Bad Marriage
Bad Marriage guitarist Mike Fitz and newcomer Tommy Skeoch (ex-Tesla) join us discuss the band’s new chemistry, past history, an upcoming tour with Vandenberg, how a metal detector inspired a new song and that time Eddie Money kicked open their dressing room door to praise the band’s name in his best (unintentional) Rodney Dangerfield voice.
Created and Produced by Jared Tuten
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 Mike Fitz and Tommy Skeo of the band Bad Marriage. They are based out of Boston, been around since about 2015. Tommy of course you know from his time in Tesla. He was in Tesla for a number of years, put out all those great albums, all those great songs. He recently joined Bad Marriage and they've written some songs together. There's a couple of them out now. They are currently working on an album together and they have an upcoming tour with Adrian Vandenberg. So that's about to kick off. They'll be out on the road. So it looks like there's some good chemistry in old Bad Marriage there. Yeah you know hats off to Mike Fitz because I've done a bunch of gigs with Bad Marriage at this point. The Monsters Rock Cruise, the Mountain Music Festival in Gatlinburg and we've done a couple of clubs with them as well. One memorable was in New Bedford, Massachusetts right down close to where they're from which is where Mark Lopes of Metal Church Ross the boss is also from and as well as Shadows Fall. I mean that whole scene right there is it's big and thick with rockers. So yeah Bad Marriage is super fun, loud, dirty rock band. So if any of those words fit your musical tastes you will like Bad Marriage. But Mike I was going to say Mike is you know we're not close but he is a go-getter as they say. Tommy even calls him. He's the social butterfly. He's just you know he just walks up to snakes and says hey man what's up I know you're a snake but I'm too crazy to not say hello let me buy you a beer and then you know so but he's a go-getter I mean he's he seems like he's just it's all about timing it seems but he doesn't have any he's he's usually on time when he's not doesn't even know he was supposed to be there he's always there and so he's meeting people and getting I want to say that's how he's getting these gigs just from being jovial and cool and he's cool he's a rock and roll motherfucker so I think that I want to give and you know the the other guys in Bad Marriage are super nice but I don't they don't come off the way that Mike does when you talk to Mike and Mike is just like I mean he could manage Bon Jovi or some shit you know what I mean he's he's very got the gift of gab as they say well and he also he's not dumb and he knows how to record and write songs and and obviously book a tour and promote his band and music and I mean he's got something going on so whatever he's eating for breakfast I want I want something I'm glad that you mentioned the band as a whole because obviously you have Mike and Tommy but Bad Marriage has been around like I said for I don't know since 2015 so and they put out a couple albums and they've done some tours and that's before Tommy so kudos to all the guys in the band other than the two that we're talking to today because they make the machine roll and and they put out the albums and they and they started building the name so yeah collectively they already had some great chemistry and then Tommy's kind of the newcomer and obviously he brings something to the table as well so they're merging all those skills and talents yeah we got to talk to them a little bit about how they their songwriting comes together now how it's very common for you know each other to trade each other riffs you know to trade riffs whether it be in person or via email or whatever but when one guy hits the ball over the net and it comes back a bigger ball a bigger better ball and then if you hit it back over and it just you know literally turns into this monster of a song or a record or whatever I feel like hearing these guys talk about how they collaborate now with Tommy as the the the needed third wheel they didn't know they needed and I really think that that it's interesting to to hear them talk about and compliment each other which is exactly why Tommy's in the band yeah it's interesting how it works because they were a two-guitar band before Tommy joined so now they're three guitars right and trying to make that chemistry work could be challenging but it sounds like this was just a piece of cake I mean just what they all bring to the table just effortlessly fit together and their styles are different which you kind of need you don't want three guitars sounding exactly the same so a contrast in styles but it also needs to blend and be cohesive and they're able to do that it sounds like without a whole lot of you know teeth gnashing and hair pulling so it's so good for them well obviously they're they get along and they had a relationship with Tesla when Tommy wasn't even in Tesla and and when he wasn't in bad marriage yeah and they still work with Tesla and obviously they're all simpatico they're all cool you know Tommy's cool with the world and you know it you know to go through not being in this band and and be known as the guy that's not in that band anymore you know doesn't seem that weird to him it maybe it is but he doesn't it doesn't come off that way and I think that's great yeah that shows a lot of growth and it's cool that he's he's chilling in writing badass rock and roll with bad marriage and that they're staying busy yeah so that'll that'll save a man too staying busy yeah and being and being creative so it was just it's a good episode because you get to see uh what's going on you know you got the old bull and the young bull and they kind of they work off each other and they need each other and they they didn't even know they needed each other yeah exactly it's good it's good it's Tommy so uh reinvigorated you could tell he's excited about this thing yeah I agree he's working on his health and he seems to be doing well so good for him and yeah I think they kind of work well together they're putting out good stuff and the momentum is up and running and they got a lot of tour dates and and songwriting ahead of them so you know look out you're going to be hearing about bad marriage if you haven't already and it was great to talk to them