Hey, this is Paul Martin and Ray the Roadie. We're bringing you episode four of the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. Hard to believe we're already at episode four.

I was going to say episode four came up quick. Yeah, no kidding. No kidding.

No kidding. So how's things been with you, Paul? I'm doing good. I'm doing fine.

How about you, Ray? I'm doing fine. I've been doing a little searching online, checking out some new music, and I found this really, really interesting band on the internet. They're called General Lee.

They got a southern rock sound to them, and I was very interested in them. I was listening to some of their songs, one in general, Little Miss Judy. It's a pretty rockin' southern rock type song, and when I looked into this group a little bit more, it turns out they're from Singapore.

I mean, I was floored. I could not believe it. Really? Yeah, unbelievable.

It's their first. They got one album out. It's called General Lee by General Lee.

I believe they're actually out on tour right now somewhere in the Singapore area, but I definitely tell people to check them out on Spotify. Take a listen to them, and if they like them, buy their album. Give them a break out there.

Well, that sounds great. We'll be sure to check them out, Ray. Ray, thank you very much for that.

Yeah, maybe someday when they're in Chicago, we'll be able to do a podcast with them. Sure. Sure.

Sounds great. Or we could go to Singapore. Check the budget.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, we'll see what we could do.

So what's on tap this week? This week we have M&R Rush. M&R Rush. You kind of know them guys, don't you? I do sort of know those guys, and so once again, I was interviewee and interviewer.

You're not getting paid double. Both at the same time. No, I'm not getting paid double.

Not getting paid double. No. No.

Okay. Well, it's a shame that everybody couldn't have been there. Yeah, we're missing out with Roger Hertz, bass player extraordinaire with the band, but he got caught up in traffic, and coming from Indianapolis, it's a little ways for him to travel to get up here.

Let's get into it right away and see what the band has to say for themselves. They've got some great stories. All righty.

Let's go. Hey, this is Paul Martin. And Ray the Roadie.

For the Chicago, Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. Joining us this week is M&R Rush. We've got Marty Marosian, Carl Mosier, Jeff Lue, John McFarlane, and the one and only Paul Martin.

How you guys doing? Great. Missing Roger. We're missing our.

We're missing him. We're missing Roger. He got tied up in traffic.

It looks like he's not going to be able to make it this week. So what's been going on, you guys? I hear you got a new album out. Between the Lines? Yes, we do.

It was released, what, July of last year? July of 2018, yes. Yep. 11 song CD with, well, we got 10 originals on there, and one cover tune by Head East.

So who did the writing for this album? We all did. It was a team effort. Okay, so everybody had a little part in this, huh? Yeah.

Even Marty, the drummer. Really? Yes. Marty had a part in this.

I also sang on it for the first time in the history of M&R Rush. Wow, that's amazing. I love that.

He says that in every interview, by the way. That's probably what made the album. That's probably what made the album.

Just a clarification. In my mind, it did, right? But I don't know about anybody else's mind. So tell us about some of the songs on there, like, John, what did you write? Which songs on there were yours? Well, let's see here.

The opening track, Between Lines, it's a song I actually wrote for my grandson, talking about living life to the fullest every day and going after your dreams and trying to be the hero, find the hero inside of you. Then there was a tune myself and Paul worked on called Find a Way, a little something that I came up with some music and Paul put the words together, collaboration. Jeffrey and I, what was, what was, what was our song? I can't remember.

I don't know. I'm glad. I don't know.

A Time of Your Life. A Time of Your Life. Yeah, okay.

I was ready for that one. Usually I wouldn't have the answer. Another one I put together called I Believe, a song about adversity and believing that you're going to come out the other side positive and things are going to turn out all right, if you believe.

You just got to have a full bucket of positive messages. Half full, not half empty. So, Jeff, which ones were yours? Bring Some Love.

Was that, that was on this last record, right? Yes, it was. Funny how you have to ask that question. That's kind of got an interesting background.

Jeff called me up in the middle of the day and said, hey, can you get over here right now? And so I came and it was about, what, two years ago, two and a half years ago. And he said, hey, I need a real drum track on this, these ideas. And so we laid it down in probably about four minutes.

And it ended up being on the album, the demo that I did with Jeff. We worked around all the drum parts from that four minute, yeah, I need you right now, right Jeff? Good thing you showed up. Yes, that's right.

I had another drummer ready, but. Where did the megaphone come from? I was inspired by like Nine Inch Nails and stuff like that. All the heaviest, you know, I was into the heavy, really heavy stuff, you know, I guess you could say.

And so, no, it wasn't my idea, I stole it from somebody else, but it works in Bring Some Love. Because actually, I did that because I was actually, Bring Some Love has got two feelings to it. I actually was mad about that song.

