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 I am still Hollywood Mike.

Still Hollywood Mike. How's it going tonight, Mike? I'm doing real good. Wonderful, wonderful.

And I see we're back again for another exciting episode. Yes, we sure are. And this is a find of yours.

Yeah, well, I don't know if he's a find of mine. Or even a friend of yours. Yeah, absolutely.

Sitting across the table from us is the man, the myth, the legend. Oh, shit. All around great person.

My brother from another mother, Mr. Jesse Perez. Hey, good evening, everybody. Uh-oh, it didn't work.

No, it didn't work. Paul, you got to edit in some applause and crowd noise there, because he pushed the button and it didn't work. Let's see what happens.

No, it's not working. Nothing working. Okay.

All right, it's Jesse's fault. That's what it is, it's Jesse's fault. Yeah, absolutely.

So I blame the contractors that were here today. So we have Jesse Perez here, everybody. And, you know, I've known Jesse for about, what is it? Probably about six or seven years, something like that.

And you walked into the Uptown Jam one night. Uptown Jam. It's amazing how many people that are on this podcast walk through the doors of the Uptown Jam at one point or another.

And all of a sudden, I was actually in the house band at the time. And all of a sudden, we get this guy, Jesse Perez, gets called up. And he walks up there, if I'm not mistaken.

You were playing your SG that night. See, I always remember guitars. I don't always remember names and faces.

But you were playing your SG guitar that night. And he pretty much brought the house down. And he was relatively unknown to the crowd.

And here we are now. And everybody knows about Jesse Perez. So that was a funny situation.

My wife was the one who dragged me out of the house to go to the Uptown because she wanted me to get busy playing. And so I went with her. We're sitting at the bar and I'm listening to country music.

I said, honey, after this drink, we're leaving. I don't play country. She goes, no, stick around, stick around.

So I stuck around. And next thing you know, rock bands came up. And I said, oh, and the mood changed.

So then I stuck around. And the rest is history. Yeah, right.

Absolutely. And I remember that because I think you're referring to country music. And I think we had Brad Jackson on stage at the time.

See, I remember everything that has to do with music and the guitars that people were playing. But not much else. Those country pickers are very talented, right? Stuff they just can't do.

Right. Right. So before we get into, you know, the nitty gritty of everything, we'd like to learn a little bit more about your roots, where you came from and the whole bit.

But before we do that, we're going to try something a little bit different here. All right. So before we start, I thought we were going to commercial or something.

Before we start, I want you to tell us two truths about yourself and then one lie about yourself. And by the end of the podcast, we want to see if we can guess which one's the lie Ah, from the stories that you tell. Okay.

All right. One of my truth, my music is my passion. All right.

Don't tell us which is the truth and don't tell us which is the lie. Just name, just say three things. All right.

Music is my passion. I'm still in love with my wife. I hope that's a truth.

Because I know his wife. And I hate jamming. That sounds good.

Tell us about Jesse Perez. Southeast side of Chicago. That's where I came from and I originated.

Like I was telling him earlier, in my neighborhood, it was gang ridden neighborhood by the steel mills, U.S. steel, stuff like that. Rainbow Beach, the Calumet area. Yep.

A lot of bad activities, you know, guys getting in gang fights. And back then, you know, it wasn't guns and knives and stupid stuff. And blackjacks.

But people weren't that serious as far as camping people. But I stayed away from all that. And I played in the basement with my players and just stayed down there doing that.

Stayed out of trouble and just got into music. And got into a lot of bands during my teenage years. Some were good.

Some were mediocre. But learning experience and still is. To this day, it's a learning experience.

I always say, if you think you know everything there is to know about music, you have a lot to learn about music. That's right. That's right.

What was your first band? A band called Spider. And we were all non-talents. They weren't influenced by gangs at all, but their band was called Spider.

Right, right. Well, it was probably because there was eight of them. Spelled with a Y. S-P-Y.

