From Gigs to Grenades - EP 63

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🎸 Riffs and Rhythms Podcast: Dedication, Drumlines, and Tales from the Road 🎶

In this action-packed episode, hosts Kevin McLaughlin and Paul Robertson bring back special guest Bill Bedwell to share even more incredible stories from his musical journey. From legendary gigs to military escapades, this episode has it all!

What’s Inside:
🎶 Drum Review Recap: Insights from a drum-centric performance at the Kravis Center.
🎺 Tales from the Stage: Bill shares a hilarious pants-dropping solo story and playing through a post-surgery gig.
🎤 Military Memories: Hear about Bill's time in the U.S. Army Band, including outsmarting Special Forces during training exercises.
🎧 Music Feature: A review of Patrick Johansson’s band Final Strike track "Freedom" and their powerhouse track. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssrgv_SozRs
🥃 Fueled by Bourbon: The crew sips Old St. Pete bourbon while reflecting on their musical journeys.

Join the fun as the crew blends laughter, dedication, and a love for music into an unforgettable episode.

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Transcript

ladies and gentlemen oh show's starting now let's yeah let's go ahead and pretend like we're just now
starting folks if you've are just tuning in here to this episode yes you've missed a whole lot of conversation about
certain things that are not related to the riffs and rhythms go check out our patreon
[Music]
page yeah the riffs and rhythms and the management of the B3 podcast Network do not necessarily share the views of
itself no but here we go anyway all right so or and any any any reproduction
recording or rebroadcast of this in whole or in part is specifically uh
disallowed by the NFL especially an eight track absolutely so uh that was a bad
quote but they always say that at the beginning of every football game don't they that's right that's right so hey
guess what I'm Kevin McLaughlin and this is the riffs and rhythms podcast and I'm
Paul Robertson so we are uh we are back we are just already neck deep in it
right now like I said if you're just tuning in here this episode thanks for tuning in here don't forget to rate
subscribe review to the podcast audio on Apple podcast YouTube Follow all the
stuff so especially our patreon page which you'll definitely get a chance to see some of our conversation we just had
about aliens and other stuff oh they're already listening well go back and listen go
listen go subscribe to this on a different network too yeah that's right yes so yeah and guess what else we got
our guest back he was cool enough to come back after all the things we said to him last week Bill how are you doing
I'm great thanks for having me back so good man Bill had some great stories last week I know Bill is a freaking I
think he's got I think he's probably got a lot more still pent up in there he's waiting to
he's got stories about stories about the stories oh my goodness that's right yeah especially I want to hear stories about
Kevin so we could probably pull out a few all
right they're there they're out there yeah nobody tells them to me but I know there's a lot so uh but yeah before we
dive in here and I know we were talking about last episode because it was just before uh this event down at the kravis
center there was drum review you know review at the graiser ringer Playhouse
so so I know you're the the the riffs part of this podcast the guitar guy but
what did you think of the a drum Centric performance show it was it was a
different kind of thing it was a good show yeah it's a good show good good so yeah
the cic center is really great great I mean sound the Acoustics that sounds a I mean the CRA Center's awesome so C
Center was well built so yeah so cheers thanks Todd you know again for the tickets there um again you know we got a
lot of stuff again uh to support each other and so forth and uh yeah so again one of our vendors there who supported
us at the the festival as well too so thanks Todd for uh for coming down there and hanging out with us so um but yeah
yes I mean here December I mean we're already like almost halfway through December I know we're we're we're
halfway through December can you stand it there's only like seconds left to sh out for Christmas I'm not done yeah
there no going to be no I'm not but you know what is coming up
though between now and uh the end of the year is besides Christmas and shopping
at the last minute at the you know you know Circle K is Chris mwan good day is
Brad Brock's 40th birthday what yeah I thought it was at least
[Music] 60 that grecians works really well for him Brad Brock is going to turn 40
that's right man he's a he a pup you know he complains about his age in front of me I just want to smack
him we should have a funeral for his youth well he's got a big 40 yeah so uh
I'm not quite sure what he's he's got planned for the so he is a December 31st
baby he's a New Year's Eve baby New Year's Eve baby yep yep
so okay yeah anyway so yeah so here we are December 10th here totally again I
just can't believe the year is flown by it's been crazy we've put on a music festival we've done over 60 plus
episodes here you know this up to date from since starting since last year oh
and by the way this episode is fueled oh that's right Old St Pete bourbon style
whiskey you should drink some but you can't have this because I like it also fueled by the energy harnessed by the
Egyptian pyramids I need fuel that's right feels like they took each one of these and they rolled it up to a top to
the top of a pyramid without the aid of any modern
technology so oh guess I guess Kevin can't get up
either okay don't get back down because then you're gonna have to get back hold on oh you're not going to bring it to me
yeah yeah what what's great about only got so much over here it's right Devon this is the great about this camera view
here we get to see Bill's ass on this shot right so oh there you go there's a lot of real estate involved in that
plenty to go around whole lot of booty there you go like a cliff face oh my
he's GNA for sale he's yeah he's goingon to build a house on that it's like Tony Curtis's chin times a
thousand that'd be an amazing pickup line girl I want to build a house on that ass five stor is right
there let me know know got we got a firm foundation no I just want to put a TV
tray on it girl where we going to put the
kitchen Devon let me know how that works out for you so oh my God yes so so here we're
back sound like borderlining on Andrew Dice Clay yeah hick Dickory duck but his
thing was he'd like to put a ashtray on it yeah wow well that's shortened the
conversation quite a bit what are we really here to talk about here we've got you know what let me go ahead and break
the ice and talk about the fact that my album release party has been rescheduled
from last May and it's going to be even better than we ever imagined the Kevin mlin
