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 Theroni. And this here be Hollywood.

Hi Hollywood, what kind of new equipment did you buy this past week? This past week? I don't know, recently? Yeah, I got a new guitar. Did you? Did I tell you about that? I think you did. Yeah, it's actually a pretty cool story.

I was on a chat room on Facebook talking about Hamer guitars, and I've got this Hamer copy of an ES-335, and a friend of mine that I've known for quite a while, he calls me up out of the blue. He saw my post, I said, I'm looking for their version of a Les Paul Junior, because you don't want the cheap Indonesian. And he calls me up and he goes, I have one.

And I wasn't thinking about selling it. I know what it's worth. But I know you're going to play it.

And it's been sitting in my closet for 10 years. I'd prefer somebody would play it. So he sold it to me at a spectacular proud new owner of a 1993 Hamer Special.

Wow, very nice. I absolutely love it. I figured you bought something.

You know, I just had a feeling. Yeah, yeah. You went shopping too, though.

But you went with a friend. Didn't your friend buy a? Yeah, a buddy of mine bought one. Yeah.

A Schecter or something like that. Yeah. Does anybody say that? I don't even know.

Yeah. Okay. He actually came all the way out to Joliet.

He lives in Cedar Lake. He drove all the way out here to get it. Wow.

For a Schecter? Yeah. He was actually looking at a different one and he wound up getting that one. I was going to say, I mean, almost any street corner you can find a Schecter.

He liked it. He likes it. So that's all that matters.

He's just, he's just. Oh, oh, yeah. He's learning.

He likes the sound. He likes them. Whatever.

It was about the trip. It was about having fun. I told him to go to Sweetwater.

Oh, yeah. If anybody from Sweetwater is listening, we are looking for sponsors. But there's a bunch of guys in here and I was sitting here laughing at us like we're.

What was that for? It's a free bird. Well, joining us tonight is joining us tonight is Free By RD. Which one of you guys is RD? It is free by RD.

Yes, it's free by RD. That's like an RZ. It's like it's free by RD.

That's like a that's like a 1957 grocery store commercial. Yes, free by RD, everybody. Get your your what were those things? The circle noodles with the.

Chef Boyardee. Robin. The Chef Boyardee stuff.

Yeah, yeah. I have no idea where we're going. I don't either.

How you doing? Free bird. Yeah. In studio audience.

That's right. Yeah. Every every every tribute band shows up with drunk assholes.

And they're all guys. All guys. No chicks.

And we're one of them. Yeah. So how you guys? Is this everybody? No, we're short of bass players.

Oh, yeah. What's the bass players? Oh, no. The last band we did didn't have a bass player either.

Bass players don't want to come out. I don't know what it is. Gosh, freaking bass players.

All right. So let's go around and do the kindergarten thing. Let's start over here and tell everybody your name and what you do so I can forget it.

OK. I'm one of the guitar players. Grab the microphone.

Just speak into it. Ken Erickson. I'm one of the guitar players in the band.

All righty. Stan Carr is the keyboard player in the band. I knew he was the keyboard player when he walked in.

All keyboard players show up with a pork pie hat on. We'll let Mike have a guess then at what I do. Singer.

No. Let's try that. No.

Drummer. Rob Mazur. Drummer.

Drummer. OK. Well, you know, I didn't know because he automatically grabbed the microphone.

And normally the last thing you want to do is put a microphone in front of your drummer. Exactly. We've said that.

That's the last thing you want to do. There it is. I'm Kevin Wierczak.

I play guitar. All right. I'm Mitch Wierczak.

I play guitar. So who sings? Mel Stahler. He's not here.

Yeah, he's not. He's the bass player. No, no, no.

See, all right. You know, if we're going to do this right, then stop fucking with me because I asked you. Who's the bass player? He's not here.

We forgot about the singer. Yeah, so there's two people. Mel's a terrific singer.

He's a traveling salesman, so it's hard to nail him down during the week. I understand that. He's constantly on the road.

Yeah, I understand. And what's the bass player's name? Johnny. Johnny.

Excellent. So you guys have a full stage of musicians, just like the real Lynyrd Skynyrd, huh? Yeah. So who started this whole shindig? Well, I did it.

I had the idea for like three years, but I was in a classic rock band, pretty good. And then it started to be like a revolving door with drummers. And I just said, you know what? I don't want to do this again.

Tribute started taking off. Then who do I want to be a tribute to? I went back to my roots, which is Southern rock. And I said, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and here we are.

