Hey, this is Paul Martin and Ray the Roadie for the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. What's up, Ray? Not a heck of a lot. It seems like spring is springing spring spring spring has sprung and I believe it has.

If football's over, so you got nothing to gamble on it. You're right. You're right.

It's I tried gambling on NASCAR. That's tough. You know, I'm not I don't know enough about basketball to put any money on that.

So, yeah, you're I mean, it seems like gambling is done. Yeah, well, they're not the gamblers that the gamblers, the band, that's who we're talking to today. Oh, I thought you're talking about like real gamblers at Vegas and to Harrah's and all these other casinos.

I've been known to throw a 20 and a slot machine once in a while. But yeah, yeah. You don't throw the bones in a bone thrower.

No, no, no, no. Slots or else roulette, roulette and play some roulette. Roulette is fun, but they say that roulette is the worst odds of any game in the casino.

Well, it's easy and it's fun. That's probably why I play it then. I could say something to that, but I'm going to keep it to myself.

OK, I do that. So, yeah, we got the gambler guys out there. Remember Gambler from the around, say, 1980? Yes, I remember Gambler from around 1980.

So do I. Maybe even late 70s, late 70s, early 80s. Yes, I definitely remember them. And it was great to hook up with them.

Yes, it was nice talking with them. We talked to Alex, their new lead singer, and we talked to Del Breckenfeld. He's the bass player.

And we talked to Warren Mays, who plays guitar. And there's more of them, but they just couldn't all join us today. Right, right, right.

And they're coming back to come back to play a show, folks coming back March 26. Yes. A reunion show.

You can throw your money at that. You can gamble it. You can gamble it.

You'll have a really good time. It's going to be a dirty nowadays, so be sure and get your tickets now for that. They're on sale right now.

They're not yet. Go to the Gambler Facebook page and find it. But let's find out what they had to say for themselves and talk about the band a little bit.

Yeah, let's hear what what they did and where they're going. OK, let's do it. Welcome to the show, everyone.

Today, we're I want you to think back to 1979, 1980. You remember the band Gambler? Of course you do. Sure you do.

Well, they're coming back and we've got them right here. How are you guys doing? Hey, guys. Doing good? Doing real good.

So let's go back to 1979 or the late 70s and tell us how the band got started and how the name came about and everything else. It's very Spinal Tapish, actually, because we made our fame in Chicago. And I just want to say how incredible the audiences in Chicago still are.

But back in that time, we couldn't have done it without the audiences that supported original music. You know, one of the things was we looked at REO Speedwagon and and and Styx and Cheap Trick and and Survivor and all these groups that were doing original music. And we were Buster.

And we used to do like a part of a show where it was Zeppelin. And then a set was sometimes it was there was a place called Down the Street. It was seven sets a night on weekends, you know, Waukegan.

And but we would when we would do Queen, we would do all the all the groups that we looked up to and had big vocals and so on and on. And we had a great following. And then when we went to original music, a lot of the clubs didn't they wanted more of the cover music.

So we kind of started over. We were still Buster. And but what happened was the we did this WKQX hometown concert and it was an album.

And that was our big breakthrough, because Mitch Michaels was so supportive of the band at KQX and a lot of other bands. And we played the show at the Uptown Theater. We knew all the other bands.

They played the club scene. But the next day, the Chicago Sun-Times story was Buster breaks out big at hometown at hometown concert. And that put us on the map.

And so the we we started sending demos to like all the other bands did back in that day. There was no Pro Tools horrifying, you know, and no streaming, which maybe was good in some ways. But you couldn't really you had to have a you had to have a top quality demo and you had to have a follower.

You know, it was just like social media, except it was real. People came to the clubs. So anyway, after that article and it said Gambler is ready to record, there's a song called Walk in the Streets.

It's a hit, you know. And so the record labels started coming to look at us, you know. And what happened was EMI, Atlantic, a lot of the big labels were looking not just at us, other Chicago bands.

And the night we were actually playing with them, you remember this, Warren, we were playing with Foreigner and they came out to see us. And this was in Detroit because we had played regional. But there were pretty big shows, 10,000 seats.

And we really we felt we were a great live band. That was our forte. And the next night they came, we were opening for Styx.

And the difference was Foreigner, they wouldn't give us lights and that was just typical of an opening act. If you didn't know them, Styx gave us soundcheck, they gave us lights, they gave us everything we wanted to help us. And we had one of the best nights and that's the night we got the, I remember our manager going, just got a huge offer from, for that time, from Atlantic, but EMI really wants you.

