Hey, this is Paul Martin and Ray the Roadie for the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. I want to go for it. The weather's getting nicer.

I go for a ride. It is. It's funny you mention that.

I just washed and polished up my bike. You did. It's nice and clean and shiny and stuff.

It's one bad motor scooter, man. Wow. It is.

That's cool. I can't wait to hit the road running. Yeah.

Head on down the highway. Is it a 10 speed or what? What kind of bike is it? It's a Road King. Harley Road King.

Oh, I see. I don't have one of those. Road King Classic.

No. But yeah, this is great weather for riding. The only kind of scooter I ride is a wheelchair.

A rascal? A rascal? Yes. Those are pretty popular in Florida. Yes.

They even got rascal races. Do they? They do. Can you soup up every rascal? I'm sure you could.

I see guys that souped up their golf carts. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

So I'm sure you can get a hot rascal. You're talking about something else now. Yeah.

No, no, no. Let's not go there. This is a family show.

Well, it's funny you say that because you polished your motorcycle. That's right. Your bad motor scooter.

Because we're talking with the band Bad Motor Scooter today. That's right. We sure are.

They're Sammy Hager Tribute Band. One of my favorites. Yeah.

Sammy is definitely one of the best. Yeah. So it was great having them out today and getting their backstory.

So why don't we quit bothering everybody out there with our banter and see what they had to say? Okay. Let's talk to the guys. Hey, everyone.

Welcome to the show. Today we're speaking with the band Bad Motor Scooter and we've got Dan and Steve and Mike and Dave. Dave, you must play the part of Sammy Hager.

Yeah, that's my role. How could you tell? How could you tell? He's got the look. You're pretty smart, Paul.

Sammy, look. How are you guys doing today? We're doing great. How about yourself? Good.

Good. Good. Thanks for coming out.

Doing fantastic. So tell us a little bit about the band. When did the band get started and how long have you been together? Well, me, Mike and Steve have been jamming together for about, I don't know what, ten years? Me and Steve, probably a bit longer.

You know, me and Steve were in a band called 30 Millimeter to start out. That's how I met Steve. Steve, what do you play? I play bass.

Mike, what do you play? I play guitar. And Dan? I am drums and terrible backing vocals. Yeah, he's okay.

He's good. He's messing around. When he tries, he's good.

So Mike, you must be the bass player. I am. Okay.

You're on a roll today. I figured that out. Holy cow.

Yeah. We should have made you guess, though, what we play. You got Sammy.

So, yeah, we've been playing together, us three, for probably 13, 15 years. So we started out as a cover band, me and Mike and Steve. Actually, Mike was in a band called Brace for Impact, and he kind of brought Steve on for a little while.

And then I brought David. And then that's how I got in the band and met these guys, and we started doing just a cover band called Brace for Impact for a while. And then about five years ago, we came up with this Sammy Hagar tribute band thing, because half the songs we did were Sammy Hagar.

So we said, hey, you know, the tribute bands were starting to pick up and pretty hot and heavy. So we decided, why don't we just be a Sammy Hagar tribute band? And it's worked out, starting to work out. It's really starting to roll now.

So you do stuff from Mantra, say, tickets from... Yeah. Because of the name, obviously. Yeah.

Well, we always did Bad Motor Scooter in the band. It was always our closing song. So we decided to do the Sammy Hagar tribute band.

We just... Mike came up with the name Bad Motor Scooter, which just made sense, so that's the reason we call ourselves that. And do some Van Halen, I'm sure, right? Oh, yeah. Van Halen, Montrose, and some other cover songs that kind of Sammy Hagar does.

That's the kind of cool thing about being a Sammy Hagar band, is because he does a lot of cover tunes that aren't even his songs. So we can do Sammy Hagar songs that aren't really Sammy Hagar songs. Sammy does Zeppelin, so yeah, we throw Zeppelin in there, too, once in a while.

That's what's cool about being Sammy Hagar tribute, is that the wide range of music from Montrose to Sammy Solo to Van Halen to everything in between, so it gives us a real nice wide range of material to play versus, you know, sticking with one musical genre, if you will. So it's a lot of fun. Don't forget Chickenfoot, too.

Oh, yeah, right. I was going to say, are you doing any Chickenfoot? Yes. And we'll even dip into a little bit of the David Lee Roth Van Halen, too.

I was going to say, are you playing any David Lee Roth in here? Give them a taste. It's a shame. I'm a Sammy fan.

I'm a big Sammy fan. It goes, David, ask the crowd, Sammy or Dave? What do you like? Our crowd always says Sammy, though. Yeah.

I go with Sammy. We do one Van Halen song. Well, I mean, with David Lee Roth, we do Ain't Talkin' About Love is the only song that we do.

But we really only do that if we need to do that. If we've got enough time. Did Sammy do that song live? Yeah, he's done it live.

I've seen him do it live. Yeah, but probably not that often. We actually just saw Sammy in Vegas and he did a couple of Van Halen songs and Mike Lanthy sang them.