band is doing its rescheduled album release party at uh where are we doing
that at we are doing it Riverwalk right at the Riverwalk in Stuart Florida and
um that's actually one of my favorite shows to play yeah it's a great spot
it's tons of people will be commemorating the fact that the album
came out in May of last year it's a soft launch yeah it's a soft it's a soft
launch but the reason why we're doing that is because the originally planned album release party at this venue was
cancelled by rain and we went ahead and started the Afterparty 4 hours early
right so and and we right that's yes we that's exactly what we did
and so and and I had the gall and the audacity to put on the entrance of the
venue party moved to the sneaky TIY and people were showing up even the vendors
were showing up going where do I set up this place is really small it was an awesome party so awesome
that sneaky TI is not even in business anymore I know they the city forced them to close after our party that's right
damn sorry Darren closed it down but we know we had a blast it was
so like a good time worthy of becoming
illegal so I think you know we were you know again talking about the festival was you know geez it like it was forever
ago now but uh and something I noticed when we were doing our live stream you know uh you Deon was running the live
stream of the music festival was streaming it through a patreon page through the YouTube unlisted and the
amount of claims that hit on music and one of them was some of your music was it hit
my publishing company is vicious so so they have so either you know it's a
testament to how well you guys sound to to you know match the algorithm
thunderhouse again shout out to thunderhouse and and then also to you know deavin for you know running the the
the the microphones and the system to push through the stream you know but all three of those things were able to
trigger some of this now not all of the original music was flagged but some of them may not actually have probably
publishing like you do or Brad does or some of the other bands but not all of them were so but yeah that's a testament
said he showed up some of the I think dayby day um was one of the my publishing company is looking out for me
and they don't care if it's me or not they'll just block me that' be kind of so his publishing Company's trying to sue himself right well I and I I've had
to send them an email that says yeah I'm the one that you're trying to
protect me from like it's okay yes Kevin needs protection from himself I am the sole property owner of this content
thank you for being vilant but uh it's me it's like they tell you that right
before they hand you that white jacket with extra long sleeves you know that you get to hug yourself all day yeah H
yeah tell me for your own good protecting it for yourself yeah we need to may need to
put you in one of those I've had it threatened multiple times so far then you know that there's
a threat that you don't hear anymore like if you don't stop that they're going to back the white truck up to the front door let's not not heard we're not
politically did your parents ever threaten you with that one no no maybe it was just me remember not a threat
yeah things we were told Kevin in the 70s and ' 80s don't fly anymore you're like there starving people in China you
know if you don't eat all your food you know it's I mean it's kind of yeah no then well at the time it was Africa so
Ethiopia we know they got plenty of bats over there they're yeah exactly we know what happens when you eat bats in
China you gotta watch do you ever seen the South Park episode Deon about that that's a great idea how Happ let's go
back to that oh yeah all right we have to talk offline about that the South maybe maybe Africa and maybe North Korea
is the place where you got to people are starving did oh speaking of North Korea did you hear about this when North Korea
went to Russia to support help Russia with fighting Ukraine right that there
was a story about how they just left so they can go get something to eat no no so North Korea for the first some of
these soldiers for the first time discovered porn cuz now they're in a
country that wasn't you to mobilize an entire army with porn well well no IM immobilize right cuz now you're like oh
well why do we do [ __ ] anything if we got porn now right you know so well yeah
we will we will defeat you without firing a shot well it'll be a pictorial of a shot they have no more energy
they're just ordering pizza now they can't they can't pull the trigger cuz their right finger is so tired now
they'll be firing plenty of shots they got thumb injuries like Mike Faro yeah nobody will fight but
everybody is because everybody who steps out of their tent slips and falls [Laughter]
anyway so but yeah so uh but yeah so back to so now we've got a bunch of
incredibly horny North Korean soldiers that are just sitting still cuz for the first time in their life they've seen
porn that's right yeah yeah yeah and all the women in North Korea are screwed because they've seen what really good looking women look like now Russ yeah
Russian Uh Russian women yeah for sure so see I know how that rolls man I I have I had teenage boys man they just
become useless mhm kind of like kind of like
this podcast Bill they're not mowing the lawn they're not going to do nothing after
that all right wow so no no to answer your question I did not hear about the
fact that the entire North Korean army was rendered defenseless because of porn I did hear about this there you go two
two fact yeah there you go certified yeah fact checked yeah oh well maybe our
current uh authoritarian regime had a had a plan after all I don't know it's
it can I guess it works that way you know so but uh where the [ __ ] were we
going with this man I don't know I'm not sure how we got to what's what's the what's the rhythm of that story Paul
let's hear about all that all right so we got to somehow segue back to something relevant to
riffs and rhythms sip more bourbon yes bbon we you know what what we can do is
we can talk about the fact that my birthday's coming 65 huh no I'm going to be 38
again we going to Chuck-E-Cheese yeah so what are you gonna do what do you got you got anything planned for your birthday yeah
I'm just gonna go sit with the North Korean army and watch [Laughter]
videos wow Kevin un Yun yeah with the emphasis
on the on that's how you say Hong in European yeah
what's that like te oong te that's what she said
long okay I got to laugh out of that off camera I want to know do they look up
Korean women or specifically I I would North Korean girl yeah North Korean
foreigners got to be like so yeah why don't you why don't you
SE something to say what does North Korean soldiers look up you know yeah most most viewed video by North Korean
soldiers what a pornh hubs search uh you know hits for North Koreans you know
that's a worthy that's a worthy deal ask ask chat gbt what North PornHub actually
