Paul Gargano (Metal Edge)

Episode 100!!! Paul Gargano from Metal Edge! When I was a teenager Metal Edge magazine was like my Bible. So it was quite a treat to sit down with Paul Gargano who worked there for many years, became the editor and now has bought the name. We discuss his years working at the magazine, why he left, what happened with Gerri Miller (original editor), and what the future holds for Metal Edge. Plus we talk about his managing career, Rob Halford coming out to him, his feud with Sharon Osbourne, his new Metal game & much more! You won’t want to miss this one! 

0:00:00 - Intro 
0:01:50 - Early Beginnings & Politics 
0:06:18 - Interview with Bon Jovi 
0:10:42 - Becoming Music Editor at Marquette 
0:14:19 - Ozzy Osbourne & Metal Edge 
0:15:48 - Gerri Miller & Sharon Osbourne
0:16:50 - Joining Metal Edge
0:18:15 - Different Bands Covered by Metal Edge
0:23:10 - Personal Lives of Rockstars & Roundups
0:27:28 - Gerri Miller Leaves 
0:28:36 - Peter Criss of KISS & Questionable Caption
0:30:36 - Paul & Gerri Rift 
0:32:28 - Sharon Osbourne Feud with Paul 
0:38:36 - Fallout with Metal Edge & Gerri 
0:43:50 - Rob Halford Comes Out to Paul 
0:48:10 - Managing Beautiful Creatures & Others
0:52:35 - “Hairbands” & Warrant 
0:56:20 - Sebastian Bach 
0:57:26 - Great White Performing During The Pandemic 
1:02:50 - Geoff Tate & Queensryche  
1:12:33 - Being Critical Of Bands as a Fan 
1:16:36 - The Black Moods & Eye Surgery 
1:21:12 - Geoff Tate & Variety of Topics 
1:24:34 - Maynard James Keenan
1:25:12 - Gods of Metal Ragnarock 
1:29:31 - Wounded Warriors & Best Friends
1:30:15 - Wrap Up

Paul Gargano Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/paulgargano/

Gods of Metal Ragnarok:
https://www.huntersentertainment.com/ragnarock

Wounded Warrior Project:
https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org

Best Friends
https://bestfriends.org/adopt-and-foster/adopt-our-sanctuary

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

Transcript

Chuck Shute: 0:13

One 100 episodes. so crazy, I can't believe that like, it's crazy that I've had that many episodes in just a little over a year and a half. So thank you all for your support. It's been fun to see the show grow. And I hope it continues to do so. I grow with you guys listening and sharing it and supporting me. So thank you for doing so. And my guest today is a special thing for the 100th episode, I've got Paul gargano. So Paul worked at metal edge magazine, which this was basically my Bible as a teenager, this was before the internet was around are very big. And if you wanted even like a sliver of any info on any band that you like, you had to get it from magazines. So I would get metal edge and rip and circus and hit parader whatever I could get my hands on, but metal edge covered a lot of the bands that I really love, like Skid Row and the Warrens and the Guns and Roses. And they continue to cover that stuff, even when some of the other ones didn't. And Paul worked at metal edge, and then he eventually took over it. And recently he bought it back so he owns it. So there may be some things happening in the future like a podcast. We're not really sure, exactly. It's it hasn't all been solidified. But he owns it. So I'm excited to see what the future holds for that. Paul's got great stories to tell. We're gonna find out what happened with metal edge and the original editor, Jerry Miller, and we're going to get his thoughts on queens right and the split there. Great White recently doing live shows during the pandemic, and much much more. So I know this episode goes long. But I probably get to listen to Paul tell more stories. So I hope you guys enjoy to welcome Paul gargano I hope I said that right to the metal to the to the metal edge to the chuck shoe podcast, Paul gargano. From metal edge. It's amazing.

Unknown: 1:59

would be God.

Paul Gargano: 2:00

I've been talking about a metal edge podcast for so long. It's just never we just taking the finding the time to get it off the ground.

Chuck Shute: 2:06

Okay. Okay, so yeah, cuz we got a lot to talk about. So we're gonna, we're gonna talk about your background, I want to talk about metal edge, I want to talk about band stories, I want to talk about managing bands. And then I want to talk about your most current project, the gods of metal reg, reg, and rock Ragnarok Ragnarok, which is a game which incorporates all this heavy metal music. It sounds really cool. So but we'll start at the beginning, I'll just kind of go through chronologically. Try to do this, like in around an hour, maybe hour and a half. I know you probably got a jump at some point. But it's interesting. I listened to a few interviews with you. And I learned so much. And I just want to I just want to tell the story and kind of clarify, but you actually started in politics?

Unknown: 2:46

I did.

Chuck Shute: 2:46

Yes. I did a political newspaper in Connecticut.

Paul Gargano: 2:50

Yeah. So my first the first thing I ever wrote was a was an opinion piece about David Duke.

Chuck Shute: 2:56

Yeah, the way and he was supportive David Duke, kind of,

Paul Gargano: 3:00

well, kind of, but not really. I mean, it wasn't in support of David Duke. And it's interesting, because like, historically, now, if you look, he was like the predecessor to Trump in so many ways. But the it's it was more of David Duke being allowed to be on the ballot, right? You want to vote for him or not. We live in a country where if you you should be allowed to run. And if people want to elect you know, if people want to elect a reality star to be president, they should be allowed to react electoral Li.

Chuck Shute: 3:27

Right. But so that's democracy is exactly where people saying that he shouldn't even be able to run

Paul Gargano: 3:34

back back. This was I was probably 18 years old, probably 17 years old at the time. So this was, I'm 49. Now so we're talking 32 years ago, they were telling David Duke because of his white supremacy background, he shouldn't be allowed to run for politics. And the point was, my point was we can't we can't decide who shouldn't shouldn't be able to run. Right? You should just not vote for them.

Chuck Shute: 3:58

Yeah, well, we get a whole thing on that with canceled culture. And then it's like when you start canceling people, and on the left and the right even in both and then eventually the middle just starts getting smaller and smaller. And then it starts so I mean, that's kind of we could do a whole other podcasts on

Paul Gargano: 4:13

my that's that's kind of my stance on politics not to get political. Yeah, it's we need a bigger middle. I mean, the problem is we cater to the fart everything caters to the far right and the far left because that's what gets you news clicks.

Chuck Shute: 4:26

Yeah, no, you should listen to my interview or don't even have to listen the whole thing but a hot ticket in from the band RA and he wrote with Motley Crue and he's doing all this production work, but he his new song inter corrupted he explained the lyrics of that and it was like exactly what we're just talking about how the middle it's like the far right and the far left are kind of using each other as they're making each other stronger by you know, so

Paul Gargano: 4:50

riling up the drama, you know, you got it's the extremes today. Exactly. Those of us who exist in the middle, like I always say, you know, this, there's never a black, it's not black and white. world we live in gray. Exactly. Yeah, well, gray, it's all shades, and everybody that's in the middle is getting squeezed. Because if you're not all the way to the left, or you're not all the way to the right, nobody wants to hear your voice. And so everybody I know, every conservative I known, every liberal, I know, thinks relatively the same as I do. We're all in the middle. We just feel forced to identify a certain way. You know, it's it's about finding that middle ground. And I think in the past two, probably since the internet started, we just lost that. We've lost that middle ground because the Internet has given everybody, every extreme now has incredible voice. And, and those are the loudest voices

Chuck Shute: 5:45

on Twitter.

Unknown: 5:46

Yeah, exactly. That algorithms? Yeah, exactly.

Chuck Shute: 5:50

If I, if I go on Twitter, and I just wrote a moderate, you know, middle road, political stance, nobody cares. But if I write something extreme, far right, or extreme far left, people are going to argue they're going to interact, they're going to retweet they're going to, and so it's going to jump to the top of the algorithm. So it's like, yeah, we've always had these crazy people, but now they have a voice and they have a loud voice. It's kind of scary. But anyways, we totally got off topic here. But politics. So then your first music thing was Public Enemy, which is kind of political. That was your first writing piece on music. And then this was cool. The album review you did for Bon Jovi. You got to interview the keyboard player, David Bryan, I mean, he's still a member of Bon Jovi. And then you got to go backstage and and meet Bon Jovi.

Paul Gargano: 6:37

So what basically happened I did the political piece. And the the newspaper it was it was a magazine was a little magazine. Okay. They asked me if I wanted to review the Public Enemy show. They said, since you're in the politics, would you want to review?

Chuck Shute: 6:49

Yeah, and it makes sense.

Paul Gargano: 6:51

So I went and I'd never reviewed a concert before. And then I went off to college that was written before college, I go off to college, and I wasn't writing I was doing radio at college. And I was in one of my classes is one of my writing classes. And I had a Bon Jovi shirt on and some girl who wouldn't normally talk to me. Was was like, do you do you really like Bon Jovi? And I'm like, what kind of stupid question is that? I'm like, Yeah.

Chuck Shute: 7:21

What year was this? This was like, 92 when they were not as cool as album. So this was Yes.

Unknown: 7:26

Was faith

Chuck Shute: 7:27

92 I think that was Yeah,

Paul Gargano: 7:28

this was 92. So at this point, I had been doing radio, I had been just doing metal radio in particular at Marquette and Milwaukee. And she asked me and I was leather jacket. I had like, you know, it was Milwaukee started a jean jacket leather jacket over it super long hair, and was a complete wise asked when she asked me if I really liked Bon Jovi. No, I worked for the school newspaper and Bon Jovi's coming. Do you want to do an album review for us? And I was just like, Oh, yeah, I could do that easy. And I'd never written an album review before. But I'm like, How hard could it be? So the I did that in three days later, they asked me if I wanted to interview a member of the band. And I was like, sure. I've never interviewed an artist before. But I interviewed David, Brian,

Chuck Shute: 8:11

are you nervous?

Paul Gargano: 8:14

Not really, it was I've always been I've always been kind of taken an intellectual quasi intellectual approach to music. So I was never really worried about having things to talk about in that regard. Because huge Bon Jovi fan, I'm still I still am a big Bon Jovi fan. But obviously, I mean, back then they were one of the biggest bands in the world. I'm not really, you know, just from my perspective, it was just you throw down a list of questions, what are things as a fan? What are the things that I wanted to know the answers to? And I then we sent a tear sheet of the article in the newspaper, the internet didn't exist. We sent a tear sheet fax to tear sheet to the record label. And like a day later, we hear back that john wants to meet me, which was like What the You know what? That's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. So I went to the show in Madison, the Dane County Coliseum and went like I literally went to the box office, there was a note, please bring this note backstage show to the security guard. Tell him john wants to meet you. And Lou, I mean, this was this was before cell phones. There was this was how you had to communicate with people. And yeah, so I went backstage. JOHN,

Chuck Shute: 9:23

you because he was excited because he he already had the regular press but for getting college kids at that point in their career. They were not the cool college kid band. So he was really excited to have somebody on his corner.

