welcome everyone to the latest episode of signals
for mars i am victor as usual and um we welcome
back mr joshua to me josh how are you sir i'm
doing well victor man always good to see you
voice cracked right off the top always good well
this is uh you you were on the very last episode
of the mars attacks podcast uh so that was Episode
300 before the name change. And at this point
in time, I've got some episodes in the can. But
at this point in time, I've released 417 episodes.
So about 120 episodes later, Joshua Toomey reappears
on the podcast. Yeah, I mean, I was honored to
be asked on for the last Mars Attacks. I did
feel a little hoodwinked. I thought that you
were like quitting podcasting and then you're
like, no, no, no. I'm just changing the name.
I was like, Oh, well I thought I was, I thought
it was a special guest, man. I was, I was, I
was taking it back. To me, to me, it was a big
deal to have you on 300. Um, so, so here's the
thing. When, when I, when I started podcasting,
it was the wild West back then. There weren't
a lot of people that were doing it. And little
by little people started, you came along and
it was like, who's this Josh Toomey guy? You
know, he's getting all these great guests, all
that, you know, so I didn't know who you were.
And then you see shows appear, you see shows
climb over top of you. And then at the time,
uh, I think it was shortly after you started
doing stuff with, uh, with not fast, if I'm not
mistaken. And, uh, yeah. To me, that was, to
me, that was a big deal. I mean, I've never met
you. Um, we've always been very cordial online
with one another. We've always, I mean, I would
consider you a brother in podcasting, you know?
Absolutely. Yeah. And to me, that was a big deal
to when that happened to say, Hey, you know,
one of my guys is, you know, jump to a platform
like that. That's, that's a big deal. You know,
and to me, I, you know, I was, I wanted someone
for episode 300. I wanted someone to end that
era of the show. I was kind of getting tired
of asking people and reassuring them that it
had nothing to do with the Mars attacks, uh,
movie. And also that's a, you know, that's copywritten
by tops and, you know, whatever. I didn't want
to run into any. stuff regarding that down the
road. And I was like, look, I already called
the live stream signals from Mars. Let's just
call everything signals from Mars and, and move
on from that. It probably hurt me to an extent
with social media and stuff like that. Um, but
you know, it is, it is what it is. Um, I'm happy
doing what I'm doing. How about that? Yeah, absolutely,
man. You know, it's, it's wild how, you know,
we're all peers in all of this, you know, you
know you and decibel geek and cobras and fire
and and just all of the shows over the years
and it's like we're all bros but at the same
time we're all like what guests are they getting
you know who are they talking to what you know
what uh what download number they got here oh
they got two blabbermouth articles in a row you
know i don't know if that's me or if that's everybody
but you know i definitely uh you know keep an
eye on that which is which is good because it
kind of keeps a fire kind of burning under you
too you know you don't get too complacent you
know, you have something to strive for. You know,
I see shows now, I mean, like there'll, there'll
be like brand new shows that come out of nowhere
that just, you know, surpass all of us, you know,
and like, they'll just, they'll just hit the,
hit the thing. Right. Or, um, you know, one of
the most successful dudes kind of doing it by
himself is, uh, is Brian over there at rock feed.
And, you know, he built that thing from, from
nothing to, you know, he's doing crazy stuff
now. And he's still, as far as I know, he's still,
solo you know he's not he doesn't have any crazy
backing he doesn't you know he's not affiliated
with anybody um and you know he's just he's just
a hard worker put his nose down and put you know
put out some great content day after day and
you know now he's doing you know basically mtv
cribs style stuff on his channel where he's going
to you know five finger death punch house and
the tech nines compound and things like that
so so like he's kind of the the dude that you
know I saw behind me and then all of a sudden,
you know, just like, like straight to the stars,
man. But he's, he's a good dude. I met him once
and in real life and a super nice guy. And anytime
I've, you know, had a question for him or, you
know, he'll, he'll throw out some, uh, words
my way too. So, so it's good to have, have him
kind of in the bro category too. Um, but yeah,
I mean, not so much in the podcasting world lately,
but I mean, a lot of the guitar YouTubers are
kind of, you know, calling it quits and Nick
nocturnal. And those guys are kind of throwing
in the towel and, and, you know, it gets to a
point, I guess, where you just kind of, you know,
like, what do you do next? Or you get burnt out
or, you know, um, you know, what's the next thing?
I mean, honestly, even this, this year, like
January, I was talking to my wife about, um,
you know, this'll be 10 years of talk to me.
Uh, and I was like, you know what, 10 years,
good number go out on top and, you know, I'm
kind of burnt out. And then I do a podcast with
David Ellison. And after the episode, I was like,
hey, man, you ever thought about doing your own
podcast? And he's like, you know, I've talked
about it and blah, blah, blah. And I kind of
pitched him an idea. It's not necessarily what
we do now, but I pitched him an idea. And he's
like, man, that sounds awesome. Yeah, let's do
that. And he's like, you know, I'm going to NAMM.
I'm doing this stuff, the other thing. You know,
let's talk when I get back. And as soon as he
was done with a couple of things he had to do.
you know, I kind of had some graphics together
and, you know, actually it was his idea to bring
on guests. Like I was just going to have a David
Ellison centric podcast, talk about Megadeth
history, talk about his history, what's going
on with his life, things like that. And he was,
he was the one that wanted to bring on guests.
So, um, it was kind of funny to, to, you know,
how he kind of came from not, not doing podcasts.
He's a great podcast guest, as you know, he'll
talk to you, you know, your head off. Um, and
that's kind of what I told him. I was like, i
was like you know you're a great talker you you
have great stories you you know blabbermouth
picks up every single thing that you do it's
like why don't you get you know why don't you
get paid for that why don't you keep all that
good stuff for yourself and uh that was kind
of the basis behind the podcast but uh but yeah
it's it's been it's been rejuvenating kind of
doing that and i get you know kind of like what
you're talking about you know kind of ending
mars attacks going full -time signals from mars
just kind of You kind of got to mix it up a little
bit. You know, you can't just be doing the same
thing each and every week for God knows how long
we've all been doing this. Yeah. Yeah. Actually,
for me, 16 years. Yeah. So it's yeah. I mean,
I've had people, especially specifically in the
last few years, tell me, well, you know, your
numbers are down because you don't interview
enough people. And my whole thing is I want to
make sure that this is still fun. So I'm still,
you know, talking to people about music. We're
doing the, you know, I hit you up for different
album countdowns or stuff like that that we do
to have you vote on stuff. And I get a kick out
of all that stuff because that's kind of the
conversations that I had as a kid with all my
friends, you know, collecting music and getting
into bands and finding out. who Megadeth was,
who Anthrax was, you know? So to me, it's almost
therapeutic as well, where, where you, no matter
how crappy your day is, you're like, all right,
but I'm going to talk about, you know, this album
tonight, or we're going to talk about current
events. And there's this one thing that I really
want to talk about, or this band set list or
whatever. And it really kind of keeps things
going. And, I'm, I'm there with you checking
out. Well, why did they get on blabbermouth?
And my interview did. So you think you have some
gold that's just going to break the metal news
cycle. And then, and then, but they, they might
pick up something else from the podcast. You're
like, why would he pick up that part of the podcast?
Like, why are they not focused on the, on the
part that I thought was, was the crazy part.
So yeah, it's, it's definitely a crap shoot.
If they're going to pick up something from your
show, what they pick up, how crazy it'll go.
It was funny. I did, um, I've been using like
Opus clips, you know, kind of getting the clips
together and things like that. I think you, I
think you use something like that too. Yeah.
But, um, um, about a year ago, I, you know, you
run the podcast through it and it spits out,
you know, 20 clips and, and, uh, I, I didn't
realize that the guest had said something that
was kind of controversial, not, you know, crazy
controversial, but it was, um, uh was it phil
from all the remains had said that corn like
you know was it like corn created death chorus
something weird like that but like the opus clips
popped it out i was like oh shit i didn't realize
he said it like that and so like i took that
clip you know transcribed her real quick and
sent that out and it like you know went everywhere
but it's funny how sometimes you don't even hear
the people say that the major clip that comes
out you know because either a you don't hear
it or b you're you're getting ready for the next
question you know like things like that and even
in the edit you know because i always go through
i do like one you know one quick run through
uh just to make sure there's nothing crazy going
on and uh sometimes you even miss it there and
then yeah so sometimes even so ai will spit it
back to you like no dummy you know there was
your there was your gold right there yeah but
uh but yeah it's been it's been crazy it it is
uh interesting to see what what gets picked up
Yeah. Like you said, I mean, I've had several
interviews with John Bush over the years. He's
been on the show more than anyone else. I think
him and Eric probably. And. Words like that.
I've got gold. He's said he's going to be playing
old anthrax songs. He's going to be getting a
band together, doing this, doing that. Nothing
crickets. Right. To me, that's huge news. You
know, apparently. Not huge enough, but then there's
another time where I interviewed him. I think
it was the first time I interviewed him. And
there was something that I had transcribed and
I was like, this is it. Boom, this is going to
be everywhere. And then what they use is completely
different. I always remembered it was the headline
they used was it made no sense for me to join
Metallica. It made all the sense in the world
for me to join Anthrax. And I was like, okay,
I get it why they did it, but I would have gone
with this other thing. I guess I'm just not,
you know, not smart enough in the marketing side
of things to pull that type of stuff out. Well,
there's always kind of the running joke of all
those metal sites, you know, what it takes to
run one of those. And it's like there's Metallica,
there's Slipknot, there's Tool. Like you write
a story about any of those three bands, you're
going to pay the bills. And everything else is
just kind of, you know, chump change when it
comes to that. So it's like I always I noticed
for a long time if I could get like X member
or, you know, this this member of a band to say
this about Metallica, you're going to get a headline,
you know. And then I think there's Mike Z out
there. Mike Z rocks the radio station out there.
