TTR – This Towne Rocks Goes Italian! 🇮🇹🎸

Curt, Freddie, and Mike take a look at some amazing photos Freddie just snapped during a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Italy. Then the guys rewind 20 years and revisit the moment Lynyrd Skynyrd was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, honoring one of the greatest rock bands of all time.

Join the TTR crew for a brand-new episode of This Towne Rocks!

 Streams Friday at 12 PM and 9 PM  Encore Sunday at 7 PM

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Take two. Hey, you're listening to This Town Rocks. At least that's the plan. But I'm warning you ahead of time. Oops. Almost anything can occur here today because everybody's in a good mood. My name is Mike Sellon. We've with us today, of course, as always, the man the myth, the legend, space acing so that's right. And of course, uh, fresh back from the trip of a lifetime to Italy, of all places. Bajiorno. Look at there.

SPEAKER_03 0:38

Fredo!

SPEAKER_01 0:40

I know ten billion words around there. Well, that was one. That was one. Got nine left. Maybe you can intersperse them and go through the day today. Inquiring minds want to know. Well, this is the tease portion of the show where we uh throw out little tidbits of maybe what we may talk about. And uh, by the way, I want to thank all the folks that tuned in last uh week. You know, we did the uh favorite cereals and favorite cartoon shows. People really love that stuff. Maybe not the cereal, but they love the show. Oh, that's great! That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Hopefully, the warning of not eating Captain Crunch and slicing your mouth up. Captain Crunch is cool. Momental warning.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

I think they're gonna put a little uh warning sticker on the box, like with cigarettes, you know. Maybe hazardous. Uh Crunch Berry. Well, we got a great show lined up for you uh today, as a matter of fact. And Kurt Town, of course, is here. His group will be uh leading it off uh along with uh two other local groups, uh Duval County Line and Big Engine at the affair opening night, April 2nd. I believe around 7 o'clock the show starts, right? And 7 p.m. We're just trying to make sure people know about it and can get there. Get there.

SPEAKER_03 1:48

Absolutely, get there early. Yeah, definitely get there early. But yeah, it's gonna be awesome. So, you know, the main thing is support local anything, but support local music. It's not about our bands, it's not about the Kirktown band. It really is paying forward because we are blessed to have the opportunity to headline the Clay County Fair, which is a huge honor, right? However, if we do well, then it'll open the doors for other bands. And and that's really the truth of the matter. So, you know, our goal is to keep paying forward. So uh if it weren't for all those who, you know, set the stage before us, then you know, we wouldn't have the opportunities that we have. And so if we don't do the same, then other bands won't have the opportunity. So if you love music, if you love local music and and local art and you know our beautiful Clay County Fair, agricultural fair, then you know, you need to come and support it, and no better time to support it than the opening Clay Day and and come watch the you know the Kirktown band and Big Engine and Duval County Line. And uh and get your tickets online. You know, so come get it early and come out there and and uh support local music. Invest in your community.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

Invest in your community. I love it. I love it. Freddie put the marketing cap on. Yeah, Freddie's good. Yeah, he is good. He had that week off and he's ready to go. It'll pay me the big bucks for nothing. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 3:18

So you can get your tickets at the Clay County Fair. But what is the what is the email? I mean, what's the address? Clay County Fair.org.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Dot org, Clay County Fair.org. O-R-G. Yep, you can buy your tickets right off the uh website and uh don't stop there. I mean, they've got a great uh lineup of uh artists coming the rest of the week as well. That is true, but we're concentrating on the Kurt Town band with the big engine volcanic land because they're local and we're we're trying to really uh support local, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:49

It's a great fair, though.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

I mean, my wife and I we're investing in our community. Amen. It's a great agriculture fair.

SPEAKER_03 3:56

Community live music. That's what I'm saying. So everybody, please come.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

We can't wait to see you. Very good. And of course, uh, Freddie Oka went on a trip of a lifetime to uh the uh country of Italy. We're glad you're back. You had a fantastic time. Give us just a little snippet because we'll talk more about it coming up after the break.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

I can just tell you the the way that town, it's Rome we were at, that town moves quick. And if you're not on your toes, you get run over. Well, uh, you know, not that, it's just fast paced. It's fast, it's like almost New York-ish, where everybody's just walking fast and they have like these head down, they just everybody's trying to catch it where they're going. Yeah, it's it's it's wild. And for all that history in one spot is unbelievable. It's I you know, all the pictures and videos you see and stuff does no justice to when you're actually there. It just doesn't. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

All right, well, Freddie's gonna talk more about that. Be like the old days. We've got the uh 35mm slide projector set up, and he's gonna go from one picture to the next. Oh, it's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

I was taking pictures with a 110 camera.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

Oh, right. Woo-hoo! Before that, though, we've got a dad's joke. Yes. Oh, yes, Freddie's the king of the dad jokes. Did you tell any to the Pope while you were there? Hey, uh Pope, uh I got a couple of dad jokes for you.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

You gotta be careful telling Jones the Pope because back in the day he would uh he would do some bad stuff to people.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Well, before it used to be, you know, it was another language. Now he understands English. It's like, yeah, you can't talk about him anymore. He understands exactly what you're saying.