But yeah, so Sammy does do Van Halen songs here and there that he didn't sing on. Yeah, actually, I think they did Ain't Talkin' About Love. They did? Yeah.

When we just saw Sammy in Vegas. Yeah. That was a great show, by the way.

I don't think I've seen any David Lee Roth tribute bands. Well, no, not specifically. But there's some bands out there that do Van Halen.

Yeah, there's, yeah. Yeah, so, but it's a lot of fun. We have a good time.

Our fan base is just absolutely a blast. At our live shows, we certainly try and entertain everybody the best we can. It seemed to work out pretty good.

One of the nice things is that we'll just get people that just Sammy fans. They haven't seen the band. They know we do it because, you know, of course, we're going to advertise it that we're Sammy Hager tribute and we'll get people with their shirts on, Cabo Wabo, you name it.

And they just come out just because of that. A lot of Montrose fans out there. Yeah, there's a wide variety of like they already mentioned that Mike did.

A lot of different albums you can cover over the years and you got fans from all those albums. Yeah, when I heard the name, I didn't know if it was just a Montrose tribute or until I read it, I knew it. Yeah, Montrose is one of the bands that just like never went away.

I mean, they didn't have great popularity like Van Halen or, you know, anybody like that, but they just never go away. No, they were the precursors to Van Halen, I believe. I mean, Randy Montrose was an excellent guitar player.

Yeah. Yeah. We got a lot of diehard Montrose fans come to our shows, but Dave here does a great job with the vocals.

Well, thanks, Mike. I mean, if it wasn't for that, then we wouldn't wait for somebody to say that. Thanks.

Unfortunately, most of the Montrose fans are like my age. Yeah. Well, we see a lot of we see a lot of very old T-shirts.

Yeah, that's for sure. Quality was much better back then. They last.

The T-shirts? Yeah. Yeah. So it's just it's been like the past two years we've really started to roll.

I mean, we're picking up a lot of fans. How'd you guys survive through COVID? That was an interesting time because we were just starting to roll. We had about six or seven shows lined up and then they all got canceled.

And we were just like, oh, so what do we do now? We kind of just kind of sat back and practiced and kind of did songs and we tried to pick up new songs and stuff like that. And then I think it was Bobby Carlson from Sundance Saloon, you know, reached out to us and said, hey, I want to do a show with you guys. I think we opened up for Diver Down.

Was that that one? No, that was our show. There's so many shows I get lost. You're right in the middle of COVID.

So Bobby said, he goes, I'll put a police tape in front of the stage and nobody will get close to you on the stage. And, you know, it will be separated from the crowd. And it was like, OK, we'll do it.

We'll do it. And I think about halfway through that show, I ripped that tape off and think I was wearing it around my neck. And I was running around the audience.

I was like, I'm going to get COVID. I'm going to get COVID. Let's see what happens.

I got lucky. Did you guys do any Samuel Keyes shows on Facebook? No, we never did. We thought we'd talk about it.

I think we were trying to do a Facebook Live thing, but we never did. I saw some of those Facebook Live shows. Yeah, well, usually at our show, somebody will go Facebook Live on us, too.

So, yeah, kind of have, but not on purpose. Not planned. So, yeah, it was an interesting time.

We did a couple, about three or four shows during COVID. And we just, we kept kind of going. Yeah, after a while, we were just like, screw it, man.

Let's go. Yeah, if I remember, I think we did a couple venues that were like Brauerhaus. We were like the first band back.

Oh, yeah, right. I think, like you just mentioned, Sundance, we were one of the first bands to start playing. They still had pretty strict social distancing.

It would only allow a percentage of the capacity of the club to come in. So, that's kind of how we kept rolling. We just kind of followed the rules and tried to keep live music going.

And people kept coming out. They were still coming. I mean, not in huge crowds, but they were still coming to shows.

All the diehard people really wanted the live music. When everything started opening up again and people came out with vengeance to see live music. And I personally did not realize how many people actually did miss live music.

Once we started booking a lot of shows again, it was amazing. Yeah, like some venues stayed open, some venues stayed open and some didn't. That's why we got to plug Bobby Carlson up at Sundance Saloon in Mundelein.

Yeah, he kept it going. He didn't stop. No, man.

A lot of places put up outdoor tents, outdoor stuff going on. But then it suddenly got cold, so that was it. It's not going to last so long in Chicago.

That's right. So, where are you guys from? I'll start. I grew up in Mount Prospect.

Oh, OK. Yeah, so I started playing the clubs back from Mount Prospect. Met a few guys in the neighborhood.

We used to play like Thirsty Whale and play in original bands back in the day. Yeah, Steve and I went to high school together. True fact.

Yeah. So, you know, I truly honestly think that that's a big part of us still being together. You guys are my friends, man.

You guys are our friends, yeah. Brothers for sure. We fight like brothers.

