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

How are you doing today, Ray? I'm doing swell. How are you doing today, Paul? Oh, I'm swell as well. Are you swollen? No, no, I'm just swell.

Oh, just swell. Virus free, I hope? Yes, I hope so. I seem to be that way anyway.

Yeah, here too. Here too. Just putting on some poundage.

Yeah, yeah, me too. And the dog thinks I'm crazy. I take him out for two walks a day.

Well, we're eating over here like it's going out of style. So what do we got on tap for today? Speaking of eating, I was thinking about Italian food. Oh, there you go.

So I figured why don't we talk to Rano Nesti? He must have told you this, eh? Did you? Yeah, we met him again tonight. Very good. Very good.

Rano Nesti. Okay, good. Rano Nesti, yeah.

We talked to him. Italian boy there. That's right.

And we talked to him for a while. He told us a little bit about his life, his past, and what's going on today, and where he's going, and what's happening, and what's not happening right now. That's right.

And so, well, let's get to it and see what Rano had to say. Let's go. We're meeting today with Rano Nesti, President and CEO of Nesteating Entertainment, and much more, which I'm sure we'll get to, right, Rano? How are you doing today? Another day in paradise, you know? I mean, we're just going to be like every boat, and every day is a day closer.

And look at this. It's Friday already, or was it the third or fourth Friday? I don't even know. Third Friday into it.

So we'll get back soon enough. Yeah, how are you hanging out with all this COVID-19 stuff, and not being able to have any of your venues open? Well, I mean, it's very difficult, of course. I'm standing in direct communication with my employees and doing everything I can to help them.

I'm still working very hard every day reformatting the company. It's given me an opportunity to look at the efficiencies of the company and that kind of thing. And I'm still on the phone and internet emails with agents and managers every single day, still booking shows.

And as you know, we've got the Displains Theater going to be opening up. I mean, a lot of things happening. So for me, it's still working hard every day.

Tell me, Ron, where did this all begin? When you were a little kid, were you running little businesses with your brother or something? Yeah, I mean, he's six years my junior. But I started, you know, like everybody, a lemonade stand at seven years old. And I sold franchises around the block.

I had kids. I went to the grocery store, and I bought a number of the Weiler's lemonade packets for 10 cents. Sold to the kids in the neighborhood for 25 cents.

And then I put up lemonade stands on the four corners of the block. And I just would go around collecting like the mob. But no, you know, I've been doing this forever.

I originally wanted to be either a professional baseball player. I played semi-pro baseball till I was 33, or a scientist, something like that. And but I was that guy in high school, you know, that did, I was homecoming chairman and prom chairman.

And I was in student council doing all the concerts, you know, after the football games and, you know, that kind of stuff. And music's always been a part of my life. Just back then, I didn't realize that people can kind of, you know, get paid for it.

So I've been doing it for a long time. The first business, was that the t-shirt business that you had? Well, not really. Actually, that evolved.

We've done your homework, obviously, here. That kind of evolved. Let's see, when I was 12 years old, 11 years old, I got a job as a busboy at a Jewish delicatessen in Oak Park.

And it was a lot of, it was a great combination of business guys and athletes and neighborhood guys and just, you know, and I was getting a lot of experience, a lot of being exposed to a lot of different businesses. And, you know, they saw me as a hustler. I had my first job, like I said, at 12 years old.

And I was hustling. I was working hard. I was there till I was about 23.

So I was there about 11, 12 years. And I started selling printing for this printing company, business cards. The guy said, look, here's a catalog.

Here's a wedding invitation catalog. Here's a letterhead catalog. Here's business cards.

Go to all your friends, all the people come in the restaurant. And I was selling printing. And then from then, I realized, well, if I bought a little printing press, I could cut off the middleman, do it myself.

So I did that. And then the printing turned into, people were asking for signs, you know, so I would do some signs. And then a real estate guy said, could you make 50 signs? That's silk screening.

So silk screening, I said, sure. Because I was, I'm never an old guy. I'm like, yeah, I can do it.

No problem. So the silk screening turned into a sign company doing all the silk screening. Then my friends, my buddies were like playing basketball.

And they said, hey, you do silk screen, you do t-shirts. I'm like, yeah, sure. And so we did t-shirts.

And again, playing baseball. I never had a place to really, you know, between, I remember Herman's Sporting Goods and Sport Mart at the time. But they didn't really have, you know, really good baseball, softball uniforms.

And 16-inch was really big in the 80s. I mean, it still is, but it was really, really big. And so we made a thing, created a thing called Softball City.

And we made all the great uniforms for all the big celebrities. We did them for centerfolds, for Playboy. You know, they would do the top 10 collegiate whatever issue.

And they'd have all the girls in these little football jerseys. We'd make those. And we're making them all over the country.

