Erik Turner (Warrant)

Episode #62- Erik Turner- guitarist and founding member of the band Warrant.  Warrant has sold over 10 million records, had 5 top 40 hits and 9 rock hits,  including #2 hit "Heaven" and of course the iconic song and music video, "Cherry Pie."  I'm a huge Warrant fan so this is very special episode for me! Enjoy! 

0:00:00 - Special Long Intro
0:03:34 - Welcome Erik Turner!!!! & Wine Business
0:04:36 - Success of Warrant and Making It
0:05:44 - First Gig With Yngwie Malmsteen
0:06:37 - Playing With Izzy Stradlin from GnR
0:08:45 - Erik's Audition For Megadeth 
0:09:55 - Original Warrant Singer & Drummer Quit
0:11:40 - Getting Jani & Steven & Joey to Join
0:12:57 - Joey Allen Playing With Lars Ulrich (Metallica)
0:13:25 - "Flyering" on The Sunset Strip
0:14:38 - "Game Of War" Song For Bill & Ted Soundtrack
0:17:25 - Touring Before The First Record is Released 
0:20:05 - Recording the First Album & Beau Hill's Bet
0:21:45 - Opening for Paul Stanley & Others 
0:23:42 - Opening for Motley Crue & Partying Hard
0:25:48 - Cherry Pie Album & Cherry Pie Song
0:28:00 - "I Saw Red" Song, True? 
0:28:45 - Blood, Sweat, & Beers Tour
0:30:24 - Hanging Out At The Bars After Shows 
0:31:40 - Gladiator Soundtrack Songs
0:33:20 - Dog Eat Dog Album 
0:34:30 - Alice In Chains  
0:36:09 - Mike Slamer Playing Solos On 1st Two Albums
0:38:14 - The Black Year - 1993
0:39:20 - "Stepping Stone To Solo Career"
0:40:20 - Offending People 
0:42:30 - "Ultraphobic" & "Belly To Belly" Albums
0:43:40 - Warrant Reunion With Jani Lane 2007
0:44:45 - Robert Mason Joining 
0:46:10 - Staying With the Band 
0:47:40 - Last Action Hero Soundtrack Song
0:48:25 - 30th Anniversaries - Cherry Pie & Dog Eat Dog
0:49:20 - Blood, Sweat & Beers Part 2?
0:49:53 - Van Halen & Bon Jovi 
0:50:45 - Aerosmith & Page/Plant 
0:52:40 - Possible Bio-Pic Movie? 
0:53:15 - Skateboards, Guitars & TV/Film Music
0:55:43 - "Michelle's Place" Charity
0:57:13 - Erik's Big Compliment 
0:58:30 - Special Wrap Up & Shoutouts

Erik Turner Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/erik_turner/

Warrant Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/warrantrocks/

Punk Rock Guitars Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/punkrockguitars/

Warrant Website:
http://www.warrantrocks.com

Michelle's Place Website:
https://michellesplace.org

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

Transcript

Chuck Shute : 0:15

Welcome to the chuck shoot podcast. I'm very proud to say that today because I have a very amazing guest, Eric Turner, the guitarist from one of my all time, favorite bands warrants is here, I had an amazing interview with him. I don't know, I don't want to say amazing, probably about 20 times. So usually I'll do these intros or write a little bit up. And I'll just kind of read that because I don't want to stumble and say the wrong thing. But this time, I thought I'd do something a little bit different and just kind of shoot from the hip and just say what I feel because I'm just kind of on a high right now, because I just had this interview with a guitarist from one of my favorite bands. So I want to kind of ride that momentum wave, and just continue to talk about how great it was. So basically, warrant for me, I started getting into rock and like eighth grade, I remember there was this kid and he had long curly black hair. And he sat behind me a history class, and he had a warrant, cherry pie t shirt. That's pretty cool t shirts like this girl, waitress, girl, whatever the you know, the album cover is if you look at that, and I just thought it was look cool. And I was just starting to get into rock. And I remember getting that CD from the library. Because I saw it there. I was like, oh, check this out. And I remember listening to it. And just like every song was good. I was like, Oh, this is such a great CD. And then of course, I you know, got their debut album dirty, rotten, filthy, stinking rich. And that's another one where like, every song on the album is great. And then of course, you know, they have a couple songs on the gladiator soundtrack. We Will Rock You the cover and a song called the power that were great. And then their third album doggy dog, which was not necessarily a commercial success. It's sold over 500,000 copies of gold record. But that was kind of like the end of times for that kind of music Allison chain Seattle scene took over but I love the doggy dog record. I love their other records in the 90s Ultra phobic belly to belly. They continued to make music. They change singers a couple times. I love all their albums. I have every single one. I've even listened to a lot of the demos and rarities and things I've seen him live a few times. I've never got to see him with Jeanie lane, which is that's original singer so that's kind of sad, but definitely just a die hard. I mean you could see the poster over here about that when they were in town. I'm just a die hard I just something about that band just to me sounded really I love the songs the look, Let the music guide because I've just kept going on about this. So I'll just continue to talk about how great of a band This is. I think you'll enjoy this interview. If you don't know the story. You'll hear a lot of it. In this interview. You can do some Google and listen to their music listen to all their albums. There's a lot of really good hidden gems on ultra phobic we talked about the song stronger now. It's a great it's a kind of Paul McCartney Blackbird kind of Beatles esque song, great song. Probably no one's heard of it. But tell us I'm telling you about it. Now check it out, check out all their records. There's something for everybody. There's good music. And so it's really exciting to talk to him and they say you know, don't meet your heroes. Fuck that. Eric Turner was awesome. He's super nice. And he's definitely one of my heroes. So he made my dreams come true today by doing this interview, and I had a blast talking with him. So check it out. Enjoy. Welcome to the show. This is amazing. All right. Look at this. I got I got

Erik Turner : 3:40

Oh, I like yours better.

Chuck Shute : 3:43

Yeah, it's it's uh, it's autograph number 379 It's pretty cool. It's a number.

Erik Turner : 3:47

Yeah, that's really cool. That's a that's a collectible bottle now no longer in the wine business. had a lot of fun doing it. But yeah, no more no more wine for me unless I go to liquor store and buy it.

Chuck Shute : 4:00

Oh, yeah. So what happened that just didn't work out for you for doing that business. I

Erik Turner : 4:04

had nine great years with and it was just time to do something else like guitars.

Chuck Shute : 4:12

Yeah, you do a lot of stuff I've really you guys do the TV and film music and you've got the obviously warrants and all sorts of you got a song and Guitar Hero you got all sorts of stuff going on?

Erik Turner : 4:26

Yeah, try and stay busy man always finding something to do. I don't have anything to do. I'll make something up and do that.

Chuck Shute : 4:32

I think this is amazing though because you didn't like school because you said it got in the way of what you really wanted to do. But like how many other kids say that like oh school I'm just gonna I'm gonna be a rock star and said like, instead of why do you think that you succeeded and so many others didn't you must have seen a lot of bands fall through the wayside in the 80s and 90s that had the talent but just never made it?