That's true. I can vouch for that. Steve was actually in a couple of bands back in the day.

You might have heard of them, War Cry and Tommy Gun, right? Yeah, War Cry first and Tommy Gun. Actually, when you guys had that show recently over at the Brower House, I participated in a little War Cry, a couple of songs at that show. Tommy Gun, I remember his name.

Yeah, Tommy Gun, too, and played Thirsty Whale in both those bands. And eventually, Tommy Gun moved out to LA, so I was out there for a while. But I'd like to hear where Dave grew up.

I grew up in Forest Park, Illinois. That's right next to Oak Park, Illinois. I grew up and born and raised there and moved out to the Elgin area probably about 30 plus years ago.

And I've been out that way ever since. How about you, Dan? Well, thank you for asking. I'm a lifelong Elginite.

Elgin, South Elgin. They say once you're born in Elgin, you never leave it. As much as you want to get out.

It made it, I want to get out. Still want to get out. Yeah, I moved out to Elgin, moved to Carpenterville, which is a town away.

Congratulations. So how did you get in the band? About a year ago, I think I had an ad on Craigslist. I was kind of playing in a pop country thing just to kind of stay active during COVID.

And it was painful every second of it. So I got an email from Mike over here and then followed up with a phone call. He explained, I'm like, dude, I know all these songs.

He goes, well, I'll give you a half a dozen songs and in two weeks we'll run through them. I'm like, what did I say, Mike? I said, give me 30 and let's do it tonight is what I told him. And he goes, we don't have 30.

You were ready to get out of the other band. And I'd been playing Sammy forever, you know, the basement and the car, what have you. So it was a perfect match as far as I'm concerned.

So how did you start playing the drums as a kid? Oh yeah, I don't know, 15, 14. Played in a band Damaged Goods for about 10 years. We turned into a Scorpions tribute band, aptly named The Scorps.

And then kind of had kids. You had a family background, a musical background? Yeah, my grandpa and my great uncle played jazz semi-nationally. I played the sax, my brother's a guitar player.

So there's always been music in the house and in the family. I dabble on the bass. I'm going to take Mike's spot someday.

How about you, Steve? No musical, but my parents did not play any instruments. I have a brother that plays a saxophone. But pretty much just started with me and my siblings playing music.

But no grandfathers or grandmothers playing. Guitar right off the bat? Yeah, I remember going to school. I wanted to pick an instrument in music.

I would pick the trumpet and that didn't really last too long. So yeah, I gravitated to the guitar. Just growing up with being a fan of when Kiss was coming out big in those days.

And that's kind of what motivated me and took it from there. How about you, Mike? Yeah, musically, family-wise, both my brothers are great guitar players. My mother loved to play the piano.

Both my sisters were actually very good on the piano. I played guitar actually through my 20s. And then I actually saw Vivian Campbell with Ronnie James Dio.

I think I liked Pobler Creek Music Theory or something like that, Steve? Sure. And after that, I said, you know what? I'm never going to play guitar ever again. So the very next day, I went to the local music store, traded in my flying V for a bass.

And I've been playing bass ever since. So that's, you know, one thing too with playing all this Sammy Hagar now and Van Halen, I really had to give Michael Anthony a huge plug. I was always a Van Halen fan.

But, you know, it was always about Eddie, right? The greatest guitar player in the world. So after we saw Sammy with Dave and I went, and it was their, what was the name of the album? At Your Service Live. So the work that Michael Anthony does on that album, I have a complete and total respect for his playing now.

And if anybody was ever to ask me what I thought of him, I would just say seasoned. I mean, he's just phenomenal. And so now that I've been learning to emulate a lot of his work, I've just found that it's, yeah, that guy is just fantastic.

Just absolutely fantastic. You still have that first bass set you got? No, I don't think so. I have a lot of basses.

But the very first one I think was an old K bass. My two brothers also who I'd mentioned who are great guitar players. Yeah, yeah.

I had a Sunburst Gibson Flying V. Wow. I paid for a first guitar. Yeah.

Yeah, my brothers and I used to sit around when we were kids watching TV. And then a commercial would come on. And all three of us had guitars in our hands.

And we had to try and learn the commercial song the fastest before it went away. Nice. Yeah, I don't think I won very much.

But it was a lot of fun. But yeah, so that's where it all started, man. You know, my whole family has always been very, very into music.

And now Dave. Well, let's see. So you want to know when I started singing? Yeah, what's your musical background? How did you get started in all of this? You play guitar too? I started out actually playing bass guitar.

That was my, you know, before I got into any band. You traded in for electric? No, I traded in for the vocals. I was like, you know, I got into a band and I was playing bass for them.

And we actually had two bass players. Okay. It was one of those type of deals, right? And we had this other singer that was in the band and he wasn't really that good.

And I've been, you know, singing since I was a kid. I mean, like my mom was really into music big time. And she was always listening to her, you know, Neil Diamond records and Barbra Streisand records.

