P.J. Farley (Trixter, Ra, Fozzy, Solo)

Episode #61- P.J. Farley. PJ  has played bass with Eric Martin (Mr. Big), Lita Ford, Fozzy (with Chris Jericho), Jim Bruer, Ra, and of course Trixter.  He also made a solo record called "Boutique Sound Frames" in 2016 and now has a second solo record called "Accent the Change" and first single "Let It Rain" that Eddie Trunk called "super hooky."  

00:00 - Intro
01:08 - Welcome PJ! + Press Junket
02:26 - Playing Drums & Bass Early
03:32 - Parents Supportive Of Music Career
04:39 - Possible Tour With Def Leppard
05:29 - Opening for Poison 
06:34 - Touring & Being Under 21
08:02 - Blood, Sweat & Beers Tour
10:45 - Playing Jani Lane at Nintendo 
11:50 - Hitting Bars After The Shows 
13:14 - CC Going Up The Walls 
14:14 - Exchanging Records with Erik Turner 
15:15 - Tour with Kiss 
18:48 - Changing Music Scene 
19:45 - Undercovers CD & Tour
21:00 - Ending of the Band 
22:30 - Playing Locally Before Joining Ra
23:25 - Playing in "Ra" Band 
25:30 - Playing in Multiple Bands
27:28 - Playing With Lita Ford & Bumblefoot
29:45 - New Trixter Albums on Frontier Records
31:28 - Playing With Eric Martin of Mr. Big 
32:23 - First Solo Album 
33:41 - Playing Bass in Fozzy 
34:45 - Kuarantine 80s Kiss Covers 
35:40 - Rubik's Cube 80s Pop Covers 
36:30 - Playing With Jim Bruer 
37:10 - Being in Multiple Bands Vs One Band 
38:05 - Dream Offer - Foo Fighters 
39:15 - New Solo Record  "Accent The Change" 
43:01 - New Record With "Ra"
44:10 - Remastered "Hear" Trixter Album 
44:50 - Pete Loran Not Being Able to Commit
46:15 - "Issues" Within The Band 
46:55 - Mediation Offer 
47:22 - No Kill Animals Shelters 
48:16 - Wrap Up

PJ Farley Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/pjfarley/

No Kill Animal Shelters:
https://www.nokillnetwork.org

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

Transcript

Chuck Shute : 0:15

Welcome to the show. I've got PJ Farley coming up soon here so PJ plays bass for many bands so many he's played in raw, which is like a 90s rock, modern rock band. He's played with Eric Martin from Mr. Big. Lita Ford even played with a wrestler Chris Jericho and his band Fozzy and comedian Jim Breuer. So he's all over the place. But he's most well known for playing and trickster. And of course, I've interviewed the trickster drummer mark a couple times. They're one of my favorite bands. So it's fun to reminisce with PJ. He's toured with poison the scorpions warrant and kiss back in the day. So we'll talk about that plus his other projects, including his new solo album accent, the change, and the new single Let it rain. That's out right now. He's a very busy man. So learn all about him. PJ Farley, the man the legend. Enjoy. Welcome to the show. The Chuck shoe podcast PJ Farley. This amazing. I'm really excited. I'm a huge trickster fan. I'm a fan of all your work, actually. And I think it's really cool. You were literally just on Eddie trunk. I was listening to you and now you're doing my show. So that's a big downgrade. But, uh, thank you for taking the time to do that. That's pretty cool.

P.J. Farley : 1:27

Man. You're willing to listen.

Chuck Shute : 1:29

Yeah. And then it's funny too, is like right after this. You're doing Troy Patrick furl show I've had him on as a guest on my show.

P.J. Farley : 1:36

Quite the press. junket I got going on here. Yeah.

Chuck Shute : 1:39

Is that? No, do you find that is that kind of the new thing is to just do like, every podcast and every radio show? Is that is that? Is that how it always was?

P.J. Farley : 1:48

Um, well, I mean, usually, I mean, we're used to, I mean, when we were back on the bigger labels, it was like, all right, we would have to divvy up all the interviews. I got a page of interviews. You got a page of interviews and so on. And because it would take us, you know, a month to do it again. Yeah, it's pretty, it's pretty heavy. It's gonna go really good.

Chuck Shute : 2:09

And then you guys didn't used to do a lot of like pictures and stuff back in the day, too. Right. I remember saying like, a lot of like, metal edge and stuff. Like

P.J. Farley : 2:17

that. photo shoots out

Chuck Shute : 2:18

the wazoo. That's crazy. So you originally started? It's crazy. I was looking at your bio, you started playing the drums at age six. Inspired by animal from the Muppets and Peter Criss from kiss, but like, how do you play the drums at age six? I mean, it was like a fisher price drum kit

P.J. Farley : 2:34

or I should have been doing this on my phone and show you a little drum set. I got my daughter in the next room. Oh, yes, sir. pots and pans. And then I got like his little drum kit, you know. And I just got my daughter on her birthday last year.

Chuck Shute : 2:50

So it's like a little mini one. You weren't playing the full drum kit cuz that those things are huge. I was

P.J. Farley : 2:55

like, around seven or eight?

Chuck Shute : 2:57

Yeah. Wow. And then so then around age 11, you switched to bass, which is really smart. Because everybody's a guitar player. Everyone's a singer. Not as many drummers but then yeah, even fewer bass players, it seems like so that I was forced,

P.J. Farley : 3:10

I was forced into the bass player role because I went to start a band. And I asked all my friends, I had a guitar player singer, you know, like three drummers. Nobody stepped up to play bass. I'm like, Alright, sounds gonna be fine. On the bass player.

Chuck Shute : 3:24

Wow, that seemed to work out well for you. Right? Because the more people need bass players. Yeah. happens for a reason. That's it crazy. So then you started playing in bands at a really young age of 1415. And you're in the clubs. And that's kind of how you met the trickster guys. And then they recruited you after they had an issue with their bass player. So how your parents were must have been pretty supportive of your music career. I mean, my parents funding let me spend the night at you know, down the street from my friend's house, but they let you like basically tour the world and stuff, right?

