.
Yeah, great. But he was the

first one to go like, Hey, man,
you're not playing the feel

right? He's like, Oh, and I'm I
literally like, because you

think of that Doom, doo, doo.
Doo is the baseline. It's you

can hear it, but you don't think
about how it swings. And it

literally was like, I'm playing
your eyes, like you're not

swinging hard enough for it. And
I literally went and listened

about the third list. I'm like,
oh, that's what he's talking

you mean the subdivision between
back at ACT,

yeah, it's almost like, like, we
think Doom, doo, doo. Doo is

bat, Duba da. It's like, there's
a swing, you know? So me even

verbalizing it that way, that's
stupid. At, yeah, exactly puts

you in that mindset, even
though, like, the notes are

timing in the same spot, but
it's how you get there, the

swing, yeah, what I was playing

the other night with Chicago.
There you go. That does that.

Oh,

so all the watch, that's

kind of all the

David Foster stuff. David Foster
and that stuff is slow.

That's a skill in itself,

with the gated reverb stuff and
all that space

I'm just flashing back to the
last 1516, 1718, years like him.

Like, every time he's like, oh
yeah, oh god, it's like, like,

if anything, he must verbalize,
you can definitely verbalize a

snare with a ton of reverb.

Now, you mentioned earlier
voiceover, yes, for me, or

did you, have you done it? No,
I, I've dabbled in it because

you've got

a you've got it like a very
you've got a good voice, and you

have the ham factor. Oh, thank

okay. This is natural ham. Yeah,

well, I, the first time I got to
dabble in it was at Berkeley.

Was like, there was a project,
and like, Hey, can you I like

your voice? Can you come do a
thing? And it turned into a

commercial spot for Amtrak.
Nice. Wow. Why don't you call me

Amtrak, you know? So I gotta do
that. And I thought about it,

and but then I always feel like,
for whatever reason, I feel like

I'm not an effective
communicator sometimes. Well,

you're very Arctic, so I don't
think I am. I don't see myself

far more than I am. That's that
is a lie. I'm just, I think I

stammer a lot. No, I don't think
you do. Because honestly, it's

like, then I see and hear people
like you and go, like, Yeah, I

can't do that. Really. That's
like me trying to write a song.

And I work with so many world
class songers. I'm like, Yeah,

but I can't do that. Oh,

can I? Can I brag on Luis? Yeah,
he was honored with being able

to do a musician spotlight at
the Country Music Hall of Fame,

which is basically an hour long
presentation, and it's open.

It's on at the Country Music
Hall of Fame. Now, when you

think about the Country Music
Hall of Fame, the clientele

coming through there. There are
people that live in Nashville,

there are people that are not in
the music business, and they're

also people that are just people
that are just straight up

tourists. And they come once
they pay their fee to get in the

hall, they can go to this
spotlight. And so there's this

beautiful theater. It's packed.
Luis invites me, and he does

this basically a rundown of his
career. He talks about this

instruments that he played, his
influence, his training, growing

up, his first opportunities, got
to play these, and you were so

articulate. Oh, thank you. It
was very entertaining. Well,

I appreciate that. Thanks. And
honestly, that's one example

where I in the middle of it, I
didn't feel articulate at all.

It was great, like I literally
had the moment of, like, you

know, get over that I'm trying,
and I know it's a process, but

even, like, walking out and in
the middle of my presentation.

I'm going, this is why we'll
Suck it, stand up, because

they're speaking of articulate
and confidence. Because, you

know, you get the introduction,
they give you the whole rundown.

Here's your credit, welcome, you
know, whatever. And I walk out,

applause, whatever, and then
it's dead quiet, and then the

mics on you, and you're like, so
good afternoon. You did great.

