Here's Paul Martin and Ray the Roadie for the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. How you doing today, Ray? I'm doing good. I'm heading down south to sunny Florida.

You are? Well, no, not really. Telephonically, maybe. Oh, I see.

Who are we interviewing today? Today, we have Mark Dawson. And he's in Florida. Yeah, he is in Florida.

See, I told you we're going to Florida. Yeah, it's on the budget. It is on the budget.

But Mark is a former member of Street Kids, Dreamer, All Night Newsboys, and currently in the grassroots. He's currently in the grassroots. And a bunch of other mans, and he's doing other stuff.

And I'm sure all you wanted to do is find out what he's doing and what's new with Mark Dawson. That's right. So let's go talk to him.

Let's go listen. Okay. All right.

Okay. You don't have to tell me twice. Okay, let's go.

I said you don't have to tell me twice. Hey, this is Paul Martin. And Ray the Roadie for the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast.

Joining us today in our studio in beautiful downtown Joliet, Illinois, actually via phone, bag phone I think. It's a bag phone he's using. It's Chicago's very own Mark Dawson.

How you doing, Mark? Hey, I'm doing great, guys. How are you? And it's not just a bag phone, okay? This is a singular bag phone. I'm back on the singular network.

Nice. You're probably the only singular person out there then. That's why you're getting a signal.

There you go. I had an old bag phone, and my wife yelled at me. She thought I was talking about her.

Oh, but no more. Oh, hello, hello. I appreciate you inviting me on the show.

Thank you very much. Oh, thanks. Thanks for joining us.

We really appreciate it. So, you know, let's get right to it. What's the start of Mark Dawson? Where did it all begin? Oh, boy.

It started... Well, I was... Obviously, I was born in Chicago. By the time I was about 12, we went out to... Moved to Berwyn, Illinois. If you remember Berwyn.

Yes, sir. Of course, you remember, because you lived by... I don't see it much. But that's kind of when I... At about... Oh, I started playing guitar at about... Probably 12 or 13.

And honest to God truth, I happened to meet Jim Peterick as I was about to go to Morton West High School. I was just entering and I was a freshman and everybody knew who the Ides of March were, you know, back then. And it turns out Jim Peterick was a senior when I was a freshman.

So I met Jim just by chance and I just was so impressed. Such a nice guy. I was like, well, I want to play guitar.

I want to, you know, be in a band with Jim Peterick, you know, which we've played together since then. But that was kind of the start of it. I just... Jim was a neighborhood guy.

And, you know, of course, he had a hit single, but he was just a great guy. And he was always helping out with, you know, the kids, the musician kids. That's kind of what got me going with Jim.

Wow. You just fell into the right place at the right time for you there. It really was.

It was just a by chance thing. And like I said, we've come to, you know, become friends later, but that's what got me going. Hooked me right in.

Have you done anything with Jim Peterick at all? Recording or... Writing or anything? We did some songwriting. Well, I, you know, I had moved away from Chicago area early 90s, but it was probably around around 88 or so. And Jim and I did some songwriting together.

Actually one of the tunes ended up on, I think it was my first CD. So long ago, I forget, but we actually wrote a few things and Jim had me actually sing some demos he was doing for, oh gosh, I think it was Group Europe at the time. You know, he thought my voice fit that.

So after I moved though, we'd run into each other once in a while and that's really about it now. Just a, hey, hello, how are you kind of thing. What was your first, your first group that you started or you played in? Well, I mean, really the first group was, wasn't until high school.

It was a group called Mile High and it was kind of funny the way I wasn't really looking for a group. I had learned a few guitar chords and one day I got, I won't say his name because he was one of the, you know, the guys that were the band geeks back then. They were in the marching band in high school.

You know, and it was this guy, he called me and I was like, what? He says, yeah, listen, Mark, this is him. He says, oh yeah, I think I know who you are. And he says, I'd like you to join our band as a singer.

I guess I was going to play a musical at school and he heard me sing and I said to the guy, I said, well, I don't know. You know, I don't really know how to play guitar or anything. I'm not really popular with girls and that's what we need.

