Matt Connarton Unleashed: Brooks Young

0:00 And joining us live in studio at the News desk, Brooks Young is here.

0:03 Hello, sir, Hello, Hello, thank you for having me.

0:06 Yeah, it's great to see you. Man. When when did I interview

0:09 you the first time? It seems like another lifetime ago. I think it

0:12 was another lifetime ago. I want to say it was jeez, it had

0:17 been at least ten years or more. Yeah. Yeah, I'm trying to

0:22 remember. Now have I interviewed you? I think more than once before?

0:25 Right, yeah, it had to be yeah. Yeah. And did I

0:27 go Was I at a show that you did live too? Did we do

0:31 something with with you live? Trying to remember? Maybe nothing at the Flying

0:36 Monkey. Maybe, Oh it's possible, it's possible. Yeah, yeah.

0:42 Yeah. So it's great to have you. It's it's been a long time.

0:45 Obviously you've been very busy. I've been very busy. Yeah, I've

0:48 been very busy since I've seen you last. And yeah, and just keep

0:52 on, you know, trucking through. Yeah and now currently, uh,

0:56 you're because for a while you had Brooks Young band. Yeah still do you

1:00 still do? Yeah? Okay, yep, yep. We we just had

1:03 a rehearsal the other day. We're playing in Conquered. Next Friday, I'm

1:06 doing a few shows with the band and some local solo stuff before I head

1:11 out on tours. So, oh I got you okay, yeah, because

1:14 I noticed, like, like, you've got Brooks Young dot com and you've

1:15 got Brooks Young band dot com. Yeah, a nice website, by the

1:21 way, I'm I'm a website nerd. I look at websites and oh,

1:23 thank you, and I assess them and it's a it's a good website.

1:27 The guy know who handles it. No, that's not for real, because

1:30 some a lot of musicians have horrible websites. Yeah, you have to be

1:34 up in the game, you know. Yeah. Yeah, No, So

1:38 that looks really good now, so yeah, tell us about the tour.

1:42 So you're gonna be going out with George Good? Yes, So I head

1:46 out in October through November. I'm on tour with George throw Good in the

1:51 Destroyers and we're going all over the place from Pennsylvania, New York, uh,

1:57 Florida, Georgia and Kentucky, North Carol line of South Carolina. You

2:00 know, there's a list list of shows, a huge list, and uh

2:05 I was on tour, did a couple of dates last summer with him in

2:08 Sammy Hagar in the Circle with Mike Anthony from Van Halen on face and uh

2:14 Jason Bonham on drums, George thur Get in his band and myself and oh

2:17 wow, we had a blast and George and I just got along really well

2:22 and he was interested in having me come out and join him this fall on

2:27 tour. So yeah, So I've been prepping for that, getting ready because

2:30 there's a lot of logistics you know, involved with something like you know,

2:34 of that scale. Oh of course. Yeah. How many dates is it?

2:38 I want to say it's a little under twenty oh, and we'll be

2:40 adding some more. There might be a date on there. I believe that

2:44 we might do with Sammy Hagar as well. Yeah, in October, yeah,

2:46 because we'll be in the Neck of the Woods the night before, so

2:50 that that's that's rumor there. But yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

2:53 You know, George is a great guy, and you know, he he

2:57 really did a lot for you know, getting the Blues and things like that,

2:59 kind of going in a more rock style of things. And he's a

3:02 funny guy, really nice and I you know, looking forward to I'll be

3:07 seeing George next week, so excellent. Yeah. Yeah, he'll be up

3:13 in New Hampshire, so I'm gonna go see him and chat a little bit.

3:15 But yeah, I'm looking forward to it and just kind of prepping myself

3:20 for that tour. Yeah, he's such a staple on classic rock radio.

3:24 With that, I'm trying to think of who else would even be in that

3:29 category where it's it's very blues oriented, but more more so than most classic

3:35 rock is. Yeah, and he had that whole you know, that kind

3:38 of a bow diddle league kind of you know, that whole shuffle kind of

3:42 thing going on with the guitar and the slide. Yeah, and George,

3:45 you know, he really picked that up and you know, took it to

3:46 a different level. Yeah, and kind of made it a little bit more

3:50 in the forefront of music. I still remember. It's funny. I still

3:53 remember being a kid and seeing the video for Bad to the Bone the first

3:58 time and seeing him, know, because he's walking into the pool hall and

4:01 and uh, you know, and I think that that might have been I

4:04 don't know, I don't know if it was his very first radio hit at

4:09 the time, but it was an early one, you know. And then

4:11 he had a he had a huge run and I can't think of yeah,

4:15 I can't think of anybody quite like him who really Again, it has become

4:20 such a staple on classic rock radio, which I'm sure from a business standpoint,

4:26 probably helps him sell a lot of tickets. Yeah, we're playing large

4:29 venues, excellent. One of the venues I'm really excited for is November first.

4:34 We're going to be at the hard Rock Live Venue in Orlando. Oh

4:40 wow, that's the big one. Yeah, So I'm really looking forward to

4:43 that, and I know a lot of my friends and family, you know,

4:46 want to come down to see that show. So yeah, you know,

4:47 it'd be a lot of familiar faces at that and it'll be nice and

4:51 warm. Yeah. When when is that? November? November? Yeah,

4:57 yeah, well it's a good time to go. Yeah yeah. Now how

5:00 long do you get? How long have a set do you get to play?

5:02 I usually play for about forty five okay, yep, okay, And

5:05 uh so I do that usually. Uh you know, my daily routine there

5:10 is you know, I'll be at the hotel kind of do my thing there,

5:13 and then I head over for sound checks at four, so I'll check

5:16 in with the venue, go to my dressing room, I have a tour

5:19 manager that goes with me, yeah, and you know, takes care of

5:23 my stuff. And then usually we'll have dinner around six. I'll do us

5:26 sound check before dinner. Yeah, and then you know, myself, the

5:30 band crew, everyone, we all eat, you know, and and do

5:33 our thing, and then I'll go out there and I'll play and do my

5:38 thing, and then George will go out and uh, you never know,

5:41 George and I might you know, trade a few licks on this tour.

5:44 So have you done that before with him? No? No, no,

5:46 And I think you know, hopefully that that's what this tour is all about.

5:49 So yeah, that must be kind of a kind of a dream,

5:51 right to be able to actually share the stage yeah, simultaneously and yeah play.

5:58 Yeah, So you know, I'm sure or that will be happening on

6:00 this tour. And you know, he's just just a great guy, and

6:03 you know, he has a great fan base as well, and you know,

6:06 to get to see how the fans react, you know, with George.

