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. We're just flying from now. Still Florida.

Still Florida. Okay. Yeah.

Um, I was staying right in the middle of Walt Disney World, but I was not there to hang out at Disney World. It's just, that's where the hotel was available and I was there for, uh, did you see the mouse? My day job convention. Um, I did not, thankfully.

Oh man. But, um, cool. Did you wear the ears? Uh, I didn't do any of that garbage.

I didn't do any of that stuff. But I'll tell you after the first three days of hanging out in my hotel, I just wanted to go hang out where adultery is hanging out because I, you know, you go into these hotels and everything's geared toward the kids. He's true.

I, the first night I was there, I paid $35 for a grilled salmon and you know, I had this great dinner planned, right? And they serve it to me in a box. I was like, you know what? This is all just for kids. It is for kids.

In two days, show me where adults are drinking beer and eating steak. That's where I want to go. I'm done with this.

Well, you know what? We're amongst adults right now. At least we kind of hope we are. I thought you said these guys were musicians.

Well, you know, supposed to be adult musicians, you know, and you know, sometimes they say that, uh, three's company, but remember the show three's company? I do remember the show three's company. There was that one dude and that, and he was with the two chicks. John Flipper.

Jack Tripper. Yeah, that guy was one lucky dude. Oh man.

And tonight we've got the band Jack Tripper, we've got John and Doug, how are you guys doing? We're doing good. Good. Thanks for having us.

How are you? Thanks for coming out. Why Jack Tripper? I mean, I have to know. I'm curious.

Yes. Why? That's interesting. It was not after the TV character we had started.

We were in a band, uh, John, myself and our bass player, uh, Darren, and, uh, we left that band, started a new band, um, didn't like the name. And so we decided we wanted a name of a fictitious character. I guess Pearl Jam back in the day had Mookie Blaylock, but he was a real person.

Yeah. So they, they wanted to name their band Mookie Blaylock, but Mookie Blaylock said no. So we thought, well, that's pretty cool.

So one night around the spot, we were, uh, just rifling off names and, and out came Jack Tripper for no reason at all, for no reason at all. That's awesome. Thought it sounded cool.

So we got rid of the C and, um, made it one more JAK Tripper. Wow. And they played their first gig at the Regal Beagle.

Can you believe I remembered that? Yeah. Wow. Even I didn't remember that.

That was going to be the other name of the band, Mr. Furley, but we were just really side project. Yeah. You know that that's actually something that I hear it's, it's actually kind of common because I know a guy that plays in a, in a Skinner tribute band and the name of their band is Artemis Pyle.

All right. See, I mean, that's a great name for a band. Yeah.

Careful about that. I'm sure Artemis isn't happy about that. Right.

Well, you know what, apparently he is actually pretty cool about it because he's a real laid back kind of dude. He's just like, yeah, whatever. Go ahead.

Always seemed cool. Nice. So what's the style of music? I'm, um, I, I'm, I'm guessing like eighties, but I'm thinking not eighties cause you know, the name JAK Tripper, but, um, I wouldn't call it classic rock, but definitely geared more seventies, but we avoid, I like to say we avoid the obvious.

So we just play stuff that we constantly hear. I can't believe you guys played that. Nobody ever plays that stuff.

Thank you for playing. Give me a song. Give me an example.

Uh, well, we got, well, in the sixties, um, you know what, we'll go, we do fat, uh, fats domino blue Monday, and then we'll do a system of a down and, um, you know, some black Sabbath, uh, and then, um, a lot of cheap trick. Uh, we, we like to highlight Illinois bands. So, uh, you know, we do some enough's enough, a cheap trick, um, off Broadway, uh, that's kind of something that we really try to highlight is, uh, you know, are the various artists from our hometown.

So, um, but it's really a seventies thing. A lot of nineties, uh, we just kind of avoid the eighties. It seems to be everybody's, uh, everybody else's, um, go to, and we try to stay out of everybody else's way and in doing so, um, you know, we really have a good following and people like John said, you know, are always amazed by the stuff we pull out.

So, um, and, and it's not anyone's style for a show. It's just kind of meandering through all over the place. Yeah.

Yeah. So you're doing a lot of B sides and stuff. You're not doing the mainstream.

It's like for instance, for arrows, like of course, Aerosmith, we pick the chip away the stone and Adam's apple and you know, stuff that you're not going to hear her walk this way and big timing, sweet emotion, you know, we just, there's other bands doing all that. So let them do it and we'll do the other side to the record. Yeah.

And the people back then, it was a AOR they call, you know, rock and everybody listened to albums, you know? So it might be one or two mainstream out on the radio. Was there some other good stuff? Oh yeah. Plenty.

Oh, absolutely. I can recall a time I was in a band called forget Hannah about 10 years ago and I think you would have forgotten about that by now. Yeah.

You know, it was hard. I saw you guys. Did you really? Yes.

I did. Double door. I want to say.

Um, well if it was within the last 10 years, it wasn't me cause I, it's been close to 10 years since I've been with that band. They're still around now, but I recall a time we were playing a place out in Lombard and somebody kept requesting the song. They wanted us to play, want it dead or alive.

And they wanted us to play Jesse's girl, you know, they wanted to, you know, and, and it was so obvious, you know, like each song was, yo, please play this, please play this, please play this. And it wasn't a big place. The owner of the bar is very easily able to hear the songs that people are requesting.

