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Backstage Pass Radio
S9: E8: Jim Odom (LeRoux) - The Presonus Matermind
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Date: October 18, 2025
Name of podcast: Backstage Pass Radio
S9: E8: Jim Odom (LeRoux) - The Presonus Matermind
SHOW SUMMARY:
Ever wonder how a touring guitarist becomes a tech founder, sells to Fender, then jumps right back into producing records? That’s the arc we trace with Jim Odom—guitarist for Louisiana’s LeRoux and co‑founder of Presonus—who opens up about the craft of recording, the grit of the Gulf Coast scene, and the magic that only happens when players share a room and a downbeat.
We dig into the making of a new album with blues powerhouse Jonathan “Boogie” Long, why Jim still chases the sound of a real console, and how a smart session band can lift a song in a single take. Jim pulls back the curtain on Studio One’s origins, the rocket ride of a NAMM breakthrough, and the decision to sell Presonus to Fender after years of global growth. The stories stretch from pine‑lined Studio in the Country, where Kansas and Dirty Dancing cuts took shape, to present‑day plans with Miracle Media, his label focused on honest performances and songs built to last.
LeRoux fans get a feast: memories of Jeff Pollard’s soaring voice, Fergie Frederiksen’s effortless high notes, and the late Tony Haselden’s razor-sharp lyrics. Jim teases a vintage live release from the late 70s, and shares why the band is refreshing its show toward the rock energy of Up and So Fired Up with current singer Jeff McCarty. We also wade into AI’s impact on music—training on copyrighted catalogs, the uncanny feel of generated tracks, and why listeners will keep seeking the human touch in phrasing, tone, and time.
If you love the crossroads where songwriting, recording, and innovation meet, you’ll feel right at home. Tap play, follow LeRoux on Facebook and www.leroux.band, and if the conversation hits a chord, share it with a friend and leave a quick review—what LeRoux era do you want to hear live next?
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Your Host,
Randy Hulsey
Today I will be visiting with a guest that was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and has gone on to become a guitarist, songwriter, audio engineer, and producer. Hey everyone, it's Randy Holsey with Backstage Past Radio. My guest today was the founder of Presonas Audio Electronics and serves as the guitarist for the Louisiana Hall of Fame band LaRue. Don't go anywhere because I'll have the mega talented Jim Odom here in the studio right after this.
SPEAKER_02:This is Backstage Past Radio. Backstage Pass Radio, a podcast by an artist for the artist. Each week we take you behind the scenes of some of your favorite musicians and the music they created. From our topping hits to Underground Gems, we explore the sounds that move us and the people that make it all happen. Remember to please subscribe, rate, and leave reviews on your favorite podcast platform. So whether you're a casual listener or a die hard music fan, tune in and discover the magic behind the melody. Here is your host of Backstage Pass Radio, Randy Holsey.
SPEAKER_03:Jim Odom, welcome. It's great to have you here, bud. How are you?
SPEAKER_00:I'm doing great, Randy. Thanks.
SPEAKER_03:Good to see you. Well, a quick shout out to our friend and your bandmate, Rod Roddy, for uh linking us up. How about that guy, man? Good good guy, right? Yeah, Rod's awesome. And also a quick shout out to uh Mark Duthu of your band as well. And I think Mark was very years ago, I was very instrumental in connecting me and with Tony Hazleton. And you know, we had a great conversation here on the show. So I I guess uh Mark started it all off for the whole La Rue thing and backstage past radio. So so a shout out to to Mark as well. And he's not, I guess Rod, well Rod's in uh past Christiane most of the time, I think. And then Mark, what he's in uh Homa, right? Is that is that correct, Jim?
SPEAKER_00:That's right.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Well, I Rod, you know, Rod was great. He was instrumental in getting me in touch with Dave Anderson from the Atlanta rhythm section, which we have a great interview coming up with Dave. So uh shout out to Rod for all his efforts. So for you, man, like so besides LaRue, what what keeps Jim Odom busy these days? I'm sure you got a bucket of things going on for sure, right?
SPEAKER_00:And you know, for some reason I can't stay still, but um uh I was I was with Fender Musical Instruments for about three years, uh ended that about a year ago, and you know, thought I was just gonna take it easy, maybe semi-retire, but that hasn't happened really.
SPEAKER_03:You got fooled, you got fooled somewhere down the line, right? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, don't get fooled again, but I did.
SPEAKER_03:And that's what that's what the Who said, right? Don't get fooled again. Indeed.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so I've I've been working with music, you know, back back more on the music side. You know, I spent now remaining 25, 30 years on the tech side, uh, you know, building equipment for uh audio for live sound and for studio production. But that journey was really fun too because I was with musicians every day. In fact, you know, at our company Personas, it was all about the music. You know, we would jam during the week and we had a studio in the buildings that we're always recording. But um the past year, um I've been producing and mixing records again, and it's been a lot of fun. I just finished producing a record for a blues guitarist named Jonathan Boogie Long. Uh Boogie's from Baton Rouge and kind of well known, you know, in different parts of the world as a blues monster guitar player. Sure. He's also a songwriter and singer. So um uh teamed up with a good friend of mine named Jeff Glixman. Jeff is a producer for Kansas and a bunch of bands, and we didn't have him on Jonathan. You know, now I've got the big problem of trying to figure out how to let the world know about it. So why not start a record company too?
SPEAKER_03:I I get it. You know, every around every corner lies a challenge, right? Like when you got when you get one figured out, you got another one waiting for you right around the corner.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, it is.
SPEAKER_03:How did the the artist come about for you? Like you you just spoke of recording the the Louisiana artist there. Like, did you know the guy from before? Did was is he an up? Like, I don't know much about him, so share with the listeners what the connection was there for you.
SPEAKER_00:Well, we're both in Baton Rouge, but I happen to be about 20, maybe 30 years old, now 30 years older than him. So uh we didn't grow up together, so to speak. He was, I mean, he's well known uh in Baton Rouge, but he's also well known in the blues community. Okay. Uh Jonathan did uh well, Boogie did two records with Samantha Fish on her label. Sure. Um, and before that, he was on a different label. Jonathan toured with B.B. King when he was, I think, in his 20s. Just a fantastic player. And how it came about is a real good friend of mine named Tracy Farmer, uh, here in uh North Shore where we live, asked me out to lunch with him and Boogie and said, Hey man, somebody really needs to do a great record on Boogie. And I said, Okay, what do you got? And that's how it happened, over coffee. So, you know, I said, okay, let's do it. Let's go in the studio, let's cut a few songs and see how we go. And next thing you know, I had Terrence Higgins, you know, from uh uh Tab Binla's band, and uh and he's he's been out with government mule lately, but then I had um a lot of other great players come in and play. Um and we um we recorded here, we recorded down in New Orleans, um and mixed out in Los Angeles.
SPEAKER_03:So kind of all over the place then, huh? So but the core of the stuff, was this done in a in a home studio? Is that what you have going on, or do you have another place or what pro studios?
SPEAKER_00:Okay, you know, um uh I like I like the sound of a real console in a real room uh when I track, you know, um and mixing environment. You can mix in a small room, you can mix it at your house, but you can't really track the same way. I did track a lot of vocals here in this room because it's nice and quiet. Sure. And but um yeah, I mean it's uh whenever you do a project, like the way I believe to do it, the right way to do it is to get people around you that are just super talented, you know, badasses and just let them do their thing. Oh yeah, yeah. That's how I look at it.
