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00:00i love coming anywhere in michigan man because the people are so passionate they roll their
00:04sleeves up they get their hands dirty they work really hard but when it's time to cut loose and
00:08spend money on things and report to them like live music they're ready to cut loose man
00:13rock metal prog and everything in between welcome to this episode of talking rock with meltdown
00:20don't forget to follow the audio only talking rock podcast on all podcast platforms and now
00:25it's time for today's conversation here's meltdown gammie how's things man oh things are good
00:32brother you know got a lot to be grateful for yeah that's that's awesome well first of all i wanted
00:36to start uh congratulations um i have a salutatorian in my house but you have a valedictorian in your
00:42house and it still boggles the mind i don't know how it is with you but what uh just the
00:47fact that
00:48my my daughters especially my son as well they're so smart it's it's it's unbelievable yeah you know
00:54it's it's a proud moment i mean you know i'm proud of all my kids but you know my oldest
00:58just
00:59graduated valedictorian i mean you know i've watched her she's got straight a's like her entire
01:04life yeah like period like it's incredible so just being you know you get to having a family special
01:11obviously it's not for everybody but like if you're blessed to have kids and um and that's the path that
01:16you have in your life it's like you know you get to re-experience a lot of things from your
01:21childhood through their lens and uh i've been able to watch my kids do things that i never did
01:26or never got to do and it's been a pretty incredible experience so far yeah i had a you
01:32know my my oldest stepdaughter she's the same way as a pluses on everything she's got an a minus it
01:36was
01:36the you know end of the world uh what kind of a student were you growing up so i you
01:41know what i went
01:42to a magnet school my whole life so it was accelerated learning you had to maintain a gpa you had
01:48to get
01:48tested and accepted so it was for smart people but you know especially as i got older i was just
01:54so
01:55consumed with music and trying to learn how to play guitar like school is not my priority i mean i
02:00graduated high school i did everything i needed to to graduate but i didn't apply myself in school the
02:06way i applied myself with music so you know if i had focused all that energy in school maybe i'd
02:12have
02:12straight a's i don't know but you know instead it came out this way well i think it turned out
02:17pretty
02:17well for you we'll start we'll talk about that here in a second but uh uh for those who don't
02:21know last time i saw you was uh right here and i told you for years i said you got
02:25to come to
02:25detroit and check out this m1 concourse racing and you got to come and see it and play the national
02:29anthem on top of the car and everything that was a cool day yeah for sure man i was out
02:34there and i'm
02:34coming back i believe this august for another roadkill nights event with dodge and then also you
02:40know hang out i'm sure my goal is to stay for the woodward dream cruise and be a part of
02:44that whole
02:44deal yeah m1's killer man i got a lot of friends that have like garages there and stuff and you
02:49know every time i go there i'm like i need one of these places i'm like no i don't i
02:52don't live in
02:53detroit but like i want one it's such a cool place dude one of my friends has one and it's
02:58like um
02:58i think it's worth about four times what my house is worth you know one of those garages
03:02yeah so it's pretty cool man no it's great did you get a chance to uh to blast around on
03:07that track
03:07at all or anything or no i didn't get on that track but i spent a lot of time out
03:11there hanging
03:11out they have lots of fun parties and you know it's kind of a really cool social atmosphere man
03:17because it's so many like-minded you know auto enthusiasts and a lot of like a lot of the
03:21executives like really high up people that work for the for the big three automakers have garages
03:26there and so you get to see these people and you know chit chat with them hang out talk cars
03:31well i'm glad you got to uh come and see it finally and the woodward dream cruise you've never seen
03:35that
03:36right for for people that don't know about that it's the biggest cruise in the world and you'll
03:40there'll be like 40 000 like hot rods you know not just not just cars but you know there'll be
03:46sections of the woodward with like nothing but like tv vehicles like starsky and hutch and the
03:51ghostbuster you know i mean it's insane the stuff that people bring out it's awesome i mean yeah i
03:56think i saw like last year there was a guy driving around in a shopping cart right like a v8
04:00you know
04:00supercharged v8 that's like amazing stuff um it's really cool and you know if you're a car guy like me
04:07it's a legendary thing but i've never been able to be there for that because i'm august is when
04:11they have that and that's like one of the biggest touring times of the year is that's just wrapping
04:17up the summer tour so i'm usually working but i made it last year and then i'm trying to make
04:22it
04:22again this year well i was looking at your schedule before we got on and it looks like uh for
04:27most of
04:27july until you go to those four european dates and most of august you're free so what else do you
04:32have
04:32planned for this summer so well so we have some shows in june that we're doing then we're going
04:38to europe for like a week a week and a half in july but i'm really trying to focus on
04:42the family
04:43stuff so i took most of august off because that's when my daughter will be moving into college so i
04:48didn't want to like miss that um so not knowing when i was making my tour schedule with my booking
04:55agent i was like i cannot miss my daughter moving into college i need to be there for that i
05:00also
05:00couldn't miss her graduation well we plan our tours out like a year year and a half in advance
