Geekwire Week of 05.22.26 - Ep670

0:00Metal heads, sharpen your horns. Every Monday, Metal Mondays from Metal Blade Records storms onto BraveWords.com with a brand new interactive audio trivia battle. Test your metal knowledge, crush the questions, climb the leaderboard, win prizes, earn bragging rights loud enough to rattle the crypt. Think you know Slayer, Cannibal Corpse, Gore, Merciful Fate, and the deep cuts hiding in the Metal Blade Vault?

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0:51This is the Decibelator Podcast with Chris Sinzak and Aaron Camaro.

1:06When you need to know the latest and greatest happenings in the world of hard rock and heavy metal music, well, there's only one place to turn, and this is it. It is the Decibel Geek Podcast. My name is Aaron Camaro. I know nothing, but I've got an awesome co-host who's got his finger on the pulse of everything happening in the world of hard rock and heavy metal music. A man who's constantly on the case, looking for the hottest and newest, the stupidest and ugliest of all the stories out there,

1:37and he's got them for us. That's Chris Sinzak. He's right here with us. Brother, how you doing? I'm good. Ready to talk about the news in the rock world. I tried to find some interesting stories that I think would be fun to banner about today, and I'm ready to get started. Okay. Well, hit us with it. So, Ricky Rocket, back in the news, I can't remember. It's been a little while for GeekWire. Did we talk about he is putting his own autobiography out in the next year or so? Yeah. I think it's out now, isn't it?

2:07I don't think it's out now. No? I saw him post something about it and talking about it like it was out. Oh, really? Okay. Well, um... Had a book cover and everything. Yeah, I meant to mention that, but also the main thing I wanted to share was he did an interview with Josh Klinger of Rock 95.5 Chicago and once again expressed optimism that the band will hit the road in 2027 to commemorate the 41st anniversary of Look What the Cat Dragged In.

2:40Regarding why the tour didn't happen this year, he said, quote, I don't want to throw anybody under the bus. That's you, Brett Michaels. I'm not going to do that, but I will say this. Literally tomorrow, we are having a conversation with management. We've been made an offer for 2027 and we're going to talk as a band and with management and I will know more tomorrow. It's a shame we're not doing the interview tomorrow, so hopefully everything will work out and we'll be able to get on track to do something. And so, yeah, so I don't know.

3:11I mean, I want that was that that came out today. So I don't know if he did that interview today or maybe they had the meeting today, but celebrating 41 years of Look What the Cat Dragged In. Looks like it's probably going to happen. That's funny. I don't want to throw anybody under the bus. Which bus? Oh, you know, the Rock of Love bus. Oh, very well played.

3:38I don't want to mention names or nothing, though.

3:42And Ricky, Bobby, and Cece look a lot better than some of the girls that were on that show. Just saying. Yeah, yeah. More fun to be around, too, I'm sure. Yeah. No, that's awesome. I mean, shit, a year late, but better than never, I guess. I hope it actually does come through and I hope it really does happen. They're one of the few bands that can go out and do... I don't know that Poison could anchor a stadium tour. I mean, I will admit Motley Crue probably had bigger worldwide success to do that. And, of course, it took, you know, four other good bands on that. But if Poison does a headlining tour,

4:15they're one of the few bands I still will pay probably top dollar to see because they still deliver live, you know? Yeah. Yeah, you know, Motley Crue did it. And Motley Crue wasn't that much bigger than Poison. Poison was pretty damn huge there for a while. But you've got to look at the sheer number of hits that Motley Crue had compared to Poison. I think they had more. This could be an interesting debate for the future, though. Yeah. Because what do you think was Motley Crue's biggest hit as far as, like, mainstream? That's a good question.

4:45Was it Home Sweet Home? Either Home Sweet Home or maybe Kickstart My Heart. Were either of those songs bigger than Every Rose Has Its Thorn? Oh, yeah. Yeah? I think Kickstart My Heart was definitely bigger. I don't know about Home Sweet Home. Yeah, because Every Rose Has Its Thorn was pretty phenomenal in its popularity. Oh, no, I'm not taking anything away from it. I was a bigger fan of Poison, especially at that time, than I was Motley. But I don't know. But I think Motley had a longer amount of time with that type of success.

5:20Poison, it was 86 to, what, 91, five years, basically? Yeah, because Crue had a good jumpstart ahead of him. Crue had a decade of decadence, as they say. Yeah. But speaking of Motley Crue, I'll take a good segue to the next story. I just want to touch on this real quick, because I'm not a real follower of Motley Crue these days. And the times that I've dipped my toe in, when they've released something new, I haven't liked it. And I'm definitely not apprised of American Idol and don't follow that.

5:51But Motley Crue made an appearance on American Idol, and they did Home Sweet Home, speaking of which, with Carrie Underwood as a duet. And I don't know. I watched maybe 25, 30 seconds of it. And I'm not here to bash Vince Neal. Vince has been through a lot. The guy's had several strokes over the last couple of years. So I'm not going to take a shot at him. But it's just another thing, where it's just like, it feels weird having a lot of these older acts trotted out.

