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 is Hollywood Mike.

Hello Hollywood Mike, how are you? It's been a long time. It has, we had some malfunction here at the studio and weren't able to do any interviews. But now we're back in the saddle again.

Hey, but we had all kinds of time to watch the Bears Scooter Pooch, so. Oh please, please. That's why I have a second favorite team.

Yeah, what's that one? The Cowboys. And yesterday they really kind of screwed me. But you got to have a second with the Bears.

You can't just have the Bears. That's why I've been a Saints fan most of my life. I totally understand that.

Well, they didn't help yesterday. No, no, they didn't help either. You know, it looked like they were actually going to win.

And how the hell did Green Bay come back and beat them by one? I don't know. I mean, maybe, maybe Rogers taught him something. I was double pissed.

Yeah. Yeah. So anyways.

So we got some guys here in the studio. I don't think they want to listen to us talk football. No, I don't think anybody needs to.

There's been enough football talk going on for the past couple of days. All righty. So joining us tonight is the band Blind Reality.

All right. The button works. It still works.

It still works. I love it. It still works.

So why don't you guys go ahead and introduce yourselves. Tell everybody who you are and what you do in the band. Yeah, give us your name so we can forget them real quick.

Hi, my name is Mark Bajic. I'm the bass player. Mike Henry, I'm the vocalist.

Yanniv Arazi, drums. Tom Prisbyla, guitar, aka Sparky. I saw that on your website, Sparky.

How'd you get Sparky as a nickname? I'm an electrical engineer. So it kind of falls right in the... That'll do it. He's just not real good at it.

That's the reason why. You're an electrical engineer. Boy, who gave you that nickname? It is actually back from baseball, actually.

It's... Okay. It's actually even a worse story. But... All right.

This is unedited. You can tell them. That's right.

You can tell us anything. You can tell us whatever you want. Yeah, we'll pick and choose.

So it wasn't the guys in the band that gave it to you. No. All right.

It wasn't lack of creativity or from, you know, guys in the band. It's like when my kids were growing up and they always wanted a pet, right? And so my daughter would buy a hamster and the hamster's like brown. So she'd name him Brownie.

Not a lot of thought goes into it. No, not really. So where are you guys out of? What do you consider to be your home base? We're kind of all over the place.

Mark's from the city. I live up in Mundelein where Jesus lost his sandals. He's in Riverside and Tommy's in Shorewood, right? Wow.

We're spread out. You're cutting across the spectrum. You got somebody else in the band too, right? Yeah.

Jerry couldn't be here. He's working double. So he couldn't be here.

He's in Tinley. Yeah. I got them all.

Is Jerry one of the guitar players? Yes. Yes. Okay.

All right. I did look at your website and everything just to make sure I knew what was going on. Hello, Jerry.

We didn't forget about you. That's right. So, Tom, I assume that you're the one that, I mean, just judging by your calendar of events, you're the one that does all the bookings.

Oh, no. No? Me, the bass player. Oh, really? No kidding.

All right. Well, I mean, because I looked at it. Let's see, you guys have the crowd around me and you've got bedrocks on there and you're playing out in Lamont and the whole bit.

And you came from where? Chicago. Okay, Chicago. All right.

So that's not that bad. How'd you find all those guys out that way? Well, some of them contacted us. Some of them, actually, Tommy helped a little bit on the Shorewood area.

Okay. Right. But a lot of them come through our Facebook or our website.

Right. Right. They'll reach out to us.

Nice. Nice. And you guys are playing the Halloween show at Bedrocks.

Yes, we are. Yes. How was that? Again, I played there years ago.

It's got a pretty good, you know, it's interesting because when you're there at Bedrocks, you walk in, you know, before the band starts and it looks like it's a really young crowd. Oh, yeah. And then all of a sudden, about an hour and a half into it, all of a sudden, it's like, wow, these are all the people my age now.

Wow, they got old really quick here. So nothing's changed. Because like 12 years ago, I was in a band called Forget Hannah, and we played a lot of the same music that you guys play.

And it was exactly that. You walk in, it was a bunch of 21 year olds and an hour into your set, you look around, it's a bunch of 40 year olds. Like, wow, what the heck happened? Yeah, exactly.

They changed. I can actually walk to their new location over in Romeoville. OK.

They've got that smaller location that's located. Well, there used to be a bank, but the bank isn't there anymore. So it used to be a place called Mickey's.

And then I think a couple of years ago, they bought it and turned it into a Bedrocks. So I'm over in that area over there. I know the area pretty well.

So yeah. So how does the whole thing start? I saw on your website, it said that you guys have been friends for like 30 years. Oh, the better part of 30 years.

No kidding. How'd that come into play and how'd the whole band start? Ah, well, let's see. What was that? About 1992-ish? Yeah, 92.

