Greetings and salutations. Thank you for joining us. My name’s Johnny Nato and you have entered Embrace your Storm. We’ve got another exciting episode for you. As always, and excuse the noise in the background, they’re replacing a door, which is fantastic. So before we get to the interview, everyone don’t forget to check out the website embracetourstormcom. There’s the other podcast on there called Soundbite. It’s a daily dose of metal music where I give a live reaction song to a new metal song every day. So that’s fun. Check that out, Don’t forget. You can email me at helloandembracestormcom. There’s dashes in the domain because I’m cheap and that’s it, Okay. So we have on an exciting guest today. We’ve had a lot of people from Berklee and I hope this doesn’t stop, but so today we have on Ralph, and he is a professor at the berkeley school of music, and ralph is, uh, quite the creative person himself.
0:01:14 – Speaker 2
So, ralph, thanks for coming on today. Sure, johnny, nice to be here. And you know, um about maybe 15 years ago, I did a.
I was running a television show, uh, and it’s like an interview show, and we had a show at berkeley and I said I introduced, I get on stage and I said thank you so much to the berkeley, um uh, school of music for hosting us this and that. And then the professor in the room says, excuse me, we’re berkeley college of music and for like for 100 years they were berkeley school of music and everybody says that. And then when we became a college like when people make that mistake, we have to say no, no, we’re a college yeah, no, I hear you yeah, the berkeley college of music.
So I’m, I’m in my I’m in my 10th year here at berkeley and I teach, or going towards my 11th year. I teach in the music business department.
0:02:06 – Speaker 1
That’s cool, that’s fun and exciting.
0:02:08 – Speaker 2
I love the school. I absolutely love the school and I love my students and it’s like you know, if you want to know about people that are encouraged to create things like I, have classrooms full of these people. Yeah, that’s exciting. It’s not easy getting a loan or asking grandparents or friends for X amount of money per year. It’s very expensive.
0:02:33 – Speaker 1
Yeah, and it’s very competitive oh yeah, people from all around the world are trying to get to that school every year. Yeah, yeah.
0:02:41 – Speaker 2
Something like almost half of our students come from all over the world. That’s cool and you know, that’s part of the reason why I do this. You know, I have students from Ukraine, I have students from Russia, I have students from Iran, I have students from Iraq. I have students from all over the world. That’s cool. And what brings us together is music.
0:03:03 – Speaker 1
Yeah, the universal language right.
0:03:05 – Speaker 2
Right and as you know more than anybody music. For some of us, it’s one of the most important forces on the planet, you know.
0:03:16 – Speaker 1
Well, honestly, I think it’s one of the most important, one of the most maybe not necessarily important, but it’s definitely a force, whether or not you want to recognize it. Like, music is going to affect you. It’s kind of like you know, you might not believe in gravity, but step off the edge of a building and you’re going to find out. You know, whether you believe it or not, it’s going to affect you, right, and so music is that same way. You know, like, like. So someone could walk into a room, regardless if they want to react to it, it could. It could just hit them and touch them in a, in a spot they just didn’t expect. You know, like that.
That’s why that’s why me, I think other create creation type things that people are into. I think it affects other people that way too, Like maybe if they see you know some piece of clothing or like they’re into like sewing, or you know what I mean or, or art or whatever you know, I can.
I can move those people just in that very same way, you know. But, um, you know, music is just, you know, like music is a time traveling machine, like I wanted to talk about this one time, like music is so powerful where you know you could like if you’re, you know you’re a kid and like you used to listen to a song or whatever, or maybe there’s a certain smell, it’s like every time you hear that song it’s like boom, you get transported right back into your bedroom. You can still see your post. That’s the power of music, man. We already do have a time-traveling machine. That’s what I love about music. It can do so much stuff.
0:04:47 – Speaker 2
I’m a pretty massive david bowie fan and one of my students, uh, was working for uh, tony visconti and tony was one of bowie’s producers and whatnot, and, um, he’s working with tony in new york city and they had the job of getting the original tracks from David Bowie that were in a vault and digitizing them all.
So, there’s dats and there’s tapes and there’s all these different technologies. So they digitized them and my student had to kind of clean them up and make sure they were all digitized and then they had to make sure they sounded good and master and mix them and to put in the movie. So I saw this movie and it was like a Tuesday night and I was in Arlington, Massachusetts, right outside of Boston.
0:05:38 – Speaker 1
I used to put on a film festival in Arlington Massachusetts. Wow. Wow, great yeah.
0:05:45 – Speaker 2
Well, there’s a film festival that still goes on. I didn’t know if it’s yours.
0:05:48 – Speaker 1
That’s actually probably the one I used to do. It’s called Lonely Seal Film Festival, right?
0:05:52 – Speaker 2
Wow, yeah, so yeah, so I, I, I left, I watched the movie with my wife and it was like Bowie and the music and the scenes and it was just really really great art. And I walked out of there and it was, you know, nine o’clock at night and I was walking a mile home and I go like I looked at my wife and I said, now, what do we do with our lives? You?
know David Bowie was so inspiring and you know the way he designed his outfits, the lighting schemes, what he did with sound, what he did with guitar tones. You know everything was ripped apart and brought together in such a creative way. And these people inspire me, you know, and they inspire you, and they inspire my tribe of people in the music business and my students Like we’re the same tribe, like this is good stuff. This is important stuff.
0:06:49 – Speaker 1
No, I hear you, I, and that’s kind of like kind of staying along the same line. That’s one of the kinds of things that I push when, if I’m talking to someone about if they’re playing, you know, guitar or some kind of instrument, I’m always like, don’t be afraid of being you, because you’re the only you we’re gonna have that interprets the notes the way you do. So we don’t need you interpreting the notes like Eddie Van Halen. We already got that, you know what I mean. Like we already got Jimi Hendrix interpreting the notes the way that he did. So we I we need you to do it the way, because what’s important is that person being true to themselves, like david bowie, say, for instance, and like because he was true to himself, he connected with all those other people, and so if you’re not going to be true to yourself, then you have the big chance of not connecting with those other people and not um like sharing your music and trying to encourage or or help along people with the music that you create.
0:07:48 – Speaker 2
You know Right on, right on, and it’s not just sharing music. You’re sharing your heart and your soul and your dreams and your grandparents’ dreams and all this stuff that’s together in us, right.
0:07:58 – Speaker 1
Yeah, totally, totally, you know.
0:08:00 – Speaker 2
Johnny, I start out every class at Berkeley with kind of like the same talk, and so the students introduce themselves and then I go to the front of the room and I say guess what? Today and I have two hour classes. Today, while we’re sitting here at Berkeley College of Music, there’s going to be more than 100,000 songs being released to the digital streaming services. Wow, Just this day, just this day, 100,000 songs.
