 Jimmy K here, Metal Boys. Look at this. The Metal Boys shirts are now on sale. Just go to a video description to find out on how you can purchase one. Metal! Greetings, everybody. It's KK from the Metal Boys. And today with a special holiday edition of the Mail on the Street with Eric Martin from Mr. Big. Sit up straight, Eric. Your mom might be watching. How you doing, Eric? How you doing, Eric? What's going on? It's good to see you got an acoustic show going tonight. At Daryl's house. Very good. One of the best sound systems in New York State. I would say the Hudson Valley, but the whole state. It's beautiful here, guys. You wouldn't believe it. It takes a while to get here. It does. It's like the long and winding. We're in the middle of the beginning of the Hudson Valley. But you, first of all, it's great country. And I don't know if you've seen the movie White Christmas, but it's got this Vermont, hold on, might be my big break in show business. Nope. That's okay. That's worse. Anyway, it has this Vermont thing happening from White Christmas. If you've ever seen the movie, it's all very woodsy. And right now, obviously it's got all those Christmas lights and wreaths and mistletoes. Do you know about it? Mistletoes, mistletoes. Yeah, that's good. Not for you and me, but like out there, there might be some prospect out there. Do you know if you stay on 22, you go right up to Vermont? I didn't know that. You go straight up here and you're strapping Vermont. So that's the whole spirit of that anyway. That's why he's on the money with this. It's a gorgeous place. I didn't realize this, but the sound is so perfect. It's because it's all a note sound. It is. It's after Peter. It's amazing. I was so lucky. Except when PJ, my little bass player from Trickster, gets up there and he goes, and look, I go, don't mention Daryl Hall because he might show up. Don't mention him. He's probably up the street right now, whipping up a nice, strogging off. He does live around. I know. I know. But I didn't want to say, please don't jinx it. First thing PJ gets up there and he goes, wait for me, please. And I'm like, I started doing like, you know, Catholic fucking, you know, the incense going out. Yeah, yeah. Dominus, Dominus. Dominus Semino Patre. So listen, my condolences about your longtime manager, Herbie Herbert. Herbie Herbert. I'm very sorry. Yeah. Condolences from the metal voice to you. Oh man. He was the guy. He was a, I don't know if anybody got a chance to be managed by him. I know Chips Enough and Donny and Europe. Journey. Journey, of course, Journey and Roxette and Santana, Steve Miller. Santana, yeah. A lot of San Francisco people. A lot of San Francisco. Is that where your base is? I mean, Roxette too. Roxette and Europe from Europe, you know. So, yeah, I live a little outside of San Francisco. But he managed me for about 10 years before Mr. Big. That's where I know him. And then, you know, 20 something years from. When you were doing this. Yeah. Look, kids, it's before and then after. God, wait, wait, wait. This is your camera one, camera two. So here it is. What do you think? Don't, why are you leaning into it? You're not, you're not helping. It takes two of you, two of us to make that guy. Look how pretty that girl is. Get out of here. Get Audrey Hepburn. A shawl. Did he ever give you a big shot there? Was he a real? Yeah. He was my mentor. A gift horse. He and a very good friend. He loved me, but he also, man, he'd be like, if I complained about anything, he'd go, hey, don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out. You saw the dome, though, too. I did. I mean, I was, well, I mean, I was in my early 20s. He went to be with you. It was number one, which that was directly, not indirectly or anything. That was because of him, Atlantic Records. No offense to any people out there on Atlantic Records that worked. The Lean Into It album, you did a great job. But there was The Powers That Be, the big suits up there felt that Mr. Big wasn't a good match at the end of that working that Lean Into It album, which is the second one, that thought that maybe we ought to just, like, let this band go. We were doing so good in Europe and Asia, but Herbie begged them to put it out. To put it on the album? No, no single. It went out as a single and it went all over the United States and it spread like wildfire just like he predicted and it went number one. And unbeknownst to us, it was number 10, number three, number one in Europe and then eventually 15 other countries took suit, you know, and it became number one and then Atlantic Records, I love you, went, we got a big hit with this band. We're going to keep them around for a few more albums. When you went up from Opening Act to this tour you were