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details. The

1:01

Music Buzz Podcast features candid discussions with

1:03

and about those behind the scenes in

1:05

the music business, including industry veterans representing

1:07

the segments of musician, design, and live.

1:09

All three Music Buzz Podcast hosts have

1:11

spent their careers working with the biggest

1:13

names in entertainment and have been and

1:16

are still a fly on the wall.

1:18

Dan Clark, as the drummer for John

1:20

Mellencamp's band for over 20 years and

1:22

various solo projects. Hugh Syme,

1:24

a world-renowned graphic artist with the biggest

1:26

names in music and the corporate world.

1:29

Andy Wilson, an award-winning marketing

1:31

and public relations executive with

1:33

over 20 years of combined

1:35

multi-level entertainment industry experience in

1:37

the music and sports business.

1:39

Now let's buzz! Hello

1:42

and welcome back to the Music Buzz Podcast. I'm

1:44

one of your co-hosts, Andy Wilson, along with Dan

1:46

Clark. Hey, Dan. Hi, Andy. And also

1:48

Hugh Syme. Hey, Hugh. Hey, Andrew.

1:51

Today we welcome musician, singer, and songwriter

1:53

Pat Badger, best known as longtime member

1:55

of bass player for the rock band

1:58

Xtreme. Pat is also an

2:00

known as a member of Dark

2:02

Desert Eagles and also played

2:04

Tribe of Judah, among other projects.

2:07

Extremis sold over 10 million records and

2:10

they released their album, Six in 2023, which

2:13

is a really great record. We're going to dive into that

2:15

at the top of the show here. So welcome to

2:17

the music buzz, Pat Badger. Hey, it's nice to

2:19

be here and nice to meet you guys. Yeah, man.

2:22

It's great to talk to you. Via

2:24

the magic of the internet and these Zoom

2:26

calls. Speaking

2:30

of beautiful things, the

2:33

new album, holy shit, it's

2:35

really beautiful. Oh,

2:37

man, appreciate it. It's

2:39

incredible how you seamlessly move

2:42

from the well-crafted,

2:46

harder stuff into the

2:48

beautiful melancholy, all with

2:50

great arrangements and good

2:53

lyrics and really good vocals too.

2:55

And the

2:58

bass player is pretty good too. Well,

3:00

I'm fortunate to be in a band

3:02

with some really great musicians. Oh, yeah.

3:05

Amazing. I think everyone's

3:07

equally adept in your group,

3:09

that's for sure. And

3:11

what a wonderfully eclectic batch

3:13

of tunes too, man. I

3:16

read a press release where one of you guys

3:19

said, I'm not sure which one, that

3:21

true extreme fans know to expect

3:23

the unexpected and boy, that's for

3:25

sure on this record. Oh, yeah.

3:27

That's for damn sure, yeah. I've

3:31

got a list of almost every

3:34

song that I have things to say about,

3:36

to talk about. I was incredibly

3:39

impressed. Yeah, me too. Thanks.

3:43

Coming out of the gate with Rise

3:45

too, man, that's relentless, as

3:47

relentless a prog rocker as I've ever heard.

3:49

I mean, it's furious.

3:52

It's absolutely insane guitar break

3:54

there in the middle. Great

3:57

arrangement. I love the in and out

3:59

of the halftime. feel on the drums

4:01

and the rhythm sections just smoking. Great

4:05

tune. Who knows?

4:07

Yeah, I mean, we definitely were. Obviously,

4:09

it leads off the record, so we

4:11

were definitely about that one, of course.

4:15

But yeah, and of course, Nuno's,

4:17

I think he's come back with

4:20

a fury and a vengeance. I

4:23

don't know. There's a lot of adjectives I've

4:25

heard described that solo, but it kind of

4:27

lit the internet on fire. And

4:31

so, yeah, and

4:33

it's amazing live now when we play it. I

4:37

think I'd said in another interview recently, it was

4:39

like, Gary, Kevin, and I could light ourselves on

4:41

fire, and no one's going to give a shit

4:44

or even look at us because Nuno's

4:47

techniques. And it's funny because

4:50

he said to me recently,

4:52

he's like, it's funny because

4:54

everyone's raving about the solo. A

4:57

lot of the similar techniques I've been

4:59

doing since the early days.

5:02

People go back and listen to Little

5:04

Jack Horny off of Porn Graffiti. It's

5:06

a similar palm muting technique I'm doing,

5:08

and everyone's like, I don't know, I

5:10

guess, rediscovering it. Maybe it's just- The

5:13

songs are so good though. I'm

5:15

a fan, and I've listened to you guys. Three

5:17

Sides was my favorite record that

5:19

you guys did just as a fan. But

5:21

I go into a lot of these, no offense,

5:24

bands that have been around for a long time, with

5:26

kind of like, I'll give it a listen,

5:28

probably going to listen to it once or twice, and then

5:31

move on and listen to the old stuff again. This

5:33

was one I like to listen to music when I'm

5:36

mowing the grass. And that's kind

5:38

of a great place to judge, or in the car,

5:40

right? So I listen to the first song, really good.

