on DRUMS, with John Simeone
This is a local Long Island Podcast given by a veteran drummer on the Long Island music scene. We have a variety of local professional musicians as participants. We joke, give insights and share stories about our over 4 decades of experience in the music profession.
on DRUMS, with John Simeone
From Bar Bands To Arenas with George Cintron
A twenty-year reunion turns into a masterclass on survival, adaptation, and the art of playing for keeps. We sit down with guitarist, writer, and singer George Cintron to trace a line from a Puerto Rican household in Bayshore—where top 40 radio was the cultural gateway—to roaring Long Island clubs, studio sessions with heavy hitters, and a phone call that vaulted him onto arena stages with Enrique Iglesias. George shares how a gold-top Les Paul and theory class became real gigs, why auditions used to be about skill, and how the drinking age shift quietly gutted a thriving band economy.
The story pulls no punches on today’s bar math: band pay that never rose, owners who book by headcount, and hobby acts undercutting rates. Yet it’s not a rant; it’s a roadmap. You’ll hear the Enrique break—how speaking Spanish got George hired to help form the touring band and teach phonetics to non-Spanish speakers—and what it felt like when Bailamos turned a summer tour into a year-end sprint. Then we jump to Trans Siberian Orchestra and the long-running Windborne Music shows, where Zeppelin, Queen, and Pink Floyd get rebuilt with a full symphony and a rock band at center. Charts are precise, subs are surgical, and the result draws multiple generations without diluting the punch.
Woven through the tour stories are studio truths (why producers say “be yourself” then ask for less), candid talk about health and aging, and the case for steady rehearsal as the secret engine of great bands. If you care about live music, gig economics, and how players actually make it work, this conversation is a clear-eyed, generous guide. Subscribe, share with a musician friend, and leave a review with your take: should clubs prioritize draw or musicianship?
So this is episode 27 of On Drums. I am John Simeone. Today I have my friend that I haven't seen in a long time, George Sintron. And George, what were we saying? How long has it been? Yikes. It's been yikes. It's been at least 20 years. 20 years. Yeah. 20 years. And George is a bulk list guitar player, writer, uh everything. Every thing. You probably cook too, right? Do you cook? Sometimes. Yeah, you do everything. Yeah, sometimes. You're an everything guy. Yeah. So um how do George have we we met that we're going back to 1994. 94, you knew that. I didn't know that. Actually 93. Was it 93? Summer of 93. Okay. Yeah. Because you were doing sessions in my studio. Yes. Right. And I remember all those tunes. I remember Caroline. In fact, I think I have them on that. I have them on that. I have them. I have them. I have them in my iPod. You do? All of them. Except one song. Um there's a song called Come and Get It that I did not have a copy of. I don't I do not have a copy of that. I probably have it. But all the other five or six that we did, I have. They were great. Yeah. They were great. And you're a great, and I don't have I don't say that lightly, man, because I'm I'm very critical. You are a great player and writer and singer, I mean, you do everything. I'm a one-stop show. Yeah, you are, you are. So um let's just go back to the beginning. Yeah. Because I I only met you when I met you, you were what? We were like twenty something, right? No, I was uh ninety f ninety-three. I was thirty. Oh, you were thirty, okay. Thirty-five, I think. Yeah, so okay, that means I was thirty. Um something like that. So wha how like where did you like where'd you start all this stuff? Where did you did you grow up here and start with like playing guitar and how how did it all work for you? Well, uh I was born in Bayshore. Oh, okay. Um you know, typical childhood thing. Uh my parents, though, are Puerto Rican. Uh-huh. So well, so am I. Just your parents, if you're not. Yeah, just my parents, but um anyway, so a lot of um our our a lot of my musical ideas and stuff came from top 40 radio, because that's all we knew. Because my parents didn't speak a lot of English when we were little. Is that right? Yeah. So there was no pop culture in my house to speak of except the radio. So the radio became like everything. So you were your parents born over there? Yes. They were born there, they came here, and they they moved to Brentwood um because at that time it had the largest number of Puerto Rican people in one place. Oh. They all came from Puerto Rico in the fifties, I guess, and moved to Puerto Rico. Yeah. And they had their own hardware stores, dry cleaners, this in the totally encapsulated little town. Wow, why didn't I know that? Yeah. Because I grew up in Isla, but I didn't even realize Yeah. And and then and then the when I was really little, my mother, my grandmother, um moved to a new house, and it was they were building the whole neighborhood in Bayshore. Uh-huh. And and like a development, you mean. Yeah. And and it was a new school, and my mother saw it and was like, You gotta go to that school. Bayshore schools. Well, Brentwood Schools. Is uh we lived in North Bayshore, so it was, you know, um near the third precinct around there. Oh, I know, yeah, okay. Yeah. And um, so anyway, uh she made sure I went to that school and you know, it was all great. But it was the radio and and the Beatles, like everybody else in the world. Because when I was six they played at Sullivan. Right. I think and right, so I was too young for that, but uh I I remember that whole era. Yeah, and that I will tell you, I do remember it was like the world was different the next day. I I have people to remember who were my cousins who told me that and they said this exact same thing. Yeah, it was life-changing. Yeah, it it was there was nothing like it. Uh has happened be probably before I I agree with that. Certainly since. Yeah. And well, you know, you're talking about radio. You you you know, you listen to the radio. Well, who can do that now? I mean, not really. It's