This is Paul Martin. And Ray the Roadie. For the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast.

What's up, Ray? I haven't talked to you in like a week. I know. It's been quite some time.

Weather's changed. It's warm out. I got the pool open.

Yeah, I know. I was in Florida. I was in Key West.

Yeah, I know. I know. I don't want to hear any more about Key West.

The southernmost point of the United States of America. Yes. Yes.

It was beautiful. It was beautiful. Did you buy a house? No, but I looked at some.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Sticker shock. As I was driving down the street, I looked at them. Oh, yeah.

They're not cheap down there. No. No.

But you know what I noticed on every house has a wall around it. Well, a wall or a fence. A wall.

Yeah. Like a wall or a fence. Even even in the tightly packed neighborhoods, they have a wall or a fence or big hedges.

And I figured it's to keep the hurricane, some of the winds down, maybe. Possibly. Maybe also because they're not they don't own enough land to put in a moat.

Maybe they don't like their neighbors. That's true. Maybe it keeps the alligators out.

Yeah. I like my. Well, yeah.

Well, I like all my neighbors. I shouldn't say that. There's a couple of them.

Love thy neighbor. A couple of Medicare for. Hopefully, they're not subscribers.

Well, if they are, God bless them. You know, I got a little sticker shack, you know, open up the pool. I was so happy.

Nice and clean. It's ready to go and have to go buy some chlorine because, you know, you can't run a pool about chlorine. No, of course not.

Now I went to the store. I went to my usual store that I go to, went in there and looking for my bucket of chlorine that I paid eighty dollars for. But now I had heard that there might be a chlorine shortage and, you know, there may be a price increase.

I'm like, OK. So I went and sort of found the chlorine and looked at the sign and I thought it said one nineteen ninety nine. And I says, oh, 40 bucks.

I'm like, wow. Oh, yeah. You know, at 40 bucks, 40 bucks.

I need the chlorine. Got to go. So I brought it up there.

Guy rang it up. I read the sign wrong. It was one ninety nine ninety nine.

It went up one hundred and twenty dollars. Wow. It's quite an increase.

Anybody. Yeah. So this year, I'm sorry to say, like, if you come over or anybody else comes over to swim, I'm I am charging a cover charge.

Oh, OK. Good to know. Yeah.

I'll go swim somewhere else. I figured you would. Figured you would.

Thanks. Thanks, buddy. Speaking of that lucky neighbor.

That's right. That's right. Good thing we're not neighbors.

I tell you, one guy do like it. That's Greg Rapp. And that's who we're talking to today.

Now, many of you may not know of Greg Rapp. But Greg Rapp is is we've learned. He's a go to drummer.

He's a go to guy. And and I met him. I met him years ago.

Probably good. 10, 15, 10, 12 years ago, at least. But Greg, Greg's a great guy.

And he's got some great stories about about his drumming days and and how he used to beat out of couch cushions. Yeah. It's the first time I met Greg was this interview and he's a really great guy.

And he's got some great stories. Really interesting. Some pretty funny.

Yes. So let's let's get to it and see what Greg has to say just about about beat down those couch cushions and and see what else he has to say. So for your entertainment pleasure, we bring you Greg Rapp.

Welcome to the show, everyone. Today we're speaking with drummer extraordinaire and my good buddy, Greg Rapp. How you doing? How you doing? I am doing fantastic.

Thank you guys for having me on. This is such a an honor and a pleasure. Very, very.

No, it's our honor. It's our honor. Believe me.

So, OK, just to start out, would it be fair to say we should name the bands that you haven't played with before? Then the name, the band you do play with kind of eliminates some things. I mean, yeah. The way I kind of like to put it is like I'm the guy they call when their guy gets sick.

Like that. That's how I mean, there's been a lot of situations like that. But I mean, I'm just very lucky that I played with the number of people that I have.

The best part of that is the relationships I've built through it. But yeah, I mean, if we can go through the whole thing, if you want, I mean, far be it for me. I mean, we first met, obviously, at the Blue Chute Casino.

I was running sound. You were you're a drummer with the Spaz or the Afros. I'm not sure which one.

One or the other. Something like that. Yeah.

And and of course, just became good buddies and had a had a beer or two, I think. But where did it all start for you? Let's go back to the young, the young Greg Rapp. And and how did you even get into doing playing music? Yeah, well, I was thinking about going a little bit further back in time.

Was it cloth diapers or pampers? No, not not that far back. But not. Well, you know, so I was probably, oh, God, probably about 12 or 13 years old and 20.

Like I've never talked about this. I was sitting in my parents' 1977 Caprice Classic station wagon on the corner of Willow and Arlington Heights Road. Specific enough for you.

OK. That's where I heard something. And it's so it's so weird.

This goes this way. Like I heard that that that I'm like. Anybody can do this.

I was like 12 years old. So I started watching the drummers on like MTV and stuff. I was like, well, OK.