SPEAKER_03:So yeah, for sure. Well, that's interesting. I I I would love to know more about that whole side of the business myself. I'm a I'm a local musician here in Houston, but you know, never spent a lot of time in the recording studio and whatnot. But I'm I it's a it's a whole it's a whole thing for sure. And you know, I've had bands on my show, like I remember talking to Nibbs Carter, the bass player for the band Saxon, right? And I think their Carpe Diem album, you know, I think all five of those guys were in five different countries at the time when they recorded that. It was like, send the file here, send the file there, right? Put it all together, and you got a great record, right? So it's interesting to say, you know, you like, you know, while that works, you know, computers and the files, you know, there's nothing like a live console in a room, right?
SPEAKER_00:There's nothing like people looking at each other when they're playing music. Of course, you know, but if you're a band like Saxon or another band that knows how each other think, how each other plays, then you could send me a drum track and a bass track and I'll put a guitar on it, and it'll sound like LaRue.
SPEAKER_03:Sure. That that makes perfect sense. And you know, granted, you know, like LaRue, Saxon has been, you know, playing together for many, many, many years now, right? They didn't just get together last weekend and start jamming, right? Right. Well, so you mentioned uh the North Shore. I guess you're still living in and around the New Orleans area, right? That's where you call home these days, correct?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, here and I spent a lot of time in Pensacola, Florida, too. And I met some great musicians on the Florida panhandle as well. You know, so just let's just say Gulf Coast. Of course.
SPEAKER_03:Well, what's the uh what's the connection or what's the drawdown there to the panhandle of Florida for you? Is there was there family there? Like what why do you have that connection to Florida?
SPEAKER_00:Sure, family. Okay. Um my brother lives there. Um and I kind of grew up there when I was a kid. Uh my dad would worked offshore as a surveyor and he used to dump us in Pensacola during the summers and pick us up at the end. He'd come visit every now and then um because he was offshore right out of, I guess, Mobile. Yep. Uh and so we I just spent a lot of time there. And it's it's they have a great community down there, music. Um, and it just feels like home. And just like this feels like home where I live now. I would, you know, I lived in New Orleans uh for a while. I lived in Baton Rouge most of my life. Um, lived in Los Angeles too, lived in Boston for a while, and you know, so yeah, but uh I like to be around um communities where music is is important and appreciated.
SPEAKER_03:Well, I think you and you can correct me if I'm wrong. I don't have all the facts, right? I don't profess to have all the facts on LaRue, but you you guys still frequent Florida when you play shows. You there's still that connection with LaRue, correct?
SPEAKER_00:That's correct. We played Pensacola in September. Okay. September 1st. Yeah. Uh and we had a great crowd. We played um, I guess that is it Labor Day? Yeah, or Memorial Day. Oh yeah. Yeah. Into the summer. And uh excuse me, I'm sorry about this. Um, and uh we played outside um in the afternoon, and I mean it's to me, it's like an expat community there. A lot of Louisiana people had moved there, yeah. And so we'll pull in four or five hundred people outside, and what a show it is. It's so much fun. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_03:That's awesome. Well, I think um man, I'm I'm dating myself a little bit, and you can appreciate this, but I think the last time I saw you guys um live was I'm gonna guess, Jim, I'm horrible with dates, but I'm gonna call it like 1982-ish at Blackham Coliseum and Lafayette. And I think Jim Dandy was on that bill. Is that does that show even sound familiar to you at all? Or or am I?
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. No, I don't. I I I remember the Jim Dandy shows. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's about right.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, well, it's been a long time. Well, if we if we kind of walk back in in time a little bit, you know, if and if my old memory served me correctly, you replaced Jeff Pollard in the band right around 83 when the so fired up record came about. Is is my timing correct there?
SPEAKER_00:Right. 82, I think, is around where Jeff left. And uh and I joined the band literally six weeks after he left, maybe less. They called me uh from the road because he quit and he was done. And um, and so we started working together right away.
SPEAKER_03:What a what a mega talented guy he was, huh?
SPEAKER_00:Insane. He was so talented. Um yeah, I mean it it was kind of heartbreaking actually to not have Jeff's voice anymore. Yeah, he did um one other out one album with Kerry Libgren. Um, and or no, he didn't do the whole album. He sang just a few songs on it, but that was literally the last recording of Jeff. Um but I I can tell the world that I've got some uh some old tapes that I'm working on remixing right now. And this is Jeff Pollard singing in 1979 or 78 uh with LaRue minus Tony. It was right before Tony joined. Yeah, and it's a fantastic live recording and what we're gonna release in a little bit. It's sort of uh super cool. A vintage, a vintage old, you know, old tape somebody's found and said, Hey, would you like to have it? Absolutely. So it's being remastered right now, and um some amazing. You just when you hear this, you're gonna be blown away about you know the talent that was in that band by well.
SPEAKER_03:You guys have had some great singers over the years and all so unique in and of their own right. You know, you go back to that take a ride on the river boat, last day place on earth, all of all of those songs, Jeff was like, I mean, that was amazing times. And then there's no denying Fergie Frederickson, you know, on that so fired up record, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Well, are you still in is there any contact with Jeff these days? I mean, I know he went on and got into the church and and and and is doing his thing, but is anybody in contact with them, or did he just was it just like I'm stepping out of the business and I'm disappearing? Is that how it kind of went down?
SPEAKER_00:That's how it went down, but yes, his contact with Jeff now. He's a pastor in Pensacola, Florida. He has a church. Okay. Um, it's a big church, and he's part of it. He's been part of that same church for a very long time. Uh, the guys all you know, they've kind of spent a lot of time with him, talk to him all the time. Um we had when Tony passed away, we had a memorial, and Jeff got on screen and gave a big talk about Tony and prayed for him and everything. Yeah, so it was uh it was a cool thing to have him show up for that.
SPEAKER_03:That's super cool, man.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Well, I've I've mentioned this before, and I've had, of course, uh, as I mentioned earlier, and I know the listeners of Backstage Pass Radio around the world have tuned in to both of these shows, but I've had Tony and Rod both on my show. And but I wanted to say it again to you because I I think it deserves repeating, uh, at least from my seat, it does. Uh for me, you know, you go back to the so fired up record. Uh was a pivotal time in in my life and where I was with music. Top three records of all time, bar none for me. I mean, this is a solid record front to back. And I know this, it's it's funny. I don't know if I kept it in the interview with Rod or not, Jim, but it was kind of funny because I had brought like three pieces of vinyl for him to sign, right? And we were sitting in his living room there in uh in Thibodeau, and I was I was asking him something about the so fired up record, and he said, Yeah, there's this song called Such and Such on it. And I'm and I'm exposing Rod a little bit, but it was funny. And he he called out this song. I said, That wasn't on that record, Rod. Like he's like, Yeah, I think it was. I said, I don't want to argue with you on air, but I know that record very, very, very well. And I promise you that that song is not on that record, but that that was a fun time. But yeah, I mean, kudos to you guys. I mean, what a what a record that was front to back. And I think you had what, two or three, four writing credits on that record. Do you remember the songs that you were involved in?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, I remember the songs I were kind of Carrie's Gone, So Fired Up, um, what else did I want? Uh Lookout. Um Turning Point one of them.
SPEAKER_03:Pardon? Wasn't Turning Point? Turning Point. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Well, all of these songs, you know, amazing songs, and I mentioned it a little bit earlier. How how can the songs not be great with a guy like Fergie Frederickson on the vocals?
