Pat's Peeps Podcast

Ep. 351 Today's Peep Features a Fall Walk and a Stroll through Memories: BB Guns, Boomboxes, Celebrating Ace Frehley & His Music, Why Nostalgia Hits Harder than a Fastball

• Pat Walsh

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Start with a crisp fall morning, a quiet neighborhood, and a hoodie that says exactly who we root for. That’s where our stroll begins—plugging local merch with a smile, trading hellos with dog walkers, and letting the day set the tempo. A creek appears, and with it a flood of mischief: Crossman pumps, Daisy rifles, and the wildly confident belief that a base-stealer can outrun a BB. The welt fades, the story stays, and the laughter still lands.

Baseball steps up next. We plant our flag for the Dodgers, not with payroll excuses, but with the receipts: development, farm system depth, and players who became stars after other teams passed. October baseball is a ritual—hope in nine innings, strategy in every pitch, the kind of drama that turns a hot dog into a souvenir. For non-fans, the passion still translates because it’s really about belonging, the way a team becomes a season-long companion.

Then the tone shifts to a true north: music. We honor Ace Frehley with love and detail—why Shock Me hits like a live wire, how KISS turned spectacle into community, and why the best shows leave a permanent hum in your chest. From Russ Ballard to Planet P to the Paolas, we pull deep cuts off the shelf and let memory do its work. And we sit with the moment that shaped a fan forever: a mom waking her son to say “your group crashed,” and a Skynyrd poster that suddenly meant more than ink and paper. That’s the thread tying it all together—how songs and teams carry our stories, and why losing a musical hero feels personal.

Walk with us. Share your most underrated 80s track or the song that teleports you back. If you enjoy the vibe, tap follow, send this to a friend who loves October baseball and classic rock, and leave a quick review—your support helps keep this community loud and alive.

SPEAKER_00:

