Out of the Blue - The Podcast: Finding the Way Forward
Out of the Blue-the Podcast features interviews with inspirational survivors of traumatic out of the blue events who have overcome unimaginable challenges, sharing their stories of resilience and triumph. By sharing these stories, "Out of the Blue" aims to create a community where others who have faced similar hardships can find solace and strength as together, we find the way forward.
Out of the Blue - The Podcast: Finding the Way Forward
Instinct and Inspiration Behind Music with Sal Baglio
A song can change a life, and sometimes it waits decades to do it. Sal Baglio, the lead vocalist and guitarist behind Boston legends The Stompers, traces his creative path shaped by family, grief, grit, and a Hollywood surprise that rewired his future.
Sal opens up about the way songs “hover” before landing, why he never writes by formula, and how honoring the mystery keeps the music honest. He shows how instinct, not industry, has always been his compass.
The conversation opens up further as Sal shares his battle with depression, the toll of medication, and the season he quit performing to work in addiction recovery. Out of nowhere a call from Hollywood changed everything: Adam Sandler wanted to put his song “American Fun” in a movie. That out-of-the-blue sync revived his sense of purpose.
The episode also talks about community and competition in the Boston music scene – how bands sharpened each other, how humility grows with time, and why being a “good hang” matters as much as chops. Sal tells hard-won stories of opening for giants, getting booed by the wrong crowd, and returning stronger. The most moving moment arrives with his mother’s final days: a mutual exchange of forgiveness that closes the circle. It’s a reminder that music isn’t just performance; it’s presence.
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Out Of The Blue:
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Welcome to Out of the Blue the Podcast, where real people share powerful stories of resilience and transformation. I'm your host, Vernon West, joined by my son and co-host Vernon West III, an artist, singer, songwriter, and the creative force behind our logo and theme song. Our guest today is Sal Baglio, a singer, guitarist, and composer, best known for fronting the legendary Boston band The Stompers. Sal's journey has been anything but ordinary. After decades of success, he hit a season of loss, depression and uncertainty, unsure of who he was without music. But then, out of the blue, a phone call came from Hollywood, changed everything. Sony Pictures wanted his song American Fun for an Adam Sandler movie. That moment reignited his spirit, lifted the Stompers into a new era, and reminded him why music is still the best medicine. Now, as a solo artist, Sal continues to create heartfelt, powerful songs, carrying the impulsive joy of his past hits while reflecting deeply on where it all began. His story is one of resilience, rediscovery, and the healing power of music. Hi Sal, and welcome to Out of the Blue the Podcast.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, thank you. It is wonderful to be here. Good to see both of you.
SPEAKER_03:It's so good to see you. Welcome. You look like you should be in our house. I have similar doors. Well, let's start at the beginning. Let's start at the beginning. Let's start when you started where you think uh something out of the blue happened that you can remember and talk about that sent started this wheel turning in your life and led to other wheels, to other things happening, other out of the blue events. What's the first one you remember, the most powerful one, maybe? How's that?
SPEAKER_02:Wow, yeah. There's there's I guess there are a few, you know. I I I was trying to connect this particular one uh to music, which has been an important thing in in all of our lives, right? Uh you know, um you know, uh you probably feel the same way. I I don't know. Um when I say you, I'm talking about the collective music, music, I I didn't make a decision to be a musician. Right it it found me of which I'm very grateful for uh at a at a young age. Um my father was a musician, my grandfather on my mother's side was a musician. Uh, and there was a lot of music in in both sides of my family. And uh I was born and it found me. It found me before I could even uh uh uh clearly understand it. I loved what every every time I heard something on the radio, on the record player, it transported me somehow. Uh and can and I connected to it. So I, you know, when I saw the Beatles in '64 on Ed Sullivan, that sort of uh uh put you know, gave me a direction. Well, I want to do that. But I already was in, I already was in love with music, and it it had already taken me and decided this is what you're gonna do. I never dreamed in my life I would ever do any other job other than music.
SPEAKER_03:I love that.
SPEAKER_02:And uh I'm I'm very, very lucky and very blessed that that I had been able to do that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, you know, don't get me wrong. Sometimes things got a little thin, you know. You know, uh it is an old bowl of cherries.
SPEAKER_03:Put it that way.
SPEAKER_02:No, no, no. So, you know, uh, but most of that time I was a single guy, and you know, I lived at home for a long time, you know, in the three decor in East Boston, you know, the you know, you can you can take the second floor, you know, that type of thing. And then uh you know, later, you know, you just uh you get you make ends meet. Anyway, the the the reason I I I I wanted to talk about that a little bit with you is to let uh people who don't know me know what the connection to music is with me, you know. Uh it's almost uh and I bet both of you feel the same way. It's almost uh you can't really explain it and you can't describe it.