Erik Turner : 4:54

Yeah, I was just had blind ambition. I just There's just a feeling inside me that you know, I'm we're gonna make it not me we, we the band, we're gonna make it. And we worked real hard. And we built up a following on the Sunset Strip and we would hand out, you know, 5000 flyers for a show. And we're always building different stage sets. And you know, everything all the time we had any spare time any spare money always went into the show the band promotion. And eventually, it started paying off with sold out shows every time we played then then we started selling out two nights in a row, then we started selling out three nights in a row. And this is a band that doesn't have a record deal. Yeah. And so. So eventually, eventually, we got signed.

Chuck Shute : 5:44

So in those early days, I mean, it was a struggle, right? I'm assuming the first few gigs it was maybe not as big as you wanted, but you just kept going.

Erik Turner : 5:54

Yeah, yeah, no, I mean, the first show we played, was at the troubadour on a Tuesday night. It was actually a really cool gig though, because in Bay Malmsteen, was playing with his new singer. I think it might have been just a show with Jeff Scott Soto. Yeah, yeah. So that was the first time I met Jeff was that night. And then, yeah, so it was really cool. I mean, I was a huge Alcatraz fan. You know, Steeler coursing Bay Malmsteen. So so being on the same bill as him my very first time on stage at a, you know, real proper club, the troubadour in Hollywood, and in bays out there watching us play that was a little nerve wracking.

Chuck Shute : 6:37

Yeah, that's pretty crazy. So they kind of already had a little bit of a following when you join the band, but I heard this the other day, this a crazy story. So before you joined Warrant, there was another band that you're in. I don't know where were you in the band, but you played or audition or something with Izzy Straddlin' from Guns and Roses. He was playing drums and you got together with him?

Erik Turner : 6:59

Yeah, I met some friends of mine. You know, we play in garage bands. And there's a group of musicians locally and my buddy Mike Delaney called me and he's like, Hey, man, we got a new drummer. Come over to the garage or house or bedroom wherever the hell it was. And we went over there and that's the first time I met Izzy- he was playing drums. And so then that you know, we just probably jammed a couple times... so long ago.... really blurry, but he did sell his drum set and he was looking to buy a PA my friend had a PA that he was selling so Izzy he bought it. And then we got together Izzy and I once or twice hanging out at a place called tri city park and started writing some songs. And not too long after that I got a knock on the door. It was Izzy and he says "I'm going to Hollywood Do you want to go?" And I was 16 years old at the time said no.

Chuck Shute : 7:52

Yeah,

Erik Turner : 7:53

..To Hollywood. I'm not ready to leave home.

Chuck Shute : 7:55

Do you have a copy of those songs anywhere that you wrote with him?

Erik Turner : 7:59

there was no recording or anything like that... acoustic guitars and some beers and who knows what else out by the lake.

Chuck Shute : 8:05

That's cool.

Erik Turner : 8:06

Throwing some ideas around... Yeah. And so then I see him when I moved to LA when I'm 19. And I'm at the -Troubadour comes up again- we're out front of the Troubadour, there's Izzy handing out Hollywood Rose flyers and he's wearing a pink leather jacket and you know all rocked out and stuff. So we reconnected a little bit. And then after Guns and Roses got huge... I haven't seen him since then. But I'd go see Guns and Roses play at the Roxy and the Troubadour in places like that and say hi to Izzy...

Chuck Shute : 8:36

that's super cool there and there was another one that I see I thought I knew everything about Warrant but I'm doing my research on like, What? You almost joined Megadeth? Rr you you had an audition or something with Dave Mustaine?

Erik Turner : 8:50

How the hell do you know that??

Chuck Shute : 8:50

I did my research.

Erik Turner : 8:52

Yeah, no, that's true. When I was 16, there was a paper called "The Recycler" in Orange County, and there was an ad in there. I had never heard of Metallica at the time, but it says ex-Metallica guitarist forming new band Megadeath. And inquire if you're interested. So I contacted Dave through the paper, the phone or whatever. And I went down I think it was Huntington Beach and it was his mom's apartment or something there that he was staying at. I don't know whose I think it was his mom. I don't know. I could be wrong. But anyways, I met Dave we talked. And that was it. I never got past that... Audition is to the next level of actually jamming with... but years laterr we lived in the same apartment building in Sherman Oaks. Dave and I and I would see him at different places and say hi. And I reminded him of that story. And yeah, he's always he's always been super cool to me.

Chuck Shute : 9:50

Yeah, that's cool. Well, it's kind of interesting, because maybe he didn't think you're right fit for Megadeth but the band that you're in when you're in war before Janie and all them joined the singer in the drummer left to form a new band called Hot Wheelz. And they didn't like you or they didn't think you guys were a good fit because they thought you were like too heavy, which is kind of interesting because a lot of people think Warrant's too poppy or whatever, but they thought you were too heavy.

Erik Turner : 10:13

Yeah, the guys when I you know, our drummer Max and Adam, our singer, they wanted to put together a Hollywood super group of club guys, you know, or whatever it was. So I think passion I'm trying to think with the other band was Mickey night or something like that. And watch you know, two guys from Warren. Do you guys from Mickey night they got together and formed a new band. I don't remember the name of the band. Maybe it was hot wheels.

Chuck Shute : 10:39

Yeah, Hot Wheels.

Erik Turner : 10:40

So things were going great for war we were doing we were playing shows building up following. And then we played a gig in San Diego. And the next morning, they're like, hey, let's have a meeting. And Max and Adam the way I remember it told, told me that, you know, it's just musical differences, you know, your way into Iron Maiden, Eric, with which I was. And Jerry, you know, you're too you know, you're really into Black Sabbath. And those bands are real cool and all but we want to do something different. And they kind of put it like that. I forget what they said to Josh. I don't know what they don't know what they said. But anyways, they tried to let us down as easy as possible. It's all musical differences. And then So Josh, Jerry and I are driving back up to LA from San Diego and first person whose name came up was that that band playing Jane their singer, that guy was great. We played a couple shows with plain Jane, amazing vocals amazing frontman, so we're like, let's contact him. And that's what we did. And the rest is history.

Chuck Shute : 11:39

Yeah, I thought that was interesting, too, that he you actually were looking at a different drummer. But Janie said, it's a package deal. You got to take my drummer with Steven. Sweet. That's,

Erik Turner : 11:48

that's good to know this stuff. Were you there? I've heard it. Yeah. It was a band called Taz. If I remember correctly, I think it was Kenny. We wanted Kenny and the drummer from jazz. We thought he'd be a great fit. And then Janie on vocals. And Janie said, Hey, man, oh, I'll join your band. But you got to bring Steven we said okay. Have you ever heard the two of them sing together? You just like it was an easy? Yes. Yeah. Birds together. Yeah.

Chuck Shute : 12:19

So then to complete the band. You got Joey Allen, you rent you met him at a liquor store. But also I heard this the other day. This is interesting that he was found that jovia liquors? Is that what it was you ran into him like a liquor store or

Erik Turner : 12:30

something? Now I know Joey from high school, we were in a band together for a little while. Right around I was 18 or so. And as my last band I tried to get going, or being a band even in Orange County at all. It was called nightmare two. And so Joey and I, yeah, we played in that band for like, two weeks. And then he quit to some other band, and I left and moved to LA but I had known Joey before. Okay, more.

