Chuck Shute Podcast

Mark Gus Scott (Trixter drummer)

July 18, 2019 Mark Gus Scott Season 1 Episode 3
Chuck Shute Podcast
Mark Gus Scott (Trixter drummer)
Show Notes Transcript

Episode #3- Musician Mark Gus Scott

00:00- Introduction

01:05- Mark's Resume

02:17- Piano Lessons

04:32- University of Hartford Scholarship

05:33- High School Band Kids

06:58- How Mark Joined Trixter

08:55- Trixter Demos 

10:57- Touring With Stryper

12:35- Trixter #1 on MTV 

17:07- Soundtrack Song with Edgar Winter

18:20- Opening for Poison / Bret Michaels Welcome Wagon

21:45- Opening for the Scorpions / Groupies

23:13- Blood, Sweat and Beers Tour with Warrant & Firehouse

25:12- Turning Down David Lee Roth

28:37- Dial MTV is Cancelled

32:20- Kiss Tour and Gene Simmons

35:17- Undercovers Album and Beastie Boys Cover

37:09- Jani Lane

43:55- Song Royalties 

45:28- Butt Rock & Hair Metal Versus Arena Rock

47:05- More Blood, Sweat & Beers Talk

48:28- Bee Gees

50:40- Steel Panther

52:04- Music Scene, EDM, &  Electronic Drums 

54:18- The Struts & The Black Moods

55:05- Upcoming Solo Album 

58:05- Future Plans 

60:00- Hope 4 Kids International 

63:20- Summarizing it Up

64:54- AJ Perro from Twister Sister

67:05- Wrap Up and Thank You

Mark Gus Scott Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/markgusscott/

Chuck Shute Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/chuck_shute/

Hope 4 Kids International:
https://www.hope4kidsinternational.org





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Thanks for Listening & Shute for the Moon!

INTRO :

[inaudible].

Chuck Shute:

Welcome to the Chuck Shute podcast. I'm your host, Chuck Shute. Very excited that today we have a special guest Mark Gus Scott. He is the drummer from the band trickster and I'm very excited to have him on here. Even if you don't know who trickster is or you're not a fan. I think after listening to this interview, I think you'll become a fan if you're interested in music at all or especially rock music. He's got some great stories to tell. Um, and Trixter was pretty big at the time in the 90s, so, um, I used to think they still sound great. I'm like, I'm still a big fan so I'm very excited to have him on. So let's see if we can get him on the phone here. We'll just hang on one second and I'll give him a proper introduction and we'll have him on the phone.

Mark Gus Scott:

Thanks man.

Chuck Shute:

Okay. So my guest today is a classically trained musician who plays the trumpet, piano, drums, and I also learned today that he can sing a little, he is most known for his work as the drummer in the band trickster with the band trickster. He had a gold album that produced three top 100 billboard singles. They were also a three number one videos on MTV. They toured with poison kiss warrant firehouse, the Scorpions among others. He's also scored music for the movie the Monkey King put out a solo record, worked in sales and marketing for an amusement company as well as he does charity work with the troops and the hope for kids international. Please welcome Mark Gus Scott to the show. Mark. How you doing?

Mark Gus Scott:

Hi Chuck, it's an honor to be here. Thanks so much for having me buddy. And by the way, I need a new resume written. Can you help?

Chuck Shute:

I am actually terrible with resumes, but I mean probably because mine is so empty, but yours has a lot more than I have, so yeah.

Mark Gus Scott:

You know, I used to flip burgers at Philadelphia steak and stuff back in Paramus park when I was 16, so I want to wish them put that in there as well.

Chuck Shute:

Okay. Yeah. You've been all over the place. So you are actually classically trained in music, Mozart, all those guys. You played the piano, the trumpet. Um, and then you, you grew up in the east coast in a town called Paramis New Jersey. And uh, I wrote Paramus, sorry. Uh, I heard that your mom, she actually went to the high school that the movie and the TV show fame or filmed down and that she made you play the piano.

Mark Gus Scott:

Correct. She uh, you know, it's kind of funny. She, she did make me play the piano and for people that, I guess for people that bad, bad that aren't into music, it's maybe a little hard for them to relate that the piano will have all, has the whole of the whole keyboard right in front of you. And so the idea of getting to visualize the music that you're going to play, I think it's the only instrument guitar may come close because it does have a breadboard and I guess you can place it, but they're, the keys of a piano is every darn note. That's basically it. W W within music. The advantage of seeing everything in front of you before you even play it is it's something that piano overs that no others are really does to that extent.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. Well it's funny cause my, my parents made me take piano lessons and I hated it. But so you just kind of persevered and then you ended up playing the drums obviously. And Yeah,

Mark Gus Scott:

believe me, I was not into, I was like seven, eight years old when I started and I really wasn't into it. I mean it was kind of cool, but let me rephrase that. It wasn't cool. You know, I sort of just did it, cause that's a mom told me that, but I wanted to take a stick and beat the crap out of a drum. Let's, let's get real, you know? So, and then I started taking with classical teachers and I was like, I'll be honest, I wouldn't mind doing that now. Right. I know. I forgot a lot of piano that I used to know when I was a little kid and know it because of a bad attitude or just rock and roll, you know? And I guess some guys become keyboard players like Dave Brian from Bon Jovi, greatest panics I've ever seen plays and baby's freaking amazing and he's classically trained. That's son of a gun can really play. And when you put a rocket on something like that, you become a dangerous force in music. You know what I mean? I really wish I had more talent on the keyboard that I was probably better when I was a little kid.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. Well, so you obviously have the talent, so that kind of helped you going with it. And then in high school you got the, the scholarship, which is still confused how you got a scholarship as a sophomore, you got a scholarship to the university, University of Hartford's Hart School of music.

Mark Gus Scott:

It was a, it was a thing for excellence in music. The Hart School of Music at the University of Hartford, they have a summer youth music program and a, when you get on this thing, there's kids from all over the country that go to, this kid's from Canada come in and it's an opportunity for high school kids that have musical excellence to get together, work under a great conductor and work with the staff of the college. And you actually get college credit for attending the school in the summertime. And I did it for my sophomore, junior, and senior year of high school. So we all got together and uh, we, uh, put together a double album of classical music every summer. So it was Kinda cool. That was the mission. You have to come together, play in and learn, advance our skill and then actually make a record, which was like the coolest.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. So, and you said that, um, like a lot of the kids that were in band were called, were called names like band fag and stuff, but you were cleared everybody, right, the football players and everybody was like[inaudible]. Okay.

Mark Gus Scott:

Yeah, it's kind of funny with being in trickster. I saw it, I saw the perks early on. I joined the band, I joined Trisha when I was 16. And uh, it was uh, I was a hot shot trumpet player at the time and we used to wear those big white hats, you know, like dips on our heads and as the band would be exiting the, or the field, we'd do it in a straight line and we'd walk off the field and the football players be like at the end. And you know, a couple of guys with knocking the qtip heads as you would walk by wagon. But when they came up to me and said, hey guys, how you doing it? And I got a pass. You know, the thing in high school was a weird thing. I kind of was the guy. I was like the variable. I kind of crossed over into the nerds. I crossed over to the jocks. I crossed over to the stones. I was with the losers, I was with everybody, you know what I mean? It was just a social button up, I guess. Number one. I was a social kind of guy, but being in the band certainly offered latitude to cross those lines and I wasn't complaining. It was cool.

Chuck Shute:

So I love the story too about how you joints tricks or, so actually they were called raid back in the day and you really wanted to be a part of it, but they already had a drummer. So you said you volunteered to be the lighting guy for the, I've never heard of a high school band having a lighting guy. Is that pretty common or?

