 Hey, it's KK metal voice man in the street. I'm in Newberg today in Newberg vintage Emporium with Me hi, I'm Corey Glover Corey Glover from living color today. We're celebrating the 35th anniversary of this bombastic release vivid Happened today released 35 years ago today. What did this album mean to you when it came out? I mean it had a knock you off Well, you know, we worked so hard to get it done and to get it out and we've been struggling for a while like there's like the mid 80s and we're you know playing around around New York City you're getting a kind of a getting a buzz about it and We spent most of our time playing around town and getting a sort of name for ourselves and then we would uh And then we'd we go we routed rehearsal space in a bushwick Right above literally the L train. Oh, wow. Um the L the M and the F train That ending of open land to a landlord the train going by is that is that the L? Yeah, is that train? I just take that train into the city all the time. Yeah, it's train going into the junction Yeah, it was that we took we were like one it was like one day we were doing we're rehearsing the song and at the song end the train started and like wow, that's great It sounds really good. We should do that But so we were we rehearsed and right and right we'll rehearse All that time like two three days a week then go play somewhere that weekend And then come back on a Tuesday or Wednesday and start rehearsing again and start writing again and you know like Um the song did everybody knows coach personality. Is that your first one? They were no it was not funny vibe was around Even before I got in the band funny vibe was around Um, I want to know was written before week before me will and muzzi got in the band Um, but we would we wrote stuff like cult middleman Love middleman. Um What else have we we wrote open that's where landlord which way to america? What's your favorite color all that stuff we did in rehearsal? and we would uh You know coach personality we came in one day And the song was written in a session in the like five hour session In that rehearsal studio in bushwick So we uh We came up with it. We came up with the groove. I'm gonna have these lyrics You know i'm reading these lyrics and as i'm reading the lyrics is like yeah, I just it goes like that goes like this goes like that so um And we went in with an idea and came out with a song and We had no idea how impactful that song would be But we did what we could and that was the first single right no actually the first single was middleman middleman Middleman was Middleman was actually the first single and we did a video for that and we kept saying you know cult is really the one that's going to do it and Uh, we put out middleman Then we put out cult and cult did really well and then we did Open it to a landlord and then we did glamour boys. So those are the four singles from that record um and You know just the the ability to go out and play it and people all we want to do is people to hear We didn't know whether we didn't weren't really concerned about it being a success of not being an success It was our first record. We thought it was going to take us a minute for people to catch on and realize what we were doing But it seemed to you know with that one song and the climate that the song came out in sort of helped projected into what it is now this that single Yeah, and you know, my brother's my landlord is a b-sider on this too. That's the b-sider. That's the b-sider. Yeah um, so we uh We got a chance to to travel and see A lot of the world, you know, we and we didn't stop working. We worked that whole time Um, you had mcjagger come in and help you guys when you were still before platoon. No, this is after platoon You were in I was an actor. Yeah, we we had Vernon Got a chance to play for jagger on his solo record. Okay and jagger had heard about Vernon and living color and it's like He came to see him and jeff beck actually came to see his play at cbgbs And after that he was like is there's anything I can do to help you guys Just let me know we're looking for a record deal at the time, right? So um, he's like I'm recording and mixing my record at the studio in the city on uh, 48th street Uh, I have I've rented out the whole studio. So I have I have spare rooms if you want to come in And we'll do some demos um You know, we'll we'll work on some stuff and see if that how that that works out. So we went in and We did uh, which way to america And we did something else I can't uh glamour boys Which we thought was sort of commercial in its own right. So he did he produced And recorded those two songs as a demo to send out to record companies And we got some got some interest and people coming around and saying stuff You know the whole stick like we can make this happen We can make this even to the biggest stars in the world blah blah blah blah and then We went to epic and effort was like What we want to do is get what will make this work But a record like this is will work as if they see you if they see you play this stuff We can listen to it all day and it sounds great and sonically that's good But we want to make a record that sounds like you playing live so We We got ed stays him that's it. You got the hormones guy. That's a very good job You know and that you know because of his You know, he like he did the whole raw thing. He did it made he made it extremely raw and him and his his engineer paul hammerson aces the best people in the world, um We sat there and You know, he did a little arranging But ed did some arranging like he changed the way cult personality when we did it originally It started chorus verse chorus And he said let's make the do the verse and then do the chorus and then change this around put this here Put that there and did some arranging on the fly as we're playing it and it and it changed The