Hey, this is Paul Martin and Ray LaRodi for the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. How are you doing today, Ray? I'm doing dandy. How have you been, Paul? I've been doing pretty good.

Doing pretty good. That's great. What have we got going on this week? This week, we've got a lot of cold weather is what we've got.

Yeah, I noticed that. I noticed that. I'm not happy with this.

I should be in Cancun. Oh, well, did you go down there for that podcast? No. No.

No. No, I checked with our finance department and the moths said no. Yes.

Yes, they did. They fluttered and said they died right there. That's right.

They just fluttered away. That's your indication that they say no. That's right.

So, yeah, no Cancun right now. Maybe Florida later on this winter. Well, I tell you, this week, we are going to talk to Greg Potter.

Greg Potter, great, great animated drummer and now plays with the Buddy Rich Band. Wow. He's been with them for quite some time now, him and Kathy Rich.

Yes. Kathy Rich, I don't know the relationship, but we'll find out, I guess. I guess we will.

And as a matter of fact, Greg and I go way back in the days, but we'll talk about that, I'm sure, with him. All right. Sounds good.

Let's get to it and talk to Greg Potter right now. Here he is. Hey, this is Paul Martin.

And Ray the Roadie. For the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. Sitting down with us today is the legendary Greg Potter.

How's it going, Greg? That's the kind of introduction I was hoping for. When you use a word like that. I'm ready to go now.

Just in case you were like, oh, God, we ended up in a conference room somewhere in the basement. Exactly. In a stuffy suburb.

Oh, I see Potter's there. Is he getting his hair done? It's a nice building, though. How about it? I told you guys I was a doctor, right? My practice is right down here.

I'm sorry. Dr. Potter. Dr. Potter.

Legendary thing. Forget it. You've already set the bar.

The doctor's cool. So tell us a little bit about how you got started in music. I mean, I know you're doing the Buddy Rich thing with Kathy, which I'm sure is working out great for you.

Oh, God. How could that be going wrong? Oh, isn't your life just beautiful? Tell us about the Jets. Yeah.

Let's talk about the real stuff first. Okay. Because when you called me or you contacted me, how do we say it nowadays? We say someone called.

My God, you mean you didn't text him? No. I actually talked on the phone with Paul. Now, have I known this guy? Have I known the partner? Have I known him from the days? We've met before, a long time ago.

I mean, I'm not being rude. I'm just saying, because I'm going to say, or I talked a little bit to Paul about this, but actually, Paul and the M&R Rush juggernaut, they actually play a big part in the Greg Potter, like the story. You know, I mean, because you said, like, how'd you get your start? Well, yeah.

Coming to a theater near you. Right, right. Which will be a film.

Yes. As soon as we finish that Buddy Rich movie. Buddy Rich comes first.

Nothing wrong with that. No. The man has done, I mean, but we'll get into that later.

And we have, what, four hours? Yeah. Let me make it quick. But let me first give the props to them.

M&R Rush. I mean, you know the story, but early on, like I have, I have, I mean, not had, but older brother, and I was right out of high school and in a band called The Groove. Okay.

Because you said it's old Chicago stuff. So if we're talking about a Chicago band, someone might have seen us. That's right.

In a band called The Groove. And I figured out, I think I had said, because these are all Chicago stories, so when I drop Chicago names, you go, I may have talked to them already. Mark Dawson was in a band called Dreamer.

Right. And that was a big, when you're in high school and you hear about these clubs, and actually back in the day, early 80, well, late, late, early eight, 1980, 79, 80, whatever, clubs, nightclubs were actual, they were true breeding grounds to, you would see Cheap Trick. Oh, sure.

Sticks. M&R Rush. Aureo Speedwagon.

On a Tuesday night or something, too. Yes. Seven nights a week, you'd be able to go to.

Right. But I'm saying, so as a young kid right out of high school, me, you would hear, because I had an older brother who went to, and back then, I think you only had to be 19 or so to go to the Illinois Drinking Walk. Then you would go up to Wisconsin.

It was only, I think you had to be 11. Yes. 11 or 12, you could drink.

Go down to Arkansas, you could be six. Breathing. Yeah.

Just breathing, like, yeah, yeah. Bring the infants in. We got Van Halen and Kiss are playing on a Wednesday, whatever.

So my brother would come home, you know, he's a couple of years old, and he'd come home on whatever nights and tell me about these bands. I'm seeing these bands at a club. Yeah.

As you got older, holy cow, it's just a bar with a stage, but it was a club and you saw the, whatever, whatever. The atmosphere is a lot of it, yeah. Yeah, I mean, but it was, it was a thing, whereas you explain that to young people today, all they say is, well, do you have a video on YouTube? I've got 4 million views.

I threw up in the bathroom of a Taco Bell, and actually, I've gone viral. I mean, I had a virus at the Taco Bell, and I was throwing up, but my friend filmed it, and I actually got a four-picture deal with Paramount, and actually, Potter wants to play me in the film, you know. But this was back in the day when you did this thing called work to find your way.

So my brother would tell me these stories about these clubs, and he would see bands, whatever. So Mark Dawson at that time is in a band called Dreamer, and M&R Rush, Dreamer. You guys are playing, you're playing the circuit in these joints, and my brother had seen you guys, but I'm saying, right, I'm just saying, Dawson now was our, with my, through my brother and the older guys, because we were already in a band, you know, playing in the basement, but your next step, other than playing youth centers and the high school gym, you wanted to get into these clubs, but you had to be 19 or 20.

I'm 16. I'm a younger version of what you see here. How many names am I supposed to drop in this thing? As many as you want.

All right, because of all the clean living, because there are really no drugs or anything involved in me for all these, I remember, like, there's no, like, oh, I had a cloudy, I remember everybody, guy's name was Dan Cavanaugh. Oh, yeah, sure. Okay.

Yeah, give it. So through Dan, so Mark Dawson says, you know, I got this young band, you know, it was my, more so my brother. I wasn't quite the, I overplayed and made sure I had a good, the bass player, Glen Potter, bass player, Phil Dorner on keyboards and singing, and a kid named Danny Sabo.

