SPEAKER_05: 0:41

And we are coming to live I am Jay Friends and uh Weston Wii D my Mario My F Tiffany Mason.

SPEAKER_02: 0:51

Ah Mario.

SPEAKER_05: 0:54

And if you are new to the show, this is your source for the latest news reviews and interviews. And if you would like to join in, comment, or fire off any questions, please head over to jFrenzy and cal. All right, my friend. Tonight we have a very special guest. I said it once, I will say it again. We have a very special guest with us. We have the singer and guitar player of a southern rock band hailing from the great state of California. We have Eugene Wright. Eugene, sir, how are you?

SPEAKER_01: 1:24

Good. How are y'all doing? It's a pleasure to be here on your show.

SPEAKER_05: 1:28

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01: 1:29

You know what? If you guys are Mario and Luigi, I think that makes me like toad or possibly Waluigi, I'm not sure, somewhere in the middle. We'll see. Take it. We'll see where the end of the night goes.

SPEAKER_02: 1:41

Yeah, we'll let you know at the end of this episode. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:44

You know, we'll see what happens.

SPEAKER_05: 1:46

All right. Well, let's get this thing started. Can you tell me the impact that Billy Gibbons had on you and your career?

SPEAKER_01: 1:54

Wow. Uh the impact that Billy Gibbons had on my career. I have met Billy on actually a couple of occasions. There was one particular time, actually, you know what? I'm gonna tell y'all a story right off the rip, I guess. That's fine. I thought this was gonna come later, but uh, you know, it was surprise, surprise. Um I was at Nam about 2018. I went to a private kind of event at a Jimmy Shine shop. He was like an automotive, kind of like custom chopper builder, uh hot rods, things like that. Event at his uh his his thing outside of Nam in Orange County. And uh I ran into Billy Gibbons at that event. That was the first time I ran into Billy. Me and Gibbons are just drinking Coors Lights. We're hanging out and we're just drinking Coors Lights. He'd ask for one. I'd go grab one out of the cooler, bring it to him. Just laughing, drinking, drinking. We're having a good time, we're all hanging out. All of a sudden, Billy says, I'm going to a car show down the street. A couple of my friends that I was there with, they're all going. And he looks at me and he's like, Hey, you, you're coming with us. You can jump in the trunk. Dude, the reverend tells you to get in the trunk. All right, all right. So I jump in the trunk of his his denali. So it's a nice trunk, you know what I mean? I've been in worse trunks. Uh so I'm uh I'm just riding in the back. My buddy Dylan is in front of me, and um I gotta go bad. I am in the back of this truck, and I have been drinking Coors Light with Billy Gibbons for an hour. I am half in the bag on top of gear and everything, and I'm just sitting there and I'm like, I'm so bad, but I cannot stop this car. And we are sitting in Billy's car listening to unreleased stuff, and I'm talking to my buddy Dylan. He's like, dude, we're not pulling over. You just gotta hold it, like, figure something out. And and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, Gibbons is like, I gotta go to the bathroom, pull over. And we pull over on the side of the 405 highway, and I am like, I need to be right now. I climb over everybody to get out of this car. And I'm on the side of the 405 now, and I'm beating Billy Gibbons on the side of the 405 in dead stop traffic. And I hear Billy start cracking up laughing, and I'm like, what is he laughing about? Oh, we're just beating this other way. And I look down and he beat all over my left foot. All over. Like my buddies that were there like, oh dude, you were blessed by the reverence. So the rest of the night, I'm hanging out with him, we're drinking more beers, we're walking around, we're having a good time, and uh that is my fondest memory, and probably the biggest impact that Billy Gibbons has had on my life because uh I needed to get a new pair of boots after that. Yeah, I still got them, man.

SPEAKER_05: 4:50

You know, you can't get rid of them.

SPEAKER_01: 4:51

No, I'll never get rid of those. Billy Gibbs is funny, man. Yeah. That is a that is uh honest to God, that happened. That that that that story is uh one of my fondest memories. Yeah. Then he came sauce in the Viper Room a couple times, and uh it's uh been kind of uh uh kind of honor to get to know him a little bit.

SPEAKER_05: 5:12

It's crazy the things that man does.

SPEAKER_01: 5:15

He's a wild card, dude. You know about his you know about his business card, right?

SPEAKER_05: 5:19

No, tell me.

SPEAKER_01: 5:20

Oh, his his business card says uh Billy Gibbons, friend of Eric Clapton, on his business card. But when he printed those business cards, he had never met Eric Clapton at the time. And Eric Clapton found one of his business cards at a studio he was recording at and called Billy Gibbons. So what's up, friend? Yeah, like such a good, like I thought about making a business card. This is Eugene Rice, friend of Billy Gibbons. Right.

SPEAKER_02: 5:49

I mean, take a play out of his playbook, right?

SPEAKER_01: 5:51

You know what I mean? You gotta sometimes you gotta you gotta learn from the old guy that came before you.

SPEAKER_05: 5:56

That's right. So you said this was at a a cycles party. So are you into cycles?

