Hey, this is Paul Martin and Ray the roadie for the rock and roll Chicago podcast is we're back here at the studio gang here at the studio. It's starting to feel like home again. Yeah, it is.

Yes, it is. It's very nice to be here. I'm thinking about bringing a recliner in and I'm just putting it in the corner.

That'd be good. Yeah. I'm just kick back when the when the guests come in.

Maybe a couch I could lay down. Yeah. I just got a new couch.

Maybe I could bring that in. We could analyze people. Yeah.

Well, I'm sure we're being analyzed all the time. I'm sure we are. So.

So who are we speaking with today? We're going to that country rock and roll twist again this week. That's cool. With Ashley Victoria.

Ashley Victoria. Yes, indeed. She's she's been singing for a while, but she's got a couple of her own songs out now.

A couple of her own videos, which are very well done. Very well. And she's been she played with a bunch of other bands, which you'll find out about in the interview.

And now she has her own band. Yes. Yes, she does.

And so we talk with her and we talk with Barry, her drummer, and had a fun time with them. Yes, we did. Let's go check out what they have to say.

Let's do it. Hey, everyone. Today we're meeting with Ashley Victoria and and her drummer, Barry.

Yes. How are you, Ashley? I'm great. How are you? Good.

Barry, how are you? I'm doing great. Good to see you guys. Thanks for coming in.

Of course. Thanks for having us. No problem.

So. So tell us a little bit about. First, tell us about your band.

My band is we do country rock, original music, as well as some covers. We've been together for going on four years now. So how did you get started in business? I got started in the business because of my drummer, Barry, over here.

He's actually my dad as well. I grew up with him being in bands and him touring and doing all that. So seeing him doing it growing up, I kind of it flipped a switch a little bit, made me want to do it.

Yeah. So. So how long have you been doing it? I've been singing since I was about six or seven, but I've only just been singing in live bands for maybe eight years now.

Why country music? I just love country music. It tells a story that, you know, it touches people in different ways. Plus, it's not just straight country anymore.

It's country rock. It's country pop. They have rap and country music now, which I'm like about, but I was wondering when rap and country collided.

I don't know when that happened. I don't know when that happened. Yeah.

I want to say probably within the last, like, five years or so since I've noticed it anyway. Right. There's a word for that.

There is? There's a word for that? What's that? You combine country and rap. Oh, it's called. I get it.

So now what kind of music did you play, Barry? You said you were on tour and whatever. Yeah, it was mainly progressive music. OK.

By progressive, you mean like what and who would be familiar with that? You made a lot of progressive influences, stuff like Dream Theater, bands like that. And it was just it was totally out of my genre to be doing country music. Right.

And like I said, when she was little, I did that little tug on my leg. Did I want to do this? I'm like, no, you don't. And she just was the persistence and.

I'm not your typical dad, you know, like. How can I say I wouldn't say no, I just wanted to see her enthusiasm. I want to see her drive, see what she wanted to do.

And her drive was just overwhelming. And I couldn't say no anymore. And I had to just let her be her and see how she like just blended into the scene.

And she she's like a natural performer. You know, it was just just because she was my daughter doesn't mean she was good. You know, you know, she had to prove herself to everybody.

So I was terrified to sing in front of him as a kid. Every time I compare him to anybody, it's always Simon Cowell in the early days of American Idol. That was him.

So so so now you're doing country music now. You said you write some of your own stuff. Do you write it yourself? Yeah, we write the whole band rights together.

OK. And who else is in the band? What other instruments do you have? First of all, we have two guitar players. We have a keyboard player.

We have a bass player. Sometimes we have a pedal steel player. OK, so anybody we might know who give us some names.

We got Richie Pollack. Yeah, Eric Case. Yeah, Mike, I not even got to try to say his last name.

We call him Mike G. Mike G, OK. And and and that's it. That's everybody.

And Boyan Kovalevsky. I do believe that's how you say his last name. Oh, yes.

So tell us about your latest hit, your latest single. My latest single is called Gasoline and Whiskey. Right.

It's just about, you know, not needing anybody. You know, you can do everything for yourself. And of course, you know, the cars and the whiskey not together.

You don't want to drink and drive. But but, you know, I love race cars. Obviously, everybody knows I love whiskey.

