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.

How you doing, Mike? I'm doing real good, Ray. How you doing? Good, good. I hear you got a little bit of news going on this week.

You're starting a new job? Yeah, starting a new job. Started today, in fact. Very nice.

Yep, drove all the way up north last night, stayed overnight, worked all day, came right here. Isn't that like a song? I don't know, something like that. Well, it is, but my future is so bright.

It is bright. I got to wear shades. That's why I'm wearing shades too.

You are a glow. You are just a glow, man. And so is our guest.

Yes, yes. And our guest today is a gentleman who says he's a little bit of a rock and roll with a southern soul. Yes, sir.

You got that correct. Brad Redlich. How you doing, Brad? I'm doing great.

How about you guys? Great, great. Thanks for coming out. Thanks for sending out the memo.

We're all wearing shades. That's right. Oh yeah.

You know, for the first time. That's right. This might have to be a trend that we continue to go with.

We might. And we're also videotaping this episode. Yeah, absolutely.

Who's our video guy? We got Max Williams out here. It's Max. All right.

Thanks for coming out here, Max, and showing us how to do this, because we've been trying to put together video for a long time. For a while now, but Max is a pro. Yeah.

And we're just- And we're not. And we're not, no. So we'll figure it out somehow.

Yeah. It took us two weeks to figure out how to plug them in. That's right.

That's right. And then we still can't figure out how to upload it. Nope, not at all.

So let's get on to Brad. Yeah. Not about us.

Well, tell us about yourself, Brad. Tell us a little bit about this rock and roll with a touch of southern soul. I'm interested.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm a local guy. I'm from Bolingbrook.

Nice. So some people call me Brad from Bolingbrook. So if you'd like to go with that instead of Brad Redleg, that's fine for now.

But yeah, I like southern rock. I like classic rock. I like country music.

I like alternative music. I like the blues. And I try and put it all together.

Excellent. What got you into all this stuff? The guitar, man. The guitar is where it started.

So I really started with just playing the electric guitar, just falling in love with the greats, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, you know, and then eventually got to writing my own stuff and singing and playing in a band and all that kind of thing. And then, yeah, now we're now we're doing it. What was your first band? Just some cover bands that I played in with some buddies from high school and college.

So we would just play like Beatles and Stone songs and then eventually got to writing my own original music. Right. Right.

Excellent. Excellent. So tell us a little bit about the migration there.

Like, I guess, who was, you know, most musicians have one person in their life that said, you know, maybe you should think about doing this. Was it something that you discovered on your own or did you have some kind of a mentor? You know, you know, I never had anyone that said that to me. Good question, Mike.

Yeah, I was a late bloomer, man. I didn't play. I didn't touch instruments really until I was 20 years old.

So I'm twenty nine now. I just always loved music, man. And one day in college, my roommate who we didn't really always get along, but he's like, if you love music so much, why don't you go play it? And so he kind of said it to be kind of mean to me.

But then I actually took him up on that. All right. I'm like, all right, maybe I will.

So then I just organically found some buddies that also played and we just started jamming in garages, basements, you know, very, very organic way of learning. Music was playing with other people, with friends and just hanging out. Absolutely.

Yeah. So that's how it all began. Did you have any kind of, you know, formal lessons prior to that? No, no.

The only the only schooling I had with music was I played percussion in elementary and middle school, and I was always the worst guy. I got yelled at every day because I never wanted to go home and practice these rudiments and all this crap. I really I just liked music.

I didn't really want to have this very strict, rigorous like structure to it. So but I think in the end that actually really served me really well. Just playing on time is like a really, really hard thing when you're first starting out.

And I already had that just from getting yelled at. OK, so when you first picked up that guitar, did you already have aspirations of writing your own stuff or you just wanted to play? You know, I always wanted to sing. That was my main thing.

But I really wanted to understand music just as a form to put lyrics and songs to it. So I didn't want to be just a singer. I just thought to me, like, that's not being a full musician.

Like, you really need to understand, like, you know, the chords and keys and how to, you know, create tension in songs and release it and different things like that. So John Mayer was like one of my really big first influences, just the way that he could play a song with an acoustic guitar and write it and then bring a band in and just rip a solo and air clapped in. And all these guys, you know, they were multidimensional.

It wasn't just like, I'm just a guitar player or I'm just a singer. It was like they could do really a lot of different things. So I thought that that was always cool.

Right. And many different styles, too. That's the thing that's always impressed me about the guys that you've named is, yes, you know, one album might sound like a country album.

One album might sound like a blues album. You know, one might be a pop album. Certainly all of those guys fit that bill for sure.