6:22And I don't know. It's just like, man, it makes you wonder if Rock really is dead, because it's just like the mainstream public just doesn't get behind anyone younger, it feels like. It's like, we're going to throw Motley Crue back out here again? You know? Well, in that instance, yeah, it kind of is. Because, like we say, I mean, we've had this conversation. We've talked about Motley Crue being on the American Idol. We've covered this. And the same story is always the same. They have to go back to the tried and true bands because nobody else was ever elevated.

6:56You know, you got your Nickelbacks and you got your bands from the 90s and stuff. And, I mean, half the grunge bands are gone. So there ain't too many of them left. So what's that leave you with? Like Nickelback, Green Day, Godsmack, Disturbed, you know, bands like that, which are the, you know, once Motley Crue is gone, once Poison's gone, once those bands, Maiden, bands like that, once they're gone, then it's going to be up to those bands. Can you imagine like 10 years from now and they're bringing out the Offspring and they're

7:27all little old men? I'd rather see the Offspring on American Idol right now than Motley Crue. Right now, yeah. But then think about the age difference too, you know? Yeah. Well, I guess like, it's like, what's going to happen, you know, we grew up a little earlier than the internet. So obviously all of our older faves are aging out for sure. But like, what's going to happen when the late 90s artists that were really big and sold lots of records, what happens when those artists age out? Right, when Nickelback is too old to go out and play concerts, when Green Day is too old

8:01to go out and play concerts, what then, you know? The world has to elevate some new rock bands. And you know what they always say? These things go in cycles, you know? So I do believe there will be a day when, kind of like the story we told a couple of weeks ago about, on the, on this, on the GeekWire about the iPod situation with kids not wanting to be, you know, fed AI bullshit or a steady stream of commercials on Spotify.

8:33So they're going out and buying used iPods to load their own music in to avoid all that. So there are young people out there that will look at it and go, hey, I want real musicians. I want real singers, real players, real bands. You know, that's got to happen eventually because of the way the pendulum swings. You know, it goes so far one way where it's all AI, disposable pop music. It's got to swing back the other way to where young people then say, no, I want something that's authentic and real.

9:04And then at that point, there will be some bands that have to be elevated, I believe. I don't know, man. Like there's, we don't, there's no MTV and radio is dead as fuck. So it's, everything is so segmented. It's like, it's, it's hard to get a groundswell of people. It's where there's so many people that are famous within certain, you know, areas. You know, I, I see it at my part-time job at the Grand Ole Opry all the time. Like it'll be, you know, a 25 year old country artist and I'm not, believe me, I don't really

9:34follow country music. So of course I'm going to be clueless, but like, there's so many people that I work with that really follow country music and they'll be like, oh, I've never heard of this girl. And then we read their bio has 20, 250 million streams on Tik TOK and, and, you know, and then that person will perform and there will be like half the crowd there to see that one person. So it's, I guess you get famous in just different ways now. So it's, it's not going to be a thing where the whole world knows who you are. Like it's, it's, it's almost single moments that really create those things.

10:06I think the young blood thing at the Aussie farewell tribute, I think that's going to be one of the lasting moments that we're going to have, those moments are going to be very few and far between. I think we got lucky to have that one because that whole day was magical. So, and that show is one that we're all going to look back on 20, 30 years from now and be like, yeah, that was an amazing fucking show. But how often does that really happen anymore? Um, yeah, I don't know. And have young people grabbed onto young blood, you know, I know, I know that it's, the idea

10:40is supposed to be like us old timers that still spend money on music. We're supposed to latch onto young blood because he had the endorsement of the old timers that we love, but are the young people really gravitating towards that? No, he was already well famous with the young people before the Aussie thing. Um, so do you think if young blood rolls into town, he's playing like the major arena in your city? That's a good question. I don't know. Like the, well, the funny thing is I didn't put this in our thing that now we're on the subject of young blood. We'll include this story in because there's a, the, there's a famous beef now going on

11:15between young blood and machine gun Kelly, um, talk, talking shit about each other and a machine gun Kelly was like pointing out, um, I guess young blood canceled an upcoming European or Australian tour. Um, and MGK was claiming it was for bad ticket sales and, um, that young blood was making it all about mental health and not about low ticket sales. And young blood's agent came back out and said something like, we don't have a response to this story. We're too busy focusing on our sold out North American tour that we're finishing out right

11:49now. So it's like, I don't, so I don't know if he's doing well or he's not doing well. Um, yeah, cause I mean, if it's the big deal now though, if it's mental health, then you're like, Oh, I feel better about myself when I'm in the States. Europe just brings me down. I don't know. Mental health will drive you mad. I know that.

12:08No, no, that's mental health. That's actually good for you. Yeah. I don't know, man. It's a crazy thing. And like radio, you know, radio itself, do young people listen to the radio stations? I sure don't. And I'm, well, I'm not a young person anymore. Yeah, I don't either. I guess somebody's out there listening to it. I just always imagine like people that are even nowadays, like if I'm stuck at a job, say I'm working the night shift and I'm working at one of those kinds of jobs where you're just kind of standing in front of a desk or whatever, working on whatever.