Mark Gus Scott:

Well, they, well, here's the thing. If the high school, if you're going to have a show at a high school, they have lights. Someone's got to flip them on and off, you know? So I volunteer.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, that's so smart because you got your foot in the door, which I think a lot of people nowadays with millennials and things, they just want to like, they want to be the CEO of the company right away. They don't want to just start at the bar. You are willing to be a lighting tech just to get your foot in the door. I think that's pretty cool. And then it ended up working out

Mark Gus Scott:

kind of like the, you know, here and here. Here's, here's a real world, uh, scenario. Uh, when I, uh, uh, yeah, I, there was a time I wasn't with the band and uh, I started working for, like you said earlier, amusement company. So I'm using parts and stuff like that. Uh, I could, you know, I went to a concept called Dave and busters sales manager for them for a little while and uh, did you know, did some pretty wild stuff. But you know, you could be a king of one concept. You've got to a new concept, something new that, that has an infrastructure. For instance, Dave and Buster's have 44 locations nationwide, each location doing an excess of$11 million. You know, they have$1 billion company. So the idea that you're going to walk in and start at the top, even if you had a fantastic track record yet to learn why certain things like that work, how they have become so successful. And the idea of starting at the top and not knowing what the concept of the special particulars are, what made the concept great, you're doing yourself and the company a disservice. So we'd, like you said, to start at the top is unrealistic and also just foolish. You want to learn those little things that make the company special. I'm talking like stung with a mop bucket in the fricking kitchen.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. So you started the lighting guy. Yeah. And then you played the drums and then you guys, even as a band, you start at bottom, but even an eight. So in 87 you were playing, sold out, cry to sold out crowds with, with bands like skid row and kicks. But you didn't have a record label yet. And then finally in[inaudible] 88 you got your first album recorded, you recorded a demo, kind of like just having fun, which was never released, and then you guys ended up switching.

Mark Gus Scott:

And where are you getting this info? I mean, it's correct what the just happened. One thing. Most people don't know that. That's pretty funny.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, isn't that what it was called?

Mark Gus Scott:

Well, well, there was two things for, we first did a demo in 86 produced by the great John Christian paramas who was in a band messiah. He played with Ray Gillans from battling there. Does a lot of real thick jersey stuff here. You know what I mean? Real real boom by history. I'm telling you what, it would have been an amazing thing to play on a demo for the first time and why the songs were great and we made a little package. You know, it's kind of funny because we were still in school. Everything we did in school, we tried to gear towards the band. So when we made our demo, we printed our cassette with, at the time was cassettes. We printed our cassette in certain graphics class, we did a printing or woodshop and it was all geared towards making logos for the bandwidth. You know, everything we did, we made flyers to, to promote shows. So you know, in making the demo we made our real product because it was a homework.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah,

Mark Gus Scott:

we, it was kind of funny. But the first, the first demo, I don't think it had title, just trickster and it was a five song demo. Then we did the just having fun thing I guess. And that was a bunch of different songs and, but,

Chuck Shute:

and some of those, 1988,

Mark Gus Scott:

that's when we met our management, uh, shark entertainment, Joel Wine Shanker and Ken Maaco and a, that's when things started to happen. They recorded, I'm trying to think how many songs that we put the, they, they, they made us do new demos to shop for record labels. And I'm trying to re, we didn't call it anything. It was just, it's a new demo, right?

Chuck Shute:

Sure. Absolutely. So then you finally got the record deal in 89 and you started recording. It was released in 90 and then the first two or the first big tour you guys did with was with a striper, which is a Christian metal band. So what's that like compared to other, was it that much different? I mean, people always think how these stereotypes in their head.

Mark Gus Scott:

Hmm.

Chuck Shute:

Hey,

Mark Gus Scott:

I'm just catching, I just have some ice tea in my mouth the first off. You know, it's funny when people say stripe or the Christian metal band. Yes they are. But you know, they have, I always looked at them as in a band that had great songs that when they played, I was happy. I was, you know, I used to, I used to practice their songs in my basement. Robert Sweet. The drummer was like a hero of mine. You know, he was a fantastic frickin player. Michael Sweet sang like a son of a gun. Tim Gains on Bass and Os Fox on guitar. I mean we looked up to those guys like, Whoa, that they were something special. Uh, so you know, then going out with them dating, walk around and like, you know, put the sign of the cross on your floor. And they were like, hey guys, how you doing?

Chuck Shute:

Did they wear those uh, the yellow and black striped outfits on that tour

Mark Gus Scott:

at the time they had green and black,

Chuck Shute:

if I'm not mistaken,

Mark Gus Scott:

but they, they, they weren't totally like the yellow and black.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. I got you

Mark Gus Scott:

more lax about it I think. But the theme of the theme of the record, we were out, it would be a against the law. What was the name of the record they were promoting at the time or was 1990 end of 1990.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. It's gotta be super exciting. I mean there were definitely a big band and then you toured with Don Dokken and then your videos started getting stuffed when they started getting airplane. MTV give it to me good. Was it stayed at number one for five straight weeks, right?

Mark Gus Scott:

More, I think it was eight we, yeah. Good was number one for eight weeks, I believe. Yeah.

Chuck Shute:

That's crazy.

Mark Gus Scott:

Yeah, it was even crazy. Do you know it's not how long it stays there. Well, I mean I guess it is, but it's the ID that we just made the countdown. I'm at[inaudible] number seven and we all looked at each other like, is this really happened? It was just so weird, you know, like we've tried for a, first off we had, we didn't just get on MTV. We had a, we had a challenge when the record first came out. Uh, we went to major radio and you know, the bigger radio stations and we were doing very well on uh, on southern gold xerox back in the time there was a big gun syndicate radio station across the country of several stations called Xerox. And that was a rock radio station man. And we, we were knocking it out on that level. A lot of, a lot of that, what they refer to as[inaudible], you know, like album oriented rock radio. We were, we were doing very well, very well. And unfortunately we wanted to graduate to that next level, get on the big commercial hit radio station. And we went to those big, like z 100 in New York or pirate radio in a, in La. So we would go, we'd go and knock on their door and they were like, Oh hey, we saw you're doing well at what's MTV doing with that song? And we were like, oh shoot, we're not IMT. They were screwed. Okay. So we go to MTV, we made a nice video, bring back, we a MTV play our video player of, hey, we're, we're getting added on all these stations. Then just starting to rock and roll. We're moving along. Oh yeah, it looks pretty good guys. What's made your radio doing with it? We're like, damn it. Now what are we going to do? You know? So I gotta tell you what the big, the big next level break for us was getting an opportunity I MTV called smash your trash

Chuck Shute:

Andy

Mark Gus Scott:

to me, good on a smasher trash. Uh, and then the purview that don't know what it is. It's an opportunity for the MTV. We'll play the song and then the host comes on and says, okay, that's trickster. If you'll like it, call this number and say it's a smash. If you're adult like it, call this other number. Say it sucks or it's a trash, let me, you know, it's a weird position to be put in when you're letting someone else dictate your future, you know? Now what would happen if the song came out and everybody said, off sock, these guys blow by by my career could have been right then and there. You know, so scary. Thank God. Yeah, we smashed it around 84% I think it was, I can't remember the exact in the 80s so yeah, so that offered us the opportunity to get put into medium rotation. I mean, they would play us a couple o f times a day or something like that. You know, I don't know exactly how much, but medium rotations, what they r eferred to it a s. W ell that's pretty cool, you know, at least o n MTV. So now that we're on N CV, we started to get some of that radio station p lanes started to grow and maybe we started getting played a little bit more i n MTV. And then something magical happened. We got on dial MTV, we became one of the most requested videos of the day and we entered the charts a t number seven on MTV, on dial, MTV, the top 10 videos every, every day t hey had a recap of what the top 10 most requested videos were. And we c hecked, came in a t number seven a couple of weeks, couple of weeks later, i t was number five a nd a couple of weeks later went up t o number three. You know, and we were on tour was D undalk and yeah, our manager comes in a nd soundcheck and he goes, guys, we need to have a conversation. Everybody g et back t he goddamn d ressing r oom. Like, l ike I just, I just smashed a hotel room a couple weeks b ack j ust a week before. And I said, O h y es. So I was scolded for that. It's kind of funny, even though t hat everybody kind of worked for o ld management. You work with management, y ou k now, b ut, a nd it's f un. But the thing is they try, n ot t hat they personally tried to make, but we were very young. So the idea that we were doing this, I was 22 years old and I was the middle guy. PJ was fricking 16 you know? Yeah. Let's see. He's four years younger than me. So at the time it maybe was 18 that we were actually out. He signed the record that he was 16 years old.

