When Punk Rock Goes Soft and Compliant: An Offspring to a Freedom of Choice w/Pete Parada :: Ep 38 Try That in a Small Town
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I never took it personally, even, even, you know, things that were personal, like, Oh, we're just going to cut you and your family off entirely. Like, you know, where a week before everyone was family and, you know, but it's like, you find out that your family, uh, as long as you are doing what you're told. And the first time you say no. And that, that was the thing, like as a drummer, uh,

We eat copious amounts of it. My thing wasn't, you know, trying to cause problems. I should have been able to do my job.

without going through some medical procedure that I did not need or want. Did they change the lyrics to the song? Tully or somebody, Pete, get me something. They did. They made a little video clip and they changed the, you got to keep them separated so you got to go get vaccinated. That is not true. I'm sorry. The Try That in a Small Town podcast begins now. Try that in a small town.

From the Patriot. From the Patriot Mobile Studios. We need like Jim doing that. This is Try That in Small Town Podcast, right? Yeah. Guys? Yeah, you are. Is that a question? No. It's a rhetorical question. No. Not a word. It's different than a regular question. This is it. No big words. You went right? Like question mark? Yeah, it's kind of like right?

The English kind of talk like that. That's a Northern thing. That's an Iowa thing, isn't it? I don't know. It's almost Canadian. Yeah, right? Do ya? Do ya? That's really not good.

That accent is not good. Are we rolling? We are definitely rolling. Oh, wow. But you know what? We're kind of keeping the Christmas spirit going. We've been loose for a while. Yeah. Some call it loose. Some call it drunk. Yeah. We've been loose. We're not drunk. We're not drunk. We're not drunk. No, I'm just joking. Happy New Year. All our listeners. But either accusation is fair. So tonight...

This is going to be a really good one tonight. We have Pete Parada coming on. He was a drummer in The Offspring for, you said it was 14 years, was that right? Yeah, about 14 years. He's got an incredible story. He was with them that long, and they let him go during COVID because he wouldn't get the Vax. Let him go in a cold way.

Yeah. Yeah. I can't wait to figure this out. Like, I'm sure we all done a research and it's like what I've read and what I've heard. It's, it's pretty bad. And, you know, I can attest it's like, well, you, you're on the road with somebody for that long. They just are your family. It's, I know people say road family, but it's like, you just become family. And to basically ghost him like that is I can't even unconscionable.

Yeah. And he'll go into it, but it's like he had a medical condition that kind of prevented him from getting that vaccine or something. Yeah. It wasn't like an anti-vaxxer. Like, hey, I don't want to get this because it's against my religion or anything like that, you know?

So, yeah, I think he had an – I can't pronounce the autoimmune disorder as something French-sounding. Yeah, it had three names. Yeah, whatever it is, is a serious thing from what I understand. It's like when he was a child and vaccinated, it caused some –

anyway, it's a real interesting story and I can't wait to get to it. So let's do it. We've got Pete Peralta here. Yeah, yeah. Hi, Pete. Hi, man. Thanks for having me. Pete. Absolutely. You know, we don't have...

You're one of a few. Usually we've known the guest or we have some kind of relationship. Pete, we just hit up DM to him and said, bro, come be on our podcast. And he was like, sure. You must trust us. I assumed you guys, cause you know, a lot of rock guys. And I assumed y'all were all buds. I did too. Never met. Yeah. We're never just meeting you guys the first time, but we're all very close. You're like, not, we all live pretty similar area. So yeah. Cool. He's saying you look that cool. I don't know. Yeah.

I don't know either. Pete's got a really great and interesting story. And, you know, sometimes, I don't want to say we get lost, but part of the mission of this podcast started with the song, our song, Try That in a Small Town. And I think we wanted to highlight people that kind of stood up in the face of adversity or took a stand for what they believe in because they

That's not easy to do. I've heard Tully say that a lot, and it's true. It's not easy to do. Pete has a great story. We're going to get to that and part of that, but take us back just a little bit. Start us off. How did you get into playing? Like most, like Tully could probably back this up, most people that get musicians at start are

You're inspired by going to see a concert. Like that's how it happened for me. I saw Van Halen and I was like, bro, that's it. Tully, what was you? The police. Police. And you saw that? Yeah, I saw Sting and I was like, never forget he had this like white feathered sleeveless jacket on. I was like, okay, that's what I want. I want that jacket. No, it was amazing. Yeah. Synchronicity tour. I was a kid in Montreal. Yeah. Mold. So, but it was a,

Yeah. So Pete, what was your, did you have a story like that? Yeah. I mean, my, uh, growing up where I did in upstate New York was very small town, like probably less than a thousand people. And my dad was a music teacher at the next town over, um, of like middle school, high school band. And so

So, you know, I had two older brothers and I watched them, you know, pick their instrument when it was time, like third grade or whatever. And my oldest brother played the clarinet. My middle brother played the saxophone and I didn't want to learn all the fingerings and I had already been like banging around and stuff. So I was like, Oh, I'll just pull a fast one. I'll play drums. Then it'll be easy. And then just kind of fell in love with it. Didn't realize like that was going to be what I would do, you know, with my life. And, um, for me, like you said, seeing the police, seeing Van Halen, um,

I was in such a tiny town. If a band came to Rochester, cool. But you didn't get to see big bands very often where I was from. And so for me, I got dragged out to see a show from a high school band where my dad taught. And their drummer blew my mind. He was a year older than me.

and I, I don't know what it was with me. You know, I would watch these bands on MTV, like I grew up on hair metal and, and Metallica and all that. And I was like, Oh, I could never play like that. Like I had some weird block being from a small town. Right. And, uh,

And then I go and here's this kid playing exactly like the people that I saw on TV. And it was like, like light bulb went off in my head and it was like, all right, if he can do it, I can do it. And went home the next day and just started practicing and like got serious. And that was my focus from that, from that day on. And it just like that one day,

Going to see some high school band in a crappy little bar or something, it changed everything for me. You guys have a first concert or something that was life-changing? Van Halen. Was it Van Halen? Yes, Van Halen. Where'd you see them? They were in Chattanooga. Really? Yeah, I don't know what year it was, but it was called the Roundhouse at the time. I don't know what it's called now. Was it with Roth or...

I mean, please say yes. It had to be. Yes. Okay. It wasn't Sammy Hagar. No, no, no. Hey, I like Hagar, man. No, he's fantastic. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. I was like 15. I'm not dissing Hagar. He's badass. Neil, do you have a first concert? Yeah, my first concert was Bachman Turner Overdrive. Wow. Let's go. I like it. Taking care of business. Yep. In Birmingham at the Batwell Auditorium. Those are the songs I sing in the bar bands. But I'll never forget it, though. Walking in. Yeah. Because my uncle had...

You know, they have Thrasher Leasing Corporation, the bus company, and they were like the first ones that had Kiss out and ZZ Top and all that. But Bachman Turner Overdrive was on their buses. So we got to get in for free. And I'll never forget walking in. And the first thing I smelled was the first time I ever smelled pot.

I mean, it was just a cloud. And I just thought that's what a rock concert smelled like. I thought that's what guitars smelled like, amps smelled like. I was like, oh, this is the smell of a rock concert. Strangely drawn to it. That was my first one. I love it. Okay, so Pete, you have passion for the drums. Obviously, you're...

