The Sailor Jerry Podcast
Inspired by Norman 'Sailor Jerry' Collins' Old Ironsides radio show on KTRG, we present THE SAILOR JERRY PODCAST! This is a wild homage to all our favorite things – Music, tattoos, travel, spiced rum, and more. Partnering up with our pal Matt Caughthran, the frontman of The Bronx, we're spilling these tales in our own damn style. Brace yourself for biweekly episodes, dishing out killer interviews with musicians who fuel our fire. Buckle up for The Sailor Jerry Podcast – where the coolest stories come to life.
The Sailor Jerry Podcast
66 - Chuck Ragan of Hot Water Music
On this special episode of the podcast, we have Chuck Ragan of Hot Water Music joining us live from across the pond as the band kicks off their 30th-anniversary tour. Join us as we traverse the Atlantic with tales of touring life and unlock the secrets to the evolution of a band that has weathered three decades. Buckle up for a ride through the tracks of Hot Water Music's upcoming album 'Vows,' releasing on the cusp of summer. But if you think the music is all we've got, guess again—Chuck waxes lyrical about wilderness survival, rates his Primitive Survival skills with a laugh, and shares an unexpected tale of a piranha encounter that's sure to hook you. As the lines blur between the punk scene and the serenity of fishing, we're reminded that the rhythms of nature often mirror the beats of our lives. So, whether you're here for the melodies, the memories, or a mix of both, this episode is a catch you won't want to release. As always, brought to you by Sailor Jerry!
https://www.instagram.com/chuckragan/
https://www.instagram.com/hotwatermusicofficial/
https://sailorjerry.com
What up, chuck? How are you man?
Speaker 2:What's up, buddy, how you living.
Speaker 1:I'm just taking in this intense promo shot that Tito sent me right here. This thing is who's that? That's you right there, my man. Oh, coming out of the shadows, all right, so here we go. Chuck Reagan, out of the shadows, all right. So here we go. Chuck reagan, say the jerry podcast. It is a pleasure, my man, to have you on as a guest. Thank you so much for taking the time. How you doing? How's the vibe? How are you?
Speaker 2:I'm good, I'm fired up. Man, we're in. Uh, we're in Leeds right now at Brutonel. You've been here, yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And we got two nights in a row. Tonight's the first of two. Yeah, we've been rolling around over in the UK. We got a Willem Scream with us and Cat Bite and we've been having a ball man. It's kind of, uh, just kicking off the whole campaign for the 30 year anniversary of hot water music and been playing some of the new songs off the new record and that's been a blast, yeah. But I mean, oddly enough for me on this run, I've been sleeping good, eating well. You know I feel pretty good compared to how I typically feel on the road, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, I mean anytime you're sleeping good on the road, anytime you're eating good in England, that's a blessing in itself.
Speaker 2:OK.
Speaker 1:And you know, obviously you know. First of all, congrats on 30 years of the band.
Speaker 2:I mean it's an amazing accomplishment, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's wild you know and kicking it off. Kicking it off in England, of course. A very special place. Do you remember your first UK tour? What was that like?
Speaker 2:I mean, it wasn't like this. Yeah, I'm trying to remember what year it was. I feel like the first time we came over here we only played a couple shows. Time we came over here, we only played a couple shows. Um, it would have had to have been, you know, maybe 99 or 2000, maybe. Yeah, I think I remember playing the garage, uh, in london, that place, um, or in the early, early days, um it was. It was why it was pretty wild. Oh yeah, uh, who do we hook up with? Some of the guys from that band, the tone, um sean, that record label, rugger bugger, uh, was around and, uh, yeah, big sean from hard skin, uh, like the that that was. That was a good experience. Um, you know, I the food around in on this island definitely has gotten better over the years. I know that mildly, mildly, how?
Speaker 1:how do you feel? I want you to be honest here. How do you feel about the English breakfast?
Speaker 2:Huge fan, big fan, really Big fan Come on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, disgusting.
Speaker 2:Beans on toast. I love it.
Speaker 1:Beans on toast. Well, actually you kind of track. As a beans on toast guy, I'm going to be honest.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love the rashers and eggs, but I mean, you know, nowadays, for the longest time, I mean most of the stuff I eat's just, you know, I try to stick to pretty clean food. You know, just straight meat. You know veggies and fruit. You know, I feel, seem to feel better yeah, good, good, how's?