And then, you know, they do this, you know, the right hand crosses over. OK, cool. Like, well, I can probably do that.

OK. So I did, you know, what we all do, the pots and pans. Really for me, it was couch cushions.

I set them up, you know, toward the cushions of the couch, put them around. But the weird thing was that I did it lefty. Because I saw in the reverse.

Oh, yeah. A mirror image. Exactly.

Right. So I'm like, so my first band that I was ever into was kind of like Phil Mickelson did with his. I mean, actually, he's a lefty.

I guess he's a righty. Yeah. I'm naturally right handed.

Yeah. I was like, well, you know, I watched the mirror image. I'm like, sure.

OK, they're they're doing this. I'm like, OK. Right.

So I literally learned lefty. And my first band I was ever into was Huey Lewis and the News. And, you know, talk about basic rock pop part drumming.

There's not a better way to start. So I went to my first drum lesson when I was like, and I've been playing for like two or three years, like, you know, say couch cushions the wrong way. And like, I had dowel rods.

I couldn't afford drumsticks. So I bought dowel rods and I cut them and I'm such a dork. It's crazy.

And I and I filed them down to like make tips on them and stuff. Right. Oh, my God.

So. But I knew every Huey Lewis song from sports, you know, picture this. I can't remember the one before.

So I knew all those songs. That was my. And then when I was 14, 15, my dad bought me a boombox for my for for Christmas.

With the cassette player. Exactly. And I got sports and I got the soundtrack to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

OK, so John Williams. All right. Right.

Right. So I was it was like pop and then semi like I'm a huge Star Wars guy. So John Williams know all that.

So it it was a hybrid of like and then I knew every song on the radio from 1986, 87, 88, I would make mixtapes. And from there, I guess I probably I found Pink Floyd. I found Metallica, love that bill, but playing it all lefty, you know, going through it.

And then I found Rush. And that changed my life. Yeah.

And yeah, I I became a huge Rush guy at that point. But but now you don't play lefty. No.

Well, yes. No, I don't play like the kid. So all right.

So the story about that. So I went to music school that way. I'm cut to, you know, high school.

I played all lefty this way. Went to music school at Musicians Institute in L.A. OK. Did that.

And they had lefty and righty room sets. So Joe Picarro, Jeff Picarro's father, was one of the main instructors out there. I came home and I tried to sit in with people and it was like, wait, which way to which how do I. Confusing.

Yeah, exactly. So I'm like, OK, I have to make a decision if I'm going to sit in with people. I need to be able to do this.

So I turn my whole kid around and I led lefty like this, you know, left hand, right symbol, left hand, high hat, Carter Beaufort, Simon Phillips ish, and retrain my feet. So that made. Because down your left, your left foot is a high hit rather than exactly.

So now I play a right handed kid and I play a lot right. I switch my whole kid around to like normal, but I still play a lot this way, you know, with the left hand on the high hat, because what that allows me to do, especially in this time, is I can run all my electronics right handed while I play drums lefty. Which for me, doing the gigs I do is really important because a lot of what I do is running electronics, running Ableton, you know, things like that.

So I can play and I can call up tunes. I can talk on a talkback. I can do whatever I need to do while I play drums.

So you can probably sit down on the left hand of kittens and probably pick it up pretty, pretty quickly. So funny. So I'm going back like two or three years.

I was going to buy a kid at the Chicago Drum Show, but it was set up lefty and I missed out on it. I didn't buy it. I, I missed out.

I'm like, I posted a picture of it. It was lefty set up and everybody was like, well, you can't play lefty. I'm like, yes, I can.

Maybe, you know, so it's been something I've been toying with. I did a yeah, you talk about the number of gigs. It's like just different gigs.

I did a goth metal tour back in what am I, I'm 47 now. I was 40. So do the math.

I played with a band called Fashion Bomb. Tom Murray, he's the drummer in Lateralis, the tool cover band. OK.

And then Aziola Cry and another band, Siberium, the original thing. He was scheduled to do the tour and he couldn't do it. So they called me.

It's another one of those things where like last second they like, can you learn these songs? Can you? Yeah. Yeah. So I showed up at Reggie's.

We were playing with three bands. The headliner played a left, was lefty and played a lefty drum set. So that first gig at Reggie's, we switched the drum set around and it was a train wreck.

It was just so much work. It was just so bad. And Beth, my wife, you know, she's like, why don't you just play lefty? Oh, I haven't done that in like and I'm playing like really fast, blast beat, crazy kind of click track in the ears kind of stuff.

So yeah, I did it that way. So but so Rich was teasing me the other day. You can't do it lefty.

I'm like, oh, well, I can go in the studio. I should probably probably refresh those chops. Let's put it that way.

It can be a day or two and I could probably do it. Right. Oh, I had I had like four hours.

Well, yeah. When I was on tour. Right.

