Ep 245 Dave Rudolf 

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 under the bridge Mike under the bridge Mike What were you doing under the bridge snaring rats? Oh, yeah. I mean, that's what you do. 

Yeah, and what do you do with the rats? I don't know. No Let him go again. Yeah. 

No, I lived I lived in this area for 30 years and for 30 years I swear, I didn't think these bridges were operational and within the past month I've been stopped by bridges more times than I have in 30 years Nash bridges are just the bridges themselves the bridges of Joliet Oh, yeah. Wow, the bridges of the bridges of Madison County. I thought maybe it was like Lloyd bridges or something It's a waving you down. 

It's a bridge over the waters. Yeah, it is. Yeah, cuz he's dead. 

Yeah Yeah, that is that's it. He's dead. But yeah, we're cool. 

So we're demented We are demented who we have in the studio, right we've got Dave Rudolph gene joining us this evening I feel like Sally Field. They do love me And again brings a whole group of guys There was one girl in the one girl in there every once in a while Somebody's gonna somebody's gonna show up with a bunch of girls one day. They might be great. 

Have you seen my face? There's a reason for it Well, that's why we're not videotaping. That's right because we all have faces for real. That's right. 

Yeah, Dave. How you doing, man? I'm doing great. Thanks for coming in. 

Thanks for having me. Yeah, so You know a little bit about this music industry and stuff that's going on in the area Little bit yeah over 50 years full-time Wow Wow you originally from this area Bradley, Illinois grew up in and then I live in Park Forest and still live there now. Okay. 

Yeah. Excellent. Excellent So for we have a lot of young listeners from around the world. 

So The first thing I would like to ask you to do is just introduce yourself and tell everybody who you are and how you got Into this crazy business. Oh, well, my name is Dave Rudolph. You can check should I do the check? YouTube or check my website. 

They've already they've already done it I mean young people nowadays Google, but they gotta get the right spelling because everybody smells at LPH It's I'm not pH balance. It's are you do a lot? Yeah. Yeah, but yeah, I've got all that stuff But I've been doing it for a long time. 

I have a weird career because I've done a bunch of different stuff musically, right? right, which we can talk about later and stuff and Used to tour the college circuits. I still play out there It's I try to keep busy and and create a lot of creating So right early on in your career, was it was it a solo mission all by yourself? Or did you have a band what were your aspirations as a young man? When I first started out for about the first year I was a band and then I got out of that pretty quick And then when I started touring the college markets and stuff and but even prior to that I did a solo Because when you're on the road, it gets expensive Band, you know, and I made a lot more money in the college market than I would in a you know bar, right? Right. So I've done that for pretty much. 

I still I'll play with the band occasionally, but you know depends on if they pay me Benjamin that's right. That's right. Pretty pretty much and about what year or time frame was that? What I started when you were playing the college market and doing all I put my blue cheese from about 75 to into 2010s 2012 and then you know, I kind of aged out of it and also in 2008 you had the financial thing and so all of the Discretionary money went away in the colleges, right? So I kind of changed that but for for a long time I had a booking agency That booked I owned a booking agency that booked other acts in the college market, too Okay, all right, you know that market I think it's it's changed a lot over the years because the time that you're talking about I mean it was essential if you were trying to make it in the music business or whatever You had to hit the college market. 

That's it was almost kind of like a vaudeville in a way. Yeah. Well, you know Essentially In most cases doing bars. 

There's nothing wrong with that I'm not demeaning playing bars, but it's not career building It's unless somebody happens to stumble upon you, but it's not a career building thing you have to play other venues and you know, I did the theaters and the colleges and and That kind of stuff because that will help build your career. So that's kind of the path I took I kind of analyzed the stuff and figured out what I needed to do So when you're talking about you play the college market It was more on a theater level than going to you know to Champaign, Illinois I'm playing all the hole in the walls down there and stuff like no I would do like they the college would hire me and then I played the College Union or I didn't do that really well rarely I did the big theaters, but it was more the You know like the unions and a small concert thing coffee houses and stuff like that And I was the idiot. I looked around I first went to the conventions and they the girls, you know, because you're hired by The students not the activity directors you in general and so the girls would see these really dreamy looking guys And they go we gotta hire them and I go I'm not getting any of those You saw my face, you know why So I did the funny stuff. 

I did you know parodies and the goofy I wrote a bunch of funny songs and then I would do some other stuff. But then you know, I saw my lane I took it did the off-ramp You know the the college circuit when I was up-and-coming, I mean I'd seen I saw REM I think at University of Illinois, but I but I didn't see REM at an amphitheater No in Champaign, they were playing the local bars, you know, I saw REO Speedwagon in Bloomington, you know one time like that Yeah, it wasn't a big theater It was a large bar that could that could hold them but it wasn't a you know an amphitheater or anything like that You know then I went to NACA's a lot which were National Association campus activities and stuff and I Did well in that thing and you would find bands that are either on their way up or on their way down So you would have people I saw police in their first tour doing America and they were playing these little dive holes in the bars at that live at the colleges that hire them for frat parties or whatever and then you would see people On the way down like Orleans, you know, they had the kids but they weren't in the 90s anymore. They weren't particularly relevant They were still great. 