SPEAKER_01: 6:02

Yes, yes. I I am very into motorcycles. Uh, I don't currently have one living in Los Angeles. I sold one before I moved out to Los Angeles, but I am in the midst of buying a new one, so we'll see. Right now, I've been looking at a we're looking at a uh a dynah that I was probably gonna pick up, but you know, who knows? We'll see. See what happens.

SPEAKER_05: 6:23

All right, well, let's move into the band itself, American Mile. So can you just give us a quick rundown of the background of the band? How'd we come up with the name? How did it start?

SPEAKER_01: 6:34

Man, I came up with the name. Actually, the name was uh uh kind of an odd coincidence at the time. I was recording uh with this guy, Keith Nelson, producer out here. Uh, he was one of the guitar players in Buck Cherry. He wrote a lot of their songs. He works with guys like Charlie Starr and a bunch of other cats, and um, I had written lyrics to one of my songs, Wild Wind, and uh one of the lyrics is on the sweet American mile, is one of the lyrics. So I was singing the lyrics to the song in in basically in the recording room, and I didn't really like the band name at the time.

SPEAKER_05: 7:09

Which was what?

SPEAKER_01: 7:10

Yeah, it was Brothers Collective. It's a long story originally. The band was me and my two brothers, so it morphed out of that. But I was sitting there after I sang that line, I I kind of like stopped from stopped singing the rest of the lines. I was like, man, American Mile would be a great band name. And then the talk back I hear Keith and he's like, Yeah, it's a good band name, you should change your name right now. And I was like, all right, I was like, all right, yeah, it's a good idea. I'm gonna change the band name right now. So that is the the story of how the American Mile band name came to be, actually.

SPEAKER_05: 7:43

Nice. What was it like working with him?

SPEAKER_02: 7:46

Oh, dude. Well, wait, I have I have I have a question first. Wait a minute. Sorry, sorry, I'm gonna remove it. So you came up, you came up with a new band name, but then where does the bison come in?

SPEAKER_01: 7:58

Oh, dude, that's just you know, people love bisons.

SPEAKER_02: 8:02

You know, he's you love me a good bison. I do.

SPEAKER_01: 8:05

Everybody loves bison, you know. It's yeah, you know. If Ted Nugent can rock the buffalo, I'm gonna throw that buffalo logo out there. Usually we do, you know, our our actual logo most of the time is like uh AM and it's like in stars and stripes. We've just been using this bison logo as like another piece of merch to sell.

SPEAKER_02: 8:26

So yeah, bison logo. I like it actually.

SPEAKER_01: 8:28

Well, thank you. You know, I like it too.

SPEAKER_02: 8:31

Okay, sorry, Jay. Proceed.

SPEAKER_05: 8:33

Oh, I don't know. What were we talking about?

SPEAKER_01: 8:35

Oh, how's it working with Keith? Yes, that crazy bitch, right? Oh, dude, I love Keith. He's he's like an older brother in a lot of ways. As I'm the oldest of my brothers, so I don't really have someone that I kind of had a connection with him in that kind of regard. We'll like go grab lunch and stuff. And he's always willing to tell me like there's no uh there's no uh sugarcoat in anything, which is nice. I kind of like that. I'm pretty straight to the point kind of guy, so he's very straight to the point. We're both pretty straight to the point with each other about things. It's made a really good relationship as far as songwriting and also just friendship in general, you know. Kind of value those things. He's kind of dude, I could call and be like, hey, I need help, you know. Uh my car tire's blown. And if he's actually free, I'll be like, dude, yeah, I'll come down and help you out. So I really appreciate that.

SPEAKER_02: 9:26

It's important to have those kind of people in our life.

SPEAKER_01: 9:28

Absolutely. I don't want him to hear me talking too good about him though. So trust me.

SPEAKER_05: 9:33

No, we'll keep this out of his range.

SPEAKER_01: 9:35

Yeah, good, yeah, yeah, yeah.

unknown: 9:37

All right.

SPEAKER_01: 9:37

I'm not yeah, I'm not tagging him.

SPEAKER_05: 9:41

Let's take a step back. You're from Vermont and you end up in SoCal. So how do we go from Vermont to SoCal and somehow come up with southern rock?

SPEAKER_01: 9:54

That's a good question. So when I moved from Vermont to SoCal, I was really into like progressive, like kind of like Mars Volta progressive rock, rush kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_05: 10:07

Queens Reich.

SPEAKER_01: 10:08

Yeah, Queens Reich, all that kind of thing. And um I moved out here with my brother at the time. And actually, the guitar player that's in the band currently, Joe, he was in that original band that we had when we were in LA. That was like 2010, like 15 years ago almost. I met Joe. So Ryan went to MI as a he went for the uh recording program, and Joe happened to be going there for the guitar program. They ran into each other. Ryan was like, yo, I moved out here with my brother. We're trying to be in a band. We kind of got together and started playing this band, and that was like debauchery at its height. I mean, I was 21. I had just moved to LA. I came from like country girls, and I mean like not like Nashville country girls, like Vermont country girls. Like we got like, yeah, you know, sorry, Vermont, I hate to say it, but you know, it's just it's more of the uh the earthy type. A little more of the earthy, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know. So dude, it was just a wild time. We had sold my motorcycle to buy an RV.

