In Part II of my interview with former Actor/Radio DJ Jimmy Baron, we cracked open the vault of personal music memories. Picture this: Music Midtown Festival '95, where my chance encounter with Jimmy Baron led to him recommending seeing the band Cake's performance who we both still listen to. Throughout our chat, we unearthed the anthems that defined a generation, from Twisted Sister's raucous "Stay Hungry" to the enduring charm of Tom Petty's "Full Moon Fever" – an album that defied initial rejections to become a classic hit. We mused over how tracks like "I Won't Back Down" become part of our collective consciousness, uniting us in a chorus of resilience and remembrance of the artists who've left their indelible marks on our hearts. We celebrated the 30th anniversary of Weezer's 'Blue Album' and relived songs like "Come Undone" and "Buddy Holly".
Strapping on our nostalgia skates, we glided back to the days of 99X and Dave FM. On a more personal note, Jimmy Baron shared the tale of his own career pivot from the radio biz to real estate, reveling in the unexpected fulfillment of helping clients find their dream homes. Embracing his mother's wisdom to zero in on what truly matters, he found a fresh beat in the rhythm of life, proving that sometimes the B-side of our careers can produce the greatest hits.
Jimmy Baron and Associates
Keller Williams Realty, First Atlanta
jimmy@jimmybaron.com
Please Like and Follow our Facebook page Music In My Shoes.
You can contact us at musicinmyshoes@gmail,com.
In Part II of my interview with former Actor/Radio DJ Jimmy Baron, we cracked open the vault of personal music memories. Picture this: Music Midtown Festival '95, where my chance encounter with Jimmy Baron led to him recommending seeing the band Cake's performance who we both still listen to. Throughout our chat, we unearthed the anthems that defined a generation, from Twisted Sister's raucous "Stay Hungry" to the enduring charm of Tom Petty's "Full Moon Fever" – an album that defied initial rejections to become a classic hit. We mused over how tracks like "I Won't Back Down" become part of our collective consciousness, uniting us in a chorus of resilience and remembrance of the artists who've left their indelible marks on our hearts. We celebrated the 30th anniversary of Weezer's 'Blue Album' and relived songs like "Come Undone" and "Buddy Holly".
Strapping on our nostalgia skates, we glided back to the days of 99X and Dave FM. On a more personal note, Jimmy Baron shared the tale of his own career pivot from the radio biz to real estate, reveling in the unexpected fulfillment of helping clients find their dream homes. Embracing his mother's wisdom to zero in on what truly matters, he found a fresh beat in the rhythm of life, proving that sometimes the B-side of our careers can produce the greatest hits.
Jimmy Baron and Associates
Keller Williams Realty, First Atlanta
jimmy@jimmybaron.com
Please Like and Follow our Facebook page Music In My Shoes.
You can contact us at musicinmyshoes@gmail,com.
I'm Jim. I'm Jimmy and I'm Jimmy Barron, and you're listening to Music In my Shoes.
Speaker 2:He's got the feeling in his toe-toe.
Speaker 3:He's got the feeling and it's out there growing. Hey everybody, this is Jim Boge, and you're listening to Music In my Shoes. That was Vic Thrill kicking off episode 27. As always, I'm thrilled to be here with you. Let's learn something new or remember something old. On our last episode we had Jimmy Barron, formerly of 99X, the Morning X, and we are going to continue today with part two of our interview with him. We hope you're enjoying it as much as we are going to continue today with part two of our interview with him. We hope you're enjoying it as much as we are. So, jimmy, you and I met back in May of 95 at Music Midtown and for those of you that don't know, music Midtown was a three-day music festival and I think the ticket was like $25 to get in for three days, and today it would probably cost you $300 or 400 bucks to go to something like that. And on a saturday, 99x had like a tent or an area and I ended up walking up to it and you and I just started.
Speaker 3:The locals only stage right we started a conversation and you're like, oh, who are you looking forward to seeing? And you know, I was like, oh, I want to see Magna Pop and Our Lady Peace and Todd Snyder and Adam Ant Collective Soul. And you're like, what about Cake? And I was like Cake, I don't really like that song, rock and Roll, lifestyle. And you then proceeded to talk me into going to see Cake and to, just when they play that song, put it out of my mind but listen to everything else. So I said, well, this guy, he's in radio, he's got to know something, he must know everything, he must know something I did.
