I'm in Austin, Texas.
SPEAKER_01Do you need to hold that thing?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Okay. I do hold that thing. How are you, man?
SPEAKER_01I'm good. I'm good.
SPEAKER_02I appreciate you doing this.
SPEAKER_01It's a pleasure.
SPEAKER_02You were just saying it's been a long time since you've been in Austin.
SPEAKER_01It's been ages. I was here for uh producing uh Don H Austin City Limits. He did a show here, I guess maybe probably 2005 or something.
SPEAKER_02You produced that episode.
SPEAKER_01Correct.
SPEAKER_02How does that work, if I can ask? What does that even mean?
SPEAKER_01Okay, that's a lot. I handled the music of that. I did not produce the the television show, excuse me. Were you the MD? No, the actual the MD, I believe, is uh I'm pretty sure was Will Hollis at the time or maybe Stuart Smith. But the all the recordings are Don and I would take those and make sure that they were exactly what he was looking for, and in sequence in the assembly, and if there were any musical errors, we would we could sort of you know we batted a little cleanup and just dialed it in, you know. Right. It's a pretty big ass because it was the first night of a tour. Like, and I the musicians get all all credit to those guys. They learned charts, they learned it was a very complex record. It was all over the map, and uh it was a lot of assembly to create a cohesive show out of the ether.
SPEAKER_02We're at the hotel, but friends of yours? Friends of mine, everyone in here knows uh Stan is on tour. We're gonna jump around a lot. Doing Stan is on tour with the Dirty Knobs crew, Mike Campbell's band.
SPEAKER_01That's all true.
SPEAKER_02And uh so he's at the hotel, they're doing a show. Dan Tom's, right?
SPEAKER_01Sounds good to me. You just go where they tell you. I follow the flashlight.
SPEAKER_02This is the first tour you've done in how long is it?
SPEAKER_0130 years. Really? First time I've been behind a kit in 30 years.
SPEAKER_02No, that can't no, because I thought you played on drums before.
SPEAKER_01I play drums at home. I own a studio and I play on my records and the stuff I do with my. I have two quarantine bands that I love. And uh so I play, you know, I I make my own recordings, but uh no, Mike was uh it was a call out of the blue. Like he just, you know, you feel like playing drums, and I'm like, I don't know, let's find out.
SPEAKER_02So basically what was that like?
SPEAKER_01Do you do you say, let me think about it, or yeah, there's a little of that, but it's more like it's it's Mike, and Mike is a brother. He's a um, you know, I've known Mike since I was 15 years old, man. So when Mike assures me that like it's less of an audition than just would you please show up and have some fun with me? It's um I can accommodate that sort of concept. Make sense?
SPEAKER_02Absolutely, absolutely. Just you just gotta know the ins and the outs and the details of the.
SPEAKER_01Well, I shattered it. I mean, I listened, it was the first time in my life I've ever actually learned material I didn't have ownership. You know, and my drummer buddies were cracking up. I mean, you Matt, you know, Madam Cobb, he's obviously Matt Logg, great drummer for the knobs.
SPEAKER_02By the way, shout out to Matt Logg for hooking this up. Matt Logg made this happen.
SPEAKER_01Matt Logg is a badass. And I've I I knew that from talking to Bobby Glaub and people in the biz who've always said Matt Log is like he's he's tremendous. And then when I listened to his the records, he's made two records with the knobs. You've made a lot of records, but those two that specifically, those were my assignment, if you will. Like, and uh that set me back on my heels a bit, learning. Like, I, you know, I called Bissinet and Aronoff and guys, drummers, and said, like, what the f you know, what's going on here? I gotta actually learn. He goes, like, welcome to the real world, Lynch. You know, I'm like, I've never had to learn a song that I didn't, you know, I've been, I, I well, you know, I was I wasn't a drummer, I was a guy in a band, which is very different than being a professional drummer, trust me.
SPEAKER_02Because that was your first band, A? Is that what you're saying?
SPEAKER_01No, just being a drummer in a band, you you have ownership of your parts, you have ownership of what you do, and you really work within yourself. You never really stretch, which is part of the problem. Um, you just do, you just do. Like, you know, I was a little kid, I joined a band and counted four, and they made that noise. I never thought about playing the drums, I just thought about being in the band. And uh it wasn't until much later, after the group, that I realized these are tremendous, you know, because I thought, you know, oh pardon me, that's that's terrible form. Kids, don't ever do this. Don't ever do this. Don't ever do this to someone. Um uh yeah, it's um I had to learn other people's material. That was Michelle, by the way, making sure I was here.
SPEAKER_02Thank you to Michelle.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, she's been great. Um so where was I?
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah, learning songs.
SPEAKER_01Impossible. Being a drummer in a band as opposed to a real drummer, like actually having to learn other people's charts.
SPEAKER_02This kind of happened for you when you did the Dylan tours.
SPEAKER_01That's so different. I mean, that was a um rolling fabulous chaos. We never practiced. You don't practice like a Rolling Stone, you just play like a Rolling Stone, and you play it how you think it goes. So there were never rehearsals, but they were rehearsals, but they were more like jams. Just get to know you. Like get to know. They were com musical conversations between Bob and Tom and the band, and they're just conversations like, hey, if I do this, is that good? Oh yeah, see, you know, you didn't, but they were never discussed. I mean, my my background as a drummer is there's very little conversation. You just play, and if somebody's unhappy, you'll hear about it. Like they'll go, no, too fast, too slow, don't like it, don't come in here. But on short of that, you're just given free reign, and I was given from 1970 till 1994, I was just given free reign. You know, just knock yourself out.
SPEAKER_0224 years of just yeah, yeah, I mean, between do what feels right.
SPEAKER_01Well, apparently it's working out, like you know, until it isn't, you know.
SPEAKER_02Right, right, right. Well, talk to me a minute about that Dylan tour. I mean, what so that was because now you guys had were on tour together initially, right? That's the first part of that. I mean, uh Heartbreakers and Bob Dylan.
SPEAKER_01Correct. Um we were, I think we met him at a man, I'm I'm gonna probably screw this up, but I think it's at a FarmAid, we met Bob, who was being managed by Elliot Roberts, who managed our band. He was a superstar kind of manager early in, you know, one of the architects of the music business. And he might have suggested, well, you know, Bob's gonna be at FarmAid. Why don't you guys knock out a set with Bob? And it was like, I don't even know. I mean, we may have rehearsed for that, but I think it was like, huh, you know, it wasn't a you know, I think we just walked up, but I don't, you know, Maggie's Farm. I don't, I don't know that I ever listened to the records, but I knew from osmosis you know Bob's catalog. You just can't live in the world and have been born in the 50s and not know his songs. You might not know his arrangements. And you know, those later after after the tour was over, I realized what amazing records he had made. But I was too stupid and stubborn to really notice them. You know, and plus you're in a band, you just make your joyful noise. You know, you just get up there and you you heaven's door goes like this, you know, like you don't really. I was blissfully unaware of like anything, you know, till much like till last week.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I know I can get I can appreciate this. How old were you at that time, roughly?
SPEAKER_01Probably in my early 30s.
SPEAKER_02Amazing, isn't it? Yeah, I mean to look at that now, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, it was a long time ago. We went around the world a couple times, you know, it was really great. The music was um, I thought that was man in full, band in full. You know, I thought that's the greatest, and I thought the trajectory of the group would continue that way. Like, be weirder, almost more, I won't, you know, like not a jam band, but I thought we would continue to grow musically and become less constrained by the record process. And boy, was I I was so wrong that that's where my excommunication occurred, because I didn't give a shit about making pop records. I just and I still really don't, but I do and I can. But I like to just play the damn drums, you know. I mean, it's seems like you you should try hard early, and then later in life you should just be yourself, man. You know, just do what you so I was I kind of went into shock when the group became like constrained, you know. Like, and you know, I was being not only told what to do, but shown what to do. Like, you know, like you need to do the snare drum here, and I'm like, well, why don't we just play this shit? You know, it's like, but I get it now, but you know, you talk to a young man and you know pride before the fall, you know, it's like so I have no regrets about it, but I could see where my path diverged absolutely from where the heartbreakers were going and why I needed to go make records and write songs and do this whole other thing, you know, I needed another life.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Now that's something you had been doing during that time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but never particularly well. I mean, you know, Tom had a great saying that, you know, I think I once mentioned early, hey, you know, I'm writing some songs, and you just casually said, you know, write write a hundred because your first hundred will suck. And he was right. You know, he's right. Get them over with. So, you know, I think I'd probably written halfway to not sucking, and then I was very fortunate. You know, I'd I gotten some cuts over the time, you know, maybe like a June Pointer song or a Peter Noon song, or gotten a couple cuts, you know, like, and then um, you know, I did writing the whole time. I'm trying to remember if I had any success. I had songs on records, but you didn't have success.