What led you, I know you moved to LA, is that right? And is that kind of how things started to get going for you? Yeah, so the same drummer that I went to see that night, I go home the next day and I said to my dad, I'm like, do you have a guy, a kid in your band named Mick Palmisano? And he's like, oh yeah, he's a fantastic drummer. And I was like,

How come you've never mentioned him to me? And my dad was a blunt person and he was just like, well, Mick's very serious about drums and you're kind of not. So I was like, all right, fair, fair enough. But, uh, so, uh,

I ended up moving to LA with Mick. We got to be friends and he had moved out cause he was a year ahead of me. So he graduated high school, went to LA to Musicians Institute, did the first six months and kind of came home for the summer. And then I had gotten accepted into the same school. So we drove back out together at the end of the summer. You were legit at that time. Yeah. I mean, it,

I kind of think that there was a wide range of proficiency at the school. It wasn't like you were Neil Peart to get in. Which was cool, because it was like you had a whole different... These guys would come in from Sweden and just party, because Sweden would pay for them to go to school for a year and whatever. And they would just rage partying all the time and then come in and sight-read their tests and just be shredding. And all of us are just like, oh my God. Like,

I'm in here playing eight hours a day and you guys are like half wasted taking your exams. But, but it was, it was a really great experience. Like I learned a ton in a very short amount of time and, and, um, you know, met a lot of great teachers there and, and,

made some lifelong friends one of my first instructors there was a drummer named ray luzier who lives here now and but um so he plays drums for corn he played for david lee roth for over a decade like he's one of the best rock drummers that there's ever been but you know at the time he was just had just graduated started teaching because they were pumping up their rock classes and so we got to be buddies when i graduated i ended up being roommates for three years and so um

you know, you, you just kind of meet people like that and it spirals from there. So like once I graduated, then Ray would kick down gigs that he was too busy for to me to kind of get me started in LA and getting it out and playing. And, you know, from there I just eventually fell into punk rock by accident. You know, I grew up on heavy metal and I didn't know anything about punk rock, but there was a band, um, uh,

this rehearsal studio that I've been working at that was auditioning drummers and they were called face to face. And it was, they were a pretty big punk rock band in Southern California. And I didn't, you know, I didn't think anything of it. Cause I'm like, I don't play punk rock. And then a friend of mine was tour managing them. And he called me like a week into the tour. And he's like, these guys are auditioning drummers under your nose. What are you doing? And I'm like, well, I don't, I don't know punk rock. It's not my thing. And he's like, you know, he's like, well, they're the guy they borrowed for this tour.

they're not keeping them. They're coming back and doing another round of auditions. I put you on the list. And I was like, what's the difference between like, just give people a real quick difference of like playing metal or punk rock. What would that difference be? As I found out, there wasn't that much of a difference. I was unfamiliar with it because it just was never my thing. You know, where I grew up, we had,

top 40 radio or if you were in the right part of town you could pick up the rock station from Rochester an hour away but there really wasn't a lot and so MTV was a big deal and

because that's where I was exposed to so many different artists. And especially in the early to mid 80s, they needed content. So if you had a band and you made a video, they were going to play it, right? So you saw all kinds of stuff, but you didn't really see any punk rock and stuff. So I just was never exposed to it. It wasn't my thing. But then once, so the band comes back off the road and puts their gear in their room and I just snuck in and stole their live CD because I didn't have any money to go buy anything. So I'm like, all right, well, I'll just learn the whole thing.

live record to get a feel for what the band is. And then, you know, for the next week they were auditioning drummers all day long and everybody had the same, you know, the fast song and the slower song. And so I got to sit and listen to everybody else's auditions and kind of see where they were doing good and where they weren't. And, but by the time they got to me, they were pretty burnt out. And then they were like,

oh, cool. The guy that scrubs the toilets and parks the cars wants to play like we are scraping bottom. And so I was just kind of like, hey, you guys been playing the same songs all week. Do you want to play something different? And they kind of perked up like, oh, what do you know? And I said, oh, I know your whole live record. And so one guitar player just launched into one of the songs and we just jumped in and then they were excited and they had new energy, which gave me a leg up. And it's just like,

wasn't it an advantage that I was sitting there and I was the guy that worked there for sure. But why wouldn't you use that, you know, to, to your advantage. So, you know, got that gig and, um, just kind of spiraled from there. Like, you know, from face to face, I got started playing with a band called saves the day. And then we ended up in like one of the final bidding wars of LA of, you know, before, uh,

and everything, you know, so we ended up on DreamWorks with them. And from that, I just kind of, you know, played with a lot of other bands, Alkaline Trio, worked with Rob Halford from Judas Priest on his solo record. Awesome. And ended up touring with Devo at one point, My Chemical Romance. So it's just kind of, you know, when you start doing one thing, you meet somebody and, I mean, you guys know the drill. Like it kind of spirals down to...

to, you know, other opportunities. So that's awesome. Well, let's go to it then. So you,

I assume soon after that tell us how you got the Offspring gig in what year is this yeah like Offspring when I started playing with them in 2007 okay so and the Offspring I mean oh yeah for some people that don't know like I guess we're like old and there might be people listening that might not quite know who the Offspring is but I don't even know how many records but it's gotta be

40, 50 million records. Yeah, about 35 million, I think. Okay, so huge band. Big hits. How did that gig come about? Yeah, we'll go from there. That gig was a funny story because I'd left my previous band, Saves the Day, because it just got to be where the drama outweighed the enjoyment of the music. And when I left that, I had been...

At that one point, there was an overlap where I was playing in face-to-face and Saves the Day at the same time for two years. And so I never was home. I was always off the road, like I had no personal life, whatever. And so when the Saves the Day thing fell apart, I was really burnt out on punk rock and everything. I just said, I'm not going to,

not doing this anymore. And my wife's like, yeah, yeah, take, take a week off, you know, calm down. And, uh, so I got called for this other band that was more of like a, a higher profile heavy metal thing. And I was like, oh, great. That sounds awesome. I'm going to do that. And my best friend is a guitar tech to the stars. Like he worked for Prince and Angus Young, Richie Sample, everybody. That's like, he just knows everyone. Awesome.

he heard what I was going to do and he called up and he's like, absolutely not. You're not joining that band. He's like, I know this person in this camp and this and that. And he's like, you think your last band was crazy. Like the singer from this band just married their therapist. You are not. I was like, well, fine. I don't want to play music anymore anyway. And so, and then I get a call in, you know, from, um,

first person comes at me and says, hey, Offspring's looking for a drummer. I gave him your name. And I was like, not interested. Don't care. And punk rock, I don't want it. And then a couple weeks later came at me from a second person was like, hey, Offspring's looking for a drummer. Your name keeps coming up. You should give him a call. And I was like, I don't want to. I'm not doing it. And then finally...

a third person a couple weeks later calls up again and is like, hey, offspring's still looking for a drummer. They can't find the right person. And so at this point, my wife was like, look, just...

you know, I'm tired of watching you mope around, like go, go get the job and then decide if you want it or not. And I was like, all right, I can't, can't argue with that. So I went down, um, you know, the first audition was just like a cattle call where their manager and a, and a video camera and everybody, again, everybody played two songs, a fast song and a slow song.

And so, you know, I did that and I was living in Northern California at the time. I wasn't in LA anymore. My wife is from Chico. And, uh, so I was flying down to do this audition and I, I flew back up and then I get a call like, Hey, the, um, the, they saw your tape. They want you to come back next week, play the same two songs with the band. So I fly back down next week, meet the guys in the band, play the two songs. And I was like, all right, this feels, this feels interesting. It's all right.