So, you know, just felt like the perfect fit when we were coming up with the lyrics for it. I see. So who are some of your influences? Oh, man.

Lizzy Hale from Hailstorm. Hayley Williams from Paramore. Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, Taylor Dayne, believe it or not.

Yeah, I was just in Miranda Lambert. I saw I heard Miranda Lambert in your song. Why listen to it? Yeah, I get that a lot, actually.

And then you do you do some copies, some cover stuff, too, right? Yes. Like like some of some of their stuff. Oh, yeah.

You mentioned. Yeah. Well, the only one from that list that we don't do is Taylor Dayne.

But we we also do some Journey. We do some Toto as well as the typical top 40s country cover songs. You guys apparently weren't touring or anything last year, were you? No, we weren't.

So would you spend the time writing that during that, you know, hiatus or? Well, fortunately, it was like a perfect time where, yeah, we started writing. But there was a like a cleaning house of band members. It just we felt that, you know, there were things that just weren't fitting.

Attitudes were totally different. And they wanted to go in different directions. And we're like, this is the most opportune time to try to, you know, get the right people that would fit the situation.

And it just it fell into place so like perfectly. And the people that we have now surrounding us. It's just, you know, I couldn't ask for a better bunch of, you know, musicians.

You know, Richie's been with us from the beginning. Everybody else is just just phenomenal people. And they've been in the business for a while, too.

So. So have you guys played anything this year so far? Yeah, we've done a few shows. It's it's it's kind of hard now to pick up these shows because a lot of these clubs are picking up the bands that they had to cancel on.

Yeah. From last year. Right.

So to try to weave weave into some of these places is like getting kind of hard. But yeah, we have a few shows lined up now. She'll tell you the dates and stuff, you know, plug that or whatever.

But it's not as much as we would like right now. So you're not just doing country places? No, no, because you've obviously heard her songs, right? OK, and it's got like a rock edge to it, you know, and it's like a little filtering in of country music. It's like so what we're trying to do is we what we do is we take those cover songs.

We try to play them as true as, you know, you should to where people would recognize these these songs. But we put Ashley Victoria into it. So there isn't such a separation of, you know, oh, my God, they're playing this country song.

And then they go and they play their original songs. And it's like two different genres of music. You try to blend them both together where they're like they really put a twist on that song, you know.

So so everything goes together in a nice package. It's on the edgier side. You know, it's not as laid back country, right? It's got a rock edge to it.

It's kind of unique. It's interesting. It's a different spin on perspective on the music.

Now, you also said that you also told us beforehand that you are a manager band, right? Yeah. Yeah. So I can imagine it's kind of tough right now.

Like you said, book and be in the band. Right. And like I said, there's a lot of people that I've tried to get in contact with and it's just, you know, they're they're booked.

The downside of it is I'm getting hit up with a lot of promoters like booking agents. Right. And with their stipulations, I just I can't do it.

You know, it's it's like the rules and regulations have changed for some reason and the way they want to work and operate. Can't do it. So what do you mean? They're telling they're dictating when how the shows will be performed.

They're talking to the covid restrictions. And I'm, you know, as far as like vaccination information, you know, that stuff. And I'm like, you know, this is it's just not happening.

Right. You know, there's we understand there's a lot to get said in there. Yeah, there would be.

Yeah, it's you know, it just gets crazy. Yeah. Well, everything's open 100 percent now.

Right. And that's why I don't understand, you know, these stipulations that they're trying, you know, without giving names. Right.

Right. Right. So so who does your videos? I know you've got a couple of couple of videos.

Yes. Yes. So who the guy who shot our first music video also shot our second music video.

How many do you have now? We have two music videos out. OK, but we have a couple of live performance videos as well on YouTube. Right.

But who did it look pretty good with the old truck pulling up at the old Ford truck. It was looks pretty good. Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you. And who comes up with the concept? Me and him do mean we marry you.

Yeah. Kevin. Yeah, Kevin from can't create with canvas.

Oh, OK. Yeah. Because he did a nice job, and I thought it was really good.

Oh, yeah. He did an amazing job from the first video to the second video. He even told us he goes, I'm so excited.

I upgraded all my equipment and all that. So you're very excited, too. And you're old.