Chuck Shute:

Wow. So you guys, and then during this time, around this time, you recorded a song, one more time for the movie. If looks could kill with Richard Grieco. I've always wondered about that with songs on soundtracks. Did they just ask you guys to record us? Did you have to watch the movie and then, you know, make the song geared towards the movie or was it just like give us a song, any song and we'll play it?

Mark Gus Scott:

Well, in some instances when you do movie work, yes. You, they show you visual in that sense that it was just Steven Pete, that a, we're in La and I think somebody had an idea for something. They had an in with the producer and they said we need a song though with this sort of catchphrase or something like that. They were, there are inklings that they will, I got, I wasn't they, I actually didn't play on this song. No, but they do just Steve in p and a did because they did it. They'd put the tricks, their label on it.

Chuck Shute:

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I think Edgar winter played saxophone. I was like, you should have played the trumpet or something. That would have been cool.

Mark Gus Scott:

You know we said la session or something like that and Steve P, Jack, Steven and Pete were around and they pull it off and they just stuck the Trixter label on it.

Chuck Shute:

Okay, sure. So meanwhile your debut is climbing up the charts. The songs are getting played on the radio t hat y ou've got three number one videos o n MTV and then you end up opening for Poison. So y ou g ot t o tell me s omething with Poison like, c ause t hey partied pretty hard back in the day, right? I mean I've, I've seen the behind the music. So what was that like?

Mark Gus Scott:

Well first off the idea, but we got the call saying we were going out with Poison. That was, that was a big thing for us. That was going to be our first arena show. So I mean that was the big dream come true. So, we, we, we get there and we're in the dressing room. It was really weird, you know, and it was the big time. And Brett Michaels comes walking in, our dressing goes, hey man, what's going on? You know, wanted to welcome you to the tour. Listen, after the show, uh, come to our dressing room. We have like a big dinner back there and when you come at guys have dinner with us, get the freak out of here. You kidding me? T hat's like good. The coolest freaking t hing. G ood. Y ou c an e ven say we do t he show, everything goes great. W e're in and out, We g otta visualize t his a little weird. The showers i n i t, in the dressing rooms, in the arenas. It's like one big concrete room with like 10 shower nozzles. So you're like showering all together. You know what I'm saying? T hat's h ow I f elt l ike, you know, like, I don't know if you've seen movies where a sports team is, y ou k now, i n t he locker room after, right. It's a locker room shower for the most part. That's, you know, nine times out of 10 that's what the showers are like at an arena. You know, we're, so w e're the band w here w e're showering after the show and i n c omes Brett with these five strippers.......and they're all carrying champagne bottles and he marches the girls right into the shower while we're showering. So he says boys,"welcome to the tour"

Chuck Shute:

This is just like an average night or was this because of the welcoming committee kind of thing?

Mark Gus Scott:

You know, this is, you know, it's kind of weird. It's funny when people always ask, oh, tell me a road story, tell me the road story. And honestly, it's hard to put it to just put it into story form because some kind of crap happened every day. You know, it's like just another thing that happened. So, you know, but I mean that one, I guess it's the first night of a Poison tour and i s a very big night for us. And I g otta tell y ou, Brett made the experience something special. He made it something to remember. He made m e, I m ean, I knew it was a very big night for us and he knew it. You know, he knew what it was like to be in that position. He pushed it over the edge to make it right, to make it, y ou k now, something so amazing. Cool. How cool was that?

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, I've heard, I've heard so many stories about our cool, are you still friends with him? I know he lived in Arizona for awhile. I don't know if he still does, but

Mark Gus Scott:

still has a home in Arizona and he, yeah, he's not far. And I see him from time to time when he plays. Uh, we, we see each other. We played shows together. But you know, it's funny, he actually gave us the, he helped put Trixter back together for the, when we got back it, well, he, I guess poisoned had a longstanding contract with clear channel. Then every time they came around they needed a new opening act. So he called one year, I think it was 2006. And he said, hey, listen tricks. And when he come over for poison and we weren't together, he says, listen, when he get your act together, here's the number of my agents. Give him a call and you know, let's get something cooking over here and you guys who maybe he'll represent you. So we call him, guess what? He became our agent and our second show back was opening for poison.

Chuck Shute:

Oh, that's awesome. So going back to the, to the nineties, uh, then you ended up opening for the Scorpions in Germany. And this is a story I found. It's kind of interesting.

Mark Gus Scott:

The US Canada thing we did, we didn't do Europe. I wish we did.

Chuck Shute:

But you did the Scorpions tour. And I guess this is a story I found. It was kinda interesting. So you guys had this kind of code, which I know that, Poison did this too, but you guys had a code on the Scorpions tour that if you gave the roadie, um, a girl, a girl, if the roadie gave the girl a pass, they would always say it was leftover from the Tulsa tour. So that was kind of like your code, you know, that's how

Mark Gus Scott:

Where did you get this from dude?

:

I did my research. I did my research

Mark Gus Scott:

Dude, I gotta tell you, you're good. And yes, you are correct, you are accurate, but you're giving away all the important information.

Chuck Shute:

Well that's not the code. I'm sure there's a new, yeah, there's a new code. But I, that's always interesting to hear stuff like that. So you Kinda knew, all right, this is how the girl got the best. So that stuff does go on like quite a bit. Right?

Mark Gus Scott:

Well, the reason why we use Tulsa pass, here's the real reason. Tulsa as in Tulsa, Oklahoma, if you spell Tulsa backwards, it spells a slut.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, exactly.

Mark Gus Scott:

The funny part is you better watch your ass when you're actually playing Tulsa, If you're playing Oklahoma that night. All bets are off.

Chuck Shute:

Everybody's got a Tuls a pass. So you need a new code.

Mark Gus Scott:

Careful who you sleep with.

:

Yeah, absolutely. So, so you did that tour, and then the big one, which I know you've talked about this many times is the Blood, Sweat and Beers tour, which I love the name of was 91 in June of 91. I think it started with Warrant and Firehouse. And you've been quoted as saying this grossed more than the Whitney Houston tour, which kind of surprised me but not really c ause t hat you guys were so big back in t he, u h, at that point. U m, so there has to be

Mark Gus Scott:

Well there are two factors. Yeah. I mean as far as like the Whitney Houston, quote, true. It grows more. But by the same token, we did several more dates than, than Whitney did. For every one show she did, we would play five.

Chuck Shute:

Okay. Well that makes sense. But still it's a good statistic to put

Speaker 5:

out there anyways.

Mark Gus Scott:

Yeah. Just tell, yeah, exactly. But what a special time that was. It really was a very special time.

Chuck Shute:

Right. So, and then you, I mean there has to be some shenanigans on this tour too because I'm going to sum it up.

Mark Gus Scott:

Sure. Church on a Daily basis. I ate the water, the body of Christ.

Chuck Shute:

Right. But have you seen the movie, the dirt? I mean, was there, is that kind of stuff, was it as crazy as the movie, the dirt with Motley Crue or was it tamed down a little bit. I mean you're not under oath, you're not, you can change the names if you need to, but what's the wildest story you remember from that tour?

Mark Gus Scott:

First up, you made comparisons to the dirt, the dirt. It wasn't that they were, there's an accurate reflection of what happened with Ozzy and with Motley Crue. There's some accurate stuff in that movie, I'll say when it came to urinating on the ground and then trying to lick it up. We did not do stuff quite like that.

Chuck Shute:

That's probably a good thing. Yeah.

Mark Gus Scott:

That being said, there was other stuff that we might have done that might've paralleled that sort of thing. Yeah. But you know, when women's bodies are involved in, you know, you know, you get, you get some latitude to find that socially accepted.

Chuck Shute:

Oh my gosh, sounds pretty crazy.

