Ep 276 Cherry Bomb

Cherry Bomb Chicago is a live music cover band based in the Chicago area, specializing in tribute performances to popular female artists from the 1990s to today, covering artists ranging from Halestorm to Lady Gaga. They are known as a female-fronted band performing high-energy rock and pop hits in local venues.

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Coming to you from the studios at the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66, it's the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. Rock and Roll Chicago! Hey everybody, it's Ray the Roadie. And we've got Hollywood Mike here one more time.

Hey, you remembered your name this week. I remembered my name this week. That's good, you're such a good boy.

Listen to my radio voice. I know. I think I'm over my cold, my radio voice is gone.

No, it's the way I set it up. I no longer have the Barry White thing going on. No, it's the way I set it up.

Yeah, yeah. I was practicing my Barry White voice, you know why? Because you'll never find your voice. That's Lou Rawls.

Oh, that's right. That's Lou Rawls. That's Lou Rawls.

You know, Barry White is the, can't get enough of your love, baby. That's right. But I was practicing my Barry White voice because when I heard that the band in the studio tonight was Cherry Bomb, I was thinking they were going to be a Runaways cover band.

And I was thinking, oh man, we're going to have five hot chicks sitting around the table and it's going to be awesome. But we got one hot chick and four ugly dudes. Oh, well.

That's the story of my life. It is what it is. I mean, I was looking for a boom, but we don't have one.

So we get to have the limp dick trombone. Yeah. Well, let's welcome Cherry Bomb.

Cherry Bomb, yeah. There they are. How y'all doing? We have a bunch of familiar faces in here, actually.

So before we get everything going and started, we're going to go around the table kindergarten style and tell everybody your names and what is it that you do in the band and I don't know, impart some words of wisdom. I don't know. Joe here, lead guitar, backup vocals, and I do that and pretty much any other job that they need me to do.

Pass that one on. So who bought his knee pads? We're going to have fun. I came with him.

I'm Nick and I'm the drummer and I just beat things. That's good. Get the microphone away from the drummer.

You never put a microphone in front of a drummer. Oh, my name's Nila, lead vocals. I bought the knee pads for everyone in the band because they like to kneel in front of me on a regular basis.

There you go. Good time. I'm Ryan and I'm rhythm guitar, sound guy often and personal assistant to Nila.

There you go. Hey gang, I'm Dallas, bass and keys and shit starter, troublemaker and biggest drinker, probably. Okay.

Yeah, yeah. Stick around. We may have to have a contest because we're definitely, we're definitely pouring one out for our buddy Chris later.

That's right. That's we're definitely doing that. So bass and keys.

We got a little bit of Geddy Lee thing going on with you, huh? We're working it in. Sorry. We started primarily without the keys.

Okay. Several months with this iteration of the band and we got a few songs that we're adding in, but there's some stuff in the set where they'll be simultaneous. Okay.

So when you're playing bass and you have to switch over to keys, do you start playing bass on the keys or how do you, I've always been curious how you work that out. Depends on the track. So Ryan plays rhythm.

The first two songs we put in, he'll put that down and play bass while I'm playing the piano. Okay. But there'll be some things where it's left-hand bass, right-hand synth.

Wow. Okay. So.

Pretty cool. Yeah. Nice.

So, so double duty for you as well. Rhythm guitar, bass guitar, and do you bring your own gear or do you just grab his bass? I'm grabbing his because I already bring enough stuff. Oh, the sound clip he's grabbing.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's, he's playing his bass and he's grabbing his.

Yeah, I mean, my guitar stuff, it makes for a magical night. Yeah. Yeah.

It's doing the sound system and the guitar stuff. I'm like, I'm not bringing any more equipment. So I'm using his stuff.

Spoken like somebody that's spent some time playing out, you know, cause your gear and your rig gets smaller with every single passing year. That's how I always know somebody's new. They've got like a Marshall half stack and they've got a pedal board and all this other crap along with them.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Okay. Yeah. We're done.

Okay. We're out of here. I was just, I don't know.

I was just going down. I was going down the line. So I was like, order.

