Ep 219 Big Milly and the Mayhem

Chicagoland's CLASSIC Rock and Roll Band, from the Southside. Their goal is to play music that gets everyone out onto the dance floor, dancing and singing along to the music in a packed venue, making the evening a truly memorable experience for everyone. The boys stopped by the studio and we challenged them get our Boogie shoes out and hit the dance floor.

Transcript

Coming to you from the studios at the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66. It's the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. Hey, everybody, it's Ray the Roadie.

And this here be Hollywood Mike. Here be. Here be.

Here be. Yeah. Wait, what's that mean? Is this our is this our first podcast of 2025? It is our first podcast of 2025.

Holy shit. Yeah, we made it. We made it through New Year's Eve.

Another year. Can you believe that? Man, I. Man, guys, shut up already. Thank you.

New Year's Eve was just rocking, man. It was. Oh, I think I fell asleep.

I was I was sitting in the family room. Yeah. You know, my wife and I, we got all dressed up and everything.

It was awesome. It was great. We decided we're going to go out.

We're going to party. We're going to have a good time. We're going to finish the night with a night of romance.

And we got back home and stuff. And yeah, it just didn't happen. Yeah.

Yeah, we did the same thing. We're at home. So we just like, you know, we decided to get all cross dressed up.

Cross dress. Yeah. And, you know, before you know, you're sleeping.

Yeah, that's right. Never ring it in. You're wearing her panties right now, aren't you? You can tell, huh? I can.

Yeah, I figured. I thought your butt kind of looked like a peach. Well, thank you.

Yeah, thank you much. Yeah. Okay.

Who we got in the studio tonight? We have Big Millie and the Mayhem this evening. How you guys doing? See, you can't do anything without these guys doing. You know, they bring their fans.

You can't take them anywhere. Yeah, yeah. Thank you guys for shutting up everybody.

How you doing? Big Millie. How you guys doing? Good. Good to see you guys.

Good. Yeah. So who we got here tonight? I'm Big Millie.

No. Yeah. And we have Gary, our other guitar.

I play guitar and Gary is our other guitarist. And he is Gary. We've kind of took a little thing from Ramones.

So he's Gary Mayhem. Gary Mayhem. Aha.

Gary Mayhem. Very good. And our lead singer, Dutch, is Dutch Mayhem.

Dutch Mayhem. Right, right. Dutch Mayhem.

Are you Big Millie Mayhem? No, I'm just Big Millie. Just Big Millie. So why did your parents name you Millie? Well, they didn't.

Oh, okay. I was a high school teacher and coach at Mount Carmel High School. And my son was teaching them.

I left there in 23. Okay, all right. Yeah, so.

Football? I did coach football for 35 seasons. Not all. Wow.

I moved around a lot. I went to Driscoll Catholic High School. Nice.

And but, I mean, you and I are probably close to the same age. I graduated in 1987. You need your eyes checked.

I'm 82. Well, come on. You look way better than me.

Come on, it's five years. So you're like an older brother. It's not like you're my father or anything like that.

You're like an older brother. But yeah, I went to Driscoll Catholic High School, which is no longer there. But our big rival was Mount Carmel.

Yeah, they had some good football teams at Driscoll. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

So back in the day, I was actually, I actually did my first teaching job down the street. I was at Juliet Central. It was my first teaching job.

Okay. That was in 1988. I bet you had hold of the class.

You walk in there looking at you going, oh, fuck, no. I did get a little of that. But the name came about my son.

Our son, Michael, was teaching at Mount Carmel at one time. And he was looking for jobs in finance, and he wasn't having any luck. So he took a teaching job there.

And in the math, I taught, I teach math. And he taught in the math department. So the kids were calling him Mr. Millie.

And then it somehow came over to me as, well, he's Big Millie. And that kind of stuck. So I had that nickname for the last couple, three or four years I was there.

The kids, you know. Oh, cool. So that's how it came about.

Kind of cool. They'll remember that. Yeah, those kids will remember that.

We had a principal's last name was Stimler. He was Stimshady. You know.

That's funny. Yeah. Yeah.

Who's that quarterback that came out of Donovan McNabb, wasn't he? McNabb played there. He played. Yeah, he played at Mount Carmel.

Yeah. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. They were our rivals, too.

I went to St. Lawrence. But we were a powerhouse in the 70s when I went to. Yeah, I remember.

Because I was going to say, I don't remember them. Mike O'Neill was there at one time. I remember Mike O'Neill was the guy before him.

I can't remember. Tom Cavanaugh. Tom Cavanaugh.

That's right. He was the dude. He was the coach.

Yeah. Died in a car accident. When I was at Driscoll, I played football with a guy named Matt Orszak.

I have actually known Matt Orszak since fourth grade. The first grade I attended here in Illinois was in fourth grade. And that's how long I've known Matt.

And his son, Matt Orszak Jr., is the long snapper for the Green Bay Packers right now. You know what? I hate the Packers. But if you can make a living.

Hey, hell yeah. He was actually originally drafted by the Ravens. And he went to a couple of teams in the whole bit.

But he was with the Rams and has a Super Bowl with the Rams before he went to the Packers. I mean, hey, man. What's the league minimum now is what? $450,000.