So you made it a little different. And that was one of my startup bands. And then I was in a band called Tears, which was a pretty good band.

And I had some good players in that one. Except for my brother. Sometimes he would get a little off.

He used to like to drink a lot and mess up on the drums a little bit. And to me, the rhythm section is crucial. You got to have a good rhythm section.

And he had a lot of fights, me and Joe. I'd kick him out the band. My mother would beg me to put him back in.

All that kind of stuff. And stay tuned for next week's podcast, where we're going to have Joe Perez for a rebuttal. Yeah, but that band was going good until one of the key players moved to Texas.

And there he went. And then after that, it slowed down. Then he led up to the Xerox days.

I didn't play much music after that, but just on my own, stuff like that. Writing songs and doing this. Then once I got to Oak Lawn, I met some more players.

I was in a band called Shark Attack. And it was a bar band. Have fun.

And I participated just to be out there playing a little bit. The schedule wasn't hard on me because I was able to work and still play with these guys. A lot of alcohol.

And, you know, to me, when people are dropping sticks because they're too drunk and this and that, you know, it just gets it gets it beats me up. You know, we're here to do we're here to serve these people. We're not here to get trashed.

Then I moved to Lockport. The studio was the catalyst that got me to meet a lot of these southwest suburb musicians. And that was like the beginning of my career all over again.

I met a lot of players. Then got in, you know, more groups and bands and stuff. And I kept plugging away at it until I worked up to the band that I have now, which is Smoke and Mirrors.

But, you know, I didn't play a lot of solo shows because I was like, what am I going to do? You know, just be by myself. But then I kept working it and doing it. And then I started liking it.

So I do solo shows a lot now. Probably as much as the band shows. Right.

You do get the Jesse Perez experience as it would be front man of a band, side man, if need be, solo artist, jam host. I mean, you do a little bit of everything and people know you for all of those things. And if you ask my wife, I lay tile.

Right, right. Those early bands, you know, because I know you have a pretty eclectic, I guess is the best word of musical influences, because I've played a lot with you and we can do we can do everything from Muddy Waters to, you know, Blood, Sweat and Tears to, you know, we can run the gamut. You know, it's like a rainbow.

So those early bands, what kind of music were you playing? That music was classic rock. Sure. That wasn't the music that was being played in my neighborhood.

Our band would never get gigs in my neighborhood because they were into disco big time. And during that time, DJs were coming out, bands were losing a lot of gigs because DJs and disco and this and that. I joined a disco band for a while, a band called Family.

We had two girl singers, keyboard player, saxophone player. It was a good band. So I did disco for a while.

I learned how to play guitar playing blues because that repetitious one, four or five stuff is good practice for any guitarist, you know, because you know where you're headed, what's coming in. You know, you're not changing bridges and, you know, key signatures and stuff like that. It stays pretty much, you know, routine.

So that's a good way to learn. And I would tell any student, you know, practice blues and stuff. Don't be afraid of it.

It'd probably be good for you. Right. So I could play blues because of that.

Disco, I got the funk, you know, I could keep the funk and I'm a real stickler about rhythm sections because if you don't have a good rhythm section, don't start a band because it's no point. Right. You can't keep that foundation.

Like your house and bad foundation is going to come down. So right. And dynamics, I know you're big on dynamics as well.

You can't be up here all the time. You know, you got to give everybody's ears a break. You got to bring it back down a little bit.

Bring the energy down, raise it back up again. You know, it's supposed to be like a roller coaster ride. That's right.

You got to compliment the music, you know, try whatever you can do to compliment the music, not distort it, not override it. The song is the star. Right.

It's pretty much. Yeah. So, yeah, that's that's some of my journey, right? Yeah.

Well, this is a great time to introduce something that I brought here. Fill the bucket. Yeah, this is filled the bucket.