0:08:35 – Speaker 1
Wow, that is insane to even imagine, right. And then I pause.
0:08:42 – Speaker 2
And then I go to my desk and I move my cell phone from one side to the other and I move my chair. And then I look up and then I say let me tell you something, we don’t need any more songs. And it’s completely quiet. And I said we don’t need any more guitarists, managers like myself, we’re full, the business is full. We don’t need any more guitarists, managers like myself, we’re full, the business is full. We don’t need any more of anything. And then I adjust a pen, I move my chair back and I look up and I’m thinking, if I was 20-some years old and on the line for a couple hundred thousand dollars for an education, I wouldn’t want to hear that my first class.
0:09:26 – Speaker 1
I hear you.
0:09:28 – Speaker 2
And then I look up and I said so keeping this in mind that every day there’s 100,000 songs that are coming to the marketplace. Why should someone care about you? Why should someone care about you as a manager, a guitarist, a songwriter, a stinger, an artist? Why should someone care? And then I just pause again and I say we have to figure that out.
0:10:01 – Speaker 1
We have to figure that out.
0:10:02 – Speaker 2
That’s cool. That’s actually a cool way to open up your, your class. I and I. You know that’s good for me too. You know, we don’t need another manager, we don’t need another teacher, but why? Why should someone care about me? So I have to. You know, this is what I had to figure out my whole life long. I’ve been managing artists for about 35 years no kidding before that I was a musician, and before that I well as, as I was a musician, I was also promoting shows.
Um I was that’s cool you know some of the, some of the. I I hear you know you’re, you’re a rock guy, right yeah, yeah, I’m into heavy metal and everything, yeah. Right. So you know I was in the late 70s. I was in Allentown, pennsylvania, which is a kind of a.
0:10:51 – Speaker 1
Actually I actually have some I actually have some friends from there.
0:10:55 – Speaker 2
Come on yeah. Yeah, for you. And I love, I love, I love my hometown and I loved it growing up there. I love my hometown and I loved it growing up there. So you know we were doing this was a something called the Allentown Council of Youth and it was the student government for the three high schools we had in in Allentown and we would get together for workshops and for free concerts in the park and all kinds of things.
And the way we made our money was we were co-promoting big concerts. So there used to be two places now in town for big concerts and there was a deep purple concert.
0:11:35 – Speaker 1
Oh nice.
0:11:36 – Speaker 2
There was a little bit of a riot. So the police department and the mayor says no more. No more rock concerts, no kidding.
0:11:44 – Speaker 1
Wow, Okay, and the mayor says no more. No more rock concerts.
0:11:45 – Speaker 2
No kidding, wow, okay. And then they had to kind of pause everything and reconfigure everything and what they said is if there’s going to be rock concerts, they’re going to be done differently by real promoters and every concert is going to be co-promoted by the Allentown Council of Youth. So a legitimate, professional legitimate, you know professional promoter from one of these big cities would come in and say we have sticks and rush and Mata Hoople Are you interested?
And then they would contract with things, they would put the tickets on sales and we would do. We would do a street clean a street, a street team, we would put up posters, we would promote, we did hospitality.
0:12:30 – Speaker 1
We did security, so would the town get a cut of the action for doing? All this, ah, okay, the council youth would yeah, yeah, yeah. So if there, was a profit.
0:12:39 – Speaker 2
half the profits would go to the Allentown Council Youth and from that we could put on all these free things for Allentown.
0:12:46 – Speaker 1
Wow, that’s actually a cool design, like setting it up. Yeah, that’s really cool.
0:12:52 – Speaker 2
So I was the vice president junior year and president of this organization my senior year. So we did like Rush and Kiss. That’s cool. And Sticks and you know Hall of Notes and Dolly Parton.
0:13:09 – Speaker 1
Wow, you had all big names traveling through there then. Yeah, ritchie.
0:13:13 – Speaker 2
Blackmore’s Rainbow and all this stuff. It just changed my life. It was absolutely amazing that these big, shiny buses would come in from heaven come to our little town. This is the late 70s, so the internet wasn’t around. So you know, we, everybody in town, would come to these concerts because they were.
0:13:33 – Speaker 1
They were the big rock concerts right, it was like, and it was like you know, people would actually socialize and do things back then, right in person in person, right, so so, so that changed my life and you know, I think quite often of later on in my life what I was doing.
0:13:54 – Speaker 2
I was doing I had a commercial real estate company and I would be listening to radio stations during the day and they would have interviews with artists and things, and they said, oh yeah, we’re going to be in Philadelphia today and Delaware, and then we go down to Nashville and then we’re going to do a run to Atlanta and Birmingham and then down to Florida. And I think, wow, you know, imagine that. And I was thinking, how do you get out of your hometown, how do you make a difference in this life? And then I thought how amazing it must be just to go from city to city to city playing music and creating all this energy around your art and your music. What a great life that was. You don’t have to be behind a cubicle and you’re always in motion and you’re seeing people and and for me that was that was like a that was always in the back of my head as something that was bigger than my hometown that was bigger than what I wanted to do with my life.
So when I was around kiss and when I was around Rush and all these other bands, I would. They were my heroes.
0:15:10 – Speaker 1
Did you get to like hang out, kind of hang out?
0:15:12 – Speaker 2
with them or be around them, or whatever. Yeah, johnny, I got to hang out, and at the time, we didn’t have selfies, so I took pictures. I had pictures of people and I had autographs and then when they would leave, I would go to the green room and I got the 15 towels that Kiss used to take their makeup off, oh, wipe off all that.
0:15:34 – Speaker 1
Oh man, imagine if I had those towels.
0:15:37 – Speaker 2
I had the 15 towels. I brought them into school the next day in a big plastic bag and I sold them for $10 a towel. There you go, there you go there you go.
0:15:47 – Speaker 1
You know how much you can sell them for now.
0:15:49 – Speaker 2
Well, you know something? It’s funny because years later I was at a it was a charity function in Los Angeles with all these people and afterwards I went out and I was waiting for my car to come around and I was standing there next to a big guy and I looked over and it’s Gene Simmons oh geez. And I said Gene Gene, my name is Ralph Jackadine and I promoted you guys in 1977 in Allentown, pennsylvania. And he said he said it was like September 17thth 1977 or whatever the date was yeah, yeah, he said how do you know that?
and he goes. I don’t do drugs, I don’t drink and I have a brilliant mind wow, yeah well, there you go, so there you go.