So will you join? So I don't know where he got that popular with girls thing, but it sounded good to me. So I said, yes, I will join. There's girls.

And that's how it started. I had no idea what I was doing. And these guys had a killer horn section for high school.

You know, high school kids, even though they were, you know, it was band nerds, but man, they could play. Oh, yeah. So that's that's kind of that band was Mile High and had fun.

You played in high school and it was once I got out of high school where then I started to play, you know, travel, play professionally all over the place. They were all horn bands back then, weren't they? Well, it was there certainly were a crop of them and, you know, some not so great, as we all know, some really good. So after that, did was there anything else or did you get going to street kids after that? They're probably well, there was a couple of I did play with a few local groups, it wasn't so much local as they were, they were playing mostly holiday in type shows all over Illinois, Iowa, Missouri.

We would go up to Wisconsin. It was a band called, oh, my gosh. Oh, their name was Kicks, K-I-X.

OK. And I that's and but that's what led to I played with them. They were guys who were all 10 or 15 years older than me.

It just happened. That's a long, not so great story, but it happened. I need a bass player real quick.

And I dropped in and then I end up staying for about a year and then putting street kids together while I was doing that. And that's kind of yeah, it's kind of what led the street kids. And you guys real band, I guess that'd be my first real band.

But you guys you guys made the WKQX Hometown album, didn't you? We did the very first one. Yeah, we had the I think it was the opening track on the album's kind of cool. Yeah, it was a song with street kids.

Yes, it was. Street kids by street kids. It was later entitled Enjoy the Show.

That was the gist of it. But yeah, at the time, I named it Street Kids for the band. It had a Sticks influence to me, that's what I've been told, you know, of course, at that time, you know, what else? I mean, Stick was going big.

That was the arena band sound. And we did maybe steal one of Dennis's synthesizer licks or two, maybe. Yeah, didn't we all? Yes, that's what you were hearing at the time.

So that stuck to you. So that's right. Yeah, it was it was there.

It was readily available. So how long was Street Kids together? Probably was only about was about three years, maybe a little more. We sort of crashed at the end and which was too bad because the band was was a good band.

And, you know, you had personalities clash, things happen. Right. And then I just sort of segued right into Dreamer, which I was which we had for about another five years or so.

Actually, with you guys might know Scott May. Yeah, sure. Yeah.

Scott and I played together. We've known each other since gosh, since about 1970. And that was our first kind of well, we played together briefly.

But the first band that played out anywhere was was that when we kind of segued into Dreamer. And then that was that was a fun band. That was a little while.

Scott now now coincidentally plays and works with Jim Peterick. Yeah. Keyboard player for like twenty five years with the Ice March now.

Right. That's funny how things come full circle, isn't it? Yeah. And Scott and I have done some recording as well since, you know, like all this has come back around again.

We've actually sort of re Scott and I and Scott would be the first to admit it. We used to be tooth and nail at each other. And it was it was mostly over creative things.

And we look back now, we go, man, we were these 20 year old punks who thought we knew everything. And then we argue with each other. He he would write a lot of music.

I would write a lot of music. And we would try to bring together. We would just fight.

And yeah, and it's funny, all these years later, Scott and I have been doing things since about 2010. Now we've been doing various things and we'll present an idea to each to one another. And the other guy will just say, yeah, that sounds good.

Let's go with it. Not like before where we're ready to throw down. I don't like that idea.

No, no more bickering. Oh, it's a whole different thing. It's much easier this way to much easier.

Well, I think as we all get older, we get a little more mellower, I would just say. There is no doubt that those little things that I used to think were so important that I don't even know what they are anymore. You know, it's not important.

So tell us a little bit about Dreamer. And did you and you and Scott do most of the writing or. And you did some you did some cappuccinos as well, right? Oh, yeah, we just when we when we played, yeah, you got to play the full club nights.

Our drummer, Rich Mahota, was also an excellent songwriter. He he didn't get out in front or anything. He sang a little bit, but he wrote some really nice songs.

He wanted to be Billy Joel and he really did write in that style. Sadly, he died about he passed away about 15 years ago. Just like so many friends that we, you know, you and I both have that that group lasted.