Oh, I froze so bad. Oh, yeah. So where we filmed at Great Lakes Dragway.

Is in the middle of a field. Right. So it was when did we shoot that like end of September, October? I y'all have seen what I wear on stage.

So I had like a little crop top on, you know, the the leather looking pants. I froze the wind. I I was like, all right.

I don't like hype myself up to be able to do the shoot because I was like, I got to stay warm. I got to stay warm on top of me wearing heels, which I look like a baby deer trying to walk for the first time in those. So all of that.

I'm sure Kevin has a snap of me almost falling because I almost did at one point. So you drove the truck up there, too, right? Yeah, we actually I put an ad out on Facebook. If anyone was interested in bringing their cars up to the drag, the dragway, they're more than welcome to come by.

And, you know, we had a lot of cool people that were able to come up and bring their cars. And he was, you know, nice enough to let me drive his truck. That's very cool.

Yeah, it was very cool. There's a nice old truck, too. Oh, I loved it.

I was so nervous to drive it. Like, obviously, I know how to drive, but driving somebody else's really nice truck, I was like, I don't want to ruin it. He's somebody else's baby.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, you said that you started singing at an early age, right? Yes. Did you do any contests or anything or anything like that? Or did you get into any kind of mode where you where you did you sing, maybe church or singing school or something? I sing at church a little bit growing up.

And then once I got into middle school, I was introduced to show choir. So that's basically a 20 minute mini musical, if you want to call it. So you do five singing and dancing songs and you go across the country and you compete in competitions.

Oh, OK. So I did that throughout all four years of high school. I was actually the first female ever to make both the guys and girls group and the all female group.

So that was really cool. Really? Yeah, that's cool. I did solo competitions throughout that.

And then I didn't really think too much about singing. After that, I went to school to be a vet tech for a little while. That didn't work out.

And then I started doing karaoke and which led me to doing a competition and the cover band that I sang for for a while. They saw me through that. And that's where it started.

Who was that? The cover band. It was Hillbilly Rockstars. Oh, OK.

Yeah, sure. We've we've we've we've talked with them. I still feel for them here and there.

Oh, OK. Right. What do you got coming up? You know, tour wise right now you have.

We have a show June 26th. It is Mission One's Veterans of Valor. It's it's an amazing event.

100% of the proceeds go towards the veterans of that area. So the show will be in Crown Point, Indiana. It's an all day event.

They do a huge motorcycle run in the morning. They come back. They have vendors.

They have giveaways. They have, you know, obviously, I think five live bands. Yes.

Yeah. Five live bands. And then we play from eight to ten.

Was it is at the park there at the big Bulldog Park? OK, the thing is with that is Johnny Boersma, who is president, CEO, creator of Mission One, is just the organization and what he does for first responders and for veterans is is like unsurpassed. It's because I get to see it firsthand. I get to see what he's doing, you know, and it's just he asked when he first met him a couple of years ago, he said, would you be interested in playing? And I'm like, yeah, I'd be it'd be cool, you know, whatever.

Then after getting my feet wet in his organization, it's like I have to do this. Are you a veteran? No, I'm not. No, I'm not.

And it's it's for free. I mean, I'll play for free all day long for this. You know, everything is a hundred percent given to these veterans and from fixing their homes to getting them vehicles to, you know, aiding their families was a grocery.

I mean, everything. And he he's posting it every day. He's throwing out information.

Anybody who can help, please come here. It gives he gives out all the information. It's so open and transparent.

How it's like, how can you not help this? That's June 26. Yes. Very good.

It can't give a website or something. Yeah, I'll share that with you. OK, definitely.

And while she's talking, OK. While Barry looks at his phone, we pause for this message. So is that all you got coming up right now or is there you got something beyond that? Yeah, we got a couple of private events coming up.

OK. Yes, that is November. I got to look in my phone.

Well, we'll promote your website and in your website. I do. It's actually Victoria Band dot com.

OK. And Facebook will be all over Facebook, right? Yes. Yes.

Yep. You can find me at Ashley Victoria Music. I'm on Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, TikTok, all the social media things.

Yeah. So, Barry, what what bands did you play with that we may know? Well, I played in a band a long time ago. It was called Lydian Sea.

It was one of the founding members. It was a little band. And like I said, it was very progressive.

