Nobody Knows Joe

Nobody Knows Joe is the podcast that proves age is just a number.

Hosted by Joseph - a hospitality veteran who’s spent decades in the restaurant and bar scene - this show is equal parts wild stories, unfiltered laughs, and hard-earned wisdom. Joe isn’t your typical 58-year-old. He still goes out. He still parties. And he’s still the life of it.

From behind-the-bar confessions to outrageous life moments, unexpected interviews, and surprisingly sharp advice, Nobody Knows Joe dives into the chaos, comedy, and clarity that only real experience can deliver.

You think you know Joe?
Trust us - you don’t.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Episode number two. Nobody knows Joe. One day we all will. And one day you won't. We don't know what happens in the future. But let's start talking about different things. My pa one of my passions is what I'm wearing. Music. I'm wearing a Led Zeppelin shirt. And Zeppelin was a great band, in my opinion. A lot of people say they stole a lot of music from other artists. But that's okay because they made it great to what they did. But in my belief is the Beatles still number one in the world, no matter what. They innovated everything. They brought so much so much to the music world that this day and age, again, I'm a lot older than everyone else. People talk about sampling. Again, sampling is cutting music in and out of different genres. That's my understanding. I could be wrong. But the Beatles didn't have to do that to get a number one hit like they do today. Rolling Stones, another amazing band. At 80, he's still rocking it. God bless him. Keith Richards, God bless him, still rocking it. And Zeppelin, you know, John Bonham, probably the greatest drummer. Paige, top ten guitarist. Love them both. Amazing, amazing talent. If I had a tenth of their talent, I would have been a rock star. But I don't. I have a talent for something else. That's my mind. And numbers. So I do that stuff, well, they do that stuff, so we'll continue just to admire them. I'm okay with that. You know, let's talk music a little, because I love music. You know, who in this city, I want to see Oasis in the summer. Another great band. Again, I went with the best person I know is my daughter. We've been to over a hundred concerts together. I've been to over 500 concerts, maybe a thousand concerts in my lifetime. I've met a few people. I had the privilege of meeting Mr. Ozzy Osborne back in what was it? 97, 98, when he performed the Black Sabbath. I got the honor to meet him. I got the honor of meeting Paul McCartney because a friend of mine got us backstage and I got to meet him. I met a lot of people. I'm I'm very thankful. I've I've lived a good life. Lost music. I love I love the old music, but today's music is great. You know, I'm a fan of Pitbull. Again, Lannon, great. I do not like JLo, I'm sorry. That that, sorry. Celine Dion, not me. Rage Against the Machine, they can do me. Alanis Morissette, rock and roll all day long. You know? Mariah Carey. I think she's only known now for her Christmas songs, you know? If I had a choice, it'd be like, eh, Christmas song, I'd still go with Wham with uh what's that song from Wham? Uh Last Christmas, you know, which is an amazing song. He was an amazing guy. Again, I don't know if I have to be born when he did his stupid stuff, but let him live his life. He wanted to be, you know, he liked to do what he liked to do, and that's okay with me. I'm okay with all that. You know, he kept it to himself, which is great. You know, everyone keeps it to themselves, everything's great. You know? And it's not like it's just happened, you know. Men like any man has been way, way, way before any of us have been born. Probably the 1400s, maybe the 1200s, even probably before Christ. You know, but to each his own and everything's fine, everything's dandy. But music, you know, again, you have wizards like Alice Cooper, who's an amazing artist. You have uh, again, female, so many female artists, Janice Joplin, Roberta Flack, uh oh uh Sister Sledge, that's the disco ones. Rocker's uh Grace Slick from uh Airplane, amazing voice.

SPEAKER_02 4:44

So it's a big shirt, right? Like look, look. I know, I know. I'll cut this part out, but you as long as you're cool with that, it doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Yeah. I'll I'll you know why it's a big shirt? Because at one time I bought everything double X, and now I'm down to maybe a small X or a large We didn't really talk about that.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

So the journey with that, you've lost 30, how many pounds?

SPEAKER_00 5:14

I've lost like uh what 29, 28, 29 pounds? In four months? In three and a half months.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

Is that the goal? Have you hit the goal? No. What's the goal?