Hey there. How are ya? Happy Friday. It's Pat's Peeps three hundred and fifty-one. And man, it is a gorgeous day as I'm walking through the neighborhood. Thank you for listening in once again. And uh boy, it is just uh I can't describe we are so lucky here in California, at least in terms of the weather. Not so much politics, but in terms of the weather. It is just gorgeous. You just couldn't ask for better weather. Everything's turning green. Wherever you are, wherever you are listening, I sure do appreciate you. Uh lots of things on my mind today. Number one, support local business, please. Patspeeps.com. Check out our merchandise. I loved it last night. I think we got a call from where was it? Um I'm trying to think, I can't remember. Maybe somewhere in the Bay Area or something like that. And he's like, hey, uh, real vista, maybe. I think maybe it was Rio Vista actually. Anyhow, says Pat, where'd you get that? Uh I gotta get myself that Sam's Hoffbrow t-shirt, man. That is the coolest thing. We have that available at patspeeps.com. Just part of our merchandise. Where we have sweatshirts. Oh look at this. I gotta wait for the vehicles at the train trestle here. Wow, all of a sudden it's like a can you imagine? I'm in the middle of nowhere, and you got four vehicles. Oh, they're about to collide. Look at this. So you got a big truck about to collide with a little freeus. That almost happened. Wow! You don't see that here. Man, I love fall. I love it. So, yeah, the Sam's Hot Brown shirt, the Pat Wall Show t-shirt with the lamp. We've got Tower Record shirts, sweatshirts, Pat's Peeps merchandise. Here's a train trestle shout out for a Friday. PatSPeeps.com. Support local business, we'd be so grateful. Never ask for any money. PatSPeeps.com. Hey no, good morning. It's a beautiful morning. Uh uh. You know what I love? I want to hear something I love. I love when uh like I'll get a message from Georgia. Hi, Georgia. Am I in your headphones right now, Georgia? Georgia will send me photos. Hope she doesn't mind me saying this. She's such a sweetheart. Part of our Pat's peeps uh Italian trip. Our traveling group. Lovely lady. She's out there walking and she listens to my Pat's peeps. So I'm talking directly into your headphones, Georgia. Hello, Georgia. Georgia! That's boss gags, right? Yeah, Ray Charles. Georgia! Thank you. Thank you. That's my melody of Georgia songs. How about my boys in blue? Come on now! Don't hate me. Man, I hope no snake jumps out of this beautiful green little crick. That's the boys call it a crick. That would be a creek. No. Got a BB gun or a pellet gun. When you're a kid, you're going down to the crick. You're going down to the creek. And then your parents would be like, hey! Whatever you kids do. You know, don't be shooting at each other with those BB guns. Ah, okay, yeah, yeah. Take a little break here for a second. That's walking uphill, don't you know? You get down to the creek with your BB guns. Start kind of trying to aim at a couple of crot ads. And that don't get to go, so what do you do? You hide behind the cement pillar under a little bridge or wherever you can find behind a tree. Suddenly you're freaking Davy Crockett or Daniel Bloone, you're shooting at each other. Just when your parents told you, they'll be shooting at each other. Here's a true story. We lived on Tattershell Way. Hi, Tattershell Way. Anyone listening to me right now living on Tattershell? Over by Charles Mack. So one day, we got our BB guns. We went down to the creek. And you know, don't shoot each other. Yeah, whatever. Alright. Okay, mom, dad, yeah, you alright. We're walking back. And on the way on the way back, because I was a baseball, I was an all-star in baseball. I was in the majors. Or maybe I was in the seniors. In Little League. Come to think of it, I think I'd be in the seniors now. But anyhow. Different seniors. And uh I told my brother, because I thought I was, I thought I was all that. You know, I'm a baseball all-star. I'm so fast. I'm lightning fast. I'm not just a good pitcher and hitter, I'm fast. So I said, Steve, he had a daisy BB gun. And I had a crossman. Crossman air pump. You could do pellets or BBs. And that bad boy, that's a tough gun. I still have one. I'm getting so far off track from my Dodgers. By the way, how about the boys in blue? I'll get back to that. Patch Peeps, 351. So me being a baseball player, and I told Steve and me thinking that it's Daisy. Daisy beeping, please. I said, all right, Steve, we're on the sidewalk in front of our houses. I said, I'll get my base stealing stance. And uh you stand about, I don't know, maybe it's a hundred, I'm guessing a hundred feet away, something like that. I say you aim it at my stomach, I'll get my base stealing stance, and I'll say go. And when I when I say go, and you put you shoot me in the stomach, and I'll bet you that I could uh I could get out of the way of that BB, not get hit. Now imagine that for a 14-year-old. And so uh I was down there in my face ceiling stands. Okay, Steve's pointing at right, he's like, yeah, okay. Yeah, we could do that. I can accommodate that. Oh, thank you, brother. I know you could. Just don't shoot my face. So he aims at my stomach. And uh I get down on my base stealing stance, and I said, ready. Go! He hit that gun, bam, it hit me in the chest so he hit me in the chest so hard. I'll tell you what and my brother Steve, he could not stop laughing. Oh my gosh. It was fantastic, it wasn't fantastic for me, but it's a great memory. Anyhow, now I'm at the baseball park. Talk about gorgeous. It's Friday morning. It's fall at the baseball park. There's no one out here playing, it's so peaceful. There's someone walking their dog coming this way. We'll probably meet paths very soon here. We'll extend a good morning. We'll do a little stop and chat. Not a stop and chat, but certainly uh I'm gonna go with the acknowledgement and the how you're doing kind of a thing, alright? Because you have to acknowledge. Isn't