6:10 And I remember we were in Chicago last summer and were we played the

6:15 Hollywood Casino and it was twenty five thousand people. Wow, And one of

6:19 the fans gave George a cane. So if you're familiar with George, he

6:25 has like the cobra as kind of like his logo. Oh yeah, and

6:29 someone gave him a cane and it had like an ivory type cobra on the

6:34 top of it. Yeah, And George and I were backstage and you know,

6:38 trying to get the you know, the plastic off the cobra because he

6:41 wanted to use it to go and you know, walk out and go see

6:44 the rest of Sammy set. Yeah, And uh, it was really cool

6:46 and he just great fans and you know, he's just a great guy to

6:50 be around. Sammy must be fun to be around. I would say,

6:54 Sammy's funny. So I last summer, I never met Sammy before until summer,

7:00 and I was standing outside of my dressing room. So it was my

7:04 dressing room and across right across the hall was Jason Bonham and he was warming

7:11 up on drums, so he has like a rolling B drum set there and

7:14 he's jamming out to Fleetwood Mac and and walks Sammy. He goes red T

7:18 shirt one never met him before, and he looks right at me and he

7:21 goes Brooks and he comes over and we chat for a while, and yeah,

7:27 just so much energy, very positive guy. You know, just good

7:31 people to be around, and you know that that's what it's all about,

7:35 you know, and that's how you know, you make it to that level

7:38 of things and performing like that. You know, you just you have to

7:42 surround yourself with the right people. Oh yeah, yeah, And Michael Anthony

7:45 seems like I've got I met Sammy once. Uh. I met him actually

7:49 at Meadowbrook when he was on that This was many years ago, when he

7:53 was on the tour that he did with David Lee Roth. Oh, I've

7:57 got to I was at that show and I got to meet him. I've

7:59 never met Michael Anthony, but he seems like he must really nice guy,

8:03 very much like Seemmy. Very quiet. Yeah, they're just regular guys at

8:07 the end of the day, you know, they hang out just like us,

8:11 and you know, and we all hang out and chat, have a

8:13 drink after the show and just talk about whatever's going on in our life.

8:18 Now. When you go on tour, does does your band? Is it

8:24 all the same people who go with you on tour that you have here who

8:26 play shows with you in the area on certain shows, Yeah, for this

8:30 particular tour will be just myself. But yeah, like when I was on

8:33 tour Three Dog Night for you know, a couple of years we did that,

8:35 you know, it was my same band yea, and so you know,

8:39 we had rehearsal on Sunday for some stuff we have coming up, and

8:43 it's you know, over the years, I've had a couple of different lineups,

8:46 but the people that are in the group now or you know, people

8:50 that have been with me for at least ten years. Oh no, kidding,

8:54 Yeah, Oh that's good. I mean, that's that's gotta be hard

8:56 to keep you know. I mean I've been in bands, and I know

8:58 how hard it is to keep the same group together for any period of time.

9:03 Really, A lot of people don't realize how hard it is. Yeah,

9:05 yeah, oh yeah. You're dealing with everybody's schedules and everyone you know,

9:09 and and often varying levels of commitment. So that's impressive. Yeah.

9:13 So and it just works out. You know, we all we have that

9:16 certain cohesiveness and it just works. You know, we read each other really

9:20 well on stage. Yeah, you know, we can uh, we know

9:24 when something's up. Yeah. Yeah, that must be particularly important with the

9:28 music that you do, because so I've never been in a blues band,

9:33 but obviously with what you do, there's there's a lot of room for improv

9:39 right there. And or sometimes a song that you know might normally be four

9:43 minutes might be six minutes. And you know, yeah one word live.

9:46 You know, we're more like a blues rock you know, we're you're you're

9:50 straight old standard blues you know. Yeah, yeah, like BB you know,

9:52 you know I did that for a while back when I you know,

9:54 first got started out, when I was playing with BB King. Then usually

10:00 you know, I did some stuff with Robert Cray fairly recently. Wow,

10:03 so that that was more straight blues. Yeah, and you know this winter

10:09 was great. I did a show with Los Lobos kid. Yeah, Los

10:13 Lobos Man, those guys were great, and you know, David and uh,

10:18 you know, it's just just just a fun I always you know,

10:22 listen to you know, the Wolf, you know, all all of those,

10:26 all of those songs that they did in LaBamba and all of that,

10:30 and you know, to be there and do a show with them and hang

10:33 out with them, you know during all that, it's just you know,

10:35 it's really interesting to like be able to hang out with the people that you

10:41 grew up listening to. Oh, no doubt, you know, you get

10:43 that, you're you kind of walk in like, Okay, what's it gonna

10:46 be? Like, Yeah, you know, is it gonna be everything you

10:48 thought? Or is it? You know? And most of the time it's

10:52 very good. That's good to hear too, because you know, there's not

10:56 everyone has the same experience and that some people we'll say, you know,

11:01 don't meet your heroes, you know what I mean. But but it sounds

11:05 like for you it's been pretty good. Yeah, you know, I I've

11:09 I've I only have one story and I will not share it that it wasn't

11:13 that way really, and I was surprised. Yeah, but you know most

11:18 most, like nine percent of them were good. Yeah that's good. Yeah,

11:22 that's good. So you did with Robert Cray? Did did recently?

11:28 You said you worked with him? Yeah, that was well, I would

11:31 say fairly recently. It was a year or two ago, and yeah,

11:33 I did some tour dates with Robert for a while, and uh, hopefully

11:37 he might be doing some more stuff with him this year. So yeah,

11:41 Robert's a great guy, very talented, and you know, he's part of

11:46 that that circle of guitarists. So you know, you have your you know,

11:50 your BB King and you have Robert and Eric Clapton and uh during actually

11:54 speaking of Eric, during COVID, Eric's daughter, Ruth Clapton and I recorded

12:00 together. Oh no kidding, yeah, we did. I honestly, I

12:03 didn't even know he had a daughter and he was a musician. If she's

12:07 a very talented singer, and Ruth and I actually did one of her dad's

12:09 songs, We did Promises, Oh no kidding, yeah, and we recorded

12:13 that during the pandemic and we had a great time. And uh, I

12:16 was just talking to her last week and she lives over in Yorkshire, England,

12:20 Oh wow. And uh yeah, So I'd become really friendly with you

12:24 know, Eric and his his management, and he invited me down to see

12:28 him last September at the Garden. Yeah, and he hooked me up down

12:31 there to see him and Jimmy Vaughan and uh yeah, I'd get to hang

12:35 out with Jimmy Vaughan about a month ago and such a talented, you know

12:41 guitarist. Yeah, and you know, we had a good conversation about just

12:46 you know, the other the other casts that play with you know, with

12:48 him and Eric and everyone. It's a very tight knit circle. Brooks Young

12:52 is with us in studio. By the way, Miriam Banish really liked that

12:56 song ventil later. Oh that's great. Yeah, yeah, I had a

13:00 blast recording that. Yeah, I noticed south there's a video, So is

13:05 that now? Is that actual footage from the recording or is yeah? Where

13:09 do you Where did you record that? I recorded that a phenomenal studio up

13:13 in the White Mountains called Mojo's Studio. Oh yeah, yeah, legendary yep,

13:18 yep. Anthony and you know, and his dad up there, and

13:22 uh, I have a blast. I recorded quite a bit up there,

13:24 and I actually did a show with them this summer. We did a big,

13:28 big thing up there up in the Notch and I just love going there.

