 back up a little bit. How are you man? Where are you? I'm good. I'm in Plymouth, Massachusetts and we're moving, we're building a house and it's a long story but we're kind of going back and forth from one place to another to another. My daughter just moved out. It's been crazy. But anyway, we're building a house and we're slowly moving into that house. In Massachusetts still? In Plymouth, yep. Wow. What made you move out there from California? Well, I moved there in 95, wanted to raise our kids in a different place. Having grown up in California, I felt like it wasn't a great area, especially at that time, even though we lived in a nice neighborhood in Fullerton, it just wasn't where we wanted to raise our kids. So we moved back here. My wife at the time, Kyle, she was from this area and I've been here since 95. So this is home to me even more so now than California. Wow. Wow. I always like to ask people because I'm born and raised in California and I always ask different people because I travel as a comedian and you get to some states and they're like, I could live here but you never really know until you dive in and do it. Exactly. No, for sure. And that's the same thing. I'm going to scoot a little closer to this wall here so I can simply lean against. Yeah, that's the thing. You never know until you do it. And sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It worked for me. I really like, the winters are pretty cold and pretty brutal but I actually like them. I like going from summer into fall, right now the leaves are all turning and the temperatures are dropping a little bit and then we'll go on the winter and get some snow and I really enjoy that. It just changes things up a little bit and makes it interesting. Well, it's funny to think about back in the day, now with the internet and YouTube and Instagram and TikTok, you can really start a band anywhere and maybe get some traction if you have some luck but back then you had to move to LA to play in that sunset strip area, right? Well, I mean if you wanted to break where things are breaking or if you want to break where things are breaking, yeah, you kind of need to be there in the center of it all. And we just happened to be there because we lived there. I was born in Whittier, lived in La Mirada, Fullerton. We jumped in the car and in 35 minutes we were on Hollywood Boulevard, Sunset Boulevard, Santa Monica Boulevard. So we were right there in the heart of it and once we formed a band and started writing and recording, we just went knocking on doors down on the streets of LA and started getting gigs at Ghazari's Troubadour and the whiskey and it was pretty interesting. We started really young. I mean, I think that the first time I played the whiskey, I want to say I was just turned 16. So we started really, really young. My brother was 19. He's three years older than me. So, but for me, I was a kid and playing the whiskey in the Troubadour. So I looked back on that and I think, gosh, I was very fortunate to be in that scene at that time. Were you going and hanging out at the clubs too and seeing stuff like Shark Island and Rat and all those bands that were kind of really grinding out there, Motley Crue, were you seeing any of that? All those bands, Shark Island, we played with often at Ghazari's. We played with Mickey Rat, who became Rat. They were a house band and we were a house band at Ghazari's many times on the same night, Friday or Saturday night. Saw Motley Crue. We performed, walked down the street and watched Motley Crue perform. Saw Guns N' Roses before they broke and Wasp. I mean, the list goes on and on. Quiet Riot. You go back further before I started playing the clubs. I saw Quiet Riot. I saw Yesterday and Today at the Starwood. Yeah. So I was in that scene, you know, we got to experience it, live it, see it firsthand. And it was really amazing. Yeah, I was in that too. And I just don't think that people really understand the magnitude of how you would go down to Sunset Strip on any night. And there would be thousands of people just out on the street and millions of flyers on the poles and, you know, bands just handing out flyers. It was wild, man, to see that. It was wild. And, you know, it was a time too where I always joke about this on stage. You had to be careful if you were a straight guy, you know, because you'd be calling out to what who you thought was a beautiful girl. And it was a beautiful guy, you know. So yeah, it, a lot of guys with their hair up and their makeup on and their tight clothes on and everything. It was just a really unique time and scene. And it was an explosion, really. Because as you said, you go down there now and it's like, what happened? Where are all the people? It feels really odd to me, like almost the end of the world or something. You go, you know, back to 1981, 82, and you go down to where Ghazaris and the Roxy were or are. Well, Ghazaris was. And it literally, you know, it was like six people wide marching down the street. I mean, just tons of people. It was explosive and intense and insane. And what a time. It'll never be repeated again. Well, I don't think I've really seen it happen with any type of thing. That's what's really interesting to me. I'm 56. You're 59. But I haven't seen anything where there were thousands of people other than maybe Studio 54 and the disco scene in New York, where there was just thousands of people every night. Like there's just no, no thought of a job tomorrow. It was we're living for tonight and everybody was out of the house. Oh, yeah. And it was insane. It was amazing. It was just a really special time and all the dots connected right there at that place. And, you know, people talk about the scene they had in Baltimore, the scene they had, you know, in Boston or the scene they had in other areas. But man, they have no idea. Yeah. What, you know, what the scene was like in LA. You had to be there to believe it. See it to believe it. It was just insane. And we were there. And I look back on that, being able to grow up during that special time, it made me who I am today. It made us who we are today. So thank God we were in right time, right place. Well, there is an interesting thing also about it to where it really, I think, scarred a lot of people. I would say about 90% of the people, which I call kind of hair metal tumbleweeds, where they're just kind of like blowing around like, what happened? They never really grew as a person and they just live for those like five years of their life, which was so long ago now. Isn't that wild? It is wild. And, you know, without naming names, I don't like to do that. But I know I have a few faces popping into my head. And what you said, you hit the nail on the head. It's kind of sash to see. You know, it is almost like they never grew up and they never moved on. And they're 60 years old. Yeah. Yeah. 61, 62. And you're just thinking, wow, what happened to these guys? But, you know, just the fact that they're still alive is miraculous. A lot of them aren't. A lot of them are dead and gone. And the fact that those guys are still here and cleaned up and getting help and whatnot, it's really good to see. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that it could be maybe just the energy and the adrenaline of that era. It's almost like a cocaine high where they were just running on such a high gear of like, look at this to now where they're just kind of like, you know, like skydiving. I've skydived before and then you're like, well, there's nothing ever going to be like that. It's the pure lunacy, you know? Yeah. Totally. Completely. And I think too, you know, we as human beings fall into traps and become, you know, creatures of habit. It becomes a habit and it's hard to break that habit. You know, and that goes for whether it's drugs or lifestyle. You know, we're all susceptible to that. And I've seen some guys where it's like, oh man, you just kind of shake your head and you really do feel bad for them. It's like, man, maybe someday they'll grow up. Maybe when they hit 82 or 92. You hope they hit 92. Wow, man. Let me talk to you a little bit about I grew up in the Bay Area, San Francisco area and was a Booker of the Stone. Me and my good friend Jimmy Arsenaugh, who was a huge Striper fan, played in a band called Soldier. I don't know if you remember them, but I do. Wow. That's kind of cool. But we had you, you played the stone in 85 and 90. Do you remember the stone at all? I do remember the stone and what's going on with the stone these days? I assume it's gone. Oh yeah, it was it closed about 93, I believe. John Nadie, who owned, Nadie Wireless had owned those three clubs, which was the Omni, the Stone, and the One Step Beyond. And he closed them, you know, just mostly because of, I think he wanted to kind of move on in life. And that was kind of a different era starting to happen. There was less club bands. But, you know, Sam Fran and California in general just had a mega club scene where you could play all over California and it would be a tour. Yeah, absolutely. No question about it. Even to a smaller degree, San Diego, so many areas. But LA, you know, like we've been discussing, I mean, that whole hair metal explosion, 78, 9, 80, 81, 82, more so 81, 82, 83, it was just wild, you know. And I'm thinking about it now and it's all coming back. And I went down there every weekend. There were times when I didn't have a car and I would literally get a ride from a friend and they dropped me off and I wouldn't have a ride home. And I didn't care. Not at all. I didn't care. I'd always find a ride home. I'd meet someone and they'd give me a ride home. They were gracious enough to give me a ride home. But those were some really amazing times, very special times. When you guys, I don't remember if I read this somewhere or saw it somewhere maybe about five years ago, but was there a woman manager or somebody that really started to get you guys going into the Christian thing and changing that whole flavor of the band? Am I right on that? Yeah, we originally way back, we had a woman who was helping us by the name of Vicki Hamilton. Yeah. Yeah. Vicki, that's right. I had her on the podcast and then I read her book. That's why I read that. Vicki Hamilton was helping us way back. I don't know if I'd say she was our quote unquote manager, but I guess she was briefly. And then we eventually wound up meeting a woman by the name of Darren Hinton. And Darren, her family grew up in Bel Air and she had some money and she wanted to invest some money into the band. And she really liked the band and fell in love with what we were doing and what we were all about. And she did, she gave us $100,000. We invested, we bought new equipment, we bought billboards, paid for advertising to promote the band, paid for our first album, all sorts of things. And she really was so integral and important in the history and the making of the band. And then Darren wound up co-managing the band with my mom and herself. Well, your mom was the manager. My mom was, man. She managed us for a while. And then we realized, you know, my mom did a really great job, but we realized like we were getting to a point where we were playing arenas and became bigger. And we felt like we needed someone bigger to manage us, you know? So we wound up going with Danny Goldberg and Ron Stone at Golden Mountain. Oh, yeah. And that was, even though they were obviously world-renowned and brilliant managers, it didn't work for us, you know? And we were with them for a short period of time. I think it was like a year, if that. And then who do you go with after that? After that, we took some time off. I left the band in 1992. Yeah, I left. I was basically planning on retiring for a while. Is that when you took that job at your wife's dad's place? Well, in 92, we didn't live here yet. That wasn't until 96. So between 92 and 96, I just took time off. I did release a solo album in 94, but for the first two years, 92 and 93, I didn't do anything except bake kicks for my kids, elementary school classes, walk in the school, go to soccer games, softball games, dance class. That's all I did. And I realized the importance of family and the importance of being a dad, even though I wasn't the best dad, I tried to be. And when I say the best dad, I mean, I was gone all the time. We were touring, you know? To hell with the devil, we were literally gone on and off for over a year. I missed out on a year of my kids' lives, you know? And even though the music is fun and we love what we do, you should never put your band above your family. I don't care who you are. It's wild to think about because I'm 56 and I'm out on a tour right now. I'm out here in Selina, Kansas on a day off. And I have not done a 34-date tour in years. And I'm like, I'm like, this is too long. I'm a comedian. I usually go out on Thursdays and tour a city, do three, four shows and then come back. But this is 34 straight. And I look at it as, you know, as you get older, you're 59. You think about back in the day, like, I was gone one time for 10 months. Oh, I know. I couldn't, I don't even know how I did that. I mean, I literally flew in from my first child's birth and then flew about a few days later. And I was just gone all the time. And I didn't think much about it then because we were so caught up in the whirlwind of, you know, the fame and the fortune and the band breaking and all that stuff. But, you know, when you look back on it, if I could go back in time, I probably would have changed things. I do have some regrets about life and decisions I made. But at the same time, it's shaped me and made me who I am. I've learned a lot from it. But I don't recommend going out for long periods of time with your family person. I don't recommend that at all. I don't do it anymore. We go out two weeks at a time at most three weeks and even that's pushing it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I understand what you're saying. I grew up with a father not around. So and he wasn't touring. He just wasn't around. So I that's why I never had kids. I knew I didn't want to put somebody and put them into a insane world that I was in of like, well, you know, you're at you're at baseball and your dad's not there and your mom's not there because she has to work. So it's I don't have any regrets on it because it really