SPEAKER_00:Fergie was phenomenal. What a singer. And uh Fergie and I, of course, we were the new guys. Yeah, and to walk into you know, a band that at that time that was they were at the peak for LaRue because the you know, Lasset Place Record had done well. Um nobody said it was easy, got uh I think top 10, Billboard Top 10, stayed there for a while. Um and and we were touring. I mean, as soon as that record was out, we were on the road. We played a lot of great shows. But um, but Fergie, Fergie uh lived with me, you know. So we we were just like shacked up together, you know, trying to figure out the band together. And I actually knew the guys, the the drummer David Peters and I have been friends for many years, and I I played with David. Um, the Bobby Campo back then was the trumpet player and conga player, and we're we were we were good friends. So it was kind of natural when I joined the band because David and I were very, very dear friends already. Sure. But Fergie was new and he was from Chicago, so he had a funny accent.
SPEAKER_03:You had to have one foreigner in the band, right?
SPEAKER_00:But uh he fell in it's so funny to watch, you know, like a lot of people do. He fell in love with the community and just the people and the atmosphere in South Louisiana. You know, we we took him fishing, we took him way down in the bayou fishing, you know, and um he had he had the best time, but he was he's such a great artist. Uh of course he left LaRue and went to do the total record um, you know, that he played on.
SPEAKER_03:So that voice was just magical. I mean, what a range. Like you you, you know, I wish I had that tenor voice like him. Like, there wasn't a note that he couldn't climb up and get, right? I mean, he could he could sing the phone book. Unbelievable. Sing the phone book, literally.
SPEAKER_00:Every singer that comes, uh we've had only what three singers now, I think, since Fergie, and we have to drop the keys because nobody can hit those notes. Yeah, Fergie could hit just effortless.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Well, and then there was like he went on, I think. Uh, and again, correct me if I'm wrong. I think he went on and had a stint with Toto at post-Laroo. Is that right?
SPEAKER_00:Right after LaRue, right, did the isolation album.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Um and there was always this wasn't there always this connection with Toto and LaRue somehow. Uh can you explain you explain kind of the connection between Toto and LaRue?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so singers, the connection. Okay. Bobby Kimball, the original singer in Toto, is from uh Lafayette or one of the little towns around there. Okay. And um and Bobby and Rod were in a band together. I think I can't remember, I think it was called The Brick Wall, or he he'll correct me, but it's one of those bands um in the in South Louisiana. And so uh Bobby went to Los Angeles and um joined Toto. Okay, and did did was with him the first album, second, and most all the way up until after I think it was um Toto Four was the last album that Bobby sang on, you know, after Roseanne and all those beautiful songs. And uh and then Fergie came in and did the isolation album right afterwards. And Fergie was telling me how hard it was to stand up to Bobby Kimball, you know, and I'm like, you guys are just crazy. You know, they both sing so good.
SPEAKER_03:But but how how much of a compliment is that if if Fergie says something like that? Like, I mean, if a guy like Fergie says, like, I'm I can't keep up with that guy, that's yeah, that's that's a hell of an accolade there. I would I would take it as a hell of an accolade, and I'm a vocalist. I can't, there's no like those guys are on another planet, you know, in and of themselves, right?
SPEAKER_00:So good, just so talented, so musical too, and soulful. Um, you know, a lot goes into it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, 100%.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Well, I mean, and not and not to get too too morbid, but over the years, you know, we talked a little bit about Fergie and Tony. Over the years, you you've lost three, I I think it's three, three band brothers, right? Fergie, of course, Leon and Tony. I wanted you to kind of just share your thoughts with me about what you remember about each of those guys and and kind of what made them unique to the band, right?
SPEAKER_00:Um I guess we'll start with Leon, um, who founder, one of the founders of the band. Um and and Leon was more than just, I guess, one of the guys at the beginning. Leon had a really good business mind, right? So he was the guy in the band that said, okay, this is great, but um what we're gonna do is now we're gonna go audition for screen gyms, we're gonna go uh audition for Capital, we're gonna, you know, he he would push it, push it because Leon's career had started years before that. He played on many, many albums um and did a couple of productions for Capitol Records by then. Um, and so you know if you listen to the first album, it's like one giant bass solo, we call it kind of sometimes. Because you hear the bass go listen to that first album, listen to the bass, and you're gonna go, Oh my god, I hear more bass guitar than I do anything else on this album, right? Well, you know, and uh, but in fact, in Nashville, Tennessee, it got to where people were going, Hey man, can you do that more like Leon Medica? Right? Because he had this this thing he would do, this musical way of playing that just um was fantastic. And if you listen to those records and listen to the bass part, you'll get it right away. And without him, it just it's just not it was never exactly the same, you know. So any bass player that we have, we only have had one more since then, Joey Decker. Yep, Joey had to go learn all those parts note for note because they're like solos in themselves, you know. And uh if you look if you're a producer, you're looking for hooks, right? Yes, that bass part was a hook.
SPEAKER_03:Wow. And usually you don't think about the bass part as the hook, right?
SPEAKER_00:No, but listen again, listen to just take a ride on a riverboat. Yeah, you'll hear this crazy bass line going on. And um, in fact, a lot of music back then, you just listen to the bass and drums, and it's most of the track, you just feel it, you know. But of course, anyway, so that's so Lena was, I mean, critical, the critical player all the way through, all the way through until he couldn't do it anymore. He um, you know, he was not the manager, our manager Bud Carr, which managed um Kansas and a few other bands. He just passed away too, only about four weeks ago. So I'm losing we're losing all of our all of our friends. But um But Leon's the one that kept the band working, you know, he he kept the band going all the way through to the till they couldn't do it anymore. So him and I worked a lot together and just getting things done.
SPEAKER_03:So we move on to Tony Hazel. Well, if if we if I if I pump the brakes on you there, yeah, and what wasn't Lee, I mean, one of the one of the most well-known songs that you guys have written over the years New Orleans Lady, right? That that small little thing, how could we forget that, right? That's that's like the uh the the damn ant the Louisiana national anthem, is it not?
SPEAKER_00:Song of the century in New Orleans, you know, the millennial change, you know, uh changeover. Yeah, so yeah, he was he was by the way, and he wrote other beautiful songs too. So yeah, um, yeah, it was a combination. That that group of people, you know, those those guys, those men at that time, I mean, had so much talent. It was just overflowing.
SPEAKER_03:Did you did you ever like and and and not to discount any of your talents at all, but did you ever when you play with musicians of this caliber, right? What was there ever a time when Jim Odom said, I I I'm I'm out class. What am I doing what am I doing here with these people? Like, did did those kind of thoughts ever go through your head in LaRue over the years? Or not really?
SPEAKER_00:Not really. Okay. Um We were kind of really never did. We were well when I joined the band, it was, you know, they wanted a little bit different thing than the first two albums. Okay. Uh third album up, which is more rock, in fact, it's all rock, um, was more towards my style, but um, I had also played jazz and funk. I was into I was at lead I was head guitar player in the Loyola jazz uh band in New Orleans, you know. So I I'd studied and played a lot of jazz and recorded a lot of both jazz and rock music by the time. So it was all just music. Yeah, of course. It was just you know, play what you hear, and you know, and um Yeah, I was never really challenged, but I guess the most the the most challenging part of it at the time was on the writing side. It was I found that to be, man, these guys are really good at this. Sure. Yeah, written a lot of songs, but you got Tony Hazleton and Leon, and then you know Jeff's not there, but Jeff's legacy was still there, and Rod Brody is a fantastic songwriter. So, you know, to stand up in that world, I had to I learned a lot, put it like that. You know, it's not that I felt left out. I wrote Carrie's gone for them, you know. Yeah, where we got together.
SPEAKER_03:So that was a huge kind of yeah, that was kind of the commercial hit off of So Fired Up, right?
SPEAKER_00:And um, so you know, I caught on, but yeah, it was it was a lot of fun, you know. It was just a tremendous amount of uh fun to be around these guys.