You wouldn't think that song was mad. I was mad because every time we would play live, I would look to the audience and I would get like stink eye from certain people and I'd be thinking to myself, how am I supposed to bring some love your way when you're looking at me so mad? You know, and so that actually was the inspiration for Bring Some Love, was that very thing of being live and seeing somebody that looked like they didn't like life. Maybe they didn't like me.

Wasn't Sky yours too? Oh yeah, Sky was a, what's the word for it, off, we were in the off season. We were done, we were not playing and I went in the studio and I just played some little lick, that beginning one. Sky was really another song that was actually about women.

I like to write songs about girls, but you know, another thing, I was just, I was dreaming and dreaming and dreaming and it never really materialized, so it was like Sky was the limit at that moment when I was feeling all that and it turned out to not be that way. So that turns out to be a sad song for me personally, but I'm glad that was too much information. As you're not easy, who says that maybe? There's a chance to share some time, and a chance to share some love.

Nothing's to feel so fine, and never make you wonder. Sky, doesn't seem so great, doesn't seem so different. The thing about that song, that's one of my favorites.

I see that soundtrack being in a movie, and the chorus and seeing someone, you know, this beautiful like a Colorado scene with someone like flying around and it's just kind of a neat song. It's one of my favorites, Jeff, just so you know, on the new album. Thank you, Marty.

It is one of my favorites too, Jeff. Yes, it is. So then we go over to Carl, right? Your tune.

And which ones did you write, Marty? I sang, I tell you, I sang one. He sang on one of them. I sang on one.

He mentioned that. Which song was that? It was a song that, I'm looking it up right now. Reckless Love.

Reckless Love. And I'm wrong. I said we had only one cover tune.

We'll circle back. Oh, that's right. We did have more than that.

We can talk about Reckless Love. Oh, Reckless Love, or should we go to Carl? Yeah, let's talk about Reckless Love really quick. Reckless Love was a song given to us by our longtime friend from many years, Mr. Jim Peterick from the Ides of March and the group Survivor, and through a mutual friend, our sound man back a few years ago, Frank Pappalardo.

Frank was actually part of the recording session for this demo for this song back in the late 90s, or late 80s, early 90s, and it was a song that Peterick, he never released, and this band from California, I don't remember their name, that actually did the demo, they ended up breaking up before they recorded it. So anyway, long story short, Frank said, M&R Rush would do this song great. Jim Peterick said, yep, they can have it.

So we recorded that one. So that's one thing we gotta say, it's amazing, Jim Peterick is one of the best songwriters in rock and roll in America, and obviously coming from Chicago, we were honored for him to say, hey, you guys can have it, go take it and do your thing to it. So, you know, it's just amazing that a guy that's that talented, written that many hit songs, he's one of the best in America, and to just hand us a song and say, do what you guys, you guys will do a good job on that, and then he sent us a little video when he listened to it, Frank played for him, and he was very complimentary on how we arranged that song, which we're really excited about.

Great. Yeah, a little bit of pressure when I was doing the lead vocal too, thinking knowing that he's gonna be listening to it. But here's a little story about Jim Peterick, I don't know if any of you guys in this room know this story.

So growing up, there were bands in my neighborhood playing in garages before I got in M&R Rush, and my very first concert that I went to was at my high school, Mendel High School. I was a freshman, and we had won some contests, and there were three bands, Tommy James and the Shondells, The Ides of March, Baby Huey and the Babysitters, and it was emceed by Dick Biondi. So my very first real concert was seeing Jim Peterick playing Vehicle, and I remember it like it was yesterday.

Now fast forward to the 80s, we're opening up for Survivor at the Point East, and we had just done a sound check, we did our sound check, they did their sound check, and me and Jim were sitting on a couch, and they had just released Hold On Loosely, 38th Special. And I go, hey, can you show me that opening riff? Which now, I mean, everybody knows it, but it just came out on the radio. So he showed me that.

And then, a couple years later, I remember we were playing at Isn't It in Downers Grove. Right, yeah. Wow.

And I'm playing. It's a blast from the past. And I remember I kind of looked up, and I saw Peterick, and I think it was Frankie Sullivan, sitting at the bar.

And we were, I think we were doing Dr. Doctor or something, and I just got my head down, and I'm jamming, and I'm jamming up toward the front of the stage, and I open my eyes, and Jim's standing right in front of me, watching me play. And I look up and, ah! You know? Okay. And fast forward, about a couple years ago, I get the opportunity.

I was at an event, and Jim Peterick was there. And I got up with him, and I did Vehicle and Eye of the Tiger with him. Well, that's cool.