13:31 You know, you walk in, it's just the vibe, it's perfect.

13:33 We did a little piece of on New Hampshire Chronicle I think back in

13:37 February, and which was great. We did that, and then I also

13:43 why we were recording the album. We were also I was working on another

13:46 project where Governor Sanoni and I did a song together, that song about New

13:50 Hampshire and the video yeah, I went viral and oh I didn't even know

13:54 about it, no kidding, Oh yeah, look it it's does he play

13:58 guitar? Uh? He he dabbles with guitar. Understood, Yeah, but

14:05 yeah, I coached him through and he came up with the lyrics and yeah.

14:09 Yeah. He called me up one night and he's like, Brooks,

14:11 I have this idea and I was like, sure, yeah, what do

14:13 you want to do. He's like, I want to do a song everywhere

14:16 man, all about New Hampshire and the different locations. And I said,

14:20 all right, let's do it. And the Governor and I we've been friends

14:24 for quite a while now and yeah, so it's like, sure, you

14:26 know, come on over, we'll do some recording. And he emailed me

14:28 the lyrics and we worked it out and he did a great job and so

14:33 you'll have to look it up. It went viral. So speaking of the

14:37 Los Lobos show, it's I was in my hotel when I was up doing

14:41 that show with them, and my bass player Al he was across the hall

14:45 in his room and he texted me a picture of his TV and it's CNN

14:48 and it's me and the Governor. CNN's playing you know this this music video

14:54 and doing a segment on it and it was hilarious and I didn't get to

14:56 see it at the time, but yeah, yeah, so yeah, it's

15:01 been a real busy year. Yeah, yeah, it sounds it. Yeah.

15:05 Yeah, when when I first met you at that point, I think

15:09 even even then, like back when when I had first interviewed you, you

15:13 you had played with. Who were some of the early people that you played

15:18 with? Because I think I think i've obviously BB King, right Lewis and

15:22 the News. BB King is who I was thinking of, because I remember

15:24 we talked about that before. Yeah, yeah, Huey, Lewis and the

15:28 News, Pat Benatar, Jez, a bunch of people. Yeah, there's

15:35 a list somewhere. I think is BB King though? Is he kind of

15:39 the first? Like bb is the big, the big, the big thing.

15:41 So do you remember in Manchester here there was a Singer Park and there

15:46 was the stage the music. Yeah, so the BB King was playing there

15:50 and the date got ranged out and rescheduled to September eleventh, and so I

15:54 was at that show and a friend of mine brought me to it and I

15:58 got to meet BB King and so it was with b Beyond nine to eleven

16:03 there and kind of became friends with him and told him what I did,

16:07 and I believe I think gave him a CD or something of the sort he

16:10 had my music, and uh, just recently, probably right after that,

16:14 I got an email from his agent at William Morris asking saying, you know,

16:18 bb would like you to open up and play some shows. Wow.

16:21 And I wasn't prepared for anything like that. Yeah, And you know,

16:23 I remember where I was standing the moment I got that news, and I

16:29 was like in my head like okay, I have this, so what what

16:33 what am I going to do with this? And I like get on the

16:34 phone and uh oh yeah, here's the so yeah. So the other shows,

16:41 Collective Soul, the Wallflowers, trying to think of what some of the

16:45 early ones sellside Johnny and the Aspbury Jukes. I played a lot with them

16:51 were starting out, and Rick Derringer, Negar Winter Wow, and those are

16:56 fun yeah, and just you know, just good times and uh, you

17:02 know, just learned a lot from him, you know. But it sounds

17:04 like that that opportunity with BB King really kind of launched you right there.

17:08 Sure was. Yeah. Once you and that's the thing you start there,

17:11 and it's like, well where do you go from there? You know,

17:14 And I was like, but BB was, He's definitely, you know,

17:18 the most humble man. And I learned a lot from him and had a

17:22 lot of conversations with him, you know, over those years, and it

17:25 was really sad when he passed away. Yeah, and I remember him telling

17:30 me, you know, because he I knew, I knew this was the

17:33 moment in my life where it was one of the shows I was playing with

17:37 BB King and I walked back to the dressing room, I'm going into the

17:41 venue. I got my guitar in my hand, I got my suit everything,

17:45 and I take my suit jacket off and I put it up next to

17:49 BB King's in the dressing room while he's sitting there eating dinner and is with

17:53 him Willie, and I set my guitar down next to Lucille his guitar,

17:59 and that is like one of those moments where it was like, you know,

18:03 the surreal like moment, you know, because I you know, I

18:07 was you know, younger then, but you know, I was watching him,

18:11 you know, on DVDs, and I had every single album and you

18:14 know, just soaking it in and learning that and then all of a sudden,

18:17 there I am in this small little backstage room, you know, and

18:19 my my friend of Straton next to Gibson, you know, Lucille and my

18:23 coat. I always knew that, you know, dress sharp. So anyone

18:27 who knows Bev. He always had these very stylish you know, suit coats

18:32 and everything like that. Oh yeah, and I remember him he said,

18:34 uh, always dress when you're going out there to perform, like you're going

18:38 to the bank for a loan. Yeah, yeah, that's good. Yeah,

18:45 yeah, it must have been. It must have been a shock when

18:47 you when you got the call, because I would imagine like when you hand

18:49 him your CD or you handed it to or as manager or whomever, Like

18:53 in the back of your mind, you know you're you're doing that because you

18:56 know it's smart to do that, but you probably don't really expect anything's going

19:00 to happen, right because because so many of us, you know, we

19:03 have that you know, uh, we we get an opportunity to hand something

19:07 to somebody, and but but we know that, you know, they've probably

19:11 got people handing them stuff all the time. You know, they're they're never

19:15 gonna listen. What are the odds that they're going to listen to it?

