Join us for an engaging episode of 'Seeing Them Live' as we welcome Ray the Roadie and Hollywood Mike, hosts of the Rock and Roll Chicago Podcast. Broadcasting from the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum's studio, Ray and Mike share their insights on the Chicago rock scene, the origin stories of musicians, and their own fascinating musical journeys. Discover behind-the-scenes stories, such as Mike's unforgettable encounter with Buddy Guy and Ray's memorable ZZ Top concert. Dive into the history and highlights of their popular podcast, learn about the ongoing development of the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum, and hear about upcoming exciting episodes and local band experiences.
This episode of Seeing Them Live features an in-depth and in-person conversation with Ray the Roadie and Hollywood Mike, hosts of the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. Joined by producer and co-host Doug Florzak, the episode was recorded inside the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66 in downtown Joliet, Illinois, where the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast is also recorded.
The Rock and Roll Chicago podcast provides a platform for bands and musicians from the Chicago area, delving into the history of rock and roll in Chicago and Illinois, the current scene, and the challenges and opportunities for musicians today. Mike and Ray share humorous anecdotes, such as Mike jokingly proposing 'The Procrastinators' as a name for his next punk band, and Mike mentioning his varied musical activities, including performing with bands like Cadillac Groove and Mike and the Stillmasters, and his solo work. Mike also uncovers a rich musical heritage after meeting a cousin who fronts a Zydeco band in Louisiana, leading him to discover his extended family’s significant contributions to various facets of the entertainment industry.
Ray recounts his multifaceted career journey, involving roadie work, being a firefighter for 28 years, and later diving back into music and podcasting post-retirement. Personal anecdotes include Ray’s memories of his first concert, seeing Chicago Transit Authority, and his best concert experience with ZZ Top, where he enjoyed backstage access and partied with the band.
Mike fondly recalls his first concert, a Billy Squire show with Def Leppard as the opener, and his best concert experience, which was a transformative Buddy Guy performance that inspired him to become a musician. The episode concludes with Ray and Mike previewing their plans for upcoming podcast episodes and discussing the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum’s ongoing development and various exhibits, including guitars from Buddy Guy, and its status as a non-profit organization reliant on donations and memberships for support.
BANDS: 4 Non-Blondes, Alison Krauss, Billy Joel, Billy Squire, Buddy Guy, Cadillac Groove, Def Leppard, Flat Cats, Iron Maiden, Joker, Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Mabel's, Mike and the Still Masters, Outlaws, Rage Against A Machine, REO Speedwagon, REM, Robert Plant, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Train, Vulgar Boatmen, Wrought Iron Soul, ZZ Top.
VENUES: Alpine Valley, Chicago Theater, El Macomber, Illinois Rock and Roll Museum, Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66, International Amphitheater, Mabel's, Ravinia, Rialto Square Theater, Rosemount Horizon, Route 66, Taste of Westmont, The Amphitheater, The Flat Cats, The Forge, The Riviera Theater.
[00:00:52] Charles: Our guests today are Ray the Roadie and Hollywood Mike, Ray and Mike are the hosts of the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast, which is a weekly show featuring interviews with bands and musicians from the Chicago area. They also talk about the history of rock and roll in Chicago, the current state of the scene, and the challenges and opportunities facing musicians today.
[00:01:16] I'm joined today by my producer and cohost Doug Florzak, and we are recording this episode in a studio located inside the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66 in downtown Joliet, Illinois. This is the same studio that Ray and Mike record their Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. Ray and Mike, welcome to Seeing Them Live.
[00:01:38] Ray: How you doing?
[00:01:39] Charles: Good, this is...
[00:01:40] Mike: And we're seeing them live.
[00:01:42] Ray: We are.
[00:01:43] Doug: Normally we're looking at people on a screen through Zoom, so...
[00:01:46] Mike: Right. Right. Yeah. That's tough to do. I don't like doing those.
[00:01:49] Charles: Yeah.
[00:01:49] Ray: That's how we did it during the pandemic. Yeah,
[00:01:51] Mike: Right. Right. Right.
[00:01:52] Charles: Yeah. No, this is great. We're in this glassed off room. It's acoustically nice. We're like located right in the gift shop. It's really a cool, little, little setup. I thought, um, you guys filled out your guest form and such.
[00:02:06] Ray: I think I did mine first.
[00:02:08] Mike: Yes, you did. I'm, I'm, I'm a procrastinator. In fact, that is going to be the name of my next punk band, The Procrastinators. We're gonna, we're gonna come in behind the beat, always.
[00:02:18] Charles: Well, uh, yeah, Mike, you, you seem like a busy guy, always, uh You seem to be playing it pretty much every week with your band, and I thought maybe you could do a little, both of you do a little brief introduction beyond what I just did. You got a couple bands, Cadillac Groove and, uh, Mike and the Still...
[00:02:36] Mike: Stillmasters.
[00:02:36] Charles: Stillmasters. Stillmasters. And then you, you have a few songs, uh, solo stuff I saw online. I listened to like, uh, uh, Incubus.
[00:02:46] Mike: So wow. So you're the guy listening to those.
[00:02:51] Charles: So you got a lot going on. You come from a long line of, uh, working musicians, you were saying?
