Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Marc ro Bears, Hey, man, Hey, you guys doing I am
doing well. How the hell areyou? Dude? Hi? Guys.
First of all, thank you somuch for having me back. It's been
a long time. I'm so psychedto hear your voices. Diane. Hi,
I hope yeah, hey, andI hope you all are great.
(00:21):
I was gonna say, I feellike it's been a minute or two,
but it is nice to talk toyou again. It sure is, man,
Thanks for having me. Hey.You know what I was thinking about,
like over the weekend, obviously knowingthat you were going to be on
so over the weekend I was goingover all of my Marc ro Bears notes
that I have and I have oneno, but you know what dawned on
(00:42):
me, And it was just becauseit was it happened to be Father's Day.
You know what I remember probably Ican't say most. I mean,
God knows that we did enough stufftogether, but you know what I was
remembering. There was one time inthe DC one oh one kitchen, and
I don't even remember what we weredoing, but you and I were in
there talking about something and you weretalking to me on the quiet that you
(01:03):
that you were on the verge ofeither trying to have a kid or you
were having a kid or something alongthose lines. And now I think you
have three Yes, Oh my god. It's so crazy how quickly I can
like immediately go back to that momentas if it was yesterday, and then
and and now only not only doI have three kids? One of them
(01:26):
that one we were talking about,he's in high school. Holy crap,
I did a good job talking youinto it. Then look at me,
go, yeah you did. Youkick started the entire thing, I think,
and and and now we just betterwe should stop. Hey, now
do I have it right? Inmy other? I have one other?
(01:48):
I have one other Rober's note aboutyour kids is one of them? Is
one of them really into hockey?Oh man? Yeah, so we've become
complete hockey family. Mom included cruisingaround doing the whole thing. And Richard
in the band, he is evenfurther down the rabbit hole of hockey.
His kids or are going, youknow, doing amazing things. And it's
(02:12):
just been Yeah, it's been reallygreat to be honest with you because we
can share it. And my dadand I you know, sat on the
glass at the Cap Center forever.So it brings back a lot of good
memories having him play hockey, andnow I'm trying to even do it.
We're all out there trying to try. Oh, Mark, Mark, Mark,
Mark, Mark, Mark, whatdo you do Saturday nights? You're
not busy, right? I playon an old man beer League team.
(02:35):
You're more than welcome to play schedule. I don't know what our stores schedule
is. I know two dates,I know Merriweather, and I know Oceans
Calling. Cancel all other Saturday nights. You will be a part of Team
Black. That's all you need toknow Team Black. Dude. Listen.
I would absolutely come skate with youguys anytime. And I have a buddy
in town who also skates all thetime. So we're we're actively looking to
(03:00):
do that. So I will hityou up and we will. We will
make this happen. Now. Itis a little bit late though for him.
He used to He's used to playit late night, ten thirty eleven
o'clock start. Yeah, we getthe prime time eyes. We get the
prime time eyes that I've been livingthat vampire life since we started to thirty
years ago. Hey, so letme ask you this, Like both both
(03:22):
my boys, Mark grew up playing, grew up playing hockey and still still
once playing in college. The otherone's getting ready to go. Are you
traveling around like with your kid that'sin the hockey which is my favorite ro
Bears child, by the way,But is is it? Are you like
traveling around? Like? Are wedoing like travel hockey and that whole routine?
We are love it? Yeah,so you know, yeah, it's
(03:46):
a learning thing for me because Iwhen I grew up, I wrestled and
played lacrosse and all these sports,and the hockey kids are always the cool
kids. You're like, man,they up early, they're always they're always
on top of their on their stuff. So we all wanted to be in
that world. We never were.So now when whenever we get to go
travel on these weekends and now comingup in the fall, is gonna be
like every day? Uh yeah,it's it's that life. I'm learning a
(04:09):
lot about it, man, It'sit's an interesting thing. Yeah, No,
it's the best. Hey, ifyou don't if there's a weekend,
I'm gonna miss it. If there'sa weekend you don't want to go,
I'll tag in and I'll go withmissus. Row Bears I'll be more than
happy to I got you covered.You just gotta yell skate. I ask
my friend, you know, Iasked my buddy, who who you know?
(04:31):
He's he's deep in hockey coach,He's got a whole academy all this
time. I say, listen,man, I'm up in the back of
the bleachers, in the back leftcorner. Do I want to be here
on the bus? Goes buddy.Stay right where you are. Don't say
a word. They can't hear anythingyou're saying. Okay, yeah, if
the order they care. If theycan hear you, you are trust me,
you are very loud. If theycan hear you, you are a
(04:54):
problem. Hey, let me askyou this. I was I was reading
something also over the weekend, mark, do you think and I was reading
this or maybe maybe I heard itwhere you were talking about your father,
and you were talking with with sucha beautiful relationship that you had, and
how much you honored and loved yourdad, And I was thinking, do
(05:17):
you think, now that you havethree kids and you kind of go through
it, do you think at anypoint yet your kids think of you the
way you think of your dad?Oh? Man, what an awesome question,
because you know that's the goal,right, That's like the entire point
of it all. So I foundout when I did get home after I
was playing a show I drove.We got home through the night Father's Day
(05:42):
on Sunday, and you found out. You know, you get the cards.