That's not bad. That's a nice scratch. That's a fantastic position to play on a football team.

Number one is backup quarterback. Because you get paid millions and nobody wants you to play, right? Nobody wants you to play. Always the most popular guy in town, though.

Yeah, right, right. And then to be the long snapper. Because nobody can touch you.

I mean, you're out there. You get out on the field. What? Maybe six, seven, eight.

Maybe even eight times. You make millions and nobody can touch you. Earlier this year, the Bears had Cole Komet.

I don't know that happened to the Bears. But he got the crap out of the guy. No call.

Well, I didn't see it. Well, the Bears had Cole Komet long snapping earlier in the season. Yeah, they did.

Yeah, which, believe it or not, I actually went to school with Cole Komet's cousin, Chris. So it's really funny when the Packers play the Bears. Because we've got Matt Orszag Jr. long snapping.

And we got Cole Komet over here playing tight end. And his cousin, Chris, is a longtime friend of mine as well. My, you've got a lot of friends.

Yeah, we drink a lot during that game. Yeah, I'm sure. Can we get back to the band here? Sure.

Yeah. Who? All he had to say was Mount Carmel and we went off on a tangent. No kidding, man.

Yeah. Big time. Man.

Wow. So obviously you've started this band. I and Mark Blackowitz are, or Mark Man, Mark Blackowitz, which I think you guys know from Bears in the Day.

Yes, he and I. Who was he with? Problem Child. Yeah. Yeah.

No, we interviewed him. Another band. He was with another group and I can't remember what it was called.

Yeah. It was kind of like a school of rock type of thing he was working with. But I met Mark on the dating app for musicians known as Band Mix.

Have you heard of this? Oh, no. I've been stalked because of that website. Yeah.

So I reached out to him. I had been in another band. Things didn't work out.

Parted ways. So then I was looking to kind of find somebody else to play with and reestablish a band and thoughts I had. And Mark and I met at Riley's Daughter.

So, well, Mark lives in Oklahoma. I'm in Ephraim Park. So we kind of met up over there and had a beer and we talked about things.

And then we started trying to put things in place and meet people. Gary's known Mark and I think longer he wants to admit. Yeah.

Gary's got it. And Gary won't talk. So you've got to kind of.

That's the second person tonight that said that about Gary. Yeah, yeah. Besides Gary himself.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I've known Mark for 40 years. Yeah.

Yeah. We played in bands when we were in high school and stuff. That's how I know him.

He's from Oklahoma. I'm from Oklahoma. So we got to.

We knew each other from the CB when there was a big craze back in the 70s. And that's how we met. We just jammed here and there on and off bands and stuff.

And he called me. Was it him? Yeah, it was him. He called me.

What does he do in the band? I'm sorry. What does he do? No, there's Mark. He plays bass.

Yeah, he plays bass. And yeah, he got ahold of me. And I was out of a band for almost eight years.

I even played in bands. And he asked if I wanted to jam with these guys. You know, told me the story.

And I said, you know, it's about time. Start to get back in. And we're doing nothing crazy, you know, classic rock, you know.

So yeah, so far I enjoy it. And let's get back into it. We met Dutch through band mix.

Okay. We had a lead singer. And then he decided the direction.

We played a gig at the Q-Bar in Darien. We'd been marching last year. And one of the things we picked up during the gig was that anything we played that was more hard rock and a little heavier, more aggressive rock went over much better than some of the other stuff we did.

Sure. So we had a band meeting. We were talking about it.

Well, the singer didn't show up for whatever reason. And then we kind of told him, hey, we're going to try these songs. We're going to get these songs.

And he got not happy about it. And so he left. And so I spent, I started stalking singer songs.

Band mix basically reached out to Dutch. How you doing? Hold on. I don't have my Saturday panties on.

You sure got a pretty mouth, boy. And that's what got him the gig because he could squeal like a pig. That's right.

You have to be able to do that to sing metal. Sweet. Yeah.

We're not really a metal band. We're more of a classic, like the late 70s. If you turned on the loop at the late 70s and had hard rock, that's what we are.

We're doing that type of stuff. We're about that age. That's our wheelhouse.

So how long have you been playing? 54 years. OK. All right.

I started when I was six. Wow. OK.

And then I was classically trained. And then it was like seventh grade. And I told my mom, I said, I'm not doing this.

I don't want to do that anymore. I want to play rock because that's what girls like. When you say classical, how hard did she slap you then? Still stings? It was one of those things that I think she could kind of see that it wasn't working.

I was just not happy playing. I had the fingernails and the whole thing. So when you say classically trained, you literally mean classically trained.

Yeah, I was playing like Bach. And you're doing all that stuff, right? Yeah. And so we had a little place.

I grew up in Hickory Hills. So there's a place called Guitars and Strings in the mall by us. And I went in there and met a guy.

And the next thing you know, I'm playing Zeppelin and everything I want to learn. So you're like, wow. Yeah.

Being that classically trained, I mean, are you one of these guys like Yngwie, where you incorporate classical type pieces and movements into what you play? Or are you just literally just like take the technique and associate it more with it? I try to be as technical. I do have some hand issues that, you know, I've got a finger that's wonky from a football injury. And then I've had some other surgery on my hand.