And she was like into musicals big time. So I was always watching musicals on TV. She actually took me to go see Jesus Christ Superstar back in what year was that? 1970? 72 or 73 or something.

I might've been 10 years old. And Ian Gillian was singing. He was the lead role for that play.

I don't know if you guys knew that or not. And I said to myself when I was 10 years old, I said, I want to be that guy. I want to be that guy.

Anyway, so I've been singing since I've been, you know, 10 years old. I used to sing in my aunt's apartment to her Beatles and ELO records and Elton John, Billy Joel, all that stuff. So getting back to the band thing, me playing bass guitar and another singer, I said, you know what? I could sing better than that guy.

I know I could sing better than that guy. So I started singing and then I just, I just put the bass down. I was like, yeah, I'm done with this.

I'm just going to stick to singing. I'd regret it. I should have kept playing guitar because, you know, Sammy plays guitar, obviously.

And it probably would be a lot better if we had two guitar players in the band sometimes. So who knows? I might pick it up again, but. You can always fake it.

Fake it, yeah. Turn the volume down. Turn it down, just turn it down to zero.

The sound guy, just turn them all the way down. So I took musical theory when I was in high school and some voice lessons and stuff like that. And the voice teachers are always giving you these songs you didn't want to sing.

So I didn't do that for very long either. But yeah, I mean, I just, I just love singing. I've been singing my whole life and it's worked out so far.

I mean, you know, I'm not playing in the United Center or anything like that, but we're still doing some pretty big shows and a lot, you know, some shows that a lot of bands would kill to have. And we want to thank Mike for that. Mike has a lot to do with that.

Mike gets most of our shows. Does he do the booking? Yeah, for the most part. You know, just for no other reason than years ago, we used to the big borrow and steal to get a show.

And so I just, I was, you know, I was the go to guy. And now the last few years, I don't think we've ever really had to ask for any shows. People are actually asking us to do shows now.

We're booked pretty solid. To get back to the early days, though, when I started singing, I mentioned it to you when I walked in, when I was in this band back in the early 80s, maybe it might have been 80. And we played this place.

We played this high school in Magdalen Heart of Mary. And we opened up for you guys because we had this kid in our band that was a guitar virtuoso. And so we opened up for you guys and we were, you know, pretty young.

I think I was like maybe 19 or something like that. And we were good. We had one more song left and it was like, OK, we got time for one more song.

And some guy over the monitor came through the monitor said, no, you don't. And we were like, we looked at each other in the band. We go, just start the song.

Just start the song. We started the song. I think about three measures in, you cut the power on us.

They're still doing that. Do you blame them? So we were like, you know, back then we were like, oh, man, screw that. Those guys are jerks, man.

We hate those guys. No, but, you know, looking back in the day, it was kind of fun. One of those fun stories.

I'll let you play now. You wouldn't cut us off? You wouldn't turn the power off? That's because you get tired. Maybe after the second song.

OK. Yeah, we get some bands that open up for us and they're like, you know, we're worried about time and I'm always sitting in the front going like that. Stretch.

Go ahead. Play another song. Play another song because the more you play, the less we got to play.

So you guys mainly play around the Chicagoland area? Are you going to venture any further out? We played up to Kenosha, you know, every once in a while to do the Tribute Island Fest. I don't know if you guys ever heard of that up in Kenosha. They do like three days up there where they have all these cover bands, you know, play Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

We go up to Kenosha every once in a while. I don't think we've ever ventured anywhere else that way outside of Illinois. I mean, not Indiana or anything.

Not that we wouldn't. Anybody listening out there are more than welcome to come to Indiana or Iowa. For a small fee.

Yeah, then we played to Bratislava a bunch of times. Yeah, it's Kenosha. But yeah, that's about it.

But yeah, we've been playing a lot. If there's anywhere they host live music within an 80 mile radius of where we're sitting, I'm sure we've played it. Yeah, it's not too far.

We won't trip. So I take it you got a lot of shows, a lot of festivals and stuff this summer. Um, yes.

You know, for the most part, it's it's gets a little challenging right now with everybody's schedule. And, you know, you know, we want to ride, too. We don't get out of bad motor scooters.

But and then we're going to take June pretty much to ourselves because we've probably we've probably played in the last six months. How many shows have we done? I don't even know. More than we usually do.

So yeah. And then we're going to kick off our summer July 16th at Sundance Saloon in Mundelein. Bobby Carlson's got it set up really nice out there for outdoor venue now.

Certainly if more festivals came up, we had like some real good ones to play. We would do that. But we do have some good outdoor shows planned through July and August and September and maybe all the way into October.

But yeah, we are booked through October right now. Yeah. So yeah, that's one of our thing is during the summer months is it's kind of tough to do indoor shows.

And it's great. Like some of these venues have built the outdoor stages. It really helps us out.

Playing outdoors in the summer seems fun. Oh, yeah. Nobody wants to be indoors because, you know, look, it's just starting to get warm now.

