Jamie James takes us on a journey through his remarkable career, from his early days leading The Kingbees to playing alongside Hollywood legends like Harry Dean Stanton and Dennis Quaid. He shares stories of rock and roll mayhem, including a wild gig with AC/DC and ZZ Top that took an unexpected turn. With a deep love for rockabilly and roots music, Jamie reflects on the musical influences that shaped his sound and the moments that defined his path as an artist. In this conversation, Jamie also delves into the formation of Dennis Quade’s band, The Sharks and his experiences collaborating with some of the industry's most fascinating figures. He recalls the energy of the L.A. music scene and the friendships that fueled his artistic journey. Whether performing in intimate venues or alongside iconic performers, Jamie’s passion for music has never wavered, and he offers an inside look at the highs and lows of life on the road. A major turning point came when Jamie faced a life-threatening health scare that forced him to step back and reassess his creative direction. Emerging from this experience with a renewed sense of purpose, he found inspiration in songwriting once again. Now, with his latest album, Ain’t No Big Thing, Jamie returns with a collection of songs that reflect his journey, blending raw energy with heartfelt storytelling. His story is one of resilience, reinvention, and an enduring love for making music.
Jamie James, guitarist, singer, and songwriter, joins Charles on Seeing Them Live to discuss his musical journey and new album Straight Up, released on Oglio Records.
Jamie reflects on his early musical influences, growing up in Woodstock, Ontario, and his transition from aspiring hockey player to musician after a knee injury. He shares how he taught himself guitar on a damaged acoustic and recalls receiving his first real guitar as a Christmas gift in 1966.
The conversation turns to Jamie’s formative concert experiences, including seeing Tommy James and the Shondells, Deep Purple, Sly and the Family Stone, The Who, and an early performance by Queen in a small London club. Jamie describes how these shows influenced his approach to live performance.
He recounts his time in the 1970s rock scene, playing with various bands before joining the New Steppenwolf in 1977. After leaving the New Steppenwolf, Jamie formed The Kingbees, an ‘80s rockabilly trio that gained a cult following.
A favorable review in LA Weekly helped them gain popularity, attracting large crowds to their shows. He discusses their unique rockabilly-inspired style, which predated the Stray Cats and MTV, and his personal shift toward a Buddy Holly-influenced guitar approach. Jamie also shares anecdotes about the LA music scene, recalling interactions with The Blasters and Blackie Dammett, father of Anthony Kiedis, who became an informal emcee for The Kingbees.
Additionally, he recounts signing with RSO Records in 1980, initially seeing little success until their song My Mistake gained radio traction in Detroit. This newfound exposure led to major performance opportunities, including a replacement slot at the Toledo Speedway Jam alongside ZZ Top, AC/DC, and Sammy Hagar; a wild gig that took an unexpected turn involving a whiskey bottle that injured an audience member.
After the Kingbees disbanded in 1981, Jamie pursued a solo career, but his EP failed to resonate with him. A chance encounter with actor Harry Dean Stanton at a July 4th gathering led to a close friendship and musical collaboration that lasted for years. Jamie formed a band with Stanton, regularly performing at The Lighthouse and The Mint. Later, he connected with actor Dennis Quaid, leading to the formation of The Sharks, a band that endured for nearly 20 years.
A severe health scare in 2020 prompted Jamie to recommit to songwriting, leading to the creation of new music during the Covid pandemic. Despite financial challenges, his bandmates were eventually drawn in by the strength of his songs, paving the way for his latest album, Ain’t No Big Thing (https://oglio.com/).
Jamie’s story is one of resilience, reinvention, and an enduring love for making music.
[00:00:00] Charles: Today's guest is Jamie James. Jamie is a guitarist, singer, and songwriter, known for his work with Dennis Quaid and The Sharks, and he's also collaborated with the late actor Harry Dean Stanton. Jamie was also a member of the band, the New Steppenwolf, and was the front man of the eighties rockabilly trio, the Kingbees.
[00:00:21] He returns with new music, bringing his rich, rock infused legacy to a new chapter. Jamie's new album is titled Straight Up and is a 10-track solo LP, and he reunites with his Dennis Quaid and the Sharks Band mates. The album is out now on Oglio records and was released on March 14th, exactly 45 years after the Kingbee's debut release in March of 1980.
[00:00:49] Jamie, welcome to Seeing Them Live.
[00:00:52] Jamie: Oh man. Thank you for having me.
[00:00:54] Charles: And I'm also joined today by my co-host and producer Doug Florzak. And we'd also like to give a shout out to Mike at Earshot Media for arranging this interview with you today. We're really excited to have you on the podcast and in doing research for this man. I've got a lot of notes. You've done a lot of stuff, Jamie.
[00:01:16] Jamie: I feel like I'm just beginning, man. Isn't that interesting?
[00:01:19] Charles: Yeah. So, we start out usually with guests talking about concerts and stuff, but we definitely want to talk about your new album, of course. But instead of starting with a concert story, I heard in an interview, I think, we'll start with an instrument that you received for Christmas in 1966. If you wanna talk about that a little bit.
[00:01:40] Jamie: Yes, I do. First though, thank you for your introduction, but, uh, the single came out on February the 14th and the album's coming out on March 14th. Just to be clear for your listeners, on Oglio, that is correct. And the single was, uh, Let the Praying Begin. Anyway, in 1966, I grew up in Canada, in Woodstock, Ontario. Oh, I was born in Toronto and when I was two, we moved to Woodstock.
[00:02:04] And so if you know anything about Southern Ontario, Canada, it's got three things it's known for hockey, hockey and more hockey. Okay. So, you make a little rink, or at least your parents do in your backyard, and you start skating before you go to kindergarten. And that's no lie. And so, I was into hockey and in fact, my first time in the United States was to play hockey.
[00:02:27] Our, our little, uh, peewee all-star team when I was 10. Uh, played the, uh, the Detroit Rooster tails on, which were these two brothers, Mark and Marty Howe, whose father was Gordy Howe. So, we all got to meet Gordy Howe at that time was a hockey legend, uh, similar to Wayne Gretzky or, uh, Yevenko, of today or whatever for those that follow hockey. But, anyway, I blew out a knee by the time I was, uh, about 12 or 13, right? And the NHL scout, you young there. But anyway, so I, it, it destroyed my dreams of being a hockey player.
[00:03:02] And the next-door neighbor had this old, this woman, uh, Connie. She had an, uh, an old acoustic guitar and only had four strings on it.
