Welcome to Big Blend Radio where we celebrate variety and how it adds spice to quality of life. Welcome everybody today. We're excited to kick off the Joey Stucky a live day. Joey is an award-winning blind guitarist, songwriter, singer, composer, producer, radio and TV personality, music columnist, educator and sound engineer. He is based out of Makin, Georgia, which is known as the southern rock capital of the world and he is the music ambassador of Makin, Georgia. We're excited to have him back on Big Blend radio. He hosts our Big Daily Blend podcast with us every fourth Sunday, but September 29th is a super special day. Today, this is part one of our podcast panel discussions as well as a big, big, giant, big. It's big music playlist with musicians that are on the show today as well as musicians that you know from Big Blend radio as well as all kinds of other great songs that you know about, but these are all about songs and music to inspire and make you feel good. And Joey is going to tell us all about what a live day is. Nancy is here. Nancy, you're good. You're cozy on the couch there. I'm going to bring our special guests at the pond with a hearing. And a gator. So there you go. It's all fun out here in Florida as we record this. But before we get Joey on the show, I'm going to introduce our guests, but Joey's going to come on first and tell us what a live day is. It's a very special day and it's inspiring for all of us. It happens every year on September 29th. It basically gives Joey a reason to eat cake twice a year. You can have it as much as you want, but there's our birthdays and then you get special days like this. But I encourage you to go to his website, joeystucky.com. So Joey, yay, happy a live day. Oh, thank you. My friends. Good to be with you as always. It was good to actually meet you in person the other day too. That was one of the best things that happened to me all year. So I got I got to give Nancy a big hug, give you a big hug. That was great. You know what? We got lucky with the Stucky. That used to be I had a local, I did several local music shows here in town. And one of my friends did what we call a drop or a liner. And that was that was one of the things you got so lucky. You got the hungrown soap show with Joey Stucky. So it's not the first time I've heard that. I didn't think it would be the first time. I mean, you know, but it was really cool to actually go into your studio. You know, really, it is it's everybody's shadow sound studio and making in right in historic downtown making, which is full of charm. They even have pianos in the street. I'm not kidding. What a wonderful historic building you have with all kinds of music memorabilia, people that have signed posters for Joey. But, you know, I learned a lot about sound going into the different parts of his studio. And I can't tell you he's got a whole lot of knobs. I love my good knobs. He does. He does. He cannot lie. Very, very true. They're right. So we have to start off with some humor here. But before we bring our special guests on and everyone just so you know who they are, we have Kevin and Sally from the Walkabout Band up in upstate. Long Island. I'm going to say upstate Long Island up in Long Island area of New York. And we also have Tom rule from Macon Georgia as well. He was on the show. We did last year about a live day. You know, Kevin, Sally, we've been on the show with the Walkabout for over a number of years actually span the years. So it's going to be great to catch up with them. But Joey, before we bring everyone on, tell us a little bit about a live day and why this is such an important day for you. But also for that message that we can all, you know, connect with as well individually. Yeah, absolutely. So I am a blind brain tumor survivor. And I was diagnosed with brain tumor when I was 18 months old. And what had happened was that my dad had sort of let go of my hand and he turned his back for a second and I took a step that fell down a slide of about 30 stairs. And they rushed me to the hospital because they were terrified that I'd hurt myself. Amazingly, it didn't or at least I look after the podcast, you can decide if you hurt me or not. But they said, I think this kid blind. And so the next step was to figure out, you know, why? And so they discovered I had a brain tumor that was growing at a really exponential rate. So it had to come out. It was going to take my life. And it already destroyed my vision and my sense of smell. It also destroyed my entire intracon system. So I don't make a adrenaline. I don't have any adrenal function. I don't have a thyroid, all that kind of fun stuff. In later years, as a latent result of the brain tumor, I had to have a metal hip replacement, metal shoulder replacement. So it's continued to be a real challenge. But the thing that happened when I was two was they said that, you know, if they didn't take the tumor out, they knew I was going to die. And if they did take the tumor out, I probably was going to die. And if I did live, I wouldn't walk or talk. And so as you can imagine it for very young parents and for a young child, that's a pretty traumatic dust to cope with. But what my parents did, which was absolutely brilliant, my parents tried to turn a day of fear and dread and stuff like that. And then anxiety into an informational day. So they came up with a very simple but profound way of looking at it. So instead of the day you almost died, it's the day that you lived and beat the odds. And that's the very profound sort of paradigm shift. It's kind of deceptively simple. But I was an ICU for 45 days after the brain tumor surgery. It almost died several times later in life as a young child. But, you know, to keep me positive and me excited and me happy and me prospering and growing and learning and all the things that a child needs to do, they had that very simple shift. So it was a second birthday for my entire childhood. And, you know, even as an adult and a teenager, we would celebrate quietly your friends because my parents always thought that you should take every opportunity to celebrate. Small triumphs, large, large successes, you know, whatever it is, there's plenty of time in life that you can't celebrate. So when you're able to, you should. And so in 2017, I realized that a live day could be so much more than just a private celebration. So we started a free family friendly music festival in the heart of downtown making. And it was designed to give people a chance to celebrate their own joys, their own triumphs to revel in the joy of music to reconnect to community and friends and neighbors. And it's always been free. It costs about 10 grand to put the thing on. And I raised about 60% of that with sponsors and sort of bankroll the rest. And we've done it even through. It's taken several different shapes over the years, but even through COVID, we did some stuff on Facebook and this year, things just didn't