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 good. How are you doing, Paul? Doing just fine. Thank you.

Good. How's vacation? Vacation was superb. Awesome.

It was nice. Beautiful weather down there in Florida. Nice.

And we had a great time. Excellent. Yeah, you need to get away once in a while.

Yes, you do. Yes, you do. I stayed here and held down the fort.

Good for you. I'm glad somebody did. Yeah.

Yeah. You know, that frat house thing we got going. Somebody's got to keep that down.

That's right. You never know who will let in. That's right.

So what's on tap for today? Well, we're letting in John Folstrom, a bass player extraordinaire. And played with a band called Midnight. Plays with the Big Boppers.

Has played with just about everybody. And also teaches and has his own book out. So he's a busy guy.

Well, you know, if he can play with everybody, he must be a really easy guy to get along with, you know. Some people won't play with some kids, but he must be a good guy. So let's get right into it.

And here is our interview with John Folstrom, a bass player extraordinaire, like I said. And let's do it. What do you say? Let's go to Midnight.

Hey, John. Hey, this is Paul Martin. And Ray the Roadie.

For the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. This week, we're meeting, I can't say it, meeting with John Folstrom of the band, wait for this, drum roll, Midnight. How's it going, John? I'm doing good.

Good to have you guys here. Good to see you. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's great. So tell us a little bit about Midnight. And I know you said you were a youngster when the band started.

Yes. And tell me how you guys started. Is it true you guys met right here? Yeah, I think we, the band, Midnight, we're all taking lessons here.

Right. Yeah. We're all taking lessons.

And they hook, you know, teachers are great. Hey, I know a good guitar player. I know a good drummer.

Right. And then it all, yeah, we all met through here, taking lessons. Wow.

By the way, what here is at Melody Mart. Melody Mart, music store and home with Grace Store. I'm still here teaching.

And we're in my studio right now. Right. And Paul's looking at Elvis and the Beatles.

Yeah, look at all this. A big Elvis fan and Beatles. This is quite, quite a. Yeah.

I mean, this is. They're very appreciative you've got all this. Paul, this is, I'm the only one that uses the studio.

This is, I did all this. And a lot of the kids today, look behind you, Paul. They don't know what those things are.

Yeah. They have no idea. The 45s.

Yeah. They go, is that like some kind of CD, man, or something like that? I'm serious. Is that like some kind of CD, man? I said, yeah, you're close.

I believe it. You're close. You're close.

Some kind of throwing discs. Yeah, they don't know what they are, but this is old school room. Yeah.

Traditional room. Yeah. But Midnight.

Yes. So tell us, how old were you when you started playing? 14. 14.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. My first lessons, believe it or not, were from, it's a crazy story, but remember Greystone Fox? Greystone Fox, yeah. With Ron Berry and.

Yeah. My God. I took lessons.

Oh, I remember the name. Remember that, Greystone Fox? Now you're dragging my memory. Yeah.

Back, it was at the Park Forest Music Store. Oh, okay. Plaza.

Remember, of course, the famed Park Forest Plaza. Right. Oh, yeah.

And I took a month of lessons from Kenny, was his name. He was like a guitar player, bass player. So I started there.

Those are my, my introduction to the music world was through their lead singer, guitarist, bassist, Kenny. Oh, okay. I can't remember his last name right now.

Yeah, yeah. But it was a blast. So then I took some time off and then I came to Melody Mart for like my whole career in high school.

Right. All four years. Great.

And so that's where you met. Yeah, I met the guys at midnight. Who are, who are.

Well, let's look at the. Steve. Got Scott Marcourt, the great drummer.

Okay. Dave Hill. Okay.

Lead vocals, keyboards, Frank Anastas, lead guitar, vocals, and me on the Fender bass. Right, Paul? Fender bass. Fender bass.

Yeah, Fender bass. Yeah. And we were serious, like, just like you guys were back in the day.

And we practiced three, four nights a week. Right. And we, like I said, we didn't really know how to advertise or anything.

We just wanted to be good. We played a lot of gigs. Right.

A lot more parties, private parties. Right. High schools, you know, but we just.

High schools was a big thing back in the day. You're right. Wasn't it, Paul? They were, they were, they were, that was, that was the place to play.

I remember you guys were playing at home. Well, the place, I mean, we played. You played them all.

Played them all. Yeah, you played them all, basically, yeah. But dances, and every high school had a dance or something or another.

I know that. Yeah. Which doesn't happen anymore.

No, it disappeared probably, what, late 80s? Yeah. Just like my students coming in here. Yeah.

Asking them, hey, what's happening? You know, what's going on? You know, you're in a band? Yeah. Well, then I'm having a band at the, whatever, the prom this year or whatever. I said, what? Yeah.

What do you mean band? I have a DJ. Yeah, a DJ. And I don't even have that anymore.

Yeah. So, but, yeah, you know what, and the high schools were great, grade schools. Right.

