Geekwire - Week of 02.16.26

0:00Are your ad campaigns lighting up the dashboard, but not the pipeline? That's bullspend, and marketers are calling it out in dashboard confessions. My boss asked for results, so I opened my dashboard for the only positive-sounding metric I had. Impressions. Cut the bullspend. See revenue, not just reach. LinkedIn delivers the highest return on ad spend of major ad networks. Advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a $250 credit. Go to linkedin.com slash campaign. Terms and conditions apply.

0:30This episode is brought to you by Netflix. The Four Seasons is back for Season 2, starring Tina Fey, Will Forte, Coleman Domingo, Marco Calvani, Carrie Kenny-Silver, and Erica Henningsen. After a difficult year, your favorite group of friends continues their tradition of vacationing together, now with a baby in tow. From the Jersey Shore to upstate New York and Italy, their getaways are sure to take unexpected turns where comedy ensues. Watch The Four Seasons May 28th only on Netflix. The road to the NBA Finals ends here, with star guards setting the tone.

1:10The Cavs eye another upset, while the Knicks carry the dreams of all of New York. The Eastern Conference Finals continue on ESPN and ABC. Move this one. This is the Discipline Podcast, with Chris Sinzak and Aaron Camaro.

1:41When you need to know the latest and greatest happenings in the world of hard rock and heavy metal music, well, my friends, there's only one place to turn, and you have turned to it. Oh, you're glitching all over the place. You went completely black, and then just now came back. All right. That was weird. All right, let's try that again, just for a possibility. Hey, screw it. Leave it in. 15 years, and same problems, and same problems.

2:14This is the Discipline Geek Podcast, bringing you the news. All the things you need to know. The important, the good, the bad, the ugly, the stupid. It's all here. And the man bringing it to you, and us, and me, Aaron Camaro, is our friend, Chris Sinzak. What's going on, brother? You got the news to lay on us? Yeah, I think I've got some interesting and entertaining stories to cover today. So, starting off, Skid Row, the saga for the new singer continues.

2:45And they've taken a new route to try to find their new singer. They have announced a first-of-its-kind partnership with Sweetwater, which is the world's leading online retailer of musical instruments and pro audio equipment, to search worldwide for their next vocalist. The collaboration invites singers from around the world to audition for the opportunity to front one of rock's most enduring and respected bands.

3:09Wow. Things must not be going well with the singer search when they're having to recruit Sweetwater in to audition more people, because they've been looking for like over a year now, I think. I don't know. It's kind of smart marketing, really. No, it's smart marketing, but it's like, man, they still haven't found anybody. And if you win the contest, and you get to be the new singer of Skid Row, you'll also get a Sweetwater sticker and a couple of pieces of candy. Yeah, and a phone call every week. Yeah, they are good about that, though.

3:41They'll call you and be like, how's everything working out with that? My wife will be like, we bought it for our kid, and he's playing it, and he likes it. It's so great. Thank you. Yeah, the last remaining species on Earth after the apocalypse will be cockroaches, tax collectors, and a Sweetwater rep. Yeah, right on. No, that's a good thing. They're everywhere. But Sweetwater's a good company. I bought my Roadcaster through them. Yeah. But no, I don't know, man. It's one of those things where Bach, I have to say, Sebastian Bach casts such a huge shadow

4:14that this shows how hard he is to replace, and they've had some good singers over the years. I think everyone contributed in their own way, but man, that's a tall order to sing that catalog night in and night out. Yeah, it's funny. It kind of popped up in my algorithm thing, an episode of J Pearl TV from like a year ago, Jizzy Pearl's YouTube channel, and like I said, this was a year ago he was talking about this, and guys were talking about putting together their audition tapes for Skid Row.

4:48And he's talking about, man, you know, it's not easy. And he'd been on tour when Eric was with him, and he'd say, man, you know, when you're the headliner, which they were on that tour, you've got to be the first band there and the last one to leave. And that poor guy, he goes, I'd go get, you know, three hours of sleep, be getting up, getting some coffee, and they'd be walking in the hotel. Like, hey, Eric, did you get any sleep? No, no, hopefully I'll get some. And then if you do what you do and you don't, you don't, you've got to keep going.

5:20He says it's not an easy life. And then that's not even taking into account the singing every night, you know, the way Sebastian Bach sang. I mean, what was he was talking about? One of those songs where, like, it starts out with a big old heavy scream, and then you got to, you know, and he's talking about from the point of view of a real singer that knows what he's doing. He's like, then you got to take it easy in that song and get your way through it because you're saving yourself all the way for that last scream at the end, you know?

5:51Probably talk about 18 in life, you know, where, like, you take it easy through that whole song because you've got to nail that. And if you don't nail it, the fans are all going to go, bah, he's not Sebastian Bach. No, it's an impossible task. Like, even if you get somebody that can nail everything, like, Eric Gronwall was as close as they've ever gotten, and he's great. But even then, people were still saying, he's no Sebastian Bach. Or, you know, it's like, you can't recreate Sebastian Bach at 23 years old.

6:22It's just... Not even with Sebastian Bach. Yeah, he can't do the job now. But he's still out there doing it. I mean, we've talked about this a million times, you know, should they, shouldn't they? Why, you know, it's easy for us to say what Skid Row should do.

6:42But man, if it's come this far to the point to where you're looking for a singer, unless, unless this is all a big marketing plan to where you team up with Sweetwater, you get the word out there, you're taking auditions, you know, we're looking for a new singer. And in the end, you say, you know what? We've listened to everybody else, and there's nobody like the original, and so we've decided we're getting back together with Sebastian Bach.

