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00:00we're doing the rosette ballroom in new york city you know people coming backstage and everything
00:05and then there's a knock on the door in comes robin williams and he's like all right who's
00:10got the 10 foot dick rock metal frog and everything in between welcome to this episode of talk and
00:20rock with meltdown don't forget to follow the audio only talking rock podcast on all podcast
00:25platforms and now it's time for today's conversation here's meltdown hey bones how are you
00:32man i'm doing pretty good how are you my friend i'm doing well you know um every time we get
00:38together and talk uh you tell so many great stories about the history of detroit rock and i'm like you
00:43know what we got to talk to bones one day and hear your story and uh so that's that's what
00:48i thought
00:48we would do uh today with you and uh first of all you know as i was coming into to
00:52work today i'm
00:53thinking to myself when did you get started in this music business and what was your influence
00:57i ask bands that all the time and sometimes a lot of these bigger rock stars you kind of know
01:01because
01:02they've talked about it a lot but i don't know what was your influence and how did you get started
01:05in
01:05music um well way way way back man long before you were born i saw this band on the ed
01:16sullivan show
01:18debut and they were called the beatles and i kind of i think i was maybe five years old
01:26and i can't say it blew my wig back because my mom used to shave my head back then like
01:32this really
01:3360s brush cut but it kind of yeah did that to me you know and then later on i saw
01:41the rolling
01:42stones on there and a lot of the other british invasion bands so that had an impact on me
01:49um i remember the next day my mom and dad went out and bought the first beatles record or meet
01:57the
01:58beatles wow and i played it over and over and over again as a kid we had our i don't
02:07know magnavox or
02:09whatever console stereo you know in the living room and i found myself singing to all the songs but
02:16at that age it was like there are other vocal parts going on and i found myself teaching myself
02:26how to sing harmony at a pretty young age you know and where did you grow up what part of
02:33detroit
02:33i don't even know well i was born in detroit at saint john hospital on the east side but my
02:39folks
02:41um lived in roseville okay roseville gotcha home of the ritz that's right yeah that was that dad
02:48that was gone just before i got here i got here in 1995 uh but yeah it's so funny you
02:54tell that story
02:54about the beatles because uh you know you're a little bit older than i am and a lot of the
02:58bands
02:58that i talked to uh from i remember frankie benelli telling me kind of the same story uh there was
03:03a
03:03couple other guys you know guys a little bit older than me that that was it that was their gateway
03:07was that beatles on ed sullivan so that's kind of crazy oh definitely definitely i mean you know
03:12older cats and then that would have been influenced by elvis presley and a lot of the rockabilly stuff which
03:21for me you know came much later but i was also somebody like okay well um the beatles let's check
03:32out who influenced them and i found out it was a lot of that yeah that stuff as well as
03:39r&b and then
03:40the same thing i you know listening to cklw and keener 13 and all those classic radio stations
03:49i heard the motown stuff unfolding as it was as it was happening you know in the stacks you know
03:58yeah all the bands that were uh on stacks uh wilson pickett and otis redding and all of that stuff
04:08definitely impacted me because i heard it on the radio the older cats from the neighborhood they'd be
04:15out you know being grease monkeys on their cars and i was like this little kid trying to hang out
04:23with them and they always had the radio bump and so you know i was hearing all of that stuff
04:28too and
04:30definitely had an impact on me and so well what is like what is what is the impotence for uh
04:37you know
04:37maybe uh picking up keys or playing the piano or whatever and then and then what what band do you
04:42joined first to get your your musical career started my mom and dad bought a hammond organ in
04:49late 1969 and you got 10 free lessons with it and it was really my mom and my sister that
05:00were
05:01you know messing around with it and then i just started you know sitting down at the keys and
05:09everything and figuring stuff out by ear and uh they said well do you want to try and i said
05:16yeah so
05:16i started taking lessons at where they bought it which was grinnell brothers um really great teacher
05:25by the name of bob paddock he was from st clair shores and a really really great hammond b3 player