Okay. What'd you got to, what'd you got to say, Neil? What do I got to say? I have so much. Come on.

Say it in the microphone though. Say it in the microphone. I'm lead vocalist and it's probably the most fun I've ever had in my life.

Yeah. I grew up doing musical theater. I trained him a dance instructor.

Nice. Nice. I've only been in a band for about the last six, seven, six, seven.

All my dance kids are going six, seven right now. Only about this last six or seven years. And it's an absolute fricking blast.

Wow. Yeah. So, so you made a transition from musical theater where you dance first, musical theater, then this band or? So I, I trained as a professional dancer and that was what I did for a living.

Okay. Musical theater. Excellent.

And then after that wasn't working for me anymore, I decided to open a dance studio and that's what I've done since I was 23 years old. Wow. Wow.

And you still, and you still have your dance studio. I do. I still have my dance studio.

Where's that? It's in Mantino. Mantino. Okay.

Wow. Excellent. You know, we're looking for sponsors.

I would love to sponsor the show. If any local businesses would like to sponsor the show. No, that's, that's interesting.

My, only because it totally reminded me, my sister was a dancer from, for a lot of her life. And, but I grew up, we grew up up North around the Schaumburg area and I can't remember her instructor's name, but at one point in time, she was married to Jimmy Jameson from Survivor. Oh, that's fun.

So, so that, so that was kind of. Mrs. Jameson. Yeah.

Mrs, let's just call her Mrs. Jameson. I don't know exactly what her name was or anything like that, but as soon as you said that, I, you know, all the way back to eighties when, you know, I would go and pick up my sister from dance class, hoping to get a glimpse of. The other girls in dance class? No, well, yeah.

Yeah. But I also, I also wanted to get Jimmy's autograph if I could, but yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, I think, I think growing up on stage, it makes it so, this, this is a really fun transition for me to be on stage performing how I want to perform. Right. You know, and it just makes it a really, really easy and fun hobby, I guess.

Hobby, job, you know, I can't call it a job. I don't know. It's too much freaking fun.

Hobby. I don't know. I don't know if you can call it a hobby.

It's too much fun to call it that. I mean, it's too much fun to call it a job. Yeah.

Side hustle, side hustle would be a good thing, but it's definitely not a hobby because when you get to the point where you're playing out a lot, you know, think about it. If you have a regular job and you get sick and it's like five minutes beforehand, you can call in sick, right? You can call in sick. I can't be there.

But if you get sick in this band. The show must go on all the time. And that's what I was brought up in the show must go on.

Exactly. When you get to the point where you can't back out with, you know, a moment's notice, it's no longer a hobby. It's a job.

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yeah.

All right, drummer, we'll let you speak for just a little bit. All right. That's enough.

Okay. Guitar player. No, so tell us your journey, man.

Yeah. Tell us your journey, man. Oh, so I've been playing since I've been five years old.

I started with bass back in the day and I moved to trumpet actually for seven years. And then finally, I was like, I saw Pantera and I was like, I want to do that. Yeah.

And I picked up the drums and haven't looked back since. Oh, wow. You know what? You know, the crazy thing, how many bass players slash drummers? Because, you know, there's a lot of bass players slash drummers who have been on the podcast who also play some type of a horn.

I don't, I don't know what that is. Yeah, it's crazy. Like our, my own bass players play horn, play bass.

Every band I've been in, the bass player played either a trumpet or a saxophone or a trombone or something like that. Yeah. Yeah.

No kid. That's, why? Gives you that music theory. Because in 84, the grade school band didn't have a bass.

Okay. So I had to play something. So you started off with the horn and then migrated over to bass.

Yeah. Yeah. And you're just like, yeah, I'm not going to get laid blowing into this thing.

So let's go with the bass guitar. Still not getting laid. You're just getting, you're just getting not laid by a lower class.

That's why the piano now. Yeah. Okay.

I got a chance. There you go. There you go.

Okay. All right. Mr. Lee guitar, your turn.

All right. What do you want to know? See, they have the mic over this way because I talk too much and Nick doesn't talk enough. Okay.

Well, we can shut you off. I can always mute you. Perfect.