does publish their searches searches from the world I think yeah they do they
do I don't know if they'll have data for North Korea though I think I I I don't know but I heard third hand that it's
like stepsister video wish you wish they stepmother videos or that's step something step
ladder videos step ladder step ladder videos step ladder porn if you're North
Korean you'll need a step ladder to get up she's stuck in the Attic yeah there you go help her out help her down and
now I'm nervous because I just found out that they post oh Pornhub Pornhub right around Bill's
house why why is the red circle really big around this one guys it's how they decide how to how to bolster the
infrastructure for the for the internet we need a bigger pipe from the fiber getting way too much why do we need a T1
line to this neighborhood I don't know like we're going to install fiber
optic for you yes there you go there you go so we got uh we need to we really
need to talk about something else I didn't do this so yeah so all right it's
not my fault editor insert transition here so Bill Let's maybe let's try to go right into our
Tales from the road how about that how let's go right into a story here from the road here so I think you know again
last week you talked about falling off the back of the stage CU you held your breath too long or you pushed too much air out and right you crashed out off
the back of the stage there yeah and you know the thing is is what what we do for
our craft let's just put it into perspective here because as a musician we do a lot of
things for our craft there's musicians that and I'm one of them I'd been
there's a lot of jobs that I wouldn't take because it got involved or got in way of me being a musician there's a lot
of things I haven't done in my life because it gets in the way of being a musician for instance I didn't I
couldn't be a brain surgeon it takes too much time so I'd rather be playing music
but to that point is that we we do a lot of things for our music
and I have a for instance so I was playing this gig uh
down I think it was lak worth or Lantana I don't know if you remember the Dark Horse I do yeah right on is that the one
on us one yeah yeah with a huge the huge facility right yeah used to play I used
to go there and play play at the Dark Horse and uh a couple really great
things happened at this place so the the the first of which is you know uh I was
playing the trumpet mostly and um at that time and I was doing every once in a while I would step
off stage just to kind of give it a little bit of a theatrical Twist of what I'm about to do you know so I stepped
off stage and I I'm I'm I'm whing out the solo man and um all a sudden these
three girls come out on the dance for and they start dancing around me and I'm thinking to myself yeah oh yeah Poppy's
got it going on tonight I'm doing my solo man and all of a sudden I feel these hands coming
around my waist I'm like oh yeah man oh yeah and then I feel something strange
after that my belt got undone and then my pants went straight down to my ankles
plow I'm standing there in my underwear they panted you while you were soloing it ped me while I was soloing and they
and I kept going yeah of course you did I kept going I kept playing the D the
damn song and they were just like yeah let's just give it to them you know I might as well and then they just started
you know just kept dancing around me meanwhile the band could not continue they couldn't pay attention they were
laughing so stinking hard they just couldn't they had to they were like let's just hit the song we just we can't
even do this anymore so they're not dedicated enough yeah not
dedicated enough not yet but then I had a gallbladder attack and I was on the
same night no with your pants down okay yeah that was transition here like let's
like we're talking about a couple weeks later uh come back to play at the Dark Horse and and um I I had a gallbladder
attack and I was like man this it was wicked painful and
um went to see the doctor and they they were like listen we we've got to do surgery we got got to take this out and
I was like okay cool but I've got it gig tonight like like this stuff you just
kind of like give off right yeah oh yeah we just fluff that off you know just I
was like no I I I have a gig can I can I schedule this you know tomorrow I'll
come back and have it done then you know like an oil change or some [ __ ]
so so I so the doctor's like okay but
you're taking your own life in your own hands you're going to have to whatever okay so I went and I played the gig and
I was like dude this really does suck um and uh so the next morning I went and I
went to the hospital and I had my surgery and um it was like two days later that we
had to go and play another gig and I had Staples still in you know in and around
my stomach and I still went and played the gig damn now I'm playing trumpet so imagine
the pressure got be horrible that's put being put on those Staples man I could have shot one across the room and you
know just busted a staple out but this is the that's the kind of thing that you
know uh it's like when you become dedicated to your craft and dedicated to
being a musician um there's like not a lot of things that will get in your way to go
and do it if you really if if you if if you're like just in it uh to win it you're not
going to give up no matter what happens like sometimes you you have to like step
back and go okay I broke myit I need to I need to chill out but um but for a lot
of musicians and I think they know what I'm talking about here if they're you know while listening to this podcast you
have done some crazy [ __ ] to go play a gig that's that's [ __ ]
hardcore that's so and and I mean think well you
know like think about the drummer for you know for de leopard he's one armed
you know and he had two arms when he started off with death leer you know
what I mean but then continued on yeah they kept him in the band yeah and just found away you know and just found a way
that's that's DED that's just dedication I think well over in Europe they don't feel so bad about being un
[Laughter] [Music] armed this message brought to you by i r
I can't I can't I can't believe you have the gall to make fun of his story I was
making fun of De leopard Bill totally rocks he missed it that was fny there you go that was right
yeah you hear what I said you it went over your head I think make fun of his story I said yeah I said I can't believe
you have the G to make fun of his story yeah that did go over my [Laughter]
head wow but Bill doesn't have the go yeah yeah not
anymore but bum yeah we got to work on that that sound effect there so Co so
yeah that that that's that's crazy right so I it's like you know like my my dad
like 25 years ago had open heart surgery and that was the one thing he always was worried about was you know they you know
was just sneezing even cuz you felt like you know your your whole inside was going to come out because you've had that big you know crack in in the middle