Put it this way, you know, Paul, all the world's a stage. Whoever you can fashion wallets, we'll go there. You know what I mean? So, that's what we did in high school.

And then, believe it or not, we kept going. And then we had a, we got an offer to make this album, an album. Some guy put up the money.

So, this, what year was this that you started this? The band? Yeah. The band started about 74. 74, okay.

And it just kept getting better and better and better and better, better, better, better, better. And then when did you get the offer to do it? The offer came, like, in the summer of, right after we graduated high school. Uh-huh.

It's like, we can make an album. What do you mean we can make an album? Yeah. Well, so we got some money.

We said, yeah, we'll do it. Why not, right? Uh-huh. The songs we put on here were songs we used to do in high school.

These are all originals. Right. Yeah.

But we kind of, we're a little past that phase now, because we're moving, you know, we're 18, going on 19. Sure. So, we did it.

We did the whole album in one day, you know, the basic tracks, standing next to each other, right? Don't make a mistake, right? Yeah. Don't make a mistake. Yeah.

And then the next day was overdubs and mixing. Wow. And that was 77.

And you did it in two days? We did it in two days. Wow. Yeah.

Wow. That's amazing. The thing was, we rehearsed.

We were smart enough, you know. Oh, sure. This is one of the times, one of the only times we were smart enough to practice the entire song without any vocals.

Oh, okay. You know what I mean? Because the vocals came the second day. Came later.

So, we would practice the songs without vocals, and that's why we were able to do it. Well, I remember the days of, you know, gathering around a microphone and singing parts. Right.

And, you know, and then we'd listen back. Oh, this guy's too loud. So, you'd have to pick.

Right. Now, y'all can all sing them separately. You're right.

And fly them in. Yeah. Remember that.

Persistency in the players, right? Let's check it. You've got to move back a little bit. Let's try it again.

That's classic. Or, like you said, make a mistake on a basic track. It's like, damn.

Damn. I had it perfect. Until the last note.

And you can feel the pressure as the song goes on. Right, Paul? That's right. The pressure gets heavier and heavier.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's great.

Yeah. So, we did the album. Okay.

And we just let it go. We didn't really follow it. Yeah.

So, it kind of just disappeared. Right. And we kept doing originals.

Kept playing. And finally, the drummer, as like a lot of bands know, the new wave punk disco era, kind of wiped us out. Yeah, right.

Scotty, the drummer, left for a new wave band. Oh, really? Yeah. And basically, once Scotty left.

As long as he was working, right? Well. He kind of ruined you, though. The band was no more.

After Scotty left. Yeah. You know, you got that chemistry.

Sure. And we said, let's call it. Let's call it a day.

Yeah. And that was it. So, tell me about some of the songs on here.

Oh, man. Well, again. Now, who was writing? Who was writing? Me, Dave Hill, and Frank Inassis.

And Scotty, even the drummer, was writing, too. He would throw riffs in. Yeah.

Very tight band. We were very close. This band was very close, like I'm sure you guys are.

And we were very close. We'd get together four nights a week. Every week.

You know, there was no calling each other. We'd just show up. Right.

You know. And, you know, Dave would do a riff. You know, he had this riff.

And I might come in with an accent or something. Try that. And he liked it.

If he liked it, you know. So, it was a lot of songs are. Written together.

Yeah. Together. Yeah.

But the basic idea of Scratches were always written by one person. Right. And then we would practice it as a band, and it would grow.

So, it was all four of us, basically. And that's why all songs are written by Midnight. Which they really are.

You know, to be fair. And the songs are about, well. You know, if you look at some of the.

Smoke my cigarettes. You know. I mean.

Yeah. You look at the. I mean.

Some of the titles are kind of self-described. Smoke my cigarettes. You know.

Someone's always smoking someone's cigarettes. Right. You know.

Getting tired of it. Someone's getting a rash. But it's basically, you know.

Typical. Remember, Paul. We rewrote these stuff when we were 16 and 17.

Right. So, it's teen angst stuff. You know what I mean? Right.

Basically, teen angst. High school shenanigans. Rock and roll shenanigans.

Right. Kind of a. Nothing too. The subject matter was not the light.

It wasn't. It's. You.

So, what's one of your favorite songs? God. Well, I actually. When I looked at the first side.

I tried to thought. Basically. I'm going to say.

I like them all. Yeah. I really do.

Yeah. Being political. Well.

I haven't heard them for like. 25 years. I like it.

You know. When they come back. It's like.

Yeah. That's. I like that.

Yeah. Probably because of the memory attached to it. Yeah.

This album came out in 2015. Yeah. It got reissued.

Drag City Records. In Chicago. The great company.

These people are great. I walked in there. How did you hook up with them? Steven Krakow.

The great artist. For the Chicago Reader. He does that article.

Paul. Right. Eminem Rush.

The secret history of. I think it's the secret history of Chicago. Rock and roll or something.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And Paul's band. Eminem Rush is in there. And then Steven.

Krakow. Again. Great artists.

