Episode 470 - Talking with the Creators of Suzy the Cycle Witch - A Rock Opera

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Today we’re diving into the wild, musical, magical world of Suzy the Cycle Witch—the rock opera that blends fantasy, horsepower, and heart. We’re joined by members of the creative team who shaped the story, the music, the voices, and the celebration that surrounds it.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Motorcycle Man.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

Hello, boys and girls, and welcome to episode 470 of the Motorcycle Man Podcast. I am Ted, your host, here in the V-Twin Cafe, over in a corner booth. As usual, we got a great, interesting story for you today. Welcome back. I appreciate you being here. Uh, today, we're diving into the wild, musical, and magical world of Susie the Cycle Witch. Now, the rock opera that blends fantasy, horsepower, and heart. We're joined by members of the creative team who helped shape the story, the music, the voices, and the celebration that surrounds it. Buckle up, because this one's going to be an interesting ride. But before we get into that, the Motorcycle Man podcast is brought to you by Scorpion Helmets. Now, they're offering high-quality, innovative motorcycle helmets and technical apparel at an incredible value. So to learn more, get on over to scorpionusa.com. And Wild Ass Seats. You can improve your comfort and ability to stay in the saddle longer with a cushion from Wild Ass Seats. So if you are tired of those painful pressure points and fatigue, go to wildass.com and tell the real Craig Johnson your ass hurts and you need a cushion. Alright. And of course, Tobacco Motorware. For the best in casual riding gear for men and women, there's only one place you should be going, and that is tobacco motorware. Visit them at tobacco motorware.com, and our listeners will get 10% off your order when you use the code Motomen. Everyone here at the podcast is wearing tobacco riding jeans, a California riding shirt, and other tobacco gear. I can't tell you how wonderful this stuff is. You have to try it out for yourself. Your safety is worth it. So get on over to Tobacco Motorware and get in Dave's pants. And Viking Bags, a world leader in motorcycle luggage and one of the fastest growing companies in motorcycle parts. Luggage for whatever you ride, whatever you need, and wherever you go. Alright now, time for that interview with the cast and crew from Susie. Alright, everybody, we're back and joining me today, all the way from well, literally about three miles from where I am in Calabash, North Carolina. We've got Tom Glover, Bob Pasterzik, we got Rob Glover, and Jane Glover, correct?

SPEAKER_05 2:51

That's correct. I got it right.

SPEAKER_02 2:54

And the whole gang is here, and we're here to talk about the I guess you call it the rock opera, correct? Susie is a cycle witch. So uh why don't we start off with tell us who you are and and what you do? We'll start with you guys can pick your order. We'll start with Tom and we'll work our way across.

SPEAKER_04 3:12

That's great. That's great. Well, first of all, thanks thanks so much for having us on today. We're really thrilled about this. Uh I'm Tom Glover. I am a retired medical device industry executive, and I spend most of my time now playing music and playing golf.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Oh, okay. Of course, golf is the other evil thing aside from music, but go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 3:34

Very, very addictive.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:37

How about you, Bob?

SPEAKER_02 3:38

Bubba.

SPEAKER_03 3:39

Sorry, Bubba. Bob. I'm Bob Pasterzik, also known as Bubba. I'm retired from Verizon. I retired as a distinguished member of the technical staff. Distinguished all us. Yep, distinguished member of the technical staff. So um, but I right now I golf, I go deep sea fishing, and play some music.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

Okay, okay. So deep sea fish. So you've added another uh another hobby that steals money out of your pocket.

SPEAKER_03 4:08

Okay, so luckily I have a friend with a boat who will take me out. So it's it's not as bad as owning a boat.

SPEAKER_02 4:15

All right, Rob, your turn.

SPEAKER_06 4:17

Yeah, my name is Rob Glover. I uh worked about 40 years in the pharmaceutical industry, retired now, and uh dabbled in real estate a little bit. Mostly my that's mostly my poison.

SPEAKER_02 4:28

Oh no, no golf or deep sea fishing or music for you?

SPEAKER_06 4:32

Uh a little little music. They uh suckered me into banging some spoons around, so uh that's in a couple songs, but not really from musical ends.

SPEAKER_04 4:42

He's known as Mr. or Professor Spoons.

SPEAKER_02 4:45

Okay. Now, did you go to any special school to learn how to play the spoons?

SPEAKER_06 4:48

Well, I like to tell people when uh you know I meet him. I did go to four years to the Appalachian School of Uh Spoon Arts, but then I uh get off that not really. I can bang two pieces of wood together as good as anybody, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 5:00

Jane, your turn.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

Uh my name is Jane Glover. I'm Tom's wife. Um I was spent 50 years in the pharmaceutical industry, and I'm retired now. And I was the uh administrative person for this rock opera, and I spend my time just relaxing now that I've been retired.

SPEAKER_02 5:19

Okay, so no golf or deep sea fishing or anything like that real estate for you either, huh?

SPEAKER_00 5:23

No, not yet. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

Just I just saw you know, I live near a golf course, and I so I I end up with these in my yard all the time. All right, so listen, so Susie the Cycle Witch, when did that feel free? Anyone can grab the question. So how did the idea for Suzy the Cycle Witch first spark to life? And what were the earliest conversations like between the team on this? You know, like what elements of the story were non-negotiable from day one?