7:14Now, you've got everybody paying attention to it, and then you make that announcement, and now it's kind of big news. It makes it a bigger deal when they finally do make that announcement. Hey, we're sucking it up, you know, because you read the comments on those, because it's funny, it's like, Sebastian Bach, you know, what are you going to do? And all the comments underneath are just like, just bring them back already. You know, people are sick of it. They're sick of all the different singers over the years,

7:45and how they can't seem to hold on to anybody no more. And they're just tired of it, and they just want Sebastian Bach back. So I'm going to change my tune, because I think last time we discussed this, I said, yeah, I totally get it. I wouldn't want to be in the same room with that guy for an hour, let alone out on tour. Yeah. But I mean, nowadays, look at guys like Journey. They don't even see each other until they're on stage. And when they're on stage, you play your act, you do your role, and when it's done, you get the hell out of there.

8:17So I mean, they don't even have to see him. You know, odds are he's going to do interviews and embarrass you and say stupid shit. But at least you're out on the road making people happy, giving them what they've wanted all along anyway. Just do it. Just damn it, do it. You're never going to find nobody else.

8:36And that's going to be Sebastian Bach. It's got to be him. Just do it. Do you care to make that prediction interesting?

8:45What do you mean? That this is all just a marketing ploy to build up hype for when they eventually pull him back in? I'm just saying it would be pretty smart to do it that way. Oh, it would be smart, but how realistic is that? Probably not. That's another one of my episodes from another dimension. Because yeah, if this guy wasn't such an asshole, it would be possible. But I was like, man, what the fuck did he do back in the 90s? Because it must have been horrible to have this level of vitriol still.

9:17It just probably wasn't that it was bad, but just that it was constantly bad, I'm guessing.

9:25I mean, it was bad, but it was constantly bad. Like, it never got better. Yeah, I don't know. I think he slept with somebody's wife. That's the only thing I can figure. I don't know. You've heard interviews with him. You've seen how he talked. You've seen how he talked about Michael Wagner that time. Oh, no. You don't have to sell me on him being an asshole. I know firsthand. I mean, we both do. But what he did to Rockin' Ron was unforgivable, in my opinion. I was just trying to fucking help promote him, and he throws him out of the venue. I was like, what the fuck's wrong with you? Or tried to throw him out of the venue, and then Ron's like, yeah, well, my wife's working the door, so I'm staying.

10:04Fuck you, Smashing Bach. I thought that was funny. I'm rockin' Ron Runyon.

10:09Oh, man. But no, yeah, he's, I don't know. He's an overgrown six-year-old. They're never going to get it. I mean, it'll be interesting to see how this audition process works out, because I'm sure they're going to promote the whole audition process back. If anybody really, truly gave a damn about Skid Row, it could be a TV show on a network. Guns N' Roses, you know, they've gotten good at releasing singles, mostly singles of songs that have already been leaked or rumored about. And I just thought the headline was funny, because Slash says the Guns N' Roses recording process has, quote, always been a democracy.

10:44Well, what kind of democracy, Slash? A Chinese democracy. Exactly. An oppressive state. But no, and it's funny, in the interview, he did an interview with a guy on a radio station in Minneapolis. And, buddy, Guns N' Roses are, Guns Records are something that just happened. And when it's happening, it happens really fast. But getting to the point of where we all sit down and focus on, this is what we're doing, has always been the hardest part. It just happens when it happens. Which, that equals, we've done nothing.

11:16Yeah. Like, we get in there, and Axl tells us to shut up and do what we're told, and we do it, and the songs come out, and they're pretty shitty. But what are you going to do? He's the boss. So he just keeps giving us leftover garbage from the Chinese democracy sessions, and we keep recording it. And we know they suck, and we're so sorry. But, you know, Axl's the boss. If not for him, we don't get paid.

11:47I actually like that Hard School song, but I think that goes back to the first album, doesn't it? Eh, it's all right. That's probably the best one out of the bunch. Slash, play this Bumblefoot solo. Yeah.

12:03What do they got against? I just don't understand what they got against, like... Doesn't anybody ever say to Axl, like, Hey, man, why don't you write some songs that sound like they could have been on Appetite for Destruction? He just doesn't want to, apparently. I don't know. You got Slash and Duff. They're really good at that. Don't make them play your Bumblefoot leftovers. Yeah, I don't get it either.

12:29Wasp has announced their 1984 to Headless 2026 North American Tour with opening act KK's Priest. Did you see this announcement? That's cool. That's cool. Not coming to Nashville, unfortunately. No. Coming to Memphis, but not here. Hmm. But, uh, I don't know. I think that's a good choice for an opening act. They did. They had Armored Saint out on the last run. And KK's Priest, I actually got to see a year ago here at Brooklyn Bowl opening for Queens...

13:00Not Queensryche, maybe? No. I don't know. Or Except. They opened for Except. And, uh, they were great. Other than I hope that, uh, KK Downing decides to buy some underwear. I'll just leave it at that. Well, you got a big look at his sausage? Well, pleather pants on a 70-plus-year-old man with no underwear, it shows, unfortunately.

13:28I got a lot of great pictures that I can never post. What are the two bumps on the back of his thigh? KK and his little friend.

13:40So that's just the way they did, man. Look at David Lee Roth. You can see his schlong the whole time he's jiggling around on stage. You know, that's just the way they did. I don't need to see geriatric penis of any kind. It doesn't matter who it is. Can't do nothing with it, but it's hanging in there. It's like, damn, you don't even need the meet and greet if you're going to see that. Jesus. Meet and greet. Yeah, exactly. You got the meet and meet. Meet, M-E-A-T, during the show. You can greet his meet.

14:15That's what the ladies are paying for. The blowers are only for paying customers. This is absolutely the worst promotion for this tour that you'll ever hear.