I used to post some stuff at midnight on Chicago bar bands. Right. From 75 to 82.

And we always had cool clothes. You know. School pictures.

Right. So Steven said. John.

Tell me about your band. I am Steven Krakow from the Chicago Reader. Right.

Tell me about your band. Blah blah blah. So I told him about it.

He goes. You got anything to send me? You got any material? Because he would do the art stuff. You know.

The article. Right. So that's what I thought.

It started as just him doing the article. Right. So he did.

I sent him a CD. He really liked it. And the original CD.

With all the echo and all that. He liked it. But Steve likes that stuff.

Yeah. So he did the article. He goes.

Hey Johnny. You want me to try and. I said.

Sure. Why not? And Drag City really liked it. And we signed.

We signed a deal. I think it's. Hopefully it's a hundred years.

No. I think it's seven. Seven years.

And it's been. It's doing pretty good. Again.

This is the fourth year. So are you doing anything else? Oh God. Yeah.

I mean. No. I mean.

I mean. As far as the band is concerned. Oh no.

You're right. People say. John.

Get the reunion. What's going on? Yeah. Why aren't you guys doing a reunion? Because.

Because. Tell me about the guys in the band. Each one of them.

The one guy. The drummer. Scotty.

Scotty Marquardt. He went off to play in. He played with a New Wave band.

Yeah. And. What's he doing? That didn't work out.

He's playing for some famous country guy though. A new guy. I can't remember his name.

So Scotty's son is a great drummer. For a country down. Oh.

Okay. So he does well. But Scotty's out of the business.

Right. He's. He probably left the business.

In the late 80s. And what about Dan Hill? Davey Hill. Dave Hill lives in Green Bay.

He moved to Green Bay. Oh. Do you play music up there? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what kind or whatever.

But we've kind of lost touch. Yeah. You know.

Me. Scott. Yeah.

Scott and me and Dave. Have kind of lost touch. Right.

Basically this is. No reunion. Right.

Right. So again. And then Frank of course I'm still playing with.

In the Big Boppers. Right. And we do So Pro Buddy Monaco stuff.

Right. The great. The great Buddy Monaco.

I got to say. Um. Uh.

And we still do that. Right. And um.

Well. I'm still here at Melody Mart. Yeah.

Teaching. And Frank is here too right? And Frank is here right now. Yeah.

Yeah. He's here teaching too. Yeah.

Of course. Yeah. Frank's been here forever.

And we've been here. Kind of like the. Bookends of Melody Mart bass.

And uh. Yeah. For uh.

And Frank took lessons here at Melody Mart too. That's us. And Dave did.

And Scott. And that's how we met. Like I said.

You guys never even knew each other before. No. No.

You didn't grow up together. Hang out together. No.

You know. I might have seen this guy at school. Yeah.

Us three went to the same high school. Ritz Central. Me, Frank and Dave went to Ritz Central.

But I didn't know any of them. We all went to different grade schools. Okay.

Scotty went to HF. Okay. So again.

I met Scotty probably. Well. Through Melody Mart.

Right. Frank Melody Mart. And Dave Melody Mart.

Pretty awesome. Yeah. Because we were serious.

We were the four serious guys. Out of all the students. Right.

Right. You know. You got your serious students.

And your not so serious. Right. And we were all four were tremendously serious.

So tell us about the Big Boppers. Yeah. Well.

The Big Boppers was. I was playing with our buddy. Scotty Bonshire.

Right. In a band called Tom, Keith and Sidney. A husband and wife.

Kind of like a really good team. Okay. We were playing at the Hyatt.

Reed and C. O'Hare. Right. Six nights a week.

Great gig. Right. But I was getting itchy for the old days.

Playing outside. You know. In the summer time.

You're drinking. And you're driving to a lounge. And you're seeing all the bands outside.

Playing with the merry-go-rounds. And the fairs. Right.

And I'm thinking. God. I got to get something like that again.

It's basically because of midnight. Right. Because you know.

You play outside a lot. Sure. So I just said.

I designed in my head. The Big Boppers. I said.

I got to get something together. And I talked to Scotty. And Frank.

And asked this. And we kind of took the. Just the three of you.

Yeah. The three of us. Yeah.

And so now. I see you've evolved into. Oh my God.

A bunch of stuff. Yeah. With the Big Boppers.

Big Boppers. Different people now. Yeah.

Because everyone's busy. Right. And I use great people.

Great musicians. Right. Especially drummers.

I got to have great drummers. Like Scotty. Yeah.

And Artie Baldacci. Right. And Pat Doody.

And Dennis Leigh. I got to throw out the Dennis Leigh. Neil Holmquist.

These guys are great drummers. Right. You know.

Jerry Frank. Jerry Frank. Yeah.

Yeah. Oh yeah. Well that's important for you as a bass player.

Oh yeah. I can't. I can't.

I got to play. I got to play with good drummers. Right Paul? Come on.

I really do. Because if I don't it throws me off. I don't want to play.