P.J. Farley : 3:52

Yeah. Yeah, there was. There was no question as to what I was doing with my life. Because I was, you know, pretty much staying out of trouble. I was just hyper focused on playing music. So, and I mean, I started when I was in my first band playing, and I think I was 12 years old. And then 1314 gotta do bandwidth, geyser. 2223. And it was like, it was serious for me. You know, I wasn't just dicking around. So yes, pretty early. So there wasn't even a time for anyone to go. You know, you should have something to fall back on before I even graduated. Right? Right. So it's like, talk to me.

Chuck Shute : 4:33

Yeah. So you guys got these managers and these managers hooked you up and got your record deal. And then I heard you talking the other day about, there was actually a time where you guys were possibly going to go on tour with Def Leppard. But that didn't work out. What What do you think that you guys would have made that work? Like, what was the problem or where you couldn't make it work? It was just scheduling wise cycles didn't our cycles didn't line up? Okay, so

P.J. Farley : 4:58

the time by the time we got signed and finally got to, you know, get done with the record and ready to put out. Our record wasn't on the schedule at the same time that you know, it was too late. Okay. Dirty going out on the hysteria tour and

Chuck Shute : 5:16

yeah, cuz that would have been crazy. I would have been crazy. I mean, obviously then later, your your bandmate Steve ended up playing with Def Leppard was pretty crazy. But so then at the time,

Unknown Speaker : 5:25

what? It all worked out.

Chuck Shute : 5:26

Yeah, it worked out great. No, you guys ended up doing. You did a headline tour for clubs. Then you did striper and Don dokken, and you open for poison. Tell me about that. That was like because I'm a big poison fan. I must have been pretty fun.

P.J. Farley : 5:40

It was great. I mean, that was our first arena tour. And it was a we had already had to be an scorpions tour booked? No, maybe not. But I think we got the poison tour. In between the SCorp striper and Don docking tour, I think. And it was like, that was it like, boom, that's what we've been wanting to do. So yeah, it was pretty amazing. When we got the call to do that go out and actually do it. It was just like we imagined you know, in the first arena, we did you know, usually they're reserved seating it seats in the front of everything. This one Evansville, Indiana, Robert stadium. General mission, it was sold out to the rafters people just on top of shoulders. It was you know, exactly how you would imagine that for your first arena show. Pretty cool.

Chuck Shute : 6:33

And you're not even 18 at this point. Right. So are you still doing like correspondence court then have online school back then? So you're doing like

P.J. Farley : 6:40

I did. I did that I finished that before we went on the road.

Chuck Shute : 6:43

Okay. Yeah, cuz I remember Mark was telling me that you had to get like a note for like PE or something like that. Like you had to get signed off to do a PE classes or something like, yeah, that's crazy.

P.J. Farley : 6:54

Oh, that correspondence. And I did that just in time, and then went right on the road.

Chuck Shute : 6:59

Yeah. And so how does that work? Because you're not even 21? Is there? Is there certain times where you couldn't go into certain bars or things like that? Or do you have a fake ID? Or do they just like, let us let it slide because you're in trickster.

P.J. Farley : 7:13

They do these things where, once you're done, play, beat it. I've run the Dundalk into where that was. That happened a couple of times. That's my way back in but I'm like, I'll just go drink the beer on my bus, dude.

Chuck Shute : 7:27

Yeah, whenever I remember hearing a similar story, I interviewed the Brian forsyte from kicks. And he was telling me how they play with Johnny Depp when Johnny Depp was in bands and he was too young. And so they had to like he couldn't get into places because he wasn't 21 I'm like, it's so funny to think of Johnny Depp being turned down for place, but I guess

P.J. Farley : 7:44

I'm getting more tricks. So I'd be playing these places and I would literally get in the venue for soundcheck and then hide in the bathroom. Doors open literally.

Chuck Shute : 7:54

Crazy. Yeah. So anyway, so around this time your album comes out, it starts blowing up. It's doing well on radio doing well on MTV. And you guys do the awesome amazing blood sweat and beers tour. I wish. I think I was a little late by the time I started getting into you guys. I think it was I don't even know if you came to Seattle. I was living in Seattle at the time. But you're only 19 years old. The first shows a what you said Bismarck, North Dakota. I

P.J. Farley : 8:18

think so. Yeah.

Chuck Shute : 8:18

Yeah. And then you said it just started getting bigger and bigger. And the biggest one you did was Chicago. 45,000.

P.J. Farley : 8:25

Something like that. Yeah. The world in Chicago. Just capacity. I mean, beautiful site. Yeah. That was a whole week of shows or is just one big show after the next Milwaukee summerfest 30 some thousand people it was you know?

Chuck Shute : 8:43

Yeah. Yeah, it sounds I listened to that podcast you did with Jericho. And you guys talked about all the crazy stories like you there had you had some sort of bet where you you guys would try to see how many tequila shots. You could do it without puking. Like, who holds the record for that one? I think everybody lost.

P.J. Farley : 9:02

I don't know. It was just it. I think they were just using me as a guinea pig. I was riding on Warren's bus at night. And Janie thought that I could do 75 shots of corbeau and Turner my boy knew that I couldn't.

Chuck Shute : 9:16

Yeah, 75

P.J. Farley : 9:18

that's no, you I think after like, I forget what the number of shots was. But on the last one, he came back up. He was like 15 to 10 or 15. And this was after bus calls. So like, I'm on second on the Warren tour. So after that, I stopped drinking, watching Warren. I'm having some beers and stuff. So then it's not till one o'clock in the morning whenever when bus starts rolling. Then the real drinking starts. So I needed to be graded on a curve.

Chuck Shute : 9:52

Yeah, did you so do you typically drink after the show or dirt because it sounded like Mark was saying that Janie would drink like during the show. He would go out and do an amazing performance and he'd be totally hammered.

P.J. Farley : 10:05

Yeah, I mean, we wouldn't drink during the show coming. We were only doing 45 minutes. So I mean, we were pretty high energy. And we we had youth on our side, you know, we didn't like it wasn't like now when it's like, right, next to a shot. Let's get this oil.

