Coming to you from the studios at the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66. It's the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast Hey everybody, it's Ray the roadie and this here is Hollywood Mike. Hello, Hollywood Mike.

How are you this evening? I'm doing real good I'm doing real good. Yeah. Yeah, just finished my burger from next door.

Yeah, I can tell yeah Yeah, you're gonna be able to tell a few minutes. We're pretty spicy burger No burger Do try the fries it was covered in pepper jack cheese and jalapenos. Oh and then and a whole sauteed jalapeno Oh, let's go to the top of the stuff that has happened a thing.

Let's go get some roll aids for you Little ice cream afterwards takes care of it. All righty. Don't do a little cold water dab So let's not waste any more time Tonight's guests are the JAD and shaggy trio.

How you guys doing? Yes It's actually pronounced Chad. It's Chad. So it is Joe.

It is. Jad. It was all capital He wants that's yeah, I want to make sure you know, you know, it's my name Okay.

All right. So is that what it is? It's somebody's initials. Is that how they came about? Okay, gotcha.

Excellent. Excellent. Well, what about this poor guy over here? He doesn't get represented any any kind of way.

Oh Yeah, me I'm yeah, I'm the drummer in the band. Oh, okay that explains it so they give him no Yeah, I'm known as trio He's shaggy, that's the trio. Okay.

Yeah. Okay. All right.

What's that? Okay is in tripod Oh Boy so tell us about yourselves. Tell us about the JAD and shaggy trio. Oh What's the best way we can put it let's see in English Jad and I have been doing music now for 16 years We we kind of got together what he tried to run me over with his car one day still trying At that he and I went to high school years ago and I dropped out of school.

I graduated by the way. Okay, I dropped out of school I went to Puerto Rico for a few years. I came back.

I went Eventually, I went back to school went to college. I Got on a website for classmates Finding out where my friends were. I ran into somebody with his last name my wife.

I My wife my wife and him were members I was not I'm out I'm in the living and watching cartoons She comes out and says yeah, do you do you know? Do you know this guy? I at first I said, oh Then the cobwebs cut out of the back of my back of my brain Well, wait a minute I remember him now and then him and I met at a Martin's gas station a couple days a week week later It was just like those 23 years Didn't happen. We was to all they just resume where we left off. That's why I like to meet people I haven't seen a while You mentioned that conversation hey you want to you know want to hook up want to meet yeah I'm sorry That's when I tried to run him over Say that again use diesel as a trucks want to make sure Okay, so we we got together.

We started reminiscing He took me over to his crib and he showed me this room with the walls of guitars And I said, yeah, I said, hey do you play and I said, oh I can play three chords on the guitar back then. That's it. He says I collect I collect none of them were tuned By the way, he took one down.

Oh my god, you know, it's like that's a good tune Yeah, so I asked him I say do you mind if I play one and so yes, I play them all, you know I tuned it. I started playing he kind of was in shock, you know And so he I guess he says I influenced the the music in him to come back out and He asked if I wanted to start something. I I mean I was I had already Been in a band with someone for 20 some odd years.

I was also doing solo stuff So and I like doing music. So when he brought it up, I said, yeah, we'll give it a shot, you know He explained that he didn't know too much And I said look I can show you a few tricks that are easy, you know And and it's been like that for 16 years make a make a long story short I couldn't play bar chords on the guitar because of a football injury back in grant wrecking grammar school Anyway, he suggested I had three bases. I had I had I had a European style Hofner bass.

It wasn't a hot It was a knockoff He suggested I play the bass. So I took up that and and I'm I actually play better guitar now Thanks to him. But yeah, that's why I'm the bass player in the group for the most part You know, isn't that the way it goes all the time, you know, it's like it's a bass player You can't play guitar, right? The bass player is the bass player in the band's usually always the worst guitar So, what was this the bass players used it a best singer What was this 20-year band you're in before you guys? I was I was with a classmate of mine back in high school We we never could get out of his house though because he was he was still shy about performing for the people but he He helped me to to master my plan We wrote songs together If I didn't write them by myself and he didn't write them.

