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. Hollywood Mike.

I'm still not used to that. Not used to that yet, huh? No, no, no. So how are you doing today? I'm doing pretty good.

I am happy to be back here at the majestic Illinois Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum. Majestic, yeah. Yeah.

And whimsical. Yes, absolutely. Very whimsical.

Yeah. So we have, I found a band for this week. Yeah.

In my searches. I am excited about this band. Yeah, me too.

Yeah, I did a lot of research on them and looked at all their videos and the whole bit, and I have to say, I am a fan. I enjoy their music too. Yeah.

So let's talk to them. It's Renegade Wildflower. And I'm going to play a little elementary school kind of game here, where you each introduce yourselves like it's your first day of school.

All right. Well, my name is Mike Good. I'm the lead guitar player for Renegade Wildflower.

Yeah, that's what I do. And I sing to harmonies. I'm Melissa Ann.

I am lead vocals and acoustic for Renegade Wildflower. Well done. I'm Rodney Allen.

I'm a singer as well. And I also play guitar too for Renegade Wildflower. Thank God they're all with Renegade Wildflower.

Yeah, I thought that would have been a horrible mistake. Yeah, it wasn't. Yeah, I'm with some with this band.

I'm not with that band. And lucky us, we have two guitar players. That's right.

That's right. You know a little bit about guitar, don't you? I know a little bit about guitar and I know a little bit about guitar players. So this should be very interesting.

Should be a lot of fun. There's no egos in the room at all tonight. No, no, never.

There's never egos in this room. So who wants to get started? Where did the Renegade Wildflower all begin? Well, Renegade Wildflower started with Rodney and I. He moved up here from Texas and we started playing some acoustic shows and wanted to branch out and make it a full band experience. So it started back 2019.

Yeah, the acoustic 2019. And then we started getting the 2020. Started getting the full band stuff.

One of the things that we really love is that we love that old 1970s vintage sound where what you hear on stage is what we're playing. You know, we don't like to use tracks and we don't like to do anything. We're not going to talk smack about anybody that does that.

Imagine that. But... I hear that a lot. Yeah.

Yeah. But that's what we like to do. And that's what our fans like is they want to see us stop playing the guitars, stop working, you know, bouncing off each other.

And I think it's a more rewarding experience for us and them because you get to listen to your fellow musicians on stage and play off them and feed off them. Yeah, when we got started, I think one of the biggest things that we went through, well, especially when I joined the band was in 2020, especially with all the pandemic stuff going on. You know, Rodney and Melissa had gotten started and they had me join the band a little bit later on.

They were trying people out and I did the audition and passed, thankfully. But then when we actually started trying to get gigs together, you know, we were right in the heart of the pandemic and it was just really tough, but we kind of pushed through that. And at this point, you know, we're still a new band, but I feel like we wouldn't be where we're at now if we hadn't done that.

OK. You know, it was it was tricky with all the stuff being canceled every year, every year, you know, here and there. But, you know, I'm just glad that we stuck with it and did it.

I was going to say that that's one hell of a time to put a band together during a pandemic. Yeah, it was tricky. So it was right during the pandemic.

You had really played no shows prior to the pandemic. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah.

But what else are you going to do? You might as well just sit around and play music, right? Yeah. Yeah. When when music is a part of who you are, you can't just stop, you know.

So that wasn't an option for us in 2020. It was in the summer and that wasn't an option for Mike either. And that's why I think the three of us and our whole band gets along so well is because that's how we all feel.

So who's not with us tonight? Mr. Chris Stark on the drums and Miss Carrie Jane on the bass. I know Carrie from the Gingers. We did an episode with them a long time ago.

I should have looked it up to see when it was. So what came first, the band or the genre of music that you play? I think that we kind of played what we knew at first. And then as we play together, we're kind of refining what we do as music.

We're all a big fan of the 70s, like I said, and then that live rock experience and just surrounding yourself with that music. Right. And that's what we're going for.

Yeah. Starting off, I know we our genre was a little bit more country, Southern, like Southern rock kind of country ish. But we've actually been trying to get away from the country and go a little more rock, a little more Southern rock.

I know our originals that we've been working on have been coming out a little heavier, a little bit more modern, you know, but still with that kind of classic feel. Right, right. I think the first video that I watched for you guys was a cover of Jealous Again.

Yeah, by the Black Crowes. Fantastic cover of that. I thought that was great.

Were you singing lead on that? Yeah, thank you. Yeah, it was extremely well done. And that's what originally drew me to the band is the type of music or at least what's displayed in most of your videos online are the same kind of music that I'm listening to.

I get into the car and turn on the radio or streaming service nowadays. That's the type of music that I put on. And you guys do a real good job.