Dreamer was a lot of fun. We had a contract with Epic Records was on the table. It was it was ours to it was ours.

We were set to sign it. And then we had an event that happened. We were signed to play an 18 day tour with Heart.

And that was back when Heart was just really getting big. And the tour was to open at Poplar Creek. Remember, you guys remember Poplar Creek? Yeah, sure.

Back always. The actual date was August 23rd, 1982. And our equipment truck never, ever showed up for soundcheck.

And we never played the show. And Epic Records took the contract right off the table. Oh, wow.

Yeah, it was there's it goes a little deeper. But who is it? Who is in charge of that? Who is in charge of the truck getting there? Yeah, he lost his job. I'm taking it.

Well, I'll tell you, this is this is true. And this, you know, those mystery shows you see on TV, this should have been one of them. So this guy, I'll just get his first name was Chris.

Chris was our was our road manager. And he was amazing, by the way. I mean, he would back then he was just a guy who got everything right.

And you don't have to worry about it. I think Chris was on it. So this gig comes up and Chris is on it.

And all I know is this. OK, so I didn't have to worry about it because, you know, Chris was our guy. I get a call about three o'clock in the afternoon.

Back then there were no cell phones. It was at my apartment. And the guy backstage says, if we don't get your gear by five, the group can't go on.

And this was a Saturday. It was too late to rent anything. So it turns out and we don't know all the details and I'll never know that this guy just didn't show up.

I got a phone call. So we didn't play that night. Everything fell apart.

Got a phone call about three o'clock in the morning from the Downers Grove Police Department. My truck, which was was in my name with all the gear in it, was abandoned in a field near their high school. And they said, yeah, the doors were open and everything was in it.

But someone found it in a field. And this guy, Chris, never saw him again. Went to his apartment and it was empty, cleaned out, empty.

So we never we don't know what happened. Never found out. Truck abandoned his apartment, empty, never saw him.

And we never played. But your but your equipment was still on the truck. The back doors were open and everything was there.

Can you imagine that? Unbelievable. Yeah. Well, I mean, you're talking amps, keyboards, drums, every bit of it was guitars.

All of it was there. Jeez. That was lucky that part.

Yeah, really. It really was. Yeah.

We thought we would never see any of that stuff again is what we thought. But there it was, three o'clock in the morning. And there went the record contract to it right out there, right down the highway with wherever Chris went to.

So so on radio, the song that you had, you had that one on the Loop album. Oh, yeah, that was the right. Yeah.

And Rich Mahota wrote that one. Our drummer wrote that, too. OK, now, did you sing that? I sang, there was two parts, Anthony George sang the lead, he was our guitar player, and I sang the lead part of the chorus.

So that one, that one kind of sounds Elvis Costello-ish to me, you know, it's got it. Yeah, I don't know why. That's what I listened to it earlier today.

And that was my first impression. You know, at that time, it was probably 79 or 80 when that came out. So, you know, there may have certainly been some I know we were all Elvis Costello fans.

No doubt about that. Maybe they're just the influence came through. Yeah, I was thinking you needed it.

The Loop album came out, right? Yeah, that would make sense. Yeah, we weren't afraid to steal anybody's ideas. So so tell us now, how did you get to where you're at now, playing with the grassroots? OK, well, the way that came kind of came down.

So after Dreamer kind of went through this, I wanted to have a band that could I didn't want to have a job. So I wanted a band that could play all the time. And I figured it had to be 100 percent cover.

So that's what I set out to do. I put together the All Night News Boys and we did 100. Well, later on, we had it.

But at first, 100 percent cover. And I kind of when we did cover, I figured if you're doing it, go all in. So whatever song we were doing, I would try to emulate that vocalist, whatever, whether it was Sting or Don Henley or Alice Cooper or whatever we were playing.

I wanted to sound like that song on that record. So 15 years, I had the All Night News Boys before I moved to Florida and just kind of, you know, basically I stopped playing. So fast forward, moving to Florida here.

We were working with an agent out of Chicago when I had All Night News Boys, a guy named Jim Lenz, who used to be with, I think it was Tunesmith was his company. He and Dave Graff was there, I think. Right.