19:17 And then when it when it happens, when you get that call, I

19:19 mean, that must have been mind blowing. Yeah, it sure was,

19:22 you know. And uh and then to do more shows afterwards. Yeah,

19:26 after that first, you know, initial show, and you know, the

19:30 whole point was to just do a really good job and you know, hope,

19:34 hope it all goes well. Yeah, cross your fingers and you're up

19:37 there, you know, in front of a few thousand people, you know,

19:40 And yeah, that was my first big show, you know, like,

19:42 yeah, I was there with opening for BB King and there was probably

19:45 like three four thousand people I think at that first show. Yeah, and

19:48 I never experienced anything like that prior, and you know, I just wanted

19:53 to go up there and do the best that I could. And where was

19:56 it that show? That first show was that hand to Beach because Sino ball

20:00 Room. Oh okay, that was my first you know, my first gig

20:04 gig. Yeah, yeah, you know wow, and uh so yeah that

20:08 was fun. I played there many times over the years since with Huey Lewis

20:11 in the news and Pat Benatar and yeah, a bunch of folks and uh,

20:15 that's always a fun room to play. Yeah, yeah, no doubt

20:19 who have you played with who would really is there someone you've played with who

20:22 would really be kind of surprising because well because when for example, when you

20:27 say Huey Lewis and the news, it's kind of like, yeah, okay,

20:30 I he's a great guy. Yeah, yeah, loves golf stocks.

20:33 We walked around the casino, so Huei's I believe it was his grandfather.

20:38 He tell me his grandfather played. Yeah, I think his grandfather played drums

20:42 in a big band, a swing band back in the day. And they

20:47 actually played at Hampton Beach Casino and Hue and I walked around inside and he

20:52 was telling me like where the stage used to be, and you know,

20:55 all these great stories and yeah, just a really nice guy. Yeah yeah.

20:59 He give me a big shout out up on stage and oh that's cool.

21:03 And I thought that was pretty cool. I was like, all right,

21:04 you know, because I grew up, you know, I was born

21:07 eighty two and you know, Back to the Future and you know all of

21:11 those songs, you know, the album Sports and all that like, and

21:14 then like whoa you know Huey Lewis. You know, he was such a

21:17 you know, a big name in the eighties. Oh yeah, you know,

21:19 and Back to the Future that whole soundtrack. Yeah, and uh and

21:23 fantastic. I mean they sound just like the album when they're live. Really,

21:27 I've never I've never seen them live. I have some good friends who

21:30 who are big fans who have seen them live. But yeah, he doesn't

21:33 play anymore. I know. It's terrible. What happened to him. That

21:37 manear's disease. I think it's called yea. Yeah. I remember seeing an

21:40 interview where he was talking about it. It was when they came out with

21:42 that last ep Weather. Yeah, it was a few years ago. Yeah,

21:45 and he was talking about how they're playing a show and just all of

21:48 a sudden is hearing like either just couldn't hear or everything sounded strange, or

21:52 so it's hard to like sing in team you know and tune. Yeah,

21:56 and I think too, he said it it comes and goes, so he'll

22:00 have moments where his hearing is somewhat normal, but it doesn't last, so

22:04 he's he's pretty much pretty much done. Yeah, Yeah, it's terrible.

22:08 Do you ever worry about that? Do you ever worry about something happening to

22:11 you're hearing? I mean, I'm sure you have some hearing loss because part

22:15 of being a musicians, you know, you're you're in front of loud amps

22:18 and you know, I mean I got only I haven't gotten my hearing tested

22:22 because I'm literally afraid to be same here. I think I would be afraid.

22:25 Yeah, I don't have any issues yet, knock on wood. You

22:27 know, I haven't had any any type of ringing in the ear, and

22:30 yeah, any you know, I try to do the best I can when

22:34 I'm on stage performing usually those large shows there either I'll have any your monitors

22:40 and or you know, the monitor mix is a pretty healthy you know,

22:42 yeah, yeah mix. But once you start getting you know, the horn

22:47 section up there and you know everything else. And I remember, I'll never

22:52 forget this. This was that same show with BB King at the Casino and

22:56 I'm up there and we're doing our sound check and in BB him an organ

23:00 player, uh had two Leslie's And I remember my keyboard player, Jeff,

23:06 He's up there and he goes to the hit the first note. We were

23:08 doing something and I could feel the air and the sound on my bat and

23:14 I was like, oh my gosh, my ears. And that's the one

23:17 time I think in my life where I was like, oh jeez, I

23:19 you know, better be careful here. Yeah, yeah, I'm I'm pretty

23:25 well. I don't. I don't play anymore, but I notice like I

23:29 have tonitas, but I only really notice it when I first wake up in

23:32 the morning, so it doesn't bother me yet. But I don't listen to

23:34 headphones anymore except when I'm doing the show. Yeah, but like I,

23:37 you know, I miss putting on headphones and listening to loud music. But

23:41 I'm actually afraid to now because I don't want it to get any worthy,

23:45 you know. Yeah, I you know, I tried to use the in

23:48 ear monitors when we were on tour with Three Dog Night. We used them,

23:52 and but I always found myself pulling out an ear really yeah, because

23:56 I just I love that natural you know, yeah five the feel because it's

24:00 too isolated in the mix, and you know, I feel like I'm not

24:03 there right right, exactly exactly now. When you go out so on this

24:10 tour with George Thoroughgood, you're gonna be no, you said you're not bringing

24:15 the band. No, no, maybe there'll be some a date or something

24:18 maybe added where you know, I get to bring the guys, But yeah,

24:22 no, no, so this is myself and George Thoroughgood and the Destroyers

24:26 and uh yeah, so so what what do you do? You just go

24:30 out and you just go out on stage by yourself or yeah, yeah,

24:33 so I'll go out and yeah, yeah I've I've gotten to that. You

24:37 know, the last summer there, you know, a twenty five thousand people

24:40 there in front of me. I was like, yo, okay, I

24:41 got this now. Yeah you know, yeah, it took a moment.

24:45 You know, I's gonna say that must be that must be scary at first,

24:47 because when you're you know, when you're up there with a band,

24:48 it's like, you know, you can all kind of lean on each other

24:51 and it's like that it's like a security blanket. Yeah exactly, it's like

24:55 we're all in this together. But uh yeah, it's it's it's a little

24:57 different when you're up there by yourself and you have all those eyes looking at

25:00 you. Yeah, you know, you're like, you know, just okay,

25:03 everything, you know, let's not break a string. Let's sound good.

25:08 You know. I try to make sure like I don't talk too much

25:11 or whatever during you know, the day before hand leading up, you know,

25:15 I try to save as much energy, because when I go out there

25:18 and perform like that, you know, I try to give it everything that

25:21 I have. Yeah, and I try to not leave anything, you know.

