00:00Dup and Slash and Matt had played together so much that they always kind of went, you know, kind of
00:06surrounded Matt.
00:09And I wasn't used to it, so I was kind of like, hey, I felt like a little kid.
00:13Like, hey, what are you guys playing over there? You know, like, hey, can you show me that chord?
00:17Hey, what's up? It's Paul from Guitar World, and I am here with Dave Kushner.
00:21Now, in case you don't know who Dave is, Dave was in Velvet Revolver.
00:26We go back a long way because you had reached out to me, and I was just starting out at
00:32Guitar World,
00:32and I was like, oh my God, the guitar player in Velvet Revolver is reaching out to me.
00:37This is awesome. So here we are now, meeting for the first time since then.
00:43In New York.
00:44In New York. We're here at a Guitar Center event at the Bowery Electric.
00:49This is part of your Guitar-a-thon event, am I correct?
00:53But the thing is, what I think most people don't know, is that you are now working for Guitar Center.
00:59You are the Senior Director of Music Education Experience.
01:03Yes.
01:03So tell me about what you're doing now.
01:05Well, I'm running the lessons program with another guy who's the Vice President named John Bianchetti,
01:11and we are tasked with giving kids and adults and whoever the opportunity to experience music.
01:22Basically, the way I did, the way Slash and I took lessons at the same place on Fairfax Avenue in
01:28L.A.
01:29And, you know, we had a teacher and I walked in and I said, hey, can you show me how
01:33to play Purple Haze?
01:34And I was 15 and, you know, and then, but the teachers, I think, really are the ones that kind
01:41of, you know,
01:42are the gatekeepers almost to that education.
01:45And, I mean, it's a gift to be able to give that to...
01:48So you're basically in charge of the front line of educating all these kids and people who are interested in
01:54really learning how to play guitar or whatever instrument, right?
01:58Yeah.
01:58I mean, we have guitar, bass, drums, vocals.
02:02There's some DJ lessons at certain places.
02:04There's home recording lessons.
02:07But the bigger plan is to expand on that.
02:11You know, I, you know, I was a composer after Velvet Revolver and I didn't know how to do anything.
02:16You know, I didn't know any of that language and I want to be able to, you know, teach that
02:23to other band guys that are like, you know, what am I going to do now?
02:28I'm a, you know, it's, and so all these things and, and Guitar Center has this amazing infrastructure and this
02:34amazing lessons program at pretty much every store,
02:39except I think there's seven stores out of 300 that don't have lessons, but every Guitar Center has a lessons
02:46program.
02:46So you have an actual, you actually carved out a space within the store to be, to implement this.
02:51Yeah, absolutely.
02:52So I think we have 3,000 teachers.
02:56Wow.
02:57We have over 35,000 students throughout the country and we've taught millions of lessons.
03:04My kids took lessons at Guitar Center.
03:06They took them online during COVID.
03:09I took lessons.
03:10So it's pretty awesome.
03:12How did you discover this or how did you say, I need to do this?
03:15I want to, I want to open this up.
03:17After Velvet Revolver, I did the theme song for Sons of Anarchy and that was kind of my, my start
03:22into that whole world.
03:24But I had done my own masterclass for guitar, intermediate and beginner guitar players because I went to music school
03:33when I was right out of high school.
03:35And I just got really interested in teaching that to other people, like teaching guitar and then wanting to do
03:41another one with TV and film composing.
03:44And that kind of grew into this role.
03:50I, I, I happen to be doing that.
03:53My wife's best friend is the senior director of visual merchandising at Guitar Center.
03:59And, and she was just talking to me about it.
04:02And I was like, I want to do that.
04:04I want to work at Guitar Center because Guitar Center is, you know, I've been, I grew up with it.
04:08You know, it's like, I remember when Guitar Center was on the other side of Sunset, you know, before they
04:13moved and built a big store.
04:15And, but that was very much a home base for a lot of LA musicians, you know, everyone from slash
04:20George Lynch, you can name them.
04:22They were all there.
04:23I was talking to Robert Trujillo the other day and he's like, you know, cause we play still now in
04:28Infectious Grooves.
04:29And he's like, dude, I remember taking the bus from Venice to, you know, Hollywood to go into Guitar Center.
04:37He's like, I remember seeing Randy Rhodes in there before he was in Ozzy's band.
04:43We were still in Quiet Riot.
04:44He said, I remember seeing Eddie Van Halen in there trying out keyboards because, you know, for the Jump Tour.