I've got like five of them. So I try to do some stuff that's, you got to stay within what the song does. I usually try to do a decent job of just filling in what I'm supposed to.

Gary and I both, I'm not the lead player per se, it's kind of a running joke in our band that Gary's the rhythm guitarist. Because Gary does about at least a third of it, right? At least a third of the leads are Gary's doing. So he's very accomplished.

And that's one of the strengths of our band is the two of us are able to play and play off of each other and do things like that. Right, right. That's good.

So where are you from, Gary? Which, by the way, he did, which, by the way, yes, he's talked a lot. He has. I don't think we can shut him off.

I don't know. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I mean, give us your background.

I, yeah, well, I grew up in Chicago Ridge for a few years, and then most of my childhood was in Oakland. OK. And that's where I live now, Oakland.

Let's see, I started, I haven't played, I just figured it out, I think about 44 years. Wow. Like 1978 makes it 40, right? 44.

Yeah, something like that. Ask the math teacher. He'll tell you exactly how many years.

Is that 44? No, actually, 1980 would be 44. It's 2024. See, I told you, talk to the math teacher.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Hey, I got a college education. Yeah.

Yeah, I started playing, my brother played, and he's pretty accomplished. He actually plays in, I don't know if you know, the Rush Tribute Band Animation. Yeah, yeah, we did that.

We did a podcast. That's your brother? Tony. Tony, yeah.

Wow. You remember him? Yeah, he's my brother. Oh, OK.

Yeah. I'm sorry. Yeah.

Hey, he did one good thing. He taught me guitar, so. That's good, yeah.

Yeah, and yeah, so I played on and off. Is this the only band you've ever been in? No, I've been in other bands. As a matter of fact, one of the second or third bands, no, third band I was ever in was with Bobby.

Our drummer. Drummer Bobby, yeah, 1982, I think, 83. I answered an ad in Chicago Tribune.

In the Chicago Tribune. Yeah, believe it or not. Yeah, it was drummer seeks like soul for long walks on the beach.

Well, you know, they had a section there, you know. I do like pina colada. Yeah, he put out an ad and it was him and just him and a bass player, and we planned on getting the whole band together, but it just turned out to be the three of us.

And then we eventually got a singer. So it was four of us, and we always been that way. Either three piece or four piece.

This is the first time I've been in anything other than a three piece. Really? Wow. Yeah.

So you sing as well then? I sing backups. I mean, Dutch is a lead singer, but everything else I've always been in has been bass, drums, guitar. OK, yeah.

It's easier that way. It totally is because you don't have to deal with like, you know, other people. You know, when are we going to rehearse? You know, who's available for a gig? You know, one thing I do on the side as a hobby.

I build guitar amplifiers. Really? Yeah. I got the bug about 14 years ago, and I'm trying to build up.

Let me check with the math teacher. Is that correct? 14 years ago? That would have been, what is it? 2010. So no, actually, that's longer than that.

It's 2024, Gary. Yeah, I know. So he was wrong with the 14.

He was wrong with the 14. Yeah, no, 20 years. Wow.

20 years ago, so 2004. So you build your own amplifiers. Yeah.

And do you sell them or do you just build them? That's my goal. That's my goal. So I just do it for a hobby.

And matter of fact, Dave plays one of mine at practice. Yeah, yeah. Fender Reverb.

Yes, yeah, it's tubed. It's like a clone. Yeah, I'm just kind of a clone.

Yeah, yeah, I'm strictly tube amps. I don't like transistor. I don't know.

Yeah, no. No warmth to it. No.

So yeah, so that's, I'm building, I got so many amps right now. I don't know where to put them anymore. That's why you brought the one over.

Well, you know, the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast is looking for sponsors. Yeah, we're looking for sponsors. And we would love to test the market equipment for you.

Right, definitely. I'd be happy to take an amp home and try it out. I would be more than happy to play a live all the time.

Yes, and crank it. Yeah, absolutely. And then we can talk about it.

Yeah, because I only play tube amps. Me too. Yeah, that's right.

So you both are guitar players. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, cool.

What kind of music do you guys play? Since when did this turn into your podcast? The electric kind. You know, for a guy that doesn't talk much, he won't shut the fuck up. All right, here you go, Doc.

No, we will totally talk about that. I love amps, especially free ones. That's right.

So do you have an electronics background? Well, by trade, I'm an aircraft mechanic. OK, so no. So no.

I mean, but I learned electronics through my work. I work on electrical all the time on airplanes. So it's kind of how I got the basics of it.

And how I got into it, I had a Hiwatt amp that I bought. You have to be able to work on it because they break all the time. I'm sorry, Hiwatt.

Really? Hiwatt? Oh, God, yeah. Every Hiwatt amp I've ever had is just like, well, it must be since, because the original company, I don't think, owns them anymore, right? No, no. I forget who owns it now.

If you're talking about recent Hiwats or more within the last 30 years. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Oh, yeah, yeah.

It's not the same. When they came out in the 70s and late 60s. They were indestructible.

They were. Yeah, a guy named Harry Joyce built them, and they were indestructible. They were beautiful to look at.