Yeah, I know Jim Lenz. So so I had I hadn't talked to Jim in a bunch of years, but it turns out Jim went out to an agency in in Ojai, California, a company called Paradise Artists. Paradise.

And and I didn't know that at the time, but I got a call. This would be in the toward the end of the 90s. Jim Lenz called me to fill in a couple of dates.

Well, he didn't tell me. He just said, how how how well can you sing the grassroots? Because he always used to think I sounded like the original artist. And I said, I said, grassroots, I know all their tunes.

They are one of my favorite pop groups. And he said, well, I got a gig on the weekend. If you can show up and sing, it might lead to more.

So I had four days to learn the entire set. And all I know is I showed up in San Francisco four days later and I did two shows that day with them. And I've been in the band ever since.

Wow. And you play bass with them that night, too? That night I did not play bass because but two weeks later, when I started playing bass, when they had when Rob Grill was Rob's toward the end of his career, he had a bass player and Rob would just stand there and sing. And I was doing I was filling in vocals only for this.

I see. And so they had a bass player. I think his name's Mike Steck.

He played a few shows. And then it was, you know, I was like, well, you know, the guys didn't even know I played bass. The guys in the band, they just know I came in to do vocals.

I said, you guys know I'm a bass player. They're like, what? And so we try to get in. I was like, as soon as I played, they were like, oh, no more Mike Steck.

Sorry, Mike. But I didn't want to just sing. I'm not comfortable as a singer.

I'm only comfortable when I have a guitar on and then I sing. Right. It's the strangest ever.

I've tried it. I cannot I'm just not comfortable with a mic in my hand. Yeah, well, that happens.

I know I know once you get in a certain situation and you're comfortable with it, that's that's the way you want to do it, you know? Yeah. Plus, I get that, you know, I'm not as skinny as I used to be so I can hide behind the bass a little bit. Yeah, we all have that problem, I think.

So tell us a little bit about some of your solo work. You've got a few CDs out there. I do the solo stuff that I do, so especially, you know, since joining the grassroots, it's I do things that are just different.

I don't I don't follow any kind of grassroots formula. You know, it's something we don't the grassroots do not record new music. Just to be very clear, there is you won't find anything ever new from the grassroots.

We only do the hit songs. Right. As far as mine, I just you know, I just I don't know what's called what you'd call it a singer songwriter stuff.

But I don't really follow a formula other than I'm very much a pop music fan. You know, verse, chorus, bridge type stuff. Right.

You know, it's pop songs with catchy melodies. That's that's all I try to do. Recently, I've done I've done two CDs with that are covering classic tunes and then putting just like two songs of my own.

Oh, but like my last full length original was at the end of 2016, I put an album out called Off the Grid. I'll never look behind me, I just got to get off the grid and grab what is mine, it's going to be another one of those days. When the skies go dark in the training road, I keep my head held high and my thoughts pure of gold and a little bit of love goes a long, long way.

And I really believe that's my best one that's ever worked, actually. I think it's even when I was a young, proficient stud, I thought this album was was even better. But I love doing the cover songs because I just kind of remake them, you know, reimagine them and, you know, do them however I feel at that time.

I kind of do that. It's been fun. OK, so you're not you're not you're not performing those live or anything, that was just some things you recorded and put out there.

Right. Well, when I do, I do play solo shows. I do house concerts, mostly where I don't know if you guys have done any of those, but those are they're just fun.

And they're, you know, somebody brings you to their home, you play for, you know, 35 or so people. It's so rewarding because it's it's silence. They sit there in silence, you know, and listen to what you say and what you write.

And, you know, you there's what you get the little stories. They love that. Right.

And then you play the song. And it's really nice because it's not like a party. It's not like playing at a party.

This is people sitting in chairs right there in front of you and waiting for what you're going to say next. And then when it's over, then their party begins. And I've been doing those for the last about the last three and a half years or so.

Do you play acoustic guitar when you do that? Right. I just, yeah, just bring a Martin guitar and a tiny little PA. In fact, I've done it.

