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.

You happy this week? I'm always happy. Are you? I'm having a good time. Good, what's new? Yeah, I don't know, I had another burger next door.

Another one? That's becoming a trend. It is, it seems to be every week. Yeah, you know, why not? It's close, it's there, it's beef.

Yeah, it's beef. What'd you have tonight? I just had the regular old Juliet burger. That's two weeks in a row you had that.

Is it? Yep, we had it last week. Yeah, and I didn't like the Thousand Island dressing on it. No.

This time I had him not put the Thousand Island dressing on it. It's better that way. You don't put Thousand Island dressing on a burger.

No. You know, what is this? We're not in Connecticut. I know, I know.

You know, forget about that. But I put ketchup on a hot dog, so oh, I'm getting a lot of... Oh gosh, you know, we can't be friends anymore. It's too bad.

See ya. But you know what, the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast is looking for a co-host. It's that simple.

Warning, warning, warning. It is hard work being eye candy for a radio show. You're telling me.

Yeah. You're telling me, man. What are these guys laughing in the background? I think it's Still Rockin'.

Still Rockin'. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, I'm guessing it's Scorpion's Dockin' Tribute Band.

Well, I guess they'll tell us, won't they? No, no. You know what? I just prefer to think that they're a Scorpion's Dockin' Tribute Band, so we can all, you know, speak with a German accent. Holden! I was going to try and do it.

Okay, let's go. Actually, one of the things we like to say is that it's not just German, but it's also drunk. I've been here for four hours and these guys are still rockin'.

Okay. That's what it is. That's what it is.

I don't remember giving him permission to talk. He just interviewed me. Well, our guests can do that if they want.

Yeah. I think that should bring in the time that we say, introduce yourself, tell the people who you are. All right.

Still Rockin'. I'm Dan. I'm the bass player.

I'm Ron. I play the guitar and do a little singing. I'm Jeff.

I'm the drummer and lead singer. And I'm Rick, rhythm guitar, and I lead sing on one or two and then backing from the rest. Okay.

You can't all be lead singers. Hold on a minute. Who's the real lead singer? I'm the real lead singer.

You're the number one lead singer. You're the drummer and the lead singer. Yes.

Like a Phil Collins and Don Henley and many other greats. Okay. As we have many firsts on the program here, we actually have a band brave enough to put a microphone in front of a drummer.

That's true. Normally, you don't do that because you don't know what's going to come out of their mouth. Exactly.

It's very rare that they have that microphone. Yeah. So did you put this band together or whose brainchild is this? Well, actually, it was born out of charity back in 2009.

Honest to God, it really was. 2009, we had a family member who was diagnosed with cancer. Okay.

And the bills got to be too high. So we were sitting around and we hadn't played together in forever. In fact, we never played together, actually, all of us.

And we said, you know what, we got to do something here. So we did. And we did this benefit at 115 Bourbon Street.

Yeah. Everybody knows that place is right. And raised a crap ton of money.

And it was really fun. It was really fun. And so then we just said, you know what, this was so much fun and we're doing stuff for charity.

Let's keep doing this. And basically, that's what this band is now. It's a charity and a gift, basically, to anybody who needs us.

Right, right. Wow. That's interesting.

So every single gig that you do, everything that you put together, everything is all based on, all right, who are we going to help raise some money for? Well, I say that, yes, and I say no. Okay. Because we do get paid as a band.

Sure. But we do sell t-shirts to raise money for Tunnel to Towers. I don't know if you guys are familiar with them.

No. It's a veteran's organization. Okay.

And if a veteran comes back from active duty, or even if they're on a training mission, and they got injured, and they're beyond help by themselves, Tunnels to Towers will actually build them a smart home. Okay. And pay for it free.

If you lose a fireman or a police officer in the line of duty, they will pay that spouse's and that family's mortgage off. It's a tremendous organization. So for about the last three years, we've been selling our t-shirts and we sell them.

And then all of the profits from those t-shirts go to Tunnels to Towers. And I happen to work at a really great place that doubles any match. They match all my funds.

So in the last three years, we've raised $3,250 for Tunnels to Towers. Wow. Nice.

What's this organization do for podcasts that are struggling? Well, they'll actually put an ad out for a co-host if you need one. Yeah. I just might.

I'll see how the rest of this evening goes. Who are you going to find to push buttons like that? No comment. Yeah.

Okay. So now that's an interesting concept. What year was this? What was the first fundraiser? Yeah.

The first fundraiser thing was like in 2009. And then there was like a three year, four year hiatus before we actually got everybody together. And then we were looking for a bass player.

And I had the happiest Christmas of my life when I met this guy. I just threw up a layup on BandMix. You guys familiar with BandMix? You're looking for local I think it was Tinder.

Yeah. It was not. Grinder? It was BandMix.

Craigslist for musicians. You know, come over, murder me and my family and everything else. That's kind of how it was.

And bring your guitar. The keys under the mat. But honest to God, it was the day before Christmas I threw this ad up and I thought, okay, well maybe in a couple of weeks I might get somebody.

I actually got on Christmas morning, I got an email from this guy and he's been the best fit. I mean, just fantastic. He's into it, just like we are.

And it's awesome. Excellent. So you guys started the band first? No.

Well, what happened, the three of us have been playing on and off together since 1997. The year my mom passed away. A few weeks after that.

And it was on and off probably a couple times a year, that kind of thing. And we might have a gig or two every year, but that was about it. Um, so we, I've been in several bands.