Yes. So from Bowlingbrook and you were in high school, were you a raider? No, I actually went to Naperville Central High School. Oh, no kidding.

Yeah. But there's this one neighborhood in Bowlingbrook. It's off of Royce Road and 53.

It's the only neighborhood that goes to Naperville schools. So I went to all Naperville schools, but I technically is from Bowlingbrook. My wife went to Naperville Central.

Did she really? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, I'm, you know, probably about older, you know, years older than you.

So I'm not going to, I'm not going to reveal that. But it's been quite a while. I'm not even going to go there with that.

Yeah, absolutely. So did you do anything? So in high school, were your attentions, did they gravitate toward other things? Like, were you an athlete in high school, play some football or something like that? Yeah, so I played soccer through the high school just until junior year. But I always loved athletics.

Growing up, I played every sport. I always played basketball outside of school, just like with my friends and stuff, pickup games. So I was always working in a team.

And that was why, like, even though I'm a solo artist, I really like being in a band because I love working in a team and working with other people. But I just really enjoy, like, writing my own stuff. So that's kind of why it's under my name.

But when I play with a band out, yeah, we rip it. I'm guessing sometime in your high school years is when you decided, hey, you know, at least my voice sounds pretty decent to myself. And you started singing a little bit.

Yeah, definitely. Definitely had some way of going through high school and singing and thinking that that was something that I could do. Different styles, though.

I was very amateur at it, but there were some songs that I felt like I could sing. A lot of the early 2000s stuff was what I was into, like Third Eye Blind, Blink 182, Fall Out Boy, like stuff like that. And then once I started playing guitars when I really got into, like, the classics, which was a little bit later on.

Right, right. You know, and I will tell you right off the bat, as soon as I heard the description of the music and the style and everything that you were playing, you know, rock and roll with a touch of Southern soul. I actually like that.

It rhymes. Yeah, it rolls right off the tongue. And, you know, the amazing thing is I've been trying to describe, okay, my style myself.

So I think I'm going to have to steal that. Because that's exactly it. It sounds a lot like the music that I play in my own band and everything.

But where all of that stuff came from is, I think we may have been separated at birth if I wasn't so many years older than you are, because that's the exact same story. In high school, I was an athlete and a whole bit. And I had friends that were like, you know, you can't go out and sing.

You can't go out and play an instrument. You got practice to go. You know, we're going to play football, run track.

We're going to do all that stuff. And it wasn't until my early 20s that I decided I was going to pick up the guitar. It was the exact same story in the same type of music, same influences in the whole bit.

Nice. Did you have a chip on your shoulder about it then, too? You're like, I got to prove these guys. No, no, not at all.

Because it was the exact same thing. I discovered at a pretty young age that I could carry a tone, you know, or I carry a note with my voice. And truth be told, I did take formal music lessons when I was much younger.

But it was crazy. My mother wanted me to play the organ. Oh, wow.

And so I took organ lessons for a couple of years. And it was actually my father. I was practicing the chords with my left hand.

And I wanted to focus on that. So I started humming or singing the words to the song that I was supposed to be playing so I could get the chord changes right. And it was my father that came out and said, you know, you can sing.

Oh, nice. And I think I was about, I don't know, 11 or 12 years old or something like that at the time. But I didn't do anything.

Jeez, I had met my wife by the time that I decided I was going to start playing guitar. So it's very similar. Gotcha.

So who do you listen to? I mean, you're influenced by Clapton and those guys that you just mentioned. But who are you listening to right now? That's a great question. There's a lot of country guys that are really doing the rock thing, the hard rock.

They have a lot of hard rock influence. There's this guy named Hardy. He's got like metal breakdowns in his country music.

Like it's heavy. And there's another guy, Coe Wetzel, who's a country guy. He's from Texas.

Not really in the Nashville scene as much as like that pop country stuff. It's more, I think they call it red dirt country, where it's a little bit more southern rock influence than it is like the country style. So that's where I feel like I align.

And a lot of people that hear me play acoustic, they'll think, oh, he's a country guy. But with the band, I'm actually playing the guitar and actually ripping solos. And actually, we play some heavy stuff.

Yeah, it's almost kind of like the underground country scene. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that you've got, like you mentioned, there's that country pop sound going on right now. And there's literally country music out there that has a dubstep beat, which just kind of makes me sick.

I can't get into it. I can't listen to it. And there's a lot of stations on satellite radio now.

I'll be driving down the road and I'll hear a song by somebody that I've never even heard of before. And man, it just rocks. It's like, is this country? Is this rock? You don't know what the heck it is.