12:39Like when I was young, I worked, one of my first jobs was in a window factory. And we, it was wood windows. So we've made the frames for the windows and everybody in their own little stations would have an AM FM radio set up and you would listen to the local rock station or country or whatever you were into, whatever, depending on what section you were in. But we always had like a radio set up where we'd listen to the local rock station at night. But nowadays, I think if I was in that same situation, I'd have a earbud in and be listening

13:11to either podcasts or just listening to my iPod, my own curated music list, you know? So I don't think I would be tuned into radio because like I said a million times, they just play the same shit over and over and over again. You're not going to get turned on to nothing new, nothing exciting going on. So, I mean, I don't know. I mean, it's the future of music as a whole, especially rock music, is really a mysterious thing. And like I said, you know, these things go in cycles.

13:42So I got to believe that one day it's going to, that pendulum's going to swing away from the processed pop garbage into something to where kids go, no, we want something real and something authentic. And then rock can probably make a comeback. But until that day, you've got us. Right. Yeah. You got podcasts and you got shows like Decibel Geek that'll still talk about rock music because we love it. And we know you guys love it too because we get plenty of listeners from all over the

14:12world that we've been doing this all these years. Everybody kind of gets tuned in as they come along and stick with us. So, I mean, there is a market out there for it. Is it, you know, Taylor Swift's market? No. But it's still viable. Yeah. And we're, you know, we're all, we're interested in looking into the future. That's why we're going to, in this next story, we're going to cover the Transformers movie from 1984.

14:37The cartoon, the animated movie? Yeah. Yeah. Or actually 1986. Excuse me. 86. I thought this was a cool story. Hasbro has collaborated with record label Raining Phoenix Music to announce the Transformers, the movie, the soundtrack, the reformatted edition, the fully reimagined official soundtrack to Transformers, the movie from 1986. The Transformers soundtrack brings 10 re-recorded, reimagined tracks from the iconic film, including

15:08performances led by the Knights of Unicron, a band of world-class musicians featuring Gus Rios, Matt Harvey, and Ross Sewage. Ross Sewage. I love it. I'm trying to remember if that's the same, that Raining Phoenix, if that's the same company that did the G.I. Joe Dreadnoughts, the Cold Sliver, or Cold Sliver. I can't ever say it. Yeah. Let me get, let me.

15:39Cold Sliver. I still can't fucking say it. Slither, T-H. Yeah. I don't know. Something wrong with my tongue. I can't say it. But you know what I mean? The Dreadnoughts album. I'll be able to answer that question in a second. So, um, so the Knights of Unicron, um, features those guys as the main band with guest appearances by Stan Bush, uh, as the original voice that defined an era. I'm reading a press release. Um. I don't know who that is. Well, he, he's the guy who originally did the, the, you got the touch song on, uh, the

16:11original Transformers soundtrack. You remember that song? It's also famously parodied, parodied in the movie Boogie Nights with Mark Wahlberg trying to sing it in the studio. Also features Sebastian Bach, uh, guesting on this. Power metal artist, Brittany Slays from Unleash the Archers. Mark Asagueda, singer for Death Angel. Okay. Francisco Cavallari from Windrose VBO. Don't, don't know any of those things. And Torch from Cold Slither. Nice.

16:41Ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. I knew it. And, uh, I'll tell you, I listened to the video for The Touch that was, uh, re-recorded with Stan Bush singing and it sounds fucking awesome. Yeah? Is it rocking? Oh, yeah. It's like, cause I mean, well, do you remember The Touch from the first movie? I don't. If you heard it, you would know it. I mean, and you've seen Boogie Nights. So you remember that scene where they're in the recording studio trying to come up with a song? I guess. Last time I saw that movie, I think, was on VHS.

17:13It was a long time ago. But, uh, that, they used that song as the one that Mark Wahlberg as Dirk Diggler is trying to sing and doing it horribly. But it's a, it's a very cheesy 80s hard rock, AOR rock with some keyboard song. Um, but it's catchy as fuck. I mean, I watched the video for it today. I don't know. Well, let me find out what Sebastian's doing on here. Cause I don't know what he's doing. Now it's, it's, I think it's all original songs that were written at back at the time for the album. So it's not like any, any, uh, original, like any cover songs on here, but it's got The

17:48Touch, uh, a song called Instruments of Destruction, uh, a song called Death of Optimus Prime, which they have some stuff that's like, um, score music, you know, and they have a guy doing that. That was a real traumatic moment in my childhood. It was for a lot of us. Come on. Yeah. Uh, Dare. Is on here. Uh, nothing's going to stand in our way featuring Sebastian Bach originally recorded by Spectre General. So, uh, so yeah, he's doing one song on this, but, uh, and what is Mark from death angels

18:21singing on him? Let's see if I can find that he's doing hunger recorded by Spectre General. So, um, I might actually order this just cause it's so unique. Like, I might get it too. And they even have like a bundle that has a t-shirt and everything on it. Right on. Well, we're going to need a play out song for the end of this thing. Maybe, maybe you should play that. Yeah. The re, the reformatted version of the touch. Now, I'm pretty sure that Stan Bush's 1986 vocals are used on this. Cause I'm like, if Stan Bush sounds this good now, I will go see him live.

