 Roger Earl, Foghead, founding member, right here, the drummer, King of Foghats. Slow ride. I just want to make some love to you. Fool for the city. What is up? Stone blue. I'm an Earl of the Cheap Royalty. Don't want to be a king. They had to work too hard. Earl's, they're knighted from somebody from the thousand years ago. The House of Lords, what a bunch of crap that is. I don't live there anymore, so I shouldn't really complain. I'm living in the land of the free home of the brave and the home of music. Music comes from America. We give music to the world, this country, blues, jazz, bebop, rock and roll, country, gospel music. This is the land of music right here. And even to this day, we still give it out to the world. Everybody listens to this land when it comes to music. I don't want to talk about the other stuff. Where are you living at? America. No, somewhere in America. Long Island, New York is my home. We have a studio down in the land of Florida where we recorded our last album, Sonic Mojo. And yeah, it's a beautiful day here out in the island. I might even be able to get a walk-in today. Excellent. That show went to the gym yesterday, so it felt good. I got to tell you, I'm 57, so I grew up in the height of full-blown Fog Hat, you know? 79. Yeah, yeah, you did. 1971 Fog Hat starts. You lead Sailor Boy Brown with Lonesome Dave, you guys fire it up, and you get the cover of Willie Dixon's, I just want to make up for you, and you're off to the races, full 70s rock. Yeah, yeah. I know Sony Rock and Roll, but I like it. Yes, I do. That's another English band. Actually, we're three-quarters of America at the moment. Actually, now I'm in America. I just talk a little funny. This is my home. I love this country, and all the music that it's made over the years, it inspired me as a little kid living in Southwest London. I said, I want to go to America, and here I am. Thank you. Who was it that got you on the drums? Was it, you know, Zeppelin Bonzo, or is it way before that? Is it Ringo? Who is it? Way before that. Jerry Lee Lewis. My dad played the piano a little bit in somewhat the style of Fatswalla, you know, Honey Suckle Rose, and he brought him a single one day. He used to work at Aston Martins of their old plant in Felton, which is about two miles from where I grew up in Houndslove, Southwest London. And he played, he brought Jerry Lee Lewis's single Great Bulls of Fire. The B side was Mean Woman Blues, and he said, yeah, have a listen to this song, boy, you can really play the Joanna. And about two months later, dad took me and my best friend, Dave Hartensu, was the bass player. I was about 11 or 12 years old to see Jerry Lee Lewis in Southwest London. And I was never the same. And my mother said he addled my brain. I'm not sure what an adult brain was, but I knew I wanted to be involved in music. I knew that's what I wanted to do. My older brother played piano, his name's Colin, he was four years older than me, and he helped by bringing home all the music from Sun Record Company, early Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash. I'm a Johnny Cash fan. What can I tell you? I was 12, 13 years old, riding my bike to school, and I'd be singing Johnny Cash songs. Nobody in my school knew who Johnny Cash was. I did. You know what I loved about Johnny Cash? His songs, it was always a story. There was always to rhythm, great rhythm, even though he didn't have a drummer, but his early stuff on Sun Records was like rhythm. And there was a story. I didn't even know what the stories were all about that thing. I'm 12 years old. What do you know about? Is the water, papa, reprieve died and rising? I had no idea what that meant. Or I won't sing Johnny Cash songs. I won't do them justice. Anyway, enough to say. I'm a Johnny Cash fan. So Johnny Cash, you're getting into American rock and roll, and then the Beatles hit, of course. At what point do you get a drum kit? And why drums? Why not guitar or piano or bass or anything? What drew you to that? Actually, I did start playing the piano at first. I can play a 12 bar somewhat in the key of C. My brother played piano. He's four years old with me. My dad played piano. And apart from that, drums are louder. Actually, as growing up, even before I even knew I wanted to be a musician, there was always music in our house. My dad, the radio, the record player, we had a Grundy tape player that we record stuff off the radio. There was always music. And I wanted to be, I loved songs and music. I just gravitated to the drums because I was always banging on the good China with knives and forks. Lampshades were a symbol. And Mum used to