And because we had grown up with the Beatles, like anyone else from that era, and the Stones and groups like that, Queen, they were all on EMI. And we're like, oh, we want to be on that label, you know, here's the Spinal Tap part. There was a group in England called Buster that had a release only in the UK.

And the label, because the guy that was based out of England, they actually own Capitol Records, Capitol EMI. And so we're in EMI America version, but still by the Capitol people. And they go, you have to change your name.

And we're thinking the new Buster's, you know, like Spinal Tap. So we liked the name Gambler because I don't know why, our singer used to wear a hat a lot of times and kind of the Chicago outfit look, like the mob, we'd like that kind of mob. In the old days, I'm really going back.

And anyway, so that's how it happened. It was Warren Mays, who's on the hall, of course. And it was myself, my brother, Bruce on keyboards, Chuck Schwartz on drums, and Nathan Shafer was the original singer.

So that's kind of how, I didn't mean to make the version so long, but that's how we came to getting a major record deal. And that really opened the door. And the Chicago bands at that time continued to help us.

I mean, REO Speedwagon had us open two shows at Alpine Valley, and it was 24,000 people a night. I mean, that was the most amazing thing. And that was what I saw when we got outside of Chicago in the Midwest.

It's not that the bands didn't support you, but it was very competitive. It just seemed in Chicago, people wanted to, the bands of our era, we all kind of were like us against the world. And we really felt that.

It's more about the music, just about original music and really getting behind original music from groups. Yeah. Yeah.

And I should mention one quick thing, Chicago Recording Company, which is still in existence, there was an engineer named Phil Bonanno. And we knew the owner. We had done session work and stuff, Alan Kubica.

And he said, hey, we said, we need better recording, better quality. And he goes, OK, I'll give you the time, but we want you to work with this guy, Phil Bonanno. And Phil went on to do Survivor and Cheap Trick and all the other bands, sadly, he passed away.

But Phil was such an important part of our sound. So once again, being in Chicago, our first album we did in the village, the label wanted us out in California. But our second album, Love and Other Crimes, we were able to do in CRC.

And anyway, it's the Chicago connection will remain forever. And that's why we're so excited to be able to come back and do this show. So what is it? Has the band been playing at all since that time or has more been working? Just one one reunion, one reunion show four years ago and before years in May.

That was the I left, but we went on through it, did the two albums, didn't sell a million records, make a million dollars, and it kind of flows on through. We continued writing songs. There's well over 100 songs, I think, other than the than the album material that that went on after that.

But it kind of kind of began to taper off, looking at a music change. The disco hit and so original rock bands weren't quite the quite the thing that that they had been before. And then it just the general styles of music changed.

You know, 1983, I left, moved out to moved out to California. Dell and the group continued on. We had while I was still there, we replaced the original singer with Alex, his older brother, Tony, and he brought a huge number of new songs in on top of of Dell's output.

And I left it continued on. There was just a lot of great music that that I've now caught up with back back then. And it's just it's hard to think back.

The mid 80s, no cell phones, no no social media, no email was was relatively new and people weren't keeping in touch. You just just had to stay in touch with people. You had to call.

And remember when the telephone long distance calls get extra charge? Oh, yeah. Oh, gosh. No, you can't.

We can't talk that long. This is going to cost a fortune. That's when was the last time you heard that from something other than your grandparents? It's just what that was.

So we didn't really we kind of kind of stayed in touch, but not but not to any great extent. No one knew what was going on here. No one was going on there.

It's basically over. This is Tony's Alex's brother, Tony, moved out here, a little bit of staying in touch, kept things going. And then sadly, he got ill and passed.

And as that moved on, Alex was was there was this little kid running around the whole all the time we were rehearsing and doing shows, doing local shows and things around. We'd see him all the time. It was he was constantly asking, how do you play that? And what about this? And who's and can I borrow that? And he had his own band and doing things.

And then about five, five years ago now, five years ago or so, I hear from Alex. Basically, how are you doing? Would you be interested in getting the band back together? You know, to a point of grace or to borrow a phrase, I suppose, more accurately. Since we had time, just kind of curious if you're interested in doing this.

Well, yeah. I mean, hadn't thought about it in so many years. But yeah, that sounds it's yeah, that sounds like it'd be interesting as long as everybody else is interested.

And then we get back through to get in touch with Dell and kind of that the process of a of a reunion show. Well, there was one more part of that, Warren. I haven't.

So, Warren, because I remember Alex as a magician, too. I don't know how old you were, Alex, but you were 13, over 13, I think. Great Alejandro, you know, and he's like really good.

And I'm like, I'm going to see him before Copperfield. I'm going to see this guy on TV. And I had I had moved out to California.