Yeah. Yeah. So now we're the Big Boppers.

You guys are still playing right? Yeah. Where do you play? Well we play every Friday night at Mama Mi Pizza. We've been there.

We've been. We've held that down for. Just going on our fourth year.

Oh okay. Every Friday night. In Holmwood.

In Holmwood. Right down Dixie Highway. Yeah.

It's really cool because it's very. I know everybody. You know everyone knows each other.

Right. So it's very laid back. And it's very.

Is it more acoustic or is it. It's. We play acoustic Paul.

Yeah. Like this but we plug them in our amps. Well okay.

So we got some juice going on too. Right. You know what I mean? Right.

So it's not. It's not. It's not heavy loud.

And it's not acoustic soft. Right. It's right in between.

It's a nice mix. Right. So you can talk over it or we can get louder.

But again it's a great mix. And I really like it. Because it's very.

Let's put it this way. I have no band leader in this. The big boppers.

Yeah. I have band no leader saying don't play those notes. Right.

That's what I can do. I can play nothing. Right.

Or I can do whatever I want. And so can everybody else. Right.

And so can everyone else. Of course. Yeah.

It's total. Yeah. So can everyone else.

You're right. That's cool. And what do you do? What kind of music are you playing? And what's funny is I said we're not going to do any 70s rock and roll.

Because. That's the first thing I said. Because we did that all our lives.

Right Paul? Right. No 70s rock and roll. And we don't.

We do 50s and 60s. Okay. And 70s top 40.

That was on the AM radio. Right. Right.

We do AM radio stuff. Right. Which is great.

Neil Diamond. Yeah. Solitary Man.

You know. Yeah. Jay and the Americans.

Karamea. Right. You know just great stuff we all grew up on.

Sure. Yeah. And that's what we do.

Now do you sing as well? No I don't. No? I've tried several times Paul. And the stories are classic.

Yeah. I say yeah I'll try. I'll do some backup.

Yeah. No problem. Well you've got to be able to sing.

Yeah. Yeah. I'll do it.

So they've got a mic set up and I do like a couple songs for the first night. And it's thinking well I didn't say nothing. So I must.

Alright. Next night I go back. The mic's gone.

Nobody says a word. Nobody says a word. Right Paul? Nobody says a word.

Nothing happened. It's like nothing happened that night. And I don't say anything either.

Hey where's my mic? It's just gone. Maybe it wasn't ever there in the first place. Exactly.

You're right. You're right. It never was really.

And this went on my whole life. It is. I can't sing.

I just, I'm not, you know, I never practiced it. Yeah. I was going to say did you do Caramea? Well I don't sing Caramea.

Here. I play it like this. This is what we do on the bass guitar.

I use an acoustic bass. Yeah. Some plug for acoustic basses.

I notice with acoustic basses. Chords sound really good. Right.

So I do a lot of that in the Big Boppers now. Oh. And then.

Right. Caramea. Right.

That's how I sing. I play that melody. Okay.

Okay. I see. You see what I'm saying? Yeah.

So I do all these chord things and melodies on the acoustic bass. Because it's the hidden treasure. I got an article.

It's really good. Right. Who wants to try the acoustic bass? No, no, no.

All right, all right. All right. But that's part of like the Big Boppers evolved into an acoustic thing.

Right, right. Doing this acoustic bass. Right.

But you still play with a drummer too, right? Yeah. Dennis will do an acoustic thing. He plays cajones and all this percussion stuff, electronic stuff.

But not a real drum set. I see. The great story with the Big Boppers is how we started doing the.

It started with electric. Right. The great story is how we.

I bought an acoustic bass. So I just started playing bass lines with it. No, I'd rather play electric bass.

So I'm up here teaching with it. And the students are jamming on the drum machine. It's like, I got to do something.

So I said, let me try a chord. I've never played an acoustic. How do I play an E chord? So I figured it out right on this.

And I said, wow, that sounds great. Yeah. And that's how it evolved.

The Big Boppers acoustic from right in here. I see. Yeah.

Strumming chords for my bass students so they could hear the harmony with their bass notes. Right, right. And so all of a sudden now the Big Boppers went acoustic.

Because I can play all these melodies and chords. So we got a unique sound. Right.

With the bass doing all that stuff. Wow, that's really interesting. Yeah, it's really cool.

It's a fluke. Yeah. It's the story of my career.

It's a fluke. I'm serious. You know what I mean? Well, I don't know that.

Now, you're an author. I am. And I don't know if that was a fluke.

No, that was not a fluke. No, that was not a fluke. Well, it was a lot of hard work in here.

Yeah, it was out of desperation and fear, Paul. You know that, right? Yes. And it's a book.

It's called EADG4. EADG4. I wrote it out of teaching.

Because, you know, I would come up with these charts and theory. I'm real big on theory with teaching. And I didn't know.

It's like, how do I explain this? There's no books out there for it. Right. So I went back and I had to figure all this stuff out with my students and trial and error.