call me. The noisy sod is always banging on something. Actually, I had fantastic parents. We weren't rich by any stretch, but never went hungry. They always encouraged me in anything I wanted to do, whether it was like running or whether it was like in music. And I played drums in a great rock and roll band. Doesn't get a lot better. Unbelievable, man. You've been playing your whole life, which is just incredible. Once you get the drum kit and everything, how fast does it really start to happen for you, like Savoy Brown? Because Savoy Brown is one of those bands that was around during the late 60s, 70s, but never really seemed to hit it, but they would always be that opener for like Ted Nugent or ACDC when they came through. Nothing wrong with ACDC. I got my first drum kit when I was 15. I've been taking drum lessons for about three years. I used to work after school three nights a week and Saturday mornings in a bakery. And Saturday afternoons, I'd take drum lessons. I joined my first band when I was 16, maybe 17, with three guys I used to go to school with. Ray Dorsett was the lead singer. My best friend was Dave, the bass player. He got me in the band. And then I started playing drums. Got my first audition with Savoy Brown when I was 19. Didn't pass the audition the first time. They called me back a couple of months later because the drummer that they had couldn't play a shuffle. Can't join a booze band if you can't play a shuffle. And off I went. What was the question? I was asking how... Whoa. Sounded like a bomb just went off, I'll say. Well, that was crazy. Where are you? I'm in Los Angeles. That was nuts. earthquake? No, it was a sonic boom, man. Like you can't believe. Like, I mean, my dog barked. The show must go on. There could be hell going on. It could be hell going on right outside my door. I remember one time I was out in LA. This is in the mid 80s. In fact, I was playing down south in San Juan Capistrano where we just did a show. And I'm sitting in this restaurant, I was like, bang, I thought a truck had hit it. And the waitress goes, earthquake carries on. Like, earthquake. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, when you're in LA, you're going to either get earthquakes or, you know, some kind of craziness and you get used to it over the years. Yeah. Actually, I've always enjoyed myself. I lived there briefly. There was a young lady I was going out with. Actually, she was older than me. Other than that, I've always enjoyed going there. The audiences have always been fantastic. We just did a record release party at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano. We had, we played eight songs from our album, the new album, Sonic Mojo. And the people were just fantastic. You know, you've got to be pretty brave. Like, you know, we've got, hold on a second. Oh, yeah. Look at that. Look at that. You know why I'm wearing the new Sonic Mojo hoodie? Because it's clean. I just got off the road and I got a suitcase full of grubby clothes. I'm a drummer in a rock and roll band. I swear, I don't perspire. Yeah. So, you know, I always enjoyed playing in LA. And this was last Friday. It was fantastic at the Coach House. We had a great time. People were fantastic. Oh, I had fun in a box. I might find it out one day. I love that you've just been playing your whole life, you know, because throughout the Fog Hat history, of course, people, it's interesting to think people will retire like we tour too much. I retire. And then they would come back like five years later and get back into Fog Hat and then retire again. You know, you're like, and here you are. No, I never quit. You know, I remember 1984, Lonesome Dave decided to move back to England. I didn't. I carried on playing. You don't replace somebody like Lonesome Dave, but, you know, we needed a singer. But, you know, yeah, it's tough. I've been fortunate. The good Lord hasn't seen fit to take me just yet and I'm grateful for that. I'm one of those fortunate few in this world that gets to earn a living doing something I love. And, you know, I play drums in a great rock and roll band. I mean, it doesn't get a lot better than that. Well, it might do for some, but for me, I like what I do. I know it's only rock and roll, but I like it. I keep singing Rolling Stones songs. Have you heard the Rolling Stones new album? I'll tell you what, it's fantastic, man. Fantastic. It's great. Well, hold on a second. Sonic Moja, your new record sounds great, man. I was digging into it right there. Thank you. A little bit of everything driving on. I don't appreciate you, you know, still going on and on. Now, when you