Matt Connarton Unleashed 6-7-25 hour 1

0:07 Speaker 1: Can not.

0:34 Speaker 2: Long means young names this a been no boy sing race.

0:44 Speaker 3: Than by Mason name Joe gone on you.

0:54 Speaker 2: And have a real good time.

0:56 Speaker 1: Wall.

0:57 Speaker 2: You crazy.

1:01 Speaker 3: You're not cutting.

1:04 Speaker 1: You're crazy. I'm not You're not cut.

1:24 Speaker 4: Black Dad song. You even brought your friend contos what

1:31 Speaker 4: I've been stuff all over the night, the friend I

1:37 Speaker 4: got strapped shopping my shot the sound of human times,

1:44 Speaker 4: you got tuning me out.

1:47 Speaker 2: We have a bad hu time.

1:49 Speaker 3: Wall.

1:50 Speaker 1: You're crazy.

1:52 Speaker 3: I'm not here.

1:54 Speaker 1: You're not count able.

1:57 Speaker 2: You're crazy.

1:58 Speaker 1: Hev I'm not you mind not.

2:42 Speaker 3: Wha.

2:43 Speaker 1: You're crazy. I'm not here. You might count that you're crazy.

2:51 Speaker 1: Hev im here.

2:53 Speaker 3: You not cutting?

2:56 Speaker 1: You're crazy.

2:57 Speaker 4: Aby not here, You're not contible.

3:03 Speaker 1: You're crazy.

3:06 Speaker 3: You're not cutting. Animal back fly back.

3:44 Speaker 5: Back for un Me, clip back clip back with the

3:48 Speaker 5: Vengeance one three three, flip back fi back back for you.

3:52 Speaker 1: And Me clip back like back with a Vengeance? Wont

3:55 Speaker 1: you three?

3:56 Speaker 3: Yeah?

3:56 Speaker 6: People thought we.

3:57 Speaker 7: Would a five, But when they said that's that, I don't.

4:00 Speaker 1: Think if they really care.

4:01 Speaker 3: I hate it. Yeah.

4:03 Speaker 7: People thought we wouldn't last rolling up.

4:05 Speaker 5: To it in the dress, and I don't say if

4:07 Speaker 5: they really care. I hate my back, my back back

4:12 Speaker 5: for you and me like back. It's like back with

4:15 Speaker 5: a Vengeance under three.

4:17 Speaker 3: It's like that. It's like back that bring you with

4:20 Speaker 3: me like that, it's like.

4:21 Speaker 4: That Avendan Wader three.

4:23 Speaker 1: Yeah, people thought we would inside. That's not what they

4:26 Speaker 1: said last time.

4:27 Speaker 6: I don't think they really care.

4:29 Speaker 3: I hate hate it, hate it. Yeah.

4:31 Speaker 5: The people thought we wouldn't last roll it up doing

4:33 Speaker 5: in the dress, and I don't think they really can't.

4:36 Speaker 1: I hate, Yes, my back.

4:44 Speaker 7: Like that like that, like that's for you and me

4:48 Speaker 7: like that, like that the Vengeance looking three right back

4:52 Speaker 7: like that, it's like that for you and me like

4:55 Speaker 7: that like that, the Vengeance Waking three.

4:58 Speaker 3: Yeah, people thought.

4:59 Speaker 5: We won't e That's not what they said last time.

5:02 Speaker 6: I don't think they really care.

5:05 Speaker 3: Well, we wouldn't.

5:06 Speaker 1: Laughing in the tracks.

5:08 Speaker 6: And I don't think they really kid.

5:10 Speaker 4: I'm back.

5:13 Speaker 2: Hey, everybody, welcome, a little uh little problem here loading

5:17 Speaker 2: up our theme music this morning. Welcome. This is Matt

5:20 Speaker 2: Connorton Unleashed and we are live from the studios of

5:23 Speaker 2: w m n H ninety five point three FM, Inglorious, Manchester,

5:28 Speaker 2: New Hampshire, and Jenny is here as well, of course.

5:30 Speaker 2: At the news table, and we opened with a couple

5:34 Speaker 2: of great new tracks, My Kind of Animal, that's the

5:36 Speaker 2: world radio premiere from Down Boys, and of course uh oh,

5:41 Speaker 2: and of course we just played a fight back from

5:44 Speaker 2: our friend Dave Strong from Boston, and I just heard

5:49 Speaker 2: something click here, so I'm gonna see if okay, so

5:53 Speaker 2: he's waiting. I think we have. So we've got a

5:55 Speaker 2: great show planned for you today. I'm just trying to

5:57 Speaker 2: figure out why. Let's see, I can't seem to do

6:02 Speaker 2: anything in virtual DJ. That's why you have not heard

6:06 Speaker 2: my theme music this morning. This is really weird. So

6:08 Speaker 2: we're having a mild software issue. But I say mild

6:11 Speaker 2: because it does not prevent us from being on the air.

6:14 Speaker 2: We are on the air, We are live, Welcome everybody.

6:16 Speaker 2: Today is Saturday, June seven, twenty twenty five. So what

6:21 Speaker 2: we're gonna do right now is we're gonna play a

6:23 Speaker 2: track from the Crowmags and this is called hard Times.

6:26 Speaker 2: And then and then our new friend Harley Flanagan is

6:30 Speaker 2: going to be joining us via not Skype. I'm so

6:33 Speaker 2: used to saying Skype, but Skype has been taken away

6:35 Speaker 2: from us by Microsoft. But so we're using a different

6:38 Speaker 2: service now. But I did hear a tone, so I

6:41 Speaker 2: believe he has already joined us and really excited to

6:44 Speaker 2: talk to Harley Flanagan of the Crowmags, and of course

6:47 Speaker 2: before that the Stimulators. I've learned a lot about Harley

6:49 Speaker 2: Flanagan in the last couple of days. But let's give

6:52 Speaker 2: this a spin. This is called hard Times, and then

6:53 Speaker 2: we're going to talk with Harley.

7:00 Speaker 3: It's a lot of times coming to you on the

7:06 Speaker 3: rock of Bobs for die, O can nothing. I can

7:11 Speaker 3: figure it out. Why don't know? Dind down.

7:19 Speaker 4: By time by time?

7:21 Speaker 6: Same, I'm lame, bossy, room back tie a time bo

7:26 Speaker 6: saying made.

7:26 Speaker 2: I'm going town A lot of times coming drowns.

7:32 Speaker 3: What if you're hot and long, you're the hill.

7:37 Speaker 6: If they're gonna trying to drop you into the world,

7:41 Speaker 6: that's run up, not gonna go down. I'm di b

7:47 Speaker 6: die Sames, I'm being pot into the road, wade. Let

7:51 Speaker 6: I'll die by saying made, I'm going town.

7:58 Speaker 2: A right, God, hard times. Indeed, if that doesn't get

8:32 Speaker 2: the adrenaline, go and check your pulse, you might be dead.

8:34 Speaker 2: As I like to say, let's see so I see him.

8:36 Speaker 2: He is on the line with us. Let's see if

8:38 Speaker 2: we can hear him. Harley Flanagin, Are you there, sir?

8:41 Speaker 8: Can you hear me? I?

8:43 Speaker 2: Can can you hear me? Okay?

8:45 Speaker 8: I can hear you?

8:46 Speaker 2: Oh awesome, Welcome to the program. I am very excited

8:49 Speaker 2: to speak with you because so I've always been aware

8:52 Speaker 2: of you and certainly aware of the Cromaggs. I did

8:54 Speaker 2: not know much about your backstory. So I've kind of

8:58 Speaker 2: taken a crash course in the line couple of days

9:01 Speaker 2: on Harley Flanagan and you have had had quite a life.

9:04 Speaker 2: And by the way, I did check out the trailer

9:06 Speaker 2: too for Wired for Chaos. I am dying to see that.

9:10 Speaker 2: That looks that looks fascinating. But that's not out yet. Correct?

9:15 Speaker 2: Is it coming out soon?

9:17 Speaker 8: Actually, it's going to be airing about airing. It's going

9:23 Speaker 8: to be in theaters starting June fifteenth. They are having

9:28 Speaker 8: four They're showing it four times here in New York

9:32 Speaker 8: at the Roxy Cinema. I'm going to be there, Q

9:35 Speaker 8: and A. And it's also going to be showing in

9:39 Speaker 8: La San Francisco, Chicago, Philly, Boston, Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis, Austin,

9:46 Speaker 8: and there's a bunch of other places getting lined up

9:49 Speaker 8: and over between now and July, I'm going to be

9:55 Speaker 8: flying all over the place doing like Q and as

9:57 Speaker 8: at these showings.