SPEAKER_05: 11:15

How long did you live out of the RV?

SPEAKER_01: 11:18

Dude, we lived in the RV for like I want to say like in and out of the RV end rehearsal spaces for like two years. It was a wild time. We used to set up, man, we we made these fake baffles that had mattresses glued to them to look like a recording booth, and we set it up in our studio, and we would like have a mic standing there during the daytime, and at nighttime we just lay the beds on the floor and all just pass out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 11:49

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01: 11:50

We had a whole system.

SPEAKER_05: 11:52

I can't tell you how many times I've slept in a recording studio, so it's alright.

SPEAKER_01: 11:56

Dude, oh no, this was not a recording, this was a rehearsal studio. This was like, you know, you knock on the wall and like a cockroach the size of like a big pen would fall out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 12:07

It's all about the hustle, right?

SPEAKER_01: 12:09

It's part of it. Yeah. And you know what's crazy is the reason the whole reason I moved out to LA is because I always wanted to do music. Coming from Vermont, it was like kind of there was nothing. I mean, my hometown is like 1,500 people.

SPEAKER_05: 12:23

You get folk music.

SPEAKER_01: 12:25

You do, you do every now and then. You every now and then, but like, you know, there was a different time period. That was before the internet. I mean, the internet was there, but it wasn't like what it is today in a lot of ways. It wasn't as far reaching. It was kind of like I read all these books growing up. I know it's crazy. I can read, ladies and gentlemen. I can't. Yes. Vermont at least has good we have good educational systems. I can read.

SPEAKER_05: 12:52

Still part of New England.

SPEAKER_01: 12:54

Somewhat. Yeah. I remember reading all these books about all these rock stars, and it always we went to Hollywood, we went to LA. We did, you know, it was all go to LA, go to LA. We went to LA. And I grew up this whole time being like, man, I gotta go to LA. And then I moved to LA and then I was like, why am I in LA? Like, this is uh this is a this is kind of a weird spot because we were right at the end of like the strip being kind of dead. We kind of came in on that, that like I want to say it was like two or three good, maybe like maybe like four or five good years of like Hollywood proper having, and I don't mean like West Hollywood where they have like the whiskey and all those spots, but like there were other bars that had a lot of live music every day. You could find a band Monday through you know Saturday playing somewhere on Hollywood Boulevard, right on the main strip. And now there's like nothing. I know some places that don't even do bands anymore, and I I can remember them having bands the entire time I was there. Man, and I go to Nashville and check it out, and I'm like, oh, there's bands everywhere. Well, they care about music. Oh my god, yeah, it's wild, wild, wild, wild.

SPEAKER_05: 14:06

Well, you still have to make that connection to Southern Rock now.

SPEAKER_01: 14:10

Yes, yes, yes, yes. So a big part of me like growing up, I love the Allman Brothers, and I love like Tom Petty and 38 Special and Leonard Skinner, and like I grew up on a lot of. Yeah, dude, we got to we got to open for 38 Special, and it was like a big highlight for me. That's awesome. Dude, it's it's been great. I I loved that. We were able to make good friends or become friends with the bass player, and we were chatting with him every now and then. He's like, When are you guys gonna be in Nashville? You know, we'll meet up. It's just been like I've always loved Southern Rock. It's always been a passion of mine in general. I like the songwriting, like the storytelling that comes with it. And when my brothers quit this band, and it basically became me at the helm of like, okay, I'm in charge of everything now. I'm in charge of American Mile. You know, this is my project starting off again. Where do I want to head? What direction do I want to go in? And I was like, you know what? I'm gonna finally dive into this direction of like Southern Rock, maybe a little bit of songwriter country stuff going into it, and like really embrace the stuff that I I truly love to play. And it really has made me a hell of a lot happier than all the other stuff I've done, to be honest.

SPEAKER_02: 15:26

What were you and your brothers playing in the beginning?

SPEAKER_01: 15:29

We were playing like more like more folky country, so it was even less rock and a lot more folky country. And it was really cool because like it was three brothers singing three part harmonies doing folk country, and it had a thing. And we played Summerfest and we played like you know, we played some big events with the band, but uh it just fell apart, dude. Family bands are really hard to keep together.

SPEAKER_03: 15:56

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 15:57

Was it American Mile at that time?

SPEAKER_01: 15:59

It had just changed to American Mile for a couple of the gigs we did with the boys, but that was like basically then when my one brother quit. I was like, well, they both quit. My producer was like, What are you gonna do? He's like, you know, you your choices are you can quit and give up now. Or he's like, or you have this product, you have the name, you have a direction you want to head in. And he's like, and then you just gotta make it happen. That was the best advice Keith could have given me at the time. I wouldn't be on this podcast, I wouldn't be doing the tours I'm doing, I wouldn't be working with people I'm working with. I wouldn't have met Billy Games.