5:42

Okay, okay. The second song, really good. Listen to the

5:44

third song. He started getting like five songs deep. I'm

5:46

like, hold on a second. So far, this whole

5:49

thing's good. And I think that- That's

5:51

great to hear. Maybe to your point

5:53

is that, maybe you

5:55

guys just made such a great record that

5:58

it's just reflected back. to

6:00

what people liked about you guys to begin with,

6:03

but it's still so good. And a

6:05

lot of times, I'll be honest, you know, people will listen to an

6:07

older band that's been

6:10

around for 10, 20, 30 years and just kind of

6:12

be like, it's okay, there's one or two songs

6:14

I can live with. But this

6:16

whole thing, we were talking about before you got

6:19

on, you're talking behind your back like the whole

6:21

thing is super solid. And sonically, it's

6:24

fantastic too, which helps, which makes

6:26

those guitar parts stick out more,

6:29

even what came before.

6:33

To his

6:35

credit, I don't know if you've read the

6:37

credits, but Nuno did, he produced and mixed

6:39

it and everything. So many talents. So,

6:42

but you guys did this over 15 years

6:45

or something, right? Well, you

6:47

know, yes and no. Really

6:50

the last record came out 15 years ago,

6:52

but we didn't really get serious about this

6:54

record until maybe six years ago or so,

6:56

when we started kind of getting together and

6:58

compiling some ideas and showing each other, you

7:00

know, some unfinished shit that

7:03

we'd been working on. And,

7:06

you know, so we were kind of working on the record.

7:08

And then of course, the pandemic came along and

7:10

we couldn't work on it that much other than

7:13

remotely because we couldn't even get on a plane

7:15

or fly to go, you know, because we did

7:17

most of it out at Nuno's place in California.

7:21

So it took a bit of a hiatus, you

7:23

know, when the pandemic came along. So

7:26

it wasn't really like 15 years of work. It was kind

7:28

of like, you know, broken up

7:30

over the last, like, six years or so.

7:33

More flying parts around just

7:35

in that interim during the pandemic? Yeah,

7:38

I mean, yeah, there was some stuff

7:40

that, you know, worked on some stuff in my

7:42

home studio or whatever and emailed it to Nuno.

7:45

And, you know, he put some of it in.

7:47

Some of it didn't, you know, make

7:49

it onto the record. But, you know, there was

7:52

a little bit of that, but most of the stuff

7:54

was recorded out at his place. So

7:57

Do you have any trepidation about when you

7:59

make a project? There is good miss

8:01

meticulously crafted shit. Now we gotta

8:03

go play the shit laws. Yeah.

8:06

No is with it. He. I

8:08

mean that's almost a fun include stuff. Odyssey

8:10

any time have been makes a new record

8:12

and in you know there's only so much

8:14

we can sit into the said anyways because.

8:17

You know, coursework considered one of those like

8:19

a seed Caught a heritage acting assemblies. Been

8:21

around for a bit. This

8:23

still going to be people that want

8:25

to hear the old stuff and of

8:27

course you know Will will love. We've

8:29

been plan like safe for five of

8:32

the new songs live. Ah, there's some

8:34

songs in the record of Pride don't

8:36

com. Lend. Themselves to probably

8:38

doing on live. Ah, I'm

8:40

or the other than you and then we'd

8:42

have to play with a ton of tracks

8:45

and stuff because there's some stuff with keyboard

8:47

things and we in office he won't wear

8:49

out like a keyboard band but I'm ah

8:51

you know so that. So there's some songs

8:53

that we've we've been doing that. we had

8:56

released the videos and course those that can

8:58

be the ones that have people. I'm mean,

9:00

I'm more familiar with us. We did add

9:02

like Rise and Hashtag, Rebel, and Ban See

9:05

I. I love Bailey. Oh

9:07

cool their that kind of as as

9:09

I had all deep purple tuner Sampson

9:11

Man it's has some. In

9:13

a rock and mid seventies except Modern

9:16

Sonics but Thalassa has cancelled for us.

9:18

It cannot seem like a little Aerosmith

9:20

swagger to like I like us here

9:23

that yeah. But. Yes, a lot. You

9:25

know. some of those songs let themselves more to

9:27

the live set in the that's what we've been

9:29

doing on the road. I

9:32

think is gonna come a time or going to

9:34

add a couple and new ones as well. And

9:36

the great thing like as a cue you guys

9:38

are saying as far as you know sometimes pants

9:40

put out. A new record

9:42

that bands been around for awhile and then

9:45

when they play the new song you know

9:47

people go get a beer go take a

9:49

piss you know similar to with as happen

9:51

were finally opposite where it like people have

9:53

fired up to hear the new stuff and

9:55

on it. he asked it's been

9:58

really cool with sell like we've won an ad more

10:00

and more instead of just adding one or

10:02

two. We've been doing like four or five

10:04

of them. That's

10:07

unique these days. That's my point

10:09

earlier. It's right. There's bathroom

10:11

songs and those usually are the new

10:13

songs. But the joke is, don't

10:15

say you're going to play a new song because that's

10:17

just everybody's cue to rise up.

