Coming to you from the studios at the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66, it's the Rock and Roll Chicago Podcast. Hey everybody, it's Ray the Roadie. And this is Hollywood Mike.

I am ecstatic, Ray. How are you doing? I'm full of static electricity too. Look at my hair.

What the heck happened there? I don't know. It's just too much static electricity. You're just walking around and your hair just decided to go.

Yeah. It's like I got my hand on one of them balls. Hey, this is a family program.

Not those. I mean, but they're yours. Yeah.

I mean, it's not like you got your hands on his ball. Oh, that's right. That's right.

That's true. That's true. I wouldn't want to do that.

Keep your hands on the table. Yeah, we don't want to see. So why are you ecstatic? Because we've got this band in the studio here tonight.

Well, at least two members of this band here in the studio tonight. They're called Shooter. Yes, they are.

That's right. They brought their friends with them. They did.

Why do our guests only have a bunch of guys? I don't know. It's all it is. It's always dudes.

Yeah. They always got dudes. No chicks.

Yeah. You guys got to work on your female following. It's all right.

Let's welcome Shooter. How are you guys doing? Awesome. Doing good.

Doing good. I got to start it off by saying you have a fan. You have a fan.

You absolutely do. I looked you guys up a few days ago and you go to the internet stuff and everything and I saw you guys doing covers and everything. And then Ray sent me the link this morning to where I got your albums, right? You guys got a few albums.

What, like four of them you guys put out over the years? We put out our first one in early nineties, Gone Full Circle. And then in 2016, regrouped Better Studio, Better Tracking and revised the Gone Full Circle album. Right.

Right. Right. Right.

And, uh, well, yeah, after 44 years, you get a few tunked under your belt, you know? Well, before we get too far along, before we do, let's tell everybody who we're talking to here. Yeah. Why don't you introduce yourselves? Go ahead.

My name is JR. Call me the bounty hunter. I'm lead singer and front man for Shooter. All right.

And I'm Willie. I'm the guitar player. One of the guitar players, I should say.

All right. All right. Anything else? Just, just guitar or multi-instrumentalist? No, just, just guitar.

Backup vocals. When it feels foggy, he leaps. Right.

Right. Right. Give me a couple of shots.

And, and JR, you are the lead singer and I didn't see you on any videos or anything playing any, any instruments. So you are the true front man. I am the true front man.

I can't pick my nose without it. Believe me. That's why these guys get the big bucks.

Yeah. That's right. I get all the women, but they get the big bucks.

There you go. There you go. Well, don't demonstrate the nose part.

I'll just, I'll just believe, I'll just take it. So, so I, so I take it, you started this whole thing, you said 44 years ago? 44 years ago. 81, we started in the basement with Steve Kelly.

He is still with me. As a matter of fact, he's my lead and slide player. Denny Davis and a couple other guys.

But since Steve's been since 81, Willie came on with me in like 90. Our bass player was unfortunately killed a few years ago in a car accident. So drummers and bass players come and go, but my guitar players are always with me.

But no, we've managed to keep it together, you know, and I don't know. It's just unbelievable. The last two, three years, 10, 12 shows a month.

I mean, they're killing us. Wow. Wow.

Wow. So, so who are your current bass player and drummer? The bass player, his name is Rick Prather. He's out of Wynn, Arkansas.

Okay. And me and him actually started playing together in junior high. Okay.

In 74. He's not commuting from Arkansas. No, no, no, no.

Okay. That's good. He filled in during my other bass guitar player got COVID.

He came in and filled in. Okay. And then stuck with me.

He's vocals too. Really good vocalist. All right.

And then Ken Ward, young guy, joined us two seasons ago. Okay. Yeah.

He didn't even know who Molly Hatchet was when he joined us. Hey. So, so if he didn't know who Molly Hatchet was, if he didn't know the style of music or the, you know, the bands that most people will listen to, then what was it about him that, that said, well, you're going to be our bass player, regardless of whether or not, you know, Southern rock or not.

Oh, Ricky's known me and Ricky have known him forever. Kenny, the drummer. Right.

He's a jazz, was a teacher. Okay. Jazz player, drum teacher.

Gotcha. Played in other bands and stuff. And he charts everything.

Okay. Okay. But he's just a solid drummer.

I mean, that's what we liked about him. I mean, he just, yeah. So maybe I'm confused, which is the one that said you, he never heard of Molly Hatchet.

The drummer. The drummer. Okay.

Gotcha. I got a little confused. Okay.

39, maybe, or something like that. Yeah. Baby.

Yeah. Right. Right.

Yeah. So, but I mean, he stepped right up, man. The guy is, he's awesome.

I hope we don't hear this till August. It's going to be hard. If I tell him he's good.

He's going to be asking you for more pay. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, your wish is my command because this isn't coming out until sometime in August. Right. Right.

Exactly. I'll probably have a new drummer by then. You never know.

Our listeners know that everything is pre-recorded because we've made, we've made that mistake many times. We could have a blooper show about how many times we talk about today and in races, something like, what do you mean it's raining today? You can't, it's snowing. Yeah.

It's snowing. Yeah. It's been, it's been months ago.

Yeah. This'll be out August 27th. Right.

Right. So it's about the musicianship then is what it came down to. You know, we don't care if you've heard of the style before, if you can pull it off, you can do it.

