EP #10 - Slacker Dave Loves Jeremy Fifield

This is episode number 10 of the Slacker Dave Loves Nebraska podcast!

On this episode Dave hangs out with Jeremy Fifield at Duffy's Tavern. Topics include: growing up blind in Alliance Nebraska, having perfect pitch, deep diving bands, meeting musical heroes, singing with Shithook, driving while blind and so much more!

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:30

The one who loves all of us with through the slacker days loves Nebraska Slacker Dave loves Nebraska Slacker Dave loves Nebraska and now Slacker Dave.

SPEAKER_03 0:47

Hey everybody. Hi, I am Dave. I am your host uh for today. Uh thank you for all everybody who's been liking and subscribing and following and doing all those things up. Thumbs up. Uh well I don't think I've ever said rate and review. I don't know if that's a thing, but I've heard people say rate and review. So maybe I'll do that. But uh uh happy to be here today, happy to be here every week. Uh unless I miss a week, you know. It happens, it happened. But um, I am joined today. We're at Duffy's Tavern in the beer garden. I am joined today with Jeremy Fifefield. Uh I love Jeremy Fifefield, uh, great Nebraskan. Uh thanks, Jeremy. Uh I just gotta say, I don't even know how to describe you. Uh is just a friend to the music world. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

That's that's kind of tough. I yeah, uh, you know, uh there's there's probably several ways you could. Um that's you know, I don't have I don't have something cool like Matt, you know, Matt Steinhausen's got two books and Miles Chaznowski plays in a whole bunch of bands. Like I don't have I don't have a specific uh I mean I I probably do, maybe I'm like kind of downplaying myself here, but yeah, I I you know, yeah, I I think uh I try to I support a lot of things. I don't really describe myself as a fan. That seems like fan to me seems kind of kind of shallow surface level.

SPEAKER_03 2:24

Friend of the music friend supporter, yeah. That's that's what I'm more or less saying.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:29

Uh I think that's I think that's pretty you do come down, record some bands, bring your suitcase with you, yeah. Set up and uh record the band live at the bar. Uh uh, you are one of the most incredible singers with shit hook every on the Thursdays.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Um, those guys have tolerated me for probably way too long at this point. Uh yeah, no, those guys, they're they're a lot of fun. Um I've probably been singing with them off and on for 14 years now.

SPEAKER_03 3:01

No, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I kind of met you, and then really when I I met Amanda, then I really got to know you. Yeah. I just want to say, Jeremy, you're a great guy. Oh, by the way, uh if you're listening, it doesn't matter. But if you're watching, you might not know Jeremy Blind. Yep. Uh not born blind, right? Or what I was born blind, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

I got my I got my my fancy folding cane with me today. Oh, is that the uh is that the uh that's the fancy folding one going out on the that's the that's the going out to the that's like going out to places where I might want to dance, and I wouldn't I don't consider myself uh really a dancer at all, but I just kind of follow whatever the drummer does.

SPEAKER_03 3:41

Well uh that's that's uh everybody follow what the drummer does, in life, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:48

Yeah, exactly. So yeah, I've got my folding cane today. I don't have to bring a folding cane, but I I've kind of wanted one for a while. Uh just because it's it's just easier to it's not the kind of cane you want to walk like really long distances with, but it's you know, if you're if I'm coming down here, I can just set it on the table and unfold it when I go up. Yeah, yeah. I can unfold it when I actually have to get up and go do something.

SPEAKER_03 4:13

So perfect pitch?

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Yeah, uh fortunately or unfortunately, however you want to look at that. It uh yeah, uh perfect pitch is kind of one of those weird maybe you wouldn't call it weird. Um I I guess I I think of it as weird, but maybe it's just because I have it. But it's yeah, it's essentially the ability to identify notes like, for instance, the air conditioner that's kind of off to my right, uh knowing that it's B flat. It's the note that it's made that it makes. A lot of them make a lot of them are the same, a lot of them are B flat.

SPEAKER_03 4:50

A lot of them are B flat most a lot of motors?

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Yeah, a lot of motors are. Um it uh train horns have, and and they actually do have, they actually are kind of tuned to to different chords. Uh I saw an article in a train magazine once about that. Oh when I just kind of googled that one day, got a curiosity. Um but yeah, perfect pitch. It's basically that the ability to identify a particular note without a reference. Oh, see, somebody's phone just went off. That's that's a well no, that was don't be sorry, because that's that's that's a good example too. That was uh that was a C.

SPEAKER_03 5:28

C. Oh man. So do you think it's kind of like a xylophone? Is it just one of those things you walk down the street and you just you just uh listen in notes?

SPEAKER_00 5:37

I mean I yeah, I mean I I don't always so I'm not like always listening for notes and things, but I but I can. I mean it's it's it's it's it's definitely not a precursor to any kind of musical ability. I mean it helps with a lot of different it can help with I mean and it's it is pretty rare. It's probably like one in ten thousand people that have it, uh from what I've read. There's certain populations where the prevalence is higher. Uh I I'll get this out of the way. People think that blind people are just automatically good at music. I can assure you that we're not. Blind people are like any other part of the population. Some of them some of them are good at it, some of them aren't. Some of them are kind of in between. Uh but what I have found from reading different studies is that people born blind or blind very early on in life, there is a higher prevalence of perfect pitch in that population. There's a higher prevalence of perfect pitch in people with Williams syndrome, people with autism, uh, people that speak tone languages like Chinese and Vietnamese. I think even uh Japanese, uh I don't think it Japanese isn't a tone language, but it's it um I've I've heard it called a pitch accent language. So it's any language like that, it's you know, because like that in those languages, like the the the way you say a word, like the same word can have four, like three or four different meanings. So there's a higher uh prevalence of perfect pitch in a few different populations. It's not an automatic thing, but there's there is a higher prevalence.

SPEAKER_03 7:14

So well, I'm just gonna say you it makes your uh when you sing those Beach Boy songs uh and those early Beatles songs, it's just uh you nail those things, man.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Oh, thanks. I sometimes I go back and listen to recordings of myself.

SPEAKER_03 7:33

Never listen to yourself.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

Uh yeah, I remember the first time I ever did. Well, I don't I don't remember I shouldn't say I remember the first time, but I remember the reaction I had, uh, which was it was very off-putting. Nobody I think most people don't like the sound of their own voice. Um it's uh yeah, the like when I was a kid, the first time I heard a recording of myself, it did not sound like me. And it yeah, it really threw me off. Um because yeah, the recordings of yourself are the way other like when you hear that, like that's the way other that's the way everybody else hears you. And it, yeah, it can be really unsettling to figure that out.

SPEAKER_03 8:15

But it's, you know, I figured I don't know why I'm thinking this, but why isn't it the same? Why isn't it the same? I mean, I'm not I don't know. I don't know that's a whole nother podcast.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Yeah, I know. I've I've read up on that a little bit. I mean I think it's I think it's because it, you know, you're when you're hearing a recording of yourself, you're kind of when you hear yourself talk just in in real time, you're kind of hearing yourself from the inside out. You know, your bones, like I mean, you're you're hearing the voice come out of your body. Whereas if you're hearing a recording, you're just hearing it through the air. And you know, you're you're just you're hearing kind of the final, it's not being distorted by you know the bones in your ears and everything. Like, that's what I've read. That's a real simple explanation of it.

