- 10 minutes ago
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
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 is special
01:11obviously it's not for everybody but like if you're blessed to have kids and um and that's the
01:16path that you have in your life it's like you know you get to re-experience a lot of things
01:20from
01:20your childhood 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 it's pretty cool man no it's great did you get a chance to uh to blast around on that
03:07track at
03:07all or anything or no i didn't get on that track but i spent a lot of time out there
03:11hanging out
03:12they have lots of fun parties and you know it's kind of a really cool social atmosphere man because
03:17it's so many like-minded you know auto enthusiasts and a lot of like a lot of the executives like
03:22really high up people that work for the for the big three automakers have garages there and so you
03:27get to see these people and you know chit chat with them hang out talk cars well i'm glad you
03:32got to
03:32come and see it finally and the woodward dream cruise you've never seen that right for for people that
03:37don't know about that it's the biggest cruise in the world and you'll there'll be like 40 000 like
03:42hot rods you know not just not just cars but you know there'll be sections of the woodward with like
03:48nothing but like tv vehicles like starsky and hutch and the ghostbuster you know i mean it's insane the
03:53stuff that people bring out it's awesome i mean yeah i think i saw like last year there was a
03:57guy
03:57driving around in a shopping cart right like a v8 you know supercharged v8 that's like amazing stuff
04:03um it's really cool and you know if you're a car guy like me it's a legendary thing but i've
04:09never
04:09been able to be there for that because i'm august is when they have that and that's like one of
04:13the
04:13biggest touring times of the year is that's just wrapping up the summer tour so i'm usually working
04:20but i made it last year and then i'm trying to make it again this year well i was looking
04:24at your
04:24schedule before we got on and it looks like uh for most of july until you go those four european
04:29dates
04:30and most of august you're free so what else do you have planned for this summer so well so we
04:35have
04:35some shows in june that we're doing then we're going to europe for like a week a week and a
04:40half in
04:40july but i'm really trying to focus on the family stuff so i took most of august off because that's
04:46when my daughter will be moving into college so i didn't want to like miss that um so not knowing
04:52when i was making my tour schedule with my booking agent i was like i cannot miss my daughter
04:57moving into college i need to be there for that i also couldn't miss her graduation well we plan
05:03our tours out like a year year and a half in advance so they didn't she didn't know what college
05:07she was going to go to so therefore we didn't know what weekend she might be moving in so i
05:12kind
05:12of had to block off the whole month just to make sure that i didn't miss it and did the
05:16same thing
05:16for may as well for her graduation but we got a lot of stuff going on this tour you know
05:21we came
05:21through detroit on this tour um i think it was back in april 26 yeah yeah and we had a
05:28great show
05:29there the tour's been great you know we're playing all the songs off my first record celebrating the
05:3430th anniversary of that we released a new version of the record where we went in and recorded all new
05:39versions of the songs and you know it's just been cool i mean my fans go back to the 90s
05:44they go back
05:4530 years with us i mean we're still reaching new people every day but like a lot of our fan
05:50base has been
05:50with us for three decades they know all these songs you know they sing along with these songs
05:55because you bought albums back then and listen to the whole record so it's a pretty cool tour
06:00that we've been doing and who knows maybe they're talking about extending it into next year so maybe
06:04we'll come back you know somewhere in michigan again well you are going to be here coming up on
06:08october 14th to ann arbor the michigan theater which is just awesome right so and you've played
06:12there before as well it's a cool theater yeah for sure yeah it's good i mean you know like i
06:17love
06:18michigan i love coming anywhere in michigan man because the people are so passionate about
06:22they work hard and they like they roll their sleeves up they get their hands dirty they work
06:26really hard but when it's time to cut loose and like you know and spend money on things and report
06:31to them like live music they're ready to cut loose man and so the reaction is always so good
06:36yeah that's awesome yeah and by the way uh thanks for saying that but you're not the first person i've