No, no. He's, uh, I, I've been blessed, man. I tell you, I, as far as guitar players, I put my guys up against any, anybody and, and even Ken and Rick only being with us for a short time.

But, uh, yeah, I, I just, uh, I don't know. We do what we do. We don't know how we do it, but it, it, it works every show.

Yeah. Three people, 3000 people, they get the same show. Right.

Right. Right. Now you were originally from Arkansas.

Yeah. I was born and raised down in Arkansas. All right.

And, uh, I've been a little bit every place, you know, What brought you to Chicago area? Uh, I got back here from Texas about 11, 12 years ago, uh, to do a benefit. And next thing I know that was what, 12 years ago. Right.

We haven't missed a weekend yet. Even during COVID, if they put up a snow fence, we were there playing. Oh yeah.

Oh yeah. There's some bars that just still stayed open and wanted to have bands. And yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. No, there were still America in a few places.

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

So did you actually start this band in Arkansas? Did you start this band here in the Chicago area? In the DeKalb area. DeKalb area. Okay.

Yeah. Wow. So, so you went from Arkansas by way of Texas.

I went from Arkansas by way of Ellen. Now I'm going to catch hell for this. Okay.

Cause I can't not say it like this out of Arkansas to Illinois. Okay. Illinois.

Yeah. And you can, you can take home one of those lovely t-shirts that say Illinois right there. Does it say I L L the noise? It does.

It's right behind you. You can look through the glass right there. It's Abraham Lincoln with headphones on and it says Illinois.

Perfect. I'll be leaving with one of them. I'll wear it Saturday at our show.

That's right. That's okay. Cause you can say Illinois if I'm allowed to say Arkansas.

I don't care. You can call it Texas if you want to. That's where I came from from getting here.

That's right. I just call it Arkansas. I get that a lot too.

You know, Texas is actually a thing. You know, it's usually synonymous with a badonkadonk. Oh yeah.

Yeah. Okay. All right.

So you put the whole thing together then. So I don't need that. Well, maybe I do need to ask because a lot of times, just because you're playing Southern rock, doesn't mean that your influences were all Southern rock.

Actually, I started singing when I was about seven, cranking a RCA Victrola. Wow. Doing lesser flat Earl Scruggs, Hank senior.

And that's the kind of music I grew up with. That's what I was getting at. Let's talk about that for a little bit.

Yeah. And yeah, that's, I just turned 70 and I'm 22, 18 hours a month. Right.

Right. You know? And I don't know. Feels good, huh? Oh, there's nothing better.

Nothing better. Did you have another profession that you maybe retired from and then started doing music full time or did you always just try to make it as a musician? I owned a construction company. Okay.

All right. I built super Walmart's and Sam's clubs and subdivisions and taco bells and anything that needed to get built or need utilities. That's I did that.

Right. Right. Right.

So retired team, Stern operator now build classic cars and play rock and roll. Excellent. It's a hard life, man.

Very hard. I think we're covering the same cloth. Interesting.

That's good. That's good. I got a little shop called bounty hunter classics.

Okay. Where's that located? Maple Park, Illinois. Maple Park, Illinois.

Okay. Wow. We'll have to check that out too.

Yeah. I have to contact the owner. See if he wants to do a sponsorship on the podcast.

Yeah, that's right. You know, put a little 15 second spot every now and then. Tell me, we'll check it out.

Yeah. Yeah. You want a car to track them down.

Build it. You're building custom. Are you restoring cars or are you building custom hot rods? Restoring cars.

Restoring them. What I do is I go out and if somebody's looking for a car, I'll find it for them, get it transported back, negotiate the deals. But then I always keep two or three in my shop that I build and sell as I'm going along.

Right. To keep the lights on. Right.

Right. So it's kind of a hobby. And once a year, I'll make a dollar.

So, you know, that's what this podcast is about. You know, I tell people this all the time. We've had people in here and they're here to, you know, when we start talking about the band and for the next 30 minutes, we start doing something like talking about fishing.

You know, people, if they want to see you as a band and they can go see you. Sure. Your fans want to know who you are.

You know, the side that they don't get to see all the time. And that is very interesting. So, so, I mean, it doesn't matter the car.

So if I told you, like, I am not, I'm not just pulling this out of the air. If I told you I wanted to find a 1971 Buick LeSabre, you could find it and restore it for me. And I could ask you when you wanted it and how far you wanted it restored.

Wow. So most of the people are looking for a project they can finish. Right.

I don't know. I'm like the poor man's gas monkey. Okay.

You know, I go and find that 10, $12,000 car that you can throw five or 10 in it and build it yourself over a couple of years or whatever, or drive it and build it as you're doing it. Right. You know, just, I just want to see the old steel on the road, man.

Just like old rock and roll. Yeah. Yeah.

You can't let it, can't let it rust away. Right, right. No, I had my first, my first car was a 1971 Buick LeSabre.

Oh, nice. Big boat of a car. Oh yeah.

Big boat of a car. I don't even think it would fit in my current garage. Cause I don't, I don't have an extra, I don't have a deep, I don't have a deep garage and stuff, but I've always thought I'm going to get one back because I had to get rid of it.

Cause I was commuting for quite, you know, you know, about an hour every morning and rush hour traffic to go back and forth, you know, to, you know, between college. Cause I lived at home and that thing got like nine miles to the gallon. Oh yeah.

The gas was a quarter of a gallon back then too. But still, but still, you know, back then it was a lot of money. I always said, I'm going to get one back again.