work out where I had enough time to plan it because everything was so busy. And it was just so crazy that we did it. So we're doing it in podcast form this year. So every year, we celebrate it in some form or fashion, but the real mission is yet to tell my story as an example of joy and success and beating the odds, but also just to allow everybody else to celebrate their story. Hmm. So that's kind of a life thing. I love it. I love it because I'm in this, you know, doing this as a podcast form. It's something out there for anyone that can listen online around the world across the country. And it's there indefinitely. You know, someone doesn't pull the plug on us. Everybody watch our language, you know what I mean? Which is harder for me than anyone else. But this is such a special thing. And we're creating the biggest music playlist to celebrate being alive, which I think is awesome. And Nancy, what was the song you added to the playlist? That little old wine drinker me preferably thing by Dean Martin. Yeah, absolutely. He's great. Fantastic. You know, the funny thing about the amazing thing and all the panel can weigh in on this, of course, and I think we all have our perspective, but the amazing thing is that even the sad songs can make you feel better. And that's the amazing power that music has is that it can unite us. It can remind us of good times. It can help us celebrate being not being in the bad times anymore. Or it can make us feel seen and understood and connected to say, Oh, somebody else is going through this. So it's music is powerful and positive always in my mind. Right. I want to definitely comes from the heart. That's right. That's right. Let me get everybody on so everyone can touch on this. Let's start with Tom since you're in Macon, Georgia. And he likes to hang out in Waffle House, I believe, Tom, one of my best friends in the whole world. That is awesome. Everyone. Tom, Tom rule info, forward slash Waffle House. No, I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding. I'm a thoughtful house, but welcome back. Tom. How are you? I am still insane. Hey, you guys were in town. Shall we do? And you didn't call me your buzzer. It's on the show now. That's good. We know what we're going to go through Georgia again. So we'll see you when we go through. Well, some time I'll make a big party out of it. Okay. We'll have cake or waffles at Waffle House. Yeah, I'm buying. Listen, you say Waffle House and Nancy and I are there in a like instant. You know, there's something about Waffle House. Well, there's a reason the second tune on my last album was Waffle House Breakfast. That's funny. Yeah. Do what? What's the reason? That's where I wrote the song. How many musicians hang out there after a gig, too? Yeah, I don't know. I don't stay up that late. Yeah, he's getting older. Yeah. Well, yeah. There's only one choice to get older or not get older, but I will tell you this. My favorite Waffle House memory is we had just opened for Ted Nugent. And it was late and we were coming back from this is the four times time in the band. And we were coming back and we were starving because catering. They kept telling us that there was a catering truck where we could go and get food. And every time we went in, they could say, no, this is for Ted Nugent. You can't eat in here. So we were really hungry. So we stopped at a Waffle House and two very drunk young ladies kept throwing M&M zoes. So that was that was my favorite Rob Waffle House memory. Waffles and M&M's. I love it. I'm not wondering you want to M&M on the on the playlist, you know, I love this. I love that. It's all about Tom, but I want to bring our next guest on. That's what the wife never said. Ooh, well, he's got the last name rule too. Well, you know, the pens are Legion. Let me tell you. They are Legion. Yeah, you've heard of rules of thumb. Well, I've got thumbs of rule. Yes. Oh, the ton is funny. Why do I suddenly want to go into politics on this? I don't know why, but don't do it. It's about music and a live day. So let's go to it. What do you say rules of thumb? I just went like boom right there, but I won't do it. I'm going to keep it all positive and happy. Kevin Anderson is here from the Walkabout Band. You can find them on Facebook and go there because you can enjoy all this amazing music. Welcome back, Kevin. How are you? Good. Very good. Thank you for having me. Hey, it's good to have you back on the show. We've got Sully, lead singer also from the Walkabout Band from over in Australia. Welcome back. How are you? I'm good. Thanks. I hope everyone else as well. Joey. Good amazing story. Oh, yeah. Thanks for being part of an optimism and I think your dad, right? Your parents had the right idea. It's a gift. Good on you, man. Yeah, definitely it is. It kind of makes it, you know, things that happened to me over my lifetime seem very small and good to be alive. It is going to be alive. It really is. And my parents, you know, this is in the dark ages of medicine really compared to what we have today. And, you know, they were just, they just exude love and joy and it was, I was so fortunate to have them there. It was very difficult for them because I was in ICU after the surgery was 45 days. And that was really very difficult. So my mom would stay in the daytime and my dad would stay at night and they both worked. But the interesting thing, I always tell this because even at two years old, my dad was teaching me and educating me while I was in hospital. So he would, I've always been restless at night. I've always been, which is I think one of the reasons I'm a musician is because I'm able to get out and do things at night. I've always been an old restless and had a hard time like laying down and sleeping. And, you know, I just, I've always, so when I got real restless, if I was well enough to be held or moved, which varied from from day to day, you know. But he would pick me up and walk me up and down the hallways in ICU. And it was a large children's hospital and they'd walk me up and down the hallways and he would say things like we're getting close to the door that takes us out of the hospital. And there's a red sign above the door and it says exit and exit, so EXIT. And he would just constantly talk to me about what he was saying and what was around. And so I never really, I never really felt blind per se because, firstly, I don't remember seeing, but secondly, he was always describing the world around me. And so, and then as time progressed, he would say, okay, which hospital went up, so we're near the exit door, how do you spell exit? EXIT that, you know, so they were doing all these amazing things and, you know, would know nothing that guides them but love and hope. And so it was, it was really, they're really incredible people. Dad is 86 and still works 70 hours a week. In fact, last night I helped him fix an air vent on the side of our wall that was coming loose. And at like midnight, he