formed who I am as an artist. But yeah, man, if you do have an option, I think there's and touring is different now that you're with like FaceTime and stuff. At least you can see it back then. It was like a pay phone, you know? Oh, I know it is. It is different. It with technology, it's a little easier. But you know, the thing is to be older, you know, we're all 60 ish. And you know, when we go out, we just did a run. We went out and we got three mini vans. We drove ourselves to the venues. We had four in a row. And we were getting up at, you know, four in the morning driving eight hours. And I'm going to tell you, man, we came home from that. We're like, we were beat up. Wow. Wow. No buses or anything. You're just driving yourselves. That is gnarly. When we do when we do short little runs, we'll do that. Now, when we do a longer run, which we did this year, we toured for five weeks, we were on a bus. Right. Pulling a trailer. Yeah. And that's a lot easier because you can at least sleep. Yeah. That's what you need to sleep. Yeah. When we do these little mini runs in mini vans, it's brutal. And then you get on a plane and we flew to Costa Rica early morning flights. And it just like you come home and you're just thinking like, oh my gosh. And then you say that publicly and the fans are like, what do you mean you're a rock star? You got it made. And I'm like, okay. Yeah. Let me ask you this, back in those days, because I was a singer for 25 years, when you were on those long tours, because your voice is absolutely fantastic right now. And it has been throughout what I've seen your career. Was there any pockets where you had vocal problems, maybe some nodes or you had to your voice was just trashed? Or was it always just, you know, like, like how it is right now? I mean, this new record, you sound unreal. Oh man. Well, thank you. That's really kind of you to say. I always have vocal problems. I mean, I've never had surgery. I've never had nodes or nodules or polyps. I've never had anything like that on my vocal cords. I get my cords checked every couple years. The only thing that I have, and they always say they look great, they look pristine. The only problem I have is I have a really thick post nasal drip. So I'm always going, I've got heavy mucus on my cords all the time. The doctors feel that that protected my vocal cords, because I, you know, they said my vocal cords look young in great shape. But you know, with age, your cords, like your muscles, they start to stiffen a little bit and they change over time. And I've just chosen my battles. I've learned how to pick and choose what I'm going to do. And, you know, when I get sick out on the road, there's nothing I can do, like any other singer. If you've got, you've got something in your throat and your chest, you're in trouble. Get through it. You know, you tough it out and get through it. And I've had to do the go to the doctor and get the prednisone steroid crap and inhaler and all that stuff. I've had to do that multiple times over the years just to get through the shell. But I just, I'm very blessed and fortunate that I can still sing and accomplish and do what I want to do for the most part. My voice has changed a little bit, but not, not so much so that I can't sing anymore. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's definitely guys out there that had no idea in 1981 that they were going to be out touring right now. And some of them really can't even sing anymore, which is, it's pretty brutal because they might have been ripped off from the record company and manager and they have to be out there. And then you got websites that are just blasting them like, this guy can't sing. And, you know, it's really harsh. It's so harsh, dude. I feel bad for people that are going to that. I've gone through it to a degree. If I have a bad night and, you know, I'm not hitting the notes right or not hitting them at all or whatever, people just crucify you. And that's the beauty of the internet these days. That's the world we live in. That's what you can do about it. You just got to let it kind of roll off, you know, and move on. And that's the way it is. But, you know, some of these guys can't sing at all anymore. They're literally going out singing down an octave or just talking through the melodies. And gosh, I would say if I ever get to that point, and I might, I may, I hope not. But if I do, I'm going to stop singing. I will not sing anymore at that point because I'm going to end on a higher note versus a lower note. And the good thing I've got going for me is I'm a guitar player as well as a singer. So if that happens with my voice, I'll just play guitar and stand in the background and try to come out with some poser moves and we'll get a young fresh thing, you know? It's crazy because, you know, I had a stepdad that was just an absolute piece of garbage. Didn't work at all. He just wouldn't work. He was addicted to gambling and just a piece of garbage. But it's wild because you know, and I know I played music for years and then I went and got a regular job and then I became a comedian late in life. And it's been a complete game changer, but you've worked a regular job. And I always wonder like, look, I know that people are an artist, but you're really an artist if you're writing and recording and working all the time. I don't know if you're an artist if you're just out talking through your songs, you're not writing or anything, you're just out to get a paycheck now. It's wild that they don't just try to find a job doing something. Yeah, it's very strange to me. And everyone can figure out those people that are doing that. We all know who they are. The guys that literally just can't sing anymore. And they're out there and then and some people say, well, it's the nostalgia leaving alone, they're doing what they want to do. But me personally, I can only speak for me. I can't speak for anyone else. If I ever got to that point where I can't sing, I will not sing. I'm not going to humiliate myself and the brand and the legacy of the band, just because I'm selfish and I'm going to force it and go out and continue on, even though I shouldn't be. Like I said, I'll play guitar or I'll go do something else. There's always something else you can do. I could produce, write albums, I'm a writer as well. I mean, there's all sorts of avenues that I can take and go down and I figure it out. Rather than humiliate myself and my, like I said, my brand and legacy of the band. Early on, when you were shopping around for a deal, I know you guys were on Enigma, but then it was a Hollywood records. At any point did they ever say, hey man, get rid of this God stuff and you're going to be way bigger? Were they forcing that on you at all? They did not. That was the beautiful thing about Enigma records is they didn't. They allowed us to do what we wanted to do and be who we wanted to be. Now, initially, when we did a showcase for them, they couldn't understand the words. And when we submitted the lyrics after they said, we'll sign you, we're interested. We submitted the lyrics. They did have a problem with that. They did come back and say, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. The lyrics you guys are singing about Jesus. What is this? And we're like, yeah, how could you not hear that? You know, Jesus is the way, literally, always blew my mind. Like how in the world did you not hear that? They just saw the pants and that look and they're like, we've got one. We've got one here. I guess so. But literally every song was like, you know, Jesus and God and I mean, it's funny. But we submitted the lyrics. They had a problem with it. And then we talked to them about it and they didn't have a problem with it. They're like, yeah, you know what, cool, let's do this. We love the band. We love the songs. And obviously, we proved them wrong because when the first album came out, it exploded. It sold, I want to say 150,000 copies as an EP and 84, like in a week, which for a small time band, it hadn't done anything. That blew their minds. They were like, what in the world? And then the next album came out and went gold and then that was it. When we used to go in and have to wait an hour to see the execs there, by that time when to hell came out, we'd go in and literally they'd be rolling out a carpet and have wine and, you know, candles burning. They were even talking religion. And we got our Bible, man. Thank God for striper. They were, they were killing it. You know, tell the devil's sold multi platinum. And by that time they were like, oh my word, you guys are getting so big that we got to bring in capital to help us. And they did, they signed a deal with capital for distribution. And then that was where it just really took off and exploded 87, 88, 89. Yeah. Now you're not one of those guys. Do you believe because in God we trust came out and it kind of didn't do well, but it was also right there where the quote unquote grunge was coming in. I don't believe that grunge killed that, you know, hair metal scene. I believe that it it had run its course. The band, the labels had signed too much garbage and, and also, you know, scenes change. So are you wanting to think back now that in God we trust maybe wasn't that good of an album? Because a lot of bands I say, well, at that era, your record just wasn't that good, or the label didn't promote it. There's two different things. You know, what are your thoughts on that? Well, here's my thoughts. Well, we had tell the devil, which was multiplied, and then we had in God we trust, which went flat. Right. Now the album, I think you're thinking of is against the law. That came out in 91. Right. And that's when grunge really started kicking in the in the gear. And that album did not do well. That album didn't go gold. To this day, it isn't gold. And what's interesting about that album is, you know, when I talk about it, some fans really get up in arms about it. Because to some fans, it's their favorite album against the law. And I think my only thought on that is those are probably fans that became fans with that album. Right. And they hold with it a very special memories, and there's the nostalgia that it brings to the table. But as an album itself, it's produced brilliantly. Tom Wehrman, amazing. Eddie Delaney, killer sounding album. But it's not Striper. It doesn't sound if you listen to that album and then go back and listen to all the earlier albums. Sounds like a different band. You know, you're going to hear little similarities in the vocal style and whatnot. But it sounds like a different band. Good or bad. Love it or hate it. More almost Van Halen sounding Van Halen album than Striper. And I think we lost a lot of our fans during that time. I don't think grunge killed us. I think some people would say it did. But then how can you argue the fact that firehouse broke during that time? Right. Right. Who was hair metal and poppy and ballads and they broke at that time. Slaughter broke during that time. Wow. So if it was grunge, they wouldn't have broken. And you know, so I think it was that album. We made poor decisions. We changed our colors, changed our sound, changed our look, changed everything, became a completely different band. We should have changed the name of the band as well. Then we might have broke again. Yeah. Yeah, man. I mean, but that's what makes a great band coming up on like 40 years now. When you're looking back, you're like, Hey man, a lot of people hate Aerosmith done with mirrors. I think it's one of their greatest records. And there's just different errors in a band's career if they're long around long enough. Other than like, say, ACDC or the Ramones, where, you know, that's their sound. But there's bands that have taken chances or changed and they go up that that didn't work. But you have to, you know, check out other avenues, whether it be record company influenced or band members influence. You always get band members that are like, Hey, I'm tired of the black and yellow. Let's try something else. You know, and, and I get it. I agree. I do agree with that. You got to take chances. But at the same time, like, you know, you go back to like when KISS lost their makeup, right? That was such a definable part, integral part of who they are and where it should be. And you take that away and you're like, why did they take that away? That doesn't make any sense. So they obviously ultimately put it back on. Because it's such a big part of KISS. Same thing with the Against the Law album. I felt like the yellow and black is such a big part of who we are, love it or hate it and the sound, the guitar tone from those earlier albums, the style of writing, the music. And I think that we changed it up a little too much. That's just again, my personal opinion. Not everyone would agree with that. But, you know, I think numbers don't lie. It is our worst selling album of all time, literally. Can you take me back to when you did Dynamo? That had to be pretty special. Dynamo being one of the biggest festivals in rock and roll and metal. And that had to be pretty special, right? Going to Europe playing Dynamo. Yeah, it was a little scary. I mean, because I remember playing that festival and the crowd not liking us. Oh, wow. Yeah, they wanted to kill us. And they were chanting expletives. And it was pretty scary at the time. But we wound up changing the set list. We lost first love. Yeah, let's take that out of the set. Let's put in the rock that makes me roll instead. You know, we made it more metal. Right. And we went and played and we won the crowd over and they wound up really loving the band. Wow. Wow. That's wild to think about. That has to be scary. You know, I'm out on this tour right now, a comedian opening up for a rock band. And I don't usually do that, but I love this band that I'm out with, Marcus King band. And, you know, there's nights where they're just like, nah. And you just, you figure it out, you know? You do. You figure it out. And we, that has to happen all the time for us. Like, you know, we're playing a festival and then we were opening for WASP. And then all of a sudden they changed the order and we're opening for anthrax. Oh, wow. Okay. Let's change the set list a little bit here. You know what I mean? So those things happen and you do figure it out. And there have been some times and situations that where it's been pretty rough, man. We've been in fear for our lives of thinking like, how are we going to get out of this one? And we always do. We always make it through. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not going to lie. I was not a striper fan growing up because mostly because of the Jesus thing, but I really got turned on to you by when I went out to see Boston. Oh, yeah. And I knew you were in the group and you came out and you absolutely killed it. And I was like, wow, man, this guy's great. And you were smoking at your voice, your guitar playing. And, you know, on the new record, I'm listening to the new record and I'm like, wow, man, this is this could be Judas Priest, painkiller era songs, you know, super heavy, tons of amazing guitar playing, great vocals, great songs. There's bands out there right now, heavy bands that couldn't even compete with this record you're about to drop, which is, you know, with their new records. And it's interesting to hear how all these years you've been still kicking ass, which is cool. Well, you know what, man, we just nothing gets in our way. That's kind of the mentality in this band, especially my mentality of, you know, if I get into a fight and I put the gloves on and get in the ring, even though the guy might be beating the crap out of me. And he knocks me down. I'm going to get up, knocks me down. I'm going to get up. I'm going to be that guy that keeps getting up all the way to the 12th round. And you're just going, how is this guy keep, how does he still get up? Look at him, you know, he's pulverized. That's the mentality with this band. It doesn't matter what's said about us, what's done against us. I don't care. You know, we get no radio airplay at all. Does it matter? Nope, doesn't matter. Because you can't stop the machine. You can't stop the bullet train going 120 miles an hour down the track. And it's diapers, the bullet train. And we've been going for almost 40 years. We got no one's going to tell us we can't do it and that we shouldn't do it. And that's going to make us want to do it even more so. And we're driven. I'm a very driven person. And I think that's increasing as I get older. I really believe our best is yet to come. We have not released our best album yet that day will come. But it hasn't yet. What was it like being in Boston with that guy from the Home Depot? Because when I saw it, you could tell he was a Home Depot guy. He had he hit the notes. But boy, was he up there like, whoa, we're in like, I mean, it was at the universal empathy. It was huge. And he was like, whoa, there's people out there. You know, it's a lot different than doing karaoke. What was it like? Would you give that guy tips each night? And Tom Schultz, where you guys just like rallying around him? How did that work? Well, the way what happened with that, I've talked a little bit about what I'll talk more about with you. Yeah, I was that guy that they came to to try to help mold Tommy and shape him into a quote unquote rock star, you know, right? Came out originally in a white beater T shirt and baggy jeans, short hair. I think he had a little mustache and a bottle of water on a stand. And he was drinking that water like in between every line, you know, and just nervous. And I get it. I was nervous too. But Tommy's a sweetheart. He's a great guy and a good friend, although we haven't stayed in touch as much as I'd like to. Really good friend. So I literally took him out shopping. I was the guy that would take him out shopping for clothes that made him look cooler. And I helped kind of shape him into who he is and what he is today. And I became that guy. And Kim and Tom and management would come to me and say, can you can you do this? And and I would do it. But yeah, it was just a unique situation because that became the Home Depot tour. Right. Everything was orange. You know, there were aprons everywhere and signs everywhere. And I'm just thinking, this is Boston. Boston doesn't need Home Depot. Yeah. If anything, Home Depot needs Boston, you know, and it's weird to me. It's like every interview Tommy would do, it was about Home Depot. And it was just, it was a little embarrassing at times. Not for him because I get it. They found this guy on the internet. He worked at Home Depot. I get it. That's a story. But it was just like after a while it was like, okay, we get it enough of that story already, you know, because it's Boston. They're legendary. You don't need that. Almost like a gimmick. And what really upset me is at the end of the tour, when Tommy went to go get his job back at Home Depot, they wouldn't give him his job back. What? Yeah, he went to go get his job back and they denied him his job. And I felt like, wow, I literally did not step foot in a Home Depot. And I was at Home Depot all the time looking at light bulbs. I have a weird thing about light bulbs. I was there all the time, the OCD and over light bulbs. And I didn't go there for like a year and a half. I refused to go there. I'm like, these guys are the worst. What was the reason, do you know? They just wouldn't give him his job back. I don't recall, but I remember talking to Tommy and him being really distraught about it and like, wow, I can't even get my job back. I was there for so many years and they promised them they would give him his job back. The crazy thing about that right now is people listening to this podcast are like, wait a minute. He just went out and did a full Boston tour. Why would he need his job back? I'm sure he made $8 million. People don't know. He didn't make $8 million. We made more than we thought, but it wasn't as much as you'd think. Right. But that being said, the reason why he needed his job back is because Boston didn't tour every year. Right. So we toured in 08 and then in 09 they didn't tour. And then in 2010, they didn't tour and Tommy needed a job again. Right. He was in a position where he needed a job and he went to go get his old job back and the place that we promoted for the whole tour and they wouldn't give him his job back. Garbage people. I don't know what it was about that, but that's set so wrong in me. It really angered me. I was so mad about that. Especially like Home Depot. It's not like a corporate job or something. You know, it's Home Depot. Hey, show me where the two by fours are. Yeah, right over here. I mean, who would want it? I'm going to the Home Depot where the Boston singer works. Who's not doing that? I agree, man. I didn't get it. Now, in all fairness, he might have eventually gotten his job back later on, but I remember he went and tried for a while and they said, no, no, no, and we would have conversations about it. He was upset. I was upset. And then obviously he's still in the band Boston. So they wound up touring again and touring quite a few times since. I don't know if they're ever going to tour again. I don't know that as fact. I'm not an insight, but I can only assume because they haven't toured for three years, maybe four. And Tom's, I think 75 or six now, and he didn't like touring anyway. Right. Tom did not like touring. I had to talk him into touring a few times when he wanted to