And it just evolved, evolved, evolved into businesses. And then I did a thing called the Softball Super Show, which was like a trade show. You know, I'd get all Easton and Louisville Slugger and DeBeer who made the 16-inch softballs.

And just all these people come at a banquet hall. And then I'd invite all the softball baseball players. And they would buy the equipment and order the uniforms and meet the softball celebrities.

And I was doing that for a while until I realized I really wasn't into sporting goods or making uniforms or silk screening or printing. It was the creativity of the events that I created around these businesses. So in 1996, I sold my business to Sport Mart because we were doing all their uniforms anyway.

And opened up kind of I did public relations, advertising, still all going into events. And then finally, I just realized that it was the events itself and specifically the entertainment part of the events that I liked. So that's when Onesti Entertainment was born.

And we started doing festivals. And we started doing some things at racetracks. And it just evolved into all of this.

Now, I understand that that little time of your life got you inducted into the 16-inch Softball Hall of Fame. Yeah, as much as I would love to be in it for the longest home run or, you know, Golden Glove Award. My brother and I actually were inducted at, yeah, inducted in the Hall of Fame.

Again, it was more of the because of that softball super show. And because of really promoting and supporting and sponsoring so many softball events. We really fostered the 16-inch softball as a sport itself.

And we produced all these different tournaments and special events. And we gave out prizes, you know, like a scholarship kind of a thing. And that's why we're inducted.

Because we came in at a time when softball was just, you know, kind of just there. And we took it to a level that it was, I mean, it was the game in the 80s, man. It was, definitely was.

It still is pretty much. Yeah. So I know you're very proud of your Italian heritage.

Yeah, man. And you're involved with a lot of organizations because of that. Am I correct? Well, as far as the Italian American thing goes, you know, I mean, I'm brought up, you know, I'm born on Taylor Street.

So that was a big deal back then. And still is. And, you know, just the pride in our heritage, as everybody.

I mean, I'm Italian American, proud of it, just like anybody else from any other ethnicity. And being from an Italian neighborhood, you know, it kind of, the organizations came to us, you know what I mean? You found out about them. And Columbus Day Parade was a big deal.

I first got involved in the Italian American community with the festivals, ironically. You know, back when Jane Byrne was mayor of Chicago, she's really kickstarted the whole festival concept, you know, with Chicago Fest. And, you know, back in the 70s, there really weren't festivals as we know them today.

There's some church picnics, some block parties, a couple of big things, but not really big. And then Jane Byrne started doing, she did six neighborhood festivals, and they're all ethnic. She did, and then she did, two of them was the Polish Fest at Hanson Park, one day right there.

And I went to Weber High School, which is right there on Fullerton Central, up in Fullerton. So I got involved in this last second in this festival that she had out there. It was just a one-day, eight-hour festival.

Remember, health department didn't exist as far as festivals go. So I went out there, and they let me in with frozen bananas. And I had, you know, the TV dinner tables, you know, that we have, and a crock pot, and an extension cord, you know, and on a three-prong, nothing like that.

I put chocolate in there. I froze, I don't know, about 100 bananas. And I put on wax paper and RC Cola, you know, boxes.

And for eight hours, all I did was just dunk bananas and sell them for two bucks. And I had a stack of cash. It was unbelievable.

So I kept on getting involved with that and with the different festivals. And I just kept on growing from there. And the next week was the Italian festival at Reese Park.

And Tony Bennett was there. And it just so happened that my aunt, her office was next door to the organization's office was running that. And I said, hey, aunt, could you get me involved in this festival? And she did.

She called her friend Marie, who was in charge of this organization called the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans. And I got into this neighborhood festival. It was eight hours.

Made some great money for a one-day thing when you're a 17, 18-year-old kid. And from that moment on, for the next 40 years, I've been involved in so many Italian American organizations and the Italian festivals. We put those on now, one on Taylor Street, the one in Addison, the one in Chicago by Oakley and 24th.

And I'm very, very proud of that. And you're involved with the Sports Hall of Fame as well, correct? Well, yeah, that's another big part of my life. You know, going back to the Italian thing, you know, I was really, really honored.

And it happened just before my mom had passed. So it was a big deal for me that, you know, in Italy, there's a thing that is similar to in England. You know, when you get knighted in England, there's a similar thing in Italy.

It's called Cavaliere. And the president of Italy, along with the consul general of Chicago, they gave me this prestigious award. And I'm actually a Cavaliere.

It's like a sir. And which I don't talk about this very much because people are like, what? But it's the real deal. Oh, that's awesome.

To promote my Italian heritage. So I'm pretty proud of that. That's very cool.

Congratulations. Thank you. Now, Sports Hall of Fame, again, a big deal for me.

The president and founder was like a second dad to me. He just passed away, a victim of an automobile accident a few months ago. It's very devastating.

