#228 - Rocko Reedy

0:00 Thank you for joining me again today on Geases of Gear Episode #228. Today's podcast is brought to you by ACT Entertainment. ACT is North America's leading supplier of the entertainment industry's principal products to professionals across six different end markets including professional lighting fixtures and lighting control equipment, audio, video, fiber and Power Distribution, cables, connectivity, metalwork, custom manufacturing and design. With ACT Entertainment you get the industry's top performance products as well as service, education and engineering support. To bring every entertainment professional concept to reality, visit their website at www.actentertainment.com and this episode is also brought to you by Gearsource, founded in 2002 with a mission to help global live events businesses move gear around the planet.

1:03 Since that time, the company has transacted in more than 100 countries and has sold 1/4 billion dollars in sound, lighting, staging and video gear. Now Gearsource has completely evolved its platform for massive global growth, enabling 14 localized currencies, payments held in escrow to protect buyers and sellers, AI powered logistics behind a new global logistics brand, gear moves, and so much more. Visit gearsource.com today and expand your access to global markets for your gear and global gear for your markets. Yeah, hello and welcome back to Geese of Gear episode #227.

2:20 I got things dinging all over the place here and I've got it set on Do Not Disturb, so I don't know what's going on. And today's guest got a little anxious and was trying to pop in 45 minutes early, so I got that one buzzing too. But anyways, thanks for joining. Thanks for coming back. Did you check out that Creech episode? It was fun. Creech is always fun of course and appreciate having him on for the second time. Look forward to having him on 1/3 and 4th and 5th time. Always. Always a lot of fun with Creech and so if you haven't checked it out, go and check that one out. I think it's 226, probably came out a week ago anyways.

3:02 It's been really popular. As a matter of fact. We're getting lots and lots of downloads on that one. Some great comments and stuff. So yeah, yeah, it's fun Speaking of downloads and and just things picking up a lot right now. It's fun to see. But we're, you know, YouTube is something that we really started with. Actually, video in general, we just started with about 1/2 a year ago, six or seven months ago, and just been playing with it, trying to figure it out. You know, we started out with one or two views on videos and 10 views and 20 views. And I mean, now it's getting to a point where like yesterday I looked at one of the videos and it had 6000 views in just 24 hours. So I mean we're getting thousands of views and it's pretty exciting in such a small industry and niche industry is ours to see that kind of an audience. So thank you to everyone who's paying attention and watching and listening to the podcast.

4:07 We appreciate that very, very much. And so today's guest should also be one that'll go a little bit viral. He did last time. He's always fun, he's always entertaining and we're excited to have Rocco Reedy back on the podcast he was on in 2021. I can't tell you what episode number it was, but you can always search and find it. And of course a lot has happened since then. And you know in 2021 Rocco was in an interesting place because he was, he was very nervous about COVID. He had some issues, some health issues that he was dealing with and and therefore, you know was definitely on edge and he showed it on our podcast.

4:48 We talked about it quite a bit. But anyways, Rocco was stage manager for 30 years for U2 and just finally recently he visited the Sphere in Las Vegas where he got to watch the gig, watch the the show in the sphere from front of house, mixed position. So first time he'd ever watched the show from the front, watched AU 2 show from the front as a punter and as a fan and watching the faces, the band's faces. You know, usually he was at the side of the stage as a stage manager, but he spent the whole day with with Jake Berry and with the band and and crew and you know, we want to talk about that.

5:32 Apparently that was a very emotional and and pretty amazing homecoming for him. So look forward to having that conversation. And Rocco's also continued making music and if you follow him on Facebook you'll see all kinds of cool stuff that he's been doing. I I really loved his. Oh God. I can't remember what song it was, but he's done some really cool cover songs. Neil Young, old man. That was a pretty good one. There was a bunch, but his most recent was a very cool rendition of Sex is on Fire by Kings Of Leon. And he uploaded that on on Valentine's Day, appropriately, applicably.

6:15 And you can check it out on his YouTube channel or on his Facebook page. So let's go ahead and get this going, OK? It's just me and you, Rocco. That's it. That's what they that's what they said in court. And and we're recording now, so you got to keep the you know, you got to quit flipping me the bird and stuff. Rocco woke up in a mood today. Did you just Did you just give me the finger? I did. I did. OK, it's but it's OK if you're just explaining something. Yeah, I was just explaining what you were doing to me. You you woke up in a Rocco friendly mood. I'm always in a Rocco, a friendly mood.

6:56 Yeah. So we got a lot of things to talk about because you sent Sarah some stuff that that I looked at and and was intrigued and want to talk about that. We're not going to go through your life story because we did that last time. So people, if you're here for Rocco's life story, go back to the previous episode, way back over there that we did in 2021, where we talked about all the cool stuff you did 45 years in touring, but you only look like 50 years old. So how did that happen? Right. Clean living? Yeah. Well. No. Yeah, I think, you know, I think really alcohol and drugs and all of the stuff that we do in this business is it Pickles you at some point, like it just it protects you from bad stuff. I don't know.

7:49 No. Well I'm. I'm a big believer that that chemistry has a great deal to do with our metabolism and you know your your body is an amazing thing and it will adapt to virtually anything you know which. Is what yes and why the species? Survive. Yeah. So you know when you get when you get up to an 8 ball and a bottle of Jack a day, your body adjusts to it. You know. And when you give it up suddenly, Oh yeah, really. That was me. That that was the day before I went into rehab? Yeah. You know, you know, Wiseman, I'm sure, John Wiseman. Yeah, very late. John Wiseman. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cuz John's been on the podcast a couple times very good friend of mine and and we spoke at length about his habit and the fact that, you know, he almost died and borrowed money from his parents. You know, after being so successful in all of these lighting companies and stuff borrowed money from his parents to go to rehab and save his life. And.

8:48 But he was there too. He was, you know, half oz and half ounce of blow and a bottle of Jack a day. Yeah. So yeah that's not conducive to a long and healthy life in most cases. But you know, I know a few. No, but I my, my, my personal opinion of it is, you know, that which doesn't kill us makes us stronger. And I think going through that, you know, I've often wondered what would happen if I never did drugs or alcohol or anything like that. And I think I wouldn't have wound up being the person that I am. Yeah, because you have to face adversity to become resilient to it.

9:30 That's. 100% true. I mean, it's just like your immune system. You know it. And I know that you probably have differing views on this one, but you know your immune system. If you wash your hands 42 times a day and use sanitizer and wear gloves and wear masks and wear body suits and all of this stuff, at some point, Jesus Christ, Rocco, at some point you're gonna. At some point you're you're gonna like the smaller bugs that weren't going to get you before now get you because you know, you've become so you know, I don't know, your immune system, I think needs to exercise, you know, and and maybe some of that pickled stuff inside your body needs to exercise too. Like it needs.

10:11 To I I don't want to get too deep into the subject, but it brings up an important point. When we started the whole COVID thing, yeah, I actually invented this helmet. I remember you showed it to us on the first podcast. Yeah, yeah and and it worked. I didn't get COVID through the entire thing, but also I used to get 2 colds a year and I and I believe that the common cold, there's a reason why there's no cure for it. Is it? It puts your immune system into gear and make sure everything still works, you know, puts everything through its faces and stuff. But I haven't had a cold in three years. Interesting. Yeah, and I and I don't wear the the, the mask anymore, but I also don't spend a whole lot of time in big crowds of people.

10:55 The The only thing I've done recently in big crowds of people is February 2nd. I actually went out and saw the U2 show. Yeah, yeah. And I wanted to talk to you about that one too. But the thing I think, yeah, the crowds of people is a big deal. Cuz the first concert I went to after Kovid was a friend of mine was working with Dave Matthews Band and bugged the hell out of me. And I'm not a Dave Matthews fan, but my girlfriend and I went, we both got COVID and and you know, we had to sign all kinds of things and we had to wear masks, 'cause we were going backstage to the meet and greet thing and and and we got COVID. So you know, I the crowds, but I think the airplanes are the worst.

11:37 Like, I think flying on planes and and hotels and all of that stuff, That's where, you know, airplanes, like I always got sick on airplanes in the past, You know, I just think that, well, they just circulate that, that crappy air and everybody's sick and coughing and blah, blah, blah. But anyway I want to. Get Yeah, but you ever notice when you fart on a plane, nobody can smell it? I haven't. Remarkably, that's not something that I've noticed. You will from now on. Trust me. I'll check it for sure. Like I'll I'll definitely test that one. I'm I'm one of those people who's a little too, I don't know. I I can't fart on a plane.

