Time's over. My son Wyatt just said, time's over.
It's Dan time. Grab a seat. It's Dan time. Yeah,
it's Dan time. Only Dan's on the line. Only Dan's
all the time. This is the Dan Time Podcast with
your host, Dan McGonigal. Hey guys, pleased to
welcome today on the Dan Time Podcast, episode
number 103, as we approach the two -year mark.
And I was just telling him, a lot of these guests
that appear on the show, it's a very random coincidence,
just somebody that comes across my peripheral.
Or I'm doing a Google search and, you know, because
I get asked, how did you find me? Where did you
hear about me? Because sometimes it's an independent
artist from across the globe. And it's just one
of the things I've really come to love about
this show and bringing some of these personalities
to your ears and to your eyes on occasion. Mr.
Danny Cole, so pleased to have you here today.
Fellow metalhead, guitar player, and we'll get
into a few of the other... descriptors there,
but Danny came across my Instagram feed. I was
just telling him about this. It was one of the
coolest, and it's like, if you know, you know.
Even if you don't listen to our type of music,
it was hilarious. Go follow him, first of all.
He's at MrMRDannyCole on social media. On Instagram,
you'll find that one a new level. That's all
I'm going to say. Look it up. Give him a follow.
And so I saw it, and I said, okay, I've got to
at least reach out to this dude. So without saying
a whole lot more, Danny, thanks for being here
on Dan Time. Yeah, it's my pleasure, man. It's
nice to be here and join the other Dans of the
world. Yeah. Yeah, this is Dan talking to fellow
Dans, and it was just something for me to get
it going, get a podcast going. And I thought,
I didn't actually realize it at the time, but
if you just put a little dash of humor into the
theme, it usually cranks out some. some great
guests, people that have a sense of humor themselves.
So that's, I've really found your reels and your
content to be just, it's just enjoyable. You
bring the technical aspect to it with your guitar
playing and maybe some nostalgia for people that
love all these old songs and maybe haven't heard
some of them played properly in a long time.
And yeah, thanks for what you're doing out there.
How much fun are you having with it? Actually,
lately, I've been having a lot of fun. I kind
of got out of it for a while. I started my Instagram
in like 2019. And I got a little bit of a following
in the last probably about six or so months after
starting because I was posting so frequently,
like almost a video every two days, which is
what you have to do. And then I kind of got out
of it. Since then, I kind of went stagnant. But
the last six months or so, I've been really getting
back into it and kind of upping my video game
and my editing skills and really trying to do
something different. You know, as opposed to
just playing random covers that, you know, like
your Guns N' Roses covers. You know, the songs
you hear everybody else do. I want to do something
a little bit different. So I try to dig into
the B -sides a little bit more or just obscure
songs. Like this last video I posted, it was,
you know, the metal and Indian kind of hybrid
mix. You know, I got 600 ,000 views in the last
week. It's something different. You know, one
guy did it. I covered that. And, yeah, it kind
of hit pretty big. Just trying different things,
man. I love that one because I think that view
count, the energy that you're bringing in that
video is partly or maybe wholly responsible for,
again, going back to the enjoyment. People stick
on things. They stop scrolling and they watch
if it's like, oh, this is pretty cool. He's having
fun. You look like you're having a great time
doing some of these covers. Yeah, yeah. A little
bit of his performance, but a lot of it is the
fun, but it's just, yeah. And if you saw the
behind the scenes on actually recording one of
those videos, I should probably make it an edit
of that because it'd be pretty funny. It gets
hard, man, because I'm really picky and I have
to perform every note perfectly. And, you know,
even just the way I'm playing it, not necessarily
the way it sounds, but the way it looks like
when I'm playing it, you know, that has to be
perfect too. So it takes me a while, man. Like
just that video alone, I think took me a while.
30 hours. Oh, I believe it. Yeah. So I can only
do like one a week or so I'm working on another
one right now, but, uh, yeah, man, I try, I try
a lot. I used to post a lot of reels. I kind
of archived a lot of my, my posts. I don't know.
Cause I kind of get out of that, but I used to
post like a lot of Pantera memes. So I know you
found me through the new level, right? Cause
that was kind of my, my shtick for a long time
was posting anything Pantera related. That's
been my all time favorite band. Like I used to
post videos of people dancing and I would cut
the Pantera music on top of people dancing and
stuff like that. But my best friend had actually
sent me that video. I know I wrote it in the
video, right? My friend sent me this. My best
friend sent me that. His brother sent that to
him. And we all kind of have this similar sense
of humor. So when he sent me that, it's like,
dude, you got to put that online. That's going
to go viral for sure. Sure enough, it sat on
my phone for about a week. Screw it. I put it
on Instagram and what do you know? It hit like.
Pretty big. Wow. Going back to what you were
saying about 30 hours into something, just that
one example. Obviously, you've got to take a
break. You've got to go take care of your personal
business, sleep, eat, and stuff. When you're
locked into something like that, are you excited
to get right back to it when you've got a break
for a few hours and you just want to get it done?
It's all I think about, man. It consumes me.