Yeah. So I guess if you're looking for some of my background, I've been playing guitar since I was about 12 or 13. I actually got my first guitar when I was nine and I told my parents I hated it and I returned it.

So I picked it up in a seventh grade junior high guitar class that I was just randomly assigned to. And one of the guys there taught me how to play Seven Nation Army. Okay.

And that's pretty much where it started. Hold on. And this was what grade? This was what grade? Seventh grade.

Seventh grade. And he was learning how to play Seven Nation Army. Yeah.

Yeah. There's a difference in age between the whole band. But I really love this band because I don't think that we see that about each other so much.

Yeah. So we all just like to get together and play the music that we play and have a good time doing it. Yeah.

I totally just fell out of the old tree. I hit every stick on the way down. Because when I was learning how to play Seven Nation Army, I had kids in high school.

Wow. Okay. Well, since then, guitar teacher, music shop owner a couple times over.

And I went to school for music, music business, as well as music performance. So I've been doing this for quite a long time. I've toured.

I've played solo. I've played in the studio, on albums, for live theater productions, all sorts of things. So a variety of instruments.

They don't let me play the mandolin here. Otherwise, it would. What about the glockenspiel? Yeah.

We're still looking for a glockenspiel band. Also, no. No.

No glockenspiel. Okay. All right.

Well, I'm glad you said... I'm glad that you're actually working as a musician. Because nowadays, like the performance degree in music. I mean, you hear people say it all the time.

It sucks. I thought you were going to say, yeah, I've got this degree in performance. So I own a landscape business.

No, no, no. Actually, I do a lot of guitar and instrument repair work on the side, as well as teach lessons and do sound work, et cetera, et cetera. Sometimes I'm a stagehand, man.

I mean, you know, but I do some teaching at colleges as well. And usually speaking on the music industry and music business itself. Right.

And talking about how to survive. And I think the number one thing I tell all students is be ready to not do just one job. Right.

You know, if you really want to do this, I mean, you can get lucky and that might happen. But there's a really good chance that you're going to be doing at least a couple of different things to survive. If you're going to do just music and just music industry related.

Multiple sources of income. If you want to do that. Absolutely, absolutely.

So whose brainchild was this band? Who made the first phone call to who? So that would be me. Or is it proper? Is it whom? I never know who or whom. It is.

To whom does this band belong? Who would be? Who would be? To whom? To whom does this band belong? So I was playing in a 90s cover band and. There's a shocker. The hell you say? And I saw Neela on stage one day.

In Chicago? A 90s cover band in Chicago? No way. And I saw Neela play on stage one day. And I was like, well, if I ever need a singer, she's the one.

OK. So Neela was the first phone call that you made? Yep. Yeah, really? Yep.

So you guys just went up there, a drummer and a singer. It was the White Stripes only boring. So what had happened was, he called me or his wife actually was my Facebook friend.

She messaged me and said, are you in a band right now? I said, actually, I'm not in a band right now. So they invited me to his birthday party. Went, chatted it up.

Said, hey, we're going to do a band rehearsal next week. And do you want to go? Yeah, cool. I'll check it out.

So went to band rehearsal. And they threw something at me. Said, if you can keep up with this, we'll see how this goes.

Threw it at me. If you can keep up with this. That's good.

I nailed it to the damn wall. And here we are. Here we are.

Yeah, that is so funny. You know, musical theater, right? If you can keep up with this. Musical theater, Disney princess, dance teacher.

But throw a song at me that's got a little blues riff in it. I'm all over it. Yeah.

That's my jam. So who was the band? I mean, who was the band rehearsal? Who are the people in that band? Are they here today? They're not here anymore, actually. Yeah, we've evolved since then and evolved into what I think is a much better, stronger version of Cherry Bomb.

Right. We have people that are definitely working to better the band, better sound. And we all have a very strong work ethic.

We have big dreams, I guess. And we all work together to make that happen. So Dallas, describe your sound.

What is this Cherry Bomb sound? Oh, man. It's, make a joke on the 90s cover band. But we do primarily 90s to current day stuff, but a little bit harder.