He's in like the Inland Empire. But his final
question on every radio interview is like, what's
your favorite Metallica album and why? And so
you'll see that a lot. It'll be like, you know,
Gene Hoagland says that, and Justice for All
is my favorite, you know, Metallica album. And
it's like, he's almost like guaranteed, you know,
a blabbermouth headline with every interview
he does. That's smart. That's, that's, that's,
and that's funny because I follow, various podcasting
trend podcasts. And that's not the type of thing
that they talk about. You know, they talk about
getting funding for shows and, you know, how
to, you know, a lot of the stuff that they talk
about, I don't think applies to what we do because
I think our fans that we go after so niche that
pop stuff. Doesn't always apply. And when I mean
pop, I don't really mean music, but popular culture
or what's going on with what makes someone an
influencer or whatever. It doesn't necessarily
translate to to what we're doing. I think about
a few months ago, there was a discussion on Facebook.
I think it was where they asked. why are they
had questioned that kisses I was made for loving
you, I think had surpassed like a billion plays
on Spotify. And there were people calling bullshit
on that saying, Oh, well, Def Leppard obviously
has to have more plays than them because of pour
some sugar on me and this and that. And my response
to this was, um, when all of you people, my age,
50 and above are criticizing them for doing Hello
Kitty, Scooby -Doo, being in what movie? The
Fall Guy movie was the big one that came out
last year where that song is plastered all over
that movie. Yeah. There's a reason why they do
that stuff. And there's a reason why they're
catering to a different audience because of that.
Whereas. If you look at Def Leppard's audience
and no knock on them, but just kind of facts,
people, how, what percentage of people in their
late forties and up that are music fans are on
Spotify, are on Apple music, as opposed to still
using CDs, some even using cassettes still. it's
more of a marketing thing where certain bands
are smart enough. Metallica with stranger things,
for example, getting massive puppets in there
to, to, to the point where kids are finding out
about bands through this stuff. And that's why
these bands have millions of streams now, as
opposed to other bands that have largely ignored
it. Yeah. I mean, I, I, I was talking to you
a minute ago about going to see Ace last night
and, you know, my wife went and I told her, I
was like, you know, Ace Frehley is one of the
reasons I play music. Probably one of the main
reasons I wanted to be a rock star, you know,
try to be a rock star was I just thought Ace
was the coolest thing ever when I was nine, you
know, and I, I had a couple of older cousins
that had Kiss records and, and they show, and
this is in, you know, late eighties. So, you
know, they were already out of makeup, but I
got into makeup Kiss. as a nine, 10 year old,
because I thought there was the coolest thing
I'd ever seen. I thought kiss meets the family.
The park was a great movie, you know, like all
that stuff. And, you know, because they're larger
than life superheroes that also played music.
And so like you're saying kids now, you know,
getting into them with Scooby -Doo and hello
kitty and all that nonsense. I mean, you know,
there's, there's that nine, 10 year old kid that's
saw them with a hello kitty thing or saw them
on a, on a cartoon or something. And, um, and
yeah, so it's, it's, it's generational to kind
of, kind of keep moving along. I mean, I even,
you know, the, the farewell tour, I took my,
he was the four years old at the time. I took
my four year old to see it. And as we were, you
know, leaving the venue, you know, I was like,
what was your favorite part of the show? And
he goes, he goes when, uh, and he was good with
names already, but he was like, we know, you
know, when Gene licked his base, you know, he,
he pulled it up and he licked up the thing and
he thought it was the coolest thing he'd ever
seen. So it's like, Now that stuff translates,
you know, unfortunately pour some sugar on me.
It's not, you know, my, my kids aren't going
to be like, you know, that song is pretty good.
You know, they're only going to get into it because
of the song and not necessarily how cool Joe
Elliot is or something. You know, they're going
to get into, they're going to get into kiss because
of the theatrics and the looks and the flying
and the space and the fire and all that other
nonsense. And, and so, yeah, it's, it's. i can
see it is wild that you know i was made for loving
you it turns out to be one of their biggest songs
of all time but right uh you know we're all hardcores
are like oh you know detroit rock city or something's
way cooler but yeah i mean you know i was made
for it's such a it's such a panned song in their
career and they were kind of trend jumping like
they they tended to do later in the career but
it i guess it ended up working uh all these years
later sure yeah no um For me, it's the same story,
to be honest with you. I was four, my brother
had a live too, and there's a booklet in there
that was called, I think it was called The Evolution
of Kiss or something along those lines. And I
remember opening it to the page that was dedicated
to Ace, this big picture of Ace with a smoking
guitar. And I was like, what is this? You know,
and instantly, boom, I'm podcasting all these
years later, seeing that picture. We were in
London late last year, and we had to go to these
gates where Kiss took pictures at. It was one
of these things. So I'm right there with you.
The last time I saw Ace was for my honeymoon.
We happened to be in L .A., and he was playing
at the Viper Room. And we're waiting in line
to get in the Viper Room. And all of a sudden,
I'm seeing Fieldy from Korn walking towards us.
The suitcase, because Ace's show was the end
of the Sunset Strip Music Festival, I think it
was called. Something along those lines. And
it was Korn, and it was Ozzy, and Ace was kind
of the closer. Everyone else had played out on
the strip, but Ace was playing in the club. So
Fieldy comes up to the crowd and says, what's
this line for? It's not for Ace Frehley. And
he goes, Ace Frehley? Really? Seriously? He just
walks to his car, drives off. Monkey comes by
like 10 minutes later. I don't know who it was
with him, but he had. a woman under each of his
arms and someone else. So he was walking with
three women gets into a suburban or actually
before he gets into the, into the suburban says,
uh, kind of the same thing. Who's, you know,
who you guys waiting to see? We're like, he's
really, he's paying out the Viper. Oh wow. That's
cool. That's awesome. You guys going to have
a great time. And you know, he high fived a few
people signed a few things, got in the suburban
and, and left. And, um, uh, That show actually
Slash got up on stage with him and played Colgen.
And George Lopez, the comedian, actually introed
the show. Right. It was neat. It was a neat experience.
Probably much better than what we saw last night.
So David and I had Rudy Sarzo on the podcast
a couple days ago for the Back to the Beginning
kind of recap. We had him and Mike Borden on
together. dream team of lineup right there. And
if you, you know, if you listen to the podcast,
which I honestly, in the 10 years of podcasting,
that's going to be top five interview of all
time. I don't think Mike Borden and Rudy Sarzo
have ever really talked about their individual
time in Aussie. I don't know how much time they've
spent around each other. So like, and the only
pushback on the episode was Mike does cut people
off a little bit. but Mike had a lot of questions
for Rudy. So honestly, it's funny at one point,
me and David are just sitting back kind of listening
as, as Mike is kind of interviewing Rudy and,
uh, and, and, but you know, Rudy obviously, uh,
in quiet, right, quiet, right. Open for ace freely
last night. So I got a nice little hookup. Um,
Rudy Sarzo, I think it was 74 years old. Fucking.
If if I'm half as cool as that at 74, like sign
me up now, because I mean, he came out there.
They opened the show. He came out there. I don't
think he stopped moving the entire time he was
out there. He's playing the bass on his head,
playing the bass up from under here, playing
the bass over the neck. I mean, he was he was
doing things that I've never seen anybody do
with a bass guitar. And obviously being a bass
player, that's that's a huge thing to to see
somebody doing something I've never seen before,
man. But I mean, he was rocking the whole time.
They do a little bit of a crazy train. Uh, Johnny
Kelly plays drums for them. So they do a little
bit of a black number one and a little, a little
part. So it was kind of cool to kind of see that
little, uh, uh, you know, shout out to typo negative
too. But so, so Rudy comes out there, just crushes,
um, slaughter was up next. And, you know, I know
two slaughter songs. Like I just was never a
slaughter fan. So, I mean, they did like a 20
minute version of fly to the angels, which was
fine, you know, and then they did, uh, uh, whatever
the other. Up All Night Sleep but yeah whatever
it's called I mean those two songs crush I mean
honestly they were Mark Slaughter still got it
you know Blossom Light or not Blossom Light but
Dana Strom up there you know kicking ass and
they still got that Zoltan drummer guy that's
just a showman so I mean it was all in all Slaughter
put on a hell of a show for a band that I'm not
too too familiar with of that era band And I
feel so bad for Ace's band because, you know,
Jeremy and the other guy, you know, that's kind
of been around the Nashville scene for a long
time, always been staples of the Nashville rock
and pod. They did the, what is it, the rock and
roll residency in Nashville. They got picked
up as Gene's band years ago, and then now they're
Ace's band. And, you know, they're hell of musicians,
seeming to be great dudes. And they start the
first song of the set last night. And for about
20 seconds, I was super pumped to see Ace Frehley.
I've seen him live a few times. And so I'm not
like, I even joked kind of going into the show.
