Big Blend Radio
Big Blend Radio 18th Anniversary Show Celebrates Music
Big Blend Radio is celebrating 18 Years of Podcasting! Join us for this 2nd show of three days of celebrating this birthday milestone with mother-daughter hosts Nancy J. Reid and Lisa D. Smith who travel full-time on their Love your Parks Tour while hosting the shows and publishing the digital series of Big Blend Magazines. Hear where and what our guests were up to when they were 18 years old...and, what music they were listening to.
WHAT MUSIC WERE YOU LISTENING TO AT 18? Let us know in the comments, and we'll add it to our special (and growing) playlist on Spotify which you can listen to here: https://tinyurl.com/bdc3d99d
FEATURED MUSICAL GUESTS:
- Pierre Bensusan - Acclaimed acoustic guitar virtuoso, vocalist, and composer. More: https://www.pierrebensusan.com/
- Lisa Sniderman - Singer, songwriter and playwright. More: https://www.aoedemuse.com/
SPECIAL MESSAGES FROM MUSICAL FRIENDS:
- Joey Stuckey - Award-winning blind guitarist, songwriter, singer, composer, producer, and the official music ambassador for his home town of Macon, Georgia. More: https://www.joeystuckey.com/
- Nicki Kris - Singer, songwriter, and podcaster. More: https://www.nickikris.com/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Duration:
- 1h 57m
- Broadcast on:
- 06 Jan 2025
- Audio Format:
- other
Welcome to Big Blend Radio, where we celebrate variety and how it adds spice to quality of life. So, where were you when you were 18 years old? Where were you physically and what were you up to and importantly, what music were you listening to? Today is our second part of our Big Blend Radio 18th year anniversary celebration. And we are focusing on music. It is music Monday after all, y'all. And we are going to start off with Joey Stuckey, who is on our Big Daily Blend shows every fourth Sunday. And Joey Stuckey is the official music ambassador of Macon, Georgia. He is an amazing musician, singer, songwriter, producer, and we kick it off with a message from him. And he reflects on his life then and now and music. Then we chat with Pierre Ben-Sousin, Nancy and I had a wonderful conversation with him. He's a world-renowned guitarist who's been on our show for years. Then we go to a message from singer, songwriter Nikki Chris, who also talks about music, of course. And then we close the show with Lisa Snyderman, also known as Adi. Lisa Snyderman is an amazing light in life. She talks about what she's doing in regards to musical theater for those with disabilities, talks about her life as a singer, songwriter. And also, of course, we talk about music from when we were 18 years old. So take a listen, thank you for joining us on our Big Blend Radio 18th year celebration. [Music] Everything I have done, I felt like such a... Every place I am done, just raise me back to you. Hello, this is producer and artist Joey Stuckey, a member of the Big Blend family. And I am so honored and so proud to be associated with this incredible group of people. You know, 18 years is quite a milestone, and it's incredible to think of all the incredible content. I've used that word a lot, incredible. I'm going to use it again, incredible. It's incredible to think of all the varied content, the depth, the breadth of what you have created here with the Big Blend family, from the magazines to the podcast to the playlists. And it's just... It's remarkable. Everything from parks and travel to artificial intelligence, music, arts, culture, it's all here. And it's the kind of content that you just can't get anywhere else. It's absolutely fabulous. And so Lisa, Nancy, and all the Big Blend family, thank you again for having me along. And just thank you so much for doing what you do and congratulations on 18 awesome, incredible years. At 18, I don't really have a lot of clear memories from that because I graduated from high school when I was 14, that was kind of a big deal. And then I started college when I was 16, that was kind of a big deal. And then I got my first real break with my band on the front page of our local paper when I was 19. But 18 is... I don't remember anything really exciting happening that year. I'm sure something did, but it's been a minute since I was 18, so I'm a little foggy on it. And it was the '90s, and I have vivid recollections of some of the music that I was listening to then. I was listening to living in Macon, Georgia, where I still live, where I serve as the official music ambassador. And I was listening to Atlanta radio station, and I could only pick up this radio station late at night, and it was the college radio station, album 88, WRAS, coming from Georgia State University. So I was hearing things like R-E-M, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, a lot of the big alternative hit makers from the '90s, but I was hearing a lot of the bigger bands before they broke. So I was the first person in my hometown to know about Nirvana, and there's Smells Like Team Spirit tune, and the Nevermind album and stuff like that. So those are the kind of things I was listening to. On the other spectrum, I was a big jazz fan and just discovered jazz music around this time. So I was listening to Spyra gyra, which was my entree into the world of jazz. And then there was a public radio, we had Peach State Public Radio, and there was a broadcast live from a nightclub in Savannah called Hard Hearted Hannah's that was playing all this wonderful jazz music just live every Saturday night from a variety of different artists and things like that. And I eventually got to meet the man that put this amazing program on and actually had him play on my first record, which came out when I was about 2021, something like that. So there were some things going on when I was 18, and some fond memories of the dream of being a professional musician, and being able to make a living doing that, and just like hoping and believing that the sky was the limit that I could, if these guys could do it, I could do it. And so that's kind of what I remember about being 18 living here in Macon, Georgia. And it's just been a continuation of that dream ever since. I'm still doing all that stuff. I produce records for a living at my recording studio, and I tour all over the world, speaking and performing as an artist and an educator. And it's been a great life since I was 18, it's accomplished a lot of the goals I set out to accomplish. I've still got a lot more dreams to fulfill, but yeah, 18 is a little blurry, but I do remember loving and discovering a lot of music real time, discovering the Smiths, which should, by the time I discover them, they've all been broken up several years. So I was a little late to the party. But that's my thoughts about 18. Well, you know, we're continuing our big blend radio, 18 year podcast celebration. We're also celebrating 28 years of big blend magazines in this country, which doesn't include Nancy's publishing career, who got me into publishing and being in the magazine world back in South Africa, and that's what I was doing when I was 18. I was working for Nancy, and boy, did she make me work hard. If I was late, she'd host me down in the bed with the hose. She would get the garden hose and spray it on me and tell me, really, you need to be on time. So let me just tell you, 18, yeah, I learned some big lessons there, but we are so excited to have, you know, guitar virtuoso, an amazing musician, songwriter, and human being, Pierre Ben Susan, back on the show, and you can go to his website, Pierre Ben Susan.com. The link is in the episode notes. And we were figuring out that he pretty much, I think he's been on our shows for almost those 18 years. And he first joined us on big blend radio. I don't even think we were big blend radio then. I think we were still Southwestern, and we were doing our Champagne Sunday show. And he joined us with his album, Vividly. And so we're going to put the song, Mill Pot, I don't know if I'm saying it right, but he'll tell me. It's not bad. Okay. I'm halfway there. Not bad. Say it. Say it. So everyone gets it right. Mill Pot. Mill Pot. Mill Pot on the playlist for we're 18 years old. So welcome back, Pierre. How are you? Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. I'm Anastian. Lisa. I'm fantastic. I'm at home in France, you know, taking my breath before to go on the road starting in April to celebrate my 50th anniversary of my career next year. So from April until December, I'm going to be touring mostly. And I will be touring the United States and Canada between June and November. Oh, we can't wait. We're going to have to see you this year. You know, that's the thing. Absolutely. We were so close a couple years ago, but we've got to make this work this year. Nancy doesn't, Pierre, make us feel a little young since he's turning 50, you know, this year. And we're only turning 18 with Big Blend radio and 28 with the magazines. Can we feel young? No, it seems like a long time, but we're only talking this country. If you're going to be honest, Lisa, you have to add the rest of the years in other countries. I know, but, you know, I like, hey, I think this is exciting. You just wanted to be younger. I do. I do without having to do weird things with surgery on my face, you know, so we're seeing with weird people. Yeah. I don't want to do weird. Well, you know, it could be fun. If you're going to do weird things with weird people, that could be fun. You know, Pierre, you know, well, do you see weird people and weird things when you travel? I mean, we do all the time. Do you see? Yes. Yeah. Some people think I'm weird myself anyway. So, you know, it's okay. And I don't feel particularly old. I don't feel young. I feel like I feel like I haven't had the time to get old. I was so busy enjoying myself, my life being a musician. Ah, I love that. I love that. So, I love that you're doing a 50 year, you know, tour, you're going to go to China. So from musicians, I know that is not a, well, maybe it's different coming from France, but from here, it is a difficult thing to be on tour in China and lots of rules. So is that been a hard thing to put together? No. In fact, you know, I've been doing China for the last almost 15 years. And I've seen a number of the performers from United States, from Canada. In fact, they are open, they are very open. Obviously, there are a lot of artists touring from old Asia and playing in China, but they are open to the entire world. They welcome people. They are very welcoming. Mm. That's cool. And, you know, I think also when you travel, do you see, does the audience change for your music per country or is it, they just identify with music as they identify with music? I think if I identify with music, of course, they have a cultural differences are going to appearance things differently, whether they are Chinese, American or Irish or French. But at the end of the day, I want to feel and think that the music itself is a common denominator, which makes people being together and feeling pretty much all the same. Now, your background is also Algerian. Have you been to Algeria before? Oh, I was born there. And I was born during the war in dependency in 1957. And then when that country became independent, then when France decided to move out, my family didn't want to stay there. And so we went to Maine and France. But, you know, and like the other colonies of the French Empire, Algeria was not a colony. It was part of France. It was called France. And so living in Algeria was very, very difficult for my folks because all my ancestors are from there before the French colonized it in 1831. So we were used to be with Arabs, with Kabir, Berber, all kinds of different, you know, ethnic groups, and then the French came, then we started to speak French. And I was raised in a French environment. My parents used to speak French, mostly Arabic, or so, of course, Spanish because, you know, all around where I was born used to be a Spanish town before the French took it over. And so when we moved to France in '62, I was four years old and France has been pretty much, I mean, Maine and France has been pretty much my home, you know. So since this is where I grew up in Paris and, you know. Wow. So I was going to say, do you think that lends itself to you being, you know, they talk about you being, you know, the finger style, you know, guitarist and world music too. Do you think your background as a child and then moving to France, I mean, all these different influences influence your music? Yes. I think our backgrounds definitely influence our lives. And so, yes, of course, my, the music, the music that comes out of me is just a complete imagination of who I am as a person and of the different cultures that have, that have blend within me and all the different experiences that, that I've had. And, you know, being born in an Arabic country, make me aware of Arabic cultures even today, especially today, where this is, you know, this is so vivid. And it's also a way of being very, very attracted to all the cultures, the fact to have myself and my family, to have been migrants, you know, my parents lost everything, they had to leave very, you know, a lot of emergency. So we had to rebuild our lives. So we are, we are now today, more than 25 years ago, more than 50 years ago, confronted to all those different groups of people who want to move from their home to another land to, to have a better life. And so it's very interesting to say the least, to see how people react about that everywhere in the world and to have been one of them, myself and my folks, you know, so. It sounds familiar, Nancy, doesn't it? Yeah. Yeah. In fact, it is familiar for when you take any, any group of people, maybe one, two generations, three generations ago, they were migrants. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. We moved. I mean, we've lived all over and when we left South Africa, it was really time for us to go. It was very... Oh, you are from South Africa, you said? No, no, no. The States. Oh, excuse me. Okay. And then Nancy worked in Kenya for Joy Adamson with Elsa the Lion and Tract Wildlife. Oh, wow. And then taught art. And then it took us a while to... We weren't legally in the country, apparently, right, Nancy? Joy Adamson did that. Oh, see. Yeah. Did you know? Yeah. We were legal when we got in. Yeah. And then things expired and I was in the bush and... Well, Joy Adamson was a very difficult person to deal with and so she wouldn't give me time to do things that I really needed to do legally. So we were there a little bit longer, but then at the end of the day, it just bribed some of the ten bucks and it didn't matter. Oh, okay. So then we went to England and then she worked for a World Wildlife Fund with her artwork. Because that's what Nancy's... We're in England in London. No. Southport, right, Nancy and Preston. Southport, yeah. I know where she is. Yeah. Yeah. And then we went to South Africa and then... And all through it, Nancy was doing not only her artwork, but she is an amazing artist. Especially when she went to wildlife. So you are gypsies, like a lot of musicians, like a lot of people like you. We are Hungarian, you know? We are Hungarian. Okay. So we are gypsies. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, I think we are lucky to have been confronted to other cultures that give us a complete opening of art and a different kind of wisdom, a lot of curiosity, tolerance, empathy for other people. And I think it's a chance we have had, you know? And I'm very grateful myself to have been for music, to have been my drive, to travel all over the world, thanks to music, you know? Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's Nancy's art and her writing. And that's... Yeah, you go. When you think about where we are now, you know, it takes a different form with podcasting. The magazines have changed, we used to print, we used to typeset, like old school typeset. Yeah. To now being digital. I mean, our magazines in this country, the digital magazines, it's 10 years, 11 years old this year. And now we've been on the road since 2013, so now we're, yeah, I mean, we're... Wow. I mean, we just keep pushing, pushing, you know? And we haven't met yet. But it will happen this year, Pierre, it is going to happen this year. And I will have Champagne. Oh, okay. Cool. Wow. Yes. In fact, I'm going to have Champagne tomorrow, the day after tomorrow. Oh, good. You know, I leave, I leave one out east of Paris, and this is the beginning of Champagne country. Mm-hmm. So there are vineyards, all over the place, until 60 kilometers, 70 kilometers, going east and south from here. Mm-hmm. So... Yes. Here, let's go to... When you were 18 years old, when I was 18, I was working for Nancy, and I'm not kidding she did use to come dump cold water on me if I didn't, if I slipped in. That's amazing. Well, she had to, because she had employees, and if I was a daughter working for her, I had to have the rough treatment, you know, wake up and, you know, you've got to be ahead, you know? Yeah. And it's good, good lessons, good, good lessons, life lessons, but I think Nancy, you enjoyed spraying me with the hose in bed at one time. Oh, that was great fun. And that wasn't even technically late yet. But you're like, if you're not at work 15 minutes early, you're late, so... Right, you're late. Yeah, yeah. But where were you at 18 years old, Pierre? Where were you living? What was life like, and did you think you were going to be traveling the world with your guitar? Well, okay. May I go a little bit before I was 18? Sure. When I was 12, I knew I was going to be a full-time musician. When I was 16, I quit school. When I was 17, I recorded my first album that won the Montreuf Festival Grand Prix of the disc. And then when I was 18, I toured. I was already on the road. I was a bluegrass musician playing mandolin with bell keys. And I was also a finger-style player playing complete different things on the guitar and singing, things coming from folk music, from France, from England, Scotland, Ireland. And also, I started to write my own original music from the very beginning. So I had made my first record in the turn of being 17 and 18. My first record came out when I was 18, I was on the road. And the next year, it won't surprise. So I was already touring when I was 18. And I was living with my parents in the suburbs of Paris. Did they like it? I mean, they were okay that you quit school to do this? No, my mother was a mathematics teacher and she was not okay for me to quit school when I was 16. But I did give her notice from the age of 12, I told her, in four years I quit school. And every year, I will tell her mama, next year, I'm quitting school and she could not believe it. But she had no choice, I had to do it. And then, you know, many years later, she became my manager. Well, you want a manager who can count, because that's how you can stay fluent. But that doesn't add into your music being having a mom that was a math teacher? I mean, my mom, my parents were amazingly supportive. They have been respecting my, my desire to fulfill my life with music. My music was some things that was natural, like the air we breath at home. My father was loving so many music every weekend when he was not working, he was at home and he was playing his records. He was playing jazz, he was gifting music, opera, classical music, Paris recording music. And so I grew up listening to all what my parents used to love, listening to. And I felt my only, my first real big impression of feeling what freedom is all about is when my parents bought me a turntable. And then I took the record, the vinyls we had. I took some of them into my bedroom and started to listen to them just for myself. And my, my first, I think I was probably nine, nine years old, I was playing piano already. And my first big, big falling in love with music was listening to archer, Rubenstein playing the moonlight sonata by Beethoven. Oh, yes, awesome. And you know, it's funny because, okay, this is the first piece of music that really completely drove me in. Then there were sharp dumplings, the pollinators and everything. But that moonlight sonata, the entire movement, the entire sonata is amazing, but the first movement, you know, the very lago movement is so mysterious and so a bit, a bit, a bit like a very mythic, mythic piece of music that connects me to my very deep being just not long ago. I took my guitar, I took the score, I took a recording on YouTube of, I don't remember who played it on piano and learned it. And I'm going to play it in my concerts. Oh my gosh, that's fantastic. Cool. It's a beautiful song. We used to play that when we got back to this country, Nancy started, there was a company that sells and teaches musical organs, I have to always say musical organs. She started doing it. And then I wanted to go to music school and they wouldn't take my high school diploma from South Africa without South Africa sending my diploma. And at that time, South Africa was in unrest and my headmaster from the school had a heart attack and passed away and South Africa didn't seem to care about sending my papers. It's not like you can email them with the internet now, right? This was way back when and the early 90s, 91, 93 were here, got here. And so my dreams of going to, and they had funding for me to do musical theater. That was my thing. I wanted to graduate in that and because I've got the voice for it and I love the dynamics of it and everything, and that didn't work. It's all because of seeing hair on the Rocky Horror Picture Show, which was the last thing we did in the magazine in South Africa, Nancy, was a Rocky Horror Picture Show, which was a great, great, great album. That music is, it's underrated, I think, the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Yeah, and it was banned. It was banned in South Africa. It was banned. So I put it on the cover of the magazine because I knew we were leaving. I'm like, oh, yeah, watch this. It was just, it just became un-banned. And so yeah, but then we taught people music and Moonlight Sonata was what we both did in organs, taught organs, yeah, true stories. May I ask you how long did you live in South Africa? That's a good question. Because we're always wrong about it. And I have to go on a storage unit and look at the papers, but I think it was because these tenures, I'd say so, maybe, because England was a year and a half. Yeah. And then we came to the States, did the music in Florida, we lived in Kenya, then we lived in England. You're making me older, Nancy. I know. We lived in Kenya, then we went to England, then South Africa. Then Guernsey in the Channel Islands, in England and France, we were close to you, Pierre. Then we went here. Then we tried to move to Mexico and that didn't turn out. Well, we lived there for six months and then we came home. When you were in Guernsey, did you visit Victor Hugo House? Oh, no. I don't think so. Did you go? Victor Hugo was exiled on Guernsey and Jersey, Ireland for all the time when Napoleon III was ruling France because, you know, Victor Hugo was a Republican. And Napoleon III asked him to leave because Hugo was, you know, completely against empire and all those things. This guy was from Megalomaniac that he could not stand it. So Napoleon II said, "Ask him to leave." He said, "You leave or I put you in jail?" Wow. So I don't know if Victor Hugo was that like that. Wow. So 16 years in Guernsey and Guernsey. Wow. Guernsey's family. Gerald Derelle, however you want to say it. Harold Derelle. Yeah, he went to Corfu and everything with his animals as a kid and then he's a conservationist and he has a place in Sark, which you can't have a motorized vehicle on this island. And so, and Guernsey was interesting because my step grandfather, so Nancy's mother, Nancy's mother, married this little man, you did not just say the troll word, but it's true. He wasn't, he was not that nice, but anyway, he was humorous, but he wasn't the nicest of people, but we took care of him in Mexico and, you know, he anyway, so long, that's a whole long story, but you could write a book, you know, with all your different experiences. That's what Nancy, we keep telling Nancy get on it, but yeah, because we have to, yeah, she has to do it because of her adventures, you know, and then she's like, as a kid, you're going to have these adventures, you get into it, and I did, but in the Channel Islands, he, the step grandfather, the troll, he was a gardener and anyway, they put it, he was in the occupation, the Nazi tip, took over the island, and so he was in the occupation and he's figured out how to make a radio so he could hear what was going on, and so, you know, he's just, and he, yeah, and so when him and my grandmother came to the States, they lived with Nancy and, and then with us, and then moved to Mexico and that's how we ended up there taking care of because he wasn't well and anyway, long, long story, but we go there