Right. So kind of a hard rock version of, geez, everything from what? Pink, Paramore, Heart to go back to the earlier stuff. We do quite a bit of Joan Jett.

Chapel Rhone, Olivia Rodrigo for some of the current stuff. There's probably, I don't know, 25, 30 different artists. Right.

In the set list right now. Different types of genres in the whole bit. It's primarily rock and power pop, but we try to stay true with Neela in the front of the band to be a femme fronted original from, you know, what we're covering was originally femme fronted.

And that was very important to me when we got this version of the band that it be female fronted. Yes. And, you know, can I tell you one of my pet peeves as a musician and as somebody that likes to go out and see other bands, I don't know what it is.

And this isn't a sexist thing. It really isn't. But I hate when I go see a band and there's a female singer and all of a sudden the female singer singing all these journey tunes because there's no dude in the band that could sing it.

Right. And it's okay if a female singer is singing a journey song. I don't have a problem with that.

But when they change the words to make the song from the perspective of a woman and a guy, I hate, I can't stand it. Yeah. Just a small town girl.

And she sings just a small town boy. I hate that shit. There's plenty of very powerful and strong female singers out there.

There's absolutely no reason to pull. There's no reason. And I think women deserve to be represented in that way.

I mean, I work with girls. I own a dance studio. I work with girls.

And to me, female empowerment is where it's at. It's where I make my bread and butter every day and I walk and stand on that rock. Preach sister.

Yeah. I am out here showing, you know, these kids, hey, you know, you can do this. And there's plenty of strong women out there to stand on the backs of and just keep rising.

Awesome. You know, there's tons of women out there. There's no, we do a couple dude songs, but it's not the forefront of our music.

It's filler. 98% of our set list is female fronted. Yeah.

Yeah. So, so like what? Give us an example of your set list. Pink, Lady Gaga.

Yeah. Paramore. Give us some of your, I mean, some of your favorites.

I'm assuming that's what you're. Oh, some of my favorites. So some of my favorite songs that get the audience really, really into it.

We do a misery business. Everybody seems to love that one. Raise your glass.

That one gets. Oh, wow. Yeah.

I can see that. They're, you know, on their feet and dancing. We do, we call it the jet smash.

It's three Joan Jett songs. We do right in a row. That one's really fun.

Barracuda always goes over. Barracuda goes over good. Anything.

Lady Gaga. Born This Way. Gosh.

It's funny. We always make the joke is the bulk of the set. The Alanis Morissette.

If you look at the narrative behind all the songs, they're all like man hating songs. It's all angry woman songs. Bad relationships, bad drinking.

That's what you get for pissing us off. We're going to write a song about it. It's all good.

You know, you know what? One of my, one of my dreams has been, and I haven't been able to find, find the woman to do it. I have always wanted to do the duet. If I close my eyes forever.

Oh, I love that song. That's a great song. And I have yet to come across a woman.

It's like, yeah, let's do it. Can you do it? I would totally do it with you. Just saying.

I would totally do it. Because I love Leta Ford. You can do it.

Oh, that'd be awesome. There is. That'd be fantastic.

I think that Leta Ford is absolutely fantastic. Again, a trailblazer for women in music. Yep.

And that's, she's a trailblazer. You know, I think that a lot of times, and people might rebuke me on this, but I think that women don't get the respect that they deserve in a lot of places. And music is one of them.

There were a lot of bands that I sang for before that, like, yeah, we had a female singer before. It didn't ever work out because whenever she was tired or whatever, rehearsal never went over. I'm like, that's not me.

Yeah. That is not me. You are working with a powerhouse.

Like I own a business. I know what it's like to work. When we come into rehearsal, I'm ready to rehearse.

I'm, when we go on stage, I'm ready to be on that stage. You almost have to hold me back because I'm ready to go. Awesome.

And it's, it's, you know, I think that women deserve more representation. Right. In music.

Right. Well, I'm jacked up. We normally don't do this this early, but I have a feeling this is going to be really good.

And I want to hear these guys play something. All right. So I think we're going to take a short break and get these guys all set up.