was like, oh, this is coming loose. Dad, let's leave it till the morning. No, no, we're going to fix it at night. Oh, God, he's getting the drill. Well, that's, you know, Joey, I wanted to say, because you just went to the hundredth birthday of President Jimmy Carter. Yeah. And that looked like you had some good music that you experienced. Oh, gosh, yeah. But his story, I mean, it was so funny because we were actually driving into Macon to see you and they were, you know, it just happened that, that, you know, celebration for him. And they were on NPR. His grandson was on NPR talking about him. He had just received another award. I mean, he's got the Nobel Peace Prize, but another award. I think something to do with the foundation in Ohio for his book. And I didn't realize Nancy and I both, we didn't know he'd written over 30 something books. And that, I mean, he's been in the hospice for how long? A couple years, which is unreal. So he's still rocking. You know, and it's, it's, do you, how do you feel about that with your experience and then going to see someone, you know, that's a hundred years old. I mean, you know, you've known over the years and your family, you know. Yeah, my dad was a big part of his campaign and his administration and, and when he won Emily lost. And, you know, I think, I remember, you know, being in a lot of different events as a child when I was well enough, which was not often. But certainly he's been a part of my, my sort of mental, spiritual landscape since I've been alive. And, you know, the interesting thing is, they, several years ago, they started putting out packets, when I say packets, I mean media packets. All the big news outlets, because he'd gone into hospice and they're all thinking he's going to die. And here he is. He's, he's still alive. I actually heard, I actually heard some people that were staffers for the Carter Center at this reception. We went to the reception, which was a pretty close event. And then we went to the concert, which was a little bit more open and still a hard ticket to get. But anyway, we were at the reception and I heard some staffers talking about it. And they were saying that, you know, he just, he really wants to October 1st is his actual 100th birthday. And he really wants to make it to that benchmark. And, and, and then, you know, then he said that, that he gets, you know, whatever happened after that was okay. And I think his, his, his determination. And I think the thing that I admire most, whether you liked him or not as a president, what he's done outside the office is what's so incredible to me legacy. Yes. Yeah. And that's really, that's what's so incredible. I mean, all the different, all the different things that the Carter Center has done around the world. So one of the things that's, you know, so special about him is this is a guy who actually, you know, didn't just give money to have attack for humanity. You know, there are people who've actually had their houses built along to him by the former president. I mean, just, just to determine it, when he said his mind to something, the determination, and I've actually been to his church a couple times in song and it does different things. That is what he, what he sometimes he would come in and do a guest, like, you know, guest sermon is at this church and planes. And, and so I've been, I've been there and, and some while he was doing his talk and, and everything. So just a remarkable fellow. And certainly that's the kind of spirit that we're talking about for a live day. We're talking about people who just every day get up and keep going. Optimistic. Yeah. And, you know, the interesting thing is, just, just by any one of us, go and keep on going when things are hard serves as inspiration to everybody else. Yeah. And they, they think, well, if that guy can do it, maybe I can do it too. And that's the other thing when we talk about music. I mean, I was saying this, you know, earlier, but even like songs like, I'm a huge fan of the Smiths. And their songs are not particularly upbeat. But there, I mean, Morrissey does have sort of the emotional band with the 13 year old girl, but I'm a huge fan. I'm a huge fan. And the reason a huge fan is because I was like, Oh, I've felt that way before. The emotion. Yeah. Yeah. I felt that way before I understand what he's talking about. I mean, you know, again, it's, it's all very melodramatic. But, but, but there are times in one's life when you are feeling a little melodramatic. So, it's good that you can identify when you can identify with something, someone, an animal, bird, trees, whatever it is. You identify with a sound and a picture and or picture. You feel you're not alone. Absolutely. And feeling alone on sometimes you're like, Okay, I just want to be alone. But that's a temporary feeling. Right. And our space for time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But this whole thing today with the with the podcast and celebrating a live day. And when I put a call out to everyone about what we're doing at the playlist and the conversations is really also kicking off something that Joey and I've talked about. And I think, you know, I've talked about this a lot with musicians on our show is the importance of and we've done this conversation Joey on the shows a lot. I know. And Nancy, you know, we've talked about this over and over. There's regionality of music and musicians in their community, their regional community tend to stick together too. It's like, Hey, you know, my amp blue. Hey, someone I need an amp tonight. It's like one of my biggest gigs. Someone's going to come through to you for you with that amp or someone doesn't show as a bandmate or something like that. There's that and and musicians finding out, Oh, don't go to this bar and play. They don't pay. They just want to give you a plate of food. That's not good enough. Y'all have to saying everybody musicians should get paid. Food and the money. Yeah, that's right. And, you know, and don't throw the beer bottles either. But the, but it's to have this community, but music, I think I put that in the email to everyone is it's like the glue that puts unity in community. It is because it's and it goes everywhere forever. I mean, it's this is it doesn't. It's not just regional. It is everyone can connect everyone, no matter what the language, sometimes a musical piece can just get the emotions going. That doesn't matter what language or where you are on the planet. You hear it. You know what it does through the emotions and folks. Yeah, I was I was in Italy last year in Milan, and I was in a cab. And this song came on the radio and I don't speak Italian or Spanish for that matter because apparently if you speak Spanish, you can understand Italian by versa. But I don't speak either one of those, but this song came on the radio that that just had me instantly excited and and and that is wonderful. And, and I, and I examined it with