play, say, out on the road now, you said you just played the coach house and you played eight songs. And then, of course, you've, you've got to play the big, big hits that were all, you know, came about, I would say in the 70s, that the formula was, and it was like an unexpected formula, became the live album, Kiss Alive One, Peter Frampton Comes Alive, Fog Hat Live, ACDC, If You Want Blood, all the live records. Isn't that interesting that it was a live format that really exploded the bands? They could have three, four records out and then really hit. With us, actually, the fall for the city album was probably the biggest selling album, but all our records went gold or platinum. I mean, I don't keep up with that stuff anymore. But I remember doing the live album, Rod and Dave, who were the main writers in the band, I think we're struggling a little bit because we've been making, by that time, we'd had like seven hours of something like that. And I was listening to, every night after we played, my sound engineer, Bob Coffey, would give me a cassette. Cassettes, that's how long ago it was. And I, just to check on the, you know, make sure the tempos were cool and everything was like working, right? Because back then in the 70s, it was youthful experience, youthful energy, youthful, oh, we were youthful. Anyway, and it was the band was sounding great. And I was one who suggested that we do a live album. Nick Jameson, our longtime producer and friend, also bass player on the call for the city album, produced it. And yeah, it was a good record. There's only 25 minutes or 30 minutes of music on there, I think six songs. We were, I know we were playing for about at least an hour and a half at the time. So there's another hour of music hidden in Warner Brothers Voughts out in LA. I wanted to go down and see them one time and pull it out so we could have another live album from the 70s. And they said, we can't go down there. And I said, well, why not? They said, nobody goes down there. I said, exactly. Maybe you should let me go down there and find it. And they said, sorry, there's a black, I don't know, Warner Brothers called for it. Never mind. Let me ask you about that. It was only a six song record. It's really technically kind of an EP. 38 minutes, you know, back then because people were doing double live albums and everything. What was the decision on that? Was it Warner Brothers to try to keep it cheap? Like now we're just going to put out these hits and get it out there. What was that? I've got no idea. I wasn't in charge then. Not that I'm in charge now. I have a fantastic manager. She's great. She does everything, takes care of everything, makes sure everything works. I don't, I think it was probably Warner Brothers. Like I said, there's at least another hour of music that we were doing then. And it would be fantastic if they decided to find it in the boards. On one condition, that Nick Jameson mixes it and produces it where he produced all this stuff. There was probably three or four, maybe five or six shows that we did recording at that time. And those songs came from two shows from Joe Moreno, Rochester and Syracuse. Yeah. Now, here's my question on that because over the years, you know, you realize a lot of the bands I've had on here, they've said, well, it's not really a live album. We recorded some of the tracks then we overdubbed or the vocals were off or the sound was weird that night. Is it an actual authentic live record? Yeah, of course it is. Maybe there was a couple of vocals we had to do parts of because the mic went out or something. Maybe Dave bumped into it. No, it's a live record. We can play. In fact, we've had numerous live records out over the years. There was some from radio recordings that we did. We played live in the studio on a radio. They put that out. That was, I forget who that was. There's been a couple of times. Actually, since Lonesome Dave passed 21, 21, 22 years ago, we've had four studio albums out and four live albums. We can play. We cut our teeth like in small clubs in London when I was growing up and Savoy Brown, of course. We can play. Oh, I know you can play. I was just saying sometimes things happen. They go, oh, the mobile truck didn't capture this. The audience isn't loud enough. We put some, I mean, there's words of kiss having Super Bowl 13 or whatever as the audience to beef it up. There were all kinds of tricks to have this killer live record. I'm sure Nick Jamison probably did a couple of tricks with whatever, but he is a brilliant producer and engineer, brilliant musician as well. I hate people like that. This person, Nick Jamison