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 here is Hollywood Mike.

A happy Mike, I hope. A very happy Mike. Good.

Why are you happy? Well, because the city is booming tonight. Is it? Let me tell you, I got here early. I told you that.

Yeah, yeah. I got here a little bit early and there's a concert going on across the street. Yeah.

A band, they told me what the name of it was. Pop Evil? Pop Evil. Yeah, I was listening to them as I was having dinner.

They're a pretty good band. Yeah. But there was no place to park around here.

Yeah, but you apparently got a spot right in front. And let me tell you, let me tell you the adventure that I have finding that parking spot. The person that has the car right behind me was sitting in the car as I was pulling in.

Okay. And I got that big truck. It took me a few, you know, I was in, but I was being very cautious.

Didn't want to hit anybody, right? Took me a few. And I finally got in and I got all parked and situated. Never touched the guy's car.

He gets out of the car and he starts, You parked so close to me. I didn't hit you. Yeah, he could back up.

There's room behind him. I could have did. Right.

That's exactly what I said. You see, he pulled all the way up and he's actually in that parking spot. Yeah.

I said I could have done the Chicago Park, you know, I could bump it there, bump it there, you know, and got it in. And really messed up his car because I got the trailer hitch on the truck. Yeah.

I parked a block away. Yeah. So the elderly guy of this duo here has to walk a long way carrying stuff.

Does he really? Yeah. I took his parking spot. Yeah, you did.

Yeah. I'm going to have to get it. I'm sorry, Ray.

I apologize as you should as the elderly person. Yeah. You know, I don't know.

You can't you can't always have it your way or go both ways. Yeah. Sometimes you go both ways.

I mean, that would make you ambidextrous. That's right. And that's why we have ambidextrous here with us tonight.

That's right. We have ambidextrous. I thought they were ambidextrous, but with the amount of people in here, I mean, how many people are in this room right now? One, two, three, four, five, six.

Wow. We got seven people here and us and us. That's nine.

That's nine people in his little tiny room. Yep. We're all going to smell like one another.

I hope not. So why don't we go around the table? Introduce yourself, tell the people who you are and what you do in the band. My name is Scott Sidero and I am the guitar player.

I'm a trace Chronister. I play drums and I have the best air in the band. I noticed that.

I noticed that. Steve O, keyboards, Jim Stevens, lead singer. If you guys want to pull the mics in when you're talking, you can move them around.

They don't make any noise. And who else do we have here? We have the groupies here. Yeah.

My wife, Mary. This is Trace's wife, Michelle, and Trace's dad. And this handsome young gentleman over here.

That's right. Now, I know some of you guys because you guys come out and see Cadillac Groove. I walked in, they recognized me right away.

I felt like a rock star. Oh, really? Yeah. Even though I'm not really a rock star.

Sometimes I don't even recognize you. Yeah. So who put this shindig together? This is this is your brainchild.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, we started many years ago.

It was actually just two guys. Me and a guy I know since his name was Ray. Nice guy then.

Yeah. Kindergarten. Ray plays.

He's left handed, but he plays guitar right handed. I'm left right handed, but I play guitar lefty. So we right away went, well, ambidextrous.

That was how it started. Yeah. Yeah.

And I'm surprised you knew what that word meant that, you know. We were going to call it Bass Ackwards. We were going for.

I would have gone for Bass Ackwards, to be honest with you. Designated passenger. But we went with the.

Designated passenger. Yes. That designated passenger, that could be a good album name.

Yeah, it could be. I know. Yeah.

So what year was that? Oh, gosh, that was. I think I met you Christmas season of 2015. OK, so we were together probably around 2014.

So I've been like 10 years now. OK. Yeah.

So but what with the original guy that you were talking about that. OK, so what happened was. That did it with his other hand or whatever.

Right. He was a guy. There's a sex joke in there.

Yeah, I was going to say that sounded dirty. First, you have to sit on it till it goes dead. Right.

Yeah. When we first started, before we started. I mean, it works, right? Any married guy knows what you're talking about.

Well, before we started even playing or playing, he'd had the knuckle on his right hand replaced. The middle finger, he had it replaced. I knew nothing about it.

But years later, as we began to play more and more, it would get to where it would bother him. We were actually supposed to go into the Gravity Studios to record a demo. And he calls me two days before and goes, I can't even pick my guitar up.

It was that painful. Yeah. Tony Iommi's in the corner going here, hold my beer.

Yeah. So we just resigned ourselves to the fact that he could not play longer than about 45 minutes. And that was it.

So he just kind of stepped aside and morphed on from there. Yeah. Yeah.

And how many like reiterations and versions of this band did you go through since then? Quite a few. Jim was actually what happened with Jim was I knew somebody from another band called the Nigel Ajax Band. I know those guys as well.

OK, Doug. Yeah. Yeah.

No kidding. Yeah. Yeah.

So Doug, I was talking to Doug. I said, where did you get Diane, his singer? He says the karaoke bar. So, OK, great.

So we went to a karaoke bar one night, Ray and I. And these people aspired to suck. They weren't even sucking yet. They had to work their way up.

They aspired to suck. They aspired to suck. So the Nigel Ajax Band.

No, no, not the Ajax Band. Oh, OK. Because I was going to say they were always been a pretty good band.

I've known their piano player, Lisa, for a long time. They're fantastic. But this karaoke bar, it was just a bunch of drunken idiots.