You don't even need a PA. It depends on the room, you know, playing it. Yeah, it's nice.

And I'll do a couple of grassroots songs, you know, acoustic guitar. I think because people are maybe expecting something. But I play it toward the end.

Maybe play Let's Live For Today or Temptation Eyes, something like that. Those are always crowd pleasers wherever you play them. Well, yeah, because, of course, somebody said something to someone and you say, well, yeah, this guy's at the grassroots and you don't do anything.

They're going to be. Yeah. Why don't you play any grassroots songs? Well, you hired Mark Dawson.

You hired the grassroots. Right. So tell us a little bit about your show.

You're Making Noise with Mark Dawson Show. Every Thursday night, we do we go out live. We're syndicated.

So I've got five networks right now. But the live network that carries it on Thursday is they call it the Hall of Fame Music Network. But it's the home station is 107.5 Newcastle, Pennsylvania.

I don't know how. Don't even ask me because I don't remember how I got hooked up with people in Newcastle, Pennsylvania. Somehow I did.

And they offered me a spot for a radio show. And I remember the guy saying, so what do you want to do on your show? What kind of format? And I said, I really just want to play whatever songs I like. And he said, that sounds good.

And he says, you've got a demo. And I like I don't even know what a radio demo is, you know, to to get a job in a radio station. Right, right.

And I said, and I said, well, sure, I've got a demo that I looked it up on Google. So I'm just talking to him. And then I figure what they do.

And I put together a little fake demo. And three days later, he calls me back, says this is six years ago now. He says, when do you want to start? And that's it.

I've been started out with one station, but we're syndicated now. And we're we're in Pennsylvania. We're in South Carolina.

We're in Indiana. We're in Orlando, Florida. We're in Flagler Beach, Florida.

And the last one is we just added. I'm trying to think where it was now. It's in the northeast, but I can't remember which.

Oh, Plymouth, Massachusetts. Plymouth, that's where it was. Can we find it on the Internet? Yeah, that's the easiest way, in fact, because if you just look, the best way to find me is HOFMRadio, which is Hall of Fame Music and the Word Radio, HOFMRadio.com. And that leads, that's a live feed, you know, 24 hours a day.

I come on my program on that network is 8 p.m. Eastern Time, 7 Central, every Thursday night. And I do a two hour show. It airs on Saturday.

It airs a couple times on Sunday. And someone else airs it at which station? They air it on a Monday night also. So from Thursday to Monday.

But you can you can always stream and listen because it's archived. Every show is on my own website. It's archived at MarkDawson.us. So if you don't hear it live or if you don't catch the syndicated rebroadcast, my website always keeps it there as well.

Very good. Very good. I'm everywhere, guys.

You can't get rid of me. Where else can we find you? Anywhere else? On social media? On Facebook, I'm usually saying silly things on Facebook. I can attest to that.

You've seen a few. That's my wife's fault, by the way. She said, I don't know, a bunch of years ago, I would say goofy things or send her a text and she said, you should share that with your friends.

Like, nobody wants to hear that. And she said, no, not really. You should put it on Facebook or Twitter or whatever.

And just for the heck of it, I started doing it. And all of a sudden, I started getting just friend request after friend request over and over again just because they wanted to read those silly things. I went, all right, I'll keep thinking of you.

Keep reading them. And that's how it came down. They are quite entertaining.

Thanks. Now, we can just find a way to turn that into cash flow. You got that right.

And of course, people can find you on the grassroots website and Facebook page. They always link, grassroots would link to me. The Facebook thing, if you're on Facebook, you can look up Dawson Bass.

It's my last name plus B-A-S-S. And that'll take you right to my Facebook page. You don't have to friend me.

You can just read my bologna if you want. It's all there. So you've been out on a tour.

I'd be happy to get the tour several times and the Flower Power tour, correct? Oh, yeah. The cruise, I should say. Yeah, we're doing that one again.

Flower Power comes up again in March of 2020, that cruise does. I don't know if you guys are into cruises. I didn't used to be until Time Warner came up with that one.