Okay. Remember Lee Popa? Does that mean? Oh, sure. Yeah.

Okay, so it was, Lee Popa was always around us too, but he didn't play, but he worked with Dreamer, and Danny Sabo was one of his buddies, all from like the Lions, Berwyn. Lee Popa mixed up in Irish for quite a while. Exactly.

So I'm saying we, all these people were all influential in getting Potter out of that high school gymnasium and into, actually, no, that's, this is where the magic happened. So Dan Kavanaugh goes, yeah, you know, other than booking Dreamer, I'd book M&R Rush, and you guys were basically the Van Halen of like gigging. You know what I mean? Say if Dreamer played 10 gigs a week, M&R Rush did 35 gigs a week, and you guys were still getting more.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you guys would play in the afternoon, then at night, then go home and like write more songs, and then, oh yeah, we're doing four more gigs tomorrow, whatever.

So Kavanaugh was like, if you guys want to play M&R Rush, Dan Kavanaugh gets the groove. A young Potter, imagine me at 16, I'm pretty, I mean, at whatever age I am now, I look like I'm... How long were you playing drums at that point? Oh, at that, I'm one of those guys that played the drums like ever since... Yeah, you were coming out of the womb? Yeah. I had like uncles, and like my uncle, you know, my mom's brothers, I mean like, you know, family members, because my family isn't, like when we get to the Kathy Rich portion of my story, when you hear her tell stories, it's like, oh, I could see how that happened.

You know what I mean? But like for me, my dad's selling car parts, you know what I mean? And my, Kathy comes from music, you know, background, when she talks about music, it's going to be a little bit different than me. But me, I was just, I was one of those guys, uncles, cousins, had drum sets in their basement, and what kid doesn't... You always put the kid behind the drums, and you watch him. Well, I happened to be one of those kids that sat down, and they went, whoa, looks like this guy might have a little bit of, you know, I mean, I had like... A little rhythm, huh? Yeah, like a rhythmic, and I took to it.

So then as, you know, I would say, what, four, five, six, you know, I'm a little guy, and then like, are we, you know, I would continue to play, continue to play. My parents saw it. I mean, I always think I had very supportive parents, you know, like supporting the arts and supporting, so I mean, had drums.

I didn't get my, you know, I had the drum set from Sears, which is where everyone starts. Oh, sure, sure. See, for the young listeners, they don't even know what a Sears is.

No, no. Sears was like a... A catalog, too? Actually got it from the catalog store. Oh, yeah.

On Archer Avenue, by Midway Airport. Oh, sure, great. They used to have the Sears outlet, where you would go where all the stuff that people had returned.

I got the full Sears drum set that you would have seen in the catalog for $299, the whole drum set, $35. Nice, nice. They never delivered me a floor tom.

Oh. They told me somewhere. My parents got ripped off for 35 bucks.

I think we made all right. Yeah. They paid for a floor tom.

A blue sparkle floor tom never showed up. So, at some point, when they do the movie and they're redoing it, if you see that there's a blue floor tom in the movie as a youngster, false. I'm telling you right now.

Fake news. Fake news. Nothing wrong with that.

I was making drumming great again back then. Exactly. So, I ended up with the red floor tom to go with the red hat.

So, but yeah. So, I had this. So, and that would be out throughout my, you know, young years.

So, Dan Cavanaugh. So, Dan Cavanaugh. Because, remember, I'll spin this thing.

You kind of will hope or wish I did do drugs so they could settle me down. So, you got Cavanaugh getting this band. Who put a quarter in this guy? Who put a quarter in this guy? Well, you realize I am in a hurry.

Kathy's probably got four pairs of shoes already ordered that I've got to go pick up for her. So, through Cavanaugh, we started this band. With me in it.

My brother and the guys we just talked about. Lee Popa doing sound for us and driving his. Someone had a van.

Whatever. Gets us out. And we get out with.

We played a couple shows with Dreamer. Southside Clubs. And then we played Gordon Tech High School with the M&R Rush.

Yeah. Now, you guys didn't open up. What tune did you? You didn't open up what Reach for the Stars.

But I remember the second tune. You're the only woman. Yeah.

We still do it. Like I was saying. Yeah.

What did you guys open with? Well, we probably. We opened with a few different things. But we probably opened with a Queen tune.

Now, I'm here. No. No.

No. It was an original. Whatever.

So then, you're the only woman. Whatever. I remember that.

But I'm at Gordon Tech High School with this band called The Groove. And Roman. Yeah.

Is working. Works for us. Yeah.

I mean, I don't know if he was. Yeah. He was like.

At that point, he would have been. I think he would have still been. What is it? Cartoon Teenage Radiation or whatever.

Yeah. Roman was there. Yeah.

Playing with Steve Dahl. Approaches me at that gig. And said, you know.

Yeah. And at that point, I really didn't. And if you played.

I played. The Groove played first. I mean, our rush came on.

I heard those songs. Because we had continued playing with you guys for a while. And then I, you know, threw out that.

This would have been in March of 1980. So, I mean, we played with you. And then.

But the Steve Dahl thing happened through me being with them in our rush. Because I would not have. I don't know if I would have met Roman.

Right. And he saw me at Gordon Tech High School. Which is way on the north side of Chicago.

So, what are you Southsiders doing on the north side? Oh, we used to play. We used to play all over. Oh, you played.

Like I said. You were the Van Halen of. I mean, you guys toured like.

Yeah. Like. You played everywhere.

But Roman saw me there. And basically, I think I was a Friday night. And then I played the next Friday at a Steve Dahl breakfast club at the Carnegie Theater.

So, I mean, the gig happened. It wasn't a long drawn out process. I mean, Roman called me.

Hey, we need a drummer. Yeah. They had some guy from.

They had Jeff Brown. He was the drum teacher at that music store in Lansing. The music lab.

Oh, right. So, I dropped names. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay. But I'm just saying. And then, God rest his soul, I believe Mike Powers was the bass player at that time.

Right, right. Who then went on to work for Gibson. No.

