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00:00Joe Perry at one camp said to a camper, he says, what do you do for a living?
00:03The guy says, I'm an accountant and on weekends I play guitar in my band.
00:07And he said to the guy, he says, you're full of crap.
00:09He says, you're a guitarist first.
00:10You do that accounting BS to buy guitars.
00:13Rock, metal, frog, and everything in between.
00:17Welcome to this episode of Talkin' Rock with Meltdown.
00:21Don't forget to follow the audio-only Talkin' Rock podcast on all podcast platforms.
00:25And now, it's time for today's conversation.
00:29Here's Meltdown.
00:30David, great to see you, man.
00:32Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp.
00:33This is something that's been going on for three decades.
00:36And I mean, you've got stories to tell.
00:37But first of all, before we started here, you're like, you love the riff.
00:41So this I got to hear.
00:42So go ahead.
00:44Okay, I love the riff because, you know, you've kept classic rock going for all these years.
00:50And I can't tell you how many stations that your listeners should know have gone away from classic rock and
00:57going away from DJs.
00:58But you've kept that, the authentic rock and roll, rock and roll.
01:03Now, years ago, The Who was opening a tour in Detroit.
01:09And boy, my mind's going.
01:11I can't remember what's name.
01:12But your general manager is a young lady who was a friend of mine for years.
01:17I don't know if she's still there.
01:20But I called her up.
01:22And because Roger called me.
01:24Roger Dolce calls me up and says, listen, we're doing our opening, our first show in Detroit.
01:28Can you find out what's the best charity that we could give money to from our show?
01:35So, you know, I said, let me call.
01:38And I called the station.
01:41And I can't.
01:42I don't know her name.
01:43We'll think of it.
01:44But anyway, she said, if the Who, you know, give the food, the homeless shelter can really use money.
01:52And I went to Roger and said, this is the charity you should use, the homeless shelter.
01:56And The Who donated a million dollars to that.
02:01And just like one call, one call to the radio station.
02:05What's the best charity?
02:06And then Roger saying, I want to give money to our first concert.
02:10And, you know, two incredible.
02:13So I get excited.
02:15I'm sorry.
02:15When that thing happens, that doesn't happen every day that you get a call from a rock star saying, we
02:20want to give all our money away.
02:21Our first show.
02:22So and so anyways, Meltdown, it's good to be here.
02:25Yeah, great story, man.
02:27You know, now if you were to call, you could say you could give it to the Meltdown charity.
02:33But anyways, no, Roger is going to be part of one of your upcoming camps coming up April 23rd through
02:37the 26th.
02:38Steve Morris, of course, also in April, Tommy Lee and Detroiter John 5.
02:45Well, it's exciting.
02:47You know, it's my 30th anniversary.
02:49I'm pulling out the biggest and the best.
02:51So this next weekend, I got Stuart Copeland.
02:54We're going to celebrate our 30th year.
02:56And then Roger Daltry.
02:57I mean, he's the reason I'm still doing rock and roll fantasy camp.
03:01He did his first camp for me, you know, years ago when I first started.
03:06I went to Roger and I flew to England.
03:09And I said, Roger, you know, I would love you to do my camp.
03:12And he says to me, you're camp.
03:14You should do a camp camp.
03:15Do a camp camp.
03:16Well, the word camp in England is different than the word camp where I went to summer camp here.
03:23And he says, you know, you should do the camp with the Thompson Twins and the village people because, you
03:26know, camp is a little different in England.
03:28And I said, no, no, no.
03:30This is what it's about.
03:31Tell me if there's so if you had a fan, if you had a musician that you could meet and
03:35you could jam with it.
03:36But who would it be?
03:38He said, he turns to me, says, Levon Helm of the band.
03:41You introduce me to Levon Helm of the band.
03:43I'll fly anywhere.
03:44Then I turned to him and I said, you know, Levon and I are good friends.
03:47He just did my Ringo tour.
03:49And I worked with him.
03:50I said, you know, he's very short on money.
03:53I know why I came up with that.
03:54It just always mind boggled me that these musicians have had such careers and they haven't been able to manage
04:00their money.
04:01And Roger turns to me and says, whatever you're going to give me, give it to him.
04:04I want to meet him.