10:20

Go down the aisle. Just barrel

10:22

house right into it. Andy's

10:26

earlier point about each song struck

10:28

him as being really good. Some

10:31

of my favorite albums I've listened to and

10:33

it'll take me two or three listens to the

10:35

album to have it grow on me. Just

10:38

listening to this project today,

10:40

your new six album, every

10:43

song made me say I've got to listen to

10:45

this more often. I love

10:47

the Hurricane by the way. A

10:49

shame you can't have those strings live,

10:51

I guess. But I thought

10:54

that arrangement, even the video was really

10:56

well mapped, really well thought out. Curious

10:59

to know who

11:02

your visual person is, if he's in the

11:04

band or if you're just surrounded by people

11:06

that you trust. Again,

11:09

to give him credit where credit's due, a

11:11

lot of it has been Nuno's vision and

11:13

he has been directing the videos and editing

11:16

them as well. That was

11:18

apart from that great location, which I've

11:21

always liked Vegas

11:24

junkyards. I'm

11:26

assuming that's what that was. It

11:29

has that vibe. It was actually shot out in

11:32

California near Palm Springs. It was

11:35

in the Joshua Tree area. Okay.

11:37

You brought those props in then.

11:40

It was actually they found this

11:42

amazing location. Nuno

11:44

and his partner, he has

11:46

this production and label called

11:49

Atlantis. His partner

11:52

Renee and he found this gem of a place.

11:57

It's actually like an Airbnb if you want to stay

11:59

there. out this small

12:01

home but all those like antique

12:03

rusty like looking like you know

12:05

old Vegas junkyard like you said

12:08

the old cars and uh and

12:10

uh we actually shot two videos in one day

12:13

both at that location we also did the

12:16

mask uh at that location even even

12:18

the love that yeah

12:20

so you'd never know that they were both done the

12:23

same day but we literally shot uh hurricane

12:25

and then uh that night we shot the mask

12:27

when the when the sun went down but they

12:29

were both done at that place don't

12:32

tell me those were shot on an iphone

12:34

no no no we've i've

12:37

seen some really good stuff you know

12:39

we have this amazing cameraman uh thor

12:43

if you want to check him out

12:45

he's uh on instagram thor god of

12:48

base he's also uh he's also

12:50

uh an artist uh cool and

12:52

it does like edm stuff but

12:54

uh the guy's an amazing cameraman

12:57

he's he's done all

12:59

the videos with us uh as a

13:01

matter of fact we're doing two more

13:03

videos this coming week here in massachusetts

13:05

they're all i'm gonna say for such

13:07

a new album you've got an awful

13:09

lot of uh visual stuff well

13:12

the the idea um

13:14

really uh nuno is determined to want

13:17

to do a video for every song

13:19

and actually have you album at the

13:21

end of the uh the whole process

13:23

so we're we're now working i guess

13:25

we already have one that we've shot

13:27

for uh thicker than blood on

13:29

the road and that's getting more of like

13:31

a live like you know in front of

13:33

an audience kind of vibe and then uh

13:35

we're doing two more this week so we're

13:37

almost like we're more than half done with

13:40

with making a video album that's

13:42

almost that's almost the the moving pictures

13:45

um answer to an awful lot

13:47

of what's going on anyways so

13:49

many people aren't releasing albums

13:51

gabriel's new album has a ton

13:54

of ep and And

13:56

uh, single covers for each each

13:58

song, even the static. Use

14:00

various all. Changed

14:03

from Salt Songs will go a

14:05

little. The fact that you guys

14:07

have the the energy and creativity

14:09

to. Come. Up with that many interesting

14:12

visuals is really impressive. somewhat. App to check

14:14

out the mask because I ever watched any

14:16

your videos, I just listened to the record

14:18

but man I love the message of the

14:21

saw. You. Know we're all both good

14:23

and bad. Yin and Yang? Yeah. Take

14:25

off your mask And me? who? your

14:27

media? yeah? who's who's underneath their As

14:29

Great The Greater Good song with the

14:31

i think a lot you'll get Ill

14:33

Ill be interested to see the video

14:35

once you check it out. Nice!

14:38

I saw the video when I was impressed. Am

14:40

I? Also, as an aside you

14:42

know, working with the band Rush

14:44

we had a project come along

14:46

called counterparts. And. It was

14:49

full of everything from yin and yang,

14:51

tortoise, and hair. Slap. And

14:53

tipple ribbed in lubricated. And.

14:55

Just listening to the the the word

14:57

pairings everything from Show Me who You

14:59

are you know. If

15:02

fiction and fact, I just listening carefully to

15:04

the lyrics. As. I did to that It. Is.

15:07

Really smart is really well done. a good

15:09

thanks guess it really did you say did

15:12

you really say the rib the lubricated as

15:14

this visit to that when I heard a

15:16

sense I used to buy those in height

15:18

as a little of it doesn't buy that's

15:21

what a back to suffer that a while

15:23

ignoring those are less than lookalike fact that

15:25

says that of. Those. Clothes Wordplay

15:27

can go to get there faster for

15:29

the internet. Uranus again said he used

15:31

to buy them in and say yes

15:34

to satisfy the artist elected under threat.