my iPhone and bought the thing while I was sitting in the cab and, and I, I can't remember the name of the band because it's also an Italian. But absolutely fan. I mean, it's on my phone. Yeah. And I don't speak that stuff. And it was, and I don't know what turns out they were talking about a man who had a lot of charisma because there's a quasi English version on the album. Apparently the chorus doesn't translate into English, but the verses they kind of did. And so that's not the version I'm looking through that version stuff. It was amazing. And it's so true that music from around the world can just excite you even if there's a language barrier. It doesn't really matter. It crosses all barriers. And we're nomadic. Human beings are nomadic and we've shift and changed throughout centuries. Right. Around. And, and that means, and I, I think it's like this. There's musical deja vu that we just don't know like whales know where to go. They know we're going to go down to Mexico during the fall and then we're going to go back up. Right. I think you're talking about about teenagers. Oh, you're talking about whales? Okay. Yeah, yeah. They got that magnet in them. And I think we do in music. Sometimes you hear something and I feel like it comes from a past life. I'm getting weird now, but why not? No, but it's like a past life or something that's something. And I wonder down the road if they're going to, you know, because they find out so much through DNA. If certain music comes through our DNA that we have a sense memory of from an ancestor, you know. I think if you look at in different tribes around the world, I mean, now the walkabout band, you guys get that. You've got, you know, well, when you get the didgeridoo out, you know, you get that ancestral feeling and you've got that. I mean, oh, my gosh, when you guys do the didgeridoo, like that, to me, you know, I'm into two events, throat singing. See now how that connects to the didgeridoo. See, this is all these different cultures, but you can feel. I mean, growing up in Africa, I mean, it's like, I don't, I listen to so much music that makes no sense to people but me. For me, you know what I mean? It's with different languages or different sounds, but half of our instruments don't even come from where we are. Music's the international language. Yeah. And a note is a note because a note cannot lie. It's like a number. A number can't lie. A number will always be that number. A note will always be that note. You cannot. There's a t-shirt in there somewhere. I know. Yeah. Yeah. Would create other notes, like dollars, dollar notes. That would help the music community. No. Have you got any, sorry, the barge, and have you got any of the, like, early, your early musical memories? When did you start? Yeah, that's a great question. So my mom is really interesting. My dad was an amateur country musician who played guitar and he's hearing your parents that he really can't sing. It's really, we listen to it because we love him, but it is painful. And it really is, it's pretty close to dogs howling. It's really rough. And one of his uncles actually paid it one time to stop singing. Yeah. If you're a musician, you're going to take the money. But, you know, it's like, oh, you want to pay me a stop and the same thing. I heard that one. But he was a, he was a country musician. And so he was always playing things like Hank Williams, senior, and, you know, people like that. And, so there was always many in the home. There was, Eddie Arnold was the classic country. He was a student. And my mom, what we would call in the educational system, sacred music, she was always playing like gospel hymns and stuff like that because her father was a preacher. And then she also loved classical music and opera. And then my mom, when she found out she was pregnant with me, started playing bird sounds and nature sounds and all that kind of stuff to me as, as, as in Europe. And so I was always surrounded by music. I did not approach it myself until I was about 17, because most of my early life was just a fight for survival and to get through school and just to do the stuff I had to do. I mean, I always loved music and played music on the radio and, and we used to do, I mean, my friends and I would get together and have listening cards like everybody would bring over the new album they bought that month and we'd set them and listen to them all the way through. You know, so it was always a big part of my life, but I didn't start playing until about 17, but I actually started my career at the sound geek and a sound engineer at the age of 13, where I started just using the scientific method. My parents bought me a couple of inexpensive tools for radio shacks and they a couple little microphones and a little mixer and a boom box. And I just started recording stuff and I just like, Oh, what happens to the microphone here. What happens to the microphone there? What happens if I move far away or I move close up or hang it from a button. So I just started playing around. And by the time I was 15, I had my first job as a sound technician for the local planetarium. So, wow, that's, that's, that's my story. There's always been music in our house and always, I'll say this. The other thing that our house was always full of is laughter. So there's always been tons of laughter and music, which is very helpful when you're not. By the way, Joey always includes Monty Python on the music playlist, you know, you do. But this actually leads to this. That's it. That's it. It's just a flesh wound. It's just a flesh wound. That's right. Stop it in your nose. I don't know. That's the best. I don't know. I love it. I love it. But I actually worn my wife down over the years that she's now a Python fan. Well, good for you. It took about 15 years, but it finally worked. But you went to the faulty tower restaurant. We did. We went to a tower in London. I would, I would kill for that, but I wouldn't kill anyone. You know that, but I would be close to it. I would be excited because they made fun of me there and gave me a hard time because Jennifer was saying, "Hey, your spoon's on your left." And the guy that played Basil faulty walked behind me and said, "Oh, is there a problem with Sir Spoon?" And he's like, "Perhaps you prefer straws." And I was like, "No, I would." So he brought me straws and I put it in my soup and started sucking it to the straw. You're not going to help me, buddy. No, that's funny. That's funny. I do want to go to everyone that's on the show and find out about, not necessarily, when you started music, but when was it that you realized, not that you just really loved it and this is going to be something you're going to be doing for the rest of your life, right? But what was a moment you can say that, "Wow, you saw this positive effect of your music that you were doing on other people." Yeah, yours is 1776. So let's start with you, Tom. In your music, when did