Orianthi

Michael Jackson's last guitarist, Australian Orianthi has a new album, and tales of how she got from Down Under to the international radar screen.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Steps Podcast.
My guest today is Ori Anty, guitarist artist songwriter orianthy
Good to have you on the podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Thank you so much for having me on. I really
appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Okay, I read in a recent interview with you, but
you said you love music, but you hate the music industry.
Can you tell me more about that?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
It's forever changing? Is that the wild West? Right?

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Right?

Speaker 2 (00:37):
I think you know, once streaming began, it kind of
all lost its value, you know, because I grew up
kind of in a time walk, you know, my dad's
record collections and the value of like going you know,
lining up at a record store and waiting for your
favorite record to come out and opening it and reading
the liner notes, and you know, there was just so
much more gravity to that to now where everything's like

(00:58):
instant gratification, which is cool and all right, because we
all love that. But I think kids that are now
born with iPhones in their hands, essentially, you know, they
don't know what it was like to sort of experience
music the other way where you go to a store
and you buy a jacket, and you pay for the jacket.
You know what I mean, and it's like now it's
like music's so free, but everything you know, costs the same.

(01:19):
And then the business side of things as well, it's
very different just how people operate. And when I first
got signed to now it's like I think everyone's sort
of famous, right, like so many which is great. I mean,
having the platform of TikTok and Instagram and all that
to be able to self promote, right, but the mystique
I think is kind of gone because you kind of

(01:41):
know what everyone's had for breakfast these days.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
You know, so okay, but your experiences in the industry.
You had to deal with Geffen, you had a hit record,
you dealt with managers, you dealt with agins. Did that
leave a bad taste in your mouth?

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Oh yeah, absolutely yeah, if you don't have a good
lawyer to begin with. Yeah, yeah, you know, I came
off a boat from Australia, you know what I mean,
So I didn't know what I was getting into. I
signed within just go Jimmy Ivan, who's amazing. I have
utmost respect for him and Ron Fair and everybody. But
then you get this circus that surrounds you, right, so
you don't know where all your money is going. You

(02:20):
don't know what you're doing is essentially a very big loan.
You don't realize that when you're a kid and you
just see all the flashing lights. We've got multi platinum
record here, I'm traveling you know, the world on this single,
and and you know, just there's tons of money being
thrown at you. You're making tons of money. You're getting
all these different sponsorships and whatnot, and from Colgate Commercial

(02:42):
Commercialist to Panasonic to Hayundai to whatever, you know, clothing lines,
all that kind of stuff, and you sort of lose
your mind. And I was probably the most unhappiest back
then as a kid, you know, to what I am now,
I feel I feel like I'm finding balanced as I'm
getting older. You know, it's just like really, you know,
being more present. I think that's the key, you know,

(03:04):
to being like creating and being in the moment and
going back to what I was like as a kid
in my living room or in my bedroom with my
Keishar and creating because that's what it's all about, you know,
It's all about that joy and reaching people and serving people.
And yeah, the spiritual aspect of music and creation is

(03:24):
where my head and heart and spirit lays better than
the business aspect of things.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
So okay, in that go round, you had it interscope.
To what degree did they tell you what music to
make or want to change what you wanted to do personally?

Speaker 2 (03:43):
You know, It's funny. When I first moved over here,
I self produced a record when I was like, i'll
say fifteen or sixteen, and I learned how to engineer.
I learned how to produce, I learned how to play drums,
bass keys, everything, and I did this record called Violet
Journey I was in. It was actually off Universal Records

(04:04):
in Australia, and then I got I sent it to
everyone over here in the US, and I got a
deal from Jimmy Ivy. You know, He's like, I love
what you're doing, you know, come over here and perform
for me. So I came over and I performed at
the NAM Show. Then I went to Jimmy's home in
bel Air and performed for him in the basement, and
he was sitting on a bean bag in his kid's
basement and he was like, perform for me with a

(04:25):
backing track. It was the craziest thing. And his kids
were having a party everyone's dressed and I remember dinosaur
gear and I don't know what's going on, and I
was playing my songs and he's like, I want to
sign you. And then then Ron Fair was like I
want to sign you to then went back to Australia,
came back and moved over. I was like eighteen nineteen,
so you know, that was pretty It was a pretty

(04:46):
wild sort of time. And then you know, I learned
kind of how to do everything myself. So I knew
how to write songs, and you how to produce. And
then when you get put into that big sort of machine,
you know, of a major label, they all want to
put you with different riders, rightly, so so you can
get hit songs. But then you feel like you can't
do it yourself. You feel like you're not good enough

(05:07):
to write by yourself, you know what I mean. You
sort of lose this thing like you always need somebody
to help. So I had to get out of that mentality.
That was one thing that was like, yeah, sometimes it
does call for another songwriter. But this new record I've
just done, I've predominantly written every song myself, you know,
lyrically and musically, and I'm really proud of it too.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
So yeah, okay, we'll get into your new work. But
since we started on this experience, this whirlwind, they forced
you to write with people. When the record was recorded,
were you happy with the music that was made, both
the songs in the way the recording and production ultimately came.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
Out, some of them, not all, you know. I think,
according to turned out really well because that song had
a really strong message. It was very empowering for women
and men. And I think putting a is about self worth,
you know, you know what I mean, It's like just
standing up for yourself. I thought the message was really strong.

(06:07):
When the songwriters came in and showed me the song
and then I contributed to it and we finished it
up together in the studio. I'm like, I'm putting a
guitar solo on this, like you know, it could be
like a like an eighties guitar solo on a pop song.
And everyone at first I was like, I'm not doing something.
I play that on the radio and I'm like, well,
that's the point of difference, you know what I mean
for me, because I'm a guitar player and it'd be
really cool to do that and to inspire girls, you know,

(06:32):
because it wasn't that many female guitar players back then,
you know, when it first came out to pick up
the guitar and and just you know, my whole thing
was just to inspire and uplift, and I thought that
that song really embodied both things, you know, really did.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
How then with the major label, well it.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
Was actually really sad. My A and R guy Tao Hertzberg,
he passed away from cancer and he was one of
my main guys there with Runfair and then Ron Fair,
i think went to a different position, and it's sort
of everyone sort of got different, you know. That's sort
of what things changed, vastly, right, who's in control? Who
signed you? Everything sort of slightly not falls apart, but

(07:14):
sort of does, like people take on different things. And
then we just sort of parted ways. There wasn't anything crazy.
It just sort of happened where it was like, you know,
off the label now. So yeah, and then I went
straight in and made a record with Dave Stewart in Nashville,
so they went to Blackbird.

Speaker 3 (07:32):
Okay, this is you know something people talk about a
lot today. People say, oh, the business is screwed. You
can't get signed to a major label. Since you've been
up both sides of the fence, Yes, did you end
up making any money from the major label?

Speaker 2 (07:50):
I did in the sense of what they brought to
the tap. I mean, they really promote you in such
a massive way, right, So you reach so many people
people with how much money they put behind you. So
you make money from endorsements and sponsorships and all that
kind of stuff. So for me, I was making money
from like commercials and you know, clothing lines and shows

(08:12):
and all that kind of stuff. So absolutely, and I
did definitely make a lot of money, but a lot
of money got, you know, it sent out because you're
paying all these people. You have like the circus, you
have hair and makeup, you're flying the business class, you've
got parties going on. Honestly, I didn't know where half
my money was going. Now I do, thank god, but
back then I did not know. But you can make money.

Speaker 3 (08:33):
Absolutely, you're talking about the the number of the other
opportunities that came. Did you make any record royalties and
you get any royalties today?

Speaker 2 (08:45):
Right now? I do receive, Yes, money I did every month.
I don't know the exact amount, but it changes all
the time. I can't say that it's an incredible amount
of money. No, No, it isn't, even though I've had
a lot of success, especially in Japan predominantly it was
my biggest market. I have a best stuff record over there,
and we streamed I don't know, according to you stream

(09:08):
that for a song. I don't even know how many
millions you had, like on even TikTok and all these
different things at like one hundred something million hits and
all this stuff. So yeah, I mean, it really doesn't
amount to much. No, I can't. I can't say. And
nowadays it's even worse because I had, as I said,
hard copies back then too.

Speaker 3 (09:28):
So okay, the amount of money you make from royalties,
can it pay your mortgage or rent in a month? No?

Speaker 2 (09:34):
Probably not. No.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
No, Oh, okay, you're an attractive woman play guitar in
a world where that's a rarity. To what degree did
you feel pressure to trade on your sexuality? Were people
forced you to tread it on your sexuality? Oh?

Speaker 2 (09:54):
I never really felt forced to do anything, you know.
I mean people can say and say to me what.
I hate it when actually people tell me what to do,
because then I do the opposite. It's my personality, so
I guess being this sort of hard headed six year
old I was as soon as I picked up the guitar,
I'm like, this is what I want to do. And
I told my parents this is what I'm doing, and

(10:15):
I'm going to go and live in America. I'm buying
myself a Cadillac and I have a number one song and
travel the world. And I was like, so sad on
that like kind of manifested. But I also put, you know,
like you have to put like inspired like action behind
your like thoughts. Of course, you know, so I work
my ass off, but I think that you know, I
don't like of course, when I was first signed, I

(10:38):
did listen to a lot of people, and it hurt
my brain and spirit, you know, because everyone has an opinion,
and even now, everyone has an opinion about what, you know,
I should be wearing, doing everything, and it's because they
and sometimes I mean really well, and sometimes I just
want to be part of the you know, I don't
know just to say something I don't really know anymore
as ego or whatever. But the people that I love

(11:00):
and trust I listened to, I'm like, hey, what do
you think about this song. Yeah, I dig that like
eel one better at whatever, right, you know, And I'm
totally cool with that. But you know, ultimately, as I
said before, I'm pretty strong, like kind of minded. So
I mean some things like, yes, I listened to a
lot of people and did some weird things in the beginning. Absolutely,

(11:20):
I mean my second video clip was weird. It was
very weird. It's like I didn't even want to watch it.
That second single was bizarre. But anyway, you know, I
had my thoughts about that. I thought that there could
have been a stronger second single off the record, belief,
but the label went with what they went with. So

(11:40):
you know, you can't do much sometimes with you know,
you don't really have even though you have success with
the first single, you don't really have much of a
voice when you know, the powers that be have their opinion.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
To what degree. And we've lived through the me too era?
Was this something you experienced in your time in the
mainstream up to today?

Speaker 2 (12:03):
No, there's some weird people. Honestly, whenever I have a
gut feeling, and my parents really instill this to me
as a kid, whenever you feel like something's weird, just
just leave you know, just go there's a door. There's
always a door.