High energy performance for sure. I really enjoyed it. Yeah, that one was I was going to say that one was fun.

We only added that within the last six months. So that was probably a newer recording that you heard. But that one was fun because it's originally in an open tuning on the guitar.

Right, right. So I kind of rewrote it to be in standard. There's a few parts that are kind of tricky with that one.

Well, you wouldn't have known it. It sounded it sounded great. And that's that's the fun thing that we get to do is like we try to stay true to the, you know, the songs and the artists that wrote them.

But we also get to show off our strengths and people like Mike Good and the way that he plays and like we love Mike because Mike is who he is. And then he gets to kind of, you know, take something that someone's made and put his signature stamp on it, which is I get I love watching it every single show. I never get tired of it.

Right. Well, let's let's talk about that. So so who are you like? Like where what were your influences and what you what drew you to this type of music? Well, I definitely love 1970s music.

But one of my number one influences is probably Waylon Jennings. He's just one of my favorites because everything that he did was just it was just raw and it was real. And he didn't he didn't try to be anybody other than himself.

And that's something that I've always loved. But as we've done a lot of, you know, a lot of the stuff that we're doing now, I've really come to appreciate someone I've been thinking about today really is Ed King from Lynyrd Skynyrd and just everything that he brought to the band, really changed the band and made it exactly what Skynyrd is, you know. Right.

And it's exciting for me because, like, I'm looking at everything that we're doing. And that's that's my goal for us. And and everything that we do is to be exactly who we are and let the music speak for itself.

Anybody else? How'd you get into music, Mike? How'd you get into that music? I'd like to introduce our new host, co-host Rodney here. Well, I picked up guitar when I was 14 and I've been so I'm 36 now. So it's been a while.

I've been in and out of a bunch of different bands, a bunch of different styles, metal, classic rock, blues, all that, you know, even done some funk and stuff like that. But really, all those different styles kind of culminate together to make the sound that that that we end up with as a whole, especially with my style. I can throw in pieces that I know will fit songs where it's needed.

I don't try to overdo stuff unless the song calls for it. You know, it's just being smart and giving the song what it needs moving forward. Serving the song and not yourself.

Your own ego. Yeah, yeah. That's very good.

Very good. Sometimes less is more. That's right.

That's right. Yeah. You got to let those songs breathe.

Yep. Yeah. One of the things that I how I was introduced to this type of music was when I was very young, 13 or 14, I'd always take my dad's record player and I put a pillow on the ground and I put both of his big speakers on both sides of my head.

And I put on, you know, Leonard Skinner. I put on Fleetwood Mac Rumors. I put on Santana.

I put on Jimi Hendrix Experience. I put on all that stuff and I just sit there and close my eyes and listen to the whole thing. And it just got into me.

You know, listening to schools out by Alice Cooper when you're 13. And it just takes you right back. And I've always wanted to be in a band that does what we do and just gives that real experience, that real feel to music lovers.

Because I want to do that for somebody else because I know what it did for me. You know. After that experience, are you now on the market for hearing aids? No, luckily.

Luckily, I'm not. Yeah. They keep trying to sell them to you though in the mail.

Well, those 70 speakers are huge. I should have said what? Exactly. So, Mike, you mentioned something about originals.

Yeah. You guys do have some originals. Yeah, we've got some stuff in the works, but we've got, I want to say, at least five or six that are actually ready to go.

We do them live in rotation. But this year, I think, well, this coming year in 2023, I think we're eventually looking to get into a studio and lay it down and get some tracks out. But yeah, Rodney and I and Melissa, we've all talked about, you know, how we want to release these.

And we're kind of thinking of sticking with like the 70s style, like this was Rodney's idea of doing like an AB side type release every time we do that. OK. Yeah.

Who's the writers? Writer, writers, right? Kind of all of us. Is it? Yeah. It's really wonderful how it's been happening.

We'll come with an idea, you know, sticks and stones and then lyrics and general structure of the song. And everyone's really open minded. I've never been in a band that's so open minded about changing stuff, which is really healthy.

And then all of a sudden we're all just chunk in and we usually after the bare bones skeletons done, we'll get a song done before the night's out usually. Yeah. If the idea is there, we tend to work together as a team and kind of put it together the way it should be.

How many do you have? Originals? Just like five or six right now. I think we've got a lot of them, but some in the worst. I mean, still.

Yeah, but finished up six. And the thing is, though, it's kind of like when you start a new band and then I've got three songs that she's got three songs and you bring them together. But it doesn't sound like the band because it's her.

It's not us. Right. You know.