SPEAKER_04 5:53

Wow. Well, let me let me kick it off. Um, we'll go as far back as 1973 when um a couple of buddies and I were sort of doing things related to the motorcycling. Uh, I I'd occasionally go and do some dirt dirt bike riding, and uh some other buddies would do cross-country trips, and we'd all get together and talk about some of these crazy people that we met uh, you know, while while we were doing these hobbies. And one of the um one of the stories that came out of it involved a woman who had a sidecar while uh on her motorcycle, and she was an interesting character, and after a couple of beers, we uh we started writing songs and singing about her and some Racronies. So that that was in 1973. So um since you know, we we wrote uh we wrote probably about six songs, so we didn't have enough to fully fill out the story, um, but we we locked those away for uh almost 50 years, and um and the rest is history, which we'll tell you about in a minute.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

So who is well tell us who is Susie the Cycle Witch?

SPEAKER_04 7:04

Susie is an amalgamist. She's a combination of many people that we've all met over the course of course of time.

SPEAKER_07 7:11

Right.

SPEAKER_04 7:12

Um our Susie uh started out as just a pretty much mischievous uh uh character, and uh she sort of bridges between being uh mysterious, mischievous, and being evil. So she's somewhere in she's somewhere bridging those uh those three those three areas.

SPEAKER_02 7:34

Uh okay. Now when you look back at the earliest drafts or the concept notes of this, what parts of Susie's world changed the most? And which parts of state exactly uh as originally imagined?

SPEAKER_04 7:48

Yeah, so Susie was originally uh a college-age woman who was um into Mother Nature, was into Woodstock type stuff back at that time, and she really evolved. She had 50 years to mature, uh, pretty much in my brain, and uh 50 years later, uh she sort of blossomed as this um evil witch, if you will.

SPEAKER_02 8:18

Ah, okay. Wow. Now, how how much uh of the creation of this, uh the all of you here with me today, uh Bob Bubba and and Rob and Jane, how much uh did you guys have involvement in the creation or even the development of the story?

SPEAKER_06 8:36

Let me just say going back 50 years, Tom and I growing up in the same house, I've been listening to this music to these songs really for 50 years on and off. So it did I have anything to do with the creation of it? No, I didn't, other than maybe throwing a pillow at them or something saying that you know, turn that stuff off. I'm tired of listening to it. But I was there at the inception of the whole uh idea, I guess, and the music of it all.

SPEAKER_03 9:00

All right. Right. And then as a performer, you know, we just took the what Tom gave us to work with, and we kind of added a little personality here and there. You know, you changed a voice for a character or something, but you know, most of it is basically what Tom provided to us as an outline.

SPEAKER_02 9:19

So Jane, did you have to like keep these guys in line and during the whole creation of this whole thing or even currently?

SPEAKER_00 9:28

Yes, then and now. Yes. So as Tom said, he wrote this over 50 years ago, you know, at the end of high school, and then during a recent move, found a lot of the pages. And those pay the songs traveled, I don't know how many times we moved, they were in storage, and they came to light 50 years later. And he you know wrote some additional songs. And yes, I've had to keep all these guys in line from time to time.

SPEAKER_02 9:54

How many, how many rewrites did you have to stop? Because I know how this goes. I mean, you start working on something, you're like, yo, wait a minute. You know, we should have done there, and then you go back and you do a little rewrite. And then it ends up rewriting several times. Did that happen?

SPEAKER_04 10:09

Oh, many, many times. We we uh I'm gonna take a guess and say each song uh was probably rewritten uh probably five to ten times. Um but I I also have to add on to something that Bubba mentioned. Um everybody in the everybody in the uh let's call it Team Susie contributed to the betterment of this music. And it's I'm not just saying that, but Bubba's being a little bit humble. He he he played several roles um in this rock opera. He played everything from a gas station attendant um to uh the to um writer to a number of different individuals. So he had to develop personalities and for the for all these characters. So he's being a little bit humble. Everybody contributed.

SPEAKER_02 10:56

Wow. Now as far as now the now let's talk about some of the characters, for example. The characters in Suzy the Cycle, which they kind of got this uh distinct feel to them. I mean, how did each of you contribute uh into shaping Suzy, the other main character who is Ryder, and the rest of the cast?

SPEAKER_03 11:19

Yeah, but but I mean, you know, again, um it wasn't it was also the band and the way they played the music that helped shape the character for that song.

SPEAKER_05 11:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:31

You know, like um uh like we had their cousin Rich Glover, who played guitar, and and you know, some of the uh influence that he had with his guitar was amazing, and it kind of helped you as a character feel the music and come up with how that song was supposed to be.

SPEAKER_02 11:51

Okay. I know what now here's an interesting question for you. Was the music first or was the story first?

SPEAKER_04 11:59

Uh that's a great question.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

Gotcha now.