0:16:41 – Speaker 1
So that’s how that happens, you know one thing about him, like gene simmons, I want to just throw in like this, this thought that I had of him, because you know people will say like oh, he’s kind of this arrogant, whatever, and you know this, that and the other thing. And and I’m like, okay, let’s just for a minute think about where this guy said he came from. Like, if you hear his story, how he’s like, grew up in Israel, you know, and then like they’re rationing you know food and stuff, like that, of course it’s like wicked loud. Hopefully that stops it, okay, but they’re like rationing, like food and stuff in Israel. And when he comes to America he’s like I couldn’t believe you know a grocery store. Like believe you know a grocery store? Like all this food everywhere, right, so like, this guy comes from that. And now look at what he has.
0:17:29 – Speaker 2
no kidding he’s got this like arrogance, like this guy.
0:17:30 – Speaker 1
This guy conquered the world. You know what I? Mean like so yeah he’s gonna be kind of arrogant and be like, yeah, nothing gets in my way, look at, look at what I’ve done, you know and you know it’s um.
0:17:41 – Speaker 2
so to get back to the towels and gene simmons, so I said to gene hey, gene, by the way, I gotta thank you because after your show in allentown I got the 15 towels that you guys took your makeup on brought to school and I I made 150 dollars before homeroom and he said he looked at me and looked down at me and he said you full, if you would have kept them they would have been worth 10 times that Exactly.
0:18:06 – Speaker 1
Yep Exactly.
0:18:08 – Speaker 2
Always, always thinking yeah.
0:18:11 – Speaker 1
No, seriously.
0:18:13 – Speaker 2
When they came to our town, the first album just came out maybe it was 76. And there was a line of you know, and I would get out of school half the class, half the day, and I would go to the fairgrounds where the show was, and there was a line of the scariest people, uh, waiting to get in. You know, these are everybody. Seemed like they were in a motorcycle gang and I was. I was afraid of everything back then and there was scary people, yeah, yeah well, especially in a small town or whatever.
0:18:42 – Speaker 1
you know what I mean.
0:18:43 – Speaker 2
Yeah, I gotcha, and then um, so I the guys were in the green room and they were putting on their makeup and and Gene Simmons, uh, I walk in I say did you guys need anything? And he goes no, how’s it looking out there? And I said honestly, and he goes yeah, honestly I said cause the show was sold out long before, but it was general admission. So as soon as you go in there, you go to the. You know it’s standing only.
0:19:11 – Speaker 1
Yeah, exactly yeah.
0:19:13 – Speaker 2
So, that people were there early in the day and I said, honestly, it looks scary. And he goes what do you mean? I said are you, your audience seems scary to me, like? Are you, your audience seems scary to me like? Are you ever afraid of your audience? And he looked up at me annoyed and he said and he stopped putting on his makeup. And he said, my friend, before I started this band, I was a high school teacher in new york. I am afraid of nothing. Oh my God, I love that.
0:19:46 – Speaker 1
He is so full of like perfect one-liners or whatever.
0:19:50 – Speaker 2
You know what I’m saying Like he’s, he’s pretty funny, he’s pretty funny. So that’s, that’s what I I, that’s what I did in high school, and then I went, so so, ralph I like.
0:20:00 – Speaker 1
One thing I want to ask is like, were you playing music before this? Or like, did you catch the promoter bug? It seems like you’re. You got more to promoting. It sounds like from the way you’re talking. Yeah.
0:20:11 – Speaker 2
I, I was really. Uh, what I did is I, I started to play guitar and, um, I played at church, so the we had the folk mass on Saturday night, so me and two other really talented women would play these masses and there was probably, you know, um seven, 800 people every Saturday night and and the two women I was with were really good and um, and I was just okay.
So, um, I thought you know we’re pretty good here, let’s, let’s start. I started a coffee house series in my church and in the in the school, in the gymnasium, so we had, we had a place to play, and then I started to book our little trio in other places so then, like we wouldn’t play beside church unless I went out and found out what was going on.
So, I became very conscious of little coffee houses and open mics and things like that. So I I love that. I love promoting back then. And then when we started doing the big, big shows with big bands, um, you really cut the bug like you could. You know, once you hang out with richie blackmore’s rainbow and um and three other opening acts, I just couldn’t go back to my life as a normal person.
0:21:34 – Speaker 1
I hear you, I hear you.
0:21:36 – Speaker 2
I was completely imprinted with the magic and majesty and the scariness of the energy, of these bands of the energy of these bands. So I wanted to play music and I did play music but I really really liked promoting. So when I went into college I went out to Indiana to University of Notre Dame and my junior year and senior year I was the concert director there. So it was the same kind of deal. We had really good professional promoters.
0:22:14 – Speaker 1
Sorry to interrupt you, but did you go there when Joe Montana was quarterback? Because I’m lining up the years and I’m like you’re pretty close to being there then.
0:22:22 – Speaker 2
Yeah, I graduated in 1981.
0:22:37 – Speaker 1
And my freshman year in Kenan Hall, joe Montana lived in our dormitory. He had the first room on the left when you go in there, so running into Joe Montana was like almost a daily thing when he was on campus. No, kenneth, that is funny, that’s really funny. That is so cool, though. I know Sorry to keep interrupting you, but I I’m like, I think of these things because I’m like, oh my goodness, I think joe montana was there at that time yeah, yeah, and, and for those people that don’t know, he’s one of the top quarterbacks, uh, of all time he was the tom brady before tom brady, exactly, exactly and you know
0:23:03 – Speaker 2
something. It’s amazing like uh, our, our dining hall was across the quad, so to go from kenyon hall to across the quad, you’re going into all kinds of frisbee games and people that’s cool and all that stuff so everybody was a joe, joe, and they would throw him a football and then they’d go out for a pass, like a mile away, and he would throw it perfectly. Yeah, it was great but again again when you’re around somebody like joe montana and I’m not a football player, but you get inspired by these people- yeah, totally.
They’re having bigger lives than I was used to Well and you know what.
0:23:39 – Speaker 1
He’s a perfect example of kind of like. I think we were talking about this during the interview. But, joe Montana, it’s it’s awesome to see someone when they’re in their element. You know what I mean. Like Joe Montana was made to be a quarterback Right and so, like once he was in that element and doing that thing. It’s, it’s magic to see someone when they’re doing the thing they’re meant to do. You know what I mean.
0:24:04 – Speaker 2
Exactly they’re. They’re in the zone. There’s nobody better and you got to understand and I roomed with a notre dame basketball player, oh no, guy named gilberto salinas, who was just brilliant, brilliant guy. He’s about 6, 11 massive jeez, 6, 11. But because because he was my roommate, you see how hard they work. Yeah, they’re always thinking of the games, they’re thinking of their practices. Physically it’s hard, emotionally it’s hard, mentally it’s hard. All these things it’s hard. And then you got to be a college student right and.