Yeah. So I play bass. Okay,

I'm gonna play some, you know,
that's what it felt like to me,

yeah, you know. And then looking
in the eyes and having people

like rich and some other like,
some of my Ariana cap was there

as well, who's a well known bass
educator online. She does the

Scott space lessons and
everything, and watching them,

me and some other my peers being
the audience, and I'm just like,

Oh, crap,

great. It was, there was, there
was very few UMS. It was so

perfectly put together. I hate
to be rude. I'm just looking at

my phone because Jim's got a
hard escape hatch. Time, we're

gonna do the Fave Five favorite
color, blue, or, sorry, royal

blue. Specifically, a lot of
that, right, buddy. It was just

blue the last Yeah,

so it's very much deep row blue,

almost purple. You've had time
to think about these questions

too. I

have favorite drink,

alcoholic or non alcoholic? Is
it like Cuban

coffee? What's your go to right
now?

I like, I like, like, a Lacroix
sparkling water kind of thing.

Yeah, I'll occasionally, if I'm
a air quote, bad boy, it'll be

Diet Coke, yeah, you know. And
then as far as an alcoholic

drink, I'm always a sucker at a
nice, quiet place for an old

fashioned, nice

alcoholic drink buddy, Evan
Williams, eggnog. I Oh, that's

good. That is

insanely good. That

is like saying, I'm gonna quote
Dave, uh, Dave attel, remember

him? Yes, this is the quote he
said about eggnog. He's like,

it's like, yeah, eggnog. I want
to get drunk, but I really want

pancakes.

Evan Williams, spiked eggnog is
the most incredible, because I

don't know if you guys know
this, but Jim also, uh, he

produces the small town podcast,
yeah, so

they try that in a small
town.com they

were, they were, they were
touting the the beauty of the

Evan Williams drink. And they
did like 10 minutes on it, Chris

as a Christmas gift. Jim got me
a bottle of it. Oh, fantastic.

And it did not last long. It was
incredible.

Sure, it's really tasty. It's
drinking Alfredo sauce. It

is, but a really good favorite
food or dish.

That's a tough one, because that
varies much like musical taste

depends on the day. But I mean
at the moment, at the moment,

ooh, I I am a sucker for, like,
a pasta with a pesto sauce and

grilled chicken. Yeah, there you
go. Like, like, usually, maybe

Fettuccine, but sometimes I'm
kind of thinking more like,

Penny,

yeah, I want the pine nuts in
there too.

Oh, the pine nuts is little

amazing. Hey. So we're gonna
change this question. Favorite

actress. Oh, gosh.

What are these stipulations on
this? Just just skills.

They either the most talented or
the most sexy or,

well, there is, and I you put me
on the spot, I'm blanking, and

I'll remember this at three
o'clock in the morning. But

there is one actress who's, at
least, for me, like, just drop

dead gorgeous. But that, aside
her skill set, she is freaking

amazing. And I remember a few
actors saying, like, no, she's

got the good she is amazing.
Redhead, probably close to our

age, pretty close. And I, it
escapes me right now. It'll come

to me later. She got

mad men, I think she was
Christina Hendricks. Was that?

Christina Hendricks? Yes, I
think that's

it. Yes, you said redhead.

And I'm like, there's not a lot.
There's Julianne Moore. Julian

was great too. Yeah, no,

she's great, but, but, but,
yeah, she does, but, but, you

know, she's, she's really,
obviously, really pretty and

whatever. But as as the skill
goes, like, she's got in spades.

But also, I've read interviews
where there's many, like, top

tier, like, legendary actors go
like, Oh, she's, she's the whole

package. She's, she's a great

thespian. She works. I love
that. And at the moment, what

would be a favorite song?

Again, tough on that, because it
changes. But honestly, it's like

favorite song. It's tough. I
mean, I've been going, kind of

revisiting jameroqui recently.
Oh yeah, it's so much fun. It's

so good. And they

got new album coming out. Yeah,
gooduba.

But even, like, some of the
other stuff that's not like that

hit or whatever, it's just like,
you go down that catalog

automaton is their last record
that came out, like, four or

five years ago, and it's like
the whole record front to back.

I can just put it on, and I'm
happy

haven't heard that. But that
baduba, which has got the built

in swing, reminds me of that
first Maroon Five record. Oh,

yeah, same. Oh, that was really,
really good, man Jim, ask your

question, buddy, and the

audience is bored. Now. Anyways,

you ever hear the band wigwam?
Yes, the. Really good. Yeah,

they're so refreshing. Wigwam.
Wigwam, is it like you watch the

peacemaker with John Cena? They
did the the music for the intro,

all right, right, and it's one
of the most quirky intros.