I'm like, oh, here we go to see Ace kind of fuck
up Kiss songs. But I said that tongue in cheek
thinking that, you know, I mean, I know he's
not, he's not a hundred percent when it comes
to guitar playing these days, but he's still
good. And it's still fun to hear those songs.
But man, he comes out, he like stumbles to the
mic. He's like. He's just kind of just strumming
around on the guitar. And it was, even my wife,
who's not a KISS fan, she just loves music. She
was even like, something's not right here. You
know, she knew something wasn't right. And he
was slurring his words and he was off a little
bit. They did, you know, one of my favorite A
songs of all time is Rock Soldiers. And I just,
it's a silly song or whatever, but he just came
up and he was kind of. which i guess he does
on the recording he kind of just talks the verses
but he was off he was like a beat behind and
and the band was like trying to save it i think
we lasted four or five songs and i was just like
i don't i don't want this to be the lasting memory
of ace freely for me yeah yeah because he came
out he was he was trying to do the cool ace moves
and stuff and he was just a little bit off and
they would the you know the uh sound guy would
crank his guitar on guitar solos too it was like
it was normal and then you knew ace's guitar
solo was coming so they would crank it up and
uh and honestly it sounded like someone picking
up a guitar that doesn't know how to play guitar
and like act like their guitar so you know like
they're soloing you know where they just like
you know they're doing that nonsense i was i
was blown away about how how bad he's gotten
i'm like and i'm typically not like Somebody
needs to get him off the road. You know, somebody
needs to set him down. And, but yeah, I think
that, I think really they should, someone should
stop ace and be like, you got to stop this. Like
get yourself some help, have the redemption tour,
you know, sober up. I mean, he, his head was
down. He had sunglasses on. It was 10 30 at night.
you know the wigs looking rough it was just sad
to see and you hate to see your heroes go out
like that especially after you see Rudy Sarzo
up there crushing Slaughter, Mark Slaughter and
all those guys up there just killing it and then
Ace comes out just shits the bed but the thing
is all the way back to what we were talking about
earlier with Kiss and their fans and the merchandising
and everything else merch line was as long as
you could see Once it died down, we walked over
there to kind of see what was going on. All the
shirts were 50 bucks each $50 t -shirts. Wow.
Everybody walking around with two or three of
them on their shoulder, you know, a $500 VIP
meet and greet, which I don't know what that
gets you. And you know, it was an out, it was
a, it's a small outdoor amphitheater probably
holds a few thousand. I don't, I don't know how
many people were there. Probably. I mean, probably
a little bit under a thousand, maybe 500 to 700.
I don't know. Um, but everybody had a shirt,
everybody had something like it wasn't. So, I
mean, what's ACEs, uh, what do you, what do you
call it? What's ACEs, uh, you know, reason to
get off tour. It's like, if people are going
to spend that kind of money. Yeah. And I, and
I bet on all, in all honesty, I bet if you look
online at the groups and stuff today, 95 % of
the kids fans, but oh man, he crushed last night.
ACE was so good, man. Keep rocking, keep rocking,
bro. You know, all that stuff. Um, so, so he,
he doesn't really have any need to get off the
road and, and to get himself clean. But there
was a, there was a row of like dudes in front
of us and they were all wearing their ACE solo
shirts and Freely's Comet shirts. And, and like,
you could tell like they were bummed, like everybody
was just bummed around me. Like, except for like
the drunk guy behind me, he was like, woo, you
know, but, but like for the most part, everybody
was just bummed last night. So I can't wait to
see, I know Mike, um, um, you know, from Voltage
Chunky was there last night. And he took some
video and stuff. So hopefully we'll start seeing
that stuff roll out on on Instagram and stuff,
because in all honesty, I would love to see some
some footage and be wrong and be like, oh, well,
maybe I was just in a in the bad spot of the
venue or something. You know, maybe I was just
I was just wrong. You know, maybe Ace crushed
last night and I was just in a weird vantage
point. But, yeah, we just we stayed for, you
know, four or five songs. And, you know, my wife
had to work this morning. So I was just like,
yeah, let's just get out of here. You got to
get some sleep. This is silly. Yeah. That, that,
that sucks though. I mean, the last time actually
wasn't the last time. The first time I saw Kiss
live actually was on the, um, uh, the 2000, um,
what was that? Farewell, the, the farewell to
Peter and Ace tour. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And, and
I'm glad I got to see them with. And I'm going
to catch heat for this, but I'm glad I got to
see them with Tommy and with Eric years later
because growing up and, you know, being a huge
fan of Peter's playing and of the band, you know,
you get to see one of your heroes live and when
you see they just can't do it anymore, you're
like, yeah, I don't, what you said, I don't want
this to be my last memory of this band. Right.
Yeah, it was the first time I saw Kiss was 97
on the reunion tour in Nashville. Actually, Chris
Sinzak in attendance, too. We didn't know each
other at the time. We actually were both at the
I think it's like 95, 30 years ago. We were at
the Bad Boys of Kiss tour at a small club. It
was, you know, where Peter opened for Ace. Yeah.
And and I was I was, you know. pigging shit back
then seeing that, you know, I had tears in my
eyes when I saw the reunion tour. I never thought
I would see that, you know, like I said, growing
up in the late eighties, being a, being a big
fan of the makeup era, um, you know, just thinking
that that was a time of, you know, time gone
by, we would never see again. Uh, so being able
to go to a venue and see, you know, kiss up there,
full makeup amps everywhere. I think they were
still, it was still pretty fresh in the, in the
reunion. So I'm pretty sure they were still playing
well. Um, but yes, I saw him then. And then I
saw him, I guess on the, yeah, I guess the only
other time I saw them was the, uh, the act of
the farewell tour or whatever, a couple of years
ago. Right. Um, I've seen ACE a couple of times
solo because I, like I said, ACE was always my
favorite member. Um, you know, probably ACE followed
by Gene probably. Um, I like Ace's voice. I think
he has a cool singing voice. You know, he was
cracking some jokes last night. You know, he
was he was trying to trying to crack some jokes,
but he was still slurred his speech a little
bit. He's like, oh, they put me up in the presidential
suite. And, you know, we're here in Louisville,
Kentucky, you know, Churchill Downs and the horses
and all that nonsense. He's like, he goes every.
Every photo in this place is a horse. He kept
saying a horse, you know, with the, with the
strong, you know, Brooklyn accident horses everywhere.
I want to see a horse, but, uh, but yeah, I mean,
it's just, I said, when I saw, I saw him in like
2016, I thought he was pretty good at, you know,
the band, and this was a different band at the
time with him, but I thought they were pretty
good. Um, but yeah, last night I was just like,
oof, man, ace, get it together, bud. Yeah. That's,
that's a, a, um, constant behind the scenes comment
with, uh, with Sinzak and myself is, uh, as the
years have gone by with these, the over enunciation,
uh, right. His words. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I
mean, honestly, you know, I'll catch flack from
this, from, from your, from your, you know, from
people that watch you guys, but I mean, it's
just like, like the back to the beginning black
Sabbath thing, Bill Ward was rough. He was rough,
you know? And I get that he's, you know, older
and, and, but man, the tempos were so slow and
he was missing the fills. And I'm just like,
did he even practice for this? Or did he just
get up there and think he was going to play some
of these songs off, off muscle memory, you know,
from four years ago. I, I unfortunately was in
the middle of an, 18 hour work day. Yeah. I have
not. I mean, I've watched clips online and reaching
my heart during lunch. I'm looking at my phone
and there's a Facebook group with some of my,
um, that some of my patrons have and, and they're,
Oh, wow. Uh, anthrax is playing into the void.
And yeah. It's Jake and Nuno and this and that.
And I'm like, I'm missing out on all of this.
It was going through my head. And then one of
the other coaches at the camp that I was at two
days later is like, hey, did you see the back
to the beginning thing? I'm like, I was here
working 18 hours with you. I'm like, God. when
am I going to have time? Well, have you seen
it since? I'm like, it was only available till
Monday. I'm like, we're here for 10 straight
days. When am I going to see this? So I'm hoping
that they release that on DVD or something in
the future. I mean, based on what David Elfson
was saying during the podcast, he's saying that
they shot a lot of behind the scenes stuff as
well. I mean, I've seen some of the stuff like
what Sid Wilson. proposing to, uh, to Kelly and
some other, some of the other stuff. I mean,
I'm assuming that'll be released and similar
deal, uh, go to charity. Um, but who knows? None
of the Taylor Hawkins stuff was released. And,
and I was thinking that that would have come
out on DVD at some point, but it doesn't look
like that's ever going to happen. I think the
bet, the, The bad part of it, I think, was Black
Sabbath playing after Ozzy solo because Ozzy
solo, you know, Zach's up there crushing Mike
and his crushing drummer is blowing the doors
off everybody. You know, this is Ozzy fresh.
He's doing, you know, Mama, I'm coming home.