Chuck Shute : 12:58

Is it true that he played in a band with Lars Ulrich from Metallica?

Erik Turner : 13:01

Yeah, they had a three piece. And they jammed together for a while and then I don't know what happened.

Chuck Shute : 13:10

That is pretty crazy.

Erik Turner : 13:12

But yeah, years later, you know, we're out on the road and tours and different places and clubs hanging out at some of the same nightclubs as Lars and those guys would see each other and talk and

Chuck Shute : 13:22

that's cool...yeah, so yeah, men tell me like you said, you know, you guys work so hard and explain to the some of our younger listeners what like the term flyering means like, it's where you're handing out flyers and you're posting flyers and you guys have like these like really like tongue in cheek kind of fires that you would make up like MK diving team and stuff like that.

Erik Turner : 13:42

L.A.'s number one muff diving team are playing because Ari's yeah and so we'd hand out flyers that said stuff like that you know the SEC you know our names warrant you know, sex police on one pliers or scratch and snap or I mean every fire had its own tongue in cheek sexual thing on it

Chuck Shute : 14:01

was kind of like a war though. Would you like tear down the other bands fires and put yours up over it or something? or

Erik Turner : 14:07

none? We've never needed to do that. never needed to do that. We were we were we were blessed man. We had a strong following and, and we always got along with other bands from what I remember. You know? That's cool. Yeah. It sounds maybe the occasional little you know, to you know, shit bass that 130 in the morning on jack daniels, you know, usually might say something a little nasty to somebody. But you know, it was it was all good. We're really good friends with pretty much everybody.

Chuck Shute : 14:36

That's cool. So then it's around this time the major labels start taking interest in you guys. And you had a song on the or I guess it wasn't on the soundtrack for Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, but it was it was played in the movie game of war. And that's kind of weird

Erik Turner : 14:49

and that's that's not what happened. Your real close though. So we had done a bunch of demos for an M Records guy Aaron Jacobus was producing us doing some awesome Artists development and he had never had mentioned a record deal a couple times, but it never came to fruition. And then he is the suit music supervisor for Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. And he asked us to write a song and record a song for that soundtrack. So that was the first time we actually you know, he hired a producer Stevie Sallis and David kirschenbaum, I believe and we went in, because most of the demos we did for Aaron were like to track live, you know, record 18 songs to track live and over a day and um, studios and stuff like that. So we did our first proper recording, it turned out great. Columbia Records had been coming around watching us play, our manager played that track for Ron Oberman over at Columbia Records. And he's like, wow, okay, this is what they sound like on on record. And he signed us. Yeah, and did our once. And then Aaron had had many multiple chances to sign us but for whatever reason, he felt we weren't ready. That was his opinion. And in Colombia's made an offer. And then guys from gaffin started coming around. And then some other labels. Gene Simmons even called the house and was asking about warrant and what what's going on with our record deal and stuff like that. So when a&m heard that we signed with Columbia, they pulled the song off the soundtrack before they released. Okay. Oh, yeah. So that's what happened. So, unfortunately, you know, it would have been great to be on that soundtrack. I wish that song was on there. And just some funny little record company's story for people they were doing our first record, and we asked him if we could use the song. And they said no, on our first album, and M, and M did this, you know, this is all news from my manager. I heard from my manager. I didn't actually talk to anybody at a&m. But so they said, No. So game of war, we were like, Okay, well, we got enough songs for the first album, we don't have to put it on there. So Janie is prolific writer. But the funny part is a year later, our managers like, yeah, we were able to get game of war back. We, you know, we had to buy it back. And oh, yeah, how much $1. Once they sold us, they wouldn't let us use it on our first album, and then they sold the rights or whatever, for $1. Back to us as some funny, weird. Music, label record label. insanity. weird shit. That doesn't make sense. Yeah,

Chuck Shute : 17:25

there's a lot. It seems like there's a lot of politics show like that. Like it took you guys six months. You had the contract and everything was signed. But it was like all these like lawyers trying to squeeze pennies out. And so you guys went on the road without having the record actually out because they were still trying to work out the contract deals is that what?

Erik Turner : 17:41

No, the contract was done. And the record was done. And it's really smart of the label really looking back. I mean, we're excited. They're like, let's get it out. Let's get it out. And they're like, you know what, we got a really good record here. We don't want it to get lost in the Christmas traffic. We're going to be realist, releasing my Mariah Carey, and Michael Jackson and all the big time superstars. We don't want your record to get lost in that shuffle. So we're pushing your release date back to February of whatever it was 1989. And so our manager said, Well, if you're gonna, the guys don't want to sit around for six months, we have a couple opportunities where they can go out on the road with the malls, and they can go out on the road with girls school, which was one of our label mates. So we hopped in a the cheapest bus we could find and you know, we're getting like 200 bucks a night. And the record label gave us like $10,000 to help cover expenses. And we went out and started touring America. Nobody knew who the hell we were. We're playing clubs, laundromats. arcades roller rinks. And it was just a mishmash of anywhere. We could get a gig every night.

Chuck Shute : 18:55

Were you making fans on that trip? Are you turning people? So? I think

Erik Turner : 18:59

so. Yeah. A little bit. You know, there's small Not a lot of people with these gigs. But yeah, definitely, there was no internet or anything like, right. wasn't like people are coming out to the show and posting videos on social media, just like they saw the show. Took took pictures. I had to wait two weeks to get them develop. Turned out any good.

Chuck Shute : 19:19

Yeah.

Erik Turner : 19:20

No, we signed some autographs. You know? It was funny though. Because the first two months we went out, we'd go to clubs and different places, and nobody would give us a time of day and then down boys came out and was a huge hit on MTV and on radio. And so I mean, not a huge hit at audio at Radio, but MTV played the crap out in the video. And the song did really well at Radio. I think it went top 20 or something like that. on Billboard. So all of a sudden everybody is being super nice to us. Everybody wanted to party with us. Yeah, it was good. For that, yeah. When you are ready to party with us, for sure.

Chuck Shute : 20:04

Yeah. When you're recording down boys and heaven and that whole first album in the studio did it? Did it feel like magical? You're like, Oh my gosh, this thing's gonna blow up or is it just like, we don't know what's going to happen? Who knows?

Erik Turner : 20:16

Well, I was just hoping we would sell enough records that the label would make enough money that they'll give let us make a second record. And then a third record. You know, that was my thought. Jerry kept walking around the studios and you guys ready to be rich? Y'all. You guys ready to be rich? We're gonna be rich man. I'm like, Okay, I hope you're right.

Chuck Shute : 20:35

Yeah.

Erik Turner : 20:35

Is it true that he had a good feeling about it? And then Bo, Bo, and Joey had a bet. I think Beau Hill said if the record goes gold, to Joey, I'll give you this black Les Paul Custom that we were using in the studio. It was Bose. And so the record obviously went double platinum and beyond. And on Joey's birthday, we had a party for Joey and Bo showed up with that guitar and his his hand and he said he would Yeah, like he said he would if the record went gold. Is it true? Funny story. Yeah,

Chuck Shute : 21:11

that's awesome. Is it true that Janie lane blue has advanced on a black Corvette and then crashed it?