Paul Gargano: 9:36

Yeah, that's exactly what he told me. He said, You know, it means a lot to be able to get someone like to have a fan like you in a position that you're in is great because that's the hardest market for us to reach. So he's like if you ever need in to Jon Bon Jovi's credit he said if you ever need anything from me, ask I'll be here for you. And it was interest just like a song. It was great because it metal edge. I would be told, you know, oh, John's not available. And I wouldn't argue do the interview with whoever. But at one point I actually pushed and I press and I said, john said if I ever wanted I really want this interview right now. And sure enough, I got the interview with john. It was really good. Yeah,

Unknown: 10:15

it was.

Chuck Shute: 10:16

So so let's get so then. Yeah, you're the editor. Marquette. That was Yeah,

Paul Gargano: 10:20

that was fast forwarding The Mentalist?

Chuck Shute: 10:21

Yeah. So you're the editor at Marquette. And you interviewed Brett Farve, you did all these great things. And then you're you're not on metal edge, you're actually in the chat room. So this is around internet time, and you're kind of like,

Paul Gargano: 10:32

ironically, I've taken three sips of coffee. So this is my normal talking speed. Okay. Um, the boats at Marquette. And then yeah, I did the article, I was inputting the Bon Jovi article, further review of the concert cuz I went to the concert, I'm inputting that into the computer, because we had to go to these massive computers, and input the stories that when they went straight to a layout, we didn't even have Nope, I had a word processor, like nobody even had computers back then. So we had to input into this machine. And as I'm doing this, there's this argument going on behind me with the staff have the student newspaper with the advisor. And they're basically what happened was, they sold an ad to an abortion clinic. And Marquette is a Catholic, Jesuit university. So it's Catholic, and they were arguing that they should be allowed to run a abortion clinic ad in the school newspaper. The administration says you can't we're a Catholic. We're a Catholic school. We can't have abortion clinic ads running in our newspaper. And the argument that the editor used was its freedom of speech. And I not knowing anything about journalism turned around. And I was just annoyed, because you know, I'm the annoying rocker guy, I just turned around, and I kept giving him dirty looks. And the girl made a wise ass crack to me. She was like, just just file your story, stop giving notice. And finally I turned around and I was like, you don't have freedom of speech. I said, I'm tired of listening to you argue about freedom of speech. I said, you don't even understand. I was in constitutional law at the moment because I was a pre law student,

Unknown: 12:09

right?

Paul Gargano: 12:10

I said, you don't understand how freedom of speech works. And she goes, I know what I'm talking about. And the advisor goes No, no, no, let them talk. And I said freedom of speech does not apply to private institutions as if we go to a Catholic school. The church is the institution that dictates what our freedom of speech is. I said, you don't even understand the very doctrine you're talking about. The guy was like, he's absolutely right. So that happened. An hour later, half the staff, the student newspaper resigned over it. I got a phone call from that advisor saying, hey, come to my office. And he basically sat me down and he goes, What's your major? What are you doing? And I explained to him, I'm pre law, blah, blah, blah. And he goes, Well, here's what happened. The whole basically four fifths of our editorial board resigned, we have a newspaper that has to come out tomorrow without a staff. I'm gonna hire you right now. You're the editor of whatever department you want. I've already checked, I know you can write because I was writing. I was an English major. And he goes, I know you can write he goes, I'm gonna make you an editor, whatever department you want right now. And I was just like, I'll take the music department. I was like, I'll do music, okay. And he's like, are you sure you don't want to like do news or anything else? Like, Oh, no, no, no, I want to do music because it ties in with what I'm what I love, blah, blah,

Unknown: 13:26

blah.

Paul Gargano: 13:27

So that was it. I mean, I became I literally stepped in as the entertainment editor of the newspaper. And that started everything for me at that point. So and I didn't know I didn't know how to for an answer, because I didn't know any better. So when Garth Brooks would come to town, I would hit up Garth Brooks people for interviews. And when Billy Joel comes to town, I'd hit up Billy Joel. And because Marquette was such a big college university, they always said yes. So basically, as a college student, I was doing stuff with Robert Plant, Billy Joel Garth Brooks, Janet Jackson. And I just by the time I graduated, the Associated Press hired me as an editor before I even graduated. So the day after I graduated, I went to work for the AP. I became rock critic for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and everything evolves pretty quickly at that point, and then the metal edge thing started because I did an interview with Ozzy Osborne,

Chuck Shute: 14:24

right? Or Jerry Miller wanted it. Right. She was dead or metal.

Paul Gargano: 14:29

It was a front page story for the Sunday edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. I interviewed Ozzy and he, Jerry there was at this point, AOL existed so we would all go into the AOL chat rooms, and Jerry would do metal edge chats. I didn't I didn't even read metal edge at the time.

Chuck Shute: 14:45

No, but didn't you were you kind of a troll or something? Didn't you kind of go in there and troll him a little bit.

Paul Gargano: 14:49

I mean, it wasn't a troll, but I was friends with all these bands because I was the rock critic. So I was like, the Journal Sentinel. And I wrote for all the papers in Milwaukee, so I knew the warrant, guys. I knew the site On kick guys, I knew all these bands because every time they'd come through town, they'd played the venue that I lived near, and I hang out with them. And I would write about them. So they would Oh, come come hang out at this metal edge. And I'm like, Alright, so middleaged chat. I made it like a typo negative screen name. It was black number three. And I went into the I went into the metal edge chat. And everybody was talking to me just as much as they were talking to Jerry. And Jerry was like, Who are you? Why are people talking to you? And somebody started asking me about my Ozzie interview, then she hit me up privately. Instead, how did you get an interview with Ozzy and I went through the whole thing. She's like, I want your Ozzy interview for metal edge. And that's how the whole metal edge.

Chuck Shute: 15:45

Yeah, so But do you know why Ozzy didn't want to do an interview with Jerry, what do you ever suspicions?

Paul Gargano: 15:52

There was drama. There was just it was there was drama.

Chuck Shute: 15:55

Okay. You know, you don't know what it was, though.

Paul Gargano: 15:57

I mean, I do but it's not. It's not. It was. It was Jerry had drama with a bunch of people. And it wasn't necessarily Jerry's fault. It was just there's, I mean, look, you know, Sharon, I mean, I have to tell you about Sharon's story.

Chuck Shute: 16:10

Oh, yeah. I heard a crazy story about Sharon like pissing in a glass. It's in Randy raw. Randy Rhoads. It's a Rudy sarzo. His book about? Yeah, yeah. It's crazy. Yeah. No, I would not want to piss her off and get on her bad side. Buddy.

Paul Gargano: 16:24

I think Sharon had issues with Jerry out of the gates. Okay. And Sharon and not you know, she just had issues and she wouldn't she didn't want Jerry talking Ozzy. Right.

Chuck Shute: 16:34

So what so you got that Ozzie interview and then she offered you a managing editor job.

Paul Gargano: 16:40

So what basically happened I I didn't read like I said, I didn't read metal edge and your rip guy. I love that guy. So I asked a bunch of friends of mine who were in bands. What should I do? What do you think? And they're like, dude, if you could write for metal edge, that would be amazing. Oh my god. So in even Mitch Schneider at the time, who was Ozzy's publicist. He said to me, look, Ozzy has given you the blessing to sell. Sharon has given you the blessing to sell the article to Jerry. But why don't you try to parlay this into Maher? And I was like, Yeah, good idea. So I said to Jerry, look, I'll give you the Ozzie interview. But I want to start writing for the magazine.

Chuck Shute: 17:15

Smart.

Paul Gargano: 17:16

Because I wasn't writing. I wasn't really I only had a few magazines nationally that I was writing for. And they weren't metals weren't metal magazine. So she she was like, Yeah, sounds good. So I mean, literally, within a week, I went from given her the Ozzy story. I think the first article I ever wrote, The first story I ever did for them was a backstage thing with Warren, and Vince Neil at the rave in Milwaukee. But one of my my first big story, I covered the kiss reunion show at Tiger Stadium.

Chuck Shute: 17:46

Oh, nice.

Unknown: 17:47

So now about

Paul Gargano: 17:48

the time I came into metal edge, and then I moved, as metal edge happened, I just kind of burned out of the Midwest, I just got to a point where I was like, there's nowhere left for me to climb here. I want to go to New York. So my family's from Connecticut, I basically moved back home to get a job as sports editor at a whole chain of newspapers in Connecticut. And within six months of that Jerry offered me the managing editors position and metal edge.

Chuck Shute: 18:14

Right. And so then she was kind of but she was more protective of quote, unquote, like her bands like Aerosmith and Warren, and she wouldn't usually typically let you interview those bands. Why do you think that was? So you got stuck kind of being the Marilyn Manson corn interview kind of guy, but you secretly liked Warren's and winger and all that stuff. So why was she so protective of those other bands?

Paul Gargano: 18:35

Yeah, it wasn't really secretive. I mean, the thing and it's not. It's easy to take this as a negative. And it's I'm not trying to be it's not negative about Jerry. Yes, it just had. That was the niche. I mean, Jerry's world was, you know, those bands from the late 80s and early 90s. I mean, that was, that was what she carved her niche out and made a name for herself. And quite frankly, that's what she built metal edge off of. When I came in, I obviously those artists had everything to do with the fact that I got the job. I got it metal edge because I had relationships with all of them. I already had relationships with the warrant, guys. I mean, I interviewed Eddie Van Halen. twice, two or three times before I even started at metal edge. I don't think I ever even interviewed Eddie Van Halen as the editor of metal edge. I think I only interviewed Sammy and Dave while I was at metal edge, but I had done like two or three Edie interviews before I even started at metal edge. So I was so entrenched in that genre in that music scene. It made perfect sense to go to the magazine. However, she had her relationships and she was in LA and I was in New York. So obviously it's easier for her to cover Warren or poison or those bands, because she's in LA where everything was happening. And I was never just a rock guy. I also liked metals. So what happened? I just gravitated towards that. The bands that I basically had unhindered access to for the magazine, she, she wasn't covering corn. She wasn't covering Marilyn Manson. She didn't want to cover type of negative, those were bands she had no interest in in metal edge. So basically as when I came in, because she was doing all the 80s stuff, I brought those bands into the magazine. And it was and she was she was great with that. I mean, she wasn't no different than when I took over the magazine. And my assistant editor was Kathy compania. She loved a lot of the more like metal core bands that I just couldn't stand. She was able to write about a lot of that stuff that I didn't want to write about, because I didn't want to go to you know, mosh pit shows every night of the week. But that was you know what I mean? So yeah, she loved that she loved that angry music. And I was at a point where I wasn't that angry anymore. So I would rather deal with my Manson's my corns, my warrants, my poisons, and let her deal with the new bands that she really likes. And I kind of feel like that's important for the genre. It's important for the publications. So it wasn't a bad thing with Jerry. It was just, you know, she was protective of her until she left the magazine. I never did an Aerosmith interview, you know, it was just that was anytime Aerosmith came in. She did Aerosmith, that was it. And anytime she could talk to the warrant,

Chuck Shute: 21:21

I think it would be better to have a fresh perspective and a different set of questions. And just like you guys, I think I'd be better to mix but I understand too, because she wasn't there. She just couldn't pick her her interviewing Marilyn Manson either.