SPEAKER_02I mean, didn't you have a number one song? Was it Tim O'Groom?
SPEAKER_01This is much later.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01Much later. I mean, this is like the the my whole You're talking about even while you're in the Heartbreakers. Yeah, yeah, in the Heartbreakers, I was getting cuts, but they were like very inconsequential, and they but they were demonstrating to me that this is a life you can have, you know, you can become more adept at this, and I don't I have little recording studios in my house, and uh yeah, I mean I think I think maybe I don't even remember, but I have to look at all music and go, oh, right. But the um during my diverging past with Petty and the Heartbreakers, I met Danny Korchmeyer who introduced me to Don Henley, and those two guys gave me an entire second act and created a whole set of hoops and hurdles to jump and things to learn and disciplines to acquire. And um, they were phenomenal big brothers. You know, they they had faith. They were like, you know, yeah, you're drummers, so what? There's a million of them. Why don't you show us what you got? And Danny basically told me to write songs by simply just saying, you know, you're a funny guy, write this down. You know, like because I was being glib or whatever. He was like, you know, and then he introduced me to Don, who I had met earlier, but just as a drummer, like, hey man, great to meet you, you're a cool dude. And then Don shepherded my entire, he opened doors that just said, like, get in here, write, produce. And I served an apprenticeship with Danny and Don that was invaluable. Like, just they allowed me to hang around while they made Don's first couple solo records. You know, they just said, you know, you can be here. And basically, I I made coffee and weighed in on opinions, you know, like okay. I knew I was getting a little further up the food chain when Don would actually say, you know, what do you think? You know, like do you like this vocal better, or do you like that bass? And I actually had an opinion.
SPEAKER_02So where is this in Los Angeles?
SPEAKER_01This is Los Angeles, it's all happening. I'd probably Don's second solo record. And I'm not sure if it was, but one of them, Danny, said, you know, Don, we could use some input on a lyric. Yeah. And it was like, hell yeah. So I filled a legal pad and went to Don's house, and it was a you know, one of those nail-biting, nut-curdling moments where you're like trying to reveal your inner self to a brilliant guy, and he he didn't shun it completely. He corrected my spelling, offered some good books for me to read, and he said, you know, you you basically suck. You're almost you're basically a functional illiterate, and I was. And he um, you know, and he he told me, if the if you're serious, garbage in, garbage out, better in, better out. You know, he gave me that whole, he sent me home with a stack of 25 great books and said, you know, next time we talk, read them, you know, and it was like, and he made me uh uh he let me audit his process, which is very disciplined and very uh fastidious, very careful. Every word matters, you know, even if it's, you know, I mean, whether it's plural or singular matters. You know what I mean? You don't just Don throws very little away. So to watch, to get to audit that process was like, right, this isn't just like guys drinking beer and going, man, we should write a song. It's like Don writes, he's a writer, and so learning at his heel was fabulous. You know, that's like learning to play drums with Vinny Calliuda. You know, it's like it was like you're way in over your head, but if he'll teach you to go boom boom schmeck, that's a you want to go boom boom schmeck. And Don walked me right through it. I don't know why, I don't know what the hell he saw in here, but he's been a great pal. He's um, and really he's been the key to my whole second act, you know, making his records and with him. I'm not saying I do it, you know, I'm just saying we we collaborate and he allows that. And we're social, we're buddies, and you know, I don't know how that works. We're friends and we work together. Neither of us can figure out how the hell that works. By all rights, we can't ever ruined it, is what you're saying. I don't think it does. I mean, I I would rather get fired than lose Don as a friend any day of the week. So he's welcome to kick my ass to the curb. Just don't lose me as a buddy.
SPEAKER_02So you're still collaborating?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Don and I, you know, it's I mean, like, there's no reason not to. I mean, he's he's you know, that's a high watermark, you know. It's and he's a great singer, he's great to he's just a he's a good dude enough. I mean, you if Don hears this, he's gonna tell me to shut up. So I'll shut myself up.
SPEAKER_02So, okay, so so let's again we jump around a lot, but so just to get back to Dylan real quick. Yeah, I I always hear that he's the kind of guy, at least these days, where it's like he throws it out night by night. Yeah. This is a shuffle.
SPEAKER_01It was it that way when you I was m m multiple minutes into certain songs before I knew what they were.
SPEAKER_02So he's starting it and it's just jump in.
SPEAKER_01Well, you don't know, it's like, I mean, uh not to be too technical, but from a drummer's point of view, if you hear all you hear out of the darkness is uh uh uh uh uh where's what? Is this a reggae? Is it uh uh uh or is it d bat boom boom bat? So I would just jump in with a like a reggae. I'd figure, well, it might be it feels like he's trying to do like ska. And you just commit, and turns out that song is like halfway through it, you realize, oh my god, we're doing Masters of War, or we're doing, you know, we're doing some s. But it was wonderful. It was absolute chaos, and the trust, the bravery of that guy was like, and there's no show biz, there's no guile in that man. You know, he's just like ah, you know, so he's he's and the other thing about when you're a drummer with Bob Dylan, you're not really needed. I mean, if you fall off the back of the stage and just the show's gonna be fine without you. You know what I mean? He's he's freaking Bob Dylan, like you know. So drums, it's like for him, it's everything's an option. It's like he looks around and goes, like, uh, and he gave great stage direction to me, like for dynamics. You know, if it was like if I was about to get too body and think I was gonna introduce a section, you know, way drummers tend to go, like, oh, this must be where it goes. He just give you the look, like, nah, not today, Cato. Just keep it in your pants, you know.
SPEAKER_02Like today and Cato.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, just like, you know, like not let me let me be.
SPEAKER_02I feeling like so So, but it would only be in the moment, like it wasn't like afterwards backstage giving notes.
SPEAKER_01Oh, no way. I mean, no, there were only a and plus I was I was irrever irreverent. I didn't, you know, I was so full of shit with Bob, like in terms of not it was it was still about me and the heartbreakers, you know what I mean? I didn't get, I got Bob, I knew I knew how I knew he was brilliant, but I didn't really understand what my job was. I just I thought I was up there to kick ass and have a great time. I and it wasn't until somewhere in Italy that I think, you know, Bob would dismiss the group and he'd come out and do three or four songs all by himself every night, which was sometimes I'd watch, sometimes I didn't. One night I just sat there on the drum stool and watched like six supertroopers on Bob, and he's singing. I don't even know what song it was, but I was in tears when I realized this man wrote all this. He wrote these words, he wrote these chords, he wrote these melodies, and I was ripped, I was gutted. You know, I could barely play. I was I was crying. And after the show, I remember walking up and putting my hands on his shoulders and go, Bob, you blew my mind tonight. And this was after we'd been out for a year or so, and he looked at me and he goes, Stan, are you alright? Because I had been the guy who was just been like, you know, I won't say a frat boy, I wasn't that bad, but by comparison to, you know, I wasn't a scholar. Does that make sense? I was a goofball, I was a I was living the drummer myth.
SPEAKER_02You were a rock and roll.
SPEAKER_01I uh, you know, and with with all that that implies, I hope there's some good in it, but mostly it was unbridled, useful stupidity, you know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but you had a good time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I had a I I'm 99% of the time playing the drums, I had a remarkably good time. Probably too good. I wasn't a drugie, I wasn't that, but I was just way too focused on what I'm doing. Right. And it was later in life that I realized, oh right, you know. Fortunately I had Ben Mont, you know, Ben Montenge, for those of you, I'm sure everyone knows, greatest freaking keyboard guy ever to walk this earth, you know, and he's brilliant and he's intuitive, and he's a transmitter and a receiver. Like Ben Mont, there's an elasticity to his knowledge that if he wants to just it's coming for you? Yes, sir. Okay. Um his intelligence is elastic. If he wants to be a scholar, he's a scholar. He's one of the brightest, he's the brightest guy in the room. But if he wants to be a rocker, he can just sit there and play eights just the way you want him, you know? And he's a for a drummer, he's a drummer's best fan friend because his hands think like a drummer. They're very beautifully interwoven, yet independent. And his body moves like a drummer. He's he's he's directs. He's um he's catnip for me. You know, I I uh you sit down and play. I put my foot on the floor and hit a bass drum, Bennmott immediately, it's it's the game on. I've never had a rough night with I mean Bennmott always has been the oil in the playing for me, you know.
SPEAKER_02That was the guy you really listened to.
SPEAKER_01Nobody better. Nobody Just his his soul and the dynamic quality of him, like if you and he fe he he reads the room. I mean he must you know if he was a dancer he'd be Fredister, man. He's like that good.