Notre Dame’s hard. So you got, you got to pass. You know you got, you can. You can’t slough off.
0:24:50 – Speaker 1
So why were you there, ralph? Exactly, yeah, yeah.
0:24:55 – Speaker 2
I was there because I went to Catholic school all my life.
0:24:59 – Speaker 1
Okay, so that was just a natural thing then.
0:25:03 – Speaker 2
Yeah, and Joe Montana is from Pennsylvania. Oh, no, kidding, I didn’t know that.
0:25:07 – Speaker 1
And Joe Montana is from Pennsylvania, so I like oh, no, kidding.
0:25:09 – Speaker 2
I didn’t know that.
0:25:12 – Speaker 1
Notre Dame football was bigger than life and basketball was bigger than life. Especially in the 80s, notre Dame football was huge.
0:25:16 – Speaker 2
Right. So my and my father was a physicist, and he got his PhD from Notre Dame. Oh, wow. So it was always in my mind that was my number one school.
0:25:26 – Speaker 1
That’s cool. At least you got to go to your number one school.
0:25:29 – Speaker 2
Yeah, and I know how rare that is. I sit around my class reunions at Notre Dame and all my friends. There’s no way we can get into Notre Dame these days. No way, we couldn’t afford it first of all. But you’ve got to be number one in your class, you’ve got to be president of this, you’ve got to be captain of the football team. And you’ve got to be like working on a cure for cancer. Right, and then maybe you had a chance. Like there’s no way. I can get in there.
So that was a really important part. But you know, to this point, I graduated Notre Dame and I wanted to go to the last concert I promoted was Bruce Springsteen, Notre Dame and I wanted to go to the last concert I promoted was Bruce Springsteen.
0:26:08 – Speaker 1
Wow, that’s cool. Again, that was when he was huge.
0:26:13 – Speaker 2
The river just came out and he was doing these tours. And, being from Pennsylvania, springsteen was my guy, so I got a chance to hang with him through the sound check and load in sound check the show. After the show and again it it was seeing my hero being around my hero and changing my life I heard that he’s like the nicest guy in the world.
Bruce springsteen is the nicest guy, but he’s so hard working, he’s so maniacally focused on things and I remember he went to his band, was on stage and they were doing sound checks and Bruce would be walking through every section of the arena and it’s about I think it’s about 11, 12,000 capacity in the basketball arena and he would be walking around while the band plays and he tunes the sound according to where the sections are and he says you know, we need more of this here or less of that. It’s too much echo and take out the reverb. Wow, so he’s, and that’s. That’s a long thing to go around that is it is.
That’s no joke, yeah and then his show was three hours long and he was. It was incredible. So anyway, there I am graduating and I wanted to move to new york city and I wanted to get a job in the music business. Before that I was going to london and um with to visit some friends and I just graduated, went to london and there was a guy next to me on the plane, um, with a big shiny jacket, a black jacket, and looked cool. And he like, turned a little bit and says the river, bruce Springsteen, the river. And I go, wow, I go, that’s a cool jacket, where’d you get it? And he said, uh, my boss. And I said what? And I said I thought he said the boss and I go yeah, yeah, yeah the boss and he goes.
No, he’s my boss.
0:28:07 – Speaker 3
And I go yeah, he’s the boss, and he goes, no, he’s my boss. And I said what do you?
0:28:10 – Speaker 2
mean, and he goes. I work for Bruce. And I said what do you do? And he goes. My name is Barry Bell. I’m his booking agent. I go, barry. I’m Ralph Jacketing from Notre Dame. We just promoted you guys and Bruce does a lot of shows and Barry books a lot of shows and barry books a lot of shows. But in this particular show at notre dame, part of the writer was getting a football jersey for barry bell and a football jersey for bruce springsteen. That’s funny.
0:28:36 – Speaker 1
So I I went to the football office and they were like national champs and things.
0:28:41 – Speaker 2
I went right right and I got uh these jerseys made for them and that’s.
0:28:46 – Speaker 1
Did you get like their names on the back or whatever too? Yes, that’s cool, so they remember that, and anyway.
0:28:54 – Speaker 2
so I’m going over to London and Bruce is doing like five shows at the Wembley Arena.
0:28:59 – Speaker 1
Oh geez.
0:29:01 – Speaker 2
And I’m a massive fan. And my seatmate neighbor says are you going over for the shows? And I said no, no, I couldn’t, massive fan. My seatmate neighbor says are you going over for the shows? And I said no, no, I couldn’t get tickets and understand. This is pre-internet. How do you get tickets in London?
0:29:16 – Speaker 1
Right. Yeah you got to call London you know what I mean Like no one’s going to do that.
0:29:21 – Speaker 2
Right, and I didn’t even have a credit card.
So he said this is what you do. Come to, this is the hotel, and he wrote it on a piece of paper and we leave at about three o’clock to Wembley. So just join us. So there I am, this little piece of paper with the hotel and Barry’s information, and we didn’t have cell phones, so it’s just the hotel and Barry Bell and we didn’t have cell phones, so it’s just the hotel and Barry, barry Bell, and then we leave at three o’clock. You know, I got there at like nine in the morning and I was just waiting in the hotel, dude, I don’t blame you.
0:29:56 – Speaker 1
Just waiting for Bruce Springsteen, right? What else am I going to do? I am not missing this. I am going to make sure I am there.
0:30:07 – Speaker 2
So I got there and you know, lo and behold, it’s, it’s the band, and it’s a driver, a security guy, and Barry was there and everybody kind of gathered around and they got in a very nice van and went to Wembley together in a bus. And I was thinking like can you? I just like, I thought, like if, if, like, something happens like a meteor falls on us or a bridge collapses, what a way to go, you know, with?
0:30:38 – Speaker 1
I died on the bus with bruce springsteen exactly. You can put that on my grave.
0:30:44 – Speaker 2
That’s how I was thinking. No, I hear you, dude.
0:30:53 – Speaker 1
I don’t blame you this is bigger than life. I hear you.
0:30:58 – Speaker 2
And the story? The reality of the story is you go in through the back and then there’s a back door and security opens it up and you walk backstage and everybody goes to their rooms. Bruce has his room barry has his room manager and everybody has their rooms and um, and I’m just standing there I I like and I’m going like I, I I’m just standing there backstage.
It was great. And then, and then a security guy comes up, a police officer, and he says do you have credentials? And I said, no, I’m with the band.
0:31:36 – Speaker 1
Right Famous last words Good for you?
0:31:41 – Speaker 2
No, really I came in there.
0:31:43 – Speaker 1
Really. I went to the hotel. They gave me a ride.