Everybody know what I have inside of here. And by the way, you guys can't see it right there, but I'm holding a a rubber Chicago Bears. I guess it's a beer koozie and it's full of pennies and the pennies all have a different year on them.

So what we're going to do is we're going to shake this up. Pick two random pennies. Bum, bum, bum.

Now, hey, Rocky, why don't you pull a rabbit out of my hat? Again, magic never works. All right. Can you read the can you read the date on that penny? I don't know the year that it was minted.

The tension is mounting. That says 2010, 2010, 2010. The password is 2010.

What were you doing in 2010 related to music in your music career? I was in a recording studio in downtown. I joined a band called Lemmings. A guy I ran into in downtown, as a matter of fact, when I worked there and he worked for Bosco Productions, which was a recording studio that did commercials for companies.

But it had all the equipment of a recording studio with big boards and separate boots and all that. We befriended each other and we started writing music. And right around 2010, I was at Bosco Studios.

It's been a good year and a half, free studio time, writing songs and laying stuff out. He was a guitar player as well? He was a guitar player as well. Then he lost his gig at Bosco and we started doing it at his house in Marionette Park.

That's right around 2010. Do you remember any of the music that you wrote with him back then? Oh, yeah. So didn't you walk in with a guitar? Yeah, I did.

I thought he brought me a gift. That was wrong. You know, a guitar from Jesse Perez's collection would be one hell of a gift because he's got some nice guitars.

This is one of the first guitars I ever owned. Wow. He got it from the Sears Roebuck catalog.

Actually, my bass player gave me this guitar because he didn't want it anymore. And it was a Fender that he bought back in like 71 or something like that. And I couldn't afford an electric guitar.

So I put a pickup in this and you could still see the little. It was like two needles that were that would go up. It was like two needles that went into this block.

Right. And it held a pickup in place. You screwed it in here and I would get feedback and stuff.

Oh, yeah, yeah. And yeah, this is my baby. I cracked it a couple of times here, but I fixed it and I put these growers in it.

But this guitar and me go back at least 50 years. Wow. Nice.

And I still have it. So this is one of my first pieces that I keep for, you know, sentimental. Oh, sure.

It's got the American Eagle on it. My ma had this decal in her junk pile. I should have put it the other way because I put it on the stand.

The Eagle is hanging upside down. And then you got Mickey Mouse on it as well. I have Mickey Mouse on this guy and I have Jiminy Cricket on my 69 Les Paul.

I have a Deluxe 69 Gold Top that I put Jiminy Cricket on. And that's, you know, they play with me when I when I go out there. Let's see what I mean.

Who else do you know has a 50 year old Fender acoustic? Nobody. Nobody. I have a 67 Trini Lopez DS-335.

Yep. Beautiful guitar. It's good to hold on to those things.

I've had a number of guitars that I've gotten rid of and I've been kicking myself for so many years. Yeah, well, I kept the good ones. The ones I let go, it wasn't because they were that great.

Right. Although I did have a Japanese Strat that I still wish I had. What are you going to do? So do you know how to play that thing? I think so.

A little bit. It was a song we wrote with Lemmy's. Actually, I wrote it and he produced it in the studio.

I won't play the whole song because I don't think I remember it. But it is a song called I See the Light. I see it now.

I see the light and I know. You don't want to be my baby anymore. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I see your heart. I see it now.

I see your heart. I see it now. Right through your eyes.

I see your heart. I see your heart. I see it now.

I see your heart and I know. You don't want to be my baby anymore. Oh, there's something nice.

I thought get a little reggae vibe. Right. Right.

Yeah. Well, that was one of my first attempts at reggae. OK, but the whole band is on it more reggae than just me.

What was that? What year was that? About circa 1977, 78. No, no, no. This is with the band Lemmy's.

No, no, 2010. According to that. Oh, that was according to the penny, according to the penny.

Yes. By the way, that little game, it's called My Two Cents. I thought that was pretty clever.

