Coming to you from the studios at the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66. It's the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast Hey everybody, it's Ray the roadie and this is Hollywood Mike. Happy New Year.

Happy New Year Everybody haven't seen you in a few weeks. Yeah, it's been a few weeks. It has been yeah, yeah 2005 it's there 2025 long time.

Yeah, how are the holidays? They were long. Yeah Isn't that the truth? Yeah, well Santa good to you. Uh, yeah Santa was great to me.

Yeah, I made out like a bandit I got a whole pallet of Kingsford charcoal a whole pallet. Yeah, I was really naughty. So you're gonna yeah You're gonna be smoking some meats.

That's right. Yeah, you got that right? Hey mom was still alive. Mm-hmm For those of you who didn't know my mother was in the hospital for a little while.

I Mentioned it to us quite ill. Yes. She was Yeah, it's we cast in a miracle.

Mm-hmm She had passed on and was gone for four minutes and was brought back to life in the hospital amazing And just a week before Thanksgiving and she was back for all the holidays. So that was a lot of fun. Mom love you and that made the holidays, you know, pretty freakin awesome and My son bought me a Ram bar and a light kit for my truck.

So I got a bottle of 40th anniversary Chicago Bears blue run Bourbon bourbon. Yeah. Yeah, and my daughter got me the bottle of wine that they commissioned.

Mm-hmm I'm not gonna open it until the Bears won another Super Bowl I didn't I said I wasn't gonna open mine and I lied. I opened it. I couldn't wait.

You should have called I could have got you something else and you know, it's that just drank that. Yeah, although it is good You never know if you'd have the opportunity to open it Or if it'll last yeah, that's right. That's right.

So we got going on tonight. Well tonight we have the gringo brothers See I was about to hit the wrong button again. I looked at it.

It's all messed up. It's all messed up Please stand by while we take care of these technical difficulties See they switched it up on us I'm sure Paul you'll edit it out or not. He'll probably he's a master editor.

He is fantastic. Yeah. Yeah, excellent How you guys doing? We're good.

How are you? Fantastic from Well, let's start the beginning we were 10 years old we were abandoned by our parents at a Mexican Just jumping the gun. Oh, where did you come in from it? Like like where'd you drive from Guadalajara? South Burbs of Chicago did it start? Well, I was I was a gleam in my mother's eye. Yeah, let me just quick Tell my life story.

Yeah Everybody who you are again because it seems like it was six hours ago that I met you guys Johnny Johnny gringo here. We are the gringo brothers. Yep.

Hey, I'm Andy gringo here. I play drums. Yep.

Yep Jason gringo Jason gringo. All right, so we just adopted the whole last name Well, we yeah, we were abandoned by our parents and at a Mexican resort in Guadalajara, right? It took us 30 years to get back up here. We were forced in the show business We had to play street corners and whorehouses and cantinas and it took us this long to get up here We're finally back and we're gigging now.

Sounds good. You know Things have been worse. Doesn't Andy what kind of look like Charlie Starr from Blackberry Smoke? Yeah Smoke I've heard the name of the band.

Yeah What instrument does he play he's the lead singer only guitar player and his name is what again Charlie Starr. That's me. That's it I'm Charlie.

Sorry. I'm sorry. I lied to all of you.

I'm not Andy gringo Is pretty cool their music there's no There's no way you can sing and play guitar. Yeah No, we just Mike and I just saw them. Yeah Excellent excellent, they're there by far my favorite band.

I've been really I've been listening to them for a long frickin time there They're yeah, I mean to call them Southern Rock is kind of weird I believe you know that like the the same place that every Southern Rock band is from like, Georgia, Florida I Can't hear Yeah, no, but that's great check them out you should check them. I will definitely that's quite an endorsement I will definitely if someone says that yeah, cool. Cool.

Yeah, Charlie Starr They just about a year ago. Maybe you're maybe two years now. They Gibson commissioned a Charlie Starr signature Les Paul jr. Nice beautiful guitar I mean when Gibson decides the name of guitar after you gotta be pretty good you're getting somewhere.

No Name a guitar after you Johnny. No, but nobody ever tells me that I look like anybody famous They're like, you know who you look like I'm like who like a jerk So Johnny Green go how long has this been together only since about March Yeah, it couldn't have been that long No It came to it came together quick as I was telling you guys before we started I was in the band Arclight Which is how I know you guys right and left that band shortly after that podcast aired Okay And started a country band that fell apart and then I was just tired of starting these bands and working with guys that I didn't Know right and I'm like, you know what? I'm getting old Like me and Jason said we're on the back nine you know, so let's let's let's start a band we had talked for years about doing something together and Funny story, I don't think I've ever even told you this but I asked Jason and my big brother Wayne Krasinski Shout out to him. I asked you guys at the same time Hoping that one would say yes, and one would say no because I don't know who I would have picked if they both said Yes, right, and they both said yes.

