Brian "Damage" Forsythe (Kix guitarist)

0:00:00 - Intro

0:01:49 - Welcome Brian!

0:03:35 - Discovering Music

0:05:43 - Steven Tyler and Aerosmith

0:09:39 - Playing the Drums in Vanilla Grass

0:13:10 - Kix Band Name 

0:15:45 - Early Sound of Kix

0:17:15 - Biker Smashes Soundboard

0:19:25 - Not Getting Paid for a Gig

0:24:05 - Midnight Dynamite and Producer Beau Hill

0:28:32 - Mike Slamer Replacing Brian on 2 Songs

0:36:10 - Poison Opening for Kix 

0:38:25 - Blow My Fuse and Tour

0:40:40 - Fire Extinguisher Story 

0:45:35 - Money Made From Kix 

0:47:32 - From Rock Star to Sweeping Floors

0:51:30 - Being in a Band with Steven Adler

0:57:15 - Relationship with Bassist Donnie Purnell

0:59:20 - Comeback Album

1:00:30 - Rikki Rockett from Poison and Sidebands

1:02:45 - Merchandise and Kix Umbrella

1:03:20 - Movie Music

1:04:30 - Hanging with Johnny Depp

1:10:13 - YouTube Cooking Show and Diet

1:12:50 - Carnivore Diet and Feeling Better

1:20:55 - Much Love Animal Rescue 

1:22:40 - Future Plans with Kix

1:26:40 - Wrap Up 

Brian Forsythe Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/forsythe.brian/

Chuck Shute Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/chuck_shute/

Much Love Animal Rescue:
https://www.muchlove.org

Transcript

Chuck Shute:   0:14
world in the show, so this is arguably one of my biggest guests I've ever had on the show. The guitarist from Kix, Brian Damage Foresight. So Kix was a big band in the eighties. There biggest album was Blow My Fuse when Platinum and included the song Don't Close Your Eyes, which hit number 11 on the top 40 pop charts. So it's a big crossover hit. And that's how I found the band was probably one of those TV CD ads from Monster ballads. Remember that? So they had all those eighties hair band ballads. I found that song, I liked it. Then I dug a little deeper into some of their other stuff, like songs like Cold Blood and the title Track from Blow My Fuse. A lot of good songs I had. I also really like their comeback album from 2014. It's called Rock Your Face Off. So I reached out to Brian and he agreed to the interview. It was a lot of fun, Um, and Brian was very candid in the interview. He talked about early days of Kix. The nineties were hit rock bottom and all the way back to his comeback. Ah, lot of great stories. You know, he had run ins with Steven Tyler and Aerosmith. Bret Michaels and Poison is a great story about a band that he was in with Steven Adler, who, of course, was the drummer from Guns and Roses. Oh, and how he was friends with Johnny Depp back when Depp was in a band. Just a lot of random stuff like that. And then he'll talk about his diet, which consists of only eating meat. So that's kind of interesting. A lot of great stuff. I hope you guys enjoy it. I had a blast talking music with Brian. Foresight of kicks. Here we go, Brian. Hi. It's checks. You from a Chuck shoot podcast. How you doing? Good. Good. Walk in my show?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:55
Yes. Good to be here. Thanks for having me.

Chuck Shute:   1:57
Yeah. So you love us out of Nashville with your cat and ah, you've been there about a year. How's it going over there? How you doing with locked down now?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   2:07
Well, um, you know, a lot of people ask me that question, and, uh, you know, it's funny because, you know, I kick while one kicks was up and running We're doing mostly just fly date. So, you know, I would just take a lift ride to the airport, jump on a flight, go to shows that when I come back, I pretty much I'm just here at my house

Chuck Shute:   2:34
in

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   2:34
between shows. So this is actually normal for me. It's just a little extended.

Chuck Shute:   2:40
Gotcha. So you're kind of a home body anyways?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   2:43
Yeah. I don't mind just hanging out at home, and it's It's, uh, yeah. In fact, it's

Chuck Shute:   2:48
okay.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   2:49
It's, uh it's hard for me to get out of the house even to go see music sometimes. I mean, I have done it a few times, but I've lived here, but, uh, I'm not one of those people that goes running around everywhere. Why

Chuck Shute:   3:00
is it hard for you to get out of the house to go see music?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   3:04
Well, because I'm lazy,

Chuck Shute:   3:06
Okay. Gotcha. Interesting. So I kind of want to go through it. We got it. I got a lot of questions. You actually have a lot of fans. I don't know that are, like, really into Your band's still like I was on the Facebook group, and I just told him Hey, I'm gonna be interviewing Brian today from kicks. And you guys have any questions thinking there'd be, like, three or four. I got, like, a time. I got bombarded with questions, so I'm gonna try to get through as many as I can, but no, it's a good thing. It's great. But originally, you wanted to be a garbage man before you got in the music business, right?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   3:38
Yeah. Well, yeah,

Chuck Shute:   3:39
before

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   3:40
when I was like, uh, years older.

Chuck Shute:   3:43
Okay. Yeah. And then you saw the Beatles, right? That's what kind of made you decide. You wanted to be in a band.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   3:50
Yeah. I mean, I was I was I was from early as I can remember. Like, I don't remember how young I was because it was probably before I even knew how old I was. Um, I was into music. My parents used to listen to music all the time around the house. So So I love music. But then when I saw it, you know, when I saw the Beatles performing it, that's what really did it for me.

Chuck Shute:   4:14
So how you were? Like what? Like eight or nine. You heard Hendricks that blew you away. So when did you actually start playing music like guitars? And

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   4:24
probably around that time at 88 or nine. I started around eight years old and I got my first guitar for my ninth birthday.

Chuck Shute:   4:32
And did you take lessons or was it self taught or both? Or,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   4:36
um, when my older brother play, he played. They're acoustic like he played Bob Dylan songs and

Chuck Shute:   4:44
stuff. So So

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   4:46
he taught me the, you know, the basic and that it was mostly that, you know, he talked to the chords and then I would just borrow his songbook because he had all these songs. Books, you know, they have the little cords above the

Chuck Shute:   5:00
you know, like the tablets. What's called right? I used to play guitar tablature, right? Or is it different?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   5:06
Well, tablet Cher's a little more involved. This is just a little chord chart of OTA the music, so it's really easy to follow. And uh, that's what I did. And I ended up ah, pretty much got the basics down this far chord chord changes. And then, uh, when I was about 14 or so in junior high school, I took a few months of lessons just Oh, because I couldn't pick out tour. That was the first time. Well, I take that back. I met Steven Tyler once before that, like, very briefly. We were, uh we're in New York City. I think it was during that might have been, um the Midnight Dynamite era or something, and,  I think it's just Steve and I were out of this club upper thigh, the Upper West Side of New York City and are our lawyer that we had at the time was really good friends with Steven Tyler. And he goes hand, I'm gonna get Steven to come down and get you guys, so you have the club. And sure enough, like 1/2 hour later, Stephen shows up. But this was like during the down time when he was like, uh now he must of weighed like 90 pounds or something. 

Chuck Shute:   6:26
God,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   6:27
I mean, he was so  skinny in any was almost floating way. But he was really nice. We met him just for a second, but we're I think we were on the way somewhere else has had to go. We could hang out, but,  but then later on when we did that when we opened for them,, it was, uh we didn't really meet him that, like, get to hang out with him or anything at the venue. But I remember there was this after party some friends of mine were having near this. Was that the Capitol Center in Largo, Maryland, where we opened for them. So I go to this. The friend had a room nearby at this hotel. I go there, and it turns out that the band was staying there to Aerosmith, and at some point during this party, there's a knock at the door. And it was It was Steven Tyler and Rick Dufay and

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   7:25
they busted

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   7:26
and they come busting in the room. And, you know, they started like you doing everybody's drugs.

Chuck Shute:   7:31
(Laughing)

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   7:36
Steven goes like I was the only one there that was in the Band though, which was kind of workout for my advantage, because, Steven goes okay, because I'm right down the hall. If only the guys from Kix can come down in my room. And I'm the only guy and Kix. So I got in there

Chuck Shute:   7:53
nice, and,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   7:53
uh, it was me and I was married at the time, it would be my wife and a couple of road crew guys. So we all go down there to his room, and he just he just pulled me over there and sit me on the bed like he just sits down on the bed. And we just had this weird conversation, but I think he was like, you know, he's kind of a little bit out of it.

Chuck Shute:   8:18
That was the drug crimes then, obviously,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   8:21
Yeah, but he was really friendly at night. And it was,  it was really cool to meet, like, you know, somebody that I listened to a teenager, and and he turned out to be  this really cool guy. And then later on, we I met him a bunch of times after that, and we we opened for them on the back in the saddle tour, and  Joe Perry came back. So that was

Chuck Shute:   8:49
cool when they got sober too. So I was probably a little bit different.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   8:54
That was right before that was

Chuck Shute:   8:57
awfully  

Chuck Shute:   0:00
  

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   8:57
low. Yeah, they hadn't quite. They just got back together, but they hadn't gotten sober yet. It was still a very interesting

Chuck Shute:   9:07
Yeah, because he's I mean, like you said, He's so skinny. He's already skinny. So you know, if he's doing drugs and then it's always I'm remember as a kid, I met Duff McKagan from guns and roses and he was trying to sign my autograph and his hand was shaking and I was a kid. I don't understand what's wrong with this guy, you know, looking back, obviously now, you know, it must have been something he was on, but yeah, it's kind of weird when you see those guys all strung out.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   9:30
Yeah, Yeah. He was a big drinker. He was probably just had a

Chuck Shute:   9:35
U S. O. But back to the seventies you are. And I love this name of this band. You're in a band called Vanilla Grass, which just sounds like a pothead band. But you actually played the drums and the guitar and you'd switch off. So do you still play the drums? Or is that another one? That you had to take lessons you just learned from someone else? Because that seems like a hard thing to do to me. Like when I look att? Musicians like playing the drum kit. I mean, I've tried it a couple times. It's really difficult, isn't it? Or is it just come easy for you?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   10:03
Not one of those things where it seems difficult to you figured out. But,

Chuck Shute:   10:08
um,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   10:10
it was funny, because right around the time I started playing guitar, um, I was also interested in drums, and I couldn't decide what I wanted to do and and we had a neighbor with. Well, it was like 1/4 mile up the road, But it was the next house up the road without country, but, uh, he had a no, he didn't have a proper job, said either. But he was He knew how to play drunk, but he built this fake drum set out of like, uh, where you front. Where you calling from?