SPEAKER_00 5:24

All right, so dad joke, it was uh let's see. I was gonna tell a joke about layoffs, but sadly none of them work.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Sort of a business dad joke to me. Before the next uh you know meeting in the conference room. Hey, hey boys, you want to hear this one about the layoffs?

SPEAKER_00 5:46

I can tell another one if you're gonna do it.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Is that one okay? I don't want to be cute. That was good. I think you need to hope it angles upward on this uh trajectory.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

What do you call a dog who meditates?

SPEAKER_01 5:59

I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

A werewolf.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

Come on, give us another one.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Last one. Last one. I went to a silent auction, and I won a dog whistle and two mimes. And they went downhill.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

Um first one set the tone. And uh there's uh also there was an interesting conversation that that the three of us got involved with somehow. We'll we'll talk a little bit about that. You gotta stick around for that because that it was really funny. And uh it wasn't on the the calendar of events, but uh it sort of happened. So uh we we've got more for you coming up. This town rocks. It continues. Got a whole hour here on uh clay radio and got some uh good music coming up, so stay with us. Uh more coming up after this. And we are back, and this is This Town Rocks, a program that you can uh tune into every Friday at not only noon but nine p.m. and then again on Sunday evenings at 7 p.m. And hopefully uh you'll uh turn some people on to uh listening because we've got lots of good things uh to talk about uh coming up. Uh we'll talk a little bit about uh Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. So that's good. Uh we'll uh talk a little bit about uh music of the day today, and uh that was one of the things that we were gonna talk about. And then um, you know, if we're lucky, maybe uh we might talk wedding dresses again. What's interesting is uh so I'm already crying. Yeah. So so Kurt and Freddie and I, we usually talk a little bit about uh you know lining up things for the show. And somehow it occurs to me as we're discussing this we're just gonna venues for weddings and uh wedding dresses. And I was like, I was lost. I got a I got a guy with a t-shirt with a skull and crossbones, got space stace over here, and we're talking wedding gowns. What happened?

SPEAKER_00 7:54

I think behind that is we're discussing the financial burden of it. That's how it started. Yeah, but it was it's a financial opportunity for others.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

It definitely grew legs. It definitely grew legs. You guys should have gone to the uh bridal expo here instead of just gonna pay for that.

SPEAKER_03 8:16

Go pay to get tortured. It actually, actually, it was uh You went up. My wife went. My my daughter and and uh yeah, they went. So no.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

Oh Lord. And we should we should tell everybody that there are siblings and and uh children involved here that are getting married, and and so that's how we sort of evolved. But it would just seem funny that uh I was envisioning myself, how'd the show go today, dear? My wife will ask me and I'll say, Pretty good. You know, Freddie's got a gown coming from here, and Kurt's looking at this for a venue. Freddie's taking up knitting.

SPEAKER_00 8:51

Oh man.

SPEAKER_03 8:52

Thinking about crochet.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

Well, you know, you got strong fingers from playing the guitar, so you'll be able to have some pretty well. Yeah.

unknown 9:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Uh anyway, uh Freddie uh has come back from uh Italy just recently, and so we've uh set up the 35mm uh projector, and he's gonna be uh at at his uh most uh accurate uh you know as he watches the different slides, and then we'll be able to put them up. But we will put some of the uh pictures up on the uh Facebook page. So awesome. So yeah, some of them are uh genius, pretty pretty decent uh photos and uh some of them are very funny. And uh so Freddie, so uh take us through the trip, if you would. Um you got about a minute and a half.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Okay. No, you don't. No, you were talking about my shirt. This is actually from the catacombs of Capuchin where the friars are at. Nice. The logo that the Pirates of the Caribbean stole is actually originally from the Capuchines. So it's actually supposed to be a cross symbolizing God, and they turned it into the cross where it's like an X with a skull on it. So they were definitely mentioning that they still the Pirates of the Caribbean and was pirated? Was pirated. That's where that that logo came from.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

So I didn't know that. I didn't know that either.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

Never heard that story before.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

Um so the difference is in Italy, it's wild. Uh they have these places where you cross the road, it's got these lines on it, like kind of like the Beatles Abbey Road. Well, uh you have the right of way. So these cars are going 40, 55 miles an hour, and they're just as soon as you step your foot off the sidewalk onto the street, they stop. So it's kind of scary because you're not used to that. You're like, Oh, you can get your ass hit, you know, you can get run over. Yeah, you're like a lot of faith in the person that's driving the car, right? Yes. And so Jennifer's real, you know, she's real cautious. I'm like, ah, they say this is the rules, these are the rules, let's go. So I had to drag her behind me almost everywhere. And sometimes I look back and she wasn't with me. Hey, you gotta stay with me. Let's go, let's go. So we were on the on the metro, and they show a video of this guy and the daughter crossing the road and a car zooms by, and they're just letting this guy have it. And he gets pulled over by the police there for not stopping at the crossroads. So they're dead serious. I get apparently if you hit somebody there, you're going to jail for a long time. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

Yeah. It's we could use a little bit of that. Yeah. That's for sure. That uh pedestrians should get a little bit more right-away. I've seen people run, you know, warnings.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

I seen the run the bus, the bus uh when they have bus stops, they used to run those things.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

I know.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Um, so anyway, that was that was an eye-opener, and then all the cars are like maybe five feet long. They're all fiats and smart cars. And I'm like, what if you've got like a family of five or six?