14:27Go on down to Memphis and take a good look at Blackie Lawless' little sausage.

14:34So, I don't know. I mean, Wasp on the last tour was quite obviously, and many tours before, using tracks and lip-syncing. And with Wasp, you don't know who's in the band this week. So, if you really want to see KK's Priest, it's probably worth going in. You get to hear some Wasp songs in perfect quality because they're tracks. But, I don't know. If it came here, I'd probably go just to see KK's Priest again because they're really good live.

14:59I don't know. That comes down to that thing where it's like, hey, do you support a band that lip-syncs? And you go, man, I'd still like to see Wasp. You know, even if they're up there just kind of pantomiming, it'd still be kind of cool to see them. So, I'd like to be able to say I saw them once because I've never seen them live. But they're not coming here. I don't know. I'd have to travel to see this tour, and I don't know if it's worth going on a road trip for. But we'll see if they add dates later down the road. Next up, Manowar. Some sad news in the Manowar camp. Ross the Boss Friedman has been diagnosed with ALS, otherwise known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

15:33And he's 72 years old. That's a damn sad diagnosis for him. Yeah, that sucks, man. I was just listening to some Manowar not too long ago. There's a, what's the album called? Into Glory Ride. I think it's like their second or third album. If you ask Manowar fans, it's not a great one. You know, their better times are coming later. But when I was young, that was the cassette tape I had. Oh, really?

16:04You had a Manowar album. I didn't know that. I had a, yeah, I had a Manowar cassette tape that I found at like a yard sale or something. And at the beginning of that album, there's a little skit where it's two people having sex. And then like the door slams open and the dad goes, hey, what's going on in here? And the mom screams and goes, she's only 16. And the dad goes, come here, you.

16:35And then you like, you hear a scuffle. And then the door swings open and you hear like running away. And then the guy go, ha, ha, ha, ha. And, oh, man. I just remember like, because, you know, at the beginning, the girl's moaning and groaning and stuff and squealing. And, you know, like, oh, wow, what the hell is this? You know, and then like, don't let the parents hear this. That's that's my that's how I got into Manowar.

17:07Oh, wow.

17:10But then like the song kicks in and it's heavy as hell. It's I like I like some old Manowar. I was going to say that Al Mintero really aged well. I know. I know. It's weird. But it's like I was under 16, so I thought it was cool as hell. Well, the way that with stuff like that and with the Winger song 17, I always viewed it more as it's written from the perspective of a teenage boy. I never viewed it as it's written from the perspective of a 30 year old male. But if it is, then that's gross.

17:41But anyway, but no, Manowar, I can't get into. I don't think Christine 16 gets that excuse. Yeah. Well, yeah, there's no excuse for Gene. I can't I can't defend Christine 16. Manowar, I never got into. Ross the Boss did do some great stuff for me and the Dictators. I like the Dictators. Yeah, the Dictators are cool, too. That's a band I never knew nothing about. Handsome Dick Manitoba and all that, man. I found what album is it? I forget the name of the album, but I just I looked at that album cover like, what the hell is this?

18:17You know, it was like the price was right on it. And so I was like, oh, and, you know, I'll give it a try. And then ended up really liking it, you know, in the kind of the same kind of way, like I like the Ramones, where there's like some humor in it and it's not crazy, you know, technical rock music, just pretty simple, just straightforward rock riffs and good drums and all that. And I was like, man, I never knew nothing about this band. This album is awesome. If you really want to see one of the greatest album covers of all time, look up the Dictators album called Go Girl Crazy.

18:53Is that the one with him standing on the cover looking like a wrestler? That's the one I got. Go Girl Crazy. Yeah, that's the one. Because I looked at that album cover. It was like, what is this? And then you open it up. It's like lead vocals, drummer, bass player, guitar. OK, you know, wait a minute. Ross the Boss. Oh, yeah. Let me check this out. Yeah, and I got into the Dictators just a few years ago. And honestly, it was just through, you know, the Ramones led me to all these other, you know, New York area bands. And the Dictators were like a local legend.

19:26And Handsome Dick is still doing it. And, you know, one of our podcast brethren, who's definitely well known in our circles, Michael Butler, plays bass for Handsome Dick Manitoba and the Dictators right now. Wow, that's cool. A friend of ours, who you might know as the guitarist from Accept, Phil Shouse, has announced his debut EP entitled Side One. I didn't know if you saw the release. I've already pre-ordered this, and I'm excited to check it out. Nice. I've been meaning to pre-order a CD for myself for that.

19:56Because I'm a big fan of his. I know you are, too. Yeah, I'm happy to see him do this. And he already released the first single, and I think we'll make it the playout song for the episode. Oh, nice. I haven't heard it. Does it rock? It's really good. You know, Phil likes a lot of the 70s rock. And if you like kind of the Mick Taylor era of Rolling Stones, I think you'll like this. It's a song called Run Away From You. And it's right along the lines of what I would expect from him. Right on. I was scared he was going to release some, like, sentimental acoustic thing.

20:30No, it's just 70s classic rock and roll sounding to me, the first single. Good, good. And, yeah, I'm excited to hear the whole thing. And I believe he worked with Jesper Benzer from DAD on this, if I'm remembering correctly. Or he's been touring with him. But he's really integrated him into that Swedish rock and roll scene. So, like, Martin Anderson, I think, produced this. Right on. So, he went to where the rock and roll is still fresh and viable.

21:00And he's working through that area. And I couldn't be happy. He's still in accept. So, don't worry. He's not leaving the band. But I think it's cool that he's stepping out on his own and doing his own thing now. I bet you they freaking love him there. He's tailor-made for that area. Yeah, for sure, man. He is such a cool dude, too. You know, we met him so long ago through, you know, being in Nashville. And we were talking about, like, recently I saw Ryan Cook had posted something, which on April 17th, if you're in the Nashville area, there's going to be a big old Ace Fraley tribute show put on by the Ace Fraley band.