I always tell my kids. Isaid, I don't. I just
want cards, man, I lovecards. So you find out pretty quick
what they see you as because Igot a seven year old who was deathly
honest. I have a twelve yearold who's the sweetest thing in the entire
world, and that boy in highschool and they all said nice things.
(06:03):
So I think I have achieved it, although I don't know if I'm at
the level that my dad was isbecause that dude is just like always there
with the information and support and that'sall you really need to be. Hey,
were you Were you a bad kidgrowing up? I mean, I
know you said you wrestled and youwere across and stuff, but were you
a bad kid? I feel likewe were living okay. So basically,
(06:26):
I'll put it to you like this, dazed and confused. I based my
whole life on that. So wewere we were the absolute nineties version of
days and confused. So we werepartying, we were having the time of
our lives, getting into situations thatwere just seemed very movie like, and
(06:46):
then the tragedies do happen, right, So you definitely learned along the way
how special friendships were and all thesethings through probably doing things you weren't supposed
to be doing. But looking back, I wouldn't have changed the thing.
I mean, obviously we never wantedto lose anybody, but our friend group
was very tight, and whether wewere bad or good, we were all
(07:06):
of those things. And I thinkit was it was cool and it was
fun, that's all. That's great. Hey, you you mentioned driving home
to get back for Father's Day.Was that from that that event that you
played in Hershey? Yes? Ilove it there, man, I love
it out there. They've got thisawesome vineyard. It's a farmhouse basically with
(07:30):
the stage and you just hang outthere, play songs until it gets too
dark. And it's really been gooddone three I want to say four times.
Now they've been doing about a coupleof years, and we're gonna try
to grow that thing out even furtherbecause I was gonna say I saw some
videos of the of the setup.It looks very cool, like like you
said, it's a vineyard and andlike so it's kind of got like that
(07:51):
open, farmy feel. But theyhave like a nice stage and the crowd
looked awesome. It looked great.Yeah, And I think the part about
it is you've got folks who lookthey really genuinely want to bring music to
that place for the reason of thecommunity. And it's not like to get
rich, it's not to do allthe things that music can kind of take
(08:13):
wrong turns. It's always for theright like they're doing it for the right
reasons. So then you get thereand you do the show. You're hanging
out in the farmhouse that's one hundredand twenty years old for your backstage,
and it really gets you playing youknow, good songs and you really get
in that mode of like singer songwritermode. So I think they're onto something.
I'm hoping that it just continues togrow because it's getting bigger every year.
(08:35):
And then next up for you,I have oar with Fits in the
Tantrums at Merriweather on July twenty seventh. Fits in the Transfom Tantrums. I
like them. They've come in before. Very nice guys. Have you been
friends with them for a long time? Like, how'd you hook up?
It's funny, you know their theirmanagement is from the area as well,
and we go way back, andwe've been talking together about Wow, we
(08:58):
really got to get together and doa tour. And then last year they
were out with Goo Goo Dolls,we were out with Google Dolls. They
came and played at Oceans Calling.And when I saw their crowd that Ocean's
Calling, I mean it was huge, and they was involved and they did
such a great job. I justsaid, oh, man, like,
(09:18):
would you guys want to go outwith us? And it worked out really
great because just everyone involved kind ofwanted the same thing. Look, we
want to go out on a tour, and we want people to get a
break from all this nonsense, allthe noise. I come here, party,
have fun, smile, laugh andgo home and then face music.
Yeah. And then you know what'sweird. The nice people over at IMP
(09:39):
so like Seth and Donna and allthem. They said over a note talking
about how Oaar is getting ready toplay Merryweather for the eighteenth time, which
is like crazy, ridiculous, Andso you go like, okay, that's
the artist who's played Merriweather the mostfor IMP, And I go, oh,
(10:00):
okay, well who's in second?Well a little band named fish,
so you shove them out of theway. But do you know what the
which is great? I mean playingplaying Merriweather eighteen times is awesome, But
there was that little caveat that saidfor IMP. If you go back through
the whole history at Merriweather, doyou know who's played that the most?