Unknown Speaker : 10:24

Yeah, you

P.J. Farley : 10:26

know, I'm back that it was fucking ready to go at any time. So it was Miller time after the show. Yeah. And yet, I look horrible on stage. You know?

Chuck Shute : 10:38

Yeah. So tell me about this story you're talking about there was a time in Allentown, Pennsylvania. And you and Jamie were playing Nintendo. I guess he was a big Nintendo fan, his big video game fan. And you guys were running late. Yeah, you're running late to the show. And so what you have to like drive those golf carts or something to get to and he drove and he was hammered.

P.J. Farley : 10:57

No, it that's kind of a hybrid of story.

Unknown Speaker : 10:59

Okay. Okay.

P.J. Farley : 11:00

One time where we were playing and the runner was ready to pick us all up. A couple guys from my band firehouse, and Mark, and his security guys. Jay, come on. Let's go. Runners here. Meet him in the back lounge playing and I was winning. But he's such a competitive guy by nature. He would not leave until the game is over. I'm back and wait, I might

Chuck Shute : 11:21

do let's go. And what can was this like a baseball video game or something?

P.J. Farley : 11:24

Dude, he was a baseball. Okay. Let's go. He's a No, we'll get next one. I'm like, okay, so we had to finish the game, but no Allentown It was a death ride. When we would go he'd go out to the bar afterwards. And we had the runner and he basically kicked the runner out of the driver's seat. And I'm driving. And we were in a van. And literally getting thrown around like the dogs.

Chuck Shute : 11:51

This is not good. That's a great analogy. Yeah. So I heard that you said that. That was kind of a very common theme after the shows you guys would have genuine announcement on stage like, Hey, we're gonna be at this bar after the show. So did the bar just get like mobbed with people that you guys get mobbed with you? I mean, how did you How is that even safe? It was it was a lot they had security. Okay.

Unknown Speaker : 12:13

Oh, I mean,

Chuck Shute : 12:14

and get up whatever band was playing, and I just kind of take over the stage and, you know, just throw another party. Wow, that sounds crazy. So it sounds it's like it's so much fun. Like just boys being boys like the perfect time to go. Like, you don't want to be doing that when you're in your 50s and stuff. But like when you're in your teens and 20s That's what

Unknown Speaker : 12:33

I mean. 50 but,

Unknown Speaker : 12:35

you know,

Chuck Shute : 12:36

it doesn't get to the point where it's like, you got to kind of I mean, I interview a lot of you rock star guys and like, I hear the story so much like, well, yep, now I had to give up drinking and all that stuff. Because now I'm older or whatever, you know, they hit some sort of wall. You haven't hit that wall yet. You're saying?

P.J. Farley : 12:51

No, I haven't hit the wall. But I'm also not. I'm not knocking any down. Yeah, I'm not any walls down anymore. Yeah. No. You got a lot too much responsibility now.

Chuck Shute : 13:02

Yeah, no, but that's cool. It sounds like such a

P.J. Farley : 13:05

fun. Oh,

Chuck Shute : 13:06

Yeah. Yeah, you just have to you can't do it as you can't be as good like that. Was that the craziest tour that you'd been on? Even crazier than Poison?

P.J. Farley : 13:14

Yeah.

Chuck Shute : 13:16

It was poison because weren't they were kind of wasn't CC doing like Coke at that time. Like he was kind of off the walls a little bit. Let's not what, that's why they kicked him out. Right. He was up the walls. He was climbing.

P.J. Farley : 13:31

Yeah, he was pretty tuned up that tour. Yeah, that's crazy. Just hear him and just kind of like, pick up stuff with this on it.

Chuck Shute : 13:41

So we're kind of like, had you been around me been advanced for a few years? So you had you kind of seen that stuff at that point? Or was that was the cocaine thing like nudie you

P.J. Farley : 13:49

know, we never really we never saw him do coke. And we know you're doing it.

Unknown Speaker : 13:53

Yeah.

P.J. Farley : 13:53

We never saw any anybody do it.

Chuck Shute : 13:57

Okay, interesting. He never offered it to me or anything like that. Crazy. What? stingy, stingy. That's so cool. So yeah, you're so close with, uh, with Warren that, that you gave Eric Turner your gold record from fixer. And he and you have his cherry pie, a double album? Yep. platinum. that's those are the official ones. Like it's not like a copy or something.

P.J. Farley : 14:24

No, it's their copies, like I saw. He slides but but we were. We were like, Let's exchange, you know, plaques. He's all right. He's like, I want yours. I'm like, well, I'll get you one. He's like, No, I want one with your name on it. So it's his idea. He wanted one that was basically presented to me, and he gave me one that was presented to him. So my double platinum cherry pie says presented to Eric Turner and his church, the gold record it says presented to PJ for me.

Chuck Shute : 14:53

That's awesome. That's very cool. So So you did that tour and then you released the second album here. And that was On the time that I started getting into, like rock music and stuff, and I listen, I love that album. Again. I was in Seattle, so I was like, I don't think you guys hit Seattle, but you did. Or maybe you did when you when you because you toured with kiss. Yep. Right. So, yeah. Tell me about that. Like you have a memorable kiss store. I mean, you're a little kid, six years old. You're looking up to Peter, Chris. And now you're touring with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. I mean, that must have been kind of surreal, right?

P.J. Farley : 15:24

Yeah, most definitely. It was kind of thing. That's the the zenith like for us and we get to tour with kiss. It was always one day we'll be on tour with kiss when we tour kiss. Yeah. Now we're going on tour with kiss. So it was Yeah, surreal, walking into the arena every day and seeing the kiss. Road cases and the big, you know, stage set and everything. Just, you know, seeing them every night.

Chuck Shute : 15:52

Yeah, so what and talk about the differences because I could be wrong. But don't they? I don't think Gene Simmons, he doesn't drink right? He doesn't he's totally like, so that must have been totally different kind of feel like like backstage and stuff. not messing around like boys will be boys. Um,

P.J. Farley : 16:08

he still mess around the boys will be boys. Yeah, he Yeah, they weren't it wasn't a party, man. You know, my liver was safe on a tour.