And at the end of the night he gave us an extra 50 bucks and said, thank you for not playing. Thank you so much. I've heard both of those songs every single night this week.

Actually, Jesse's girls on the list of never to play. Yeah. So what's your lineup? It's not just the two of you guys, right? Uh, well there's seven, uh, anywhere from three to seven, uh, John and I can make it that night.

So we have Roy Silva, uh, percussion, um, can play some keyboards, sings, uh, and then Jeff Boonog plays drums. Um, Darren Hawkinson is the bass, Andy Banneth, the, uh, keys, uh, John Braun to my right. Um, and Mike Kloepfer, uh, Kloepfer is our other guitar player.

Um, and then myself, Doug McBride and that's seven. If my counting is correct, you're a guitar player as well. I do play guitar.

Um, I'm really a failed guitar player that can carry a tune. Okay. So if I had my way, I would just be a guitar player, but, uh, He's not, he's a singer.

I am a singer. We should start a club, you know, same, same, same thing. And what's your role in the band? I always wanted to be Robert Plant, but I ended up playing guitar.

So just the opposite of him wanting to, yeah. So I play guitar. Yeah.

Great. Great. So did we, did we, um, hear the, the, what's the song that, I mean, you get requests and what's the song that, that people request? I, I'm assuming it's because you don't, Jesse's girl, don't stop believing wanted dead or alive, but then we torture him, uh, with anything, but, but it's good stuff that every time, you know, it'll be, wow.

I haven't heard that. We do a lot of UFO Chicago's a big UFO town. Um, we have a lot of black crows, uh, you know, some Zeppelin here and there, um, Nick Gilder, uh, we'll pull a lot of AM radio stuff, a lot of Stevie wonder, um, kind of whatever, you know, the old AM playlist, uh, the good stuff off the, uh, you know, the playlist show and then good FM stuff that would be on the eight track that, um, you know, right.

Any of those, um, you decided, okay, we're going to give it a shot and see if it goes over and, and you expected it to fail. And then, and now it's one of your most popular songs. Well, we just did boogie man by Casey and the sunshine band last week.

First time ever. And the place, I don't know, I think you have to give your rock and roll card up for telling you, man. I went nuts.

Oh, and it was funny because the dude comes up to me at the beginning of the show. He's like, Hey, this is my nephew, young kid. He's like, I was telling him how much stuff, all the different shit you guys play.

And he goes, I told him you guys don't play disco. And I was like, well, stick around for a little bit cause we got a little surprise for you. First time we ever did it, but we just do shit like that for next to where, right? Yeah.

It's a podcast. Oh yeah. Okay.

So we just do stuff that we like. He said shit. I'm going to say shit.

Yeah. I'll say shit. I'll say shit too.

I don't give a shit either way. We just like songs that, that we like, that we like to play, that we grew up listening to. Like I saw Larry Lou Jack out there on the wall and there he is right there.

And we refer to him every time we do hot child in the city or, you know, we'll go back like that. And people are just like a king. Nobody plays that.

Yeah. Who are you? Yeah. Yeah.

I'll admit I've, I've played that's the way by Casey in the sunshine. Our version of disco is usually, uh, the stones miss you as a, as a disco beat basically. So, um, and then we'll go into some temptations.

Papa was a rolling stone, um, followed by love to love by UFO. Yeah. Yeah.

So did you guys start the band? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

How long have you known each other and how did that all come about? What'd we say? I've been together 19 years now. Well, this band 19 years, um, prior to that, we were in a band that we can't utter the name of that band due to legal, uh, contractual obligations, but, uh, prior to that, John and I, uh, had a band, the Joe Stoner project and, um, and then our drummer Jeff and then Roy Silva were in another band that was breaking up. Um, and so we had Darren, you, me, we lost our drummer and another, uh, guitar player still looking for him.

And, um, but, uh, it just kind of came together and, um, I think did our first show as Jack Tripper, April 4th, 2004 up in Algonquin. Wow. Wow.

Where was that? The road house. Yeah. Algonquin Roadhouse.

Yeah. 20th anniversary. Yep.

We are guests. We are. Yes.

Yeah. So one of these days we're going to, uh, make a, a, a record of original, you know, an album. Do you guys do any original? We haven't for a while.

We're working on things right now. So we're hoping in, uh, 2023 to have something out that we can, um, you know, give everybody and, uh, see where it goes from that. So you got some stuff, but you haven't played it out.

We have riffs all over the place and just the time to get everyone together and say, what do you think of this? What can you do to this? Yeah. Be a nice, nice 20th anniversary. Yeah.

Yeah. Thing to come out with. Yeah.

It would be. Yeah. Nice.

Are you doing any rehearsal these days or you pretty much call it gigging? Um, we'll rehearse if we're going to every show, but we've, I don't think we've ever played the same set once in 19 years, it's constantly changing. And that's usually six or seven that we're swapping out and five of those will be new. So.

Yeah. So when we're adding something new, we'll get together the week before, throw it together and see how it sounds and just go. Right.

How's that process? Does, does somebody, uh, pick the songs most of the time or does somebody say, Hey, let's do this or. I would say I pick 95% of the songs, send them out. What do you think? They'll get the thumbs up on the phone and then do this version.

Everyone does their homework at the rehearsal. Right. Go.

Yeah. It seems like, you know, if you have a three piece or a four piece or even, even a five piece, you know, four and five, I guess would be the average sizes of a band. When you start getting larger than five, you always tend to have to have somebody that's going to say, okay, you know what? I'm going to be the music director because, you know, we're, I mean, I'm in a band of nine and you guys can have sometimes seven.