10:00 Speaker 2: Oh fantastic.

10:02 Speaker 8: Yeah. And then I think i've heard that in August

10:05 Speaker 8: it's going to be doing a pay per view type

10:09 Speaker 8: of event following the release on DVD and stuff like that.

10:12 Speaker 8: So it's pretty cool.

10:14 Speaker 2: Oh that is really cool. What is that like? I mean,

10:16 Speaker 2: I mean, obviously, have you sat down and actually watched it?

10:20 Speaker 2: Have you watched it from beginning to end? That might

10:22 Speaker 2: sound like a strange question, but I've heard other people say,

10:25 Speaker 2: particularly people who are the subjects of documentary films. They'll

10:28 Speaker 2: tell you, Oh, no, I haven't watched it. I can't

10:30 Speaker 2: bring myself to watch it. I mean, have you sat

10:32 Speaker 2: down and watched the whole thing?

10:35 Speaker 8: I actually did not see it until they were done,

10:38 Speaker 8: so I have seen it. But it was definitely a

10:45 Speaker 8: nerve wracking process because I didn't get to see anything

10:49 Speaker 8: until it was finished, and I was not privy or

10:52 Speaker 8: part of the editing process, so you know, I was

10:59 Speaker 8: a little nervous. But I think they I think they

11:04 Speaker 8: did a pretty good job. I mean, it's really hard

11:06 Speaker 8: to tell, you know, an entire life in you know,

11:11 Speaker 8: an hour and change, but they managed to do a

11:14 Speaker 8: pretty good job.

11:15 Speaker 2: I think, yeah, oh that's fantastic. Yeah, I look forward

11:19 Speaker 2: to seeing it. I assume after you know, after the

11:20 Speaker 2: run in theaters, it'll be on do you know where

11:22 Speaker 2: it's going to be. I assume it'll be on a

11:24 Speaker 2: streaming service like Netflix or something like that. I don't know.

11:28 Speaker 8: I really don't know, you know, because I'm actually not

11:32 Speaker 8: so involved with this. I mean, I'm the subject of it,

11:36 Speaker 8: but you know, my thing is still music and I'm

11:39 Speaker 8: you know, I'm I'm going on tour Monday, I'm flying

11:42 Speaker 8: to Europe, so I mean, wow, I am you know,

11:45 Speaker 8: I'm concentrating on my job, you know, I let them

11:49 Speaker 8: handle that.

11:50 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly.

11:52 Speaker 8: Yeah.

11:53 Speaker 2: Your story is fascinating to me because you're an example

11:55 Speaker 2: of someone who really overcame a lot your childhood. From

12:00 Speaker 2: what I've heard you describe in some interviews that I

12:02 Speaker 2: that I listened to and watched and read, pretty uh,

12:06 Speaker 2: pretty hellish existence compared to what most people are used

12:08 Speaker 2: to growing up in New York City in a time

12:11 Speaker 2: where you know, sort of a pre gentrification or however

12:14 Speaker 2: you want to talk about it. But you're you're a

12:17 Speaker 2: real New Yorker. That's where you grew up, and and

12:20 Speaker 2: and and what you went through growing up was was

12:24 Speaker 2: pretty rough, which I assume shapes a lot of your

12:29 Speaker 2: your music, right, sort of that aggression, And it's a

12:32 Speaker 2: subject that comes out a lot on the show, you know,

12:34 Speaker 2: creating art from trauma.

12:37 Speaker 8: Yeah, well, I think that's one of the one of

12:41 Speaker 8: the few good things that can come from it. Yeah,

12:46 Speaker 8: but yeah, you know it, I definitely have had an

12:48 Speaker 8: interesting journey obviously, or they would not have made a film.

12:53 Speaker 8: But yeah, man, you know, I'm actually I'm living my

12:59 Speaker 8: best life now. Man. You know, I'm just lucky I

13:02 Speaker 8: made it through all of that and that I came

13:04 Speaker 8: out the other side more or less in one piece.

13:08 Speaker 8: And you know, I mean, things are going great for me.

13:13 Speaker 8: You know. Like I said, I'm leaving on Monday when

13:15 Speaker 8: I get back from this tour. I literally I land

13:18 Speaker 8: at the airport and I go to the first showing

13:21 Speaker 8: of the film this day. Like I'm putting down the

13:23 Speaker 8: eggs and I'm going to A Q and A and

13:26 Speaker 8: I'm going to be pretty much hitting the ground running

13:29 Speaker 8: from now from Monday until the end of the summer

13:34 Speaker 8: at least.

13:35 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's incredible. One of the things that I think

13:38 Speaker 2: is really interesting about your story is and this is

13:41 Speaker 2: something that casual fans of you or of the chromags

13:45 Speaker 2: or anything that you've done might not even know this,

13:47 Speaker 2: but obviously people who pay attention now and I've been

13:50 Speaker 2: learning about it jiu jitsu and the role that that

13:53 Speaker 2: has played in your life. And I was particularly interested

13:56 Speaker 2: in that too, because I don't do it anymore, but

13:58 Speaker 2: I used to do gcundo and and I've seen up close,

14:02 Speaker 2: you know, I mean, I've for I've been lucky in life.

14:04 Speaker 2: I've had a pretty normal existence overall, and I certainly

14:08 Speaker 2: didn't have the kind of upbringing that you did, but

14:11 Speaker 2: so I didn't necessarily have any any particular thing that

14:14 Speaker 2: I was trying to overcome or work through. But I've

14:17 Speaker 2: I've certainly met my share of people who have and

14:20 Speaker 2: I'd love to get your thoughts on how on how

14:23 Speaker 2: you feel that that has helped you and really shaped you.

14:27 Speaker 2: That experience of getting into jiu jitsu, which you got

14:29 Speaker 2: into at a pretty young age, right, you were still

14:31 Speaker 2: a teenager, I think.

14:33 Speaker 8: Well, actually that got into it kind of late. I

14:35 Speaker 8: was almost I was like around thirty I started training. Yeah. No,

14:40 Speaker 8: I started training jiu jitsu in ninety six, okay, which

14:43 Speaker 8: is you know, so in one way, I was definitely

14:48 Speaker 8: the first generation of Americans that was training under any

14:53 Speaker 8: of the Brazilian Black belts.

14:54 Speaker 2: Yeah.

14:54 Speaker 8: You know, Master hands up. He is my master and

14:58 Speaker 8: my mentor and close friend and more like a brother

15:02 Speaker 8: to me than anything else. And you know, I was

15:05 Speaker 8: just really lucky. You know, I saw UFC one and two.

15:10 Speaker 8: I actually got them at Blockbusters on VHS whether they

15:14 Speaker 8: were first available. This was like in you know, early

15:17 Speaker 8: nineties ninety three, and I pretty much made up my

15:23 Speaker 8: mind then that if I ever had the opportunity to

15:25 Speaker 8: train with any of the gracers, that I was going

15:27 Speaker 8: to take advantage of it.

15:28 Speaker 2: Yeah.

15:29 Speaker 8: And you know, I mean I have you know, I've

15:31 Speaker 8: had my share of excuse me, I've had my share

15:36 Speaker 8: of fights in my life. And I had never seen

15:39 Speaker 8: anything like like an arm bar or any of these techniques.

15:44 Speaker 8: I was just like, what is he doing? You know

15:45 Speaker 8: all these you know, different joint locks and so on

15:48 Speaker 8: and so forth, and I was just like, I got

15:51 Speaker 8: to learn this stuff, man, this is really fascinating, and

15:55 Speaker 8: that you know, that was a long time ago. I

15:57 Speaker 8: still trained pretty uh religiously. Man. I'm at the academy

16:02 Speaker 8: like at least a couple of times a week, sometimes

16:05 Speaker 8: three four times a week when I'm not on tour.

16:07 Speaker 2: Wow.

16:08 Speaker 8: I you know, I exercised every day, and you know,

16:13 Speaker 8: jiu jitsu really keeps me together, keeps my head on straight,

16:16 Speaker 8: gives me a place to, you know, let the steam

16:19 Speaker 8: off and get normal.

16:22 Speaker 2: Sure. Sure, when you first got into it, did you know?

