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. Why are you shouting? I hear a lot of old people listen to our podcast and I want to make sure they can hear us.

Hello. Yeah. Hey everybody, it's Ray the Roadie.

And this is Hollywood. How are you doing? I'm doing good. You're better this week.

I'm doing a lot better this week. Yeah, I'm in a better mood, I think, a little bit. Not tired anymore? No, no.

I think I've worked through it a little bit. No illness? Nope, nope. I'm looking forward to bourbon is what it is.

I'm getting happy. We're getting closer and closer to bourbon hour. That's true.

Yeah, my grandfather used to drink a lot of bourbon. Yeah? Yeah, he'd come home from work every single day and go to the liquor cabin and drink a little something there and turned into a completely different person. It's almost like he was wearing a mask.

Yeah. Yeah, it was crazy. Just like these guys we got here in the studio.

I don't know who the hell they are. I don't know. But you know, it's kind of weird.

They're wearing rubbers. Yeah. You know, you don't have to wear head condoms.

Yeah, that's right. And, you know, it's warm in here. I know they're hot as hell.

Oh, this is nothing. That's why I'm stalling. That's why I'm stalling.

We're going to see how sweaty they get in here. This whole place is going to smell like a foot in about 10 minutes. All right, everybody say hi to Chart Attack.

Hey, I brought you guys some some candies, some Werther's. Keep your little mouths. Is there a breath or? Well, it's just, you know, we give out Werther's to our friends and family.

Well, thank you. Yeah, sugar free too. That's what that's what old people do.

The sugar free heart. Yeah, you know, the diabetes. Yeah, yeah, the diabetes.

The sugars. Yeah, that's right. The sugar.

You get that sugar thing. Yeah, you know what the sugar thing happened. All righty.

So what's going on? Where did this all come together? Well, we're incredibly grateful to be invited and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame here. So we're like. Invited, not inducted.

Yeah, they're abducted. They're abducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Yeah.

Yeah. So we're elated that anybody even knows who we are at this point. But yeah, it's great to be here.

We don't get to do many podcasts. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm just happy to be out of the house. You mean out of the from the home? Yeah. You didn't miss tapioca or anything, did you? No, you know, I scheduled this around my bingo, but.

And next on the poll we have tapioca. Man, so what the fuck? I mean, so just explain what this whole thing is. Who started this? Chart Attack's been around since the dawn of time.

Yeah. So this band is really basically the amalgamation of music fans, like rabid music fans who are like, why hasn't anybody done this? Why hasn't anybody taken the number one songs and turn them into another style and then turn their shows into a party where you're cooler than the band on stages? Right? Okay. You could end up on stage.

You're going to have the night of your life and there's no egos involved. So that's the whole thing comes out of love for music, community, people, and to kind of take the piss out of being a rock star. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. So explain this whole thing.

I mean, you guys show up to a party. Is that what I mean? What do you guys do? How do you guys run this thing? And, you know, let's just let the cat out of the bag. These guys are dressed up like old men, right? Is this the kind of thing where you just kind of start walking around the venue and nobody really knows who the hell you are.

And next thing you know, you guys jump up on stage and you're the band. I mean, people, people are afraid of us before we, uh, before we sued them with, uh, punk rock versions of hits, but then they come around and it's all good. But you know, party thing was, uh, you know, someone's trying to plan a 75th birthday party and, uh, they waited till last minute and, uh, everyone else said no.

So, yeah. So they hired us. That's where we came in.

That's where we came in. Yeah. And, uh, we had a great time.

Uh, the audience might not have enjoyed it as much as we did, but, uh, it was an amazing experience. And luckily, you know, we have, uh, some cameras and we put this stuff on the internet and the internet has tended to, uh, kind of pick us up and take us as their own. So now we have all these grandkids all over the world who are, you know, respecting their Yeah.

And we love them all equally. We do all of them. Yeah.

So is that it's so playing the 75th birthday party? Is that where the idea from the old man thing came from? Oh, no, we've been a band a lot longer than that. That was just a, that was just, what was that last year that we do that? I can't even remember. Yeah.

Yeah. So that was just one of our shows. Um, you know, as, as an old man band, uh, it's hard to get venues and booking agents and people to understand what this is all about.