So if you've got seven people, nine people all saying, let's do this, let's do this, let's do this. You've got to have one person to wrangle them in, I think, and say, well, out of these 12, we're going to pick these three because our singers are saying what happens, right? Yeah. I'll throw 10 out there and like six will come back.

Let's do these, you know? Right. And, uh, yeah, that's usually how it works. So, but yeah, just like that, but we're, we're pretty cool.

We like, I don't think we've had one argument. I mean, we just, we do it for fun, you know? That's the only reason to do it. You know, we like to play, like I said, the playlist songs we like, and I think we'd rather do that and play the songs we like in front of 50 people than the songs we don't like in front of 200 people.

Right. You know? Right. Yeah.

We're committed. And I think it's should be committed. Yeah.

And I have been. Um, but I think it's, you know, when you're committed to something and you really like it, you know, it, it shows, you know, when I'm seeing bands. Uh, and no disrespect to any band, uh, doing whatever, if you're into something, you're into it.

Um, but I know there's bands out there that are just doing, you know, as you mentioned the journey or the, you know, just the standard Bon Jovi or the 80s stuff. And, um, if I hear another version of zombie, uh, ever, ever, um, you know, and so we just try to stay away from that. There's plenty of people doing it.

And, um, so we love what we do. And, um, and so when that happens, you know, we, a lot of times we'll close it with a Ted Nugent stranglehold and, and John here just tears it up. And, um, I got the Derek going most nights and, um, you know, it's a thing and people just don't hear that.

And, uh, and so we just try to play what we love and, and when you're committed to it, I think the results, uh, you know, pretty much speak for themselves. So playing what you love to be, is the people have been receptive to that then you got a good fan base. Yeah.

Would you agree that, I mean, if you're going to play a song that maybe somebody hasn't heard before, you know, um, uh, even if it could be by a popular band, I think it's more important that at that point you have to remember that being a musician is part of being in show business. And at some point you've got to let the show part of the show business come through. If, if you're standing on stage and you don't look like you're having fun playing that song, then nobody in the crowd is going to have fun.

But if they, but people will get into a song they've never heard before, as long as they can look up there and see you sell it. Oh yeah. Absolutely.

Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly right.

You have to sell it. Oh yeah. Yeah.

I was, I was thinking of a, of a time I saw a band, uh, you know, pretty re pretty recently where they played the song, um, lady by the little river band, right? Great song. Great, great, great song. I love that band.

And then, then somebody kept saying, you know, you know, play some journey, play some journey. And then they just blew me away because I think I was the only one in the room that recalled that journey recorded this song. It was mother, father, sister, I think.

I've never seen a cover band perform that song once and I think I was the only person in that room that knew that that was a journey song because everybody kept saying, when are you going to play journey? Oh, we just did. We just did our journey set. We just did.

Yeah. And that's a long song. It sure is.

Yeah. That's a long song. It wasn't set.

See, but I love that stuff. That's what I love too. You know? So.

We do, uh, ours kind of an obscure early nineties, uh, uh, Jimmy Necco, um, kind of a one hit wonder that wasn't even a mainstream hit, but we love it. You know, King's X, stuff like that, that, uh. Saw Doug's bass out there.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Doug. That's who's that is. Yeah.

Doug left the, uh, left the 12 string out there. Yeah. He's a Joliet home, hometown guy.

He is. He's a Joliet boy. For our listeners.

They are referring to some of the equipment that's been donated here to the, uh, the Illinois rock and roll hall of fame museum. When it opens up this summer, you guys can come take a look at it. Awesome.

But don't touch. Yes. That's, that's, that's right.

That's right. So was there a gig where, um, where it just all of a sudden clicked that said, yeah, we're doing this right. You know, we're playing the music that we want to play.

And the crowd was into it, uh, April 4th, 2004 anniversary of that night's coming up too. Yes, it is. Uh, you know, and we're, we're kind of authentic in that, um, you know, Jack, uh, the namesake of the band, uh, happens to be the, the, uh, libation of, of choice too, for the band.

So, uh, you know, we're a real blood and guts rock and roll band. That's not afraid to, uh, go out on a limb and, um, and have some fun as well. So, uh, you know, we like to get everybody having a good time.

Um, and so I think we would have been a great fun touring band. And, uh, I don't know if, I don't know how far that would've got, but, uh, so we, uh, we definitely, uh, we're not living that life obviously, but when we're together, we are so. Right.

We can read a room too. So yeah, we can tell what a crowd's into and we can change it from, we've never, I don't think we've ever followed a set list completely. Yeah.

We've never followed. So you go through the songs and you get a feel for what the crowd's going for. Like, let's go down to this one instead.

Exactly. We call it a suggestion list in our band. Yeah.

It's not the, it's not the set list. You have to be able to do that. And no, in my opinion, two things, uh, distinguish a beginning band and a, and a band that's been, uh, been around a while, it's, um, vocal harmonies, you know, you gotta practice those man.

It, I mean, that puts the shine on a good band really does. And then you have to be able to read the room, you know, if you're just up there playing everything that you love, but nobody else is into it, it's time to change gears a little bit. Yeah.

Yeah. You'll lose that. Let's play that disco song.

Let's go. Play that fucking music. Ready? Go.

Yep. Remember boogie nights from the other day? There have been numerous times we've played songs once. Oh yeah.