So now it's closed on Taylor Street. Everything's in storage. Trying to figure out what to do with it.

But that was something we took from 1977 as a Boxing Hall of Fame to be a national organization honoring the top Italians and Italian-Americans in the world. Actually, now it's an international thing. And we've had galas every year with Joe Montana and Dan Marino and Joe DiMaggio.

This last one, I spent a lot of time with Mario Andretti, who's actually a very good friend. It's just a big part of my life. Now, and the Veterans Museum, I understand, too.

The Italian-American Veterans Museum. Yeah. Man, you guys have really been up late doing your research.

Yeah, you know, if you've been to my shows at the Arcata Theater or anywhere, really, I'm always saluting our veterans. I'll come out on the stage before the show, and I'll salute first responders and nurses and teachers. And war veterans are a real big deal to me because I was brought up in a World War II household.

My dad was a World War II Army hero. And his teachings have always guided me in my life. And his teachings were always based around his time in Italy, in France, on the front lines.

He was in the infantry. He was in the foxholes. And so Paul Bazel and a few other people got this Italian War Veterans Museum going in Stone Park, and I got involved as much as I can.

I still am on the board. And again, it's a great salute to those Italians or Americans of Italian descent that many of them gave their lives, but at least definitely gave of their soul to protect this country. Everywhere, all the way down from the Civil War, there's families who brought in some memorabilia from their distant family members who were in the Civil War, World War I, then of course, World War II and beyond.

So it's a great place to check out, man. It really, really is. And the Columbus Day Parade, what's the deal with that? That's just silly that they're canceling or they're not calling it Columbus Day anymore.

Yeah, it's well, you know, that's a very, very volatile issue right now. The Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans is the organization that's pretty much spearheading it for us here in the Chicagoland area. This is a national initiative, too.

You know, the whole Indigenous People's Day instead of Columbus, Columbus was a murderer, Columbus was this and that. And, you know, it's like anything else. You know, it's, you know, Columbus himself, I mean, the people who want to judge what he did or what he accomplished or didn't accomplish, you know, I mean, it's such an editorial of civilization at the time, you know, I mean, you know, the whole Native American thing, we do respect very, very much.

But, you know, if you look at what Washington did, you look at what Thomas Jefferson did, you look what they did with slaves, you look at, you know, it was a product of the Civilization Society at the time. And now people are stepping up. And again, people, I think, are just looking for causes these days.

You know, Columbus Day, it's, you know, people are, you know, there are certain organizations that are trying to change Columbus Day. And it's, and Columbus Day has evolved much more than what, who or what Christopher Columbus was or did or accomplished. Columbus Day is the one day of the year where Italians and Spaniards and others, you know, we celebrate, we celebrate our heritage.

And to, for any organization to try to take that away from us, that's the bad thing. And yeah, we're fighting it. We're trying.

And they're not, right now, we haven't taken it away as a holiday. It's still a holiday. But what you've been hearing the news lately is that the Chicago Public Schools removed it as a holiday.

And they did that a very wrong process. You know, they did that without voting, without, you know, getting the community involved, without their board of directors, which is kind of a weird thing. So that's what's happening now.

Our organization is at the forefront. Our president, our human relations director, they're at the forefront fighting this thing tooth and nail. To me, it's a shame, you know, but.

It is, it's not. It's, it is terrible. I mean, you can get a different holiday for whatever you want.

Why take over one that's already there? And Columbus Day stands for something very, very important to us Italian Americans. And, you know, to try to take that away from us is just, it's mean. It's cruel and unnecessary.

I agree with you. So tell us a little bit about some of your media involvement. I know you write a column in the Daily Herald and you had a show on WGN.

I don't know if you still have that show? No, I'm all about promoting music and our businesses. And, you know, over the past 40 years, I have amassed a certain amount of experiences and stories and people love to hear the behind the scenes stories. And I got hundreds of them.

And many of them are true. No, they're all true. But it's true.

I mean, I do my morning walks every day now just to keep people engaged. A Facebook post at 8.30, 9 o'clock. This morning was my experiences with the Beatles, meeting Ringo and Paul and Yoko at the Rockwell Hall of Fame.

That's a whole other story. But, yeah, I mean, people just love to hear that stuff. So I've been doing it for almost two years now.

A thing called Backstage with Ron and Esty every Friday in the timeout section. And it's just, you know, it's just me talking. I'm not a journalist whatsoever.

I just write how I talk. You know, there's definitely some punctuation challenges because I'm not a writer. Again, that's every Friday.

And people seem to like it. The Daily Herald says it's definitely at the top of the most read things in the paper and most awaited things in the paper. WGN, same thing.

We're doing a podcast for a while. And it's still up there. If you Google my name and WGN, you'll see me interviewing Leonard Skinner and Three Dog Nights and just all that kind of stuff.

