SPEAKER_01 0:34

Welcome to the Better Two Podcast. I'm your host, Donna. Today's guest is Chris Evelyn, and Chris, well, he's a different type of musician than we normally have on the show. He is a touring musician as well as a studio musician, and some would call him a player. A studio player. Or a touring player. It all depends on how you look at it. But he has a different take on the music. And unlike some people, when he got in a band, well, it was because it was his passion. So tune in. Hi Chris, how are you doing today? I'm well. I'm doing good. I am doing good. So you have an interesting story because I've talked to a lot of musicians. I've talked to musicians of all sorts of calibers. I've talked to Lamal. I've talked to somebody from EMF, Ian Dench. So I've talked to some high caliber musicians and I've talked to people that are just starting out. But you have a different history, and I've known players before. You are not only a Tory musician, but a studio musician as well. And that's a different perspective than a lot of other people because you kind of are a gun for higher than.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Yeah, for sure. And the studio part of it is that like that's a humbling moment, your first time going in. You know, when you go record and then you listen back, you're like, well, that's not what it sounded like when I played it live, right? So uh doing the studio work I I have found over the years has really fine-tuned things. And then as well, being uh, you know, being a hired gun and getting to the point where someone calls and says we need someone Friday. Can we send you the set list? You show up, play the gig, and then you meet the band afterwards, right? You're like, hey, nice to meet you at the end. So there's no rehearsals or anything involved. I think learning once a bunch of different um sets and styles and not being, you know, tunnel visual, like I'm only gonna play this style. Uh learning a bunch of different styles just makes us all around better musicians and and easier to step up uh in a last-minute situation to help you know people out or just be available.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Now, does it change if you get hired for a whole tour? I mean, you yeah, I'm sure if you get hired for a whole tour, you have to go to the band's rehearsal, you have to be there for weeks on end, possibly, to rehearse with them and then hit the road with them.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

So it all depends who you're playing with. Like in the past, I I jumped on an East Coast Canada tour with uh with an Elvis tribute, um, and I didn't uh I didn't know the gentleman at the time. Uh so we got together once or twice, I think, just to kind of make sure, like so they were comfortable with my playing level, um and then just getting on the road and doing that. But there's a lot of homework going into that. Like that's not just sure, guys, what song by Elvis do you want to do? Like I had a you know, I had all the the music prepared and charted out prior to that. Um, but if there's people like once you're in the community, as you know, right, you start to know the musicians, if you understand the level of playing. Like there's people I could call today if uh, you know, a few of the bands I played, if we needed a drummer or bass player, say, hey man, here's a set list, you got this, you know, intros and endings we would discuss or any kind of like medley situation. But otherwise, you get to a comfort level of no, no, they're gonna be good. They they do this and they've done enough of them that it it usually works out pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

But I imagine when you were first starting out, you know, and there's two there's a twofold question here because there's the first starting out of when you're playing, when you're learning how to play, that you have these aspirations of you're gonna be in a band and everything else, but then there's also that first time you get hired for a gig. You know, that's gotta be a little intimidating too because are you that then you're kind of auditioning at the same time because if they don't like you, they can get rid of you easily.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

Friend. Yeah, and most musicians, right? We're all kind of like uh you know, our confidence, even you know, the humble ones, the humble ones that show up, right? We all want to be kind of uh uh people to enjoy what they hear us playing. But I've also found you're right, it's very intimidating. And I've been playing live now. I just turned 50. I started playing live when I was 16, I think. So if somebody asked me at 20, hey, we're going on tour, can you just meet us at the first gig Friday night? I would have said absolutely not, right? Because I only had a little bit of shows that I think I'm over 3,000 live shows in now. Uh so the comfort level now is like I almost don't want to get together to rehearse uh and just show up and do it if it's if the level of musicianship's there. But if it's a big show and everybody's, you know, it's a theater show or a soft sea show, you want to make sure it's dialed in and everyone's on the same page. So getting together's no problem. But yeah, it does, it's it's a sliding scale. It changes with the more experience you have, right? And then there's that learning curve when you're involved. Like I'm in a few bands now, some people only have 100, 200 shows, maybe live performance. They still have that mindset of you know what I used to do, and it's a natural thing, there's nothing negative about it. But even some bands, when you talk about, oh, so-and-so can't make it, let's get a sub, we'll get a fill-in on drums. Some people that don't have that experience are like, what do you mean a fill-in? How are we gonna do this without Bill on drums? Right. And you're like, actually, you can you can do it fairly easily with the right players. Uh, but it's very the first time I remember doing the Elvis tour, they said, Hey, just uh just to let you know Buddy Hawley's here tonight, like the tribute. So um, we're gonna do a set of Buddy Hawley. And I was like, Oh, that's great. I'm looking forward to hearing that. And they're like, no, no, no, you got you got to play it. And I was like, time, well, I don't know enough Buddy Hawley to just do it on the spot. But luckily, that band was uh full of solid musicians. There was keys, there was another guitar going on, there was a lot of instrumentation, right? So it wasn't like if you're in an ACDC tribute band, they say start this song and you don't know it. You're kind of out there, you're exposed, people understand you don't know it. That you could kind of blend in a little bit, and they had charts and stuff. So yeah, I enjoy the different variables.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