the way it was perceived, you know, um part of the thing about us You know, we come from a varied background, you know Vernon has a very uh, what's from england? Well, he's from england. He's born england, but he lived in in brooklyn He was in brooklyn also. Well for you guys brooklyn? No, um Me and verena from brooklyn will is from the Bronx and muzzy was from queens um from south jamaica and I'm not south jamaica someplace else, but whatever because he'll tell me he'll call me if he sees and say I didn't live in south jamaica um But he I lived in rosdale. Yeah. Yeah It's he's he lived off a farmer's boulevard. That's all I knew. Okay, you know jamaica everybody lived on a farmer's boulevard, you know, um, so uh So we are at real eclectic background, you know Will has got a degree from berkeley school of music and engineering muzzy had a degree from, uh New york uh From nycc um You know brilliant sort of eclectic kind of things as I said verena had this real sort of jazz thing and I would run from you know, uh You know rmb and soul music to hardcore and and everything in between plus gospel and and spiritual music and all that other stuff And that sort of combination of the two sort of of the four I should say really made things work So we were all over the place when it came to things and like we knew that it needed what we had what we had in our pocket is we have a jazz and a funk kind of aesthetic and verena wanted to make it harder and We wanted to make it groove here and and all that sort of stuff and ed sort of heard that and sort of made it work. So Cats off to ed stadium and paul hamilton Very good, and you uh detoured with the stones. We got that out of it from August 89 to 90 August 89 to august 90 about a year about about nine months in between the two albums No, no, no, no, no, we it was all in one album. It was all for the all off of vivid And we sort of ended it like the end of 88 We were like this the winter of 88 was when we finished that tour so we were out from august to about december end of november and um We we it was hit it hard but but before that um when the when the record came out We were on the road constantly were in vans running around the country and then how you greeted outside of new york the new york area knew you were you greeted uh Were you accepted by the masses when you hit the other it depended on where we went, you know, um There was a lot of we got a lot of press And we got a lot of underground press about the band. So a lot of people there and very curious about what we were doing, you know, um Vern was chatted is like a guitar phenomenon You know, so people came to see what that was about and then they saw that we had songs actual songs and radio Was reluctant Really kind of reluctant to play us But once they got a hold of something they didn't let it go and that sort of helped and mtv pushes them all too Correct. It took a minute for mtv. They didn't jump right on it and immediately because we put out we put out colt's first We didn't put out colt's first put out middleman first And They played it late nights and they played it on 120 minutes and they played it. They didn't play they didn't play it in prime time um But because they were they were sort of acting like a radio station, right, you know And if they got phones Back then it was phones if they got phones about song Yeah, you're able to call in and say I like that song I like that song and that's what sort of pushed us pushed us along and then When colt's personality colt personality was sort of like A bubbling under as a radio sort of like thing and people were requesting it on the radio and because of that We got a lot more push Went mtv got a hold of it and they saw it when people saw it and it went really well. So for good I'd say Two three months we were in a van traveling around the country and by the time The stones towards come around we had gone to england for about two weeks And and that was about it as far out as we had gone and that was kind of fun. Um So we were all now you're playing stadiums. No, no with the stones the stones were playing stadiums When you get in with that but before that we were playing places by clubs by as big as this room Smaller than the chance, right? Yeah much smaller. Um, and we're playing in small the bunk places Yeah, you'd like more of the underground just kind of spice we're playing In you know, well, like you mentioned cb's we played cb's and tramps. That was those in new york clubs but we played this place in uh Gainesville, florida call ironside of gogo Amazing amazing place was like a record store and a club and you know we're playing to you know University of farter folks that were that that got hip to the band and that's what we were doing We're playing in college towns around the world as as far as we could as far as we could and then We then we got on the stones tour, which is obviously much much much bigger. Um, and we just kept playing we seen as much as we possibly could see and then We went then we kept working even after after the stones tour And then we went into the studio and then you put Then we then we made uh times up times up and times up was again Us being in rehearsal constantly and writing and then taking it out and playing it somewhere around town or we would Find bits and pieces of things That we had ideas about and we worked them out on stage so times up was sort of We worked it out in rehearsal Whereas something like uh, let me see the record I can tell you exactly what it was we we worked out outside of Oh, yes We were so Yeah, so young I can't read this. Um Thank you Oh, that's much better, you know lovers of the head we worked out at Like we played it and then we then we refined it after we after we put it after we worked it out um, but You know a bunch of this stuff was just us Sort of working it all out and in the meantime