[00:03:10] And the copper binding was coming off. And, and, uh, and I, and I wanted to learn. I I just picked it up by ear. Batman, I remember learning bat da da da, right? Like learning Batman. And, and because the copper binding was un un unraveling, it would make my fingertips bleed. But I didn't care. And as soon as I figured out Batman going up and down, back and forth, I went downstairs and I played it for my sister and my brothers and I went outside in the backyard. And anybody that was li listen. You know, and I, I loved it. And so, I started to learn that. I learned, wipe out. I learned a couple of basic simple things. And then I moved up to House of the Rising Sun by the Animals. It was a brand-new song out at the time, pretty much.
[00:03:54] And, uh, I begged my mom, although, uh, we didn't have the money really for, for a guitar and, uh, and an amp that I saw in this store called the Big M. It was just a store that sold everything from furniture to licorice. And sure enough, there it was for Christmas. And so, uh, man, I, I played that thing every day after school, all weekend long, it became my life. And I had a little record player.
[00:04:18] And in those days, you know what I learned from one of my other guitar player buddies at school, and there was only three of us in the school that played guitar, is if you tape a quarter to the record arm, you could slow the tempo down so you could have more of a chance of learning, you know, the guitar parts on the record. So, that's, that's what I did. Yeah.
[00:04:37] Charles: Yeah. So you listed as your first concert, then shortly thereafter, you pick up this new guitar as a Christmas gift, you see Tommy James and the Shondells.
[00:04:47] Jamie: That's right. Hanky Panky was one of the first songs I learned, and, and I, and they were coming to our town to play the fairgrounds. You know, most small towns in those days had like fairgrounds for the fair and the, and the two weeks, you know, of the summer or whatever, you know, and they would get bands coming through to play. And yes, Tommy James and Shandell's came through and, and I was able to get in there. I think I probably snuck in. There was a little hole in the back fence there, and man, it just blew my mind. It blew my mind, you know, blew my mind.
[00:05:16] Charles: Yeah. 'Cause you list that then as a four way tie for some of your best concerts. And you listed, after that Tommy James and the Shandell show, you saw like a year later, Deep Purple in 1968.
[00:05:31] Jamie: Yeah, for the Hush. Hush had just come out and they were playing in, in a town 30 miles away called London, Ontario Wonderland Gardens, I think it was called. And again, I probably snuck into that somehow. I don't know. I hitchhiked there, I'm sure. And I, I worked my way right to the front and I stood right at Richie Blackmore's feet, and I watched him and I could see Ian Paice right there.
[00:05:53] And then Jon Lord on the other side of the stage. And Richie Blackmore was on stage left. So, on my right, if you're facing the stage. And, uh, and I can't remember the singer they had, I think it was the original guy. I, I don't, I don't remember, but I was more interested in drums. The Ian Pace and John Lorde just pounding the organ.
[00:06:11] And Richie Blackmore. And at one point Man, he takes his, he was playing a white Stratocaster with a Rosewood neck, so probably an early sixties through a Marshall stack. It's, and at one point he takes his guitar dude, and he threw it in the air and it twirled and it came down and he caught it. And he didn't miss a beat. They were so exciting live back then. It was amazing.
[00:06:32] Charles: That sounds awesome. And then the next year, you see Sly and the Family Stone on their Stand Tour, I think.
[00:06:38] Jamie: It was at the University of Toronto. This was in Toronto. This was probably in July of 69. Either, uh, probably just a week or two before they did the thing that's out on Netflix now, uh, in Harlem. Uh, and, and it was Sly, well, sly I think was the headliner, but on that bill was also, uh, well I think they, they had, uh, Johnny Winter.
[00:07:00] It's the first time I saw Johnny Winter. He blew my mind. And, uh, and, and a few other really good acts. But man, when Sly came out and their show was so tight then, and Larry Graham got a sound on the bass like I'd never heard before and I played an upright bass in school. I'd been playing an upright bass in the orchestra 'cause I'm tall. Man, oh man, that was mind blowing. It was fantastic. Fantastic.
[00:07:24] Charles: Yeah, and then after that, a couple years later, you see The Who on their, Who's Next tour.
[00:07:30] Jamie: That's right. Yeah. At, at the Oval Cricket Ground, I think it was in 1971 and it was the concert in London that was akin to George Harrison's one to raise money for Bangladesh and at the Oval Cricket Ground, and it was, well, Rod Stewart and the Faces came on just before The Who and then before Rod Stewart and the Faces, and Rod had a hit at the time, Maggie May. And so he was very popular, and then also, uh, Mott the Hoople and before that Atomic Rooster and, uh, a group called Quintessence, and I can't remember some of the others.
[00:08:03] It was like a date all day type thing. And uh, and then The Who came on at the end, it was funny because Rod Stewart made a comment going, well, just about to show The Who, who the best band in London is. And he did get a good response, right? But that was just a dumb thing to say at that time because when The Who came on, my friend, they blew just the, they just blew everything away for it was phenomenal. Phenomenal.
[00:08:32] Charles: I can only imagine. I've seen footage from that period of time.
[00:08:37] Jamie: Yeah, you can look it up there. I haven't seen visual footage, but I've heard audio of the, of The Who at the, at the Oval Cricket Ground in London. I think it was 1971, maybe 72, but I'm pretty sure it was 71 though.
[00:08:50] Charles: So, were you living in London then, Jamie?
[00:08:53] Jamie: Yes, I was, I I lived there for two years.
[00:08:55] Charles: Okay. Because, you'd mentioned that your most surprising concert was about a year after that, where you, you saw this band that you didn't really ever have heard of before called Queen, in London as well, right?
[00:09:08] Jamie: Yeah, I mean, I, I used to go out and see music at that time. I worked, uh, I needed to pay my rent 'cause I went over there to, with some songs I had written in my little guitar. I went over there in 1971 because, my mother, well my girlfriend lived over there at that time, so I wanted to see her and also I was like 18 years old, I think. And my mother had cut out an article from a newspaper where the Beatles were launching a new company called Apple Records, and they were looking for songwriters and talent.
[00:09:39] So when I got there, I marched up, went down to Savile Row, and went up and knocked on the door. It was on a Saturday, kind of a rainy afternoon. And, uh, excuse me, sir, uh, I just came, I, I have my guitar here and I have songs I'd like to play for someone. And it was like this security guard guy, and he was very nice to me and he said, it really doesn't work that way, you know, I was so naive.
[00:10:00] And so he'd let me come in for a second to get out of the rain. And then of course I walked away just like completely dejected. My first real slap in the face of rock and roll reality, you know? But anyway, so, I stayed and I got a job with a friend of mine working in this little shop in Soho.
[00:10:17] And so we used to go out and see bands at the Marquis on Bordeaux Street. We were just going there one night to kind of hang out and listen to music. And this band suddenly caught my attention because all of a sudden, all four guys in the band entered their microphone, sing, liar, liar, and four-part harmony.