We usually wrote songs together that was a Combination we were sort of like McCartney and Lennon in the sense that we didn't add on to anybody's words but it was as I came with some music and He would bring the lyrics and sometimes it was vice versa. Mm-hmm Like that one time I brought some lyrics and he's oh, you know what? I've been working on this and he showed me this music, you know later on in the 90s, we kind of It it was better than when we started We did do a couple of songs where we played off each other You know, sometimes it was off his music or off of mine But we did actually did get to do a song when we did we played off lyrics One of the songs that that that we play a lot. It's called day It's usually our signature song and that one came where I had music My buddy because since Hitler has heard almost every rock song there is I wanted to make sure that I wasn't Subconsciously stealing from somebody so I would show him, you know And then he came up with some lyrics and then I came up with some lyrics and it just kept going You know another song that we do.

I was again music. I showed it to him he brought me the heat all he did was sing the chorus and After that the song Came to life. I was able to come up with the lyrics with with Jed and I He showed me these lyrics that he said he wrote.

I would look at him and go ask him permission to Reconstructure if I have to I would take it home and look for some type of rhythm pattern in it What he's illustrating is the fact that him and I write like Elton John and Bernie tall But I email him lyrics. Okay at the beginning I write music a little now and then he would take my lyrics and put it to music and then next time I see him He take out a guitar and show me what he came up with and I kid you not 99.9% of the time I love what he did with it and he sometimes changed my words a little bit But most of the time he left it alone. Yeah, but this is the guy you were with for 20 You guys never performed out.

No, I When I came back from Puerto Rico I Went, you know, I tried to see if we can if I can get him to leave the house, right? I still couldn't get you know some friends of my brother Told me about a coffee house that there was and they said you should go and I said, okay And so I started to perform there But even though I was by myself I still considered myself to be part of the team of my friend that I was, you know Because even during that time I was still writing new songs with him and I was going out there and I was performing them And one of the great things that I saw was the audience was starting to sing along Even from the first time that they would hear my songs So I would go back to him and say man, you don't know what you're missing So when you're saying you you couldn't get him out of the house you physically couldn't get The problem was is I couldn't talk him to Performing in front of people. Oh, he can perform in front of his family with no problem, right? Right, but he still had this thing of Performing in front of that's harder to do, you know, sometimes sometimes performing in front of your family. Yeah, your family doesn't hold back Strangers are gonna be very kind and gentle but families I have my grandmother my grandmother kind of was like that sometimes I would take my guitar and play on the porch when she I lived in Puerto Rico and I'm I'm a rock and roll musician.

Yeah, she would always look at me go. Don't you know anything in Spanish? Yeah Such I do it. Yeah, I play a three-chord you don't don't don't don't don't don't He still does that today But I do that.

I did that to mess with her sometimes But the one thing I loved about my grandmother was regardless that I couldn't play Spanish for her She encouraged me to continue doing what I do, right? You know, I've been I've been doing music for over 35 years Yeah, I still don't have that Grammy that I deserve But but the fact is that my grandmother She continued to encourage me to do so and so I do When when I ran into John after so many years since high school, you know, yeah He gets frustrated with himself, but I try to encourage him to continue on don't don't give it up If you love doing this just that's why I'm here today. Just keep at it. Did you guys ever record any of that stuff? wrote Well, not with him With me.

Yeah, a lot of songs that I've written with my other partner and myself. I have done with Jad. Okay One of the oldest songs that we do is called.

How does the boy and I wrote that back in? 87 before I turned 21 and that's the oldest Song of any of the original stuff that that we do So when did you come into the mix? It's been about two years now, right something like that something like that April decided they needed a drummer We always need a drummer What it is is Flash and I stay at a YMCA in Chicago Okay, and I was yeah, I was relocated to the one that we're at right now Okay, and there was this pain in the butt that that lived in in the building He was telling me about Roger if I knew him, but I said no I've never heard of the guy and so one day I ran into him and we were talking about music and Out of the blue I invited him to come join Jad and I for an open mic and he sat in on the drums You know and it went from there. Okay, so you weren't really looking for a job Yeah, it's kind of worked out that way. Yeah, they see because dad and I belong Formerly to to a band already called class reunion.

Okay, we had a drummer Yeah, we went to high school with him, which is where the name came from All right, right, right, right, you know, but at the time we were you know, I just invited flash to come and he said yeah We've been doing this together for the man for two years. We've had a really good year though this year alone We've done a lot of we did a lot of gigs that I didn't expect to do right, right, right, you know So, so how long ago was it? When did you guys meet at the gas station? Oh Okay, that was about 2007 yeah, and then in 2009 we formed class union with okay the drummer actually he lived in in Knoxville, Tennessee Wow, okay his drum kit in his car drove all the way to Chicago Assembled it in my garage and the three of us started playing Okay, and then we were then we were playing and after about two or three hours of making all this racket The drummer's name was Dave he said we should form a band and we were coming up with all these weird names and he's the one that What it was I said, you know, I looked at Dave and I said, you know This is a real class reunion because dad and I and Dave we were in the same art class together And so Shaggy and I had a history to go to Wow. Okay.