That's pretty cool. I don't remember a lot of the other stuff, John. Thanks for bringing that back.

So... 70s, 80s were a pretty rough time. Yeah. That's cool.

Yeah. So, Carl's giving me the EOI, because we're not letting him talk, so... I'm good at just listening to the stories. I like the stories.

So let's hear about your songs. I have one on this CD. It's called Someday, and it's, you know, I've often heard what people say, and how love will find them someday.

And that was the line that stuck in my head from 1974, when I actually wrote the song. And so I just figured, you know what? I got this thing sitting around. We never recorded it.

And so I brought that one, and I wanted Raj to sing it, because Raj, on our Blue EP, he sang three out of the four songs. Right? Yep. Paul Paul sang one.

You sang Reach for the Stars on that one. I sang Reach for the Stars. And Raj sang Number One, and You're the Only Woman, and... Stay With Me.

Stay With Me. So I wanted Raj to be its first voice to Grace's again. That's a good song.

So yeah, it was fun recording, and I got to do these harmony parts on there. It sounds like a keyboard when you listen to the song, but it's actually me doing the three harmonies, or is it four? Might be four. Just giving me the three sign.

I don't know, the middle fingers. That's interesting. He said he only got one song on this, right? He got one song on Between the Lines.

But I was just listening to all our tunes that we laid down over the years, because we're putting on a song of the day for 76 days before we do our first show this year. So I haven't listened to our music that much, so I've been listening to them. And on the Thrill of the Chase album, I was flabbergasted.

I think it was the Carl Mosier solo album, wasn't it? Yeah, I think you did. The Purple Record. No, the Red Record.

I think, Carl, that... I think almost all of them were about... Except one. Except one. Those were all your tunes that you came up with the ideas.

So I just want people to realize, we didn't say, Carl, you can only have one song. But it was time to let everybody else... Did I tell you, Ray, that I sang in this album? Did you really? Well, that shows the diversity of the band. I mean, that some other people can write and come up with tunes as well.

It's about time. The weight of the world is lifted off my shoulders. I don't have to come up with all these songs anymore.

So I think that covers everybody that wrote something on the album. Oh, Paul, I forgot you were here. Yeah, I'm being quiet in this one.

I had two songs in there. A little three, counting the one that I helped John write, wrote the lyrics for. But I had Darkness of Night, which kind of just came to me in a moment's notice.

I was sitting at my dining room table playing my guitar, and before I knew it, I had a page full of lyrics that I'd written down, and I came out of this fog, and I had a song written. Which is kind of cool when that happens, but it doesn't happen too often. In the darkness of night I see your face The world's staring at me The hope you've erased Why does this happen? It just ain't right I only see you In the darkness of night And I've also got Melvin Drives the Bus, which is kind of my story about touring, and when we were all young bucks and out there touring and playing the college towns and going from town to town and playing.

It actually refers to my days when I was mixing, and I still do that occasionally, but running sound for bands. And you can always tell a good drummer when you saw one, because he was in control, and he was driving the whole bus. He was driving the whole band, and I always felt Marty's that way.

Is it alright if I give him a hug right now? Oh sure, go right ahead. You'll feel the love. Marty's definitely been a driving force behind this band since day one, since I can remember.

What's interesting before you go on to your other tune is, Ray, we did it differently on how we picked the songs. We actually voted on all the demos. I don't know, we had about 20 tunes or so.

That's a good idea. And then we went and voted, and the ones that got the most votes ended up on the album. And I'll be honest with you, Melvin Drives the Bus, I wasn't really impressed at the beginning, and I was telling Paul, Paul, it's cool, I like it, but, and he goes, well, for God's sake, Marty, Melvin, it's about you.

And then I said, this definitely has to be on the album. Right, Paul? That's right. I love this song.

And what else do you have on there? That's it, right? Just two songs. Two songs, and... And then you guys... Right, alright. So you've had pretty good sales of that album too, internationally.

Yeah, the Internet's amazing, isn't it? You know, again, we kid about this, but it is awesome that with the Internet and selling things and how the industry's changed, we have people in about 16 countries that have bought our music. Now, it's not millions of copies, but, you know, if one person buys the album in China, that counts as a country that we're in, right? But it's amazing how people get turned on to music that is, you know, thousands and thousands and thousands of miles away from them. It's kind of neat.

So let's turn back the hands of time just a little bit and let's talk a little bit about how Eminem and Rush got together. So usually we throw this to Roger, you know, since he's still on the road from Indianapolis. But yeah, it was myself, Roger and I, we've known each other a few years since we were 5 years old and we played baseball together.

I started a band with him when I was in about 7th grade. He didn't even play bass. All he was was a lead singer.