and I swear to God, he had this damn radio from Russia, the Russian radio, and at three in the morning, four in the morning, it turns, and I swear, I still wake up at that time because I think I was messaging you back this morning at two in the morning, it was so crazy, and he would turn this radio on with static and you're in Mexico and we're trying to tell him it's not the same, but he was determined, right? He would, at two to three in the morning, he would hear this big loud static sound for the whole house because he wants to hear the radio and he would do, this was his, this radio was everything, so one day we thought, you know what, it's enough of this, let's, you know how you have the spray oil for cooking here, you know, we thought, okay, we're going to spray this radio because then the ants will come and eat the wires and it will stop, you know, because he's not getting anything, it's not working, and the whole, like, everyone, people complaining, it's, I mean, when I say loud, I can't, it's like, well, he was partially deaf, he was partially deaf, yeah, people are getting mad, and so, so we spray this on, we weren't being cruel, but it was like, this would be a way of not having any kind of argument, like, just, you know what happened, we sprayed it, you did, the thing, the thing worked after we did it, and made it work better, and he was able to get channels, so, for karma, instant karma, so now I know, if you have a whole time radio, you fixed it, you fixed it, yeah, we fixed it, and then we had loud Russian sounds coming out, but he managed to, I mean, it was interesting, because when we went to Guernsey, they had satellite TV, and they were watching things in France and Germany, and they were watching porn, my grandparents were watching porn, naughty movies on TV, we caught them, at that time, at that time, that was, that was in the 90s, and we're like, yeah, what, like, my sweet innocent grandmother is watching this, like, what, it was, it was, it was German porn, it was German porn, yeah, which is different than normal porn, I'm just saying, it was a little, it was a little heavy-handed, I'm Nancy and I just came out, and just, our eyes were big as saucers, like, no kidding, I'm going no way, because at that time, I smoked, and I was trying to sneak out of their house to smoke a cigarette, and got caught, and we caught them, we all got caught, yeah, that's amazing, it's hilarious, you have to put this into the book, I crawled out, I crawled out from the bedroom lease, and I were in, crawled on my hands and knees, out, behind the couch where my mom, the sofa where my mom and the troll were sitting watching the TV, so I could peer around and see what they were watching, it was a shock, because my mother, the way I was raised, my mother and my real dad were so strict, and here she is now watching porn with a little 4.59 troll, that's amazing, it could be a traumatism thought of, it was funny, but I couldn't believe that she was watching it, and they used a lot of wits. Well Pierre, you know, South Africa is very, very, I don't want to say Amish but it was very clean, you know, my friends and I weren't so much, but you know, if you have a picture of Jesus Christ on the cross, they put boxes over his nipples, and over his lower portion of his body, so you don't see anything, that's how clean, I mean then, I don't know about now, again my friends and I were a little bit different, but it was very, very, you know, the Rocky R picture show was banned for over 20 years, the exorcist movie was banned, anything especially religious, it's very, very clean, and yet at the same time horrible things were going on, right, you know how that is in the world, and so I was really shocked because you came out of this culture of clean, clean, clean, you can do it, you know, I was just, it just was so different, and then going outside of the country, then when we went from the Channel Islands to America, we woke up, my uncle picked us up from the airport, we go to his house in Florida, in Port St. Lucie, and we wake up and the TV, you could turn the TV on during the day, which we didn't have, like I mean early in the day, and they had talk shows where people were yelling at each other and having big family fights, and we were absolutely shocked that this could be anything that we were shocked, it was a big culture shock, have you had culture shock in your travels like that from just different, I mean I think things, I mean, I don't want to say we were behind in South Africa, but there was an era behind, but not, I mean it's the most progressive and modernized city in, you know, I mean country and in the continent of Africa, people forget it's a continent, but have you found that where it's like whoa okay, I got a, I got a, yeah, I left Algeria when I was 4, but I never went back to Algeria, but I went to play in Morocco and in Tunisia, and it was a shock, it was a shock, yeah, you know, and what I went, I went to Japan, so it was a shock, when I went to China, it was a shock, you know, not the kind of shock where I'm thinking, oh my God, this is horrible what's happening, it was like a very interesting fact, you know, and I'm just going back to North Africa, I felt very, very romantically close to my parents, to my siblings, to my uncles, to my grandparents, I thought, oh my God, so this is what they have been experiencing, living in an Arabic place with Arabic people, in the Muslim religion, with the mosque, with Muizin calling for the prayer, and this is what they have been. Oh, I love that. This is what they have been going through, you know, and it was, it was a big enlightenment, you see, and going to Ireland also was a shock, because I love Irish music, but music in fact made me want to travel and meet people, to see what kind of people can make this kind of music, why people come making some music to make. And so what I went to Ireland, I realized, you know, I sort of felt in sync with music, the people, the philosophy of the place, the geography of the place, the history of the place, all the different experience and style and grades they went through. Yeah, you know, and I think it's fantastic to have cultural thought like this. I think travel is probably, at least for me, the biggest part of being educated came from travel. I mean, all I respect schools and I think people should go to school for as long as I can. I learn as much as I can, but travel is a real eye opener. It really is. I can think of a better thing. I agree with you. You know, as I told you, I left school when I was 16, but in fact, I learned a lot when I was at school, although I didn't like school at all, but I realized that I learned a lot when I was at school. I learned a lot. But traveling is an amazing experience. It's like, you know, I kept saying my school has been the University of the world. The University of the planet just traveling and because you meet events that open your curiosity. Then it's up to you. If you want to know more, there are a lot of information available out there. You can talk with people, you can read books, you can go to, you can see documentaries, you can watch movies and even more so today than then. So I think, yeah, it's, you never, in fact, you never stop educating yourself. You see, and I think we were talking about being young, being old. I think probably feeling old is when you sort of resign of feeling that this way of being cursed and being open and you want to know and educate, you keep on educating yourself and becoming a better person altogether. And I think as long as we have this drive, we will never, we will be eight less. Yeah, I think so. And, you know, who knows if we come back or not, right? That's a whole other thing, but we'll find out. When we close our mind, that's it. You've closed your life to me. You close your heart, you close your mind. And music is the soul. Music is the soul. Yeah, yeah. But for me being, you know, I'm 67. So I start being more old than young. And but yes, I have, I have examples of musicians who have been playing until they were 90 years old, like two, two months, like Benjamin Stein, like overweets. And I could name many others. And those people, like Rachel, who have been playing, he was very old and he was still touring and he was blind. So he had, he had, he needed someone to, to assist him. But those people have been playing even, even, even institutions who just passed away not long ago. Those people have been becoming even better artists in their old age. You see what I'm saying? I think so. Yeah. Yeah, Bob Dylan. I think Bob Dylan is aged like a beautiful wine with his voice. And, you know, I just, it's interesting what he says, though, he says that in fact, somewhat, some journalist asked him, were you aware when you were making those songs, you know, blowing in the wind and also that this was going to, to create search, carries in the world's charisma and stuff like this and said, I absolutely not. And he said, and he said, those songs were very special. And I could absolutely cannot do anything of this nature now. Yeah, it's different. It's not. Yeah. It isn't it like you always talk about how it just comes through you, like you're the vessel and this is coming through, right? It's, it's, to me, it's, it's all. Yes. I mean, I mean, you know, the fact of, of feeling the emergency of, of the biologic pronos makes me go to the essential today. You know? Nancy, Nancy, Nancy just goes, I'm not putting up with this. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. These are all things that you say, okay, I'm not going to put up with that. And you, you all feel more relaxed about a lot of things. You know, you decide to ignore certain things and not to not lose your energy and time to respond to whatever. And but to concentrate on what is really makes your life still being significant. And in, in my, in my life, what makes my life being significant is, of course, being able, being able to, to address this to the music I write. You know, because I write stuff that I don't necessarily know how to play. I write what I hear and, and although I have, I have a great technique, I never have enough technique. And so, so I'm still struggling, learning what I write, like an interpreter will, will study a composer. So I have, I'm the composer and I'm the interpreter. So I'm doing, I have both hats. And that takes energy and time. And so that's, that's where I want to put my time, you know, writing my own, you know, keep on diving in my own inner world and, and come up to the surface with this music and share it with the world. Oh, I'm so glad you see that. Yeah. Do you think you might have lived before and sometimes when you're diving deeper into yourself, you're going to pass lifetime? Probably. As I said before, we'll find out. Yeah, yeah. Well, I don't know. Sometimes something will happen. I don't know in fact. Okay. How can you, how can you be certain of this? Yeah, you can't really know, but you can feel, you can feel things. But my wife, for instance, she feels that our soul is going into, you know, she believes, I mean, it's not a question of space or even belief. She know our soul travels. Our soul has been living several lives. She believes in recognition and everything. I do too. Yeah. So when we speak together, I don't know. I don't know. I like, I like the idea. I like the idea. And if, if the idea makes you have a better life and helps you to have a good life on this present moment, why not? Why not? If anything that helps you to be, you know, to be a good, a good person and have fun and enjoy the time you are, you know, the short time, because in fact, our life is very short, you know, the short time you have here on earth, why not? I respect that, you know, it's okay. But do I, am I sure? I have no idea, you know, I don't know. It's none of us really know, but I love that what you'd said about having is still stretch, you know, you know, and here you are, you know, on the road for 50 years with your music, you know, touring, performing, recording, you've been doing this. And, you know, when I was doing music, it was so hard for me to get what was in my head out, you know, I had to divide what was, what was more important. And I think music, same as what our industry is, our business, is storytelling and education, connectivity, inspiration, moving, you know. Music takes it to this other level that you can't even touch, you know, it's soul, it's therapy, it's everything, right? And like, I