SPEAKER_03 11:33

Well, they can only fit liters of gas in their car. Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

That was that was a that was another strange thing, too. No one was ever at the gas station because they never had to fill up, they just like last forever.

SPEAKER_03 11:45

You can only get liters.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

Well, first of all, yeah, all the cars are little, so they last a long time in terms of miles per gallon. But I that's so funny. There's nobody at the gas station.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

Yeah, well, and the other thing is like, so all these cars are parked along the road. Well, some of the cars were so small they parked in between the cars going parallel. They crossed, they parked in between the car, and it was fine. I was like, this is the wildest thing I've ever seen. Like, you definitely get a ticket in in uh in the States for that.

SPEAKER_03 12:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

But um the the wildest thing I saw is the metro, is it connects all throughout Rome. And when we were going to the Coliseum, the metro, you're in this you know, subway area, and it's very technical and all this stuff. You you get out, as soon as you get out, you see the Coliseum. It's like it's right there, and I'm like, you see it on the movies, see it on TV, and all these national these national TV shows and stuff, and it's like it's unbelievable. It holds 55,000 people.

SPEAKER_03 12:39

And you know what's so crazy is uh I believe Brent Smedley has played there. I believe he's played there. No kidding. Yeah, I believe so, yeah. Yeah, yeah, he's played all all throughout Europe, and I believe if I remember see if I remember correctly, I remember seeing a picture with him playing in Athens for certain. But I think he played there. I think he did. We'll have to ask him. Okay, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:04

Yeah, I have to ask him if he did the thumbs up or thumbs down for the whoever he was playing for.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

Well, you know, I don't until you go over there and you you do all the walking and stuff like all the food. They don't they don't even have like I drink Diet Coke, so they don't have Diet Coke over there. They they've banned that drink over there because of the acetone. Yeah. They have Coke Zero, but they don't have Diet Coke, they don't have all the the I guess the Skittles and all the red dye five. They don't have any of that stuff. Neither does the rest of the world. No, and so you're you're walking everywhere you go, you you come, you you walk, and you you can eat as much as you want, and it's all the ingredients there are more healthier. You mean Jennifer came back like almost 25 pounds lighter for between the both of us. That's amazing. We ate as much as we want, but we walk, you know, seven, eight miles a day on cobblestones, up and down hills and stuff, and it's it's awesome to the payoff on all these historical sites. You just don't you just can't imagine it being all in one spot. It's just like I don't know, it's unreal the spectacle that you go through and see a lot of biblical stuff too. I mean the Vatican's there, Sistine Chapel. So um I don't know if I talked about it before, but I had my list of checklist of what to pack and stuff, and down the list was like it had T M N T. So she was asking me what this was, and I was like, I'm like, I'm grinning, I'm grinning. She's like looking at me, she's what are you bringing? I'm like, I'm bringing uh the teenage mutant digital, Raphael, Don, Donatello, and she goes, What do you mean? I'm like, she goes, You're bringing your grandson's toys to Rome? I'm like, Yes.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

It's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

We went to the uh the Michelangelo Museum, and there is the artwork there, and I just stuck them and did a selfie with them. And I'm sorry, Leonardo, Leonardo. We did Leonardo first. Awesome. I got Leonardo, and uh, so I posted that picture. Then we were at the um um pantheon, and that's where Raphael was buried at. So they put his tomb in there, so I got a picture of Raphael with the tomb. And Jennifer's like, hurry up, hurry up, because this is in the Pantheon. So it's very, it's not, it's it's not a church, but they've turned it in sort of like a holistic church kind of thing. So there's these British people behind us, and he goes, Oh, I look at Mate, he's got the toy, a Ninja Turtle taking the picture, and he's like, and his wife's like looking at rolling his eyes, and my wife's like, she just kind of walks away. Hurry up, snap this picture. So it's it was it was fun. And then uh the last picture I took with I think I we didn't get to go to see my the Sistine Chapel was booked up, and uh, or the uh Donatello. So I had Barbara Maximus. I have a pop figure of Maximus and from the Gladiator movie. I got to take a picture with Gladiator in front of the Coliseum, it's so cool. And then I got the course of speech, he's like a murder to a father, uh, you know, uh murder to a son, or uh I don't know how however the speech goes. That's how it was. I got the background music, it's just epic, and then I was able to put up stickers and take pictures of Anarchy Vinyl in the background, and uh there's plenty of stories. Uh I I will say the the most craziest story. Do we have time? Yeah, real quick. Okay, so um this is in Piazza Novona, Rome 34. Um there was an innkeeper, and uh he was I guess he was the the mouth of the south, kind of he talked all the time and never could keep anything to himself. So the Pope had raised the rates for all the merchants, so all the taxes went up, and so he's just you know going on about it. He's pissed because the resident, I mean, people aren't coming in and spending money. But the Pope, his name was uh Sixtus V, Pope Sixtus V. So he would walk around in civilian clothes and just go out and just see the vibe of the uh of the town and try to try to get all the info he could that you know if he's doing a good job, bad job, or whatever. Well, he actually sits down at this innkeeper and uh is getting wine. The innkeeper is there just letting him have a say, look, the Pope is terrible, he's the worst boy we've had, he's raised rates, I'm losing money, no no people are coming in. And the Pope just sat there drank, and he didn't know it was the Pope. Um so calmly leaves, and a couple days later, in front this is in the marketplace now where the innkeeper's at, they are setting up a gallows um in front of the innkeeper's uh place. And the innkeeper comes out and he's like, Yeah, we're gonna have a hanger, it's gonna bring in people, da da da da da. I'm not a heading, I'm I'm sorry, not a hanging, a beheading. So he's all excited because he thinks it's gonna bring in a crowd. Well, it was for him. For bad mouthing bad mouthing the pope. Something he didn't expect, right? The crazy part is he they call it a death mask. So after they beheaded him, they took a plaster or however they do it, they took a image of his cast of his face. A cast of his face. They hang it across the the top of his his uh building, and it's still there. Wow. It's still there. We got a picture of it, it's awesome. Oh wow. So that's a little freaky. What are we so if you're in the marketplace and people know that story, that is a quick reminder of hey, you talk crap about the Pope, watch your team. You might end up on the building though with your face.