Erik Turner : 21:18

Um, I don't. I don't think he crashed it. Or maybe a fender benders. I don't remember him crashing it. But total he went and bought it black. We had a lot of fun in that that Corvette. Jamie and I were roommates for years. Yeah, we're after we got sign. So yeah. I was sudden we had this black Corvette to go cruise around and go to Hollywood and stuff is cool.

Chuck Shute : 21:39

Yeah. And so then I think was the first big tour. You did. Paul Stanley opening for him from kiss.

Erik Turner : 21:44

Yeah, yeah, that was clubs. It was a club tour. Paul was doing a solo tour. And I think it was about three weeks long. And we were the opening act. And yeah, it was it was me. Geez. We're all huge kiss fans, of course. So in his band, everybody in the band was super cool. Eric singer was with him at the time. That was when we first met Eric super nice guy. And so yeah, it started we went to all Stanley to like Eddie money for a few weeks to you know, two nights with poison and Tesla. And then, you know, few weeks with rat and great wine was just a mishmash of, you know, then we go to Europe to go to Canada. You know, go to Japan. Come back more club dates. It's just, you know, a few days with queens rack. We never got a real tour with a motley crew,

Chuck Shute : 22:33

right? That was Yeah. 80 now after a

Erik Turner : 22:36

year, yeah, we did 162 shows, or no 200 was it 262? We did 262 shows in support of dirty, rotten, filthy, stinking rich and I think, you know, maybe 80 of them were with motley. Okay, everything else was just us headlining a theater or, you know, we're, as the band got, you know, a couple million records under our belt, we still couldn't get an opening slot on a big tour. It took forever so we started playing theaters and stuff like that, and they were selling out and they were doing real well. So it was it was great as just a little frustrating seeing all the other bands from our genre going out with you know, Bon Jovi and then jumping from Bon Jovi to Aerosmith and then jumping from Aerosmith, Motley Crue or whatever, you know, I'm talking about just yeah, we're like, why can't we get fucking opening slot on a fucking tour? Why do you think you couldn't do it tour? I don't know. I don't know, man. I don't know. But we eventually we

Chuck Shute : 23:37

did. Yeah. So tell me about the motley crew and eventually

Erik Turner : 23:40

eventually we did and we we got a big one. Yeah.

Chuck Shute : 23:44

Yeah. Tell me about that tour. Because, you know, everyone's seen "The Dirt" and everyone knows the story that was around the time that they had allegedly sobered up and everything but I heard you talking about how there was like trays of drinks and drinks would kind of disappear and like Vince Neil was around so it was it was it mostly Vince taking the drinks or doing that... or?

Erik Turner : 24:02

We partied... We partied hard, Warrant did. Like really hard when we started touring and drinking a lot and that everybody knew and so we got the tour and our managers like I got the good news is I got a tour. The bad news is it's a dry tour. You guys can't have any alcohol backstage or this or that like and we're like what about on the bus? So we're going in there preparing ourselves to whatever just leave the arena and go party like we did anyways most of the time, but we get there the very first night of the tour. Motley Crue's tour manager comes in our dressing room with the big like wheel tray like at a restaurant or whatever, and it's got 24 bottles of Jack Daniels on top of it. It says Welcome to the tour boys...so that gives you an idea. As far as I know, those guys were sober when we first Started out. And now that's about all I can say. So maybe you were the bad influence on Motley Crue, which is kind of funny to think about if you No... we weren't okay. No, nobody's a bad influence on you can't be an influence on Motley Crue.

Chuck Shute : 25:16

Those guys are the kings, man. Are you still friends with those guys? I mean, you must have like, crossed paths many times.

Erik Turner : 25:22

I see Vince every time I see Vince Neil is super cool. I honestly never see anybody I don't I don't run into Tommy or Nikki or Mick Mars or anybody like that. So if I saw him, I'm sure it'd be cool. You know, say hi, whatever. But no, I'm not. I'm not in touch with with any of those guys. But I do see events a handful of times every year that every year it shows and I was super cool. I was great to catch up and talk to them. That's cool. So yeah, and then

Chuck Shute : 25:49

yeah, the cherry pie album. So the story goes, the people who don't know, was originally called Uncle Tom's Cabin. And it was done. And then their manager, the label whatever said, Hey, where's the hit? We need like a love in the elevator kind of song. So then they made Janie go back. I don't know how you just nobody makes somebody make it. He suggested or

Erik Turner : 26:08

this is just you, when the label president calls and says, Hey, bud, can you do me a favor and write a song like pour some sugar on me and loving an elevator, you can give it a try. Give it a shot. So that's what Jamie did. And then we went in and demoed it, sent it to New York. The record was all done pretty much all the drums everything were torn down. We're mixing and stuff and Donnie Einar loved it and said, Let's, let's record it, man, get back in there and record it. So we brought the drums back in, brought everything back in. And it was just kind of like just, we just weren't, I won't say we were fucking around. But we weren't all uptight about it or anything the records down as everybody felt really loose. And let's just go in, we had some friends from danger, danger in town, like, hey, let's, let's get those guys come down and do gang vocals with us and Janie, and all of us, you know, would always see cc out and hanging out with cc all the time. And so we invited him to play the solo on the song and guitarist from Ghana. So it's just a really loose fun thing. And, and thank God Danny asked for it. And then when he just said, you know, this is a great name for the record, and just everything just kind of fell into place.

Chuck Shute : 27:22

It's amazing that you could just say, hey, go right ahead. And he and he did it. Like he rose to the occasion.

Erik Turner : 27:29

Yeah, he's good at that. He was good at that. He is so prolific. I mean, I can't even tell you how many songs he wrote that y'all never heard that were amazing.

Chuck Shute : 27:37

I've heard a lot of them. Yeah, one reason that we only

Erik Turner : 27:40

had 10 songs on on our records. Right? You know, we weren't one of those bands that put 17 songs. That's true. It's not because we didn't have we had plenty of songs just for whatever reason. He's Jamie was like, we're only putting 10 songs on the record. So

Chuck Shute : 27:55

yeah, so another song that was a hit to I saw read. Is it so the story with that was that Janie walked in on his best friend having sex with his girlfriend? Is that what it was?

Erik Turner : 28:06

I never I he said that on stage. Oh, he'd say like that. I don't know. He said, it's the only true song you ever wrote.

Chuck Shute : 28:13

And he still hates

Erik Turner : 28:15

it. He didn't say that to me. Okay. 10,000 people out in the crowd. This is the only true song I ever wrote. And then he'd say, and I still hate that fucking bitch or something like that. And then we go into the song. So I don't know. My Personally, I think is a stage kick. People would go crazy. When he said that. I mean, you've got a great, great response. He was an amazing prop man. And he had the gift of gab and he just talked a lot.