of your chest there so yeah I remember I remember looking over at the saxs player Tommy hoffelder and going dude if if you
see my intestine pop out the side would you let me know bro you know hey is this
yours we push that in or what I've done the same I've done a similar thing
um I my bike went down in the backyard and I broke my collar
bone and I had a I was in crossbone at the time we had a very active gig
schedule so I'm like I don't cancel gigs I'm not
going to let this happen so I went went to some store with theit with other
guitar player we got a chair for me to sit on so it wouldn't have to hang on my shoulder it was my left collar bone hang your guitar right on there so we we went
and bought a chair that became affectionately known as the chair of pain and I had broke a collar bone
before so I kind of knew the drill and so I sat down to play and I could pretty
much do it but what I couldn't do without blinding pain was bring my hand
back up the neck yeah so what I did was I rigged up a bungee system and I tied a
bungee around my my my left wrist and I tied it around my back to my right
shoulder so when I needed to and it went over the top of the of the the guitar
and so when I needed to bring my hand back up I just went like this and then it went over there so I'm like oh this
is going to work I can do this so we did two gigs and then Keith Kors the other
guitar player he went to me and he's like I'm canceling the rest of our gigs man
because you're clearly in a lot of pain and it's really affecting you're playing and I'm like but but he's like nope Noe
we tried it sorry it's it's like that that U the
Monty Python um when he when the it's a merely a flesh one it's merely a flesh
yeah I can still fight I don't like to cancel gigs like I'll show up to get like and and people like call me and
like well we think it might rain like are you kidding me I've done gigs with broken bones before like rain don't
scare me yeah yeah so yeah that that's dedication man you know um quick story
too recently I was uh uh asked to help um substitute as a band director at
Martin County High School and and I and I went in there to help help the kids out and stuff like that and I I figured
you know I don't have a lot of time with with these kids and one thing I know is
is like I know what stuff they didn't teach you because I was there to and
they didn't teach me this and one thing I Tau told them was I said listen
there's there's the main rule uh number one rule to being a
musician is you have to be dedicated to your craft the second rule to being a great
musician see rule number one you have to be dedicated to your craft and and that
goes saying for for anything that that that you put your heart into um what is it about music that you
that grabs you like that and and um it's still a mystery to me what what
brings us to continuously just rock on no matter you
know you're you're blind and sweat you got you know uh sweat in your eyes you can't even see um you know muscles are
hurting like you you know let you forgot that you had things like that you know
and uh and you just and you carry on just because for for the music so um
dedication to your what you're doing is just awesome you know and I and I cheers
to all the musicians out there who have busted their ass to
uh for their crafts so here's to
you so Bill you talked to a little bit a previous episode there was that you
started off in trumpet when the military what other you know educ music education
did you have or was that all just just that you know how I mean again how did
you learn to Keys how'd you go from trumpet to keys and things of that um the the basic the basics of for for
learning music was you know middle school high school and on the trumpet but it was when I went to and
join the Army Band this a whole another story in it in itself
so after basic training you go on to music school and the music school is
about 6 months long and for the Army it was it was combined together with the
Army Navy and Marine Corps Air Force had their own special school but
anyway um the School of Music was at uh in Little Creek Northfork Virginia and 6
months long they take two years of Berkeley School of Music smash it into 6 months and say
graduate sounds very military the the the memory I have was is that we were
probably two weeks away from graduating from basic training and Desert Shield
started and uh after I graduated you know from basic and I went
on to to uh Little Creek and I'll never forget standing there with about
probably about 120 other um musicians soldiers Marines Navy and the commander
came out and said okay so here's the deal guys uh as you know we're going in
Desert Shield uh we may be going to war with Iraq and uh so we've gotten our
orders are is that only about 40% of you are going to graduate the rest of you
are going to go on to prospective jobs within the military so just understand
that if you you know don't graduate or if you don't uh maintain those certain
levels or you know this is what's going to happen dang I mean that that scared T out of me
I was it so I I buried myself in practice spent a lot of time and um you
know I think it was probably about uh i' say it was 6 by8 little room sound
sound room sound booth you know uh practicing for hours a day because if you didn't you had to log your hours
that you practiced if you didn't practice enough hours you weren't allowed to wear civilian clothes on the weekend
oh and that was that was like the one thing you wanted to make sure that when you went to the bowling AUD you go get
tore up that you were not wearing your uniform and um on my birthday I went to
the bowling alley got tore up and uh found myself in a ditch on the
way back to my barracks and the MPS came by and picked me up you know took me back to the
barracks and they they were just like you're going to hate this tomorrow morning because we have to tell your
drill sergeant and I was like oh crap so yeah I got the wakeup call you know
start beating your face get down start doing push-ups till you basically was it worth it hell yeah turning 21
and yeah I got tore it was it was a blast but the main thing was I graduated
and I and I graduated at the top of my class cuz I'll be dowar I did not want I
didn't want to become a grunt I just didn't want to go to war I could because that's what you do in the Army you're
still a soldier no matter what right you know but it was after AIT and I go go to
go to my uh uh unit out at Fort or um I'm sitting there you know
probably about you know eight other trumpet players we had a full concert band I mean just it was it was
huge and as I started learning and who these people were that I was sitting
next to some of them were staff sergeants first sergeant Sergeant First Class sergeant majors you know uh and
and tons and tons of medals on their on their chest come to find out you know not only