You know, we'll learn it. Okay. Next.

Next. Yep. Either on our end or the crowd, if we don't get a good response or we're not feeling it, you know, we've like anybody, if there's a, a fun song out, um, you know, we've done some gorillas.

Uh, I mean, you know, some of the new stuff, uh, we used to be heavier, a lot of Alice and chains and a Pearl jam and, um, things like that. Doesn't really get them dancing. Yeah.

Right. You know, people are in out for that good time listening to, yeah, you're absolutely right. Don't get me wrong.

I love those bands, but right. And you can tell when a crowd is into that type of music, cause they're not dancing, they're just sitting there at their tables, they're in their own conversations, but you can tell if they're into it or not because you know, they've got smiles on their faces and they, and they stay, but there's nothing like the energy that the crowd gives back to you. They're up and dancing all night long.

Yeah. We did a show in LA weeks ago and the crowd, we just fed off the crowd, you know, and you can just get that energy. Right.

Right. Absolutely. Definitely.

So what do you guys have coming up or how many shows you guys do in a year? Hmm. I had to put, I had a whole list of what was coming. Probably.

Um, we're probably anywhere from 50 to 75 range. You know, some years have been more, uh, and some years have been less, um, you know, as, as we get older and have things that are, you know, going on. Um, but, uh, by and large, I I'd say, you know, three, three, there'll be some stretches where we're doing a bunch and then it might get sparse, but I'll bet you 50 is probably a good number.

Right. I think our next one's at Nelly's the next month. Yeah.

The end of next month, they're closing Nelly's down. Yeah. Saw that.

Yeah. Not only closing it down, they're leveling demolishing and demolishing the building. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It's a soon as they decide to demolish it, they started liking us. I'm a, I'm a long time Palatinian. So I, uh, remember and frequent at the old Nelly's who are, you know, the floor slanted to the right and, uh, that's kind of more our thing.

Um, I love good sound, love a big stage, but better, uh, I love a good vibe and, um, and so that old Nelly's had an incredible vibe at times and new Nelly's, uh, does as well. Right. But, uh, you know, I'm not sure what all the circumstances are.

Supposedly they're building a high rise and putting a pub up on top. So as you know, if we have to carry gear up like 17 floors, we're not doing it. So is that Avalon and was that the Avalon? Oh yeah.

Yeah. Oh my. Was it the Avalon? No, that was, uh, the staircase.

I know what you're talking about. I will get that for you. All right.

Clean out the memory banks. So, uh, prior to, uh, Jack Tripper, what were you guys doing? Well, that was nice. That's been a while.

Yeah. It's only been 20 years. I go back since 19.

I think my first gig was 82 at Haymakers in a band called After Night. He was 17. I wasn't even allowed in.

They didn't even want me playing. I was 16. I think.

But, uh, after that, I joined a band called Wired. We moved out to LA for six, seven years, went to Hollywood, tried that route. That didn't work.

Came back, started a family, got in bands. I'd never wanted to do cover music. I was original, you know, just like every story you've heard before, right? 80s playing Haymakers, Thirsty Whale, Beginnings, and, uh, just came around doing some cover stuff and met all these guys.

Yeah. Uh, Darren and I were in a band, uh, with a couple of guys, um, well, I was in a band with Darren in 1980, um, you know, playing around places like Chance's R and, um, you know, the Whale and the Standard, you know, um, and around about 86, uh, I dropped out. Uh, I'd moved furniture, you know, as a day job because you could do it when you wanted to.

And if you were playing, um, you didn't have to work the next day and you weren't going to get fired. Um, but, uh, so anyway, that, that kind of went on. And, um, uh, as I started a family and whatnot, I kind of dropped out, but, uh, Darren and I kept playing together with various people around town, um, but not doing shows.

And so a friend of mine, Lothar, who, uh, was in a band with me in the eighties called me one day looking for Darren's number, um, 98, maybe needed a bass player, you know, and then said, Hey, do you know any, uh, singers, you know, and I'm like, Hey, what about me? You know, why are you doing anything? And, uh, well, no. So we kind of got a four piece going, uh, called Hoi Poloi and, um, paired up with John and his band, uh, which had a couple of friends of ours, uh, Steve Moss and Tim McGovern. Uh, they were on a, uh, old band captive heart with Chuck Kowal, who was an engineer at tracks.

They were actually produced by Peter X. So, um, these guys were, uh, in that band, John was with them. And then I was in this Hoi Poloi, we played together one night at a bowling alley gig. It was a, it was a benefit.

And, um, and I think Scott was his name, whoever their singer was, uh, there was a little friction there and, and then also a little bit of friction in, uh, Hoi Poloi. So the next thing, you know, we kind of got together and then, uh, uh, formed this band. And, um, and we can't mention the name of, until we settle this, this 22 year lawsuit.

Um, uh, and so I'm with, what does it rhyme with rhymes with, it rhymes with jam buoy. That was the name of the band jam buoy. We'll just leave it at that.

Okay. There you go. Don't know what it means.

Don't know why. Um, we really don't know what any of our band names mean. Yeah.

And that was a solid band on the heavier side, a good band, but, uh, that broke up and then Johnny and I just connected, uh, right away. And, um, I forgot how that worked. I think I, we had to ditch a bass player and fit it together.

Yeah. And a guitar player. And, and so, uh, our drummer bailed out.