Hilarious.

John Cena has done really well
in expanding his brand. Oh yeah,

wow,

have you in the same token, I'd
be a miss if I didn't mention

another album. But are you
familiar with the one band, one

album, band, toy matinee from
the early 90s? Oh, yeah. Sheryl

Crow, yeah. Well, Sheryl Crow
wound up being a touring version

of them for hot Yes, but it was
her boyfriend at the time who

also helped co write, like, the
Tuesday Night Music Club stuff,

yeah, but I mean, that record,
that's uh, Patrick Leonard, the

producer who won up. That's why,
and one of my biggest

influences, Guy Pratt on base,
and guy got to play on the

Madonna record, like a prayer,
because Patrick Leonard was

involved, and he produced that
record. And that record, you

talk about power pop, like
stuff. So good. Toy

matinee, toy man, you guys heard
it here first, Jim, you want to

ask your trivi band question.
So, yes, well, you just gave it

away. Sorry, guys and action,
that's fine.

So you have to, okay, so what if
you had to pick up a tribute

band and play the rest of your
life in

what would it be that I had to
personally play? I mean, you

have to do it every day. I'm
gonna say Jamaica, because I'm

on that kick right now. Yeah,
because, first of all, it the

skill set. It's fun music to
play, but it's a challenging

thing, and bass wise, and it's
just kind of one of those things

where you find that happy medium
of, oh, the instrument I play,

what I have to do, brings a
challenge to it, but it's so

much fun to do.

If think about when you're like,
in your 70s, your fingers hurt,

and you're like, I just want to
play Panama. I'd love to play,

I'd love to be in a Van Halen
band too. But, I mean, I man Van

Halen rush

so many, you know, I think Huey
Lewis huelus would be great.

Actually, I did get approached
one time almost jokingly from a

drummer of buddy of ours about
doing a Huey list in the news

tribute band. I'm like, call me.
I'm here. Yeah, it's great

songs.

It is. They are fantastic. Yeah,

Hey, Jim, that's, that's, I
mean, that's you, remember, you

gotta play every day, yeah, for
the rest of your life.

So, Richard, you make that sound
like it's a bad thing. I had to

play my instrument for every day
for the rest of my life. Oh,

darn, that's my arm. Now, I
know. Are

you gonna be going hunting after
this now or,

Oh, because of my camouflage.
Again, that's Jim. Hey, man.

I hope that. I hope you know,
there's not a lot of comments on

the on the YouTubes.

Bruce Banner called he wants his
shirt back. Hey, so Luis,

what is there if you want to
reach out to you? What's the

best way do you have your
own.com Yeah, I do. You spell

everybody, you spell your last
name. Here

I will. So my, I do have a.com I
don't really keep it up as much

as I should. But no, there. It's
L, L, U, I, S, E, S, P as in

Peter, a, i, L, L, A, T as in,
thomas.com

Luis, espayat.com it's just so
fun to say. But you

know, obviously, more often than
not, the social media stuff. So

Instagram is Louis bass, l, u,
i, s, B, A, S, S, Luis, Luis.

Espayat base altogether, B, A,
S, S is my Facebook page.

Instagram, Twitter's the same. I
think I do have a tick tock,

even though I just saw the news
that that might go away. Yeah.

Do you have, like, a central
website? Did you mentioned,

yeah, Luis despaya.com
everything's there. Everything,

all the links are there

too. Yeah, that's great thing.
And I will say just really quick

in closing, that I really
appreciate your commitment to

music education as well. You're
passionate about it. You and I

have done the thing at the
School of Rock at the rhyme in

many years, and the kids love
you, and you're great working

with the kids. And same with our
friend Michael sterto and Angie

and Kelly McCarthy. We love them
so much, so much. We could talk

for hours and hours. Yeah, of

course. Well, we've also got
history ourselves. We even get

into the stuff that we've worked
on together.

What have we done? You got to
come back? Well, I'd be glad to

Yeah, absolutely. What have we
done over the last 20 years? So

much.