Chuck Shute:   10:48
So I'm Marie from Seattle, but I'm calling from Phoenix.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   10:52
Okay, so you're okay. So this is an East Coast reference, but there was. There's a potato chip company called us Potato Chip and their American Pennsylvania Company, but they used to make these big cardboard barrels off chips like these big king size. So this neighbor friend took these barrels and he made this drum set out of and I ended up making my own drums that at my house, out of the same thing. And that's kind of how I

Chuck Shute:   11:24
talk about

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   11:24
how to play. And I actually had a proper snare drum because I took snare drum in, uh, in elementary school, I learned I learned how to do all that junk and then, uh, and then later I'm like a year to Later, after that way moved again. And this is after I I got my guitar. So I own my own guitar at that point. And then the friend of my older brothers that lived down the road had a real job, said he had a set of Ludwig

Chuck Shute:   11:57
Strong

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   11:58
and Hannah and his brother, both playing. They're really good. So I used to ride my bike down there and he wouldn't let me. He would take me up to his room and set me down and show me how to play, and that sort of got me going. And, uh and then later on, I ended up getting my own set of drums, and that's you know, that's why that band that would that we got together in junior high. You know, I really already knew how to play guitar, but I really love playing drums so that so we got that band together and I was the drummer. And but there was another. They start there, could also play a little drums to

Chuck Shute:   12:37
switch off.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   12:38
Yes, way would switch. And then I got to wear. I was starting to get better on guitar than the guitar player. I mean, we decided to bring in a drummer and just have to be

Chuck Shute:   12:49
so smart.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   12:52
And then I realize I don't realize, you know, I mean, I could play drums and it was fun, but I really I think I was meant to play guitar. I don't think I could

Chuck Shute:   13:02
have

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   13:02
made it as a drummer that that I

Chuck Shute:   13:04
don't think that was my absolutely No, you're very good guitarist. So then you guys started in 1977. You went you This was crazy. That kick started in 77 but that's when you started kicks, and it was originally called. First it was called the Shoes S H O Z. But then there was another band with that name. So then you guys called herself the generators. But then there was another band with that name. So finally, then it's kind of like it's some kind of a last ditch kind of thing that, like, I will just call the band Kicks because your other guitarist, Ronnie, was in a band called Jax J X, and I don't know how he came up with that name, but I'm curious, like did so since she kept getting sued for set out in the same band named the cereal company. Didn't ever try to come after you for having the name kicks. Now we we cleared it with your

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   13:50
name, but I think it was because it wasn't a name of a product. I don't know how we got away with it. I mean, who actually that that van Jack was abandoned Dani with

Chuck Shute:   14:04
Johnny Starr? No.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   14:06
Yeah. Oh, yeah, He was in a band, Jack J. X, But he was also in a band called Kicks K. I C. K s.

Chuck Shute:   14:16
Hey,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   14:16
just he took those two names and sort of combined them

Chuck Shute:   14:20
because if he liked it,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   14:21
he let me, like the three letter

Chuck Shute:   14:23
sure

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   14:23
kind of thing, but yeah, So, with the name, um, yeah, that was here.

Chuck Shute:   14:31
Well, just wanted his didn't green jelly or green Jell O the band. They got sued by Betty Crocker for having that name. And so then they had to change her name to green jelly. So just interesting, I guess. Maybe that was people were a little less litigious back in those days, I guess.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   14:46
Yeah. I don't know how he got away with that, but But I know you know because well, the original, like, shoes s h o e the the other band was called Shoot. We were cubs, uh, shoes. It felt it felt that way. And then the other band was called. I think they were just called shoes, but they were spelled s H O E s, but, you know, But they had a song on the radio at that.

Chuck Shute:   15:13
Oh,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   15:14
that way we couldn't use that name. And then and then the generators. There was another band there, but But So So when it came to that. So using kick, the record company did the research just to make sure they did, you know, with the other names.

Chuck Shute:   15:29
Yeah.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   15:30
So that's why we had to change those. They did it with this. And I don't understand what the difference,

Chuck Shute:   15:36
Waas. You got

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   15:38
to use it,

Chuck Shute:   15:38
that's all. Well, so then you guys had the self titled album. You had the Cool Kids album. So am I. Correct? Tell me from wrong. But those 1st 2 albums, it's kind of a little bit of almost a different sound. Almost like a little baby Poppier or I don't know. How would you describe the sound on those first couple of records?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   15:56
Yeah, they are that. Well, the first record was you know, I came out in 81 work, you know where it was kind of early, where it was coming out of the tragedies. That was the punk thing. There was the NuWave thing at a time.

Chuck Shute:   16:13
It kind of reminds me a little bit of, like, the knack or some stuff like that. That's the sound of the time, right? It wasn't his hardcore metal.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   16:20
Right? Right, Right. Yet Anak was big then, Uh uh, pretenders. In fact, the the inspiration for my guitar tone on the itch was the pretenders. I love the sound of the guitar.

Chuck Shute:   16:35
Yeah, that's a good comparison to Okay, so I mean, yeah, yeah, it's cool that I was listening to another podcast you were on your talking about. This is interesting. How you you brought this up? How? You know, a lot of times, bands would have one or two albums to make, and if they didn't make it, the record company dropped him. But your record companies stuck with you for those 1st 2 albums. I mean, they didn't They weren't, like, terrible. But you guys don't have, like, a big head or anything. You didn't have gold records, but they stuck with you. Was there a lot of struggles for those first couple records? Like somebody mentioned today on the Facebook group? There's a story that Steve tells about a biker coming in and smashing your soundboard back in the early days. Was that true to that story?  

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   17:15
Yeah. Yeah. It was in,Warrenton, Virginia. Some hole in the wall. It was called Cross Creek, and it was a biker bar.

Chuck Shute:   17:30
And it was

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   17:31
just in the middle of nowhere on it was on a two lane highway. And to get through it, you had to drive off the road on it like a dirt road, and it went across the creek. Hence the name Cross Street. And, uh and it was just like this cinder block building, and it didn't have bathrooms. You had to go toe outside ago. There, bathrooms in the back, detached from the building. And, yeah, it was mostly bikers and just read Max and, you know, it was a rough crowd, and it was the first. So we had played there before, pressing with the first show there with thieves and our sound man, because our sound man was actually in a band with me before we got We still see from that band. But so the sound man came with Steve that he was, yeah, it was both of their first shows with us And that at some point during the night, some drunken biker comes in and I don't know if they had a baseball bat or axe handles...  I didn't see it. Our sound man had had to deal with it.

Chuck Shute:   18:45
Was he just trying out of his mind, or was he mad about something or what?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   18:49
Here, you know, I don't know. There was a couple of different stories going around. Somebody said he was doing it on a dare.

Chuck Shute:   18:59
Uh oh.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   19:00
Are there was some kind of initiation that he had to go do something? I don't know, but he comes in there, and luckily, our soundboard was It had, like, a wooden frame built around

Chuck Shute:   19:11
it. So

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   19:12
he gets mad. He smashed the wooden frame. It didn't actually hurt the soundboard

Chuck Shute:   19:14
go down. Well, that's good. Luckily, Yeah. What other stress did you have during those days? Because I've heard so many stories of stuff like that were bands get their gear stolen and get stranded in towns and don't get paid. I mean, did you have a lot of that in the first couple of records? Yeah, way didn't

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   19:33
have. Well, luckily, we didn't have our truck stolen. I've heard that nightmare where they where everything gets stolen. But I

Chuck Shute:   19:40
had a mean guitar

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   19:41
I had a few guitars stolen along the way. And then, uh, yeah, not getting paid. That happened a few times. And there was a couple times where it was, like, really sketchy where? Ah, and this is early days,

Chuck Shute:   19:54
you know,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   19:55
before we had had a proper booking agent and stuff like that, but,, there was a place down. It was fayetville, North Carolina right on the border

Chuck Shute:   20:06
on the Emperor,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   20:07
I think. No, it was North Carolina.

Chuck Shute:   20:11
Okay, I'm taking.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   20:13
Yeah, it was some club. It was the only time we ever played their way. Well, I can't remember the name of the club, but anyway, way, uh, we did this show. And the way that we work it is Donnie booked most of the shows around Baltimore and that area

Chuck Shute:   20:36
on. And

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   20:37
then, for some reason, Steve handled all the North Carolina shows. So this is one of the shows Stephen Booked. And at the end of the night, we're packing up and he goes back to get paid, and, the guy didn't want to pay it or he wasn't gonna pay us everything I forget if it was just nothing or which is a partial payment or something happened. So Steve pulls out the contract and puts it down on the guy's desk, and you know, pointing out that what we're supposed to get, and I wasn't back there, but he told told me later, he goes the guy, he opens up his desk drawer, pulls out my 3 57 magnum and set down on the desk, and he goes This is what I think about Your contract now  get out of here.