So the following week, we went to another bar in Oakland and they were setting up. There was a DJ in there and I we walked up, Ray and I said, hey, listen, we're in a band and we're looking to get a lead singer. Are we wasting our time here or what? And he goes, stick around.

He goes, you're not going to believe what you see here tonight and hear. OK. And Jim came walking in and the guy waved at me when he goes, he's one of them.

You know, and it was like the final round of America's Got Talent. Everybody in the place was fantastic. And we grabbed Jim.

He did have a good following of singers. He did. And we would go up to Jim and go, hey, can you do this song or that? Just sing this when you go up there next and sing it.

That was good. This was like an open mic night or something. Karaoke night.

Oh, OK. Gotcha. At what bar? Collins at the time in Oakland.

OK. All right. Now it's the Irish River, right? Right.

Irish River. Yeah. OK.

Oh, OK. Yeah. Oh, really? Southwest Highway.

Gosh. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

In fact, the first time that we actually did an outing with Jim. And by then we had a bass player and a drummer. And we went I went to the owner.

I said, listen, would it be OK if we came in here and played for free one night? We just want the experience. We want the exposure. So you guys started that.

Yes. So we blame it all on you. Yeah, we're going to do it for the exposure, man.

Yeah. Give me an ambidextrous ass kicking. We'll just take the tour.

So so we went up there and we played. And when we finished the first set, the owner was sitting at the bar and he walked over. He goes, you know, I get bands in here all the time.

He goes, and it's just it's a wall of sound to us. It's just noise. He says, you guys, I can hear every note of every single instrument on the stage.

And he signed it right then and there. He said, I want you guys to be the house band. And we were back there every month actually getting paid for it.

Wow. Wow. The house band there.

OK, excellent. Excellent. Why do you think that is? I mean, why? What makes what is it about your setup? What is it about what you do that that would cause them to say that? Well, we're very strict on playing the songs, playing it clean.

A lot of bands get a lot of distortion and everything, which covers up a multitude of sins. We all know. But we do everything very clean.

Unless, of course, the song was that way to begin with. If it needs a little distortion, that's what we'll do. Right.

But we try to stick to the formula. OK, if this was the way the song was done, do it that way. Is there a guitar solo in the middle of Wipe Out? No, you're not getting one.

You know, is there a drum solo in the middle of Take It Easy by the Eagles? No, then you don't get one. Just do it the way they did. We're not a jam band, in other words, is the way it is.

So he wasn't necessarily talking about your volume or anything like that. It's just kind of the way you performed the song and did justice to the music. Yeah.

And like I said, they're not blowing the doors off the place. And the great thing was that night, the first night, there was a party that had been going on when we were getting set up. And they were getting ready to leave as we were about to start.

And they were heading for the back door. And I said, we'll start with House of the Rising Sun. And he does that song, kick ass.

And as soon as he started, they all stopped and they turned around and they walked back in the room, sat down, took off their coats and went, all right, we got them. Very cool. Yeah, yeah.

So what was the song that you were singing? Do you remember the song that you were singing the night that they said, this is the guy? It was one of the CCR songs, probably. Will Stop the Rain, maybe? Probably, something like that. And it was sort of a competition.

There were two other guys there that are actually brothers. And they're both in there. At that time, they were about in their, like, around 30 years old or so.

I thought they were far better singers than me. But when Scott heard me sing and heard them perform and stuff, he says that it seemed like I fit what they were looking for better. I'm like, okay, I think them guys are better, but whatever.

Interesting. So in your mind, who's the perfect singer? I don't know if I can answer that. Come on, you have to.

Do you have the Jeopardy theme? Three seconds and you lose all the money. Who's your favorite singer? Let's put it that way. I can't say singer.

My favorite performer to see live is Papa Roach. Really? To say that, yes. Wow.

That's a surprising answer. Incredible. Not because they suck or anything like that, but I've seen your videos and what you guys do to hear him say Papa Roach.

That's surprising. That's like being a metal band and saying Frank Sinatra is your favorite singer. Yeah.

Interesting. Okay. So what got you into drums? I think years and years of riding in the back of our conversion van we had.

Locked up, chained up, tied up? Usually, yeah. One of those. He probably deserved it, though, right? Dad was a big Jerry Lee Lewis fan.

Elvis. He was born and raised down near Memphis, so a lot of that rockabilly, early rock and roll influence. And I think he just got sick and tired of me beating and banging on the back of his seat going down the road, so he bought me one from a pawn shop.

He told me, actually, I'm, what, almost 50 years old? He told me this for the first time. The first set he bought me, he bought me from a pawn shop that was located inside the location that they used for Ray's music in the Blues Brothers movie. Oh, no kidding.

I was like, really? I never knew that the drums came from there. So I just kept banging away. Where was that? Maxwell Street.

Was it by Maxwell Street? No, it was on South Beach Street in the city. In Chicago. In Chicago, wow.

Yeah. So I never knew. Interesting.

So he was just telling Ron and them out there that I didn't know it, that that's where my first drums came from. And then I just kept at it. All my brother and cousins, they'd be out hunting, fishing, and I'm in the back room just banging away.

I taught myself completely how to play. I can't read a note of music. Most drummers can't.

No. Don't worry. It's funny because we'll be in rehearsals and these guys will be like, what chord was that? Was that A flat, B flat? I'm like, I'm going to play it.