plays everything. He plays every instrument under the sun. He picks up a new instrument like an accordion or an oboe. In 10 minutes, he's playing it. Do you hate people like that? It's crazy, man. When I put it, everything. Yeah, and us mere mortals have to struggle all our lives to master one instrument or at least learn to play it well. I remember being in the sixth grade, maybe seventh, and I would go to the, I would go to the roller rink, the roller skating rink, and they had a time each night when you could skate as fast as you wanted. It was called speed skate. Okay. They would put on slow ride and me and my buddy, Mark Godderman, would hit the skating rink and just fly, man. And whenever I hear that song on the radio, which is daily, which is daily, I hear fun every day on the radio, which is awesome. I just go back to that skating rink and me just trucking along, man, you know. You know that, but that's part of the beauty of music. I think it reminds you of times, of moments in time. In fact, playing music, when you write a song or you play a song and you record it and go, all right, that's it. And you mix it and stuff. They're all, music is like a moment in time. I mean, Folk Hat is famous for sort of, well, for us anyway, for jamming. You know, we will do a four minute song in the studio. Next time we play it on stage, it's like seven minutes. Because when you're playing, it's, as Lonesome Dave used to say, do we have permission to jam? Yes. Yeah. Jamming is what made Folk Hat so great. And a lot of those bands right there, you know, Folk Hat, Sonic, Mojo. I feel like we're doing an infomercial. I know, I know, I know. Actually, we're just talking to the drummer with Folk Hat. I grew up in the Bay Area and a big part of my life that changed my life is The Day on the Greens by Bill Graham. And you headlined one in 1979. Can you tell me about that? Yeah. I love Bill Graham. I think he was one of the most incredible promoters, certainly in my lifetime, because we used to play at the film or East when I was in Savoy Brown, played the film or West. Bill Graham would always come into our dressing room and he'd say everything, okay guys, everything, you know, and back then we used to have our instruments in the dressing room. We jam before we go on stage, warming up. And Bill Graham was quoted as saying, I think Folk Hat likes to sort of play music more than they'd like to breathe. Bill Graham was truly a great producer in Pasario. I mean, I remember one time we played in New York, we had Albert King and the Voices of Harlem Choir and Savoy Brown. We would play with Buddy Rich's big band or an eight piece band and somebody else and do a show with BB King. What was really cool was he would mix all sorts of music. So you've got a taste of stuff you might never hear. And that was something that won't happen today, won't happen. Maybe because of people, maybe because promoters can't work like that. And maybe it wouldn't work like that. But back then, Bill Graham was an absolute master of putting three or four acts together. And I love the men and I think, is he in the rock and roll hall of fame? He better be, he better be. I mean, you're right. That guy would do a show, it'd be Cheech and Chong, Miles Davis and Zeppelin. You know what I mean? And it'd be, and people were there for the ride, man. Yeah, right. Exactly. You know, Bill Graham was a rare man amongst men and a great promoter. And yeah, I love the man. He was really cool. Tell me about that, Dan the Green. It was you, Fog Hat, Gamma, which is, of course, Ronnie Montrose is banned after Montrose. And you guys had nine and it was 1979. And that was the peak of his stadium concerts, which was, you know, Dan the Greens. Yeah, it was great. In fact, I became good friends with Ronnie Montrose. And also when he had Montrose, we did a whole bunch of tours with Montrose. And yeah, it was, it was fantastic. It sounded great. The people were great. San Francisco. No, it's not San Francisco, across the bay. San Francisco like, stop it, Roger. No, it's the bay area, right? There's a beautiful part of the world actually. So it was fantastic. I mean, shows are shows. I mean, I can't ever remember not having, not enjoying a show. It was, I really can't, you know, somebody who said, you ever had a bad show? I don't remember there. Sometimes maybe something would go wrong, but you know, like an amp would blow up or fall over. We had that on the ship one time. We did a cruise about seven or eight years ago. It was really windy. Two Marshall stacks fell over on stage. We were up on the deck. Yeah, that was fun. Dan the Green, another great