Welcome And Show Premise

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Today on Soul Strings, we're joined by a creative force from right here in St. Louis. Composer and producer Mark Rogers, along with his brother John, Mark has created something truly unique: an original rock opera based on the life of Nikola Tesla called Nikola Tesla Light It Up. This powerful production blends 13 original songs, a live rock band, and immersive video storytelling to bring Tesla's life to the stage, exploring his inventions, visions, struggles, and legacy in a way that's both cinematic and electrifying. The world premiere is happening June 20th at Delmar Hall in St. Louis, and it promises to be an unforbuntable night of music, storytelling, and inspiration. Mark, welcome to Soul Strengths, buddy.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

I am thrilled to be here. Garney, you told you said it exactly like I told you to do it. You don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

You did great. You did great. Um I'm glad I didn't mess it up. You know what? There's so many questions I have for you because this is something that you know I didn't know anything about. And I'm really into like Broadway productions. I love all types of music. I grew up in rock bands in the 80s, I sang in rock bands in the 80s, and the production side of it was always something that was so important to me. And even, I mean, I owned a karaoke company for 30 years and a DJ company, and everything was about production, and that I did such big productions that it even led to uh doing MMA fight productions and things like that. So and when I go to concerts, it's all about you know the feel, the the experience that you feel that you get to live while you're watching this production. And so just from what I've seen so far, I can't wait to talk to you about this, and I can't wait to find out more. Um, first of all, what what was what inspired you and

Why Tesla Becomes A Musical

SPEAKER_01 2:05

your brother to tell the story of Nikola Tesla through a rock opera?

SPEAKER_02 2:08

Well, I don't know if you can tell uh to my highness. We've been involved with the Da Vinci and Michelangelo experience for over over 12 years. It was a it was a theater production that I developed out of the Da Vinci Machines exhibition that was over here from Florence Siddle um in 2011. It was all these these machines of Da Vinci and and so on. But every time I had to go someplace or I wanted to tell the Da Vinci Michelangelo story, I had to bring two tractor trailer loads with me of the exhib exhibition with. And I thought, well, this is so not gonna work. So we actually got on to give it these incredible tours at the at the uh exhibition, and I actually got everything about Da Vinci Michelangelo that I wanted down into a PC with we have our show goes through 146 pieces of of individual media and videos and and and and pictures and animations. And um, and I what when when I put that together, I actually had a theater show out of it. And so we actually traveled around the entire country. Actually, we traveled all over the world during the show the last the last 10 years. We ran off Broadway um for over um over a hundred shows. We were in the St. Luke's theater and we ended up there with then COVID hit, and then we came back to the Soho Playhouse. We and so and during this whole process, I always wanted to come out with nothing. It was because nobody knew about Da Vinci and Michelangelo, that they were they they were contemporaries, they hated each other, um, they couldn't stand to be in the same room with each other. And it was so such, I said, man, I I want to do something else. And I wanted to, I've been a musician my whole life, and I was living in Broadway. I said, it's gotta be a musical, number one. But number two, I thought I started looking about um uh Tesla and Edison because that was a huge conflict between between them in their life. And um, the more I dug into it, Gore, you know, that I gotta be honest, I gotta be honest. This um Edison guy was not a nice guy. He were he and Edison, I mean Tesla and Edison hated each other. And um he uh uh he he began to work for him and that and that that they were they were oil and in and water. And then I began to look into it. I said, you know what? I'm really not that excited to do a uh uh a Tesla Edison thing. But the more I found out about uh Tesla, it was just unbelievable. He is truly, and I'm not joking, when I go when the history is written, it's gonna go down that he um is the Leonardo da Vinci of the 20th century. I mean, you cannot believe what this guy this guy invented. And so we started to put the guy, I've been working on it for four years. So then I started put the music together. I I I do you know how to write a musical or play? First of all, you gotta want to so I started reading all these books about about uh uh Tesla. And I I think I know now, which I think is almost impossible, that I know more about Tesla than I know about Edison. I mean, uh than uh Da Vinci, if that's even possible. And the more that came up, it gave me more frustrating. And I said, I want to tell the story of of his life. And every time that you walk over and you turn on a light, a light switch, you walk out the door and you see a uh a neon light light up. That you he he predicted cell phone and and instantaneous communication. So I mean, the more that I told you, I was I was just so excited. I said, This has got to be the that's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

I mean, so you just you kind of said something that I was gonna ask you, and that was how

Research, Accuracy, And Tesla’s Mother

SPEAKER_01 5:20

long is the process for something like this to take place? So I mean, when you first get an idea of who you want to do and how you want to present this, how long is this process take? You said four years you were thinking.