21:38So, if you guys want to hang out with Chris and myself, you know where we're going to be on April 17th. I think Phil might be part of that show, too. Shoot, yeah, man. He should be because he was a part of all that, too. Those guys, it all started with Hair of the Dog, you know, 30 years ago when I was working on radio and got to know the band Hair of the Dog. Fast forward all these years later, met Chris, started doing Decibel Geek, started talking about the band Hair of the Dog on the podcast.

22:11And then, lo and behold, Ryan Cook lives here in Nashville. So, we reconnected with him. At the time, Ryan was doing this thing called The Big Rock Show. Him, Paul Taylor, and a bunch of other cool people put together this great band and were playing all kinds of kick-ass rock covers at a club downtown you could go to for free. And so, like, when I moved to Nashville, I remember several times being downtown, like, people I met, we were like, we're going to take you down to Broadway. We're going to go party it up.

22:41And they'd take me to disco, to dance club, dance club to disco, and I'd be like, man, you know, country bands playing. I go, where's there a rock club around here? And they'd say, oh, there ain't no rock clubs down in Nashville no more. And so, it was like, man, this really is, you know, Music City with all the dance clubs mixed in with it. You know, there is no rock here. But then, when those guys became a thing, that all sort of changed. And then The Big Rock Show kind of branches off and becomes the Rock and Roll Residency.

23:11And they're bringing in all these awesome guests. And, I mean, Alice Cooper jumped up on stage with them one night for crying out loud, you know. And Paul Stanley's son is up there rocking out. I don't know if you got that in the news stories. We should talk about that, too. Oh, it doesn't. But they changed Nashville, those guys, you know. And then some of them go off to join, like, Accept. And then some of them go off to partner up with the Gene Simmons Band. And then that morphs into the Ace Fraley Band. And, you know, these guys got amazing powers of rock and roll in them, every single one of them.

23:45Because they took a city that was depleted of rock music. And they made some kind of little spark that ignited it. And now there's a shit ton of great rock bands playing in and around Music City. But really, honestly, I'm telling you, it all starts with those guys. They reawakened something here that was dead way before I moved here. Absolutely. Yeah, they really put Nashville on the map as a rock city. And it was funny because so many people, you know, that we grew up listening to were already living here, you know, and, you know, getting along just fine, enjoying the small town vibe.

24:23But these guys kind of helped them come back, come out of hiding into the local, you know, and find each other. And it's like, oh, wow, we actually have somewhere we can hang out and we can get up and play songs. And they don't get, you know, mobbed by people. Because that's a cool thing about Nashville. Most people that live here, if we see somebody that we're a big fan of, we don't just run up to them and, oh, give me your autograph. We just give them space, you know. And there's so many legends I've met at the rock and roll residency. And I never asked for an autograph or anything.

24:55I'd shake their hand. Like, Don Airy and Roger Glover were there one night in the crowd from Deep Purple. And I just, Brandy made me go meet them because I was too nervous to even talk to them. Because they're fucking, and I'm not even the biggest Deep Purple fan, but those guys are absolute legends. And Don Airy, you know, don't forget, played with Ozzy all those years. Roger Glover produced Sin After Sin by Judas Priest, my favorite Priest album. So, and then I walk, and all I could do was shake their hand and just say, thank you guys for everything you've done. And I left them alone the rest of the night.

25:27But that's the cool thing about town. It is a very laid-back city still. Right. I'd be remiss if I didn't throw in Tyson Leslie's rare hair. Oh, absolutely. And to mix up helping Nashville become a rock city again. But really, the true beginning is Ryan Cook and Jeremy Asbrock and Phil Schaus and everybody else that surrounded those guys. And reignited rock and roll in Music City, you know. So, I'm always grateful for them. And that's why we're always going to tell you about their stuff that they got going on.

25:57Because they're awesome people. They're awesome friends of ours. And you know them. They're rock and rollers through and through. They are us and we are them. So, support everything they do. And get yourself a pre-order on that new Phil Schaus album EP coming out. Absolutely. So, I found this was interesting. Chris Jericho was on Kerrang! Radio. And I usually don't cover stuff with Chris Jericho. But he had a pretty funny story that related to Ozzy when he was on Raw with Jericho.

26:30Okay. Yep. I remember that. They would have guest GMs on Raw. Yeah. Right. Yep. And he was talking about how he was kind of the guy who would kind of take one for the team. Because a lot of these people they would bring in were just not good performers for a wrestling event. And he brought up Al Sharpton as an example. He's just like, Vince wouldn't know what to do with Al Sharpton. So, they would put Jericho in. He'll make it fun. Right. Yeah, yeah. So, Jericho would get stuck with these people that were super awkward on camera. And then when he found out that Ozzy was about to become one of the GMs, he went to Vince and he was like,

27:02Hey, I've done how many Al Sharptons and people like that? You need to let me do this one. So, Vince agreed. He's like, yeah, you're a fan. I'll let you do it. But the whole premise set up was that Ozzy was going to get angry at Jericho. And Vince specifically wanted him to call Jericho a wanker. And Ozzy immediately was like, I can't call him that. And he's like, well, why not? And Ozzy's like, well, unless you're from England, like, wanker's a big insult.

27:35And he's like, and also, you guys have rights in England and you get aired in England. It'll get censored immediately. It's like calling somebody a cunt on American TV. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. It's a big no-no in England. And Vince was like, oh, that makes a lot of sense. And then they changed it to something else. And Jericho was just like, the takeaway for me was it's really funny when Ozzy Osbourne is the smartest guy in the room. He's the voice of reason.