SPEAKER_02: 16:31

What did your brother say about America Mile Now?

SPEAKER_01: 16:34

Uh, dude, I mean, well, do you know who Jared James Nichols is, the guitar player? He's like a ripping guitar player, but my brother plays drums for him. My brother's uh, yeah, dude, he's very supportive. You know, he reposts stuff, he loves it, he loves the new album, things like that. So it's always nice to hear that. Me and him have always been really close. So when he did quit the band, it was like kind of a gut shot because me and him were so close. I was like, oh man, like you're really gonna like give up on this. But he wanted to chase his own dream, and you know, you sometimes you just gotta let people do that.

SPEAKER_05: 17:04

That's what it's like with brothers, it's tough, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 17:07

Yeah, yeah. And sisters, yeah, dude, still family at the end of the day sometimes, you know. So you gotta put up with some some amount of it if you can.

SPEAKER_02: 17:18

Yeah, yeah. I love that you guys have that your relationship has survived that, so that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01: 17:22

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They do say business and family does not blend, and that I have learned the hard way. I feel like, you know what? It's okay to keep business and family kind of separate.

SPEAKER_02: 17:35

So who's in the band now?

SPEAKER_01: 17:37

So right now we have uh Desmond Saunders on bass, we have Colton Miller on drums, and Joe Perez on lead guitar. We all sing harmony vocals together. Joe is the guy actually that was in the original band in LA when I first moved here 15 years ago. So I've known Joe like forever.

SPEAKER_05: 17:57

I want to talk more about the sound. You you choose Southern Rock, right? And your influences at that time were the typical Southern Rock bands, whether it be Leonard Skinner or 38 Special and that type of stuff.

SPEAKER_03: 18:10

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 18:11

So how do you come around now to the more modern Southern Rock bands like the Black Crows?

SPEAKER_01: 18:18

Oh, Black Crows, Blackberry Smoke, like all those cats.

SPEAKER_05: 18:21

Yeah, I mean, do you draw influence from them as well, or do you stick to the room?

SPEAKER_01: 18:24

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, no. I love the Black Crows. Absolutely love the Black Crows. I mean, uh, our song Waiting on a Sunday that's on the record, the last record we just wrote, was like very, in my mind, very heavily influenced by She Talks to Angels. It's just like, I mean, I love the crows. I just got to see uh what's it called, the Joe Perry project with with Chris Robinson saying lead, and it was very cool. Sick. It was so much fun. I mean, yeah. They did like then they did twice as hard, which is like my favorite crows tune, or one of my favorite crows tunes. So I was like, this is awesome. Actually, I don't know if I'm supposed to am I allowed to swear on this? I didn't ask that beforehand.

SPEAKER_05: 19:02

We don't know. Nobody's told us. Hold on. Yeah, the network says it's okay.

SPEAKER_01: 19:07

Uh it's okay.

SPEAKER_03: 19:08

All right, all right.

SPEAKER_05: 19:10

So I gotta watch that. As you mentioned the the recording, I heard that track and there's a B3 in there. Who's playing the B3?

SPEAKER_01: 19:19

Oh, dude, that's Mark Brown. That is the uh the that's the the secret fifth member of American Mile. He's like our he's like our secret weapon. That dude is like so overly busy, it's it can be very hard sometimes to track him down to get him into the uh get him into the live rotation for things. And also just we usually like keep him for like, hey, we have a showcase gig, hey, we have like you know, some big opening slot, we'd like to have you play with us, things like that. So we try to keep it that way. I wish we were making enough money where we could have him full time, but it's just not really feasible and keeping everyone housed.

SPEAKER_05: 19:59

Dude, I just moved back from California and my two brothers currently live in SoCal, and I can't tell you, or I can tell you how expensive it was. I mean, it's crazy. I tell people all the time a studio apartment was forty five hundred dollars and a two-bedroom apartment was seventy-five hundred dollars.

SPEAKER_01: 20:15

It's absolutely nuts. Like California is crazy, just pricing. I I think that's the big reason of why like art, in a sense, like artists, a lot of them are disappearing from out here, is that if you want to be an artist in California, you've got to already be rich. You can't afford the pricing all the like artists out, and like that's just what it is. Because nobody wants to pay more money for the funny thing is is like you go anywhere in the United States, and it's pretty much you get the same exact check from every single bar, but you know, a thousand dollars in SoCal goes nowhere. You're like, Oh, okay, my gas was five dollars a gallon, you know. And now insane. Oh, yeah, it's nuts. I think I paid$4.97 today for gas, and I was just looking at it like, well, this is cheap.

SPEAKER_05: 21:04

It was like six something when I was there.

SPEAKER_01: 21:06

Yeah, it's wild.

SPEAKER_05: 21:09

As you mentioned, playing live in Torn, you guys are playing 200 plus shows a year.

SPEAKER_01: 21:14

Yes, we are.

SPEAKER_05: 21:16

So how does that even come about? Who's booking your shows?