Chuck Shute : 28:43

Yeah, yeah. So that and then you guys did the you open for poison. And then you did that you did you finally got your own tour, doing stadiums with a firehouse and tricks or the blood sweat and beers to her. I've heard so many stories about this. But is there any stories that you have that you haven't told before that anything that stands out from that tour? It sounded like just so much fun. It's just

Erik Turner : 29:03

it was just a blast. We it was it was sheds, you know, outdoor sheds, it wasn't stadiums, but it was really cool, you know, be playing to 510 thousand people a night and trickster in firehouse we're opening and we just love those guys love the crew. All crew all the bands. Everybody just got got along great. And I think we booked like six weeks. And it was going really well. So they just kept adding shows and adding shows and adding shows that ended up going through, I don't know five months or six months or something. It was like the top in the top 10 grossing tours of the year. And it was a big success and a hell of a lot a hell of a lot of fun.

Chuck Shute : 29:43

Yeah, it sounds like yeah, there's a whole podcast people can let's do with the Doom of Jericho that you tell all the stories of sound like a lot of fun for sure.

Erik Turner : 29:50

Yeah, we are. Yeah, we got Steve and PJ from trickster and Bob or bill from firehouse Sorry, sorry, Bill, and, and myself and of course Jericho. And it was A lot of fun reminiscing and they were remembering stuff I didn't remember. I'm like, Oh, I remember that story. Yeah. I forgot about that.

Chuck Shute : 30:08

Gee, I wonder why you didn't remember it. Like maybe it was

Erik Turner : 30:11

busy having fun. That was like Christmas morning every single day is like it was it was a lot of fun. That tour being the headliner especially.

Chuck Shute : 30:22

Did you feel like Santa Claus sometimes because I mean, you can make all these people's dreams come true. I mean, there must have been tons of fans that just like shaking their hand. And I heard I mean, I heard you guys talk about going out to the bars after the show and just hanging out with the fans.

Erik Turner : 30:35

Every night. Yeah, every night, Janie would announce where we're going it, we get to town and, and tour manager would find a club, he called the owner and say the guys are playing tonight at such and such whatever, you know, at the theater, and they want to party after the show, you know, and take care of them that they come in. And then more as far as I know, every time they said yes. Yeah, go out. And it was specific. We wanted to club where there was a band playing and a rock club, you know. And so yeah, they, they would just roll out the red carpet for us and 500 people or I don't know how many people actually believe we were gone. We would go every night and it would be packed and you wouldn't work.

Chuck Shute : 31:19

It was say drinks

Erik Turner : 31:20

all night and get up with the band and jam and

Chuck Shute : 31:23

would you get mobbed by the bus like people trying to get

Erik Turner : 31:26

out of grab security and and places roped off. And we had our own security that we traveled with. So and yeah, get up jam, drink, make friends and then hop on the bus and go do it again the next night. That's cool. And then you had

Chuck Shute : 31:41

a you had a couple songs on the gladiator sound not the Russell Crowe Gladiator but the one with Cuba Gooding Jr. I love the cover of We Will Rock You.

Erik Turner : 31:50

Yeah, the timing on that was horrible. We got asked to do the soundtrack. Janie wrote a song called the power four. And they asked us to do wasn't our idea. They said, Hey, will you do you know, we will rock you were like, hell yeah, everybody loves queen. It'll be fun. We went in, we recorded it. The movie was coming out. They released the the video and the single to radio. And I think that week or maybe a couple days before everything went into motion pretty mercury died. Literally, like a day or two or after we released the song to radio in the video, he passed away. The timing could not have been worse. But the song and the video is really cool. We had a blast doing it. And so even though it wasn't a commercial success, it was a great experience. And a lot of people you know, still bring it up and I see people posting the video and every now and then the song will pop up on you know, my Sirius radio or Pandora or Spotify or whatever.

Chuck Shute : 32:55

Yeah, I love your version because it's different. would you would you guys ever bring that back to the live sets?

Erik Turner : 33:01

Probably not. We haven't in 30 years.

Chuck Shute : 33:06

Yeah, gotcha.

Erik Turner : 33:08

You never know. I think there might have been a little taste of it. Actually. On the dirty rotten tour. Maybe we just teased it a little bit. I don't know. But we've never played the song. No, we've never played a song live.

Chuck Shute : 33:19

Okay, so yeah, and then the doggy dog album. That's a very I feel like that's a very underrated album. Janie said that he wrote it for his peers. He wanted to be respected as a songwriter. The label really wanted hold on my walls opening single but Genie push for machine gun. Yeah. And so true. Yeah.

Erik Turner : 33:39

So they'll cheer? Yeah. Do you think it would have been wanted? They were they were loving hold on my wall. But he felt really strong about it. And he's a very persuasive guy, or was and so he got his way. And then that's what we did machinegun.

Chuck Shute : 33:53

Yeah. Do you think that would have been different having a hole in the wall?

Erik Turner : 33:57

I have. No, I have no idea. I don't think so. Personally, we could have put out Stairway to Heaven at the time and it wouldn't have mattered, you know? Yeah, who would have been a flop? Nobody the radio everything changed to grunge. So you know, glam bands, hair bands, hair, metal, whatever you want to call it was a was not gonna was not going to be played on or marketed or promoted. Didn't matter what we did.

Chuck Shute : 34:24

Yeah. So yeah, tell that story because Jamie went to he'd always gone to do as a record label meeting. And it was like always a picture of cherry pie was on the wall. And then he came in to do doggy dog promotional thing. And there was a picture of Allison chains, dirt. And so that was like literally the writing was on the wall. The Seattle bands.

Erik Turner : 34:42

Yeah, was when they actually Allison chains got signed. In Seattle, we were playing at the bounce in a paramount theater or something and the label and our publisher asked us if we would put Alice in Chains as the opening act so that they could see him play live because they were in interested in signing them. And so that's the night, the night they got signed with opening up for us. And then a year later, they're the main focus and we're not so there you go.

Chuck Shute : 35:12

Yeah, that's just kind of. It's interesting because I feel like you know, I mean, I liked both. I was from Seattle, and I got into you guys as kind of the tail end of a warrant. And I liked Allison chains. I liked Nirvana. I liked Guns and Roses. I like Warren. So it was just like, I don't understand why there wasn't room for both. I never could. And I love the doggy dog album.

Erik Turner : 35:33

Yeah, I agree. But that's just the way the music business is. So yeah, we'd loved I mean, we would go out all the time, every time I got in Lane's car, and we would go to Hollywood or go out. He was cranking that Allison change record. I mean, it just sounded amazing. And just a great record. I got to be friends with Mike Starr for a little while. At the time. I don't know how we met. Cool, dude. And yeah, there's just no no animosity between us and the band's just the that's just the industry. So it is.

Chuck Shute : 36:07

Yeah, so and tell me about this because I always wonder about this in the liner notes of the Dog Eat Dog album - It sounds like the the musicians listed here played on every note on this album. So there was like this rumor that that you guys had some help on the first two CDs. Mike Slammer?

Erik Turner : 36:24

Mike Slammer. Yeah, but we all brought in Mike's Slamer to do some solos, Joey and I, Jerry, Steve, and everybody played on every song, but some of the solos were Mike. And then on the second record, I just played rhythm guitar and Joey and Mike did the solos. So it was it was all good. And then we did. And we did Dog Eat Dog. And we use Michael Wagner a different producer. And so Joey played all the guitar solos and so that's why Janie wanted to put that on there.