opening, correct? Yeah, yeah, we were opening to, well, we were playing little clubs here and there and then we got a chance to open to, we opened a Winger. This was our first tour of Winger and it was great. And then right at the end of this, I think we might have got the Rush tour pressed out. That's it, okay. Yeah, and then, and even like Getty and Alex used to come in our dressing room and say thank you for writing to be with you because more chicks are coming to the rush. Well, how did you get from jump from Eric Montan Band to Mr. Big? Was that, you did solo stuff? It wasn't a jump, it was a long way through the trenches. That was 1983 and I mean, I didn't struggle that long. A couple of years. Up until that moment, I struggled big time before I got to that moment. But I was still sleeping on my dad's couch on that hat, as my kids call it, the hat shoes album. Good, good. But I had, I did some, I actually went to, I got signed to Capitol Records, like in 85, and then 85, 87 did two solo albums. Yeah, and tour with Eddie Mariela. And I was kind of a, I didn't know who I was. I was a rocker, but I dressed like Paul Young and Daryl Hall. I can't say his name. Yeah, I was so late. I was enamored with Daryl Hall. They were good. I mean, they were so good actually in that separate pretty face thing. Before Eric Martin band, it was called 415, the area code of San Francisco. And we got to open to Journey, Billy Squire, Hollow Notes, and, you know, it was 415, but the mountain air in Sacramento was like 15,000 people outside. And we did our show, Hollow Notes' air show, they were great. And then those two bands, we just had a couple beers with Daryl and John, and just watched the other bands and Journey, of course. And I played another gig with Hollow Notes at the Phoenix Theatre in Petaluma, which I've been brought up in years. I put it on my Facebook, I won't just tell you this real quick. So he's playing this piano, which is a Yamaha CP-70 piano, electric grant, baby grant. And he had this really cool stand. A lot of people just sat down. He had a cool stand that we could stand up and it kind of bounced a little bit. It was great for live. And the guy that was working for me at the time was named Zeke Clark. He went on to work for Van Halen and Prince. And I was talking to Zeke, and I go, I'm going to have this same stand up. And he goes, I read your mind. This is Daryl Hall, of course. Daryl Hall. You got to do it. So for years, and even suffered for pretty face, I wasn't just the front guy. I was a keyboard player and singer. Yeah, I did both, but I modeled my whole existence and took all my soul singing from him. Anyway, go ahead. You got a million questions and I just missed a big mouth just talks away. Don't worry about it. That's what we're here for. Now, how did Mr. Big come about? Was that a record company throw you together or you guys all met up? Somebody pulled some strings there. No, not really. 88. This guy, Mike Varney. You ever heard of him? Yes, I do. Great guitar. Guitar guru guy, producer, discovered all those records. Malmsteen, everybody. Gilbert. There you go. You just do last names now. Malmsteen, Gilbert, Greg Howe, Tony McAlpine, a bunch of really great players. You heard of Michael Lee Ferkins and that's another great guitar player. Anyway, Vitty Moore. It's all coming to me. And I've known Mike for years. We were in bands together. He was in a band called The Nuns. It was kind of a pub band thing. And I was in a band called Kid Courage. So I've known him for pretty much my whole musical life. Mike told me about Billy Sheehan. He's out of David Lee Roth. It was like around 88. He said he's looking for a singer. And then first he goes, do you know who Billy Sheehan is? And I go, not a clue. Not a clue. No, I mean, if I lived around here, I'd tell us. We knew him on this playlist. Tell us. There you go. The first time I met Billy, he gave me his sink your teeth into that thing, you know? Yeah, yeah. I'd shy away and all that stuff. But anyway, I go, is that the guy in the David Lee Roth ganky rose video? Pretty colorful guy. He goes, yeah, that's him. And he goes, yeah, he's looking for a singer to start a rock band. I don't know. I was totally into the rock and R&B stuff at the time. Like I said, Brett Paul, young and maybe even Michael Bolton at the time. I mean, I was going there. He was in a metal, he was with? No, no, no. Yeah, yeah. He was a blackjack. He was a blackjack, so he's okay. But he's still at a great solo voice. Grant, a little smarmy at times, you know? That's because we continue to be rockers over the years. And Michael went in a different direction. And I thought, I was friends with Michael Bolton, you know? He was a great guy. First time to be with you hits, he