So what kind of guitar you play, Steve? I've got my main guitar right now is it's a 2011 Les Paul Goldtop. So that's that's kind of my go to right now. Sometimes I've also got a Ritchie Faulkner custom Epiphone Flying V. I bring out one and also use Ernie Ball Music Man guitar.

Nice. Yeah. So those are what you're playing through.

You know, I switched to a Helix a little while back, probably a couple of years now. So used to used to carry around two cabs, two heads, you know, pedals, all that stuff. So now everything's modeling through my Helix.

And, you know, at first it was a kind of a struggle that I really dialed in because there's really so many settings that you have to go through. Direct in? I am not going direct into the into the PA. I'm running through a cab still.

So I use a Seymour Duncan to power the amp. And then you still get some of that cab feel off the off the sound. So it's not all just completely amp modeling.

How about you, Mike? Sounds good. Whatever he does, it sounds great. And he's got great tone.

Thank you. He's wonderful, this guy. Steve is wonderful.

Um, excuse me. What do I play through? My go to bass right now is my Fender Jazz Bass. Um, we had a bunch of shows booked right before COVID.

And I was like, well, it's now or never. So I got the best guitar that I could find. Mike has a great tone, too.

He's also wonderful. It's all guitar. And then my rig, I've been playing through Harky, uh, LH 1000 head with a 410 and a low 115.

I've been very happy with. I don't have any effects. I just go right into it.

And once in a while, we use a flange. Kind of fill it up a little bit. What kind of drums are we playing? Oh, my gosh.

Everybody's been waiting for this question. No, I play Yamaha. I play Yamaha drums.

I just bought a drum workshop snare, which costs more than my entire drum set. So I got a nice snare. I use exclusively Sabian cymbals.

I'm not sponsored by them, so I don't know why I said that. I still pay for them. But I have good gear.

As you get older, you save up and you don't want it to break on stage. I think it sounds good. Does it sound good? Sounds great.

Dan sounds great. New cymbals, though. When Dan auditioned for us, it was what, Dan? Two songs? Two songs.

We just look at him and go, so what the gig, mate? Yeah, I mean, we've had a lot of drummers. Me and Steve and Mike have pretty much been the core of the band. We've had some really good drummers.

Every drummer we've had has been a good drummer. Some couldn't do the gigs. They were in another band.

They couldn't do the show. So we just wanted to get a drummer that was going to be part of the band. That was going to be, this is your number one band.

You're not going to be in two different bands. And say, well, I can't do that show because my other band's doing that show. So that was the main thing we were looking for.

And we were hoping to get somebody that could actually play drums, too. And Dan has actually just fit right in from the first practice. We were like, yeah, this is our drummer.

This is the guy. And he's made a huge difference also with getting us out there noticed. And with Twitter and Instagram and all that stuff.

Dan has been instrumental in making sure that we're getting promoted out there. And we've never had a drummer to do that for us in the past. Where actually he cares about the band.

So, you know, other than him being a great drummer and a good backup singer, he's been huge as far as getting us noticed and out there. Well, Mike, you must have been good with you because obviously you're a bass player, bass player and drummer. You have to work together, right? Yes.

And I'm pretty picky when it comes to... Everything? Yeah. It was Dan. I'm pretty picky when it comes to playing with the drummer or being a bass player.

And Dan has just done a great job and couldn't be happier. You know, like Dave mentioned, we had some really good drummers playing with us before Dan. And we were used to, even as good as they were, we were still used to kind of like the song, we want to do this.

This song goes like, you know, kind of correcting them or making sure they're on track. Dan come in and he keeps us on track. So he's like, he's amazing with how he knows these songs.

Like, no, this is how it goes. He knows how it goes. I mean, so he has really, you know, solidified the band in that respect.

I always say that it's the Germans driving the bus, right? Absolutely. So that, yeah, so that rhythm section, Mike and Dan are really, they really kill it. It's really a pleasure to be working with these guys.

We're not done with the whole gear thing. So Dave, what kind of voice do you use? Well, Ray, I have a roadie to carry my mic stand and mic in for me. And sometimes we have to pull out the rubber band for Dave though.

I use a Shure SM58, you know, wireless mic, which, you know, I love the wireless. You know, there's guys out there that don't like the wireless, but when I'm up there, I'm pretty much never on stage. I'm pretty much out in the crowd or at the bar.

At the bar, having somebody buy me a drink. Bringing us shots of tequila. Knocking bottles out of waitress's hands on purpose.

No, kidding. Okay, tequila do you like? Right now? Well, everybody says, oh, Patron, Patron, but we're actually, I like Casamigos is a really good tequila, you know, and Cabo, when Cabo's available, we'll drink that. But it's really not available at any of the bars.

They don't carry it. Blanco, Resposado, or Añejo? Resposado for sure. I'm an Añejo guy.

Oh, that's the good stuff. I don't see many bars carrying it. They usually stop at the Resposado.