Chuck Shute : 16:19

But did you guys still Are you not allowed to? Like how what's the etiquette without like,

Unknown Speaker : 16:25

getting there not recovery or anything? Yeah,

P.J. Farley : 16:28

that was never an issue. You know, that was just never then. Yeah. And we were even. Even at this point, it was 19 on the historic money. And still, I mean, you know, we weren't going bonkers. We were drinking or beers after the show and maybe some shots but you know, we're not going you know,

Chuck Shute : 16:48

too crazy. Did you learn anything from from beaner? I mean, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, two legends. I mean, they know what they're doing. Is there anything that you learn from from watching them being on the tour with the business side or just like performing or

P.J. Farley : 17:02

gene told me that could pick flick? Because he would, and I found just the other day, he would, I would send by the soundboard during soundcheck, and he would hit me with the pick. I mean, he would fling them like bullseye. Even if it was during the show, and it was on the side said he'd be planning to go, boom, hit me right in the head.

Chuck Shute : 17:26

How did he do? Anytime it's like a secret way to do it or something.

P.J. Farley : 17:29

Just the good the good flick. Then he tried teaching me how to balance a baseball cap on on the rim on your nose. And I said Jean he's had these little quirky tricks, but uh, just watching them. You know what, sadly enough, it was watching them put on a kick ass show to half house, less than half house, you know, with poorly attended shows. And like, where we'd be like, Oh my god, this is like the whole upper deck is empty. But you gotta remember this in 1992. Yeah, all new crop music out there. We were just kind of keeping our heads above water. So it wasn't that great of a tour attendance wise in a lot of markets. Mm hmm. So watching them put on the same show regardless of the crowd was really you know, encouraging.

Chuck Shute : 18:29

Yeah, no, that is interesting. Yeah. Cuz and then eventually they would put the makeup back on and, and, and all that kind of stuff. But that was kind of their tail end of just without without the makeup and stuff. Now they only do the makeup I think. Right? Yeah, yeah. So then yeah, it's like you said that was around that time that the obviously the rock scene was changing quite a bit. And you kind of joke that because you guys were the flannels first, but you joked that the grunge bands kind of hung you guys with the flannels with your own while?

P.J. Farley : 18:54

It took him in August with him? Yeah, that's,

Chuck Shute : 18:57

yeah. And so the record label dropped you guys. But they let you finish. You did a tour in Japan or something. Right. Right after they.

P.J. Farley : 19:05

Yeah, they told us right before we Japan was already booked. And we were going and they told us days before we were going to Japan.

Chuck Shute : 19:14

Is there. Was there still more fans and stuff over in Europe and Japan and other other countries than there wasn't America for that kind of music? Or,

P.J. Farley : 19:21

you know, we never made it. We made it to Japan. Yeah. And that was it. We never went to Europe. Oh, yeah. And it definitely. Cuz we're moving. Luckily, we were so blessed and busy in America. That label is just like we're not we're not killing this momentum by sending over to Europe. So really never got the push over there.

Chuck Shute : 19:44

Okay, well, so then but you did get another he had a must have had some sort of it was a smaller record label because then you had that undercovers CD that I really love that collection of covers, especially as a young kid. You are you guys were exposing me to some of those bands or songs I'd never heard I obviously knew the Nine Inch Nails song I heard you talking about this. It's kind of funny that you Trent Reznor had said in an interview that he wanted to pay you guys to not play that song. Yeah, so he was not a fan.

P.J. Farley : 20:13

No, I don't think so.

Chuck Shute : 20:14

But I you sang on that one, right? Yeah, yeah. No, I love that. I loved your version. I love Nine Inch Nails version too. But yeah, I thought that was pretty cool. So did you guys still were able to kind of make it work as a full time thing at that point or was this was it was Trixter more of a part time thing at that point?

P.J. Farley : 20:32

No, it was still full time thing. It was a full time thing up until Really, I'm going to say, right after we toured. We did the Undercovers Tour, which is a good we did four or five months for Undercovers.

Chuck Shute : 20:48

Okay,

P.J. Farley : 20:48

Tweak that out. And, you know, some good shows still too. And then, you know, we came home, we were just like, let's just put this to rest right now. Walls. Walls everywhere we were going. It was clear, nobody was going to extend a hand out to Trixter at this point, and rightfully so. We saw the writing on the wall, there was no room for us anymore. So we cashed in our chips. And we went around... went about our way. A lot of bands stayed together and kind of fought it out. And God bless them.

Chuck Shute : 21:21

Did you ever think of trying to just because I remember around that time there's a lot of bands that were doing like kind of multiple bill like, you know, it'd be like remember the Rock Never Stops tours like Vince Neil & Slaughter. And like it was like three or four different bands. Did you ever try to think of maybe doing now like teaming up with some of these other guy like maybe with Warrant and Firehouse again?

P.J. Farley : 21:40

Well, when those tours started happening again, Steven, I had to write him a recording for other bands that we put together. I'm trying to get another record deal and just kind of do something else.

Chuck Shute : 21:55

Yeah, yeah.

P.J. Farley : 21:56

guys in the band weren't really around.. and we just didn't feel like there was a demand for us. You know nobody knocked on a door said, "Hey, man,we'd like to put your band on The Rock Never Stops Tour" and to be honest. I don't know if we would have done it back then. I just don't think we would have been in that right headspace. Mm hmm. So it wasn't. And remember all our friends that were joining Firehouse Ratt and all these guys, you guys should get back together. You make a killing? And I was like, Yeah, I don't think so. It wasn't till years later that we did.

Chuck Shute : 22:28

Yeah. So then talk about that. There's a few years here. I know. We'll get to you join Ra. We'll talk about that. But for a few years, 9697 tricksters done. And then you do 40 foot ringgo? Did you do some other stuff? Like cover bands or something? or What were you doing for those few years before he joined raw?

P.J. Farley : 22:45

Yeah, I mean, we were doing Steven I had put together right after trickster and put together a band called throwing rocks, which turned into 44. Ringo. No, which turned into soap, which turned into 40 foot Ringo, then joined and started stereo Fallout. And right around that time you meet him, we're like playing locally. Okay. And then right around the stereo Fallout transformation. That's when I, I was already in raw. And I was just consumed with raw at that point, so that I couldn't do stereo for that anymore. And then really just became full time. Raw.