Type was another one like that. Um, we Wanted to you know, we were trying You know the the the idea of cults personality had blown up and everything else and You know the expectation was Why don't you make another cult's personality? We didn't want to do that. We wanted to make something different We wanted to constantly be evolving and not just stuck in one spot, but You know, so we put out type as a first single Which did really really well because off the heels of you know, this band is doing something interesting and they're out there and And immediately we didn't rest on our laurels. We went back out on the road We never stopped again with all of our records. We Want to play them live. We want to be able to play them out there It's for people to get a to get immediate feedback You know, whether they like it or I think it sucks either way We want to figure it out and we still do that when we make a record We want to play it for people who hear what they have to hear what they think about it And find out what they really want from it. Oh sonny and shares Now, um, were you affected with grunge at that time because that's about 90 it's starting to come in Is that right? Right? Right? I don't have an effect on the color No, not at all. No, you're not hand metal actually. No, we were I never thought you were I have a lot of hair, but this was It wasn't a hair band, you know, you know what I'm saying. Did grunge have an effect like this? Um, we we had an idea, you know, there is a there was all enough to To to mine with the ideas that we had and you know What we were playing was as much as what we were saying So we wanted to make sure that what we were saying had had the chance to be heard and understood So when you're doing something like type or you're doing something like lovery's ugly head or anything like that It would lovery's ugly head was another song we worked out on stage as well as an rehearsal We wanted to make sure that you heard it and And know that there that there was a There was much more to us than just that one song that there was much more to us Something we had much more to say than you know, this sort of social Kind of idea of what the world is. We wanted to show you what we thought of the world And that was where our main goal was at the time now You put a couple more albums out and um This gets as an ep stain Yeah, and then your pride is like a greatest hits type of thing And that comes up to about 95 and then the wheels come off the car. Do you guys just take a break? We need to take a break. We were we were we were burnt. We were really really burnt like like I said We didn't stop working like we we went out all most of 1988 we We stopped at the at the end of 88 and then started working on a new record and then immediately going out on the road And then immediately started things we were working that cycle. Yeah, we're getting in this really sort of tiring Cycle like you get on the bus you get off the bus you do the gig you get on the bus You go to the next town you get off the bus you go to the gig and it started to become very very repetitive and we were worried about burnout really really worried about burnout and You know when you have when you live with four people on a bus For longer than you know a week or so It wears you out it will wear you out and we had to take a break from each other really It's like a family. Yeah, we had to we had to walk away from each other And that was you know Muzzy had left the band at that point and Like because of that burnout he's like I can't I'm not doing this. Why did you replace moment? um that was what we did uh, I believe it was Stain staying he comes in staying was when Doug came up. Yeah um and We um So we were dealing with all that stuff You know and so we we thought we could keep going Muzzy had Muzzy was a smart one. He was like, I'm gonna take a break Give myself some time to rest and then he gets some time to rest and we were like no No, we got to keep going we got to keep going You know, I don't know how long this is gonna last you gotta strike while out here is hot And we did keep going we got Muzzy We got Doug in the band and we just kept pushing along and the burnout just Didn't relent, you know, it wasn't a lot it did a lot it did a lot to our our home lives. It did a lot to our our Social lives and you know, I hadn't seen my parents My father died in the middle of us being on the road While on tour actually literally like we were we were um We were home. I was home for a couple of days I left and when I came back He was going, you know so Yeah, so I had to You know that and didn't have really have time to grieve, you know, didn't have time to to You know, uh To be there for my mother, you know, I mean, so that was Part of the part of what I needed we all we in a way We all need to do we need to find the time to breathe and get our minds together and you know Um, it felt like it was gonna You know, we were gonna do this for what we're gonna stop for a while and get back together And then there was a point at which you thought maybe not maybe I could do something else Maybe I could go somewhere else and I could do other things like I can make my own music You know and everybody in the band decided. Yeah, let's make our own music We uh, you know verne put out a record and will put out a record and you put out and I put out a record Cory put out hymns, which is about 30 years old Coming up on that our anniversary a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, yeah, 30 anniversary hymns is very well rounded. Yeah You got some gospel. Like you said, yeah, well, it was like funk my Contribution to what living color was in an album. Basically, Cory's contribution. Yeah. Yeah. It was a great album I thank you. Thank you. I had some really good stuff on it And you know, I took the things that I learned from living