SPEAKER_03 8:57

But yeah, I think that's essentially what it is. Uh so last night, Amanda and I watched, I don't know how we got to it, we watched like a 15-minute documentary on uh sign language interpreters that do music.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

Interesting.

SPEAKER_03 9:17

And uh uh it was super interesting because it's not just the lyrics, uh they're kind of inventing their own little language, these interpreters, and people are understanding them where their movements and how they say the word, you know, like their, you know, their body movements and stuff. And it because I, you know, I th when I was watching it, I was like, wow, that's just I mean it's uh then we got on the would you rather see or hear and you know Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

I I I can't even really comment on that because Oh, I know, I know, you know. I just would say that.

SPEAKER_03 10:04

Yeah, it's oh yeah, totally. Right, right, right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

Yeah, it's I mean, I mean, I obviously like like we're all we're all biased in a way because we don't deal with the other thing. Like we like we don't of the the alternatives we use are totally different.

SPEAKER_03 10:21

Oh, I totally, totally understand.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

You know, but yeah, it's it's it's all different ways of experiencing the world, I guess, really. You grew up in uh Alliance, Nebraska. Alliance, Nebraska. Clear out in the panhandle.

SPEAKER_03 10:34

What's the most famous thing in Alliance? Car Hinge. Car Hinge.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

And and followed by the railroad, I suppose.

SPEAKER_03 10:40

Well um, those are Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um But uh uh so growing up in a town of Alliance, how many people? Eight or nine thousand. Eight or nine thousand because it's a bigger city. Yeah, it's a and the panhandle, right?

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Yeah, it's it's a bigger uh small town. It's it's not bigger like like Scotts Bluff is quite a bit bigger uh for the panhandle, but yeah, Alliance is is it's bigger than a lot of places. Um, you know, that might have two or three thousand. So it's it's it's uh a decent size.

SPEAKER_03 11:13

And uh uh so growing up as a a blind gentleman in Alliance, Nebraska, uh what was, I mean, I guess I I guess it's just whatever you experience is your experience, right? You know?

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Yeah, uh, you know, there were there were a couple uh blind people in Alliance. There was a guy, uh there was a guy, uh Chad Bell, he's he uh when I was like, I remember when I was like four or five, and so Chad's like six foot something tall, so he has a a he's got a taller, a taller cane than I have. Like I have a my cane is like 65 inches long.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Uh, you know, somebody that's because you want a long like the you want a longer cane to be able to get, you know, because if you're taking bigger steps, you know, you have obstacles. Uh and I remember as like a five-year-old, you know, reach and I couldn't reach in my hand up, and you know, I couldn't reach, I just thought it just like blew my mind that somebody had a cane that was like way taller than I was, and that I couldn't even reach the top of it. Uh, you know, as a four-year-old, uh five-year-old at the at the time.

SPEAKER_03 12:24

That was but yeah, I uh it's uh so you had somebody when you grew up that you could talk to about this.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Yeah, I mean I uh I had uh you know luckily I had good uh I had good teachers. I had a good uh teacher of blind students, uh Penny Hoover, uh, and a uh braillist Sandy Cruz, uh, and also another braillist, Kim Leaper, uh through part of grade school. Uh Penny Penny was with me all through high school. She she kind of she kind of taught me cane travel and just different oh, just various things. And technology, um she's the one that first taught me Braille when I was, you know, three or four. Uh a lot of a lot of blind students growing up don't get don't get an adequate uh education. So I was I was pretty fortunate in that regard. And you know, and and also just being in mainstream regular public school was um was good. I I uh they actually they were also uh pretty pretty big part of my musical development too, which was Oh yeah? Um my dad was too.

SPEAKER_03 13:44

Um would your dad play an instrument?

SPEAKER_00 13:47

Not at the time. Uh he does now. Uh he plays uh banjo and dobro and he's kind of messed around with guitar and drum and drums too. At the time, to my knowledge, he didn't, but he was he was the one that really got me into music. Um my parents divorced when I was two, but they've always like they've always gotten along, thankfully. Like they're, you know, they uh, you know, so I was fortunate there. You know, a lot of people's parents get divorced. They know they don't they don't get along when they're divorced. But mine mine did. Um but my dad was I got most of my music, those music tastes from my dad. Uh Queen was the first band I ever loved when I was like two, three, four, or something like that.

SPEAKER_03 14:36

Oh, those big anthems, those are just beautiful the greatest hits, the first greatest hits album.

SPEAKER_00 14:43

Uh my dad had it on a cassette. Um he had uh The game, that album he had on CD. My my grandma on my mom's side actually had that album on vinyl, and it got left in the car one day, and of course when you leave vinyl in the car, it melts and warps, and so that was crazy. That was the end of that. Yeah, or a frisbee or a candy dish or something. Yeah, uh that was the end of that uh copy of that album. But yeah, that was kind of the first thing. Uh my mom, my mom listened to a lot of 90s country, which I I liked for a little while, but I I didn't it didn't resonate with me as much as like the rock and roll stuff did. Um Queen. Um, like I say, they were the first, they were kind of the first the first band I ever loved. I my uh one thing that Penny Hoover, my teacher of blind students, did was we would do these things on Fridays called Out Out and About, and where she would go, we would go, maybe I was curious about something like, oh, it could be water towers, or it could be like cement trucks, or anything kids might be, you know, uh might be curious about. Well, anyway, well, one day, this was back when the radio station, KCOW, went off the air at midnight and came back on again at like six in the morning.

SPEAKER_03 16:08

Did they play the national anthem?

SPEAKER_00 16:10

They did. In fact, they still do. Um at six, and then obviously they're airing 24-7 now, but they but they still do it every morning. Um, but I remember my mom saying that it was going off the air, and I didn't know what that meant. I was probably like four or five, something like that. So I was curious about how our radio stations worked, and so Penny took me out to the radio station, and the guy who was the operations manager at the time, Mike Glessinger, he he took me in one of the production rooms uh and I recorded, and I actually found this uh several years ago. I re-recorded a tape of me, and I'm singing another one bites the dust, and I'm like little parts of Pretty Woman, uh Aurora Orbison. That was that was like the two. How old were you at the time? Probably f four or five, something like that. Oh wow. Uh I I didn't talk uh like early. I don't even remember when I started actually talking, but I think they I think they wondered if I couldn't talk. But I one day, and I don't remember this really, but Penny has told me years later that one day we were coming back from something. I was in I started preschool when I was like a year old. Um but like there was one day when we were coming back from something, I was like on her shoulders, and I'm probably I don't know, three, something like that. And I had just all of a sudden started singing Pretty Woman. Uh they didn't think I could talk, but I would sing. Uh unfortunately I would also start singing when people would try to talk to me. And then they had to even into like kindergarten and I would I would do that. Uh and they had to be like, no, you can't do that. You gotta actually talk to people. And but then I would but then I uh then I didn't sing in music class. Well you gotta sing in mu you gotta sing in music class, like that's uh so it was kind of an early sort of social development there, but uh but yeah, I I mean singing was always was always a thing uh for me. My dad, like I say, Queen was probably the first that was the first band I was ever really aware of. Um but others too. I mean he had he had a lot of different rock and roll the um Z Top. Uh he had that. He uh Pink Floyd and The Wall, that was one of my favorite albums when I was like five, six. Still one of my favorite albums. Yeah, still one of mine too. I listened to the first half, I think, more than the second half, but I listened to a lot of the song. I've listened to a lot of the same songs over and over again, which I I still do that. But um, yeah, that was one of my favorites. Um Pink Floyd. Sweet.