gave me a call and he goes, hey, you know what I hear right now? You know what I'm hearing? And I'm thinking, you know, and he goes, I hear cash registers. He's digging right now. He goes, good for you, Eric. Anyway, I love that guy. So that's where the direction I was going in. And so when Mike goes, Billy wants to do a rock band, he loves your voice, you know, from something he heard. And I'm like, I don't know. And he goes, well, you can talk to him yourself. You know, Mike was notorious for that. He's slipping them in the phone. Hey, how you doing? It's Billy Sheer. I'm really low. And I'm like, hey, man, I hope I didn't put my damn foot in my mouth. I'd say, hey, colorful. I mean, you know, hey, you know, really exciting. Anyway, so him and I started Mr. Big. He had Paul. We auditioned Pat. And that first album was written when we first got together. The whole record was done. I mean, the whole writing of that record was done in eight days. Wow. Yeah. And then we spent a little time doing demos. And we did showcases for every record label. Kids, every record label. And then Atlantic came out to see us, flew all the way from New York. And Billy, we all ate at some restaurant called Flaky Jakes. Right there, the name says, you know, something wrong. Yeah, that might be a couple little trips to the toy toy. Anyway, so he wasn't feeling good. And New York came all the way. And they were like, OK. And had to go back home. And we go, here's a little cassette for you to listen to on the plane home. And they did. And they flew home. And the powers that be, man, the big boys, the big suits, they signed us. Sight unseen. Well, when I was a weird Flaky Jake story, they signed us. Even with the sickness and everything. Yeah. They saw potential. The one that hit me on this album had enough. Your voice on that. Oh, right on. That's a Billy Sheehan song right there, son. That is, I said, wow, he does fit in this band. Because I knew you from, you know. I do fit in that band. Hey, look, none of us knew if we were going to fit at all. Everybody said supergroup. Pat Dorby came from, he's a session guy. He was a session drummer. But he came right from the knack. He was in the knack. See, he came in the knack. Paul Gilbert from Racer Rex, which I went, oh, Jesus Christ. I'm not a metal, speed metal guy. And he came in and he's wearing, he had some weird clothes on. And he's six, okay, let's just say eight feet tall. Because that's how it looks to me. I'm a short little tiny guy. And then, and he's setting up his amps. And they were like green and orange and red, like day glow. The cones on the cabinets were like that color. I'm like, oh, dear God, what have I got myself into? And then Billy's right there setting up his, which I like to call Starship Sheehan. Monster Riggs. Starship Sheehan. It's just like a massive amount of stuff. And I had my little CP70 Yamaha piano. And I knew, I think me and Billy might have made a demo then. Or I had a couple covers. Or some songs that I'd written and a cover song, but to shop around. And then, and we shopped, I'm sorry, we shopped around again with the demo that we finally made, right? But him and I kind of tried to get something together, some interest in labels. Anyway, long story short, I had written a song called Big Love, way before we even had the name. So Big Love and another one called Rock and Roll Over, that went on our record. We wrote it on piano. And I'm sure those guys are looking at me going, what's going on here? Elton John is here at the table. And none of us knew it was going to work. And we just, we all love Led Zeppelin. We all love the band Free, Paul Rogers, Paul Casso. Somebody saw it wrong? Billy said he goes, Spooky Tooth. Anybody ever heard Spooky Tooth? And they're like, yeah, kind of. Yeah, Gary Wright, yeah. They all love the Beatles. I'm kind of a Stunge fan, but I love the Beatles. I'm a kinks guy. Yeah, but if there are more Beatles in the room, you got to say Beatles. So the way it is, yeah, I love Keith Richards and the Jagger and they're like, what do you like the Beatles? And I go, I like them too. Now, Mr. Big goes through the eight nineties. Nineties and then a couple of good albums, Paul Lewis. Couple of little good, you're making it short. Scott Shortman, short. Anyway, yeah. 1996, he splits after the Heyman album. Now, you've had, what, three or four albums by that time? Four albums. And they were all one as good as the next, right? Yeah, I had some hits on it and touring all over the place. Nobody, yeah, that Paul Gilbert left and he was probably getting sick of me and Billy Sheehan yelling at each other, you know, or bickering. What was it like because to be with you was such a big hit? Did the record company want you to keep producing