SPEAKER_01: 21:19

Uh, we have a booking agent, and then um on top of our booking agency, we also book gigs by ourselves. I'm a workaholic. I also work Monday through Thursday at a vintage guitar shop. So I'm like Friday, Saturday, Sunday, band, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, either guitar shop or band. If we have other gigs, then I call out of work and I go into the uh I just play. And then also most of our gigs are like four-hour gigs. So it's like, yeah, it's a show, but it's really like you're playing three shows a night. So if you want to like quantify it as to how many sets we play, we probably do like 600 shows a year, which is sometimes borderline insanity, but you know what? We make it work. It's a couple of Red Bulls, maybe you know, you know, black coffee and just kind of power through and drink some water when you can. Try not to stop the band too many times to go to the bathroom while we're getting to the next gig because you know you got maybe an hour and a half window, and you don't want to mess that up because nobody can get any food before the play.

SPEAKER_05: 22:19

Uh the guitar shop. What do you do at the guitar shop?

SPEAKER_01: 22:24

I'm the vintage guitar specialist. So I deal with all the vintage guitars that come in and I vet them and make sure that they're all right. If I have questions, there's some guys I know in the industry that I'll give calls to. Like if it's something that I'm way out of my wheelhouse with, you know, a$50,000 Martin walks in and I'm like, I think I'm right about this, but I need to make sure that this and this are right. So it's always good to have a couple more eyes on it. Give uh Dave Henson a call out of Killer Vintage in Dallas. He's my go-to guy. So all right.

SPEAKER_05: 22:54

Next thing I want to know, let's go back to the booking agent for a minute. Sure. How did you come about the booking agent? Did you hunt them down or did they hunt you down?

SPEAKER_01: 23:02

All right. So 2019, right before COVID hit, I played the Idaho Potato Drop, and it was like this crazy huge, big show. It was awesome. I did a bunch of interviews uh like on CNN and all this other stuff. Got home and then had a gig with NASCAR, Fontana Speedway. So I did a gig there. And when I was doing this gig, this guy that I knew, Neil Morgan, had seen me the year prior, and he saw me again and was like, hey man, I have this booking agency. They booked my band. I've seen you now twice. I really want them to work with you. And I was like, Well, I'm looking for an agent. You know, it was pretty exciting at the time because like he showed me what they were doing. I was like, Well, you guys are playing like a lot of opening slots and like a ton of casino work, and just like you're you're like a functioning working band as well as getting to do your original thing. And I was like, if we can have that rolling and I don't have to have a day job, that would be great. So I left that gig and was like ecstatic because I had basically signed a sh handshake contract with a booking agency, something I had been trying to do for years and never been able to do. I went on vacation to Mexico with some friends down there. I'm fishing. Just it was bonito season, and we were just banging bonitos in like left and right. It was crazy. I'm doing that, it's great. Nothing could go wrong. I'm on the beach, I'm drinking margaritas, I'm just passing out. They have a mescaria. We're going down there driving dirt bikes and driving them back, like just having the wild time down there. And I am sitting in a kitchen with my friend, and the news is on, and all of a sudden, COVID-19 has appeared and has entered the chat. And I'm like, what's this? You know, what's going on? Like in my mind at that time, I'm like, oh, this is gonna be no big deal. It's like some bird flu stuff or whatever, like it's gonna blow over. And then fast forward to I'm back in America because they're like, hey, you have to leave, and we go back because we're closing the border. And all of a sudden, I'm like, I just signed this deal with the booking agency, and now there's no shows ever. I was like, this has got to be the biggest joke played on me in like in like the history of my life. Like, this is ridiculous. So my agent is like, just hold, just hold steady and like wait, and just wait till I call you. I'm like, okay, so like months go by, we're on lockdown.

SPEAKER_05: 25:43

I mean, how are you paying your bills?

SPEAKER_01: 25:46

Actually, my very good friend Scott Bednar gave me a job as a roofer because I could do it outside. So I was doing roofing throughout basically the entire pandemic, and that like just kept me alive. And dude, roofing in California during the summer, not a fun time. Brutal. It was awful. We just started like we started at like 4 a.m. and would just like work till probably noon. And by noon, it was like you couldn't be on the roof or you're just ruining the shingles. It's not shingles. Well, some of it was shingles, some of it was tile. It was like it would depend on what the the customer wanted, but like I was basically doing that, and that kept me sustained. Uh God bless him for that. That really saved me. Probably like middle of the pandemic. My agent calls and he's like, hey, put a band together, just start rehearsing.

SPEAKER_02: 26:40

Light at the end of the tunnel.