SPEAKER_03 18:59

Sweet It was another, yeah. Ballroom Ballroom Blitz, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

Ballroom Blitz, Wig Bam, Bam, Little Willy, those those songs. I sang those a lot. Um Box on the Run. Fox on the Run. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:10

That's uh I love Box on the Run.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

Me too. Me too. Um, I'd want to get shit hook to learn that.

SPEAKER_03 19:17

Well, they know it.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

Yeah, they know it. They just they just haven't done it yet.

SPEAKER_03 19:21

Don't they know every song ever made?

SPEAKER_00 19:23

But if they don't, they can learn it in like two minutes.

SPEAKER_03 19:26

Or they just 30 seconds. Or they just say we don't know it, and then they don't want to play it.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

Because they don't want to play it. That's yeah, we don't know what is code for I don't want to play it. Uh but yeah, so that was that was kind of my early uh and then and then my dad also got me into the Beach Boys later on when I was like 10, 11. It was like summer of 2002. There was a uh a program block on Nickelodeon called the Nicktoons Summer Beach House, and the theme song was kind of surfy.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

Uh and uh I remember showing it to him and it I think I I remember asking him what it sounded like, and he said it sounded like the Beach Boys, and uh my grandparents had a copy of it was Summer Days and Summer Nights minus two songs. Um it didn't have Amus Parks USA and I'm bugged at my old man, but it had it was a so they they took two songs off and retitled it California Girls.

SPEAKER_03 20:28

That was the first go with that hit name. Yeah, go with yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

But that was the first Beach Boys album I heard um from my dad.

SPEAKER_03 20:39

Um were you hooked instantly?

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Pretty much, yeah. I I uh I got later that year, I think he got me one of the greatest hits albums. One of my teach uh well my so the brailleist I had at the time, uh Sandy Cruz, she was she was more into the Beach Boys, Penny was more into the Beatles, the Beatles came later in 2005. Um but yeah, she she wanted me to learn Surfer Girl. Sandy did, and and I I I knew it, but I think I was just bashful and embarrassed and shy to sing it. Looking back now, the damn thing's hard to do. That's like four or five parts. Like you can't really, you almost can't do it with one person. But uh but in any case, it is one of the f my favorite uh my favorite songs. Um Pet Sounds, I didn't really I would go through phases. I still kinda still do, but I would go like every year it was a different band for me. Uh one year it was you know, for a while it was Queen, then it was C C R John Fogarty. My dad had four of the C C R albums uh on C D. Then I heard and then uh rock and roll. Yeah, that's Swamp Rock from people from California. Like you'd never know they were from they were from California.

SPEAKER_03 22:00

Don't discount that California because a lot of those people came from Oklahoma.

SPEAKER_00 22:03

Right, right. That's yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:05

You know. Uh and uh Oklahoma. Very underrated musical stage.

SPEAKER_00 22:13

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, the um CCR, Fleetwood Mac, um, that was another one, one year. Yeah, I I did. I kind of went in phases.

SPEAKER_03 22:22

Well, I think, I mean, I did that my whole I've I've done that my whole life where it's one band for a while. Yep. And then and then all of a sudden I'll start listening to something else, you know? Yeah. But I can always go back and listen to whatever you know I was listening to. Oh, yeah. It's not like, you know.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

Yeah, it never goes away.

SPEAKER_03 22:42

I think uh one of my bigger ones lately, I guess it was I guess it was a couple years ago. I don't know. I went on a John Hartford thing where I think I only listened to John Hartford for like six months.

SPEAKER_01 22:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:56

You know, and uh just you know, deep dive.

SPEAKER_00 23:01

Yo, yeah. And that's the way it goes. Like he, I mean, like I didn't a lot of these things kind of came around and connected all together, you know, years later. Uh you know, like like I had to kind of rediscover some like the you know, the Beach Boys I rediscovered later after I had found I actually John Lennon uh I got ex my dad, I got exposed to John Lennon and Black Sabbath on the same day.

SPEAKER_03 23:27

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 23:28

Um that was yeah, that was a that was a a fun that you might have to see a doctor if you do that, you know. Yeah, yeah, I was that was um yeah, War Pigs and Imagine. Uh that that was the same day for me. I was on, we were I was going to the eye doctor. The running joke, my my I don't know if it was my mom or somebody, the running joke when I went to the eye doctor was that they they're checking to see if I'm still blind.

SPEAKER_01 23:53

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

But um I I I I mean there had to be reasons that I I probably should still I probably should still go to an eye doctor, but I I because I do have light perception, like I can tell when lights are on or off, or like the general direction and intensity of light, but no save shapes or shadows or colors. But anyway, like couple like once a year I'd go just go look in there and make sure everything was was okay. And I then I think I was going to to that when when I uh when my dad uh yeah showed me those things.

SPEAKER_03 24:28

Showed me those that's a that's a strong, that's a strong day right there.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

Yeah. My my mom was always supportive and and still is well they're all they still are. Uh, you know, she would buy you know, like Christmas, she would buy instruments or you know, she'd one year she she bought an auto harp, bought me an auto harp one year, she bought me a drum kit one year. Uh, you know, she was always like I got more of my music case from my dad, but my mom was always.

SPEAKER_03 24:59

She she yeah, she uh And my stepdad. They were That's pretty cool. What was the first instrument you learned?

SPEAKER_00 25:07

Uh it would have been drums. Uh my stepbrother was uh in when he was in band, uh he had a drum kit, and I kind of just I it's funny, I'm right-handed, but he was he's left-handed, so I learned on a left-handed kit. And having to re-kind of wire my brain years later. I still I think that's still why I kind of have trouble with drums sometimes, because I'm I'm trying to like my brain eventually I had to r totally learn the kit the other way. Uh so I learned on a left-handed kit. Um, and I would just play along to Fleetwood Mac. You know, I'd play along to Go Your Own Way and Dreams, and I played I played along this like Wouldn't It Be Nice and Surfer Girl and things like that. So that was that was the first uh instrument. That was the first instrument I learned. My dad, um yeah, my my dad got me into a lot of the quite a bit of the other stuff I was into too, a lot of the uh trains. Um I had grandparents on both sides that worked for the railroad.

SPEAKER_03 26:18

Um, being out in Alliance in that area, that's a big high quality area, right?

SPEAKER_00 26:24

Yeah, that's that's railroad. I mean that's World's Largest Train Yard? North Platte.

SPEAKER_03 26:31

Uh yeah. North Party. The UP the UP North Platte.

SPEAKER_00 26:35

Yeah, the UP uh yard in North Platte. I think uh Bailey Yard is.

SPEAKER_03 26:39

Wait, wait, wait. No, I don't know. Now I'm now I'm brain brain parting right now.

SPEAKER_00 26:43

I think it is North Platte.