SPEAKER_02 5:33

It's it's been it's been four. I mean, it's been of um, you know, uh uh, you know, of obviously understanding his story and understanding his life. And I wanted to tell it in the right way. I don't a lot of these shows are now on TV, and they say, well, no, that didn't go that way. That they they made that up for television, or they made that up. And I did not want that. I wanted to be historically accurate, but I wanted to show his human side. I wanted to show his um uh his personal connection. You know, and the you know the neatest thing I found out about Tussa was you know where his genius came from? His mother, his mother, Georgina. Wow, he she was an inventor around the house, and she she had almost we we don't call it a photographic memory, but she could hear something once. And over in Serbia, when they brought up, where they were brought up, uh the all the story was nothing was written down at the time. So everything had to be memorized and learned or whatever. She learned, she she invented form tools, she invented little things around the gadgets around the house, and and and Tesla um actually credited uh his mother for later life, goes, The reason I'm here because of my mother, uh uh Georgina. And it's it and it's amazing. And actually, in the in the rock of I said, Well, that has to be the opening song. And so we have this incredible. I mean, the the Jason Nelson band, who's I don't know people familiar with him in St. Louis, but you will be when you come to the show. He's an incredible, and we his whole band, and she had hit she had this incredible uh uh uh band and this and this a world girl singer, this woman singer, and um, and that's the first opening, that's the first opening song of of uh of the rock opera, is Born Tesla. And and I give 100%, she was truly the hand that rocked the cradle.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

So, how did you go about finding Jason and his band to do this with you?

SPEAKER_02 7:18

Is that a great story? You know, I thought because I've I I've been a musician here in St. Louis my whole life, and I played out a lot of places, and I had a jazz band many years ago, and and um everything. And I thought, um, well, actually, to kind of but before that, I was I was it was gonna be a musical because it was gonna be it, it was gonna be a musical, and and that's that's what I really wanted to do. And so I sense I and so I sent it out to my these I have two of my great friends that I've known for forever. One is CBS, and he's Paul Freeman. The other one is actually number three or four at Disney. He's an incredible uh gentleman. And I and I sent out some of the songs to him. I said, Listen, I'm doing this musical. And and Paul