Uh, that one was called Say Uncle. The next one after that was, uh, I had the Bourbons for a couple of years. And then when we got these guys together, I got to tell you, this is the best fit I've ever had.

This is the chemistry in this band is awesome. It's just absolutely great. So what's your background then? Um, what kind of bands were you playing in? Um, Say Uncle was basically a lot like what this one is, uh, pretty much the same.

Which is, which is what? Uh, classic rock, uh, up to date rock and the stuff that's come out lately. A little bit of blues. Uh, um, we did a couple of country tunes and.

We pretty much cover everything from Elvis to Pink and anything in between. But I think our wheelhouse music is really like eighties, nineties rock. That's our wheelhouse music.

Who sings the Pink? You do? Wow. You took my hand, you brought me out. You promised me you'd be around.

Oh, all right. He's looking me right in the eyes. I'm trying to melt you, man.

I hope you didn't have a stirring. No, there was no, there was no stirring there. Wait, it may have moved.

That might be the burger you had earlier. Could be. Is that mustard or mayo? I see.

Yeah. Okay. That's just disgusting.

If you see something that looks like a mayo or mustard down there. Yeah. If it looks like mustard, you've got more problems.

Some problems down there. So, uh, so tell me about, so, so the band, the bourbons were, we, we have liked bourbon. Why was the band called the bourbons? Basically, I wanted people to try to figure out, is it a band that's from suburban area or are these guys a bunch of bourbon drinkers? So I just threw it that way.

And I didn't, I spelt it a little bit funny. It was B U R B apostrophe N S. Okay. So nobody really knew what it was.

Gotcha. So the whole idea was to just keep people, you know, keep people guessing. And the first, the bourbons 1.0, I guess you could call it was basically classic rock with a little bit of blues.

And then a couple of guys left and then it was, it became a blues band that played a little bit of rock and roll as well. Gotcha. So we don't play blues anymore.

Yeah. Very little blues. Yeah.

Were any, were any of you guys in this, in any of these previous bands? We did not play with, no, we did not play with Rick in, in, in any of his previous, well, we, we did the say uncle thing. That was what started the whole, the whole, um, charity thing, but, but we did not do any of the bourbon stuff. Now, Jeff and I played together when we were kids.

We, we, he's my brother, so he's kind of stuck with me. Um, so they played together and they played together. Yeah.

Yeah. True. Yeah.

Right. And we fought a lot. You know how that goes.

Yeah. Right. There are many times we jumped over the drum set and started, you know, just beat.

Well, I saw you guys going at it outside before he came in on the sidewalk. It was awesome. He wouldn't pick up the tab.

I was, I was totally flashing back on that scene from stepbrothers. Did you touch my drum set? I'm going to put my nut sack on the drum set. He would never touch my drum set.

He would not. And I would not touch his guitar. He did leap over the drums one time after him.

Okay. Wow. Yeah.

Yeah. I can tell me brothers. It does that.

Yeah. So, so we, you know, we played together from the time we were little kids and in a million different variations of whatever kind of band. And then I kind of retired from the whole thing.

I'm a music teacher by, by profession. So I've been, you know, that schedule is crazy, you know, 13 hour days, rehearsals after school concerts, blah, blah, blah. So I kind of retired and they called me about three weeks before they had a gig somewhere because their lead guitar player dumped out on them.

And they're like, wait, we need you to do a gig. I'm like a gig when they're like three weeks. I'm like, how long? Three sets.

I'm like three sets, three weeks. That's a little work. 36 songs.

Yeah. Yeah. It's a little work.

So, um, I put it, you know, worked it out. We, we did it and I said, okay, I'll, I'll play, play with you guys till the end of December. Cause they had two or three more gigs lined up.

And that was two and a half years ago. So, you know, we're, we're having a good time. And, and like, like Rick said, these guys, they're, they're just a lot of fun to play with.

We have a great time together and it's all good. When you say music teacher, uh, you mean like, um, private lessons or you were a teacher at a school? No, I, yeah, no, I teach. No, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a choir director, uh, uh, in Naperville and I teach at middle school.

So, oh, okay. Sixth, seventh and eighth grade. What school? Uh, I'm at Hill middle school.

No kidding. Yeah. Over in like the farmstead neighborhood.

It's well, it's kind of like, it's as far North in Naperville as you can go. And as far West as you can go in Naperville, it's like right at route 59 to McDowell and that little neighborhood. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. And it's, it was the first middle school in district 204.

Yeah. Yeah. My, my wife actually grew up in that area.

I believe she actually may have went to that school. So then she probably went to a Bonzi Valley high school then too. Uh, no, actually she didn't.

She went to Naperville North. Okay. So she, well then she was probably just a little bit.

Or central or central. I can't remember one of those Naperville schools. Well, it's all, it's all kind of convoluted in the way.

Yeah. I just want to learn. Exactly.

I just want to learn. Why did Dan join this band? Dan, why did you join this band? Please, Dan. I'm sorry.

You guys, you have to excuse Ray. He just started Nutrisystem. It's looking good, Ray.

It's working out well. Yeah. You know, he's, he's right.

He's, he's emitting these fumes. So Dan, why did you join the band? I was just looking for another band to be in at the time. I was, uh, I had been in a band for a while called, uh, Rhythm Fish with Jeff Sismelich, who had been on the show before, um, with, uh, um, no, with Strung Out and, uh, Way Cool Rhythm Fools.