But right, you know, so you would see the kind of Ebb and flow of the groups. Yeah. Yeah and colleges had their you know more colleges I should say had their own radio stations back then as well and that kind of a lot. 

Yes Yeah, because that's almost kind of a dying thing. Mm-hmm now is as well Because of the Internet yes, you're absolutely correct Yeah It's harder as a musician to make money off of product now, too Because everything is streaming CDs are pretty much gone all of that kind of stuff CDs They're still around and vinyl is a very niche market, you know, so and it's vinyls are expensive to produce only from a Artist standpoint, so I still stupidly do CDs, but I you know, I sell some stuff But you don't you what you make 0.003 cents per play and you don't even get all and you don't get no You don't right and even if you sell a song on Apple for 99 cents, you still get that 0.003. Yeah Yeah, well, no you get the you get a percentage. It's more like 59 cents or something. 

There's a 99 cents. Yeah, because the one is streaming play The other is product so you sell that but it's still not, you know, yeah particular much Albums cost money to make. Oh, yeah. 

Yeah. Oh, there's a glut now and people making vinyl So the companies that are pressing the vinyl they they're behind schedule. They don't you know, they'll tell you you're you're out on your Yeah, yeah, but that is a limited market. 

That's kind of overblown The thing it's coming back, but CD still I'll sell vinyl, right? so CDs were going down every year and I think last year they actually went up a little bit I just wish I still had my 8-tracks You know You have to wait three seconds to hear the rest of the song Yeah, interrupt the song right? I can see Ray cruising down the street a track player, you know Mm-hmm That was probably still the most popular a track Yeah, that's that's that's it's pretty crazy so back then, you know it and I think you can see where I'm going with this It's like somebody that has your experience in the whole bit. We've got a lot of young people listening We're just talking about how things are changed a little bit But you know back when you first started and you were on that circuit you were starting to get recognition and everything How are you making your money? Was it from the sale of the of the albums was it was it performances? I mean, I make decent money from it You know the thing about album sales back then or even somewhat now is the venue you play if you're at a theater or if you're at a really classy thing people will tend to buy more stuff because they think You're their image of there's so much of everything is how people perceive things they just study once with perfume and they put them in each ends of a of a cabinet same amount of Eight ounces whatever same name They wrapped one really expensive and wrapped one really cheap and the expensive one even though it's twice as much sold more twice Outsold the other one. So people tend to perceive things. 

So if they see that act and you act like oh That that's a really Professional act he's up there on thing. I used to talk to colleges about that all the time I'd say it's how you present stuff you go up and you start telling this guy has done this he's done that he's done this before you even start on stage because you Helped do it because otherwise, you know, I play college cafeterias and what the heck you doing up there. I'm trying to eat And I never like playing place where they are no one's stopping you I don't like when they arm them with food It's not a good scenario. 

Yeah. No, but but that's exactly right You could play the Arcada Theatre and people are paying $25 to get a ticket to go out and see you and then if they just waited two more weeks They could find you down the street at champs for free That's kind of the way it goes sometimes yeah, yeah, you never know So you so you hit the college circuit in the whole bit and you and you went through there What came next after the college circuit? Well, I still did it for a long time, but I evolved what I did too Mm-hmm. I started having children of my own and I realized I was aging somewhat out of you know, I'm 75 now I don't look at day over 90 though But you know when I hit about 50 I said, you know and I started having kids over 40 I think I had my kid first kid at 40, but I started doing kids stuff, too I started writing for Disney have gold records and Grammys with Disney Because and I started doing I looked around and there's nobody doing a really very good kids shows. 

They were all that. I love Barney Yeah, or you know, they played down to kids So I was doing kid stuff for the four to about 11 year old and all my stuff was interactive So we'd have a beach party and it'd be limbo sticks and hula hoops and bubble machines and I wrote a couple kids album I've got ten kids albums amongst my kids things and uh And but I wrote stuff like aunt Sarah's got a booger and I don't like playing with Tommy And so I had a lot of humor in there and it was and they were like, I know both of those people It was what it wasn't that kind of folky production on stuff So it had more of a productive side. So the parents didn't mind listen to him that to me was always So I was trying to do shows I would throw stuff in my kids shows and I would do colleges with that like Because a lot of the especially the community colleges had a large non-traditional population So I kind of identified that and I went after that. 

So we would do shows for their You know the parents had a comeback school and had kids And they liked it because in a beach party show I would do some Jimmy Buffett and Bob Marley and that kind of stuff So they get it on one level and the other kids and I throw in stuff like I do Neil Young doing kids stuff Right, you know like this old man It's an old man, you know, yeah, so I was an idiot, but I'm a professional idiot I don't tell you but well if you're getting paid to be an idiot, of course, yeah. Yeah. So when What did you work on with Disney and what was that like working with Disney? Oh My career is very weird. 