From Costly Musical To Rock Opera

SPEAKER_02 7:55

calls me back from uh CBS and he says, uh, you know, Mark, uh, I got something I gotta tell you. He says, Um, you know, you're never gonna make this into a music, you know. And I say, I said it's so expensive. I mean, you need millions to put on music. Sting, who we know and love, he put on a musical two years ago, two and a half years ago, called The Last Ship. Did you know about this? He spent, he spent and and he spent and lost 15 million dollars like that. In fact, after the show closed in New York, he went on a a two-year worldwide tour just to come and get his money back, just to get his money back. In fact, during that year, uh, he came through St. Louis three times, four times. He was at the pageant. Remember that? Remember, those little that that little when he came through St. Louis four times, just to get his money back. And I said, Yeah, Paul, I don't even know what I'm thinking. He said, But you know these songs, you know, each one of these songs are standalone. Because usually when you go to a musical, which I think is which you can attest to, except for Andeloid Rebbe. He he's in a different class. But when you go to a musical, you know, they usually you know they have one big breakout song, you know, and then they have a couple of fill-in songs, and they got a kind of a good song, a so-so song, you know, and then they have another big one. So when you go to a musical, they have like like maybe one song or two songs that you know that really stand out, you know. And and Paul called me back and he said, and I couldn't believe it because Mark goes, you know, these songs are standing. I said, Well, thanks, Paul. I really appreciate you uh to tell me that. He says, You know, um, you know what you should do. He goes, forget, forget him, forget him, Michael. He said, You've got a you've got a rock up, you've got a rock up. And I went, Oh my god. Because the kids today don't know. I said, Paul, the kids today don't know what a rock opera is. He says, You know what's gonna happen? He goes, You're gonna tell them, you're gonna show them. So anyway, that how translated he goes, you know every musician in St. Louis. I said, Of course I do. Well, that gets me, that was a long answer to your story. So I thought, well, you know, am I gonna call everybody individually? I need a guitar player here, I need a cello player here, and then they get all together. So my my girlfriend um says to me one day, uh, she goes, Hey, they got this band uh playing out of platinum out in West County. And it's uh it's a uh and everybody says he uh he's really good. And um, he goes, What if I it's a Queen tribute band? And I said, uh well, I had actually to be honest, I'd never heard, I'd never heard of it, heard of it, but there were um, you know, there are tribute bands all over the place. In fact, that's funniest story. When we we we uh toured uh Da Vinci Michelangelo experience in uh uh the UK last September, we did 25 shows in 30 days. And every time we showed up to the show, the um the stage crew would say, Oh my god, thank God you're not another tribute band. We're sick of tribute bands over here. They got they got blindy tribute bands, they've got Yungbert Hopper bitching uh uh tribut bands. I said, No, no, we're play goes up. So anyway, um uh uh Sherry says, Look on hear this, hear this band and um play play queen. So we go out there to this this bar and we're sitting in this bar, the lights go down, and this wall of sound comes from the stage. And Jason Nelson walks out and he commands the room. And I went there and they blocked in these screws on, and I said, I went, Oh my god, this has he is fantastic. And you know that this and I and I looked over to um my girlfriend Sherry and I said, Um, you know who he is, don't you? And Sherry says, I know exactly who he is. I said, Who is he? He says, He's your Tessa. I said, You're absolutely right. He's my so we waited till the show ended, and you know, we waited to the kind of crowd cleared up. He uh he came, uh he's walking around the uh the uh venue there, and he came walking around and I said, I walked up, he didn't know who who I was, and he walked up and I and he said, Um, I said, Hi, Jason. Yeah, my name's Mark Rogers. You don't know me, but I'm gonna have this uh Da Vinci Michelangelo experience. Oh da da da da da da da but I've written uh uh a show that is highlighting the the life and the humanity of Nicola Tusk. And I said, And I want you to be Nicola Tusk. And he didn't even stop. He said, Put me down. He didn't hear one song. I said, You're in. That was about that's about six months ago. And I said, Okay, we got I had like about four more songs they had to finish. But he's when when they come on when you show up there on the 20th of June, you are gonna see a and also we're adding a P, we have an eight-piece rock and roll uh band. We're adding um uh uh cello, electric cello, electric violin,

Favorite Songs And The World’s Fair

SPEAKER_02 12:05

and we are we are gonna rock the Dumball Hall, I guarantee you.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

Oh, I can't wait to see it. I mean, so is there gonna be a lot of visuals? I mean, I'm sure there's gonna be a lot of visuals along with this with like video screens and things.

SPEAKER_02 12:16

Yeah, I'll send you one. We have um we have this uh this incredible um uh videographer, and we're putting through one. The first one's already out, it's on our website, it's called Colorado Cosmic Cowboy, and uh we'll we're talking about how that all came about. But no, we're gonna have uh we have uh videos to play behind each one of the songs that that obviously highlight the light and you know the the life of of him and also you know move the story along. Some of them are very fun, some are just kind of fun songs, you know what I mean? Some are just like like some are like some are kind of just fun songs, but some I mean some of them we we really uh like like like hiding inside my mind was when he when he when he when he beat uh uh Addison out uh for um uh the lighting of the world's fair in uh 1893, and then he was at the absolute top of his game. And uh and and that's what the one song Hiding Inside My Mind is is about. We have a lot of but they they try to we have we have some fun songs, we have Broadway style songs, we've got country song, we've got um we've got the whole junior, we've got the whole junior that covers this all right. There's there's gonna be something in there that you are gonna love.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

So out of these 13 songs, which one's your favorite? If you could pick a favorite, which one would be your favorite?

