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 shit hat and hit mic. Oh my god. Please make sure your children are in bed and away from this broadcast. I swear to god, my father-in-law used to say that all the time when he had a bad day. He goes, I feel like I've been shot at and missed and shit at and hit. Well, do tell us about your day. Oh gosh, no, it was just a long day. Working at Trade Show in McCormick Place and battling Chicago traffic. Oh yeah. You know how that goes. At least it's not snowing. And then I got, oh god, don't say that. You know, that word's like beetle juice. You can't say it three times within a minute period. That's right. Then I got stopped by one of our lovely barges that goes down the river. Nice. Here in lovely Joliet. Always good. And of course, still got the KS Bridge here that's up. You know, I was actually the second car in line this time. So I was actually there and close. I got to see the bridge go up and we sat there for 12 minutes. 12 minutes we sat there. Yeah, I don't know if there's any rules about how long boats take. Yeah, I don't know. Trains are supposed to be 15 minutes or something. Yeah, but I mean, they lift the bridges and there's no barge in sight. So I guess they're so close together. Then, you know, the alarm goes off and everybody goes up, right. So we sat there for five minutes waiting for this thing. You know, they talk about slow boat to China. I found it. Nice. Yeah. So anyways, I'm back. You're back. Well, that's great. This is Hollywood Mike. How's everybody doing out there? It's all doom and gloom. Yeah, we're good to see y'all. Right. I feel like I haven't seen you in like a week. About a week. Yeah, about a week back. Yeah, exactly. Back. Yeah. So who we got in the studio tonight? I think you'll like it. It's Dance Monkey. Dance Monkey. Yeah. Just one monkey, though. Just one monkey. That's all we have. We got Mike with us. OK, we got Mike. I'll remember that name. That's a pretty easy one. Dance Monkey Mike, how you doing, man? I'm doing great. How are you guys doing? Oh, we're doing well. I mean, we're doing fine now. I had that opportunity to vent. Yep, that's right. Yeah. Raise my personal psychiatrist. I will send you the invoice. Yeah, that's right. Well, he's my personal psychiatrist. He managed my calendar for me and everything. So if you ever want to find out where I'm playing, call Ray. All right. That's right. Yeah, that's the way it goes. That's the way it goes. So tell us about Dance Monkey. Dance Monkey. All right. I feel like we need to have like a... Well, it's a variety cover band. I mean, it's more of a show band as well where a lot of these guys are just playing songs. And we like to add some factors that some of the original artists have, like some of the theatrics, the lighting, the smoke, all that fun stuff. There's even, we're doing like an Aussie tune, and there's one point where I bite the head off of a monkey. Wow. Not a real monkey. Okay, a fake monkey. Yeah, but I mean... So where do you find a surplus of monkeys that you can bite the head off? Just like mail order monkeys? So my lovely lady over in the studio here, she... Hey, he's standing right there. Don't talk about her that way. She custom made me a monkey. Oh, so she can repair that monkey. It's, yeah, it's something you would possibly find in like Alice Cooper's attic, in like a chest out in the corner. All right, cool. So it's one monkey, and you keep tearing the head off of one monkey. Yeah, I feel terrible for the monkey. I mean, you could, we're just, you know... You can't give away all the secrets. Yeah, okay. It's just one, like a Velcro head on or something like that. Yeah. Let's figure it out. Okay. Yeah, I put her through the wringer. I ask a lot of her to help me with a lot of the stuff I got to get done. Yeah, yeah. So how often does this thing get washed? It gets washed? Never thought about that. You know, come to think of it, some of the stages that that thing's fallen on, and I put it in my mouth a couple of days later or the next day. Yeah, that's pretty gross. Yeah, I think I might go through that in the wash tonight. You don't need to get COVID vaccines if you've bitten the head off of monkeys that have fallen on some of these things. I think you're immune to absolutely everything. Yeah, yeah. So go back to the beginning. Where did the whole thing come from? How many people are in the band? So we are a three-piece, and it started off, I was playing in another band, playing with a band called Sushi Roll. And I left because I figured... I know Sushi Roll. Yeah. Me too. Yeah, I know those guys. Harmony plays with them. She does. Well, yeah, she does. Yeah. I'm actually playing with them in Key West this year for New Year's Eve. Oh, no kidding. But I was playing with them for about six and a half, seven years, and I had the dumb idea, yeah, you know what? Let me slow down on the road and maybe go do a regular job. Right. And not long after doing that, I'm like, eh, you know what? This sucks. Yeah. This getting up early thing is terrible. So I called up a couple