They're going to come back and play some rock and roll for us. All righty. We'll be right back.

You're listening to the Rock and Roll Chicago Podcast. Your Sunday nights just got a whole lot bluesier. Get ready for the Bus Stop Blues, a show that takes you deep into the soul of the blues with classic hits, road stories, and live jam sessions.

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Hop on board the Bus Stop Blues where the blues never stops rolling. And now for the first time this evening, Cherry Bomb. I want to go with a shotgun blast.

I want to go with a woman on her back. I want to go with balls I won't break. I want to go with a spiral in my veins.

I want to go, I want to go. Baby shot, killed a man, gun too heavy in her hand. On my tombstone when I go, just put death by rock and roll.

Dainty hair, steel in her bones, but she burned away, but into stone. On my tombstone when I go, just put death by rock and roll. Oh, I want to go with a shotgun blast.

I want to go with a woman on her back. I want to go with the sickness in my throat. I want to go, kill by rock and roll.

I want to, I want to go with a shotgun blast. I want to go in a motorcycle crash. Out on my own, I don't need to be lost.

On my tombstone when I go, just put death by rock and roll. Very nice. Holy shit.

Thank you, France. Man. That was good times.

So, I mean, you haven't been singing long. No, I haven't been singing, just a different kind of music. So, Ryan and I are married.

We've been married for 20 million years. You know how I know that? Because every time you said something, he's just sitting over there going like this. Whatever you say, dude.

Whatever you say. So, I mean, I did the dancing and owned the dance studio and we had kids and, you know, music was his escape from that. You know, I had dance.

I had my emotional outlet for my performance, you know? Because that's what performing used to be. It's an emotional outlet. It's just all these feelings that are built up and all, you know, everything I want to let go, I just let go into a dance floor or let go into a microphone.

So, what was your release? What's that? What was your release? What was your outlet? Jack Daniels? A lot of drywall holes. He was in other bands, but that just wasn't something that we did together as a couple. Sure.

So, it turned out that he was doing an open mic with a friend and he needed a singer. And I was like, I could do it. And then that was it.

I mean, that's, we've been doing music together ever since. Yeah. That was only like eight years ago.

Well, good. Yeah. Eight years and you'd be married how long? Twenty-five now.

Twenty-six in July. Wow. Excellent.

Excellent. Wow. Because, I mean, you don't often hear about a band working out with a husband-wife team and they're always kind of.

I don't think you did. I mean, okay. So, a lot of times it shows if you don't know we're married.

Yeah. I mean, it's just, I don't know. Or if you didn't know better, the bickering and it's all playful.

Yeah. You know, so where we're, you know, we've had it in other bands because this is our third band together. Okay.

Okay. And like when we kind of start play bickering and everything and you look over and the other people are like, yeah, got their eyes wide open. Like what the heck is going on here? It's like, relax.

It's all for fun. Or at least yet they think it's for fun because when they go home and they're like, yeah, honey. Yeah.

I love you. Not like catching into the. It's just different because we're friends.

We've gone through everything you can pretty much go through in a marriage. Our kids grew up. We freaking made it, man.

Now it's fun. Yeah. Yeah.

Our kids are adults. They're adults that are out of the house and everything. One of them is.

Or close to it. Yeah. So, I mean, we made it.

Now we're just, we're having a good old time. Yeah. You know, you go through those milestones, right? The first milestone is when the kids are old enough to get themselves in the car and all you got to do is go, get your shit, go.

We're out of here. Right. And then when they're old enough to be independent, you're like, oh, yes.

Now we can finally go and be in a band. Yeah. Wow.

Exactly. What about you? You have any kids? No, I'm just, I'm asking. I'm asking the youngest person in the band.

Is it that obvious? No, no, I don't have any kids. Hopefully soon. You know, I definitely want some kids and I think that they're a great joy in life.

So this is an advertisement. If there's any willing ovums out there that are. I've already got one.

I'm playing. We're looking for sponsors. We'll play for kids.

So who, so who picks the music? Is it pretty much, it's pretty much up to you, right? For picking the music. Dallas and I have a lot of conversations over, you know, shots of Jack Daniels at the end of practice. And we come up with some pretty good set list together.