[00:10:34] And I looked up and it was, I was like, wow. And I can't remember if they were actually called Smile or if they were called Queen, because I didn't really even know who they were that night. It was a couple of days later I found out and now I've looked online and googled it. And somebody actually posted the set list that they did from that night, 'cause they did Johnny B. Good, they did a Chuck Berry song. You know, they did a variety of stuff, but, oh my gosh, were they really good, man? Wow.
[00:11:03] Charles: Yeah, because when I was looking that up too, Jamie, I saw that they didn't really form until maybe as Queen in sometime in 1972.
[00:11:11] Jamie: That must have been new then, you know? 'Cause Marquis club is a small club.
[00:11:16] Charles: Yeah. I looked at capacity, which said online it was, it said it held 700 people, but I, you know, I never know how accurate those estimates are.
[00:11:24] Jamie: Nah, there wasn't 700 people, there wasn't many people there. I mean, we were standing on the dance floor and it wasn't even that crowded.
[00:11:30] Charles: Okay.
[00:11:31] Jamie: But I just remember, that just jumps out in my mind because I grew up in, uh, you know, singing in a choir in church, and so I, I appreciated vocals and the fact that they could all sing that, that impressed me.
[00:11:44] Charles: Yeah. That's a really cool story. At some point, maybe when you were in London, maybe not, four years later or so you join the new version of Steppenwolf, which I heard in an interview you were friends or friendly with at the time, the bass player in that band.
[00:12:02] Jamie: Yeah. Nick Saint Nicholas. Well, let me go back. Before that, I moved out back to Canada from London. Then I got a gig playing with these guys in Detroit in 1973, and the band was called Skip Van Winkle and The Night Rockers. And it was an interesting band because there was two drummers. Two female singers, Marcy Levy, that co-wrote and ended up going on to co-write, lay Down Sally, and sing that with Eric Clapton and be in his band. And, a woman named Stoney Reese, who then changed her name to Sean Murphy, and she ended up singing in Little Feat after Lowell George passed away.
[00:12:36] And that was a really, really fun band. And sadly, enough though, I got fired from that band. Not because I wasn't good but it was a financial thing. It was a big band and somebody in the band wanted more money than I got axed. Heartbroken, again, slapped in the face by the music business. And I went back to Canada and, I toured around with my own band at the time, which I called Jamie James in the Shame Band, you know, opening for Canadian bands like April Wine and bands like that.
[00:13:02] And I came down to visit a friend to LA in 1975. And I decided to stay here 'cause it was there, you know, there was so many good musicians just floating around. And shortly thereafter, uh, I met Nick St. Nicholas, who was the original bass player in the Steppenwolf. He was, before that in a band called Sparrow. And he's, he's of German origin and his real name is Klaus Kassebaum. And he had met John Kay in Toronto and John was from Germany, and as Nick tells me, they kind of, uh, you know, chum together and did music together.
[00:13:37] And anyway, so Nick and I, we had, we put a band together called Pacific Coast Highway, which was, uh, with this great Canadian guitar player singer named Danny McBride. And it was a very good band. And, you know, we had different people coming to our rehearsals like Richard Manuel from The Band and stuff. And Dr. John was gonna, Mac Rebennack. He wanted to take us into the studio to produce us because we had this wonderful piano player by the name of Jimmy Anger.
[00:14:03] Then Nick called me and said, Jamie, I got an opportunity, uh, through a series of legal means, to go out as Steppenwolf without John Kay, won the right to use the name, Goldie and I, Goldy McJohn was the organ player and loved Goldy, got rest his soul. And Kent Henry, who was the second guitar player, that, uh, third guitar player that replaced Michael Monarch, I think there was a guy after that named Georgia. And I said, okay, Nick, well, I'll try it. You know, I mean, those, he was, those guys were in their thirties. I was 23 and I thought it would be an nice opportunity. But then Nick called me back and said, well, Goldie has a guitar player he wants to use, so you have to audition. And I said, all right, whatever.
[00:14:42] And so I went to the audition. And now growing up in Canada, I knew all their stuff. I knew Sookie Sookie. I knew Rock Me Baby. I knew Don't Step on the Grass Sam. I knew Pusher Man. I knew Monster. Right. Which is a very complex, wonderful recording. And I just knew them because, you know, I used to practice to those things, you know. And of course, you know, Goldy, he pulled out those songs and I knew them Rock Me Baby. And I, I knew those songs and everybody knew Born to Be Wild. And then, so Goldy, gets to Monster, you know, and he is thinking he's gonna stump me, but I knew the whole thing, you know?
[00:15:18] So I got that gig. And we did, we toured around in 1977, uh, with what they called the New Steppenwolf World Tour of 77. But after about 10 months or so, and they were doing two of my original songs in every show. 'cause I really, songwriting is my love, but it just, it started to, it just didn't start to feel like for me, as a songwriter and to express myself, a good vehicle for me to keep growing. And so I left it after just under a year.
[00:15:47] Charles: Yeah, I could see that. That's an interesting reason.
[00:15:49] Jamie: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:15:51] Charles: I could totally see that. So, then you left and you formed, your own band, right?
[00:15:56] Jamie: The Kingbees.
[00:15:57] Charles: That band was about, what four years or so, Jamie?
[00:16:00] Jamie: Well, I started the band with my next-door neighbor, Rex. He lived right, like his apartment was right next to mine in this little, fourplex building. And then Michael lived up the street and, on a street, called Holly Drive, believe it or not. And at that time, I was looking for something new as a guitar player.
[00:16:17] I was kind of sick of playing, you know, a double stack. Now mind you, I'd been playing in, in The New Steppenwolf. I had a 1960 Les Paul through a Marshal. The tone every night was just off the hook, you know, and I had a 57 Stratocaster. And, you know, like all good guitar players, I ran outta money and I had to make a choice of which one of my two guitars to sell to, like pay my rent and stuff.
[00:16:38] And so I let go of the Les Paul. Now that's an interesting story because this guy named Mike DeTemple, he had this Native American blanket from somewhere in, in Oklahoma. And Gary Busey wanted this blanket. And Gary Busey had just, I think, come out with the Buddy Holly Story. So, he had some moula and I wanted, I needed to sell my guitar and I wanted to get a certain amount of money for it to, you know, pay bills and then start covering costs, like rehearsal costs and stuff for the Kingbees.
[00:17:12] And, so we all went out. Mike came over and picked me up 'cause I, I was so broke, I didn't even have a car anymore. And Mike came over and picked me up on a rainy day and we drove out to Malibu, to Gary's place and just kind of had a fun powwow kind of afternoon. And we did a trade and Gary wanted that blanket because I think it represented maybe something from his father's side of the family or something. I don't know. Can't remember exactly what he said.