[00:02:56] Mike: I sure do. Yeah, it's, it's I actually did it one day It was weird. I met a guy by the name of he goes by Mojo. He's a friend of mine. We're both members of the Elmhurst Masonic Lodge and it turns out that he was in a band.
[00:03:11] And, uh, he fronts like a Zydeco band and he recognized my last name immediately because he actually lives in Louisiana Which is where my entire family from that's where my roots are in the whole bit And he says I know about a hundred of your cousins, you know You got like a hundred cousins out there and we do we have a huge family He says I play with him all the time.
[00:03:27] He started naming off cousins of mine that I didn't even know. And, so I googled everybody and so I finally I guess I just googled Metoyer, you know musicians and I was shocked. There was like 200 people that came up. Record producers, movie producers, television producers, uh, working with, you know, scores on Hollywood movies and the whole bit.
[00:03:45] And the, I guess the one that's probably the most notable is there is a Tony Metoyer, who was the guitarist for, uh, For Four Non-Blondes he was on the album where they recorded that's, that's their fame the one hit wonder, you know The, the song what's up and stuff. He was the guitarist and stuff in that band and I was like, wow, maybe I should start taking this a little more seriously Because I mean that was, I mean that was 20 some years ago, but yeah, I’ve been, I’ve been playing in bands for a long time.
[00:04:11] Charles: Yeah. I was going to say, um, your, your band Cadillac Groove. I have, I don't know what you would call a connection to a member in your band, the saxophone player, Kevin?
[00:04:24] Mike: Right, yeah, yeah.
[00:04:25] Charles: He played at my wedding.
[00:04:27] Mike: Oh, no kidding.
[00:04:28] Charles: In 2007.
[00:04:30] Mike: Wow. What, what, what band?
[00:04:32] Charles: The Flat Cats.
[00:04:32] Mike: No, that was his band. Yeah, that was, that was his band. We, we met Kevin. He actually called us up one day. I had, I had been in Cadillac Groove for maybe about two or three weeks. I'm, I'm thinking it was really early on. And I get this phone call from Tom.
[00:04:46] Um, our, our band leader says, hey, we're going to be doing this really cool thing at this place called the El Mocambo, I believe on the, on the north side of the city. This band, the Flat Cats. It's for a swing night and so what they want us to do is they're going to get up and they're going to play like three or four songs. And then Cadillac Groove is going to get up and play three or four songs.
[00:05:05] But the way we're going to do it, you know, like first the saxophone player is going to go up and he's going to replace Kevin. And then the guitar player is going to go up and he's going to replace their guitar player and so on and so forth So by the time we got halfway through the song, we switched all the musicians over but it was the same song. So, it was like live band mixing. Is what it was and that's how we met that's how we met Kevin and yeah, and he became a friend of the band and eventually he decided he wanted to play in Cadillac Groove full time.
[00:05:29] Ray: So now You guys are swingers?
[00:05:31] Mike: Yeah, I guess that's what it is. We're swingers. Yeah, we got pineapple shirts.
[00:05:35] Ray: Not that there's anything wrong with that, anything wrong with that.
[00:05:39] Charles: Yeah. No, they were, uh, as you know, they're a great band and, uh, it was when they had their previous lead singer, her name escapes me right now, but they did this song by, uh, Tennessee, Ernie Ford, um, 16 tons.
[00:05:53] Mike: Wow. Yeah.
[00:05:54] Charles: There's a spot where she pauses, and then she just belts out the chorus or whatever, and you know, the guests at the wedding are like, This is the best band I've ever seen at a wedding ever. You know, they were, they were really, really something else.
[00:06:09] Mike: They really were. Yeah, really were. And I'm pretty sure they're still around too.
[00:06:12] Charles: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:06:13] Mike: I think Kevin plays with them on occasion.
[00:06:15] Charles: Yeah. We, my wife and I saw them in a Taste of Westmont on Memorial Day weekend this, this past summer. So yeah. But yeah, I thought I, I had to mention that. And then Ray, uh, you're, you're Ray, the Roadie, you did a lot of, roadie-ing work.
[00:06:30] Ray: Yeah, I did some in my days and, uh, back in the days when I, you know, did play a little bit and stuff and did a little roadie-ing and, uh, then I was a firefighter for 28 years, so pretty much everything came to a, a halt. There was no time for pretty much anything, but then I retired back in 2017, so I got back into, uh, working with the bands and doing stuff and starting a podcast and doing more stuff now than I, I was when I was working.
[00:06:54] Charles: Well, it looks like you've got a pretty good set up here, coming out of retirement.
[00:06:57] Ray: Yes, they provided us a very nice studio here at the museum.
[00:07:02] Charles: Yeah, and we'll talk about the podcast and the museum and such in a bit. But I thought, you know, like we do with our show, we just kind of go back and forth with some of the information you guys filled out on the guest form. So, Ray, we'll start your first concert was, um, it kind of threw me for a loop a little bit when I was searching, cause I was searching Chicago and the band and then the city's popping up. So, but. I think when you saw them, they were called the Chicago Transit Authority.
[00:07:30] Ray: They may have been. They may have been. It was really early on. And, uh, the Pointer Sisters opened up for them.
[00:07:36] Mike: Oh, wow.