So at first glance, everybody's like, what is this? Well, once you get in the room with us and you see what this is all about, I've seen three-year-olds who love us. And I've seen 90 year olds that love us and some nice young ladies and young men in the middle. Um, and so we've got a big battle here, right? We've got to like really get convinced people that this is a fun thing and, uh, that you can do anything at any time and be anyone you want in this world.

So you said the dawn of time, how long have you guys been doing this? That's a good question. I don't remember. Pre, pre COVID.

So, you know, back when the dinosaurs were still around. Yeah. Pre COVID that, that it, it doesn't, it seemed like that a little bit when everybody talks about pre COVID, it seems like, uh, it seems like an entire, it's before we jumped the timeline, entire multiverse.

Exactly. Yeah. What about the plaque though? Do we get a plaque because we're inducted into the whole thing? I think he said, yeah, I think he said it's already on the wall somewhere.

Yeah, it is. Oh, okay. Cool.

Yeah. Yeah. It's all about, we don't each get our own.

We have to share it. Yes, you do. You have to share it.

Yeah. You have to do that. So what do you guys do in the band? First of all, what are your names? I'm Cornelius, also known as Corny.

This is Perry Dittles. Uh, he's our drummer and I'm Bert. I'm the maestro.

I'm the singer. And the drummer has no microphone in front of them as, as, as, I mean, nobody, why don't people give drummers microphones? You don't want them talking. Yeah.

This is what happens when you give them a mic. See, that's, that's what happens. That's what our drummer is actually incredibly rich.

Uh, he was the inventor of the pop-up ad. Oh yeah. So he invented the pop-up ad and made millions and millions of dollars.

And then he was unfortunately scammed out of it. Uh, ironically, he clicked a pop-up ad and, uh, one of those online scammers took all of his money. So all of it.

Uh, yeah, he's had a pretty wild ride. Yeah. Yeah.

He paid, he, he paid it all in target gift cards. Yeah. That's who he had to target gift cards.

They, they want those gift cards, man. Excellent. So when you guys, so I want to know, I mean, let's, let's get over this whole, the whole gimmick thing.

How good of musicians are you? I mean, you know, it's like, it's like you guys are taking songs. I listened to some of the stuff that you're doing and you're doing stuff that was never meant to be in the style of punk. And you're redoing it all yourself.

Is this the kind of thing where somebody in the band just takes charge of it and says, okay, I'm rewriting this in the style of punk and you go rehearse it or are you guys cheating and using tracks? No, we don't. No, this band is, uh, amplifiers on stage. There are no tracks.

There's no click track. So you're redoing all the songs into your own style all by yourself is reorchestrating everything and making it your own. Absolutely.

Cause how many times does every cover band go, Oh, we just kind of, you know, we make it our own. And there's that fine line between making it your own and just not playing it. Right.

True. So you guys are probably do punk rock. We can get away with that.

Well, we do punk rock because it's fast and you could play more songs. The songs are shorter. So we actually give you more value per night than any other band.

Number two, you know, it's really hard to reimagine a song, um, and actually make it something that people would want to listen to. So we do find it the challenge very fun, but we've also kind of got this rule that like anything goes. So we can do, uh, Metallica, Shania Twain, and we could do Shania Twain and we can do Usher and we can do, uh, who else do we, we have some other ones.

We actually just, uh, broke the Guinness world book of records for the most number one songs played in one night. Uh, and that was an August of this year at belly belly Doyle, belly Doyle. Yeah.

Yeah. So we did that. So we played every song we know plus some, well, some songs we didn't know.

So the whole idea is that we take something that is universally loved and then we package it back up and we give it to you in a different lens, which is the beauty of art. Right? Sure. Exactly.

We just do what we love and, uh, we have fun and people enjoy that fun with us. Yeah. Yeah.

So did you seriously break that record? Did you, you contacted the Guinness people? We submitted to the world, the Guinness world book of records. Yes. And the bar, um, was stupid enough not to do a Guinness special, but that's a whole nother thing.

So, uh, we go into bars, we try to start a party. These bars don't understand. They're like, I don't know if they're like too young or they don't get it.

So we wanted to have a whole tray of shots for people to have. Yeah. And the bar threw a hissy fit and said, you can't do that.