would not want to live here if there was no music, just take me out. No music, you know, nature, I'm done, I'm out. Don't worry, it will never happen like that. There will always be music, there will always be music. Music and nature are hand in hand, there would be no music without nature, because the sounds have been nature before human beings anyway. So yeah, yeah, so, but when we look at going from writing in my head, and it used to drive me up the wall, trying to explain like, what's in my head, and what's in my heart of this song, to get it out is insanely difficult, because there's different things. And now, like, interviewing some musicians, so many musicians, and having done some of the music, you know, and performed and all of that, and had bands and all of that, I go, it really is you have to make a choice in life sometimes of where you're going to put your energy. And, you know, for the songwriting, maybe I'll do it when I'm older. It doesn't mean it's going to be bad. Sometimes you just, you have to do what and where, when, you know, and you know, now I've met some people that I can go and record with. I have a better sense of how to explain things. I, you know, we have things to help, and I think we never should give up on our dreams from young that maybe we didn't do. Maybe there's a song in your back pocket, Pierre, that hasn't come out yet, you know, and every, I think it's so important to not let go of dreams, you know, because you never know. Life changes. Every day we wake up, we have no clue what's going to happen. And music, music is a combination of those changes, so it does change all the time. Yes. Yes. You know. And you were talking about storytelling, but in fact, music is storytelling. Sure. Yeah. Absolutely. That's what I said. That's our common bond. Yeah. And the thing is, you never know what's going to happen. No. So, you know, you really have to learn to live in the present and not the past. But I'm like, one time, when I went to Kenya, something happened with my passport, and I was getting a visa in Kenya itself to go to certain parts of the country, then the official took my passport and he never came back. Wow. Wow. And so I was like, not what do I do? So this one clerk at the front desk, she looked at me, she said, get a lawyer. Wow. So apparently it happened a lot, and it was because he was sort of hit. I realized now he was hinting for a bribe, but I've always been brought up that you don't bribe. And then it's scary to bribe an official, and so I didn't go for that. And the next thing he just left the room with my passport. So I had to go get a lawyer to try to get my passport back or I eventually no, I never got it back. I had to apply for a new one. And one of the funniest thing that ever happened when I was applying for the new one, the person at the counter said, you know, if you had your passport, you could read the back page where it tells you what to do if you lose your passport. Yes, you need your passport of that. Yeah, well, when we left South Africa, and we had to go in a hurry, my passport wasn't there. And we're like, oh my gosh, and we need to go now. And they called me a passport from America in 72 hours from Washington, DC, from DC got it to me in 72 hours. How does that happen? We get on the plane and then I go in this handbag that I hadn't we used for a couple years. I'm like, oh, this is the handbag, I'll use this perfect for traveling. And because I mean, we didn't carry much when we left, trust me with everything went away, lost all of it. And so we had this handbag and I went in to get something and lo and behold, it had the secret pocket and there was the other passport. And now I'm just looking at me. You've got two passports on the plane. You need to hide that one. You're going to eat it or something. You know, it's a good thing to have two passports. Maybe. Well, not two different ones. Well, I know two different ones, but it's not a bet. I mean, it wasn't, but we were so panicked, leaving. I mean, we had to fly from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town to Joe Berg to get to go into London to see a friend for a few days. And we were so scared, we were going to get stopped. It was if you, the fear was real. And now when you look at fear, you know, there's real fear for real things versus fake fear, you know, fake fear. We have a lot of fake fear and it rules the world, which is terrible. Yeah, that wasn't fake fear. That was real fear. But Pierre, we were supposed to do a five minute conversation. Look how good we are. But it's here and you're in France and we're here. Five minutes. Hey, hey, Pierre, have you been to where in Lubbock, Texas, as we record this? Have you been to Lubbock? Have I been to where? Lubbock, Texas. L U B B O C Texas. Lubbock, Lubbock, Texas. Lubbock, Lubbock, Texas, no, I have not. It's the home of Betty Holly. And the cricket. Yeah, they came from you. Yes. I think it's Texas several times, but I, you know, not too, not in many places of Texas, to be honest, I've been to San Antonio. I've been to Curvy. Nice. I played the Curvy of Folk Festival once. Yeah, nice. Beautiful area. I've been to Dallas many times, to Austin many times. I've been to Denton University. Very nice. I think that's it. That's pretty much it. I drove through Texas many times, back and forth, from going from west back to east, from east to west. And you know what strike me in Texas? Many things strike me, but I was driving by night and I was speeding. And then a cop stopped me. And he said, well, so I see you are not from here. You are from Europe. I said, yes, I'm from France. I'm, you know, I'm traveling. And I think I was speeding. He said, yeah, you were speeding. But he said to me, do you know why it's good to not be speeding at night? I said, tell me, please, he said, because of the white life. And because of the white life, and I thought it was too wise to not speed at night, because at night, this is the land of the white life. Yeah, everywhere. In fact, where I live, I live in the country. And you know, from that time, from that very, very experienced, now when I drive at night, I slow down. Yeah, it's crazy. We watch that. And we do a lot of night driving, but I'm slow. And I have a rule, you know, because we drive across the country a lot. And it's me driving. And I have a rule of every three to four hours you stop rest, even if it's four, five minutes, 10 minutes recharge. But at night, you will see deer on the highway. And there's one highway through Texas that we call the dead deer highway, because so many, they have the big trucks. And so, yeah, and we see that in the dead armadillos, dead armadillos, dead deer. Yeah, it's a lot of water. They don't slow down. It's a lot of bond in Texas. It's like a lot of bond in Germany, you know, and yeah, exactly. It's in Texas. It's yeah, you have to be careful everywhere with the wild. You know, that reminds me of my first American tour back in 1979. I drove, I bought a Dodge Dot in Boston for $200. And I drove all foot out from Boston all the way to Los Angeles. And I drove from LA to Mendocino. And from Mendocino to Reno, and from Reno back east and arriving in Reno, I had no more break. My break system was dead. So I went to a garage, and I said, can you fix it? He said, no, I cannot fix it, because it's your breaks. You know, this is a no car and your breaks are completely dead. It needs to be changed. And it was back in '79, it was going to cost a price of the car to change the breaks. $200. And I was 19 years old. So I said, wow, $200. That's the price I pay for the car. It's a lot of money. The guy said, yeah, it's a lot of money on one hand. On the other hand, it would be so sad for this young French guitar player touring America to die in a car crash. And I said, yeah, so you think it's not a good idea for me to drive back to the east coast with no breaks. The guy looked at me, and he said, are you joking? I said, no, no, I'm serious. Do you think I can make it? He said to me, OK, I see you are serious. You can use your breaks, but if you have to use your break in emergency, all the system is going to collapse. Wow. So then I thought, what should I do? And you know what I did? I drove all back east without touching my breaks. You are kindred spirits, man. I was 19. But there is this, I don't know, there is, you remind me, I need to get the oil change in the car now, but this is because this 2024, Nancy and I were very lucky to dodge hurricanes for them. We were in and out of them. And you thank you for doing the recording for the Hurricane Helene benefit for Asheville in the East Tennessee. Georgia, we went to Savannah. Georgia had no clue. There were really messed up too. I mean, there was so much destruction and they're still dealing with it, not all places. We just over Thanksgiving, end of November, did they get water back in all the areas of Asheville, which is good because new water system is good. I cannot believe what happened there. It's so sad and we did so much dodging. I can't even tell you the poor car. I always go, okay, take the car in. I'm very good at that. And then our entire starting July through December, every plan changed. It was a six months of detours. And you think you're going somewhere, no, you're not. And you run a business where everything is a podcast has to air at this time. It's all deadline. Our industry is like, you have to be on a show. You've got to get there. And touring is not cheap, y'all. I'm just going to tell everybody. Everyone thinks, oh, you're on the road. You're saving tons of money. No, it's expensive to travel. They don't know better. It is expensive, but it is rich in experience. And with getting the car down like right now, I'm going, oh, yeah, yeah, because things change and then you don't take your car and then you don't. And I had it with batteries this year, 2024 battery problems. This car won't start. And you know, I did the old school of banging it with the stick and the battery worked. I did stupid things, but Nancy's like, no, don't drive. If you drive, this is going to happen. I'm like, no, it's going to go. I know how to do it. And you do just, you push the envelope and things and you kind of go pure balls and hope. You know, when I when I arrived, when I arrived in Boston, there's a friend who helped me to get my Dodge Dot bolted back from me for $200. And wow, I mean, he knew there was no break anymore. He said, it's okay. I'm going to change them. And I sold it for the price. I played for it. But the reason why I mentioned that was because you were talking about the antilops of the desert. And so this garage guy, Reno, he said, one thing you want to be very, very attentive to is if you drive at night, you are going to cross antilops. In fact, you are going to cross their roads. They will be attracted by the light of your, by your lights. They will cross the road. So you have to be very careful to not break them. And you know, I drove, I took a guy hitchhiking, who spent two years in jail. He was hitchhiking his way back to Des Moines, Iowa. And I said to him, do you have your driving license? He said, yes, I do. And he showed it to me. I said, okay, second, I need to warn you, there are no breaks on this car. You want to do the ride with me. If you do, we go, we go to Des Moines and I'm on my way to place a concert in Chicago. He said, okay, no problem. I go with you. He'll be both drugs. I was no breaks. This guy was amazing. You know, he told me why he went to jail and what happened in his life. And I would change on everything. So it's a very, very educational for me and walk, you know, on a human level, very, very deep. And then he was sleeping and it was my turn to drive from like four in four until six, seven and at six a day break in Wyoming. This beautiful mother until up with her baby roster, the road, as if I was not even there. Very quality. I just had the time to turn my wheel, my steering wheel on the left to not bump to not bump to them. Yeah. It was in Texas, Nancy. There was that wildlife refuge area. We just driven through this wildlife refuge. Yeah. And there was a road and all of a sudden this deer, and you couldn't see because there was like corn, like really, like high corn or something. It was just reed or say, it was just really high on either side of the road. So you couldn't see anything coming or going. And this deer and Nancy went deer and it was, I'm driving looking like in one direction, away came through. And I turned