SPEAKER_03 26:45

It's it's um I can't, whatever. We'll figure it out later. Yeah, we'll we'll find out. Hey, you know what? We're gonna take a uh a little break here. We're gonna thank our sponsors. Yeah. Uh and uh we'll be right back. Hey y'all, I just want to thank uh Rourke's Tavern for sponsoring Slacker Dave Loves Nebraska. Rourke's Tavern, it's Lincoln's downtown, it's like a neighborhood bar right in the middle of downtown. We're at 1329 O Street, and uh you know Rorks I've always described as kind of like the backstage to the Lincoln uh musical community. They do fun things all year round, they got specials every day, they got two pool tables, they do dance parties, they got a chili cook-off every year. So you just want a nice, relaxing time, come on down, see Geordie and the whole family down here at O'Rourke. Thank you. Hey, want to give a big thank you to Rick Peters for sponsoring the Slacker Dave Love Nebraska podcast. Rick is an independent insurance agent, uh, AMS Insurance Center. The phone number is 402-476-3599. He's a great guy, great personal service. Amanda and I have been uh customers of his for years. Just a real good guy. You just you want to come see him. But the most important thing about Rick is he is a host of not one but two shows on KZUM 89.3 FM. Uh he hosts Rock and Bones on Friday nights from 6 to 7.30. Rockabilly and all that kind of related fun music, and then Tuesday mornings from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. It's the Sugar Frosted Chocolate Bomb Diggity Good Time Show. And you never know what you're gonna hear on there, but you know, they call him Rickabilly. I like to call him Rickopedia. He knows a lot, great shows. Thank you very much. Hey, uh, I just want to thank uh Pete and Amanda from the Zoo Bar for sponsoring the Placker Dave Loves Nebraska podcast. Zoobar, wonderful place. Uh live music almost every single night, sometimes most of the weekends, twice a night. Uh Zoo Fest, July 10th and 11th. Put that on your calendars. But thanks, Pete. You rule. All right, hey, oh, hey, Jim and Mary are leaving. Bye. Bye. Bye, have a good night.

SPEAKER_01 29:33

Thanks for the podcast. We love you.

SPEAKER_03 29:35

Uh, love you guys. Love you guys.

SPEAKER_01 29:37

Don't roll with all that peps. Not yet.

SPEAKER_03 29:41

All right. Hey, thanks. Uh I want to thank uh the Zoobar and Rourks and uh Rick Peters for uh being a sponsor on the uh Slacker Day Blubs Nebraska podcast. Um also want to remind people uh I have a show on KZUM. I do it every Thursday called uh the Slacker Morning Show. Um and uh if you don't know KZUM, check KZOM out because there's a show for you all the time. Every kind of music. Every two hours the music's gonna change. You got blues almost every week, three, every weekday, three to six. Uh that's really the only consistent thing about uh KZUM, other than a Monday show is a Monday show. Monday at 6 a.m. is uh one show. You do what you do whatever the heck you want, you play whatever you want. Yep. Some people are pretty amazing. You should have a show on there, Jeremy.

SPEAKER_00 30:40

Yeah, you know, I've I've thought of that. I I think the biggest obstacle for me is just time.

SPEAKER_03 30:44

Time, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:45

You know, uh I but I you know I I love being able to do beta radio once in a while. Beta radio is fun because you can kind of come in and do whatever you want. Uh I mean, and it's also for new programmers to kind of get their toes in the water.

SPEAKER_03 31:01

Uh test out, yeah, we want to test out a show.

SPEAKER_00 31:04

Test out a show, an idea for a show. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I I love doing that. I've been on uh I've been on Hardy's show, Strawberry Fields, Hardy Home uh on Tuesday afternoons. He's he's kind of his time slot has shifted a little over the years. The first time I was ever on there was on Thursday night. And then the next year it was on Wednesday night. Uh and then and now it's Tuesday. But uh yeah, his show is fun to do.

SPEAKER_03 31:30

Uh amazing show. Hardy always does an amazing show. Uh for those of you who don't know, Hardy, also a blind gentleman in Lincoln who sings with shit hook a lot. Uh I'm oh, by the way, you yeah, of course you can't see Jeremy, but I'm wearing a uh a shithuk t-shirt. Oh, I should have worn. I should have I thought about that actually. I'm wearing uh this one is when they were still at Duffy's. Yeah, yeah. Uh I did a poster for a minute. I went on a little uh a binge where I was making all these posters for bands. I was screen printing them and spray painting all this stuff. And this is one I did for those guys. It was the king of clubs. But I made these posters and I only made one shirt. I just made myself a shirt.

SPEAKER_00 32:11

Well, and you were kind of the one, you were the kind of one that started that that whole thing.

SPEAKER_03 32:16

Yeah, I get blamed for that. Yeah. I, you know, they still, I don't know. I sometimes I think they still hate me for it, you know. Uh that's I I need to have Shithuk on the podcast. That's an amazing band with amazing history.

SPEAKER_00 32:33

Well, you can have about a whole season.

SPEAKER_03 32:35

I don't know if uh uh I don't know if Dave Boy is uh gonna go and do his uh national park trips this year. That's a cool gig. He uh plays uh acoustic guitar at national parks.

SPEAKER_00 32:47

Yeah, I I went down and saw at the Zubar hit his acoustic step. And he even when you're like sitting inside a place, like you can just tell, like the way he wrote that stuff. You can totally tell that he uh you you feel like you're sitting out by a stream somewhere, like just the way he wrote it.

SPEAKER_03 33:05

Oh man. He I've seen some pictures of some of the locations they have him play at. Oh man. Oh my god, uh uh just the beautiful uh scenery and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 33:16

It comes through in the music, definitely.

SPEAKER_03 33:19

Um yeah, yeah, yeah. So uh what was I gonna mention? So your love of uh Brian Wilson.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:28

Uh then you you've met him.

SPEAKER_00 33:33

I did. Uh Hardy and I both did actually. Uh uh we Yeah, it was uh 2011, July 31st. Uh it was right after the first a lot of the I've realized over the years a lot of the best things have happened a lot of the best things happened in July. Uh that year in particular, I saw the ocean for the first time that year. I was in Florida on the fourth.

SPEAKER_03 33:56

Uh oh, that the the noise, right?

SPEAKER_00 34:00

And even just the waves, like even when you're just in real shallow water, like the it's it moves. It's just a constant, yeah, it's constant movement.

SPEAKER_03 34:08

I was amazed the first time I saw the ocean, the seriously, of the noise.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:13

We camped right on, like literally pretty much on a beach, you know. Uh I mean, away from that, you know, we weren't gonna get hit by the tides and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, but I it's like laying there, you know, it was hard to go to sleep because it's just that constant right, right, that constant sound, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:32

Yeah, that happened that year. I was in Florida uh for an event, and then I and yeah, the on the 30th, uh Hardy was opening for the Jerry Pranksters at Dugan's pub for the Jerry Garcia birthday bash, KZUM benefit.

SPEAKER_03 34:48

They're doing that again this year.