28:04That's awesome. And he had another story about they were at OzFest backstage in the parking lot. And they were all playing a game of baseball. Oh, yeah. I've read this one where he got yelled at. Yeah. Zach Wilde hit a home run. Basically, it went over the fence of where the parking lot was for the buses and the crew. And it went into the general public parking lot. And then he said, like, two minutes later, he looked to his left. And here comes Sharon in her pantsuit just screaming at him. What the fuck is wrong with you? Who the fuck are you?

28:34And she's screaming at Zach, like, what the fuck are you thinking? You know, like, a fan could get hit in the head with a ball. We have a lawsuit. The whole tour is gone. You know, she's bringing up the big picture. And then she looks at Jericho and she goes, who the fuck are you? And he goes, I'm nobody. She's like, you're damn right. You're nobody. Get the fuck out of here.

28:54He said everyone was just terrified of her.

29:01That's funny. Yeah, Sharon, making sure nobody's getting sued. And he said later on that got brought up when he was around Ozzy and Ozzy had a good laugh about it. He's like, yeah, she got your ass, didn't she?

29:14But I just thought that was funny. The next one is a headline I'm going to read and then I'm going to have my reaction. Blaze Bailey has explained that he will no longer do meet and greets and signing sessions at his headlining solo concerts. And to that I say, are people signing up for meet and greets and signing sessions for Blaze Bailey concerts?

29:36But anyway. But no, he said, honestly, in truth, it's kind of sad. He's had so many health problems over the last year. That's one reason. He's trying to limit how many germs he comes in contact with. And also he said he hates saying that he'll sign stuff for people for free and then it immediately shows up on eBay. And he's just like, I'm tired of these vultures coming in and trying to price people out of the market. So he's like, if you see me, I'll take a photo with you, but that'll never change.

30:07But yeah, that's the way of the world these days. There's just people trying to capitalize off everybody now. Yeah, there's safeguards in place for stuff like that, too, where people know that they're doing it. When we had Roddy Piper at the Crossfire Wrestling Show years ago, it was like the deal, like, all right, he's going to sign this, he's going to sign that. But anything else he signs from there on costs X amount of dollars to get it signed. And there was a dude there that had a trash bag just full of Roddy Piper stuff. And he sat there and signed each one.

30:39And he was like, ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching. But he was going to, that dude, they all knew, he was just, well, he's going to turn around and sell it, so I should make something off of it. Yeah, at least he's making money off of it. Yeah. So this is a bit of a non-story, but at least it's activity. Donnie V has signed with Stephen Van Zandt's Wicked Cool Records, and they're releasing a single for the song Plain Jane, backed with Instant Karma, which, of course, these things came out when Beautiful Things came out. So it's not... Yeah, a couple years ago.

31:10Yeah, it's not new material, but maybe it'll give us some hope that, since he's got a partnership with them, that he'll put some new material out there. If you haven't heard those songs, they're great. But yeah, it's a bit of a non-story, but I'm glad he's doing something, I guess. Well, I'm glad you brought it up, because I was a little disappointed by all that. Because, like, I'd seen that, and I thought, all right, you know, new Donnie V music, that's fantastic. And then he's talking about it like it's his new single. Like, hey, check out my new single off my newest album.

31:42And it's like, you're using the word new, but this is like two, three years old at this point. You know, Nuff's Nuff fans know that, and people that aren't Nuff's Nuff fans, they don't care. Yeah. So don't try to fool your fans. We all know better. I just try to pay his bills, probably. I mean, I get it. I get it. You know, try to make some money, but I don't know. It just, it seemed, it came off to me funny. Maybe it's not, when you put it that way, because I do want Donnie V to be successful, and I want him to be, you know, make some money, because he's a super talented cat.

32:18But, I don't know. It just struck me funny. It was like, my brand new single, and it's like, no, it ain't. Well, I'm just, like I said, I'm hoping that maybe Wicked Cool Records is like, let's put this out, see how it goes, and then we'll put something else out. I don't know. But, yeah, I didn't see Donnie's announcement of it. I just saw the story about it. Well, if that's the case, everybody, if you ain't got it, it's a pretty damn good album. Donnie V, Beautiful Things, there's, I don't know, I'd like to have seen more heavier songs on it. It's pretty mellow. Yeah, it's a little more ballad heavy than what you would want.

32:51But if you like it, you like Donnie V, he's a hell of a talented singer, a hell of a talented songwriter. Yeah, go buy his stuff. Maybe he'll put out a hard rock album for us. Twisted Sister, who had talked about doing a tour this coming year, has canceled all of their previously announced dates for the reunion concerts due to a series of health challenges faced by Dee Snider. Did you hear about this? I read something that said he resigned from Twisted Sister. Yeah, he's suffering from degenerative arthritis, and he's had several surgeries over the years just to keep going.

33:27But he can only do a few songs at a time, and he's in pain the whole time he does it. And then apparently they said that the way he performs, that it's taken a toll on his heart, too. So he's, they essentially told him, you can go tour, but you might risk your life doing it. Well, he was an animal of a front man for so many years, you know. Dee Snider wasn't the kind of guy that's just going to get up on stage and, you know, wear a flannel shirt and stare at his shoes. I mean, he turned being a front man into a full contact sport.

33:59Yeah, even if you're not a giant Twisted Sister fan, he still will go down as one of the greatest front men ever. You know, he would, he'd literally bully an audience into applauding. Right. I mean, he was. You cheer, we'll fight. Yeah, very imposing guy. Even in ruse and lipstick, he still looked like he'd kill you. But the funny thing is, I saw, I didn't see, I didn't get the new story in time for this, but I saw it a few days ago where it was a story that said, Twisted Sister considering replacements for a reunion tour.