The ambidexterity thing has been very useful in my playing. So, you know, I did it with Spaz. You know, I did it.

You know, I always run my computer stuff on my right hand side. A lot of guys run it on their left hand side because it can play and still make things happen. Right.

I, I'm more comfortable personally having an open grip and then running everything off my right hand side. Right. But your listeners aren't getting video.

So right. Well, yeah. But this is a theater of the mind.

That's right. Exactly. Expand, if you will.

Now, going back to going back to your to your youth and to your high school days, tell us a little bit about your first band you were in or. Oh, my goodness. My first band was a Van Halen cover band with no singer.

Everybody loves guitar. Please. No, it was guitar, bass, keyboards, no singer.

It's the OU812 era. If one will. Oh, man.

Yeah. It was. Yeah.

It was. There's pictures. It.

Thank God there's no audio. Holy crap. But shortly thereafter, I moved forward.

I met a guy named Chris Siebel, who is a good friend of mine. Amazing guitar player. Good Lord.

And he changed my life. He introduced me to Alan Holdsworth and Frank Zappa. And those two guitar players.

Yeah. It was like mind blown. And I spent the next until now going through their catalog and trying to assimilate the genius that is that.

But, yeah, I mean, I met Chris and I met Chris and my wife, Beth, at the same time, November 1990. And at the Variety show, and I didn't know Beth would go on to be my wife, but here we are all these years later. But playing wise.

Yeah. That made a huge difference for me. Just being exposed to Chick Corea, Alan Holdsworth, Frank Zappa, you know, all the fusion stuff.

I really got deep into that. And just after that, I went to California and I signed up at Musicians Institute and did that for a year. Well, you mentioned that you went to went there to California.

And what year was that? That was 93. OK. And you only went for one year? Yeah.

It's a one year program. At least it was at that point. OK.

I did that. I came home. I didn't really know that there were multiple ways to make a living as a musician.

I didn't know that you could, like, job or that you could play. For those who don't know, jobbing is like playing weddings, playing corporate events, things like that, or like playing at the Blue Chip Casino. It's the same kind of thing.

I didn't know that was a thing. So I worked at an auto parts store. I worked at Track Auto.

So I did that for a while. And then I actually ended up moving back to L.A. in 1996 to, quote, unquote, make my living as a musician, which means, quote, unquote, go and debt $35,000 to your parents. Yeah.

Yeah. That was that. And when I came home.

So how did it go in L.A.? The second time, rough. Really hard. How long were you there? I just I did a year the first time, a year the second time.

OK. And when I came home. But the first time, the first time you're going to school, right? Right.

So it wasn't like the second time you're trying to find gigs, right? Yeah. And I played some gigs. I did some things.

And but I came home really with my tail between my legs. I really did. And I quite honestly, I went, well, yes, music isn't going to work.

What am I going to do? Like I'm going to figure something. So my dad was going to computers like, you know, the Harper, the local community, community college down here like, oh, I'll go there. I'll just take computers.

My dad's going to computers. I'll take computers. Same time, a guy named Jim Strike called me from the drum pad where I chopped for years before.

He's like he's like, you know, we have an opening. Would you be interested? I'm like, yeah, totally. Like I need part time income.

I was living with my folks. So I went there and that was a winner as a teacher, originally a salesman like me and Victor Salazar, whose birthday was yesterday. I think for every birthday, Victor, everybody, everybody knows Victor.

So I did it as a salesman at first and then after that, like he said, hey, there's a teaching position available. Would you like to do that? I'm like, yes, I have my thing. So I did that for the next 10 years.

So you not to interrupt you, but you never you never were taught. You learn drums by hitting your couch cushions. Oh, yeah.

And by and but then you went and went to school. I didn't have any formal lessons. I mean, I had a little bit here and there.

I had to school the schooling in L.A. You did. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. And that was a thing. It's interesting, man, like education and that kind of stuff.

Like I've been a part of it for so long. I'm 47 now. You know, I had very little of it when I started.

Wish I had more. It's, you know, that early part of my life, I I had a drum teacher at a store in Buffalo Grove, Illinois, and I had no drums. I was so into it.

I had the couch cushion. I'm like, I was so passionate. I want to play drums.

This is what I want to do. My mom took me to the store. She didn't know better.

And this guy there, he had to be, I don't know, I can't even guess at this point, like 20s, mid 20s, frustrated classical guy. He's like, and you took lessons on a practice pad, kid. I don't know if you're listening to what practice pads are, but they're yeah, they're like, you know, that's what you do when you don't want to make a lot of noise.

Right. So and it's like, this isn't drums. This isn't Huey Lewis.

This isn't Metallica. Like and they're backwards. Duh.

And he was the gateway to getting me a drum set. He was like, hey, I'm like, mom, I want to drum so bad. Oh, my God, mom, I want to drum so bad.

And if your drum teacher says it's OK, we'll do that. Cool. Yes.