Excellent. And of course, you're the best. We like to think so.

Yeah, that's good. That's good. So give us the whole story.

How did this whole thing come together? Well, I got the idea. The singer was in my classic rock band, Speed of Sound. And I started putting out in a band mix.

And actually, Mitch was the first one that answered. And I was looking through band mix, and he had the Rebel flag, and his name's Hooch. And he played slide guitar, and he loved Skynyrd.

And I was like, I got to call this guy. So I called him, and he says, yeah, yeah, I'm in, I'm in. And then Chris, he's a founding member.

He's our bass player, Chris McThurston. OK. He left the band.

He moved to Manitowoc, Wisconsin. OK. So obviously, he left.

And then we had Chris, we had another drummer, and then we had two guitars. The five of us, no keyboard player yet. And then we got this one guitar player in.

He was OK, but he wasn't a lead player. And I knew being in Skynyrd, you had to have a lead player. So I had to let him go.

And then Mitch goes, oh, really? He goes, well, my guitar player, would you mind if he came into the band? And I go, Mitch, if he's available for rehearsal and gigs, I have no problem with it. So Kevin comes into rehearsal. We rehearsed at Ranger in Franklin Park.

OK. He walks in, sets up his gear, and rips into eruption. And I look over at him, and I go, you're in.

Wow. So I'm assuming he's talking about you. So that explains the age difference.

Yeah, well, yeah. I mean, my dad, obviously. So he's like, hey, come jam.

I came, and I never left. So the only thing that you do, or do you work with other bands? I was in another band previously. Actually, my dad was in it as well.

OK, I'm starting to notice a pattern. That is, yeah. Yeah.

Well, I mean, you know, bands, there's always a revolving door going around with some bands, especially local bands. So there's kind of always a spot open. Where it's like, hey, I'll ask my dad.

He's like, I'll ask my son. So it just makes everybody's life easier, I think. Right, right.

Did you like, I mean, did you love Leonard Skinner music before the rest? You did. Yeah, growing up, I mean, one of my earliest memories was he had a 69 Ford Bronco. And I was about probably six, maybe, just summer day, no soft top on it.

And you had Second Helping on the cassette. And I knew Working for MCA was the first song. And then I knew Call Me the Breeze was somewhere down the line.

I think it's like track five or six or something. And I just, when we were driving, I just listened to the Bronco. It's like I wanted to hear Working for MCA, like right away.

And then I would skip everything else and go right to Breeze. So early age, that's where I got hooked on it. Playing guitar, hard rock music, all that.

All right. So, I mean, you went into this, you know, willingly. Nobody's holding a gun to your head or anything.

You're saying, no, yeah. I mean, yeah, because it's kind of rare. You know, you get a, how old are you? 29.

Yeah. So yeah, you get a 29 year old that plays Eruption. And it says, well, son, I'm sorry to tell you this, but we're playing Leonard Skinner.

Yeah. But he was playing Eruption like eight years ago. Right.

Well, you got kids on Instagram that can do that. Well, you had a story with Zach Wilde loving one of your solos or something like that. What was that? Mitch told me about that.

Oh, yeah. I posted a video of myself on Instagram playing a Zach Wilde solo, and he commented on it. And I was like, so stoked about it.

Yeah, that's really cool. So, you know, it's not that big of a deal. Zach Wilde commented on you playing his solo.

That's pretty cool. Yeah, I like the video and everything. And that was, yeah, that was pretty cool.

That was my 15 minutes right there. Oh, that's pretty cool. Kevin's a great, he's a great addition to the band.

I mean, he is all over the place on stage. Yeah. He's just a phenomenal performer.

Yeah. I just love it. And all these other guys were tracking a younger class of women too.

You would think, but you're wrong. I got the knob there. We have Slayer fans because every time we're on stage, everyone screams out Slayer.

Something about Slayer. I don't, yeah. Really? Last gig at the Arcada.

What is with you guys and Slayer? We're at the rock and roll, what was it, the museum, the historic museum. Somebody's screaming out Slayer at the museum. So we got to learn Angel of Death or something.

You can do it. You can do it, Rob. You have to.

You have to just to tease them with it or something. But that is weird. That is strange.

People are yelling Slayer. We get a lot of people come up to us and they're like, well, when someone yells out Freebird, you guys can actually play the song now instead of it being like this thing everybody's saying. But do you? Oh, yeah.

Okay. We tease the crowd. Yeah.