He didn't want to do things. And right at that time, Jeff and Roy, who'd been in, and still are in a band called Exide that has been around forever. Three piece.

I know that band. Yeah. Um, so, uh, their member, Dan was starting a family, kind of wanted to take it easy.

So Jeff, you know, we got him into the Joe Stoner project and did one gig, I think down in Tenley park at Holsteins, which was just an awesome gig. And we knew right then as a four piece, man, this is great. And then Jeff said, Hey, look, I got Roy here.

He's got nothing to do. And while we were thinking about it, Roy just magically appeared at the Algonquin roadhouse on April 4th and haven't been able to get rid of them. Yeah.

The rest is history. He is the, uh, encyclopedia Britannica of rock and roll. Wow.

And you could play him something. He'll tell you, you know, what note, what chord, you know, and it just is an incredible ear and musical sense plays bass, uh, guitar, keys, drums, sings. Right.

Right. Yeah. That, you know, I make this comment on almost every one of these things that we do and just listening to your talk about the people that you knew and, you know, then you get to the point where, you know, you know, some guys that, you know, worked with Peter Rick and everything.

And that just always constantly reminds me why I love being in the Chicagoland area. You guys have been to LA, you know, you know, I, I tried doing that stuff myself and going to Nashville and everything. You know, Nashville is great.

Don't get me wrong. Nashville is fantastic. I've never been to Nashville.

Yeah. No, we've established that. He's never been to Nashville ever.

I've been through it. That's the new Hollywood. You know, that's the new Hollywood.

But, but, you know, just being a musician in the Chicago area is fantastic because it makes people start to realize that there are so many people that actually make their living as a musician, but you've never heard of them. Okay. Just because I'm not famous and you don't hear me on the radio, it doesn't mean that I'm, I'm not working.

I'm not a professional musician. And you can have, you know, guys like us that are pretty much just local guys, cause you know, having some fun. And next thing you know, you find yourself in a studio with, with Jim Peterick or whoever that might happen to be.

And when I tell that story to other people in other cities, they're like, no way, you know, how'd you do that? You know? It's the Chicago connection. It is. It's Chicago.

This was the center of the universe in the golden era in the sixties. I mean, it was it. Absolutely.

So, um, yeah, absolutely. People are willing to work together up here, you know, other areas. And there's no attitude.

You know, I have to think it's because it's the, uh, you know, we're all Midwesterners. Yeah. Yeah.

Chicago is a big city, but we're all Midwesterners. It's that heartland mentality. The boys song, uh, uh, Midwest kids, right.

Yeah. Dirty bucks. So it's just that kind of sensible, um, you know, attitude where you're, people aren't, it isn't LA and it isn't New York, you know, it's, uh, and, and Illinois just has just such a, in Chicago, it's just a rich musical tradition and various styles, you know, blues, obviously, but, you know, we do Sam cook.

I mean, we, we really do try to celebrate, you know, uh, Illinois and Chicago bands. Uh, I mean, we do Holland, the boys, Sam cook, and we try and we, like he said, we just love the, plus we love the Chicago sound and he has the sound, you know, cheap trick and off Broadway and the shoes and the hounds and all those bands from way back. They just have that.

Yeah. There's definitely a Chicago sound for sure. Absolutely.

It's, it's, it's very distinct. Love it. Yeah.

And plus the one thing that New York and Chicago, uh, share is that we both like singer songwriters, you know, they like singers in Nashville. They like songwriters in Nashville. They like singers in LA.

They like songwriters, but they don't like singer songwriters or LA, but you can get away with that in Chicago. Unless maybe you're Neil Young or something, I guess you have to be Canadian, but yeah, Laurel Canyon or whatever. So yeah, little bits of Baker's field.

Yeah, that's right. That's right. So, yeah, we try to stay true to our roots definitely.

Um, and then really kind of captured the things we love, like for instance, UFO is just always had a great Chicago, uh, you know, following. And so, man, I, you know, we will pull out only you can rock me and people just go nuts and you say, Hey man, you know, international amphitheater right away. They know you're talking about strangers in the night.

We were on their live album out in Chicago, as soon as we mentioned the amphitheater, we don't even have to tell people are right away. They know it's UFO just by the international amphitheater, just by the location. Wow.

And I always wondered why would anybody want to record anything there? The sound of metal? Terrible. Oh God, it was terrible. Yeah, it was.

It was fires burning in the barrels. Kudos to whoever mixed that down. They did.

Unbelievable. The days before, uh, days before autotune and everything else. Oh my God.

Yeah. And what's that? That software that Paul uses to dig, pull frequencies and stuff out of. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. They didn't have that stuff.

That was a good shit back then. You hear all the mistakes. Yeah.

You know, you hear the thought cops and all the other stuff. And it was that. That's what makes music.

Yeah. Yeah. That was actually Bob Dylan recently said that the reason why he hasn't recorded anything in the past few years is because everything is so perfect in a studio and he can't hear his mistakes.

Yeah. He's like, he's like, I'm done. I'm out of here.

I want to play my autotune, my old autotune, you know, worn out, need to be replaced harmonica. Yeah. Yeah.

You can have a, you know, a sample or you can have a, you know, a file extension or something. But then when you sing through a good Neumann mic into like a actual strip of Neve preamp, you know, that was pulled out of a board and you hear that difference that to me anyway, the warmth, you know, of analog is just, oh yeah. And more and more people are getting back into analog.