SPEAKER_03:I you cannot, it's almost like it's like an out of the when you know the musicians. I feel like are familiar with out of the blue. I mean, every time I've ever I'm asking you this when you write a song, it comes from out of the blue, doesn't it? I mean, where does it come from? We don't know, but I used to say that it's like I used to say out of the mist, like there's a mist, and then starts to take shape, and then I go, Oh, let me grab that. Let me go, and you start to make it into something. But it's really out of the blue. I mean, it's it comes from that great out there, which we don't know. That's what we're investigating. That's the phenomenon that we are celebrating, even in this this podcast, is this thing that called out of the blue. Because I think it for musicians, we know very much that we live on that. I mean, that's the inspiration, that's where we write songs, that's where we live. We we we deal with that a lot, don't you?
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely, and I agree with you a hundred percent about uh that's how I write anyway. I write, I it's it's almost like I can feel it, a song hovering, and I know I I pick up the guitar and boom. And usually my best stuff comes, it's all together. It just you know, I I might be babbling some lyrics that I go back later and say, oh, oh, that's what I was talking about, or maybe that this is bringing me here. But I, you know, I I don't start, I don't do it as a calculated thing, like, okay, I'm gonna write a song now uh about this particular subject. And uh, you know, it's just comes to me, it is so out of the blue that it is something that I I I I don't even know if I want to understand it. I don't either. I I agree I agree 100%. You know, I mean I've heard other people talk, like I know I know songwriters who work in Nashville, where you go in and you have to write a song that day. You know, this is your job. It's a publishing deal, and and you know, and you then they sit there for hours and say, okay, you know, uh it's whatever. There's a subject on the table, and then they start writing about it. Just the thought of that, it might be my ADHD, I don't know what it is, but just the thought of it makes me cringe. I I would I would get bored with that.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So I'm always looking for the for that that I you know, if my antenna is up and there's a song hovering, case in point, I wrote a song called um When We Go Home Again. It came to me complete, music and lyrics, and it's about uh the fantasy of going back home again, you know, like uh I want to go back to 1966 and see my family and my friends. And and so it was a fantasy song, and I wrote it. There's a line that says, Um, and my dad will be there, his hair will be thick, he'll show me some chords and how to hold a pick, and he won't get older and he won't get sick when we go home again. And I wrote the tune, and I was like, Oh man, you know, this is this is it was his birthday.
SPEAKER_03:That's the day it came to.
SPEAKER_02:Yep. I didn't, I it I wasn't even thinking about it. It was like, wow, this is his birthday today, man. Yeah, so then so you've both written music, and and uh so you you know that thing, you know, when it just something falls into the lab. There are other things that you know songs I've worked on for a long time, you know, that finally you've you've finished them up. But uh I love the ones, the best ones are the ones that just come come to you like that. And and it is um it's out of the blue, and it is something that's mysterious and beautiful, and uh and I feel fortunate to to to be a a a part of that. I really do.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and it's like we we we sharpen our antenna antennas, you know. That's uh when you when you live your life for year after year after year, and and part of your life is to come up with music, it doesn't become a chore, it's becomes something like you have to do, right? It's not not like I mean have to do like a chore-wise, it's just that you need to. It's like if you don't do it, you get all bottled up inside, you know. Even if you write crappy stuff, you just gotta get it out and keep this, keep the channels open, absolutely, you know. And otherwise you'll get all backed up. But um, but I I remember I wrote a song about my dad um after he died, and that was called Only the Good Times Last Forever. And he came to me. I was I was dreaming, and I was dreaming that I was watching the Gary Sandling show. And Gary Sandling starts to sing this song. Well, and as he's doing that, first of all, my father's in this dream, and he's in the kitchen and he's all dressed in white, like and he looks really good compared to the way he did when he died. He looked healthy, right? And I saw him in the kitchen, he's making breakfast. And I'm going, Dad, what are you making? You can't make breakfast, you're you're dead. What are you doing? He just nods and keeps making breakfast. And then this Gary Shailing in my dream starts singing the song only the good times last forever. And then it dawns on me. That's what my father's telling me. That that was one of the good times we had. He would get up on Sunday morning or Saturday morning and make us breakfast. And I still get chills when I think about it because it was one of those times that lasts forever in my memory, and that's what I said, wow. And then I tried to transcribe that song right then and there. It did come all together, it did come all together, and uh, and that song has actually done some things to my life that are also out of the blue. Like I remember a big lawyer that uh someone turned me on to that had got me into the door with the labels and stuff. That I was still doing that, and he loved that song. He listened to it on the on the plane ride home, and he said, Oh my god, I thought of my dad. I'm going home to see my dad in the hospital. And and it touched him. And I remember playing a gig, some guy coming up to me saying, You that song you sang about your dad, I my brother, and I thought about you know, so it's helped people like and that your song, Come Home Again, it's very great because that's us how that's one of those songs that it brings healing to people. That sentiment is so seriously powerful, you know. It really is. So that's a let's get into these, you know, your journey as far as you know, you you were down in your down in yourself. You didn't want you never did another job at music, and you were facing that, oh my god, uh, moment, you know, that a lot of us face, you know.