And it's like, does this look good to you? How does it sound? What's your opinion? And it was from about 88 to 91. I got finished it in 91. Okay, I was going to ask you when it was published.

I published it. But I waited two years to check it out. I put it in a drawer.

I hated it. It was done, but I hated it. It was all typed and everything.

I hated it. It was a beast. Really? I let it sit in a drawer for two years.

Two years, Paul. Didn't even look at it. Finally, I said, that's it.

Okay, it's time to put it out. Yeah. So in 93? 93.

Summer of 93 it came out. Is that the industry standard now? Boy, I hope. That'd be great.

I know a lot of people do have it. Yeah. And I do sell it across the world.

Yeah. You know, and the website is www.eadg4.com. Right. Or Google it.

It's everywhere. And I've made a bunch of YouTube videos too. Right.

In here. Right. You know, that's a whole other story, you know, with the YouTube videos doing sections of the book.

Right. So that's a whole other ball game, doing the YouTube thing. You know, all of a sudden it's like, you know, I'm not good with a camera.

I'm not an actor. Yeah. We're not actors, right, Paul? But you know how to teach.

I know how to teach. You're right. So you've got to pretend that that camera is a student.

Right. But you know in the back of your mind, that ain't a student. You know what I mean? But there's a lot of students out there watching it.

Yeah, they are. Like I said, I look at them, I'm happy with the way they turned out. You know what I mean? But that's been a whole adventure.

The EADG4 has been pretty heavy in my life since 93. Yeah. Yeah.

That's awesome. Yeah. You won a Ronald Reagan award for the book.

Yeah. Yeah. They love, well, you know, it's Ronald Reagan.

They love that, your own business, having your own business. Right. And they love that.

And they saw EADG4 and they love what I'm doing. Right. That's cool.

Yeah. That's very cool. It is.

And like I said, I have just friends and family help me. Yeah. You know, I have no employees.

Right. You know, so I do everything basically myself. And that's what they like.

Now, you've published a book through a publishing company, right? No, it's through my own. I got a secret publisher. Oh.

You know what I mean? Oh, yeah. And they do obviously a phenomenal job with this book. Yeah.

I mean, the quality is incredible. And I had a great friend. I've got to mention his name.

He's passed on. John Calabrese. He got me hooked up with this printer.

And you can see the job they do with this book. Oh, yeah. It's great.

It's first class. And I owe all that to John. You know, so.

But that's all me, the writing. But he had the company. And, yeah.

And we marched on. So tell me about writing the book. I mean, with the.

Oh, boy. How long did it take you to do it? Three years. Three years.

Yeah. It was something that I got obsessed with. And I lost myself totally from 88 to 90.

About 90. Wow. Three years.

I lost myself. I'd be playing. I wouldn't even be thinking about the song because it came automatically.

And I would be thinking about words. How to string the words perfectly together. Because I know I had a. This book has to work for someone who doesn't have me telling them.

Right, right. So the words have got to be perfect to lead their mind to where I want them to take them. Right.

And that's. That was the hardest part. And the charts and all that.

Right. No, it was a tough gig, Paul. It was a tough gig.

When I got done with it, it was like, well, that's probably definitely the best thing I've done since the Midnight album. Yeah. Without a doubt.

Yeah. That was the first thing that hit me. It's a very cool book.

Yeah. And I read. We also worked with Mel Bay.

Mel Bay, yeah. They published 24 articles out of it. Yeah.

They just. They said, John, write an intro and a summary. And send us some sections.

So I read a little intro summary. And they would put it on their website for bass lessons. So I did 24 of them.

And that came through Dave. I got to mention Dave Tuckman, who's my distributor out in San Diego. Yeah.

He owns Bassbooks.com. And he just saw my book and said, yeah, I love it, man. Let's do something. So it's not a. They're in Seal Beach now, but I'm still with Bassbooks.com. I do their Facebook page.

You're a consultant for Mel Bay, right? Yeah, I'm a. What do you call it? I was one of the contributors. I see. One of the big contributors.

And I thanked John Reed for that from Mel Bay. Wow. So the book has got me some connects.

Dave Tuckman I owe a lot to out in San Diego. Because he got me into Mel Bay, which I got into Gibson. Gibson published those same 24 articles.

Really? Gibson Guitars. So it went on their website under their logo, Gibson. Wow, very cool.

So that's awesome, too. That's very cool. Still can't get an endorsement from Gibson.

I was going to say, did you get an endorsement from them? Nothing. Nothing. No, they gave me a thank you, John.

We appreciate this. And that's fine. That's enough for me.

I'm proud to be associated with Gibson. Right. Totally.

Mel Bay was great, though. Mel Bay was great for me. They actually paid me for it.

I mean, Mel Bay was a classic back in the day. Exactly. Mel Bay.

And like I said, I'm friends with John Reed, the bass guy for that. And he was great. The whole company was great to me.

Wow. And bass, I've been lucky. But again, all these contacts were through me.