No Jason said yes, and my brother said no Oh, so he made the decision easy your real brother your real brother. Yes said no. Yeah Yeah, so he made it I was like, oh god, why did I do that? Yeah But he's like, you know, I don't know what was the plan if we both said yes, I don't that's what I said I don't know Talk about hey, we do that.

We do that Yeah, well there would be a four-piece There would be a four-piece. Yeah. Yeah, so so what has to happen for your own brothers a fuck off I played with him for 25 years and he's older 10 years older and he's set in his ways and he he What he basically said is, you know, you didn't really want to do the material.

Okay, and I respect that Which is what tell everybody what you guys well we do. It's it's guitar rock guitar. Heavy rock.

We do Van Halen Jimi Hendrix Led Zeppelin These guys cream these guys want me to do Stevie Ray Vaughan material again, and I play that music so long I'm coming around again We'll probably throw a couple songs in the set list But I think the majority of our our set of the majority the band that we cover the most is Van Halen I think I think we got yeah Van Halen and the kinks Originally, yeah, right, right, right and Yeah, Van Halen Led Zeppelin Jimi Hendrix cream and then some surprises We do some rocked up versions of songs that you know weren't rocked up tunes to begin with. So right like what? Saturday nights. All right by Elton John.

Oh, but I mean, but that was rock and roll. Yeah, but we do it like There's no piano We didn't nickel back to a cover that how dare you Fellas we're out of here. Thanks a lot.

Thanks for coming, but they did nickelback did a cover of was it that particular one? I don't know. But if nickelback did a cover that we're taking it out of the setlist. Oh, they definitely did.

Did they? Oh, they definitely did I don't mind bet you're ready to find it on the laptop their nickelback covered in the Elton John song and I want to say It was Saturday nights. All right for fight and it didn't I mean it was actually done pretty well I just saw a thing. I just saw a thing on YouTube.

It was why does nickelback get all the hate? Yeah It's just because they they did there was no real reason why they got I think it was one of those things where it was Just they were really successful band too big Like levels of success and people just automatically are going to some Saturday nights. All right for fighting Yeah, it was see like nickelback nickelback did a version of that after this podcast airs cool People will start shatting on us because we get so popular Will be the new will be the new nickelback. Yeah, you know, yeah No, you know, but but we had a nickelback tribute band in here and I just asked that question right off the bat It's like, you know, arguably the most hated rock and roll band ever and why is that and there's really no answer But but I think we talked about it seemed to happen right about that time when Chad Kroger I believe his name married Avril Lavigne and for some and then for some reason He all the beta males got mad Well people started talking about encounters with Chad Kroger and there were they were they were saying that he wasn't really a nice person I don't know and it all seemed to happen right about that time and at the same time is when their lyrics started to become Kind of corny.

Okay, you know, I mean they had this formula and after you've been doing it for so long It's like, okay, let's just put a word in there that rhymes, you know You know, but I have a feeling they're gonna come back though. I mean Aren't they tour again and I think for some people they never went away I have a really underground like following but it's underground like like they'd sold 10 million You know a million albums, it's like times platinum. It's so underground mainstream, right? They're like it's like everybody's mobile.

It's like riding a moped, you know, they're cool, but you know what your friends No, no, no. No, that's that's that's not how it goes. I know I know We have we have children that listen to this bro.

Okay, I think yeah It was probably just one of those things where they just somehow lost credibility almost immediately. So now you're right Yeah, no one even gave him really a chance at least on the cool kids side For them to get stop and take a break and then take a you know Maybe tour but don't don't do another album for a few years because when you come back It needs to be like that first and second album over again. Yeah, we took all there We took all their material out of our set list Yeah, we did.

Why? Well, you know, we just didn't want to suffer the same fate. They did. Yeah, they play Creed Who Creed we do cream? Okay, no creed.

No, no, no creed. It's usually Creed or Nickelback. Yeah, we don't do I'm sorry.

I can't put them both in the same set. No. No, well, you know Well, you know what the funny thing I was about that is Creed was the answer to Nickelback, right? And then Creed came out and Scott Stapp had his breakdown and everybody was like, okay call Nickelback.

Yeah Call Nickelback back But I mean, hey, we're not crapping on anybody we Mean we're just talking about facts that actually actually happen. I was a Creed fan. I mean we can crap on the gringo brothers Yeah, we're sitting right here.

Yeah We crap on each other all the time, that's pretty much all we do. Yeah One big litter box it can also be the three amigos Actually, I wonder how many cover bands there have been called the three amigos, I'm sure And how many of them got cease and desist orders, yeah, probably quite a few right, right Right, so so you guys so you so you called Jason, right you accept up. Oh gosh, that's hilarious Look at that.