Speaker 3 (12:21):
You know.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
And I always feel that, you know what I mean,
if you feel anything weird or anything strange or like
with anybody you know and that you know goes with
anyone in this business or whatever in life. It's like,
if you feel weird about something or uncomfortable, I think,
just you know, have the strength just walk out. And
you know, even if it's you know, egos are bruised

(12:45):
or whatever happens, just get out of there. You know.
That's why I look at it. As I said, I'm
a pretty strong sort of personality. I should say I
always have been.

Speaker 3 (12:55):
So yeah, Okay, where are you from in Australia.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
I'm from Adelaide, South Australia. I'm a Southerner.

Speaker 3 (13:03):
Okay, I've been a couple of times. I've not been
to Adelaide. How far is Adelaide from Sydney or Melbourne.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
It's about an hour thirty plane trip. And Adelaide is beautiful.
I got to tell you, growing up there it was wonderful.
I had kind of the best sort of childhood. My
parents allowed me to have many animals, so I essentially
grew up on a farm and my studio and just
having my cousins. I'm half Greek, so is that my

(13:32):
big fat Greek wedding? The way I grew up with
my parents home, my auntie's home, my grandma's home, all
in a row, and we're playing sports in the street, jamming.
My cousin's are guitar players as well. My dad's a
guitar player. And I used to you know, I quit
school when I was fourteen to play in the pubs.
So I used to pretend I was older than what
I was. You know, I put on more makeup than

(13:53):
I'm wearing now, and I used to tease my hair
up and wear crazy stuff and pretend I was like,
you know, eighteen to get into the clubs. And the
worst was when they're like fourteen year old guitar player.
I'm like, ah damn, and then that body girl's like
you're out. So, you know, but I used to play
three nights a week in Australia, so that was I

(14:14):
made a pretty good living, I must say. As a kid.

Speaker 3 (14:17):
Okay, let's go back to the beginning. How many kids
in the.

Speaker 2 (14:19):
Family, just me and my sister.

Speaker 3 (14:22):
Since you're older, younger, she's.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
Younger, but she definitely acts older, that's for sure.

Speaker 3 (14:27):
And what is she up to teach days?

Speaker 2 (14:29):
She's an art teacher. She's an incredible artist. She is
so amazing. She actually designed my oth symbol that I
use on everything, my signature guitars, I see nature amplifiers,
my signature vodka which I have about now too many things.

Speaker 3 (14:45):
You know.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
She's just incredible, and she's very much no, she's very
centered kind of being like, she's very calming energy, she's
very she can work on an art piece for like
ten to twelve hours or not move, whereas I can
sit with my for six hours and and be, you know,
completely content. So we were definitely very artsy sort of kids,

(15:07):
and having parents that supported that. It was wonderful, truly.

Speaker 3 (15:19):
What did your parents do for a living?

Speaker 2 (15:22):
My father was in finance. He's actually retired now so
he's he's very happy. And my mom, she has had
many jobs. She was for a model. My mom's also
a romance writer from Mills and Boone. She's a bestseller.
And she also works for the government in this really
sort of a position of working with Aboriginal employment and

(15:45):
many different things and financing businesses and everything. So she's uh,
she she works her butt off like my mum. I
don't even know how she funds time for herself, but
you know she's a I guess I get being a
workaholic from her too. Am I am my dad too.

Speaker 3 (15:59):
But you know, are your parents still together?

Speaker 2 (16:02):
They are?

Speaker 3 (16:03):
Yep. Okay, let's back up a little bit. You're a
little kid. You're just starting to go to school. What
kind of kid are you? Are you a tomboy? You
talk about playing in the street. Are you someone who's
a nerd. Are you someone who is isolated, someone with
a million friends? What kind of kid do you like?

Speaker 2 (16:22):
Kind of all of that, I'm going to tell you
I was really weird. I was completely artzy, into the
music down on the flip side. I was obsessed with sports.
I was a tomboy. I was on a winning basketball team.
I love basketball. I love playing. I was a football
team as well. I played baseball, and you know, I

(16:44):
used to do everything. I just I thought I was
like one of the one of the guys when I
was a kid, because I was so many like you know,
I all like cousins and friends that picking up the
guitar because my dad, I wanted to like bond with him.
And when I saw him playing like Hendrix's one day
in the living room, I'm like, what's that? Like that's cool,
you know, like I want to be able to do that.

(17:05):
And then he played me like the Santana records. So
it became obsessed with playing guitar. So, you know, wearing
Jimmy Hendrix's Tired Eye T shirts and Santana kind of
inspired crocheted sort of hats and all that kind of
stuff to school doesn't win you many friends, you know,
definitely not. And then putting out posters on you know,

(17:26):
wolves going I want to start a band, you know,
inspired by BB King, Jimmy Hendrix, DV Ray, Santana. People
like what is going on?

Speaker 3 (17:33):
You know?

Speaker 2 (17:34):
So I definitely grew up in a time what There's
no question about that.

Speaker 3 (17:38):
So when did you pick up the guitar?

Speaker 2 (17:40):
I was six years old and I remember my dad
taught me like three chords and I was like, this
is awesome. I'm going to write songs now. So I
was after the Racis and the first thing that I
was obsessed with was actually songwriting because of Elvis Presley,
the Beatles, Roy Orbison, you know, John Lennon, just listening
to Bob Dylan, listening to you know, just a lyric

(18:02):
and the storytelling of it all. I really got into
that first, and then Jimmy Hendrix and Santana and then
you know, I studied classical guitar. I played in an
Orchestra Oklahoma production as a ten year old. I went
to university when I was ten and studied classical. So
I studied theory. I yeah, I just always had to

(18:23):
kind of keep on like learning things. You know, for me,
I just had to always be a busy body and
do stuff. But for me, classical guitar and learning theory
was like going to school. And I hated school because
I hated like people telling me what to do, and
so it became like very confined. So I got out
of there. I got past level two with a credit

(18:44):
and I passed really well. But that was enough for me.
And my teacher was a bit of an ass as well.
He was just a real hard ass on me. So
out of there. Then listened to Santana records and my
dad took me to a Santana show. Danced the Rainbow
Dance of the Rainbow Serpent Concert, and I remember were
sitting in sort of like the back area and he
went into Europa and those opening notes were so beautiful,

(19:07):
and I'm going, man, like that is so amazing, Like
it's like heavenlyless tone and just everything. I want to
be able to do that, you know. And so I
quit classical, became obsessed with playing electric and just learned
every Santana song basically, and then bb King and CEV
Ray and all that. But it just kind of put

(19:27):
me on this sort of tangent of just exploring an
adventure and just a calling. I think more than anything,
it was like a calling and purpose and I wanted
to be able to do that for the rest of
my life because I think i'd be five from anything else,
you know.

Speaker 3 (19:41):
So, Okay, can you read music at this point?

Speaker 2 (19:47):
Yes, yes I can. Yeah, that was part of the studying.
I mean, I haven't done it for a minute. And
it's funny you kind of want to unlearn all of
that because when I'm soloing now, especially making records and
two records right now or completing two then really done.
But when you're in the studio and I'm playing a
solo or coming up with stuff, I don't want to
think about theory. I don't think about thinking about, oh,

(20:09):
I'm playing this kind of mode or I'm doing whatever.
But sometimes when it came in handy. When I was
working actually with A. R. Rahman, he did some dog
Millionaire and we did the soundtrack for it was a
number one movie in India, a rock star, and I
played the guitar and on that, and he called me
in to do Sata Hark which was actually a big

(20:30):
anthem in India. It was number one for a very
long time. So I played all the guitar parts for that,
so the actor had to come in and learn them.
But it was all Indian scale, So learning that was
a whole situation, you know, for a couple of days.
And then you know, yeah, and then recently doing some
stuff with a Colombian artist who's a major pop star,

(20:51):
Carol g and she had some stuff in her music
too which was all these different scales and whatnot, which
was really interesting. We played rock and rio together. It
was like two hundred thousand people. That was a couple
of months ago. But you know, that kind of stuff
comes in handy for I don't know, just knowing the scales,
I guess, so yeah.

Speaker 3 (21:09):
Okay, there's a strong Australian music scene, a lot of
legendary rock acts, also some pop acts. You're talking about
acts from an earlier era Santana, BB King Hendrix to
what deg Weed. Were you paying attention to the Australian
music market or pop market or were you paying attention

(21:32):
to the classics?

Speaker 2 (21:35):
You know, I loved, obviously listening to quite a few
Australian bands like growing Up. My mom is a massive
to me Barnes fans, so you know, I loved listening
to Coltrees or my dad as well, and then Tommy
Emmanuel who's an amazing guitar player, so I used to
go to his shows, and yeah, I mean Savage Garden
as well. I used to listen to them because I
thought they were like really cool. It had some really

(21:57):
good pop songs, and you know, playing out a cover
band too, I had to learn a lot of pop
songs and learning how to put like a guitar solo
in a Kylie Minogue song or like, you know, stuff
like that, because you're playing until three am and you've
got to play you know, songs off the radio. So
that's when I actually started listening to the radio when
I was in a cover band.

Speaker 3 (22:17):
Okay, you pick up the guitar, you're a songwriter. Does
your father have a slow of equipment you could just
use or when do you get a guitar.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
My dad's left handed, so I learned left handed first,
and then he was like, I think you should learn
right handed because you're going to have more choice and
guitars because you get to a guitar store and there's
like two crappy lets in your left handed ones in
the corner. The rest are all you know, right handed.
So he was right about that, but absolutely he converted
a couple of guitars for me to use as a kid.

(22:49):
I must say I was pretty spoiled. When I was
six years old. I had one two five Gibson to
use and it was red, and I loved it so much.
And my dad's like, just be really careful with this, okay,
just use it at home. And I would sneak it
and take it to school and play assemblies and with
the songs I've written, because I thought the songs were
so great. I had backup dancers and I would take
his amp, his nineteen seventy something Bendor ramp with me

(23:13):
with that you know, old one two five and put
it in the back of the car and my mum
was like, what's going on. I was a Dad's that's
cool with that. Sorry. And then one time my dad
saw me coming home, He's like, what are you doing.
I'm like, nothing, nothing to see here, you know, carrying
my guitar, carrying his guitar and app but he actually
gave it to me and he was very supportive. And
then after you know, seeing Santana, I really wanted a

(23:38):
Pori smith and for my Christmas and Birthday and I
don't even know what, my dad got me a PRS.
It was very very generous and they were very supportive,
and then I just saved up for my own gear
from then on, you know, because you just we're working
three nights a week, so I definitely contributed.

Speaker 3 (23:58):
Oko. How did you actually learn how to play?

Speaker 2 (24:04):
My dad taught me first a few chords, then I
studied classical. I did have one teacher at the rock shop.
His name was Rath, remember him. He was great. He
was so he was so excited about music and I
used to love just jamming with him and bringing songs
to him and he would teach me in different things
and I'd be like, I want to learn this, and
he would give me assignments and then after that it

(24:25):
was mostly I would say I learned the most from
just listening to records, from putting them on and learning
all videos VHS and I would want I would wear
out VHS my favorite ever. And I say this to
people to always check out Sacred Fire live in Mexico, Santana.