06:41ever talked to because it's kind of this midwest thing where you know look five or six months out of
06:46the
06:46year we're kind of trapped inside and once it's time to get the cars out and stuff and you know
06:50get enjoy some of that weather man it's like that's what we do yeah for sure and and i appreciate
06:56it i
06:56see it i feel it and i appreciate it so we always look forward to coming people would ask me
07:00man you
07:01can look at interviews like historically they'd be like what's your favorite place to play and i'm like
07:04anywhere in michigan well that's cool thanks man well we love having you here and uh led better
07:10heights to your 30th anniversary sessions uh that came out a couple months ago and correct me if i'm
07:14wrong because i remember playing this when it first came out uh you were what 18 when that record
07:19came out yeah i was 17 when i recorded it it was the last three months of my senior year
07:24in high
07:24school i graduated i turned 18 in june the record dropped at the end of september and then we basically
07:30spent all of 1996 on the road touring for it so here we are 2026 30 years later and we're
07:38and we're
07:38touring in support of the uh 30th anniversary now who did you go out and tour with you you were
07:43supporting 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 were opening up for them 80 000 people a night you know wembley stadium and stuff like that
08:03and uh and then came back and we did bob dylan and you know the it just snowballed you know
08:09to be
08:10honest with you we got to play with a lot of my heroes and some of the biggest acts and
08:14blues and
08:14rock and roll yeah some of my uh i i do use this as an example sometimes of maybe a
08:19perfect guitar
08:19solo but uh hotel california from the eagles and i remember joe walsh telling me one time when they
08:24were doing the entire record he's glad they did it first to get it out of the way because he
08:28says
08:28it's hard is there is there stuff that you play that you're like this is harder maybe it's in the
08:33back of your mind when you're coming up on it in the set well there's certain things i mean it
08:37also
08:38depends on where it where it is in the set like i'm strategic about the flow of the songs so
08:44that
08:44you know we don't start off with anything that's too crazy fast because i'm going to get my hands
08:49time to warm up before i get into all that you know so i try and plan it accordingly so
08:54i'm not
08:54overwhelming myself from the get-go so you can appreciate what joe said then oh for sure man i mean
09:00without a doubt like there's certain songs you're like okay here we go and and you're like we're gonna
09:04see if we got it tonight you know yeah yeah because uh maybe your uh 38 year old fingers
09:10don't work as well as your 17 year old fingers probably well i've actually if you go listen to
09:14this record the the new version of ledbetter heights the 30th anniversary sessions and then
09:19you go listen to the original i would say that my hands are working a lot better now than they
09:24were
09:24back then all right fair enough yeah and then you mentioned uh playing shows over in europe you only
09:28got four european dates you do primarily just play in the states do you do a lot of european dates
09:34yeah we went we did a big tour there last year so we're just kind of popping over this year
09:39for
09:39you know just a little a few big festivals and then we're coming back we'll probably hit it pretty
09:44hard again next year yeah do you like europe i like europe i mean you know anytime like here's the
09:50thing like the the people there the fans are great the the part of our industry that's really the
09:57most work is like the travel you know that's kind of the grueling thing and the fact that like now
10:03to
10:03be an artist you can't just do your music like you have to be like 15 different things you have
10:08to be
10:08a social media expert you have to be a marketing person you have to like you know all these things
10:13that other people used to do now now you have to do all that but the hardest work i think
10:17comes it's
10:18not when we're on stage because that's the fun part you know it's the travel and so when you're
10:22flying international and you're jet lagged and you're far away from home and stuff but you get
10:27to see all this incredible stuff too so i i do appreciate going over there um but it's just like
10:32and as you get older you feel the effects of that on your body more yeah well there's the old
10:37saying
10:38you play for free you get paid to travel absolutely yeah yeah you take your kids with you
10:43never go to any shows or yeah my son uh one of my teenage sons went with me last year
10:48on the entire
10:48european tour i put him to work you know because we were there in july so he was out of
10:53school
10:53and uh this this month uh in june uh when we go back out i got a couple of weeks
10:59that we're doing