Or Mike Powers guitars. Right, right. Well, he worked for Peavey.

And then he worked for Gibson, I know. Right. But I mean, so it was Mike Powers on bass.

Don Melton on keyboard. Roman on guitar. And then I played.

I mean, I was, you know. Teenage Radiation. Early on.

Right. Like, the first one I recorded was Another Kid in the Crawl. So, Daisy would have still been pretty high in the news.

So, that would have gotten me. From the high school to what Steve Dahl went after. I think Steve Dahl.

Forget about it. Right. That stuff, that exploded for me.

I went from Dahl. I mean, where do we want to go from there? You played with Teenage Radiation. From 1980 through 86 until Dahl finally.

Yeah. He finally wrapped it up. I mean, I went from high school to being on the radio and doing some pretty cool things.

So, to me, you know, all of us did. I mean, that was a pretty cool gig. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I don't know how deep we want to get into that. Yeah, yeah. But I just wanted to get into that Eminor Rush was, were there in the beginning.

Like, if I had that gig now, I would, I'd have a different perspective. But, I mean, I was an actual, I was right, I mean, I got, I graduated from high school. I was double promoted.

So, I got out young. Yeah. And I had started, I started at Roosevelt University, Chicago Music College.

Okay. At Roosevelt University downtown. So, I'm already going to college studying music.

So, to go, I'm studying, you know, with the head percussion professor from the Chicago Symphony. Yeah. And I tell him I'm doing, I'm playing with Steve Dahl.

Yeah, yeah. You know, we were playing a wonderful gig. I didn't say we're getting paid.

I said we're getting, we're playing these. So, going back now and talking to these percussion instructors in school and stuff. How did you get that gig? My time with that was the recording sessions we recorded at all the best studios.

CRC downtown on Michigan Avenue. I mean, and then you're, basically you would record the song, what, like on a Wednesday night and Dahl's playing it on the radio. Yeah.

Thursday morning. I mean. Yeah.

Stuff that nowadays, you, I don't know that that would ever happen. All right. If it would happen, who would hear you now? Because, like, we were joking about.

Well, I mean, back in the day, I mean, AM radio was a big thing, you know. We recently interviewed the Cried Shames. And they said they recorded something and left the studio and heard it 20 minutes later playing on WLS.

I mean, just that, but it was the same idea that you're talking about. Yeah. The next morning, you're on the radio with Dahl.

But I'm saying that also back at that time, when you were on the radio, it meant something. Nowadays, we have these things, you know, I'm also involved in them. The rock and roll fantasy camps.

You've ever heard of those? It's like where people with extra money, you know what I mean? Because they're quite expensive. Yeah. But they give you what you want.

And that same deal with, say, like VIP packages. Think about it. When we were younger, what you would have to have your girlfriend do to get you a backstage pass.

Yeah. I meant that in a nice way because this might be a kid show. But I'm just saying, nowadays, if you can pay for it, you could meet Gene Simmons.

Right. You could pay him enough. He'll come to your house and deliver some kind of vault filled with, you know, unreleased kiss material.

I think it's like 50 Gs. Kiss candles or something. Yeah.

But, I mean, think about it. So, yes, you're right. It's good to be rich or something.

It's good to be king or something. But I'm just saying, when we were doing this stuff or my time with teenage radiation, you know, early 80s, you didn't have all that. So, when you recorded something and you heard yourself on the radio and, basically, what was Dahl's listening audience? And he was, you know, remember, this would be before Howard Stern.

This would be before. Dahl was the guy. I mean, Dahl is, I mean, that's another thing that, you know.

He's at the Loop at that time. He's at the Loop, right. Wasn't he? That was the top station.

In the country at that time. Right. Because, you know, I do, you do look, well, like, say, when I talk to Kathy.

Not a Chicago person, Midwestern, from L.A., from New York. You talk about Steve Dahl to her. She, her reference point, well, then again, she doesn't even know when I mention these great Chicago bands, how that's the greatness of a Chicago.

But, unfortunately, it's, you are kind of nestled away in the center of the country. And, yes, New York is hot. L.A. is hot.

And we knew about the Knack in New York. But did we know about Pesban here in Chicago? You know, L.A. or New York gave you Blondie. Did we know about Off-Broadway? Yeah.

I mean. Although great bands. Although great bands made records and stuff.

But I'm just saying, it was just. But they know Disco Demolition. There you go.

So, they know Disco Demolition. And they might even know the parody songs. Dahl did.

Oh, yeah. He had. He had the medium, too, that put him out there.

Yes, he did. His Perfect Storm was his Perfect Storm. So, I'm saying, for me to be plucked out of a suburban high school and sat down on a drum throne.

Yes, I had already won the Slingerland Louis Bellson National Drum Contest. Right. I was going to ask you about that.

I didn't know how to play the drums. And, you know, blah, blah. But to go from just.

Well, like I said. I haven't said it yet. But when I did win that drum contest.

It would be the year before Steve Dahl. And all the Slingerland Drum Company executives are there. Where was that at? I ended up winning the.

I won first at Frank's Drum Shop downtown. And then the regionals. I didn't win the whole event.

The whole event. Someone else won it. But.

We see who the winner is. You can't win them all. Exactly.

I said. I'll tell you that story is even funnier. When I tell you about winning it.

Whatever. So, that's Frank's Drum Shop down in Wabash where they had it. Slingerland Drum Company was right in Niles, Illinois.

Right. But when I won in. When I went to the regionals.

Which were held at. What's the college in Palatine? Harper College in Palatine. All the executives are there.

The president of Slingerland. The marketing people. And they're like.

Kid. You've. Yeah.

You got some stuff going on here. When something happens for you. We're going to be here for you.

And you're a kid. Yeah, I know. Are we going to eat now? Yeah.

I still get the sticks, right? Yeah, Mr. Potter. You get the pair of sling on. And you could meet Louie Belson.

Yeah. I'll tell you that. That is a pretty good story though.

Hold on. But whatever. That would have been June of 79.

The doll thing goes on in March of 80. Right. So.