Tommy and I met through a mutual friend. And I'll tell the short version or the long version? I mean, you can tell whatever. Long version.

We got like 45 minutes, long version works. So I was playing bass and a buddy of mine was singing and he was playing piano. I had never sang before.

I did background vocals. And then he got into some trouble with a lady and had himself a youngin. So he had to quit.

So it was kind of a show of hands who wanted to sing. So I got elected because, I don't know, I was the only one. He was the only one to raise his hand.

I was the only one too fast. And then Mark and Tom knew each other back then. So he brought him because I couldn't play bass and sing at the same time.

There's too much talent. Yeah, let's go with that. So yeah, we kicked around for a couple of years and we did a bunch of stuff.

And then we kind of split up a bit and everybody was kind of doing their own thing. And then about five or six years ago, these guys called me up and said, hey, we want to put things back together. And I was like, I think I'm too old for that, but I'll give it a shot.

You missed your opportunity to say put the band back together. I just wanted to point out you skipped over that. We can edit that.

So they asked me to put the band back together. Well, we got to play for more than just booze. It actually started with an open mic night out in Downers Grove.

Yeah, at Ballydoyles. Okay, right. We played three songs and Ed H came back right away.

Yeah, our old drummer, he was the one that talked us into doing it. And that's why our new drummer is sitting here next to me. Because he said, yeah, I got a signed up for this open mic.

We're going to go right up. It's going to be cool. It was like a Wednesday night.

And it was like, we got there at like 10 o'clock. We're supposed to go right up on stage. 10, 11, 1130 rolls around.

I'm like, I got to work in the morning. What's going on? So finally, they're like, oh, yeah, go ahead. You guys can go up and play.

And like you said, we did a couple of tunes and it was like, yeah, we're going to have to do this for another, I don't know, 15, 20 years till I can't anymore. Was that when you got back together again, was that all the original members? It was four of us. Four, yeah, four of us.

Our original drummer, we got back together. He was in the band. Tony, he's a really good guy.

But he had some other things pop up. So Mark knew Yaniv. And we got lucky that he wasn't too busy.

So we roped him into it. And we've still got him for now. So what, you guys started, what, sometime around the early 90s? 92, 93 or something like that? Yeah, I think, yeah, I was 20-ish.

Couldn't even play in a bar. We've had a lot of those come through here. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, we actually interviewed an entire band where only one person was of legal age. So nice. And they're doing pretty well, pretty successful band in the area.

So we understand that completely. That's awesome. Don't say the name, don't say the name.

No, I won't do that. So back in 92 or 93, the music, if you were playing a lot of the same stuff, the music was like brand new on the radio at the time. It was.

So you weren't like doing like mid-80s stuff in 92 or 93. Yeah, it was new back then. And now it's just, it's not new.

But it's funny because you try to come up with different songs to play. And it's like, you start to run out after a while. Because it was, you know, 25 years ago.

It's kind of like, let's put a new spin on this or, you know, just grab something else. You know, we do like 80s stuff now. And we do songs by girl bands and stuff like that just to, you know, change things up a little bit of country every now and then.

I said that just for you. So when you started off, was it, did you always want to be a cover band? Or did you get together and say, let's be an original band? What was the takeoff point? No, it was always a cover band. Yeah, I think you guys, you did some originals at one point.

Yeah, before I ever met Mike and them, I was in an original band. And I was touring the Midwest. And you know, you get to that point in life where they always tell you about, you hear all these musicians say, well, you're either going to do this for a living or not.

Right. And I go, man, I ain't making enough money to do this for a living. So I guess I'll be not.

Yeah, I want one iteration of blind reality. We did some original stuff, but I think we sold, and I want to see at least seven or eight demos. So we made like 35, 40 bucks.

So it was really sweet. But yeah, you invested wisely. Yes, y'all.

Yeah, it only cost probably two grand or so. No, actually, actually, we recorded it in my buddy's house. I remember he took a curtain and like blocked off the laundry room.

So I'm standing there. I'm standing there with a mic in front of his washer and dryer. That's how I recorded our demo.

And the washer and dryer was running at the time. I just left it in there. It was totally raw.

Go out and look for that demo, everybody. Yeah, I was going to say, is it available anywhere? Somebody, there's seven or eight people bought them. So they're running around.

Oh, perfect. See, if three more people buy it, it'll go aluminum. I actually have it on my iPod.

It's, I don't know how I found it. I have it on my iPod. My wife just laughs her ass off.

Anytime this stuff comes on when we're in the car or whatever, she's like, my God, what were you doing? I'm like that. I was being cool. It was original stuff.

So which one of you guys is putting all the content on your website? That's me. That's you as well. Mr. Booking guy, yeah.