Not a dry eye in the building. You know, I'm
I'm watching at home like tears in my eyes like
this is because you could just tell Ozzy was
he wanted to get out of that chair so bad and
like. And he even says something like, you know,
I've been I've been laid up for six years. I
mean, can you imagine being basically bedridden
for six years and all of a sudden you're, you
know, in a in a soccer stadium playing in front
of 40, 50 ,000 people? Right. And he was you
know, he was on fire and then kind of the set
change. And I don't know, man, I honestly maybe
if Black Sabbath would have played before Ozzie,
which would have been blasphemy. And maybe it
would have left a better taste in my mouth. But
yeah, it was like the tempos were so slow with
Black Sabbath. And it was cool to see those four
guys on stage. Don't get me wrong. But man, you
can just see it in like Tony and Geezer's faces
that that they were not having a good time. They
were just like, let's pick it up, Bill. You know,
and being in bands with over the years and not
to name names of anybody. But, you know, there
are certain drummers or certain people you play
with. that it might suck to be stuck with them
for 50 years you know like like you know like
that i know bill was great back in the day and
don't get me wrong but i'm just saying like over
the years maybe they lose a step or whatnot and
so like the classic lineup of your band isn't
maybe the best lineup of your band how about
right so it's just so to have to get up there
with your with your boys and one of them's not
pulling his weight uh I guess the figuratively,
not literally. Cause once he pulls that shirt
off, you're like, Whoa, Bill, he's just up there.
Just not giving a shit, you know, like ripping
the shirt off and at almost 80 years old with
just like, he's like, but it was, it was cool
to see him glad they did it. You know, I'm not
going to hate on that, but yeah, it was, it was,
it was just sad to watch. Not as sad as guns
and roses though. Axles that, that the, the guns
and roses performance of that probably took the
cake of like, please don't ever do that again.
Well, I think you got to give him credit for
some of the songs that they pulled out. No, I
give you that. But it's still his voice is just
shot like beyond shot. But that gets back to
the whole both Axl and both Bill get back to
the ace comment that you made a few minutes ago
where you're still going to have people online
that will still argue that they're still great.
they're still awesome. They're still, and it's,
I get it. They're, you know, they're reliving
their, the best years of their life, seeing them,
you know, in concert there, they're like Al Bundy
reliving all those touchdowns. But at the same
time, man, it, it's, it's, it is rough. And,
and guns and roses is still selling out, selling
a lot of tickets. Yeah. Um, there was a social
media clip that I posted. Yeah. A clip that was
posted recently that I responded to earlier today,
which had to do with the fact that people were
criticizing Metallica for screwing up the beginning
of a song. And someone said, well, this is what
they get for changing their set list every night.
And I was kind of, I was pissed. I was like,
are you serious? I'm like, you would rather see
a band play the same set list night after night
after night, whereas they're playing something
different. It may give you an excuse to see them,
you know, several nights on, on that tour, because
you're going to find, you know, you're going
to see something completely different. And we've
become so fickle with the internet where, again,
it gives, it gives us a voice to be podcasters,
but it also gives a lot of people that shouldn't
have a voice out there. The, the platform to,
to rattle off dumb stuff like that. Yeah. I've,
I've seen those lately of, of, you know, the,
where they kind of play the bridge to master
pub is a little wonky or, you know, I mean, even
back in the, there's a clip I saw the other day
of, uh, where James is like, what about, you
know, it's time for master of puppets. And he
just like, he goes by himself. And like Lars
picks up the set list, walks over to him and
kind of as a joking thing points out that he's
supposed to be playing whiplash, but it just,
but it just shows that they're human and they're
not on a, you know, they're obviously not on
a click. They're not on tracks. They're not on
everything else. So, I mean, I, you know, I think
I would rather, I would rather see that than
over, you know, And I mean, honestly, they could
easily put part of Lars, you know, you've seen
it. You've seen those videos of like, is the
drums or the, I've seen all the way down to where
drums are on tracks. You know, you see, you see
the drummer back there hitting stuff and he's
like, wait a minute, he just hit a crash. You
hear a crash, but he didn't hear, you know, hit
a crash or, you know, he's doing something crazy
with the double kick. You know, they could easily
put, you know, Lars's double kicks on tracks
and things like that, you know, just to kind
of mask some of the stuff. um but they don't
you know they're human and they're they're playing
the songs the way that they can at 60 year old
dudes and and so you know part of it's commendable
part of it's like you know like we're seeing
you know you and i are seeing a generation of
bands that that you know like slayer and anthrax
and metallica megadeth all the thrash bands are
putting out some of their greatest material now
because of technology and The way that they can
record these days. I mean, some of the later,
the later Testament records just sound amazing.
You know, the last few Megadeth records sound
awesome. You know, the last Metallica album,
you know, it's, it's like the technology is caught
up to the music to where you can, you can get
everything tight, make everything sound good.
You know, cause some of those early thrash records,
as much as we all love them, they sound like
garbage, you know, like they're like really rough
sounding. And so now that they can kind of get
in there and fine tune everything they're, they're
putting out some of their greatest material,
but it's, but we're also seeing a generation,
you know, you watch that back to the beginning
thing, you're seeing old James Hetfield and,
and old Joey Belladonna and old Scott Ian, and,
you know, just everybody's getting older, but
they're still, they're still held to the standard
of, you know, 1988 James Hetfield and justice
for all tour. and you know they're headbanging
and rocking and doing this and the other thing
and sweating and everything else because you
know when you and i you and i were growing up
and we're seeing like you know herman's hermits
at the fair you know they're up there just standing
still singing the thing and and and not having
to do much or whatever version the temptations
was coming to the you know coming to the state
fair things like that you know you like the generation
before us their old their old guard could get
away with standing there, the mamas and the papas
and, you know, Jefferson airplane or whatever
was coming through, you know, they didn't have
to put on a energetic, crazy show. We're sweating
and blah, blah, blah, you know, everything going
on. So, so our heroes, you know, we're, we're
watching our, you know, we're watching thrash
metal get old, you know, like old, old, like
grandpas and stuff. And it's, and it's, and it's,
it's fun to watch, you know, sometimes you're
like, Sometimes I'll see a photo of James Hetfield
and I'm like, man, he is looking old. You never
think your heroes are going to get old and then
they do. It's just wild. I did a show on Friday
where we talked about the Back to the Beginning
show with two people that watched the entire
thing. One of the things they brought up was
that Metallica had played Um, damn it. Guns and
roses played junior size. Uh, it's the song after
that. Johnny something, Johnny blade, Johnny
blade. Yeah. And I love the original. Uh, I was
like, I got to search this out. You know, these
guys are telling me that this was great. And
I put on you, I find it on YouTube. I, I push
play. And my wife says, man, James Hetfield looks
old. Yeah. So that's what I said to her. I go,
well, they are in their 60s. You know, this guy
is like at least 15 years older than me. I'm
like, not too bad considering all the shit that
they've done. And, you know, they could be in
a lot worse shape. So I've. I'm probably more
lenient than I should be with them because of.
you know, how they've always kind of come across
as being human to me. I mean, uh, live ship engine
purge, they have mistakes in that, that they
never expected their live Metallica stuff. It's
boom out in two days and we're small. And they've,
I mean, and I think that's part of the reason
why they're essentially the biggest metal band
of all time, because they're, they've kind of
followed a tradition of, sabbath and acdc to
the point of really emotionally connecting with
working class people and showing that they're
human and showing that you know they go through
the same shit that we do and i think that's endeared
them to so many people so yeah is lars playing
you know uh injustice for all note for note like
he did you know monsters of rock tour no absolutely
not but Just like you said before, I have a vinyl
album behind me. I'm not going to point to which.
I saw them and the drummer that was playing was
not playing live. And there were parts of certain
songs where it's heavy into double bass and those
drum heads were not moving. So for as much as
people say, no, he was playing with a trigger.
Like, yeah, you don't get how triggers work then.
So, uh, that was, it's funny. I know I've, I've
started to see like bands all the way down to
like local bands in the clubs, you know, opening
for nationals coming through that are running
tracks and stuff. And I'm just like, I get up
there and just play. Like we, you know, I mean,
I, you know, there are certain, certain bands,
certain things that I'll, I'll let slide. You
know, if you've got a crazy, instrumental part
you've got a crazy you know dubstep part or you
know anything like that throw that on a track
i'm fine with it you know but if if there's if
there's if there's someone on stage that can
play the part let them play the part yeah i mean
i it's been 10 years ago i was one of the first
times i ever saw a touring band come through
and they did a quick line check you know as they
were getting ready it was like all right left
stage guitar to jump right stage guitar jump
jump you know drums bass and someone hit a space
bar and the bass track played and i was like
oh we're we're already at that point you know
like so so it's you know it's just it's just
like let you know if you can do it live do it
live but if you know like i said if it's a crazy
orchestral part yeah throw it on track i've never
that that's never bothered me that's all for
your factory and 1998 and you know they had a
dude over there there was like on edge crusher
where there's all the scratching and stuff you
know just hit a key you know hit a key on the
keyboard and it you know it played the sample
you know i'm fine with that stuff yeah yeah yeah
yeah yeah just just play as much as you can as
you know as live as you can how about that yeah
no i i agree with you um Circling things back
to talk to me and the show you're doing with
Ellefson. There have been several iterations
of podcasts that you've done and different things
that you've done over the years, whether it was
NotFest, whether it was the show that you had
done with Ian as well. And you've tried other
things over the years. How important have all
of those evolutions been to you to help you progress
as a podcaster? I mean, I think it just kind
of shows you like what works, what doesn't work.