SPEAKER_03 18:23

That's a good thing to just keep yourself in check, period.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

Yes. Mind your P's and Q's.

SPEAKER_03 18:29

Always, always before you speak, imagine your mom being right behind you. Or your pastor. Or your pastor.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

As so often happens with Kirk.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

Yes. Well, it those you always that that that mask, it's called the Death Mask. It's sitting on the building that's been there for centuries.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

Wow. Centuries! That's amazing. Crazy stuff.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

I got chill bubs.

SPEAKER_03 18:49

Hello.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Giving me the Phoebe jeebs.

SPEAKER_03 18:52

There you go, Freddie. All right, good. Off with his head and onto the wall. Good stuff.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

And of course, Freddie's uh gonna be kind enough. He's gonna lend us some of those uh pictures. We'll put up on the Facebook page at some point soon. So uh keep it keep your eyes out for that. And uh in the meantime, we've got to take a timeout. We come back, we'll uh talk a little bit more Italy. We'll also talk uh Rock and Roll Hall of Fame back in uh 2006. Big day for Leonard Skinner. That's right. And we'll tell you why coming up uh next as uh TTR continues here on Clay Radio.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

Grazie.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

And this town rocks uh continues, and for those of you just uh joining us, that is our theme song, which reminds us that we almost met Pam Greer. Almost almost almost very, very close.

SPEAKER_03 19:39

So close to being just that close that we were. She only hadn't ignored us.

SPEAKER_01 19:45

Yeah. Of course, it's easy to ignore us.

SPEAKER_03 19:50

Oh, come on, man. They'll pay for it later on. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 19:53

When we put a mask up on your store.

SPEAKER_03 19:55

Oh watch out.

SPEAKER_00 19:57

I mean, I'm used to getting ignored. Jennifer ignores me all the time.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

Hey, uh, great to have you with us. Uh TTR, it is uh show number nine for this year in our second year of uh recording and then playing back shows all year round. And uh, of course, we love to have you here. Kurttown is here from the Kirktown band and the guitar station. That's right, in the mighty metropolis of Green Coast Springs, Florida. And then sitting next to him is uh Freddie Oka, fresh off a trip to Italy, where he found out all kinds of uh interesting facts and uh stories that uh you don't get on the regular uh tour guide uh situation.

SPEAKER_00 20:34

History nerd, so I I love all that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

Good deal. And Freddie, how does somebody get a hold of you if they want to do uh some uh vinyl records?

SPEAKER_00 20:40

Uh Bearded Vinyl. We're on all the uh social platforms, so just hit us up. You can always or go to Facebook and say bearded vinyl or Freddie Okaza on there as well. So yeah, we're uh we're looking forward to record story on the 21st of April. 21st or the 18th? Whatever that Saturday is. If I said it on the 18th.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

18th is a Saturday.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

Okay, it's 18th then. Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

Very good. All right. And uh of course, uh he just came back from Italy. If you're just joining us, uh we'll have some of those pictures up on our Facebook page uh coming up, so you want to look for that. You also want to look at uh for the teenage and mutant ninja turtles making a trip to uh to Italy as well. That's right. Now, did you just stay in the city or did you get a chance to go out to the countryside?