And then the next week, they had me come back and play four more different songs this time. And then when I come down to there, I'm hearing other drummers in there. Some people are playing the first two songs. Some are on the second set of four. So I'm like, all right, these guys are really, you know,

taking this seriously, finding the right person. And I hear one drummer in there and I was like, Oh wow, this guy's good. Like the slow song was, was solid. And I was like, Oh damn, that's, that's rad. And then he gets to the fast song and I was like, huh, not his thing, but still really good. And the door opens and it's my old roommate, Ray Luzier. And he looks at me and he goes, Oh, of course you're here. Oh my God. And, uh, you know, and then he gets the corn gig like a week later, which was funny. So, um,

He's a badass. He's insane. Yeah, he's so good. So, you know, go through the whole process, end up getting the job. And for a while, like it wasn't, I wasn't like a huge fan of the band or anything. It was, you know, but as drummers and stuff were brought in, my job is to come into a situation and elevate the band to be better. You got to drive the bus. That's it. Yeah, that's the thing. So it's like whatever the gig was, whether it was face-to-face or Saves the Day or Rob Halford or whoever, it was,

I come in, you know, I'm supposed to make the band better or I shouldn't be there. Right. And so for me, it was like, all right, I can get along with everybody. I can play this music. It's no problem. You know, it was very,

very stick to the script like the the person that got me the that i finally listened to and took the audition um she had called me when i was on my way to the airport to go down she's like hey just a heads up you know the singer of the band writes all the parts for all the songs like every every piece of the music is very important like don't go off the reservation stick to the script which was a great little tip to to get going in there so it's like okay cool don't

you know, here's your script, you can do it. And, you know, so for a lot of years that worked. I didn't plan on staying that long. I didn't, you know, it was just kind of like, all right, well, let's get back on the horse. It was just a gig for you. It was just a gig. But then, you know, my wife and I had a second daughter. And so then it became more of like, okay, well now...

We're in a different situation. So, you know, I probably stayed there longer than I intended. But it was, you know, it was a great gig. 14 years. 14 years. Yeah. And like I said, everything was great until it wasn't.

And, you know, that's the thing. When you're brought into a band, especially a juggernaut like that, like, you know, that has sold 35 million records. I didn't sell 35 million records. They did. So, you know, I'm there playing the drums. But you played on, what, two or three albums? Yeah. Yeah, the last two albums that I was there for. Yeah. And, you know, but still, it's...

It was not a creative endeavor. It was very much, here's your, it's like being an actor. Here's your lines today. Play those lines. Okay. Great. Which was fine. Again, you know, I got paid really well to do it. And, and, and, you know, you, you deal with the ups and downs of any, any gig, any situation, especially as, as a drummer, we're, you know, we're at the bottom of the ladder, right?

You know, we are, we're used to it. I don't know, man. I play bass. I might be one row below you. Fair enough. I'm not going to argue with the bass. I would have thought it would be bass. I'm just saying. Just as a guest. Let me rephrase that. Christmas Kalo's out. Managers. Yeah, right? Hate drummers. Oh, yeah, that could be. What's that about?

Yeah. Well, managers hate everyone. They'll find the one person in the band that they think is important and everyone else doesn't matter. They find the cash cow. I mean, come up with a groove master first. Who does that? Everybody's replaceable is really the bottom line. Managers don't understand a good drummer versus a bad drummer. They have no musical background. They have no skills whatsoever. They're just there to rob people. You're taking attention away from what's really important. So...

Yeah. And like I said, for 14 years, everything was fine. And then, you know, COVID hits and,

Everyone's coming off the road. Here we go. Yeah. I want to talk till it wasn't. Let's talk about till it wasn't. So, you know, 2020 comes and goes. Everyone's off the road. We were in South America when everything hit. Okay. I was going to ask you this because I'm telling you, I remember when, whenever it was March, 2020, right? Yeah. Yeah. Mid-March. We were going, I forget, you know, we were touring at that point and where are we going? Wisconsin or something that little run up there.

Yeah. We, I think we were in Wisconsin, right? When it, we were in the, we were at the venue. Yeah. I remember saying before we left for that week's run, you know, country, we do it different than rock. It's like, you know, we're weekend warriors basically. But, um, she was like, they're going to cancel those shows. I'm like, no, they're not.

Well, I mean, we're programmed as musicians. I mean, we're playing. We're playing the gig. We're playing. Oh, yeah. We're doing the gigs. I play gigs on my deathbed. You're so, you know, my knees buckling getting on the riser. Believe me, we do have to talk about that because I think people don't understand that. But we went to Wisconsin.

We went out, we were working out. Actually, we were playing pickleball that day. And they come to us. Very intense game, pickleball. The old man sport. That's when we were getting ready for Mahomes and Kelsey, by the way. We'll edit that out. Headbands, wristbands. Anyway, they come to us and say, show's canceled.

And then the weekend's canceled. And then, oh, the year's canceled. So where were you when all that went down? So we were in South America. We had headed down for... We were supposed to be there about two and a half weeks. And my wife is saying, she's like, you guys really going down there? Like, there's this thing happening. No one knows what's going on. She's like, you're seriously going to go to South America? And I'm like, I don't have a say here. It's not like I get to go, hey, fellas, I don't think this is a good idea. It's just like...

I have zero power. I have as much power in that band now as I did when I was there. So, yeah, I'm like, well, you know, they say it's going to happen. We're going to go. So we get down there and the first show, wherever we were, I think Columbia canceled. And so we move on to Chile.

And we get into Chile and show went on and we're playing like this, you know, hockey arena kind of thing. There's probably like 6,000 people there all sweating all over each other. And we're all just kind of like, God, this feels wrong. But what can you do? Because you're in a game of chicken with promoters and stuff, right? It's like, if we cancel, then, you know, everything's on you. So it was really kind of waiting it out. And we were supposed to, after that show, go to Brazil, right?

And, you know, we had like three or four shows there and the Brazilian promoter was like, no, we're not canceling, you know,

keep coming in. But while we were on stage in Chile, they worked something out and promoter was finally like, okay, yeah, we got to cancel. And then we, you know, took off and flew home from there. If we had gone to Brazil, they locked down so hard that we would have been stuck there for like, you guys fly back private or was it not just commercial? We just got, got out and got home as, as fast as we could. And then,

And then you were locked down. Or then we were all locked down. Right, yeah, because it was like, oh, we're going to be off this month, but we're still going to Australia at the end of next month. So I remember this, right? Yeah, we were on a plane when it got shut down. Oh, you guys were? Oh, yeah, we landed at Dallas-Fort Worth coming back from Palm Springs.

And when we got off the plane and walked in the airport, there was nobody in the airport. It's one of the busiest airports in the world. Oh, yeah, we were on that trip. Yep, because we were coming back. Okay. It was weird. And it was like, oh, my God, did the Lord come back? Seriously, it was that empty. Did he forgive me? Yeah, no. And we barely made it home before they shut down flights and stuff. But I remember that in...

It's interesting because, yeah, I was like, okay, that weekend shows got canceled. We'll go back the next weekend or next month. Summer at the latest. And that wasn't the case. Yeah. We went obviously to full lockdown. So I guess where are we living at the time? Was it in LA? No, here. Yeah. We've been in Franklin since 2011. Oh, wow. Yep. Okay. So give us the story of what happened then. So you obviously took, I assume...

2020 off? Yeah. 2020 was just, you know, we tried to do, I think I flew out to later in the summer when everybody lightened up a little bit, I flew out to like do some recording and I think we did like a Christmas song, shot a video, like just trying to have something to do for fans or for the band just to kind of keep some momentum. And, uh, and we were, had been finishing a new record throughout the whole process, uh,

that was supposed to come out in 2020, you know, of course, but then it gets pushed back. So yeah, 2020 was a wash, like really, like,

nothing happening there. And then 2021 starts and then we've got... And everybody's starting to get their tours back going, but with stipulations. Right. Well, that's the problem. We've terrorized everyone to stay in their home and don't touch another human for a year. But now we would all like them to come back out and buy tickets and t-shirts and clap for us. How do we...

How do we unring the bell? So, you know, the, the powers that be the live nation and the other promoters and whatever, come up with the concept of the fully vaccinated tour, right. Which is, you know, the vaccines rolled out. It's a great savior to everything. Everything's going to be fine. Everyone has to get it. And then we can all go back to work.