And most bars don't have the Resposado either. So you're stuck with the Blanco. But yeah, tequila always is a staple at our shows.

The bartenders, or not the bartenders, but the owners. I know I like these guys. The owners either say after the show, they're always like, dude, we got to order more tequila when you guys come here, man, because we run out of tequila.

We actually had a bar run out of tequila. Or they'll say, well, Bad Moose Shooter's coming. We got to stock up on the tequila.

Like last show, we had somebody brought up a tray of 20 shots. I looked down, there's a tray of 20 shots of tequila on the stage. And I'm like, we're not going to drink all these.

At least not right now. Yeah, we go through the tequila. And this is the only band I've ever been in where I get on stage sober and get off stage and not so sober.

For some crazy reason, too. And the other reason I drink tequila a lot is it actually helps my voice. I don't know why, but it does.

So I'll have that and a margarita on the other side. Well, if you just drink tequila by itself, you're good. But once you start mixing a beer in there, that's when I start getting a hangover and stuff.

Yeah, the hangover. Unless you drink, you know. Yeah, not too much beer.

That's why I drink margaritas. That's why you drink the good tequila, too. Yeah, I was talking to somebody at a show once and was like, hey, you want to do a shot? And I'm like, yeah, let's do a shot.

You know, because after the show response to buying me shots. And they're like, oh, you want to do a... I can't even think of the name of it. Quervo.

Hey, you want to do Quervo? And it's like, does anybody even carry Quervo anymore? Remember that stuff used to be the good stuff, remember? Oh, you're getting Quervo gold, man. So Dave is a tequila snob. A little bit, a little bit.

Nothing wrong with that. Well, you should try the Jose Quervo Gran Familia. That's very good stuff.

In most places, it's about 20, 25 bucks a drink. Oh, OK. I'll have to try.

I'll have some fan buy that for me. There you go. Actually, they're having a tequila fest in Cincinnati in a month or so.

Mike, get on it. Get on it. Let's do it.

It'd be a perfect place for you guys to play. Where's that? Cincinnati. Oh, yeah.

It's a little more, a little over the 80 mile limit. We'll go. To tell you guys all been to Cabo.

Uh, no, no. Maybe this year. You know, before Covid, we were talking about what Mike has actually contacted him down there about playing and stuff.

But we we got to get there. I know we've had fans there, so we feel kind of bad that we haven't actually been there yet, but we will get there. We've been to Cabo in Vegas a couple of times.

Yes, we have. But that doesn't count. Not quite the same.

No, but yes, we will be there. Mike Sexy talked to the manager at Cabo and he said that, yeah, guys, come on out. Come on down.

You guys can play anytime you want to play out here. Just come on up and ask us to play. So Mike's like, we got to get out there.

We got to get out there. Have you guys been to Cabo? Is it worth it? I have not, but I've heard it's a ball game. I actually won tickets in the Sammy's birthday bash lottery.

A few years ago, I won two tickets. I couldn't find anybody to go with. Well, you know, four now.

Yeah. You embarrassed me. We try to make, wherever bar we're playing in, we try to make it kind of the Cabo atmosphere.

So, yeah, the experience. We have decorations and lights and palm trees. Beach balls.

Beach balls and what have you. A lot of tequila. Confetti shooters.

Yeah, they hate us. So you come to our show and it's kind of like you're walking into Cabo Schomburg or Cabo, wherever we're playing. I will say this much to you that the fans that come to see our shows, I mean, it's been growing, you know, I can't think of the word.

Exponentially. That's a big word to say. I'm trying to look, sound smarter than I am.

It's been growing a lot in the fans are really, you know, now it's the really, you know, play this song, play this song. But the fans are really what makes the show. And you know that, I mean, if the fans aren't into the show, it takes everything you've got to make it a good show.

But you're going to make it a good show. But these fans that we have now, every show we're doing, they're upfront, in our face, having a good time, buying shots. And it just makes a huge difference.

You know, and I think that's why that we're starting to play better as a band, you know, do better shows, you know, I'm much more comfortable on stage when the crowds and do it, you know. And even after the show, you know, I'm out there taking pictures with fans. It's crazy.

It's like, you know, they all call me Sammy. That's the funny thing. I was like, Sammy, Sammy.

We had a Sammy local club. Yeah. Come have their anniversary party at our last show.

So the club's called, what's the name of that club? Club's called 1013. Fantastic people. The guy that runs that club is, what's his name? Cabo Raybo.

Cabo Raybo. They showed up at our last show. And we, you know, they put out a post that was like, oh, we're going to go to see Badmore Scooter at Empty Barrels.

And so let's do that and celebrate the Cabo Raybo's 30th. Was it 30th or 35th? It was a big number. 35th anniversary for Cabo Raybo.

So there was about, you know, they brought about maybe 30 people to that show. It was pretty cool. So that was a surprise.

We have the greatest fans. They are, they are a blast. And all the bar owners and managers always tell me, man, you guys got the nicest fans.

