April 23, 2025 • 32 mins
We're joined by Joe Bouchard, co-founder of the legendary Blue Öyster Cult. We highlight the Raven Drum Foundation, "Godzilla" with Matt Sorum, thoughts on Appetite, embracing cowbell "fever" and more!
--- Performance info:
The Second Annual Raven Drum Foundation
Benefit Raising funds for First Responders.
The Cutting Room 44 East 32nd St, New York, NY, 10016
Friday, April 25th
This special night will include the Second Annual Benefit Concert & Legacy Award Commemoration honoring humanitarian, artist, Co-Founder of KISS, Peter Criss. Performers include co-founders of Raven Drum foundation, Def Leppard’s Rick Allen and wife Lauren Monroe, Peter Criss, former Blue Oyster Cult members Joe and Albert Bouchard (with Mickey Curry on drums), Mountain’s Corky Laing, and more.
Contact info:
https://ravendrumfoundation.org/
https://www.joebouchard.com/
---
Our website: afdpod.com Theme music via Mike Squires of Loaded
--- Performance info:
The Second Annual Raven Drum Foundation
Benefit Raising funds for First Responders.
The Cutting Room 44 East 32nd St, New York, NY, 10016
Friday, April 25th
This special night will include the Second Annual Benefit Concert & Legacy Award Commemoration honoring humanitarian, artist, Co-Founder of KISS, Peter Criss. Performers include co-founders of Raven Drum foundation, Def Leppard’s Rick Allen and wife Lauren Monroe, Peter Criss, former Blue Oyster Cult members Joe and Albert Bouchard (with Mickey Curry on drums), Mountain’s Corky Laing, and more.
Contact info:
https://ravendrumfoundation.org/
https://www.joebouchard.com/
---
Our website: afdpod.com Theme music via Mike Squires of Loaded
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know. This is Appetite for Distortion.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Welcome to the podcast Appetite four Distortion, episode number four hundred.
Excuse me, five hundred and four, five hundred and four.
A little bit of dyslexia there, Joe Boschard, but it
happens with age, right, yeah, yeah, you're laughing at me.
It is such an honor and a pleasure to to
have you as we you know, starting out these five
(00:53):
hundred section of my podcast, because.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
We were talking a little bit before the air.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I'm a I grew up on Long Islands, I mean,
co founder of Blue Oyster Cult right here with me.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
I mean what an honor.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
I started in Great Neck, Great Neck with them.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I grew up in, I like to say, because my
family's from Brooklyn, so I mean little you'll get a
sense of my humor here. I like to call myself
a Brooklyn Jew rather than a Long Island Jew. But
I moved when I was one and a half to
bald So I grew up in Baldwin, so that's a
close ish the Great Neck. So I mean, so yeah,
(01:32):
legend you know Stony Brook going back all the days.
So I mean, this is just a an honor. And
did you ever think all these years later, I mean,
you would be you knew back then this is good
what you're going to do for the rest of your life.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Well, you know, I really had a desire to do
this music thing, and uh, I'm stunt. I'm stunt in
my advanced age, over five decades in that I still
enjoy it as much as I did when I was fourteen.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
And to perform at such a high level is incredible.
So here we're talking today because lit's it's a secret location.
Where are you today, if you don't mind me.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
I'm in Connecticut, Okay, across the sound down on the
eastern end of Connecticut. It's it's a very woods here.
I'm really in the middle of the woods. And I
got my little this little studio here making my eighth
(02:42):
solo album. Uh, and I'm halfway through it's all master,
about halfway through it, just finishing up the last six mixes.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Right on because I want to get to your your
latest work. But uh, before we do that, because time
is of the essence. This is what we talk about time.
So I understand it's a podcast. We're heard all the world,
but we do have listeners here in New York. I'm
in Queen's currently right now the cutting room in New
York City, So that's gonna be this Friday as we're
(03:14):
recording this, So I'm probably gonna put this out later
today or tomorrow. We're recording this April twenty second, So
the twenty fifth, which is a Friday, the Cunning Room,
is the second annual Raven Drum Foundation Benefit. To my listeners,
the Raven Drum Benefit probably sounds familiar because I've been
very fortunate to have had both Rick Allen and the
(03:36):
founders of the Raven Drum. Rick Allen of course from
def Leppard and his wife Lauren Monroe, who a singer
songwriter as well, have been on the show, as well
as Matt soorm for former Guns of Roses, who's taking
part in this this benefit. So this is gonna include
which is great, second annual, which means more to come.
So it's gonna be not just raising funds and awareness
(03:59):
for first response and before. I don't want to lose
this because you are people like oh I live, because
people listeners in other countries go to Raven Drum Foundation
dot org. They have events year round. You can help
out wherever you are you don't actually have to be
at this event, but if you happen to be at
the event, this event, you'll meet Rick, you'll meet Lauren,
(04:20):
You'll get.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
To see Peter Chris, Peter Chris.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Yeah, and he's getting a the Concert and Legacy Award.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Come rund.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
We gave him his career. What do you mean by that? Well,
they opened a whole summer with the Low Oyster Cult.
They were the they were the opening for the middle
act and we were the headliners. The middle act was
Nazareth from Scotland. Sure, wild bunch and let me tell
(04:51):
you it was a wild tour. Wow. What that's the
first tour, their first national.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Tour, Kiss Nazareth and Blue Oyster Calls. Yeah, that's that's
a fantasy.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Summer, do you Yeah? Fantastic?
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Can I ask if you remember or is it one
of those like if you remember it, you really didn't
enjoy it?
Speaker 3 (05:12):
You do you remember?
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I remembered it? Yeah? I would go and watch Kiss
every night, you know. And we loved Nazareth. They're like
they were like our brothers, you know, and uh yeah,
yeah it was it was great. You know. Uh, I've
learned all about show biz. Can those Kiss guys were yeah,
(05:36):
they had it down. Oh yeah, great, look at show.
Uh yeah, a whole summer of kiss in their earliest days.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
What did you make up?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Because now it's you know, not too uh well, of
course we'll go back on track here, But what did
you make Because nowadays it's the weirder you are, it
doesn't even matter, there's no shock value. But with kissing,
the makeup and the demon and the fire, what do
you make of that? Did you think it was cool
right away?
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Or oh yeah, well, well no, I missed the first night.
First night was New Year's Eve and for some reason,
I was next door in a restaurant having some German
food or something, and I missed, but I heard about it.