0:31:47 – Speaker 2
So he was getting ready to get rid of me and then of all people. There’s a guy named george travis, and george is springsteen’s uh, he’s his road manager for years and he’s kind of a legendary, wonderful, wonderful guy. Just happened to be walking backstage at the time and, uh, I met him when he was at notre dame and I said, excuse me, george, um, I, I need some kind of sticker or something, a backstage pass to stay here. And he goes oh, sure, sure, sure, how many do you need? And I go, I just, I just need one for me. So he gave me like three backstage passes and he says do you have tickets? And I said no, and he gave me like five 10th row middle tickets, like perfect tickets right and then I, and then so I was I and I was alone.
So, um, when the show started, I was in the 10th row with all these empty seats, and then I had people, my friends, my friends from London were going to the show. So they were going to and like how do you get ahold of somebody? Like there’s no cell phones.
0:32:55 – Speaker 1
Exactly.
0:32:57 – Speaker 2
So I said to them beforehand. I said I might be going to the show tonight with Barry Bell, springsteen’s guy, and so look for me. And that’s all I said. And they looked for me and they were way up in the nosebleeds. They came down and they ran down the middle aisle and the only way I heard of anything this is about 10 minutes before the show started. I heard my name and my name is Ralph, so there’s not a lot of people saying Ralph and I looked around and my friend Simon and other people were running down the middle aisles with the security after them and I went running out and I says here here and I gave Simon backstage passes and I gave him tickets and this and that. So, uh, it was one of the best days of my life.
0:33:49 – Speaker 1
That’s awesome.
0:33:51 – Speaker 2
But then what I had to do is I had to get that experience and the experience of being in London and graduating from college, and I had to move to New York city and try to get a job Like did you want to get a?
0:34:03 – Speaker 1
promoting job. Is that what you were trying to do? I?
0:34:05 – Speaker 2
just, I just wanted to take over the music business, sure.
0:34:08 – Speaker 1
Okay, okay.
0:34:09 – Speaker 2
You know, I just like. Why not? And I thought, because I was promoting these big shows in high school and college and I was a musician myself and like I was you know lesson number one foolish and fearless. I was always foolish, I was always fearless, but nothing’s going to stop me. So I I sent my resume and a cover letter to all these record labels, publishing companies, promoters, and and I didn’t know anybody I knew Barry Bell, one person, and so it was just like a cold, cold letter with a resume to a record label which they must get, you know, a hundred thousand of them.
0:34:51 – Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, yeah, especially back in the mail or whatever you know.
0:34:55 – Speaker 2
So I didn’t have an interview, I didn’t have anything. There was a unpaid internship available and I, I I thought it was too good for that, so I didn’t take it. So because I needed to pay rent too, I hear you. I hear you, new York City. So what happened is one of my buddies from Allentown worked for Ranglo Jeans and he’s a really good guy and he used to play a lot of basketball and he used to. You know, he loved his job and he was making some good money. And he says we have an opening in New York City in the Empire State Building, in the showroom, if you’re interested. And I said, well, I need a job. And they were paying decent money and it’s to be in the showroom showing buyers our line.
0:35:45 – Speaker 1
All the latest stuff and everything. Yes, that’s cool, Right, so I go this is not rock and roll. It’s not what I thought about.
0:35:53 – Speaker 2
But what I did is I took the job. I took the job and, lo and behold, years and years and years later. It was one of the best things I ever did because, first of all, I knew I had to pay my own bills and I made money and I learned about money. I learned about negotiation, I learned about sales, I learned about selling something I didn’t believe in I didn’t believe in Wrangler jeans. But I believe in growing a career, in learning about all these things. And.
I had mentors, I had friends and um and, and then at night I was managing a punk rock band that’s cool and um, so which, by the way, it sounds cool, but managing a punk rock band is like going to a rehearsal space that has like murderers around and bugs and rats and drinking beer with a punk rock band you know. Yeah, you know.
I think that’s what managing is, I guess. So I had a great, great, great time. Wrangler moved me up to Boston and I decided to do something different. I was playing music. I was promoting a little coffee house in my church. I was going out to see music at night. Music was really, really important to me. But what I did is I got into commercial real estate. I knew nothing about it, it’s all. I knew that there was a lot of big buildings going up in Boston and the real estate developers were were like the rock stars.
0:37:29 – Speaker 1
Right, right.
0:37:31 – Speaker 2
And I needed to. I needed to make money. So I I did the same thing. I sent my resume out to everybody and I had no experience. I had no, no experience in real estate. I knew nothing about that. I could sell.
I had passion for things I could learn, but nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. Until one guy named Jules Cavati hired me. And it doesn’t mean you get paid, it’s 100% commission. But what hiring is in commercial real estate? Back then was I got a desk and a phone, yep, and it was like a desk and a phone. Yup and it was like do what you can do. I eat what I kill. Yup, so I had to go out and I had to get a tenant and put them into a space. So so that’s so you.
0:38:20 – Speaker 1
You weren’t doing like the loans and stuff, you were more putting no no, no, no this was stuff, you were more putting no, no, no, no, this was, I was a.
0:38:29 – Speaker 2
I was a yeah, a real estate broker finding okay company that needed a restaurant downtown boston. Okay, okay try to find them location it’s it’s it. I, I hustled, I um. I remember there was a couple years there where I did nothing but walk around town and meet people and give a business card out and and figure out the buildings and the landlords, and I had several pairs of shoes with holes in. I believe it I just, I just had to hustle.
0:38:57 – Speaker 1
Especially walking on some of those cobblestone streets Exactly. So, so I and again.
0:39:04 – Speaker 2
I loved it because I learned about negotiation, I learned about money. I learned about selling, you know, and I grew up Again. I was going out to see music. All the time I was playing music. Music was number one in my life.
I just wasn’t doing it during the day wasn’t doing it during the day and then when I was 30 years old, I ran into, uh, I went to a underground church coffee house in harvard square and I saw this guy with long hair and a tattoo and they said and now ellis paul, and he gets on stage and he plays a couple of songs, and then he got off mic and he would walk through the audience. And he was. It was kind of like it’s folk music, but it’s not my father’s folk music.
Yeah, this is great stuff, this is really great stuff. And then I started to promote him in a coffee house. And then Ellis and I made a partnership and we started a record label. Oh, wow With one of my real estate clients that has a record store chain In Boston. We have a chain called Newberry Comics and the guy that started it was one of my real estate clients.
0:40:20 – Speaker 1
That is funny, no kidding.
0:40:22 – Speaker 2
And we started a label and I started managing. That was the early 90s.
0:40:28 – Speaker 1
That’s so cool. That’s really cool.
0:40:31 – Speaker 2
So that’s what got me into it, and then I was just checking. So what I’m doing is 12 years of commercial real estate where I was able to buy a little condo, fix it up and sell it.