SPEAKER_04 12:04

That's a great question. Um, I think the story really came first. The story came out of a number of conversations over that 50-year period of time. Um once a year, I used to get together with uh some of my high school buddies um in uh on the outer banks. And every time that we would meet, all of them would tap me on the shoulder and say, You got to get the Susie thing done. It's the story is just too good, and this is what I think you should do with it. So it really evolved over a 50-year period of time, yeah, with not only the Team Susie band contributing to it, but but a whole bunch of um guys who are around at the origin at the origin of Susie helped contribute to it also. You know, and and and now now that we've got the videos out, uh I've got I've got friends who uh who have said, hey, you know what, you should have showed her legs a little bit more uh right?

SPEAKER_02 12:59

Am I wrong? How many times did somebody say, you know, we need to add another character?

SPEAKER_04 13:08

Oh boy, Rob Rob started this off. Rob, you want to share that story?

SPEAKER_06 13:12

Yeah, no, I I mean it I think it was just it went through a natural evolution, and uh, you know, the more personalities that you get involved, the more personalities you want to see, you know, and grow and everything. And and really good part is like I don't know how Bob, Bubba, you know, developed so many voices. I think he played what three or four different male characters in it, and each one had a different voice, even to the point where he was singing differently for all of them. But Bob, how did you develop so many voices for personalities for these guys?

SPEAKER_03 13:40

Again, I mean it it happened naturally, like um for instance the hot rod kid. I do both the voices in that. And but Tom, you know, was playing his guitar and said, you know, kind of said, okay, this is the character that you're gonna be singing, and it just came out naturally that it was like a higher voice for the gas station attendant. And then when it came to the hot rod kid, it was a you know a deeper angry voice. And you know, again, a lot of it had to do with the way the musicians presented the music.

SPEAKER_02 14:16

Okay. Jane, did you have any input with regard to the creation of the characters or how the characters responded or the music?

SPEAKER_00 14:23

No, none at all.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

None at all. You just are back to just what the whip, right? Just cracking the whip, get everybody going.

SPEAKER_00 14:29

And the Excel spreadsheets.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

And the X you have XL spreadsheets for this? Oh boy, does she? Oh my god. You know what happens when you start when you bring Excel spreadsheets into any project? It just it's it's a thing what we call scope creep. It's just the scope of the project just keeps creeping further and further away. Oh my god. So now the music is a large part of this entire thing. Okay. Now it was it was obviously a collaborative process, you know, like the writers and all the musicians and vocal talent. Was how did this all coalesce when you're building the soundtrack for this whole thing? Like is was it one person writing the music or was it everybody writing the music together?

SPEAKER_04 15:13

So I think in in the beginning, um, I think I was fortunate enough to have uh six or seven songs that uh w we had as a base. And actually what happened uh over the over that period of time, we actually changed all of all of the um the lyrics, we changed some of the music.

SPEAKER_05 15:34

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 15:34

But over a period of time, everything was changed, only because what what what we did in 1973 uh was was was good, but I think today's modern audience expected a lot more. And and that's that's what we're that's what really took time to do. But let me just add one thing to um to how complex this was, because I think it's an important piece uh of the question that you're asking. Jane literally had to keep track of 30 people's schedules for the city.

SPEAKER_02 16:03

Oh yeah, I can imagine.

SPEAKER_04 16:05

Uh for a four-month period of time. And part of that, part of that had to do that with the creativity. Yeah. We needed we needed Bubba to be here at a certain period of time to be this character, we needed Donna to do this, we needed Rich to do that, we needed you know, people to be in uh certain places at certain times. So Jane Jane did an outstanding job pulling that all together.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

All right, Jane. Good job. How many let me ask you this? How many people total were involved in this entire project?

SPEAKER_04 16:34

About 30.

SPEAKER_02 16:35

Really? Yeah. Now that it was it like musicians, writers, everybody, you know, just who was involved?

SPEAKER_06 16:42

Um guys help me out here, but yeah, no, I mean, not only the the core musicians, that is, you know, the uh team Susie, the band itself, but I mean, then there's a whole group of the 30 that were uh background voices, background singers, you know, uh people who contributed different chorus lines and everything to it. Uh giving some crazy lines like what's that one line, uh like shooting fish in the barrel. We had to have life come in and do that one one special line. So, you know, like I say, it was a lot of people with a lot of input on it.

SPEAKER_02 17:12

Wow. Yes, that's that's that's a hell of a schedule we're trying to put together to get everybody in one room at the same time.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

But I also think each each member of the team Susie, like like Boba said about you know, Rich with his guitar skills and Jeff is an excellent keyboard player, and Dave with the drums, they each added their own personality to some of the songs. And I think some of the songs morphed into being able to showcase some of their musical talent.

SPEAKER_02 17:41

Oh, yeah. But you know, not only that, but you know, you're talking about a 50-year difference between when it was first written and now. And technology was way different back then. What technology we had. So now now you now you're bringing this whole thing into a new element where you have this new technology for music, for recording, and all that. So you guys did this recording all in a professional studio, correct?

SPEAKER_04 18:06

We did at a place in uh called Arcadia Studios in uh in Myrtle Beach. And uh we've got to tell you this one story, which is pretty funny. Uh we we actually went around and started interviewing studios for this. We we thought we had a really good product, but we weren't quite sure. We wanted to make sure that we had the right recording studio to help us do this because at this point uh we we really didn't have anybody locked in to uh to do the drums, to do the keyboards, etc. So we we went to a number of different studios, and um most of the studios recommended that we use uh professional musicians to do this. They thought they thought it was complicated enough that they wanted us to do this.