05:33and as great of a teacher as he was i was equally as horrible of a student i think it
05:42came
05:43or very easy so i wasn't somebody that would dig in and practice i just did what i needed to
05:55do to get by
05:56but getting by was actually you know pretty good and um but he was very patient and and uh just
06:05a really
06:05fantastic teacher and then um so i i did maybe five years of lessons kicking bass pedals on hammond i've
06:16never
06:16had a piano lesson in my life you know never taught i i never learned classical music or any of
06:24the
06:24the classical piano training that would have given me a lot better technique and but i've succumbed to
06:33my bad habits and made the best of them over the years but really the training that that really
06:42impacted me most was that teacher which was a turntable and then a piano or an organ sitting right there
06:52and learning stuff by ear and trying to pick out uh the things that that i was hearing in the
07:01records
07:02that i was following and everything and then what what band do you join first to get your career started
07:08um i was in high school and i was playing harmonica in class and one of the other guys in
07:16uh in class
07:18guy named don cherry of all things yeah we're big hockey fans yeah yeah right and uh
07:27he's like hey dude can you sing and i said yeah i can sing he's like i got a band
07:34um do you want to
07:35audition we need a singer so um he picked me up and brought me out to this church that they
07:43were
07:43rehearsing at and it was a four-piece band another guy from school and then an older guy that was
07:51already out of high school and um first thing we played was uh they launched into going down
07:59you know the freddie king song that jeff beck you know really made famous and i started singing and
08:07then i played harmonica did a harp solo in it and um they're kind of looking at each other and
08:14then
08:15the next thing they did was never in my life by mountain and i did that and i think we
08:21did uh keep
08:23playing that rock and roll by edgar winter white trash and a few other things that are looking at each
08:30other and i'm like am i that bad and they're like no you're in the band bro you know that's
08:37great yeah
08:38it was a band named crossroads and we were all like 15 years old um playing high school dances and
08:50the
08:50junior high school dances the uh the vfw hall on gratiot in roseville used to have every friday night a
08:59teen dance and there was about five six bands from the area that would rotate playing that you know
09:07and so and so that that starts up like kind of your musical career and i i have to imagine
09:12at that
09:12point you're talking about playing vfw halls and what now you're on stage now you're singing in front
09:17of people and you're getting like some sort of uh you know maybe adulation or whatever and that can
09:21become addicting probably there's probably that that part of you goes oh i like this i want to continue
09:26to do this am i right or no oh yeah i bought right into it yeah i was like i
09:31can get way more chicks
09:32doing this i'm playing baseball you know that's right you know i was you know i play baseball and
09:39all of that stuff you know the app more of the athletes stuff yeah yeah i mean that's i was
09:45really
09:46a fan that wasn't my motivation you know it always helps when you're that when you're 15 years old and
09:53discovering all of those things and you know uh going down those roads and paths but really first
10:01and foremost i was such a big fan and this is what i really really loved doing and and fell
10:12right into
10:12it's like it's like keith richards to this day he's like i'm still trying to figure this stuff out now
10:20and just he just wants to be a blues man you know yeah all of us musicians whether you make
10:28it to the
10:28big stage or you know you're still being a weekend warrior playing bars or whatever you can grab a gig
10:36at we're huge fans we're nerds yeah and by the way anyone listening i don't want you to think that
10:44you know bones is an egomaniac or anything like that but when you go up on that stage and you
10:48get some
10:49sort of reaction from a crowd it's got to be gratifying you're like oh yeah i like this and plus
10:54like you say you're a huge fan yeah it does you feel accepted and it's like yeah this is cool
11:00i like
11:00this you know so you're playing fun it's fun to just you know make people have a good time by
11:08entertaining right right exactly and so you start playing i imagine you start gigging then and you
11:15know you start playing with different players throughout the city and then you you really
11:19become it and at a certain point you really become part of the fabric uh and in the detroit sound