so convoluted now. It's so segmented and and like top 40 radio when I was a kid, it was like Tom Jones, Cream, and Tom Jones. Uh and you know, Sly and the Family Stone. Yeah, they were all the same to me. Yeah, well, because he couldn't know any different. Right, right. So if they were on top 40 radio, I'm game. So I'd listen to it all. It kind of all crept in there, which later on in life, once I became a musician, I would find myself in situations that I'd play I'd go to play something, and something would come out, something uh unusual for like uh what people would consider me a heavy metal or rock musician. Right. All of a sudden I'd play this lick and I'd be like, where the hell did I hear that from? And it was so you that's why you kind of gravitated the t it that way, like towards a being a rock guy or well um eventually. Yeah. Yeah. So I I'm interested, um obviously just gonna ask you. My brain. Um so when when exactly did you pick up the guitar? Like you when you were little or um I apparently the stories are that I always had a guitar around me because my grandfather played guitar. That's a good common thing. And but I didn't take it really seriously till I was about 14. Um, but I did know how to play. I always I don't know if it's true or not, but my memory of it is that I knew a few uh cowboy chords type of things. Yeah. So every song I wound up playing in D because I knew D and G and you know what I mean. So But how old was how old were you then? Ten, I guess. Yeah, so you were a kid, you were little. You were little, okay. But then about 13, 14, I started really picking up the guitar and like trying to make something out of it. And then um my grandfather saw that I had a little promise. So about two years later he bought me a guitar. And that kind of electric guitar? Yeah, Les Paul. And in those days, Les Pauls were not as expensive as they are now. Right. Aren't they valuable now? Aren't they worth a lot of money? Well some. I mean old old Les Pauls are like could be four hundred thousand dollars. Five hundred. They used to be more and they've kind of gone down a little bit. And uh so he got me um a gold top Les Paul and it took off. It just you know, I w I my friend in school by now by then I was like in eleventh grade, tenth grade, eleventh grade. And I had music theory, and a a guy in music theory named Matt Huss, he said, You have a guitar? You gotta be in my band. Come over my house, and you know this was a student, a kid? Or yeah, a kid. Yeah, he was one year older than me. Yeah. And so that's how I got into a band. And that led to, you know, other bands and um, you know, yeah, that's how it starts. Yeah. So um so you graduated high school and then what? You were just playing full-time? By then, uh, yes. Uh high school? Yeah, we were in a band called Mammoth, which was big in Brentwood. In quotations. Um And we would, you know, we thought, you know, we were the greatest thing ever, and like everybody does. And we started playing the little bars, you know, wherever we could find gigs. And it didn't last very long, and we went through a series of bands, but doing the same thing, finding, you know, in those days you could find little bars, right? In those days, yeah. Yeah, and play them. And you know, the the the it was not a financial issue because we still lived at home, and you know, if we made a hundred bucks, we'd, you know, get some White Castle after the gig and consider it a success. So, and what's funny is if you do a gig today, you still get a hundred bucks, right? And things have changed. I was thinking about that last night because I played um a place called Katy's in Smithtown last night, and the owners are a great friend of mine. And I played with my friends, Bobby Rondonelli. Oh, Bobby, who's you know, a very famous drummer. Drummer, yeah. And and I was thinking about the money I made, and I was like, you know. And and and don't get me wrong, it's not like it's not like he sh I should be making more, because it's you know, a Tuesday night. But you should be making more. It's it's thirty years later. It's uh you know, more than that. But band pay is one of the only um kinds of financial situations that has never changed. See, that's my that's why I'm doing this podcast. That's my gripe. That is my gripe with the music industry right now. It's how can that stay the same? Yeah, I mean, a beer used to be 75 cents. Yeah. And now it's eight dollars. And a lot of times musicians are still making the same hundred dollars. I don't get it. Some because somebody called me to do some gigs like of the summer, and I I think they paid 120 each, and it was like three hours for I'm like 120 get moved from. I know, I'm not doing that. Yeah, like why is it so low? Like, why you know, and and I have your whole theory behind it, it's that it's the only industry where non-professionals have infiltrated. Yeah, right? Well, yeah. Guys who can play four cowboy courts, good enough, man. Yeah, if you and and especially if they can draw a crowd of their friends. Uh their friends, exactly. Because back when we first started, uh clubs, even small clubs, but once we hit the larger nightclubs of the day, they advertised for themselves. Right. So, like for example, when I was in Centron, which would be 1981. Centron was your band, right? That's yeah, okay. And we put out a record, and before we did that, we went to WBAB and we bought fifteen hundred minutes of commercials. Uh-huh. Got a package deal, you know, and it was it was reasonable the price.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_01:So what we would do is we would advertise where we were playing. That weekend or uh any any such thing like that. Usually it's you know, we played a lot, so that weekend we w where were we? So and it would always start with the mu our music. Right. Because we were just about to put the originals you were doing?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Well, we were doing covers. But once we once we recorded these four originals that we did, we started putting them and other new originals in with the covers.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, right, that makes sense.