05:05so they didn't she didn't know what college she was going to go to so therefore we didn't know what
05:10weekend she might be moving in so i kind of had to block off the whole month just to make
05:14sure that i
05:15didn't miss it did the same thing for may as well for her graduation but we got a lot of
05:19stuff going
05:20on this tour you know we came through detroit on this tour um i think it was back in april
05:2526 yeah
05:27yeah and we had a great show there the tour has been great you know we're playing all the songs
05:32off my first record celebrating the 30th anniversary of that we released a new version of the record
05:37where we went in and recorded all new versions of the songs and you know it's just been cool i
05:42mean
05:42my fans go back to the 90s they go back 30 years with us i mean we're still reaching new
05:47people every
05:48day but like a lot of our fan base has been with us for three decades they know all these
05:53songs you
05:53know they sing along with these songs because you bought albums back then and listened to the
05:57whole record so it's a pretty cool tour that we've been doing and who knows maybe they're talking about
06:02extending it into next year so maybe we'll come back you know somewhere in michigan again well you
06:07are going to be here coming up on october 14th to ann arbor the michigan theater which is just
06:10so and you've played there before as well it's a cool theater yeah for sure yeah it's good i mean
06:16you know like i love michigan i love coming anywhere in michigan man because the people are so
06:21passionate about they work hard and they like they roll their sleeves up they get their hands
06:26there they work really hard but when it's time to cut loose and like you know and spend money on
06:31things and report to them like live music they're ready to cut loose man and so the reaction is always
06:36so good yeah that's awesome yeah and by the way uh thanks for saying that but you're not the first
06:41person i've ever talked to because there's kind of this midwest thing where you know look five or six
06:45months out of the year we're kind of trapped inside and once it's time to get the cars out and
06:50stuff
06:50and you know get enjoy some of that weather man it's like that's what we do yeah for sure and
06:55and
06:55i appreciate it i see it i feel it and i appreciate it so we always look forward to coming
06:59people would
07:00ask me man you can look at interviews like historically they'd be like what's your favorite
07:03place to play and i'm like anywhere in michigan well that's cool thanks man well we love having you
07:09here and uh led better heights to your 30th anniversary sessions uh that came out a couple months ago
07:13and correct me if i'm wrong because i remember playing this when it first came out uh you were
07:18what 18 when that record came out yeah i was 17 when i recorded it it was the last three
07:22months of
07:23my senior year in high school i graduated i turned 18 in june the record dropped at the end of
07:28september
07:29and then we basically spent all of 1996 on the road touring for it so here we are 2026 30
07:36years later
07:37and we're and we're touring in support of the uh 30th anniversary now who did you go out and tour
07:42with
07:42you you were supporting some big acts right yeah well i graduated high school and then we went out we
07:47were opening up for bb king and then right after that i went over to europe and i did the
07:51entire
07:52eagles tour over there when they first got back together on the hell freezes over tour
07:56so we're opening up for them 80 000 people a night you know wembley stadium and stuff like that and
08:03uh
08:04and then came back and we did bob dylan and you know they just snowballed you know to be honest
08:10with
08:10you we got to play with a lot of my heroes and some of the biggest acts and blues and
08:14rock and roll
08:15yeah some of my uh i i do use this as an example sometimes of maybe a perfect guitar solo
08:20but
08:20uh hotel california from the eagles and i remember joe walsh telling me one time when they were doing
08:24the entire record he's glad they did it first to get it out of the way because he says it's
08:28hard
08:29is there is there stuff that you play that you're like this is harder maybe it's in the back of
08:33your
08:33mind when you're coming up on it in the set well there's certain things i mean it also depends on
08:38where it where it is in the set like i'm strategic about the flow of the songs so that you
08:45know we
08:45don't start off with anything that's too crazy fast because i'm going to get my hands time to warm
08:49up before i get into all that you know so i try and plan it accordingly so i'm not overwhelming
08:55myself
08:55from the get-go so you can appreciate what joe said then oh for sure man i mean without a
09:00doubt like
09:01there's certain songs you're like okay here we go and and you're like we're gonna see if we got it
09:05tonight you know yeah yeah because uh maybe your uh 38 year old fingers don't work as well as your
09:1117 year old fingers probably well i've actually if you go listen to this record the the new version
09:16of ledbetter heights the 30th anniversary sessions and then you go listen to the original i would say
09:22that my hands are working a lot better now than they were back then all right fair enough yeah and
09:26then you mentioned uh playing shows over in europe you only got four european dates you do you primarily
09:31just play in the states did you do a lot of european dates yeah we went we did a big
09:35tour
09:36there last year so we're just kind of popping over this year for you know just a little a few
09:40big festivals and then we're coming back we'll probably hit it pretty hard again next year yeah
09:45do you like europe i like europe i mean you know anytime like here's the thing like the the people
09:52there the fans are great the the part of our industry that's really the most work is like the travel
09:59you know that's kind of the grueling thing and the fact that like now to be an artist you can't
10:04just