So when you started, you know, you decided you were gonna learn how to play guitar, how old were you?

SPEAKER_00 6:32

Um I think I was I started at 14, but I think the process started around 12. I was uh I was given a Walkman for my birthday, and my grandfather, who's a piano tuner, so he was a musician, uh, with the coolest name, Dennis C. E. Sharp, right? So he already had music in his name. Yeah, yeah. Um, but he went out that year was 1986 and he bought a cassette. It was the number one album that year, and thank goodness it was uh Van Halen. It was 5150. It could have been anything, and if you look at the top 10, the next nine probably didn't have any guitar in it, right? Uh, maybe Genesis was on there, but I don't know. So I had one tape and I just flipped it back and forth. That's all I had to listen to, and I knew the singing was awesome, the band was awesome. But every time in the middle of the song where Eddie would do a solo, I would just get goosebumps, I would get so excited. And I remember at 11 or 12 years old, if I was listening to my walking way in bed before sleep, I couldn't go to sleep because I was just so amped up from, and I didn't even know it was a guitar. I'd I'd I have to ask my grandfather, what is that? And he said it's electric guitar. And you know, he would look at the guitar magazines of the music. He's never heard of Van Halen song in his life, and he would just put the sheet music on the piano and play the left-hand guitar stuff and then the right-hand vocal melody like that. Like the timing was on, the feel was there. It was just to be that age and to see that kind of musicianship just off a page into the eyes out of the hands and feel it. It was pretty special for me to be able to grow up and witness that. But I started getting lessons at 14. My parents uh I still remember that birthday card. I said your guitar lessons start uh in in September. Uh on my 14th birthday.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

So were your aspirations to be, you know, Eddie Van Halen, or what made you decide that, you know what, I'd rather just go into the studio and and be a player, a touring musician? What made you make make that transition in your mind? Because I mean when people pick up an instrument, they're not sitting there going, yeah, I'm just gonna go to the studio.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Yeah. I think in the beginning it was just more of I heard what Edward was doing, and uh and it did something to me. I wanted to kind of not be Edward, but I wanted to be able to play, at least somewhat like him, or try to, for that's what inspired it. But what I found I started playing, I wasn't like like I was into sports, I was into a lot of the other things that the kids were at that age, but the guitar I just didn't put down. Like I pick it up and I played it, and then it was one of those things, you know, when your efforts are validated, you're like, hey, I've been going to the gym for three months and I feel good or whatever. It's that so when I would go take lessons and I come back, and the teacher would be like, Oh, you actually learned that. Like, I have some students that don't practice. This is actually you've you've done quite a bit this week. And it just kept going. And then, you know, I don't know if it was maybe my parents or maybe just hey, oh, that's cool, you can play that or whatever. I'm like, Yeah, like, but I never even today, 35 years in, I'm still learning, I'm still opening up doors of theory, I'm still still a lifelong student, still learning stuff, and the passion hasn't gone away. It's a bug when it bites you. You you uh you really you dive in, right? So my initial, I don't know, was just just to learn how to play it. And then absolutely, probably two years later in high school, I have that co-op program. This is where you go out into the workplace or whatever, and I chose a music studio uh in St. Thomas, Ontario called ArtTech Recording Studios. So there I am at 15 or 16 for half of my high school day in a recording studio, and these musicians were coming in and recording stuff, and back then it was all real to reel and the tape machines and everything. So just seeing it and being behind the scenes, and then the one day there was an artist in there, and they asked, they heard me noodling in the in the one room, and they said, Hey, look, we need a solo on a song. You want to try to put something down? And I was like, sure. I had never recorded, I didn't know about multi-layer anything. But we spent the afternoon throwing down some uh some really cool guitar stuff, and they pick and show something, and it ended up being on their album, and I think that was a big, big change in the in the direction of my thinking as well. Okay, this is something I think I really want to do.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