11:25especially with some of those gigs like with uh on sunday nights we've talked about this before you and
11:29i have uh the bears den down here in uh ferndale and you're probably playing with all sorts of of
11:34players around detroit right oh absolutely um you know i first started playing in in bar bands and that
11:43um speaking of the ritz i the band that i was in at the time was uh danger point and
11:52we played
11:53the ritz before it became the risk was called the main ad when when they first opened up and i
12:01played the
12:02very first night their grand opening my band danger point it was us uh bittersweet alley and toby red
12:11and that was that was the bill for that night but the grand opening of the main act which then
12:19later
12:19became the ritz and i got bill fame and rock and roll fame in detroit so but yeah i you
12:28know playing
12:29and then i'm getting calls that were like hey um can you jump in we've got if you don't have
12:36a gig
12:36tonight can you jump in playing keyboards with us and the same thing with studios you know recording
12:44bands are like hey we're gonna go in do you want to we'd like you to uh come in and
12:49play some piano or
12:51organ or synthesizer backing vocals whatever you know so started hanging around studios a lot and
12:59get some sessions and and things like that before you know it your name is starting to get tossed
13:06around and and more and more things are coming your way gotcha so so you're playing all these gigs
13:14doing all this stuff where where and like what year do you run across kid rock okay so that's
13:23mid 90s right and the long version of that is my first daughter was born and i kind of took
13:34a
13:34you know hiatus for about a year i'm not gonna play anymore i want to be home you know i
13:40want to be
13:41around the house i want to be you know uh active father and everything and then i get a call
13:50from
13:50mike nira who owned white room studios uh they were he and his brother andy and jeff folks the drummer
14:00were signed um as a band called second self in the early 90s and then they found a guy oh
14:09back up
14:10so a band that was on sub pop big chief did their record at the white room they were gonna
14:18do their
14:19record release party and for whatever reason the keyboard player that played on their album couldn't
14:25do the gig so they asked me to step in and just kind of be a hired gun for that
14:30record release party
14:32which was at saint andrews hall so i did that and then they went off on tour for a while
14:40and then
14:41mike nira calls me back and said hey we found this guy right outside the studio at a park blind
14:50street
14:50singer but he's singing these amazing songs that he wrote and they're like they're like al green meets
14:59meets uh otis redding meets wilson pickett and his name was robert bradley yeah so we want to track
15:09him and try and get him a deal so i went in and started playing some keys with those guys
15:14ended up
15:15getting a deal with rca records and uh did the first record with them and i shared the keys with
15:23uh the
15:24late great um eddie harsh yeah yeah who was also big part of the bear stand scene with the howling
15:31diablos and then later became the keyboardist in the black rose and um so we did that record and i
15:43went
15:43out on tour but while we were doing the record there's this guy keeps wandering in and out of the
15:49studio who i had never met you know and he's got his you know dickies on and his big oversized
15:57t-shirt
15:58and you know beanie pulled over his head and he was working in the back room the b room at
16:04the white
16:05room doing some tracking and that was bob that was bob ritchie kid rock and he stepped in and he's
16:13like
16:13hey can you come in and lay some tracks on some of these things that i'm doing and that's pretty
16:20much what led me to uh to his on his radar was being involved with the robert bradley records plus
16:27we shared a rehearsal space in royal oak which is now rust belt studios yeah dread of van fleet did
16:37their
16:37first record and so many others yeah i've had a few drunken nights there oh yeah yes i'm sure we
16:44all have
16:45guilty guilty as charged but um so yeah we shared the rehearsal place and i would show up early for
16:55the
16:55robert bradley rehearsals and bob would uh be in there with his guys because he was starting to use live
17:03musicians along with you know the the more hip-hop you know approach to doing shows which turntable
17:11and adapt machine and that's bringing in live musicians so i just fire up my rig and you know
17:19it's very groove based stuff i'm like what key you in we're we're in uh e on this one i
17:26just start
17:27playing along and um bob said hey when you're not out on the road with these guys you want to