I get a phone call from the head of. God rest his soul. Rick Piccolo is his name.

He was the head of. Big Steve Doll fan. He goes.

Are you the same Greg Potter? Steve Doll. Yeah. You know.

Talking about on the radio. What do you want? And he was from. I'm sorry.

He was. He was like. A big head of engineering marketing at Slingerland Drum Company in Niles.

So, yeah. So now you've not only taken the kid out of the high school. But now basically the man's on the phone going.

Yeah. You're the same guy that. But.

Yeah, that's me, man. Why? What do you want? What? We got to make you something. And that's how they came up with that.

That teenage radiation drum set. The big black and yellow. Do you remember? Big double bass.

Because doll was like. Well, seeing that you're only four feet tall. Yeah.

Let's get you that. You know, get. You know.

I was telling doll. Yeah, Slingerland wants to make us something. Well.

And I came up with the concept of. If you've ever seen the Godzilla movies. The first Godzilla movie.

They're pushing drums of radioactive material off the back of a boat. The movie was in black and white. But from what it looked like.

They were. Probably yellow. The radiation symbol.

Yeah, the radiation symbol. And then they were yellow with a black stripe on it. So, that's the concept of where I came up with the black and.

And then. You know, the Slingerland guys. I just thought those were the same Sears drums.

I don't know. Sears drums. That story's another one.

The Sears drums have been put away. They're in storage. You can see them.

Oh, God. Yes. And you still have the teenage radiation drums.

Everything. Yeah, good. That's like nowadays.

See, now that it's later. Yeah. I think that's called hoarding.

And then. We're going to get this reunion together. Oh, God.

Only if they're piled in your kitchen. Or something is called hoarding. Well, I have storage space that I could be paying.

I could be paying. I could be paying a payment on a Bentley. Instead, I'm keeping all.

But, yes, I have. Because, remember, I had the yellow and black teenage radiation kit. Then, for the television shows, Slingerland made.

They were making the black drums with the gold hardware. So, black and yellow with the clock in the bass drum for the television show. You remember H2O? Yeah, yeah.

Slingerland didn't do the clock in the bass drum. That was done by, I think, Ken Heineman came up with that concept. Because they needed to shoot.

Because it was a morning television show. They needed to tell people what time is. Because it's whatever.

But they put the clock on the bass drum. I still have the bass drum on the clock. People knew when to leave for work.

Yeah. Is that what it is? But, yeah. So, yeah, the Slingerland thing happened.

So, yeah, my time with those gigs. And you're still sponsored by Slingerland? No, unfortunately, Slingerland went the way of teenage radiation. Slingerland's no longer.

I'm now a Ludwig guy. Because Buddy Rich. Buddy Rich played Slingerland back in the day.

Buddy played Slingerland through the 70s. But then he was a Ludwig guy, 77 through 85. He passed away in 87.

So, Ludwig makes me replica drum sets of what Buddy played. That's as close as we're going to get to real. Well, how does drums look like? Because, I mean, it's not like I'm playing like Buddy, or I look like Buddy, or even smell like Buddy.

Although, I do try to spray, like the actual cologne the man wore. Well, I mean, because Kathy's like a treasure trove of, I'd go to Kathy's mom's house, I'd go to the house in Palm Springs, and I'd put on Buddy's, like, robe, Buddy's clothes. I'd walk about, like Norman Bakes, you know, but he would wear his mother's clothes.

But Potter, go to the third person when I go into the nutty stuff. But I'd put on Buddy's robe, and Kathy's mom would say, like, what is he doing? And I'd say, what coffee mug did Buddy use? Because that's another thing. You go, like, to Buddy's, like, go to her mom's house.

We'll take all the stalker stuff out. We'll edit that out. Yeah.

Well, the mom knows. But, I mean, you go to their house, you don't even know that that's, like, Buddy Rich's house. Like, I was thinking, like, you'd go into, like, well, there'd be drums in that room.

Yeah. There's, like, one picture on the wall of, like, Buddy and his, you know, like, Buddy and maybe Kathy's mom. Like, one picture of him.

And Kathy's, like, well, that's at the Forum in L.A. or somewhere, like, when he was playing with Frank Sinatra. But, I mean, no drums. It's, like, just a picture of Buddy in a, you know, great tuxedo and Kathy's mom's all from, like, 1981 or two or something.

But no drums in the house. No. Yeah.

You know what I mean? Like, if you go to, I don't know, you go to. . . Well, yeah, but. . . Wouldn't all that.

. . Yeah, I mean, you go to my house, you don't find guitars lined up. Oh, you don't? Like, there's not, like, if, like, I don't know, your kid's kid. . . I got a little room in the basement that, you know, I keep all my stuff.

Still, there's. . . I'm talking, you go to Buddy's. . . You know, the house that was in Palm Springs.

There was nothing. Yeah. And, but, Kathy will even say, first of all, when Buddy was alive.

Kathy said, well, my dad came home. You didn't know he was Buddy Rich Eilish. He didn't come home and.

. . Well, didn't he practice on the. . . Kathy, I'm just looking at you. Yeah.

He worked 300 and. . . 320 days. He was, like, the.

. . He was the M&R Russian drummer. This guy played. Like, Kathy's.

. . You'll see schedules. See, you know, we. . . There's stuff around the house that I see.

Like, the man's schedule. Because back then, the schedule was written like that. Yeah.

No computer printouts. You know what I mean? It was like the man. . . Someone wrote these things.

And you would see a schedule of Buddy. One-nighters. On that bus or flying.

Just. . . Yeah, everywhere. A month of August.

Like, 1983. August of 83. Buddy did, like, in the month of August, 27 dates.

Wow. So, I mean, that means I'm playing. Be it high school.

Or be it. . . You know, because. . . The guy would play, like, a command performance for the queen.

At the London Palladium. Get on an airplane. You know, land in New York.

Get on a bus. And drive to Nebraska. And play a high school.

Right. I mean, Kathy said he just. . . The man works.

His work ethic is. . . Is something to be. . . But getting back to.

. . Yeah. So, I was wearing Buddy's clothes. Walking around the house.