16:25 Speaker 2: I mean, obviously you had an interest, you know, and

16:28 Speaker 2: you talked about, you know, watching UFC on I remember

16:31 Speaker 2: those days, of course Blockbuster VHS, renting a Blockbuster.

16:36 Speaker 8: But I know it's like it said, young people are

16:39 Speaker 8: gonna be like, what are they talking about?

16:41 Speaker 2: I know it seems like another lifetime, doesn't it.

16:43 Speaker 8: But I know it doesn't. It doesn't feel like that

16:47 Speaker 8: long ago. But at the same time, it's like when

16:49 Speaker 8: the hell was that?

16:50 Speaker 2: I know it's wild, But when you first got into it,

16:54 Speaker 2: when you first started training, were you surprised at how

16:58 Speaker 2: it helped you? Obviously, at what helpful physically and you

17:01 Speaker 2: learn how to defend yourself and all this. There's those

17:05 Speaker 2: immediate practical applications that are obvious, But were you surprised

17:09 Speaker 2: at how it also helped you mentally? And really kind of,

17:14 Speaker 2: you know, this is kind of the way I think

17:16 Speaker 2: of it. You're kind of organizing your brain in a

17:18 Speaker 2: way that that's positive and helpful and obviously too, you know,

17:23 Speaker 2: you get those endorphins going and everything, and that helps

17:26 Speaker 2: you emotionally. And were you surprised by those other ways

17:29 Speaker 2: that it helped you aside from just the obvious, or

17:32 Speaker 2: did you kind of think that might happen.

17:35 Speaker 8: I can't say I was surprised, but it was not

17:40 Speaker 8: the reason I started training. Yeah, I mean, I started

17:44 Speaker 8: training because I was always you know, I've been a

17:48 Speaker 8: fighter my whole life. You know, I've been fighting, you know,

17:51 Speaker 8: on the streets and you know since I was a kid,

17:55 Speaker 8: and I just wanted to learn something new, and I

18:01 Speaker 8: fell in love with it. And you know, honestly, I

18:04 Speaker 8: started because of the fighting aspects of it, but I

18:08 Speaker 8: stayed with it all these years because of the love.

18:10 Speaker 8: You know, I fell in love not just with the art,

18:13 Speaker 8: but the community. You know, I've made some of the

18:17 Speaker 8: best friends of my life through jiu jitsu. I think

18:22 Speaker 8: it attracts, you know, intelligent people you know, people you

18:27 Speaker 8: think that combat athletes are just you know, fighters are

18:30 Speaker 8: like knuckleheads and you know, not too smart. They just

18:35 Speaker 8: know how to smash each other or whatever. But I'll

18:37 Speaker 8: tell you, man, jiu jitsu is really technical, and it's

18:40 Speaker 8: really it's like playing chess, like physical chess. Sure who

18:47 Speaker 8: stick with it and gravitate towards it or you know,

18:50 Speaker 8: really really sharp man. And it changed my life for

18:56 Speaker 8: the better in so many ways. Like I literally know,

19:00 Speaker 8: if it was only about fighting or only about the

19:03 Speaker 8: combat or the violence or whatever, there's no way I'd

19:06 Speaker 8: still be doing it this many years later, you know,

19:09 Speaker 8: I mean started in ninety six. Man, it's you know, yeah, five,

19:16 Speaker 8: I'm still rolling, still loving it, and it's my community.

19:20 Speaker 8: It's where I that's where I go, you know, I

19:24 Speaker 8: really don't do much else when I'm not on tour. Yeah,

19:27 Speaker 8: you know, that's that's my social life, that's my that's

19:34 Speaker 8: where my friends are.

19:35 Speaker 2: Yeah.

19:36 Speaker 8: And I'm just really lucky that that this came to.

19:41 Speaker 2: Me, you know, absolutely, thank God for you. Yeah, no kidding, huh.

19:46 Speaker 2: And I'm glad you said what you said too about

19:48 Speaker 2: you know, intelligent people. This is something that they do

19:51 Speaker 2: because You're right, there is a misconception, and I'm sure

19:53 Speaker 2: you run into it. I'm sure you run into it constantly. Still,

19:56 Speaker 2: you know that that people who do this are just

19:59 Speaker 2: you know, muscle heads who want to smash each other,

20:01 Speaker 2: and they don't understand that. No, it is much deeper

20:03 Speaker 2: than that, and it is complicated.

20:07 Speaker 1: To be fair.

20:08 Speaker 8: In the old days, you know, it was a little different.

20:11 Speaker 8: You know, when I first started training, it wasn't really

20:15 Speaker 8: as family friendly, and there were not many women involved

20:19 Speaker 8: in the sport, you know, those early days. The people

20:22 Speaker 8: who got into it were pretty much people who either

20:26 Speaker 8: you know, we were bouncers, or people who were pursuing

20:31 Speaker 8: mma as a career, or people who just liked to fight.

20:35 Speaker 8: So it did initially attract a lot of knuckleheads, sure,

20:41 Speaker 8: but they get weeded out pretty quick because you really

20:48 Speaker 8: can't be in that world too long because sooner or

20:53 Speaker 8: later you're going to meet somebody that's going to submit you,

20:56 Speaker 8: and you're gonna learn some humility, gonna leave, you know,

21:02 Speaker 8: if you can't, if you can't handle defeat with grace,

21:09 Speaker 8: you're not gonna last. Yeah, you know, because people people

21:12 Speaker 8: who can't handle losing, and and and and still respecting

21:17 Speaker 8: your opponent, shaking their hand, giving them a hug. If

21:20 Speaker 8: you can't handle that, you're never gonna last in this sport,

21:24 Speaker 8: because you know you have to. I mean, you do

21:27 Speaker 8: need a certain amount of pride. You do need to

21:28 Speaker 8: have a certain amount of you know, belief in yourself,

21:33 Speaker 8: and you have to you know, any combat situation you

21:35 Speaker 8: have to go in like, yeah, I'm gonna you up.

21:37 Speaker 8: But at the same time, you know.

21:41 Speaker 2: Harley hardly not not to interrupt, but I just have

21:44 Speaker 2: to remind you we are on FM radio.

21:46 Speaker 8: So I'm sorry. I totally you know, I've been doing

21:50 Speaker 8: some podcasts and videos the last few days. I'm lost.

21:55 Speaker 8: I forget no, I hope you can bleed out.

22:00 Speaker 2: No worries, my friend, We're we're, we're. That's okay. We're

22:06 Speaker 2: on an eight second delay so I was able to

22:08 Speaker 2: catch it, so no big deal. Don't don't even swid it.

22:10 Speaker 2: Don't even switer.

22:12 Speaker 8: That's my natural New York just slips out. I mean,

22:16 Speaker 8: it's one of the Yeah, it was not easy. When

22:19 Speaker 8: I was teaching the kids class.

22:23 Speaker 2: I can imagine no, no, no, that's cold. And the

22:27 Speaker 2: parents did too, so excellent. Well that's what counts. That's

22:31 Speaker 2: what counts. Absolutely, that must be possible.

22:34 Speaker 8: Little parents how to be you know, tough. So I

22:36 Speaker 8: think your parents appreciated it.

22:38 Speaker 2: Well, that must be so rewarding too, to be able

22:41 Speaker 2: to teach young people who are getting into it. Yeah,

22:44 Speaker 2: that must be so constructor.

22:47 Speaker 8: And I was running that program for like ten years,

22:50 Speaker 8: but I had to stop working at the Academy because

22:55 Speaker 8: I started touring so much again. Yeah, you know, when

22:59 Speaker 8: my kids were young, younger, I took a break from

23:01 Speaker 8: touring for a while and I was really just focusing

23:05 Speaker 8: on being dad. And you know, I it was awesome.

23:08 Speaker 8: It was some of the best some of the best

23:11 Speaker 8: experiences and times of my life were just being dad.

23:14 Speaker 2: Yeah.

23:14 Speaker 8: But you know, once they got a little older, and

23:19 Speaker 8: you know, it's time for me to get back to work.

23:21 Speaker 8: I mean, I I music is my life. It always

23:23 Speaker 8: has been. Martial arts is part of my life. But

23:28 Speaker 8: you know, I make a living playing music, and you know,

23:31 Speaker 8: it pays me better than you know, teaching jiu jitsu.

23:34 Speaker 8: And if I had to pick one or the other,

23:38 Speaker 8: I don't know if I really could, because I you know,

23:40 Speaker 8: it's they're both really a part of who I am.