Geez, he does everything. Well, you missed it earlier. I said, I had said, I said, well, you already know who our creative content guy is because he keeps asking to take pictures and everything else.

Right, right. I think I have more fun with the social media part than playing sometimes. Yeah, well, you know, you get the hype and you get to make shit up.

Yeah, it's great. You put it on the website and make everybody look good, you know, put a little perfume on the pig and everything's good. No, no, but there was one that there was, you know, I went to the website again and I saw that there was a blurb on there where you said it was time for you guys to kind of pack everything up, hit the road and finish where you left off.

So I was like, where, where was that? Where was that left off period? What the heck happened, which made you guys decide that, okay, we're done for a little while. That was that sometime in the late 90s. Okay, we had that break and we all kind of did our own thing and then picked up where we left off.

Let's just make it honest. Let's just make it honest here. Our original drummer at the time decided that he was going to do the married thing and move off to Colorado, which never happened.

And then never told a single left, forgot, didn't leave for Colorado. So he never got married or he didn't leave? No, he got into getting married, but didn't end up leaving for Colorado. And well, that was the 90.

He left. He left us. Yeah, he left us.

Yeah. Okay. So that was the 96 break.

Do you guys still, do you guys still talk to him? Yeah. Oh, you know? Yeah. So it wasn't, it wasn't just a ploy or a plot to say, you know what, I'm going to tell him I'm moving to Colorado.

Yeah. I don't know who he was telling. I don't know.

I don't know what the hell happened there. So that was, that was about 96 or something like that. Yeah.

Yeah, right in there. And was that done pretty much until like five years ago? No, no. Well, yeah, I, I, I got together with some other guys and I just, I just kept the name and we, we played for another, I think it was like six or seven years.

Then I kind of, I kind of quit for a little while, just kind of took some time off. And I know these guys were in other bands together and stuff like that. So we just kind of, everybody bounced around for a while.

And then, like I said, like four or five years ago, we got back together and hopped back in. So right, right. I want to make sure I'm saying this right.

You know, is that how you say it? You need, you need, you need. So, so when did you get folded into the mix then? I think it was late 2019. I was friends with Mark and we started bonding over.

We both really love Bob Marley. And so he's got a great Bob Marley collectibles and memorabilia at home. And I'm a big Bob Marley fan too.

And we were talking, we were hanging out at some point. I remember it was like August. He's like, hey man, we need a drummer.

Can you learn 34 songs in five weeks? At that point. Easy. Easy.

I had, I was playing a lot, like up till 11 years. I had hung, I stopped playing for 11 years. So I was, I was really into music when I moved to Chicago.

Kind of quit when I became a dad, had kids and, and then really kind of stopped playing. And then Mark was like, okay, we need you to play a show. You know, just learn three hours of material.

No big deal. Right. So, but it was a great opportunity to like get back on the saddle and just, you know, get, get playing again.

It's been a blast. It's been an absolute blast ever since. Right, right, right.

So, so run me through the family tree, I guess. So 96 comes around, you guys decided to call it quits and y'all went and did your different things. What were you doing after 96, Tom? 96, I was playing in another cover band.

I was playing in another cover band at the time, actually, which is now Coverlicious, which is another band you guys did interview. Yeah, absolutely. At the time we were called Life is Drama.

I've heard of that. Yeah, absolutely. That was me and a couple of buddies that started that.

And, and actually the singer of that band, we found her doing karaoke and said, hey, let's try to do this band thing. And that lasted for about eight or nine years and got a lot of play and everything else. And then it got to a point that it was like, it was getting to the point it was becoming work.

Right, right. And when it becomes at a point where it's like work, like, okay, all of a sudden now I don't have any me time on weekends or anything like that. It's like, okay, I got to kick this back.

So I'm like, well, why do we want to kick this back some? Cause this is don't going really good. And then, you know, it was kind of like, well, you guys want to do this? Go ahead and do another version of this, call it whatever it was. And that's how that whole kind of split up.

And then I was like, the bass player from that band called me up and said, you know, I'm thinking about doing something. I need a guitar player. So I was doing that for about two years.

And then that kind of fizzled out with people. And then this whole thing came back up and it was like, yeah, we want to do this. And it started out as doing a charity thing for VFW to do it as kind of like a fundraising kind of show and just for us to do it.

And then everybody's like, you want to do some more? The VFW was our first after we did the open mic night was our first like show that we actually had our own crowd. Okay. And then that started to the paid events start or the paid shows started coming after that.

Which VFW? In Bridgeport. Bridgeport. Okay.

All right. Post 5079. But back to what Tommy was saying about his life, his drama.

Right before that, him and I played in a band called Shoemaker. Yeah. At the end of about 2000.

Yeah. About 2002, 2003. And that was the last time I played.

