Hey, this is Paul Martin and Ray the Roadie bringing you episode 5 of the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. We've got a good one this week, Ray, don't you think? Oh, yes, we do. And before we get started, I want to thank Paul Braun for setting this whole thing up with us and getting me in touch with Scott May, who finally gets us in touch with Jim Peterak.

Yes, he did. That was great. We had a good time meeting with Jim, talking about a lot of great stories from the Ides of March days and the Survivor days up until now with the Pride Alliance and his world stage.

Yes, and Cornerstones of Rock, don't forget that as well. Cornerstones of Rock, too, yes. Let's get started with it, and he's got some great stories.

So stay tuned, and let's give it a listen. Here we go. Hey, this is Paul Martin and Ray the Roadie for the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast.

This week we're meeting with a member of the Ides of March and Survivor, the legendary Jim Peterak. How are you doing, Jim? You even said my name right. I am so happy.

So many times it's Peterak, and I go, no, it's Peterak. Anyway, thank you. You know, it's great to be on your show and celebrating Chicago rock.

I mean, what a great area ever since the 50s and 60s until now. A fertile period for rock bands and rock musicians. Before we get started, I got to tell you that our weekly podcast, last week your name was brought up in the podcast because we interviewed M&R Rush, which is also my band, and your name was brought up in that podcast because of Reckless Love.

Right. I was very impressed with the result of that. You know, Frank Pappalardo, who I've known for about 30 years, he's been my live sound engineer, but also I did so much recording with him through the years with the David Carle Band and Kathy Richardson.

Right. And we did this demo with a group called Baby Blue, and there's a song called Reckless Love that just killed. And Frank, every year he'd bring up, man, I got to find someone to record that song.

Finally he said, M&R Rush is going to record it, and he played it for me, and I go, you nailed it. Thank you. Yeah, it's really strong.

Thank you. Now, who sang lead on that? John McFarland. The original guy, right? Yeah.

We were all original. Everyone. The whole band, yes.

Sounds like you had some merch. Yeah, and that's an accomplishment in itself, I'd say, anymore. You got that right.

Not many bands like that out there anymore. I know. And for one reason or another, either egos or they're dying, which is not a good thing.

No, no. Definitely not. No.

But I see you haven't had a comeback. You've been busy the whole time, it seems like, since day one. Since 1964.

That's really true. You're right, I never had a comeback, because they never left. Right, exactly.

But yeah, it's what keeps me going. It really does. And if it's not the Ides of March, which is now celebrating 55 years as a band this year.

That's amazing. Great. And a brand new album coming out in August called Play On.

Now, this is another one. This is my World Stage album. World Stage, great.

This came out in late April, just about a week ago, 26th of April. Oh, nice. And that's why we're putting a little distance between this release and the Ides of March release in August.

They're both finished. Obviously, this one's finished, because it's all packaged. I'll talk about this real quick, if you don't mind.

No, go right ahead. So my first World Stage album was back in 2001. I left Survivor in 96.

And what am I going to do now? Well, I decided to put together kind of a concept called Jim Peterkin World Stage, where I would do concerts, like superstar lineups, every year at least once. And every year those have sold out quicker than the year before. And I put out an album in 01 with many great artists that I've toured with or written with through the years, people like Dennis T. Young, Kevin Cronin, Don Barnes at 38 Special.

And I got a call from my record label, Frontiers, in Italy, maybe about six months ago. Maestro, it's time to do another World Stage album. It's been almost 20 years.

What are you doing? And I said, Serafino, it's so hard to get these albums together with people on their touring schedules and all over the world. And I said, but okay. And I started making calls.

And every musician to the man said, yes, count us in. So we've got Don Barnes of 38 Special, Mike Reno of Loverboy, Dennis T. Young, which is just an amazing thing. Shelfon of The Storm, Toby Hitchcock, who's a partner of mine in Pride Alliance.

Sure. Kevin Cronin. I remember doing a show with you with Pride Alliance.

That's right, that's right. Kevin Cronin of REO, Danny Vaughn of Taiketo, a great band. Lars Sussund of Work of Art, a great Swedish band that's just very popular over there and fantastic.