SPEAKER_01:And eventually it became at least half and half, you know. And certain gigs were like, We're doing all originals today. And we would advertise it that way. So it felt like everybody was pulling in the same direction. A club, the band, you know, everyone's trying to make a success of this night. And, you know, this night was every night. Right, right. You know? And what what year are we talking about now? Where are we? Eighty one. So this would be eighty-three. When the record came out would be Yeah, the the end of eighty-two. Yeah, going to the eighth. Right, okay, that sounds right. Okay. And and and it it worked very well for us. We we became popular in the clubs. We had a following, we had people coming by all the time, and and it was healthy. It felt healthy until the drinking age. Um changed to twenty-one. Changed to well, first to nineteen. Oh, changed to nineteen first? Yeah, in nineteen eighty-three. Oh, I only remember that. Yeah, eighty-three, I think. 'Cause I was yeah, for me it was it was eighteen. Yeah. And it was eighteen and then nineteen for a year, I think a year. Wow. And then twenty-one, and that that cleared it out. Wiped out all of the bands of our kind, because there were a lot of them. You know, there was you could play four nights, four or five nights a week and make a little money and be a playing living band. You know, you could say we're gonna learn originals, we're gonna do this, we're gonna be able to do that. You could just be in the band full-time and and live. Yeah, and be in that business. And you know, still at that time we were living at home. Right. And everything, so it wasn't financially crushing yet. Yet well, you know, nowadays, you know, there's bills to pay. Right. So you it's a whole different idea.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:You know, and uh we you know, the the uh eighty-five I remember I remember the day of live aid. We had a gig at a club, big club called Cheers back in those days. And we listened to Live Aid at the club because we were setting up and we were doing everything. And I didn't I ni I never saw Live Aid as it happened because there was no TVs, it was just they were getting a feed from the radio. Oh yeah. And and uh I had to watch a a tape of it later a couple of days later. And um but by then the clubs were dying. You know, they couldn't sustain because when people are 18, which was the age at first, they're still they're just leaving high school, they're still running packs, boys and girls, you know. Uh by the time they're 21, they're almost out of college. They've kinda already thought about how they're gonna live after school. They've maybe hooked up with a person and you know so it's a whole different type of existence. And they don't go see bands. That's interesting an interesting point. That I've never that's never crossed my mind as to why part of this is due to the drinking age. Yeah. And and then by then, you know, your maybe girlfriend or boyfriend doesn't want to go see the band. Right. When you were 18 and it was like six of you That was all you had to do. That was it was that's all anybody wanted to do was go out and be, you know. And by the time you're 21, not so much anymore. And it really killed uh uh everybody. I mean So what what did you do? I mean, uh Well because I was not in that uh in eighty three or whatever, what was I? I mean, I was I guess I was totally immersed in the club date world, which were like everywhere. Yeah. There was a million of them. Right. This would be eighty-five-ish. Yeah, I was and what happened was uh I live uh at that time I lived with my grandmother and she got sick. So for a little part of the time after that, I wasn't in a band. I would take care of my grandmother uh during the day and my aunt also lived in that house. She would take over at night and I could, you know, see about working or whatever. But my b b main thing was to try to write songs and try to take care of my grandmother and you know, f make sure she was fed and everything. Um which lasted a couple of years. And then we started playing small clubs. Because Centron? No, Centron was done. Done. Um there was uh a bunch of low uh not a bunch, a few local bands that would start playing, and I went to see Danny Miranda. Who's that, Danny Miranda? He's uh he's uh what is he? Danny Miranda. I have so many funny Danny Miranda stories. There's a lot of I told one the other night. He's he was telling me he was doing this uh, you know, Anthony Ciarbino, right?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So he's doing his trio. Not that go, we'll go back to I'm not gonna take off your subject there, but he said he was doing a trio with Anthony. You know, because he plays and uh Danny can play anything. Yeah. So they're playing swing and there's an aldo player soloing. So while they're playing, Anthony yells at Danny, listen to the soloist. And Danny leans back into Anthony and goes, I'm listening. Right? And then it then it goes on for a little while, and then Anthony leans over again and goes, Now you're listening too much. That's funny. We got it Danny when Danny tells it, it's hilarious. Anyway, go back to where you were. Um so I went to see uh the Stiff Richards band. Stiff Richards, I remember that band. At a place in Babylon, uh the Red Lion. Red Lion? Yeah. Oh wait, I saw you there. Yeah. That might have been how I first met you. It was crazy loud. I don't doubt that. It was it was like I was in a booth, and from where I was sitting in the booth, I could see you, and the booth itself, which was nailed to the wall, was moving with the volume. That red line, I remember that place. And and they they then asked me if I would play with them. The Stiff Richards band. Yeah, because I I wasn't in a band. So I was like, okay. And it was only supposed to be Monday nights and you know, well just a gig, you know. And so I learned all their music and I joined and I was very happy to be there. And um within six months, everyone in the band had quit except me. So I'm left with the stiffer just.
SPEAKER_02:Why did they what happened?