Speaker 1:uh, you know you. You're on tour right now. You played london, you got two shows in leeds. Obviously you're probably doing a bunch of press with the 30-year anniversary going on. How's your voice holding up so far and what's your routine at nowadays? What are you doing before a show?
Speaker 2:I mean, I try to do some warm-ups, you know, and try to stay diligent with, uh, with doing that, you know, and, uh, mostly just drinking black coffee and water, uh, more water than black coffee. But, um, um, yeah, you know, typically usually, um, just drink a little whiskey and and, uh, you know, do whiskey and and, uh, you know, do do a little warmups. But, uh, my voice is all right, you know it's, it's not uh, I'm definitely not a hundred percent right now, but I, I mean, I feel I feel great and the PMA is there but uh, if I'm being honest with myself.
Speaker 2:You know, I feel like my voice is kind of in my in, the uh, 70% range, you know. Well, I mean my voice is kind of in the 70% range.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean you're just kind of starting out, so probably by the end of the tour it'll get up to 80, maybe 90.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, that's how it goes right. You get to that last show and you're like all right, I'm ready to go. Tip top, Time to go home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, it's always, it's always. Uh, you know, sleep is a crazy thing for me. On tour too, I don't get a lot of it, but I noticed when my voice starts to go like the first thing I'll do is just try to get some rest and it's like the number one thing that brings it back is always just number one man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. A lot of people don't realize that I I got some uh vocal coaching here years back in one of the early, early hot water recording sessions and went and visited uh, mark Baxter I don't know if you've known that dude uh in Boston he wrote years ago he wrote a book called the rock and roll singers survival manual, and ago he wrote a book called the Rock and Roll Singer's Survival Manual and he's a badass and he taught me early on. You know he's like a lot of people don't realize. But like tea, honey, this that lozenges, like it's all a myth, like it may soothe you but it's not going to deswell a swollen larynx, it's not going to magically bring your voice back. Really, the two things that bring your voice back is sleep and water, and it's easy to forget that shit, though, when you're out rock and rolling.
Speaker 1:It's amazing what a cold beer will do oh yeah, no doubt, no doubt.
Speaker 2:There's been many times where I'm just like I don't know how I'm gonna do this unless I take about five or six shots right now and and uh, just numb my way through this thing and get through it.
Speaker 1:Awesome man. Well, you know I want to wrap with you about Vows. You know you got a new record coming out May 10th and that's your 10th studio album, right, yeah?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Dude, that's crazy dude. Congrats, man, Thank you brother. The reaction so far has been great and it's because the songs are great. It just feels like a. You know it's a special time in the band right now. It feels like a special record. Um singles we got menace out, burn forever. Uh. Remnants has got turnstile guys on it and fences has got thrice on it. All four awesome fucking songs. Fences is probably my favorite of the four, I think, just because it's it's just, it just sounds massive uh what uh, what's your favorite of the four so far?
Speaker 2:oh, that's, that's I mean. That's always tough for me, you know, because, like I love the vibe of all of them, I love, you know, what we, what we documented and what we put down. And then, of course, like you know, when you get down to the lyrics and like the depth and the brevity of the songs, like they all mean something, you know what I mean. It's always tough to pick a favorite.
Speaker 2:Um, if I had one right now of just playing these new songs live, menace has been a blast to play. I got to, if anything, right before we start that song, I have to mentally go all right, all right, just control, slow it down, because I just get almost overly amped up and like ready to, ready to rip into it, and so I have to kind of, you know, almost amp myself up to to bring it down a little bit, you know yeah, yeah yeah, just having having a blast, uh, playing, playing these new tunes, and and I mean you know, uh, it's, it's, it's not our responsibility or care to you know, wonder, you know what people think of it.
Speaker 2:You know, wonder, you know what people think of it. You know, if they like it, great. If they don't like it, that's fine too. Uh, you know, but it I I've noticed that the response is good. Uh, you know, which is always fun. You know, it's always exciting. Uh, you know how it goes, man. I mean, like, a lot of people know a lot of this material and we're going up there trying to pick. You know what 20 songs we're going to play out of I don't even know how many, and you know all the ones that you're usually the most excited to play are the ones that not as many people know at all. You know ones that not as many people know at all. You know and you know. So it's always cool to you know, just put out some new songs and already see people and hear people singing lyrics back to you is pretty heavy duty, man. We feel pretty damn lucky.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome man. You know, and there's there's a lot of uh, a lot of collaborations on this album. You know, you got Dallas green city in color. You got the interrupters on there, I noticed uh, I don't, I don't, I don't remember getting a call Of any type.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm sorry man.