I'd been got into marketing. I worked for Dean Guitars and we did at the beginning of MTV. Dean owned the company.

I was president. And we got in with ZZ Top, the spinning for guitars on the legs video. I glued that fur on the guitar with Dean.

And I saw the power of, you know, we didn't have MTV. We were right at that, like more and said music was changing. Then I went to Washburn with another Chicago company and I was at Fender.

So I spent 20 years marketing director for Fender. And and so I was out on the West Coast. I was working with the Kings with Luke Robitaille, who is the Kings.

His son is a musician. So that was the connection. And Warren goes, hey, Alex is coming in.

He wants to talk to you about the thing and singing the national anthem at the Kings game. And I'm like, whoa, I mean, I knew he could sing, but I'm like, well, that's pretty heady stuff. So we go to the show.

I took my daughter, Shanna, who's lived out here and Warren and I, Warren's wife, Vicky. And I mean, the hair and I do have the hair that stood up. It stood up like it was the 80s when I heard him sing.

It was almost a he brought the house down. I mean, people were cheering and everything. And I'm going, I mean, I would have been in anyway, but I got so excited.

And the fact that we didn't do it as a tribute to Tony Magnificent, but that Alex could come in and do those vocals because these guys are humble because I'm the only one that doesn't play professionally anymore. And I'm like looking at these guys, even on the songs I wrote. And I'm like, you know, the arrangements and Alex being able to put all this together.

And Warren's got the original notes when I can't remember something. I call me because, oh, yeah, here's the notes from the first record. You know what I'm like? Oh, this is great.

But so Warren's a hoarder, you say? Oh, yeah, I still can't. No, I'm I'm Mal. I'm Mal from the Beatles, the guy that we didn't write him down as we were doing them because they had to be memorable so that if he couldn't remember them, then it wasn't it wasn't a good song.

But later I had to write him down because there were so many. And there's no way I'm going to remember, you know, 30, 40 songs. And back.

Oh, remember this one we should do. No. So I had to write some things down.

But bless you, Warren, because I yeah, I'm sitting there, you know, trying to listen, trying to figure out the stuff I used to play or the stuff we played. But the other exciting thing is that Alex keeps finding. And I don't know why.

I mean, it's not that I didn't want to archive this stuff, but I'm just blessed to work with these guys who was so serious to them to to keep this whatever the legacy in the history is. And the fact that they find Alex keeps finding these songs, you know, that I can't even remember that we wrote and we did. And not just mine, obviously, you know, the Tony stuff.

And Warren was a huge contributor to the riffing and the solos. And and it's just it's just such a blessing. I use that word truly because for me to go back and hear that and stuff that I'd forgotten, you know, and I have senior moments, too.

I mean, that could be part of it. But anyway, I'm so excited because we're pulling new songs out for this show that it's a couple of never been done live before. And we know they're good songs.

And but we're not saying that, you know, when you go to see Bob Dylan, you're not going to hear the hits because that's Bob. You know, he's going to do it. We're not good.

We're not like that. We want to do the hits. We want to do the songs are on radio.

The last show we did, Mitch Michaels hosted. You know, he's on a different radio station. But the loop was a big part of our growth and stuff.

And I keep going back to the support that we've got all these years from Chicago and how important that is. You know, if that was in L.A., no one would remember anything, you know, meaning the fans and they come and go. And Chicago, there was those groups and that foundation.

And and so that's another reason why we agreed to do it. Let's just have fun. You know, let's just go out there.

I know we'll be prepared and we'll play well. But more importantly, it's a celebration with our fans. Yeah.

Yeah. Now, since you say you haven't been playing professionally, it's Warren, you have professionally just playing, playing with with cover bands, nothing. Oh, the only the only thing original that I've been involved with since since here was some kind of an Irish, an Irish group, the guy that was helping support his his vision on some Irish stuff.

Other than that, it's been just different styles of different things. And just, you know, keeping still like playing guitar. And it's just fun to get together with with friends and and and make some music.

Now, when you left the band, say, 83 or something, who took your place in playing guitar? I was Manny Alvarez, who I'm how long was actually Manny with the group? Because here's three, three years, I think. Yeah, right here. Yeah, because because then then he moved out to Los Angeles as well and ended up getting work.

Well, I came out here and ended up seeing just how competitive the market was for for players and just some great, great people. And so playing and doing some different things with doing cover material with with with some some great players that have been on records and on and sessions and all that sort of thing. But you've got to do something to make a living.

And I decided after a bit that I just didn't feel like playing seven nights a week, playing cover music that I'd rather play some music that I was interested in in in playing. So into I end up in entertainment lighting. So touring concert stuff and and on through that, which then goes on through through lighting.