today and kind of get an inside glimpse into how things are working so yeah mike fits and tommy skio today from bad marriage on the talk louder podcast bad marriage based out of boston from around 2015 2016 been around for a while tommy's a recent addition to the band so let's kind of get some of the history and then we'll bring tommy in and we'll get around to the current stuff uh you've got two albums out uh as a five piece the self-titled debut you have a second album called bad marriage two right and uh an EP called artificial mind and uh so kind of tell us about how you started the band mike and how the albums came about and then how how you and tommy ended up joining up together right um well basically yeah you're right on them and you have everything pretty much the albums that we have uh we did have a um a thick thick song EP first but we only made a hundred copies of those and so those are floating around here and there but um when i started the band um i was just doing solo stuff i was teaching myself how to record so i bought a um a bunch of recording gear and you know a band of mine recently broke up so i was i was trying to teach myself how to do it and i i was like you know i'm gonna start one more band and and take everything that i've learned from over the years of being in different bands and and i i wanted to hand pick all my my you know my i guess friends but people that i knew that were cool knew that had what it took if we ever did get the opportunity to start touring and you know really i wanted to put everything in place the best as i i could from experience around the new england area um so i basically picked all my my guys you know that i knew that hey man they either got the look they're super talented um you know i've shared many shows with these guys before so i just kind of went down and went down the line and hand picked everybody um and and that's basically how it came together around here and uh you know we we started picking up some steam and you know uh i like i said i i um i taught myself how to do recording so i've i've done basically all the bad marriage stuff as far as tracking and mixing and mastering and stuff um until the the latest EP which i'm sure we'll get into for a second but the artificial mind one uh that was it's funny enough that was brian wheat who who produced that and co wrote that with us but uh yeah i mean in a nutshell we put out two full length as a five piece um and then um you know we had established a pretty good working relationship and friendship with the band tesla before i even knew tommy um so that that's what led to the artificial mind uh EP which you know i kind of handed the reins off to brian to produce and and um you know engineer and mix i still mastered that one uh but i just kind of let him do his thing uh with his vision of of of the band yeah i was going to ask because i i know that brian uh brian wheat base player for tesla produced your EP and i was wondering if there was anything you know and i knew you had a relationship with tesla so i was wondering if tommy joining the band was an awkward situation but obviously you had that relationship with tesla before tommy joined the band so kind of describe how it is that tommy came into the picture because from the outside perspective someone might think oh your friends with tesla it makes sense that tommy joined the band but tommy was out of the band for some time but you guys hooked up so how did you two guys meet yeah so just to back up a little bit i mean we've done probably over 50 shows with petal over probably three different tours across the country so we were super fortunate to you know share the stage with those guys for for many years i think 2019, 2020, 2021 all different legs of tours and stuff so we became very friendly with them i mean it was to the point where jeff the singer was coming on stage with us every night and doing an old arrow smith thong i mean we do like toys in the attic or something and he would jump up there and you know so we built a really cool relationship with those guys and you know i didn't know tommy and then bad marriage was doing the monsters of rock crews a few years back and tommy was in a band at the time and he was also his band was on the monsters of rock crews so you know i just ran into him i saw him and i think it was at the casino bar that was on the ship and i just look i go hey that's tommy's skill you know i'm gonna go say what's up i mean why not so i just introduced myself to him we had a beer together and we just we just shot the shit you know like a two guitar players do we talked about guitars and amps and i'm gonna just um i'm gonna interrupt you mike that's how you are you're just like that all the time you just go up to like fucking zasquatch and go dude let me buy your beer what's up yeah well and i think it might have to do with the boston in me i don't know i just kind of that no i think that i think you you got a big heart for rock and roll you know what you like and you you're very respectful anyway i'm starting to interrupt but that just sounds like the mike i know you just being you walking up to tommy going dude we'll be up so yeah he's like that with everybody man yeah that's what i'm saying yeah that's what i'm saying it's a good thing Jason i appreciate that it actually it does mean a lot yeah but we just we just became boys after that and you know to be honest with you we were just we were just we were text and and talk and shoot the shit and um it was like we'd known each other forever i know that might sound cheesy but it's the truth and um you know fast forward um we were writing we did put out a first single with tommy and it's called dangerous and i had posted that guitar riff like the one of the main riffs to the song just on my regular facebook page my personal page kind of sharing to my friends and fans like hey this is what i'm working on and tommy it loved it he reached out to me and like dude that that riffs killer and i said look i go i don't have any leads or anything written to this i go you want you want to guess on it you want to mess around with it have at it so he spent me some i spent him the initial track he sent me leads back i put it into the recording session it sounded killer i said wow we have something here he's adding something to this band he's not i'm not you know