are you in the band but you're in the band with a bunch of killers like the the the flute player
the piccolo flute player right uh she could repel from helicopter she should
jump out of airplane she was the baddest ass flute player I ever met my so this one time in band camp we took over Iraq
right so yeah that movie would have went totally different these guys were badasses man some of
them were some of them were badasses and they utilized what they used to do is they used to use the Army ban basically
as guinea pigs again fighting against um other teams that would come in they
bring uh they bring special forces in groups and stuff like that to set up
mock you know attacks and stuff like that and we were like oh you got us sorry but then one time we were told
your guys are going to actually fight back and this is when they came out with
night vision heat vision goggles so they put me in a Ghillie
suit if you don't know what a ghillie suit look it up it's pretty cool they put me in a Ghillie suit and uh put on
night vision heat vision goggles these were they were um testing at the time
you know these were beta and they said here's what you're going to do you want I you to sit over here and you know find a spot and we
want you to uh prepare to see a team come through we want you to report how many of them there are and uh you know
and if they get too close then attack okay no problem now everyone's wearing these diodes right at the time
the way we used to do army you know games instead of laser tag was basically what it was it was a laser tag you fired
a gun that had a round in it and it shot a little laser beab and it it would hit your D OD and beep you're
dead they had these things also on concussion grenades which was really
cool and I had one I wanted to play with it I couldn't
wait but I'm sitting there and I'm I'm in my ghilly suit it's night time and
here they come I see them I see them coming right towards me they walked within feet of me like I was a bush
right so they walked past me and I I'm I'm behind them now and I decide you
know what I'm just G to get up and walk with them let's see what happens and this is
this is was this was a high like these are special forces guys they're not
supposed to be taken easily they uh they walked past me and I I got up behind them and um the their
Commander basically told everyone okay down you know this is ass symol you get down then he wanted to do a count off so
there was 12 of them I'm Number 13 buddy it's not a lucky number for you today so
they're like you know count off one two 3 four 5 six they get to 12 and then I'm sitting there and the guy in front of me
kind of turns around and it's like supposed to count off it's like okay next
time he's like what whatever you know so he gets up we start walking again and
then Commander stops again he's looking back like there's something wrong with this picture I still haven't figured out
what it is yet but there's something wrong here I don't get it and he does the count off again and and the guy says
You're supposed to count off I go okay one two three and I threw a concussion grenade right into the middle of all
them boom and all their di are
go now the their Commander is losing his ever loving mind and and um oh boy boy
and the thing was is that it was a lieutenant that told me to to put this off and you know when you got a
lieutenant and you got a you know full board Colonel and they're arguing it doesn't work out well for the lieutenant
so I stayed the hell out of that argument they didn't like the fact that I threw a concussion grenade in the
middle took everybody out took their whole team out they weren't Co with that I was like well it worked didn't it it
did so you learn something right so they did learn something from that that they could they could be taken if they
weren't paying paying attention yeah yeah and uh so yeah I I can't give them a dirty lesson but it was it was worth
it that was a good one good job wow trumpet player takes out platoon that's right they call me the fil at 11 the
bugler the bugler you can't to their horn anymore
can yeah you bugle the [ __ ] out of that that platoon the um that's actually yeah
that's a it's it's amazing some of these little stories and I was just listening to uh somebody kind of unwind another
guys book he wrote and and other military guys and it's like you know this is all made you know it's like it's
almost unbelievable some of the stuff but some of these stories from last 25 plus years of the Iraq War the Gulf War
Middle East and all the things we've done is uh it's just it's you know I
would almost say is that we've probably produced so many veterans just from the war on terror yeah of a nearly 20y Year
War right you know of so forth so uh but so I'm surprised that didn't you know
since you were able to stealthly take out a whole you know whole I know however many you have thought that
number 12 figured out he was the last guy in the line right like wait a minute we only showed up with 12 and how how
come there a 13th guy right didn't phase him at all that he certainly wasn't the last one right yeah so I'm surprised
they didn't send you out to you know out there to the front lines there and Me Say you're if you're good at taking these guys out then we were close we
were getting ready for it we we the they kept us behind pretty much uh the the
Army Band with the seventh infantry we stayed behind um and uh we basic we were
giving them their um um what do you call it the we were
doing their concerts and stuff when they were coming back you know um the on the other note of that I was also uh doing
Taps because I'm a trumpet player so I did a lot of funerals too so after you blew them all up you stood up and played
Taps dude that diode's blinking everywhere sounds like you invented you
invented emoting in games oh yeah yeah yeah that's right yeah Call of Duty someone and dance on their yeah for
fortnite you know he yeah for sure so if he was so close to you that you could whisper hey you're supposed to count
like was everybody bunched together in this scenario no no I was right by behind him I was just directly I like
you just you and that guy happen to be close enough yeah yeah I sh but nobody else noticed you were there until yeah
that's F but I think you just said that they were Special Forces guys right yeah yeah yeah these they weren't so special then I guess maybe they were short bus
special they were they were going they were definitely going through a training uh they were definitely going through a
training uh process because they were getting ready to learn more about the
heat vision night vision see Ford or is was home to what they call the uh light
night Fighters so this was an obvious choice an obvious place for them to test the
beta on this you know on night vision and heat vision goggles and stuff like that so yeah so these guys that came in
they were it was just it it was just they wanted to show them what the possibilities are it works right yeah