So I said, all right, well, let's do shots of milk. And we did shots of milk at belly Doyle. Uh, and people loved it.

They drank them all and they got a free charter tech shot glass. So, you know, we're always looking for a way to, for, for people to have an amazing night that they've never had before. And to know every single song, what's worse than going to see a local band and you're like, what are we doing? I don't know these songs.

I don't know any of them. Yeah. They're up there playing for themselves and then they play a cover at the end and you're like, Oh, that's a good one.

And then it's over. So we just go, why would we write a song? Let's just give you the songs you love and we love and let's all celebrate music together in a style we love. And yeah, I mean, we're, you know, the punk rock thing comes from being DIY.

Sure. Right. No one's giving us money to make a record.

We just actually made a whole record that's coming out three days after this podcast comes out. Wow. Wow.

It's called age against the machine. And it is 100% human made music. Yeah.

Uh, all the instruments were played by humans. All the melodies were sang by humans. All the drums were, if you consider him.

Yeah. And it's an homage to the nineties. So every song on there is going to be from the nineties.

The next record could be hip hop. It could be country. It could be whatever we want.

Right. Because we can just keep pulling all these amazing, uh, I vote techno. Techno? That would be a challenge.

People love to sing along. We were told we were getting advanced copies of this tonight. Yeah.

Yeah. That would be interesting techno and do it in a style of punk. Yeah.

You almost have to slow it down. That's another thing, right? So like if you've ever heard, do you know who Taylor Swift is? Have you heard of Taylor Swift? Of course. This woman has so many words in her songs that when you speed them up to punk rock, I'll be, it's not happening.

So it's a challenge to kind of adapt these things. But I think, uh, the world we come from is like, this is all out of love for music. Are you the singer in the band? I'm the singer.

I, I, I, I see, I see an oxygen tank on stage with you in your future, you know, with the whole bit and doing a Taylor Swift song. Yes. Yeah.

I will take the oxygen tank so that world record, how many songs? Oh, that's the record we set was 69 number one songs, uh, in just under three hours. No break. Wow.

Um, you guys were able to stay on stage at your age. You know, I'll tell you what, uh, the adrenaline gets you there, but once you're done, you're just dead. You're dead, man.

Okay. Now what location was that? It was Downers Grove. It was the DG location.

Yeah. Yeah. So, um, is there going to be like a ribbon cutting for our induction? I think they normally cut a ribbon, right? Cut for an induction? No, that's usually for a groundbreaking.

You don't really cut a ribbon for an induction. Oh, good point. Good point.

Okay. Fair enough. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

No ribbon cutting or anything like that. Okay. Yeah.

But you know what I think it's time for? What's that? I see, I see a cojones. I see cojones. Who? Did I not zip up? I see a cojone over there.

I see a guitar over here, right? Yeah. And I think it's time to hear some of these awesome fricking songs turned into the style of punk. I think so too.

Let's take a little break. Unfortunately, you're getting songs that have been turned into punk that have been turned into acoustic tonight. Oh, okay.

All right. More interesting. They're expanding.

There you go. Yes. You'll be the first people to hear this.

This has never been done from this band. This is actually the first podcast we've ever been on. So thank you.

You're our first. So the Taylor Swift song will actually sound like the original then because they turned it to punk and it's back to, yeah, there you go. It's the Taylor Swift song.

Yes. All right. We'll be right back.

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 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. All right. We're back.

And for the first time tonight, live in the studio, we have Chart Attack. I push my fingers into my eyes. It's the only thing that slowly stops the ache.

But it's made of all of the things I have to take. Jesus it never ends. Works its way inside.

If the pain goes on. I scream until my veins collapse. I've waited as my time's elapsed.

Now all I do is live with so much hate. Well I bitched this, I've wished for that. I've left alone this little fact.

You cannot kill what you did not create. Now I've got to say what I've got to say. And then I swear I'll go away.

But I can't promise you'll enjoy the noise. Well I guess I'll save the best for last. My future seems like one big past.

You left me. You left me with no choice. I push my fingers into my eyes.

It's the only thing that slowly stops the ache. But it's made of all the things I have to take. Jesus it never ends.

Works its way inside. If the pain goes on. I'm not gonna make it.

Separate the skin from bone. Leave me all the pieces. Then you can't leave me alone.