SPEAKER_02 13:22

Um, you know, I guess the one is the main title theme is lighted up because when I was in all the books, when he was um growing up, um, he actually thought he was sick. He actually thought he was these ideas and these hallucinations and these um and this light inside of his head, and light inside of his head, and he and he wrote later, he said, I'd I'd wave my hand in front of my eyes to see what was real, if my mind was adrift. What I thought was an affliction turned out to be a gift. And so that's beginning. So at the end of that side, he says, a lot of my my daughter loves um uh my daughter uh I'm the original wizard of ours. I don't know. Uh one time I like that one too. That one's the crazy part about that one is um, and I actually kind of uncovered all this uh during during my research. Uh Nicola Tesla won and beat out uh Edison with his alternating current. He had alternating current Thomas in the head to head direct, and he beat him out to light up the World's Fair, the 1893 Clement exhibition in Chicago, and um when which eventually lit the exhibition, which eventually let the world, as we know. Um, when Tesla himself was in um Chicago on that May 1st, 1893, and he personally threw the switch that lit up 200,000 light bulbs at one time. They said it was the greatest display of lighting the history of the world had ever seen. And Thomas Edison, when he didn't get that bid, he was mad as hell. And he, in fact, he was so mad he refused to sell Tesla and Westinghouse his incandescent bulb that they needed to light the midway, the court of honor. So Tesla and Westinghouse had invent a new light bulb basically overnight called the double stopper light. It got in fact they actually had to change out 200,000 light bulbs every night of the World's Fair. Can you imagine that that workforce that that that and uh that that happened? Well, um Nicola Tessa himself was in Chicago on May 1st, 1893, to and he personally through the switch fellow 200,000 light bulbs at one time. Do you know who was in the crowd that night in the midway? They called the court of honor. Do you know who was in the in the midway that night? His name was L. Frank Bond. Okay, I'll put you on the spot. Who is L. Frank Bomb?

SPEAKER_01 15:35

The Wizard of Oz. Wizard of Oz.

SPEAKER_02 15:38

And he remembered that night, May 1st, 1893, when Nicola Tessa threw that switch that lit up those 200,000 light bulbs at one time. And when he wrote um The Wizard of Oz, the wonderful Wizard of Oz, the turn of the century, that became his inspiration for the Emerald City. So we can we can say without fear of any reprisal whatsoever, that Nikola Tessa truly is the original Wizard of Oz. And they have a whole song about it.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

So I love your passion. I love what comes out of you when you talk about this. So when you start these projects and you start to investigate like Tesla and really read about him, what surprises you the most about that? I mean, I I can just see the passion that you get from him, but but what is it that surprises you the most?

SPEAKER_02 16:21

Well, um, well, you know, the actual process kind of gets me going. Some people like to play golf, some like, you know, some like to do that. But the actual process, they get to go and into in and to learn this stuff. Like the one, like, like the one pro the one uh song we have in there is called Dinner at Del Monaco's, and it was really, it was really fun. Um, Nicola Tess would go to Domonico's, which is the finest restaurant in New York at the time. And um, and he would go there, he would eat there every night. Every night he would eat there. And he had a whole routine. He had one floor fork, two nights, two plates, nine napkins precisely in place every night. They knew exactly what he wanted. He ordered the same thing every out of the the same the same thing every night. And um anyway, when I when I found that out, um when I when I found that out in uh De Monaco's, um that you cannot believe all the all the uh recipes that we take for granted that De Monaco's invented, that they invented um lobster newburg, chicken a la uh lobster newburg, uh baked Alaska, and chicken a lachem. Now, the great part about it's actually the name of it is chicken a lachem. And what it outside of New York it became known as Chicken Ala King. And what happened was there was a very famous, very wealthy Apollo player that would come and eat also at De Monaco's every night. And so they named the dish after him. It was Chicken Allah Kim, K-E-E-M-E. So that was the actual name of

Wardenclyffe, Free Energy, And 3-6-9

SPEAKER_02 17:40

uh name of it. No, I don't know. I find that stuff fascinating. So it's just um, you know, so I I just so the more that I get into it, I think, oh, I gotta write this down, I gotta, I gotta write this down. The the one um they actually the one time um, and also some of his quotes are just um are just blowing. Well, we we'll talk about Warrencliffe in a minute, but anyway, um uh Warrencliffe, he wanted to provide free energy to the world, free energy to the world in Warrencliffe with this, with his with his uh with his uh uh tower. And um, and when he came in and JP Morgan was it was his was his his main investor. And um he and and and JP Morgan showed up one side at Warrencliffe and looked at this huge tower going up. And he was gonna provide, and he was gonna provide in um uh uh JP Morgan said to him, uh he said a Tesla, it was um, hey, uh, where's the where's the meter on this? And uh Tesla said, No, it's not. There's no meter on it. That's gonna be free to the world. We're gonna save and help you manage it, is what we're gonna do. And and um JP Morgan cut him off immediately. He cut him off immediately. In fact, and then and the one thing uh that got me to that story was he wrote it, he wrote he um Tesla always needed more money. I'll talk about St. Louis too. Um Tesla always needed more money, and and he wrote an impassioned letter to JP Morgan when JP Morgan cut him, uh uh cut him off. And um and he he he wrote he and he he wrote um to achieve a great great result is one thing, but to achieve it at the right time is another. And I thought, I thought, what an incredible line. But anyway, he thought Tesla thought three, six, and nine ruled the world, the number that that could ruled the universe. In fact, before he went into a uh hotel or a building anywhere, anywhere that he went, he'd walk around it three times before before he went in. So I and the one song on Warning Cliff, I wrote, three, six, nine, living life by the number to achieve a great result is one to achieve it at the right time. And so it just when I when I get that, I I guess that's just the you know, the nerd in me coming out. I just went, Whoa, you nailed it, you know what I mean? So I so that that that keeps me going, you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