25:25 So I go out there and I do the absolute best that I can,

25:27 and it usually shows because it looks like I just came out of a

25:32 swimming pool by the last song. Oh yeah, yeah. And then I'll

25:36 go back in my dressroom and take a shower or whatever and go back out

25:40 and you know, listen to the rest of the show. So but the

25:44 first time, it must have been pretty scary walking out there by yourself,

25:47 I would imagine, right, yeah, you know it. Yeah, for

25:49 those size shows, you know, I kind of, you know, I

25:52 built myself up for like the smaller like two thousand like seat venues, but

25:56 like you do those other ones that are you know, twenty twenty five thousand

26:00 people, it's like an ocean. Yeah. I mean this was in Chicago.

26:04 We were in where was it. Yeah, I think Chicago, Illinois

26:07 is twenty five thousand people. Like Meadowbrook looks big. But you go to

26:12 some of these venues that are out in the Midwest and stuff, and it's

26:15 Meadowbrook look very small, and and they're all set up the same, they're

26:21 just you know, wider spread, more people. Yeah. But it's really

26:23 interesting though going to all the different cities and towns and you kind of like

26:29 every city in town is so different, like the people, like the audience,

26:33 Like you could be playing and you know, so one of the dates

26:36 on there's lex Kentucky. I've played there before, and it's so much different

26:41 than say you go a couple hours away and you're in Nashville or Knoxville or

26:45 whatever. Like the audience, the crowd reacts so differently. Some people they'll

26:51 just sit there and then they'll clap afterwards, or more people are standing up

26:55 cheering and you know during So it's so different. So it's really neat to

26:57 see. Yeah, well when you're opening too, I would imagine there's probably

27:02 some crowds, you know, because we've all seen it happen where you know,

27:06 if they don't if you're the opener and they don't know you, you

27:08 know, this is that I would imagine sometimes as that beginning thing where they're

27:12 a little tentative. Yeah, but then you know, a couple of songs

27:15 in there like okay, yeah, this is cool, yeah yeah yeah yeah,

27:18 and then usually I'll I try to go out like to the merch table

27:22 or whatever, you know, after I perform and sign a few things,

27:25 or usually we have a guest list, people will come backstage. You just

27:29 kind of meet some people and uh you know, you get to uh see

27:33 see a lot of different things on the road, and that's for sure.

27:36 Yeah. Ye Does your approach to playing change at all where you're with the

27:41 full band versus when you're by yourself. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so

27:45 you know, I'll have you know, my main guitars with me, like

27:48 my you know, Fender Stratic caster and my Martin Acoustic with me and stuff

27:52 like that. But yeah, the song choices are different, my you know,

27:56 my style playing is still the same, you know, obviously you have

28:00 to put a little bit more into it. Yeah, you know, and

28:03 but it opens it up a lot, so I can play a lot,

28:06 you know, a lot of my original stuff a little bit more different,

28:10 not different, but you know, more open sounding. And you know,

28:14 the key thing is really just keeping my voice, you know, and checking

28:18 and being able to have that because you know, at the end of the

28:19 day, when I'm out there's you know, it's it's my guitar and my

28:22 my vocals. Yeah, So do you ever have any trouble with your with

28:26 your voice? No? You know, you know, usually if I if

28:30 I do quite a few nights in a row, like long nights. A

28:33 couple of nights ago, I played for three hours straight and that probably wasn't

28:37 the best. I noticed it, and I can notice it a little bit

28:42 today, like I'm really raspy, and usually it's not. Usually it's fairly

28:47 smooth. Yeah, yeah, do you do you actually feel it or yeah?

28:51 I can sear it, yeah, you know, right, and hear

28:52 a little bit. But you know, I try to drink you know,

28:55 I got like throat coat, and yeah, I drink a lot of that

28:56 before I go out and play yea and do vocal exercises warming up. So

29:03 no, that's good because you know, a lot of vocalists don't a lot

29:07 of vocalists don't take care of their throats. And then you know, at

29:11 a certain point, you know, things start to kind of give out.

29:15 Now. J Fed is in the Facebook live chat. He's one of our

29:18 friends from Vermont, and he asks, and this will sound like a strange

29:22 question, but I'll explain afterwards why he's asking this. He says, do

29:26 you think he will do an ice bath with George path with George. Now,

29:33 the reason he's asking that is he's a very j Fed is a very

29:36 big proponent of the ice bath. You know, I'm familiar with it.

29:40 Yeah, so I did a show I played with the drummer for Bruce Springsteen,

29:47 Max Weinberg. Yeah, and Max does an ice bath for his arms

29:49 after the show. No kidding, Yeah, so I'm familiar with. Does

29:53 he just put his arms in it or does he get into the bath?

29:56 No? No, just his arms? Oh okay, yeah, oh see

29:59 j Fed, he he gets into the ice bath. Yeah, we don't

30:02 have bath backstage. We have showers, showers. Yeah, yeah, maybe

30:04 if I go back to my hotel and you know, my tour manager call

30:08 him up and say, hey, can you know, fill it with ice

30:11 and phil yeah, Philip Brooks is you know bathtub with ice? Yea,

30:14 they might scratch their head, but you know, but that would But in

30:15 that case, so you'd be doing it by yourself, like you wouldn't invite

30:18 George over pretab Yeah. Yeah, maybe maybe we might have you know,

30:23 a whiskey or something together before, but yeah, we usually keep the bathing

30:29 to ourselves, right And Texas. Mike joins us in the Chatterman says,

30:34 Brooks were you Were you the one to portray Garth Brooks at the Palace Theater

30:40 during the pandemic. Yes, that was me. Oh now so okay,

30:44 so what is I don't know about this? What is uh? What is

30:45 this? Yes, sue, excuse me. Over at the Palace Theater,

30:51 we did a show during the pandemic. It was called Brooks Place Brooks Okay,

30:55 And it was a Garth Brooks tribute show during the pandemic that we did.

30:57 And I put a band together, I'll be damned. Yeah, yeah

31:02 it was. It was just it was this idea that I had. Yeah,

31:04 it was like, oh, this would be neat and during COVID,

31:07 like you couldn't really go out anywhere, so it's all videotaped and you know,

31:11 and you know, the whole big production, the video wall, the

31:15 lights, the smoke, the whole nine yards. Yeah, some of it's

31:17 on YouTube, I think, no kidding. Yeah, if you do Brooks

31:19 Place, Brooks, I think it's oh, I think it's on there.

31:22 Yeah, I didn't know about this. That's cool. Yep. So yes,

31:26 that was me and with a full band or just you full, oh

31:30 full, yeah, everything and you and it's just all Garth Brooks Brooks.