Speaker 3:I loved the show. I did put out of my mind when they did Rock and Roll Lifestyle, but I've been listening to Cake ever since.
Speaker 1:Me too. They're still one of my favorite bands.
Speaker 3:What a great thing. It's just small things that can happen at times for you to get turned on to something. Yeah, and did you know them from playing them at 99X? Or how did you start listening?
Speaker 1:Yeah, just from hearing their music at the station and I think they did, and they did live Xs for us. Okay. So I was exposed to more than just the one or two songs we were playing on the radio, and they're still one of my favorite bands. I mean, very clever. I really wish that they toured more than they do and more extensively than they do, because when they do these tours they're like in Missouri and Oklahoma. I don't even know. The last time I remember seeing here was at Center Stage, and that was I don't know how many years ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I saw them at Center Stage. It might be that same year you're talking about. It was 10 years ago or something.
Speaker 1:Oh, had to be more than that, I would think I've seen them at festivals.
Speaker 2:They played Shaky Knees a few years ago.
Speaker 3:I saw them again in 97 at Music Midtown and by then they had tons of hits, but I'll never forget that first time. So hey, I want to revisit some albums from the past. It's one of the things that we do on the show and I want to start off with Twisted Sister. The Stay Hungry album came out May 1984. Basically it had the two songs we're Not Gonna Take it, I Wanna Rock and those really were made by the videos that they had. And if you remember the guy that played Niedermeyer in the Animal House movies, he was the main character and to me it almost was like Niedermeyer had grown up and this was really still him playing these characters. And I know that the videos were just kind of campy and so forth, but without those videos those songs wouldn't be anything and we're not going to take it. I think you can put that on and even kids of today when they hear it, they know that song. Everybody seems to know that song. Do you find that at all?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I wonder sometimes about songs like that. Was it in Guitar Hero or?
Speaker 3:was it in? Where do kids know that song from, do they just?
Speaker 2:know it from pop culture, or was it actually in a video game?
Speaker 1:or something that is a good point. A lot of the music they're exposed to is not the way we were exposed to it Right?
Speaker 3:No, not at all. You're right, because there are songs that my kids will be singing and oh, I know it from Shrek, or I know it from this movie or that and I'm like what?
Speaker 1:Right or Grand Theft Auto or some, you know? I don't even know if they do. Do they do music on Grand Theft? I don't know. I'm just picking that out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right. So 35 years ago, tom Petty Full Moon Fever Solo album, believe it or not, the record company did not release it at first because they didn't think that there were any hits on it. And after five singles and the album making a number three appearance on the Billboard Top 200 album chart, I would definitely say that they were wrong and definitely a lot of help from Jeff Lynn of ELO as producer of the album. And you know, first song I Won't Back Down. That is a great song, still a great song all these years later, great video, and it's one of those things that you hear a lot of people that they'll sing. Everybody knows the chorus and, as a matter of fact, when Tom Petty passed away, I think at the University of Florida during a football game, they had the whole crowd singing that song. Do you remember that song, jimmy?
Speaker 1:Yes, I remember that song, full Moon Fever. So it came out in 89. And I had just moved, I had just gotten into radio like full-time, I had just gotten my first full-time radio gig and I was moving down to. I moved down to San Diego to work at KGB, which is a legendary radio station. Any TV or radio station that only has three letters has been around a long time.
Speaker 1:Right has three letters has been around a long time, right, and so, uh, that was like the first real rock station I had ever worked at. I had a very hot and cold uh relationship with a girl down there at that time and I just had a lot of memories of san die and that was right. When you couldn't turn on the radio and, you know, not hear, uh, I won't back down or free fallen or running down a dream. Um. So whenever I hear anything from that album it just reminds me of like that time of my life in San Diego, either driving, you know, back from my girlfriend's house or going to a cool radio station event. It was just a cool time.
Speaker 2:Isn't that a great thing about music? It just takes you back to wherever you experienced it Right.
