Bobbo Byrnes | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: W m n H will rip the novels you're listening to. Macconnorton Unleashed on w m n H ninety five point.

0:12 Speaker 2: Three footsteps on the stairs, pas po me like the goost.

1:10 Speaker 3: My voice fathered off FN.

1:19 Speaker 1: She took a fly to the.

1:22 Speaker 4: Coast to man Revines, revis.

2:02 Speaker 5: Shoe, bought hangs on.

2:10 Speaker 6: Live to code on the chain. I can't be blamed for everything.

2:27 Speaker 2: Set my thousand yards, stay.

2:37 Speaker 4: Man, any minds to mine, any minds, joy to mos,

3:35 Speaker 4: Too many Miles to manly Mos, too many most.

4:54 Speaker 7: That is Bobo Burns. The track is Too Many Miles. It's the title track from the album Too Many Miles. And he's also the author of the book Too Many Miles on the Road with an unofficial rocket and Roll Goodwill Ambassador and let's see, we've got Bobo Burns with us via Microsoft Teams. Babo, are you there?

5:12 Speaker 1: I am here. I woken up early. I'm on the show.

5:16 Speaker 7: Yes, very good. What what time zone are you in? Where are you exactly?

5:20 Speaker 1: I'm in California, Oh, California.

5:22 Speaker 7: Oh so you did wake up early for us. We appreciate that.

5:26 Speaker 1: I even took a shower. I was like, I don't know if this video Oh wait what.

5:30 Speaker 7: No, no need to shower. But but we do appreciate the effort. That is. That is excellent. Hey, I have to ask you too before we get in anything else, like really important. Just the name Babo obviously, Bob is usually short for Robert. Is Babo also short for Robert? Or why are you? Why are you called Babo?

5:50 Speaker 1: I am called Babo because when I was born there are a bunch of Bobbies with my family. Oh Grant instead of Bobby. Okay, so I've been Bobo since that I was like three years old.

6:02 Speaker 7: Yeah, no, I like it, and that's cool too. Anyway, like having a as a musician, you know, having an unusual name like that, you know that way, you're not competing with anybody else for the name. That's that's great.

6:15 Speaker 1: Nobody's gonna confuse me with the Scottish poet Robert.

6:18 Speaker 7: Burn right exactly.

6:22 Speaker 1: I wonder for Bobby Burns on the cape.

6:24 Speaker 7: Oh there you go, there you go. So I want to ask you about that song first, too many miles and I love the album. I did listen to the whole thing. It's on your website. The song is great. I love your voice. I'm curious too. Now, who's playing guitar in that? Is that?

6:40 Speaker 4: You?

6:42 Speaker 1: Yes?

6:43 Speaker 7: Oh my god, I love the solo in that. The k Yeah, the guitar work in that is really good. And then who's the who's the female vocalist who shows up kind of part way through the song?

6:55 Speaker 1: That is my wife Tracy. She also plays bass.

6:58 Speaker 7: Oh, wonderful. Okay, excellent. No, that's a great track. Of course, the title track from the album Too Many Miles. And I assume the album is entitled to sort of accompany the book, right, I mean they go to obviously they have the same title. I assume they kind of go together. Does it. Is the album designed in terms of the sequencing of the songs and everything. Is it designed to sort of tell the story? You know? Obviously with songs tell the story of the book.

7:26 Speaker 1: Yes, I talk about certain songs in the book, and it all sort of flows together at this at the same time.

7:35 Speaker 7: Yeah, And I'm really curious about putting this book together because obviously, you know, to go back and you know, you're looking at more than twenty years of tour journals and emails and social media posts and all of this stuff. And it's funny. It reminds me of a conversation I had with Sean McCarthy, who's a singer songwriter from this area who recently did a documentary about his career and and kind of a similar thing where I just marvel at anyone who can go back and and find all this stuff?

8:10 Speaker 7: And I assume, I mean, have you always been someone who takes meticulous records of everything and saves everything? Because if you hadn't done that, you know, for example, not everyone bothers to have a tour journal. Maybe everyone should because it's you know, you want to document that experience. But have you always been like all your life is have you been someone who keeps track of everything, keeps records of everything?

8:35 Speaker 1: In yes and no, I keep records of certain things. I am terrible with notes on other things, but like, you know, I remember reading Carouac when I was going to ums Lowell and the next weekend I decided to hitchhike to Burlington, Vermont. Oh wow, And on the ride home, I was like, I need to start writing things because I want to I want to live a sort of life that I can remember. So my first cheargia was written in the White River Junction bus station.