And I don't want, I don't want to hot rod it. I just want it, you know, so you can drive it again. Yeah.

Yeah. And back then you can look on the street and look at the cars, just looking at, you know what it was. Yeah.

It was a Buick to LeSabre to 71. You could tell them every car, you can tell them apart. You know exactly what it was.

Oh, that's an Impala, but that's a 63. Cause 62 had this on there or something. Nowadays, everyone looks the same.

Cookie cutter. Exactly. And you probably don't know, but you've seen my truck.

You know, my truck is almost, you know, this, you know, this color blue, it's that metallic electric blue. Well, that was the color of my Buick. So when I bought my truck, that's the reason why I was looking for that color in the truck.

I wanted that color back again, but that's, that's interesting. That was a little diversion right there, but that's where you said the shop's in Maple Park, huh? Yeah. All right.

That's neat. That's neat. I just did the same thing with, uh, well, I, uh, I was introduced to a gentleman that worked for Harley Davidson for many, many, many years.

And when I say worked for them, I don't mean he was, I mean, he wasn't wrenching for him. He actually designed some of the components of their motors and everything. And, uh, my father-in-law, uh, when he passed away, left a 1987 Dyna low rider to my nephew and my nephew was a pro bass fisherman.

He decided he didn't want the motorcycle. He was more into boats and doing his bass fishing and stuff. Um, it had been sitting in my garage for years.

And now my son is now 22 years old and he's like, I wanted to ride. So I found this guy and he restored that, that motorcycle for me. So my son's riding his grandfather's 87 Dyno low rider.

That's cool. Which is really cool. So I can talk cars and motorcycles and stuff like that.

Oh yeah. Yeah. Well, he's going, uh, I guess I just came to play one song.

I ain't saying nothing. That's all right. That's all right.

We got Willie over here, everybody. He's still here. Willie's a Bears fan.

Yeah. I got my Bears hat on. Yeah.

Nine days till the draft. Well, by the, by the time you hear this, it's already over. The draft is over.

Yeah, that's right. The draft's coming up. So are you, were you a fields guy? Uh, yeah, I was kind of a little disappointed, I guess, that they got rid of him, but I mean, they got, definitely got a good quarterback, so we'll see what happens, but it's just the whole, you know, got to start all over again.

But you know what? I, I like fields too. But the way I looked at it, they got a completely new offensive, uh, coaching staff. So no matter who was there, they got to learn a whole new way of doing it.

So whether it was fields or this new guy, they got to learn it. Yeah. I guess, I just thought fields showed so much potential in the way of he wanted to learn.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I mean, you don't run your ass off the way he ran his ass off if you didn't care, you know, put himself into positions to get hit the way he was getting hit.

If you didn't care. And I just thought he had a lot of heart and that was, that's kind of why I was disappointed that they got rid of him, but we'll, we'll see who they end up with, you know, you hear a lot of stuff about the guys that they're choosing between and everything, but we'll see what happens. So, so tell us a little bit about the music.

Let me, let me, can I give you my impression of the music and tell me if I'm, if I'm down? Yeah. I listened to a lot of your songs today. Probably, I know you sent over about 12 or so, and I listened to a lot of them.

And man, I definitely heard the Molly Hatchet in it. I almost. That's him.

That's him, man. That's his voice. I mean, he's just got that rough voice.

But not only that, you know, the, the thing that always distinguished Molly Hatchet from other bands of that age and genre, like, like Lynyrd Skynyrd. Yeah. You know, everybody's going to compare them to Lynyrd Skynyrd, right? Sure.

Or Charlie Daniels and bands like that. And, uh, is they seem to play, man, they just had a little more. They were the metal of Southern rock.

That's thank you. That was exactly it. Southern rock metal.

There was some of the, some of your songs, some of your songs sounded like almost like Southern speed metal is what it was. And I loved it. That's Willie the plane playing a lot of bands, a lot of metal back in the day.

Yeah. So yeah, it was, uh, was it, uh, 12 rock and roll. Was that the name of the song? Is that what it's called? No, I'm not sure which one you're talking about.

I've got the one that I'm looking at right there. Second one. Rock and roll party.

Rock and roll party. That's what it is. Oh man.

Where'd he find all those songs? Yeah, no doubt. That was just like speed metal. Man, I forgot all about that song.

Also you're sending us stuff we can't even talk about. Oh, we're reviving it all. Yeah.

That one. I like rebel rocker a lot, man. That's, that's one of my favorites.

Yeah. I listened to that one as well. Yeah.

I listened to, I listened to everything that was right there. Yeah, we, we, we have fun. Yeah.

Who's your principal songwriter? Um, actually. I would say the three of us, me, you. Me, you and Steve.

I, I come up with a vocal idea, write down some words and then those guys did the music. Okay. So yeah, I think I, except for Gone Full Circle, my, see which X was that? The first, second X. I love it.

Second X wife wrote a poem, wanted us to write music to it. Okay. And, uh, give it to Steve.

He did the music. We rearranged everything a little bit. She wanted it to be Molly Hatchet style.

Right, right. It came out ballad style. As a matter of fact, it's a song we're going to do later.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, well, I don't know if we should do it later.

I mean, we're talking about it. Tell us more about the song and then we'll see if it's time to play it now. Well, I read it.

I read it one way. Julie, my girlfriend reads it another way. So it's all in your head on how you want to read it.