My Two Cents, and you pick a couple of pennies. So that was about 2010. Pretty cool.

No, it had that late 70s vibe where everybody was trying to play reggae, but didn't really know how to play reggae, so they covered up the fact that they couldn't play reggae, but with a bunch of cool harmonies. Right. I like what I just did.

No, it had that good vibe to it. That's good. Yeah, I could see you down in Key West at some bar and playing that.

Fit right in. Yeah. Absolutely.

I might add that to the repertoire for Smoke and Mirrors. I would. You know, put them on there.

Yeah. Get some steel drums. And now back, now like circa 71, 72, as a matter of fact, with this guitar, the first song I ever wrote that I thought was half decent song.

I played it at a picnic once, and you can see, I took this case. You can still see the beer rings from the case. I was carrying the guitar and there was beer in the case.

And just looking at those rings brings back that vivid memory of where we were and stuff like that. And then I played this song and some dude that was there, hey, he started clapping. He was like a couple of hundred, a couple of yards away from me.

But it went like this. Is it love that you give to me, that brings me pain and so much misery? But what am I supposed to do? I'd be afraid to be alone and without you. And I feel I can make it on my own.

But tell me, what is a man that's so alone? Eyes are blue and hair of gold. You better find your man, your woman, before you get too old. When you talk to me, I don't hear no sound.

Better get yourself together before you hit the ground. I know someday you'll find your time. Until then, let's not waste yours and mine.

Open your eyes and I know that you will see. You're not the right one for me. No, no, baby.

Not for me. I really like that one. I do too.

Thank you. Yeah, that's nice. And that was the first one that you wrote on that guitar.

And you felt that was the first song that you wrote that sounded good. Yeah. Yeah.

If I go before that, you know, Mary had a little lamb. You wrote you wrote you wrote Mary had a little lamb. Wow.

I wrote Mary had a little ham. Yeah. So your current band, Smoke and Mirrors, tell everybody who the other members of that band are, because they're a group of talented musicians.

Well, they are. That band, what I decided to do, I said, I need to make a band. So I looked at my Rolodex.

I mean, we don't use them, but that's but you know what I mean? And look for the best players that I knew that were available. And he couldn't find those guys. He couldn't get those guys at the time.

No. And everyone that was available that I was leaning towards said, yes. So I got a four piece.

Chris Valera is a keyboard player, vocals. Alex Evans, bass player, vocals. Jeff Rio drives the bus with the drums and I play guitar and vocals.

It's a four piece band with almost three part harmony in every song we do. And they're hot players. I was blessed that they all agreed to do this.

And I try not to keep them too busy because I don't want to scare them away. So how long you guys been together? We got together just before COVID. And then, of course, COVID shut down.

But we still rehearsed via the World Wide Web. And, you know, we'd send each other songs to learn stuff like that. So you learn them.

Then we'd set a rehearsal and we'd get together and throw them down. These guys, they're quick studies. I mean, it's well, you've heard Alex.

The guy is a phenomenal bass player. He's actually filled in with kind of that groove a few times. Right.

And so has my drummer. So they pick for my badge. They never call me, though.

But, yeah, it's a fun band. They're good guys. You know, they're good guys.

And then every time we have rehearsal, I make a dinner out of it. They come to the house. It could be enchiladas.

It could be tacos. It could be spaghetti. But, you know, after an hour or so rehearsing, we go upstairs and break some bread.

You know, I never got an invite. I never got an invite to join his band. I'd remember tamales and stuff like that.

You said he was looking for good players, though. Man, what an asshole. Maybe he's telling you something, Mike.

You've got a good radio voice. Thank you very little. And the crowd went mild.

Yeah. All right. Before we before we close it out, you got one more penny sitting there in front of you.

We got to see what the date on that penny is. I can't see. Let me see it.

We've got next time. Tell me to bring my glove. This is an old one, I think.