(10:22):
Oh my god, what a greatquestion. Geez. Oh, I wish
I could just like growing up?Who I don't know? I mean,
do you have him? I hopeyou have an answer? Oh I do,
I do have an answer. Iwill tell you this. You will
only gain on him. He willnot increase his lead on you. Oh,
(10:43):
Tom Petty No. But you knowwhat I like the mindset Jimmy Buffett.
Yeah, oh great, because look, all we want to do is
be the next gen. We havebanned me things about this, so like,
wouldn't it be cool if we justdid that? Hey, do you
(11:07):
man? Have you ever have youever crossed? Like? Do you?
Did? You know? Jimmy Buffett? No, Like we always look throughout
the years, like just so manygood experiences with all our heroes and never
have run into one of them andthen walked away thinking, oh my god,
I wish i'd meet this person,and I never tracked him down.
(11:28):
I should have made more of aneffort. It was. It was almost
this mythical person that would just bearound forever, and I knew, oh,
one day we'll run into him andit'll go great. So I wish
I sort of worked harder on thatone. But up until that point,
it seemed like we were running intopeople and such nice experiences. We always
got afraid of forcing something and ruiningthat, you know, that age old
thing, don't meet your heroes.Yeah, let me tell you this.
(11:50):
Yeah, every single person says,you know, listen, this is the
person you want to have in yourcamp. Keeping everybody smiling and happy and
working enough. That was really amazing. Is is there a current day Jimmy
Buffett, like, is there anotherhero out there where you and the guys
will go like, God, youknow it would be awesome to meet or
play with. Well, I gottasay, just you know, out of
(12:13):
respect. I remember standing on thefront lawn in Rockville with our band in
our first sound system. Chris's dadran the pro sound at Chuck Levin,
so he came home one day withthe PV sound system and we put a
set it up and played and wesaid, you know, we hear about
those dudes in Virginia who are killingit. The day Matthews been like,
(12:35):
Oh, wouldn't it be great?And I remember setting up that PA system,
going, man, one day,we're gonna play venues like those dudes
are playing, because we used to, you know, get in Mom's minivan
and go to Nissan Pavilion and getit and go and see this group that
seemed to just build on word ofmouth. So we chased that down and
we really were when they went andtook us on the road twenty thirty times
(12:58):
and we got to work with someof the same people and all these things.
It always lived up to the hypeand it was always awesome. So
I always try to give respect tothat group because without them and Pearl Jam
and Crowded House, there's absolutely nochance we'd be doing what we do.
And I think those groups right there. And I bet the guy Mike McCreadie,
(13:18):
when I met him and got toplay a song with him, I
played a Johnny Cash song with him, and he actually said, I'm probably
embellishing it. He might have saidsomething about, like, I like the
way you play guitar, and hemight have just nodded and not but but
(13:39):
you should change it every time youtell it, though, and get it
better and better. He said,I was that he idolized me. Yeah,
yeah, and he was just sayinghe was. He seemed nervous around
me. And another one, honestly, the day I got married, I
was at the hotel and the Votefor Change tour was in town and they
(14:01):
were all staying at the same hotel. So all my guests thought, wow,
like Pearl jam Arim Springsteen're all atthe hotel. This is amazing.
And I'm about to get married.I'm sitting in the little courtyard. You're
just sitting nervously, and you couldtell. And I looked to my left
and Stone Gossarded from Pearl jam wassitting right next to me, my hero,
and he says, hey, man, you know it's it's gonna I'm
(14:24):
getting choked right now. He's like, it's gonna be great, have a
great time. It was the mostamazing thing ever. These are like your
heroes, and so those types ofthings kept happening, and I've I've always
cherished those moments and trying not toforce them. Hey, who played your
who played your wedding? We reallywanted you'd be forty to play, And
then we realized, like that costsa crapload of money, and we just
(14:46):
got this. We got this awesomecover band. That's how you need it.
By the way, can I tellyou, Can I tell you what
prick guest Elliott Siegel would have beendoing the whole time. I would have
been calling everybody I know, going, hey, I'm at Rober's wedding,
Pearl Jambs playing, And then Iwould have been so goddamn angry that I
(15:11):
got a quote cover band of you. Before I would have been furious,
Mark, I'm telling you, allday long, people would be like Eddie
Vedder's in the pool. And thenI got like my photos. There's my
wedding photos, me and we're waiting. It's my wife and I, our
wedding party, the photographer, andthere's a photo there's two photos in a
(15:33):
row where Michael Stipe walks right betweenthe camera and my pictures and we have
it and he's smiling and I amnot smiling. I gotta send you this
picture. Man, it was awild weekend. It was so I got
lucky. I guess, Hey,so let me go back. You mentioned
Ocean's Calling. I believe I saw. I know that it's coming up later
(15:54):
this summer. I believe I saw. Ocean's Calling is sold out, isn't
it it? It is? Itwent really quickly the we were we were
taping back. I mean, wecouldn't believe it. But man, I'm
so looking forward to it. It'sit's becoming what we know through with just
a really fun three days, youcould cut loose in a family environment,
(16:18):
you know, And what is thewhat is the special set that oa R
is doing? Yeah. So afew years back, a dear friend and
I wanted to put together a concertto benefit the Garden of Dreams up in
New York. And we thought,oh, would be cool if OAR was
like the house and we would bringout singers and the singer of Fun and
(16:41):
having to crawl, all these amazingsingersial come out and we would play their
songs, our songs, the song. So then we thought, oh,
that went really well and loved doingit, Let's continue it in a festival
setting. And Tim sweet with theleader of our entire festival was so awesome
to say, you know what,you guys should do a set on Sunday.