Right now, my next video, it's all I'm thinking
about right now. I'm going to go to bed. editing
everything in my head exactly how it's got to
be and yeah learning it perfecting it yeah and
i don't know i don't even know why i'm doing
this to be honest it's not really i don't know
i i'm not in a band i guess i have nothing else
to do musically so i'm just focusing on like
one video at a time and i don't know man i was
in a band i have released original music too
but right now yeah i just got these instagram
reels and uh i haven't followed it wow well Watching
your guitar playing, and I know you have a preference
for ESP guitars, is that correct? Yeah, so my
white one's actually an Epiphone, but ESP would
be absolutely my go -to. Where did you get started
with guitar? Were you always into the hard and
heavy music, and then you picked up the guitar,
or did you pick up the guitar early on? Uh, so
the way that started is I, uh, yeah, I was pretty
young. I was about 12 and my mom put me into
piano lessons and I don't know. I had a hard
time with that. It was just, you know, I didn't
want to learn Do, Re, Mi. I wanted to learn Guds
and Roses. I wanted to learn, you know, whatever
was cool at the time when I was a kid, I was
listening to, you know, Slash and Metallica and,
you know, Megadeth and Pantera and all that stuff.
So that's what I would go to bed thinking about
playing, not, you know. twinkle twinkle little
star on a piano right so after about a year of
that i finally got an acoustic guitar and i got
into kind of teaching myself i took lessons for
a few months but more or less taught myself how
to play been a long time danny what um bouncing
around a little bit here when you get some of
the feedback and people post comments about how
their reaction to these videos how does that
make you feel you're putting it all it's a labor
of love and especially like you said you're doing
something that you're not on a payroll This is
just coming from your creative juices. And I
mean, it may be a total bust. It may be, you
know, it could be boom or bust, but you're getting
that feedback. How does that feel? Yeah. So it
can be good and it can be bad because you never
know what you're going to get. So I post these
videos on Instagram, on Facebook, on YouTube,
on TikTok. You know, they hit, you know, the
variety of views and likes and all that comments.
It's different on everything. You know, Facebook
often more often than not is kind of a bust because
it's more or less your, your aunts and uncles
or whatever. Right. And yeah. Yeah. Instagram's
obviously that's where I hit the most YouTube.
I'm struggling a little bit there. I don't know
what I'm doing wrong. I don't know if there's
ways to advertise it. I'm not advertising, but
my videos don't seem to be getting the reach
that I believe that they should. Cause I've actually
been on YouTube for, I think 17 years, 18 years,
like since, since 2006, I've been posting on
there. at least, you know, a few times a year,
but yeah, just, I'm not doing something right.
But anyways, to answer your question, yeah, the
comments are very, very encouraging, especially
when you do put a lot of effort into, you know,
something, but oftentimes you don't get nothing,
you know, you're like, what the hell am I doing
wrong? No, I tried so hard. I know this is cool.
I know it sounds good. I know, but it's just,
it's not connecting for whatever reason, or it's
not an algorithm or whatever it is. People aren't
seeing it. I don't know. Yeah. But I just, I
love doing it, man. Whatever happens, happens.
If nobody looks at it, I still have fun making
it. And that's good enough for me. The note for
note precision is what attracts somebody like
me when I stop and watch something like that.
And I watch a few of them. And then I was like,
wow, like some of the things you take a stab
at the weekend, save your tears. I'm a metal
guy primarily, but I like, and I've had many
guests on the show. Of course, independent artists.
I like folk music. I like. any kind of just acoustic
singer songwriter stuff a lot of types of music
but that's a really special song i remember hearing
that on a pandora kind of general playlist and
and when i heard you do that i was like wow okay
it's about time somebody put that kind of spin
to it yeah i mean why not right music's music
i'd like anything that's good i listen i love
music man i listen to music minimum eight hours
a day if i'm not when i'm working i'm at the
gym whatever i'm always got these headphones
in I'm always listening to music and I listen
to everything, man. Like the song I'm doing right
now, I'm learning it's Sinead O 'Connor, Nothing
Compares. So I'm going to be, that's going to
be my next video. And I got a whole thing planned
where I'm going to, you know, black out the whole
video. It's just going to be my guitar, my face.
You're not going to see nothing just like her
video. So I got it all planned out and I'm just
working towards that. And that's it, man. That's
all I'm thinking about. And I got the next one
after that plan. So, yeah, I'm really going to
be focusing on these, that style of like just,
you know, having fun with the background and
the effects and. Yeah. And there's a creative.
You, you kind of bring a full package as far
as the, the image that you're putting out there.
You've got a lot of work you've had done. Um,
I wrote down your tattoo artist, the, uh, the
famous. Jim McClary. Yeah. So he, uh, did all
of my, uh, horror sleeve here. I didn't even
see that, but anyway, yeah, I got Michael Myers
and Jason. So a lot of those tattoos, man. It's
one of my things, too, is I go online on Instagram.
I've always got tattoos on my feet, and I follow
the artists, and I become obsessed, and I want
to get work by them. I'm very fortunate. I got
a lot of tattoos from a lot of very amazing artists,
not just Jim. He is, but I got them all over
the place, man. I needed to take a break. It
was a lot. The great work costs a lot of money.
So yeah, I'm taking a little bit of time off
from tattoos, but I love it, man. I got awesome,
awesome work and I'm very proud of all the work
that I got. Do you have, because I don't have
any, but I'm always curious about people who
have tattoos. The very first one that you got,
is it still important to you or are you more,
the ones that are most important, are they more
of the later era stuff? Yeah. So I had a tattoo
a couple when I was younger. One of them I got
lasered and actually Jim covered it up. But yeah,
my most recent kind of, tattoos, splurge, you
know, my midlife crisis, whatever it is, was
this Dimebag one here. Yeah. Which, you know,
that was, I got this 2019. Love it. Another amazing
artist out of Montreal. And from there, that's
kind of when they all started. Danny, I can't,
I've been trying to pause on the Pantera talk
for as long as I can, but as soon as you mentioned
Dimebag, because I've been thinking about this
as soon as we agreed to talk. I don't know how
it is for you, and I think you have to feel the
same way, but when that anniversary, the December
8th, comes up every year, and even before it
comes up, for me, Danny, it never gets any less
painful. It sucks, man. It sucks. I don't know.