color and I took some of the things that I learned just by Doing this for a while and it applied it to making hymns You know any favorites on that um personal Um, one is a really interesting. What was it really one? I love on this record There's a bunch of them. Um, April rain is obviously. Yeah, I mean april rains are very cool The single was odd. Yeah, it's a good song. Yeah, you know the single do you first? Yeah, do you first? Do you first the first is my absolute absolute favorite? Was it that's a good song? Yeah, you know, it was you know, it was the best Of of of that of of that period and I had some really good producers and and writers that helped me out V jeffrey smith and and and peter lord from this band called the family stan Helped me out a lot on that one and I can't thank them enough and uh had uh j mark was a engineer um who had worked on You know fill the up fill the international records and he did the he like he he was a Like I was looking to do like I wanted a record that sounded like This like vinyl I wanted to sound yeah, like a barrier. Yes. I wanted to sound like this um and so I think j was the guy to do it and We had all these people that were very very very very helpful and And shout out to the face records who you know after a minute of I was with epic for a minute and then I was like this is not gonna work and they didn't think it was gonna work Like okay, I'm gonna go someplace else and I found a found a new home And it was the face and out of Atlanta and I moved to Atlanta from I moved it for just a bit just just to be near the record company and know and be a part of What makes how to make this record? Sort of a good transition. So Speaking about how young you are. This is the cover of rolling stone 1990. It is uh november 1st 1990 Got a good look at how big they were at the time. They made the cover of the rolling stone and that that that made my friends very uh What's the word I want to look for they gave me a lot of shit They gave me a lot. They weren't jealous but they just gave me a lot of shit Your real friends are your real friends. You know that I tell the story all the time. I was in the They had a we had a break in during the stones tour And I came home And I'm still living at home with my with my mother and she was like, okay, that's great. It's you off the road Could you have nothing to do? Here's a paint. Here's a brush Here's the stoop paint the stoop. So I had my friends drive by While i'm painting the stoop giving me lots of grief Like the rock star is painting a stoop. You know, it's like no my mother says I you talk to her until I tell her rock stars Don't do that. She'll throw you out the house. So um So I so I did get a little little grief for that But you know my friends knew this is what I wanted to do and The fact that I got a chance to do exactly what I said I was gonna do was They they they they gave me props for that. You know, that's what friends are for exactly Now you guys moved along you put out the kaleidoscope, right, right? That was like 2003. Yeah 2003 Is the band still in function all the time constantly you just taken breaks or you didn't have actually formally break up, right? Well, we we did formally break up. We and what was that like 90 something Um, like 96 97 we broke up. So then that that would be the return album. Yeah, kaleidoscope Klasscope was it was sort of like that's a tough one to find by the way. Yeah. Yeah, it really is it is. Um And we went we went back to the well was like We're gonna talk about the things that we that we know about, you know, 9 11 and happened and one talk We really want to talk about that. Um We wanted to talk about the world as it was now, you know, it was changing, you know, the internet was new We had and we wanted to talk about that. We had talked about it before with information overload But we wanted to get to more and depth in that sort of thing. So We were going We're plumbing as much doing as much as we possibly could, you know And during the new decade. Yeah. Yeah, I mean new millennia, you know, it was like What is that? What does that entail? What are we? What are we going to be? What's what are we in store for? You know more the same or is it going to be different? Well, you put out it I mean you put out uh Was the chair in the room chair in the doorway chair the doorway that I mean that's great I I have that I just couldn't find it right now. This is they don't have it here. This one When you came out with shade, it really brought me back to you guys again It was now this is on mega force records japanese z's record And uh, this was a great album. This is 217. Yeah, so this is about the last living color thing It's the last seven color record we put out and this is our idea was um We were going to look at the blues as a genre of music and how to Kind of deconstructed we did the robber johnson tune um and We made yeah, there's a lot on there. Yeah, there's a bunch of stuff, you know freedom of expression We'll preach some blues. This was it was a robber johnson cover Um, you know, but we wanted to figure out how to do that says an initiative blues, obviously You have some credit like who shot me who shot you that that sends a message right Well, we really wanted to talk about that because you know the proliferation of guns even at that time was way too much And this is 217. This is 2017, you know, and these kind of things were happening already So we thought, you know, we want to talk about it. We want to have a conversation and you guys always did talk about Yeah, but uh, yeah, whatever's going on in the world. You really did. Yeah, always always had to Now you have some solo stuff. I want to ask you about the last bad penny bad penny is uh How'd you get involved with Danny Miranda on those guys? What is that? That's only a downloadable, right? Yeah, it's only the only buy a