Mark Gus Scott:

You know what the real cool thing about that whole tour, we didn't think it would be as big as it was. We thought, it would be good, a nd here's a real funny story. Well, not funny, but interesting story that a lot of people don't know. And, and, and a part of me feels like, I shouldn't even tell it, but we got a call, we got a call from David Lee Roth. H e said, hey boys, we want you to come out and tour with Dave t his summer i t's going to be a great freaking package. Like holy crap. N ow V an Halen, they were our g ods. GODS. So the idea of opening for Dave and I had just, u h, I way before, before I actually worked for Dave at, the Meadow Lands arena on his birthday as, as like a roadie dude. And he was so freaking, he was so nice. The guys in the band, Bi lly Sheahan a nd Gr eg Bissonette w ere the nicest guys. It was crazy. He even played, he played the Trixter demo tape backstage at his birthday party. So it was like, it was so cool. Dave, So I guess, you know, he kept us in mind or something that, so we were moving up. He said, we, you know, guys, come on Open for David Lee Roth, And we were like, holy cow, we're gonna open for Dave! Like I can't believe It!. I can't. Then Warren called and Warren said, listen, we're putting this together. It's going to be W arren trickster firehouse. Let's go out. And we're like, dude, we're going with Dave. We're going with Dave. And our management said, Whoa, Whoa, whoa, boys. Let's have a talk about this. A nd w e're like, how do we mean have a talk? It's David Lee Roth. How c an we not blah, blah. And u h, y ou k now, we, u h, we, we w ere l istened to our management and good management. This is, a lot of people don't understand why you have a manager and here's exactly why you have a manager. And we had a good manager. He said, boys, David Lee Roth Eat'Em and Smile, kicked ass, love them. They did very, very well. The next album Skycraper not doing so well. You know Dave, we really, he needed a strong opener. I guess that's why he called we, you know, we were, we were the best new band, Hit Parader magazine where we were arguably one of the, one of the, one of the top opening acts you can get.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. You had the Metal Edge spectacular. That was entire issue dedicated to you guys, right?

Mark Gus Scott:

Yeah. Well yeah, we're very, very fortunate things are going well. So management sits us down and says, you know, hey, Warrant has got a new Cherry Pie record, it's kicking ass.. Firehouse hot off the presses. T hat r ight out o f t he box. They got a top 40 hit with t he Don't Treat Me Bad. And that Love of a Lifetime was in the bullpen a bout ready to freaking bust. W ow. And you guys, you have three number one videos on MTV. Now, do you know what kind of package this is g oing t o be? This is, this is target marketing to the demographic of people that buy that stuff. And you know what? Management was right. Our he arts s aid, Dave, Dave, Dave. How ca n w e possibly consider someone else? But you know what, from a strategic standpoint, from analyzing the situation, that's what a manager does, to direct the ba nd i n the right way. Because you know what, it ended up being the best Goddamn tour of 1991. And it was, it helped me buy my house. So, you know. It's like... Yeah. S o I mean, a lot of people don't understand the b ack s tuff and I think t hat's, i t's important to shed some light on, y ou k now, people make that mistake, those mistakes today. A nd t hey, I see. A nd it's like, what the hell are you doing man? To have an objective viewpoint, to have great guidance. It's such a valuable thing to have, man. And I g o t to te ll you, we had to, we didn't do it by ourselves. We had a lot of help along the way and we were very, very fortunate in that regard.

Chuck Shute:

Very cool. So then, um, after that tour, then you ended up, uh, in October, I think of 92, you, you finally released your second album, which was called here. And I love that single, the first single road of a thousand dreams where you kind of surprised like MTV. Did you guys even make a video for it? Cause MTV didn't play the video. The song didn't really do much on the road where you kind of surprised cause it's, I think it's a really good song, really melodic, really great opening. Like

Mark Gus Scott:

let me tell you something very interesting happened between 1991 and 92. Uh, we uh, we, we had three number one videos and him to be the third one being surrender. It debuted at number two when number one and the first two or three days and it was number one for two weeks and it was the big crossover hit the rock power ballad, blah blah, blah. It was good. So it was great. But that's something very interesting happened. One day we were number one on MTV and the next day we were off MTV.

Chuck Shute:

Right, because they cut the program. Right. They cut dial into the still

Mark Gus Scott:

dial. MTV. The top 10 countdown was abolished. This, we were the last number one video ever be played on MTV. Huh? We dyed it, number one. So the weird part is this was during the blood, sweat and beers to tour with warrant and firehouse. So imagine this scenario, we're selling out places like the world amphitheater, Chicago, 33,000 people in an amphitheater sold out and MTD is not playing your video. How the hell does that happen?

Chuck Shute:

Right? That doesn't make much sense to happen

Mark Gus Scott:

if it's fricking happen. So the weird things, we standing on stage, everyone's going freaking crazy and MTV won't play your videos. Like what? What would we do? Did we sleep with somebody, daughters,

Chuck Shute:

something like that. You know,

Mark Gus Scott:

w w I swear to God, we were scratching their head and you know the checks coming in and anyway, and we're walking from town to town and everything's going wonderful and we live where we're on the radio stations and MTV gave us the shift and it wasn't just us, it was everybody. If you look at that period in time, look at Bon Jovi, look at def leopard. They had albums like a Bunjil be had slippery wet. Then they had New Jersey. Their next album was keep the space. What do you think their sales difference was between New Jersey and keep the faith in America? They did not have the supportive MTV. Same thing with def Leppard. They had, uh, what the heck was it? They had, uh, pyromania than hysteria. And then, you know, after that they had a reduction in sales about 70%.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. Geez.

Mark Gus Scott:

Now trickster, that sold a million records, roughly when you lose 70% of your sales, you know that, that's like a very substantive in any business. Do you have a 70 to 70% decline inside of a year? You bet you better frigging get your act together or something. And I'll tell you what, we, uh, W it was a, it was a big hit and I mean it was a big, you know, negative knock. It was that whole industry change.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. So I'm a little bit younger, so it's actually funny because I didn't really get into this kind of music until I was in about eighth grade, which was like 91, 92. And I just started getting into it. This girl played a skid row record and I loved, I was like, this is amazing. And then I started getting into like trickster and all these guys. And then a, and I, this is funny because I was living in Seattle in the, in this at this time, so I was living in Seattle in the 90s and I was getting into poison and trickster and, and all this kind of uh, hard rock music and then grind

Mark Gus Scott:

x factor over that. That's interesting.

Chuck Shute:

I totally wasn't, I was always, I was always looking when some of the bands were still touring in the 90s but they would never come to Seattle. So it was just, it was frustrating for me at the time too. But then there was kind of a resurgence later on. Um, but anyways, going back to 92 so you really set out many ways and regardless of how it was doing or whatever, you still got an opening shot with kiss. So tell me about that. Cause I know you're a big kiss fan and you got to hang out with gene Simmons and eat a dinner with gene Simmons all the time. And I mean that. Are you still in touch with him at all? Are you guys still friends or,

Mark Gus Scott:

you know, I haven't seen him in a long time to be honest with you, but I, you know, it's really strange. I, I guess at a certain point I, you, I, I left the band and, and I started a new life and I kind of know, didn't, didn't keep in touch with many music people. So it's been a long time since I've seen Jean. Uh, but I remember touring with them and getting close with him was something very special to me. I mean, gene was one of my big idols and he, even though he might not have been a drummer, there was something about his character that identified with and, and whatnot. And I gotta Tell Ya, the, the, you know, getting friendly with him and hanging out with him was a real, really, really cool. And I thought it even just as a person in private and he was really a cool guy.

Speaker 5:

Yeah, I actually read it.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. I read his book the other day about power or something. It's really, it's a short little book, but he's a smart guy. Real, not only musically, but like as a, from a marketing standpoint, he knows how to market his band and, and uh, the brand of kiss. I mean, it's huge because of, I think he's kind of in ways that you've gotta say he's kind of a marketing genius really. So

Mark Gus Scott:

I think, you know, I think there's also a factor a lot of people tend to overlook. And it's a weird factor. It's the factor of putting your balls up. Uh, and, and I, I'm trying to find just the right way of saying it sometimes. And I've learned this more as becoming, let's say, a solo artist. And, you know, it's kind of weird, I guess for even me to say that I never wanted to have that strong ego. It's like me, me, me, me, I will not that kind of person. So let me tell you something. If you want to be fucking Madonna, you better fucking step out of the limo first and tell everyone up. Get the fuck out of the way. You know what I mean? You see what I'm saying? Character. Yeah. That's a weird character trait to possess when you're really not an egotistical bashing. You don't have to be egotistical bastard, fine line between promoting your brand brand first and being a son of a bitch about it.