You do the entire song though? Oh, absolutely. Okay. Kevin tears it up.

Yeah. And these two guys have the unison guitar parts. I come in on the end, but they tear it up.

Stan has a great piano intro and solo too. Okay, yeah, yeah. We follow the arrangement of the live where Billy starts out and then Kevin and Mitch take off at the end.

It's very cool. No, I mean, I get it. I was in a band before where we would only play it if somebody yelled it out.

Believe it or not, people don't always yell it. Yeah. But I was thinking since the name of the band is Freebird, and you're a Leonard Skinner tribute band, it would be just like to say, yeah, we don't play that.

So just don't do it. We do everyone but that. No, no.

Oh, we'll learn that one for next time. Or what would be even better if somebody yells out Freebird and you play Stairway to Heaven. Yeah, right.

I like that idea. Yeah. Yeah.

Do the Stairway to Heaven solo in Freebird maybe. That'd be weird. Yeah, that'd be a little weird.

Well, you can learn it because I ain't. All right, so he joins the band. Who's next? It was Stan.

Another band mix find. I'd seen Stan's band mix. He's a baby grand piano and he's just playing like crazy.

And I'm going, this is the guy. This is the guy. So I tracked him down through Facebook and his phone number was on there.

I call him up and he's like, who are you? I go, I'm Ken. I got this really killer band. It's a Leonard Skinner tribute band.

And you know, I'm really busy, really busy. I go down to Nashville once a month. And he's got a songwriting team that he meets every month in Nashville and they write songs.

We actually have some songs published on the radio, right? Yeah, yeah. So after bugging Stan for, I don't know, almost two months, I caught him in the car coming back from Nashville. He goes, OK, send me a video or something.

And I said, Stan, this is the perfect band for you. Trust me. He says, all right, I'll give it a try.

I said, learn these five songs and come to practice. We rehearsed at the Jam Lab, Conlon Piedrick's place in Brookfield, recorded there. So he knew exactly where it was.

I told him, I said, you know where we're playing, you know, come on out. So he came out and Stan walks in. It was like he's been in the band for the whole time, just perfectly fit.

And he's just like, I am so glad I'm in this band. I just love this band. Wow.

Excellent. So you guys are having a lot of fun. Yeah.

So what's the philosophy of the band? You know, when you talk to tribute bands, a lot of times like, we do the early stuff only. Or we do the, or we do their later stuff only. I mean, is there something that you won't do? No.

Unfortunately for Skinner, they, the actual Skinner band, we cover the 70s Skinner. There's only like four or five albums. We are working on some from the later album, but we're working on more songs to kind of just stay Skinner.

When we do like three, we got to step out of the box because we haven't learned enough for that. But we still stay Southern rock. These two guys just blow over flirting with disaster when we do this.

I mean, it's like crazy. That's one of my favorite songs. But yeah, we're reverting.

We're learning. What is it? Five new ones now? Yeah, I think so. Yeah.

Yeah. A couple. Yeah.

What are they? What's the setlist like? Uh, the new ones we're learning is, uh, still unbroken. Um, what else is it? Uh, uh, down South. You can, uh.

Constantly. Constantly. That's what, that's the one everybody yells out.

I don't know what it is. That's the one that they want to hear. I don't know if it's, I don't know that they feel like it's more soulful.

I don't know what it is about that song. The other ones, uh, you got that right. We'll probably do a few more Office Street Survivors, but we have some earlier Skinner that we're going to revisit.

Right. So yeah, it's all great. What are the other, uh, when you have to stray kind of off the path of Skinner, what are some of the other bands that you're covering? Um, ZZ Top, um, Molly Hatchet.

Um, and that, that's a, yeah, we do that. Well, we do the Train Train. Train Train.

Oh yeah. So, yeah. So you're, you're, you're kind of keeping it all together.

Oh yeah. Yeah. People are surprised, but you know, I was a little hesitant, but we had to do it that way.

You know, so the first show we did outside of Skinner and everybody liked how you did this and did that. And I was like, okay, I felt a little easier with that. But, um, we had no choice actually.

Well, that's okay. Sometimes, sometimes it works that way. Yeah.

So how long has the band been together? Well, my first contact was Mitch. I think that was in 2019. That was in August.

Uh, December, we were, we were pretty tight with not everybody, but we were starting to book shows and then COVID hit our shores and then everything got cut off for like a strong year. I mean, we couldn't even rehearse. Our rehearsal facility was shut.

