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00:00it's so funny you mentioned that you guys uh wanted to play originals and stuff and one of
00:03your biggest songs your career was a cover song it happened by a total accident we just thought
00:08it was just going to be on the album and whatever but they're jumping around the control room all
00:13excited going this is it rock metal frog and everything in between welcome to this episode
00:21of talking rock with meltdown don't forget to follow the audio only talking rock podcast on
00:26all podcast platforms and now it's time for today's conversation here's meltdown there he is the great
00:33white shark mark kendall how are you my friend doing good man it's uh great to see you first of all um
00:39just give us a quick health update seems like things are going really oh yeah um well you know
00:49when i first was diagnosed i you know i had irregular teeth you know it was uh actual blood
00:58at first so i went to an emergency i was like holy crap what's this what's going on here
01:03and the guy told me um after he figured everything out he said it's one of the worst urinary tract
01:10infections ever and just gave me a prescription for uh v-pec yeah so i took it you know over the
01:20five days or whatever and it went away but then two weeks later it was wasn't blood but it was
01:25irregular kind of like not the right color not one i was familiar with so i went to urgent care
01:32and she said sometimes this can stem from bladder cancer so i went to my doctor and he says uh
01:39he goes we're gonna have to do like the monster probe on there you know do the ultrasound and
01:47tt scans and all that kind of stuff uh to find out what's going on here so when they did the ultrasound
01:54they i knew they were hanging in my right kidney for a long time so i figured something's wrong there
02:00and then uh found out a couple days later i had cancer in there and it was 13 centimeters so
02:08i didn't really know what was going on yet so i didn't want to like go public and make a big deal
02:13and be distracted by people who love me you know so i waited until i got more information i called the
02:20doctor friend of mine in chicago who's a neurologist but i i wondered if he knew anybody in california that
02:29you know was a kidney guy or you know so he did he put me on this guy at ucla called dr shook
02:36and he's done thousands of kidney surgeries knows all about kidney cancer just the monster guy right
02:44so hooked up with him and they put me on something called immunotherapy and one of the guys on his team
02:53which i have six doctors now uh invented immunotherapy which every three weeks you get an infusion of a
03:02drug called catruda and then you take these pills every day called venvima and it does something with
03:10your immune system attacks the cancer and all this so every few weeks i uh i don't know exactly how long
03:18but they did their first scan and it shrunk to 11 centimeters and then the next one it went to eight
03:25and the last one i just had it went to five centimeters and it's isolated in my kidney so
03:31and i i pulled it up on the internet i want to know how much five centimeters i didn't want to know how
03:37much 13 was that sounded too big so but i seen and it's like look like an inch you know this much
03:44yeah but just the fact that it's shrinking it's in one spot you know i start to feel better you know
03:53you get in your head a little bit like am i dying right what's going on here and um but so now that
04:00it's real small and it's getting smaller and everything i'm starting to feel you know pretty
04:05good so when i think when i was at eight that's you know shrunk twice so that i got on the internet
04:12and told the fans you know hey you know i got this thing but don't worry i got any hands you know
04:18because the doctor told me the type and what i have this isn't like colon cancer when it spreads
04:24all over the body and you got a chance it's it's a deal that can it's manageable he told me what i
04:31have is manageable people have had this like up to 20 years you know so you just keep fighting it
04:37it's kind of a pain in the ass you got to go to the doctor every three weeks or whatever but you
04:42know you get to live you know so well no good pretty much the story yeah every time i i text you
04:49and you text me back it's getting better it just you know it's uh it's a great feeling so that's
04:54awesome uh good yeah uh so let let's uh let's switch gears here and talk about this uh this this
05:00book that you uh penned is this book completely finished no we're 14 chapters in um i was trying
05:09to think of a title of it and i ended up i'm calling it soul of a man because i'm pretty much
05:16burying my soul on this thing i'm going all the way back to childhood telling every story you can
05:22imagine um you know and with the guitar in there what happened was this canadian company approached me
05:30about doing a book and i started writing it on my own and they said there's too many stories
05:39you know we just want you to talk about the guitar i'm going like i me being a fan myself i like to hear
05:50what billy gibbons is doing on the weekends you know part time you know when he's not on stage you
05:55know what i mean so i would figure that fans would want to get to know me better and and so i i didn't
06:04do it you know i just stopped it right there i go i really don't want to do that type of book i want
06:09to you know it to be maybe called an autobiography but it's really going to be a biography because i'm