So what we're working on is finding those five or six songs, like Mike was saying, that that's us and going forward with that kind of stuff. Are they recorded? Are they out online somewhere where people can find them yet? We have some live recordings, but we haven't really dished them out yet to the public. OK, besides what, you know, people have recorded on their phones from the audience.

But I know those are out there. Would that be the I know there was a couple of like acoustic performances or videos. Were those originals? I couldn't really tell.

Were they like acoustic videos where we're like sitting on the couch hanging out? Yeah, that's what they were. Those are those were the OG days of Renegade Wildflower. Oh, OK.

Yeah, it was a long time ago, but it's fun to look back and like see some of that stuff because some of it's been phased out. But and and like Rodney and Mike were kind of saying is we're we're really trying to cultivate, you know, music that is created by all of us because it's it's exciting to do that because it's not just like me sitting on the couch with my guitar, sitting and staring at a wall for two hours while I'm trying to think of things on my own. It's me sitting in a room with two of my closest friends and my husband, Rodney.

It's trying to make something together. It finally comes out. See, I was I was waiting.

He's not a friend. He's a husband. That's right.

I was with my friends and my husband. No, he's definitely my husband, but he's also my best friend. It's cool that we can we can write together and we don't fight about it.

You know what I mean? I'm just looking at them over here. I'm like, OK, yeah, they're more than just friends. Well, they share that microphone really well.

I should have had Rodney come over and share mine. Just awkward at that point. Yeah, absolutely.

Well, then he would have had to be your husband for the purposes. That's the way it goes. So what's the so I guess what's the plan for it as you as you get into writing more originals? And I'll tell you, the world needs more originals.

You know, they really do, at least in my opinion. You know, we just we had a band in here a couple of weeks ago and we were talking about how they they used to just write originals all the time. And out of necessity, they just started writing covers.

I'm starting to see are playing covers, I should say. Right. I'm starting to see a change where people don't mind when you throw in an original song every once in a while.

Well, I noticed is talking about Renegade Wildflower like we love doing the covers because that's that's what the audience wants at the moment. But we also like to write our songs so that they actually fit the genre. You know, so like we are still playing like Southern rock and rock, you know, when it comes to our originals.

But when it when we play it in a live show, we've had people come up to us and say, oh, hey, was that an original song? And they said it fits in the set, you know. Right. So we make sure and Rodney writes the set lists like genius.

He usually spends hours actually doing it. But, you know, he tries to get them in a good spot where they, you know, fit in seamlessly with the covers. Right, right.

And what you said, we're doing it backwards from from what you just described, where, you know, people spend all this time writing cover or writing originals, and then they switch to covers like what we what we've been doing is establishing the covers that we want to be a part of our show so that we can really focus and start creating our own originals and speaking our own truth into our music, because everything we do is that's what our that's where our compass is pointing. We want to give people, you know, a genuine experience. And what better way to do that than to write music for them to be a part of, you know? Right, right.

And it has to be that way, you know, because if you nowadays, if you go into a club owner or a bar or whatever, and by the way, you guys play a lot of the same places that my bands play. I was looking at your at your at your schedule. So if you walk into someplace and say, hey, we're an original band.

Yeah, not going to happen by, you know, but you go in there and you say, we're a cover band. Here's what we play. And then you throw in an original, but you don't tell anybody you just play it.

And then maybe after the song, you say, you know, hey, we wrote that and you leave it at that. People start to know that and they're more receptive to that. And it's it's coming back around, you know, back in the in the 80s and 90s, it was taboo.

Don't play covers, you know, you know, what's your problem? You're not a real musician if you're not writing real music. And then it went to everybody wanted to hear just covers. Now it's coming back around again, where when they find out that their favorite cover bands actually write music and their songs are pretty good.

They're like, oh, wow, I'd like to hear more of those, you know? Yeah. One of my favorite things that happened to us was we we were opening, I think, at Joe's Live for someone. And one of our fans came up to us after the show and was like, man, you guys did a great job.

I wish you had played more originals, though. And I was like, we just played nine songs and five of them were originals. That's great.

Oh, yeah, that's good. It felt really good. Yeah, absolutely.

There's always the drunk girls trying to sing along to Melissa's songs that they don't know. So, yeah, you might not want to tell them. Yeah, you might not want to tell them because the fun thing for you guys is to watch that.

That's a lot of fun. Have you taken any of your songs that you've written, like, say some you did Rodney and you, Melissa, and melded them together? I think we experimented on it, like like try to take two songs that are similar and try to like work it out, like go them together. Is that what you're saying? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We tried that and it just hasn't worked out. It's tough. Yeah, it's tough.

So where can people find you? Social media and places like that. They can find us on Facebook. They can find us on Instagram.