You open it up, and it's just so pretty. The wiring was just so perfect. I actually have a buddy that has a Hiwatt amp, and he took the Hiwatt off of it, and he took a Harley-Davidson emblem, and he put it in place of it, because the amps from the same era were just like Harleys, where you had to travel with a toolkit.

You pick up the amp, there's a puddle of oil underneath. Yeah, right. But how I got into it, I didn't know anything about amplifiers.

The amplifier sat in Bobby's, the drummer Bobby, his garage for years. We played in a band. The band broke up.

I ended up moving to Georgia, working in Georgia, Atlanta. I finally picked it up, and I started playing it. It still sounds good.

But then I started blowing fuses. And I was like, huh, well, maybe I just got to change tubes. Or no, I made the mistake of plugging a guitar cord as a speaker cord.

You know that's a mistake. Sure, right. They're not.

Guitar cords aren't made. I said, oh, well, that's what I did. So I played for a while, and then I blew fuses again, and then I noticed one of the tubes was bad.

You could tell, you know. So I'm like, OK, I'll just change the tubes. I'll just put the same in.

Nope, got to bias it. So you learned how to bias it. Got to learn how to bias it.

You got it. What is this bias? And I had to do some researching. And I don't know what I did.

It was the first, Hiwatt's first printed circuit boards. They started coming out with printed circuit boards in 1980, I believe. Something like that.

And I was messing with it and messing with it. And all of a sudden, the thing just, I was starting to play it, and poof, and all the smoke just started coming out. Oh, gosh.

Yes. You're like, oops. I was determined to fix it myself.

I really should have brought it in to somebody who knew what they were doing. But so how many do you have? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. So it's not like three.

It's not like two. No. Yeah, it's many.

No, yeah, I got a bunch of, I got like, well, about three or four prototypes that I'm experimenting with. And you're looking to sell these? I'm looking, that's my, I'm going to retire in two years with my goal. I'm 60 right now.

Oh, gotcha. Okay. All right.

So I see what it is. It's a side hustle, hopefully. So I'm working on building amps.

So we'll talk. So we'll talk. Yeah, we'll talk.

So what do you build? What do you build? Reputations. Good answer. Okay, negatively or positively.

It all depends who you talk to. Yeah, he's got a lot of women he's got to apologize to. Yeah, I'm like Jesus.

I have children everywhere. No, no, that was an overstatement. He's like LeBron James.

He's got children everywhere. There you go. There you go.

And one that can't shoot. True that. Yeah, yeah.

I think that's why he took the hiatus from the Lakers, because he didn't want to be on the court with his son. He's getting tired of taking all the crap for him. He's the one that pulled that string, just like he has in the past few teams he's on that can't win.

He's been in charge of roster construction, although he won't take credit for it. Everybody knows who has the stroke on that team. And when he's brought everybody in, they've failed.

Only one Michael Jordan. You're listening to the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. Hey, everybody, it's Ray the Roadie.

And this is Hollywood Mike of the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. If you've been joining our weekly program, we have great news for you. Just tune in to Road to Rock Radio on Mondays at 7 p.m. central time, and you can hear a rebroadcast of one of our past episodes.

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24-7, all music with its roots in Illinois. So when did you start singing? Probably since I was a little kid. I was just never good at it.

It took a while. Wait, what? Yeah. Okay, I'm still not very good at it.

No, I didn't say that. I would like to think you're better. Yeah, I think I've improved a little bit over the years.

I mean, I remember as a little kid, I've always, you know, I remember digging into my mom and dad's record collection and my aunt's and stuff like that. And I used to do little Elvis impersonations when I was a kid. You know, I would memorize a whole comedy record and do the whole thing at holidays and shit like that.

So are we long lost brothers? We could be. You and I are much closer in age. I graduated in 86.

Oh, nice. Okay. From Romeville.

Go Spartans. Yeah, no kidding. I live over there.

I can walk to Romeville High School from my house. It's changed a lot over there since I grew up there. I mean, it was nothing but cornfields, blacktop, little farm town, you know? Yeah.

And now it's, well, it's Naperville light. You still live over there? No, I live in Hickory Hills now. Okay, all right.

So I've been there for about 10 years and raising hell over there. And it's convenient because it's only 15, 20 minutes from Dave's house. Nice.

So I'm like, all right, that's an easy role to rehearsal. Have you been in a lot of bands over the years? Yeah, since I was about 16. Okay.

You know, I remember how I developed my style because I always had a fight to be heard. So I kind of became a shouter and a bluesier, gravelly, just put power behind it. Right, right.

So and now I realize I don't have to do that when you're with musicians that know what they're doing. They know all about dynamics so everybody can be heard equally. That is so important.

Definitely. You know, one piece of advice if I could give to bands is don't forget about dynamics. My pet peeve is when I go out and see a band play and the volume and the energy is right here.

You guys can't see, our listeners can't see what I'm doing. No, they can't. But I'm holding my hand up around my forehead.

I'm trying not to look myself. The volume in the level is here and it never changes. You've got to give people's ears a rest.

You've got to give them a chance to get up and walk around. I mean, you've got to be up and down. You can't forget about the dynamics.