Well, and I you know, just listening to you, normally when we have somebody that that wanted to be a guitarist, there's a couple of reasons they want to join a band. One is girls.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

And it's it's not it's not that it's their passion, but when you talk about it, when you talk about music, when you talk about playing, there is that passion. I mean, I understand the whole I used to take guitar lessons, bass guitar lessons with one of my friends, and she was learning guitar. And I would take 15 minutes of the hour and she would end up with the 45 minutes. And the teacher was like, You must have been practicing a lot. And I'm like, No, it just came, it was easy enough. I I fell into the groove of it. Now, is bass my passion? No. I mean, I enjoyed playing it, yes, but it wasn't my passion, and I admit that now. But I I understand where you're coming from. It's like sometimes when in when I was in the zone at that point, if it came easily, it was part of who I was. And when you are that age and you're trying to create who you want to be, a lot of guys get in bans because they think they're gonna pick up chicks and they're gonna just rule the world. I mean, that's why I wanted to I it wasn't about picking up chicks, but I wanted to be a musician, I wanted to be on MTV. Those were all the wrong damn reasons to be on a musician.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

Yeah, I I can I'll be very, very honestly it had nothing to do with uh, you know, wanting to pick up women at all or girls. It that's something later on as we got playing, you know. I remember the younger 20s, like, hey, we're getting a little bit more attention here than if we just typically went out to a Friday night at a bar. And I've got some stories of meeting people and being like nothing, and then the next day playing there, and then the the reaction was different, right? And that was almost a turn off for who I am as a person. But it's it for me, it definitely was the attraction of uh I started jamming with a guy on drums, it was just the two of us for a while, and we were young, but the energy was there, it was it was addicting, it was like, oh, that's cool. I wanted to do that more. And then when it became three or four people together and it was a band, and there was talks of jumping in a van and driving from city to city, and it wasn't about how much we're gonna, it didn't matter how much we're gonna make, right? Can we get from here to there with gas? Uh, is there gonna be enough uh food, beer, whatever, you know, like at that stage. Um, I was really drawn to I wasn't drawn to like some people have that lead singer kind of thing, right? They want to be seen, they want to be doing whatever. I would have been completely in my mindset back then, being a studio guy, going out doing road work, being fill-in, but almost like you know, Brian Adams is on tour, I'd be in the back line just playing guitar. I don't I didn't need that uh uh validation, yeah, or that center of like, oh, I do nothing like that at all. Like music video is cool, all that stuff. But I think just being able to have uh uh a profession in music, doing something you love, uh, and doing it with conviction and confidence. It was more like that, I believe. Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

Well, that's why I said you still have that passion, and it's like it wasn't it was about music theory, it was about all those things, not the not the fl not the flamboyancy, the glitter of it. Um you said before we got on air that you had a story about Chicago and Body Guy.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