SPEAKER_02He's dynamics, his sense of just yeah.
SPEAKER_01And the and what he can leave out with just a little like all you gotta do is give him the like the eye up, and it's like we're going straight down the turnpike. Or if you roll your shoulder, it's like okay, we're in. And he he the minute I got to play with Ben Montenge, I never wanted to stop playing with Ben Montenge ever. You know, to this day, it's like, you know, please invite me to Spain on your next solo tour. I'll play brushes. It's like that is the highest place I get to go to play drums, is with if I get to play with Ben Mont. So, you know, and then Mike is is right at, you know, Mike, I'm learning Mike again, you know.
SPEAKER_02Like is he playing different now?
SPEAKER_01Well, it's a different role for him. I don't know if he's playing differently, but his role is taking on, man, is he taking on five more hats? You know, he's the writer, he's the singer, he's the band leader, he's the director of the whole operation. And um, so yeah, I mean, Michael was the guitar player, you know, and uh so and Ben and Mike were always on the same side of the stage, so they were kind of intertwined for me sonically. Like, if I all I had to do was lean my right ear over that side, and it was some amazing stuff going on. And they their thing is was really like the basket weaving, like it's just go, man. So they made it real easy to play drums, you know. Playing drums in in the Heartbreakers at that time, easiest job in the world. Easiest, easiest game. I won't say anybody could do it, but anybody could do it.
SPEAKER_02They made it easy for me. Oh tell me about how he was great, dude.
SPEAKER_01Great, old pair of jeans. That's how he that's what he feels like on stage. Yeah, how he feels like the you know, your go-to jeans. He was beautiful to watch, he was a fabulous guy, quiet, kind, uh, soulful, and uh very understated, you know, who never toot his horn. But when you realize, like, oh shit, he just won a Grammy with John Prime, like he wouldn't tell you. You know what I mean? Like, you'd have to read it in the trades. He's like, Howie? The same Howie? Yeah, the album's done well, you know. Like, and as a bass player, the kindest thing I can say about him, he hung all over me like a cheap suit, man. He was just like, he was there and he sang great. So I used to be the kind of the main singer in the old old days, before your time. And um, so Howie took all that responsibility and just said, Let me have it. You know, and he just did it effortlessly. He did it, he did it like it was. I don't think I ever saw Howie stress. Ever. You know?
SPEAKER_02Just that laying back.
SPEAKER_01Oh. A couple times on the Dylan tour, I remember thinking, like, am I hearing bass? We'd start the song, we'd be half, you know, like a person. I realized, I'm not hearing the bass. So I'd look at the monitor guy. My first thought was, well, maybe the you know, bass has been jinxed, or I'd scream at a tack and give me some bass. And I realized, oh, right, how he's having a cigarette. You know, like he's just turned around facing his aunt, but he's like, he's smoking and watching, and then he'd butt the cigarette out just in time to come in for the second verse, as if he'd planned the whole thing. And it sounded beautiful. It was like everything, he was like, you know, life just rolled out in front of Howie. We'd be walking, you know, I'd be taking a walk in the streets of Cincinnati, and I'd look up and the fountain, and Howie's sitting there playing acoustic guitar in the fountain at Cincinnati, Ohio, with like people. Just uh I don't know. It was almost as if he was like a another street musician. I don't know if he was panhandling.
SPEAKER_02But this is like you're on the road just during the day, and he's uh he's just out playing the people.
SPEAKER_01He's just out on the street, just drumming. I don't know, but he was a most he was a sort of sephardic and nomadic and a gypsy and uh he was a prince, man. He was a prince. I don't know that I ever got the worst I ever got out of Howie was oh man. That would have been like, you know, that's them fighting words from Howie, like, oh man. Like basically just saying, like, don't do that. I think that was his way of like err. But mostly it was like, how you doing? Hey, you know, what's going on? Smoke too much. That was my only gripe with Howie Epstein. On the bus. Just generally. It was like, damn, Howie. Cool kill you. Kill yourself.
SPEAKER_02Was he really an Xboxer, by the way?
SPEAKER_01I don't know that, but I know he beat me in arm wrestling, and I'm a pretty big guy.
SPEAKER_02You are a pretty big guy. Yeah, I mean I what is the number on you? How tall are you?
SPEAKER_01I think I'm 6'3. I think I still am. Yeah. I'm probably the incredible shrinking man, that's what happens.
SPEAKER_02There's surgery now. I just read about it. You can get three inches now.
SPEAKER_0175 grand. I'm sure my wife would be thrilled to hear that. Three inches is a lot.
SPEAKER_02We'll leave it there. This episode is brought to you by now. So, so um, by the way, you mentioned Cincinnati. You're from Cincinnati.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, born born but not raised.
SPEAKER_02Okay, okay. That's Florida.
SPEAKER_01Definitely. Yeah. I'm a southern boy by not by birth, but by by raising. Yeah, because you how old were you when you got there? Oh. I don't even know if I was you know out of diapers.
SPEAKER_02You're talking, okay, I got you. I got you.
SPEAKER_01I don't think I was saying anything yet. I got you.
SPEAKER_02So you're yeah, you were and so after the heartbreakers, you just went back to Florida, right?
SPEAKER_01Actually, during the Heartbreakers, I went back to Florida. I I did not do well in LA. I I mean the first few years was great because you're just like a punk and you're in LA and it's like what happened?
SPEAKER_02Did the whole band move there?
SPEAKER_01No, uh, they moved, they were older than me by about four to five years, some even older. And they went out as a band called Mud Crutch and kind of imploded on impact, as I believe. That's probably another episode that I don't really I'm not qualified to give you the full. But they went out there and then I the deal I made with my father was I would finish high school, and which I didn't want to do because I was already playing in titty bars and I was already a train wreck and you know my parents had split up and I was pretty much living on the you know with with bands. And uh I think when I turned, I got out of high school a little early with with like a D average, you know, and got in my bus and just drove, took my drums and my share of the BA from my old band and just went to California. Figured fuck it, I'm I'm gonna I gotta make it.
SPEAKER_02Well, it's like you follow you knew them, though.
SPEAKER_01They weren't really on my radar, and I don't think I was really on their radar yet. You know, I we knew each other, but they were different genre of music, really.
SPEAKER_02So you went to LA just on your own, cold, knowing nobody?
SPEAKER_01Like a dumb. I mean, I went to LA to make it. Whatever the hell that meant. You know what I mean? Like were you 17? I think I was more like 18. But I went to LA like you know, you gotta measure your man that takes balls, isn't it? Well, it's desperation more than balls. I think desperation is an incredible sauce in a you know when you're making a stew. Like, you know, the desperation makes it all work. It's like it's like hunger is the best sauce, it really is. But desperation is when you're young, it's not a gross thing to see. Too much noise?
SPEAKER_02It's getting loud. Let's let's just walk that way.
SPEAKER_01So, yeah, LA, I went to California to make it because I had kind of maxed out after, you know, playing bars for three years already in Florida, and I'd done all that, I'd done the bar circuit, you know, been in been in a band that played everywhere between Atlanta and Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Miami, you know, and maxed out. And um, and it was time. It was time to make it or break it, you know, like and it was actually my mother that suggested California over New York. She said the weather's better. Smart. Yeah, she just said, you know, and she, you know, I thank goodness for her encouragement. She was like, you know, you need to go find out if this is your life, you know, and do it now. And I didn't, you know, I didn't speak to my father for a number of years. You know, his last words were just what the world needs, another out-of-work drummer, you know. Off I went. Oh man. Yeah, so we didn't talk for a long time. But then we it worked out great. I moved back to Florida in 1980. I'd only been in California for four or five years, and first time I made a little doe, I went and basically bought a house next door to him so we could get to know each other and commuted to California for the last 15 years of my band life, really. I I kept thinking the band would move back to Florida. It was such an idyllic place to grow up, versus California was just such a shit pit. You know, it was like a exciting early in life, you know, when you're the whiskey or go-go and all, but you wear it out, you know, you wear it out. All it takes is a few years, you've beaten your head against you know, the 405, and you're like, well, this has been a treat. I don't want to grow old here. I want to I want to be on a beach. And uh that's my story. That's how I got to California and got back.
SPEAKER_02I love those stories though when people at that young age just go. Just go. And you were there for a few years, you're saying.