0:40:48 – Speaker 1
That’s cool.
0:40:49 – Speaker 2
And then I would buy a bigger condo, fix it up and sell it. So I was doing that, so I was able to make some money and invest money and save money. So when I was in my thirties I got married and had a kid and I go like that’s it, I’m, I’m closing the door and I’m going into commercial, I’m going into the music business oh, wow manage ellis paul.
Okay, have my record label manage ellis paul. And again, foolish and fearless, I had no idea what I was doing. You’re you’re more, just following your passion.
0:41:23 – Speaker 1
It sounds like you’re following your passion in your heart completely following my passion in my heart.
0:41:29 – Speaker 2
Yeah. And like I can’t create the music, but Ellis Paul could and he needs me. He needs me to help promote, market, monetize his talent. I hear you and I need him because he’s an amazing guy, dear friend, I love the guy, good work ethic and it was a really good partnership. So we worked together for 25 years. Wow. And from Ellis Paul, I was able to manage a lot of artists and have a career but I’ll tell you it’s. It’s hard to do when you’re making 15% of what an artist makes.
0:42:04 – Speaker 1
Right 15%, and not much equals not really much.
0:42:08 – Speaker 2
But even like an artist. Back then, if they were successful, they were making $60,000 to $100,000.
0:42:15 – Speaker 1
Right.
0:42:16 – Speaker 2
And that’s a real good fee for an artist.
0:42:19 – Speaker 1
Yeah no, totally Absolutely.
0:42:21 – Speaker 2
But 15% is not much, so I needed to completely hustle all the time, yeah, I needed to get mentors, I needed to get help and I needed to stay being fearless and foolish. That’s the that’s. And then, all of a sudden, I’m 35 years into managing artists that’s I.
0:42:43 – Speaker 1
I think, uh, I think I’m also that fearless and full. I think you people that are sort of entrepreneurial, there’s like kind of something wrong with them, anyways, like you know what I mean.
Like, yeah, in a good way, because it’s just like only someone that can and this isn’t a bad thing. Like entrepreneurs will tell you oh yeah, I failed at this, I was terrible at that or I failed it. But the whole point of it is like you get get back up, you dust yourself off and just keep going. Like that’s kind of the part of the fearless and foolish. The thing is like, yeah, you know, kind of like not knowing when to quit you know what I mean.
0:43:18 – Speaker 2
Like I I do, I know, I do know exactly what you mean and you know I, I I grew up like uh, you know the church church was. I went to Catholic school, I was an altar boy and I always had this kind of thing of faith through my life. So I do feel that I’m in good hands. I hear you, I do feel like I’m here for a reason. And you know one thing, johnny, I’m going to tell you, one of the hardest nights of my life is like listen, I have my own business, I’m in music, all my dreams are coming true. But getting married and having a kid and being able to pay bills was hard, was hard.
And I remember there was a time where my wife and I were in the kitchen and we had this big stack of bills to pay, and every month we would get the checkbook and we’d go through the bills and find out what we had money for, what was important. And we had a little boy, evan, upstairs and there’s a that in this particular night we did. I didn’t have enough money in the bank to pay the bills and and then, you know, I was just like what do you do? You know, maybe we’ll call them or we’ll pay half of this and this and that, and it was just terrible. I feel like I was a failure as a business person, as a husband as a father.
And I don’t get these feelings a lot, you know. Yeah. But it was. You know, I was not seeing colors, I was just seeing gray. And all of a sudden, during this meeting, my son starts crying upstairs, and so his mother gets up and says I’ll take care of Evan. And she gets up and she walks in front of me and at the time she was very, very pregnant with my daughter named Luca. So my daughter was ready to be born.
0:45:26 – Speaker 1
Oh man, I’ve been in situations like that too.
0:45:31 – Speaker 2
She walked past me and I go, like my son’s, upstairs crying my daughter’s ready to be born, I can’t pay my bills and I was just a tough way. And then, before my wife turned the corner to go upstairs to deal with my son, she said maybe it’s time for you to go back to real estate. That’s like saying I was going to close the door on my dreams and all this, all this great stuff that I was doing and all the success I had with my artists, is going to has to end you know, because you know what?
what point of your life you’re saying, hey, let’s grow up now, you know this music stuff could be, you know, a dream, but like, what’s the reality? I’m a father, I’m going to be a father of two kids, and um. So I put my head down on those bills and I had tears in my eyes and I was just so exhausted from all this financial pressure and um, and it was one of the toughest nights of my life and I couldn’t sleep that night.
My office is downstairs, so I in the morning the next morning, after very little sleep, I went outside the house. I went to the downstairs. It was a little apartment there. I opened the door and the phone was ringing and I pick it up and I said Ralph here. And he goes. Hey, ralph, it’s Pete. And I go Pete good, and I know a lot of Pete’s. I said and he goes.
0:47:10 – Speaker 1
Pete.
0:47:11 – Speaker 2
Farrelly and Pete Farrelly brothers Bingo. Oh my goodness, I knew Pete when he was doing odd jobs and waitering and doing stuff in boston because he was a friend of a friend and we used to drink beer and we used to laugh and we used to go out and drink more beer and we had a great time. And then, all of a sudden, 10 years later, pete wrote a script that became dumb and dumber and he became, you know, an a-list director.
His last film was the green book yeah, yeah, yeah who won won the oscar, so I love all their I love all their movies they yeah so this is, but this is a friend.
This is a friend and he was on the phone and, um, this is after success with, uh, dumb and dumber and and something about mary and all this stuff and oh my god he doesn’t call me a lot, but he did on this particular morning, after very little sleep, after one of the toughest nights, and he said listen, I just got that ellis paul record you sent me and the seventh song the world ain’t slowing down. I want to make the feature song of my next movie, wow. And I say wow, tell me about the movie. And he said it’s called me myself in our ring oh my god, I love that movie. It’s with jim, and I go, jim Jim who, and he goes like Jim Carrey.
0:48:41 – Speaker 1
Yeah, what other Jim is there?
0:48:43 – Speaker 2
Well, you know, I didn’t know there was a peach, I didn’t know there was a Jim. I didn’t know anything. I was out of my mind. I got two hours of sleep. I hear you, johnny ease up on me. So that phone call completely changed my life? I believe it. Phone call completely changed my life I believe it because I believe it all of a sudden. We made money right, all of a sudden. Every time it gets around the world or on television, we make money.
0:49:08 – Speaker 1
So that’s so funny, that is so funny made a lot of money from that but I believe it, I believe it made his career in.
0:49:15 – Speaker 2
The career went from a two or three to a 10 because, all of a sudden, his music and his name was in front of a lot of people. Wow.