and it worked really well now the only thing was is I I I I did listen to the instructions when they said do not look
through it do not open your eyes when you throw a concussion grenade or flash grenade or take or take a shot you'll
end up with Stevie Wonder I you will be blind like right now yeah for real wow very crazy you threw you threw the
concussion bomb shut your eyes and pulled out your trumpet and play tabs y all dead [ __ ]
d That's crazy story good job that that was crafty man yeah man yeah so uh so he
was dedicated to his craftiness yeah that's a that's that's that's a
hell of a story there so yeah so um so where did where when you AR honorable
discharge right okay would you leave uh the military as uh specialist okay that
was E4 e E4 there you go E4 that was a pain in the ass
specialist so did you see any time over overseas o lower than E5 no we were we were getting prepared
for it and the the you know essentially lined us up to give us all the same shots that they were
giving them basically you know just because they were getting they were thought that we might be going over
right um and it wasn't long after I got out that that um that I think they did
go over it's just you know it's a matter it's timing it's timing it's all you know how they how they figure out you
know who needs to do what you know logistically so and that's the one thing about the military is especially United
States military is our Logistics kickass so think well I'm glad you
didn't have to go over man yeah yeah he was doing Uso shows and you know like at
the uh the Red House stay local oh and I I got to I got to play for uh for Ronald
Reagan and Clinton Eastwood oh [ __ ] yeah they own a club there in in uh Monteray
or yeah it's montere Bay yeah um called the Hogs breath in and it was uh I was
playing with a group then at the time called Bo Williams and we were doing stuff we were doing like a tower of
power and lot of you know heavy funk soul and stuff we had a lot of we had five horns you know so we were doing
some really really really good stuff and yeah I got a chance to meet them so so hey so when are you going to incorporate
some horns into now now knowing that you have a horns player we bill and I have been having multiple conversations and
it's it's a it's on the list and we have to get it done yeah and just so you know even though this podcast studio is in
the hood what you're hearing in the background are not I'm sorry Devon is sneezing no no
coughing yeah he's coughing he's got Co no I think I think there's I think something from my ice like got stuck in
my throat it's getting warm in here though could be that get War warmed up yeah I was I was about to dive down
underneath the table man yeah well it did kind of sound like car bombs in the distance so I just wanted make sure
everybody knew that we're backing up so oh my God so but if I'm not mistaken
we're going to go ahead and review a song I know we got to get to it yeah for sure so all right cool so yeah so uh so
you know a little bit more about this and before yeah do we have a little bit of a break crazy's not here I need some
ice need Mar I don't know how to fix the ice situation here so can you do that without crossing a camera sure and get
some for yourself while you're at it this section of the podcast is brought to you
by the B3 podcast ice getting
Network you can did you just kick something out it's a power cord we don't
need any power it's cool one of the cool things about this is this is a family of podcasting we've
got the B3 podcast networks which is
booze Brands and
well that was what I said first booze booze Brands and booze that's it I keep wanting to say boobs it's really hard to
not say boobs in there boobs boobs boobs Brands and boobs or band and boobs and
Brands and bands and Brands and band and Brands and bands and boobs okay that's
it that's it all right there we go so um yeah we've got a we've got a I I really
miss Brad actually well he was only here once he was here two two episodes two
well that's true two I forgot about the second episode yeah cuz yeah you blacked out so um well it's cuz he such a good
bartender we do have an opening folks again if you're uh want to be a bartender for the show here and hang out
with us and uh you know enjoying this debauchery and it is a celebrity bartending opportunity right right so I
mean look at the subscribers on this channel there'll be tens of dozens of people actually I think we're we're
about up to we about I think up to with with your mom I think we're up to two hold on hold
on hold on I think we're actually how many do we have subscribers we do have people are looking oh my gosh I'm so
self-conscious no yeah man so hold on here let me I feel better now by the way that water helped whatever we have 80
subscribers 80 subscribers man and to quote my dear
friend Bob a dog licking as balls after a year
of production would have more subscribers than we do well you know what if you can lick
your own balls you'd probably fall off the couch okay I give and never leave and never
leave the house so what we need you to do is ask your subscribe yourself and
also subscribe because we haven't even made it to the level of dog balls
yet you know and again I thought about it afterwards cuz we were doing so much at the festival I said I should have
been running around with a QR code and make people you know scan it to go go there click subscribe and so forth but
well I'm no better I didn't think of it we had we had hundreds of people all gathered at once yeah so we didn't even ask them to subscribe to the channel
yeah so we were too bus or pronounce subscribe properly yep so anyway so okay so all right now that we're replenished
here so uh Our Song here we're going to review here so so we always feature Florida bands and this is a bit of a
stretch because it the Some Mo most of the band actually lives in Europe but
the drummer in this band is a good friend of mine he he lives in Florida and so we're going to call this Florida
music even though it's very European uh this is a
song that features Patrick Johansson his new band First Strike okay here we go
[Music] [Applause] [Music]
[Applause] oh falling could never
know that the [Applause]
[Music] dream and all of thees getting
clear but I know a way to going through the vo
again I know that you want to be all
right I know that you know what I
believe be real of this Freedom be of
there must be an obvious uh ref uh Pearl sponsorship
[Applause] [Music] there
sh the freed [Music]
[Applause] [Music]
call no turning back so keep my friend head for the
final St but we will be ready to take
the find our way to Ru the master is
EV girl I know that you want to be
all I know that you know what I
believe you are all the freedom you all
the the W step behind you to master your life
so [Music] be
like beare of the freedom beare of the light
[Music]
[Applause] [Music]
[Applause] w [Music]
time is we will
sink us to our
[Music]