Let's see. Oh, good year. Nineteen eighty nine.

That's a transitional. That's a transitional year because you're coming out of that cheesy 80s music that everybody freaking loved. And you're going into the 90s.

Right. Going into the 90s and bands like Motley Crue. I think Motley Crue came out with Theater of Pain sometime around that time.

Right. Well, you know, I think in during that time, I think I was playing with the Gomez's and they're from Evergreen Park, but they used to be from South Chicago. They asked me to sit in once for a gig.

Then they kept calling me back. I said, Ruben, wasn't this supposed to be temporary thing? So, no, I like having you around. So we played we had a girl singer.

Her name was Mary. She was a good front woman, kind of like you. I'm a good front woman.

All right. Is this the Mary that had the lamb or the ham? The ham. Oh, no, wasn't the ham.

She had the. Luscious lips. Luscious lips.

She was easy on the eyes. Very entertaining. And she was a pretty good singer.

And, you know, it was like the Rufus type of stuff, you know, the Chaka Khan and, you know, kind of that stuff. I was playing with them right around that time. But them guys, they're.

Wow. And they snored. You know, it was an ugly atmosphere.

So I I didn't stay too long with it. Right. Right.

Right. OK. And then my wife used to get mad.

What are you doing with me? You come home late all the time. You know what this is? And she's a good judge of character. She knew that man wasn't going anywhere.

She thought I was wasting my time. She supports me like nobody's business when it comes to music. It's amazing.

She does my booking. She's on the phone calling clubs, talking to them. I wanted her to come.

So I said, honey, they probably want to interview to you. Right. Part of this thing, you know.

And, you know, she would have been fantastic here and there would have been no problem if you brought her. Yep. Everybody loves Karen.

She's a sweetheart. In fact, we invite Jesse to things. So he brings Karen.

Oh, yeah. Now, she she's the definition of a nice person. You know, we've been married thirty five years.

Never had a heated argument. It's really good. Never.

Never. It's never happened. That wouldn't go over well.

I'm sure because she's Italian. I mean, I mean, there's no way that would go over well. Oh, no.

Well, you know, she used to go on tours. So she pays glass. She has a little.

Oh, you know, side thing, Clarence glass design. She could do Route 66 wine glasses. And, you know, maybe I'll ever make it make a couple of donate them to you.

Oh, that'd be great. Cool. And just have them come out here.

But she used to do tours, too. And she did the craft shows. Of course, you got to load up the truck and all her glass.

And I was working in Xerox. I have to empty out my parts from my truck and load it up with their glass because she had a lot of glass. Yeah.

And then she had tables they had to go to and stuff like that. So, you know, I used to dread those shows. But just like she supports me, I support her.

You know, she comes to a lot of my gigs. You know, she does everything for me that I would have done for her. She's really good about it.

Absolutely. Yep. Yeah, she is.

Got one more tune in that guitar. Yeah. This is this is my interpretation of blues.

I wanted to write a blues song. But I really didn't want to do the regular one, four or five thing. So I wrote this.

This song is so good. You know, there's a couple of songwriters in the area and I really like them. Right.

This song is so good. This is the kind of song where it's like, you know, I'm going to learn this and I'm going to play it live with his permission. That's how good this song is.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. This is one of those songs. It's called My Turn to Sing the Blues.

Yep. I've been trying. I've been trying for way too long.

But there's something wrong. Can't put on a happy face. A smile that's true.

I guess it's my turn. Yes, it's my turn. To sing the blues.

I guess it's my turn to sing the blues. Cloudy mornings. Almost always.

Seems like rain. And you can't stand the pain. Ain't no one to explain it to.

I guess it's my turn. Yes, it's my turn. To sing the blues.

When ain't nothing else left to do. I go out and I have a few. Just to ease the pain.

Go home and try to go to sleep. Spend a room of sinking deep. Wake up with an aching head.