And the mom says. . . Would you please tell Greg to stop? So, that's what happened. But.

. . So. . . Now you're. . . Now you're.

. . By Ludwig. So, I'm a Ludwig guy. And I have fake Buddy Rich drums.

And there's also a company right here in Chicago called Trick. Trick Drum Company makes a Buddy Rich snare drum. So, you can get.

. . It's not. . . It's a replica in that. . . Because.

. . Something that you find. . . Like, when you. . . Because people are into this vintage stuff.

Vintage. Vintage. I want stuff from.

. . Well, you being a musician. Or. . . You're a musician.

Like. . . A 64 Corvette. Right.

Doesn't drive like a. . . 20. . . No, no. 19.

. . Corvette. So. . . Same with these drums.

. . Guitars. . . You get an old. . . Something.

It's a great piece to look at. And. . . It probably costs more.

. . Than the car you're driving. Right. To have this.

. . Les Paul. Or this. . . Drum set.

But. . . To take the thing out. . . And play.

Yeah. Yeah. Odds are.

. . It's not going to play. And feel. . . So.

. . What we're doing with this. . . Trick. . . Buddy Rich Centennial Snare Drum.

. . Uh. . . Cause. . . Buddy was 100 years old.

. . Um. . . 2017. So.

. . Um. . . It's something you can play today. Oh.

Okay. Drives like a new car. . . But.

. . Right. Right. Looks like a vintage.

. . Right. Piece of gear. . . So.

. . That. . . And. . . Same with the.

. . Ludwig drums. . . The technology is so. . . Techno.

. . Like the. . . Yeah. . . The drums.

. . Cause. . . You know. . . I've played on.

. . You know. . . There were real. . . Buddy Rich drums.

. . Around the house. . . But. . . First of all.

. . You don't want to. . . Take those out. . . And.

. . Touch them. . . But. . . I'm saying.

. . But. . . You've. . . The.

. . Drums are. . . A vintage drum. . . Doesn't feel.

. . Like what they do. . . The. . . The drums today.

. . Are. . . The Ludwig stuff. . . Is absolutely wonderful.

. . And. . . Then. . . This.

. . Drum. . . I mean. . . I don't know.

. . How deep into my equipment. . . But. . . Yeah.

. . I use. . . I just. . . Who's your cymbal company? I'm a Sabian.

Sabian. Yeah. . . So.

. . Yes. . . Buddy never played Sabian. . . He was always a Zildjian guy.

. . But. . . I've been with Sabian. . . From.

. . Remember. . . I had a career. . . Right.

. . Prior to this Buddy Rich thing. . . Right. . . So.

. . I am. . . Those people. . . Have been with me.

. . Sabian has been with me. . . Or I've been with them. . . You know what I mean? So it wasn't just.

. . I've got to do everything that Buddy did. . . I mean. . . It's not that.

. . I mean. . . We're. . . We are true to the.

. . You want to be respectful of it. But I wasn't going to jump. . . From a cymbal company.

. . That's been with me. . . Right. . . For almost.

. . Fifteen. . . Twenty years. . . I've been with Sabian.

. . Yeah. . . Now that I finally get a decent. . . So.

. . I mean. . . They too. . . And.

. . Zildjian and Sabian. . . I don't know how. . . Music.

. . Music geek. . . We want to get into it. . . But.

. . They are very closely related. . . Yeah. . . Actually.

. . It is the same family. . . Okay. . . The.

. . Zildjian. . . Brothers split up. . . And.

. . I see. . . One took the family recipe here. . . And one went there.

. . Yeah. . . So I'm saying. . . When you play a Sabian.

. . They're not the same. . . Right. . . But they're cymbal.

. . Cymbals are made in different weights inside. . . Yeah. . . So I'm saying.

. . They made me like. . . What Buddy would have played. . . Yeah.

. . Like I said. . . We try to be true to that. . . Because.

. . Once I sit down and play. . . You go. . . Oh, my God.

. . Where's Buddy when you need him. . . And. . . This.

. . This guy's got all the equipment. . . But. . . Now.

. . Speaking of going back. . . Yeah. . . And being with Sabian for a while.

. . Yeah. . . Let's talk about. . . What you did play.

. . Or who you did play with. . . After Teenage. . . And you were a band called Siren.

. . That would have been. . . Well. . . There's more references.

. . Or more. . . Drop more names. . . At the end of.

. . Teenage Radiation. . . You remember Johnny Skender. . . Bass player.

. . Sure. . . Played. . . Played with Teenage Radiation.

. . Johnny Skender and I. . . Went to high school together. . . Yeah. . . Same birthday.

. . Oh, really. . . Well. . . I'm a year younger than Skender.

. . Okay. . . But. . . All August 19th.

. . And then I can't. . . I don't know how much of the next. . . But.

. . I'll be working with someone. . . Who also has my same birthday. . . But I can't really get into that.

. . Okay. . . But we'll figure it out. . . And.

. . We'll add it as a. . . All right. . . Amendment later. . . All right.

. . But another. . . Another birthday similarity. . . But.

. . Yeah. . . So Skender and I. . . Started playing with. . . You remember Tommy G. . . Tommy Gwenda from Pez Band.

. . Oh, sure. . . Sure. . . And there were these.

. . Tommy. . . Blind guy. . . Blind guy.

. . We talked about it. . . Right. . . There's Mimi.

. . Yeah. . . Mike Gorman. . . Yeah.

. . Tommy G. . . And Nick Rain on drums. . . Exactly. . . L.A. had The Knack.

. . We had Pez Band. . . Right. . . So.

. . And Kathy loved The Knack. . . Yeah. . . She was in L.A. at that point.

. . So her and Bruce Gary. . . And you know. . . Bruce Gary the drummer.

. . Yeah. . . She knew him. . . Yeah.

. . But we had Pez Band. . . Yeah. . . Yes, we did.

. . So me. . . Skender. . . Tommy G. . . Started.

. . Jamming. . . Yeah. . . Full clam.

. . Tommy G. goes. . . Hey, I've got these three sisters. . . They sing beautiful harmonies.