And only once in a while we would get together as a little reunion in the basement. And that was it. But yeah, I stopped playing for about almost 15 years.

Yeah. Wow. No, no kidding.

Well, I'm going to pull on another thread because life is drama and coveralicious. And I want to say sometime around the late 90s, like 98 or 99. I was also on a bill with you guys at some festival or something like that.

I was in a band called Static at the time. Okay. And I swear I've done a festival.

And it's like either the three of us were the same day or either the same weekend or something like that. Because I know the folks in coveralicious too. About close to 10 years later, I ended up in this band, Forget Hannah.

And the folks from coveralicious came in here. We all recognized each other. So it just keeps coming back around again.

Well, that's a small world. Yeah, that's what you realize, like doing this is like, it's really a small world when you start getting out there and knowing everybody. And I always laugh at the things that people are trying to compare themselves.

Like, oh, we're a better band than they are. It's like, you know what? This is a network, man. You know what? The only competitor you have is yourself.

Right. Because you think it's a race to the finish. And none of us are to the point where we're doing this professionally and require this as a job.

Yeah. When you're 25, it's a different story, though. Then it's like, well, fuck those guys.

We're much better. But you know what's even funnier than that is when you've got a bunch of bands that share members, right? And there's a lot of bands out there that share members. Right.

And so you get a bunch of people in a bar arguing about, oh, this band's way better than them. You got to go see them. They suck.

Well, four to five guys from the same band over there. All they did was change their lead singer. We do have a couple of backup players.

We got a couple of backup players. Yeah, the VT. Yeah, see, that's what it's kind of blossomed into now.

But back from my generation back around the 70s, bands really hated each other. Back in those days, they did not. My band's better than your band.

Everybody hated everybody. Nobody played with another band. Nobody sat in and played.

No, you are on your own. Everybody's going to the top. They're making a million dollars.

And none of them ever did. Well, I shouldn't say none of them, but some. Yeah, nowadays, it's much better.

Much better. Like I say, it's a network. You work together.

You know, I'm fortunate enough to have some good friends. But we share a lot of the band families that we have. We share a lot of the contacts and try to help each other get into certain venues.

Back then, right, you couldn't do that. No, no. Yeah.

And it's important to do that. And, you know, we can talk about this on this show all the time. It's, you know, it's something that's not necessarily unique to Chicago, but it is very prominent in Chicago is we've got almost like a family-like mentality among musicians.

Sure. You go to other places, you don't really have that same type of, you know, of an attitude. I've been booted out of cover bands that were making no money whatsoever, because I told the other guys in the band that, hey, I'm going to work on this side project.

Oh, no, you can't do that. You're out of here. I'm going to lose nothing.

Now you got to go find another guitarist. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

That's exactly what it was. Well, you know, back in the late 90s, I was just the singer. I didn't play in a rock and roll band.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, absolutely. I wasn't playing guitar or anything.

I was like, why can't I just flip-flop around? Everybody else is doing it. You helped him out. He missed his opportunity to say singer in a rock and roll band.

I know. You helped him out. I did.

Yeah, that's right. You bailed me out. I may look dumb, but I'm pretty witty.

When we came back playing in 2019-18, maybe I'm wrong, but at the time, we felt like there wasn't a lot of alternative rock bands. There was still more of the classic rock, the hairband music. So we were calling us the 90s alternative.

Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, all these alternative 90s bands were popping up. I don't know if it's because we were back in the game or what, but they were coming out of the woodwork. So we just dropped the 90s and now we're just alternative.

We cover it all. But when we came back, it felt like we were the only 90s band. Yeah, you know what? You guys are all younger than Ray and I, but I'm going to make it feel real old right now because they're playing early 90s music on the oldie station.

Yeah, I know. Breaks my heart. You know, this is the second time I'm going through it because about 15 years ago, they were playing 80s on the oldie stations and I was like, what the fuck? Yeah, these aren't oldies, what are you doing? What are you doing? Oh yeah, it's classic rock at this point, you know? Nirvana and Pearl Jam, that's classic rock.

Yeah, it pretty much is. No, it's bullshit is what it is. Well, how do you think I feel going into the Jewel or Marianos and Deep Purple's playing until I'm like, really? No, the best part is when it's Deep Purple and you hear it as classical piano or something.

No, no, I've been hearing the actual songs. I'm just like, that's what I grew up with. They would have shut the store down if it would have been on back in the 60s.

Oh, for sure, for sure. You'll definitely be happy about our closeout song that we've been holding on to for the last four years. This is a bright sight for Yanniv here to play.

You want to tell them? Speaking of classic rock, well, it's not even classic rock. It's better than that. We always close with War Pigs.

Oh, OK. So we're an alternative band for the most part. But yeah, we throw a lot of surprises in.