he wasn't in the band then but i'm like you know this isn't just a third guitar player this is actually sonically making the sound i always say more 3d you know me and Ian our other guitar player but kind of just these big less paul marshall AC/DC type hit you in the faith riff but tommy's a different guy man he brings stuff that he almost like front and back with his wammy stuff and is his just technique so i mean i was digging it um that's how that song was born we got a last minute offer to do 22 dates last july with the choir boys and enoughs enough in the middle of the summer it was july um it was going to be brutal we have this little shuttle bus that the AC barely works and i you know i i was cool enough with tommy i said dude how about you join the band and and jump on these 22 shows there's no money right so this guy goes from selling millions and millions a record to a huge band to jumping in a bus with us and he didn't even blink and he said hell yeah i'll do it and that's when i was just like this guy is rock and roll and you know then the next test was was he gonna was he gonna work was he gonna like it was he gonna you know doing that and hey he's still with us today so it it proves a lot to me with him and and how dedicated and just how rock and roll he is so that's basically in a nutshell how how it came to be yeah yeah so tommy from your perspective you heard this song and then i guess the backtracked and heard some of the previous material what is it about bad marriage uh what is it about the music that you thought was a good fit what what suited you well actually i heard i heard their material first when i was on the ship right when we were rocking out on it i was in the other band and then i thought they were really cool you know and i knew they had known the tesla guys and all that and uh they just rock man they had a really great feel about him i just really like them and mike introduced me like introduced himself to me like he said and uh you know i just when he sent me the song and then that happened then it just was like i don't know it just it had a really it kind of had a feeling and it kind of happened naturally too which i really like about things that i do like the band eyes and before happened like that and i just stuff just i like it just to kind of grow naturally and uh that sort of seems where i fit in best i guess yeah now the band you were in before was a resistant bite and that band was gaining some traction man and that so so what happened there oh man you know way it wasn't good there was a couple of guys that just got really widened just started wanting to kind of take it over and it was just a little bit got a little bit weird man there was that acting like rock stars i just i couldn't deal with it man so i left and that that was it but i was gonna fucking rock with that thing i was having it it was good i mean it was always tough but it was good but but that was that man and that was it i left and that's when mike asked me to do this it was like i think the timing was was yeah well yeah i mean not perfect for your old band to implode but at least you know we we picked you up it's like almost like you just jumped on the road with us and and it was it was just a good transition for you i think just overall definitely definitely definitely was yeah so you have a single out called penny man um and i and tommy plays on that as well yeah i mean yeah like i said tommy's in the band so he's yeah he's he's playing he's gonna play on everything and until until we you know we we think or swim but yeah that's our second thing though like i said that first one is called dangerous and uh yeah we we just released one called the penny man yeah and he's he's uh he's spreading his guitar uh geniusness all over that thing so dude i i fucking love the soul in that song man really and everything i've been recording on these songs but that one's just fucking making my rock balls roll in the back of my head type deal and i just love that man it's just fucking brutal so who is the penny man it sounds like a character it sounds like a song you would base off with some character at the bar or something hanging around the alleyway or something well yeah that that's more that that's more like it not really the bar but kind of the woods yeah it's a it's a funny story but basically on my um my time off or like one of my hobbies is i like to go metal detecting right i i live in the east coast very early colonial history here i like to go in the woods i like to medley tech i like finding old stuff old coins and i've actually found some pretty pretty rad shit um one of my buddies you know i i would check in with every day and he'd always ask me what i would you find i go you know a couple old pennies couple old pennies one day he just said wow you like the penny man huh and i said honestly that's that's fucking cool and i so i started recording videos of me actually digging the stuff up when i found it i see i've seen some of those videos i'm like what the fuck is he doing and then i i realized that you were legitimately trying to you know go speedlunking and shit you know yeah dig into the dirt and find what the fuck is this you know it's pretty cool Geraldo Rivera and shit well i started introing the videos just because i thought it was funny with this creepy voice and i would just hit hit record and just go it's the penny man and then that was it and then i would just talk to the to the whoever was you know gonna watch it like hey you know i got a silver coin here from the 1700s check it out but every video i'd say it's the penny man so then you know i just i wrote a song one day and and it all came together really fast and you know when i send vocals out you know i don't know if you guys know this whatever but this the first song that we put out that i'm singing lead vocals on and and it's usually our singer johnny but you know part of our process since i do all the recording here is when i send ideas out to the guys i usually have some sort of vocal on it that i do whether i have an idea for a chorus the melodies some lyrics whatever it is i send it out to the guys and say hey here's what i'm working on so tommy was the guy who really started pushing me to sing because he was like first time he's like dude he calls me dude who's singing on that demo you said i'm like dude