SPEAKER_00 34:49

Oh, cool. Yeah, I need to keep it. Eric brought it back last year. Oh good. Yeah, um so and I wasn't 21 yet, I was 20 at the time, and I caught like a cup like I his set, I I caught all of his set, and then I I caught the uh a little bit of the Jerry Pranksters and then went back um back to the apartment I was in at the time. Um and then the next day, we and a couple other friends, we went to the surf ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa.

SPEAKER_03 35:19

Um, historic.

SPEAKER_00 35:21

Yeah. We didn't make it to the Buddy Holly uh crash site but when we were there, but we did go to the surf ball. The day before, I don't know, I've I I had this weird idea in my head that maybe what if we what if we met Brian Wilson? And I remember going to Recycled Sounds record store when that was down on 9th and O by Knickerbocker's. Um and uh buying a couple things just on the off channel, you know, and my and of course I took it took them with me. We left at like nine or ten in the morning. I remember stopping somewhere along the way to get a drink or something, and the vending machine was broke, and Hardy kind of tried to because he was he had a vending business at the time and he was like trying to work on maybe try to fix it. And yeah, we we I think we got a drink anyway. We got there like shortly before four. We were just kind of walking around outside, because there's not really a lot around. Uh, and it's a comparatively smaller place, a couple thousand people maybe.

SPEAKER_03 36:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:29

Um and then and we saw that there was a bus. And so we went over to the bus. And the next thing I hear is O'Brien's signing autographs, and I'm like going, oh my god. Like, and I was nervous. And I think I think looking back, I was more nervous for his sake.

SPEAKER_03 36:48

Uh you know, Brian Wilson was Oh, yeah, he's had he had issues.

SPEAKER_00 36:54

Yeah, he had a lot of mental health struggles over the years.

SPEAKER_03 36:57

I wouldn't say issues is the correct word.

SPEAKER_00 36:59

No, but you know struggles, um, mental health problems over the years. And you know, I think you know, people called him a genius or whatever. I don't know that he thought of himself as that. Uh I think he just worked hard for what he did, and uh he just knew how to do harmonies and you know wasn't uh probab no probably not much of a people person. Um and remember, you know, we we got up to the bus and uh you know the the whoever the security person uh was was there, he was kind of one at a time, and you know, he gets to me and what's your name? And I said, Jeremy. He said, Brian, this is Jeremy, shake his hand. And I kind of threw me off because I thought he was kind of talking to Brian like he's a kid or something. Like what's what's going on here? And probably they were just you know, probably he was just trying to keep him, you know, moving comfortable, happy, you know. I don't know, but uh I uh anyway, before I before we left, I well obviously I told him it was nice to meet him, and before we left, I told him I liked his Gershwin album. He had just put out an album the year before of of George Gershwin covers, and that was one of his Rhapsody Blue was like the first thing he ever heard. And a lot of Beach Boys fans wouldn't necessarily think of those things, but it you know, if you don't kind of dig deep. Because that was one of his influences.

SPEAKER_03 38:31

I can know I can like hear it kind of.

SPEAKER_00 38:34

Oh yeah. Yeah, you can totally hear it in the harmonies. Uh and so yeah, I told him. And I I didn't get a record signed, I actually got an after-show pass signed, and I have that in a ticket, the tickets uh framed. Uh Hardy, I don't remember this, but Hardy I do remember Hardy.

SPEAKER_03 38:52

Did you get a picture?

SPEAKER_00 38:53

We didn't get a picture with him, with Brian, no. Um Hardy actually said he uh I do remember him introducing himself, but he actually said he's he stepped up on the bus and put his hand on Brian's shoulder and told him he that his music made his life better. Um I don't remember that, but I was also really nervous out of my mind at the time, I think just because it you know those are always kind of a fine line, because you know, the at the end of the day, these people are people too. Yeah and they deserve to be treated as such, I think. You know, no matter what they've contributed uh in some ways their the pain that they've dealt with has been what made the art made the art. And you know, I I think it's acknowledging that is is a is a good thing. But yeah, it was it was a fun show. A lot of Beach Boy songs and Gershwin songs. Um it really was one of the best uh one of the best shows. But yeah, that and local music and seeing the ocean, all that happened in in July of that year.

SPEAKER_03 40:03

Wow. Uh Paul McCartney, you've met?

SPEAKER_00 40:06

Yeah, that was also in July uh 2014, July 14th, uh when he played in Lincoln. Um kind of started at the zoo bar, actually. Um I most of the best things that have happened to me in the last like 14 years I owe to the zoo bar and Duffy's uh and really just downtown. Um but you know, shithuk, for instance. But yeah, I was Zoobar is part of what has made me realize how small Lincoln really is. And I was Hardy and I got tickets to that show the same he got the tickets. I had a class that day. So he got the tickets, uh since I couldn't make it to the box office when they went on sale. But we were he was gonna try, he thought there was gonna be a press conference. And so he was gonna try to get a press pass.

SPEAKER_01 41:06

Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:09

And I I was a student, I was a broadcasting major at the time, and I thought about trying to do something through the college, but I'm like, well, I'm kinda I'm a nobody, like who who am I? Who the hell am I? Uh so I sent the information to him, like the person that did promotions for the the arena, and that person actually got back to him and told him they liked his show. Uh there wasn't but there wasn't gonna be a press conference. Uh meanwhile, at the same time, I was just kind of making conversation in there one day with a guy, uh kind of a semi-regular Zuby regular Larry Bond. And I had seen Larry I liked Larry. Yeah, he's a real real great guy. I had seen him coming back for we were both at Z Top earlier that year in March when they played at Pershing. It was the last show I I caught two shows at Pershing, Three Dog Night and Z Z Top, and that was uh Z Top. Uh we we walked back to the Zoo Bar after that show.

SPEAKER_03 42:09

Well Three Dog Knight never wrote their own song. Ever? They ever write a song?

SPEAKER_00 42:15

Uh I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 42:16

I don't know if they've ever wrote their own songs.

SPEAKER_00 42:19

Yeah, that I don't know. I haven't done as much of a deep dive with them, but I I knew they But man, those guys could sing. Oh yeah, the harmonies in that were really there's a lot of there are bands like that that I hadn't done a deep dive in, but I knew they were important, so I really I knew that I should see them. Uh Three Dog Night was was one of those. Um and yeah, I so we had anyway, so I knew Larry from that, and just from Zoobar. Well anyway, so I was just kind of talking to him one day about this whole idea that Hardy and I had for getting a press pass. And then he proceeds to tell me he's the mayor's brother-in-law, and he's gonna see what he can do. And I thought, well, that won't go anywhere. That'll never that's a nice idea, but that'll that'll never go anywhere. Well then a couple, you know, a couple months later at Zoofest, when I had you know, I knew there wasn't gonna be a press conference, so I thought, well, you know, it'll all still be at the show and it's gonna be the best show of my life.

SPEAKER_01 43:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:24

Well, I I ended up I ended up introducing Little Ed, Little Ed and the Blues Imperials, and then like shortly after that, I I saw Larry. I think I was coming out of the bar, and I mentioned the McCartney show. Because literally the McCartney show was like two days after the second dent at Zoo Fest. And uh he says he'll talk, he says he'll talk to Chris. A couple hours later, I'm sitting there during Kelly Hunt sent. Guy comes up, he says, You're Jeremy, right? And I said, Yeah, and he said, Chris Byler. I said, Oh, Mayor Byler, it's nice to meet. So we kind of got talking about music and He was at Zoopest? Yeah, he was at Zoofest. And he was there the next year too. Which which I really like. I like when local uh local politicians and and really that's the way it should be. You know, they should be accessible to everybody. Um, I think. And that you know, I like when they when they c come to things like that. Um and you hope that they do it because they really want to be there. Um, and I think and I and and he he definitely did.