you realize that this is something that is not just for making music for yourself, but needs to be out there for others, that kind of effect? Oh, that's a tough one because I was-- And every album has a side of hash browns from Waffle House. Really? Actually, I really don't know. I've been performing since I was in Ellen Middle School. I was in the Chattanooga Boys Choir beginning in third grade, and we were performing beginning in sixth grade. So I've always just performed. That was vocals. And when I got to college, I was majoring in piano because that's what I wanted to do. No real thought to it. It's just, that's what I need to do. And it's kind of just gone from there. I mean, my first album was 1999. So that was a long gestation period, but I've just always performed, always created in some form or the fashion or the other. It's just what I do. Now, has it been my primary source of income? Not always, but it's always been something there, and I've always been involved in music. Hmm. What about you, Kev? Well, I was just thinking of that. I mean, my music started probably the same time when I started cooking, being a former chef. I started playing 61 years ago. So that's when I started cooking and really playing out when I was 12 and 13 years old in the early 70s. Um, actually, in a country in Western and Vietnam. And that it, it's just why I don't know. I mean, my father had this story. He's really the one that got me in to music, especially when he told me that he was in a band where he grew up on the farm in Massachusetts, that he was fired from because he never showed up or rehearsed. So, and he gave me this. He gave this Martin. And that was it. I took off after that. I mean, I've been playing guitar and I love it. I love music. I love writing. And, you know, I've been with Kitty, you know, 1975 from high school and. Yeah, man, it's also she's a she's a big, she's a big influence on how I feel and the direction of a lot of music that I've done. But over the past couple of years, so, you know, I've been talking about it. We're kind of, we're kind of taking what we're doing now. And we're going to add. Kevin, you went away. He's vanished. Oh, it's a brain worm. Or a network worm. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe you'll come back. You know, Kevin, Kevin. Okay. So anyway, so do you want to pick up on that? Okay. I'll continue on. Well, I think it was probably 10 years or more after I started playing music. And I had young children, so I stopped for a couple of years until they were old enough to put them to bed and rehearse in the studio in the back of the house. But those two years I was thinking, I've got the perfect life, but there's still something missing. And I think it was playing music. And that was the first time I realized how much it meant to me. And now I look back and think one of the big reasons was it's possibly the only way I had of conveying my emotions. And without music, I may have not had the tools to get through the experiences that I met through. So, you know, so I look back and go, it's really important for me in that respect, you know, so. And so some songs are very deeply emotionally things that I need to get off my chest and others are just stories of places of being or things I've seen or whatever else. But making music and playing music is it can take it from a pretty average place to a pretty good place halfway into a song. And if that has the effect on other people as well, and it has to because if you project a name that comes back, it's honest that they've felt it as well. And how you guys have the song, things are looking up and even if you're feeling crappy, you put it on and that's when you can get into your fake it till you make it mode, you know, and it's a good song. I mean, that's a you guys have written such good, powerful music to move you forward, you know, and also, you know, some of it sometimes I listen to it and go, you know, some of it I think is politically charged to me. Like I listened to it and some I'm like, oh, you know, suddenly there is hints in there, but I won't go into details. Yeah, yeah, we'll be hey, we'll be hey. But the things are looking up. I was sitting, I was sitting on my sister's couch in Australia, and I just gone to see my cardiologist and he said, we want to put a defibrillator in your chest in this week. And I went, I'm supposed to sail a boat to Hawaii from Fiji next week. I can't do that. And the doctor said, well, I'd consider not going to Hawaii and get this done if I was you. Anyway, I rang the captain and he goes, I'll just speak to the medical officer, which is his wife. And he goes, no way. So you can't come on this trip. Imagine if you died halfway across the grill in a good trip. So, but Kevin had sent me those lyrics. I was sitting there feeling sorry for myself, but he also said the captain, look, get that thing put in and you're definitely first like first person I called for the next trip. So, even though I was in a bit of a spot, there was still, you know, room for optimism. The music can give you that. I love that. I didn't know that story. Kevin, are you there? Yeah, I'm here. I'm back. My phone fell over and it didn't sound on. Um, I forgot to fasten the chest. No, no, no. Kevin, you've got a, you're wonky. You've gone wonky. If I were, yeah, your internet's gone wonky on you. So, Kev, I would say, can you hang up and call back in? I'm just going to say. Okay. Can you hear me? No, no, you're wonky. You've gone to space. Yeah, I'll be back. Oh, see, now this, this is the fun thing about podcasting. We did a lot of live shows for what over. Oh, God. Ten years of live podcasts and it was back in the day where, you know, we did it over the phone and internet and, you know, just when you thought nothing else could, you know, phase you on things going wrong. Life always says, Oh, yeah, watch this. You need to learn something else new. But that's the thing, too, as musicians, I don't want to go to you, Joey, because I wonder about that as musicians, man, you could have the best band with the best sound and one person can go in and mess up the entire gig by a bad sound. And you have to somehow fix that because, yeah, how do you move forward from that as a musician? Well, I've been through every possible scenario you can imagine was a live show. And what I will tell you is, I mean, I've had shows a live day last year, my pedal board stopped working. And then some of the stuff we had set up to record the show, we're going to multitrack the show. And some of the stuff we had set up due to the inexperience of the sound crew at the venue, we had to take out of the system at the last minute because they didn't understand how to run it with that system set up. And it wasn't hard, but I, you know, there was no teaching. I couldn't teach them in that moment. I said, we'll just take it out of the loop. And then my pedal board went down. My drummer was an hour and a half