We're texting each other. We still stayed in touch. And I, for our first show was, uh, tailgaters in 2021, I think 2020, 2021.

Yeah. It's our first show more than a weekend. Okay.

We've been going pretty strong ever since we've had some band changes. Your very first show ever was tailgaters. Yeah.

Well, that's pretty good. Yeah. So you, so you obviously have connections with guys at tailgaters and everybody.

Uh, yeah, we got that through, uh, an agent. Yeah. So rock and wheels was the third one.

Yeah. Rocking wheels are the third one. I live in Addison.

Okay. And so I, I started that rock and wheels event 15 years now. Oh, wow.

It used to be, there was a little gazebo in the park and Angelo Sorsey came, called me up and he goes, you know, I'm thinking of doing something to bring the community together. How about Tuesday nights concert in the park? So it started with everybody just playing in this little gazebo and there's like 50 people. Then it got to a point now where the village spent almost $3 million on the park and they're getting national apps to play.

Okay. So it's grown like from 50 people to as much as 4,000 and I'm pretty proud of that. Where's, where's that, where's that park located? It's a one friendship plaza in Addison.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Right.

I know where it was. Yeah. Right.

It's like Lake street and Addison road. Yeah. I went to Driscoll high school.

Oh, okay. Which is no longer there. I know it's a subdivision now.

Yeah. Talk about wanting to make yourself feel old. Go to where your high school used to be.

I mean, you know, there's high schools that are still around that are 200 years old. The one that I went to, Nope. They bulldozed it down.

Yeah. For me, I went to York and Elmhurst and that school is like 10 times the size of this when I was there. Okay.

That's I drive by that school and I was like, I cannot believe how big that school is. Yeah. It's just gigantic.

So tell me about this songwriting team in Nashville. You sound like a busy person. Yeah.

I've got a music publishing company down there. Okay. Right with different artists and songwriters.

And right now we're writing for sync from TV, film and movies. So yeah. Any that we all would have heard of that you're working on? Chris Hawkey got one of my songs.

She's my kind of crazy. Okay. It was playing a major market radio.

Yeah. Caroline was a song recorded by a band called Rockland Road. It's been on the radio.

It's been at a Huckabee show. It's been on a major market radio as well. A bunch of other indie artists have cut my songs.

Right, right. Now, is that what you do? Is that your day job? I guess is for like. Yeah, I do music full time.

Okay. That's one of the things I'm doing. Okay.

Besides performing with the band and some other stuff too. Right. Live music.

Mostly down there. It's just about getting together songwriters. You know, right.

What a guy named Bobby Watson right now. He's about to break out with a new record deal. And another guy, Mark McKay, who is signed to Universal at LA.

And he recorded just released two songs this week of mine. Nice, nice. I mean, you make your home here and you're.

Yeah. This was kind of like a second hybrid home. I just go back there every month.

Okay. All right. Where are you from? Where you live around here? I live in Willow Springs now.

Originally grew up by Meadow Airport. Gotcha. 63rd Cistro there and what Westlawn area.

And yeah, it was on the road country. He lived in Canada for three months. Wow.

So all over the place. Yeah. Not to be not to be going down the line or anything, but you look so familiar to me.

I'm sitting here trying to figure out where we've seen each other before. He probably redid your bathroom. Is there is there a joke in there somewhere? He probably redid your bed.

I don't know. That seems like I'm waiting for a punchline. I'm not quite sure what that means.

I did remodeling on the side, but that's not. Yeah, I don't think so. I don't know.

Everybody says I have a familiar face. Yeah. Believe it or not.

Yeah. I'm out of Burbank. Out of Burbank.

I'm trying to figure it out. You do look familiar to me, though. Maybe you have that face.

That must be. Yeah. Must be.

All right. So do you all love Leonard Skinner music? Do you really all just you just love it or you just you don't care what you're playing? You just like hanging out with one another. I love it.

That's why I went back to my roots. No, I love it. I mean, I got these songs in my head.

I'll be in the hot tub and I got Curtis Law going through my head. Way too much information there. I have my suit on, just to clarify.

So you shower with your suit on? No. That's great. That's great.

No, it's I mean, I always ask that because sometimes people, you know, you get into a tribute band because, you know, you hear, well, we're in a tribute band because we want to play and the only bands that are getting hired are tribute bands. And that's not necessarily true. But some people absolutely love the music and they really want to.

Yeah. You're listening to the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. 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.