I mean, people, John Lennon was shot unexpectedly.
uh, some other things, tragic things have happened
to artists, but in, in the metal community, I
don't think anything really compares to that.
And he was a Titan. He was our, he was a hero.
And I just remember the text message I got, uh,
people may be surprised in 2004. We, we didn't
have smartphones, but we did have text messages.
And it was my brother who sent me the message
in the middle of the night. It was just very
hard to believe. Um, yeah, man. Yeah. Die bag
was my idol, man. Since I was 1994, I was, 12
years old. I loved him, man. I had my, all my
wall with just pictures of him. And I just, he
was my idol. And when that happened, I woke up
to a few answer me, see messages and people telling
me the news. That's how I found out. I wish I
saved those actually, but I still have them replaying
in my head. I'll never forget that day, man.
I still every day, every December 8th, man. It's
just, what the hell, you know, even yet like
yesterday, or sorry, was it yesterday? Black
Sabbath. Oh, yeah, back to the beginning. So,
you know, you're watching that, and you're watching
Pantera, and it's like, man, Dimebag and Vinnie
Paul should have been there. They should have
been there. Oh, gosh. 100%. But, yeah. And, you
know, I was thinking today on that end that this
actually just came to me this afternoon. If we
still had Dime or Vinnie, or if Vinnie hadn't
passed away a few years ago, and we're going
to run into this event, whether either Phil or
Vinny like that or not, and we hit this moment
in time, does that bring them on stage together?
I think that it probably does not, but I wanted
to get your take on this. This one -day event,
farewell to Black Sabbath, I think if Vinny is
still alive, we're probably going to see Down
perform. I think Phil Anselmo is going to be
there regardless. Do you think that that would
have brought Phil and Vinny together for one
day to just do it? What do you think? I don't
know, man. Vinny Paul seemed really hell -bent
on just kind of moving on. It's hard to say,
man. There's a video of him being asked the question
about the reunion. He says, if Van Halen wants
to get shot in the head five times, what, are
you going to just put Zach Wild in there and
call it Van Halen? He said, you can't do it.
So he was obviously against that. Yeah. But it's
hard to say, man. I'd probably lean towards no.
I don't think he would do it ever. You know,
who knows what he had to go through, man. He
watched his brother get killed in front of him.
Yeah. And he had a lot of blame and animosity
towards Phil because of that. Actually, yeah,
I was just talking about that. About like a couple
weeks before that happened to Dimebag, there
was that interview. I think it was Metal and
Kerrang or whatever it was. Kerrang, yeah. Yeah,
where Phil. And apparently, I never read it,
but he said, you know, Dimebag needs to be severely
beaten. So I guess some people attributed his
murder to that interview. And who knows? Yeah.
Yeah. So I would say no, unfortunately. You know,
I always kind of wanted something to happen.
But who knows, man? That was a pretty traumatic
thing to go through, I'm sure. Well, you did.
You got to meet the guys, the current lineup
of Pantera, a couple years ago in Montreal. Is
that right? That was a hell of an experience.
A story around that and injury and what happened.
Take me through that, Dan. Yeah, so it was at
the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. I'm coming from
Ottawa. It's about a two and a half hour drive.
And, you know, I think it was on a Friday or
something. Yeah, it was on a Friday. So the traffic
was insane. Running late. You know, the meet
and greet was very adamant about, you know, don't
show up late. You got to be here on time or else
you're not getting in. And so we're running late.
There's the traffic. So I told my girlfriend,
I said, you've got to park my vehicle, man. I've
got to bolt. So she jumped in my truck, and I
got out. I started running towards the arena,
the stadium, and just the people everywhere.
I started running by people, and I didn't realize
there was a curb. I flipped. I dislocated my
finger here. I sprayed my ankle. I was just all
boofed up, banged up, and I started crawling,
man. I was just in my head. I started crawling
like a zombie. I'm on the pavement. And everybody's
like, how about Mac, man? What's going on, man?
Holy shit, somebody help this guy. And there's
just a big crowd of people around me. I'm like,
no, man, I got to beat Pantera. I'm going to
be late. About eight people carried me off to
the grass. Just do something. So they ended up
putting me in a wheelchair, brought me to the
medics. I said, just put a splint on me for now.
I got to go meet the band. I was already late
at this point. So they had to put me on a golf
cart after that. And then I went and met the
band, got a quick picture. And then I went and
they put my finger back in place after that.
And then I went and washed the shoulder. You
got to be in some serious pain also. It was horrible.
Put it in the back of your mind. I couldn't really
play guitar after that for about a year. It was
rough, man. It's still not 100%, but it's just
a cool story, I guess. Something had to happen.
I'm going to meet Pantera after 20 years. Something
had to happen. And how were the guys that day?
Meeting Phil, Rex? uh yeah super cool man yeah
zach was just just a ball of energy man just
laughing with everybody making jokes and you
know he was coming out and introducing himself
to everyone he was super cool the rest of the
guys were just kind of a quick you know he has
a going fist bump yeah grab a picture you know
but it meant a lot to me man i do like i was
gonna say i like what charlie's doing and and
his attention to detail i remember before the
tour the first tour started where he said it's
very important to me in so many words to just
play note for note the way that Vinny played
these songs. Basically, the studio version. He
is, man. He's bang on. And not just that, but
the sound that he's getting with the drums, it's
identical. It sounds just like Vinny Paul. Yeah.