in time to end up in between the corn, like in this other, I mean, we say, I mean, it was, but your heart, your heart, your poor heart. I mean, when you talk about skipping a beat, there's more than one beat, God, you know, but it's, yeah, saying goodness, no, pain, right? No, no. Those are beautiful moments. You know, when they grow on you, as you, you know, and you remember them, and it becomes a beautiful remembrance for me. I want to tell you, I'll go ahead, Nancy. I was going to say one time in, when we were in Africa, my mom was with us. And then you said, and my, and my mother and I were in a van and would feed. And this elephant decided it was going to cross the road. So I stopped. And so that what does the elephant do? It walks up to the side of the, of the van and starts pushing the van and we're on a narrow road. And I'm like, do I go or do I not? Because if you start up again, you can really make it charge. But then I'm looking, well, you don't really have that much room to charge because you're right next to us. So how fast can you go before an elephant charges? Wow. So, you know, I was like, okay, I'm going to go. And I went backwards instead of forwards. And I have no idea why I did that. I reversed and then went forward and somehow that confused the elephant enough to just let him stand there like, what kind of a driver is she? And let me move forward. But he was literally in the side of the car. You can see where his tusk had dented the door. Well, sometimes early morning driving and night driving can be really not the best thing to do. But when there's wildlife on the road, man, the anything can happen, right? All the day, maybe to stop the car and sleep or just, you know, drink a coffee or go somewhere and we sleep. We sleep on the road all the time. We go to rest areas and we car camp because sometimes, you know, you only sleep for two hours. You don't want to go to a motel for that. And then we have time where, yeah, we get hotels or we pets, you know, we pets it as we travel, but it's, you go to rest areas and Nancy and I love it. You know, you're sitting in your car and you're sitting up, you sleep good, but you see other people doing exactly the same. You can tell the difference between people traveling through and actual road warriors that are doing the same thing as you and you can tell by their car, you can tell about their level of, they know, they know the drill, they know that they're a drill. And then we watch people, we people watch and it's fine. Let me, let me ask you something. You spend most, you spend most of your time traveling. Yeah, whole time. So, so when, when you are not traveling, where are you based? And we're full time. We don't, we don't, we don't, we have a storage unit in Tucson. That's why. In Tucson. Okay. Okay. Tucson is our kind of home. Yeah. You know, but we, once we went on the road is why, you know, it's, we're trying to be as life for it as possible. And why have a house, you know, how long did, how long do you spend on the road within a year? The whole year. Oh my God. That's amazing. No, that's, that's something I could not stop. There's no, I could not do, I could not do that. Now, but what we do, we, we signed up to do this. This is why we drink wine from a, from an interview we did with, with a company called trusted house sitters. Yeah. Yeah. We, we interviewed this lady and she was doing, and she said, why don't you, why don't you start pet sitting because this is during COVID and all the hotels and restaurants were closing. And we're like, now what are we going to do? You know, so she said, go pet sit and people. And we love animals. I mean, we went on the road when our cat died. We said, well, then why are we here? Let's go. And so we've always been on the road. Yeah, so we go into people's homes and we pet sit for their pets. We water their gardens, we make sure that the house is secure and animals are happy. And so, and the internet's better than hotels. Yeah, mostly time. And that's what we, that's what we've been doing for years now. We've been doing pet sitting this year 2025 for in July 4th of July. And what we're recording right now is our very first pet sit will be five years pet sitting. And we love it. We've done over 130 something pet sits. That's amazing. And you meet, we've got a family, a human family and an animal family and really good friends, you know, and you see how America lives. You're not passing through, you're living it. And I know that PR as you travel, you also stay with people and you see life, not just. So you mean you go, you go to people's home and, and pet sit there, there at their home. Yeah, why is that way? I have to go away for some time. So you stay there instead. Yes. And that way, their animals have their same routines. They're home. Yes. And everybody's happy. And it's a fantastic, it's environmentally friendly. Yeah. How long do you stay in a home? Well, right now we are, we're 10 days and then the next one is six weeks. Sometimes it's a week, two weeks, sometimes it's a weekend, sometimes a weekend. But we can, yeah, 10 days, 10 days is great. It is great. It's all good. And then you, we try to always do something in the place where we are sometimes the animals. It's we've run farms, mini farms. We've done, we've run a bed and breakfast for our friends in Asheville a few times. But just that was an experience. And we don't need to do that again, because they work really hard. But we have our business. So it's, it's, we did it to, to first time was as a, as like a dare. It was like, all right, you go in there, it's going to be a good article. And but we learned a lot. We learned a lot. And, but I need to tell you, bed and breakfast, we do a lot of work with bed and breakfast, because they get forgotten in this world of travel. And they are often historic homes or in an area that is about protecting nature. And you know, I always, you know, people always hotel, hotel, hotel. And there's nothing, we support hotels too. We love hotels. We have clients or hotels, resorts, all that. But bed and breakfast, you know, it's somewhat home. And part of being a bed and breakfast is keeping these historic places restored that we don't lose these places. And it's this personal touch. You know, you have breakfast together. You meet people. It's more intimate. And I don't know, it's a beautiful thing. And it is women travelers. We're always conscious. I say, we're so safety conscious that we will car camp places all over the place. But we'll park car camp in nature and a park or car camp. You know, because it time is time. And if you feel comfortable in your chair to sleep in it, we don't need to put a tent up. But it's Yeah, it's minimalist. Because what do we need in our life? How much stuff do you need? And so we have all our stuff, our storage unit went from being by 10 to nine by five. That's how much we own now. And it's all slides. It's all photographs. And now we're going to get them at all. We want, we want, we want to be 100% free. Because stuff is stuff. And, you know, we can digitize things that are important, like photos. And that's the main thing in music. There's some music that have written Nancy's photography. We want to protect that. And some of our art, we can give her art to places and people. But after that, what, what do we need? You know, you can read books now on the road. You can listen to music on the road. You can do everything you want on the road. And so, you know that, you know that some people they buy a cabin on the boat and just spend three or four or five years on the boat? People do that now. Yeah, people do it RVs, boats. You know, there's, that's a whole world. Our friends with the Kissam, her and her husband, they live in Arizona during winter and summer, like from late spring to early summer, the Pacific Northwest, Tacoma, Washington, get in their boat and they cruise all summer. And then they come back to the Arizona and that's their life. And they do like we do. They go from port to port and sleep in a different port every night. It's kind of, it's, I don't know, it's like you, it, everyone's different. Some people would never do what you do and Nancy and I do. But it's about being alive, I believe, you know. But people need us to do what we do. Yes, we do. Oh, yeah. You see, they need, they need the people dreaming like you and you and me and sharing our dreams with them. This is very important for them. I think, yeah. Music and art and writing, writing is so important because, well, not everybody is free to travel all the time. Exactly. And, but you know, television is television. Movies are great. But when you start watching the same things over and over and over again. Music lingers. Music is something like sometimes, especially out in the wilderness, when we're hiking. Yeah, certain songs come to mind. Yeah. And you know, then I feel like, oh, I want to go get that piece of music. And the photos, at least it takes from where we are and the animals and make a video. That's, I would love to be able to just do nature-ified kind of videos with good music. Do you make videos? Yeah. Yes. Media videos too. We do a little bit of everything. Pierre? Yeah. Yes. When you are 18, what is, so we can do this to our playlist too, our 18-year-old playlist. What is the music that you want on that playlist from when, who you were listening to when you were 18? When I was 18, I was listening to Johnny Mitchell, an album that's called Blue, which is, I think, a classic and probably one of the one I will bring with me to a desert island. If I could, if I could listen to music there, there was Ed Stevens, Chief of the Tilla Man, that I was listening to- Oh, yes. When I was listening also to Coach Beast in Nashignon, Forward Street, a double live vinyl. I was listening to a French songwriter by the name of George Marsas, and I learned a lot of his songs. I was listening to Bob Dylan, and I learned a lot of his songs. Just recently, I started to do a cover of one of his songs, which I would like to play on my next concerts. I was listening to a lot of things, to classical music, to folk music, to single song writers. But people really tracked me where Johnny Mitchell, I think, and Pat Stevens, and Paul Simon and Garfunkel, Bridge of the Troublewater, Mrs. Robinson, the South of the Silence, and Bach, and Beethoven, and Chopin, and Charlie Mingus, and Jimi Hendrix, I was listening to all those guys. I was like, and I can't go because I love what my father loved. I didn't like everything at first, but then I started to appreciate what he was fancy, and I thought he had a beautiful taste for music, and so I started to listen to that as well. When I started to play bluegrass music, I listened to a lot of bluegrass music, a lot, a lot. I've been always completely open to anything as long as there was a musical universe within. I love that you love Kat Stevens. Yeah, Kat Stevens, T for the Tillerman. When we lived in South Africa, my best friend, Melissa, I have a group of best friends there, ladies, and in fact, just talked to her before we knew. We were talking about what we were listening to, and someone said Madonna, and I'm like, "No, I'm sorry, no offense to Madonna." Now, no, no, no, offense is just not my thing, but she kept saying, "You're always the Beatles. You are always sitting with your guitar, learning all the Beatles stuff." But Kat Stevens was a big deal. We have a good friend who's passed away, and his voice is almost 100% Kat Stevens, and it's his natural voice. He was an amazing songwriter, and T for the Tillerman was, I got into collecting vinyl, and it was Nancy's art director, Peter Swanable, and we had this vinyl exchange at the magazine, and we'd all bring him in and swap him around and pay each other or trade or whatever, and T for the Tillerman, and I sat down in my little place listening to T for the Tillerman, and it changed everything, and it brought me back to Paul Butler and Nancy, but also just, wow, you know, Kat Stevens or Yusef, I think he's probably one of the most iconic world musicians that, you know, is so... And so, and so, so is Johnny Mitchell. Peaceful. Johnny Mitchell, I mean, look at her coming back and playing with Brandy Carlisle and doing so much now. She never left, you know, she never left. She has always been around. She had a stroke, but she's back, and what an artist. Her art, her art, her pain is... Yeah, her art is amazing. I mean, for me, you know, she's like in the same league, Kat