9:12 Speaker 7: Okay, so, and obviously I mean were you as you were doing that? Did you obviously Kerouac inspired you. That's really cool. Did did you intend to maybe someday I mean, were you just doing it to do it at the time, or did you think maybe someday this will help you to construct something, if you wanted to write a book or do a documentary or whatever it is. I mean, did did you? Did you have some some future purpose in mind? Even even then?

9:43 Speaker 1: I can't say that it was like a grand design, but it was a bit of skuy of like, okay, Caroac traveled around and told all these stories, and from all accounts was a pretty terrible house guest, And I thought I could sort of design a life that did something very similar, but with a guitar, and maybe I could be like a better house guest than him.

10:14 Speaker 7: I do know that about Roac. Yes are you now?

10:20 Speaker 1: Now?

10:20 Speaker 7: So you're in you're in California now, but you're from here originally?

10:24 Speaker 1: Yes? Okay, okay, I'm from Bermerrico, Massachusetts.

10:28 Speaker 7: Bill Ricca. Yeah, okay, very good, very good. Now how long have you lived there? Oh? Sorry?

10:33 Speaker 1: Playing in Manchester as well? Oh? Really I was just gonna say, I remember playing in Manchester with my old Benjyps mechanics. Yeah, oh no, kay playing Is it Greeley Park there as well? I don't know Greeley Park, Greeley or Veterans Park, something like.

10:47 Speaker 7: Veterans Park, Veterans Park, yep.

10:51 Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember doing something for and I don't remember the name of the radio station at the time, but you know, yeah, oh very cool, excellent manche Vegas. I'm aware.

11:04 Speaker 7: How long have you lived in California?

11:07 Speaker 1: I have looved here for twenty five years now.

11:09 Speaker 7: Oh my god, I bet you like. The winter is better there.

11:14 Speaker 1: You know, you miss it, you miss a snowy day, but I don't miss driving in snow.

11:18 Speaker 7: I don't blame you. I don't blame you a bit. I don't blame you a bit. So what was I mean the process of then going back through everything to write this book? I mean, how was that? Was that daunting? Was that fun?

11:36 Speaker 1: It was incredibly daunting. Yeah. I had all these different things, you know, snippets and notebooks from before I had computers, and I had you know, written tour journals and tour diary is on the road and sometimes I wrote them. You know life, so you know, just riddled with spelling errors and things like that. And I would post them online from time to time. And I had a buddy that my body boris. I took a whole bunch of them and sent them in a PDF to me one time He's like, I think you should keep these.

12:12 Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, thank you.

12:14 Speaker 7: Yeah.

12:15 Speaker 1: And so you just start shifting through and going through all the different different things, and when I finally got it in one word document, it was like over three thousand pages long.

12:25 Speaker 7: Oh my god, wow, So no, go ahead.

12:32 Speaker 1: That became a like okay, and I can I can chop away quite a bit, you know, not you know, there's fun stories that it didn't make the book, but it seemed to not suit the the arc of the story that I was trying to tell.

12:47 Speaker 7: How long was the process of going through everything and figuring out what was going to go on the book? Because again you said you, I mean, did I hear you correctly? You said it was over three thousand pages of documentation to go through.

13:03 Speaker 1: It was just shy if three hundred pages?

13:07 Speaker 7: Wow, I mean how so how long did that process take?

13:13 Speaker 1: It took me a year to edit it. Yeah, yeah, and I was also working with a couple of editors as well. They were helping me and be like, okay, you're using two different types of quotation marks, like how am I doing that? I don't even know how to do that? And you know, and like oh, and you're jumping back and forth from present to past tense. I'm like, well, that's that's what happens when you write something today about yesterday, right, right?

13:42 Speaker 7: What was the process? I mean, was it more involved than you thought it was going to be? I mean, I mean because I would imagine more. Yeah, yeah, because you'll you'll hear people say, oh, I'm going to write a book someday, right, and then they you know, they either never do or they try and then they give up. I mean, what was there ever a point where you thought, oh, this is too much. I've betten off more than I can chew here. No, that's good.

14:10 Speaker 1: No, I was kind of And part of that was my wife was in, you need to finish this, and I was like, okay, I will say that. I believe that the most the second most annoying phrase in the English language is when someone says I'm working on my book.

14:32 Speaker 5: Right.

14:36 Speaker 1: So, my friends were exhausted of me, and I'm like, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

14:42 Speaker 7: But but so your wife, Tracy, she kind of kept you on track and helped motivate you and keep you going.

14:48 Speaker 1: She quite a bit. And you know, we end up, you know, doing storyboard things of you know, all the different chapters and on yellow posted notes and on a board and where does everything thin? And how does it go? And how do how was the flow? So she was very instrumental in helping it.