Speaker 3 (24:43):
Okay, you know, supposedly Dwayne Allman took the guitar to
the bathroom. You know, how much did you practice? How
devoted were you five.

Speaker 2 (24:55):
To six hours a day or more? And you know
I used to do things like not all kind of
bad things that my parents are like, don't do this
or exam and I would do it purposely. Started get
sent to my room. That means perfect, I can go
sit with my guitar, you know, for hours, because if
I was just in there for hours, my parents were like,
sometimes you should come out, you know, it's not healthy
for you'd be in your room for like, you know,
six seven hours, and so yeah, I think that, you know,

(25:19):
for me, I was just obsessed with it. Like you
can't force anyone to really do anything, but as a kid,
when you find something to be really like just intriguing.
And the guitar for me was and it was like
powerful and still now and a look at it's a
pretty intimidating instrument. Like it's not like I play it
the same every day. I don't, and I have I

(25:40):
have about fifty guitars in my living room right now,
which is kind of excessive, but you know, it makes
me feel comfortable. I sort of feel like they will
have different personalities and I sit with them and they
bring out different songs, and yeah, I mean I'm obsessed
with I'm obsessed with with music and guitar, and I
I don't think anyone could ever, you know, I don't

(26:04):
know like like distract me from that, either if I'm stuck,
if I'm in a writing mode, or if I'm rehearsing
that I'm going to be joining Alice Cooper for ten
shows coming up, so I'm learning like twenty five of
his songs right now. I'm definitely like, turn everything off,
leave me alone. Think you know, I'm not gonna be
pretty OCD like that.

Speaker 3 (26:24):
If you are not writing a song or not preparing
for a tour, are you playing the guitar every day
or just when you know you have work coming up.

Speaker 2 (26:35):
Some days I take a rest because if I've been
playing shows back to back or whatever it is, my
hands are pretty cut up, you know. And even in
the studio too. I've been working on two records. I've
been working with Eddie Kramer, who is a legend, you know,
and that's been a true honor. And by the end
of I think I did five or six hours of
guitar parts with him the other day, and I had

(26:57):
the indentse of like all the strings on my hands.
I'm like, I left the guitar alone for like a
day or so after that, because you know, it was painful.
You know, you can't. I don't want to cut my
hands open. So but other than that, no, I love playing,
you know, and that's the thing that's the most important thing,
like what you do it for. I get to do
what I love for a living, and sometimes that what

(27:20):
I get paiper is like they're traveling and everything else,
because that's crazy sometimes, but I'm very grateful. Having gratitude
is everything, you know.

Speaker 3 (27:31):
Okay, are you a gear head?

Speaker 2 (27:35):
Somewhat? Not as much as some people. My dad is
far more than I am. He collects a lot of
pedals like my mom collects shoes. He has the pedal situation.
I collect some pedals and I get given some and
I use them like I have like a I wouldn't
say it's a crazy looking pedal board. It just has
like some really special pedals on there. That makes sense

(27:58):
to me right now, and I'll change things up later too,
you know. I think that, you know, it's the thing
where whatever sort of fits the set, you know, And
right now I'm kind of going for some pretty wild
sort of tones and working with different producers too, especially
Eddie and Kevin Shirley too, who produced my producer this

(28:18):
new record with me, because I've self produced half of
it and he did the rest. Working with him. He's like,
try this pedal or try that. So I'm taking suggestions,
you know. I'm always open hard and open minded with that.
I don't like too much stuff though. I like the connection,
but I always use the distortion from the amp. And
I have my own amplifier now, which is very awesome

(28:39):
to be able to have created my own signature model
with Orange, which is such a you know, incredible legendary
like AMP company coming out of England, working with Cliff
over there and Pat Foley, and it took about a
couple of years to make this amp, and I sent
back a lot of them and now it's it turned
out perfect and we sold out. We sold out of them,

(29:00):
so that was really cool.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
Okay, were you an orange person before you made Rowning.

Speaker 2 (29:07):
Up for a moment? Yes, I didn't.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
Like.

Speaker 2 (29:11):
I tried them out for like about a year or
two or maybe more, maybe three years. I was using
Marshall Evh before that. I went through I have a
whole like amp graveyard of things because I go through
them and I'm like, this worked for this tour. I
didn't even know what I used for the Alice Kuper tour.
I kind of remember, but really high gain ants and whatnot,

(29:32):
and they'll be out of control, you know. And I
wanted something that was sort of beastly but not too
beastly and then had the you know sound that's super
big and kind of powerful but not thin sounding. And
and then I went over to Alexander dumbles home he's
a very prestigious like ant maker, and spent some time
with him and when I got listened to his amp,

(29:54):
It's like whoa. That sound is like godly like, you know,
and then listen to vintage amps and you go, it's
about that the way it just sounds. You just plug
your guitar straight in and you don't need anything, you know.
It's that connection. And I wanted to create something like that.
And I knew that Orange had the power, you know,
and I love Marshall too, but the Marshals are newer ones.
I was using sounds a bit too thin, and I

(30:17):
don't know if it's just the ones I got, but
I just wasn't completely content at that point with them.
So when Orange came along, I was like, this has power.
It's kind of glorified Marshals that have found but that
British blues sound. And then we sort of modified it
and modified it more and more, and then they were like, oh,
we want to come out with your signature ramp. And
I'm like, well, I love I love reverb. Reverb is

(30:39):
one of my favorite things. So they were like, okay,
cool and it. So we called it the the Ori verb.
So there's a lot of reverb going on and it's
it's really I love the amp. I really do. My
neighbors I don't think they really like the ant, but
you know it's loud.

Speaker 3 (31:01):
So you say it's sold out. Do you have any
idea how many they made.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
A lot of them. I got to get the right,
I've got to get the number. But we sold a lot.
And now we've come out with a crush version which
is half the price, well actually a quarter the price,
so kids can afford it because the other one was
a little more expensive. And we always do that, like
with Gibson. I'm coming out with my epiphone, you know,
because we my my acoustic, my J two hundred, which

(31:26):
I did the red one. It was incredible. We created
it and it was a third biggest seller next to
Elvis and Bob Dylan for a J two hundred artist.
It was crazy that that happened. But they allowed me
to run wild in the battery and I'm like, I
want crystals, I want lotus flowers, I want right red.
I want to make it with a three forty five

(31:48):
neck on it. So it was an electric neck on
an acoustic body, and you know, I just really changed
stuff up. So it was I think it's the first
hybrid acoustic. So it's the playability of it. You can
play leads on it, right, so you can play whatever
you want. And the pickup too. I really sat with
LR bags and modified the pickup immensely too.

Speaker 3 (32:09):
Okay, these guitars and amps that are selling so well,
are they selling purely on the fact that they're that
good or to what degree are you marketing them? Personally?

Speaker 2 (32:22):
I just think they're just really good. They're quality, they're
not crappy. So I think that if they were like marketed,
because you know, there's been a lot of marketing behind it.
Of course, the companies have done an incredible job and
having a support of a lot of different outlets too.
But I think if someone bought it and I was like,
oh my god, this is a piece of crap that
I don't think it would have sold out, you know.

(32:43):
And plus I wouldn't put my name to it either,
because I would feel really bad about that, you know.
I don't just put out stuff for the sake of it.

Speaker 3 (32:49):
Okay, you have a signature amp, we're in the studio.
Are you using other brands or only your own app?

Speaker 1 (32:57):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (32:58):
I'm using other stuff too. I'm using a vintage Champ
as well, which I I turn up to breaking point
and that sounds great with my klon And then I
used to dumble in the studio as well, and then
I also used what else did I use? That's probably
that's probably three amps, but mostly most of my leaves

(33:19):
were done with my orange.

Speaker 3 (33:21):
You can say that, okay, yeah, unlike boast orange, APS
is not orange. So can you tell me about that?

Speaker 2 (33:32):
It is not orange. It's an orange champ, but it's
not orange. That's all I can say. I mean, look,
I just wanted to make a cool looking amp and
I love the white with the you know, the design
on with the flowers and the black, and it just
looked very striking to me. With the gold, yeah, I mean,
I just wanted to change it up a bit. You know,
Glenn Hughes has a purple orange, so I wanted to

(33:55):
have a white and black and gold orange. There's nothing
really more to it than that.

Speaker 3 (34:00):
So tell me about the fifty guitars.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
They're in my living room right now. That's not including
my storage in it, or my closets or Australia my
studio there. But I have quite a few going on here.
This is my beautiful purple PRS, which I've had for
a very long time. This is number one, and this
is my this is my number one guitar. I love

(34:26):
it so much, and it's one solid piece of like
Brazilian rosewood, and the pickups in it are the Paul
By Smith's magical pickups that I have no idea what
he put in them, but they're magical and I love them.
And I have like tons of the guitars over here.
This one here is made for the Alice Cooper shows
coming up, so I'm actually going to be auctioning this

(34:48):
off and Alice and I are going to sign the
guitars I'll be using for the tour, and I'm raising
money for the Children's Hospital, So I feel really good
about that because every night knowing that, you know I'm
going to be putting a lot of money towards that
foundation makes me feel good. So we've got three of those,
pretty gnarly looking and this one here was given to

(35:11):
me by one of my very very dear friends. This
is number two ever made of the Jimi Hendrix love
Drops guitars, so very very amazing, and I'll be using
that I don't know, a special performance so I'm waiting for.
And there's all these other guitars too, and more of
it the other side.

Speaker 3 (35:30):
But yes, you know, I read you have a DS
three thirty five. You know certain people like Les Pauls
a certain vintage, certain stratocasters. Are you someone who collects
that stuff?

Speaker 2 (35:43):
Yes, I have quite a few vintage guitars right now
which I love. My sixty two three thirty five is
an Argentina gray Burst, very rare. I've been looking for
a three thirty five for a very long time and
this one is just amazing. It's my one of my
favorite guitars ever. I gotta say, it's kind of like
a fifty nine less poll, but it's like, no, you know, so.

Speaker 3 (36:07):
How did you find the ES three thirty five?

Speaker 2 (36:10):
You know what? This one came out of a private
collection and it just appeared one day, so you know
I and I honestly I was like wow, like this
when I've actually played quite a few three thirty five
and I've been looking for the right one for a
really long time, and then when this one was put

(36:30):
in my hand, it was like, Okay, this is this
is the right one. And the same with the the
Telly I got in Japan. It's the nineteen seventy two.
I believe it. Yeah, it's incredible. This blue Telly, and
I loved it so much. Had to get that sixty
three strat as well. I had a fifty nine strat
which I loved for a minute. Then I got rid

(36:50):
of it because it wouldn't stay in shune. But you know,
it depends, you know what I mean. It's like sometimes guitars,
you need them for a minute and then and then
I will trade them all or change, you know, because
it's like I need to be able to play them live,
you know, if they can't stay in tune or they're
just for studio use only, and then they're not. I
don't think I should be workhorses because I've already been workhorses,

(37:13):
you know, like they're vintage for a reason. You don't.
I couldn't. Plus I would feel a bit weird taking
out in the road. Have had like six guitars solen
so fast, so I don't want anymore. No taken.