Yeah. We know him a little bit. He's a great, great, great guy.

Uh, and then was in a band for 10 years with Susie Castillo, April's Rain, who was also been on the show before too. Um, yeah. So it's, it's just, you know, it was just an opportunity to get into another band.

And, uh, you know, on a side note, the podcast here is really cool because it's so nice to hear other musicians in the Chicago music community come on and talk about themselves and where they've been. Um, you know, and it's been really cool listening to this and hearing the different stories from people and going, oh yeah, I remember that guy from 15 years ago or 10 years ago or five years ago. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, I'm surprised I haven't crossed paths with you guys. Cause I mean, you guys are just naming the bands that you've been in a whole bit.

Like I was in a band for years with a guy who was a guitar player in April's Rain for many years. Actually the two brothers, Johnny and Eddie Switzer. Yeah.

I was in a band with, I was in a band with, with those guys for years, both of them together in a band called Static. Yeah. I was the lead singer of Static.

Yeah. No, no, no. I was.

In 1979. In 1979. Yes.

In 1979, my brother and I had a band called Static. Static with a K. Oh, you got us there. And we were always pronounced as Static.

Yeah. You know, and now welcome to the stage, Static. No, Static.

We were like, you know, the Wanderers. No, the Oneeders. Yeah.

The first time I heard, first time I heard Eddie play, I was like, wow, that guy's really good. And then I heard his brother play and I was like, whoa. And then like the two of them, when they, when they would play together, you know, it was that, that brother thing where like the brothers in our band, um, they could just bounce off each other and they could finish each other's musical thoughts and runs and everything.

And it was just really cool to see that connection between two musicians at that level. Yeah. So why, uh, why were you looking for a new band to play with? Did you get fired? No, you know, uh, some, some other commitments had like led me out of the last band I was in.

Uh, and I was looking for something that was kind of local and South side. Um, and so, you know, flipping through band mix, happened to come across a band that was looking for a bass player that lined up with the interest that I had and the music that I had and the level of commitment that I wanted at the time. And it's been, uh, it's been awesome.

Very good. Yeah. Very cool.

Yeah. So what, so where did, uh, where do your influences lie? What kind of stuff are you into? Uh, I'm mostly into like harder blues kind of stuff, you know, Joe Bada Massa things. And, uh, you know, I, my, my bass player influences are more, uh, heavy, um, you know, talented musicians like, um, will Lee and, and Billy Sheehan, uh, and players that I can't play like Matt.

Yeah. Matt. Yeah.

He's more into like talented musicians. Yeah. Not, not just the worst guitar player.

Yeah. And luckily this band didn't need guys that could play bass like that. So it worked out perfect.

And it's kind of funny because Dan and I like Joe Bonamassa and Jeff just absolutely loves Joe Bonamassa, right? Jeff. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

It's like, it's, it's, I'm into songs that people want to hear and that get them up off their seat and start dancing and, and singing along. And that's what our band is. We're like, I don't look at us as like, we're musicians and you're like in the crowd or whatever.

And I don't think any of these guys do. Maybe he does. I don't know.

But I can tell you this, when we play some shows and every show we play, we bring tambourines, we bring maracas with a microphone is yours. If you sing and you can sing, get your butt up here and sing with us. Yep.

And it's all about your experience. It's not our experience. I look at what we do as we are invited guests to your party, right? So whatever you guys want, if you're into whatever we're doing, we start playing a Motown tune and you love it.

We'll go right back into Stevie wonder. We'll go right back into, uh, the temptations, anything that you're looking for, we'll do it. And that's why we're, when you ask us like, what do we play? We're all over the map, but we're what you want to hear, not what we want to play.

So are you guys pretty good at reading the crowd and changing your set list on the fly like that? Yeah, we do. I don't know if I would say we change our set list on the fly, but we will, if usually by set three, we'll, we'll have a good read of the room and we might say, Hey, let's drop those two. Let's move these two over here.

Kind of thing. Um, yeah, I wouldn't say it's like right on the fly, but occasionally someone will come up and say, Hey, can you do as easy top? And you know, we'll throw something out like that. Sure.

Sure. Sure. I know whatever it is.

Yeah. For me, it's the hardest thing is that first set. Cause like when you're playing in a new place, like when we play an established place that we've been to before again and again and again, they understand what we do and we know what they like.

So that's an easy gig. When you go to a new place and you're trying to read the room and it's like, okay, so you start with a little blues, you start with a little rocky, try to mix in a dance song and you see, Hey, did anybody get up? Did, did you see any toast happen? Did you see any head bobbing? You know what I mean? But if it's not working, then you just shift to the other way. Sure.

So have you guys ever considered adding a glockenspiel to your, uh, we found the money. You say that we found the glockenspiel though. We did find one, but there may be more.

There may be more. I actually took a class in college on playing the glockenspiel. So yeah, we're getting closer and closer.

It's going to be an all glockenspiel band. Well, we're going to, it's called Orff Instrumentarium and they're, they're instruments that were designed by the German composer Karl Orff to teach kids how to play music. So I did not, I did not, I did not do that in college.

I was having, I was having sex with girls in college. I don't want to, I don't want to talk about that. Come on.

Pentatonic melodies are so much fun, dude. To piggyback on something that Jeff said, one of our last gigs, I usually, I play, I go out in a crowd and you know, with a wireless unit and, um, we took a break and I was back out in the crowd again, wasn't playing, just went out there. And a couple of these guys, there's three guys sitting together and they said, you guys are good.