But Manny ends up coming out here and looking looking to be a part of a group, ends up on the crew and is doing doing production with them with with all sorts of different touring groups. But he's now with the Counting Crows. He runs their group before that was toured with Jackson Brown.

Jackson Brown. Jackson, Bonnie Ray, Bonnie Ray. He plays with Bonnie Ray.

She brings him up for five. He was on Tonight Show with Bonnie Ray. And he was playing guitar.

Because Manny's because of the, you know, all the all the groups Counting Crows, especially he's trying to get back, trying to get back playing, they've got dates. And so he's not going to be able to make this this show because because they've got dates opening up. He's going to be traveling.

So but but he was around for the one before it was. It was great. Hopefully we can get we can begin to do some other things a little more regularly.

I think now that covid seems to be I don't want to jinx it. It's opening up a pandemic and hoping. I want to add one thing about Chuck Schwartz.

Chuck was a drummer. He was with us in the founding of the band, and he taught my brother, Ed. And and it's interesting because Chuck is still professional.

He gigs more of a jobbing musician and sessions. And my brother is going to play some of the songs that he played on. Originally, my brother, Ed.

And he's Jimmy Pederick's drummer. As you say, I recognize your name. Yeah, I mean, I recognize his name.

Yeah, well, he's more famous than I'll ever be. But he's got all Peter stuff. My brother calls me, goes, hey, I'm going to be on TV with Peter at backing up, you know, everybody from, you know, the Starship to 38 special.

And and but he recorded with Dennis DeYoung as well. So he's done work on Dennis's solo stuff. So once again, the Chicago Connection and he he was five tracks that we recorded.

So he's going to be performing with us that night as well. Chuck will be the main drummer for all the Gambler stuff. And my brother, Ed, will be in somewhere in the middle of the show playing on some of the tracks he recorded.

So anyway, I want to get that in because Chuck is is full time musician. And so it's awesome. It's amazing.

Oh, yeah. Great. And Alex is off at Abbey Road recording there.

They're talking about professional. You know, he sends me a thing. Hey, this is this link I just recorded with a symphony, with a symphony.

Was it or. Yeah, a little bit. Yeah.

Yeah. Hello, Rigby. And I'm at Abbey Road and I'm like, OK, so send pictures from from in Abbey Road.

Yeah, that was just like you did going. Abbey Road. Oh, my gosh.

It was something else walking in that room, let me tell you. Yeah, I bet it was very much. Well, and then and then your brother, Bruce, who is an original keyboard player and played on the play, the reunion show.

He's I think I think kind of he's got some some some health issues, but he's not going out. So he's he's just not comfortable going out to do this sort of thing. So we wanted to get a date to get a date on the books.

And he's still still still would love to be doing some things with this, but it's not comfortable coming out and playing a date. So we I get it. I had to get a replacement.

Someone sitting in playing playing keyboards for us. Yeah, Tommy Lerschein, you guys must know Tommy Lerschein. He was in the Blues Brothers band in Chicago.

He also with Peterick that World Stage was called World Stage. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he does some with the Ides of March.

I think he sits in sometimes he's a Hammond endorsed player. He's if there's a big show in Chicago, Tommy's playing it. He's the Hammond go to guy.

But on a thousand recordings and yeah. So, yeah, and I've known Tommy since we went to high school together. He was.

Oh, I didn't realize it went back that far. Few years older than me. And Tommy is a voodoo camp.

Even as a kid, he would just sit down at the piano and play anything. Do you know the song? Yeah. OK, yeah.

He just yeah. He's actually originally from Chicago then. Yeah, I grew up in Elmhurst.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

You know, I'm you know, talk about me for just a second here. It's I am Gambler's biggest fan. Actually, I think I should say I am like the the maniac who's been following him around since I was a little kid.

You know, my brother got in the band after Nathan left and was in the band quite a long time, and they wrote a gazillion songs together. I had a little cover band that he forced on Dell and Warren where we would open up whenever we could, whether they liked it or not. I literally would just, you know, back then, music was so different.

It's such a shame kids don't really realize how cool music used to be. As you know, you would play five nights a week when the drinking age was 18. You would play a Monday night and it'd be packed Tuesday night.

Sure. Sunday. Yeah, sure.

Why not? And so I just follow Gambler around. And my brother, I was just his little sidekick. So whenever they played, if I wasn't playing or even if I was playing, I was in the front row watching.

And I was a sponge. My brother taught me to be a sponge and use it, you know. And the guys at rehearsal, I was in L.A. last week and we rehearsed and I literally would sit there.

I would just say, OK, today's Warren Mays day. And I would sit in front of Warren and I would just stare at him. I would just watch every single thing he would play.