The drum teacher, he's like, he's like, I think the three or four, three or four more years of lessons will be fine. Rush me, I was like, I'm done. I'm just no, no, no more lessons.

I'm going to listen to the old period. I'm going to listen to Lars Ulrich. I'm going to listen to every song on the radio.

I'm going to play every every Def Leppard tune, every poison tune, every like and every Celine Dion song and everything that was on the radio in like 1987, 88, 89. You know, it's a complicated thing. I wish I had more formal education at an earlier age, but I'm kind of glad that I did the work I did and got into music and bands, you know, instead of just drums.

But here I am. So there you go. Well, I mean, I guess that's the difference between a guitar player and a drummer.

A drummer can beat on the couch cushions or on pots and pans, which we've talked a lot of drummers who started out that way. Oh, yeah. But but who was it? We saw this Mike, Mike Arturi from from the Love and Spoonful said he still has the pots and pans that his grandmother gave him that he used to beat on.

And and but the guitar, but a guitar player, I guess he had to have a guitar in order to in order to play. Yeah, it's a different thing. It really is a different or a keyboard player.

Why? It's, you know, or a horn player. You know, you have an armature and like all that, like the drums are the least have the least entrance, you know, you go boom, you go, bam, you make a sound. That's it.

But, you know, is is you get better at it and you learn the subtleties of it. But but it is it is a true thing, like, you know, to be a guitar player, to be a bass player, to be a keyboard player, to be a horn player. It's a lot higher curve to enter into music, but not to downplay it is as easy as the onramp is keeping it there and like learning the subtleties of it.

It's a lifetime. It's a lifetime of work. Right.

Well, that's what I was kidding. I just hit it. It's doing the four and you're good.

Right here at all the time. Yeah. I mean, yeah, just go boom and bam.

Yeah. But but it's funny, like it's funny, like post pandemic going back to work, not to fast forward, you know, over 35 years, I did a lot of work during the pandemic. I practiced really hard.

I knew I was going to have it looked like I was going to have a lot of time on my hand. So I'm like, OK, I'm going to use this productively. So I really I really practiced hard.

I got into a lot of things and now we're back. You know, I've done eight, 10 gigs since in April. All that practicing is totally paid off.

Oh, yeah. I feel like like I feel like I'm composing more when I play and I'm playing it like what I'm doing right now is the same thing I was doing as fast or as I was doing. I'm doing Jesse's girl.

I'm doing summer 69. I'm doing Don't Stop Believing. I'm but I'm doing, you know, jobbing.

I'm playing with I play in a Maggie Speaks band called Shout Out. It's fantastic. Great players.

But I feel like it's step my game up to another level, getting to the education thing like that. You put in the time, it really makes a difference. So now, can you can you read music or do you? Oh, yeah.

Yeah, I read music. I I learned somewhat in school, but really much more through, like you mentioned, all the bands, all the subbing things that makes. And it's not always like, you know, quarter notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes, though that's important.

But it's really form, you know, form charts like how many bars of the verse, how many bars of the chorus, you know, things like that. It's funny that I feel like that whole thing came to a culmination last year right before shutdown. So, you know, Chris Hagen from Sixteen Candles.

Yeah. So literally, Chris was with my house today. He was he runs a a duck cleaning service.

Oh, OK. And ducks like quack quacker. I had some.

So he got a really awesome. OK, I mean, that's what I thought I heard. When you know a guy, you get a guy.

Exactly. Chris is, you know, in one of the top cover bands, Chicago, Sixteen Candles. They're just, you know, and every time I see him, I get to hang out and sit in with them and stuff.

They're awesome. Put in a good word for us. I absolutely will.

Yeah, totally. I saw him today. He was in this room like I heard everything scraping down there.

But in February, February 15, last year or something like that, I was laying in bed. It's at eleven thirty in the morning and I got a text message from going, hey, man, 911, what are you doing? I was like, wow. I'm like, I'm like, oh, my God, I'm playing with 16 candles tonight.

How am I going to work this out? Oh, Lord, like how much? So he hits me up. He's like, hey, man, the band Steelheart, you remember them? Yeah, it's a name. Sounds to me like they had a they had a couple of big hits.

OK, like they're playing at the Arcata tonight. Their drummer is sick and can't get out of bed. Their sub is in Florida and can't catch a flight.

What are you doing? Oh, wow. It's like it's eleven thirty. I had a gig the night before.

I'm literally in my bathrobe and I'm like. Oh, shit, dude, I'm like, yeah. He's like, how how many songs can you learn? How fast can you learn them? Yeah, well, I and I'm like, I'm like, it's the one song with the guy that sings real high, right? Like Angel, I like, yeah, I'm like, OK, cool.

I'm like, how many songs are I don't know? I'm like, dude, have management call me. Let's figure this out. So management calls me and they're like, can you learn like six tunes, like six, seven tunes? I'm like, probably by when it's eleven forty five.