. . Because they're sisters. . . In the same family. . . Yeah.

. . I mean. . . The vocal chords are probably the same. . . But they did.

. . The Lennon sisters. . . Like. . . The Lennon.

. . Right. . . But these were the Massey sisters. . . Okay.

. . So. . . Kristen. . . Claire.

. . And Kath. . . Three sisters. . . Up from the.

. . You know. . . North side. . . Tommy G. . . We put a group together.

. . Called. . . VVS One. . . This would have been like.

. . Late 80's. . . Okay. . . We do this.

. . VVS. . . VVS One. . . Like a diamond.

. . The one sister. . . Worked at a. . . Jewelry store downtown. . . So.

. . VVS One. . . The scale of diamond. . . Whatever it was.

. . Okay. . . Whatever. . . But.

. . Where it happens is. . . So you got Tommy G. . . On guitar. . . Skender playing bass.

. . Me playing drums. . . And these three girls singing. . . So we start playing.

. . And we go and do these. . . We go do a demo tape. . . Because Tommy G. . . Was.

. . Brilliant. . . When it came to recording. . . Back in the day.

. . We actually set the drums up. . . Tommy G. . . Worked for DB Sound. . . Up in.

. . Arlington Heights. . . Whatever. . . Big warehouse.

. . Yeah. . . So. . . All those stories of.

. . Yeah. . . Zeppelin got drum sounds. . . In a. . . In a. . . Castle somewhere.

. . Yeah. . . We got our drums. . . In the DB Warehouse.

. . Oh. . . I mean. . . But it was.

. . Tommy G.'s. . . Brilliance. . . Using live. . . Sound.

. . Technology. . . But then recording it. . . You know what I mean.

. . So. . . Right. . . We got.

. . Whatever. . . It was that kind of. . . But we made this demo tape.

. . I think it had probably. . . Eight songs on it. . . The three girls singing.

. . Us playing. . . Is it all original stuff? . . All original stuff. . . That's what I mean.

. . It's a demo. . . That Tommy wrote. . . It was written by.

. . Tommy G. . . The girls. . . I mean. . . I dare say.

. . I did. . . We did a demo tape. . . But no.

. . I didn't get any. . . Writing credits. . . But I. . . I was there.

. . Throughout it. . . The band splits. . . Two of the sisters.

. . And Tommy G. . . Go on to form a band. . . Called. . . The Tammy Show.

. . Oh yeah. . . I remember that. . . Me.

. . Skender. . . The one sister. . . Kristen.

. . Who. . . At this point. . . Working with.

. . Dr. Robert Haas. . . Do you remember. . . The author of.

. . The Eat to Win Diet? . . Okay. . . Alright. . . This guy is an amazing.

. . Musician. . . Along with being a. . . Not a. . . I mean. . . Not a doctor.

. . Maybe a doctor. . . But a nutritionist. . . But he was famous for writing.

. . The Eat to Win Diet book. . . Then he went on to write. . . The book.

. . Which Sheriff Forever Fit. . . Whatever. . . This demo tape.

. . Has now got. . . The Tammy Show over here. . . Yeah.

. . And a group called. . . Siren. . . Over here.

. . Yeah. . . Me. . . Skender.

. . The health author. . . And. . . Kristen Massey.

. . Gets Siren. . . Get a record deal. . . On Mercury.

. . Guitar player. . . He was a guitar player. . . Plays like.

. . Played like. . . Van Halen. . . Yeah.

. . Yngwie. . . Real intricate. . . Beautiful.

. . And again. . . Like a. . . Or not again. . . But he's a recording whiz.

. . Like a Tommy G. . . But more of like a. . . Right. . . A Florida. . . Health version.

. . Tennis player. . . And Tommy G. . . Is a. . . Yeah. . . Chicago.

. . Yeah. . . Right. . . Okay.

. . They took. . . Yeah. . . Okay.

. . And if you. . . If you look on the credits. . . Cliff Johnson gets writing credit on that.

. . Do you remember Cliff Johnson had a band. . . After Off-Broadway called. . . U.S.S.A.? Oh.

. . Yeah. . . All right. . . That's right.

Yeah. . . And with a guitar player named Pete Comita. . . Yeah.

. . Okay. . . So it was. . . So the writing credit on All Is Forgiven.

. . Is Cliff Johnson. . . Pete Comita. . . Robert Haas.

. . Kristen Massey. . . So there, that band is so Chicago and got so much Chicago-age in it. So All Is Forgiven was the first single off that All Is Forgiven album, which, you know, did decent.

We were on MTV tour. We did everything we were supposed to do. Tammy's show ended up, I don't know, I mean, I don't know, I guess at this point we can maybe battle it out and see who's got more YouTube hits or something.

But I'm just saying, that one demo tape, after Teenage Radiation, we toured, the album came out in 89, toured, and then, as with everything else, we had a song on the My Stepmother's an Alien soundtrack, One Good Lover It Was Called, and we were... I was going to ask you about that, and you had a little bit of a film career, too, at the time, didn't you? Yeah, the movies came up, I got into the movies during my Steve Dahl time, like 84, 85. I was in Lucas, and like when they were filming movies here in Chicago, like crazy, we had those goofy Steve Dahl television shows. Do you remember The Morning Show? Sure, go ahead.

Do you remember? He had like, he had the... Where'd you do that? In Joliet, at someone's house. Yeah, I thought so. But then we also had one, like a cable show, whatever.

I was on TV, and the casting agents here in Chicago, you know, I was, you were like older, but you played young. Well, that worked out for me. I was already like, what, 55 years old, I looked like I was 12, so this was excellent.

Padraig the Ebony Tent, because I was in, like when I was in Lucas, it was me, Corey Heim, God rest his soul, some kid named Charlie Sheen, Jeremy Piven, Winona Ryder, I'm the only idiot that said, no, no, I'm going to be a drummer. I should have stayed in the... Did they make it big? I don't know, one's already dead from heroin. I mean, Charlie Sheen's still alive.