12:18 Like I would just feel really bad. Like it had come out real loud and everybody would be like it was him. It was that. Guy. Oh, no, no, no. When this when the flight attendant comes down the aisle with a little Carter and everything like would you like something to drink, Sir, I I always just go pull my finger. You know you want to hear the worst thing. And it happens like, every time I go to Atlanta. You know how? Atlanta has like I'd love to hear the worst thing The world. 'S longest escalator or the is it called? Yeah, escalator in Atlanta airport like that goes from the trains. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, the movie. Practically, yeah. It never fails. Every time I'm going up that escalator, somebody in front of me drops one, right? And you got to ride the escalator through this person's fart and you don't know.

13:03 You know, it's one of those three guys right there, but you don't know which one, and I hate it. I always raise my hand and go. It was me. Hey, it was me. And take a bow look backwards. Below you. Well, no, because then the guy, the guy who actually did it turns around is like, no, you didn't. It was me, you know, Because then, yeah, everybody wants to. Claim it that. Was a beauty, you know? Yeah, Jesus, I'm. I'm the other guy, so can we get serious here for a minute? OK. Thanks, Rocco. That was good. I liked that serious moment. So what are you doing now? Like, not right now. Well, for the longest, for the longest time, I didn't use the R word. Retired.

13:46 Yeah, because, well, because then, you know, then people think you're dead or, you know, whatever. But then I realized, you know, for for me it's just it's I didn't lose the passion to to keep going on the road, but to be quite honest, I've done enough. Yeah. And and I I I have so many stories and everything like that, but I don't think my experiences were done. I just think my body physically told me you're done. And I I didn't want to wait until I was bending over, putting a yellow gaff tape arrow on the ground to die. And I'd rather do something like a little cooler than that, skydiving some shit, you know, But it just that's, that's not the way I want to go.

14:30 Unfortunately, not everyone comes to that realization. Like a lot of people just literally die on the road. You know, they they just keep going till they die. Well, people our age too, they make this, you know, self statement to the the the admission to themselves. But if they didn't plan ahead properly, nobody ever does. They say, oh you should have $1,000,000 in a bank, right? Right. If I had $1,000,000 in a bank, I'd go back and do a blow again. Then I could afford it. No, but it's just you know. But by the same token, if you've got problem that money can solve, you got no problem.

15:11 You know, I don't know if I do, but but I get, I get envelopes every day with, you know, banks wanting to give me $50,000 at, you know, 47% interest. But you know, people in a it's we, we've been a credit society for hundreds of years. So, you know, when I die, I want to be extremely in debt. Extremely so. You have no kids. Only furry ones. Furry ones, yeah. Yeah. Because I mean that's that's the challenge with dying in debt is they do try to collect it from somebody else. Yeah, it's not like they just go away. Yeah. Well, and my wife is a lot younger than me, so it. Well, there's the problem. Well, she's an attorney, though, so she can get out of anything or into anything and that.

15:58 But but no, it's just it comes down to, you know, where you have to decide, well, what do you want to do with the rest of your life when you do, say, retire? So what I did, Because right now I'm in my basement, and in my basement I have a studio. And you know how you say to yourself someday I'm going to dot dot dot and give yourself a goal or say, well I decided that I was going to figure out how to use Logic which is Apple's Pro Tools and use a video editing software which I've chosen a Chinese company called Wondershare Filmora. And I just I come down here and I'm not exaggerating when I say this.

16:39 I spend 8 to 12 hours a day down here watching YouTube tutorials of how to do this stuff. And I've also through my research into this I've found that the best tutorials to watch and and you have to go deeper into the Internet to get to them all but are from Indonesian 17 year olds because they don't because they don't speak a lot of English so they get right to the point they don't bother with it. Oh you know ring my bell and say I've been subscribe and here's my latest project, don't really listen to that horse shit. They just get right to the point and tell you how to do it and they know how to do it because kids minds aren't clouded with junk. They just focus and they've not only figure out how to use the program, they figure out cool shortcuts and cool things to do where you mix effects to get a different effect, you know? So I'm have.

17:37 I'm just having a. Blast. You know, I'm going down the same rabbit holes on AI right now. And like, have you got into any AI tools for recording or anything? A bit. But I find, you know, like I've been trying to do the animate yourself or make your turn yourself into a cartoon thing. Yeah, but all the software for that, what they do is a drug dealer. They, you know, like you sign up for the thing and then they give you points with your subscription and with your subscription, you know, like I have this one had 320 points. You got to go, OK, great. So then I made 10 seconds worth of stuff and it ate up 300 points. So it cost real. Money.

18:17 Yeah, So. And that was $7.00. So it's that old thing. Oh, it's only $7.00. Like you know, anytime I buy a toy for myself, I think how many grams of blow it it would. Have been. As far as the price to it, you know so, but so and I'm sure the technology will get better and quicker and faster and less expensive as we go. So, well, the challenging part isn't necessarily even using the stuff because like you know, I finally paid for ChatGPT because I was using it for free and and I was just doing the really basic write me a blog about this and it was all bullshit. It was all really bad quality. Like nobody wants to read this. It looks like it was written by ChatGPT, and what it all comes down to the magic of these GPTS is you're prompting how you prompt it and you have to talk to it like a human. And there's there's a whole setup to that. So it'll start by saying act like you are a video editor for a rock'n'roll band or for MTV videos. Act like you are a.

19:25 So you're setting up what their role is, what the the A is role is and what you want it to behave like. And then you give it very specific instructions. I want a video that does this and then it does this and it's going to be based in the country and it's going to be la, La La, and then like, so there's a whole process to how you prompt it. And I'm just practicing and I'm getting better and better and better at it and I find that when you can ace it, it becomes like your best employee like it. It literally is your assistant. It does so much stuff but you got to know how to ask and and it's mostly about talking to it like a human it it's really crazy like that like.

20:07 Well, just talk to it and go, OK? I want you to sound just like Vivek Ramaswami. And that. Works. I know it does. Yeah, And it's suddenly everything becomes very enunciated. Something becomes very smart sounding, but something? Then your whole computer system does nothing but put Trump ads on so well. But you know what though? Like one of the things I did when I first got ChatGPT, you ask it tell me why Donald Trump is bad. And then you say, tell me why. Tell me why Donald Trump is good. And and you know, then you can set it up and you can say, OK, act like a Republican and tell me why Donald Trump is bad. Act like a Democrat and tell me why Donald Trump is good and you can mess with it and and you really get some interesting information out of it.

20:53 You know. So that's the thing. Like that was the thing I didn't understand when I first got ChatGPT. And I kept telling people I don't get it. I don't get this AI thing. But it's all down to the prompts. It's it's how you ask and what you ask and how you lay it all out. And you know, I mean I'll give you another example. So we just started doing YouTube mid last year like probably September of last year for the podcast. We started adding YouTube into it as well and therefore recording video. And so, you know, we learned about this thing called shorts. And I'm sure you knew, you know, what YouTube shorts are like. I've seen them, but I didn't know how to create them.

21:35 So we went and learned how to create shorts. Sarah and I figured it out and we were like, Oh my God, we've seen, you know, Jesus himself. Like this is incredible. And so, but it was a lot of work. Like I'd record a podcast with you and then it'd take Me 2 hours to go and clip like 5 or 6 shorts out of it so that we could play these shorts. Well, we found an AI app that basically watches your podcast based on like it looks for a hook first. So it's looking for an idea or a concept that is strong and it's balancing. It's weighing everything against what goes viral on YouTube. And so it finds clips, basically.

22:18 It captions those clips really nicely. It repositions us like on top of each other, You big me smaller because you're the guest or whatever. Like it does all this stuff automatically and within like a minute you've got like 10 clips. It's crazy. It's crazy. OK, you want to know why? And this is not a conspiracy theory, but I boring story short, I know a lot of extremely smart people. What's going on with AI and what's going to happen with AI within the next 10 years, if not faster, because everything goes exponentially. As far as you know, the progression of technology is AI is studying us and not because it wants to take over the world like in Terminator or something like that. It's studying us because it wants to serve us better, believe it or not.