Well, the red door we've done
now. We've actually, like,

legitimately played on records,
and we do remember, like I was

having a good little happy
moment we did there was a

Canadian artist that was, his
name was Jay Allen. I remembered

it. Yeah? Murray Pulver
produced, oh yeah, Canada, who's

in dark Walker and also crashes
on music, produced that. And we

got to do that, yeah? And that
was fun. So we've, we've gotten

to do some really cool stuff,
whatever.

Anytime I walk into a room and I
see you on a recording session,

like it's gonna be a fun day,
yeah, you know what I mean?

Because, you know, a lot of
people can do the thing, but

the, you know, the the thing
that makes it fun is those soft

skills, you know, those that
interpersonal. And it's, I just

always have a great time with
you. Well,

ditto. And same thing with you.
And it's also one of those

things where, like, playing with
you, just personality great. But

even from a professional
standpoint, I'm like, we have

nothing to worry about here.
Rich is going to put the one

right where it needs. It needs
to be. Boom, yeah, exactly. And

we know where it's gonna go. And
I can, like, I always make sure

one of my things is, like, with
most drummers, but definitely

with rich, is, like, if I'm in a
room and I have a choice, I'm

like, put me in the room with
the drums. I have isolation

cans, I'll be fine, yeah. And so
I have a visual, because

drummers. Rich included, they
have what I call poker tells,

yeah, so they'll be playing, you
know, doing the grooving along

or whatever, and then all of a
sudden, you see, maybe that

right shoulder comes up and he's
like, Oh, he's about to do

something, but boom, but boom.
And I got, he's like, how did

you know he's gonna do this?
Like, you telegraphed

it. I was about to do Pat Boone.
Debbie Boone, right into the

right exactly right to the bell
of the ride. Jim, thanks for all

of your time and talent. You are
so funny. I gotta say, I gotta

with the world as our witness. I
just feel so grateful in 2025

that I have so many amazing
friends, but it's a short list

of people who would broken down
on the side of the road. You're

pulling up. Luis would pull up,
you would pull up. And I

appreciate it.

I gotta say, Luis, when you
first came in, you just, I love

the fact that you just came in.
You know, we were recording the

other podcast. I'm serious. I'm
not being facetious. That you

just, you kind of crashed it and
you sat down. The moment I saw

you, I instantly liked you. Oh,
thank you. Yeah, that's what.

For what for what it's worth,
nice to be likable.

It is. It is nice to be liked.
You can only do so much, but

even, even Mother Teresa had her
haters.

Now here's the thing, Courtney's
coming to pick me up. He's got

to meet Courtney. Let's see what
kind of

read she gets. Oh, that would be
great, because Jim's wife is

incredibly empathic. Oh,

really. Okay, yeah, all right.
Well, goes mean luck, yeah.

Honestly, it wasn't my intention
to crash last podcast. I was

gonna sneak in and be off to the
corner. I loved it. I got pulled

in so I loved it. Loved

every bit of it. So I was, I
could say is, thank you for

doing this, making the trip to
Spring Hill. It was long

overdue. Congratulations on
everything. I'm happy for you.

I'm proud of you, and I'm just,
I'm just proud to call you my

friend. Ditto.

Man, absolutely. It's an honor,
and thank you for having me. I

appreciate it absolutely. But I
really do everybody check really

do Luis

espaya.com send him a DM. He'll
get back to you right away. And

for all the listeners, we
appreciate you. Thank you for

listening, thank you for
watching. Be sure to subscribe,

share, rate and review. It helps
people find the podcast. And Jim

would be very mad at me if I
didn't promote some of my wares,

like my book Crash Course for
success, which you can get

because Jeff Bezos will lick a
stamp and will send it to your

house. Also, there's a brand new
hardcover book, which is called

Making it in country music. And
insiders look at the industry.

And if you're a drummer and you
like to go rat Tat, Tat, but you

want to keep your marriage, you
want to keep your relationship

with your neighbors or your
band, you can get this three

sided Made in America, Pro
Logic, rich Redmond signature

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next time this has

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