Chuck Shute:   21:28
Wow.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   21:29
he says before call the cops! And,  so he comes back out there and he tells us about it, and, and sure enough, a little like a few minutes later, the cops show. Or maybe Steve threatened to call the cops. Some

Chuck Shute:   21:46
with the cops

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   21:46
show up. And they were on the club owner's side and they stood there and kept an eye on it and made sure we loaded everything out and send us on our way,

Chuck Shute:   21:57
and you never got paid?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   21:58
nah, that's the end of that.... Same thing happened in West Virginia. One time we played some club and something happened at the end of the night and the guy didn't want to pay it. And we tried to , you know, demanded. And he got his whole, all his bouncers, and they just made us load out. And it was it was weird because we always had a road crew, and, uh so we went out to the van while the road crew was loading up. And next thing we knew these big burly guys come out there to go, "what are  you guys doing? Get in there and help out!" Like they made us go in there

Chuck Shute:   22:41
Chuck Shute

Chuck Shute:   22:41
actually alone as

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   22:45
they thought we were just being lazy.

Chuck Shute:   22:47
That's crazy. Well, hopefully that stuff doesn't have anymore, because now we got, like, the Internet, and people can write a nasty yelp review about that or something.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   22:54
You know,

Chuck Shute:   22:56
that's good. That's good. So going

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   22:58
back and now a days you get a deposit.

Chuck Shute:   23:01
That's good. That's good. Yeah, it is electronic too, right? You don't have cash as much, right? I would hope. Yeah. Yeah, that's good. So going back to your money. So I go on.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   23:15
Oh, I was gonna say, though I was doing Ah, what plan With Rhino bucket there for a while. And rhino bucket was a little bit on the lower scale, something far touring, and, uh, and somehow I ended up being in charge of getting paid. And the one thing that I did learn, though from all those years of experience, is always get paid before you play. Because after you play, you have no leverage.

Chuck Shute:   23:41
Right? Because

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   23:43
you've already done it. So that that was one of my philosophies when I get to a club, and like an hour before it was time to go on. I go back and I say, Okay, you know, we want our money or we're not going on.

Chuck Shute:   23:56
Yeah, no, that's smart, because otherwise, once you played, they can't You can't do anything So but we're going back to your journey here. So then, in 85 he did. The Midnight Dynamite album was recorded in New York. You know, they're really like about that album. Especially is the album cover? Because it's a picture of Steve, your singer holding a microphone that has a fuse at the end of it, It looks like he's holding a stick of dynamite. Who came up with that idea? Do you remember that? I think that was a really clever idea. In fact, I think Vince Neil copied it, and his microphone is like It has a fuse on it and it looks like a stick of dynamite. I think he must have got that idea from you guys.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   24:32
Probably a lot of people steal  stuff, from us but, um, yeah, I don't know. I can't remember exactly who came up with that idea. I

Chuck Shute:   24:40
mean, it could

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   24:41
have been Donnie, because the last time Donnie would come up with stuff like that,

Chuck Shute:   24:44
Sure.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   24:45
What could have been the photographer?

Chuck Shute:   24:46
Yeah, I

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   24:47
don't know.

Chuck Shute:   24:48
Or maybe your producer, because album was produced by Beau Hill. And I think this guy's like a genius producer. I didn't realize he was actually accepted to Yale, and he declined that to do a music career. And he's produced for Alice Cooper and Winger and Warrant Ratt and Europe. So what was it like working with Beau Hill? I mean, what does that guy  Add to a record?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   25:08
Well, he had his his routine. Yeah, kind of like, uh, you know, he had just done that big Ratt  record. And, yeah, we had, a system worked out, like the way that he would record. So it was pretty smooth. Like to set up the way he did it. We would set up to amps,  both Ronnie and I would have one that was just full blast you full on. And the other one was a little cleaner sound, and he would blend the sound . So he was really good at getting sounds. And, that was a rough record, though. I remember the one thing. Yeah, he did a really good job on it. In fact, he did a really good job on that blow my fuse remix.

Chuck Shute:   25:59
I know

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   25:59
that you're not really well, but I remember back in the in the Midnight Dynamite days. I really struggled with Beau as far as  You know, he worked, He would he worked with Warren DeMartini and Garry Moore and all these like hotshot guitar player You would all he would always he would sort of bring that up with Ronnie and I and sort of,

Chuck Shute:   26:27
I

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   26:27
don't know, it was probably my own insecurity, But,  it kind of made me feel like inferior AndI didn't really know what I was doing. And, it made it really intimidating when I go in there to try to do my solos and stuff and

Chuck Shute:   26:42
uh

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   26:43
huh. And a lot of times, he he wasn't happy with it, and I would have to insist, "no that That's good. That's the way I wanted to sound."

Chuck Shute:   26:54
So a bit of a perfectionist, It sounds like

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   26:58
Wow, he was more into the modern, you know, West Coast, finger tapping

Chuck Shute:   27:04
ok

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   27:05
kind of guitar styles. And and Ronnie and I are just basic blues players,

Chuck Shute:   27:09
Really? I

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   27:10
mean, that's what I do. I'm not a I'm not a hot shot.

Chuck Shute:   27:14
You're not an Eddie Van Eddie Van Halen. 

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   27:19
No, I  learned from Southern Rock and ZZ Top

Chuck Shute:   27:21
know,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   27:22
But, one  instance in particular was,  we were doing a Cold Shower, and I'm doing that solo. And I used I was using my Stratocaster, which it it's an old It was an old 63 straps, but it had a loud buzz, you know, because of a single coils. And I remember but was complaining about the noise, and he goes  "Can't use another Guitar?"   and  I go  "No But this would sound so  good" , and I had to convince him I said "I would listen to any Jimi Hendrix record. You can years in his heart book it like it's part of the whole vibe." And I really had to talk my way and convinced him to let me use that guitar but he didn't want me to use it because it was just so noisy.

Chuck Shute:   28:13
so. Yeah, It's just maybe different philosophies you liked a little bit more natural. He wanted more, like, clean sounding.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   28:19
Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, the top it off, though, with Beau,  my one little bone to pick with him was he brought in that other guitar player, Mike Slamer, to play on Scarlet Fever. And he plays a little bit on Walking Away way at the end. It's on the fade out, and you could hear a little bit of it, but that song scarlet fever. It was there was a newer song that Donnie  just finished with... So we didn't  we hadn't worked out everything. And I remember Ronnie and I hadn't discussed who was gonna do the solo yet. So when it came time to do a solo, there was nothing worked out there was because normally when we go into the studio, a lot of these songs have been played live....We're playing out live. So we

Chuck Shute:   29:13
have a

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   29:13
lot of the stuff are already worked out, So we kind of just go in and play it.

Chuck Shute:   29:17
Sure,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   29:18
but this one, this one was still new, So I remember thinking we  were trying to run and I always try to divide us solos up kind of evenly. And I said, Well, why why don't you go ahead and do this one? So he he goes in there and he didn't have anything worked out yet either. And he was just having a problem with ideas that day.  You know, some days you just have those days where you just struggling with something, you know? He, spent several hours like trying to get a fellow down, and he was frustrated. So right at the end of the day and he comes out, I'm sitting in a lounge and he goes, "Do you want to see if you want to try it?  I'm just not having any luck"

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   30:04
So I said, Sure, I'll try it. Don't go in there. And it was right at the end. We only had, like, 10 minutes left or something before  we're gonna call it a night. And I just went into just just to see what would happen, and I ran through it and what's really you know, I didn't come up with anything right away, but my way of operating I would take home  a rough mix of the track, and I would take it back to the room and work on it, and that's that's what I would do when we would record records. I'd always take a rough mix of the the basic tracks, and then I go back to

Chuck Shute:   30:45
the room

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   30:45
and just work on stuff and refine  the solos and all that stuff. So I asked, Beau for a copy of Scarlet fever. And so he gives it to me. I go back to the room I worked out, I got everything together. So I was supposed to be back in the studio at 10 a.m. And I had solo ready, and I This was in the middle of the winter, and  we were staying. Where were we on 57th Street or something? Are are further down. I figured

Chuck Shute:   31:17
New York cold, though. Yeah,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   31:19
Freezing cold. It and I had to walk to the studio. And so I had to walk up along Central Park up to 60th  in Broadway, and I have much Stratocaster case, and it was windy and freezing, and I remember running like I don't want to be late and I remember slipping and falling it in in the middle of an intersection. And the light changed all that. This wall of taxi cabs was  coming at me

Chuck Shute:   31:46
And is

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   31:47


Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   31:48
My first thought was I grabbed My Strat case is slid it  to the curb trying to  save the guitarBut anyway, I get a studio and I hear this news as I get off the elevator I could hear someone playing the  guitar like doing this Van Halen stuff.

Chuck Shute:   32:11
Uh oh

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   32:11
I realized it was coming from from our our studio and I go there and I go try the door .... and The door's locked.

Chuck Shute:   32:20
No!

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   32:20
I'm locked out, so I'm standing in the hallway. I'm listening to scarlet fever and some guy going to do you think you're playing all the Van Halen over top of it? I'm going, you know? So I go back and I go back to the lounge and I just kind of hang out and Wait... and I wait for them to get done, and then all of sudden, I hear Walking Away. Come on. And that was one of my songs Walking Away with one of the ones that I was supposed to  play the solo.

Chuck Shute:   32:53
Yeah,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   32:53
and we hadn't even gotten to it yet. So all of sudden I hear him playing on that song, I'm going. Wait a minute.... Beau didn't even hear what I was gonna do. I kind of you know,

Chuck Shute:   33:04
um, you gotta be pissed! 

