(upbeat rock music) ♪ 29 women and 29 men ♪ ♪ Went to war, got shot in ♪ - Welcome to Big Blend Radio's Toaster the Art Show. We're super excited to have guitarist Jim Inelli back on the show. And today he's here to talk about his new solo album and it is, it's actually his first album, which is hard to imagine because he's such a fixture in the music world. And, but this is one heck of an album. It's called Just Deserts. And you need to get it now, I'm just saying. It is out on record jobs, the actual CDs. It's on streaming and download services. And it's even, you can get it on Etsy. I'm not Etsy, excuse me, Ebay.com. I live for a new, you could buy music on Ebay. And you can also keep up with Jim on Facebook under Jim Inelli. So welcome back, Jim, how are you? - I'm doing, well, it's good to finally see you. - Yeah, I know, I know it, how's Peggy? - Peggy's doing great. I think she's out doing gardening right now. - Oh, it's a nice day, right, to do that. That's awesome. - Oh, it's beautiful here. 75 and sunny and it's just wonderful. - Milwaukee and sunny, well, you know, we keep going to Wisconsin now, but we have not gone to Milwaukee yet. We haven't touched and set foot in Milwaukee yet, but we will do it. We will do it, you know, we will. We'll get there. - Well, you should. - Yeah. And I have to point something out to you, the album, although it is spelled Deserts, it's actually pronounced just desserts. And it's a funny twist because everybody, my nephew from Buffalo called me, if you said, "Hey man, I don't want to tell you anything," but you spelled the name wrong on your album. I'm like, no, it's actually a saying in English colloquialism and it's spelled Deserts, but it's pronounced desserts. It's really weird. - Wow. So, okay, so why did, so desserts? - Yeah. So it means is you get what you deserve, whether good or bad. - Mm, that's called life. - Yeah, exactly. - Yeah, it is what it is and how we handle it is how we handle it, right? - Right. - Wow, this album rocks. I mean, it really does and it's, I love it because it's such a lot of Americana in there. And it gets to the point that the storytelling, you know, it makes you think, but at the same time gets to the point in your songs. You don't hold back. Well, these were, you know, I wrote these songs starting in probably 1992 and I've always been, as the promo would say, I've been a side man to so many great songwriters and so many great bands. And I've had a beautiful opportunity to do that. And I've always written songs on the side, which if I were to bring them to the band, they'd probably go, now we don't want to do that one. It's too, you know, it's too dark. It's too this, it's too that. So I kept these songs and I demoed a bunch of them. And they were at serious times in my life. I mean, some, there were some junctures where I was completely broken and down and out. And so that makes for great songwriting. So I kept those songs and thinking, I know what he's going to want to hear this. It's, and plus as a songwriter, you always think, I don't want to bear my soul like that. I was always afraid to bear it. But now I'm like, I have to bear it. - Yeah, why not? I mean, you've got some blues in there. You've got a lot of drive. You know, a lot of, I can't wait to drive with this. I love albums like this for the road. They're perfect, you know what I mean? 'Cause it gives each one a different like visual soundscape if that makes sense as you go. Like you kind of, it becomes a new story each time. You know, even though it's the story. - It's funny you should say that because the oldest song on the album is a cut number two. It's called "Where I've Been." And I actually wrote that on the dashboard of my old Dodge van coming back from a gig up north with one piece of paper and one little pencil. And I'm driving down the highways, you know, like this. And so that's a total driving song. But I totally understand what you're saying. And I probably wrote, I probably assembled this record so that I could listen to it in my car. 'Cause that's my favorite place to listen to. I love it. - Me too. And as loud as possible. - I love to take a ride together. - Yes, I think we talked about that last time. Yeah, exactly. That's a thing to me. And that's where you get, especially when we go across Texas. And I know we've talked about that Texas to me and I'm like, all right, man, I need everything. I need all the tools in the bag for Texas. And you know, and it's not like it's ugly or anything. It's just long. - Yeah. - And you know, it's just a very long trip, especially at the top part, the panhandle top. It's just like, okay, are we gonna get there? You know, and the last time we drove it, it was like a heat wave. And I'm like, man, are the tires, and people are pulling over with tires bursting. And I'm like, come on little car, you can do it. But anyway, she's been through hell. But, you know, it's just you need, it's like a food group. You need the right, you need the right, and music is like your medicine and your sustenance to get through these. But if this album does, tell us about 29 women. - Well, that was a, you know, I played in kind of like punk New Wave bands, and I played in like blues, rock, Billy bands. And I was always fascinated to combine the two styles because it's a very, I don't know if angrees are right word, but it's a very urgent, desperate, serious motion. And playing in a lot of bar bands, what you had to have in your repertoire is not only good songs, but songs that had that rhythm to awaken people. So I wanted to start it down, down, down, down, down, down. You know, that kind of thing. But the song is lyrically, it's about the disgust, my disgust with war. And I understand why war has to happen. You know, there's a lot of things behind it, but the fact that it has to happen and people have to die that have no interest in the cause whatsoever. Either they're in the military or they're part of the residual fallout when the bombs come. And, you know, my dad was a vet. I have great respect for vets and my freedom. I will hold doors for vets, I'll buy them lunch, but it's a shame that people have to die to get people's things resolved. So it's a song about the disgust of war. And I sing the chorus, "I ain't