SPEAKER_01I went there, but pretty much got a gig quick. I went there and was kind of lived like a homeless kid. I I I lived in a garage in Culver City, and and uh then I finally got a job at a record store just because I needed to make money to live, and then I was in a couple bands, and uh and they were good. And then I Ben Mott and I met again, and and we like we always do, I you know, I fell in love with them all over again. You know, I hadn't seen him in a number of years, but you know, I we met in my garage in Laurel Canyon. I was still leaving in my Volkswagen bus, and um, and we talked about we should form a band. And Ben had songs, he was writing songs, and I think I heard a couple and I went, you know, uh, these are great. So he booked a studio at like four in the morning or whenever you could get free time. You know how that goes. And uh Ron Blair happened to be my next door neighbor, and uh so I he said, you know, who do you know that plays bass? And I remembered Ron from Gainesville. He was just a badass. Ron was like Alman Brothers good, you know, like that good. Ron was like a fucking good musician, great guitar player, great bass player, great looking, just man, you know, if I could ever be in a band with Ron Blair. So I remember knocking on his door, you know, like, hey man, feel like coming down to a demo? And he was like, Yeah, whatever, sure, you know. So he brought he probably brought a jazz bass and proceeded to be Ron Blair, you know, and then Benmont brought Mike. And we all showed up in a room together and we were cutting Benmont songs. And then Tom showed up to play harmonica and just sort of hang. And then I think he heard the band, and within 10 minutes he went, This is you know, he locked the door. You know, nobody leaves. This is the shit, you know. Like, because I think the next day I got a call from Tom going, like, Stanley, you know, are you in a band? I'm like, Yeah, I'm in a couple bands. Well, you want to throw in your lot with me? You want to you wanna do something? I'm like, oh yeah, I'll do it, but we it's gotta be a real band. I'm not just coming over to hang out and play a couple tracks.
SPEAKER_03Sure.
SPEAKER_01You know, I was a band guy. Yeah. Like, if we're not gonna be a band, step off, you know. I don't need, you know. But he was he was down with it, you know, and off we went.
SPEAKER_02You were the young guy you were saying. You were the youngest. Was that dynamic in place or like a family as far as I was I felt um Were you the kid brother?
SPEAKER_01I I I picked that job myself. They didn't really do it to me. I over I over-identified with the guy who wanted to please them. In retrospect, I can see that that was a burden for them and for me. They didn't treat you like that, you're saying? No, they would have treated me with I didn't treat myself well. And I I was too much humpin' to please, I was trying too hard, I was too loud. They were a very quiet, non-demonstrative bunch. They never spoke, which I misinterpreted as um maybe less than brilliant. And I thought that, you know, I thought smart people are loud and they speak up. You know, because I was young. And you, you know, they didn't make themselves known, so I decided, I took it upon myself to be the noisy guy. And I was that guy. You know, if there was a fight to be had in the lobby, that was me. You know, if somebody needed to get punched out, I'm gonna do it. You know? And uh, you know, Johnny Rotten's pissing Tom off, I'm gonna kick his ass, you know. Like nobody asked me to do it, it just seemed to fall upon me.
SPEAKER_02Wait a minute, is that is that a real story?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's a true story. He gave Tom some shit one day.
SPEAKER_02Johnny Rotten?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Where is this? This is in London. We walked into a hotel and he he said, Oh, it's the Tom Pitt Tom Pity and the Heartbreakers, the posh rockers from LA or something like that.
SPEAKER_02Wait, hold just to be clear, this is in the lobby, you're coming in as a band, and there he's alone?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, no, he was with his posse of whatever they were. I'm sure they were nice guys, you know. Okay, okay, you know, but he just says it out loud. He just said something derogative, you know, just it rubbed but rubbed us all wrong. And it rubbed Tom wrong, which he said something like, Oh, you know, rotten things were, you know, or just I don't know what he said, but it was enough for me to just hear all I heard was sick, kill. You know, kill him, you know. So I think I dove over a couch and you know, just was like, oh no, rip his fucking head off. You know, you so you attacked Johnny Right? Well, I tried. I don't think I got that call. I think everybody, I my memory of it is he just kind of went, ugh, and kind of went straight, you know, like three people dragged him out, and I think Tom jumped on my back and said, like, you know, no. Or but you know, it was like stuff like that. I mean, Tom protected me. I remember being protected by him a couple times in clubs, and then I protected him whenever we all did. Yeah, you were a gang, you were a real man. Oh, you don't fuck with this band. I mean, that was my, you know, and I'm six foot three, I will fucking kill you. Yeah, you know, it's like, and that went for promoters, that went for anybody, you know. Like, don't cross this bunch.
SPEAKER_02So you were the first guy to get in someone's face, you were the first guy to probably open up and say, this is bullshit. Probably. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And then Tom didn't do it physically, but he became he could be very barbaric when he needed to be. What does that mean when you say abusive, cruel? You know, like to to if it wasn't going his way, he could just absolutely with words, with mind games. Oh, well, all maybe a little all of the above, but he was he was a tough cookie. And uh, but no, early my my early memories, you know, the first few years are fantastic. You know, I just couldn't have asked for a better family, and they really were. They were all I had. You know, I didn't have anyone, you know. Like I would, I think, you know, Marcy Mike's wife tells me that I actually stayed at their house. You know, I don't remember that, but I'm sure it's true. I didn't I didn't have a place to live. You know, we made the It was in LA. We went to England and I didn't have an apartment to come home to. You know, I mean everything went like everything that I owned went with me, you know. So it was like when I came back, you know, I think I lived at the some hotel on Santa Monica. You know, like I I was a I was an urchin, you know, essentially the first few years. You know?
SPEAKER_02Oh, it's it's easy when you're young, right?
SPEAKER_01It's a little bit oh I it I didn't know any better. I thought it was fun.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you know, I didn't care. When does the bread start coming in for you? Do you know? Do you remember that specifically?
SPEAKER_01Um, well, it's all relative. Okay, that's fair. You know, 300 a week was a lot of bread for me. You know, because I calculated that that's what my father made as a school teacher. So when I could make get in advance of that. You're making what your dad made, exactly. In my mind, I'm thinking, like, well, that's my country. I didn't say that, but I could feel like, well, if he doesn't re if he doesn't respect me now, then he's then this reflects more on him, you know. Because we're equal now. Well, in my mind, I'm I mean at the time, yeah. Yeah, I'm 21 years old and I'm I have a livelihood too. And uh so, yeah, I mean I that money, it's an elastic concept, man. You know, some there is a concept of enough. I I I think it's bullshit when people say, you know, there's never enough. No, that's bullshit. There is enough. And you actually can decide that's a conscious decision, unless something horrible's happening in your life. You know, health, you know, doctors, lawyers. I mean, there can be things where, yeah, there's never enough. But money, you know, I was always a little envious of people that had money when I didn't have it. And now that my life has turned out pretty well, I'm like, I want what I have. So I was always kind of that guy with, but when did the money come? Like really.
SPEAKER_02As far as like you could buy a house and you could buy a car.
SPEAKER_01Interesting concept. Well, as Elliot Roberts once said, we were leaving the forum. We just sold out the forum like two or three nights, you know, we're and you know, these girls are diving on the limo, and I'm like in a limo with Elliot, you know, and uh we're pulling away, and it's just, you know, the world's ours. LA is mine that night. And uh I asked Elliot the same question. I said, Elliot, at what point, you know, like what point do I get the bread? And uh, you know, and he looked at me, it was perfect. He rolled a joint, smoked a big puff, and blew it in my face, and he goes, I'll try to get it right. He goes, Stan, you'll make 90% of your money on the way down. Which was like, didn't strike me correct, I didn't understand it, but I got it later. And he said, Stan, there's rich, famous, and hot. He goes, right now you're hot. And he goes, Crosby Steels and Nash right now would give anything to be hot. They're rich and famous, but they're not hot. And he goes, You're you guys are hot. He goes, this town, he goes, I'm bad. He goes, I'm glad to be riding with you because anywhere we go tonight, it's your town. Anywhere you want to go. You know, he's like, every door's open, every table's yours, every girl's yours. He goes, it's your week, basically, you know. And uh, I didn't get all that till I was out of the group. Or maybe, you know, like it's time to cut a song for a greatest hits record, which nobody wanted even do, by the way. You know, greatest hits records are for, you know, that's a punk thing to do. Was that just contractual out there? I don't know. I wasn't really involved. I was already out, and I got a call, I think, from Mike, you know, hey, we want to cut a song for the Greatest Hits. I think it's probably right that we all get together and, you know, and great. So I flew out there and But you were officially out, or you were No, I was out. I think I was out. Okay.
SPEAKER_02And yeah, and yet there you were.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, uh maybe, well, uh that might have been the gray area. I don't really know what was happening then. Maybe there was a lot of weird. I don't remember really.