But it's the same thing when you go to a Sammy Hagar concert. I know, I know you guys are a tribute band, but have you done anything original? Not together as in this band. I mean, we haven't, we haven't wrote any original songs or anything like that.

I have in a day been original, all original bands. So as I mentioned before, a couple of bands that played locally and out in Los Angeles. Okay.

And nobody's writing now or nothing? No. Not even for fun? No, I mean, I do write at home, you know, little stuff in the studio, but you know, with getting ready for shows and so forth. And we haven't really focused on that right now at this time.

But yeah, I still, I still love doing it and jamming to backing, backing tracks and coming up with just fun stuff on my own, but nothing I'm releasing. Just trying to get together to practice that now, you know, you know how hard it is to be an original band and do the original song and trying to get all the, you know, five pieces there to try to come up with a, you know, some type of a song is hard to do because, you know, we're, you know, painters by day and rock stars by night. So, so, so if you guys had, you guys had one, they said you go on stage, you guys do one Sammy Hagar song.

What would it be? Before they pull the plug. We always ask Dave, Hey Dave, what are we doing? Like, so Dave, this is their question. What would be your go-to tune? Well, I mean, if we can only do one Sammy Hagar song, it would probably have to be Bad Horse Scooter.

I mean, that's, we've always, I mean, even when we were in race for impact, you know, for 15 years ago or 13 years ago, we've always ended with that song. It's just like, we are going to end with Bad Motor Scooter. No matter what, if the building's falling down or it's on fire, you're not leaving until we do this song.

So I would say that's probably the song that we always do. You never, never have not done that song. I don't think.

Right. No, we never, we've always done that. Then you could pull the plug after that.

Kill the power. Kill the power. You got time for one more song.

No, you don't. You'll be here all week. Try the steak.

We'll be here all week. We did that one time. We said, Hey, we'll be here all week on stage.

And you could hear the bar manager in the back going, what? Yeah, so we've all had that fantasy. I mean, Steve's the only one that really did the original gig and, you know, had a good run at it. And, you know, he was out in California playing.

Where'd you play in California? All the big clubs really. The Troubadour Roxy. Whiskey.

Gazzaris. Steve's been really the only really rock star that's in this table for our group. I just gave it a run, you know.

I mean, he had long hair. I mean, longer than his hair is right now. You know, the 80s hair band look.

He had it, dude. He was a stud back then. Still is a stud.

He's still a stud. So I'll direct this to Dan, since he's a social media guru. Where can people find you guys? Well, we have a group on Facebook.

Bad Motor Scooter Band. Search that up. Oh wait, no.

Bad Motor Scooter Chicago, isn't it? On Facebook? Yep. Yep. Sorry about that.

And we're on Instagram. Just look up Bad Motor Scooter. It's just under Bad Motor Scooter.

Actually, I think on Facebook, it's just Bad Motor Scooter comes up. And even easier, we have a website that directs you to either of those. And that's BadMotorScooterBand.com. You go there and it'll take you wherever you want to go.

Always has our next show and past shows coming up. And we've got some video clips if you want to check any live music that we've recorded. Yeah, because if we wanted to get the BadMotorScooter.com, it would cost us $30,000 right now.

That's for sale. It's $30,000. Yeah, we're always updating all our sites.

That's pretty key. That's pretty key. I've been to many band sites and it's like 2017.

It's like, really? Why do you even have this up? Yeah, right? No. And, you know, we have a lot of, a lot of our fans will take video and send it to us and we'll post their videos or edit them down or get pictures of the crowd. So if you're there, you might end up on our, on our page and usually doing something silly, wearing a sombrero or laying on the, on the ground, you know, next to.

Passed out from the tequila. Next to Dave over there. And then I got some business cards I made up a couple of years ago, so I try to pass those out after every show.

And while these guys are, you know, taking down their equipment after, you know, between bands and stuff like that, I'm usually out in the audience. I'm trying to touch every single person's hand. I mean, every single person in that, that comes to Season Club, I'm shaking their hand and saying, thank you.

That's cool. They're taking their stuff down because you've got the microphone, Rody. Yeah.

Right. Yeah. Because, you know, it takes a lot of, a lot of work getting that mic.

I always ask you, I was like, Hey, can someone get me a mic stand? Steve's always. Yeah. I always offer my help with mic stand.

I never do. Dan will test this. I help with the drums.

I do help with the drums. The sticks. He said the sticks.

I help carry amps off sometimes. If my back's not killing me, I'll help with the amps, but. It's a team effort.

I've never seen it, but if Dave says so. Oh, I just, nevermind. I'm not going to try to defend myself.

Video proof is what he's saying. I'm a rarity. I will help.

Where's the picture of that? I'm just not paying attention. Whoever's listening at our next show. If you see Dave carry anything more than a drumstick, take a picture of it.

And then you can get into our next show for free and Dave will buy you a shot of tequila. I love you, Mike. What if it's a free show? Um, then.