Right. Just kind of like, why not? What have I got to lose now? Right, Paul? Right. Why not? You've got to try it.

Right. You've got to just go out there and do it. You've just got to do it and see what happens.

It's kind of like, we at least expect it. It's like, what? Yeah. It's kind of like what we're doing here.

Right. I mean, we just put this together and we were going out and we were doing it. And it's great getting insight into the different individuals like yourself and finding out about what you've gone through in order to put something out like this.

And what bands have gone through. Oh, yeah. It's always a deep story and heavy.

It's always heavy. It's fun and it's not. Right.

So now, who have you played with? I know you do the blues thing. Yeah, that's one of my favorite all-time gigs. Pat Doody got me involved with that.

Yeah. The great drummer with Buddy. You know Buddy? Sure.

Oh, yeah. I know Buddy. Buddy Monaco.

Everybody knows Buddy. I never met Buddy until 2002. Oh.

Pat Doody calls me up and says, hey, John, you want to do a blues gig with me tonight? I said, well, what? He goes, don't worry about it. Yeah. Well, he was a so-pro.

Right. One of Buddy's all-stars. Right.

And that's where I met Joe Jammer. Right. He's a character.

Yeah. And Jody Noah. Right.

And all the greats, Debbie Seitz and the Chicago Firehorns or whatever. So I've been doing that since 2002 with Buddy Monaco, the Chicago Blues all-stars. I guess, like I said, rock and roll.

I think the rock and roll made me a really good blues player, Paul. You know, I think. Right? Am I right? Yeah.

Yeah. Because I was playing Elvis. Sure.

But it's blues. I didn't, you know, it's like. Right.

I'm playing Little Richard and Jerry Lewis all the time. Right. So when I got to the blues thing, it's like, well, this is Elvis.

Yeah. Right? This is Elvis. So I was gold.

You know, it's like it was gold. Yeah. There's only so many notes.

Right. But yeah. Yeah.

And like I leave a lot out. You know what I mean? I do. I leave a lot of them out.

And I just pick a nice heavy Fender bass and let those notes sing out. But that's been a great gig for me. The Buddy Monaco SoPro Blues All-Star.

I love that. Now, who else did you play with? I know you played a little bit with Bernie Glenn. Bernie, yeah.

Filling in or? No, I was in his band for about. Oh, yeah? With our great friend Tom Gurney, who just passed away. Right.

Tommy, I joined Country Rose in 85. Oh, did you? With Tom Gurney. Tom Gurney got my number from another great bass player, Glenn Dearson, who used to play with the Madison All-Stars.

Oh, sure. So Tom needed a bass player. He called me, and then I met Tom.

I made the band, and then we were off and running in 85. Oh, okay. Country Rose.

It was me, Tom, and Linda Sue, and Scott on drums. We were playing six, seven nights a week back in 85. Yeah, that's a shame about Tom.

Yeah, it is. Yeah, that's a dear friend gone. That's sad.

But Bernie, Tom called me again back in like 2002, 2003 and said, hey, Johnny, I need a bass player for one night. One night? What do you mean? Well, we're backing up Marshall Tucker. Yeah.

I said, well, how many songs? About 30. I said, one night? 30 songs I got to learn? Yeah. So I did it for Tommy.

Right. Because, Johnny, you're the only guy I would know would do this. Yeah.

Who was just crazy. Right, Paul? And Bernie, everyone liked it. We did well.

So I joined the band for about three years. It was great. Okay, that's good.

Yeah, so that was cool. And then I kind of said, let me tell you, let me start working on this Big Bombers thing. Yeah.

I started with Big Bombers in 89, Paul. Oh, really? 89. Really? I didn't realize you were going that far.

Yeah, 89. I remember sitting there going, I've got to play outside. Because we were playing inside all the time, right? Yeah, yeah.

You get tired of that. Sure. So that came from the midnight when we used to play outside.

I want to go back to that feeling. Yeah. And then that's what we're doing.

We're doing all these crazy gigs. You know, no one else, you know, a piece of joint, the lobbies and parties. I like that.

So 30 years you've been doing the Big Bombers. Yeah. Yeah, good call, Paul.

Thank you. 30 years. Yeah.

But again, it's never been a full-time thing. I never wanted it full-time, but now it's more full-time, you know? Right. But I still fill in everywhere, you know, whoever needs a bass player.

If it's worth it to me, I'll do it. Any original Big Bomber music? A couple. We weren't after that angle, you know what I mean? Me and Frank did a couple originals early on.

And then, you know what, it just evolved in this acoustic thing. Like I said, I'm going with how it evolved. I'm not trying to make things happen.

Right. So the acoustic thing has been great. I've got to ask you, what about 5-string basses? Which one? What about 5-string basses? Oh, 5-string? Yeah.

Boy, you want to get me in hot water. Oh, yeah, Paul. Paul, I don't.

Paul, I don't. Go ahead. Oh, come on.

Well, no, I'm just curious what your thoughts are. Oh, boy. I've got to be careful here, Paul.