it's me i'm like just just to give you guys an idea you know he's like oh dude he's like you sound totally different from johnny but that's a great thing you know you should really sing more and and i think it will really you know so combined with his new his tommy style and my vocals it just adds a certain heaviness to the band that you know wasn't really there i mean we're always a hard heavy rock band but this is a little sketch a little bit more grim and i think it's cool and and uh tommy pushed me to start singing and they are the penny man is is me singing it so that's basically what happened you know i think that i think that i think that john sykes it's a similar story i think when he was putting together blue murder the idea was to get a singer yeah you remember that blue murder record that's sykes singing and and uh the story went something like uh here's the you know he's in a meeting and here's the demos and listen to the demos and the guys are like well who the fuck is this singing it got it's just me singing but it's just ideas for the song you know we're we're fully planning on getting a singer and they're like right oh shit you're gonna sing bro that's funny great and so it's kind of how singers are are actually born i'd never set out to be a fucking singer i'm a bass player who's just everybody wants me to sing they don't i guess i'm that fucking horrible on bass it just made me be the fucking singer anyway that's a that's really cool and i like hearing obviously because it reminded me of a couple of other things a Sykes thing for sure uh that's very interesting is your singer is johnny all right with with having some help yeah i mean yeah he is i mean i'm sure it threw him a little bit because johnny is so he gets so just overstimulated with music and singing i mean which is a great thing oh yeah you know how many bands i've been in with singers that just weren't around i'm like dude yeah i need you to record it i mean when he's here and i and i throw the mic up i mean he won't leave until i kick him out i mean he'll say for hours and hours and hours his therapist says if you put the mic down you're fucked yeah i know yeah i get it that that is his therapy i get it literally it's his happy place and yeah um so you know at the end of the day i have i have a lot of material that just doesn't sometimes hit the mark with the bad marriage sound as it is as it is like as people know it you know whatever and and um i don't want that to go to waste so and the back of my head is is always even with the penny man song i was saying you know what if the guys don't like this or for some reason it doesn't work i still have a cool song with me singing on it and i can i can put it out i can just you know whatever but ultimately everyone embraced it i told i i'm adamant to johnny you know look i don't want to be a lead singer i i'm not trying to take your job but i do think that that we can write some cool stuff together with with my voice complementing you on this and maybe taking lead on a song here or there but we're just we're just experimenting and i think it's going pretty good so we're going with it it's not where it's really happening is where i mean the penny man things great mic does a great job but when they sing together man their voice has got a thing man it's really pretty rad awesome i love that and that's what i really like hearing a lot yeah i i know and i was gonna say i don't think it's the first time this has ever happened with bands i mean they would let bill ward sing in black Sabbath sometimes he sang the odd song once in a while right um and it's not like you were or they were or anybody is like changing direction by just having this you know having this little branch grow this way for a second on a record or something right are you planning on playing that song live yeah yeah i'm rehearsing the crap out because you know me like like every musician you you're your own worst critic so oh yeah you know i'm here and i will be the first one to be like guys we're not we're not doing this if i can't if i'm not if i don't think i can deliver it vocally i just i won't embarrass myself like that but you know i think it's been going good we've been hammering it here we practice once a week obviously tommy is in florida but you know he flies in a couple days before whether we're going out for a couple days or a leg and then we'll we'll we'll have a rehearsal there before but um you know he's always prepared on his own i just give him give him the lowdown every week after we practice like hey this is what we've been doing but yeah so that's the plan i mean people seem to dig the song so we're going to test it out live i mean what do we got to lose really yeah i was going to ask you to to kind of for people that aren't familiar to describe your music and i i you know i i hear some you know i hear all the classic 70s hard rock staples i hear arrow smith i i heard a lot of rhino bucket in your music i thought that was rad but for in your own words you guys tell folks what your music sounds like well check it out out the now it's this like the record we've been working on that's going to be the next record i wouldn't say it sounds nothing like what bad marriage sounded like but it's it's it's a little different it's still got that but it's a little heavier you just got more uh you know double cheeks balls and all-time feel it's pretty pretty heavy in most spots i would say yeah and and to touch on something Jason was just mentioning about me entering my vocals that it's not like totally left field people were saying that with Tommy i mean we had people going wow why you don't you know bad marriage is a thing you don't need Tommy and and and uh you know there's only a handful of people that were saying that but you know my answer to that was look again we did not add Tommy just because he's Tommy from teplar or whatever he's Tommy steel uh like i heard what he did to these songs and and it worked you know like you know uh so you know we we had you know i just wanted to you know mention that because we have him coming in adding his whole different flair i mean it is different because he's adding a whole different thing to it he's got a whole different style like i didn't want another me 50 or Ian you know just to add like we don't need that you know um so what he brings is