23:07 But what it's going to come up with within the next 5 to 10 years, and it will make a lot of people completely get off the Internet, is there will be a development of what I'll call for one of a better term, a bullshit filter, OK? It will be a flawless lie detector. So anything you put into it, whether it's verbal or written or printed or you know whatever, it'll tell you if it's the truth or not the truth. Does it just start flashing on your forehead? Fucking liar or something like that? No lying. Bastard. Think about it. If people couldn't lie anymore, well, think about FaceTime.

23:48 OK, Yeah. Do you use it? Yeah. OK. You use it because you're in the media. Do you use it with your friends and family? Yeah. OK. People in general don't use it because it takes away the bullshit ability. That's interesting. That's the reason. Why I use it by the way? Exactly. I can't talk right now. You know, you're in a bar, but I can't talk right now. I'm in a meeting. You know, whatever. It takes away the bullshit factor. What AI will do is by just if you put something into it, it will tell you if it's bullshit or not. You have to ask it for it to give the answer and you have to use it. But somebody could be, you know, while you're having a conversation like this, underneath my thing and go, this guy is totally lying, you know?

24:37 Yeah, that's hilarious. So how big would that be in Washington First? Well, that's for sure. All of that stuff is coming. Like that kind of thing is absolutely coming. And you know, already like you're you're seeing live translators, for example. So now instead of having a translator talking to someone, you just listen to headphones and in real time it's translating whatever is being said in whatever language to whatever language you want to hear, right. Real time. Like it. There's almost no delay on it. It's so ridiculous. And I've seen it working. And yeah, I mean, I think what happened with these AI companies, they started with some of the easiest stuff first, but I think they have a plan that's way the hell down the road and people are going to freak out when they realize what's really going on, you know, and. The technology turns over so quickly and people things come and go, things people find shocking one day, the next day are are trendy and two weeks after that they're fucking gone, you know?

25:40 Well, AI ain't going anywhere, you know, and. So I'm just, I'm just saying the technology and the people's ability to use it or reject it. You know though, it's like, it's like a gun. It's like, you know, certain drugs, it's like it depends on whose hands it's in, right? So AI in the hands of of really good people, well meaning people is a very powerful tool. AI in the wrong hands that, you know, again, just like a gun, you can use it to to save yourself, to kill an animal that you plan to eat for dinner or whatever. Or you can use it to kill people and steal stuff, or you can be killed by it. But so it depends whose hands it's in. Like, that's the thing that freaks me out a little bit about AI is there's just as many bad people creating AI as there are good people right now, and they're creating it for bad things. Right.

26:32 What are you pointing to me for? I didn't do it. Jesus Christ. Or what are you saying? Pull my finger. Here you go. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, back to that again. I you know, on my bingo card this morning, I didn't have Rocco and Marcel talking about AI. Yeah, we're talking about AI. And then all of a sudden sound goes crazy and it does something that I've never had happen before where my mic was dead and you guys could still hear each other. That was crazy nuts. Yeah. Never happened before. It's never happened before. I swear it's never happened. Like, I mean, people's mics go dead, they unplug it, their Airpods die, they lose Internet, whatever.

27:17 But I've never lost my sound. It's never happened once. It's so bizarre. Anyways, no more discussing. AIAI is good. Thank you. AI. Thank you. AI gods, please give us more AI. We love AI Oh. Stop licking his balls, for fuck's sake. OK, let's, let's. All right, let's pretend like we're just starting the interview. Good morning, Marcel. Good morning, Sir. How are you today? Fine. Sir, good morning, Sarah. Yeah. How's my hair? Is it OK? It's fabulous. Your hair's got to be fake. It's fake, right? No plugs or nothing. Nope. Really. You dye it. Well, yeah 'cause otherwise it'd be really Gray. Yeah, you'd have silver hair.

28:01 Yeah. All right. Enough of the hair, Rocco. Jesus Christ all. Right. But I have to tell you where that comes from. What? When you're on the road dealing with internationals, people from all over the planet and people tend to get very passionate about when they have something to bitch about. Sorry, you should shut this off. So then you somebody comes up, for example, an Irish guy, Not that I work with Irish guys much but when you they come up and they go ruffle, the guy came in, what are you going to do about it? And I go, how's my hair? Does it look like that? In other words, it doesn't fucking matter, right?

28:43 All that matters is my hair, so just. You're you're just diffusing the situation, right? Exactly. Yeah. So let's plug it back in. Ask your first question. I want to hear about your U2 experience. So you know, just to remind people you worked for U2 for like 30 years or something, right? As stage manager the whole time? Or was that just where you ended up? No, it's I was their stage manager from Zoo TV on and and So what happened to the admission, because it's not a secret, is that I was in New Zealand in 2019. We were about to start a tour of Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Japan and India and day before the 1st show I had a stroke. Just out of the blue, all of a sudden my whole left side stopped working.

29:40 So, fortunately, how lucky am I? We were half a mile away from the University of New Zealand, which has the finest stroke ward and research facility in the fucking world. And they took me. Yeah. And they took me in and they got me working without major surgery. I won't go through all the procedures of it because it wasn't fun, but they had to leave me behind because you can't fly when you have a stroke. And so it just suddenly left me alone on pretty much as far away from home as I can get. No kidding. And so you reflect and you think, and you're like, OK, what am I going to do with the rest of my life? And I decided at that point that I was going to come home and take a deep breath and admit that it's time to call. It a career, so you quit right before COVID. Well, that was the thing as I got home, and as soon as I got home, I was starting to think about it again. Go well, I feel pretty good.

30:42 And I'm moving all right. And I bam. And I was like, OK, thanks for the warning. God, you didn't really have to take out the whole fucking planet to make your point with me. But no. Kidding. Yeah. But yeah, that's when I went so. But that was also the point where I decided I was going to Start learning how to use logic and video editing. So, but with, you know, being locked down and all the rest of that and watching all of our constituents get very, very frustrated, I decided, well, I should use this for something for the people in our business. So I got involved with Live Nation, who at the time was doing a roadie relief, I'll call it. And they were in a in the nutshell, they were handing out $1000 bills to Roadies, which is not a lot. But when you're, you know, when you're a roadie and you're living paycheck to paycheck because you have drug habits, alcohol habits, and you know you buy a lot of guitars and stuff, then $1000 was a good stepping stone until you saw, you know, because at the time, nobody knew what was going to happen, didn't have any idea how long this is going to last. They didn't have any idea how long we wouldn't be having shows.

31:53 So I started making videos, First of all, to make people aware of the project. Second of all to just have fun. And I went out and shot a lot of videos in empty venues. Yeah, you know, it's just. So is that what that was about? Was that because I was going to ask you why are your videos always in empty venues? And is that basically to show what could happen? Like, you know, we could get back to empty venues again someday or? What? Well, not that that's what was happening at the time. And and so I just did it just to say, OK, it's still here. Don't forget about it. This is where we're from and you know. That's cool. That's that's cool that you did that. I like that. Yeah, but I didn't want to. You know, it's like you don't explain the punchline to the joke, you just tell the joke.

32:38 And so I didn't put it out to people. I just put it out as I'm done. But I'm not giving up, so you shouldn't either. So was was your biggest video the the Neil Young one or were there others that were bigger than that? Because I know that one seemed to be pretty popular. That's it that that that did go pretty good and I had a blast doing that. But but all of these videos, the thing was, you know, for years, for the 45 years I was on the road, I did a lot of music videos with a lot of bands, you know, and I would do some that had budgets that were six figures, you know, that that were just insanely expensive. So when I started doing these videos, I set out to do it as cheap as possible.

33:23 Yeah, So I was doing everything myself. The only thing that cost me any money was for a qualified drone pilot, which I found this guy who's just phenomenal and that and, you know, occasionally just miscellaneous stuff, but I was spending 10s of dollars rather than hundreds of thousands of dollars. Well, you you did a. Great. You did a really great job. I mean especially like audio quality, you know your studio, you must have some decent stuff in there because the audio quality on on your stuff is is really good and it's. Thank you. I appreciate that. But it's, you know, it's learning from 17 year old Indonesian kids. Yeah, and and are you doing all the instruments on these recordings or?

34:07 Yeah, everything. Everything except lead guitar that have a buddy Chuck that I went to high school with and he's one of those genius guys that worked for Microsoft for years and years and, you know, just really excelled in it and stuff. But he's a fabulous guitar player. Is he the guy that's on your sex of fire, The one that you just put out? Yeah. He's the guy that's in that video. Yeah. Yeah, very clean cut looking, dude. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. He doesn't belong with you. Poor guy. I know he's got it. He's. Got to be sitting somewhere right now thinking, where did I go wrong? Like what? Did. Oh no, not at all actually. He's. I'm trying to convince him he needs to retire too because he's a year younger than me and if he could, if he retired, then I could you know, we could do more stuff and do green screen and just like this just back and forth. But for for right now it's you know I'm doing what I want to do and I can, I can play leads.