I'm standing. Yeah. Right there in the doorway with my robot.

So sound checks at four. Oh, wow. OK.

In this in downtown Chicago. No, I see girls on St. Charles. So it's an hour.

Oh, yeah, kind of. Right. Right.

Exactly. So I'm like, send me whatever you can send me. They're like they're like, you're so helping us out.

Whatever you can do. Great. And then the guitar player calls me.

He's like, hey, man, you cool. I'm like, yeah, man, I'm cool. Got it.

Like, here's all the stuff. Stuff starts coming in via Dropbox. And I just have to go to work.

And I go to Beth, I'm like, this is happening. She's like, holy shit, this is happening. Wow.

And I just I literally sat here, the music paper and that opponent chart because I'm doing biology, like just charting the stuff out. And I would literally chart a chart, a song out, go to the drum set and play it. And that's all the time I had.

Once here, once there, come back, learn the next song. Come back, learn the next song. So I did that.

Beth, meanwhile, God bless her, goes online, finds her last five set lists, gets my clothes ready, gets everything done, you know, makes me a sandwich so I can maybe have carbohydrates and eat. That's a good girl. She's sweet.

I am I am humbled to be a part of any of this. So, yeah, so like two thirty, like we got to go like we got to go. I'm like, shit, I'm not done.

Wait, hold on. I got like I'm like literally riding it out as we get in the car. I get a text message from the guitar player.

Hey, that version we sent you. That's the studio. Here's the live version.

Oh, man. So literally, we're driving down the road, car bumping. I have a chart in my hand, the radio on trying to transcribe this live version.

So I get there. I mean, let's take it more time. But so I get I get to Arcata.

They've got backlight. We're opening for a firehouse. OK, super nice guys.

Yeah, super cool. They got a drum set for me. They got symbols, the text there.

I'm like, he's like, what do you want? I'm like, I don't know what he got. This guy got three up, two down, you know, whatever. Like I'm like, give me one up, two down, all the symbols.

Cool. Great. And I help him set it up.

And the guitar player walks in. He's like, hey, man, you cool. I'm like, I think so.

Yeah, cool. Bass player walks in. So the bass player was a sub to Kevin.

Now, Kevin plays with Sebastian Bach. Normal Chad Smith from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He played with Chad Wackerman, who's played with, oh, shit.

Frank Zappa, Ellen Holdsworth, Barbra Streisand. And this is the guy who's on like the hair metal gig with me. That's hilarious.

So it's one of those things where you just get thrown in it. So and they're like, hey, man, it's cool. We'll run all the tunes at Soundcheck.

Soundcheck is a disaster. Like it just can't get it dialed in. Everything's not working.

So I had the chance to play eight bars of one song with them before we had to cut. And we're like, no, you got to go downstairs. OK.

So I went downstairs. I went with Kevin and Joe, the guitar player and bass player. And I went through the live versions of the tunes with my charts, you know, handwritten.

And they're like, oh, no, we don't do that there. We do this here. We do this.

They're that boss. You guys, guys, guys, you got to do. But we do that three times, not four.

OK. Oh, shit. OK, well, OK.

And I'm writing it down. Meanwhile, they cut the opener. So we're going on sooner.

And I literally had eight minutes before I went on stage. Once I finished charting everything out to go on and play in front of a thousand people. Wow.

And you know what? So you knocked it out of the park, right? It went great. That is cool. It did.

It's it is the culmination of everything I've learned through all these things, through the spaz stuff and the Afro stuff. You know, if I would not if I wouldn't have done that, I don't think I could have done that. All the charting, all the reading, like when I was doing those spaz and Afro skates with you, I have little cue cards over here.

Like for all the arrangements, those are that's hard, man. Like Ray Luzier from Korn does those gigs. It's you know, he's a part of P.W.E. Like that's not like everybody kind of downplays the cover band thing to some degree.

It's, you know. Oh, it's not as easy as it is to separate the week from the chaff. That's so.

So, yeah, the Steelheart thing was an absolute blast. And I mean, you mentioned you mentioned earlier, like playing playing and playing Jessie's Girl or Summer of 69. But each band may play just a little bit different.

You know, I mean, they may play that. Do this part before they do that part or something. This is like the ultimate of that that kind of thing.

So we're back post pandemic and I've played that song. Oh, shit. I don't know.

Seven, eight times in the last two weeks, something like that. And the guitar player. So that guitar solo from Jessie's Girl, it's a thing that has to be played like it is a it is a composition.

It is a through written part. Right. So all the guitar players I've done it with, they told me like before, like, oh, I don't know if I shed that enough.

And I'm not joking. Fifty eight point two percent of the time they tank it halfway through bar for it's an eight bar solo bar for everything just goes to hell in a handbasket. And I laugh and I go to the talk back and I give them shit.