[00:07:37] Ray: And, uh, yeah. At the time, I didn't know. I remember I didn't know who they were. And I was just like, you know, who are these chicks? And I'm like, not bad, but I want to hear Chicago. And it was in the beautiful confines of The Amphitheater. Which, God, everything sounded terrible there.
[00:07:50] Charles: I actually went to the very last show at the International Amphitheater, which was Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. So that was a good way to bring down the house, I guess, which was already coming down, I think. But, um, yeah, no, the Pointer Sisters were the opening act, and I was doing some research, and that was, like, before they were really had made it.
[00:08:12] Ray: Yeah, they were just coming up.
[00:08:13] Charles: Yeah. So that, that was, that was pretty cool. And then, um, Mike, you were talking about your first concert was, you saw Billy Squire with Def Leppard and I couldn't tell, it was unclear to me who was opening for whom, you know?
[00:08:25] Mike: Yeah, yeah, it was, uh, well, it was kind of strange because, um, I had a friend who had an older brother, who was into harder rock he he's the guy that got me into stuff like Led Zeppelin that and he comes by one day with the Pyromania album from Def Leppard I was in eighth grade We're sitting on my driveway with a white plastic turntable with a speaker built in, and goes, oh, you gotta listen to this band and then a few months later, he says hey, you know, my parents are buying tickets, you know to the concert. A bunch of us are going. Do you want to go and yeah, we went. We went with the intentions of seeing Def Leppard not realizing that it was actually a Billy Squire show.
[00:09:05] So Def Leppard actually opened up for Billy Squire. Yeah, none of us really knew who Billy Squire was. But we left Billy Squire fans because it was during that time where he recorded his album called Emotions in Motion. Everybody Wants You was the big hit off of that album right there. But it was great. We became, we became fans of Billy Squire as well, but that was really interesting.
[00:09:24] Charles: But then, uh, Ray, your, best concert, you listed as a ZZ Top show, which, um, I don't know. Did I put that at like 1991, maybe the Recycler tour?
[00:09:35] Ray: Yeah, a guy I worked with, he was a lifetime fan club member, and he got tickets to every single show. And he also got backstage passes, so we got to see the show. And then afterwards, at the Rosemount Horizon, we got to go backstage and party with the guys. And, I mean, it was wild. I mean, it was a spread of food and booze and other things. And, uh, I think, honestly, God, I don't think we left there until about 4 or 5 in the morning.
[00:09:58] Charles: Oh, really? And they, and they all hung out there?
[00:10:00] Ray: They out after, after the show. I've always been a ZZ Top Fan, but to go back there and meet them and party with them, it was great.
[00:10:08] Charles: Uh, my mom, she took me to a lot of concerts when I was younger and I saw them at Alpine Valley with the Outlaws in 1980, on the Deguello tour. And, yeah. That was, that was unbelievable.
[00:10:19] Ray: Yeah. We, we were up there one time, there was a group of us went up for the weekend and we were staying at the Abbey and we were out by the pool and just hanging out by the pool.
[00:10:27] And all of a sudden, these three bearded guys come out. I'm looking. I'm like, oh my God, it was ZZ Top, 'cause they were playing at Alpine Valley. Yeah, and that was pretty cool.
[00:10:35] Charles: Yeah.
[00:10:36] Mike: And coincidentally, that was the last concert I saw. I saw ZZ Top at Ravinia this, this past summer.
[00:10:41] Charles: Oh, okay.
[00:10:42] Mike: With the, uh, uh, with Lynyrd Skynyrd. Okay. Yeah. Or the, the remaining members of, of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Yeah. Right, right, right.
[00:10:50] Charles: Yeah, I kind of remember hearing that advertised.
[00:10:52] Ray: Well, I saw him, I saw ZZ Top in New Lenox last year, and it was the first show without Dusty Hill. They had just sent Dusty home, and his guitar tech, or bass, yeah, his guitar tech, uh, stepped in for him, so it was the very first show without him, and that was a Saturday, and then Tuesday is when he died.
[00:11:09] Charles: Wow.
[00:11:10] Doug: Did the guitar tech have the beard?
[00:11:13] Ray: You know what, he, he had a, he had a beard, but I couldn't tell if it was real, you know?
[00:11:17] Mike: Yeah, he wears like a costume.
[00:11:19] Ray: It almost, yeah. I almost think it's a costume. Yeah.
[00:11:22] Mike: Yeah, he wears, he's got like this, um, it, uh, definitely some type of a, it looks like a, a fake wig. And, and he's got this beard that's like too perfectly trimmed. I mean, it's too, too perfectly, trimmed, so I think it's more of a costume that he's wearing. Yeah, but he fits, but he, I mean, he wears all the same, the matching clothes and the whole bit like you're used to seeing.
[00:11:43] Charles: Wow. Um, it works. and then Mike, your best concert, and, and inspiration for you to become a musician and guitar player, was a Buddy Guy show in Milwaukee, which, it was a county fairground, so like an outdoor thing. And, and what struck you was his stage presence, command of the audience.
[00:12:01] Mike: Yeah, absolutely. I'd never seen him live before and I'd only known of him from like my father or my grandfather telling me about him.