SPEAKER_01: 26:42

And I'm like, okay. So we're rehearsing. He's like, I got a drive-in gig. We're doing like this big drive-in event, and the band that hooked you up is gonna play, and we're gonna have your band open it. So at the time, I called Joe Perez and was like, yo, I got this gig, it's like an outside gig. I had another guitar player at the time, and I was like, the guy in the other band had asked me to play guitar for them also, and then I was like looking at all the songs they needed me to learn, plus all my own stuff with rehearsing, and I was like, There's no way I'm gonna be able to wrap my brain around all this in like a week. So I called up Joe and was like, Hey, can you fill in and take this gig over with this other band? So he took that over with the headliner, and I just focused on American Mile. So we did this gig. Basically, end of that gig, we came out and we did Free Bird with me, Joe, and the other guitar player, and we just did like all three of us playing together, and it was a blast. And I was like, I want to do that. I was like, I would love to do like a Leonard Skinner three guitar player thing. And uh my other guitar player at the time was not about it. So we came back and he just quit. He was like, I don't want to do this, I don't like it, I don't like there's another guitar player. And I was like, All right, dude, like there's the door, that's your choice. So he quit. And then now I'm like, Joe's like, well, I'm still down to be in the band. So I'm like, all right. So we just we start now rehearsing this thing. My agent calls again and he's like, yo, are you guys ready? And I'm like, yeah, what's up? And he's like, the Native American casinos are allowed to do music. I can book you guys. I have no other bands that are ready to play. You're the only one we have that's ready to play. Everyone else is like either afraid to go out, and we were all like, dude, we're not afraid. I'll like I caught COVID like nine times, I think. I don't know what I don't know what that does to you, but I feel fine.

SPEAKER_05: 28:41

I think we're starting to see what it does to you.

SPEAKER_01: 28:43

Yeah, right. A little crazy, dude. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So uh, so we just like grabbed every single gig they would give us through that. I mean, I worked for like that half a year, like end of 2019, all the way through 2020, because there just was nobody that wanted to pick up the gig. So we were just taking them. It gave uh a really good like time buffer for like me and Joe to like kind of gel and get the business kind of going and get the name out there so that when we found new members that ended up being more permanent members, it was like we already had established certain areas where like we can play here and make money, we can play here and make money. We can we had all these anchor gigs where like, oh, we know that this casino will pay us well, we can do that on Saturday and Sunday, and Friday we can do like an original show somewhere in town and try to like churn a little bit of a uh an actual fan base out of it. But to be honest, it was like kind of a wicked ride because doing that stuff, we burned through so many band members. It was wild. Like just could not hang. Oh man, like, yeah, they're sweet guys, they're all great. I have no qualms with anyone that has left the band, but it like we burned through players. We did for a while.

SPEAKER_02: 30:05

Um did it make you feel like like so like. Oh, like we can hang and they can't.

SPEAKER_01: 30:11

Like you know, it just like it made me be like, I would what would what would get me is I would tell them how hard it was. I would be like, listen, we're psychos, we play nonstop, we play as many gigs as we can. Me and Joe have done three gigs in 24 hours before. Like, we will just jam gigs into things to play to play to play. And some guys are like, I can do that. And then they actually do it with you like for two weeks, and they're like, I don't understand how you guys can physically do this. Like, I am going nuts. Uh, and uh, I don't know, it's just that's all I love to do, especially drummer. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. We are we're like a wood chipper for drummers.

SPEAKER_05: 30:57

It's it's um so the the lineup that you have now, how long has that lineup been in place?

SPEAKER_01: 31:03

So Desmond's been with us for two years. Funny enough, we always did everything by Democratic vote. And at the time when Desmond auditioned for the band, he was my choice. I was like, I want this guy to be our bass player. I really liked him. I liked his feel. I liked that he could sing. I think when he came in, he was like a slightly underprepared, but like there was something about him that I was just like, he's good, he's got something. Like I can tell from his personality that he's gonna like, we're gonna gel, you know, it's gonna work. And um, I got outvoted. So I got outvoted, and Desmond did not get the first audition. We had another guy for about like a little over half a year. Kind of like through that process with him, we realized that we were like, oh, this dude is not working out. He was like telling us, like, I'm gonna quit, I'm gonna quit. And finally, at some point, I was like, why don't we reach out to Desmond? I was like, reach out to Desmond, see what he's doing, and maybe he'll want to jump in, you know, and play with us. And uh sure enough, Joe called Des, and Des was like, dude, I've been thinking about how much I wanted to join your band from the last time, and like I still want to join the band. And we sent him the material, he came in, he knew it. It's been great ever since. I love Desmond. Oh, who knows? That's that's a you know, that's a whole nother box of worms I don't want to open here on the stream. Uh, but they should. I'm good at that. I'm a good gut feeling guy. I'm always you know, you tend to be pretty right on the money.

SPEAKER_05: 32:40

Let's take this a step further. You said when you were with your your brothers and you your brothers chose to leave the band and you were able to move forward, go with your name, go with your style, which kind of alludes to the fact that you were running the band at that point. So, how does the dynamic of the band work today?

SPEAKER_01: 32:58

It right now it's it's like a true democracy for the band. I think I have a little more of a say with a lot of the guys as far as it comes to songwriting, because I do a majority of the songwriting. But even there, we try to include everyone in every decision financially. They they can see all the spreadsheets, all the money that's coming into the business.

SPEAKER_05: 33:19

What is the business relationship?