By the way, I did that. I don't have you know this I did the pilot for the all-new Captain Kangaroo in 1996. I did some on Who was notoriously cheap, but so I did the pilot for that. 

I was a captain, but Disney had seen me for other stuff my first pilot I had done called fun island for kids stuff and they liked the stuff I wrote and so Disney would Disney you'd write with spec on Disney. So when you write for spec they said they send you like a three Paragraph thing and say alright write something for this and we they go and kind of this style or whatever so you'd write a bunch of stuff and then I would make it on the movies like for Georgia the jungle and Was the other ones I had mr. Magoo I had for about four or five movies I had stuff in the very final cut and then The producer would come in and go I'm gonna put one of my own songs on because you know That makes a bunch of money, right? But I had stuff on some of their kids albums I had for songs from a hundred acre woods. I had some a couple cuts on that and some other stuff, too So you would write they would tell you and then they would change their mind. 

It was like chicken little so they go we want to do an album of of like Stuff where it has very much on Irish Phil and I go what okay, I'll do it. So I wrote a bunch of stuff They go. Oh, we've changed our mind. 

We're gonna do it and I go. Okay, I just repurposed and we put them on my kids Oh, yeah. Yeah, and how many how many albums did you do for Disney? Was it was it albums or was it no albums? I'd write songs for okay Gotcha, and then they would either take them or not take them and stuff like that That's the same way when I I've written for Magicians and I've written those are different because you have to write for specific time Structures, right and they say I need to hit at one point one minute and 15 minutes a sound cue in there so that The person inside the box will know that what it is and you'd have to write it exactly three minutes and 15 seconds or whatever So it was another challenge But you know, so they would tell you what you want and then you would try to Get right. 

Yeah. Well interesting. Yeah, very. 

Yeah So when you when you wrote songs for Disney Did you ultimately end up being the one that recorded it or did they have their own musicians their own? No, you would do you send them especially since it was a you know Spec thing you would send them stuff. I'd have it moderately produced right like maybe with a drum machine or something like that I'd bring in players so it sounded decent and then you would send it to them and then they would say yeah We want to do it Like for example, one of the songs on song from under a acre hundred acre woods for Winnie the Pooh was The owl song and they did it exactly like I did it they just rerecorded it And I didn't get any credit for producing it But you know, that's the way it goes So they didn't they didn't use your recorded version of it to get brought somebody else and they had somebody else saying it Yeah, and you know You when you play with the big boys there you're under their rules, right and that's fine Right. It was I could use it as a credit. 

That's the way I loved it. Right, right It seems like when you interject Hollywood and stuff into things like that They like singers and they like songwriters, but they don't like singer-songwriters It seems like they want somebody to write it somebody to perform it. Yeah. 

Yeah Well, they want to be able to control everything of it. Yeah. Okay, that's the thing So they want to control I had to sell them half my publishing rights and all that kind of stuff I didn't mind doing that. 

I mean when you're playing with the big boys, you you go in with open eyes, right? And stuff but you know, I wasn't the big guy in the the ballpark So they wanted to bring somebody else in to sing it. Okay, he's not a lot like me. But what are you gonna do? Yeah So it is what it is You have to have your ego kind of squished down a bit You know what? I mean if you're gonna succeed in this business because there's there's some good stuff in it But there's a lot of yeah kick in the balls, right? Oh, yeah, right. 

Yeah. So what gets you what gets you through that? There's there's got to be some frustration that comes along with not being able to have control of a little bit somewhat But it's a matter of how you look at life. That's always the way I've been, you know I always say you know what I'm doing what I really want to do Okay, and maybe it's not as big as I want it to be but you know, I've got a successful career I mean, I've got yeah, I've done a lot of stuff. 

I built my own recording studio I learned to do a bunch of stuff. So sure it would be better to have some bigger success on some of it Would it be better to be known? Yeah, but there's problems with that, too So I I've been able to do what I want. I'm still making records. 

I'm still writing a lot So I'm not gonna complain about stuff. Isn't that amazing? Somebody what we say quite often though somebody who's made their living as a professional musician. They're just not famous Or ultra famous, I know a million of those that's and that's that's what we try to say There's a lot of people out there that are there. 

They're making money. They're raising their families. They're there, you know They're supporting themselves. 

They you know, they have a good career a good living You just may never have heard of them before no or anything like that a lot of great session players Oh, no, it's hard. Even the session players will tell you it's really hard, you know To make the big bucks or even that too, but you know A lot of people don't have a lot of sessions. I kind of known for not being particularly frugal or smart about their money No Bible little too much, you know Yes, that's right I put everything up my nose and which I'm sure he has a song about I Have a bunch of songs. 

Oh, yeah. Yeah, and and it's probably a fair assessment to say that Okay, all the stuff that you've written. We're not talking about stuff. 