31:33 Oh wow, I'll be damned. Yeah, Texas, Mike says Garth Brooks

31:37 is his favorite artist. So yeah, that was a lot of fun.

31:41 Wow, that was a one and done deal. Did you happen I'm not

31:45 a big country guy, but did you happen to do a hard luck woman?

31:48 And I don't believe so? Uh, the only reason so I have

31:52 an affinity for well, Kiss is my favorite band, and of course Garth

31:56 covered that, and of course and on the cover that are recorded, Kiss

32:00 is actually on the track with him. So and they even uh, I

32:04 don't know if you've ever seen it, there's a YouTube video of them performing

32:06 it together. Look that I did not know that. Yeah, they performed

32:08 it together. This was nineteen ninety four. They actually performed it together on

32:12 the Tonight Show. Really yeah, it's it's uh yeah, it's pretty cool.

32:17 Well, we should, uh, let's play another track. I played

32:22 ventil later earlier, but we should give this other one to listen. Uh,

32:25 dream Away and the latest album supply Chain Blues. Yeah. Yeah,

32:30 so we'll play this and then we can and then we can talk some more.

32:34 Any anything you want us to know about this. Did you also record

32:37 this at Mojo? Yeah? Yeah, this is from Mojo, and yeah

32:42 it was a great So this this song I wrote actually way back when I

32:45 lived in Manchester a long time ago. I wrote and recorded like on one

32:50 of my first EPs, and I was asked to re record the song and

32:53 make it a little bit more bluesy and put it on this actual album that

32:58 went out. And this album, It's If, actually went to the top

33:00 of the charts for a while and even past Buddy Guy for like a week,

33:05 don't okay. I was like, Okay, this is cool, this

33:07 is cool. Yeah, but yeah this song dream Away, Yeah I did

33:10 very well and I'm very proud of it. Cool. All right, check

33:14 this out. This is dream Away from Brooks Young. Every day dream away

33:27 that fall good, fall in love with me. It seems just like yesterday

33:38 the afors saw you, fash you made my house give a beach, flooded

33:49 inside of men, dreams and never money. I was shouting, wake by

34:07 you. You make me feel so complete, So I don't you say you'll

34:22 stay with me? I want to touch your lips. I feel you with

34:30 my single chimps, watch your body by, would I kiss you good night?

35:50 Every day I had dream away that I fought a girl to fall.

36:01 Lowe Brooks Young is here. He is at the news desk. Hello,

36:17 Hello, Hello, wonderful to have you here, sir, and uh yeah,

36:21 if you're just joining us. We've been talking music and Brooks has an

36:24 upcoming tour with George Thoroughgood and we've been playing playing a couple of the studio

36:30 tracks, really great stuff. So Brooks, how many how many albums have

36:34 you recorded? You must you must have quite a few at this point,

36:37 right, Oh geez, that's a great question. I want to say five

36:40 five albums five yeah, five, five some studies, some live, a

36:45 live album, a couple of studio albums, a couple of EPs, and

36:51 the goal is by the end of the year to go back and do a

36:52 follow up on the latest album. Excellent, yeah, excellent. Are you

36:57 going to do? You think you're gonna making full length albums because we live

37:01 in an era where you've got a lot of different options in terms of how

37:06 you approach it. Yeah, you know, And that's interesting you say that,

37:07 because I have been thinking about that, and you know, everything nowadays,

37:12 you know, it's all about throwing out the single, you know,

37:15 put the single out there. But there's something about the continuity, the having

37:21 the whole album work with each other, you know, all the tracks,

37:23 you know, kind of melt together, and I like that. I like

37:27 going into the studio and having that mindset of I'm going to make this cohesive

37:34 project, yeah, you know, rather than just go in and record a

37:37 single, which I've done many many times, which is also fun. But

37:40 there's just something about walking out and knowing you have a whole album, right,

37:45 you know. I can go in there and make a whole album and

37:46 then maybe put two songs as singles out first and just kind of test the

37:52 waters a bit, right, you know, which I've which I did with

37:53 this album. So yeah, you know, a whole album. Definitely whole

37:59 album. Do you like being in the studio? Love it? Do you

38:02 good? If I could do, if I could be anywhere all the time,

38:05 it would probably be in the studio. Oh interesting, Okay, So

38:07 you prefer that to being live, don't I look at them as two different

38:15 things? Yeah? Yeah, you know. I love the live aspect of

38:17 the performing part of it and being able to that connection with the audience and

38:22 the performer something about the studio that I love is be the creative side of

38:29 me. Like I can be very creative, I can stop, I can

38:32 you know, reduce something when I'm doing live it's that's that's the moment,

38:37 right, you know. And something about going in the studio and just knowing

38:42 that you know the skies, the limit, you know, and you know

38:45 recording and so I don't know, I enjoy it. Now. Do you

38:49 have if you worked with producers or do you produce yourself or usually you know,

38:53 I produce a lot of the things with you know, the gentleman who's

38:58 at the studio, Anthony and I. I'd do a lot of their producing.

39:01 I had on this album a good friend of mine, Charlie Cantrell.

39:06 He was the executive producer on the last album. And so yeah, usually

39:10 there's a couple of us. Yeah, I know a lot of times too.

39:15 You know, sometimes you might go into a studio and the engineer becomes

39:17 almost a de facto producer if they're someone who has a lot of ideas and

39:22 suggestions. Many hats Yeah, Charlie Cantrell, that that name is familiar to

39:27 me. Should I is that someone I should know? You're probably thinking of

39:30 the cantrell the guitars. Maybe I don't know. For Alison Chains, I

39:36 just I feel like I've heard I've heard that name. So yeah, Charlie,

39:42 he owns the world's smallest horse, Einstein. Maybe you've heard of that

39:45 chronicle and oh maybe that might be that might be why Yeah, the world's

39:50 smallest horse. Yeah, yeah, Einstein. We're good buddies. Ye.

39:57 Now has your approached to recording changed over the years. Yeah, yeah,

40:02 I know when to stop recording and I know what to listen for. I

40:08 know, you know where I'm at. You know, I can go in

40:12 the studio and say, okay, that was a great take. Yeah,

40:14 not do like thirty takes of you know, the same thing. Like I

40:16 can go in there and I know exactly what I'm looking for, and you

40:22 know, i'd like I've tried different ways where we go in and record like

40:27 a scratch track with the band and then we will start from the drums ground

40:30 up and you know, overdubbing things like that. Yeah, the Supply Chain

40:34 Blues album was recorded a little bit differently. Supply Chain Blues. That's a

40:38 great name, Yeah, I thought so, right, And uh so you

40:45 know that that album there was full band. We all kind of recorded together,

40:51 the drums and the bass and keys, and very little overdubbing, Like

40:55 all the guitar that you hear is me actually playing it. Why I coorded

41:00 it, okay, overdub anything. Really, the only thing I did was

41:04 the vocals. Okay. And when you said, now you know when to

41:07 stop instead of you know, thirty takes. So when you when you used

41:10 to do a lot more takes? Was it is it perfectionism or were you

41:15 just never and just searching for well, could it be something else? You

41:21 know, it's just the riff or could there be a better riff? Yeah?