[00:12:09] And I had a friend that was really into his music. You gotta understand, I grew up In the eight, I graduated from high school in 1988 So at the time good guitar players to me were Angus Young, you know or Slash from, from Guns and Roses and you know, I loved like Jakey Lee with you know, Ozzy Osbourne and um, And I just couldn't play that way you know, I was perfectly happy strumming an acoustic guitar and being able to sing, you know and accompany myself singing and So I was I don't know.
[00:12:34] I was 23 years old I think and a friend of mine says let's go and see this see Buddy Guy. I was like sure I’ll go see buddy guy had no idea what he was really all about You But holy crap, what an unbelievable experience when, when a concert just inspires you to go home and just change your entire philosophy of music.
[00:12:52] And that's what it was for me to see this guy come out and just hold an audience and command an audience. I mean, he, he shushed thousands of people. I mean, he's in the middle, he's, he's playing this slow song and he's got a guitar solo coming up and everything. And you can hear the crowd noise. People are cheering him on and everything. And he stops playing. He goes, shh, I'm gonna go home. It was, it was like there was a compressor effect on the crowd. Everybody gets shot up. To listen to what he was doing, it was great. It was, yeah, it was amazing.
[00:13:19] Charles: That's awesome. And then you, you have, uh, A really cool, um, Buddy Guy story as well, when you were, years later I guess, right? You were at Legends, his, uh, club in Chicago.
[00:13:33] Mike: Right, right.
[00:13:34] Ray: I've heard this before. I'm gonna go get a bite to eat.
[00:13:36] Charles: (Laughter)
[00:13:38] Mike: Yeah, this, this is a quick one. He uh, a good friend of mine had done sound for him and everything. So, I have a couple of connections there. So, I used to go every single year to see him. At least one of his performances in January. When he would play his own club. And I was lucky enough to be in the VIP section. Most of the time.
[00:13:53] But this particular time I was with his son. And I'm pretty sure his son's name was Michael too. I can't remember. Can't remember too clearly.
[00:13:59] Charles: Buddy Guy's son.
[00:14:00] Mike: Buddy Guy's son and we were sitting down having dinner having drinks together talking We were just having a good time and in the middle of the performance Buddy breaks a guitar string and hands his guitar to his son and his son looks at him like, you know, what do you want me to do? I'll get you another guitar and he and he did he handed him another guitar.
[00:14:17] But I said I'll change the string for you and he goes here, sure. And so I'm holding Buddy Guy's black and white polka dot Stratocaster, on my lap like a baby, yeah, you know, and I changed his guitar string for him. And yes, it was the G string, the one that always, the one that always breaks. And, uh, and I said to his son, I said, I'm keeping the guitar string. And he goes, Oh no, absolutely. Keep, you know, keeping that's his favorite guitar anyway, he probably wants it back.
[00:14:40] So in the middle of the song, he switched guitars and I handed him his guitar and I took his back from him. And I stuck that string in my back pocket. And for that brief moment, I was Buddy Guys, guitar tech.
[00:14:49] Charles: Wow, that's a great story.
[00:14:51] Doug: At the museum here. Don't you have? There's, there's one of Buddy Guy's guitars here.
[00:14:58] Mike: Absolutely. There is one.
[00:14:59] Ray: For a Nominal fee, I'd be happy to show it to you.
[00:15:02] Hahahaha
[00:15:03] Doug: I just want to encourage anybody, any of our listeners, if you're either in, live in Chicago, or you come to the Chicago area, please, put this on your to-do list and come to the, Illinois Rock and Roll Museum in Joliet and you can see things like that.
[00:15:18] Mike: For sure, there's there's, there's actually two of his here because I believe that Sunburst Stratocaster hanging high on the wall there. I believe that is one that he originally gave the museum and then when he had the opportunity to give them one of his signature Polka dot guitars. He brought that by as well. And that's the one that's in the in a case.
[00:15:36] And it's, it's a part where people really can't get there yet because the museum is really still under construction they can come in and visit the the gift shop and everything, but yeah, you really got to have connections to get back there and see the, the stuff that's back there right now, so.
[00:15:51] Charles: That's a great story. I love that story. Well, not to bring down the vibe, but Ray, you had a disappointing experience with Alison Krauss...
[00:15:59] Ray: Yeah.
[00:16:00] Charles: At the Chicago Theater, right.
[00:16:01] Mike: You're breaking my heart.
[00:16:03] Ray: Yeah, well, when, uh, back when I was married.
[00:16:06] Mike: She's from Champaign.
[00:16:07] Ray: Yeah, I had a stepdaughter. And she was crazy about her. Just, just crazy about her. And, uh, she was, uh, coming to the Chicago Theater. It was in the winter, probably December or something. And so, I got tickets, took her to go see her. So, the show, fantastic show. And we asked around, they said, yeah, they'll all be coming out. The buses are on the side.
[00:16:24] These are the doors that are going to be coming out. And some people, some of the other band members had, did come out and they said, oh yeah, Alison will be coming out here and you know, she'll talk to you and all that stuff. So, we, 45 minutes to an hour, we waited and just waited and waited and a door, about a half a block away, opened up. She comes scampering out, jumped on a bus, never came nowhere near us. And my stepdaughter was just devastated, just devastated.