late for sound check. Everything that everything just went went wrong. And then, and then at the last minute, the day before the people that was supposed to provide food for the bands backstage said they had no knowledge of the of the agreement. And then an employee had an employee of theirs had made the agreement without their permission. And I said, well, all I know is this person said they represented you. Here's all the emails. And they finally did honor it, but it was it was late and difficult. So, anyway, it was a wild day. You remember by my keyboard had that bad. Oh, that's right. I forgot about that. Yeah, you hit Tom's keyboard had a bad 60 cycle hum, but we couldn't figure out why that was going on. So it was tough, but, but, but, but, but it didn't matter because when Showtime came along, everybody had the right spirit and the right attitude. And the main thing to remember is that no matter what happens, if you keep a good positive attitude and you have fun, the audience will come soon to speak and all the technical issues. Like, I just did a version of my keynote speech that I gave in at Israel in Milan last year. I did a version at this past weekend for an audio conference. And, and I showed them one of my songs that had all kind of technical issues with it because of how it was recorded. We recorded it at in Memphis at the famous Sun Studio. And they run this, they run it as a museum from 10 a.m. to the 6 p.m. and then from 7 to 10 p.m. you can book it to record. And they're still using amps from the 60s and 70s and microphones for the 50s, 60s, 70s and they only have like an eight channel board and, you know, everybody's in the same, everybody's in the same room and several things I asked for them to do for me. They ended up not doing it, but I didn't know that, several microphone placements. But I didn't know they didn't do it because I couldn't see. I mean, I can't see and I, once they said, "Yeah, we'll do that," I just checked it off my list and assumed that they would follow through. When I got back home to mix the record, I realized that they hadn't done that. So I had all kind of technical issues. And yet, the song on that record, Ain't It Good to Be in Love, is one of my most popular songs and is really loved by a couple of friends of mine who are professional award winning engineers. And they didn't care about any of the things that were a little awesome in the recording because the song communicated joy so well that that's all they heard. They didn't hear any of the technical stuff. They didn't, you know, I could barely have the hi-hat in the record because it wasn't a hi-hat mic and all these different things. And, you know, I mean, I did a good job mixing it, but I mean, I had lots of challenges to overcome. And none of that stuff mattered. But this is, this is the point of this where things go wrong. Like, we're still having this great conversation. And I think we've got Kev back here, but it's about, you know, things that are never going to be perfect in life. You're there, Kev. Welcome back. How was space? How was outer space? Little chilly. Did you wrap your food and tin foil when you went up there? No, I was wearing my aluminum foil hat and I made sure that I didn't swear any time. You know, Tom makes it the lemon foil hats on the side of the hobby. Do you really, Tom? I wouldn't be surprised. Remember, you forgot to put in the disclaimer that you can only believe 50% of what Joey says. The trick is knowing which 50%. I don't think it's that high. This is Tom's rules. You know, we're back. I will say, Lisa, don't make fun of the tin foil food, because when I was a child, I went to Cape Canaveral and we got some of that freeze-tried ice cream. It was delicious. Wow, okay. I don't know what you're talking about. I think it's in the water now. It's in a power form. You just add water. Yeah. Oh, wow. I have a joke about that, but I just had to bite my tongue. So I'll just keep biting my tongue. Okay, so I want to go to Nancy. So music, Nancy, has been in our lives for years. We've taught it, we've performed it, we've written it. For you, though, I know that you also have been a really good audience member. You watched, I mean, the two of us, I think, not just audience, but like going back to teaching where we both taught retirees how to play the organ. This is our start in this country. We went from South Africa. No, but we came and we were in Florida. So this makes sense to bring up. This is when we first got here and we basically lost everything in South Africa because everything went crazy and we had to get back home and start over our lives over. And you could think it's over, right? And we were running for our lives, literally, and we were threatened in all kinds of different ways. Our story of getting out of South Africa is pretty nuts because we had what is known as the "brutabont" after us there, which is basically the American version of the KKK because Nancy wrote an article about a gentleman called Mike SEGA. And this is when the Mandela's were coming into power, and this is not, we're not going to go political on anything on this. This is just what happened, but we want to get to the music part. So she wrote an article about going to a township that Winnie Mandela and the ANC said, "You must come here and you will do this." And so she went off with our director to a township and wrote about their story, their craft making, and their small businesses that they had. It was very nice. It was nice. I came back and then at the same magazine, she put the Rocky Horror Picture Show on the front cover because it had finally been unbanned. And thank you to the Sydney Opera House actors that came over to South Africa and did it for two or three weeks, running. Yes, we went every single night, became fans of the friends, and we almost opened a second office of Nancy's magazine in Cape Town. Oh, this is crazy. Oh, here we go. See, yes. But Frankenfurter was on her last issue of her magazine in South Africa. But Frankenfurter is like inspiration, right? But we get to this country and we start teaching music. And what we didn't know was this company we were working for, we're just basically upgrading seniors from one organ up to another one to another one. They were paying up to over $100,000 for an organ, a musical organ. So it was a scam, and we didn't know, but they would come in for lessons and it was a community. And I personally watch students like one lady had lost her husband. And she's now in her, this was in the 90s, mid 90s when we got here. And so it's a different generation too. And she had lost her husband. I mean, some of the women didn't even understand banking, checking. And so this company was kind of like, oh, let's go. And I'm like, oh, no, no. So we both quit over this, but we saw some really beautiful things. It's one lady started drinking because she'd lost her husband. She felt lonely, but she'd come to the store, the