SPEAKER_03 44:29

I he I you know he was real nice and uh There's a story about uh Bob Carey used to come into Dumpies to see Hank. Oh yeah. Did you ever get to meet Hank? I don't think I did, but I've heard stories about Yeah, they're all true.

SPEAKER_00 44:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 44:46

Uh uh and yeah, because uh Hank Hank was here forever, but uh yeah, yeah, like Bob Carey would pop in to see Hank.

SPEAKER_00 44:55

Yeah, I love that. I mean that's that's like I said, that's the way it should be. Um yeah, so we, you know, I I uh I remember that that I had just started like that Monday. Like in the so so Mayor Butler tells me to call, call, call my office Monday, and you know. It's funny because when I called the person they seem to be expect it kind of sound they it sounded like they were kind of expecting my call, like the just the way they were talking about it.

SPEAKER_01 45:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:25

Uh of course I still didn't think that you know that was gonna happen. Um I had to go sign paperwork saying that, you know, we we can't put the you know, we can't distribute any photos or anything. Um so that was a you know, a pretty standard I called uh I I was I had just started a new uh well, it was the same job but in a new area at UNL. I was testing I was doing stuff with websites uh for for UNL, kind of testing out uh making sure they worked with the with the keyboard and um making sure blind people could use them specifically, but um I also kind of taught myself web design in high school, so I I kind of thought I could go a little bit beyond just what I was asked to do in that way, but uh yeah, I I had just started at a new part by the way like a new department.

SPEAKER_03 46:20

By the way, you know what Hardy would say.

SPEAKER_00 46:22

What's that?

SPEAKER_03 46:23

God damn five. I can't do my Hardy voice right now. God damn cyborg.

SPEAKER_00 46:29

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:30

He always calls you a cyborg.

SPEAKER_00 46:32

Yeah, so yeah, yeah. Oh man, some something like that.

SPEAKER_03 46:36

Yeah, I alright, so we're going to go.

SPEAKER_00 46:38

So so yeah. Uh anyway, I can make a long story long. But yeah, um I love it. We so I I when I got off work that day, I worked till like noon that day, and when I got off, I called uh Mark Beckwar, who was driving a cab. Uh at the tether, that's another thing I've always liked about Lincoln, the the cab drivers that we've gotten to know over the years. Mike Snell's another one. Um anyway, I called Mark and he came and took me down. And I went here by signed the paperwork. Um we went and signed, I went and signed the paperwork. So I didn't tell a lot of people what was going on. I didn't make them want to make a frenzy or anything. And I, of course, I'm still like not really thinking this is gonna happen. I was like 90% sure it might happen.

SPEAKER_01 47:27

Oh, totally.

SPEAKER_00 47:28

But uh long story short, got there. Uh I found another friend on the way into the show, and my phone was about dead. Oh, damn. I had to and I didn't have a smartphone yet then. I took me a long time to finally cave in and get a smartphone, cave in and get an iPhone. But uh anyway, I saw I had I I had to go, I had the the seat numbers written down on a piece of paper. Oh, yeah. Uh and I had called, they had called their the arena management to tell them what was going on too, because I thought, well, we better cover this from my angle, so I'm not going to be like, who the hell's this weirdo? You know, if I walk in there and uh anyway, we kind of I actually talked to Paul's publicist for a little bit. A guy uh named Steve Martin, actually. Uh um nice guy. Uh and I kind of asked him things I might ask that I might have wanted to ask Paul, uh, but I didn't want to you know make it awkward or anything like that. Um I actually asked him about, because it wasn't a big secret that when the Beatles did the anthology project in the 90s and did two new songs with John Lennon's demos, that they had a third one that they started on but never finished. And I wanted to ask him about that. And Steve, in the in the nicest way possible, he was like, eh, don't ask him. Like, okay. Like, he was totally nice about it. So of course I didn't, and then you know, nine years later, that song actually they they finally finished it now and then, and it came out. But but uh yeah, we and I remember standing there with with uh Mary Beitler and and Judy, wife Judy, Larry's sister, uh, and uh I kind of heard I heard this voice off off in a hallway off to our left, and I I I was like, that's him right back there. They couldn't see him. He was like in another, you know, and then so yeah, he came in and and uh he kind of he kind of had fun with Judy. He was like, hey Judy, hey Judy. Uh so that you know, kind of hey Jew, then he had hey Paul had fun with that. He would he was like every bit as charming as you would have you would think he would be. I wasn't really nervous with him because Paul, you know, Paul's always been a lot more of a people person. Um and you know, he uh he was real nice, and I told him that um he he I told him I'd liked music since I was like three. He said, you know, it's a great thing. He said that's great. He said it's a it's a it's a great thing to get into because it's a positive thing in life. It said, uh, you know, the greatest thing is when someone says, you know, your song helped me through this or that, and that's where I got into it. Um and then we got a and then we got a photo, and it was I wasn't even to my seat yet when the show started. Uh eight days a week uh came came through. And but yeah, it really that whole thing kind of started, it really kind of started at the zoo bar.

SPEAKER_03 50:47

Um small world thing always is amazing, right?

SPEAKER_00 50:51

I know, it it is.

SPEAKER_03 50:53

Well, uh I got a couple quick topics I want to talk about. Yeah. Tell us about your radio, is it Christmas? Every Christmas?

SPEAKER_00 51:04

Oh yeah, uh New Year's Eve.

SPEAKER_03 51:06

New Year's Eve.

SPEAKER_00 51:07

Yeah. Uh yeah, on Alliance, on the uh KCOW in Alliance.

SPEAKER_03 51:12

So you do a What was that again?

SPEAKER_00 51:13

Yeah, uh KCOW in Alliance. KCAW. KCOW.

SPEAKER_03 51:17

KCAW.

SPEAKER_00 51:18

Um same radio station that I went to when I was, you know, five, four or five. Uh they do uh since like 2009, they've done a a New Year's Eve show. And we just kind of um we play kind of party party music kind of things you can dance to. Uh like celebration by cooling the gang. We've started the show off with that uh several a few times. You know, just kind of upbeat things and we there's little sound bites from ABC News that we that we throw in kind of year in review type stuff, things that movies, music, culture, kind of.

SPEAKER_03 52:01

How long have you been doing that?

SPEAKER_00 52:02

They started in 2009. I missed the first year, but I've been on every year since there was one year I wasn't in person, 2022. I had a wedding. So I actually spent New Year's in Lincoln that year for the first for the first time. Um, which was it was kind of mixed emotions because it was fun to be in Lincoln. I actually saw the Jerry Pranksters that night. Um, and that was the last time I saw him. But uh also it was it was kind of sad to not be on the radio show in person, but I we called in.

SPEAKER_03 52:31

How'd you get how'd you hook up with that? How'd you get going on that thing out there? Because uh what's uh what's his name? Uh uh Crone. Crohn. Uh Kalen Kalen Crowie. Crowey.