Those are two spots right now. As of right now, thank you for asking that. We're working on getting a website up right now and they can also locate us through double debooking.

So any one of those places right now. It'd be Renegade Wildflower, Facebook. Yeah, right, right.

I saw that and then I saw something like a Gmail address if they wanted to book you guys. I think it was Renegade Wildflower at Gmail or something. Yeah, it's bookrenegadewildfloweratgmail.com. Right.

And what's the website going to be? Renegadewildflower.com or? No, however, it'll be something like Renegadewildflowerband.com. Somebody else something like that. Yeah, somebody has the name. So what's the next gig? Go ahead.

Yeah, I was going to say it came up yesterday. We're actually playing this Friday at what's it called? Gunn Lake. Gunn Lake.

Gunn Lake Casino in Michigan. Gunn Lake Casino in Michigan. Wow.

It's a little bit of a ride. Yeah, yeah. Because I've never heard of that one a little bit further past the blue chip.

Before you got here, we checked it. It's close to Grand Rapids. Oh, wow.

Yeah, yeah. So that's a that's a good what three and a half hours. Three and a half hours.

Yeah, right, right, right. OK. Unless you're coming from like DeKalb or something.

Right, right, right. And this this episode is actually going to air a couple of weeks from now. A couple of weeks.

It'll be after the after that show. But yeah, you got anything coming up like two or three weeks from now? We do. Drum roll.

That's a great question. Hold on. You can't do that.

You're not the drummer. I try. Some drummers can't do that.

I'm really not a drummer. We're going to be on January 7th. We're going to be at side outs in Island Lake.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. What's the 27th? And then January 21st, we're going to be at go for it.

Sports Dome in Yorkville. Oh, yeah. OK.

Yeah, they're throwing a benefit. And was that Boyd Ingham Munson from the law office is actually kind of putting it together. He's doing the sound and supplying the system and the lights and stuff.

So excellent. That'll be fun. OK, great.

What's the benefit? It's like a benefit. I think it's just to kind of help the sports don't for the sports don't get the programs. They have stuff.

Yeah. OK, that's pretty cool. Yeah.

So you guys tend to play mainly up north north there? We've been running all over the place, to be honest with you. One of our one of our favorite places to play is boondocks down in Seneca. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. It's a blast. Yeah.

Yeah. You get out there on a Sunday, Sunday afternoon crowd. That's a lot of fun.

Yeah. The boats come in. People wait ashore, buy beer, wait back to their boat, stick around, listen to the music.

Yeah, that was a great place in the summer. Yeah, it was wonderful. And other than that, where do we play? We run honestly, we run all over the place.

Yeah, you guys should you guys would be a great fit for a place over here in Shanahan, not too far away from where we are right now. It's called the Big Basin. Big Basin.

Yeah, looking at that, you guys be a great fit. It's the same thing as like boondocks, boondocks, Sunday afternoons, huge deck over the water. Boats will come out.

There's going to be 150 bikers parked out there in the hall. It's right underneath that giant bridge that goes over the river. Yeah, the I-55 bridge.

It's right underneath it. Yeah, we've we've played there. Yeah, have you really? That sounds really fun.

Oh, no kidding. Oh, yeah, that's good. Good people.

And I know you guys have played Scooters Roadhouse. Yeah, once or twice. That's a cool place around here, too.

Yeah, that one's that one's fun. We got to play there. The I think it was during the Taste of Joliet.

OK, let out about 11 o'clock. That place got packed. Oh, yeah.

So that was fun. Good times. Well, I'll have to go out and check you guys out live.

Most definitely. That's why we bring them in here so we can go see them. That's right.

Maybe get on the guest list. And so all the folks listening can go out and see them. That's right.

That's right. Well, thanks for coming out, guys. Really appreciate it.

And hopefully we'll get out and see you very soon somewhere. Yeah. Thank you guys for having us.

Yeah, thank you. Thanks. It was renegade wildflower.

You know, wildflower grows anywhere it wants. It does. It is.

It's kind of a renegade itself. Yep. It's they persevere.

That's that's right. Good word to use. That's definitely a good name for the band.

It looks like a band that's going to persevere. And they seem all very goal oriented and making this band work. Absolutely.

Working together. And it's hard to get a group of people together that can do that. Right.

Yeah. Check them out online. Great southern rock band.

High energy performance. I'm a fan. You guys should check them out.

They got a lot of videos out there. You can check them out before you go see them. Definitely go see them.

Definitely. So besides that, next week, we'll be back with another wonderful show. Don't forget.

They come out every Tuesday, not Monday, not Wednesday on Tuesday. So check your phone, check your computer, wherever you get your podcast. Look for the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast next Tuesday.

We'll see you then. 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.