Chuck Shute : 23:23

Yeah, so talk about that. I just learned about that recently, that you're in this band. They had songs on the radio, you guys toured with stone, sour powerman 5000. shine down, like all these huge bands at the time, and that were like big in the 90s. And then I also heard that the singer from LA, he actually co wrote songs with Nicki six for the new dirt soundtrack.

P.J. Farley : 23:46

Yeah, I mean, Nicki did all the songs on the dirt soundtrack. And john five. And yeah, he didn't say all the backgrounds and stuff on it. And it became really good buddies.

Chuck Shute : 24:01

So you're, I mean, that's pretty amazing that you're able to pivot from you know, the quote unquote like hairband metal to this, like the new 90 sound. I mean, you, you figure that that was just because of his, uh, partly luck. Is it because of like, just being in the right place at the right time? Or is it just perseverance because you never gave up? Right? You didn't quit the music business? Like somebody? I mean,

P.J. Farley : 24:21

I don't know. I mean, it depends on how you look at it. I feel blessed. I also feel like I'm, you know, I have a lot to offer. And I have a positive outlook and positive energy. And I always want to keep going so full of piss and vinegar and, you know, musical fire. So I think that, you know, if you run hot, you know, you're gonna catch fire. Yeah, I mean, I think you know, these things kind of, you gravitate toward they gravitate towards you. And I think, because it's a unique position to be able to do it. I didn't trickster and then in 2000 to join an active rock And then go on tour with with a whole new crop of current hard rock bands and do it in really big scale all over again on a major label. And then ironically, have all the bands that I'm playing with be fans of the band that I was in before.

Chuck Shute : 25:15

Yeah, that's where you're saying like the guys and audio slave were trickster fans. And yeah, that's super cool. Yeah. So then and then. And then at one point trickster get back trickster gets back together. You're doing trickster an RA, at the same time? Yeah. Is that hard to be into? I mean, now, it seems I know, we'll get to that because you're in like 50 different bands right now. But it's hard to do all these multiple bands at the same time. Like,

P.J. Farley : 25:39

it gets a little confusing sometimes. But I got some about Plus, I get lucky a lot with juggling and how things work out. I told the story not long ago about how I had a trickster festival booked in Wisconsin.

Unknown Speaker : 25:53

Yeah, and our tour

P.J. Farley : 25:55

starting in Wisconsin in the same day. So I literally played the tricks festival, got in a car and drove like, two hours or so to wherever I started in Green Bay or something, the Roger threw my bag on the bus and went and did the first show of the raw tour and then went on tour with Ra. I had magical, you know, stars aligned going on there. And it's, I've been able to do really crazy things like that. So hopefully that will continue.

Chuck Shute : 26:22

Yeah. And then you said sometimes you can you have to like sub somebody out like you have to send in like a count like I you know, I used to work in education. So teachers have substitute teachers like you send in like a substitute bass player for you. Right? If you like, if you can do it because of the

P.J. Farley : 26:36

Yeah, every once in a while that will happen. Whereas, like when I started playing with Lita Ford, yeah, I had some dates booked. And, and my good buddy J. Three. He's, you know, guy from home. And he's just super talented guy. We always look out for movies, trying to get him, you know, put them wherever we can.

Chuck Shute : 26:56

He's playing with Tommy Lee, right. You gotten with Tommy

P.J. Farley : 27:01

Lee band. And then he was seven does for a little while. And now he's been doing the front of house for struts since day one.

Chuck Shute : 27:09

I love the struts.

P.J. Farley : 27:11

But yeah, he's always been our go to guy. And I've had him fill in for me with almost everything I've done, even having filled for Steve Richards there when Steve was with leopard. So you know, sometimes sometimes there is a clash.

Chuck Shute : 27:25

That's cool, though. Yeah. So talk about just talk about playing with Lita Ford and bumblefoot because he was the guitarist. He was in Guns and Roses for a little bit. I mean, he's pretty amazing, isn't he?

P.J. Farley : 27:36

Yeah. It's great. Yeah, he's, he's just one of those savant, you know, can do basically anything. super smart. Funny, but incredible guitar player

Chuck Shute : 27:50

Did you guys and you guys didn't write any new material together or anything like that? You just played

P.J. Farley : 27:55

old stuff. Man, she had done a record with her husband was already done. And she was just starting to come back into the scene. And she had done a couple of shows. And then they did that record. And then we did some touring on that.

Chuck Shute : 28:17

Yeah. And you credit like, the credit this way. Like, it's like your versatility with being able to learn the material quickly and be fully prepared. So if they give you a call, like, Hey, we need you to join Lita Ford's band, can you learn all these songs? You're able to learn those songs very quickly?

Unknown Speaker : 28:32

Yeah, yeah, just listen my ear.

P.J. Farley : 28:35

That's the trick. I mean, you know, because when you can get a million bass players to play Lita songs properly or any band that calls you last minute you can get anyone to play the bass, right? You know, but can you do it? In a day? And can you come with your background vocals, nails? Can you have you can you do it with no notes? Can you do it where you're comfortable? On stage right off the bat? Yeah, I mean, the thing is to be digested as quickly as possible. And not you know, I I shy side, so I can't charge anything out. So which I think is my my best kind of asset. So what I learned something, it's, it's filtered through me, it's going right through me, it's up here. It's not like a chart or anything. So I'm playing it like I mean, it, you know, is there's no real question. I have to learn it.

Chuck Shute : 29:30

So do they just give you like a, like a CD or an mp3 of like, you're learning all these songs and you just have to listen and just figure it out? Or do they?

P.J. Farley : 29:37

Or just go to YouTube?