And we like to end it with some Ozzy at the end for everybody's sake. And they play it on the alternative station, so there's nothing wrong with that. I actually saw that video online of you guys doing it.

You guys do a really good job with that song. It's pretty impressive. There's a bass guitar here.

Whose is that? I saw that. There's another guitar here. It really was another guitar.

There's another guitar right over here. That's coincidental. Oh, geez.

Why don't you guys make those things? Make some noise. Make some noise with those. Yanniv bangs on a box.

He can bang on a box. I know how to bang on a box. I've banged a few boxes before, but not this one.

By whatever do they mean? I don't know. We've been out of here for a while because of the broken board. I've lost contact with society.

Is this an amp right here? I thought it was a cajon or something. No, we have one there. Oh, there we go.

Yeah, the cajons are right there. He's going to bang the box. He's going to bang the box with the cajons.

This is this is going off the cliff. Yes, it is. Yes, it is.

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 someone you should know. Podcast dot com.

That's the Someone You Should Know podcast with me, Rick Anthony, making a difference one artist at a time. How are we doing? Are we ready? Yeah. And here we go.

Take it away, fellas. Whenever you're ready. Hey, Joe.

OK. One, two, one, two, three, four. Tell me, do you think it'd be all right if I could just crash here tonight? You can see I'm in no shape for driving.

Anyway, I got no place to go. Don't you know it might not be that bad? You were the best I'd ever had. If I hadn't flown over years ago, I might not be alone.

Tomorrow we can drive around this town. Let the cops chase us around. The past is gone, but something might be found.

And take its place in jealousy. You can trust me not to think and not to sleep around. And if you don't expect too much from me, you might not be let down.

That's all I really wants to be with you. Feeling like I matter too. If I hadn't flown over years ago, I might be here with you.

Tomorrow we can drive around this town. Let the cops chase us around. The past is gone, but something might be found.

And take its place in jealousy. We can drive around this town. Let the cops chase us around.

The past is gone, but something might be found. And take its place in jealousy. Tell me, do you think it'd be all right if I could just crash here tonight? You can see I'm no shame for driving.

Anyway, we got no place to go. Don't you know it might not be that bad if you were the best I'd ever had? If I hadn't flown over years ago, I might not be alone. Tomorrow we can drive around this town.

Let the cops chase us around. The past is gone, but something might be found. And take its place in jealousy.

Jealousy, there's only one thing I can start. I knew where you were going with that. I knew exactly where you were going.

Unfortunately, that's one of the songs that hasn't left us since the 90s. But you know, everybody loves that song though. I've played that song so many times live.

And how many nights has it been where everybody's kind of sitting dormant and then you play that song and next thing you know, everybody's up off their butts. You know, that's pretty cool. Yeah, 2000, I think it was 2003 when we were playing.

That was not ever on the set list. That was just a throw-in song. Like, oh, we got to fill, you know, four more minutes.

I threw Hey Jealousy at them. Right, right. It was just never planned on playing it.

Just like you said, everybody liked it. So it was crazy. You can't get rid of it.

Right, right. Ironically, the last band that I played that in, we didn't even play the right chords to the song. We were literally just warming up.

We were having a very infrequent rehearsal and we were warming up and I was just strumming through. I think I might have done it in the key of G or something like that. I can't remember.

And I was just strumming the right chords and I started singing that song and the whole band joined in and we didn't even listen to the original recording. We just said, screw it. This is the way it's going to be.

And I was singing. I didn't sing the end of it exactly the way you did, which is very close to the original recording. We just did it our own way.

We did it that way for years and years and years. And to this day, I don't even know what the actual chords of that song are. I just know that I can play it the way we played it.

It sounded good. Yeah, yeah. Ironically, it was the same chords as Every Rose Has Its Thorn.

Oh. That's the way we played it anyway. Yeah.

Very good. Very good. So what other stuff do you do? Tell us a little bit about your catalog of cover songs that you do.

I mean, I always suck at this question. Well, we tried. Then why do they let you answer it? I don't know.

Nice like that. We were doing a lot of heavier stuff before, like more Stone Temple Pilots and Pearl Jam and things like that. We still do some of that, but we kind of moved away from it a little bit just because it's like if you try to be heavy, people are like, if you're not doing like disturbed or something like that, they're like, oh, you guys are pussies or whatever.

So yeah, we kind of found a better groove, I guess you'd say. I mean, we still, like I say, do some of that stuff. But more like, I don't know.

What would you say, Tommy? What do we always say? We go from Green Day to Third Eye Blind to, you know, pretty much Sublime. I think he just named all the bands from the 90s. We got some Killers and Paralyzer.

That's a good song. I played that. That's a fun song to play.

Yeah, absolutely. We actually do mix a little Bob Marley in one of our songs. We're big on medleys.