SPEAKER_02:Uh yeah, yeah. Well, I I I I should say that uh that depression uh uh ran a little bit in my family as well. And um uh and uh I mean just different different parts of the family, different people had different struggles that were emotional and and mental.
SPEAKER_01:Yep.
SPEAKER_02:And uh as a as a child, uh you know, there wasn't back in those days, there there weren't words for things a lot of times, you know, like there were like there are today. There weren't uh you know, what's the matter with you? You know, like what I used to have a uh a thing I used to call an unknown sadness where it would it would come over me and uh sometimes I'd weep, uh sometimes I'd just feel sad, but I couldn't explain. It wasn't, and nothing had happened in particular. So, you know, uh you start to make things up, you know. If you're a kid, if you're a young person, you you're going, why am I why do I feel this way? You know, is there something wrong with me, or maybe something happened, you know, you you you start coming up with all kinds of stuff, basically, without I don't want to, you know, take too much time in that uh that place. I I I believe uh that that I have depression. In fact, I was uh diagnosed with major depression. Um, major depression it was a cycle thing. It it would it would come and go. There was a word for it. I can't remember it right now. And uh it was a disorder, and um, this was later in life, not not when I was a child. So I went through all these years with this with depression, and and as I got older, it it got worse. Sometimes depression is physical, and you don't know why. You just want to just sit there and sleep all day, you know. You're not lazy, you're not it's just it's physical, right? So I had bouts with that, you know, uh my whole life. And so um uh I had the major depression, so they put me on a medication. This medication helped a little bit, except I blew up to almost, I was just under 400 pounds. Yeah, that stuff does that, yeah. Talk about depressed, you know. Yeah, I mean, I couldn't not only could I not tie my shoe, I couldn't see it. Oh that's that was good. That was like a rim shot.
SPEAKER_03:Oh man, tip it up, tip it up a little bit. There you go. Perfect. That was a rim shot, it was yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Your camera went down to show us your shoe.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I couldn't even see my shoes, but about and so um, you know, so dealing with the depression over the years. So at this this one point, I got off the medication and um both a couple of things happened. You know, I I was in a depressive state. The music business, you know how it goes. It uh some some years are really good and sometimes it's not, you know. I was coming up maybe on 40 years with the Stompers, four decades, yep. And I've I've been writing new music, but uh there was no um platform for it, and uh so that was weighing on me. I decided to stop playing, and uh uh I I don't know why, I don't know what made me think that would be a good idea. So, you know, uh uh just going back to what we were talking about earlier, Vernon, at the height of the Stompers, you know, like the 80s, the height of the band, my father would say to me, you know, the airport is hiring in case you want to get a job. And I'd be like, Oh dad, I'm I'm the stomp. I'm never gonna need anything, you know. You know, again God, God love him, you know. It's it's true. I bet you your dad told you that, didn't he?
SPEAKER_03:Well, you know, that's I might have told this guy, but um my dad was gone by the time I was 17. But my mom was like all over me like Sass was doing great and everything she was saying. You know, you want to take that post office exam to have something to fall back on. I said, Mom, give me a break, will you? Yeah, take the post office exam.