Chuck Shute : 29:40

Okay, wow. All right. Crazy. So yeah, when you reunited with Trixter, you guys had a couple new CDs. I really liked them. They sound they sound up to date, but also it's like that classic sound- "New Audio Machine" was 2012. "Human Era" was 2015. I'm just curious like with the deal with Frontier Records, they made you an offer. You don't have to tell me the exact amount but I'm just curious, like, with these kinds of deals, I mean, this isn't like the multimillion dollar MCA deal that you guys signed in the 90s. Like, it was a lot of them I hear a lot of the money with these kinds of deals is, is from the publishing with like TV and film and commercials. Like if you play they play your song in a commercial or something. Is that a big? Are you finding that to like that a lot of the money comes from that kind of stuff? Or is it record sales?

P.J. Farley : 30:25

I'm sure it would if somebody would put our song and movie. They haven't done that. Yeah, I haven't really gotten to that point yet. But, uh, yeah, I mean, the deals nowadays are a fraction of the cost of what we get back in the day. Well.... and rightfully so. I mean, because everyone's got a studio, you can make records for a hell of a lot cheaper than you were able to back in the day, so I get it. So, but yeah, there's money to be made. If somebody picks it up on a commercial or something like that. Hell yeah.

Chuck Shute : 31:02

Because I've talked to even some of the smaller guys I talked to, they say that that's kind of a big thing that they try to they get the managers and the record labels to try to shop it to these like commercials and TV bits and things and so they're not they don't they don't really push for that.

P.J. Farley : 31:16

They haven't yet and they "Give It To Me Good", I mean that I can think of a lot of commercials. Yeah,

Chuck Shute : 31:21

Seriously.

P.J. Farley : 31:22

That'd be a good one. No "Rocking Horse" or Yeah,

Chuck Shute : 31:26

I love that song. Yeah. So you started playing bass with your Trixter bandmates, Steve Brown, and Eric Martin for Mr. Big I saw you guys live here in Phoenix. It was amazing. Do you have some sort of record deal with that band? Or?

P.J. Farley : 31:40

No, no, yet we have. We've been talking for like two years threatening to write songs and stuff and it's just a matter of doing it. Okay, guys, we are

Chuck Shute : 31:53

Yeah, cuz he I don't. I haven't. He hasn't really gotten back to witness or big. I haven't seen them. He's kind of just doing that solo stuff. Right.

P.J. Farley : 32:00

I think it was two years ago to record out. Okay. A short tour of America, but they did the whole world. Rescue. They were busy. And that's a worldwide ban. on America's Yes. Well.

Chuck Shute : 32:12

Yeah, they're big in Japan, right?

P.J. Farley : 32:14

Yeah. Japan, South America. You know, everywhere in Europe.

Chuck Shute : 32:20

Yeah. So this is really cool. 2016 This is your first solo album, a boutique sound frames. I haven't played the song. You'd stick I play that for my girlfriend. She's not always a big fan of all the music I like but she's like, that's a good song. That's really catchy. So you play you did everything yourself on this, right? I'm always like, fascinated by this. You wrote it? produced it. You played every single instrument. Yep. That's amazing. So and that took you said, like, 12 years to be of collection of writing all this stuff and putting it together?

P.J. Farley : 32:48

Yeah, I mean, I think the bulk of the stuff was written in a probably well read and recorded within maybe a two year period. But that was starting back in like 2000 2001, huh. I mean, I sat on those songs for a long time. And then finally decided, let me just throw them up in the cloud. Okay. You know, I mean, good songs, pretty timeless. I feel, you know, that is that they don't really have a dated quality to them. So, production is great. You know, I did all at Steve's house, you know, on the same stuff that we were recording trixter on the covers, EP on. I mean, and

Chuck Shute : 33:34

you guys all live stone like in New Jersey. Right. Steven? I do. Yeah. And then Pete and Mark live down here in Phoenix. But so you're and then you're also playing this is you're really are in so many bands are playing bass with a Fonzie? Yeah, yeah. And then you guys got some tour dates lined up? Possibly.

P.J. Farley : 33:52

Yeah, we had a tour in October, November. And I just got pushed back to April to kind of as Amina as needed basis, you know, in the sense that their bass player didn't want to tour at all. Mm hmm. In the circumstances. So, um, as far as I know, I think I'm gonna push back to April. I believe I'm doing that. So, um, and then I have something we're doing in October. So yeah, we'll see. But I really don't know what's going on with it. But

Unknown Speaker : 34:27

yeah, whenever

P.J. Farley : 34:28

a lot of fun. A great time we toured in August. And it was a lot of fun. And, you know, obviously, I've known Chris for years. It's great. And got along great with the rest of the band. And,

Chuck Shute : 34:39

you know, Chris from Eddie trunk who were just on his show, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's cool. So and then you're also doing that quarantine with a K. That's with Jericho and Bruce Kulick from from 80s. Can you guys only do 80s kiss songs. Right? Are you going to do more? I think you released what was like one or two songs are you going to release more is that just kind of like a song here and there as it goes or? It's Could

P.J. Farley : 35:00

it be a song here and there, but we have another one. Ready? pretty much ready to go. And then one behind that. So yeah, I'm just going to do it at our own pace. And you know, who knows, we talked about you insurers maybe. If the timing is right, you know, it's a, it's cool to have that kind of a cool project. In our back pockets. Yeah. There's no expiration date on it. So, you know, we can bring it to life at any point.

Chuck Shute : 35:25

Yeah. And then you also did the song, Mr. speed and other cover with the anthrax drummer and guitarist john five. Yeah. Are you gonna be more with that one, too?

P.J. Farley : 35:34

I think so. Yeah, we have one. Kind of in the works now. I think so

Chuck Shute : 35:39

many, and then you're in another band, Rubik's Cube, which is like an 80s pop cover band. That sounds like it'd be a lot of fun. Is that good for like corporate gigs and stuff like that?

P.J. Farley : 35:49

Yeah, it is. It's great. It's like a Broadway show. It's kind of like the 80s kind of pop version, but not

Unknown Speaker : 35:59

the PG version. Okay.

P.J. Farley : 36:03

Still Panther.

Unknown Speaker : 36:04

Oh, yeah. Look, yeah. What do you

P.J. Farley : 36:06

think is still great show? Yeah, it's, it's a production. It's so Steven. I do that together. And yeah, it's mainly private corporate functions, and you know, stuff like that.