23:45 Speaker 2: Absolutely, so speak of music. So you got into I

23:49 Speaker 2: mean you were you were a teenager right when you

23:51 Speaker 2: started playing playing bass. I'm a bass player, by the way,

23:54 Speaker 2: so I'm I'm particularly uh interested in this, But I mean,

23:58 Speaker 2: how old were you when you started playing? And you're

24:00 Speaker 2: pretty young, right.

24:02 Speaker 8: Well I was. I did my first tour in a

24:05 Speaker 8: punk rock band ten Oh my god.

24:08 Speaker 2: Wow.

24:09 Speaker 8: I put out on my first record when I was twelve,

24:12 Speaker 8: and that was a pretty legendary forty five called loud

24:16 Speaker 8: Fast Rules. My old band, the Stimulators, and we were,

24:21 Speaker 8: you know, we were a punk band, but we were

24:23 Speaker 8: kind of the forerunners of what would become the New

24:26 Speaker 8: York hardcore scene. Yeah, like all the basically we you know,

24:33 Speaker 8: we were more of a punk band, like I say,

24:35 Speaker 8: but all of our fans, the kids that were at

24:38 Speaker 8: our shows were pretty much the first generation of New

24:43 Speaker 8: York hardcore bands. Okay, you know, an Agnostic Front was

24:47 Speaker 8: in our audience cause for Alarm, the Mob, Urban Waste,

24:53 Speaker 8: Like pretty much the entire first generation of New York

24:57 Speaker 8: hardcore bands came out of our audience.

25:01 Speaker 2: Yeah.

25:02 Speaker 8: So although we were not a hardcore band, we were

25:05 Speaker 8: definitely very influential. You know, we really kind of created

25:15 Speaker 8: a space for those kids because well, I think also

25:19 Speaker 8: a lot of it had to do with the fact

25:21 Speaker 8: that I was so young, so you know, that attracted

25:25 Speaker 8: younger kids as opposed to like all the throwback punk

25:30 Speaker 8: rockers that had been hanging out at Max's and CBS,

25:32 Speaker 8: who for the most part were all, you know, messed

25:37 Speaker 8: up on drugs. A lot of them were junkies, and

25:39 Speaker 8: you know, it was a pretty it was a pretty

25:43 Speaker 8: grimy scene, you know. I mean, the majority of the

25:47 Speaker 8: people that I knew when I was a kid, you know,

25:50 Speaker 8: they were in their early twenties and stuff. And many

25:55 Speaker 8: of the punk rockers back then, we're you know, working

25:57 Speaker 8: in the sex shows, you know, in Times Square, you know,

26:01 Speaker 8: screwing on stage and stuff for their drug money. And

26:05 Speaker 8: a lot of the chicks were prostitutes and you know

26:08 Speaker 8: or you know, strippers that stripping was nothing. You know,

26:11 Speaker 8: most of them literally were prostitutes and doing live sex

26:14 Speaker 8: shows to support their drug habits. And these were the

26:17 Speaker 8: people I hung out with when I was twelve, you know.

26:22 Speaker 8: So you know, really there's it's no wonder that by

26:25 Speaker 8: the time I was, you know, fifteen, I was already

26:27 Speaker 8: living on the streets and you know, shooting meth and

26:30 Speaker 8: smoking PCP and wow, you name it. Yeah, I definitely

26:35 Speaker 8: didn't have a normal upbringing. And you know when when

26:41 Speaker 8: everybody around you is that when all the adults are

26:46 Speaker 8: pretty much well not all, but like ninety eight percent

26:50 Speaker 8: of them are a mess.

26:52 Speaker 2: Yeah, learn you know exactly exactly. I'm curious to being

26:58 Speaker 2: so young in the punk scene. Were were you easily

27:03 Speaker 2: accepted or was there any resistance to that? Did some

27:05 Speaker 2: people look at you like, you know, who's this kid?

27:08 Speaker 8: He's because everybody who's this kid? But he was always

27:15 Speaker 8: I mean, look, my aunt was in the Stimulators that

27:17 Speaker 8: band formed before I came to New York. I was

27:21 Speaker 8: in Europe at the time. I was actually in England

27:23 Speaker 8: when they were playing. I was going to shows in England.

27:25 Speaker 8: I was going to punk shows there. I meant to

27:28 Speaker 8: like the one hundred Club and all those legendary places

27:32 Speaker 8: back then. Yeah, when I was ten, you know, so,

27:40 Speaker 8: but you know, I mean, I get yeah, I definitely

27:42 Speaker 8: was a standout character on the scene because everybody else

27:47 Speaker 8: was an adult more or less. I mean, you had

27:49 Speaker 8: your you know, eighteen nineteen twenty year old you know,

27:55 Speaker 8: mostly young chicks, but you know, I was definitely uh,

28:05 Speaker 8: but they accepted me. I mean, how do you not

28:08 Speaker 8: accept it? Was at the show. I mean, you know

28:10 Speaker 8: I was just walking around bumming quarters and playing timball.

28:14 Speaker 2: Well also too, I mean having a family member and

28:16 Speaker 2: that was it your aunt who was in the band

28:17 Speaker 2: with you?

28:20 Speaker 1: Yeah?

28:21 Speaker 2: And yeah, no, go ahead, no, So is is that?

28:25 Speaker 2: How is that how you became a member of the band,

28:27 Speaker 2: Because I just wonder, like, if you didn't have a

28:29 Speaker 2: family member in the band, would people have been more

28:32 Speaker 2: would the other members have been more resistant to bringing

28:34 Speaker 2: you in because you were so young?

28:37 Speaker 8: Yeah? Possibly, But you know what it was, it was

28:39 Speaker 8: really uh circumstantial like they had they were gigging band. Yeah,

28:46 Speaker 8: they had their drummer, Bob Weier. They replaced him with

28:52 Speaker 8: Johnny Blitz from the Dead Boys. Okay, so he was

28:54 Speaker 8: playing right before me. And you know, I had been

28:59 Speaker 8: going to their show. I'd seen them live a bunch

29:01 Speaker 8: of times, and I used to I actually would get

29:03 Speaker 8: up on stage with them once in a while and

29:04 Speaker 8: play a song or two. And you know, I used

29:08 Speaker 8: to go to their practices. I knew their material. And

29:11 Speaker 8: so what happened was Johnny Blitz bailed out on them.

29:15 Speaker 8: One time, the day of a show that I don't

29:18 Speaker 8: know if he was like, you know, he might have

29:20 Speaker 8: been dope, sick or something, I don't know, but he

29:23 Speaker 8: did not show up and they couldn't find them, and

29:25 Speaker 8: they went to his house looking for him, and he

29:27 Speaker 8: was not answering his door and this and so andis

29:31 Speaker 8: was like, guess what, Harley, You're playing drum tonight. And

29:36 Speaker 8: I was like, all right, you know, And I remember

29:38 Speaker 8: the show actually was in Philadelphia, the first show I

29:43 Speaker 8: did with them, and I remember literally sitting in the

29:46 Speaker 8: back of the band with a phone book and drumsticks,

29:50 Speaker 8: like playing the whole way up, just trying to, you know,

29:53 Speaker 8: remember all the parts to the songs. And that was it, man,

29:58 Speaker 8: that first show. The the audience was so receptive and excited,

30:04 Speaker 8: and you know they I think it was really we

30:07 Speaker 8: were probably one of the first New York punk bands

30:09 Speaker 8: to ever make it to you know, North Carolina and

30:12 Speaker 8: South Carolina and stuff like that, so they were super

30:15 Speaker 8: pumped and and people were blown away. I mean, we

30:18 Speaker 8: had two chicks in the band and a little kid

30:21 Speaker 8: in this crazy little day dude on vocals. We were

30:23 Speaker 8: definitely you definitely interesting, you know, there was nothing else

30:28 Speaker 8: like hers, that's for damn sure.

30:30 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's kind of how it.

30:34 Speaker 8: Started for me. And I mean I had already, I

30:38 Speaker 8: had been in a band already, I was already out

30:41 Speaker 8: doing stuff. I'd been on a tour already, and yeah,

30:45 Speaker 8: I mean this has been my whole life, dude. I've

30:47 Speaker 8: been literally playing music and going to show since before

30:50 Speaker 8: I can remember. I mean my mom was a hippie

30:53 Speaker 8: and used to bring me to concerts and clubs and

30:58 Speaker 8: you know, before I remember. Yeah, you know, if you

31:02 Speaker 8: see photos of like Jefferson Airplane and there's like all,

31:05 Speaker 8: you know, naked children running around in front of State,

31:07 Speaker 8: I was one of them. Yeah. Yeah, there was no

31:14 Speaker 8: time before music in my life.