people and started putting Dance Monkey together, started getting a song list, and started getting ideas. And I wanted to do something different, but something that people would still kind of be familiar with. So I'm still trying to figure out some new things to throw out there. But I mean, for the most part, I mean, play everything. I'm singing a Cher song at one point. I mean, we go from Cher to Kiss to Ozzy, like I said, and then doing Frankie Valli tunes. And it's everything you could throw on the most mixed up playlist. It's definitely running the gamut. Yeah, right, right, right. So who are the people who are not with us? Are they consistent members all the time? Yeah. So when we started off and we had John Drums, Greg Potter from the Buddy Rich Band, and he just got really busy with the Buddy Rich Band. And we've been having this guy, Dan Hill, play drums for us right now. So have you been putting together your band from, but he's obviously been listening to the podcast, because all the members of the band that he's been in have been on this podcast. Yeah, pretty much. I did my research. Yeah, did you? Okay, all right. Well, that's pretty good. So he's not with you anymore, because of course, yeah, he got busy with the Buddy Rich Band. Yeah, and I mean, that's a priority. That's a legend. Right, right, of course. Are you playing guitar and singing, or how's the lineup working? So I'm playing guitar and singing, and then I'll put the guitar down for some songs. And I'm actually thinking of implementing a piano at one point. Okay. But then we have on bass, Jeff Malice. He was playing, he played, oh man, what's the band? He says it all the time. But he's on bass, and then we've been playing all over. We play a couple shows locally, but we travel quite a bit. We go to Springfield. We got some dates in Michigan next year. We just got back from Frankfurt, Indiana, which was a really cool gig. Iowa, we're going to. And yeah, I mean, just trying to keep busy and share our love of music. Yeah, yeah. So you're either playing these songs, however the heck you feel you need to play these songs, or you're playing to a buttload of tracks. Which one are you doing? A little bit of both. Yeah? I mean, most of the tracking is just like orchestral stuff. Maybe some like sub drops. Just things that, you know, you can't fit a 20 piece in a van. Right, right, right. I mean, you can. It'd just be a little tight. Everybody be sitting on top of each other. Yeah, because I can see you doing some Frankie Valli stuff. That music was pretty well orchestrated. I mean, they had a fantastic songwriter and stuff in the Four Seasons for a while. So there's a lot of stuff that they're doing. Strings, saxophone, all kinds of stuff like that. It's like, I don't see a guitar player, a bass player, and a drummer pulling off a lot of that stuff without having a little bit of help and support. Yeah. Is I guess the point that I was getting at. Yeah, no, we're definitely, I mean, it's pretty industry standard nowadays to use tracks. I mean, there's definitely guys that aren't using them, but we're utilizing it. And then, I mean, I also have it set up, like I program our lighting to everything. So that computer runs pretty much everything. Yeah, yeah. I tell you what, I do like what they're doing with the lighting systems nowadays. I actually have a system that's tuned into our drummer's kick drum. So every time you hear boom, right, the lights are doing some kind of. Oh, that's great. Fancy thing. So even though it's not specifically programmed for the song, pretty darn close is what it is. That's pretty cool. Okay, excellent. Cool, cool. So tell me a little bit more about the set list. What are you guys doing? I mean, it's literally everything. I mean, I'm thinking, trying to think. I've always been terrible with naming the songs on the spot. That's why I did that. We like to put people on the spot. Does it change show to show or is it pretty much the same? I'll try to do like a string of shows with like about the same types of songs, like maybe switch the order up. I try to keep it the same for a string, kind of like if you were on a national tour, for the most part, you're kind of sticking to what you put together. And then I'll try to change it a little bit so that we don't get bored. And so that people who are coming to see us more than once aren't getting bored. Like, oh, I know what's next kind of a deal. And then I try to push us to not get complacent and try to better ourselves as musicians where I'll throw these guys a text. Maybe I'm terrible like a day or two before I'm like, hey, we're going to do this song. And like, it's all intricate or complicated or it's something you got to go over. Yeah, but no, I mean, I'm trying to trying to play all the songs that I grew up with and all the songs that kind of shaped me as an artist and as a musician. So it's kind of all over the board because I grew up in a family where we were listening to like Italian music, Frank Sinatra, and then we would listen like George Thurgood. And then I started making my way into like