SPEAKER_02It's been a long time. I get it, man.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, and then uh we here's back to Elliot's point about business and money. Um we do a greatest hits record, we cut a song that essentially in some people's mind was a throwaway, and it's the biggest hit we've ever had. It's that Mary Jane, and the the Greatest Hit Records sells like double digits of millions. You know, it's like, you know, and I'm done. I'm out. I'm already like, you know, I'm living on a beach in Florida, I'm a beach bum, I'm a groovy guy, I'm having fun. So for me, bread was like, as Elliot, you know, you'll make 90% of your money on the way down. You know, so it's like, I'm on the way down, you know, with that group, they're not. The band is, they're they're fine, their stars are still ascending, they're doing whatever they're doing, and I'm not even aware of it. And all of a sudden, somebody calls me and goes, you know, the record sold a gazillion, and look who could look what's coming. And it's like, holy shit. So I don't know, does that answer your question?
SPEAKER_02You got a nice big fat check, and he it was prophetic what happened in that limo that night.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, it was proven 20 years later to be absolutely prophetic and the the absolute truth. Yeah. And um, and uh, so for me, the yeah, I I don't know. I mean, the band, what a great chapter. That's how I look at it. I'm so grateful that I got to do it. I'm so grateful I didn't have to do it beyond the the the fun zone for me. Like I survived it mostly. Into act.
SPEAKER_02It does appear to be that way.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, I and it's funny because Michael will spring a song on me, go, do you know such and such a song? And I'm like, I've never even heard it. And he goes, Oh, it's on a record. But honestly, when the when I was no longer involved with the group, I lost all interest in it because it was so personal to me that I couldn't care less. And it wasn't a spiteful thing. I just had other, I was busy. You know, it's like I did, I didn't, I did not watch the band play the Super Bowl. I happened to be at a movie that night. It wasn't intentional. It was like I just couldn't be bothered. It was like and uh I've never watched, there's a documentary that you know goes on for hours, never seen it. Um I just I know it's good, and I know the band's good, and I know that my role Peter Bogdanovich, I don't know. Yeah. Well, I exactly I was I think someone from his Did they reach out in a t in a way that I found um disrespectful. So obviously I just had something else to do. It was not, it wasn't a question, it was a it was wasn't an ask, it was a tell. That's what I remember, and it was like, no, I'm busy, you know, and I was. I I didn't feel like it was like all of a sudden you're back in the cult. You know what I mean? Like Jim Jones just said the Kool-Aid's over here. And it's like, but I'm not, I'm not in, I'm not, I'm not in Jonestown. You know, I've got I got other commitments. And uh bands are biospheres, man. For those of you that are in them, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. There's internal struggles, there's dramas, there's greatness, there's success. And when you're not involved, it's kind of like the military in a way. Like, once you you can still choose to be part of it and you are a piece of it, but you're not actively being called up tomorrow for revealing. You hear it, you know, in your ex-military, and you go, like, oh look, somebody's having to get up today. And it's not me, you know, like, and my uniform is doesn't really fit, you know, like you know what I mean? I'm like a little fatter now, and it's like uh, you know, I'm not, I don't really want to be saluted. And bands are very um, when you're in them, you are in them. And uh when you're out of them, you are out of them. I mean, I had the same affinity for the Heartbreakers when I was out of them as I did for ACDC. You know, it was like, I love them, they're great, but I'm not really current, I'm back in black or whatever, you know. Yeah, yeah. It's like I it's a band. This is another band, but I'm not, I don't know. Cool. Not interested in the drama or who's doing a film, film about or where they're playing. Um I'm not going. You know, it's like I don't know, does that explain it?
SPEAKER_02It does.
SPEAKER_01Did I overdo it as usual?
SPEAKER_02Not at all. That's my general theme. Do you have a favorite album? Does it exist for you or not even?
SPEAKER_01No, I guess, well, you know, I got a little romance for the first couple, you know, more romance for those two, just because it's so teenage, you know. And I can see the drums, I can see all the goofiness and like the hot, the mutt, the mutt drum kits that I'm trying to make sound good, and you know, I can see all the, you know, it's it's pretty great. It's pretty great. And I can see my friends still from that time frame. I can see all the but I do remember walking I was jogging down the beach with a drummer buddy of mine in Santa Monica when the first, the third album came out. And we were we were jogging up and down the beach, and literally transistor radios are still a thing. And we made it to the pier and back, it's like a mile, and we heard four songs off the Damn the Torpedoes record. And I remember my buddy looked at me and goes, Lynch, is this a fucking joke? He goes, like, am I getting punked? And I go, dude, I don't know what's happening here. I really don't know. This is weird, you know. Like, I'm here in, of course, that was LA, and you know, but it was like something happened then that the the rules changed, everything changed. With that was that was a very successful record, pretty much by any metric. It was um, and it it uh things life got different, you know. Yeah, that's when you were super hot. Yeah, and it with all that that implies, good and bad. It was fat. And I'm still a kid, I'm 24 years old. Too much too soon. Probably, probably for me. The other guys, they had family and kids, and it all kind of made sense to them. For me, it was just like, what? You know? It was just kid in a candy store. Probably, yeah, probably just you know but you got good stories. Have you thought about a book? I think everybody should write a book. The world is who hasn't written a book? You know? I mean, everybody's you know, it it would be it would I have diaries and I have journals. It would be funny, and I have lots of pictures and movies, and but I don't know that the world really gives a shit about another drummer's opinion of all of it. But it was great. It was great to be there, you know. I'm really fortunate. You know, I'm very grateful. That's every morning. I start with that. I can't believe I'm still here. It's almost as if I lied. I remember lying in high school, going, yeah, one day, you know, because I remember the teacher, Lynch, you're terrible in math. I'm not gonna need math, I'm gonna be a rock star. You know, I mean, I was that guy. You know, fuck, I'm not going to gym. Blow me. You know, I'm gonna be a famous musician, you know? And uh, and I lied so easily, and then uh the lie came true. So some days I actually wake up and go, did it really happen, or am I gonna wake up and find out I just lied, my lied like I was just a lion sack of shit, you know. So this I don't know if that, but there's a through the lack looking glass if I take it seriously, you know, like some some people I meet, you know, with mics, they remind me like it was important. I've you know what I mean. I'm like, oh wow, you're good. I'm like, oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02Did you really give away your drums? I actually set fire to a kid.
SPEAKER_01I burned them.
SPEAKER_02Okay, let's get into this.
SPEAKER_01How many did you even have? I had a lot of drum sets. Most of them went to my buddies. They went to my they were all because I Tama was a wonderful company to be with. They they were my uh I bought one set in '79. Shelly Akis, the engineer for uh Dan the Torpedoes, did not like my drums when we went to record. And Iovine was brought in to produce the record, and he was, you know, the specific sound they were going for, really a really weird. I mean, you know, for me, it was like, okay, great. Shelly, wonderful engineer, for those of you who don't know, everything from Moondance to Alice Cooper to Don Henley. I mean, the guy is just great, you know. And uh he took me drum shopping and listened to drums and picked out the Tama Imperial Stars for some reason, which I don't know why. And I bought a set, and um, that became the kit in the studio. That was it for me. I tried other kits, and it would be like Tom would go, bring your drums, you know, and be like, okay. So over the course of that relationship, they would provide a drum set for me pretty much every tour. You know, I want a red one, I want this one. You know, it was like, and my kit, for those of you who don't know, is really primal. It's like four pieces, and you know, it's it's not a lot of stuff.
SPEAKER_02That was a big Tom, wasn't it? Wasn't it oversized? Or am I wrong?
SPEAKER_01The Tama kit was traditional, it was 24. Uh I wanted everything. The first kit I bought, Shelly made me buy everything, like a 24, a six, an eight, a twelve, a thirteen, a fourteen, and a sixteen. How Blaine styles is a bunch of. Well, he just wanted all the uh he wanted all the options. Yeah. And um, but the kit I settled on was pretty much for live, was a 22, a 13, and a 16. Like that was my kit. You know, I just uh yeah, I never thought about it. It was like, so where was I? Oh, the drums. All my drums, all my buddies were drummers, you know, and they were struggling. You know, they they didn't have access to drums. So pretty much at the end of every tour, they would disappear. You know, I'd just go, like, you know, I don't know, what happened to those drums? Oh, Robert's got them, David's got them, somebody's got them, you know. And uh they were really nice. Tama was really nice to me. They were wonderful, drum wonderful drum company. And I was really happy because I remember reading that Stuart Copeland used uh Imperial Stars too, so I thought, well, I'm in good company. You know.
SPEAKER_02They're great drums. They're cool drums to this day. People are seek them out.
SPEAKER_01They're they're cool. They're they're uh But you so wait, you gave them all away and you burned a kit. I brought a kit to Home to Florida, and I just I took it down to the beach and I poured a ha like a half a gallon of gasoline over and watched them burn.