SPEAKER_00 5:26

My goal is to be 220 and then bulk up, be 225 or be 230, but muscular. You know, that's very tired, it doesn't look good anymore. You know? I gotta work on that. I should have worked on that 50 years ago, but I didn't. I'm doing it now. God gave me a epiphany. He made me lose someone very important to me, and I gotta, you know, get myself back. And by losing her, I lost my I lost myself. And I don't know if I'll ever get her back, but I gotta get myself back. And to get me back is what I gotta do. And that is, I quit pop. I haven't had pop since September 14th. Uh me, my sister, and my daughter went to New York to see this thing called uh Savannah Banana. It's a baseball league, which is amazing. Fun for everyone. They do acrobats as they play baseball. So my daughter got tickets, I'm like, yeah, let's go, we'll have fun. We went, we had fun, and she's like, Dad, do me one favor. I'm like, well, just be yourself and let's eat. We're in New York City, we gotta have pizza, we have to have a dog, we have to have pretzels, you know, off the street, the cashews and all that stuff, and go to uh I think it's Dylan's candy shop and get candy and just you know eat at night and you know go to Raising Cane and all these things that are, you know, for me they're fattening and again it's another tire on your witch. I said, no problem for you, I'll do it. And when I get back, in the middle of September, when I got back, I'm like, okay, this is my golf. You know, and I know yeah, and you know what, music helped me with that too, because I listen to music while I go to the gym. You know, I look at concert listings of who's coming. I'm excited that Stain's coming to town. You know, we lost uh Three Doors Down, you know, we we lost Brad, I don't remember his last name, but another great artist. I was around in the 90s and Grudge was great. It's just another form of rock and roll, you know, and it took the 90s by storm until late 90s, I'd say, when gangster rap really came in, because gangster rap started in the late 80s, but really took off in the late 90s. You know, and then you had all these East Coast, West Coast wars and all that in the 90s, which was just, I think it's foolish. An artist and an artist, you know, let's just have fun with it. You know, in Toronto we have great bands. We have a lot of people in Toronto that, you know, are great bands, great venues, great concerts, but again, just like sports. Way overpriced. So you gotta bring it down for people who make not as much money as other people. And we gotta help culture has to be affordable in a way that a kid who's 16 years old or 15 years old and wants to go see Bruno Mars with his mom or dad, and they want to take it, it's not twelve hundred dollars for two tickets. It's like that's a lot of money. That's that's someone's that's half of a month's rent for some people. That's two grocery bills for a month. And that's on a budget. You know, Toronto has to really look at stuff, you know. Our politicians don't care. You know, they let Ticketmaster be a monopoly, you know, price gouging, bands have tried, Pro Jam has tried. It's hardest, it's hardest to to do that. And what did they do to them? And when awards in one award show, I remember this because I was watching the award show and Eddie Vetter comes up and he gets an award and he's like, I just like to thank the people who put this on because you put my table next really next to Ticketmaster. Do you think that was a good idea? The people I hate the most? But I'll sit there and I'll enjoy myself. And by him saying that, it was like a very cool thing to do. You know, calling out real topics. Today's music, again, to know I get to politics, but these artists are screaming different things which is not appropriate for them to scream or say, because they live in North America, they live in the same country you and I do. The only thing different is that they're blessed that they have a talent that we don't, and they make millions of dollars, and we don't. But they live in the same neighborhoods as we do, and they come up the same way we have. And now because they have a voice, they gotta use it for good. And to banter different things is not appropriate in any aspect, in anything. Because if you want to banter about one, a banter about all of them. Because there's no one right cause and there's no one wrong cause. All causes are are dear dearly to some people in their own hearts. And that's what you have to look at. And you have to respect both sides of everything. You gotta respect the good side, you gotta respect the bad side, and say it is what it is, and I can't do anything about it, but I'm not gonna add to the problem. I'm not gonna voice my opinion on stuff that will hurt someone. You just stay quiet. You get drunk with your friends, and you bang toward them. And then at the end of the day, you give yourself, you know, you tug each other, go to bed at seven in the morning, and do it the next day. And say, Do you remember? I'm like, no, I don't remember anything, buddy. But I sure had a good time, and that's all that matters. That's what life is about, I think. You know? So again, let's get back to music. Let's get back, you know, to like, you know, we lost many great people, you know. We lost, you know, Jim Morrison, which I love, and I want to thank Hayden for taking me to the bar that he went into in Venice Beach.