SPEAKER_03:Right, yeah. Well, and I, you know, for for a quick second, I guess, you know, I went out and did some reading on you, and you know, of course, when I asked that question, it dawned on me, well, this guy has a Berkeley background, like, like sure, he's that caliber of of player and musician too, right? It wasn't discounting that, but I and you know, even even myself, you know, I spent years in professional hockey and whatnot. And sometimes you just get kind of starstruck a little bit by people's talents. Not necessarily that they're better than you, but they're just so unique in and of their own right that you're just like, wow, how did I how did I get here? Right? Like, but where did this come from? So anyway, I I go ahead.
SPEAKER_00:I get it. At that time, I didn't have that. I mean, now if you stuck me in there, I'd be like, oh, fuck music. I just we don't, you know, it's like it's like being a professional athlete. You really have to practice, work at it, yes. Keep up your your talent. I mean, um, when we play, I don't have any trouble, but some stages, and I don't really have much trouble playing, but I mean, yeah, there's some people I just okay, you just played every note there is, I'm gonna play only two notes. Yes. Yeah, you know.
SPEAKER_03:It's you know, after all the years, right? Like it's is the music, the live shows. Let's just talk about the live show. Is the live show still a passion for you? Do you still desire to be on stage? Or has that ship sailed and you enjoy other aspects of music more now?
SPEAKER_00:There's nothing better than playing a live. It's kind of a euphoria thing, like it's uh we we love playing with each we love playing with each other, you know, on stage. It's just uh um and you know, we just have we just have a great time. Um and we're actually in the middle of looking at kind of building a new show uh up. Um now we've lost Tony. We want to keep some of his songs, but we're gonna move on to like more of the up albums and the So Farred Up album era.
SPEAKER_01:All right.
SPEAKER_00:We for the longest time we did a whole lot of the first album, which is just that kind of funky whatever that is. You know, it's like a little fetish, I guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right on fetish music, which we'll do some of it, we'll always do that. We'll always do take a ride. But we're thinking, and we were we were gonna ask our our fans, you know, would you like to see us move a little bit more towards some of this that that late 70s, 80s, early 80s rock stuff? Thanks, man.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, you you have my vote there, Jimmy. Like, yeah, let's do it, man. Let's go back. Uh like I love all the stuff like the the one you guys just did in 2020. All fantastic music, but I'm a rock pig at heart, man. I love Americana, I love country, I love, I love, I love. But man, give me some rock and roll. That's that's that's where that's where it's at for this guy anyway, right? So if my if my vote counts for shit, let me uh that you got my vote on the on the up and the so fired up record. There you go. Thanks.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks for that, because we need it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and I'm uh and I want to talk to you a little bit more about the the the direction uh of the band. Uh but I wanted to go back to uh, you know, we talked about Leon a little bit, and you were gonna start to mention uh uh Tony when when I probably cut you off there. But tell tell me a little bit about your thoughts around Tony and what he was and who he was to you and and the band, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, he was uh Tony is probably the nicest person that you'll ever meet. He was um genuine to the core, you know, one of these guys, um very witty and funny all the time. Um I was I'm younger than him. Well, he just passed away, just let everybody know. But um I'm about I guess I'm about 12 years younger than him. And um he he bought me feet pajamas for the bus. Because I looked like such a kid. He was just funny like that, you know.
SPEAKER_03:Right, sure.
SPEAKER_00:He's a funny dude. Yeah, you know. But we were we were best friends. I mean, we really were. Um you know, we we when I first joined the band, he was very interested for some reason in my jazz fusion chops, you know, because I I was playing a lot of kind of progressive rock, jazz stuff with some friends of mine from Boston, you know, and um so we used to sit around and play music for hours and hours and hours just doing that kind of music. Um, while we were riding, we'd take a break and play and do that. And um, you know, so uh he was real funny about his gear. He it wasn't very technical, so he would get mad at it, let's just say. So I would and I'm a technical guy, right? So I end up setting up his ant on, you know, on stage, making it all right. So we were just really dear friends. I mean, for the longest time he um after the band broke up, so the band broke up like this. We it was 1984, I believe. And um RCA Records, our label, had just had a big changeover. We had an AR guy named Danny Loggins, was Kenny Loggins' brother, was our was our AR guy, and he was he was awesome, but he got let go. Um, half of the staff at RCA got cleaned out, and us Triumph and about three other rock bands got kicked off the label. Really? Okay, yeah, they went because the RCA was moving towards kind of mainstream, I guess, pop music at that time. You know, it happens. And um, and so what are we gonna do? Um, are we gonna just go at it again? And Tony said, I'd rather go to Nashville and write. Right? Because I, you know, he he write he wrote all the time. So he stayed in Thibodeau at first uh in writing, and the story goes like this. He had he had written about he by the way, hundreds of songs, but he had about ten songs he had recorded, and we had a tour bus at the time, um, and he had left his cassette tape in the tour bus of the songs, and they sold the tour bus to Ronnie Milsap. And Ronnie Milsap's guys said, Well, what music is this in this on this cassette? Well, they traced it back to Tony. He says, Do you think I can record one of those songs?
SPEAKER_03:No kidding.
SPEAKER_00:So that kind of launched in a weird way. That's funny, right? Launched Tony's career in Nashville. He um he moves to Nashville eventually, and I mean, like 60 top 40 songs, uh, six number ones, you know, and just an incredible career.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, he wrote he wrote for just for the listeners out there, right? Just to kind of interject here. Uh Colin Ray, uh Shannando, Keith Whitley, Kid Rock, like, yeah. I mean, it's it's a who's who of who he wrote for, right?
SPEAKER_00:And a lot of those that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. That's a Tony Aklon song.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Isn't that isn't that crazy how the the songs become the storyboard of people's lives and they have no idea who wrote the song. They know Colin Ray did it or Keith Whitley did it, but they have no idea who the songwriter is behind the scenes. Yeah. And uh it's it's crazy. I had a guy years ago, uh Russ Ballard, was on my show. And, you know, I'm sitting there talking to Russ, and I literally I put my head down in my hands, and I had this little giddy schoolgirl moment, and I'm not a starstruck guy, but I said, This is weird, Russ. I said, You you have written the storyboard to my life, winning by Santana. You can do magic by America. Like the list, the ri you know, the list goes on and on and on, and I'm like, geez, and I'm and I'm talking to this guy. Of course, we knew America made it popular, or or Santana made it popular, or whatever. But I'm talking to the mastermind behind these songs. And Tony was just that, right? He was a he was a masterful songwriter. He really, really was. And and you mentioned earlier about just a genuine guy. I remember after I had him on my show, I said, Well, Tony, you know, I hope that someday our our our paths cross, and you know, I've I've got a guitar hanging on the couple of guitars hanging on the wall here that I get all the guests on the show to sign at some point in time. And if our paths ever do, I'd love for you to sign that and a couple of pieces of vinyl, it'd mean everything to me. And like three months later, I got a call from him and he said, Hey, Julia and I are are in Houston. I'm I'm going to take treatment, right? And he said, If you want to, if you and Terry want to meet me down, meet us down here for lunch, you know. So I drove down, we drove down to the medical center, guitar and toe, records in tow, and had lunch with him and Julia, and just sat there for like two hours like we had known these people for 40 years, right? That was just the kind of people they were. And I I I kind of it you said it earlier, right? It's that it's that southern thing, it's that Louisiana, you know, southern charm, right? And southern hospitality. It was just so hospitable, so gracious with his time. And I I wasn't a fanboy, but we talked about everything under the sun. It wasn't just music, it was just about life in general, and just a genuine dude, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah, we miss him.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. And then so we had uh then Fergie as well, right? Speak a little bit about Fergie.