cancel the tour. Tim, so how about Gary Peel? How great is that guy? He's a great guy, great player, very level-headed, sweetheart, became dear friends with him and his wife. I'll never forget. I was the guy who introduced everyone on stage and I did this for a while. And one night Gary comes up to me on stage and whispers in my ear, Hey Michael, it's not Tom Schultz. It's Tom Schultz. Why were we playing like four players or something? And I remember just sitting there going, what? I was announcing him with the T as Tom Schultz. I always did. Yeah, it's Schultz, Schultz. Wow. Now, who was the woman? She was fantastic on bass. So like, where was her background? Was she a Boston musician or what? I don't know her and she was great. Yeah. Her name is Kimberly Dom and she, I believe is living in Nashville now. I don't know where she's originally from, but Tom met her before I was in the band. She was doing a gig in the Northeast somewhere and he went and saw her perform and really liked her talent. And hired her and she became a member of the band before I joined the band. And she was great. I mean, really great player, great singer, great person. And then once I left the band, not long after that, Tracy Ferry, who was our old bass player, wound up becoming a member of the band. But Kimberly's awesome. She's the real deal, man. And why they replaced her or why she left? I'll never understand that because I thought she was perfect and great. Yeah. I saw Boston on the Boston three record. And I'm still questioning if it was piped in audience or it was the loudest crowd I've ever heard. I've seen thousands of shows literally, but they played the Oakland arena. They came on and the audience was screaming so loud. I was like, what is going on here? You know, like I felt like I needed earplugs for the audience. Well, I tell you, it's usually, even if you have an audience that size, if you mic it properly or so you think, it still doesn't sound quite like it should. And usually they, they pipe in a little bit of extra audience noise, you know, just to make it sound a little more exciting, you know? I know Kiss did, those are all secrets of the trade pretty well. On the live records, of course, you know, Kiss used like Super Bowl 13 or whatever, of course. But you mean live in person? Yeah, dude. I was at the show and it was insane how loud the crowd was after each song. I was like, wow. That was probably just real deal, man. I'll tell you, I've experienced that a couple of times going overseas in certain countries like Puerto Rico, for example. Strippers performed and the crowd was so loud. It just, it didn't seem real, you know? Yeah. You got a great guitar tone and you're a great player. You really were around during the height of the Char Ville era. What was your guitar of choice back then? And you've always played some wacky shapes right now in the new video. You've got kind of a small, weird looking mini V. That's almost like that Hamer KK Downey in era one. But were you a heavy Char Ville guy back in the day at Pre Jackson? Oh yeah, I've always been a Jackson guy. I mean, back when Darren Hinton invested that money into the band, my first thing to do, because she said, let's go buy some new gear. I went down to Guitar Center, Santa Ana, and I purchased a new guitar that had just come out, and it was a white Jackson Randy Rhodes V. Wow. A conchord. Yeah, this was back in 1983. And I bought that guitar, and that's what I played. My brother taped it up with yellow and black tape, put Manowar on it, varnish. And eventually it went, once we signed a deal with Jackson just a year later, Grover painted that guitar for me. And I have it to this day. It was stolen. I got it back. I have it to this day with the original paint and everything. Wow, you still have it. I got it back, man. I don't know how, but a guy sent me a photo. He bought it illegally. He didn't know it. Sent me a photo and said, I love your guitar. Thanks for having this guitar made. I said, man, that was stolen. I'd like to get it back. And I got it back. Now, were you a hardtail guy or Kailor or Floyd Rose? Hardtail and Floyd. I did have a guitar or two with Kailor system. I didn't care for because with those systems, the ones I had in particular, I could never pull up. It was always just dive down. Right. Right. But the Floyd's being floating the way I have mindset up. I can do a lot of vibrato with my Floyd. And it works great. I love it. But I love hardtail as well. I've got a bunch of guitars with no trim system at all. And I love those. I'm so used to having it there though, you know, and hitting it. It's like a part of my guitar. When it's not there, it's a little odd. What about amps? What are your amps? Were you a Marshall guy, Boogie back then? Are you into boutique amps like matchless or anything now? I'll tell you, I started off when I heard the first boss now when I was 13, not long after that, I started going to pawn shops and trying to seek out my own tone. And I wound up eventually when I was 15 or 16, I wound up purchasing a, actually I was 16. I went to purchasing a lab series, L11 head. Wow. I remember those, man. Yeah. And I remember Montrose, Rani used those. So I thought those are great amps. I always loved his tone. And then I found out BB used them and a number of guys used them. Allen Holdsworth used them at one point in time. And I saw that it had a little frequency, a parametric EQ, semi-parametric. And I thought, that's interesting. I bought it, brought it home, wound up eventually preamping, coming out of the preamp out of that into a Marshall. And that was instant striper tone. Wow. Like instant. And I used to hide that head when we'd play with rat, like the Zari's, all the guys would come up, Robin would come up and say, man, how are you getting that tone? And I would say it's that modern Marshall might have the lab series hiding behind the back. I didn't like lugging it around because it was a head. So I wound up eventually finding what was called a Furman PQ3, parametric EQ. I bought that when I was 17, almost 18 at Whittier Music. And I started preamping my Mesa Boogie Mark II C's with that. And that's when it morphed into the tone you hear on Soldiers Under Command. Wow. That's what about on the new record? Because it's really, I got to give you, I got to commend you on the sound of this record because there are some bands that have dropped records recently that were recorded during COVID that just do not sound good. You can tell they were passing the tracks around. It's all compressed and small. And that's almost impossible to get a shitty tone these days with how great Pro Tools and all the plugins are. So I don't know who's listening to these, but your record sounds incredibly violent and brutal, great attack on the guitars and the drums. Well, good, man. That's awesome to hear. We're always trying to get better with each album and improve from the last, but I'll tell you what we did on this album that was a little different from the others. We always miked the cabinet, the speaker, always. And this time around we did not. For all the rhythm sounds, it's a Captur X2 notes that we're going into with the head. And