SPEAKER_05 18:50

Makes sense.

SPEAKER_04 18:50

But then I'll I'll I'll ask these guys to tell the rest of the story when we uh we paid we paid a visit to one of the more unusual recording studios in the area.

SPEAKER_06 18:59

Yeah, we went down to uh recording studio on Myrtle Beach and uh down on Seaboard Street. For anybody familiar with Seaboard Street, it's got all the uh topless bars and tattoo places and everything. It's a it's a it's an interesting part of Myrtle Beach that a lot of people don't get the opportunity to see. But we go down there and uh, you know, we're gonna uh meet with the recording studio owners and the uh producers and stuff, and you know, we're going in and we figured, well, what's going on here? So we walked in and we see as we're walking in, they have a uh metal detector, a wand, a wand as all and everything. So they looked at us three old white guys coming in and kind of laughed at us. You know, I guess they thought it was real musicians coming in with uh some background. It was three senior citizens who they they looked at us through their metals texts away and said, uh, come on in, boys. We've got nothing to worry about.

SPEAKER_02 19:51

So this the uh do you uh do you have more to add on that? No, no, no.

SPEAKER_05 19:55

It was just a good one of the good chuckles of this.

SPEAKER_02 19:58

Uh regarding the production of this, now it was one would think that when you when someone says rock opera, the first thing that comes to everybody's mind is that this is a stage play. So there's gonna be all it it's gonna be either a traveling show or it's gonna be at some theater somewhere. But in this particular case, you guys have decided to make this a a series of music videos that are now premiering on YouTube. So now the videos have a unique, somewhat visual identity to them. Now, what were some of the biggest creative or technical challenges you had to go through in bringing Susie's world to life in YouTube?

SPEAKER_04 20:39

Well well, again, we really thought we had some we had a very marketable product, but what we need to add to the music was the the visuals, the videos, if you will. And so we started interviewing uh cinematographers to pull the story together for us from a from a visual point of view. And the more we talked to them, we we thought this is crazy. These these guys want uh$100,000 just to show up, and they want us to provide lunch and dinner for everybody. It was just way out of whack.

SPEAKER_05 21:10

Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_04 21:11

So so Jane and I started looking for alternate technologies to do this, and it was uh it was pretty clear that one of the areas that made sense to to try this out in was um artificial intelligence, and I'll I'll I'll flip this over to Jane.

SPEAKER_00 21:28

Yeah, so at one point, like Tom said, we we looked at videographers to do everything from scratch, which that wasn't going to work. It was very expensive. Then we thought, okay, we can do this with stock videos. So stock videos that would be available, and then we realized that there wouldn't be the continuity of the characters. So we got this um one freelancer um in his company's one way media, and he said, Have you ever thought about using AI? So he created one, and we were just shocked at how good the video was. then he could use those same prompts to create uh subsequent videos with the same characters. So everything is while the music is a hundred percent human, the voices are human, the the uh instruments are human, it's all AI videos all done by um one way media which we've been very very pleased with what they've been able to put together.

SPEAKER_02 22:23

You know uh AI, a lot of people don't understand AI, and I I totally get it. But uh the things that can be done especially with the video aspect of it you you watch these videos and it has you have a hard time believing that these are not real people. You know it's uh the videos give you the impression that these were actually actors out there doing the whole thing. And right now you how many videos do you have up on on YouTube right now?

SPEAKER_00 22:51

We have eight.

SPEAKER_02 22:52

You have eight and how many are there going to be in the series?

SPEAKER_00 22:56

Fifteen.

SPEAKER_02 22:57

Fifteen okay uh so now how did the team well you you already basically explained how you used it you know decided to go the AI for the storytelling of Susie.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

Um how many what were the experiment early experiences and experiments with it like um I think the first one was just a little bit shaky because we didn't really know what we were doing and it was um you know it was new for the freelancer who was working on it. So what we ended up doing is Tom and I would write the screenplay basically for the song to say what the setting would be you know a a bar in a rural setting with farm and people playing horseshoes or something like that. We would write the screenplay he would do a storyboard we'd go back and forth a few times with the storyboard to approve it and then excuse me that would get turned into a video and we would have it three times to make modifications on the video. So it just like making any kind of a movie I guess this you know the screenplay the storyboard and then the video.

SPEAKER_02 24:02

So there would be like this creation and then review and then revision series that would you guys would go through in creating these videos correct?

SPEAKER_00 24:12

Yes wow that that must have been like uh very kind of frustrating at times no I don't think it was frustrating it was just um Tom and I both have a background in marketing but you know medical device and pharmaceuticals is way different than uh just the lockup right in music especially with AI. Yeah so it it was a learning process and every day we're still learning so we only have actually one video left all the rest of them are all finished but we just have one left to do.

SPEAKER_04 24:45

Wow let let me let me just add one piece to that so as we would get these um prototype AI uh visuals in we would often pass them to to Rob or to somebody else to take a look at it you know from a from a from a clean sheet of paper sort of thing.