[00:16:47] Charles: That's a bummer.
[00:16:48] Ray: And it was a school night. I mean, well, yeah, she really wanted to meet her, you know, just, but, uh, and she couldn't, we didn't, I mean, the show was good though.
[00:16:59] Mike: Yeah, yeah. Right. Yeah.
[00:17:00] Charles: I think they, she just announced she's playing the Chicago Theater. I think I heard that last week they that, she's, I don't know when.
[00:17:07] Mike: Is she by herself? Because nowadays she's pretty much touring with Robert Plant, isn't she?
[00:17:11] Charles: I think this might have been; this is just her.
[00:17:13] Ray: I think it probably, yeah, but she is still touring with him. I think I heard something that they're going to get together and do another album.
[00:17:20] Mike: Oh wow, yeah. Yeah.
[00:17:21] Ray: What a weird pairing.
[00:17:23] Mike: I know, but they're fantastic. They're, they're wonderful together.
[00:17:26] Ray: They're great together. They’re so good.
[00:17:27] Mike: And who, yeah, who'd ever thought a young lady from Champaign, Illinois would end up just touring with Robert Plant? That's Yeah. Yeah.
[00:17:35] Charles: Yeah, that's nuts.
[00:17:37] Ray: Look how organized he is. He's got things written down. You and I just gotta go off the cuff. We're never prepared.
[00:17:42] Charles: I have to. You guys have so much stuff, I can't keep it all straight. Let's do most surprising, Mike. You went to this Billy Joel show. And I couldn't figure out what year it was. Like, I had 1990 or 98.
[00:17:54] Mike: You know, you know, I'm trying to think what it was. My wife and I were very newly married. So, it was it was somewhere around I want to say like 96, 97 it definitely wasn't 2000 And I'm trying to think the album. I don't even think he was, no I do remember it was the River of Dreams album
[00:18:14] So like, you know, songs like All About Soul and stuff like that were, were on the radio. And it was a last-minute decision. We went with a couple of friends. And, uh, we ended up, we bought the last four tickets in the auditorium. And we were dead last in the auditorium.
[00:18:28] And, uh, all of a sudden, I get this tap on my shoulder and I turn around and it's, it's one of his representatives. And he's, and he simply says, if you promise to scream and shout and dance and have a good time and have the most fun you've ever had in your life, I'd like to escort you guys down to front row. Billy would like for you to come down there and sit as his guest.
[00:18:48] Charles: Wow.
[00:18:48] Mike: And that's exactly what, what happened. We find ourselves in front row. I'm shaking Billy Joel's hand and stuff. He gives my wife a hug and everything and every time he comes to the edge of the crowd, he's that he's there, you know with us I mean it was it was just absolutely unbelievable and I found out later on that he does that every performance.
[00:19:06] He does, he does that. He sends people to the back row. He reserves the front row center for himself. He sends his people to the back row and the people in the dead last row. So, a tip if you're going to see Billy Joel. Request seats in the very last row of, of the stadium.
[00:19:21] Charles: That's good advice, yeah.
[00:19:23] Mike: I've seen Billy Joel myself like six times.
[00:19:25] Charles: Yeah, I know, Doug, you've seen him four times. Four or five times.
[00:19:28] Doug: Way more than that. A friend of mine and I, this was way back when The Stranger first came out, which was kind of his first big album that he had a few before that, but that was the one that was break, that was the breakthrough for him.
[00:19:43] He lived next door to me, my friend, he actually was the best man at my wedding. And so, we grew up as friends and he said, you got to come over and listen to this guy that I got this album of, uh, Billy Joel and we were both blown away by it. And so, whenever he came into town, you know, that'd be like date night for us. We would bring whoever we were going out with to go see Billy Joel. So, yeah, I saw him a lot.
[00:20:07] Mike: Yeah, that album, The Stranger, was the number one album. In fact, when, when Michael Jackson finally, we finally broke the record with most record sales. It was the Stranger that the Thriller album overtook. That was a unbelievably famous, you know popular album for him. My first concert was The Bridge. Had Modern Woman, uh, was the song on, was one of the big hits on that. It was the one after Uptown Girl, I believe. But that was my first concert that I saw.
[00:20:32] Charles: That's a, yeah, it's a really nice thing to do. Okay you talked me into it. We'll go to the front row.
[00:20:37] Mike: Yeah, okay. If we if we have to yeah
[00:20:42] Ray: Well, nowadays you gotta hurry up and see him, cause I think they're all gonna be stopping touring soon.
[00:20:47] Mike: I heard that he is actually going on tour again. He retired from recording rock and roll music after he finished the River of Dreams album. He retired from, and he did record a lot of classical music. You can actually look up Billy Joel classical music.
[00:21:02] That's what he wanted to do. And then he toured a little bit with Elton John for a while. And then I, I want to say within the last couple months I heard something that he's announcing some select dates around the country again. So, yeah, so you got to get out, out and see him.
[00:21:16] Charles: Guys, I thought maybe, um, we could transition to, well, you could talk about local bands. I always had kind of an interest in this because I'd mentioned to Ray, about the Champaign music scene in the mid-80s. I don't know if you guys ever, were ever down there or did anything with those bands, but we had this local band. Well, I, I spent a semester down there. And, just by chance, uh, my friend took me to see this band called Otis and the Elevators.