Chuck Shute:

That's why I named my podcast...

Mark Gus Scott:

Yeah, you want to be a Mariah Carey. You want to be that next level. You want to be still Kyland. Let me tell you some if your, if your album says Phil Collins, no jacket required, then you must promote Phil fucking Collins. You know what I'm saying? To some people, you know, you think it's a fine line between egotistical and strong brand. So I think gene Simmons is in tune with pushing the brand and you know it. You know people joke about it now because he, you know, he certainly can blur that line.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. I remember that one time there was a video of somebody interviewing him. The Guy was wearing an iron maiden tee shirt and gene Simmons like, you need to take off that iron maiden tee shirt and put on a kiss tee shirt. I mean, I was like, is he serious right now? Like he, I mean, he's kind of funny about it too.

Speaker 5:

He probably was. Yeah.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. So then going back to the 90, so then, um, you know, that album wrapped up, uh, so the 90s, obviously it was a little bit real rougher time. So you guys ended up parting ways with your label and then you, you did an independent album in 1994 called undercovers, which was basically a covers EAP, which I love by the way, especially as a, as a younger kid. Some of those songs I wasn't familiar with, so you of brought those songs to my attention. Um, but you covered one song that I did, obviously no was a fight for your right to party by the Beastie boys. And there's a line in that and I think you sing some of that, right.

Mark Gus Scott:

It's Kinda funny.[inaudible] it all started when we were on the warrant tour particularly. Uh, we, we, we were, our first tour was 13 months long. We did about 312 shows in 13 months. So we, and we pretty much played the same songs every night. So I, after a while we're like, dude, we got to mix this up. We gotta keep it fresh. So we did something crazy. Uh, we switched instruments. PJ, we'll se drums. Steve would play Bass, Pete would play guitar and I was the singer. So we went out and we said, what song could we do all change this? And we did two, we did rock and roll by led Zeppelin and we did buy fear, right? The party. So it was just a weird thing that we started doing. So on our own shows we would go out and we even did in the arenas where we would,

Chuck Shute:

oh, I didn't know that. Oh Wow. So there's a line in that song. There's a line in the Beastie boys song says, mom, you're just jealous. It's the Beastie boys. But you don't know who came up with this. You changed the line to mom. You're just jealous. Cause Daddy likes boys. And I thought type

Mark Gus Scott:

where it's my first off. It was a transformation. It started first as a BC boy's life and then we did it on the road with Warren firehouse every night. All three bands would come out at the end and do five for your right to party. And Janie Lane changed the words to it's firehouse trickster and the fucking down boys to make the lie rhyme. So when we recorded it for our own records, we had that. We changed it. So I don't know, I'm not the one that came up with it.

Chuck Shute:

Oh that's, that's awesome. But I gotta ask.... So you just mentioned Janie Lane and I got to say like, I was so bummed when he died because I never got to see Warrant with Jani Lane. Cause again, I grew up in the Seattle and the 90s they never came. I did see them with the other singers. But were you close with him or did you, did you, were you sad when that happened? Obviously you were sad, but were, I mean, were you, was it a hit you pretty hard because you were close with him or is he kind of more just someone the and talked to in a long time?

Mark Gus Scott:

Well, no, you know, it first off it, the time that we spent with them in the 90s it was a long time before his passing. And when we were touring together, Jani and I were pretty tight. We, uh, he taught me how to drink Tequila.

Chuck Shute:

Ahhh...

Mark Gus Scott:

he is. I mean, he was a generous guy. He led the party. He had that, you know, we talked about the, the fine line between promoting your brand. He was, he, he was that strong ego, the leader, the one that, that, that, that said, you know, the ah, follow me fellas, you know, he was the general that went out on the horse in front of the troops a nd instead of being the guy in the back sipping tea, pointing his finger f or w herever else to go, he was the guy that rode out on the horse and said,"Follow Me!". You know, that was him. That was his attitude. So I g o tta t ell you, man, I' ve n ever seen anyone party as hard as that and then get out on stage and kick everyone's ass every, let me tell you something, dude. We did a lot of shows together and every night he would walk out there an d n o matter how much he had to drink the night before, how much he s moked or whatever, he would go o ut there and he would kick fucking ass every night. He didn't cop out on the high not e. H e sounded great. He not he in that regard, he was supernatural. KICKING ASS.

Chuck Shute:

Okay. So yeah, so it just caught up with him basically is what happened... as you get older, you can't do that as much, right?

Mark Gus Scott:

I think I, I wasn't there, but I think later in life he had some demons and I think at a certain point I think, I think a lot of us flirt with this sort of thing but, but some people more than others and I think at a certain point you have a lack of caring.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah.. it's sad.

Mark Gus Scott:

It's a very sad thing. A very sad thing.

Chuck Shute:

It was sad to hear he hated the Song Cherry Pie. I love that song. I love that whole record. And I didn't know the whole story about it, how his management or the record company made him write that, that he didn't really wanna do. He thought the record was done without it, and then they made them go back in and finish that song and then it created and became a huge hit and he hated it. He resented that. That's really interesting to me, right,

Mark Gus Scott:

that, you know, it's a weird thing and it can be a personal thing for an artist also, but it's a lot of times, you know, like I told, we talked about management and perspective and I think, you know, there's a big difference between having a hit single and having a great song, not necessarily synonymous, you know what I mean? To have the objectivity, like how many of y'all, I don't know if you're familiar with a band called Green Jello.

Chuck Shute:

Oh, absolutely.

Mark Gus Scott:

Little pig Little pig, Let me in, not by the hairs of my Chinny Chin. Now someone came up to me and said, Gus you gotta record this, it's gonna be a freaking top 40 hit! I'd tell'em, get the fuck out of my house!

Chuck Shute:

yeah, you're not going to be doing a cover of the Macarena or anything anytime soon.

Mark Gus Scott:

That I would consider. Yea h, you look, so I'm just looking at it from a standpoint of being in a guy like Jani Lane who has credibility, who has hits under his belt, and then a record company says, you've got to do this and it, she's my cherry pie, now, I don't want to knock the song. I mean, I l ike the song t oo. But I could see it from his perspective.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, he was, I think he's underrated. He's an underrated musician. I mean h e, I think he was a musical genius in my opinion. Some of the best songs he wrote like Stronger Now. No one's ever heard that song. And I think it's, I think it's like genius. I think it's great. But yeah, there's just, i t w as just one of those things where he got labeled in that as the Cherry Pie guy as he said and maybe that's what k ind o f hurt him too. And they got,

Mark Gus Scott:

let me tell you, if people dig deep into what Warrant's music was all about, uh, I think you're going to hear something that's special and what, what do I mean by that? A lot of the melody lines that you hear, what makes a great song? And again, there is a difference between a hit song and a great song, but a might've been hits like Cherry Pie to get let's say a Warrant on that upper national, international scale of, of uh, we are headlining artists kind of thing or that kind of recognition. But it's the depth of the stuff that they did that weren't maybe weren't hits as big as cherry pie, but things like Sometimes She Cries or Song and Dance Man, I mean there's some beautful... Blind Faith.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, the melodies, but also the lyrics. He was a really good song lyric writer. I think so.

Mark Gus Scott:

Absolutely. Because I, at the end of the day, and everybody had their contributions though, it was a whole band is friggin fantastic. Joey Allen, fricking Jerry Di xon, Erik Turner. St even Sweet. Let me tell you, these guys we re a cohesive unit an d t hey went and they kicked ass every night and now th ey're w ith Robert Mason.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah.

Mark Gus Scott:

A good friend of mine.

Chuck Shute:

He's a great singer. He lives in Arizona too. So

Mark Gus Scott:

Let me tell you something, that son of a bitch has got pipes.

Chuck Shute:

Oh, I know. He was in Lynch Mob too...