Speaker 3 (37:24):
So you know, some people get a guitar and they
tear it apart, they change the pickups, et cetera. Are
you that type of person?

Speaker 2 (37:33):
No? No, I don't like to change things up on
a guitar. If I'm going to get a gitar, I
don't and there's something is awful about it, and if
that awful thing was fixed it would be perfect. Then yes,
but I haven't. I don't think that's really happened with
a guitar. Yeah, I can really think of unless the guitar,
unless the tech of mine has done that. But I don't.
I don't recall anything being drastically changed to guitars i've purchased.

Speaker 3 (37:57):
No, Okay, you have a deal with PRS, but you
made an epiphone. What's going on?

Speaker 2 (38:04):
Yes, I have a deal with Gibson, have a deal
with pory Smith, and I have a deal with Orange
and yeah, I mean, but the thing is with with
the pory Smith situation, that's electric and with Gibson it's acoustic.
So I you know, yes, that's the situation there. So
I'm yeah, which is which is awesome because I was

(38:26):
with I was with Martin prior to being with you know, Gibson.
Then I was with Taylor Acoustics before that as well,
and I had my own Maiden sorry Martin, which was
an eco friendly Martin. Then I was promoting this Taylor
Acoustic which they were all great. But when I had
the opportunity on says A, the owner of Gibson approached

(38:49):
me and we had dinner with him and his wife.
It's like, I want to tell Gibson with you. I'm like, okay, well,
i've been so lord a PRS for twenty something plus years.
I can't do electric, but we could do a hybrid
acoustic that would be really cool. And he was like, yeah,
that'll be awesome. And then went to the factory in
Montana and I was going to go with a white one,

(39:10):
but apparently white guitars are very hard to put in production,
so everyone was steering me away from white. They're like,
whatever you do, tell Veron to do a white one.
Unlet's what we're doing doing a white guitar. Of course,
it's suppressing. I wanted them. Then I saw the red.
They had this red colored guitar. It's like a one
went off or something in the corner. I'm like, oh no,
we're gonna go with red. So everyone was really happy
when I said I changed my mind. And then I

(39:32):
was like, I want to change a pit guard. I
want to put lotus flowers all over it, and I
puts the train and amethyst crystals on there and and
make it like a guitar that like no one's really
seen before. So you know, when it's on a when
it's next to other guitars, that stands out and people
want to buy it. You know, like when you're a kid,
you want to see a red fire engine, you know,
it's like or a red car race car. It's like

(39:55):
for me, I just kind of went with that, and
I sort of thought like the kid and me, like
I I would want to buy that guitar.

Speaker 3 (40:01):
So, okay, you've mentioned a couple of times being a
kid playing Three Nights Out, Tell me about that.

Speaker 2 (40:10):
Yeah, that was pretty wild. My mom would pick me
up sometimes at three am, bless her, and it was
a great group of guys that I would be much
older than me playing, you know, when I was playing
those cover of gigs and they were long evening three sets,
you know, and you play in front of drunken, rowdy
Australian pub scene of craziness. And yeah, that's why I

(40:35):
quit school because you know I would show up West
very West wil Weare the next morning at school, you know,
and what's wrong with you? And like I just you know,
played night before and I'd still have like, you know,
bright blue eyeshadow on and glitter all over me still
and tried to scrub it off and be sent to
the detention room because I'd be unruly or something, because

(40:57):
I'd be always getting into it with the teachers like oh,
you don't why are you looking so weird? Like I
don't know, man, like you know, it was always weird
for me. So I just I had enough of that
kind of authority situation at school. It was just I
don't know, at one point, I just felt like they're
just picking our meat. It It wasn't just the kids,
because I got bullied at school, but it was it

(41:17):
was kind of the teachers too, that went very nice.
Some of them were, but some of them weren't. They
were very conservative, and I guess they were thinking, oh,
this is a very strange, strange child. You know. So
I had enough of that.

Speaker 3 (41:32):
How did you join that behind? What was the trajectory
in terms of playing out and then finding these gentlemen
that you were playing with continuously?

Speaker 2 (41:42):
I don't know. I just sort of I don't actually
know how it really happened through a friend. I guess
I met this songwriter friend when I saw my first
management deal when I was like fourteen, and then he
got me into playing acoustic shows. Actually yeah, his name
was Roger, I remember this. So we started writing songs
together and then he was like, we should do an

(42:02):
acoustic duo thing and pubs, and then that sort of
sprout into doing cover band stuff. So yeah, it was
a friend. He was much older and a songwriter in
our lat Australia.

Speaker 3 (42:13):
So okay, So you continued to play with the same band,
the same guys pretty much.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
Yeah, there's a couple of different sort of lineups. I
should say it because we had like three nights a
week with different bands and one was Cooled Drop D
which is a cover band and I would share vocals,
and then the other one was with another friend of
mine that I'll do the acoustic duo thing as well
with my friend.

Speaker 3 (42:39):
How much money could you make?

Speaker 2 (42:42):
God, I think it was quite a bit. I think
for a kid. I don't know. It was like three
p fifty a night to four hundred. Yeah, so I
was making a lot more than other fourteen year olds,
so you know.

Speaker 3 (42:56):
Okay, So at what age do you start making your
own record?

Speaker 2 (43:01):
Fourteen? First record?

Speaker 3 (43:03):
And what do you do for equipment? How do you
learn how to use it? How do you do it.

Speaker 2 (43:09):
So my dad he learned how to use recording gear.
He had a task can so he cleared out the
living room, which is called the rumpus room at the time,
and we got some musicians, the best ones in Auvlade
and my dad he was like, let's do a record
and I was like, hey, cool, and so we did
some covers on there, like Eric Clapton covers covered Santana

(43:31):
and then I had a couple originals on there and
it was called Under the Influence and I did that
at fourteen, and you know, it's just kind of weird
to name it that, but it was because it was
under the influence of these amazing, you know, guitar players,
and I covered their songs. So we got the band
in the living room and blessed my mother because it
looked like terrible, like we've destroyed the whole kitchen living
room area, and my dad miked everything up and he

(43:54):
recorded it. So I recorded that with my dad. Yeah,
my first first ever EP.

Speaker 3 (44:00):
Okay, was this the record that was signed to Universal
Australia or is this before that?

Speaker 2 (44:07):
No, that was way before that. We're not way I
shouldn't say.

Speaker 3 (44:10):
So.

Speaker 2 (44:10):
I was about sixteen seventeen when I actually learned how
to engineer and produce myself. So my dad's like he
took me to a studio, one of the top studios
in Adelaide, Australia, and I sat with the people there
and I learned how to mic things properly, how to
you know, learn how to use this role In twenty
four eighty so I had two of those and I
lined them up together. So I had two twenty four

(44:32):
track recorders digital workstations, and I would hook them up
to these NS tens and learn how to you know,
mic everything correctly. Find the right A vocal microphone was
really important too, which I used E Rhodes, which is
Australian brand, and then just different you know, compressors and
different things, and then how to play the drums and

(44:52):
how to mic drums. And I would spend hours sitting
at the studio with the guys there at I think
it was Cooled Fat Tracks Recording studio in Adelaide, and
then some friends would come over and show me as well.
My dad would help me a lot as well, so
I kind of just absorbed all of that also reading
about it, got books on it, and then I was like, Okay,

(45:14):
I'm going to learn how to play all these instruments.
I'm going to do everything myself. Prince was a big
influence on me because Prince would do everything himself. So
I was like, I'm going to do that too.

Speaker 3 (45:24):
Say okay, the original EP. Did you sell it to
people or just make it?

Speaker 2 (45:30):
We just sent it out to everyone. I think my dad,
my mom. We sent it out too different. I don't
even know who I got signed to. Sorry, a management
team in Australia, so different different labels in Australia, and
I got a lot of rejection letters going, we don't
know what to do with a young fourteen year old
girl who just plays instrumental music. You know that's not

(45:54):
really going to work. And then I got that's when
I send it to Pori Smith Guitars and Santana management.
I got a message back from actually Santana's brother, you're
Agay Santana and then hey, you say in yeah, and
so he would. He wrote me back and said we've
been listening to it in the office and Carlos absolutely

(46:16):
loves it. And that was a huge honor. In the
email back from him, and then from Poris Smith guitars.
He wanted me to come over to the Nam Show,
but I was way too young. And then I finally
did go over there and I was a bit older,
but getting the support of you know, Pori Smith Guitars
and Santana Management. I got like a review in Classic
Rock magazine or Classic Guitar Magazine in the UK. They

(46:40):
did a review on it, which was awesome. And then yeah,
I mean, I guess I just got to I got
to management sort of deal out of that too. In Australia,
so I got to open for Zizi Top when I
was like fifteen sixteen, and then opening for Steve Via,
playing Adelaide, five hundred car Race, Suzi Quatro, like tons
of things, and I think that Coca Cola Festival. I

(47:01):
did a lot of like things in Australia before coming
over here. Yeah, it was a wild ride for sure.
And so you know, knowing Billy Gibbons since I was
like sixteen, I'm playing his birthday party tomorrow at the Tributor,
So that's going to be cool.

Speaker 3 (47:25):
Okay, So the record that you made that you made
a deal with Universal, did you play all the instruments.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
Are the one in Australia. Yeah, that's the one. I yes,
So I did everything myself and then we distributed, got
to deal with Universal after it was done.

Speaker 3 (47:43):
Yeah, and your experience with management at that time good
or bad?

Speaker 2 (47:49):
Interesting? Yeah. It was three people and they all had
different opinions and they were all pretty connected in Australia
and Adelaide, and it was it was interesting. Let me
leave it at that.

Speaker 3 (48:03):
So yeah, okay, So what year do you ultimately come
to America.

Speaker 2 (48:14):
God, I think it was two thousand and three, less
than two, but I got it. I don't even know,
to be honest with you, it was really Yeah, it
was early on.

Speaker 3 (48:24):
Okay, how did you make it to the point where
ended up being in Michael Jackson's band.