[00:21:44] Mike: Oh yeah, yeah.
[00:21:45] Charles: And, uh, this was 1985.
[00:21:48] Mike: We were just talking to somebody about Otis and the Elevators.
[00:21:51] Ray: We were.
[00:21:51] Mike: And I remember who we were. I think it was one of our own podcasts.
[00:21:55] Charles: Okay. But we'd see them all the time. And then when I transferred, I went back to UIC in the city. My friends and I would drive down to Champaign all the time to see them. Like Wednesday nights, go see them at Mabel's, which was in downtown Champaign. And I know like, REO Speedwagon used to play there.
[00:22:14] Mike: I saw, REM didn't even have an album out I think and REM played Mabel's.
[00:22:18] Charles: Yeah. So, with local bands and, Mike, your band, like, just that feeling of the fans because we were nuts for these guys, we made t-shirts and they did have this level of success eventually. I mean, they own that club, Mabel's. They would sell it out and the place was, it was awesome. And then they, uh, they ended up opening up like for Stevie Ray Vaughan, one or two times.
[00:22:42] And then the last time we saw them; it was towards the end of their run. They were playing at the Riviera Theater in Chicago and they opened up for the Vulgar Boatmen. They were very popular at the time, that was like 1989. But Cadillac Groove, do you have, do you have crazy fans like that? Or people that, that follow you around?
[00:23:01] Mike: I wouldn't say crazy fans. you. Know, everybody in Cadillac Groove, we're all north of 50. So, our demographic tends to be between the ages of like 45 and 65. So nobody goes goes too crazy,
[00:23:15] Doug: That's our demographic too in Wrought Iron Soul, yeah.
[00:23:18] Mike: Yeah, but I mean, they are loyal fans. You know, I stopped going to big shows a long time ago. It's been, God it's been probably 20 years maybe since I've been someplace like the United Center or something like that. Because, for me personally I like the personal touch that you get when it's an intimate show and it might be somebody who's local who's kind of had a little bit of success.
[00:23:37] And I think the reason why we, in Cadillac Groove, and of course in my own band, the reason why we have such a good time with our shows is because the people that come out and see us, I don't know, the word starstruck isn't correct, because, we are not stars. I feel like they're family. We don't call them fans. We call them our friends. Right. And the fact that they know that we want them to come up before the show and say hello or say goodbye as they're leaving and come up and talk to us.
[00:24:00] And we tell people that all the time, you know, cause we, we hear, you guys were great last night. It was great. We're hoping to see you next week too. Well, we didn't know you were there last night. Come up and come up and say, hi, you know, come up and say hi and hang out with us for a little bit. And I think that is what people like about the local music scene.
[00:24:16] Charles: Yeah, and I've seen some video of you, going out into the crowd and stuff. You really, you get there.
[00:24:22] Mike: Yeah, Yeah, exactly. Why not? You know, make everybody feel like they're a part of the party.
[00:24:27] Charles: Yeah. Buddy Guy would be proud, man.
[00:24:29] Mike: Like I said, that's one of my main influences, and that's the exact reason why. Buddy Guy does it every single time he plays. He's out there in the, he's out there in the crowd, right? And that's, I figured that's, I'm gonna do same thing.
[00:24:40] Charles: Yeah, that's cool. Did you guys want to talk about your, podcast a little bit?
[00:24:44] Ray: Oh, no, no. No, we don't need to talk about that no, it's not really. Yeah, of course we do.
[00:24:50] Charles: Yeah, um, this goes back to, and, Ray, feel free to correct me here but, back in 2019, right?
[00:24:57] Ray: Yeah, about 2019 when we, we started. And, uh, that was me and Paul Martin from M&R Rush, and he was my original cohost. Took me a few years to talk him into doing the podcast because he had no idea what it was. And when he kind of understood it, he wasn't sure what I was thinking of would work. And once we started doing it, we both found out that it really does work.
[00:25:17] You know, basically what we're doing is we're trying to talk to the band. So, you know, everybody's got fans, the fans, see you up on stage and you listen to your music. They love you. They know nothing about you. Nothing about your history, how you started to play, how the band came together, or whatever.
[00:25:32] And, uh, people seem to like to hear about that kind of stuff. And, Paul was with me for, oh, about a hundred episodes or something. And, uh, he had to leave and retire, so Mike came on board and he's been, uh, two years now.
[00:25:44] Mike: Yeah, two years. Can you believe that?
[00:25:45] Ray: Two years, yeah.
[00:25:46] Mike: And how many episodes gosh, because we're up to 300 something?
[00:25:50] Ray: No, 217 I just loaded up. So, uh, we did, probably over a hundred.
[00:25:55] Mike: Over 100. Over a hundred episodes.
[00:25:56] Charles: Yeah, cause I think you, you joined maybe episode 114, 15, it was at band, Joker, I think was the first.
[00:26:04] Mike: That sounds about right. Yeah, that sounds about right. Gosh, I, I even, even remember 'em all.
[00:26:08] Ray: Yeah. I look at some of these episodes and I'm like, I swear we just talked to, to these people few months ago and it's like last year.