And but it's a thing, man, like the cover band thing is, you know, the original thing is and I'm not as well versed. I play an original band. I play Nomadic Horizon.

But the cover band thing is where I really spent a lot of my time. And there's an aesthetic there and an appreciation of the gig and just getting the job done and business and like, you know, showing up, doing a good job. That's you know, you've seen it all the time there.

It blue chip, you know, and you see the bands that get that gig and the bands that don't. Right. What's your experience with that? Like I'd like as a sound guy.

Well, well, I mean, it's quite honest with you. A drummer to me is a drummer is a guy who drives the bus. And when and when the drummer's on and he's he's driving, he's driving the whole rig and he's he's he's pushing the band.

That's what I appreciate about you is that you you seem like you came in with confidence. You come in with confidence and you do you do your job. It's a big thing.

It really is. It's a you know, I I'm taking lessons to this day. I'm a drum lesson tomorrow with one of my good friends, Tom Hipskin.

And we talk about that. You know, it you know, at this point, my career, whatever, blah, blah, blah. Like it's not about playing a faster period.

It's about the mental game. I'm playing. It's about where do you place your backbeat? It's funny.

We like me and Tom have been working on Sealy Dantunes. OK, so I played. Black Cow, you know, and then back then, you know, pocket all day long.

I recorded myself playing it, you know, I put my studio over here and I recorded myself playing it with it. And I noticed, you know, I didn't play drums how many years, whatever. And, you know, I do what I do.

But I noticed when I put it, I recorded it. I look back and when you're recording, you can look at a grid and you can see where you line up with whatever that my fills rush just a little bit. And a big thing that I noticed was that my backbeat on beat two after I played a fill back, boom, boom, boom, that second back, that first backbeat on beat two, just a little bit late.

Just a little bit, almost consistently late. You know, it's that little kind of thing that that good from great. It's paying attention to the details.

Exactly. Exactly. And especially like doing studio work like during the pandemic.

That's been a huge thing like March, April last year. Everything got shut down. So like, well, you know, what do we do? I got all this time on my hands.

Well, I went back to school. I practiced a whole lot. You know, I worked out a whole lot.

That's that. That's one thing that I really appreciate was like a the details of my craft. Right.

And hooking up with somebody like Tom, who was the drummer on Hamilton in Chicago, who's been one of my my one of my best friends for twenty five, thirty years now. I mean, he's played with Patricia Barber. He's played on Hamilton.

He's he's he can play anything. He's just ridiculous. When I get together with lessons with him, it's not, you know, you know, like I said, playing a faster parallel.

It's not like just, you know, mechanics. It's the inner game of music. And that's what really makes the difference for me.

Let's take a time out here for a second. This is Paul Martin and Ray the roadie. And we're here to talk to you about GHS strings.

That's right, Ray. Whether you play electric guitar, acoustic or bass, or even banjo, mandolin or ukulele, then GHS has the strings for you. GHS strings are easy to play with a rich, full balance tone available in many different gauges.

Great for all musical styles. So if you play, play with the best, play GHS strings. So so so so who are you playing with now? Are you still playing with Shadaha? I am.

So, yeah, that I am playing with shout out. We just did a whole stint of gigs at Great Flags. Oh, I'm sorry.

Good Lord. Great America. Sorry.

Great America. So much fun. So cool.

We met a bunch of great people up there. So that went really well. And we have I have a wedding this Saturday at Little Goat.

And a whole bunch of, you know, there's a bunch of weddings, a bunch of Park District things. I'm doing that sucker punch. It's still going strong.

Now, sucker punch is a cover band. Yeah. So it's me, Chris Ricardo, Mark Hansen and Jen Kondis.

And that was kind of an out of nowhere thing that that came together. It's been two years now we've been together. I went to see Jen and Mark had an acoustic thing and they were playing at a Potato Creek Johnny's little bar down the street from us.

And I came out and after the gig, I'm like, hey, if you ever want a drummer, you know, I kind of go to them. And they're like, I don't have enough work. Right.

But it's like they seem fun and they seem like a hang. And that's so important. So they had a gig and we made a band out of it.

And it's a lot of fun. It's all the cover stuff. Jen Kondis is just a force in nature.

Our lead singer, why do I know their name? So she was in. Oh, boy. You know, I broke my mind here.

Oh, gosh. She she's been in a couple of different cover bands. Can't remember off the top of my head.

Like the first gig we ever did. She like wireless mic up on the bar, around the bar, backwards, forward, sideways. She's the ultimate front person.

Yeah. So talented. And it's just a fun band.

You know, it's it's something different from the either Nomadic Horizon, which I do, which is amazing. Me and Tom Hess, Lenny and Chuck Bontrager. Which is more fusiony and more, a lot more, you know.

And that's all original stuff, right? Yeah, it's all original. It's a lot headier. And there's a shout out thing, which is great, but it's a lot more me running computers and running Ableton and doing that kind of stuff.