Speaker 2 (48:32):
Well, I was signed with Interscope, I was making my record.
I was in the studio with the legendary Diane Warren.
I was cutting a song with her, and I had
my Space going on. I think everyone had my Space
that are going at that point, and I was checking
my messages and we had a break. I needed a
vocal break or something, and I was checking messages and whatnot,
and message came up. Michael Jackson saw you at the

(48:56):
Grammy Awards with Carrie Underwood. You're exactly what he's looking for?
Or can you learn his songs and come in tomorrow?
You know he wants to hire you. I'm going this
is crazy. So I went over to Diana. I said,
do you think this is real? Do you think this
is some I think it's crazy. She was like, it
looks kind of real to me. I was like, Okay,
call my manager. I was signed to nineteen Entertainment. I

(49:18):
was the first non idol to be signed to Simon
Fuller and so my manager at the time, I said, hey,
could you respond to this presson because I think this
is real? Because this looks pretty cool. I'm like, yeah,
I know, I'm kind of making an album with like Interoscope,
but like this would be kind of cool to play
guitar for, you know, Michael Jackson. So he wrote him
and he was legit and Michael called me that night
and it was from Michael Bearden, who was a dear

(49:40):
friend of mine and Michael Jackson. They both called me
and they were like, could you come in tomorrow learn
beat it want to be starting something and Dory Diana
and then we're going to start like rehearsals. So I
was like, okay, that sounds amazing and oh my god, okay,
so got home cranked up my amplifier. I was living
at the Plaza at the time, which is a crazy

(50:00):
building in West Hollywood, and I just was up all
night trying to learn to beat it solo. And that
was quite something. And I think my neighbors were like,
oh my god, we've moved in next to a crazy
Michael Jackson back and I had a Pomrangeum dog barking.
It was pretty insane. And next morning, next afternoon, she
say went down to Center staging, Michael Jackson walks in

(50:23):
the room. I want to hear beat it. I'm like,
oh my god, I'm so nervous. I was like crazy.
And then afterwards he's like, okay, you're hired. I'm like,
oh my god, I don't even know. It was wild.
It was a crazy time. So that's how that came about.
And then I signed a non disclosure form or whatever,
you know, and I couldn't tell anybody that I got
the gig, so the label found out later.

Speaker 3 (50:48):
Yeah, okay, so you're working with Michael Jackson. One has
to ask up close and personal what's Michael Jackson?

Speaker 2 (50:59):
Like, Wow, his energy was was wild, Like he walked
into a room and it's like, oh my god, that's
Michael Jackson. Like being a kid and watching his shows
on TV, you know, larger than life. He comes in.
He's just freaking star, I mean, you know. And he
was so sweet. It was very very sweet. And he

(51:20):
was very obsessed with making everything perfect. He was a perfectionist.
So I learned so much from him. Attention to detail
was very important, just taking things even more seriously than
I did, I think, you know. And and just when
he honed it on tones, he was very particular about
everything when it came down to, you know, guitar tones,

(51:42):
it just drum sounds. Everything. He would tell me, you
know what, I don't like that amp could he change
the ampower tomorrow. I'm like, okay, all right, I don't
like the guitar, or I like that guitar. Keep that one,
you know. And so he would be listening to everything,
which I found to be quite amazing, and he's like,
just don't be don't be scared, like step out like
into people like give you all, like really be what

(52:03):
you're meant to be, what you're born to do. He
gave me a lot of confidence. A lot of people
don't I think. I think the media really tore him apart,
which was not cool in a lot of ways because
he was very eccentric, very eccentric man, of course, but
he cared about a lot of people, and the way
that he treated everyone was very kind. So I have enough.

(52:24):
I don't have any bad things to say about him
or weird things to say, aside from towards the end,
he just seemed really worn out, very tired, and I
was concerned about him for sure.

Speaker 3 (52:36):
How did you find out that he died?

Speaker 2 (52:39):
Mourning of We were rehearsing until twelve or one am,
and he was excited. He said, I can't wait to
see you guys tomorrow. Were days away from leaving for London.
We had our apartments and everything, and he said, I
remember him coming up to me giving a big hard gooing.
I'm so excited about doing this, you can't imagine. I

(53:01):
can't wait for my kids to see this, to see
me perform again. You know, I can't wait for the fans,
he said. I'm a bit nervous, he said about you
know how you know the reviews will be I know,
I know he was nervous about it because he was
coming back out again and this was a big thing.
But he said, you know, this show is going to
be incredible like no one else has ever seen before.

(53:22):
And it was. It was wild, all the stuff that's
being added. But he was very excited. And that's what
the craziest thing was. I think he just he couldn't
sleep and he was stressed out, and there's a lot
of pressure on him. There's a lot of money put
into it. There was, you know, I mean I feel
the pressure, you know, on a much smaller scale. He
had like hundreds of millions of dollars put into this situation.

(53:43):
He couldn't sleep, and he wore himself down everyone, I
mean around. It was like this pressure cooker, you know,
and he really just spent too so much time. I
don't think he took time for himself. I really don't.
I think he as a lot of artists, you know,
we are quite obsessive about things, so you want things
to be perfect. And I think he was such an
extreme artist like that that, you know, it was a

(54:06):
lot on his shoulders and he just wanted to be incredible.
So I feel ardored that I spent that time with
him truly.

Speaker 3 (54:13):
So how did you find out and how did you
cope thereafter?

Speaker 2 (54:18):
Found out? For my manager, he called that morning because
I was getting ready to go to rehearsal. He goes,
did you hear the news? And I'm like, no, what's
going on? He goes, Michael's past and I'm like what,
Like I was like no, like no way, Like are
you joking, dude? Like, what's going on? He goes? And
then I literally was like in shock. Like everyone was

(54:41):
just completely I don't even know how to plain it right,
like with someone that evening to one am nothing wrong.
Get there to the rehearsal, Everyone's like crying and I'm going,
what happened? And then there was just no one really told,
no one really said anything. You know, it was weird.
It was really weird. Can't I can't explain to you

(55:02):
the amount of weirdness and sadness and disbelief and shock
that that still stays with I think everyone that was
a part of that, you know, because we became family.
We were together for like four months or something like that,
three or four months like rehearsing, and you know, it
was intense. So yeah, it was like we're losing a friend,
you know, someone that you saw every day, like your

(55:23):
fast friend. Then you know a legend as well, and
and then you're just like wow. So it was pretty
pretty crazy.

Speaker 3 (55:32):
So how soon after that did you go back to
work doing whatever?

Speaker 2 (55:37):
Well, my album was done with Interscope, so that was
ready to go, and I had to fulfill that obligation
of putting out my record, you know, with into Scope
so they, to be honest with you, I didn't have
enough time to really and kind of stick with my

(55:58):
emotions really, so it wasn't healthy. I'm not going to
say it was, because it was like, okay, he passed away.
I'm on the news everywhere. You know, It's like that
clip was played everywhere. You know, it was wild and everyone.
I was hounded, like I'd never seen anything quite like
quite like it, you know, even going to rehearsals. We
have paparazzi rehearsal following us everywhere. Once I found out

(56:19):
who was part of the band, everything, and I want
to know a lot about it. Once he passed, I
was hounded. I couldn't even walk down the street, arrived
at an airport without you know, like people with things
for me to sign, or cameras on me asking about
him or what had happened and all this stuff, and
it was insane. And then on top of that, the
labels like, okay, we're putting out your record. So having

(56:41):
the record, you know, come out according to you, come
out without doing very well, but then you have on
the flip side this darkness which I hadn't dealt with
emotionally from him passing it. I wasn't happy, to be
honest with you, like I had a lot of success,
but I wasn't happy because I didn't know how to feel.
You know. It's weird to process, you know.

Speaker 3 (57:04):
So originally you were going to go for months in
England to play with Michael Jackson. Was the record going
to be delayed until you were done? And then they
moved it up after Michael passed.

Speaker 2 (57:16):
I don't know the plan. I don't know what the
plan was, to be honest with you. Maybe it was
going to be put out as I was out there
in between, right so I would I would put out
a single, I'll still be playing the shows and I'll
be promoting over there. I don't know what the whole
plan was, to be honest, with you. I don't know,
but probably.

Speaker 3 (57:34):
Okay, if you come to LA at two thousand and three,
when is that meeting with Jimmy I being at his house?

Speaker 2 (57:46):
Gosh, I don't even know. It was a wild time.
I kind of remember.

Speaker 3 (57:51):
I guess what I'm asking is this, you come to LA,
what's your personal plan? What work do you get after
you come?

Speaker 2 (57:58):
Okay, So when I first came to LA, I was
playing in the nam Booth with PRS guitars, right, so
I would play in the Nambooth and then so twenty
other three four five. Yeah, then I got a deal.
So around then so came here, coming back and forth
all the time. Then I actually moved when I got
the deal. So when I got signed to Jimmy and

(58:19):
he was like, okay, we're making the record. That took
a while, of course, back and forth to you know,
get the deal done. And then I made the move
for I don't know the exact time, to be honest
with you. It was such a craziness, like going back
and forth. But after playing for Jimmy, playing for Ron Fair,
they decided they gave me actually a really good deal.

(58:39):
I've got a great publishing deal too, with Universal and
it was all kind of happening at once and then
and then it was just straight into writing.

Speaker 3 (58:49):
Okay, you mentioned that you played with Kirie Underwood. Had
you been going on the road with other racks or
was this just a one off with Kirie under.

Speaker 2 (59:00):
No, we had the same manager, someone Fuller. So she was,
you know, in the offices walking around and she's like,
I'm going to do the Grammy Awards because I heard
your hard playing girl. Would you join me? That'd be awesome.
I'm like, the Grammys. That sounds amazing. So I was
like totally blown away that she would ask me. And
she's so sweet, I mean incredible. I just saw her

(59:22):
the other day at her Vegas residency and what an
incredible talent she is and such a down to earth person,
you know, and it was so kind of her to
invite me. And I remember walking up on stage with her,
and you know, BB King was sitting there in the
green room eating a bunch of crawfish and I don't
even know he had this bib on eating and I

(59:46):
was like, oh my god, BB King And I said, hey, like,
I'm such a massive ban I don't want to annoy
you by anything. She goes, hey, young, young lady, what
can I do for I'm like, can I have a
photo with you? I know you're eating and stuff. He's like,
He's like absolutely, he said, what are you doing here?
I said, I want I played tonight. He goes, will
you go right there? A new rocket? Okay? And I
was like all right, And I remember him saying that
it was so sweet as he was eating and he's like,

(01:00:07):
took a photo with me. And then I went out
there and I rehearsed and then we played and Paul
McCartney was in the audience, Keith Urban, all these people Bono, Like,
you know, you look out there and you go, what
the hell is going on here?

Speaker 3 (01:00:20):
You know?

Speaker 2 (01:00:21):
So I'm very thankful to carry Underwood because after doing that,
that sparked, like, you know, Michael Jackson saw me and
I got, you know, that opportunity and and yeah, I can't.
I mean, Simon Fuller was an incredible manager too, and
and that whole team nineteen were great when I was
with them for a while. And then then I made

(01:00:44):
the record with Howard Benson and he was awesome to
work with. Desmond Child was one of the first songwriters
I worked with which was insane. Yeah, Desmond and I
became very fast friends. He was awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:00:57):
Okay, you talk about meeting bb K, what were the
two best experiences of meeting an idol?