They're actually wearing the Costumes and everything you got to do the thing on stage. AI is a beautiful thing. Oh, you're cool your court You're going to go to something.

That's that's the ghost. That's the ghost that's in here. Ooh Bring it down.

Oh, yeah, baby Oh For the first time tonight the gringos Wow, this is a long one. I don't know what happened there. Let's bring it down.

Oh, right. I didn't think Sensitive that my I guess they are did you see the room come alive on that? Yeah, we have to we have to learn that one What it won't show. Oh, which one is that? I have now.

There we go I want it. I want to know where that little mirror ball came from. Yeah, it's our logo.

It's our logo Yeah, I was about to scream popcorn Water in the hot tub too hot jump back kiss myself That's why he's the leader. Yeah, that's right. So when did Andy come along? Andy was the the last guy to join Jason and I got together.

We had a drummer who was playing with us Joey and You know things happen people people change their minds and he kind of moved far away. So he kind of bailed out and So we started auditioning guys and we had three guys Well, we had three guys reply to our ad two of them auditioned Andy was the first one We had a second guy we auditioned and then the third guy was so good that he didn't he doesn't do auditions All he needed was a song list and the date of the show and $300 to play. Oh So we I see so you hired him no No, we we didn't hire him we went with Andy Gringo here he He's just as mentally challenged as the rest of us and he fits in well, that's true Yeah, so where'd you come from? Like what's your what's your previous or prior experience? Well, I grew up here in Chicago And then I went out to school in New Jersey and ended up living out in New Jersey for like 22 years Wow, okay, and then I just came back like in 20 end of 2021 So I've been back like four years now.

Yeah, and I just kind of start starting from scratch, you know Needed to did everything I wanted to do out in the East Coast But I played in a lot of bands in New York and Jersey and stuff Yeah, and then but none as good as this one not not any as close as this one And then I just I was looking for I played another group of Van Halen tribute And then but I was looking for more projects and stuff. And so I found these guys online and it worked out Yeah, yeah, that's good. Yeah, and then so you said it's been since March guys Yeah, we just the whole thing came together pretty quick.

We like learned 40 songs and Didn't even have a promo kit or anything together And I had a friend of mine who pulled a couple of strings to get us our first gig sight unseen Well, and you know, then it just kind of yeah like two months. Yeah. Okay.

We got a gig in two months Well, you know why I I do let's learn 40 so I tend to I tend to do that in every band I'm in though because if you just Rehearse forever, you know, you'd still be in the basement. We're not ready. We're not ready.

So it's like well, guess what? We got a gig Talk about under the gun. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah So did the setlist come out of the fact that okay? He was in a he was already in a Van Halen tribute band So let's do a bunch of shit.

No, cuz we had the setlist before we even knew him. Oh you did Me and Jason kind of worked on that setlist for I don't know off and on for a month. Okay? Yeah, I will say that what in the ad it said something about this band You know does rock stuff Van Halen and there was a couple other bands you named Hendrix.

Yeah Hendrix and Jimmy Hendrix experience is like my favorite band So yeah, I saw those two things and I was like, I should probably reply to this and just see what happens You know, I've replied to so many of those things and it goes nowhere Yeah, but you know one in ten doesn't turn turned out Well, was it an old-school ad thing or did you utilize one of the no one did they did a digital tech? Chicago musicians looking for other musicians with even bigger egos. Yeah, it was one of it was one of those groups something something like that Yeah, yeah I think that's exact name of it. Yeah the best idea to like, you know traditionally think about all the times you Audition for bands.

Okay. Here's the songs. Let's get together.

We said let's do a jam night Here's a couple songs. Let's go to a jam night. We'll get up We'll play the songs and that way if you don't get along with the guy you can get the hell out of there Yes, because there's nothing worse than going through an audition at your place or your practice space and you've played one song You know, you know, this is not gonna work But now and then you got to wait for the you got to wait for the guy to clean up and leave and it's awkward We'll talk later.

Yeah So yeah doing a jam night, I recommend that I was highly against it Yeah, I didn't want to do it, but that was I I only look stupid No, they said we can do two hours the next band canceled and they said the editors They said the editors all in on it. He's gonna love it. Yeah, he's gonna absolutely love all the footage So, where was this jam night? Where'd you go thirsty beaver in Crestwood? Oh, okay, and I'll plug the thirsty beaver because they booked the band But I won't plug places that don't book the band.

Yeah. Yeah, and we don't usually talk about places that won't you know sponsored a podcast Listening looking for sponsors Jody at the thirsty beaver. Yeah.

Yeah. No, we I love the thirsty beaver I've played there many times. I love that.

Yeah, it was cool It was actually the first audition I ever did and I added like a it was a performance audition Cuz the jam night is a performance. I mean whether it's a jam or not whether you're getting paid or not, you know Yeah, it's you're you're on a stage. There's there was an audience there, you know and I thought okay that Immediately made me think oh these guys might be like a little bit more serious than you because you never know.