Charlie Sheen's still alive, but poor Corey Heim's already dead. Well, we know Charlie Sheen's past, yeah. But when I knew Charlie Sheen, no, Charlie Sheen didn't even have a car when he was doing Lucas.

At that time, I had the car, because I was already playing. Actually, Charlie Sheen came to see us with Steve Ballantyne, Age of Radiation, we were playing on Archer Avenue, place looked like a castle. Do you remember concerts at the joint? It looked like a castle on Archer, like in Le Mans or Willow Springs? Willow Springs.

Not Willow Springs, but it was like a castle. We were doing Lucas, Charlie Sheen, and they came out and hung out with us. So I'm saying, yeah, Charlie Sheen was just an up... He had not done... He got big after the Vietnam movie.

You know what I'm talking about. You smell that? Is that the one? It wasn't Apocalypse Now. But I'm saying he became a quote-unquote movie star, like after that.

So it went from, Potter, can I borrow your car, to actually... The guy that used to take... The guy from The Groove, Phil Dorner, who took care of my drums, started hanging... He called me from... One time, he called me from Malibu. He's like, yeah, I'm at Charlie Sheen's house, so if you call me back, you got to use a password to get... Oh, really? Like those movie stars back then? Yeah, wow. Like you'd call... Didn't have cell phones back then, but you would call.

You'd call him. And they just picked the phone up, and if you didn't say the password, they didn't talk to you. So you'd have to call.

So I called my buddy at Charlie Sheen's house in Malibu. You'd have to go like, pumpkin. And then when they heard the password, hey, what's going on, hey, yeah, what's going on? I mean, nowadays, you got this thing called, I guess what, caller ID or whatever.

But back in the day... But yeah, so then he took my... So the guy that hung out with me and traveled with me, did the drums, set up the drums, he was like hanging out with Charlie Sheen. He called me from... Charlie Sheen was a big basketball fan, so he called me like from the Lakers playing. Lakers game? Yeah, well, no, they would fly from the... They were going to... The Lakers were playing in Philadelphia.

So he's like, damn, I'm on the plane. But this was back... Nowadays, I call my mom from London. I mean, I'm talking back in 85 or 86 to be like on the plane or giving passwords on the phone.

You're like, really? Yeah. That's pretty cool. You know? So, but yeah, so that... So yeah, I did movies for a couple of years, but then actually, my last film was to be Uncle Buck.

And Uncle Buck, I got that role right when the Siren album was being released. And I had a problem. I was forced to... Basically, the album was being released, would be February of 89.

And they were filming Lucas. I mean, filming Uncle Buck here in Chicago. I would have played the Jay Underwood.

I would have been John Candy's niece's boyfriend. And I actually, you know, still live with my parents, I'm hanging out, I get a phone call. It's Dick Asher, the president of Polygram Records.

Hey, we heard you're doing a movie. I think he's calling me to congratulate me. Because nowadays, it's like, God, I'm a heroin addict.

I do movies. I'm also a yoga instructor, and I've got 14 billion views on YouTube. My God, he's the star.

I think I'm getting a congratulatory call. He's like, is there going to be a problem with you being in LA for this video on January 13th? I said, because I had talked to the band and talked to them, you also find out who your friends are too. When something good's happening for you, you'll find out exactly who cares about you.

Now your friends in the band, not Skender, Skender was already gone. Yeah, Skender bowed out of Siren, and we got John Brant, the bass player from Cheap Trick. So when you see the album, John Brant, bass player from Cheap Trick's in the band, Skender had already passed.

It's a different scene when you go from the high school to Steve Dahl, to now Steve Dahl into a band that's on a major ... Things change. So I'm just saying, Skender, he's still my friend today. But I'm just saying, we got John Brant from Cheap Trick, and that's a whole scene.

So Dick Asher was like, there's not going to be a problem. Is there, Potter? I think he referred to me as pretty boy or something. He was like, I noticed the tone of this conversation wasn't excellent.

We now have- It wasn't the way you thought it was going to go. No. I thought it was going to be, my gosh, we're putting out this new band, the drummer's going to be in a movie.

Because this band isn't all about you. And like I said, I'm 20, I'm a kid. And I'm young in the business, so I didn't realize.

So basically he said, either you come and do the ... You come be in the video, because I think one of the quotes was, I got guys living in cars that want to be in your position right now. Wow. Again, things that, maybe if you're talking to John Bonham, or even Jason Bonham, whose dad was the drummer in Led Zeppelin.

Maybe he would go, father, the record company, and John Bonham would go, I was in Led Zeppelin. I turned to my dad who was working at car dealers, and he'd go like, whatever you want to do, man, you going to be in a movie or be on MTV? Yeah. So, I didn't get a phone call from ... That's from the record side, then you call your film agent.

Now they don't care about you playing a set of drums, they're getting money because you're going to be in a movie. You're going to be in a movie, yeah. So they don't really care about that career either.

So they're just like, what's it going to ... You got two opposing forces. Yeah. Yeah, but two real ... We're not talking about, well, am I going to ... Two real careers.

I'm talking career moves here, but I'm saying I'm a young guy in Chicago going like ... So my film agent's like, yes or no? And then I think I actually got a call from the producer of the film because John Hughes was directing ... It was a John Hughes movie, and John Hughes knew me from Steve Dahl. If you remember, John Hughes was from the North Shore, was a Steve Dahl fan. He knew about Steve Dahl TV.

He's a Hollywood actor. Yeah, and he did all those movies, filmed them all here, so he knew who I was, and he's like, Potter, I love you, but ... They need an answer. Yeah, because I got ... It's costing ... Again, people bring up how much everything's costing.

This is costing me. Yeah. How much a day? I mean, I can't ... Because I was saying, could I go to LA, film the video, and come back? Yeah.

Yeah. We were already ... I already went to ... They were filming the scene at the bowling alley in Cicero. I'm saying they were already into production, whereas Siren filming a video would have come up in ... And I said, is there a way I can ... So you picked Siren.

I picked Siren. Yeah. But now looking back ... Now looking back, Uncle Buck went on to become the highest grossing comedy of 1989.