The price is right. Wait, free show? What do you mean free show? If it's a benefit, yeah, okay. I'll do a free show.

Or a festival. Actually, that's the other thing I was going to say. I mean, none of us here at this table right now are in this for the money.

I mean, you know, maybe back in the day or you, you know, you were back in the day. You might've been in for the money, but like, I always say this. If you're in this for the money, you're in this for the wrong reason, right? At our level, it's like, we are doing this because we love to do this.

I will do shows for free. Mike doesn't have to pay me anything. Wait, I didn't say that.

Did I say that out loud? It's recorded too. Everybody just heard it. I will take the money.

Don't get me wrong. But it's not something that's my priority. It's not, you know, it's all about being up there.

For the love of the music and the love of your brothers were playing. Exactly. Being with, like Mike said, being with their friends and having fun on stage and just having the crowd feed off of you.

That's what it's all about. Right, right. I agree.

I agree 100%. Yep. So if anybody complains about money out there, they're doing it for the wrong reason.

Usually our goal is, as long as we can pay our bar tab, though, I'll be honest with that. Yeah, like I don't want the bar center to go, it's like, oh, no, you owe us 60 bucks. I'm sure that's happened.

Yeah, it has. Not too often, though. It's gotten better, a lot better lately.

Thanks, guys. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for coming out.

A bit of a drive for you, but we appreciate it. Oh, thanks for having us. We really appreciate that.

This is going to be a memorable moment for us. Just, you know, all the stuff that we go through and you guys recognize to bring us in. We really appreciate it.

Thanks a lot. Yeah, thanks so much, guys, for inviting us to do this. It's awesome.

This is a great room. Oh, here, let's plug this place, too. Rock and Roll Museum.

Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66 in beautiful downtown Joliet, Illinois. That's it. Everybody come on down.

It's coming along fantastic, especially hearing about the music rooms and the teaching that's going to happen in the future. It's just amazing. And you're right across the street from The Forge.

That's right. We played there once, one time. Thank you, guys.

I'm a big Sammy fan. I look forward to seeing you guys sometime soon. Yeah, anytime you want to come out and jump on stage and play, you're more than welcome, buddy.

Absolutely. I'll just unplug him. You want to unplug me? One more song.

PitBank's a bitch, I know. And if you need an opening band, we'll be there. Thanks, guys.

Thanks. So that was Dave and Mike and Steve and Dan from Bad Motor Scooter. They've ridden off into the sunset now.

They are. I think I hear their bikes going away. I think so, too.

Yeah, listen. Oh, that's a wonderful sound. It is.

Well, the weather's changing and you can ride now. That's right. I was going to ride up here today to the studio.

I thought about it, but the bike, it's so shiny. It's so clean. I didn't want to get it dirty.

So I didn't bring it here today. But it's not a bad jaunt for me from home to the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66 in beautiful downtown Joliet, Illinois, where our studio is located. Right.

Well, it was great talking with those guys. A bunch of nice guys there. Yes, they are.

Yes, they are. I can't wait to go see them. I know they're taking June off, but after that, we're going to have to find somewhere and go up there and see them.

Yep. Yep. Yep.

Definitely. Because you can't do much better than Sammy Hagar in my book. No, I've always liked Sammy from the Montrose days.

Yes. I'm showing my age with that, but I remember buying a new Montrose album when they just came out. That's my age.

That's OK. I'm getting close to Medicare. Yes.

Speaking of age, though, I heard that M&R Rush just released their seventh studio album, Goodbye City Lights. Yes. Yes, they did.

Yes, we did. It just came out yesterday. Yep.

So I think all our fans out there should go and check out the M&R Rush website at M&RRush.com and check out the new CD. Plus, it's coming out in vinyl, isn't it? Yes, it will be out in vinyl in August. And you can preorder it.

Yes, you can. So you'll be one of the very first people to get the new vinyl for M&R Rush. M&R Rush.com and you can find out all the info.

Congratulations on that. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. I'm pretty excited about it. And they'll be coming out with my studio album of podcast interviews.

That'd be cool. Yeah, it would be. Just me, though.

I'm going to take you out of it. It's going to be a solo effort. That's right.

They'll be answering questions that you asked, but they'll be like, why'd they answer that? So I may think about doing that. You can overdub me. Overdub? Yes.

Oh, dub. I thought you said dumb. I'm sorry.

So otherwise, it's great talking to you folks out there. The weather is changing. Get out there.

Enjoy the summer as it's coming. Ride your bad motor scooter or go work in your garden or whatever you like to do outdoors. Okay.

I'll do that. I like to play music outdoors. Playing music outdoors has always been awesome.

Yep. Yep. Okay.

Thanks for listening, everybody. Thank you. See you next week.

Bye-bye. Rock & Roll Chicago Podcast does not own the rights to any of the music that's played on this podcast. The music is used to promote the band or musicians that are interviewed.

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