So the next show we played was uh, I think
it was the Michigan Palace in Detroit, and which is
(06:26):
a famous show because that was like when they first
started breaking through and they did their live album that year,
and you know, you had Kiss alive. But so I
go to the back of the room because everybody told
me about you got to see Kiss, got to see Kiss.
So I go to the back of the room and
(06:46):
nobody knew who I was, and I was way up
in the balcony and I'm watching this thing and Okay,
holy mackerel, that's that's incredible. That's that's powerful. Yeah. So
I'm looking forward to Friday. I get to see Peter
Chris again after all these years.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
How long has it been since you've seen him? What
do you think it would be like? Just catching up
with an old friend, like you haven't missed a beat.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Last time I saw Peter Chris was at Ace Frehley's house.
I used to live next to him in Connecticut and
I would go to Ace's house and we'd jam a
little bit. It was it was a fun time. It
was a lot of fun. You know. He lost his
driver's license, so he couldn't go anywhere, so I was
(07:34):
the closest guy he could call, you know, if he
was really bored. So that was the last time I
saw Peter Cris, which I had to be the I
don't know, nineteen eighty something, early eighties.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Oh wow, a lot of catching up. You're gonna do
you know this for this Friday? So yeah, now I
got yeah. So yeah, he's dotting that Legapy Award and
you're going to be there. Your brother's going to be there,
alb who's that we've been on this podcast? I wish
oh cool, Yeah, many years ago. I wish I could
tell you I remember specific evout.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Well, you've done five hundred podcasts, I had a lot,
You remember them all?
Speaker 3 (08:12):
No, I can't teh.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
My My memory is shot, I admit it. Most of
my listeners are like, do you even remember? I remember Mountains?
Corky Lang is going to be there, Ricky Ricky Bird.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
And I just heard Chasm Sultan, who who played bass
with the Oyster Cult after I left, and and he's
a really close friend, a great guy, you know, and
just so many other people. One of the reasons my
band is playing because I have this great drummer. Speaking
(08:47):
of drummers, and there's gonna be so many drummers there.
If you are a drummer in New York City, you
got to be there because that's where it's going to
be pandemonium. But I have Mickey Curry playing drums in
my band now. And Mickey played with Hall of Oates
Brian Adams for over thirty years. I just saw him
playing with Mick Jagger and Tina Turner at Live Aid.
(09:13):
He's just a fantastic drummer. So one of the reasons
that we're kicking this thing off is because Mickey is
just so incredible. You know, he's a veteran to the business.
He's got forty gold records, you know, and that's a
lot of gold.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
That's a lot of goal.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
But he's so modest and he's kind of shy. You know,
I don't want to know. If I want to go
to these celebrity you know events, then I must say
there will be some celebrities there. And but we talked
him into it, and so I'm excited, you know. I
was thrilled that Billy A. Mondola, who's a good friend
(10:00):
who is one of the co producers of this this event,
asked us to play and uh, and my brother's going
to be there playing the cow bell because he was
the one who played the real cow bell. I was there.
I was a witness. I swear on a stack of bibles. Albert,
(10:22):
my brother played the cow bell on the big hit Reaper,
And so we're going to re reenact that.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
I love that and also actually funny, there's going to
be a raffle that somebody can win that that cow
bell autograph.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Every every drummer is going to sign the cow bell.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Oh that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Yeah, you know, it's funny. Not only it's it's a
great instrument, but it'll be epic because you'll never get
all these drummers in the same place at the same time,
you know. And uh so they're going to sign the
cow bell and we're going to raffle it off.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
And I love that.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Somebody's going to be a lucky winner, you know.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Yeah, a couple of things. Maybe I'll update Wikipedia because
it doesn't say who actually hit the cowbell on the record.
I just looked at it before.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Well, I know.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
It's the producer, David Lucas. I don't know if you've
seen the the the SNL episode on Peacock, they did
a whole hour on the cow bell. If you haven't
seen that episode, go look it up.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Wait, there's an episode of the skit you're talking about it.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
There's a whole episode of the skit. Okay that I
haven't one of those things where it's it's retrospective and
goes back and the first year what happened, and then
the cow bell and then you know, the year it
wasn't so good, and then how it how it goes
on today, how it's how it's built.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
That's so funny.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I yeah, it's funny because I was just watching the
skit because I hadn't watched it in a long time,
and you know, it's when I read about the raffle
and stuff. I was gonna ask you this, and I
guess this will be the jumping off point because you're
already a famous musician established. And then all these years later,
(12:07):
this skit comes around and I'm of the age where
I'm sure I watched it live.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
I probably watched it live.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
But now all these years later, I mean, or do
you think it's I mean, you've obviously embraced it, you know,
obviously it's added the other chapter to your already storied career.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
So that fel we.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Started in the seventies, basically started in the seventies, and
they in the eighties were good to us too, but
the nineties kind of not so big, you know. And
then in two thousand was the year that that that
thing came out on Saturday Night Live. People have not
(12:45):
stopped talking about it since two thousands, twenty five years
of Cowbell. Right, you can't make this stuff up, you know,
we you know, we were just what I thought was
recording a really best song, and uh, you know, we
we had to make it. We had to make it work,
(13:08):
you know. And we had the production team. We were
recording at the record plant in New York, and I'm
sitting on the couch and the producer, David Lucas says, Albert,
we need some cowbell on this, just straight ahead nothing.
You know, I'm sitting on the couch, don't screw this up.
I'm sitting looking, you know, looking through the glass, you know.
(13:30):
And he did it perfect, perfect, and one take, one
take perfect, and I could feel my whole body, all
my muscles go ah good. And then I came back
a couple of weeks later when they had it mixed.
Oh my god, I was. I was just blown away.
(13:51):
You know, we you know, you're we. We were lucky
to be in a band to begin with, but to
have a weird band like us come up with a
monster hit like that, it was, you know, well, we
had Godzilla, we had Burning for you. You know. Some
other really good songs I got. I wrote a song
(14:13):
that Metallic Metallica play covered on their album. You know
you get a Metallica cover, that's pretty darn good. But
but Reaper's the one Reapers, the one that just broke
it open. But that was in seventy six, so it
wasn't until two thousand that they somehow in the twisted
(14:34):
mind of of Will Ferrell and that's that's in there too,
how he had showed it was supposed to be Norm McDonald.