04:06And I called Levon up and I said, Levon, you know, would you come and meet Roger Dolce?
04:11He'll do my camp.
04:12David, I'll be there for you.
04:13I'll be there for you.
04:14And he came down to meet Roger.
04:17And what's ironic is years later when I was managing him, I get a call from Eric Clapton saying I'm
04:24inducting the band and I would love to have Levon Helm come.
04:29And Levon said, I'm not going there to Robert Robinson.
04:32I'm not going to be there.
04:34So he came to camp and he showed up to camp.
04:37They didn't do a camp for me.
04:39But that's how I, you know, that's how I got Roger Dolce.
04:42And once I got Roger, the camp just took it, you know, to the next level.
04:47Yeah.
04:47I was going to say, once it starts, you know, one of my friends, they do this Comic-Con here.
04:50And once word gets around that it's a, it's a decent Comic-Con and he makes it make a few
04:55bucks.
04:55People start, you know, they, it makes it easier to get guests.
04:58And I suppose same thing.
05:00Yeah.
05:00It makes it easy to get guests.
05:01For me, it's not the money.
05:03For me, it's the experience.
05:04I think that what attracts these rock stars to camp, the big names, is they, it reminds
05:11them what it was like when they first started.
05:13It also, it's, Jeff Beck said to me, it was my opportunity to get people back, a musician.
05:18Where am I going to go?
05:19I'm going to hang out with a fan.
05:20I'd rather hang out with a guitar player and jam with them and give them, teach them licks.
05:23And, you know, Gene Simmons said to me, for me, it was about, I wish they had this 50 years
05:30ago.
05:32Last month, a few months ago, I did Alice Cooper and, you know, he's incredible.
05:37He loves the fan and he loves to see these musicians because they're fellow musicians.
05:43So, you know, I think that's really what it is for the musicians.
05:46And I've been very fortunate for 30 years to get them.
05:49No, you know, it's funny because not only is it, you know, is it something funny?
05:53You're great memories, but the fulfillment factor has to be off the charts to watch some
05:57of these people sit in the same room with their idols and play in front of them, play with
06:01them, get advice from mine.
06:03It's got to be crazy.
06:04You know, one of my favorite scenes, if you saw, if you saw the movie Rock Camp, it's on
06:08Amazon Prime.
06:09So when you see that Dave Mustaine walking into a room now, you know, I could have changed
06:15that music to like George music.
06:18Dave Mustaine's walking into a room.
06:20That's intimidating.
06:21It's intimidating and him teaching and, you know, and him being so sincere and teaching
06:26people the music and, and, and, and, you know, the chords.
06:29And so one of my favorite scenes in the movie, but you know, yeah, it is intimidating, but
06:35in the end, I think for the campers, you know, once, if they can get through that, and that's
06:41our biggest problem.
06:42Let me, let me be right on.
06:44It's not that people don't have money.
06:46It's the same price as going on a cruise.
06:47I mean, you know what it is?
06:49It's a fear factor.
06:50I'm scared.
06:51Um, you know, I'm going to jam with these people and I might not be as good.
06:55I'm successful and I might not be as good, but the ones who get through that fear, they
07:00keep coming back over 50% of our campers return.
07:03And the other 50% that eventually come back and I get it.
07:05Now, let me tell you, I had a meltdown when I was, when I was invited to go to Michael
07:11Jordan's fantasy camp.
07:12So I love, I love basketball and thank God your Pistons are doing well with my Celtics
07:17beat you the other night.
07:18Anyways, uh, you know, I could have gone to Michael Jordan fantasy camp and I said to
07:24my friend, thank you for inviting me.
07:25I'm not going, I'm not going to play, try to play one-on-one with Michael Jordan and
07:29look like an idiot.
07:30And then you got all the campers coming there.
07:33They're really strict about it and they're going to put me on their team.
07:35And I, you know, so I get it that people are scared, it's, but you shouldn't be, because
07:41once you go through this experience, you'll realize it's not about competition.
07:45It's not about winning.
07:46It's not about, it's not a competitive situation.
07:49You can be a beginner guitarist.
07:51It's what it's about is if you play your instrument with someone better than you, you're going to
07:56get better.