SPEAKER_01:Because I I think uh my reputation at that time was that I was a a heavy metal uh heavy metal didn't really exist in that way yet.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But you know, that would be my leaning toward that kind of music. And they didn't want to do that kind of music. But the reason they asked me was so that I could sing th this band and that band and I could contribute what I would know how to do. Right. But they didn't like it. So they all quit because of you. Well, I mean that they quit because they, you know, found other things they wanted to do. But yeah, I don't want to say because of me, I mean, I don't think so. But but it was weird. It was like, and I'm left with the stiff regards man. I'm like And there's no more stiffs. Well, so I got um a guy named Jeff Blank to play bass, and my friend Neil Sisson played some drums, and we continued three-piece, but we started stepping foot into some of the old clubs we used to play, or the uh not the old clubs because they were gone, but some of the people that used to work in the old clubs now moved on to other clubs, and so we started playing Sparks in Deer Park, Sparks, and you know, like a little bit of the older um regime kind of thing. And so we was this still stiff called Stiff Richards? Yeah, then after a while it was uh I think uh it's called the George Centron Band for a while. And it had all different names.
SPEAKER_03:Uh just a trio.
SPEAKER_01:Most uh yeah, by the time by the time it all um like the smoke cleared, I was left with the band. I I figured a trio we'd make more money than you know, yeah. Start adding people. And uh Jeff, the bass player, could sing. So it was you know, it was fairly easy to go. But in the meantime, Danny Miranda and I had struck up a friendship. How did you meet Danny? At uh at the Red Lion. Oh, at the Red Lion. I knew Danny. Uh he used to teach at Hayes Guitars in Bayshore, and for uh an entire summer, I would go to Hayes Guitars almost every day and play guitar with a guy named Bobby Icon who used to used to work at Hayes Guitars. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I will tell you one thing that summer of hours of just playing guitar with Bobby was the most I learned of other things besides the music we were playing in the bands. Because we would play whatever. Right. You know, Bobby would start playing jazz things and I'd be like fumbling around for notes. But eventually it was like, well, I you know, yeah, you kind of start getting around.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And it later on it comes in handy. Right. But it was a tremendous summer. And um Danny used to teach there. So I saw him here and there, and you know, we said hello and all that. But I o I really met Danny in 1989, eighty the end of eighty-eight. I think that's when I because I knew Danny from from a ki being a kid, and then I re hooked up with him around uh uh that time. Because of Naked Truth. Yeah, Naked Truth. Yeah, right. And uh then he he went to Seattle. He like w when I first joined the Stiffs, he was playing bass and then he disappeared. He disappeared. He moved to Seattle for like six months or something. Uh huh. And you know, other people came in and out and all that. And um but Danny and I stayed friends and were, you know, great friends now, still. Yeah. And that's how I met you. Well, I because Danny I'd met you at the Red Lion, I'm sure. At the Red Lion and then at my house at the apartment. Danny said you had a studio and we we wanted to work back. That was when so that's when Danny had his hair extensions, right? I think in the beginning, yes. Those those were the time I think that was around the time everybody was buying hair extensions. Yeah, I I think I think in the beginning, yes. Because he we have pictures with the long hair. With the long hair. Yeah. And um Yeah, we had a we had a great time at your studio. It was fun with Peter. Uh Peter was there. Peter was later, yeah. Who else do you there was a couple other guys who came over to do part of what you were doing, part of your stuff. I forget who it was. I know Danny played. I think it was an A-track I had. Uh singer. Oh who am I thinking of? We we had some I think the song Um Come and Get It had other people singing. And I cannot I think Peter may have been on some of those. Did Peter do backgrounds? It might have been, but uh Peter would have been later. Yeah. Oh, I guess so, yeah. Um Peter would have been ninety four because I met Peter in ninety-four. Oh, okay. So then maybe I'm thinking it's 'cause Danny used to bring people over all the time. Yeah. And but there was people singing this gang vocal thing. Oh yeah. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, but I don't remember. Yeah, I know I remember it distinctly now. You're right. Um I gotta dig up the s the tunes. Um and uh other than that, it was just the three of us. Yeah, I guess so. Um I I must be thinking of the people he brought around the same time that you came. Yeah, yeah. And um that was like the only good sessions I did over there. I mean, I had a lot of bad people. Yeah. Oh God. That's why I kind of got out of making it a thing. You know, just I made it just for my friends. I was trying to do a business for a while, but then I was getting people who uh you know, I mean I had one girl who used to come in and and she was doing something with Billy Heller. He was playing keyboards, and she'd come in and he Billy's basically writing songs and she's just singing things we don't even know. And she would come in and say, You know, I listened to what we did yesterday and and I'm hearing strings. Like you're you're hear so if you're hearing strings, why are you telling us why if you hear them already, why do we have to do strings? You know? Meaning you play some strings and then I'll claim it's mine because I heard it in my head. You know, like that I can't. I can't. Like I can't. I think when it becomes a business in general, any any any aspect of the stuff. It's not a money-making business at all. Well, at first I don't think a lot of businesses make money of any kind. Well, but there's the investment for a studio. Well, that's totally I mean but you have to become like a like a the uh like a mercenary. Like uh like I don't care. I don't care what you do. Yeah. You know, you get paid for the session, pay me for the session, I'm here at your disposal, thank you very much. And you have to become really kind of Yeah, I guess I don't have that ability. Yeah, I I I I find it difficult because when I had to put I d I never really got into playing sessions because a lot of the time I would wind up really not liking what they asked me to play.