SPEAKER_02:They meant well, yeah, of course. But we were we were on a we were on a mission. So so the depression had gotten so bad, and I I I said I'm not gonna play out anymore. Uh I took a job um in the substance abuse field, but it was I was uh running a song writer's group. Like so all these people who are in yeah, that's great. We'd come up with a subject and we and we'd write about it, you know. Uh although I did get a lot of uh uh fulfillment out of doing that job, there's a lot to working in that field that is a real drag. Uh uh, you know, the business end of it. You know, you see people not getting sort of not getting treatment because of insurance or you know, they they act it out and they're gonna get thrown out. And I I couldn't that that that part of it was just not me. I didn't want any part of that. I loved the people and I loved uh sharing with them and writing music and hearing about what they had coming back, but the uh the rest of it was a real drag. And so I sunk down deeper and deeper. I I would drive to work and I'd I'd be like, um I I don't want to, I I can't even go in. And I'd sit outside weeping and uh you know listening to some music on the radio, and I'm being like, Oh, I'm not doing the right thing. I'm not doing the right thing. I should be doing something else. So one day, in the midst of all of that, I'm working, my cell phone goes off, and it says Sony pictures. And I'm like, I I mean, I haven't got a clue, you know. I'm like, and uh and I answer it, and the you know, the voice says, uh I'm looking for Sal Bagliard. This is he. Uh did you write American Fun, the song American Fun? And uh uh Do you own the rights to it? All this stuff. And I'm like, Yeah. He says, Adam Standler wants to use it as a movie. And and I said, Who is this? You know, is this Vernon? You know, like this is this is a musical friend of mine somewhere going like, yeah, I'm gonna mess with Sal a little bit. They used a song that I wrote when I was still living at home. I I wrote that song, I was a teenager still, American Fun. And uh and 40 years later, somebody wanted to use it in their movie. That's one and and that was really it was really uh um it took me out of it, it was out of the blue. And I'll tell you, Adam's people were the nicest people. So there's a little backstory to it, and that is that a gentleman by the name of John Philbrick used to be a roadie for the Stompers in the early 80s. He went out to California and he was working for Happy Madison, which was Adam's company. So so Adam was shooting the movie in New Hampshire, and he he was asking about other acts from Massachusetts. He he had Giles in there, and I think um maybe Robin Lane had a song in there, whatever. He was looking for local, local music. And and my friend, this this guy, John, said, you know, I used to work for a band called the Snarpers. If he fell in love with American Fun, it's the closer to the movie.
SPEAKER_03:That's all right that's what I thought.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Which movie?
SPEAKER_02:And Grown Ups, it's called. Um, okay. It's uh Adam Sanham film Grown Ups. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He did a couple of and then um and through Adam, I met Brooks uh uh Brooks Arthur, who was his musical, he was his producer. And uh he's he's since passed, passed away. But Brooks Arthur was a recording engineer and record producer way back in the early 60s. He he produced uh Society's Child by Janice Ian and some other some other great tunes of the uh out of the 60s. I'm trying to remember what they are right now. And so through Adam, I met Brooks, and Brooks was just he was just really, you know, because I was asking him a question. How do I get my other songs in movies? You know, you know, but he was really, really kind to me, and uh as Adam was. And then he ended up using uh two more songs in Grown Ups 2. Honestly, I've never heard them, but they're in there because I, you know, I get the uh you get the chat, the ass cap thing that says it, you know. But um, yeah, that was really something, man. I I I feel uh blessed, you know. Uh it's a strange thing when something good happens, you know.
SPEAKER_03:Uh a lot of times it's harder to handle than bad things because it can screw your mind up a little bit.
SPEAKER_02:Wow, that's it's it's like okay, something good happened. That means something bad's gonna happen. That's how that's how I've gone through my whole life. That is the sound and the thought of depression. Yeah, it is that what I just said to you something beautiful happens out the blue, and the depressed brain goes, something bad's coming.
SPEAKER_03:That's what it says, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:It's coming, man. So so I'm not gonna enjoy this because I gotta get ready for this horrible thing.