That's awesome. You know, he Tesla was such a misunderstood and even ridiculed in his lifetime.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

What part of the story was understood? Everybody just ripped him off, it wasn't a misunderstood. He was a genius, and the only problem, and the one song they have the Liars, Thieves, Naves, Hiring Man, and at the end of when he realizes it's starting to go south now, you know, and because he always needed the next money, he always needed more money. But the neat part about him was he always had the confidence in himself that he could come up with the next big idea to keep it going. In fact, I'll tell you this: the St. Louis, we have a huge great connection to Tessa here in St. Louis. He would go on roadshows around the country, and he was um and he would wear cork shoes and he would go out and he had electric light flint and electric flying out of him and and coming out of his mouth and and other stuff. And he had all these experiments that he put on for the audience, and and he actually performed these shows himself. Well, the last one he did was right here in St. Louis at St. Louis Exhibition Hall, which they now turned out as a St. Louis Public Library, and um, and it was right here in St. Louis. And he after the show, the people mobbed it. They just wanted to touch it, they just wanted to be close to him, and it and it and it and it kind of freaked him out. It kind of it just you know, he was he was such a private individual and such an eternal soul. It freaked him out. And that that's actually the last one he ever did. The last one he ever did was right here in St. Louis.

SPEAKER_01 21:01

Is there a part of his story that resonates most with you personally?

SPEAKER_02 21:05

Um, yes, yes. Um, uh well, his mother resonates with me because I had his

St. Louis Connection And Late-Life Mysteries

SPEAKER_02 21:10

I had one incredible mother. Um, but also that at the very end, the last the well, there's actually two. The very last of the the the second last song is called Peace. And um, and he actually, this is this is an incredible story. He invented a laser beam, uh a force shield that he was going to give to every country in the world to outlaw war. I mean, to make war obsolete, and uh make war obsolete. And he was supposed to, and he called the teleforce ray. Does that sound familiar to you and what we're going through now? He had he actually had that envision. And right then, and uh the the night, this is want to talk conspiracy theories. The night though, he was supposed to go over to the uh uh White House the next day and present it to the president. I think it was FDR, present it to the president and say, I have this teleforce that's gonna make war obsolete, the thunder. of guns will be silenced, the tears of our mothers will cease. And uh uh this will make war obsolete and uh it and he got he died that he got heavy they said it was they said it was natural causes but they have no idea and but when they showed up when his family and the and the and the in the electrical society showed up all of his drawing all of his he had boxes and boxes and boxes they were all gone all gone wow yeah you know what that one resonates the most to me where where he had the one had the had had the one but the other one was i the other one is is pretty cool the um um he never married but he was actually in love with this one with a woman that was his best friend's wife but it was a platonic thing she loved Tesla she took care of him she nurtured him and also her husband loved tesla too but they they loved they they they loved him and they and they and they took care of him and um uh when she when when he died he he almost he when she died she almost lost anyway the night that she died um a white dove appeared on his windowsill in the New Yorker hotel on 3327 and and and and he believed and he believed it was her and she's and he's and he and he stayed with her and you know sure and she came back and visited him every night and then he goes I and he said I knew it was you and he actually wrote in his notes he said I had I had total communic I could I had total communication dove and which is one of the coolest and that was the one song called Present that's like toward the end uh when the dove comes to visit him every night and uh and so that's my those are my uh my favorite but Warren Cliff is my favorite Warren Cliff is just is is is my favorite lighted up but there's so many there's there's there's there's so many but so it's so it's been it's been not only you know it's a hard thing to do you know to keep all this going over up four years the enthusiasm but it's been the most rewarding thing I've ever done.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

Out of everything you learned about him how did you how hard and how difficult was it for you to pick these 13 songs just out of what everything you know about him? Was that difficult or did you want to add more?