gonna be your dog." - Yeah, 'cause here that's what I wanted to hear about because I just like, as soon as I heard that, you know, 29 women, then you say 29 men too. And so I was like, "I ain't gonna be your dog." I'm like, "No, I ain't." It's kind of an anthemic. - 29 women and 29 men went to war and got shot dead. The people cried, "Well, have no more "of all this killing in your war." Now I'm standing in a stone fog. In other words, I can't see where I'm going. - "I ain't gonna be your dog." It's a cloudy confusion when people have to die for one man's cause. - Yeah, and when I was sitting there thinking too, it's very timely, but then I go, when is a song like this not timely? - Right, always war. - Unfortunately. - Yeah. - And we're still, you know, I interviewed a gentleman who was up there in the Pentagon in military and like all the secret stuff. And he wrote a novel based on true experiences. It's been coming and moving and everything. And they actually had to go to the White House and they had to be cleared through security for this novel to get out. And you know, he wrote about the Cold War, which a lot of people forget about it. And he said, "Really, if you look at the Cold War, "it's one little war after another, little battles." He said, "But it is a big war." And he goes, "When you look at everything "that's happening now." He said, "It's the same war. "We just signed peace treaties "and then find a different way to still fight." - Right, and a lot of the decisions to fight and a lot of supplies are done behind the scenes. We get fed the news and I'm sure there's a certain truth, what we get fed. And I'm not a big conspiracy theorist, but sometimes you have to wonder, what am I beating, and where's the truth? I thought, find the truth, follow the money and find the truth. But I just, you know, if you've ever seen-- - It's always followed the money. - Right. - That is, and I think there's a website for that. There is, there is, followthemoney.org. - I have to tell you a story that inspired the song 29 Women and my anti-war rant when I was in grade school, and I'll date myself here, I was at a friend's house and a little four-door dark blue Ford Fairlane pulled up to the house. Two guys got out in military uniforms, knocked on the door and the guy's mother who I was friends with immediately knew what it was. She dropped to the floor crying on her hands in need. They were there to hand the paper to her that her son had just stepped on a landmine in Vietnam. Here's your piece of paper, ma'am. And there we all were in the room, they left, and here we are. So that made a big impact on a 10-year-old, you know? So I'll never forget that. - That's huge. - Yeah, huge. - And how they did it, you know, and how, in when Vietnam happened, how more is a famous general in Vietnam, and the movie, We Were Soldiers, We Were One Soldiers, or We Were Soldiers, once with Mel Gibson tells his story, and he rescued people in a way that, you know, we weren't supposed to do, but became a hero, and rescued people from helicopter, which was amazing. His men and his wife, Julia Moore, she, so they were, you know, the wives were all put into, like, here's your, the row of houses on military housing, and whenever a taxi came through, all the women would just know somebody's dead, right? And who was it, and how they got handed exactly what you're saying, there was no support. And so she created a network, the very first spouse support network in the military from this, so that when the taxi was coming, that somebody would be there to be with the spouse, the wife of, so that she had support, that everyone took care of her, and she wasn't alone, and because it would happen, and people knew, here's a taxi, so it was like, before the taxi comes, and you just get a letter, or something folded up, you know, that it was comforting, there was a comfort, blanket there, because it was exactly like you're saying, at that point, is where it started to turn around, and, you know, there's no comfort, you know, 'cause it's a surprise, even though you know in the back, you know? - It's coming. - Yeah. - Could it be me, right? - And trauma takes on so many forms, and so many pointed out to me, they said, your album's a lot about a lot of trauma, and I'm like, well, you know, those are the things that incite good songwriting, you know, the trauma of death, war, heartbreak, loneliness, confusion, all these things, that, and that's why I never wanted to bear my soul, because a lot of it is pretty heavy, but at a certain point, I dressed it up with really cool music, so it kind of-- - Oh, no. We've just done a series of shows with our friend Joey Stucky about the power of music. And we made a song list, 'cause he survived. He had a brain tumor, and when they did the surgery, he was either gonna be completely, you know, not able to walk or do things, you know, but have a beating heart, basically, and be able to breathe or die, kind of thing. - Well, the surgery, what happens, he lost his sense of taste and smell. He still has a little bit of taste, a little bit, and he went blind, and so his parents said, on September 29th, and now we're talking the day after, to celebrate this as your live day, you've got to be thankful to be alive, 'cause you've still got so much to do on Earth, and so it's like his birthday, and so we just had a celebration from him, but the week before, we said, well, let's make this music list of songs that celebrate being alive, and inspiring, and motivating, and by the time we were doing this playlist, and then we made 290 song playlists, like a 290 song playlist was insane. I haven't gone to sleep for a while, so just bear with me. But it was amazing because between him and some of the guests on our shows on this, it wasn't all music that, you know, makes you happy. It was, a lot of us we were talking about, you actually need the songs that tackle it, so that you can go through it to get to the other side. You know, it's part of that medium of like, if you've been diagnosed with cancer, and people ignore you because they don't want to say the C word or talk to you like, they don't know what to say or do, right? But if you ignore them, that's the worst thing, but let's actually just deal with it, it