17:34jump in
17:35on some of my shows and i said oh yeah definitely so yeah that's it fell together it happened very
17:43organically and was he working on devil without a cause or was it before no no no not at all
17:50he was
17:51this is about the time he had already put out grit sandwiches for breakfast and then the polyfuse method
18:00and this is about the time that uh fired up the ep had already been released this is about the
18:07time
18:08of uh early morning stone temp gotcha okay so you know some of the stuff that i laid down paid
18:15i put piano on that and um then um it was funny because i asked them one day because i
18:27did do a show
18:28with them and that was at the state theater and this is you know which is now the film art
18:35and um
18:38you know i was i did not expect to happen on stage what i was witnessing being a part of
18:47this show
18:47because you know i figured oh okay we're gonna go up and play and then all of a sudden there's
18:52this
18:53pyro going on it's like a 70s you know you're like you were going to see kiss at kobo or
18:59something
18:59like that or uriah heep or queen and there's all of this you know stuff going on that's like whoa
19:07you know this is like a big time rock and roll show and i remember asking him i'm like
19:15why don't you go for a major label deal and he's like i'm moving all these records out of my
19:21basement
19:22you know he's like i don't really you know at the time he wasn't doing well then you know it
19:28by default
19:29then he started making so much noise with you know nationally and everything that you know
19:37there was a few labels looking at him and one of them happened to be lava atlantic jason flom
19:46um andy carp came and saw one of our shows at the fillmore and it all unfolded from there
19:55yeah if i'm not mistaken the what was the line uh hey flom you want to hit i got one
19:59for
19:59you yep yeah great yeah so i got one for you was flom gave him a budget
20:10and said let me see what you can do with this budget give me two good songs two really good
20:18songs and i want to see if they can cut it for being on the record so we went in
20:24they weren't
20:25even written yet we went into the white room and it was uh bob and i kenny olsen jason krause
20:34stephanie we didn't even know yet um i think kenny tudrick played drums um matt o'brien from big chief
20:46on bass and um they sent a producer in that had worked on the sugar ray record and uh we
20:55cut we
20:56wrote and cut i got one for you and somebody's gotta feel this and those were the two and that
21:06was it
21:06that cinched it it's like okay man go to work you guys got this yeah so such good songs so
21:13the uh i remember
21:14the record came out and didn't really do much at first it took about a half a year before that
21:20record started to get noticed and then it blew up pretty quickly could you guys feel that inside the
21:24inside the camp that things were really moving rapidly it happened almost overnight
21:31yeah i mean the first single was bull god yeah and uh we did the video for that we did
21:38a show at
21:39the state theater and then you know bull god we filmed after the show was done it was like an
21:47encore okay
21:47everybody you're gonna be in this video shoots so we did bull god to the track and uh several takes
21:56of
21:56that and uh we started touring after just prior to the release of it actually atlantic put us out on
22:08the last half of last that year's warp tour the band's warp tour yeah and um
22:17we jumped on right here in pontiac at the phoenix center outside of that and that was our first date
22:26and then we hit the road right after that and they didn't the folks you know some of the uh
22:33artists
22:34and the people that were behind the warp tour didn't take too kindly to us because it's like you know
22:41a punk rock tour this is a punk rock tour they didn't know what to make of us um several
22:50of the
22:51bands did go to bat for us and did kind of adopt us as their little brothers and sister because
22:58by
22:59them we had met stephanie one of them was uh reverend horton heat they really took to us and the
23:07other
23:07one was murphy's law and then there was a meeting one day where they wanted to bounce us off of
23:15the
23:15tour and jimmy gastapo the singer from murphy's law went in there who's very very highly respected among
23:24all of those people and he's like hey you know and it was out over ironically on a punk rock
23:32tour
23:32you know bob's got a pretty foul mouth and a lot of his music you know and it was over
23:38that they're
23:39trying to get us to tone that down on a kid rock tour and bob said you know yeah right
23:46that's fuck
23:47you and murphy's law jimmy gastapo went into the meeting and told the high ups for the warp tour it