06:15i'm letting the cat out of the bag here you're going to hear you know you're going to get to know
06:20mark hindle here so out of the blue some other guy approaches me his name's uh jeffrey mangis
06:30and he's written 38 books he just finished al d miola's book and all this he approaches me so this
06:37is like not by design this is like woo man twilight zone so i go man yeah i'm really into it so we've
06:45been working for about two and a half months maybe three months and uh we just get together
06:52and i'm just going through the years you know and uh the timeline's right you know we're going album
07:00to album telling stories lacing in stories in between and you know i'm trying not to make it a real
07:09dirt book but you know i'm telling the truth so some feelings could get hurt you know i don't know
07:16you know but i'm not going to hold back anything i'm just going to be truthful about everything
07:21and just call it the way i've seen it you know i can't i can't imagine writing a book about my life
07:28because i couldn't fathom all the um all the uh the stories and the emotions that would uh it would
07:34stir up you probably felt that a lot huh a lot of emotion and also jeff asked me a lot of questions
07:41which brings up even more memories you know and uh you know so you know the back and forth and it's
07:50kind of a good way to write a book with a ghostwriter because for one thing i'm no writer you know so
07:56he's writing it like a writer would but get my story told um so yeah it's it's interesting a lot of
08:07things are coming up uh childhood stuff and god man it's gonna be a trip to see my whole life laid out
08:16in a book man but he's getting it out everywhere like um in all the formats you know the kindle the
08:23e-book the you know the paperback whatever just like every way you can get it yeah sometimes i
08:32think i've run out of stories and i'll go out with some of my friends bring up anything and it's like
08:36oh yeah that's right i got this story you know i mean like for example the first time i met you guys
08:41was was in buffalo and you guys were playing a racetrack i don't even remember that it was a
08:45it was a um a horse racing track and they actually pulled a stage up in front of the grandstand you guys
08:51play and then they pulled the stage out he wanted people to hang there and bet on the horses and i
08:54remember uh jack actually took my harley davison for a rider on the horse track a few times oh that's
09:01funny yeah he used to ride hard at least and stuff yeah yeah yeah that's funny i mean yeah we played
09:07some of those uh over the years you know there was one there was like a motorcycle jumper and you know
09:13you got the uh i don't know if they call that uh what do they call those rachers that you know
09:19they're in the back and the wheel uh what is that called like the dirt track racers or something
09:25or no no i mean the horse races uh with the buggies oh yeah yeah i don't know what i don't
09:31know what that's called yeah yeah yeah yeah well they had that and stuff you know i'm sure we're
09:36placing bets and yeah and they try to do everything they can to try to get people to go to the horse
09:41races i know one of the horse tracks here just uh closed down uh because you know it's it's not
09:46really a young person's thing but uh anyways getting back to this book so uh how much how
09:51much stuff is in there i mean you must have brought up a lot of uh uh stories about jacket about members
09:55of the band and everything oh oh yeah no question i mean you know when i i met jack because uh a
10:03friend of mine i was 20 years old i'm in this band you know we were playing first we were playing
10:09covers and then we were playing like all originals playing in hollywood and stuff but the singer was
10:14like 28 which is really old back then because we were like 19 20 you know and he couldn't quite hit
10:21the you know the foreigner type note you know he kind of struggled and this guy told me about jack
10:28russell said he's seen him in the backyard he goes this kid's only 16 but he don't sound 16
10:34you know he and he's singing the scorpions he can sing anything so i go give me his number and i
10:40called them and uh he came and auditioned for my band and he goes you know i want to do all originals
10:46i go so do why um and so we decided he said if you get rid of the fat guy and the guy with the
10:54mustache i'll join your band i go that only leaves me bro he goes yeah that's what i mean let's go make
11:00our own band so that's what we did and then just went on you know for a few years he got in some
11:06trouble which took him out of the game for a while but yeah it there's a lot to tell you know
11:12we were connected at the hip you know our whole the whole career you know he got in a little trouble
11:18with his addiction but i never took that personal um but yeah he's uh just it's just you know we came
11:27from nothing i mean it's funny you know it's this idea like we're in the garage and your parents come
11:33out and say it and you tone it down please just tone it down you know we came from there you know
11:40what i'm saying so for us to you know bring it to where it got it's just you know it's kind of a
11:46blessing it's so funny you mentioned that you guys uh wanted to play originals and stuff and and you
11:51know one of one of your biggest songs your career was a cover song which is funny yeah and and the other
11:57thing is it happened by a total accident uh we were actually done with that record and the manager