18:53Cause it sounds like original vocals, but, uh, Hasbro getting into the metal game. I kind of liked that. That's pretty cool. Pretty cool. Uh, so Geddy Lee, uh, did a recent interview with guitar world. I will also plug, uh, his interview with Rick Beato on his channel. Uh, very great, like two hour plus interview with Geddy Lee and also a great interview with Eddie Kramer on there. That's like three hours long. Check those out. They talk about kiss. Eddie talks about kiss for like four minutes and it's, it's nothing you haven't heard before.

19:27Yeah. Um, everybody wants to talk about Jimi Hendrix, but there's some really cool stuff about Hendrix on there too. I mean, most of it's stories I've heard though. It's the, the Hendrix, the Zeppelin, the kiss, but still it's, uh, Eddie's Eddie's. And if you're really nerdy and you want to know like what Mike was used on what track, that's what you should watch. Cause it's like a lot of studio rat talk. Um, so Geddy Lee talked to guitar world and confirmed that several drummers reached out to him and he and Alex Lifeson in the days after Neil Peart died.

20:00And he said, quote, people who are close to us, good friends that are successful drummers would never infer something like that because they have too much respect, not only for Neil and for the situation they were grieving as well. So they wouldn't be so selfish as to say something inappropriate like that. However, he added that quote, there were many other drummers who reached out to me in the aftermath of Neil's passing that were pushing themselves. And that was most distasteful to me. It was completely inappropriate timing. What a douche move to be like, Hey, I'm a drop no names.

20:31No, cause Geddy Lee, he's too classy. Um, but no, he, you know, and then he talks about getting Annika miles, um, and how it worked out with her, which we've talked about before, but that's, that's kind of fucked up that people would be like, Hey, just let you know, I'm available. Really?

20:49It seems like a pretty tough job. I wouldn't want to be a drummer and be like, yeah, I want to fill in for Neil Peart. I, I wouldn't want to do it, but no, no, I mean, I don't know how Neil Peart did it. Peart. I gotta be the worst. Peart. Um, but no, I, you know, of course my first, you know, snarky moment, my first snarky thought is, yeah, Mike Portnoy, give him a week. But yeah, but I don't know. I don't even think Portnoy would sink to those levels.

21:21No, I don't think so. We all know it was Peter Criss anyway. That's right. Hey, what are you guys doing? Hey guys, I think I can play working man.

21:32Just do the first album. I'm in. Uh, the next story, unless you really want to go down the rabbit hole with it, uh, I just want to read the headline and then have my snarky response. But, uh, I'll obviously give you time for your thoughts. Um, John Five shoots down the rumor that Motley Crue members play along the backing tracks live. Quote, everybody plays everything. And quote, we work hard at it. My first thought was in Ron Burgundy's voice, I don't believe you. Um, and secondly, the, he is kind of telling the truth.

22:04They don't play along to backing tracks. At least Nicky doesn't. He doesn't play along to a backing track because he's not actually plugged in. He's just miming to the backing track. Hmm. So see, he didn't really lie there.

22:19I don't know, man. I think if you're a band and they start talking that shit to you, you better start playing live. They don't though. I mean, it's at least Nicky doesn't. I mean, I know he doesn't. He uses a track to play it for his bass parts. That's common knowledge. So he's just kind of mimicking it and not playing at all. Yep. But he's making John 5 go do interviews and saying, hey, you better go tell everybody I actually do play my bass. John 5 wants that paycheck to keep rolling. John 5 is like, well, you're the boss. I'll do what you tell me.

22:50I don't know. That kind of sucks. It does suck. I mean, they're, they might as well be the ice capades at this point. And it's just like, why put John 5 in that position? It's like, you know, but then again, he's the one who said yes to it. So, you know, he's tried to say, you know, suck money away for the future. But like, he's, he's beyond all of them as far as a musician goes. Right. I'm sure he probably had intentions going in there and like whipping this thing into shape. But then, you know, you don't, you find out pretty quick that, you know, you're like, come on, Nicky, you know, I'll work with you.

23:22You will get your chops back up. We'll get you playing along. You can actually be playing. And you're like, eh, I don't want to do that. Like, come on. I said, no. Yes, sir. But, you know, it goes back to, I don't know, we're preaching to the choir if you're listening to this, but like, it goes back to what, you know, we did a Radio Sucks episode. We ended on a kick-ass song that, as we've gotten the response from everybody on the fucking social media, like band like Bloodstain. You know, so like, you know, those bands like that, it's like, go see bands like that.

23:54Why go to Motley Crue who's on their last legs and listen to them miming to a fucking tape? And it's just like, I don't know. I feel like I don't live in, I feel like I live in a different reality than everyone else. Or it's like, the amount of stuff that gets a pass blows my mind. And then if you've got a platform like, say, American Idol, instead of dragging out Motley Crue, like I said, my whole problem with that was like, it was cool to see it, I guess.