SPEAKER_00 52:41

Yeah, he well, so and then what's the other guy's name? Uh Jason Wentworth is the program director. What do they call he has a nickname, right? Wenti. Wenty uh Wenty and uh Kaylin is either K-Man or Croheim. He's got a few nicknames. Um yeah, well, so there were a couple other times I mentioned earlier that tape that I have at the radio station from when I was like five.

SPEAKER_01 53:07

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:08

A couple, a few years later, I did another. There were a couple other times in grade school that I went to the radio station again. Um and the the last time, uh I kind of remember meeting Jason that day. Uh, but then like several years later, right after I graduated high school, we did. I don't know, uh one of my so that I was on the speech team in high school, and the guy that drove the bus, Kevin Horn, he was the news director at the time at the station. And so he I always did speeches every year that were kind of that were on things that I really kind of geeked out over. One year it was John Lennon, one year I did a speech on uh Lucy, the human ancestor from Africa, uh, that was named after a Beatles song. That wasn't why I did the speech, but it was just because of my interest in science. But um and then I did a speech on George Carlin. Uh and I did a I did a speech on blindness, my senior year. That was an entertainment speech. Um I actually ended up going to state that year and one and won uh entertainment speaking in state that year, which was You won. Yeah, I did. It was a lot of fun. It was uh, you know, and regardless, the the speech speech was just fun. It was fun to just talk for eight minutes on some whatever topic uh it was.

SPEAKER_03 54:34

Double G, Greg Moeller comes on the show, was a guest a couple podcasts back. He's a speech coach.

SPEAKER_00 54:40

Yeah, he's a speech coach. Yeah, I forgot I yeah, I I forgot he was a speech coach. Um that that's really one of those small world things. But yeah, so Kevin uh so Kevin Horn, news director for KCOW, drove the bus, and so he introduced me again to Jason Wentworth, and we did a like a three two or three hour show on the Beatles, uh, and Bob Dylan and the Beach Boys. And uh then kind of the rest is history. They've I've done we've we typically every year we do a big Thanksgiving, like a day before Thanksgiving show. Um a lot of these bands will put out like box sets later in the year, capitalize on the holidays. Yeah. Uh so we've done a lot of that's been most of our Thanksgiving specials. And then the New Year's Eve show, um every year we've done, and then they also do internet radio shows. They're you wouldn't call them podcasts because they're actual scripted shows. Um and but they I I've been on a lot of those too, but yeah, the New Year's Eve show is is a lot of fun. It's a four-hour show, but it doesn't feel like four hours, it feels like about 20 minutes.

SPEAKER_03 55:54

That's the best. So now is it true that you've driven a car?

SPEAKER_00 56:04

I have once. Uh drove go-karts a few times. Oh. Um not not a lot, but yeah. So the one time I drove a car.

SPEAKER_03 56:15

Wait, go-karts. Let's go back to go-karts. Go karts. Before the car?

SPEAKER_00 56:18

Yes. Yeah, the go-karts were before the car.

SPEAKER_03 56:21

Was it on a track or just out in the open? No, kind of. Kind of going up and down the lane.

SPEAKER_00 56:25

Kind of at my dad's. It was at my dad's in the driveway. Um I didn't do a whole lot. I basically just did donuts. I just kind of drove.

SPEAKER_03 56:35

That's that's nothing wrong with doing donuts, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 56:38

But yeah, I I um but yeah, I drove a car when I was like 13. My stepdad and I went out on these country roads, and he just kind of would count down like when I needed to stop and when we needed to. So so we're we were gone for several hours. My mom was wondering where we were at. So we're this is where it gets interesting. Uh we we're getting close to the highway, so we better switch. So we pull over, I and we switch places and we we take off. Then we had to stop and wait for a train. And then he sees a cop behind us. And the cop kind of the cop got out of the car and kind of walked around a little bit. Then he got back in, and then we then the train was the train was gone. We we we left. And the cop kind of followed us for a bit and then turned off.

SPEAKER_03 57:35

Wait, are you driving or no?

SPEAKER_00 57:36

Uh by this time I wasn't driving. Okay, okay. We had switched by it. But but we were like, this is gonna go one of two ways. This could go one of two ways if we get stopped. The cop is either gonna laugh, the cop's either gonna laugh his ass off, or we're both gonna be in deep shit. Because, like, you got a blind 14-year-old driving, driving a gravel. Too young to have a license.

SPEAKER_03 58:04

Country roads, gravel roads.

SPEAKER_00 58:05

Country roads, gravel roads, like, yeah, county roads. Uh that was probably gonna go one of two ways. But yeah, we didn't get stopped. It was fine. We made it home. Um, yeah, that was that was uh just grabbed the other hand. That was the one time I drove a car.

SPEAKER_03 58:24

Um just the one time you've never driven again?

SPEAKER_00 58:26

I've I've kind of been like I've been, I've held the wheel. I've held the steering wheel, like if we were going straight a few times or.

SPEAKER_03 58:36

I think we need to uh there is a find a private road to go and uh drive, let you drive the car again. Or a big giant party. We won't be breaking any law while we're doing this. Yeah, let's go do it on private property.

SPEAKER_00 58:51

There is a photo of me from year from like 10, I don't know, 11, 12 years ago of me sitting in a in a in the driver's seat of a car. Uh we kind of we kind of staged a photo up. It was fun. Uh didn't actually drive that day, but yeah, it was it was fun. Um uh driving a car.

SPEAKER_03 59:07

It was a little rushed when you're at that age.

SPEAKER_00 59:10

Yeah, a little bit. I mean, I I wasn't I wasn't super nervous, I don't rem think, but but yeah, it was it was a fun, it was a fun time.

SPEAKER_03 59:18

Well you never seemed nervous to me, Jeremy. You always seem like you're calm, cool, collected, like like uh you tell me something, I'm gonna believe it, right? Like I don't see any nerves out of you.

SPEAKER_00 59:30

I I can get nervous. Uh honestly on the radio. Uh radio's like I kind of have to get into a mode when I do radio. Like, I think I learned radio best by mimicking other things.

SPEAKER_01 59:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:46

Uh when I was a kid, uh yeah, radio radio is one of those, I mean, because the the thing about radio is I I do deep dives on things and I'll try to get to a point where I can talk about it naturally um just by what I know about whatever music I'm playing. But actually, I mean, but it is there's kind of a lot of multitasking involved, you know. You're trying to make sure levels are okay and trying to make sure you have all the right buttons pushed, and and what am I gonna say next? You know, like I don't get like super nervous, but I do. There's always like and I'm perfectionistic to a fault. So if something goes kind of wrong, I'm like, eh. But I actually do kind of get nervous.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:37

Uh all right, Jeremy. We're gonna switch it up here quick. We're running out of time. We gotta do Alliance, Nebraska.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:44

Uh Panhandle north of uh what do you turn to get to Alliance?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:49

Uh I'm sure.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:50

What highway is that, do you know?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:52

Oh, I'm trying to remember now.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:54

I know it's kind of like on Highway 2.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:56

Yeah, it's on Highway 2. So, well, the things I can tell you, Shatterns an hour north of it, Scotts Bluff's an hour southwest of it.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:03