Chuck Shute : 36:17

Do you like Steel Panther. I'm a huge fan of that. I love that stuff. But some people get like, almost like offended by it.

P.J. Farley : 36:25

I don't know. I'm a guy. So after that show, it's great. Yeah.

Chuck Shute : 36:30

Yeah, I read Is this true? You play with jim breuer, too, because he's a comedian. But he does like he does some music as well. Yep.

P.J. Farley : 36:38

Yes, Steve and I and Joey casada. We were his background band for about a year. Like two three years ago. He Oh, yeah. incorporated music into his show every night. Okay. Yeah, that was cool. That's great.

Chuck Shute : 36:53

Yeah, cuz I listened to some of those songs that you did. Did you play on the album? Because like, almost like, pretty good. I listened to some of the songs. It was like, pretty good stuff.

P.J. Farley : 37:00

Now we were like, a year or so after he put that record out. Okay.

Chuck Shute : 37:04

So yeah, so like, at this point in your career, I mean, you're you have you feel like you have to be in multiple bands, just to kind of like, keep it going. Are we? I mean, you probably, obviously, rather just be in one. Right. But

P.J. Farley : 37:15

yeah, it would I mean, yes. And no, I mean, you know, Gone are the days of just being in that one band. I mean, granted it, you know, should Foo Fighters call me? Maybe I'll say no to some other projects. I probably won't. But, you know, I would maybe just make that. My, my bad. Yeah. But, you know, nowadays, I gotta, I gotta spread myself out, which I enjoy. You know, man, I as a player, I love being in different situations, and playing different music, different styles of music, playing a different weather and playing with my fingers or playing with a pick, you know, it keeps me on my toes. And, you know, I like being in situations I haven't been in before.

Chuck Shute : 38:02

Yeah, so I was gonna ask you about that, like with a offers and stuff. Is there any offer that you've that you've turned down? Or was there any offer like that you were in contention for like a gig that you really wanted to get you tried out for the didn't get?

P.J. Farley : 38:15

knows not really anything that I ever tried out for not gotten something that I really wanted but didn't get? I don't know I can't?

Chuck Shute : 38:30

Or is there something that you'd want? Like, if like you said, Foo Fighters? Is that? Was that one of your top choices? If they did call? You would take that for sure.

Unknown Speaker : 38:37

Absolutely.

Chuck Shute : 38:39

Nice.

P.J. Farley : 38:40

It's like I mean, Foo Fighters. Yeah. And it's just a good time rock and roll band, I mean, top of the game. And one of those bands who is as relevant as they are, they don't need to make another record for the rest of their lives.

Chuck Shute : 38:54

Oh, yeah. There's so many hits. It's insane.

P.J. Farley : 38:57

So they have that they have that heritage kind of act already.

Unknown Speaker : 39:01

But

P.J. Farley : 39:03

you still make records that people care about.

Chuck Shute : 39:05

Right? Well, yeah. And so speaking of records that people care about, you haven't paid enough

P.J. Farley : 39:10

to not have to do all the jackass around I'm doing.

Chuck Shute : 39:14

Yeah, so let's talk about your new record here. So tell you I heard you broke your finger in the car door. So you couldn't play the drums? You couldn't didn't play all the instruments on this one, but you still played a lot of it. It's called accent the change nine songs is that would you call it an EP or? No, I would call that a full length record nine.

P.J. Farley : 39:34

My deal was I thought it was going to be five or six songs. I was gonna call it my record, not an EP fuck that man. Kiki's Yeah, five or six songs specifically put 600 that's a record nowadays. Usually buying the shit. People ain't even listening to track seven. You know? So thought about this thing is shuffle. It's like Why should I waste more time, money and effort for Something that you know, the majority people already really listened to. So I'm going to call it a record full length album. Now, back in the 70s, kiss nine songs. That's all you got. That's so I'm not down with with that 14 song record thing or even 12 songs too much. I don't even patients for it.

Chuck Shute : 40:17

Yeah, well, I just listen to your palate, he trunk before you came on, he had Richie kotzen on and Richie said that he released a CD on his 50th birthday, it was 50 songs. So they won't be doing that is what

P.J. Farley : 40:28

I mean. But that that's going a different way with it. Yes, like, Hey, here's everything. So you know, put it all on one, you know, and that's, that's great. So I mean, you and you don't have to listen to it like one you can go. I'm gonna do the first 10 songs for the next few months. And you can treat it like you can release 10 songs to nine or 10 songs to yourself, sporadically. So you have it so he compile that all in one thing? I mean, you know, I mean? So God bless him on that.

Chuck Shute : 41:00

Yeah, no. And I love it. The new the new thing was called Let it rain. There's gonna be a video coming out. Is there is it out yet?

P.J. Farley : 41:07

Nope. It's coming out. October 6.

Chuck Shute : 41:09

That's cool, though. So I heard Eddie trunk talking about it and like, and I've heard Eddie trunk interview a lot of people and he'll he'll promote the band singer or whatever. But he was like, raving about it. And I could tell he was being authentic. He said that it's super hooky. And it's super catchy. And it should be played all over radio, but it may not because of just politics with radio and all that stuff. So that's a pretty big compliment coming from him cuz he's

P.J. Farley : 41:30

was pretty cool. And I get the answers. I sent him the record and he wrote back men really good. You know, and and that's nice. But um, yeah, he was quite I think he was pretty genuine. Because I've heard him talk about things that, you know, he likes and that he, you know, what? support but he's not crazy about we're jumping, right? Yeah,

Chuck Shute : 41:53

no, he's still he genuinely I saw Yeah, no, he's always professional. But like, you could tell him he really likes something. And he's just trying to be nice and stuff. So that's really cool. Yeah, it's a great song. I hope everybody should download it. Check it out. And the whole album, the whole album. We're calling it out with nine songs. That's That's enough. I agree.

P.J. Farley : 42:10

Man. It's now nine songs. Yeah.

Chuck Shute : 42:12

So with all the things like with all these bands that you're in, I mean, we talked about the party and the craziness, the drinking, but what is like the least glamorous thing about being in all these rock bands like that people maybe wouldn't know about that. Maybe they don't realize it's not all it can all be like crazy fun times, right?