So you know, I I think of the what happened there, right? So I I had the worst night. I couldn’t pay my bills, I felt like a failure. And then, 12 hours later, a friend calls me out of the blue. And yes, he’s a friend and yes, peter and Bobby do nothing but help their friends. But he loved this song and the song fits perfectly in this Jim Carrey movie. And that’s happened lots of times with Pete. He’s put a lot of my artist music in his movies. And.
God, the friends call it a network, but the friends I had have kept me going. You know, fearless foolish and then my network, my friends, the people I love.
0:50:15 – Speaker 3
You know it’s kind of funny, that’s kept me in the game.
0:50:17 – Speaker 1
Yeah, no. And what’s kind of funny too about your story is I think this happens for a lot of people where you know, like you said, your wife was kind of turned in the corner and she’s like, oh, maybe it’s time to throw in the hat. You know, like, throw in the towel, right. And so it’s always right when you’re at kind of the brink of like, am I going to give up that of like, am I going to give up? That’s right when you’re supposed to hang on, because that’s when, like, the breakthrough or the thing is going to come through. You know what I mean. But, johnny, it’s hard.
0:50:47 – Speaker 2
It totally is. It’s hard when you’re depressed, when you can’t pay your bills. Absolutely when you feel like there’s no light ahead. But there is that quote that the darkest part of the night comes right before the morning.
0:50:59 – Speaker 1
Exactly. I was literally just about to say something close to that. Honestly, yeah, no, for real.
0:51:10 – Speaker 2
So this career of mine of following my dreams and my goals and all that stuff, I don’t take lightly the help and assistance I’ve got from my faith that I’m not alone, from my friends, from my family, you know kind of basic stuff. But it all starts with a little kid that was just imprinted early, wanting to have a bigger life than I saw, and I needed to be foolish and fearless.
0:51:33 – Speaker 1
I hear you.
0:51:35 – Speaker 2
And I need to learn from all these people.
0:51:37 – Speaker 1
I want to like just because I haven’t really spoken to too many promoters yet, this is like an interesting part of kind of creating like cause. You know, even though you’re you’re not like I mean you are a musician, but I’m saying in general, even though, like you’re not a musician, out trying to get gigs right, you can still be someone that finds the musician and that is passionate about them or loves the music they do, and you can create a way for them to be found so well.
0:52:07 – Speaker 2
you know, like you know yeah, that’s exactly it, and sometimes that job is as creative as somebody that writes songs or paints pictures, totally, absolutely so, like if someone kind of wants to get started.
0:52:20 – Speaker 1
I mean, don’t give them a whole breakdown, but like how would someone get started? Like I mean, you know, I I’d like to imagine there’s still kids playing and like rock groups and stuff in their house. But even if there isn’t, let’s say there’s some kid that’s doing the hip-hop stuff or whatever and they want to, you know, promote their friend or whatever. Like how do they? How does someone like you know, like put a show together, promote something like what? Like what is something like the starting thing?
0:52:41 – Speaker 2
you know something? There’s so much material on the internet. There’s so much material. And then there’s, you know, um, like what I did, is I? I, you know? When I didn’t know a manager in my life, I went to the biggest manager I’ve ever heard of. He’s a guy named tim collins. He managed Aerosmith for all these years. They just retired.
Yeah, I went to his office. He went in to see me. I gave him my business card, I gave him the Ellis Paul record and I told him what I do and what I’m doing and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and that’s it. I touched the garment of the manager of Aerosmith, the first manager I ever met. That’s all I wanted to do. I just wanted to breathe the same air as the manager of Aerosmith. And then a couple of days later he calls me up, or his, his secretary, calls me up and said please hold for Tim Collins and Tim had a question about a venue in Massachusetts. And I knew a lot about the venue. Yeah, so I told him about the venue and you know what it’s about and who owns the building, and blah, blah, blah and then I got off the phone. It was a five minute call. I got off the phone, I go oh my God, I just helped the manager of Aerosmith.
So I called him back and I said, tim, I just helped you and I’m sure you could help me. And he goes, yep, and I says, why don’t we get managers together to help each other out? He goes I love the idea. So we started something called the Boston Managers Group and that was 30 some years ago. That was the experts helping the beginners. People like when you’re a manager, you’re in your office and you think of your artists and that’s it yeah, it’s very myopic, it’s very yeah, you know, but now we get you know once a month or once every two months.
We could get in a room and talk to each other and help each other out and grow our network that way.
So I suggest, to answer your question, that these people that are interested in helping an artist out figure out what the artist needs. Do they need legal help? Do they need shows? Do they need financial help? Do they need some kind of transportation support housing? Do they need a place? Do they need some kind of transportation support housing? Do they need a place to rehearse? Whatever it is? But find other managers and get help, ask, ask for help. So the best thing here in the states is something called the music managers forum and, uh, it’s mmfuscom. Oh, wow, okay.
0:55:20 – Speaker 1
I didn’t realize something like that existed.
0:55:23 – Speaker 2
And it exists for starting out managers, people that want to be managers and there’s a lot of resources. So my Boston managers group is now MMF Boston and we’re launching oh okay.
0:55:36 – Speaker 1
That’s cool you know there’s lots of help out there and in the music business there’s a lot of people that want to help other people, you know that’s actually what I was just about to ask, because, like you, it’s, it seems like in the music industry, like a lot of people you know it’s cut, throwing everyone’s out to kind of, you know, get the money for themselves or whatever kind of thing. But yeah, I was that. I was gonna ask like how you know, it seems like people are, are willing, are willing to help if you’re able to reach out to Aerosmith’s manager and be like, hey, let’s start this thing Exactly.
He’s like absolutely.
0:56:08 – Speaker 2
But because I reached out to the Aerosmith manager and because he said, yes, that’s my mission now is all I want to do is help other people. I want to help beginners. I want to help my students at berkeley college of music. Um, you know, I want to help people. Now, this is this is my, this is my duty I hear this is what I know, and there’s a karma to this.
0:56:32 – Speaker 1
There’s no karma to, to you know this absolutely yeah so so I guess circling into berkeley like this, this is interesting then. So, like you know you, since you teach, like music, business and stuff, it’s your job to teach them like hey, here’s how to be found in the world right like like here here’s how to make money playing. Playing music like that’s I’m that. That must have changed like. I don’t know how long you’ve been doing it, but even if you’ve been doing it for 10 years, I’d imagine your classes have morphed a little bit since the first time.