Well, yeah, yeah. So uh my wife and I were both in real estate, so January's like a is it's the slowest month of the year in real estate, right? So uh New Orleans is one of our favorite places to go for the live music, the food. It's my favorite football team. So one time we were flying back from New Orleans to come back to Ottawa, and uh the layover was in Chicago and we got there, and I thought, oh my gosh, like I wonder if Buddy's playing. Because I think I I'm not 100% on this, but uh he usually plays there January to March, I think, and then takes the rest of the year off. I don't I'm not sure if that's correct. But this was in January, so I called, they said yes, Buddy is playing. So then we checked our layover, and it was only like three and a half hours, so it wasn't gonna work. So we get to the Chicago airport, and for some reason the pilot canceled. He called in sick, or he couldn't make it, he couldn't, they couldn't get a backup. So the the airport said, hey guys, we're gonna give you a hotel voucher. You get to stay in Chicago tonight. We're sorry for the inconvenience. I'm like, this is not inconvenient at all. So I called Buddy Guy's Club and uh they said they had four seats left or something. I said, please can I reserve two or pay for him over the phone? Like it's he's one of my favorite blues players ever, right? I'll tell you a really cool Buddy Guy story, too. But, anyways, we we took an Uber, we went there, they said they'd hold us two seats. My wife and I went in. I don't know if you've been to Buddy Guys, but it's like a long strip there. Yeah, it was pretty dark, it was dimmed, but on the wall was all these guitars from Clapton, BB King, uh, David Gilmore, uh all the big, all the big guys. And then there was this light on the table with two chairs, and it's right center stage. I elbowed my wife. I'm like, hey, I wonder if we're that lucky. Like they're sitting right in front of Buddy. That's beautiful, man. I thought we'd be off ditch back in the corner. The waitress walks us up, said, Here you go, here's your table. It's waiting for you. We're like, there was only four seats, or so here we are now, and Buddy guy's right there the whole night. Absolutely incredible. He goes around, shakes everyone's hands, he's uh shakes everybody's hands, signs anything you want at the end of the night, and he talks. But the cool story that I tell people he told me is he was in England once when he was playing with Muddy Waters. And the his road manager, so this would have been in the mid-60s or later 60s, and someone came in and said, Hey, buddy, there's three white guys outside that want to talk to you. And Buddy said, back then, when when three white guys wanted to talk to you, talk to him, it wasn't a good thing. So he's like, Put my guitars in the cases, and you know, he got a little stressed. But he went outside, and it turned out to be like three 16, 17-year-old kids that slept in a van the night before outside the venue because they wanted to talk to him about string gauge, vibrato, uh, gear, all this stuff. So Buddy's telling the story for a long, long time, and then he goes to count in the song and he goes, Oh, by the way, I guess I should tell you. Those three white boys were Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, and Eric Clapton. Wow. So that's how important Buddy was to those three dudes. Then those three guys spawned off the inspiration of the Edwards and all those guys, too, right? So that's kind of where Buddy Guy sits on the on the plank. So getting a chance to go see that and see him front row and and listen to his stories and listen to him playing, it was something special.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

And that's the thing, we don't think about is how one one thing that we do, even if it's not it doesn't seem important to us, we may inspire somebody else. You know, somebody could watch this, there could be a kid watching this and realize that you know what, maybe maybe my love of music needs to be somewhere else. And not so much, let me get up on stage and you know, play the bar and get my fame. Because maybe music needs to be pure and come from your passion.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

Yeah. That's right, that's very well said. And one of the best compliments you can get as a musician is if someone comes up and says, Hey, I really felt that. That to me is not like, oh, that you know, that was a cool thing you did or a nice whatever. When someone says I felt that, what better compliment can you get, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:14

Right. I mean, it's like when I get a compliment when somebody tells me that because I I'm an author, when somebody tells me I couldn't put your book down. That that's one of those moments where it's like, okay, because that's like that's high praise. I mean, I hate to say it, it's high praise because when you think that you've invested that much time writing and they have 300 pages of your book in front of them and they can't put it down, it's like, all right, all right.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

Yeah. So you know what what kind of stuff do you write?

SPEAKER_01 18:40

What's your I write rock star romance and I have my very first book was about a drugged out rock star um who it's kind of his diary. So yeah, I I tend to stay with what I wanted to do with my life and formed it into fiction. But I've known enough I've known enough people in the music industry and that I was in television for a while and stuff, so I have enough of little bits and pieces that I can put together. And I was a dish jackie at one point in my life. I didn't get to meet people or anything. It was a small town, but it was still one of those things where it was like I I was in the industry, so I understand how much it's changed and how much it's gonna continue to change.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

And it's changing on a weekly now. Like it someone said a long time ago there used to be you know hundreds of bands selling millions of albums. Now there's millions of bands selling hundreds of albums. It's even shifted since that. Like I don't even that's a whole another conversation. But uh so you notice like that when you write a book and you release it, it's just like releasing music. You hope people like it. As long as we're good with it, that's all that matters, right? But when it does resonate with someone, it's it's kind of uh your efforts are validated, right? It's a it's a great thing.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

It's your baby. I mean, it it's it's your baby. You put your blood, sweat, soul, passion into it. And that's the one thing that's kind of sad because that's happened to both industries, the music and the book industry of AI. Somebody's putting prompts in, they're not actually creating music, they're put typing in what they want to hear. And and I had somebody I interviewed once, it never made it to air, and she talked about how she could play all these instruments. I'm like, that's impressive. And then when I really started talking to her, she was using a keyboard, but she claimed she could play the drum, she claimed she could play the bass, and I'm like, No, you're a keyboard player. I never said it, I was just kind of like that that's no.