35:05 It's just my leads all sound like Neil Young. Yeah. Just like my voice, Yeah. And. Yeah, you do a good Neil Young, that's for sure, Yeah. Well, and and I used I, I actually worked for him for a little while. And you know, Long story short he saw the video and it was right after COVID hit and all the rest of the stuff. So he was, you know, I mean, the guy's extremely well off, but, you know, he was at home and the word got back to me that he was like, I don't care. You know, I see, I see Neil Young and and he goes right now, they just cut off, you know, live or farm aid from me. He goes, but I don't care, you know, I I can put out records of stuff that nobody likes but me.

35:48 And I'm married to Daryl Hannah. My life doesn't suck. I don't give a. Fuck, I didn't know that he was married to Daryl Hannah. Oh yeah. Oh, I. Didn't know that. Wow. I mean, I'm sure she's not the Daryl Hannah we remember, you know, from Splash. And stuff. But no, she still looks hot. Really. Wow. Are you allowed to say that? Yeah, I I guess you know, it's a fact. Well, the the AI guys that shut off our sound might grab that little clip, send it to Neil Young. Get you sued, Yeah. I've been sued by bigger paychecks than him, so. Yeah, good. 111 thing that I did happen to me is I did the best thing that I ever did and the biggest response I ever got on a video was with Chuck. I recorded Desperado by the Eagles, only I had I and I and I told Chuck.

36:40 I go just throw shit on there. That's the end and that's what we like doing. I like to make it our own by just putting stuff in that you shouldn't and sacrilegiously so I go just fill it full of leads from from front to back, you know, just a little tagline thing. So he did and I go, God damn man, you sound just like Jeff Beck on this, you know, And it sounded really good. So I said let's do this as a tribute to Jeff Beck. And I put together a montage of very rarely seen Jeff Beck pictures and videos and stuff like that as a background for all of this. And we put it up on YouTube and it was on there for like 2 weeks and got like 6000 hits and then Don Henley put a cease and desist on me.

37:23 No. Yeah, really. Because you can't. Do a cover tune on on YouTube. Well, that's The thing is, whenever I do a cover, I license it through Tune core, which, you know, they do the check and everything like that. And they had no problem with me doing a thing because they call it a parody. Then legally I could call it parody just because I changed it so much with that. But I think he was pissed off personally because I did it and I did it as a tribute to Jeff Beck. And I am, who knows, you know, But but I did it to to as a tribute to Jeff Beck because right after we finished recording it, Jeff died. And I had worked with Jeff through the years through many different projects, and I absolutely love the guy that was devastated. Huge loss, that one.

38:09 Well, and it's. One of those things where you just you never thought about. Well, you know, someday we're going to lose Jeff Beck. Just you know, like someday we're going to lose Paul McCartney. Someday we're going to lose the. Hardest thing about getting older as your heroes, when your heroes start dropping, you know, like you just said Jimmy Page. Like when Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, and you know, I mean Eddie Van Halen already died. That one crushed me, you know, because I grew up on Van Halen in a big way. But yeah, it sucks. But, but that's partially why I'm doing nothing but cover songs because I have original material, but I don't, I don't want to put it out as my, you know, right now I'm in my learning stage learning how to record and how to get quality and put together good videos and stuff like that and and you know, I could do it but it's not like I'm going to start a new career as a rock star at age. Seven, you know, it's like.

38:59 That just ain't going to happen. So I'm just having fun. But I also who cover songs because I like changing them and making them my own. Because think about, you know, like Beethoven and Tchaikovsky and you know all of the great composers from centuries gone by the way they originally performed the songs. There's no recordings of. But you know, the people and you know through the years who document this kind of thing, is orchestras have changed, excuse me, modified and changed all of those things through the years and made it their own as time progress. Because a good song will always be a good song. Yeah. But 100 years from now, what will people still be listening to?

39:42 Yeah, it's true. Yeah, that that you probably The Beatles. Yeah, it's true, Probably. Probably not, Nicki Minaj. Yeah, but Taylor Swift? Can you imagine Taylor Swift on a classic rock station 50 years from now? You know I. Just don't see. It. Yes and no. I mean, I actually admire Taylor Swift a lot. I think she's a great musician. I think she's a great songwriter. But when anybody gets. Business woman, you know, that's what. Well, actually, you know who. You know who the brilliant business mind is behind her? Her manager. Her mom. You know who her manager is? No. Her manager is Robert Allen. Robert Allen is the brother of 1 armed drummer Rick Allen. Yeah, he was tour manager for Def Leppard, which is how I knew him.

40:31 And then he was out as tour manager for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill when a young 17 year old girl came on as their opening act. And he was the one who says I can help you, I thought. It was good, Mom. Somebody because. Well, her mom is definitely her, you know, main influence and in a protector and all the rest. And her dad. Yeah. Yeah, but Robert is a is, you know, he's a business genius when it comes to and you get that from being a tour manager. Well, he did OK there because, like, she's made, what, $2 billion this in the past 12 months or something? Like, just an insane amount of money. But fame is a very fleeting thing, you know. Keep in mind, how many examples are there through the years, within the last 10 years of artists who came, were huge.

41:19 And then bugger all for a moment. Case an example. That was it, LMA, or you laugh my ass off there? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, all right. They were poof. They were huge and gone. 21 pilots, 2018. Biggest band in the world today. Gone. Yeah, yeah. I mean it it's hard to stay there for very long, that's for sure, you know? Like who was the other one? The one who became a an American Idol judge? The woman? God, I'm drawing it total blank. Jlo because she's. Still no. The one. The one who's still on it right now. I don't. Know I don't watch that. Show Katy Perry. Katy Perry. Yeah, she kind of went she Super Bowl. You know, and then gone. Yeah, that's totally true.

42:01 I never thought about that. Like she really disappeared. Well, but it's media. Yeah, yeah. It's media control. Let's face it, that, you know, it was funny because at one point in time I had a conversation with Bono and he was saying, you know, I just don't think we're radio relevant anywhere. I go radio's not relevant anymore. No, it's Yeah. And you know, it's like selling records is not relevant anymore because nobody buys records, nobody, you know, they they might pay for a stream, but they get it as part of their service because they subscribe to app or you know. Physical media doesn't exist anymore. It's gone. It's over. Well, and you think about think about as far as the big picture in time, it was here and gone really fast. You know, think about CDs, how long were they around 10 years, Yeah.

42:49 Well, it was more than cassettes, you know. Cassettes, You know what's funny? Have you, have you seen any of these videos on YouTube or Facebook or whatever where they go to young kids and hand them a cassette tape and say there's music on this, there's music on this. Can you tell me how to get the music off of it? And like two kids are sitting there like probably 14 year old boys or whatever, right? And they're looking at it and spinning it around and holding it up to their ear and like just doing all kinds of things, trying to figure out how it's going to play music, this thing. Right? And they are just completely clueless. It's hilarious to watch. And all I think of is putting the pen in one side of it and sitting there like this to rewind the cassette tape, you know? But.

43:34 Well, or, you know, like if, you know, like the the rocket that they sent out the Voyager thing and it had an actual album inside of it. All right, yeah. But it's like, you know, they they send it out. And if a species or alien race finds it that's millions of years more advanced than us. How long is it going to take them to realize that they need to take a needle and scratch it? Isn't that funny? Yeah. Or or the other one that I saw on one of these kid videos, like showing kids something from the past, is is a Rotary phone. And they offered him, I think it was like 100 bucks or something. If you can make a phone call within one minute and here's the phone number that you have to dial, right?

44:16 And they're just like, what do you do, You know? They have no idea how to work this Rotary. Phone. But where I'm going, where I'm going with this conversation, is that things turn over very rapidly. You know, for example, you know, it used to be if somebody said to me, you know, a stranger, I'm clerk in a store or something like that, Well, what do you do for a living? And they'd say, well, I work for you too. They they're like, whoa or what? You know. But now what I find is, and especially after I came home and you know it was emerging after COVID is anybody or the young under the age of 30 has no idea who you 2 is. Think about it.