31:18 Speaker 2: Yeah yeah. And then so so then was there anything

31:22 Speaker 2: between the Stimulators and the Cromags or was the Chromags

31:26 Speaker 2: the next band for you?

31:28 Speaker 8: I was in a band called Mode of Ignorance, Okay,

31:33 Speaker 8: and I was also a founding member of the band

31:35 Speaker 8: Murphy's Law. I actually came up with the name of

31:38 Speaker 8: that band. But you know, I think the most significant

31:41 Speaker 8: thing that I've done musically has been the Chromags. You know,

31:46 Speaker 8: We've we've been going now strong since our first record

31:51 Speaker 8: came out in eighty six. The first recordings that we

31:54 Speaker 8: did came out, we put them out in like eighty

31:56 Speaker 8: four on cassette, I believe it or not. Yeah, and

32:01 Speaker 8: we've been you know, I've been active ever since, you know,

32:03 Speaker 8: so yeah, pretty long run. Yeah, things are going well.

32:08 Speaker 8: I mean we're still out playing out playing festivals and

32:11 Speaker 8: you know, life is good.

32:13 Speaker 7: Man.

32:13 Speaker 8: You know, most bands don't last you know, five minutes

32:17 Speaker 8: forget about plus years.

32:22 Speaker 2: No, it is remarkable. I mean do you feel the

32:24 Speaker 2: weight of that legacy? I mean, it's it's because you

32:28 Speaker 2: you were at the forefront of so much. Uh, especially

32:32 Speaker 2: you know, the way the way you started out in

32:34 Speaker 2: New York and everything and the scene. I mean do

32:37 Speaker 2: you feel like, like, like, do people talk to you

32:40 Speaker 2: and they tell you, oh man, You're like, like, obviously

32:43 Speaker 2: you get a lot of credit for what you've done.

32:45 Speaker 2: I mean, is that ever overwhelming to you? Do you

32:47 Speaker 2: feel like a certain level of responsibility that that like

32:51 Speaker 2: you have to continue to to carry that flag, carry

32:54 Speaker 2: that banner and and and really represent or or are

32:57 Speaker 2: you just are you comfortable with it all?

33:01 Speaker 8: Uh? That's a good question. You know, it's a little

33:06 Speaker 8: bit of both. I guess. Yeah, I mean, I I

33:09 Speaker 8: I'm comfortable with it because I have never known anything else. Yeah,

33:14 Speaker 8: you know, I've been on stage since I was, you know,

33:19 Speaker 8: a kid, So you know, I mean people have been

33:22 Speaker 8: taking pictures of me since I was a kid. You know,

33:24 Speaker 8: people I've always uh treated me a little different, you know. Sure,

33:33 Speaker 8: but then again, you know, I this is the weird part. Okay. Like,

33:39 Speaker 8: so I grew up in music and playing and everything,

33:41 Speaker 8: but I also lived in like a really bad neighborhood.

33:44 Speaker 8: You know, Lower East Side was dangerous. It was pretty

33:47 Speaker 8: scary back then, a lot of gangs, a lot of drugs,

33:49 Speaker 8: and so I like my day life was like I

33:53 Speaker 8: was getting pretty much picked on, you know, beat up

33:56 Speaker 8: or jumped or whatever, you know, messed with and life

34:01 Speaker 8: kind of sucked. Yeah, and then you know, the sun

34:04 Speaker 8: goes down and I'm at the clubs and I'm like

34:07 Speaker 8: a happening almost celebrity type. So it was like definitely

34:12 Speaker 8: a weird you know mix of you know, elements in

34:17 Speaker 8: my life. But I'm just lucky I had the music

34:23 Speaker 8: because you know, I fell into drugs pretty hard early.

34:26 Speaker 8: I go into a lot of crime. I you know,

34:28 Speaker 8: I was homeless for a lot of years. I moved

34:30 Speaker 8: out of my moms when I was like fifteen, fourteen fifteen,

34:35 Speaker 8: and yeah, I want hiking out to the West Coast,

34:38 Speaker 8: and I was, you know, living in a lot of squats.

34:41 Speaker 8: I lived in, you know, abandoned I lived in an

34:43 Speaker 8: abandoned brewery. I was actually living in like in an

34:46 Speaker 8: air vent for a while in it. And you know,

34:49 Speaker 8: you would just find someplace that you could be safe,

34:51 Speaker 8: you know, someplace where you weren't going to get you know,

34:54 Speaker 8: accosted or you know violated, you know, right in the night.

34:58 Speaker 8: You know, you'd find someplace where you can sleep. You

35:02 Speaker 8: have groups of friends that you know, you kind of

35:05 Speaker 8: where each other's support system. You know. Yeah, I really was,

35:09 Speaker 8: you know, shoplifting to eat. And you know, I went

35:13 Speaker 8: through a period where I was, you know a bit

35:14 Speaker 8: of a criminal, you know, I mean I was robbing people.

35:18 Speaker 8: You know, I've done some things that are quite regrettable.

35:21 Speaker 8: But you know, when you're on the street and you're

35:25 Speaker 8: a kid, and you know, you you sometimes forced into

35:29 Speaker 8: situations that are not just awkward, but you know, sometimes

35:33 Speaker 8: you have to do things that you might not normally

35:36 Speaker 8: do if you were living a different life.

35:39 Speaker 2: You know, right right. One of the interviews that I watched,

35:43 Speaker 2: I'd like to give credit to whoever it was you

35:46 Speaker 2: were talking to, but now I can't remember because I

35:48 Speaker 2: watched several of them, but you were talking about this

35:50 Speaker 2: about how no matter how bad things get, you know,

35:53 Speaker 2: sometimes all it takes is one good thing to just

35:58 Speaker 2: kind of turn everything around for you, and then it

36:01 Speaker 2: makes everything that happened up to that point suddenly is

36:05 Speaker 2: not a big deal because you have that triumph of

36:07 Speaker 2: overcoming it all. And I've just found that really inspiring

36:10 Speaker 2: because it is true. You know, we've we've all been

36:12 Speaker 2: through those times where we're at our absolute lowest point

36:16 Speaker 2: and then, uh, you know, and then sometimes all it

36:18 Speaker 2: takes is one good thing, whether it's luck or whatever

36:21 Speaker 2: it is that they can really turn everything around for you.

36:24 Speaker 2: And that's why I find your story very inspiring.

36:31 Speaker 8: You know what I tell people all the time, You know,

36:34 Speaker 8: there was a period well, I mean there's been many

36:37 Speaker 8: times in my life where I actually probably should have

36:40 Speaker 8: given up or you know, but I just you know,

36:47 Speaker 8: many times I've felt that way. But you you know,

36:52 Speaker 8: your lungs are still going to fill with air. You're

36:55 Speaker 8: you know, you're still going to be sitting there. You know,

36:58 Speaker 8: you can mentally want to give up, but your body's

37:01 Speaker 8: still sitting there. And then okay, I give up. Okay,

37:05 Speaker 8: now what Okay? Now I need to eat, Now I

37:09 Speaker 8: need to sleep. Okay. So actually I don't really have

37:13 Speaker 8: the opera the choice of giving up. I'm just you know, emotionally,

37:17 Speaker 8: I feel like I'm giving up, but I'm still alive

37:20 Speaker 8: and I still have to exist and fight through this,

37:23 Speaker 8: you know, and yeah, you know I I And what

37:27 Speaker 8: I tell people is, you know, like when my my

37:29 Speaker 8: life absolutely took a dive, like I, you know, I

37:35 Speaker 8: in twenty twelve, I was really I hit a wall.