And with that we got to reachout and ask our dear friends like
(17:03):
Richie Sambora last year and DMC fromon DMC and amazing artists to come out
and sing with us. So theoil on friends said is intended to be
us playing their songs and also coversongs like this year we've got some really
fun guest surprises coming that are goingto be just the place is gonna go
crazy and it's only going to getbigger and louder. Dude, that's awesome.
(17:26):
And then the other thing, likeI was looking at the I was
looking at your tour schedule just tosee how long you guys are going on
a run for and you mentioned liketalking to like when you were a kid,
right and talking to Chris's dad goingout to me like a well,
Nissan Pavilion or Jiffy loub Live,whatever you want to call it. And
then like you run down the listand it's like, you know Red Rocks
(17:48):
and Ryman Auditorium and the Stone PonyDude, you're playing all those places.
Yeah, I mean, it's it'sthe craziest thing ever. And if you
ever get to the point, andI always kind of just pick up on
this from people on the road,the ones that have been out there for
a really long time, when theywalk into one of these venues, it's
(18:11):
still, holy yell, I can'tbelieve I'm doing this. It's the get
to attitude, because I think onceyou lose that, you will find yourself
right off the road. It justdoes not there's really no place out there
if you're just not enjoying the ride. It's so fun and the way it
makes it fun, it's like,you know, red Rocks, you find
something new to love every time StonePony. You can't help but just think
(18:34):
your bruise, yeah right, youknow, so you gotta play and just
enjoy it. I tell my kidsall the time I go. You know,
it's like, come on out andsee your dad act like a dumb
twenty year old because that's just whatwe do out there, and it's really
been fun and that's just the kindof thing we want to hold onto.
So we only really tour when we'rein those types of environments that we were
(18:57):
not out there slugging it out likea great groups are right now for that,
we're thankful as well, but wewe do enjoy the ride. Hey,
do you do you like having yourkids watch you perform or does it
feel weird? Oh? I really, I really like it. I remember
the first time I brought my sonon stage at the Dave Matthew's Caravan Summer
(19:18):
thing at Atlantic City. It was, you know, sixty seventy thousand people.
I brought him out. He didn'tlove it. I don't think.
Yeah, I think it's scared tohell out of him, to be honest
with you. Spot After that,I took a heap back for a little
while and said, I lot,you know, when they want to come
out, when they want to doyou know, my daughter has now loved
handing out guitar picks, and sowhen they decide on the things that they
(19:41):
love about it, then we chasethat down. And that's been that's been
the secret sauce. That's not reallyforcing because you know, it's a little
bit you know, we're we're inRavens Stadium at halftimes, standing on the
field like, you know, I'mnot going to force them to you better
love this, but they do becausewe keep it loose, you know,
right. No, that's great.Wait till they come watch you play on
(20:03):
my old man beer League team onSaturday nights. They'll think everybody hates you
and there's only two people. Oneof them's cleaning and the other one is
just sitting and doing nothing. That'llbe the audience. Okay, well,
no, no, that is embarrassing. I am terrible. I am trying
so hard to get distent so thatI can't let them see me do this
(20:27):
that I'm doing them. Ice,You're perfect for the team, Mark,
you are perfect for the team Idid god July twenty seventh, Meriweather Post
Pavilion with Fits and the Tantrums.Mark, it is so good to talk
to you again, my friend.Dude, It's been great. You guys
are awesome, legendary. I loveit and I'm so just thankfully. This
(20:49):
is getting me so psyched up.I'm driving to Ocean City as we speak,
and this is just the perfect wayto spend the time. Man,
Thank you guys for every day.Hey, I appreciate it, and let's
not go. However many years it'sbeen without talking to each other again,
I know, But isn't it coolthat we can Yeah, I know.
I love it. It's great.I think it's awesome. I feel like
(21:11):
no time went by except for allthese kids that you popped out. Yeah,
exactly, Man, I don't evenknow what to say. All right,
my friend, Hey Mark, goodto talk to you. Dude,
You too, y'all. I'll talkto you later
Marc ro Bears, Hey, man, Hey, you guys doing I am
doing well. How the hell areyou? Dude? Hi? Guys.