We love to pick on drummers. I'm going to play it in snare. Well, like I said, I've always said, drummer is, they put me in the back because I don't want to ruin these guys' ego.

And all the women rush the stage and the show would be horrible. So they got to put me in the back. And who needs that kind of pressure? Exactly.

That's horrible for the outlook of the band. Yeah, absolutely. And you never give your drummer a microphone because you never know what's going to come out of their mouth.

That's right. Absolutely. Have you ever influenced anybody to be a drummer? Have you ever taught anybody or passed it on to anybody? I was actually talking about it earlier that I remember one of the shows we did on one of my old bands.

A lady came up to me at the end and she says, I just bought my seven-year-old boy a drum set. Any advice? Of course, being the drummer I am, I said, well, I don't care what anybody tells you. You're the most important guy in the band.

And secondly, when you stop having fun, put them away. So I was in a band. The drums or the child? Both.

Okay. I wish I were the child one. I got a couple of kids.

We have to clarify that. For sure. I got two kids and they're both.

I still keep wondering. They're 19 and 26. If I can still drop them at a fire department doorstep.

But we'll get back to what we're talking about. And I was in a band that I was just unhappy in. And it was before I came here with these guys, obviously.

And I dreaded practice. And my wife stopped me one day. She goes, listen to your own preaching.

You're not having fun. Stop doing it. That's one of the things I love about this band.

We goof with each other. We mess around, but we're a family. You have to.

We enjoy each other. We hang out. We have a blast.

Trace everything I tell you. I mean, from the bottom of my heart. Yeah.

Yeah. Wow. No, I totally understand that.

You know, I remember when I was a kid, I'm not a drummer to this day. I know a little bit about the drums. I can sit behind the drums and make noise happen in a little bit.

But I went to my mother one day and I said, Mom, when I grow up, I want to be a drummer. And my mom said, you know, you got to choose because you can't do both. I chose to grow up.

Well, back at you. I said in practice yesterday, I said, did you ever hear about the guitar player that was in tune? And they said, no. I said, me neither.

Me neither. We're going to be at Zini's all weekend. Yeah, try to reel.

Music's always just been huge for me. I think I was telling you about it earlier. I was 16 years old in the 90s.

There was a company out of Ohio that bought back the WCFL call letter, Super CFL. And everybody knows that was the big rock station in the 60s. Right.

And they were 1047. I walked in at 16 years old and said, how do I work in this business? And I started to intern. By the time I was 17, you know, a year later, I had my own show on there.

And it was just, I'm hanging out with Larry Lujak, Jimmy Sons, you know, Paul Revere from Paul Revere and the Raiders, all these guys. And I'm 16, 17. Yeah.

And my friends are like, who's these guys? These guys are rock legends. Right. The founders of rock and roll.

So it was kind of interesting. Right. Right.

Right. So by default, you're the bass player. No, no.

Oh, keyboard player. Yes. Who's the bass player? He's sick.

Oh, no, he's not here. Okay. You're the keyboard player.

Yes. Well, that makes it interesting then. Right.

Yeah, because keyboard players are usually the best musicians in a band, as far as I'm concerned. And when I say that, I mean, if you need somebody in the band to read a piece of sheet music, you give it to the keyboard player. You know, I mean, that's usually the way it goes.

If you need to know what key the song is in, ask the keyboard player in the whole bit. So, excellent. So I have one question for you.

Sure. As a band, I'm not telling you to call out your friends here. As a band, what do you think that you guys need to work on the most to get better? To work on the most? Just because I'm the new guy.

Yeah. I'm more like the anchor, I suppose. Boy, I'm at the border.

You know, that's slowing things down a little bit. I need to really just, you know, get back and get a little tighter with the band. You know, I joined them and I had two months to learn like 60-some songs.

Don't you love that? And then we played. That's great. Then we played out.

We took our whole life to find you. You've got two months to impress us. Yeah.

Well, you know, if I can say something here, too. We do like 60 songs, honestly. But we also play with Rick Susito.

We do shows with him. Oh, my God. So we got to learn like an hour's worth of that.

Is he still alive? Yes, he is. I mean, it seems like, I swear to God, I mean, I know he's not really old, but I just swear to God, it seems like I've been hearing that name forever. Well, the thing you probably don't know is he's one of the most amazing guitar players I've ever seen in my life.

Oh, I bet you he is. He is. He's fantastic.

For sure. He's fantastic. But then we also do a show with Ray Graffi of the New Colony Six.

Yeah. So now he's going to have to learn all these songs from the New Colony Six. I believe members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame here.

Yes, they are. Yes, they are. Yeah.

I haven't told these guys yet, but we're going to be going on tour with Beach Boys, so we got to learn all that stuff. Right. Oh, yeah.

Just kidding, Steve. Right, right. I came out of a band, and I had like almost 100 songs on our set list, and I knew none of those.

We were doing things like Since I've Been Loving You and some Zeppelin and whatever. Right, right. Like Pink Floyd.

And now to step into all the new stuff was just that quick learning curve. But it's a lot of fun. The band's a great group to be with, a lot of blast to play with.

And he's amazing. He really is. If he wasn't here, I'd still say he's freaking amazing.

Well, thanks. What are some of the bands you played with? I had my own group that we played with. I played also in a funk and soul band, so that whole style.

But I had a band called Next Life, and so we did that for probably about five years. And finding people and trying to balance it all out, I'm like, I'm going to just close it down for a while, put my name out there, and got lucky. Right, right.