And I would go home and and play these licks. And if I didn't know, Warren, Warren, Warren, what, what, what? How did you play that? And what can you play like that? I got to get dressed. No, I'll find the dressing.

How did you play like these guys? And then the second night, I'd watch Bruce on keyboards. And Bruce taught me, you know, this lick. I still play it.

That was the first thing he taught me. I think you guys can hear it. And then I would just then I move over and I watch Chuck play the drums and then I move over and I'd watch Dell and I would just rotate.

I would just rotate Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. And he plays all of them. He plays all the drums included.

Yeah. And, you know, when Tony was working on songs or writing songs and these guys were in the studio for a long time, we had a little demo studio set up in our house. It was three floors of equipment and control rooms.

And that's all we did. I would ditch school. I would I would say my mom would drop me off at school and I would literally run home around the back way.

Sometimes she'd cross in front of me, didn't notice me so I could get down to the basement. I'd climb through the window and hide in the basement so I could watch these guys record. I was just a whole thing.

So me singing with this band is is is so bittersweet because as I don't start crying, I'm sorry, I'd much rather be sitting in the front row watching my brother sing than be up there. But they say you can't go back to your childhood. You can't.

But when I get together with these guys, I certainly can. It's something that's something special. The music is music is amazing.

The arrangements are amazing. The tunes are effing hard to sing, but I'm having a ball. Seems like what Dove said, that you kind of brought this to light, right? And brought the reunion thing around, right? Yeah, I kind of I kind of as guys in my band, you know, I'm still a performer, a professional musician and guys in my band.

They always call me like the Terminator. I kind of keep going. I don't stop.

I kind of got the yes from all these guys. They didn't probably realize exactly what they were saying, what we were what we were getting into, what I got them into. But just so I'm in my recording studio, just to show you how much of a gambler fan I am.

There it is. Yeah, I got the big poster. Yeah, yeah.

That's one of the album covers. And when my brother, we had to bring him home from California, he had Lou Gehrig's disease and came home to, you know, to basically to die. That was hanging on his wall.

And I said, we got to bring that home. He's like, what do you want that for? I'm like, I'm taking that fucking poster home. And we did and we put it we put on the back of a truck and I brought it home.

Because I knew one day it'd hang up in my studio. You may have one of the only ones left. I don't know.

I one thing you said, Alex, it's really true about, you know, we're not being nostalgic about stuff, because if you listen to just even the Super Bowl, you know, the artists, they're all good. They're all talented. But people say, oh, it's rock dead, you know, rock and rock and roll.

It's not at all. It's dominating. Young kids are buying vinyl.

It's not nostalgic for them. I'm still in the music business. I have a marketing company and I work with the Hendrix estate.

I work with Stevie Ray Vaughan estate, but I work with young bands, too. And when we look at it, I just saw a band. I sent it to you guys.

The band called Dirty Honey. And they're out here in L.A. And they're exactly what would be in the 80s. You know, they would exactly be what you would hear.

Great vocals and the musicianship is par excellence. And they made a comment. They Wolfgang Van Halen opened the show and they both made the comment.

They play everything. There's no lip syncing. There's no dancing going on.

There's not a spectacle. And that's the trick of the 80s, right? That you had to wrote your music. No tracks played it right.

You know, you'd be able to play it. And I'm and I always say, oh, yeah, they played their own songs. But I watched Dick.

I'm horrified. I watched Dick Clark's non rock and New Year's Eve, you know, and there wasn't one band that that actually played. You know, the only thing two years ago that was rock was Post Malone fell off the stage and because he was drunk.

And Ryan Seacrest goes, oh, he didn't see himself the next day. Post Malone goes, no, I was drunk. And I'm like, that's like, you know, he would have fell off the stage.

Are you rock and roll? Yeah, it's rock and roll, you know. And even if we get older, as we get older, we appreciate once again, it's not nostalgic because if you want to. We were in Nashville.

No, we were in Memphis at Sam Phillips Studio, and they were remastering all Jackson Brown's records. And, you know, and originally, you know, going back to remaster and they just had John Prine's catalog there. In fact, they still had John Prine's car, his Cadillac.

And but the point was there's two to three year wait if you want to master vinyl, you know, of the top notch, the audio file. And it can't be guys like me, but I have all those records and I'll buy some. But, you know, the Beatles were just number one.

And they got knocked off the charts by David Bowie, you know, and the Beatles, obviously, because it let it be, you know. But it's that my daughter is growing up. We all have daughters.

I have a granddaughter, too. And they rediscover that music because the Internet opens the door that it's real to them now, even if the artist is not here. I asked my daughter, number one artist at School of Rock.