10:59a tour and my whole family's coming out so yeah that's great it's cool to uh share all that stuff
11:05especially you know you work so hard for it and your kids get to see you on stage i've talked
11:09to a
11:09lot of bands where they broke up or something and then they kind of get back together because they
11:13want their kids to experience it yeah yeah that's interesting my kids grew up you know especially
11:18when they were little we took them out on the road a lot more frequently because their schedule you
11:23know like they didn't have like hardcore school stuff um so now that they're all like you know we
11:29have four teenagers and everybody's kind of older and they have like school to contend with it's a
11:34little more challenging but they grew up on the road and and i think it's kind of they're not as
11:39impressed by like you know it's like i'm still just dad you know like oh dad's just another one
11:44of dad shows you know which i think is honestly i think it's probably how it should be well you
11:48saw
11:49me and my son on his 21st birthday experience a 21st birthday experience which a lot of people
11:54probably never will get to a chance to do with you and jelly rolls and kid rock and all these
11:59guys
11:59you know i'm saying it's like and i've never heard him tell that story to anybody oh yeah i know
12:04it's
12:04different right it's yeah so so you mentioned a social media stuff who does your social
12:09media do you do all that stuff it depends i do some of it i mean if you can usually
12:13tell if it's
12:14coming from me i mean the marketing and promo stuff that we put out i don't do that stuff
12:18um but yeah all the personal posts but i'm just you know i have a hard time with that stuff
12:23man i mean
12:24the kids are growing up with it it's just normal to them but like this has been a big adjustment
12:29for
12:29our generation so it's like the idea of like having to constantly you know put myself out there and
12:36and update people on what i'm doing and it's just i don't know i'm just not wired like that
12:41so it's it's been an adjustment i mean i do it as as much as i can do it but
12:47you know there's people
12:48that are better at it than me but it is great because it enables you to connect with your fan
12:52base directly it eliminates the middleman you know and you can go direct to your fan base except for
12:58you know used to be when the whole facebook thing was you know come over to our platform and build
13:04yourself a following and you can engage with those people well now it's like you've built yourself
13:08this following but facebook locks your stuff down so you can't even reach these people said yes i
13:14want to know what this person's doing and facebook is like no we're not going to let those people know
13:19what you're doing unless you pay us to let them know what you're doing and so it's just kind of
13:23a
13:23racket anyways you know yeah it has become quite a racket and it's like the algorithms everything they
13:28hide stuff it's like i know i've got the same amount of followers on x or twitter or whatever you
13:32want to
13:33call it that i had three years ago and i was building and building and all of a sudden just
13:36stopped yeah we've just focused on like x's of his um i never really got the whole thing even when
13:43it
13:43was twitter it was like they limited you to how many like letters how many words you could and i
13:48was
13:49like no this is too because there's too many constraints on this i never i never connected with
13:54it and now it's become like it's just different because yeah i just want to talk to my fans who
13:59are about music you know and um or carlos a lot of times yeah and so most of my fan
14:06base really
14:07resides on facebook to be honest with you right and so we have huge numbers there we have decent
14:13numbers with instagram then outside of those platforms i haven't really pursued any of the
14:18other ones to any real significant degree because i feel like i've found where my fans are primarily
14:24spending most of their time online and that's between those two platforms yeah and i thought
14:29that uh facebook and social media was really cool during the pandemic because you i couldn't talk to
14:33my listeners and you and you get to talk to them then and you'll see what's going on with them
14:37even
14:37though you can't see them you know yeah there's there's some pros and cons to all of it you know
14:42yeah well i'll tell you what we'll let you blast uh kenny good to talk to you as always uh
14:46coming to
14:46town uh october 14th michigan theater but we might see you before then at m1 and i hope to get
14:51a
14:51chance to uh bump into you again and perhaps uh for the dream cruise and all that kind of stuff
14:56it's a lot of fun down there that those weekends yeah really all right well i'll look for you when
15:00i come up there check out talking rock with melton on all podcast platforms and wrif.com
Comments