That's right. You got to give it room to breathe. Yeah.

Plus it gives emotion to the music. Right, right, right. Exactly.

I mean, it's if you listen to an orchestra or I played French horn all through grammar school and high school and concert band and it's, you know, that's constantly, you know, conductors giving you, you know, tone it down, take down the volume. You just keep getting more and more interesting every time you open your freaking mouth. French people like French horn.

French horn. Yeah. Wow.

Yeah. Play bass and jazz band. Yeah.

All that stuff. Yeah. We, I, I host a, I host an open jam on Thursdays at a place in playing field.

And every once in a while, this, this young man shows up with a French horn and he plays blues on a French horn and it sounds absolutely amazing. Imagine some muddy water song and all of a sudden a French horn solo comes up. He's, he's absolutely amazing.

You know what he said? He's got a niche to himself, man. He does. Yeah.

That is the hardest brass instrument. Yeah. Oh yeah.

Oh yeah. That mouthpiece is so thin. Yeah.

That your armature has got to be perfect. Otherwise you're out of tune. And I didn't realize until I met this young man, I didn't realize you have to like stick your hand in the hole in the actual horn of the French.

You don't put it in there deep, but you do it to it's, it's sort of like a meeting kind of type of, yeah, that's, I had it. Yeah. Yeah.

He does that. He mutes it in the whole band. When he's finished playing, you don't want to shake hands with him.

All the spit. No, all the spit actually is in all the other areas. There's, there's other areas where it's into, especially on a double horn.

There's also, I remember, I know I'll clean all that out. So how, how long have you guys all been together? Year and a half. Oh, so it's pretty quick.

I'm the new guy in the band. I started over the summer with them. So who was the first, who was, so who was the first phone call? You decided I'm going to put this together.

I'm going to call somebody up. I reached out to Mark on band mix. And like I said, we got together and had a beer and then we were talking and then he he got ahold of Bobby, the drummer and said, Hey, I got this guitar player.

He and I got together in my basement and we just kind of tooled around a little bit. And he was like, you know, you can actually play. And I'm like, thank you.

So we were, you know, working on some stuff and then he brought Bobby in and then we had, he brought this other singer in that we had for a while. We had tried a keyboard player, but he didn't quite work out. And then, you know, keyboard players being very scarce, you know, they've, they've got, yeah, they've, you know, they've got, you know, they pick and choose.

Yeah. So that didn't quite work out. So then we went through a progression of rhythm players for a while and none of them worked out.

So then Mark's like, well, he goes, I have this friend, Gary. You know, he's not, he hasn't played in a number of years with bands, but maybe you'd be interested. And I said, well, give him a call.

So Gary came in and it was like, it was a good fit. And then, uh, like I said, we played the cue bar back in March and that, uh, the gig went over really well. We opened up for a band that's pretty well known.

I'm not going to say names or anything. And we kind of pissed them off because we kind of worked better than them. Okay.

So we bring a lot of energy. That happens. Yeah.

They didn't expect, you know, we were, we're setting up and this guy comes up and he goes, Hey, um, who's big Millie? I said, I am. He goes, what? He goes, I was expecting some large black woman or, you know, some large woman, you know, to be here that, you know, belting out blues or something. And you're not her.

Yeah. No, I'm not. No, I'm definitely not.

So that was the conversation that day. But I can identify as one if you'd like. Yeah.

So basically, um, yeah, you know, that it, uh, that went over pretty well, but we were, we struggled to get gigs for a while. And then, uh, um, like I said, it didn't help that, that the singer, other singer decided he didn't want to do this anymore with us. So we got ahold of Dutch and then, um, picked up, uh, picked up a gig at the Legion in Worth.

Okay. That went over pretty well. And then, uh, yeah, I'm not gonna break it off.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I don't think we can skim over. No, we can't, something's coming up here.

It was my first gig with them at the Legion. I'm diabetic, by the way. Okay.

And I had a sugar crash and I was like, I was losing it. And we're like about four or five songs in on the first set. I'm losing it.

I feel my legs get ready to go. I more or less collapsed. And I put an end to the show for, I don't know, at least an hour.

And I did the rest of the show from a barstool and finished off the night. And he was a trooper, though. Yeah, it was rough.

I mean, if you know anything about diabetes and what it does to your body after you crash. I mean, it's like my body got hit by a train. It goes into total shock.

And OK, and it takes me at least 24 hours to recover, to feel normal. Wow. I didn't know that.

OK. All right. We were kind of joking between all the physical issues we've had.

I've had two major back surgeries. Yeah, I had my quad had to be reattached because I tore that off in 2023. We were we were going to call the band sciatica.

Yeah. Now, that actually sounds like the name of a metal band. Isn't that a sciatica? I thought that was a prison in New York.

Yeah. No, that's Attica Attica. That's Attica.

Yeah. So, yeah, I didn't want to throw in. I didn't want to throw you on the bus there.

But we know we're getting a little bit older because when we were younger, we were taking all these pills for recreation. Now, now we're taking all these pills for aches and pains. That's right.

Yeah. They told us not to do drugs. And now I do like five of them every morning.

So, right. I probably do more drugs now than I did back then. Yeah.