That's mainstream, right? You're not gonna be driving down the rate or down the road hearing your stuff on the radio You'd be surprised. Sometimes you will hear my stuff because it's been on on Radio and TV quite a bit and that sometimes in movies I've had a couple songs in movies, right, but you know, they're never the the marquee one You know what? I mean, and I do get ready or airplay here and there right, especially like dr. Demento played a lot of my kids am I completely cracked Christmas but I also Hinder myself because I do so many different things. 

I'll do country. I'll do Kids stuff I'll do rock and roll. I'll do I write all kinds of stuff, right? So excellent. 

Excellent Well, I think what we're gonna do right now is we're gonna take a quick break and we're gonna get the studio set up Cuz we'd love to have you play in the studio. Oh Alrighty we'll be right back. 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 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 Sunday nights just got a whole lot bluesier get ready for the bus stop blues show that takes you deep into the soul of the Blues with classic hits road stories and live jam sessions Hosted by blues man Kevin Purcell and me the one and only road bill the bus stop blues is two hours of non-stop blues banter and badassery check out the bus stop blues podcast at the bus stop blues Calm where you can listen on Spotify I heart Apple podcast or any other major Podcast platform up on board the bus stop blues where the blues never stops rolling And we are back in the studio and we've got Dave Rudolph with no pH remember that There's so much wrong with me So this song is I mentioned I toured the colleges and and a lot of times you go through these towns and they were completely dependent on one industry like a Textile mill or a steel mill and if it closed which a lot of them did in the 80s and 90s You could watch the town when you go through them. 

So subsequent years kind of just fade away So that's what kind of this song is about. It's a serious song. We'll get some of the bizarre tunes for you later. 

Okay? In the church Yes, it's hard to have faith when God seemed to skin and left us to vanish like Well once there was laughter on the streets Now boarded doors keep watching as the dirt Swirls around and the doorbells greet you It was such a slowdown As the folks moved away With no work to speak of stores were left to decay on deserted street corners Where children once stood Town still remembers the dwindling neighborhood Where once there was laughter on the streets of downtown Now boarded doors keep watching as the dirt Swirls around and the doorbells greet you There's still a few stragglers too stubborn to leave They feel that they haven't had sufficient time to grieve It's the end of an era It's the place of their birth It's the whole of their lifetime. Tell me what is that worth? When they're gone Once there was laughter on the streets of downtown Now boarded doors keep watching as the dirt swirls around And the doorbells greet you I'll cover with rust All the memories are faded as the town turns to dust Normally we hit the applause button right there, but no I did no I can't do that. No, we can't do that They will at the town is why nobody left in there. 

There's nobody left Wow, fantastic. It's not a tear on my cheek. I had onions earlier That that struck a chord with me it really did no things I've actually lived through that so it's uh, yeah You see it sounds pretty amazing Yeah The the town that my father was born in is literally listed on the official list of ghost towns What to what town it was called Derry, Louisiana, and it was an old farming community spelled d-e-r-r-y Just uh, I think I've been around just that was it's just outside of Natchitoches. 

Yes I know what's kind of funny. I always gets messed up with Natchitoches and Natchitoches or Natchitoches. Yeah, cuz I toured all around there there too because they're spelled the same It's it's actually Natchitoches, but you know how people from Louisiana always change. 

Yeah, it's Natchitoches. Yeah In Bradley, Illinois and for a month the entire part of my youth it was called Bourbon a right. I mean burr bonus, but now it's called bourbon a bourbon gotten classy now So I know what you're talking about, yeah Louisiana I remember playing down there at LSU Shreveport They said we're gonna take you out to the best Mexican restaurant you I mean the best Chinese restaurant you ever been to look We're in Louisiana. 

You're gonna take me Everybody including the servers and the cooks were Mexican Yeah, I think you guys need your better smack-dab in the center of Creole cuisine, yes, you could have eaten way better than You experience a lot of stuff before us know the Northerners do like Popeyes, oh, yeah Canes and hurricanes Yeah, yeah, and and y'all But I love y'all. It's not if there's more than two. It's not y'all. 

It's all y'all. It's all y'all. That's right That's right. 

Actually it or y'all's is it does become y'all's is sometimes Yeah, I actually have a one of my songs is is all Texas colloquialism. It's like well butter my butt and call me a biscuit That's great, yeah the porch lights on but nobody's home. Yeah. 

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 

No, that's a Country, and it's so funny that that you know about it because most people don't know I mean, no, no people have heard of Natchitoches and I think you know Natchitoches was put on the map because of the movie still Magnolias. That's yeah I mean that whole movie was filmed there and Natchitoches, you know, what's the college in that time? I played that town. Um, there isn't there is a there is an LSU there, but or The technical school I believe is Yeah, something something like that But yeah That whole that whole city or town or farming community of dairy Buildings that are left standing there, but it's it's empty It's like a ghost the house that my father was born in is still there though I mean, but to get to it you have to trek through jungle and we're what once was a red gravel road. 