Yeah, I'm on the radio, on TV. I do a lot just because not for me personally. Nobody cares about me.

It's all about the music, really. And people love it, you know. So tell us the Arcata Theatre.

Was that your first venue that you started with? Yeah, you know, as far as the venue itself, you know, brick and mortar. Yeah, I would say that's the main one and the first big one there. You know, I first got that.

I was managing, I'm sure you guys heard of American English, the Beatles tribute. It's been around for so many years. I was managing them at the time.

Our podcast that's out this week is Rosie and the Rivets, who I know play. And Frank, I know Frank Canino played with American English. Well, Frank Canino, I think he's 38 years old now or 36, something like that.

I've known Mr. Canino since he's four years old. I told you I was in the printing business back then, remember? Well, Frank Canino's mother and father, remember this before computers and all we had, you know, so typesetting was done by another person, you know, and they would give me the pieces of paper, all the typesetting, you know, we're doing the printing. His parents did, used to have a typesetting company and printing company did all kinds of things.

So I was by his mom and his dad and his dad's still kicking, Frank Sr. I was there probably every day for many years. And Frank was a little rug rat running around, running around at four, five, six, eight years old. And now again, he's 30 something and he's doing such a great job.

But, but yeah, I mean, I was managing the, going back to the other story, I was managing American English and they had played at the Arcata Theater, which was just a $4 brew and view, frankly, a disaster of a venue. I mean, the holes in the walls, bad paint, lights hanging. I was just really, really terrible, ready to go down.

And, but the one live, one or two live shows a year, one of them was American English and we'd sell it out. So the second year I called, I was trying to get ahold of the people who had the theater and they weren't, they weren't responding. I'm like, Hey, that's a good gig for us.

I mean, people loved us playing over there. So I kept on trying, trying. So I finally took a ride out there and now we're living at Harlem and Irving at the time.

So St. Charles, a hop, skip and a plane ride away. I drove all the way out there and there was a dumpster out there with wood sticking out there, started to take it apart because what they're going to do is they were going to make that a, like an office building. I'd put floors, two floors in where the theater, the big room is.

So we started making offers. I said, just talk to the owners and stupid offers. And before I knew it, I had the business.

And then it was like, now what are you going to do? Because you be careful what you wish for. Now you got it. It was a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of effort, but you know, here we are.

This is our 15th anniversary. And we're going through a huge, huge renovation, a $3 million renovation. And you're not going to recognize this place by June.

So, you know, it's kind of happening at the right time, unfortunately, unfortunately. Well, I know you've done a lot for the community there as well. I'd say Charles, I mean, helping to build up the entire downtown area.

Yeah. You know, I mean, you gotta be, I mean, that place was built for the community. And I've always said, you know, I've never said no to any not-for-profit who wanted to use it.

We work it out. You know, I'm very proud to be part of that St. Charles Fox Valley community. It's a very proud community, a great community, a forward-thinking community.

And they welcomed me with open arms. They've supported me. And it's just a great area.

I mean, it just is a beautiful area and so many new things happening over there. And now you're planning on doing the same in this place? Yeah. This is a project that I've actually been, you know, somewhat involved in for the last, I don't even know, 10, 12 years, one way or another, because I've always been had the interest of being a part of that property.

That property has been distressed for a long time. And then finally, they put out, the city bought it, City of Des Plaines, with the help of the Rivers Casino. And they put it out there about looking for a company that would be the right one to take it to the level of where we're at, not only the entertainment, but there's food opportunities there and beverage opportunities.

So the city came to me and we met several times. They put out an RFP to other companies as well. And I was awarded, and I consider this an award, the exclusive contract to run that theater and put my restaurants in there, my speakeasy in there, my bars in there.

And I'm telling you, the city, that's another great, unbelievably supportive community. And what they're doing with their downtown is just unbelievable. You're not going to recognize that in the next couple of years.

It's just so, we've got a very young mayor there, and he's really forward thinking, a great city council, as in St. Charles. And they're just doing a lot of buildup. And thankfully, they're making, both St. Charles and Des Plaines, are making the downtown theaters the focal point and the central of all this development.

So I'm excited to be able to do both of those properties, both of our properties. We're looking to open that probably around October. Very nice.

Now you also have the club arcada at the theater. Yeah, so in 20, let's see here. So 2016, make sure I'm doing this right.

Yes, 2016 was the theater's 90th anniversary. And so I wanted to do something that was open in 1926. I want to do something a little bit about the Roaring Twenties.

And the whole thing started out as doing, because I got some memorabilia from when it first opened, first program, one of the original seats, one of the original speaker things. I mean, just a few things, some great photos. It started as a little corner of some room as a little exhibit.

And then from an exhibit, I said, you know, if I put like a little bar there, we could do kind of like a little speakeasy feel, like just a little bar, a little four-foot bar or something. We found a room on the third floor. So that was just now the library.