SPEAKER_00 20:33

Yeah. I have a music uh musician friend that sent me a little clip of someone using, I forget the app, forget what it is, it's AI, but it was an acoustic guitar. And this guy's a phenomenal player, but he just played something really bad. He just he played four notes on purpose, really bad, and then told, whatever, create this, make make it drop C tuning. I want heavy vocals on that, huge harmony background. And within 10 seconds, this that little four-note thing that he did into this app created something that would take quite some time sonically to get that in a studio, and uh yeah, that's a whole nother I don't even know.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

It's scary. I mean, I I I feel it's one of those things where it's like I I'm a child of the eight, or I wasn't a child, but I was a teenager of the eighties and I saw war games and I saw uh Terminator, and you know, it's like while this is all fun and games, what is the underlying thing of this? Because we're seeing the robots, we're seeing all this, and it's just kind of like are we headed that way? I hope not.

SPEAKER_00 21:41

That's that's only what we're seeing, and what's out there that we haven't seen, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:45

This is true, this is very true.

SPEAKER_00 21:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

But I'll go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

No, no. I'm just saying with with all that with AI and the recording, I think I think it could be a useful tool as long as you're using your own stuff. But the one thing for now. That I am enjoying with the shift in um you know, like the streaming, people bands are making money because they're not selling albums, all this stuff. It is kind of forcing, you said the 80s, some of my favorite bands are in the 80s. It's almost making them go out and play live again to have that revenue, right? Where before they'd release an album, they'd sell five million copies, they could, you know, take five years off, you know, and then slowly get back together and uh dry out and all that kind of stuff. But now the out playing more and live music is still like it's I'm doing a tribute right now. I'm in a 10-piece ABBA tribute. Um and it's doing theaters and stuff with numbers of seats, that it's uh it's just so great to see people out and enjoying it and you know, not on their screens and not. I have a lot of students that I teach guitar too, right? And they're they're on a lot of video games, like the hours they put into these video games a week. I'm not knocking it, but the the amount of time that they're doing that, if they spent that half of that on an instrument, they'd be some of the best players in town, you know? And um, it's just I don't know, the live music's where it's at right now, not so much the recording, but the recording process is still a lot of fun and releasing it and getting it out there, right? Because we carry a lot of stuff, uh, songs in our heads, it's always there. It's nice to just formulate it, get it out, record it, bring some people in, and then you know, have your little musical baby there and then release it into the world and then move on to the next, right? That way it's not always bagging around inside.

SPEAKER_01 23:28

I mean, that's the one good thing about having not having the gatekeepers we had. Because, yes, if you create something, you can put it out there now and you can let somebody else enjoy your music. Yeah. Where and the same thing with books. I don't have to sit there and get an agent. I don't have to sit there and go to a publishing company. And the funny thing, there's a whole big argument, and I'm sure that that comes true too, as far as music, because there's the argument, well, if you're not traditionally published, then your book is not as good. Which books on traditionally published books can have issues and problems and everything. But the same can be said, well, you know, these new musicians that are releasing songs, they don't understand the concept album. They don't understand. Well, I had a conversation with a younger musician not too long ago about the fact that by today's standards, people would not know how to listen to the wall.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

That would be a it's a lost art. The the the concept record is a lost art, but that doesn't mean it's not going to come around because a lot of the younger generations are starting to say, I don't want screens, I don't want this.