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You were a young kid when you got into it. Yes. Yeah.

And because of your father and the whole the 60, I was at the Bronco and I think you told us. Well, yeah, that was I mean, I started playing guitar when I was three. Dragging his guitar around because obviously it was always there.

He was in with him, too, as well. And throughout. And so it was always there.

VHS. I did grow up in the VHS era. I know what that is.

Yeah. So I remember George Thorogood was the first VHS and there was a Scorpions VHS just warm out live concerts. I want to do he did it.

So he taught me everything that I know, pretty much as I grew up, taught myself some stuff. Yeah. My whole life.

Yeah. Yeah. So let's talk about the classic rock or Southern rock sound.

All right. And I know this sounds like a cliche question, but it is appropriate. So what's your guitar, Rick? My.

It's a Gibson Les Paul. I have a the amp I'm using right now is a Wong's. That's a Chinese boutique amp.

EVH cabinets are pretty much just Les Paul into a two bed into a tube. And that's it. And I got a boss distortion pedal is the is the amp modeled after.

Yeah, it's actually modeled after Saldano. OK, nice. And then the overdrive channel is in the clean channel is off of a Bogner.

OK. Yeah. So I just wanted something a little different, I guess you could say.

Yeah. Everybody's got the Marshalls and the EVHs and everything. I was like, let me try this.

Yeah, I've got a bad cat. I wanted to be different, too. And it was one of those in Jim's gym lab.

I'm pretty sure one of those. Yeah, I bet you did. Yeah, those sound good.

I wanted to be I wanted to be different with it, too. Yeah, you are different. Oh, yeah.

And it's like channel one is a Vox AC30. And the second channel is Marshall. And they sound completely different.

I mean, they're not. It's not the kind of amp where channel one and channel two cascade into one another. No, there are two separate amps.

There's two transformers, two power amps, everything inside one box inside of it. And it's a combo amp. So you still have to have your pedal board and all that to do whatever you want to do.

But you have to want clean and chimey. Or do I want to have that Marshall kind of a sound? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I'm curious.

I'm getting to a pointer. Who are my other guitar players? Mitch and me. OK, so what's your rig? What do you play? I play with a 89 Strat, and it goes right into a Hughes & Kuttner amp.

OK, nice. And I have an original Tube Screamer from this early, well, late 70s. Right.

That adds a little sauce to the sound. Nice. With Skinner, you don't really need a lot.

Right. I have a that I use it just for like the noise gate and the tremolo. And what else? I got the phaser for Call Me the Breeze.

Yeah, right. But there's amp models in there. I don't use it.

I just turn them off. I go right straight through my amp. That's kind of what's your rig? I play a 84 Yamaha SPG 2100 through a Marshall Vintage 40.

The... I forgot. The combo, the 40. Yeah, it's a 40 combo.

That's my son. Yeah, he was there when I bought it. He says, hey, it's good.

So I bought it. I walked into some stranger's house and bought it. Yeah.

Walked into a stranger's house and bought it. Yeah. One of them offer up deals or whatever, you know? Right.

So in the quest to obtain the authentic sound, you guys are using tube amps, you're using guitars. I didn't even ask about your pedal board. You using a pedal board at all? I just have a Boss Distortion and a Wah pedal.

Perfect. See, I don't even know where I'm going to go with this now, because they just pretty much answered. They answered exactly the way I was hoping they were going to answer.

Yes, they did. And that just completely kills the fact... I can't even go into... I saw a Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute band like a year ago, and they were playing a modeling thing going direct to the PA. Yeah, that's... And it just... Okay, just because you're playing the chords and in the right key doesn't mean you sound like Lynyrd Skynyrd.

And I mean, it sounded like... I mean, it could have been three keyboards up there. Yeah. For all I know.

You got to have that sound. You got to have that tube. You got to push some air.

Yeah. Yeah, that modeling stuff. I don't know.

Because, I mean, it's Southern rock, right? It's not straight rock and roll, really. It's Southern rock. So you got to have a little bit of twang.

Twang, yeah, exactly. That's where it's at. If you can slap in the neck of the guitar, you got to hear the twang.

Yeah. Absolutely. It's not going to sing if it don't have the twang.

Yeah. You hauling a Hammond around with you? No, no. I've got a nice Leslie simulator I use.

Okay. Sounds on my Nord Electro 6. Okay. So I alternate and split it for piano organ.

Wow, yeah, yeah. That's good. It works well.