You know, everything's a, every day is a learning
lesson. You know, I mean, the show with Ian was
fun. I love Ian to death. You know, I always
consider him a bro. You know, I did some stuff
with Chris Aiken. You know, it's funny. When
I listen to the classic metal show and you hear,
you know, you hear Nate Neely every once in a
while kind of throw jabs that, oh, well, nobody
else can find a co -host. So they have to get
Chris Aiken. And I always want to be like, you
know what? When I when I asked Chris to come
on the podcast, that was right after his scare
with COVID. That was right after I thought I,
you know, honestly thought we were going to lose
him. You know, I was literally, you know, he
was in the hospital. He's got bad lungs from
the burn accident. He's, you know, he's like
a 400 pound dude. Like he's, he was everything
that you thought was going to kill him. You know,
he got, he got COVID. He has bad lungs. He's
overweight. He's out, you know, he's unhealthy.
Like everything, everything that was at the time
going to kill him. should have killed him and
it didn't and i remember uh you know i'm not
too ashamed to say this but i remember the day
that he posted that he was you know he was released
from the hospital he's going to be okay and i
was in my car and i pulled over and just cried
like i i literally like you know i'm you know
it's crazy it's like with even with you victor
i've never met chris in person but like you know
chris is one of those dudes where i can call
him and we would talk for an hour we always had
a great rapport and i was looking i was I had
been talking to not fest about bringing a co
-host in anyway. And I was like, you know what
I'm going to do? I'm going to ask Chris because
you know, I did, that's how much I, you know,
I thought of him and that's how much he meant
to me. And it still does. You know, I still talk
to him all the time. Even last night I'm texting
him at the show. I'm texting him while he's on,
you know, on air doing the classic metal show,
you know, we're bullshitting back and forth about
slaughter and all this other nonsense on, on
stage. But, uh, so yeah so having him come on
the show um you know mike years ago john drake
over the you know popped on for a little bit
um part of me is is like i was an only child
so i think like i don't play well with others
you know if that makes any sense it's just like
you know um but with with david obviously david's
the the the name on the show you know it's his
show um And it does go back all the way back
to, you know, Adam Carolla's old thing. Like,
how do you become successful in podcasting? Step
one, be famous, you know, because I mean, obviously
right out the gate, you know, Ellison's podcast,
his numbers are doing well. And the announcement
of the show went pretty big. And, you know, everybody's
like, who the hell is this other guy? You know,
those comments are my favorite. Like, who's the
guy? You know, sometimes I wear my glasses on
the show. It's like, who's the guy with the glasses
and beard? You know. I made a comment about Lars
one day that honestly, I don't think it was a
negative comment, but everybody thought I was
being negative. Like, well, who is he to say
that about Lars and you know, all this shit.
It is funny. Like, so, so no matter how much
you do in podcasting, like there's still a giant
segment out there that has no idea who you are.
Right. You know, I mean, a lot of the, a lot
of the comments early on, cause David's such
a talker and some of these people, like I get
it. I'm like, why am I here? Like, there's a
lot of times where I'm like, I don't need to
be here. Like I'll, I should just X out my box
and just watch the show. Like, like a fan, you
know, cause if you get David and Frank Bello
together or David and Dave Lombardo together,
or even, you know, Gary Holt and the other day
with the, the back to the beginning stuff, all
that stuff. Like I wasn't there for those guys
have known each other for 40 years. So they're
just going to banter back and forth. And I think
it was, we were, we interviewed Maria Ferrara,
you know, metal Maria. Uh, and I'm sure you've
dealt with her many a time with her PR company.
Um, but I, you know, it was like 20 minutes into
the episode and I lean in and I'm like, all right,
Maria, it's been about 20 minutes. It's time
for me to chime in. Uh, you know, as a joke,
cause a lot of times I see it too, you know,
where I'll, I'll, I'm just listening. I'm just
watching. Cause I'm a fan of podcasts and I'm
a fan of David. I'm a fan of, you know, 90 %
of the people that we've interviewed. Um, so,
I mean, I'm a, I'm listening to, uh, So like
I'll catch it to where I like these long stretches
of time where I don't say a word just because
I'm listening. You know, I've always been a listener
to when it comes to interviewing people. And
so I'm kind of waiting for my spot to jump in.
But but yeah, it's it's it's been fun. But yeah,
just just learning, growing, seeing how everything
works. I've been I've been more impressed with
how how into podcasting David's become. Like
he's like, we should do this. We should do that.
We should get this guest. We should do that.
Do you have this time? He, you know, he's been
in, he's been in basically in Germany all year
or all summer. So it's like, you know, he's been
working around like my days off from work and
like, you know, coordinating, you know, cause
they're like six hours ahead of, ahead of me
and all that nonsense. So, you know, like you
are. And then, uh, so it's like, it's just been
fun to kind of see his evolution and getting
into. comfortable interviewing people. You know,
he said even early on, cause I mean, some of
the early on episodes, he does talk a lot. Um,
and maybe he doesn't let the guests talk as much.
Uh, so he's trying to curtail that. And he goes,
he goes, you know, that, that dude's been being
interviewed since he was 18 years old. You know,
he joined Megadeth, you know, they started Megadeth
when he was 18. He's been famous his whole life.
Um, so now he's trying to like turn it around
and become the interviewer instead of the interviewee.
Um, So, yeah, it's been it's been a fun evolution
to watch that, too, and watch him do everything.
But just, you know, just over the years, like,
you know, we were joking earlier about the technology
and Skype and all this other stuff, you know,
like so learning how to do stuff with Chris Aiken
through Skype, through, you know, restreams and
StreamYard and all the different all the different
evolutions and technology, things like that,
you know, kind of everything kind of builds up
to. you know, what you're doing today. And it
kind of, it kind of works out to where, you know,
Oh, I had, I had to learn how to do this one
thing in editing. So now I know how to do it
all the time. And, you know, you just kind of
have, you know, I don't necessarily, I don't
necessarily sit there and watch Adobe Premiere
Pro tutorials to learn how to do everything.
But when I have to figure something out, that's
when you go to YouTube and try to figure it all
out. And, you know, that helps you kind of, you
know, in your day -to -day podcasting life. So.
I don't know, man. It's just, it's just an evolution
of, of learning how to work with people and how
to, you know, deal with different personalities
and, uh, how to, um, you know, schedules and
things like that. That was the biggest thing,
honestly, the biggest thing with everybody was
just schedule conflicts. And that was the one
thing about Chris Aiken, him working from home,
he was kind of free to do it whenever, um, you
know, some of the other ones, it was like, oh,
I can't do it this day because I have this. Even
like when I did New Pod with Ro Coley, you know,
Ro lives in Los Angeles. He's in with every band
ever. And I'd be like, hey, Ro, can we record
on Tuesday? He'd be like, oh, I'm going to see
Lacuna Coil that day. All right, what about Wednesday?
Oh, man, Cole Chambers reuniting, blah, blah,
blah. All right, what about Thursday? Oh, man,
Thursday, I've got to go. You know, it was just,
he was going to like two or three shows a night
every other day. So, you know, that was the only,
that was the biggest, you know, hurdle with doing
a show with him. because he runs a business that
he needs to be out and talking to people and,
and, and, you know, talking to band members and
things like that to get more business. So I get
it. So, yeah, it was, it was tough. It was like,
all right, I've got an, he's, he was always like,
all right, I can do it from like four to five,
but I might have to do it from my car, you know,
shit like that. But, but yeah, it's, it's just,
it's just been fun, man. I think everything's
been fun. You know, I don't think I've. none
of these shows have ended with a blow up fight
you know like I hate you you know shit like that
it's always like so it seems to be cordial well
at least I hope so you know with everybody yeah
well that's cool with with Allison has there
been kind of a fly on the wall moment where you're
hearing people banter back and forth with him
and something has come up that's really kind
of caught you off guard and been eyeopening?
Um, I mean, there's been a few things. I don't,
I don't necessarily know how eyeopening things
are, but it just, some of it goes to show you
how, how we're, we're, we're all in, you know,
he always says that we're all in the same band.
We're all, you know, no matter how, you know,
no matter if you were in Megadeth or you were
in the local band down the street, it's always,
it's all band dynamics. It's all, You know, nothing
ever changes. It's like, it's like this guy hates
that. This guy snores funny. This guy ate my
cereal one day. So I'm still mad at him for that.
It was kind of cool. Kind of puts it, puts it
into perspective in the day of Lombardo episode
where he talks about going over to Carrie King's
house and Carrie's making the spiked bracelet,
you know, the big spiked armband or whatever.
and you know he's like he's like his dad's sitting
there reading a book his mom's you know cooking
something in the in the kitchen and carrie's
in the living room floor you know adding spikes
to a leather thing you know you hear those kind
of stories or or with with dave he's like you
know uh with dave lombardo he said you know he
went to some of those early slayer rehearsals
and david brought up Like they had scorpions
posters on their walls and you see Dave Lombardo's
face kind of light up like, oh yeah, that was
our first practice. You know, they, they go back
to being just teenagers and kids before the fame
and, and, and that stuff. So those are the, those
are the fun moments, you know, where, where you
get to hear those kinds of firsthand stories
of, of young, you know, Lombardo or young Metallica
or young Megadeth, things like that. You know,
those are the things that intrigue me because.
