Hey, this is Paul Martin. And Ray the Roadie. For the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast.

How you doing today, Ray? You staying safe? I'm staying safe, man. And still socially distancing myself. I'm not near anybody.

Except the dog, maybe, right? The dog, yeah. He's still staying away from me. He's tired of me talking to him.

Is he enjoying the outdoors? He sure is. Well, especially as a husky. He likes it when it's kind of chilly out.

But he's still liking it out there. I know I'm liking it when it's 70 degrees. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, it's beautiful. So what's up this week? What do we got going on this week? This week, we've got quite the entertainer out there. Miss Kimmy Hayes.

Oh, very good. Very good. Yeah, Kimmy's been, she's been keeping busy.

Well, she hasn't really been keeping too busy right now with the COVID thing going on, with the coronavirus thing going on. But she was keeping busy, and she's working in a play on Broadway. On Broadway.

On Broadway. Oh, sorry. That was beautiful.

Yeah, I know. I just get carried away. You know, get up on the stage, you know, the singing, the dancing, it's just, it's in my blood, I think.

Yeah, she's in the musical Six as the guitarist. And we talked with Kimmy and found out some, just about her career and what she's been going, what's been going on, what she's been doing, and how she got to where she is now. Exactly.

She's, she's pretty much done it all. She's been around for a while. There she is.

Some people may not be, you know, aware of her, who she is, but she's got some great music out there. You can check her out. So, why don't we get to talking to Kimmy and see what she has to say? Let's do it.

Alrighty. Take her away. How you doing today, everybody? We're meeting today with the one and only Kimmy Hayes.

How are you, Kimmy? I'm doing great. How you doing, Paul? I'm doing, I'm doing wonderful. Doing wonderful.

Now, now you, you're back in Chicago for a while, but, but you've been in New York doing, doing this, the musical Six, correct? I am. I'm the guitar player for Six, the musical. And yeah, we did 35 previews in New York City and opening night is the day that Broadway was shut down because of the pandemic.

Oh no. Wow. So we're patiently awaiting, we're going to have our official opening night.

Yes. Now, now when is that supposed to happen? Right now they have us shut down until June 7th. So we're just, you know, it's kind of a wait and see thing out in New York.

Yeah. I see. I see.

But they are promising a return. Yes. Now, I see it's coming back to Chicago, supposedly in July.

Are you, you were in Chicago, you did the musical here too, right? So we had the North American premiere here in Chicago at the Shakespeare Theater last May, June, July. And from there, the North American cast and band, we went to Boston and then we went to St. Paul and then New York. So what was originally supposed to happen is the North American team that was originally hired here would stay in Broadway, we'd stay in New York City, and then they would recast it for Chicago.

Now, I have no idea because everything globally for six has been on hold. So I don't know what they're going to do. But as of now, Broadway in Chicago is supposed to do six here in July.

So I guess it will depend on our mayor. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Most definitely.

So how did you get linked up with this? How did you get tied in with being the guitarist for six? So a year earlier, I was asked to play guitar in a musical called A Taste of Things to Come. And at that time, I was hired through Kara Kesselring, who is a great pianist and singer. She was on a tour for a long time with the Jersey Boys.

And so my name came up on a shortlist. And so me, Kara Kesselring, Stacey McMichael, upright bassist extraordinaire, and Sarah Allen, phenomenal drummer. We had a four-piece female band for A Taste of Things to Come.

Then a year later, when they were ready to cast the band for six, I got the call. So yeah, it was great. And we are also a four-piece band, female band.

Well, you've had some experience playing in some female bands. I have. Yes, I have.

Now, let's go back to the beginning and find out, when did you start playing guitar? Did you start at a young age, or did you pick it up later in life, or what? No, I started playing guitar at, probably really taking lessons at 10 years old. And I loved it. I had no intentions of ever singing.

I just was, I just loved guitar. It's awesome, you know. Sure.

That's how it works, right? Sure, yes. So I, yeah, I played guitar, I took private lessons. And then when I got a little bit older, a teenager, and I was doing Garage Bands, people were like, dude, do you sing? Dude, do you sing? Yeah, everybody started passing the mic around.