We like medleys. Do you play? See, the one thing that drives me crazy, and we won't name who they are. Go ahead.

So they're not here. For the love of God, please tell me that you play more than 30 seconds of each one of the songs when you do a medley. Thank you.

I know exactly what you're talking about now. You know, it's like driving down the road in the car with a friend of yours and he keeps changing the radio station. We got an 80s medley.

It's like 25 minutes long. It was supposed to be like 15 minutes, but we just kept throwing songs into it. So it turned out 15 songs in it.

Yeah, about 15 songs and a good portion of each song. Okay. Yeah, that's good.

That's good. You know, you hit on something because, you know, when I go out and I see a cover band nowadays and they say they're a 90s cover band and they're doing the Stone Temple Pilots and Pearl Jam and stuff like that. You know, I'm just looking, you know, nobody looks like they're having any fun because everybody's just kind of sitting at the tables, drinking, talking, you know, but then you start playing, you know, more poppy stuff from the 80s.

Well, now you got the people dancing and having a good time. And it's like the party starts there because after all, let's face it, your job isn't to get up there and play music. Your job is to sell beer.

And people got to sweat, you know, get hot and they got to go and get something to drink. Yeah, exactly. The way it goes.

But it just makes for a better night. And in my opinion, I spend probably 75 percent of my time off the stage because I'm just in the crowd just trying to get people involved and singing and trying to get them up out of their chairs and everything like that. And these guys bitch at me all the time because they don't know where I'm at and they can't find me.

Yeah, but the crowd loves it. Yeah, they interact with us and they're part of the band as well. We make everybody feel good.

That is one unique thing about Blind Reality is that this guy, yeah, he's so lazy. He just wants the other people to sing. So, you know, he'll just he'll just take half the set off and we're just standing there looking for him.

But he's at the bar talking to some chick. Should be some T-shirts. That's jealousy.

I'm hearing jealousy. I don't know. But the great thing is we are.

It is like very, you know, most bands just like, you know, I've got that fourth wall, you know, you're on stage or you're not. But Mike broke through that fourth wall and just like he just wants people to be involved in our show. So really a huge part of the set is just people that feel up to it or Mike sometimes just forces them to just sing along, you know, to the mic.

And so he won't take no for an answer. And some you just can't take the mic away from Mike because they just love it. And it's really it's a unique situation where people really get involved with the music we're playing.

And so we're kind of like a cover band slash kind of live karaoke band sometimes. And it's really unique and interesting and it makes for a lot of fun. The best part was when I was a kid, you could not rip me off the stage.

I'm not going to compare myself to Jim Morrison, but I always understood why he would never look at the crowd. He would always stare at the band because he didn't want to see what was going on. I was the same way.

I would have my head down and I would just kind of sway back and forth like the most boring shit you've ever seen. Yeah, right, right. I see videos of it now and I'm like, what was I thinking? But I don't even remember the first time I hopped off stage.

I think it was maybe at that VFW. I just I was just kind of standing there. Yeah.

And I walked into the crowd just because my buddies were, you know, I could see him and I just wanted to say hey to him. And I got to the back of the room and I'm like, oh, this is much more fun back here. And everybody's looking at me like, what are you doing? I'm just going to hang out out here for a while.

And they're all like, where did he what does he do? Where did he go? And now that's all I want to do. So when he leaves us up there, we had to come up with our own thing to do because now people are staring at us, wonder where he's at. So we bring a lot of energy to the stage.

I mean, we're jumping up and down with the songs and Roman. So we're not just standing there and they stare at us. So we try to make the show fun and entertaining.

Except for Jerry. Yeah, Jerry. Sorry, Jerry.

Jerry's a cardboard cut out like that sticks thing right there. Oh, hey, Jerry. That is an ongoing joke where you say, Jerry, because if you ever see our show, we'll be moving around.

And there's Jerry. He's making sure you guys aren't tripping over cables. You know, you got to have that one guy.

That's right. Stable, stable. Yeah.

So so what was the worst gig? Oh, I was the worst gig. I got this one. Yeah.

Should I not say the name? I could say the name there. Nobody's going to hear it because there were anybody there. So we played at a bar called the Tank.

It was up by me because I live way up north. So we wanted to try to play a show up there. Where is that? Ingalls Fox Laker.

Yeah, Ingalls. Yeah, Ingalls. Yeah, yeah.

And we walked in there and they had two pool tables and the bar was about this size. And we're kind of like, yeah, we're to play. And they're like, oh, yeah, right over there by the wall.

Like right, right behind you. Like right there. Set your stuff up right there.

You see that postage stamp on the floor? And then we did. And then there were like, I don't know, six or seven people that were there all night. So it was pretty entertaining.

Like I said, I like to run around. So I was just basically fucking with everybody playing pool. Like I was I was laying on the pool table and we had to fight our way out of that.