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   33:07
I was like, because it takes a lot for me to get pissed....

Chuck Shute:   33:12
You seem like a pretty mellow guy from what I've  seen.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   33:15
Yeah..... When I heard that,  steam came out My ears.

Chuck Shute:   33:20
Yeah because he didn't tell you ahead of time, right? It's kind of like you got blindsided,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   33:26
right? Right. So I remember, and I'm still locked out. I couldn't I couldn't go in there. And I just remember I was so mad that I was shaking. And I remember walking back and the rest of the guys were sitting in the lounge and I just stood in the doorway with this look on my face. I couldn't even talk. I was so upset and they all looked at me and I said, All I said was, I got to get out of here and I just turned around and left and I walked around....walked and walked and walked for like an hour. And then I came back. I just had to walk it off...

Chuck Shute:   34:03
Yeah....

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   34:04
and And finally you know, I got to talk to Beau, and I let him know that I didn't appreciate the whole the Scarlet Fever thing was one thing. Even though he didn't let me try my solo that I had worked out

Chuck Shute:   34:19
Mmm hmmm

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   34:19
I never got to do it, but I said, But Walking Away, I said you didn't Even I haven't even attempted that one yet. So he let he let me go in and record that one. And then he ended up still sneaking in a couple of Mike's layers way at the fade out.

Chuck Shute:   34:35
ohhhh

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   34:36
But at least I got to play the bulk of it

Chuck Shute:   34:38
crazy while he did. Yeah, he did give you the cool nickname, though. Damage on. That s That's kind of a cool story. How so? People would misspell your name instead of Brian. They put brain. And so then he just sent one day, called you. You call your brain and then one day called your brain damage. That's pretty cool. Brain damage. I mean, it could have been what it was getting better. What if he would have said brain fart or something like that? I would have been out of socks. All right, you guys, I

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   35:05
I would show up there with a hangover slowed and grown in, and

Chuck Shute:   35:08
yeah,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   35:09
that's that's how that happened.

Chuck Shute:   35:11
So then,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   35:12
But I have to say that at the end of that story,

Chuck Shute:   35:16
Yeah,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   35:17
that was my problem with Beau and that record, but Beau is actually a really cool guy, Really nice and other than that way. Had a great time. Really funny guy. And we joke around and and Ah, and I thought he did a great job on the writing. On the record.

Chuck Shute:   35:38
Yeah.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   35:39
So you know, those just like the two sides of the

Chuck Shute:   35:42
Sure, Sure. No, I get

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   35:44
it. You know, he's coming hung out with us, and you will show up here and there.

Chuck Shute:   35:51
And you said he remakes the boy. Blow my blow. My fuse. Re master ever.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   35:55
Yeah. So I don't really I sort of made my peace with that.

Chuck Shute:   35:59
Let's go. Even

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   35:59
though I still tell even though I still kill the story.

Chuck Shute:   36:02
Yeah, So I heard a story to... I don't know if it was  around this day. Or maybe the blow my fuse days. But you guys used to have Poison open for you back when they were there They're actually called a different name- Paris. They were cover band. And the crowd would get nuts like, What do you remember about them from? But I know that a different guitar player. But it was Bret Michael's. Was he a really nice guy? But he seems like a really nice guy now, Was he really nice back then, or what were they like?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   36:28
Yeah, there was. There was a nice  yeah, this was This was early days. We used to do we used to do all age shows up around Scranton, Pennsylvania at this place. It was like a It was a club, but it was ah, like, used to be a theater So it had a proper stage and all that and those guys used to open. And it's funny. Yeah, they had a guy named Matt Matt Smith on guitar, a different guy. And this was before, you know, before they went to California. But they were just young young guys, and they this was back in the spandex days...

Chuck Shute:   37:07
Yeah. Did they have a lot of makeup on because that look what the cat dragged in album. I mean, they full on look like women in that album cover.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   37:16
Yeah, well, they went fully glam when they went out to L.A pre pre glam, but they were still it was still like that. David Lee Roth. And like, the spandex with the scarf are the bandanna tied around the leg

Chuck Shute:   37:31
and right. And

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   37:32
they, you know, they're still young, good looking guys. And with the thing with this particular club, the dressing room was off the side of the stage. And once you go in there like like, we be in the dressing room and they start playing, we couldn't leave because the door lead to the stage. So we'd have to just sit back there and wait and listen to him. And I remember they weren't that good.

Chuck Shute:   37:58
You said Yeah.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   37:59
Yeah. And

Chuck Shute:   38:01
But the girls went nuts right?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   38:03
Yeah. So at one point, we picked out the door and it was all like, young girls, and they were just melting in front of Brett like they couldn't get enough

Chuck Shute:   38:16
Yep, sounds about right. 

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   38:18
What was amazing ... they just had  that appeal or at least Bret did.

Chuck Shute:   38:22
Yeah, the swagger now. They were funny, man, for sure. So But then you guys go into the next album, The Blow. My fuse. That's the big one. The album, and actually went gold before even the big hit was Don't Close Your Eyes was released. I heard you say that, but that then out, not songs released. And that reaches number 11 on the Billboard top 40 charge, which is huge. I mean, you've crossed over into the pop now and then Eventually, album goes platinum. I saw also recently that Rolling Stones, they ah, top 50 hair metal albums of all time and if he saw this, But that album was named number Eight of the top 50 hair metal albums of all time. So that must have been Really That was, like, probably the heyday of the band, right? I mean, that was the most success that you guys had had.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   39:07
Yeah, that was it. I mean, don't close your eyes was our hit.

Chuck Shute:   39:12
You did the figure that, uh, the first big tour with rat you guys actually a tour bus and everything, right?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   39:20
Yeah, because before that we would do, we would open here and there you know, like the Aerosmith saying, Are we open for Z Z top a couple times, but they will did only be like a, like one or two shows here and there. So, yeah, the rat tour was our first proper war where we actually had the tour bus and all that. And did you know the whole arena tour?

Chuck Shute:   39:42
Yeah. So was there a lot of shenanigans on this tour? Like I had a Keith Douglas from Tora Tora? And he was saying I was asking him about, like, their tour compared to, like, Motley Crew. And he said they were like milk and cookies compared to Motley crew. Like so on a scale of, like, tour toward a motley crew. Like where was kicks? Like I know you said you guys only did stuff after the shows you wouldn't drink before during, but I heard that between you and Ronnie polished off a quart of Jack Daniels a night, there must have been some crazy stuff that happened after a court of Jack Daniels every night. Like was there fights or property damage? Girls like me, if you compare to the movie Motley Crue, the dirt like was anyone riding a motorcycle down the hallway of the hotel or throwing TVs out the window or anything like that?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   40:24
Not quite. We didn't have the money to cover. The damages were a little more careful.

Chuck Shute:   40:31
Okay.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   40:33
But you know, there's over some things along the way. By the time we got the rat, though, Ronnie Well, the beginning of rats where Ronnie was in rehab and I had stopped drinking too. So when Ronnie came back from rehab, neither of us were drinking at that point. But But earlier, before that Ah, yeah, there were some times there was once a man, there was some funny one. So there's 11 story we played in Cleveland, I think. Itwas under tree Grint Yeah, there was a blizzard, and, uh, we, uh But we went We played anyway, the club was open, but it was snowing like crazy. And so it was a small crowd, but we still we just showed up and we get our full on show for the small crowd, and they they just they loved it. And, uh, I remember after the show, when they went to load out, they pushed the door open. There was like a three foot like snow drift against the door. So we make it back to the hotel, and, um, the opening band was staying there too. So what? One of the things that we would do we always make sure, like when that the party would happen in the the openers room, not in our room. So we could go to their room. It

Chuck Shute:   41:55
causes rockets and make a big

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   41:57
math and then just leave to

Chuck Shute:   41:59
go back to our nice clean room. Like we

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   42:02
didn't want strangers in our room.

Chuck Shute:   42:04
Yeah, No. Smart.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   42:06
So anyway, I go down there and I forget who else was there. But there was a bunch of people and and, uh and I always I would always like start like I was always kind of like the the quiet guy that we caused trouble in the background and nobody really noticed

Chuck Shute:   42:25
them burst, man.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   42:26
And I I remember there was a girl there that knew that it was friends with the warm up band and I was talking to her. They're hanging out with her, and it's some for some reason I got the stupid idea. Thio, I think I was out in the hall, and I saw that there was a fire extinguisher or something and I grabbed it and I brought it in the room and decided to make a I just wanted a group around I I lit from toilet paper on fire in the bathroom and

Chuck Shute:   43:01
then sprayed

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   43:01
it with with with a fire extinguisher. But it was just like Tiny. It

Chuck Shute:   43:05
was no big

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   43:06
deal. But if he ever if you've ever sprayed a fire

Chuck Shute:   43:09
01 of those things going crazy,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   43:13
Yeah, they just expand. So I like to fire. I just go like a short little break. And then I we came out of the bathroom. I think I left the thing in the bathroom. I was like, Wait, come out the vacuum, not close the door. We're standing there And then one of the guys whose rooms it is, he comes over and goes, What's going on over here? And that The CO two coming out from under the door at any good because, well, what corner on the opens the door. So I just take off running, and I think the girl followed me out and I could run it down the home. The guy comes running out behind you with the fire signature, brain it down the hall and,

Chuck Shute:   43:57
uh, just a little bit. Then it's a lot,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   44:02
right? So I get to the elevator and jump on and go all the way that down the basement. And by the time I come back out of the basement, I hear the fire alarms are going off because he set off,