It was they tried to play as much as we could as much as many places as we could. It was it was it was a totally 180 of what we're doing today. And, you know, and I must say, being a progressive drummer, coming into a world of country music, I think this is harder.

Really? I honestly think, you know, I should say it is harder. Really? You know, you would think in what way? Well, you think with all the intricacies and, you know, the syncopation and all, you know, the off time, everything, you know, and then it's just the feel of country music. It's so expressive, like she said earlier.

It says that you just can't be a drummer when you're playing country music. I mean, you have to be a musician, not taking anything away from being a progressive musician or a drummer. It's just.

There is, like I said, there's so much feel, there's so much, you know, that accentuality, if there's a word for it, that's a word for it. You know, it's you know, you are being a drummer and, you know, thinking you're the foundation of a band. I mean, now it's really important.

The backbone, right? Yeah, it's really a big backbone because you are really driving that feel, you know, more than, you know, a rock situation. Well, I always say this. The drummer drives the bus.

He's he's the guy driving the bus. You know, sometimes he drives himself, you know, crazy. So he's going to fall asleep behind the wheel.

Right. Right. So so now getting back to writing your own material.

Now, do you play an instrument at all or no? I don't know. OK. So do you come up with you come up with the lyrics or you come up with the melody in your head and express that to the other guys? How does it work? I usually come up with I'll have like a line or two of something that just comes into my head.

Right. And they'll just play whatever they've come up with. Melody wise for songs.

And I'll go through my line of, you know, my whole list of one liners, two liners that I have. And I'll be like, oh, this would be pretty cool. And then I kind of go off of that.

Do you get a melody in your head when you when you get those lines or where? Because sometimes I mean, I know I do the same thing. And I have a son. I've got a melody, you know.

But then then I'm trying to transform it to guitar. You know, I imagine it's even tougher trying to tell somebody else. Yeah, I don't.

I'm one of those weird ones that I just I'll come up with like a line that I think is cool or I'll hear someone say something. And I'm like, oh, that would sound really cool in a song. Right.

And then I just kind of go off of that. And it's not all about pickup trucks and dogs dying. No, it's not.

Definitely not. But I would just say that because because I know I play guitar and in transforming it, my own idea is to get back. I mean, it would be tough trying to transform or tell somebody else a melody line or something that you're.

Yeah. Well, I'm around a bunch of seasoned musicians, so that makes it a lot easier for me because a lot of them have been writing for a while. Right.

Already. So they they know the gist of how it works. And I'm new to it.

I didn't start writing until I started being in. So I'm trying to create this band. So.

So how did you find out the guys in the band there? Did they find you or what? So we've we've known Richie for a long time. And that's Rich who? Richie Pollack. And he plays guitar.

Bass. Oh, he's bass guitar. Yep.

OK. And then the other guys we found either from word of mouth and when we found Eric, Eric found us through Facebook. I put an ad out in a musician's website, you know, to find musicians.

And I totally forgot about it. It's like three, three years ago. And all of a sudden I get a text after we got rid of the other guitar players.

Right. We're looking for guitar players. You can't find them yet.

There's a million of them. Yeah, there's a dozen. Right.

Yeah. So so then I get a phone call or I should say an email first and says, hi, I'm Eric Case. You know, I'm interested in, you know, what's in your ad.

I'm like, what ad? Oh, wow. So I'm like, wow. OK.

So I text immediately, you know, and I was like, hey, you know, and I told my whole story. I forgot that ad was up there. He just responded to it.

We chatted on the phone for quite a while and he came out to audition. And I just blew me away. Like, where have you been hiding? You know, the story came, well, he used to live here and he moved to Florida and then he moved back.

Yeah. Well, I'm glad you're back. Yeah.

Just a great guy. Yeah. He's a guitar player.

Yeah. He's one of them. Yeah.

He's just phenomenal as well as, you know, our other ones. You know, Mike, he's just as awesome. And it's cool because they really bounce off each other.

Eric is like a country. He can he's like a picker. Yeah.

And Mike, he's like a rock heavier guitar player. Right. And they bounce off each other so well, you know, and it was like, this is what I wanted her to have because you want to have originality in what you're doing.

Sure. Because everybody's doing the same thing anyway. Right.