24:24You know, and Vince did better than you expected him to, I suppose. I don't want to, like I said, same thing, you know, I respect the hell out of Motley Crue and I love Vince Neal, you know, and I don't want to talk bad about him. No, I don't either. And so what I'll say is he did better than I expected him to do. But again, us old-timers, we knew Motley Crue in their prime. You know, that's when, if I'm going to turn on some young person to Motley Crue, I'm going to play him shout at the devil. You know, I'm not going to say, hey, check out their performance last week on American Idol.

24:57You'll be blown away. Instead of dragging out Motley Crue for something like that, why don't you find a band like Bloodstained and be like, ladies and gentlemen, American Idol, we're going to debut this new band and because imagine what, let's just take Bloodstained, for example, they are a killer and they could have had that stage to a worldwide audience and then boom, people go, that's real, that's authentic and it's good. Let's get behind this band.

25:29And there's a lot of great bands out there that if they had the platform like that and somebody to say, hey, instead of dragging these old-timers out here on stage and tarnishing their legacy, let's bring out one of these young bands that really got something going on and strap a rocket to their asses and send them to the moon. You know, it's, we could be making superstars, king making rock and roll bands, but no, it's, it's easier just to because like, oh, play that song that everybody's heard a million times.

26:04Yeah. It's all about ratings. And that's it, you know, but how many people tuned into American Idol because my favorite band Motley Crue is on it in 2026. I remember when Kiss did it with Adam Lambert and, oh, that was, I wish I had never watched it. Yeah. It was lame, you know, but it's just, it's funny. American Idol, a show that's supposed to be all about music, decides to go with, well, what name out there that we can book affordably do people know?

26:36Well, Motley Crue, they fit into our budget and they're pretty well known. Who cares if Vince can sing or not? Let's put them out there. It's like, well, uh, I don't know. I just, I'm just really pissed off with the devaluing by the general public of music where it's like, yeah, you guys can't play anymore, but we know your name. So yay. And we've heard that song a million times so we can sing along to it. I hate that shit. Nobody's held accountable anymore for sucking. No. Cause think about that. Think about back in the age of like the Milli Vanilli.

27:10Oh, we roasted those fuckers when that shit happened. Their career was over because they were then known as phonies, you know, not that it was great music to begin with. I mean, it was popular, but I mean, they got busted like it was a crime. Oh yeah. To do that. And now it's like, yeah, that's just part of it. Now, you know, look at that. Oh, what the hell was her name? She was on Saturday Night Live and Ashley Simpson. Her career ended immediately because it was like she got busted on live TV, committing

27:46a crime, stealing from the fans of music by not being authentic and not being real. And now it's like, well, that's just the way it is. That's that's music. Now it's shitty. It was such a big deal with the Ashley Simpson thing. If I'm not remembering incorrectly, um, I think her reality show got canned when that happened because she was doing pretty well with her own reality show too. And I think everything just skidded to a halt. That's how serious people used to take that.

28:17Yeah. That's how seriously people used to take music and musicianship. And it's like, I'll see stuff every day and I'm like, man, God, we give a pass to so much these days. Yeah. And just because you liked them when you were 12, that doesn't mean you give them a pass. And like I said, if I'm Vince Neil or Nikki Sixx or whoever, or Jon Bon Jovi, as I've mentioned several times in the past, I'm not turning down that paycheck. If people want to fill up a fucking arena to see me suck. Why not? Yeah. It's not their fault. No, cause that's what it is.

28:48Like if, if people stop backing up the truck full of money to their houses, then they stop. Yeah. Like go find new bands. And it's like some of these guys probably like a Vince Neil probably goes, man, I don't want to do it no more, Nikki. You know, I'm not, I'm, I'm, I've had a lot of health problems and like people make fun of me online and I just, I don't want to go out there and do this no more. And then beep, beep, beep, here comes the truckload of money and they go, well, look at that. And I'm like, yeah.

29:21Okay. Cause you're not, you'd be foolish to turn down the money. No, you'd be crazy. But, but it's got to hurt your soul every time you do it. Well, that's why I said I blame the fans. It's like, stop enabling it guys. Stop buying the fucking tickets to see them. They're not true fans though. They're just going for, I want to go see a rock band. I want to go have the experience of seeing a rock band. Who's playing? Oh, Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, you know, whatever. Okay.

29:52And that's that, you know, they're not going because I came up on Motley Crue and I was there with Dr. Feelgood came out and they were the greatest band ever. And they're always going to be my favorite band. And you know what? They're kicking ass today just as much as they ever did. No, that's not the case. Nobody's saying that. Nobody, not even the most hardcore Motley Crue fan is saying that. Or Bon Jovi or Def Leppard or whoever you want to throw in that boat. So how many Kiss fans have we seen enable Paul's charade the last three, four years?

30:24Because they don't, you don't want them. I mean, it's a, it's a, it's a tricky thing because one, you want Kiss to live forever. You want Motley Crue to live forever. You want, you know, your favorite bands to go on forever. You don't want them to ever retire. You know, you don't want them ever to die. You don't want them to be gone. You want them to always create new music. So like, even though I would not buy a ticket to go see Kiss, I still get excited when they talk about they wrote a new song. Like, yeah, go in the studio, use the magic of the studio, make it sound good because it's

30:57an authentic Kiss song. Yeah, I'd be fine with that. But there's no way I'll pay money to see them live ever again. No way.