All right, there you go. There you go. That helps. I do hours. I'm born in the Midwest. Uh I'm from the small town. I everything's how far away is that? 25 minutes.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:12

Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:12

You know.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:13

It's funny because Lincoln, I know Lincoln a whole lot better than I know Alliance. Because I never really was forced to travel on my own in Alliance. Because you know, when you're that, I mean, when you're that age, you know, you get driven everywhere. Yeah. Where people pick, you know, you get rides from so I I haven't learned Alliance as well as I know.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:29

Let's ask some Alliance questions.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:30

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:32

Uh where are we eating in Alliance?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:36

Ooh. Um.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:38

I will just tell you, uh, when Amanda and I were there, we ate at this bar that had pizza. That was kick-ass.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:46

Was it uh was it the gallery spot?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:48

I have no clue. Good idea.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:49

They have good food. Um some things have changed there. I it it's hard to even keep up now. Uh I know there's a I know there's a donut shop. Um I'm gonna blank on the name of some of this now. That's a good one.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:04

Um you can bet.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:06

Kennan Dale's is a good uh restaurant. Um I usually get a burger when I go there. Um there's a couple uh there's a couple good Mexican restaurants there. One of them I there's one that I can't remember the name of because it's changed names a couple times. But um, yeah, those places are good.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:31

Um Okay, we're going out for a night on the town where we're drinking. I know you don't drink.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:38

Not very often, once in a while.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:41

Ooh, um gathering out. Do you have a spot when you go back to town to go see your friends?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:46

A lot of a lot of uh a lot of times it's the radio station.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:52

Honestly.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:53

But but yeah, as far as going out, um, the gathering spot is one of the bars. I know fairly recently a couple bars I think might have been sold or changed names, but there's there's still a couple, there was another bar called Sandhillers downtown. I don't know if I think that one might have changed names. It's been a bit since I've been down there, but uh the gathering spot, they have music sometimes. Caitlin Crowy has really been a big part of uh bringing music to a line. Bringing music out there. He's he and I have played down here, we have kind of an alter-ego band uh called the Riverfront Boys that started out as one of the it started out as being part of one of those internet radio shows. Um and then Amanda Waters heard it and wanted us to play Thursday Afternoon Country Club at the Zoo Bar, which shocked the hell out of us because we had like four songs to our name at this point. This is like 2013, and we didn't have any business playing anywhere outside of an internet radio show at that point. Uh we've had more songs by the time we actually played. But anyway, yeah, he's been a really big part of bringing of uh music. Um another band from there, Sean Townsend band. They played here uh a couple months ago. They played the Zoar for the first time. It was a Friday. I was really excited about that. Um there's also an Alliance, there's their Performing Arts Center that's part of the high school. They started building that like right after I graduated high school. But they bring a lot of good entertainment in. Um I actually saw a Beatles Tribute Band there like 11 years ago. Uh Caitlin and Jason were kind of the MCs for that.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:34

So if you're going to Alliance, where are you getting ice cream?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:40

Oh, ice cream. Um trying to remember what there is now.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:47

Um, yeah, good answer. Good answer.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:53

I don't even remember what freezer are right. Well, actually, well, I've got a couple answers. There used to be, and this uh this has changed ownership a few times. Um Zest, there was a uh Zesto. They had good ice cream and burgers. And uh my dad has been making homemade ice cream.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:18

Oh, there you go. There's the answer.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:20

That's really good. Uh honestly, go to my dad's. Uh my my dad there you go. He he cooks really well too. He's like, I'm never gonna go hungry at his house.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:31

All right. Here's uh here's the final question. Yeah. Someone's coming to Nebraska. Where are you sending them on a vacation?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:42

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:44

I mean, what do you think people need to experience in Nebraska?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:49

I think I think they need to come down here. I think you need to come downtown, uh, downtown Lincoln. You know, go to the zoo bar, go to Duffy's, bourbon. Uh one of the my two favorite weekends of the year. Let's just suggest some times to come on vacation, too.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:08

Okay, it's up to you.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:10

Two favorite weekends of the year, Lincoln Exposed in February. If you want a vacation in February, it's definitely worth a vacation in February on.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:17

Right around the Valentine's Day.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:19

Valentine's Day. If you want to get Valentine's Day, getaway. Sometimes it's cold, sometimes it's not. The weather has gone both ways. Last few years we've gotten lucky. There's been some years it's been knee deep in snow.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:31

So those who don't know, Lincoln Exposed is a weekend in Lincoln. I think it starts on Wednesday. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:37

Wednesday through Saturday.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:38

Wednesday through Saturday, where there's like 120 bands that are from Lincoln that play. And you know, you pay one thing, you get into all the so there's multiple bars, the whole downtown. It's like it's a great, it's a great thing. I love Lincoln Exposed. I feel it's like reunion night. You see people you haven't seen in a while. It is. It's the only time you can say when normally if you play a gig and uh you can say, What was the crowd like? And you're like, Well, it's the other band. You know, you say that and Lincoln Expose, there's a hundred people in there, you know, and every place is packed. Heck yeah. You know, a lot of love, all that kind of stuff. All right, what's your second weekend?

SPEAKER_00 1:07:14

Yeah, so uh Lincoln Exposed. Um, and yeah, shout out to everybody that's involved in that. Obviously, the Zoobar, Duffy's Bourbon Theater 1867, Bodegas. Um, it's kind of gotten bigger. The other favorite weekend of the year, and a really good time of the year to come down. Another one of those best things that happens in July. Um, Zoo Fest. Zoo Fest is one of the I will not miss it. Uh I haven't missed one since 2013. I've missed I've missed a couple days of it. Uh missed a day of it when I had to go back to to visit a grandparent who was who was dying. Uh that's that was a uh a reason to miss that. Um but uh you know, you gotta go do what you need to do, say what you need to say. Family is important. Family, family things. Uh, but I I did get the second day, and that was actually the year of the 50th waltz.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:10

Um, that was great. That was a great thing. That was uh um, yeah, that was Josh put a lot of work into that. And that was all those bands, all that coordination. That was a cool thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:22

One of the best thing, one of the best things. Um and that was um, I think that was the last time I ever got to see Benji Kushner. Great Benji Kushner play.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:31

Jeremy, we don't have time, and I don't want to cry.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:35

I don't either. Uh yeah, we we'd need a whole 10 days for that. But uh But yeah, and then the next year was the year they did, you know, there were a couple years that had things every year's had something that stuck out. The one the next year was the ki when Shithuk did karaoke on Thursday on the fourth. That was the year they did it on the fourth. Uh there were a couple years. The first the first zoo fest I ever went to in 2013, the 50th. Or 40th anniversary was the 4th, July 4th, 5th, and 6th. And uh three days. Normally it's two days. This year, the uh 10th, uh two days. Two days, 10th and 11th, 10th and 11th. But that's the second thing people should come if they want a vacation. I know people take vacation, people that live here just take vacation, they take a week off work just to go see all the bands.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:23

Right on, Jeremy. I love you. You're a great, you're a great human being. Good Nebraskan. Uh and for everybody else, thank you, everybody. Uh comment, whatever, let us know. Um hey, uh be excellent to each other and party on kids.