These guys are fantastic. Yeah. And that's what I've been listening to.

I think that's coming around because I think diehard country fans are kind of getting tired of the dubstep country out there. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

But it's, you know, to me, like country music has become an industry rather than a genre. Like there's a lot of guys like Willie Nelson's son. I don't know if you ever heard him.

Oh, yeah. Lucas Nelson. Like he should be, you know, top of the country radio.

Those songs that he's writing, his band that he's got, like it's amazing stuff. But now he's in Americana. They're putting them all in Americana.

But I'm like, this guy's country than the people I'm hearing on country radio. You know, so it's got this come up with this like kind of negative connotation with with musicians. So I try and not label myself as country, but I do like the storytelling that came with country music, like the stories that they've told.

There's a really like there's a beginning, middle and end when it comes to the lyrics of the song. And that's that's where the most of my country influence probably comes from is that that type of it. But that's also folk, too.

Like Bob Dylan's of the world, like those songs are, you know, they're telling literal stories. And I really I really connect with those those types of songs. Right.

Absolutely. You know, I became a fan of his because I went home one day and my my wife and daughter were watching the A Star is Born. Yeah.

And I was listening. You know, I sat down and started hearing music in the movie and stuff. And I know this is not the music from the movie that I grew up with.

You know, the the the version of that movie with Kris Kristofferson and and Barbra Streisand, that's actually not even the original. That's a remake of A Star is Born. Oh, really? And I and I'm trying to remember, was it? I'm trying to remember the stars of that first original movie.

I want to say it was. Yeah, you've got the computer. Look, look it up.

I'll look it up for you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go ahead and look that up.

I'm not doing anything here. Yeah, people don't realize that that's actually the third version of that movie. OK, you can go back and watch the other two.

But I said, this is not the music from the movie that I remember growing up. And I was like, who is this that that did this and found out that it was Lucas Nelson that did basically the score to that movie? It was. Oh, really? Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, yeah. He did a lot of music for that. And I started, you know, looking at all his videos and and, you know, concert footage and everything.

And so, man, this guy. Yeah. You can't call him country.

You can't call him folk. You can't call him rock and roll. Definitely can't call him pop.

And what I love about him the most is his live sound is just so raw. I mean, when they're on stage in front of thousands, it sounds like five guys on a bus, you know, which which is what sounds so awesome to me. Yeah.

So who else? Anybody in particular? You listening to maybe just some older stuff that's influencing you right now? Or is it all pretty much newer? Yeah, I've been going back through my my Alvin Brothers phase. Oh, yeah, yeah. I'm relearning.

So I play slide guitar a lot when I play with my band. I played it on my ring finger for so many years. And now I've been starting to play it on my pinky finger.

OK. So I can also fret behind it and play chords. And then I can also slide, you know, and do some lead stuff, you know, whenever I feel.

And it doesn't obstruct the playing. So I've been listening to a lot of Alvin Brothers. This is a really, really good band that I saw a few weeks ago.

They're called the Bros Landreth. The Brothers Landreth. Yeah.

One of the best guitar players, I think, almost ever that hasn't got to that point yet for people to talk about him. But like the way he plays slide on his pinky and he plays an open tuning and he plays chords. And dude, this guy is the he can write a great song.

He can sing great. And then he can also play great guitar. Like that's those are my favorite types of artists to watch.

Right, right. So we're going to break in here with news from the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast newsroom. We don't have one of those.

The original Star is Born is from 1937. Yes, it is. And it starred Janet Gaynor and Friedrich March.

Wow. So that's how far back it goes. Yeah, I knew it went back quite a ways.

Yeah, I've never seen that version of it. So I'm going to have to watch it. Yeah, I've seen the last two.

I'm guessing it's about I'm guessing it's about jazz musicians or something like that, maybe. Yeah, possibly, possibly. I didn't get that far into it.

But getting back to the slide thing, though, you know, slide is something that I've never been good at. I just I just don't have I've got a really heavy left hand, but I've been starting to play a little bit more. And what I have found actually to be most comfortable for me is I put my slide on my index finger and I use my index finger like I'm borrowing across the frets.

And I use these three fingers to do all my fretting and stuff. Oh, that's cool. When people see that, they're like, what are you doing? Hey, it's it's working.

Yeah, that's right. If some guys can play slide with a beer bottle, I can put a slide on my index finger. Shut up.

So what's the name of your band when you're performing with those guys? So it's all under my name. So it's all under Brad Redlich, just as an artist, kind of like John Mayer, Eric Clapton, whatever. Typically, when I play with a band, I have hired guns that come out and play with me.