makes it a lot easier. So music, like what you've put together, gives people a place to not feel alone in something traumatic in their life. I think it's very healing and inspiring. So I don't think it's a downer at all. - No, I know now that it's not. And after I assembled it, and Gary and I put it together, I thought, wow, wow, it's finally landed. I finally put it in a little box, and it's out of the way now it's done, but it was meaningful at that point. Before it was just scattered emotions, and as I would tell people in interviews of being a child of World War II vet, and my mother, everything, you come to her with a problem, she'd go toughen up. And nobody talked about their feelings. So the only way to get in touch with your feelings is to go off on your own in some really dark space. And, you know, and then I see, you know, the modern, it's very cliche to say this, but the modern young-ins sit in front of their screens all day, their video consoles or their phones, and they're not going to the playground, hanging out with 15 people at the playground, beating the stuffings out of each other, and, you know, choking on Samlot does, and getting used to being around real people, how are they gonna get in touch with their feelings? They do it through music. - Yeah, music, and music is about it. And at the same time, if you don't have those real things, and I'm scared about it, actually, because it's like, don't say this, don't do that. We're now, everything's like walking on eggshells, whereas you kind of, music in comedy, like I said, it's a food group. (laughs) - Well, you are what you eat, right? - Okay, I'm a big treble clef. - That's good. See, and the world needs more people like you. - More treble clef, too. - Well, no, there could be a show every day, you know? You could be, every day you should be on the air on television, have a cable show and be talking about these things. - That'd be fun. - It needs to be heard. - I think it's important. Well, people are going through a lot of pain right now. There's a lot of trauma going on because of World Wars, right? And if we don't think that that doesn't tie back to our American roots, right, you're wrong. (laughs) 'Cause look, we're all moving around. People are divided between over politics, right? They're arguing about political leaders that they don't even really know, if they met them and hung out in a dinner with them? No, are they your neighbor? No, but we're gonna argue about them because of what we're fed, right, to do. Obviously there's good and bad and all of it. And the, like I look at it going, we need music just so that we can turn off the news. We need to replace the news. We need to know what's going on. I wish they could just distill it down to, "Here's the facts, ma'am, nothing but the facts, ma'am." And then here's some music so you can process. - Well, if the truth were really the truth, then we would have to cheat your time figuring this out a lot because we're not stupid. We're very highly involved in intelligent human beings. And we have so much, we have such a depth. But if we're getting different misaligned truths, then it's just a lot of confusion. And it doesn't bode well for mankind. And I don't mean to be a doomsday person, but we just need the truth. And I appreciate when the truth comes forth. And hopefully, but with AI and then, so I finally got on Facebook after all these years and all of a sudden there's like all this weird stuff coming up, it's like, is that real? Is that real? - I know, it's weird. Do you want to do this with AI or not? Now, I'm just going to tell people, like if I want to tell someone off, I'm going to say, "Go AI, go AI yourself." - Right, right. - Yeah, I mean, really, it is weird. But I think we're going to go through a lot of weirdness to get to the other side, you know? It's a whole new thing. But music, like yours, I really appreciate your style of music, especially now, where everything sounds so plasticky. I mean, everybody's getting these plasticky faces and tinny sounds and I don't know. Everything is being, I just like to hear real music. I just want to hear someone play a guitar and sing and have some good rhythm. And I don't want it so over polished. That's what I think happened. You know, things got over polished, which can go to a tinny side. I don't know how to explain it. I don't do all that stuff. But all I know is things start to sound unreal after a certain point. - Well, I know too much about the gear and there are devices in recording that you can buy. They're, you know, pitch correction. How about that? Say you're a singer and you can't sing on key if somebody had a gun in your head. Well, you just buy this little device and you run your voice here and it goes rrrrrrr. It goes right up the pitch and every single song you hear has got that nasally, right here, right here, right here, 'cause it's correcting their bad pitch, and nobody can sing. Well, I was singing in taverns since I was 14 years old, so guess what? I might be able to sing on pitch if you want me to, you know? - Yeah, it's called practice. - Yeah, yeah. - Yeah, practice. And so, you know, it's like, yeah, I just want that. I want things, and I think we're slowly getting there, and in the music world of today, I'm hearing, you know, the younger generation of music, I mean, look, if they're stealing everyone's samples from the past, right, so that tells you, "Hey, we need help," so, and also they get to use famous music that people know from the past to make their song relevant. Like, I don't know, I think it's cool, but it's not cool. Like, why can't you just go write your song, right? There's some, it's nice to carry a torch, you know? Like, you've got all these different sounds that I know come from, you know, so much cultivation from people before you, in this craft, the blues, the Americana country, you've got a little bit of everything, that was something that comes from the past, but it's your song, your sound, your music. But you're still carrying the torch for those sounds. Do you know what I mean? Instead of just taking someone's music and copying it. I'm proud to be an organic music farmer. - Oh, I like that term. - I've cultivated this organically and used all the old time sources. No