44:56 Think, think about it. Well, I have to say the and and then they think about it for a moment and they go, oh wait, that was that band that put that album in my iPhone that I can't get out. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. And that's, you know, so it's just perspective. Yes, you and I. We know who you choose. So, you know, one time one of my employees came. I have a house up in in Western Canada and a ski area. And so he wanted to. One of my employees came up there with me one time and we wanted to go skiing. He wanted to rent some skis or whatever. So I took him to a rental place and it was a cute, young French Canadian girl, probably 2021 years old, who was serving him there.

45:38 And he goes, wait, you want to see how old we are? And I said, what are you talking about? And she goes, Sir, what's your name? She's filling out the form. And he goes Eddie Van Halen. And she goes, OK, Eddie Van Halen and your address. And he goes, hang on a minute, you don't know who I am. And she goes, yeah, you're Mr. Van Halen. And he goes, but that name doesn't ring a bell or anything. And she goes, no, just because you told me, now you know. And he's like, he looks at me and he goes, see. And I'm like, damn it, wow, look, Eddie Van Halen. Really. But it's relative perspective. People aren't stupid. They just, it's not on their feed anymore. But some of that is down to parenting because like myself, much of my family and many of my friends brought their kids up on the same music we were brought up on for the most part, right? Like, my son loves hip hop and all that stuff, but he knows who the hell Eddie Van Halen is.

46:32 He knows who you too is. He knows who Def Leppard is. And you know he he knows all the classics. Yeah, so. But you know, it's a, it's a they may know, but they don't necessarily participate in his own. Yeah, No. You're you're totally right. And things turn over very rapidly and will continue to turn. And who knows in the next 10 years with all of this technology that's kicking into how far it will go and what people's priorities will be for that. But I have always found that there's always a need for a simple song. You know and and you know think about that what what's a song from 100 years ago? I. Don't.

47:14 Know exactly. I had no idea. Well, you know or or 200 years ago, Camp Town ladies sing this song. You know it's and yet you don't know who wrote it. You don't know who performed it. You didn't know anything about it. You just might know a song, if it's base, if it's something that was in a cartoon or a movie or something like that. And. Christmas music? What about Christmas music? Like my girlfriend and I were talking about that this Christmas we were like, have you ever noticed, like every God damn year you listen to the same 100 Christmas songs over and over and over and over again? Like, are there any new Christmas hits coming out aside from Mariah Carey? You know, like is there nothing coming out in the Christmas genre?

48:01 And it's true. Like, I mean, really the the all the classics are the ones that get played over and over and over again and they're all 100 years old or 80 or whatever it is. Years. Lots of years old. So yeah, they aren't on the top, but you know the yeah. The The good news is the like, social media has created such a frenzy for live music, you know, and I've brought this up so many times, so plug your ears if you've already heard me say it 1000 times. But a couple of months ago. Rapinoe from Live Nation did a, like, I think it was during it, one of an earnings call or something. But anyways, he came out with a story, an article on, you know, it had to do with growth.

48:47 Like, are you still planning to experience the same kind of growth over the next year or whatever? And he said, yeah, the growth opportunity is massive. And they're like, yeah, but how, you know, like wasn't this just a surge after COVID and it's going to come back down again? It was just a bump. And he said no. Here's why. Like all of these artists now have 10 or 20 million followers on social media. And he said our job in the concert world is easy. All we have to do is sell tickets to 5% of them for an entire tour. And he's not wrong. You know, 5% of a 10 million follower, you know, country artist or something is only is is 500,000 people, you know, globally, like that's all he's got to do, 5%.

49:32 And so it really does go to explain some of the drive behind this just massive appetite for live music that's still going on. Like I thought it was a COVID bump but now it's something else, like there's something else driving this right now. It's crazy. Well, but think about it, and I've had this discussion many times through the years, is since the Christians and the Lions, people need to come together in Mass and it almost doesn't matter who's playing up on stage, which is why festivals are doing so well. Now post COVID is because people just want to get out there, get fucked up, make idiots out of themselves in front of the opposite sex and hopefully, you know, score. But it almost doesn't matter.

50:18 Well, no, but you know what I'm saying. It's all part of the social movement of what people do. It's like, you know, people used to say, what did you do last week all, man, it was great. I went to the show and I got so fucked up, man. It was so cool. And next week I'm going to another show and I'm going to get even more fucked up, you know? You remember those? I. Slept in mud, you know? And I showered in toilets, you know, I mean. It's but it but it. But it it comes down to just the experience of socialization. Yeah. And no, you're right with the I mean, you and I, we've never physically met, have we? No. And yet you know, we can we can communicate like this and we can tell that we're very like minded on a number of different points. But and and that's what people need, is they need to go out and find other shitheads like themselves so they can be stupid.

51:10 Together. I think when when COVID took that away for a year and a half or whatever, people freaked out and just went whoa, like that is the biggest thing that you can't take that away from me again, like the ability to see my friends and to congregate for music or food or whatever, you know, like that I think created, you know, certainly the festival, the drive behind festivals, because I remember before COVID festivals were hit or miss, like a few of them were doing really well. A few of them weren't doing so well and you know, it was, it wasn't like it is today. Like now, you could call it the Fart Festival and you'll sell, you know, 100,000 tickets. Yeah, it's crazy. You know, think, think about and you know, look up any page relative to a festival and look down the line up 80% of the bands you've never heard of. Yeah, a lot of.

51:59 And that's not, that's not necessarily a bad thing, because anymore, that's the only way you truly get discovered by a fan of. Course by. Playing live and. Yeah, it ain't gonna be the radio stations or whatever. Yeah, nobody listens to, you know, terrestrial radio anymore. I mean, that just does this. Like, I'm starting to wonder, why the hell do I have XM radio in my car? Like, am I paying for this? What the hell? Do you want that for you? Know. So I'm gonna get rid of that too. It's just a waste of money and time and whatever, but so you you finally got out to see the The Sphere show, I heard. Yeah, And it was, it was a great day, great experience. I went, I flew out on Friday and I flew home on Saturday. So I was just there for the day.

52:44 And you know, it was great because Jake Berry, my friend, my mentor and you know, my boss for so many years, was very accommodating. A lot of the crew was still there. John Boss, who was my assistant on the past few tours, took over as the total stage manager because he's the perfect fit. And I I thought it might be weird for me, you know, coming out there, But it was, it was like a comfy shoe. It just, it felt right. Everything was, you know, was it was really nice. And the only bad thing was that the band was in the process of getting ready to shoot a video of the show with special cameras and stuff. Because after they leave the sphere. Yeah.

53:29 They're going to put together a movie like an IMAX theater type of thing. Of course, show is built for the sphere and they'll show that there. So you know it's. Well, you'll hardly know the difference. Because, I mean, you know, as amazing as that show supposedly is, I haven't seen it. But I've seen thousands of videos and pictures and stuff. Yeah, like, to me, the first time I saw a video, I had to look for like 20 seconds to figure out where the band was. Like I couldn't find the band. And that that was the only objection. If there was anything to the whole spectacle of it is that it does Who's on stage? The show is, is the venue. Yeah, And and U2 is the perfect band to put on that kind of show.

54:10 But for me, it was really strange because after 30 years of working for him and it didn't occur to me until the second song, it's the first time I ever saw them from out in front. Oh. That's wild. Without headphones on, without, you know, lights going on, without being folk, you know, For 30 years I sat behind the drummer and stared at Bono's ass waiting for something to go wrong, you know? And it was just, you know, I'm in the show and their performance, it was emotionally, it was, I think I was quoted as saying. I laughed, I cried. It was better than cats.

54:51 Yeah, that's. I can only imagine what that would be like. You know, like for 30 years you worked for them behind the stage. You never saw it from out front. And now suddenly you were a you know, you were an audience member, the rest of the people. But the other thing that was unusual too was to see them there. And pretty much they were just performing a 30 year old record Octone Baby, you know, and they they put the the major hits that you got out of streets and with or without, you know. And you know, they were focused on this movie that they're putting together. So I only got to spend about two minutes with Bono, which I kind of regret. But, you know, after spending 30 years from him, it's not like, you know.