I mean, and we're looking for sponsors. So if the National Diabetes Foundation pharmaceutical companies were here, we're here. You know, but, you know, it's you know, it is.

I mean, that's a serious situation. It really is. But I'll tell you what, I'll guarantee you guys have never been in a situation where all of a sudden I hear this.

Right. That's all I heard was big thunk like that. Our bass player dropped his bass, didn't even try to put it on a stand.

He just took it off. Boom, dropped it. He's running to the bathroom with his hands over his butt.

I mean, isn't that's the that's the universal. That's the universal sign. I'm about to shit my pants, right? What a crappy way to end the show.

Yeah. Was that not was this in the middle of the show or. Yes.

We're in the we're in the middle of like the second set. And you just hear the bass hit the ground. Boom, boom.

It's booming or everything. It's ringing. You know, if you've never heard feedback from a bass guitar before, it makes your teeth rattle.

I swear to God, I almost passed out. Eyes roll back in your head in the whole bit. We had to turn off his bass.

And there he is. He's running to the bathroom with his hands over his butt crack. I mean, that's the universal sign.

OK, I'm about to shit myself. And that's literally what was going on. Wow.

Yeah. Amazing. So classic rock sound, guitar rock sound.

Is that what we're having? Classic hard rock. Yeah. Classic hard rock.

So what's what's an evening? What's an evening of music going to sound like for me, guys? What kind of bands are you covering? Foghats, UFO, Queen. Yeah. Aerosmith.

Yeah. Yeah. We threw a little well, a few curveballs in there, too.

Yeah. We threw like Robert Palmer, but yeah, we hardened it up. You know, Dr. Doctor.

We yeah, you know, we threw that in there. The funny we so one of the things next gig we ended up getting was in October. We each can volunteer a gig.

We'll play for free, you know, for a cause, you know. So I go to St. John Fisher Parish and Chicago there. And so they had a fest they were doing.

So I volunteered us to play for nothing, you know, just a fundraiser. And so we were the first band to go on, which we didn't care. You know, fine.

We'll open. But the interesting thing was we were doing a UFO song, Too Hot to Handle. And guy that owns a bar called Hearts.

I don't know if you're familiar with it. It's off on Western Avenue on 99th Street. No, but we're looking for sponsors and everything.

That is a running joke. There isn't a lot. Oh, it's not a joke.

Somebody's got to pay for this shit. Yeah. All right.

So he lives like a block away from the we were playing in the parking lot there at 103rd and Francisco or excuse me, Fairfield. And he lives a block away. Here's UFO.

And that's his favorite band, this guy. Yeah. So he comes running over to the fest and he's like, what's the name of this band? And somebody goes, Big Billy something or other.

So he's on the Internet. He's got his daughter on the Internet looking for Big Billy. He can't find us, you know.

So I ended up I live right not far from there. I have to work one day. I stopped in there and he was there.

And I said, you know, I give him a card. He's like, what do you guys know? Where have you played lately? And I said, we just played St. John Fisher. He goes, wait a minute.

Are you the guys that were playing UFO? We're like, yeah. He goes, you're hired. Wow.

Pick a date. So we just did that. We just did the Friday after November there after Thanksgiving there.

We take them out the December off because Mark's out of town and people, you know, holidays and stuff. It's just, you know, a lot going on. But then we're playing there again the night before the Super Bowl.

So we're picking up nice. We're playing the Q-Bar again. And then we've got a gig at the Legion in Evergreen Park.

So we're starting to get, you know, what we want to do once a month. You know, we're we all have jobs. Yeah.

We're at an age where, you know, packing all that gear up and setting up and everything every weekend and still going to work on Mondays. Yeah. You know, I kind of like when we have school off on Monday and a gig the Saturday because I've got an extra day to recover.

Yeah, no, I get that. Yeah. So.

So, Queen. So you're singing Freddie Mercury stuff, huh? Just one song. Just one song.

Two, two. Yes. I get to you, too.

What songs? Tie Your Mother Down. OK. And Crazy Little Thing Called Love.

OK. All right. We take a half step down a little bit.

It makes it a little more accommodating for my voice. But I'm like, all the songs we do, I don't try to copy them. I just do my thing with it.

And it fits, you know, because Freddie's not Freddie's not easy. I was not. I was shocked when I could sing that one.

Yeah. So I'm like being a half step down, though. I'm like, as long as you're in tune, that's all that really matters.

Right. You got enough people in the crowd singing along with you. I mean, who needs to sing? Anytime you fuck up, don't like rely on the crowd.

If you don't think you're going to hit a note, you hold that microphone out. Yeah. You forget the words.

Turn the microphone on. Put it on the crowd. Yeah.

Or just say your vowels. Go off. Eddie better.

Yeah, that's that's the tricks. Yeah. Because I'm a singer as well.

There's nothing more embarrassing. All of a sudden you're sitting there going, Oh, God, I can't remember the words. And you end up, you know, I mean, you know, and nobody misses it.

When you trip over your tongue. I mean, sometimes you just got to ad lib. Yeah.

You know, it happens. Just try to stay in rhythm. Yeah.

Anything original? I've written some stuff that's on SoundCloud, but it's not I don't know. We haven't. I haven't.