download. That's a good song. It's a good song. It's a really good song my friend militia vox um, who's in this uh, who Is in this in band called jewish priestess And she does some solo stuff singing from jewish jewish And she called and said they're looking for a male singer and I've suggested you when they called me and I did it And it was fun. It was lots of fun. It was easy, but it was fun. It was quick. It was very very quick Now the one I really want to talk about was Disciples disciples of erity now. I got this from somebody in The Chance who actually plays on it right friend joe Yeah, okay, and uh I didn't know you were on it at first. I put it in it was docked In the car. I'm like, I know this voice right and I got home and I read I'm like Right Yeah, how do you come up with this? This is really hard and heavy stuff. It's not it's not in your wheelhouse normally It's like it's not punk. It's heavy metal. Yes. It's it's more of a it's like prog metal kind of thing Yeah, it's very good prog metal. Yeah, um, and my friend, uh, who You can blame all of this on is george pond. He's okay george to george pond is Great bass player great producer Really picked him And he's uh And He kind of wrote me into it like we were at the nam show in anaheim california One year and he's like i'm doing this project and no they from around here. They're from south jersey Okay, so it's it's a long drive from here. So it's gonna say that's what we just did this week Yeah, yeah, exactly. It was he's yeah, he's from jackson. So, um, yeah He's from south south jersey. He's from real south jersey um and He's like i got this project. They got a couple songs Could you sing on them for me and let me see how this goes like two songs turn into six songs and six terms songs turn into an album Then you get the whole album then we had the whole whole album and then we got uh, kory pierce from A god forbid to play drums on it, which was which was great. He's him. He is amazing kory It's pain in the ass, but he's amazing and you know, um And just we tried to you know We rehearsed a lot with that and we tried and we went on the road for a bit for a bit with that And then we go on the road. Yeah, it's for a minute. It's like to smoke again the small clubs in a van again um, and Then we're right this very minute scoop. We're making a new record of this man. Okay with that man Very good. The cycles are varied for another album. You should look out for that. This should be out. Oh, well Yeah, I enjoyed that one. Yeah. Yeah speaking and making new music in december on youtube I do believe I saw a little clip on one minute or two minute clip of a living caller in a studio Yeah, I was working on new music. Oh, absolutely. We're always working. Always working on new music. It's it's It's difficult in 2017 Yeah, we we like to take our time in making albums That's that's a blessing and a curse because you get enough you get a lot of material While in the space between but you know Like back, you know, it's that nature abhors a vacuum So if there's nothing to do something will come up to do and we all have something to do, you know You're running around a lot. We're working all the time and um You know everybody's doing out doing other things, you know So it's hard like we have to we have to carve out time to be able to get together And really sort of concentrate on making a record, which you know is difficult You know when you you know I know for myself. I'm a parent my kids are going off to college Um Mine too. Yeah, you know without you. Those are my kids on sunday. I thought so but they didn't want to be rude No, no, those are my sons college at which college I am Um, I one of them wants to it was going to go to school around here somewhere I think one of this one of the suni school and the other one wants to be a Chef so are they twins? No, no, they're they're close in age Yeah, um, they we didn't waste any time They're mother and I now here's an awful question. Anybody have I asked if you're related to Roger Glover? Roger from deep purple No, I didn't think so Now Kristen was that Kristen Glover? No, I mean Donald no, no So no No, no, no We see you coming around with extreme. Yes. Yes. This summer. What a great bill to funk rock bands You're opening up. Yeah, I'm hoping that does lead to more music. You guys out on the road. Maybe a little more, right? Yeah, yeah a little more collaborations. Yes, absolutely Um, does Cory have any solo stuff coming up that you want to come on? Well, I'm doing this As nothing I've I've written although I'm thinking about doing some more writing Um, you know, I had this thing where I do this acoustics thing that I was doing earlier this year We were opening for the guys from solo silo um And they were doing a duet the acoustic thing and it was me and my partner, uh Mike zero Who's also very busy So we think about doing it making an acoustic record. I'm also doing I've been doing this, uh sort of like this, uh Funk fusion sort of thing soul Kind of thing we played recently like two weeks ago up at the falcon, which is not that's what I meant We I saw that show too late. I just caught it that and that's a great place to play It's an amazing place. And that's where you did that show there. Yeah, I did that show there and We play at the park theater in Hudson So a little bit catch your solo so so we're gonna try to do some try to do some more of that And of course you got the the cycle stuff and the living color and anything else anybody call me You're a busy man helps me pay the rent. Yeah, don't forget the 30th anniversary 35 years 35 years 35 years corey glover. We don't have I don't have children this old Thank you everybody close this old You don't have clothes. I don't have anything this old. I appreciate your time and this album is a classic And thanks for your time anytime. Thanks. I hate you everybody