Chuck Shute:   44:15
you know, set

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   44:15
off, spring it end up, And, uh so I had to, like, sneak back. I got back up to the floor because my room was on the same floor, their room When I came off the elevator that it was like, uh, Nash. I couldn't take the elevator anymore. After that, I had to take steps. Since the fire alarms went off, I couldn't I couldn't get on the elevator. I get up to the floor that I'm on and you couldn't even see like five feet in front of it was it was just a cloud of that Theo, too. But it looked like smoke and I remember all the like I made my way back down the hallway to my room, and as I'm going, there's people coming out like opening their doors. And they have kids with him. And I'm like, all men. And so those guys one up there got trouble. It was something that I started. It

Chuck Shute:   45:11
looks,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   45:11
but and they couldn't get thrown out because it was in the middle of a blizzard, so

Chuck Shute:   45:16
they couldn't

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   45:16
leave that. So they had to let him stay there. But fire trucks came and bandit up, getting fined for being. I felt I felt bad, but I wasn't gonna say anything,

Chuck Shute:   45:27
right. Crazy things to do. And we're young and dumb, but geez, yeah, I mean,  

Chuck Shute:   45:33
I thought this was interesting  too....  I heard that you guys, I don't know if it was around this time, but at one point you guys were making 15 to 20 grand a  show, but that all went into some bank account. And then you guys had to pay for management, accounting, road crew. And so then you ended up getting about 500 bucks a week. After all these shows that you're doing and you have a platinum record and MTV and all this, it's only 500 bucks a week?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   45:56
Yeah, we had a band account when we had accountant. Well, that's the thing. We had a manager. We had a booking agent we had  the accountants. We had a lawyer. All these people we had to pay commission

Chuck Shute:   46:06
have dishes

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   46:08
and, uh oh, yeah, all our money went into this account, and then we got a weekly check of $500 and that at our peak, I mean, I

Chuck Shute:   46:18
never made him

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   46:19
I never made over 500 The whole time are that didn't start. So I forget what year. But yeah, that was the most I ever made...

Chuck Shute:   46:27
So how do you like pay that? I mean, obviously on the road, they're paying for the hotel. And I'm sure all the meals and the drugs and the drinks and all that stuff's comped. But, like, how do you pay your rent and like for your mortgage and that kind of stuff, or did you even have that? It just kind of live off the road.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   46:43
Well, Hagerstown, Maryland pretty cheap. And this is back in the eighties. But I, actually, I bought a house at one point, but, you know, back then it was like a two bedroom, like this little tiny house on 1/2 acre, but only cost it was, uh, was 73 down, and I think my mortgage payment was only, like, 600 bucks.

Chuck Shute:   47:08
Okay, so I guess that pays the bills. So then eventually, you know, after the height of your success, you guys did another album, Hotwire, which I think is great. And you thought it was great. And then you ended up leaving the band in 93 because that album didn't do as well as you thought it should. The grunge scene kind of came out in the nineties, which rubbed you the wrong way. And then you moved out to L. A. And I remember seeing this in a documentary on MTV. It was you. I was gonna ask you about this because I thought it was you, but I wasn't positive. But then I heard you talking about it. You are painting billboards for your brother, and you're still doing bands at night. Right? But you were to pay the bills. You were , you started as a sweeper in his warehouse. Right? But then you were painting billboards, right?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   47:51
Yeah. Yeah, when I left the band, you know, my plan was to move. Well, I actually put a band together before it even got out there. But my plan was to move out there and continue playing music. But, yeah, so I lined a job up with my older brother because he owned a sign company...that's where I started and that Yeah, I did. I started just, like was helping me out. So he hired me like, 10 bucks an hour or something to  just clean up around the shop that while having my other well, he had a had a few guys working for me. At that point, they they'd be out painting, and I'd be in the shop just doing stuff around there and then, Okay, you know, well, right away he started training me out of paint, but it took me a little while to learn how to the lettering and all that stuff. But as soon as I got up and running, you know, team me up with another one of the guy that worked there, and we go out and paint these billboards.

Chuck Shute:   48:53
How humbling is that? To go from hanging out with Steven Tyler and Aerosmith and opening for all these crazy bands and having a platinum record and be on MTV to go from that to sweeping floors and painting Billboards. I mean, that's gotta be humbling, right? Or like, I mean, what was going through your mind mentally at that point?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   49:11
Yeah, it was a little bit. Well, yeah, Like I said, you know, only making 500 bucks a week I didn't have savings.

Chuck Shute:   49:20
So,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   49:21
you know, I had about as much money to last me about two weeks when I left 

Chuck Shute:   49:25
Geeze! 

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   49:26
so I had to work....

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   49:29
And I just sort of did it. And it wasn't too bad... EXCEPT... My brother, his company, he had the sign part of the company. And he was partners with this other guy that has the It was like the construction side of the company that

Chuck Shute:   49:44
mmhmm

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   49:44
that actually hung the boards and did the maintenance on the board. So,  the guys that worked over there were these rough and tumble guys that will drove the crane trucks and all that. And I remember a couple times, this one guy, he would come in, he would give him such a hard time because he knew who I was And he would just make fun of me,

Chuck Shute:   50:06
wow

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   50:06
like there's a

Chuck Shute:   50:07
oh my god...

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   50:09
This is a lot different....know, I forget what he would say to me, but I would just ignore him

Chuck Shute:   50:14
You're getting  bullied! You're getting bullied as an adult. That's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. So this is kind of a dark time for you, because this kind of when you slip more into the drugs and stuff and you started smoking crack and doing heroin. So I gotta ask you about this. So I know that you had some offers. You have an offer to join Andy McCoy's band. You turned that one down, but you were in a band. Did I hear this? Right? You were in a band with Steven Adler. And somehow, I mean, you must have been on pretty bad drugs because Steven Adler fired you from the band, right? Or his girlfriend did. What was the Which band was this? And you got to tell me the story of how you got kicked out of a band from, like, how did Steven Adler fire anyone at this point in his career?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   50:57
Yeah, Yeah, The Andy McCoy thing...That never happened because he never actually approached me.

Chuck Shute:   51:04
oh..

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   51:05
But later on, I met his the singer for what was it... Shooting Gallery...

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   51:12
yeah. And he told me that and he told me Andy was talking about like they were trying to find a guitar player, he and my name came up, but But Andy said, ah, he'll never leave Kix...

Chuck Shute:   51:23
No, because when you're still in Kix, gotcha...

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   51:26
Yeah. So anyway, this Steven Adler thing. I, uh I forget how it came about, but I remember meeting him. We met at a Jerry's Deli out there and Studio City and to talk about doing some music. And he wanted to put it together. A band that covers.

Chuck Shute:   51:51
Oh, uh,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   51:53
and do  a residency at one of those clubs. I think it was Billboard Live may be at the time I forget, but So anyway, I met up with him and we're talking, And I had I had just I would starting to get into the drugs at that point on. And Steven was actually clean at the time.

Chuck Shute:   52:16
Oh, really?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   52:18
But because of his experience, he could tell that I was high

Chuck Shute:   52:26
Sure he knows what that looks like, Yeah. I think he's experimented a  time or two

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   52:32
Yeah, And I would know, You know, now that I'm experienced, I would know if I saw somebody, just the pinned eyes  and all that stuff you can tell...

Chuck Shute:   52:40
ohhhh

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   52:41
And so he looked at me, And so he brings that up and he goes, you know, he asked me about it, and I said, Yeah, and he goes because you got any And I

Chuck Shute:   52:52
said,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   52:52
Yeah, all right. That I go. No, you know what? Because I knew he wasn't. I knew he was clean at the time.., and he was He was poking around and see if I had any on me, and I'm like, No, no, no, no, no. I don't want to be responsible for that. I said I can't go there. And he ended up talking me into it, you know,  I'll take complete responsibility. And anyway, long story short, we Well, we took a ride and they ended up doing some of my drugs. And then.... he just went off the rails. I don't know if you saw the Celebrity Rehab show...

Chuck Shute:   53:29
Oh yeah, the celebrity rehab show?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   53:34
well once he starts, he's....  overboard. And so that's what happened. And and I'm, you know, well, we started getting it took a couple weeks to get full blown. But, you know, we started rehearsing.

Chuck Shute:   53:52
Then you in the next. The

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   53:53
The next thing I knew, he would be knocking at my window at my apartment, like early in the morning. Um, because I get all his drug connections had been cut off at that point.

Chuck Shute:   54:06
So he's him over

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   54:07
So he came over because he knew he knew I had some, so that he'd be at my place, and then he go and I go, I tried to tell him No, these I need this stuff . And he would say, Well, because I'll buy you more! . So it ended up this thing where he would just hand me money and I have to go downtown buy all these drugs, and then, you know, I'd get my share out of it, and he'd pay for it, but that's how he kept it going. And, uh, but it got worse and worse and worse, and he didn't actually fire me. What happened was he got his girlfriend, you know, it was obvious he can't hide it.

Chuck Shute:   54:46
Yeah...

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   54:46
I mean he got so bad that there was no way he could hide it. And, so she just blew up on him and he comes home. I guess they did an intervention. I think that's what is was..

Chuck Shute:   54:58
ohhhhh

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   54:59
and he blamed the whole thing on me like he didn't take any responsibility like he said he would any responsibility like he said he would...

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   55:07
So I remember  I think I'm still working at the time because this is right near the end and at  Some point I couldn't work anymore, But I was still working and I get home from work, and it's like two in the afternoon and I there's a message on and this is before cell phones. So there's a message on my answering machine and I I hit play and it's Steven's girlfriend.

Chuck Shute:   55:33
Oh,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   55:34
she's screaming into the phone. It's saying.... she was calling me every name in the book, but she goes, Don't you ever come around our family ever again? We never want to see your face and she goes And if you want your my amp and stuff was at Stevens rehearsal place, he had, like, a lockout.