SPEAKER_03:You know, I think it's something to do with out of the blue things that with that's what I think what we learn from this uh phenomenon is that first of all, we don't have any control over it. So, like Shakespeare says, there's nothing good or bad, only thinking makes it so. So you know, we just we just have to look at it like okay, stuff is happening. All I have to do is show up, right? And enjoy it, and that's it. And then when something bad happens, well, I'm just gonna take it one day at a time and do what I gotta do to deal with it, and I'm gonna learn from it. I look at it like that now. I think I look at everything that happens to me out of the blue, whether it's good or bad, that I'm gonna have to, it's a learning experience. I'm I'm I'm getting ready for a learning experience. That isn't always a comfortable feeling. That that's me, that's my depression starting up because oh, I'm going back to school again. This is it. Like my uncle said to me the day I went to talk to him. After he's my uncle was a a uh uh kind of connected guy in the in the north end, and after we got ripped off, my mother sent me to go talk to Uncle Louie. Okay, and Uncle Louie says, I told him what happened. He says he gets real quiet. He goes, You know, Vernon called a fifty thousand dollar lesson. You don't want to get involved with those guys, they'll be in your life forever, and your life will be miserable. So you just gotta write it off. I'm sorry, that's what you gotta do. So that was like a huge lesson, right? Oh, yeah. There was no, you know, vengeance is mine, says the higher power, says the Lord. And I leave it into that hands, you know. Whatever, whatever people whatever did things, you got your equipment stolen. I did too. And oh yeah, and so many musicians had their equipment stolen. And um, I remember I'll never forget I used to we used to sneak into the Orpheum shows as I was a 15-year-old kid, and one show we're trying to get into the Who was playing, and we get in the we're going trying to get in the fire escape, right? And out of the door of the stage comes running Keith Moon, and he runs and he stops and he ends on the stairs and he starts crying. And we're going, What's up, Keith? He goes, Somebody stole the effing guitar, man. They think we're making money with this bastard, they don't know that they're killing us and they steal a guitar, they stole it. He's freaking out about it. I'm going, like, holy crap, wow, that was a real lesson in rock and roll. And here's my god. I mean, I thought of Keith Moon as like a god, but he had you know, he was no, he was a person, very much so. God rest his soul. Great drama, too.
SPEAKER_02:Years later, we played there together.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, we did, and we we were probably I don't we didn't get anything stolen that day, but they probably had eyes on the thing. I'm gonna get that stuff. Yeah, yeah. They were making a list. I want that guitar, I want that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. We we we we had a mutual uh love and respect for each other, and and and and that wasn't an easy thing to do, you know. When when you're younger, oh my god, competition is crazy. I've had this this conversation before. When you're younger, your band is your gang, and you know, and and you you you sort of build a wall around you so that nobody can you don't want anybody to be better than you, you know. That that's a beautiful thing that in my old age now. I'm so happy when I hear a great artist, you know, where I'm like, wow, this is beautiful. That's great what you're doing. I can do that uh and not feel like uh threatened by it, you know. As a as a young man, as a young man, unfortunately, it it could be like that sometimes, you know.
SPEAKER_03:So Vernon's out in LA, how's the competition out there, Vernon? They have I think they have a it's pretty cool. My son talks to me. You tell me it's a little more of a community, like they support each other, the bands, right? Verna, it's a little different out there.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, there's always like competition, I think, among people. And like you hear people kind of like talking about, oh, this band, you know, oh, we gotta play with them, or but um I mean the we try to make a scene, you know. Like I'm in a I'm in a band, so that like a lot of the bands that I play with start becoming buddies, and like it doesn't it doesn't seem like it's helpful at all to be like you know, like negative and then kind of try to be be an island out here. You need to like you need help from other people. Um but they every now and then like you like run into certain p characters that like have really big egos, and like they're usually pretty good, but they'll just be they'll just like have like a really big ego where like I remember one guy specifically I like went up to him after a show and I was like, yo, like you you are such a great singer, man. Like you you like your band, you guys really kick ass. And he like didn't even like look at me kind of vibe. And I just remember getting such a weird bad taste in my mouth, and then all of a sudden I'm like, Yeah, I guess they I guess he kind of had a chip on his shoulder. I guess and then it it turns out that that was like of something a lot of people felt, and then he ended up kind of like burning bridges and leaving his band. And like people kind of turned their back on him because he had that like demeanor. So it is sort of it is sort of refreshing to see like people you we don't uh if you're in it for the music, you are joyful and you're like gonna appreciate those compliments. And you're and people are gonna like sniff out if you're doing it to like feed your narcissism, kinda. So that that's kind of like it's like checks and balances, I guess. I mean, I'm sure it was probably the same. Like, you gotta be I hear this a lot. You've you've gotta be talented, but you've also got to be a good hang. Like you've gotta you gotta be able to like I don't know.
SPEAKER_03:That had something to do with it. It definitely did. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I will definitely say though, I am I think I'm in that phase still where like I wish I could be a little more like not threatened. I and don't get me wrong, I know this is not the correct mindset, but like I it feels almost like oh I'm never gonna be that good. Oh like I just gotta like focus on my own thing because that person is so good at what they do, and I'm over here in my little you know shack just trying to you know find food to live, and they're so successful and they're so good. And then when people pop off and they're really young, I'm like, oh, I'm so old, like my prime is past. It's so it's it's so I and I definitely struggle with like you hurt me, Vernon.
SPEAKER_02:You're hurting me.