First of all, thank you somuch for having me back. It's been
a long time. I'm so psychedto hear your voices. Diane. Hi,
I hope yeah, hey, andI hope you all are great.
(00:21):
I was gonna say, I feellike it's been a minute or two,
but it is nice to talk toyou again. It sure is, man,
Thanks for having me. Hey.You know what I was thinking about,
like over the weekend, obviously knowingthat you were going to be on
so over the weekend I was goingover all of my Marc ro Bears notes
that I have and I have oneno, but you know what dawned on
(00:42):
me, And it was just becauseit was it happened to be Father's Day.
You know what I remember probably Ican't say most. I mean,
God knows that we did enough stufftogether, but you know what I was
remembering. There was one time inthe DC one oh one kitchen, and
I don't even remember what we weredoing, but you and I were in
there talking about something and you weretalking to me on the quiet that you
(01:03):
that you were on the verge ofeither trying to have a kid or you
were having a kid or something alongthose lines. And now I think you
have three Yes, Oh my god. It's so crazy how quickly I can
like immediately go back to that momentas if it was yesterday, and then
and and now only not only doI have three kids? One of them
(01:26):
that one we were talking about,he's in high school. Holy crap,
I did a good job talking youinto it. Then look at me,
go, yeah you did. Youkick started the entire thing, I think,
and and and now we just betterwe should stop. Hey, now
do I have it right? Inmy other? I have one other?
(01:48):
I have one other Rober's note aboutyour kids is one of them? Is
one of them really into hockey?Oh man? Yeah, so we've become
complete hockey family. Mom included cruisingaround doing the whole thing. And Richard
in the band, he is evenfurther down the rabbit hole of hockey.
His kids or are going, youknow, doing amazing things. And it's
(02:12):
just been Yeah, it's been reallygreat to be honest with you because we
can share it. And my dadand I you know, sat on the
glass at the Cap Center forever.So it brings back a lot of good
memories having him play hockey, andnow I'm trying to even do it.
We're all out there trying to try. Oh, Mark, Mark, Mark,
Mark, Mark, Mark, whatdo you do Saturday nights? You're
not busy, right? I playon an old man beer League team.
(02:35):
You're more than welcome to play schedule. I don't know what our stores schedule
is. I know two dates,I know Merriweather, and I know Oceans
Calling. Cancel all other Saturday nights. You will be a part of Team
Black. That's all you need toknow Team Black. Dude. Listen.
I would absolutely come skate with youguys anytime. And I have a buddy
in town who also skates all thetime. So we're we're actively looking to
(03:00):
do that. So I will hityou up and we will. We will
make this happen. Now. Itis a little bit late though for him.
He used to He's used to playit late night, ten thirty eleven
o'clock start. Yeah, we getthe prime time eyes. We get the
prime time eyes that I've been livingthat vampire life since we started to thirty
years ago. Hey, so letme ask you this, Like both both
(03:22):
my boys, Mark grew up playing, grew up playing hockey and still still
once playing in college. The otherone's getting ready to go. Are you
traveling around like with your kid that'sin the hockey which is my favorite ro
Bears child, by the way,But is is it? Are you like
traveling around? Like? Are wedoing like travel hockey and that whole routine?
We are love it? Yeah,so you know, yeah, it's
(03:46):
a learning thing for me because Iwhen I grew up, I wrestled and
played lacrosse and all these sports,and the hockey kids are always the cool
kids. You're like, man,they up early, they're always they're always
on top of their on their stuff. So we all wanted to be in
that world. We never were.So now when whenever we get to go
travel on these weekends and now comingup in the fall, is gonna be
like every day? Uh yeah,it's it's that life. I'm learning a
(04:09):
lot about it, man, It'sit's an interesting thing. Yeah, No,
it's the best. Hey, ifyou don't if there's a weekend,
I'm gonna miss it. If there'sa weekend you don't want to go,
I'll tag in and I'll go withmissus. Row Bears I'll be more than
happy to I got you covered.You just gotta yell skate. I ask
my friend, you know, Iasked my buddy, who who you know?
(04:31):
He's he's deep in hockey coach,He's got a whole academy all this
time. I say, listen,man, I'm up in the back of
the bleachers, in the back leftcorner. Do I want to be here
on the bus? Goes buddy.Stay right where you are. Don't say
a word. They can't hear anythingyou're saying. Okay, yeah, if
the order they care. If theycan hear you, you are trust me,
you are very loud. If theycan hear you, you are a
(04:54):
problem. Hey, let me askyou this. I was I was reading
something also over the weekend, mark, do you think and I was reading
this or maybe maybe I heard itwhere you were talking about your father,
and you were talking with with sucha beautiful relationship that you had, and
how much you honored and loved yourdad, And I was thinking, do
(05:17):
you think, now that you havethree kids and you kind of go through
it, do you think at anypoint yet your kids think of you the
way you think of your dad?Oh? Man, what an awesome question,
because you know that's the goal,right, That's like the entire point
of it all. So I foundout when I did get home after I
was playing a show I drove.We got home through the night Father's Day
(05:42):
on Sunday, and you found out. You know, you get the cards.