Norm McDonald's was supposed to be the host, you know what.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
I didn't know that, and he's so he just stuck it,
and he stuck the script in a drawer.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
And then the next time, when Christopher Walking was there,
he pulled out the script and said, you know, and yeah, yeah,
and then I just worked and it's all about overcoming
adversity and how the how the how the how the
(15:18):
parts are are, you know, how the whole is greater
than the parts so it all comes together, you know.
And that was that was kind of like how this
episode of the cow Bell ends. It's with Will Ferrell
and my brother sort of agreeing on this thing because
Albert's in there for about fifteen minutes of this hour long.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
This has passed me by, but I got to, oh,
well look at it.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
It's well worth it.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Well again, just the skid itself, because I've been an
SNL fan since you know, I was able to stay
up late at night, and then being a long Islander
being a rock fan, I'm like sure, and then just
have it become a pop cult.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
All the bands that played on there, you know, they
never asked us. It was weird, never did, you know.
I don't know. Maybe the timing just wasn't right, you know,
and I don't Also, to be honest, our manager did
not want us on any kind of live TV. We
were a live act, but not for TV.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
You know, you know, we you know, you know, we
were that's a different monster.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah, it's a different Yeah, yeah, it's a different it's
a whole different animal. A lot of people pull it off,
some people don't. So rather than that, and we grew
up in the live era of music. You know, you
couldn't you couldn't. You couldn't get it. There was no MTV.
There was. It was just like now.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
There's no MTV.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
If you want to make Sullivan it was Ed Sullivan Show.
Yeah yeah, and that was kind of stiff, and you know,
so yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Well, I mean the fact that things worked out, things were,
things worked out, and the live music experience, and I
just want to say off the right off the bat,
I mean, well, not off right off the back, because
we've been talking for a little bit when my son,
well you may have heard him dropping toys in the background,
stuff like that. He's going to be to the day
after the event.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
We've taken it the sums.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
I mean, I.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Can't believe that he's going to be two already. It's
it's insane. But I looking forward to going through shows
within the concerts. I mean, my wife have taken him
to some like light you know, folk rock kind of stuff.
But to take him to a rock show, especially with
all those drums, I mean we have headphones. I don't
know if I want to do.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
That, just you ah.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
So hopefully this is the second annual of Many to Common,
by the way, hosted by my friend Maria Melito at
Q four to three.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Yeah I would. I've done a lot of shows at
the cutting room, mostly private parties, but they're all good,
and she's there often, so I've got to meet her
very nice.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
I occasionally, I was doing it more before my son
came along, filling in for the Jim Kurrz producer, so
I would be there helping out in the morning that
Maria comes in for her mid day shift, and we've
gotten plenty of long chats and she's great. But I
want to talk about yeah, for sure. But I wanted
(18:29):
to focus again not just on the musical part of
the Raven Drum Foundation, but the conversations I've gotten into
with with Rick, with Lauren, with with Matt Sorum, and
that's about mental health and recovery. And because this is
the healing of first responders and veterans struggling with post
traumatic stress. I mean, is that something that I don't
(18:50):
want to say you in particular have experience with, but
if that's something that maybe you know somebody Because I
often talk about mental health, I talk about my own
battle with depression and addiction, and so it means a
lot when people like Rick and Matt talk about their
battles and vulnerability.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Yeah, so if you could talk about perhaps what a
what a miracle? Uh Rick, Rick Allen's story is, you know,
it's it's you know, beyond belief, you know. Yeah, I mean,
have you had your all good?
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Where about you? Have you had any year?
Speaker 1 (19:25):
I am? I feel like I've been blessed. I did
go to Iraq though I did do shows in Iraq
in twenty ten.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Wow, I did.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
I did ten shows in Iraq. And it was much
more dangerous than I thought it was going to be.
It was you know, first of all, they send you
you get a letter from the US government that says, uh,
in now that you're coming up on your tour, we
have a few things we have to discuss. Number one,
(19:56):
if you die, you cannot sue the US government. Well
that's this is serious. But it was a kind of
a variety. Hey, speaking of cow bell, when we did
the shows in Iraq, every night, it was a different
(20:17):
soldier playing the cow bell.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yeah, that's the connection, man, that's the connection.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
And uh, you know, it's it was more dangerous than
I thought it could be. But I could see how,
you know, the soldiers that are there, I mean, we
were only going to be there for a week, you know,
a week and a half and h but the guys
that have to be there for the full term, you know,
the stress that they go through, you know. And this
(20:46):
was three months before Obama was going to end the war.
That was the official end was going to be in September.
We were there in July, and uh, it was more
dangerous than I thought they were. There some Code reds
where they they're shooting mortars into the into the into
(21:06):
the camp. I thought, hey, I thought we're going to
go to the bag Dad Hilton playing a nice air
conditioned ballroom, hope or something.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Well, yeah it was. We were in the.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Desert on flatbed trucks, you know, playing Reaper and I
of the Tiger. It was it was a you know,
we did we did cool in the gang songs. Uh.
Orleans was like the the backup band. I had Elton
John's guitar player, Elton John's drummer.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
It was, you know, we're an experience.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Yeah, experience.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Yeah, the change your perspective on a lot. So yeah, again,
if you want to help veterans and first responders, yeah, foundation.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Firefighters you know that have been fighting the wildfire or
the wildfires in LA. What you know, when I first
heard about this, this is a no brainer. You know,
I'm going I'm doing it. I don't care whatever. You know,
nobody's getting paid for this. This is We're all doing
it out of the goodness of our hearts.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
So well, yeah, that's special.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
I mean to catch up for you personally, to catch
up with friends and all for a great cause. I
wish I could take my guy who's counting currently counting
cars four Yes, you have four cars, buddy. He's big
on cars and.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Numbers, and ah, that's the best.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
So I'm hoping, well, let me this is a good transition.
If we can't make, we're not gonna be able to personally,
We're not gonna be able to make the cutting room.
But what about you and touring or could we see
the Joe Bashard band out in the bound of summer.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Yeah, we're playing in Connecticut later in the summer and
then I have a few other shows after that. We
just played at Iridium in New York. This is the
end of this ISLA November. We went down to Florida,
played a really great gig there. We just played in Fairfield, Connecticut.
(23:08):
Great show. You know, I'm so excited about my band.