15:05 Speaker 7: Okay, excellent. Now have you written anything before? It you written a book before at all or even attempted or is this your first one?

15:15 Speaker 1: Both? Well, I've been a side to her for most of my life. Yeah, and so it's just a longer version of that. Really.

15:22 Speaker 7: Okay, okay, now that makes sense. That makes sense. How like, how did you decide what stories to include, because you know, you you mentioned there were there were some fun stories that didn't make it in. I mean, what was that a difficult process making those decisions? I mean there's a lot in the book. I mean, it's it's a it's an easy read in the sense that you know your writing style, it's very easy, very engaging, you know, but there is a lot in there too. Absolutely, What was it hard making those decisions or did you ever feel at any point like, oh that story I left out maybe I should have put that in, or I mean, what was that process like?

16:03 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, oh, I mean there's a hockey chapter in there that I rewrote like four or five times, maybe even more, and I kept trying to make it shorter, and every attempt to make it shorter made it longer, really, you know, and I still cut a bunch out of that. And to say, you know, you're a musician talking about hockey, and I'm like, yeah, but hockey informed how I embraced change and how to move on and how to and it was an important chapter to fit in. But yeah, there was there was definitely things that I left out, and well, once the decision was made to sort of move past that, I tried not to look back.

16:44 Speaker 1: And you know, speaking of Cara wac again, I remember I remember when on the Road came out. I wasn't alive, but I remember reading about it. Yeah, and how he really pissed off a lot of people because he told their stories without he changed the names, but but you could figure out who he was talking about, right, and and I did extensive work with anyone that I mentioned in the book, which is, you know, hundreds of people, and I said, you know, this is the story I'm telling. Does this does my story line up with your memory of it?

17:18 Speaker 1: Is accurate? And I just that was one of the best parts of the book because to me anyway, because I had people saying, oh, yeah, and remember this, and so they would add to it, and sometimes I put their footnotes in as well. And only a couple of only a couple of stories that I have where I shared it with somebody and they said, you know what, I feel like I'm existing in the story just as a punchline. I'm like, oh that, I didn't mean that, and so I just chopped that part out. I'm like, I don't need to.

17:51 Speaker 1: I wrote the book. I don't really need to be the hero with the you.

17:54 Speaker 7: Know right whatever, And I'm sure, oh, go ahead. Uh.

18:00 Speaker 1: And I had one other persons say, I don't see myself in this at all. That doesn't remind this doesn't look familiar to me. And so that was that was a fun chapter that had a lot of you know, famous sort of rock and roll name drops, and I chopped it all together and my editors were pissed at me. They're like, you gotta dove that story, and you gotta do I'm like, no, it doesn't know, it doesn't line up, and I gotta stay true to that.

18:27 Speaker 7: I'm sure as an author too, it makes you feel better about the book, right, to know that you've that you've gone through that process of kind of checking with people, having them corroborate what you've written. I would imagine I would have anxiety over that because I would be thinking, well, you know, because memory can be so so very subjective, and you know what they say this two sides to every story, yours mind and the truth and and and so I would have anxiety over that, over going through that process.

18:57 Speaker 7: But it sounds like for you that was definitely the right thing to do and it worked out well.

19:03 Speaker 1: Yeah, and it it made me be able to release it with with a clear conscience. I mean I didn't I didn't check one d percent with every single person ever, because well, there are some people that I don't talk to you anymore. And there's a reason for that.

19:18 Speaker 7: Right right of course, of course.

19:24 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the way it goes. You said, if they have an issue with it, they can take it up with me.

19:29 Speaker 7: Right right. You said something interesting about the role that hockey has played in your life, and and in the book you talk about how you know, you had loved to play hockey, but at a certain point, you know, it was after after the uh, after you got hit by a car or or was it a car or a bus? I forget now it was a bus. It was a bus. How after that, you know, and you're you're trying to come back from that and and get back into what you love to do. And one of the things you loved to do is playing hockey, but you had to kind of accept the fact that you just couldn't physically do it at a certain point.

20:09 Speaker 7: And I'm curious about if you can talk a little bit about that, about how that is at that moment specifically that kind of helped you to deal with change or was it more is there something about the game of hockey itself and some of the philosophy of it maybe that helped you.

20:27 Speaker 1: That's sort it's a strange thing to say that, you know, especially at you know, fifty four years old, to say, when I was seventeen, getting cut from my high school hockey team was the best and worst thing that could ever happen to me. And so that's something that happened very early on and what I took from it. At the time, I was a stand up goalie and the room was becoming butterfy style goalies and I wouldn't adapt. I was like, no, this is what I am, this is and getting cut from the team. And then there's later all of a sudden realizing, oh, it's because of your inability to change, and you're in you know, not accepting it, not adapting to a changing sport.