a ballad every time? He read my bio. Every record, when you have a hit, I'm sure Extreme had the same thing and Tesla, they had a ballad too. Love song at the time. Yeah, the record company, he was like, give me the next to be with you and give me a bouncy seed, you know, that thing. Yeah, and that was the reason why we actually did Wild World on Bump Ahead. We thought the album was great. They had a song, A Promise of the Moon on it that was really great. Not to be with you. Bump Ahead was a great album. Like, all those albums had a tongue in cheek thing, but anyway, long story short, I couldn't write another, we're not hit makers. We're a rock band that had a couple hits. We're like, and then when we had a couple hits, you get the taste, I'm like hey, maybe I can write any time Billy should say this thing, if you think you stink. If you're trying to write a hit, it's not going to work out. No offense to Desmond Child, they're all those great songwriter guys, but when you just kind of do it organically and earthy, it comes and it's a hit to you. I got the public on a good day to be with you, and thank God. It's a good song. It is a great song, yeah. So you said Paul Gilbert leaves and then I want to say it felt like a year. I felt like a year, maybe it was only six months, but I knew Richie because of Mike Warnie. Mike discovered Richie Cotson. Gilbert, Cotson, McCalpine, no. Richie Cotson. When I met Richie me and Mike ran into limousine and picked me up and Cotson was hanging out with him. The three of us went to some award show in San Francisco called The Bammies. The Bamm Magazine, Bay Area Music, and I saw Richie and he was 19 years old. He looked just like he does. I'm sorry man, I know you try to get ready to get pretty boy image, but you're pretty boy. I'm talking like Cotson is actually watching this. Of course he is. His wife is sitting on the couch right now. I'm going, more popcorn? Eric's on. Yeah, I mean Mike played me in the car. I was so jealous too. He played me Fire and Water. You know, the free songs. Give me fire and water and hit Cotson. I love Paul Rogers. I felt like I tried to sing like him, but Cotson at the time sounded just like him. I was like, and he was 19 years old and I was not so, I was totally jealous of him. But I was like, yeah, Mike was like, don't look over your shoulder. Don't worry man, you're the shit. I'm like, I don't know about this guy. And then here he is, I run into him and I ask him, but I asked him to. He came to one of my solo shows similar to this. And when he came in the door, actually, I'm playing the gig and he came in with a fake teeth and his hair is all mess and he had this raggedy coat on. He's like, hey, get that job to you and I thought he was a homeless guy and I was like, hey man, I'm going to take a break in a minute. You know, just hold on for a minute and then I go, okay, I'm going to take a break. I was doing two sets and I reach for my pocket. I pull out a tenor and I go, here you go, buddy. And he goes, I want your money, man. But it's like, you know, it's a thick Pennsylvania accent. I can't do it. Please don't forgive me. But he's like, I want your money. I want your money and his teeth are all jacked up. But I looked at him and he's got them eyes. He's got them pretty boy eyes there. You like jackass. And I go, Richie. And he's like, how did you know what he was getting? And I go, we got to talk and then right in the middle of the conversation I go, man, you'd be perfect for Mr. Big right now. And you and I could kill it. We'll be like the righteous brothers. I mean, he's got soul. I got soul. We're on the house that Darrell bought Bill to. We're in the house that Darrell built. They'll give you like hollow notes. Did you guys hominize on that? We played it up because of his voice. It was my idea to Billy was like, you're the lead singer. And I'm like, no, man. He's a singer too. Let's do like righteous brothers hollow notes then to get Sam and Dave. Oh, you had to bring Van Halen in there? But Mike was great. That's what I meant. And then they all were great harmonies. But I'm talking about two singers. Righteous Brothers in the front doing it. We did a song called Shine and I'm going to play it tonight, actually that we did back and forth vocals. We share the lead and then another one called Suffocation. Another song that we wrote in his kitchen kind of when I just hung out with him called You Don't Have To Be Strong. We really had something going and then the band imploded again. What year it was, but it was actual size record. What is that? Actual size that imploded in 2001. And then you started with this one. Well, there's history of that. You're just reading our tombstone? No, I have some notes on you, sir. So yeah, he