Playing live, it sounds like that really big
snare hit, like that's Vinny Paul's snare hit.
It's weird, but yeah, they got it bang on. It's
nailed. Yeah, it sounds pretty good. Now, did
you get to see him back in the day before the
breakup, anything like that? Yeah, I did. I did.
So another story. I had a Washburn Dimebag guitar
at the time. They were very hard to get, like
the Dimebolt. So the blue one with the lightning,
right? That was his famous guitar. I finally
had it. That was my dream guitar. But I was only
like 18 at the time. And my friend who had lived
in Toronto. uh had a ticket for me to go see
the extreme steel tour so it was slayer static
x pantera yeah and um and it was in hamilton
which is about an hour away from toronto so yeah
we're going back to 2001 i was just young kid
my friend had a ticket for me i had no money
to go so what are you gonna do i sold the dime
bag guitars the only thing i owned it was worth
anything so i sold it to a friend i said dude
I'm going to sell this to you. Just give me some
money so I can go watch this show, and then I'll
buy back off you one day. He gave me the money.
I gave him the guitar, and then I hitchhiked
to Toronto. I went with my friend, met up with
a few other guys. We went to the show, watched
it. Man, it was just the most kick -ass experience,
everything I ever wanted it to be. It was incredible.
My friend ended up selling the guitar. I lost
my damn back guitar, man. Yeah, but I saw Pantera,
man. I saw the original Pantera. And my best
friend, the same guy, asked the same guy that
sent me the new level video. Oh, is that right?
When we were at the show, his name's Dave. I'm
going to give him a shout out. Dave Roy. He found
a Dimebag pick at the Pantera concert. Dimebag,
when he threw out his picks at the end of the
show, he got one. He shook my hand at the end
of the show and gave it to me. Here you go, man.
I had that pick. I wore it around my neck for
about five, six years. And then I ended up breaking
it or something. Wow, what a story. yeah man
so it's always been pantera with me ever since
i was a teenager like yeah yeah life man i remember
when reinventing the steel came out we went we
were so excited we went walk downtown sudbury
which where i'm from you know we each bought
a copy of the cd and we're reading the lyrics
on the way back to his house we're trying to
figure out how the songs were going to go and
You know, your whiskey, you know, your trust
is in whiskey and weed. We had no idea how the
songs went. And then, I don't know, man. Yeah.
As long as I can remember, I got just Pantera,
man. I love that band. I actually have a goddamn
electric tattooed across my back too. Oh, wow.
Yeah. That was one of my earlier tattoos in 2005,
right after he died. Yeah. I got that tattoo.
I love that album at the time. I don't think
anybody expected it to be their very last record,
but in 2000. The way the music scene was changing,
the metal scene was changing. It was kind of
like when it dropped, it was like, thank you.
Wait, I need a, I don't call it traditional heavy
metal record right now. And that's what they,
that's what they put. They put out a Pantera
record to kind of show everyone this, how the
big boys do it. We're not going to be new metal.
We're going to be who we are. And, you know,
it was okay. Slipknot was coming on the scene.
There were some bands that were worth their salt,
but it was like, I wanted something like that
in rotation at the time. It was great. Yeah,
I agree, man. Yeah, I love that. It's actually
very underrated. Especially the new mix, too.
I love the Terry Date mix. Yeah. It's great.
Yeah, Death Rattle is one of my favorites there.
Me too, man. I listen to that every day at the
gym. Death Rattle has got my go -to, yeah. That
middle part with that groove. Yeah, yeah. Just
classic. Yeah, what my brother and I saw, Pantera
in Dallas, 2001. It was, I guess, towards the
end of that tour. And it's just, again, like
you described, we're not taking a bunch of pictures.
I don't have any pictures that exist. Oh, you
do? We had a camera and my friend brought it.
I have pictures. I'm going to be posting them
in the next week or so for Rex's birthday. I
was thinking about that because he started following
me after that video. I was going to mention Rex
Brown official page follows you. Yeah. So that
kind of made my day. So, yeah, I'm going to make
sure I got some pictures of Rex from that show
that I'm going to share for the first time. Wow.
Yeah. Another thing I was thinking about, I think
you'd probably echo the same sentiment, is that
just that marriage of Phil Anselmo, his lyrics,
but really his vocals and Dime's guitar was like
that match made in metal heaven. Yeah. That's,
I mean, the whole unit is what makes Pantera
special. Rex and Vinny. I love Vinny because
I like to play drums casually. Oh, you? Okay.
Yeah. You know, if you're driving around listening
to Far Beyond Driven, I mean, I just really like
the groove metal where Vinny can play anything
he wants, as fast as he wants, but some bands
get a little too technical. And then when you're
driving around listening to them, you just can't,
like Mastodon. I love Mastodon, but I can't keep
up with what Brent's trying to do there. But
Vinny's got all those little signature, you know,
five minutes alone, the one, two, three, four
on the ride cymbal or whatever. It's just all
that stuff. They're just, yeah. I love it, man.
To me, it's the greatest drumming that there
is. Yeah. One thing I wanted to show you here.
You probably watched this back in the day, but
the Pantera DVD. This is the one that was packaging
all three together. The three Vulgar videos.