21:12 Speaker 1: And I never wanted to be a person that was so closed off to change. And you know, you can see my favorite book is Octavia Butler's Power of the Sower, which is a heavy read, but Octavia Butler says says God has changed, and it's not not worshiping change, but essentially saying, you know, the only constant life has changed, and you either at or you get left behind. And so I a few years after you know, high school, I started, I got back in the net and I kept playing and I changed how I played and I was able to define the fun in it again.

21:56 Speaker 1: The change that happened later was, you know, when I was riding my bicycle and Ethan beach and I got t boned by an octa bus, launched ten feet in the air and requiring knee surgery and all this other stuff. But at the same time, they get hit by a bus and wait from it, and that doesn't happen either, right, And so you have to look at these things. How do I take this and move forward? And you know, I got a settlement of like fifteen grand because because the police wrote up wrote up the accent report wrong and said that I hit the side of the bus, so I was found half a fault, really ridiculous like that.

22:40 Speaker 1: I'm sorry. Yeah, And so my wife andend like we got fifty dan grand. What should we do? And I was like, if my hockey playing career is over because of this, let's build some kind of memory out of it, right, And so we booked we boked three month long tour of of Europe and then started starting playing over there, and that grew into you know, being signed to a German label and being played in German radio stations and then doing fifteen tours of Europe after that.

23:12 Speaker 7: Oh wow, so that's really interesting. So you I mean, I mean, here you are you know, the singer songwriter. You grew up in bill Ricca, right, and then you're next thing. You know, so you're having all this success in Europe. That's really interesting. So why do you think that happened? What like, what was happening where you were able to tour over there and build this big following and have all this success. I mean, what is it that clicked for you in Europe? Do you think?

23:46 Speaker 1: I will say that there's something interesting about Europe, and I will say specifically about about Germany that is really refreshing to watch. And it's a huge appreciation for art. And I'm not just saying just music, but really all art. And you can Germany and you know, like in Berlin there's you know the Berlin Wall exhibit. There's there's a an art exhibit there that grows. It grows wheat and barley, and the art exhibit says where food grows, hope grows.

24:27 Speaker 1: And you know, if you take that, you know, a field of barley, and put it somewhere else and say this is an art exhibit, people no, that that's just a field of barley. But in Germany they're like, no, this is art. And there's an embracement of there's an embracement of like if somebody says something is art and they're doing something delivered thing. You know. I went there and I'm like, here's my songs. I'm this American guy. And I went there with a very same open heart. Is probably the best way I can explain it.

25:07 Speaker 1: I didn't go there to be like, I'm an American, I'm gonna tell you how everything is. I went there to learn, and you know, and and them realizing I was there to not just pre to them, but from them, opened up all kinds of houses and stories. And that's really what the book, you know is about, is you know, the guitar opened the door, but my openness and listening is what made me stay welcome.

25:39 Speaker 7: That makes sense? Is that why you? Because I know you like to call yourself an unofficial rock and roll goodwill ambassador? Is that where that comes from?

25:50 Speaker 1: That actually came a word from a interview I was doing six scene where we were there at me if I consider much good going journey, oh okay, And I was like, well, I hadn't until until you said that, but yeah, I sort of. And after that I had it said to me a number of times with people saying, you know, you're a great goodwill ambassador for the United States. That's that's heavy. That's a heavy title to have put on you, right, That's why I made the official.

26:28 Speaker 7: Can you tell us too about so the chapter? And by the way, this is one of the chapters that you recommended that I pay special attention to Massachusetts. And we also have the song of the song too, because at the end of our conversation, I'm going to play that song. But I wanted to ask you about this because it's kind of the I feel like it's the emotional centerpiece, you know. Tell tell us accurate, Yeah, tell us about the chapter of Massachusetts.

26:56 Speaker 1: Okay. I've been writing songs whole life. I've written hundreds of songs. And one day I was just in the kitchen with Tracy and I started swimming and singing tire troubles across my shoulders and wrap your arms around this old heart of mine. And as I was saying it, she turned me and said, what's that? And I'm like, I think it's a new song. Is it any good? And she says, you know, well, it's a good start. And like anybody else who creates anything, somebody encouraging what you're doing is often the best thing that you can be given.