SPEAKER_02 11:53

You wouldn't you wouldn't eat there after he saw how it was homemade, but yeah. What was it called? The the whaler, right? The whaler. The whaler?

SPEAKER_00 12:01

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

No, no, no. Well I'll I'll figure the name out.

SPEAKER_00 12:04

Yeah, let me know which one it was. Yeah. Because again, I thank Hayden for taking me there. Again, like in the episode one, he took me to the Viper room where you know Axel Rose was, or Stevie Ray Vaughan, all these rockers were there. You know, and I just I love that, you know.

SPEAKER_02 12:27

Anno cafe.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

And and there was uh a plaque that he said was there one time, but we didn't see it. I think they took it down.

SPEAKER_02 12:36

Yeah, he carved his name in in like one of the seats. Okay. I think it's in the back, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

Yeah. You know, when I was in Paris, uh I can tell you, I was 21, 22 years old, I was backpacking Paris. And I was with my sister, and she's like, What do you want to do? I said, I'm going to Jim Morrison's grave. And she goes, Well, I said, Yeah, I'm going to Jim Morrison's grave. That's my day. And I literally sat there for well, heading there, I bumped into two girls from California. And again, I'm 21 years old from Toronto. I've never heard these names before, but I'll say the names. Alright. One was called Misty, and the other one was called Kendra. And just think, 40 years ago that name was not popular. So I would I didn't even know what those names were. So it was okay. It was cool. I I I rode along with them, they were going to this grave too. We sat there for, I don't know, five hours, the three of us, with all these different people, and everyone was telling stories. And one person told the story which captivated, I think there was like 12, 13 people around the grave. And this guy said the story that he was there one day on Jim Morrison's anniversary of his death, and these two bodyguards came with this lady in black veil and a rose. And she came, she put the rose down and she walked away. No one questioned, no one asked, and and that just touched me. It was like, that's what music is about. So being touched. You know, in in in ways that your heart feels and remembers. And the last time I went to Paris, I went with my ex. We went to the grave site. It was not the same. You've changed the uh the uh one time it was open, you can sit around to take pictures. Now it was like encased in thing that to keep you away from it. Because so many people go there. So yeah, Jim Morrison was one of my idols. Val Kilmer, Rest His Soul, Rest in Peace, did a nice job of him in the in the I think in the 80s doing the Jim Morrison movie.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

Back to Val Kilmer. You you know uh they're remaking Heat, or they're doing a sequel to Heat?

SPEAKER_00 15:02

No, I didn't know that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:04

You love that movie, no? I do love that movie. That movie's the best. The sound design, I know it's not music, but the sound design in that film was crazy. Like no uh weapons have sounded like that since.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

Yeah, no. Oh yeah. No, no, he was a good actor, good person, I heard. You know, all the power to him, rest in peace. Uh but when he did Jim Morrison, I loved it because I love Jim Morrison. Again, passed away beyond beyond his years, part of the 27 Club. You know, that 27 Club has a lot of amazing people in it. You know, the next one will be Jimi Hendricks, which I think is the innovator and probably the best guitarist ever to play. We wouldn't know if he would he would have got a lot better as time goes on. Just like Eddie Van Allen did when he was older. When you know when Eddie was, I don't know, 30s or 40s, he was amazing. If Jimi Hendrix just got to 30 or 40, how what would that sound like?

SPEAKER_02 16:13

You know what's cool about Jimmy is what I what I heard is um he never really played this game. So Voodoo Child, he there's like four different iterations of that song.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

Yeah, he probably was too high to remember the rest, you know.

SPEAKER_02 16:25

But it but all of them are good, it's just like a little slight thing here or there.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

But you know, you know what, you know what? Live music, that's what live music is. You can go to see a show on a Friday and the band plays. Go see the show again on a Saturday and the band plays the same song. I want to bet it's a little bit different and hit you a little differently. And that's why I love live music. That's why I love concerts, that's why I got my daughter into concerts. Again, a hundred concerts between me and her together is amazing for us.