I have my main guys that I recorded my new album that's coming out this Friday. They recorded with me and whenever they're available, they'll they'll come out and play. But everybody's so busy.

But but I I write all the parts out and I record a demo and then I'll usually send it to my guys or or have it recorded that way. Like my first ten releases are all my me playing instruments and recording in my basement. Always the same guys or is it or is it a collective group of guys? I have like rosters for bass players and drummers that I go through.

So it's changed over the years. But but yeah, we usually play just power trio. And yeah.

All guys from around here? Pretty much. My my main drummer's in Morris. His name's Torian Johnson.

And then my main bass player, Luke Pope. He is in Shorewood. OK, excellent.

Excellent. Well, I would love to hear one of your songs. I would like to hear it, too.

We've gotten to that point where, you know. Yeah. Yeah.

You're talking about it. We want to hear it now. Yeah.

All right. You want me to play it or you want to play one of the recordings? No, no, we want you to play it. All right.

Absolutely. Sounds good. We can always splice in a recording.

All right. Perfect, perfect. And we didn't have to pay a cover charge to watch him play.

That's right. That's right. So here's here's Brad Redlick, everybody.

All right. I'll start with probably my most known song. The song is called Modern Classic.

I wrote it because. Let's swing that microphone around. Use that for your vocals and use that one for the guitar.

Just yeah, there we go. Let's do that. You'll hear yourself.

You'll hear if your voice is much louder than your guitar. Yeah, that's nice. Check, check, one, two, check, check.

All right. So this this first song I'm going to play for you guys. This is what we usually close the sets out with.

Spoiler alert. But this is this song is called Modern Classic. It's basically about kind of my vibe, which is I like modern types of sounds, but I also really want to make sure that I'm adhering to the classics that I grew up on and that I learned with.

So and it's about my favorite type of girl, too, who also shares those values. All right. Let me redo that.

She moved from L.A. to Boston, didn't care how they were talking. Gets right to the point, no game, no fame. She don't care where the boss is.

You know, when she gets to walking down, Jack, it's going to make you falling. All torn up on her shoulder for 10 years or more. But style won't corrode her.

Oh, you know, she's a good girl like that. Thought she was a shooting star. She's a modern classic.

Gotta have it. Feel like I'm in love the first time. It's tragic.

I imagine keeping that all locked up all night. Feel like I just sold my soul to the devil in the dark when she's like that. It's tragic.

I imagine she's a modern classic. We could drive with one headlight, two tickets to paradise. Keep going while we rock and roll all night.

It's a kissing party for a pretty long time. We could journey anywhere you want and see all the lights and ride through the city. For a minute, I hold on loosely.

Get caught up in you and I lose it. Oh, you know, she's a good girl like that. Thought she was a shooting star.

She's a modern classic. Gotta have it. Feel like I'm in love the first time.

It's tragic. I imagine keeping that all locked up all night. Feel like I just sold my soul to the devil in the dark when she's like that.

It's tragic. I imagine she's a modern classic. She's a modern classic.

Gotta have it. Feel like I'm in love the first time. It's tragic.

I imagine keeping that all locked up all night. Feel like I just sold my soul to the devil in the dark when she's like that. It's tragic.

I imagine she's a modern classic. Very nice. Very nice.

I'm not even going to put the canned in applause on that one because that's fantastic. That's real applause. Man, yeah, absolutely.

Anybody ever tell you that you remind them of Tyler Childers? No, I haven't got that one yet. No. Man, that was very good.

Very good. Very good. Yeah.

So when you're out playing with the band or yourself, are you doing all originals or do you mix in any covers? Well, sometimes we'll do a show where it's like a three hour long set. Sometimes I play four hours too. So we got to throw in covers.

But the main focus is always the original music. That's why I'm doing this. I'm not trying to be a cover artist, not trying to be a cover band.

So the covers are secondary. That's usually what we use to fill in. But if for a normal show, like 45 minutes to an hour or whatever, all originals, maybe one cover.

So where are you playing where they're just having you come down for 45 minutes to an hour? Well, this Thursday, I'm playing at Navy Pier in downtown Chicago. OK. So that's an hour long set from 5 to 6 p.m. So I'm going to do that's a solo acoustic.

So I'm going to do that. And then, yeah, there's been a lot of places that I've played, like Bally Doyle. Oh, yeah.

Played at Quigley's in downtown Naperville. Played at, trying to remember. I play pretty much every weekend.

So there's always different styles of gigs. Sometimes we have a bunch of bands that we put together on a bill. So those are the ones that'll do like an hour long set or whatever.