SPEAKER_02Was this a ritual of sentences?
SPEAKER_01No, it was exorcism was I was told that I like ceremony by a therapist when I was struggling once. He goes, you know, you need permission and you need ceremony, you need closure, you like to be welcomed officially and you like to be told to leave officially. You don't, you're not the kind of guy who's a whatever guy. So I thought, well, this will be my ceremony, I'll do an exorcism. Because I when I um after my tenure with the group, it wasn't, I did not feel good. It was bad, it was creepy. Something was creepy in. It was like a divorce, no? Worse. The divorce you kind of see coming, and you get to pick your team to represent you, you know. This was more of an excommunication, like a defrocking.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, getting getting uh shunned from the tribe.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and and then and actually reading things about me that were untrue, that were not, that were um Yeah, you didn't have social media to help to clear that up. I didn't um it was it was uh hurtful.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01That's the word I'm looking for. Yeah. And uh so um I needed I needed to hurt something back. So I just took it out on the equipment one week. You know, I left him on the beach and let him do like a it was almost like a planet of the apes. They just burned and sat there till they just washed out to sea, you know. Like, it's like, damn you all to hell. You know, it was like the Charles Neston, you know. And uh did it feel good at the time? It helped. Yeah, it helped. It was just between me and them. I don't think anybody knew I was doing it but me. And uh, yeah, I uh I I cured myself ultimately, but it took a long time. It was a lot, I was oh uh Well, that's the never-ending thing, isn't it? Well to some degree meaning, clarify.
SPEAKER_02Well, I mean, like the journey of life. Oh yeah, I see what you're doing. It's always a work in progress, if you say. Yeah, but sometimes you're working on things, you go to therapy, you're out of therapy, you go back to therapy. Sure, you know.
SPEAKER_01Well, therapy sometimes for me is nothing more than nature and breathing. You know, like I can do therapy. You know, down at the riverfront today I did some, you know. I would I got to walk for two hours on the water and smell it and touch it, you know, and like that was therapy.
SPEAKER_02You're a big beach guy?
SPEAKER_01I love the beach. Do you surf? No, I'm a terrible surfer. Awful. Worst. Terrible the worst, yeah. There's nobody worse. I love it. But I like I can body surf and I can swim, and I like the water. I like to see it.
SPEAKER_02Is it something you do like weekly? Are you in there?
SPEAKER_01Uh well, with the weather, I'm you know, I'm a fair weather. I you know, warm water is kind of my thing. I'm not like a cold water guy, but the beach is beautiful. I mean, I grew up in that part of Florida, so getting to return home and live like that was it was a trade-off I was willing to make. You know, like if I can live in this world, like the how houses have never been that interesting to me. The place is always interesting. Like that's the one, like a house you can bulldoze and build another one, but you can never replace the spot. So as long as I lived on nice spots, I that might be a little cerebral, but I've never I've loved where I where I live has been more important than how I live. It's like I mean, I uh don't get me wrong, I I have preferences, but you know, if the it the art is what's out the window. You know, I don't need to put anything on the wall if I live right. You know, I just open the curtain and there's the painting on the wall, you know. Have you been in the same spot for a while? I've lived in that, yeah. I've had an old house in uh in Flor on the beach in Florida for 32 years, and I I've had another place um, got a little tree farm outside of the town we grew up in that I've had since 1980. So shit, what's that 40? I don't know. Damn. Yeah. But I moved around a lot within the, but those two places were always, you know, I was locked in. Like I just, for better or worse, I've never I I I never wanted to be anywhere else, really. You know. So that was nice to know. I learned that early. So I wasn't like freaking out like, where am I gonna live? LA was I knew I was passing through.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that just is yeah. That wasn't gonna be that's not a fit in New York or anywhere else you ever because you've been all over the world.
SPEAKER_01I love I I'll visit any time, you know, especially work. I love going to places, odd locations for work.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, how is it now? Back to that. I mean, being on the road again. Some good and some bad? Is it mostly bad?
SPEAKER_01It's like the um travel. Mostly bad. Yeah, I mean, I can't really tell you there's much good about being in an airport. I mean, let's be, you know, can I be can I be frank? Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, there's yeah, no hotels. I don't there's no such thing as a good hotel. You know, there really isn't. It's a hotel. As soon as the door slams, it's like the sound of a of like prison bars going locked down. Yeah. Yeah, it's like so I yeah, I'm not I'm not complaining. It's part of what you know, like when Mike asked, that was the first thought I thought of was like, ah shit, I don't want to, I don't want that life, but I want to play my drums with Mike Campbell. So that's the trade-off. You know, like what do I gotta do? Well, he's not gonna come to my house and jam. That would have been ideal. Stan, I want to play with you. I'm coming down to Florida. It's like, yes. But, you know, I mean, no, I can't speak, you know, there's nothing rewarding about the road at this point. I mean, and that I think most musicians can uh can will concur that there was a time in my life where being on the road was a shitload better than being at home because I lived better on the road. The bed was nicer, the sheets were nicer. I mean, you know, the first time I looked at a four seasons hotel room, I cr I crabbed my pants. I didn't know that you could live that good. And they bring food, you know, it's like, oh my god, you know, and there's a bar full of girls downstairs. I mean, I want to live like this, you know. And it was right about that time that the rest of the guys in the bear were going, like, I hate the road, and I'm like, you don't understand, this is great, you know. But then your life at home, you adjust and you realize, like, wait, you know, I can kind of perfect my surroundings and get them the way I like them. And, you know, I I but there's some the people is is the only upside about being on the road. You get to be, you know, I get to be around great musicians, you know. Lance is great, Jason's great, these guys, I get to be around cats. Yeah, you know, it's like that's pretty groovy.
SPEAKER_02Did you just meet these guys?
SPEAKER_01I did.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I just met him. Well, that's not true. Lance I knew because he was a um, he played with Don on the the uh Austin City Limits I was discussing. And he um also, I think previous to that, on there was an album I worked on with Don called Inside Job, and Lance came in to play on a song with me. We actually had played, I played drums with him on a track on that record. So Lance and I got along great. I mean he's just do you have you interviewed him? No, good dude. Good dude. He's cool, he got a great history. Played on a lot of records, a lot of good records, you know, like Ironic by Alanis Moret, and you know, he's he's good. With Matt Log, right? Isn't that? I think I'm not sure that was the session, but Matt, well, you know, I mean Matt's.
SPEAKER_02I thought he did that a little bit. Probably. But I don't, yeah, let's.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but Lance's badass, Jason's badass. I mean, these guys are all they're they're they're pretty damn good. You know, I'm not gonna Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02No, I was just gonna mean to cut you off. Sorry, I was gonna ask you, did you get offers from like random offers at any point from, you know, I don't know, a band, an artist who's to do what? To come play drums, specifically drums.
SPEAKER_01No, I don't think so. Really? No, I did not. I mean, maybe a couple, but they were like I'm kind of angry about that. Well, it's funny, I don't know, if you remember a band called the Motels? Yes, you do. Marty Girard's a dear friend of mine. He's one of the founding members, sax player, keyboard guy. And he was like, when I remember he said when the motels first broke up, they're back together again. But he said, you know, I was sure that I was gonna get all these great calls to play sax, you know, because like, you know, I'm the guy who played the sax solo on, you know, fill in the blank. And and he goes, like, the phone never rang. And I remember we both laughed about that hysterically. And uh, that was kind of like you don't want to overstate your importance. As the wise man once said, if it wasn't for you, there'd be somebody else. You know, it's like you're not that important. Um no one is, really. And there's very few key men in this world. So, drummers, um, you know, I'd like to believe that what I did was important at the time for that group, but I think insert your drummer here, and probably they didn't, you know, either they didn't think of me or maybe they just went like, eh. He's an I'm a narrow lane. I got a pretty narrow lane. It's a great lane, man. It's a it's served me well, but it's a pretty tight lane, you know.
SPEAKER_02It's like, you know, I got the guardrails are pretty Yeah, but I'm sure there's been drummers who've also have over the years who've told you what how much you've meant to them, no. Well, please tell me that at least.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, I've gotten, yeah, I've gotten cats that have, you know. Yeah, I I no, I don't suffer from lack of of attaboy.
SPEAKER_02I mean, that's that's I I need to hear that too, you know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, no, I think my life, it was hard for me to hear it. I got for many, many decades, you all I could get was usually, uh now I can I can hear it a little better, like if somebody says, especially from someone younger, like they'll go, like, oh man, you know, that was and uh but mostly what I hear is youthful exuberance in the old records. I just go, well, I wasn't, nothing was thought out. You know, it was just this is what I could do, and this is what I did. So it's it's pure instinct. It's all it's all you got.