And how long have you been with the band? What? A couple months? Three months? A couple months. Six months. Six months, maybe.

Maybe six months. Yeah, I think the first gig he did with us was November. Yeah.

Wow. Right. Okay.

So he auditioned, you all got together and talked about him behind his back for a little bit. What made you decide to choose him as your keyboard player? The hair. The hair, right.

The hair. That's it. Because the hair is luscious and flowing.

If he doesn't play. And the volume. Yes, it is.

Hey, we needed one chick magnet in the band, okay? We'll have to teach him to play even if he doesn't know how, because we've got to have the hair. Well, first of all, he came, his resume thing said he was classically trained, which really caught my eye. See, did I not nail that or what? Yes, you did.

You did. I'm going to get you a gold star. And he came over and we said, okay, let's play a little bit and everything.

And all of a sudden he starts going into Bob O'Reilly. And I'm like, oh, nice. Okay, yeah.

Okay, so when could he start? Right. He does some amazing stuff. And even things that some songs he's never even heard of that we go, can you do this? And there's a violin part here and then it's got to go back into the keyboard, the piano here.

And he'll take it home and he'll come in the next time and just blow us away. Yeah, right. Right.

So if you were kicking and screaming in the classical, what did you really want to play? Well, I started young and my parents like, you got to practice, you got to play. I'm like, I don't want to play. But then when I would sit there and I would have to read the music and I would have the timing beating in you and the structure beating into you.

And then when they would walk away, I would start playing with the stuff I heard on the radio. Right. And then they would, oh, you can't do that.

So I got squashed on that. But it was a good thing because I learned timing, structure, all that, and reading the music. So if ever a hard song comes out, like when I learned Since I've Been Loving You, I got the music and so I was able to reproduce it.

But it's a lot more fun just to sometimes just sit down, play what's in your head, play what's on your heart, and put that out there. But it helped to have that background. Typical influences, Billy Joel, Elton John, or is it somebody else? No, Pink Floyd.

Pink Floyd? Yeah. I love a lot of this. And I do some open mic stuff where I do some of their songs.

Right. Right. So a lot of synthesizer and organ stuff that you kind of gravitated to as well, not necessarily piano.

Right. But piano came later because I could play on the organ, not great, but you know, passable, right? And I sat down at the piano, it was like blink, blink, blink, you know? So I'm learning the whole single keyboard things instead of having the double register and the full pedals. Right.

You know, playing with two feet and two hands like you're going for a jog. Who's the multi-instrumentalist in the band? Anybody play Morning One? Nobody really. No? I do a pretty mean cowbell.

Oh, yeah. He does. Yeah, I don't know if we can.

That's part of the drum set though. Yeah, that is part of the drum set. Oh, jeez.

Yeah. I play tambourine too. Again, part of the drum set.

Does he really know his instrument at all? Does he know what the hell he's doing back there? I don't think so. I don't think so. I just got my first set of sticks.

We got her shaking her head really fast, like, don't go there. No glockenspiels? I have to tell you a funny story with Trey. No glockenspiels.

We were playing outdoor one day, and we were playing. He was not feeling. He was kind of stiff.

Was your back bothering you? Thank you for clarifying that. Yeah. I mean, I don't know how that came about.

During a break between sets, he went up to somebody and said, did you have something I could do? And they said, oh, here. And they gave him a gummy. And that was before we started.

Oh, wow. So that was before we started the second set. That was before we started the whole show.

So we're doing Indiana Devita, and there's a part there where it stops. There's a drum thing. And just silence.

And I turn around, and he's just sitting there smiling. I'm like, play something. For the record, the pain was gone.

Yeah. So I guess they gave you a gummy, and you ate the whole thing. Oh, yeah.

You didn't just eat half of it and wait 20 minutes like you're supposed to. I thought it was just maybe like Tylenol in it or something. I didn't realize.

The second half of that story is later on in the show, there was like a garage behind me, kind of like. And I played Wipeout. And at the end, I'm doing my little solo.

All by himself. Yes. Nobody else was playing.

Nobody else was on stage. It was a break. And I'm doing a good solo, and I get up.

I'm like, yeah, I'm going to have fun. And I slam the cymbals and completely lost my balance and ended up on my butt in the garage. So there was a no gummy rule in effect for me now.

Yeah. Yeah, you can't. You absolutely can't do that.

The first time I ever smoked marijuana was completely by accident, and I was dosed. I was dosed. There was this guy that was smoking.

He was smoking menthol cigarettes. And I've never had any interest in smoking a cigarette, but this menthol cigarette smelled like those red and white Brock's peppermint candies. I mean, it smelled really good.

I was like, what are you smoking? He goes, oh, I roll my own menthol cigarettes. And he went through this whole thing about how he used to go to Walgreens and buy the menthol tobacco and stuff. But then he'd buy the menthol papers as well.

So he had double menthol in these cigarettes. He goes, and that's why they smell so good. It's like a sweeter menthol.

I got this machine and stuff, and I sit down watching television. I'm just rolling cigarettes and everything like that. And I was like, give me one of these things.

He goes, oh, sure. He gives it to me. He didn't tell me.

It was like half tobacco and half weed. And so I just smoked this cigarette and had no idea where the heck that I was. It was also the same show where our bass player's bass rig started feeding back, and if you've ever heard the feedback from a bass rig, well, it was so loud, and it hit me in just the right way.