just didn't work out. I don't want to go into that detail. Don't worry. Bad taste in my mouth. You went back solo? Yeah, I did what I do. I don't even... You did a bunch of things in Japan like Mr. Vocalist? Those were excellent. There was a whole series in them. Mr. Rock Vocalist? Yeah, that came later. Mr. Vocalist was basically me singing songs that were made popular by female Japanese artists, million sellers. And man, it was like me putting on an Armani suit. But I loved the role. It was something to do, but I had no problem. And they like... The Japanese, they go, Husky. We say gravelly. Me. Yeah, they say husky voice. Husky. Anyway, Mr. Vocalist did great. First album, 300,000 records. I didn't like the name at first, but I'm like, as soon as that check came, I was like, I had Mr. Vocalist. I had Mr. Vocalist. So you did a bunch of solos, and then Mr. Big comes back around? Before that. Ironically. Ironically. I'm playing this gig in Italy. And it's opening to Richie Cotson. And on drums is Pat Torpey. And we're in Naples. And we're in some classroom right next to some band shell. It was packed. The whole city came up. But the dressing room was in a classroom at the elementary school. And him and I are sitting at like these two funky little desks. It's put my fat butt in the desk and I'm like, we got to get the band back together. And we're on a mission from God. I swear to God it was that way. And I go, well, I've been kind of talking to Billy a little bit. I reached out to Billy a year before and said, hey, my son I want to play bass guitar. He's like 10 years old. Does Yamaha make a bass guitar for a little kid left-handed? And he reached back. I hadn't talked to him in five years I think, you know. He reached back. Yamaha did make one. He found one in a pawn shop in Japan. Put some strings on it. You know, got the knobs differently. You know, because it's left-handed. Put the knobs where they're supposed to be. Stuck with Billy Sheehan decal on there. And this came for Christmas, a big box. Came for Christmas. It was surreal because I hadn't talked to the guy in five years. And here's my son playing a Billy Sheehan guitar, a bass guitar with a music stand and a Billy Sheehan learn how to play a bass guitar book and a video. And it's like, I've heard the fundamentals in the first steps of a bass guitar. My son's listening to this. And we're all in our pajamas. And I look at each other and I'm like, it's a sign from God. Does he still play? He can. He's more into sports now. His first song I ever learned to play was To Be With You and Money. Money. Pretty. Almost like The Ocean by Zeppelin. Right. Which was my first song I ever learned. When you play everything, right? Oh, a little kazoo. Little accordion. Little recorder. Anyway. I'll name that too. So, Billy did that. Me and Pat got to talking. I think the biggest hurdle is Paul. I don't think he wants to do the band. Because when Paul moves on, he moves on. Oh yeah. He quits. He leaves for good. And done that a couple of times. Yeah, he left. Plus, he's just so well into solo stuff. Anyway, he's got a whole gigantic following instrumental guitar player of heroes or fans. But anyway, when we got home, Billy wrote me a letter and said, e-mail and said, hey, Paul's playing the House of Blues. Paul's playing the House of Blues. Richie's playing. Pat's playing with him. And I'm going to go down there and check it out as a fan. And I go, well, say hello for me. And they went, and then they ended up playing 30 Days in the Hole as an encore. And Paul goes, you know, and he looked over at Richie. No offense to Richie. I would have loved to have Richie. When we got back together in 2009, I even suggested it. Totally got knocked down a peg, but I thought, why not have Richie and Paul play? Reunion, who knows what's going to happen. But Paul looked over at Richie and he imagined that Eric was singing. And January 19, I think it was 2009, maybe? When that album came out? Yeah. Look at the 2010, you're right, January 19, 2009, I'm right here. You don't have to look at your notes. I'm Wikipedia. Like in the flesh. This guy. I trust you. You thought, since you changed your name to KK, you'd be like a little light bulb. This is all going to be edited, me trashing them. He'll leave it in, trust me. All right. So here we are. And then we move on. We get back together. We got What If. After that, stories we could tell. Stories we could say. Pat. You know, I get sick. Parkinson's. He was sick actually during the What If record. We didn't know what it was. And he didn't either. He was playing and he never made a mistake. But he was like, and one little beat, you know, me, Pat, me and Billy and Paul and our producer. Well, Colin. Pat. I mean, he never made a