Bill Graham show. I remember going to see the Who, where was it? The Cow Palace, I think. Oh, yeah. With the horse tranquilizer. And Keith, the other night, Keith fell over. Yeah. Dave and I went there. I think it was, we had a day off and most of Dave and I went to see, I was always a fan of the who used to see him when they were around London in the eating club and marquee and stuff like that. And they started playing, but you couldn't hear Keith Moon. And Moonie was like flailing away. It looked like he was flailing away on the drums. He was sort of doing this. Couldn't hear him. And after, and I think it was a quadrophenia or something. And it really sounded bad. And Dave and I said, it wasn't, it wasn't very good. So we left. And then that was afterwards I heard that Pete then asked if somebody could come up and play drums. That was my big chance. Oh man. Crazy. You would have been there. But I did, over the years, I played that a couple of times with the Who. When I was in Savoy Brown, we did a, played a ballroom down on the South Coast. It was during the Pictures of Lily tour. That was the drum kit that Keith, that Moonie had. And Savoy Brown had finished setting up in front. And I was sitting there like fiddling with something. Keith Moon came in in a big parcel under his arm. And he went up to his, we said, hello. And then he started putting symbols up on his symbol stands. And he says, yeah, you want one? He gave me a symbol with moon on it. There's nothing wrong with it. It was no cracks or anything. It was just dirty. And he carried on around his drum kit. I had a couple of 18 or 20 inch crash. And then he gave me a 22 inch ride symbol. This is when I was earning 12 pounds 50 a week when I was in Savoy Brown, which was probably about 20 bucks a week in 1969, 1970, something like that. And Moonie just gave me probably $1,000 worth of symbols or a thousand pounds worth of symbols. He endeared himself to me that day. I got up and played with them three or four times, three times. Magic bus. That was, I get up and play the floor, one of the floor tomtoms and the symbol. And then Moonie would like kick the drums over. That was time to depart. Didn't want to get involved in any of that sort of nonsense. That was purely who actually the who probably one of the greatest bands ever come to come out of London. I used to go and see them at the evening club regularly. And they were fantastic. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Sonic Mojo, Foghats new album. Let me ask you a little bit about the, you were talking about Johnny Cash earlier. And we all know Rick Rubin went in and refired up Johnny Cash's career late in his life. And he also came to you guys in 1993 to possibly do a record together. Can you talk to me about that? I had no real knowledge of that. David moved back to England in 1984. He came back in 1991, put a band together. Manager at the time was in charge of that. It didn't happen. I don't know why. Maybe Rick Rubin was busy with, I know he did Johnny Cash's album. I think he did a record with Mick Jagger. I don't know. I had no knowledge of that. I'm not in, I'm still not in charge now, but I have knowledge of what's going on with this band. Back then it was like, I was just glad we got the original band back together and David returned from England to start playing again. That was when we did the Return of the Boogie Men album. Right. Right. There it is. We are, we are, our manager is in the process of looking at re-release in their on Foghats records of course. Actually it was a really good record. I was really pleased with a bunch of the stuff on there. Actually Nick James once again was the engineer. There we are. I don't think you can find it anywhere at the moment, but we're going to re-release that. Let's talk about Charlie Hunt. He came in and he is fantastic. I saw him in 1978 with Ted Nugent and I was so young. I thought it was Derrick St. Holmes and then years later I realized, oh that wasn't Derrick. It was Charlie Hunt and he is unreal and just a killer, killer singer. Now once you get him, he retired in 22, but how did that go about? How did you get him? Did you just call him up? Well, what happened was that I was from Dave Past and a number of people had sent me tapes and CDs. It was actually tapes back then. I wanted to take a break just to try and figure out what I was going to do, but I did a show when Charlie was singing for Humble Pie in Toledo, Ohio. Dave was alive and we were headlining and they were opening up for us. Dave and I were good friends with the folks in Humble Pie. Stevie Marriott was probably one of the greatest