34:32And I'm like, why? Why bother? No, man. I mean, and that's what I thought, too. When you say something like resign, that means your position is now available to somebody else is what you think when you read that. Yeah. But my first thought was like, that guy's pretty much irreplaceable. Unless you got somebody that was young and sounded like him and you just put him in a wig and all that, you know, and put him in the costume. And tonight playing the role of Dee Snider is Joe Smith from Albuquerque.

35:04Eric Gronwald. You can't do it. You can't replace that guy. Or maybe JJ will just put on a blonde wig instead of the one he usually wears. Yeah, I don't know about that either. But yeah, I don't know. On a sidebar, I was just going through YouTube. Apparently, Dee's son and his son and his girlfriend, I think, host a video podcast on YouTube that is called LSD for Squares. It's all about doing psychedelics.

35:35And they had a full episode about Dee having his first psychedelic experience to deal with the pain and stuff. And it's pretty interesting to watch. You know, he did magic mushrooms. And they filmed him the whole time? They didn't film the session. It was the before and then he came back after and, you know, explained what he experienced. Oh, okay. All right. So, yeah, pretty interesting to watch. You know, claims he got. He said he got a lot out of it, but he's like, my kids want to do it all the time, but I think once was enough for me because it was so, so strange for him.

36:11Yeah. Because he's been a teetotaler his whole life. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. That sucks that he's in bad shape. Yeah, I hope he gets. He just moved to North Carolina with his family, too. Gene Simmons back in the news. It's funny. He showed up at a Bon Scott tribute and performed a couple of Kiss songs. And, you know, that normally wouldn't seem like a big deal, but people are still pretty sore at Gene over his treatment of Ace.

36:41And the things he said about Ace and Peter. Yeah. And it was, the comment section was a cascading effect of, what the fuck's wrong with this guy? You show up to pay tribute to a guy who drank himself to death after you talk shit about Ace. And that's one. And then two, you show up and also it's a picture of him from Alive 2 as big as the stage behind him. And they play two Kiss songs. They don't play any ACDC. So it's like, why bother? That's what I wondered when you first said it.

37:12It's like, oh, wow, what ACDC songs did he play on? No, nothing. Come on. How cool would it have been to hear Gene Simmons singing an ACDC song? It would have been cool. But, you know, and everybody's giving him shit because Bon died of the way he did. And like, but it's also like Gene's just going to be Gene. And obviously he craves the spotlight. So he's popping up everywhere he can now. Well, I mean, he's, I don't, I don't see the same thing. Well, I criticized Ace and Peter for being on drugs and drinking too much.

37:45So I will not honor the legacy of Bon Scott. That don't, that's dumb too. That's a bit of an overreach. Cause I guess Eddie Trunk is talking about putting together some Ace tribute thing. I guess it'll come down to, does Gene show up to that? Like a show? Oh yeah. He talked about that when Ace first died, right? Like a big something good. It bothered me because it's like, I can't tell you, I can't say, share any details. We haven't even started. You shouldn't be asking me, but there will be a show that I'm involved.

38:17I was like, well, then why are you saying anything anyway? Yeah. Wait till you get it together. Unless that's one of the things like I got to put this out there now because somebody else might do it before me. And then I can say, Hey, that was my idea. Yeah. Eddie's the gift that keeps on giving. Um, and you referenced it earlier in the show, uh, the sons of kiss. Uh, uh, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley skid, Evan and Nick Stanley Simmons, which I still think sounds like an old Jewish guy to Delhi, uh, as launched their project and their new

38:48video for their song body down. And, um, I don't know if it wasn't related to kiss in any way, I'd be like, eh, so I guess I'm just on it. What do you think? I don't hate it. I actually kind of like it. It reminds me of like, uh, it looks like going blind or something like that. You know, it needs some drums is what it needs, but otherwise the song is pretty good and they sing really good together. Yeah.

39:19So, I mean, and it's got that, just the two of them singing in their voices. It gives it that little bit of kissiness that I like. I'll have to hear more, but I noticed that the verse melody is the same verse melody as jungle from Carvel's. That's yeah. It kind of reminded me of jungle too. That was, there's parts in there that I think, wow, if this was, and that would, that was my takeaway from it. Like if this had some electric guitars, cause you can hear the acoustic and be like, man, you could be playing that on a electric guitar with some really nice, you know, rock tone

39:51to it. And that would sound pretty good. And then put some big drums behind it. Now we're talking. Now you got a pretty damn good song here. So, I mean, if their whole idea is like the only way we're going to make money is if kiss fans, you know, fall in love with us and want to support us, you know, because probably ain't too many people outside the kiss circle that will ever even hear that because it just won't be in their, in their realm. So, I mean, you got to rely on kiss fans and if you want kiss fans, you got to have that

40:24electric guitar, man. Well, I think they're trying not to appeal to kiss fans. They're trying hard not for that, not to be their audience, but you're right. The majority of people that are going to care about this are kiss fans just because of how it's related to kiss. Yeah, totally. But we'll see what, we'll see what we get on, you know, the rest of the album. It's an interesting start. Uh, the video was okay. I guess it was different. Um, it was different. Yeah. It's kind of weird, but kind of cool too. Yeah. It wasn't bad. Uh, the, my main takeaway was, um, I commented on somebody's post about it was, uh, dear

40:59Nick, Jim Morrison made looking bored look cool. You just look bored.

41:06And then they're tripping balls. Yeah. Yeah. Nick needs to increase his drug use if he wants to be authentic. Yeah. Um, but no, it's, it's, it's promising start. We'll see how it goes. I know some people hate it. Some people think it's amazing. I think it's kind of in the middle. Um, speaking of Kiss's legacy, I was made for loving you has now surpassed 1 billion views on YouTube. So making it their absolute most popular song. That's crazy, crazy, crazy. And it would end up like that.