I literally had to lean back, and I fell onto the drummer's drum set and had to hold myself up. And I'm like, what the heck is wrong with Mike? And the other guitar player knew what happened. He goes, don't worry.

He's a stoned bejesus. And that's how half the music we play was made. He's onto something, I think.

I think we've got something here. It worked for a lot of guys. This is why you don't take candy from strangers.

Yeah, that's true. That's true. So do you guys write any original music, or is it all cover stuff? All cover stuff.

All cover stuff? No, when I came up with the idea, I said, if I had my very favorite songs on the jukebox, and that was all I could have, what would I pick? And that was pretty much how I began choosing the songs, or make myself enraged. And they would be what? Like, is it House of the Rising Sun, Born to be Wild, Heart Full of Soul, Yardbirds, I'm a Man. A lot of animals.

A lot of animal stuff. A lot of animals. Now, that's something you don't hear.

Oh, we do, like, 50% animals. You don't hear that a lot at all. Wow.

Stepping Stone, I'm a Believer, Pleasant Valley Sunday. Okay, can I tell you how much I loved the Monkees television show when I was a kid? Okay. That television show was hilarious.

That's actually cool that you guys do that kind of stuff. How many of us got friends of ours together and tried to do that walk with a crisscross? Yeah, we all hooked the arms together and tried to do the stupid walk. Never worked out.

Yeah, it never did. Never did. Okay.

Well, I think it's time for us to take a little bit of a break, and they're going to put the money where their mouth is. Sounds good to me. We're going to play a little bit in the studio.

That's right. We'll be right back. 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 someoneyoushouldknowpodcast.com. That's the Someone You Should Know podcast with me, Rick Anthony, making a difference one artist at a time. I'm Christy from Crime Cave Podcast. I've had a huge interest in true crime since my days of watching marathons of 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 here we go, everybody. We've got ambidextrous, but they play it backwards. Trying to find the sun Still I wonder who stopped her Seeking shelter from the storm Watched the tower grow Five-year plans and golden chains Still I wonder who stopped the rain Heard the singers push it for more Rush together Still the rain kept pouring Falling on my under Still I wonder who stopped the rain A special bonus.

If you guys break into locomotive breath right now. There's a keyboard. He can hum or whistle.

Remember, he's instrumental. We just need the... We just need the... You don't have the words? I don't know the words. Oh, man.

That's a karaoke singer in me. Oh, yeah. We do a fan on the mic stand over there.

We almost became their favorite band ever right then. No, that's okay. That's good.

That's good. Man. That's what I've never seen.

I got all jacked up. Jethro Tull tribute band. Jethro Tull tribute band.

Yeah. Not many rock and roll floutists out there. We've Mr. Chris Denman in Cadillac groove.

Oh, that's true. Yeah, he does. He brings a flout to every one of our shows.

I've seen him flout. A floutist. Yes, yes.

That's weird. Who came up with that? Who said, okay, we're going to call somebody that plays the flute a floutist. Wouldn't it just be a flutist? You think? Yeah, it could be.

I don't know. I don't know. Just like a pianist.

Come on. You couldn't come up with a better name? I didn't want to say it, but he is our pianist. He is your pianist.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I took a left turn real fast. Yeah, I did. But that's okay.

That's what happens here on the Rock and Roll Chicago Podcast. Like I said, we'll be at Zini's all weekend. That's right.

And as always, try the Viva. I mean, you know what? I can't say that you have an eclectic set list because I'm looking at it right here. Meaning, I mean, everything seems to be like from the same era, has a really cool sound.

I think you've picked a really cool era to pick music from here. Gloria, Sweet Home Chicago, theme from Peter Gunn. Wow.

Boom, boom, boom. Yeah. Wild Nights.

Now, do you do the Mellencamp version or do you do the Van Morrison version of that? Van Morrison. It's all this kind of like trippy 60s, early 70s kind of stuff. Money, that's what I want.

We only got the one song from the That Thing You Do movie. Yeah. That Thing You Do by the Wonders.

Right. That shit. The Oneeders.

The Oneeders. But it's not that thing we do. It sounds like it's from the era.

Yeah. Exactly. People think that the song was written like way back then.

No, it wasn't. It was written for the movie, so it's not that old. We've got a couple compliments where they've said, my God, nobody plays that one.

You guys are awesome. But it's just because of that song. Yeah.

We were playing two years ago. We were playing at the Grundy County Corn Fest, and we were opening for Poisoned Crew. And as we're playing, they're- In the festival or at the bar? In the festival.

Okay. On the main stage. On the main stage, yeah.

It's called Poisoned Crew. Poisoned Crew. Poisoned Crew.

Yeah, we've had them on the podcast, and we made fun of them all night long because of that. Poisoned Crew. Poisoned Crew.

Yeah. They're French. Yes, they are.

So their lead singer was standing off. I'm standing stage right, and he's standing off stage, and he's watching me the whole time I'm playing, and he's giving me thumbs up and stuff. And I'm thinking, wow, this is great.

This guy's digging what we're doing. And at the end of the show, he comes running up the stairs, and I'm thinking he's going to say something about, wow, you did Black Magic Woman. You did Gloria.

You did whatever. And he comes up and goes, you guys do that thing you do. Nobody plays that.

Nobody does that thing you do. Oh, my God. That's great.

Yeah. Yeah. Nobody does Footloose anymore either.

No. No. So you should.