37:38 Speaker 8: I like the mother and my kids split on me

37:41 Speaker 8: and took my kids. I got assaulted going through a

37:46 Speaker 8: promags show that I wasn't playing. It was like a

37:49 Speaker 8: fraudulent promags and like I got assaulted by like a

37:52 Speaker 8: bunch of gang members and wow up in the hospital

37:55 Speaker 8: and rikers. Yeah, I put three dudes. I got jumped

37:58 Speaker 8: by like about six seven dudes. I got stabbed. I

38:02 Speaker 8: got like forty something stitches, but I put three of

38:06 Speaker 8: them in the hospital. They all walked away knowing that

38:08 Speaker 8: I'm definitely not someone to play with, right, you know,

38:12 Speaker 8: part of my reputation, Like, you know, my reputation increased

38:16 Speaker 8: that night because all these guys thought they were tough,

38:19 Speaker 8: and they realized you don't corner a wild animal. You

38:24 Speaker 8: just don't. Yeah, and you know, so my life really

38:29 Speaker 8: took a turn for the worst. I was sitting in

38:31 Speaker 8: Riker's ould, like, oh my god, my you know, the

38:34 Speaker 8: mother and my kids. I've been with her fourteen years.

38:36 Speaker 8: She just like gripped my heart out and threw it

38:38 Speaker 8: in the gutter, and she took my kids from me.

38:40 Speaker 8: The only good thing that I feel like I had

38:42 Speaker 8: ever really achieved was being you know, father to them.

38:45 Speaker 8: The music and all that other stuff didn't matter to

38:47 Speaker 8: me as much as you know, fixing my own childhood

38:53 Speaker 8: through being their father. You know, I was doing all

38:58 Speaker 8: the things that I didn't get to do. I was,

39:00 Speaker 8: you know, going to playgrounds and going to museums and

39:03 Speaker 8: doing all the things that I should have been doing

39:05 Speaker 8: when I was a kid but wasn't right. You know,

39:07 Speaker 8: I was finally lived that and then all of a

39:09 Speaker 8: sudden everything just got crushed and I really could have

39:15 Speaker 8: given up. You know, I was in the newspapers not

39:18 Speaker 8: on the news. I was you know, I was in

39:20 Speaker 8: cab TV. You know, punk rockers, stabs, bl blah lah lah.

39:24 Speaker 8: You know, it was like this big, big drama.

39:27 Speaker 2: Yeah, and.

39:29 Speaker 8: You know, fast forward and uh, I'm in the best

39:33 Speaker 8: place I've ever been in in my life. You know,

39:35 Speaker 8: if you would have told me that, then I would

39:38 Speaker 8: have said, you know, if if you would have told

39:40 Speaker 8: me I was going to go through the next however

39:42 Speaker 8: many years, you know, ten years before I would really feel,

39:47 Speaker 8: you know, like I was back on top of my game,

39:50 Speaker 8: I would have given up. I probably would have said,

39:52 Speaker 8: you know what for me now, because I don't think

39:54 Speaker 8: I can last that long feeling this way. Yeah, but

39:57 Speaker 8: you know now that I am on the other side

40:00 Speaker 8: that you know, it's it's in my rear view mirror. Man,

40:05 Speaker 8: it's another It's just another. Yeah. It was rough. Yeah,

40:09 Speaker 8: it was tough, but you know what, I'm still here

40:11 Speaker 8: and I'm doing great. And that's why I say to

40:14 Speaker 8: people all the time, it doesn't matter how bad things

40:16 Speaker 8: are or what you're going through, something could change all

40:19 Speaker 8: of that and you just you don't have the strength

40:24 Speaker 8: or the will to get to that point. You know,

40:27 Speaker 8: you're not gonna know you know, if you just if

40:29 Speaker 8: you your life or give up or whatever, you know,

40:32 Speaker 8: like you don't, you'll never know what could have happened,

40:38 Speaker 8: what good could have came to you. I mean, death

40:40 Speaker 8: is inevitable. It's like the one thing we don't have

40:43 Speaker 8: to work for. It's coming, right, So why run to it?

40:48 Speaker 8: Why run that direction? You're gonna get there? And if

40:53 Speaker 8: you just slow down your pace a little bit and

40:56 Speaker 8: try to enjoy the ride a little bit and like

41:00 Speaker 8: look around as you're moving, you know, life is actually

41:05 Speaker 8: pretty amazing, you know. I mean, yeah, it's full of trauma,

41:08 Speaker 8: full of drama, full of pain, suffering and everything else.

41:11 Speaker 8: But that's not all there is, right right, well very

41:15 Speaker 8: well said yeah. You know.

41:19 Speaker 2: By the way, so when you when you went on

41:20 Speaker 2: through all that in twenty twelve, like, what what did

41:22 Speaker 2: you what did you do to help help yourself get

41:25 Speaker 2: through it? I mean, did you did you just kind

41:26 Speaker 2: of lean more on the jiu jitsu or I mean what,

41:30 Speaker 2: uh is there anything specific that you did to really

41:32 Speaker 2: help yourself pull through that?

41:36 Speaker 8: You know what it was just a string of good fortune,

41:40 Speaker 8: you know.

41:41 Speaker 2: Yeah.

41:41 Speaker 8: I had been working on a book for a while

41:44 Speaker 8: and around that time I met the person that I

41:49 Speaker 8: eventually wound up marrying, and uh oh, she became my

41:54 Speaker 8: She was you know, she had a PhD. And you

41:58 Speaker 8: know she, I'm sorry, has a PhD. She's you know,

42:00 Speaker 8: super smart, she's a lawyer, she's a CEO of her

42:04 Speaker 8: own company. She's really got her she's she's one of

42:08 Speaker 8: the most you know, inspiring and as kicking humans I've known.

42:16 Speaker 8: And you know, she had started working on editing my

42:21 Speaker 8: book with me right before all this happened, So she

42:27 Speaker 8: knew that what she was seeing in the news and

42:29 Speaker 8: everything was not true. Yeah, and she believed in me.

42:35 Speaker 8: She had she knew I wasn't this psycho who went

42:38 Speaker 8: on like a stabbing spree at a nightclub. She was like,

42:41 Speaker 8: I see him with his kids all the time. He's

42:43 Speaker 8: like a good guy. He's a good person, he's a

42:45 Speaker 8: great father, he's he does have a heart. He's not

42:48 Speaker 8: this crazy madman. So yeah, you know, we just got

42:53 Speaker 8: closer and closer. And I got to say that between her,

43:01 Speaker 8: between her and Henzo Gracie and having that the academy

43:05 Speaker 8: and you know, that really gave me what I needed,

43:10 Speaker 8: just the support system to keep going. And and again,

43:16 Speaker 8: you know, one thing people need to know too, is like,

43:21 Speaker 8: you know, you can have your heart broken, you can

43:23 Speaker 8: have your spirit broken, but you know, the heart heals. Man,

43:26 Speaker 8: It's like one of the most resilient muscles in the body,

43:30 Speaker 8: you know. I mean, I'm I never thought I'd be

43:34 Speaker 8: able to love someone again, and I'm again. I'm I'm

43:39 Speaker 8: happier than I've ever been. I'm in the best relationship

43:42 Speaker 8: I've ever been in. And so I mean, I guess

43:48 Speaker 8: the moral of this is, no matter how bleak things seem,

43:52 Speaker 8: you really just can't give up. You know, you actually can't.

43:55 Speaker 8: You know, life is too beautiful to just throw in

43:58 Speaker 8: the towel.

43:59 Speaker 1: Man.

43:59 Speaker 8: You got to fight for what you want, man.

44:01 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And also too, I mean, you're you know,

44:05 Speaker 2: you're you've kept yourself an incredible physical shape. The most

44:08 Speaker 2: most men your age I don't are not in the

44:11 Speaker 2: kind of physical shape that you're in. And you know, obviously,

44:14 Speaker 2: how we take care of ourselves physically affects how we

44:16 Speaker 2: feel mentally and emotionally and all of that. So that's

44:19 Speaker 2: that's an important piece of this too, I think.