[00:17:37] And so Gary got the blanket. Gary gave me the money, and I gave the guitar to Mike DeTemple, and we did a three-way, kind of like exchange there. I hated letting go of that guitar. It's worth a million dollars today. You know, last time I saw somebody was asking a million for it.
[00:17:54] But that's okay. I, that's how I started the Kingbees. And Michael lived next, uh, Rex and I saw Drumsticks in his back pocket one day. He was a painter. He painted houses. And I said, are you a drummer, man? He goes, yeah. I said, hey, I got these new songs. Come on in. And, you know, he sat down and just kind of played on his lap, you know?
[00:18:12] Then I, I had met Michael at a party when I first moved down here, and I had his number and I called. I said, Michael, come on over. I got this drummer next door, play bass. I've got these new songs I've been writing. And so he came over and we just sat in my living room, like with no amps or anything like that, no drums. But I could feel the energy. Like I, I just liked what was happening, you know?
[00:18:32] Charles: Yeah.
[00:18:33] Jamie: And so that's how we got together.
[00:18:35] Charles: And then you guys had a hit song called My Mistake, right?
[00:18:39] Jamie: Yeah, we got pretty lucky, with the song, My Mistake, I mean, I just got today, I just received actually today, from Carl Caprioglio, the president of Oglio. He has a friend that took pictures of the Kingbees very first show at the Troubadour in Los Angeles on May 6th, 1979. And, I got a couple of those copies today and man, it blew my mind.
[00:19:03] But yeah, we rehearsed for a long time, like 10 months or 11 months before we even started to play. So, from the winter of 77, no, from getting together to finally where everybody said, okay, we'll start rehearsing. That was late 77 and ended 78, and then we rehearsed 78 and then by the over Christmas period and stuff like that. And then we did some more rehearsal in 79.
[00:19:24] And then we got a show at the Troubadour on a Sunday night and it just happened to go very well. There was a new magazine in LA called The LA Weekly, and they had a photographer and a writer there and we got a great review and they took a picture of us and all of a sudden, man, just like every time we'd go and play all these little clubs around LA there'd be a lineup of people.
[00:19:45] And a lot of it had to do with the fact that we had short hair and we used to wear little Colonel Sanders ties. And I played Buddy Holly's stuff and simple stuff. We didn't call it rockabilly and because it was before the Stray Cats, it was before MTV, it was before all that we were, I was just looking to do something different as a guitar player.
[00:20:04] I said to myself, no more single note solos, Jamie, you've had enough of that all double string solos. And, there used to be this mime in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre on, on Hollywood Boulevard, and his real name is Egg Man. And, and he and I used to go, I lived right behind Grauman's Chinese Theater on Orange Drive.
[00:20:26] And I used to walk down to Hamburger Hamlet to get some soup or whatever. And one day I started talking to him and he was telling me about, you know, asking me about Buddy Holly when he found out that I was a guitar player. And then a couple days later when I saw him, he had made a cassette of every Buddy Holly song.
[00:20:42] And I said, that's what I want to do on guitar. I wanna do that kind of stuff where the chords are the lead instrument, you know what I mean? Like the, the chord says, you know, the strumming and the right hand says it all on the guitar. And so I learned all those. And Michael and Rex and I just started rehearsing for fun like four nights a week.
[00:21:01] And Michael had a little rehearsal studio called Fortress Rehearsal. And we'd go in there and just do it and play. And yeah, it was just one of those really, it was just for the love of the music, you know?
[00:21:12] Charles: Yeah, Jamie you mentioned it was rockabilly before there was a label on it, and it just made me think of some bands that you take for granted now, the sound. Like when I first heard The Cars or The Police, I've never heard of anything like this at the time, and it was very unique.
[00:21:30] But now, yeah, everybody knows their music. So that's interesting. And then I listened to a reunion concert, you guys, it was on YouTube of the Kingbees, and you had mentioned you toured with The Blasters.
[00:21:43] Jamie: No, no. That night we were filling in for The Blasters. They canceled. But we had played with The Blasters in the past. In LA there was a small group of bands that used to, you know, do shows together, and the Kingbees and The Blasters did a few shows together and, yeah, you would get on these bills that, like the Starwood or the Whiskey, or the Troubadour or the Roxy. I, I, I'm a big fan of Phil Alvin. I think he, he's definitely one of the, uh, purveyors of roots music in Los Angeles.
[00:22:11] Charles: Yeah, I saw them once in the eighties. A buddy of mine is really into them. Yeah, it was a great show. And then you'd also had mentioned Anthony Kiedis?
[00:22:20] Jamie: No, no. Anthony's father, Blackie Dammett. Anthony was a kid at school. I, because I, I'd be over at Blackie's and Anthony and, uh, Flea. They used to go to Fairfax High School and they'd be on their skateboards, you know, come home or something when I, a couple of times when I was over there. That was before they were doing their band, I believe.
[00:22:38] But I went to some of their, one of their early rehearsals in the basement of a Chinese restaurant. I can't remember the name of it. And, uh, I remember saying to Anthony, wow, the band is great. I love the energy, but you need to annunciate. I can't understand a thing you're saying.
[00:22:51] But anyway, Anthony's father was a guy named a character named Blackie Dammett. He called himself and he approached me after one of the Kingbee shows, early shows, and he said, uh, hi, I am Blackie. I love you guys. Uh, I'm an actor, uh, but I'd love to come and introduce you guys. And I said, oh, what would you, what would you say?
[00:23:12] He said, I would get up and just say simply ladies and gentlemen, the perpetrators of rock and roll, the Kingbees. And I said, alright. So, he used to come and do that at the shows, and it became a kind of a thing. 'cause he dressed all in black with, you know, like white and black robes. He looked like a gangster, you know what I mean?
[00:23:30] You can Google him. We lost him too, man. It's sad. I feel bad for Anthony ' cause uh, you know, he basically grew up with his dad. I don't know. I just thought Blackie, he was a wonderful, I got kind of close to him for a while there, and he was a wonderful, wonderful man.
[00:23:46] Charles: Yeah, like I said, I, I heard you, you were talking about that a little bit in between songs on that live recording. You had mentioned as your disappointing concert, I didn't know if you wanted to talk about it.
[00:23:58] Jamie: Of course.
[00:23:58] Charles: This concert at the Toledo Speedway or something?
[00:24:04] Jamie: It was called the Toledo Speedway Jam 2. So, it was the second annual one. Yeah. I mean, here's from my point of view. So, we were playing around Los Angeles and doing our little thing, you know, and I had my little four 10, 1958 Tweed Fender, basement Amp, and my 57 Strat. And I was getting a sound, you know, I was all about purity in those days, you know, pure tone.