How dare you? Yeah, yeah, I showed up with a loaf of bread and boy He's here all week folks try the veal we got to get a dad joke alert something something going on That's beautiful. So did they give you a couple of songs to do first? Yeah They gave me like four songs every we only play three of them. Yeah, we did we gave everybody the same three songs and Come out and jam and we did Andy the following week We did that that other guy and then like I said, the third guy was just so good He didn't he didn't need a jam.

Yeah, he just needed to know when to be there the song list in $300 Yeah, right, right, right. Isn't that annoying? It is Encountered that before to work sure putting together a band you did the ad didn't say looking to hire a drummer for a gig, right? It's a writing together a band. That's what he said.

They said look we're looking for a full-time We want to we want a member we want something it did help that you you know, it's it's easier to get somebody when you Already have a paying gig, right? He was like listen. I already have a paying gig, you know, if it works out We can at least get to that gig and play it and see how it works and I was like, okay Yeah, you know at least at least I'm not, you know learning 40 songs. Oh, that's We booked that gig with with with Joe.

That's right. So we booked the gig Drummer the drummer quit and then we I was like, I'm not cancelling Jason was like no, no, but that was a good idea because that was like I was like, okay. They already have a gig book.

They must be connected in some way At least they have one one place. What would you like to get a hold of that guy? Don't say working yet Yeah, he is he and I he's a good guy. There's no there's no bad blood.

He and he lived, you know He's like an over an hour away. So it's it's all good. Yeah Yeah, Paul McCartney still does that to what's the name Pete best? He does it all the time.

Hey you working yet? You want to hear a really good I have a great Paul McCartney story, okay Okay I used to be a Beatle tribute band and we played this big and down in Louisville, Kentucky Abbey Road on the river and I was Paul McCartney in a Beatle tribute band now picture this I'm backstage It just down poured. I'm wearing my Paul McCartney get up the black wig black black turtleneck black pants And we were doing the yesterday and today original album cover. We're in the butcher frocks with baby doll parts all over us.

Okay, and I sit I get my food. It's you know time to eat We did our show and we're backstage and I'm sitting down a round table just like this and I had become friends with Steve Holly from Wings the second drummer and wings. Yeah, and he plays down there all the time So we'd always see each other at the at those gigs and we talked and he was a cool guy treated me like, you know I was somebody so he's like, hey Paul, can I sit down and join you? I says, yeah, man We'll pull up a chair.

Come on Steve and so we're sitting there We're talking he's like, oh when you guys play and you know, just talking about our schedules at the fest Next thing I know this other guy walks up and he's giving me this stink He's looking me up and down like, you know, I owed him money. Yeah, and I'm like, I know this guy, you know But I can't put the face to the name and he's like, what about me Paul? Can I sit next to you? And I look at Steve Holly and he's like, you know He's got his hand over his mouth and he's smiling and he's laughing and he's like, you know me. I'm like, he's like Denny Lane Denny Lane was the guitar player and wings wings all wrote all those songs with So he sat down and the two of them went on to just like lamb based me as Paul McCartney and I said You know what guys I'll come over to your house Dressed like this and you can get all your aggressions out and I'll charge you by the hour And you know Denny Lane God rest his soul he just passed away but you know I mean they were doing it, you know in jest but I think there was a little bit of non jest if you catch my drift Yeah, but yeah honest honest to God I'll even send you the picture of the three of us Together Wow.

Yeah, cuz I got I got to get this, you know, yes Send us that picture cuz well, we can we can use that for the promo. Yeah That's pretty interesting. Yeah, you know, that's it's that's why I love being a local musician because everybody's got a cool story like that And it seems like a story like that.

It's it just sounds cooler than if the actual Paul McCartney was sitting here telling it sure You know, it's like yeah, okay, we get it. You're Paul McCartney. Everything happens to you.

But no not everything happens to no To these guys just like I think I saw an interview with Paul McCartney one time and he was talking about how You know, he'll go places right and he's just on vacation with family or you know, whatever and they're like, oh, yeah, mr Mr. McCartney your room is comped and he's like I Don't need for you to do that. I can afford it here this family over here That looks like they just got off of a plane or whatever cop their room for me I've heard on I've heard on with with a good with good What's the word from a reliable source? Shall we say that Paul McCartney is very charitable when there's a camera He's very polite and friendly when there's a camera, but when there is no camera involved, he's not really the nicest guy. Really Wow Yeah, but you know what? He's Paul McCartney and I'm Johnny Gringo sitting here talking to you I love the Beatles.

I don't want to think people think I'm crapping on McCartney. I am the walrus. Is that a fat joke? Anything 50 plus years of doing that people, you know chasing them down.

Oh, well, that's it. That's just it man I I totally get it. You know you how do you you can't always be on you know, it gets it gets old I mean, you can't take off your face.