The first walk-in is a library. That was just that little room. That was going to be the entire speakeasy feel.

Again, it's more of an exhibit in honor of the 90th anniversary of the theater. And then I walked around the city to see what they thought, if I could have people up there, because the place was, again, on the third floor was a disaster. Things hanging, holes in the walls, all that kind of thing.

And I saw there were all these little walls, little rooms. Excuse me. And I walked around the city.

I said, man, it'd be great if I could knock down these walls. We could maybe do something bigger. But I didn't think we could because it's on the historic registry.

So, you know, you can't really touch buildings when it's like that. They said, no, these walls were put up about 20, 30 years ago. You can knock them down.

So 20 minutes later with a sledgehammer, I had this big open window. And then I opened up the drop ceiling, and I realized that it had really great high ceilings in there. So we pulled that down, and it just all happened.

And if you come into the Speakeasy, it's pretty amazing. I have to say, a lot of people, Howie Mandel, it's his favorite place on the planet. He went on video saying that.

Billy Gibbons' ZZ Top, Paul Anka, all the big celebrities love that place. There's over 400 antiques, and each room has its own personality. We got a Louis Armstrong bar and a Prohibition Lounge and Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp room and our Fred and Ginger Ball room.

Just some great Gatsby room. And I tell you, I didn't draw anything out. There's no architects involved, no designers.

I looked at it and said, let's make that gold, and let's make that brass, let's make that copper. Let's put this painting there. Just all just happened.

I don't know how. People ask me how. I don't know how.

I'm not a designer. I'm not an architect. But I had a vision.

I had a feeling of what it was supposed to look like. And that's how it all happened. And because of that, people come from all over the world to see it.

And we've got other speakeasies that we're opening up. And one of them is going to be Bourbon and Brass, which is a former place I had in Evanston. They sold that building.

They're knocking it down. So we moved Bourbon and Brass from the Met over to Displays. Okay.

Oh, it's going to be at the Displays Theater as well? Yeah, that's going to be at the Displays Theater. We have another place in Highwood called Rod Onesti's Club 210 of Highwood. That's been around since 1946, a former bowling alley.

All the lanes are just covered with 4x8s of plywood. It's really interesting. And it's a music club and restaurant and great bar.

And it's a great place to go hear music or a great place to dance. I've had that since, I think, August or September. And until this all happened, it was just the most happening place out in Highwood Island Park area.

People were just loving it. And that's where we're at. We have another thing you're probably going to ask about.

World War II era, kind of a Western town, Wild West town out in Union, Illinois. That's been around for, they've had it now since it was open, they've had it 45 years. The same family, the Donnelly family.

And they approached me last year to help take that to the next level. It's an amusement park, family style amusement park. And it's a great little place.

And they opened up a restaurant there called B. Bapalula's Rockabilly Cafe. And it's based on Elvis and Johnny Cash and Katsy Cline and cowboy steaks and burgers. And it's just a cool thing right out there by Marengo Woodstock.

So we're busy. That's very good. I'm looking forward to 210.

Yeah, man, it's just a great place. Really great place. Hopefully we get a date change back there.

So I got to ask you about something. Now you have some restaurants, I understand. I know you love to cook.

Yeah, I do. Well, those are my restaurants. Right now, my restaurants are Club Arcata, Speakeasies, Club 210 is a restaurant.

B. Bapalula's Rockabilly Cafe, that's a restaurant. Then we've got food service operations in the amusement park. I'll have, I haven't named it yet, but there's going to be a steakhouse and steak and crab house and doing piano lounge in the Arcata Theater building because we're doing a massive build out there.

So that'll be a high-end restaurant. On the other side where Starbucks used to be on the corner, that's going to be my Rockin' Zah rock and roll pizza experience. So that'll be another restaurant.

And then plus we'll have the restaurants, we'll probably do another Rockin' Zah pizza experience at Des Plaines, plus another speakeasy episode. That's going to be the Bermond Grass speakeasy. So there's a lot of restaurants and bars I find it hard to keep track of myself.

Are you still doing the frozen bananas anywhere? You know, that's a great question. I really should bring that back at least at the amusement parks. I might do that thanks to you.

Thanks for the suggestion. Tell us a little bit about some of the acts that you've personally, that you love at the Arcata and some of the big name acts. And if you've got any good stories about some of them, maybe who are hard to deal with or something.

We don't have to mention any names or anything. I'm very lucky. You know, I'll be 58 on May 8th, you know, and I'm a child of the glorious 70s, you know, the classic rock era.

And I feel I was born at the right time because I was just at the tail end. You know, I experienced the 60s to a degree at the tail end, you know, the whole 50s thing. You know, again, growing up in a World War II household, I was made familiar with, you know, the Prohibition era music and also the swing and big band and Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller.