Tell me the reality is better than the dream. But I found out the hard way. Nothing is what it seems.

I push my fingers into my eyes. It's the only thing that slowly stops the ache. But it's made of all the things I have to take.

Jesus it works its way inside. If the pain goes on. I'm not gonna make it.

All I've got. I'm slowly stopping. I have to take.

Works its way inside. I think I screwed up some point but we did it. No that was really good.

That was fun. Did you have a senior moment? Wow yeah a little bit of a senior moment. I guess so.

No that was awesome man. Holy crap. Thank you.

Thanks. I wasn't expecting that. Man that was some high energy.

Yeah man. We're doing our best here you know. A little Pedialyte.

A little Werthers. Yeah we're all set. Those Werthers were good man.

I forgot how good those things were. Yeah no jeez and they're sugar free. Yeah that was pretty cool.

We throw them out on stage instead of guitar picks. Yes. We also do live bingo and give out prizes.

Oh man. Yeah this uh Halloween we're hosting our record release show. And we're doing it at the House Pub in St. Charles which is a tiny little pub.

Yep yep yep. In beautiful St. Charles. And we're giving away $250.

For the best costume because it's Halloween. Yep yep. We've got a bottle of Lost Marbles which is Kevin from Candlebox.

Remember the band Candlebox? Yeah. Oh they're having a resurgence but he started a bourbon company so we're going to do a private tasting for anybody who pre-orders a ticket. We're going to have to check that bourbon out.

We are bourbon aficionados. You are? We actually do bourbon. We conduct bourbon tastings.

Well if you guys want to come we would be happy to put you on our guest list. You can come in have some bourbon and then of course uh no party would be complete without some shot girls. So we've got some shot girls from a company called Minus 195 or something coming out to get everybody loose.

Yeah yeah. You're working. Yeah what's the date? Halloween.

October 31st. I'm working. I'm working.

Yeah. I'm working. Damn.

Yeah. Well we can save you the backwash of that bourbon bottle and send it over here if you want. No you go ahead and keep that back that backwash.

I'll find that bourbon from someplace. So Kevin from Candlebox came out with his own bourbon. Everybody's coming out with bourbon.

Yeah. And stuff like that. Rick Nielsen just came out, big contributor of the museum here, just came out with his own vodka.

Yeah. Rick Nielsen rules. A lot of people were into vodka for a while.

Yeah. Yeah. The U.S. was the number one consumer of vodka in the world.

You think it'd be Poland or Russia. But no. It was it was the U.S. Until bourbon.

Until the bourbon. What's your favorite bourbon? Oh gosh. That's like asking me what's my favorite shade of blue.

I'm I'm more of a um I'm more of the heavier full-bodied sweeter ice cream flavor kind of stuff. So I like uh I like uh like Eagle Rare. Okay.

You know I prefer Eagle Rare over Blanton's even though even though they're out of the same distillery. I prefer Eagle Rare over Blanton's kind of thing. I also like the Michter Sour Mash stuff.

That's pretty good. I have no idea. I haven't drank in 40 years.

I just had a Eagle Rare bottle that was uh it was aged in Sazerac uh barrels or whatever that means. Well it was it was it was aged in the in the in rye barrels basically. It was aged in Sazerac rye barrels.

Fair enough. Yeah okay. That's what he said.

I'd have to go with Blanton's but it's hard to find Blanton's. So uh I thought you were gonna be a pappy guy. No no I'm not not a pappy guy.

You know you know what it's hard to of course it's hard to find the expensive the 23 year old pappy but I've had the the 12 year old and stuff like that and it's it's good but it's probably not it's not the greatest. Now if you do get your hands on the actual 23 year old pappy that stuff is fantastic. But the it's and it's all about the quality control because there's actually been years where they didn't make a bottle of pappy 23 year old because it is a it is I believe it's 13 people.

It has to be a unanimous agreement between 13 people. One of them has to be is Preston Van Winkle and if if one person out of the 13 says that nope this is not good enough to be pappies then then pappy Van Winkle 23 year old does not produce that year and they've actually gone several years without producing it. That's why it's so darn expensive.