Paul Gargano: 21:32

Well, yeah. And well, and that was the thing like I, they, they didn't want to talk to her because her line of questioning. She also we both had different journalistic approaches. She was a lot more about the personal lives, and a lot more about me. I mean, honestly, she was like a predecessor to TMZ in a lot of ways because she was reporting about stuff that honestly, I had zero interest in. And you know, right. You know, when my wife was reading metal edge, that was something that she was very interested in. She was she was interested in the girlfriends and stuff like that, when I didn't read metal edge because I was more interested in lawn friend interviewing Soundgarden, or Pearl Jam or something I was I wanted to know more about the music. You know, I wanted in depth article with Jeff Tate talking about the lyrics behind Operation mindcrime I didn't want to hear an article about how he met his wife and what his daughter does and everything else. It made for a nice dichotomy when the two of us were when we were at our best when we were like a rhythm it made for a really good dichotomy because I'm the guy that would go you know have a handful of drinks with the poison guys and have a completely different angle and a completely different story than what Jerry had.

Chuck Shute: 22:44

Yeah, cuz the speaking of that's interesting kind of tidbit I heard you talking about

Paul Gargano: 22:48

in Manson didn't want people poking and prodding into his private Manson wanted. I know.

Chuck Shute: 22:54

We'll get to Manson later. Yeah.

Paul Gargano: 22:56

Yeah. But you know, Manson wanted Manson. And corn corn didn't want to be like a hair metal band. Sure. Horn wanted to talk about dark, just disturbing stuff. And that wasn't Jerry style, which was fair. That's not there's nothing wrong with that. But she

Chuck Shute: 23:09

she was like, yeah, so she was very much about their personal lives. And so much like, she would sometimes photograph them a rock star backstage with a girl and later the Rockstar would like call you and say, Hey, that wasn't my wife or my girlfriend. Can you take that photo out? And then you would pretend that the photo got lost or something? And then she's like, Hey, where's that photo? I took? A randomly disappeared.

Paul Gargano: 23:32

And when you send me the slides, that photo wasn't there. Yeah, no, but that's exactly that was the difference. And then once she wasn't trying

Chuck Shute: 23:38

to, like catch them in the act of she just didn't she didn't know or

Paul Gargano: 23:42

wasn't that wasn't it wasn't malicious. She I think she looks she created she wasn't the first editor of metal edge, but she's the one that made the magazine what it was, and she her vision was really spot on for that era. I mean, she what she did was spot on with what people wanted when that music was at its peak. It's just, you know, the, the seams shifted a little bit and that's not what people wanted to read. That's not what Koren wanted written about them. That's not what Marilyn Manson Marilyn Manson didn't want, you know, an hour of questions about are you that kid from The Wonder Years? And like, just

Unknown: 24:22

a rumor? No, I

Chuck Shute: 24:23

didn't because I felt like it had a good mix of I mean, I remember reading like track by track album reviews of like the new warrant doggy dog and they would go through each song and then you explained like you Janie would explain each song and what it was about. And this is before the album comes out. So then it would get you excited about the idea like, oh, machine gun. Wow, that sounds like a cool song. Like, I can't wait to hear it. And you know, yeah, but then yeah, there was like some of the person some of the personal stuff like some of that stuff, I didn't care you know, where they would do like the metal roundup or whatever, and they'd be like, it asked like 30 bands, the same question like what's your worst habit and stuff and So I was wondering how they did that, like, did they save those questions or that?

Paul Gargano: 25:06

So we would do, and it kind of got fine tuned over the years. But basically, what we would do is we would come up with 1212 months worth of questions. So what's the first record you ever bought? What's your favorite movie? Um, what is what's your favorite dish to cook? Once we would come up with a year's worth of question? time we did an interview, we would tack that on to the interview. So because this again, oh, yeah, before the internet, so it wasn't as simple as sending, you know, now it's easy because like, you know, you can go on Instagram, and I could, you know, I could hit Eric Turner up on Instagram and go, Hey, can I can ask you a couple questions, and you're gonna get a problem. You can't do that back then you couldn't do that you had to go through a publicist. And call the publicist. So you would fax them questions, and then they would have to fax the questions to the band. And honestly, I mean, as someone who manages bands now, by the time you're faxing to one person to fax to another one, you're never getting those questions back. So the internet made life so much easier, I'm

Chuck Shute: 26:10

sure. Yeah,

Paul Gargano: 26:11

I email people directly, how what we would do say I had an interview with Marilyn Manson. If there was five minutes left, at the end, where I could go through it, I would ask him the 12 questions. Just boom, hey, don't think just in like, certain artists didn't want to do it. Others loved it. Oh, but interesting. Anytime you do an interview, you tack those on at the end, okay?

Chuck Shute: 26:33

Because I just remember, but it'd be funny too, because that's such a weird layout. Like I think that's why I probably got a bad rap is because the covers, and I heard you talking about this, it was the same guy who made like those Tiger beat and those like teen magazines. And so that's why it kind of looked like that. But you'd see like, it would say like all the band names that were in the article, or in the magazine, it would say like, warrant trickster Skid Row. And I'd be like, Oh, cool. And then like, I open it up, it'd be like, here's a picture of Skid Row. And I'm like, okay, but like, Is there an article and interview with them? Or like what I don't that's, that doesn't really count as like a skid row, like, interview or like tidbit. Like it would be very a small amount about them. But it's sold the magazine because I bought a cool skin rose in it. And then it would be this tiny little tidbit or a picture. So yeah,

Paul Gargano: 27:17

you didn't realize by Skid Row, we meant it was an ad for Sebastian box cameos. Yeah.

Chuck Shute: 27:21

Yeah. Yeah. So so she had her run, Jared. Anyways, Jared, Going back to Gerri, she had her run ins with the owner. And she

Paul Gargano: 27:26

So there was a ongoing back and forth at tha ended up leaving the magazine, and then she or she got fired, and then you got her job. And then she kind of got mad at you. point, I got along really wel with the owner. I was in the Ne York office. And this is th other thing. The magazine wa Because you didn't quit with her. Is that what it was? Oh, New York based. She lived in LA I was in the owner was younge guy - older than me, but a y unger guy. And it's just there's just personality clashes and the just a bunch of stuff went do n. It wasn't good. And he call d me into the office one day and said, Hey, the magazin s, I'm getting rid of Gerri. he magazine is yours if you wa t it. Otherwise, let me know n w you got a couple minute, but I'm letting her go today. And you're either taking the ma azine or you gotta help me fi d another editor. And I sa d, Of course I'll take the mag zine. So he basically fired/sl sh quit depends on your inter retation. But, you know, it was eah, that was pretty much that

Chuck Shute: 28:33

Was there one specific incident or.... I heard you talking about Peter Criss...., that she had posted a picture of

Paul Gargano: 28:43

Basically, the straw that broke the camel's back. We had a contract with Kiss where we did their Kiss programs. And she again, as she would send everything, she was executive editor, I was managing editor. I basically, she was the top but I ran the magazine out of New York because I was the one dealing with everything on a day to day basis. And she sent in a bunch of Kiss articles for this Kiss program, when there was a questionable caption and it was Peter with his daughter. And she said in the caption that Peter and his daughter had been estranged for 10 years or something. And I immediately said to her I think we're crossing the line I don't think that should be there. And she didn't agree she thought it should be. And I pushed back and she she pushed back at me and I said you know what, I'm not getting in a fight over it is what it is. I went to the owner and I said just I'm just giving you a heads up right now. I don't agree with this. Gerri's exact quote was it's my magazine and you work for me. I said I'm not fighting... I said I don't have the energy to fight but I'm telling you right now this is gonna cause problems. And he said, Did you get in touch and tell you that and I said I got that from over the phone and He goes "get it in writing." And I go, why he goes, this is going to be the final nail in her coffin. And he goes, he goes, I go, do you want to check with Jean? And he goes, nope. He goes, get it in writing. Get it in writing that you said take it and she didn't. And she sent it to me. You know, I emailed her, I said, I'm just making it known. she emailed me back and said, it's, she basically said in writing, if you work for me, or something like that, okay. So when it came out, Peter lost his mind. And, you know, that was the end of it. And so that final that was the final thing. I think that broke between her in the owner

Chuck Shute: 30:37

And between you as well, right? Because you said that she hates you and she wishes you are dead. And she tried to start a smear campaign.

Paul Gargano: 30:44

I don't know about wishes I was dead, but I'm definitely not on her Christmas card list, or her Hanukkah card list.

Chuck Shute: 30:52

She said something like you hate women or something, tried to start a smear campaign against laughter.

Paul Gargano: 30:56

So when she went she fired slash quit, whatever. Um, she called me and said, I'm leaving the magazine, I expect you to leave the magazine with me. And I said, No, I'm not going to do that. And she just wasn't, that was literally the last time I've ever spoke. She got mad. She hung up on me that was less than I've ever talked to her. So then she just kind of went on a smear campaign, saying Yeah, she told Sharon Osborne. She told Sharon Osborne, that I hate women. And I hate Ozzy. And it, it. Let's put it this way. If all of this happened in the year 2020, it would have been a much bigger headache than it was in the year 2000. And whatever it was 2000 What was it? 98-99 or 2000? I don't know what it was. But she basically went on as much of a smear campaign as she could. But there wasn't really I mean, everybody knew everybody knew she was lying at that point. I mean, it wasn't I had great relationships with everybody.

Chuck Shute: 31:54

So at that point, you just kind of ignore it. Is that your strategy? You didn't try to reach out and say, Hey, why are you saying this thing? Or you didn't try?

Paul Gargano: 32:01

Well, I mean, honestly, when it gets when it's that malicious? What's the point? I mean, it's just there wasn't She made it very clear through other people that she had no interest in talking to me. And honestly, it's just I'm the type of person who.. I don't need that energy. So I just literally moved on. And honestly, whatever she could say whatever she wants to the guys in Warrant, at the end of the day, they have their The only issue I had... and this is the only relationship with me. And I'm not worried about it. You know issue that manifested itself from all of it was Sharon O what I mean?