And then still being, you know, in college age, the 80s with the hair band. So musically, I think I was born just at the right time. And what the Arcata has come to be for me is a place to just to bring all the music that I like personally.

I just love, you know, people say they love, what kind of music you love? Well, I love all kinds of music, I really do. And that's what the Arcata has been. I've been booking things, all those bands, almost every one of those bands are bands that I love.

And it just so happens that, you know, I kind of, my likes kind of represent a generation. And the good news is that even though, you know, the 50s, 50 year olds and 60 year olds and 70 year olds, you know, love what I do from the foreigners and the Americas to the Wayne Newtons and Paul Ankas of the day. But, you know, 12 year olds love The Who and 15 year olds love Zeppelin.

And so, you know, it's multi-generational music that we do. And plus, I'm a big fan. I'm just a super fan myself.

I'm a fan of, you know, legends and icons. You know, we've had, I've done interviews, you know, I do my own interviews on stage and some great ones. I just, not too long ago, we did Priscilla Presley, which was just incredible.

Two hours with her on stage. Barbara Eden from I Dream of Jeannie. We did Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman.

I mean, there's so many on, you know, Michael Bolton, Ricky G, just great interviews, you know, and what a guy. And so I love the, I love the icons. Shirley MacLaine, we did.

I did the Mickey Rooney's 89th birthday at the theater. I did Patti Page's 90th birthday. There's so many, once again, these legends and icons that I just, you know, people that I grew up, I'm just a fan of, you know.

So that's, you know, those are the things that I love to do. You know, I get asked about so many stories. You know, the one today that I did on my walk this morning was about meeting the Beatles.

People are like, what is my experience with the Beatles? So basically what happened was I was doing a corporate event. I do a certain number of corporate events around the country as well that want, you know, some of these bands. And I was doing one in San Francisco and we had Cheap Trick and Joan Jett there.

It was a great night, private event. I mean, it was incredible, right? And I happened to be with Joan Jett, who's her manager, Kenny Laguna is the old friend. And she's just a great lady.

He worked with her several times. And I happened to be with her backstage at our event when she got the call that she was being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And so she jumped in my arms, jumped in Kenny's arms.

She was like going crazy. And she says, you called me the good luck charm. And she invited me to come to the induction ceremonies.

I said, sure, I'll come. You know, I'd love to. She didn't expect anything.

Well, a few weeks later, I got in the mail, I got two lanyards, lanyard number 100, number 101 that were for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies that they sent me. And how cool is that? So, I mean, it was amazing. So I went out there, my brother came with me because he brought his video camera.

He's our technical production guy. So he was out there. I said, I want to record every bit of this.

It's going to be great. I never got any tickets to the event though. So I was a little worried and didn't realize until I actually landed in Cleveland.

This was the 30th anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And only the third time that they actually had the induction ceremonies in Cleveland where it's located because of the anniversary. So we got into Cleveland, walked around, got there early.

I was in this platinum jacket and a t-shirt so I could try to look cool, you know, and like a rock and roller. And I got there, as I said, early. And I didn't know where to go.

And I kept on going to guys with the earplugs in and the lanyards themselves, you know, and they kept pointing me forward, pointing me forward. So I kept on going from here to there, didn't know where to go. And they finally pointed me to the red carpet.

I walked down to the red carpet, like, okay, I'm waiting to get like, you know, muscle to the ground, a full body cavity search. But it didn't happen. All these cameras, all these flashes were happening.

And I happened to see a truck, like a van or a bus that had Fall Out Boy on there, the logo. And it turns out Fall Out Boy was there because Green Day was being inducted that night as well. And Fall Out Boy was inducting them.

So people were like, taking pictures. They say, can we take a picture with you? I'm like, sure. And, you know, and I'm like, did you ever hear of the Arcata Theater? And they said, what? I said, don't worry about it.

You know, they didn't know who I was. They just thought I'm walking, I must be somebody. So finally, somebody said, who are you? I'm like, did you ever hear of Fall Out Boy? They said, yeah.

And I just kept walking. I didn't say I was with him. I just asked if they heard of him.

I assumed I was with Fall Out Boy. It's all these flashes and stuff. And to this day, there's pictures of me and all these scrapbooks and people like, who's that? And they're, I've probably been made up of different identities to 400 people.

I get in, and I go to the registration table. And I said, I don't have a ticket. Can you tell me where to go? And she looked at my lanyard.

And she looked up my numbers. And she took a piece of paper and just ripped the corner off. I mean, literally, just a little corner and wrote the number four on there.

Said, here, just use that. Like, you're kidding, right? No, just use that. So I walked in, the security level one.

Security level two kept on showing my lanyard and this piece of paper. They said, OK, come on in. So I look around.

I see that it's a 10,000 seat venue, the original venue that the Beatles played at in Cleveland in 1964 when they did the first tour. And it turns out that Ringo Starr was going to be inducted that night, too. That's why they had it there.