You know, we were like, you know, this was great. We only, we're only going to come in for a couple of beers, but we heard you guys playing and we stuck with you. And then he said, but the coolest thing is you guys just don't play music.

You guys are entertaining. We have a ball watching you guys. And it was like, yeah, that's, that's kind of like what Jeff was saying.

That's what we do. We like to have fun with, you know, with the crowd, bring, you know, bring, we even have little kids. We're kid friendly.

So we've got little kids coming up with playing all the tambourines in that. That sounds creepy. Yeah.

I was just going to say that. Yeah. We're going to, it's a family thing.

I'm, I happen to be their uncle. That's why it was called say uncle original. Oh, that's what it is.

Okay. And you're nothing. So he was trying to explain that relative wise.

He's everything. No relation at all. No, that might be a good thing.

They were in a band called say uncle. There is nephews. He's creepy drunk uncle.

Yeah. Yes. You just nailed it, Mike.

See, I love that. The thing that I like to think about and that these guys are also in agreement with, and you guys know this from doing this podcast, we have so many talented people all around us. Yeah.

You know what I mean? Like you wouldn't know that that bartender girl can sing, right. Right. Right.

Cause they don't, they, they might, they just might not have the, the gumption to get up there and do it. Right. But you know what? Until somebody makes them, you say, Hey, you know what? I heard you.

You're coming up. What's here. Here's five songs.

You pick one. Yeah. And I'll do that to you.

Yeah. You know what? It's great. You know what I like to do? I like to, I like to extend my hand like this, you know, to a woman that's been singing and she thinks, Oh, I'm bringing her up on stage.

Now I take my wireless microphone, put it in her hand. I walk away from her. We were standing in the middle of the room, holding a microphone in her hand.

So what you're going to do with that? I love it. I love it. Only problem is I'm the drummer singer.

So I'm behind the kit. I'm so glad nobody saw that. Exactly.

Ray is in timeout right now. I'm going in the corner now to pay my penance. Thank God it's not Lent anymore.

So if you're, if you're, if you're primarily, if you're the lead singer, I guess, playing, singing most of the songs and you guys pepper in with some of the songs that you sing on your own. What's the dynamic like on stage? I mean, you technically, I guess you don't really have a front man. So who's the person responsible for reading the room and leading all that stuff? It's kind of funny that we have friends that are also in other bands and like we go and support these bands just like they come and support us.

And you know, we gave you that list and whatever, but they're like, Hey, you know what? You guys are really entertaining and you are actually can lead the band from behind the kit. So, you know, I do a lot of one handed stuff. Okay.

I'd get the waving. I'll pull my phone out. I'll turn the light on.

Hey, let's do the light thing by one handed, but you know, it's only the simple songs. I mean, I can't, right. But yeah, I wasn't going to go there, but that's the creepy uncle right there saying that.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, after the microphone thing, I guess I could have said that Def Leppard, you know, yeah.

But yeah, that's what we do. And then, like I said, having the instruments out in front and inviting people, we'll put cards on your desk. Like if, like, you know, well, before we play, we'll hand out cards and we'll put them out on the tables.

And if you're celebrating something, and sometimes you'll get some crazy stuff. Hey, I'm celebrating my first day of celibacy. You know, I mean, you'll get stuff and I'll announce it.

I'll say it. And it'll make people laugh, you know, that kind of thing. But it's all about the involvement.

It's all about the interaction. Like I'm not a rock star. I have no delusions of grandeur of being a rock star.

I'm like I said, I'm an invited guest at your party, and I'm so happy to be there. You're listening to the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. I'm Christy from Crime Cave podcast.

I've had a huge interest in true crime since my days of watching marathons have 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. 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 can check it out on your favorite streaming platforms and on the web at someoneyoushouldknowpodcast.com. That's the Someone You Should Know podcast with me, Rick Anthony, making a difference one artist at a time. Have you ever improvised something, you know, because you guys sound like, well, I guess you guys sound a lot like me in the fact where sometimes what happens here comes out of my mouth and there's no way of stopping it.

I can attest to that. As a school teacher, I have a very high filter. Unfortunately, my wife has to hear the unfiltered version when I get home.

Have you ever done anything or said anything on stage that you wish you could take back? Oh, every show. You got to hear my backup vocals. So the way you said that, you make it sound like there are lots of shows where you don't run anything.

Is that really the case? No, not at all. I just want to see what other people's experiences are like and realize, should I really be this hard on myself? Okay, there's one I can think of right now that he'll attest to this one. What was the name of the song? Oh, Snortin' Whiskey.

Oh, yeah. Okay. We do Pat Travers, right? I had a room full of school teachers and we were in a local bar.

What's wrong with that, though? Nothing. School teachers rock. I'm married to one.

School teachers and nurses. Exactly. So I said, all right, who's into Snortin' Whiskey and drinking cocaine? And the room went dead silent.

You never saw the dance floor clear faster. It was like I lit a fire and said, everybody must leave now. All the phones went off because all the Facebook, they're like, we don't want that on our Facebook.

No. Yeah. And so, yes, I have done that and I'll never do it again.

Boy, and that's kind of strange because most of the time, if you say that, all the school teachers go nuts. Yeah. There must have been somebody there important.

We got a lot of school teachers in the family. Yeah. And one of them was my daughter.

And she's definitely afraid that somebody will put something on Facebook that some administrator will see. Whoa. Yeah.