I've got to be real careful. Okay. Well, 5-string bass came into play about mid-'80s, right? Was it that early? Yeah, about 85.

Really? Because it's when the DX7 came out. Remember the DX7? Yeah. Where it could sound like an orchestra and then a bass.

Right, right. So I go in a music store and the guy says, John, you better look for another. He plays it.

So DX7, he starts playing bass. Yeah. You know, put the bass.

And he's playing the notes go lower. Right. It's like, that don't sound like a bass to me.

Oh, okay. See where I'm going? Yeah. So next thing you know, about six months later.

A B-string. Next thing you know, the 5-string bass comes out. It was to protect against this DX7 taking over the bass player's position in a band.

Right. Well, guess what? The DX7 went away. Right.

Because it didn't really. Now, the 5-string. The bass player's still around.

Right, the bass player. And I told the guy who told me this. I said, this is not going to happen.

So it's not going to happen. It doesn't sound like a bass. And it didn't.

But the 5-string came out. Right. And I played them.

You know, it's like you playing a 7-string guitar. Okay? Right? Right. It's the same thing.

Now you've got a low B or something, maybe. Right, right. And that's what I would have on my bass.

Right. So I've been looking at this entryway. You know, your E-string is your entryway into your world.

Right. Now I'm going to put this huge wall up. A B-string.

Right, right. A huge wall into my entryways that I've studied and mastered. Right.

No way. Yeah. No way.

Yeah. And I've gotten that. I've gotten always asked that question.

Why don't you play a 5-string, John? I said, I don't want to. Right. And I'm with you there.

Right. I'm with you there. To me, a bass is 4-strings.

Right. And I'm sure, you know, I know Brian at Sarna, who plays the noodles with me, will say the same thing. He goes, I just don't know if I want to go there, you know? No, I never went there.

Yeah. I never went there. Just simply because my history was already, the doorways were set to the E-string.

Right. And I can imagine that. Right.

With a guitar. It's got to be a whole different. And you just put a B-string.

Like I said, you've got a 7-string guitar. It's a low B, I believe. Yeah, yeah.

So how would you like that? No. No. No.

And it's the same. No, I don't need it. Yeah.

And Stevie Starlight, I saw this quote. He had a great, he told me. You know Stevie, right? Sure.

He's funny. He goes, oh, you've got a 5-string bass. He told us his bass player.

That's great. Now you've got 3-strings you don't play. No.

Now you've got 3-strings you don't need. You know what I mean? Right? You know, again, that's E and A-string, right? The bass. But that was classic.

Oh, great. Now you've got 3-strings you don't need. Yeah, yeah.

Right? So you mentioned Fender guitars. Fender. Yeah.

Fender's the way to go. Have you ever played, do you own a Rickenbacker? I got Rickenbackers and I love Rickenbacker. Oh, I love it.

I know Roger, your buddy, plays Rickenbacker, right? Yeah. Yeah, he's got a Fender now. He plays.

I got a Fender too. Yeah. I got a bunch of Fenders.

Yeah. The Precision, the Jazz, they're all great. The Fender.

Right. Precision. Right.

Jazz. Make an American. I do believe in USA Fenders.

You know, I think you agree, Paul? Yeah. Right? Yeah, I play an American, but it's Strat. Yeah.

So Fender USA, Rickenbacker. I play on a Rick. I love Rick.

And Gibsons, I like Gibsons. Yeah. Why not? Who wouldn't? No, what about some of the off-brands? I wouldn't say off-brands, but some of the brands that are coming up.

Well, I still got my BC Rich Eagle. Remember BC Rich came out in the late 70s? Sure. I love that bass.

I still have it. It's an American-made in California. But they stopped in the early 80s.

The guy sold his company or something. But I still got my BC Rich. I used that for 14 years straight.

Beautiful bass. Well, this is Acoustic Ibanez, which is really nice. Acoustic Ibanez.

Acoustic Ibanez makes good acoustics. They really do. Yeah, right.

If you want the audience, they have the best bass tone in the world. Right. Play a Fender Precision.

Right. Okay? Right. American-made.

You can't lose. Right. You know? I love the Rick, too.

I love the Rick. I grew up a record collector. When I was in grade school, I remember laying on fifth grade and starting.

And I got the new books, and I said, I got to buckle down this year, man. I went to a Catholic IJP in here in Flossmoor. I got to buckle down, man.

I'm tired of getting Ds and Fs. Like an idiot, I put my stack of Presley 45s on, because I'm going to do my homework now. I got to have my music playing, right? Well, that was the problem.

So I opened the book. It's brand new, right? So I'm buckling down, man. It's September.

And I'm reading. I got the Presley songs, and I'm tapping my... And I read the first two paragraphs. It's like, I have no idea what I just read.

Let me do it again. I'm getting mad now. It's like, come on.

Wake up. Let's do it again. I did it about four times.

I have no idea what they were talking about. I closed the book, and that was it. I'm going to admit it.