Chuck Shute : 36:57

Yeah, cuz i mean he would he so he showed you what to do with the soul he just created them or whatever but you guys like when the live shows? You played what he had showed you to play?

Erik Turner : 37:06

Yeah, yeah. Just like anybody would you know you play this year solo and you play it you know, sometimes some guys are play shit note for note. Some guitar players, you'll go see and they'll play the song a little different every night. You know, just different different stuff. But yeah, yeah. And we did play some solos as well. Joey played a bunch solos I played some solos Mike played some solo stingers and shit. Like that. wasn't all Mike. But great guy. Super, super sweet. Nice guy. We got to see him last year wasn't last year, two years ago, he came out to see us play and we got to hang out backstage for for quite a while and it was awesome to catch up.

Chuck Shute : 37:44

Yeah, so no, you weren't mad that they were like them when they said like, Hey, we need this other guy to come in and do the solos or whatever.

Erik Turner : 37:49

No, we didn't know what the fuck was going on. Never made a record before. You know, we got this big time producer rat and kicks and you know, he's he's leading the show. He's in charge. He's the boss. He's telling everybody what to do. And I was like, Okay.

Chuck Shute : 38:06

That's cool. And then so you know, the obviously like I said, the the music The times were changing whatever. And you called 93. Kind of the black here. He said that that was just kind of a perfect storm of terrible things like Janie quit. And then he wanted to see you guys or sorry, somebody else.

Erik Turner : 38:21

No, he never. He never sued us. No, he never wanted to sue us when he quit. He said, You guys can have the name. I'll write songs with you if you want. I just want to do something different. I'm gonna he was ready for a change. So our matter then our manager died. And then we had gotten a million dollar advance from Broadcom. And we didn't fulfill our commitment that we were supposed to play X amount of shows or sell X amount of merchandise. So we were in default on that. So they sued us for whatever million or 2 million bucks it all got. It all worked out.

Chuck Shute : 38:53

Well, wasn't it a thing? Like if you had just done like 30 more shows or something like that, then

Erik Turner : 38:58

it would have been and or somehow you know all this shit.

Chuck Shute : 39:02

I've listened to some interviews with you one or two. Yeah,

Erik Turner : 39:05

yeah, yeah, lane. Yeah, the lane was just tired and we'd been on the road five years non stop. I don't blame them. You wanted a break? And so that was it. Yeah, we just shit happens when you just shut things down. Like right away.

Chuck Shute : 39:20

Yeah, that's that I also I heard that he said something like, I think maybe he maybe was just drunk or something. But he had said something that to you that Warrants just my stepping stone for my solo career. And that kind of hurt your feelings a little bit, right? Because you felt like you guys were a band and you'd helped each other out. And

Erik Turner : 39:37

we were, we were a band- We'd joke around with each other. What do you call it- You know, when you're ribbing somebody or just fucking with them? You're always talking with each other.

Chuck Shute : 39:49

Yeah.

Erik Turner : 39:50

So yeah, no, that's good. Jani and I were best friends and he loved being in Warrant. You could see it every night on stage. That guy was having the time of his life making shit tons of money and everything that goes with it.

Chuck Shute : 40:02

So you you took

Erik Turner : 40:04

We all did we all did. We all had a great time. So any little remark we did, you can't you can't have thin skin and be in a band. It's not gonna last. You can't get sand in your vagina if somebody said something. Yeah. You know, it's still that way. So.. yeah, whatever.

Chuck Shute : 40:21

Yeah, that's, that's interesting. I was just watching a Decline of the Western Civilization Part 2 the Metal Years last night. And I was just going, Oh, man, like, you can't say or do a lot of the stuff that that was done in the 80s or even early 90s back that I mean, you did that stuff today. It's hashtag Me too. It's all these terrible things. Like, do you think that this generation has gone a little overboard with that stuff? Or I mean, I feel like cuz, like, when you guys were doing it, it was all in fun. Everybody was kind of in on it. Right? or?

Erik Turner : 40:50

Yeah, you know, we, you just give it just mess with your your bros, man. It's a way of showing love and camaraderie is uh, you take a couple digs at them here and there and laugh and everybody laughs and somebody takes a few digs at you or hits you back with it and says something and just just laugh and go out and party and drink and have fun and play music and eat together, travel together and do all kinds of crazy shit together. Yeah, so whatever. I mean, I'm not. I think whatever this generation wants to do is fine by me, man. Good. Good for them. But that's the way it was back then. Back then we were not all walking around on you know, a little on glass. Trying not to offend anybody. We're actually TRYING to offend... We're going out of our way to offend each other.

Chuck Shute : 41:42

Yeah, it's funny because we laugh. And we laughed about it. Yeah, like the Cherry Pie video even like that was like considered at the time even it was actually a little risque or whatever. But I look back on that I go. Oh, it's just like a cute girl dancing around. Why is that so bad? Like?

Erik Turner : 41:57

Yeah, it's g rated. Videos g rated. I mean, it's tongue in cheek. It's innuendo. I mean, you listen to lyrics today. Oh, my God.

Chuck Shute : 42:07

Like Cardi B?

Erik Turner : 42:08

My son's 19 years old. I hear the stuff that he listens to. I start blushing. I mean, it's unreal. Yeah. If you're in the new song, "WAP" Wow. There you go.

Chuck Shute : 42:19

That's pretty crazy.

Erik Turner : 42:21

That's a hit. That's and you think and you think cherry pie is?

Chuck Shute : 42:27

Yeah,

Erik Turner : 42:28

no, my god. Are you kidding me?

Chuck Shute : 42:29

Yeah. So going back to the history of the band here. So yeah, in the 90s, you had ultra phobic and belly to belly, both albums that I really like and like you said, some of the songs that Jeannie wrote, you know, they're not even big hits, but like, I really liked the song stronger now that's on the ultra focus, kind of like a blackbird kind of like verdad kind of thing with acoustic guitar

Erik Turner : 42:51

is like kind of like a more than words Blackbird. Really, really beautiful songs, acoustic guitar, great song if it did come out, you know the right time? 8788 89 I think song woulda would have been a hit. But like I said, during those years, especially 9596. And all throughout the 90s. You know, we were persons non grata when it comes to mainstream music and touring and just everything, you know, magazine, so, but luckily, that started turning around in 2000.

Chuck Shute : 43:27

Yeah, and so then you guys, actually in 2008, you hadn't spoken to Janie in four years and then so there was a lawsuit at this point, right for the band name. But you guys I heard you say you settled the thing in like 10 Oh, no, I don't know anything about i'm not

Erik Turner : 43:43

i'm not gonna talk about lawsuits. Thank you.

Chuck Shute : 43:45

Okay. Sorry, I know but I'm here I'm not here to have a legal No, no, but it was just like so anyways,

Erik Turner : 43:51

we got back together. Yeah. 2007 It was great. And yeah, yeah, it was uh, I really is so great to have him back in the band and hang out together and that was the first time we all got back together. We had played we hadn't played together with the five original guys in 1414 years. So it was awesome.