[00:24:27] I wanted the vocals to be authentic, the background vocals and all that stuff. So, we're doing our little thing and it's catching on because at that time you have to understand it was different. You couldn't go to a nightclub in Los Angeles and hear what we were doing. And I think honestly, people were maybe like, you know, burnt out a little bit on, like I was, and I love Peter Frampton, don't get me wrong, but they were burned out on that kind of Donna Summer, or Peter Frampton, or that thing that, you know, I don't know.
[00:24:54] There was like something, a new mu meanwhile there was this new music thing happening. I, I don't know, man, I, I, I, I was too busy all the time just trying to hustle gigs for us and keep us rehearsing and keep the guys interested. 'cause you know, if you're a drummer and bass player, don't stay interested, then you're screwed. You know what I mean?
[00:25:10] And the way to keep musicians. There's two ways to keep musicians interested and that's, you know, good music and money, you know, and, and oh well, three really, and gigs. But, good music, good songs, money and gigs. And if you get two out of three of those, you'll probably have a band, but, three outta three, you've definitely got a band. One outta three, you're fucked. You know, it's just that simple.
[00:25:31] Anyway, so yeah, the album came out of March for The Kingbees, we got a record deal on RSO Records, right. And we had a lot of choices at that time. 'Cause I remember we did a show at the Whiskey and I came off stage and there was 10 different business cards, and the dressing room on the table from Capital Records, from Elektra Asylum records. I mean, 10. But I knew two people from my past that worked at RSO and I thought, okay, that's the kismet, that's the thing.
[00:25:58] Robert Stigwood had worked with Brian Epstein, and I was a big fan of Brian Epstein. I read his book Cellar Full of Noise, you know, from the days when he managed the Beatles and, uh, Billy J. Kramer and things, and how he got the Beatles to headline on, uh, Ed Sullivan. And the these stories were in his little book, a wonderful book. I don't know. I said, well, Stigwood had that, that's his pedigree with Epstein and then of course to go on and manage Cream and Eric Clapton and the Bee Gees and whatnot.
[00:26:24] So, you know, it felt like a no brainer to me at the time. So, I went with them. Then we do the record. And the record comes out in March of 1980. And, about two and a half months goes by and there's nothing. And K Rock was playing it here in town, which I was grateful for. 'cause they were the station in town that kind of broke new music.
[00:26:43] But anyway, all of a sudden, one day I get a phone call from the president of RSO, Al Cory. And, he was really a very active guy in the music business. He had worked at Capital and helped break the Beatles and all this stuff. And he goes, Jamie, Jamie, you sitting down, you're sitting down. I said, what do you mean what's going on? I thought he was gonna drop us from the label. Now, sit down. Sit down. I sat down, he goes, Jamie, we got a hit. We got a hit. I said, what do you mean we got a hit? My Mistake. It's on heavy rotation. Three stations in Detroit. You got a hit. Gotta hit. Gotta go, you gotta go and do some big shows.
[00:27:17] I said, what do you mean big shows? And so, then they put us on some of these big, so when Humble Pie canceled, this was with ZZ Top and AC/DC and Sammy Hagar went on before we did. And he got bottled off stage. I think he got like two or three songs in. He got bottled up. So, we're on there to take Humble Pie's place. But they didn't make an announcement, I think, until that show. And by the way, I had forgotten about that until you guys, somebody, one of you guys did your research. 'cause when I read your thing that you sent me the other day, I went, oh man, I forgot. 'Cause all these years I thought it was because we sucked. But actually, the truth is, when we walked out on stage, I could feel a little hostility. 'Cause we were wearing Colonel Sanders ties. We had short hair. This was in Toledo and the Midwest with all these neo hippie kids that were drinking beer and don't know their ass from their elbow as far as rock and roll.
[00:28:08] So I said to Michael and Rex, okay guys, we gotta go right into My Mistake 'cause it's a big hit in this area. So, we go right into My Mistake and most of the audience, as soon as I start playing the rep, da, da da, da da, most of the audience gets up. But there was a small cluster of people in the beginning that started throwing eggs and tomatoes and shit at us. I looked over and Michael had an egg dripping off his thing.
[00:28:30] And then somebody threw up a full bottle of whiskey it looked like, and it didn't make the stage, and it hit this girl on the top of the head. And from where I was standing on stage, all I could see was this sheet of blood washed down her face. And that's it. I stopped and I looked at the guy I saw who threw the bottle, and I looked at it and I said, listen, you asshole, just come up here right now because I want to shove this fucking guitar down your throat. You don't know the first thing about rock and roll. You have just ruined this girl's week, maybe her month. You know, what are you coming for music? And you're gonna do something like that. I was upset, man. So, they dragged me off stage and we didn't even get a whole song. And that was before My Mistake was finished.
[00:29:08] Charles: Oh,my goodness. Yeah, that, that's nuts. I was also reading that they were selling, and I vaguely remember these things, these Olympia kegs, they're like round white orbs of beer.
[00:29:19] Jamie: There was a lot of beer there, man.
[00:29:21] Charles: It holds like five gallons of beer and it has a tap on it. And I guess people were throwing those things around like when they were empty, of course.
[00:29:30] Jamie: I went down and tried to find that girl. All I remember is I saw the ambulance take her out of there, and I was really disheartened man. I just thought, what are these fans these days coming to? Because I, as you saw, I loved going to music shows in the late sixties and early seventies. No one ever behaved like that, man. You know what I mean? It was a whole different thing and I don't know, man. You know, throwing stuff at bands, whatever, you know. Yeah, we looked different. And, and I remember a couple of the guys from AC/DC came to our trailer to say, you know, give their apologies and someone from ZZ Top and we got paid our full money, but it still didn't soften the blow. It was a tough blow, but, we survived.
[00:30:08] Charles: Yeah. So your most disappointing concert, you were the concert.
[00:30:11] Jamie: That's right. Yeah.
[00:30:12] Charles: Jamie. So, at some point, the Kingbees, they disband, I guess. Right?
[00:30:18] Jamie: Yeah. 1981, before MTV.
[00:30:22] Charles: And then you do a solo, an EP, right? The Big One I think it was called.
[00:30:27] Jamie: Yeah, I did an EP with this engineer producer by the name of Bob Markeloff, who was an engineer for, at the time, Michael Jackson's records. And I liked some of his ideas, until I saw what he did with the songs, and then I realized it wasn't right. But the little label at the time, Vanity Records was a subsidiary of some bigger label, and they kinda liked it.
[00:30:47] So, I don't know, man, it just, I don't know, it just, it didn't do anything for me, you know? So, it was a five song EP, and I don't even think I have a copy of it. I haven't listened to all that old stuff in decades and decades, man.
[00:30:59] Charles: And then, was it around that time then, Jamie, that you meet, Harry Dean Stanton?