Let's try to be a little bit different. It's working. Yeah.

So how many how many originals do you have? Right now, we can release that we that we can release. We can probably release. Yeah.

About five. Yeah, we can release. We're always working on new ones, though.

Yeah. So we have like a whole library full of halfway written songs that we just got to finish. But we have we got five that are pretty much ready to be released very soon.

Now, you've actually gone and recorded these. Where do you record it? Well, we've recorded the ones that you've heard. One was in, you know, friend's basement pro tools.

Right. And half of the of gasoline and whiskey was recorded at CRC downtown. And then another pro tools.

But I told her, oh, it's all done now because we're going to release, you know, an eight to 10 song, you know, EP. Oh, yeah. But I said, I want to get in the studio live.

None of this piece work, you know, I want to do this whole thing live. And everybody's totally in agreement with that. Record everything live.

Yeah. Just go right in and just everybody gets recorded at the same time. We're playing, you know, if you make a booboo, go and punch in whatever.

But yeah, right. Right. I'm sure you agree.

I mean, it just gives a totally natural and real feel when you're doing that. You know, there's nothing wrong with it. Pro Tools is great.

But I think, you know, it's just so perfect, you know, we're not. Yeah. I want everybody to experience what I do.

Yeah. Well, Pro Tools is great. It's also Pro Tools.

I mean, and you could punch the fit. I mean, I remember back in the back in the day, you know, we'd all be singing around a microphone. It gets too far away.

And this guy's too close, you know. And and we'd have to redo it, redo it. And then we'd have to do it a hundred more times.

And you're burning tape because you're multiplying, because you're multiplying, you're malting it, you know. And now now you do it once you get it, once you get it. And you take that piece and put it in, take it out of this one.

Copy and paste, copy and paste it. And it's all great. Yeah, I agree.

I totally agree with you 100 percent on that. Right. Like if everybody goes in and there's a band live and plays and then take that same recording and go do it at home in your basement, playing back to yourself and just listen to the difference and how different that is.

And it's true. It's absolutely 100 percent true. Right.

And it's just a matter of personal. What are you going for? What sound are you going for? What feel are you going for? Nothing wrong at all. The Pro Tools, I think it's an awesome thing in the world.

And, you know, it saves you a lot of money, really. Right. You know, and sometimes.

Yeah, well, if you own all your equipment, I should put it that way or know somebody. But yeah, I just, you know, I want her to experience that, too, to be in that professional, you know, situation. Oh, you know, a real recording studio.

So what are a couple of your favorites or are they all your favorites? I know you're going to tell me that they're all your favorites. They are. They are.

But what's the one tune that you really like? We really like the bells out. My favorite one at the at the moment. It's still gasoline and whiskey.

Yeah, 100 percent. What about a cover tune? My favorite cover tune. We do so many now I got to think.

I just ask because because, you know, some people after we've talked to so many bands and stuff, they come out. Oh, well, I like this song because we just not right now. The guy goes, yeah, but what about this one? You know? Yeah, yeah, probably.

I don't know if he's going to agree with us, but my my favorite one to sing probably because it challenges me the most vocally is Here's to Us by Hailstorm. OK, that one. I have a great vocal teacher, Tamara Anderson.

She helped me change the way that I sing it. So it's a lot easier for me to control and hit those high notes because I don't know if y'all are familiar with Hailstorm. And no, not really.

But I've heard the name. Yeah. Oh, Lizzy Hale, Wales.

She hits these notes where I'm like, jaw hit the floor. So then when he's like, OK, well, let's try doing this song. I'm like, what? Yeah.

You want me to do what? But she helped me out. And now I feel a lot more comfortable singing that song. So so you're still taking vocal lessons? Yes.

Yeah. It helps helps keep your voice in shape, right? Yes. A hundred percent.

It helps. I even had to like retrain myself how to breathe correctly. Right.

So, you know, breathe correctly. It's not going to come out correctly and you're going to hurt yourself. Right.

Right. Yes. Yeah, it's very true.

It's just it's just like a muscle. It's just like working out if you don't work it and work your vocal vocal cords, then. Exactly.

You know. And the thing is, you had to learn and she was taught through Tamara is, you know, we do two and a half hours plus straight through. Right.