Sucker Punch is just fun. It's it's just a break from all that. So that's that's cool.

So you're not doing anything with the Afros or Spaz anymore, right? No, I haven't. I mean. Have you talked to Andrew or any of those guys? I have talked to Andrew a bunch.

Yeah, I love that guy. I mean, do you know my history with Andrew? No. All right.

Buckle in, big guy. Here we go. All right.

So you are a history buff, aren't you? Oh, yeah. We're not going to World War one. We're not going to Syria like, you know, you know, 1243 B.C. But so I met Andrew in 1998.

I was referred by Chris Meyers, who's the drummer in Humphreys McGee and Kick the Cat Now. And I started playing in a cover band called Decades. And it was me, Andrew and Tyler Polcom, who I think is still in high infidelity.

I'm doing my math right now. And we were a trio like I showed up, but they like the first cover band I ever really played in. They sent me a set list.

I showed up in Tyler's basement. They had spent $30,000 on production. In 1998.

So we were we were running a dance for tracks, right? You know, VHS tapes programmed with all that stuff. So I showed up in Tyler's basement in Palestine. And it was like, here's a set list.

Smoke mirrors like fog. It was it was like it was crazy. It was like doing a gig.

And we went through all the songs. And me and Andrew and Tyler did Decades for two or three years. So I need to play guitar and play guitar.

Guy played bass and a lot of tracks. So after that, we got Guy Dominick involved. Guy was in, I think, Guy Dominick.

Oh, my God. Yeah. OK, I know a guy.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I know Guy too. And and he's a super talented guy. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Like Guy, me and Guy have a huge fusion hang. Like any time we talk about Toto or like Los Lobotomies, like really far out dorky fusion and stuff like that. Yeah.

Guy's the guy to hang with. So he had to crash it. He had to crash it by a cabin that I had out there in up on the lakefront.

Well, yeah, with with Jim. Yes. Right.

Right. Yes. And he had to crash it because he got too liquored up one night.

I said, dude, you are not driving back to Chicago. Oh, my God. Was this in the chip? Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Oh, my God. It's so fun.

I mean, there but for the grace of God and tonight, go I. So, I mean, I'm not judging in the least. Guy is super talented. I mean.

Oh, yeah. Very good. He plays guitar like a beast, plays keyboards like a beast.

So so decades have it. And then, you know, that kind of petered out in its own way. I think Andrew went into infinity.

I think Guy or I'm sorry, Tyler went into hairbangers at that point. Yeah. And I kind of I started working with Deja Vu, Chris DePinto's band.

Oh, yeah. OK. Doing playing, playing percussion and like doing that kind of stuff.

And then this is another one of those gigs. That's how this thing always works. I get a phone call last minute.

Andrew calls me out of nowhere. I haven't talked to him like two or three years. He's like, hey, man, I have a gig in like, you know, in a cornfield, somewhere like, you know, somewhere way south of where I am.

And then we're playing another gig somewhere else. Here's a set list. Can you do it? Yeah.

And that's the story of my life. So I was going to say, so what we've learned today is that if you need a drummer last minute, you're the guy, you're the guy to go to. You're the go to guy.

I don't know, dude. I'm very it's I'm humbled to be that to be that guy. And like, it's funny, I was talking to a friend today, like so much.

I miss playing. I missed all that stuff during lockdown. I miss gigs.

I missed, you know, we all did. Yeah. But you know, I missed I missed hangs.

I miss relationships, you know, and coming back. Well, that's all part of it. Right.

But that's the biggest part for me. You know, it's you know, I play with who I play with. I do what I do.

And it's a thing. And it is what it is. What I treasure more and more, especially as I get older, are the relationships that I've built.

You know, the guys in Steelheart. I still have I still text them every now and then. Yeah.

You know, when Sebastian Bach comes to town, I'll go hang out with Kevin. And when Joe comes to town with something like all the cover band stuff, that's. I'm such a fan of that community.

And so lucky to be a part of it. I really am. I mean, it's so cool that I get the calls and like that I can do what I do and it's fine, whatever.

But like all the people in that scene, you know, you know, Gerald Guzman. Right. Gerald Guzman.

So Gerald, Gerald. Yeah. Played in Lava Rock and like all that stuff.

Right. Did Hyperflow and all that. Him and Camille just got married out in Vegas, you know, and his brother Gary works at Sonosphere.

Um, so Beth and I had a night off last Friday. We went to Woodridge Bar, something like that up in up north of us. And we saw Gerald and Camille.

We got to hang out with them. And Beth bought a wedding present for them. And they came and we hung.

And then Rob Banky showed up, who was part of Lava Rock. And it's now doing Pandemonium and a whole bunch of other things. And it's the same thing as running into you.

Yeah. At the thing, the number 21 thing like that's what I dig. You know, we do what we do.

I play what I play. And, you know, it's an aesthetic and it's it's a way to approach work. But it's the relationships.