You know, we we've really worked hard. We did a
new album and which I'm working on right now. But
it's I wanted to go back to like the old school,
with everybody in this in the room, playing our hearts out,
you know, getting the great sounds, you know, really exciting
(23:32):
old school. I don't know, you know, if this is
gonna sell because you know, there's so much competition, but
you know, I'm excited. I'm excited about playing a few shows,
not too many. Mickey was on the road constantly with
like Brian Adams. It was you know, world tours, you know,
(23:55):
that never stopped. And when COVID came along, he did
decided to retire. And then I found out he lives
close to me. And you know, if you don't play,
you lose you lose your hands, you know, so you
got to keep playing. And he realizes that. He said,
you know, I don't know if I want to do that.
(24:17):
He wants to do it, you know.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Okay, yeah, yeah, all right, that's special. We'll keep a
lookout on your on your website, right yeah, all right
for personal dates and.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Yeah, I mean I don't know dot com.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
I'm sure you can't put an eta because you said
you put you have half the record done.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
But are you hoping this year or next year?
Speaker 1 (24:37):
You're thinking in the fall of the fall?
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Okay, yeah, all right, sorry if I miss.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Got some interesting things happening, and uh, you know, you
got to make some videos right on, maybe some animation
you know, just you know stuff. The you know, the
songs are really personal to me and and I think
(25:01):
they'll they're very visual.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
So well, i'll watch it now, I'll show you him
now with he's playing.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Hey there, how you're doing well?
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Now he dropped the truck, so it's not as exciting
as it was before. But if anything, I would love
to just get it more because something that's not miss Rachel.
So I'm looking forward to him playing him some uh
some new Joe.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
So I look forward to it.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
And uh, before we get out of here, of course,
as you know, we use a six degrees of gn
R bacon That's what I call it here, you know,
anything connect to guns and roses, just to make it
a little different. And of course we spoke about Matt Sorum.
Matt Sorum has uh he's not going to be there
on Friday, but he's participated in Raven Drum Foundation benefits.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Before you know, Matt, you've have you played with.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Well, we we did do. Uh. It was it was
a private party in New York and I was talking
to him, Hey, you want to play Godzilla? You know
that song god It says Yeah. I ended up playing
with uh Markey Ramone though that that that night. Okay,
(26:12):
Marky was one of the guests. I was one of
the guests. Uh, Mattsrom had a what was that Freddie
Camp Freddy? Oh, yes, you remember fred Camp Freddy. They
were all there. It was It was a fun, fun show,
you know, and uh yeah, okay, yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
That's cool.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
And then let me ask just like a generic thing,
because you've obviously you've what you say, this is your
your fifth.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Decade in making music. Yeah, what did you think.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Of of that whole eighties rock scene with the hair
and then you know, guns and roses coming in?
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Is that?
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Were they even on your radar? Was that kind of
style on your radar? Or were you kind of doing
your own thing?
Speaker 1 (26:53):
It started just about when I was retiring. Uh, the
eighties thing what bothered me was the hair spray. We'd
have a dressing room all set up and all the
guys wanted to do their hair up, and uh, you know,
(27:13):
we'd have a whole tray of of great you know,
cater rings laid out and they'd be spraying their hair
and the spray would fill up the dressing room. That's
where that was at.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Well.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
No, but I liked the old rock and roll, and
you know, of course the early metal, the Sabbath and
the Zeppelin, you know, but you can't know that that
first Guns and Roses record pretty darn cool, you know.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
Right on.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Lots of good stuff there.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Yeah, appetite and uh oh, and before I lose it
because I looked it up what Metallica covered, because you
mentioned before astronomy. Astronomy they contact to you guys beforehand,
or they are they they're just able to get it.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
They did, actually they did contact the uh uh, the
management office, and they got the lyrics because they couldn't
they didn't know exactly what the lyric. They wanted to
make sure they got it right. But next thing, you know,
I get a cassette in my mailbox, my post office box,
(28:24):
and I put it in the car and I'm driving
down the road and I'm here and oh my god,
oh my god, James Hetfield is singing my melody, the
melody that you know I invented as I was walking
on the beach on Long Island, and and uh and
then Lars's drums come in, like, oh my god. It
(28:48):
just blew my mind. I just blew my mind thinking
about it again. I wanted to jump up and down,
but I was driving the car. Yeah, and that that
that was a big turning point. You know. At that time,
I was working in a publishing company, you know, and uh,
(29:09):
it was it was fun. I learned a lot, but
I was hankering for more rock, I guess. And to
get a song on a Metallica album that that that
they did so well, you know, was was a real thrill.
And it said to me, I got to write more songs.
(29:32):
I got to write more songs. Yeah, So I called
up I called up Ian Hunter.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Of course he's been on the show, A nice.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Great, great guy. We went from way back, and I said, uh, Ian,
I got this Monday night thing where we I sit
around and I write songs with Neil Smith and Dennis
dunnaway from Alice Cooper. We had this like Monday night
sessions that we would would write songs. I says, come on,
let's go write some songs. And we ended up I
(30:07):
ended up writing co writing with Ian four different songs.
And that was a lot of fun, you know. And uh,
but then then you know, you write four, and then
you got to write another another four, and then you
got to write at six and then you got to
write wait a minute, now, I've got ten new songs,
got to do an album, and you know, you put
(30:30):
it out, you know, and get a lot of a
lot of interest. You know, my YouTube channels going through
the roof got one hundred thousand, yeah, hundred thousand. Wow. Crazy.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
I'm thank you for reminding me to mention that the
YouTube channel, because I'm I just crossed eight thousand, so
I'm working hard on that, so hopefully this gets I.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Was stuck like at about one thousand and two thousand,
but the last the last two years have been really good.
You know. I'm just putting out more consistent stuff and
the band sounds great too.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
So much coming from you.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
And uh the first thing that without even just talking
about the music and the performance, is your passion. The
fact that it's still so there, impalpable, like I feel
it through the zoom.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
It's so cool.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
It's getting now. I wish I want to go again.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
I am honored. I am honored to be on your
podcast because I've seen some of the guests you have.