SPEAKER_02 24:00

I want to add more but the thing about it is my thing about it is they couldn't be um the songs all the songs couldn't be heavy. You know what I'm saying? We had to have light we have upbeat and this one and this one went down I wrote this song about it. It's called um Minding Imagination and that's really kind of a light Broadway comedy number on uh I got a number about um uh you know I can't believe I'm even talking this guy what a jerk what a pompous ass he knows everything about everything and if you don't believe it and so I wrote this whole thing about uh really my my friend from uh uh from CBS right he goes Mark goes that's he goes that song is so you're talking about such a heavy subject but it is so fun and I wonder yeah well that's what I was trying to do I was trying to make it fun so I mean we have we have fun we've got a rock and roll we like Broadway we've got um everything but we have we we have a couple that you know really hit the you know hit we think hit the mark you know the production it combines live music with large screen cinematic visuals what kind of experience can the audience expect when they walk into Del Mar Hall on the June 20th well we have a a huge amount of experience of doing that with our Da Vinci Michelangelo Da Vinci Michel show when we we go up is actually I'm the I'm the performer in the Da Vinci Michelangelo show can you imagine? But anyway and behind it when we go we we go in we have a 20 by 40 foot screen behind and we have and during that show we went we go through a hundred and forty six different pieces of media uh during that show. So we're expert at dude so we have this one we have it all set up it's gonna be a there's gonna be a huge screen behind but the one thing about it is I actually had to tone it down a little bit because I do not want to take away anything from Jason and his band. They are so incredible and I want them to be laser focused so this well you'll see because I'm feeling you put on the show put a call a cosmic cowboy I mean it's great I mean I mean

Visual Storytelling And Colorado Springs

SPEAKER_02 25:45

the the visuals are incredible but I do not want it to overshadow the message and not to overshadow shadow uh Jason and you know what let's look at that real quick head west to Denver south to the spring up close to the power source of what only nature brings with my rope a wire to last so electric well that was really cool mark tell me a little bit about that video is this kind of like what we're gonna see throughout the night yeah it's it it it's it's beautiful that the the story behind that is kind of amazing that he wanted to send high speed transmission from um to to overseas to Paris and he wanted to get to the highest point that he could get to in the United States and that was Pike's Peak that was out at Colorado Springs. So he journeyed out to uh Denver and and went down to um Colorado Springs and he built this whole um uh workstation where they had these these huge one the the story behind that is and it would send it up during the lightning storm and it would capture the lightning and the one and the and the and the one night in fact he was producing so much energy he actually blew all the circuit breakers in Colorado Springs he actually blew everything in Colorado Spring and so um the the one night and they showed up the morning the up the next morning they said don't do that again so anyway he goes to talk about the about the about energy so anyway he he got this all lighting he's capturing the lightning and in the the the accounts of it they have they actually have some pictures of it or they're recreated and the lightning filled this room and the lightning just came in and it was all there was creating lightning in this in this in this in this uh factory and um the the problem was he put the kill switch over away from the door so that his he had a um he had a a a helper that was there and he was looking at and the guy started to yell it out and he said yeah he goes shut it down shut it down and they couldn't get over to the kill switch so Tesla with his he is crawling on the ground on the floor of the uh of the uh warehouse and he's walking and he gets over there and um and his clothes are smoking and he gets out there and he throws the kill kill switch which was a bad design he should have put a close into the door the the door and he drags his bot his buddy out his helper and when his buddy starts beating him up his buddy starts what are you doing you're trying to kill me you to you just try to kill both of us and why and why with the guy he's beating up Tesla he says wait wait a minute wait a minute and he said um what a minute he said uh he what he goes go in go inside go inside and and and get the light bulbs he had these huge light bulbs they had brought out with him from um from New York and he brought out these light bulbs and he walked over and he literally planted them in the ground and they lit up and he knew he had finally harnessed the power of the earth and the nature I mean how cool that is super cool.

SPEAKER_01 28:51

Yeah you know I get emotional when I talk about it I get emotional when I talk I love it explain to someone what a rock opera is that has never seen one before how would you how would you describe the energy of that show?