I see this because I was looking for an old, you know, like a pioneer, you know, a nine 80 or something. And I'm looking at what they're costing and I'm like, oh man, I, you know, I, I used to have that. I don't even know what I did with it.

I don't have, you know, the over a thousand dollars they want for it. But I think that analog sound, you know, and that sound of the seventies, the sixties and the seventies and some of the eighties, I mean, our eighties bands were, you know, like Dio or, you know, Queens or a priest. Yes.

And all the harder, early eighties. Yeah. Before it kind of started to get, you know, the emulator was the maybe the beginning became about quantity.

It wasn't about quality anymore. It's excess. Yeah.

Right. Right. Cookie cutters.

A few years ago, I went on a quest to put together a vintage stereo because I got tired of having to find my phone or a laptop and plug it into some speakers and download music. I just wanted to put a CD, you know, in the, in the receiver. I didn't even want a multi changer.

I just want to play a single CD. I wanted to get a turntable and a whole bit. And I did.

I ended up assembling everything. Well, when I was a teenager, I, I made a little money on the side. I had all this sound gear and sound equipment and I said, how am I going to pay for all this stuff? So I went out and I bought two techniques, 1200s turntables, and I became a DJ, right? So I'm DJing private parties and weddings and, you know, did homecoming dances for high schools and all that stuff.

Make quite a bit of money. Yeah. So I said, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to go on.

I'm going to get a techniques, 1200 turntable because that's going to be the turntable for the stereo. Well, there happens to be one on the shelf directly behind you right over there someplace. Right.

Well, when I went to go and you can buy them new today, I went to go and buy one of my first car costs less. Oh yeah. When I, back in 1986, I think I paid 300 bucks for two of them and now they're like thousands.

It's unbelievable. Finals coming back. And I'll tell you what, they're the exact same turntable.

They haven't changed a thing and that's, that's great about it because it's a fantastic turntable, but I'll, I'll never have one. I have two kids in college, you know. That turntable, nope, that's it.

If anybody's got some old, uh, old gear, man, they need it. If it's not working, get it fixed because it's definitely worth it. You think of all the guitars and the old amps and things that you just didn't, you know, so many effect pedals.

Don't know what happened to $600, like, wait a minute, I bought it for 50 bucks. Yeah. And young kids are starting to get back into it again because you know, I've got, uh, I've got younger kids.

They're both in college now, but over the course of the past few years, I've been seeing them bring their friends over to our house and the music they're, they're listening to and they're getting into vinyl. All these little vinyl cafes are popping up all over the place now, you know, you can go and get a cup of coffee and buy a record. There's nothing like buying an album.

Yeah. There was nothing, just everything. Or, or the all night record shop, you know, the, you'd go see a show and then go over to the record store and start picking through the, you know, the unbelievable, so, uh, when the record was coming out, you couldn't wait for it to come out, you'd go get it, you'd open it up.

The lyrics, the, I would read every stupid liner note, liner notes, producer, you know, who guitar tuners and I mean everything. Have we had this conversation before? I'm sure we've had it numerous times. No, we all reminisce around the table about those times.

Kids nowadays have no idea what it's like to have a listening party. Right. Or waiting outside at the flip side so that you could get the best general admission ticket possible.

And now, uh, you know, it's just, just not the same thing. Get in line, get in line and get tickets. Yeah.

And what it costs and everything. And back then it was, uh, tickets are $3.50, $4.50, $5.50. Oh, I can't afford the $5.50, we better go for the $3.50. Yeah. I saw Pink Floyd at the Animals Tour, I think it was $7.50. Yeah.

Yeah. Going to a concert used to be a cheap date. Oh yeah.

It was. I still got all my, almost all my stubs. I show everybody my queen stub, $10.50, $10.50, Freddie Mercury, Rosemont Horizon at the time.

The game tour, $10. I mean, come on. And now it's, it's astronomical.

900 bucks. And you don't even get a ticket. No.

You get a barcode. Oh, I hate that. What the hell do you do with a barcode? Or you can print it out at home.

Yes, you could. Yeah. You can print the barcode out.

And I look at it and I go, it's just like abstract art. I just, I don't know who I just saw, but I did. I had the sheet, the little eight by 10 with a barcode.

I'm like, do I even fucking keep this thing? I'm like, I got all my ticket stubs and I don't even want this. You got to write, you got to write on it what it was in order to put it in your scrapbook. Yeah.

Oh, let me barcode. Oh yeah. With scanners.

That'll tell you. Yeah. Or you can advance purchase your concert t-shirts now and the whole bit.

And you can be that guy. You can be that guy that goes to the concert wearing the t-shirt from the band that you're going to see. Yeah.

I know. You don't want to be that guy. I try not to.

Well, I shouldn't say I try not to see big shows. It's hard to get a good vantage point for a reasonable price at, like when the stones were out and I've seen the stones a couple of times and, um, back, you know, when they were, I can't say a hundred percent that they were good at the farewell tour. I saw him at soldier field, the new soldier field, uh, uh, maybe bridges to Babylon.

I can't remember the tour, but I saw him at the old soldier field in 77 and I can't say that was great because they might've been, you know, affected by who knows what might have been. Yeah. But now, you know, and I, Hey, I love the rolling stones.

We do tons of stones, but, um, you know, I'm not going to pay 600 bucks off. And that's, they're not at their best. So like I try to find cool shows and small places like just, uh, last year I saw Marty Stewart here over at the Rialto.

Oh yeah. Unbelievable. And I just saw him when he was at the old town school of folk music.