I always tell my kids. Isaid, I don't. I just
want cards, man, I lovecards. So you find out pretty quick
what they see you as because Igot a seven year old who was deathly
honest. I have a twelve yearold who's the sweetest thing in the entire
world, and that boy in highschool and they all said nice things.
(06:03):
So I think I have achieved it, although I don't know if I'm at
the level that my dad was isbecause that dude is just like always there
with the information and support and that'sall you really need to be. Hey,
were you Were you a bad kidgrowing up? I mean, I
know you said you wrestled and youwere across and stuff, but were you
a bad kid? I feel likewe were living okay. So basically,
(06:26):
I'll put it to you like this, dazed and confused. I based my
whole life on that. So wewere we were the absolute nineties version of
days and confused. So we werepartying, we were having the time of
our lives, getting into situations thatwere just seemed very movie like, and
(06:46):
then the tragedies do happen, right, So you definitely learned along the way
how special friendships were and all thesethings through probably doing things you weren't supposed
to be doing. But looking back, I wouldn't have changed the thing.
I mean, obviously we never wantedto lose anybody, but our friend group
was very tight, and whether wewere bad or good, we were all
(07:06):
of those things. And I thinkit was it was cool and it was
fun, that's all. That's great. Hey, you you mentioned driving home
to get back for Father's Day.Was that from that that event that you
played in Hershey? Yes? Ilove it there, man, I love
it out there. They've got thisawesome vineyard. It's a farmhouse basically with
(07:30):
the stage and you just hang outthere, play songs until it gets too
dark. And it's really been gooddone three I want to say four times.
Now they've been doing about a coupleof years, and we're gonna try
to grow that thing out even furtherbecause I was gonna say I saw some
videos of the of the setup.It looks very cool, like like you
said, it's a vineyard and andlike so it's kind of got like that
(07:51):
open, farmy feel. But theyhave like a nice stage and the crowd
looked awesome. It looked great.Yeah, And I think the part about
it is you've got folks who lookthey really genuinely want to bring music to
that place for the reason of thecommunity. And it's not like to get
rich, it's not to do allthe things that music can kind of take
(08:13):
wrong turns. It's always for theright like they're doing it for the right
reasons. So then you get thereand you do the show. You're hanging
out in the farmhouse that's one hundredand twenty years old for your backstage,
and it really gets you playing youknow, good songs and you really get
in that mode of like singer songwritermode. So I think they're onto something.
I'm hoping that it just continues togrow because it's getting bigger every year.
(08:35):
And then next up for you,I have oar with Fits in the
Tantrums at Merriweather on July twenty seventh. Fits in the Transfom Tantrums. I
like them. They've come in before. Very nice guys. Have you been
friends with them for a long time? Like, how'd you hook up?
It's funny, you know their theirmanagement is from the area as well,
and we go way back, andwe've been talking together about Wow, we
(08:58):
really got to get together and doa tour. And then last year they
were out with Goo Goo Dolls,we were out with Google Dolls. They
came and played at Oceans Calling.And when I saw their crowd that Ocean's
Calling, I mean it was huge, and they was involved and they did
such a great job. I justsaid, oh, man, like,
(09:18):
would you guys want to go outwith us? And it worked out really
great because just everyone involved kind ofwanted the same thing. Look, we
want to go out on a tour, and we want people to get a
break from all this nonsense, allthe noise. I come here, party,
have fun, smile, laugh andgo home and then face music.
Yeah. And then you know what'sweird. The nice people over at IMP
(09:39):
so like Seth and Donna and allthem. They said over a note talking
about how Oaar is getting ready toplay Merryweather for the eighteenth time, which
is like crazy, ridiculous, Andso you go like, okay, that's
the artist who's played Merriweather the mostfor IMP, And I go, oh,
(10:00):
okay, well who's in second?Well a little band named fish,
so you shove them out of theway. But do you know what the
which is great? I mean playingplaying Merriweather eighteen times is awesome, But
there was that little caveat that saidfor IMP. If you go back through
the whole history at Merriweather, doyou know who's played that the most?