Chuck Shute : 44:13

Yeah, it sounded really good right?

Erik Turner : 44:16

Oh yeah, sounded great. And it was fun and then things started happening and shows started canceling and then we just decided you know, this isn't gonna work right now let's you know, maybe we can try it again later. Yeah. The rough road I don't want to get into all that drama or negativity. My memories with with lane are really good. And keep it that way.

Chuck Shute : 44:42

Yeah, and then when things don't work out with lane and then Robert Mason joins van he was a originally in lynch mob now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I just read this is like going off memory but I feel like I remember in the reading like metal edge like when I was a kid in the 90s like because there was a brief time. When lane had left the band, then like in 92, or 93, did you try to get Robert Mason at that point as well?

Erik Turner : 45:06

I don't know why we didn't I don't think we did know, he didn't know. Yet Janie quit the band in 93 or so we decided to try and find another singer and carry on. And we never, we never did find another singer. In six months later, right? My phone's ringing, I pick it up. And it's Janie and he said he wanted to come back to the band. So I was like, wow, let me talk to the other guys. And we all said yes. And lane. Lane came back. And we started doing some writing and some recording, and doing starting to play some shows a little bit here and there. And then I think Joey quit. Right at that time. And then yeah, so we're just starting to get get it going again, Joey quit and then cheney had been playing with Rick styer and James Coe tack when he was doing his solo stuff. And he's I decided to make a change of drums. And we brought in Rick and James kotak. And that's when that lineup came together for the ultra phobic. Why do you

Chuck Shute : 46:07

Why do you think you stayed with the Bamiyan? Janie, Steven and Joey kind of were in and out and there was other people's like, why do you think you stayed with it? So why didn't you quit or try something else? Or go back to school?

Erik Turner : 46:17

Yeah, actually, in 2007. I took a hiatus for health purposes. Okay. Yeah. I didn't play with the band for a year. But I was still involved still, you know, went out and jammed with the guys when they were in town and stayed friendly with with everybody. I just needed a break. Yeah. And get off the road for a year and let my liver rest. Yeah. And then I came back and must have been 9798, something like that. But I played on all the records. And I just took a break from touring. That's cool. Yeah, yeah. So but yeah, it's always been, you know, Jerry and I have pretty much just carry, carried on carry the torch. tried to keep it going in 2004. Janie wanted to do other stuff. And so we got that. We took that opportunity to invite Steven and and Joey Bachus came back. Yeah. So then we had four out of five original guys. We got Jamie St. James, from this band, black and blue that we all loved. we all we all love the saint. And we toured together for a few years, we made a record called born again. Yeah, the singer. That was a lot of fun. And so we've always just kind of kept going. Yeah, hard to believe that Roberts been in the band for 12 years now.

Chuck Shute : 47:33

Yeah. And you guys sound great. I just saw you when you're in Phoenix a few months ago. sounded to me. Thank you. Yeah. Oh, here's something I always want to ask you about. I love the song. The Last Action Hero Did you guys make that for the Last Action Hero soundtrack and then it just didn't get picked up or something? Because I heard like the demo or whatever it is the rough cut version. It's really good.

Erik Turner : 47:53

Yeah, they were looking for a title track. And Jamie had heard about it, or somebody asked him to write a song and submit it. So that's what we did. And I thought it was a really cool song. But they didn't pick it for them the soundtrack unfortunately. Yeah, that's sorry guns. I think it was Guns and Roses on that soundtrack actually. Great. Great song Yes.

Chuck Shute : 48:16

Well, I think was the title track or Yeah, but there's a whole soundtracks good. I was like, you guys would have been a perfect fit for that. But Oh, well. That so the other talk about the dog Going back to Dog Eat Dog- the 30th anniversary of that album's coming up in a while, like a couple years. Right. Are you do you think you'll do anything similar? Sure. Yeah. Do you think he'll do anything special like a re-release?

Erik Turner : 48:35

I don't know what we're gonna do for that. We're hoping that in 2021, we'll be able to celebrate the 30 year anniversary of Cherry Pie would be nice. It actually just turned 30 officially on September 11. Yeah. of this year, which was just you know, this month.

Chuck Shute : 48:54

That's amazing. Do you think...

Erik Turner : 48:55

it's officially 30 years old now. And so we're gonna carry on we got all the staging done. We got all this new setlist and a bunch of new stuff for the tour. We're gonna do all year for Cherry Pie, and then COVID happened. And so obviously, everything got canceled. And we're hoping next year, we'll just pick up where we left off and go out and celebrate Cherry Pie every night.

Chuck Shute : 49:20

Do you think you'll do a Blood Sweat and Beers Part TWO tour because that sounds like it was so much fun the first time.

Erik Turner : 49:26

Never, Never say never. I don't see any plans. We've tried to do that once or twice in the past. Not a full tour, but we'll just play. It'll be Trixter and Firehouse and Warrant, and we'll go play two nights or something here and there state fair or casinos or you know, stuff like that. We've never taken a full like, put a package together and had our agents go out and try and pitch it. You never know.

Chuck Shute : 49:52

That'd be cool. And you're also hoping you want to open for like Van Halen or Bon Jovi you've never heard for those two guys right

Erik Turner : 49:59

now. Now. Yeah, I mean, who doesn't wish that you know, as Van Halen, of course, the great mighty Van Halen and Bon Jovi is great. We actually did play a show with Bon Jovi. And it was at the Palladium. And it was the remember rip magazine? Yeah, long friends.

Chuck Shute : 50:17

Rip.

Erik Turner : 50:18

Yeah, they would do the rip party every year. And one year that we got invited to do it was the year that Bon Jovi was headlining, oh, that was pretty cool. saw those guys in the hallway and we got to play and I don't remember the other bands that played it wasn't just us two bands. But yeah, so in a way, we got to play one show with them and with Bon Jovi at the Palladium for rip. That was cool. Thanks, lon friend.

Chuck Shute : 50:43

Yeah, he's awesome. So I know you're a big Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin fan. Those were two of your favorite bands. Did you ever get to meet Aerosmith or meet Robert planner Jimmy Page?

Erik Turner : 50:52

Yeah, I have met Robert Plant and never met anybody from Aerosmith. We played we were scheduled to play two shows with Aerosmith. It was blackrose warrent Metallica and Aerosmith, I think and so we played one night and then the second night it was raining and all this shit was going down and so we were the only band that ended up not playing the second night. And yeah, so those those my two experiences, but I didn't meet anybody in the band Joey and Jerry and Steven hung around hung out with Steven Tyler and his dressing room and said he was a super sweet nice guy and took pictures and stuff like that. So I didn't mean I didn't meet him and then we played a show in Europe with Paige and plant and wow double the guys went down to me to their dressing room to say I just didn't want to didn't want to meet Jimmy Page. God is a God Yeah, I don't want to make them human man. I'd met Robert Plant and got to speak spend some time with them talking for about 1520 minutes at Barney's beanery one night at like two in the morning it was crazy crazy story but yeah I just didn't want to go the guys went down said No madam said hi said he was super nice and and what I did do though is I stood right next to his guitar tech. For 22 Led Zeppelin songs it it midnight and in Switzerland. It's pretty beautiful. perfect night. Yeah, they just they opened up with immigrant song they had a string section they had a rhythm guitarist and and they just went out there and just killed 22 Led Zeppelin songs that was just amazing. I could touch his guitars as just standing right right there.