the heavy metal world where I was, I was actually doing screaming for a while. So that's like the only thing we don't touch, but we do some country tunes. There's everything we do in Luke Bryan, Cher, like I said, Ricky Martin. What else are we doing? Village People. Oh, I sing a little chaperone. Wow. So if you're, if you're doing a show and you notice that people are kind of responding more to the country songs, you know, and will you switch up your, you know, switch up your setlist midstream and maybe throw some. Yeah, I'll, I'll try to cater to, if I don't know the demographic that we're playing to, I'll keep it a mix. And then, yeah, if I see somebody's where people are responding more to one type of a genre or something, then I'll change it up a little bit. I'll still keep the other stuff in there because people tend to, if they hear a lot of stuff they like, then they're a little bit more welcoming to the stuff. They're like, I don't really listen to this often, you know? Right. So what's your preferred genre of music? You're doing so much. What's, what do you prefer? Okay, you're, you're, you're on an island. You got one genre of music to listen to for the rest of your life. Oh man, that's a, that's a tough one. I've been asked that a lot because I go through phases. I go through phases. I went through a phase where I was just listening to jazz for the longest time, but. No phases, no phases. You're on an island. I would have to say rock, like classic rock, like arena rock, that big sound. It's just the energy that comes with it. Too tall, I'm damn low, oh yeah. Is it anyone they see? Is it anyone that I've seen at all? You can't beat it. Yep. Then what made you want to be in a cover band that all of a sudden, I'm going to do all kinds of different stuff? I did the original band world for so long and there was a point where I was like, you know, I want to try something different. Everybody eventually, I mean, even in the cover band world, there's the drama, but everybody's always fighting about, oh, we got to write it this way or we always should be doing this. Oh, why don't we go on tour or whatever? I didn't feel like I was scratching my itch musically because there was a point where I was in like seven bands at one time. I was in a reggae band. I was in a blues band. I was all over the place and I was like, you know what? There's at the time Sushi Roll, they were looking for a guitar player and a singer and I was like, you know what? That's probably the perfect thing. I'm going to touch as much as I can musically and get a little bit of everything in. You're listening to the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. Your 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 nonstop blues, banter, and badassery. Check out the Bus Stop Blues podcast at thebusstopblues.com where you can listen on Spotify, iHeart, Apple Podcasts, or any other major podcast platform. Hop on board the Bus Stop Blues where the blues never stops rolling. 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 roadtorock.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. So, so you were, you were in original bands. Was it just the, was it just the grind or was it, or you didn't enjoy the songwriting? What was it that made you want to make that switch for a little while? I loved doing the writing and just like anybody else, I had my stomps and getting right, like writer's block and all that, but it was just so hard to get people to respond or get them to come to the shows. And it's like, you know, there was a point with one of my bands where towards the end of it, I started noticing some people that were coming to the shows quite often were starting to sing some of the songs that we were writing. I was like, oh, that's cool. That's a cool way to go out. It's gotta be real cool. Yeah. And yeah, I was just, I was ready for a change. And for me, I've always liked playing the covers and trying to put my own little twist on it and trying to, certain things I'll try to like, as a guitar player, I'll try to emulate, or I will try to get like a guitar solo that's like super iconic down as close as I can, but still adding my own little flavor to it. Right. So that someone's not like, oh, well, you know, that's cool. You sound like Slash or something. It's like, yeah, that's cool. But there is a Slash. Yeah. I want to, I don't want to try and touch his coattails. That would never happen. He's actually my favorite guitar player. Oh, he's phenomenal. In my opinion, Slash is one of these guys where you don't quite know it's Slash because he is so versatile. You know, he could play a blues solo. And then the very next song, tap like Eddie Van Halen. Yeah, he is. He's so versatile. It's, you know, and that's why, but he prefers to play bluesier melodic solos. That's why he's my, my favorite guitarist. Yeah. Like when I first heard his album with Miles Kennedy. Oh God. Yeah. I was like, that's Slash. That's Slash. Yeah. Yeah. Or anything from the Snake Pit or anything that he did in his solo career. Like Velvet Revolver. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Cool. It was heavy and it was different, but there's certain moments where you're like, oh, yeah, that's Slash. Everybody's got their own little tell. Right. Right. He's got, he's got a very distinctive sound all of his own, but his style is, is extremely versatile. So, so most of your musical career you've, you've spent in the Chicago area. I mean, you've toured around and you've, you've traveled around and stuff like that. I mean, I know Sushi Roll, they're, they're all over the place. I mean, did you travel all over the place like they are now? Yeah. I mean, I, I traveled with them for almost seven years. Oh, wow. Really? It was that long. Wow. Okay. Okay. Okay. So when, when you were in this more of the original scene playing original music, like where'd you go? I guess when I, I guess what I'm looking at is this is a story that we hear all the time. Um, I, I was in an original band and we were having trouble booking gigs. Nobody was really interested. We couldn't get people to come out to shows yet. Acts are getting discovered every day. So what are those acts doing that maybe you and I aren't doing where original music isn't gaining the interest? Not that it's bad. I mean, let's just, all things being the same, let's just assume the music is good. All on an even keel. Where's the venues? Are we lacking it here in Chicago or, or what, what's the deal with that? So I currently don't have that much knowledge on the original scene. But from what I remember, there was plenty of venues that were having original bands, whether it was like I've drummed in a, uh, original band that we opened up for Drake Bell over in Indiana over there at that place called big shots when that was the thing. And, um, it was just, it was hard. I guess when you're an original band, you just got to find that one thing that draws people in. Like that makes them say, Oh, I gotta go see these guys. Whether it's, I mean, some like an Alice Cooper where they have the theatrics with like the guillotine or the horror thing. And, uh, it's just, you gotta find that, uh, trying to think of the word, what's the word there? Appeal. Appeal. Yeah. I mean, that's the best way I can think to put it right now, but yeah, it was just a, it was a lot of work. And I started seeing a lot of these like tribute bands, like American English or cover bands like seventh heaven. And they're playing all these cool shows to all these people to, with these songs that I love listening to and love playing. And I'm like, I, maybe I'll give that a shot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it is, it is about the music. Yeah. It's about the change, the difference, you know, playing a little bit of everything for everyone. Yeah. I mean, the money don't hurt either. Yeah. That's good. That's good. It pays the bills. What kind of places are you playing? Like, like what kind of stuff do you have coming up soon? A little, it's a little, a little mixed. We have a couple of casino dates that I have in the works right now. On October 31st, which as of today is Friday, we're playing down in Springfield at a bar called Goodfellas with Sushi Roll. Okay. Doing like a double header kind of thing. We're playing, we play the Thirsty Beaver. So like bars, casinos, we played State Fair. We played the Illinois State Fair. Oh, I forgot she was here. I apologize. I've been, I've been up since four 30 in the morning. I worked that day job rough. Yeah. No, I get that. That's like, she's, she's like your rate for me. Oh yeah. Basically we'll play wherever they, wherever they let us play. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I mean, I'll set up in the parking lot and play just to play. Yeah. Right, right, right. Getting back to the original stuff, are you doing any writing on the side or? I've been meaning to, I just, I can't find the time right now. I have the songs. I mean, I'm doing what probably most musicians are nowadays. Something will come to my head. I'm like, Oh, grab my phone and I'll do a voice recording or I'll type it in. And I never ended up getting to it, but I'm actually going to make some time to start writing again. Did you guys record any of the stuff you had before? Yeah, we actually, I lost one of the demos that we had, but I have some of the digital copies from some of the other bands that we did. So it was a possibility of releasing that. Yeah. I mean, some of it got released to a sense, but yeah, I've been thinking about reaching even just reaching out to those members and being like, Hey, you know what? Just for old times, let's rerecord these, mix them up really well and then put them out. Yeah. I mean, it's music. Somebody likes it. Somebody won't like it. Just something to listen to. When did you start or when did you decide, you know, I want to be a musician? Oh man, that was a long time ago. I guess I would have to say probably about when I was like six or seven years old. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. He's a, I remember, uh, and we'll talk about it all the time when my family, uh, one Christmas, I was like, I really want a guitar for Christmas. And I got the old, ah, what are you going to do with that thing? You're going to play with it for a little bit and then you're gonna let it sit in the corner. And then lo and behold, you know, 23, 24 years later, I'm still playing guitar. And now I'm traveling. I get to travel doing it. Right. Is that, is that your main instrument is guitar? Yeah. Guitar. I mean, I dabbled a little bit in a piano drumming bass. I mean, bass is somebody's going to hate me for saying this. It's pretty similar to guitar. I mean, there's definitely different things you got to do, but the idea is same. You got the fretboard and everything. Right. But yeah, definitely a guitar and singing, singing. I actually got pushed into, okay. So we, I did a talent show back in, uh, seventh grade with a band I started putting together and, uh, the bass player, we were covering Fall Out Boy, Sugar. We're going down. He got to the course. He's like, you were, you were in seventh grade when that song was on the radio. Yeah. I feel old. Okay. But he's like, I can't hit the high notes. I'm like, you know, it makes you think I can. I never sang a note in my life. And then from that night I became the singer and then I started working on vocal techniques and there was actually, um, the drummer's dad was in a band and his singer taught me a lot of like breath control. And I just kind of started taking it from there and playing around with my voice and learning different techniques from people, from people that I met and, uh, started implementing it and kind of creating my own voice and style. Right. Right. Excellent. Excellent. That's good. So what were the, when you were young, when you were, you know, six, seven years older and starting out and what influenced you, what were your influences? What were you listening to? I was listening to everything. I mean, I listened to what was playing in the house. There was always music playing when I was growing up. We were listening, my dad was listening to like Hootie and the Blowfish and then he'd be listening to like Toby Keith and then we'd have Italian music playing all the time. And my dad would walk around the house singing all the time. And then, uh, like my older sister, my mom, they had more like the pop stations on and like a hip hop mixed in. So I kind of got a little bit of everything and just having MTV and stuff on VH1 with the music videos I was watching. I'm like, you know what? That'd be kind of cool to do. Yeah. So what's on your playlist now? Right now, what have I been listening to? Uh, I've actually, I've actually been listening to Christmas music lately. Christmas music. Oh, come on. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Light FM isn't even playing it yet. I heard November 1st. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You gotta, you gotta wait until the day after Thanksgiving. That's my, that's my rule anyway. It's gotta be day after. I won't shop at a store if they put out the Christmas stuff before that week of, you know, that week before Thanksgiving. You could start doing it so you're ready for Black Friday sales, right? You can do that. But man, like there's stores like, I think it's the Menards that has the Christmas trees. All they do is they open. We haven't, Halloween hasn't even happened yet. Right, right. And the trees are up. And the trees are up. Come on. I mean, we've got this very American holiday where we all get together and slaughter turkeys. That's right. It's just, we skip over it, right? We go right to Christmas. Speaking of turkeys, for some weird reason, I thought next week was Thanksgiving. I was looking through the Jewel and Mariano's thing. Anybody got turkeys on sale? I don't know where I was at. I was in another world. Don't push us through that fast. No, we have Halloween coming up. I know. What's your costume? Oh, I'll show you. You'll show me? I don't know. I'm scared now. You can't just say it. How do you feel about that? That's kind of weird. We're having Mai Tais and stuff at the end of the driveway. When the kids come by, we'll give them candy. We'll be sipping on some Mai Tais. We're having hot dogs. We're with the neighbors. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, it's going to be cool. That's good. That's good. Yeah. So get back to what we're doing here. Sorry I didn't. Yeah, no, that's fine. Go off on a tangent. Yeah. What's your Halloween costume? My Halloween costume? I'm actually dressing up as Halsey. What's his Halloween costume? Dressing up as Halsey. Are you really dressing up as Halsey and biting the head off the monkey? Yeah. All right. Wow. Well, the monkey's actually dressing up too. He's dressing up as a bat. Oh, very good. Very good. Interesting. So how can people find you? Like, what's your social media and stuff like? We got your standards. We got Facebook. That's Dance Monkey Band. Instagram. Everything's Dance Monkey Band. I mean, we got Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube. We have our website, dancemonkey.live, where you could see our upcoming shows. There's