just different than what me and him me and Ian deliver so it's pretty cool and i think like if i sounded like Johnny vocally it wouldn't be it wouldn't do anything for us and i think i don't think i do it all so i think it's it's gonna be cool um you know like Tommy was saying i'm singing a lot more with Johnny on these newer songs on the new album so you'll hear a little jekyll and hide you know what i'm saying yeah and and and same like uh back to Tommy you know when when Tommy joins it's sort of like uh you know okay we got this cool band and then and then uh hey i got this buddy and he's gonna oh shit the stuff that he added it's like having the co-writer in the band like he started collaborating with somebody and then it just kind of lifted the spirit of what you already had going on in a way like you didn't know something was missing until you heard what Tommy would go hey try this thing i'm just here innocently you know and holy shit it went boring you know right um i got everything i've done on it i fucking love everything man i really like the songs pretty awesome so yeah you you seem totally happy and comfortable with with being the third wheel you know like it's fucking you you're helping create this new monster you know monsters monsters don't normally just have two legs and two arms you know what i mean monsters are usually fucked up somehow and so you want it to be fucked up somehow so it attracts the correct attention really listener my solo and penny man in your eyes will roll in the back of your head i can't wait i love it when my eyes roll back in my head this conversation reminds me uh you know i remember reading somewhere someone once described the guitar chemistry and tesla between tommy and frank they they nicknamed you guys mess and finesse and i think finesse would have been frank and mess would have been would have been tommy and that's not a derogatory thing at all but when you bring that to bad marriage i'm guessing that's kind of what we're talking about here you you brought in a layer that wasn't already there and it's your it's your own style and it works well with the foundation that was already i don't know mike's writing a lot of the songs and i i mean i'm writing a couple of them here and there but you know i'm just kind of playing through the song just kind of swirling through them and just pretty fucking swervy it's pretty fun and when you hear it you'll know what i mean by that it's just it's fucking rocking though man it's a lot of fun i'm having a ton of fun with it and it's just fucking uh attitude guitar stuff a lot yeah right it's great to see you so uh reinvigorated man i yeah i can tell just by looking at you and listening to you that you're fired up dude and that's all yeah yeah i really like the band a lot they're really great guys and it's it's been a great experience man well you know find find in the finding your happy place i mean i would imagine that that you and me tom you're close to the same age and it's like finding you're being happy at you know entering your 60s is is good especially when it's rock and roll based yeah it's what you do and it's what you've done and just finding a place to land and sort of ride it out what i'll take whatever comes my way now because i'm smiling so it took me a long time man to get through a lot of different things to get to where i'm like okay and my skin and i'm finally there i'm 62 but i am i mean i complained of my can talk all kinds of shit but i mean for me man i'm doing pretty fucking good now yeah awesome awesome that's great well it sounds to me like back to the sound it's like bad marriage just sounds like a mess you know referring to the mess and finesse to everything it's like well bad marriage just wasn't messy enough so they had to fuck it up some more and get you on top of it right so they were they were pretty sworthy man i don't know man but uh yeah i definitely got a swerve going in there you got to check it out good so you added some slime on top that's good oh definitely yeah yeah it again i mean it is so cool to have him next to me on stage two i mean where buddy's now i mean i i can yell at him i mean i i mean he's no longer but he's no longer oh tom big tommy ski oh my but you know me and him go back and forth you can yell at me i fucking yell at you dude what are you talking every day that's just fucking brutal dude they're yelling at each other right now oh yeah i'm yelling dude you're too loud turn that shit out y'all tune your fucking guitar he fucking hates me oh it's yeah we have a blast we have a blast i'm not even gonna tell them the things that we say yeah thank you i appreciate that but uh well bad marriage is bad marriage yeah you gotta be spit like and we're rocking out though and and me like looking over my shoulder to my and seeing him on the stage rocking to to our songs there's nothing like it there's absolutely nothing like it and and we're all on the sticks of us it's it's just that's our that's our that's our nirvana so yeah i mean yeah you guys hopefully we can hopefully we can keep it going you're about to spend a lot of time together in close quarters because you're about to go on tour with adrien van den Berg which is awesome talk about somebody i'm really happy to see back on stage and back in the limelight that guy i always thought was super underrated great guitar player and uh and he's out playing you know his his hits with van den Berg and of course white snake and i think you guys make a great pair out on the road together so tell us how did that come about when does it kick off and where all are you going yeah i actually um i met i mean i'm a huge fan too i mean i like his latest record well it might not be his most recent but the 2020 album i unmiss called 2020 uh phenomenal i i just i crank it all the time the riffs i mean it's not it's just so good but um i met i hung out with his manager yohan um and i met him and we we became buddies on monsters on the mountain the last time and bad marriage uh played we played that festival um and i just became friendly with him and then we re we like reconnected on the monsters a rock cruise we sat down for coffee he wanted to know what's going on if he could help in any way i told him that we were getting tommy uh in the band or he might have just joined i forget and he was intrigued by that and i said look