They put a mic in front of me, and then, you know, I became a singer as well. But guitar has always been my first passion. That's very cool.

Well, you sing great, too. You've got a great voice. Thank you.

I have fun. I have fun doing that, yeah. So then, what was your first band that you actually had any success with, let's say? I was doing, I was a part of a 10-piece band back in the late 80s, early 90s, called Bananas in Pajamas.

And do you guys, do you remember Network? Yeah. All right, so that horn section was like our horn section. And I was like the token chick.

I was a little bit younger than the rest of the dudes. But we had a great band. It was a Motown band.

We did some, quite a bit traveling, a lot of corporate events and stuff. So that was my first exposure to actually getting like a real paycheck and playing for a big crowd. So, yeah.

So what'd you have from there? Yeah, yeah. I had some original bands, you know, with just playing small places. And then I did a long run with the Fabulous Janes.

And where did Catfight fit in? Okay, so it was like Fabulous Janes. I had my own band for 12 years with Mike Aquino. Right, I was going to say Mike Aquino.

Mike Aquino's a great guitar player and a good friend. He's so phenomenal. And no matter how much I practice, every time I plug into hearing something he does, I'm like, ah! I love it when he does.

Sometimes I'm like, Mike! Yeah, and so then I got hooked up with Catfight when Catfight band kind of broke apart into two bands. And the guitarist, Rose, she went on to play with Dot Dot Dot. And then she was on a long run with Cirque du Soleil.

At that point in 2008, then, I took over the guitar chair from 2008 to 2019. Okay, because I know I had worked with Catfight, but it was probably around 2005 or 2006, maybe in 2006. It was still Rose, right? Yeah, yeah.

I was going to say, I don't remember you playing with them at that point. Yeah, no. But now tell me a little bit about the Kimmy Hayes Band.

Now, you've got five albums, correct? Yes, I do, yeah. Kimmy Hayes Band, like you said, you had Mike Aquino in the band, right? Yes. And tell us a little bit about some of your albums.

You started out with Bean? Yeah, so we did Bean in 2000. And that's right after I recorded it is when I put together my live band, which included Mike Aquino. And then Mike stayed with me all the way through 2012.

And he ended up being a big part of my songwriting, too. So most of the records I wrote myself, and he was kind of like the musical director. He'd be like, all right, this is what you guys, you know, he would put together the orchestrations for me.

And we did a lot of songwriting together. I also had Paula Mar in my band. I don't know if you remember Paula.

Sure, I know Paula, yeah. Yeah, Paula's awesome. Paula was in my band.

We went through a few drummers, but my main drummer was Matt Marvik. Okay. He's solid, a solid guy.

And we had a great band. Yeah, I had a good time with that band. Yeah.

That's pretty cool. We did Porcupine Girl was my second CD. We did the live CD.

Then we did Red 14, which was a lot co-written with Mike and Paula. And then Let's Drive. Let's Drive came out in 2008, right? And I love that song.

It's a great tune. Oh, thank you. Let's Drive is a very cool song.

Thank you. So how come nothing since 2008? I've done some songwriting, but I really just got pulled in different directions. And, you know, the original scene in Chicago is not profitable.

So it's such a great song. At some point when I was getting offered more money to just play in the cover scene, I kind of did that. So I still songwrite.

But I know I've been getting nudged to do a new record. So just need the funds. Actually, right now is probably a great time to record since there's no live vendors.

I was going to say that. I'm sure there's a lot of writing and recording going on right now. Yeah.

So now besides Mike Aquino and some other popular, you've also played with Jim Pederick in his world stage. I have. It was awesome.

Yeah, I did that for several years. Was that through Mike? Yeah, Mike was in it. Lisa McClary was on the world stage as a backup singer.

Oh, OK. And we had a great time. He would give each of us backup singers a feature.

So I got to sing with Don Barnes, 38 Special, and Kelly Kege. So it was a trip. Night Ranger guys, all of them.

Rick Emmett, Alan Parson. I mean, that was a good time. Yeah, I'm sure it was.

All my heroes. Yeah, I'm sure it was. I'm sure it was very cool.

Yeah. Very cool. Now, so tell us a little bit about them.