And, um, so, you know, I try and get tickets, you know, under a hundred bucks. I saw a cheap trick on new year's eve in Minnesota for a hundred bucks. I was 20 feet from the stage, Santana, the same thing.

And, um, so there's still good value out there, but some of these mega tours and like, I'd love to see the last version of the dead, you know, dead and company here, but man, I'm not fighting with all those people in Wrigley field for 700 bucks or forget it. And I need to never know what you're getting. Take foreigner, for example, single original member.

You're lucky if Mick Jones shows up to play guitar, it's like, I don't know. How can you say you're foreigners? Is there somebody that's been there the longest that replaced somebody? Right. Right.

Right. There's nobody there. I mentioned the little river band earlier today, and I just found out there is not one single original member of that band left.

And there's something, there was some something going on. They were fighting over the name and the guy who ended up winning rights to the name isn't even an original member, but there's several original members that are still alive and kicking and collecting and they're, and they're off. The three of them formed their own thing and it's, they don't even have the name, their last names.

It's the name of the band is their, their three last names. And some guy that came along in like 2006 is the guy that's got the name little river band. Right.

Like in sticks. It's the original member of sticks. It's James.

Yeah. J one. Tommy isn't even an original.

Right. And that's it. Tommy's an original.

He's not. Right. Yeah.

He shows up, plays bass on a couple. Yeah. But that's it.

And I will say, uh, I, I follow a Todd Zuckerman and love his drum cam and man, that guy is so good in the Chicago guy. And so I love that he wound up being the drummer for the band and, um, and they're still decent, but yeah, you're right. It's too bad.

They couldn't have worked it out with Dennis too young or when you see all the fests in the summer, you're like, Oh fuck. Yeah. Blue eyes.

They're called all these other bands. Not one. Like you said.

Yeah. Not one dude. I think fog had, had the guitar player from wild cherry and the drummer was the only original guy.

I think we played with them at Schaumburg Stockman. Oh yeah. We played with Randy Bachman at a, yeah, that was awesome.

Uh, he had some local guys jobbing in, I think Andy's backlined everything. So all he had, he was in a Winnebago by himself and, um, showed up and, and these guys, he hadn't rehearsed or anything. So our soundcheck was basically sitting around watching these guys get all the, uh, intros and extras for their set.

It was their rehearsal. And I thought, well, this is pretty cool. Who could say they sat five feet from Randy Bachman and just watched them jam for an hour.

It was awesome. Yeah. It was their rehearsal.

Yes, it was. And it was just, it was awesome. Wow.

Amazing. And we did, uh, we did, uh, Todd Zuckerman, we did a podcast with them a while back. I don't recall what the episode was.

I don't think you were with me. I don't think so. No.

Awesome. Awesome. Seems like a really good guy.

And, uh, yeah. You know, I, a lot of people have pages and whatnot and, um, and then a lot of fans want to comment and, you know, because they, they love these, you know, artists. And so, uh, you know, I've noticed that Todd takes the time to actually respond to various posts.

He's responded to a post I've made, you know, on one of his, uh, or, you know, a comment And, um, it's good when you see somebody that's reached that level and they're still, you know, have some humility and appreciate, you know, how they got there. Right. And, um, and that's pretty cool.

So again, that's the, you know, that's the, uh, Midwest Chicago thing. Yeah, it really is. Yeah.

I got to work with Gary Loizo, uh, just a couple of years before he passed away. And it was just a, you know, it was a Luke thing. I had a buddy who was a songwriter and he's a retired Chicago public school teacher.

And he wanted to record an album of all of his original music and put it out there. And all the proceeds where he was going to donate the money to the Chicago public school district. And I was like, okay, great.

And he asked me to go down to the studio and record some vocals for him. And I, I go down there and I walk in and there's Gary Loizo. So I'm recording tracks at Gary Loizo.

And that, that's, that, that was, that was just awesome. I, I couldn't sing for like the first half hour and then it's, and everything changed. Everything.

Peter Brady. Everything changed. We're all, we're all showing our age, but no, it was a, you know, every, everything changed when I had an opinion on how I thought the melody of a certain song would go.

And, and, uh, Gary says, and Gary says, you know, he steps in between me and the, the, the, uh, the writer and says, you know, I'm real curious. I want to hear what he has to say about this. And I gave him my opinion and he's like, I agree with that.

And Gary looks at the guy and goes, let's let him do it his way. And I was like, wow. And I was like, okay.

All right. That's cool. Yeah.

It was the last time he had you sing any of his songs. Actually, I've, I've, I've known the guy for a, for a long time. Shout out, shout out the race bar.

Very good. Very good. Cool.

Man, we could do this all night. See, that's what this podcast is about. You sit around and just talk, man.

Everybody gets to know a little bit more about you guys and then you get to tell everybody where they're playing and, you know, they'll go out and they'll see you guys. Just because they think you're, think you're cool guys. Well, we are.

One thing about us is we're the worst promoters in the history of rock and roll. We're terrible. So, you know, we don't write it down.

We don't have, you know, an electronic press kit. I'm sorry. We don't.

But we do have a Facebook page at various times. We've had a website, but, you know, it's kind of a word of mouth thing and the places that know us and the people that know us know where to find us. Well, it's working.

It's been going on for 19 years. So something's working. I encourage everybody to find us out there on Facebook.