She ran the biggest school of rock in Oak Park. Now she has her own in Colorado. And she said Jimi Hendrix.

And I'm like, oh, really? And OK, Jimi Hendrix is the most artists that they emulate. And who's next? And you go, Queen. Oh, well, Bohemian Rhapsody, you know, got reintroduced.

I worked on that movie. I did instruments up to a plug on that one because we never knew it was going to be that big. But a whole new generation rediscovered Queen.

I said, well, what about younger bands? She was, well, the Foo Fighters and the Chili Peppers. And I go, well, that's not a younger band. I mean, to me, it is.

But those guys are, you know, aren't there any young, young bands? They've been around for a while, right? And people want the real music. So whether we see it on TV or we see it on, you know, anywhere, it's there. And the concerts that are going out, people want the live music.

No doubt. I don't need to tell you that. But that's why we don't think it's nostalgic.

We think it's, you know, it's almost a celebration. If we could do this music and we could still pull it off. If we can't, we won't do it.

You know, we're not going to do it. We're not going to embarrass ourselves. So I might, but you guys won't.

Now, what happened to Nathan? Didn't Nathan go to California, too? Yes, he did. About the same time, Warren. I think he probably about the same time.

We ran into one another a time or two back then, but I haven't seen him or been in touch with him. And I was since since just a few years after after we got here. So the mid 80s.

I know he's around, but we just never, never got in touch. And I don't think he was playing. I was still, you know, sort of family and other things going on.

But just playing with friends, playing cover songs once a month kind of a thing just to keep keep interest, keep our keep our hands in it in some ways. But I don't think he was doing that or I would have probably would have run into it. So I'm not sure what what he's up to at this point.

Yeah. And to do the Gambler shows, to be fair, we felt Tony was equally as important in some ways, even more because he brought a new side to the band. Nathan was great.

Don't get me wrong. And we loved working with Nathan. But but when Tony joined, he had a different concept.

Like I'm listening to some of the songs that we did together. And he encouraged my songwriting to change because in the era of the 80s, a lot of stuff like Survivor and Gambler and Foreigner. And we all had a sound that was kind of like that 80s sound, that big sound.

And and and Tony really pushed us as a group to try other avenues, even in songwriting. We're doing a song called Lost in the Night, and it's about homelessness. You know, and we did that in the 80s.

And I'm like, I don't that's unbelievable that we even think of that stuff. So we feel that as much as we like Nathan, that was only one part of the band that we wouldn't be able to duplicate or at least, you know, do it to justice to what what Tony did. And so Alex, with his voice, his incredible voice, he's able to do both sides.

And we're so lucky to have Warren that can hit those high notes. Warren, I don't even know how you can. You know, you know, he can do it.

I was at the rehearsal. I was in awe. But but if that makes sense, we feel that this is the best presentation of what the band represents, you know, what we are.

And and what we were. And so I really do feel that we probably wouldn't have been able to do the same thing with with Nathan. You know, I didn't know.

Yeah, the continued the continuation of the of the band, the newer songs that didn't that Nathan wasn't involved in was was, I think, where the band would have gone, did go. Yeah, I did go. But then music changed.

So it didn't didn't quite get an opportunity. The same opportunity as we had before to for a for a record deal. But the but the songs just it really is nice to get back in here.

As I was saying, some of them almost forgotten about some of them, but they sound familiar when you hear them. And then and then the more we put them together going, there was some great just some some really good songs, really songs that we should be proud of. Do you have any recordings with Tony? Yeah, we have a lot.

Yes. Yeah. What the guys don't know is I have a plan for us when we're done with this concert.

I mean, Tommy might have a plan, too, because he's music. And I know you relate to us that he's like, man, this stuff should be recording. But there are a lot of songs.

It's it's you know, if you're a fan again, when you saw them, you know, live, there were a lot of songs, so many songs past the first two albums as as Tony was in the band and the band kept playing more and more of those songs when the first two kind of got not because they were bad, but kind of got pushed aside because all this new music was coming. Right. I mean, I think by the end, you know that, you know, maybe a couple of years into it, I think you're only playing a couple of songs from the album because they had written so many other great songs that need to be heard and gone into the studio and did some recordings.

You know, my little dream is that we all go in the studio, rerecord these songs, get these new songs rerecorded or put out songs that Tony sang on that were done in the big studio. There were a lot of a lot of demos that were done, you know, just to get the song down. Del and Tony, you know, I know you say, you know, yeah, sure.

But they were like Lennon and McCartney. They would they would all day long, every single day. They would come come to the house.