It sounds great. It's got a white baby grand shell. Yeah.

So it looks like the Billy Paul thing going on. Oh, that's good. Yeah, yeah.

Without the curly long... Funny story with the shell. Stan sends me two pictures, a red one and a white one. And he goes, which one do you like? And he goes, well, I like the red one.

And I go, well, Stan, Billy Powell played a white one. He goes, oh. I said, so what'd you end up doing? Both.

Why not? It's a Polish flag. That's right. It is.

I just rehearsed last night a place in Aurora called Gremlin Studios. And we walked in. They have a Hammond P3 there.

It was amazing. One with my own naked eyes. It was pretty cool to see that.

The electrical outlet was behind it. And we couldn't get to it. It was that heavy.

Yeah, it was that heavy. And it was sitting on carpet. So it's not like it moved.

And I was like, you know what? I'm not going to be the one to break this. So we're just going to find an extension cord, not behind the Hammond. Back in high school, I played with a keyboard player that he had the B3 organ cut in half.

Cut just the top. But he had the Leslie. We had to move that around.

Oh, my God. Yeah. They didn't have motion sound and all this other stuff that you wanted a Leslie.

You got to bring... Right, right, right. Well, you know, the sad thing about it is there's not a lot of them left. And the ones that are left are all cut in half.

Right. Yeah. So now what do you do with it? Well, that motion sound does a pretty good job of replicating.

Yeah, it must have been. So do you guys dress up like them? I mean, how much of a tribute band are you? Because there's tribute bands that are like, hey, we don't look like them. We don't sound like them.

We play the music the way we want to play it. And we're done with that. Or are you the complete opposite end? You look like them.

You dress like them. You sound like them. We sound like them.

OK. We have our own look. I mean, it's not like, you know, we're out there with shorts and a T-shirt.

Yeah, Rob does that. Nobody sees me anyway. Right.

But he sees everybody else. You know, I mean, it's not. We dress accordingly.

I mean, if you see our videos, you'll see that we have the clothing. Right. Because we said that a long time ago.

Nobody in the band looks like anybody from Skinner. So let's just get the music right. Which we did.

Yeah. And which Skinner era do you want to see? I just saw Skinner this past summer at Ravinia. I was there too.

Were you there? He's top. And it's yeah. Yeah, it's there's nobody.

No original members there. I'm trying to think of the one guy that's been with him the longest. The guitar player.

Ricky. Ricky. Yeah.

Yeah. Ricky Medlock. Medlock was there.

But I didn't recognize anybody else on stage. Yeah. But the music was still good, though.

Yeah. Best gig you guys have played. Oh, I'm sorry.

You know that. He's a drummer. I voluntarily asked the drummer.

OK. You know that that LaPorte, Indiana show, right? Yeah. I think that was the best.

Arts in the Park in LaPorte, Indiana. That was the best we've had so far. Yeah.

I think we had over 2000. Was it that many? There were quite a few people out there. That is fun.

I played that show before. That is a lot of fun. That's a great idea.

Julia was really great. We really liked working with them. And the sound guy loved the band.

He actually referred us to another agent, which got us another job this coming July. Right. Nice.

As far as venue and sound and everything, though, goes, I think that's probably one of the tops. And then the Arcada show a couple of weeks ago was pretty awesome. You know, I've gone to Arcada, like, I don't know for how many years.

I've seen so many bands. I was at Arcada before Ron Onesti remodeled years and years ago. And I've always wanted to play Arcada.

And the chance came to play. And we started loading in. And I'm just standing there on that stage, looking at that empty seats.

And I was like, we finally made it. I think we've done it a few times. I think, you know, I don't work for Ron.

The podcast is looking for sponsors. I was going to say, we did do a podcast with Ron a while ago. That's right.

He should be sponsoring us. Ron was a great guy. The staff was awesome.

The sound guy, Eric, we just did a phenomenal. We just recently got a hold of the video. Stan got an email from Rich through Dropbox.

And I watched the whole thing today. And it's pretty good. I think you guys will be happy when you see it all.

We'll send it our way. We're waiting. I just got it today.

So what's the story you guys can't stop telling? There's got to be a story, something. Oh, there's that one time. That's the bass player's job.

He's good at telling the story. We miss you, Johnny. Did it involve him? Oh God, everything involves him.

The best story I can come up with is with Mitch. Mitch is like, he made Freebird .20. Every time someone left the band, Mitch goes, well, I know a guy. And he comes in and it's the perfect fit.