And where the Beatles were, it was really magical. So again, I'm looking at all these seats in the balcony. I'm like, we must be way in the second row.

It must be in the front row, like Bob Uecker would say. I'd say, we must be in the last row, because who are we, nobody, all these celebrities. But they kept on saying, come forward, come forward.

Well, it turns out that number four was they put me at Joan Jett's table, and table number four was up against the stage, right in the front. I'm like, holy cow. So as I said before, we got there earlier, early that day.

And the first guy I saw was Lil' Steven Van Zandt from the E Street Band, Bruce Springsteen, and Silvio from Sopranos. Sopranos, sure. And we know each other because we're on the board of directors of an organization called Little Kids Rock.

It's a national organization that provides musical instruments to underprivileged inner city schools. So we have these fundraisers, and concerts, and raise money, and we'll drop off 10 drum kits to one school, and 20 guitars to another school, inner city schools. It's a cool organization.

He's a part of a few other guys. And what are you doing here? What are you doing here? So it was great. So we took pictures.

Then I walked over to another table, and it was a guy in a wheelchair. And it was Jerry Lee Lewis, the killer, which is a legend, which I've never worked with. I'm still trying to do a Q&A or something.

I mean, I've done things with Lil' Richard, Chuck Berry, so many people from that era, but never did anything with the killer. And then I saw Alice Cooper, and I did a bunch of shows with Alice. And his daughter was actually part of the show.

She was there. And just a lot of people we just connected with. Again, it was really cool.

And I was standing by the stage, because they started this whole thing. And this whole Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony thing, it's usually two and a half, three hours, whatever it is. But it's actually like a five to six hour thing, because they had the people sing a song, and then they, okay, let's sing it again, different camera angles, or something messes up, or it's a long thing when it's a TV production.

So I was standing by the stairs, because our table is right up by the stage. And a guy bumps into me, and it was Bill Withers, who just passed away, who was getting inducted that night as well. And he was walking, holding the arm of Stevie Wonder.

Stevie Wonder bumps into me, and he says, excuse me, man, I didn't see you. Kind of funny. And so that was a story in and of itself.

So he went up there, and they did Lean On Me rehearsal. And Eno Sanchez, very, very cool. Again, I'm standing by the end of the stage there, and a guy, another guy bumps right into me, like with an elbow, like almost knocks me down.

And it was Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters. And he helped pick me up, knocked me down. And he, oh my God, I'm so sorry.

I was, you know, what can I do for you? I said, I want a picture. Oh, absolutely. We wound up talking about 10 minutes, just a great guy he was.

I had a great picture with Dave Grohl, just by the men's room. And so then the thing starts, the party starts, and I sit down, I go to my table. At least what I thought was a table.

I was actually, I sit at the wrong table, went to the table next to us, because I was sitting there by myself. My brother was there. And this entourage walks in.

It's Ringo Starr and two ladies. And I'm like, holy cow, and he sits down at my table. I'm like, holy cow, I couldn't believe it.

And it was, and he introduces, the lady introduces herself to me. I forgot her name. And then Ringo says, hi, I'm Ringo.

I said, hi, no kidding. And then he said, this is my lovely wife of 35 years, Barbara Bach, remember her? And then she reintroduced me to that lady who first said hi. And that's, the other lady was her sister.

And she asked me, would you mind moving over one seat? Because my husband's gonna join us a little bit. I'm like, whatever you want. Oh my God, whatever you want, right? So I move over.

I didn't realize that Ringo Starr's brother-in-law, Barbara Bach's sister's husband, Joe Walsh of the Eagles. So he sits next to me. Yeah, so he's like, hey man, how you doing? I'm like, freaking great.

But then other people came to the table and I was sitting at the wrong table. So that was embarrassing. So I moved over to the next table.

I sit down, I put my chair out. And then a lady or another chair backs up into my chair. And I turn around, it's this lady in a top hat.

Well, it's Yoko Ono. I'm like, holy cow, this can't be happening. And I said, oh my gosh, hi Yoko.

She says, hello. She's just a very proper. And I said, and this was in September, I think.

In October was gonna be, I think John's 70th birthday. October 9th, I think, something like that. And I told her, I said, you know what? I own a theater in a little part of Chicago.

And we're actually doing, which was true. We're doing a big salute to John Lennon on his 70th, I think, or 75th, whatever it was, birthday. And she goes, oh, that's so nice.

You know, and she just kept on shaking her head saying, you know, such a shame, such a shame. And then she goes, excuse me, would you mind escorting me to the ladies room? I'm like, heck yeah. But then she was with this lady.

And she looked at me and winked. She goes, no, I got it. I'm like, come on, let me take you to the bathroom.

To the ladies room. I'm like, all right. So anyway, she left to go to the ladies room.