Yeah, I mean you can't you can't you know, unfortunately, no we face off You could though you could yeah, I mean if I could take off my face, you think I'd stick leave this mug on me I would have got rid of this thing. Oh, I do podcast Yes, no video podcast. We have a strict no video.

I have a cast. I have a face for radio. Yeah Yeah, we say that we say that all the time.

Well, that's pretty cool guys I mean, I'm having fun talking to you guys. We're just like shooting the shit about practice. Yeah, I mean Man ditto.

Yeah, this is fun. Yeah, what's your story? Yeah, what's your back round? You know, I grew up. My dad's a musician.

He played all his life. He's in that book. He's in the book Really? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Wow, but yeah, so grew up, you know, my dad's a bass player I play bass my brother.

It's we call it the family curse. Sure You know my brother and myself play and yeah, just always played I think of 13 I start took guitar lessons and went the same for me Yeah, and there was always too many strings too many strings and my fingers don't do all that You know, I bait, you know, my bass guitars have four strings, right? So you got two extra You know, you've heard the greatest bass joke ever haven't you? No. Little Johnny goes and takes his first bass lesson Comes back his dad says, what did you learn this week? He says well, I learned the first two first three notes on the E string He says all right playing for me Johnny plays him great next week comes back.

He says, what'd you learn this week? He says well, I learned the first three notes on my a-string Dad says play it excellent third week comes back. He says what did you learn this week? He says I cancel my lesson. I had a gig I Was originally a bass player so I feel for you man, I did yeah guitar and I never felt guitar It just it didn't okay.

It's it's on top. And yeah, there's cool things going on, but I like being the glue that holds shit together Yeah, you know what? I mean? Yeah, he thinks highly of himself. So maybe Maybe we'll start maybe he'll start being that glue at the next gig What do they say if shit in one hand wishing the other Now he's played in bands, you know since high school, yeah just travel back and forth, you know, no crazy-ass stories about home You know Paul McCartney.

No, I did meet Linda McCartney once backstage what we can't tell that on. Oh, yeah We probably don't want to do that. Yeah, wasn't no.

No, that was the other one with one leg Heather Mills. Yep, right. That's right.

That's exactly that's exactly what it was the gold digger. Yeah Yeah, 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 non-stop blues banter and Bad assery check out the bus stop blues podcast at the bus stop blues Calm where you can listen on Spotify iHeart Apple podcasts or any other major podcast platform up on board the bus stop blues Where the blues never stops rolling? I'll tell you what that the story you said Reminded me of a story when I was 21 years old I was playing in a band called static and this was and we were just a 90s hard rock band, right? So this band we got hired to play this convention for a group of people that Make resin castings for Hollywood So a lot of them are just simple things like it'll look like a severed arm laying on a table or a severed foot or A severed head or something like that But there's a whole group of people that would make full resin full life-size castings of famous actors Dressed up in the roles that they're playing for particular movies and they would use them for doing things like setting up the set before the shooting started that day or whatever they had that whatever they Had to do and I walked over to this. I walked over to this to this booth and there's two statues of every vampire It's the guy that did the resin statues for Bram Stoker's Dracula There was this six foot tall version of Gary Oldham in the gray tuxedo and the blue glasses looking like looking like Dracula And what about Linda Carter? No, she wasn't there.

Unfortunately, but Catwoman, but Julie Neumar the female vampires any porn stars. Yes That's what I was getting at So so the women blew it the women who posed for the vampire statues were like Porn stores, whatever and there's two of each and these things they were perfect I mean perfect and I'm staring at this statue trying to find a flaw in it, right and I get up to the face And the statue winks at oh my god It was the airbrushed live woman posing in the same position as the statue Wow I told you that story to tell you this because the treasurer and the vice president of the organization that ran this at one point In time both played for Alice Cooper and Blue Oyster Cult really and I can't even remember who these guys were because I mean How many people played for Blue Oyster Cult now? I can't remember their name. They had more members than Spinal Tap Yeah, but I'll tell you but by the end of the night They had this reception for everybody that had attended this and they come up when they're like, yeah Can we play with you guys like hell? Yeah, and then there's so the rest of the night.

We're playing Blue Oyster Cult now It's Cooper tunes We do Godzilla, you know, yeah That was the first one that we did and yeah, we play that sign I can't tell you how many people that come see it. So like never did I ever think I'd go to a bar in here Godzilla, yeah Everybody does don't fear the Reaper. Yeah, you know right? Yeah more cowbell, you know We'll see now you got to throw in a segment of in a guy to DeVita.

You might as well go for all of them well You know, we try to get Andy to do Moby Dick, but every gig we he's like, I don't I'm not feeling it I'm not feeling it if you're gonna do it like an open drum solo Yeah, you gotta you gotta have the right vibe going on with the crowd, you know There's that you don't really see like an open drum solo. I just don't do it. Don't do a long one Yeah, yeah, but then I if I'm if I want to develop my ideas and I've got really an idea how long we got amazing ideas Yeah, here he goes.