I mean name another product where 13 people in quality control have to unanimously agree on it before it goes to market right. So the last supper yeah sounds like our wives trying to pick dinner yeah yeah. So when do all the people show up for this induction ceremony? You're looking at them that's that that's it that's it it's it's a very intimate party.

I think Ray and I are the only ones that that that know you guys. I'm okay with that. It really is you know that's fair that's fair this is a good party though.

Yeah we're having a good time here because this is your first trip to the museum. It's our first trip to the museum and it is gorgeous. Yeah where'd you guys where'd you guys come in from? Aurora Illinois.

Oh you guys aren't too far away. Yeah that's why when you reached out we were like finally something we could do because a lot of people reach out from California and New Jersey and UK and we can't do any of that stuff. Yeah.

So we saw this and we're like we're getting inducted in the rock and roll hall of fame. Let's go. We used to have that on here.

It's a bust man you don't do it you know. I'll tell you what you could be in the rock and roll hall of fame because I don't know exactly what it is but it's like a small fee they give you a tile and they put it on the wall over there so you could be over there. Are they for sale or what? Yeah there's different prices for the different size tiles you can put your logo and name on there and they'll put you on the wall.

Yeah that groove is over there. You guys scammed old people to come in to sell us the tile? Yeah that's what we do. I knew it.

Did you bring the Target gift cards because I want to get one of those. I've always got the Target gift cards in case someone needs it. You definitely need to do that.

From the internet. This place is gorgeous. I believe in the near future things like this are going to explode because we're all ready to go back outside, get off the computers, be around other people and this place if you have not visited it is incredible.

Your studio is incredible. When I think of a podcast I think of a sad guy in basement so you never know what you're going into. It used to be.

It used to be. This room itself was pretty much just a storage room at one point in time and about well a year ago or so if you were on this podcast there was boxes and shit all over the place. And prior to the studio we actually went to places to meet people with portable digital recorders and we'd actually go to their homes.

We meet them at a bar which we found out is not a good place to go and then I found where I live there's a bar downtown. It's a dive bar but they got these two little rooms in the back and there's a round table in there and I said hey could we do our podcast back here. I said we'll buy beer and she's like yeah when do you want to do it and whatever day I picked and we started doing it in this bar for about probably a year.

Good for you. If you're listening right now and you like this you're listening. Okay listen to this.

Check this out. All four of them. If you're listening to this podcast right now the number one thing you can do is you can share it with somebody who you think would like it.

That's the golden rule of the internet. Right. And then number two if you could just leave a review it's free.

Leave a review. Write these guys a nice review. They're getting all these musicians from all over.

They're setting this up. They're kind enough to bring us in here and induct us into the hall of fame. I'm going to leave a review thanking them for doing that for us.

But you should leave a review too. Yeah. Right.

No I mean you. Oh me. Specifically.

Me corny. And if anybody wants to go to www.rnrcp.com which is rock and roll Chicago podcast.com you can make a nice donation. Oh even better because this gear ain't free you know.

These microphones aren't free so. Ribbons they cut them and you can't use them again. If you don't support music.

If you don't support podcasts. If you don't support artists. If you don't support writers.

That shit's going to go away. Yep you're exactly right. So if you're listening right now you can become a supporter of this show.

And I think that would be the good deed that they could do today. Yeah yeah. I would agree.

I would agree yeah. Or you could buy a ticket to our show at show.chartattackmusic.com. Actually. Do both.

It'll be three days till the show. Wait four days. You got four days to get a ticket now.

Yeah. Shameless plug. You did yours I did mine.

No that's okay. No no do your plug for sure. So you got any shows coming up after Halloween? We have one more show coming up in Michigan at the Park Theater.

In Holland. We have actually. I've been there.

Have you been there? You probably played there. You're a rock star. Actually I haven't played there but I know where it is.

So we have somehow acquired a booking agent. Which is like one of the kind of things it's you know every band wants. And so they're starting to get us out.

And then we just signed to an international booking agency. And so we're looking to get over to the UK next summer. But right now it's.

A barren wasteland. It's a barren wasteland. So okay this is this is can I can we talk about the music industry? Absolutely.

Okay. Absolutely. All right so as a band and you know because you're a rock star right? Sure.

You book a show. And it's your job to get everybody there. That means you have to do the marketing.