12:03came to us with that song and said you guys should do this one thing he loved the lyrics in it and the
12:10other thing we had an album called once bitten and the follow-up was called twice shy right and you
12:15know how ironic it and uh plus we had a couple of uh run-ins with with ian hunter just quite by accident like
12:24our first tour of judith priest we used ian hunter's drum riser in his backyard in new york uh our
12:32sound man knew the guy and he wasn't doing anything had a drum riser in his backyard so we went by and
12:38picked it up for the judith priest tour and used it and then in 1988 he was on our tour bus for some
12:45reason i can't remember why uh so it's just funny we did that song plus had we you know needed a song
12:53and we're hunting for a cover we would have got a hit and like made it our own you know what i mean
12:59we wouldn't find a non-hit and try to make it one you get me so uh it was just the lyrics it was all
13:07about being on the road and all this stuff and never figured to be a single we just thought it was just
13:12going to be on the album and and whatever but the record company kind of forced it they said that that's
13:19it they're jumping around the control room and all excited going this is it this song you know
13:25that's the one or whatever so but you know it's it's funny because that song when you guys recorded
13:29it it wasn't really that old i mean it was over it was over 10 years old maybe 13 or something like
13:34that but uh but like you said and then i think i talked about this on the radio the other day if
13:38there was a cover song that was perfect for a band it was that one right there just because the ones
13:43bitten twice shot you know it's like the whole kind of fit perfectly yeah it fit perfect you know
13:48and uh we thought it was a good song you know we thought we could put our own spin on it and
13:53it would be fine um but you know as far as it taking on a life of its own and all that of course
14:00you'd never figure do what it did but um yeah i mean we had a big hit with rock me but it didn't
14:07go as high on the charts as that one rock me went to number nine and that went to five you know you're
14:13up there with like michael jackson you know so it's pretty crazy yeah that's great it is nuts um
14:20you know i was thinking about this before we uh started talking i walked in the radio station here
14:24and there was a a newer metallica song but you know uh brett's been in the band now for a while i
14:29mean would you guys ever think of putting out some some new stuff or you guys just kind of content
14:33yeah hits no we want to put out some new stuff i've we've been going in the studio me and just
14:39me and brett um at a friend of mine tracy g used to be in dio he's kind of a we've been friends since
14:46we were teenagers so i played on one of his records he's done like 28 records in his studio it's just a
14:52home one but you know it's a pretty nice studio and uh i played on one of his records so it goes hey man
14:59if you ever have any ideas go ahead and come over you know lay it down so i eventually do that
15:06and i laid down an entire song he just thought i was going to do a couple riffs you know he goes
15:11you're doing whole songs oh yeah bro that's the way i roll you know so i had i flew brett down and uh
15:18we probably got seven songs on tape uh because i like to show it to the band like that instead of a raw
15:25riff you know you show somebody a raw riff on guitar and they don't hear everything that's
15:29between your ears you know what i mean so i used to do that years ago even um i remember congo square
15:36and a couple other songs i went into 24 track studio laid it down played the bass guitar kind of hummed the
15:43melody and then go here's my song you know so they don't go oh that just sounds like ac dc or whatever
15:50you know what i mean they can get a picture at least a little bit and and then maybe because if
15:55i felt strong about it i i didn't want them to shoot it down so quickly so i would i would give
16:02them a little more to listen to so they wouldn't do that and and uh is is like what when working with
16:09jack what's a what's a different like with working with uh with brett i mean obviously if you say you
16:13only got the seven songs did jack write most of the lyrics you write the music or how did how did that work
16:18in the beginning i wrote all the music um and i would hum the melody to jack because he he wasn't
16:27like i couldn't just hand him music and have him come back with a song you know we both of us had
16:33our weaknesses and strength you know what i mean his strength was his voice his voice is like incredible
16:39right so i would you know he might have a little trouble getting started but i would
16:45feed him the melody what i'm hearing in the song because that's the way i write i'm kind of making
16:51sure you can put something good here and uh and then once he got started then he was just like
16:58you know coming up with all these ideas and he'd sing it better he might change a few things you know
17:04but at least he's in it he gets it you know i mean so that's the way we worked in the beginning
17:10and then when ellen niven got involved our manager um you know jack's lyrics sometimes weren't the
17:18greatest you know and uh alan would suggest changes in the lyrics and and eventually he was actually
17:27writing like almost whole songs like yeah i saw he had a lot of writing credits on the second record