singers to ever come out of England. We did tons of tours with him and I love Stevie. We would hang out a lot of times. He was dangerous to hang out with actually. I would often end up on the one with the carpet. Anyway, that's another story. Charlie Hewn is singing with Humble Pie. Now they started off, didn't sound all that good. The drummer was playing, but it just didn't sound very good. Dave and I were standing at the stage because we wanted to check out this guy who was singing our mate Stevie Marriott's tunes. Charlie started singing and I said, whoa, this guy's got a voice. After Dave passed, I talked to our road manager, Mike at the time. I said, Mike, you think you could find that singer who sang with Humble Pie? He said, yeah. I said, let me know if you get in touch with him. Yeah. That was Mike. He got in touch with Charlie. I talked to him. I asked him if he was interested in singing with the band. He was still doing some dates with Humble Pie. I sent him about 20 or 30 Folk Hat tunes. I remember at the time, my girlfriend said, you think that's rather a lot of songs? I said, if he wants to be in the band, you'll learn them. Charlie called me up about two months later and said, I got it. He came to my house out here in Long Island. Actually, it's a health boat. It's not very big, but it's home. It sounded like Humble Pie had joined Folk Hat, which I thought was really cool at the time. It was rather sad to know when Charlie decided to leave. I think it was probably because he just, his voice, it's hard to sing in that range that Folk Hat does it in certainly Humble Pie's range. I know if we do a couple of days in a row, it would be, he would struggle and then travel in and on the road can wear you down. I think he had, he was having some problems with his hips because he was an avid downhill skier. The weird part about it was he sent an email to our manager three days before we were supposed to get, start rehearsing for the tour, January, I think, and said that he was retiring and he wouldn't be at rehearsals, which is kind of weird. And then he put it on his Facebook that he was leaving Folk Hat and we had dates a week from there. So that was like dealing with a nightmare. And I haven't heard from him since. So if you hear from Charlie, tell him to give me a call. We played together for 20 years and like, not a peak. Doesn't talk to me. Doesn't talk to anybody. I don't think you're Rodney or Brian. It's kind of weird. It is weird. Yeah. I talked to my mates, even the ones that have passed on. In fact, I had a word with an old friend of mine, Billy Davis, this morning who passed on a number of years back. He was a good friend and sang with me when I had a band. And I talked to him today and started working on a song. Let me ask you, being a drummer, I've had many, many drummers on and I've played music a long time in my life. Was there bad record deals or, you know, drummers get cut out of money and stuff. What was it like for you being a fog hat? Record deals. No, the record deals were fine. No problem. It was our first manager. It was a thieving scumbag. Oh, no, our first record deal, publishing deal was the writer would get, you have like a hundred percent of publishing. The writer would get 50% and the other 50% would be split up between the writers. Also, the record company would take a percentage of that. But then about the middle of 70, something, 76, 77. I wasn't paying attention. I was just happy sort of doing what I was doing. Manager took me out of it. He's no longer our manager. He's an ugly, unhappy human being. But I'm still here. I'm still playing in a rock and roll band. I'm having the time of life. I play with a great band. Scott Holt joined us two years ago, but I've known him since 2014. He is an incredible musician and a great bandmate. Brian Bassett, our long time guitar player and producer and engineer. He's actually played in Folk Affinity 27 years now. Lonesome Dave introduced him to us. Rodney O'Quinn, our bass player, has been with us for seven years. We stole him from the Pat Travers band. I actually called up Pat and said, is it all right if we steal your bass player? He said, okay. Well, I don't think he was working at the time. That's all right. Thank you. We're a band. Well, actually this year, we've probably got twice as many dates already lined up as we normally have. What is it? November now? Yes, we do 60, 70 shows a year. Life is great. Sonic Mojo, the new record. It's really got a ZZ Top feel to me. I listened to it from top to bottom. It has a fog hat essence, but it definitely has some ZZ Top flavor in there. Well, ZZ Top's just