[00:26:15] Mike: Right, right.
[00:26:16] Ray: But we've made a lot of good friends too.
[00:26:18] Charles: Yeah, it's a great concept. And, I've learned a ton from just like, oh man, I didn't know that the guy from the Flat Cats plays in your band.
[00:26:25] Mike: Yeah.
[00:26:26] Charles: That of a thing. It's very interesting. And, do you guys get, I'm sure a whole slew of guests, uh, on the, on the docket coming up for a, the, the new year?
[00:26:35] Ray: Yeah, we do. It kind of slows down around the holidays, you know, are actually our last shows coming out on December 17th and then we're taking off for the holidays and then we'll start it up again beginning at the, beginning of the year. But after the first of the year, we've got, we've got some stuff scheduled. We'll get more after the, after the holidays are over.
[00:26:52] Charles: Because I know Doug, you were a, you were on the show your band Wrought Iron Soul.
[00:26:57] Mike: Yep.
[00:26:57] Doug: Yeah. We got some good response from that.
[00:26:59] Mike: Yeah. That's good. We were getting people, so we were doing two on Monday and two on Wednesday, and we were just filling it up and filling it up and filling it up. We were telling people they were, you know, interviewing in August, and we were telling them, yeah, your podcast will come out in in December.
[00:27:12] But I mean, it, it, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise because I mean they went through the tornado damage that ripped through town and the whole bit. And so there was several months where we couldn't get into the studio, but we had the backlog and it caught up.
[00:27:23] Ray: Yep.
[00:27:23] Charles: Yeah. That's awesome. You guys get a lot of episodes and I've listened to quite a few and you record pretty much every episode here in the studio?
[00:27:32] Mike: Yeah. Yeah. every single one. Every one.
[00:27:34] Ray: We're toying with the idea of doing a live podcast somewhere. We haven't figured out the logistics and how all that would work.
[00:27:40] Mike: But it's, it's so inconvenient.
[00:27:41] Ray: Yeah, come here, just sit down, hit the button and go. Yeah.
[00:27:45] Charles: This is great set up.
[00:27:47] Mike: Because when, what Cadillac groove was episode 6, and they brought their little doohickey here and, and we ended up sitting in the back room of a restaurant, doing the interview, you know because there was no studio. It makes it so much easier just to show up here and do it.
[00:28:00] Ray: Yep.
[00:28:00] Charles: As I'd mentioned, we're inside the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66. It's in downtown Joliet, Illinois.
[00:28:08] Mike: Right down the street from the Rialto Square Theater.
[00:28:10] Charles: Okay.
[00:28:10] Mike: Across the street from the Forge. People know where all those areas are.
[00:28:13] Charles: But yeah, they opened this, like, right before, or they started on it, right before the pandemic?
[00:28:17] Ray: Yep. When they, Ron Romero is a founder and a CEO of, uh, the museum. This was his idea, something that he wanted to do. And he was able to get this building in 2019 and it was just an empty shell. It's a former department store. I mean, it was, it's been a number of things and he got the building and then the pandemic hit, so everything came to a screeching halt.
[00:28:40] We actually had the studio, the original studio here in 2019. And when the pandemic hit, but that ended, you know, there was no in person interviews and we started doing zoom and did that for a whole year until the we were able to get back out here.
[00:28:55] Charles: Cause this is a fairly old building. It's 1930s. Old.
[00:28:59] Ray: Yeah, really old building. And it's getting all renovated and, uh, it's looking beautiful compared to the way it did when we first step foot in here.
[00:29:07] Mike: And it's important to, it's important to mention that, you know, this is, this is a nonprofit organization. Ron Romero didn't open this up in hopes to become rich or anything like that. It's a labor of love for him. And it is a nonprofit organization.
[00:29:20] So, if you really want to help out. But you, you can't swing a hammer. You know, donations are always welcome. And, and you can become a member of the museum. Even though the doors aren't officially open just yet. They do educational things every once in a while. But you can become a member. And, and you're a charter member.
[00:29:36] Ray: I am a charter, charter member, lifetime charter member.
[00:29:39] Mike: And it's unbelievably inexpensive to be a lifetime charter member, actually. What, what is it, like $200 bucks or something or that.
[00:29:45] Ray: Something like that.
[00:29:45] Mike: Yeah. $200 bucks and it's a non-for-profit organization so you write it off on your taxes and you're a lifetime charter member.
[00:29:52] Ray: And you get a lot of benefits, a lot of great benefits. When it's, when the place is eventually open, there's going to be three, well, four floors if you count the basement. But like the top floor, hoping to be like a performance venue up there. So, they'll be able to have shows up there and have people come in and it's going to be great once it's done.
[00:30:08] Charles: Yeah, I've heard Ron talk about it. It's like a 25,000 square foot space. Multiple floors like you just said, Ray. And, do they have their own podcast, podcast too, guys? Do they?
[00:30:20] Mike: They've got the they've got the Road to Rock radio station.
[00:30:22] Ray: Yeah. Road to Rock radio. It's an internet radio station.
[00:30:24] Charles: Okay.
[00:30:25] Mike: Yeah, it's an internet radio station.
[00:30:27] Charles: Yeah, I was listening to it and I thought, cause it's all Illinois...