Mark Gus Scott:

dude. Yeah, he has, he's, he's one of the top singers in the industry. He sang with everybody. He's an older, newer stuff he's doing with the end machine... Holy Crap!

Chuck Shute:

Oh yeah. That's the one with the other guys from Dokken, r ight. Or G eorge L ynch? Y eah. I want to hear that.

Mark Gus Scott:

Yeah. It's like Dokken without Don. And they got Robert Mason, he kicked it in the ass like it's a fantastic... Yeah. Even Warrant now with Robert. Let me tell you. So freaking fantastic.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, absolutely. No, he's a great singer.

Mark Gus Scott:

Shows with them more recently and what's fun guys too. Yeah. But you know what, there was always something special with Jani. Absolutely. You know, and it's sad to see anyone go under any circumstance. And you know what, he was a friend. So

Chuck Shute:

yeah, a little weird. I just, I wish I could have seen him with, with a, with warrant. But anyways, getting back to the

Mark Gus Scott:

youtube, there's a, there's the, we did a pay per view concert together, Lafayette, Louisiana and Jani kicks ass.

Chuck Shute:

I've seen a lot of the youtube, so going back to the 90s. So this is kind of the tail end of the band in 95 then you guys finally break up for a little while. So I was always curious about this. Um, this is kind of out of, out of left field a little bit, but um, with song royalties, cause you know, you guys obviously quit but you're still getting some song royalties. Do you get a piece of the song royalty as the drummer because you didn't obviously write, a lot of the songs are, how does that work? I've always wondered that. Different

Mark Gus Scott:

kinds of royalties right off the bat there's royalties for production. There's worlds used for performances, royalties for writing. The iPad being being a performer on the record. Then I got a piece of it, maybe not the lion's share of it, but the p a piece of it. Yes. And you know, I'll be honest with you, unless you have a super huge, uh, it's not a lot of money. It's very high. Even when things are going good. Yeah, it could be some very substantial, but you certainly make more as far as the money aspect. You can certainly do much better with t-shirts, sales and concerts.

Chuck Shute:

Good point. Now because

Mark Gus Scott:

what's the famous line from Spaceballs merchandising, merchandising merchandiser where the real money money from the movies.

Chuck Shute:

Right? Totally. So that's when you kind of, yeah, you guys took off and then you took a hiatus and you started working for that amusement company and then 2007 rolls around and you guys decided to get back together and then you ended up making two new albums. One a 2012 new audio machine, 2015 Human Era. I think the production and the songwriting, uh, just continued to get better in my opinion. I finally got to see you guys in 2009. You were, you played at the, I think it was 2009 desert invasion here. I don't know if you remember that. And that's when you played with some other, uh, what was termed h airbands. And I remember the nineties, all metal was called, and where I was from in Seattle, all metal was called butt rock, like it didn't matter if it was Poison or Megadeth. Everything was c alled

Mark Gus Scott:

What? wait, back it up. Butt Rock?

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. If you've never heard that term.

Mark Gus Scott:

No.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. So I wonder what your, your thoughts on like hair, metal, butt rock all these terms. Do you have, like, are you offended by some of those terms or do you love'em or do you hate them? I mean,

Mark Gus Scott:

well, I'm, I, I must say butt rock has me a bit,

Chuck Shute:

you've never heard that before really? Let's see. That must've been a Seattle thing. Yeah.

Mark Gus Scott:

I really don't think I've heard of butt r ock.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. It must have been a Seattle thing.

Mark Gus Scott:

I thought that it was, I'd never thought of a hairband genre, uh, being compared to a, butt rock.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah.

Mark Gus Scott:

Which I think is funny, but what else? Honestly, if I didn't like it, you'd blow it off and it's like whatever. And to be honest with, we never considered ourselves hair metal. I mean, I guess it's a term that's come to popular, you know, a recognition, right? So, you know, whenever I'd, what we used to call it, like arena rock used to call it, we just, we used to call it, we're just going to go play now, we didn't call it anything it's freaking Trixter, we just played you know? I don't know. But I, you know, we did what we did a nd it fit a certain genre I guess it's a good idea to think about what genre it is. Ca use I guess, you know, when it comes to demographics and marketing, you know, it's a good idea to have a target.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. To me it just sounds like melodic rock. I mean it's like Trixter is very different than skid row or Motley Crue. I mean in my opinion skid rows a little harder. You guys are a little more poppier But I mean it's melodic, hard rock. So of all the bands and musicians that you've toured with, who was the most fun?

Mark Gus Scott:

Well, one thing is for sure that blood, sweat and beers tour...

Chuck Shute:

Sure.

Mark Gus Scott:

And then I gotta tell you, I think the reason why it was so fun, we knew it was going to be good. We didn't know it was going to be that good and to share that experience. All three bands together, we really all became very close, very tight. We're brothers. Sure. You know, and now we're brothers like 30 freaking years. That was recently 30 years ago. Let me say the story of that. Hell hell, it was 1991 what year is this? Like eight years ago saying I can't even believe it. I mean how crazy is that? We played shows more recently with these guys.

Chuck Shute:

Have you guys though of doing a blood, sweat and beers part two tour, like the three of you.

Mark Gus Scott:

We Kind of did some of that. We, I'll be, I'll be honest, I would do the whole God damn thing all over again

Chuck Shute:

Absolutely. Yeah.

Mark Gus Scott:

The uh, we did do some shows and we billed it as such, where it was Warrant, Trixter and Firehouse you know, we did that and th a t wa s cool. But I'v e go t to te ll you, I think we sho uld ha v e re ally knocked out, w ho knows? Maybe two years from now for the 30th I'm goi ng to ge t a phone call. Right. And we'll see what happens.Hell yeah! Rape the planet part two.

Chuck Shute:

I know you're a fan of Van Halen, kiss, ACDC, a lot of those, um, hard rock bands. What do you, is there anything that you're currently listening to, like newer bands or anything that you are just listening to older stuff or,

Mark Gus Scott:

you know what, you know, it's kind of weird. Uh, I mean I, I'll be honest, I don't listen to every, I hang out with Pete. Loran, our singer. Okay. He's in, he's in Phoenix

Chuck Shute:

He's in Georgia Chrome and Smashed, a couple of local b ands.

Mark Gus Scott:

Yeah. You used to be now. Yeah. And now he's doing some solo stuff and actually helps engineer my stuff. I've got to tell you, I'm in that as an engineer and he is very well versed. So I needed his help. He helps me a lot with the, with that side of thing. But we hang out and one thing, we listened to music and we have a very eclectic, weird tastes, but I've got to tell you, somebody was, so a lot of 70 stuff, we're looking for that together. And this may sound a little weird. We had the bgs on the other night. No, just listen to the music, but we analyze it too and do, when you listen to production value, what the bds had going on back then, you're like, holy crap. People don't necessarily realize that genius that how awesome what they, what they did back then, how they like the early seventies that kind of stuff, that holy crap. And sonically it was really just amazed. So we'll just listen to me. We are, we do this analization thing where like holy shit, and it just totally increases the depth of the pleasure. How much we really love listening to that music. You know what I mean? It goes crazy.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. My, my buddy on my other podcast, the chuck and Josh Podcast, Josh, he's a, he's a bgs fan and he told me that it's interesting about the bgs is that they were big in the 70s and then people hated disco, right? So they, they basically went underground sort of, and they still made a bunch of hits, but they just wrote the songs and they weren't called the BG. So if you look back on some of the songs that they've written, they've made a bunch of more hits in the 80s they just didn't call it the bgs. They called them. They were, you know, had other artists perform for them so

Mark Gus Scott:

that, and not the smart, I'm good. Again, adding to the genius who they really were, let me tell you, companies do today, proctor and gamble, stuff like that. They have one brand, let's say, or Colgate, but then they have the secondary brand that's positioned towards a different market, but it's the same thing.