Speaker 1:That's exactly right. And you know Fred Tutcher, who I worked with for a long time on 99X and now is the biggest morning show in Boston sports and Boston talk radio and Boston radio has been for a long time. He used to say that the music that is big when you are like in high school and college OK, I wasn't in college at the time, I was probably in my early 20s, but still it was that time in my life but he used to say the music that is big when you're like in high school, that music will stay with you for the rest of your life. It is the most impactful music that you know we all will have our favorite song when we're 30 or 40 or 50, you know we all will have our favorite song when we're 30 or 40 or 50, you know, or, in my case, older. But that'll fade away. It doesn't evoke the same emotions as the music as when you're young.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And another thing I've noticed if you ask people what was the best year for music, most people will say the year when they were like 15 years old. Yeah, yeah definitely that's funny.
Speaker 1:When were you in high school? I graduated in 1984. Okay, so you were. Truly, would you consider yourself a child of the 70s or a child of the 80s? The 80s, 80s, yeah, so I was more of a child of the 70s. I graduated high school in 79. The 80s, I said he's pizza in, you know, in Lincolnwood, illinois. It was like my first job as a 16-year-old, like that's when I, you know, when I hear that music, when I hear sticks, it reminds me of my high school girlfriend, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:Fleetwood Mac rumors probably yes, yes, yes, all of that.
Speaker 3:Did you ever go roller skating? Because that was huge in the 70s.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, for sure I mean, but then it was four-wheel roller skating.
Speaker 3:It wasn't in line, it was like real roller skates, you know?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know that we did it that much and I thought that that was more of an 80s thing actually.
Speaker 3:No, I did it in the 70s.
Speaker 3:We had a roller rink right down from where I lived and you could go there and I just remember that it would be like ladies' choice, ladies' choice, and they'd play a song and the ladies, you know you're a young kid and they'd go and pick someone you know. Oh, come roller skate with me. But next door, kind of attached to it, was this place called Jan's Ice Cream and they had this thing called the kitchen sink and it was like this big, it almost looked like a sink, and they had like 13 or 14 different flavors and they gave you like eight, nine, ten spoons and we would get it and all of us would be just like I would never do that today, right you couldn't do it, they couldn't do that, they couldn't do it right.
Speaker 3:Like the thought of how gross that was doing that is unbelievable, but that's something that we would do.
Speaker 2:There was this place called Farrell's in Atlanta. That was like that, and they had the giant trough. I think it was called the trough or something. I can't remember the name of it, but every kid wanted that for his birthday. They're like 40 scoops of ice cream and everybody's eating out of it. Yep, yep.
Speaker 3:So 30 years ago, played on 99X Weezer, the blue album came out and that was the sweater song. You know, if you pull my sweater, how did it go?
Speaker 1:Jimmy.
Speaker 3:If you want to destroy my sweater, yes. If you want to destroy my sweater, pull the string as I walk away.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Buddy Holly, which I love. That was a great video. They kind of filmed it with the premise of Happy Days, Say it Ain't so, which came out a little bit later. I thought that was a great album. I actually think 1994 was a really good year for music. Also, 1994 was huge at 99X. That's what I was listening to. I'm sure that a lot of that goes together, but you know we've been talking a bunch, you know, through this year, of different stuff that's come out in 1994. And that's a really strong year when you look at it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that period was very significant and you're right, you know, if you go back and look at what were the biggest years, you know the most impactful years. 94 was probably one of them. You know. 99x came on the air in 92 and then really started to take form more in 93 and by 94 was, you know, just like a supernova.
Speaker 3:I definitely agree. So I remember and I don't know all the details, but I remember something about you on the radio getting boxed up and shipped somewhere Like did that really happen?
Speaker 1:So that was still. The most memorable bit we ever did was probably that one that I've been asked about more times than anything else we ever did. Why did we ship me in a box to Texas?
Speaker 3:Now did this really happen.
Speaker 1:I don't remember, Gosh. I don't remember why we did it actually, but it was that we shipped me in a UPS box to Texas. Why Texas? Again, I don't remember the details. I don't remember why. Was it hot?
Speaker 2:in the box. It was very hot.
Speaker 1:It was very hot. We had air holes in it, but yeah, I can't remember why we did it.