I mean, I looked through some of your stuff online, what I could find. And besides Mike and Jim Pederick, I noticed you played with, well, in the James, you played with Adam Blair, too, right? And who was this? Tia DeMarco. DeMarco, right, right, right.

DeMarco, the lead singer, yeah. Right, right. Now, is she still playing? I don't think she's playing.

She was doing a solo thing for a long time, and actually, she's a mind-blowing artist. She's kind of taking a different direction. She's had a showing in New York and all sorts of stuff.

Have you ever do an art segment? Really? She's a phenomenal, phenomenal painter. Well, I know Joey DeMarco's name has come up quite a few times on this, on our podcast. You know, I'll tell you something about Joey.

He still books me. If I'm having a slow month, he always comes through for me. Yeah, yeah.

I can always hit him up and be like, you know, I have March 20th and March 27th open an hour later. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Joey's good for that. And he's a great guy.

He's a really good guy. I know he likes to stay a little bit incognito to some people. I've had bands go, you know what, he's booked us a bunch of places, but I've never met the guy.

He's Oz. Right. So how long did the Janes stay together? The Janes, I was with them from 96 to 2000, 2001.

And then I believe they continued until Adam broke away in form dot, dot, dot. Right. And that was the same transition when I went to Cat Fight.

So it was like all these core bands and then we could switch people. And now he's singing with Seventh Heaven, I believe, isn't he? He sure is. Yes, he is.

I love that little guy. Yeah. Yeah.

He's my bud. And speak a little bit about Little Lisa. Well, this is awesome.

She's doing a lot of gardening now. A lot of gardening? A lot of gardening, yeah. So Cat Fight, so last year when I got hired for six, Cat Fight got a new guitarist, this little Lauren O'Connor.

Lauren, she's a little girl, like 21 years old, little shredder. And so she's the guitarist now for Cat Fight. Oh, I see.

What are some of your tunes off of your CDs, off of your Kimmy Hayes CDs that you enjoy or that you still play or still listen to? Yeah, I still play a lot of them live when I play solo acoustic. And I've been doing what everybody's been doing. I've been doing Facebook Live concerts like every Wednesday night.

I saw a couple of them, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's been fun.

It's raw, but it's at least keeping my mind busy. So I've been getting a lot of requests for tunes. I think one of the songs that was getting a lot of popularity, at least locally, like with my fan base, was Watered Down Whiskey off of Red 14.

So I do that one a lot. I wrote that in Mike Aquino's garage. Really? It's where all the hits are written.

Behind the floor, Jack. Yeah, yeah. And live, I have a good blues song, Beautiful As You, that I have a good time playing.

Yeah. So what about the Priscilla's now? Now, when did the Priscilla's come into play? So I started playing with them a few years ago, 2016. While you were still playing with Catfight, too? Yeah, I was doing all the things.

Oh, yeah, yeah. There's been a lot. And Deja Vu, Deja Vu as well, right? I played with Deja Vu for six years, yeah.

I mean, you've got to pay the bills. Yeah, I guess so. If they're going to hire me and pay me, I'm going to show up.

But Priscilla's now, they're my homegirls. I've known Paula since 96. Paula plays bass for us.

And then Jenny Rackus is on the drums. She's also an awesome singer and songwriter. And she's a police officer for Chicago.

And Angela Fats. And now Lisa Tindall is our fifth member. She's rotated in now that I've been rotated in and out.

But we do a lot of roots rock, blues, soul, and originals. Yeah, I know Angela, too. Angela played with Paula.

We've played with Paula for quite a long time, too. And oh, Deja Vu. I know what I was going to say.

Deja Vu. And Chris. Yeah, Chris DiPinto.

Chris DiPinto, right. I couldn't think of his name. And how did you link up with them? Because they're way up north, aren't they, somewhere? They are way up north.

Chris hit me up, messaged me, and asked if I had ever thought about doing weddings. And I was, you know, in my head I was like, no. No.

I've never done weddings. But he is great because he keeps like a roster of musicians. And you can, you know, basically he'll shoot you updates and you say yes or no.

So I was one of his top quality guitarists. But if I had another booking, then it was cool. So it's kind of a nice gig because you're not committed to every gig.