mistake. Ever. And he was so good at what he did. And he wrote a bunch of great songs. But anyway, we didn't know what it was. And he didn't really get diagnosed until that stories we could tell out. That came years later. And on tour. Playing tour. You know, we played like, I don't know. Maybe 10, 15 songs and started to realize. I mean, we usually had played a 25 songs. But it broke down to 15 or 18. And then we had to get a sub drummer to come in and help us out. Got Matt Starr, Pat, from 15 to 10 to five songs to four songs to two songs to one song. What do you play on the flying ground? Just Take My Heart. And Fragile. Yeah. Sometimes it would switch. But he had a cocktail kit right next to Matt's. So it was like, if you've ever seen me play that percussion player that plays with me right now, Ben Hans. He plays with the Kip Winger. It was that kind of kit. Maestrum. A Jim Bay. Maybe some cymbals. But he was so, you know, it's me. Matt Starr and Pat was right here. And he was my right hand guy. To your side he was my left hand guy as far as the vocalist. Him and I did the harmonies. You know, the John Lennon and Paul McCartney's harmonies. And then George and Ringo took over. You know, we all sent great together anyway. But there was one time in a couple of times in Japan we would switch instruments and sometimes I'd play drums and most of the time Paul played drums. I'd play bass. Billy would play guitar and Pat would sing. And on our last tour Defying Gravity, I mean, we're playing huge places. There were big catwalks and everything. We were playing Living After Midnight. You know, Priest, you know. And Pat's wearing leather jacket and sunglasses. Running, up and down thing. And I'd said to him he even used to say I can't believe Eric he said in an Airbnb one time I said, are you really sick? Come on man. He would do this thing. You've probably heard me say this before but it was a cringe moment but I felt so bad for him. But he wanted to break the ice to the audience. He'd come out right to the lip of the stage and go I mean, people know what Parkinson's is. I mean, it takes over your whole body. And he comes out to the lip of the stage gets on the mic and goes, hey everybody whole lot of shaking going on. No, I know, I know. That's my everybody's reaction I'll say when he did it the first time I was like he's allowed though. And he goes he's like it's alright I'm good. And that's the kind of guy he was just a cool guy looking that much crazy neurological whatever that Parkinson destroys in mind in his body but he looked right in the eye of the devil and punched him right in the face man. Oh, god yeah man. God yeah. I used to do this I play a lot of acoustic touring all over the world and even if some places and I'm going to play I play in India. I've gone to India five or six times. What am I crazy? It's epic. Anyway, I'll go I like to introduce the band and it's just being a guitar player or something and I go, patch off beyond the drums no matter where I am he's there in spirit. That's the peace pad. So without path, does Mr. Big carry on? I don't know and I don't think so. You think it's over and done? Yeah, I'm not quitting. I never have quit so I'm just going to keep the door open for Pats ghost you know? Yeah. You also did some I'm going to say it. I'm going to shake the piss out of me Oprah. No, I'm going to talk about Haventasia. Oh, yeah right. You did a couple of albums. How did you get involved with that? Now you sent it to me in the email and said you didn't think you were a metal guy but listen to those albums. I didn't think I was a metal guy. What's the videos with him and Jeff Tate on stage? Jeff Tate, Ronnie Atkins from Pretty Man No, I can pretend to be metal. I played Bakken three times biggest heavy metal concert in the world. I played Hellfest Bakken with Mr. Big actually too but with Haventasia all the biggest Haventasia is the headlining band it'll say Priest, Slayer, Megadeth and then Haventasia and then right underneath that I'm like big huge things where I'm like I would never be able to be I was a bit mild on those festivals just like you think man like a sea of black shirts almost like a I know in my head I thought it was gotta be a bunch of Hells Angels and stuff and it is but everybody is so cool it's like an awesome club guys girls everything but it feels great except and I know I'm gonna get the piss taken out of me except when me, this is how I intimidated I get when I go backstage and I'm looking at catering and catering is just like a it looks like all especially in Europe they got a biking vibe and I'm coming and you go hey everybody they're like Eric Martin I feel like they're looking at me but I've got people coming up to me going you're one of my favorite