We're gonna run out of time. I gotta defend myself here. No, I love that song That song is challenging, but it's fun.

Oh, it's it's actually what I don't you don't normally get to say to play a drum solo And a cover man, so right, right, right. So I maybe I will play it next time. Well, we're nice guys We let you play.

Yeah, but you're right though. It has to be at the right. It has to be at the right time You can't yeah Everybody's got their back turned to you and they're paying attention to the game.

Yeah. Yeah, it's just not the right We put it halfway through the polka set. Yeah, and it usually goes over really good.

Oh awesome. Yeah, you start with that kick Oh, yeah, it's great guys. Yeah Hey, we know we know what we're doing No, that's what you got to do if you're doing a rocked-up version, you know of some Elton John stuff You got to do a rocked-up polka.

Okay. Yeah, it goes down man or a rocked-up waltz of some sort Somebody actually requested Yeah, they really you know, you know what it can be done. No, it's easy manic the well manic depression behind.

Oh, yes Interesting we actually go from Moby-dick into pretty woman the Van Halen Van Halen pretty we forego Intruder. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, we don't know Moby-dick in the pretty woman. Okay. Yes.

Wait a minute. That didn't sound right There's children listening Moby-dick into pretty woman But at least you're politically correct at least you're correct politically and anatomically correct There's not like a bleep a long bleep button for him for that The thoughts and statements of the gringo brothers do not reflect what the rock and roll podcast Thank you, thank you Mike I appreciate that so do you guys do you guys do any original stuff? Are you thinking about doing it or no? No, I don't know. We never talked about it.

I've last couple years I've been writing more songs that maybe would fit this band. But yeah, we're just kind of we're still getting our feet wet, man We've only been doing this since March. Yeah, that's true is most of your set like 90s No 80s and 70s probably probably more.

I think the only 90s tune that we do is that we do Oh, that's right. You said you're doing like original old you're doing David Lee Roth Van Halen and in solo Hagar And I think the only 90s to this. Yeah, I think we do what the one we do Liz Phair supernova and we do Everclear those are the only 90s only ones.

Yeah, and we do it just some yeah, nothing else from the 90s I can think of no. Oh, yeah, six even late 60s stuff the who yeah We do who like in and just some Jimi Hendrix at the late 60s stuff who Hendrix Zeppelin cream, right? Yeah, I like not to using though classic rock We don't really try to say we're classic rock, I mean you could categorize it as that but it's such a connotation guitar rock Everything we do is just rocked up guitar and you know, yeah When I was growing up and in high school all those all the people I listen to are now on the classic rock station It makes me feel old, right? Yeah, it's like yeah, it's like they're playing Guns and Roses and you know, it's oldies after Boston And it's it's on the oldies station, yeah And it's in every version of those songs the you know, they they edit those versions down They take the guitar solos out. They do so every every every song is like two minutes and 48 seconds seconds You know guitar rock.

It sounds like something you get from Ronco. Yeah Guitar rock volume six Or guitar driven rock you like that. Yeah.

Yeah guitar. I like to tell people it's like power trio stuff Yeah, yeah, cuz it's more or less that you know, like rock power trio rock. Yeah, we ain't no keyboards.

There's no Cream rush is easy tap. Yeah. Yeah, exactly We we said that 2026 is the year of the triumph triumph is going to triumph is coming going on tour again Yeah, but they got three extra guys in the band now.

It's six guys touring. No, look it up. Is it really? Yeah, but we said 2026 is the year of the gringo.

We're bringing back the power trio. There you go So One time jointed in time I'm seeing the promos happen right now. They write they write themselves So how that's kind of how we picked our songs to was never like You know, I mean I've been in band.

Let's let's yes We want to keep the crowd engaged you want to keep the crowd, but if you're not having fun playing it So we try to take okay, this will get the ladies dancing There ain't no ladies gonna come to see us Right, right if there's any there by accident they might get dancing. Yeah, right Oh, yeah, you know, you can't say if you're up there just playing because you're playing like we don't do Jesse's girl We don't do Jenny Jenny. We don't do brown-eyed girl.

We don't do don't stop believing Let me let me really ruin it for you. We don't wear cargo shorts. We don't use iPads on stage.

Thank God We don't we don't use tracks. Everything is live. We don't use in-ear monitors We don't use in-ear monitors.

Everything you hear is blowing out from behind the band, you know, good old-fashioned Amp driven rock and roll. I will tell you thank you for not wearing cargo shorts on stage That is that is my pet peeve or here tonight. Yeah.

Yeah, that is my well We do we do have the legs for it. But yeah, you know, you know, I had I had I told you I mentioned a friend of mine Who's the leader of mojo and the bio bio gypsies? He said it to me one time because I was in a band one time where I had a Guitar player that would show up in cargo shorts all the time and he pulls me aside and goes look at this guy He looks like the guy that shows up to mow my lawn. You guys are in a you guys are in a rock band Well dress intentionally and not long after that It was a buddy guy met buddy guys club met him for the very first time and I'm sitting at the bar next to him And just shooting the shit with him and he's giving me all kinds of you know simple advice and everything and though the first thing that came out of buddy guys mouth is When the second you walk through the front door of the club Everybody should know that you're in the band not because you're carrying an instrument or anything like that dress intentionally You have to you have to dress the part my brother I credit my brother with this all the time in words of wisdom to live by from Wayne Krasinski.

Yeah, you ready? Yeah, if you look like the audience you shouldn't be on stage Absolutely, you should you should if you're in the audience You should look like you don't belong in the audience in some way like you should look a little bit off in some way Right, like well, you guys are pulling that off real well Did we just get insulted I wasn't sure. That's okay. I wasn't sure.

Yeah, but like yeah, you need to have like a little bit of differentiation from unless you're Nickelback Bringing it back around back to Nickelback. Yeah, but yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, but the other stuff you said though, you know It's not using in-ear monitors, yeah, you can get away with that in a three-piece band.

Yeah, you can yeah, that's pretty easy the thing I've The drummers that I've played with that use in-ear monitors now again, this is not all drummers and this is just my experience Drummers that use in-ear monitors don't play like drummers that are here in the stage They yeah, that makes sense. They really don't because they're hearing their drums through their monitor through their monitors So they're not I mean, they're not it sounds great to them. It's a different Feel yeah.

Yeah, but which brings me to my next point a lot of time you see guys using you know I'm speaking from experience Like this phone right here. That's the ramp No, well, this is this is my this is my tablet. That's on stage right here.

Sure Oh, yeah, and my phone has our mixer board on it Yeah, sure and there's ten guys on stage with us and Everybody's got their own control my I can control my own monitor mix I can control the guys next to me if he asks me to I can find his mix on it in the whole bit the key is You got to do the mix you got to be able to hear it, right, right And then we've got an ambient microphone sitting on the stage somewhere to pick that up as well It does make a big difference. Well, you're right and you're not always yelling to the sound guy Hey, can you turn up the guitar in my monitor? Yeah That's awesome Guitar players never want to turn their amp up. Come on.

Yeah, never ever good lord. Never can't believe I'm sitting here Yeah, that's why we just put it on ten. So we don't have to deal with that, right? That's right Yeah, but if it's turned all the way up and you know Yeah, yeah, yeah now we do I believe it or not I don't like to have a really like we our stage volume is very Manageable.

Mm-hmm, and we Mike the whole band and I think we have a great sound But we don't go we don't close Mike all the all the drones We just like the bass and then I got yeah, I got this what you do. I don't want to let my secret out You don't have to but no, I'm gonna say it's no secret we Mike the bass drum and then we use a Like an air an overhead for the Tom's and the snare and all I'm putting through that microphone is this one is reverb? Yeah, and that's to make the drum sound big Yeah coming out of the PA because there's nothing worse than like the guitar sounds like you're in a cathedral Yeah, the bass is thumping and then the drums are just yeah You Wash the drums with reverb and when he's playing them, you know, it sounds like he's in that stairwell Yeah, you know like bottom in the stairwell and whatever that castle was that he did when the levee breaks Yeah, it sounds that big. It sounds good.

Yeah, you guys are doing your own sound. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah He I do I John here. Let me okay. I do everything in this band.

Here we go I Think he's going to Don't you don't need it like a break or something Do you manage your website and everything I do the website We're all we're all gonna book eventually. I know that Jason does he helps with the gigs? What is your website? Yeah, you have a website the gringo bros the gringo bros calm Bros, yeah calm. They're gonna go bros.

Yeah. Well if you say brothers, they'll think the full word Correct spelling the correct. Oh, yes if you now if you we talked about this if you look for us on Facebook, it's green green go Because Facebook considers gringo Racial slur and we can't use it.

Although they let us use the they let us list The name of the band is green go But then they let us use a nickname and the nickname is gringo grin go, okay, so go figure So you'll find it if you search either way either way you search it. You'll find it but yeah, the gringo bros calm and We we don't have any video up there because we had a YouTube channel every video I uploaded was copyright struck in Yeah, like literally everyone. Yeah, every single one weirdly.

It was weirdly bad. Well, usually though They'll nail you on a copyright, but to let you the only thing is you can't monetize it. Well, we're not monetize But they wouldn't even let the video be published.