Hey, look at this place. Everybody told me, oh, yeah, well, look at this. Oh, yeah, that's great.

You just start to trade, you know, and it really was a it was a war. It was a war, a friendly, a battle. I got this thing.

What do you think of that? Yeah, it was like, oh, yeah, this is and they were looking for God. But then they say, you know what? Hey, it helps us both because I'm writing great songs. It was really cool.

And for you know, I'm a songwriter and so forth. And for me, it was it was once again a lesson in how to write. And since you walk through, it's so much more music, you know, cheap trick this this I think this last weekend or they're in Las Vegas right now, I think they're doing five nights and they're playing five different albums.

And we can we can so do that. Just play play this stuff. We're playing March 26th at Nelly's eight o'clock.

We can get together and play a whole nother set and do another two hour show. And then the next night, do another two. It's amazing that anybody is going to miss giving plans of any other shows while you're while you're here in Chicago.

We're going to you know, we but this this show has been in the making for three, three years. We were doing a show a year after the reunion show and COVID hit. And it's just to do this in June one year.

And then it got moved to October. It got moved to March. It got moved to October.

So we want to get this show together. And we've been talking about things. But, you know, everybody's everywhere.

You know, Dell's traveling, Warren's traveling. I'm going around. So, I mean, I'd like to do it.

That's our goal is to keep playing. You know, we have a lot of fun. And that's what rehearsing we have to do.

And so what kind of what kind of reaction we get to to this to this show as well? It's a bit if it's anything at all like the one we did we did before, there was a lot of interest then. And we and flying is getting getting easier again. So we'll see.

Well, it's getting more expensive. Where did you do the last show at? That was at Wire. Do you guys know a place Wire and Berwyn had closed? Berwyn? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. But I was worried before that show because I didn't go outside because I was I called some friends of mine that were fans of the band.

And some of my friends from California actually came to the show and they thought one of the songs we did, Andy, they thought was a hit single as one of Tony's songs. And I remember people that didn't know that I was really in that in that band, and they they traveled out. But I I was calling everybody because I was worried.

Well, what if nobody remembers us? And the advance tickets were pretty good. Pretty. We did pretty well.

But I remember sitting in a dressing room worried because I called one of my friends and I'm like, hey, come to show me like, oh, I don't drive anymore. And I'm like, what do you mean? Don't drive anymore. I mean, I'm older, but, you know, I drive.

I should take Uber. And he's like, what's Uber? I'm like, I'm dating myself. I'm like, oh, that was four years ago.

So, yeah, I think Alex, you came in or something. You go, man, it's so great out there. It's all packed and everything.

And I wouldn't have been I would have been disappointed, not in anything, but that I wanted the most people to be able to see us because I was proud of it. But I wasn't worried about it. I wasn't like, oh, you know, if nobody shows up, you know, whatever.

And so we want once again, we want to do the best. And I'm not being overly humble. But when I walked out on stage, I couldn't believe it.

I mean, I really couldn't believe it. And and and the fans went with it because some of they didn't hear some the songs that were into some new fans. And and so we want to recreate that feeling.

We want to recreate that celebration of what it was. You know, the people will send on on our website, Alex, and you posted stuff. People were putting all I see the band and girls.

It's always Warren with the girls, too. You know, it's like, oh, yeah, what the hell is like? It's sitting in front of Warren the whole night, which is good, you know. And I'm like, oh, I think he's better looking now.

You should go. Oh, yeah. So now exactly that that's exactly it.

Yeah. No, no, I just know there were there were a huge amount of familiar faces, people we hadn't seen in thirty five years. One of those showed up at the thing somewhere.

Isn't we're friends, people that we people that knew hometown and and family and others. But then there were people that were coming up and going, hey, Warren, remember, remember this? I'm from from Fatty Arbuckles and the face actually familiar. And yes.

And did this. Oh, oh, my gosh. Hadn't thought about them in all this time.

Hadn't been anywhere near. And yet they all remembered. It was all just the way the way music does.

It takes you back to what you were doing when you first heard that that that song and that you like. It's the same same sort of thing. And didn't didn't get across the country.

So we didn't have or didn't not, but not much of it got all the way across the country. But for for a lot of people in the in the Chicago Fox River Valley area was some good memories from from way back. Now, some good times.

Yeah, I think I think I saw. I think I saw you guys at P.J. Flaherty's in the woods. Yeah, yeah, yeah, please.

And we did we play pretty much anywhere for for quite a while there. We played. We had to play.

We had we had a road crew and a truck and a limo. Remember, we bought the flock and they were in a different generation, but great band. And we bought their limo when they broke up.