07:57And, and I think Tony Robbins said, if you immerse yourself in this experience for four
08:02days, nonstop, it's going to give you that passion.
08:05You're going to keep on playing and to see where these musicians have gone after the camps
08:11where they've joined tribute bands, they write songs, they, they, they, they go on the road
08:16and, and, and, you know, they meet each other up and they play and they open the shows.
08:20And I've seen the growth of the musicians and I don't promise I, you know, 30 years I'm
08:25doing this.
08:25I will never promise anyone your career is going to be made.
08:29You can make a career because it's all BS, but I've seen it.
08:32I've seen the, the, the, the, the drummer in Eagles from death metal.
08:36She used to, cause she, you know, she, Louis Bluestone, she came to camp.
08:41Her brother was a guitar player.
08:42She came as a kid and she was just sitting and always watching her brother.
08:45And then Rudy Sarzo sells her.
08:48Why don't you come into my band room here and play a little, what do you want to play?
08:52She's just playing the drums and then he starts teaching her and teaching her and showing
08:56how the bass player and the drummer work together.
08:58She enrolls in Berkeley school of music.
09:00She has Rudy Sarzo.
09:03It's like a mentor.
09:04And next thing you know, she's the drummer in Eagles of death metal.
09:07I mean, I've seen so many of these young musicians who've come to camp.
09:13I went to see the, the bass player of Metallica.
09:16His son has a band.
09:17I went to meet him and I walk into the dressing room and I was trying to get them to
09:22come to
09:22camp and the drummer comes to me and says, Mr.
09:24Fisher, I came to your camp 10 years ago.
09:27Look at me now.
09:28So it's different when we were growing up, when we were growing up, um, our parents didn't
09:33encourage us to be in a band.
09:34My brother's a drummer.
09:35My parents, the last thing they said, you're, you're going to accounting school.
09:39You're, you're, you're going to be an accountant.
09:40You're not going to play a drummer.
09:42And he is a drummer, you know, cause that's his life.
09:46And Joe Perry at one camp said, um, he said a line to a camp.
09:50He says, what do you do for a living?
09:51The guy says, I'm an accountant.
09:53And on weekends I play guitar in my band.
09:56And he said, the guy says, you're full of crap.
09:58He says, you're a guitarist first.
09:59You do that accounting BS to buy guitars.
10:02So, you know, the truth comes.
10:05No, that's great.
10:06You know, it's funny.
10:07Cause I never learned to play an instrument.
10:08And that's one of the questions I get all the time.
10:10Me neither.
10:10Yeah.
10:10Me neither.
10:11Yeah.
10:11And you know, it's like, uh, I saw Ted Nugent back in September.
10:14So he texted me.
10:15He's like, how, what'd you think of the show?
10:16I go, you're the reason I don't play guitar.
10:18Because if I can't manhandle a guitar like you, I don't even want to bother.
10:22Uh, but that being said, I, I was talking to Derek St. Holmes just today.
10:26I talked to Bumblefoot.
10:28I talked to David Ellison and they all said the same thing.
10:31First of all, they all love you.
10:32And second of all, they all wanted me to ask you about this, uh, this, this documentary
10:36that you're working on with these Israeli musicians.
10:40Wow.
10:40Oh, okay.
10:41Well, okay.
10:42So this is, someone came up with me after last week, I showed it in New York and they
10:47said to me, David, a schoolmate of mine, he said that the reason you did rock and roll
10:51dance again for 30 years is this documentary.
10:55Um, it's incredible.
10:56And I have to thank them all for participating.
10:59I have following October 7th, the movie's called the bridge following October 7th.
11:04I went to Israel and to visit my son and a dear, dear friend of mine arranged for me
11:10to get a private tour of the devastation that happened October 7th.
11:13Um, I'm a Holocaust survivor's kid.
11:16My, my dad survived the Auschwitz and Boston wall concentration camp.
11:20So I went down there and the mayor of the town gave me a, uh, tour of, uh, uh, keep
11:26what's buried the Nova Nova's festival, uh, keep what's my game.
11:31And I go around to these places and after three hours, she turns to me and she said,
11:35David, I have to leave.
11:37I said, well, where are you going?