singers of all time guys wearing fucking horns favorite rock voices Texas Chainsaw I'm asking you like you do, you've got a great voice I heard you crack a joke out there before about 16 magazine I mean I remember seeing it they go I have my mask on and I recognize this girl as a fan and I kissed her on the cheek with my mask on right and she goes to her boyfriend or her husband or whatever she goes Eric's kissed me so many times and I'm like going I carry the one I carry twice, I've got a few girlfriends and you're not I don't remember you and I have a good memory and then she kissed me a bunch of times and I go oh you mean my metal edge posters and my 16 magazine 16 magazine oh yeah dude you're looking at there was no poster 16 magazine but you're looking at the back pages of Tiger Beat right here kids with Sean Cassidy and the rest of them what's in the future for you anymore solo shows, acoustic what's your future bringin' right now well I just signed on the new Aventasia record I just did that with me and the main guy Toby and I also threw Aventasia and Jeff Tate and I got to be pretty good friends we're actually really good friends super great guy and his wife Susan's got his mouth like a sailor she's a big help though but I mean that in a good way you know she's a mouth like a sailor brains beauty break down the walls make somebody crawl on the belly like a reptile anyway she invited me to do something called Jeff Tate's Backstage Pass Travel and I've done that I went from Seattle first I played this gig with him I played acoustic with his two guitar players right here and don't do that to me right now I remember the other guys that Karen and Mike up yeah those two guys with knuckleheads they call them the hot potato boys yeah they're good, gotta edit that part out we forgot the dude's name because man it's terrible I mean it I swear to God three months ago anyway let's do it again so are we live yeah the Jeff Tate we did the Backstage Pass really awesome but Seattle I mean he's a native son of Seattle sold out in minutes he plays his gig and the two guys that Susan calls them the hot potato boys the two guitar players back me up and I played this acoustic show and then got in a van got in a couple vans luxury vans with fans that pay some money to travel listen to his stories they stayed at the same place like a bed and breakfast type of thing yeah well we drive all the way to Montana we went to Idaho played a gig there then we went to Montana took over some group and said they called down ahead of time and said hey Jeff Tate's coming in but the sound engineer got caught up there was nobody to do the sound or some of the stuff was locked up in a door and I put on my acoustic guitar and I said hey man I've done busking before let's just do that so I'm going around to the table singing Wild World and stuff and he's going around the table singing Jet City Woman and stuff off of a rage it's super cool so then we went to restaurants and distilleries and a little big horn in Montana and did hiking and it was just a pretty cool thing with these rock bands man of Queensrike and Jeff Tate anyway so you'll be doing some more so I did that I'm going to do it again I'm touring in March in South America with a a rock band South American rock band playing all over South America at the end of May is Jeff's thing traveling doing that same thing again and then both of us are flying to Germany and rehearsed with Obentasia and then we're going to do June, July, August with Obentasia so it's not going to be all tons of shows it's going to be 15 shows but in between those things Jeff goes off to Ireland and does his own thing and then he's playing all over Europe doing acoustic exactly like that like this and I'm going to be after three months in Europe and then when I come home August I'm going to do some American stuff and then I don't know if I can say this in that Susan probably loses her shit right now but then I'm going to go out with Jeff Tate for three months in the United States Mother you hear me full operation they're not going to do operation wine crime they're going to do something else but you know listen I stopped drinking for a long time now it's almost like eight to five days I am 15 years for you but I'm thinking of my because he's got that good wine that he makes that I think our tour is going to be called Operation Wine Crime so just to get the senses moving fingertips get that spiritual thing yada yada so that's what I'm going to do cutting more questions are you just going to pound me and go I'm not going to go I'm going to tell you to have a Happy Holidays first I appreciate that thank you for stopping by Merry Christmas everybody Happy Holidays Monica whatever you celebrate from the metal voice