Speaker 3:I don't know, that's just a crazy story. That's a crazy story. I don't remember why we did it. I don't know, that's just a crazy story. That's a crazy story. I don't know why we did it, you know you couldn't.
Speaker 1:And when I get together with like because Barnes and Leslie are still on the air every morning and I join them maybe every couple weeks or so but whenever we get together or when I get together with Crash or Steve Craig or any of the guys you know, we talk about the old days and we talk about all the fun we had. I would say 80 to 90 percent of the things we did on the air back then you could not do today because you'd get sued, because the lawyers would say no, because there was no money in the budget to do it. There was so many there's just so many rules and restrictions now that half the stuff that you just could not get away with doing you just couldn't. And it's kind of fun to think about bits and figure out why we couldn't do this today. Like the box bit, like, say, box bit, like why couldn't we do that? I could see some lawyers say, well, because you might inspire somebody else to do it and they might die. So we don't. I mean just stuff like that.
Speaker 1:We did a. We did this seemingly innocuous bit back on 99X one day for I forgot for some kind of concert tickets. We had three sets of concert tickets and they were each set was embedded in a block of ice, and we had three listeners and each one had a block of ice, and the first one who could melt their block of ice down to the tickets using only their body could get the tickets all right. So you had people like for an hour rubbing their arm and then rubbing their butt and then running their legs and then breathing, you know all kinds of things, and it was a fun bit.
Speaker 1:So I don't know, seven or eight, nine years later I was on Dave FM doing the morning show there with Yvonne Monet and we had tickets to give away and I said you know what, why don't we do the ice, the, the block of ice bit? You know, that was a fun bit. We were giving away tickets and we were told uh no, we can't do it because the CBS lawyers were afraid that one of the listeners could get frostbite and sue us, right? So that's where everything was headed.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 1:That's where everything was headed so real quick.
Speaker 3:what was the difference between working on 99X and Dave FM and Dave FM? What was it about two years or so?
Speaker 1:A couple of years, yeah, a couple of years I mean. Well, first of all, I mean, obviously I was working with Barnes Leslie and I worked with Yvonne, who I love. I mean, I love Yvonne Monet. We had a program director there who, it's funny, we were talking about MASH earlier. The program director was Frank Burns, this mealy mouth, just corporate punk who was? He was a combination of Frank Burns and Michael Scott from the Office.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, sounds a little bit like Lumberg from Office Space. Do you ever see that?
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, that's right, it's exactly what it was like. So that kind of was the feel of the entire. I mean, the other people we worked with were great. I loved the other DJs. I loved, you know, other people in management and sales, but this guy was so miserable that I I'll tell you why. It was good, you know, because in life, universally, good comes from bad. You can't always find it right, it's not always apparent, it doesn't always make its appearance obvious, but if you look at almost anything bad in your life, something good came from it.
Speaker 1:It made me realize that it's time for me to leave this business. This business is going in a direction that isn't really much fun for me. You know, I was 50 years old at the time and I was fired. It was two days before my 50th birthday and I lost my job there. And that's when I'd been doing radio for 22, 23 years and I realized you know as much as it sucks being fired two days before your 50th birthday. It doesn't suck as much as getting fired two days before your 60th birthday, true, and so this I need to use as a note to look for something else to do, like I've left it pretty much all on the field here, where the business is.
Speaker 1:There's never going to be another MorningX the way we knew it back then I'm not going to have that kind of fun, so let me find something else to do.
Speaker 2:Well, and another thing that was so unique about 99X is that it's a true independent station as opposed to—.
Speaker 1:Well, it was, it was, yeah, it was yeah, before it got bought by Cumulus and things changed. Now, you know, back in the heyday of the station, the playlist was chosen by Leslie Fram, by Sean Demery, sometimes by the DJs themselves. They'd pick songs to play. Now you know the playlist and I don't know. I don't know that this happens necessarily at 99X, which is now owned by Cumulus, and Steve Craig is the program director. I do think he has a little bit more autonomy than a lot, but 90% of the radio stations you're listening to, the playlists are being chosen by a computer in New York. Okay, and that's it. And, by the way, the DJs couldn't change the songs, even if they wanted to, because there's no, I mean, it's all, it's all hard, you know, it's all fed into the, into the program. They can't, you know, they can't mess with it. Isn't that a shame? Yeah, I mean. Yeah, that's just the evolution of where the business went.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would say so so you talk about you know bad, getting fired two days before your 50th birthday, and then the good. So what have you been doing since then?
