do you know what's up, everybody? Metal Dave here along with my co-host Jason McMaster bringing you another episode of the talk louder podcast. Today, we are joined by Jeremy Asbrock. He is a guitarist who plays for Ace Fraley and Gene Simmons in their respective solo bands. Not a bad gig if you can get it, but there's a reason he got it. And us being kiss nerds, we just got to pick his brain and man. Did he have a lot of great info and insight and just a lot of cool stories. And he's a chill personality, man. You were talking about this. Yeah, that's that's one of the things that's that's really great. We've we've only met a few times, but I feel like it's a brother, you know, kind of a related somehow. And the same with his one of his people is Philip Shouse. Yes. And I've gotten to work with Philip firsthand and they're they're kind of the same guy, which is really kind of this strange, like you don't kind of kind of ginger, hippie hair, light complexion, kiss nerd thing that the three of us have. I might be the older brother out of the three of them. But I just I you know what it is. I'll say it. I fell in love with those dudes, just how they are personably immediately. And there's reason for that. They're just good people. And Ryan, who also is in both of those respective projects is the nicest guy. And I've met him a couple of times now, too. And he's just unbelievable. There's something in the water. I don't know what those guys are drinking every year. I don't know. And the, you know, the they're all three of them are childhood friends. They grew up together, worshiping kiss. And now they're playing with Jean and ace and Philip, you mentioned Philip Shouse has been an accept for a number of years. Well, all of these guys are like you could say that there I don't look at them this way, but they would partially admit that they're side men. Yeah, you know what I mean? And they they probably have a laugh about that. But I don't see any of them as side men. It's like, okay, well, sure, maybe their spots and whatever project they're whoever the boss is that that the part they play is replaceable, because they're just performers in a traveling show. But I don't see them as that because of the spirit that they all have. Yeah. And the turnover is not big in those bands. Do you think gene and ace want to have to worry about who's standing next to him ever? Right. Right. Way. So that proves the point again as to why my feeling is strong about, you know, how the force majeure, you know, the storm that they bring because it's in their blood. Yeah. And the three of them have a band together. Yes, which makes it even. Yeah. Rock City Machine Company. They just put out an album. Well, I say just it's it came out late last year, September, October, somewhere around there. Rock City Machine Company, they're there. It's available independently. So you have to go to Ryan Cook, Ryan Cook's Instagram, socials, Ryan Cook and say we sent you. Yeah, he's going to he's going to make you a great deal on their hard rock record. And just just to narrow it down, it's Ryan Spencer Cook. I don't know what he goes by on Instagram or whatever. Oh, okay. All right. I might narrow the field a little because if you just look up Ryan Cook, you're going to get an onslaught. Yeah. And Ryan Spencer Cook, I recall seeing that name all over my socials. So obviously, we know some of the same people and I bet our listeners do too. Yeah. Yeah. But it's good stuff. It's good. You know, 70s based hard rock. So well, with that out as well with who there the bosses they work for might lead you to think some things about their record. But I feel like there's a lot more than that. And you know, he talks about that today. Yeah. I feel like he goes into well Jeremy mentions Beatles and and and all of the obvious like late 70s hard rock, you know, Van Halen and ACDC. Yeah. All of that. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's it's good stuff. Check that out as well. Rock City Machine Company. And of course, there is, you know, now that you bring it up, there is a reason why these three guys connect so well. They obviously, they grew up together. Their childhood friends, their kiss fanatics. And I've never really talked to Ryan, but now I've talked to Jeremy and we've had Philip Shouse on this show before and personality-wise, they're very similar. So I guess on that level, they click too. They they make a great, you know, team. Yeah, if if if you have the time after after this airs and you watch this one, and we we hope you enjoy it because Jeremy is he's golden. He's fantastic person and performer and player. And go watch the Philip Shouse episode because you if you watch them back to back, you're going to find some things and sure, the stories are going to cross over a little bit as well. But one story makes the other one legit. And it kind of makes the similarities sort of click like a puzzle piece too. Yeah. Well, they're living their dream. They grew up kiss fanatics. They're playing not not just with one of the guys from Kiss, but two of them, Gene Simmons and Ace Fraley. And it's it's pretty amazing. Yeah, and Philip has been busy with other artists. He plays with a couple of different country artists. I can't remember the country guy that he's out with currently, but he's he's still a member of except. And I think that I don't know he might be over there over over the pond with except now, but I know that they had a replacement. Joel. Yeah, Joel Holstra was stepping in for Philip because he had prior engagement. So it's it's interesting not to go off on except how that's like a collective kind of and how Wolf Hoffman has joyfully accepted this, you know, it's like, Oh, yeah, it's cool. Philip, you know, what do you think about Joel Hochstra? Oh my God. Yeah, hell yeah. And Joel Hochstra has come in and it's all these cool mellow rad shredding guitar players who can just come in and get the fucking job done. Yeah, you know, I mean, it's a great time to be an except fan. I think that they're all getting something special, no matter who is opposite of Wolf Hoffman and some credit to Uva Lulis, which is the other sort of two right hand men, you know what I mean? And and except for Wolf Hoffman. Yeah. And except is just killing it right now. So it's funny how all of this is kind of related. And I'm excited for except in KK's priest, which is coming through Austin. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have tickets yet? I do not. Yeah, I got to figure that one out. Yeah. Hey, Mark. Hey, hi, Mark. Hey, you buddy. You know, remember my friend, Dave? See if I can make a phone call for us. Yeah. But Jeremy Asbrock is awesome. And I'm so happy that that he wanted, he wanted to come on the show. I mean, we wanted him as well, but he was on our list. I just can't find that list anywhere. And he reminded me, it's like, Hey, when am I going to do your podcast? I said, right now, let's go. Let's make it happen. Yeah. Well, he was kind enough to spend some time with us. He's in the dressing room for Lauderdale, Florida, or Orlando. They're playing the hard rock. Oh, Orlando. Yeah, he's in Florida somewhere. And I was kind enough to spend some time with us before he has to do a show tonight. So that was really cool of him as well. But great. Yeah. A great story, a lot of great accomplishments and a chill. Do you Jeremy Asbrock today on the talk louder podcast? I remember meeting you in Nashville at the rock and pod thing. We talked for a little while. Was that the one last year? The one where I met you, Jason? Yeah. Yeah. I've done a, I've done a couple of those now. Yeah, it was, it was 2023 because they didn't do one. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. So where are you? Are you out on the road right now or what? Yes, right now I am in Orlando at the hard rock. Oh, nice. So you're out here. I'll show you too. So I'm in my dressing room right now. And one of the show posters in my dressing room is Ellie guns, dangerous toys and tour tour. Oh, nice. That was Jason wasn't that one of your first tours with the toys? Yeah, that was the first we had done like a bunch of a couple of months that whole summer, I think of clubs. And we had done like some one offs with some bigger bands where we were like, you know, first or third or whatever it was for like radio station promo shit. One in Kansas, a couple in New York, you know, one of them I think might have been with LA guns at some point and then warrant and extreme and you know, when all those bands were starting to get going. Yeah. Yeah. And so that the I think the first that was in October, the LA guns thing, but we had in September, we did a month with junkyard. And that was all clubs and theaters. Right. And it was it was a US run with junkyard. But before that, it was all one offs and clubs and show appropriate that your your framed and hanging in Jeremy's. Yeah, no, I thought that was because there's four dressing rooms when I was picking out which one was going to be ours. Obviously, it's going to be this one. Apparently. Yeah. Awesome. So you're out with ACE right now. Is that right? Yeah. I know you've been doing this for a while, but are there still moments where you're just like, dude, I can't believe I'm out with one of my childhood heroes. That's I don't know if that ever gets old, does it? No, I mean, I have a little more use to it. I mean, I'm five and a half years in. But no, I still think about that. Yeah. Because I wind up telling the story to people, you know, a lot who have never met me or who just start talking about stuff. And just like, well, I bought my first kiss record in my backyard when I was about four years old. Kiss was my first concert when I was seven. And I mean, it was my first everything. I play guitar because of ACE. I don't play drums. I'm not a lead singer. I play guitar. Yeah. That's why you bought your first album in your backyard. Did I hear that? Yes. So the kid that lived behind us came out and he had a live to with no gatefold. He had both records. He's like, Hey, I'll sell you these for 50 cents a piece. This kid was like my brother's age. You know, he was about six years old or so he would have been about 10 or so. And you know, this was like the beginning of 1979. So kiss are still pretty fucking big with the kids. Oh, yeah. And my mom would only give me 50 cents to buy one of them. And my brother said, buy that one. It's got shouted out loud. So I bought side three and four of a live tube and I mean, we went straight to shouted out loud. And you know that version. It's like you drop the needle and the crowd is it sounds like 500,000 screaming girls. Yeah. A Beatles show or something. And then, you know, band kicks in, bombs go off. And I mean, like, I don't even know what being in a rock band was I just knew I wanted whatever that was. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's appropriate too. Because side four has rocket ride and you're probably playing a song tonight. Indeed. Yep. All these years later. Right. Well, listen, we obviously want to get into the Ace Fraley and the Gene Simmons stuff. But I also want to give some time to your your band, Rock City Machine Company. Yeah. I think you've got something fairly recent that you just put out. We released a full length record last October, or maybe it was August. Yeah, I think it was August. Eight songs. One is a cover of rambling gambling man by the Bob Seeger system. Yes. And, uh, you know, touring is kind of hard, as you all know, especially if you don't really have any history or funding. Yeah. But we just we opened for the dead daisies in Nashville this past Sunday. And that was, that was a lot of fun. Bill was in town. So, you know, we were able to like play a real Rock City Machine Company show. We did nice. We played it our record release, but Phil didn't play that one with us. And we thought we were going to be touring with Skid Row and Buck Cherry last December. So when we made the videos for the song, we kind of used what we thought was going to be the touring lineup, but that all kind of fell apart. So, you know, if we're just doing the odd show or whatever, I want Phil to be in it with us because the band was formed around the three of us, you know? Yeah. I noticed that in the video, Tobin Dale is in the video and I was looking at him and I'm going, that looks like Tobin Dale. And the reason I'm familiar with him is because I guess 2018 or so, he was in a band called Medicine Bird and I reviewed an EP they put out somehow it landed on my desk and I reviewed it and I liked it and we connected via Facebook and I'm like Tobin and his his buddy Jeremy White are like the two most coolest looking retro dude. They both look like Keith Richard circa 1972. Man, Tobin looks like that all the time too. He has always dressed cool. Yeah. I don't always look cool, man. I'm somebody's dad. So sometimes I look like fucking dad, you know? Well, you look like somebody's dad with microns and hair or something. So yeah, I still think you look cool. Well, tell us then, how did so the band, the proper lineup of that band, I guess is you, Philip Shouse, Ryan Cook and then that's it. You know, whoever's on drums. It's really just the three of us. Okay. So, you know, at a certain stage, we had done cover bands together, you know, like Ryan and I were at a group called Big Rock show together, which was actually kind of what kicked off this whole kiss association thing. And then the rock and roll residency, which, you know, Phil and I kind of started and, you know, Ryan was one of our main guests. But then when we left Nashville and started doing cruises and events and stuff, we kind of just added Ryan on as a full time guy because, you know, he was the best singer and it gave us, you know, the opportunity to play more songs. Yeah. So we'd had cover bands together. And then, you know, we got the gene gig and played with Jean and then we got the ace gig. And then it was just like, you know, what's left on our journey together? And, you know, we've not done original music and people kept asking, when are you going to do something original? When are you going to do something original? And that's just one day, I'm just like, man, I guess our thing is not complete until we do that. And at that time, Ryan was managing Marty Fredericks in studio and Marty had always offered. And our friend Craig Lindsley had a label at the time called Lindsley Records and he kept offering to, you know, put it out for us. So I mean, there was just kind of no reason not to. So then we started writing with Marty and we would write on Zoom meetings just like this, everybody's at their house, you know, pitching, pitching ideas and stuff. And we had seven tunes and man, we recorded it all super fast at Marty's studio and his son played drums because they sort of share a brain and they can they can move real fast. The son Evan engineered it and played drums and wow, it was a cool experience. And I never written with a writer as accomplished as Marty. So that was pretty cool to like work with a guy who has some bona fide hits and platinum records and stuff and just see how they work and how fast, you know, their mind can come up with great ideas or know where the song should go. Yeah, because I don't have any hits. Yeah, well, so what are the name one or two things you learned from working and collaborating with Marty? Because Marty, I mean, he's written hits for Buck Cherry, Aerosmith. I think one thing I learned is like, don't be afraid to try an idea that might seem kind of jive to you because maybe it's not, you know, maybe it is. And also sometimes throwing out the wrong idea helps you get to the right idea. Your wrong idea can inspire somebody else to come up with the right idea. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. I listened to what is it, Soulford Gold? And then I saw the video for the Bob Seager song. And for anyone listening or watching that hasn't heard Rock City Machine Company, if you're a kiss fan, I think you'll find plenty to like Soulford Gold kind of reminded me of a kiss song. You got that? It's funny you say that because like me and Ryan both sort of felt like this that there wasn't there. Of course, there's going to be some kiss influence in there, but like there really wasn't a whole lot. There were so many other bands that we sort of like referenced in writing those songs and arranging them like, you know, you're going to hear ACDC, you're going to hear Aerosmith, Def Leppard, Band Halen. That sounds like my record collection. I've got a feeling that all of our record collections are very similar. Yeah. Right. Right. Good back there, everybody. Yeah, so I'm lingering. Yeah. I saw him back there. Yeah. Well, where can people get a hold of your album Rock City Machine Company? Right now, if you just, you're going to have to send Ryan, uh, send Ryan a direct message like on Instagram or Facebook and, you know, we're just sort of handling all the fulfillment ourselves. DIY. Yeah. Yeah. It was through the label, but the label sort of folded. So we're kind of doing it. So ourselves. So who's whose house has a giant palette of product? Ryan's. Okay. Right. I would be the Ryan in almost every band project that I'm in. Yeah. It's not far from me is a warehouse of unsold formats that don't sell very well. So, yeah. You'd be surprised, man. Uh, you know, we ordered CDs to the CDs sold out faster than the records. Yeah. And I'm thinking like, anybody's going to buy CDs like who the fuck buy CDs? No, but I don't even have a CD player in my car. Do you? I do. Yeah. I was worried as I looked for when I bought the car actually. It was a prerequisite. I need a CD player because I'm surrounded by CDs all over the place. And I don't do streaming music or anything. I don't even know how to start that. So, yeah. Well, yeah. People still buy CDs. So Jason, don't be afraid to to print out discs. Well, they're I'm not. And, uh, you know, they're they're they're out there, but the secret is is not to press too many. Exactly. So, yeah, probably why we sold out is because we didn't air on the side of caution. Yeah. It's better than having a pallet full of them left over six months from now. Yeah. Yeah. It's I hear it every every year. It's like, yeah, I got you a present. They open it up and you're like, Dick, you gave me the CD last year. I say, well, I got 2000 of them in my garage. Merry Christmas. A pallet of CDs is smaller than a pallet of vinyl. Sure. Yeah. Amen. Yeah. So, um, let's, uh, let's talk a little bit about the kiss connection. Cause to me, it's just, I mean, you know, I want him to do a story. I'm sorry to mow over your rose bush there today, but I want to hear the story. I believe Philip Shouse told the story already, but I want to hear Jeremy's version of you're in Nashville. You've got a thing going on. How do you hear? Is it is it related to what it is you're doing? The residency gig that you hear Jean needs a band. Start somewhere in there and finish it out. Okay. So, uh, I had mentioned that. How did you get the gene gig? The gene gig? How did that come about? Right. Yeah. Okay. So, uh, I had mentioned that I was in a, uh, 80s metal cover band with Ryan called big rock show. Uh, Ryan is good friends with dot me. So when kiss, we're doing their first cruise. Doc asked Ryan to bring his cover band on big rock show. Sweet. And I was not in the band at the time. So the person that they were using couldn't do the cruise. So, you know, they asked around and, you know, actually they asked Philip first, but Philip had a country gig at the time and he couldn't do it, but I had been living with him. He's just like, well, the guy, guy you want Liz with me, he's here. So I wound up joining that band and doing the first cruise with Ryan and then we got invited to the next one and the next one and the next one and the next one and the next one. And you know, the stage is in the center of the ship and you know, the, the artist cabins are right behind that. So they hurt us a lot. So Ryan had a pretty good reputation with the kiss camp and then when time came when gene was going to do some solo shows and it wasn't many. It was just, he was doing these things called Wizard World. It's a lot like Comic Con. It's just like autograph thing. They asked him to tie a show in with that. And you know, there was like six maybe. So through the company that puts on the cruises, six men, Gene called them and got Ryan's number. And then kiss crew six. Ryan was on that cruise, but our band wasn't. And Jean sent him a message and said, Hey, I'd like to have lunch with you on the cruise. And so that was when Gene approached him about putting together a band. And you know, I'm pretty much a shoe in for that band. I mean, because we're all pretty much friends because of kiss, me and Phil or friends because of kiss, you know, that's like kind of our, our direct link to each other. So at the time, Gene was just going to sing and we were going to pass the bass around. But luckily, good sense prevailed. And Gene played bass, but there was no reason for us to get rid of one guy. So it just wound up being three guitar players. And then we did one show, set the internet on fire. And then by the next year, we invented Japan and Europe and all kinds of Mexico, South America, Australia, Australia, right? Australia. Yeah, Australia. Yeah, saw some of that footage. It's been years and years ago. No, I think. Well, you know, within the past seven years, I've seen some footage of you guys. How long what year was that the first show came to fruition? March, 2017. Okay. So my timeline is correct. And I saw some footage from Australia. And I was like, these guys have it in their DNA. Yes, we know every nuance. I mean, nuance is kind of what made us really great at it. I mean, there's not a more perfect gig for me than playing with Gene. I mean, even more so than Ace, because in Gene's band, I get to play the solos. Right. That's where you yeah, that's those were the shoes you were wearing. Yeah. And so yeah, we were the perfect guys for that job. And Australia, in particular, was like a kiss band's dream because we're like backing up Ace and then take a 30 minute break, change our clothes and then back up Gene. I mean, and then Ace would come out at the end of our set and do do so with us. Wow. Wow. Man, the shows are really cool. But honestly, the best part of that tour was hanging out in airport lounges with those guys and just being a fly on the wall and listening to them talk. Yeah, tell us about times. I was going to ask you, what's the best kiss story you heard from those guys are the just story in general? Just hanging out in Australian airport lounges and listening to those guys talk about old times. Yeah, anything specific that you remember about, you know, them reliving and past. I don't remember anything specific. Yeah, I just remember that. That's where I learned that Ace was a little bit deaf because when Gene would talk to him, he would talk about this loud right here. He's deaf. Mm hmm. What I remember. Gene was telling me a story once when we were walking behind Ace and, you know, it was like something kind of funny and derogatory and just like, man, he's going to hear you. He's like, he didn't even turn around. Wow. It seems to me and this I'm relating this to, you know, I live in a little bit of a rural town. So there's always two old codgers out front with, you know, you know, Air Force and Navy hats on and, you know, clean cut codgers out front of the post office having a conversation. That's what this would probably be the same type of a thing. They're just probably talking about, you know, rock and roll and not the war. Right. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Cause at the time, Ace was like 68. So Gene would have been about 70, 70, 71. Okay. Wow. Yeah. Well, dudes. Yeah. But, but have been to the top of the mount, create, built the mountain. Yeah, built the mountain. They built the mountain. What is the probability of you ever writing with Gene and Ace? Cause I know that you primarily back them up as a live guitarist and you go out on tour and you play live. But I'm not really sure about Gene because I don't think he has any interest at all in making new music. You know, on Ace's last record, he had asked me for stuff. He just, I don't know, he kind of started working with Steve and that, that whole thing had a direction. So I sort of just stepped back. Yeah. Steve and I had, I don't know, different writing styles. And I don't know if anything I would have given to that would have fit in with what wound up being 10,000 volts. Yeah. When you say, when you say Steve, just for listeners, Steve Brown, Ace's co writer and producer, Steve Brown from Trickster. Okay. Right. Yeah. Okay. When, so when you're out, tell us something we don't know about Gene or Ace. I mean, they've been so widely reported and covered, we know almost everything, but you're in, you're in close quarters with these guys and maybe not something we don't know, but something that surprised you. Well, everybody thinks that Gene's egotistical, I mean, and he is a little bit and greedy. I don't know if Gene's greedy. Gene, Gene loves money and he loves to make money, but he's also very generous and very, you know, he's a bit of a philanthropist and man, he can, he can take it as good as he gives it. Yeah. I remember