And I'll tell you what, I'm speaking not only just as an artist or a musician on the ship, but actually as a visitor, as a fan of 60s and early 70s music. That is absolutely top notch, everything they do on that cruise. The acts they bring in, the crew, the front of house guys, the monitor guys, the stage guys, the equipment itself.

They bring equipment for 25 different bands on that ship. And everybody has exactly what's in every speck of the writers covered perfectly. I mean, it's like, I expect to share gear just because you're on a cruise ship.

No, these guys, they get your writer to a tee. And the nice part about it is that it looks and sounds great. The fans just can't get enough.

This is an expensive cruise. It's a lot more expensive than a standard cruise. But when you're giving 25 acts, most of them are name acts, people don't mind to pay a little bit extra.

They get seven days from 10 in the morning until midnight, seven days of real live 60s and 70s music. It's really an awesome, good time on that ship. Who are some of the groups that'll be on there? Let's see, we'll have the Association.

There'll be the Box Tops. We've got the Classics Four, the Buckinghams. Of course, you know the Buckinghams from Chicago.

Peter Noone with Herman's Hermits will be on there. The Yardbirds, the Hollies, the Zombies, Blood, Sweat, and Tears. It goes on and on and on.

Plus the Guess Who is also on there. I mean, as a fan, and I am a fan, I never sleep. But I'm not playing, I'm going from stage to stage to hear them.

And I know all these guys, but it's so much fun. And the atmosphere is, you can't beat it. You're out on the open seas, rocking and rolling.

It's not a bad thing. That sounds awesome. Sounds very good.

So you guys are keeping busy touring quite a bit, it seems like, of what I see on Facebook. Yeah, Grassroots, we have steadily increased over the last 10 years. Our shows have been, we've been getting more and more.

We're doing about 80 a year right now, about it. You know, give or take, maybe it's 76 or 82, I don't know. But we did about 80 shows for the year.

And it looks like 2020 is going to be about the same, you know, just mostly. Mostly, we don't do a lot of Midwest. Although I will be at the Arcata Theater on March, I believe it's March 14th.

I know it's a ways, but I always look forward to coming back to the Chicago area. We mostly get out on the West Coast or in the Northeast. We're in Philly and Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire and New York.

All the time, it seems like. But during the summer, we'll hit like, oh, we'll hit the Dakotas, always Upper Wisconsin and, you know, do things in Iowa and such. And we're forever in Las Vegas.

You know, I guess that comes with the territory. We're probably in Las Vegas six, seven times a year. Sure.

I don't mind being in Las Vegas. It's not a bad thing. It's just, we're always there.

Right, right. Now, of course, the group was nominated or inducted into the American Pop Music Hall of Fame, if I'm correct. Yeah, that was, I think it was 2016.

Interesting about that. We, you know, we were excited about it. And then they didn't have an official induction.

Well, they planned on one and then the building that they were constructing, I guess it's in the hometown of Bobby Vinton. When they got everything in order, I guess it all fell through. I don't know all the details, but they never did have an induction ceremony.

We got a piece of paper that said that the band was part of the America's Pop Music Hall of Fame, which is very cool because we were inducted along with the association, Barbara Streisand, Neil Sadaka. I mean, you know, there were some big names when we got in there. So I was very proud of that.

It was very nice. The reason I bring that up is because we're talking to you now from the Illinois Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which is planning on opening sometime next year. But they've got a setup for us here with microphones and phone hookup and what have you.

In order to do our podcast, we got linked up with them a few months ago. And maybe we can get Mark Dawson into the Illinois Hall of Fame at some point. You know what? I would love that.

You're hanging out with my old buddy Ron Romero out there, then, aren't you? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yeah.

I'm a charter member, by the way. I am a member of the Illinois Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because that is a wonderful movement. And I've talked to Ron about this a little bit.

Man, I know that strides are being made, and I know you guys got your building in order. And it's going up. And that is so cool that it'll actually become a reality.

I know Ron works hard on that, as everybody else involved does as well. I'm actually on the CD that they put out to raise funds, I don't know, maybe eight or ten months ago. Right.