So But you know and what's funny about the air that area for music as well is it's far enough away from New Orleans Where it's not just about Zydeco and it's not just about jazz and blues No, they get absolutely everything and and I went back gosh I'm going back probably about 25 years ago for my grandmother's like 90th birthday and and You know, this song comes on the radio now this was this was early 2000s 2001 maybe 2002 and This song comes on the DJ puts this song on and I hear all of my cousins saying boy This is a brand new song. I love this song I ever since I started hearing this song on the radio and They were talking about something from rum DNC from like the mid-90s and it's like they're just they're just now hearing it They're just now getting it like six seven years later. It's like wow, that's pretty crazy. 

Yeah This is new to them but I love to see in the stuff that around the country different parts both the cuisine and and the people and the and the thing like one of the songs on my Bubba Christmas album is Cajun Christmas Oh nice and in Cajun Christmas, if you look at their Cajun the Cajun Christmas are different They have a guy who comes on a skiff. Yep Well, no, and he dry he delivers a presence quite a pull by alligators all by alligators, but yeah, I've got this book. Yeah It's the Cajun night before Christmas it's done in his Idaho thing So yeah, and the whole book is written in that in that dialect Okay So it's so it's like the the children all nestled all snung on the flow and they slide a plate of food under the crack to the dough It's the whole thing it's it's hilarious. 

Yeah. So what album was that song? I've referred to all the song he just played. What was it called as the town turns to dust? It's on as the town turns to dust. 

It's in 2019 the title out the title of the album. Yeah But I tend to put a lot of songs on my album I'll ask one had 18 songs 17 original Wow, the new one's gonna have 17s. There it is that one Yeah, well nice and that's actually the picture on there is Cairo, Illinois. 

Oh, no kidding. Yeah, don't you say Cairo? Yeah, that's where you're at Yeah, yeah Well, very nice Cairo Cairo Cairo Cairo, whatever it is has a really interesting history, too if you bother to look at it, you know, there's a lot of the civil Rights with the riots and the african-american stuff back in there, too. Yeah. 

Yeah I've read I I had to actually I took a class in college where we studied Everything that happened there because what what actually happened in that town was an example of what happened everywhere around the country All in one spot. Yep. You know, it was different in the south. 

It was different in the north It was different in the West, but they're in Cairo, Illinois. Mm-hmm. Yeah a little bit of everything right there. 

Boom It was yeah, it was crazy There's a there's a show on Netflix or something like that now to where they actually film the show in that town And I think that the show is called something like I'm not okay with this or something like that Oh, yeah. Well, you know the when they did the Watchmen series went back. Oh, no, it was the one with Journey small ed and some stuff. 

It was based on a thing. They went to Cairo and they featured a lot of that stuff Oh, you're talking about HP Lovecraft. Yeah. 

Yeah. Well, yeah Dom I actually knew a little bit about that because where I thought maybe I'd seen you before is there used to be a place in Lockport called the studio and People described it as the Bluebird Cafe of the Midwest is a great little place that closed down about a year ago Yeah, that was one of their locations as well We've been there where we cleared everything out. So the crews can go in there. 

Yeah. No, I never played there. I Booked a bunch of listening rooms over the years and I tried to keep all music alive. 

You don't make any money doing that I'm just doing as a fee a thing of love. We just closed Edgar's place recently It was in Park Forest, right? but you know what one of the reasons I love places like this Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and I Highly recommend it and I've been to your big daddy to the one in Cleveland All right, you get to learn a lot about a lot about the history of the music to where music comes how it influences other people and that just fascinates me and so Just it's amazing to me. I love that. 

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely, man. 

You've done a lot of songwriting. I mean When do you find time? But you know what? It's like anything else. I you know people say oh you write so much. 

It's so great and stuff How do you do it? But it's a muscle. It's like anything else you do, you know When you regular people who go to work every day, I could say the same thing about mechanics How do you know where to look in your car? right, you know for the stuff because you have muscle memory you learn you learn to sit down and that's Discipline yourself to write and I learned a bunch of stuff and over the years I keep at it Because not everything you're right. It's gonna be great. 

But you know And then as a lyricist I always try to be influenced by like Talent turns unless you influence by what you see right and stuff, right, right some of this autobiographical some of it Do you sit down? I mean do you write every day? First of all, do you know no, but I'll write I'll say well like this Like I just put out an album in April April 3rd And I've already got all of the new album written and recorded already. So I'll sit down I go I'm gonna write and then I'll write the songs I'll say I want to do this kind of song. I want to do that kind of song So I'll say a big but we were talking about the Tom About Dave Bowie before because his great line was if you as an artist You should go to the part of the pool where you can barely touch the bottom because that's where the most interesting things get done Yeah, so I push myself to do things that I don't necessarily know how to do Way back when I did some commercial jingles to learn how to do them. 

I Learn I do Cajun stuff. I'll learn how to do a Cajun write a Cajun song I'll learn how to write a bossa nova song. And so you have to learn the chord structures You have to learn that so you force yourself to do it and that makes you a better writer to write, right? Right. 