I got into kiss at nine, 10 years old. Um, you
know, Metallica when I was 10, 11 years old and
the, you know, Metallica opens up the world to
Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax, all that stuff. And,
and so, you know, that was like the peak fandom
of some of those bands. Cause you know, once
you get into, you know, when I started playing
music and playing out and the other bands that
were around at the time, you know, I'm not, you
know, I never, got to the heights of some of
these bands but they were technically my peers
you know they were the bands out at the same
time you know the corns the deftones uh the you
know the the cold chambers all those bands were
just were just kind of bands at the same time
as i was trying to make it in music so like they
were the competition rather than the fan you
know my fandom being as, as, as big as it is
for some of those thrash metal bands or even
some of the, you know, the early death metal
bands, the obituaries and morbid angels and things
like that. So, so yeah. So some of the guys we
have on when I'm hearing David talk to them about
back in the early days, back in the Bay area
days, but all that stuff, that's when I'm just
like the happiest I've ever been on some of these,
you know, podcasts where I'm sitting there just
listening to, you know, the first episode we
did, uh, was Frank Bellow from Anthrax and David,
um, Frank and Frank had just put out like a,
uh, a signature series base through Spectre.
So David's like, Hey man, why don't you pull
the base out and, you know, kind of show it off.
And as he, as, as, uh, Frank Bellow pulls out
the base, David picks up one of his bases and
he asked frank to show him the riff for room
for one more i think and so so you know frank's
playing it and then david starts to play it and
i was like well shit and i grabbed my bass and
i'm like i started playing it and i'm looking
at him like i'm like frank bellow is currently
teaching david ellison how to play an anthrax
song And I'm also learning at the same time,
like what world am I living in right now? What,
how, how, how did any of this happen? Or like
even the other day with the, the, you know, the
four squares on the screen, it's, it's David,
it's Mike from, you know, Mike Borden from Faith
the More, Ozzy, Rudy Sarzo, and then me. I'm
like, why, what's, what life is this? What, what
is life at this point? Yeah, I, I, I get it.
I get it. I've, I've, I've. Haven't been to those
heights, but at times where, you know, I've gotten
to share things with other people or people,
it's like, how did I get here? Why? Those things
are really, you know, my 17 year old self would
be calling me talking to this person right now.
You know, the biggest thing from from the podcast
is just David and I's friendship. Like, you know,
he'll text me. you know, we were, uh, the, the
live stream from the back to the beginning was
on a two hour delay. He texted me that he had
a good show before the live stream had even gotten
to us. So like he, he played in front of all
those people because, you know, I, you know,
I'm just, I just, anytime he has a show or he's
doing something, I'll, I'll hit him. Hey man,
have a good show today. Good luck. You know,
break a leg, all that and whatever. Yeah. So
I hit him up early in the day. I'm like, Hey
man, you know, crush it tonight. He's like, thanks.
And then, uh, you know, before the, the, you
know, before the, the, the live stream even happened
over here, I get a text, Hey man, it was awesome.
You know, he don't have to do that, you know,
like David Ellison, but he's still like, it's
still, um, it's still just cool that he, you
know, wanted to let me know how the show went.
And then I had some questions about him, you
know, cause I, you know, I think we were going
to talk about the primer 55 thing, but I had,
uh, and I had a couple of questions about that
for him the other day. And, we had like a long
heartfelt talk, you know, like he, he was kind
of laying out some stuff and, you know, what
he thinks I should do with this, what he thinks
I should do with that. And I'm just like, I get
off the phone and I'm like, I'm like, I just
talked to David Ellison about my life and what
some decisions that I should make with music.
You know, I met David when I was 15. Um, they
were, they were on the euthanasia tour. They
had a it was a Megadeth canned food drive. And
if you if you donated 10 pounds of food to the
local food bank, you got a special backstage
pass. And so, you know, me and a buddy of mine
did it. We go down. I mean, it was a it was kind
of a cattle call. We were in the arena seats
all lined up in one row. And then Megadeth was
in the row ahead of us, turned around, you know,
kind of coming through, signing everything. And
that would have been the first time I met David
in, in January of 95. Um, to tell that kid that
in 30 years, you're going to be like having a
life conversation with David Ellison about, you
know, your, your music career. And it's just
like, what, what's going on? None of this makes
any sense. Right. Yeah. I've had people tell
me, well, you have my number now hit me up whenever
you want. And I'm like, love your music, love
talking to you, but I'm not going to be hitting
you up and saying, Hey, did you check out the,
you know, the Dodgers game last night? Right.
You know, so it's cool that you actually, you
know, you've got some common ground there and
you're, you're at a place where you have a friendship
with him, where you can do that sort of stuff.
You know, I'm just. I just feel weird and out
of place doing something like that. Oh yeah.
Like there. Yeah. You definitely get those numbers
and you're like, uh, um, you know, like, Hey,
you know, I've got some crazy numbers in my phone
over the years from interviewing people when
they're like, Hey, give me a call on this ball
bar, text me on that, you know, something like
that. And, and I would never call them. I would
never text them. I would never do anything unless,
unless you've, you were like really, you know,
because sometimes you'll have these interviews
and you, I always joke, I'll get off an interview
and I'll go upstairs and I'll talk to my wife
and she's always like, how'd it go? And I'm like,
oh, I have a new best friend. You know, because
sometimes you get off these interviews and you
really click with people. And if you have a common
ground that's not like, hey man, you know, I
loved this lick on an album. But if you had common
ground, both like the certain football team or
you knew that they liked a certain football team
and you want to razz them a little bit, you know,
any of that stuff. i get but there are a few
people like hey if they put out a new song i
might hit on the text like hey man loving the
new track you know just kind of giving them something
positive but i i don't ever expect like a bro
down and i was even talking to mike from from
voltage junkie last night about that was you
know sometimes you'll get tickets to a show and
they'll throw in a backstage pass and i'm like
i don't even want to go back and bother anybody
like yeah yeah you know 15 year old me would
have been And back in the middle of everything,
you know, rummaging through the catering, you
know, talking to everybody and whatnot. But,
you know, the older I get, the more like in the
way I feel. And and like even the other day,
we my wife and I went to see Incubus and we had
like an after show pass. And but it was like
it was it was one of those deals where you had
to get like a certain person to walk you back.
And so we were like. waiting for that certain
person to walk them back but then they had an
emergency so they had to leave the venue but
we didn't know so we were just like standing
there in the way of everybody trying to you know
all the trucks come in to move the stage and
everything else and i'm like let's just go like
i i didn't realize that i was waiting for a certain
person and they didn't come and i'm like i'm
not gonna do this like let's just get out of
here it's just too much at this point but it's
you know last night at the, at the ace freely
show, David's like, make sure you, you know,
you go say hi to Rudy. And I'm like, I don't
want to bother Rudy Sarzo, you know, but I, you
know, I'd have been back there just being, being
a fan boy of the scene, Johnny Kelly from typo
and be like, man, I saw you back in 1994, you
know, you'd be in that guy, you know, but, uh,
but it's just, yeah, the older I get, the less
inclined I am to go bother people, especially
backstage. Yeah, no, I'm, I'm, I'm right there
with you. I've been, it's, it's funny because
that, that a show that I mentioned with that
slash and George Lopez were there. My wife's
like, let's go meet him. I'm like, I leave him
alone. You know, enjoy the show. They're at a
booth. They're watching ace. Like we are just,
you know, it seems like they're chilling and
no one's bugging them. Let's not. Yeah. One's
to go bug them. So I get it. Yeah. I mean, I
mean, they're, you know, A few people I might
want, you know, maybe if Headfield was out there,
I might wander over and, Hey man, I'm really
sorry. Can I grab a quick photo? Like, just give
me the photo and I'll just get, I'll get out
of your face, you know, that type stuff. But,
uh, but yeah, I mean, luckily when I was, when
I was 14, 15, 16 years old, um, my friend Jeremy
Housley and myself would go and just, you know,
chase down buses and stand behind the venue for
eight hours. You know, just any of that stuff
to get a glimpse of our heroes and talk to them,
maybe get a second. And honestly, that might
have been like some of the early inklings that
I was going to get into podcasting. Obviously,
that was before podcasting even existed. But
I always try to think of one question for the
person that was maybe a little bit left of center.
That wasn't just. oh my God, I loved your new
album. You know, like I might try to ask him
something. I actually met Mike Borden in 1997.
And he was kind of coming down. He was, it was
a Faith No More show. After the show, he kind
of came to the, where all the fans were and kind
of did a quick, you know, run through. And he
was like, sign, boom, sign, boom, sign, walk
away. And when he got to me, I looked at him
and I, I, I, I, for some reason I looked at him,
I go, there's something I've always wanted to
ask you. And he stopped me and looked at me and,
and honestly, I forgot. And I couldn't think
of it like the top of my head. I was like thinking,
and then all of a sudden to go Cliff Burton,
because he grew, you know, him, Mike Borden,
Cliff Burton grew up together and dude, Mike
stopped in his tracks and just talked to Cliff
Burton with me for 10 minutes. You know, that
was his, you know, his best friend growing up
kind of thing. Yeah. And so, so I always like,
I always tried to, to not just be like, oh man,
Epic's a great song or something. You know, you
gotta, you gotta hit them with something that'll,
that'll make them stop in their tracks, but I'll
never, that's one thing. And honestly, I didn't
even get a chance to tell him that on the, with
the interview the other day, but that's always
been one of the cooler looking back on my life
moments is when, you know, Mike Borden stops
in his tracks to tell you, tell you about his,
his friend growing up, Cliff Burton, which I
mean, you, you know, you know, you you have friends
like that I'm sure you know you grew up with
somebody and if they would have became a successful
musician and and passed away and and all that
stuff like you know he's not to you he's not
Cliff Burton Cliff Burton he's your best friend
Cliff Burton and and and I think that there are
a few people in my life if if they would have
passed away at a younger age and someone asked
me about them later in life I would love to talk
about my my friends growing up, you know? So,
so yeah, that was very cool of him to do that.