the first time I had to send a crack back to him, I was scared to death, but then he laughed and it was okay. So like, he doesn't mind a little bit of ballbusting. Yeah. And, you know, he's actually, he's a great hang. We would have dinner before the show. We would hang out after the show. We would all go to our rooms after the show and like look up YouTube clips so we can watch that night show and then we're on an email talking about it. And yeah, man, he's a fun hang joke, practical joker. Don't ever leave an open drink around him because he will dump a salt shaker in there. Did that happen to you? That sounds like you know this first hand a couple times. If you were, let's let's start with Gene and then we'll move to Ace, but if you were out playing with one of those guys and you could choose a deep cut, which would it be for each of those guys? What a good question with Gene. I wound up getting to do most of those deep cuts. The only song we could not get him to do was love him and leave him. And I'll have a lyric sheet story for you that I've already told Jason, but I carried the lyrics around to love him and leave him the entire time we toured in the event that we got him to do it and just wouldn't budge. And he wouldn't budge on larger than life either. I really wanted to do that. So he thought it was a little. That's that's false hope, man. What a bummer. I I am. Do you have any inkling as to why he wouldn't do those tunes, especially love him and leave him until no about love him and leave him larger than life. He thought it was too slow and plotting. Well, that's what's cool about. Yeah, that's kind of the that's the thing, right? But I guess in a live context, maybe he wants to keep it popular. I get it. But you know, that I mean, that's I love it loud, almost. Yeah, I love it loud. How almost has that a little bit where I wish you were machine almost has that a little bit. I don't see much of the argument other than he's gene and he doesn't want to do it. That's fun. But love him and leave him. What a fucking song. Yeah, great solo too. Let's see. That was one of them. And like I said, we got to do most of the others. We did almost human, which is really, really fucking cool. Got love for sale. Oh, charisma. Charisma is my favorite song to do a gene. Wow. He probably never would have picked that song. But like after we did that, the first show that we did was, you know, a bunch of kiss standards. But then it was a lot of like R&B and Motown too, because it was a it was an event. It wasn't a show for like kiss fans or anything. But that went really well. And then these shows got added. He's just like, you know, what other songs should we do? And we were all chipping in stuff and, you know, always new charisma would be a great live tune. And you know, if you can nail that three part harmony properly, that song's kickass. Yeah. So that that one worked. And we did that song pretty much every show. That's almost like a sticks harmony. Yeah, there's a weird third in there. And if you've got a guy who can find that third, it's yeah, it's super cool. I think Dynasty is such a great album. I know it gets some flack from some people. Man, that's one of Ace's best albums. I mean, Ace had more songs than Gene on that album. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he's yeah. 2000 Men, Hard Times, Savior Love. We opened a show on the first show we did on the Kiss Crews with Ace, because Ace did the Kiss Crews in 2018. We opened our first show with Savior Love, which was like, "Wow, that's pretty wild." So he questioned, with Ace, what deep cuts would you want to add to the set? And I keep trying to get him to do Torpedo Girl. We did that song twice on the Kiss Crews. And I thought it went really good. Yeah. That's a funky tune. Yeah. But he doesn't really feel like it had like a classic Ace solo. So let's see, it was last year when we were kind of overhauling the set. And he wound up adding, speeding back to my baby instead. Which was great. That's a good one. Yeah, go wrong with that one. Yeah. Yeah. Savior Love, not to make this a whole Kiss Nerd show, but too late. Savior Love is maybe this isn't the right word, but when you're talking about Kiss, I could use this. It's kind of thrashy for a kiss, because it's got that feel to it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's okay. Thrashy. Well, you know what I mean? It's it's it's gallopy and I mean, it's not Iron Maiden and it's not Judas Priest. And it's you know, it's not a thrash song to be clear. But the whole. Yeah. And even the chorus to it, the chorus to it is maybe even a little pocket. Yeah. Sounds like sex pistols to me. It sounds like right. And it sits right in there. With 70s hard rock, which is, never mind the bullocks is a kick ass 70s hard rock record for everyone out there who just thinks that it's just noisy punk. It's not. I don't really consider it tough, man. No, definitely rock and roll. There's Steve Jones, man. Chuck Berry leads all over and stuff. Steve Jones is all about the hard rock and roll guitar. He's he's into the bluesy ship, man. Yeah. Outside of Kiss, what would you say is your maybe top three favorite albums? Obviously, you grew up on Kiss, you play with Kiss, you know, what what other influences shaped Jeremy has brought? Well, I can't really pick out one Van Halen record, but one of them from the first six. I mean, Van Halen is one of my true loves. If ace got me started on guitar Eddie Van Halen definitely kept me into it. I mean, those are heights that every guitar player aspires to, but don't quite reach. So it continually inspires you to aspire. Yeah, for those kind of heights. The the extreme between. I don't want to say the differences because obviously they're, you know, ace and Eddie Van, ace freely and Eddie Van Halen are, you know, they might be there might be some kind of wall or curtain between them as far as guitar virtuoso titles and awards and, you know, popularity votes and whatever. But ace is this nasty dirty rock and roll guitar player and Eddie can do that, but it's a I'm just riffing here. Yeah. It's I think, you know, where I'm going with the differences. Ace makes it sound possible. I mean, his skill is, you know, or at least in the 70s, was making a good composition. Like, as solo's were like a song within a song, but like, you know, when you're a young guitar player, you can hear that. And it sounds possible. Like, I can do that. Whereas, you know, most of Eddie's stuff was just like, never going to be able to do that. But but hold on a second, when you think about, because Eddie is a kiss fan. Eddie, Eddie wasn't was a kiss fan. So you think about the solo and running with the devil, that's a possible guitar solo, but don't, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, I could, I could see ace playing something like that is my point. Now, well, there's the Christine 16 solo, which Eddie Van Halen wrote. Hello, I just, I just want you to play that right there. You know, that's, that's what happened. Nice. That's a beautiful thing in that. But I mean, the extreme of Eddie Van Halen and the extreme of ace are completely different. Planets. Yeah. But yet they, they also are, can be in the same atmosphere at the same time. So, I feel like you as a guitar player in saying that Eddie kept you in and aces your muse. Like you're, you're a set the path and Eddie kept me on the path. There you go. Yeah. So as someone who's an Eddie Van Halen fan and spend so much time with, with Gene and Ace, that I'm glad that you brought up the, you know, there was that period around the Love Gun album where there was a lot of talk about Eddie maybe sneaking into the studio and laying down some solos or contributing to that album in some way or another. Do you have any insight into any of that? Other than playing on the demo host for Got Love for Sale and Christine 16. No, I don't believe that for a second besides they recorded that in New York City and you know, right. Yeah. Yeah, I know. I mean, we all know that Eddie wrote the solo to Christine 16 and I mean, you could listen to the demo and be like, yeah, wow, he didn't fucking change the thing other than that. I mean, you can like, I don't know. You know what Eddie sounds like when you hear it, you can go, that's Eddie Van Halen. And I definitely don't hear any of that on the Love Gun album. So yeah. Yeah. Well, that was kind of because when you hear Ace play, you know that it's him. Yeah. But so it's really cool that Eddie can write an ace freely or something for a kiss that fits kiss and not just, he's not being Eddie Van Halen. He's his abilities were everybody. I mean, it's funny because if you listen to those demos, it does sound like Eddie Van Halen. Okay. And that's like kind of one of the interesting things that you could take those two guitar players and they can play the exact same solo, but they don't sound alike at all. No. Eddie sounds like Eddie playing the solo and eight sounds like Ace playing the solo. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think the I think it's preferences at that point. Yeah. What was the story I missed out on before we pressed record on this episode? You were telling some sort of story about the lyric sheets being wrong. Yeah. Which disclaimer, whichever part of that story you can tell. I need to say that. Yeah. So, you know, Jean needed lyric sheets for all of the deep cuts we were doing. And I would have to take eight pieces of paper and tape them all together to make this giant sheet so I could make the letters big enough for him to see because, you know, like he wore sunglasses on stage and, you know, he's a bit older. So his vision's not perfect. So there would be these gigantic lyric sheets at his feet. And you can watch any of the footage of any of the shows between 2017 and 2018. After we do one of those deep cuts, you'll see me walk down to his feet, pick up this big page and throw it to the side of the stage. Was there some sort of mishap or something that I thought I heard something earlier about you had the wrong lyrics down on the floor? Oh, no. So in the at this show, this is good. This is good. You know, like we would play with Ace and then take a 30-minute break and change our clothes and then come up and play with Jean. Well, at that one show, I'd forgotten to take the lyrics to the stage and we go into the song "I" which he needed a lyric sheet for. And as soon as he is about to sing, I looked down and noticed that I'd forgotten to put the lyrics to his feet. And then we get there. He just opens his mouth, but I don't think anything came out because he doesn't know the words. I mean, he can't use the teleprompters. And you know, he's very, very accustomed to that. But until Jason gave me his new method, there was no way to tour with the teleprompter. Yeah. And you know, he wasn't going to get one in every city. So it just, that was our work around. I have very happy. How did he recover from that mishap? He's on the spot. You're on the spot. It's like, uh-oh. Luckily for that song, he would sing the first verse and me and Ryan and Phil would all sing a verse too. So, you know, when he gets through his verse, we're all good. We know ours. I was yelling at the stage hand, like, "Go down to our dressing grooves and figler sheets. Get those now!" That's awesome. See, this is the kind of stuff we don't get anywhere else. Right. Do you think fanatically he could have, like, had a spark, you know, you think he could have, like, yeah, he'd get, like, a lot. It might not even be from the right verse or something, but, you know, that's okay. It's something out. Yeah. Yeah. Well, fanatically, I think that he probably could have mustered, but he didn't. He just froze a bit. I can't remember. I'd have to watch the footage again. I just remember him looking at me and, like, with a bewildered look in his eye and me kind of freaking out, like, "Oh, man, I hope he doesn't let me have it out of the show." And he didn't. He was just, like, uh, so, like, that's not going to happen tomorrow night, right? It's like... It only happened one time, just once. Yeah, you're doing all right, man. You're doing all right. I saw something. I think it was on your Facebook page. You were talking about the Cherry Medicine video, and you're a comment with something like, if you would have told 15-year-old me that I'd be in this Ace Fraley video, and apparently with your wife as well. Yeah. And then I started watching the video. I'm trying to figure out which girl is your wife. And then I saw... I think she's the girl with sort of the shag, the shorter shag haircut. Okay. Because my clue was, at some point in the video, I saw her kind of, you know, had her hands all over you and everything. I'm going, "Okay, she's on set, and that's probably her." Tell us about that video shoot, and how did you break the news to your wife that she was going to be in the video? What was her reaction to that? Because that's pretty cool. I don't know. A few weeks before, we'd kind of gotten a rundown on sort of what the video is going to be. And Ace asks, he's like, "Hey, do you think your wife is going to be in it? Where Lara is going to be in it?" And, you know, her daughter and some of her friends, and Scott's going to bring his girlfriend, Ryan's girlfriend, Jeanne, with working that weekend, otherwise she would have been in it also. I don't know. It was just pretty cool because it was like kind of a cool little experience for my wife and I to have. "Hey, we were both in this Ace Raley video, and you know, you've got my inner child." Wow, I'm in a fucking Ace video. Like, I'm in the video, and that's going to be there forever. I mean, I'd already been in the 10,000 volts video, but I don't know. That was on like the sound stage, and we just kind of plated a bunch of times. It was just something different about the Cherry Medicine video. We were in this weird, old, old mansion in Staten Island. And, you know, I haven't done a lot of professional videos, you know, but Jason can't attest to this because he has done some big budget videos. There's a lot of fucking hanging around. I mean, I only ran through the song like six times, and the rest of it's just waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting. Like being in the studio. Yeah, hurry up and wait. Yeah, and then you do it and like, whatever you're doing takes a few minutes, a few run-throughs. I mean, yeah, and then you're waiting for the next thing and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting. And, you know, with videos, they're just like moving cameras around and trying to get lighting and trying to make it look good. And then when they make it look good, you run through the song twice. It's like, "Okay, cool. We got it." Well, it sounds like it was the car. What kind of car is that Ace is driving in that video? I think it was a Ferrari. That's what I thought, too. Now, was that his car? Is it a rental? No, it was a rental. Ace has a Bentley. He has a nice car, but he does not have a red Ferrari. Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure he's... Here's some funny trivia about that video in my wardrobe. So I was putting on my pants and I completely ripped the crotch. I mean, it's ripped. And I'm saved by the fact that I'm wearing black underwear. And, you know, in a video, I've got a guitar over me. But yeah, man, my balls are hanging out in that old video. Another memorable tidbit about that video. Yeah, I told everybody on the crew, I'm like, "Just so everybody knows, when you watch this video back, just know that my balls are hanging out right now." Now, no one will look at it the same way again. That's called air condition. Well, it was in February, so I didn't need air conditioning. Right. February in New York. Yeah. Wow, man. So how long is this run? You're out right now with Ace. How long do you guys typically go out? Well, like the thing we're doing now is we'll do like a one-off or two shows. We started, we kind of got busy at the end of May and we're out every weekend until beginning of September. But there's like two shows. We're in Orlando tonight. We'll be in Woodstock, Georgia on Sunday, which is like a little bit north of Atlanta. And then go home and then we'll leave again on Thursday and then we're playing Marion, Illinois, and Decatur, Illinois, and then go home. And then we're off the next weekend, but then the weekend after that, we're just, we're just like all one-offs in July. And I wish I could tell you where they are, but I'll pause in my head. Nothing in Texas though. No, no Texas. Yeah. You know, I'm not really, they sent us to Texas the last week of July last year and I can't figure out why. In fact, they should just shut down concerts in Texas in July. It is hot. You guys played the hot spot. Athlete names and outdoor venue in July and Austin. Like, yeah, yeah. Yeah. You're fucking greenlit, that. Cedar, Elton Cedar Park. Yeah, that