But yeah, yeah, yeah. I was going to say most of the time, if you're going to do all original music, you're looking for some kind of venue that's going to have two, three or four acts that are going to come in. You play for about an hour piece.

Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, when you're when you get your band together and do people want you for a full night? I mean, I guess I guess the better question is how much is of a pain in the ass is to find a full night gig where when you walk in and tell people we're an original band? You know, I have a pretty good fan base. We go by BR Nation.

So it's kind of a double thing. Like BR Nation, like join us. But then my initials are BR.

So we usually roll pretty deep when we go out to shows. And a lot of the comments that we get are like, why'd you play all those covers? It's like, well, it's a three hour set. They're like, well, we love your original songs.

Yeah, well, I would love to just play originals. But three hours of originals is not usually usually what what happens at a show. Yeah, unfortunately.

Yeah. Even even back in the day, you listen to like different guys. They're live records.

They'll throw in covers. They'll throw like Tom Petty. Like he's got a whole live record and he does a lot of covers, but he does it his style, which I think is important, you know? Yeah.

When you've been playing the same songs over and over again, even your own songs make you sick. Yeah, they can, you know? Yeah. You got to throw in something else.

I'm going to do a cover song because I like this song. And yeah, I'm tired of doing this one that I wrote. Yeah, definitely.

Right, right. So have you got something released now? I know you've got something coming up. Yeah.

So I have about 15 to 20 songs on Spotify already. But yeah, my I have a debut EP, five song EP that's coming out on Friday. It's called Shy Rock.

So basically wanted to mix a whole different, a whole bunch of different influences into what I think it represents Chicago rock fans in my record. So that's what I did. I'm Christy from Crime Cave Podcast.

I've had a huge interest in true crime since my days of watching marathons of Snapped back in the mid 90s. I needed an outlet to talk about the cases that have haunted me for a very long time. With each episode under 20 minutes.

I shine a light on some of the most bizarre cases in the last 50 years. Join me in the Crime Cave. What do you, I guess, what's the one thing about being a musician or trying to make it as a as a successful musician? And what's the one thing you hate and you just wish you didn't have to deal with? Um, you know, I've, I've learned to love a lot of the hard parts.

You know, that's, that's a great answer. I mean, yeah, you have to, you have to, you have to embrace the suck. Yeah, man.

Yeah, man. That's true. That's true.

And, uh, I think, um, from just growing up and, uh, very like, like I went to college, you know, I have a regular nine to five job. Um, I played team sports all through my life. I, you know, I was always a hard worker.

So to me, like the promotion and, you know, booking gigs, you know, calling up promoters, getting a band together and making sure everyone's schedules working out well, making sure the guys can play the songs, you know, rehearsing to me, that stuff is just, it's just a part of it. It's not really, um, extra to me. It's like, I know that I signed up for this and if I want to be the best, these, these are the things you have to do.

So, um, uh, just that hardworking mentality, which I think a lot of Chicago people have, um, especially through these cold ass winters that we have, like you have, you have to be hard headed and you have to have thick skin to live, to grow up in the Midwest. And I think, um, that's where a lot of my soul and my passion for this, for music comes from is, is growing up here. You know, I think if I grew up in California with sunny days every day, my music would not, my music would just be a little bit more fluffy.

It wouldn't be as like, you know, I wouldn't have so much drive and passion and, um, and grit, you know, in the music. So like you said, Tyler Childers, he grew up in, I think it was the Appalachian mountains or something like that. Something like that.

Yeah. And, uh, you know, he's a product of his environment. And we all are, you know, all artists, no matter, no matter what your medium is, you know, you got, you gotta have, you have to have that drive for sure.

Yeah. You gotta be, you gotta be willing to unload a trailer when it's 20 below. Yeah.

We've all done that. We've all done that enough. Wow.

And they're done that. Yeah, absolutely. Um, I had another question and, uh, it just kind of went right off the.

Again? It did. That happened before to you. No, it does.

It's, you know, it's gotta be the bourbon. It's the bourbon. Are you taking Prevagen? I have done.

I have an idea what the heck that is. That's for the brain and the memory. Well, that's why, that's why I don't know what it is.

Maybe like, where were we going? I mean, what were we coming off of that made you think of it? Um, I don't know. You know, let's, let's come up, let's come up with something different. Yeah.

So the CP that's coming out, uh, is it just going to be on, you know, digital Spotify and stuff, or you got a physical CD or record or. Yeah. So I'm working on getting some CDs printed right now.

Um, I'm probably do it at my house. Uh, all my merch, I may, I have t-shirts, hats, um, sweatshirts, baseball jerseys, koozies. I make all that at my house, all the merch.