I remember we'd pull up. Nothing was open at night except White Castle. Remember that one? We couldn't eat pennies.

But when we were really poor, you know, we we have to go to White Castle and we'd pull up in a limousine and people like, oh, my God, it's a famous band. We go out and line up in White Castle. But I was a really old limousine.

But but nonetheless, yeah. But those memories now, you guys, those memories are like really good. And I want to share this with your audience, too.

So because I was at Fender, I really had, you know, so lucky to end up at Fender and I worked with a lot of these bands. You know, Tommy Shaw with six. I'd see him or Chief Trick was a good one because Tom Peterson, he we had a with our Gretsch division.

He had a 12 string bass, which used to do with Hamer. And and he came to NAMM and I saw him and I said, hey, I just I just want to tell you, I go, you guys played. I think it was MacArthur's Park or one of them with us.

And they didn't want people to know it was them. They wanted to run down some new songs. And so they called themselves the Randy men.

Yeah, the Randy men. And everybody knew who they were. And I told Tom, I go, Tom, that was so cool.

But I had a string hammer. But you had a 12 string hammer. And and and I had such a hard time, you know, playing it.

And he goes, you pussy. Excuse me. He goes, you can't play a 12 string.

I go, ah, you were really good. That was your sound. And he goes, remember, Night Gallery? Remember, he was going down the list of haymakers and all the places that we either saw them or we played with them.

And then the other one was Kevin Cronin. I mentioned Alpine Valley. I did a charity event and I the guitar player and REO Dave Amato was a signature.

I think his signature artist with Fender. Anyway, he said, hey, the band will sign. Come to the show.

We'll sign the guitar for this charity music education. So I go and I go and Kevin's there and I go up and I go, you know, normally I wouldn't cross the business line of, you know, but I had to tell him, I said, he signed. It was really nice and glad to do it.

And I said, hey, Kevin, I was in a band called Gambler. We open for you. And he goes, Alpine Valley, 24,000 people a night.

Wow. That's awesome. My God, you know, and I think no matter where you go, you know, it takes the boy out of Chicago.

But certainly, you know, that era and those bands, it was just and I'm not saying it isn't now, but it was magic. It was magic. Yeah.

So you see, you guys have you have a website, right? It's our Facebook page and Facebook page. OK, Facebook page is just Gambler or Gambler, Gambler. Yeah.

Yeah. All right. Yeah.

People think a link is up there now for tickets for the show. There's a picture, some new pictures and some surprises coming down in the next couple of weeks. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Very good.

Looking forward to this. Yeah. Yeah.

It's going to be fun. Yeah, that's great. You know, I see a few other shows.

And again, it'd be nice to see a few more shows after that. We're going to try. We have some some things, you know, in the works.

We're trying to work out. But yeah, I'm sure things are just just beginning to open up. It's right.

You know, in fact, you weren't even sure that until this was going to happen the last couple of weeks that this could be a bit. It could have could have been. Now we can't we can't do the show or or it's so limited to how many people we can have that it's not it's not worth it.

So, all right. Yeah, it's opening up. And if it keeps going like it is, then then we're good.

Yeah. Be fun. So you'll be doing you'll be doing some songs from Teenage Magic and Love Another Crime as well as as well as others, other new stuff, new things, new things that will be coming along.

Who knows? Yeah, very good. Very good. Well, wish you guys the best of luck.

Well, thank you. Thank you so much for having us. Thanks for joining us today.

Thanks a lot, guys. Thank you so much for having us. OK, so that was some of the guys from Gambler.

That was Dell and Warren and Alex. Alex sounds like he's he's kind of puts this whole thing back together for them. Yeah, he's had the young guy in the group.

Oh, yeah. The guy in the group. Yes.

He's not only he's not only part of the group, but he's definitely a fan. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Has been his entire life. I mean, this is like a dream come true for him. And it sounds like he's going to keep pushing them to do more and more and more.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I guess when you're a fan and part of the band, you can do that, right? That's right.

That's right. I'm sure. I'm sure the show will be really good.

That's coming up this Saturday, May 26th. This Saturday, May 26th, March 26th. I'm sorry, not May, March.

I said, and I found I found your lead and said, may you did. You know, it's March, March 26th, this Saturday. So these 30 days to be sure and get your tickets out, folks, and show them some some love, show them the love that they deserve.

Tell them, Paul and Ray, the roadie sent you. That's right. Maybe we'll even see you there.

We might. We might. You never know.

That's right. Maybe we're on the guest list. You think we are celebrities and we didn't talk to him about getting a guest list.

Yeah. You just think naturally they would do it. I mean, yeah, it's us.

Yeah. Well, that was a lot of fun. Yeah.

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