SPEAKER_00:Fergie was uh, yeah, his his story was kind of um and it was rough. He died of um a cancer in his liver. It kind of got rid of it, and then it slowly kind of made its way up some absorpies, and it took a long time for him to to take his life. And so we I remember him calling me towards the end, said, Man, I I can't feel my legs, dude. And I said, You just need to go on to the next place, my brother. Yeah, but um, that's it's kind of a harsh thing to recall, but um but uh Fergie was just I mean, also a very awesome person. In fact, if I could tell you this, we we were auditioning singers before Fergie joined the band, and um we had one guy from New York that we almost picked before we met Fergie. He was um he was good, wasn't near as good as Fergie, but he was really good. Um two or three other guys, and when Fergie walks in the room, um immediately we kind of looked at each other like he's a nice guy, he's not weird like those other guys, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Sure, sure.
SPEAKER_00:I don't know how to say that, yes, you know, um, but it was immediately like, okay, yeah, he he he fits he fits us.
SPEAKER_03:Well, and he was a good looking guy too, right? You know, I'm sure the girls loved him back in the day, right? Like I'm sure, well, I'm sure they loved him all the time. But you know, you you date back and you look you go look at that Carrie's Gone video, and you know, I'm not weird in that way, right? But I mean, he was a good looking man, no doubt.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, well, I detracted a lot of the girls because he did, without a doubt.
SPEAKER_03:Um, I wanted to touch real quick on your Presonus days, if if that's okay with you. So I think what 1995, this is when Presonas was founded. And was the so Brian Smith, was this a college uh friend or what like how how what was the connection between you and Brian, right?
SPEAKER_00:Uh Brian and I were in electrical engineering, computer engineering together at LSU. Okay. Um I had finished my I moved out to Los Angeles and I was working as a musician um and just working in studios and I decided I wanted to make gear. You know, it's kind of I don't know why it hit me suddenly, but um so I came back to Baton Rouge and got my degree in computer engineering at LSU and Brian was in the same curriculum and we were just knuckleheads in college, you know, together in our late twenties. And um he had a really nice job at Exxon, I think, you know, as a process engineer. I talked him into leaving his job and coming to the startup idea I had. So we we worked in a garage together for about maybe a year and um launched our first product in 1995 in January in Los Angeles at the NAM Show, which is National Association of Music Merchants.
SPEAKER_03:That's what that which is a which is a huge show in out in Anaheim every year, right? For all for for innovators and and manufacturers alike, right?
SPEAKER_00:Well what happened is so yeah, we we we our product was an automation system for recording studios, right? And um we got top ten products of the show out of 900 new companies. Oh way, that's awesome. Yeah. So um yeah, so and we were in electronic musician that first month. Um, the editor of Mix Magazine took me out to dinner, you know, it was a big for some reason a product was a hit, and so I come I came back to Louisiana and um just dove off, you know, and the rest of the town and the rest is history, right?
SPEAKER_03:How about that? Well, you did a you did an awful uh fine job there, Jim. Yeah, so so props to you for sure. Well, I mean, Brian, Brian must have thought you were a half-swell guy to quit an Exxon job and say, Yeah, Jim, let's let's hear this bright idea you have here, right? I'm gonna just like quit my life and join you, right? He he must have really thought the world of you for sure, or had a vote of confidence for sure.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, he he did. And but but he's got an entrepreneurial spirit too. You gotta have a little bit of this bug in you, yeah, to to want to do this.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Do that, you know. So well, for a company that, you know, being a computer guy, right? Like, I mean, you talk about companies that started in the garage. I mean, that's where Apple started. You you know the story, right? But was there ever initially that dream to make that company or what you were doing in '95 into the company that it turned out to be? Was that always the goal? Or did you just stumble upon something and you ran with it? Was it was yeah. I mean, that's the question.
SPEAKER_00:I think I had that company in the back of my head since I was 15 years old. Okay, wow, okay, right. So I mean, I built my first studio when I was 18, I think. It was in a barn. Um and in fact, I got some of the rude recordings from my barn studio that never came out. They're really good with Fergie on them. Yeah. But um, and you know, so always kind of a designer at heart. Okay, you know, uh product designer. Yep. Even when I was touring, we're we were on the road, tour buses and things like that. I'm programming this little Timex Sinclair computer in my bunk in the bed, you know, while everybody else is partying or drinking. So I was always a little bit of a nerd, you know, or I guess a lot of a nerd. Yeah. But I guess there's precedence for being a nerd in music. If you look at like Tom Schultz and other people, the rock man, yeah, of course. Yeah, you just kind of get the fuck and you just want to build it yourself, and that was me. Yeah. Uh and no, the reason I, you know, finished in college, I just there was just things I needed to learn. Of course. And so I went and did that. It was just in the way. But yeah, I had I had the ideas from the beginning. I was constantly um just trying to build things. Uh, I designed sonar systems for the Navy for about five years before I started Personas um as a job right out of college. And that that was a really good way for me to learn how to how to build things that were solid. Sure. Uh, and um, yeah, so we that company grew. I mean, the first three or four years, like any new business, were pretty rough. But once we started nailing one product after the next, it grew really fast.
SPEAKER_03:Wow. Well, I was gonna say, if you're if you're on a tour bus with a band that's opening shows for the likes of Journey and and bands like this, which you guys have done over the years, I was gonna say, yeah, you are kind of a weird dude, Jim, but it paid off, it paid off for you, bud. You know what I mean? Like it real the presonas play pay wound up paying off for you. So uh you can't you can't hate the player for sure, is what they say.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, well, um I mean music and you know, on this technology, it it kind of goes together, especially in rock music. Often, you know, like I did play acoustic jazz a lot too, which was a lot of fun. But the the records business and the the business of making albums, you know, it's um it's very technical, you know. To make it to make it and at the end, to make it something people want to listen to, that's actually harder than it sounds. You know, I mean I agree. I mean it's you can make it, but does anybody care?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, you know, it's I mean, not everybody can do it. I mean, I like like anything, if everybody could do it, then we'd all be engineers at the end of the day, right? And that's just not the case. Well, for the for the non-musician listener that tunes into my show, Presonas is a brand that's played around the world by some of the best musicians of our time. And I I was gonna say, Jim, even even I use the Studio One as my doll of choice, but I'm not lumping myself into that world-renowned musician category by by any stretch, but that's that's my doll of choice, right? That's what I've used for a long time as well, as well as my lead guitarist is a studio one guy as well.
SPEAKER_00:So right, we started that business in Germany. It was uh two uh ex Steinberg people created uh cubase. Yep, and um, and we we founded that company together in Hamburg, Germany in about 2003 or four. Took us four or five years to get the first version up and running. Interesting. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Well, that's interesting that you say that because I'm sitting in front of uh a Steinberg UR22, um, right? A little two-channel. Um, and I think cubease is what was packaged with that, if I'm not mistaken now, right? And you you probably just you you validated that. Well, you later, later on, you went on, I think a few years back, you sold the business to Fender, right? It was Fender. And what what was the idea for you? Was it just time to get out of that aspect of your life? Uh, was it just the right time to sell? Did Fender come to you? How did that, how did the acquisition come about?