31:07No, my wife was even talking about the Vegas thing and she's like, you think you'd enjoy that? I said, did you see the ticket prices? No. Yeah. It's a fucking ripoff to start with. And she goes, yeah, but there's all these other great bands playing at it. I go, that's true. You know, because like for every Motley Crue and Kiss and everything, there's, you know, Choir Riot out there with Jizzy Pearl. He still sounds amazing. So you guys are going to go? No. Oh, I was going to say, because we have an on-the-spot correspondent if you do. No, I'm not going to that. It's too expensive. And you know what?

31:38If Quiet Riot or Faster Pussycat or whatever, you know, really that's what it would be about. Like, I'm not paying $4,000 to go see Quiet Riot and Faster Pussycat. But there is a guitar pick throwing contest. Oh, shit. I didn't know about that. That changes everything, doesn't it? No, it changes nothing.

32:02No, I'm not doing that. So, I mean, when Faster Pussycat comes around, I can pay $50 max and go see them. Quiet Riot comes around, I can pay $50 max and go see them. You know, but we had a good friend that went and attended Buck Cherry and Jackal last week and was sending videos of it, and it wasn't a great turnout for those bands. But you know what? They went out there and kicked ass as if they were playing Madison Square Garden.

32:34Well, that's a story I didn't put on the list today, but it is a prevalent one. They're calling it Blue Dot Fever because tours are getting canceled left and right. in all genres. Yeah, not just rock. Oh, no. Even the biggest star, Post Malone and Jelly Roll, were doing a tour and they just canceled a stadium tour. People can't afford that shit. Yeah. Like, going and seeing live concerts has become something like... It's an investment now. Well, I mean, it's not for the poors, you know? Hell no, it's not. It's not for us.

33:06Like, even, say, Motley Crue does come around, you know? Even if you love Motley Crue and even if they are still on top of their game, you still got to, like, figure out, can I go see Motley Crue and also still pay my rent this month? Yeah, because you got to deal with parking. If you want to drink beer, you're looking at $15, $16 per beer. I went and saw the Steve Vai, Joe Satriani thing at the Ryman a couple of weeks ago. And I bet it wasn't even a half house.

33:38Yeah. Yeah. And it was a great show. Don't get me wrong. But no, shows are getting canceled left and right. And to me, I think it's ever since the pandemic, I think the concert industry has just been like... Because everyone's still trying to... I mean, a lot of artists are still playing catch-up from the pandemic. So I just think everyone's pushed the envelope as far as they can with pricing. You're talking about as far as, like, money they lost during that period of time? Yeah. Yeah. Because a lot of people had to, like, hole up for two years. Right. So I think everyone's just been pushing the limits on how much they can charge and get

34:10away with it and still make their guarantee and the show goes on. Well, this year, I think the bubble has finally popped. I think everyone's kind of like, okay, that's enough, guys. Yeah. Well, then don't be sad when you look out at your audience and the building is half full. Yeah, it's a bad one. Well, I made the money that 10 years ago would have been a full house, the same amount of money, but half the people. Yeah. It's got all these rich elite people at the shows. I'll tell you, though, the thing with Live Nation, because they own most of the venues,

34:43so the thing is, they don't give a fuck about half houses because they're getting you at concessions, they're getting you with merch, they're getting you at every other angle. So those of you that do show up, they don't care if it looks bad, they're going to make all that money off of you. And it just shows how you're viewed as a wallet. You're not viewed as a human being. And like, I'm honestly, and I do not like to try to be a soapbox guy, but there's a new venue opening up here in Nashville called The Truth that Live Nation is building.

35:14And I've seen images of it, and it looks like it's going to be awesome. But I'm at a point now with just the amount of horrible behavior I've seen out of Live Nation and Ticketmaster where I'm just like, I will not go to a show at that venue or any other venue that is completely run by Live Nation. I think I'm going to boycott. If that's what it's going to take. I mean, if everybody says, no, we're just going to go to the bar and see a local rock band play, then maybe something can change.

35:46But until they start seriously losing money, they're not going to change the way they're doing things. But that includes Basement East for me, which I hate because I love going to that place because I love supporting Grimey. But like the Live Nation thing, man, just they lost that lawsuit. And then the amount of stuff that came out, like with, did you see the emails the employees were sending to each other about the ticket buyers? No. Oh, it's horrible. Just talking about it. Like, I almost feel bad for doing this, but let's screw them again.

36:16You know, just they're like cavalier about how bad they're fucking all of us. Well, I'll start my boycott after the Ugly Kid Joe show. Is that a Live Nation gig? It's at Basement East. Oh, yeah. I forgot they're coming. When is that show? October. Oh, shit. Okay, maybe I'll have to break my rule for that one because I don't want to miss them again. But no, but like just at least that truth venue, I'm not going to go to a show there. Smashing Pumpkins just announced and I was just like, fuck, I'd kind of like to go to

36:49that. Well, that's and it's and it's not just when it comes to that kind of stuff. It's not just music either. Like we went to that pinnacle. Oh, you went to the pinnacle? Yeah, there was a TNA wrestling show there. And I had a friend that works with TNA and he got me and my wife a couple of passes. And so I talked her into it. I said, come on. You know, my friend was cool enough to give us these passes. We we need to go. And so then we got down there and I said, oh, I'm hungry. You know, hopefully they got some good food in here at least.