17:32yeah yeah so he he started getting really involved with that but we did it because you know we kind of
17:38throw our eagles aside and just what can we do to make this song the best it can be type deal you
17:43know instead of you know we want this thing to grow up and go to college you know what i mean
17:49we want it we want this thing to make it right so so if it's somebody we don't care whose idea it is
17:55if it's going to make it better and uh alan wrote real good lyrics and you know and then but he got jack
18:02involved also so it wasn't like he just said here's the song um you know so what was it the way we
18:10worked as a group effort it became a group effort you know right what about working with brett like
18:15is he bringing up lyrics is he writing stuff yeah he's really got a good song sense i'm i'm really
18:21surprised the young man he is he's only 28 years old but he's kind of an old soul in a way or something
18:27man and uh you know i get he's saying so many cover songs over his years you know he's been a
18:33cover band and his he has a band that you know they write songs and stuff and you know he hears he
18:41hears what i'm doing and and comes up with some pretty good stuff even lyrically it's uh decent
18:48so with the with the book you said you're you're 14 chapters down how many more chapters do you think
18:52you got to go and like are you are you writing it like in chronological order and like whereabouts
18:56are you at right now yeah um we're about in early 2000 so um oh you got a ways to go we're well over
19:06halfway though i'm not well over but we're we're before three quarters of the way so i figure about
19:13maybe 10 more sessions and we're trying to do two a week now so it's going to be done pretty quickly
19:20and he's shopping it around he has his own publishing company but he he's looking for
19:25something a little bit bigger and uh so he's shopping it you know pitching it to people and
19:31stuff like that so we'll see what happens with that but regardless it'll be released that you know
19:37on on in his publishing company if we don't find something else yeah perhaps maybe this summer or
19:43something or oh yeah but probably around may we're looking out oh okay that early yeah that soon yeah
19:49wow yeah and it's it's cool to have somebody to help you write it you know like i said
19:54yeah you said it's like you know you start talking about things and just like you know ideas come up
19:59give me give me an example of some things that you talked about that maybe you'd forgotten about that
20:03might be in the book um well one was uh when i was 10 years old um my dad got me an amp and guitar
20:12for christmas this was after i played an acoustic guitar for a whole year and uh i was one day well
20:20i got together with this other guitar player and i had four songs i learned uh gloria pipeline wipeout
20:28and secret agent man and so i got together this other guitar player who had a fender mustang and a
20:34fender twin reverb and we put those songs together and we played for the fourth grade class right
20:39but it was just him and i and the fifth graders came in so we had this big crowd and they're like
20:45cheering after every song so you know it's pretty fun and uh so one day i was playing with my baseball
20:53cards this this is a story that came up and i was hearing a drummer like jamming over next to this
20:59lady's house called carol and so after hearing that for like three days i asked my mom if we could go
21:07over there and see if that guy would jam with me and kurt and you know because we never jam with a real
21:12drummer and uh so so she took me over there and explained this is my son mark the guy answered the
21:20door actually who was playing the drums he's probably 20 years old and he he said holy cow i thought you
21:28were here to complain about the noise right and uh i never forget that's exactly what he said and then
21:34and she asked if you ever had any free time would you mind playing with my son and his friends they
21:41they play guitar and he goes no problem and so the following saturday we went and i set my amp up by
21:48this it was in his garage by this big tire on one side and kurt was on by this work bench on the other
21:55side and he had this awesome set of white drums and so we're getting ready to start and i'm like hey you
22:02know gloria and he goes of course i do and he just counted in one two three four batten and then you
22:10know we're playing with a real drummer it was like so insane yeah so that came up and the next day i had
22:17a baseball game and i couldn't wait to tell my team right that i that i played with a real drummer
22:23and my dad was a manager and my cousin was our coach and i hit a home run it was the first one i ever
22:30hit and it was a grand slam wow and like i'm thinking back to you know like i wonder if it was
22:37just i had extra energy from playing with that drummer i was so excited you know what i mean
22:43so that was just one little story that came out and i'm sure that you talked about um you know early
22:48tours and maybe uh you know maybe tour with some of your rock star heroes and maybe some of the some
22:53of the rock stars that you met along the way right absolutely yeah um all kinds of stuff because i met
23:00most of them and the superstars were always really soulful down to earth people yeah the ones that
23:09kind of i guess think they should be one of those guys they might be a little short with you and like
23:16you know yeah yeah yeah or yeah that's uh i know exactly what you're talking about yeah the people that