Chuck Shute:

Well, exactly. Yeah. I mean, companies do that all the time. Absolutely. Have you ever, did you ever listen to the Band Steel Panther? I'm a huge fan of theirs. I don't know if you've ever seen that,

Mark Gus Scott:

particularly in today's marketplace. They're the number one hair, metal, button rock,

Chuck Shute:

whatever you want to call it. Dave, Dave

Mark Gus Scott:

here. This is very interesting. Where other are older anymore? It's old. It's passe. Well, guess what? These guys took the joke and turned it on. Everybody else, they kick everybody's ass. They're out there pretending to be someone else that they're not and they're succeeding at doing. So doing it on a big, big way. And I applaud them,

Chuck Shute:

I think they kickass. Yeah. Have you ever seen him livee? Every, I've seen him live like 20 or 30 times and every time it's a different show. The comedy in between the songs is hilarious.

Mark Gus Scott:

You got stick, they got, they got, they got personality that, you know, I, again, I applaud them. I really do. I can't say I'm all familiar with all their songs later. I have heard them and again, I applaud them. I think, you know, to be that entity, it's hysterical to write the lyrics in the songs. I mean, the whole character, what they got going on, they pushing it way over the top and that's freaking the way it ought to be. You know what I mean? So for that kind of God, they're killing it, killing it. I think I, I, there's so many new bands out today that I left, what the hell are you guys doing? Shit and how's this even popular? Blah, blah, Blah Panther. God bless me.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. So that was my next question is like what do you think of the music scene in 2019 like what's your opinion of EDM, electronic dance music and just the over use of electronic drums and music? Cause I listen, even some of the normal rock bands, they're all using, you know, I think blink one 82 new song. I feel like it's electronic drums and I'm like, why are you using electronic drums if you're in a rock band? Like what do you, what's your take on all that?

Mark Gus Scott:

Well first off, if somebody has a creative energy and they want to do a certain thing, that's their prerogative and we don't have to like it, we can listen to somebody else, you know? But I think there's a lot of creative stuff in all forms of music. And I'll be honest, I'm not a huge dark metal fan, but there's some stuff with, I can hear the virtuosity in some of these people were playing. And I must say I have respect for it. You know, I won't necessarily go to the shows and buy the records and stuff like that, but I certainly acknowledge that not everybody's taste is exactly like mine. There's stuff out there for different people, you know, EDM, stuff like that. Blue. Let me tell you some of that stuff I did. You know, I like, you know, it's funny in rock and roll drum sounds versus let's say a disco or electronic. There's a big drum sound and when you eat, they dropped the beat on you. Dude, that's some shitty shit. I love heavy beat. I looked up, we can feel that kick drum kicking my ass. You know what I mean? Even house music or, you know, I've been to a couple of raves and man, when the brick and bottom is kicking my ass and everybody's barrels in, there's nothing like the energy in a room where everybody's having a great time bouncing up and down, going crazy, getting naked. I mean, come on. Amen. Yeah. Sometimes it's not hair metal that does it for you. You know, it's a, you know, it's something else that makes that room move that, so an amazing sensation. Honestly, I can't listen to hair metal 24 hours. I guess when I was younger, I still crank up unchained by Van Halen, my car and I ripped 95 down the freaking highway. I've of course I do different stuff out there, but I got to say, I think in today's marketplace there is a lack, a great talent. I shouldn't hesitate. There's a lot. I, I'm a pretty selective. I don't see a lot that really turns my head, but some of the things I do well, I just recently saw the struts.

Chuck Shute:

Yes. I just saw them too. Were you at that concert? I was there. The one at the marquee?

Mark Gus Scott:

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good friend of ours is a sound myth. Three dude, not only with a great live songs that they have are fantastic real songwriting. That's great stuff. But they are, they are one of the few rock bands out there kicking ass. You know what I'm saying? So to see something like that, it's such a pleasure. And I think there's a lack of that.

Chuck Shute:

Have you heard, have you ever heard the black moods? They're local Phoenix band. They're pretty good

Mark Gus Scott:

heard of them? Yes, I'd have not heard them. You know what I mean?

Chuck Shute:

Because I think you might like some of their songs. Um, so speaking of other music now you, you did the, you did a movie score for the movie, the Monkey King. You've got a solo album where you play the trumpet, you have another solo album coming out where you sit. Does that the one you sent me where you seen playing the piano?

Mark Gus Scott:

Yeah, that's a new single I've got coming out in September called with you and I don't want to, I don't, you know, it's kind of weird when you're talking about your own song. It's Kinda hard to almost sound distant. Genuis I can't wait to just put this out. I just want people to hear it that they're not going to expect this.

Chuck Shute:

Here's this, who is the song about? Is it about somebody else? Can you say

Mark Gus Scott:

it actually is, it's kind of weird. This is, this whole song has been in the making a long time. You know, sometimes, yeah, I guess particularly in this instance in writing a song, the song comes out because you can't help not writing it. It was a very strong feeling for somebody and uh, you know it, although at the end of the day there's a song that's written about that that's materialized, but it doesn't start that way. It's dark. Just wanting someone to know how you feel. So you try and everything that you do, you, you, you, if you feel that strongly about it, these sentiments are echoed, you know, and a that you build in a letter that you're right. And then ultimately, you know, it was fine. I needed that person to know so badly that it turned into a song. So it, it's over time it's just snowballed and man, it's about those snowballs about to hit the wall on fricking in September, first week of September and you've got a taste. But that's not even the final mix done the production. So I'm telling you what, when this thing pops, I don't think people are going to be ready for it. It's, it's different and it's,

Chuck Shute:

yeah, you're really putting your heart out there. Like I don't think I can to be ready for it. Yeah. I think it's crazy.

Mark Gus Scott:

Yeah. It came out, it was written about someone very special to me and uh, that, uh, you know, echo the sentiments how I felt at the time. And I think it's a, I hope people like it, right?

Chuck Shute:

She know the songs about her or

Mark Gus Scott:

she will the first week of September.

Chuck Shute:

Okay. Awesome. Sorry, go on.

Mark Gus Scott:

You don't even know. It's kind of funny. A lot of people don't promote, oh, you got to hear this new song. It's got a knock you to freak out. But you know what? I kind of take a different approach. I'm going to make a video to promote it. I'm going to plan, it's going to be a great sound and song. And you know what? I want to sit back. I just want people to see this when they see it. I won't have to say a word. You know,

Chuck Shute:

your website,

Mark Gus Scott:

maybe something. I think some people are going to be expecting a train wreck and when they see what actually happens there, they're there. They're not going to be ready for it.

Chuck Shute:

So yeah. Do you have any future touring or recording plans for trucks or like I said, I really enjoyed the last two new albums.

Mark Gus Scott:

Dude, let me tell you something. You know, the history of trickster change. I remember seeing one thing, an interview and then something totally different happened. And that's just the, that's what happened. I mean, that's number one. It's part of life. Number two would be freaking guys, I don't know what the, I don't know what to expect. I really don't. So I guess anything's a possibility, but I mean, you don't know a good idea. We talked about the blood, sweat and tears.

Chuck Shute:

Sure.

Mark Gus Scott:

And Amen.

Chuck Shute:

So cause I think Steve, Steve was touring with Def Leppard and now I think Steve and PJ are touring with Eric Martin from Mr Big. Actually saw them at blk live a couple of months ago or a few months ago.

Mark Gus Scott:

Who else? Yeah, I mean, and you know, everybody's got some kind of project going on. We've got a sideline thing, so you know, at some point we'll come back together. I don't know.

Chuck Shute:

Well I hope so. I look forward to it.

Mark Gus Scott:

I looked at one, one thing is for sure when it comes to playing, I love to beat the crap out of the drums and when I do that, I would rather play nothing more than tricks.

Chuck Shute:

So you don't want to play like a cover band or something just for fun or

Mark Gus Scott:

you know, I'd had other projects and maybe with the right one I would consider it, but it's gotta be the right one. You, I don't know, I guess I'm somewhat selective about that, but let me tell you something to do with this new single I got coming out. I'm curious to see what happens here and who knows. I may just have to be some guy pushing everybody out of the way to say I'm first out of the limo.

Speaker 5:

Yeah, absolutely. And I don't know. Yeah, we shall see. I'm excited. I'm excited for this

Mark Gus Scott:

come out because I truly believe a lot of people will not be expecting.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. Well, and at least you can do a show in Phoenix. You'll have to let me know about that. I'll come and support you on

Speaker 5:

[inaudible] going to have a release party and you're invited. So fun. We're gonna do a live broadcast. It's going to be a lot of fun. It's going to be a Hoopla.