Oh, my God. They were not super thrilled with it. But you got to have fun, right? Yeah.

Can I talk about the race? They were thrilled because they invited us. Yeah, the crazy thing is they invited us back and we give everybody a second shot. You know, maybe an off night.

Right. We went back and no change. And we're like, OK, we're not coming back here.

Can I mention the racing gig? That was a bad one, too. Yeah, we we got booked to play like a five K or a 10 K. And so, you know, you show up at dawn, not even like a NASCAR race. It was like literally a race.

And you show up at dawn and you set up and, you know, and we're like the entertainment as the race starts. And I remember we started with running down a dream. But then we go into our set, which is like sex type thing.

And, you know, a little machine had a little everywhere. And then so we're playing our set. And the the guy that's running the gig is like gets behind the bandstand and just taps me on the shoulder while I'm playing while I'm playing.

He's like and he's and I'm like, I'm trying to I'm trying to understand what he's saying as we're playing the music. He's like, who's running this show? I'm like, what? Who's running this show? I'm like, well, talk to the bass player. Yeah, right.

Who's also playing? And like he just like he went up to him like, well, we're playing like you guys are way too heavy. This is not OK. Lighten up.

He just was hating on our set list. I was so pissed. We've never heard that we were too heavy before in our life.

Yeah, right. Maybe back in the early 90s when we're playing Metallica or something, but not not blind reality. No.

So we had just a set list and repeat songs. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All the time.

So, I mean, he he wasn't understanding that you were trying to like hype the runners up, you know, you know, going or anything. Yeah, I don't know what he was looking for. They stopped and would hang out.

But yeah, he wasn't having was he looking for a yacht rock group or something? Probably. I don't know how we were pitched to him, but. We're doing what we do, you know, I don't know.

So right, right, right, right. Well, since you brought it up, what's your guilty listening pleasure? Everybody's got one. You're in a 90s cover band, but he's going to say something like Tom Jones or something like that.

Guilty, guilty listening pleasure. Yeah. I mean, the first thing that comes up to my just because I feel like we recently heard it and I'm like, damn, that is a really good, well-written song.

And it's it's it is embarrassing. But Careless Whisper by George Michael is a damn good song. You know, it's a damn good song.

It you know how many saxophone players that song has has birthed? Literally, how many we could see literally? Literally. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

No, I totally get that. I mean, that is an extremely well-written song. Really well-written.

That's really slick, really polished. Yeah. I mean, I mean, you could hear you could hear Frank Sinatra singing it back in the 50s, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Kind of. Yeah, it's like, yeah, it's it's well done. What can I say? You know, and I will tell you this, because literally this happened to me just the other day, too.

You know, what else is a really well-written song? Is that song Big Girls Don't Cry by Fergie? I don't know if that was the original version of that. Not that Big Girls Don't Cry. She's got this slow.

She's got this slow ballad song called Big Girls Don't Cry. And just I'm not going to play it for you. Got to go.

You got to go hunt it down. So I want it in your playlist. So somebody goes to your phone and goes.

Big Girls Don't Cry. Yeah, no kidding. So what's yours? I mean, you're a chameleon vocalist.

So I never ask a vocalist this question. It sounds terrible. But I guess the strangest, not strangest, but I like Michael Bublé.

I like Harry Connick Jr. I'm a huge Beatles fan. I kind of go all over the place. The first band I was in was a death metal band.

So I like Slayer. I like Pantera. I like the band Death.

Liked them a lot when I was in school. Testament. They're great.

So I kind of go all over the place. Right. OK.

So again, on your website, it said that you guys were going to kind of, you know, you packed everything up and you're going to hit the road and you're going to pick up where you left off. And I'm just wondering, where does that go from here? You're a cover band. I mean, would you become a super cover band? I mean, you know, where does it go? Where does it go from cover band heaven, you know? I guess if everybody in Chicago knows who Blind Reality is, that's probably good for us.

OK. That's good. I mean, we were offered to play Colorado this year, believe it or not.

But we turned it down. Wow. But no, if everybody in Chicago knows who Blind Reality is, that's good enough for us.

We have a good time. We're not out to, you know, beat Joe Rockstars. We want to see everybody in the crowd enjoy it.

And that makes it fun for us as well. Any aspirations to maybe sneak in an original song or you guys never even thought about that? I'm over it. Yeah.

I don't think I've ever quite heard to put that way. I'm over it. Yeah.

I tried, sat down, took 10 minutes, took too long. I'm out of here. I did it.

I did it when I was younger and it was fun. But yeah, I don't need to do that anymore. I'm good.

OK. All right. Looks like everyone else is content to.

I mean, in between doing bands, for a while, I was doing jingle writing. Oh, wow. So I could do it.