Chuck Shute: 32:28

So it hasn't nobody stopped being your friend or And what did youdo? bourne because, and ironically, haron was the reason I started w stop talking to you because of things she said or? rking at Metal Edge to begin with, right? Um, I was backstag. And I've told this story befor, but I was backstage at a Black Sabbath show. I was with P ntera was opening. I was with a ouple of guys from Type-O Negat ve. And a couple friends in the Pantera dressing room. I thin it was Pantera and Deftones. t was Black Sabbath, Pantera a d Deftones. And we were before he show, we were backstage And one of Sharon's assistant or someone from the tour perso nel came in and asked where Paul Gargano was. And a bunch o us jokingly raised our hand because everybody used to lways say, I looked like was in Type O Negative and I w s like me, and somebody else. We all raised our hand, "Oh I'm Pau Gargano" and she's like, t en you're all getting thrown ou. We're like, what? Like, I m calling her again. Oh, it was. Sharon had me thrown out of the Black Sabbath show. And no expla ation at all. The Pantera uys were like Paul's not leav ng. And she's like, if Paul eaves. If you keep Paul here, ou're off the tour. Like it was h, my God, it was bad.

Paul Gargano: 33:57

Well, no. So I was just like, I'm like, whatever, I'll leave. I'm like, Guys, don't worry about it. And there's like a hotel. On the this is Nassau Coliseum. There's a hotel there. So I literally went to the hotel bar. I remember I was reading a book I had a BUKOVSKY book in the car. And I literally sat at the hotel bar in read Bukovsky for like three hours while I was waiting for the show to get out. But I called Sharon the next day. And she basically told me that Gerri told her that I hate women, and I hate Ozzy. And now that she knows that I'm not welcome at any Ozzy shows or any Black Sabbath shows. And she said she was going to go so far as to put a clause in the Ozzfest contract that any band who let me into oz fest would be thrown off the oz fest. So it was like this huge

Chuck Shute: 34:46

Oh God, ugly like,

Paul Gargano: 34:47

I was like, and again you don't fight Sharon Osborne you just want me so my I basically was like, Alright, if that's the way it's gonna be, you know, I tried speaking my mind I do. tried to explain to her that the only reason I even worked at Metal Edge was because she hated Gerri and she wouldn't let her husband talk to Gerri. But she was she didn't want to hear that she was just like she heard it but she didn't want to process it. And I said, Okay, just so we're on the same page Metal Edge won't be covering any band that's on Ozz Fest. I said, that's the if you're that that's a game you want to play. I said, If you blacklist me I'll blacklist Ozz Fest and she goes, let's go have fun. She goes, let's let's see what your little let's see what your little magazine can do without Ozz Fest or something like that, you know. So I pivoted and covered Warped and that you can tell when that was because that's the year if you go back and look at back issues. Yeah, this year, My Chemical Romance we're on the cover for the Warped Tour instead of doing an Ozz fest cover and the touring... that lasted for probably the whole boycott lasted for like for example, if I did an interview with Sevendust and they were on OzzFest, I would not mention Ozzfest anywhere in the Sevendust article. So if I did an article with somebody on Ozzfest, I wouldn't give any ink to OzzFest, but I would cover the band. So it was like we had this whole little like this thing going back and forth. And then Sharon was managing Cole Chamber and I got an email from their publicist, publicists. Jamie Roberts was the publicist at the time for Cole Chamber- Road Runner, and she called me asking me to cover Coal Chamber. And I said, who manages them? And she said, Sharon Osborne tell them I'm sorry, if they want to be in Metal Edge they have to get a new manager. She goes, What and I go, I won't cover any bands that Sharon works with. And it's not it's just not gonna happen. She's like, why not? and Jamie and I were really close. And I was like, I told her the whole story about what happened with She goes, Oh, I'm fixing this. And like, sure enough, five minutes later, I got a phone call from Sharon going. Well, we had a fun little spat, but it's over now. Like literally, the next like literally that happened. Sharon invited me to England for Christmas like with her and Ozzy and it ended up not happening for some reason. But then Sharon was the next one on the cover of Metal Edge. Yeah.

Chuck Shute: 37:08

So do you ever find out why so she did. Did she just finally not believe Gerri or she just didn't care. It's Sharon would agree with this.

Paul Gargano: 37:19

This is don't forget this is before the voice even for Sharon. Sharon was like she was basically everything was a huge dick swinging contest in the music industry. And Sharon had to swing twice as hard as everybody else did because she was a woman. And that's basically what it boiled down to. Okay, she she was slammed stamping her fist and that was it. And that's what Sharon did I mean she's so you don't hate women are anything. Sharon Osborne stories are legendary.

Chuck Shute: 37:45

For sure you but you don't hate women. I know something about you data the female musician or something? So boy, is that what it was about something something about you dating one of the female musicians or something? Is that is that what the problem was about that Jerry was talking about her? It wasn't

Paul Gargano: 38:00

a problem. No, she's just she, she. I don't even know where that came from. But that's what she told people like there's absolutely there's there's literally absolutely no reason for that to even be said like I anybody that knows me knows quite the contrary. I have more female friends than I have male friends.

Chuck Shute: 38:19

Because you said you were best friends

Paul Gargano: 38:20

with Jerry actually dated. I dated a girl that was in a band that metal edge covered for a while. Okay. It was Yeah, it was, um, that there was there was no reason for her to say that other than just like reactionary anger.

Chuck Shute: 38:33

Okay, so she's angry. So whatever happened to Jerry Miller, like, does she work in media or something totally different? Because she seems to be off social media. Like, I don't know. I was always curious like, what I didn't ever understand. You know, before the internet. I just remember like she was gone. And I didn't understand what happened.

Paul Gargano: 38:49

Yeah, a couple of business partners and I we bought metal edge several years ago. Yeah, we actually bought the magazine after, after I left. It got sold in the new publisher, the new owner, and I hated each other.

Unknown: 39:00

I mean, yeah,

Chuck Shute: 39:00

you call them pig vomit, right.

Paul Gargano: 39:02

I didn't call him pick one. If that's that's how you're confusing it with Howard Stern?

Chuck Shute: 39:06

Nobody you thought he was kind of like, is this the guy that tried to

Paul Gargano: 39:08

get in another interview? I compared him to that?

Chuck Shute: 39:11

Yeah, you're saying that he tried to put Scientology brochures in your in the magazine?

Paul Gargano: 39:15

That was Yeah, it was. It was just it was weird, though. Weird. Okay. All he wanted the magazine done three months in advance. And I'm like, you can't do magazine. You can't do a music industry magazine three months in advance. You gotta have last minute changes. I mean,

Chuck Shute: 39:30

till you forced him to fire you so you could get unemployment right,

Paul Gargano: 39:32

basically. Yeah. So you've heard all these stories. I fought I basically forced him to fire me so that I could collect benefits because I should have got a severance. Okay. Wouldn't ignite severance. But the Um, so yeah, so not long. I think it lasted. He lasted about six months after I left and then he sold to somebody else. Then it got sold again and the magazine just petered out. So several years ago, a couple partners and I bought the magazine and we were reached out to Jerry at that time. And she basically she was a little bit receptive until they found out I was involved. And then she's like, I want no involvement. So she's still

Unknown: 40:10

mad at you. She's still mad at me.

Chuck Shute: 40:13

Didn't you almost hit her with your car one day?

Paul Gargano: 40:15

Because people off? What's that? I said, when I'm pissed people off, I piss people off. I don't go halfway.

Chuck Shute: 40:20

Do you think it's justified, though? Do you think she deserves to be this mad

Paul Gargano: 40:23

at you? Not at all? No, I i would i would that is? There's probably not there's probably not. I'm trying to think there's nobody else in the world. I'd rather bury a hatchet within her to be honest with you, oh, I don't have a hatchet. She's got it. It's just I there's absolutely no reason for there to be animosity. I mean, there's just so why not. And in hindsight, I understand why she felt the way she did. I mean, honestly, the same exact thing happened to me at metal edge. I just didn't take it personally, I got squeezed out, I got squeezed out because the new owner wanted the person that was in he wanted someone who could pay less money to because I was making less money than Jerry was And make no mistake there. You know, he wanted somebody he could pay less money to than me, who would do exactly what he said, who would have the magazine done a month, early every month instead of a week, late every month, because I was the guy that would pull a story at the last minute because I found out tool, were dropping a record. So I'd pull a band to get that tool story in at the last minute because I wanted us to be as fresh as possible when we hit the new standards. Because when you're dealing with magazines and lead time, I didn't think that a music magazine should be three months old every time I hit the newsstands No, he just heard with me.

Chuck Shute: 41:37

Yeah, no, cuz sometimes I remember looking at the tour dates and metal edge. And I was like, the show already happened. I can't like see that show. Like I'd buy that brand new issue. And it'd be like, these are old tour. Internet totally changed. They kind of ruin things, honestly,

Paul Gargano: 41:52

for magazines. And that's that's part of the that's also part of the issue. You know, it was it was a huge, huge set of challenges putting a magazine like metal edge out, back before the internet. I mean, you think everything we take for granted Now, like I was going through back issues a while ago, and there's we would have the addresses in the pen pal section and the phone numbers and all that stuff. Like you would never do that today. Because today you just go to Facebook.

Chuck Shute: 42:14

Yeah, today totally.

Unknown: 42:15

Yeah, no,

Paul Gargano: 42:16

we had like, we had pen pals section.

Chuck Shute: 42:19

I remember that. Yeah,

Paul Gargano: 42:20

like when I came in, one of the things that I said was, you know, and again, it was just the question of being coming from a different background. For me, one of the first things I did was pull out all prisoners like there was prisoner mail was a huge part of metal edge. And I was like, we are a lawsuit waiting that happened from some, some girl starts writing letters to a prisoner. Like this is a lawsuit waiting to happen if a parent finds out. Good point. So these were like little things that I did just because I understood the legality of the publishing business a little bit better than Jerry did. Because that was my background. Sure. I, you know, I was a journalism major. So I knew the legality of what we could get away with and what we can get away with, couldn't get away with and like, you got to pull the pen pals out. You can't let 14 year old girls write letters to criminals.

Chuck Shute: 43:04

It's a bad idea

Paul Gargano: 43:06

for shredding, because they get out of jail, and they want to go meet the girl. And you know, I'm not saying prison doesn't reform everybody. But you know what, just in case it doesn't reform one person. You can't have a 13 year old pen pal, right?