04:50And as the senior director of music education, I want to also start telling those stories, you know, and also
05:00start talking to, you know, peers of mine about why lessons matter.
05:07You know, because we all, I mean, Trujillo went to Dick Grove School of Music in the Valley.
05:12I went to MI.
05:14Yeah.
05:14Slash took lessons from the guy on Fairfax.
05:17I was playing the other day with Brooks Wackerman, who Chad Wackerman's brother plays with Avenged Sevenfold and Infectious Grooves.
05:26He's like, dude, there was, there's no way if I didn't know proper technique that I'd be able to last
05:31two and a half hours playing with Avenged Sevenfold.
05:34So it really is this foundational thing.
05:38Well, I think it's great because I think you're a perfect fit because having you there legitimizes this lessons program
05:44because you have so much insight.
05:46You've been in the trenches and you have the stories, right?
05:50Yeah.
05:50I got some stories.
05:51And the funny thing is we were just talking a little bit before you were just to say about, you
05:55know, being like learning songs, you know, when you were playing with the Velvet Revolver guys and you're always the
06:00guy on the outside trying to, can you tell me a little bit?
06:02Tell us, tell us a little bit about that.
06:04I was saying that, you know, when Velvet Revolver first started before we found Scott, you know, we were writing
06:11songs at a studio in the Valley for 10 months.
06:15We would rehearse Monday through Friday, two to six every day and just write songs and look for singers, whether
06:21it was, you know, hey, I got a guy or it's, you know, someone else.
06:26At one point we got like these mailboxes full of like entries and, you know, we'd look for singers and
06:33we'd write songs and, but Dup and Slash and Matt had played together so much that they always kind of
06:40went, you know, kind of surrounded Matt and I wasn't used to it.
06:46So I was kind of like, Hey, I felt like a little kid.
06:49Like, Hey, what are you guys playing over there?
06:50You know, like, wait, can you show me that chord?
06:52You know, so, but it was a, you know, it was an amazing experience.
06:57It's changed my life, you know, here you are.
06:59Now you, now you're teaching that chord to everyone else.
07:02That's right.
07:02It's new with this new role.
07:04That's fantastic.
07:05I was in Texas on Saturday.
07:07There's this little kid named Lane.
07:10He came into this Denton, Texas program.
07:12He was five years old.
07:13He had a physical, you know, troubles when he was born and stuff.
07:18Five years old, nonverbal came in, started playing guitar.
07:23Then he started communicating.
07:24And the only thing he would say to the instructor was he would go like this, right?
07:29Go like this.
07:31And then he started talking and, and then they found out that the guitar center lessons program was the one
07:36place he felt comfortable.
07:37Cause no one picked on him.
07:40Cause he was tiny.
07:41When he was born, he was like the size of my hand.
07:43Wow.
07:43Tiny little guy picked on at school, but he had that, you know, that program to feel safe.
07:50Now he's this nine-year-old incredible guitar player.
07:52So I went out to this showcase in Texas and I looked at the playlist and they were playing Slither,
07:58him and his dad.
07:59His dad takes lessons too, plays drums so he could play with them.
08:04And so I met the kid and he was like bouncing up and down.
08:07He's like, Oh my God.
08:08Oh my God.
08:08He's like hugging me.
08:10And I'm like, Hey man, how you doing?
08:11I can say, Hey, can I play Slither with you?
08:14And he's like, Oh my God.
08:15Oh man.
08:16You know, and he's like jumping up and down and, but it was great.
08:19And it's like, I have a Grammy.
08:21I can look at that, but it doesn't give me the same feeling that I get when I'm, you know,
08:26talking to this kid and hearing his story and playing with them and seeing how awesome he plays.
08:32And it's like, you know, it's, I've been lucky enough to have both, you know what I mean?
08:37And so now it's great to be able to do that with this program.
08:42This program is cultivating the next generation of musicians and you're spearheading that.
08:48That's amazing.
08:49Yeah.
08:49Yes, I am.
08:50Yes.
08:50Right.
08:50Well, I am not going to waste any more time because Dave needs to find more musicians out there to
08:56get into that lessons program.
08:58So there you have it.
08:59Dave Kushner from Velvet Revolver and now senior director of music education experience for Guitar Center.
09:06I am excited to see what you do.
09:08Thanks, man.
09:09Thanks.
09:10It's good talking to you.
09:10Thanks.
09:11Thanks for having me.