Is it this girl getting dissed and about you being on the road? Or is it about your life about being on the road? Right. So you can either take it one way or this is the way I live. And this is like the way she's seeing it is how you're screwing her over for being gone on the road all the time.

Right, right, right. But, you know, the main thing in it is never go straight. Always go forward.

Never hit a stop sign twice. Right. Just roll down the road.

Well, I'll tell you, it's a gutsy approach, especially since you let your girlfriend read a poem that was written by your ex-wife. I had to have her tell me what it meant. That's very, very scary.

Well, 12, 13 years we've been together and knock on wood, not one fight yet. Right. Well, that's good.

But we're not married. So that fixes all the problems right there. That's it.

That's it. So you wrote that song. So then who actually put the music to that poem? Steve Kelly, my lead and slide player.

Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay.

He's the one that actually formed the band with me back in the beginning of time. Right, right, right. Seems like.

Well, I'll tell you what, I mean, I can't think of a better segue. We talked about the song. Everybody knows what it means.

Yeah, I think it's a perfect time. I think I think we need to take a break. We'll just take a little break and we'll be right back.

Sounds good. You're listening to the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. Hi, I'm Rick Anthony.

I'd like to thank my radio brothers, Ray the Roadie and Hollywood Mike for allowing me to tell you about my podcast, the Someone You Should Know podcast. We spotlight musicians, authors, and interesting people. And we like to say we're making a difference one artist at a time.

The podcast is heard twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays. And you can check it out on your favorite streaming platforms and on the web at someone you should know podcast dot com. That's the Someone You Should Know podcast with me, Rick Anthony, making a difference one artist at a time.

Hey, it's Ray and Mike, and we got some great information for you. Yeah, we just wanted to remind you about the fundraiser for the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66, which is taking place on October 27th at the Renaissance Center in downtown Joliet. You'll be able to get tickets at Cadillac Groove shows.

If you see Mike or myself somewhere, we'll have tickets. You can get them at the museum. They're only five dollars.

Also at Cadillac Groove dot com, you will be able to purchase them online as well. Very good. They're going to cost you five dollars a ticket.

There's going to be a ten dollar cover charge to get in the day of the event. And for your ten dollars, we will give you two more additional tickets as well as Cadillac Groove swag. And the lucky grand prize winner will win the band Cadillac Groove.

And winner must be present to win. And so remember that. And Cadillac Groove will play for whatever event it is that you would like for us to play for.

You know, conditions do apply. That's true. We do have to get out there and get your tickets right away.

I'm Christy from Crime Cave podcast. I've had a huge interest in true crime since my days of watching marathons have snapped back in the mid 90s. I needed an outlet to talk about the cases that have haunted me for a very long time.

With each episode under 20 minutes, I shine a light on some of the most bizarre cases in the last 50 years. Join me in the Crime Cave. And for the first time this evening, Shooter.

But there came an obstacle And it made us turn away Ain't no way So they say Never go straight, go forward Never hear the stop sign twice We're gonna go full circle Yielding to the flashing lights As we cruise on farther and faster Prayin' nothing's gonna get our way Comes a curve makin' us swerve But we can't control it again I never said it was easy This crazy life I live Ain't no way So they say Never go straight, go forward Never hear the stop sign twice We're gonna go full circle Yielding to the flashing lights Now we've got the crew set Traveling across the land And going to the next show Another one-night stand Now we've gone full circle Ain't never turning back Ain't no way So they say Never go straight, go forward Never hear the stop sign twice We're gonna go full circle Yielding to the flashing lights Very nice. Excellent. See? I knew you guys would do it.

He's Willie. He can do anything. That's why.

Oh, that was great. That was fantastic. I absolutely loved that song.

You know, I know your genre is southern rock, but, you know, that one had a touch of Gordon Lightfoot. Uh, you know, that's another band, another story. Oh, really? We were supposed to tour with Gordon Lightfoot.

No kidding. Yeah, back in the 70s. Back in one of my other bands.

And, uh, my guitar player got caught doing something he wasn't supposed to. Okay. Wasn't he? Wasn't he? Not this time.

No, cause you were, no. That's this band at another time. Cause I wouldn't have got caught.

Yeah. But you would have also probably only been about seven years old. Oh yeah.

We're supposed to tour Gordon Lightfoot and, uh, got thrown to the wayside. I was playing with a band called Honey Creek, which my bass player now, Rick Prather, was in that band with me back in 74. Oh wow.

Okay. So that's how far we go back. So everything's kind of come full circle.

Yeah. Yeah. Wow.

Interesting. You are the Segway man. I am.

I am. So, so, you know, you mentioned that the song was about, you know, possibly your life on the road and the whole bit. You guys have opened up for some pretty cool acts.

Owning a construction company and a former teamster and doing all that stuff. How the heck did you find time to, was you opened up for Marshall Tucker? I think you said. Oh, done.

Yeah. Several shows of Marshall Tucker. I've been, I think, uh, I've got to hang with all the bands, Ants, but Ronnie, uh, I've got to sing on stage with Doug Gray, Charlie Daniels.

My kids grew up with Charlie Daniels. Your kids grew up with Charlie Daniels. Got pictures of them sitting on his lap all backstage.

Just, uh, yeah. Man, when you get to open up with the real Molly Hatchet, Danny Joe. Yeah.

Right. So I was blessed to be able to do that. Yeah.