So when you do sit down to write, I guess what's your philosophy? Do you sit down and say okay? from 10 to noon I'm gonna sit down and I'm gonna write. No, I just Block out times what I'm gonna do it and then I said, okay, let's write some stuff And then sometimes I'll have the idea of people always ask what it comes first the music or lyrics. It's really depends Sometimes you'll have an idea I could do a song later on that just came as a Phrase I wrote the whole song based on the phrase. 

I thought it was a cool phrase, right? It's kind of humorous but but then sometimes you'll get a riff in going in your head or you'll get a Chord structure that you really like and then you build the song around that and try to fit the lyrics to fit the The way the mood you're going if you're going rock and roll, you know, you don't necessarily want to have You know some of the best rock and roll songs in the world have the worst lyrics So you don't you don't you don't want to do Dylan esque lyrics to a wild thing. Yeah That's what I did my point is the wild thing is just stupid and it's is primitive but it's Perfect, but it is exactly what it is. Yeah. 

Yeah. So if nothing comes to you within like 10-15 minutes. Do you keep at it? Yeah, I'll say for a while. 

Yeah, you'll stay there for a little while Okay, yeah, but I usually can sit down and write something whenever I want to know. Yeah, I mean it's 50 The muscle memory. Yeah. 

Yeah. Yeah, you've been doing it you practice. Like I said, it may not be good, but all right it I don't care. 

I'll inflict anything on people. Do you always do you always finish the song regardless of how you feel about it? No, no, no, and sometimes I'll get stuck in something. I'll leave it alone That's why I tell when I run writing workshops I tell people don't get overly stuck on stuff when you're recording when you're writing everything you can come back to it later Right because you'll drive yourself nuts and then you don't get anything done because you'll spend two hours Just trying to get that right word, right or you know, get that right sound you want just leave it alone You come back to it with fresh eyes and or you have have someone else Come in and maybe do a guitar part or something like that. 

You're in the studio. So I have no ego about that stuff No, good. Yeah. 

Yeah. Yeah. Well, you've seen my face. 

I can't Yeah, so what do you find easier to write it is it is it easier to write like the parody stuff or no No, you don't see I always thought it was because it's like if I get blocked I can just throw the word fuck in or something like that That's the easy way out that's like comedians and I know a lot of comedians I've headlined comedy clubs Do you have some of their like Adam Sandler? I mean he can write a song every day because listen how goofy they are But they're hilarious. Yeah No so What was the original question? Oh, what's easier? Yeah, what's wrong? Yeah, so Especially if you're well, there's all kinds of different comedy there's parodies, right? and there's different kinds of parodies parodies like weird Al where you take a song and you try to make it close to What it is then it's funnier. Okay Or you can divorce it completely or you can turn the script and put different words into an art existent melody so like I do I Do one of my Christmas ones that I wrote, you know, your child was born in a manger Virgin Mary To you Joseph was a sexual stranger Virgin Mary So that is so secular we're going to hell now Whoever Hold the handbasket for the next I went to a seminary for a year. 

Then I found out celibacy was part of the thing Yeah done with that, but so but there's all the different kinds of parodies then there's The songs that and the hardest songs to write are funny songs that are on their own. Yep. That's not relying on Being funny because they're a parody of something So, you know hence more like the Adam Sandler stuff or writes about gum on his shoe or yeah puppies Yeah, that's all right, right Puppies aren't much fun Yeah So there was oh, you know, who's great on that from the sick highly recommend if you don't ever heard him is Tom Lehrer from the 60s Okay, he wrote poisoning pigeons in the park And the masochism tango and Be prepared. 

That's the boy sides columns Solomon Creed be prepared be clean and word indeed don't solicit for your sister. That's not nice Percentage of our price. Oh He was a math professor's in the 60s and he put only about three albums up, but they were great Poisoning pigeon. 

He was a great master Lyricist his wordplay was unbelievable. I highly recommend listening to him. Well, what's your favorite to play or perform or write? What's your favorite? I like them all. 

I like to be able to do a lot of stuff, too Okay, you know sometimes I feel like doing like that serious song like you do a finger-picking then sometimes I just prefer to do a rock and roll song awesome or do some Just be stupid and funny and right and things right like I can do this song This is kind of what I was gonna say place another one. I mean you were all set to go This you said you got a lot of young people they won't understand this song. Yeah, because it's it's autobiographical and You're getting old When your body starts creaking memories leaking You grow hair and it's disappeared. 

Let's face it. You're old When a Boy Scout tries to help you cross the street When your beer got so big you can't see your feet When you get lucky beats finding your lost keys When gravity becomes your enemy Oh When your body starts creaking You're When you're grunting to tie your shoes and your back goes out more than you When your art card gets renewed, let's face it Black socks with your sandals And your birthday cake costs less than the candles When you're spending twice as long to look just half as good When you're thinking about prunes more than you should They're When your body starts You're getting old When your memories begin When you're grunting to tie your shoes and your back goes up more than you When you hate things cuz they're new Let's face it I Agree yes, well, there's actually more verses by to do when your idea of weightlifting is standing up AARP keeps trying to send me a card and I keep throwing it in the garbage because I refuse that's my way of fighting aging Well, yeah really works. I'm sure it does First got that my art card many years ago. 