SPEAKER_00:No, but I mean like I feel like I feel like that's just something that like you will kind of get over. I mean, I'm hoping I'm I'm working on it, but I also deal with these depressive thoughts too, personally. So I think it is kind of like it's just like the the little gremlin in your mind that tries to keep bringing you down, and it's like the it's like the counterforce to the out-of-the-blue muse. I like to think of it as like a muse, which is super corny, but like it's like you have the muse that's like pulling you this way and like giving you it's like telling you to let go, and then that's when you open up your channels to receive like really authentic music, and then you got the voice in your head that's like, how is that? What is that? That's not a science, you can't do that all the time. What if that never happens again? And then you I don't know. So I'm going off, I'm going off on a tangent here, but it's definitely beneficial to have friends that support you and create a community, you know.
SPEAKER_03:Well, you know, when I think back to the days we were coming up, it was neighborhoods. Bands were almost the representative of their neighborhood. Oh, yeah, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah. You were like, not so much secure anymore.
SPEAKER_00:I mean not so much anymore because the internet yeah, the internet's dissolved neighborhoods.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, the internet's done a uh dissolved a lot of different things, but yeah, I mean, like the the music scene, the music scene at that point in time. I mean, you we had to go print up a flyer and go put it outside the rat, you know, right? Monday night, Sass and the Stompers are playing, you know. That's that was it. You didn't you didn't go on on any internet or something. That's how you let people know, you know. Later on, if you if you had a mailing list, that was pretty heavy.
SPEAKER_03:That was heavy duty, yeah. Well, you know, easy emails.
SPEAKER_02:Uh yeah, it I want to get back to something uh though, Vernon, that you you were saying uh because so yeah, the voice that voice will always kind of be there, you know. Uh the one that says, ah, you know, am I good enough? But that's okay. It's okay to it's okay sometimes to like to be uh hungry and competitive in a way that's not harmful to yourself or others, mostly to yourself. Um and for me personally, I had to, I don't know if I learned it or what happened, but I had to learn something called humility. And it's not it's most people think, oh humility, you felt bad and and you were humiliated. Nope, nope, nope. Humility. I'm I'm I'm good at this. These are the things I'm good at. So when I meet somebody else who's good, maybe they're really good, it's okay, because I'm I I got my thing. And I know what I'm good at, I know what I might what I would like to be better at. And hey, listen, I wasn't like this at the 18, 19 years old, or 20 years old, maybe not even at 30. You know, it took me a while to find this thing, or maybe it found me out of the blue. Out of the blue. That's right. I'm serious. Um I'm very serious about that. I mean, I agree. You know, I hope that didn't go down the the the wrong thing or come off the wrong note. No, no, no.
SPEAKER_03:No, no, no.
SPEAKER_02:Right in right into it, you know, you know that you you've got a gift, yeah, and you you you you uh honor that gift and you take care of it. I mean, I I don't know if we need to go down this road where I'm sure there was some you and I didn't take care of the gift, no by going in other directions or whatever, you know.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and so if you don't okay, my my son knows I was always not always a good boy. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You were you're a mess.
SPEAKER_03:I was a mess.
SPEAKER_00:You're talking about like like drugs and boos and out and drugs, yeah. Yeah, you know, uh my dad's infamous nose job.
SPEAKER_03:What happened? I didn't get a nose job.
SPEAKER_00:No, I mean, didn't you get socked in the face? Right.
SPEAKER_03:I got punched the first time I actually actually drank with a bunch of kids. I was like 16. Oh, you were young, and I was over some kids' house, and we're all drunk. First time I was ever drunk, the next thing I know, I see a TV flying across the room. So I said, Well, I got I gotta get out of here. Some there's a fight is breaking out, and I get up and someone suckered me and broke my nose across the side of my face. And then I might go home, my dad looks at me and goes, What the heck happened to you? He and next morning I go to the mass general, and they're gonna well I'm laying on a table and they go, You know how much force it took to break that nose? And I go, Yeah, it's gonna take that much to put it back. Oh, baby, and you know what they did, they stuck all these q-tips with cocaine with pharmaceutical cocaine, pharmaceutical cocaine, like it was also this is the origin story. There was a there was about 50 of these q-tips up my nose, and my face is numb, baby, and they my face is numb, right? And they're coming over to me, and I'm laying there, and they're going, all right, Vernon, get ready. And they pull up the things and they get they take a plier's like a like a curved, he sticks them up my nose, and he goes, and one guy's holding my hand, the other guy. We hear the sound, and then they say, and then they say, Okay, and they bring a mirror over, right? And they say, How's that? I go, a little to the left. Well I God. And when I walked out of there with the nose thing all stuffed up and a brace on me, I think my feet never touched the ground, man. It was my first time on pharmaceutical. Okay, boy boy, something else, man. I didn't know how bad I would not want to have that feeling later on in life because I didn't have it for many years, another 10 years before I tried the other stuff.