11:38So I'm going to a funeral of one of the three hostages that was killed by friendly fire.
11:43I said, which one?
11:44She said, the one, his name is Yotam Hayim.
11:46And he was a metal drummer.
11:48He loved the drums and his brother's a drummer.
11:51His father's a drummer.
11:52I show up to the funeral.
11:53I said, I'm going to that funeral.
11:55I go to the funeral, 3,500 people there.
11:57And it opens up with his brother, set up his drum set right in front of the grave.
12:02And he played the drums for 20 minutes solo.
12:05And then he took the sticks and threw them in the grave.
12:08And I said to myself, if I could bring that drummer to rock and roll fantasy camp, I wish
12:14I could bring him, but his brother, I'll change his life.
12:17I mean, they're going through such devastation.
12:19I go back that night.
12:20I turned to my friend, Sam.
12:21I said, Sam, I want to bring 10 Israelis to my rock camp, who were victims of October 7th.
12:30And they've got to be rockers.
12:33They've got to be, I don't want Israeli folk singers against them, but I want people like
12:37Beatles, Stalin, Zeppelin.
12:38So he put together, put out a call, and they found these musicians.
12:44Britt Lightning, my musical director, she interviewed them.
12:48And we picked 10 musicians.
12:50And we brought them to, it was a Van Halen's camp with Michael Anthony.
12:55And the drummer and the guitar player from Rat was there.
12:59And then, of course, the Orin Demartini.
13:02And, of course, Sebastian Bach and the drummer from Whitesnake, Tommy Aldridge.
13:09Aldridge, yeah.
13:10So they were coming to the camp.
13:11Now, I had three issues.
13:12Here they were.
13:13I couldn't tell anybody what I was doing.
13:15I couldn't tell the press.
13:16And I was afraid to get media and protesters.
13:21And these protesters, they're paid.
13:23I was afraid to get them to come.
13:25And because I was afraid it would scare off the campers and the Israelis.
13:29Number two, I couldn't tell my campers.
13:30Because, you know, these people pay a nice price to come to Rockwell Fantasy Camp.
13:34And I was afraid to get somebody who said, I don't want to come here to play with a bunch
13:38of Israelis.
13:39And it could have been, you know, who knows?
13:42You know, they don't know what it's about.
13:43And then I was, more important, I was afraid of the rock stars.
13:46So, because many of the rock stars might have said, oh, I don't want to get involved in politics.
13:50Or at least their managers would have said.
13:53And, well, anybody, I didn't tell anybody.
13:55And that morning, when I welcomed the campers to camp, I announced, ladies and gentlemen,
14:00I went, I met 10 heroes.
14:02Meet this young lady.
14:03She was at Tenova Festival.
14:05She's a singer.
14:06Meet this guitar player.
14:07Kibbutz, my game.
14:09He saved the entire kibbutz.
14:10He's the guitar player.
14:11The bass player, his father's a hostage.
14:13And on and on, I introduced them.
14:16Well, it was incredible.
14:17They all got up, 100 people, and they gave them a standing ovation.
14:21The non-Jews came running over to me and said, we want to call our band Sela, rock.
14:25That's a Hebrew word for rock.
14:26The five Jewish customers of mine said, David, if I don't play another note, I got my money.
14:31This is incredible.
14:32And it became a love affair.
14:34And the first day, they played with Tommy Aldridge.
14:36And I turned to Tommy after jamming with him.
14:39And I said, Tommy, you see the picture on that guy's hand?
14:42His father is a hostage.
14:45And this is who they are.
14:46And he said, wow.
14:47And they were all blown away, everybody.
14:49And it just became a love affair.
14:51Now, I had to, I had filmed it, and I documented it all.
14:55Then I went back to Israel to tell the stories.
14:58I wanted to see how they were doing and improving and improving.
15:00Well, I went to Kevin Bright.
15:02Kevin Bright is the executive producer of Friends.
15:05And I went to him, and I was looking for money.
15:08You make it into a doc, you got to raise money.
15:11And he said to me, David, I'm not giving you money.
15:13He said, I'm going to make the movie for you.
15:15He says, it's an incredible story.
15:16And he produced an incredible film, and it's called The Bridge.