55:36 Yeah, like we had a whole lot. You know what's new? OK, well, I got new knees, a new ankle, a new hip, and I had cancer in my face. But other than that, what if you? Know it's not like you're starstruck or anything. You've been around the guy for 30 years, so. Well, and and that has been part of the successes our relationship is. I met them originally when they were an opening act for Jay Giles band back in. Really. Yeah. And they they were horrible. They sucked, You know, they were young. They were, you know, just. But they had this excitement and I knew that someday they were going to be big. And then in 1990, what was I doing at that .0? I was doing Aerosmith the Pump Tour. So that was right when I got clean and sober because I went through rehab with Aerosmith. And after I finished, that was when I hooked up and started working with U2 again.

56:26 And the rest is kind of history. But I had always been that old roadie from Chicago, you know, and they had always been that guy. You know, everybody in the whole U2 camp whispers when they're around them. And you know, if you go into the dressing room and wears up, if I go into the dressing room and go, hey, where's B? Dude, I got to talk to you. But I'm busy right now. I'm having dinner. Yeah. OK, Chew with your mouth closed and just listen. All right? That's good. Well, but you know when you're a rock star, you can't go into a 711 and buy a Snickers bar because you'd be mobbed. Sometimes you just need to be a fucking guy and just be a dude.

57:10 And I've always treated them with respect. You know, you have to maintain that employee employer relationship, but they don't pull punches with them. And I forever lied to him, you know, and and it's you know, one of my favorite answers to him is like Bono came off stage and he was singing a Pavarotti bit up on stage in an opera piece and he came off afterwards and he goes, how did that sound? And they go, well, at least you got sexy to fall back on. That's a good one. So, but you know, but you know, just if you approach life without lying to people by putting a sense of humor behind it, you can get away with saying anything. That's why I think you know nothing against Trump or Biden. But I think the greatest president we could ever possibly elect would be Jon Stewart.

58:00 Yeah, moving on. Yeah. I mean, it'd be funny, you know, which was the same. Thing. Which, by the way, was the same thing before Trump got elected that I said, it's going to be entertaining, you know, no matter what happens, God damn, it's going to be funny. Well, that's the thing. It's you know is it will come down to entertainment. Yeah. Is what is what brings us forward as far as the society. Because, well, and until recently, you know, the good news was there were always checks and balances. You know, there there was always a backstop like they couldn't become tyrannical and just start nuking every country in the world or whatever. Because you had Congress in the Senate and there were, there were, you know, ways to keep them sort of contained.

58:44 And a lot of that, like, I don't really want to get into politics, but I mean, the Constitution is such a smart document. It's like these people who wrote this thing, We're thinking of things that we couldn't have even dreamed up, you know, 20 years ago, let alone today or let alone 200 years ago. And and here the people are thinking of all these things that we're going to try and do to each other and putting rules in place to keep us from doing those things right. Oh, you like the Second Amendment, where they said, OK, everybody should have a gun, but keep in mind that a gun back then was a musket that you had to load with powder and put a ball in the end. Yeah, it's like, OK, maybe it's time to change and adapt.

59:27 But I digress. Let's talk religion now, OK? Yeah, perfect. Good idea? No good idea, but. Back to the U2 sphere thing, so thank you. Like, are you so Mark Brickman, You know who he is, right? You know Mark. So one time on my podcast, Mark said he went and saw the stones with the, you know, the one with the big iPhones. I think it's the most recent tour, but it was the one with like it had four big iPhones on screens, LED screens, but they look like iPhones behind the stage and you know, one for each band member basically. And he he said, you know, it was beautiful, like those screens were really nice and stuff, but.

1:00:10 He said I didn't like it and I said why? And he said because that big huge video screens, they made Mick look small. Like when I looked at the stage, Mick looked tiny and and you know that stuck with me. And so when I looked at the sphere videos, it made you too look tiny, like they they were literally hard to find. You couldn't find them in the videos that I saw until I finally went, well, duh, there they are. But even then, like, I mean if look at this image behind us right now, you know, and that's a pretty close up image, but it's still not easy to see that you know that's Bono right in the center. You know it's it's.

1:00:53 No, but you know, think about the technology improvements. It's wild where it's at 1080P to 3000P to 4K to, you know, 8K and and when. Yeah, and when you're and when you're over the age of 50, high resolution is not your friend. OK, that's true too. And, you know, and that's what tends to happen. And the thing I found amusing about the Stones thing of the iPhones there is think about any concert you've been to in the last 10 years. You look out at the audience. What do you see? Yeah, yeah, a bunch of iPhone A. Sea of people shooting the show with their iPhones. So it's like, you know?

1:01:35 Well, I talked to designers about that all the time. Like, do you design for, you know, a screen this big? You know, is that what you're designing your show for? Because if you think there's 10,000 or 1215 thousand people sitting there watching the show in the arena, but there might be 3 million people watching it online by tomorrow, you know, watching that video that the guy's recording on YouTube in the audience. So it's crazy. It is crazy. So I think last time you were on, you had just recently got a dog. Yes. And your dog's name is Brynn.

1:02:15 Wow, what an incredible memory. Yeah, well, it's not a memory. I have notes, believe it or not, I I do not have that incredible of a memory, but I do have good notes. And so how's that going? She's 4 now. Wow. So that's how long it's been. Yeah, it was a few years ago, yeah. And I got to say that, you know, it was the coolest thing I've ever done was I I decided, you know, because I've always had a dog at home to protect my wife and give her company. And so, you know, she only hates me once a day. Just, yeah, all day. But, you know, having a dog and spending that much time during COVID, literally, she was with me 24 hours a day. She's over here right now.

1:03:02 Yeah, and she spends all her time with me and I spend all my time with her, with the exception of when I went to that U2 show. That's the only time we've been away from each other. And when she was a puppy, my hands were just ripped to shreds from her, you know, playing with me as things, as puppies do. But now she pays attention to me. She's, you know, she's still willful. Any any woman is like that. And even more so with it. No, but I just, you know, she she wants what she wants and she knows how to get me to do whatever she wants me to do, you know. So she's trained me well. But it's it makes you realize that there's more important things than what you see on your cell phone each day. And I was going to say on TV and others and having the look on that dog's face when she looks at me each morning and says I got to go out, It's just it makes you really, that's the most important thing in her world. And and you know animals, you know, just I won't get into the whole metaphysical thing about it. But animals don't judge.

1:04:14 You know they love you. Uncondition. Very unconditional. Yeah, that's so true. And you know, the thing that I don't like about animals, which is what most people love about them, is they they need you because they really, they're dependent on you. And I mean, at least at least a human grows out of that. A dog. Doesn't a dog need you from the moment he's born until the moment he dies or she? And and so you know, for me, I guess just with my lifestyle and everything else, I've just always avoided. I, you know, my ex-wife always had dogs and my son has a dog and all of that kind of stuff. But I I don't, I've just never needed one. You know, I'm just.

1:04:56 It's just, yeah, it's I'm. I'm so glad that I did because it taught me a lot about myself and about about my reaction to the world. You know, there's a lot of hate out there. And that's that's the thing that I don't like. And you know, and there's a lot of mean people out there and I'm capable of being very mean. Trust me. Ask any stage in on the planet. You know. But. But it's what do you mean You're sure? I'm sure. You know, well, I mean you you worked for U2 for for 30 years at a really high level. They played the biggest venues and you worked with Jake Berry and so I'm sure. Yeah, but you know what? I I have to say that that my my years with U2 was a lot easier because, you know, we had a lot of people who would come in there, special guests. I never referred to them as support, act or anything else like that.

1:05:46 They're always special guests and I want them to feel that way because you come in to the U2 world and it's intimidating. There's 200 semi trucks of equipment here, you know, and and when somebody comes in, I roll out the red carpet and I want them to feel special. Not only the band but the crews and stuff like that. And yeah, it's just because they're expecting someone to just be a controlling asshole When you come in and you give them, you know, comfy chair and a cup of coffee, it's, you know. No, I heard that about you with opening acts. Actually you took really really good care of of opening acts, support acts on. Twitter because I remember getting shit on when I was working for small and I I never, you know, I've been blessed.

1:06:26 I've never really worked for a band just out of a you know starting up. I started with sticks went right before they exploded in North America. Nope, I'm talking. I was joking. I got you that time. You did. Hang on, Let me give this this is. This is completely bizarre, like I'm going to have to get in touch with this company or something, because it's not my. Internet, I'm going to your very in 20 seconds exactly what's going on? Because years ago when I had a choice in the road, I had a choice between a full boat Skype to Loyola University for heliocentric theoretical astrophysics or being a roadie. And I was like, who gets more pussy? There you go.