that the polite and nice thing to do? I don't know what that was. It just crawled under the back stop into that hole. Good morning! How are you? See, I I did the I did the more of the interaction. Like I got like it was like a smile and a I don't know, maybe she said something. I don't know. Not I didn't hear it that well, but there you go. So for those of you who hate my team, the Dodgers, let me tell you something. I not only am I wearing a sweatshirt right now. I know boo boo, but guess what, champs? With all due respect, and they are just just steamrolling the competition. Mopping up the cop in the National League playoffs. Eight and one so far in the playoffs. Think about that. Eight and one dominating. And before anyone jumps on the oh, look at the payroll. Yeah, they have a big payroll, so there's a lot of other teams. The Mets, the Yankees, where are they? And the Dodgers also have the best farm system. Don't worry, I won't go too deep for those of you non-sports fans. But hey man, I can make a play for my team in October. That's right, you know, difference between Dodger dogs and other dogs, you can still get one in October. Thank you. So, when you got guys like I've mentioned before, Max Muncie. A's didn't need him. Heck. And which is funny now, because now they got a guy named Max Muncie. Like, what the heck? First of all, that's like one of the coolest names. But how do you get another Max Muncie? Uh okay, I'm gonna meet up with her and the dog again. We've circled around. Yeah, how do you do that? Hello, buddy. Hi there. See like a German Shepherd. I know she didn't want to do the Chattasaurus, so I didn't push my luck. So uh yeah, 8-1 of the competition, one game away from going back to the World Series. And perhaps still more work to do, of course. It's very talented teams winning a second straight World Series. Max Muncie, Justin Turner. Remember, Chris Taylor played for Seattle, was a nothing. I mean, comes the Dodgers, he becomes a star. Justin Turner comes from the Mets. They barely use the guy. He becomes a star. Yeah, you got your Otani's and your Freemans. I know. Vets. But they also have guys that they've made into stars, and their farm system is second to none. And that's a fact. So one more win. So right at this point, the Brewers have to beat them four in a row. And you get these baseball analysts who are like, yeah, well, you know, they beat them six and oh. The Brewers beat the Dodgers six times, six out of times out of six during a regular season. Yeah, well, guess what? The Dodgers weren't the same team. The Dodgers' pitching staff was decimated at that time. They had a lot of injuries throughout the lineup. So a lot of these players missed time. Max Muncie missed time. Wookie Betts missed time. So they still stood steadfast and continue to win. And for that, I'm very proud. At this point, Milwaukee, who had the best record in the Bigs this year, would now have to beat the Dodgers four straight times in order to advance to the World Series. If they did that, that would be, honestly, and I've been watching the sports for a long time. That would be one of the most remarkable comebacks in the series, if not the most remarkable that I will have ever seen. Because they're being dominated. So rooting for a team. Go blue, go Dodger. Sorry. I ain't sorry, but I know where I live, but I know some of you don't live here in this area either, so whatever. Let's see. Oh yes. Also, Ace Freely, guitarist, songwriter, and eventually sometime vocalist for KISS, founding member, passed away, 74 years old. I was very sad to see that. You know, it's just we attach ourselves to these people, these personalities, these artists, because they represent a great time in our lives in our youth. When we're rocking out in our bedroom, you know. Maybe you got your eight-track tape, your cassette, whatever. Got your boom box. You know, if you're like us, you had your boom box. You go out to cut school at Elkgrove Park. Not that I'm proud of that. It's a fact of life. Take the stereo speakers out, put them on top of your car. Being playing some Ted Nugent free-for-all, Mantro's first album, Rush's first album, Floyd Dark Side, you know, all of this great music. And always prevalent is Kiss. I said on my show last night, by the way, Pat Walsh, host of the Pat Walsh Radio Show, KFK. News Radio 93.1 FM 1530 a.m. Number one of the time slot. 7 to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday. I like Kiss. I do. Don't get me wrong. Were they my favorite band? No, they weren't. I liked a lot of their songs. I, for some reason, you know, I remember, as I mentioned on the show last night, as a teenager, we'd be in the weight room at Elk Grove High School with Turntable in there while people are working out. And you'd hear play that funky music. I remember that one by Wild Cherry. And then we would hear Kiss Alive. Rock, you know, Rock and Roll All Night, Cold Gin. You hear it all the time. And so it takes me back to that. And a lot of people were so into it. And there are songs that I like. Kiss is one of the only bands for me because I never, I'm not a big hits guy. I'm very deep track oriented. But like Kiss, I like their hits. Christine 16. Some people don't like Beth. I like it. I played it for Beth Ruyak on my show last night. Hard luck woman. Like that is like a soft-toned song from them. That's a song that could still be played easily, like on AC stations. It's it always reminded me of Rod Stewart. Never I met you. I never have seen you cry. If not for a fight, hello, we never have to say goodbye. Ace would have songs that he had written, but he was not confident in his voice, so Gene Simmons would sing most of his songs. Finally, he decides to sing a song by Kiss. And when I go back and I listen to Kiss, it's my favorite song by Kiss. It's a song called Shock Meau. Oh pop the power on me. I'll be glow. And it's the first time that Ace sang a song for the band. I love the drums in it. Peter Christ big heavy beat. And then he comes on and he sounds so perfect for the band. His voice is perfect. And shock me is about a song written about a time where Ace was Ace. Space Ace. Spaceman Ace. Where he uh was electrocuted, almost died. Morning. Good, thank you. Gotta like this bike uphill. Pretty nice. Older can't do it for him. So uh I love the song Shock Me and it's electrocuted. Almost dies, then writes a song called Shock Me. Make me feel better. I love the drums in the Like I said. Back to another train trestle. How watching it today? I hope you're doing green on Friday. We had a lot of calls last night. Ace. Train trestle shout out. Rest in peace, Ace! Thank you. For the wonderful music. I saw them in concert like two or three times. I had to see Kiss. Talk about a live show that if you're a rock and roller, you really gotta see. And then it just kind of brings the music closer to you. It was an awesome experience. I'm very grateful that I've seen them. I thought they were excellent. I'm back today. I'm gonna listen to some of their songs. Hooligan, uh, Love Gun. They call me Dr. Love. Yeah. Of course he had his solo career too. New York Groove. Wasn't that written by Russ Ballard? Off the top of my head thinking about that. I think Russ Ballard wrote that song. Man, I love me some Russ Ballard too. Yeah, I think that was written by Russ Ballard. Remember that song? Voices. Voices. I have voices. Oh, that's a great tune, man. I'd like to do that one in our band now that I'm thinking of that one. I played that on my show recently, uh, maybe a few months ago. I will break that one out every once in a while. And someone said, Yeah, man, that brought me right back to Miami Vice. I didn't even know it was in Miami Vice, but that's a cool tune. I like breaking out those songs where like you just haven't heard them forever. I'm talking about from my bumper songs from my radio show. I love that. You just break out tunes where people haven't heard them forever, but they're really cool songs. Like, here's another one. Eyes of a Stranger by the Paolas. Remember that one? Also, good drums, good percussion. People forget about some of these. Yeah, last night there was a who was it? That was uh uh Tony Carey? Who was it? That was the keyboard for um Rainbow and for Tony Carey for Rainbow and Planet P or as they were called the Planet P project. Why me? That's another good one. If you were around, if you were listening to music in the 80s, you might go, oh man, I remember these songs. It's interesting that the KISS Army, they were influenced by KISS. I feel bad for the people who were such loyal followers. I remember as a teenager, man, I was so into Leonard Skinnard. Leonard Skinnard was my number one when I was teen when I was a teen. I liked Southern Rock. And, you know, like I was talking about being out there, maybe Elkrove Park or whatever. Got the speakers up on the car. I was always defending Skinnard as the best, the best, the best. I would have posters. I did, I had posters in them. If you open up my locker room at Elkrove High School, I remember it was a big poster. Well, it was a it was a cutout of a newspaper, a picture of Alan Collins, uh, one of the lead guitarists with Rosington Collins and Steve King. I mean Ed King and uh Steve Gaines. But anyhow, it'd be the inside of my locker, my whole bedroom was a huge thing, said Leonard Skinner. So one morning, I would even try to dress like Leon Wilkerson, their bass player. I'm like 17, 18 years old, wear aviator glasses, a cowboy hat, I had long hair, I give me one of those kind of cowboy jackets, kind of got like that fur collar on it. Man, I stylin'! Boots, jeans, my mother would say, You're just trying to look like those guys, the guys in your group. Yep, mom, I am. You're right, I am. I think they're cool. I had like one of the first rock concert t-shirts made ever. Had a custom mage, they didn't have them. Like you couldn't just find them. So I had this skull with a cowboy hat. Got a southern flag on his cowboy hats, Leonard Skinner, Southern rock. Smoking a stogie, red sunglass aviator's on a badass. My dad didn't particularly like it. So one morning, you know, my mom comes in. I'm sound asleep. She shakes me and says, uh, Patrick, Patrick, huh? Huh? She says, uh, your group crashed. So she says, your group crashed. What do you mean what my group crashed? Your Leonard Skinner. What? I sprung up out of that bed, never forget that morning, and ran out to the television. And sure enough, they crashed 1977. I was gonna see them in January of 78 at the Portland Coliseum. We were living in Oregon at the time, and they crashed, and I was devastated. So when you lose people who are part of your youth that you actually idolized in certain ways, that you loved and adored, that you were fans of, kind of even in many ways influenced your personality, I would imagine. They did mine, uh, as well as other bands like Old J Guiles or certain bands that really influenced my personality, I can tell. So it's very sad. Rest in peace to Ace Freely. So I think as we kind of finish up here on today's Pat's Peeps podcast number 351, which I am so grateful for you to listen to. Uh let's play some Ace Freely going out. How about some cold gin? Credited with writing this song. Cold gin. Uh I am wishing you a very, very happy and pleasant Friday. I truly appreciate you listening. I thank you for listening to my radio show. I hope that you will consider at least looking and supporting any of the businesses. I understand that some of the businesses are kind of special needs kind of things in terms of wedding kind of stuff and other things like that. I get it. We're gonna add more other uh like food and stuff like I've been promising. Got some good things lined up. So please, patzpeeps.com, check out our merchandise, and you know what? We'll see you on the radio.

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Pat walsh

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