Speaker 1:Oh, would have loved that I might have to check with our managers, because surely there must have been an email or something.
Speaker 2:Oh well, we'll have to hit that on the next one. Yeah, man, you know, what's pretty cool about all the collaborations to me is just how genuine and kind of organically it all happened, because I, you know, we were done with the record and we were confident with it and we were fine with it as it was, you know, you know, and, and all our work was done before any kind of agenda or plans or, you know, asks were happening, you know, for those collaborations. And so much of it happened. And you know Brian McTernan, you know, I mean he's, he's been in the game a long time and he'd worked with Turnstile before. You know the Thrice, of course, you know, we've known, you know, those dudes for ages, dallas, of course, and the Interrupters I had just done a tour with them, you know, and all those ideas kind of came up kind of after, after we were done, you know, which was really cool, so humbled, you know, to have people care, you know, to be on it. And, yeah, I'm stoked, stoked, the way everything came out.
Speaker 1:Awesome man. Yeah, I can't wait to hear. It. Is the? Is the Interrupter song? Is that a ska? Is it a ska song? Yeah, I can't wait to hear it Is the Interrupter song.
Speaker 2:is that a ska song? It is a ska song, but can't say it's a good one, because we're not good at playing ska at all.
Speaker 1:I was going to say is there a good ska?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it took 30 years to realize that we are not good at playing ska and that we probably made the right decision for not starting a ska band.
Speaker 1:Amazing, Amazing. You know, talking about 30 years of the band, you know, I know there's a lot of of hard work, a lot of ups and downs that go into that. And if a young band comes up to you, you know, and they're asking kind of, you know, if you're looking to sustain a rock and roll band on the level of hot water music, you know what are some words of wisdom that you could impart in a young band that's looking to sustain longevity in a music career.
Speaker 2:A hundred percent sustained longevity in a music career? A hundred percent, I mean? That's a tough question to answer these days, because our industry is changing so much. In other words, the answer that I give right now is probably different than the answer that I would have given you know, 15 years ago, and it may be different than the answer that I might give five years from now. Right, but the couple things that I feel like that I feel like is timeless advice that I could give, for lack of a better term, is for one uh, find your tribe man. Find your people. Um, you know, be confident in what you're doing.
Speaker 2:But in terms of finding you know where you feel confident and comfortable, uh, you know, for us, it was the punk rock scene. It was, you know, a DIY movement, and that's just where we felt the most comfortable, where we felt at home, and, you know, once you find that you know, nurture it and be true to it. The best advice I could give you know young bands, for longevity, though, would be simply communication within, within, within your group, within that tribe. You know where that's. That's key. You know, hot water. We've had tons of up and downs, we broke up a couple times and, in the end, the thing that would always bring us back together and the thing that keeps us together now and will keep us together for the rest of our days, is just being honest with each other and communication. That's truly it.
Speaker 2:You know, as far as connecting with people, that was always the most important thing to me. You know, I never felt comfortable with like a separation between band and crowd, as in. This is what we do. We deserve this, and you're there, we're here To me. I always looked at it as we're all in this room doing the same thing.
Speaker 2:If I wasn't on stage, I would be down on the floor watching some other band that I like. We're all here for the same reason, which is to, you know, leave our problems at the door. You know, use music as a form of therapy or a tool to come together and figure out our own shit, figure out our problems, figure out how to, how to better our neighborhood, better our families, better our communities. Right, that's, that was what brought me, uh, to music in the first place. Um, you know, but to do that and like, for me, growing up, the the the best way that I've found to do that is connecting with these people that are spending their hard-earned money and energy and time to meet you halfway and come to these shows. You know so, connecting with your crowds, connecting with your people, is absolutely crucial. With your people is absolutely crucial. And just playing from your heart, you know, doing it for those reasons seem to, more often than not, keep me on the track that I needed to be on, you know, Hell, yeah, man, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, communication is definitely the key, you know, connecting with your art, with your audience, with everyone around you doing things for the right reasons. That's awesome, man. Really cool insight on 30 years of the band and how you guys kept it going. We got a couple questions here from the internet. Okay, Okay.