SPEAKER_02Which is beautiful though.
SPEAKER_01I guess so.
SPEAKER_02It's talent is in the choices, I always say. Now, do is is there a track to this now as engaged you are and you hear it that you say, hey man, that's pretty good. Like a couple things. Are you proud of it?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I can hear a couple things. I mean, a couple things like there's a few. I mean, I like I mostly I I'm not really embarrassed by the drumming. Sometimes I just think I overplayed, but I think most musicians as they get older will think the same thing, you know. But I like I like Breakdown. I think it's pretty cool. Yeah. I like American Girl. I like listening to her heart. I like uh Here Comes My Girl. I think it's a good record. I like uh I like some of the I heard some live stuff the other day on TP radio. I heard like a live Old King's Road or something, and we're like, we're all and I'm you know, I'm singing my little brains out, you know, and like I'm I uh it makes me happy. You know, I just kind of get happy. I turn it up, which is new for me. You know, I I will actually, you know, I kind of drive down the road, kind of going, wow, look at these little idiots. But most uh I and you know what I heard uh um uh last dance the other day, and I went, that's pretty good little, that's just sweet little for all these are all live with all these tracks are done without click tracks. You know, all of this stuff was done off the floor, count for, and they're all live, no edits. You know, we didn't even, we were so stupid and unsophisticated, we didn't realize you could edit or cut to a clock or you know, so all this stuff is just they're just little live tracks. And so I'm proud of what I did, I'm proud of what everybody did. I'm like, I've started listening to Michael, you know, on the records and on Ben Mont and Tom's vocals, and I'm like, this is all live shit, you know. So, you know, when I hear an old song from the 80s, and I'll go like, that's pretty, pretty healthy, you know, it's pretty healthy. There's no flat tire, you know, out of five guys, there's no flat tire, you know. Right. So, and you know, most of that stuff is a live track with maybe a background overdub, vocal, maybe a guitar solo, but I doubt it. Like Mike just played that shit off the floor, you know? So it's like, I mean, most of the damn the torpedoes is. Pretty much a live record. I mean, it's live. I mean, like I said, maybe there's a yeah, yeah, or a something we threw on there, and probably a a shaker or a tambourine or something, but it's just a track. Did you like working with Ivine on that? Or um Jimmy, I I'm kind of getting I'm getting my head around Jimmy Ivine because it was a very stressful time for me. It was probably stressful for him as well. He's a big picture guy. He um I don't think he gave a shit about anybody in the band except the singer, because that was his job. He had songs and an artist. So for Jimmy, it was he was making solo records and didn't understand why Tom was having to go through all this trouble with these idiots. Like, why is why do I have to play this many takes with this drummer when I know a great drummer who can do this faster? You know? Was that discussed in front of you, or is this no, but that was the feeling. No, no, nobody had the balls or the um to to discuss anything in front of anybody. No, that was the cruelty of it all. Was like it was anything that happened was behind closed doors, and as I was fond of saying, like by the time I went to the band meeting, I first thing out of my mouth was the real meeting must have happened yesterday, because this is not a meeting, this is just a bloodletting. You know what I mean? Like, I would have loved to have been at the meeting, but Jimmy he is um he did, I won't say didn't know, that's not true. Jimmy, he's obviously a brilliant guy. He's uh he didn't care that there was an emotional component to making records with a rock and roll band who's been on the road and living in each other's shit for years. And um I have found producing to be a very, I've learned from negative examples some of the things you don't want to do. You don't want to punish a band, you don't want to berate them, you don't want to yell at them. Um you want to remind everybody in the room why we're here, which is to express the joy for this music. If you're not comfortable, let's get you comfortable. And as a producer, I think I've done a better job of making the musicians feel important and wanting to perform rather than um it's more like certain producers make you feel more like you're on a Viking, like ro, ro, you know, like you know, you won't get food till you get, you know, it's like, and that was um very barbaric. But you know, in his I I don't need to speak in his defense, but if I did, it would be something like he's got great songs, he's got a great singer. What the fuck's the problem? Well, the problem's probably the drummer or somebody in the band or whatever would so I don't know. I I I don't I can pretty much guarantee Jimmy would not want to produce me ever again, and I don't really want to be produced by Jimmy. So, but I'm really happy life worked out great for him, and I'm I hope he's happy that my life worked out great.
SPEAKER_02No, I get it, I get it. Can I ask you about real Hellfreeze is over, that record. Sure. You're listed as it's like three producers and the Eagles. Right. So what let's can we just break that down?
SPEAKER_01What uh well the f okay, literally the second day after I found out that I was officially released from my job as drummer with with uh The Heartbreakers, I'm kind of sitting there kind of going, what the f well this is that was quick. You know, I'm like 39 and I and I'm kind of like um I'm scared to death. And the phone rings, and it's my buddy Henley. And I figure he must know. You know, like, oh man, he's calling me to like, you know, it's gonna be cool. He had no she didn't care. You know, he's just like, you know, what are you doing? I think I said, Oh, I'm kind of twitching and walking around in a circle. And he goes, he didn't pick up on that. I was having an emotional problem. He just said, get your ass on a plane, bring your equipment out here. We need to write songs. The Eagles are getting back together. I want you to help me write and produce a song. So I'm like going, well, there's a hell of a rebound, you know, like so I packed up all my shit in the flight cases and took my little writing room and took it out to his place. And uh, and we he we we wrote a song, you know, and it was like it was all happening like uh thank God, you know, it was like I so but yeah, so basically he said, and he liked the demo. We had written a nice, we had created a pretty cool little track for a demo, and he just said, you know, the Eagles are gonna get back together. You should let's make it sound like this. So that was really my job was to not not lose it in translation. Probably the key needed to be changed and some things, you know, of technical nature that my demo wasn't gonna work, but plus I think I was still running like three A DATs or something, you know, some kind of weird and an old Soundcraft console. This is all way before you portable Pro Tools and DAWs, and you know. But so that was how that worked. So I got to see some of the inner workings of the band, although that was very stressful for them, if you can imagine. What a weird place for all of them and me to be watching. Like they haven't talked to each other in years. You're there with all of them, like they're well, they kind of came in and worked individually. I was watching it like you everybody was still drawing their boundaries and and uh figuring out what their relationship. I think I once again I can't get into their heads.
SPEAKER_02No, no, no. I'm just wondering like, was say Don and Glenn there at the same time together?
SPEAKER_01A couple times, yeah. Yeah, yeah, a couple times they were in there. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02What was that like?
SPEAKER_01Um Don was my friend, and I don't know by extension. I think Glenn tolerated me. You know, but I don't think he had. He's probably like, what the fuck is this? You know, Don liked Don and I got Glenn knew who you were. Well, I think only through Don. Like, this is some guy that Don wants in the room. That's probably that's what I picked up on it.
SPEAKER_02But but the story seemed to be that Glenn could be, could have he was uh he was a little rough.
SPEAKER_01Well, I think they could both be rough, but I never experienced because I was it was, you know, I think I think I can say this without offending anybody or you know, offending my my dear friend. But I was told for years, you know, Don's tough to he's tough, he's really tough. Boy, you you know, he's gonna be a tough guy to get along with. And the from the first day I met him, it was a gas. All we wanted to do was like, where's the food? You know, we're both from the south. It's I mean, he was he was a gas. So um just clicked. I I I never experienced. I mean, I've seen you know, I've seen the side, you know, we all have a side where you're like, you know, going, ooh, that's a that's a tough day.
SPEAKER_02But I've seen you hangry and cranky. I know that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_01Well, I think Don, you know, I think he once called it a low tolerance Tuesday one day when he was he was having a rough day. One day he's I said, What's up? Low tolerance Tuesday. Basically, so he could still make self-deprecating, like, yeah, I'm I'm I'm a tough guy to get along with today. It's Tuesday. I'm not having, but so Glenn was never that jocular with me. I could never, I could never make the connection. You know, I I probably try, I might have tried tried too hard, I don't know. But I I obviously I seeing the two of them at a microphone one day was almost enough to send me into like a childhood spin when they were singing in unison on one mic, it's that sound, and it was scary because they were singing like the same exact part, but the noise, it was like Beetlegood. It was like Lennon and McCartney when they sang together, there's like this other thing, and it was like, oh shit. I I hope I've got that on tape somewhere. But it was like, yeah, there's there was magic in the room when the two of them, and basically the best thing you can do when that when that's happening, get the fuck out of the way, you know. Don't and I probably didn't have the brains to melt. You know, I probably was like, this sounds amazing, you know, and like, oh shit, mood breaker, you know, Coitus Interruptus, you know. So um, yeah, but you realize there's certain, you know, even watching the Beatle, you know, the six hours of them, you realize that the people recording have the ability to melt. They just disappear and let the boys do their thing, you know, and it's like that's pretty great. And that that's Don and Glenn, you know, and when when it's when it was working, oh holy shit, you know. Enough said.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So what just real so just to be clear though, on your your role as a producer, how does that like like I said, there's like three names listed. So when you're there, you're the producer?