Kelly Cagey of Night Ranger, Jason Sheff of Chicago, who sang all those great Chicago hits when Pete Zatero left the band. Right. Matthew and Gunnar Nelson, The Nelsons.

Right. And finally, a great lost track that was never released by Jimmy Jamison that I wrote and produced for him. And that was really an unbelievable moment because Jimmy wanted to do a country record back in 2008.

Because he had country roots, being from Memphis and everything. And I said, sure, I'll help you make that record. So I started writing for him.

We recorded about eight songs. And they were all really good. He had that twang and it was very authentic sounding.

But just then Frontiers calls me and said, Maestro, we want you to record a rock album for Jimmy Jamison. And so we made Crossroads Moment, which came out in 2009 and just did phenomenally well. And I'm very proud of that.

But long story short, a few months ago, I was going through that old country stuff. And there was a song called Love You All Over the World that just stood out to me. And I called the heirs, Jimmy's family.

It was just kind of, I could have done it without their blessing, but I wanted their blessing to take that track, take Jimmy's vocal and isolate it and create a new track around it more in the rock style that he was famous for. And that's what we did. And right upstairs in World State Studios with Larry Millis and my son was on drums and Colin Peterick.

And, you know, the bass player, I believe, was, I don't want to misspoke, but we put together the A-list, Mike Aquino on guitar. Mike is phenomenal. Amazing.

I think it was Bill Siner on bass. But anyway, it was spooky and bittersweet and very eerie to put that fader up on Jimmy's voice and hear it isolated. It was like he was in the room and we all had a tear in our eye.

I bet it was very emotional. It was very emotional. So we were basically performing with Jimmy after the fact.

And it's one of the standout tracks, I think. We put it as the last track because you really can't follow something. Yeah, it was a sad day, I know, when I heard about Jimmy's passing.

Yes, it was. He was loved by all. I mean, he was one of the nicest guys.

Not only that, but being one of the most signature vocalists that I've ever... As soon as you hear his voice, you know it's Jimmy. Right. You know, I find that the best singers are all like that.

We're good with Dennis DeYoung now, and we have a song on World Stage called Proof of Heaven, which we wrote together. As soon as you hear that voice, you know who it is. Right.

And, you know, what's neat about Dennis now is that he's really appreciating his heritage with Styx. You know, when he was making his solo albums, he was trying to do everything to avoid the Styx sound. And now he's embracing it.

Right. And with Proof of Heaven, it could have been 40 years ago on one of his early Styx albums. That's what I thought when I heard it.

I was listening to it, same thing. I said, that could easily have been a Styx song. Exactly.

So it's great that he's back to that, what he does so well, the very theatrical... Right. I was going to say very theatrical. He's always been very theatrical.

Very, and that's part of the reason. And majestic and just, you know... You could say pompous. He wouldn't say bold.

Yeah, well, no, he knows that, and it's a big part of that Styx sound. Oh, sure, sure it is. Definitely is, definitely is.

Now, speaking of Jimmy Jamison, what about Dave Bickler? Have you done anything with Dave? You know, I played with him two years ago in January. Invited him to do world stage with me at the live thing at North Central College. And he just was putting out a new album, so we did a brand new song.

It was really great. And then he sang, of course, Poor Man's Son and Caught in the Game and Eye of the Tiger. Right.

And he sounded terrific. We stayed in touch. Right.

He's a great guy, and his album is out now. And if you haven't heard it, it's really good. That and not to change the subject, but tell me a little bit about Cornerstones of Rock.

Well, Cornerstones of Rock is really what your show is all about, Chicago rock. Right. But it's the 60s.

It's limited to the 60s. I got in just under the wire with 1970 vehicle, but they cut me slack. But, you know, we've been doing these shows.

It started with a WTTW special called Cornerstones of Rock, American Garage. And it was Ides of March, Buckingham, New County, Six Crimes, Shame, Shadows of Night, Elliot Haynes, Jeremiah. We included the McCoys.