And it was super cool of him to do the podcast
of the day, because other than the Dean Del Rey
podcast that he did a few months ago, I've never
really seen Mike Borden on a podcast, you know?
And he was great. I got, you know, when you're,
whenever you, if you get a chance to listen to
that, like even sends that text to me, he was
like, Mike Borden should have his own podcast.
Cause he, how well he spoke on it and he had
great stories and all that stuff. But it was,
it was fun. You're going to have to start the,
uh, to me podcasting network. Yeah. Yeah. Just
get it. You get all the famous people on there.
Yeah. Um, that's, that's funny though. That's
the, uh, the, the, the one thing where before
seeing a show, you've got two things that come
to mind. All right. Can you jump up on stage
and play with them if they need a, in your case,
and what are you going to ask somebody if you
run into them so that you can engage them? So,
so yeah. with Burton that's cool yeah no it's
it's always been fun man but yeah that we we
made it more of a a game almost like a hide -and
-seek game you know like and luckily he was a
guy that had you know he had like one of those
long like 110 cameras or whatever they were back
in the day with the yeah weird film in it and
stuff like that and he carried a camera with
us everywhere everywhere we went and so like
luckily I have photos with me and Diane back
when I was 15 and Me and Bobby Blitz and, you
know, like all I have, I have a bunch of photos
of me. And honestly, I think that's the only
photos I have me of me of that era, because it
was I was living with my dad. He was a single
dad making no money. We weren't going to take
photos all the time. You know, we didn't have
a camera running around or or a video camera
or anything like that. So like any photo of basically
of me around the ages of like 14 to 17 are me
and rock stars because my buddy Jeremy happened
to have a camera. luckily so wow uh you mentioned
prime a second ago so how did this whole uh reunion
come come about um honestly it's it's it's been
building for a long time um we had We had talked
about maybe doing the 20th anniversary of Introduction
Mayhem back in 2020, but then obviously something
happened back then that stopped everybody in
their tracks from doing anything. And then Bobby
Burns hit me up maybe late last year, maybe early
this year. And, you know, he was having trouble
with his liver, just some health issues. and
he literally told me he was like hey man if you
get a call from this certain girl and she says
that i've passed away i want you to be the one
to break the news i'm like don't put that on
me yeah um you know kind of thing but i mean
he he truly thought he was uh you know on his
deathbed or whatever um because that's the kind
of diagnosis the doctors were giving him but
he luckily um he's down in dallas texas he's
um you know they've got some good uh I guess
liver doctors down there. Um, they, they went
in and, and, and got him back going. And I, you
know, maybe kind of being right there close to
death or whatever. He hit me up and says, you
know, if you want to do this, let's do a show.
I'm like, all right. And which it's funny if
you ask Preston, you know, Preston Nash, uh,
the, the, the drummer that we have for this,
that was the drummer, the, the, the new release
era, things like that. anytime we talk about
getting back together, I'm like, I want a classic
lineup. Obviously Jason passed away, but I want
at least three of us to be somewhat classic,
you know, from, from the early two thousands.
And so I'm always like, we got to get Preston
and Preston lives. I live in Louisville. He lives
in Indy. We're like an hour and a half, two hours
away from each other. So, and so basically about
once a year, I get, I, I hit him with the text.
Hey, if we get this together, will you do it?
And he's like, he's always like, yeah. but you
know we'll see what happens kind of thing but
this last time bobby comes out and he's like
all right man if you want to do this let's do
it um i contacted uh mikey from snot i was like
hey man you know who's dealing you know it's
kind of the same situation classic band singer
passed away uh you know anniversary of a record
kind of stuff all that stuff kind of kind of
lined up similarly so i was like hey ma 'am you
know what's the name of your uh booking agent
he gave it to me you know And I emailed the guy
and I'm like, Hey man, would you be interested
in dealing with a primary 55 25th anniversary?
And an immediate, yes. Like he jumped the, the,
the booking agent jumped right on it. And I was
like, uh, so I kind of, you know, put two, you
know, line everything up, got everything going.
And, um, it's been fun, man. It's like Bobby's
fired up again. It's, it's fun to see him kind
of be Bobby Burns again, you know, kind of be,
be, in charge of a band of Bobby Burns and, and
getting everything together and, you know, being
a, you know, being a shithead again, sometimes
and things like that, you know, he's gotta, he's
gotta, I need this today. I need this done by
blah, blah, blah, all that stuff. Like, you know,
it's as much as, you know, sometimes he can be
a little overbearing when it comes to that stuff.
It's been awesome to see him see that guy again,
you know, cause there for a long, I mean, when
all this stuff was going down with his liver,
like he told me he was proud of me and, For him
to say that, I was like, oh, shit, he really
is dying. So to kind of see Bobby kind of come
back to life the last few months has been awesome.
And from what started out to be one show turned
into a possibility of opening on a bigger band's
reunion tour, which kind of fell through, turned
into, well, let's do our own little run. and
you know now it's like there's more there are
more tours like being booked as we speak and
i'm just like i'm i'm i'm ecstatic for him i'm
excited for the band you know i want to see i
want to see bobby back out there because bobby's
one of those musicians that should be on stage
should be playing um you know i sat in the studio
one time with them we did a side band after primer
and um and as we were recording some stuff and
the you know he's like he's like i think i'm
gonna throw a solo right here and just you know
immediately looked at an awesome solo i'm like
all right like all right guitar solo guy you
know it's just it it's he's just one of those
dudes that just should be playing music should
be out there that's what he does that's that's
where he he needs to be and to kind of see it
all kind of coming back together um i love it
i love to see it come back together Honestly,
I mean, I wish Jason was here with us and to
kind of see the I think he would have been over
the moon with all of the kind of the new metal
resurgence, you know, all the all the bands of
that era kind of coming back around again, you
know, doing the nostalgia stuff. And and I think
he would have been he'd been really into it.
And I would love to have kind of gotten, you
know, Bobby and Jason back together and touring
his primer and all that stuff. I mean, there's
early episodes of talk to me where I'm like,
I don't care if I'm involved. I just want to
see those two guys work together again. And then
obviously with Jason passing in like what, 2018,
which is crazy. It's already been that long.
It is funny though, being a, you know, I'm a
giant Pantera fan and you know, no dime, no Pantera
and all that nonsense. And then the, the initial,
like, you know, primer 55 tour announced, blah,
blah, blah. And we're, we're totally getting
the no Jason, no primer type stuff. And I'm like,
well, it's kind of hard. You know, I would love
for Jason to be here doing this stuff, but, but
we can't. So, so we've got, you know, we've got
Donnie coming in on vocals for this, who did
some stuff with Bobby back a few years ago. It
was actually funny. I helped to get Donnie in
the band in 2008. And then I think. and don't
quote me on this i think we did one show together
like i i think it was like donnie's first show
and my last show were the same show and then
they went on to do some touring together and
stuff like that but um but yeah actually i opened
an old email the other day like an old email
account and i think i had like the emails from
like bobby's like hey check out this dude donnie
and then i'm like talking to donnie you know
this is like so i got him in the band and then
i left so But yeah, I'm excited to do this run.
It starts in October. A nice little quick run.
It's like seven shows in eight days. So my old
bones are going to be creaking and muscles are
going to be sore and all that stuff. And I'm
going to, you know, hopefully I don't get up
there looking like Ace Frehley and just stumble
all over myself. And hopefully we're more Slaughter
or Quiet Riot than we are Ace Frehley when we
get up there to play. How about that? You're
going to be involved in all of the live shows.
Uh, as of now, yes. It's got to work, got to
work some stuff around with my actual day job,
but, uh, right. But once we, once we get all
that figured out, um, but yeah, as of right now,
yes. Okay, cool. And it's just shows for now.
There's nothing about maybe new music at some
point down the road, or has that even been addressed?
Uh, I don't know how much is going to be talked
about or whatnot, but yeah, I mean, there's,
there's talk about new music. There was, There's
always talk about music. So we'll see what happens
with that. I mean, from where at this point where
Bobby's at with the band, it seems to be back
to being a full functioning band at this moment.
So I think that so I think that anything that
anything to do with a normal band is back on
the table. You know, music tours, photo shoots
and T -shirts and anything you can think of that
goes along with the band is on the table right
now because. And which is awesome. You know,
I, I, I'm glad because, well, the other thing
too is doing the podcast over the years, the
amount of guests that I had on, you know, post
interview, pre -interview that just wanted to
throw out a quick, Hey man, grew up a big Primer
fan. Or I listened to Primer when I was in middle
school, any of that stuff, you know, or, you
know, people that listen to the podcast, like,
Hey man, I love what you're doing on the podcast.
Just want to let you know, a big Primer 55 fan,
never got to see him live. All that stuff. how
much that built over the years and i don't think
bobby noted knew that knew that was going on
because he just wasn't you know tuned into blabbermouth
each week and all that nonsense for every day
like it just wasn't something on his radar so
i'm like i'm like no dude like there's a there's
this underground swelling of you know when you
open up the louder than life uh announcement
and dry kill logics on the main stage like primer
55 needs to be back together And I love Dracologic
and that's not a dig at them. I'm just saying
that like, that's just, that goes to show you
when Spine Shank and the Union Underground and,
and Head P and all those bands are like main
stage bands or, or high up on the bill on the
side stage bands. Like that just shows you that
Primer needs to get their asses back together
and get back out there, you know? Yeah, absolutely.