SPEAKER_01Um the producer for certain bands of that caliber, it it you could almost substitute the word facilitator or whatever needs to be done, that's what you will do. Like, um sometimes being the producer is nothing more than making sure the right microphone and vocal chain is selected, the lights are correct, making sure that everybody knows that there's food available, making sure that everybody knows this is going to be a quiet space, like this is like you put up the right sign, this is do not enter, private session, like being a producer is reading the room. Some days it's of a very technical nature. You carry the notebook, you know, which take, you know, because they're they're just singing. So there might be so many takes that if you're not the guy in the room just writing, you know, good, number 14, excellent, great, you know. So um it's an all producer is a is a catch-all. It's a term that can mean everything and nothing, you know. Like as Dylan once said, you're the producer, produce me a bottle of wine. You know, it's like, so, you know, I've been, you know, with Don, I've had very technical jobs with him, like where it's like I'm carrying the football. It's like nuclear codes, you know, like because we've been in three different cities recording this song, and I've got to know that the Nashville version, take 14 is the one with this correct bass player, and you know, it's it can be a lot of stuff, and re recreating vocal chains or recreating, or we have to call so-and-so back. What microphone, you know, making sure we have photo documentation, and you know, it's like, and you know, headphones gotta be right, you know. And then sometimes it's just a question of like you want barbecue? You know, and it's like that's the right good call, producer. You just save the session. We all, you know, like not showing up with a salad when it's barbecue day. It's like, it's a wonderful job. It's pretty stressful. I don't know that I've got much in, and that there's really no call for it anymore because everybody's working at home, everybody's got a DOS and everybody's got a way of recording, and uh demos are records. You know, if you if you want a if you want a good, you know, I'm just gonna say Pro Tools because it's kind of the de facto standard, but if you've got good files, good audio files, you're making records. You know. I mean, if they're just so awful that they've got an ambulance in the background or something, probably not unless it's that kind of record. But I mean you could make a record in this bathroom. That would be amazing, you know. If you kind of have your, you know, and the last six or seven years have I I've become a pretty good journeyman engineer. You know, I don't know if I'm a mixer, but but I can I'll I can record, you know.
SPEAKER_00Hey, how are you doing?
SPEAKER_02Good. Stan Lynch, talk to me about your two other side projects that you've got going on.
SPEAKER_01I love them. I they uh came to me pretty pretty much purely by accident. One is John Davis, he's a song singer-songwriter out of Dallas. Fantastic. I met him years ago in Nashville. We started writing, and uh in the process of our writing together, he decided that we should go ahead and make this into a band. So we have a band called the Speaker Wars. Are you on drums? I am playing drums and whatever else is needed.
SPEAKER_02And uh, so that's now would this mean touring?
SPEAKER_01I would hope so. At some point, yeah, it'd be fun. So you'd be down for that. Oh, yeah, and he's got this guy named Andy Timmins playing. We Andy Timmins. Not this guy, it's Andy Timmins is playing guitar. And uh he's fantastic. Andy Timmins, huh? Yeah, he's fucking great. So the band has got all the potential to be fabulous, and they're great guys, which is the number one thing at this point in my life. Is it a good hang? Right, you know, and um and yeah, John and Andy are fantastic. John's a great delivery system. Andy's obviously Andy's phenomenal. And uh, so we we we I won't say cobbled, but we we John picked the best of. And he said, This is what I want to release. And he's the brains of the outfit, and it's a it's cool. I love it. I love that I'm involved. I think he's trying to figure out what marketing even means. You know, what does that even mean? You know, once again, there's the music business. I take care of the music, I don't give a shit about them, I don't know anything about it. Then the other group I'm enjoying right now is a band called The Chefs, which is Dan Baird. If those of you don't remember, thank you very much. And um The great Dan Baird. The great Dan Baird. He is, and Joe Blanton, who is another fabulous uh singer-songwriter, guitar player in Nashville. Those two are are actually tight as ticks. And I'm sort of the third guy on the wheel. We made an instrumental record last year, and then uh we uh by berating Dan, we said, you know, you need you must start singing. So we made another uh the chef's Sing for Your Supper is coming out, I think next week or next month. So I got two projects that um I hope will get enough traction that I can just enjoy working with the guys, you know.
SPEAKER_02And by the way, both these are based in Nashville.
SPEAKER_01No, John, uh the speaker wards are based out of Dallas. Okay, which is where he lives.
SPEAKER_02So you're traveling to do the work?
SPEAKER_01Well, we had to do with everybody in COVID, we all had to do it all piecemeal. We were all working in quarantine.
SPEAKER_02You're tracking from home.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and we're file sharing. I got my studio up and running. I'm doing this for this or doing this for this, and so you're not so did you go to Nashville to record with the chefs first? No. Same thing. No, nobody would nobody would leave lockdown.
SPEAKER_02You know, we're all this is all during lockdown.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Got it. So this is what I did with my life for the last two and a half, three years or whatever. Now, would that be a project that would tour? I'd hope I it's possible. That's really down to Dan. You know, Dan, you know, I don't know, I'm not sure. Dan probably has even less interest than me. You know, but I love both, I love them both. Dan is just, I fell in love with Dan in the 80s on a uh Heartbreaker's tour. They were the open one of the open, they were the opening act, and I just fell for him like a ton of bricks. You know, I just this guy's the greatest. And and uh same with John. Like did I saw I'm kind of a it's an embarrassment of riches, and then between that and then Mike calling me, it's like yeah, I mean you can throw a dart and I go like, man, this is gonna be fun. A little renaissance here. Maybe interesting. Maybe. I mean and you're having fun playing drums again. I'm learning. It's um I'm only four gigs in. I mean, I've only played these songs four times. Well, do you still then have that sense of, oh shit, this one? Um, what happened Oh, I can't I've no, I can't see around the corners yet. You know, I'm like going, uh like and I'm waiting for somebody to send up a flare. Yeah. You know, it's like I can't predict. And you and I think to Michael's credit, he doesn't want me to predict. He is like broken field running, calling audibles. You know, he I think he's willfully making sure that nobody knows what the hell's going on. I think it's a I think it's a conscious decision. I'd have to ask him, but I don't want to. But I think there's part of Michael that he likes, he's a guitar player, man. You know, he wants to be inspired, and he's not gonna be as inspired if it's just okay, I know that after four bars, we all come, you know. Mike's like, man, if it's rocking, I'll keep playing. You know, like if it's just I'll cue you, I'll hold up the yeah, when I'm done, you'll know. Right. So, um or maybe I'm done before I started because I ain't feeling it, you know. You still play in tradition? I 99% of the time I try to. If I can't hear myself, then I go I go mashed. But it's usually it's a sonic thing.
SPEAKER_02Like I can't oh, you can just hit harder matched, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, or just I feel more secure. Like if you can't, if you can't hear like traditional for technical, there's a lot of shadow beats when you play traditional that just happen by accident. They're not really the ghost notes. Thank you. Yeah, and um when you don't hear your ghost notes, you tend to sound like you're making mistakes. Like if you're playing, like it's like, what? So then you there's no there's very few, well, Greg Bissinet plays great ghost notes with a match grip, and so does Ringo. I do not. I don't, I haven't figured, you know, I I can't play a decent double stroke roll match grip, you know. I can't do it, you know. It's like so it's a whole different style. And Matt is matched and he's power pocket the whole way. So I'm they're adapting to me, like, because I'm not, I'm like behind the beat as usual, and kind of like flopping through it, and that's either my charm or whatever it is. But they're they're they're finding their way toward me, you know, which is really nice. Are you coming?
SPEAKER_02I can't make it. I have a gig tonight. Oh, what do you where are you going? What are you doing? I'm doing the Austin Yacht Club, private party. All right, tell it tomorrow. Uh I think we're playing here two nights. I'm flying out tomorrow to LA. Well, get the fuck out of here then. I know, but I would love to.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I could I I I think I know somebody.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, I would love to apply the show again.
SPEAKER_01So is that your gig too? That's your gig too. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You know the deal.
SPEAKER_01I do. I mean, it's like but yeah, so great. So you you gotta get going.
SPEAKER_02I'm good, brother. Hey man, thank you for doing this.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. Did you get what you came for?
SPEAKER_02I love it.
SPEAKER_01Okay, good.