I mean, back in the, back when I joined the band in 1990, I mean, it was just everybody, you know, work during the week and Friday, Saturday, sometimes Sunday, you know, bars would just have bands and we would be just partying and out all night, you know, just playing. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. We, uh, Edgar Winter, Foghat, Ted Nugent, George Thorogood. So 38 special.

I mean, was some of this stuff recent or was all this stuff kind of- This is just during our career. Okay. Throughout the time.

Throughout the time, sure. And, and, and what have you participated in then as far as opening up for some of these- I was in all those shows. You were in all those shows.

Wow. Yeah. So I met GR back in 1990.

We were both two bands in DeKalb. I was in a different band. Okay.

And, uh, we both played at this big bar in DeKalb called Otto's. I know where Otto's is. Yeah.

Or used to be. Or used to be. Right.

Right. But yeah, we played there and GR would always come out and see my band and I knew who he was. And he would talk to me after I'm done playing.

He kept saying, I'm going to get you in my band one of these days. And I'm like, yeah, okay. Yeah, whatever.

And, uh, so he just kept coming out. And then, I don't know, one night we were just partying one night after a show, after a show I did. And this guy, we went over to this guy's house and he probably had like 50 people there.

Had a small house. And, uh, back then GR used to, I'm going to tell the story. Oh no, no, no.

I got to tell it. Oh no, we got to hear it. And then, uh, I got to hear it.

Too late now. Back then, GR used to wear spurs on his boots, you know? And, uh, he used to, he used to dress up quite a bit. And, uh, so we're at this guy's house and GR's coming out of the bathroom, long hallway.

And I'm at the end of the hallway talking to someone. GR's walking down the hallway and he turns to talk to me and his spurs get caught in the carpet. And all I see is him just going backwards.

And he took out this guy's coffee table, glass coffee table. I mean, just smashed it to bits. And I just, it took me like five seconds after I saw he was okay.

And I just, I couldn't stop laughing. And I'm like, oh yeah, you want me to be your guitar player, huh? I was going to say he's laughing at you and he's wanting to be in the band. He's laughing at you.

Bad part about it is that guy said he would never have us at his house again. And three months later, I fall through his Christmas tree. But I did quit wearing my spurs.

Probably a good idea. How much whiskey was involved? A lot. So it wasn't so much the spurs fault.

Well, Jack Daniels sponsored us for a little bit. Yeah. So we Whether they realized it or not, Jack Daniels was Oh yeah.

Yeah. Oh yeah. There's, if you go to a shooter band USA and look at our videos and stuff, Jack Daniels sponsored my birthday party at Otto's.

Oh wow. And they thought it would be cool for me to ride my Harley. Oh, that's another great story.

Oh boy. So I ride up the handicap ramp, I level off, I start going down the other handicap ramp to the stage. Right.

My bike catches on fire. Oh geez. The place has like a thousand people in it.

You couldn't have planned it. It was just Wow. Smoke everywhere.

Smoke everywhere. I mean, it looked like it was planned. It looked like, you know, well, those guys put a fog bomb in the bike or something, you know, but it wasn't.

I mean, it was on fire. So was this before or after the great white fire? No, this was way before. Oh, this was in the early nineties.

Yeah. I was I was at that great. Well, that's I don't want to relive that.

But so a motorcycle you've put thousands of miles on just all of a sudden just decides, you know, I'm going to mess with these guys and I'm going to catch on fire now. Right now. I lost my battery strap and I had a bungee strap on it and I knew it was going to get videoed.

So I took the bungee strap off, slid forward. The positive cable hit against the frame, started smoking the electrical system. Oh.

Oh no. These guys keep. We're just playing.

We're just playing. I rode up, put my kickstand down. Road crew came over, jerked the wires out, roll the bike out of the back.

I walked around, went up on stage and started. Just like it was planned. Never dropped a lick.

And all because you didn't want to see the bungee. You know, you know, you know, vanity is the devil's favorite sin. There you go.

Was that a real Harley or an AMF? See, was that my 73 or 78? I don't know. I've had so many Harley Davidsons, uh, 54s, 57s, 48s. Wow.

I don't think there's a type of Harley I haven't at one time in my life owned or rode. Right, right. Wow.

So how did you end up getting all of these gigs? You know, how, I mean, how'd you get a phone? How do you get a phone call? Hey, come and open up for, you know, Charlie Daniels or whatever. Go ahead. I don't know.

Well, I was going to say, I mean, some bars, like probably about four shows that I played with you were at Otto's. So the guy at Otto's loved our band. Yeah.

Whenever, whenever Axe would come into town, he would say, Hey, you guys want to be the opening act for him? Cause he loved us. He thought we'd be a great opening act for him. So, so let's say, oh, so somebody comes into town and hey, we're going to get it.

And he was responsible for getting an opening act. Didn't matter who it was. And so, yeah, I don't know anybody else that wanted to actually, I think we did.

We did every headlining show that was at Otto's. Okay. Okay.

Wow. Nice to have a friend like that. Oh yeah, for sure.

We had our own private bar there, our own private green room. Whether we were playing or not. They would always have a cooler full, two cases of beer.

And unfortunately for us, they'd have a fifth of Jack Daniels for two yards. So by the end of the night, he was, yeah, he was pretty animated on stage. All right.

So did you do all this at Otto's or did you tour with some of these bands too? Not all of them was Otto's. Martin Tucker was. The Cactus Rose.