Speaker 2 (01:01:07):
Gosh, just say meeting meeting Santana for the first time,
you know, that was awesome. He's like my other dad,
he really is. I met him and he was so gracious,
and he was like, okay, you play my guitar and
I'll play yours, and let's jam backstage. And in Australian

(01:01:28):
Adelaide Memorial Drive fifteen thousand people, twenty thousand people was
playing too, and we jammed and he's like, okay, you're
joining me tonight on stage and I'm like, oh my god, okay,
and well songs are be playing. It didn't tell me,
so I was like, I followed him on stage, plug
me in. I stayed up for like most of the show.
I think it was like fifty minutes of the show,
and he would turn to me, Okay, you solo now,
you slo now, and thank god, I've learned his entire catalog,

(01:01:50):
so I knew what you know. But it was definitely
throwing me into the ocean to see if I could
swim and do it. And I guess you know, they
had that happened to them and when they were younger,
you know, they had to, you know, at a very
young age, get up on stage in front of a
lot of people and see if they could do it.
And they did the same thing. You know, Carlos believed
in me enough to have me on the stage, to

(01:02:11):
throw me into that situation to go, okay, girl, can
you can you bring it? You know, and in a
very loving way. But I was just like, man, after that,
I was like, oh I can do this. I got
never really nervous, but I can do it. And you know,
sometimes you got to do that. It's very zero to
one hundred. But that's that's life. It's like, you know,

(01:02:32):
it's not it's not normal.

Speaker 3 (01:02:34):
Can you tell me about meeting another idol?

Speaker 2 (01:02:37):
Another idol? Gosh, I've met so many. Paul McCartney I met.
He came to the studio when I was working out
in Vancouver and I actually went to his Auntie's ninety
ninth birthday party. That was really it was crazy. But anyway,
he came past the studio on his bike and I

(01:02:59):
was making a record there with Bob Rock, and Richie Sambora,
and he came in and I was playing acoustic guitar
in the control room. Didn't know it was I didn't
know it was Paul because he was dressed in the
tracks and a hat, and I thought he was one
of the I was very embarrassed, mind you, this very
embarrassing because he's one of my favorite songwriters. And I

(01:03:22):
turned to him and I had this guitar I was playing,
but it wasn't quite right. So I turned him with
a guitar and said, hey, can you get me another guitar?
And I was like, I was like, I'm not sure
about this one. It's kind of not really doing it
for me. And he's like, oh hi, and he had
this accident. I was like, oh my god, it's Paul.
Oh my god, I'm sorry. This is so bad. I
was like, oh my god, what an honor to meet you.

(01:03:43):
And and and then he's like, can you play something
for me? And someone actually filmed I have on my
iPhone somewhere me playing for Poul. He said can you
play me some things? And I was playing his fingerpick stuff.
He goes, I love that, it sounds great. And then
that evening we all went to his auntie's birthday party
and she was eating this chocolate mudcake at like twelve am,

(01:04:04):
and we all had martiniz me and you know, and
we'll actually not Bob Rocks sober, but Abe Laboria was there,
the drummer and his band and everybody, and we all
just hung out and yeah, it was awesome and Paul
was super super sweet, like such an awesome person and
so m again, not too long ago at the Sphere,

(01:04:26):
I went to the opening night of the Sphere to
see YouTube that was really cool. So yeah, he's definitely
an idol of mind the Beatles, I mean incredible.

Speaker 3 (01:04:42):
Okay, how did it end with nineteen and Simon Fuller?

Speaker 2 (01:04:47):
Well, Simon he sold the company, right, so it changed
and that's when, yeah, things sort of I left. I
just left out that happened.

Speaker 3 (01:04:58):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:04:59):
I guess people had allocated like managers there within the company,
but I decided to leave the whole thing, you know,
and the manager that I had assigned to me, the
day to day person and whatnot. But then I went
through a barrage of managers. I'm not going to say
how many managers I've been through, because that just sounds bad,
but a healthy amount of managers I have been through,

(01:05:21):
and all I can say is this, if a manager
understands exactly where you want to go, and they walk
beside you and you work together in harmony, and things
can really Like Alice Cooper and Chep Gordon were amazing
and together and you know, or it's like Joe Bonamaster
and his manager, and there's quite a few others too

(01:05:42):
as examples, but you know, Share and her manager, Roger Davies.
Then you understand each other and it works. But if
it doesn't, if the manager doesn't have quite the same vision,
or they don't bring anything to the table and they
just have their hands out and they take twenty percent
or fifteen percent of what you're making and your everything
in and they're just telling you what to do, not

(01:06:03):
going to work. So and my experience with managers has
been kind of that, to be honest with you, since
Salm and Fuller. I mean a lot of them tried
but didn't really understand exactly where I wanted to go
or what I wanted to do, you know, or they
wouldn't listen to me as much. You know, they had
their own idea and that's not that's not cool. They

(01:06:24):
should you should be able to work together as a
proper team. And look, I still am friends with most
of my ex managers, but some of them were distracted
with other artists that were massive and they were dealing
with things with them, and they didn't have the time
as well. So you've got to choose wisely, you know.
That's all I can say.

Speaker 3 (01:06:44):
Okay, but your self managed now I am.

Speaker 2 (01:06:47):
I have an incredible team though. I have an amazing
attorney and a whole team there. I have a great
tour manager he does my day to day as well,
and then I have incredible business management and I have
a lot of manager friends that will step in when
I need them to, so they're on call and I'm
very grateful for that.

Speaker 3 (01:07:05):
How much time in a day do you spend on business?

Speaker 2 (01:07:10):
Five hours? Maybe that's a lot of time off and on. Yes,
my phone sometimes will attack me if I wake up
late because I'm working on a song. I'm like, oh
my god, I got to deal with this. So a
lot many things. And now that I've launched my own
you know, vodka as well, that's I'm really excited about that.
My amplifiers we're doing some more stuff for that for press,
I'm you know, doing a lot of interviews and stuff

(01:07:32):
for Australian tour coming up. And then yeah, I literally
go to Australia, come home here for a day, that
I leave for Saudi Arabia, then I come back here
for a week, then I leave for Alice Cooper and
I come back here and I'm gonna take a short
break because I need it so don't combust. And then
then we're going to Europe. Then we're going to Brazil.

(01:07:52):
Then we're going to Japan, and then we released the
two albums. So I'm doing the three piece, which is
you know, the band.

Speaker 3 (01:08:00):
That's all for that second we're going to get there.
So are you self managed because you're burned out on
all the experiences or if the right person came along,
would you try again?

Speaker 2 (01:08:13):
If the right person came along, I'll definitely try again
one d percent. It has to be an energy thing though,
that would have to be very very driven, have a
very clear path as to what they saw they could
bring to the table. For me, I couldn't do myself.
And yeah, I just have a real understanding of who

(01:08:36):
I am as an artist and person too. They've got
to be your friend, you know, but definitely be bringing
stuff to the table. Have that gravity because and be
alpha two because I'm quite alpha myself. So if someone's
not sure, they're sort of like, yeah, let's do this
or that. I don't like that, and I can't work
with producers like that either. I've got to work with
someone who's very sure of themselves, very sure about what
they want to do, and that to me is very important.

(01:09:00):
So I'm not ruling it out. If the right manager
comes along, I am totally open, hard and open minded
to that for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:09:08):
So tell me about after the Interscope experience making a
record with Dave Stewart, how does that happen?

Speaker 2 (01:09:15):
Well, I was invited by Dave to do the Stand
Up to Cancer event which is televised and many people
are part of that, Joss Stone and Heart and I
actually played with Heart. We played Barracouta together, Ceebee Wonder,
so many people, just Stone, just tons of people, and
then Dave and I and jos and everyone. We all

(01:09:35):
had a dinner afterwards. And I had been sober for
quite some time. I stopped drinking for about five years,
I should say five six years because I definitely did
my dash in a cover band, you know what I mean.
So the lever was sort of bent out at a
younger age, and so Day put a Martini in front
of me, and that was I was like, okay, cool.

(01:09:56):
Had that Martini was very strong, and we all just
got into chat and we came like really fast friends meet,
you know, Dave and Martina McBride and John McBride who
had Blackbird Studios, and Johnson and then Dave and I
actually wrote this whole movie that evening, an animated film,
which I think should come out one day because we
had a we had an even green a green light

(01:10:19):
from DreamWorks to make this film, you know, together animated
under the Water Blues film. It was very cool, and
so we wrote this entire film together that evening. At
the dinner table, Abra Martini, a couple of Martini's baby,
and then he's like, we should make a record together.
I'm like that sounds awesome. So I'm just out, you know,
get out of my deal whatever, and that's kind of

(01:10:40):
what happened. Went over to a studio when he had
a studio on West Hollywood Bine Street, and it was
always wild over there. I would show up and then
I should say meeting another idol of mine, Mick Jagger
was working with him. So one day he invited me
over to the studio and didn't tell me that Mick
Jagger was laying down a vocal for like a super
heavy so much he was doing this project. And I

(01:11:02):
brought my mother with me, and she she went actually
to the door and I went to the bathroom and
he opened the door and my mom was like, oh
my god, it's big Jagger and uh and he's like,
come on in and he offered her. He offered her
like cookies and a tea and he's like what was
you like you need anything? Like he was so sweet.

(01:11:22):
Like that was wild. And then working with working with
day was a trip, Like there's always people coming in
and out of the studio that he never never knew
who was going to be. Like there like Andy Garcia
playing piano one day, I remember, and then like Justine
coming in and then he's working with you two. He's
working with all these different people. But we managed to
make a record together in Nashville and that was really fun.

(01:11:44):
It was a great record happened in as hell.

Speaker 3 (01:11:46):
Okay, the record comes out in an independent label? What's
that like compared to being on Interscope that was.

Speaker 2 (01:11:53):
Actually through Universal, So that one came out through Universal.
But it was as soon as I finished that record.
The day I remember the day we finished it in Nashville,
I get a call from Alicekeeper because I'd just done
the American Idol finale with him. We played Schools out
and he called me. He goes, Hi, my guitar player
left within Lizzie, will you will you be my lead

(01:12:15):
guitar player for the tour coming up? And going yeah,
that sounds awesome. You know that sounds amazing. So I
just finished a record. I was supposed to go out
and promote that, and then I decided I'm going to
go off with Alice Cooper. So yeah, that's that's kind
of what happened.

Speaker 3 (01:12:29):
So, oh, okay, you don't make another studio album for
seven years. What are you doing in that period of time?