You got to sell the tickets. You have to put on the show. And that at the end of the show.

The venue cuts a little sliver of the money off and gives it to you. Right. And what you've done is you've filled their environment with patrons and drinkers.

And eaters and all the other stuff. And so it becomes this sort of this this. What's the word I'm looking for here? Scam to play at a venue sometimes.

Because you're basically just giving them like eight thousand dollars in revenue. And they're giving you six hundred bucks. So we've actually become a little more picky.

Yeah. And we're going to play less shows so that the shows we do play. Maybe people take seriously and come see us.

And then like a venue like the House Pub. This is crazy. Check this out.

One hundred percent of the door goes to the band. Oh there's a concept. Right.

It used to be that way. It used to be that way. That's the way it used to be.

And so, you know, you book a show with your band. And then you're going to run Facebook ads. So you could try to get people there.

And you're going to post on social media. And you're going to drive your ass there. And you're going to set up all your gear.

And you're going to not work for a day because you're working on this. And then you're basically filtering yourself off. So we're trying to do everything we can to create our own shows.

Like 75th birthday parties. And, you know, we could play at a roller rink or in a mattress store. I think the DIY scene is going to pop.

I think we could be a part of that because we're kind of fringe. But there's too many bands and there's too little venues. Oh, I'm sorry.

I just slapped your computer. There's too many bands and too little venues. And people aren't respecting music.

You're really attacking this table. He is. He's serious about it.

But you know what though? It also depends on what it is that you're willing to accept and what it is that you want to do. Because if you want to book the band, there's a thousand places around here that you can book the band every single night of the week if you want. If you're willing to pay for, you know, 100 bucks a guy.

But all that stuff that you just named right there, 100 bucks a guy isn't going to cut it. Nope. It's not going to cut it.

It's not even going to make a dent in the amount of time. And it's really because you're talking about time. You know, just organizing a set list takes hours.

Yeah. Before you even get off your couch organizing a set list, because I know I do the set list in Cadillac Groove. Yeah.

You're sitting there looking at tempo, key, you know, the whole bit, because you don't want to have two songs, same key right after a note. You want to know all that stuff. Yeah.

And the guitar player's got to have time to switch over to his slide. So we got to do all three of the slide ones right here. And we got to do this.

And it literally takes hours to put together a set list. And everything that you just talked about is hours on top of that. So a hundred bucks a guy doesn't even, doesn't even make a dent.

Or when the people get there for that eight o'clock show, they don't realize you've been there for four hours already setting up. Right. Oh, of course.

You've been there all day. You've been there all freaking day. And then you're going to be there for hours afterwards, taking down.

Right now. Exactly. We are always flexible because we like to have a party and we're, it's not all about money for us, but I think that musicians and in Chart Attack is a good example of this.

Nobody's doing anything for us. We're doing it for ourselves. And the next thing is going to be, you know, not using a venue or figuring out a way where we can create a scenario that's a little bit more fair to somebody who's, we actually caught a venue.

Check this out. We caught a venue lying to us because we got everybody to write their name on a piece of paper that was at the show. And we had 125 people on this piece of paper.

And when it came time to settle up, uh, 62 paid. Yeah. Right.

Funny you should mention that. But there's nothing you could do, right? Musicians and artists, we are at the mercy because we want to share our greatness with people. So we want to just be in front of people because we're all nuts.

But at some point, you know, there's five of us in the band. So what happened? So what happened with that? Well, we got a little more money because we pushed back and that was a signal that was sent to us from the venue that the next time they want us to play, it's going to be five grand. Yeah.

Right. Or no, no band because the place was packed from wall to wall, the waitresses. And I always do this.

I don't know about you. You could probably do this. I always try to make friends with the waitresses at a bar.

Absolutely. And we typically all pull a bunch of money and we'll give our waitress 50 bucks before we've ever even ordered. Absolutely.

Okay. Right. When we play a show, waitresses are always like, I made the most money tonight.

Or the bar's like, we sold the most liquor tonight. Yeah. Right.

We're doing that. You're doing that. Musicians are doing that.

Otherwise it's an empty bar. Right. Right.

So, uh, I know this, am I sounding negative right now? Uh, you sound grumpy. Okay. I'm not grumpy.