And so if somebody was recording that and all of a sudden you saw a bunch of teachers doing this. Yeah. Yeah.

Right. Yeah. That's that's a little bit.

So that's why I will never, ever, ever do that again. Yeah. It's different.

Like when you were in the static days with the Switzers, right? Because there was no social media at that time. You didn't have people recording every show and posting it up right away. Now.

Oh, that's for sure. I mean, people barely had smartphones. Right.

I mean, I don't even think there were smartphones. I think during those days I had the Blackberry with the little ball that you had to roll around with your thumb. I was carrying the bag.

The bag. Yeah. Yeah.

Colostomy. I get that fixed. Smell-o-phone.

So have you guys have you expanded out? I mean, are you are you playing other gigs other than just for different charities now? Well, yeah, like I said, we're not a charity band like we've done charity gigs like we did. We did a Halloween prom this last October for Love Smiles, and that was for pediatric cancer patient children. And they basically would build libraries for these families so that the moms and dads had like a library of books to read to their kid while they're going through their chemo.

It's a beautiful thing. So we've done those. But basically we were a bar band.

But when we do our bar band thing, we always make sure that there's a charitable component there. If you're enjoying the band and you want to support what we're supporting, buy a shirt. OK.

You know, but it's not like we don't just do charity events. We play bars all over the place. We're all over town.

We're up north. We're down south. We're in the middle.

And you find some way to incorporate. Yeah. But without being you know, we're not pushy about what we do, but we care about first responders.

We care about teachers. We care about firemen. We carry we care very much about our military men and women in service.

Right. And we're going to do this for them as long as people will keep supporting it. Yeah.

Well, we've got a charity case for you right here, actually. He's a retired firefighter and paramedic. That's right.

Appreciate that. Well, we got we got a cop over here, too. He was a former cop.

I thought I smelled that. Yeah. No, that was the bacon he had with Kelly right next door.

It was candy bacon, wasn't it? Candy bacon. It was good. Well, Mike's band Cadillac Groove is they do they fundraise every summer season, right? Festival season time.

They fundraise for different charitable events. And this year the charity is the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66 right here. I lost her.

That's fantastic. Hey, it's Ray and Mike, and we got some great information for you. Yeah.

We just wanted to remind you about the fundraiser for the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66, which is taking place on October 27th at the Renaissance Center in downtown Joliet. You'll be able to get tickets at Cadillac Groove shows. If you see Mike or myself somewhere, we'll have tickets.

You can get them at a museum. They're only five dollars. Also at Cadillac Groove dot com.

You will be able to purchase them online as well. Very good. They're going to cost you five dollars a ticket.

There's going to be a ten dollar cover charge to get in the day of the event. And for your ten dollars, we will give you two more additional tickets as well as some Cadillac Groove swag. And the lucky grand prize winner will win the band Cadillac Groove.

And winner must be present to win. And so remember that. And Cadillac Groove will play for whatever event it is that you would like for us to play for.

You know, conditions do apply. That's true. We do have to get out there and get your tickets right away.

So wait, Cadillac Groove, have you done stuff? Because there's a there's a charity that that raises money for kids that are going into music in college out of it. I'm trying to think of the town that they're in out of Darien, I think. Shanahan's is the name of the bar.

Right. I know where Shanahan's is. Yeah.

And and the keyboard player there. I can't think of his name now, but he does a big thing. And I thought Cadillac Groove played on one of his one of his thing, his events that he puts together.

We may have. It was like in Boulding Brook or something like that at the tailgaters. Yeah, I think we did.

Yep. And that was a little while ago, though. Yeah, it was.

Yeah, it was a couple of years back. Yeah. Yeah.

I was probably may have even been been pre-COVID. We play a lot. So it's like foggy.

Yeah. You know, trying to remember all of them. We what we've done the past couple of years, we've actually shifted the charity this year to the Rock and Roll Museum where we are right now.

But in previous years, the charity that we work for is the 100 Club. So we raised money for the 100 Club every you know, for the past couple of years. Yeah.

So we we totally get the whole thing about wanting to give back. And, you know, in the whole bit, that's that's awesome. I always try to, like, sell this to my wife, you know, like, why are you doing this? Whatever.

It's like our golf. OK, this is our golf. Instead of going out and spending one hundred and thirty five bucks and losing twenty five balls and, you know, having a six hour day out on the greens.

I'm with my guys. Yeah, we're playing music. And then there are places that we go and people who like us.

Right. Come out. Right.

And like I said, it's not ours. It's not us. It's their party.

We're just there. Right. Speaking of golf, my brothers from MNR Rush are having a golf outing on August twenty third.

And proceeds from that golf outing are going to the Parkinson's Foundation. Last year we did the Cancer Society. The year before we did some sort of humane society.

So we do this golf outing every year. And where is it? What what what golf club? It's going to be at Lincoln Oaks in Crete. Very cool.

Yeah. Tickets are on sale right now. So so what's the most fun you guys have had? Tell me about the tell me about your night.

Yeah, well, it's true. I was going to say, yeah, not counting tonight. Yeah, probably.

I'm trying to think we last summer was was pretty good. Last summer was pretty good. Seneca.

Was that at Fat Daddy's? No, we know. No, we did. There's a there's a yacht club that hires us like every summer.

And these people throw one heck of a party. Yeah, right. They bring in food trucks and you name it.

Yeah, it's just a great time. It's four hours of just fun, sweating and having a good old time. Yeah, that's that's a lot of fun.