41:36And when we were young, it was always rock and roll all night and nothing was ever going to surpass rock and roll night as the signature Kiss song. But here we are all these years later and we're old and all the young people all love Kiss for I was made for loving you. Isn't that crazy? When we were young, it was like the song you didn't speak about in Kiss fan circles. Right. We tried to, we tried to forget it existed for, and Kiss tried to forget it existed for a good decade, you know? And then my first show on the Hot in the Shade tour, they broke it out and the crowd went

42:08insane. And I was like, that's weird. And I was, it was cool to hear it live just because it was an odd song at the time. You know what's really going to be weird? In 50 years from now, when Read My Body surpasses, I was made for loving you. Why don't you speak that into existence? It could happen. Like somewhere, somewhere along the line, somebody picks up on that song and it becomes a worldwide phenomenon. God, the world really will go. That's what we got to look forward to.

42:41We live in a simulation and everyone, someone's having a really good time at our expense if that happens. Before we jump into the next one, have you, uh, you've been keeping up with the American Idol? Well, I know Brett Carlisle made it to Hollywood. I haven't watched, but I've been following the updates. That's pretty cool. One thing about that, my wife says, but he's the lead singer of Great White. Like he's not supposed to be on American Idol. That's for like people, like normal everyday people. He's a professional singer.

43:12I see. Yeah. He's the best, probably best rock and roll singer that's ever been on that show. Yeah. I mean, we'll see how it shakes out. You know, I hope he goes far and I hope he doesn't win because if you win, they own you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's what my wife said too. She's like, well, what about Great White? You know, it's funny. Like she cares about some bands. What about Great White? And I go, well, you know, honey, Great White's not going to be around forever and he's got to have something to do when that's all said and done. So, I mean, this is just kind of making sure that that can happen.

43:45But they were talking about, uh, they called his band from Alabama legendary. They must be like locally legendary is what they must have been talking about. What's that band called? They're called All or Nothing. All or Nothing. That's right. They're, I mean, but they mostly got big as a cover band, I think. I don't know that they had a lot of original material, but because they would do those shows with George Lynch backing him and Terry Eilis would show up. And so I, I don't know, I don't know about that, but I'm sure the guys in Great White

44:16probably view it as good publicity as far as now goes, because I'm sure they're getting mentioned when he, when he performs. Yeah. Well, that's even more reason for them to hurry up and put on an album with the kid. Yeah. I think fans would actually, I think their fans would be receptive to a record with him because he sounds enough like Jack to where it could work. Oh yeah, man. I would love that. That's, that would be the best thing that they could do. And that's kind of, you know, other guys, you know, they can still write songs, you know, they can put together an album that would have sounded perfect for Jack Russell

44:47to sing and let Brett sing it. Well, I think also they might be on a bit of a hiatus now because isn't Mark Kendall dealing with cancer or something right now? Yeah. He's got some stuff going on too. That's why I say these bands ain't going to be around forever. If you're a young guy playing with them, you got to get out there and do other stuff too. That's like, they're talking about Faster Pussycat right now with Sam Bam Colton out doing all the stuff with Dorothy and all the cool stuff he gets to do. And then you got, uh, Kieran, the other guitar player in the band.

45:19Now he's out with Jeff Tate. So it's like these young guys, they're, they're so good and they get along so great with us, with them old time rockers that we love so much that they got to make some money and, you know, think about the future too. Yeah, absolutely. A couple more on the way out. This one is by popular demand from listeners. I don't know about you, but I had at least four people send me this going, you guys need to cover this on GeekWire. So, and actually there's an update on it since I've had people sending it to me. Uh, it's a Chattanooga couple that, uh, they, they are now charged with aggravated burglary

45:56and felony theft after police say a residential break-in led investigators to stolen memorabilia, including Kiss Stuff, left behind at a local bookstore, which was McKay, uh, in Chattanooga. And there's, there are a whole chain around here in Tennessee. And according to Chattanooga police, uh, detectives were assigned January 6th to investigate a burglary at the home. The homeowner told police he was away and when he returned, he discovered the home that had been forcibly entered. Items were missing. They later observed pry marks on the door. Several boxes of Kiss memorabilia had been moved from a bookshelf in the living room into

46:29the kitchen. The homeowner was also reported that a small safe was missing from his bedroom. Um, safe contained 10 grand in cash and a gun. Uh, then they found, turns out several days later, a man and a woman attempted to sell the Kiss action figures and memorabilia at McKay's. Yeah. Yeah. The store manager told police he had previously been contacted by the homeowner and asked to watch for those items. And, uh, he immediately recognized the memorabilia and contacted the police and those people,

47:00the couple fled the store, leaving the memorabilia behind. And, uh, they caught him this past week. Wow.

47:09Dumb criminals. And that's criminals with a K. Exactly. Wow. All these people sending it to me going, have you seen this? And I just kept responding. I had nothing to do with it.

47:21It was not us. We did not do that. I have my own Kiss memorabilia. I don't need the real- We'd have kept it all. No, that's, that's funny, man. Like, hey, who should we rob? The dude with all that cool-ass Kiss stuff. Except it was all Spencer's crap. All Spencer's stuff. Like, we're gonna be rich. All copyright 1997. Overproduced. Shit. Foiled again. I can't believe they only gave me $3 for that Todd McFarlane action figure still on the

47:52card. I saw those at Great Escape last weekend. They're selling for $20 each. Yeah, that means if you trade one in, you might get $10. Maybe. Yeah. Maybe. And then a pretty heavy news story that broke over the last 24 hours as we're recording this. Although it's not, preface this with it's not coming from the Seattle Police Department. But a new report claims that the death of Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain was not by suicide. Rather, he was the victim of homicide. But police in Seattle are standing by their original findings, of course.