the head is a EVH, the 50 watt EL34 EVH gold and black. And I'm preamping the front of that with the Tech 21 Q-strip. So it's a single band parametric EQ pedal. And I'm going into the front of the EVH and then I went out of the EVH and in the effects loop, I had a decimator, noise gate ISP, and I had another EQ, a Dunlop EQ to kind of shape the EQ a little bit post. And then I went into the Captur X, the head right into that. And we did not feed a speaker cabinet. We went direct. And with the Captur X, you're able to go in and there's software with that. You can really fine tune the EQ, the distance, the mics used, the cab juice, all that stuff. And that's the tone you're hearing, man. And I did a track and then ours did a track. So two rhythms. And on some of the songs have three rhythms, one up the middle, one left, one right. And then on some of the songs, I did a track and then I did the second track, you know, like ashes to ashes. I remember ours had a little trouble playing the riff. You know, that riff. So I track, double track myself, but it's all double track or triple track. And it's, that's the tone, man. It's that striper tone, adding that EQ, 7 to 800, boosted to the front of an amp, a Marshall, Boogie, EVH, whatever amp you want to try, you're going to get that tone. What's the guitar in the video, the small type of V? Those are sullies. Oh. Guided by the name of John Sullivan, who learned how to build guitar and was inspired by Grover. He and Grover actually released a road style V together. Recently in recent times, but John Sullivan builds guitars that are just like the old Jackson's. Yeah, I talked to Grover Jackson for like four hours on the podcast, man. What a history. Oh yeah. Yeah. Crazy stuff. John is Grover again. Kind of, I don't want to say reincarnated, but he's like a young Grover and he is passionate for guitars. Same. And he's brilliant and he builds killer guitars. You go to sully guitars.com. You'll see. He builds guitars that kind of have that Firebird look, King V look, Rhodes look, awesome stuff. Let's talk a little bit about the, the band. Now, Tim Gaines is not, hasn't been in for years, right? He hasn't been in since 2016, end of 2016, maybe beginning of 17. That's when we decided to part ways. And that was the third, maybe the fourth time that he had been out of the band. So we have a guy by the name of Perry Richardson. Now we used to play for firehouse that we were talking about earlier. What's the problem with Tim? Is it personal or is he just doesn't like to tour or what's happening there? I think, you know, I don't know if I'd put it in the term of a problem with Tim. I think just over the years, for whatever reason, things just didn't work out with Tim. I remember the first time we parted ways. It was based on style of playing. And I've discussed that. You know, we got into the studio and we tried to track the bass. We had some drums tracks, some guitars tracks, and it came time to track the bass. And it just didn't feel right. So we made an executive decision, the band, I didn't get the bad rap for that. But in reality, and truthfully, it was the entire band that made the decision along with the producer. We decided to bring in a guy by the name of Brad Cobb. We auditioned bass players and Brad got the gig. And we tracked Brad on that album to help with the devil. And we were looking for a very defined sound, a certain type of sound that's very important. And we got that with Brad. So it was nothing against Tim. We just weren't getting it with Tim. And then, you know, I think that led to him being unhappy and us being unhappy. And eventually, he was replaced with a guy by the name of Matt Curick who played in Leather Wolf. And that didn't work out. Tim came back, played with us for a while. Then Tim left again. Just kind of an ongoing thing, you know, but I think it stemmed from that first time that he left. Well, what's amazing is almost 40 years now that you have three members out of the four. So that's already like three quarters more than most bands have, you know what I mean? So you're right about that. I remember seeing foreigner a while back. No disrespect, but there was one original guy on stage. Oh, it's my biggest problem with foreigner and, you know, it's and I don't knock them. And if people are into that, that's fantastic. But that's a cover band. And I'm not knocking them either because they're out there doing it and they're killing it. And they sound fantastic. Kelly's one of the best singers ever. And I love Kelly. We used to tour with her hurricane. But yeah, you kind of look at that and you just think, you know, it's different. It's interesting and it feels odd to me as a fan of foreigner and being inspired by foreigner. I get why they have to do that. They don't have the choice, but at the same time it is weird. But the fans in the audience don't know any better. They're just holding their beer up, singing along to the songs. They don't care because I think there's a lot of faceless bands out there. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Especially in the 90s, there was a lot of faceless bands. They don't know. They can't recognize the face. They don't care, but they recognize the song. That's all they care. Yep. Yep. Yeah, I don't, you know, and it's not really my deal to knock anyone. The way I knock it is I don't buy a ticket for it. That's it. I don't sit there and talk about it. I just, you don't want to see something you just don't buy the ticket. It's that easy. I remember, man, I went and saw them. They were playing, I think, their journey at the time, the Hollywood Bowl, and I was with my buddy Brandon Malale, an actor. He's that guy. You remember the guy in the Adam Sandlin movie? He buys the football team and he's doing the no daddy, no. The dad, he's whipping them with the belt. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, I'm there with Brandon and I tweeted something about the fact that there wasn't one original guy in the band. And I remember, I think Jeff Pillson saying ouch, like responding ouch. And I felt bad. I didn't mean it as a knock either. But, you know, I got to be careful what I say and how I say it, you know. Yeah. I had Jeff on the podcast and that's when I brought it up with him. I said, hey, I'm not knocking there. And he's like, yeah, you are. And I was like, well, yeah, I probably am. But I'm just saying like, it's kind of weird. Let's just be honest. That's all I'm trying to be as honest out there, you know? Oh man, look at it is. And I felt that even with Boston, it was only Tom up there. Yeah. Yeah. And obviously, if you're going to have someone, it's got to be Tom. And thank God he was up there, but it still felt like a cover band sometimes to me, you know? Well, Tom did that whole record in his basement. So I never looked at it like that, you know, because it was him and Brad, you know? So Brad's gone. And in order to take it on the road, you got to have hired guns when it came to Boston. There was not dudes that were grinding it out in the clubs and doing demos for years. That's a total different thing, you know? So yeah. No question. I just felt funny sometimes up there