You have great guests and five hundred.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Yeah, five hundred and four, I'm lucky and uh yeah,
because I'm I mean, I started before I started working
at Q and O four but if you go to
their website the podcast section of right next to Jim Kerr,
and it's just it's very special to and to go back,
I guess to tide everything in with the bow, you know,
just when I was a kid in the car with
(31:54):
my dad, how it got into rock and roll listening
to Q one, O four three and before Guns and
Roses performance alcolfore I got into the harder stuff, this
bluiest call, there's burning for you, there's Godzilla, there's just
you have been a staple of whether it was WBA
B which I also worked out just of Long Island,
and then that's just oh yeah, and the fact that
you guys just still played. It's a testament to the
(32:18):
music and you as a performer. It's just, you know,
I can't wait to see you live. I'm excited. It's
always good when an interview gets you excited.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
I'm excited for you.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Well that's good, that's good. Yeah, it's all good.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
Right on.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
So, Joe Joe Buschard, thank you so much for being
on this episode of Appetite for Distortion.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
When will you see the next one?
Speaker 2 (32:39):
In the words of Axel Rose, concerning Chinese democracy, I
don't know as soon as the word, but you'll see it.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
Thanks to the lame ass security.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
I'm going home
You know. This is Appetite for Distortion.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Welcome to the podcast Appetite four Distortion, episode number four hundred.
Excuse me, five hundred and four, five hundred and four.
A little bit of dyslexia there, Joe Boschard, but it
happens with age, right, yeah, yeah, you're laughing at me.
It is such an honor and a pleasure to to
have you as we you know, starting out these five
(00:53):
hundred section of my podcast, because.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
We were talking a little bit before the air.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I'm a I grew up on Long Islands, I mean,
co founder of Blue Oyster Cult right here with me.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
I mean what an honor.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
I started in Great Neck, Great Neck with them.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I grew up in, I like to say, because my
family's from Brooklyn, so I mean little you'll get a
sense of my humor here. I like to call myself
a Brooklyn Jew rather than a Long Island Jew. But
I moved when I was one and a half to
bald So I grew up in Baldwin, so that's a
close ish the Great Neck. So I mean, so yeah,
(01:32):
legend you know Stony Brook going back all the days.
So I mean, this is just a an honor. And
did you ever think all these years later, I mean,
you would be you knew back then this is good
what you're going to do for the rest of your life.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Well, you know, I really had a desire to do
this music thing, and uh, I'm stunt. I'm stunt in
my advanced age, over five decades in that I still
enjoy it as much as I did when I was fourteen.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
And to perform at such a high level is incredible.
So here we're talking today because lit's it's a secret location.
Where are you today, if you don't mind me.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
I'm in Connecticut, Okay, across the sound down on the
eastern end of Connecticut. It's it's a very woods here.
I'm really in the middle of the woods. And I
got my little this little studio here making my eighth
(02:42):
solo album. Uh, and I'm halfway through it's all master,
about halfway through it, just finishing up the last six mixes.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Right on because I want to get to your your
latest work. But uh, before we do that, because time
is of the essence. This is what we talk about time.
So I understand it's a podcast. We're heard all the world,
but we do have listeners here in New York. I'm
in Queen's currently right now the cutting room in New
York City, So that's gonna be this Friday as we're
(03:14):
recording this, So I'm probably gonna put this out later
today or tomorrow. We're recording this April twenty second, So
the twenty fifth, which is a Friday, the Cunning Room,
is the second annual Raven Drum Foundation Benefit. To my listeners,
the Raven Drum Benefit probably sounds familiar because I've been
very fortunate to have had both Rick Allen and the
(03:36):
founders of the Raven Drum. Rick Allen of course from
def Leppard and his wife Lauren Monroe, who a singer
songwriter as well, have been on the show, as well
as Matt soorm for former Guns of Roses, who's taking
part in this this benefit. So this is gonna include
which is great, second annual, which means more to come.
So it's gonna be not just raising funds and awareness
(03:59):
for first response and before. I don't want to lose
this because you are people like oh I live, because
people listeners in other countries go to Raven Drum Foundation
dot org. They have events year round. You can help
out wherever you are you don't actually have to be
at this event, but if you happen to be at
the event, this event, you'll meet Rick, you'll meet Lauren,
(04:20):
You'll get.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
To see Peter Chris, Peter Chris.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Yeah, and he's getting a the Concert and Legacy Award.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Come rund.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
We gave him his career. What do you mean by that? Well,
they opened a whole summer with the Low Oyster Cult.
They were the they were the opening for the middle
act and we were the headliners. The middle act was
Nazareth from Scotland. Sure, wild bunch and let me tell
(04:51):
you it was a wild tour. Wow. What that's the
first tour, their first national.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Tour, Kiss Nazareth and Blue Oyster Calls. Yeah, that's that's
a fantasy.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Summer, do you Yeah? Fantastic?
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Can I ask if you remember or is it one
of those like if you remember it, you really didn't
enjoy it?
Speaker 3 (05:12):
You do you remember?
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I remembered it? Yeah? I would go and watch Kiss
every night, you know. And we loved Nazareth. They're like
they were like our brothers, you know, and uh yeah,
yeah it was it was great. You know. Uh, I've
learned all about show biz. Can those Kiss guys were yeah,
(05:36):
they had it down. Oh yeah, great, look at show.
Uh yeah, a whole summer of kiss in their earliest days.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
What did you make up?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Because now it's you know, not too uh well, of
course we'll go back on track here, But what did
you make Because nowadays it's the weirder you are, it
doesn't even matter, there's no shock value. But with kissing,
the makeup and the demon and the fire, what do
you make of that? Did you think it was cool
right away?
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Or oh yeah, well, well no, I missed the first night.
First night was New Year's Eve and for some reason,
I was next door in a restaurant having some German
food or something, and I missed, but I heard about it.
So the next show we played was uh, I think
it was the Michigan Palace in Detroit, and which is
(06:26):
a famous show because that was like when they first
started breaking through and they did their live album that year,
and you know, you had Kiss alive. But so I
go to the back of the room because everybody told
me about you got to see Kiss, got to see Kiss.
So I go to the back of the room and
(06:46):
nobody knew who I was, and I was way up
in the balcony and I'm watching this thing and Okay,
holy mackerel, that's that's incredible. That's that's powerful. Yeah. So
I'm looking forward to Friday. I get to see Peter
Chris again after all these years.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
How long has it been since you've seen him? What
do you think it would be like? Just catching up
with an old friend, like you haven't missed a beat.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Last time I saw Peter Chris was at Ace Frehley's house.