SPEAKER_01:But um, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:But I mean, that's all but to me, it was like inspiration. I don't know if I really felt animosity to anybody.
SPEAKER_02:I did feel competitive, definitely, because it's suddenly it becomes like a sport, and it really is healthy, healthy competition is good, you you know, keeps you keeps you, you know.
SPEAKER_03:I think so. That's I think what that's what made the Boston scene pretty great back then is because there was a the bunch of bands kind of competing and getting making setting the bar higher and higher each for each other.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, that night that we were 20 years old playing at the Orphium, uh, I think it was it was us. I think I don't know. I forget if the fools were the fools play too. Oh it was you, it was us. It was the Stompers, Sass, James Montgomery, Giles, and maybe maybe another band. I forget, but I think that's well.
SPEAKER_03:I think that was it. I think that was it.
SPEAKER_02:You gotta be on your you gotta be on your A plus game, you know. You know what I mean? That's how you're gonna do it. You're gonna go out and say, uh, you know, I I got a run and joke with with uh Mike Gerard from The Fools, you know, he's I said, do y'all we always wanted to go on before you guys because uh gives us our A plus game, you know. We feel a little bit more we we we needed to to work a little harder, you know, so that when when we left the stage, they they remembered who was there, you know.
SPEAKER_03:Right, right.
SPEAKER_00:That was the thing in stand-up, too, where like no one wants to go on after the guy who kills because then the audience is like, all right, you better bring it, and then the vibe is different and they have to work harder. That is like you know, something I have also thought of and dealt with with other bands. You gotta bring it. And then if you're opening for someone who's big, no, not in a not in a negative way, but I think it's always beneficial to try to play better than them. Not better, but like try to like bring the best show. Because you wanna you wanna try to be like, I don't know, unforgettable. You're not gonna be if you're opening for a band that's like on that's touring and all their fans are there, they're probably gonna get the better response or whatever. It's fine.
SPEAKER_02:Oh yeah, you you get that that teaches you how to take a punch, though. I mean, I we I I'm sure I'm sure no, I'm serious. I you know, we we opened for so we opened for people like uh the Jay Giles band. We went on tour with them, and that was that was good because we had a rock band that was similar to that, right? But then we would get dates like, okay, you guys are gonna open for Roxy Music tonight, and we just got booed the whole time. Booed, just get off. We hate you, you know, because we're up there going, let's rock, you know, whatever we were singing about, you know. And Roxy Music was kind of they're an already kind of you know, different, different bag. Nothing against them, right? But the audience was so you learn you learn how to take a punch, you know what I mean? That's that's that's how you do it. You could you could go home and and say that's I'm never gonna do that again, or you just get back up and and you do it, you know. But yeah, yeah, well, I've got a lot of those stories.
SPEAKER_00:I was growing up was like the most like that. Like, Dad, do you remember when I would play like VFWs or like churches? Yeah, and I would go up with my like singer-songwriter band, and we'd play like you know, like little catchy pop rock tunes. Because I was super inspired by my dad's music, and like I was always playing class, I was grew up playing like some classic covers, and like I was like, I want to write fun songs, I'm sick of these like Metallica songs. I don't know, but then I would play all these like pop rock songs, and then I'd have my four friends and my girlfriend like singing along, and then we got the stage, and then the guys with the big gauges in their ears, and like you know, they'd come on with their heavy Screamo band, and it was like I felt like no one everyone kind of like talked smack about us, and then immediately it was like the heaviest band you've ever heard in your life. So, like, there was a lot when I was young of just like you know, like the the the shit talking and like the booing, and like oh it was that that was tough. That was the that definitely taught me resilience for sure. That doesn't really happen anymore because you know you find your your crowds, it's a little different, I guess. Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_03:Listen, you know, so it's kind of getting back to our show here because we've been having a great conversation about this is the show, damn it. So many things. I know it is the show, damn it. So we we we're talking about so many great things that really it everything is out of the blue.