Stevens, Johnny Mitchell, Bob Dylan, those people are like lighthouses. They're food. Their music is food. That's it. Pierre, thank you so much. We could talk for hours, and I know it could work, but it could start all over again, but thank you. I will call out to meet you both, yeah. I know it'll be fun. It will happen. Everyone, 2025 is the year we meet Pierre. Let me know. Let me know, okay? Yeah, we will. Everyone, Pierre, Ben, Susan.com is a website. Keep up with him. Sign up for his newsletter. Always lovely to hear from you. You always give your tour dates, and what's going on, and you do workshops, too. So if you're learning to play guitar, this is definitely you want to check out his workshops about music books, too, so you learn. So, so much going on. So, check that out. And thank you, Pierre. Thank you for being part of our 18 years of podcasting and part of our world. Thank you for having me for all this time. Thank you for your loyalty. It's fantastic. I wish you the very, very, very best. Happy Christmas. Happy New Year. I will keep on having a great health and a great curiosity for everything and keep on doing what you do. This is fantastic. You are the best at it. Thank you. And you, too. Happy 50th, Pierre. And I just heard 50. So how does that make you feel? That makes me feel a little bit like older, but it's okay. It's okay. You are wiser. It's okay. Yeah. Happy New Year. You love our calluses on your fingertips and me. Exactly. Thank you so much for both. Okay. Yeah. All the best. Bye-bye. Yeah. Bye-bye. [Music] Oh. When I'm caught up in your lips, I feel like I'm being buried alive. Oh, all my hostage to your greed is to feel every heartbeat. Each new day feels like night, but you're forever in your weather life. I am running. [Music] Hello, big blend radio friends. Happy 18th anniversary. What an incredible milestone for Lisa, Nancy, and everyone at Big Blend Radio. It's truly a privilege to be a part of this celebration and to join you in making 18 amazing years of entertaining, inspiring, and connecting with audiences worldwide. Congratulations on this remarkable achievement. I'm Nikki Chris, a recording artist, songwriter, and music producer, podcaster, a little bit of everything passionate about inspiring others through music. I first connected with Big Blend Radio several years ago, and I've been continually amazed by their dedication to amplify unique voices and sharing powerful stories. Being featured on the show has always felt like catching up with old friends, and I'm so grateful for the incredible support Lisa and Nancy have given me and so many other artists. Here's to 2025 being a year of endless possibilities, growth, and joy for all of you. I am especially excited about the release of my new album Unleashed and the opportunity to connect with even more listeners. Cheers to new music, new memories, and another fantastic year for Big Blend Radio. Where was I at 18? When I think back, it was a tough time. As my senior year of high school, navigating a lot of uncertainty and challenges at home, I felt like everything was shifting around me and was trying to figure out my place in it all. That's when music became my escape. It was the one thing that gave me comfort and allowed me to dream beyond my circumstances. Going away to college was both exciting and maybe a little scary, but it represented a fresh start. I threw myself into school and music as a way to cope and find myself. Those experiences shaped the artists that I am today, teaching me to pour my emotions into my work and connect with others who may feel the same. Pop culture and music were so influential when I was 18. 80s hair bands. I'll never forget how impactful songs like YouTos. I still haven't found what I'm looking for, where to me at the time, and also Bon Jovi's Living on a Prayer. They represented songs that search for purpose and fulfillment. Something that still drives me today. And with that, I'd like to thank Lisa and Nancy of Big Blend Radio for including me in this milestone celebration. Congratulations on 18 amazing years of Big Blend Radio. I'm honored to be a part of it and look forward to many more years of inspiring stories and connections. Sending you lots of hugs and all the best and happy 18th anniversary. I need a sign to remind me who I was, who I still haven't been signed. I need a reason to hold on, let go, I'll swim for my life. And I hear this faint voice. [Music] Hey everyone, welcome back here to Big Blend Radio. We have Lisa Snyderman, who we call AAD. You can go to website admees.com. She's a singer, songwriter, performer. She has all kinds of amazing projects that all have to do with the arts and also to do with wellness. And she is back on the show to help us celebrate 28 years of Big Blend Publishing, but we're specifically focusing on our 18 year birthday of Big Blend Radio. And Lisa has been on the shows. I know for over 10 years, at least 10 to 12. I'm going to think 12 to 13, 14 years. She has been on the podcast. So welcome back, Lisa. How are you? Hey, it's great to be here. And that is so wild to think how, yeah, that you are turning 18. I know. Nancy, how do you feel being 18? I don't feel this. I know. I think we all get to have champagne. I think you came on one of our champagne. You've been on a few champagne Sunday shows, music shows, and when you first came on, you were promoting your different albums. And because you've always been a storyteller, wouldn't you say with your music and everything you do, storytelling is part of your main soul, storytelling? Absolutely. And even when my, because of what I'm dealing with with health and illness, it kind of encouraged me to go on a path that explored storytelling even more with audio books. And so I remember coming on to your show years ago with all of these fantasy musical audio books that I had adapted. And so yeah, storytelling's been at the heart. Yeah. And so let's talk about your music side. When did that begin for you? Oh my gosh. I think it was 2006 when I first kind of, you know, penned my artist name as A.E.D. and it's basically the Muse of Song because A.E.D. is in Greek mythology was the Muse of Song. And so I've been, you know, basically as A.E.D. as an artist, I've been working since 2006. Wow. And award-winning as well. And I remember when you first came on the show, having to help us pronounce A.E.D., you know, while we were sipping champagne. And isn't that right? Oh, probably. I'm sure. Champagne lessons on big blend radio, you know, because that was our main, like we started with champagne Sundays, even when we were southwest blend before we became big blend. And we were focused on the southwest of the country. And then we're like, why are we just doing that? You know, move on. And so we got bigger because of podcasting. And that's what really made us go national and international was podcasting because you can talk to anyone around the world. Remember Nancy? We had Refino Winery from Italy come on a show. We had people all Australia, like Dino Jag, the musician, you know, and we're like, why are we still southwest blend? Let's be big blend. And so now it is. And now it's all kinds of mag, digital magazines. And I think we have about 40 podcast channels now. Wow. Which is a little crazy. Yeah. And you've been on ones with quality of life. Tell everybody about the grieving project and what that is about. Because I and everyone, you can go to the grieving project.com. All the links are in the episode notes. So you can just quickly click on that. Tell everyone about that. Because that's something, you know, you started with your music coming on the shows and then start and then the audio books and then the grieving project is pretty massive. Thank you. Yeah. The grieving project is in essence, I, because I live at home with chronic illness, I was intending to bring live theater experience to those like me who can't attend live theater. And I'm also had realized that I spent so many years creating and all of these things that I've done through albums and books and videos and all of the ways that I've been creative that I had forgotten to grieve my illness. So it really encouraged me during the pandemic to create an audio book that set the stages of grief to music. And then I've been adapting that to a stage musical for the last four years. And the grieving project is really special to me because it basically, you know, is a way that I can, you know, kind of put my experiences into a musical that can hopefully have affinity for others, right, who might have gone through something similar. And we actually have changed the name. So I've rebranding, it's actually called How the Light Gets In. And it is a musical that's re-imagining theater and accessibility, and it's blending live performance and immersive virtual experience. So you can check out the grieving project musical under the grievingproject.com/musical and see much more about that. That's very cool. And you use the word blend, you get extra points, extra birthday points. And the one really cool thing that just happened is we were awarded a large grant from Doris Duke. So we now have, yeah, we're now exploring some of this immersive tech and accessibility, basically, you know, to be able to do that before we're having a full production. And that is really amazing place to be because we can really fine tune all the things that we want to do before, you know, we bring it to a full production. So are you using AI at all for this? When you look at these kinds of, you know, the technology that's out there, I know a friend, Joey Stucky. So blind musician, any co-hosts or fourth Sunday, big daily blend show, he does so much in trying to improve and communicate what, you know, those with visual impurities need or impairments, imparities, is that a new word? Imparments, imparities. Yeah, I like that. So it's, he's really working with that and he says, AI can do so much. And of course, we have all kinds of safeguards that need to happen with AI. But have you used AI in anything that you're doing to help? Yes, I am very of a proponent of the mostly chat GPT, which is a language learning model, an LLM. And so I use that generatively in a lot of what I'm doing in the show, you know, to just as a creator, as a playwright, that's how I'm using AI. But we also use AI in different ways. There's in the platform itself, the digital platform that we're exploring, and then we're looking in the future to use like chat, you know, ASL bot would be really something that would be fun, right? Like, so we'll definitely be exploring ways that AI can be in the development of this of this show. Yeah, it's interesting because I think people's fear is like, okay, well, there's the thing about it, thievery, right? So that's a, you know, AI and thievery of other artists. But, you know, it's really it's not taking away from doing art. It is, you know, when you're using it, you because you get to modify whatever spits back out, right? And create from there. So it's it's um, that's why it's generative, right? For me, it's very generative. It gives me a world of ideas, you know, some of which really resonate, and then I might, you know, go down that bunny trail. So that's how I use it, right? I think, and then I also use it oftentimes for things like grant writing, you know, these these models are really effective for being able to get things very concise, et cetera. So that we're going to be exploring all kinds of accessibility features. So people like Joey and my friend Precious, you know, who's also a blind musician, are able to participate in every aspect of this, you know, to be able to have access at different points, right? Whether it's logging into the platform, navigating the platform, et cetera. Because when I talk about this show, we're talking about both a live and a virtual experience, right? So when you're doing it from home, you need to be able, you know, to log on to a platform, even if it's just a website, you need to be able to do that, right? So that's the kind of thing we're exploring is what aspects are going to need some additional improvements before that can happen. That's cool, you know, to make, you know, the art accessible because, you know, sometimes it is just, you know, some of the simplest things we all take for granted and maybe don't even think about, right? So has that been part of what you've been busy over the last few years is even finding out what are the needs? Right, like, and also expanding them. So