And I loved him for that. So what was great about playing with Chris DiPinto in the group was that every spring we did a mini tour for Harley Davidson Corporate. Yeah.

So we played all over the place, you know, like San Diego, Vegas, of course Milwaukee, Atlanta, Louisiana, Rhode Island, everywhere. It came every spring. And that was a blast.

So that was worth playing with them. Just because the camaraderie in those gigs were kicking. Sure.

And then, of course, the blue chip. Right, right. Good old blue chip.

Well, I'm only there once in a great while. I've kind of retired from there. Oh, that's good.

Yeah. But I know I worked with the Janes once there. Sure.

At Blue Chip. Yeah. And Camp Fight, too.

And Camp Fight, yeah. And, of course, Deja Vu. Yeah.

Yeah, we had a study gig there. I mean, it was great. It's just those hours, man.

We would play until 2.30 in the morning. I'm, like, too old for that. I know, I know.

I'd have to work it, I know. Oh! So I understand you're teaching now, too, right? Yeah, I've been teaching for 11 years. Yeah.

I have... I teach at a sound education in Brookfield. And right now we're doing virtual lessons. We're Zooming.

And I'm the only female guitar instructor. So I have all the little girls. I have some boys, too, but I have mostly little girls, like I'm building an army of future Chick Rockers.

Yeah. They're precious. I mean, they're so... Yesterday I had a little fifth grader.

And, you know, she's rocking out some Imagine Dragons. So I love it. You read music then, too, I think, right? Yes.

Yeah, I used to, but I haven't done it in so long, you know, that if I sat down with sheet music right now, I'd have to go, wait a minute, give me a few minutes or give me an hour. Well, sure, when I started doing the musicals, when I got called for these musicals, yeah, I had to really rush up on reading a score. Because, of course, if you're gigging or jobbing, you might have, sometimes they'll throw a lead sheet in front of you, but mostly you're doing it by ear, you know? Yeah, it's different, but, you know, it comes back.

Now, getting back to Six, do you do any screaming solos, and you get a chance to come out front and do anything, or no? So you asked about Six. So the deal is with Six is where the whole band is on stage, in costume, the entire show. Oh, you are? Okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, yes, I get a couple of screaming solos. It's great.

And we act a little bit. We interact with the stars. So we're part of the show.

That's very cool. It's awesome. And the show is one act.

It's like a pop concert. It goes straight through beginning to end, top to bottom, 75 minutes. High energy, pop rock.

I love it. Tell us a little bit about what it's about. Okay, so Six is about the six wives of Henry VIII.

And so we have six queens, and it turns into a contest of each queen who had it the worst. And then the winner of the singing competition who had it the worst with Henry VIII gets to lead the band. So basically they're retelling their story as it goes.

And then there's a twist by the end. It's very much a women empowerment. They're taking back their power.

And it's really uplifting. It's awesome. Actually, it's funny.

It's smart. All the songs are super catchy. Lot of energy.

Unbelievable dancing. I don't have to dance. Nobody wants to pay me not to dance.

So, yeah, it's exceptionally entertaining. So the whole band is female? Yes. Okay.

Four-piece rock band, yeah. So guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards, I'm assuming, right? You got it, yeah. Are these people that you've played with before that you're playing with there? No.

They are not. When we started in Chicago, the band I played with in Chicago a year ago, I have played with those women before. Now that we're out in New York, our keyboardist, the musical director, she is from Rockford, but last year was the first time I worked with her.

Julia Shady, phenomenal. And then Elena Bonomo is a really super slick Berkeley grad, and she lives in New York City. Our bass player is originally from London, Michelle Osborne, and she lives in New York City now, too.

And then there's me. I saw that you got so kind of an Outstanding Ensemble Performance Award. Did you get any award for that, or were you part of that, or something from Chicago? Yeah, Chicago, they won some Jeff Awards.

Did you get one? I didn't personally get one. The six musical team, the Powers That Be, got the awards. We got shout-out, you know, they shouted, they said, Jimmy Hayes! I was like, yay! But no, no award.

That's pretty cool. I got a nod. That's okay.

That's right. At least you got the nod, that's right. Yeah.