SPEAKER_00 24:29

Yeah. And I hope it keeps swinging. So at least there's a balance. It's there if you want it, right? Yeah. But a lot of my musical friends, they we remember getting the cassettes or the CDs or the vinyl and opening it up, and we would sit there and study where did they record, who recorded it, who was on the album, like that, and then listen to it. These days, a lot of artists are just releasing a song at a time, right? Because people aren't doing the whole album thing. And uh it's yeah, you're right, it is a little bit of a lost art. It's out there for people. I hope they, you know, it's one of my favorite things is listening to an album in the whole entirety, start to finish, you know, as that whole package kind of thing. Like Dream Theater, I'm a huge fan of those guys. And I can't imagine being a fan of them and just listening to one song off the new album and making it judge because usually there's a story behind the whole thing, right? Like it's uh something special.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

Well, I mean, I talked to a publicist that I normally work with. Uh, I got I had the pleasure of interviewing. He doesn't give interviews very often, but I got lucky to get to interview him. And we were talking about the fact how fandom has even changed because of social media. That before, you know, you I don't know that you'll ever have another Marilyn Monroe or a James Dean or an Elvis Presley because we are such an instantaneous society now. And yes, Beyonce Beyonce is a big name, but have you really heard anything about Beyonce recently? Except for her going to the race, the car race recently, you haven't really heard much. Where before everybody there was a certain group that was always in the news and that was it. And now it's like uh it's hit or miss, it's the news cycle.

SPEAKER_00 26:04

Yeah. Or the back in the day, too. If you listen, a lot of times it would be it was in your vehicle, but sometimes at home on the beautiful speakers and all that kind of stuff. Nowadays, somebody say, Well, have you heard the new whoever? They'll open up their phone on that little tiny speaker, go on to Spotify, listen to it for free for five seconds, go, I don't like it. And it's done. And you think of the the time and the and the money and the energy and the heart and everything that went into whether or not you like it, that's not the thing. But to give something five seconds and then just I'm gonna look for something else. Yeah, you know, yeah, yeah, it's it's a different time for sure.

SPEAKER_01 26:39

So, where do you see your career going? I mean, how long do you think you're gonna stay touring? I mean, because at a certain point, touring does get old.

SPEAKER_00 26:49

Yeah, it's so with with the band I'm in right now, so the ABA tribute, it's uh there's 10 people in there, and some of them do have their Monday to Friday day jobs, right? So we'll go out and we toured all of uh the west coast of Canada this year. We're doing the East Coast later on. Uh those tours are always fun, but it's not like I don't go out for those extremely long, extended ones. Uh, but I would love to like uh be available for someone that's going out on a couple months stint and head out with them and do that. I really enjoy it. I love traveling, seeing different uh cities. My wife comes with me now with uh with everything. She's part of that app attribute, so she takes care of uh, you know, she does the video screen for us and the catering and the merchandise and some planning and itinerary stuff. So it's not like she's at home saying, Oh, I'll see you when you get back. She's actually part of it. And when we went out to BC, we were, you know, we did some whale watching and uh did some really cool things that otherwise we wouldn't have been out there, right? So at this stage, I'm ready to keep going. Uh my kids are all at an age, they're all in their early 20s, right? So they're off doing their own things and starting their things. So it's I remember back, you know, some tours came off, and I'm like, uh, you know, with them being five and six and earlier, it's like maybe it's best to be home. And then being with the job that I was at then too. Like you only have so many holiday hours that you can burn through. But uh, I really enjoy the touring, I love the studio stuff. Uh, I'm enjoying the teaching as well, just sharing. I don't call it teaching, I'm just sharing what I know, especially with the students that have that bug and have that passion and drive to like want to learn. And they're and the coolest part about teaching too is when they bring me new music. Like, have you heard of this band? I'm like, I definitely haven't. And then I get to dive in here. So, and then they'll be like, Oh, I'll say, Hey, have you ever heard of this band? They're like, Who's that? Right? So it's a it's a nice kind of give and take, um, keeping things fresh that way.

SPEAKER_01 28:45

And I think, you know, you were talking about the touring situation. I think as you get older, yes, it's a little harder if you're taking those extended tours. I mean, I don't think anybody that is of a certain age does a year-long tour anymore. And I'm not even sure really musicians even do year-long tours. Right. Um, but when you look at touring it now, you can go enjoy it. It's not so much because you always hear about, especially in the 80s and 90s, it was a party. That's all we did. We went and we played, we partied, and that was it. And and that's that was the the life back then. And I don't think people are as as hardcore about it. When I talked to Ian, he talked about the fact that Unbelievable was his big hit. And um Unbelievable was his big hit, and he tries to get away from it, and he ends up in the Amazon or no, the yeah, the Amazon Rainforest. And what does he hear on somebody's speaker but that song? He couldn't get away from it no matter where he was. I need to wrap this up quickly. Uh, I thank you for coming on. Well, actually, I got nine minutes, so we'll we'll a couple more questions. Who would you, if you could tour with anybody or play on their record, who would it be?