15:37

Of just getting a source testing and a new

15:39

record. So tell us to store the idea of

15:41

the album cover. So.

15:43

Yeah, I'm on a C. He

15:46

knows again that you know most

15:48

of this whole. Project.

15:50

Has been new knows vision right? He

15:52

had seen. you know he had had

15:54

the idea of heaven. Laker, the Silverback

15:57

gorilla on the cover. And.

15:59

heat team that image and

16:03

you know kind of you know it's obviously that uh

16:06

you know the expression of what's the

16:08

you know is it 800

16:10

pound gorilla or whatever is the yeah yeah

16:12

you're coming in some of the stuff is

16:14

a bit heavier

16:16

like you'd point it out like with

16:18

some of those songs that have a

16:21

little bit more testosterone than maybe some

16:23

of the older extreme but

16:25

also like in looking at the

16:27

gorillas face there's

16:30

a lot of expression in his face and

16:32

in his eyes and really you know he's

16:34

a little weathered and wrinkly a little bit

16:36

we're getting older kind of thing so you

16:39

know as they say a picture tells

16:41

a thousand words you can

16:44

stare into that eyes into his eye see

16:46

that face and it could

16:48

mean something to different to everybody but

16:50

those are some of the things that

16:52

kind of uh yeah I appreciate

16:55

that explanation gorillas are are

16:57

known for being ferocious in

17:00

one moment and absolutely nurturing and gentle

17:02

in the next moment which

17:05

without being contrived speaks to your music

17:07

you you move seamlessly

17:09

between the two job the modes

17:12

you know and I'm listening it's just well it's

17:14

more than two modes to the idea

17:17

well I mean there's there's two songs

17:19

that really surprised me the most about

17:21

the reggae the beautiful girls song it's

17:23

like whoa yeah turn of all time

17:27

man well you know like

17:29

like you guys had said before and like

17:31

we've you know commented you know like on

17:33

porn graffiti we had when I first kissed

17:35

you which was almost like a Frank Sinatra

17:37

crooner you know and so

17:39

that's the whole you know expect

17:42

the unexpected kind of thing and

17:46

you know so that that song is a little bit

17:48

out of left field but uh you know it's very

17:50

cool very catchy that's right and

17:52

my favorite my favorite songs the last song

17:54

here's to the losers an

17:57

anthem for you know those who

17:59

won the battle and lost the war. It's very,

18:01

very nice. Well, cool. Yeah, because that one is

18:03

kind of the antonym

18:05

of we are the champions. It's like, yeah,

18:08

but the key line obviously in that song

18:10

is, you know, you know,

18:12

you have, you know, the sentiment is

18:15

you have to lose to know what it

18:17

takes to win kind of thing. And

18:21

that's actually one of the videos we're about to work

18:23

on. We're gonna shoot this week. So I'm excited about

18:25

that one. I'm a big fan of that song too.

18:27

That was one of my favorites

18:30

on the record. People really

18:32

relate to that. They have to. It's really good.

18:34

I love the very end of

18:36

it too. There's just very, again,

18:39

great bar room, the bar room sing along

18:41

kind of thing. Yeah, but the fact

18:43

that it goes silent and then it picks up again, that's,

18:45

you know, I just love that. It's

18:47

like Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl, you

18:49

know, at the end of it actually reminds

18:51

me of Salt of the Earth by the

18:53

Stones. You know, that's a drinking drinking song

18:55

for all the regular people, you know, let's

18:58

drink to the hardworking people stuff. Yeah.

19:01

I've never seen you live. So how

19:04

your vocals are really well thought out and

19:07

really good. How does

19:09

that translate from the studio

19:13

to stage? So

19:15

we've been, we were kind of when we formed

19:18

back in the, you know, late

19:20

80s. It

19:23

just so happened that we have certain ranges

19:25

like Nuno has a lower range. Gary's always

19:27

the middle part and I kind of sing

19:29

the higher stuff and it was

19:32

really just, it fell together

19:34

even in our early days where we kind

19:36

of always had those, you know, Van

19:40

Halen type harmonies where they had the

19:42

distinct voices and they, and you know,

19:44

we grew up listening to Van Halen,

19:46

Queen, all those bands that had a

19:49

lot of harmonies and three-part stuff.

19:52

And so live we've always,

19:55

we've always, you know, prided ourselves

19:57

in singing, you know. all

20:00

those type harmonies. Yeah.

20:04

That was no different than the other ones that

20:06

we've done where those are our comfort areas

20:10

and our ranges and they seem to

20:12

have that blend to them. When

20:15

did you guys actually meet, the core group of

20:17

you guys? Because I know the drummers has changed

20:19

over the years. So

20:22

really, there was a band called The

20:24

Dream back in the 80s that was

20:26

Gary and Paul Geary, our original drummer.

20:28

They had a band called The Dream.

20:33

At one point, they changed guitar

20:35

players and they renamed the band

20:37

Extreme and that was before Nuno had

20:39

joined. That was in like,

20:41

I'd say probably 85 or something. And

20:45

so Gary and Nuno met

20:48

and they hit it off and at the

20:50

time, Gary was, they were kind of looking

20:52

to make a change or whatever

20:55

with the original lineup. When

20:58

Nuno joined in like 86, the

21:00

band had already been called Extreme but when

21:03

he joined, it really obviously took a big turn

21:05

because it went from a two guitar band to

21:07

and now Nuno became kind of

21:09

the main writer musically.