I really never did anything again. So I got by on behaving, not causing trouble. But you've done well for yourself.

Music, yeah. So I was a record collector during grade school. That's how I know all about these... I used to go to Beverly Records.

You know where that's at, right? All the time, once a month. Yeah, I see some of your records. You got Elvis.

Elvis. And Paul McCartney. Paul McCartney, yeah.

Jocko, the great bass player. And a lot of 45s. A lot of 45s.

I was a 45 collector. I loved that stuff. Pop music.

The only ones I got left, Paul, are my Elvis and Beatles, because they're in a special case. And these, I just hang for show. I give some to my students, like a going-away present.

I'll give one, like a good one. So I got a box of 45s from my huge record collection, which is gone. Like I said, I have no idea.

And I hang them up here, and then for a good student, going-away gift, I'll give them one. Right. And they really love it.

Yeah. So it's just nostalgia now, you know, for that. Fantastic.

And the song, You Made Me So Very Happy. Yeah. Blood, Sweat, and Tears.

Mm-hmm. And the stereo was just like... I heard this bass, like really the first time. Yeah.

Because... Jim Felder or something was the bass player. And I'm listening to this instrument that I never heard before. Yeah.

Because we're using AM radios. Right, right. And I'm listening, Bass didn't come across very well.

Right. This bass is killing me. Yeah.

It's like, I got to somehow get involved with this. I don't know what that was, but I'm going to wind up with this mystery I'm hearing. How does he know what... How does he know how to do that? Yeah.

Why is he picking those notes? So that drove me nuts until I started playing the bass. That's pretty cool. Yeah, that's why.

But it came through that song. Yeah. That one song.

You Made Me So Very... What were you doing here when you guys all met? Were you learning bass? No. Or guitar? That's when I was a record collector. Okay.

That was back in 1969, so I was like in 6th grade, 5th grade. And I heard that bass on that Shabonis. That's what you want to play.

Yeah, I knew that's what I was searching out. What is that? Yeah. You know, I'm looking at the Beatles album covers.

I said, because Paul had that violin and it's symmetrical. Yeah. It's like, you don't know what the heck it is.

Right? And it's backwards. It's backwards, yeah. So it's like, and then I did a little more research, saw a live band.

It's like, oh, there's the guy right there. He's got this big old Fender playing to one of these custom 315s in a cafeteria. It's like, that's what I want to do.

I want the big guitar with the big pegs and the low sound. That's what I like. What about stand-up? Do you play stand-up? I play stand-up.

Do you? I do. It was encouragement. John, you got to play stand-up.

So I did play stand-up. Tom, yeah. I still play it at church, at IJP.

Yeah, I play stand-up at church. Oh, that's great. Yeah, an old 50s K bass.

So I use that a lot. It's a K 50s blonde upright. I love it.

But my heart's an electric bass. Thank you. Thank you very much for letting us in here.

Yeah, this is great having you two guys here. Talking old times and new times and good times. Good times, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Now, where can we find you? Are you on Facebook? Yeah, I'm on Facebook. Do you have any websites? I'm on Facebook.

John Falstrom. I'd love to have you. I'm on my website, EADG4.com. It's got my whole history.

It's about all the bands I've been in the book and all the stuff. Yeah, basically, Melody Mart. I'm here four days a week still, teaching, plugging away.

I've been here since 87. There you go, kids. Learn to play the bass.

Remember to come. Yeah, thanks, Paul. Beautiful downtown home.

Yeah, it's still kicking. Yeah. Well, thank you very much for having us in.

Thanks, John. We appreciate it. We'll see you out and about with the big boppers.

Well, Ray, John had some great stories, didn't he? Especially the one about all of them meeting as kids at Melody Mart. That was awesome. And Wanda playing together.

That's pretty awesome. And recording at such an early age. I'm practicing my EADG.

Oh, I see. I gotcha. Okay.

Yeah, how about that, too? And he wrote a great book. I mean, it's like the industry standard now. I mean, that's amazing.

Yes, it is. Yes, it is. Very cool, very cool.

And he's very proud of that book, I know. Oh, as he should be, as he should be. And he's still playing.

The big boppers are playing all over the place. And that's great. He's still enjoying it.

And that's the whole thing. You're never too old if you're still enjoying it. No, no.

Any kids out there who are looking to play bass guitar, this is the guy to talk to. That's right. If you're not in the area, at least get his book, EADG 4. Let me hear that EADG again.

I think I got it down. Okay. E, A, E, G. That's it, I think.

There you go. There you go. What does guitar come from? I think it's a bass guitar, though.

I think you're playing the right guitar. Well, it's still got four strings. I took the other two strings off.

Oh, I see. Okay, well, that works then, I guess. Yeah, I took the B and the E off.

Okay. All right. All right, well, it was great talking with John, and we'll see you guys next week.

We'll once again be sure and share and tell all your friends about the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. That's right. See you guys next time.

Thanks for listening.