was hot. Yeah. Me and Dave just, we just saw Saxon and Uriah Heep there a couple of weeks ago. And it was burning, it was burning then, just like it was burning. You said something hilarious to me when you pulled me backstage for a visit and all you, all your guys. That was one of the first time I met Ryan and all your guys are just, they're so nice. Ryan is so nice. Yeah, Ryan is one of the just nicest dudes. Good, good dudes. Anyway, you, with a straight face, you said, Jason, I see that you've surgically removed all of your pores. I use that all the time now, by the way, because I, even at the Saxon Uriah Heep, I was wearing a long sleeve black. Yeah, weather jacket. And it's just like, yeah, damn, it's 108 degrees out there and in the shade. And yeah, I was, I was talking to Brian Tatler, Diamondhead who plays in Saxon now. He's like, how, how are you wearing that long sleeve shirt? I said, because I've surgically removed all of my pores. He didn't think it was as funny as I. I'm pretty fortunate though. I don't really sweat that much either. And most of the time, I can come off stage with, you know, yeah, not even listening. My hair still looks good. Yeah. Yeah. Same. Same. I mean, there's like Ryan and Phil, they fucking sweat when they swim. Wow. Yeah. There's another one. That's a great one also. Hey, has Ace ever let you play the smoke in Les Paul? Not on stage, but backstage or sound check or anything? Oh, yeah. I, I, I, that's what that guitar. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Is that, is that an original from like back in the day? No. Okay. Back in the day, they were using like real smoke. This is just like a, like a fog vapor type thing from a liquid. So it's, you know, it's fire code safe. Not going to set off any smoke detectors or anything like that. Right. Because then you have to get the, you know, the bar department involved and all that. Yeah. You said, you said earlier that when you travel with Gene, you guys actually spend a fair amount of time in the hotel and etc. You're not, you don't just show up and play the gig and everyone goes their separate ways. Is it the same with Ace or does no, it is as different as it could be experiences are as different as they could possibly be. I mean, Gene likes to brag about this in interviews now. There is no crew. There's no managers. There's nothing he shows up. We show up and then we all just kind of move together. You know, Ryan kind of took care of Gene and all of his details. I took care of set lists and lyric sheets, Bill took care of Gene's base world and made sure the base was in tune and ready to go. And that's it. And Ace, there's, he's got his entourage. We called him 18, band and crew or B team. We all travel separate. I see Ace when we go on stage. Wow. Interesting. Hey, however, however, the machine rolls. You know, sometimes we'll talk after the show. Ace does his meet and greets after the show and you know, I really want to hang around for that. So we'll usually go find something to do or go back to the hotel, depending on what's going on the next day. Yeah, yeah. What is, what's your favorite kiss album and your least favorite kiss album? My favorite kiss album. That's tough. Yeah, I can't. Like the Van Halen thing. I can't take a favorite Van Halen album from the first six. And God, I don't even know if I can answer that by force. The first, the first three records and destroyer rock and roll over all I liked them all equally. I guess a lot too would probably mean more to me because that was my first. But then that's just side three and four. The first record my mom actually bought for me after I discovered that I liked this first album. So that one's going to sit pretty high with me. And if you think about it, like out of all of their albums, man, most of their standards that they played until their dying day was off that first record. I mean, strutted tooth, cold gin, firehouse, black diamond. Yeah, I had this conversation with somebody just the other day. When whenever you hear discussion of great debut albums, everybody points to the first Van Halen, everybody points to appetite for destruction. And rightfully so, I get it. But that first kiss record, and I said the exact same thing, there's half of that album is in their set list today, if not, if not more. So that album has stood the test of time very well. And I don't know that I think a lot of kiss, you know, fans tend to point to some of the more like my first album was destroyer. So that one's, that one's alive too for me. That's the first one. So it's the most sentimental, you know, and people point to rock and roll over. And my, my other favorite is, is dress to kill. But yeah, I like dress, I like dress to kill because it's, it's very, I don't, there's something about the cleanliness of the sound. It's a very tidy, clean sounding record, especially coming off of hotter than hell, which sounds like murky. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But that first kiss album, for sure, it's never mentioned in the conversation of great debut albums, but it most definitely growing up. Destroyer was probably my least favorite. Because I just, when I was a kid, it didn't sound like kiss to me. And then like all of those songs, they're all on a live too. I like the live too version better. Yeah, you know, when I grew up and learned about making records and Bob Ezra in and all that stuff, I developed a much deeper appreciation for it. Yeah. Yeah. Do you think that, um, let's talk about the first kiss record just for a second. I mean, I feel like I have, I have some personal feelings that are realized much later on. I was too young to give review to what is actually happening in those songs and maybe what other bands in the late sixties that were influencing them to write those songs. But I feel like, you know, trying to form a question, you know, what do you know for fact and how do you feel much like I said later on about the influences those guys had on each other and each other's influences when they were putting together, in my opinion, again, what a record that encompasses proto metal, a glam rock of that time, as well as glam rock of the future. Um, and even like shit, that sounds like Nazareth and humble pie to me. What, what you're, what do you take from when you listen to that record they made when they were in their twenties, you know, it's funny. I, I wrote a piece for somebody's book that's coming out soon about kiss. And my everything I wrote actually wound up being a love letter to Peter Chris, basically, and until that moment, I didn't realize like how important Peter Chris was to their music and how they sound because if you think about some of his drum parts, no other drummer would have played that like, like, like the chorus that got to choose. Most drummers would have went and played a straight beat. He's like, basically playing a fucking drum solo in the chorus, weird, or a hundred thousand years, you know, when he's like, and even does the same thing as each word rock city, like, most rock drivers would just be like, you know, playing something real great. So it, I don't know, man, it made their music a lot different. And then Paul Stanley's rhythm guitar playing, like he would throw like if Ace is playing a riff, he would play like a weird third thing, like, like for instance on she, when it gets to the part, it's like, boom. And then it repeats again. And then Paul plays this weird fucking third note thing. So I don't know, like, that's my favorite part of that section. I really feel like they are unfairly picked on and beat up when they're really not that bad of a band. I mean, I don't see what in the 70s everybody thought they sucked so bad. I can think of a lot of other bands that sucked worse than they did. I think they actually had kind of some interesting music. Yeah, lyrics might have been a little, you know, well, yeah, hilarious at times, but it's rock and roll music. I mean, Led Zeppelin had pretty fucking stupid lyrics sometimes too. Yeah, Chuck, Chuck Berry, you know, but but when you're young and not, you know, you realize you don't care. I know that when I was young and a kiss freak and was battered at school for wearing a kiss t-shirt every day, beat up, ridiculed because, you know, I was into this thing called kiss and no one else understood it that I was a fan of something. Everyone else is wearing a sports get up and I'm wearing a kiss get up and they didn't understand