Well, your career sounds great. What you've been doing, and what you've done in the past, and of course, we wish you the best of luck from here on out, as well. Thank you so much.

Yeah, I mean, I always say, how bad can my day be if I'm wearing a guitar? I mean, this is a good life. There's the financial up and downs, and the career challenges, but I love it. And I'm shocked that I'm still as busy as I am, you know.

It's a blessing. Right, right. Very, very cool.

So, how do we find you? How does anybody connect with you, or find you on social media, or any place? Yeah, so, Kimi, K-I-M-I-H-A-Y-E-S. I have a website, KimiHayesMusic.com, and then you can find me on the Facebook. I'm under Kimi Hayes.

And you can find me on the Instagram, Kimi Hayes. Yeah, I mean, Google me. Google you, yes, I did.

And I found quite a bit of stuff on you, yes. Yeah, yeah. No police record.

No arrest records or anything. No, no, no. I didn't dig that deep.

No. Well, hopefully you'll be out on the road playing again real soon. I hope so.

You know, I guess it's all about just staying safe right now, and I'm grateful to have stayed healthy, and I can stretch out a little bit here. I'm going for a lot of walks, but I'm hoping that sometime this summer or fall, we're up and running safely and successfully in New York. Yeah, we're all hoping for that, and I'm sure every musician out there is dying to get back, is itching to get back and play.

Yeah, it's weird, right? Yeah, it's very weird. Well, the great news is that, you know, as a thank you for joining us today, we have a roll of toilet paper for you. All right! I was down to like eight rolls.

I'm like, how am I going to manage this? Thank you. Got some hand sanitizer? Okay, okay. We'll manage.

Okay. All right. Well, thanks for joining us today, Kimmy.

I appreciate it. Thank you. Oh, thank you.

And like I said, good luck with everything that you're doing, and hope you're back playing soon. Thank you, thank you, and good luck. You're involved with the museum, too, right? Yes, yes, we are.

We've been doing a lot of these podcasts. Now we're doing them via Zoom, obviously, from our home. Right.

But we have a place there at the museum where we can do our shows as well. Oh, that's sweet. That's awesome.

Well, good luck. I love that. Yeah, it's very cool, and Ron Romero's been very good to us.

Oh, yeah! Awesome. I don't know if you know Ron or not. I do know Ron, yeah.

And he's been very good to us, and we started doing this about a year, a little over a year ago. And it's been great. It's fun getting inside into different musicians' lives and different bands' lives, and it's worked out great, and it's a lot of fun doing it.

Oh, that's really cool. It's always good to see you, Paul. Nice to see you, Kimmy.

Thank you. Thank you, Kimmy. Thank you.

Thank you, guys. Bye-bye. Well, how about that? That was quite the interview.

Yes, it was. Kimmy Hayes there. Kimmy Hayes playing a little harder out there in New York City.

Yeah, she is. And you know what? Even though nobody's playing anywhere, she's still teaching. Yes, she is.

So she's keeping busy. Yes, she is. We're all trying to do so, but it's tough right now, and it may be tough for a while for many of us.

But we'll try to keep bringing you these podcasts, that's for sure. Most definitely. And when things do lighten up, hopefully you guys will be able to get out and check Kimmy out once she's back in town from Broadway.

That's right. Now, we still have our podcast running on the Road to Rock radio, don't we, Ray? Yes, we do. Every Monday evening at 6pm on the RoadToRock.net. They're featuring one of our previous podcasts, so you can check us out there, or you can check us out every Tuesday on whatever you use to get your podcast.

Whatever outlet you use. That's right. Whatever outlet, whatever you use, you can find us out there every Tuesday.

Be sure and subscribe or join as a Charter member to the Illinois Rock & Roll Museum on Route 66. It's a great thing. We haven't been there in a while, but I guess they're getting some work done in the building.

I talked to Ron, he says they're getting quite a bit of work done, which is good. That's good. It's good taking this opportunity to social distance, get one or two people in there at a time to do some work and get that place up and running soon.

Hopefully we'll see you this summer. Thanks for listening, everybody. We'll catch you soon.

We'll catch you next week. Next week. Take care now.

Bye-bye.