They weren't from Chicago, but very much that sound. And the Standells, same reason. And Garage Rock.

Right. And this went on to be the biggest fundraiser they ever had on TTW up to that point. Right.

And one night when they premiered it, they raised $100,000 just like that. Wow. And from there, we did start doing concerts and replays, of course, of TTW.

And every show, we sell the DVD, which is so powerful. Oh, Gary Loaiza, American Breed. Right.

He passed very soon after that. Right. Very lucky.

Yeah, I've seen the WTTW special, and Gary was phenomenal on it. He looked better than anybody. Yeah, he did.

And he sounded great. Yeah. So glad that he was there.

Yeah. It was his lasting tribute. Yeah, another shocker.

Yeah, it was just terrible. What a talent. Great engineer, as well as a musician.

Developed a lot of the sticks, right? A lot of the sticks, yeah, Fisher. And did sticks live for quite a while. Oh, a long time.

Yeah. A long time. Yeah.

But now we do live shows with Cornerstones, and of course, there's a few people absent, like Gary. And Skip Haynes passed away since then. Teddy Elliot is still rocking it.

Still out there kicking. And we sell out like that. And we must have played the Arcada now seven times.

Each time, it's a total sellout. And we did the Genesee. We've done a lot of venues.

Always, we've done Milwaukee Fest. That was a big deal. Nice.

So very popular. And we have another one coming up in October at the Arcada. I saw that.

And we just keep rocking. And everybody's great. I mean, there's no egos.

We check them at the door. It's just all for one, one for all. We all feel so thankful that we're still making music, still doing it.

They're nice venues. It's just a bigger garage. Yeah.

Well said. It's about right. I mean, everybody gets their start there.

I'm sure this has been asked many times. Did you write Eye of the Tiger for the movie, or was it something you had written, something you just wrote? Absolutely for the movie. Okay.

It started with a phone call from Sylvester Stallone. I thought someone was putting me on. Hey, yo, Jim, give me a call.

That's a nice answering machine you got there. I thought, yeah, right. This is probably Sal, our road manager, with Survivor.

But I did call him back. He said, I like your band Survivor. The song Poor Man's Son on Premonition.

Tony Scotti, you know, the label president, played it for me. I said, that's the sound I want. And he said, I want something with a pulse, something for the kids, and something that's going to outlast all of us.

Is there a problem with that? I said, Stallone, sly. He goes, call me sly. Okay, sly.

I said, I've been waiting all my life for an opportunity like this. I always say good luck is where opportunity meets preparation. And we were prepared.

And they sent us the rough cut of the movie. And me and Frankie Sullivan watched it, and we just got inspired. And I just started that diggity, diggity, diggity, diggity, diggity.

And then I saw the punches thrown, and I went, bop, bop, bop, bop. Bop, bop, bop. Bop, bop, bop.

So you worked off of a video. We worked off of the rough cut of the movie. Right.

Yeah. And, of course, the eye of the tiger, that phrase was in the movie, where Mickey, the trainer's going, Rocky, you're losing the eye of the tiger. Bum, bum, bum, there it is.

So it was just one of those things that caught lightning in a bottle. And guess what? It probably will outlive us all. Well, I said to my 18-year-old son a couple of days ago, I says, I'm going to interview Jim Peterick.

And he kind of looked at me, and I says, he wrote Eye of the Tiger. And he was like, oh, that song's iconic. And for an 18-year-old to know that.

Well said. Well said. No, it's always fun in a new home, whether it's in a movie, a commercial, a TV show.

You know, we just got a, oh, Tiger Woods won the champion. For sure. And you see him in the dressing room whistling Eye of the Tiger.

Right. And then the band comes in, and then he says, he's back. You know, it's just like vehicle.

It keeps finding new homes. Acura is in vehicle now to sell cars, sell vehicles. Yes.

Unbelievable. I call it the gift that keeps giving. Now, Burning Heart, same way? Not to the extent, obviously, of Eye of the Tiger.

Right. But, yeah, that's a good license, too. Off of a video of the? Rocky IV, the movie.