Yeah. I mean, that would fit in what you guys do. Do Footloose, man.

Rock it out. Right now. Yeah.

Yeah. So what's your favorite kind of venue to play? Are you guys more inside? Are you doing festivals? What are you guys doing? A little of both. I prefer inside, but we play at a place in Ottawa.

Of course, the singer prefers inside. Yeah. Well, I take water pills, so I have to go to the bathroom pretty often.

That way, when we got along, we're instrumental in a song. That's definitely not the reason why I was going to say I prefer indoor reasons. In fact, he's going right now.

Yeah. He's got a bag hanging off his hip here, everybody. You can't see, but he does.

Yeah. And really, a lot of the shows we play. We got the peanut gallery over here making sex jokes.

And a lot of the shows we play will be like, well, how are we going to sound tonight? Well, it depends. Yeah. It depends on whether.

Oh, geez. That went over your head. No, I got it.

I got it. I got it right away. I got to say that the most memorable one that we played was Firewater Saloon up north.

Oh, yeah. We played Firewater Saloon up in Edison Park. Yeah, that's a cool place.

I've played there before. And they had the windows open on the front of the place. So there were people at restaurants down the street, came out the restaurant, and they heard our music, so they come over.

The cool thing was they didn't start that way. Yeah. But halfway through the set, they just cranked open all these windows, and the music just went.

And all these places, the outdoor cafes. My wife, Mary, she's sitting at the edge of the dance floor sitting at the table. And all of a sudden, I see her get up.

And she starts looking, and she's backing up. Because so many people just came running in the front door at once to get to the dance floor that they just shoved all the tables off and wanted to dance. I'm like, well, how cool is this? That's the place, if I remember correctly, that's the place where you actually loaded in through a window.

Yeah. Yeah. The stage is right there.

There's this window that props up, and everybody's just handing shit through the window right there by the stage. Absolutely. Speaking of windows, I'm not going to name the place where we're at, but they all know what I'm talking about.

We were playing in one place, and it was late at night. And the way I'm situated, I'm right at the window, and I can see the parking lot. Okay.

Well, there was a kind of an unruly guy. They were escorting him out. And he decides to hit one of the bouncers from behind.

And there's a brawl going on in the parking lot. And you had to get up and save your dad. No.

He took care of him. He took care of him. So I'm playing, and I'm watching this going on.

And fire trucks are showing up, ambulances, police cars. And Scott looks around, and he says, keep playing. Keep playing.

So people are running outside. And when we're all done, I said, now I know what the band that was playing when the Titanic went down felt like. We're still playing, and all this brawling is going on.

There's police, and these guys can't see what I can see. Because I got a view of in there, and I'm looking out the window. And the cops came in later and said, oh, my God.

It was so funny. You guys never stopped playing. Right.

Right. So when stuff like that happens, how does that inspire you? It's got to reaffirm, hey, we're having fun, and we're doing the right thing. Yeah.

And when that situation went down, in the midst of everything that's going on, nobody else in the band knew what was going on but me. Our focus and the ability to stay focused and continue what we were doing showed a lot about our professionalism, our talent, and probably the fact that all of us were afraid to get involved in a fight. Yeah.

You have to know your place. I mean, I'm totally with you. I just know for future reference, we need to put bad boys, bad boys.

What you going to do? We got to put that in a set list. Well, before you started with the band, either of you guys, we were playing a place in Midlothian. Yeah.

And they decided they were going to have us. The one over in Plainfield? No. This is the one on Central Avenue.

The original. Oh, the original Durban's. Okay.

All right. Yeah. So we're playing.

But they decided to have like a hip-hop band in the back. I did. Outdoor with a DJ.

So the younger crowd was in the back and all the older crowd like us, we were up in the front. And this fight breaks out in the back and all of a sudden we hear like police cars screeching up and they're just like running through and they're like dragging people out in handcuffs and we just kept on playing. Yeah.

Yeah. You don't want to get involved in it. No, we don't want to get involved.

Seasons beatings. All right. So what was the worst gig you guys ever played? The wedding.

No, the retirement party. Well, one of them we played. There's a couple.

One of them we played a wedding. What about DJ's Morehouse, the last show? But it was, oh yeah, there was four people there and that's counting all of us. No, but we did one and it was a wedding.

It was a nice wedding for an older couple, but it was the middle of July or August. There was no air conditioning. And there's like 300 people in this old high school gym and we're sweating.

I'm just running through water up there playing drums. But we did also do a retirement party in January. It might have even been Steve's first gig with us.

There was a wedding next door to us and they had the loudest bass hip hop stuff going the entire time. And by next door, it means one of those accordion door. Oh yeah.

Right, right, right. We are all like, I'm playing with my head just tucked down because I'm getting blown away by and thrown off by the beats going on from that. And it was like, it was horrible.

Where was this? What was the venue? That was Silver Lakes Country Club. Silver Lakes. Yeah.

I know Silver Lakes. And the thing of it was they had it so high that our mics were beginning to pick it up and it was coming back again, looping around, coming out of our monitors. And so I'm hearing all these chords that are off and everything, you know, and I'm like, I think after one song, I even looked at you, Steve, and go, are you drop tuned? What are you playing there? And then through all of that, we're supposed to play until maybe 11 or so.

And the guy that was at the retirement party, once he comes running out, he goes, tornado sirens are going off. You guys can stop. Oh, God.

There was a blizzard. Oh, there was a blizzard. Everything's coming.