SPEAKER_02 25:03

Sure yeah so we got we got good feedback from the team about what would work and what wouldn't work um recently a couple weeks ago uh we had quite a uh discussion over something that I wanted to happen in the story and and then and the reviewing team did not so uh we we had quite a conversation about that it's like the story's written let's not add any more right there you go but now as far as it goes for the tools that were used for creating this AI I granted that was entirely up to the media company that was doing all this um but did you get what were you did you get familiar with these AI tools and the techniques that helped shape the final look of the videos?

SPEAKER_00 25:47

No he he used um the VO uh AI program I guess you call it um and we never really got involved with it we got involved in you know what prompts he would have to make in order to create some of the videos but it was really out of our area of expertise.

SPEAKER_02 26:07

Right so basically you guys provided all the written information and they just turned it into the AI prompt that they needed to create the videos.

SPEAKER_00 26:16

Correct. Yeah what we did is like in the beginning there were a couple pictures of Ryder you know and he had different hair and stuff I happened to be at my um niece's house and my her husband looked exactly the way I wanted Ryder to look and I said can I take a picture of your hair and send it so that's based on one person. So some if we if we saw someone even for um for Susie we sent him the suggestions of a few actresses that we thought might be appropriate for what she should look like.

SPEAKER_06 26:46

So that would be our input but as far as the actual prompts and the creation of the AI videos you we weren't involved in that a lot of the review is for continuity like uh Jane and Tom said sometimes the a rider might be a little bit different you might have to correct that uh sometimes there might be a sidecar attached to the motorcycle sometimes there wasn't and from scene to scene yeah you know so just a lot of it was checks for continuity that the story stayed fluid.

SPEAKER_02 27:12

Right yeah I can imagine now how long did it take to make one video about a month. A month for one video. And that that includes from inception through all the editing process to completed final yes let's print this yes wow let me add to that one of the reasons I think that we were bold enough to give this a try because who knew uh you know uh a few months ago whether or not this would work um we we were we were pretty confident because one of the people that we have a relationship with has been involved in ai since its inception um the person is the narrator uh in our project and you will not see that person's name anywhere because they they've asked us to keep it confidential really but but we were very very encouraged wow see I would think that anybody who would take part in this would have would want you know to be recognized as you know being part of the show uh can you share any of the behind the scenes moments either whether funny chaotic or unexpectedly meaningful perhaps that captures the spirit of the entire production team no nothing we've got stories go ahead I mean I can tell you when this really came you know that I really felt this was going to be a success is uh the band would practice at my house I have a room above the garage which and I have you know a drum set and everything in there so that's where the band would practice and I remember um I had to go downstairs I think um Donna one of the singers was coming to audition so I went downstairs and they started playing old-fashioned voodoo right and this was the first time the band as a band played this together and I remember standing downstairs and saying my god that sounds so fantastic wow I mean it just it just blew me away that for the first time these musicians could make that song what it was yeah I mean it and it just like I said it just blew me away it's wonderful when it comes together doesn't it oh it was it was fantastic yeah I I think one of the funnier funnier moments was we were uh we were in crunch time uh about a year ago and we were trying to get part of the project done and Jane was coordinating all these 30 people's schedules and the studio time and all this sort of stuff and uh she really was doing a great job managing all this and and the people from the studio were amazed at watching Jane coordinate all this stuff.

SPEAKER_04 29:54

So what what what did they say Rob?

SPEAKER_06 29:56

Yeah no no I don't remember the exact lines but uh like we said they're in amazement about Jane with her spreadsheets and the scheduling and everything else and they they first thing they wanted to do was hire her for the studio and the second thing was the guy says and besides we're gonna hire you can you do my taxes she's so efficient but luckily Jane stayed with us in the catchphrase do do my taxes how often did you guys get together every day really every day you got together every day for how many months quite a while well a few months and in the studio we were there over a hundred hours so most of their clients would be like they would go there for one or two songs but you know with this rock opera it was literally a hundred hours so you know one week the first week Rich Glover went in and did the um foundation track for the guitars and the next week it was Dave with the drums and the next week it was Jeff with the keyboard and then they layered on the the vocals and Rob came in for the spoons and you each week was something different and and they would layer on different things.

SPEAKER_00 31:07

And with the scheduling it was since most of the people are retired between vacations and unfortunately there were some some medic medical issues right um you know heart attacks and things like that that we had to work around. Oh jeez it it all got put together but it we were in that studio so long and as Rob said that street is a little sketchy but across the street is a Costco and I would go every day to the studio with the musicians it got to the point I didn't have to show my card as I walked in because I was there literally every single day walking walking into Costco you know while they would be doing their music.

SPEAKER_06 31:48

Were you guys going to the studio during the day or in the evening or at night we're not going down there in the evening what do you throw no detectors it's got to be daytime.

SPEAKER_04 31:58

Oh my god really okay daytime you know this particular studio during the day was a recording studio and we'd meet all sorts of characters uh musically oriented that would come in and uh and record their stuff and then you can you can almost see the change at six o'clock at night uh all of a sudden the different sort of characters are coming out and they would be there until two three in the morning. Oh yeah I know that when the crew waves and stuff and the crew would come in sweep sweep the floors and then we go we go back again the next day.