SPEAKER_00 21:17

We stayed in the city. There was so much stuff to do and so much walking, and and just we wanted to it's one of those countries, well one of those areas you if you look down to watch where you're walking, you're gonna miss everything because everything's high, tall. So it's all cobblestone roads, it's all like watch your footing, and then every turn right or turn left is something historic. Uh uh, I was told we went to the Trevi Fountain, which is the famous fountain. Um I I th I'll post some pictures, but they uh it got so crowded they almost had a they started setting up where they charge two dollars to get in front of and take pictures. Well, and then you make a wish. And I think the first wish is uh to meet a Roman it was for women, so they to meet a Roman uh soldier. to get married to them or the second one is we're glad that didn't work out for you. Yeah yeah anyway the the point of it was uh they we were told they they accumulate three thousand dollars a day in change out of the fountain really wow and then plus whatever the two dollars is how much did they accumulate through that but unreal and then people used to live behind the fountain in these little uh buildings behind it too so uh Spanish stairs the the the Leonardo Museum the Vatican the St. Peter's it's uh I just anyway we're gonna go back so just put it that way and then there's no there's no restaurant there that is bad food there's hardly any fast food restaurants around there like you don't see there's a McDonald's like every other ten miles or whatever and uh but you just don't see fast food there's no fast food there hardly at all unless you go to the airport or I think the mall but anywhere around it's all Italian food and it's fantastic. I gotta ask you I gotta ask how's the pizza it's it's unbelievable. It's unbelievable you watch them make it in front of you and then you watch them how they process the bread and stuff and uh the paninis are real I mean really good. The carbonero the carbonero was the best thing I've ever had there and I had it twice. And then we were at this area where they call it a little more CD because it's just down by the subways but we had this one restaurant little restaurant and it was lasagna it was like twelve dollars. Twelve dollars for lasagna. You go to Olive Garden it's twenty dollars for lasagna hair and it's not even that good. I'm like this lasagna hair blows it out of the water and there's it's not very expensive to eat there if you find the right spots and I don't know man I recommend uh everybody go in at least one time just to go see all the history there it's uh there's no place like it there's no place like it's amazing. Well truly and I are gonna have to tag along it'll be great. Absolutely man and oh the other thing is if you go during the summertime uh I would bring an extra fan or something to plug up because they don't have AC in the in the buildings it doesn't seem like to me they are off season if you go you have to keep the windows open which is fine because it was like 65 degrees the whole time it's perfect but I asked him to say is AC working we don't run the ACs in the off season I'm like oh boy and then another weird one I don't know if anybody collects exotic birds or buys has birds as as pets but like they have um the ringers and the these quackers they're uh Quakers Quaker birds and the ringneck birds they're all like real expensive birds over here you'd like to pay thousands off for these birds there are thousands of them everywhere there I guess they're invasive in Rome just in Rome too just these like macaws and just flying around the backyard in our in the garden we had by our hotel you can just see by they're just chilling out and stuff. Sounds just wild just wild like birds that you pay for in the US hundreds and thousands of dollars and they're just like almost like iguanas down like you would see in the US like like hamsters and gerbils here.

SPEAKER_01 24:53

Yeah you go to Africa like they're just running free and you come here and then it says$64 for uh the thing and then 20 bucks for the cage and the the metro's interesting too they always tell you you know the pickpocketing thing is that's a kind of a rumor thing.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

I guess you got to kind of be careful on the metro a little bit. We were trying to load in and we saw uh these three young girls they were getting pushed off the metro by this guy and I was like why are they pushing those girls? And they come to find out it's usually the young females that are pickpocketing people around room.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

Yep and they un unsuspecting uh tourists yeah they're pretty young girls and the next thing you know there's there goes your wallet. Don't leave home without it. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 25:34

So I was surprised when I heard it was all like young females doing it not the like dudes doing it. Like crazy they look for like the vulnerable people that aren't keeping up with their stuff and and aren't paying attention too much and they're probably less threatening than if a guy got close to the big guy just pushed one of the girls out and say oh I said what's going on here than the guy was telling us they were trying to pickpocket people in the in the subway.

SPEAKER_01 25:55

Yeah because years ago we had a neighbor who went to Rome they actually went into the countryside and they they liked the countryside a lot better. It was a lot less fast paced but they said when you went to Rome that was the thing that they were warned about was the pickpocket. So I guess maybe it's a like an urban legend kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

It's not as bad. Sounds like New York. It's not as bad as everybody thinks it is you just got to be just be cautious when you're in tight corners with somebody you know just you gotta be cautious anywhere. Yeah that's true. That's true. It's like when you go to visit Kurt type quarters down there big metropolis there. They they say in UK they just take cell phones. They just take rob people's cell phones and go there and turn them in and get money for them. So that's I'm sure it's everywhere but yeah it's a big city. Yeah it's good and weather was good the whole time and it's one of those where you wear pants and then you wear a t-shirt because if you wore anything else walking around even if it's 65 68 you're walking around you're gonna be sweating it's it's uh 65 is perfect weather though.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

That's great. You had to be able to walk that much oh my gosh lovely lovely good stuff yeah all right well we're glad you're back and uh we're uh entertained uh today by uh Freddie Oka and his uh trip to Italy and Rome specifically in uh in Italy and uh told us a little bit about uh how he uh brought his toys with him and uh you'll see those pictures uh coming up on our Facebook page action figures not the world famous action figures now they are yeah they certainly are and uh this is uh this town rocks and you can hear the show every uh Friday it is uh noon and nine p.m. and then again on Sundays when it's on Encore at seven and of course uh we uh you know like to roll out all kinds of different topics uh if you missed last week's show it's already been up on the uh podcast you know for uh favorite cereals and uh it's quite popular people want to know inquiring minds want to know if it's fruity pebbles or cocoa buses all of the cereal brands are downloading it as we speak poster kellogs poster kellogs they're fighting over it right now they're like it's us it's General Mills well uh that's uh the story of uh Italy at this point but I'm sure we'll be coming back to it as uh as we go along today and in future shows but uh one of the things that we did want to talk about and this has uh uh you know impact uh Kurt uh dramatically and I'd like to get his reaction to it because in 2006 the uh Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced a number of folks uh were going to be inducted and and one of the inductees happened to be one Leonard Skinnard. Yay I never heard of them and uh there were some others too that were uh let's see if I get the list out here we had um Black Sabbath never gonna make it blondie also there and Miles Davis the Sex Pistols of course the Sex Pistols said they weren't coming even though they were going to be inducted they said and quote we're not your monkeys we're not coming immediately reminded me of Freddie's monkey dance but that's something of course you'd have to expect that from them right they still get the honor they still get inducted but they just didn't make the the big show they're a they're a punk rock band so of course that's very punkish to not go.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