because, you know, it's, it didn't have that fire that the old Boston had. And I was in the band and I remember six coming out and just killing it, man, every night. Even sometimes I felt a little ashamed to have to follow. Oh, man, six. Oh, you there? Yeah, I'm here. Oh, yeah. Okay. Cool. Let's get a little bit about last, I know you got to get out of here, but some health problems. How's Oz doing? He had some brain tumor stuff going on. He's doing great. He had his surgeries and bounced right back. Doing great, man. And it's so good to see. I had some eye surgeries myself. I'm doing fine. We're in a good place right now. We've been out touring and we're very thankful for where we're at physically and in terms of health. So it's a good thing right now. A good day right now. What happened to your ride? Some of the retina or some? My retina detached and I laid down for two weeks, face down. I had to do that whole eating and sleeping face down thing. And when I set up, I wrote the album and after I wrote the album, it detached again. Wow, how's that happen? I became very quick. Well, they said it was hereditary thinning of my retinas. But you know, I had injuries when I was a kid. I had a couple concussions. They said that played a part in it. And then I'm nearsighted. That plays a part because your eyes are longer. They're elongated and always pulling on your retinas. You're more susceptible to retinal detachment if you're nearsighted. God, man, I'm glad you're okay. It made for a good look on the video though with the patch. I was digging it. I was like, yeah, coming out full rock, you know, I'll probably patch out again at some point. But it's interesting when I first wore it, people were like, why are you wearing that now when I'm not wearing it? They're like, why aren't you wearing that? Well, hey, man, it was great to talk to you and congrats on almost 40 years of out there playing rock and roll and metal. And you got a good new record here, man. It kind of blew me away of how heavy it was. And I was surprised because I know striper from honestly, and the big ballad and the videos back in the 80s. And this came out and I was like, damn, this is pretty aggressive and good. Well, man, I'm telling you, it thrills me to hear you say that. And that makes me very happy because, you know, those folks out there that might not be big striper fans, we're still trying to make them fans. And if we if we're accomplishing that, even with one person, that's awesome, we'll take it. Yeah. Yeah, man. Well, you got tour dates coming up or anything? What's happening? Oh, yeah, we're doing the kiss cruise. We leave next week. Great. Doing the kiss cruise first week. And then we're doing two nights at the whiskey first night sold out. And when is that? That is November 4th and 5th. Oh, man, I'll come down and say, hey, you should, man. We just added a second night. I think it's the fifth. You can go to striper.com to confirm that. But I believe it's the fifth. And we're playing a second night tickets are still available for that, but they're going quick. And man, we'd love to see you. If you come down and then we're going to Mexico, we're doing a couple of big festivals in Mexico with kiss and mega deaths and Judas Priest and all these guys. That's great, man. It's it's good. It's good to see you. And then you got Instagram, you guys, social media people. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Michael sweet and striper. And yeah, man, it's we're very active. We like to keep our fans in a loop on everything. I'm on there daily posting daily, always mixing it up with funny stuff. And you know, I got a weird sense of humor. So I'm always putting funny stuff up there. But yeah, man, we love it. We're still here. We're still alive or blessed. And we're, you know, we're not going anywhere anywhere anytime soon. I don't think. Are you a stand up comedy fan? I'm a big stand up comedy fan, but I try to be I'm a closet comedian, but you know, sometimes my jokes don't go over too well, you know, what comics you like? You're Christian, obviously and everything, but can you watch edgy comedy or yeah? Of course, absolutely. I watch any comedy and right now I'm a big fan of the guy and his name slipped in my mind, but he's hilarious. I think Italian guy Sebastian. Dude, yeah, he's so funny, man. You know what it is with him? It's his mannerisms and his facial expression. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, he's great. He's great. I work with him quite a bit at the comedy store nightly, you know, work with him. That guy, I think he's brilliant. And you know, and I go back to the old days, obviously Richard prior day. I mean, I'm a fan of if they're funny, if you're funny, I'm laughing, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Well, hopefully I'll get to see you down there at the whisky and I'll come say hi in person and thank you so much for doing the show. And yeah, and when's the record out? It's out October 21st this Friday. So this goes live afterwards or I'm not sure when it goes dropping this Monday. So what's today Wednesday? It'll be on Monday. Okay, great. So the record will have been out by that time. And it's called the final battle. And it is not our final album, at least that I'm aware of. And we're super pumped about it. We feel that we've done a good job. And we hope the fans agree. All right. Thank you, man. And I'll see you out in LA. All right. But hey, great job. God bless you. And good luck out there on the road. Okay. Thank you, man. I got seven more dates and then I'll be home hanging with my dog. Well, good. But that's what you should be doing. That's the best, man. I love it. We're waiting to get a dog once we get into our new house, but we can't wait. What are you going to get? We're not sure. We're looking at papillons like a smaller dog. Yeah, yeah, I got a French Bulldogs small one. Yeah, our bass player has two or three French Bulldogs. Wow, really? Oh, two Frenchies and one Bulldog. But we're looking at a smaller breed, maybe a Papillon. We're not sure. We're going to just kind of feel that out and play it by ear. Our last dog, Caleb, he's like a 65 pound mix. Brendel looking lab. He was a plot how beautiful dog. Awesome. That dogs are the best. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Love and miss. Wait, they bring spirit to the house that you know, you just can't describe until you have a dog. It's so true. And I think they really do make you a short date. They lengthen your life, not short in your life. They remove the stress. They bring the stress levels down. Yeah, save me during COVID. That's for sure. Oh yeah. All right. Thank you. There it is right there. Michael sweet. I'll let them be taught. Get this new record. The final battle and check out the tracks. The first three tracks are going to punch in the face, man. Transgressor, see no evil here. No evil. Same old story and those videos form right now on YouTube. And I'm telling you, if you're into heavy music, you're going to dig this. Thank you, buddy. Thanks, brother. Have a good one. I'll talk to you soon, man. Okay. I'll see you at the whiskey. Alrighty. See you buddy. See you, man.