So, um, I'm kind of a DIY type of guy. So that didn't mean to, I didn't mean to rhyme that, but that's pretty cool. Put that on the card to DIY type of guy.

Well, rock and roll with some Southern soul. He rhymes all the time. So you can, so people can get this off your website.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And then, uh, we shot a really, really cool music video, um, from one of the songs that'll, that'll come out with it. And then we got two in, in studio music videos that have already released with, with two of the singles from the record. So, um, there's a lot of cool promo stuff that we, we did for this one that I haven't really been doing in the past.

Um, so just trying to keep leveling up, you know, every year, just do something a little bit, a little bit fancier. 19. Uh, you said something that reminded me of what I was going to talk about 1989 to about 1999.

When I first started playing in bands and the whole bit, it literally was, all right, we have to record a demo, put it onto a CD, right? We need to get some photos and some pictures taken. Let's go and do that right now. We need a bio.

Let's, let's, let's print up a bio. We have to have a bio about everybody in the band. Right.

And you go down and you go to office max and you'd buy some kind of fancy plastic sleeve and you shove all that stuff in there and you'd pay somebody to duplicate this CD. Right. You know, what did you do? We literally walked around door to door, walking into bars, handed them these promo packs, you know, two weeks before the show, we were sticking flyers under the windshields of cars, sticking them up on posts, going into the bathrooms and sticking them on the mirrors, going to the local guitar center.

We were doing all that stuff. We've got somebody here that is of a younger generation of musicians who also happens to be an IT professional. How the heck are you doing that? You've got to have it down to a science.

So, I mean, there's no promo pack that you're handing anybody anymore, right? It's got to be all digital. Yeah. There's definitely, for me, it's a happy medium.

While I do work in IT for work and that's like my main source of income, I'm really an analog guy, man. Like I love guitars plugged into amps. I don't like guitars plugged into computers.

God bless you. Yeah. God bless you.

I like writing songs with my acoustic guitar, not having a beat on my computer and then writing lyrics on top of that. I don't do stuff. I do stuff how they used to as much as I possibly can.

And then once I realized, okay, well, maybe I need to go to the modern type of things. Then I'll run some ads on Facebook or Instagram or TikTok. I'll post on all those websites all the time.

I'm on bands in town, always posting about my dates and everything. Social media, you have to use it. There's a lot of my friends that are not trying to use it.

They want to do it like the old days, but you're not going to get big like your idols did these days. You have to adapt, unfortunately. I wish it was simple like it was back then where you could just do and make face-to-face conversations with people, tell people to come out to a show, all that kind of thing.

But I do that. We have some footage from one of the last shows that we did where I went into a bar and I went and talked to people. And then we went to the next bar and we said, come on down to the show.

We started seven and now cards and everything. But really, you got to you got to utilize that. Be personable.

And then you got to utilize somehow getting your name out there online, too. Right, right. And, you know, I'm even finding that, you know, band websites are not as as productive, I guess, as social media because they're banned.

Oh, you're talking about like musical bands. Jeez. Sorry.

Sorry to interrupt. Yeah, this segment of the show brought to you by Dad Jokes Unanimous. Yeah, no, that was terrible.

I liked it. I liked it. Thank you very little.

But, you know, and everybody calls, you know, a bunch of younger people. They call Facebook like your dad's social media or whatever. But I'll tell you what, you know, I play in a band where we play, you know, two to three times a week.

And the most I mean, the most beneficial social media site for us has been Facebook because there are still people that will like the band on Facebook and they get the invites to all the shows. Yeah. You know, it works fantastic.

You have to figure out how to how to maneuver around that and make it work for you. Yeah. What I've been focusing on lately is not just putting up dates and putting up, you know, when I'm playing or where I'm playing or when stuff releasing, but trying to really put my personality into social media so people can get to know me as a person.

Right. So that's like the next step that we've been trying to do. Me and Max here with doing the video, just trying to get stuff out there where it shows me talking to people, interacting with people, just seeing like, you know, if you come out to a show like I'm like, I want to be your friend, too.

Like, it's we're trying to create the be our nation crew is we're trying to create people that it's a community. We want people that are there not just for the music, but they're for each other and to have a good time. And and yeah, it's you know, that I think that's really important.

I think at the bottom line, music brings people together, brings like minded people together. That's why you go to a concert to experience that with people. Right.

And I'm trying to show people that don't know that haven't been to a show before that that's how it is. It's it's a it's a great time. We always have a great time.

We're always there to lift each other up. So. Right.