Exactly gotta do it.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

Anarchy man yeah that's right yeah so uh that is uh good stuff uh he said some other things which well it's maybe in poor taste we won't repeat those yeah that's not but the monkey line was safe so I had to go with that and had good uh reference back to something that Freddie uh said on this show so but yeah uh tell us uh uh just a quick thought when you heard and where were you when when you did hear well I I don't remember exactly where I was but I remember that people were petitioning all over Jacksonville for several years actually and I signed several of those petitions uh for Leonard Skinner to be inducted.

SPEAKER_03 29:43

Matter of fact there was a a radio station called Rock 105 that spearheaded that campaign and uh a very grassroots campaign uh country stars, rock stars uh just literally just about anybody you could think of were were you know asking for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to induct Leonard Skinnard. And uh and and so they they finally subcumbed to the will of the people and and they uh and they inducted them into the Hall of Fame. So very very proud very proud for my my buddies.

SPEAKER_00 30:21

I don't understand why is there like a guideline there's like you have to wait ten years, 20 years or I don't understand that that's a long time.

SPEAKER_03 30:28

Well it's it's uh I believe twenty five years I think it is and then there's other things you have to impact pop culture and you have to impact all that but then let's think about this for a second. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame their guidelines were impacting pop culture you know uh significant influence these type of things KISS wasn't you know they weren't going to be into the rock and roll hall of fame for years and I mean they crushed pop culture and impact huge amounts of people so it's really it really came down to uh an ideology really and uh and so you know uh they probably thought they were just a bunch of country bumpkins or something and and they just kind of was like eh but the people on the other hand the grassroots for years it was kind of a you know like a wave of we want Leonard Skinnard in there. And that's really cool because nothing against the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but when you when you think about it it's because of the people that they got inducted. And that was before the people were allowed to even vote. So so that's a really incredible that says a lot about the fans of Leonard Skinnard Yeah no question about it.

SPEAKER_01 31:41

And doing a song of the day we didn't do in the first segment so we'll catch up now but uh your song is Things Goin On. I'll tell you about it.

SPEAKER_03 31:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:49

All right good all right so uh listen that uh we'll come up in the break uh you'll be able to hear that and then we'll get Freddie's uh song of the day coming up and uh we'll be talking more about the the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Leonard Skinnard and uh you know the impact and uh certainly uh a number of other things uh all as always uh we don't know what will come up uh in the next uh segment but just stay with us and uh we promise that we will be back uh that's what we will uh Mike Seller for uh uh the the uh boys here we got Kurt Town and Freddie Oka and uh and you and uh we we are glad that you're here all right let's take a break back with more on Clay Radio after this and Kurttown Freddie Oka Mike Sella and this town rocks that's right that's the name of the program you can hear it on Fridays at noon and nine and then again on Sundays at 7 p.m we had big uh turnout for uh folks uh listening uh over the course of the uh weekend and that that's great that's what we want so help some friends and uh join the crowd by the way uh go to our Facebook page which is under uh clay radio online at uh Facebook we've got uh uh contest going on where we're giving away some tickets for VIP slots at the uh concert for April second April second for the fair I was gonna say for the fair and that through my town rocks for the Kurttown band yeah Kurttown band uh Duval County line and of course the big engine all going to be there and uh Kurt's group is gonna be uh headlining and it's gonna be great. We've got tickets available still in the uh VIP section and in the uh what would you call that next? The floor the floor for seating and then of course uh you need a ticket if you want to get in and uh go general admission which uh puts you in the arena but you're sort of far away you want to really be close to get that uh full effect of the music right when I throw a pick at you it'll actually hit you.

SPEAKER_00 33:28

There you go. All right well I was gonna say I was gonna uh for Big Engine I saw uh a post because the RV place is by my house uh where they play at where Big Engine plays at and they changed the the ownership and stuff and so Tony made a post and there's another post out there that's strictly that's for like Bear County page whatever they are furious with Island Oaks RV. They are pissed off that Big Engine's not coming. Yeah there was so many posts there like you know how you click it and you read comments if you click comments you could go on for 300 comments. Well you know what so many comments they're mad at the argument they're pissed off.

SPEAKER_03 34:08

Well you know what the good news is is they can all come to the Clay County. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 34:15

So always thinking I posted that you should do that I posted that on the Bigger County news page on Big Thank you buddy.