[00:31:04] Jamie: No. Then, so then, uh, I think a couple years goes by and I basically am just isolating at home in my apartment trying to figure out what to do or whatever ' cause still royalty checks were coming in for the Kingbees and stuff, so I didn't need to go out and do stuff or whatever.
[00:31:20] And, and I started dating this girl by the name of Kelly Coleman, who's also a wonderful musician. And her father happened to be an actor named Dabney Coleman. And Dabney was good friends with Harry Dean. And we were over at Kelly's Dad's, Dabney's for July 4th. I guess this goes back to 86, maybe eight.
[00:31:38] Yeah. And, in walks this kind of disheveled looking guy. And I thought, uh, to myself, I thought, look at that. That's very nice of Dabney to share his success. You know, Nine to Five had been a big hit for him. And look, sharing his success with this homeless guy, 'cause I had no idea who Harry Dean Stanton was. I didn't watch TV in those days. I was too busy all the time or go to movies. I didn't do that wasn't my life then.
[00:32:02] So I sit down and we start talking and, and he asked me what I do. I said, I play guitar. He goes; I play some guitar too. And we started talking. And I was curious, like, 'cause Dabney lived way up in the foothills at the top of Brentwood. So, I don't know how Harry got there. 'cause I could tell by the way he was dressed, you know, he was next to homeless basically.
[00:32:22] And so I looked at him and I said, uh, by the way, Harry, I didn't know that the buses ran on July 4th. Did the buses run today? Is that how you got here? He started laughing. He thought it was the funniest thing he'd ever heard. He went, right now Dabney Dabney, your son-in-law, just he thought we were married, but we weren't married. He goes, your future son-in-law just, just asked me if I got here on a bus.
[00:32:44] And Harry liked really a good, a sense of humor, I said. Anyway, from that moment on, we just kinda became kindred spirits. And I had been doing a song, I put a version of the Kingbees back together with a new bass player and drummer by the name of Danny O'Brien and Ricky Pelton on bass.
[00:33:01] And boy, Danny could really sing. Those guys could sing. And so, I was doing a stint down at The Lighthouse on Hermosa Beach to two Saturdays a month, five sets a night down there. And then the summer, I used to do the first Saturday and the third Saturday, and then the following Sunday afternoon for the beach crowd.
[00:33:19] And, it really made me a much better singer doing all that. And I got to be, do all, any kind of stuff. I could do, all my original stuff I could do everywhere from Marvin Gays, Heard it Through the Grapevine to Marty Robbins, El Paso. And we used to do El Paso and it tore the house down 'cause I did all 12 verses with three-part harmony and people went nuts.
[00:33:39] Oh, and Kelly brought Harry down to the lighthouse to see me play and, he saw me do El Paso. So, one of the next times we got together, I said, what do you wanna play? I was up at his house with a couple of acoustics and he goes, let's do El Paso. And so, we did it. And, I let him sing it. And I said, that sounds great. Well then, I got a call from this guy, uh, Len Fagan, who, uh, was a booker at the Coconut Teaser, and he said, listen, Jamie, uh, Slim Jim Phantom and Lee Rocker, the bass player and drummer from The Stray Cats, they want a singer, a guitar player, for some shows.
[00:34:14] And I said, oh, great. Let me go. So, we hooked up and we put a show together, and in the show, I said, guys, I just gotta do El Paso. And we were playing over at this club called The Central, which became the Viper Room. You know, Johnny Depp's place. Johnny bought it. And Harry was there, one of our first shows, and, and he wanted to get up and play. And I said, what do you wanna do? And he said, El Paso. I said, okay, great. Let's do El Paso. And while we did the performance, he sang an extra verse.
[00:34:42] So in the dressing room layer, I said, dude, did you make that verse up on the spot? 'cause that was clever. He goes, no, no, no. He goes, Uhuh, that was, that was in the song. I said, no, it wasn't. 'cause I had the 45. I said, no, it wasn't. He goes, yes, it was. And that was our first argument. And I said, you're wrong. And he said, you're wrong. And so, I went down to that, the place that sold sheet music on Sunset Boulevard, I can't remember the name of it now, and I bought the sheet music and man, there it was, and Harry was right. It was in the sheet music, but it was too controversial. So, they did, they wouldn't put it on the single. And so right away my respect for Harry went through the roof, and he and I started doing music. And we had, we did a band together for almost 10 years, man, playing every week.
[00:35:25] Charles: Yeah. It was called Harry Dean Stanton and the Cheap Dates.
[00:35:28] Jamie: No, that was a little bit later. That was about five years later, when my friend Slim Jim had the idea of, 'cause he was very close with Skunk Baxter and Skunk loved playing pedal steel. And, so I said, Harry, we get Slim to play drums. And, yeah. So, we did a few shows and that was a lot of fun. But the other thing I did with Harry. That was apart from the Cheap Dates, the Cheap Dates was kind of interim thing that we did. Yeah, it was a brief thing for like maybe six months or so.
[00:35:56] Charles: And I heard an interview, while you were playing a gig with Harry, on Halloween of 2000, Dennis Quaid was in the audience and you invited him up on stage or something.
[00:36:07] Jamie: Yeah, no what happened is, is that Harry one time said to me, listen man, you want to go to an opening of a movie? And I said, not really. He goes, come on with me, man, you know, 'cause we'll sit in the back row 'cause I want to get out in the lobby and smoke or whatever. And I said, all right. And when we were there, and then the last minute, just before the movie's about to start, this guy sat down next to Harry and it was Dennis. And I didn't know Dennis and I didn't know anything about his movie career or anything at all. And then so that we go through that.
[00:36:33] And then a little time shortly thereafter, Harry and I had a regular gig. We used to do midnight every Saturday night at the Mint down on Pico Avenue. And I get there, I go up to Harry's. Our ritual was, I'd go to Harry's before a show and he and I would warm up, and then I'd grab his guitar for him, you know, 'cause he was getting older then. And then I'd drive down. He came down a little later, or sometimes he'd ride with me and sometimes he'd take his own car.
[00:36:59] And, so I went down this time on my own and I got there a little early, go in and there was Dennis, I recognized him from the movie, you know, I said, hey man, I can't remember your first name, but you were a friend of Harry's at the movie thing. It was Dennis. Yeah. Great man.
[00:37:13] And when we started talking until Harry got there out in the parking lot, and he was telling me he was also kind of a, a musician, you know, he liked to play and stuff and, and we talked about things and we're about the same age. I'm maybe a little older than he is. And we had a lot of the same songs we liked from the 1960s and influences and whatnot. So, when we're doing our show, and I asked him ahead of time, I said, listen, do you want me to ask Harry? You want to come up and do a song or two with us man? And he goes, no, no, no, not tonight. No.