(10:22):
Oh my god, what a greatquestion. Geez. Oh, I wish
I could just like growing up?Who I don't know? I mean,
do you have him? I hopeyou have an answer? Oh I do,
I do have an answer. Iwill tell you this. You will
only gain on him. He willnot increase his lead on you. Oh,
(10:43):
Tom Petty No. But you knowwhat I like the mindset Jimmy Buffett.
Yeah, oh great, because look, all we want to do is
be the next gen. We havebanned me things about this, so like,
wouldn't it be cool if we justdid that? Hey, do you
(11:07):
man? Have you ever have youever crossed? Like? Do you?
Did? You know? Jimmy Buffett? No, Like we always look throughout
the years, like just so manygood experiences with all our heroes and never
have run into one of them andthen walked away thinking, oh my god,
I wish i'd meet this person,and I never tracked him down.
(11:28):
I should have made more of aneffort. It was. It was almost
this mythical person that would just bearound forever, and I knew, oh,
one day we'll run into him andit'll go great. So I wish
I sort of worked harder on thatone. But up until that point,
it seemed like we were running intopeople and such nice experiences. We always
got afraid of forcing something and ruiningthat, you know, that age old
thing, don't meet your heroes.Yeah, let me tell you this.
(11:50):
Yeah, every single person says,you know, listen, this is the
person you want to have in yourcamp. Keeping everybody smiling and happy and
working enough. That was really amazing. Is is there a current day Jimmy
Buffett, like, is there anotherhero out there where you and the guys
will go like, God, youknow it would be awesome to meet or
play with. Well, I gottasay, just you know, out of
(12:13):
respect. I remember standing on thefront lawn in Rockville with our band in
our first sound system. Chris's dadran the pro sound at Chuck Levin,
so he came home one day withthe PV sound system and we put a
set it up and played and wesaid, you know, we hear about
those dudes in Virginia who are killingit. The day Matthews been like,
(12:35):
Oh, wouldn't it be great?And I remember setting up that PA system,
going, man, one day,we're gonna play venues like those dudes
are playing, because we used to, you know, get in Mom's minivan
and go to Nissan Pavilion and getit and go and see this group that
seemed to just build on word ofmouth. So we chased that down and
we really were when they went andtook us on the road twenty thirty times
(12:58):
and we got to work with someof the same people and all these things.
It always lived up to the hypeand it was always awesome. So
I always try to give respect tothat group because without them and Pearl Jam
and Crowded House, there's absolutely nochance we'd be doing what we do.
And I think those groups right there. And I bet the guy Mike McCreadie,
(13:18):
when I met him and got toplay a song with him, I
played a Johnny Cash song with him, and he actually said, I'm probably
embellishing it. He might have saidsomething about, like, I like the
way you play guitar, and hemight have just nodded and not but but
(13:39):
you should change it every time youtell it, though, and get it
better and better. He said,I was that he idolized me. Yeah,
yeah, and he was just sayinghe was. He seemed nervous around
me. And another one, honestly, the day I got married, I
was at the hotel and the Votefor Change tour was in town and they
(14:01):
were all staying at the same hotel. So all my guests thought, wow,
like Pearl jam Arim Springsteen're all atthe hotel. This is amazing.
And I'm about to get married.I'm sitting in the little courtyard. You're
just sitting nervously, and you couldtell. And I looked to my left
and Stone Gossarded from Pearl jam wassitting right next to me, my hero,
and he says, hey, man, you know it's it's gonna I'm
(14:24):
getting choked right now. He's like, it's gonna be great, have a
great time. It was the mostamazing thing ever. These are like your
heroes, and so those types ofthings kept happening, and I've I've always
cherished those moments and trying not toforce them. Hey, who played your
who played your wedding? We reallywanted you'd be forty to play, And
then we realized, like that costsa crapload of money, and we just
(14:46):
got this. We got this awesomecover band. That's how you need it.
By the way, can I tellyou, Can I tell you what
prick guest Elliott Siegel would have beendoing the whole time. I would have
been calling everybody I know, going, hey, I'm at Rober's wedding,
Pearl Jambs playing, And then Iwould have been so goddamn angry that I
(15:11):
got a quote cover band of you. Before I would have been furious,
Mark, I'm telling you, allday long, people would be like Eddie
Vedder's in the pool. And thenI got like my photos. There's my
wedding photos, me and we're waiting. It's my wife and I, our
wedding party, the photographer, andthere's a photo there's two photos in a
(15:33):
row where Michael Stipe walks right betweenthe camera and my pictures and we have
it and he's smiling and I amnot smiling. I gotta send you this
picture. Man, it was awild weekend. It was so I got
lucky. I guess, Hey,so let me go back. You mentioned
Ocean's Calling. I believe I saw. I know that it's coming up later
(15:54):
this summer. I believe I saw. Ocean's Calling is sold out, isn't
it it? It is? Itwent really quickly the we were we were
taping back. I mean, wecouldn't believe it. But man, I'm
so looking forward to it. It'sit's becoming what we know through with just
a really fun three days, youcould cut loose in a family environment,
(16:18):
you know, And what is thewhat is the special set that oa R
is doing? Yeah. So afew years back, a dear friend and
I wanted to put together a concertto benefit the Garden of Dreams up in
New York. And we thought,oh, would be cool if OAR was
like the house and we would bringout singers and the singer of Fun and
(16:41):
having to crawl, all these amazingsingersial come out and we would play their
songs, our songs, the song. So then we thought, oh,
that went really well and loved doingit, Let's continue it in a festival
setting. And Tim sweet with theleader of our entire festival was so awesome
to say, you know what,you guys should do a set on Sunday.