Okay. So how long did this guy continue to commute from Nashville? Only for what about a year only about a year. He lives here now.

Okay, he does he would he's moved there for Whatever reason and but he he would come back to Chicago for Cubs games. I mean, he would half the season. He's here Oh, oh, he's divorced.

I think that's why That could be a reason for it. So I'm just Matt. How often did he come back to Chicago just to jam? Half a dozen times but then Shaggy and I actually went out to Knoxville because he had a nice studio with his his home drum set and gotcha Okay, we actually record some stuff out there too.

Well, that's a long-distance band relationship. Yeah Yeah, I thought the I thought the the gal from, Indiana Or the brother from Green Bay the brother that came from Green Bay, oh you can leave the brother away No, no, we had a band here there was a three there were trio and the two brothers one lived here one lived in Green Bay Oh, he actually came down here for the podcast and then went home that night. Yeah.

Wow. That's yeah Yeah, Dave Dave lived in Tennessee for a while. And then when he moved out here we got together more often We have done a few gigs with Dave, right? I don't Believe at least I'm not quite sure that we've done as many gigs with Dave in the last 15 years that we've done with flash in this one year alone.

Wow. Okay, okay So, okay, so you guys you guys have been together for a little while I mean just kind of different combinations have been together for a little while The other thing about this band that people should know is that we're not your typical Three-piece band, okay He actually plays a fourth piece Flash and I are Multi-instrumentalists, okay. I'm a little bit so we tend to switch off in the middle of our shows and The fact is that Because John and I had discussed this and this was something that I have but my other bandmate Nobody is to stick out It's so so we all stick out so yeah Instead so Jed and I traded lead vocals all this time When when we got flash in here, he's as a singer so now in our shows when we do our set lists, we make sure that everybody is is Seen doing what we do.

We all leasing we all play instruments sometimes Jed and I will switch from guitar and bass Flash when I will switch guitar and drums and whatever and we do that and we also like to do a three-part harmony So which okay, we all do I think we do all pretty well. Nice. Nice.

Yeah Okay, yeah like a singing telegram, but anyway and the music the music is all original most of it is Covers too. All right. Yeah, but we try to keep it original because I like that I to explain them.

I am NOT a cover artist. I Write my own songs. I don't mind doing cover songs for life I'm in the same boat as him right for live performances But I am all the things him and I don't agree on that's one thing we do agree So you guys didn't bring any guitars or yes.

Yes Yeah stuff together and we'll be right back sounds good you're listening to the rock and roll Chicago podcast. Hi, I'm Rick Anthony I'd like to thank my radio brothers Ray the roadie and Hollywood Mike for allowing me to tell you about my podcast The someone you should know podcast we spotlight musicians authors and interesting people and we like to say we're making a difference one artist at a time The podcast is heard twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays and you could check it out on your favorite streaming platforms and on the web At someone you should know podcast.com. That's the someone you should know podcast with me Rick Anthony making a difference one artist at a time I'm Christy from crime cave podcast I've had a huge interest in true crime since my days of watching marathons of snapped back in the mid 90s I needed an outlet to talk about the cases that have haunted me for a very long time With each episode under 20 minutes. I shine a light on some of the most bizarre cases in the last 50 years Join me in the crime cave What's the what's the name of this song what do you want to do Why do you guys want to cover an original original? You want to go a day? Yeah.

Okay. This song is called It's called a day right like da wide. Yeah a why yeah, all right and Here is the Jed and shaggy trio with their original song called day To say Go to the market Open up your lucky nothing much to say me the senior Rita Well, I can't find the market Such a fine fine day Well, I can't find the market think I go by the bay Go to the Oh I Go home from the market.

I don't have much to say I Go home from the market. I don't have much to say Talk it to my father man that man can holler man. He's such a bother.

What a crazy day Talk it to my mother. She tells me of my brother Crazy day today All right, very nice. Hey, you know, I think you're I think your grandmother was wrong because you you know You might not be singing anything in Spanish, but you're definitely playing in Spanish.