computer was used in the making of my music. - No AI generation. - No, all this hand, in this hand. Sorry, I'm holding my coffee cup. - Is there real coffee in there? - Yes, here, I'll show you. (laughing) Here, have some coffee. (laughing) - Yeah, I know. A lot of guys would be drinking Jack Daniels in their coffee cup. - Exactly, yes, yes. I normally have a cup, but today I have an empty glass of water since we're talking about deserts and desserts. - Desserts, just desserts, yeah. - You can have dessert in the desert. That's interesting about that, but yeah, no, no. But you're doing this writing by hand where a lot of people are using their phone, I think that's fine. Everybody's got a new tool, right? But to create that sound, is it not easier to just do it? Like then, it's just the recording, it sounds live. It sounds like you're right there in the room listening to a live show and real without it all being jacked up on different things. So isn't it easier to record something like that than to do all these other things that happen in recordings? I don't know how to explain it where it's overly produced. That's what I'm talking about. - Right, yeah, yeah, that's what you're saying. And there is a tendency to overproduce. In old time classical music, there was the style called, what it was called Baroque. They would just throw the kitchen sink at the composition, they would assemble every, do we have a tube in the back there? Can you bring 50 violins? Can you do this? Can you do that? And they would just throw everything at it. But, you know, and then they're the extreme of that as minimalist. I used to go and see my friend, they had a two piece band, bass, guitar, and drums. And that was the original "Locate Your Lips." - Wow, "Locate Your Lips." You guys were so much fun. - Thank you, yeah. - I still love that music. - But they were a two piece band. - Yeah. - And I went and I said, "Hey, you guys need a guitar." I said, "We don't need a guitar, we're fine." The bass guitar and drums. This was 1980 when that wasn't cool, you know, but they had it going on. So, somewhere in between, a producer has to decide. And this is cliche too. This is one thing I learned in Hollywood from Rick Derringer. I don't care how good you are, what you do, or what you play, or what you're bringing. Serve the song. Serve the song, the message in the song, the emotion, the feeling, make it happen, but not because you play great violin. Are we gonna put violin on this song? You know, it's not about you, man. It's about-- - Or about, oh, just because so-and-so had a solo. The other person needs a solo, and then everybody in the band needs a solo. - I was in the studio cutting a record and it was in the studio, Victor DiLorenzo, from the violin fans. - Oh, yeah. - Great friend of mine. And we had come to the part where I needed to play this blistering guitar solo. - Was it blistering the sun, not to say? - No, not on one of his songs, it was a different. And he looked at me and he goes, "Oh, was that the guitar solo?" As if to say, "Here comes another one, right?" Yeah, so you hear it from a lot of people. And you learn, well, you learn to be offended. You learn the behavior of a fence. When somebody says something to you, like, "Hey, that was a great idea, Jim. "Save it for your record, right?" So you learn all these, you learn the etiquette of a fence to survive in the music business. - Yeah, yeah, right. That's why we have middle fingers too. - Oh. (laughing) - It's part of it. It's part of, well, you know, this is the other thing about the album and everything we're talking about is about, you know, authenticity. And I think, you know, over the years as we've all talked, Nancy, you and I and Peggy, it's about authenticity and music and the sound. Like you said, what served the song? Let it be what it needs to be. Then when you're putting an album, you have to serve the album and each individual song and make sure the songs all how, you know, are they friends next to each other, you know, and make it like this provenance set list that people are gonna listen to and you can't move once it's there. But in AI, Spotify may move the order of your album because somebody listened to this song, oh, you may prefer the song to be in this order, which I think is a little bit on the sad side or it sucks, you know, but the authenticity of it, when you're talking about, you know, these songs being written from the early 90s through and it's a history. It's kind of like a history of your life, right? And that is also looking at the history of your life, but it's also going with giving the history of what was going on in those times, not just for you, but what was surrounding you. And so I always look at music telling the truth in history and it's the truth of the human condition. - Yes, yeah, you hit it right on the head, the human condition. And, you know, hopefully a song-- - How does it feel? We all have a condition. - You got a condition, Lisa. - I do, I do. It's called the Lisa condition. - Well, you would hope as a songwriter that you could relate to somebody with your feelings. And it's not like you're asking yourself as you're penning the lyrics to this broken down person. Is this gonna be relevant? Are people gonna care? You're not thinking about that. And some of these songs just come out, there's a couple of songs on this record and Bob Dylan was quoted as saying this, they're like, "How does the guy write 600 songs?" He said, "Well, I don't write all of them." He says, "A bunch of them just come out of the air." - Yeah. - And they're delivered to me. And I was fascinated by that saying until it actually happened to me. On a couple of occasions, lyrics and music out of nowhere. I had a rush to get a pen and find a recorder to sing and play it into hour and a half. Lyrics and music start to finish as fast as I could write and play it. - Wow. - Don't know where it came from. Seriously. - See, it just comes, yeah. Which ones were those? - Some I crafted, of course, but others were just divine intervention. - A gift. - Don't know. - It's a gift. - Oh, you know. - Exactly. It was free. It's a gift. Somebody gave it to you. - It's like, you've done so many songs. You know, 'cause if we look at the cycle of