SPEAKER_00 29:55

Oh, if my granddad was still around and he put out an album, I would love that. I would love to create something with him. You know, like that would be that would be at the top of my list. Um But yeah, like if anybody I don't know. I th I love all different kinds of styles, right? Like I've always been drawn to to Alanis Morissette. Just her, if when you listen to her speak uh and her lyrics uh and the music, right? Like that's someone I've joked with friends of mine for years. Like Alanis is gonna call, it's gonna happen one time. Like it's just uh, you know, it's coming. And um yeah, I'd be open to anything. Like I love as much as I'm doing the ABBA and I like the uh those kind of vibes or whatever, I do miss playing a little bit of the heavier uh rock. Um, that's what's in my DNA, and uh I like to get that out once in a while. So it's good to be in a few different um uh outlets for that.

SPEAKER_01 30:54

Well, David Lee Roth is is playing live again.

SPEAKER_00 30:57

Yeah, I saw him last year in Baltimore. How was he? How was he or how was the band? The band was on fire, and I'll tell you what, he had four guys uh on a little riser singing background. It was like Motown. So these four guys were like dancing the night away for his sister, so Dave would do his shtick and his thing and do whatever. But then these dudes were singing and it was perfect four-part harmony, and and we were all looking around going, this is really good compared to like a couple years ago. Dave's still losing his voice, it's not what it was. But I mean, I think he's 71. He's he's up there in leather pants, like my dad's 75. You know what I mean? I I wouldn't Dave, I don't know. I enjoyed it because I'm I'm a diehard Van Halen fan, so I loved hearing the Dave era stuff, and I think he did the band was incredible. I think he's just lost a lot of his uh, but still love it.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

John Jovi's having the same issue. I mean, it happens. Paul McCartney, I've seen him on TV and his voice. And it's the thing, when you look at somebody like David Levroth, he was screaming a lot, so it's natural, it's a natural progression.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

Sure. And David Coverdale, right, from Whitesnake, he just retired too. So it's just it's uh it's part of your body that I can't believe how frustrating that would be, though, for them to be like, I want it, or I just watched that Celine Dion documentary. Uh that's heartbreaking seeing her like lose her voice, and that's what it's been her whole life, and she can't even produce a note anymore.

SPEAKER_01 32:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:26

Um, that's gotta be tough.

SPEAKER_01 32:28

It is. It has to be. So, Chris, is there anything that I haven't asked you that you would like to add?

SPEAKER_00 32:37

So, I mean, if if anyone's watching this and they want to check out Chris Evelyn music on Facebook, that's where all the live shows are. It's on Spotify, just Chris Eveland. Uh, Rail City Root is uh is a duo I plan with John Millis. There's a lot of original songs out there. Uh or if anyone wants online lessons, um, you can reach me out on Facebook too, and I do Zoom lessons and uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:58

All right. Thank you, Chris, for coming on.

SPEAKER_00 33:00

Thanks so much for having me.

SPEAKER_01 33:02

I loved Chris's story about the fact that he got chills when he was listening to Eddie Van Halen. Really listening to him, he talks about the passion. And I have that passion when I talk about writing a lot of the time. I'll have a lot of my friends over the years tell me that you know that you're passionate about your stories. And I think that's when we find our true calling that we understand that this is our passion, this is something that we want to continue to pursue, we want to continue to do. It doesn't matter that we may never be this big bestseller, it doesn't matter that we may not be a Grammy winning artist. It's in our DNA, as he said. It's in our passion. So if you have a passion, we've talked about this before, follow it, follow your dreams, follow your heart. Because yes, things can suck big time. And you have to keep going. Because if you don't keep going, you never know when things are gonna turn around and become better. Or you know, hopefully we don't lose kind and all that other stuff as we talked about AI, but you never know where things may go. Things may end up being a lot better than we could ever imagine. And so you just have to keep moving forward and staying positive. So on that note, I thank you guys for tuning in. I hope you like the new format of the show. And it really hasn't changed format so much as just the briefness of it. So I thank you for tuning in, and guys, I thank Fast Susie for the intro and outro music. And well, whenever you're listening morning, noon, or night, I appreciate it. I really, really do appreciate it. And well, guys, I'll catch you next time. Bye.