I think it's Part of my heritage. Oh, of course. I Tell a lot of people I don't have any particular style because my even my strumming is different than most like I'll for instance when I learned eight days a week by the Beatles It's the first Beatles song and complete song that I ever learned on guitar and I still play it today but I don't do all the the Strumming that's supposed to be done the way I saw it on the tablatures Because what I what I find and I feel kind of weird to say is it seems that my strumming hand seems to be singing along With me.

So when I play you kind of can hear Sort of like a singing method in the way that I strum and it depends on really the song because there are times where I Can do straight? Stuff, you know other than that It's more like, you know, just you know a little and believe it or not My base playing is based on his guitar playing So I little instead of playing what a regular bass player would play. I actually follow the rhythm guitar player So like when we play eight days a week, I don't play the bass like McCartney I play the bass like he play he so when you you hear them both in unison I actually I like the way we do it better actually and I believe they call that a cover You know Cover doesn't necessarily mean playing the song exactly the way We don't I would I would just like to take this one second here and for all our Hispanic listeners out there I just want to say the stars escutando el podcast rock and roll, Chicago All right, I didn't know you had that in you I got it here on the computer I Don't have it in me either so Yeah, it was funny I was listening to that and I was I was I was just thinking to myself if you saw me kind of Giggle a little bit in the middle of your song as I was thinking to myself boy There is a huge Spanish or just Latin influence in this song and then you started counting in Spanish That was actually a mistake when when I taught it to John in order for him To get back in the song I started counting, but I did it in English, right? And when we recorded the song the first time I said, hey, well, we're you know, you're you're doing it in a Latin way I said why not count in Spanish on Spanish? It sounds worse, right? It just fits the song better. I think oh, yeah I think if it was in there as a mistake, I mean Totally yeah totally went ahead a lot of you know, I was picking up sounds of like like rare earth and stuff like that as well Yes, it's fun.

He's constantly getting dirty. Are you kidding? you know, it's funny you say that because We've I've been told and even when I started to get together with jet that we remind people of bands from the 60s and they so forget us so easily, you know And it's funny because you know When it when it comes to songwriting, you know, I was influenced by the Beatles When it comes to singing and I long grew out of it I was influenced by Elvis and sometimes it still shows depending on the type of song that I sing You know, but I eventually got out of that to where I can present my own voice To people and I tell people I says, you know, I don't like to categorize what my songs are I let everybody else here and Let them you know, and like you said you can hear the Spanish You know, I wasn't thinking about it because when I wrote this song, I was just playing around with the scale Sure, you know, I was just going And you know when I showed it to my other partner, he's the one who came up with the the day parts Okay, and and and following that I'm the one who came up with the the faster part that we do Okay, so that's how the song actually came. It was an instrumental when it started out It was called Myra song.

Okay, okay, you know, but it was just me actually playing with the scale Meyer Just like piss you off and you said no You know, and so I showed it to him and like I said, he's the one that did all these He's the one that came up with the day parts, you know, and then I'm the one who followed with the more up You know, so like with the going to the playa, you know some papaya that was that's that faster part is me With all the slower part. It was actually him. Okay, and the opening of the song with the bass I came up with that Repeating his day day was such a fine fine day I came up with that too when we were recording it because I kind of I was kind of feeling left out We were recording I don't understand to be playing playing bass Right because when we when we originally were gonna do the song we just started off with both of us starting Simultaneously, and I thought wouldn't be kind of cool to have a bass opening for you Don't see a lot of rock and roll songs with bass opening So I thought that we could be kind of cool to do that and then he chimes in there and the rest of the song Kicks off so unless you're Jack White in the White Stripes Yeah, so how many how many songs do you guys have written oh That many It's funny to ask that we actually wrote a song based on day We mentioned margarita.

We I wrote lyrics to a song called margarita It's actually the first song him and I wrote together and today we still we still perform it It's a it's a tongue-in-cheek. Am I talking about a beautiful woman or am I talking about a drink? Well play him. No Yeah, like I said when it comes to songs if I was to pick by myself I have anywhere from 150 to 200 in well, and he was it as with my other partner probably another 25 to 50 With John probably somewhere near 50 to 100.

Well, you know, it all depends, you know, but we could be here all night This song is called margarita Margarita All right, you know, you know, we should have told you before you don't have to sing right in the microphone You have to talk right in the microphone But if you get right here and sing and your voice goes louder your voice is gonna overpower everything so you can back off the Microphone when you're singing because we need the microphones also pick up the guitars. I already got stuff in the room I'm sorry. I'm gonna put this right at the base though.