It's like, oh, let's pop off some things. OK, here's some things I wrote. But I'm like, we're doing cover band stuff.

OK, I'll save that for another type of thing down the road. Yeah, I've done a couple of those. You know what? That's very liberating because you can pretty much say any stupid thing.

Yes. And it makes sense. Yes.

You know, Adam Sandler's made a career on that. Well, well, then I'll tell you what. Why don't you guys take us out of here and play us another one of your not original songs? Not original songs.

One of your not original songs, or should I say your interpretation of a pre-written song? Let's do that original one. I know this. Let's do one that I'm 22.

Yeah, that'd be 22. One, two, three, four. She said it's cold outside and she hands me my raincoat.

She's always worried about things like that. She said it's all going to end and it might as well be my fault. She only sleeps when it's raining and she screams and her voice is straining.

She says, baby, it's 3 a.m. I must be lonely. And then she said, baby, I can't help be scared of it all. Sometime the rain gonna wash away.

I believe it. She got a little bit of something. God, it's better than nothing.

And in a color portrait world, she believes she got it all. She swears the moon don't hang quite as high as it used to. She only sleeps when it's raining and she screams and her voice is straining.

She says, baby, it's 3 a.m. I must be lonely. And then she said, baby, I can't help be scared of it all. Sometime the rain gonna wash away.

I believe this. She believes that life isn't made up of all that you used to. And the wall's been stuck at three for days and days.

She thinks that happiness is a map that sits on a doorway. But outside, it starts raining. And she said, baby, it's 3 a.m. I must be lonely.

Heaven, she said, baby, I can't help be scared of it all. Sometime the rain gonna wash away. I believe this.

It's 3 a.m. I must be lonely. Heaven, she said, baby, I can't stand be scared of it all. Sometime.

Excellent. Very good. Very good.

Outstanding. So, hey, where can people find you guys? I know you got a couple of shows coming up. You got Bedrocks for their Halloween show.

We got October 7th. We were playing Heroes in Lamont. All right.

October 14th, I think it is, is Thirsty Beaver in Crestwood. One of my favorite places. I love that place.

That's our home bar. We'll give a shout out to Thirsty Beaver. They're the ones that really gave us the opportunity to come back out and play.

Nice. And we played her about four or five times a year. We've kind of even during COVID, we kind of did a podcast, like a live broadcast thing for them.

That's how we did a one hour fundraiser for them during COVID. Yeah, we went live on our site and raised money for them. Nice.

That's how I've heard the servers and stuff. And then at the end of month, we have the Bedrocks. Yep.

But you can find us on our website, www.blindreality1992.com and Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. We're on all of them. Just Google Blind Reality.

That's the easiest way. Yeah. Yeah.

That's right. That's what I did. Everything came up.

That's right. Yeah. It's kind of interesting too, because one of the things Mark had kind of said a little bit was, if everybody in Chicago knows who we are, we've kind of done our job.

We're kind of happy with that. And even in the early days, it really started even before kind of the music. We played that first show.

Mark and I were talking about ideas for the logo of what we're going to do. We wanted something that was going to pop. And then it just happened to be... Something you're going to see and you're going to remember.

And so we have this huge eyeball, and then we fill it in with the blind reality stuff. And it just looks like a reality kind of... Yeah. It kind of flirts out at you.

We have props on our stage that have the logo in it. Yeah. Very cool.

Nice. Nice. Well, there you have it.

There you have it. Blind Reality. Blind Reality.

Thanks for coming out tonight, guys. Thank you, guys. Great meeting you guys.

It's been a pleasure. Absolutely. Take care.

Well, reality isn't blind. No, it isn't. It's alive and kicking, right? Right.

After almost 30 years already. Yeah. That was a very interesting story for them all to get together and play and then take a hiatus.

And a little hibernation. Yeah. Get back together again.

That's very cool. Yeah. And they seem to all still enjoy each other's company.

Exactly. Like they said, back when they first got together, they were doing new music. Yeah.

Yeah. They were. And now they're doing... Which kind of is oldies.

Yeah. Oldies. It's now considered classic rock.

I think it's after 25 years. That's when you become an oldie. Right.

Seems to be. Yeah. And they're not arguing like the Eagles.

No, no. Definitely not. Not charging $180 a ticket to see them either.

Right. Right. And they're playing a lot of cool places.

So if you guys get a chance, go out and check these guys out. Yeah. They got some great merch.

Cool looking shirts. Yeah. Koozies and bottle openers.

Bottle openers here. Yeah. So some pretty cool stuff.

So go out and see them and buy some of their stuff. Help them out. And as always, thank you for listening to the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast.

Coming to you live, not live, recorded from the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66. And we'll see you next week. Next Tuesday.

Have a great week. Bye-bye.