SPEAKER_02:We are talking about out of the blue stuff, and I was also uh you we we don't we won't go there. I wanted to sh no no I wanted to share with you about about the the the the death of my mother, oh boy, which was uh yeah, yeah. I'm gonna give you the brief the brief thing. So so my mom was uh in a nursing home uh last couple of years of her life, and uh this one particular night she'd fallen and uh hit her head. Now, she had done that a few times previously and always was okay. This time uh we get a call, she has a brain bleed. Uh, do you want us to go in? Uh she's 95. No, don't I don't want to put it through that. Five in the call, 5 a.m. I get a call. You need to come, you know, your your mom's pass is gonna pass away. Uh so you should get here as soon as you can. My beautiful wife and I, God love her. She uh I was a wreck. Uh we go into uh Bethersio Hospital. My mother's in an emergency uh room, and uh and she's unconscious, and I go in and I, you know weep and start talking to her and saying a few different things I wanted to tell her, you know. And uh once again, they told me to come in, she's gonna pass away. A little while later, a nurse comes in and says, um, okay, we're gonna send her back to the nursing home. And I was, what are you talking about? Uh well, she could go now in two hours or two days. I I I I was just dumbfounded. I was just, I didn't know what to think. She gets back to the uh nursing home, and I I figure she's gonna be in bed unconscious the whole time. She wakes up. She wakes up and she looks at me and she says, She goes, This is in a nice place. She was in the same place she's been in for a couple of years, but between the headbang and and the probably the trauma of the of the night before and all that, she thinks she's in a different place. I said, Okay. The next day she's up in a wheelchair, and I'm talking with her like this, having coffee. I'm like, Ma, how you doing? I'm good. And uh the next few days I was able to speak with her. Uh some of it was memory stuff, talking about uh growing up and different funny things, things making her laugh. And then uh little by little she would uh uh sleep, and that kind of took over the next 12 days or so, where she would just be sleeping and she wouldn't get and eventually she didn't wake up again. And um I went in uh one afternoon and played some songs for her, you know. I uh I played lovely Rita, because Rita was her name. Uh and then um a few other things, you know, that that meant something to her. And um and she never regained consciousness, but she did squeeze my hand. And so that was really quite a thing to have happen. At first, I was very angry that they told me she was gonna pass away and she didn't, because I had kind of wrapped my head around that a little bit, you know, like okay, so she's gone. I'm sad, I'm um uh I'm mourning. And then she came back, and I was a little angry that they had told me that that's what was gonna happen to her. But in the end, it was a gift. A gift, yeah. It was a gift because I got to sit with her, you know. Um one of the one of the most intense things that ever that happened between us, it was just her and I, and I said to her, I said, Ma, I said, uh, do you forgive me for any time that uh I might have made you frightened or angry while growing up? And she looked at me and she said, Well, that goes both ways.
SPEAKER_03:That is something beautiful.
SPEAKER_02:Did she ever anger or frighten me when I was a child? Maybe, but but that that's neither here nor there. I think what she was saying is I forgive you, you forgive me, we're okay.
SPEAKER_03:That's beautiful.
SPEAKER_02:The circle. The circle is okay. Yeah, that's that's what I got from it. It was really probably the up to now the heaviest moment I've ever had in my life, you know.
SPEAKER_03:That's a beautiful thing that happens out of the blue. Really a ple really an unbelievable pleasure and honor to get to know you, Sal, and um and have you welcome you to the out of the blue family. So we'll we'll be doing this. So we're gonna be, you know, it's a family, you know what family like we don't go away.
SPEAKER_02:So no, we make the gravy on Sunday and you come over.
SPEAKER_03:That's it. Gravy on Sunday.
SPEAKER_02:But anyways, this is this is it's been a it's been wonderful. Thanks, thanks for having me. And and Vernon, nice to meet you again. Even if we met a couple of times before, that this is nice, man. So good luck out there, my friend.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you, appreciate it. It means a lot.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, absolutely.
SPEAKER_03:Who knows? We may share some music together because absolutely, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00:I really do. We got a guitarist, bassist, and drummer sitting right here.
SPEAKER_03:So right here. Yeah, uh Stomp West.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah, that's what we need to do, is go back to all right.
SPEAKER_03:Well, thank you for everybody for joining us here on Out of the Blue, the podcast. And this is Sal Baglio and Mustang Vernon III. And boy, oh boy, what a great podcast episode this has been. Please smash that like button and follow and get the word out there so more people will share their out of the blue stories and we can get this world flying straight, straighten up and fly right.
SPEAKER_01:When the clock strikes backwards and you're spinning around, and you wake up back in the world.
SPEAKER_03:Out of the blue the podcast, hosted by me, Vernon West. Co-hosted by Vernon West the Third, edited by Joe Gallow. Music and logo by Vernon West III. Have an out of the blue story of your own you'd like to share? Reach us at info at out of the blue-thepodcast.org. Subscribe to Out of the Blue on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And on our website, out of the blue-thepodcast.org. You can also check us out on Patreon for exclusive content.