I used to live next to him in Connecticut and
I would go to Ace's house and we'd jam a
little bit. It was it was a fun time. It
was a lot of fun. You know. He lost his
driver's license, so he couldn't go anywhere, so I was
(07:34):
the closest guy he could call, you know, if he
was really bored. So that was the last time I
saw Peter Cris, which I had to be the I
don't know, nineteen eighty something, early eighties.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Oh wow, a lot of catching up. You're gonna do
you know this for this Friday? So yeah, now I
got yeah. So yeah, he's dotting that Legapy Award and
you're going to be there. Your brother's going to be there,
alb who's that we've been on this podcast? I wish
oh cool, Yeah, many years ago. I wish I could
tell you I remember specific evout.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Well, you've done five hundred podcasts, I had a lot,
You remember them all?
Speaker 3 (08:12):
No, I can't teh.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
My My memory is shot, I admit it. Most of
my listeners are like, do you even remember? I remember Mountains?
Corky Lang is going to be there, Ricky Ricky Bird.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
And I just heard Chasm Sultan, who who played bass
with the Oyster Cult after I left, and and he's
a really close friend, a great guy, you know, and
just so many other people. One of the reasons my
band is playing because I have this great drummer. Speaking
(08:47):
of drummers, and there's gonna be so many drummers there.
If you are a drummer in New York City, you
got to be there because that's where it's going to
be pandemonium. But I have Mickey Curry playing drums in
my band now. And Mickey played with Hall of Oates
Brian Adams for over thirty years. I just saw him
playing with Mick Jagger and Tina Turner at Live Aid.
(09:13):
He's just a fantastic drummer. So one of the reasons
that we're kicking this thing off is because Mickey is
just so incredible. You know, he's a veteran to the business.
He's got forty gold records, you know, and that's a
lot of gold.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
That's a lot of goal.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
But he's so modest and he's kind of shy. You know,
I don't want to know. If I want to go
to these celebrity you know events, then I must say
there will be some celebrities there. And but we talked
him into it, and so I'm excited, you know. I
was thrilled that Billy A. Mondola, who's a good friend
(10:00):
who is one of the co producers of this this event,
asked us to play and uh, and my brother's going
to be there playing the cow bell because he was
the one who played the real cow bell. I was there.
I was a witness. I swear on a stack of bibles. Albert,
(10:22):
my brother played the cow bell on the big hit Reaper,
And so we're going to re reenact that.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
I love that and also actually funny, there's going to
be a raffle that somebody can win that that cow
bell autograph.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Every every drummer is going to sign the cow bell.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Oh that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Yeah, you know, it's funny. Not only it's it's a
great instrument, but it'll be epic because you'll never get
all these drummers in the same place at the same time,
you know. And uh so they're going to sign the
cow bell and we're going to raffle it off.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
And I love that.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Somebody's going to be a lucky winner, you know.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Yeah, a couple of things. Maybe I'll update Wikipedia because
it doesn't say who actually hit the cowbell on the record.
I just looked at it before.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Well, I know.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
It's the producer, David Lucas. I don't know if you've
seen the the the SNL episode on Peacock, they did
a whole hour on the cow bell. If you haven't
seen that episode, go look it up.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Wait, there's an episode of the skit you're talking about it.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
There's a whole episode of the skit. Okay that I
haven't one of those things where it's it's retrospective and
goes back and the first year what happened, and then
the cow bell and then you know, the year it
wasn't so good, and then how it how it goes
on today, how it's how it's built.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
That's so funny.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I yeah, it's funny because I was just watching the
skit because I hadn't watched it in a long time,
and you know, it's when I read about the raffle
and stuff. I was gonna ask you this, and I
guess this will be the jumping off point because you're
already a famous musician established. And then all these years later,
(12:07):
this skit comes around and I'm of the age where
I'm sure I watched it live.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
I probably watched it live.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
But now all these years later, I mean, or do
you think it's I mean, you've obviously embraced it, you know,
obviously it's added the other chapter to your already storied career.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
So that fel we.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Started in the seventies, basically started in the seventies, and
they in the eighties were good to us too, but
the nineties kind of not so big, you know. And
then in two thousand was the year that that that
thing came out on Saturday Night Live. People have not
(12:45):
stopped talking about it since two thousands, twenty five years
of Cowbell. Right, you can't make this stuff up, you know,
we you know, we were just what I thought was
recording a really best song, and uh, you know, we
we had to make it. We had to make it work,
(13:08):
you know. And we had the production team. We were
recording at the record plant in New York, and I'm
sitting on the couch and the producer, David Lucas says, Albert,
we need some cowbell on this, just straight ahead nothing.
You know, I'm sitting on the couch, don't screw this up.
I'm sitting looking, you know, looking through the glass, you know.
(13:30):
And he did it perfect, perfect, and one take, one
take perfect, and I could feel my whole body, all
my muscles go ah good. And then I came back
a couple of weeks later when they had it mixed.
Oh my god, I was. I was just blown away.
(13:51):
You know, we you know, you're we. We were lucky
to be in a band to begin with, but to
have a weird band like us come up with a
monster hit like that, it was, you know, well, we
had Godzilla, we had Burning for you. You know. Some
other really good songs I got. I wrote a song
(14:13):
that Metallic Metallica play covered on their album. You know
you get a Metallica cover, that's pretty darn good. But
but Reaper's the one Reapers, the one that just broke
it open. But that was in seventy six, so it
wasn't until two thousand that they somehow in the twisted
(14:34):
mind of of Will Ferrell and that's that's in there too,
how he had showed it was supposed to be Norm McDonald.
Norm McDonald's was supposed to be the host, you know what.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
I didn't know that, and he's so he just stuck it,
and he stuck the script in a drawer.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
And then the next time, when Christopher Walking was there,
he pulled out the script and said, you know, and yeah, yeah,
and then I just worked and it's all about overcoming
adversity and how the how the how the how the
(15:18):
parts are are, you know, how the whole is greater
than the parts so it all comes together, you know.
And that was that was kind of like how this
episode of the cow Bell ends. It's with Will Ferrell
and my brother sort of agreeing on this thing because
Albert's in there for about fifteen minutes of this hour long.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
This has passed me by, but I got to, oh,
well look at it.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
It's well worth it.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Well again, just the skid itself, because I've been an
SNL fan since you know, I was able to stay
up late at night, and then being a long Islander
being a rock fan, I'm like sure, and then just
have it become a pop cult.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
All the bands that played on there, you know, they
never asked us. It was weird, never did, you know.