SPEAKER_01 34:22

Hell yeah all right now this is in honor of Freddie it's uh March 13th and this was uh one of the big music stories of the day a group called Freddy and the dreamers with the song I'm telling you now enters Billboard's hot 100 it'll stay for 11 weeks eventually climbing to number one for two weeks in April biggest hit of the band's did you know there's a song called Do the Freddy?

SPEAKER_03 34:45

Yeah do the Freddie arm goes up opposite side goes up I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm on board with that very good you kids so you didn't maybe know about Freddie and the dreamers but you certainly know Leonard Skinnard and uh Kurt of course Freddie uh also uh very well versed on on them and and Kurt you you know you grew up with those guys you open uh shows for them uh it had to be a great honor they must have been extremely proud of of their accomplishment there absolutely and and it's um I'm I'm extremely proud of the of the guys you know they they uh you know they got together and they it created amazing music and they still continue to create amazing music and and it's so great to see them and when when they come out and you'll hear you know rock and roll hall of famers Leonard Skinnard you know it's yeah I will say it you know it it always makes me smile it always makes me smile and what's so awesome is that it was very grassroots just like the band and so the you know the fans insisted that Leonard Skinnard be included and I it's just a beautiful thing and and it and it couldn't happen to a better band.

SPEAKER_01 36:03

Yeah terrific oversight on that on the part of the Hall of Fame not putting them in even earlier I don't know what the qualifications would be but I mean just look at the uh impact on art society but also just just you know pop culture I mean sure they they used the uh uh one of their songs for the uh Soccer Bowl this year right the hockey USA Bowl with the Budweiser and I mean it's just amazing.

SPEAKER_03 36:24

Yeah Freddie you were talking about yeah so you know like everybody's oh it's Southern Rock band well while we were in Rome we're on the elevator the background instrumental music there it's simple man they're Donna and I said Jennifer you hear that I said how crazy is that we're hearing Leonardskin or elevator in Rome Italy right well you know so people will say southern rock and that's cool but they didn't they weren't able to label it that's why it was called Southern Rock because you literally you take gospel you take you take uh you know blues and you take country obviously bluegrass right uh even R and B there's a lot of shuffle in that too and and you take all in rock and roll of course right so it you take all these elements and they they literally they they're like we don't know what to call this so it's from the South so we'll call it southern rock because it was different because you you know in in one song or in one band let's say an album you know you you would be very influenced by all those things and that's what's so cool about it is that they didn't go well I don't know man we're just a rock and roll band and we're not gonna we're not gonna play this blueslick or we're not gonna you know tinge on this gospel thing or you know we're we're we're just not gonna you know it's too country they didn't do that they said no we're gonna let our influences show we're gonna write a great song and that's what they did. So that's cool. Two types of music man that's right good and bad.

SPEAKER_00 37:48

Good and bad.

SPEAKER_03 37:49

That's right. And we're we're talking about uh Leonard Skinner being inducted into the Hall of Fame that occurred in uh 2006 uh some of their hall colleagues that uh were inducted at the same time was uh Black Sabbath Blondie Miles Davis and of course the uh Sex Pistols with the reference of uh we're we're not monkeys we're not coming to uh your show so that's sort of interesting but uh let's talk a little bit not that I want to downplay Leonard Skinnard but let's mention quickly maybe uh you get a comment on uh some of the other actors well sure well I got to tell you this real quick before we move on so we were playing in Indiana with Leonard Skinnard and literally uh like just a few miles down the road Black Sabbath with Ozzie Osborne was playing and Johnny was like oh my god man I don't know if anybody's gonna show up you know because Black Sabbath with Ozzie Osborne is right down the street and I said they're never gonna make it they're never gonna make it so anyway it sold out you know we we we played with Skinnard and it was sold out too and so it was amazing that not that far away you had a sold out you know arena with Black Sabbath I don't know who was playing with them and with with Ozzie Osbourne and Leonard Skinner would see TV and both shows were sold out that's amazing that's cool man that's how big Leonard Skinner is that's what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_00 39:07

Well I was going to say you know people not knowing who the band is or they are knowing the band is there was uh a guy walking around we were in five points and um this guy had a white shirt on and it was a silhouette of uh of Ronnie just the black black silhouette and then the hat. Right everybody knows who that is absolutely everybody knows who it is there's no there's no mistaking who it is like you know who it is. Absolutely that's how iconic they are yeah no question about it no question about it all right so um Freddie you you're you're picking uh a song of the day coming up from uh the group Blondie Blondie I'm a fan of Blondie not the way she sings but I love the way she sings I love all of it but uh the tide is high and she was like my first crush for the uh females back when I was a kid uh I saw her I was like who's this and then MTV really they introduced me to a lot of stuff yeah yeah so yeah tide is the Tide is high by uh Blondie.