Turn around and go back to bed. I can't help thinking, baby. Can I believe all the words that you said? And that life you led.

Until then, all I can do. I'll just have to realize. That it's my turn.

My turn to sing the blues. Very nice. Great song.

That's one of my favorite blues songs. Gave you the short version without any solos. Right, right, right.

So other than, I guess, so other than Thursday nights at the Uptown and the second Sunday of the month over at the studio, where can people see you and think this is going to come out in about two weeks? So where are you playing, like mid-February, beginning of March? I'm trying to leave that open because I'm going for dental implants. Oh, wow. Lower implants.

They're going to pull all my teeth out. That handsome face is going to get even better looking. I hope so.

And then Tommy's going to get bigger because I'll be able to eat more food. More tamales. I also do Nick and Ivy's every Tuesday night.

Oh, that's right. That's the acoustic jam I host there. But the studio is one of my favorite places.

That was like the stepping stone for me in the Southwest. Yep. You know, and Laura, she's, you can't say enough about her.

She's really nice people. Have you ever met Laura? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

He knows her well. Very well. Great, great.

She's good people. She's very welcoming. She treats people respectfully.

And that's all people want. They want to be noticed. They want to be treated like people.

You know, and walk into somebody's business and the owner doesn't say hi to you. You make it, you make, you sort of kind of feel like maybe he doesn't want me in here. You know, you go somewhere else, you know.

Right. She's doing a great job. God bless that she's there.

And she took, did something with that place because otherwise who'd have known what it would be now. Probably be a bank again. Right, right, right.

That's right. So there's nothing for Smoke and Mirrors at the present time. Well, Smoke and Mirrors, we do have something coming up this week.

We have Pub 78 on Saturday. I have a solo show at the Blue Horse in Wilmington on Friday. Oh, okay.

And if I had my calendar, I'd tell you a couple more dates. But like I said, I'm trying to keep it open, you know, for my surgery. So social media wise, where can people find you? Where can they find your schedules? You could find Jesse Perez on Facebook.

You could also find the Jesse Perez experience on Facebook and Smoke and Mirrors on Facebook. And you find all my events that are coming up and everything that's happening with me in the music world. Right, right.

Yeah, the second Sunday of next month, I'll be playing with Mike at the studio. Because I do that once every, you know, once a month, every second Sunday. Oh, and by the way, I have this girl coming, Kendall.

Okay. She's the good singer. I think she was there once before.

Okay. But the girl's got a voice. We like the good singers.

And she seems to be popping because now I see her hosting jam nights and gigs. Okay. But I asked her, you know, what other music are you into? You know, have you heard of Chaka Khan and Rufus and Sade and stuff like that? She said, well, no.

And her mother was sitting there. She goes, oh, I love Sade, blah, blah, blah. So I got a message from her.

She wants to do Ain't Nobody. Oh, nice. By Chaka Khan that Sunday.

She wants to do the other one I just mentioned. Something by Sade? Smooth Operator. Oh, okay.

I've done both of those. And then there's another one. I think it's a Fleetwood Mac song that she mentioned.

I got it on my phone. Okay. I'll alert.

Well, it can't be Dreams because you know that's Laura's song. Songs don't belong to anybody, man. So we got one more piece of business to take care of.

The two truths and a lie. I know what the lie is. I think I know what the lie is, too.

Yeah. What do you think it is? He hates jamming with people. Yeah, that's definitely the lie.

I made it easy for you. Yeah, absolutely. I was kind of leaning towards the wife thing for a little bit.

Until we got to the part where we were talking about Kim. No, I was not. I'm very sorry, Mrs. Perez.

I wish she would have came. She probably would have had fun. But he is a musician, so the odds were pretty good that you were correct there.

Yes. Yes. Pretty much so.

Well, you know, sometimes jamming is a pain in the ass, too. Oh, yeah. Because you get out on the stage with some people that don't know what to do.