Cactus Rose up in Rockford, an old club up there. Festivals with 38 specials. Right, right, right.

Just festivals, opening act of festivals and got to know the guys. Jimmy Van Zant was releasing his first album. And of course, we're the local Southern rock boys.

And so we opened up for him. That's how I met Jimmy. I had to actually do their last set because Jimmy was so jacked up.

He couldn't talk or walk. And they were basically a Skinner tribute band is all they pretty much did. So I went and did the third set for Jimmy Van Zant.

So was it Jimmy's band or was it 38 special? It was Jimmy's band. It was Jimmy and the Cousins. It was Jimmy.

Okay. Gotcha. Gotcha.

That's right. It was. Okay.

So, yeah, you were right. We're doing just a lot of Leonard Skinner and stuff like that. So what's the rest of the list? You said you said Molly Hatchett, you got Van Zant and 38 special.

And you opened for Charlie Daniels? Oh, yeah. Opened up for Charlie Daniels. This was before Shooter.

Sure, sure, sure. But yeah, I met Charlie, did the Reflections tour with him. Okay.

In 77 or 76 during that tour. Actually, he's the one that got me drinking Jack Daniels. There's a shocker.

Yeah. Imagine if you toured with Willie Nelson. Yeah.

Yeah. I probably wouldn't remember much of that. Yeah.

I have a hard enough time remembering already. Right, right. Yeah.

We've had a lot of great stuff going on for us. I mean, I'm turning down shows. We just can't.

There's not enough time. You know, and there's got to be a reason for that. You know, there's, you know, there's a, you know, some people will say, you know, the last thing we need is another Southern rock band or the last thing we need is another classic rock band or whatever.

But when you do that stuff extremely well. Yeah, exactly. And you can tell that it's part of your soul, part of your bones and you do it that good.

Yeah. I mean, there's no, to me, there's nothing that beats that. I mean, that just that driving sound and everything.

Yeah. The tribute bands are what's killing me. Yeah.

Oh. Tell me about that. Can't stand them.

Because there is a, there is a debate on this podcast all the time about tribute bands. You love them or you hate them. There's no in between.

Most of the time people are like, oh yeah, we love them. But I would love to hear the perspective of someone that's being killed by them. Oh, yeah.

Well, it's just that if you have to be a tribute band to be able to get out and play, you learn 20 songs, you go do the same 20 songs, you get paid a stupid amount of money for an hour and a half. And you got people like us that can play every song you're playing plus a hundred more and get a quarter of the money and do four hours. Almost.

Yeah. You can say that. That's what pisses you off.

This is a podcast, so you can say that. Well, yeah, it just, it just, and especially all the Skinner tribute bands. Yeah.

I, I love Skinner. But when the last guy passed away, Skinner has been a tribute band since the accident. Well, yeah.

Yeah. I guess you could say that. Right.

So living off Ronnie. Yeah. What's the thing that's going on? There's something that's going on right now.

The guys from the Guess Who? So the original lead, the original, I believe, lead singer, one of the founders of the Guess Who is suing the current Guess Who? There is, there is literally a band touring as the Guess Who right now. I've seen that. I was wondering, I thought they were dead.

Not one original member of the band. I've seen that the other day. And many of the original members are still around, but Dirk is not in the Guess Who anymore.

Yeah. So he's done something that nobody's ever done. I was just reading the article.

He's got all of the, he's got all of the rights to their music. He's got all of the rights to the catalog. They've never sold the rights to the catalog.

So when he decided that, well, I'm going to sue these bands, this band, they're not going to be allowed to play anything that I wrote. Yeah. Or that he wrote, not I wrote, but you know, but those are all of the Guess Who hits.

And he's like, who's going to want to go see a Guess Who tribute band? Yeah. Right. They're not playing all the hits.

But what he didn't realize that that did is by filing this lawsuit, what it also did is it said, okay, you know, this company can't use our song for their commercial or this, this movie company can't use one of our songs in the movie. So he's kind of taking a little bit of money out of his own pocket. But at the same time, he's like, I'm not going to have somebody go up there and bastardize the music that I wrote.

I'm sure. No, especially with a bunch of guys who are just making money off of a name and something that I created. Yeah.

There's not one original member. I mean, it'd be different, I guess, if, you know, so, you know, God forbid a guy in a band dies and they replace him. Yeah.

A guy in a band dies and they replace him. Right. And then you got some original members.

That happens all the time. That happens all the time. But these guys are all still alive.

And you've got, you've got some guys touring as the Guess Who. Wow. I did not know that.

I guess, I mean, that literally, that's hot in the news right now. I literally read that, I think, on Monday. They should tour with Foreigner.

There's no original member in Foreigner either. That's true. I'm glad this doesn't come out till like August because I can still play till then because after they hear me dissing the tribute bands, they're like, fuck him.

No, but you know what? The funny thing is a lot of bands that call themselves a tribute band, they just think it's so funny. They're like, yeah, we know. I mean, we know.

We're not, we're not them. We're just having fun and people are coming in and seeing us. They're making butt loads of money.

Yeah. They've got, you know, some tribute bands like to play in the back and tracks and stuff and they don't even hide it. You know, you know, we're, you know, we don't, we're four guys, but you know, hey, we don't have a piano player.

Yeah. That's okay. Cause it's recorded.

Or the horns. Yeah. And they don't care and they don't care.