SPEAKER_03 40:03

Yeah great she still sells to this day we sell her stuff all the time oh yeah well she's great man yeah what what was the story with uh she and the band they sort of dropped off the face of the planet uh well they were very popular and then they went away and then they came back was there a breakup uh in the in the in the band do you know uh well I know her and the guitarist you know were an item for years and years and then um you know but they stayed remained very close friends and uh so I don't know I know that the bass player they had a real big fallout with a bass player but I'm not sure I'm not sure but of course uh they they're one of uh uh the uh group and uh Black Sabbath either one want to take a little tidbit about Black Sabbath and I could I could tell you uh about Black Sabbath is uh let me see you know the uh when they fired Ozzy they assumed that you know that he was rich right that Ozzy would be fine. Uh only to find out that they put a U-Haul the record company gave him a U-Haul or the management John Arden which is uh Sharon Arden's dad which is now Sharon Osbourne sent him a U-Haul truck basically to go up there and get their clothes and uh because he didn't own anything and they they told him he said well you don't even own the clothes we're being kind and giving you that so that's how Black Sabbath found out that they too didn't have any money.

SPEAKER_01 41:22

Wow welcome to showbiz kids yeah that's uh I mean that's an age old story isn't it's the truth people are out uh making money and uh doing what they're supposed to be doing thinking that people are taking care of them in the background there not often does that not often you gotta be careful.

SPEAKER_00 41:37

I mean how many times do you hear crazy train before a sports sports game like a game like football at kickoff Florida plays crazy train right for the before the kickoff.

SPEAKER_03 41:46

So you got Tom Petty there you got Black Sabbath you got lunar skinned in the Olympics I mean you're you're talking they most definitely should have been in the Hall of Fame years back before they were inducted I mean it's just ridiculous some of the stuff they do now these days I don't I don't agree with these kids these days they did it you know what they should hire us three they should put us on staff they should we'll we'll pick out the bands we'll pick out the bands we'll pick out the bands there you go Freddy the dreamers Freddy and the dreamers got my vote do they're Freddie that's right and uh what about uh miles davis hey look uh genius genius I mean really but he's not somebody that you really think of uh when you say rock and roll though no I agree but you know you you you I mean no doubt his talent and and what he accomplished but yeah well you know that's a whole nother I was curious uh as to how somebody like that gets in it more just recognizing his uh uh his accomplishments right right look I mean look should run DMC be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame absolutely because they single handedly saved Aerosmith's career but other than that you know what I mean I mean it's just one of those you know if it wasn't for Run DMC we wouldn't be talking about Aerosmith so much but I'm glad they did you know run D M C was great but most most if they have a band if they're performing and you know and it's a band and it's influential on the on rock and roll then you have to decide what what is the definition of rock and roll or is it the just the spirit of rock and roll because the Sex Pistols you know they're fast rock and roll and they're screaming and you know but they're they're playing you know Chuck Berry on steroids so you know it's like what do you do?

SPEAKER_00 43:26

I mean maybe they should change it to music hall of fame because I I agree with music is supposed to if you're getting inducted you've touched some souls.

SPEAKER_03 43:33

I agree so so you know what's cool Dolly Parton said no please don't put me in the rock and roll hall of fame I'm not a rock and roll hall of fame and they said but you influence so many people you have to be in the rock and hall of fame we're gonna do it whether you like it or not. So she put out a rock and roll album so she could be legit.

SPEAKER_00 43:51

She and she had a star on her face on that's pretty cool one thing on Miles Davis so miles Davis you know was just classical jazz for a long time Time. I think he was one of the innovators that kind of combined fusion and a little bit of psych jazz together. Like Witches Brew. I it's it's called the B word, but I call it Witch's Brew. But that album, you can hear the difference, and he was one of the innovators of that that genre that picked up in jazz. So I can see why. I mean he's very influential in jazz, but he's probably the most popular name besides Coltrane and a couple other guys, but his his music changed from the 60s into the 70s. It was way different from it just two different genres of music. So I could see why you know he's in the hall of fame. I mean, there's no doubt he should be in there.

SPEAKER_01 44:33

So and speaking of that, uh Blondie's scheduled to uh drop an album some point uh this year. Oh I may go to that concert if she tours. Yeah, so it should be interesting to see what's evolved there. Get her in the studios, Mike. Let's go. Yeah, Mike, come on, man.

SPEAKER_03 44:47

What are you waiting on?

SPEAKER_01 44:48

We were that close to meeting Blondie. Just that close to meeting her.

SPEAKER_02 44:55

Thank you. Thank you, gentlemen.

SPEAKER_01 44:57

Good show today. Kurt Town, thank you. Freddie Oka, thank you. And thank you for bringing home movies in from uh Italy. Grazie, grazi. Yeah. And uh we will see you again next time uh here on Clay Radio. Remember, on Fridays it's noon and nine p.m. Sundays at 7 p.m. If you want to drop us a line, let us know, maybe some topics that you're interested in. It's uh clay radio online.com. And uh Chris Kurt, you got yours.

SPEAKER_03 45:19

Yeah, the Kurttown Band.com. If you would, you know, sign up on our email list email list so you uh can stay in touch with us. And Freddie, where do we get a hold of you again? Just uh just beard a bunch on Instagram.

SPEAKER_00 45:30

Yeah, or you can you can call my phone, I don't care. Just look for it's listed.

SPEAKER_01 45:34

Just look for the teenage mutant ninja turtles in Rome. Oh yeah, oh yeah. Soon to come to a theater near you. Yeah, save it for my next trip. All right, thanks so much for tuning in. We'll talk to you again next time right here on Clay Radio.