27:34 Speaker 1: It's like, Okay, I have a seed here, let's do where it goes. And went in the other room as I was starting to singing strum and we'd been living in California for a bit, and my memories went back to driving across Iowa with my best friend Jeff, where we're cranking Boston's more than a Feeling and just laughing and laughing and laughing, and then getting on the getting on the plane after after the wedding, we went to and and he's still drunk, and I can't swear in this radio station. Correct, correct, Okay, Well he's pronouncing massive Massachusetts where the last word last part of Massachusetts sounds like dookie.

28:19 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, so that's how he's pronouncing mass We're going home to Massa two yeah, right, and we're just laughing hysterically and two theater my wife jumps in three gas where he fell on a flight of stairs in the middle that I leve walking into a bathroom and actually opened up the basement stairs. And yeah, and and probably the impetus to Tracy and I moving across country because I was sort of spinning after that, and you know, we get out here and you know, I'm sort of thinking about Jeff and thinking about this and thinking about you know, times in college, and thinking about Tracy and I growing up, and you know, all the records that we left behind when we left Massachusetts and how he traded them all in for a new dream.

29:14 Speaker 1: And that sort of reminded me of like the Bob Dylan song It's All Now, Baby Blue, and about ditching everything that you leave for you know, a future, and the song existed for quite a while in that form. And in twenty steen, I was home visiting my parents because my dad was at the end of his fight with Louis body dementia. And as we were sitting at the kitchen table with him, you know, one day he turns and looks at me, and he would only have a couple of luid moments a day, and in the moment he turned me and said two things I'll always be proud of, One becoming your father and two you becoming a successful writer and music.

30:00 Speaker 7: Wow.

30:01 Speaker 1: And then he drifted off. And those are the last words my dad said to me, Oh my god.

30:05 Speaker 7: Wow.

30:05 Speaker 1: And And so you know, shortly after that, he wasn't getting out of bed, and we knew that he was

30:14 Speaker 1: near the end. And my mom said, why don't you go play guitar for your dad? And so I went in the bedroom and I had my guitar, and I didn't know what to play, and as I and my mom whispered playing Massachusetts. And so I started playing Massachusetts. And when I got to the chorus, my mother started singing my words to my dad of tie your troubles across my shoulders and wrapped your arms around this old heart of mine. And it was just one of those moments of it's hard for me to even say it, just even tell the story right now without getting emotion.

30:54 Speaker 1: Yes, it's it. My mother took my words in my art and and use them to sing to my dad, and it just I have one life that just happened. There's nothing. Yeah, I have won.

31:16 Speaker 7: Yeah. No, that's yeah, that's that's heavy. I also, and like I said, we're gonna at the end of our conversation, we're going to play that song. But I absolutely no, it's it's beautiful. I also want to ask you, though, too, about about the chapter. Are all these stories true? And this one. You know, this is not the story behind this isn't that old. Actually, just a couple of years ago, October third, twenty twenty four, you were in Belgium. Yeah, during the last show of a difficult European tour, and you were exhausted and and uh, yeah, can you can you tell us about this?

31:56 Speaker 7: Tell us about this chapter? This is really interesting.

32:01 Speaker 1: Well, I decided that year that I wasn't going to rent a car and I was going to use public transportation to get everywhere. Yeah, and it nearly destroyed me because usually trains and everything moved very well throughout Europe, but there had been a lot of repairs need to be done, and there was flooding, and so I got stuck, and I got stranded in a handful of train stations, and you know, one of them had been the Wige, Belgium train station, where they just made an announcement saying we're running behind, so we're letting everybody off here.

32:35 Speaker 1: And I was trying to get to Brussels, and so I just stuck in a train station for a couple hours waiting for another train. It was just weird things like that that happened. And by the time I got to this little bar in Mechlin, Belgium, a place that I've plait a whole bunch of times. I was just out of energy. I was out of gas. Yeah, and then all of a sudden some people show well, that are fans of mine that are coming. It's a two hundred and seventy five year old bar on a canal in Meckland, Belgium.

33:09 Speaker 1: That and to explain that even more clearly, taxi drivers in Mechlin don't know how to get there.

33:17 Speaker 7: Wow.

33:20 Speaker 1: I give the taxi drivers in the city direct like, I direct them how to get there.

33:25 Speaker 5: Wow.

33:25 Speaker 1: And they're like, are you sure? This looks this looks a bike path And I'm like, it's fine, drive down the bike path. Wow. It's so it's it's that remote. And but it's been there two hundred and seventy five years and people show up and it's full on busker style with no pa, no microphones or anything like that. And it's one of my favorite places to play.

33:54 Speaker 7: Yeah.