We don't stop. We don't do breaks. You know, that's part of the whole thing.

You know, it's so she's got to have that endurance and stamina to do that. Right. And, you know.

Oh, another tough thing for one person to sing on it all night long. And obviously me growing up, you know, I'm not I'm not real old yet, but, you know, in like the 80s and 90s, she one of her favorite singers and she'll contested as Jeff Tate from Queens, right? Right. And I told her, I go, you know, she learned that it is no matter of, oh, I like these singers because they sound cool.

She she learned why they were such good singers. And I go, watch how he sings. He's from the first song to the last one.

And he was one of those singers that you can watch and be like, he's just as strong in the first one as he is on the last night or maybe even stronger. And that's what she learned how to do, you know, through, you know, I helped. I don't have no crap about singing, you know, but Tamara even told her, yeah, this is how you're going to have that strength and endurance and taught her how to do that.

We're tired after two and a half hours. She's ready to keep going. And I'm like, this is awesome.

But she's a little younger than you are. Yeah, just a little. Yeah, I know.

I used to have that stamina, too, but what were you going to say? So I was going to comment about how old he is, but, you know. So what's your favorite song to play, Barry? Since you said it was a little tough playing country. What what song challenges you? Well, you know, I like I like the I do like some of the covers that we do that are more driving that get, you know, high energy.

I do like gasoline and whiskey, you know, because obviously it's when we released and we really liked it a lot, it came out good. And I'm really right. Yeah, it's got a different feel to it.

And nobody's really doing nothing like that in the way we're doing it. So obviously I'm going to like it as far as even the covers. I like them all because we play them, but yet it's like I'm getting sick of them.

Yeah. You know, it's just one of the necessary evils of, you know, having an original band. You have to play these covers.

Well, yeah, when you play, especially if you're playing two and a half hours, there's going to be a song or two in there that you make a oh, geez. And why are we playing this one? Because I mean, the crowd likes it. And, you know, you do want to make the crowd happy.

That's why they're there for you. It's hard to keep an audience entertained on your own original music. If they don't know it yet.

That's true. So you have to do even, you know, your national acts. They're playing songs that they've written for other people, you know, and it's they got to keep it.

Nobody's got, you know, their entertainment values are way different. Now, I think, you know, they're just they get bored quick, the audience. So you got to keep them entertained.

So that's the way I look at it. It's like the Rolling Stones been playing Satisfaction for 50 plus years. But everybody wants to hear everyone wants to hear it, right? Well, it's understandable.

You got to hit, you got to hit, you got to play it, right? Such a bitch, Brooke, couldn't hit a shot. Give us your website and your in your Facebook and everything else again. OK, so my website is AshleyVictoriaBand.com. All other social media platforms.

I try to keep it all under the same name. So it's all Ashley Victoria Music. My Snapchat, though, is AshleySings23, because Ashley Victoria Music is way too long.

Sings 23? AshleySings23, yeah. OK, what's the 23 reference, your age? That's that's the day of my birthday. Oh, OK.

All right. And where can people find you, Barry? They can find me. You can find him in the same places.

I'm just tagging along. OK, I thought maybe you just had your you had your own Facebook page and website and stuff. You know, I sit in the background.

I just take care of what I got to take care of. Let her do her thing. This is her deal.

Try not to throw drumsticks at my head. You know, a lot of people are like, oh, here we go. Stage dead.

Not even close. Do you guys work with a set list or do you just somebody call them out? Yes. Yeah, we have a set list and we hit it.

We try to keep playing, you know, one after another. We'll play four, three, four. Take a break for two seconds.

Oh, what are you doing? Right. That's the way to do it. And then boom, hit him again.

That's that's old school rock and roll one on one, you know? Right. Because because there's too many bands I've seen. I used to I used to make sound and too many bands I've seen come out and do one song.

You step into this thing. They stop because you got to roll together. You know, you got to roll two or three together and at least three.

Right. And then it didn't stop. Say hello.

How are you doing? And then go on. Right. I totally agree with you on a percent.

Yeah, it shows professionalism. It shows, you know, what you're doing. If you want to stop and tune your guitar between songs, that's fine.

But not every one of them. Right. It's like, you know, then you better take care of your equipment.