37:22And we get in there and it's like same thing. Fifteen dollar beers and, you know, fifteen dollar bag of popcorn. That's all they had for food. Fucking popcorn was a bag of frickin popcorn. I was starving. That was the best popcorn I ever had. That was all they had for food at that thing? That was all they had. That's terrible. And then we left halfway through the show and I was like, we got to go get something to eat. You know, go find something affordable to eat. And you would think, you know, a place like that would have some kind of decent food at it, being that it was so expensive.

37:56Because that show, if it wasn't for if it wasn't for getting hooked up on the free passes, it would have been too expensive to go to. Oh, I mean, they had quite a few people there. And I think the last day they, you know, freed up some tickets and had some buy one, get one kind of deals going on. But I mean, that's kind of what venues kind of got to do now if they want to fill that place up. But then you think, why would I buy a ticket when they first go on sale? If I think later on it's going to be buy one, get one. Yeah, well, people are wising up on that.

38:27Yeah, so you wait till the last damn minute to get your tickets to make sure that if you, I don't know. I don't know what the answer is. The whole situation sucks. Well, that place I'm convinced I'll never see a show in because it's just every, I've looked at like two or three shows. The one that comes to mind is Journey. Not that I really care about seeing Journey, but my wife likes them a lot. So I was like, well, let me see what Journey is going to cost us. Fucking $200 a ticket. It's a beautiful venue, but I mean, they're trying to make their money back from building it.

38:58Yeah, but I ain't paying $400 to see Journey. No. Come on. I saw them for $25 at Starwood. Right?

39:08And that was what Jeff Scott Soto was even better with that. Isn't that the justification or whatever they call it, where it's like the old timers remember what it was like to pay $25. Yeah, we know how bad we're getting fucked. Yeah, to pay $25 to go see a show, a great band. And the young people, they don't care about the old time bands. So what is going to happen? I mean, something has got to give. Yeah. Well, the one that I was happy got canceled was the Aerosmith final tour with Black Crow's opening.

39:41Because, yeah, that's a great lineup. But, like, the pricing was fucking crazy. And that's another one, too. You know, where you say, yeah, we're having mental problems. Yeah. Can't do the tour. There is some skepticism about Stephen's throat injury. Because, like, then he showed up at the Aussie tribute thing and sounded amazing. Yeah. People are like, well, is that bullshit? What was that about?

40:08Yeah, everybody's got mental issues. Everybody's got hardships. No Joey Kramer, no Aerosmith, as far as I'm concerned. And, oh, well, speaking of autobiographies that are coming out, Jeff Tate did an interview with Laughing Monkey with Sean Ratchus. Great show on YouTube. Talking about his autobiography. And he said, quote, I have an autobiography I finished and worked on, but I don't know if I'm going to release it or not.

40:38Because my lawyer tells me it's way too dangerous. Yeah. I bet. I bet it is. Well, isn't that the story, like, Bill Ward or maybe it was, I think it was Geezer Butler, I'm thinking of, had, like, an autobiography he was going to release. And then he handed it over to the powers that be at the book, you know, releasing company. And they're like, you can't do this. You will get sued. And he's like, but they're true stories.

41:09And they're like, yeah, you're still going to get sued. Like, I don't understand how anybody can release a biography nowadays. Because, like, if you say anything derogatory about anybody, they can come back and sue you. Yeah. He goes on. It's so litigious, you know. So I'll wait till I die to put it out, I guess. My kids will benefit from it. Oh, your kids will all get sued. Yeah. Then they'll sue them. But, yeah, I was wondering if the book will, like, when you open the cover up, if the book spits at you.

41:43Yeah, that's crazy, man. I don't understand the whole biography thing and how that can even work nowadays with everybody being so sue happy over stuff. Speaking of somebody I would love to write an autobiography, Chris Holmes, back in the news, in a new interview with Thomas S. Orwatt, Jr. of the Rock Interview series, Chris Holmes was asked if he would ever consider rejoining Wasp if Blackie asked him to. He responded, quote, no, no.

42:15Do you know what happened with my publishing? Why would I play with him again? It'd be pretty stupid, wouldn't it? He'd have to pay me my publishing before I'd even consider it. And he's not going to do that. I'd be an idiot. I'd be an idiot to go back. And to that, I say, I agree. Yeah. Yeah, because you'd just be a hired employee at that point. Yeah. I mean, it is really sad how Chris Holmes got treated in that whole story. Because I think he wrote a lot of the more memorable stuff on those records. And he don't get a penny for it. No, he gets screwed.

42:46And, like, it's funny. It's like we all looked at Chris Holmes. Because, like, Chris Holmes had a real legend about him. Mostly because of the Decline 2 movie. Yeah. But it's funny. You and I, growing up kind of in the same era, when that movie came out and his legend just grew. Of, like, nobody parties harder and is crazier than Chris Holmes. And it's funny. I've seen a few interviews with him over the last few years. And all the stuff that guy's had to endure to just continue being a working musician. Even relocating overseas.