21:13

Gary was writing the lyrics and then about a

21:15

year later, I joined in 87. So

21:19

Nuno and I had met at a custom guitar shop

21:21

that I used to work at. He used to come

21:23

in with his guitars. So

21:26

we ended up being friends

21:28

first and then like I

21:31

said, in 87, the bass player actually had

21:34

decided he wanted to leave the band. So

21:36

I basically became Ringo Starr taking

21:39

his spot. The

21:42

best spot. Well,

21:44

that had to be a little weird when your singer

21:47

goes and leaves or to go sing in front of

21:49

Van Halen at one point. That had to be a

21:51

little weird, right? So at that point, it wasn't that

21:53

Gary left the band. It was like right after Nuno

21:55

had left the band. Nuno went to pursue like a

21:58

solo career and he had made a record. Schizophrenic

22:01

and Gary and I were kind of looking at each other

22:03

going, well now what do we do? You know and we

22:06

were talking about you know trying to

22:08

either start a new project like Triba

22:10

Judah or you know had

22:13

briefly discussed like you know finding a

22:15

guitar player and continuing on as extreme

22:17

but at

22:20

the time we were managed by

22:22

the same manager as Van Halen

22:24

by Ray Daniels who also had

22:26

this rush. So at

22:29

that time you know Eddie

22:31

and Sammy and everything they had had their

22:33

falling out and so you

22:35

know on kind of a you

22:38

know I remember Ray Daniels asking Gary do

22:40

you want to go up and sing and

22:42

you know go meet Eddie and Gary's thinking

22:44

himself like this gig's never I'm never going

22:46

to join Van Halen this is like I'll

22:49

just go up for the weekend hang out with

22:52

those guys and it'll be a fun story to

22:54

tell my grandkids someday you know and

22:57

Eddie just fell in love with them and then

23:00

I remember him calling me saying Pat you're not going

23:02

to believe this but I think I got the gig.

23:04

I think Eddie told me a sign

23:06

that I really you know want you in the

23:08

band and I couldn't even you know I

23:10

mean Van Halen was one of my favorite bands growing up

23:13

and so it was just it was

23:15

just miraculous to me. I'm like how the fuck

23:17

did my singer of my band end

23:19

up joining Van Halen? And

23:21

of course were you happy about that?

23:24

Great for him but not so great for you.

23:27

I said dude you gotta go do this

23:29

I mean you can't not do this so

23:33

I was happy for him in fact it was I

23:35

went up and visited him while he was making the

23:37

record while they were making Van Halen 3 I

23:40

could spend about a week up at Eddie Van Halen's

23:42

house and it was just it was just the whole

23:44

thing was amazing you know. Of

23:46

course it was a little short-lived and I don't

23:48

think it was it certainly wasn't Gary's

23:51

fault but you know he took

23:53

it he was kind of you know took the blame for the

23:56

the lack of success for the record or whatever

23:58

but Still a good record. I've

24:01

listened to that record every once in a while. Still got

24:03

some good- This man, what a position to

24:05

walk into though. I mean, good Lord. Yeah.

24:09

I mean, no, everyone wanted Dave

24:11

back and no one wanted

24:13

a new guy. So, yeah. They

24:16

never do. Yeah. But they had

24:19

a fun tour and now he can tell, you

24:21

know, he can tell his, you

24:23

know, his friends and his, his family and

24:25

his, if he was grandkids someday, you know,

24:28

tell the stories of being in Van Halen.

24:30

So. So tell

24:32

us the story, you know, moving this world

24:34

now and from my seat, you know, promoting

24:36

shows out when we talk

24:39

about tribute bands, you know, there was that

24:41

phase there where tribute bands were just like

24:43

kind of mocked, right? And over the years

24:45

it's become this thing where it's like, it's

24:48

not even close to being mocked

24:50

now. It's a serious business. It's almost, yeah,

24:53

almost too much celebrated sometimes. Yeah. Well, I

24:55

mean, there's, there's acts like killer queen and

24:57

stuff that they'll go out and play theaters,

24:59

they're getting played, you know, 30, 35 grand

25:02

a night. The

25:04

music. They're single. Yeah.

25:06

That's like Brit Floyd or something. They're doing

25:08

like arenas, you know, totally. Yeah. Yeah. So

25:11

tell us about the dark desert Eagles project.