Speaker 2 (01:12:37):
I am touring with Alice for about five six about
five years with Alice Keeper. Then I join Richie Sambora
and we meet in Hawaii and I was, you know,
Richie said to me, he goes. He came up to
me and I don't know if he was showing up.
Actually that day, I was like Sammy Hagar and DeBie

(01:12:57):
Brothers and Stephen Tyler and you know, we're just it's
a New Year's Eve thing we do for Sheep, Gordon
over and Maui and Richie came. Last minute. He's like,
we're gonna jam together. I was like, okay, cool, awesome.
So we ended up jamming together, and then afterwards he's like,
have your number, like, let's let's write some stuff. Girl,
Like you know, I love your playing and my daughter,
you know, you know she's she's a fan of you
or she saw you when this is It film and

(01:13:19):
all of that. I was like, okay, cool, Yeah, sounds great.
And then he called me when I got home and
I went over to his place. We ended up writing
songs and hanging out, and I thought this is cool,
Like he's an amazing singer, songwriter, you know, a guitar player.
So we just wrote tons of songs and then he's like, hey,
like you know, he had Bob Rock come over one time.
He goes, how about you and I do a record

(01:13:40):
together or something that'd be really cool and go on tour.
And I was like that sounds great, but I'm still
with Alice, so I can't like, you know, so I
had to go I meet with Alice. It was kind
of tough, you know, to walk in there and say, hey,
you know, I really want to focus on this raport
I'm doing with Ritchie and and leave the band. But

(01:14:01):
I said, look, I'm not going to leave you on
the If you need me, I'm going to be here
until you find a replacement. Thank god, he found Nita Strauss.
He's amazing. She's a dear friend of mine. And then
Richie and I spent years on a record with Barb
Rock and we played some shows together. We you know,
we toured quite a bit. We played Australia, we went
to Brazil, we opened the Bad Company, we you know.

(01:14:23):
So yeah, we made the RSO record during that time,
which was wild.

Speaker 3 (01:14:28):
Okay, in this inter realm, say say you work with
Alice Cooper. The dream of being successful solo artists? Does
that extinguished? Is that always in the back of your head?

Speaker 2 (01:14:42):
Yeah? Absolutely. I needed to take a break, i think,
from being the captain of the ship. So, you know,
it was a nice sort of thing to be just
a guitar player. I had a blast. We got to
celebrate Halloween every night, party every night, you know what
I mean. But the show, very seriously, the show was perfect.

(01:15:02):
Then after the show, I'd be drinking tons and partying
with everybody. And I can't say I was a healthiest
on that tour, no, so you know, but I had
so much fun. I got to tell you, it was
just a blast. And the guys are like my brothers,
and yeah, I was. I was in my twenties and
I was having fun. I just I needed a break.

(01:15:23):
I think. I think being out on that tour and
not being the boss was something that I needed for
a minute, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:15:32):
Okay, you talk about being sober for five years then
having the martini. Where are you with alcohol and substances today?

Speaker 2 (01:15:40):
Oh, in a good place. Yeah, I don't abuse anything. No.
You know, you learn as you get older there's only
so much body can take, you know what I mean,
And you want to be clear minded. There's too much
stuff to do. When you're young and you're in your
twenties or your teenager and you're partying with your friends,
you're definitely like you can andle it more right. And

(01:16:01):
as you get older, you go, oh, man, I don't
feel so good. So you know, I'm all about I promote,
you know, health and a healthy lifestyle and eating right,
working out. I run six miles a day, which is
probably not healthy but excessive, but I love the endorphins
from it. And then you know, I eat very healthy,

(01:16:21):
and I'm all about just like self care and mindfulness.
I have spiritual healers. I'm very much about. Your mind
is very important. It's the most like whatever the way
you program your mind and your thoughts and the most
important thing. And speaking of truth and being authentic. I
think that, you know, when I was younger, if people
put stuff in front of me, you know, you're going

(01:16:42):
to just do anything, but kind of you know what
I mean. And so it was I definitely had my
party days, for sure. I'm not going to say I didn't.
But I learned from that, and I've learned from watching
other people that have taken a very bad road because
it's very easy and being a musician, everything zero zero
to one hundred, so it's never like this, never a

(01:17:05):
straight line. It's always like extremes like from in the studio,
then sixty thousand people, then TV. Then you know it's
like there's a lot of pressure too, not only from
other people but on yourself.

Speaker 3 (01:17:17):
Okay, you make a couple of records for Frontiers, what
is that experience? Like?

Speaker 2 (01:17:24):
That was interesting?

Speaker 3 (01:17:25):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:17:26):
They were very very enthusiastic about signing me and everything,
and then once they got working with them, they wanted
a certain they wanted everything to be very heavy. So
that's where we kind of butted heads with them, you know,
and that's why I left them, because you know, I
didn't want to just make heavy records. I mean, rock
Candy I was very proud of and everything, but it
was a heavy pop record because it had to be

(01:17:48):
you know, we had some you know definitely when I
sent them through songs, oh like, it's got to be
this way, got to be this way. So yeah, that's
that's the reason why I left that label is because
they they would tell me what kind of record they wanted,
you know, and that's fine, that's fine if you're a
heavy band. But I wanted to branch out a bit more.

Speaker 3 (01:18:08):
Okay, So tell me about signing with your new label
and making two records.

Speaker 2 (01:18:14):
I'm only making one record with this new label, would Avenue.
I met Mark Nordam a while ago and through Norm
Rare Guitars, and he just was a really enthusiastic guy
that really believed in my music. And he was like,
I'm giving you free rein so sort of he has
a jazz label actually anything, but he's like, I'm giving

(01:18:34):
you free range to do whatever you want. I'm like, cool.
The deal was really straightforward, and that's kind of it.
He just believed in me as and believes in me
as a as an artist and gives me a free
rain to do what I want. And I think that's
the most awesome thing, you.

Speaker 3 (01:18:47):
Know, So tell me about making that record.

Speaker 2 (01:18:50):
Working at Robbie Kriege Studio has been awesome because it's
such a great vibe there and working with my band
and just going in and writing all the songs my
and just you know, just capturing that energy and it's
very organic. It's kind of like how old records were made,
I guess ages ago. We're just doing it that way.
And then Kevin Shirley came on board and he's been

(01:19:11):
producing and that's been awesome because I love Kevin. He
is a total legend and just awesome producer. He brings
out like great guitar tones and he knows how to
get the band rocking too, and you know, I trust him,
so we can't I can't wait to finish the record
with him too.

Speaker 3 (01:19:27):
So how did Kevin get involved?

Speaker 2 (01:19:30):
We had a dinner at the Marquee Sunset Marquee. He
came over here and we just hang out, actually his friends,
prior to anything. And I think I met Kevin through
Joe but a Master because we've been friends for a
long time. So yeah, and then Kevin was like, I
want to work with you, and I've wanted to work
with you since like twenty fourteen. I'm like, hey, cool,

(01:19:51):
So he finally got to working together and I'm really
I'm really proud of of the first well not the
first single, the newest single that's out now, of Feeling.
He did a great job on that. It's kind of
got the most sound, sort of organic sound to it,
like pop rock blues, but he really just brings it.
He knows how to mic everything and he's incredible. And

(01:20:12):
same with Eddie Kramer. I'm doing this side project with him.

Speaker 3 (01:20:24):
Okay, let's talk about the Kevin Shirley record. So when
will the album be finished?

Speaker 2 (01:20:29):
I'm planning on finishing it early March. Now, so the
last two songs we done early March and then the
record will come out April.

Speaker 3 (01:20:39):
And what are your expectations of the album?

Speaker 2 (01:20:43):
I hope people just like hear like a kind of
a different side to me, like more of a singer
songwriter sort of thing. Like it's not like heavy heavy,
Like some of the songs are heavy, but they're not
like it's more like, I don't know, it's got like
more motown soul in there. There's it's more about the storytelling,
you know. I think, you know, I've written every lyric myself,

(01:21:05):
and I think that it's freedom. I hope they find
freedom in the music that can hear it. It makes
people feel good. That's kind of my intention. I don't
have expectations, you know, at all. I want people to
like it and I hate it, of course, but you
know that's kind of it really, But.

Speaker 3 (01:21:23):
To what degree will you promote it? Market it?

Speaker 2 (01:21:27):
I've been doing a lot of press for it. It's
just one classic rock track of the week, which is awesome.
There's some great artists on that list too, and it's
been doing really well, and so I feel like I'm
going to be touring Australia with the new record. We're
doing a bunch of press now for that. In Australia.
All the shows inly sold out over there, which is awesome.

(01:21:48):
To the UK with it, to Japan with it, all
that stuff, and yeah, just by the big festivals. We've
got a lot of festivals lined up for the UK,
so I can't wait to do that.

Speaker 3 (01:21:57):
So you have a band, regular group of musician I do.

Speaker 2 (01:22:01):
I do, yes, I do have a like my main band,
I actually play more like a three piece. I actually
enjoy it a lot. But when I play some hometown
shows here in LA I have percussion, I've got keys,
I've got three background singers, I've got I just go
all out, you know, background, guitar, play everything. So it's
like a big band sound, which is great. But on

(01:22:22):
the road I do it three piece because I'm a
huge Hendrick C. B Ray fan, and I just think
that it sounds bigger sometimes just going three piece, I can.
I love playing all the guitar parts myself. I do
like the freedom in that, and we've dialed it in.
I'm really happy with that. So we've got Justin Andreas
on bass. You've got Elias Marlin on drums. He's amazing.

(01:22:43):
Demi and Ariaga sometimes plays drums with me sometimes as well,
but Justin's my main bass player and he also plays
guitar with me as well.

Speaker 3 (01:22:54):
So yeah, so tell me about this Eddie Kreamer record.

Speaker 2 (01:23:00):
I'm super excited about this. It's a it's it's an
all girl sort of band, a Gypsy's vibe thing, and
you know, it came together quite some time ago. And yeah,
I mean, I don't even know. Cindy has been a
Cindy Santana has been a dear friend of mine for
many years. And I never wanted to be an all

(01:23:23):
girl band, like never, Like it's been suggested a few times.
I'm like, oh hell no. But with her, I was
like absolutely, you know, I felt like this is going
to be something really special and I and I don't,
you know, I want to. And then when Eddie, I
called Eddie about it and we found Rhonda Smith was

(01:23:43):
available too. It just came together really organically and it
was wonderful. So we're nearly done with that record and
I can't wait for people to hear it. It's something
totally different from what I'm putting out. It's got a
lot of fire behind it. And we're playing our first
show in about five days at the halftime for the Raiders,
So no pressure, just sixty thousand people. You know.

Speaker 3 (01:24:07):
How did you connect with Eddie.