that. The lyrics were about something I didn't really care what it was about. I didn't know what it was about because I was so young and then later on when I realized what it is they were about, you know, that's when hell broke loose. But yeah, it's kind of interesting when you're young and you get you're seven years old or whatever and you're singing ladies room or nothing to lose or love good. Like, oh, he's thinking about dick. Oh, he's thinking about anal sex, black diamond. Yeah. Yeah, room service. Yeah, exactly. The whole catalog basically. So it's just interesting what has, you know, how that works. Shit, Van Halen and Aerosmith. I mean, with young people that got into that, older brothers are really guilty for turning their younger brother. I have an older brother, he's six years older than me, but my brother was into like the new romantic British. Like new wave thing. Like he liked to block Seagulls and Duran Duran and all that stuff. It's like the bathroom in our house was the great divide because my room was like fucking kiss Van Halen motley crew rat scorpions, you know, quiet riot twisted sister and then you cross the bathroom and it's Duran Duran, a block of Seagull, the fix and, you know, style of Thompson twin stuff like that. Yeah. That sounds pretty cool, actually. Yeah. That's kind of had your own thing. Yeah. And he played drums and I played guitar and, you know, somehow that would all, I don't know, it all worked together. Yeah. Have you ever thought of the reason why you hear rock and roll all night in the grocery store that it's from kiss alive and not the studio version? I haven't, but I have noticed there is an Applebee's commercial that's out that uses the studio version. Really? Yeah. It's like a current commercial. I've seen it quite a few times now. Oh, wow. And it's not, it's not that rerecord that they did like 10 years ago. I know that they rerecorded a lot of hits for, you know, commercial use to where, you know, they'd make the money and but no, it's the original version. Wow. Yeah. That's a first. Yeah. You never hear the studio version. I think to answer your question, Jason, it's just because that live version was the one that became the bigger hit. Right. Oh, for sure. Yeah. I mean, it became their anthem. It's a signature. Yeah. Well, that version, that version is different. It's a live with the album that broke the band. Like that version just, I guess, technically a little bit more of a hit than the studio version. So in your, in your time with Ace, do you have any, you know, everybody points to Ace's 78 solo album as the best of the four? And I don't want to, you know, it may be, it may not be whatever, but you're hanging out with Ace, you're spending time with Ace. Has he ever told you any stories about the making of that album? Do you have any insight into that particular album since it's so highly revered? Not really. No. Ace can't remember anything. We did do the 78 solo album in its entirety in 2018 at this, at one of the expos we did. Wow. And that was pretty cool. Like we spent two days rehearsing and like that was pretty cool. It was kind of interesting showing him things versus that being the other way around, like, no, actually that goes like this. No, no, half step up. No, not like that. No. Yeah, yeah, like that, like that. I was going to ask if you, if you ever had occasion to sort of correct Ace or remind him of how you've been studying it since you were a teenager. I have. And you know, that still happens. And I'm just, I'm very grateful that he trusts me. Yeah. Yeah. We were talking, yes. We were talking a little bit about that earlier about you being able to play solos and what made me think of it is is what something Dave just said about. You can play solos that you that you were learning how to play in your bedroom growing up more than you can because you don't sit around listening to your own shit. Yeah. Yeah. You can play aces solos or any Van Halen solos. You know them better than your own solos that you wrote, right? Without thinking about it. Yeah. Because like with your own music, you kind of have to think about it because we talked about this earlier. You know, like your own music, you come up with it, you record it. Maybe you hear it a couple of times, but it's not like your favorite music that you'd listen to all the time. So, you know, yeah, we need like a less rehearsal to reproduce that music than your own. Yeah. Right. It's muscle memory. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The the we were talking about that because of the the lyric sheet story and the teleprompter story, which is that all of that encompasses the fact that no wonder people use those because you're you know, you you write the songs, you make a record, then you fuck off. Oh, the tour is going to start. Well, I don't know the songs. What do you mean? You don't know the songs. You fucking wrote them. Well, I'm not sitting around listening to it. Yeah. Yeah. So, you have to think about all of that and people don't don't think about it. I mean, unless you have a ritual and not everybody practices that way, so to speak. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to guess that much like me and Jason and you have quite the kiss collection of memorabilia and you don't. You're shaking your head. He used to. I did. I had I wouldn't call it that awesome, but I had a okay collection last year. Ryan and Bill and I went on kiss live options a few times and we basically all three sold all of our shit. Oh, that's right. I can't I can't speak for those guys, but for me personally, I moved. So when I it came time was cleaning out my attic and you know, I'm moving all the boxes and tubs of shit. I'm wondering like, what do I need all of this for? It's just in boxes and in tub. And you know, I've got two young children. So like, they own my house. Like, I don't have any I don't have a man cave. I don't have any of this stuff on display. It's just like, why do I need this? And I had a pretty extensive vinyl collection also, but I hadn't really listened to any of it since my first child was bored. And then I thought, well, you know, by the time they're grown and out of the house, I'm going to be in my late 60s. And I'm not really going to want to get up and flip a record over after 15 minutes. Like, you know what, fuck all of the stuff. Wow. I thought I thought selling all that kiss stuff now would be a good idea, you know, while my stock is high with kiss bands. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. I was going to ask what your what your most prized piece of memorabilia was, because you've been collecting since you were all right here. And I justified it like, man, at this point now, my memories and experiences totally supersede all of the stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So my memories and my stories that that's like, that's the real memorabilia now. Yeah, I can. I've got a few things like signed to me by Ace and Jane that are pretty cool. Nice. Yeah. Yeah. I get that. That's you're in, you're a very elite company. Not many people can say, I just got rid of all my kiss shit, because how can you be playing with him? Pretty much. Let's switch a gear here for a second. As far as like writing and recording, is there anything that you're working on now, like original stuff? Not really. We're just kind of pushing the rock city machine company album and, you know, trying to keep it afloat and make its legs grow longer and, you know, have as much life as possible. I definitely don't feel like we've exhausted anything. I mean, so we haven't sold out of our initial pressing. So there's still work to do. Right. That's how that goes when it's DIY. Honestly, I'm not one of those guys that like sits around and writes. I kind of, I kind of need something to write for. I need a reason to do it. I did that more when I was younger, but you know, you know, original music these days is just, it's easy to make it at home and I guess put it out. But I don't know, man, that's just not really something I do at a certain point in my life. Being a live musician kind of took over my life and playing shows is more of my thing than. Yeah. But every now and then, you know, I'll sit around and, oh, wow, that's pretty cool. I'll voice memo and record it and, you know, the time comes when I'm going to need it for anything, you know, I've got a few things laying around. The small library of things. Yeah, that's good. That's