[00:37:42] And we were playing our show. And then I feel somebody tapping my leg in the middle of a song, and it was Dennis. And he's like, look at, hey man, I, I think I'd like to get a piece of this, you know? 'cause it was a lot of fun with Harry. We used to get great audiences and a lot of fun and so I said, Harry, Dennis wants to get up. And he said, okay. And so, Dennis got up and we jammed and he and I clicked.
[00:38:02] And then after the show, somebody comes up behind me and gives me a hug and whispers in my ear, man, that's the most fun I've had in months. I didn't realize he was going through a divorce at the time. And he said, when are you doing your next show? And I said, well, Mondays, I kind of do a frustrated little jazz blues thing at this little club on Hollywood Boulevard.
[00:38:21] And Dennis was there I before I got there Monday night, and he played the whole set with us that night. You know, that was not with Harry, that was with a different thing that I was doing. Yeah, and that's how we clicked, and then we ended up putting a band together. I got the guys that play with me now, uh, Tom Walsh on drums, and Tom Mancillas, also known as Tom Slick on Bass, and Ken Stange on keyboards.
[00:38:42] And the Sharks were born. Dennis wanted a name for the band and, he and I talked it over and he said, you know, maybe we won't use the name Dennis Quaid, just maybe DQ. I said, that's great, man. You know, 'cause you know this. We don't, you, you know, your name is an actor. And I still didn't know how popular he was, you know? But his enthusiasm was wonderful and his taste of music was very similar to mine. And, I didn't know he had done Jerry Lee Lewis in the movie and that I didn't know any of that stuff.
[00:39:09] And I knew he had his son Jack. And Jack was, you know, maybe eight, eight or nine years old at the time. And it was Shark Week and Dennis was looking for a name and Jack said, Hey dad, how about the Sharks? And Dennis said, all right, that's great. So, we called it The Sharks. 'cause Jack Quaid, it was Shark Week, you know, so how could you not call it the Sharks? And we ended up doing that band right up until about 2020, man till the pandemic. We ended up doing that band for almost 20 years, man.
[00:39:37] Charles: Yeah. Long, long time. Maybe this would be a good transition then, Jamie, into your, current album with the Sharks basically right.
[00:39:46] Jamie: Yes.
[00:39:47] Charles: From what I was reading or listening to an interview or something, you wrote a lot or started to write songs during the pandemic, and you came up with about 30 songs, was it, and then, brought 'em over to these guys and they liked what they heard and, or maybe it was you picked 10 songs and brought 'em over to these guys and the Sharks and you guys decided to do an album.
[00:40:11] Jamie: Yeah, well, what happened is, just, before the pandemic, the Sharks did a show up, Telluride, Colorado, of the mountains and in the winter and, uh, in February, in fact, uh, in of 2020 and, uh. I noticed I was having a lot of trouble just catching my breath.
[00:40:31] And after the show, after, no, we got there a day early, so we were gonna do the concert the next day. So, on the Friday night, something didn't feel right and I was actually afraid to go to sleep because I could hear my, the blood rushing through my, the vein of my neck and everything on the pillow.
[00:40:46] So I stayed awake until I could call my doctor on a Saturday morning. I had his cell phone. I called him early, about 6:00 AM and he said, don't worry, Jamie, it's probably just altitude sickness, you know? And I said, but this is weird, man, because I'm really having a hard time catching my breath.
[00:41:02] And I couldn't make it from the door of my suite to the elevator without stopping about three times. And so anyway, I bought all these oxygen canisters for the show that night at the doctor's suggestion. And we got through the show. And then the next day, uh, my, my dear friend, God rest his soul Rusty, who was like our guitar tech and a very, very close friend of mine for a long time and would drive everywhere with me 'cause I really don't like to fly, you know?
[00:41:27] And, when we got back down to sea level and got back to Los Angeles, it was not any different. Well, I was, I got back to town on the Sunday. I went to see my doctor on the Monday. And then I, he got me an appointment to see a cardiologist on that Friday, which was February the 14th.
[00:41:42] And the cardiologist did an angiogram and said, that's it. You can't go home. We're gonna schedule you for the next surgery. You need at least a triple bypass. And, you know, I had no choice in the matter. And of course, by the time the surgeon got in there to repair my heart, I ended up needing a quadruple bypass because my heart was 90% blocked. And so, he told me that the heart that he held in his hand was only gonna be good for about another three to five days, and I would've been dead before I hit the floor. So, it saved my life.
[00:42:15] And I remember, and this is the true story, when they were wheeling me in to the surgery, which was in the basement of the hospital, the last thing before the lights went out, I just said, God, you know, you get me through this and I promise you I'm gonna use my talent and my hard work and my dedication to get back to songwriting. 'Cause I always felt that was my kind of destination. That's what saved me from becoming a criminal or, you know, a some, some kind of, uh, whatever. Man, back when I was a teenager, you know, the guitar gave me a focus in life.
[00:42:46] Because my parents had gotten divorced and I was becoming a menace. I would've been a delinquent, I'm sure of it. But instead, I had this beautiful thing and I started writing songs. You know, I started learning, going to the library and studying music theory and just learning chords, and I taught myself. I've never had a lesson, and so that's what I did. I got through the surgery. Well then, the pandemic was, because that was, the surgery was February 17th, and then the shutdown closed down thing. Lockdown happened in March.
[00:43:16] And so I took up harmonica. So, I practice harmonica every day. And I, I started writing songs every day. And, I have a teenage daughter that was in school every day and I thought, if my kid can sit in a desk, I can sit here and get shit done. And so, I did it like five days a week. And lo and behold, things just started happening and grooves started coming, and lyrics started coming, and melodies started coming and there we go.
[00:43:41] Now, when it came to getting the guys, we used to make very good money with Dennis, but I didn't have money to pay these guys. So, I said, guys, I can't pay you anything, but you know, I've got these songs you want to go in and record? I want to record these songs of the studio called Robot Kitten Studios, with this wonderful engineer named Paul Rosler. And, they weren't that interested. 'Cause you know, like I said, one of the three things, you've gotta have gigs, you gotta have good music, you have money. If you don't have money a lot of the time, that's good enough. And then they weren't really interested.
[00:44:12] And then I ended up somehow playing one of the songs on my phone for somebody at this thing. And the bass player Tom was walking by and he goes, what's that? And I go, this is one of my new songs. It was the song Septuagenarian Blues, which will be out on the album I'm excited about. And Tom said, oh man, that sounds good. I'd love to come over and start learning.
[00:44:31] So he started coming over two days a week to learn all the songs on the bass, because I'm a big believer in pre-production. Have your shit together, man, before you go in the studio and then you buzz like a buzz saw, you know, you just cut through it. And then, Tom was willing to, he had a, has a room out in his house, Tom, the drummer, Tom Walsh. And we went out and rehearsed, and I remember we took a break and we went outside and his wife had been listening at the door and she said, oh, Jamie, I love your new songs. And that kind of sealed it because when one of the wives says, love the new songs, the deal is done. You know, there's, there's no turning back there. Right.