Chuck Shute:

I want to bring it, we always try to end up on a positive note or not necessarily positive note, but try to bring some positivity into the world. So I know that you work with a charity, a hope for kids international. Um, and you said some pretty good things about, I liked that. The thing that I really liked about you talked about this is that they give 90% of the money actually goes to the kids. It's not like all this like kind of Red Cross. I think only 10% of the money actually goes to the victims or whatever. So tell me more about hope for kids international.

Mark Gus Scott:

That's it. Well, you just touched on a very big thing. A lot of people don't necessarily understand when it comes to quote unquote charities where the subdivision of money actually goes to and when the idea that the majority of the lion's share doesn't go to the actual cause is a God damn crime.

Speaker 5:

Exactly. You know what I mean? Terrible.

Mark Gus Scott:

And you're, you're praying are you, they put a commercial on with children, cry, help the children. This one has been hungry for blue, blue again, dude, I'm not saying everything, but I'll, a lot of them are God damn scam and that's so freaking horrible and sometimes even get celebrities to promote these things and celebrities don't even know what's going on. So one thing I really did, uh, right out of the box, I tried to get some layer behind the scenes of what was going on at this particular charity and a, it's, I had a friend that actually worked there and then they got me in. I didn't, I wasn't familiar with them right out of the box. And they show me the work that they were doing. They show me the balance sheet. It's like, wow. You know what I mean? They've been around since like 73. Uh, they do things like dig wells in the Sudan. They, uh, they, they build schools in fricking Indonesia. They take kids that lost their parents and put them through law school. It's like next level stuff there. It's like, it's crazy, you know? And, and like really, and the dude who started it did it by smuggling bibles in the 70s to places that didn't have the word of God. You know, it's like he did it with the right sentiments. You know, he laid a foundation of doing things the right way for the right reasons. You know what I'm saying? So that really touched me and I thought that was really awesome. And some of the things that they do, you don't hear about this with other charities. I'm like, holy crap. You know what I mean? Who the hell take the orphan kid and puts them through law school? How freaking crazy.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. That's great. Amazing. That's amazing that they have those resources to do that. Really help a lot of people.

Mark Gus Scott:

So, so I, you know, I wanted to forge an alliance with them and be a spokesperson for them. I think what they do is some of the greatest stuff in the world. They are truly an entity that makes the world a better place. And I, I, I could, I could not help but possibly align my efforts with theirs. I, you know, I see them as, as, as, as something to offer me direction as to what to do. And, and, and I can't tell you how, how much it is touched me to touch other people like that. I think it's like the coolest dance.

Chuck Shute:

That's very, very cool. Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for being on. I mean, you've, you've done so much and you're, you know, you've had the, the, the gold album, the number one MTD records toured with all the crazy bands. Uh, you've done the solo stuff, the marketing. I mean, is there anything else, the movie score, um, is there anything else you want to promote at this time or anything else you want it, that's, that's jogging your memory. Any sort of crazy stories that just came to fruition after we talked or,

Mark Gus Scott:

no, what I gotta say. I've been very fortunate. Uh, and, and you know, I say when you list everything like that, it sounds like, oh my, you know, Mark's got the greatest guy in the world.

Chuck Shute:

Everybody has ups and downs in life. Yeah.

Mark Gus Scott:

And I think as we get older, it's not just about promoting the good stuff and, you know, trying to hide the bad stuff. I think there's a regular line you try to walk on a daily basis in making music and doing stuff from this point forward. Try to just be me, you know, find out who me really is and just be that. And you know, you don't have to hide bad stuff. You just don't do the bad.

Chuck Shute:

What was the bad, what was the bad stuff?

Mark Gus Scott:

Wow. I mean the negative things in life. Uh, a bad marriage, not spending enough time with my kids. Uh, you know, things on that level, stuff like that. Uh, financial choices. What business go in, whether to be a solo artist, whether to do a certain record a certain way. What kind of music am I going to be? You know what makes me feel great? What, what, what uh, you know what w how can I make the world a better place? Can I be happy in this world?

Chuck Shute:

That's right. Yeah.

Mark Gus Scott:

To be honest with you, I didn't think I would make it this far. I really, I mean I'm not, I looked back, I'm 51 years old. I can't believe I'm saying that 51 just, you know, a couple of weeks ago it was like 26 so I really don't understand what the hell is going on here.

Chuck Shute:

No, totally. We want to keep you, you want to keep you around, you know, hopefully you're taking care of yourself because the drummer from twisted sister just dropped dead in his fifties and, and that really scared me and I was like, wow.

Mark Gus Scott:

I took lessons from Aga Piro in 88 he was first of all, as a player, a lot of people don't know how fantastic a fricking player he really was. I mean, drummers know and he was very well respected. He had a combination of not only finesse but fricking rock power. And when you put those two elements together, it becomes a deadly combination. He was a son of a bitch to be reckoned with. So I knew a j quite good, quite well. And uh, the, when his path, I saw him not too long before he passed also. So when I heard about, I was like, oh, and he passed away not far from my home town. Weird dance. You have really a very strange thing. But I loved him and yeah, believe me, it's like I think about that and I talk, I'm good friends with Wild Nick Brown from doc and we talk about this sort of thing. Cause honestly, yeah, we like to go out and have fun. We don't always take care of ourselves. And then, you know, the idea of not taking care of yourself, running out to go play a show for an hour and a half, you got to watch that when you're used to just snap it out like that. Now 51 goddamn years old. Yeah. You flirt with a dangerous thing.

Chuck Shute:

That's true. Drumming is pretty physically intense, right? I mean, it's like a workout. It's not like just

Mark Gus Scott:

if you're going to play what rock,

Chuck Shute:

I guess Seattle term I'm still fascinated to no one else knows about.

Mark Gus Scott:

I think it probably was, but I mean, all kidding aside. Yeah. If you can play high energy music and you're not going to just sit back and be gene Krupa, you're going to get a freaking, you know, you want to smash. I mean, I'm a guy, I like to smash the living crap out of these things. So, yeah, I mean it is of genuine concern getting older. And when you don't take care of yourself, you certainly run the risk of hurting yourself. And it's really, you know, yeah. You gotta Watch your head.

Chuck Shute:

So just take care of yourself and a, I hope to see a trickster reunion soon and uh, I'm looking forward to the solo stuff. So this is going to be great. Anything else you want to say before we wrap it?

Mark Gus Scott:

Thank you. I mean, honestly, I think, I don't get to say it enough, which are actually would be nothing left that's core to the people, the people that you know, make the choice as to what shows they go to, what records they buy. And you know, this is, I've got to tell you, it's social media wise, the kind of stuff, you know, the fan base is still growing. Uh, I'm, I'm, I'm just about full on like second fish personal page and you know, it's like, it God blessed, it's a, you know, there's people that still care. There's still interested in what's going on and what's happening for the future. So I, like I say,

Chuck Shute:

yeah. Well thank you so much for being my guest and taking the time. I'm talking my little show here

Mark Gus Scott:

for having me and I'll tell you what, when it comes through my single release party, who you're getting into.

Chuck Shute:

Okay. I can't wait. I can't wait to be there. I'll be there for sure.

Mark Gus Scott:

God bless you.

Chuck Shute:

Right. Thanks so much, mark. All right, goodbye. Okay, so that was a mark Gus Scott from trickster. Wow. I just feel like a, wow, this is just like a whirlwind, so many ups and downs and, uh, just some great stories to tell. So if you like this podcast, please let a friend know. If you hate it, tell an enemy. Um, but like, uh, you can a my page or you can friend me on Facebook. You can follow me on Instagram. I think I'm gonna create a Facebook page probably so that you can, uh, hopefully it will have a website soon where all these interviews will be on the website. Um, I also do another podcast, the chuck and Josh podcast. We have about 48 episodes. There's a few interviews on there as well. Um, so you can find that page on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all that stuff. So, um, alright. That's it. Until next time, goodbye.