SPEAKER_00:I think uh it's both, you know, we were uh when I say we, I'm talking about the people that were uh shareholders in the business. It wasn't just owned by Brian and I. We had shareholders and we had, you know, board of by the time, board of directors. Company was quite big, you know. We were doing business in 120 countries, we had nine factories running, you know, so it was it was it was a busy business, so to speak. Yep. Um, and you know, I think it just we just gotten through COVID, which was an interesting time to be in the media products business because we thought at the beginning of COVID there would be no more uh need for live sound and all these kind of products that we made, right? Well the opposite happened. Yes, everyone wanted to have a home studio all of a sudden. Yes, and so it was outrageous demand for the product. So we spent three years or two years, I guess, um keeping up with that demand. At that time, people like Fender were also doing really well because they were selling a million guitars a month. I don't know what the number was, but some not too far off. And they were out to acquire a technology business, and um we were if you look around, there's not a lot of American companies like us. No, in fact, there's like none, you know, exactly like us. So we were an obvious choice for them. And when they when when we started talking, it was like, well, I couldn't think of anybody better, you know, than to have joined with Finder Musical Instruments and all of our employees and all the people that worked with us forever, they felt the same way. What a beautiful company that is, you know. So together we were you know merging people and merging ideas and research and development, and all that just came together and it happened over about a year period.
SPEAKER_03:Um, you know, were you were you a uh prior to the sell to Fender of Presonas, were you a Fender player, a guitar player, or were you on another brand? Were you endorsed by other manufacturers from a guitar standpoint?
SPEAKER_00:Not anymore. When I was younger, I I had some endorsements, um different businesses, but no, um, but yeah, I've got lots of fender instruments, I've got Gibson instruments, you know, mostly Fender and Gibson.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I see the Acoustasonic there on the walls. Yeah, that's the Acousta Sonic. Yeah, yeah. I I you know I was always a big Taylor player, and you know, I guess their their hybrid is the T5Z, right? And I always thought, eh, I'm gonna get a T5Z, but then I was in Nashville and I stumbled in the Gibson garage, I stumbled across that SJ 200 there. The uh that's beautiful, and and I mean that's like the to me, that's like the holy grail grail there, and that's what I play in all the live shows. So that's I kind of shifted a little bit from from Taylor. I've got six or seven Taylors throughout the studio here, but uh that that Gibson SJ is is a canon for sure. It's a good sounding guitar.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Um but that's the story of that's that's how that worked out.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Well, has there been any ideas to start any new company since the the sale of Presonas, or has that whole thing, has that idea that ship sailed for you? Like no more companies, like I just want to do what I'm doing, like with the the production engineering and and mixing stuff. Is that kind of where your focus is these days?
SPEAKER_00:I don't really want to start from zero, um, a new company. Yeah, but that being said, I did start a company called Miracle Media. Okay. And it's M-I-R-I-C-A-L, like lyrical with an M on it. Okay. Um and Miracle is the it's right now, it's just a record label, but there's other ideas um to get into the media business. Okay. Um I'm also part of and investing in other audio companies. There's a company out of Austria that I'm part of, as a company out of Austin, Texas, that I'm part of. Um, so you know, I'm still active in the in the industry. I you know, I support any entrepreneur that calls me that says, hey man, how how what can I do? And I said, look, I'll tell you how to do that because I I did it. I probably failed more than you. Let me show you how not to do it.
SPEAKER_03:Right. I'll give you a couple of little shortcuts, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I'll give you some shortcuts.
SPEAKER_03:There's no shortcut to greatness, but I can I can maybe help you with a couple of little ones, right? Yeah, exactly. Well, I know that you've been tied to several studios as uh, you know, as an engineer and producer over the years, but I wanted to just touch briefly on studio in the country uh for just a minute. This is this is a studio that's literally right up the road from you, is it not? I mean, it's what 30, 40 miles maybe 45 minutes from my house. Talk to the you know, there's some mystique there for for some reason for me. Talk to the listeners a little bit about the fame studio high level and share with them like some of the artists that um I think you and multiple guys from LaRue were the studio guys at Studio in the Country, right? I mean, am I am I on point there?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we did a lot of work there. Um, so the Studio in the Country was built by a guy named Bill Evans, um mid-70s, I guess, early 70s when he started it. Um mid-70s, it was up and running. And um Almond Brothers, Stevie Wonder. Um I mean tons of great bands. I think I think Rolling Stones track there, sure, some things there. Um it's a they call it a studio in the country, but it's on 75 acres of pine trees. It's beautiful, it was built by um um can't think of the guy's name, Tom something. It'll come to me in a minute. Yeah, but um, but the studio was designed by a guy out of Nashville, um tuned by guys out of uh Westlake, which is in Los Angeles, and it's it's just an amazing room. All the Kansas, every Kansas album was recorded there.
SPEAKER_03:I thought so. I thought like uh Point of No Return and Leftover Tour was was recorded.
SPEAKER_00:That's in there. Wow, you know, yeah, and um I was you know I was lucky enough to be there after and before and after the LaRue albums that I did, and um Gene Foster ended up owning that studio. We did bands like Cinderella, um all these rock and roll bands in there were coming through. Um so um it's just it was a great place, just a beautiful place to work. Um and Gene was a fantastic studio owner, ex-military engineer, so the place was perfect.
SPEAKER_03:I'm talking like of course, yeah, on point, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, it was. Yeah, I mean, the industry that we were in, you know, at that time. Not the digital industry. This is all analog equipment things constantly. So yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Well, I think for the for the for the movie buffs, right? Like, and I'm not a big movie buff, but I think the the whole or some of the dirty dancing soundtrack was was done there, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I worked on that too. Or the Tom Johnson of the Dewey Brothers on that. He was there.
SPEAKER_03:That's so interesting. I and I think I mentioned to to Rod, you you guys were like the Louisiana Swampers, were you not? Like you guys were to studio in the country what the Swampers were to muscle shoals, right? Yeah, kinda.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, for the type of music that we did, and then there was a whole team of country guys that played, you know, steel, you know, lap steel and steel and banjos, they would come in and do their work. But um, yeah, we we did a lot of sessions.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Well, going back going back to what you were talking about earlier, you know, the new when I was at Rod's place with uh with him and Lisa, we were doing the interview, and um he he was talking to me about, you know, we're having a band meeting tomorrow. Like I was there on a Saturday and went and stayed back in Lafayette that evening. But he was saying, we're having a band meeting and we're trying to determine what the the direction is now. You know, the passing of Tony was really fresh, you know, some months back. And what are we gonna do next? And you you hit on it earlier, so it it sounds like there could be new music coming out, right? And it's gonna be more driven back towards that that up or that uh the the rock side of LaRue, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. The music we're gonna release is probably that's a mixture of a lot of stuff. That's just an old live record, but I think I think the world needs to have it, you know, because it's really good. But the the band, um, the audiences uh are changing as well.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Um I hate to say it, but a lot of the 1977 audience, they just don't go out anymore, even to festivals. They just they're just tired.
SPEAKER_03:They don't like the crowds anymore, Jim. It's not that they don't love the music still, it's that they don't want to put up with the stupidity, you know.
SPEAKER_00:But uh we we you know, we still want to work. So we um you know, we've got a fantastic lead singer and Jeff McCarty. Yes. And um, and we feel like you know, we just rebuild the show around some of some of those records because we got a pretty good catalog to pull from, you know, and um then we build uh that that that kind of uh show. I think I think that's our goal, you know.
SPEAKER_03:Isn't he isn't Jeff like a rock singer by by trade? Like, doesn't he come from heavier music or or do I have my stories mixed?
SPEAKER_00:He does have a heavy music, he's got a metal band that he sings with. So yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:And then he's got a heavy duty funk band that he sings with. Like versatile dude, yeah. RB, you know, yes. Wow. He's got both of it. If you're gonna be a LaRue singer, you need all of that.
SPEAKER_03:100%. Who who influenced Jim Odom as a kid? What were you listening to back in the day, and who do you feel shaped you, or what type of group shaped you into the artist that that you would consider yourself today?