a little old blues band from Texas. The blues is the basis for every form of music that's come out, as far as I'm concerned. The blues got jazz and then jazz got bebop and bebop got rock and roll. I mean, America's land of music. We've been influenced by the blues and rock and roll ever since I was this and the same with everybody else in this band. Let me read you something. Yep. Sonic Mojo. Sonic. A frequency within the audibility range of the human ear of waves and vibrations. All right. Mojo. A charm or amulet thought to have magic powers. Do you think there's magic in music? I know there's magic in music. Oh, it's kept me alive. It's kept me alive. Yeah, same. Same here. You know, old stone blue rock and roll helped me through. Let's talk about your drum kit. What are you playing these days? Sonar, Pearl, Tama. What do you play? There's only one drum kit to play, DW. Drum workshop. Made in America for Americans. They let Limies and other people use them too. DW drums are handmade by people who are fastidious about how they're finished and made. I use DWs all the time. Most of the time, I bring my snare drum, my pedals, DW pedals, of course, and cymbals on the road. And I get a DW kit to my specs. And actually, it doesn't really matter what size they are. They sound great. If anybody gets a chance to go to a drum workshop out in California and to visit the place, and it's absolutely incredible what they do. And I use pasty cymbals. Though they're not made in America, they're made in Switzerland. And there's nothing wrong with the Swiss. Also, a number of great drummers over the years have used them. Actually, cymbals are fascinating because every make of cymbal out, be it Zorgians or Sabians or some of the other cymbals that makers that are out there, they all have a very distinct sound. One of the great things for me, anyway, about pasty cymbals is that, you know, if I break like a dark crash, an 18 inch dark crash, they'll send me another one. And it sounds just like the one that was broken, but new. If I got a 22 inch custom ride, the crack, which I did, I kept it, I just didn't want to give it up because they had put the FogHat logo on it, but it was beat to shit. It was cracked all over. I got a new one just before we played our two show release party shows. Sounded just like the other one I had. That's the beauty of pasty cymbals. Now, other cymbal makers are fantastic sounding cymbals, but they vary. So the real cool thing is to go to the cymbal company and say, I'll need to try them out. Pasty cymbals, I just reorder or let them know that I broke one or I say, do you have anything new out there? And they go, yeah, we've got one of these rods. You want to try it? I go, yeah. I am so fortunate with the cymbals that I use and the drums that I use. They take really good care of me. When I'm out on the road, if I have an issue with something, I get what I need so that I can perform at them. The very best of my ability, DW drums and pasty cymbals. I endorse them. Oh, and promo drumsticks. They let the wood chopper have a ball. Oh, man. I love DW. My buddy, Dave Hewitz, just designed a new snare for them. And it just came out last week. And they're out there in Ventura, California, you know, Bozio, when I was young, he was like the first guy I knew that was playing the DWs, you know. And yeah, they kill it, man. DW is fantastic. They are a fantastic instrument. And what's really, really interesting, they really, really, you know, redefine the art of making drums. They really have, they can make, you know, when you have, let's say it's a wooden drum. And the drum has a note, a timbre. When you hit it, and they put it inside each of the drums, if it's an A flat or B sharp or something, like that, you could, they will actually or can make a drum kit for you of all the notes that you want the drums to be. I'm not that nuts about that. I mean, I can tune a drum and make it sound great as you don't have to work that hard with DWs. But just the fact that they can do that, they redefine the art of making drums. Can you tell that I'm a spokesman for the country, the company? They are the best. They are the best. I'll give you a story, a quick story. I was with Ludwig for the longest time. Bill Ludwig is still a good friend of mine. And Ludwig drummers were, how did my friend Bobby Rondinetti put it? They were the sound of our youth. They were the sound of drums for the last however many years, you know, three generations. And I was fortunate enough to be with Ludwig Drums for a while. But then they sold the company to a bunch of bean counters from Selma. And I would call up from the