25:13

I mean, you must be a huge Eagles

25:15

fan, first of all, but tell us about

25:17

how that come together. I grew up listening

25:19

to Eagles. I grew up listening to all

25:21

classic rock. You know, like I said, Van

25:23

Halen, anything from. Uh,

25:26

you know, obviously it was a

25:28

huge Beatles fan. And, you

25:31

know, again, the tribute thing has taken on

25:33

a life of its own. Um,

25:36

and I, I, uh, you

25:39

know, I think for me, I was

25:41

originally, uh, inspired by Brad

25:43

dealt from the band Boston. And

25:45

he had a band here in the Boston

25:47

area called Beetlejuice. And now

25:50

before the tribute band was really

25:52

a big thing. It was more like, uh, it

25:55

was more like they didn't, you know, try to dress like

25:57

the Beatles and do any of that kind of like beetle

25:59

mania. a thing but Brad would come

26:01

out and sing all the Paul McCartney and the John

26:03

Lennon stuff and he was just a sick guy, he

26:06

was a songbird, you know. And

26:08

he was a friend of ours. So

26:11

I was inspired by that at the time to, you

26:13

know, I said someday when I, you

26:15

know, when Xtreme breaks up, when I go

26:17

into my semi-retirement, I'm going to form an

26:19

Eagles band. And you

26:22

know, Xtreme has been kind of a,

26:24

as you know, we hadn't made a record in 15 years and

26:28

I'm like, okay, well we play out sometimes.

26:30

We're kind of limping along doing our old

26:32

catalog but I felt like I wasn't busy

26:34

enough and I had more to give and

26:37

I really, you know, after playing bass

26:39

and singing background vocals for whatever it's

26:42

been, 25, 30 years, I also

26:45

sing lead vocal and sing

26:47

and play guitar. So

26:49

it kind of gave me an outlet to do

26:52

that, to front the band and sing lead

26:54

vocals. And of course it's a

26:57

catalog that's just mind-blowing. We played a gig

26:59

two nights ago and it's like, you

27:01

know, you open with a hit, you close with a

27:04

hit and every song in between is a major hit,

27:06

you know. And so we

27:08

also do like the Joe Walsh stuff

27:10

like Rocky Mountain Way and Life's Been

27:12

Good and I don't sing to all

27:14

stuff. I have a Joe Walsh kind

27:16

of character. But you

27:18

know, when- But you're playing guitar? I

27:21

play guitar. I basically play Glenn Fry's

27:23

part. But I also play the

27:25

Don Henley stuff. Oh, I would

27:27

have guessed. If I had voiced you, you

27:29

would have done the Timothy B. Schmidt stuff.

27:31

Well, the thing is we actually portray

27:34

the Eagles in the 70s. Oh,

27:37

alright. Yeah. We do the Randy

27:39

Meisner version of the Eagles. Okay.

27:42

Yeah, like, you know,

27:45

basically the Hotel California

27:48

lineup and you know, like when Joe Walsh

27:50

had joined the band, they were doing those

27:52

Joe Walsh songs. We

27:54

do a couple songs off the long run because

27:57

you can't ignore that record. anything

28:00

after that, we're not doing like their solo hits

28:02

or their, you know, you're not

28:05

going to hear the, you know, later

28:07

stuff, but we do like the classic

28:09

Eagles lineup stuff. Right. But it's

28:11

a blast, you know, you get up and it

28:14

even goes back to like getting in the

28:16

basement with these guys and just learning songs.

28:18

It's like back to the egg of just

28:21

like learning the songs you grew up listening

28:23

to and getting together with the guys in

28:25

the basement and there's no, you know, there's

28:27

no stress to it. You

28:29

know, they're already there and you get out

28:31

and play and everyone sings along and knows

28:33

every word and it's just, uh, it's just

28:36

fun. You know, do you do

28:38

the whole of the first greatest hits record?

28:41

The biggest selling record of all time. Basically there's

28:43

one song we don't do off of that record.

28:45

Oh, really? Best of my love. Hmm.

28:48

You know, so talk about an embarrassment of riches

28:50

with the hits. Um, that,

28:53

that was a number one hit and we

28:55

don't do it. I can't tell you why, which was

28:57

a number one hit. Oh wow. But,

29:00

but you would know, uh, every other song, you

29:02

know, awesome. You guys got to play

29:05

last year. Fenway Fenway with Aerosmith, right?

29:08

Oh yeah. Yeah. What was that like?

29:10

Talk about a bucket list, uh, thrill of

29:12

a lifetime. I mean, you know, we've, we've

29:14

done, uh, we've, we've been

29:16

fortunate enough to do some touring with Aerosmith

29:19

in the past and even

29:21

as recently as like say, you know,

29:23

right before the pandemic, we had done

29:25

some, uh, big shows overseas, like

29:27

in Milan, we did like a soccer

29:29

stadium with those guys and, and,

29:32

uh, you know, we,

29:34

we've played with them pretty recently. So that

29:36

bucket list had already been checked off,

29:38

you know, they're like hometown heroes of ours, you

29:40

know? Yeah. Yeah.

29:43

But Fenway Park was a whole other experience because,

29:45

uh, you know, it's home and it's where as

29:48

a kid, I sat there and watched the Red

29:50

Sox, you know, and had a Fenway Frank. So

29:52

I mean, here I am staying in the center

29:55

field going, man, if my mother could

29:57

ever be, have been here for this, she, she used to

29:59

love the Red Sox. Red Sox and you know she

30:01

passed in 2010 but

30:06

yeah so it was just a thrill to have all our friends

30:08

I mean I looked out in my in the audience I see

30:10

my son who's now 20 and

30:13

the look on his face was just

30:15

priceless and he's looking up at his

30:17

dad on the on the Jumbotron and

30:19

said maybe my dad's cool after all.