And, you know, for me, I have a history of bad reactions to vaccines. So I'm already not looking at this in a good way. Did I read that you had an autoimmune disorder? Is that right? Yeah, I finally got diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome. And because like every time, even when I was a kid, every time I would get vaccinated, I had, you know,

major problems of you know temporary paralysis limbs shutting down like that and it's you know as I got older like the thankfully you know I was always able to kind of turn it around with you know diet things and lifestyle changes and you know keep it you know at least I knew what caused it

So then it was like, all right, well, I can't do this anymore because, you know, my doctor says, you know, Hey, you're getting older. Every time this happens, it's taking longer to bounce back. Eventually it's not going to bounce back. So for me, it was just a no, a no go. And then watching, you know, my wife and I watched the clinical trials really carefully and the little information that they put out, we devoured it. And, um,

And we found out pretty quickly they didn't have anyone with any autoimmune conditions in the trials. It was only perfectly healthy people. So there's nobody like me in there getting this tested. And I was open to it. Like, this mRNA is a new technology. Maybe this will be different for me. I was actually like, OK, at least they're doing something new. Maybe that'll work. And while we waited for real-world data, we just kind of kept our eye on things. And I tried to...

kind of kicked the can down the road as far as I could. And, you know, as the data started coming in, it was worse than we thought. Like for somebody in my position, it wasn't, you know, one of the first things that was popping up was Guillain-Barre syndrome with people. And I was like, all right, well, this isn't an option for me. And, you know, and we had,

She pulled a screen grab from the FDA website in January of 2021. I still have it somewhere. And, you know, we sent it to all the smartest people that we knew. And basically it said, while we are hopeful that the COVID-19 vaccines will stop transmission, they were not tested for that. And we, you know, we have no idea long term what that's going to happen.

how that's going to work. But here they are on television going, Oh, it's a hundred percent effective. It's going to, it's going to change everything. And, and, and it's perfectly safe and effective. But I'm like, well over here where you have to say you're saying, where is that? Like on the CDC? Yeah. It was on the FDA's website. It was not there long.

Oh, really? They ended up removing that? Yeah. My wife took a screen grab of it and we still have it. Wow. And I've, I've shared it online before and had people go, that's a fake, fake screen grab. Who's got time in their day to make a fake? Yeah. Yeah. So, and sorry, while you were, you and your wife were doing that research, did,

were you passing any of that along to your buddies in the band or anybody like that saying, Hey, before we have to be told this, just put this on your radar. Were you already doing that? Yeah. Everybody, it was kind of this unspoken thing of everybody knew that I was not going to be all right with this, but you know, I think they were waiting to see what happened as much as I did. And, you know, once the live nation thing came down and they were like, Hey, everyone can get back on the road. If we do this thing, everyone's got to have their paperwork and stuff. And,

you know, I just figured that we would have some hard conversations, but you know, I'm, I'm talking to everybody that I can, anybody in other bands, you know, people with, you know, medical conditions like mine that were, you know, getting medical exemptions from their doctor. I had a medical exemption from my doctor. It didn't matter. You know, no one, no one cared. It wasn't accepted, you know, but we, we head into summer of 2021. We've got a tour coming up starting in the fall.

And I get a call from...

And I'd been going out to LA all year. Like we were releasing an album. We were doing promotion, filming videos and whatever. And you know, everybody's there at the rehearsal or with a mask on. I was going to say, what were the protocols during that? Because I remember it was massive. Yeah. Cause I'm coming from Tennessee where it wasn't, it was pretty laid back by early 21. Right. Like it was like, Hey, live your life, make your choices. And you out there. And it was like a war zone. Like nobody on the streets, people driving alone in their cars with a mask on. Yeah.

You had to show VaxGuard to get in anywhere from what I remember. It was getting to that point out there. And so by summer, you know,

I thought we were going to have a pretty good discussion because I talked to enough people in other bands that were like, Oh yeah, we, you know, so-and-so's got a medical exemption. It's fine. We're, we're going out anyway. It doesn't matter. Like, you know, so I'm like, okay, cool. There's a way to do this. And then I get a phone call from the band's manager out of nowhere. That was just, like I said, I'm a drummer. I'm used to being treated like,

less than stellar by managers. And, and how long has this manager been with the band? He was new with the band. He'd only been with them since COVID hit. Oh, really? Yeah. So I didn't have a lot of history with this guy. And, and so, yeah, he chose to come at me like a flamethrower and just abs, like I've, I've gotten crappy phone calls before. This was the most abusive, um,

um, threatening call I've ever had in my entire career. Like it was, what do you say? He's just basically laid it out in no uncertain terms. You know, I tried to say like, Oh, you know, I've, you know, I've got a medical assumption. I don't care about your mental exemption. You know, just, just yelling, like cutting me off. Like it wasn't a conversation trying to tell me that, you know, for the greater good, everyone's got to do this. And I'm just like, that, that's not,

that's not a good enough reason for me. Like you're not, you're not making an argument. You're just making threats and yelling me. So it basically came down to, you know, he made it clear that I was either to get vaccinated or, you know, I'd be replaced. And it was also floated out by one of the other guys about, Hey, well maybe we just get you some paperwork, you know, something like that. Cause there was people getting fake. Did you think about that? Believe me, I considered everything. I'm a,

And, you know, it was nerve wracking because it's like, oh, not just like I might lose my job here, but I might be blacklisted from doing anything else ever. Because that's a real thing. Yeah, you were like the worst thing you could have been called at that time was an anti-vaxxer, especially with these things rolling out. Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, I was called a Nazi. I'm just like a fascist. I'm like, I don't think you know what that word means. It's really insane to even talk about this right now. It sounds like...

like a made-up movie script and that we that where you talk about the lockdowns you talk about

Looking back at it now, it's like, oh my God. You think of stuff that happens in other countries, but it's crazy. Yeah, you would think. And it got perspective a couple years later and stuff. So at the time, it was just like, the phone call was so shocking. And so I wrote to the two guys in the band that were my boss, and I laid out the phone call and how I didn't appreciate it. And here's all the reasons why I'm...

don't want to do this and why I'm not, why I'm not able to do this. And it didn't matter. I tried to talk to them about him. And I, you know, I said, I'm like, Hey, this, you might fire me over this, but you should know this guy is not representing you well. And if he's treating me like this, he's treating your crew even worse. Did you have a conversation, like a long phone call? I tried when I brought that up, I was told we're not going to speak to that. That's not, that's not the concern right now. He's not the concern. This, you know, your refusal to do this is the concern.

And so things deteriorated pretty rapidly after that. And, you know, less than a week later, I found it was like all communication stopped.

And, you know, I had a flight and a hotel and stuff on hold to go to rehearsal. And a week later I checked my Southwest app and that's how I found out I was replaced because my flight was canceled. My hotel was gone. And they didn't even actually call you to say you were my, yeah, my, um, my access to the band calendar was revoked. Like everything just gone. And, you know, and,

It was brutal because it wasn't just me. It was, you know, it was my family. Like, our wives were friends. Our kids grew up together. See, people don't realize that, right? I mean, obviously we can speak to this. Like, you know, we say our road family. In a way, it's actually your family and your kids grew up together. Your wives are best friends. You become best friends with the people in the band. And to have them, like...

ghost you I can't even imagine that like I'm thinking of the guys on our band like Tully does that to me like bro what happened

Crazy. Yeah. That's. Yeah. It was brutal. And even the process of when, when all this is happening in a, in a matter of days, like I was just a nervous wreck and like my kids had to watch me on the floor having a panic attack. I'm just like, I don't know what we're going to do as a family. Like, you know, my wife raised our girls, homeschooled them all the way through. Like, you know, I'm the breadwinner. I'm the one here. And I'm like, Holy, you know, it's really, just so people know in this business that that's,

That's really shitty to have 14 years in, which is a long time. And you play all these shows together and you make music and you go through all these great times together. And then to just get kind of ghosted

And then did they offer, I mean, any kind of severance or any kind of... No. No. Oh my gosh, are you kidding me? That doesn't surprise me. Yeah, after 14 years, it was just like, are you going to do what we want? No. Moving on. So for me, it was, you know, I turned down the fake card because I'm like, look, I'm not going to lie about this. I'm not going to be...