OK, I got a quick list real quick. May 27th Nelly's, June 3rd, Roselle Fest, June 10th, Green Town on the Rocks in Waukegan, July 9th, Burger Fest in Roscoe Village, July 21st, Palatine Twin Lakes, July 29th, Diamond Gyms. Yeah.

East Dundee. I'm in West Dundee. August 12th, The Ore, August 18th, Station 34 with my metal heart.

That's all I got right now. Yeah. And we have some others in there.

Yeah. I mean, I just had a flashback. Starbee presents.

Gotta have the wah-wah pedal though. Wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah I think it'd be cool if you still did that now. We played Stay Out West, but it was renamed something else when we.

Stay Out West in Hanover Park. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Same space and everything, but it's a different, a different bar now. I do remember I was on top of a table singing there.

Well, that's why I don't remember. That's a whole other, that's a whole other can of worms because the drunkest I've ever been in my life involved the owner of Stay Out West. Oh, okay.

All right. There it is. All ties together.

So I grew up, so you know where Stay Out West was located there in Hanover Park? I grew up, there's a cornfield right across Lake Street. If you walked through that cornfield, right, to, you would end up at a road called Rodenburg. Oh yeah.

Yeah. I lived right off Rodenburg. Oh, okay.

Nice. That was your house? Yeah. That was my house.

We play a, it's an annual party. We're like on a every third year rotation there under the, under the flight path of the airport out there now. But in that nape of the neck, I've never been to Hanover Park.

You've never been to Hanover Park or Nashville? Or Nashville. Yeah. I've been through Nashville, but Hangover Park we call it.

Yeah. Hangover Park. That's it.

It's because of Stay Out West. Only because of that, yes. Yeah.

I'll, to this day, I can't drink a caramel apple shot ever again. And, and, and I mean, it was amazing. It was actually New Year's Eve, 1999.

I'm going to remember it. Oh yeah. Well, yeah, because you know, 1999, right? Yeah.

Party like. Everywhere you, everywhere you go. The world was going to come tumbling down at midnight.

Around three o'clock in the morning, we were all way too drunk. I mean, we, we should have stopped drinking hours ago. Then all of a sudden, I believe, I believe he was the owner of Stay Out West.

He was friends with the guy that lived across the street from me. And, and he shows up with a crate of booze from the bar. Oh man.

And, and it was caramel, it was caramel, like schnapps, sour apple. And we thought it was a good idea to just start shaking up chilled caramel apple shots after we were all completely drunk. Everything they couldn't sell to everybody else.

That's right. That's right. So yeah.

So yeah. So January 1st and 2nd of the year 2000 don't exist on my calendar or in your memory. I still have some generators left over.

If anybody is looking for a Y2K generator, I'm your man. And if, and if the date on your computer hasn't flipped over yet. Yeah.

Yes. Stuck in 1999. I got to go out, you know, before we, before we sign off, I feel one of us to yell, you know, Hey kid, get off my lawn.

Those are the reference. Yeah. Get off my lawn.

That's right. Well, I retired six years ago. People say, what are you going to do? I said, I'm going to get up early and chase kids off my lawn.

What the hell? That's the only exercise that you get sometimes. That's right. Somebody's got to do it.

All righty guys. I'm going to go out and see these guys for sure. I have a feeling this is a fun show.

You'll have a great time. I guarantee it. Yeah, definitely.

Well, thanks for coming out. I really appreciate it. Thank you guys for having us.

Thanks for the invite. Can't wait to come back and see us when you have it put together. It's everybody.

It is. It's awesome. We want to play in the basement too.

Right. Oh yeah. We can make that happen.

Let's do that. For sure. Jam session.

Take care now. All right. See you guys.

See you. I don't care what they say. It's that show.

Three's company rocked. Yeah. And they said that it wasn't because of the name of the character, but come on.

No, no. Really? Come on. Yeah.

Where do you come up with Jack Tripper? Jack Tripper. Unless they played with some guy back in the 70s and the guy's always tripping and his name was Jack. Right.

And I said, hey, let's name it after him. Remember that bass player we had? Jack Tripper? Oh yeah. Let's do that.

Yeah. But I don't think that's it. No, it's probably not.

They said what it was. They just picked that out of the air. Just happened to come out that way.

But boy, kind of brought me back to the olden days. I know. Well, I am very interested in going out to see what are these B-sides? What are these songs that you don't hear a cover band play? That sounds really interesting.

I think I want to see that. And just from listening to them talk, I didn't hear them play a thing, but I have a pretty good feeling these guys are some good musicians. Oh yeah.

I'm sure they are. And the AOR time, where you sat there and bought that album, you put it on the turntable, you listen to both sides, you listen to everything and you listen to it over. And there was that one, maybe two songs that made it to the radio, but there was a ton of other great stuff.

That's right. It was fantastic. I enjoyed.

I enjoyed them very much. And again, go out and see those guys. I think you're really going to like them.

For sure. For sure. Especially people our age.

Right. I'm sure they'll like that, you know, too. I think they're Walker Accessible.

You want to start a new band together. Let's call it Walker Accessible. Walker Accessible.

Yeah. Yeah. Awesome.

OK. Now I'm now I'm getting kind of I must be getting tired because I'm getting kind of going off on a tangent. So, as usual, thank you for listening to the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast.

Come and knock on our door. See you next week. We'll be waiting for you.

Actually, we're going to go to the Regal Beagle now for a couple of drinks. But if kisses are hers and hers and his, three is company too. 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.