Right. Well, they both had a music video. Eye of the Tiger had a video of us walking down the main streets of San Francisco right in front of the pornos.

Right. You know, in the neon lights. And it was, you know, I'm embarrassed by that video, because I look as big as a refrigerator in it.

Not exactly rock star slim. But, and then we're on stage, and there's the water, and that part I kind of like. But it was a popular video.

It's had like a billion hits. I mean, literally a billion hits. And then the music video for Burning Heart was even better, because it intercuts movie scenes with live scenes of Survivor playing.

Right. And that is a great video. I love that video.

You know, videos are not what they used to be. I mean, in the days of MTV, that was a big deal. Big deal.

And it could make or break a record. I mean, look at Michael Jackson. But we had some very powerful videos.

One was I Can't Hold Back, where all I, the biggest thing I remember is that really cute girl walking up the ladder up to the top shelf of the bookcase. And her name is Anne Marie, and she's just a wonderful gal. We used her recently for a Mark Sheridge and Peteric cut, where she came back and did a cameo in a strip club.

It was really, really cute. But my favorite video is probably I Can't Hold Back, like I said, because we each took on a different persona. I was the slick lawyer business guy with the suit and the hair slicked back.

Frankie was the punk. And Stephan Ellis dressed up like a nun. And Mark Gervais was a bum.

And we're all on the L train going from Chicago to O'Hare. It's that line. It was kind of like a risky business thing.

Of course, J-Mo was the handsome guy when the girls are all after him. He had all the luck. But it's a great video.

Search Is Over had a great video. And Man Against the World, which was not a big hit, should have been, had a great video. But I still, if any of your audience ever wants to check in, JimPeteric.com has all the Survivor videos.

All you do is press a button. The Ides of March.com has a lot of great footage from the Ides of March. And, of course, my Facebook is the official Jim Peteric page.

So all things Peteric and the Ides of March. It's a lot of fun keeping in touch with the fans. So Pride Alliance, what's going on with that? Is that still? Fearless did really well.

It's 2016. That was our most recent album. But Jimmy has a track on World Stage, which is really a great one.

But I need a rest time between Pride Alliance albums to revamp my inspirations. I did two albums back to back, starting in August of last year. First, I cut the World Stage album in two months.

And then in November, I started the Ides of March album. A 50th anniversary album called Play On, which is another guest extravaganza. We've got Mark Farner to come in and play and sing from Grand Funk Railroad.

We've got Kathy Richardson of the Starship, who I mentored when she was 19. And now she's touring the world with Starship. We've got Joe Badamasa to come in and play lead guitar.

Huge superstar blues man. Bo Bice, American Idol finalist, who sang Vehicle to the Top in 2005. That's right.

He had the long, long hair. He sang the shit out of it. I can say that on a podcast.

Yeah, yeah. Anyway, so there's a lot of stars. There's Mindy Hebert, the sax player.

Phenomenal hot blonde gal who happens to be a great sax player. David Pak does a duet with me on a thing called Song About Mary, which is one of the great songs. I know I'm leaving out some people.

Were these all new songs? All new. All new, Paul, yeah. We are doing a double vinyl as well as a CD.

Back to the double album. And the first three sides are the contents of the 14-song CD. But then the fourth side is all vintage vinyl.

First time Vehicle has been available on vinyl since back in the day. You Wouldn't Listen, L.A. Goodbye, One Woman Man. Eight vintage songs.

That's perfect for the eyes of my age. Isn't it? Right. It's the whole history.

I love vinyl because there's all this real estate to read lyrics, look at pictures, just like the old days. I miss that now. We're downloading.

I loved reading about the band, who was in the band, what the band was all about. The history, yeah. I miss that too.

You need to have reading glasses just to read the credits on a CD. That's true. If you can read them at all.

We're doing the CD. It's going to be a DigiPack six panel, and then inside there will be a booklet for the ads. But then there will be the vinyl.

So we're really excited about it. We're going to do a music video for a song called Blue Storm Rising that we did with Kathy, and a song called Swagger that we did with Mark Farner, and then a song about Mary. So it's going to be a lot of video content as well.