great. That's healthy. You know, it's interesting because it's not something that, you know, some people like me and Dave would just look at you and go, oh, he's a live performer. Yeah. It's like, I see it as full, the full pie. You know, you can write a song. That's, you're honest about, you know, needing a reason, you know, to show up to the studio. There's got to be a song on your brain and you, you know, collaborating. Do you feel like it's, you obviously, you collaborate well with your guys. Yeah, I definitely don't. I'm not a solo artist type. I don't sit around and write tunes. And if I do write, it's usually collaborating with somebody. My wife is totally different. She's a writer and, like, just being an artist, she has this drive to write whether or not it's going to be recorded or released or whatever, which is why I don't know. There's like this weird line to me that separates an artist from a performer. You know, an artist is driven to create, where the performer is driven to perform. Yeah. I don't know if I'm necessarily driven to create. You know, I am driven to perform though. That's, I mean, you know, that's taken, but they can coexist together, but, you know, ultimately that you kind of wind up being one or the other. That's an excellent perspective. That is interesting. And I didn't ever put the sheer, you know, somewhat sheer, less tangible wedge between the two. I think you take for granted, they go hand in hand, you know, you create, therefore, you perform. And vice versa, you perform, therefore, you need to create to keep performing. But you, I guess, I've never heard it separated like that, but that's interesting. Well, like I said, they do coexist, they can coexist, but, you know, like I, I play for other artists. I play, you know, cover shows with the rock and roll residency. And, you know, I'm probably a little more of like a jukebox, so to speak, than a guy that is a writer. I don't consider myself a writer. Have I written some songs? Yes, I have. Do I write occasionally with people? Yeah, but, I don't. I think I like, Oh, yeah, I've come up with some tunes. But when I think of a writer, I think of somebody who like really works at their craft and writes a lot, and I definitely don't write a lot. Yeah. Yeah. That was your answer. Go ahead. No, go ahead, Dave. I'm sorry. You're still on the subject. I was going to go elsewhere. Yeah. It's, it's, I just wanted to, your, your wife, what's her name? Anna Fairlight. Okay. And, and she is not a performer, or she, well, she does. Yeah. She's, you know, that's like where they can coexist together, but I would, I would consider her an artist and writer first. They should write for other people. Not really. I mean, she, she has, yeah, she has a little bit, but you know, most of it's for herself than, right. Okay. I mean, like, she's driven to write just because it, it comes out, you know, and that's, that's what an artist, a real artist does. Is she, is she a songwriter or an author? When you say writer, what do we tell a songwriter? Okay, songwriter. Okay. Okay. I was going to ask you earlier, when you were doing these various, uh, residencies in Nashville, where this kind of, where your rocket ride kind of all started, um, you would have guests show up and join you on stage and jam. Yeah. Who are some of the, the bigger names? I mean, you've played, you play with Gene and Ace for a living. That's incredible. But is there anyone else that ever stepped up on stage with you in Nashville that was another childhood hero of yours that you were like, you know, thrilled to be jamming with Robin Zander. Okay. There you go. Awesome. Uh, Roger Glover and Don Harry from Deep Purple. That was a good month. That was a February 2016. So, uh, Roger and Don came out and then Rob, and then Robin Zander came out two weeks in a row. No, sorry. I got that backwards. Robin Zander came out and then Roger and Don came out the next two weeks. And then Robin came out again that next week. But that was, that was a great, great month. Yeah, absolutely. What song are you with Robin? Uh, we did Logway the Top by ACDC and Hot Love the first time. And then the second time we did Dead Flowers and he's a whore. Oh, wow. Okay. I was expecting all cheap tricks. But interesting. No, it was him. Uh, honestly, here's a little shift face the first time. But I was just like, what do you want to do? And he's just like, Logway to the top. Like, all right, we can do that. Like, can we do a cheap trip song? He's like, what do you want to do? I'm like, how about Hot Love? And he's like, I know that one. Let's do it. Nice. Awesome. Cool. The Alice Cooper band was probably our first big, big artist. Because when we started the show, Chuck Garrett did the first initial run with us, you know, he was pretty much kind of a co-founder with us. But then he went on the Motley Alice tour, but they all had a day off after the Nashville show. So he kind of arranged for them to come out and play with us. So, you know, we had our show and then the band did a few songs. Like, you know, we left the stage and then Alice came on. So the Alice band did a mini set in the middle of our show. Wow. And that put us on the map. Wow. And the talk of the town. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, this is a free show that happened every Tuesday. And it was on a patio of some Irish pub. And then it just grew and grew and grew. And then we had to move to a bigger venue. And, you know, Jean came out one time and that was, you know, that was madness that night. That was like one of the best attended shows we had. How big is this venue? About 500 people. Oh, wow. Yeah. That would be madness. That sounds like a good fun time. Yeah. That's a good night out. Yeah. Dave, you know, who you know, who Jeremy reminds me of just with getting to know him a little bit and his, you know, his job, right? Yeah. David Beeson. Oh, yeah. By way of David Beeson who plays in multiple bands with me, he's in a wedding band. He's, he, he, he does, he writes tunes, has written some tunes, but the whole performer thing. He's a performer. He's got a gig. I'm sure he's got a gig tonight. He's gigging all the time. He'll play Tuesday. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. He is one of those. He's a professional performing guitar player. He will and is whether he's proud of it or not, he will play whatever is needed to be played on his guitar. Yeah. And for me, I'm not really just a guitar player. It's like one of my personal strengths is backup vocal. Like, as much as I love Kiss and Van Halen, I love the Beatles more. Okay. So being a very, very strong harmony singer is part of my package. Yeah. Yeah. Do you, would you, how, do you have relevancy? Yeah. Doesn't really matter. But do you, do you have perfect pitch? Pretty close. Yeah. Can you see me in A right now? Hang on one second. Nailed it. Jesus Christ. I got a guitar right here. You nailed it. That was it. There you go. Fucking failed. Yeah. The whole package. Well, I don't got nothing else. The guy has perfect pitch. And he's got to get ready for a show tonight. So man, what a great story and what an amazing life you've led. And we wish you success with Rock City Machine Company, man. I know we spend a lot of time talking about the obvious. It's hard not to talk about Jean. I know. Yeah. I'm talking to you. But we want to give you some props on Rock City Machine Company and wish you continued luck with that whenever you guys pick it up again. And of course, continued luck with Jean and Ace. And hopefully we'll see you in Texas, maybe not in the summertime, but at some point, when I like to come to Texas in like October or or something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good. You would be like going to Vegas. You're gambling with the weather because it could be 95 in October too. So we've worn shorts at Christmas here in Texas. And yeah. And speak for yourself. Yeah. Jason and shorts. I can't imagine Jason and shorts. Well, you know why? Thank you. Thank you. You know why? Because his pores have been surgically removed. I can wear. I can dress in the in the preacher's outfit year round. Any climate. Well, Jeremy, thank you so much for your time. Have a great gig tonight with Ace Frane. Thank you for having me. Appreciate you spending some time with us. On behalf of my co-host, Jason McMaster, I'm metal Dave along with our special guest today, Jeremy Asbrock on the Talk Louder podcast. Bye. [BLANK_AUDIO]