And I know plenty of people that took fake cards, like some really close friends of mine. I don't have any judgment how anybody navigated this situation. The whole world was put in an impossibly shitty situation. There was no good way out of it. So whatever anybody had to do, good on them. But for me, I couldn't do it. Like, I didn't want to put my kids into this position where they had to lie for me. I didn't want to put my wife there. And I just...

to me, it was like, well, if like, I don't think this is right. And if I'm taking a fake card, I'm going along with it. I'm, I'm part of the problem. And then I lose my voice. Like I can't say anything here. I can't speak about it. So, you know, I wouldn't take the card and, you know, after everything happened, you know, I didn't say anything for like a month. Like I sat on it. Cause I'm like,

oh, maybe they'll come around. Maybe something will change. Let's give it some time. This got heated. We'll let it cool down. And it didn't. And it's like once I saw...

You know, news trickles back and it's like, oh, so-and-so is, you know, they brought this person in to replace you. I'm like, yeah, that makes sense. I figured that's who they would get. But so finally I was like, you know, this isn't right. I'm going to put out a statement. I'm going to say my piece because, you know, I, I know how I was there long enough to know how they operate and they weren't going to make any announcement, you know, the same when they fired the original bass player, they made no announcement or anything. And cause it was like, well, it's only a story if we make it one.

So it's like, okay, well, I know how they're going to handle this. I'm not just going to whimper away and hide. I'm going to say something. Because it was bigger than the band or my job or anything. For me, it was like my girls were doing musical theater at the time, and that community was brutal on mandating and forcing things and testing, and you've got to have your cards and stuff. And so I was just like, all right, if...

to me at this point, when, when, and you guys, you guys all have kids. Yeah. Okay. So yeah, when your kids get to be teenagers, they stop listening to you. Right. But they're always watching.

And they, they observe and they take in how you handle things. So what, what they do. And so for me, I was like, all right, if, if the only audience I have with this statement is my two kids, that's, that's it. That's my goal. Like show them,

This is important enough that I'm going to set my career on fire over it. Like this shouldn't be happening. Nobody should be put in this position and, you know, and that there's no opportunity or job or anything that's worth you giving up part of yourself and knowing, you know, your own autonomy, knowing this is wrong. Like, I don't, I can't set an example to you that,

that that's okay to do because, you know, I don't want them going through the world going, well, dad caved on that thing. So I guess I can do this. Right. It was like, this is important enough that let's, let's make that, you know, make that point to them. And so, you know, wrote up a statement and put it out and I didn't expect it to be a big deal because I

Again, that's the drummer from some band who cares. Right. But I think it hit a nerve with people because so many people felt like me, like we all if you didn't go along with this, you were told you were the only one that felt that way. And, you know, so I just kind of figured, well, maybe there's somebody else out there that needs to hear this as well. So, you know, put a statement out.

And made sure to point out like, while me turning this down was my issue was medical related, you know, no is a complete sentence. Nobody should have to do this if they don't want to, you don't need an excuse. You don't need it. And, you know, and also to show a big part of the push for this was people saying, Oh,

Oh, well, we're so good. You know, we're everyone's got to get it for the people who medically can't. And, you know, I was living proof that it didn't matter. Even if you had a medical exemption, it didn't count. No one it wasn't accepted. It was just like, no, we're just saying this. But, you know, you need to get it, too.

And so it was really frustrating to be in that world. So we wanted to make a point of, you know, everyone should have a choice here. There should be informed consent here. I don't feel that there is. And, you know, I expected a firing squad. Like I just figured like, wow, I've already set my career on fire. And now the, you know, the internet's gonna either largely on and not care, or we're just going to get hit with a flamethrower. And, um,

Um, crazy thing was, is we'd got a groundswell of support. Like I started getting messages from people all around the world going, Oh my God, thank you for saying something. I thought I was the only person that felt like this. I thought I was the only person who was alone or people saying, thank you for writing, you know, something measured and clear like this that I can share with my family or my friends who don't understand why I don't want to do this. And, you know, so it just kind of turned into this, this, this,

where I became a weird kind of lighthouse for people who didn't want to get on board with the narrative that was being pushed. And then I started getting messages from all kinds of people, like way, way bigger platforms than my little piddly platform going, Hey, and some people are like,

how's it going for you? Cause I'm thinking of saying something, but you know, I kind of want to know how bad it's going to be. And it's just like what I, what I tell people is like, you know, when the cancel mob comes for you,

It burns so hot and fast because they wake up every day going, all right, who are we mad at today? And I'm like, just stand your ground. Don't apologize. Don't clarify. And that was the thing. I put my statement out and I clarified nothing. I said nothing else. I got out of the way because I did not expect it to take off. I didn't expect. And then we had...

you know, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, hounding me through emails. They had emails I haven't used in 10 years. They were calling my phone, my wife's phone. Like these people were able to get at you so many different ways. And I was just like,

I don't want to talk to anybody. That's not what this was for. Mostly, you know, again, trying to just set an example for my kids, but also the point of the statement was, you know, the band had a tour coming. They had a show in Nashville. I had people hitting me up for tickets to these shows that I know I'm not going to be at. And I'm like, how many times do I want to have to have this long conversation about what happened? Can I just tell it once?

And like, even with my family, like my brother knew what was going on and my best friend knew what was going on. And, but the rest of my family did not. So when, you know, they all unfortunately found out from my statement, like everybody else, but it was like, well, this is the only way I can do it because I can't have this conversation 500 times. And I also have to say something because people are, you know, wanting tickets and passes and

You know, I'm not going to be around. So it was a really strange kind of time. And, you know, I didn't want to turn, talk to anybody. So we turned everything down, you know, Tucker Carlson, Megan Kelly, somebody at CNN's morning show was relentless, just kept bombarding me and my wife constantly. And it was just, it felt really, really strange.

And I was just like, I didn't trust that anybody had my best interest at heart. Well, they didn't. Right. Let's be honest. It was like, oh, you stuck your head up. We're here to chop it off and make an example of you. And I was like, all right, well, I'm not going to allow that. So I said what I said, and we stayed out of it. And then I had to kind of start piecing my life back together. Because now you're like, OK, well, what's next? Because does anybody need an unvaccinated drummer? But you brought up a good point, which I don't think people...

I realized as well, so you met your daughters who were in theater. So at that time, my son was on a show on NBC, and they said, well, basically he had to get vaccinated. And as a parent, you're sitting there saying, okay. Yeah, you're trying to navigate those waters. We don't want to cost him, because if you're in SAG, so you had to get vaccinated, or you couldn't work. And they were saying, okay, well, it's his first season on this show. Do we...

what is, how do we do this? Like, is it, do we cost him the, his job, you know? And so he got the vaccine and looking back on it, you know, it's like, wow, what a position they put everybody in. And you're talking about your kids and it's like, same thing. It's like, you're making decisions. Yeah. At that time he was, uh, what, 15, 16 at that, at that point, you know? So, um, that's just crazy to think about the position that, um,

everybody was in and you're having to choose you know providing for your family you know and it's like I said it feels weird to talk about it like this because it feels like it's a it's really strange listen this is this is we're opening Pandora's box here and we're going to get to the back side of this we do have to take a break hey don't skip through this listen to a word from our sponsor we're going to be right back with Pete Perot music

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I want to be more like Pete. I wish I was more mild-mannered like Pete. And that's a great way to come back on. You know, I think what we're going to do sometimes, we need to, like, compile our...

moments, because there's always like a five minute where we say we're going to take a break and then we just kind of talk during that. We need to put that on a paywall. Yeah, that's a subscription. That's right. Tim, get on that. Merry Christmas. Welcome to the paywall. Yeah, exactly. Starting January. But you guys just blew my mind. You guys just blew my mind because I didn't know this. First of all, we were talking about how odd it is that a punk rock band, you know, which like...