Yeah, I got that somewhere, too. Man, I couldn't
in the 90s. Nobody was coming to my house without
watching that. Nobody. I would watch that multiple
times a day. You've got to think, right? This
is before YouTube. There was nothing else that
was cool. It was funny to watch. It was just
exciting. It has everything in it. Yes. So, yeah.
I watched it. My VHS tapes, man. My Vulgar videos
and my free watch and go. I must have watched
those hundreds of times each. Yeah. I would love
to. I imagine you did, too. Yeah. I mean, at
that age, if you're, and I was, we were partying
pretty hard back then. So it was, it went hand
in hand. As you get older, and maybe this is
a good segue, maybe start to put some priorities,
put your priorities in check and make some decisions.
And I know you, on your, at least Instagram page,
you mentioned that as far as guitar player, sober.
Yeah. Frenchie, you got a Frenchie dog named
Cheech. Yeah, man. Well, I got two, actually.
Cheech and Boo. I got two Frenchies. Horror movie
fan, music lover, of course, tattooed, but putting
sober there, front and center. That's really
important to you and the shirt you're wearing
also. What's your story on that end as much as
you're comfortable? Yeah, I'm way too sober.
Yeah, I'm an open book, man. I don't mind talking
about that. Basically, yeah. Alcoholism ran in
my family. My dad's been sober probably almost
30 years now, but growing up, I had an alcoholic
stepfather. Alcohol was everywhere. Everybody
drank. Everybody acted stupid when they drank.
I grew up thinking it was cool to do that, so
most of my adult life, I drank a lot too. I didn't
really act stupid, but I drank too much, and
I enjoyed it too much, and it just became more
or less kind of a hassle for me, and I didn't.
i don't know man i just didn't want to see myself
in my 40s just going down you know i just yeah
i kind of i reached like a like a breaking point
where it's like you can either go one way or
the other way and i wasn't having fun anymore
the hangovers were hitting rough you know yeah
and the thing is when i start drinking i'll have
fun but i have a hard time shutting that switch
you know i just want to keep it going and then
the next day i'm going to wake up while everyone's
going to work i still want to keep drinking yeah
and um so It took a few tries. I finally got
rid of that, man. I had to. I moved on. And my
life's been nothing but better ever since. So
it's been five and a half years now since I drank.
I quit smoking the same day I quit drinking.
I smoked all my life too, man. So I don't do
anything but work out, play guitar, hang out
with my dogs or whatever. I don't do much, man.
My social life took a hit. Nobody wants to hang
around with a sober guy anymore, unfortunately.
A lot of people have issues with themselves that
they won't admit. They have a hard time. I don't
mind. I'll hang out with anyone, man. You can
drink all you want. If you get too drunk, I'm
leaving. Yeah. But we can hang out. I don't know,
man. I had to quit. I got to a point where it
was just not fun anymore. I was getting too old.
It just didn't seem cool to go hang out at a
bar, wake up hungover and not be productive.
I don't know. That whole scene just sucked for
me. It wasn't worth it anymore. So I had to kind
of move on. it coincidentally it happened i shouldn't
say coincidentally but thankfully it happened
right before the pandemic so it was like february
of 2020 you know had i not quit drinking when
i did i don't know how i would have took to drinking
at home every day during the pandemic like everyone
else wow really bad for me yeah so so yeah it's
really i quit at the perfect time man oh you're
not kidding well i was i was about to you know
i was really amazed by your story there and But
when you drop that February 2020 marker, it's
like, wow, what if that was April? And then you're
still on lockdown for a few months. And now you're
kind of settled into a habit that you haven't
broken. Because the way I drank, okay, the way
I drank, if I'm self -employed, I'm a painter,
I paint houses, I paint commercial, residential.
And when I don't have work, it affects me. I
get a little bit bummed out. I'm sitting at home,
and when I'm sitting at home and I'm bummed out,
I have a few extra beers. I'm having beers, and
all I want to do is drink beers. I get extra
bummed out. It's just a cycle. It gets worse
and worse. It snowballs into just this bitterness
and depression. So, yeah, had I not quit when
I did, I don't think it would have been good
for me. And then my dog died. you know, a month
after that, my dog died in March, 2020. Yeah.
Which was horrible. I just, it's a miracle that
I never drank after that. I don't know how I
did it, but very thankful that I never did. Well,
kudos. Yeah. For making that decision. It's not
easy. And, um, once you get a little ways into
it, you know, I'm about 18 months in, I think
it was November of 20, November 23. So however
long that's been. Good for you, man. And mine
is a little bit more driven. I mean, I did like
to come home and have a beer, have a whiskey,
really just like one and one, not like five beers
and two shots, but like, you know, a beer and
a shot or just a beer sometimes, but every day,
every single day. And I've got kids and they
kind of, I didn't have enough really time to
sit down and finish a drink. And that kind of
got it started. Actually, I came out of, I had
COVID for about a two week stretch. I didn't.