I think it was a bot or AI Takes it down. It's not an actual person. I don't think no it's not but what I'm what I'm doing is is You know, there's I've got like 18 hours of video to go through so I'm gonna I'm we take video Yeah, every show you had so it was taken off of a YouTube channel.

It wasn't just something that somebody posted the YouTube No, it was our YouTube channel. Yeah, that's probably the difference. Yeah, right, right It wasn't like a third party, right? If you have that if you have the channel growing up Andy, yeah Children right in my sternum watch the profanity I Can say nuts, right? But yeah, so we you know I'm in the process of going through all the video and we're just gonna host it on our own website So we don't have a problem.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

You get any gigs coming up? We've got Our next gig is in February. Let me go to the calendar shortest month of the year. Yes.

Yes the next official gig subject subject to change is February 27th, and that is The countryside saloon in displays. Oh, yeah, I play there 8 p.m. To 1130 I like this planes saloon and countryside. Yes.

Yes. Oh cool. How is it? How's the venue is it cool? It's nice.

I played outside there Outside the inside is your your typical neighborhood type kind of a bar You know a lot of a lot of a lot of oak furniture and hardwood flooring and stuff like that fantastic pizza. We love it Yeah, the pizza is fantastic. They're duly noted.

Yeah, we I played there a few times with a band called forget Hannah Cool and the last time we were supposed to play there. It was I think it was valid. No, it wasn't valid It was it was some some holiday I can't remember exactly what it was and we had Greg and the fender benders if you've ever heard of that band open up for us cool guys I've known those guys for a long time and I came back from a business trip Didn't even go home first loaded up my car with everything.

I need drove right out to the to the gig I got there and the stomach flu hit me Yeah, yeah right at the gig right then you right at the gig I spent I spent about 40 minutes testing the plumbing in that place Yeah, we yeah, I'm not gonna be able to do this I hope Greg and the fender benders has three hours worth of worth of Music and they did and they did and they took care of it all and I drove home it man. It was it was absolutely Absolutely miserable. You never want the stomach flu, but you really only only wanted at your own place Yeah, you'll never want it anywhere else If you've just eaten something and you get sick to your stomach now, you can't eat that ever again or whatever poisoning Yeah, I can't go back there.

Oh the whole thing. It's just Just the thought of getting back into the vicinity of the place I'm like Because because I used to I used to work in Niles and I'd have to drive right past the place to get there and every Time I do that. I was like, oh god, I know I had that much That's really I'd have to finish my coffee before I got off of the interstate because I knew that if I was still drinking coffee I'm driving past.

I'm like, oh god, this is the countryside saloon, right? Yeah February 27 having chocolate pudding February 27th at the countryside saloon And then the next one after that is March 14th at rooftop Johnny's in Palos Heights in the 14th of March is the their pre st Patrick's Day Extravaganza, yeah, what nothing says st. Patrick's Day like three gringos. Yeah I Don't drink James you guys should do like a 30-second cover of the Cowboy song.

Well, we go. You got to do that Well, we do we do a box up and we do La Bamba. Yeah Yeah, we do La Bamba.

I sing it You got to do the three you got to do the my little buttercup. I sing that I sing that to my daughter all the time When I was my daughter was born that was my I sang her that song every night Watch it a bit honest to God. Yeah, I stand.

She'll still tell me You know, and I'll do it Great that's great. So then you then you throw in the guy with the Three amigos I Don't have to watch it again to quote the entire movie Basically when I when I started this band, I wanted it to be fun I wanted to play the stuff that I never did before. I was always kind of pigeonholed into a Stevie Ray Jimi Hendrix band and did it well did it for a long time? But it's like I want to do something different Yep And like I said Jason and I had always said now we got to get together and we got to do something and we never did We you know, and then we finally did and here we are and like I said, it took off pretty quick and yeah You know, it's it's it's fun.

Yeah, we haven't even we have we are even at 10 gigs and Sounding pretty good. I think we're it. I think we've only done six Wow Five or six Really? Oh, wow.

Anyway, so it's not a lot but it's really come together. So yeah, we're excited all excited They need some people out at the shows everybody. So yeah, please please as you can tell it's probably a good show At least it's funny And not and I mean funny-looking and We've got goods, you know, we've got a good sense of humor.

I mean look at us. Yeah So go out and see the gringos everybody. Yeah, the gringo bros 2026 the year of the gringo, right? Yeah, bringing back the power trio one dump at a time I should I shouldn't say that the plays Serious know at the places we play we appreciate because they are referring to the places you're playing I thought it was a new trip to the toilet.

No, no, no One dump at a time. No Talking about the places. I won't call the places we play dumps.

They they support live music. They support us. We love them So, all right guys, thanks for coming out.

Hey, thanks Hasta la vista The rock and roll Chicago podcast is edited by Paul Martin theme song courtesy of M&R Rush the rock and roll Chicago podcast does not own the rights to any of the music heard on the show The music is used to promote the guests that are featured