Chuck Shute:   55:53
Okay,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   55:54
because if you want your equipment, it'll be in the alley outside the rehearsal.

Chuck Shute:   55:59
Jeez,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   56:00
good. If he told me what time are at noon or something, and it

Chuck Shute:   56:04
was it was

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   56:05
like two in the afternoon, and I'm like oh Man, so I  jump in my car and I sped over there and sure enough, there's my stuff and a head like a packing blanket over top of it.

Chuck Shute:   56:15
But it

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   56:15
was like Marshal cabinet my my vintage basement head, and it's just sitting out in the alley in North Hollywood. 

Chuck Shute:   56:25
up

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   56:26
So I loaded it up in my car and I drove it back and that was the end of that. 

Chuck Shute:   56:29
Did that band ever get off the ground? What was that? That wasn't Adler's appetite. And that was something different.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   56:35
Yeah, this is just had only even know if it had a name,

Chuck Shute:   56:38
but

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   56:39
they ended up, uh, handed up Recruiting Ronnie into the deal

Chuck Shute:   56:43
oh ok

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   56:45
Ronnie came out, but, uh, I don't think that ever I would happen. I know they did. Ah, a couple show, but it didn't last very long.

Chuck Shute:   56:55
Well, then you ended up going to jail unit up getting sober, though, and then years later, then you end up reuniting with kicks. In 2003 Steve calls you hadn't talked to him in 10 years. And, um, and you guys decide that you're gonna reunite the band, but you're not bringing Donny. And cause it sounds like Dani and Steve had quite a bit of Ah, blowout, Right? Like it's said that, um, Stephen called Donnie up one time because he was gonna use some song that he had written. And Dani just went off on him about something. And then he was really mad that you guys were united without him. And so he sent a really nasty email to the producer. Have you had any words with him since since then Or what time you guys still don't talk to him,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   57:39
you know? Well, you know, about six months before Steve reached out to me, I did. So I had talked to Dani, and it was the first time I talked to Bonnie get all those years since I left, and Ah, and he was really cool at that point way just talked about old times, and it was very friendly call. But then, you know what? Steve called me to get the band back together. You know, one of the stipulations was, you know, we Donna can't be involved. And it turned out that, you know, the other guy got the same way. It was just that that was the thing with Dani, just like that phone call. I mean, he could be the nicest guy and hang out with him when you're not working, he's the nicest guy. And, uh, but but to work with him was a whole different story was like Jacqueline Eyes. And so nobody wanted to deal with that again. And really, the real reason when we first when we first got back together, we didn't even realize we're really getting back together. We're just gonna do a few show like a few handful of reunion shows that we're planning on. And we just wanted we wanted toa make some money and just have some fun. And we knew we brought Donny back into the picture. Neither of those two things will happen. Yeah, so that's why we didn't do it. And then, you know, we had no idea it was going to take off.

Chuck Shute:   59:11
Well, yes. So the album, uh, it's on the billboard top 100 top to hundreds of number 48 which is the second highest charting record ever for kicks. And then not it was not only the number one album from the editors and staff of sleaze rocks, but also the readers. And I don't know if you know the year that that came out. Some of the bands that you beat out for best album on that website were Steel Panther, Tesla's Slash, Judas Priest and A C. D. C. Did that shock you to have the number one album on sleeves? Rocks? Yeah. You think

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   59:45
that that's still amazes me anytime that kind of stuff happens, you know that? You never get used to it.

Chuck Shute:   59:54
Do you think Johnny was pissed that you guys had went off and have the success without him? I mean, because he was important piece of the band back in the day with song writing and such.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:0:04
Yeah, yeah, well, yeah, yeah, he's definitely not happy about it, but I don't know if he really follows our career, I think he kind of tried to forget about it. I mean that. I mean, I haven't seen him but a few people that have run into him here and there. So to say that he doesn't want to talk about it.

Chuck Shute:   1:0:25
Thank you.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:0:25
We'll talk about

Chuck Shute:   1:0:26
crazy. So you guys don't talk to him. Is there other musicians that you that you do still keep in contact with, Like are you  still friends with Rikki Rocket from  Poison and

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:0:35
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I haven't talked to him in person, but he reached out to me at one point when I was still living in l. A. Hey wanted to put together some kind of side band.

Chuck Shute:   1:0:46
Hey, wanted

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:0:47
He wanted to know if I was interested if I'd be interested in doing something and and, uh but I was so busy, you know, I was I had Rhino Bucket and Kix at that point..

Chuck Shute:   1:0:57
ohhh

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:0:58
I had to say, You know, that sounds like it would be fun, but I really don't have time.

Chuck Shute:   1:1:03
It's not gonna be

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:1:04
able to put any time.

Chuck Shute:   1:1:05
It seems like everybody's in, like, 10 different bands like Traci Guns from L. A Guns He's in so many .. I feel like he's in, like, 10 different bands. And there's so many musicians that have to... is that kind of part of surviving now is you have to I mean, you're in rhino bucket and kicks. I mean, you kind of have to be in multiple bands now to make ends meet.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:1:23
Not really. I mean, well, I actually write a bug it's not together at this time,

Chuck Shute:   1:1:28
so

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:1:29
But But, uh, for me, it was like more like a different kind of outlet. Like ticks is one thing. But Raina bucket was a whole nother thing. It wasn't that far from it from kicks, but it was it was different enoughto just give me something different. That wasn't kicks.

Chuck Shute:   1:1:49
Yeah, you know, I think

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:1:50
a lot Ah, lot of people, they kind of do that multiple thing because they give them different because one band, you know, Hicks has their kicks things and, uh, you know, it's like, uh yeah, it's just going to have a different different style of outlet.

Chuck Shute:   1:2:10
Sure, in

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:2:11
fact, that in fact, I love playing personally. I love like country music.

Chuck Shute:   1:2:16
Really?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:2:17
And in the early two thousands, I was in a band called The Snake Hammers, which is like rocking country band. And that was like a whole another thing, too. But I love doing that like different styles,

Chuck Shute:   1:2:30
and

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:2:31
it just kind of fun. You know, being a musician, anytime you're playing something, it's fine

Chuck Shute:   1:2:38
if you like variety to. I'm sure you're in the right place for country being in Nashville, so I heard a lot of bands make a lot of their money on their merch, and I saw that you guys already have T shirts and masks for the quarantine stuff. Is that I also heard Is there once a kicks umbrella as well for the song Cold Shower? Or was that only for Steve tow Have? Is that something you guys marketed?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:3:02
No, we did. We sold them at the merch table for a while. I forget what happened.

Chuck Shute:   1:3:06
Interesting. Yeah, somebody's asking about that. One of the fans. And then I had a question to about, like, movies, music in movies. Is that a pretty lucrative thing for you? Because you've had some songs, like in Wayne's World? And then I guess I didn't know Thomas Hayden Church put a rhino bucket music and one of his movies. He's a big fan. You have had the songs and the dead aunt movie that's on Showtime right now with Tom Arnold.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:3:33
Yeah, they did and think that that's not actually a planet that some other bands covering. It

Chuck Shute:   1:3:38
s so you don't get the money from that, then, huh?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:3:42
No, Donny probably does.

Chuck Shute:   1:3:43
Yeah, like they

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:3:44
had paid pay for

Chuck Shute:   1:3:45
the song licensing

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:3:47
into the other Dani song. He probably gets money for that, but but, uh, yeah, you know, it's weird. Ah, depends on how it's done. Because line of buckets. I made more money doing that kind of stuff with rhino bucket that I did playing ticks. We make a lot more on merchant plan live,

Chuck Shute:   1:4:08
sir. Like

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:4:09
the soundtrack stuff. It just kind of minimal. But But Raina bucket did a lot like the label we were on. The guy had these connections, and we had Madison part of the sports network.

Chuck Shute:   1:4:24
So that's smart, then? Yeah, for sure. Well, another guy that you knew it from the movie business that you I didn't know you're friends with Johnny Depp. Apparently, he was in some band in Florida that you guys used to hang out together and stuff.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:4:38
Yeah, well, when we were doing cool kids down there in Miami, we  yeah, we were down there for several months, and we would go out. Out. There was a club called the What I called it was open until 6 a.m. Like all on all night club. I can't I can't believe that name just went out of my head. But But anyway, his band used to play there all the time. You used in this band called the Kids, and they were like a rockabilly kind of a rockabilly vibe. In fact, Johnny he had just joined that band and the original guy left, This guy named Coz to go join the Romantics So Cause went to the romantics, and then Johnny was the new guitar player so we could hang out and watch him play. And

Chuck Shute:   1:5:31
(laughs)

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:5:31
And we became friends with Johnny and the singer, who now I can't think of his name...  but I ended up friends with Johnny and even came out, hung out at criteria videos while we're recording, and  I am. And I knew this girl. We're friends with this girl, and she would do these wet T shirt contests in Fort Lauderdale. I'm in one night. She she invited Johnny and I had to come out because she was doing this wet T shirt contest. So we go after the club with her and it, but it turns out Johnny's not. I think he may have been 20. It wasn't. He was underage and they weren't gonna let him in. And somehow she talked. Talk her way in like she got him in there. She talked to the bouncers. But the only way that they would let him in is if he stood by the DJ booth. He couldn't walk around the club, and I had to stand there with him. Make sure he didn't go anywhere...