23:23yeah the people that weren't great with you weren't great well yeah that's what i mean it's like
23:29that's when you might hear an ego or two you show up with the guys that are already there they're
23:36just there you know and they're just regular folks yeah but the ones that think they should be those
23:42guys those are the ones that you might hear something now now people that kind of don't know
23:48you're looking from the from the outside they might think that that you would you'd say some bad
23:53things about jack russell you've never said anything bad about uh jack russell to me and now you're
23:58coming up as part of the book where you know you probably have to talk about him and his passing
24:02and stuff like that i mean it's got to be something you're probably not looking forward to i'd imagine
24:07right no well yeah it's a little bit tough because um we're best friends and you know like i said
24:15connected at the hip our whole career never got in an argument maybe two arguments our whole life
24:20right you know um mostly over a song or something uh so yeah it was just his demons uh kind of
24:31separated us right you know he he kind of declined physically and you know couldn't really perform
24:38and it was it was just tough to deal with you know um so it was never personal it was never it
24:46was just it's really difficult you know so yeah like you said it was tough to talk about
24:51because i work with addicts you know almost practically daily so when someone doesn't quite
24:57make it it's it's tough but i like i said i don't take it personally and i used to um not with jack so
25:04much but with people i work with if they fall and and didn't pick themselves back up it was kind of
25:11hard on me you know i hated to see it but um you've been sober for 17 years yeah so that goes back to
25:192009 when when did when did the fallout between you and jack what what year was that do you recall
25:26um well it kind of started uh probably i got sober in 2008 and i would say around 2010
25:35you know he got to where he couldn't stand anymore yeah and you know singing in stools and all that
25:41so it was around 2010 when um you know the demons were in full force and you know you know he was uh
25:50drugging on a daily basis so we just pretty much we all we said was just go get well you know and come
25:59back as the badass tattooed uh you know sleeved badass rocker dude you know and instead of doing
26:08that he he went and found guys that would deal with him and his shape you know yeah and it was easy to
26:15find you know jack russell i mean anybody's gonna play with him right yeah and you're you're trying
26:21to better your life and you can't be surrounded by people that aren't on the on the same kind of
26:26trajectory i suppose it's just hard to be around it you know uh we're all sober and and you got
26:36one kind of a liability in a way and and and you feel bad for him and it's just really it's just
26:44such a tough situation and that's why we said go get well man it's like you're in the band no matter
26:50what so you know and he just went and decided to do something different you know yeah so we still
26:57wish them the best and all that you know well i'll tell you what um i'm looking forward to reading
27:01the book and digging into it maybe you've seen you guys here or there uh somewhere this summer um
27:06yeah please thank your wife for me we finally got the right jacket that i i got oh did you yeah oh
27:12good i was just talking to her about that i go wonder if they turn the other one in and go
27:17no no what happened was for people that don't know your wife was walking around the uh the the the of
27:22the venue where you guys played last summer in this jacket and said rock and roll i'm like that is
27:26the coolest jacket my wife i love that and so they sent it to me mail and it got to me and i
27:33didn't open it up because i wanted to give it to her for christmas she opens it up and it says love
27:37is all you need or come on and so then we went we were going to send it back my my stepdaughter
27:43who actually got it for me and she was going to send it back but the company and i wish i could give
27:47them a plug i can't recall but the company was so cool they just said yeah keep that jacket we'll
27:51send you the right one so we got the right yeah about a week ago and um and my wife loves it so
27:57yeah so thank you i like it because it's just kind of thrown on there it's not any glitchy logo or
28:04anything it just says rock and roll you know no it was so cool it's like it i'm like man my wife
28:11would love one of those things plus if a chick's wearing it it's even better you know it's not like
28:17a guy you know wearing it like he's trying to be cool and it's probably not quite cool or something
28:22you know but a chick wearing it it's just like totally awesome well that is cool but i'll tell
28:27you what tom keifer has a jacket similar to that it's not like the same one but you got to watch
28:31it because i love tom keifer oh oh okay that's pretty cool but uh anyways mark thank you so much
28:37for your time man it's always great to talk with you and i'm really glad that your health is going in
28:42the right direction man we need thank you we need you out there on tour out playing all these great songs for
28:46us uh for for many years to come thanks thanks melton i appreciate it man thanks for having me
28:53check out talking rock with meltdown on all podcast platforms and wrif.com
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