He got Kevin first. Then he got. And then when Chris moved to Manitowoc, he got Johnny.

And it's the perfect match because those guys have known each other for 30 years. I mean, Johnny's told me, I saw Kevin born. That's kind of creepy.

Not in a hot tub, I hope. So, I mean, it really brings a sense of camaraderie. Three quarters of the band have been together for 30 years.

Yeah. And it seems like you guys like hanging out when you're not. Oh, we have so much fun at practice.

We're like, hey, let's stop the jokes. What is in practice? What's that? We're here to rehearse. We're telling jokes.

We're drinking beer. We're here to practice. Maybe we're doing podcasts.

Well, we're already good at drinking beer. No, seriously, though, I have to thank Mitch because, you know, he he just brought the perfect people in. Good.

Just and this lineup is I couldn't I couldn't be happier. Do you think, you know, playing this kind of music? I mean, I haven't seen you guys. I would like to get out to see you guys if I ever have a night off myself.

But do you think this music is kind of reaching out and speaking to a younger generation of people nowadays? Yes. Oh, yeah. Oh, good.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we played the when we played the Roxy. Yeah, yeah.

There were there was a group of two groups, for sure, of younger kids that were calling out songs. And then when we were finished, I went off stage and I was talking to another couple of guys, early 20s, and they're asking, well, are you guys going to do every mother son? I'm like, I can't believe you guys know. Yeah, right.

You know, I mean, seriously, where do you guys get that kind of stuff? But but yeah, I think I think the younger generation is is latching on to some of the older stuff, because everything today is so cookie cutter. And yeah, you know, it's on YouTube for 10 minutes and it's gone. I mean, how how and alas, that doesn't have the enduring factors that, you know, all the rock bands came up in the 60s and 70s.

Of course. Right. It just doesn't.

Yeah. Nobody's going to remember remember. Right.

You know, nobody's going to care about that. Right. Hopefully.

Well, maybe later. And I remember that. So it's nice to see, though, that some of the younger kids are latching on to it.

Yeah. There's another cool story, too. We were we did Willow Fest and we were done with our set and a guy comes up.

Mitch and I were in the back. We were having a beer, having pizza. And the guy comes up with our set list.

He goes, well, yeah, we'll sign it. He goes, you know, I'm a metal guy. I love Metallica and all that heavy stuff.

And I saw you guys on the bill. And I was Leonard Skinner. Yeah.

He says, after seeing you guys, you've made me Leonard Skinner fans. This music's amazing. Remember that? Yeah.

I was like, wow, this guy's a metal guy. And we turned him on to Skinner. Well, you know what I always find funny? And I don't get into the conversation every time because I don't have this much patience and time.

But that's a prime example. Somebody comes up and says, you know, I hate it, Skinner. And I can't stand it.

I'm a Metallica fan. Absolutely love Metallica. There's about Leonard Skinner.

I liked until I met you guys. Well, the funny thing is you were a Skinner fan. You didn't know it because just because they added more distortion to their guitars doesn't mean that it's not the same kind of music.

It really is. In fact, you could probably play a lot of Metallica songs in the style of Leonard Skinner and vice versa. The chord progressions are all freaking the same and everything.

It's not that difficult. And the funny thing is I just literally saw you were talking about Zach Wild. Everybody knows him from playing with Ozzy and Black Label Society and everything.

Go on to YouTube and just search for young Zach Wild when he was like six years old. He was playing in the parking lot of a True Value hardware store with a three-piece band with that Southern flag Les Paul. And he talked about how, yeah, he can play all kinds of music.

But his favorite kind of music is Southern rock. And when you listen to Zach Wild play Southern rock, it is unbelievable. It really is.

Man, he made his money and got his fame by playing with Ozzy. But you can tell that's not his heart. It really isn't.

Man, he can play. God, I heard a live version of him playing Mississippi Queen. Played the shit out of that guitar on that song.

Holy crap. Was that when he was playing the acoustic guitar? No, no. He was very young.

I mean, he looked like he must have just gotten a driver's license. Really. Yeah, he was very young.

And Pride and Glory, that's all pretty much Southern rock. Yeah, Pride and Glory. You've heard that.

Pride and Glory, that's a whole Southern rock band. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

There's a great video of him with Les Paul at the hitting room in New York. I've seen that, yeah. I've seen that.