[Applause] [Music] [Applause]
where are the freedom
the there one step behind you to master your life so
beware of the things shine
like the freed be of
them [Music]
the the one St behind you stay
alive [Music] be that sh I
go bew of the freedom be of
[Music] [Applause]
the I will return from where I
am is falling [Applause]
that was great wow jeez wow
yes so of course I I expected that kind of quality from and so the tie-in is
remember a few weeks ago we did a review of Branford highway right and that
studio in the video that if I'm correct that's where Patrick's drums were
recorded in Florida oh okay okay at the Branford Highway Studio
okay yeah cuz you mentioned in that episode was talking about how you
reached out to Patrick for a band for bike week or whatever it was yeah so
when Patrick records drums according to Dwayne he likes to record them at Dwayne
Studio okay all right wow so it's a good sound yeah it is and
so I'm G I'm I'm a huge Patrick Johansson fan I'm gonna say Rhythm and here's why not be just because the drums
were great but because even the what the guitar players were playing was very
rhythmic in sync with the drums the double Bas driving that Patrick was
doing was just just moving along right in in the same aspect of I don't
think you know it's he he did just you know the right things to not overpower
the song either too you know you know he powered the song without overpowering right over over
over over filling or over you again it was just enough to kind of keep and give everybody their space to do their thing
right now again there's two guitar players in it right and I think um if if I was correct I if I think that's is
that from what I saw or heard um I don't know it's the video production was awesome
they all look super human in there the music production was awesome yeah it I mean it was so well the singer's great
singer oh yeah so he looks like vgo mortensson in The Lord of the Rings right that's I kept looking at him going
he looks really familiar Aragon or whatever what it was
a really good mix yeah the sound was awesome yeah so
um yeah I don't know it's it's I liked how driving it was so so let me let me
let me take a step here before you know we go down this path is so what would you say very similarly
referenced uh other other band would you would you kind of reference equate this
to I'm thinking a little bit Dream Theater it's kind of a VI Dream Theater but I'm also thinking like kind of
Europe the band Europe like The Final Countdown kind of vibe okay oh yeah yeah
yeah I hear you on that one yeah so so yeah so I I'm again I was really
trying to listen for the guitar stuff you know good good riffing you know a lot again like like Devin said really
good mix uh love the guitar aspect uh but yeah Pat was just driving it right
yeah that the thing that I can hear the most listening back is the you know and
he was again you you could tell like watching the video but then listening to it also at the same time is seeing and hearing
it Pat's a [ __ ] metronome there he's crazy in saying he can do that all night
long yeah so I mean I've seen him pform and you know I've done shows with him and and with with guys from Branford
Highway and Patrick and we we closed the night out with uh we Clos the night out
with Hotel California and it was like as if Dream Theater was playing Hotel
confer go like
like was awesome how's that
go I I was thinking a little bit of uh a little bit of Queen's R okay yeah okay
oh yeah yeah yeah I mean I don't want to you know pump their heads up too he he's heads up the same kind of open upper
pallet high notes that Jeff Tate does yeah yeah yeah so all right so I'm
Rhythm I'm Rhythm okay rym all right so what about you Devon you're the
tiebreaker three to one you say three to n so I'm I'm not very
uh uh uh musical like I'm not very musically like trained or anything but
my I I honestly think strong blend of both in this song
okay personally because I was trying to listen to both and I feel like this is a type this this maybe it's maybe it's
because of the genre this genre doesn't work without with one of the other missing mhm with either one missing or
lacking it doesn't really work in my opinion so I feel like it's kind of both both yeah yeah and I'm and and I agree
with you totally but I'm listening I'm listening back in my mind and the first thing that comes is the is the drum part so the the
I agree riffs are great yeah and but and I'm biased though because I like I like Patrick I do agree though that the the
drums were very like uh um powering the song like TR like they push it right
along yeah yeah yeah and and but it goes back to I think you know
we talk a lot about this is where yes the drums are the foundation for
everything right it helps kind of elevate the guitars right but the thing
that is important to and to your point Devon is that the guitars and the vocals
weren't doing the same thing they weren't like CH chug CH along with Patrick they were doing other stuff and
they creat some Counterpoint and and and create a little bit of a of a of a Groove going on there right they had
moments of they br they they had moments of like heightened like feeling like it
really height there were moments where the guitar was just like whing and it was like emphatic like it was an
emphasis on that moment in the song yeah there was never a moment in the song where you were waiting for the next party was just like right there it just
go it so how how long was that song Deon what it was to show you it's like about
a 4 minute song Maybe okay you could already close it but I guess the the point is you know that double bass
driving for you know nearly four or five minutes played with P he can do that for hours and hours and hours for so
but does say six minutes six yeah yeah that's insane all right so yeah so all
right so we got rhythms all the way around here what was your uh and you were a ryth you going with the Rhythm
I'm kind of leaning in the middle Rhythm okay personally okay I'm definitely Rhythm yeah yeah Rhythm very cool all
right so there you go so what are you Paul yeah I said Rhythm Rhythm okay yeah
I don't listen to what he says sorry I know so why why start now yeah and
never so all right so Bill while we wrap up here so do we got another MVP do you got somebody you want to recognize get
give a little shout out there uh um um let's see the Kevin mclin
ban for hiring you all the time let's see Kevin MC glin just
kidding no don't do that check in mail um actually I want to give a shout
out to a friend of mine who uh uh who I played with for years he just moved away
and uh sorry you know sad to see him move away from the area uh Tommy hoffelder with the band uh quick fix uh
he he and his uh and his wife moved away uh just recently in quick fix is no
longer in this area so a bummer because they were really really good uh good band um that was a followup to uh to
boss Grove uh Tommy continued forward uh going in that direction I went and