feel well enough to drink. And then when I felt
better, I thought, why don't we just not do this
for a little while and see what happens. But
I'm, I love hearing your story. I love hearing
anybody's story because like you said, it can
make you an outlier as far as, uh, what other
people do or are doing socially. Yeah. I've personally
inspired other people to have quit too, since
I quit, you know, I won't mention them, but I
know that other, it's inspiring, man. You see
how well I'm doing. I know I'm doing well. I
changed my appearance completely. You know, my
whole outlook on life, everything is different
about me now from what it was, you know, five,
six years ago. And yeah, man, I used to look
at other people too and say, I wish I could do
that. You know, how do you do that? Just one
thing at a time. You know, I never used to care
about how I looked. Now I buy nice clothes. I
can make sure I go see my barber, you know, once
or twice a month. You know, I got really good
tattoos. I work out every day. You know, I drink
all my water. I never used to care about any
of that stuff. Just where's the party? Give me
a case of beer. Where's the party? That's all
I ever thought about. So, yeah. I did notice
like if you go back, like you said, about five
years or longer and look at some of your early
covers where you have long hair and you look
a little bit different and it almost looks like
two different guys. Yeah. I've lost 60 pounds
too. So I don't think, I don't know if that's
still up there, but my before and after is pretty
shocking. But a lot of that is attributed to
my... my alcohol abuse right you drink a lot
of beer that doesn't sit well with you yeah one
thing i would you agree as far as like being
a creative individual like there's the clarity
the day -to -day clarity you don't have a you're
not trying to create something but oh man i got
this headache or i just all i want to do is take
a nap or all i want to do is uh or you you know
your mood shifts a lot when your body is just
kind of trying to recover Or it wants, it's like
ready to have another drink and it's not time
yet, but you're getting cranky and like all that
stuff. It just goes, you just almost get rid
of it. It's not like you don't have the everyday
irritations that everybody does with traffic
and people in big box stores. I'm in the moment,
man. I'm always, yeah. always living in the moment
i don't have to worry about any of that shit
i feel good you know more or less you know i
still have my issues i am getting older now and
it's getting harder to get out of bed every day
especially with two french bulldogs and pick
up all the room you know it's hard to but uh
yeah man well i agree it's definitely uh easier
definitely easier and i think it's easier to
For being creative, I think I'm just a better
worker in general. My work ethic is better now
that I'm kind of focusing on things more than
I would, as you said, I would easily get distracted
before I would go have a beer or whatever. Put
it to the side. Yeah. Somebody calls and says,
hey, you want to come meet me at the bar? And
you're like, okay, I'll put this to the side.
And then you go drink for five hours at the bar
and then you come home. 100%. Half the next day
you're not doing anything. And then it's the
next night before you get back to what you were
working on. Yeah. Stuff like that. I had a habit
when I drank, I had a bad habit of kind of just
crashing wherever I was, which is looking back
at it now. It's so weird, man. Like I can't,
like, it's like a phobia of mine to sleep at
somebody's house now, but, but Forbes, wherever,
give me a couch. I'm sleeping there. Right. Well,
Danny, we've, as I sometimes do, I take us way
off course, but I think it was a, you know, a
great, I want to highlight stuff like this when,
when, uh, it's important to my guest and it's
something that I can relate to as well. And,
and hopefully my listeners, you know, if somebody
is listening to this podcast and you want to
stop or, or you don't really have a huge problem,
but you want to just put it on the shelf for
a couple of weeks, try it out. All it was, man.
Your body's going to thank you, you know, you're
going to wake up and. Yeah. I mean, how much
different do you feel now as opposed to 18 months
ago? Right. Oh, it's night and day. Yeah. And
I would tell people, if you want something the
next day, if you want to just not have a drink
today and you're going to feel like a million
bucks tomorrow, it doesn't really work that way.
But give it, say, about two weeks, maybe three
weeks, where you really start to notice a difference
in the energy. And if you are a creative individual
and the things that you want to do and you want
to plan for, would you say, Danny, like thinking
about the future? I know me personally, I would
like not really think much more. beyond that
day or that week. Yeah. Yeah. Just day to day,
man. That's what they say, right? I don't go
to AA meetings. I've never been, but I hear that
that's what they kind of preach, you know, one
day at a time. Yeah. And yeah, I mean, it makes
sense. I never got too far ahead of myself. I
just kind of, it was always like, like the next
new thing to experience sober, like the first
wedding, the first birthday, the first Christmas,
the first trip, you know, going on a, on a, on
a resort for a week without drinking, you know,
that, haunted me for like six months i finally
got through it and then now it's everything's
normal now to just not drink yeah i'm fine with
it but getting through the first is tough hey
you knocked out two things you know that are
important for longevity really it's smoking and
drinking at the same time that's that's pretty
amazing yeah yeah i can't even be around a cigarette
anymore i can't stand that smell yeah i could
actually smell like a glass of wine from across
the room now it's crazy wow Yeah, my sense of
smell is really heightened. I could smell wine
and cigarettes from down the street. Gross. I
can't do it. No idea how I did that for so many
years. Well, hey, Dandy, I want to call out,
because I scratched out some notes here, and
I want to bring to people's attention. This is
a couple metalheads talking, and we're reminiscing
about Pantera and Dime and all this stuff. Keep
in mind, I want to mention some other songs that
you do. pretty cool covers of One of These Nights.
Oh, the Eagles. Yeah, I love the Eagles, man.
Easily one of my top five bands of all time.
Yeah, big Eagles fan. I was telling my wife this
earlier today, Lady Gaga, always remember us
this way. It's real imaginative, your interpretation
of like, this would be a good place for a guitar
part. Yes, I appreciate that. Thank you. So what
I'm doing there is just essentially replacing
the vocals with the guitar, right? But I started
to have a few videos of doing that. And one of
my followers reached out to me and he had asked
me to send him an MP3 of what songs they were.
But there was two of my songs that I posted.
He wanted two of them to play at his wedding.
He wants to use them at his wedding this year.
And actually I got to finish the second one this
week for him. But yeah, I thought that was super
cool, right? Just posting a video on Instagram.