Yeah, yeah. Guys like him have always been my favorite guitar players. Zach Wilde slash rock guitar players that always have one foot in the blues, a little bit in the country kind of thing.

I've never, ever tried to play like Eric Johnson. I couldn't do it if I started. I couldn't do it if somebody held a gun to my head.

Because I wouldn't even know where to start. Right, right, right. Well, that's the beauty of it.

You get a Strat in Rory Gallagher's hands. Yeah. Steve Vai's hands.

Stevie Ray Vaughan's hands. Jimi Hendrix's hands. It's the same guitar.

Right. But they're completely different. They're not even close to each other.

Right, right. Absolutely. That's the beauty about music and guitars, I guess.

So where can people find you guys or see you guys live? What do you got? You got any gigs coming up in about the next two to three weeks? Yeah, our next show is Old Republic. 15th, yeah. March 15th.

Then we're at the Broken Ore, April 13th. And we're actually, we're opening for Molly Hatch at April 19th at Lincoln Square Theater in Decatur. Oh, wow.

Oh, really? What day is that? April 19th. I believe the day before Easter. Yeah, okay.

April 19th? Yeah, April 19th is what it is, yeah. Not to bring up anything dark, but didn't Molly Hatch band member? An original band member not too long ago? Well, they're all gone. I was going to say, they are all gone.

Yeah, yeah. There are no original members left now, as far as I know. I fought one original member, though.

Maybe he wasn't with the band anymore, and he just passed away. Oh, very possible. I thought there was one person in there that was still working.

No. No? No. Yeah, I think they've all been gone for a while, too.

Yeah. Gary was the last one in Skinner. He left us in March.

Right, right. Yeah. Right.

Yeah. Then Billy Powell passed on my birthday. Wow.

That's, man, I'm going to have to check that out and see if I can get out and see that. I'd like to see these guys. I'd like to see Molly Hatchet.

I've seen Molly Hatchet before. Have you? Yeah. Yeah, excellent.

What about website and everything like that? Who's got all that under control for you? I'm the admin for that. You can get us at freebirdrocks.com. Okay. That's a Y, and the bird instead of I. And the bird, freebirdrocks.

When the guy designed the logo, he had the I. And I go, you know, that looks great. I love that. But just change the I to a Y so it's got the Skinner spelling with all the Ys.

Right, right, right. That's what we did. Oh.

And then we're on Facebook. Same thing, facebook.com forward slash freebirdrocks.com. We've got a YouTube page. You can get to the YouTube page through Facebook.

There's a link on there. There's a link on our website, too, for YouTube. We're on Instagram.

I want to get on X, but I haven't had time to do that. But eventually we'll be on X. All right. Wherever you can get us.

Exactly, exactly. All righty. All righty, guys.

Thanks for coming out. This was a lot of fun. Thanks for having us.

Appreciate it. We'll see you guys out soon. Well, yeah.

We'll be at the Historical Museum across the street in September. Oh, yeah. Number 26.

On the roof. Yeah. On the roof.

On the roof. That roof rocks. Yep.

No, they treated us really good over there. So we're really happy to go back there. Yeah.

Hopefully this time we get to play on the roof. Yeah. It rained.

It rained out. That's the night. The tornado.

It was the night of the tornado. Yeah, that's right. You guys got hit.

I was really sad. It was their fault. It was their fault.

I've never had a tornado in Gillette before. Until Free Bird with a Y came out. It was the Y that did it.

All righty, guys. Thanks a lot. All right.

Thank you, guys. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Well, there you have it. Free by RD. Free by RD.

That was Free Bird. It was. Yeah.

Hey, you know, fun guys, man. They hung out a little bit afterwards here. We talked a little bit.

Yeah. They're, you know, they are all, God, they're all professionals. They don't do a lot of stuff.

You can tell. Yeah, they do. They've been around a lot.

Yeah, they do. It's a nice and great group of guys. They love what they do.

They love them. They all like the music. Yeah.

They're not doing, you know, have a job. Right. They're doing it because they like the music.

They love the music. Yeah, absolutely. So that makes a big deal, man.

If you don't like the music, you're not going to want to play it. Or if you do, you're not going to play it well. Right.

Right. So go out and see them. As always, we say, go out and see them.

Always. Definitely see all our guests from the podcast. And stay for another exciting episode of the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast.

See you. The Rock and Roll Chicago podcast is edited by Paul Martin. Theme song courtesy of MNR 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. The Rock and Roll Chicago podcast is produced by MNR Rush.