33:54 Speaker 1: And I'll have a whole room just sitting there listening, and you know, a guy in the front row. I'm telling the stories and telling them, you know, singing the songs. This guy just leans forward and he goes, are all these stories true? Like I couldn't make them up? That would take forever, right, And and I'm like, what's your name? He's like, I'm Luke. I'm like, Luke, You're not part of the story in the song. And so I put him in the next song that I sang, and he just sat there with like this huge grin on his face.

34:27 Speaker 1: And afterwards, you know, he says to me, you know, you made this decision and is to travel the world and play guitar. It is the best decision. I made the wrong decision years ago, and now it's too late, and you have to sort of carry that with you. You're like, holy crap, that's that's a heavy thing for someone to tell a stranger.

34:50 Speaker 5: Yeah.

34:52 Speaker 7: Wow.

34:54 Speaker 1: And and so that's why I said, you know, you're now part of my story, and I carry that forward with me, because that's that's really all my whole book is doing, is carrying story.

35:08 Speaker 7: Therefore, right, they all become part of Everyone you encounter ultimately becomes part of the story.

35:16 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, So I remember where we're going with that.

35:26 Speaker 7: Oh there was something about didn't your mother? Was it? I forget? I was this part of that chapter. Your your mom, Your mom actually sent you a text asking you if this was all worth it?

35:38 Speaker 1: Yeah, she sent me. I was on the train from Mechlin back to Brussels, and as I sit down, text comes in, what country are you in? And my god, I'm just like I'm on a midnight train to Brussels. She says, you know, is all this tory is still worth it? And you know, earlier that day that would have been a different answer. But I just had an amazing show playing for about seventy five people in this tiny little bar where everybody was singing along. I had the whole room. You know, there's no TVs in the corner with the game on.

36:19 Speaker 1: All it is is the bar and me. Yeah, and and people are singing along, people cheering, people clapping. I went outside to take a break and as I was outside, they started chanting my name, and you know, you sort of you go back in and you hear something. You go, I told you that would work, and you like, and like, what do you And you say, what would you like to hear? And like more stories, more songs, And they don't want covers, which is a thing that happens a lot, you know, here in the States. You know, you're playing a sports bar and everybody's like, hey, are you gonna play plush by stun Tumble Pilots.

37:00 Speaker 1: You're like, no, what have I been doing that suggests that that would even sound right?

37:09 Speaker 7: Right?

37:11 Speaker 1: So, and and they want they want more of what you do and being told over and over again, we don't want to hear covers we can hear we can hear those on the radio. Why would we go out to hear music and hear what we already know?

37:29 Speaker 7: That's what That's how I feel about it.

37:30 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, And it's such a refreshing take on it. And there are places where that happens in the States, but it isn't typically in a sports bar, right.

37:42 Speaker 7: I think though the story about that bar in Mecklin is so I think it's relatable for a lot of people because I think many people have been in a situation where they're passionate about something, they're committed to it. It's whether it's a career or or something less than that, whatever it is, and then and they have times where it becomes so challenging for them that they start to feel like maybe it's not worth it. And then something happens that reminds them, Oh, yeah, this is why I do this. Now I remember why I do this.

38:15 Speaker 7: Yep, yeah, exactly.

38:19 Speaker 1: And there's all there's things like that that happened all over the place, and my wife gives me a hard time because we're kind of at the point where we don't really go anywhere without bumping into somebody. I know, yeah, to a hysterical level. Like we landed in Dublin and we're we're walking to try to get some lunch and somebody from across this hey, Bobo, and Tracey's like, are you kidding me? And I look over and it's it's the lead singer Andrew from the band wolf Mother from Australia. Oh, no kidding and yeah, And so we go get a drink and we're hanging out in his phone rings and it's Noel Gallagher calling him.

39:07 Speaker 7: Oh wow.

39:10 Speaker 1: And Andrew turns to me and he goes, you want to go see Noel Gallagher in the High Flying Birds tomorrow night? Like sure, So he turns back to old Gallagher He's like, yeah, I need two more passes. So we go watch the show like from the side of the stage, and then Tracy and I go backstage, and you know, we were laughing because we're eating Noel Gallagher's pot roast. But those those sorts of things happen, and they're bizarre and they're weird. And at the same time. Last year, I was with my mother in Massachusetts and I was like, you know, I've never been to Nova Scotia, and so we just drove to Nova Scotia.

39:48 Speaker 1: Yeah, and she went to bed early and I found an open mic in Halifax and I went down and I played a couple of songs of this open mic and started talking to the people there and became friends with this guy, Tony Trimple and his band Callahan, and you know, he's like, before you leave town tomorrow, come over and have breakfast in with chat. And so I go back to the hotel room. And the next morning, my mother says, where are we going for breakfast? And I'm like, We're going to this guy's house that I met last night, and she's what are we doing?