I was still touring and that thing and I tried to use it at a Get a hotel and they go. Oh, you're old but not old enough Damn that I just embarrassed myself, but they sent it to me Why do I have it if I can't use it? Yeah Yeah, was there ever a time over the course of your career where you just thought I'm done with this. No, no No, you loved it. 

No, it's it. Yeah. I mean there's times when you get a little disappointed Tough and stuff, but actually I've been darn lucky and I'm a go-getter. 

I know yeah, you know I started my own agency because If you're on if you you learn pretty quick if you're on an agency roster, I was originally blight them I was on blight them which is was a big college market I think they booked REO speedway and all that stuff, but I was on the bottom of their list So I was the last guy they called so I go well nobody's gonna work as hard for you as you do So I went out and made it happen. Yeah, I wrote my own recording studio in the early 90s nice so, you know, you have to do what you have to do and As long as you're willing to work hard and you got a little bit talent then you can you can do it but you can't you can't get distracted or Disappointed you just got to keep going on to it next thing. All right, right Yeah, have you ever taught anybody how to become a musician or anything again? No, I run workshops sometimes on writing or on the music business, but I I Everybody has to find their own thing. 

I'm not an expert if I was so bright if I was so darn special I'd be a household name, but I'm not nobody knows who I am. Dave. Yeah, never heard of the guy They'll spell my with a pH and he spells his name all funny Yeah, and you know what no matter what I send to places to do advertising. 

They've got all of this poster They've got my cards. They've got all the stuff with our you do off I'll look at I'll come to a place and they'll say Dave Rudolph. Are you do well? And some of them will have the different spellings within the same Things right? It's very humbling. 

Yeah, it happens. Yes, so Who are your influences then? I mean, I mean you've got you I can honestly say I don't think we've ever interviewed anybody like you Where you've got? Many You know and it's and it's real simple, you know for a guitar player to walk in here and say well Jimi Hendrix or Eric Clapton, but who influenced you who made you want to start dollars a lot of people but I probably the biggest influence I've had it's probably the Beatles because I Was always amazed when they put out an album it changed music every time and they they would experiment with stuff You know and they would invent things in the studio. They're the first ones to do Loops they were the first one to do tapes that Sgt. Pepper was recorded on an eight channels a channel yeah board at that and in for four channel board for You know Norwegian wood and that album that it says it was amazing and they were great writers But they they were never content to stay just doing the same thing over and over and that heavily influenced me But so there's a lot of things but there's I try to listen as much as I can Music as I can and be influenced by that because there's so many great artists. 

Yeah, so much great music So yeah, I think you'd also have to credit. What's his name? I George Martin with that. He was a great little sound He was fantastic. 

I mean, he's the one that got him to use the glockenspiel He also arranged all of the string stuff for yeah, so you like an Eleanor Rigby all that stuff, that's him Yeah, he did all that stuff Raise all Ray asks everybody that comes in here if they know a glockenspiel player. That's why we had that I haven't found a band with locking spiel yet Yeah, it's not a common thing. It's It's my quest I've had glockenspiel on some of my records over the years Wow So that we're getting closer right? Yeah, we're getting on a couple cuts I've had glockenspiel Feel It's a very German thing, you know, I'm German that Rudolph right with an F with an F with an F Thank you for that before the night. 

You'll actually have that. Yeah. So what are you doing more of nowadays? You you're producing you're playing and you're writing. 

What are you still doing that? I'm doing a lot of producing writing I'm still performing. I try to do about four or five shows a month. Okay, that's about what I do mostly libraries these days Libraries Park districts Some small theaters, right, you know Like you can't I can't do the big theaters because I'm not well enough and known to be quite brutally honest But you know like libraries I'll do I just did a kid's show in Seneca a family show and then I'll be doing Let's see Saturday I'm doing hillside library and we're doing a British invasion thing for them with a but through it with a trio Right, but then you know, so and then I'll do some coffee house stuff like that original material doesn't ever pay Well, so right right, but but I've kind of carved out there and I still like to play I like to get up, you know There's you know what immediately came to mind you would be a great candidate to play the Roxy theater in Lockport Have you ever heard of that? Yeah, I've heard of it. 

I've never done it. Yeah, I've played there a couple of times What's great about it? It's it's it's an old movie theater the original movie theater. That was it was in Lockport They gutted it turned it into there's a performance room and there's a bar area that looks like a like a 1920s speakeasy but the theater room itself Isn't much bigger than this right here. 

I love playing. You know, it's about it's about this. It's about this size right here There's a real stage and the whole bit there Right in the heart of downtown Lockport people It's the kind of thing where people go walking by and see all there's something going on here today Who's David Rudolph with an F? I don't know. 