The snow, everything. Just go ahead and stop now. We're done.

We're all getting out of here. Yeah. Wow.

That's pretty insane. I'm surprised that the manager of the venue didn't go next door and kind of quiet the other party down a little bit, though. That's kind of crazy.

Well, Mike and I, you heard some of the stuff on the videos I sent you. Yeah. And you saw the one where we're on the big stage with the fireworks.

Right. At the Corn Fest. Okay.

And the band that was on before us had a little bit of distortion, and we went up there and I said to the sound guys, I said, listen, we play it clean. This should sound like WLS and the 1960s coming out there. Well, little did I know they did that.

But the monitors were, you were talking about the feedback bass. Right, right. We started playing the first song, and my mic stand is, I'm watching it, and it's walking across the stage.

And I finally, after the end of the song, I turned to the sound crew, I go, can you do something about this? You know? Wow. And I was convinced. Was it gone for a while? I don't know, but I was convinced that we just, we saw.

The sound guy just got up and left? Yeah. No. That's a wonderful sound guy, isn't it? And he's your sound guy too.

He was what? It's Eric, your sound guy. He was down with me. Yeah.

What? Eric. Yeah. You guys were playing down at Carson's, so he left and went down there.

I know what, I know what's going on. So, okay. So this was just like last year.

Yeah. Yeah. Two years ago.

So, so yeah. So what ended up, what ended up happening? They had a whole crew of people, like, you know, hired on to work Corn Fest and Eric knew most of the guys and yeah. Oh my God.

I remember this day like it was yesterday. I've, I've never seen Eric ready to go absolutely nuts because he was, he ended up having to fill in. He wasn't really supposed to be there.

They said, Eric, we need your help. We've got the main stage over here. We hear you're down there at, at Carson's, right? We need help.

And he's like, okay, whatever. And that's exactly what he said it. Whatever.

He had this tough voice. Like I hear him saying it. He's literally running back and forth between Corn Fest and Carson's cause Cadillac group was on stage at Carson's and he's running back and forth getting you set up, then getting us set up.

Five guys in the middle of the town. Five guys in the middle of the town. And when we finished, I believe that same night Poisoned Crew was playing at the bar and it was like across the alley.

They, we, we opened for them. They came on right after us. Yes.

But then they closed out the night at a bar. They finished on stage and they were at a bar there because we, we were in, we were on a break between our second and third set. And I heard the guys from Poisoned Crew.

I went over to see where they were and a bunch of my friends were sitting over there watching Poisoned Crew as well. There was a lot going on that night. It was crazy.

So I've never, Eric literally was visiting like three stages. Well, one night. Two was that video you saw my wife there had, that was her walking around with her, her camera doing that.

And the next morning I come down and she was already sitting there drinking her tea and she's playing that on her iPad. And I'm going, I said, what was that from? Because I'm convinced we sucked. It was just awful.

I had to find, it was so bassy. I had to just find a sweet spot where I could stand. I can hear my amp.

I can hear the drums. Fine. I'm just going to stand here and do it.

And she's playing that and I asked, she said, I said, who's that? She goes, you guys. I said, when? She goes, last night. I'm like, what? So in front, they had it spot on.

Yeah. So we got up on stage. We sucked ass.

Yeah. Yeah. The best part about that night is, as you know, you've been down there before.

I'm the stage manager down there. Okay. Yeah.

Corn fest. Right. And, uh, uh, you know, your music remembers that it's cause I give them the checks when they come down there.

Yeah. But anyhow, I knew that they had those massive fog machines that shoot way up at the edge of stage. But I made a point not to tell Jim or singer about it until he found out for himself, the first song he's standing there and he turns around and looks at me.

You could have told me about this. It would have been any fun. You know, you would have been perfectly within your rights to just punch him in the face.

But he would have had to find that big riser. It's like 30 foot tall, right? Yeah. We have a song that has four dance steps in it.

So I shake my butt extra violently in front of him at every show. And I have a view. No.

Yeah. And you always complain about it. So we're all good.

I have some ideas for you. He's just jealous. I have more hair down there than he has on his head.

Yeah. Yeah. That's okay.

That's okay. Where are we going with this? Well, you know, I'm the front man of a band. I totally understand if people start to piss me off, I just have chili before the show.

That's it. We had one, we had one show where he was messing with me a little bit. I think it was the blizzard night and he had a cooler that was around the back of the stage and around the side.

And he comes around the side. I'm in the middle of playing and he bends over to get a water. I took, I'm right handed, but I took the left hand and threw that stick and hit him right square in the butt.

And I'm like, he turned around and looked at me. It slipped. Bam.

Yeah. Well, well on that note. No, I was at an open jam last Thursday and a saxophone player that I haven't seen in, well, since, but before COVID showed up for the jam.

And I was sitting at a table. I was literally about 20 feet away from the stage. And I said, what the heck? And I was just balling up a damp napkin.

And I was like, you know what? Just for the hell of it. I just decided, I just took my shot. I just launched that sucker.

Boom. Right into the saxophone. 20 feet away.

Wow. Nothing but brass. The whole, he was right in the middle of his solo and boom, it goes right in there.

He didn't even see it happen, but everybody that was there saw it happen. And all of a sudden, the place just went, yes. And he's up there like, damn, I'm playing a saxophone solo.

They love me. From downtown. We have a couple songs where Jim will, it'll break down and he'll do like a, you know, like he'll hold the note on who'll stop the rain.