30:21

Yeah well that was worth it right

30:23

that's worth more than playing with the

30:26

other side. My

30:28

first trip ever was to Boston to

30:31

to see them in rehearsal I was I

30:33

was blew out with John Kaladner from Geffen

30:36

and I had the privilege of

30:38

doing their get a grip cover so that was.

30:40

Oh you did the get a grip cover cool

30:43

I mean that was actually the one of

30:45

the tours we did we supported them a

30:47

bit in overseas in

30:50

Europe and yeah

30:52

that was a great record I love

30:54

that one. Really good yeah and

30:56

the cow now that I live in Indiana I can tell you

30:58

that cow was was photographed just down

31:00

the road from where I'm now living. Wow

31:03

was it? How did the cow take it when

31:05

you pierced its nipple? You

31:10

had to do it quickly and then get out of the way. Now

31:14

you you laugh but they

31:18

did pick at Geffen the animal activists

31:20

were picketing Geffen because they didn't they

31:23

couldn't fully grasp the concept of photoshop.

31:26

Oh my god yeah

31:28

man it was like that is insane

31:30

it's insane thing people thought that was

31:32

real. I know come on yeah yeah

31:34

yeah well you guys have a history

31:36

with Mike Mangini correct yeah

31:38

yeah he's a drummer in Dream Theater

31:40

he's done many

31:42

Dream Theater. It's 20 years.

31:45

Yeah 20 years of doing their records yeah

31:48

there's like yeah I mean we guys got all kinds

31:50

of little connections there. He's a good friend but he

31:52

yeah he had played on uh

31:55

either two or three of the songs I'm waiting for

31:57

the punch line um when. And

32:00

we had recorded that in the mid-90s and then he

32:02

toured. He did a full run with us. In

32:06

fact, that may have been the tour with Aerosmith.

32:08

Mike was on that tour with us. But

32:11

then, yeah, shortly after that record, the band had

32:13

kind of split up. And

32:16

then when we got back together, Mike

32:19

was busy with Dream Theater and Nuno had

32:22

brought Kevin in. He

32:26

had played with him on some of

32:28

the solo stuff and it's just Mike's

32:30

an amazing drummer. But Kevin is

32:32

just such a pleasure to play with. He's such

32:34

a great drummer. Yeah. Yeah.

32:37

So you guys sound great together on this new record. Oh,

32:40

thanks. Thanks. And the

32:42

drums even, I mean, all the sounds

32:44

are great. The production's phenomenal. I

32:48

was curious about musicians as

32:51

they're coming up. Who were

32:53

your inspirations? Who

32:56

impressed you as bass players who

32:58

could sing? Bass

33:01

players that could sing? Well, obviously, there's only

33:03

one Paul McCartney. Yeah, that's true. But, yeah,

33:05

obviously, Sting. I was a big fan. You

33:10

know, I learned, as far

33:12

as like background vocals in a rock band,

33:14

we had already mentioned Van Halen. I

33:18

think Michael Antonin, I'd have to

33:20

say, is one of my biggest influences, mainly

33:22

just more for his vocals than his bass

33:24

player. He's a bad bass player. But he's

33:27

just like his role

33:29

in Van Halen is kind of maybe

33:31

what kind of inspired me. He's a secret song

33:33

for Van Halen. He

33:37

made those guys, he made those vocals sound good.

33:39

If he wouldn't have been on there. Yeah.

33:43

Yeah. You know,

33:45

as far as just bassists, also

33:47

Chris Squire from Yes is a

33:49

big influence of mine. I've

33:51

always loved Chris. And

33:54

of course, I'm not as busy a bass

33:56

player, but just the guy that... that

34:01

I obviously was, that

34:03

kind of drew me to bass with John

34:05

Entwistle. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He

34:09

had the oddest technique of all time too.

34:12

Like a classical guitar playing bass

34:14

player or something. Yeah. I

34:16

read something recently, someone who said they were

34:18

building a bass for

34:20

him and they asked how low do you like your

34:23

action? And he said, basically in the back of the

34:25

neck, he like action real

34:27

low. And like you

34:29

said, just a soft little. He just tapped.

34:31

Yeah. He was, that guy was just amazing.

34:34

Oh man. Yeah. There, I thought somebody sent

34:36

me something. I think it was Mike Wanczyk

34:38

from the Mellencamp band, a bass

34:40

solo that he played from YouTube. Oh

34:43

really? I can't remember or if, or

34:45

just a soloed out bass part like

34:47

three or four months ago. It

34:49

blew my mind. Yeah. You

34:51

forget how good he was inside

34:54

those songs. There's a couple of

34:57

isolated bass tracks that are out

34:59

there like Bob O'Reilly or whatever,

35:01

and he's just, he's

35:03

on stage with like his alembic,

35:06

you know, explorer bass and

35:08

it's mind blowing what he did.

35:11

Yeah. I got to see the last

35:13

show he played in the United

35:15

States. I played the concert for New York

35:17

city right after 9 11 and I stood

35:19

right by the

35:21

his side of the stage. Wow.