Let's go find out. Yeah, and okay You know what happens is If you're a musician you kind of learn to do it. They're not gonna come in to see original music They'll probably come in to see a British Invasion show or a singer-songwriter show featuring Cassie Evans Paul Simon I can do all that or I do the funny Christmas show Completely correct Christmas because that has some national stuff, but a lot of my friends have played Roxy, bro Yeah, so they're a lot of fun. 

It really is. It's a lot of fun to play there. Thomas Linsk is is great I don't know if you ever seen him. 

No, I haven't seen him. He does he's all of the he He's an incredible keyboard player and he does the Billy Joel thing He's got it's called Mulberry Street. He also play have seen him. 

Yeah deacon blues. He's the keyboard player and singer and deacon blues I mean the dude is yeah, but now I know my albums too But you know, yeah, I'm really lucky with that stuff like my drummer Is Jim with lousy who's in the pits of all of the major productions he does Hamilton and and wicked and all that stuff, but he's like Incredible drummer they comes in and they and the guys I play are so good I learned that early on you get really great players game may cost you a little bit more But they'll save you money because they get it in one take boom. There's there So, yeah, and they always cut me deals So what's next for you? What what needs to happen in 2025 for you to say, you know, I'm successful here I well, you know, I'm the new albums gonna be come out and probably the fall. 

Um, I would like to be able to place More of my stuff. I've had stuff placing some movies and stuff but and to get other artists to do my stuff I mean, I've got a huge catalog. That's the thing. 

I really need to get a better grip on is to try to You know have people push my music out there to other artists or to TV so I've got a couple places doing it, but I have had limited success With that and that's what I like to do. I think when you listen to the records, they're well-produced It's not like they're just me and a guitar And in great great players on them, so That's what I would like to see more of but you know, well, I'll tell you what we when we are When we're done recording we'll have a conversation Offline. Yeah Because it's very special. 

Well because because we're looking for sponsorship. We're not going to talk about them for free Right. I mean, I mean we're not whores but we're musicians and that's close enough. 

That's right Yeah, how can people find you like, you know social media wise Dave Rudolph Dot-com are you Dave my name da be are you do all f calm? I have about 240 videos on my youtube channel which is they've heard of YouTube and that's got divided up into kids stuff and then the Christmas ones and Halloween ones are really popular too. I have a very good To there's not a lot of Halloween albums out there. So no, no there isn't a minor. 

You know Yeah, so interesting and so I got two of them and that they they sold up quite well actually on iTunes and all that stuff and then So you got that and then? Facebook I'm on facebook.com And you know, they'll tell you where I'm playing and that kind of stuff. You can listen to some of the stuff on my Website. I'm also on bandcamp iTunes I'm all over the all over the digital. 

I don't have an Instagram never did or and I don't have X Yeah, I don't either. I don't have those Facebook works. Yeah. 

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you what Before I forget it's been an absolute pleasure talking. 

It's been great. You guys have been fantastic Awesome, you really um, you found us I believe you sent Ray an email. Yeah, because my friend Todd Donnelly, okay from my mr Meyers band. 

Oh, yeah, he's actually been on my album. He's a steel drum player. Yeah He was literally just in the studio a few weeks. 

Yeah When he played and so I said, all right, that sounds like something I would like to do Yeah, I got the name and number and I found you guys. Oh, I'll fold you in the desert I'm so I'm so glad. Yeah. 

Yeah. Well, they choke have concerts here too, don't they? Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely Well, they should have Dave Rudolph then darn it darn it. 

Yeah, why not? Yeah, we'll have to talk about powers We're gonna we're gonna yeah. Well, yeah, and we have any say about that. I have no sway over anything. 

We have swag Yeah, we have sway. I've been married 50 years. I have no sway We got some we got some clout, I mean, he's yeah, he's he's late late enough carpeting and done enough painting in this place What I would like to ask you though is to play us out, okay, I'd like to get another one from you. 

All right This is called the out-of-tune song Drop D. Oh wow. So I mentioned that sometimes you'll get a song just from a Thought or a phrase Hence this song, okay Just let me hear in the dirt skins on the forehead I Screwed it up. I'm just I never make mistakes. 

By the way, people just hear things wrong. Yeah, I'm just a roadkill of love Rejected, scorned and rebuffed I'm just another's enough Roadkill of love So roadkill of love Started the whole song I should have known that It might turn out this way Your heart was littered with poor souls Who you had left on your way I'm just a roadkill of love Rejected, scorned and rebuffed I'm just a roadkill of love My heart just wasn't enough I'm just a roadkill of love I'm just a roadkill of love I'm just a stain on a windshield I'm just a bug on a grill But for the moment you whiff of Now it's a thrill Of love Now that one we can do that That's it Thank you Except I messed up the beginning Well, Roadkill, thanks for coming in. Thank you. 

I feel like that, too. I used to work at the Roadkill Grill. You kill them, we grill them. 

You kill them, we grill them. That's great. Thanks a lot. 

Oh, thanks for having me, guys. Appreciate it. 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.