We have nothing. No, I think we're very capable. You know, I think I'd like to squeeze, you know, write some new stuff and maybe squeeze some things in, you know, get everybody on board.

There is, you know, some of the some of the songs we do are, I won't say deep cuts, but ones that you forgot you knew. All right. So if we slide an original one, it'll just sound like something that they forgot that they knew.

So give me an example of these deep cuts. Like, what do you mean? Well, let's see. Well, you know, he already they've already mentioned too hot to handle.

I mean, UFO is always bigger overseas than it was in the States. Right. Yeah.

So that's one. I mean, even Tie Your Mother Down by Queen is. Yeah.

It was not exactly a radio song in the 70s when it came out. Right. Right.

So there was actually a movie that made that song popular again about 10 years ago here. And I can't think of I can't think what was the I can't think of the movie. But I remember it was a tie.

You know, all of a sudden, all of a sudden every cover band was doing Tie Your Mother Down because I was asked to fill in for a couple of bands one night and they said, hey, we're doing Tie Your Mother Down. And I was like, really? It's a bad song. It is.

It's a great song. Yeah. I mean, I was a UFO fan.

So, I mean, I knew all that's all those songs. But most people didn't know them. Those are like the sides.

We do quite a bit of Thin Lizzy, too. Oh, OK. You know, we do the cowboy song.

We do that right into the boys are back in town. So that's the one that everybody knows. But most people don't know.

Most people don't know the cowboy song at all. All right. I had to pull up the list here.

So that's a fun song to play. You're not supposed to talk. Stop.

Oh, sorry. I'll start out. I'll start out.

We do some Nugent. We do a little bit of Nugent. We did Billy Squire on the last set list.

No, seriously. What were you? What were you saying, though? Oh, I was just saying the cowboy song. That's a fun.

That's a fun song. No, that is a fun song to play. I absolutely love that song for sure.

Yeah, I always love playing that one. Yeah, that's what Thin Lizzy for me has always been one of those bands that nobody listens to and nobody knows any of their music. And I'm like, how can they not? If they could have finished a tour in the United States, everybody would know more than just jailbreaking the boys are back in town.

Right. That's true. They got a great catalog.

You know, quite honestly, you know, people I think people know of them in the U.S. more because Gary Moore kept touring the U.S. He was I mean, he was in and out. Yeah. Even though he's not from the U.S., but he played the U.S. a lot and people started to know that, oh, he's played with Thin Lizzy.

And that's what kept them alive around here, I think. You know, we actually do a little Bachman Turner overdrive to nice Gary. Well, that's Bobby's Bobby loves that rolling down the highway.

So we do that one. That's, you know, nobody's doing that stuff anymore. It's great.

It's they're great songs. You know, right. Yeah.

So what kind of places are you playing? Because, I mean, if you're playing a lot of B sides and stuff like that, what what other kind of places are you playing right now? Just bars. Yeah. Yeah.

Like like small, like roadhouse type kind of bars or yeah. Hearts is kind of a roadhouse card. Yeah.

Hearts is a roadhouse. But we got Q bar coming up in March as well. Now I've heard of hearts.

Where's hearts located? It's well, it's ninety ninth and artesian, which is in every part across the streets, Chicago. So you're right. You're in Beverly then.

And so, OK, just off Western. Right, right, right. I know that area used to be a brothel back in the 40s.

Nice for the mob. There you go. Nice.

But we're looking for sponsors. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We are.

Hey, hey, hey, hey. That's our gig. Yeah.

Just try it out. Like I said, I build these guys. How about these guys are looking for sponsors? Yes.

If you have a brothel. Yes. So who who does your booking? Do you use anybody or you do it yourself? We've got a guy that Mark knows, Tom Hartman, that he got us the gigs at Q bar.

But pretty much I've been just knocking on doors and pounding on pavement. And once first time we went out, we were calling a gig fishing and we went out, we didn't catch anything. Nobody would give us the time of day.

Yeah. And then I think now that we're picking up some gigs here and there and you can tell them, hey, this is where we're playing because we're playing here, we're playing. Then they're more interested.

Talk to you. You know, I put some things together, some clip stuff on our Facebook page with just snippets of music that we've done. You know, we had some issues with video.

So Gary's dad is just did a nice little video package for us over of our last gig. So I, you know, I just posted that. I actually just took it all and put it on.

It's a bunch of different clips. So I just made one big video at work today. And because the kids are doing finals type of stuff.

So I'm like a laptop, my personal editing video and then got it all uploaded. So I'm going to give a shout out to a friend of mine. Her name is Jess.

She's the manager. Actually, she's the owner of a place in Juliet called the Big Basin. Right off the river.

Right off the river. You guys should give her a call and and let her know about your band because Summertime Rock Summer Summertime's it is it is a biker destination. It's an outdoor stage, big stage outdoors on a giant wooden patio right on the Des Plaines River in the middle.

And, you know, June, July, August, there'll be 300 bikes in the parking lot in the whole bit. Good time. I mean, literally, it's kind of place where you show up on a bike or people show up on their boats and their jet skis.

And the type of music that you play and stuff that you're saying, you guys should give, you know, give the base and be perfect. Yeah. That'd be a great spot for you guys.