I don't know. Maybe the timing just wasn't right, you know,
and I don't Also, to be honest, our manager did
not want us on any kind of live TV. We
were a live act, but not for TV.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
You know, you know, we you know, you know, we
were that's a different monster.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah, it's a different Yeah, yeah, it's a different it's
a whole different animal. A lot of people pull it off,
some people don't. So rather than that, and we grew
up in the live era of music. You know, you
couldn't you couldn't. You couldn't get it. There was no MTV.
There was. It was just like now.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
There's no MTV.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
If you want to make Sullivan it was Ed Sullivan Show.
Yeah yeah, and that was kind of stiff, and you know,
so yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Well, I mean the fact that things worked out, things were,
things worked out, and the live music experience, and I
just want to say off the right off the bat,
I mean, well, not off right off the back, because
we've been talking for a little bit when my son,
well you may have heard him dropping toys in the background,
stuff like that. He's going to be to the day
after the event.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
We've taken it the sums.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
I mean, I.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Can't believe that he's going to be two already. It's
it's insane. But I looking forward to going through shows
within the concerts. I mean, my wife have taken him
to some like light you know, folk rock kind of stuff.
But to take him to a rock show, especially with
all those drums, I mean we have headphones. I don't
know if I want to do.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
That, just you ah.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
So hopefully this is the second annual of Many to Common,
by the way, hosted by my friend Maria Melito at
Q four to three.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Yeah I would. I've done a lot of shows at
the cutting room, mostly private parties, but they're all good,
and she's there often, so I've got to meet her
very nice.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
I occasionally, I was doing it more before my son
came along, filling in for the Jim Kurrz producer, so
I would be there helping out in the morning that
Maria comes in for her mid day shift, and we've
gotten plenty of long chats and she's great. But I
want to talk about yeah, for sure. But I wanted
(18:29):
to focus again not just on the musical part of
the Raven Drum Foundation, but the conversations I've gotten into
with with Rick, with Lauren, with with Matt Sorum, and
that's about mental health and recovery. And because this is
the healing of first responders and veterans struggling with post
traumatic stress. I mean, is that something that I don't
(18:50):
want to say you in particular have experience with, but
if that's something that maybe you know somebody Because I
often talk about mental health, I talk about my own
battle with depression and addiction, and so it means a
lot when people like Rick and Matt talk about their
battles and vulnerability.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Yeah, so if you could talk about perhaps what a
what a miracle? Uh Rick, Rick Allen's story is, you know,
it's it's you know, beyond belief, you know. Yeah, I mean,
have you had your all good?
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Where about you? Have you had any year?
Speaker 1 (19:25):
I am? I feel like I've been blessed. I did
go to Iraq though I did do shows in Iraq
in twenty ten.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Wow, I did.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
I did ten shows in Iraq. And it was much
more dangerous than I thought it was going to be.
It was you know, first of all, they send you
you get a letter from the US government that says, uh,
in now that you're coming up on your tour, we
have a few things we have to discuss. Number one,
(19:56):
if you die, you cannot sue the US government. Well
that's this is serious. But it was a kind of
a variety. Hey, speaking of cow bell, when we did
the shows in Iraq, every night, it was a different
(20:17):
soldier playing the cow bell.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yeah, that's the connection, man, that's the connection.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
And uh, you know, it's it was more dangerous than
I thought it could be. But I could see how,
you know, the soldiers that are there, I mean, we
were only going to be there for a week, you know,
a week and a half and h but the guys
that have to be there for the full term, you know,
the stress that they go through, you know. And this
(20:46):
was three months before Obama was going to end the war.
That was the official end was going to be in September.
We were there in July, and uh, it was more
dangerous than I thought they were. There some Code reds
where they they're shooting mortars into the into the into
(21:06):
the camp. I thought, hey, I thought we're going to
go to the bag Dad Hilton playing a nice air
conditioned ballroom, hope or something.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Well, yeah it was. We were in the.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Desert on flatbed trucks, you know, playing Reaper and I
of the Tiger. It was it was a you know,
we did we did cool in the gang songs. Uh.
Orleans was like the the backup band. I had Elton
John's guitar player, Elton John's drummer.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
It was, you know, we're an experience.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Yeah, experience.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Yeah, the change your perspective on a lot. So yeah, again,
if you want to help veterans and first responders, yeah, foundation.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Firefighters you know that have been fighting the wildfire or
the wildfires in LA. What you know, when I first
heard about this, this is a no brainer. You know,
I'm going I'm doing it. I don't care whatever. You know,
nobody's getting paid for this. This is We're all doing
it out of the goodness of our hearts.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
So well, yeah, that's special.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
I mean to catch up for you personally, to catch
up with friends and all for a great cause. I
wish I could take my guy who's counting currently counting
cars four Yes, you have four cars, buddy. He's big
on cars and.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Numbers, and ah, that's the best.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
So I'm hoping, well, let me this is a good transition.
If we can't make, we're not gonna be able to personally,
We're not gonna be able to make the cutting room.
But what about you and touring or could we see
the Joe Bashard band out in the bound of summer.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Yeah, we're playing in Connecticut later in the summer and
then I have a few other shows after that. We
just played at Iridium in New York. This is the
end of this ISLA November. We went down to Florida,
played a really great gig there. We just played in Fairfield, Connecticut.
(23:08):
Great show. You know, I'm so excited about my band.
You know, we we've really worked hard. We did a
new album and which I'm working on right now. But
it's I wanted to go back to like the old school,
with everybody in this in the room, playing our hearts out,
you know, getting the great sounds, you know, really exciting
(23:32):
old school. I don't know, you know, if this is
gonna sell because you know, there's so much competition, but
you know, I'm excited. I'm excited about playing a few shows,
not too many. Mickey was on the road constantly with
like Brian Adams. It was you know, world tours, you know,
(23:55):
that never stopped. And when COVID came along, he did
decided to retire. And then I found out he lives
close to me. And you know, if you don't play,
you lose you lose your hands, you know, so you
got to keep playing. And he realizes that. He said,
you know, I don't know if I want to do that.
(24:17):
He wants to do it, you know.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Okay, yeah, yeah, all right, that's special. We'll keep a
lookout on your on your website, right yeah, all right
for personal dates and.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Yeah, I mean I don't know dot com.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
I'm sure you can't put an eta because you said
you put you have half the record done.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
But are you hoping this year or next year?