road like a stand or break or something. I was on the road traveling all the time. And I would get a machine. Nobody would call me back. They would never. And I said, all right, you know, sound this the rim got bent because truck fell over. And I couldn't get through to anybody. And I played some DW drums in up in Boston at a music store up there. And they were fantastic. So I called TW up and they said, well, why don't you come down and meet everybody. So I went down to the factory in Oxnard. Is it Oxnard? Yes. John Good took me around the factory and I met everybody. And I'm looking and it's like, it's like a wonderland for a drummer. I mean, it's like, it's the most incredible place even a guitar players and piano players making drums. It's that cool. And then we went back. And then we went back to the office and we were talking and then John Good said to me, he said, so why, so why do you want to play DW DW drums? And I said, well, they're the best. And he said, okay, make a wish list. And I've been with them ever since. And yeah, there it was. You know what? I know how fortunate I am. Awesome. I'm looking at that fool for the city gold album behind you. It's just so amazing that record and to see that it's it's so cool. Do you have a lot of your stuff? Sonic Mojo. Yeah, this is my favorite buddy guy. Yeah, I'm I was a presenter at the Blues of Woods down in Memphis a couple of times. And I got to present a buddy guy who is just I don't I mean, I can't say I can't think of enough superlatives because I did see him the very first time I came over to the States in 1969 when I was in Savoy Brown. And I'd met him a number of times. Beautiful man. This night he won best song, best blues guitar player, best album. And my co presenter at the time said, this buddy guy play piano. He probably would have won that if he played it. And I've met him a number of times because Scott Holt, our lead singer and guitar player, played with buddy guy for 10 years, told him everything he knows. Yeah, we got some juice in this band. That's great. Well, you got a tour coming up for 2024 that promote the new record. Yeah. And we're rocking a roller around the country where you can go to foghat.com, find out where we're playing, who we're playing with, all the you can get hats and t shirts. Hold on a second. Actually, this is a hoodie. You find out all things fog hat. And we will be out there. I'm going to roll till I'm old and rock till I drop. Thank you again for talking about the record. Yeah, it was great to have you on. I'm particularly proud of this record. It was, I'm really, really happy with the way it turned out. We'll see you folks out on the road. We'll be rocking and rolling. I'm going to roll till I'm old and rock till I drop. It's so, I mean, it's such an honor to have you on, man, because fog hat is just, you know, it's in my head every day. And I just absolutely love 70s rock, you know, fog hat, blue or silver. The record is 2023, 24, 23 rock. Hold on a second. Yeah. Yeah. Now, before we get out of here, I'm a comedian. Do you see stand up comedy at all? Are you into it? I watched George Carlin last night. Amazing. No, he is. He is so fucking funny. I was crying with laughter. White men, they shouldn't be in blues band. They should be band. I'm sorry, I'm not. The blues, as far as I'm concerned, is the quintessence form of music. Without the blues, we would have no rock and roll. We would have no jazz. We would have no bebop. So without all those great blues musicians that stuck this, I would be out of work. I wouldn't have this running through my veins. I wouldn't have met Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker and Woody Dickson, probably one of the greatest men that ever lived. There would be no rock and roll if it wasn't for Woody Dickson and Chuck Berry as well. Well, actually, we'd all be out of work. All right, my man. Thank you so much for doing the show. That's my pleasure. Did I get it across? I'm a blues fan. Of course. There's another song. There's a song coming out. I know it's only rock and roll, but I like it. I like it. Yes, I do. That's another great record. Listen to the Stones' new album. It's great. It's fantastic. And so is your record. I put it on my record player as well. Thank you so much for doing the show. Roger Earl right there, a drummer, rock and roll legend from Fog Hat. Get the new record. See him out on tour. And do yourself a favor and go back and go through their catalog from 1972 to 2023 right now. They've been tearing it up. Thank you, my man. Dean, it's been a pleasure. Thank you, man. We'll see you out there. Okay. See you, buddy.