If people love the music and they come out, we're getting paid. We're having a good time and it's a party and they're having a blast doing it. But, but I mean, you guys, you guys, I mean, we can't even call you a cover band because I mean, you've got a lot of your own original music.

I mean, yeah, you play covers and stuff. What's your show? Is it more covers and original music? Yeah. We're definitely seeing more covers nowadays for sure.

Yeah. Yeah. We, uh, well with the two new guys, it's hard bringing it in and getting the feel of the original music and, um, the Southern rock is what I live and breathe, you know? So all of our shows consist of mainly, I'd say 90%, 95% Skinner, Molly hatchet, 38 special ZZ top.

Yep. Right. Marshall Tucker.

Marshall Tucker. Blackfoot. Obviously you got to have Blackfoot.

Blackfoot. Then there's just so many we've dropped because you've only got three hours or four hours to play, so you can't do them all. Right.

Right. So, and I can only handle Kenny turning that damn page so many times. I love you, Kenny, but you suck.

So also, like you said, he charts everything. He charts everything. Yeah.

So we've been together so long. We, you know, somebody come up and say, can you do this song? Yeah. And I look at Steve, look at Willie.

Don't even have to talk. Don't even have to talk right now. Can't do that no more.

And I can't feel the crowd. And if we're doing this set and I feel like I need to be over in this set, I can't just throw it in there and groove right in. Right.

I got to wait for him to turn the page. So you really got to follow your set list. I have to follow my set list.

I haven't done that in my entire life. It's just to remember what I do know, what I do know, because if I don't have a set list, I have no freaking idea what I'm playing. You know, so.

Yeah. But and we started throwing in some Texas Red Dirt music, too. So I'm trying to add a little bit of that.

I brought that up from Texas. I love cross-Canadian ragweed and Josh Abbott and that kind of stuff. So, yeah, I'm trying to sneak a little bit of that in.

We just got, I got my Red Rocket TV shirt on today. Rebel TV out of Jacksonville, Florida just started airing our videos. Oh, nice.

Nice. So awesome. Yeah.

So we're being aired in 128 countries and 10 million followers on that TV station. Excellent. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't think I've ever heard anybody mention cross-Canadian ragweed before.

Probably not. I tried smoking at one time. It's not good.

I think I might be the only person I know that actually knows what that band is. It's a good band. I've mentioned that band to so many people so many times.

They're like, who? Yeah. Yeah. And they all they all know one song.

If they've never heard of the band, they know of one song. Take guess what you want it is. I don't know.

We do Cry Lonely and Alabama. And then we do Stoney LaRue, Oklahoma Breakdown. The boys from Oklahoma roll the joint.

Oh, there you go. Yeah. Yep.

That'd be the one. That's the one I want to bring in. That's the one I want to bring in.

And I'm trying to get my own band to do that one. We're going to have to do a show together. You know, that sounds like a good idea.

I'll give you my business card. We'll have to get these guys on our show with the Roxy. That's right.

Yeah. That would be awesome. We'll talk to you about that afterwards.

I also I'm on a production company, too. So I've got every I've got a PA big enough for 50 people to 5000 people. Excellent.

Nice. And lights. So any chance of being able to get one more song out of you? Probably not.

It took everything I had to talk him into that. Nope. Nope.

I know how guitar players are. It's not my guitar. And I'll tell you what, if we come back again, if you want us back again, because we've got a lot more lives.

So my. Oh, so if you want to go to Amazon, you can get the Adventures of Shooter on paperback. Really? Yeah.

Not the band. Not the band. Myself.

Personal kind of mini autobiography of me growing up. When did you write that? My girlfriend's brother is an established author. OK.

OK. And he started running to meet me and family stuff. You know, Julie told him about me and he goes, man, you need to have a book.

And I go, oh, that's cool. So I would write down a bunch of stuff, send it to him. Right.

He'd figure it out. It's kind of cool. Wow.

Very cool. I don't know. It's like truths and half-truths to make it worth reading.

Right. But yeah, the intro part of it is really freaking cool. I mean, sometimes you got to lie for entertainment reasons.

I don't think I've ever told the truth at one time on stage. I've heard many different versions of JR's truth. Oh, yeah.

And every one of them is true. That's right. In your mind.

Maybe, maybe. I'm a legend in my own mind. There you go.

Yeah. Excellent. Excellent.

But yeah, this is this has been awesome, man. This is a blast. I was worried about coming here, but I knew Willie wouldn't shut up.

So I do. I'm always a talker. Yeah.

Yeah. So what do you guys have coming up? I know you got it. Actually, I might have this for you right here someplace.

I think the link that was sent over to me. You got shooterband.com? Yeah. We've got starting mid-August.

We've got Saturday, August 17th at Jamie's Outpost. I know where that is. I know where they're actually there Saturday, too.

Where they're Saturday. And you get August 24th. Shooter Lawman's McParty.

Yeah. Yeah. That's a big fundraiser.

Motorcycle club. Yeah. Big fundraiser.

We do that. I think this is our seventh year. Yeah.

They keep having us back. August 31st. You're at Boar's Nest.

Oh, great place. Where's Boar's Nest? It's in Darien, right on the border by Clinton, Wisconsin. You can't miss it.

It's got a General Lee set. Darien, Wisconsin. General Lee is on top of the building.

Darien, Wisconsin. I was thinking Darien right down there. Yeah.

Darien, Wisconsin. Okay. All right.