When we when we did what was the fest we opened up before we played before Forecast? Was that Homer Glenn? Homer Glenn. Yeah. Homer Glenn.

That was a great festival. People were real responsive. It was hot, sweaty, fun.

Yeah, we had a great time. And then the guys from Forecast came on after us. I don't know if you know if you know any of those guys, Danny and Billy Burns Brothers.

Yeah. And I've known I've known those guys again since we were kids, you know, back in the day, actually played in our band way back in the day, like 85, 86. Yeah.

Keyboard player and a singer. He also plays with Anthem. Oh, yeah.

Wow. So, yeah, really talented people. Great, great, great.

And it was it was it was really cool because I hadn't seen these guys in like 35, 40 years. And all of a sudden I hear one of them yelling my name from behind the stage. I'm like, everybody I know is on the stage.

So who is calling my name? You know, so I kind of wandered back there. I was like, oh, my gosh, I haven't seen you in forever. It was really cool.

Yeah, it was a lot of fun. So that's yeah, I would say that was fun. I like playing.

We play a VFW Hall in New Lenox. That is just a great place. It's it's real small.

And the place gets packed and people just have a good time there. You know, it's rowdy. It's good.

Drinks are cheap. Yeah. You know, you know, you can't overlook a good VFW Hall.

Yeah, no, seriously. Those gigs are always so fun. Yeah, no, that's great.

And you're around people that have been in there and done it. You know what I mean? And it's just I have the reverence for that. You know, it's like, hey, buy that guy a beer.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, and it's it's a show at a VFW Hall or American Legion Hall or any any place like that.

When the show starts, the show starts, period. There's you don't have that grace period where, well, we haven't had enough to drink yet. I need to go get a beer.

I need to have a cocktail. And then somewhere around the end of the second set, people start dancing just in time for you to take a break. Yeah.

Yeah. No, you start your first song. Bam.

There's people on the floor. Everybody's having a good time. The place is absolutely packed.

And as far as they're concerned, you're like the biggest rock star on the planet for the next three hours. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

June 21st of 2022, we played at. Yeah, the reason I remember it's my wife's birthday. Oh, OK.

Yeah. I was like, what is that going on? Forty eight a.m. Weather was warm and it was a south wind at seven miles an hour. That's that's that's surer than you believe, because it was we played the New Lenox Commons.

Well, some of you guys, because that's your aunt. You should know your aunt's birthday. Yeah.

Yeah. So exactly. Just wait till I tell her.

Well. And cricket and cricket. Yeah.

But when we started, it was one hundred and one degrees. Oh, wow. Five o'clock when we got finished, we packed everything up.

We're getting ready to leave. Temperature went down. It was all the way down to ninety two.

Oh, yeah. So that was that that was a hell of a cold front. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Cold front.

Wow. So, you know, it seems like with the type of gigs that you play and kind of like the aim or the goal of the band and everything, it sounds like maybe there might be a springboard for you guys to do some original music. You ever think about that before? We used to do original music.

My brother and I, when we were in a band called Fury, we wrote everything and did it for a long time, you know, played the Thirsty Whale and all of those all of those haunts, Haywires, Haymakers, blah, blah, blah, all of that stuff. But I used to have hair. Me too.

You know, at least for me right now, I'm just enjoying just playing again. And, you know, if something comes across my mind and I feel like writing it down, I might. But at this point in time, for me anyway, I'm just having a good time playing cover stuff and, you know, going out and partying with people.

The fun thing for me is I have a studio in my basement. It's, you know, digital. Everybody, I'm sure I have some don't think I got some big thing or whatever, but it's nice that that's where we record.

Right. Right. And like whenever I have song ideas or whatever, I can go down there and just bunk them out.

And, you know, but that I don't need to do that anymore. Like I said, I don't feel like I need to be a rock star or whatever. I do think that we all have a story to tell.

Right. You know, and I think that that's nice. And it's nice to know that you can do that and you have people around you that have that story to tell, too.

And if you can facilitate that and help them to do it, that's great. I did an album last year. I don't know if you've heard of the band 19 way back in the 80s.

OK, well, they all got together and they had like four songs and they wanted to do them. They didn't have a drummer and they asked me, hey, would you mind producing this for me? And I'm like, well, OK, I'll listen to it or whatever. And it's like it's hard rock metal, which is what I love.

And I'm like, heck, yeah, I'll do this. So we put out a four song EP that's available. You can look at YouTube and I think that's on Spotify.

I think it's available there. But that was so much fun. So that was their original music.

I didn't do any singing or anything. I was basically I was playing the drums and producing it and it came out great and it got a great response. So that was like enough for me.

And like if I ever get a chance to do that again with those guys or with these guys or with you guys, I'd jump in to do it. Sure. You know, it's just time permitting.

But but as far as like writing songs and trying to come up with something original and trying to sell it and like make it big, I've made it big in my life. I have. I have.

I got a loving family. I got great guys around me. I got awesome friends, a guy like me.

I'm just lucky to be alive and be who I am. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm actually working on an original song myself. I'm looking to bring it to the band soon. Oh, here you go.

Yeah. So I just wanted to share this now. Breaking news.

Yeah. It's a story of my personal life and I call it Ron Corbett's. The guitar player keeps looking at my junk on stage.

Look for that coming. How do you rhyme to that? That's what's taking him so long. Looking at my junk on stage playing like Jimmy Page.