SPEAKER_01: 33:22

Right now, me and Joe are the like sole owners of the LLC. I made him a business partner after we started this and did everything because I was like, dude, you've been here for six years now and haven't gone anywhere. You've put in your time as far as I'm concerned, like, you know, you're my business partner because this is not an easy road. So me and Joe became basically partners on our LLC. With the new boys, Des and Colton, Desmond at this point has come to a point where you know he had expressed wanting, expressed wanting some stake in the band. And I was like, you know what, man, like you've been here, you work super hard. He does all a lot, all of our almost all of our social media. Like, I'll send him videos and he'll cut it up and post it. Very good. Yeah, it's like when someone's working that hard with you, I think they deserve that. I think that that kind of business relationship cultivates trust in the end. It boils down to something that, like, in the future, if it gets hard or gets tough, that person's gonna stick around because you trusted them at some point and now they trust you, and there's just a mutual respect. I really do respect the hell out of all the guys in the band for how hard they work.

SPEAKER_05: 34:35

So is this an equal share band at this point?

SPEAKER_01: 34:38

Yeah, at this point, right now, it's like the money's always an equal share. Everyone gets an equal cut. As far as control of the band is, who owns parts of the LLC? We worked out a deal where it's like if you're in for a certain amount of years, basically you get a percentage of the band per year until you're a quarter member, and then we'll all just have a quarter control of the LLC. Smart way. That's the way I'm gonna do it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 35:03

All right. So, what kind of challenges have you guys faced other than COVID? Dude, man.

SPEAKER_01: 35:10

Boy, we have blown up more vehicles, I think, than anyone. You know, dude, we're like we're like, we're like the nitro circus of blowing up vehicles. I feel like if it's like rolling the bearings in an engine or it's blowing tires, we've done everything and all in between. I don't know why, but uh control arms don't like us, that's for sure. Um, I've had a couple people steal catalytic converters at this point that I've had to weld straight pipes together underneath, done things like that uh to keep them going. I would say vehicles have been our number one struggle. It's it's pretty wild. Um so our car lock, pray for us. Chat, pray for us, please. We need better car lock.

SPEAKER_02: 35:57

I think we should put the motorcycle on hold then. Let's I'm a great driver.

SPEAKER_01: 36:02

Okay, the driving is fine. It's the uh it's the guts on things.

SPEAKER_05: 36:06

Especially on a motorcycle, you you can't trust the other people around you.

SPEAKER_01: 36:10

Oh no, yeah, never, never, never, never. You gotta be like a hawk on those things, especially in LA.

SPEAKER_02: 36:15

Keep a junker. I wouldn't get anything nice.

SPEAKER_01: 36:20

No, I can fix, I can fix a motorcycle. That's easy to work on. It's all just it's all just big, it's like adult Legos. You could put it together and take it apart.

SPEAKER_02: 36:29

Yeah, oh my gosh, I love how you are so scrappy or resourceful and just make things happen, get things done. You had a pretty strong mindset for that. Do you feel like all the band members match that?

SPEAKER_01: 36:43

Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure. They match it. I mean, I'm a little more, I think a little more tenacious than everybody, but I'm also like, I love the hustle of like, you know, my dad and my uncle are both hustlers as far as it goes. Like, I mean, they do really good work, but they're uh, you know, when they were always doing contracting, they were always hustling, hustling to make a dollar. When they're off work, they're like buying cars and flipping cars. Like I grew up around that.

SPEAKER_05: 37:08

All right, my friend. Well, we do this thing here. We call unsung heroes where you take a moment to shine light on somebody who's worked behind the scenes or somebody who may have supported you along the way. Do you have anybody you'd like to shine a little light on?

SPEAKER_01: 37:18

Uh yes, I would. Patty Hillis. She and her son Noah Hillis have been amazing to me. I've gone through some some really tough times in my life, and they've helped me out through them a lot. I'd like to thank Dave Henson. He's been like a second father to me. I'd also like to thank Scott Bednar. He's the guy that helped me get through COVID. He's taught me so much. He's an amazing human. He rescued me from working at a studio that I hated working at. And uh, I'd like to thank Keith Nelson. And then uh last but not least, of course, I'd love to thank my parents. They've always been there, they've always supported my dream. I would not be here without them.

SPEAKER_05: 38:00

What kind of troubles were you dealing with?

SPEAKER_01: 38:03

Oh, dude, I have gone through uh I went through um I went through a lot of stuff in LA where I lost, I lost where I was living and things like that. And um uh Patty, who I talked about earlier, her and her son took me in and kind of just have given me a room and like room and board and just taking care of me like I was like her own son. And uh Dave, I wouldn't know anything about vintage guitars without Dave Henson. He took me under his wing as like his protege and showed me everything I needed to know, and it has done nothing but been a blessing in my life and given me like the ability to work while I'm why you know it's like a fun, it's fun for me. I love vintage guitar, so it's I love guitar in general, so it's something that's not really uh it's not even like a job to me, it's like a passion project, right? And then Keith just being uh you know all around knucklehead producer that I that gets to uh beat up on me every now and then slam me back into reality when I'm getting negative. It's hard to have that.