And then we throw them out to the band and they'd go, yes, no, yes, no, yes, no. But honestly, I'm the one that sings them. So if I don't feel confident singing, we don't do it.

Right. You know, we've got one on the burner right now that, um, you know, I'm, I'm still working on my vocals, trying to get that purity in my voice to do Amy Lee. I'm not quite sure I'm going to get there yet, but we'll see.

Oh, you'll do it. You can, we'll see. I mean, it's a work in progress, but you know, if I'm not comfortable, it doesn't go on the set list.

Sure. Sure. Don't, but don't, I mean, you can do Amy Lee without sounding like Amy Lee.

Yeah. That's a problem for me. Yeah.

They all say, do it your way, do it your way. But that's a problem for me. See, it is.

Lead singers understand that. It is so hard not to imitate the singer of the song that you're trying to cover. It is so hard to do that.

Yeah, it is. You almost have to do it a thousand times and it becomes subliminal where you're not even thinking about it anymore before you sound like yourself singing that song. But realistically, with all the women who are on our set list, there's no way I can sound like all those women.

There's no possible way. I, I just sound like Nila doing Pink or Nila doing Lady Gaga or Nila, Nila doing Alanis Morissette. Right, right.

But there's some, there's some things like, um, like, um, I think a male singer cannot cover Stone Temple Pilots without putting all of the weird inflections in the vowels that Scott Weiland would put in it because it just doesn't sound right. You know, I mean, you can't say, you can't, you can't say wing if he's singing, if he's saying wang. You know, it, you know.

Well, it comes down to muscle memory, right? Yeah, true. You've been singing that in your car for how long? Right. And it comes down to muscle memory.

If you do it and, and you sing it wing, somebody's going to look at you. What was that? Yeah. You know, like it's that, that was wrong.

Right. You're like a, like a male singer can't cover an Eddie Vedder song without slurring the words together. Because if you, if you sang them exactly the way they're written, it's like, what's this song? It sounds nothing.

Nobody even knows the words. Right. Yeah, right.

So, so if you said, so if you said them exactly the way it's written, they're like, what the hell is this? There's a TikTok out there you need to see. Somebody just did that. It's funny you bring that up.

You don't have to, you don't have to say, you don't have to say one word to cover Eddie Vedder. You don't. Just mumble.

Or you just make up your own, whatever you think it sounds like. I think I've seen, I think I saw that same TikTok. Yeah.

That was my biggest hangup coming into singing with a band. First off, I was the queen of karaoke in the nineties. Yeah.

I was the absolute queen of karaoke. I'd walk in and everybody knew my song. Everybody knew my name and everybody knew my song.

We're going to, we're going to do this song. Neil is coming in. We're going to push this button.

Right. And I'm going to sing. But it's so different doing that singing in the car than it is singing with a band.

And then you really hear your voice. Yeah. And then it becomes as a lead vocalist and somebody who's kind of a perfectionist, you just start picking.

Yeah. Picking things apart, you know, and like, well, I don't sound like her on this song. And I don't sound like her on this song.

And I need to change this about my vocals. And they all just tell me, shut up and do it your way. Yes.

Which is wonderful that I have the support from them to just be okay to be myself, you know, and be empowered to be the female vocalist that I am not the female vocalist that all these other people are. Right. Right.

So Dallas, I mean, you spent years as a mob enforcer, decided to play bass guitar. What's your story? Nah, much like all of us. I was given a guitar from my father at a very young age and I played it for a while.

And then like most bass players, somebody needed a bass player in the neighborhood band. And I said, I'll go get one. That was it.

Played in school, played in college, played in covers and tributes in the last, I don't know, 30 some odd years. And it's just something for me. And I think for all my partners here in music, it's something without it in your life.

Your life is just like dark. Oh, yeah. You know, it's just what we do.

If you're a musician, you carry something about you and people don't always understand it because you're always tapping on the table or air guitar in the car or on the steering wheel or tapping a foot in a meeting or wherever you're at. It's just, it's always on. And you're always the person in a conversation that comes up with a statement that nobody else is thinking of.