SPEAKER_03:Right. Right.
SPEAKER_01:And I didn't have the maturity, I think, because now I'd be like, sure, no problem. Tell the truth. But um I I wouldn't um not cooperate because I try to do what they wanted, but it wore on me. But still to me there's a there's there's something that's very valid about that. Like you hired me because you think I'm dope. Well, that's and what would I play? So here's what I would play appropriate to what you're giving me to play on. Right. And you go, no, no, uh, let's do that, you know, then why? Get some uh it's like it doesn't make any sense. I had a session later on in the eighties um for a b a big band and a big producer. I won't say his name because I don't want to get in trouble. You're gonna get in trouble. But it was you know, we they went to New York City, um there were real people on these sessions, Omar Hakeem playing is playing drums and stuff. And they wanted because they used to come see me at a place called the Backdoor Lounge in Huntington, and they wanted me to play like me. Right. Which is why they got you. Until I walked in the door. Oh, and then what they wanted something else. They wanted something else. The keyboard player in the band, it was not a band, these were all session guys, but he was the MD. He wanted no part of me, because he didn't even know I was coming, because the producer hired me. Uh-huh. And it became this thing, and it was awful.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:The only th good thing that happened in that session was that Omar Hakeem, who is a very, very nice man, wound up playing every instrument in the studio, you know, like during dead little down times and stuff. He was great at everything. Yeah. And I was like, well, I'll be damned. And he was nice to me and he was very cool. He Omar, um, when I was with Darcy, was going out with Nikki Richards. Remember her? I remember the name. Nikki's a singer.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And she was living with Omar. And we went to B Nicky's birthday party, and he was I got the I got a chance to to bullshit with him. And I know he was a very nice Yeah. You know, like a just a very kind of down to earth guy. I made a faux pas, though. He was uh we were talking about um the albums that I liked that that uh for some reason I got it in my head that Tony Thompson played one of the albums, I think David Bowie. And he looks at me and I I said it and he looks at me and he goes, That was me. Oh, well I love that part. But he didn't hold it against me, but it was funny. I was like, you know, if ever you think you're not cool, try doing that. So you know all the stuff you're saying is like I this is why I have a such a problem now as a as an older person. Like it's it's such a personal this what other occupation is so personal to you to your being. You know what I mean? Like if you're whatever, I don't know, I'm not I'm I don't mean to if you're even if you're I was a teacher, okay? But it wasn't who I was it wasn't like my you know it didn't go to my core. It was great and it was fun and I got good at it but I didn't like it didn't I I don't I'm not I'm not saying this right like music you like it's here's how here's the best way I went to school with with uh Dave Weckle and I saw Dave in an interview and he said it perfectly he said he I didn't choose drums. Drum just chose me. Yeah. And it's like you don't have a choice. Right? What other occupation acting maybe yeah artistic things go to your core and most of the public who are not that it doesn't affect like that is like what's wrong with you? Why you why don't you just get a real job? Yeah do something and do that on the weekends. Like my brother my brother plays a little guitar. That is if my brother plays a little guitar. I want to choke that person. Like I play a little bass. You don't play a little bass. But you know nowadays those people will put together a little band. That's right I know and they will take the work take all the work. They'll play somewhere for half the price of whatever and they're they're not acting like it's a business the way you would be a bit more that's what I'm saying it doesn't it I don't think it goes to their core. Yeah. It's like it's almost like you know I play tennis on the side. Yeah. You know? I mean it's I think artistic things. I mean I mean I I would think you know if you're an athlete um maybe if you're if you're good. If you're really well not even good if you're like remember those kids like in school not the not the stupid super jock jockey guys but guys who once in a while you'd see a like a gifted who's really great at basketball or something and he's head and shoulders above everybody else. You know because he takes it as seriously as you would think musicians do and you know like like i I it might not be the the pursuit per se it might be how how intensely he's into it and how you know because if you're a politician say and you really believe that you want to fix the potholes in Brookhaven maybe you'd be a really good politician.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:You know what I mean? Maybe I don't know if there's many good politicians. I uh let's not even go there. I um I just I get like a fan I you know what it I feel like it's my child. And when I see somebody playing an instrument and they're just abusing you it I feel like it's somebody hitting my kid. Well I think that if they're charging me money to go see it. Like if people are just playing for their own uh whatever edification you know their own because they really get off on playing they can be in my mind as long as I don't have to sit through it too much they can be as bad as they want. And I would I applaud the idea. I would get offended. But if you charge me money or you take my job Right which is what they do. That they absolutely do now. And then it's it's not just now though to be fair it's starting in the late 80s I know but I remember 30 years ago we go to clubs and guys like you were playing. Everybody was good. Well we used to have to audition for the club? Yeah when we first played Cheers for the first time which would be before Centron a couple of years before Centron we had to audition on a Monday night. Oh I didn't know to see if we were good enough to even get any further and we played for free and we brought the whole raid the whole McGill everything killed those days are over man now you have to audition and see how bad you are well nowadays it doesn't matter. If you can if you can you know draw if you can bring 50 of 25 of your friends you got a gig we did a gig at um you know you know uh Ken Talvy guitar player yes phenomenal player um we do a trio a fusion trio and we do these gigs at Finley's and we waited we showed after one night as the second band and we went in there Finley's was was packed yeah and it was another band up and they would they weren't they had to be they would have had to have been a little bit better to reach the suck level. They would just beyond I couldn't I couldn't listen I had to go outside.