SPEAKER_02 32:33

So that's too funny.

SPEAKER_06 32:34

Now a lot of fun another funny story is a a quick one one of the lines in one of the songs is uh when Susie separates from Ryder a little bit one of the songs says I hope it wasn't my breath and we would continually try to get the chorus to sing that it was hard to get people to buy into that line I hope it wasn't my breath because nobody understood it but it always got a good laugh and uh chuckle out of everybody.

SPEAKER_02 33:00

It's the little things right that just bring the memories now for each and it turned out wasn't her breath. Well for each of you what was there was a moment there must have been a moment for each of you during the production when you realized you know this is becoming something special did each of you come across that yeah yeah how long how long into the project did you realize this well I mean again as we were practicing every song you know I would turn to Tom at the end of the song and you could tell by the look on his face you know what he thought that song you know became yeah you know and he would just go like wow you know that was great wow damn so wow but looking ahead now what parts of Susie's universe are you guys most excited about to expand on either musically or narratively or visually I mean what uh aspects of this entire project do you see growing beyond what it is?

SPEAKER_04 34:00

Ted can I just um answer your previous question sure go ahead yeah absolutely yeah so I I I think it's um uh I think it's important to talk about um the team and how well they did um and how how much they contributed but one of the funnier parts of the uh the event was to to sort of keep these guys active and mentally active and challenged a little bit I used to write lines for them especially Bubba I used to write these lines that would make it a little difficult for him to sing so so the one that I Bubby do you want to do it come on let's hear it let's hear it I wrote it I wrote it down if uh so one of the lines we gave that we made Bubba sing was crafty pose pusher poke pharaohs powered me played me like a trunk chump knocked me out like an LE Bubba did that over and over and over and over again you finally got it right it was impossible yeah now was this like did you like hand everybody like the lyrics or whatever the day of the session or is this did they have time to actually work on it? I I think they had time to work on it uh they they actually suggested a number of changes which worked out really well so it was helpful to get the stuff to them in advance. Right.

SPEAKER_02 35:24

Meanwhile Jane is going no more changes right oh exactly um yeah but so going on to my next question was about uh Susie and the whole project and the whole universe of this whole thing how much is it going to expand in any form whether musically or visually I I had some some young people look at when I consider young I'm saying like 30s whatever age group that is today but what they thought would be really good if Susie could ever be turned into like a a a comic or a a a cartoon to give it a different appeal and I guess that's where younger people's minds.

SPEAKER_06 36:03

Oh that's interesting yeah something like that they enjoyed the music they liked the videos as they were but they thought that'd be another good avenue to go.

SPEAKER_02 36:10

Wow so maybe maybe we can have Jane and Tom change something and go from uh you know we're up to a million views now on YouTube maybe go to you know two million or five million who knows well right now I see that your videos you're you're getting some I mean you've got eight up there right now and you're getting a lot of views for all of these videos it's pretty interesting. Are you happy are you are you happy with the reception that your videos are getting right now?

SPEAKER_04 36:36

Holy mackerel Jane you want to you want to jump in?

SPEAKER_00 36:39

Yeah so on um Facebook and Instagram we actually hit a million views yesterday and it's been out since January 1st the songs have been out much to our surprise on New Year's Eve we we woke up and we found out that the songs were streaming on Spotify Pandora iHeart music everything on New Year's Eve.

SPEAKER_02 37:05

So we were thrilled about that and then the first video hit on January 5th so a million views in just that short time that's crazy were blown away um yeah and we're getting good views on um on YouTube where the videos are that's something so I get I I I I do assume uh that there is everything's copywritten and published correct yes good excellent that's good to hear I don't want to hear you know it's things like oh no we're doing this there's no copyrights on any of this that'd be bad that'd be very bad so I have well here's another I have a great question for you and I would this is going to be very interesting for you I'd like to hear your response any plans or thoughts about making this a live action stage play wow wow it's it's amazing that you say that because we had a discussion well over a year ago with um uh actually with with our attorney one of the attorneys that we used and a few other people right and that that was their first recommendation don't don't do the video thing go do the off Broadway thing or that you know some other avenue that they thought it would be more effective there uh but yeah that that definitely uh that definitely came out from a number of people of course I mean of course the the production would be a little more elaborate and it would require scripting obviously uh you would have to write the stage play first of all I mean based on all everything you've done already but it's actually really fantastic I'm very super impressed with all the videos themselves and again I still can't get over that this is just AI all of it it just it just blows me away actually yeah you know one one other thing that uh I'd like to add in here is you asked the question about when did we when did we uh know that this is going to be successful or when did we know this was going to be pretty exciting.

SPEAKER_04 39:02

Um I really think it was New Year's Eve.