Now this guy who I never met is going to be getting
married to me playing guitar. It doesn't get
much more rewarding than that. And I made a little
bit of cash too, which is cool. But yeah, so
I'm looking forward to that. And he's going to
hopefully send me the video whenever that happens.
I think it's in September. Yeah, super cool.
How do you decide on some of these songs like
that one, Always Remember Us, This Way, or Save
Your Tears? You're like, okay, I'm going to go
headlong into this. Because there's got to be
a lot of ideas. I hear songs all the time. where
if you listen to hard and heavy music, you're
like, man, this would be pretty cool if somebody
covered this, a metal version of this. Yeah.
What it is is, like I said, I'm listening to
music eight hours, 10, 12 hours a day. I'm always
listening to music, all kinds of music. I listen
to big 80s fan men, so a lot of times I listen
to just cheesy 80s music. If it's whatever, Cyndi
Lauper, ABBA, it doesn't matter. I love it all.
The 70s, I listen to a lot of... Jerry Rafferty
lately. I don't know, man. So I got, so every
time I hear a song, I kind of make notes in my
phone about, you know, okay, I can maybe do something
with this. I can maybe do something with that.
And most of it goes dormant. I don't do anything,
but there are times like today that I'm going
to be working on a Sinead O 'Connor song. And
that's it, man. It's just whatever hits me. I
just, I need inspiration from this specific song
or if I'll hear something while I'm at work,
you know, it's okay. Tonight, that's the one
I'm going to be focusing on. This one is. The
main thing is just getting in this room. Oftentimes,
I don't come in here, and that's when nothing
gets done. But every time I come and sit in this
chair, something happens. So I just got to make
sure I come in here more often. But it's hard
because I work for myself. I'm working often.
I work late. But I try, man. And I imagine you
maybe get requests from time to time. Do people
DM you? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I got quite
a bit. Some of them I've been slacking on for
a long time. But holy wars. is probably my number
one song that i've been requested more often
than not and i did record it and i never released
it for some reason i don't know why because i
think that happened during covid something happened
i forget what something stopped me but i actually
physically learned all the parts recorded the
song and never made the video to accompany the
song and i never did nothing with it but i have
the mp3 of me playing it i just yeah but that
would be my number one requested song would be
holy waters And you do Pantera, Heresy, I'm Broken,
Cemetery Gates. I wrote down Metallica. These
kind of go back a few years. Unforgiven Solo,
Sandman, Blackened. Yeah. So when I was in high
school, oh boy, here's a whole other thing. When
I was in high school, I actually dropped out
towards the end. In the 11th grade, all I did
was play guitar. I was up all night learning
Metallica. That's it. I learned every song, note
for note, every album. I knew every Metallica
song. I was the guy. I would show up at parties
with my little lamp, my guitar, and I would play
any song people requested by Metallica. And that
was, I think after I got my graduation diploma
afterwards, but I did drop out at one point.
I just wanted to go out there. I'm not a high
school dropout, but anyways. Yeah. So I learned
all those songs. I was in a band for a few years,
you know, we kind of got into the originals.
We had a CD out and then that kind of went. south
quickly and then i didn't play nothing man for
like probably 10 years i didn't do anything musically
and i got into it again in like 2019 when i started
that instagram account and that kind of oh man
it helped me so much just to get back to playing
and you know just building up a little bit of
a following and buying new guitars and just playing
them and getting new gear and you know but yeah
performing live is probably what i'm best at
and i haven't done it in forever so i'm really
hoping i can eventually get back on stage yeah
hopefully just got to find the right people stuff
just keeping a unit together four guys or sometimes
it's five i don't know how like aerosmith i don't
know how they did that for all those years but
they did break up or come back but um you know
how four guys even if you're just on uh playing
the club circuit trying to keep it together for
12 months That's a tall order most of the time.
Yeah, it's tough, man. It's tough. Especially
if you drank the way I drank. Makes things even
tougher. Luckily, that would never be a problem
again. I don't know. I'd be curious to see how
it would go now. I would never... I don't know.
I thought about it, but... I don't know, man.
I think I just got so used to just this now.
It's kind of the idea of being in a group. Such
a foreign thought now. you know, bouncing ideas
off other musicians. Like what? I don't even
know what that's like. No, I'm the only creative
guy here. I do everything creatively. So I couldn't
imagine other input. I'd probably, I need it
sometimes. I don't get it, but yeah, we'll see,
man, to be continued. Hopefully something will
come up in the future and I'll, I'll have some
cool stories there. Well, as my listeners have
heard from time to time, it's probably been a
few months, but I, I was telling you, Danny,
I've got small children and, They sometimes make
appearances on the other side of the door. I
don't know. You maybe can't hear my four -year
-old screaming, but we got pretty far without
any interruptions, but anyway, I was going to
say on that last point you made, there's got
to be something about having full creative control
over what you're doing that once you've got it
and you've had it for a while, like you said,
do I really want to get some other parties involved
in here? I mean, on my end, it's just this podcast,
but it's just me. I mean, I do everything. Sometimes
it'd be nice to have some help, but I also like,
they don't have to, I don't have any stakeholders.
There's nobody that I have to do it a certain
way. Yeah. Make somebody happy. Do you have a
theme song? Uh, yeah, but I could probably use
a new one. Okay. I'll set you up. I'll get you
a good one. Wow. I'm pretty good for that. Yeah,
no, I'm really good for that. I'll see what I
can come up with. That would be spectacular,
yeah. I know you're really busy, but yeah, I
would be honored. Let's just put it that way.