[00:45:08] So that was it. I knew, okay, and Ken, the keyboard player, he was actually on the road at the time with Paul Anka, so he couldn't be there for that first session that day. So, we did the rhythm parts and I sang, I kept all my scratch vocals. So, we rehearsed a couple more times, and then we went in the studio and recorded the 10 basic tracks. And I wanted to do more, but Tom was ready to kill me. The drummer, he said, what? Are you kidding? Are you? I said, come on Tom. One more, one more man. We're smoking. Come on then. So, we got at least these 10 done, you know?
[00:45:40] Charles: Yeah, and I heard too, Jamie, which I found amazing. Well, a couple things. You sang it live?
[00:45:47] Jamie: That's correct.
[00:45:47] Charles: Played it live, I guess.
[00:45:49] Jamie: Yes. I set up in the control booth with Tom the bass player. Tom, the drummer was set out in the drum room and I had my harmonica rack on, and one of my acoustic guitars. And, I just played and sang live and because I've been doing it at home, like, you know, writing these songs.
[00:46:05] So it was like, no problem for me. And I mean, I could do it right now for you, you know, but I don't, I'm not really set up for it here. Now the only thing was on a couple of songs, I wasn't crazy about the harmonica tone on the rack. So, I did go back in and redo a couple harmonica things where I could hold the harmonica to get, have more control. But we kept all the scratch vocals from that first day. Yeah. All those vocals are from the live performance.
[00:46:29] Charles: Because, Doug and I had a little listening party at his house the other day. We listened to the whole album and a couple things struck me was one was your voice, and you have that song that Septuagenarian Blues.
[00:46:42] Jamie: Blues Yeah. Yeah.
[00:46:43] Charles: Your voice just sounds great on all those songs. And I thought, did you condition your voice?
[00:46:50] Jamie: Well, I sing here at home every day. I've been on a kick this last couple months of learning the whole, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Bossanova repertoire. So, I've been doing that. And, I go through different phases, you know, I love to learn all the different things, you know. Jimmy Rogers, The Singing Brakeman from the 1920s or Robert Johnson, I went through and learned his proper, proper on the guitar, like his repertoire at one point. And, so I just do that from my own existence. My own therapy 'cause I love to study other musicians and sing and play their stuff. So, would you like me to give you a sample right now?
[00:47:27] Doug_: Yeah, let's do it.
[00:47:28] Jamie: This is a song called Septuagenarian Blues.
[00:47:34] {Jamie plays Septuagenarian Blues on Guitar and Harmonica}
[00:50:24] Charles: Thanks Jamie. We really appreciate that. That's, an awesome add-on to the interview.
[00:50:29] Doug_: So, Jamie, I was just wondering, in the early days, the concerts that you saw before you were a musician, was there one show where you went to it, you were so blown away, you said, yes, that's what I want to do for the rest of my life.
[00:50:45] Jamie: No, you know what? It wasn't a show, it was a rehearsal in Woodstock, Ontario in the mid-sixties. One day I was out in the front yard playing. I was probably about, maybe, I don't know, let's see, maybe 11. I think Love Me Do had just come up by the Beatles. So, it was around that time. And I heard these live drums coming from a basement, three houses down from my mom's house.
[00:51:07] I ran down there and crawled into the little crawl area in front of the basement window. And I watched and there was these older guys with long hair and they were like kinda longish hair. And there was a guy playing drums and a guy playing guitar and another guy playing bass, and I recognized the four strings on the bass 'cause I was interested in playing a upright bass. And on the drum head it said the Kingbees. And I remember running home, running downstairs. My mom was doing the laundry in the basement, one of those tub washing machines. And I said, mom, mom, I've got it figured out.
[00:51:38] ' Cause you know, people used to always ask, you'd have aunts and stuff. What do you want to do when you grow up? What do you wanna do when you grow up? Right. I don't wanna say firemen or policemen. I said, I know what I wanna do when I grow up, mom. I want to be a Kingbee! Because they started playing and poof, it blew my mind, man.
[00:51:52] And I got that excitement that you get. You ever have that where you're walking up to a concert or you're a little late and you can already hear, or you hear the opening band or something, and you get that excitement, that buzz, you know, it gets your blood boiling. And that's what happened that day. Yeah. So that's very clear in my history there.
[00:52:08] Charles: That's a cool story. Yeah, Jamie, thanks again for being on Seeing Them Live. In closing, do you have any final thoughts or, where can we find this album?
[00:52:18] Jamie: It's not gonna be pressed into vinyl just yet. So, it's gonna be on all the digital platforms, you know, Apple Music, Amazon, Spotify.
[00:52:26] Charles: Are you guys gonna be touring Jamie at all, playing any gigs?
[00:52:30] Jamie: There's no plans right now that are set. I'm willing to go wherever the songs take me, but honestly, it's like David and Goliath. Like Carl Caprioglio. I mean, his enthusiasm from Oglio Records has been so wonderful, but it's a small label, you know? But his enthusiasm is wonderful and we just seem to be kind of picking up like a snowball going downhill. It's just kind of picking up steam. So, I would venture to say that this could culminate in some live shows. Yes, for sure.
[00:52:57] Charles: That would be awesome. Is there any place where people can follow you or anything, Jamie?
[00:53:03] Jamie: Well, probably Oglio Entertainment. I think they have a website. 'cause unfortunately I'm just not a social media person.
[00:53:10] Doug_: Can you spell that for us?
[00:53:11] Jamie: The G is silent. It's O-G-L-I-O entertainment.com.
[00:53:17] Charles: We could put that in the show notes. This has been great, Jamie. We really appreciate you coming on and check out the new album, Straight Up and thanks again for being on Seeing Them Live.
[00:53:28] Jamie: Charles, Douglas. Man, it's been a joy. I had no idea I was gonna enjoy myself so much. Man, I just love what you're doing. I love your question formats. It makes me feel like you go back and see, in an abbreviated period of time, your whole, romantic, involvement with music, you know, 'cause, musicians weren't always musicians. Right? So, I love that you go back and are interested in that part of it. Like, who did you see and what turned you on and all that.
[00:53:54] Charles: You're gonna have to start working on that memoir, Jamie.
[00:53:57] Jamie: Yeah. Well, if I told you half of the experiences, I know you wouldn't believe me.
[00:54:02] Charles: I bet you have some other stories. Yeah, thanks again and, we'll look forward to, watching what else develops in the future.
[00:54:08]
Jamie:
Hey guys. Fingers crossed. Guys, have a great day.