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So I waited outside they finished by the time they packed up and left the bar was empty. Yeah I mean it was just and that's what the bar owners they don't care. They don't care they got their they got that however long they were on there was people there whatever that's it they got the you know alcohol sales and the next band you know if they bring people they'll do it again. Right you know so it's it's not the same business anymore. I know it's just a sad I don't you know because to be fair when I was at Centron we made them a lot of money. We made the clubs a lot of money. Right and but you were good and you had a following but but today if you just have a following is this that's the criteria. Yeah and and it's a it's a short it's a um what am I thinking of the it's a short sighted that's the word yeah it's a way to approach it. You know when we were playing in the bars earlier there were career bands playing. Twisted Sister had been playing for five years. Yeah yeah you know Zebra had been playing for three zebra's local Low Island no they're from New Orleans. Okay. But they came here in 77 You know and Rat Race Choir had been playing since 73 I think and you know these were these were businesses already running. Right and then all us younger slightly younger bands would want to be like them. We didn't want to be like just some band you know playing we wanted to we wanted to have a truck and lights and sound right you know we were like little touring entities. Right and there was probably twenty of us twenty bands that you could count on playing one year we played three hundred and ten wow fifteen days a year. That's every day. Yeah pretty much every day five days a week and then in the summer six. Wow so it's great you know and and you know we generated a lot of money for these people which is why we kept working and and that's just it's a s but and I I understand that and I appreciate that except the fact that you were players and you you guys were masters at your at your art yes and and now it's not that's not a requirement. No not at all. But you know to be fair to some of these bands because I play Cadies a a fair amount. Where's Caddy's in Smithtown my friend Brian Carpenter owns it. Okay and he has a lot of younger bands and he's in the s he's he's kind of caught in that you know the band has to draw to make money you know it goes hand in hand. But sometimes he gets some surprisingly good bands. And but that's good. I'm surprised to hear that but you know just as often they could be terrible. Right. But and it doesn't matter and it and and to to the to the bottom line that they all everybody has to work under these days it doesn't really matter. Really you know because some of the clubs back then back in my day um they they advertise for themselves. So they would draw their own crowd. Cheers had a crowd. Right because they advertise they were like come to our business and we'll show you a good time now they don't do that. Yeah it's to the bands to advertise as they will they don't pay them they pay them the door which is ridiculous. Which is unless you have a band that really has it together to advertise itself and you know like the social media stuff and all that then it is ridiculous. It is there are now bands that do work the social media and they have success.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_01:You know there are bands that play and you know I see them on you know the old man's Facebook but the old man's well I from what I understand Facebook's not cool anymore it's not I I try to avoid it and it's like you know that's the like the only social media that I'm on to to see what's going on with the with bands that I know and such is on Facebook because I I don't understand Instagram. I don't get it either I I d I have it and I you know scroll it's just Facebook isn't it's just like Facebook. Well I I don't think so I think it's like pictures and video little videos and I don't know like ruffy old men what is this you know TikTok is like a totally different world for me. I don't I don't know. So whatever but it's you know it's it's different. So let me uh let me ask you um you did a lot of a couple of uh big big gigs right yes yeah so how'd that come about and what what were they I know it was it was uh um in inrique glaciers yes um Enrique um it was a funny thing Danny and I were on the phone this is ninety seven ninety six he was newly in blue oyster call right and he was telling me about the road stuff and you know we talked all the time and I was like I remember saying out loud where's my blue oyster call right when is somebody gonna call me in with a gig what's funny about what you're saying is I remember Danny in my apartment saying when John, you know John Scarpool you may even be John Scarpool got the gig with Tower of Power and Danny said you know John that's him getting that gig like Tower of Power is like us getting the and he named a rock band and then he got then he did it. Yeah yeah yeah it's it's it's funny how that happens because not um a month later I get a call from Tommy Burns from uh Billy Joel's band okay guitar player yeah and Tommy used to be um in a Long Island band called the BMTs so I knew him a little bit uh because they played with Centron back in the day and you know uh we all kind of know each other and he asked me excuse me I've got to realign him he asked me uh do you speak Spanish and I go yeah because I had just spent the previous summer playing gigs with him on Long Island with a singer acoustic you know we'd played like you know 15 20 gigs so I said yeah you know I I I know how to speak Spanish and so he goes well you want a gig turned out he was gonna be the MD of Enrique Glacius's new band because he didn't have a band yet. Oh oh the band didn't exist it did not exist Enrique didn't have a band until we formed one well he formed one and so uh he goes well let me call the manager and I'll call you right back the manager calls me like two minutes later he goes well Tommy says you're the guy so welcome aboard I didn't have to audition I didn't have to do anything we'll see you in Miami in ten