And then you got Lee's Place. I love Lee's Place. Over there by Lake Holiday? Yeah.

Yeah. Great place. We've played there so many times, man.

I absolutely love that place. When people come up with the boats and all that, just kind of get out. That's a great place.

That's kind of our home bar. Yeah, that's a great place. I love playing Lee's.

We need to get back there. We didn't play there last summer because we just got booked up so fast. That's a good place.

And you're at Dockside's on September 14th. September 28th, you're back at Boar's Nest. And October 5th, the Burgoo Fest.

The Burgoo Fest in Utica. Yeah. There's like 50,000 people at that thing.

Yeah. Yeah. That's a great time.

That's a great time. You guys got some good places you're coming up. Yeah.

Anybody interested, they can go to shooterband.com and our calendar's right there. And it's full through December. Yeah.

So we ain't hard to find. No, not on Facebook too. Facebook.

Yeah. Just Shooter on Facebook. Yeah.

But that's kind of a hard thing too, because I actually own the name Shooter. Okay. And I got a hundred shooter bands are popping up now.

I feel like Ronnie Van Zant. Yeah. They're just stealing my name.

That's right. They're getting around some kind of way. It's not Shooter Band or it's Shooter Dash Band or it's Shooter something like that.

Well, the last band that tried that when it was after Full Circle came out was from England and they wanted to release a CD or album under the name of Shooter. Right. I said, sure.

Send me 10 grand. Yeah. They did.

Wow. Yeah. Really? So if I don't mean I own that name, I don't know what the hell it is.

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.

It's so funny. It brings up something else. I guess Reddit today, there is a wedding band.

They describe themselves as a wedding band, meaning they're playing corporate parties. Apparently they've played two parties at the White House. Right.

But they're a wedding band, right. You're a banquet band. Yeah.

Their name is Jelly Roll. Oh, Roy. And so now you've got Jelly Roll.

Multi-million, you know, multi-platinum recording artist, right. Who's going by Jelly Roll. Little local community festival band or whatever has sued Jelly Roll.

Oh my God. And I'm interested to see how that's going to play. Yeah, Roy.

Because it's one thing when you got a guy who's backed by millions of corporate dollars going after, you know, getting a cease and desist out to a local band. Right. But now you've got some local, you know, local organization.

They must have that trademark, yeah. That's exactly what it is. So it's like, what's Jelly Roll going to do? Right.

Yeah. Yeah. That'll be interesting.

That's crazy. That'll be interesting to see the outcome of that one. I don't think I'm going to make any millions off of it.

I think I'm going to be happy with my 10 grand and walk. Right, right, right, right, right. Excellent.

Well, that I better, I'm going to go trademark Mike in the Stillmasters. There you go. You better.

Actually, actually it is. But I don't think anybody's going to be knocking on my door to name something Mike in the Stillmasters. Yeah.

I mean, what happens if it's like Joe in the Stillmasters? You know, yeah, something like that. Yeah, yeah. Well, technically Stillmasters is kind of made up, but you know.

You could be a master of a still. Oh, there you go. Yeah.

I'm sure there was a lot of them back in the day. Yep. I think I went out with a girl named that.

Named Stillmaster? Stillmaster. Yeah, yeah. She was a master at laying still.

There you go. Yikes. Oh, geez.

And on that note. I'll be in Utica Saturday night. Where is it? Which one are you looking for? All right.

All righty, guys. Well, thanks for coming out. Thanks for having us.

This was a lot of fun. It was a blast. Look forward to seeing you out playing somewhere soon.

Awesome. Thank you. We were supposed to play at the Forge, but they never called us back.

Oh, you know, because you guys aren't heavy metal. There's a lot of heavy metal stuff over there. They filter in a few other bands, though, but just primarily.

It's turned into a pretty heavy metal crowd over there. Oh, OK. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Don't take it personal. All righty, thanks a lot, guys. Thank you very much.

Thank you. She's got that sexy look in her eyes, says maybe later. Then she turns and says don't fall in love with danger.

Don't fall in love. Don't fall in love. So many other guys have tried and crumbled.

Someone's got a band crush. Someone's got a band crush. I love them.

I've been listening to their music when you sent that to me today. I always have something playing in the office or whatever. I've been listening to them all day.

They are a lot of fun. And some of their stuff, I think, is better than some of the bands that they've played with. I mean, you got to listen to that stuff.

I mean, it was it is just some it's hard driving. It's heavier than what you what you'd think. But you can dance to it.

I mean, yeah, I mean, there's some there's some two stepping songs on this stuff with rock and guitars. It sounds fantastic. It's cool when you come across something like that, you know, where you listen to it, like you think, wow, this is really great.

You know, there's been there's been a number of original bands we've had on here. And when I listen to their stuff, I was like, wow, right. It's like I'm hooked.

Right. I'll be listening to them when I work out. There you go.

And put that on my playlist. That's right. You better work out and get a little flabby there.

I think, yeah, I am. It's just winter weight. Yeah, that's what it is.

That's all. Yeah. Plus, you haven't been playing much.

I know. Yeah. But but that's all about to change this coming weekend.

That's right. It's all over. The floodgates are about to open.

That's right. All righty, then. Thanks to everybody for listening every week and look for us every Tuesday for another exciting episode of the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast.

See you next week. Hey, everybody, it's Ray the Roadie. And this is Hollywood Mike of the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast.

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