I told her it's just you if you're going to be a performer, be a performer. Anybody can go up on stage and sing a song and play around. So let's entertain people.

And she does. Yeah. You jump around or you're crazy or what? Yeah, just a little bit.

What about now? What about talking between songs? You do all that. You do all the talking. Yes.

Yeah. Yes, I do. Because that's an art in itself.

Oh, yeah, I that's why I'm kind of glad I started off in cover bands because I got to get the feel of how people interact with the bands. So that helped me a lot, especially to like, think of things to say in between. Right.

I kind of just go into La La Land and I'm like, OK, let's say this random thing and see how people react. You know, sometimes you need to do that, though. Yeah.

But like I said, there's an art to it, because if some people, some some people I've just seen get up there and they just say the weirdest stuff in there, it's just like way out there. Yeah. And then you get crickets from the audience.

Wait, wait. Oh, no. And that's.

Now, come on. Yeah, there they are. Of course, it's the purple one.

It's the purple one, yeah. Well, thanks for joining us today. I mean, it was a lot of fun talking with you and learn about Ashley Victoria.

We'll mix in some of your music in this. And in the thanks, guys, for for joining us. Thanks for having us.

It'll be fun. Thanks for making the long drive out here. Yeah.

The whole 30 minute drive is a tell. Much appreciated, guys. Thank you.

See you soon. So that was Ashley, Victoria and and Barry and Barry winds up being her dad, her dad, her manager. Yep.

And what else is he do? He's the manager, the drummer. That's right. He does that.

Yeah, actually, that's very doing that for us. Yeah. Thank you, Barry.

Yeah. OK. Enough, Barry.

Enough. All right. Thanks.

You can go now, Barry. No, it was fun talking with them and and learn and learn all about the Ashley Victoria Band, the Ashley Victoria Experience. Oh, yes.

Yeah. They got she's got some a lot of music coming out. Her dad is very knowledgeable about the music business.

And and he's he's been playing for quite some time and and steering her in the right direction. And one thing that he hasn't done is like going out and really bragged about her. Right.

He'd rather her show her own talents. Yeah, she's learning on her own. She's really finding out what the although I'm sure he knows she's very good.

Oh, I'm sure he does. I mean, she's she is very good, you know, but he's letting her learn on her own. I mean, most people don't realize what it's like.

They think it's just all fun and games. You know, you go out there, you play. I'm in a band.

It's a lot of fun. It's a it's a lot more than that. Yes, it is.

And he wanted her to experience all the the highs and the lows of playing in a band before she had her own band. And so that that's kind of what they've done, which is which is good because I've had a lot of I mean, my mom thought I was the best. Did she? Yeah.

And my mom said I was better, though. Yeah, you you better, better boy than that. Polly down the street.

Mom's mom's that way, isn't it? That's right. Don't play with that, Polly. He's no good for you.

But dad, dad here, he said he let her learn on her own. So it's good. That's right.

That's that's a great thing to do. So thanks to the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66. So you say Route 66? I say route.

OK. And listen, I'm south of Haiti. Now you say route.

Yeah. OK. But right now I'm north of Haiti.

That's right. We are just north of Haiti in Juliet on Route 30. And hopefully this place coming together is looking really good here.

People, you have to check it out before too long. Meanwhile, become a charter member. How do you do that? They go to the road to rock dot org, which is the website for the Rock and Roll Museum and Route Route 66.

And you can sign up to be a charter member. Is that right? I'm being politically correct. You've got your roots, you got your routes, potato, potato, tomato, tomato, you know, roots.

Speaking of roots, roots are what comes with potatoes, right? Potatoes are a root vegetable. That's right. So as as well as rutabagas.

Yes. Which you could probably get south. That's why it's route.

That's why it's Route 66. Maybe. Maybe.

Would it be a rutabaga or rutabaga? I don't know. South of Haiti, you can get them. There's a lot of farms down here.

Oh, yeah. How do we get off on this? I don't know. I don't know.

Sometimes it's just it happens. Yeah. Seventies were a rough time.

Were they? Yeah. I don't remember. That's why.

OK. All righty, everybody. We'll see you next week with the next edition.

Barry, would you knock it off? We've had enough. Thanks. Thanks for doing it for us.

We don't need it over and over again. So there's the door. See you, Barry.

Bye.