I feel empowered. No, you're, you're legit. I just, uh, um, you know, cause you know what it is? You know what it is? There's a lot of, there's a lot of bars out there.

There's a lot of venues out there where they're running, they're operating as a business, but it's a bunch of guys. They're buddies that have always wanted to own a bar. And so four or five guys got together and put their money together and they opened up a bar and they have no idea how to run a bar.

Yeah. That was all that cocaine that one night. They were like, let's start a bar.

Yeah. Let's do it. Right.

It's a good idea. Yeah. And we're not, and we're not mentioning any names, but there's also a, there's, there's a theater here in the Chicagoland area.

Um, that's the same way. The theater is being ran by somebody that's never run a theater before. And the parent company that owns the theater has nothing to do with the entertainment business.

You would never put this business together with a theater ever in your life. Right. And they're always having, you know, always having issues and things like that.

We played a place one time where we were, we were actually operating a fundraiser for a law enforcement organization. And we told them, we told them we've sold 500 tickets. We've sold 500 tickets.

Right. Everyone, every, all the proceeds are going to this organization. Right.

There's going to be at least, well, some people maybe bought two tickets or whatever, but for the most part, people bought one ticket. We're like, there's going to be between 350 and 500 people in this place. And we chose one of the biggest venues that we could possibly find to hold this party and everything.

The, the owner of the place didn't believe us. They're like, yeah, I don't believe you. So there's like three servers and one bartender and sure as shit, 500 people walked through the door and we were basically said, yeah, we can't book you guys here anymore.

We can't handle this. What, what, what? From one extreme to another. What? You can't handle what you, you can't handle 500 people in your bar all drinking on a Friday night.

You, you can't handle that. Tell me what can, what do you mean? You physically can't handle it. Go hire some people.

Yeah. Soft people. That's right.

Yeah. I know. Sometimes I feel like we got to beg people to get, you know, to collaborate with us or beg people to help us make them money.

Like, right. I go into a bar and I'm like, I want to get some shots going here to get everybody riled up. They're like, no.

And I, and I turned to my bass player and said, I'm not promoting alcohol tonight. Yeah. And normally I'm like getting people, you know, I'm not safely.

Right. Right. Having the night of their life.

So we give out milk instead. So listen, the point of the matter is. Hot water with lemon.

Right. Hot water with lemon. There you go.

No one's coming to save us. Right. Right.

But that doesn't mean anyone's coming to stop us either. Right. And that means that we can do whatever we want to do.

Right. Stoppable. All right.

Well, induct us already. Yeah. Abduct you already.

You got another song for us? Sure. We'd love to play another song for you. Whip it out.

All right. Let's do it. Let's do it.

We're not going to take a break. We're just going to. No, we're going to go right into it.

I'm going to unfurl my triangle. I remember where you guys were. Unfurl the triangle.

That's good. You know, not many people play the triangle anymore. No, no, they don't.

It's a fantastic instrument. It's a beauty of engineering. It's a marvel.

Yes. This spoon is not for what you think it's for either. Tapioca.

And I see you're playing the triangle off a chart. Yes, I have a chart here of all my hits. Thank you for that.

Thank you for that. All right. We want to do, we're going to do another 90s song because our whole new album is a tribute to how glorious the 90s were.

Yep. The 90s were awesome. Glorious.

Yeah, loved it. We need some more of that. All right, let's do it.

I really want to know, oh baby, what I really want to say, I can't define, it's love that I need, my soul will have to wait till I get back, find a hammer of my own, daddy's gonna love what he know, oh, and I feel the break, feel the break, feel, I swear that I, what I really want to know, oh baby. Thank you, Very Real Crowd. Yes.

Freaking awesome. That was awesome. That was nice.

You know how many times I hear bands cover that song and they do the same thing and the guitar player could never play the solo right and everything else. I nailed that solo. No, that was really cool.

So is that guitar then going to go into the Hall of Fame? Yeah, we're going to put it right over there on the top of the wall on the ledge over there. That's what we're going to do. All right.

Right there. Yeah. Sorry, dude.

I'll sign it. Okay. Did you say sign it? You can sign it.

I'll sign it. That's right. I noticed you never took the cardboard off the pick guard.

The cardboard's still on there. Oh, that's gold. That's a gold pick guard.