There's trunk. There's there's skunk drunk. There's drunk drunk.

When you're drunk, you know, bunk. OK, well, you went there, Mike. You went there.

That's the man. Now you go. You go.

You go kneel in the corner now. It's all going to be on the album, the release next year called, you know, Drunk Uncle. You know, like Jeff said, though, yeah, I mean, I would I'd love to do a couple originals, but I wouldn't want to do a whole lot of them.

Just a few sprinkle it in. And the reason why is because like Jeff said, people are coming. They want to hear they want they want to hear, you know, something from Billy Idol.

They want to they want to hear something from Aerosmith, you know, or whatever. Are they going to be how interested are they going to be in our stuff? So if you sprinkle one or two in, that's not bad. But anything more than that, I think it'd be a killer.

Sure. So is that pretty much your set list? Give me give me a rundown. What's a what's a set list? I happen to bring one in.

Yeah. All right. Let's see here.

All right. Set one would be you start with Lonely is the Night. And look at that.

These guys don't these guys don't need readers. No, they don't live it. Then live it on a prayer.

That's not true, dude. I'm just wearing mine around my neck right now. Yeah, I wrote it like it's like, look at the font.

Sixty four. Oh my God. No, I was on stage.

Hold on. No, we use tablets. No, but we don't.

Oh, that's the other thing, too. I want to talk about. We don't use any tapes.

We don't play the tapes. We don't do any backing tracks. You just totally showed your age by saying tapes.

It's horrible. We don't play the tapes. We don't play the backing tracks.

I just you know what? All of our mistakes are made for you. That's right. And you know, there's no charge for absolutely free.

That's right. Comes with the admission. Yeah.

So Lonely is the Night. Living on a prayer. Running with the devil.

Don't let him go by Ariel. Hey, bartender. It's a little bluesy number.

Then we do another thing coming. But then we stop about halfway through and we do money money. It's right there.

Wow. And then for money money, we go into what you need, which is in excess. Then we'll do we do.

I always ask this question. I say, you guys like Queen or do you like ACDC? And you get like a 50 50 split. So we miss.

That's kind of a polarizing decision. Absolutely. So we mix.

We will rock you with Dirty Deeds. So we call it Rock Your Dirty Deeds. And we do those two songs jam together.

Nice. Then we'll do All Summer Long, which, of course, is Kid Rock. But he stole.

Basically, he stole werewolves and werewolves of London. And he also stole Leonard Skinner. So you just put those two together.

So then we throw a little bit of Leonard Skinner in there as well. Then we'll do Superstition by Stevie Wonder. You know, he never saw us play that, right? Yeah, I know.

In fact, he never saw you guys play that. I see the dumb button coming in. All right.

Then we get ready. The corner is free. Yeah, we do.

I'll take it in a minute. We do get ready by the temptations or we do the rare earth kind of version, I guess. Can't Get Next to You.

Then we'll do like all the small things from Blink 182. We'll do Rock and Roll by Led Zeppelin. Then we'll do Miss You by The Stones.

And then we'll end up with like a pink number, like Who Knew or something. So it's like a live jukebox. It's like a musical jukebox.

A little bit of something for everybody. The other thing too, and sometimes it can drive us crazy, especially if you need to check the tuning on your guitar. We're not a band that talks in between songs a whole lot.

We're like a CD. It's like boom, boom, boom. We keep cranking them out.

Sometimes you got to check the tuning and we got to go, no, Jeff, give me one second here. He doesn't like to give us the time at all. Well, that's okay because then everything just has a little bit of a punk flavor to it if everything is just a little out of tune.

There's nothing wrong with that. I have a friend that would say, well, then what you need to do is you need to throw in that Japanese pop hit called Tuning. And you were mad at me about Stevie Wonder never seeing me.

Interesting fact though, I guess, speaking of superstition, I just read an interesting fact. Did you know that Stevie Wonder wrote that song for Jeff Beck? Yes. I was shocked when I found that out.

I read that the other day. So Jeff Beck played on his album Talking Book. And as a thank you for playing on his album, he wrote Superstition, which Beck was supposed to record as an instrumental.

And the record company had contractual power to say, no, this song is going to be a hit. You're going to record it yourself. And he wouldn't let them give it to Jeff Beck.

So Jeff Beck ended up recording because we left as lovers or ended as lovers or something like that is what he ended up recording. But that was originally supposed to be an instrumental that Jeff Beck was going to record. We heard the same thing.

Well, I am glad that Stevie did that song. What a fantastic song. Yeah.

I was glad up until the point where every cover band started playing in that song, mine included. It's like, yeah, it's a fantastic song. How about we do another one? Because Stevie Wonder has a lot of them.

We do Sign, Seal, and Deliver, too. Oh, that's cool. That's one that people cover.

That's girls, you know, that brings the girls out because they love it. Yeah, that's one that bands don't cover. The other big one is, what is it? I Wish.

That's another one that people cover a lot, too, as well. So what do you guys have coming up? August. August, September, through the rest of the year.

You got some gigs coming up? August, we're playing Bedford Park. They have a big, huge village picnic, and we're headlining that, which is an absolute treasure from the heavens, honestly. It's going to be so much fun.

And then we'll be back down in Seneca. We do them usually when they take their boats out and when they bring their boats in. And one of our friends just opened a bar out there, Anchors Away.

And so we'll be closing the season for them in August, and then September, October, November. Who knows? What's this yacht club in Seneca called? Is it open to the public? It's the Mariners Yacht Club. I believe it's open to the public.