And with that we got to reachout and ask our dear friends like
(17:03):
Richie Sambora last year and DMC fromon DMC and amazing artists to come out
and sing with us. So theoil on friends said is intended to be
us playing their songs and also coversongs like this year we've got some really
fun guest surprises coming that are goingto be just the place is gonna go
crazy and it's only going to getbigger and louder. Dude, that's awesome.
(17:26):
And then the other thing, likeI was looking at the I was
looking at your tour schedule just tosee how long you guys are going on
a run for and you mentioned liketalking to like when you were a kid,
right and talking to Chris's dad goingout to me like a well,
Nissan Pavilion or Jiffy loub Live,whatever you want to call it. And
then like you run down the listand it's like, you know Red Rocks
(17:48):
and Ryman Auditorium and the Stone PonyDude, you're playing all those places.
Yeah, I mean, it's it'sthe craziest thing ever. And if you
ever get to the point, andI always kind of just pick up on
this from people on the road,the ones that have been out there for
a really long time, when theywalk into one of these venues, it's
(18:11):
still, holy yell, I can'tbelieve I'm doing this. It's the get
to attitude, because I think onceyou lose that, you will find yourself
right off the road. It justdoes not there's really no place out there
if you're just not enjoying the ride. It's so fun and the way it
makes it fun, it's like,you know, red Rocks, you find
something new to love every time StonePony. You can't help but just think
(18:34):
your bruise, yeah right, youknow, so you gotta play and just
enjoy it. I tell my kidsall the time I go. You know,
it's like, come on out andsee your dad act like a dumb
twenty year old because that's just whatwe do out there, and it's really
been fun and that's just the kindof thing we want to hold onto.
So we only really tour when we'rein those types of environments that we were
(18:57):
not out there slugging it out likea great groups are right now for that,
we're thankful as well, but wewe do enjoy the ride. Hey,
do you do you like having yourkids watch you perform or does it
feel weird? Oh? I really, I really like it. I remember
the first time I brought my sonon stage at the Dave Matthew's Caravan Summer
(19:18):
thing at Atlantic City. It was, you know, sixty seventy thousand people.
I brought him out. He didn'tlove it. I don't think.
Yeah, I think it's scared tohell out of him, to be honest
with you. Spot After that,I took a heap back for a little
while and said, I lot,you know, when they want to come
out, when they want to doyou know, my daughter has now loved
handing out guitar picks, and sowhen they decide on the things that they
(19:41):
love about it, then we chasethat down. And that's been that's been
the secret sauce. That's not reallyforcing because you know, it's a little
bit you know, we're we're inRavens Stadium at halftimes, standing on the
field like, you know, I'mnot going to force them to you better
love this, but they do becausewe keep it loose, you know,
right. No, that's great.Wait till they come watch you play on
(20:03):
my old man beer League team onSaturday nights. They'll think everybody hates you
and there's only two people. Oneof them's cleaning and the other one is
just sitting and doing nothing. That'llbe the audience. Okay, well,
no, no, that is embarrassing. I am terrible. I am trying
so hard to get distent so thatI can't let them see me do this
(20:27):
that I'm doing them. Ice,You're perfect for the team, Mark,
you are perfect for the team Idid god July twenty seventh, Meriweather Post
Pavilion with Fits and the Tantrums.Mark, it is so good to talk
to you again, my friend.Dude, It's been great. You guys
are awesome, legendary. I loveit and I'm so just thankfully. This
(20:49):
is getting me so psyched up.I'm driving to Ocean City as we speak,
and this is just the perfect wayto spend the time. Man,
Thank you guys for every day.Hey, I appreciate it, and let's
not go. However many years it'sbeen without talking to each other again,
I know, But isn't it coolthat we can Yeah, I know.
I love it. It's great.I think it's awesome. I feel like
(21:11):
no time went by except for allthese kids that you popped out. Yeah,
exactly, Man, I don't evenknow what to say. All right,
my friend, Hey Mark, goodto talk to you. Dude,
You too, y'all. I'll talkto you later
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