Speaker 1:I'm going to hit you with this one. This one's coming from at Nasty Nachos. Ok, he says dear, dear Chuck, outside of being one of my favorite musicians, I know you are quite the outdoorsman. Are you a fan of wilderness survival shows like Naked and Afraid? And if you were asked, would you ever appear on one?
Speaker 2:I would never appear on one. No, I don't. I don't really watch movies, I don't really watch TV at all. I mean, at home I'm a 3.30, 4 am kind of guy and I'm either working on the house, the property or I'm out on the boat. But getting up that early and working the way that I do also means I come home, spend time with my family, eat dinner, and I'm usually asleep by 8, eight, 30, nine o'clock, you know. So, uh, no, no, I don't really watch those TV shows.
Speaker 1:Uh, no naked and afraid. No naked and afraid for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, now would I go out by myself and spend some time naked in the woods? Hell yeah, I would. But, um, I don't need nobody filming it. Nobody needs to see that anyway.
Speaker 1:so what do you think? Uh, so primitive survival rating is something they talk about on these shows. Okay, just like a. They call it a psr and it's like a number from one to ten about like what skill set you have, how you could survive in the outdoors, on a scale of one to 10, don't you in the middle of you know, crazy ass, wilderness, canada. What do you think your survival rating is at? What do you give yourself? What's your PSR? I have no.
Speaker 2:I have no idea. I don't have no idea. You know I do hunt, I'm a hunter, I'm an angler, you know. I know I could build a shelter, find water there you go. You know hunt and clean game. So I don't know, I don't know, I don't know how they rate that, or you know that's gonna clock in at like a 7.9 8.1 so yeah, okay around there, I think you go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think you know how are you in hand-to-hand combat with, like say, a bear or you know any sort of wild animal that might come along?
Speaker 2:Depends on the animal and if they had a good breakfast or not.
Speaker 1:All right. One more question Are piranhas real and have you ever caught one?
Speaker 2:Piranhas are absolutely real and, yes, I have caught a piranha before down in South America.
Speaker 1:Are they? Is it like the movies? Do they flesh eat? Just boom, or is it not? Not like that?
Speaker 2:I can only imagine, I'm sure that if you landed in, you know, in a school of them and you know I, I've always been told that they're very much kind of like, cause I've swam in bodies of water that have had piranhas in it and you know I was with locals who said it's fine. So hey, you know I Classic locals.
Speaker 2:Went it wrong, you know, and yeah, and when, meanwhile, a couple hours prior, like I had caught and was holding a piranha, but uh, yeah, they're, uh, they're gnarly, they're gnarly species, but I, I, I was always under the impression that they're very much like, like, have you ever kicked up a ground hornet's nest, you know, or or or had been around bees? And then all of a sudden, like, if one, if one, stings you and they let off that, that pheromone or whatever it is that they, they do, and all of a sudden they all sting you at once. Um, I'd imagine it's probably the same with piranhas if you find your place, find yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time, you know, but I I've never eaten one, but I hear they're actually really good to eat though too. So they seem like a big gnarly, uh, bluegill or, you know, big gnarly panfish.
Speaker 2:to me they're beautiful yeah beautiful, beautiful species what is the?
Speaker 1:what is the best fish to eat? What is it? Is it, oh, trout?
Speaker 2:is it salmon?
Speaker 1:is it ahi?
Speaker 2:yeah, it totally depends on your taste.
Speaker 1:I mean uh, what about to you? What's your favorite?
Speaker 2:oh man, um, you know, sheep's head, uh, not our californ sheep's head, uh, not our California sheep's head, but, uh, florida sheep's head is some of the best to me, um, it, that's, that's a really, really good table fare. I do love salmon. Uh, that's a completely, you know, like pink meat and, and you know, white flesh fish are two completely different tastes, but I do enjoy salmon. I eat a lot of salmon.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah, all right, we got a couple of pick-ems here. We're just going to pick one or the other, whatever you prefer. We got Fugazi or the Ramones.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm going to say Fugazi for me.
Speaker 1:Nice, bad religion or the Descendants?
Speaker 2:Bad religion. Sorry Bill, Sorry, Sorry Milo, Sorry guys.
Speaker 1:Goodfellas or Casino.
Speaker 2:Goodfellas.
Speaker 1:Dave Grohl or Eddie Vedder.
Speaker 2:Dave Grohl probably. Sorry, eddie.