48:24But a private forensic team compiled by independent forensic specialists said that his death was a homicide. They looked at all the evidence and came to that conclusion. This was multiple people working together to come to this conclusion. And most of them said it didn't take any time at all to realize that it was a homicide. And I think most of, this is probably the least shocking news you could imagine. The real crappy part is that the Seattle Police just don't seem compelled or interested in reopening this and finding out what happened.

48:56Well, the thing I had read sounded more like it was an overdose, but then set up to look like he'd done himself. So, like, say, just for example, and this is just an example, this ain't me making no accusations or anything. But say, for example, you know, Courtney walks in on him, finds him laying out there overdosed and freaks out and calls, you know, whoever their big connection is to the business side of the music and goes,

49:29Kurt's dead, Kurt's dead, what do I do, what do I do? And they go, calm down, because if he dies of an overdose, then people are going to go, oh, yep, just another overdose. But if he makes you make it look like he'd done it to himself on purpose, now he's a tortured soul. And so people will embrace that more and he'll sell a whole lot more Nirvana records and, Courtney, you're going to make a fortune. So is it better to die of an overdose as it is to kill yourself in the eyes of the public?

50:05Does it make a difference, do you think? No, I think most of us that have looked even a little bit into this have kind of come to our own conclusion on it. And it doesn't look good for Courtney either way. You know, most people kind of view it as it was likely. I don't think she committed the crime, but I think she had it set up. That's my opinion from everything I've read about it. And what the researchers found was their theory is that one of his assistants dosed him with a giant dose of heroin to start it and then killed him from there and planted the gun.

50:44And I don't know, there's a lot of, there's a whole, I mean, watch the Curt and Courtney documentary that came out years ago. So, um, it, it kind of puts everything together and she stood to gain a lot from his estate and she did. And she's kind of proven herself to be a horrible human being over the years. And the big part for me, and it's mentioned in the article and it was in the Curt and Courtney movie is that the whole top of the, the quote, suicide note, the top of it looks like his handwriting. And when you read that part, there's nothing suicidal at all about any of it.

51:17It's written like a goodbye to the fans because he wanted to get out of playing music. He wanted a break and he didn't want to be a rock star anymore. But then the last four lines that are written look different and that's where it talks about ending it. So private investigators compared those last four lines to Courtney's handwriting and it looked pretty close. I don't, there's a, there's a whole lot of circumstantial stuff where it's like, why is the Seattle police not reopening this? It doesn't make any sense. I guess because just like anything, if they reopen it and it has a different outcome than what they originally did,

51:51that opens them up to lawsuits and, you know, scrutiny and everything else. Oh, sure. Once, once a police department closes a case, they don't want to reopen it. No, I get that. But it's just when there's so much evidence staring you in the face of, hey guys, there's, there's obviously something wrong here. And it's such a high profile thing. Yeah. And no, I do think, have you ever watched the Curt and Courtney documentary? I don't know if I have. If I did, it's been a while. It was, it was done, I think the BBC put it together.

52:22It was a British journalist that did it. So it's a, it's a British guy narrating the whole thing and he's interviewing everybody in Seattle. And the craziest thing you've heard of Al Duce's involvement, right? Yeah. From the mentors. And I mean, that one alone is crazy, you know, because he claimed that. Terrible band. Oh, a horrible band. But yeah, he claimed that Courtney approached him and offered to pay him to bump off Kurt Cobain and he turned her down and then he ended up getting killed by a train. Yeah, that's right. That's right. He got run over by a train after all that.

52:52That's, that's kind of suspicious, isn't it? So, uh, I don't know. What do you guys think? Tell us in the comments. Well, who do you think killed Kurt Cobain? I think it was Sammy Hagar, but nobody believed it.

53:03That was for you, Troy. Love you, brother.

53:08That's awesome. We can't end on a better way than that. What's our play out song again? The new song by Philip Shouse off his new EP. Oh yeah. Check that out. See ya. All these words and there's nothing to say, but you won't let me shut your mouth today. All I want to do, all I want to do, you preach it to me like you're free from sin. I sing the devil, honey, I ain't him.

53:40All I want to do, all I want to do, all I want to do is run away from you. Ain't no stopping, niggas, baby, I'm through. Hit the gas until you're in my rear view. All I want to do is keep running away from you. I gave it all I want to do, I gave it all I had day and night, but nothing ever seemed to turn out right. All I want to do, all I want to do, you brought your finger out me playing your game.

54:16But you won't see I ain't the one to blame. All I want to do, all I want to do, all I want to do is run away from you. Ain't no stopping me, just bear on me through. Hit the gas until you're in my rear view. All I want to do is keep running away. I'm getting tired of the same old song. I'm getting tired of the same old song. 300 Favorite Albums with James Campion.

54:51I don't think there's an album I know better front to back. I learned how to play guitar to a lot of these songs. If I could pick one record to hand someone and say this is what it feels like to be a woman, it would be this record. You know, the engineer that was recording the album for us was a novice engineer. He was really the janitor. The first half of these sessions for the album were totally improvisatory in the sense that they went into the studio and just dealt with whatever happened. There was space that was left for these listeners to kind of discover it for themselves.

55:25That they would say, yeah, my parents listened to it, but I had to build my own relationship to it. Happiness, good living, peace, love, rock and roll. I just feel like this album is such a wonderful translation of that concept. People understood they were in a world historical moment and it felt like it was going to last forever. In fact, the infinite spaces that they explored in The Giant Now is part of what made that explosion so huge.