Chuck Shute: 43:18

That's a bad idea.

Paul Gargano: 43:19

Those are the evolutions we made over time.

Chuck Shute: 43:22

Yeah. So you leave metal edge. And then you worked at a city search website. And then the VH. One thing, this is interesting. You weren't you did some spots on the VH. One, where are they now? Because you were your girlfriend at the time worked for them? And I tried to find Is there a link to this? Or can you tell me what did you talk about? Because I want to see

Paul Gargano: 43:40

these. I was like, I did so much stuff for VH one. The first VH one thing I did was, was actually MTV, MTV was my first television thing. I did an interview with Rob Halford. And with two, and it was Rob came out to me in the interview. So I was in he was he tells me I mean, the thing is, you're the first person I've ever told this to you or the person. And he told me

Chuck Shute: 44:03

Did you know before though, or no,

Paul Gargano: 44:05

I didn't know before? I mean, no. Look, we can all people,

Chuck Shute: 44:07

how can you keep that a secret in the music business?

Paul Gargano: 44:10

Well, so here's what happened though. There was no internet at the time. So it wasn't like Rob had to worry about me going and jumping on telling TMZ that so and so that Rob Helford is gay. Rob, basically. And here's exactly how it happened. We were doing the roundup questions at the end, we finished the interview. And we're doing the roundup questions at the end of the interview. And one of the questions was if you could sleep with any celebrity, who would it be? And Rob said, how we without missing a beat I read the question I go, if you could sleep with any celebrity, who would it be? And Rob goes,"Howie Long." And I just and I just kind of I write down Howie Long....... He goes Yes. You can see I'm going to tell you something I've never told anyone ever before and I go What's that? He goes I'm a gay man, Paul. And I was just, I just kind of like looked at him like, he goes, I've never told that before. And he goes, it feels really good to get to say that. And I was just like, wow. He looked at me. He goes, What do you think of that? I'm like, Well, good for you Why? And he was in Rob said to me, he goes, "I really like, the way you responded when I told you... do you want to come to MTV with me? Because they're gonna ask, they're gonna want some opinion. I'm about to go on MTV and come out. And he goes, do you want to come to MTV with me?" And I was like.... yeah, I'll do an MTV.. with you. And I went to MTV, and MTV interviewed me about what it meant to metal that Rob Helford was gay. So that was the first thing I ever did. MTV, and MTV parlayed into VH. One because my girlfriend at the time was working on music. And so what did it mean to metal? They're just like, you Oh, we should have my my boyfriend's had a metal edge we should have him on. And that literally just pretty soon I was doing everything for VH. One.

Chuck Shute: 46:01

But going back to the ROB Halford... thing, what did it mean to metal didn't mean anything at the time, or I mean, now it's like if someone comes out, nobody cares. Was it a big deal back then?

Paul Gargano: 46:11

I didn't. I don't think it was. And I think I honestly think someone like Rob was the perfect person to do it. Because it he was so big. And when you look at it, when it happens, you look at it, you go that's really not that when you start looking at the videos, you go, Okay, I'm not completely

Chuck Shute: 46:30

assless chaps and leather

Paul Gargano: 46:33

had a different impact. It might have had a different connotation if it wasn't the singer of Judas Priest, but because he's so iconic and so big. It put him in it, nobody was going to criticize it.

Chuck Shute: 46:45

Well, yeah. And Judas Priest wasn't like a wimpy, there wasn't like a Poison or Enuff Z'Nuff or one of the more lighter poppier hair bands. I mean, just this was hard

Paul Gargano: 46:55

if somebody with big poofy hair if somebody with big poofy hair came out first. Yeah, that could have been a completely different narrative, because all of a sudden, it would have become, it could have become more of a joke. Then a real storyline, but because it was Rob Helford, and because he was the definition of metal, he was the metal. Right? Well, it really what impact can it have? You know?

Chuck Shute: 47:18

Yeah, so you did the VH. One stuff, and then eventually, you start

Paul Gargano: 47:22

having each one I did a lot with VHDL. After

Chuck Shute: 47:25

Yeah,

Paul Gargano: 47:26

maybe you can send me a basically any behind the music that had to do with a rock band I was on. Yeah, VH one actually offered me the VH. One classic. There was a network called VH. One classic. Yeah. And they actually offered me that the role of being the face of eh, one classic.

Chuck Shute: 47:43

And you turned it down, right?

Paul Gargano: 47:44

I turned it down. I was moving to LA at the time. And it was just they wouldn't let me do it from LA, they didn't want a situation where I had to fly back and forth. Because I was a huge expense. And I you know, there wasn't a ton of money in bH one. I mean, it was I was getting paid, but I wasn't getting paid a lot. Um, and it was basically a situation where if I wanted to do the VH, one classic thing, I had to stay in New York. And at that point, I was over in New York, and I wanted to be in LA.

Chuck Shute: 48:09

Okay, so that is this one, you start managing bands.

Paul Gargano: 48:13

Yeah, so I moved to LA, I was I took metal edge with me to Los Angeles. So at this point, metal had shifted into the same. I became Jerry in Los Angeles, because I was running the magazine from Los Angeles, but I had an assistant editor in New York. And the title changed. It wasn't managing editor, it was assistant editor. Okay. It's an editor in New York doing all the day to day functions there. But I still did most of like a lot of the stuff I still did. Like, I did billing for Jerry. And I still did all the billing myself. I'm just I'm kind of a control freak in that way. So I still did most of the stuff, which is why I don't believe the person was a managing editor. I think the title was assistant editor below me. But um, the Yeah, that was that was in LA and then I was in LA for a couple months in first band. Jolla stay from the beautiful creatures. Yeah. Joe called me and asked me if I wanted to go to lunch, when I was like, Yeah, sure. Because I had been writing about Beautiful Creatures a lot and metal edge. And he basically, we were at a diner in the valley. And he basically said, I know this is gonna sound crazy. I know you don't do this, but would you want to manage Beautiful Creatures? And I was like, Well, I don't I really don't know how to manage and Joe's like, you do know how to manage. He goes, you've taught you know more about music than most people do. And he goes, what you don't know, you'll learn. But he goes, you know, we need someone who's passionate about us and who understands it. And you know, he started citing me all these cases of like, journalists who became managers and I was just like, Yeah, let's do it. And that was so beautiful creatures was the first band I've managed. That was um, I think 2001 it was 2001

Chuck Shute: 49:58

a long time.

Paul Gargano: 49:59

I just thought To the bass player this morning about the 20th anniversary of the album. Oh, cool. It's 20 years. Yeah, so yeah, so that was the first band I was 20 years ago. And I've always since then I've always managed at least one band. I usually had to whatever job I had, I was managing on the side. And then about probably five years ago, I went full time management. So I'm I'm working with like, now I have seven or eight bands.

Chuck Shute: 50:24

Yes, you have Drowning Pool, hurricane. Jason Charles Miller, and then a few other ones. Yep.

Paul Gargano: 50:31

Yeah. So Drowning Pool. I had a couple I worked a couple like I worked at a record label. I worked essentially media, I did a bunch of things I always managed on the side. When I went full time management Drowning Pool was the first full time I went full time management, I signed drowning with Drowning Pool. And I've been with Drowning Pool for I think about five years now. Jason, I've been managing literally. I want to say 15 to 12 years. 15 years I've been with Jason Jason is the one I've been with the longest uninterrupted The only time Jason and I had been interrupted was I had eye surgery and I literally couldn't work for two years. So Jason had another manager for those two years. But when I came back Jason and I reunited, but um Jason Jason I've worked with the longest we are Drowning Pool has been like five years. They're the second longest and then I've got hurricane new band called breaking the sequence, which is David from corn.

Unknown: 51:28

Oh, man. Okay. antastic

Paul Gargano: 51:30

Yeah. Check that out. Yeah, there's gonna be by the time this comes out, there'll be a new video coming out.

Chuck Shute: 51:36

Oh, okay. Yeah, there's

Paul Gargano: 51:38

we're gonna have a video from midlife. They did a cover of midlife crisis. If it

Chuck Shute: 51:42

is no more. I love that song.

Paul Gargano: 51:43

Really good. So the music's up now they have an EP out now. And the video will be out second week, probably second week in February. Then I have a girl called Denzil Double D d, d, e n d y L. She's a lot more. She's She's actually one of the full time singer. She's got a full time job in Vegas. She plays an aria. She's She's a lot more than that. l king in that range, like much more singer songwriter, bluesy voice fantastic.

Chuck Shute: 52:15

She's still performing now during the

Paul Gargano: 52:17

pendency. She went back. I think in Fall she went back. Yeah, when Vegas opened up, she went back I She's literally one of the only full time employee performance right now. Oh,

Chuck Shute: 52:27

I have to go check it. I'm going to Vegas this weekend. So I'll check that

Paul Gargano: 52:29

out. Every night at Aria.

Chuck Shute: 52:32

Okay. Awesome. You know, we talk about metal edge. And we talk about you know, a lot of people always hear that saying like, Oh, they got lumped into that genre of the hair bands. And if you had to pick one band for that statement, that was true. That was they were unfairly categorized as a hair band that maybe wasn't a hair band. Like I mean, I've interviewed a junkyard yesterday. tortora enough's enough, like Tesla, bang Tango, Skid Row. Do you think any of those is there one that stand out to you as not a hair band that got lumped into that?

Paul Gargano: 53:01

Is there any band that I think got lumped into that

Chuck Shute: 53:04

the hairband genre that maybe unfairly because you always hear that like, Oh, you guys got lumped into the hairband genre, Eddie trunk,

Paul Gargano: 53:12

and I have this very much in common. I hate the name hairband. Right? So if that's if that is the definition, I think every band got unfairly lumped into hair bands because I think it's completely I think it's not a fair representation. All these bands, whether you're talking and if I look awkward, more awkward than usual right now it's because I'm wrestling a dog on my lap. clarify what's going on on my lap right now. Yeah, um, but the I really I hate the fact that they get defined by the way they looked. And I really, I'm, I'm a huge, huge, huge whenever this comes up, the first band that always pops into my head, and I'll champion this band forever is warrant I think more of them. They probably if you asked me to name one, I would probably go to warrant because I think they're, they are the most underrated band of that era. And no matter how much anybody likes them,

Chuck Shute: 54:13

they're still underrated. And Jamie lane, especially as a songwriter Janie

Paul Gargano: 54:18

Janie was a genius. is a genius. That bands just today, they're fantastic. I mean, they're new. Like they're just, they've really they've maintained they've, they've just been through so they've persevered through so much. That said, I don't want to slight any other band from that era, because I just, I think by calling them hairbands, you're just belittling the fact that they wrote music that has lasted longer than so many other bands could ever even dream of. I mean, you know, take advantage take advantage like hurricane, they kind of they might even get a little bit before the hairband thing became huge. However, you know, this is a band a lot of people haven't really heard of but everybody But everybody knows the big hit. You know? I mean, everybody look at all of the bands from that era. Anybody that had a single those singles have persevered. Mm hmm. And you know, you know I'm on to you with Hurricane um, you know Tora, Tora just came up earlier in conversation, you know, like walking shoes. These guys

Chuck Shute: 55:18

love that song. Yeah, yeah, these guys

Paul Gargano: 55:20

wrote great songs. And the reason why we are all still passionate about that music 25 years later, isn't because they had great hair. We're passionate about music. guys wrote amazing songs. And, you know, the reality is every artist that's what they strive for, you know that that's your lasting legacy. And this, to have it be something and I understand you know, hair nation, it is what it is. It's a nice snappy name, but to really to take it to trivialize it down to the way they look to me. It's just a miscarriage of justice for all those bands. And I'll let I'll make Warren I'll always make Warren my poster boy for that because I feel like they got a worse rap than everybody else. But I really think every band every band deserves recognition because they just man, they created a scene and that scene has survived and that scene has lasted arguably more than any other scene out there.

