Episode 1091 - Josh Klinghoffer
Marc:all right let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fucksters what the fuck buddies what's happening i am mark marin this is my podcast wtf welcome to it are you all right is everything okay i went to the chiropractor
Marc:On the recommendation of people, a couple of people having never been to a chiropractor before.
Marc:That was something.
Marc:I don't know if I'm wrong in my opinion of chiropraction or practitioners.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I'll share my experience with you momentarily.
Marc:What else is happening?
Marc:I want to make sure that these dates are out there.
Marc:The shows are selling fine.
Marc:It's just we live in a period.
Marc:There's some people who knows, man, I'm not the biggest comic in the world.
Marc:I do pretty well, but I seem to need to constantly remind people when I'm coming and I can do it on this show.
Marc:I can do it on Twitter.
Marc:I can do it on Instagram.
Marc:Outside of that, I can't come to your house.
Marc:There's no way I can just make the rounds.
Marc:I'm not on Facebook.
Marc:So this is the deal.
Marc:I'll be in Cleveland, Ohio at the Agora Theater January 30th.
Marc:I'll be in Grand Rapids, Michigan at the Fountain Street Church January 31st.
Marc:I'll be in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the Turner Hall Ballroom February 1st.
Marc:It might be chilly.
Marc:Orlando, Florida.
Marc:I'm at Hard Rock Live, February 14th.
Marc:That's Valentine's Day.
Marc:Now, I said to you, those tickets are selling better than I thought, but I get it, man.
Marc:I don't know if I'm everyone's idea of a night out on Valentine's Day.
Marc:I would say that really...
Marc:If you know me and you want to hang out with me on Valentine's Day with your partner, that's nice.
Marc:I will do a little something for Valentine's Day.
Marc:I promise that.
Marc:I don't know what, but I know I'm not.
Marc:Look, I'm a lot to deal with when it's not Valentine's Day.
Marc:And I'll try not to ruin your relationship if you come see me in Orlando, Florida, at the Hard Rock Live, February 14th on Valentine's Day.
Marc:I'll do something special.
Marc:I don't know what that is, but I will figure something out.
Marc:I'll be in Tampa, Florida at the Strass, February 15th, Strass Center.
Marc:Portland, Maine at the State Theater, February 20th.
Marc:This is a return to Maine for me.
Marc:I think I did one of my first paid gigs as a comedian ever.
Marc:One of my first paid gigs in a gunk with Maine, probably 1988.
Marc:It was me, me and Nick DiPaolo.
Marc:I've been back to Maine a couple times since then, obviously, but I don't think I've worked in Maine in 20 years.
Marc:Is that possible?
Marc:Probably more.
Marc:Might even be more.
Marc:So that's a big deal.
Marc:The return to Maine at the Portland, at the State Theater in Portland, February 20th.
Marc:Providence, Rhode Island.
Marc:I do not think I have ever performed as a grown-up in Providence, Rhode Island.
Marc:I believe the last time I performed in Rhode Island was maybe in the 80s, the late 80s, early 90s at Periwinkles in Davos Square.
Marc:I think that might be the last time I was in Providence, Rhode Island.
Marc:So what is that, 30 years ago?
Marc:Yep.
Marc:So that's a big deal, Providence.
Marc:I'm coming back to the Columbus Theater, February 21.
Marc:New Haven, Connecticut at College Street Musical.
Marc:I was there a couple of years ago.
Marc:I liked it.
Marc:And Huntington, New York at the Paramount.
Marc:I was there a few years ago, two years ago.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:But New Haven on February 22nd and Huntington, New York at the Paramount on February 23rd.
Marc:I was there.
Marc:I like it there out on the island there.
Marc:You can go to WTF pod dot com slash tour for links to all the venues.
Marc:Dean Delray will be with me on those dates, barring anything.
Marc:I can't imagine us having a falling out before then or during it.
Marc:Dean Delray has Kirk Hammett on his podcast right now.
Marc:I have a guitar player on my podcast today.
Marc:Josh Klinghoffer is here today.
Marc:I met Josh Klinghoffer a couple years back.
Marc:He played with the Chili Peppers.
Marc:Now, this interview I did was booked before he was fired from the Chili Peppers.
Marc:Josh was the guitar player for the Chili Peppers for almost a decade.
Marc:And we booked it before he was fired, kept the date, and we talk about what happened and who he is and how he got the gig.
Marc:He's a very interesting guitar player.
Marc:He has other projects.
Marc:He's got Dot Hacker, a few albums with that collaboration.
Marc:That's him.
Marc:He's got his Plural One solo project.
Marc:He'll be opening for Pearl Jam on their spring tour starting in March the 18th.
Marc:He's also going to be on stage with Pearl Jam a bit doing this and that.
Marc:I talked to him after our conversation.
Marc:I like talking to guitar players, and he's like a pedal freak and a Stratocaster freak, and he goes out there.
Marc:He fucking, he warps it.
Marc:He goes out there and warps the sound.