SPEAKER_02 29:04

Okay

What A Rock Opera Feels Like

SPEAKER_02 29:05

that's yeah yeah yeah rock up is a little bit different it's a it's a lot different than the musical where there is not actors and storylines talking to each other where they where they talk to each other and um they talk to each other and then they go into a song and then they go in there. So it I guess the best way to describe it is and actually I'm kind of using it as a model I don't mind saying um the uh if they if they pull up um stop making sense for the talking heads or probably oh they have it on on YouTube and also they have um what do you call it uh the original rock cover they got Tom uh on the original rock cover and basically they just they just went from song to song to song and then the Tommy one was kind of cool where they had they had like major artists come out and sing like like Elton John came out saying Roger Daltray you played Tommy yeah exactly right so it's gonna be it's gonna follow the line there's not gonna be a lot of talk there's not gonna be there's gonna be a lot of talk I positioned the songs to where they kind of tell the story um um as the as um as they go down and um and then one friend of mine said uh he goes those words those songs are incredible because you gotta put the words up on this on the on the screen and I said it's not a sing along we're not we're not this is not a sing along this is a rock opera we are gonna we get so it's gonna it's gonna be fun so they're gonna be a beginning and a middle and an end to each one of the songs hopefully my vision and hopefully the way I wrote the songs will actually kind of tell the story as as as we um you know as as we go along. Well we can't wait to see it it's gonna be June 20th at the Del Mar 7 30 and if you look at the bottom Tesla lighted up dot com the score you can go there you can also get tickets from there correct yeah absolutely I go to now also a big hint you know how these these tickets to these um you know venues now are so kind of crazy if I tell you audience if they go by the box off um at Del Mar on Tuesdays and Fridays they're open all day and also they're open two hours before every show at on the at the pageant and if you buy that you save all those service fees so you can save if you go by there because some of those you gotta admit that some of those service fees are kind of getting a little you know uh uh you know a little outrageous so but anyway like when they call them convenience fees it's like who convenience who you or me so any so I mean if if if you can work that out and go buy and buy in person you uh on on the R the tickets are only forty dollars I mean I you're not gonna believe what you're gonna um what you're gonna get for 40 uh uh that's the eighth section i mean the front section the middle section's um 35 and the other and the and the back section is 31 or 30 so i mean there's we have prices of you know we have all all all price categories and um but go by the you save a little bit of money if you go

Tickets, Streaming Tracks, And Farewell

SPEAKER_02 31:45

there you you save a little bit of money if you if you go by uh Delmar Hall box office or before each one of the shows um at Del Mar at Delmar Hall oh well we can't wait I appreciate your time today mark and I appreciate your setup enthusiasm and your excitement about the show I can't wait to see it um I've listened to a few tracks on here and I'm uh you I think you said your daughter likes the the uh I am the original wizard of oz I am the original wizard of oz and and you that one struck with me too and the cowboy cosmic uh cowboy colorado cosmic cowboy I love that one too sorry sorry I had a little bit of a sinus infection they're all on you can stream them all on our website you can stream them all on yeah you can go there and stream them and I want to get I want to get them from familiar with the songs before they go there to hear those live is going to be and it's gonna be not only a thrill for them for the audience it's gonna be a thrill for me oh yeah the recordings are incredible I mean just absolutely beautiful um very nicely done so I can't wait to see it thank you again mark rogers uh I appreciate you thank you so much for being on the show today Tesla light it up you're coming now aren't you are you gonna come absolutely you gotta be there come on by you know what's gonna happen there Del Moore Hall on the 20th we are gonna light it up Mark thank you buddy appreciate you and uh uh um just can't thank you enough for being on the show today this is very this is so exciting I haven't seen anything like this and just I mean you're a little bit like Tesla yourself you know you put something that somebody hasn't thought about before and and created it and it's it's a beautiful invention I want to say something to the audience I've been over on 50 to 100 zoom calls and all across the world this is the greatest one I've ever been on you to be complimented you have the you have this down you have this down like ringing a bell buddy you this is absolutely this is probably the top zoom call for our show and for for either one of our shows we've done everything and you are truly to be complimented well thank you so much mark I appreciate that very much can't wait to see you buddy on June 20th and uh look forward to it thank you again I appreciate it absolute blast thank you so much thanks