You know, we've always we can always use the intro from you. So, yeah, yeah, yeah. We're looking for a sponsor.

Yeah, we're looking for a bar to play in. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, we'd like to play, you know, like I said, the goal. I'm one of the goals I have, like a bucket list type. And I'd like to do a fast, you know.

Oh, of course. Thousand people would be just awesome. Oh, yeah.

Do one of those. I've never done anything like that. So, yeah, you know, these guys played.

I was coaching football for 35 seasons, so I didn't do any gigs or anything. So. Right, right.

So this is after I retired from football. This is what I got back into. Yeah, you'll get there.

I love it. It's I remember, you know, my wife says it's therapy for me. And it really is.

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

It's like I tell my wife, I don't I don't golf. You know, I fish every once in a while. This is, you know, what started off as a hobby for me and turned into a money making opportunity.

Let's say it that way now that it's about the money. But, you know, it's a little side business, right? And you enjoy some success and you have a little bit of a hobby. It's a stress relief for you.

All kinds of stuff like that. It's it's great. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Yeah, there's definitely a healing power in music, no matter what you're going through. I mean, I've had some rough spots recently and coming to rehearsal has really helped me get my mind off of it and then having gigs. And like, yeah, I mean, I get lost in it.

And I, you know, I still do this because I love it. It's not about the money anymore. It's not about the chicks anymore.

It's not about the drugs anymore. It's about the music and having fun. Right.

Hopefully the audience has fun right along with the company. It might be a little bit about those things. But I mean, yeah, not like it used to be.

There's certain people that can't hear that. So so big question before we start signing off, guys. Big question for you.

So what has to happen? What has to happen in twenty twenty five for you guys to say this has been a successful year for your band? What has to happen for you guys? Steady gigs every month, at least once or once, once or twice a month. OK. You know, that'd be ideal for me.

All right. Yeah, I'm going to have to echo that. You know, I know it's difficult once you have like more than three or four people in a band to get schedules aligned when you have five or even six people in a band.

You know, continuity is everything. So I'd like this lineup to stay steady. And I think me joining up with them, I think that's definitely going to help because they've they've been together for a while now.

So, you know, I think going through the new year, we'll roll steady down the highway. Yeah, I'd like to get in the studio. I think that's nice.

Yeah, there's a studio not far from where I live and it's in the city. Well, Greenwood. But I think for us to get in and maybe, you know, do do do a cover or two and then maybe one or two originals would be really pretty cool.

Yeah. You know, I did some studio work for another guy, and I really enjoyed that that type of thing. And I did I did do some of my own recordings during covid like, you know, I wrote some stuff and just got it, got a program for my laptop and started recording.

So I really I really like doing the recording type of stuff. I like the studio work. And that's what I want to do when I retire is is maybe get even get to the point where I can produce something for somebody else where I'm, you know, helping up up and coming type of band.

Just, you know, they can't afford studio time. And I'm retired. I don't need the money.

Yeah, that's right. Well, I would like the money, but yeah, right. You know, it's I don't have to charge somebody a lot of money to to get them to get a decent recording and that they can go out and market themselves.

Nice. Yeah. So you got any any gigs coming up or where our drummer is putting one together for late January up in Canaryville.

So that'll be a Canaryville. Yeah. So he's that's where he lives.

He's in Canaryville. Wow. Like I said, we're February 8th.

We're back at hearts the night before the Super Bowl. Q bar in March and then American Legion in Evergreen Park and in April. OK, well, where can people find you if they're looking for you guys? The Facebook page.

So it's just big Millie in the mayhem. We I'll give you a business card. It's got a QR code so you can just use your phone.

I'll show it to our podcast listeners. Well, you do have a website. You know what? Maybe maybe you can put that down under our description.

Here's their QR code or a link to that. I can just give you the link. Sure.

That would be great. Yeah. But we've got to say we use Facebook right now to do all that.

It's that's kind of an education, too, is the whole marketing side of this. You know, we all and you know, we're learning as we go along and it's kind of good. You know, I'm 60 years old.

I'm still learning, which that means I'm not dying. So that's good. Get busy living or get busy dying.

Yeah. So we try to try to have a good time with everything. And, you know, that's I think that we would all agree if we could do those gig every month and then and then maybe get in a studio, that'd be a lot of fun, too.

So sounds good. Well, we've had a milestone on this on this podcast interview. I think this is the first time that anybody quoted Morgan Freeman from Shawshank Redemption.

I'm sure it is. You are a cultural icon. You really are.

I am what I am. And on that. And now he's quoting Popeye.

What's up? Well, on that note. On that note, thanks for coming out, guys. Well, thank you for having us.

We appreciate it. Yeah. Great honor, I feel like, you know.

So I listen to some of your other stuff. Some of these bands have been around for 20 years. Here we are 18 months.

And hey, so we really appreciate it. Thanks for coming out. All right.

Thank you. Thank you very much. The Rock and Roll Chicago podcast is edited by Paul Martin.

Theme song courtesy of M&R Rush. The Rock and Roll Chicago podcast does not own the rights to any of the music heard on the show. The music is used to promote the guests that are featured.