numbers, right? Everything goes in a cycle. Everything does. Life and death cycle, all of it. So once in a while, the casino machine gives you something back. Even though you've kept putting in, it's like here, you get 10 bucks out of the 2000, you put in, you know. So that's the free gift, but it's because you put something in. I don't think you get a free gift if you didn't put anything in. - You've just reduced the great beyond to a casino machine, Lisa. - Sorry about that. - No, I wanna thank you for that. - That's great. - No, I mean, I'm just putting it into, you know, 'cause you don't need me to get all woo-woo-fied 'cause I can do that, you know. But I mean, it's the law. It's the natural law and order thing. - Absolutely. Great is a mystery of God. There's so much we don't see. And there's so much. Sometimes it's just dropped on us and I'm like, what was that? - Which songs on the album were those for you? - Well, specifically, let me think. Christine, for sure. - Wow, that's a sad take-off. - That's a sad take-off. - Yeah. - That's a sad tale. Somebody I knew, hung around the bands, Sweet Kid, got murdered in Nashville. When I found that out, when I got the news, boom. Song came to me, lyrics and music. I can't sing this. I can't play this song out live. This is too modeling or whatever. But you know what? I recorded it and it was meaningful and it was at the point in my life where it had to come forth. So that was one of them. Well, I guess where I've been was another one. That one just, you know, it's hard to write a sign the dashboard of a Dodge van with bald tires in the middle of the night with a pencil and a piece of paper, but you had to do it because if you didn't do it right then, it was gone. - Gone, uh-huh. - It was a leading moment. So where I've been, you know, the heartbroken guy leaving his throat. - From channeling. - Yeah. - Channel. - I wonder, I wonder about these free gifts from the casino if it's kind of like a second consciousness that we have. See, I'm gonna go woo-woo now. Why not? I mean, come on. We're going everywhere today, we might as well. I mean, we're even going to a desert for dessert or dessert for a desert drink. I don't know, but if we have like a separate consciousness where you're running, like it's a different part of us that's from the past and the present and the future, like it's all in one where, because we really don't understand time if you think about it, we don't. If you're, I mean, when we always, I always feel like we're spinning right now. Isn't that freaking amazing that we're spinning - Yeah. - Around the sun, right now. And this, you know, you want to talk about the flat earthers, but that would be an entire show where I just yell at everybody that believes in it. But the fact that we're spinning around that fast, how can we ever understand that concept of time and that, I mean, that quantity of movement, right? That fast. So, you know, they talk about the speed of light. So I wonder about our consciousness if there's this other part of us in our brain, our soul, whatever it is that we don't know about that sometimes, 'cause we in life, all of us have had to wing things and just go on autopilot and it happens. Or we have synchronic moments with other people and things like you think about somebody and they call you, you know? So I wonder if there's this whole other life we're living that things like these songs come through because maybe you're writing from a different perspective. But it's, I mean, I know that sounds really weird, but why not? Sounds fun. - Yes to everything and yes, all the above. Yes. - Sounds fun. - Well, if you could, it would be, well, would it be fun if you could tap into it at a regular basis at your own speed on your time? - Yeah. - You know, it's mind blowing. If you're sitting outside, think about this. Infinity starts with everything above the top of your head. - Oh, good, you're gonna go right here. I love this. - So, okay, I'll tell you another story. I've got a hundred of these and, you know, I don't claim to have any power as I refuse to believe that I would have any power but to receive the gifts that I'm getting, right, from our power. But the day after we buried my dad, I'm driving down the street. And I remember, I'm just driving down the street, day after we buried my dad, right? And I remember I was just having a memory of him when he taught me how to drive. I was 15, and we're going through an intersection. He goes, "Now, if you're going through a green light, "never assume that the people coming at you "from both sides that have the red light are gonna stop. "It might be a police chase, might be a guy that's drunk, "might be a guy that doesn't see the light, "and he's gonna T-bone you and kill you." Right? That's the first thing he taught me when I was driving. So I'm going through, I'm going down the street, day after I buried my dad, I'm going to think of my dad, and I'm about to make a left turn through this intersection, and I hear this voice. Look out, look out, and I give you the chills, just this whisper lookout, so I firmly planted my feet on the brakes, and I entered the intersection and this big, black Cadillac Escalade. Shh. - Wow. - Brief feet in front of me. - Mm. - Then I give you the chills, true story. - That does give you a chill. That does, that does. - Where does it come from? - See, they were all connected. Well, while we were moving, we used to live out in Joshua Tree area, talk about a desert or a desert, and we had taken care of all the neighborhood feral cats, and there were a lot of the people with dumped dogs, there was cats, we took care of coyotes, I mean, it was kind of crazy, but we had all the cats, and we knew, we had them all. I mean, and they would hang up, hang up, the cats would hang up, even with the road runners on the roof when the coyotes came through, and they were, we did give the tripod one water and things like that, and it's just, it's a harsh environment, but we knew these cats, some of these cats were really elder and more like we need to be able to get them homes, and we had indoor cats that were also rescues, and there was no, you couldn't merge them, we couldn't, we were in this place of what can we do, and I tried to take them to shelters