15:21We're waiting now to get into Tribeca Film Festival and then, you know, get into a big film festival.
15:27What's incredible is Slash gave me a video.
15:31Gene and Paul are in the film.
15:33And you really see it's not political.
15:36It's all about how music heals.
15:38And it's really about how I wanted to show how hip Israelis are into music.
15:44They're not into this.
15:45It's all about music.
15:47Diane Warren, I wrote to her, and I said, you know, Kevin said, get an original song from her for
15:53like a title song.
15:5420 minutes later, she sent me a song that the Americans came over and recorded in Israel.
15:58So I'm very excited about the film, as you can tell.
16:02And hopefully it'll have a national release next year.
16:04No, that's fantastic.
16:06You know, yeah, all of them told me about that.
16:08They said, you got to ask about that.
16:10I mean, we could sit here and tell a story.
16:12I mean, you have so many stories I couldn't even imagine.
16:14Just in my career of 36 years, I have a million stories, but I can't imagine the stories you have.
16:20But the 30th anniversary, congratulations on something that's really, really cool, man.
16:25And I wish I played an instrument just so I could come over there and screw up in front of
16:29all these guys.
16:31I'd be, too.
16:32I wish I could play, too.
16:34I'd be embarrassed to play.
16:35But I couldn't get my hand on that F chord.
16:38And that's when I quit, after my seventh guitar lesson.
16:42Well, my hands aren't that big, either.
16:43So I don't know if I could do that myself.
16:45But no, Bumblefoot and John 5, two of the greatest guitar players I've ever seen.
16:49Oh, amazing.
16:50Amazing.
16:51Tommy Lee coming to Rock Camp.
16:53Yeah.
16:53Roger Daltrey.
16:55Stuart Copeland.
16:56Just go to my website, rockcamp.com.
16:58And make sure you see the movie.
17:00I mean, I really want people to see the previous movie that came out a few years ago.
17:04It's on Amazon Prime.
17:05That was great.
17:06And you talked about the Dave Mustaine scene.
17:07But yes, yeah.
17:09The one kid, if I remember correctly, the one guy, he had a black labels jacket on.
17:14And I know Zach, you know, a little bit.
17:15And he got to, you know, play, you know, in front of Dave Mustaine.
17:19And then he brought his son to camp.
17:22That was an unbelievable moment.
17:24Unbelievable moment.
17:25And the kid is doing great now.
17:27He comes to a lot of camps and he jams.
17:30And it's amazing.
17:31Scott Keller, an incredible person.
17:33But for people that don't know about him,
17:35was he born with like some sort of, he had some sort of brain damage or something?
17:40Brain damage.
17:41But the father quit the work.
17:43He's the head of McKinsey.
17:44And he quit work for five years to put into his son.
17:47And now he's writing a book.
17:48He's going to be doing a book on the young men.
17:51He's going to tour it.
17:52He's his name is Scott Keller.
17:53And he's a very big, best-selling author.
17:56And I have to say that I can't tell you how many people saw the film and called me up
18:01and said,
18:01my son is in, my daughter's in a mental hospital.
18:04My husband and I aren't together because of it.
18:06This guy put so much time into his son to get in.
18:11And that you can show that the effect that a parent can have instead of getting up.
18:17And, yeah, he's a very special person.
18:19Scott Keller.
18:20Well, it's not only the parent, too, which, you know, obviously a lot of kudos go to him.
18:25But it's also, like you just mentioned, it's like, you know, the music.
18:29It kind of bridges the gap.
18:30It's the bridge.
18:32It's the bridge.
18:33And that's what the movie, that's what Kevin called the bridge,
18:35to show you how they went from tragedy to the happiness.
18:39And you see how the music of rock and roll changed these Israelis' lives.
18:44Well, David, keep up the great work.
18:45We're going to push everybody towards your website and give you a nice plug here.
18:50Rock and roll fantasy camp.
18:51And, I mean, just, I mean, what more can be said about it?
18:54But just an awesome job.
18:56Thank you so much, Meltdown.
18:57I hope to see you at camp.
18:58Come on, you can play tambourine.
19:01I can try to do something nice for a tambourine.
19:03Check out Talkin' Rock with Meltdown on all podcast platforms and WRIF.com.
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