Chuck Shute: 56:15

Absolutely. Yeah, no, it's a long time. So one of the bands Skid Row probably my number one favorite band when I was in high school, and Sebastian Bach love him now you're friends with him. But did you guys have some sort of TIFF or something? He got mad at you?

Paul Gargano: 56:29

He gets mad at everybody. He got mad at me It's all in the past now it's

Chuck Shute: 56:36

so he gets mad but he gets over it quick.

Paul Gargano: 56:38

I don't know about getting over it quick. I mean that that thing he got over it. I mean, somebody a friend of ours like put us in the same room a mutual friend put us in the same room and was like you guys got to go. And again I was it was ugly for it was ugly for a bit. It was right around 911 it was right around Oh. But a couple years later it got that got the we have no we have no beef now.

Chuck Shute: 57:01

I thought he said something like he's you said something he smashed. Yeah,

Paul Gargano: 57:04

he got mad at me online a couple months ago because I retweeted something from metal metal sludge. And he's he's suspended me for a month from his timeline because I support metal sludge. But

Chuck Shute: 57:17

so you guys are back together now, though. Your friends?

Paul Gargano: 57:20

Friends, okay. We're all like,

Chuck Shute: 57:24

Yeah, okay. Was that the thing about you defended Great White before doing a show in North Dakota, because you're a manager. And you know, you work with these artists and you understand that they're just trying to eat and they're not making the rules of whether you can do shows, you can't do shows. So you kind of set up for the band, because people are comparing them doing a show during the pandemic as them, you know, with the fire epidemic. And so you're saying no, this is not the same?

Paul Gargano: 57:51

I think it was and I could be wrong. I think it was rolling stone that did it. They basically ran a headline comparing Great White playing wherever they played was like the Montana, the Dakotas, somewhere up in North Dakota, I think, North Dakota, okay. So like somewhere in East Jesus United States. You know what I mean? It was just like, they literally, they ran a headline, comparing them playing this outdoor show, two, playing in the club in lighting a fire and killing people. And it was literally the most irresponsible journalism I think I've seen ever. I mean, it was just it infuriated me and made me angry. I mean, first of all, you don't make light of what happened at the at the, that when the when they had the fire. That's not something that even that should not even be something you're making headlines over at this point. Second of all, there was there was a lot of hypocrisy with how COVID was being handled at the time. And there's still hypocrisy with how COVID is being handled. The reality is the numbers, there was no reason they shouldn't have been allowed to play that show. The numbers didn't reflect that there was even a COVID problem there. And they didn't break any local statutes. So why are you mad at them? Meanwhile, bands are playing shows every day across the country, and you're picking on Great White and it was just it was I thought it was a cheap, cheap headline. It was a cheap way to get clickbait. And it infuriated me. And you know if Sebastian wants to get mad at me because I'm defending an artist, right to make a living then that's Sebastian's prerogative. But at the end of the day, that's it's about that it's about you know, there was there was a lot of hypocrisy in what was getting shut down and what wasn't getting shut down. And I live in California and our our local governments that joke I mean, it's an absolute joke, what you're allowed to do and not do here. And, you know, and again, I'm getting I'm not getting political. This is not it's not a political statement. But statistically, there is absolutely no reason why we should be open now, but weren't opened a month and a half ago. But, you know, the minute Biden gets in office, Gavin Newsom says, alright, I'm opening the state back up. Well, the numbers that you use to shut us down, haven't changed enough to justify this. So basically, you've kept us shut down for political reasons for four months. And it's a joke. And that's what that was what was happening all around the country at that point.

Unknown: 1:00:19

Yeah,

Paul Gargano: 1:00:20

we've been shut down in California. And our numbers are worse than Texas and Florida, where they haven't been shut down. So maybe we're not doing something right here. And maybe the answer isn't lock everybody in their houses. And that was basically what my point, my point was, in regards to that show with great white, you know, that local jurisdiction, the local government there didn't determine that they needed to pose restriction restrictions on people in Great White went play to show they didn't do anything wrong. Don't get mad at Great. Well, yeah,

Chuck Shute: 1:00:51

it wasn't their fault. If you

Paul Gargano: 1:00:52

want to get mad at somebody get mad at the local government in North Dakota, it allowed it Yeah, exactly. There was no reason for them to say not to have a show, because they only they only had like, 10 COVID cases. And it's like the state or what that point was, I don't remember right now. So there's a while the numbers were absurd. I mean, they were absurdly low. Okay. And that's, there was no reason to get medically white for that. And that just, you know, it was a hot button topic at the time. And as someone who as someone who manages bands, and as some of you know, my wife works at a booking agency, and lives are impacted by this at such a level that people can't even begin to comprehend when it comes to music. I mean, everybody just assumes, oh, bands are all rich. Well, a lot of them wrongfully put the impression out that they are because they think that's what they're supposed to do at rock stars as rock stars. But, you know, people's lives have been turned upside down. In every walk of life in the music industry is no different. And, you know, bands, people have to pivot and people have to figure out how they're going to make a living. People have to figure out how they're going to feed their babies and feed their families and pay their rent and everything. And, you know, there isn't government help, there wasn't government help for bands, and there's very specific, they could say, Oh, yes, the government, they made that exception. So you're getting because your, um, your freelance work, you get covered. Now, all you don't get covered. If your business is set up as an LLC, not a not an S corp, or this letter, there's all these rules people don't understand. And a lot of bands were screwed by this. And if a band can go out and play a show, in a place where it was safe to play a show, they should be allowed to go out and play the show, because that's how they have to make a living. And that was my point with great white, you know, don't don't pretend to understand things you don't understand. And that's what people people were doing.

Chuck Shute: 1:02:46

Well, hopefully things are getting better with that. Another thing that you did this is kind of cool, though, you you you kind of did like a press release or I don't even know what you call it. And you showed your support for Jeff Tate when queens right fired him You said I want to I'm on team, Jeff Tate, because then firing him is going to hurt the band and it's gonna water down their cut at the band.

Paul Gargano: 1:03:08

Not that was not a press release. That was a statement

Chuck Shute: 1:03:13

or something. What do you call it?

Paul Gargano: 1:03:14

That was actually a deposition for court.

Chuck Shute: 1:03:17

Okay,

Unknown: 1:03:18

so here's

Chuck Shute: 1:03:19

a little stronger, I guess.

Paul Gargano: 1:03:20

But there's there's so much more to this story. Um, and that. I mean, up until about less than a year ago, that would have been I I cared more about what happened with queens right than I did anything with Jerry Miller. But I've actually had a chance to talk to all the guy talk to all the guys in the band and the mega cruise and kind of cleared the air as much as it's ever gonna get cleared. But here's what basically happened with that to make a long story as short as I can. So I worked at Sentry media at the time, I was the label manager. I was the North American label manager for insideout music which is a prog rock label under Century Media. I signed Jeff Tate as a solo artist to the label. Okay, okay. I have a queensryche tattoo there my one of my favorite bands of all time, I love them. I love the band's like I'm, I'm a I can nerd out with anybody about queens right for as long as they want. I am.

Chuck Shute: 1:04:19

So when you sign him.

Paul Gargano: 1:04:21

I know more about theirs. Jeff has joked that I know more about the band than he does. So it's just

Chuck Shute: 1:04:27

so weird. But when you signed him as a solo artist, he was still in Queens, right?

Paul Gargano: 1:04:31

Yes. So what happened? I'm a huge huge fan. And I knew Jeff was I knew Jeff was doing a solo record and I signed that in the hope was we would get queens right over to Century Media. Hmm, that was the hope was the hope was we do Jeff is this let him put out his solo record. It's not going to sound like queens right. And being the fan that I am and being as close I used to be a lot closer to the band. I got closer with Jeff knowing the district abruption that a lot of Jeff's musical detours have on fans and stuff, what my recommendation was, you know, put it out in this prog rock label where you could do whatever you want. And it's not affiliated with queens Drake as much. And then you can still keep queens right for queens, right? We had, Jeff loved the idea Jeff signed with inside out. The hope was we would then do queensryche through Century Media. Jeff, hit me up after that famous show where he got in a fistfight on stage with Scott, and told me we had a problem. And he told me what went down. And I knew there had been issues in the band, it wasn't like, because quite frankly, I knew there were issues in the band from the band's perspective. Um, as much as I knew it from Jeff. So when that thing all went down, Jeff was under are already under my umbrella as a solo artist, because it was inside out. So my thing at the time was, you guys need to get your queens Reich house in order before this becomes a joke, because what you don't want is like, you know, three different versions of Queens. You know, there's two different versions of La guns, two different versions, a rat,

Chuck Shute: 1:06:10

right? Yeah, no, we don't want that.

Paul Gargano: 1:06:12

You don't want to go down that road? Like, it's just all that does is, cheapen the brand and cheapen the legacy and ultimately, get your shit together. Now figure it out. And don't let this become Jeff Tate's queens, right? And everybody else's queens, right. And it's just nobody needs that. And honestly, I said, you guys have always been, regardless of what was happening behind the scenes for years that most people didn't know about. You guys were always above that publicly, like queens, right? We're always better than that publicly. And that was the thing for me as as the ultimate nerdy queens right fans, yeah. Honestly, who loves Michael Wilton, just as much as I love Jeff tape. The hardest thing for me was to turn around and see Michael Wilton and Jeff Tate, like tearing the band apart. And in the present in the process, creating themselves because nobody ever wins. The only people that win are the lawyers. You know, the only people that win in cases like that are the lawyers, they're getting paid$700 an hour. And they're just keep billing and billing and billing. Yes. The next thing you know, you know, once somebody does when they play their next year's worth of shows just to pay off legal bills. And it's the whole thing. I knew exactly where it was going to go. And I was right, it went exactly where I predicted it would go if they didn't mediate it. beforehand. Jeff asked me so what happened was you had Jeff Tate doing his thing. And then you had I can't remember what the name was, but the Queensland guys had a new band with Todd. rising, rising something was there a dragon in the title? rising force? Okay, another momsteam. They were they had a name for a band. Okay. Something something was the name of the band. And I can't remember off the top of my head. Um,

Chuck Shute: 1:07:57

Google it.