and try to get them homes, no one would take them 'cause they are old and feral, and you know, they were stinky, and I had Mr. Pickles, we had Spray Bob, who was named Spray Bob for a reason, but he would come and sit and just purr and drool on me, and I just, he was an elder, you know, and he did spray one of my friends. - I'm starting to get a clear picture, Lee, so who are you real? - Okay, yes, yes, Spray Bob, cats. - Coyotes and, okay, go, go. - Animals, animals, right? And by the way, Priscilla de Sockmunki says hi. - Oh good. - I just brought her on the show, I didn't even think-- - You should have. - I know, and she's, yeah, she's over there. Anyway, the feral cats, I went from shelter to shelter to shelter, no one would take them because they look like they had feline aids, feline leukemia, AIDS thing. - Yeah. - So I take them to the vet, and yes, and they did tests on these last two that we had, and one, they just basically ran out of tests even, one was just inconclusive, inconclusive, and he looked at me and he said the best thing you can do for all the other cats out there, and for themselves, is you're gonna have to put 'em down, and I'm like, oh man. And so he says, you can wait in the office or do you wanna be with us? No, I'm gonna hold these cats as they go. Of course, by the time I leave, I'm like a walking fountain of tears and snot and just ugly facing it, and I pulled over to get a bottle of bourbon taken over, I remember. Going in there and going, please don't excuse me. I'm not, I'm just, I put animals down, I'm crying. So our car, at that point, had electrical wiring that was wonky because desert rats will eat chew your wires. So a lot of the time, the dashboard lights and everything didn't work, and once in a blue moon, if you went over or bumped, you'd get that. As I went home, as I got to the driveway, all the lights came on in the car, all of them, and I went, all right, I know it was like a thank you, and it was weird, but then we also fed the pigeons, and the pigeons would follow me in the car to the store when they knew we ran out of food, and followed me back. - They fly behind the car? - Literally, they would be at the grocery store, see me, and then fly, and when I got there, they're waiting. I'm not kidding. - This is a very weird conversation. - I need to interview you. We need to go deeper with Lisa. - No, but the thing, but that's what I'm saying, there's a, there's another level, and I think that's where songs like this, the arts, because the arts, the arts are honest. It's going back to that integrity, authenticity. So when artists, that's what I say is true art, true artists are doing it for real, and then there's artists who can do things who may be doing it for a paycheck. Good Lord, good luck for that kind of thing. You see what I mean, and there's marketing that always has to happen, right? There is business, it's still a career, it's still a business, right? But there's an authenticity that comes, and if you do things in an authentic way, that's when, and you're putting in, then it comes back around, and I think you are helping yourself, but you have extra help from this other side of things, because you have other relationships from this other level of consciousness, because humans haven't got to the level of consciousness yet, but the arts are the portal for the consciousness. - Wow, this is what happens when I drink water all day long. This is what happens, I get weird. - Do you fast today, have you eaten? - No, no, no, but I'm just saying it's-- - You're at a higher level now, because the food's not fermenting into your body, and it's not slowing you down. So this is a great space, so thank you. (laughing) - This is fun, but I mean, when you're writing a song, obviously you're crafting, but so the other ones come to you, and then the ones you're crafting, you still have something that's inspiring it. No matter how you, when you think of it, what is it, then that innate ability? - Right, well, yeah, of course it's life experiences, but again, I think about the song, "News for You." - Oh my gosh, are you kidding me? That's like, I got "News for You." (laughing) When I was listening, I was like, oh, this is gonna be, I'm like, oh, okay. Yeah, that's kinda like, I got "News for You." So that could be the, the singer could be singing about, he could be singing to his addiction. You're driving, so I'm drinking. So by saying you're driving, you're in control, I'm not. Or because you're about a woman, you're driving, so I'm drinking, but I got news for you. I'm better than this, I know better than this, I can see through this. So it's kind of like a self-affirmation song. - That's interesting. And I got it just because you're, yeah, 'cause it's the control thing. - Ooh. - Here. - Yeah, how much, how much of this is, is also about like really understanding, oh, hello, sweetie. (gasps) What a beautiful face for those listening. Jim has the most amazing dog. Oh, whoop, was there and now gone. Well, I've got two dogs daydreaming next to me. One is dreaming and doing little yelps and the other one. Well, it's getting delightfully centered in this room. So anyway. (laughs) But how, so control, let's talk about that word and the songwriting process. Because if you're trying to control everything in the songwriting process, then don't you close down having that portal to get those other songs that just come through? - Yeah, the portal comes and goes. And you know, you have to exercise so many tools that you have to write a song. So if you have an idea for like a great chorus like in Don My Road, maybe we can try again to love somebody. Maybe we can try again to love somebody. So that comes to me. There's really three chords that fit together. Well, I've got this really neat melody and that's all I have. Now you have to assemble. Now you have to call on not your higher dimension, but you have to call on clever. Okay, clever, Jim. Now what are you gonna do? You got this great chorus. - I got news for you, Jim. (laughs) - So now you have to write words around your really cool spiritual vibe. Now you have to assemble a verse. And okay, how do I tie this in? Where, you know, it's like a little pathway. You have to walk down to the secret garden and then