[00:30:31] Ray: All Illinois.
[00:30:32] Charles: Musicians, music and stuff, and you could see what was played and the variety, you know, like Veruca Salt, Lonnie Brooks, Wilco.
[00:30:41] Ray: Yeah, you look at it and go, I didn't know they were from Illinois.
[00:30:44] Charles: Yeah.
[00:30:45] Mike: Right, exactly.
[00:30:46] Charles: Yeah. I mean you; you have an endless supply of people who could be museum.
[00:30:52] Mike: And that's the reason for the museum. That's the reason for the museum. Geez. They've got one, I believe, in New York. They've got one in Los Angeles. And of course, there's the big rock and roll hall of fame Cleveland. It's about time, you know?
[00:31:03] Doug: Do they have a projected date when they're going to be formally opened yet?
[00:31:07] Mike: August of 2022.
[00:31:13] (Laughter.)
[00:31:13] I thought at one point there was, but that's in the rearview mirror. So I don't know.
[00:31:17] Ray: The first floor is getting real close, real close to being done. The last major thing is the HVAC system. They just got some grant money putting that in. So, uh, once that's in, I don't see it being much, you know, much longer after that. They started work on the second floor. You know, painting and putting up walls and lighting and all that stuff. And as soon as that one's done, then they'll move to the third floor.
[00:31:40] Half of the basement is schools. There's classrooms down there and they're going to teach everything from new musical instruments, to singing, to even like lighting and sound engineering. They're going to teach you that stuff. And then the other side of the basement is a rehearsal space that people can rent and rehearse. Just like our studio here, this studio is available for rental if you want to start your own podcast.
[00:32:00] Charles: Yeah. This is a nice, nice spot to start, for sure.
[00:32:04] Doug: Yeah, we may be back here.
[00:32:05] Charles: Yeah, is there any other aspects of the museum that you guys wanted to talk about? There's a, there's like a Hall of Fame too, right?
[00:32:12] Ray: Yeah, there's a Hall of Fame. Uh, as a matter of fact, the inductions were supposed to happen in September, but then the tornado came through and there were some issues, and then it was supposed to be at the Rialto Theater, so they rescheduled it for another day, and then there was a conflicting date, so now I think it's gonna be March or April. It will be the 2024 inductees. I think we've had, there's been a few ceremonies.
[00:32:34] Mike: I think we've had three.
[00:32:35] Ray: Three years. You know, you gotta be from Illinois. Some kind of Illinois connection and they're doing everybody, they're doing DJs, they're doing bands, songwriters. You know, just all kinds of stuff.
[00:32:45] Charles: Yeah. I saw some of the examples of it on their website, and I, think the band Train, they had like person circled, who was in the band. Then I started to think of like, Tom Moreo from Rage Against a Machine.
[00:32:57] Mike: Oh yeah, that's right. That's right. You know, one of the exhibits that we have here is the outfit that the bass player from Train wore in the Drops of Jupiter video. And unfortunately, he's the one that recently passed away within the last year. Yeah, he's from Morris, Illinois.
[00:33:11] Charles: Wow.
[00:33:11] Mike: But we've got the outfit, you know, the long black leather trench coat and the gold sequined pants there.
[00:33:16] Ray: For a nominal fee, I'll be happy to show it to you.
[00:33:19] Mike: And for, another nominal fee, you can try it on. Laughter.
[00:33:24] Charles: Ha, you have to wear gloves though, right? Anything else guys that, uh, you'd like to talk about as far as the podcast or where we could find the podcast where people can find it.
[00:33:35] Ray: Anywhere you can find a podcast, you can find us. Our Facebook page, Rock and Roll Chicago Podcast. We've got a website, rocknrollchicagopodcast.com. Also, also a shortened version of that rnrcp.com. Cause it, I'm part of typing all them letters so.
[00:33:52] Mike: And if you just Google it, every video just pops up. Someplace. Yeah.
[00:33:56] Charles: And then, uh, Mike, did you want to mention anything further about, uh, your mention anything for about, ah, your band?
[00:34:01] Mike: Cadillac Groove plays every single weekend. Every single weekend. So that's pretty easy to find us. Just CadillacGroove.Com or you can find us on Facebook really easily. And then my other band is Mike and the Stillmasters and we're on Facebook as well. And you know, you like the band you'll get all of the invites and stuff there. I don't play nearly as much in that band. Maybe uh one or two performances a month.
[00:34:23] Charles: Is that, is that more of a blues band?
[00:34:25] Mike: Yeah, I guess you could say that. Um, blues, blues, southern rock, little bit of country in there. Yeah, it's just four of us, no horn section or anything. Although our keyboard player, Jeff, is an amazing trumpet player. So, he does double duty. He actually, he's our substitute trumpet player in Cadillac Groove. And he's actually been playing piano for Cadillac Groove most recently because our regular piano player is healing up from an injury at home. So, he's been doing double duty in Cadillac Groove as well.
[00:34:50] Charles: Cool. Yeah, we'll keep an eye out for that. Well thanks for being guests on Seeing Them Live and letting use awesome studio, and checking out the museum and it's really cool. So, ah, thanks
[00:35:04] Ray: Thank you. Thanks a lot.