Paul Gargano: 1:07:59

Google it. But but so they had a sideband and Jeff at a site and then they were going to use the name queens Reich, Jeff filed an injunction against them, saying they shouldn't be able to use the name queens Reich in he shouldn't be able to use the name queens, right. So the injunction that was placed was rising

Chuck Shute: 1:08:18

arrests. Was that the name of

Paul Gargano: 1:08:19

rising West? That's what it was? Yes. All right. So Jeff, they wanted to change from rising west to Queens Reich just filed an injunction saying that nobody, including Jeff should be allowed to use the Queen's Reich name, until it is worked out in court are worked out legally, as to who has ownership of the name. Okay. Now, that gets into a whole nother ball of wax, who actually has ownership of the name and who can do so. My deposition, Jeff asked me to make a deposition now, I was the label manager for the record label, Jeff was signed to as a solo artist, Jeff and I very close. I said, I would be more than happy to give a deposition. My deposition did not say and this is like, where everything got really muddy with me in the band, my deposition I never said and if you go back and read, I write for a living. I know what I know how to write. I never said Jeff is right. queensryche wrong. What I said was, nobody should be allowed to use the name until only one person can use it properly. Because you don't want your band to go down the same road of rat in LA guns and these other bands where it's just it's a public joke about which version of the band is it? I don't know. It's a headache. You know, like it for sure. for booking agents. It's a pain in the ass for managers. It's a pain in the ass for band members. It's a pain in the ass for everybody. My deposition stated nobody should be allowed to use the name.

Chuck Shute: 1:09:48

Fair enough. We

Paul Gargano: 1:09:48

guys interpreted that as me saying they shouldn't be allowed to make a living as queens right. And I became like, all of a sudden I became like, persona non grata in the queensryche world. And Jeff Tate's best friend, and that's it. And all I care about is what's good for Jeff or not good for everybody else. And it got that that got just as ugly as the stuff with Jerry queensryche ended up signing with Century Media, I was sitting in on marketing meetings, helping market the band against Jeff, in marketing meetings, I would be sitting in a marketing meeting going, this is how we present queens right now. So that they don't identify as the band that and I was like, I was literally putting marketing campaigns together. And when they played LA, they said they wouldn't take the stage if I was allowed in the venue. Like, even though I worked at the label, like it was like, it was hideously bad.

Chuck Shute: 1:10:44

So you guys all made up, though.

Paul Gargano: 1:10:45

We all made I went, I went on. I went on, um, mega cruise that they were playing on. And I saw them. That was the first time I'd seen them with Todd. And I was blown away by how good Todd is. I mean, Todd's fantastic. I was blown away. And I Todd was the first person I actually went up to and I talked to, and I just, I introduced myself to him. And he, he relatively quickly realized who I was in the whole scheme of Queens, right folklore, and he was like, Oh, you and I should talk. And I'm, like, he and I, like, ran into a corner of the cruise ship and talked for a while. And I was like, God, I feel horrible. Because I was never anti Queen's Reich or pro Jeff. I just, honestly, I didn't want there to be. And I'm like, Look, I'll be your biggest supporter moving forward. You're fantastic. Yeah. Both of you. And you know, what Jeff's doing isn't interfering with quote, unquote, classic queensryche. Anyway, like, it was this whole, we had a conversation, everything was great. And he goes, You should talk to everybody. So I like you know, throughout the course of the cruise. Talk to Eddie talk to whip. And yeah, I don't think I don't think either one of them are ever going to. We're never going to be as close as we once might have been. But um, it's I, the thing that means the most to me, honestly, is that Todd latorre at least knows that I champion at him and I'm happy that he's really doing justice to the Queen's Reich name. And I will always, you know, I love what he was. I mean, I was I was closer with Mike than I ever was with Jeff when it started. So that was always just kind of like tragic to me that that friendship fell by the wayside. And, you know, it'll, it'll never be what it was, but at least I'm at least I made peace with them. And we're not a we're not mortal enemies anymore. Yeah.

Chuck Shute: 1:12:33

So is that weird sometimes when you get involved with these bands that you're a fan of, and then you kind of have to, like sometimes I guess you piss them off even like if you have to write something that's negative about them. Or

Paul Gargano: 1:12:44

I wrote a one of my favorite bands is Megadeth. And I wrote, I wrote a album review for risk. And it wasn't the best album review on the planet. And Dave Mustaine got offended. I mean, he was just like, wow. And when I filmed the footage for the Behind the Music for Megadeth. Dave was nervous. I mean, Dave, Dave was really genuinely concerned that I was going to be highly critical of Megadeth. And he didn't know. And it was, you know, he came up to me afterwards, when he watched all the footage, and he was like, man, um, I didn't realize you were that big a fan of the band. And that kind of changes the whole perspective that everything you said about risk was even written in. So it is difficult. It's because I'm a fan first. And that's the thing I wasn't I didn't become a journalist to be a journalist, I became a journalist. I became a music journalist, because I was a fan and someone and I got pulled into the world.

Chuck Shute: 1:13:37

Sure.

Paul Gargano: 1:13:38

Oh, so um, it's, for me. It's about finding that balance between you know, I'll never write an album review as an obnoxious critic. Like, you know, I was, I've been published in Rolling Stone before but that's not my that's not where I want to be. That's not my world. You know, it's, I'm not that sarcastic guy that wants to someone just shared a headline with me earlier today about someone called the new Foo Fighters record music to listen to on your bathroom breaks. It's like why, like, why? If you're that bitter, why do you want to be writing about me? Like go find something else to do? Like if your life is that empty, that you have to literally take joy out of joy? Like why do you do what you do? And that's I always looked at it that way. Like so if I'm approaching a Metallica record, which is Metallica is a lightning rod for me and a lot of my friends because I said they're a polarizing band for me. Um, you know, I feel like I'm entitled to look at load and reload. Whether it was at the time or historically now with 2020 vision. I'm entitled to look at those however, I want to look at those albums as a fan. Absolutely. Alongside Master of Puppets ride the lightning kill them all and justice for all. And we're saying anger. Yeah, if I want to say as a fan, that Metallica are two different bands and the fulcrum made the switch was the Black Album. I'm entitled to say that as a fan, there's a big difference between as a fan having an opinion and as a journalist being a douchebag absolutely,

Chuck Shute: 1:15:10

totally. I agree. That's exactly right. Well, we

Paul Gargano: 1:15:12

tried to balance that very, very well. And you know, I will always be a huge Metallica fan. You know, I liked Death Magnetic. I didn't love it as much as other people do. Because I would rather go back and listen to some of the old stuff. Um, but again, just my opinion, my opinion isn't gold. My opinion is just my opinion. I actually like saying I liked St. Anger more than most people like stained anger. Yeah, I feel like I would love to. I would love to talk to like Lars in particular because I think Lars is the one that will go off the cuff the most like Lars. I would love to talk to him about what they were trying to do with say anger because I don't feel like that conversations ever been had because I feel like what they were trying to do it missed it execution but I feel like the concept was there like in my head I imagined they were trying to do this like dialed back version like down did with down to the second down record. And there's no reason to think that is impossible, because Metallica were huge CFC fans. And that was that that like that movement was happening in metal at the time and I really like that staining record was supposed to go but it just missed on execution.

Chuck Shute: 1:16:27

So I have a couple of music teacher buddies and they but oddly they both say that's the best metallic The only metallic album they like, which is like really bizarre to me. So I know some people really like it. Now are you a fan of the black moods? I thought I saw you post a picture that was like that's so cool.

Paul Gargano: 1:16:42

I used to manage the black moods so you

Chuck Shute: 1:16:43

did I didn't know that Yeah, cuz they're local here to Phoenix and so I was a big fan. And I had him on my show and everything and now they're getting some national exposure which is amazing. So that's cool. So did you live in Arizona that or how did you manage that?

Paul Gargano: 1:16:57

Didn't know what happened was interesting. So when I worked at streetsmart management I mentioned before I had I had a really bad eye surgery years I couldn't I couldn't move for nine months. Like when I when people you mentioned I disappeared I decided I literally had to disappear I disappeared for two years now. My wife and I made the conscious decision not to like I I drew off I had to draw off social media because I couldn't even use my I couldn't see but um I want to

Chuck Shute: 1:17:30

know what happened with the was this like a

Paul Gargano: 1:17:32

genetic thing or just a detached retina is a really common people detached retinas all I know that my retina didn't just detach, it's this eye. It literally fell completely off my eyes. So I had a full detachment I had no retina left is basically what happened. And if you don't have a retina, you can't see

Chuck Shute: 1:17:49

okay,

Paul Gargano: 1:17:50

so they went into surgery and they basically reattach the rewrap the retina all around my eye and had to like I for nine months, I couldn't move my head at all, because the retina had to re heal. Oh, and it was crazy. It was like I would go to the doctor once every week. And he would go Okay, you're at 6% healed. You're at 8% healed you're at and I literally I had to sleep sitting up for nine months. Oh, like, I would have pillows like this. And I this is how I sat for nine months. But it was on my couch. But yeah, it was for nine months. Horrible. Um, there was a question as to whether I would ever see again. Bye, bye like miracle of miracles. I have perfect vision. Well, that's great. I've had five eye surgeries in the last six years. And I have perfect vision in both eyes. Yeah. So it's my eye doctor is literally my favorite person on the planet sounds like it for him to so many people. Sounds amazing.