In theory, it's supposed to be anti-establishment. You have to go with the man all the time. But tell me, they changed the lyrics to the song? Tully or somebody, Pete, give me something. They did. They made a little video clip and they changed the... You got to keep them separated so you got to go get vaccinated. That is not true. I'm sorry. It's true. I'm sorry. It's true. I read that and I was... It actually...

Was it like a jingle they did for commercial? It was just something they tweeted out or Facebook or something. You got to get them vaccinated? Yeah. I wonder how they feel about that now. Surely they can't be proud of that still. Well, that's the question. Everybody's got perspective. This all went down three and a half years ago, right? I have perspective on this. I got to think at some point you look at that and you go,

yeah, okay, we got that wrong. Yeah, we may have misread that situation. Have they? No.

I don't know. I mean, no one's reached out to me. Like I said, my door is always open. Like I, I don't, I, I never took it personally. Even, even, you know, things that were personal, like, Oh, we're just going to cut you and your family off entirely. Like, you know, where a week before everyone was family and, you know, but it's like you find out that your family, as long as you are doing what you're told. And the first time you say no, you're,

And that, that was the thing. Like as a drummer, we eat copious amounts of shit. You gave them 14 years. Right. Bombastic brilliance. Ooh, I love that. Bombastic brilliance. I'm telling you, well, he did, he gave them 14 years of it. And, and, and,

Nothing? I mean, nothing. Well, that's the thing. I like to say I ate every plate of shit I was served for 14 years, and the first one that I sent back to the kitchen, I was gone. That was it. It was just like, are you going to do what we want or not? You're a big man. Here's the thing. It's one thing if they've got a really strong...

feeling about this it was a weird time you know i give people a little bit of grace when it first happened because i get a little bit because i was well no when it when it first happened no one really knew we were all scared the point is even if that's the stance they took and you and you got the right to make your stance it seems like the way you would do is like them call you and say man we're really concerned about this is there a way around this what can we do because we're

We love you and love what you've done for us, but we're really passionate about this. You're passionate about this. How can we... I don't think it was ideological for them at all. Maybe for one of them who's very political online and was very on board with the narrative. And if you didn't believe that, you were probably crazy. And the other guy, I think it was really...

ultimately just boiled down to business. It was like they wanted to get back to work making money. I needed to get back to work. We'd all been off tour for well over a year at this point. My thing wasn't trying to cause problems. I should have been able to do my job better.

without going through some medical procedure that I did not need or want. And that there wasn't even a real conversation or anything. It was just an unwillingness to look at opposite things or even to understand how much of the stuff they were talking about was really going to be enforced. Once they got back on the road, they're playing festivals and stuff, and I got friends from other bands calling me up going,

why are you not here? We're playing this festival with your old band. None of us are vaccinated. No one gives a shit. Like no. And I'm like, I know that. And you know that, but I, it was like talking to a brick wall. You couldn't get through. It was just like, Nope, Nope, Nope. This is, we, it has to be this or, you know, or we'll have to get somebody else. And, you know, so I, I'd like to think three years later, maybe things have changed, but I, you know, and I, I don't,

For me to stay creative and to stay sane, like I don't follow anything the band does. Like I just kind of move on. My wife will look in on it to make sure that we don't need to, you know, correct something that somebody has said wrong and make a clarification. But a couple of weeks ago I got bombarded online. Everybody was sending me this clip. One of them went on Bert Kreischer podcast and Bert had asked them, what does it mean to be punk? Yeah.

and this was the guitar player. And he bold face answers. Well, being punk means pushing back against authority. Like if someone tells you, you have to do this thing, you say, why should I have to do it? And I'm like, my jaw's on the floor because I'm like, are you kidding me? Language. When I said those things, I was called a lot of things and none of them was punk. No. You know that. Well,

That blows my mind. So I'm still just kind of like, all right, well, I guess if you're in the driver's seat of everything and you're in the position of power, you're not going to have self-reflection. You're going to justify, you're going to find a way to justify why what you did was right at the time and you don't have to feel bad about it unless it's just a complete break from reality and he's rewritten history in his own mind. Sounds like it. Not here to speculate that, but...

Sorry, when I first was reading your story and everything, I was wondering if it was, I did think about the political angle, you know, thinking I wonder if they thought you're a conservative, you know, anti-vaxxer and like, you know, something like that. But then I also wonder if it was more simple than that, that that manager, especially being new and then the two band members, you know,

Was it just they thought, it's going to be too much of a pain in the ass. We're going to have to go through this, jump through this hoop just to bring him. Let's just get somebody else. It might have been more simple. They're just lazy. You mean like predetermined? Like the manager just says, I don't want to deal with that. Wouldn't it be easier just to get another drummer? Probably. I'm not privy to that. I would imagine. Like I said, I don't think it was personal. I think it was just business. But I think also they were probably confused because, you know, I've...

in a, what do you call it, a backup position, a servant's position as the drummer of this band for all these years, you know, I complied with a lot of crap, you know, that I didn't enjoy or whatever, but you go along with it. So I think they just expected that that trend would continue. And when they finally came up against something where it's like, hey, I physically can't do this. I'm not going to. I think they were confused as to like, why isn't he just doing what we want? Like this has been the

the routine and right. And I just hate it. And I, and wouldn't expect you to comment on, but it just, you know, from our experience, I just hate that you're on the road that long with your, your,

and nobody got your back. That bothers me. That really bothers me. Well, and how many times, like these guys and you with the guys in your band, after shows where you're not just rocking drinks and stuff, said, brother, so we die, man. We're family. Isn't this great? Say, we're right. And they're all saying, hello. Hey, guys, remember me? I'm your brother. You know what's funny, though? So when we were back on the road, we toured Live Nation as well. They do the tours.

And it's when we got back on the road, it was interesting because it was split down. I mean, we had a lot of guys in the crew who were wearing five, six masks around. Then you have us who were just, I mean, do we, well, I got COVID. Yeah. So right now it's crazy story. We, you know, we've been a band 29 years or whatever. And,

Like I said, some of the crew guys, tour manager and stuff, you know, Kurt got COVID and we knew he did. And they made him take a test. He's got COVID. And our tour manager at the time, who was kind of filling in for that tour, was like, well, okay, well, Kurt's got to go to the hotel and we're going to get him a van and we're going to bus him from Scranton to... Well, at first, they were going to cancel the show. They were going to cancel the show, which...

Good luck with that. People were saying that, but it did not happen. But luckily we had Jason who's... We had somebody in charge that wasn't going to go for that. And as long as you say six feet apart, it's impossible to get it. But let me tell you this. It got really... Let me tell you this. It was...

It was a major deal. It was a major deal. And it caused strife within the organization because I had COVID. But kind of back to our point before, like we're from the generation, right? That it doesn't matter what happens. You are playing the show. You don't get to say I'm sick. Well, and then, or people for that matter, when you have COVID, their tour manager at the time is saying, well, Kurt can't ride the bus.

Well, I said, well, Kurt's riding the bus. So, you know, no shit. I said, you don't have any say in the situation. It's a little bit different situation because we've, you know, the way it's set up.

for us, but he, you know, they had, yeah, Kurt's going to ride the bus. What are you talking about? You know, anyway, it was a big thing. We played the show. His text got seven mask on and a hazmat suit, you know, and our front of house guy at the time, we have the sound check on our front of house guy, you know, amphitheater, right? You're 30 yards away.

double masked out there all by himself all by himself but it was funny how you know to get to back to your story and stuff but it's funny how it split how it was split down the middle yeah and it got weird crazy it divided people it divided people and it was really hard to work in the creative world because in the creative world you had a lot of people who were really far left yeah and then you didn't you had people over here and it was uh

Did you notice how when, okay, so we start the tours back up, you know, a lot of people wanted the bands and crews to be vaccinated, but.