Chuck Shute : 52:34

That's a cool story. That's very cool. So Dean boot away. I know that you saw that you had to have seen the movie "The Dirt" with Motley Crue, do you think that Warrant will ever do a biopic like that? Because you guys have got a pretty crazy story. I'd definitely watch that.

Erik Turner : 52:49

Our story is very similar to a lot of other bands - band does well, band does drugs, bands has divorces, bands has lawsuits, band breaks up and gets back together. It's kind of the same story. We've all heard just different names and stuff. But that's... you never know something like that could happen. I enjoyed watching "The Dirt." That was Yeah, it was good. It was a good movie.

Chuck Shute : 53:13

Did you guys have a new album that's coming out? You guys are working on some songs?

Erik Turner : 53:17

No, nobody's feeling creative right now, during this pandemic. I know some people are getting really creative. And a lot of artists are doing that. But we've talked about it thrown a few riffs around here and there and nothing's come up. Come up with that.

Chuck Shute : 53:31

So yeah, well, I know you have some other projects. We should promote. Like you have the cherry pie skateboard. You've got the down boys music that you do for TV and film. And then you have the you're fixing up guitars too. Right? So you're staying pretty busy.

Erik Turner : 53:44

Yeah, we got the skateboards really cool. You know, go to white rocks. At white rocks on Instagram or Twitter or Facebook, you'll see you know, we post up about skateboards you can go to our website weren't rocks calm and find a link to merchandise in our store and the skateboard. It's really cool. As far as me recently I just been buying Les Paul Jr. guitars, epic bombs, and I sand them down, tear him apart. paint them, you know, some crazy, I call it punk rock icon punk rock guitars because they're all spray paint and and they're not perfect. They look old. They look beat up. I put stickers on them. And so yeah, people have been really responding to that I've done. I have orders. I finished 14 today and I have orders up to 17 so far. So I got three more to do. Wow. People are really responding to it and buying it. They're hands on hand signed. Now they're numbered, so that makes them collectible. Their original art. No two of them look the same. So it's kind of a cool thing to have to have if you're a fan of the warrant. Oh yeah. You dig just I think a lot of these guys are just hanging them on an online The wall and their man cave.

Chuck Shute : 55:01

Yeah, that's awesome man cave thing for sure.

Erik Turner : 55:04

Yeah, yeah. Jerry and I started a company called down boys music in 2011. And we do. We've submitted music for television shows. And I think we've had about 1800 pieces of music placed in different various cable TV shows and stuff. So yeah, so we got that we got warrant we got down boys music, then we got our merge. And we just dying to get back to work or get back out and play. That's what we love to do the most is to go out and tour as well. That's where our that's how we butter bread, so to speak, was absolutely going out playing

Chuck Shute : 55:38

live. I can't wait to see it. Well, thanks so much for doing this. I like to end with a charity. Is there a charity that you work with? I can't remember.

Erik Turner : 55:46

Yeah, me personally. in Temecula, California, I got introduced to a charity called Michelle's place. And Michelle passed away from breast cancer and her family started this organization like 15 years ago, or whatever it was, and I got involved with it and helping them raise money and donating money and, you know, donating guitars for auctions and stuff like that. And they just do great work there in the community. And now that was originally just all breast cancer people that they helped, you know, getting on wigs and doctors and groceries and it's helping people out in the community, they're going through a real hard and scary time. And you can see what they do, you can see where the money goes. And so Michelle's place.org check them out. I want to donate something to a really cool organization that really helps people in the community. They've helped thousands of Unfortunately, there's been thousands of people that have had breast cancer in the area. And yeah, and they've just been a really great help and watching them. So yeah, that's okay. That's why pool. Oh, I like to support out and, you know, okay, out in the open, of course, I like to donate to other stuff to just you see a good cause or you see, yeah, one of your friends is sick, and they're trying to raise money for hospital bills. You know, we do stuff like that. But the one the one organization is Michelle's place that I've really gotten behind.

Chuck Shute : 57:12

Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Thank you so much for doing this. It's like you're doing like a charity for me because this is I'm a huge fan of this was like it was amazing to if 13 year old me could see myself now it'd be it'd be amazing. So thank you for making my dream come true.

Erik Turner : 57:26

Yeah, man. Thanks for the nice words. And I enjoy listening to your podcast. You do a great job with it. Very cool.

Chuck Shute : 57:32

What are you serious? That is such a huge compliment. That's amazing.

Erik Turner : 57:36

Man. I subscribed. Wow. Yeah. When you reached out to me, the podcast before I say yes to the interview. I'm like, this guy's really, really good, man.

Chuck Shute : 57:48

I don't know what to say. That's, that's the biggest compliment I've ever heard in my life. That's amazing. Thank you.

Erik Turner : 57:53

That's true, man. All right. So keep up the good work. Okay, subscriber. And if people are interested in checking out my guitars, you can go to app, punk rock guitars on Instagram. And I have a little account that I started okay, you know, few months ago when I started doing the guitar. So if anybody's interested in taking a look at what the hell I'm

Chuck Shute : 58:13

painting, okay. Yeah, like

Erik Turner : 58:15

go to punk rock guitars.

Chuck Shute : 58:16

I'll put it in the notes for sure. Thank you so much, Eric.

Erik Turner : 58:20

All right, buddy. Okay, and have a great weekend. It's Friday.

Chuck Shute : 58:23

Yeah, on this podcast is coming. I'll try to get out today. Yeah. Thanks.

Erik Turner : 58:27

All right. Okay, bye.

Chuck Shute : 58:29

All right. This was a very special episode to me. I want to thank Eric Turner from warrant, check out the full catalogue of this band. It's available everywhere. Spotify, iTunes, all that stuff. Check out their website and the links I put in the notes and follow Eric and Warren on social media. To keep up with what they're doing. You can follow me on social media. I'm on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. If you could subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or YouTube that helps you want to write me a review that helps more. Thank you so much for listening. Again, this is a very iconic episode for me because of what this band means to me personally. So I want to give some shout outs to some people that really helped me help support me through this show. Bruce Maslow, my aunt Trish, my cousin Tina and her husband will who had well on the show, my brother Joe, my parents, my threatened boys, Rob West and Alejandro just so many more, I'm probably forgetting people. The boys that decibel geek podcast they gave me a shout out on their podcast. I want to return the favor here. Check out the decibel geek podcast if you like rock music podcasts. That's a good one. And last but certainly not least, I want to thank my girlfriend Dana, who's been so supportive of in saving this wine here for a special occasion. You saw this at the beginning I we opened it we had a little issue with the cork but we got it. Dana wants you to come on in and have some wine to me. It should be interesting because I've not had a drink since COVID started six months no drink I wanted to be in good shape in case I got COVID Now I can die a happy man Eric Turner said I'm good at what I do. So that's that's enough for me. So cheers. Have a great day or night and remember to shoot for the moon.