Speaker 2 (01:24:09):
I've known Eddie for a long time. Actually, I met
him at Capitol Records and he was mixing some you know,
Hendrix stuff there and I walked in one day and
he was like mixing is you got to hear this
unreleased Hendrix stuff. I'm like, okay, it's wild. And then
we became friends. And then Janie Hendrix has been a
good friend of mine for many years, and I would

(01:24:31):
go and jam down at the at Paul Allen when
he was around. He was a good friend of mine.
He had the Jimmy Hendrix Museum. So i'd go jam
down there, and Janie and I were friends, and I'm sorry,
we're we're still friends. And we would, you know, just
jam a lot. And I got to play with Billy

(01:24:52):
Cox down there. I got to hold you know, the
Hendrix strat and everything, and Eddie I think he came
down there once as well. But yeah, it was just
it's been an amazing workingd with Eddie in the studio,
Like watching him dial in tones like the old school
way and compressors and all that kind of stuff. It's
pretty pretty intense and mod a legend. I feel very honored,

(01:25:14):
very honored now.

Speaker 3 (01:25:16):
Eddie Kramer, Kevin Sure, we are both from South Africa.
They are, so what is special about the South Africans?

Speaker 2 (01:25:26):
I don't know. I think you know what. I think
my great great grandfather is from South Africa too. I
don't know. So, yeah, I'm kind of a bit of
a European mutt and I have some I could ask
my mother exactly, but I don't know. They're cool. They're
very cool people. I've never been there, but both Eddie
and Kevin just have a way about them that's kind

(01:25:48):
of differently the same, but they're just both very sure
of themselves. They know exactly what they're going for, and
it's an honor to work with both of them. Love it.

Speaker 3 (01:25:58):
Okay, how did the SCIRL group come together?

Speaker 2 (01:26:01):
It was kind of it came together in this like
kind of haphazard way. We're going to tell the story
one down. I can't. I've been told not to give
out too much information about the situation right now, So.

Speaker 3 (01:26:12):
Well, let me ask you this. How long have you
been working on the girl band?

Speaker 2 (01:26:17):
About a year?

Speaker 3 (01:26:19):
And what came first? The band the Idea or.

Speaker 2 (01:26:22):
Eddie Kramer the Idea?

Speaker 3 (01:26:26):
Okay and the Idea, and then Eddie Kreamer, and then
the band.

Speaker 2 (01:26:31):
The Idea, Cindy Blackman, Santana. Then I think we found
Ronda or Eddie. Yeah, Eddie and Ronda sort of came
at the same time. And then yeah, so.

Speaker 3 (01:26:44):
Yeah, okay, you're going to play at the Raiders game.
How has that even come to pass?

Speaker 2 (01:26:52):
Got invited? I played actually play the national anthem in
Oakland for the Raiders. I've been a Raiders fan since
I was eleven, I believe it not in Australia because
I thought that was so cool. And I used to
go to the Royal show and they had the Pirate
hat and all the swag, and I was just into
American culture anyway, so I was like, yeah, go Raiders,
and I was always wearing like different Chicago Bulls hats,

(01:27:13):
Raiders swag. And then when I got invited to do
the halftime so the national anthem back in twenty fourteen,
I met Mark Davis. He's an owner and he's been
a very dear friend of mine. For many years. So yeah,
that was really cool.

Speaker 3 (01:27:30):
Okay, you're going out with Alice Cooper. To what degree
do you have to work to pay the bills? Or
with all these endorsements and guitars, et cetera, there's enough
money coming in that you're comfortable.

Speaker 2 (01:27:45):
Yeah, there's enough money coming in. I'm definitely very comfortable
for sure. I mean, you know, it's funny. It's like
in this industry, you make a lot, you lose a lot.
You go through a lot of stuff that people don't
even know about, and you know, paying people off and
managers and the next amount of and things and lawyers. Yeah,
things are expensive, that's for sure. So you can make

(01:28:06):
a lot of money, lose a lot of money, make
it again, lose it. It's up and down all the time,
for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:28:12):
Well, if you stop playing guitar today, which I know
you don't want to do, do you have enough money
to continue to live or you got to work?

Speaker 2 (01:28:21):
Oh no, I'm still working. There's there's many things I
want to I want to do and buy, So you know,
for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:28:28):
You want to buy? What do you want to buy?

Speaker 2 (01:28:30):
A couple of houses that I'm looking at right now, So.

Speaker 3 (01:28:33):
Yeah, how many houses do you have now?

Speaker 2 (01:28:37):
Well, the one I'm I'm I've got it quite a
few in Australia, and then I've got my place here
in LA and I would love to have a home
in I think I want to own a home in Vegas.
I think I do. And I also want to own
a place by the beach in Australia as well, So
and maybe maybe also maybe now sure but I'm not sure,

(01:29:00):
you know, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:29:01):
Okay, So how many homes do you own in Australia.

Speaker 2 (01:29:05):
Well, personally with my family, we have quite a quite
a few homes. I don't know exactly that before.

Speaker 3 (01:29:10):
But I just want to understand are you buying homes
as an investment or you're buying homes because you want
to have a house and live there yourself when you're
in that town.

Speaker 2 (01:29:23):
It's honestly, if I buy a home in Vegas or
Nashville or out here in LA because I'm in this
condo right now, it would be because I want to
live here. So it's finding the right place where I
would it would be my sanctuary. So I've been searching
for years to find the right place out here in
America that I feel like this is the place I

(01:29:44):
want to be my main residence, you know what I mean.
So because I'm always touring, I'm always on the road,
so it's like it's convenient for me to have a
bunch of storage units here and condo, so you know
that's convenient.

Speaker 3 (01:29:59):
So do you live in a house or a condo?

Speaker 2 (01:30:01):
A condo here?

Speaker 3 (01:30:02):
Yeah, okay, so you can just there's a door person
you can leave for months and you don't have to
worry about it.

Speaker 2 (01:30:08):
Exactly. I was in a house before with my partner.
But then you know, I'm oveed this condo and it's
very secure and there's security everywhere, like it's Fort Knox basically. Here.
You know, you've got cameras and then if anyone was
to come into my place, immediately, you know, goes to
the police. I got like, it's pretty crazy their security

(01:30:28):
I have here for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:30:30):
Now you talk about a partner, you've never been married, right.

Speaker 2 (01:30:34):
No, I have not, but I have kind of it's
been like, you know, almost like a marriage. My longest relationship.
I've got her here, so I'd call it kind of
like a marriage. You know, we live together for.

Speaker 3 (01:30:47):
A long time, but you're not with someone.

Speaker 2 (01:30:50):
Now, No, I am I'm yeah, I'm dating around right now,
so it's all good.

Speaker 3 (01:30:57):
And do you have a desire for children? Don't care
about children?

Speaker 2 (01:31:03):
No? I don't. I don't think I want children. No,
I don't, because the thing is, you know, before I
was thinking about it, but now I'm like, No, if
I was going to be have a child, I would
want to be the best mother. Ever. I don't think
that I could be with what I'm doing, and you
know what I mean. And by the time I've accomplished

(01:31:25):
what I want to do with my life like and everything,
I don't think a child would fit into that. And
I don't want to be one of those parents that,
like you know, brings up an asshole child.

Speaker 3 (01:31:36):
So you know, okay, if you're in LA, are you
the type of person who's connecting with friends all the
time and going out? Are you the type of person
staying home working on your stuff watching TV? Who knows both?

Speaker 2 (01:31:52):
Yeah? I like to hit the Sunset Marquee a lot
with my friends and my other places around here or
MOUs strows or wherever I go. You know, it's like Craigs,
you know, I do go out. I do. I have
gatherings with my friends, my very dear friends who I
love and I have like sometimes like just dinners, organize
it once once a week or once every you know,

(01:32:14):
or just girls night out and or girls and boys
night out and we just go and we you know,
have a few drinks and it's wonderful to catch up
with friends. You know, it's hard sometimes because we're all
on tour, so it's just bying the moment where everyone's
in town. You know, your friends are all together.

Speaker 3 (01:32:30):
So most of your friends are musicians, not civilians.

Speaker 2 (01:32:35):
No, I have a couple that are not musicians, but
you know, it's like most of them are or agents
or they work in different industries or you know, just
in different fields. But they're mostly like in the entertainment
field for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:32:51):
Okay, so you're a guitar player. Who's the greatest rock guitarist.

Speaker 2 (01:32:58):
I don't know what who the Everyone's so different, they're
so great, you know, I'm saying that I can't. I
said that Jimmy Hendrix was great, and he was one
of the best, and he was an innovator. But then
there's Steve I, who's incredibly great technically and beautiful the
way he plays and got Santana who's one of the
greatest in my eyes, and then you go, you know,
I don't know, there's too many. I can't like, they're
all incredible. But for me though, inspiration wise, Santana is

(01:33:23):
definitely the reason why I wanted to play electric guitar.
So I would say Tantana if I had to.

Speaker 3 (01:33:30):
If you listen to Santana, what album do you play?

Speaker 2 (01:33:34):
You know what? I think that my favorite would be
Sacred Fire Live in Mexico. It's a live record, but
I would suggest to anyone to put that on and
it's so inspiring.

Speaker 3 (01:33:46):
And if you're listening to Hendrix, what are you listening to?

Speaker 2 (01:33:49):
Banner Gypsies or probably live with Buddy Miles at the
film All that was really awesome too. It's like a
three vinyl kind of set. Yeah, I don't know, there's
so many. There's so many with Hendrix, I kind of
love them all. That's the thing. So hard to pick one.

Speaker 3 (01:34:11):
And what degree do you keep up on contemporary music?

Speaker 2 (01:34:15):
I check in, you know. I mean, I really like
Teddy Swims. I think he's core. I really like country
music too. Yeah, but I would say right now like
Teddy Swims. For some reason, he has an old school sound.
His voice is so good that yeah, it's my favorite
new artists.

Speaker 3 (01:34:32):
Okay, Australia certainly is not as big as the United States.
Is it like an Australian mafia where all the Australian
musicians know each other?

Speaker 2 (01:34:43):
Kind of kind of?

Speaker 3 (01:34:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:34:45):
I mean I haven't been back there for five years.
I'm going back for the first time.

Speaker 3 (01:34:48):
But I mean in the US.

Speaker 2 (01:34:50):
On the US, no, I mean no, I don't know
that many Australians out here, to be honest. One of
my guitar actually, my guitar player, Nick Mayberry, he's Australian.
But and then Vanessa Morosi, she's Australian, one of my
best friends. She's a great singer. But other than that,
not that many Australians know.

Speaker 3 (01:35:10):
Okay, so you've accomplished so much, but what are the
dreams in the future.

Speaker 2 (01:35:18):
To reach more people with the music I make? To
better myself as a singer songwriter? It is how play
everything you know? You never stop learning, you never stop searching, creating.
There's so much more to do, you know. I feel
like I've just gotten started. So that's the truth. I
just want to reach a lot of people and continue
to evolve and not bore myself and bore others. So

(01:35:40):
that's a plan.

Speaker 3 (01:35:42):
Okay, Rimpi. I want to thank you for taking this
time to speak with me and my audience.

Speaker 2 (01:35:48):
Thank you so much for having me so I appreciate you.
A good time.

Speaker 3 (01:35:51):
Thank you you bet Till next time. This is Bob
Left Sex sh