41:23 You know. And so now I kind of go in there into the

41:29 studio prepared, you know. And I we always went in prepared. Yeah

41:32 we could. We could knock a whole album out, you know, usually

41:37 within a weekend the band, no joke, like really, we do a

41:39 lot of rehearsing prior, yeah, and we go in knowing exactly what we

41:44 want to do. So we don't go in there blind. Yeah, because

41:47 we don't waste anyone's time at the studio and we don't want to waste our

41:52 time. Go in there with a mission and we do it. And in

41:55 and Out and uh yeah, excellent, excellent, they focused. Yeah,

42:02 and now in your live show, obviously, you know you have a lot

42:07 of originals, but I assume do you also do some covers. We do

42:08 a few covers. Yeah, we actually, uh so we're we're doing like

42:13 a fun little like a club pub kind of show coming up next Friday and

42:17 Conquered at Pucci's. Oh okay, and we actually put a cover and we're

42:22 doing Dirty Laundry by Don Henley and oh, that's so weird, Brooks.

42:28 I was thinking reason for it. I was thinking about that song today for

42:35 Yeah, that's so weird. These weird coincidence has happened to me. I

42:37 was thinking about that song specifically for something because of something completely unrelated to music.

42:43 I was thinking about, uh, Progosian and Russia. His plane went

42:46 down yesterday, and I was thinking about that song, that line from Dirty

42:51 Laundry, It's interesting when people die, Yes, I was. I was

42:53 thinking about that today. That just popped it because I relate everything to music,

42:58 so of course that it's just so weird. Anyway, I'm sorry.

43:00 I didn't mean to derail you. I said, that's just so weird.

43:02 Though A lot of songs. You mentioned that one. I've always wanted to

43:07 do it, and uh, you know, our keyboard player Jeff just got

43:09 a refurbished almost mint new nineteen thirty seven, him and B three with Leslie

43:16 Nice, and I kept hearing it in my head and I was like,

43:20 oh my gosh, we have this now, like, yeah, we can

43:22 do it like that, dude. Yeah, and oh that's so cool.

43:27 I just I love it. I don't know. So yeah, so yeah,

43:30 we do a few covers, a lot of originals. Yeah, you

43:31 know, we do a good mix and a show like this, it will

43:35 be kind of like a sixty forty mix or so. But gotcha, gotcha?

43:38 Very nice? And uh, what's do you know what's happening after the

43:45 George Thorough Good tour? Do you know what I'm going to album that's gonna

43:51 be next time agenda? Yep? I think from what I hear, you

43:54 know there's gonna be some more show dates added on while I'm on tour,

44:00 some other projects and things, and probably maybe a few more George shows added

44:04 on. We just added I Believe and another show just last week onto the

44:07 tour. Oh excellent. Yeah, so we keep adding on. Why we're

44:10 there, so yeah, yeah, and and yeah, so if that push

44:17 us back the album, that's actually a good problem to have because you want

44:22 those you want those dates with George obviously. Yeah, well exactly, you

44:24 know, out on the road and performing. I love that, and then

44:29 you know, nothing, you know cooler than coming off the road and then

44:31 do an album. By the way, if you ever broken a string while

44:35 you're doing the solo thing in front of them, I never have you never,

44:39 never once? That's that's awesome. How do you avoid it? Do

44:43 you change? Because I've known guitar players who will literally every show they'll change

44:46 all the strings just to make sure. So I I'm very particular about my

44:52 guitars and I go through them with a fine tooth comb. Yeah, everything

44:57 before and yeah, so and I just you know, take you know,

45:00 good care of my things. I use quality stuff and and do the best.

45:04 But sometimes, you know, stuff happens. Yeah, you know.

45:07 Unfortunately it hasn't happened yet. Good, so good. Yeah, yeah,

45:13 I'll think of you. I'll be calling you. I don't I don't blame

45:16 you. I don't blame you. Very good, very good. And uh,

45:22 are you gonna do any do you have any plans to do anything sort

45:25 of out like the like the Brooks Brooks what did you call it? Brooks

45:30 that was that was a one time moment. If you were there, you

45:32 witnessed it for the one time in history. Yeah, I know, there's

45:37 a lot of work. There was a lot of work and you know,

45:38 to be somebody else and yeah, no doubt learn all those songs, the

45:43 whole group, and there was a lot of rehearsing, a lot of Yeah,

45:46 so it's a big production. Yeah. Yeah. And what about collaborations,

45:52 because you know you talked earlier about collaborating with what was your name,

45:54 Ruth? Yeah, because again you know, going back to the intern of

46:00 having different options for how you create music and or how you release music with

46:02 all this technology. So yeah, I mean you can really you can collaborate

46:07 with anybody anywhere in the world. Yeah, emailing tracks back and forth and

46:10 it's it's quite remarkable. Yep. So yeah, you know that that would

46:15 be great, and you know, you never know what will happen, you

46:17 know, especially with this tour. Yeah, you know what what collaboration might

46:22 come up to be on the next album, because it seems like so you've

46:24 you've had this great opportunity to play with with so many of your heroes.

46:30 But it must be I would imagine you've probably thought about wanting to record with

46:36 some of these people. So, you know, my my, my main

46:39 you know, everyone has a dream. Yeah, and you know, right

46:43 now, I'm very fortunate I've been able to set myself up to be able

46:46 to do what I'm about to do. And you know, it just was

46:49 hard work, dedication and sticking with it, you know. And it's a

46:52 lifestyle, and it's a type of job that most people don't understand, right

46:57 because you know, it's not your ordin here everything, right, it was

47:00 hard for some people to grasp. Yeah, you know, but my biggest

47:06 dream would be to record and do something with their Clapton with clapt At.

47:10 Yeah. And uh so you know, I definitely see that in the future.

47:15 Yeah, and that that's kind of my my big ticket, that's my

47:20 my my my bucket list. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no doubt.