And then, you know, it's like it's like her. It's not only like herding cats. Sometimes it's like herding cats that are on heroin.

Very nice. Very nice. So it's like I told you.

I said, hey, man, why don't we do it when you were in the house, man? Why don't we do a Springsteen song? And you said, you know, every time I hear that voice, I feel like taking the pencil and sticking it in my ear. I said, tell him. I'm sorry, man.

We we all have music that speaks to us. I'm sorry, Bruce, man. You're a good songwriter and everything.

But, yeah. Some music just screams at you. No, but you're a witty dude.

I've had a lot of laughs because of you. Oh, boy. And that was happening with me when I'm doing solo shows.

Herman is showing up. Oh, yeah. Shows, which is a good thing because people love the heck out of that guy.

We're hoping to have him on the on the podcast. So, you know, he shows up at my shows and I specifically learn songs for him that he wants to sing because he doesn't get to sing them with Hurricane Project. Right.

So it gives him a little escape and it fills my tip chart. Absolutely. Start singing a couple of songs next to, you know, I mean, I was at the Blue Horse Swamps and I had already played for about an hour and a half by myself.

And then he shows up. Then he sits down, I give him a microphone and everything. He starts singing while I'm playing.

Girls start coming up to him, sitting on his lap, kissing him on the cheek and stuff like that. What the heck, man? I've been working here all night long. I barely got an applaud, let alone a kiss on the cheek.

Oh, boy. Yeah, he came out to Dick and Ivy's last night. I learned Georgia.

Oh, nice. A lot of chords in that song. And he sings it extremely well.

So. So I got him doing that. He likes Garth Brooks.

Yep. Believe it or not. So the dance I learned.

I learned. Well, I knew how to play that one, but I played that with him many times. And then I turned the page.

He likes that one. So we play that one together. A Wonderful World.

Play that one together. So he respects the fact that I go out of my way and learn stuff. So he comes in.

You know. Assist me a couple of times and then I gave him a bone, you know, for the 50 bucks or whatever. He sings about three or four songs.

Well, Jesse, we should probably say goodbye to you. All right. We could stay here and talk all night long.

Yes, we could. It's always. Absolutely.

I mean, we haven't even began to scratch the surface about his guitars and the amps that he's had and played and the whole bit. We could go on for another hour, but Jesse will be seeing you around town for sure. Oh, yeah.

I ain't going nowhere. Thanks for coming. Thank you for having me, man.

It was great. So that was the one and only Mr. Jesse Perez. Yes, it was.

What a great guy. You know, I'll tell you what, he's very humble. The one thing that he didn't talk about or mention, and he wouldn't because he's humble.

He himself, he has no idea how much he's actually influenced musicians in this area. He's just a great guy and he's very encouraging of everybody. Yeah.

He kind of exudes that when he talks about his music and stuff. Absolutely. You know, whenever I see, you know, some type of a poster or an ad for the Jam Night City hosts and things like that, he always makes sure that on that poster, it says all acts welcome because so often at a jam, you feel like, okay, if, you know, if I don't play blues, I'm not going to go.

Right. You know, because they tend to be blues heavy. Correct.

He goes out of his way to let people know that, no, this isn't about blues. It's about all kinds of music, whatever speaks to you and coming out and participate. And he's built a, a great, you know, following for himself and he's helped to build up a great clientele for some, some nice venues in the area.

So he's got, he's been playing for quite a long time. So he's, he's really good. I liked, liked a few ditties he did for us.

Absolutely. Absolutely. So, uh, all righty.

Well, uh, thanks for everybody for listening. Uh, tune in next week when we're going to be bringing you the Billy Osmond band, Billy Osmond, Billy Osmond band. And I think everybody's going to like these guys are there.

They're pretty unique. I'm sure they will. So now they have to tune in next week because we told them to.

That's right. Otherwise, uh, take care of yourselves out there and we'll be talking to you next week. Take it easy.

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.