23:55was
23:55like you know what you're saying he's not a punk rock man he's the most punk rock thing on here
24:00because
24:00he told you to go fuck yourself yeah that sounds like him so from there on out you know it
24:08was fine
24:08you know hey i'll tell you what i'm just thinking as i'm talking to you here's what we're gonna do
24:12i want i'm gonna ask you one more question and then one day down the road we're gonna continue this
24:16because you have so many great stories and i don't want to cut you short but i want to get
24:20to
24:20your stories but um because we're just we're just really just getting into death without a cause and
24:26we haven't gotten anywhere yet but uh you told me a story at your house one time about i think
24:31it
24:31was was it the first time you guys met robin williams backstage um one of the times yeah it was
24:40funny because he comes in we're playing at uh i think the roseland ballroom in new york city
24:50and it was the beginning of the care tour okay you know so we did uh a leg of that
24:57tour
24:57the care tour where we did we wanted to go back in because we had already been out in stadiums
25:04with
25:05metallica doing the summer sanitarium tour and you know headlining on our own in arenas but this
25:12record bob's like we're gonna go back and and you know do three thousand seaters five thousand
25:21seaters you know theaters things like that and then we'll jump into the arenas but for a month we'll do
25:28this and uh so we're doing the roseland ballroom in in uh new york city and we do the show
25:38and then
25:39there's you know people coming backstage and everything and then there's a knock on the door
25:44in comes robin williams and he's like all right who's got the 10 foot dick
25:50first thing out of his mouth and just the whole room just fell out laughing you know dude that is
25:58one of my favorite stories and he was just an absolute joy just but i mean that guy god bless
26:08him
26:08he didn't have an off switch yeah right yeah so amazing i've got here's a story you know okay so
26:16i'm out on the road with robert bradley and we play san francisco and we do the gig we're getting
26:25ready to leave i was like hey i'm gonna walk around the block and get a newspaper you know this
26:30is back
26:30in the old days when you read newspapers and uh walk back to the hotel and mike nearest him he
26:37goes
26:37hey that that comedian just walked by i'm like who you know that really funny dude and i'm like
26:46who is it he's like there he is he's walking down the street so he's like walking in the eye
26:53come
26:53around you know the other direction like i gotta go see who this is i go running past him like
27:00a
27:01weirdo and then i get to the corner i'm looking around the corner and i start walking back to the
27:08hotel and holding shopping bags walking down the street it's robin williams you know and he grew up
27:16in the detroit area went to country day that's right yeah and um i'm like hey dude i'm from detroit
27:24and he stops and his track says really what are you doing here i says i play in the band
27:30we just
27:31did a show here last night he says it's a really great blind street singer and uh you know good
27:39really
27:39cool rock and r&b band i said you want to meet him he's like yeah he walks back to
27:45the hotel with
27:46me and i introduce him to robert bradley and everybody and you know that's awesome that was
27:52before iphones so nobody got a picture of this right right so but robert's like robert's yeah man i
28:01know who you are you're funny you know this and that but um you know and and you know we
28:08gave him
28:08some t-shirts and a cd and robert autographed it to robin williams so that was my first meeting
28:15robert williams oh yeah it's like some some weirdo walking down the street you know just
28:22like hey brother i'm from detroit well this thing is going to cut me off here in a few minutes
28:29but uh
28:29will you come back will you come back another time and we can uh we can uh talk some more
28:34about dude we're just starting to crack the certain you're just starting to get famous now and i want
28:38to i want to hear the rest of the story so well we'll we'll we'll we'll do it again sometime
28:43soon
28:43and we'll do a part two and everybody can hear uh the rise to fame and what you saw from
28:48behind your
28:49keyboard my wife was gonna when i was doing this she was gonna take the one smaller dog and just
28:56kind of go like this oh there's that's this yeah leaves it leaves the real comedians
29:05hey bones thanks so much for the time we're gonna do it again i can hardly wait
29:09all right man pleasure check out talking rock with meltdown on all podcast platforms and wrif.com
29:17you
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