Speaker 1:All right, and I think everyone wants to know this. Dave Grohl or Eddie Vedder? Dave Grohl probably. Sorry, eddie, all right, and I think everyone wants to know this.
Speaker 2:If you had to pick between music or fishing. What would it be?
Speaker 1:No comment. That means fishing, that means fishing.
Speaker 2:Well, no, not necessarily. I mean like I know that if you drop my ass off in the middle of wherever you said you were, you know music's not going to save my life.
Speaker 1:That's true. Music ranks really low on the PSR rating scale.
Speaker 2:If we're talking the PSR rating scale, I'm going to have to go with fishing.
Speaker 1:All right, our rating scale. I'm gonna have to go with fishing. Yeah, all right, speaking of, we got a couple hypotheticals here to wrap up the show. I know you got a gig tonight in leeds so I I appreciate your time. My man. Um, you know bill and ted. Okay, hypothetical. Here they show up with a time machine. Yeah, they say chuck where you want to go. Where's the first place you're going and why?
Speaker 2:oh wow, man, that is a tough one, that is really tough. Uh, you know, malibu was probably a pretty incredible place before people messed it all up you want to go to?
Speaker 1:you want to go to malibu before people. Yes, that that I could imagine that that probably was a a pretty special spot uh, you know what's funny about that question is no one ever like answers like oh, I want to go stop this or stop that, or it's always like about going somewhere like where it was cool or before it got blown out.
Speaker 2:It's so funny, man that's right, because because I don't, I don't know what we could stop. You know, it seems like mankind, by nature, is just here to absolutely ruin this planet.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, all right. So hypothetical number two here this is this is a good one. Uh, you get a call from your manager, all right. He says uh, chuck, I just got the craziest call from the red hot chili peppers. Okay, anthony ketis is out, anthony Kiedis is out and the band wants you to sing for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. We're going one album cycle, you got one album cycle world tour, but it's just you, just vocals, no guitar singing for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Instant millionaire, you're going to make some bank, do you do it?
Speaker 2:oh, yeah, absolutely, why not? Why not, hell yeah it would, it would, it would take some homework, but yeah, absolutely you could pull it off.
Speaker 1:You could pull it off for sure. What about? You're on tour. You get a call from your fishing buddy that Damien, the 300-pound trout that's escaped you for years, is back in the local stream. You're on tour, the shows are going okay. It's not a tour you haven't done a thousand times before. Do you try to find a way back home to catch Damien?
Speaker 2:No, I would just tell him to take my boy out there to catch him for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like that. I like that, all right. Last question here, chuck what to you, is the meaning of life?
Speaker 2:Wow, buddy, is the meaning of life. Wow, buddy, to me the meaning of life would would be togetherness and understanding. You know, like the meaning of life to me is is my kiddo back home, you know, my wife, like it's. It's wild when, when you find the person that you're meant to spend the rest of your life with, and and you realize that and that becomes your meaning of life. But then together you make the appropriate, create and you make this beautiful living being, and watch, watch that kid start to grow and develop and and and you start to share. You know the knowledge and do your damnedest to help them understand how to not make the same mistakes you've made and try to raise them to become better than you. That's, that's what I'm here for. That's, that's the meaning of my life hell yeah, man, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Chuck uh vows coming out may 10th uh hot water music, 30 years. Okay, you guys are in the uk now. Then you're coming to the us with uh, quicksand full, you know full us tour, for the most part going back to europe, uh to finish out the 30 year. Uh, just can't thank you enough for your time. Real quick, is there anywhere? Like, where has the band not been? Is there still a bunch of places?
Speaker 2:We've yet to. We haven't been to Alaska. We haven't been to Hawaii. We haven't been to Russia. There's a lot of places in Asia we haven't been. We haven't played Key West. That'd be a good place to go, maybe in like April or May, I don't know. Call me crazy. I think we should be there april may not because of tarpon. It just so happens at tarpon or it's a good time to tarpon fish. I'm not saying that I wouldn't go any other months of the year, but like that could be a good time to go there awesome man, awesome, yeah, you, awesome, yeah.
Speaker 1:You got to get to Key West, you got to get to Alaska. You got to knock all this stuff out. Awesome, chuck. Thank you so much for your time, man. I appreciate you being on the podcast. Give my best to the band.
Speaker 2:I hope you have a kick-ass show tonight, brother. I love you man. Thank you so very much.
Speaker 1:And I'll see you.