Chuck Shute:   1:6:31
what's so weird to think of Johnny Depp not being able to get in somewhere right now? basically, I know some of them were. You don't It must been weird to see him turn into this giant movie star, did you....Probably lost touch with him after out, right or

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:6:45
yeah, you gotta realize before cell phones, it was hard to keep in touch with people

Chuck Shute:   1:6:52
right, yeah

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:6:54
So after that, it was like, Oh, well, another cool story with those guys were when we got done with the cool kids record what we would do like for every record that we ever recorded, we'd always do like this show right at the end, after we're done recording. And they were doing the final mixes. We'd go out and do a show somewhere. Just get it out of our system. So, at the end of the cool kids record,  Johnny Depp's Band, the kids were playing at the button south down in Miami, and and we were talking to him about maybe getting up there and doing some songs on their gear. And they said, Yeah, sure, no problem. So we go down there that night, their plan, and we get up, jumped up there and Then we do only like three songs. But,  But Johnny had this. He had a 56 Telecaster and an old like Marshall 50  half  stack.And, So I got to play Johnny guitar, and that was that. Put the bug in my ear about playing a telly because

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:8:03
before that, I didn't

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:8:04
play a telly and  I didn't realize the Telecaster through a marshal. I didn't realize what that sounded like till that night, and it was like magic, but that was a cool thing, but anyway, yeah,I lost touch with him and then I remember seeing him on 21 Jump Street. I go. That looks like Johnny Depp... That is him.  And then I ran into him the next time I actually ran into what he was doing that John Waters movie Crybaby. And I went down the hammer Jack to see a stray cast because we were good friends with those guys too

Chuck Shute:   1:8:47
ohhh.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:8:49
So I went to see Stray Cats , and after they were done, I went backstage. Hammerjacks. We had the run of the place. We could go anywhere we wanted. So I go backstage and and into the office, you know, wait to go upstairs where the dressing rooms were. So I'm in the office, I walk in the office and there's Johnny Depp sitting in there. There's Iggy Pop  sitting in there. And,

Chuck Shute:   1:9:11
uh, what's

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:9:13
What's the porn star girl?

Chuck Shute:   1:9:14
Jenna Jameson?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:9:16
No I can't remember that...

Chuck Shute:   1:9:22
anyway, but

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:9:23
there's John Johnny, And I'm like, Hey, you know, I didn't know if you remember me and I go, you remember me and he goes yeah, sure, . So we start talking. I was like, You still have that telecast? And any still had the tally

Chuck Shute:   1:9:39
and

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:9:40
then within the other cool thing was, I got something Iggy Pop. I've never met him before.

Chuck Shute:   1:9:44
Yeah, he's a legend...

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:9:46
Oh man. He was so cool. And he goes and it was right when "Don't Close Your Eyes"  was taking off and and even knew the song he goes Man is good. Your guy's song is doing really well right now,

Chuck Shute:   1:10:00
that's awesome... it's got to be surreal. And then you got to do a little acting yourself. You're in a couple of movies, and then, um And now you kind of have, like, a like a YouTube cooking show.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:10:14
Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. Better.

Chuck Shute:   1:10:17
Big onto the pale. It Simon the Paley. What is it called? The car? You just e I'm really fascinated by this. You just eat meat. I mean, I've had some vegans on my show, but I've never had someone that only ate meat. Is that how the diet goes? Am I right? Yeah. Uh, yeah. Well,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:10:32
I got into I really You know, after what, your the whole rehab and getting sober. I really, uh That way back then is when I started getting trying to get healthy again, I started jogging in and doing all this stuff. And then and I tell this story to the first gig when I flew back to Baltimore to do the first reunion show with these guys. It was the first time that I actually saw the face to face, you know, for 10 years, and Steve was in such good shape, it inspired me. And so I started trying to get it. I mean, I had already been running and ride my bike, but nothing like that. Like I I wanted I saw Steve and I was like, Oh, man, I want I want to get in shape because Steve looked like you look like a young Iggy Pop at that

Chuck Shute:   1:11:24
point, you know? Yeah, I

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:11:26
remember. I remember asking him How did you do that? So that I started with the physical part of it. And then the more gonna do that, I started learning about the nutrition

Chuck Shute:   1:11:39
part of him.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:11:40
And, uh and I initially, uh I don't know if you've heard of bulletproof coffee.

Chuck Shute:   1:11:48
Yeah. Yeah. Where you put the butter in, dear coffee?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:11:52
Yeah, Well, the guys Dave Asprey is the guy that started that company when that first came out that, like, open my opened my eyes to like the whole bad acted thing. And, uh, Petito think right, and that's what it sort of opened the door, and I I started. It took a long time, though, because I'm such a carb sweets addict, huh? I love, like, sweets and cookies and cake, and I love all that stuff, and that was the hardest thing to give up. It was sort of a transition, but I transitioned I got in, taquito got off the sugar and the cars and all that junk. And then and then, uh, I really got into, like, the the whole science behind, like cholesterol and all the myths that go along with

Chuck Shute:   1:12:45
that. So your cholesterol good, because it's about the ratio. You have high cholesterol, but the ratio from your hot your good cholesterol is your bad cholesterol is really it's a good ratio. So that's what it's really matters. Is that correct?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:13:00
Well, the ratio between the HDL and the tri glitterati yeah, knows the those are the numbers that count.

Chuck Shute:   1:13:06
But it's weird

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:13:07
that the doctors on Lee look att, LDL and total cholesterol. And if that doesn't match there there, they're numbers that they want to see those. They'll try to put you on Staten drugs.

Chuck Shute:   1:13:20
When you

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:13:22
That's like a death wish when you

Chuck Shute:   1:13:24
get right

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:13:25
on those things.

Chuck Shute:   1:13:26
Yeah, go anyway. And you have no calcium in your arteries. You have a C A C scan or something. That's a perfect zero. So everything's good?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:13:34
Yeah. Because even though I know that with the cholesterol ratio thing, even though, you know, looking at that tells you that you're you're you're right. I still have the people going, old man. You're gonna have a heart attack and this and that. So I go. Okay, let me go get that test done, and I'll prove it. So So I wouldn't have the c a c school thing done, and it came out perfect zero perfect. And, uh, but, you know, even before all that junk, um, you know, the whole quest wrong that the diet and all that stuff all intertwined. I started learning about the carnivore, saying, um, I stumbled on that through, uh, look, Makelele, McKay, Lee Peterson, Jordan, Peterson's daughter.

Chuck Shute:   1:14:28
I heard

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:14:29
it of them, but she, uh, she had horrific, like autoimmune issues like she had done from, like, early age. Like five years old. She had like toe like a severe arthritis And like, these skin problems. And I think the skin from May have come later as a result of all the drugs they had her on right it. But she had it so bad that entertain, she had have, like, uh, joint replacement. Like crazy stuff for a young girl.

Chuck Shute:   1:15:03
Yeah, and,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:15:04
uh, somehow she discovered the carnival diet and everything disappeared. Arthritis went away, Skin problems went away. I could just fixed everything. And I remember hearing that story and just being fascinated by it and think it, you know, You know, I always had, like, back problems and gut problems, all this stuff. And I thought, Well, maybe I'll try that for a month and see if it helps. And that's what So then I went from Tito, which and already I felt better on Tito. But

Chuck Shute:   1:15:38
yeah,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:15:39
why there yet? And then I went. That's the one I want total car for and fixed everything that seemed to be wrong. And, uh and I feel so much better. Like all those workouts I was doing like before, before Carnivore, I was considera which would consider a pesky Italian. Basically, I was Well, basically a vegetarian that ate fish.

Chuck Shute:   1:16:06
Okay,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:16:07
so So, other than the fish, I didn't need any need. I didn't need anything. So jumping into the carnivore with a hole

Chuck Shute:   1:16:13
like that, it's a 1 80

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:16:15
It was weird, but I did it. And I remember within two weeks I felt so good. And I remember all my all those workouts that I had been doing like I had gotten healthy. But until I went carnivore, that kicked it into overdrive. And also I I saw results like Royal right away. My hope my body just like, came into shape. And

Chuck Shute:   1:16:41
like

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:16:41
all these things happened and my gut weren't bloated anymore, I didn't feel like swollen. And

Chuck Shute:   1:16:50
do you ever have a day or anything, or do you ever give yourself early on I

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:16:56
early on, I would I would bounce back and forth. I do Tito for a few weeks and then go back to Carnivore for a week. And then, you know, I would just sort of bounce bounce back and forth. So, you know, I go from just strictly meet them back to some vegetables. But the thing was, you know, this is when I still lived out in L. A. I was in this relationship on that ended up It ended as her salt my current carnivore diet. It was only because it freaked her out when I

Chuck Shute:   1:17:29
started the nation just like she goes.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:17:31
I don't know. I thought I knew you. But I

Chuck Shute:   1:17:34
don't know e like

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:17:36
this hold. But I think it is. It was more than just me, I think.

Chuck Shute:   1:17:40
Sure, Yeah, it must have been

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:17:42
but open Dr Mork underlying problems that we're having anyway, What was that? So that's why I didn't really jump completely head on into the carnivore completely because it was it was a little hard to deal with at home because every time I cooked bacon, she would just storm out of the house and goes,

Chuck Shute:   1:18:02
you

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:18:03
know, it was cost problems.

Chuck Shute:   1:18:05
No, I didn't.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:18:06
So I didn't get enough until I can't came here to national I you know, now I'm by myself. I can do whatever I

Chuck Shute:   1:18:13
want, eat

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:18:14
whatever I want. And that's when I,

Chuck Shute:   1:18:18
your family

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:18:18
have a good that.