days oh really that quick just I think I was the last piece because they couldn't sing in Spanish. All of them were Tommy's friends. All of the musicians in the band would be Tommy's friends and you know right uh colleagues none of them could speak Spanish and Enrique only sang in Spanish back then so they needed someone to help them sing. So that was my job. You so just but you just you and Enrique sang Spanish and the other what the other guys do. Then they learned it phonetically that was my job. So you were there for the uh I wrote it out on a board how to pronounce this how to say it and they needed a guitar player. So you know I I was definitely the right choice. Yeah yeah so that's how I got that gig and it went for three three and a half years. Three three years of touring yeah we toured three times uh the 97 tour the 99 tour and in the middle ninety eight we did a tour of radio stations and uh little festival things not a full blown tour but it wound up being a couple of months of work. Right and the the 97 and 99 were like a a year each of touring so it was a a big concentration of work. And um in in that time he recorded a song in English. Enrique yes and that became um the song in the Wild Wild West movie uh Bailamos as it was called and it became a huge thing and the tour was supposed to end in like August of that year ninety nine and about two weeks later we all got a phone call what are you doing the rest of the year and we toured all the way through Christmas. Yeah uh because it was such a big hit and and so those must have been big venues right I mean we played uh arenas yeah you know um couple hundred thousand people we played arenas when he first started he sold fourteen million records before we ever met him oh and this what was his what was the hit um I forget what his his hit was that made him well he had a hit after I was in the band uh he had hero I can be your hero baby oh oh yeah yeah yeah uh but we were already out of the band at that time um but he had you know uh rhythm divine he had he had a bunch of hits in English right uh he was a good singer right yeah he was you know what it is uh there was something uh later on when Howard Stern had a tape of him singing really badly and is this you and he had a sing live in the studio it's all it was all ridiculous he sang just like his albums mm hmm if you like his albums he gave it to you live you know pretty well so that's how I always looked at it you know um is he the greatest singer in the world you know it depends on what you like or whatever but right he did his job well good I mean you know who's to say what who's the well you know everybody's I I like certain voices and hate others but they're all great singers. Yep you know it's just it's preference I guess or yeah and uh then the next year after that I did the Trans Siberian Orchestra for one touring cycle because the guitar player that I replaced was in Megadeth. Megadeth yeah Al Patrelli was in Megadeth and he he couldn't do the tour. So they got me to do the tour and that was kind of its own thing. You know and then um I started working for the symphony company called Windborne Music. Yeah tell me about that like how's that is that what you're doing now? Yeah it's been twenty years. Twenty years how how how does it explain it? I don't well what it is is uh they do rock shows the music uh symphony an actual orchestra yes uh the local orchestra wherever we go um we have um the music of Led Zeppelin Queen uh these are all separate shows Led Zeppelin Queen Stones um Pink Floyd uh they're missing I'm forgetting one but anyway there used to be a lot of shows like ten twelve different shows Whitney Houston Michael Jackson Prince uh there's a lot of shows uh then they got it in their head someone got it in their head that they needed a different licensing thing and it became really difficult to get the license for some of these shows so they pared it down. So now we do five shows five different shows or six different shows um and it's a complete symphony orchestra with a rock band in the middle so we play as if we're playing the rock part of the show. And and they're in the vocal part or they're what are they doing? We're doing the vocals. Oh okay so it's an actual band and with a with an orchestral compliment. Yes and my boss Brent Havens uh created charts for everybody to play and um we go out and play. That is a just a cool idea. Yeah and we do theaters yeah theater sized places sometimes you know well I I remember doing you know eight nine thousand people in Indiana and stuff like that. You know but by and large they're theaters and we play um well up until this year we would play uh all year round pretty much you know that's your gig right now is that is the orchestra yes I'm back to doing that now because I I had to stop for a while and um they you know people seem to really like it get all generations of people you know little kids and stuff. I always loved the the those the combination of kind of pop music rock music with orchestra. Yeah it's it's very well done and they they have really mined their they really mined their lane. You know like they they created something they stick to it it's very well done the musicians are always great. I mean it it's almost always the same band.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_01:You might have to add a keyboard player or a sax player for a certain show or Pink Floyd there's a sax. Pink Floyd there's a keyboard leads up when there's no keyboard you know so you try to mix and match and stuff like that. And um it's a great gig that is very terrific gig yeah and uh you know so that's what I've been doing now for years since 2004. But when I first joined they only had three gigs and then like a club they've been it grew it grew exponentially. Right. You know they got an agent they got this they got that and all of a sudden this thing that they built was like this perfect little thing became a bigger person. Right well I can see how that would catch on with it you know a certain demographic for sure. Yeah and it's um it's it's a great gig you know the these guys are my lifelong friends now and uh Danny's Danny's played with us. Oh Danny? Yeah yeah when I w there's there's when it was pre pre-COVID that we were doing a lot of gigs. And uh sometimes we'd have two gigs at the same day or the same weekend.