boom, there's a secret garden. Then you have to walk away from the secret garden and then come back to the secret garden for the second chorus. So a certain degree of cleverness, which has nothing to do with what we were talking about before because it's a very human thing. How can, you know, our cleverness comes from, how can we get over on people? You know, like I need more candy from little Johnny sitting next to me. So when he's not looking, I'm gonna grab his candy bag and so we need to be clever. And that's sometimes diabolical and borderline, you know. - And fun. Well, you know one of my favorite things that we do on our show is interview crime writers because I think it's like they have to create crimes and murders and things in their stories and the creativity of that, you know. And I always ask them if they listen to music and some songs do turn them into writing murders. One lady, I know murders her husbands in her books. - Right. I'm often content like why, I used to think why, why did they write this stupid review or this stupid, short story? And it's just weird and odd, but I'm thinking, well, it's like a job. They have to have to fill space with inky words. So they wake up in the morning and I don't feel creative. I'm not clever. I'm not getting anything from the other dimension, but I still have to write something to get paid. So they write stuff. So there's a lot of that too. - Oh, and that's in every industry. I think that's with every industry, you know. But sometimes, you know, you look at that as being part of your practice. And then there's stuff that, you know, I know people have written thinking, I don't like that or I don't like that song and it becomes the biggest song for them. You know, isn't that weird too? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. You hear that I think I just read about, was it sting or somebody, me or from the police, they were saying, I hate that song, but it was our biggest hit. We made a ton of money, but I hate that song. And that's funny. - I know, but that's, but that's life, right? It's always, because again, it's not in your control. Once you've created something too, you know, it goes off. So on the album, just desserts, just say. - Thank you. - On the album, who did you record with? I know Gary Cannon, right? Yeah, you've worked with him again, he's awesome. He's such a positive person. He really is. - Okay, Gary, yeah, he's unbelievably positive. When I first came to him with this collection, I saw Gary, I'm doing a vanity project. He goes, stop right there. This is not a vanity project, you know, and he just like, he slapped me up. So he, yeah, he's very positive. Everything is very, and I really appreciate him as a friend. I've known him for a dog's age and he's just great. And he played keyboards. And at first, you know, me being a guitar player and not really playing in a lot of keyboard oriented bands, a few. I was very reluctant and I had a little trepidation. And when he first put keyboards and all the recordings, I went, oh, what did I do? Oh, no, I hated it. But when I started listening to him, like, wow, wow. He gave me the next dimension. You know, instead of having like a garage band, he took to, you know, like Genesis or The Beatles or The Great Beyond, Tensey scene. - Add the warmth, warmth, you know, keys when they're done correctly, add warmth, you know. - Yeah, but a dimension to do. It's like that glide, it's like that sky glide that's done right. - Man, we're really beaming up on this show today. This is fun. - Be me up, Lisa. - Yeah, right. We don't need seat belts here either. (laughing) - That's right. - Yeah, and I had some old demos too laying around where I had recorded them. And so I had some old drummer friends of mine from a long time ago. And I thought, wait a minute, these drums sound great. I just have to sing it properly and re-record the guitars and make it better and make it. - Okay, cool. So some of the drums are like old drum boardings that I ran through some pretty sophisticated analog gear to get it to be, you know, like punchy and world-class sound. But I'm pretty happy with it. It's better than I would have ever expected. - I like it, I like it a lot. I really do. I can't wait, it's gonna be road tested. - Road trip. - Yes, yes, well, I mean, we're on a permanent one. So I get a lot of music in, 'cause I'm so tired of regular radios we've all talked about before on these shows. I get a little bit done, you know, done with the same songs over and over and over and over again. And you know, then you, I like to listen to albums and see them in different settings. And some albums, when you get to know them really well, you know like, oh, I need this album for this area. 'Cause I pretty much know this country pretty well in driving the majority of it. Still a lot of places still to go. But you start to go, okay, this album for here I have this album for that, you know, it's like, it's a thing. And yeah, this is a Texas album. - Really? - Yeah, yeah, well that made, but that you could, you need, that's when you need the superfood, right? When we talk about the food source, you know, the whole thing. So you've got to be in the superfoods for Texas. And that's how I look at music. - No, I can see it like, and again, I really enjoy driving and listening to music. Sometimes when I look at used cars, I'm kind of a used car freak, I'll buy a used car just because it has a good stereo. - Oh yeah, that's why I won't get rid of our car. She's up there in age, but not really. Well, she is, she's a good girl. She's full of tar on the outside. - What is that? - Because, thank you, Illinois, a RAV4. And she's over the quarter of 150 something thousand miles which isn't bad, 2010. So she's young, right? - But that's what I have in the garage. - What? - A 2010 RAV4. - See, they're good cars. - A stereo is amazing. - Yeah, and so I won't get rid of her 'cause she has a CD player. - Hello. - And so, and she hasn't gigged up to all the, you know, I can't stream your music or anything in there. I haven't done all that because I kind of like this way. And so the fact that she has tar stuck to the sides, that's because we've drove through wet tar and we had no choice. And right now, the undercarriage, the