videos and there's, I mean, on the website, there's links to all the social media stuff. Right, right. Do I need to ask the monkey lady, monkey making lady over here? So like, what's coming up within the next few weeks where people can go out and see you? Next few weeks? We're actually not going to be in Chicago. Oh, no. But November 21st, we are at J and A Tap in North Liberty, Iowa. And then I actually spread out our dates a little bit because our bass player has to go get neck surgery. So his hand's going to be a little in healing right now. But then I think the only one that we have is December 19th. I wanted to slow down a little bit for the holidays and spend some time because being on the road for so long every weekend, I missed out on a lot of get togethers and being able to relax and enjoy the holiday season. So you're doing New Year's Eve in Key West? Yeah, I'm doing that with Sushi Roll. Wow. That's a fun gig. Oh, I'm looking forward to that one. How are you working a full-time day job or whatever and doing all the traveling? I am moving full-time back to music. Are you really? Yeah. You're making that transition, huh? As cliche as it sounds, you know, it's in my DNA. Yeah. Every time I've tried to walk away or take a break, I always get pulled right back in. My heart won't let me stop. It's possible to do it. Wow. Yeah, there's millions of people that make their living as musicians. Less than 1% of them are famous. Nobody understands that. Nobody understands that. Yeah, well, good. Good luck to you. I hope everything works out. I appreciate that. But you're not going to dodge the question, though. What's on your playlist right now? All right. Actually, I'll... He never forgets. I'll pull it out. I'll give you a little mix. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Yeah. What are we talking about here? Shut off the lights. We got Louis Prima, Memphis Mayfire, Darude, Skid Row. Skid Row. Wow. That was like left field in that whole group that you're talking about. And then we go to Kenny G and then Kix. Yeah, yeah. That's in that whole Louis Prima. Yeah. There you go. There you go. Yeah. I discovered a new band recently. Have you ever heard of Dirty Honey? I have. Oh, yeah. It's a fantastic band. Oh, yeah. I've listened to them for a while. Have you really? They've been around for a few years, yeah. I just discovered them recently. I started. They're good. I turned on the, what's his name, Jared James, oh shit, I can't think of his name right now, Blues Guide of Wisconsin. And they mix their stuff in with his channel. My god, what a fantastic band. Oh, yeah. Really good. I must have been living under a rock. Man, how long have they been around? Probably as long as Blackberry Smoke. Really? Yeah. Holy crap. I just heard. When I think about it, I discovered both of them about the same time. I just, I think I must have heard them for the first time. No kidding. Like three months ago. Wow. Yeah, they're good. That's amazing. Now I'm going to have to go back and find all their stuff. Holy crap. Kind of like a Chris Stapleton situation. First time I heard of them was when that Tennessee whiskey cover came out. And apparently he's been out for years. And that cover just pushed him on the radar. In a bunch of bands, or in a few bands, you would never have known that it was Chris Stapleton. Because it's like prior to his solo career. I've come across a few of them. I can't remember them all. Steel Drivers. Yeah, Steel Drivers. He was with the Steel Drivers. Is one of them. And I think the other one was the Johnson Brothers. Yes. Yeah. And when you look back at when those songs were released, there's one particular hit. It's from like 2008. You're like, oh my god. So that's where he came from. It wasn't like he just was Chris Stapleton. And you can hear him singing. He just went solo. You hear his voice. Yeah, he just went solo from these bands that he was in. It was just amazing. So yeah. Well, cool. Well, I think that about covers it. I think so. Unless he's going to go solo. Yeah. Since he's the vocalist. Unless he's going to go solo. Yeah, vocals. Yeah, come out with your own song. With all the bands behind. Yeah, but you can't really go up on stage and sing a song and bite a head off of a monkey. Why not? Well, I guess you could. I mean, I've seen worse. Yeah. Yeah. It's a monkey. It's not a dove. Well, with that. That's very observant. You know what the difference is? Pulsable thumbs. Oh, that's true. Doves don't have the pulsable thumbs. That's true. And monkeys can't. Oh, can monkeys fly? So is their device. Wizard of Oz. So they can fly. You can't hear it. Because there it is. The compression was on it too much. Yeah. Noise gate and compression was too high on my microphone. I thought we set that. Oh, well, no. Oh, well, we'll get it figured out. All righty, Mike, thanks for coming out. Appreciate you having me. Thank you. Hope you guys come back to town so we can come and see you. Yeah, we would love to have you come out. All righty. Excellent. See you later. 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.