when I say reimagining theater and accessibility, what that means to me is putting accessibility as grounding in all of the project and all aspects of the project, right? From the narrative all the way to the stage, a lot of people sometimes think of accessibility as, oh, it's an ADA thing, you know, or you come in and it's an after the fact that we have to think about accessibility and a lot of times people won't budget necessarily for that. We're thinking of it from a way that it's embedded into the project. So that here's a fun one for you. I got to participate by robot. And what that means is my access because I couldn't be in person with my team. We did a proof of concept earlier this year in Baltimore after an artist residency. And for the entire production, I got to be there for by robot. Well, so the robot's in Baltimore and I'm at home in California and I'm controlling the robot. And that means that I get to have an immersive experience with my team that's different than just sitting on Zoom, right? I can actually drive around the space. I can interact with people there, right? So it's a very different way. And that was my access. So we're thinking about accessibility in really different novel ways. Oh, Nancy, don't even think about it. Yeah, I'm thinking. She wants a robot. She'd be like, you know, but but you know, this is this is exciting how things can happen because I think it gives people hope, too, that things can change in a positive way when sometimes, you know, disabilities and impairments can be really depressing, you know, and that's even what you were talking about going through the grieving process. It's like, so you have to kind of go through that so you can shed that skin and then move into a newer light. And these tools are there, which we didn't have a long time ago. I mean, we may have had them but not be accessible to those who need accessibility. Does that make sense? Yes, yes, they end. But I'll also say that some people are born with disabilities. So there's a spectrum, right? Some people, it isn't just, you know, they may have had a different identity and they might be grieving their former selves, but other people have been born into, right? So there's a whole spectrum. And I think that what we're trying to do is say, there are people that haven't been able to attend live theater. And we are bringing theater in new ways. And it might be people with disabilities and chronic illness. It might be due to geography. It might be due to economics. It might be due to people who can't access theaters because they're inaccessible, right? So all of this, this is why we want to be able to bring theater in new ways to these, you know, populations that might have been underserved for theater. That is cool. And through this, have you done any studies about the benefits and importance of theater for people to, especially to even have it as something live like that? Well, we're not necessarily doing studies ourselves, but definitely, right? I mean, there are so many studies that show benefits of arts to the connection, I should say, between like mental health and art, to the point where now, you know, people are actually prescribing mental health, right? Like art therapy is now something that I've been reading about that is being prescribed, right? That kind of thing. And I love that's actually something that doctors will prescribe art, you know, art therapy. I think that's because it's relaxation and learning and experimenting at the same time. Because you know, it's going to happen. Well, Nancy's been doing a lot of research. We have a lot of digital puzzles on our websites. You know, as we travel, you know, full-time on our Love Your Parks story, going to all these parks. And boy, that's been since 2012. We are 13 years. Is that our lucky number? Yeah. You know, on and off the road full-time, I think we've done at least nine or 10 of those years full-time on the road. And so we do all these jigsaw puzzles. Yeah. Because we always said it was cool for a way for people to listen to a podcast, like maybe a park ranger, travel writer, whatever the, you know, I mean, on both of our sites, we have them. And do a jigsaw puzzle, a bit of crossword puzzles, things like that, to kind of slow down. It's a way to slow down, take a listen to something, and engage. And Nancy just got like, need, we used to do a lot of coloring books, too, even when we were printing our magazine, we did coloring books. And you've Nancy have gone like, where I know, we're almost like, we're just going to do a website just on puzzles, because not only is it economically good for destinations like parks and communities, there are stats that show that if people do a jigsaw puzzle of an area, the chances of them actually going to that place jumps up, right? Nancy, you're the one doing all the work. Right, right. Oh, that makes so much sense. This is like, not just stress reduction and mood and all of that, but you're actually saying that people are more likely to go visit. That is neat. And then also, there's the fact that it wards off dementia, Alzheimer's, you know, so it keeps the brain active. And if you're physically doing a puzzle, it, your hand, I coordination gets better, especially as you age. I do all the time, not both, but also variety puzzle kind of things and also hidden object games. So I'm a big gamer in some ways, not the kind that are, you know, the group games, but more like a single player game. And actually, the show that I'm doing to have the like hits in is actually using a game and putting my characters in a game. So that's part of the fun that I'm having is being able to combine my passions. Oh, oh, that's cool. Well, the game part of it, like with Nancy saying that all these medical benefits, yeah, they've done real studies. It's like, this is super healthy for you. But also, like when it's a park or a destination, I feel like it's for someone who cannot go there. Yeah, it could be physically could be financially like you were talking about too, that they are having this immersive experience. Like they're going to see a flower that they may not have known about. Like, if we do a wildflower puzzle, do you know all these wildflowers? Have you seen them? But if you've not seen them, at least you're having this intimate experience with this flower. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We don't, we don't have smell of vision yet. And sometimes you don't want smell of vision if we're out, you know, pet sitting on a farm. Oh, we were just taking care of a goat and I was doing a podcast with him. I said, look, I'm glad we're not doing video. I was like, well, you know, I said, no, man, I smell like a goat. And you know, you don't want to, and if zoom had like, you know, smell this, you wouldn't like it, you know, though I don't mind smelling like a goat. Let me say anything. No, but I think these things are going to happen. I think down the road, we're are going to have it's going to get that immersive in some way. I really do believe. Oh, yeah. Like, you know, I remember during the pandemic, even just going on to the Louvre and, you know, other museums when they started closing, their job would turn to the web so that you could have experiences. And some have 360, meaning, right, they have a camera set set up that you can actually turn and look in all different directions so that you can see the exhibits. And that is so neat, right? For people like me who maybe couldn't get to a museum and go and be able to experience the art, right? So yeah, it's all the things where you're walking through the woods or you're in VR headsets and you're able to go into, you know, Yosemite or like those kinds of things. Definitely. I could see that. Yeah, the National Park Service did a whole bunch in regards to sight and sound. And so they take you into wilderness areas where it's filmed. So you can actually hear they did it in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park where you go on the wilderness areas. And they have, if you go on the higher elevations, because not all of us can go climb up there, right? And so they have Big Horn Sheep, which I did not know there. And the Big Horn Sheep, you can hear them, you know, when they start locking horns, you know, you can hear that when they're, you know, they're going through the mating series season and all of that. But you can hear that clang, you know, it's leaving a clang. It's just like, you know, yeah, and it's just, it's like, wow, it's like a cracketing clash and I'm going, wow, that's amazing. You know, I remember filming an alligator out in the Okey from Okey Swamp in Georgia. And I thought, wow, who knew about the sound? And that's something we're looking at working on is sound. So those who are sight impaired can hear what National Parks and Parks sound like. So they can be there because I think they're often left out of, you know, if they can't see a park and someone's talking about protecting the beauty of this park, you know, I'm sure people care, but if they can actually experience it in some way and maybe hear the birds and hear all of that, that it'll help, you know, sway votes for the land and for nature, but give people this experience that they may not ever get. And that's what they were doing in Seclae Kings Canyon in many parks. It's a way to take the parks out of the parks to the people. And also because of overpopulation in parks of people. I love that. It's part of what they call audio description. So even movies and you can see on YouTube, if what that means in essence, is somebody is describing the experience, not just what the captions would be, right? If somebody was actually speaking, that kind of thing, it would be, hey, you know, there are birds chirping in the side and, you know, you'd see the birds or there are, you know, 17 trees sitting in a stand, right? Like it tells you so that they put you in the environment. Well, audio description is really great. And that's what we're using a lot, you know, basically audio description is even on Broadway, like you can find audio description everywhere. Well, I noticed that with you when we did the Hurricane Helene benefit event, online event. Yeah. And you came on a video talking and described yourself. So that is super cool. And you're like, this is my age. And this is, I've got brown hair. I've got, you know, you're talking about your hair. And I'm like, wow, your eye color. And I was like, and then I think I was on one of your something on the grieving project and realized that everyone was doing that. And then it was interesting because I think we are so audio now too. And unless, you know, lack of hearing is, you know, disability for someone, which obviously it is. I know a lot of people who are deaf for musicians and amazing musicians too that work off of vibration. And but it's, it's, it's fascinating to me about the audio, like how the audio books are right there with hardcover books in importance and in number of sales. It's kind of like it seems like digital hardcover and audio are split in thirds when you look at how, you know, a third of the books of each, which is exciting. And podcasts just, it's not going away. Podcasting is getting bigger and more people are listening to content because they may be driving. They may be hanging out with their cat, you know, like talking to their cat while they're listening, you know, maybe you're having to do the dishes. You know, if you're doing the dishes, you need, you need a good podcast or music or an audio story. So I think we're really going in that realm. And it is a way for things to get into your, your system, if that makes sense, like to, for you to take in the information is audio. And for some, it's an easier way than even reading it is to take an audio. So I think it's exciting. Wow. There's a lot, I think, and I'll just respond quickly. I was recording artists and music professionals with disabilities, which is ramps, secretary and engagement co-chair for several years. And there were people that were on our executive committee. And I was the minority. Three, I think, on our executive committee were blind or low vision because of that. It also was, you know, and basically a new way for me to approach and always self-described because they really couldn't see, right? So it was this way that it was respectful to say, "Oh, I'm a white woman with brown hair, brown, you know, brown red hair wearing glasses and a striped shirt." Because that way they