SPEAKER_02 39:05

Uh the band actually was playing a gig uh New Year's Eve gig and as Jane said uh you know that that night you know every we got home and we realized that Tuesday was breaking it was almost like uh in the 1970s wow my my my my record's on the radio how did that happen wow for for me for me that that was the that was the moment that's amazing that this whole thing has taken on uh such a life of its own uh geez I mean really hey listen okay so I have uh some uh rapid fire questions for you now these the you I didn't send you these earlier to review but these are rapid fire questions any one of you can answer it requires only like you know one or two word answer or maybe just a one sentence answer so you guys ready for these oh yeah here we go favorite Susie character to voice or write I stumped you right away on the first one the gas station attendant was my favorite voice all right all right number two most underrated moment in the rock opera in the barrel of death in the barrel yeah yeah the ball what did it say that again one more time wall of death the wall of death the the motorcycle guy yeah yeah yeah yeah all right uh during production coffee tea or pure adrenaline pure adrenaline any any adult beverages no I was very disappointed in that really Bob Bubba raises his hand right away there was no booze damn it where we practiced I had a full bar setup and no one ever touched it no way well I guess I swear to God no one ever touched it Jane wouldn't let us near it yeah you're right Jane did sit there protecting it you know it's funny because you think if this was like maybe let's say 30 years ago it would have been a different story right yeah it was like oh what do you mean the cooler's empty note too everybody's got to remember you can only drink so much or not at all depending on what kind of medications you're taking so it's kind of everything off at this age. Oh that's pretty you know it's funny it reminds me of a story where um Larry Hagman uh the actor Larry Hagman many years ago uh would hang out with uh uh Fonda uh Henry Fonda and it and in early years he said that uh when they got together uh with their motorcycle group they would get together and they talk about what kind of drugs they were doing and as they got older there then then the the conversation switched to what kind of medications they were taking that's the truth uh okay number this is number four what song that was the hardest to nail seven seven seven seven yeah well then do you want to explain a little just the the timing of it and everything and I think that's the one where it also goes into a it changes from uh like a rock song to a rag A beat and this was they this was the song uh titled Sleep is that correct no no oh the song seven yes okay which is weird because the song seven is actually act six yeah for me I'll have to talk to it.

SPEAKER_06 42:34

So I'm like wait a minute and that was a that was accidental it wasn't meant it wasn't on purpose uh okay number five the song that surprised you the most big tail penny I for me I I mean it was something even that uh uh a radio guy was to the launch party and he he put it right on his radio station down in Myrtle also became like a real popular thing. No kidding great song but uh just curious the way it rose so quickly.

SPEAKER_02 43:04

Alright uh number six funniest outtake from the recording sessions yeah see most of I know when I times that I've gone into the studio we always save the outtakes because it's something that we'd listen to later and have a good laugh over. Did you guys do that?

SPEAKER_04 43:23

We had 50 years of outtakes no blooper reels well that's it that's what I'm saying the blooper reels are funny to hang out to those did you guys do that did you guys do that?

SPEAKER_02 43:34

Did you save them? We we got we got a few videos that yeah we probably have to get permission from the folks to uh to use them but uh yeah maybe we should take a look at that absolutely should absolutely you know this could be another addition to Suzy the Cycle Witch uh YouTube videos as sort of like during production kind of thing you did uh okay number seven no one word to describe Susie each one of you can respond to this Evil.

SPEAKER_00 44:02

Confusing. Mischievous and misunderstood.

SPEAKER_02 44:05

Ah, well, it's like two words. That's good. But you, Tom, you got one?

SPEAKER_04 44:09

Oh, it's sexy.

SPEAKER_02 44:11

Oh, okay. Well, he goes right there. That's good. Oh, one word to describe Ryder. The character writer.

SPEAKER_00 44:23

Faithful.

SPEAKER_02 44:24

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 44:25

Heartbroken.

SPEAKER_02 44:27

Really? I guess so. Yeah, because I what I've seen in the videos, that kind of it works. That works.

SPEAKER_04 44:34

Perseverance.

SPEAKER_02 44:36

Yeah, he was that. That's for sure. Alright, now here it goes. Another next question. Favorite line from the show.

SPEAKER_06 44:46

I hope it wasn't my breath.

SPEAKER_02 44:52

And finally, if Susie had a theme snack, what would it be?

SPEAKER_03 44:58

A theme snack.

SPEAKER_02 45:03

There you go. See? Alright, now you're thinking. Alright, guys.

SPEAKER_06 45:10

Another famous line that we all missed on through the whole uh time we've been with you, and really has been one of the themes of Susie is the phrase sleep is for suckers.

SPEAKER_02 45:19

Yeah, explain that.

SPEAKER_06 45:23

Yes. That's become that's become a pretty famous line.

SPEAKER_02 45:26

Yeah, and did you guys have t-shirts made up for that?

SPEAKER_06 45:29

Bingo.

SPEAKER_02 45:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 45:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 45:32

There's t-shirts out there with that phrase, so it's pretty good. Sleep is for suckers.

SPEAKER_02 45:35

Wow. That's awesome. I tell you what, the videos, I really enjoy the videos. I think they're really great. Um, if you haven't had a chance to watch any of these videos and get involved in the Suzy Cycle Witch community, check it out on YouTube. But uh, before we uh go uh any further, before we close up for the interview, uh any uh what's what's next for the entire Suzy team? What's next for you guys?

SPEAKER_04 46:04

Um the Grammys.