Our song that we played all the time was I'm a Believer by the Monkees and the reason why we did that is the guitar player's mother would give us brownies every time we would play that. But anyway, so we turned into I met Carl in freshman year as a freshman year as our teacher and so he became our keyboard player He turned us on to Paul We knew John was in a band at this time playing Mendel with his, playing purple in his purple shirt What was the song name? Purple Haze Purple Haze Crystal Blue Persuasion We asked John to come in and then John came in and then before you know it we asked Jeff to come in to the Taminar Rush and here we are. So that's how it came.

We've been around a few years We took a vacation for many years when our children were growing up and to be Little League coaches and all that and we started playing again 2003 so this is our 16th year So that's our second go-round Second go-round, right and John's always Which actually lasted longer than the first go-round John came up with that and said, hey, do you realize this Taminar Rush the second time around is longer than the first time Right? Yep, yep Having fun One of the things I want to point out that I think makes this band very unique especially when you think about the bands that are out there today playing like 100% cover stuff and Taminar Rush goes back and we were part of something that we just unfortunately we didn't catch the wave but we were there we were there when Styx wasn't even called Styx they were playing half covers half originals then they changed their name to Styx they went to all originals we were opening up shows for them we were playing covers and we started writing originals because we didn't want to be a cover band we wanted to make it, make the big time and there was another band in town called MS Funk that had a guitar player in there his name was Tom later he called himself Tommy and he ended up getting in Styx we were playing clubs on a Friday Saturday Cheap Trick would be there go down the road a little farther Survivor playing the clubs we're writing originals we're getting record companies to come out to see us we weren't just a jukebox band and we came real close we had a record company come almost signed us there was a little problem with the record company we had our song Karl Rove Rock and Roll Chicago played on the loop on the loop the third largest radio market Chicago, the loop the largest classic rock station we were played in the summer of 1980 so much that our song ended up being number 45 for the year we're not just a cover band when you come see us you're going to hear originals you're going to hear our covers we know people want to hear them we like playing them they were our influences Queen, Journey, Dry Heap they were all our influences I personally want to thank you guys for letting us use Rock and Roll Chicago as our theme song for the podcast I wanted to talk to you about that I've been checking the PO box for our royalties and haven't seen a check yet my people will get a hold of your people so what do you got planned for this summer season what's going on yes we do we're going to do about 10 shows this year our first show is on Bourbon Street in about 24 days and it's on Saturday May 18th 8 o'clock so please come on out and it is a free show so it's kind of neat to get there before 8 o'clock it costs you $0 to come and listen to M&R Rush we're doing a couple did you say it was a free show or a freak show a freak show we have a couple theaters we're doing which is really cool one in Michigan Acorn June 15th what's the second one John doesn't know this but the second one is a brand new theater in Crown Point Indiana November 5th thanks Carl it's a prom theater we played that a long time ago and they've renovated it it's really going to be a beautiful place we have numerous shows but I'm not going to bore everybody with it another one that's kind of special is Pierogi Fest in Whiting Indiana Carl do you know that date that is July 27th so 27th to 29th last Saturday in July it's their 30th anniversary so it's a big special thing Channel 9 is supposed to be out there all my Polish cousins are coming so if you want to meet all my Polish cousins be there another thing that we do is we're having our 5th annual golf outing where anybody can sign up at mnrrush.com and we're doing a show there also in Crete Illinois at the golf and that will be August 9th Carl I'm impressed Carl's not reading this off the golf outing itself is the 23rd of August so anybody wants to golf go to our website sign up for it that's right find out all the information there alright guys well it's been great having you really appreciate you taking the time to talk with us where else can we find where else can they find us and find out our dates besides mnrrush.com you can sign up for the newsletter so you'll get a newsletter of all our dates coming up and then of course Facebook we have a Facebook page Twitter Twitter at mnrrush band and then you come out to our shows we'll have cards to give you for all our shows coming up it's my birthday Saturday oh yes it is I figured if you want to send me money PO Box what alright then thanks a lot guys thank you music music music music music those were some great stories the band had wasn't it yeah it sure was it's 40 years a long time to be together there's a lot of stories there yeah it's kind of It's kind of like a marriage, I guess, and you have to, you come up with a lot of stories after 40 years. Yeah, you do. It's amazing that you guys have actually been together longer the second go-round.

Yes. That's pretty impressive. Our next episode, five, we've got somebody very special coming up, so all you guys out there definitely got to check it out.

Yes, be sure to check it out next week. We've posted some stuff on Facebook, so be sure and check it out and stick around. Stick around.

It's going to be a very interesting show. As always, like our page, subscribe to the podcast, and please share and tell your friends. Have a great week, everybody.

Take care. Thank you.