40:22 Speaker 1: What's that now? And we just go to this guy's and he makes coffee and eggs and bacon for us and we sit there and we chat about about the world and and what's what's going on and it's you know, the guitar opening up the door. But you know, being a decent guy and you know, being swimming that listens and asks questions keeps the door open, absolutely, and that's how the world gets smaller.

40:52 Speaker 7: Yeah, that's a good that's a really good way of putting it. Absolutely, if you're just joining us, we're talking with Bob O Burns. The album is Too Many Mind and the book is Too Many Miles on the Road with an unofficial Rock and Roll Goodwill Ambassador. I do want to ask you about this before we run out of time too. So being an American overseas, when when you're overseas and you're touring, what is that like in terms of I mean, is there you know, obviously, I'm sure people ask you a lot of questions about America and do you ever feel do you ever feel like you have to sort of I don't know, almost like answer for America in a way?

41:32 Speaker 7: I mean, what are those conversations like because our standing in the world is not necessarily favorable to everybody in a lot of ways, I guess is one way of putting it.

41:44 Speaker 1: That's that is absolutely exactly what it is.

41:49 Speaker 7: Yeah, Okay, he has left the Microsoft teams room. Live radio ladies and gentlemen. Oh he's back. All right, I clicked admit, Bobo, are you there?

42:03 Speaker 1: I'm here.

42:04 Speaker 7: Oh, thank goodness, because i really wanted to hear your answer to this. I'm glad we were able to get you back. Yeah. Technology will technology will fail us at times. Yeah, Okay, go ahead.

42:16 Speaker 1: I was just going to say, we all know musicians they will say, oh, I don't talk about politics, and that's that's that's fine and good if that's what your thing is. But especially when you're overseas, people there want to know who they're supporting, and they want to know where you stand on things. And if you're a musician oversees and somebody asks you a question and it'll be a very pointed question, and and you say, oh, I don't really talk about politics, then they assume that you're yeah, and so it will cut off communication.

42:59 Speaker 7: That makes sense.

43:00 Speaker 1: And but so the idea that you can sort of float through Europe without having an opinion isn't real. I mean, you can do it, but you won't have real conversations. You'll have surface conversations.

43:18 Speaker 7: Well, so that's interesting. So do you think your openness and your willingness to engage on that. Do you think that's that that plays a role in why you've been able to build such a following there.

43:29 Speaker 1: Yes, okay, And because, especially especially in Germany, they do a great job of teaching their history, the good and the bad, and and so you know, World War Two is one of the last things that seemingly everyone can agree on who the bad guys were. And you know, I was saying it was playing a house concert and the guy told me incredible story about how his grandfather defected from the German army and didn't want to you know, didn't want to be a cook for the Nazis because he was conscripted into service, and how he walked from Stalingrad back to the border of Amsterdam.

44:18 Speaker 1: And that's a long way to walk. Yeah, in case you don't know. Yeah,

44:23 Speaker 1: And when folks there have relatives that fought against the fascism of their day, they really want to tell you about it. And if they don't think that you would be open or appreciative to that story, they don't open up.

44:41 Speaker 7: Okay, that makes sense.

44:44 Speaker 1: And so I've had a number of people there tell me about the White Rose Society, which was in nineteen forty three, I believe it was, and it was in Munich, and it was four college students who were pleading with their fellow German to see what was going on. It was like they didn't have Facebook, but they had a secret like mimeograph machine in a basement of a place, and they're printing pamphlets and sort of distributing them, you know, secretly distributing these pamphlets are on college campuses and stuff.

45:18 Speaker 7: Wow.

45:18 Speaker 1: And they printed seven of these pamphlets. The seventh one actually ended up in the hands of the United States government and we printed off millions of copies of it and dropped them over Europe. Okay, and the seventh they the four college students got caught distributing the seventh pamphlet and they were executed like three days later.

45:42 Speaker 5: Wow.

45:44 Speaker 1: Yeah. And the two of them that are most famous are Sophie and Hans Shawl, and they're celebrated today as being like some of the best Germans of the twentieth century, like across the country's Yeah, the school's name after them, the streets named after them, all this sort of stuff. And so that's a story that Germans have trusted me with and so I've taken that story and brought it back to the United States and I tour with a White Rose on stage and I tell the story about four college students, you know, and standing up to the fascism of the day and what that cost them.

46:23 Speaker 1: And I have had some pushback from people in the audience here in the United States saying I shouldn't be talking about that because they equated to what's going on from their side and they don't like it.