Right. That's another big question for me. Oh, so when you're leaving for Nashville.

I've been there a few times, man. I've been there a few times. I he hasn't.

You haven't. That comes up. That comes up every time we talk about that.

He's never been there. No, I got to get down there. Hey, it's not that far, man.

I know. Yeah. You can make a weekend trip out of it.

You get an Airbnb, you could drive or fly. That's true. If you fly, it'll be an hour long flight and you'll be right there and you won't be beat by by the time you get there.

So cheap. It's cheap. Southwest, you know, you can't beat the airfare.

You got to go. You really do. Anybody from Southwest listening to this podcast? We are looking.

We are looking for sponsors. So getting back to your aspirations on going to Nashville. Yeah, yeah, man.

Well, I got these cowboy boots I'm wearing. I got from Nashville. They're snakeskin.

I I really love the atmosphere there. It's not just a country music area. It's just it's all music.

And if if you've been there, you know that you there's a bunch of different bars that are not just playing country music. But but yeah, it's just a great hub for if you want to be in that that really competitive space and you want to be with really talented people, that's where you need to go. I'm in a scene here where I think there is a lot of talented people.

I think we're really lucky, actually, in the Chicago area with a lot of local original music. So I've actually been OK with with being here. Right.

And yeah, I think like I said, like my record that's coming out, it's called Shy Rock. It's for Chicago people. And I think people here are really going to connect to it.

So I want to I want to people think, oh, I just need to go to Nashville and then everything will be perfect. It's like if you can't connect with the people that you're around, that you grew up with, then, you know, I think that's where you need to start. I think Nashville's step two.

I think step one is is connect with your community. But, you know, there's a million different ways to do it. So this is just the path that I'm choosing.

And I'm wrong with that. It can always change. That's right.

I agree with you 100 percent. Almost every podcast we have, we talk about how being a musician in the Chicagoland area is a gift. It really is.

And, you know, in fact, we just had a gentleman named his name is escaping right now, unfortunately. But the past couple of weeks, he's been coming out to an open jam that I host on Sunday. And which one is that? He was just visiting.

It's at a place called The Studio in Lockport. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I know.

So, yeah, I host every Sunday, every Sunday at eight o'clock. And this guy, he's been in town from Nashville for the past couple of weeks. And he was just like, man, this has just been fantastic to be hanging out here with you guys and just jamming with local guys because he's, you know, originally from here and knows a lot of people and he just loves coming back and hanging out.

It really is a great place. Really is. You know, and plus, I think Nashville can destroy as many aspirations as it can make them.

Because if you're not if you're not at that level and you think you're at that level and all of your friends are at that are telling you that you're you're at that level, then you go to Nashville and you find out, yeah, I'm not even close. And you come back home and you guys burn all your shit. And that's the end of your crush.

Yeah, it really does. It can it can hurt a lot of people if you go too soon or feel that you have to go just for the sake of going to Nashville. Yeah.

Not the bad mouth Nashville or anything. Oh, no, no. You got to have you got to be mature about it.

You got to know what you're getting into. It's not just going to Nashville. OK, I'm going to be a star.

Yeah. Yeah. Right.

Yeah. You got to realize, no, you're not. If you do, if you do, you're lucky.

Yeah, seriously. And I mean, there's a lot of great places you can go and hang out and maybe you can rub shoulders with with the right people. And I think that's that's the most important thing about it is finding people that are like minded, that are maybe ahead of you and being like, all right, they're doing it, they're doing what I want to do.

So now I got to kind of try and follow their footsteps and take their example for it. Right. But I think also not to get too much into the music industry talk, but it's the record label thing is kind of becoming a little less important than it used to be, just with all the resources that we have with online and with being able to build your own brand the way you want to and get, you know, streams from people that you've never met in person or played for in person.

You know, they don't have to go out and buy your record or know who you are. Like if if your song comes up on a playlist or an algorithm, you know, then, you know, that's almost becoming a little bit more important to have that that fan base already built before you go down to Nashville. So that's, you know, there's a lot of different schools of thought when it comes to that kind of thing.

But that's what I've been kind of seeing is the recipe for success is a good, good mix of online presence, but then being able to back it up at a show. You can't actually back it up at a show like you're going to get ripped. Well, before we run out of time, I'm enjoying the discussion.

Actually, it's it's been it's been excellent so far. But I'd love to hear whatever else you have prepared for us. Yeah, man.

I'll play you guys one of my little country or tracks. This song is coming out Friday. The song is called Drive and it's got a music video paired with it.