35:24

And it was, they were incredible

35:26

that, and I mean, the whole show

35:28

was, you know, this unbelievably cathartic for

35:31

everybody that was there, but. Of course

35:33

they were really incredible. They were incredible.

35:35

And I got to see, I'm getting

35:37

chills just thinking about it, talking about

35:39

it. And he was just blazing. Man,

35:42

he was so good. I was, I

35:44

was lucky enough to see him one

35:46

time on, they did a, they redid

35:48

or they celebrated our anniversary of quadrophenia,

35:50

which is one of my favorite who

35:52

records. And I sat like in

35:55

like the fifth row and got

35:58

to see them play. That's the album. entirety

36:00

and it was just you know nice

36:02

that was uh thinking back that

36:04

was one of the most incredible shows I've ever seen

36:06

well that was was when Simon Phillips was with him

36:09

I believe so yeah yeah yeah

36:12

yeah well here's just a funny

36:14

aside I saw when they brought Quadra Finiya

36:17

back after uh

36:19

he had passed and

36:21

uh oh

36:23

gosh Peano was playing so Peano

36:26

had just joined the band right

36:28

so they were doing My Generation

36:31

they did some songs at the end that weren't all

36:33

Quadra Finiya and he

36:35

choked on the bass solo I remember the

36:37

last one he goes dang diddle diddle diddle

36:40

diddle diddle diddle diddle diddle diddle that one

36:42

he just choked and he just

36:44

looked over at Townsend and the look he

36:46

got back man I wouldn't have wanted been

36:48

at the after show

36:50

I'm telling you I felt

36:52

sorry for him great bass player

36:54

but whoops yeah well nobody

36:56

perfect I saw him nail that solo in

36:59

Toronto so oh I'm sure I bet he

37:01

never messed it up again but but I

37:03

did get to here it's like oh shit

37:05

I saw that too yeah you were at

37:07

that show I was yeah I worked on

37:09

that show Robert Plant opened up I think

37:11

yeah yeah Robert Plant came out and like

37:14

in the beginning he walked out with a

37:16

light behind him and he did this weird like pose for

37:19

a long time it was like what is there something

37:21

wrong with him yeah it was really

37:23

that was that was a who was

37:25

drumming was that Zach? Zach

37:27

Starkey yeah yeah yeah well

37:30

so what was your first what

37:32

concert did you go to as a fan first Pat did

37:34

you paid to go see that you were like pumped to

37:36

go see where was it when was it or

37:39

that your mom or dad took

37:41

you to yeah the first show I ever

37:43

really saw that was not

37:46

like just the local band or whatever I

37:48

remember my uncle took me to

37:50

see Foreigner at the Boston Garden

37:52

I was just you know I was uh

37:55

I was like in middle school you know and so I

37:58

just wanted to see a concert like And I

38:00

had had the Foreigner record, I think

38:03

Double Vision was the record. So first

38:05

real concert at like an arena that

38:07

I saw. But

38:10

I remember, again, I think

38:12

the one show that completely changed my

38:14

life was Van Halen Fair Warning

38:16

Tour. It was like 1981 at

38:19

the Boston Garden. And

38:22

I remember that night seeing them and the energy

38:24

on stage and the way they were performing, I

38:26

was like, oh my God, that's what I want

38:28

to do. That's when it just really

38:30

clicked in it. And I guess, you know, yeah,

38:33

yeah, that was a big show for me. I

38:37

was out there this summer at work on an event at

38:39

TD Garden and Peter Wolf

38:41

came out and played. And

38:44

that guy, he's 77 years old and

38:46

he was moving around that stage like he's 27. Yeah.

38:50

I mean, I don't know if you've ever seen him before, but man,

38:52

I think that was about enough. Oh,

38:54

I've seen him. I saw him back in the in the heyday. Oh, I

38:56

did too. Yeah. He

38:58

was in the heyday. We played an

39:00

event, the Boston

39:03

Strong concert. It

39:05

was right after the marathon bombings. And again,

39:07

it was one of those, you know, kind

39:09

of cathartic shows for the entire city. But

39:13

like Aerosmith played all the all

39:15

the bands from Boston played like even

39:18

New Kids on the Block and Bill

39:20

Biv Devoe and you know, all

39:22

those guys. Let's

39:26

see who else is there. Even

39:30

Jimmy Buffett came into town because he's always

39:32

been, you know, obviously huge in this area.

39:35

But we all Peter Wolf

39:37

played and Aerosmith and you

39:39

know, it was an amazing event. But Peter Wolf

39:42

came out and he he

39:44

definitely it seemed as though he's trying to

39:46

upstage Steven Tyler. Yeah. Pretty. Yeah.

39:49

It was pretty amazing to watch. Yeah. Yeah.

39:53

Yeah. It was a two big egos out of

39:55

Boston. So it makes great rock and roll doesn't it? That's right.

39:57

Oh, yeah. Well, Pat, thank

39:59

you. Thank you so much for joining us today. We really

40:02

appreciate your time. Yeah, thanks for having me on. Thanks, Pap.

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