44:23 Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean, I exercise every day. I do like

44:26 Speaker 8: an hour of cardio almost like I do between forty

44:30 Speaker 8: minutes to an hour of cardio every day. And you know,

44:34 Speaker 8: I changed jiu jitsu and box. You know, at least

44:37 Speaker 8: a couple of times a week. I do at least

44:40 Speaker 8: thirty minutes of shadow boxing every day. I'm I'm, I'm

44:45 Speaker 8: border I obsessed, you know. And but there's you know

44:49 Speaker 8: reasons it starts it. I'm in great shape because of it. Yeah,

44:54 Speaker 8: it helps my It helps my mind, you know, it

44:57 Speaker 8: relieves stress. It keeps me a little bit, you know,

45:00 Speaker 8: more grounded, and and you know, I take my job

45:05 Speaker 8: very serious. Man. I want to go out on stage

45:07 Speaker 8: and kill it. So I do more cardio every day

45:12 Speaker 8: than I know I'm going to be on stage. Right,

45:15 Speaker 8: If I know I have an hour that I have

45:18 Speaker 8: to do, I make sure that I do an hour

45:19 Speaker 8: of cardio every day leading up to that tour. You know,

45:23 Speaker 8: last tour we did, we only had a half hour

45:25 Speaker 8: set because we were opening up for Danzig, and I

45:29 Speaker 8: had so much energy. I was like, you know, my

45:31 Speaker 8: my show would be over and I'd be like doing

45:34 Speaker 8: you know, a couple hundred push ups right as soon

45:37 Speaker 8: as I walk off the stage. It's like, yeah, man,

45:38 Speaker 8: let's go I'll go another forty minutes. Man, let's do this,

45:41 Speaker 8: you know. So, yeah, I feel great, man, Yeah, I

45:45 Speaker 8: feel great. My wife said the other day. You know,

45:47 Speaker 8: I'm like, honey, I feel you know, I lost a

45:49 Speaker 8: little weight, you know, because I've been exercising differently. I'm

45:52 Speaker 8: not working for strength as much as as as endurance

45:56 Speaker 8: right now. It's because I have to prioritize this tour

46:00 Speaker 8: coming up, so I'm really working on just being able

46:02 Speaker 8: to go all out for an hour. That's my mission,

46:07 Speaker 8: right So, and she's like, she told me, you know, yeah,

46:10 Speaker 8: you got you lost a little bit of weight, but

46:13 Speaker 8: you look great. You look like you did when you

46:17 Speaker 8: were in your twenties. And she's met me in my twenties, so,

46:21 Speaker 8: you know what, I'm almost I'm sorry, I think I

46:24 Speaker 8: almost said a bad word. I'm almost sixty, bro, I'm

46:30 Speaker 8: fifty eight years old. And the fact that my wife,

46:34 Speaker 8: who knew me in my twenties says I still look

46:36 Speaker 8: the same like physically, you know, that says a lot. Man.

46:40 Speaker 2: It doest.

46:43 Speaker 8: I go between a six to an eight pack, depending

46:46 Speaker 8: on how many leglifts I'd do it. I'm in shape,

46:49 Speaker 8: I got veins in my arms, I'm still cut, you know. Yeah,

46:52 Speaker 8: And it's important, man. You know, I see people half

46:56 Speaker 8: my age who like struggle walking upstairs, you know. I

46:59 Speaker 8: see people who having like a hard time getting up

47:01 Speaker 8: off the couch. And I'm like, I see parents in

47:04 Speaker 8: the playground who are like so out of shape that

47:07 Speaker 8: they can't even keep up with their kids or play

47:09 Speaker 8: with them, right right, Like, I don't even see your

47:14 Speaker 8: point in breeding if you're going to be so out

47:16 Speaker 8: of shape that you're just going to raise more out

47:19 Speaker 8: of shape people like you know, do you know if

47:21 Speaker 8: you're gonna have kids, get your life together, be healthy,

47:24 Speaker 8: set an example for them, you know. Yeah, people, I

47:28 Speaker 8: always let the idea of the dad bod. You know what,

47:31 Speaker 8: when I had my kids, I started working out twice

47:34 Speaker 8: as hard. Yeah, you know, because I'm like, I want to.

47:37 Speaker 8: I want to set an example for them. I want

47:39 Speaker 8: them to know that health is wealth.

47:42 Speaker 7: Man.

47:42 Speaker 8: You know, you've got to work. You got to take

47:44 Speaker 8: care of yourself. You got to get in there and grind. Man.

47:47 Speaker 8: I used to bring their strollers to the gym with me,

47:50 Speaker 8: you know, and they'd sit there in their strollers while

47:52 Speaker 8: I was working out. You know, I started bringing them

47:54 Speaker 8: to the academy when they were like six months old.

47:57 Speaker 8: I wanted them to see, this is what men are

47:59 Speaker 8: supposed to do. This supposed to be in shape, They're

48:01 Speaker 8: supposed to be active. You know.

48:05 Speaker 2: Yeah, you know I've always said, well, I've always said too,

48:09 Speaker 2: there's a there's a weird thing culturally in the United States,

48:12 Speaker 2: and maybe this exists other places too. But you know, we, uh,

48:16 Speaker 2: we feed our I don't have any children on my own,

48:18 Speaker 2: but you know, we feed our kids like almost right

48:20 Speaker 2: out of the shoot, all kinds of sugar and and

48:24 Speaker 2: you know it's like, uh, you know, right right out

48:27 Speaker 2: of the gate. We teach our kids, you know, this

48:29 Speaker 2: is what this is what you should enjoy the most

48:32 Speaker 2: is cake and and candy and all this stuff. And

48:35 Speaker 2: then we raise generations of diabetics, you know, and and

48:39 Speaker 2: and and gee, I wonder why, you know bad.

48:44 Speaker 8: It's you know, all part of a bigger picture. I mean,

48:47 Speaker 8: the you know, they want to I say, they I

48:52 Speaker 8: hate to turn into one of those people. But it's

48:54 Speaker 8: like basically, if they you know, they want you as

48:59 Speaker 8: long as long as you could be part of the workforce,

49:01 Speaker 8: and then and then they just want you to pay

49:05 Speaker 8: medical bills. You know, it's just like, how can the

49:08 Speaker 8: system get the most out of you and give you

49:10 Speaker 8: the least and just keep you, you know, another little

49:14 Speaker 8: meaningless screw in the machine, right, you know, it's like

49:18 Speaker 8: work hard, get sick, and keep giving them money till

49:22 Speaker 8: you die, you know. And you know, and I do

49:27 Speaker 8: think it's I hate using the word conspiracy, but I

49:30 Speaker 8: do think that there is a little bit of a

49:32 Speaker 8: you know, throughout the history of this country, they've done

49:35 Speaker 8: a lot of you know, they really have polluted us.

49:39 Speaker 8: You know, there's a lot of foods in this country

49:41 Speaker 8: that are not even legal in other countries, like food

49:45 Speaker 8: colorings and different artificials, sweeteners, and various ingredients and chemicals

49:51 Speaker 8: that they use in our foods that are literally banned

49:54 Speaker 8: in other countries. What did all tell you that? That

49:57 Speaker 8: tells you that somebody's making money off of keeping us unhealthy.

50:02 Speaker 8: You know, I've been a vegetarian since nineteen eighty two.

50:07 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and you know I was you know, I

50:11 Speaker 2: was surprised by that too. You mentioned that in one

50:14 Speaker 2: of the interviews that I watched, and that was interesting

50:15 Speaker 2: to me because I would imagine a lot of people

50:19 Speaker 2: you tell that too, are surprised because you know, you've

50:22 Speaker 2: got a lot of muscle on you. And I think

50:23 Speaker 2: there's a obviously it's a misconception because you're a proof

50:26 Speaker 2: of this this idea that you can't you know that

50:29 Speaker 2: if you're a vegetarian, you can't build muscle. But you

50:32 Speaker 2: obviously have built muscle as a vegetarian, and as you said,

50:35 Speaker 2: you've been a vegetarian for a very long time.

50:39 Speaker 8: Yeah. Well, you know what, there's a lot of myths

50:42 Speaker 8: in the health industry, you know, I mean, they do

50:46 Speaker 8: most of their research on rats, you know, I mean,

50:50 Speaker 8: and rats require a lot more protein than people. Yeah,

50:56 Speaker 8: but you know, and also people don't realize that there

50:59 Speaker 8: is actually protein and vegetables, you know. I mean, for

51:03 Speaker 8: you know, like all those fake burgers that they make now,

51:08 Speaker 8: like what they call impossible, that stuffs made from like

51:14 Speaker 8: pea protein. You know, peas have protein, Broccoli has protein.

51:18 Speaker 8: You know. So and unless you're like trying to you

51:24 Speaker 8: don't be like a bodybuilder. You don't really as much

51:29 Speaker 8: protein as people think. Yeah, you know, and so unless

51:34 Speaker 8: unless you're like literally trying to you know, bulk up

51:37 Speaker 8: and you know, be like you know, Arnold Schwarzenegger or

51:40 Speaker 8: something you don't need. You know, people are always talking

51:44 Speaker 8: about you need one grand of protein for every you know,

51:47 Speaker 8: I don't. I don't know if all that's true, man.