Hey, they didn't... You didn't... The fans didn't have to be. You didn't... Like, maybe the Foo Fighters did that for a little while where you had to show a card, but they quickly realized that, hold on, we're losing fans that way. Yeah, you put it on the crowd, bad for business. Bad for business, right? They'd say, oh, we're trying to protect the people. They're not trying to protect the people. They're trying to protect the money that's coming in. No. And let's just call it what it is, right? Because...

if you want to say that six feet apart is actually a thing, which we now know what it is or wasn't. Dr. Fauci said. Yeah, he did. He did. Everyone would have just sat down. Right. But the funny thing is, it's like, yeah, we're on this huge stage. We're fine. But the crowd who,

Who they didn't really care about if they're vaccinated or whatever. They're packed in there. Oh, yeah. No, they're out there. But they need those tickets, man. Make it make sense. Like there's a magic curtain between the. I do have a COVID question for all you guys. Okay. What is it? This one still blows my mind. I need help. I'm asking for help. Back in the craziness, coffee shops opened up or whatever. So you can go. Ouch. You can go. You can take your mask off when you're eating. Yeah.

Because that's when you spread the less germs. Because the COVID doesn't... It respects your meal. It respects the meal? Or on a plane. It respects the beverage. You're right. I just have a question. You could only have your mask off when you're eating. You could eat next to somebody with your mask off. Airplanes is what was the funny one. So the COVID doesn't go... I just didn't drink the whole time. You stand up to go to the bathroom, though. COVID doesn't follow you. You've got to put it back on. And Fauci's up there talking.

And we're all murderers. And meanwhile, behind him, there's 21 million illegals coming across the border, unvaxxed, by the way. And I'm like, what is this picture here? Here's how much nonsense the industry rules were. So since everyone is coming to me like a lighthouse and sharing their stories and their status and whatnot...

A friend of mine was on one of the really big tours that finally from the fall of 21 went out and he sent me the backstage protocol email that if you printed it, it would have looked like a phone book, right?

And in here it was, it was very much like, all right, there's four bands on this bill. Each band is its own bubble inside. And no one from any band will interact with anyone, band or crew with other bands inside your band bubble. There are sub bubbles, the stage, right? Bubble stage left. Like, you know, and these, so you had these four or five people that were in your bubble and those were the only people that they call it bubble. Yes. Oh my God. Yeah.

to interact with, you will all move together through the backstage areas, through the temperature checks, through all of this nonsense. Then, you know, and he's, this guy's on the tour and he goes, yeah, guess what happens when, you know, a crew guy, somebody tests positive for COVID.

And I was like, well, certainly you put them in a hotel for two weeks and quarantine them. And he's like, yeah, no, we put them right on a plane and send them home when we fly somebody else out. Because they don't care about the people on the plane. No, they don't care. It was about turning the money faucet back on. And that's all that mattered. You know, me losing my gig, other people, you know, losing their livelihoods. It was all just, it's nonsense. It's also a big power grab. For sure. So once you draw that line in the sand of like,

If you don't wear the mask and you don't get quadruple vaxxed, then you don't care about anybody else. And then it became political immediately, and it got really ugly. The other day, I was driving to Nashville, going to work, and I saw a lady in a car with a mask on, with both windows up. I'm like, it's over. It's over.

No, it's not. We've went through this before. The reason that happens is because there might be somebody at red light in front of that person.

And they have COVID and their windows are down and they cough and then it goes in and sucks it up through the heater, the AC. Yep. Just ask John Legend. Travis Kelsey. Sitting down in the car different than sitting down in a restaurant and COVID knows the difference. Well, yeah, and they got into the whole essential business. You said my favorite thing. COVID respects the meal. Yeah.

You paid a lot of money for that meal. Yeah. He doesn't want to infect, get on that fork. It's like, hey, I can be reasonable. Enjoy your meal. Have a good time. I'm going to wait outside. Well, since you're stand up, I'm coming. I can't. And Neil, I don't even know if I told you this, but while we're

While we're at it, full disclosure, I did get the COVID shot and I got the booster. I only did it once. Are you just telling Neil this for the first time? You knew that. I guess. Okay. I don't know if I told you. And the reason why is because you were talking about like fear, you know, so they scare everybody. And the biggest, there's two reasons.

One, my mom, who was 75 at the time, you know, I was thinking, well, we go over there all the time and I'm traveling and stuff. I don't want to bring her something, you know? Sure. Because you're watching all that. But then the other thing was the fear of income, losing income, because we'll do corporate shows, you know, just writer shows or whatever, and you fly and stuff. And I thought...

Well, what's going to happen is they're going to say, hey, you can't fly, but then you have to have two, and they're 28 days apart, and you're going to miss several thousand dollars, which could be turning your lights on that month or whatever. So I went ahead and did it.

And when you pulled in, it was at the Ag Center, like we're talking about here in Franklin. And it was military. They're all in military. They're dressed. And I thought, wow, I hadn't seen anybody in uniform since I was in uniform a long, long time ago. And you pulled in there, and it's like...

And it was weird, you know, but I had mixed feelings. Like when you got it in there, I was thinking to myself, man, what am I putting in here, you know? And then at the same time, you called mom after that and I said, well, mom, I got the poison racing through my veins for you. I love you. I was going to ask, is that what this boil is? You felt a little bit good. Yeah.

No, that's Rosacea. No, I've never thought bad about anybody that decided to get the facts. That's the whole point, though. Everybody should be able to make their own thing. I never judged anybody about anything. I made my own decision, but I never judged any of my friends that got it because I knew the fear and I felt the fear.

I just went the other way. But that's the point is that everybody should be able to make their own decision. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And that was my point. In the touring world though, it was a, it was a thing. It was heavily pushed. It was heavily pushed. And, and you know, we're in a position like you where it's like, still look, if Jason gets COVID, the show's canceled. Right. You, you, we talk about being sick, playing shows, the worst thing you can ever imagine as a player. Cause it's brutal. Um,

But we were like, okay, well, damn, you know, we were kind of made to feel like, okay, not by anybody in our camp, but just the overall industry. Well, yeah, because it's coming from the top down. It's coming from the top down. I know. You know, if one of us is COVID and we can't play, damn, that's pretty –

What are we going to do? You're costing millions of dollars. You're right. It was a tough business to be in and navigate those waters. And you navigated it the right way. And I hate that.

you're treated that way regardless of what their stance was that, that, that, you know, cause you know, it's, um, you do form. I had an easy decision. It was like, I didn't, I mean, I right here, right. I come upstairs and,

And sometimes I tell people COVID was the best thing that ever happened to my writing career because I get to zoom now, you know, and I, and I love that morning. I still do it. Neil doesn't like to leave campus very often. I still do it, but I totally get when you're,

you got the higher ups and you're dependent and somebody else is dependent on you. And there's millions and millions and millions of dollars. That's right. Totally. And again, yeah, I wasn't telling anybody what to do. It was just like, Hey, here's, here's why I'm not gonna. And you know, but it, it,

A month into their tour, everyone's emailing me, hey, your band's all got COVID. And I was like, of course they do. I'm not there to blame. But I'm just like, it's none of my business. You didn't text somebody and go, I don't. Yeah, I know, right? Well, I will say, too, you're a really big man and a good man to not have. Because you sit here and bury...

politely tell this story that would, you know, make a lot of people go over the edge. You know, 14 years, you know, with the band and people who loved you and you loved them and the families and everything just to be...

dismissed like that you know like we're expendable and we all really we we are for sure you know it's just not we know we're expendable we just don't like when it really happens well that was the thing like you know i had haters coming at me online going you're totally replaceable i'm like yeah i know that everybody is no one cares who's playing drums on pretty fly for a white guy this is a low bar that we're crawling under here but it the the point was

you know, you just don't treat people like they're expendable garbage when the week before they were family and we're all in it together. And they're so worried about COVID, which is interesting because, you know, what they do is something far worse, you know, by treating you the way they do. I'd be the same way, like send you a tremendous amount of anxiety about providing. Yeah. That's a heavy thought to like,