43:17Yeah. Just to go where the audience is. And, man, he's a really soft-spoken, seems like a sensitive guy. That's somebody I would like to interview in the future. Because, like, I think he's a lot deeper than people give him credit for. Yeah. Talk to old Rick Fox. Maybe he can set it up for us. Maybe that would be a fun conversation with both of them. Yeah. Maybe we have to look into that. But, yeah, I always wanted to talk to Chris Holmes. I always wondered about that. Because you hear the stories, like, a lot of that stuff in Decline was, like, kind of staged to look a certain way.

43:53And then, like, because you watch it, you're a kid, and you're like, whoa, look at this guy. He's a maniac. Then you get a little older and be like, God, how could anybody drink like that? And then you get a little bit older and go, I wonder if that shit's water. It was just part of the show. I had a conversation with my mom when I was, like, 17, I think. And I had already started drinking, and my parents knew. They didn't like it, but they knew. And I was watching Decline 2 one day at home. And we had been having regular arguments about, like, you're too young to drink.

44:25You know, it's not legal for you. But, like, I was having band practice, and we would knock a couple back. And, like, they just kind of knew. But they didn't like it. And, like, I remember one day she walked in, and I'm watching that scene with him and his mom sitting by the pool. And I'm like, see? His mom's cool with it.

44:43I'll never forget that.

44:46She's like, yeah. He's like, it's a movie. Nice try. Yeah.

44:52She's like, yeah. And he's, like, 30-something, too. You're not 17. Listen, son. You're no Chris Holmes. Yeah, I'm thinking, I want to grow up to be like that guy. Right?

45:05No wonder we're all mental. Oh, no. Those were our heroes. And that's why we host a podcast now. Yeah.

45:14But, yeah. No, I love Chris Holmes. Mad respect for him. And fuck Blackie for all the shit he's pulled on people. Still love those first few records, though. Great stuff. Paul D'Anno. Well, I don't know. Did you hear Iron Maiden put their own documentary out? Did you hear about that? You know, I was down by the Green Hills Mall last week for my job. And I was walking past that movie theater down there. And I saw the poster. Oh, cool. And I was like, what is this? You know? And it was the Iron Maiden thing.

45:45I think it's called Burning Ambition. Yeah. And I walked down the whole line of movies. I was like, yeah, there's only one here that I would actually go see. And it's the Iron Maiden one. I've heard it's really good. I don't really have any info on that. I hate that. Just like you, I missed that they were doing premieres in actual theaters. Because that's something I would have paid to see live, you know. I'm sure I'll see it on streaming. But also, Paul D'Anno has a documentary coming out. D'Anno, Iron Maiden's Lost Singer, is going to be released in June in North America.

46:16From Cleopatra Entertainment. I'm assuming that's connected to Cleopatra Records. Yeah, gotta be. They're doing the theatrical release in the UK cinemas from May 1st. And followed by screenings through June 2nd in the UK. So this may be one where we'll probably have to watch it streaming. I can't imagine any movie theaters in America lining up to show a Paul D'Anno documentary. But I'm excited for this because, I don't know about you, I knew about Battlezone. And I knew about a couple of, you know, other projects he's done.

46:47And Uriah Heep. Was he in Uriah Heep too? Didn't he sing on the Abamagog album? I don't know. But see, that's the thing. Maybe I'm thinking of something else. But I'm not as schooled on his history post-Maiden. So I'm really excited to see this. And I hope it's something I can purchase or rent or whatever. But yeah, Paul D'Anno. It's called D'Anno, Iron Maiden's Lost Singer. Coming out in June in North America. And yeah, always happy to get a documentary on somebody like this. So I want to watch both.

47:18Speaking of pricey live entertainment that you go out to, when was the last time you went to see a film in the movie theater? What was the last movie I went and saw? Has it been a while? I'll tell you what it was. We were in Pensacola a couple of years ago visiting our daughter and granddaughter. And we decided just, we're like, well, let's go see a movie because it was hot as hell that day. And we went and saw the Elvis movie, the one that Baz Luhrmann put out.

47:50Yeah. So that's been a few years ago now. So that was like, what, three years ago, maybe? I can't even think of the last movie I seen in a movie theater. The thing that sucked, though, was like, that was the first movie in years that we had gone to. And we got there and the fucking AC was out in the theater. Ah. So we sweated through the whole thing because the movie was really good. And we were like, well, sorry, Liam McCormick. I know you fucking hate it. But we thought the movie was good. And we were drenched by the time we walked out because it just never got any cooler in

48:20there. But a good movie. I really want to see the there's like a concert version they put out of a bunch of old film they found of him that everyone's been raving about. And I want to go see that. But that's the last movie I saw was Elvis. What about you? I can't think of the last time I was in a movie theater. I really can't. I can't think of what it was. But I think I'm going to be going pretty soon because I want to go see that Mandalorian movie. Oh, there's another one coming out? Well, there was a series. Oh, I'm thinking of the show.

48:51Yeah. So they're making a movie about the show. Yeah. Yeah.