So that's the instrument that you're gonna hear the least That's true Ready yeah, one two, three four For the whiskey and my light as heaven sings The pain is just first-class It was always raining and now it even snowed There's no complaining As now the sunshine shows Margarita margarita How I love you Margarita margarita margarita Next up you were through Margarita, tell me is this true? Margarita, Margarita, how I love you Margarita Margarita, Margarita, how I love you Margarita Margarita, Margarita Margarita, Margarita Margarita, if you hear Margarita York. I can't remember it. It was so long ago.

He closed it. Wow. I had loved the atmosphere because the guys, they had a jazz feel.

Flash here, he's pretty jazz and blues influenced and I think that adds to what we have, you know. Our version of my life is very jazzy. Oh, right.

He's playing the piano riff on the guitar and I'm adding the bass half on the bass and with Shaggy's playing drums and it's it's it's a really really great version. Really? Yeah. Well, I think maybe that should be the cover that they do.

Why don't you take us out with that song? Yeah, I think that should be the cover. You know, I think you piqued everybody's interest. Yeah, that's right.

At least ours. Do I make my apologies now and right now? I mean, go ahead. It's your life.

It is my life. And right now we are everybody. That's right.

That's right. We've got to put one of those in front of the guitar and Ray can swing his microphone over there. There we go.

One, two, three, four. You should have told me it's time to come home. Go ahead with your address to offer me a second chance.

I never said I was a victim of circumstance. I still belong. I still belong.

Don't get me wrong. You can speak your mind but not on my time. They will tell you you can't sleep alone in a strange place.

Then they tell you you can't sleep with somebody else. Oh, but sooner or later you sleep in your own space. Either way it's okay to wake up with yourself.

I don't need you to worry for me cause I'm alright. I don't want you to tell me it's time to come home. I don't care what you say anymore.

This is my life. Go ahead with your own life. Leave me alone.

I never said you had to offer me a second chance. I never said you had. No, no, no, no.

I never said I was a victim of circumstance. I still belong. I still belong.

Don't get me wrong. You can speak your mind but not on my time. I don't care what you say anymore.

This is my life. Go ahead with your own life. Leave me alone.

Keep it to yourself. It's my life. Keep it to yourself.

It's my life. Keep it to yourself. It's my life.

Keep it to yourself. It's my life. Boy, that's not easy to play on guitar, is it? No, no.

He doesn't even make it look easy. That was good. Thank you.

Absolutely. So how do people find you? Usually with a magnifying glass. Very good.

Only me though. With the sun. He's microscopic.

You guys have a website? We have a YouTube page. We have a Facebook page. We have a... A ReverbNation page.

We're just about everywhere on social media. YouTube probably is the best thing to see because all our live videos are on there. Every time we play a gig, we try to get it on video if we can.

What about the music you recorded? Is that available anywhere? We do have stuff on the internet but usually what we do is email us and we can usually work something out. Whether we do something electronic or CD or what have you. Nothing's uploaded to ReverbNation or anything? We have some stuff but it's our older stuff.

We haven't done anything really with Flash. Right now we are working on a project to bring nothing but original songs where the people who like us, they can get a taste of everything that we do. So there's going to be a lot of vocals.

I even brought some samples for today to leave with you. Plus a business card that actually has the YouTube page link and all that. Excellent.

Very good. Alrighty guys, thanks for coming out. Thank you for having us.

Very unique sound. Thank you. The Jett and Shaggy and Flash.

Power Jett and Shaggy and Flash. Officially the Jett and Shaggy trio. Thanks a lot.

Thank you. Well that was a very interesting interview. That was.

They got a unique sound. Yeah, I didn't know what to expect. I definitely don't think I expected that.

No, not at all. They had much more of a Latin influence than they originally let on. And beachy like you said, that one song, Margaritas.

Sounded a little beachy like it could be at a bar in Key West or something and they'd be playing. Right. You know, just sit back, chill, have a martini or a glass of wine kind of music.

Definitely. Definitely. So if you like them guys out there, you heard a few of their songs, plus a cover, contact them.

They can get some music to you. Jett and Shaggy trio. Trio.

With Flash. With Flash. That's right.

So. I read about Flash. As always, thank you for listening and check us out every Tuesday for another exciting episode of the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast.

See ya. The Rock and Roll Chicago podcast is edited by Paul Martin. Theme song courtesy of MNR Rush.

The Rock and Roll Chicago podcast does not own the rights to any of the music heard on the show. The music is used to promote the guests that are featured.