Excellent. You've had a lot of great music. I've loved the Eyes of March my whole life.

Thank you. But L.A. Goodbye, to me, that is the best song. Love that song.

Thank you. I find that the true Ides fans, I mean, everybody loves Vehicle, but I can tell the real Ides fans when they mention L.A. Goodbye. I love that song.

Yeah, it must be. It's a little longer Every time I wave goodbye Sentimental breakdown You know I break down in lies I'm not supposed to lie My, my Always seen myself disappearing, oh And as I pour my pain Something inside my brain It's too late, L.A. Goodbye L.A. Goodbye Wow, you should hear the vinyl on that. It's stereo.

You know, that was one of the first things we did in stereo, and it just sounds so warm. The harmonies are incredible. Yeah, we re-recorded it, but we could never capture that magic when we were all 19 years old.

Right. But tell me about writing with the 38 Special. Well, that's, you know, I always call myself the 6th member of 38 Special, or 7th, depending on how many singers they got within that year, but they're great guys, and I've had some of my biggest successes outside of Survivor and Ides of March with 38.

Right. I feel like I am a member of the band, because when you go see them live, practically half the set is stuff that I co-wrote with them. And Don Barnes, Jeff Carlisi, of course, he's no longer with the band, but that was the team that wrote the biggest hits.

First of all, they recorded Rockin' Into the Night. Rockin' Into the Night is great. Yeah, which was supposed to be on the first Survivor album.

Long story. But anyway, you know, and a lot of people thought, man, we should have had that song out by Survivor. But it was not to be.

But they had a huge hit with it, which, you know, I'm happy for. You know, I'm happy for them. Having written it, of course I'd be happy for them.

Sure. You know, but that led to them actually flying in for their next record and writing Face to Face with me. Oh, okay.

I was living in LaGrange at the time, and I had this really nice kitchen with a vaulted ceiling and a kitchen counter. That's where I wrote some of my biggest hits. That's where I set up the VCR, and Frankie Sullivan and I wrote Eye of the Tiger.

At the kitchen counter? At the kitchen counter in LaGrange with the butcher block look, you know. But that's where we sat down with... Don Barnes was here, Jeff Carlisi was here, and we just looked at each other like deer in the headlights because we didn't even know each other. You know, co-writing is like a blind date.

Until you get to know them, it's very awkward. Sure, exactly. And Jeff Carlisi goes, Hey, there's a picture of the Ides of March.

Why do you have a picture of the Ides of March? I love that band. I said, I'm the third from the left. He goes, No shit.

It was really... So that kind of broke the ice. Right. And then Karen comes in with a plate of nachos, and, you know, all good.

And I said, Has anybody got any titles? Because a lot of times I'll write from a title. Don Barnes, he was kind of shy at the time. Well, I got a title.

So let's hear it. You know, hold on loosely. Hell yeah.

But don't let go. I immediately wrote that down. And Carlisi goes, Well, I got this riff.

It's kind of like the cars. He goes... I said, Holy shit. And we just went from there, man.

First time together, like I have said before, we caught lightning in a bottle. And it went to number one. And then they came back for the next record, and that's when we wrote Caught Up In You, Wild Eyed Southern Boys, Fantasy Girl, Chain Lightning.

Just had an amazing string of songs. It's like you get hot, and it just rolls. It just starts rolling.

Yeah. And now we're writing a new album. And, in fact, I'd love to bring it up to the present.

Winds of Change was just the title song of Jim Peterkin's World Stage. That's a song that Don Barnes and I and Danny Chauncey wrote about a year ago. And it was going to be on their album.

But Don says, Why don't you put it on this album? I said, Yeah. Thank you. But Winds of Change is a very important song for this album.

I think it sets the tone. Very positive, very upbeat. It was inspired by, remember, the Parkland shootings in Florida.

It was a tragic slaughter. And what really touched me were the young students that stood up so eloquently talking about gun control and violence in the schools. And I said, These are the winds of change.