Chuck Shute: 1:18:46

So anyways, yeah, the black moon zone out of that

Paul Gargano: 1:18:49

when I came out of the eye surgery and was ready to start working again. I'm the the former president at Century Media, who was also the head of streetsmart management said to me, I've got this band I want you to check out. And I was just like, based on a lot of the stuff that he signed, essentially media, I just assumed I was gonna hate the band. And their name was the black moods. And I just assumed they were going to be some like emo core bands over haircuts and stuff. I don't like it. It was funny because I was like, Yeah, whatever. And I never listened. And he basically calls me after a couple weeks of me ignoring his request to listen to this band. He goes, Hey, I'm, I'm dropping the band at the end of the day. The only way I won't drop them as if you call them and say you want me to you want to manage them. And I was just like, he's like, I can't I can't do it. We don't have they don't have a manager. I can't put the record I'm dropping the band. If you don't take this band. He goes so it's on you now if you want the band dropped, don't listen to the record, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I was just like, man, why are you making me feel guilty? And I literally I went I played the record. Loved it. I was like, holy shit. It was really funny. Like, I told the band about this and they laugh. But it's Yeah, that was I loved it The minute I heard it, was

Chuck Shute: 1:20:08

it the first record or medicine? It was medicine. Okay. I love them both. I mean, and the new one to sunshine. What became medicine? Okay. Yeah. Medicine. Yeah, no, I love that album.

Paul Gargano: 1:20:18

It was the it was the songs that would become medicine. And I'd never seen the band live. They are.

Chuck Shute: 1:20:25

They're amazing live. I've seen many times.

Paul Gargano: 1:20:28

Yeah, so I sight unseen just hearing the hearing what would become medicine. I was like, man, I love this band. And God. I literally, I literally was blown away The first time I saw him live. I mean, Josh is, Josh is a rockstar Josh is he's just one of those guys who lights up a room. Just so magnetic, such a magnetic personality. Such just such a great talent. Um, they were they were literally God. I mean, I I love him. I love him to this day, we don't work together anymore. And I still love them.

Chuck Shute: 1:21:05

So ya

Paul Gargano: 1:21:06

know that when you stop working with a band, and you still love them, that tells you a lot about the band. But

Chuck Shute: 1:21:11

yeah, so is there any other bands that like you You love interviewing? Like, you just would always like, Oh, God, not this band again. Is there one that's difficult to interview or hardest one?

Paul Gargano: 1:21:22

No, no, I'm at the point. Now, as you can tell, by just listening to me and talking to me. I could talk to anybody. Like I could, you could literally put me in a room with a total stranger. I could do an interview with anybody with no preparation. It's just it's, it's, um, so I'm past that point. I'm past that point. Dogs about to go berserk again. I'm past that point of like being intimidated.

Chuck Shute: 1:21:47

So is there a favorite band that you have to interview? One that you really like?

Unknown: 1:21:52

I'll be honest, I've

Paul Gargano: 1:21:53

always one of the reasons I became close with Jeff, as I did was because I always feel like when I interviewed Jeff, we always go to a plate. We always Jeff's like the perfect example. When you talk about how you like how I interview, you always end up going to a place you never thought you'd go to like, like I could start an interview with Jeff, where I'm talking about a new new album, and 20 minutes we're talking about, like Brexit, you know what I mean? Or we're talking about that we're talking about, we're talking about how we accumulating stuff. Like one of my favorite conversations I ever had with Jeff was about accumulating stuff and how we spend our whole life just it was almost like a Seinfeld episode. I mean, it was just funny, Jeff, I really appreciate that about Jeff. And that's one of the things Jeff Jeff was always I think that's one of the most misunderstood things about Jeff Tate was that they, I mean, people just, they confuse an intellectual ism for aloofness. And I think one of the things that Jeff and I bonded over relatively quickly, was the fact that both of us, you know, it's we're multifaceted. And we want to talk about more than just, you know, the inspiration for a song. And sometimes the inspiration for a song is more than just the chord progression or a single lyric. It's like, it's a bigger picture thing. And you know, just like you and I starting this conversation, talking about, you know, talking politics or going talking about COVID music, music is for all of us, music is the soundtrack of our life. I mean, music, music is we can't have life without music. You know, my wife and I are watching Ted Lascaux now. And there's a soccer player in it just runs around and he goes football, his life football, his life, he's bringing in football, his life. And for a lot of us, the guy cracks me up, but that's what we're like with music. I mean, music is our life. And, you know, I wouldn't know. I wouldn't know what life is if I wasn't, didn't have music around me if I couldn't walk in and have the Amazon girl whose name I can't say or she'll start doing what I say. Like I can walk into a room and tell her to play any song I want at any moment in time in every room in my house. And it's you know, that's amazing. And I don't know what it would be like, you know, the only reason musics not on now is because I'm talking to you. The second I get off the phone with you. I'm turning music on. And its music is such an integral part of our life. It's impossible not to tie it to every aspect of our life. And one of the great things about Jeff is that the two of us when we talk, we always find a way of connecting music to something that you would never think music connects to her. And that to me is interesting. Another person like that is Maynard Keenan.

Chuck Shute: 1:24:36

Oh, Maynard. I would love to have him on. Yeah, I've

Paul Gargano: 1:24:40

done a couple interviews with him. And he's difficult and he knows he's difficult. And like I went into I went into an interview with him where I was trying to prove that I told him my goal for the interview was to prove that tool. We're a political band. And he was like we're not and by the end of the interview, because I guess we are

Unknown: 1:25:00

going in, like,

Paul Gargano: 1:25:00

those are the fun interviews, you know? Yeah, cuz I can interview anybody about an album. That's easy. It's about it's about being able to dig beneath the surface and find that thing that hasn't been talked about before.

Chuck Shute: 1:25:12

So before we wrap up, you got to tell me about this new project. You have this game the gods of metal. Trace, I write this I'm Ragnarok. I say, right?

Unknown: 1:25:22

Yes.

Chuck Shute: 1:25:23

So tell me about it's got music from the girl from the butcher babies and

Paul Gargano: 1:25:27

I got really lucky during COVID I got a I got called and asked to do a project with Perry Farrell. So I'm in like, a couple months into COVID. I wrote a book with Perry Farrell, so it was like pretty much every day for two months, I went to Perry Farrell's house and we wrote a book that books in his box set that is out now. So if you look up the peripheral box set, the book that comes in it, I wrote with him. And it's a fantastic box set. By the way, I urge anybody that has even a passing interest in Jane's Addiction, or parry porno for Pyros, any of it, it's definitely worth checking out. The I don't even have a physical copy of it yet. I can't wait to see it. But that was so I did that coming out of that I got hit up a company, Jason Miller was working with a company on a on a role playing game. And for those people that don't know role playing games are very similar. It's like Dungeons and Dragons. That's the biggest role playing game is Dungeons and Dragons. Sure. So Jason was working with this company on this role playing game. This is Jason, Jason's in that world. And they wanted they were doing a heavy metal inspired role playing game. So Jason was like, you should really talk to my manager because this is his world, heavy metals, his world. So I got brought in to work on music for this game. And it's again, it's a tabletop game, you play it sitting around a table, you can play it on zoom. What we did, we made a musical accompany and before it so I have a compilation that's going to come out on vinyl. The the game screen for play is the album vinyl so when you unfold the gatefold that's the gameplay screen,

Chuck Shute: 1:27:01

okay,

Paul Gargano: 1:27:02

it sits in front of whoever's running the game. There's also two pieces of vinyl in that and one of the pieces of vinyl is a compilation album with just there's a brand new song from Charlie benante from anthrax, and Carla Harvey from butcher babies, they do a song together. They're doing a brand new song for the game. There's some original music. We have some really cool bands on it on silver tune which is the type of negative guys, Motorhead is on it. Fozzie is on it. We have a previously unheard song from Fonzie that's never been released before armored saying what our thing armored saint is on it. There is a band called icon for hire, who we have a remix from them that's never have never been heard before. And then we're going to announce we have bands that are gonna get announced. That's the first piece of vinyl right now that's in Kickstarter stages. Okay, um, Kickstarter works differently for gaming than it does for the music industry. Kickstarter is kind of like our presale window. Okay, so that's where we're at now, their Kickstarter. Um, after the Kickstarter period, we're gonna roll into a period for like vinyl presale.

Unknown: 1:28:12

All right,

Paul Gargano: 1:28:12

so people should work the vinyl Yeah. But second vinyl is going to be a soundtrack, an instrumental metal soundtrack for the game that you can play in the background while

Unknown: 1:28:23

you play the game.

Chuck Shute: 1:28:23

Okay, sounds fun. So

Paul Gargano: 1:28:25

really, if you go to Gods of metal ragnarok.com that's a landing page I wrote that will kind of explain the game to you a little bit. And then you can go to the Kickstarter page for more about the game I just had before I was on the phone with you today before I got on zoom with you. I had a call where I did a walk through the game that was just it was fantastic. I had like a whole new appreciation for the game now. It's basically you have characters in your first character is the mundane, your mundane world character, they call it mundane. And you're this character with your nine to five job and then you know the gods of metal pull you out of this world and thrust you into this fantasy realm where your job is to, you know, protect them and fight for them and defend the honor of metal. And it's a really, really, really fascinating game. I love it. Just to learn more about the gameplay aspect of it. Cool. I encourage everybody to go check it out. All right.

Chuck Shute: 1:29:18

And then they can also if they follow you on social media, I'm sure you'll post updates about it as well when it comes out. Okay.

Paul Gargano: 1:29:24

on social media I talked about I kind of reemerged on social media. I cranked out around the holidays and I'm back now. All right.

Chuck Shute: 1:29:30

And then do you Is there a charity that you work with or any any charity, you want to give a shout out to here at the end?

Paul Gargano: 1:29:36

The one I always my big one. I'm a huge I'm actually drinking coffee from a Guantanamo Bay coffee mug. I'm a big military, anything to support the military and wounded warriors always jumps out. All right. Yeah,

Chuck Shute: 1:29:50

I've had a few people talk about that one.

Paul Gargano: 1:29:52

It's been a site like that, and I love dogs. I would log on my arm. So like Anything with dogs? Best Friends is huge. Both both the dogs I've rescued have come through best friends, functions. Anything with dogs I'm all about.

Chuck Shute: 1:30:10

Okay, I'll put those both in the notes. Paul, you've had a prolific career with metal edge managing bands. This game. I'm excited to see what the future holds. So I'll definitely be following you on social media. I think everyone else should as well. And thanks for doing this.

Paul Gargano: 1:30:24

This is fantastic. Anytime it looks

Chuck Shute: 1:30:26

alright. Cool. Thanks, Paul. I appreciate it. I'll talk to you later. Okay, bye bye. Thank you to Paul gargano. So many great stories, make sure to follow him on Instagram to keep up with the bands he managed. Plus keep up to date with everything happening with metal edge and the game he has coming out. Follow me on social media to keep up with new episodes and my adventures. And if you want to support the show, you can share the episodes on social media or write me a review on Apple podcasts that will help with the search results so that other people can find the podcast and in turn, that helps us get more listens, which helps the show grow. So thank you for all your support. And here's to another 100 episodes, hopefully 1000 shoot for the moon.