What do we do? How do I take care of my family? Yeah, and that was the big part of all of it because it was like, I'm not just losing this job. I'm potentially unemployable to anyone else because now I'm going to be the pariah poster child of the industry of like, don't be like that guy. You're going to ruin your life, right? And it was a... I mean, still, but it was a very...

slow long process of rebuilding like trying to figure out like okay what can I do and thankfully I had a studio in my home that we had put in when we moved here where I could track drums for people so then it was like oh okay all of a sudden I've got people going hey can you play on my song play on my song so that you know that kept us is that how you started working yeah that's that's what got me back to going and again at first I didn't want to even play drums like it just soured me on I mean you know the industry is the industry already and then for this to happen you're just like what what's the point what's the point

why, why am I keep doing this? But I had a friend of mine who reached out to me and like, you know, pretty early on. And he's like, Hey, you playing drums? And I was like, no, I'm not playing drums. And he's like, that's what I thought. And he, you know, lives up in Michigan. He's like,

I'm going to come down with my guitar. I got some songs. We're going to, you know, you can help me make my record. Right. And came down out of the goodness of his heart. And we, you know, sat in the studio for a week and, you know, put this record together, which was really fun. And then, and he's like, you know, now you're playing again. Now you're, you're back up and running. And that, that really got me moving again. And, and the, the,

The sad thing in all of it, when we're losing people who we had been close to, not just from offspring people, but, you know, other people I've known in the industry, you know, some of them couldn't run away from me fast enough to not get any on them. Right. And it was sad to be like, wow, these people that I've known forever are afraid to be seen with me in public. And they're kind of abandoning my family here. And here's all these strangers showing up going, what can we do?

How can we help? What do you need? You know, it was just really affirming of like, okay, it's not this. Yeah. There's an identity death here of, I was the guy that played drums in this really big band, but it's like, that's not, that was something I did. That's not who I am. And it was a kind of a,

having to reprogram my brain around like, all right, well, we're not doing that anymore. What's next? And, you know, so I've been doing all kinds of different stuff for the, for the last few years. Like it was, it was very much a period of just saying yes to a lot of things. Like some people, um,

someone hit me up to write a theme song for a cartoon show. I was like, yes, I can do that. Yep. No problem. Never done that before. Let's go, you know, and, you know, doing the drum tracks. And then that turned into, um, making, um, drum loop packs for a company called splice. And, you know, so I've been producing, we've probably used them. Yeah. But yeah, and I've just been able to do all of that myself out of my studio. And, and, you know, that, uh,

all that stuff trickles down and leads you in different directions to where now I'm doing more like songwriting and composing, you know, I'm composing the score for a documentary right now. And it's like all, all things that five, five years ago. Yeah. Wouldn't, wouldn't have been on my radar, but now it's like, Oh no. Yeah, I can do that. Yeah. Let's yeah. God works in mysterious ways. Really for me, the, and when my buddy came down and we, you know, we,

made his record to get me back on the drums I hadn't realized how creatively stifled I was being in the band where I was fed the script and I played the script and you know don't bring any of yourself here don't don't veer outside don't color outside the lines and it was like cool I can do that but then you realize like oh man I missed creating I missed feeling like

I added something here. So it's been really fun to be doing drum tracks for so many different people. Cause you know, I look at composing drum tracks, the same as songwriting, like, well, what can I do here? That's going to elevate this part. What's going to make, make the song lift, you know? And it's been really fun to, to get in there and kind of figure out what each song needs and what it doesn't. And like, how can I convey the most, uh,

the most amount of emotion with the least amount of information, you know, and, and that's, that's been a really fun way for me to find my way back to my creative spirit on top of everything else that, you know, we've gone through. So that's incredible. That's really cool. And like, like looking back and you've already kind of, kind of answered it. Cause you probably do look back and though it painful at the time and, and,

everything about it sucked, but then now you're talking about all the freedoms that you have. And do you, do you think, and I'm glad I'm, I'm glad that happened, you know, because now I have all the freedom to do the stuff that you just talked about. Yeah. I wouldn't say I wouldn't characterize it as glad that it happened, but I am happy with where I'm at. Okay. If that, if that makes sense, like I don't think any of that should have ever had to happen. Right. I should have been able to do my job. Other people should have been able to make different decisions about their own health and their own safety and, and,

And I understand that fear was a giant motivator for everyone. And nobody makes good decisions from a place of fear and anxiety. You just don't. And so I try to have a lot of grace for anyone, for however they handled it. I think that my guys handled it poorly. I think I was treated poorly, regardless of whether it was acting from fear or business or whatever.

What were the names of those guys? Oh, we don't do that here, do we? Offshoot. Oh, yeah. And your Buffalo Bills are doing good, so you've got to be in a good spot. You know, I'm excited for the Bills. I'm cautiously optimistic, like every year. How do you know if you have to be cautiously? Well, okay. Let's just hope it's a good time to do a field goal. Oh, God. He said it. He said it. Let's just hope. I don't think it's going to be Josh Allen. I think Josh Allen, I think...

And it's hard to bet against Mahomes because he just finds a way to win. Here goes Tully. But I will say, this is a good shot. No, the Bills look strong. That's the best shot we've had in a long time. Did you go to school with Dawson? Yeah, she went to school with Dawson Knox. Oh, nice. Oh, you did? Oh, yeah, went to Brentwood Academy. Sure did.

He's not trying. That's a stud from him. Well, this has been a fun season for me because my youngest daughter has taken an interest in football and I'm not the biggest football fan, but I've always support the bills and I've been, you know, every year we show up. You show you're there. Hold your breath. But she's really into football this year and she has decided through, through the season, she is on board with the bills now. So she's, she's all about it. I don't know if you've seen it and it's great. Well, you might not think it's great, but ESPN did a 30 for 30. I think it's a four falls of Buffalo. Oh,

It's really good. Obviously, the Super Bowl. Have you seen it yet? No. It's really good. It's really well done and heartbreaking and inspiring and all that. Are the Titans featured? Seriously, we can talk to Pete. You know how we went on? He just laughed and went on. Well, because listen, we're like seriously over time and we could talk to Pete for hours.

for hours. I'll come back another time. Hey, be a guest host. It'd be amazing. We're trying out for people on that side of the, I'll get a hat. Tell people how they can find you. I know it's at people out on Instagram. Instagram and Twitter X, whatever it's called. I don't, I don't have a Facebook. Someone on there has me as a Facebook. It's not me. I don't have Facebook. So, um,

And yeah, I mean, I have a YouTube channel that's still the same, just at Pete Parada. And my website's peeparada.com if you need drum tracks. Send me a message there. 100%. You know, check out my Splice packs. And yeah, like I'm... How do we find the Splice packs? Seriously, is it just under Pete Parada? Yeah, if you go into Splice in the search thing, if you search Pete Parada, because my name's in each of the four packs. So there's two that are more like...

pop punk punk rock yeah and there's two that are pop rock and and that kind of thing and with all the single hits the snares and like oh totally and i know yeah i need to introduce him to pat my cousin yeah you do nice oh yeah um yeah he's brilliant and as long as we're plugging pete let's plug ourselves right uh if you're watching us on youtube you gotta subscribe you gotta download you gotta like leave us a comment like this is this is gonna be a pull

episode probably and that's good leave us a comment let us know what you think we want to interact with you guys follow us at try that podcast on all the socials right ali all the socials we are rocking we're verified baby thanks thanks ali yeah uh pete we can't tell you much we appreciate you being here thanks for having me great to meet y'all absolutely this is try that and small down podcast thanks guys

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