music store, and go into class. And we, you know, we saw the drinking thing and actually my boss, Stefan and I, we kind of like, hey, you need to focus on the music. And got some of her friends to realize what was going on. She stopped drinking. She started really playing music. I watched a gentleman who had a stroke, be able to start moving his hands again and actually play. You didn't have to be, you know, all fingers on the keys because of the way the organs worked. It could do one finger and they'd have a rhythm and, you know, they'd play in the mood, you know, Glenn Miller in the background and they would be able to learn and play. But some really progressed, right? I remember sitting doing concerts with, you know, Jackie who taught me everything about Aretha Franklin and she would sit there and go sit down and go play. And I'm like, why don't know that she goes, you play, who cares if you're right and wrong? We're having a party. You know, so they taught me so much and taught me the power of music to overcome retirement, loss, grief and actual physical things in your body. And how important music in this community of students, it gives me chills. Nancy, did that affect you too on the music stuff we did in performing? I thought that was really intimate. So I thought it was really cool when you could find someone, let's say when you're talking about an older generation to have a choice of giving up and not learning anything new or going out and learning something new. And they could play the organ. And yes, there's a lot of automatic stuff that comes on the organ, like you can have an automatic drunk beat and you can slow it up or make it faster, you could do all those things. But we saw people progress from turning off the automatic and really starting to play. And it was fun to watch them progress and get so much joy out of music. So to me, at first, it was a good thing. And it's too bad that the company had some problems. Yeah, it was awesome. On the upper level, the people who owned it and ran it and I think they had a little accounting problem going on. And it's a shame because what was happening in the school, because we would teach the music to these seniors and watching them blossom and have so much fun and get together and we put concerts together. And everybody got a chance to play. And they had a new purpose in life. And so they blossom. And it's really unfortunate that the people who owned and ran it didn't see that or care about it or they were just there for the money. But, you know, sometimes that's held capital. Yeah, I missed the connection. To you bad, because they needed it more than anybody else. Exactly. Kev, I want to go to you. You were talking about your writing with Sally before you went to space with your tin foil hat and food. So now that you're back on planet Earth, tell us what's going on with your writing because it seems you have some changes happening with the walkabout band. Well, yeah, we're turning a little more direction. I keep telling them. The music that I'm writing now is more on an electric side and not being so acoustic, acoustically driven. Not to say that it's going to be harder, but we're kind of taking the, you know, the gloves off. And we're putting on a set of brass knuckles. Sounds interesting. It is. No, it's definitely got something we want, you know, my ideas to have more music that people can get involved in toe tapping and, you know, really, really feeling what is being put across. And I've been working on the past couple of years and it's, it's a lot of stuff is festering, you know, I'll write five songs and gut it and turn it into one. So. Some songs that are and themic too. And that because of the lyrics are positive and also making you think, but there's a, there's just certain rhythms and things that you do that make it like, Oh, people are going to be able to power it. You know, it's empowering. I think that's where you're going with it because even on the acoustic side of it, it's an empowering sound and then taking it electric. I mean, you could call Bob Dylan, he'll tell you what happened when he did. But look at him, he's doing it now, right? So it's, to me, change is always good and it's fall. So go electric. I mean, isn't that. We've done our four or five releases and we've all been, I don't want to say we're the same. There was something on each album for everyone. You may not like all the tunes on the album, but then there's going to be one that draws you to it. And I'm a firm believer when I'm writing something, if I can't remember it 30 seconds later and keep humming it, it's not worth pursuing. That's why I said the end. That's, I think what I mean about the anthemic thing is like, you can get it. Like, I look at like the Jack White, Seven Ancient Army, right? It's electric. It's simple. And it's still, it's anthemic. No matter how someone, whether you like it or not, right? If you don't like a song or not. And then some people start using it in campaigns, which is illegal, just saying. Well, you know, but those kinds of songs are empowering. I wanted to go to you, Tom, what's happening with you musically? Anything we should know about? Well, we've got an themic rock going on here. Like, yeah, we're plugging things in. So we're going to get some good, like vibes. Like, you know, yeah, you never know. Yeah, like to be plugged in. My last album was last fall. So I spent a year just kind of straighten up the mess that is my head and my studio. So I'm going back through my catalog right now and clearing out some stuff, experimenting with some artificial intelligence things. Joey, you and I have a conversation to have some time soon. It's, it's been interesting. We're doing some stuff that was recorded back in 1999 and stuff like that. So I got about 200 tunes that are in the bucket waiting for me to get to. You keep saying 1999, I'm resisting bringing up prints. Now I had to. I had to. I couldn't have been sitting on that. I'm like, I want to say something, but I behave. Joey, what's happening for you, musically? Well, you know, I'm still sort of promoting the current record that came out on June 28, which is live from Macon in studio recording. And it's just me and the acoustic guitar. It is phenomenal. It is a great album. I appreciate that. It was just, it was just one take and just, you know, originally I did it for originally, it wasn't supposed to be a record. I recorded as B roll for a documentary. I was doing and everybody responded to that so positively. They're like, Oh, well, this should be your next record. So we put it out and had some real great success. The radio campaigns over now, but we did real well where the number one add on several stations in Chicago and some other places. And did real well with it, but I'm still sort of still sort of doing that. I didn't really have a chance to the official city release concert for it until August, because things are so busy. And I