You ever noticed that you're sitting around a table? Yeah. You're sitting around a table with a bunch of non-musicians talking about whatever the topic is. And it's always the musician that says, yeah, but think about it this way.

And everybody's like, you know, mind blown. It's like, where did that come from? That's just the science about being the musician. There's our brains work a little bit differently.

That creative side, no matter if you're left brain or right brain, if you're a musician, it's just exemplified and it comes out in every bit of your life. Yeah. Right.

Absolutely. You guys ever work on any original music as a band or you guys strictly cover? I would say individually or in previous bands, some of us have done originals, but not together. Okay.

It has been discussed recently, but we just haven't gotten to that point. Mm-hmm. How long have you guys been together? This lineup? This lineup's been about a year.

Oh, okay. So it's yeah. May 3rd is a year.

So this lineup is fairly new. You guys are still in the romantic phase, so to speak. Okay.

Yeah. I mean, I joined two years ago. Okay.

Cherry Bomb itself has been together for three years. So Nick and I are the original members. It's been three years.

Gotcha. Okay. As the bass player had to leave for health reasons and they couldn't find anybody.

And I was like, well. I'll go get one. I'll go get a bass.

I'll go get one. Seriously, just like him. That's what I'm telling you.

I know it's only four strings instead of six. So that's even easier, right? Yeah. You know why bass guitars have four strings? Why is that? So you can have two extra.

Yeah. That's my favorite bass joke. That's my favorite.

Yeah. Here we go. It was, I think it was in March and then.

There we go. There you go. We got you.

But yeah. I mean, it was interesting because I think it was mid-March when I officially joined, I guess. And I had to learn, what, 30 some songs by May.

And a brand new instrument. You know, so it was, it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of work.

And it was a lot of hours sitting in the basement. Yeah. But I was determined.

So, but then I did that for about a year on bass. And then we ended up moving to this lineup. And I said, well, if we ever get to that, I'll, maybe I'll just move over to rhythm.

Cause I always felt that the, cause it was a four piece before that just needed that rhythm guitar in there, you know? So I said, well, either we find a rhythm guitar player and I'll stay on bass, or we find a bass player, then I'll move to rhythm and then get a lead guitar player. And that's how it ended up working. Yeah.

Okay. Well, that's good. Or they said, well, you know what? You're really not that good of a bass player.

So we're going to get a rhythm guitar player. I would not disagree with that. I mean, I did what I could, but I didn't even get paid.

But that's the way it goes. You know, that's the way it goes. The bass player is always the guy that you find, I don't know, just, you know, selling oranges at the off ramp or something like that.

Hey, you got a bass? But we always have work. Yeah, that's right. Yes.

There's a whole South Park episode about finding a bass player for a band. It's absolutely hilarious. Yeah, that's right.

How do you play bass? He's like, just try it. God damn it, I guess I can't play bass. Yeah.

No, that's awesome. That's awesome. I think it's time for another song.

I think so too. All right. We'll be right back.

Be right back. You're listening to the Rock and Roll Chicago Podcast. We're coming back tonight with what I think is going to end up being one of my favorite bands.

Guys, I can't, I'm enjoying listening to you guys and talking to you guys. We've got Cherry Bomb. In the morning, see your sunrise lovers go down, lousy lovers pick their prey but they'll never cry out loud, cry out loud.

Did she make you cry, make you break down, shatter your illusions of love? And is it over now? Do you know how pieces of your own ancient queen put your kingdom up for sale, for sale? Break down, shatter your illusions of love. And is it on, shatter your illusions of love? There's a shadow of a woman when you take down, shatter your illusions of love. Do you know how to pick up your pieces of your own? Well, tell me.

Awesome. For those of you who didn't have headphones on, I was putting in some. Magical.

I guess, you know, the Disney princess on stage here. I just saw online today that Fleetwood Mac's going on their final tour. Yeah.

Wow. I can't believe they're actually going to go on a tour. That's, you know, I don't know.

I thought that. Six hundred dollars. It's going to be a summer for a concert.