Where they track on there. It was very nice of Ron to invite me to participate, and I was glad to do it. And if they could ever find a spot for people who didn't matter very much but really love Chicago and Illinois, then they could put me in there.

I'll take that little dark corner any day if it's got anything to do with rock and roll music. I'm in. Paul's band, Eminar Rush, they're on that CD along with you.

Right. Oh, yeah. You guys, was it Six Tune? Right.

We do Six Tune, correct. It was cool. I remember that because I've listened to it a few times, and that was a good surprise when that came on because I just put it in.

I didn't look at who was doing what. That's right. Well, I remember Dreamer from, of course, we were on the same album then, too, back in 1980 on the Loop album with you.

Right, that's right. But I remember the All Night Newsboys. I remember I also played in the Dancing Noodles, still playing in the Dancing Noodles.

But I remember seeing the All Night Newsboys a couple of times. I believe O'Reilly's daughter is somewhere on the south side. Oh, yeah.

We played O'Reilly's a lot. Yeah, many, many times. Well, it's been great talking to you, Mark.

Well, I appreciate you guys asking me and sharing a few stories. I miss my Chicago music days. I will say that.

Now, I do not miss the Chicago weather, and I'm not saying that it's a dig. I love my Chicago peeps, but you all need to come down to Florida to hang with me. Especially, you guys had like three or four inches of snow, I heard the other day.

It's a beautiful, sunshiny day here today. It's beautiful, sunny, but it's only about 37 degrees. Oh, man.

Well, it was 23 this morning when I got up. Oh, man. We were 92 yesterday.

I don't know what the temperature today is, but 92 is a little hot for October. Okay, I think we need to end this now. Hey, you started throwing numbers at me.

I miss my Chicago friends. Had great times and great musicians in that city, that's for sure. It's not like that where I live now.

It's not the same kind of music scene in this Central Florida region. I often say, I say this to my wife, and I'm so happy, and I always was honored to be a member of the grassroots and going on 13 years as a full-time member. But I say, if that didn't work out, if we didn't connect and be part of that, I couldn't find myself as being a part of this scene in Central Florida.

So anyway, I'm just glad that it came out the way it did, because I love working, and I give it everything I've got all the time, and always will. Same thing doesn't work down here with other folks, so I'll stay on the road. We appreciate all the music that you've given us and all the good times and everything else, believe me.

Well, thank you very much. It's always been my pleasure. You know, like I said, when I come back to Chicago, I get excited about it.

I know I'm going to see people from my past that are good people. So thank you guys for bringing it up again for me. I love it.

No problem. All right, well, thanks for taking the time out. Maybe we'll get a chance to see you up at the Arcata in March next year.

That would be cool. Let's chat before then, and we'll make sure we make it happen. That's with Gary Puckett and the Union Gap.

They're great. Thanks, guys. Really appreciate it.

Hope to see you soon. All right, Mark. Thanks.

You guys be good. Thanks, man. Well, I think Mark Dawson has the story of the day.

The story of the week, month, maybe, of the year. That's crazy. To have your roadie dump your truck with all your equipment and just disappear.

Yeah. I mean, being a professional roadie myself, I would never think of doing that. Because really, the gear we got isn't all that good.

Yeah. Thanks. Tell that to Marty.

But no, that's crazy. That's a great story, though. Yes, it is.

But unfortunately, they didn't get a record deal because of it. That hurts. I think he's been very fortunate.

He's been very busy throughout his whole career. He's played with many, many bands. And now he's with the grassroots.

He's got his radio program. He's a busy man. Yes, he is.

Yes, he is. He's a man. Make sure you guys go out and see him when they're in your area.

Grassroots, they're playing all over the place. So check their website. Check them out and go see them.

Tell them Paul and Ray sent you. That's right. And he said they're coming to the Arcata, right? In March, I believe.

March of 2020. So anybody in the Chicagoland area, check it out. They'll be there.

So otherwise, as usual, make sure you're liking us and following us on iTunes and Spotify and anywhere else you get your podcasts from. Like and share our Facebook page. Tell your friends.

Tell your enemies. I don't care. Tell somebody.

Tell somebody, please. Thank you. Thanks.

See you soon. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.