46:38 Speaker 5: Right.

46:39 Speaker 1: And at the same time, I was in Tempe, Arizona, and I was telling the story to a room full of people that I didn't know, and that can be a little bit scary as well. Yes, And I saw two people at the bar being very really anim when I was telling the story and I couldn't really tell what was going on. After the show, they came up to me and they said, when you were talking about the White Rose Society, we thought there's no way he's talking about that White Rose Society, And then you were. And the woman looks at me and she goes, I'm a distant relative of Sophie and Han Shawl, Wow, and are you kidding me?

47:22 Speaker 1: And she stakes out her phone and she's been to Munich, she's been to the White Rose sites and all this other stuff, and we have this whole long conversation and she finally says to me, you know, I've been too nervous to speak up about what's going on. But seeing you talk tonight to a room full of people you didn't know and bring this up, and knowing what my cousins went through, I'm going to start using my voice to speak up more. And it's all of a sudden, It's all of a sudden, like this is why I do this.

47:56 Speaker 1: Yeah, and yes there's music in this story is fun and it's a good time, but it's all about the humanity and what we carry forward. And that's what I'm just trying to do.

48:08 Speaker 7: It's all about the humanity and what we carry forward. Absolutely, I love that. Geez, I've got that story. I've got chills right now. Wow. Oh well, Bobo Babo burns. The time runs short, my friend. I'm really glad. I'm glad we had John today though. This has been amazing.

48:25 Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me.

48:27 Speaker 7: Absolutely absolutely, and I recommend the book. Too Many Miles on the Road with an unofficial rock and Roll Goodwill Ambassador by Bobo Burns and the album is great as well. That goes with it also called too Many Miles? Where should people go? And we are going to hit that track Massachusetts in just a moment. But where should people go, Bobo to keep up with everything that you're doing? Where would you like people to know online that they can go to?

48:52 Speaker 1: I am the only Babo Burns of the world. So if you have a Google machine, you could just put on Bobbo b y r n e S and they'll take you there.

49:01 Speaker 7: Absolutely, absolutely, all right, we will let you go, my friend. We're gonna hit this track Massachusetts. And that's a perfect way to end the segment, I think.

49:10 Speaker 1: But thank you, Matt, thank you so much. And I really enjoyed this. I appreciate it so much.

49:15 Speaker 7: Absolutely, thank you, and we will do this again in the future, I'm sure.

49:17 Speaker 1: All right, take care, wonderful, all right, take care, Matt, bye bye.

49:21 Speaker 7: All right, there he goes the great Babo Burns and wow, that was I've literally got chills at the end there that that story he was telling us, that's just amazing. The book is great, but I mean hearing him actually explaining all of this though, is like Wow. So we're gonna close out the segment with this track. This is another great song from the album Too Many Miles, and then we'll we'll kind of come back and wrap up really quickly. But here it is. The song is called Massachusetts, and this is Bobo Burns.

50:10 Speaker 1: Massachusetts.

50:12 Speaker 3: He's a funny word when you're drunk. I was in some kind of a funk. Maybe wanna see you again?

50:26 Speaker 8: Do you three times before and went to I didn't know I would ask you.

50:36 Speaker 5: Just try to remember so.

50:43 Speaker 9: Mchine all long, he said, Tie troubles.

50:54 Speaker 1: Of cross shows.

50:57 Speaker 4: Robbed your arms around us, so harm Man, lose your astana.

51:13 Speaker 8: Wrapped your arms around so.

51:16 Speaker 5: Harm Man, so of your MPs a dam payment, so le's you be but it's all now bad Blue.

51:48 Speaker 7: It wasn't much, but it was all you had.

51:52 Speaker 5: The Americans they were.

51:55 Speaker 9: Off smashed your millandas you you too, and maybe the shine.

52:11 Speaker 5: You see.

52:13 Speaker 4: Tie Tarver.

52:17 Speaker 9: Across spa shot holders robbed me arms a robbers so card mound.

52:29 Speaker 5: Crows your eyes down. The Tenner robbed me arms around, so hard Man.

52:45 Speaker 6: Back in college and wed with DDJ's Elvis Fis Costello read air Battle wee bred shoes, and you danced the night with Let's Scott's cot, Let's Scots serres.

53:10 Speaker 5: Scletans, can not.

53:15 Speaker 6: With t troble time chapel, Sasha boos.

53:27 Speaker 5: Rub your answer of thistle, called man boo, she has no.

53:39 Speaker 1: Chain.

53:40 Speaker 5: No rob your answer of thistle. Rub your rounder, this sole, rub your ouncer while rob your own. Ramerson called the