Yeah, it's, yeah, because Eric Clapton is coming to Chicago again. Fogarty's coming to Credit One. Yeah.

With Steve Winwood. Yeah, yeah. It's supposed to be their last tour too.

And Rush is going on tour without Neil Peart. That's going to be weird. Isn't that going to be weird? I'm just excited for Dogmont playing across the street.

Yeah. If any of those bands are listening, we're looking for sponsors. We'll help your career.

That's right. Wow. So where can people find you on social media and stuff? All right.

All the socials were at Cherry Bomb Chicago. Same as YouTube. We got some upcoming shows.

So let's see. Like what? April 10. We're up in Norwich at Goat Village.

End of May, we're at Thirsty Beaver, which is a great club for us out in Crestwood. Love being back in a beaver. Very excited.

July 18th, we're doing a cancer benefit at Dirty Nelly's up in Palatine. Nice, yep. With some friends of ours.

Not that the cancer benefit is nice, but I mean that you're playing Dirty Nelly. No, yeah, just a bunch of musicians coming together. Have a cool night and raise some money for that.

Right, right, right. Didn't you guys play, I thought I saw on your Facebook page, you guys played the Back 40 Saloon. Last week, yes.

What's that place like? It's awesome. It was a really good time. I mean, I had an absolute blast at that show.

Yeah, I've actually got a gig there coming up this year myself. I've never been there before, so I was just curious what it was like. I'd say it's a good time.

It's a good crowd there. Yeah, nice. Great outfit.

Fantastic. It's all lit up with the squares. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The mirrors on the dance floor. Yeah, that seems to be a new thing. There's a lot of smaller places like that that are doing all that stuff.

They'll do well. Making them look real cool. It's a bit smaller.

Mantino's a small community, but it's a tight-knit community. It's good. It's been good to me.

That's where my dance studio is. I love Mantino. Right, right, right.

Nice, nice, excellent, excellent. Sounds good, sounds good. So give us some words of wisdom to sign off by.

I mean, let's talk about, I mean, you've taught younger people in either dance or mostly dance and the whole bit. So what about some advice? What advice can you give some young folks that are coming up? Oh man, the best advice I think that I give the kids- Run. Don't do this.

Get out of here. No. You know, the best advice I try to give them is just be yourself at all times.

All times. It doesn't matter what anybody else thinks. Everybody's always going to have an opinion of you.

Just be yourself at all times because everybody really wants to be that. And the people that do it with the most fortitude are the happiest. Yep, true.

You can't worry about what people are saying or doing. There's always going to be a naysayer, you know. Just be yourself at all times and find a reason to be happy in what you're doing every single day.

Right, right. You're right. It takes a set of brass balls to be yourself.

It does. It absolutely does. It absolutely does.

Especially in the world of social media because you're out there being yourself and somebody catches a clip of it and the next thing you know, everybody's seeing it. And as long as you've, as long as you're okay with the life that you're living, go live it and live it loud. Right, right.

It's hard to try. It's hard to hide your genuine self. It really is.

It is. But then think about it. That's when you're the happiest, when you're being your genuine self.

Right. When you've broken down all your outside shell and you're being the purest version of your soul that you can be. That's when you're the happiest.

Excellent. Excellent. Why don't you take us out with one? Cool.

Let's hear it one more time. This is Cherry Bomb, everybody. Make sure you go out and see them.

They gave you some dates, things that are coming up. That's right. We hit it with a like on Facebook.

We would love that. Please do it. Cherry Bomb Chicago.

Let's go, boys. I was starting to sting, but everybody thinks I'm flawless. Listen to me, I can't be what you want me to.

I just came like this, I'm already black and blue. You say you love me, but you threw my shit on the sidewalk. Now I run into a wall.

You gave nothing. I was always able, yeah. But you married someone half your age.

She's a groupie ex-girlfriend with a plastic face. That's Cherry Bomb, everybody. Cherry Bomb has left the studio.

Thanks for coming out, guys. Great talking to you. The Rock and Roll Chicago podcast is edited by Paul Martin.

Theme song courtesy of MNR 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.