if anything ever you know uh you ever need bad marriage we'd love to support van den Berg i think you know be incredible and he hit me up and you know he said hey i got an east coast run we'd love to have you guys this direct support and i was i was psyched i was floored so yeah that's basically how it happened i did meet Adrian he introduced me to him briefly on the cruise and he was he was he was a kickass dude and i'd say yeah i think it's gonna be really fun tommy do you have any history with Adrian from back in your tesla days did you guys ever you know what not not really other than i think i met him at a white snake show maybe when he came through Sacramento one time and i'm not even sure man i was i wasn't behaving myself now i don't know oh i don't remember a lot of shit yeah i yeah all right well you'll probably remember this tour at least i think i did meet him though actually in Sacramento one time yeah and i mean uh bad marriage has had some really notable tours you've mentioned already tesla uh i know you went out with buck cherry you went out with glenn hues um i saw i in doing my research i went to your website and i saw you guys you did a radio interview with some guy i guess in your area and you were talking about a show you did with uh eddie money and that now there's a name that doesn't get mentioned enough on this show so i want you to tell me about uh opening for eddie money and what was that like that that was that was absolutely amazing i mean after that show he was so cool and it was it was so it was just so like mind-blowing to me and in our guys we started we have a song uh one of our songs in in the middle of it we started breaking into shakin by by eddie money just because it just worked and and we just i don't know we just felt we needed to do it um but it was in boston uh we we we got the call and again this is when bad marriage was kind of coming up it was before we were touring we we had we had got any tour offers but um you know any national that would come through new england we were one of the rock bands that would get a call because we had a decent fan based around here and and you know so we got to we i mean scott wyland was another one we got to play with him i think nine days before he died so that was a trip um but anyway uh the ed money eddie money thing i you know he all of a sudden we we were just sitting in our dressing room or very early um and he just kicks open the door like rodney dangerfield that's all i could think and he just kind of like was like so bad marriage huh that's the best he goes that's the best fucking name i've ever heard he goes i'm going through one myself and then he left and so we're all looking at each other was like did eddie money just come in here and and just say we have the best name and he's going through a bad marriage even it was just surreal the guy was hilarious he was super funny and uh you know just the show will always remember yeah not not to derail or anything but is hidden any money from new england i think he's i think he was from new york new york didn't he used to be a new new york cop yeah yeah wow yeah uh that that's got to be a memorable moment i love that story about it's hilarious that's awesome oh funny tommy i wanted to ask you i was at the 1987 texas jam and uh you guys what you guys were on the bill of course so it was boston arrow smith it was boston arrow smith boston white snake and uh tesla and poison poison yeah yeah so i got to that show it was my first texas jam and it was my first experience in a crowd that large i think and i remember thinking naively i'm thinking arrow smith's my band dude so i'm gonna get in there and i'm gonna push my way all the way down front and i'm gonna hang on tight and i'm gonna be front row for arrow smith when they come on eight hours later or something like that so i'm down there just dying dude just dying because you know they it was a hundred degrees that they were all packed in there 85 000 people it was horrible and dallas and um poison brought out uh paul stanley and so i was trying to retreat and get into a safe location because i was done already i was done during poison set there was no way i was going to make it to arrow smith and then they bring out paul stanley and he comes out you know of course street clothes and they do strutter and so i got to stay right so i stay there but my question to you is what do you remember about that gig because yeah i was early on and test the sort of ride the top and i'm sure for you guys that had to be a huge huge deal it was uh i personally that i just remember because i broke my leg before it and i was up there in a cast when we did it and i don't remember yeah yeah that's right but that was kind of fucked but uh yeah it was the first that was the first big stadium show ever did and you guys were talking about Eddie's money i wanted to say um he was actually the first big name that tesla opened for wow was money back way back in the day when we were on it it's just that's interesting that mike told that story and mike now i know why you guys you've shaken that you never told me this you know yeah that's why you were is that the nicotine gum the pack that you're chewing on oh i'm chewing i'm like 10 motherfuckers right now dude trying to quit i quit smoking and it is like a fish out of water every day i'm just fucking lost man so i play guitar all day because i don't know what else to do with myself and if i just sit there for a minute i just go back to the guitar but now i'm doing this so i'm eating the fuck out of these nicotine patches like guys i cannot believe that he quits my it is the it is the most awesome thing i mean i've never smoked cigarettes right but i know plenty of people that do and stuff but tommy if i was a betting man what i'm sorry buddy but i would have bet that you couldn't because all the time i've spent with you the fact that you quit and it's been all the months i knew i would be i knew i would that's why i finally stopped you guys just because i could feel it it was fucking killing me and that's that's what made me stop and it's better now but i knew i would i told you i can't believe it well i hear it's i hear it's really fucking hard it is as hard as i've been quitting now for a few months and i'm still if i didn't take these nicotine pouches i'd be dead i'm serious man i