To me, that's what it's all about. Right. Right.

It absolutely is. It's a fun thing. It's a fun thing to have those relationships.

It's so it's so fun to like walk into a bar in like, hey, I know that guy. And I did a jobbing gig last Saturday. I did a wedding at Ovation downtown, which I'd never been to before.

And I walked in. And I saw a sign on the door that said Style Matters. I'm like, wait, I think I walk in.

And it was this guy, Spencer Styles, who I did some drum and DJ gigs with. And he told me, you know, six years ago, something like that. He was building a venue.

I was playing in his venue that night. He was there and got to hook up with him and reconnect and see all the Maggie Speaks people. And yeah, man, that's you know, I I love that.

I get those calls that that last minute thing. I've got it with wedding band. I've done it with Mike and Joe.

I've done it with like a bunch of the bands. Right. Well, I know I'm more of a South Side guy, but not getting to know you and getting to know some of the other bands that I worked with.

Get the communication and just that camaraderie. You know, that that makes all the difference. Yeah.

At the end of the day, that's that's what matters to me, especially as I get older. It's like, you know, we do what we do. But like having I having having the Hank, having friends, the fact that Chris Hagen came over today and liked it, my dogs and stuff like that.

And then, you know, Aaron Strike and like, you know, Frankie Harchette, who's doing the Seventh Heaven gig now. Frank, Frankie's a great drummer, too. So Frankie is dating Selena, the singer and shout out.

Oh, OK. And so we did a Great America thing. He came out, we me, him and Selena sat in the hot tub outside and back until three in the morning the other day.

He is so talented. He's good. He's good.

He's a motherfucker. Like he like do like Frankie showed up by gigs with a practice pad and sat in front of me for like six hours working on hand stuff while I was doing my gig. And I'm like, this guy, this guy.

Yeah. Yeah. He's he's so good.

I'm so happy he's got that gig. Yeah. Could not could not pick a nicer soul in the world.

So so how do how do people find out where you're playing or what you're doing? Or do you have a website or for Sucker Punch or the best way is probably Facebook. Just find me on Facebook, Facebook or Instagram. Greg Rapp, our APP.

Exactly. Exactly. Find me there.

And I normally post my gigs a little bit in advance and stuff like that. Yeah, I'm part of shout out, you know, so a shout out band dot com Nomadic Horizon. You search that.

I'm sure we have a website somewhere. Sucker Punch, Sucker Punch Rocks dot com, I believe, is our is our website. And then, yeah, really through Facebook or Instagram is where I normally spread whatever craziness I'm being a part of.

Yeah, well, it's a great talk. It was a great and and it's it's good to hook up again and see you again. And and I can't wait till I get out and see you.

And maybe we can have a beer together. Well, you know what? I'm going to come to Indiana and I will find you and we will hook up and we will have beers and we will have hang. So we have way too much history together.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Well, well, well, yeah, you never know when all of a sudden I'm going to show up somewhere like I do. That happens all the time. The serendipity of these gigs, like I'm going to be on a gig and I'm a look over to my left to go, who's the sound guy today? Well, it's been great talking with you and I appreciate it.

Thanks a lot, Greg. You thank you for having me. This has been an absolute blast.

Hope to do it again. No problem. Thank you.

Thanks. So that was Greg Rapp, my good buddy, Greg Rapp and and good friend. And he had some interesting stuff there.

I mean, he is the go to guy. He is, man. You know, and he's talking about, you know, he sits down, he starts writing charts for all this stuff, trying to get, you know, these these songs down and and he's kind of a perfectionist.

It sounds like he really wants it to be right. And he's got I thought of something that he should come up with. You know how the quarterbacks got that thing on their wrist with all the plays? There you go.

He could have one of those for all his charts. He could put all the stuff in there for the for the different songs that he's unfamiliar with. That's a great idea.

Well, I can come up with it and you should market it. I can market it. You can market it.

We can all market it. We could be millionaires. We could be the next Jeff Bezos or who's a Tesla guy.

Oh, Elon Musk. Elon Musk. Right.

But yeah, Greg, Greg's got some great stories. He's played with a ton of people. He knows a ton of people.

Yes, he does. And this is pretty much endless. But but it was fun talking with Greg.

And and go go check it. Check out his Facebook page, please. And and find out where he'll be playing.

He's a good guy. Tell him that you heard when you go see him. Tell him that you heard all about him on the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast.

That's right. Episode 89. OK.

All right. Well, thanks to VHS and thanks to the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66 in Joliet. And thanks to all of you for listening today.

And be sure and subscribe. And and don't miss don't miss a single podcast. And thank you, Paul.

Thank you for being here today. Well, thanks. Thanks, Ray.

No problem. Thank you for being here. Oh, no problem.

I was in the neighborhood. Good, good. Thanks for listening, everybody.

Thanks. See you next week. Rock and 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.