SPEAKER_00:I was um heavily influenced by pop music, honestly. I mean not pop as in um radio pop, but I would call it like Doobie Brothers and uh you know, the early Steely Dan albums and um things like that. You know, then later on I got into Jeff Beck and I got into um you know the Larry Carlton albums, which are more jazz kind of guys, uh Pat Matheny jazz players. I just fell in love with that music. Um and then of course, you know, I couldn't get enough of early Kansas albums. I was in high school when Kansas came out, so I had to was completely into that. Sure. Uh early Led Zeppelin albums, uh that kind of stuff. Yeah, you know I was uh Jimi Hendrix was gone by the time I was totally into it, so uh you know, but I did I did listen to some of those records. I wasn't as influenced by him as much as I was Jeff Beck and that crowd. Sure. You know, but it was really just the the music, you know, like everybody, the music of your you know, 10th, 11th grade. Oh yeah, you know, when you're when you're that old. 100 you know yes, yes. Um I had a band called Asia when I was uh 18, and um the band that came called Asia that came out actually had to buy the name from my band because my dad was a lawyer and he had registered it in the United States. No way, no way. Well, I think we got to meet the band, we got to meet Steve Howe and all these guys. And and it was it was recordings of my band Asia that the LaRue guys were listening to, and they said, You gotta come play with us. But anyway, that's just a little history.
SPEAKER_03:That's an interesting story, and I knew you had a band called Asia, uh, not to be mistaken with the super group Asia, right? But I had no idea. And you guys spelt it the same way? Is that is that correct?
SPEAKER_00:Exactly the same way.
SPEAKER_03:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and my dad, my dad was a lawyer. He said, Oh, just let's register the name. I said, Whatever. You know, how great is that story?
SPEAKER_03:I I would have never thought to even ask you that about about Asia. I I knew of the can you know the name connection, but I had I had no idea that you had the name registered and everything.
SPEAKER_00:Well, we played everything from like um Gino Vinelli to Rush to like Kenny Loggins. Uh yes. I mean, we were playing all kinds of stuff, you know, just music that we liked. You know, we really didn't care. We were just having fun. Yeah. I I look back now and I'll be like, man, this stuff was complicated. We were playing. Yeah. But it was just it was just the music that we love, you know.
SPEAKER_03:So well, it seems like you really took a liking or you you kind of followed the prog rock. It seemed like you were kind of a prog rock lover, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. That you know, that jazz, the two the two things kind of came together for me. A little taste of the blues, and um, you know, just Because some of the artists I was into were into the blues too. So a little bit of that. And ended up doing three records with Tab Benoit, which is pure blues. So it was a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_03:There's a there's a there's a Louisiana legend right there, right?
SPEAKER_00:So good. Gosh man.
SPEAKER_03:Well, off your uh 2020 record, one of those days. I mean, the the the re-record, I guess the the re-recording is that is that even a word, a re-recording, but or the recording again of of New Orleans ladies was a a fantastic rendition. And you guys kind of opened that song up in the middle to some guitar playing, didn't you? Which was not like on the original record. Yeah, you know, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that has a tap because he we've we played it together a hundred times, Tab and Wy and LaRue and me and Tab. We've all played it with Tap so many times, and he always takes the solo, right? Because you know, because he's tapping so he just said you gotta do this the solo on the record, and he did a great job.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Well, I I just I just I don't know why. I just went, you know, the the 2020 record that you guys did, which I guess was there was some uh billboard or there's it was a charting record, it became like a number one blues record or something, right? Number two, number two, number two. Wow, that's super cool. But I I remember um I saw an angel standing on the interstate, jeans cut off, clear up the heaven's gate. Amen. Can I get an amen? Now I have to ask you, right?
SPEAKER_00:You know who wrote this.
SPEAKER_03:I well, I I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you who I think wrote it. I know that you have a writing credit on that song, but that sounds like did you write that? It because that sounds like I wrote the song, Tony wrote those lyrics. I was gonna say that has Tony Hazelden written all over it, man.
SPEAKER_00:Like, but I was gonna say, if that this is how this works, right? So I'm bringing a song and it's called One of These Days.
SPEAKER_03:All right. One of these days, right? Okay.
SPEAKER_00:You know, and my my words are all about one of these days, blah, blah, blah. He goes, No, that's boring. And he changes it to one of those days, and it's just like, you know, let's just hop in the car. You know, it's just one of those days. I've had it, I'm getting the F out of here, you know. And uh, and that whole song is just all about just hopping in and hopping in your truck, throwing a guitar in the back, yeah, and just heading out.
SPEAKER_03:And what what did he say? Throwing a pen on the map, right? I mean, just wherever wherever I wind up is where I want while wind up. But you know, when I heard that, just that one piece, jeans cut off, clear up the heaven's gate. Like, how brut how brutal how brilliant is that? Like, I would have never in a million years come up with a line like that.
SPEAKER_00:He's he looked lyrically, uh, he's so good. Wow, you know. Well, for the song in there called Um Don't Rescue Me. Yes. Okay, well, I wrote that song too. When I wrote it, it was called Rescue Me. Okay, right? He goes, Oh, we're not singing that. So he writes the song, Don't Rescue Me, just leave me be. I'm all caught up with this girl, right? Don't rescue me. I don't want you to come here and take me away. Wow, and you know, I wrote it as rescue me, I'm in trouble, come help me out. He says, Oh, that's silly. He completely changed the lyric.
SPEAKER_03:Isn't that funny how it's it was almost like he had the 180-degree thought process on everything that you came up with, right? Yeah, yeah. Um man, I I I just it's it's crazy. I've I've written a few little songs over the years, and the the people were these lyrics just where in the hell do they come from, man?
SPEAKER_00:Like it's just don't rescue me. He says, You got me acting half a half a bubble off plum. You know what that is? Yeah, of course. It's like that's that's a plum with the uh the little whatever the thing. Yeah, of course. No, I know exactly what it is and half a bubble off plum. And it came right out of his head. And we were in uh a studio called Dockside, and we were recording, and um we put the track down, and I said, Tony, hop on there in a mic and just sing whatever comes to your head. The entire lyrics came out of his head first take. Unbelievable. We really only changed maybe one thing, he invented them in real time. That's unbelievable. Yeah, it was unbelievable.
SPEAKER_03:Well, he he had it for sure. There, there's no doubt about that. Um, anything new and exciting coming up for you out outside of the band? I know you've got you're you're working with the Baton Rouge artist. Um, anything else you want to speak of? I I I wanted to give you uh the the podium because of course I can't I can't go out and figure out every single thing, you know, the the wonderful guests on my show have going on, but I I wanted to open it up uh to you to to plug anything else you have going on that somebody, you know, listening to the show, uh, you know, the the show's now in 90, I think 94 countries. And it's it's been it's just been a you know, it was a labor of love to begin with. I'm a musician, and the idea was I just want to talk to musicians and hear the stories behind the songs and talk about great lyrics, and then it just it got to where it went from local to regional, and then it was Hall of Fame people that came on the show from Guns N' Roses, like the list goes on and on and on, and it's just been it's it's been an amazing thing. But I also like to hear about, you know, kind of like Dave Anderson from Atlanta Rhythm Section, he's got the whole solo thing going on, the looping and the stuff that he does outside of ARS, right? Talk to the listeners about Jim Odem out, you know, things that we may not know about you that that we need to pay attention to.