P.J. Farley : 42:28

Well, for instance, right before I did a trunk show today, I elevated my lawn seat in my lawn.

Chuck Shute : 42:38

Okay, so I mean, you're still just like a regular guy doing regular guy stuff. Like,

P.J. Farley : 42:43

go back and finish that when I get off with you before my next interview at six o'clock

Chuck Shute : 42:47

with Troy. Okay, cool. So let's see if I if I got your calendar, right, you've got future shows planned with Eric Martin. Fozzie, I guess got pushed back to April. A new record with raw? Is that coming out soon?

P.J. Farley : 43:01

Yeah, what's gonna come out? I think hopefully the end of February. And we're looking to try to get the new single out by maybe late next month.

Chuck Shute : 43:10

And will you tour with that one, too?

Unknown Speaker : 43:13

Yes.

Chuck Shute : 43:14

And you're gonna be so busy. Anything else that's on the horizon? Hopefully, yeah. Cuz like you might tour with your solo, but you have some go to guys that would would be able to tour if you do do a solo tour. Yeah. Would you tour just like maybe a club tour? Just you? Or would you maybe try to get on a another bands tour as an opening gig?

P.J. Farley : 43:37

It depends van. Yeah, I mean, whatever, the most feasible, it's tough. I mean, it's it's tough out there for anybody, let alone, you know, guy like me, who's just, you know, you know, I don't have the marquee of any of the bands that I'm in. It just, it's just my name. So whatever would be feasible, but I definitely want to make it a point to go out. Whether I do some acoustic shows or full band stuff. I'd like to do

Chuck Shute : 44:04

both. Mm hmm. That'd be awesome. Well, if you come to Phoenix, let me know. I'll try to bring as many people as I can. I don't have that many friends, but I'll try to do my best. So tell me also about the Trixter The 30th anniversary of this debut album, you guys are like making like a remix of this or like with bonus tracks or something?

P.J. Farley : 44:26

The remastering.

Chuck Shute : 44:29

remanstering? Is that what it is?

P.J. Farley : 44:30

Yeah, Steve's doing something with that.

Chuck Shute : 44:32

Oh, Steve.

P.J. Farley : 44:33

We're gonna re-release, "Hear"

Chuck Shute : 44:36

Oh rerelease "Hear". Okay, so sorry, not the debut. So "Hear", okay, that'll be cool. So I heard you say that Pete can't commit to doing any tours because of his day job. could he do just like some some one offs or like a festival or cruise or something like that? Or?

P.J. Farley : 44:52

I don't know. You know, I asked him just that and then to the 30th anniversary, I asked him if he said, hey, what if we do just kind of like M3 and one or two other of the big festivals... just to go out two or three shows for the year to celebrate. And he basically just said, he goes, that would be about all I could do. And even if that I don't even know when I could commit to doing it. The problem with that is you have to commit six months before.

Chuck Shute : 45:20

Right?

P.J. Farley : 45:21

(If) you can't, you can't. So we run into the issue there.

Chuck Shute : 45:26

So is that kind of the main issue with Trixter getting back together and doing something? Or is there is there bad blood?

P.J. Farley : 45:32

I mean, it kind of took the, wind out of the sail, kind of. We weren't that motivated to do it any other way... So, I mean, we'll see how much longer we go dormant. And then at some point, we'll kind of reevaluate it. And who knows, maybe something on his end changes, that would be great. Or, you know, if we decide we want to do it in a different way. Yeah. There are many factors next year..

Chuck Shute : 46:07

Okay. I mean, is there's not any bad blood between you guys or anything? Or is there it means that part of the issue, or is it just more Pete's day job?

P.J. Farley : 46:14

Well, we had some issues there was when I say we, not me or Steve. But there were issues within the band that surfaced somehow. And some of them have been since you know, resolved, and some of them haven't been. I don't have there's no bad blood. I don't I don't run like that. I don't have ill will or bad feelings or resentment, I don't carry any of that negativity with me at all. But there's things that, need to be worked out before it can get done next, it just needs to be worked out and recognized. Okay. No hate...

Chuck Shute : 46:58

Fair enough. Well, if you guys need anybody to mediate, I can do that. I used to be a counselor, so I can sit down like we could do it on air be really fun of what we do behind closed doors- that might be more private.. But yeah, I'd happy to mediate any issues if there is any problems with you guys, because I just want you guys get back together. I'm a fan. So

P.J. Farley : 47:17

You never know, man. It's never know situation.

Chuck Shute : 47:21

All right. Well, I always end with a charity. Is there a charity that you think there's something that you worked with or that you've worked with in the past?

P.J. Farley : 47:30

Um, I mean, there's a lot of charities out there got off the top of my head. I mean, I don't really have an evil one off my head. But I mean, like money to go to like, no kilter shelters. Okay. All right. If anybody wants to donate to the ones in their

Chuck Shute : 47:48

area, no kill. No kill shelters will do. Also, I'll put up a link. I'll put up the link with your Instagram. And everybody should check out the new album accent the change the song is called. Let it rain. Right? Yep. Okay, perfect. And we'll look for you on tour with one of the 10 bands that you're in is going to excite hopefully hit Phoenix, although I'll definitely come see if you hit Phoenix. Okay, thanks so much PJ.

P.J. Farley : 48:14

Check. Alright, bye.

Chuck Shute : 48:16

All right, we went through so much there. PJ Farley from Trixter, Ra, Fozzy, Eric Martin man, of course, the PJ Farley band his new solo album accent the change. new single letter rains out now. Eddie trunk called the new single super hooky. So you know it's good. And he was meant that when he said that, so make sure you follow PJ on Instagram to keep up with him. He's a busy guy. If you want to support my show, you can write me a review on iTunes. subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or YouTube or wherever you listen. Follow me on social media. I'm on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, all that stuff. Thank you so much for listening. Check out some of my other interviews I've done with people I mentioned on this episode like Mark Gus Scott from Trixter, Troy Patrick Farrell, and others I think you'll really enjoy check it out. Until next time, enjoy the rest of your day or night and remember to shoot for the moon.