don't think i can handle it i've come off some heavy shit myself but wow this is like a life it's like a whole life change for me oh i'm sure i'm sure congratulations and yeah man man that's crazy yeah i'm doing it because i have to you know i could feel the COPD and it's it's gotten better though in the last few months i gotta say oh that's good back to texas jam real quick besides having a broken leg yeah was there any was there anything memorable about that day for you guys i mean you must have come off stage and looked at each other and went did that just happen yeah kind of like that my broken leg was a bummer for me but you know we had been touring for a while and we were by no means jaded it was our first like year or two out there but i remember cc deville jumping in there's like a big pond thing in the back with the big a fountain in the middle i remember when they were done anything back and jumped in that motherfucker man and i wish i had done that because it was fucking hot it was hot it was you would you would have fucked up your cast bro oh man i i mean that was funny though yeah cc's funny we toured with them later on it did a whole nine month tour in the 89 or something but so they became friends cool yeah yeah um what what ultimately led to you leaving tesla i mean it's been kind of reported here and there but i'm one of you from the man himself basically man basically i was doing a lot of dope in a nutshell just a too much dope you know and uh i was kind of becoming a little disillusioned towards the end although i wouldn't have left because you know i wanted to make the extra ducats right but it's not a good reason to stay either so i just got fucked up man and you know so they just got tired of it and they said fuck you man and i said yeah i get it you know yeah that was that you know and it was i just kind of i kind of right told mike yeah i think i retired for like 15 years kind of you know yeah you did kind of disappear at least from the point i mean i i still played i still made like some stupid solo punk records i made and i played guitar and you know i played but yeah i didn't really do anything internationally or anything like that yeah um each of you guys what we'll start with mike uh what got you hooked on rock and roll was it an hour i mean i mean was it a first concert what was it it was my dad's jukebox when when this i you know he's no longer with us but like when when they when hurt when him and my mom were actually married that's the oh i only have very little i was really young before they got diverse divorced but one of the only things i remember is that jukebox and i still have it it's in storage i actually it got sold to somebody after he passed or whatever and then i got it back recently and i got to fix it but it's a 50 1950s seaburg it's it's so badass but anyway i can never i just instilled in my head the opening riff and i remember hearing it on that jukebox numerous times the opening riff to let zeppelin's heartbreaker just that just that bow down down that just literally just a less like i don't know if i think a less paul by zeppelin too but it just sounded so thick and so clean and so heavy it just blew my little p-brain when i was a kid i just i i couldn't wrap my head around it and then my mom would just throughout throughout her years just always crank like fleetwood mac and i loved it and she would just she'd always dressed like steve nicks she was into that whole like witchy like thing and and it was almost magic magical to me that that whole you know side of rock and roll and i guess the zeppelin and fleetwood mac was was when i first heard the sounds of it sonically and was like kind of mesmerized by it yeah yeah but i mean i was young i didn't pick up a guitar until like uh you know sophomore and high school and and i think you know that was just obviously it was the tail end of all the eighties and it was when like sound garden and alles and chains and then rage against the machine was a thing and you know those type of bands were kind of you know it was it was just i got a little of everything the 70s 80s and 90s and i and i think that's that's really what's helped me kind of stay true to classic stuff in my in our music but still have a touch of modern stuff which i think you kind of have to it you know so i don't know i just uh i love a lot of different genres and in decades of of music dude that the juke that riff is a fucking high roller son yeah yeah it's interesting that you say that because uh we were talking earlier about the penny man and you were and you were talking about uh it being a bit of a contrast to your typical bad marriage sound and i was going to say also that yeah it kind of does have sort of the dark overtones of maybe a sound gardener analysis seems kind of in there a little bit tell us all 100 percent yeah i yeah i've mentioned that i've i've mentioned those references with that song a few different times to the guys yeah yeah right on tom what about you what got you hooked on rock and roll what's that what got who got where what got you hooked on rock and roll hmm man same thing with my listening to music i mean i always heard music growing up and i was always fascinated with it when we had a piano i fuck with that thing and then my mom uh got me the tar for a christmas present and man i just freaked out on just like the the like when i actually had a guitar and it plugged into an amp that feeling even if i couldn't play it was fucking unbelievable you know i didn't even need to fucking know how to play it i loved it immediately and that was it man so my mom really helped me hook up i mean i hope i've ever gone there without her ever like asked to get a guitar or whatever maybe i would have but she hooked me up because you know i guess you know i don't remember ever telling her if i was like into music or anything but i did love it i was fascinated by it anyway she got me a guitar man fuck yeah what was your first record like you're that you bought with your own money this first very first record was elton john's greatest hits and the second one was just alive yeah i look at that and then after that i don't know it gets sketchy i saw judas priest live and after that man i just went bonkers yeah it's like a new way holy fuck you can do no wrong with with him but those are the first two with that secession