Okay, all right. I'll see what I can do. It's
a cool name for a podcast, Dan Time. I like that.
Yeah, I had to give it a couple weeks. I remember
I just finally got out of bed one day and said,
that's it. I couldn't think of a better title.
I just kept coming back to Dan Time, Dan Time.
All right, well, I'm going to... Let me get this
guy on the... Get over here. I do want to introduce
you here to my four -year -old, mostly because
of his hair. Yeah. All right. Real quick. Hey,
Wyatt, you've made a few appearances in the past.
This is my long -haired four -year -old, Wyatt.
Why it you wanna say hey you got cooler hair
than me Look at that Cool I like your haircut,
so you wanna show in the back oh Wow, yeah, it's
pretty cool mullet man. He's got the the Vince
Neil here circa 1984 But yeah more of a mullet
Yeah, no, that's cool. I'm going for a skullet
soon there. The hair is slowly disappearing.
It'll be the whole cold in there. Okay. Can you
hear me now? Say, hey, Danny. Hey, Danny. Hey,
Wyatt. It's good to meet you, buddy. Say, how
you doing? I really like your haircut. It's super
cool. I'm doing good. How you doing? Good. Were
you banging on the door? Did you want to see
your dad? Yeah. Are you happy you see him now?
Yeah. Cool. I'm glad I got to meet you. You know
how to sing? Yeah. What do you like to sing?
My planet song. He listens to the planet songs.
What's the planet song? It's called... Mercury,
Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,
Neptune. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. That's my favorite one.
That's a cool one. I like that one. What about
Pluto? Is that part of the song? Yeah. I'll sing
it. Mercury, Venus. Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus, Neptune. There's eight planets in there.
Okay. Now, the rest of the world is there. Okay,
well, I'm going to have to sing that song tonight,
too. It'll be in my next video. Where do you
hear that song? Who sings it? It's on the TV.
Wow, where on TV? All right. Say bye, Danny.
See you later, Wyatt. It's nice to meet you.
Now I know all my planets. Thanks for indulging
there. Yeah, I know, man. It's a delicate balance.
I think they were... I finished the whole song,
and then Pluto next. And Pluto, and then Pluto,
Pluto, Pluto. All right. What's I got him going?
I didn't know how to, I don't know how to shut
it down. Okay. Where's that on switch? All right.
Well, Danny, I've really been sweating bullets
at times with certain guests and And having kids
in the house. Usually they're out of the house
for a while for me to do this. And they were.
That's cool, man. But so it goes. I don't mind.
Anything that we covered a lot and we could probably
pick back up in another year or so or whenever
you like. This has been spectacular, Danny. Yeah,
I appreciate it, man. It's been fun talking to
you. Like I said, nothing crazy going on right
now. Just work on a video. really hard i put
it online whatever happens happens and uh that's
all i'm doing right now i'm enjoying doing that
and i'm going to keep doing it for now we'll
keep doing what you're doing because it's catching
on thanks buddy and uh thanks for your tolerance
on this uh the back end who knows at this uh
at this part of the podcast maybe some people
bailed at the 30 minute mark who knows but uh
i've enjoyed talking about all these songs all
these bands with you and Yeah, we seem to have
a lot in common. We come from the same era, the
same place, so I like that. It's nice to talk
to you about that. Yeah. All right. Well, folks,
again, and this will be in the notes as well,
follow Danny Cole, Mr. Danny Cole, anywhere you're
scrolling or any platform, TikTok, Instagram,
YouTube, Spotify as well. It's at Mr. Danny Cole.
Is it? Is it right? I don't know. That's a good
question. Actually, you know what? I should plug
my last song that I came out with. It was a duet
with a good friend of mine, John, who he coincidentally
is a singer in a Panthera Chibi band. And he
sings probably the best fill you've ever heard.
So anyways, yeah, we and him put a song out on
Spotify and YouTube. We have a video. It's called
Dyad, D -Y -A -D. And the song is called My Worth.
But Worth, like Earth. Yeah, check that song
out if you haven't heard it. It's good. Hopefully
we can do some more. We've been talking. Man,
that's another thing, and I know I've got to
wrap this up, but Pantera tribute bands that
do it properly, not really a lot of them out
there. Because you've got to find someone that
can play the part of Phil, and there's really
just one Phil Anselmo. Yeah, I'll send you a
link, man. You'll be surprised. This guy's good.
He's got what it takes. I think he's the best
out there. Shout out to John. They're called
Fantera. They play all over. I should say all
over around northern Ontario, Quebec. Where are
you? Anyway. Gulf Coast of Florida. Actually,
just outside of Pensacola, Florida. Okay. Right
on. It's a pleasure meeting you, Dan. Yeah, this
has been fantastic. Thanks for your time, for
your Dan time. That's just fantastic to link
up with you today. And thanks for sharing all
your stories with my listeners. Yeah, well, I'll
make sure I share the podcast when it's out.
Love to do it again next time. And thanks everybody
for listening and subscribing here to the Day
and Time podcast. You can listen on any platform.
This episode will be on YouTube, maybe before
the audio platforms, but you can also find the
show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever
you listen. Have a great week, folks. Check out
Danny Cole. Give him a follow, and your day,
your week's going to be a lot better. Time's
over. My son Wyatt just said, time's over. See
you next week, guys. Thank you, Danny. Great
talking to you today. Take care. You too, boy.
All right. Time's over. Whoa.