Chuck Shute:   1:18:19
Yeah, your fans are lying. And if you're going, Teoh, open up your own restaurant or have your own cookbook at some point for this stuff.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:18:27
Well, you know, I would love to have a, like, a a diner or something someday. I don't know

Chuck Shute:   1:18:34
if that

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:18:35
would be fun, but, you know, people ask me about a cookbook all time, But the thing is, I love to cook and I have that little cooking video show thing

Chuck Shute:   1:18:45
on your social media. People fall I've ever fallen you on instagram, thinking I'm getting updates about kicks and hanging out with musicians and music stuff. And it's almost all food, which I like I might actually enjoy this I'm like, kind of curious about because you'll post these duck eggs and things that I've never seen. You know, it's not eyes calm. Some of the stuff is not as common for meat eaters. Even so, it's cool, though. Yeah,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:19:10
I organ meats and all that.

Chuck Shute:   1:19:13
We got

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:19:13
by that. But you know, it's a funny thing is people go, you know, post something like like I find him spleen like beef, spleen, three other this week and, uh, and it's it's organ me, but it ain't great

Chuck Shute:   1:19:31
like it off like

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:19:33
it tastes like chicken liver. And I tried it with I like pork. Panko bread. It

Chuck Shute:   1:19:38
I just got some of that.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:19:42
Yeah. So? And I tried bacon grease so tasty. It was like a big It was like a king sized chunk of, ah, of chicken liver. That's what it tasted like. And it was so good. But people would see it, and they did. So in a way, I would never do that. Well, I couldn't do that. And it's like, Well, have you ever had it?

Chuck Shute:   1:20:02
No. You

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:20:04
know, they just see the name of it.

Chuck Shute:   1:20:05
They don't

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:20:06
want to deal with it. It's like, What if? Until you try it,

Chuck Shute:   1:20:09
I'll try. You can't You

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:20:11
can't say you hated

Chuck Shute:   1:20:12
if you've never had it.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:20:15
But that's the thing. It's like, uh, I experiment with all this stuff, but I'm not really. I guess I'm a natural cook, but I don't I've never not like Jimmy Jimmy with a school for military school. And so he's an official like chef. I'm just It's like a hobby for me, and I love doing it.

Chuck Shute:   1:20:37
Yeah,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:20:37
and I'm good at I'm good at throwing stuff together. But then again, I'm only cooking for myself. That's another

Chuck Shute:   1:20:44
Yeah, it's cool besides the ah Carnivore diet you. Is there anything else that you're passionate about? Like a charity or nonprofit? Always like to highlight something that the artist is interested in? If you had something for that

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:20:58
Oh, that's a good question on,

Chuck Shute:   1:21:02
I think I told her management. Maybe she didn't tell you. I blame her.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:21:06
No, I think I remember her mentioning it in the

Chuck Shute:   1:21:09
mail,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:21:09
but I I never think I had. But while I I there was a point after I went to rehab, I I wasn't working for my brother anymore. I got a job at a pet clinic. It was while I was still at the recovery home we had. They sent it out to get a job like that was part of the thing. You had had a job and I started working in just pet clinic in West L. A. And I worked there for 12 years. And so I that that particular clinic worked with a lot of different rescue groups On one call called much love.

Chuck Shute:   1:21:51
Okay,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:21:51
Animal rescue.

Chuck Shute:   1:21:53
And they're not one of

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:21:54
the Yeah, there was a larger ones like the Lang Foundation that they work with, but, uh, much love with a smaller operation, and they were kind of a struggling rescue. I'm saying that I

Chuck Shute:   1:22:08
don't know if

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:22:09
they had up. I don't think they had on official, like kennel anywhere. I think they just fostered out these rescue animals. Just foster amount. People would take care of them at their at their homes for him until they be adopted. But, um so that was one of the charity

Chuck Shute:   1:22:27
thing. Now, what was

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:22:30
only don't donate Thio and

Chuck Shute:   1:22:33
yeah, I just like to highlight. I always like toe highlight a charity on each episode. Brian, you've had so much success already. Do you have any future plans with kicks? Like, are you guys gonna reschedule your tour dates or cancel them? And also, is there gonna be a new kicks album or is there new material in the works?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:22:50
Well, um well, as far as the shows, they've all been postponed

Chuck Shute:   1:22:57
till next

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:22:58
month or so. Um, nothing's been canceled yet.

Chuck Shute:   1:23:01
It is a miracle. That's good. You got it out. Whisky. A go go show in July. I don't know if that will happen, but

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:23:08
yeah, I don't know. That's the thing. I mean, all these shows they've been rescheduled. But but then you never know when this is going to be back up and running. And then they Now I've heard that, you know, concerts. They're going to be one of the last things they'll probably let go back to normal

Chuck Shute:   1:23:24
because there's a

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:23:25
crowd, so you know who knows what's gonna happen with that? But But as far as the recording way have talked about doing another record at some point and you know everybody's got their own little ideas. We haven't put anything together yet. The herd a couple Steve gave me a Let me set me some MP three files, but bunch of his songs he's been writing. Everybody sort of got some ideas, but we just haven't gotten together to put them together. It is a shame, because we have all the time now,

Chuck Shute:   1:24:02
but

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:24:02
I'm here. Nashville can't jump on a plane.

Chuck Shute:   1:24:05
Can, you know, send tracks a digital? Because I know, like, what's that guy? Stevie Rochelle from Tough. He was in that band called Tales of the Porn, and he he actually worked with abandon. Brazil had never met them in real life, but they they sent tracks like digitally. And then they made an album and it was like pretty good.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:24:22
Well, that is always the possibility, but kicks kicks is we're one of those bands that it just comes off better If we could get into a room together and just play together. When you start doing like long distance like that, it comes out a little more generic, and it's almost like once you have the song structure, it's hard to change it. And

Chuck Shute:   1:24:50
after that, after

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:24:51
the fact

Chuck Shute:   1:24:51
that I

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:24:52
mean I have, I have done, in fact, this week this past week I did to two different tracks for due to different people one band come up in our they from. That's Ron New York or somewhere up there, or maybe even Massachusetts not forget where they live. But they sent me a trach. I did it guitar solo as the mother of fools and then a friend of mine from L. A. They wanted to put out up. They're putting out a song about this whole, um uh um pandemic. It's a pandemic album, so they sent me a track to play on, so I do that kind of stuff. But that's easy because they have the phone.

Chuck Shute:   1:25:35
Yeah,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:25:36
and then I just sort of throw it into onto my laptop. And I had a guitar track of intended back.

Chuck Shute:   1:25:43
Yeah, So you guys wouldn't do, like, a zoom concert and acoustic online concert. Any of those kinds of things

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:25:49
your people back that we'll see, we That's another thing. I don't live up there, so it's like, I mean, I get it,

Chuck Shute:   1:25:55
You could do it through zoom or whatever is. Well, that's what I've seen some bands do, but yeah, it is hard if you're in the same room.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:26:02
Oh, they fancy that separate place. I

Chuck Shute:   1:26:05
think so, Yeah. I think I've seen stuff where they do that, you know, if they're all in the same conference, and I don't really know how it works is probably gonna sound great. But I mean, people really hungry for music.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:26:16
I've done some of the zoom needing things, but it's kind of weird.

Chuck Shute:   1:26:20
Yeah, I guess there

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:26:21
would. There might be a way to do it,

Chuck Shute:   1:26:24
you know, Maybe think about it. You never know. Oh, well, thank you so much for coming on my show. Everybody make sure to follow Brian on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. I think you're on all three of those, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:26:39
mostly. Mostly Facebook instagram, but Facebook. I have my my personal page, Brian. Foresight. But I also have that Brian Damage for citing age, which is, like a musician one

Chuck Shute:   1:26:51
and also the land and rhino bucket fan pages as well, right?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:26:56
Yeah. And I have I do have a personal website, but, you know, I never mess with that,

Chuck Shute:   1:27:02
okay?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:27:03
I'm mostly on Facebook

Chuck Shute:   1:27:06
and YouTube show the YouTube cooking show. You guys kind of cool?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:27:10
Oh, that. I can't forget that.

Chuck Shute:   1:27:12
You know,

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:27:12
why don't you have? Don't you think I have? Ah, like my candle? That I don't have a name, candles or whatever, but anyway, yeah, I'm on their

Chuck Shute:   1:27:22
search. Coming up. That's how I found you. Yeah. Cool. Well, thank you so much for coming on my show. Is there anything else you want to promote before we end this?

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:27:31
Well, it on regarding regarding the YouTube anyone that anyone that checks it out give give me a thumbs up and hits

Chuck Shute:   1:27:39
us. Describe? Yeah. More

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:27:41
subscribers I have, the better.

Chuck Shute:   1:27:42
Yeah, I prefer. Absolutely. And I think the restaurant of the cookbook or both. I think that should be in your future too. It sounds like there's demand for people are asking so

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:27:51
well, I wouldn't. Yeah, the diner thing is definitely a something that I would really consider. Like, if I could hook up with a partner or something that was more about the business, I might I might consider doing that

Chuck Shute:   1:28:03
somebody to an analogy. Fun? Yeah. Thanks so much, Brian. I really appreciate it.

Brian "Damage" Forsythe:   1:28:09
Yeah, well, thanks for having me.

Chuck Shute:   1:28:10
All right, Look forward to talking to you again in the future. Okay? All right. Bye, Brian. Well, thank you all for listening and making it all the way to the end. I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did. I learned a lot about Brian and kicks so many interesting things. Shout out to Lisa Rose and all the people in the Kicks fan group on Facebook kicks has obviously a really great fan base. And I hope I think we all look forward to hearing new music from them soon. As well as seeing them do more shows. Follow Brian on social media. Like I mentioned, I'm on everything as well. If you like these interviews, make sure you hit the subscribe button s o. That way you'll never miss an episode. I'm currently looking at booking more guests. So if you have suggestions who you want me to interview hit me up and let me know until next time, have a great day or night Bye.