And yeah, this song is just kind of about like we're talking about getting out of town, you know, testing the waters, maybe in Nashville or somewhere else. And sometimes that's what you got to do. So.

I've been lost in a breakup. I've been dust on the shelf. And I've been waiting to make up by myself.

How could so many ladies leave me out in the cold without a coat or a campfire burning on to keep me warm? And yeah, you want to drive right out of this town, see a dirt road. It's a long way. How do you want to fly back to Tennessee? Ain't nothing there mean more to me than your face in the dark on the rattle, saying I love you with the lights on.

Can't feel your heart when I'm on the road and you're gone. Yeah, you want to drive. Yeah, you want to drive.

Yeah. I don't need your conviction. Always much overdue.

And after all this addiction gets to you, then I see this through. And yeah, you want to drive right out of this town, see a dirt road. It's a long way.

How do you want to fly back to Tennessee? Ain't nothing there mean more to me than your face in the dark on the rattle, saying I love you with the lights on. Can't feel your heart when I'm on the road and you're gone. Yeah, you want to drive.

Yeah, you want to drive. Since I laced up my old shoes and crawled back to the house that we grew up and ran every mile without your smile. And yeah, you want to drive right out of this town, see a dirt road.

It's a long way. How do you want to fly back to Tennessee? Ain't nothing there mean more to me than your face in the dark on the rattle, saying I love you with the lights on. Can't feel your heart when I'm on the road and you're gone.

Yeah, you want to drive. And yeah, you want to drive. Yeah, you want to drive.

Thank you, guys. Very nice. Very nice.

Thank you. And that's going to come out this Friday, June 9th. By the time you hear this podcast, it's already out.

So go look for it. That's right. So what do you have coming up within the next like a month or so? Yeah, let me actually pull up my list because I I've booked so many shows that I just kind of forget all of them.

But yeah, this Thursday, I'm playing a Navy period, downtown Chicago. Saturday is my album release show at O'Neal's Pub in Lombard. Oh, yeah, that's that's actually my that's my home base.

So I play there every few months and we always get a huge crowd right out of lockdown. That was the first place that booked me. And I was playing solo acoustic gigs there mostly.

But then they started letting full bands come in and we just packed the place like so much. So that's that they've been really, really good to me. So I want to give them a shout out.

They're a great place for for local local artists. I'm playing at Go Brewing in Naperville the following Friday, playing downtown Chicago, downtown Chicago at McGee's. I'm playing at Jamie's Outpost in Utica and then Bally Doyle Smoke Show Barbecued in Naperville and then ending the summer at Tailgaters in Bolingbrook.

Oh, nice. And then I'm doing a festival in Lyons Township called Lyons Palooza on September 3rd. Excellent.

Excellent. So you are you are booking some stuff. Yeah, absolutely.

Great job. Great job. The the Tailgaters show is that by yourself or you got other bands joining you for that? Yeah, so I'm doing a show with another local guy.

His name is Larry Anthony. So we're doing a co-show together. OK, so, yeah, I'll be playing an hour and a half and then his band will play an hour and a half after.

So great. Yeah. So all kinds of opportunities to go out and see Brad Redlick.

That's right. And once more, where can people find you social media wise? Yeah, just search Brad Redlick R-E-D-L-I-C-H wherever. And yeah, YouTube, Facebook, Spotify, Apple Music, you know, anywhere.

All righty, Brad. Well, thanks for coming out. All right.

Pleasure having you. Yeah, thank you. Great.

Great talking to you. Great stuff you got there. Thanks so much.

Thanks. Well, there you have it. That's Brad Redlick with rock and roll with Southern Soul.

Yeah, I don't like him. No, no, I don't like him because he does what I do, but he does it better. Well, maybe you should try and do it better.

I don't like guys like that. Maybe you should take some Prevagen next time before we do the show. I'm going to have to look that up.

Yeah, keep your mind alert and alive. Some St. John's warts. Yeah, that too.

Then you get warts, then you got to get something to get the warts off. Yeah, I don't know. So no, that was great talking with Brad.

He's got a lot of gigs coming up. Got some new music coming out. Right.

Make sure you get out there on Spotify, Apple, wherever you listen to your stuff. I'm sure he's out there. Yeah.

And you know what? If you liked what he had to say, you're going to like his music. That's right. You really are.

I mean, you just heard two of his songs. That's right. That's right.

Fantastic. Yeah. So get out there, go see Brad, check out his stuff, download his stuff, buy his stuff.

We'd sell you stuff, but we don't have any stuff. Yeah, that's right. All right.

Well, thanks for joining us again. See you next Tuesday with another exclusive episode of the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. Later.

Bye. 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.