Speaker 1:So I had started a little video business for a couple of years after that, but I got into residential real estate about 12 years ago, 13 years ago now. And I have been asked many times what do you like doing better, Jimmy? Do you like being in real estate or do you like being on the radio? And the answer is right now, I like what I do way better than anything else. Like I've been asked to go back on the radio full time. I don't really want to. I love what I do right now.
Speaker 1:For this stage of my life, this is a I love the job, I love getting to help people, I love the time it gives me with my family and, you know, with my son and my wife and my myself. I, I, I enjoy the work, I enjoy the challenges. Back then, if you had said to me when I was, you know, Jimmy from the Morning X hey, would you like to leave this and go and do real estate? Are you kidding? It was the best job in the world, Like at that time in my life there's nothing that was better.
Speaker 1:That was the greatest gig. I mean it took me so many cool places. I met so many interesting things, some of which I've been able to talk about today, and I could talk for hours about it and I mean it was unbelievable. I get a kick. My son's in high school and he's always telling me about how some teacher will say in the middle of class in September when they start school, or August Micah Barrett, I used to listen to your dad every day when I was your age and at first he hated hearing that At first it was the last thing he wanted to hear was that Now he thinks it's kind of. I think he appreciates it. It was kind of cool back then. So I loved it that. What I did back then on the radio and I love what I do in real estate right now, every day is different, like it was on the radio, but a different, kind of different, and it's challenging and kind of different. And it's challenging and it's fun and it's rewarding, uh, and so it's I've been both about people, right, you know.
Speaker 1:It's just about yeah, you know yeah, it's funny you say that because so I. People said how did you get into real estate? Um, my mom said to me after I got fired from Dave FM. My mom said hey, why don't you go into real estate? And I said when you get your real estate license? And I said mom, don't ever say that to me again. That's the worst thing. I don't think I said the dumbest. I would not say that to my mom, but it's the worst thing you've ever said to me. Okay, I'm not getting my real estate license, I'm not going to be a realtor. I'm not, you know, getting dressed up nice every day. I'm not going to have my picture on my business card, all of which I have right now.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:And she oh well, you know, you might as well just get your license just to see if you like it. And so, just to appease her, I got the license and I actually enjoyed learning about it and it was a great it was to be able to enjoy a second career. I feel so fortunate and blessed because after radio I really thought to myself okay, I'll never find that kind of joy and satisfaction in a career again, so why don't I? Maybe I can get a job at a bank or something and make a decent living. I'll hate what I do every day, but at least it'll be over by five o'clock and that will be the rest of my life. I'm just like a miserable eight hours every day, but the other 16 will be fine and that's what my life will be. And so to be able to find something that I really loved I mean, I know how hard that is let's say, is going through a period of their life where they have to make some career decisions, or even if they're younger and think this is what they want to do, you know, um, while you do have to focus on what you want, like once you've decided the path you're going down, like you do have to focus on that and and and and stay, you know, plugged in.
Speaker 1:The mistake I see people make is they're trying to do 15 different things at once. There's a saying a dog that chases two rabbits at once won't catch either of them. And, like I meet people in my business now who want to be in real estate, but they've also. They're also a personal trainer and they're also opening a restaurant and they've also. You know they also sell cars and they've got 15 different.
Speaker 1:You know gigs, you know it's the gig economy, but that's not how you succeed in one thing but at the same time, be open to things that you maybe didn't think you would be open to before. Like I would never have been open to being in real estate but I was forced to be open to it and as a result, it was great. You know, I never thought I would enjoy it and I do so. Moral of the story listen to your mother. That is exactly the moral of the story. Did she ever say? I told you so. Every time I see her, every time I see her, remember, when you tell people how you got into real estate, that it was your mother.
Speaker 3:So do you want to plug who you're with, or anything?