understand, right, those cues. And then that gives them a sense, you know, of who's in the room. Instead of somebody just speaking, imagine that, right, where nobody has an understanding of who's speaking. Yeah, you know, I was thinking that too. We just, we had to do a meeting, an important meeting, like a proposal kind of thing. And I was supposed to do a on Zoom video, but we were running a hurricane. And so I'd call in from a rest area. Yeah, on the road somewhere. I think we were somewhere in Texas, I don't know. And had to do it all audio. And I couldn't see who I was talking to. I didn't even know who was in the room, you know. And I'm sitting there looking at Nancy going, "This is wild, man. I don't know what is going on. Who, what?" You know what I mean? So I felt very, you know, and I did some fun little questions to kind of get a sense of feedback, you know, you're supposed to present and move on. But I needed to, like, I had three some jokes out there just to find out, like, where are you from? Who are you, you know, without, because I didn't even know how many people were there, just to kind of get a sense of the room, you know, to take the temperature. And it worked, and it all went well. But it was, that kind of was, I wanted to see people, because you can see, you know, and I think about Joey when those kind of things happen, because I wanted to see so I could tell if someone didn't agree with what I was saying, number one, you know, you know, how those board meetings are, or was confused or infused, but apparently everybody was enthused. So maybe humor helps. I don't know, but that was wild Nancy doing that. And that call, that was kind of a wild, like, all right, and I'm trying to balance my notes. And then I was just like, all right, whatever, you know, trying to balance a computer on my steering wheel without, you know, honking at people. I was like, I'm gonna honk on somebody, you know, and I was lucky to have, you know, actual access. But yeah, amazing, amazing how technology is. So what 2025, what does that look like for you in the grieving project? So as I said, how the light gets in now, and we were just awarded Doris Duke Foundation, Performing Arts Technologies Lab Grant. So for the next six months, we're going to be looking and exploring and playing and figuring out what the blue sky vision for the full show is, and then being able to take, you know, parts of it and go meet with our team in person while I am going to participate by robot again. And we now actually have a robot. So I'm working with Open Circle Theater, which is a theater in the DC metro area, and basically a theater organization, not like a brick and mortar theater, that is disability focused. And so it's been amazing. I have, you know, a live theater director, an accessibility director, a digital experience director, and also a video director, a live video director. So that set of folks plus me has been kind of tasked with playing, which is exciting, right? It's playing and exploring over the next six months. Very cool. Very cool. Yeah. Now let's go back to being 18. Yes. Where were you when you're 18 physically? Where were you? So that was 1990 and maybe 91. So I had just graduated from high school. Cool. I started my first year at UC Santa Barbara. So that was my place like leaving home, being in a dorm room with this wild roommate who is in a sorority, but kind of not the type. And here's what I remember. This is wacky, you guys. Our dorm fridge, instead of being filled with beer, was filled with vinegar, which she had a really strange thing about vinegar. And I keep thinking maybe it was like a health thing that, you know, was like, yeah, he needed something that vinegar gave her, but I swear, I remember vinegar in our fridge more than beer. And I was majoring in biology at the time. And remember being away from home and, you know, everything was dorm life. And I had a best friend who actually introduced me to the man I would eventually marry as my first husband. So there's a lot, right? In 1990 being like graduating and starting college. That was the big one. Wow. That is big. And the vinegar. That's not, I know about apples and vinegar is good for you, but I know it's for you. Right? Like you needed some weight loss. Yeah. So it could have been for weight loss. Maybe. Yeah. It was just so bizarre because she would like open the fridge, you know, take the bottle and swig it. I'm not going to get it. It would have been like if it was beer, it's like, Oh, can I get that? But vinegar? Anyway, so I want to know what I remember from when I was eight. Yeah, music. Oh, that was a big music time too. Oh my God. So big. Like I was so into at the time listening to a lot of REM and Nick Cave and addiction and pixies. So I was kind of alternative, I guess you'd say. But a song that I remember to from high school that I remember was Chanel Conner. Nothing. Oh, yeah. Do you? So that was a big, I remember 1990 thing. So I would say like, yeah, put that on the playlist. But yeah, nothing compares to you. No one can do that more. Like that is, I've heard so many even friends, you know, but like she just that with that's her song. There's no one else. Oh, yeah. That can do that like her. May she rest in peace. She is like an incredibly strong yet. Not weak. You know, she's caring feelings. Sensitive. Yeah. Felt things so much, you know, that I think it caused a lot of pain to when you feel. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, sensitive is a good word, Nancy. You got it. She's got it. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You guys remember Lola Palooza's? Like that? Yeah. Right. That also Lilith Fair. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Right. That's the kind of the album. I have the album remembering. I remember watching Sarah McLaughlin, you know, like, and that might have been one year later, but I'm not sure. I can't remember when I saw her in concert, but I was a big music being a musician. I wasn't yet a musician at 18. It wasn't. Yeah. It was coming. Music was so embedded in who I was, but I listened to a lot. Like I say, do you remember the church? Stuff like under the Milky Way. Remember that song? R.E.M. Oh, yes. Under the Milky Way. Right. I do remember that. Yes. You paid was huge to me. Like all these things were sort of before the women, the girl, how do I put it? The singer-songwriters that I always associate with like Hotel Cafe, which is out of L.A. There's a lot of those kind of singer-songwriters. And look at Jule. I remember Jule being big when we moved to San Diego, Jule had just become big. Jule. Exactly. Exactly. This is pre the Ingrid Michelson, who I didn't actually meet, you know, meet and learn of until 2007. So this is way before that, right? Like these are the early singer-songwriters. Yeah. Yeah. And there was a revolution going and it really was from Sarah McLachlan. And you know, what was great about Lilafare, they had people like Emileu Harris get up there and you know, oh, who was the lady that's saying Kane? Gosh. Oh man. It was just, it was fantastic. It was everyone that just came together. I might be too early. It happened later. I think that the Lilafare didn't happen until like seven years later. But anyway, the 90s is what I'm still remembering, right? But yeah, look at, oh, what about Elena Smarsett? Yeah. She came. I mean, it was kind of like, yeah, I know what you're talking about. It was like before and then all of a sudden, boom, here we are, you know. And they were doing the Diva shows on VH1 at that time. Yeah. See, it's funny because I was a huge MTV girl from the moment MTV released with the Buggles, like, right, the very first song to, but then once I went to college, I think it's probably because I was so busy, right, having to study and, and I have a life, that and drink vinegar that I don't feel like I kept up with the MTV stuff right in 90. Because you know what I mean? I was so much more like paying attention in the 80s. But I, yeah, sort of not, I don't know, not that it was gone, but it wasn't as popular 90. I don't know. I don't know because we didn't have it where I was, where I was growing up in South Africa. We didn't have MTV at that time that I recall. Yeah, the Palm Beach Club. Now that was Kenya. South Africa, we didn't, I don't think we got MTV yet. And our music was on the English and Japanese side of distribution. They go hand in hand and music and CDs had just come out that last year. I remember the cure being a big deal. Yeah, that's the cure has to be listed. I remember seeing going to town. Do you remember tower records? I don't know if it was tower was big where I was living in the Bay Area. And I remember going to meet the cure because they were signing CDs, not records. This was later, but I still remember Robert Smith at Tower Records. Wow, wow. And they're still touring now. Isn't that wild? Funny. So cool. I know. It is funny. It is the love cats. Well, Lisa, this is cool. Now, do you have any songs of your own that you want to add to the playlist? Oh, I'm sure I can find something that I will add that I just do that after or. Yeah, yeah, sure. Or if you have something off the top of your head, just tell me and we'll add it. Yeah. Like we could just do something like a perfect day. Perfect day sounds good. Mm-hmm. Yeah. That is good. That's a big one. Yeah. Cool. Cool. I like it. I like it. Well, Lisa, thank you so much for being on our shows over the years. Yeah. And for all you're doing, it's amazing. See the growth? Isn't that wild to reflect back to when you're 18, all that growth of, you know, individuals that said these conversations are blowing our minds, you know, it's so funny because people come on shows and it's either it's like, oh, I got a new album out. I got a book out. I got this. I got that, you know, or doing a specific theme. But this theme is like looking back in your life and kind of having that reflection of growth, which is amazing because anything, you know, difficult is always growth. So, you know, as well. So it's not all an easy road to, you know, climb up there to that world of success. Every bump is a lesson and sometimes they're easier to learn and sometimes they're harder. And sometimes it sucks to keep going, you know. Right. Right. But I think for me, it's creating through all of it. And that is the through line. Even right, even at 18, even though I wasn't doing this professionally, I know there were already seeds planted, right? My journal writing or, right, like anything that I was doing creatively, which were all sparks until 2006, like I said, that I actually started, you know, my own, my own artistry and started putting out albums and all those things. But it was like in 2002 that I remember joining my first hover band where I really got my muse and started writing songs, you know, so all of this, I'm sure, has always been a through line of like, I've always felt like art has been part of me. Very cool. Very cool. Everyone, keep up with Lisa at admuse.com. That's A-O-E-D-E, muse.com and also the grieving project.com. The links are in the episode notes. Thank you so much. Lisa and Happy New Year. Yeah. Thank you, T2. Cool. Thank you for listening to Big Blend Radio. Keep up with our shows at Big Blend Radio.com.
Big Blend Radio is celebrating 18 Years of Podcasting! Join us for this 2nd show of three days of celebrating this birthday milestone with mother-daughter hosts Nancy J. Reid and Lisa D. Smith who travel full-time on their Love your Parks Tour while hosting the shows and publishing the digital series of Big Blend Magazines. Hear where and what our guests were up to when they were 18 years old...and, what music they were listening to.
WHAT MUSIC WERE YOU LISTENING TO AT 18? Let us know in the comments, and we'll add it to our special (and growing) playlist on Spotify which you can listen to here: https://tinyurl.com/bdc3d99d
FEATURED MUSICAL GUESTS:
- Pierre Bensusan - Acclaimed acoustic guitar virtuoso, vocalist, and composer. More: https://www.pierrebensusan.com/
- Lisa Sniderman - Singer, songwriter and playwright. More: https://www.aoedemuse.com/
SPECIAL MESSAGES FROM MUSICAL FRIENDS:
- Joey Stuckey - Award-winning blind guitarist, songwriter, singer, composer, producer, and the official music ambassador for his home town of Macon, Georgia. More: https://www.joeystuckey.com/
- Nicki Kris - Singer, songwriter, and podcaster. More: https://www.nickikris.com/
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