SPEAKER_02: 39:12

You said that the band was named after American Mile. You were singing a line of lyrics from one of your songs. And do you think I mean you guys are using like the stars and stripes, and is it because it's American in the name, or is it because you guys just really have a patriotism, you know, in your soul?

SPEAKER_01: 39:32

Oh I love this country. This is the greatest country in the world, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_02: 39:36

Like, yeah, I mean like you can grow up in Vermont and then end up in SoCal as like the great band.

SPEAKER_01: 39:43

You can you can still it's tough, it's it's tough out there. I think everyone realizes it's gotten tough, it's gotten tougher over the years. But I still believe that with hard work, the American dream is still alive. You can be whatever you want to be, you can do whatever you want to do. It just takes hard work. And some people are afraid of hard work. I get it. It's not it's not an easy thing, you know? It's never gonna be. It wasn't easy for anyone coming over here back in the day, and it's it's not any easier now. You just gotta put your nose to the grindstone to make it happen.

SPEAKER_02: 40:16

Same demons, different day.

SPEAKER_01: 40:18

Exactly. Exactly. You know, dude, I'll worry about I'll worry about uh, you know, yesterday's problems tomorrow. I'll do that. I'll just keep worrying about it next day, you know, and I'll just keep I'll just keep motoring through because that's all you can do.

SPEAKER_02: 40:31

Yeah, yeah. It seems like you've got the right idea. It seems like you got a good head on your shoulders. You're making it through, you're seeing the silver linings, you guys are having fun, and that's really kind of money right there.

SPEAKER_01: 40:43

What else can you do? You know, right? Life is too short to get it, you know, to be uh depressed about every little thing that happens. It's too much.

SPEAKER_02: 40:53

Okay, so I have another another little fun follow-up question for you. Yeah. So I saw on the microphone stands that y'all like to have the scarves on there.

SPEAKER_03: 41:01

Yes.

SPEAKER_02: 41:02

And so I want to know do you switch them out per show? Is it like, you know, here's 56, and we're gonna pick like everybody picks two or three for their mic stand today? Or what okay, what what what do we how does this happen?

SPEAKER_01: 41:18

Like a like a circus trunk full of scarves, you know, pull them out. That's uh my next trick. I'm gonna be uh pulling all these scarves out of my mouth. Yeah. Uh we pretty much use the same scarves every time, but every now and then, like someone who has come to a show that has seen us for like maybe like years or so that really loves the band, they'll ask for a scarf and I'll have gifted them a scarf and then have to go buy a new one. So you know how that started, which is crazy, is that we played a gig and um, you know, when you do like a a five-hour cover gig, you know, because it's like, okay, we gotta do this, like this uh I don't know how you guys do that. Oh, it's it's wonderful. I love every moment of it. When we do a gig that long, we needed iPads so we could read uh like lyrics because it's like, dude, I'm not gonna remember five hours of lyrics that I've never read before. Um I can read them and sing them. I know the melodies, but hell, I don't I don't know what he's I don't know what he's talking about half the time.

SPEAKER_04: 42:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 42:18

So one of the booking agents that saw us was like, you guys are amazing, but I hate the iPads. And I was like, man, how do I get rid of the iPads? And I and I was talking to Joe, our other guitar player, and I was like, you know what, dude? Let's hang some scarves. Let's go to the Goodwill today and buy a bunch of scarves, and like Steven Tyler, the mic stands up and hang them over the iPads. So we did that for the literally the next show, the next day. And the booking agent was like, It's amazing. You guys are great. I love that you got rid of the iPads. And I was like, Yeah, we did. You know, like they're just right behind the scarves. So don't worry about it. Yeah, and now there's just kind of like, you know, now it's our thing, we throw the scarves on everything. But you know, we do originals, we still throw the scarves on there. So it's it's fun, you know. I like giving them the audience too every now and then. Part of the image.

SPEAKER_02: 43:07

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not just shtick.

SPEAKER_05: 43:10

All right, folks. Well, we have done it. We've reached the top of the hour, which does mean we have reached the end of the show. If you've enjoyed the show, please tell a friend and Miss Tiffany. If you have not, tell two. Tell three, four, five, or six.

SPEAKER_02: 43:23

Ten, baby. Come on.

SPEAKER_01: 43:25

There you go. That's right.

SPEAKER_05: 43:26

You can also reach out to two of us over at jFrenzy.com. Hell, you can reach out to the three of us over at jFrenzy.com. We will be happy to keep this conversation going. All right. Sir, we cannot thank you enough. We would like to leave the final words to you.

SPEAKER_01: 43:39

Thanks so much for having me. You guys have been great. I loved having to chat with you. I mean, I was laughing. And if I can have a good time hanging out with two people I've never met on a phone and laugh a little bit, then it's a good day. All right. So thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_05: 43:53

Awesome.

SPEAKER_01: 43:54

Well, have a good night.

SPEAKER_00: 43:57

Thanks for listening to the Jay Franzi Show. Make sure you visit us at JFranzi.com. Follow connect and say hello.