And I mean, we've seen it in the previous, decades
or so before the switch over to a lot of the
nineties bands. Yeah. Um, we've seen that a lot
of bands have made that success. They've successfully
ridden that wave for as long as they could. And
a lot of these nineties bands are now coming
back and hopefully you guys can do something
similar, you know, where you take advantage of,
you know, this groundswell of popularity with
bands that are, that are doing, a lot of stuff.
And even newer bands, I listened to the new turnstile
the other day. I'm like, this should come out
in the nineties. I'm like, right. You know, this
wasn't what I expected at all. Um, there's, there's
a lot of, a lot of different things. Even, um,
Alex Lifeson from rush has a band called envy
of none. Okay. And that sounds totally nineties
alternative rock. I mean, it's, it's ridiculous
and not in a, Nirvana sense. It's like in a garbage
sense, you know, it's, it's something like that,
that is calling a lot of people off guard. And
I know that a lot of Alex Lifeson fans are like,
why isn't he doing something more like rush?
He's basically said, you know, I found this singer.
She's great. And she allows me now to write in
this, you know, this form of music around her
voice. Yeah. So, you know, growing up and, and,
We saw it with the 80s bands, you know, we there
was definitely that moment in time where. You
know, the the Cinderella's and Slaughter's and
all those bands that now, you know, get up and
play in an M3 and and, you know, massive crowds,
you know, had their moments in the clubs where,
you know, might have been half full or a quarter
full or. Nobody there. You know what I'm saying?
And like, and my last, my last primary 55 tour
we did, I did it in 2008 or 2007, 2008, somewhere
in there. And you know, we were playing some
pretty rough shows and I always joke. It was
like, it was like, there might be 30 people in
the crowd, but like there were 30 fans and it
was different. There was a difference between
being in like a local band and there's 30 people
in the crowd and you're trying to win them over
to like, you're playing in front of 30 people
and they know all the music and they like, you
know hadn't seen you since oz fest or never got
to see you so like this is their moment with
the band and like yeah so you're on stage and
you're looking out and it's you know a 500 cap
room with 30 people in it you might as well been
playing to an empty warehouse and they're on
they're in the crowd watching one of their favorite
bands so it's so you still have to like put on
that that whole like if it's five people or five
you know 500 ,000 people we're gonna play the
same show like all that nonsense but you you
have to like do that you have to like get your
your mindset around that and it's not easy it's
not like you can just turn that on you know you
have to like put on a good show for the people
that are there because like I said they they
they are truly fans of the music and they are
so pumped to see you it's not their fault that
they're one of 30 people So you're like trying
to put on a good show. But I think that this
time around, you know, we're hitting that nice
pocket of nostalgia. You know, people of our
age range might have a little bit more disposable
income. You know, come out, relive their youth
a little bit. I mean, that's what I'm doing.
You know, go out and relive my youth a little
bit too, you know. You know, I hadn't been on
stage. actually i hadn't i hadn't been on stage
since i i think in 2011 i got up with primer
and did loose with them and like in like one
time and but other than that i i got on stage
a couple of years ago at uh at a new metal night
it was a new metal night here in town they invited
me to play three songs you know i did corn uh
corn song deftone song whatnot and i was like
oh yeah and my wife had never really seen me
on stage before and uh She was like, oh, she's
like, I've never seen you that happy. I've never
seen you smile like that. So I was like, whenever
this type of stuff comes up, she's like, I can't
say no. She, you know, she's not going to be
like, you can't go on tour. She's like, I know
this is what makes you happy. You're going to
do what makes you happy. I can't take that away
from you. So, I mean, so I've got an awesome
support system. And, you know, just to get back
out there, my kids are a little bit older. So
it's not like, you know, I'm leaving them. That
was the one thing that what got me off a tour
to begin with was my son was about two or three
at the time. And, you know, we're out there playing
to nobody and these shit clubs making no money.
And I get a call from my son's mom. We weren't
together, but we were cordial and everything
was fine. But she was having a day. She was stressed
out. I could hear him crying in the background.
I'm out here playing to nobody. And I'm like,
what am I doing? I was like, I need to go home
and be a dad. And then, you know, now my kids
are, you know, my youngest is about to be 11
and he thinks it's cool what dad does. He thinks
it's cool that dad plays music and he can get
on stage and do things like that. So, you know,
and he's at more of an age where I think he would
understand, hey, you know, dad's gonna be gone
for a couple of weeks, but I'll be back, you
know, to where he's not like four or five, you
know, four or five where he just doesn't understand.
So I'm excited, man. I think everybody, I think
it's a good time. to go back out. I think it's
a good time for music. I think it's a good time
for shows. I think it's going to be fun and get
back out there and play for everybody. It's going
to be fun. Cool. That sounds, that sounds really
awesome. And like I said, I hope it all works
out and yeah, to, to, you know, get the planets
to align there and that you guys are able to,
to take this as far as you guys can. Yeah, definitely.
I think it'll be fun. Hopefully, you know, hopefully
next year do all the Danny Wimmer shows and get
on some festivals. You know, you know, maybe
maybe another band will look on the lineup and
be like, why is Primer 55 on the main stage?
Like, you know, we got to get our band back together.
This is a bunch of bullshit. So, yeah, I think
that'll that'll be fun. Hopefully, hopefully
we'll be that band to somebody else. There you
go. You'll provoke the Boba Flex reunion. Right.
Yeah, there we go. Yes. I, yes, Baco. I know
that they're still together kind of as the lone
ones, but Boba Flex, the original Boba Flex.
Um, what else did I have here? Oh, last question
for you. All right. You have two things regarding
the Deftones behind you. What did you think of
the new single? Um, I think it, it's funny, man.
My, my wife is like, she likes like three bands
and Deftones having to be one of them. And we
were out and six o 'clock Eastern was when it
dropped here. So like we, um, like we were in
the car and she was like refreshing Spotify.
And as soon as it popped out, she played it.
We listened to it like, you know, probably 10
times in a row. Um, I think it's a good, uh,
indicator of what the album is going to be. It
wasn't anything groundbreaking. I think it'll
be a good song if they play it live. Um, it does
seem to be, uh, you know, good for, good for,
uh, good for an arena. You know, like I've been
saying in the last few shows, I mean, it's just
like, we saw, we went to see Deftones a few months
ago at an arena packed out. I'm like, what's
going on? Because, you know, Deftones have always
been, Deftones have been a lot, a lot of people's
like a lot of bands, favorite band. And they've,
they've inspired a lot of bands, not just new
metal bands, but like shoegaze bands and hardcore
bands. Like they're, they're one band that like
everybody can kind of go back to and agree on,
um, when it comes to, uh, musicians and things
like that. So we go to the show in Nashville
and it's, it's the crowds like 50, 50, you know,
like 40 year old dudes and like teenagers. And
we're like, where are all these kids coming from?
Like they're, and they're all dressed in baggy
pants. They're all like, they're, they look like
me in the nineties. And we looked around and
it was crazy. Like we took my, my, uh, stepson
who just turned 18. That was his first ever concert
and he's blown away. And, um, and they crushed
and it was, it was such a good show. Like they,
they had the, they had all the lights and they
had all the screens and they had all of the,
this and that. And they put on one hell of a
show. It was probably one of the better Deftones
shows I've ever seen. And I've, I've been seeing
them since 95, 96. Um, but yeah, new, new single.
I'm, definitely looking forward to the album.
I think it, uh, I think it's a good song and,
and, you know, I think it's just a, a good precursor
to what's coming, you know, so I can't wait for
the next single. How about that? Yeah. I've seen
them once middle of the day at a festival in
Spain, hotter than hell. And, uh, and it was,
uh, it was like a religious experience is one
of the best shows that I've ever seen. So it
was amazing. Got to see them and Faith No More
on the same bill. So we went home happy. That
97 Faith No More show that I saw, opening band,
Limp Bizkit. A little known Limp Bizkit, pre
-Faith Limp Bizkit. So there you go. Yeah. Awesome.
I appreciate you hanging out for as long as you
have today with me. This has been fun and easy
to do. And, uh, hope that this comes across that
way to anyone listening or watching this episode.
So, um, anything you want to, um, to mention
before leaving anything you want to promote?
No, I ain't just, uh, you know, if you're, if
you're in the, uh, in the area of any of these
primary 55 shows, please come out and say hello.
Um, and then obviously check out the David Ellison
show, uh, on the David Ellison podcast on the,
uh, David Ellison YouTube channel, or just search
your favorite podcast app. And then, uh, yeah,
talk to me is going strong. That's actually,
I think the next episode is a cliff from dry
kill logic. So, so there you go. So I think that'll,
that'll be a good one to get out there, but yeah,
it's just, uh, just, uh, it's a, it's a wild
ride and, uh, you know, come, come, uh, come
jump on it with me. Awesome. And on that note,
we will end the show. Thank you, Mr. Toomey.
Hopefully it won't be another 120 episodes before
I get you back on here. Crazy man. Yeah. Always
good to see you. Always good to talk to you.
Yeah, absolutely. On that note, folks, we will
see you next time right here on Signals from
Mars. See you, folks. or check out replays on
YouTube. Go to signalsfromlife .com for more
information. This concludes our show.