you can do no wrong elton john's kiss and judas priest you're kind of like uh oh oh man with the world is your oyster now murder the bear was like a fucking tennis racket and that was rocket and shit like that i was nuts man love it now tommy tommy would you say that judas priest is your favorite metal band or band or band i would say wow yes yeah wow yeah i would have never known that tommy that priest you were a priest i don't think i would have eaten yeah i came in i grew up listening to everything i was a punk rocker i just i love it all but my favorite thing i think is the priest man when i saw them i had never heard them so i saw them live wow and that was that like in 70 you know what was that maybe 79 or 80 or so do you remember the show yep memorial auditorium in Sacramento yeah who who were they playing with with ufo oh my god unbelievable fuck well unbelievable man and ufo of course i knew about and i love michael shanker out you know yeah so you so was priest supporting ufo or the other way around i think yes i believe so okay wow yeah and what you what year was that it was back i right around and they put out unleashed in the east in that kind of area yes 77 or 78 maybe something like that yep yeah we're close to hell bent for leather tour yeah i think yeah i see my first my first concert was ufo it was max webster ufo and rush love max webster yeah and that would have been in in 77 and i was 12 fucking max webster i haven't thought about that for a while i got those guys freaks man yeah Canadian they were they were friends with rush so yeah totally but uh yeah i mean i i got being 12 years old and not really you know i didn't know any of the guys names in the band but i walked away learning who michael shanker was hell yeah yeah i mean i was there to see rush but because i knew all their shit you know yeah yeah wow so where are we uh on the timeline with this new album you guys are talking about you're already writing uh when might that album be available you're about to get busy with the tour so that might delay but tell us yeah man we got i mean we're close real close i mean it's it's been too long i mean i always say every year we got to put on more music we got to keep keep hammering people with you know to stay relevant you know just just with how hard it is as as an original upcoming band to try and even stay relevant but uh we the tunes are there man we have a lot of tunes um i'd say the tracking of of i'd say at least 10 to 12 songs are probably 90 percent done um some of them are even mixed i mean like the penny man's done that's gonna that's in a folder of just gonna be on the record um uh you know dangerous is done that's gonna be on the record yeah um we actually are redoing a song of tommy's old when he you know when he says he was in some he wrote some shitty punk solo records well i don't think they're shitty at all and uh i think they're absolute gold are really one yeah awesome yeah so there's some on there that are so bad ass that we're gonna we're gonna have bad marriage kind of put their their uh spin on two cents on yeah two cents on um and and uh so yeah one of those is going to be on the album which we've been playing live and it's been just getting an unbelievable response yeah um but uh yeah so we're we're close man it's just it's in my hands now you know uh there's very little tracking left to do i just gotta i just got to keep chipping away at mixing them um and then you know but it's coming together we're hoping by the end of the year uh we'll drop another single or two um and then with that whatever last single we we do we'll we'll put out the the you know the the CD and vinyl you know whatever i'm coming up to uh redo a bunch of shit no you're not here we go here we go bad marriage is about to go bad marriage uh oh yeah day in life day in life when when he was when he was smoking all the time like you know it really pissed me off i would be like the mouse and keyboard like after he would play a part and i would go oh and i would like kind of like fix it a little bit and make it good and i go oh isn't that sound bad ass huh and i turn around and he's gone outside my door smoking and then five minutes later what do you think about that oh he's outside my broken breaks are not five minutes fell the truth they're about a minute i torque that thing down and put it out before it's even halfway done yeah that's that's true but it was i was not happy with you when i had to turn around every time and you weren't there well now that he's quit smoking he's going to be like a parrot on your shoulder time yeah i know i gotta be careful i guess what i was looking for smoking say that again didn't we do a session without me smoking when i was here last time or was i smoking uh yeah i i don't think you were smoking so yeah i yeah but okay i don't remember but yeah anyway the record's almost there man we're super psyched about it so we're uh we got a couple of shows next month that we're looking forward to we got a couple dates with trickster we're doing one a festival in uh in lake george new york with trickster and ted poli and uh the singer from toratora i always forget his name anthony yeah anthony porter yeah so that'll be fun then we're doing the monsters um what else we're doing we're going to mertle beach with trickster we're doing a show there uh we're doing um and then we're doing that monsters on the mountain festival again which will be pretty rad with Jason yeah i get to bother him for a little bit yep good you're mixing you know you're welcome to bother me yeah they're way to seven Jason yeah yep mike has bothered me many times and i do not mind well guys man we appreciate you taking time to spend with us today uh wish you uh continued success with uh with your music and uh and tommy with your with your non-smoking congratulations on you uh the tour with vanda berg is going to be amazing that sounds cool yeah that really sounds cool and uh for anyone out there watching or listening that hasn't heard bad marriage yet do yourself a favor go check them out there's plenty of stuff on youtube and a new album upcoming here shortly so congratulations guys man we do appreciate you being with us on behalf of my co-host Jason migmaster on metal dave along with our special guests mike fits and tommy skio from bad marriage on the talk louder podcast yeah