And there was one where he was really holding it, doing his best while I'm behind him. And I took my stick and threw it as high as I could in the air and caught it perfect. And everyone's like, ah.

And he turns around and said, they're not cheering for you. They're cheering for me. And that's what it's all about, right? You guys have, you guys have fun.

We really do. You know, if you can't have fun, then, you know, why would you do it anymore? When it becomes too much like work, you know, I'm done with this. I just love it.

Exactly. Yeah. I like the fact that we're all humble because like in our practices, we rarely get to practice because I work full time.

Steve works full time. Trace is lazy. Scott is retired.

But we, you know, we're always like kicking our own butt saying, you know, oh, I screwed up on that. Or I'll forget lyrics. And I'm like, how stupid can I be? I got a tablet in front of me with the words on it.

Yeah. You know, we're all pretty grounded. And we know we got to work hard to do this.

And I think we learned he's lost it on that tablet. Yeah. That's all right.

Even during practice. I mean, you know, if I'm at something, I go, that was me. You know what I mean? And everybody says, Steve.

And I'll be, yeah, that was Scott. Yeah. Yeah.

If you make a mistake, just look at the guy next to you. Yeah. I wasn't the one out of key.

I play it on snare. Yeah. Well, how can how can people find you if they're looking to go out and see show Facebook? We have ambidextrous on Facebook.

You can find us there. And also Facebook group. I mean, ambidextrous group on Facebook, too.

There's two different things because Facebook kind of screwed up something. But that's where they can find us. And we have got a whole list of shows this Sunday.

In fact, we will be at where there's a thirsty beaver in Crestwood. That's that was a great show. That was a really good show.

That was a fantastic show. We were there. You guys were there.

You guys rocked. What do you got coming up in September? September. September.

We got cripples in worth. I know. I know.

September 7th. We have cripples in worth. How was that? Have you ever played there? Oh, we played.

We played there with Ray Graffia. How was the place? Pretty cool place. Great.

Yeah. We are. Last time we played there, we were with Ray Graffia of the New Colony 6. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. They were turning people away.

Yes. Wow. September 7th, cripples.

September 8th, thirsty beavers. September 14th, the LG Moose Lodge. Wow.

21st at the office sports bar. And the 28th of September, the VFW annual rib fest. Wow.

You guys are booked. Yeah. We have seven in June.

Well, too bad this podcast, you know, it's September right now. We were at every single one of those shows. We followed these guys around in June.

They just kicked ass. They were fantastic. I was on vacation in Florida.

I flew back just to see the show. Can you believe they showed up with just, you know, socks on their schwanzes and everything? That was awesome. That was my idea.

Yeah. It was. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean.

That was the original band name, Socks on their Schwanzes. Socks on their Schwanzes. And that's when you started doing Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Yeah. So we said Amidextrous sounds better. 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 $5. Also at CadillacGroove.com, you will be able to purchase them online as well.

Very good. They're going to cost you $5 a ticket. There's going to be a $10 cover charge to get in the day of the event.

And for your $10, we will give you two more additional tickets, as well as some Cadillac Groove swag. And the lucky grand prize winner will win the band Cadillac Groove. And winner must be present to win.

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. So get out there and get your tickets right away. So you guys got something you could take us out with? Yeah.

Yeah, why don't we do a little thing you do. Oh, wait. I got to put my shades on because I remember the guy's name was Shades.

You have to. You got Shades. Yeah, you've got to wear Shades.

Got to wear it. Did I tell you you guys look great in the red? You look great in red. Right? Okay.

We are ready. Let's have a song. You'd only let me be the one.

Cause I try and I try to forget you girl. But it's just so hard to do. Every time you do.

Don't ask a lot girl. What I know one thing's for sure. It's a love I have and I just can't take it.

And sing with me. Cause it hurts me so just to see you go. Around with someone else.

And if I know you, you're doing that thing. Every day just doing that thing. The crowd goes wild.

You know what time it is? What time is it? Only people who know the movie are going to get this reference. I think it's time that we quit. We quit.

We quit. We quit. We quit.

Mr. White. We quit. We quit.

We quit. We quit. We quit.

We quit. We quit. We quit.

We quit. We quit. What's that one? Oh, I'm radioactive.

Yeah, it is. Oh, that's crazy right there. I like that one Oh domo arigato, mr. Roboto Yeah, we found yeah, we're recording all this stuff we're gonna have to probably have to cut this out Go that back over there.

This is like outer space. It is a kind of outer space. Yeah Okay, what's this that's crazy I want to know why they're all just set up for your mind I Bet you people listening think we are all right, so that was a lot of fun and Thanks for tuning in make sure you check us out every Tuesday for another exciting new 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 If you've been joining our weekly program, we have great news for you Just tune in to road to rock radio on Mondays at 7 p.m Central time and you can hear a rebroadcast of one of our past episodes then again on Thursdays at 7 p.m You can hear our most current episode brought to you by the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66 So go to road to rock org scroll down and click on radio station That'll bring you to the road to rock radio a station committed entirely to the great music from Illinois from Chicago blues born on Maxwell Street to today's rock and roll and everything in between 24-7 all music with its roots in, Illinois The rock and roll Chicago podcast is edited by Paul Martin theme song courtesy of M&R rush The rock and roll Chicago podcast does not own the rights to any of the music heard on the show The music is used to promote the guests that are featured