These kids are our future. And if the leaders don't listen to these 17-year-olds, they're not going to get re-elected. Right.

Exactly. And so when I talk about the ship capsizing, that's the old guard. And the winds of change are the new kids coming in and trying to make some sense of this world.

Right, right. That's what we're leaving behind. Yep, that's right.

Of course, Sammy Hagar. Oh, my God. Another one of my heroes.

I wish I had his money. Or his tequila. Well, that's what made his money.

But yeah, he's a hero of mine. I loved him back in Montrose days. Montrose to me was a forerunner of Van Halen.

Oh, yeah. I mean, Ronnie Montrose on guitar was... Prototype. Right, to Van Halen.

Yeah, no, I agree. And Sammy was a great singer ever since those days. He always was great.

And I got hooked up with him through John Kolodner. John Kolodner is this famous A&R person with Atlantic Records. He had that long, Hasidic beard, and he was in the Pump video dressed in a bridesmaid, a bridesdress, for the Nerosmiths.

He signed Nerosmith to Geffen. Anyway, he signed Survivor, too. So he has been really important to me.

He was always hooking me up with 38 Special, Henry Paul, The Outlaws, and 38 Special. And that was an amazing... He's done this amazing... He did me an amazing amount of good, and he hooked me up with Sammy Hagar, and I flew out there to write with him. He was still living in Mill Valley, near San Francisco, and picked me up in his Ferrari, red Ferrari.

He was the cool guy. Sounds like Sammy. Yeah, you know, and his hair was flying, and we were just living the dream, man.

He stopped, and he went to this great coffee shop, and we ground up some coffee just to get some fuel. All the kids are going, Hey, Sammy! Hey, Sammy! This guy's got a tiger by the tail. No pun intended.

So we went down in his basement, which was beautiful. He had a little recording studio down there, and he says, Well, there's this new movie coming out called Heavy Metal, and it's really an animation. It's kind of an erotic sci-fi thing.

They're looking for a title cut. I said, Hell yeah, let's do it. And we called it Heavy Metal, and our chemistry between us was so good.

I started saying lines. I said, You know, for me, the most exciting part of a rock concert is the anticipation. Sitting there in the auditorium or theater or whatever, and you're waiting for your heroes to enter, and the tension is building.

I want to capture that excitement. He said, Okay, I'm with you. So we started Headbangers in Leather, Sparks Flying in the Dead of the Night.

It all comes together when you shoot out the lights. 50,000 watts of power, and it's hitting overload. The beast is ready to devour all the metal it can hold.

And we kept changing, trading lines, and then one way ticket to midnight, call it Heavy Metal. We're like, Holy shit. And then we start jamming, and this riff came about.

You know, only Sammy, you know, could have written that riff. Well, I helped, but it was his inspiration. Yeah, it's a perfect riff.

It really is, yeah, yeah. So that was magic, and every time he comes to town, usually he puts me on stage with him. We did Northerly Island, and I actually opened for him.

This was two years ago, and I just played an acoustic guitar and did all my hits acoustically. One guitar and, you know, 11,000 people, and I pulled it off. He says, Hey, Peter, you did pretty good.

And I said, Well, thanks. So he said, Will you come up on stage with me and let's do it for real, and let's do Heavy Metal, the metal version. So, you know, that was his band called The Circle, and that's with Jason Bonham on drums and Michael Anthony on bass, and what a band, you know.

And we rocked Heavy Metal and just brought down the house. So we're still in touch, and, you know, he's one of my very good friends. You mentioned Dennis DeYoung, and are you doing an entire album with Dennis or no? Yes, I'm helping him make his album.

I don't call myself producer. I just help Dennis make his record. And we've written about 8 songs together, and he's written another 4 or 5 on his own, and I'm playing a lot of guitar on this record, and bass, which is really cool.

He really likes my guitar playing, and I love to play, you know. So even on songs I didn't write with him, a lot of times I'm playing guitar, which is a real thrill, you know, to be that guy. But it's going to be a great album, and I don't know the release date or the label that's all being worked on right now.

And on the back, it'll just say Jim Peterick Helper. That's about it. Hamburger Helper.