SPEAKER_00:Um, and the funny thing about it is I'm kind of an introvert that does extrovert work. That's counterintuitive, counterintuitive for you, right? Yeah, you know, I'm happy. Uh we used to call it the studio tan, that kind of pasty look you get. Yes. But um, I mean, really, I think I'm I've kind of spilled the beans on just about most everything that we're doing that's really critical to us right now. You know, I'm speaking in behalf of LaRue and for myself, um, you know, I it's yeah, I'm involved with some really great companies right now. Um, one of them is AI assistant for um for recording processes and you know being in the studio, which is gonna be a great business. Um and I I just um I mean nothing I can say out loud yet. Of course, of course, totally. But uh but what's exciting uh just the music. I you you can expect some more music from LaRue. Uh we're writing again. That's awesome. And um we still have some leftover lyrics from Tony we can use. Uh we'll be able to add some more, and just my uh my miracle media effort, you know. I think we're talking about um adding some other, you know, some other production elements to that company. And um, and there's a new artist that I'm looking at right now in New Orleans that's just really, really, really good. And we'll see if we end up making a record on him. But M I R I C A L is the name of the company, Miracle. Okay. Uh, it's miraclerecords.com is how you get there. If you go there now, you'll see the the only artist on the label right now. And um, that's really I think that's that's kind of exciting for me, you know, that I can kind of get back to the music. It's um it's a lot more than a hobby. Sure, of course. Of course, yeah. You know, um, so and you know, it's been a process to transition from uh a global electronics company to a record company, and I wanted to get in the weeds like all of my customers were in the weeds, yeah, right, you know, making music. And so that's that's where I am right now. I'm really enjoying it a lot.
SPEAKER_03:So that's great. That's great that you're still so active and involved. And it this this kind of popped up in my head, it wasn't even something I wanted to discuss or never even crossed my mind to discuss until you mentioned it. But for a living, I'm I work for a consulting firm here in Houston, Texas. So we do network security, uh cloud, you know, we're AI, uh, that type of consulting firm. I I I'm curious to get your thoughts just on AI in the music industry. Like, what are your thoughts around? Do you have any thoughts around AI and how it's gonna change the way things are you know were 10 years ago before all of the AI stuff started getting popular, right? Any thoughts there at all?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, of course. Um companies like Suno, right? The ones that uh are the people calling it the devil. Like I just I have some thoughts on this though. Um go back to when the first drum machine was invented, right? Pretty dang good. All my drummer buddies said that's it, I'm selling my drums, I'll never work again because the drum machines here can play every part I can play but better. Right? And it turns out that drummers were still needed, you know? Of course. Um this is you know, magnitudes different, but not really. The the thing I'm most concerned with, most of friends of mine are concerned with is um is is that they are training these systems on you know songs that were created by other people. So they can give you a Beatles-k song because they trained it on a hundred Beatles songs, right? Okay, which is illegal. Yes. You can't do it, but they're gonna do it anyway. You know how it is. Sure. You know, you're not gonna be able to stop them. And so we're we're concerned with um authenticity. But then again, I go back to you know what? I don't think anybody's gonna come up with Heaven's Gate in an AI environment. It's just not gonna happen, you know.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, no, I hear you.
SPEAKER_00:In other words, there's still gonna always be that originality of a Tab Benoit guitar solo. You can't train an AI to be Tab Benoit, I think it would explode, you know? Um and so in in a in a kind of an interesting thought that I had, and this is this happened with the drum machine, that's what I brought up as an example, is people are gonna start, okay, that's really cool. I don't even know what I'm listening to. It sounds like this song I I've heard before, but they're gonna start like you know, looking for real music, and they're gonna know the difference between real and fake, you know. You'll be able to. And it's just like uh, you know, if you look at these uh actresses and actors that they're you know, they're ginning up with the gin AI and all that kind of stuff. Um they look pretty real, but you can there's just something. Yeah, you can tell. And so I think it's gonna move over a little bit. It might actually help uh some of the artists. But no, I'm I don't I'm not very happy with it, but at this at the same time, it's coming and um it's amazing, it's stunning. The technology is really stunning, you know.
SPEAKER_03:Well, it's it's it's amazing that if you didn't know the the person, like the big one was Tom Cruise, right? They they had the whole Tom Cruise AI look alike or whatever. If you didn't know who he was, like who doesn't, but if you didn't know, you you you might say, Wow, that's you know, that's Tom Cruise. That's that's pretty cool. If somebody hasn't ever heard of Beatles record and AI gen the song to sound Beatles-esque, people might say, Oh, that's that's gonna be a hit song, but I would have to think, right, and you correct me if I'm wrong, but I would have to think that somewhere there's gonna be a lot of lawsuits that start five flat.
SPEAKER_00:There's already massive, massive lawsuits, but the you know, the sad part is money wins, you know. In other words, there may be a big lawsuit, okay? So they pay the Beatles a billion dollars, and then they get to keep the Beatles fake songs in the world. Of course. So will they stop them? Probably not. Wow. You know, it's gonna be an interesting time, and um, but still, I mean, you know, you can make you know a Jack Black record, right? I mean, yes, that's not gonna, you know, I I just don't see AI making a Jack Black record. No, no, I'm talking about it's just like that really uh rough around the edges for real thing, you know what I mean? So yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, exactly. And I mean that's a whole rabbit hole anybody that loves music could go down into. And I certainly don't, I want to respect your time, but it's good to hear your your your thoughts around it, and I much concur with what what you're saying. I don't have music out that I sell, right, per se, like like a LaRue or a Beatles or whoever the case may be, but or the band may be, but but nevertheless, I understand that that's that's intellectual property, right? That's your stuff. That's you know what I mean? That's not somebody else's to rip off at the end of the day.
SPEAKER_00:They're ripping it off. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Uh okay, so you you spoke of a website a minute ago. What other social media platforms can you share with my listeners uh about your projects and or LaRue in general? What can you plug for us that that they can go to?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, it's a uh Larue Facebook page. I think it's Louisiana's LaRue. Okay. It's a Facebook page, and that's a big part of how we communicate right now. Uh we have a website, and please just hop on and just hop on the email list, and I'll keep you up to date with everything that we're doing. And you find it interesting, great. If not, then just cancel it. But um, but you know, we don't we don't ever abuse emails. The fact I don't send enough Rob List in like four years or something. Yeah. I need to be better at that. But um, but yeah, that's that those are the places where we where we communicate with with folks right now, you know. And um, you can find me on Facebook, Jim Odom, um, which um I use strictly for business for right now. So, you know. Okay.
SPEAKER_03:But uh good to know. I th I threw you a friend request out there just so you know that it was coming from me. But uh I uh, you know, Jim, this is um this has been a treat for me. Uh as I as I've been a fan of LaRue for many, many years, dating back to my USL days in Lafayette when they still called it USL, right? Uh and it's something different now, of course. But thank you for all the great music over the years and your contributions to one of the greatest Hall of Fame bands to ever come out of the great state of Louisiana. Thank you, thank you for that, and thanks for taking the time with me. It's it's much appreciated. You guys make sure that you go out and follow Jim, the band, his projects uh on all the social media platforms, and on the band's website at www.larue. That's l-e-r-o-u-x.b-a-n-d. So www.laru.band. I also ask the listeners to like, share, and subscribe to the podcast on Facebook at BackstagePass Radio Podcast, on Instagram at BackstagePass Radio, and on the website at BackstagePassradio.com. You guys remember to take care of yourselves and each other, and we'll see you right back here on the next episode of Backstage Pass Radio.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you for tuning into this episode of Backstage Pass Radio. Backstage Pass Radio. We hope you enjoyed this episode and gained some new insights into the world of music. Backstage Pass Radio is heard in over 80 countries, and the streams continue to grow each week. If you love what you heard, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave reviews on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback means the world to us and helps us bring you even more amazing content. So join us next time for another deep dive into the stories and sounds that shape our musical landscape. Until then, keep listening, keep exploring, and keep the fashion of music alive.