0:57:04 – Speaker 2
Yeah, there’s changes all the time. That’s what makes it exciting, but there’s things that are consistent. Number one the power of a good song. Number two a great, great live performance. Absolutely Number three, working harder than anybody. Number four working smarter than anybody. Number five, getting a team around you and all this. You’ve got to figure out why you’re doing it. Why should someone care? Why does somebody need another Springsteen song, jay-z song, another eminem song? What are you putting out in the world? Why are you doing it?
and if it’s to help, to inspire, to heal, to entertain. You know the world needs all this stuff. The world needs more light that’s kind of.
0:57:59 – Speaker 1
Yeah, I agree with that 100%. That’s kind of funny. You’re saying that because I wonder myself as a guitar player if I’ve ever considered or pondered those things when I wrote songs or music, like what is my goal with it? Like what do I want to accomplish with this song? I don’t think I’ve actually sat down and pondered that that deeply honestly I I haven’t until recently you know, until I started to teach.
0:58:27 – Speaker 2
But like what’s our, what’s your mission statement? Why are you doing what you’re doing like you’re? You’re putting a lot of good stuff in the world, johnny thanks dude I appreciate that.
0:58:38 – Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, I never. Yeah, like I said, I never considered, like I mean, obviously I understand if you’re a musician, it’s your business, but I never considered applying those like actual business aspects of in that sense to to your music or what you’re doing, like what is my mission statement? As, like a musician, what you know, what do I want to look like? I never, I really never, thought of that stuff.
0:59:01 – Speaker 2
That’s kind of funny, honestly well you’re kind of living an inspired life man thanks, steve, I appreciate that and and you know it’s, it’s, it’s and and it’s your life and just the fact that you’re doing all the stuff you do and you’re putting it out there by being foolish and furious. Absolutely, these are important things to learn from you know, yeah, you’re, you’re doing it now that’s very cool.
0:59:29 – Speaker 1
So what are some of the things that you do in your class and like I mean, do you go over like search engine optimization, are you like here’s not really okay, okay more of a macroeconomic view of things.
0:59:46 – Speaker 2
How do you follow the money? How has money been made? Why should someone care? And we answer these questions what’s your mission statement, what are you doing, and then how you get mentors. I bring a lot of guest speakers in too.
0:59:59 – Speaker 1
That’s cool. It’s not just Ralph talking about Ralph things. That’s really cool and man.
1:00:08 – Speaker 2
And so I hope, I hope there was some stuff here that’s useful to other people.
1:00:13 – Speaker 1
Absolutely, no, absolutely. Like Ralph, you gave a lot of great, a lot of great stories, which that’s what’s more impactful, honestly.
1:00:21 – Speaker 2
Yeah, well, that’s how I learned. I learned through stories. I don’t learn necessarily through lectures and books and stuff like that.
1:00:27 – Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah. No, you gave a lot of great info through those stories. Good yeah, Is there anything going on on your end that you want to promote?
1:00:50 – Speaker 2
Do you have any books, any music, any whatever you know? A while ago I um I had a student who was having some problems with, uh, mental health, mama and addiction, and um, and I connected her with a place called Right Turn it’s in Watertown, massachusetts, okay, and it started by a musician named Woody Giesemann who is the drummer of a band called the Del Fuegos.
1:01:10 – Speaker 1
Okay.
1:01:10 – Speaker 2
And they toured with Tom Petty and all these people.
1:01:13 – Speaker 1
Oh geez Wow.
1:01:15 – Speaker 2
And the band blew apart because of their addiction problems and lots of reasons. But Woody got himself straight and he got himself to understand addiction and he started right turn to help people. It’s a creative place for recovery.
1:01:32 – Speaker 1
That’s cool. Your addictions right? That’s cool.
1:01:35 – Speaker 2
So, so, um, I’ve been on the board of directors because they’ve helped a lot of my not a lot, but enough of my students at Berklee and a lot of musicians. These are Grammy Award winning musicians.
1:01:48 – Speaker 1
Wow.
1:01:50 – Speaker 2
Wow. So they helped all that. So I’m on the board and one of the things that they’re doing is Woody, a guy, a comedian, named Tony V and a drummer for the band Free and Bad Company, Simon Kirk. They wrote a screenplay and it’s like a love story about addiction and it’s really great. It’s called Rock Bottom and so we have a soundtrack in it. The bass player is Tom Hamilton from Aerosmith.
1:02:20 – Speaker 3
Oh, that’s cool, the guitar player is Tom Hamilton from Aerosmith.
1:02:21 – Speaker 2
Oh, that’s cool. The guitarist is Gary Boudreau, who was the first guitarist for the first couple of Boston records.
1:02:26 – Speaker 1
That’s cool.
1:02:27 – Speaker 2
Diamond Kirk from Bad Company on drums and you know it’s a super group. Rhythm guitarist Bob Dylan. No, it’s a super group with people like this.
1:02:36 – Speaker 1
Yeah, that’s what I’m working on, so that’s pretty incredible yeah.
1:02:41 – Speaker 2
So we’re looking to raise money and we’re looking next year to release the record, and for classic rock fans, it’s, it’s, it’s fantastic record wow so uh, that’s. That’s what I’m working on, among other things so do you play guitar?
1:02:56 – Speaker 1
we didn’t really get into what you play no, no, no, I, I manage and I well, I mean when you, I mean when you played an instrument. I mean when you played an instrument, though, yeah, I was.
1:03:06 – Speaker 2
I was a very average guitar player, yeah, but you know something, it’s like I don’t miss it. I played guitar every day. I want to be a musician and but then I found that what I did in music, you know, I thought management and business and booking was like boring, but, as I said, it’s as creative as writing a song.
1:03:29 – Speaker 1
No, it totally is.
1:03:30 – Speaker 2
Music can be as business, can be as creative as art.
1:03:34 – Speaker 1
No, absolutely. I mean really, all creation is is solving a problem, or you know?
1:03:40 – Speaker 2
not solving. No, no, that’s it. You know what I mean? That’s it. Yeah, absolutely. I say that. Well, that’s what I say to my students. What problem are you solving?
1:03:48 – Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah.
1:03:50 – Speaker 2
And they what, what? Yeah, what problem? Why are you doing music? What problem are you solving? Yeah, yeah, no, and I talk about stuff like that. But, problem are you solving? Yeah, and I, I talk about stuff like that.
1:04:06 – Speaker 1
It’s so interesting yeah, johnny, we gotta talk more down the road, yeah man, absolutely.
1:04:09 – Speaker 2
Yeah, I had to head to a meeting, unfortunately, but oh no, no problem, no problem really love sharing some of these stories with you and hopefully, uh, you got a couple people listening, so no, absolutely, and please let’s connect some more.
1:04:22 – Speaker 1
And I think you mentioned, like me, coming on your end.
1:04:25 – Speaker 2
You got you do a podcast, I think, or something so no, no, just I, I teach classes.