1:07:15 But what's going on right now is that we're experiencing major coronal mass ejections from the sun, which are messing with satellites and telecommunication systems are. You sure it's not just the leap year thing? Sarah says. It's leap year. No, I'm pretty positive it is going on there. Did you hear about ATT, AT&T losing their whole system a few days ago? I did, Yeah, that was that was the cause. But they don't want to tell people. That well, yeah. And I think there's mixed opinions on that. I've seen a bunch of podcasts and stuff about it saying, you know the. Well, the only thing is is is it was almost exclusively AT&T and the only reason others experience. Anyway, we don't want to go in that direction. Let's go back to it, to the subject matter. So the roadies and rock stars thing. I I watched that.

1:08:05 Thank you for sending us the link or I don't know if Sarah came up with it or whatever but I hadn't seen his podcast before so I started watching a couple of other episodes as well But this guy that you so just to set it up here and people can go find this this podcast roadies and Rock stars and find you can find Rocco on there and or actually I might even just put the link in the in the show notes. Are you are you talking about this dimash guy from Yeah yeah, that was actually, that was on the podcast by run by Joel Miller called Party Like a rock Star. Oh. Different one, not roadies and rock stars. Party Like a Rock stars there's There's so many old roadies that have podcasts now, but.

1:08:52 So I was watching the wrong I, so I went looking at the Roadies and Rock Stars podcast and I'm like, I don't find the Rocco one anywhere on here, but I got the link from Sarah. So, so yeah, so party like a rock star. Right. And here here's the scoop behind that. He I, I did a podcast with him like this or just interviewing old roadie want near old roadie stories and shit And then he's a he's a very creative kid and he came up with this concept because he knew that reaction videos are becoming popular now. Yeah, you know where you have rappers that watch? Girls in One Cup. The first time. And now we're losing you on Internet. Yeah, but he, he goes, well, would you wanna, would you like to try this?

1:09:40 And I was like, yeah, I'll try anything twice. I don't give a fuck. Come on. And so. And we're looking at videos mostly of Japanese heavy metal bands. Yeah, But also some Chinese and some Indonesian. You know, the point being is nothing that you've ever seen in North America. Yeah. And I've always been fascinated by that, you know, with as many times as I've been around the planet with artists that I discover that are fucking amazing. But you've never heard of them in America. Yeah. And and so, so I was like, yeah, I'll get involved with that, but this. You used to be able to go into import record stores and and get all kinds of advice from the guy who owned the import record store. Who'd be like, oh, you got to hear this ox Knox metal band from, you know, wherever Germany or something. And he used to just find the wackiest stuff. And obviously YouTube is so much more convenient, but it's also a bigger pool, like you got to go fishing in a huge pond on YouTube and stuff.

1:10:39 But, well, the thing a lot of people don't realize about YouTube is it's it's very it's divided. You won't see stuff on American or North American YouTube that people in South America see or in certain parts of Europe. There is some cross pollination in some of it, but a lot of it is just picked out by AI. Yeah, as far as what gets, Otherwise you'd have too much stuff and all the reference ones you get down the side of a panel when you look at any YouTube. Oh, also check these out. Are just things where they're. No. They're writing algorithms to try and decide what it is you're looking for, and for the most part, either that or in some cases they're trying to force you into a certain direction or whatever.

1:11:23 But, but that's why I I liked, you know, what he was doing with that. And most of the comments he gets are from people overseas. So that that tells me that it's not shown through a lot of things. So that's why I put it on my Facebook page, just to see probably, you know, let people know what I'm up to and see what kind of reaction people get. Yeah, cuz that guy's voice I've never. Holy shit. Like, yeah, this guy. Demash, Demash, whatever. So go to Rocco's Facebook and or is it on your YouTube channel as well? It's no. If you wanna find it, Yeah, go. Yeah, go. I found it on Facebook, I think. Yeah, it's on Facebook. My, my. Facebook and but I mean, there's this singer and he's, where's he from Afghanistan or something.

1:12:08 I always mispronounce it, so I wrote it down. It's called Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan, yeah. And if. You look, it's kind of like centered in between Pakistan and China and Russia and you know, there's a shit load of countries there that all end in a stand. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And he, I mean, this guy just looks like somebody that'd be, you know, either a valet at a parking lot or a, you know, a guy serving you food in a in a restaurant. But he looks very regular, right? Like it just looks like a regular guy, doesn't look like a pop star or anything. And he starts singing and he's doing like everything from, you know, what is it like, you know, tenor to soprano or something, right.

1:12:52 Like he's he's doing the low man parts of a of an operatic song or a classical song all the way up to the woman, high parts and everything in between. And he's freaking incredible. Like that guy was just he blew me away. Well, my first comment afterwards was I asked the host if he ever saw the movie The Fifth Element with Bruce Willis and that chick from all of the Resident Evil things. And there was a character in there that was an opera singer, alien performing, and she sang all this stuff where it was starting off real long, go up real high, just like he does. And they did it all with you could tell they did it with what was the thing that raises and lowers people's voice.

1:13:34 Bitch. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. So they did it all with that because you could tell it's kind of robotic sounding. This guy is the real deal. And from what I'm told is he was originally discovered on some Russian talent show performing that song from Fifth Element. Oh, really interesting. And then, you know, got moved on from there. But point being, and there's tons of people I I used to work for a German artist called Marius Mueller Vestenhagen in 1995. You've never heard of him? Yeah. But in Germany, this guy is huge. We would do like three nights in a stadium, sold out and we would only play in Germany and Switzerland because he was sort of like a Phil Collins but sang in German.

1:14:18 Yeah. So it was huge there and the way I got the gig was kind of strange. It was because I was stage manager for U2 and it was, I think Mark Brickman just showing designed the show, you know, so they had all these top shelf players and stuff. But I got the gig because I had done one show with David Haefelov. Oh no. Who also is huge in Germany? Yeah, I knew that, Yeah. As a singer, yeah, he could. He could sell out stadiums there and stuff like, and I actually went to high school with the guy if you could with the Hoff. So with the Hoff. Yeah. Oh God, I I don't. Put it on my resume. But no, no.

1:15:00 But anyway, But I've always been intrigued by, you know, artists that are huge in other parts of the planet, because I've been able to travel to these other parts of the planet and also is incredibly interesting to me. How many North American artists they've never heard of in Europe or South America or Africa or Australia, you know, sticks huge in North America, couldn't get arrested anywhere else on the planet? Yeah, well, you know what I did? I supplied a bunch of lighting for the Eagles. Had to be right around 2000 or 99 or something when they did a tour that started in Moscow and Steve Cohen was the lighting designer.

1:15:47 And so I went over for the start of the tour in Moscow. I had never been there. I thought it'd be cool to go or whatever, and it was a really cool experience. But opening night, they're playing and, you know, I don't know if you've seen the Eagles live, but the different members will play some of their own hits as well, right? And so, you know, over here, Joe Walsh steals the show. Like, no matter what, Joe Walsh goes out and goes and everybody goes nuts, right? For any Rocky Mountain way or whatever. And over there, Joe Walsh would start, Life's been good and everybody would sit down and it was dead silent. And I'm like what the?

1:16:34 Hell. And then Glenn Frey would start like the song from the Warriors in the city or whatever. Yeah. And it'd be like they'd go or. No, not even that one. What was the Glenn Frey song? Hot in the city or something? I don't remember. But it was some bad song and and they went nuts. Like everybody went crazy. And I'm like, how did Glenn Frey break in Russia? But Joe Walsh didn't like that to me. Blew me away. Just weird. That's just it was a different time. Did you learn anything more about this Demash guy? Like did you go down a Demash rabbit hole or was it A1? And none no.

1:17:17 Well, I looked up a couple of things, YouTube videos, and there apparently was an issue where people say he's lip synching, he's not lip synching, whatever. It's, you know, yeah, the guy. The guy is absolutely amazing, no matter what's going on with his performances and stuff. Well, and he made the song. Whether or not he's singing it live, I guess, like, I I definitely have a thing with backing tracks that I don't like a lot right now. Like, I know pop pants have always done it and I've always written it off as, you know, like if Madonna's got a run around the the stage dancing and doing all these crazy things, if she has to lip sync every once in a while, that's cool, 'cause like, that's exhausting, that stuff, right?