played country music for a while you know but hey that's that's the thing it's and that reflects in your piano
playing actually you have to you have to vure out once in a while do something a little bit different challenge yourself
you know if if you're not you're you're you'll become stagnant in your in your music playe and then it'll show in your
songwriting because you won't be able to to to flex you if you only stay one one
lane and don't kind of right yeah yeah exactly right right so Tom Tommy Hof
Tommy hoffelder hoffelder okay great sax player yeah oh yeah yeah we we played
stay together for for years with uh with boss Groove and up all night and yeah we
did a lot of work together and uh so yeah you know sad to see him go but happy that he's changing his stars and
he's going up near Nashville Tennessee so he'll be around a lot of musicians in that area yeah very cool so all right
there so wow this has uh been an interesting episode here we've learned about the military learned about how how the
badass how how Bill has pioneered the use of night vision goggles to take down
the Special Forces right yeah so you know they they they embodied the whole Rambo movies after Bill and his whole
they used to call him Rangers now they just call him anger CU he took him out from behind
Rangers when you're in the military that means something totally different hey take you out from behind what are we talking about
that's that's Navy oh sorry that's I got my got my branches mixed up come on
leave the seen alone yeah so when you're in a big metal box full of seen what do you [Laughter]
expect so all right so so bill so anything you got coming up here uh you know here the second half of December
first of the year Well I for for me personally um I have uh every first
Friday of the month I'll uh from 1: to 4: I'll be playing at coni Joe's in
Jensen Beach um that just recently fell in my oh good job so that' be a nice
little solo gig I'm doing for a while and then uh um and I'm picking up a lot
of other uh local gigs in the area but you know playing with Kevin McAuley van for sure uh working with uh aen Nicole
Sanger and uh getting uh we're trying to get her ban up and running you know so
that way uh when the call comes in and says hey it's time you know we have uh
we have some product ready to go so but yeah staying very very very busy musically and I'm I'm thankful for that
um I you know would love to do more and that's just it it being dedicated to
your craft you just can't stop a train man you know no if you're if you're what do
they say that if you love what you do it's not it doesn't feel like a job right yeah yeah you'll never work a hard day in your life exactly right so yeah
Co only hard days are when you can't do what you want to be doing exactly it's a hard day night I guess too
yeah I've been working like a dog so yes so as we wrap up here Mr mclocklin here
December 10th and we're almost at the end of the year can't believe how don't
push us over the cliff yet we are still living inside 2024 the year of more so
we wish for you to get more Christmas presents than ever before we wish for you to get more out of this year than
you've ever gotten before and we wish for you to be more ready for next year than than you've ever been before and we
would like subscribers more yes we want more subscribers than we've ever had
before we want to get up to 81 thousand yes or four 84
84,000 all right so uh anything to uh enclosing here other than thank you for
tuning in to this podcast here and again don't forget to review great and follow
us on socials YouTube absolutely and check out our partners check out the the jnc podcast jnc
TV uh go to the Kevin mlin band do Kevin mlin band.com see everything we got
going on uh you want to hear more of my coffin go to ghost on the ox ghost on the ox is a a very important part of the
B3 Network I Hope they've officially been brought into the B3 Network at this point he's uh we're still negotiating
there uh so he's playing a little hard ball here so I think he's uh Holding Out for more money I think actually yeah
that would be smart there's money involved hold on yeah you need to get a
new uh now I really have to negotiate yeah yeah you need to negotiate a little bit better so yeah but the negotiations
are backwards because you know yeah that's right yeah so you take it and like it cost money to be a part of the
that's that's right that's right yeah so um yeah drums and rums and yeah looking to expand out our whole B3 podcast
Network you know what I've got something that I'd like to plug now the Kevin mclaughin band is a is a a page on
Facebook and I am promoting um subscribers to my Facebook page I have
brought it down from $5 to 99 a month and for 99 cents a month you're going to
get to see every show Bill does with the vanand every show that the band does live streamed as it happens and
announcing it for the the first time is if we get enough sponsors then Devin
himself is going to be doing a three camera shoot at every show and getting paid to be there okay and I'll cough
extra for you absolutely we want we want extra throat noises we want to have you start off every show
with there go that sounds like a Black Sabbath song Right y That's ex Sweet Leaf sounds like a category the the
North Korean army was looking at on PornHub
yeah yeah what is what what is the most searched phrase by the Korean army uh do
women actually choke wow I can't wait till I transcribe this episode and I give it the chat GPT
to say give me a summary of this podcast not North Korea they don't they started they they started an offshoot from the
deep throat channel for the North Koreans it's just the throat Channel Shallow Throat
yes I don't know I learned that once you get 410 in North
Korea you're automatically constricted into the army 410 wow so like nobody chokes on anyone
who's 410 anyway so thanks for tuning into the
podcast here so don't forget to uh check out all the episodes here thank you again sorry guys come to America and eat
your vitamins and you'll be huge in every way and we'll have we'll have in the podcast too yeah we'll bring it to the podcast yeah so for sure so uh bill
thank you for coming on the podcast here we had a great time here great stories great you know history you know again you know you've got a lot of Life lived
right you know did some cool things yeah yeah way cool things and I got to see you do some of them keep most of it off
the podcast you know okay some of the statute of limitations has not been lifted yet yeah
that was after he was done at that that Catalina gig he went down to Tijana but we'll save that for the patreon page here so right around the around the
fireplace with the blurbing we'll talk about it blur so all right so sir
another one in the history book right Paul you totally Rock and I'm so proud
to be Kevin McLaughlin and this is the riffs and rhythms podcast this is Paul
Robertson getting ready to Cheers let's wrap it up baby yes