plastic thing that goes under it is about to fall off. So I'm dragging her around with this freaking people out. And I go, yes, I'm a clumpet. No, it doesn't drive around. But that's because we just escaped a different hurricane and hit potholes really bad on our way out in New Orleans. But-- - You can order the little plastic pushing clips to hold that pan up. You can order them on eBay. It's a very common item. - And when you do that, get just desserts. - That's right. - Get your clamps and your music all in one place. I didn't know that actually. So that's all it came out. Okay, 'cause we've dragged things under the car. We've been through tornado stuff, tornado alleys in some areas in Mississippi. That was another year. And we've been in ice on places we shouldn't be. So she's just kind of looking at me. Right now we're in Florida. - Oh my gosh, great place to be. - Yes, yes. It's beautiful, it's beautiful. Actually, we are very lucky. We escaped another hurricane. But our friends up in Asheville, North Carolina, as we air this, everyone, please, please do what you can to support everyone in Asheville. It's a traumatic situation and difficult. It's a difficult time as we air this. So please do what you can. Do support the community, the artists community, the tourism community that will really need you. So, very sad. - Send them truckloads of stuff. They need it. - Well, as we record right now, people I know are trapped and no supplies can get in. - The recording is pushed up. - Mm-hmm. - The interstate's going to take it in there. - And we don't even know how we're, we're supposed to be going there. So anyway, I don't know where we're going after here. So, you know, we, I don't know. Anyway, there's a road trip coming somewhere. But Jim, it's so good to have you back on the show. You and Peggy have to come back. We have to have a party with you guys. We'll have fun. I have to have a music party. - Thank you. I've got another album of hers in the can that I'm going to mix this fall winter. - Oh, cool. - We've got it all recorded and it sounds awesome. So I, she's like, you got to mix my record. I said, well, honey, you've had four. This is five. I got to have my one. - Yeah, well, but she likes to do things over winter. Doesn't, that's kind of her space to do it. - Well, it's a good thing to hold up in the studio. You know, when it's nice out, if you're Wisconsin, you have to take every minute outside. You can't. - Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, we've been, we've done your winters. We've done your springs and, and no. - No, but I do know how to shovel snow now. I'm very good at it. And I do know how to drive on roads I shouldn't. And I've now driven through an ice storm. And in fact, we were in Oregon this year and went through ice, two ice storms and snow blizzards. I've now done mountain passes in snow blizzards at night with trucks. And so. - You're going to get a badge and a plaque. - Yes, I'm just, that's why I say my car means everything. Her name is Mova Cleopatra Doppelganger. And this car is like the best car. And you will never, I, I don't think, I don't know, you can replace engines. So there you go. - Tell me she's not silver. - No, she's gold. - Oh, okay. I have sex. - Ah, since she get along with yours. What is yours name? What is it a boy or a girl or, oh, we shouldn't gender identify cars. - She's in transition at this point. - Well, see, ours have always been a little bit of everything. - Ah. - Because you never know. Yeah. - And drogenously cloudy. - Yes, because you never know what skill she wants or he wants to pull out at any time. So it's always been a, you know, and today she's Mova and she's happy about that. But do you give your car a name? - You know, I, well, you know, there's a car. We do really stupid names. Like we've got an old camera. That's the color red. So we named her red. What are you taking that? - Big red. - Big red. - Yeah. So yeah, it's good things like that. Nothing cool. - We had a, we had a red camera and it didn't, we went and I'm not good at cars. So I was in a truck for a long time. Like that kind of style car. And I was like, no, we need, we need to not do this. I can't do that. And, but we did name her. And her name was Cherry Bomb. - Cherry Bomb. Did you have the V6? - No. - The four. Oh, she should have, she should have. - Every with the V6, you can light that thing up. It's fast. - Toyotas are fantastic. They last forever. And that's, you know, same as the Honda. The Honda was the one, we had a Honda element. We called honky-bonky. - No, no, that wasn't, that was a, no, honky-bonky was a white forerunner that we had. - Oh. - But that was honky-bonky. And then the Honda element was Patty Wagon. - Did any white people take offense to that name? - No, but it came from a conversation from the gentleman who we bought the car from at a dealership and he was African American. And I don't know what conversation we had, but I just turned to him and said, well, that's still, I'm calling this honky-bonky. And so we nicked it, nicked it. - It's politically incorrect. - Well, we also, well, we were having a politically incorrect, but mutually respected, like it wasn't anything mean at all. It was something like, let's just get beyond all this stuff, right? And except for each other. And I don't know, it was a very fun conversation. And so I just said, well, then I'm just gonna call him honky-bonky. And he was a boy. But anyway, yeah, this has been fun. - Yeah, we have to do this every day now. - Yes, I know. - We're gonna talk about. - I know, car names, you know, beaming up. It's all good. It's all good. - Yeah, it's all good. - Well, listen, you take care and we'll talk when Peggy's album is out, right? Come back on, we'll have some fun. - Yeah, we'll get back on, that'd be great. - Awesome, awesome. - Well, you guys take care, stay safe and enjoy the rest of the sunshine while you have it. - Same to you, good luck to you, say hi to your mom. - I will, thanks. - Okay, bye. - Bye. ♪ I should've loved you better ♪ ♪ But I didn't know what to do ♪ ♪ I could've loved you better ♪ ♪ Had a no love for you ♪ ♪ Why pay a real light on that red coat pen ♪ ♪ The bad reason why we had to be young ♪ ♪ And I'm hurtin' you just like ♪