10:04do your music like you have to be like 15 different things you have to be a social media expert
10:09you have
10:10to be a marketing person you have to like you know all these things that other people used to do
10:14now
10:14now you have to do all that but the hardest work i think comes it's not when we're on stage
10:19because
10:19that's the fun part you know it's the travel and so when you're flying international and you're jet lagged and
10:25you're far away from home and stuff but you get to see all this incredible stuff too so i i
10:29do
10:29appreciate going over there um but it's just like and as you get older you feel the effects of that
10:35on
10:35your body more yeah well there's the old saying you play for free you get paid to travel absolutely
10:41yeah yeah you take your kids with you to ever go any shows or yeah my son uh one of
10:46my teenage sons
10:47went with me last year on the entire european tour i had i put him to work you know because
10:51we were
10:51there in july so he was out of school and uh this this month uh in june uh when we
10:57go back out i
10:58got a couple of weeks that we're doing a tour and my whole family's coming out so yeah that's great
11:03it's cool to share all that stuff especially you know you work so hard for it and your kids get
11:08to
11:08see you on stage i've talked to a lot of bands where they broke up or something and then they
11:12kind
11:12of get back together because they want their kids to experience it yeah yeah that's interesting my
11:17kids grew up you know especially when they were little we took them out on the road
11:20a lot more frequently because their schedule you know like they didn't have like hardcore school
11:25stuff um so now that they're all like you know we have four teenagers and everybody's kind of older
11:31and they have like school to contend with it's it's a little more challenging but they grew up on the
11:36road and and i think it's kind of they're not as impressed by it like you know it's like i'm
11:41still
11:41just dad you know like oh that's just another one of dad shows you know which i think is honestly
11:46i
11:46think it's probably how it should be well you saw me and my son on his 21st birthday experience a
11:5221st birthday experience which a lot of people probably never will get to a chance to do with
11:57you and jelly rolls and kid rock and all these guys you know i'm saying it's like and i've never
12:01heard him tell that story to anybody oh yeah i know it's different right it's yeah so so you
12:07mentioned a social media stuff who does your social media do you do all that stuff it depends i do
12:12some of it i mean if you can usually tell if it's coming from me i mean the marketing and
12:16promo stuff that we put out i don't do that stuff um but yeah all the personal posts but i'm
12:21just you
12:21know i have a hard time with that stuff man i mean i the kids are growing up with it
12:26it's just normal
12:26to them but like this has been a big adjustment for our generation so it's like the idea of like
12:32having
12:33to constantly you know put myself out there and and update people on what i'm doing and it's just i
12:39don't know i'm just not wired like that so it's it's been an adjustment i mean i do it as
12:45as much
12:45as i can do it uh but you know there's people that are better at it than me but it
12:50is great because it
12:51enables you to connect with your fan base directly it eliminates the middleman you know and you can go
12:56direct to your fan base except for you know used to be when the whole facebook thing was you know
13:02come over to our platform and build yourself a following and you can engage with those people well now
13:07it's like you've built yourself this following but facebook locks your stuff down so you can't
13:12even reach these people said yes i want to know what this person's doing and facebook is like no
13:17we're not going to let those people know what you're doing unless you pay us to let them know
13:21what you're doing and so it's just kind of a racket anyways you know yeah it has become quite a
13:26racket and it's like the algorithms everything they hide stuff it's like i know i've got the same
13:30amount of followers on x or twitter whatever you want to call it that i had three years ago and
13:34i was
13:34building and building all of a sudden just stopped yeah yeah we've just focused on like
13:39access of this um i never really got the whole thing even when it was twitter it was like they
13:45limited you to how many like letters how many words you could and i was like no this is too
13:50there's too many constraints on this i never connected with it and now it's become like it's
13:55just different because yeah i just want to talk to my fans who are about music you know and um
14:02i feel like that a lot of times yeah and so most of my fan base really resides on facebook
14:09to be
14:09honest with you right and so we have huge numbers there we have decent numbers with instagram then
14:15outside of those platforms i haven't really pursued any of the other ones to any real significant degree
14:20because i feel like i've found where my fans are primarily spending most of their time online and
14:26that's between those two platforms yeah and i thought that uh facebook and social media was really cool
14:31during the pandemic because you i couldn't talk to my listeners and you and you get to talk to
14:35them then and you'll see what's going on with them even though you can't see them you know yeah
14:40there's there's some pros and cons to all of it you know yeah well i'll tell you what we'll let
14:44you blast uh kenny good to talk to you as always uh coming to town uh october 14th michigan theater
14:49but we might see you before then at m1 and i hope to get a chance to uh bump into
14:53you again and
14:53perhaps uh for the dream cruise and all that kind of stuff it's a lot of fun down there that
14:57those weekends
14:57yeah really all right well i'll look for you when i come up there check out talking rock with milk
15:02on all podcast platforms and wrif.com
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