I'm like, this can't be happening, right? So the event's happening at Go Withers. And also another table, two tables down, was they're inducting Stevie Ray Vaughan posthumously. But his whole band was there.

And Jimmy Vaughan is a good friend of ours. He's been at the Arcata a number of times, great guy. And I got to meet Stevie Ray Vaughan's band.

Just what a night, just incredible night. And so after a while, it was just happening. And people started standing.

And by the time Green Day got inducted, it would follow up, boy, introduce Green Day. Everybody would stand up by the stage. It was that fun, everybody dancing kind of thing.

It was just before the finale. So everybody was ready for that. And so Green Day, they're doing a number.

And a guy just next to me looks at me. He goes, oh, I just love these chaps. I look at this guy, it's freaking Sir Paul McCartney standing right with me.

Because Ringo's getting inducted. That's why Yoko's there. That's why Paul's there.

And we're just chatting back and forth. It was just great talking about music, these guys, about how Green Day, it's amazing. It seemed like they just came onto the public.

And the fact Green Day's been around, you gotta be inducted. You gotta be around, it's gotta be at least 25 years from your first recording. So how could Green Day be this old? But Joey Armstrong, who got to be a friend, we still hung with him.

I took the plane back with him and the other guys from Green Day. So it was a very, very cool night. And it's a couple of fallout boys.

And so again, Paul McCartney was just talking about how, that was our topic. You look at Ringo, who's being inducted, and how long he's been in the business. Look at these guys, they look like babies and they're getting inducted.

So my brother's got all this on videotape. So much so that he actually has the, what's the word? The privilege of being spanked, being yelled at by Paul McCartney. Because he had the camera on me and Paul the whole time and behind him was the stage.

And Paul was like yelling at him, mouthing him, stop videotaping, quit videotaping me. And he got yelled at. But that was today's story.

So there you go. Those are the kinds of things that happen to me. There's a ton of them.

And sorry to make your ears bleed there on the headphones. No, that's okay, that's awesome. That's an awesome story.

That's awesome. Very cool. How do people get in touch with you or follow you or follow your walks? Yeah, you know, I'm pretty accessible.

I really am. I just have, you know, my, the Facebook page, you get, you know, it's pretty popular. I do a lot of stuff on that between my personal one and the pages from my other venues.

Oshoes.com is our website. Ron at Oshoes.com is my email address. I mean, anybody wants to say hi or have suggestions or anything, just pop it on down to me.

Alrighty, Ron. Well, thanks for joining us today. It was a pleasure talking to you and getting some insight and some entertaining stories on top of it.

Well, thanks, Ray, Paul. So good to talk to you guys. And thanks for keeping doing what you guys do to keep the stories and rock and roll music alive.

I know you guys are still playing and I know it's in your blood. And that's what it is. This is all in our blood.

It's all we know. And the reality of it is my column today that this is being recorded, in the Daily Herald, is about some of the songs of our lives. We got the songs where we're dating in high school or our prom songs or the fact that when somebody passes away in the military, it's taps that's being performed or when we go to show pride in our country, what do we do? We sing the national anthem.

So music is so much a part of our culture. It's so much a part of our society and it's gonna be a huge part of us getting back into swing of things when all this is over. Absolutely.

I think once this all gets over with and we're all back to normal, I'm pretty sure that this music will... It's obviously playing a big part. If you look on Facebook and people are doing shows and there's guys playing from their bedroom or from their living room and it's awesome that it just breaks up your day a little bit and helps. It's necessary.

It's necessary. Music is a protein. It's a vitamin that we all need.

I wish you guys the best as well. Thanks very much. Thank you.

Thank you. Well, that was great talking with Ron. He's got a lot of stories there, man.

I think with the Beatles, that was pretty cool. That was very cool. And Joan Chet and everything else, that was a very cool story.

Yeah, he's met a lot of famous people, rubbed a lot of shoulders and seems to be doing very well for himself. He's got the Arcada. He's opening up the new place in Des Plaines and Club 210 and he's doing really, really well.

Yes, he is. Yes, he is. It's good to hear from Ron and glad he was able to join us for this podcast, this week's podcast.

So don't forget to share and enjoy our podcast. Where can they enjoy all them at? They can enjoy our podcast anywhere they get a podcast or they can go to our Facebook page. They can go to our website.

They can go to YouTube. They got to subscribe so they never, ever miss an episode. And make sure that you're checking out the Illinois Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Route 66 radio show, RoadToRockRadio.net. It's an internet-based radio show featuring all Illinois musicians.

And every Monday at six o'clock, they feature one of our podcasts. So check them out and support the museum. Very good.

Very good. Well, thanks for listening, everybody. Hopefully, we'll have another one lined up for you for next week.

And we'll talk to you then. Thank you. Arrivederci.