1:17:58 But when rock bands do it, it kind of pisses me off. I don't know. I, I, I, I tend to be a little more forgiving about it all. Unless people go full villy, Milly vanilly with it, you know? Yeah, but it. But if there's backing track playing while they're singing it, I got no fucking problem with that, you know? Really. And and yeah, yeah, yeah, to each their own. But I mean, I don't. I don't think it's a major sin for artists to do it, because I know from as many artists as I've worked through, I can count on one hand how many of them play with track. Yeah. Oh really? Yeah. And. And. So it's yeah, but let's say let's ask it a different way. So let's say you're single and you're pursuing a girl, a woman, and so you're on Instagram looking through all these different pictures of these girls on Instagram or whatever, which is kind of creepy anyways, but. Or you're on a a dating site looking at pictures of girls, and they're all filtered and doctored and photoshopped and whatever.

1:19:04 Isn't that like similar? Like they're just trying to make themselves look better for you. You know, you know. Agreed. And you know it's a it's all about the attraction, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah, but then you know, you know, somebody grabs a guitar and sings you a song by a campfire and you're like, holy shit, you sound horrible. Like you sounded amazing on stage, but you sound horrible. Now, no. But have you, have you looked at my videos? Yeah. OK, so on there, I'm playing everything. Yeah. And I'm singing everything, but I'm not. I'm not doing it in real time. I'm just creating it. Yeah, I'm not talking about a video. But no, hang on, though. I know that I'm not a great singer, you know? I mean, I can sing like Neil Young, but when I sing like Rocco, it's nothing extraordinary. It's not Demash or anything like that. So what I try to do in my videos is do stuff that nobody's done before.

1:20:00 I don't know if you saw my latest one where it's a cover of Kings Of Leon. Yeah yeah, Second Empire. In that one I put on a green screen one green screen onesie. Oh, is that what that was? I was wondering what that was. Yeah. Exactly. And then I I had, and you know, I shot it in this college outdoor pavilion type of place that was like 1/4 hemisphere because I was kind of trying to take a piss out of U2's full hemisphere. Yeah. And I just put put stuff on there and I but, you know, I, I put it on my body and stuff like, 'cause you never saw anybody do anything like that. But I went out and I shot that on a January morning in inside this college thing.

1:20:43 And you're not supposed to be in there. But I just went in and did it anyway. And I did it. It was. It was 9. Oh, you didn't ask for permission or anything. You just broke. It rock'n'roll is not asking. For it. That's hilarious. That's good. And same thing with my Neil Young things and all the empty venues. I broke in. I didn't ask, Oh my God, I tried. I tried asking permission and they oh, you have to check with blah blah blah and woof woof woof and. Fill out an application, pay a permitting. Fee so. So I went into that place and in one take on a morning in January when it was 9°F out, I went in there and I shot my bit in one. You know, one thing and I was like that's that's what rock'n'roll is about.

1:21:23 It's not about choreographed, it's not about post cutting things together. And you know, and the rest of that, I said this is rock'n'roll and it cost me nothing to do. Yeah, yeah, that was the most beautiful part. U2 is playing in a $2 billion venue, spending millions of dollars worth of software and hardware to, you know, create this big thing. And I did it with an iPhone on a selfie stick. Really. And you're using an iPhone to record these videos. An iPhone 11, you go inside of it and you set it for 1080P60 frames per second. Yeah, and and you get a great picture out of. It Oh, that's awesome. That's really. Good.

1:22:04 Now now my next video that I'm going to do, I'm going to shoot April 8th here in Ohio in a town called Marion. And there's in Marion there's this. It's Long story short, it's this Roman Coliseum looking place that's a memorial to President Harding, who was president like 100 years ago. And this building literally is 100 years old. It just turned 100 and I'm going to shoot it there with a drone on April 8th because there's going to be a total eclipse of the sun that day, 214 in the afternoon, where the sun was going to go completely blank.

1:22:45 So of course I'm going to do a cover of Pink Floyds. Awesome. Well, you know, brain damage into a clay, you know, the lunatic is on the grass, that whole vibe thing there. So I'm doing it there and I'm doing it with a drone thing, but I'll use green screen to insert myself inside of this structure and stuff like that, and then do it right as the eclipse is happening. That's cool, because I can't, you know? What you need to start doing though, is you need to get into AI and start doing like the animated Rocco with a band You know have have AI create a whole band around you as well. And you still record all the music and everything, but there's a band on these videos and you're smiling like you've already got one in the. That's exactly what I'm no, that's exactly what I'm going to do, actually.

1:23:35 That's awesome. I look forward to seeing those cause and then just mess with different cover tunes and stuff and that'd be amazing. That'd be hilarious. I'd. Love it. And that's why I'm doing, you know, nothing but cover tunes. Because then you know, it's, it gives people something to throw stones at. Yeah, and people love. Throwing stones. But I mean, if these bands are causing you hassle on the copyright and stuff, that sucks. You know, it's like hey, a 40 year old song or whatever, you don't want me to go do a cover on YouTube? Come on. Yeah, but you know what? I'm glad it pissed Don off enough that he because he he he doesn't do it to everybody. Yeah, he only does it to ones that are starting to catch on. And they have.

1:24:15 Yeah, I won't. I'm not going to talk out of school, but there are a lot of people employed with just making sure that the Eagle songs are not being stolen from what? Well, now, I mean, they can just do all that with again, AI. Like, you know, whether it's images, videos, sounds, whatever, they can catch it all through AI now. Don't tell those twenty guys in Irving Azoff's office, because. Yeah, that's. True. I don't go fuck with their gig, man. That's. That's funny, didn't you? Didn't you used to open for you 2 at some of the shows? I I opened for you 2IN Pearl Jam in Hawaii in front of 50,000 people because Bono dared me. That's crazy. And then after I did that, the other bands that I would go out and tour with heard about it and and when actually, I first started doing this roadie band thing on Journey tour back in 2004 because we were out doing the State Fair circuit and they didn't want to start playing in the summertime evening with Journey. Starting at 8:00.

1:25:16 Yeah, they're playing under daylight and the promoter said no, we're already paying them a quarter $1,000,000 for not going to pay for an opening act. So we just said OK, and we got up on their gear and played and we didn't get paid, but it ate up time and we had a blast. Yeah, that's. That's awesome. And the audience was always very forgiving because they'd look at us and just picture that we're them. Yeah, just regularly. I I could jump off the stage with a microphone and go 20 rows out and nobody's going to mob me. If anything, they're going to get out of my way. This guy's fucking nuts. And I just, you know, stick the mic in their face and let him sing along and just have fun and just have a blast, you know? I. Remember last time you told me? I think it was on a journey tour and you were on a day off or something and you had a party or a BBQ at your house and the band all came over and became a garage band at your house. Yeah, that's the first place in my neighbors. Yeah, what a great way to meet your neighbors. But having.

1:26:13 Journey there, playing in your garage. But that's the whole thing that I've used the keys to my career for, is just doing goofy crazy shit that nobody else has ever fucking done. Well, that's a good one. Like that one right there. That's a really good one that nobody expects, you know, It's very cool. It's like, I like all those Jimmy Fallon videos where, you know, he's got him and Miley Cyrus or somebody and they're all like, actually, I think Bono did it, Didn't he Like where? We did it with you too. Yeah, where they were disguised in the subway station doing a song and nobody paid much attention. Like they were just buskers, right? And and then all of a sudden it's really Bono, you know? Or it's really Miley Cyrus, or it's really whoever. And those are funny.

1:26:59 I like those. Yeah, but I was there for that, actually. And where you really and people recognize them before we started, but they were just, they're on their way to work. They're like, oh, wow, you you choose there. OK, that's hilarious. It's like if you live in LA and you see a movie star walking down the street, you don't go, OK, I'm in LA. There's fucking Gene Simmons. That's true. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, well, before the sound gods nail us again, I'm going to, I'm going to let you get on with your day. It's been fun and I want to do this again when things are working a little better someday. OK. But yeah, let's keep in touch and and let's get you back on again.

1:27:40 You're a fun guy to have on the show. And always interesting stories. Even though you're not touring anymore, you've still got interesting stories. And I know, I know. Well, we'll have to do it again one day. And I apologize for all the technical glitches. I apologize to you, to our audience, cuz that was a pain in the ass. I apologize to Sarah because I'm very intrigued by her voice. Yeah, she's going like this right now. Yeah, I'd like. I'd like to do some more Scottish for you. Well, there you go. All right. Bye.

1:28:27 Yeah.