did that in downtown of the heart of downtown Atlanta and did that. That was a lot of fun. And so we're still sort of doing that. Now, of course, it's Grammy season. And so everybody who's a voting member of the Academy is sort of out pimping their wares. So we're going to do that process of just letting people know the records out there and up for their considerations. And then I've got, I had actually another record that I was going to release this year, which I'm going to do next year. So I just, I'm sort of changed my mind and a couple of things about it. So changing a couple songs that we're going to be on it. And, and trading them out with songs, other songs. But the other thing that I can tell you is it may be, it may be this year or it may be next year. But by my trio, right before COVID, my trio performed at the world famous whiskey at Gogo in LA to sold out the crowd. And we were really excited about it. We've been touring all of that year, 2019. And we've been working really hard. We kind of made it up to this, the higher level. And we actually have a lot of recording from that night. And I'm going to be releasing several of those recordings as singles, mainly, mainly so I can trigger the Spotify algorithm as opposed to an album. So I'm going to be putting those out along with a new record. And then there's also some stuff. And Tom, you've heard some of it. There's a couple of songs that, that we recorded, just jamming together, getting ready to record another jazz record of mine. And that jazz record is going to come out either 25 or 26. I'm actually in the middle of, I've had it halfway done for like three or four years, four years I think now. And so I've had it done for about four years, and I've just now gotten around to going in and tweaking it and finishing it up and mixing it. But there was some stuff. There were some warm up songs that we recorded just for fun. And those turned out really, really well. And so I'm going to be releasing those as jam singles as well. One of them is like "Moon Dance" by Van Morrison. And then I've got a lot of music coming along. And then I've also found a couple of songs I'd forgotten about. Three or four tunes, a couple I recorded back in the 90s, and one I recorded in the late 2000s, 2010, 2011. And so there's going to be in the next two years, there's going to be a lot of music coming out. And of course I write new music all the time. Oh, that's exciting. Sully, are you going to electrify your didgeridoo? Well, I do play it through a microphone, so I can bring up the volume. And strangely enough, after most gigs, there's a few people that I would like didgeridoo groupies that want to talk about that stick with the hole in it. And those strange noises emanating from it. There goes Sully with the stick with the hole in it. I've always loved the didgeridoo. I love that sound. I'd like to say it. I'd just like to say it even. But it is throat singing in a way, right? It's that circular breathing. Would the circular breathing, yes, for sure. I put it through a looper as well sometimes, so I can add a few other bits and pieces. Yeah, definitely. It's not as common in this country as it is in my home country. Sure. And if you're not playing the didgeridoo, there's another black playing the didgeridoo. But yeah, they're like, what is that? Definitely scares the people here on Long Island. I'll tell you. Yes, Long Island, you can pick you up. Wow. So it's been known to rumble a few glasses off. Right. Well, I think it's so cool to have all these different instruments, you know, to me, that's the thing. It's, it's, Nancy and I are incredibly, like, when we were normal and had like a normal home, as people do, we were terrible on the road. It was like, if you see other different instruments, I remember Nancy that one time in the Redwoods, we found some music camp was going on, and people were selling all these, like, it was just this crazy, hippie festival, man. And I don't know, but it delayed us for a while, for a while, we got kind of stuck there. I don't know why or how. But there was great music and it was drumming and there was all kinds of stuff happening in the Redwoods. It was just, it was this magical, magical, just, I don't know. You know, when you find fairies in the forest, that's what it was like. It was like, is that where you learn the game, butt pen? No, we haven't had anyone for a long time, but I may do it. I may have to pull out the butt pen in the elections, we'll see. But, um, but, no, but Nancy almost bought this whole xylophone made out of ostrich eggs. It was cool. And I realized we're going to go down this. Exceptional. It wasn't. Oh, you're cracking me up. Oh, my gosh. Well, that's a good closure here. We've done, we've had wombats, we've had ostrich. We've had all kinds of good animals here, but it's always good to have you guys on the show. Everyone, this is part one, part two, Joey will be back on. We've got some great friends coming on from Florida too. Hey, we've got California represented. Hey, we've got Australia represented, but don't forget, look in the episode notes. Everyone's links are there. We've got the walkabout bands, Facebook link, Tom rule.info because he's an informative. And we've also got joeystucky.com, of course, big blend radio.com. But we've also got the links to the big. I really need to watch myself the big, big blend radio playlist for a live day. It is the a live day music playlist, the big, big one. And it's going to have so much in there that you could just play it and that it's stream all day long and all night long. And then all day and all night. And every time you feel like. Yeah, and we should note Lisa that at least here in making September 29 has been recognized as an official day of celebration. So you can crank up the live day playlist on September 29 or anytime, but on September 29 for sure. And think about all the things that you're grateful for and reach out to your friends and reconnect with them and have just have a day where you take a moment to connect with your community and your friends. And I want to thank all the wonderful guests on the show today for the bottom. My heart has been amazing to get to know. So he and Kevin, of course, I know Tom very, very, very well. And that's why he pays me a monthly stipend. But anyway, thanks to everybody. Lovely to sign the major joey, Tom. And definitely it was a pleasure. Oh, listen, listen, there's nothing like an Australian being on the show and calling Joey a Joey. That was ideal. As soon as you said that was like, good night. That's it. That's it. I love it. I love it. Thank you all so much. Take care everybody. And again, keep up with Joey and a live day. Go to joeystucky.com. And in the episode notes, all the links are there. Thank you all. And let's celebrate being alive. Take care. Thanks, everybody, guys. Thank you for listening to Big Blend Radio. Keep up with our shows at bigblendradio.com. home.