51:49 Speaker 8: I mean, yeah, I know I'm in good shape.

51:54 Speaker 1: You know.

51:54 Speaker 8: My wife just put out a book book too, So

51:56 Speaker 8: I mean it's are interested in what I eat for for,

51:59 Speaker 8: you know, to maintain she put just Laura Leaf Flanagan.

52:03 Speaker 8: She just put out a book called Hardcore Vegetarian. And

52:08 Speaker 8: it's not it's not a book that like dashes meat

52:11 Speaker 8: eating or anything like that, you know, it's it's actually

52:14 Speaker 8: just a lot of recipes to try to bring more

52:19 Speaker 8: vegetables into your diet. Yeah, you know, it's not so

52:22 Speaker 8: much about it's just about, you know, learning more about

52:26 Speaker 8: food and adding new things to your diet that you

52:29 Speaker 8: didn't know about and stuff. And so for people who

52:31 Speaker 8: want to know what I do to stay in shape,

52:33 Speaker 8: obviously I exercise a lot, but you know, what you

52:36 Speaker 8: put into your body is critical too.

52:38 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Harley, we're approaching.

52:44 Speaker 8: I know meat eaters who are in great shape too.

52:47 Speaker 8: Everybody is different, so I also I also I'm not

52:50 Speaker 8: one of these like militant vegetarians who is like you

52:54 Speaker 8: know I kind of used to be. But the fact

52:58 Speaker 8: is is, you know what, vegetables at plants are also alive,

53:04 Speaker 8: you know, so I can't judge people for eating meat.

53:08 Speaker 8: You know, my vegetables were alive, and if any if anything,

53:15 Speaker 8: I'm more against the you know, industrial industry of the

53:23 Speaker 8: meat industry and like the way it like if people

53:25 Speaker 8: were still you know, hunter gatherers like we were. You know,

53:34 Speaker 8: factory farming is really what is destroying not just our

53:38 Speaker 8: health but the planet. You know, like the meat industry

53:42 Speaker 8: is really toxic, like all the pollution that comes out

53:47 Speaker 8: of the waste and you know how I mean, it

53:51 Speaker 8: goes on and on. I'm not going to sit here

53:53 Speaker 8: and like preach. Anybody can do the research. But you know,

53:59 Speaker 8: if you're gonna eat me, I think you should eat

54:01 Speaker 8: you know, it should be healthy. It should be like

54:05 Speaker 8: you know, grass fed, you should or you should be

54:08 Speaker 8: hunting it yourself, or you know, there has to be

54:11 Speaker 8: some sort of respect for for nature, right, you know, right,

54:16 Speaker 8: you don't respect don't yourself. It's gonna go bad. It's

54:20 Speaker 8: just you know, we see the results.

54:23 Speaker 2: Oh no, well said uh well Harley, we are The

54:26 Speaker 2: time goes quickly. We are approaching the top of the hour,

54:29 Speaker 2: but this has been incredible. I'm really glad you joined

54:31 Speaker 2: us today.

54:33 Speaker 8: Thank you for having me.

54:34 Speaker 2: Absolutely absolutely we should remind people before we go. And

54:37 Speaker 2: by the way, in a moment we're going to I'm

54:39 Speaker 2: gonna close out the segment with Life of my Own,

54:41 Speaker 2: another great track, but uh, we should remind people Wired

54:45 Speaker 2: for Chaos is coming out. It's gonna be in theaters

54:48 Speaker 2: middle of the month. I think you said, yeah, what's

54:52 Speaker 2: the date on that?

54:53 Speaker 8: Again, I think it's gonna be uh see, yeah, June fifteenth,

55:04 Speaker 8: that hits the theaters. And I was doing like a

55:08 Speaker 8: theater tour with the film with Q and A's and

55:12 Speaker 8: and all that stuff. So it'll uh, you know, and

55:15 Speaker 8: and then it will be available streaming and so on

55:19 Speaker 8: and so forth. So and you know, I think it's

55:22 Speaker 8: a it's a it's a it's a good story. It's

55:24 Speaker 8: a good film, even if you are not interested in

55:28 Speaker 8: you know, punk rock or hardcore music. Everybody who's seen

55:32 Speaker 8: this thing told me that they were able to really

55:37 Speaker 8: identify with the story, you know, because although I've had

55:40 Speaker 8: a unique experience, you know, my life has been I

55:45 Speaker 8: don't know if anybody else has lived a life exactly

55:48 Speaker 8: like mine. But we've all experienced trauma. We've all experienced

55:54 Speaker 8: you know, different types of you know, pain, stress. You know,

56:03 Speaker 8: everybody has suffered. Everybody's gone through things that were difficult.

56:06 Speaker 8: So I mean, I you know, whether it was you know,

56:08 Speaker 8: you're a broken family, your parents separating, whether it was

56:11 Speaker 8: you know, divorced, losing your kids, whether it was you know,

56:15 Speaker 8: getting arrested, whether it was struggling with drugs or this

56:18 Speaker 8: or that. There's a lot of things in this film

56:20 Speaker 8: that I think most humans can identify with because nobody

56:26 Speaker 8: has an easy ride, and I think it gives a

56:31 Speaker 8: little bit of hope maybe, you know, I mean, because

56:33 Speaker 8: if I made it through the things I made it through,

56:37 Speaker 8: I think I think most people, I think just about anybody,

56:41 Speaker 8: can you know what I mean? A lot of people

56:44 Speaker 8: out there have suffered harder than me. But you know

56:47 Speaker 8: a lot of people have suffered harder than me and

56:49 Speaker 8: done well right, right, So that who said, I just

56:54 Speaker 8: don't believe in giving up. And if I can give

56:56 Speaker 8: anybody just a little bit of hope or strength to

57:00 Speaker 8: believe in yourself, then you know, then my time on

57:03 Speaker 8: this earth was not a waste.

57:05 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well said, well said. I agree. And by

57:08 Speaker 2: the way too, I'll remind people you've got a great website,

57:10 Speaker 2: Harley Flanagan dot com for people who want to learn

57:13 Speaker 2: more about you and about the film. And and you've

57:15 Speaker 2: got a tour coming up and coming up really fast. Right,

57:18 Speaker 2: you're you're that Monday, all right, very good, very good.

57:26 Speaker 8: Germany somewhere on Tuesday or Wednesday. And the day I

57:29 Speaker 8: get home, I'm doing a Q and A. So yeah,

57:32 Speaker 8: let's do it.

57:33 Speaker 2: You gotta you got a full schedule. Well listen, so

57:36 Speaker 2: we'll we'll close with this track Life of my Own,

57:39 Speaker 2: but we'll let you go. Harley flan again, thank you

57:41 Speaker 2: so much. Let's let's do this again in the future.

57:43 Speaker 2: I could, uh, I could talk to you forever. Man.

57:45 Speaker 2: This has been fascinating. So I'm really glad you joined

57:48 Speaker 2: us this morning.

57:49 Speaker 8: This fun and you can have me on anytime. It

57:52 Speaker 8: would be a pleasure to talk to you again.

57:54 Speaker 2: Awesome, awesome, all right, Harley flanagain, thank you so much,

57:57 Speaker 2: my friend.

57:57 Speaker 8: Take care my pleasure.

58:00 Speaker 2: Alright, you got it, Bye bye, all right, Harley Flanagan

58:03 Speaker 2: of the Crowmaggs And I'm really looking forward to seeing

58:06 Speaker 2: the documentary Wired for Chaos, and we're gonna end with

58:08 Speaker 2: this track. This is another great song. This is called

58:11 Speaker 2: a Life of My Own. And if you are listening

58:13 Speaker 2: live on Saturday, make sure you stick around. Our number

58:16 Speaker 2: two is coming up.

58:56 Speaker 8: What is the.

59:01 Speaker 2: You'll fight by your lives, You'll fight us the Wow,

59:10 Speaker 2: you'll come and tell us?

59:13 Speaker 3: Whoa when mothering?

59:17 Speaker 2: The accept yourself?

59:21 Speaker 1: Yeah yeahs wol.

59:26 Speaker 3: With nothing.

59:27 Speaker 1: Accept yourself, so what you want.

59:32 Speaker 3: And how you don't want it?

59:36 Speaker 2: Sounds like poll do it praying yourself, preople, the.

59:42 Speaker 3: Press were all the town. You let rest.

59:50 Speaker 2: Your time, jell us, whoa with mother except yourself