SPEAKER_02 16:56

Did your parents get you into concerts back in the day?

SPEAKER_00 16:59

No, we grew up poor.

SPEAKER_02 17:00

So how well how'd you get into it?

SPEAKER_00 17:03

How did I get into concerts? My friends, you know, again, in the 70s it was only AM radio. And again, we grew up in a building, poorer, poor uh we weren't poor, we were lower middle class, how's that? Because we had food on the table, we had love in the house, you know, we you know, we would take road trips, you know. We until I was maybe twenty, I've never gone on an airplane before. That was the first time I went on an airplane. I back then I've broken up with my girlfriend, my sister and my cousin were going to Aruba. I was in a depression, I'm a wuss. When it comes to girls, I'm a wuss. I I I fall hardly, and when it comes out of it, it's even harder. Which is fine. You know, we all all guys are wusses in some aspects. But uh, yeah, they're like, we're going to Aruba. I'm like, okay, they're gonna get a flight, and you just stay with us. Of course, my sister, my cousin, like what do I care? And I did that. And again, we had the best time of our lives, you know, just on a whim. You know, I came back, I was like, you know what? I'll move on. And I and I did move on. And again, like I said, traveling experiences are different with everyone. I can listen to a song, and exactly at the same time you listen to a song, you feel different than I did. That song hits me in a different way than you do, because we all have different experiences. And that's the big thing about it. Because you know what? Just like no one knows Joe, no one knows anyone, no one knows how anyone takes, what makes them feel. And that's the great thing about life. Getting to know people and and partners in relationships, you get to know them and you learn. And that's the greatest thing, and and in a relationship you keep learning and you try your best to work with someone and you do as much as you can, and you just do as best you can, and that's all you can do. And you know what, in relationships, in life, in family, music is the big thing. And music is a very big thing in these days, because music you can drown yourself out in your room with headphones or an iPod or an i uh what's it called, ear ear pods on your phone. You can listen to music and get your mom's yelling out of your ear, get your brothers annoying out of your ear, get your sisters whining out of your head. And you just literally music is one of the most comforting things in the world. If you like rock and roll, if you like classical, if you like rap, if you like dance music, whatever it is it is. That's the greatest thing in the world. And you know, there's a place in Toronto again, that's called Jean Darlene Piano Bar, and it's an amazing place. People sing. You could go up and sing, and I've been there a few times, and I've gone up and they sang, and I had the you know, I had the the pleasure of doing a duet with my good friend, which I remember and it was amazing, you know? And you're not a rock star, but you're a rock star for five minutes when you're playing with the real band and you're doing karaoke. You know, it's not the same as a karaoke place where you know people are you know constantly talking or here you have an audience, you're like you feel like a rock star. Which is great. You know, you guys should all try it one day, you know. But music brings it into the world that a lot of things don't. And music helps if you have any kind of issues, from being bullied at school to being unseen in the hallways, to being the guy who has the learning disability, to being the someone who girls don't find attractive in high school. And you know what? All those things got me into music and sports because I was all of those. I was the guy who was invisible, I was the guy people made fun of. You know, there's words in this world that I can't say, like manilial, I can't say that word. If you paid me a million dollars, I couldn't say that word. Everyone has a speech impediment, which is cool, everyone has a stutter, which is cool, everyone has dyslexia, which is cool. It's okay to be yourself and it's okay to have a problem. Because you know what? Everyone has a problem. And you know who's dyslexic? Paul McCartney, one of the greatest songwriters of our time. You know, and if he can do it, anyone can do it. And if I have the balls, excuse my language, to sit here and talk, knowing that I grew up with a speech impediment, knowing that I was invisible, knowing that I was bullied and picked on. And today I'm 6'5, but when I was in school, I was the smallest kid in class. To sit and talk to you guys. It's one of the greatest things. And everyone's getting to know Joe. Because you know what? In reality, no one knows Joe.

SPEAKER_02 22:32

No more.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

And that's where we're going to leave off today. Alright? Have yourself an amazing week. And God be with you.