Hamburger Helper. No, I don't know what it's going to say, but the main thing is we're back together. We've been friends forever, and now finally working together.

Right. Yeah, Dennis was an inspiration for me and for him, and I know back, we used to do a ton of shows with them. Yes.

TW4. TW4. TW4, then they became Tricks.

Tradewinds. Well, Tradewinds, TW4, then Sticks. Right.

Yeah, they're a great band, and they still are. Now there's two factions, of course. Right.

You know, they both have their strengths. Right. And Dennis very much wanted to get back with them, and was actually, you know, I won't say begging, but basically saying, Guys, let's do one more lap around this track.

He really wanted it to happen, but it's not going to happen. Well, they said at the beginning and the end of that band was Mr. Roboto, and now they're singing it, and now they're using it. I know, it's very ironic.

I mean, Tommy's great. You know, I actually, he actually did a great version of one of my songs that I mentioned earlier today, Ever Since the World Began. I didn't mention that, but that was the second song I wrote for Rocky III that Frankie and I wrote.

Anyway, he did a great job on that, and his guitar playing is great. Tommy, I remember Tommy from MS Funk. Sure.

Did you know Mike Borch of the Ides of Mars did a stint, a long stint with MS Funk? Oh, did he? After Danny Keller left. Oh, is that right? Mike was with him for about a couple of years. Oh, yeah.

See, it all comes around. It all comes around. It definitely comes around, yep.

All righty, well, five minutes? You know what, I got to, I got to, my wife just got back from Scotland, and I better go see her. She just came home. She was with her girlfriends and touring Scotland and had a blast.

Excellent. So we got to catch up. Well, we'll look for the New World Stage album and new Ides of Mars in August.

In August. And, oh, the Ides of Mars, this may predate, I don't know when this is airing, but we're at the Acorn Theater on May 4th, but it's going to be our two-set format where the first set is unplugged, and the second set is what I call full metal jacket. Great little theater.

All the hits, and it's going to be a great show. We're enjoying that format. We did that same format at City Winery in Chicago, and all I can say is we've been together for 55 years, and it gets more fun all the time.

That's excellent. We're the original four guys, and Scott May has been with us for 30 years on B3. And then what we call the buzzard brass section, Steve Eisen, Grammy-winning horn player, Tim Bales and Henry Salgado on trombone.

But it's a family, and you know M&R Rush is like that, right? It's family. Sure it is. And you've got to be thankful for that.

Absolutely, absolutely. All righty, Jim, I want to thank you for your time, for meeting with us. Our pleasure.

Me and myself and I. I may be schizophrenic, but at least I have each other. Well, good luck with all your future endeavors, and I'm sure there will be many of them. Well, thank you, guys.

I really enjoyed it, and good luck with your podcast, and Chicago, keep rocking. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thanks, Paul. Thanks. Thanks, Brody, man.

Wow, Jim Peter gets a class act, doesn't he, Ray? Yes, he sure is. Boy, those are some great stories. Yes, those are great stories, and I hope you all enjoyed this episode of the Rock & Roll Chicago podcast.

Yeah, and hopefully make sure you guys go check out The Ides of March. They'll be playing a bunch of places throughout the Chicagoland area this summer. Yes, and keep an eye out for the World Stage CD, which was just released a little over a week ago, and keep an eye out for the Ides of March CD, which will come out in August, I believe you said.

It's going to be a CD and a vinyl. CD and vinyl. That's awesome.

All original music. That should be really interesting. And I couldn't think of a better band to come out on vinyl than Ides of March.

No, you're exactly right. So next week, we'll be bringing you Cadillac Groove. Another horn band.

Another horn band. We are just getting inundated with horn bands, but that's okay. That's good.

That's good. Everybody likes to rock. They put on a great show.

If you haven't had a chance to go out and see them, make sure you do. But we'll bring you some info and a great podcast with them next week, so be sure and stick around, and don't forget to share and like our podcast and our podcast page. And subscribe, too.

That's right. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed the show.

We'll see you next week. Thanks.