SPEAKER_02 46:08

Okay, hey, you never know, right? You don't you never know.

SPEAKER_04 46:12

We're gonna do our best to figure figure this out. We figured out a lot of stuff being being non-musically uh uh not having a musical background. We figured out a lot of things. We might figure out how to get get into the Grammys.

SPEAKER_02 46:25

You need a lot more views, that's for damn sure.

SPEAKER_04 46:28

We're working on it. We're working on it.

SPEAKER_02 46:30

You guys have another project in the tube?

SPEAKER_04 46:34

You know, uh we we've actually got the I'll call it the foundation of a Susie 2, the next stage of Susie, okay, which um sort of goes back a hundred years, not 50 years, a hundred years. So we might take a look at that. As Rob mentioned, we might we might we're gonna take a serious look at comics. I mean, we've had a number of people uh suggest very strongly that we look at comic books for this.

SPEAKER_02 46:57

Well hey, you know what? Anything is worth a shot. You don't you don't know until you do it. Uh any closing words about Susie the Cycle Witch and your whole production and what's to come.

SPEAKER_04 47:12

I think go ahead, guys.

SPEAKER_03 47:16

Bob, did you have anything? I didn't want to no, I just I just wanted to say, you know, how proud I was of the people that you know stepped up. You know, like Lily learned to play the bass during this production and took over some of the bass playing for the live show. You know, and and um, you know, Donna, who was originally only gonna be Pigtail Penny, she stepped up to become Susie. Lily filled in as Pigtail Penny. So I mean a lot of people stepped up and changed roles that really and really did a great, great job. And I think they should be, you know, noted.

SPEAKER_02 47:53

So Rob, do you have anything?

SPEAKER_06 47:55

Yeah, no, just I mean, uh kind of sentimental or whatever. I'm just I'm proud of my brother and Jane for really finishing up a 50-year project. You gotta remember it's something I heard down in our parents' basement 50 years ago, and uh you know, he dug it back out, you know, reworked it, and uh here it is today with over a million views, which to me is amazing. So great story. Susie's a great story, and the story of how it evolved is a great story.

SPEAKER_02 48:21

Jane?

SPEAKER_00 48:23

Um, I'm just thrilled that we've gotten to this stage. You know, a year ago, I'm taking a look at the pictures that we did a year ago. I never expected that we'd have all these videos out by now. So, you know, as as Bubba said, it was a great group effort. The musicians were great, the vocalists were great, and all the people that were you know doing the chorus and the behind-the-scenes work. It's it's it was a great group effort, and it just goes to show in retirement you can do anything that you set your mind to.

SPEAKER_02 48:52

That's right. That's right. How about you, Tom?

SPEAKER_04 48:55

I I can't say thank you enough to all the volunteers. Again, these are all basically amateur musicians and chorus people that, as Bubba said, they took a risk, they did a fantastic job, they knocked the ball out of the park. I I can't thank them enough. It it sure, sure, the lyrics and the music are important, yeah, but the team, the team efforts were were really special. Excellent.

SPEAKER_02 49:20

All right. Uh well, how can people learn more about Suzy the Cycle Witch?

SPEAKER_00 49:26

Yeah, so Susie the Cycle Witch is on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, all at at Suzy the Cycle Witch. Same address on all of them.

SPEAKER_07 49:36

Oh, great.

SPEAKER_00 49:37

So we have shorts um posted a couple times a week, and a new video comes out every two weeks.

SPEAKER_02 49:44

Excellent. Wow, that's really good stuff. Listen, I think you guys should be very proud of what you put together here. I think it's a really cool thing. Um I wish you all very much success with this. Thank you, Ted. Thanks very much. Well, thank you very much for being on the show. I really appreciate it. You guys were great.

SPEAKER_04 50:02

Glad to do it.

SPEAKER_06 50:03

Yep, great to be here.

SPEAKER_04 50:05

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 50:12

All right, that wraps up our deep dive into Suzy the Psycho Witch. Huge thanks to Tom, Rob, Bubba, and Jane for sharing the stories, the laughs, and the magic behind the scenes. Now, if you haven't watched the rock opera yet, head on over to their YouTube channel and experience the world they've built. Now you can learn more about Suzy the Psycho Witch by heading on over to their Facebook page, Suzy the Cycle Witch, and Instagram, and of course, the YouTube channel. You'll check it all out. All the links will be in the show notes and of course on the Motorcycle Men website at motomenpc.com. Hey, don't forget to go on on over to the Ride with Ted YouTube channel, watch some of the many videos I have there. And if you'd also please like and subscribe, that would be a tremendous help to both the channel and, of course, to the podcast. Hey, get a copy of my book, The Road Most Traveled, now direct from me on the Motorcycle Men website and save nearly$8. Of course, it's still available on Amazon and the audiobook is on Audible, but you can still get it from me if you want, and I'll even sign it for you. Thanks for joining me, boys and girls, here on episode 470 in the V-Twin Cafe in the corner booth, where we talked with the folks from Susie the Cycle Witch. So thank you very much for joining. So for the rest of the motorcycle men team, thanks for listening. And remember, kids, we say stupid crap so you don't have to. Ride safely.