47:23 Yeah. I always say, you know, because you were you were talking

47:27 about your collaboration with his daughter something about with the pandemic. Yeah, terrible

47:34 thing, but we have to find these silver linings where we can. And

47:37 uh, one thing that I always found was a silver lining is we're kind

47:40 of lucky in a way that it happened when it did, because if it

47:44 had happened twenty years earlier, or even ten years earlier, where we didn't

47:47 really have I mean, you know, ten years earlier, yeah, we

47:52 you know, we've had the technology, but people weren't necessarily as comfortable with

47:55 it, you know. And but you know, it happens in twenty twenty,

48:00 and you know, people are musicians are doing incredible things, not just

48:02 collaborating, you know, getting used to the idea of collaborating online with emailing

48:08 tracks back and forth and things like that, but but actually doing live performances

48:14 online with other musicians in other places. You know, we saw in fact,

48:17 we saw some some bands doing that who hadn't even played together actively in

48:22 a really long time, doing doing reunions online and playing some of their classic

48:28 songs. So we did. So that was that was pretty amazing, and

48:31 so so you know, we're lucky that it that had happened and when it

48:36 did, you know, in terms of timing, geez, I think if

48:39 if it had happened when I was growing up, that would have been awful.

48:43 Before we know, she's you know, so so fortunate that way.

48:50 Now is the and it's so the song you did with Ruth, is that

48:53 available online? Yeah, it's on Spotify, Apple Music, everywhere. It's

48:57 called Promises Promises. Okay, I'll check on her one of her dad's songs.

49:00 And it's funny because it's her favorite song that her dad does and it's

49:06 my favorite song. Yeah, And so I said, do you think he'll

49:08 be okay with it? And she's like, well, let me ask.

49:10 And I'm like, oh, geez, no pressure, you know, and

49:15 she's like, no, he's fine with it. He's fine with it.

49:16 And we recorded it and you know, she laid down her vocal parts over

49:22 over there and yeah. So yeah, it was just a great time and

49:27 being able to do that in her and I would video back and forth and

49:30 talk about the song and this and that and yeah, there's a little clip

49:34 if you follow on my Facebook, there's a little clip of her talking about

49:37 it. Another Yeah, oh, very cool, very cool. So when

49:42 does the Before we run out of time, I want to make sure people

49:44 know. So when does the tourist start? The tour starts October twentieth.

49:51 I believe you can go to Brookshong dot com and there's a tour poster there

49:55 with George and I on it, and oh yeah, what's the first date

50:00 on there? Matt so October twenty feet in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Excellent Palace

50:06 theater. Yes, well the Palace. I feel like that's such a common

50:10 name, the Palace theater. Yeah, try try when you have to tag

50:14 it on social media. Yea, that you're doing. How many different palace

50:19 theaters pop up? No doubt, no doubt. By the way, the

50:22 videos, I like the music videos that you do. Do you do you

50:25 have someone specific you work with on that or you see it all yourself?

50:29 This guy right here, no kidding. Wow, Yeah, they're very pro

50:31 they look great, thank you? Yeah? Absolutely? How many? How

50:37 many music videos do you do? I mean, do you have rather?

50:38 Oh geez, I don't know. You quite a few? Yeah, there's

50:43 there's there's a small like documentary thing on on YouTube about the band, yeah,

50:49 which was also recorded a whole live show. So that's a good five

50:52 five or six videos just that itself. Oh okay, yea. And locally

50:57 I see too. You're gonna be at on September one, You're gonna be

51:00 at Pucci. Yeah, that's gonna be fun. It's gonna be you know,

51:02 it's it's a fun little spot and conquered, you know, I grew

51:05 up and conquered. Yeah, and it's just gonna be fun. A bunch

51:07 of people, friends and fans and family and the whole band's going to be

51:13 there and we're just we're gonna rock out and we're gonna have a great time.

51:15 Where's the first place you played? Do you remember the first place you

51:19 ever played live? Yeah, Franklin Opera House. No kidding, that's not

51:24 a bad start. Actually, that's a that's a decent sized place. Yeah,

51:29 when I lived in Manchester. Yeah, I see. I thought you

51:30 were gonna say, somewhere and conquered, like like maybe Perucci. No,

51:35 no, no, I didn't. I didn't even play Panucci's until just a

51:38 few years back, I think, really before the pandemic. Yeah, I

51:42 brought I did a show there with Boyd Tinsley, the violin play for Dave

51:45 Matthews bands. Yes, yeah, so him and I became good friends,

51:49 and you know, he brought me out to a bunch of Dave shows and

51:51 him and I did some tours together before the pandemic, and uh, we

51:54 actually did a show at Panucci's. Oh no kidding and h wow. Yeah

51:59 so that was fun. So yeah, yeah, but Franklin Oprouse was the

52:02 first, I believe. So, you know, I did a couple of

52:06 small things, like when I was younger, in my early twenties, I

52:08 lived here in Manchester and I used to go to all the different blues open

52:13 jams, and that's kind of how I got my feet wet of playing with

52:15 other people. Yeah, and then that and while I was doing that,

52:19 that's when I met BB King at Singer Park, gotcha, And then that's

52:22 where it all started. Do you recommend that? Because one other thing I

52:28 did want to ask you is, you know, like a kid who's maybe

52:30 just starting out and they're really into they really want to learn to play blues,

52:34 blues rock and so forth. Uh should is that something they should do?

52:38 To go to blues jams and just try try to play with different people

52:42 on different days. And definitely, for sure I recommend that more than sitting

52:45 at home playing along to a YouTube video. Really yeah, get out there

52:49 and play with other people. You know that that if you want to perform

52:52 live, Yeah, it's going to be your best practice. Yeah yeah,

52:57 interesting, Okay, did you take lessons or you self taught? My grandfather

53:01 taught me a bit when I was younger, and then I kind of took

53:04 it from there on my own. Okay, gotcha, gotcha. I did

53:07 a lot of when I was growing up, a lot of sitting listening to

53:12 BB King and Eric Clapton, And luckily, you know, I played trumpet

53:15 for a long time, and I know how to read music and stuff like

53:17 that, so I was able to apply my knowledge of that and you know,

53:22 carry it over to the guitar. Oh okay, so you started on

53:25 trumpet? Yeah, oh interesting. Do you still play it? I do?

53:29 I do. I was actually a fun little fact that many people don't

53:32 know is I was awarded by the Marines the Suffer for Della's Solo Artists for

53:39 playing trumpet. Oh no kidding, Yeah, I'll be damned. Oh that's

53:43 cool. You ever play alive? Very rare? Probably not? Yeah?

53:49 Yeah, your hands full with the guitar, Yeah yeah, no, it

53:52 makes sense at home, you know, play some Miles Davis or no kidding

53:54 little tunes? Yeah. Yeah. Oh that's cool, very cool, very cool.