Speaker 1 (24:37):
You're thinking in the fall of the fall?
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Okay, yeah, all right, sorry if I miss.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Got some interesting things happening, and uh, you know, you
got to make some videos right on, maybe some animation
you know, just you know stuff. The you know, the
songs are really personal to me and and I think
(25:01):
they'll they're very visual.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
So well, i'll watch it now, I'll show you him
now with he's playing.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Hey there, how you're doing well?
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Now he dropped the truck, so it's not as exciting
as it was before. But if anything, I would love
to just get it more because something that's not miss Rachel.
So I'm looking forward to him playing him some uh
some new Joe.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
So I look forward to it.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
And uh, before we get out of here, of course,
as you know, we use a six degrees of gn
R bacon That's what I call it here, you know,
anything connect to guns and roses, just to make it
a little different. And of course we spoke about Matt Sorum.
Matt Sorum has uh he's not going to be there
on Friday, but he's participated in Raven Drum Foundation benefits.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Before you know, Matt, you've have you played with.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Well, we we did do. Uh. It was it was
a private party in New York and I was talking
to him, Hey, you want to play Godzilla? You know
that song god It says Yeah. I ended up playing
with uh Markey Ramone though that that that night. Okay,
(26:12):
Marky was one of the guests. I was one of
the guests. Uh, Mattsrom had a what was that Freddie
Camp Freddy? Oh, yes, you remember fred Camp Freddy. They
were all there. It was It was a fun, fun show,
you know, and uh yeah, okay, yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
That's cool.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
And then let me ask just like a generic thing,
because you've obviously you've what you say, this is your
your fifth.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Decade in making music. Yeah, what did you think.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Of of that whole eighties rock scene with the hair
and then you know, guns and roses coming in?
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Is that?
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Were they even on your radar? Was that kind of
style on your radar? Or were you kind of doing
your own thing?
Speaker 1 (26:53):
It started just about when I was retiring. Uh, the
eighties thing what bothered me was the hair spray. We'd
have a dressing room all set up and all the
guys wanted to do their hair up, and uh, you know,
(27:13):
we'd have a whole tray of of great you know,
cater rings laid out and they'd be spraying their hair
and the spray would fill up the dressing room. That's
where that was at.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Well.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
No, but I liked the old rock and roll, and
you know, of course the early metal, the Sabbath and
the Zeppelin, you know, but you can't know that that
first Guns and Roses record pretty darn cool, you know.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
Right on.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Lots of good stuff there.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Yeah, appetite and uh oh, and before I lose it
because I looked it up what Metallica covered, because you
mentioned before astronomy. Astronomy they contact to you guys beforehand,
or they are they they're just able to get it.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
They did, actually they did contact the uh uh, the
management office, and they got the lyrics because they couldn't
they didn't know exactly what the lyric. They wanted to
make sure they got it right. But next thing, you know,
I get a cassette in my mailbox, my post office box,
(28:24):
and I put it in the car and I'm driving
down the road and I'm here and oh my god,
oh my god, James Hetfield is singing my melody, the
melody that you know I invented as I was walking
on the beach on Long Island, and and uh and
then Lars's drums come in, like, oh my god. It
(28:48):
just blew my mind. I just blew my mind thinking
about it again. I wanted to jump up and down,
but I was driving the car. Yeah, and that that
that was a big turning point. You know. At that time,
I was working in a publishing company, you know, and uh,
(29:09):
it was it was fun. I learned a lot, but
I was hankering for more rock, I guess. And to
get a song on a Metallica album that that that
they did so well, you know, was was a real thrill.
And it said to me, I got to write more songs.
(29:32):
I got to write more songs. Yeah, So I called
up I called up Ian Hunter.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Of course he's been on the show, A nice.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Great, great guy. We went from way back, and I said, uh, Ian,
I got this Monday night thing where we I sit
around and I write songs with Neil Smith and Dennis
dunnaway from Alice Cooper. We had this like Monday night
sessions that we would would write songs. I says, come on,
let's go write some songs. And we ended up I
(30:07):
ended up writing co writing with Ian four different songs.
And that was a lot of fun, you know. And uh,
but then then you know, you write four, and then
you got to write another another four, and then you
got to write at six and then you got to
write wait a minute, now, I've got ten new songs,
got to do an album, and you know, you put
(30:30):
it out, you know, and get a lot of a
lot of interest. You know, my YouTube channels going through
the roof got one hundred thousand, yeah, hundred thousand. Wow. Crazy.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
I'm thank you for reminding me to mention that the
YouTube channel, because I'm I just crossed eight thousand, so
I'm working hard on that, so hopefully this gets I.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Was stuck like at about one thousand and two thousand,
but the last the last two years have been really good.
You know. I'm just putting out more consistent stuff and
the band sounds great too.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
So much coming from you.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
And uh the first thing that without even just talking
about the music and the performance, is your passion. The
fact that it's still so there, impalpable, like I feel
it through the zoom.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
It's so cool.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
It's getting now. I wish I want to go again.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
I am honored. I am honored to be on your
podcast because I've seen some of the guests you have.
You have great guests and five hundred.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Yeah, five hundred and four, I'm lucky and uh yeah,
because I'm I mean, I started before I started working
at Q and O four but if you go to
their website the podcast section of right next to Jim Kerr,
and it's just it's very special to and to go back,
I guess to tide everything in with the bow, you know,
just when I was a kid in the car with
(31:54):
my dad, how it got into rock and roll listening
to Q one, O four three and before Guns and
Roses performance alcolfore I got into the harder stuff, this
bluiest call, there's burning for you, there's Godzilla, there's just
you have been a staple of whether it was WBA
B which I also worked out just of Long Island,
and then that's just oh yeah, and the fact that
you guys just still played. It's a testament to the
(32:18):
music and you as a performer. It's just, you know,
I can't wait to see you live. I'm excited. It's
always good when an interview gets you excited.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
I'm excited for you.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Well that's good, that's good. Yeah, it's all good.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
Right on.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
So, Joe Joe Buschard, thank you so much for being
on this episode of Appetite for Distortion.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
When will you see the next one?
Speaker 2 (32:39):
In the words of Axel Rose, concerning Chinese democracy, I
don't know as soon as the word, but you'll see it.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
Thanks to the lame ass security.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
I'm going home
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