It spawned a sitcom that I passed on. That only lasted one season. My film career pretty much evaporated after that, but the film people went, watch this Potter guy.

Because I mean, I really was a drummer, too. Let's not hide the fact that in real life ... But look at Kevin Bacon, and look at ... Well, I mean, so many artists, or should I say, actors, think they need a band. They have to have a band.

Yes. But I'm saying in real life, when you do know me, and you knew me when I was ... I really did know how to play the drums. It wasn't a matter of like ... Because John Stamos plays the drums, too.

Yeah. God bless you, John. Yeah.

But I'm just saying. Right. I think he was better on television.

Right. I don't know if they would give him like a Buddy Rich gig. Yeah.

No, no, no. When your career is playing the drums. Right.

His career is acting. Yes. I'm just going to say that in a nice way, but I'm saying yes.

I made the decision at that point to stick with this band, who like I said, was on Mercury Polygram. We had a big manager, big record company, and from all that I was being told, what was happening with the record, it was going good. I mean, if we want to ... We were doing good.

Back in those days, the machine was working for you. We were getting added to radio stations. This was back when there was this thing called radio.

We were already getting added before the record, so the record people are telling me, Potter, in six months, we'll do a movie on you. You know what I mean? Don't worry about that. Movie people are like, hey, I don't care what you're doing with those drums.

It's costing me money. By the way, I'm John Hughes, so me and Molly Ringwald said, either join us or move on because we're moving on. They moved on.

I went to Siren and we lasted the year. We had an interesting thing happen that ... Name of the band was Siren. As soon as you get on MTV and you start selling records and you become popular, other people come around and say, well, I'm in a band called Siren.

We got sued by three bands. Three people came to us. Back in the 80s, I guess I don't really understand.

I'm not a lawyer, but from what I understood, back in the 80s, because the best way they could help, not everyone in those days had millions of dollars or something or thousands of dollars to have lawyers. If you could prove that you had the name prior, because there was a woman in Fort Lauderdale or something who called herself Siren and was able to show that she performed as Siren in 1977 or something. Pay the woman to keep ... I would think, too, wouldn't a big record company that when you went into their office in New York ... We were in New York.

When you went into the office, there was a big mural on the wall and there was Bon Jovi, John Cougar, the Scorpions, Potter, Cinderella. Don't you think they had some legal people that would find out which name has not been taken? Whatever. Banned in Europe, banned in Canada, and some woman in Florida, whatever, we got sued three ways.

The record company goes, well, we'll give you a blank amount of money. You split it up however you want. But pay these people off or change your name.

Well, as it worked out ... Because there's another story that I've heard, the band Skid Row. Do you think there was any bands in that era named Skid Row? Whatever. Their record company paid and paid and paid, and they kept the name Skid Row.

How about Cinderella? Doesn't Disney own that? Like I said, from now with legalese or what I saw happen in the O.J. trial, I'm sure you can find somewhere to make something work. I'm just saying, how it worked out for me was that basically in the middle, the album came out as Siren, All is Forgiven by our second single when we were on the soundtrack of My Stepmother's an Alien with Kim Basinger and Dan Aykroyd. Our name had changed to Red Siren.

I can explain it to you. I understand that. That's the same album.

Well, the public didn't take to it. We'd actually go to a radio station, yeah, we just had Siren here last week. That was us, man.

We're now Red Siren. Well, what's that all about? You didn't have the internet where you could go like, my God, we're changing our name. Yeah, there it is.

I mean, nowadays, we're changing our gender, and it works. We accept it now. I don't know how I was able to equate changing the name Red Siren to changing gender, but I'm saying you can get it out to the public.

We had like, what did we have? There was maybe a small blip in the trade papers, you know, like R&R was that radio that kind of thing. Yeah, or I think maybe- 35th page or something. Right, or Billboard magazine had a little piece, Siren.

Now it's now Red Siren. Now Red Siren. Thank you very much.

Well, that stuff stopped for us. I mean, just like the radio ads. The song was, the second song was decent, whatever.

But you know what I mean? It'd be like, I don't know, in the middle of the World Series, you go from being this team to, you're the same team, but we've changed your name and uniform. People are like, wait a second, I was just watching the Yankees. Now you're called the, whatever.

So that band just- So it was maybe 90, 91 or something? 89, 90? Yeah. Now what'd you do then until, or when did you start the Buddy Rich thing? Oh, the Buddy Rich thing happened way after. I had to live through the 90s of what would have been the grunge era, and I don't know if you could tell by my hair and dental work.

I was way, that was a whole era that was pretty tough on me. I mean, I played, and I played in bands that were, you know- The one we hear? Yeah, the band called Green, Jeff Lesher, Clay Tomasek, like alternative type, you know, through the 90s. Then I was in a band called Super Mercado with Matt Mercado.

He was the head of DLM, Mercury Polygram, with a band called Mind Bomb. Okay. So I'm saying I played heavy, you know, I played like heavy through the 90s.

So that was a Greg Potter of the early years. The early years. Well, here's our little surprise, everybody.

We're giving you two parts of Greg Potter. That's right. You just listened to part one.

You got to come back next week to listen to part two, the Buddy Rich years. That's right. We talked to, we talked to Greg for over an hour and a half, probably close to two hours.

So we decided to put it in two parts. And you'll be able to get that second part next Tuesday. Don't forget to download it using your favorite app.

Go to our website. Go to our Facebook page. And remember to listen to us on the Road to Rock radio every Monday at six o'clock.

They're featuring one of our podcasts, so make sure you tune in on Monday night to hear our podcast and tune in all the time for some great Illinois rock and roll music, rock and roll, blues, any kind of Illinois music. You'll find it on Road to Rock radio dot net. I guess I'll have to do two parts in this as well, won't they? We might.

We might. We just might. On the Road to Rock radio.

After talking with Greg, I just can't stop chatting. I'm just, I just want to keep talking. Oh, okay.

Well, let's just relax now. Okay. Just relax now.

And we'll see you next time, next week for part two. Next week. Take it easy, everybody.