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_01:And we couldn't do both because you have to get our days are you know the w one it's not bad thing, it's just a thing. Right. You have to be there all day. You have to rehearse with the orchestra you have to do this yeah you know so it can be a a a a kind of a bear of a day but when we need a sub you know you can get like I got Danny to do some gigs and one one night uh Bobby Rondonelli played with us in Detroit and we had trouble with uh Randy our singer so I wound up singing the Led Zeppelin show in Detroit with a sub-drummer and it was see that really speaks to how much of a musician you are I covered it I got you know you cover I covered the girls' vocals. And well there's a guy named Justin Avery who played with Meatloaf and now he's keyboard player in our group he had to do one of his first gigs with us this is how great he is he had to cover the female background singing parts in my in the Michael Jackson show. Oh my god and he did it without those hits those people just floor me man how do they like how does that work without a freaking hitch it was like oh my god wow and and he's he's funny he's he's he's great guy I mean all the all the guys that I work with on a regular basis my boss when he picked them he must have known what he was doing because twenty years on most of them uh the bass player and drummer for certain are exceptional people. Who's a drummer? A guy named Paul Randolph he's from uh Virginia the company is from Virginia. Oh okay and um as a matter of fact Powell just had surgery he had cancer about 15 years ago and the radiation destroyed his jaw bone what what kind of cancer did he have? He had um salivary gone. Oh really in there. Yeah and so he had to get um graph surgery they took a bone out of his leg and attached it to this metal thing on his jaw they remade his jaw basically this is what's great about getting old all we I used to just I used to call my friends and talk about like you know women. Now we talk about oh who died and do you know it's like who's sick and you know what pills I'm taking? You know it's funny yes last night I was I was telling Brian the owner of Katie's I go for the first time in my adult life I got blood blood work done a couple of days ago and I got the results on the in online and I look up and the arrow is in the green section of every test yeah which is supposed to be normal and I'm like this never happened before and I was like it's like a birthday card so I tell Brian he goes it's great isn't it and I'm like we are oh I know I hate this old shit I really do. Because now you know I I was sick last year so I had uh uh well this year I guess uh so I take a lot more tests so I have to be more mindful of them and to know w where I stand you know but we all do I mean everybody at this age is like but you know when before I got sick I didn't really pay attention. Right. I have to be honest. I I was like well you know things seem like they're going okay. Yeah if you feel good you don't know whatever you know but uh it does i you know it i it's it sucks when the the arrow is away from the green it's like oh shit I gotta do something about this but um you know I've been watching by you know health and such yeah so it's it's it's kind of rewarding to be to take a look and be like oh I'm doing okay I guess so you know you do what you can so George man that's good stuff man it really is it's good stuff I'm gl I mean I'm glad you're doing well now you look great to me and I I you always were like my favorite like I don't know what like I want to say like aggressive guitar like you're always like I it was like everything you play is very defined it's not like it's you know it's like loose or m you know misguided or something. Well thank you. I I will say you you the time we were working in your studio it was the most there's something about playing like in those days we were really concentrated on playing original music and trying to make something out of it.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_01:And there's something to be said for really doing that in a focused way because even though you don't play like you're plan everything and studio yeah but that mindset kind of still stays with you a little bit because sometimes I I listened to that music that we recorded in those days uh fairly regularly and I'm surprised by how well it all hung together. Well that was all you I mean you you you and Danny were well you played you played drums. Did I play drums or did we program that half and half yeah there's a couple of songs you actually played the drums. Oh really? Wow yeah and um but if that that's what I mean. You know Danny Danny was with me all those days when we were like trying to write out you know not write out literally but um you know trying to figure out how we're gonna play this how we're gonna do this and and I think that is its own reward. I think you really get a better product when you really because a lot of times bands that do not concentrate on being bands all the time are not as good. I agree. I agree with that. You know um I'm not saying you have to you know work your whatever you know every day or anything but like we used to have a band uh near the end of the club days. We'd rehearse once a week. Even if we didn't have a gig we would rehearse once but that would allow us to go over some of these songs and make something out of them. Right. Because the more you play it the more it becomes your own and you and the more you get the innuendos and stuff. Yeah. Yeah and and the more you can if you need to make adjustments you you have the time and the the experience the the the amount of time spent on this song to go, yeah I don't know about that. Yeah right you know it might have it might have took three weeks. Right. But that's something that wouldn't happen if you didn't work 100% I agree 100% I think we were all better served when we approached it that way. Yeah you know because I really enjoyed the work we did and And I enjoyed it too I mean there was very few such like I said very few sessions I enjoyed and that was one of them you know I like that really kind of like was fun you know I can't I can't say that about many of them. Yeah well you know you know that's not that that's that's part of the the the other side of the business that you know you you wouldn't be in every band. Right. Right. You know what I mean? Like no matter what you just we'd be like oh that's not for me. Yeah. But you still have to be in every band if you're the studio owner you know what I mean well all right George uh kind of run out of time here that was great great though I'm glad you came over man and it was it was great talking about this stuff man. It's wonderful to see you. Same I feel the same. So I'll be back in like uh 22 years or something. I'll be ready. Okay. Thanks George