Speaker 1:So my company is Jimmy Barron and Associates, but we are part of Keller Williams, which everybody it's the biggest real estate company in the world Keller Williams, which everybody it's the biggest real estate company in the world. And I work with my wife, Kira, and we've been working with well. We've been together for about well. We've been married for three years, so that's how long we've been working together, but she's been doing this 16 years. I've been doing it 12 years. I mean, this is all we do. We're not personal trainers, we're not also trying to open up a restaurant, and we work with a lot of buyers and sellers and first-time home buyers and first-time home sellers and people going through divorces and people, unfortunately, you know, yesterday I was at a closing table with a woman who had recently lost her husband and so she was selling their house to a young man who was starting his family. So a lot of interesting stories, meeting a lot of interesting people, and I love what I do and I'm very focused on it.
Speaker 3:And how do people get in contact?
Speaker 1:with you. They can email me, jimmy, at jimmybarroncom. Easy enough to remember.
Speaker 3:One R.
Speaker 1:One R, thank you, or just go to jimmybarroncom and they can call me too, 404-234-2033. I was on the radio recently with Barnes and Leslie and they asked me if I wanted to plug it. So I was giving out my phone number and I'm like this is weird because I'm on 99X and I'm Jimmy from the Morning X and I'm giving out my personal phone number, which I wouldn't do. But now I'm doing and people have said don't you get all kinds of crazy calls? I'm like no, nobody.
Speaker 3:Not at all. In all honesty, I was going to ask you is that your only phone?
Speaker 1:That's it.
Speaker 3:You don't have the phone number that you gave me and people that are calling for certain.
Speaker 1:I give you my phone number. That's my phone number. What do I need two phone numbers for? I'm impressed by that. I don't have two phone numbers.
Speaker 2:There's a beer brand in Athens that the guy just puts his cell phone number on on every can.
Speaker 1:Oh really.
Speaker 2:It's like hey, if you want to let me know what you think of the beer, give me a call, Shoot me a text.
Speaker 1:People don't call you as much as you think they're going to. I mean nobody, people don't have that kind of time. We did a bit once where because there was a period of time that Barnes was coming in late to work a lot he would show up at like 10 after 6. And I said, okay, here's the deal Next time you show up late to work, I am giving out your home phone number, I'm giving out one digit every five minutes because you've got to string them along.
Speaker 1:You don't want to give it out all at once. Five minutes, 35 minutes. You're going to hold the audience and then it turned out I was the one that was late and so he gave my number out and you know who called Nobody.
Speaker 1:We were the biggest show in Atlanta.
Speaker 1:The most successful radio shows are, by nature, designed to eventually implode, because and this wasn't my theory Burt Weiss and I were having this conversation one time and he made this observation and I agree with him the shows where everybody always agrees with each other and everything that's not really much fun to listen to, okay, the ones that are fun to listen to is where there's conflict, where people come at life from different points of view and have different opinions on things. You know, barnes, leslie and I could not be more you, you know, diametrically opposite on, just in our personalities and our backgrounds and all that. But at the same time, like you're in a room every day at a minimum for four hours straight, not including production time, okay, five days a week talking, talking about everything under the sun, you're going to eventually get to the point where you just hate each other. We didn't hate each other, but I'm just saying eventually you need a break, because it's too hard to be in a room with somebody for 20 years who you disagree with on everything.
Speaker 2:Either that or you start to agree on everything and the show isn't as good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I think there's some truth to that. So you know, it was just time for us to. I think the radio was changing, the audience was changing. I think we were ready to. I think our better years were behind us at that point. Station management had different ideas for the show as well. So I don't remember where this started, but I don't remember where the point started. But point taken.
Speaker 3:How about that? There you go. That's it for episode 27 of Music in my Shoes. I'd like to thank our guest, Jimmy Barron, former actor, former radio star, realtor, now realtor to everybody.
Speaker 1:I've got a number of clients for my old profession Very nice.
Speaker 3:I'd like to thank Jimmy Guthrie, show producer and owner of Arcade 160 Studios located here in Atlanta, georgia, and to Vic Thrill for our podcast music. This is Jim Boge, and I hope you learned something new or remembered something old. We'll meet again on our next episode. Until then, live life and keep the music playing, thank you.