That's 16 carat. Your eyes are going, man. My eyes are going, yeah.

Hey, listen, don't worry. We all have readers now. It's okay.

You know what? That's my only guitar. Maybe we put your triangle up there and I keep that. Okay.

Take it home with me. I'll put my triangle up in the Hall of Fame. Yeah, you just keep your triangle in your pants, man.

Who's the weirdest person in here? The weirdest person in here? Oh, man. Let's see. Well, you know, Rick Nielsen is kind of a- Well, of course.

Off the wall kind of guy with playing a guitar upside down. It looks just like himself. And he's got a lot of stuff in there.

Weird. You know what it is? When you guys are done, we're going to take you through here. Because I think what the weirdest thing is in here is people do not realize the amount of people from Illinois.

Famous people from Illinois. And that's the reason why that this place exists is to bring recognition to the influence of the music from Chicago. So you go and it's this- Illinois.

Yeah, the whole state of Illinois. But it's this back wall over here. There's people on there like Burl Ives.

Who knew Burl Ives was from Illinois? Gene Autry. Gene Autry is from Illinois. I mean- Now you're speaking our language.

That's the kind of thing that I think people are most like surprised by when they come here and they see that wall. They're like, really? These guys are all from Illinois. Yeah, these guys are from Illinois.

The Midwest rules. I think one of the- My favorite thing, one of the coolest things in here. We've got a Terry Cath guitar.

Terry Cath from Chicago. We've got one of his Telecasters here. So if you come to the museum, you'll see Terry Cath's Telecaster with the Chicago Cubs and Blackhawk stickers and stuff all over it.

There's also a real Bo Diddley over there. Bo Diddley guitar. And it's got chips and cracks on it.

You know, the thing was played by him. Yeah. And then we don't have it on display here.

We can't bring you upstairs because the second floor is not yet open to the public. But we've got the Eye of the Tiger touring drum kit from Survivor. The one that was wrapped in tiger fur.

Yeah. Can he play it? Real tiger fur and stuff. We don't even know where it is right now.

It used to be, it used to be in a corner over here, but I think it's been put in storage and stuff. He knows. Yeah.

He knows. But there's a lot of cool stuff here. So people need to come out to this place.

It is open, by the way. It is open. It's open during the day.

You can come here, I believe it's, is it nine to five now? Nine to five. I forget what the weekend is. Just call.

Is it free or do you gotta pay? I'm not sure. There is- I think there's an admission. I believe there is an admission fee to get in right now.

Or you can become a charter member and never have to pay. And the charter membership, if it's still what it is, the last time I looked, I thought it was 300 bucks. Oh, I think it was like 35.

35? 35 bucks. Well, we can, we can look that up right now and find out. Go to roadtorock.org and you'll find all that information about the museum there.

Yeah. We don't work for the museum. Oh, I'm just, I'm blown away.

I love museums. I love history and- Of definitely being inducted in rules. I think it's more like indicted.

Yeah. Wait, we're getting indicted? You got nothing on us. It's definitely one of those things where this would be a great place to, to, you know, on a weekend or on a day off, come down, check it out.

You know, music is the, basically the universal language we all speak, right? You watch a movie and the, and it's, you, you start crying. It's because of the music. It's not because of what you're seeing on the screen.

Yep. And, uh, you know, I think this might be able to help save rock and roll because rock and roll seems to be falling off a cliff here. A little bit.

All we've got left is Dave Grohl. I mean, Slipknot has one of eight original members and we've got Dave Grohl. What do we do? Yeah.

We gotta come up with something. You gotta look, come in here and see that, oh, you could plug in that guitar to an amp and rock out, you know? We gotta, yeah. Quiet.

All righty guys. The drummer made a sound. It's come to that time.

It is come to that time. Your van just pulled up to take you back to the home. Yep.

Beep, beep. I hear you. Backing up.

That was an occasion. So thanks a lot for coming out. Thank you.

This was a lot of fun. Pleasure meeting you guys. You know what? You asked some great questions.

You guys have an awesome setup here. We really appreciate you even inviting us. Keep doing what you're doing.

And thanks again for the induction into this beautiful. I'm looking forward to the pre-release copy of the album. You can listen to it right now.

Yeah. Okay. All right.

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

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.