I think you have to have a boat, but you don't have to have a boat to come down to those shows at all. But the way to get people in boats to go to this yacht club is to advertise on the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. Yeah, that's right.

We're looking for sponsors. We are always looking for sponsors. I think I know where that is.

Is that the... Is that the... It's right on the Illinois River. I was going to say, and it's just after you go over the big bridge. Yeah, and then you turn left.

And you turn left, and it's right down there. Yeah, it's right there. Yeah, I know exactly where that yacht club is.

And we usually take the boat hangar where they have all the boats, and that's where they have that party. So when they open the thing and they move all their boats out, you got this huge aircraft hangar. And then they bring the food trucks in, they bring bars in, and it's just a gigantic dance floor, and those people party.

Yeah. Love the Mariners Boat Club. Love that.

River folk, man. Yeah, those are always good gigs. Yeah, for sure.

It's really kind of cool, too. That's the one, when you do make the left, you go underneath the bridge. Right, right.

So yeah, you go over there. Now, anchors away is going to be on the north side of the river. Yeah.

Almost directly across. And it's just going to be really cool. He bought the place.

He's renovated it and everything else. And I think, I can't say for sure, but we might be involved in the grand opening in August. He's opening up, I think, later this month, but I think he's going to do a grand opening in August.

All right. Cool. Okay.

Well, with that said, I'll tell you what, you guys have 30 seconds to say whatever it is that you want to the world to get them to come out to your next gig. What's that going to be? Go. I'll say you have to come out and hear our new original song coming out to new shows soon about Ron Corbett's inappropriately staring at my junk on stage.

I think that's, I think that might be it. How do I know this has got to be on the edit button? Oh my gosh. Our next, well, our next show is going to be Great Lakes, isn't it? They won't hear it by then.

We'll be done by then. Oh, that's right. Okay.

But you rocked that show. We were there. Best show I've seen you guys do.

It was fantastic. All right. Well, Bedford Park.

I swear to God, I wasn't staring at this stuff. Bedford Park is going to be an amazing gig. It's going to be a lot of fun.

It's going to be, you know, good weather, good time. Yeah, it'll be great. Looking forward to that.

Here's my 30 seconds. And this is for, not for me, not for you, not for anybody, but anybody who comes out and sees us. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for coming out to see us and making it worth our while.

Because you know what? It's all about you. It's not about us. Thank you.

And God bless. If you want to have a good time and you want to hear some great music and be entertained. And like I said, too, if we make a mistake, you get to hear it.

So the comedy is free. You don't, so we don't charge. And that's the other thing that we don't charge.

We just, because what happens is we charge only for all the practices and all the rehearsals, the pick up the equipment, set it up, take it down, everything else. But we actually play the gig for free. We're just charging you for all the other stuff.

Yeah. But if you want to have a great time and seriously, you want to play, if you think you can sing, come on out. All right.

So where can people find you social media wise? Social media wise, it's a Facebook. It's still rocking, which is S C H T I L L R O two K's K K E N still rocket. Because we wanted to make it easy for people.

Yeah. It's basically, it's fake German and it's the words still rocking. And that's because we're all old guys, but we're still rocking.

And they are not as scorpions docking tribute, man. Nope. Nope.

The guy that, the guy that had a hard time with that was Gene Simmons. He's looking at the name of it and he goes, what is this? And who the hell came up with that? Wow. Alrighty guys.

Well, thanks for coming out. This was a lot of fun. Thank you for having us.

Can't wait to get up. So much for having us guys. It was great.

It's great to meet you and you guys got to come out to see this museum. It's incredible. And support the rock and roll hall of fame here in Illinois.

Thank you guys. Oh yeah. Yes.

That's, that's a still rocking, still rocking, still rocking. Yeah. Not scorpions.

No, not scorpions. Not docking. Not docking.

But, but the way they spell it though, I totally thought they were going to be right with the, with the double K. You're right. It very well could have been. Yeah.

Could have been, but they got a nice eclectic selection. They do, you know, a little bit of something for everybody. Good cover band.

Yep. But they've got a good little, they got a good little stick with, you know, like having some type of a charity associated with some of their gigs, you know, give, give back a little bit. That's right.

You give back and, you know, dealing with, you know, working with the audience, you know, getting people up on stage to sing or play or something. Yeah. That's very cool.

I can identify with that. Yeah. Yeah.

You gotta, you gotta work the audience. You just can't sit there and play and just go from song to song to song and take a break. Right.

That's right. You know, people, you need to talk to them. You gotta do something.

Interact. Like us. We're, we, we talk to people every week.

That's right. And they listen to us maybe. And we have, we have a blast.

We do have a blast. And we ask questions and we get to make stupid jokes. That's right.

And these guys are great. They went, they went right with our stupid jokes. And all right.

Well, this, I think this podcast is finally coming to an end. I'm just going to close us out. You go clean that mayo off your pants.

And thanks for listening to the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. Check us out every Tuesday for another exciting episode. See you next week.

Hey, everybody, it's Ray the Roadie. And this is Hollywood Mike of the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. If you've been joining our weekly program, we have great news for you.

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So go to Road to Rock dot org, scroll down and click on radio station. That'll bring you to the Road to Rock radio, a station committed entirely to the great music from Illinois, from Chicago blues born on Maxwell Street to today's rock and roll and everything in between. 24-7 all music with its roots in Illinois.

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.