Marc:So that's coming up.
Marc:There's a 50% off sale going on right now at Pod Swag, all right?
Marc:So you can get all the WTF stuff, all the new WTF t-shirts, travel mugs, water bottles, keychains, all half off.
Marc:OK, and it's applied at checkout.
Marc:You can go to pod swag dot com slash WTF and get yourself merged up.
Marc:And I also wanted to tell you my buddy Moshe Kasher, who's been on this show four times live and unlive.
Marc:has got a new comedy album out.
Marc:It's called Moshe Kasher Crowdsurfing, and it comes out tomorrow, January 24th, from Comedy Dynamics.
Marc:It's 100% crowd work.
Marc:Moshe has a skill at it, and he makes it work.
Marc:It's really the best thing he does, and I don't think he'd take that badly.
Marc:Back in the day when I first saw him, that was what he was doing.
Marc:He's good at crowd work.
Marc:Some guys are good at crowd work.
Marc:Todd Berry is another one.
Marc:There's just some people are crowd work people.
Marc:You can get Moshe Kasher crowd surfing as a digital download on Apple Music, Amazon, or wherever you download your tunes.
Marc:So my back, as I've told you before, I've got some weird thing going on in my upper back right in between my fucking shoulder blades and beneath my neck that I think I popped something, putting some weight down on it.
Marc:Lower back, I think that also came from poor form in the squat situation or the deadlift situation.
Marc:Whatever the case, I've dealt with the lower back before.
Marc:The upper back is kind of a fucked up thing I've never had before in this way.
Marc:So with the sort of suggestion over the years and recently from my trainer and the woman I am seeing, chiropractor.
Marc:They said, go to a chiropractor.
Marc:Now, as I said before, I was taught deeply and aggressively by my Western-practitioning father that chiropractors were bogus, bunk medicine, no good.
Marc:The physical hands-on version of snake oil, not the real deal, didn't have what it took to become real doctors.
Marc:That was how I was brainwashed by my father.
Marc:Now, knowing that, I thought like, well, whatever, man, it's my back and I'm going to the real doctor today.
Marc:And I'll say that real doctor to get it looked at and maybe get some x-ray so I can make sure nothing squished or broken or fucking off in there.
Marc:But I did go to the chiropractor first and he did some stuff.
Marc:He did stuff.
Marc:He did everything just shy of some sort of witch doctor dance, to be honest with you.
Marc:Now, again, some of it seems reasonable.
Marc:Some of it felt effective.
Marc:He did some tension testing, me pushing on his hand from my arm, from my leg, and this and that.
Marc:And then he had some sort of machines that clacked
Marc:That kind of pound, pound, pound, pound, pound, pound, pound.
Marc:He put that on my lower back and on my upper back and then a different pound, pound, pound, pound, pound, pound, pound.
Marc:I felt it clacking away on my spine.
Marc:He did the little twisty thing that made the cracking noise on my back and my neck.
Marc:Scary.
Marc:Neck is scary.
Marc:He really realized, like, you know, there's a moment...
Marc:in a chiropractor's office where you're like, is this why I end up in a wheelchair?
Marc:Is this why?
Marc:Is this why I signed the release form?
Marc:What happened?
Marc:Why did you get shot?
Marc:Were you in a car accident?
Marc:No, I had some back trouble and I went to a chiropractor and I signed off on it.
Marc:And this is how I, could you feed me that please?
Marc:Could you put that in my mouth?
Marc:But look, not mocking anybody who has a debilitating or that's not, I thought that.
Marc:when I was in getting my neck cracked, how easy it is to break your fucking neck.
Marc:Pow, look out.
Marc:Just shit my pants.
Marc:Just coffee.coop.
Marc:So cracked, clacked around with the clackers, focused laser on the two areas that were causing pain.
Marc:And I'm like, he said, look, it doesn't seem like you have a major injury.
Marc:You have plenty of flexibility and you have movement, motion, range of motion.
Marc:So I don't think it's bad.
Marc:I'm like, okay.
Marc:He rubbed some stuff in it, some smelly stuff, camphory stuff.
Marc:Then I weighed down my stomach.
Marc:And this was where, you know, there was a couple moments where I could tell his tone and I could feel the trick with checking the tension.
Marc:Oh, see, that's better now.
Marc:This muscle's not working.
Marc:This muscle is working.
Marc:Whatever.
Marc:And we're in the back of his house.
Marc:Now, I think the guy's probably pretty good at what he does.
Marc:But when I laid down and he threw a couple of discs on two of my chakras and then made some diagnosis, some partial diagnosis about the energy there, I was sort of like, okay, maybe don't do that part.
Marc:If you want to remain convincing, let's not do that part.
Marc:But look, I'm sure that the cracking and the clacking and the rubbing and the heating and the nice smelling stuff that penetrates can't hurt.
Marc:I don't know if it's going to fix it.
Marc:Maybe I don't know.
Marc:Maybe it takes a few days.
Marc:But I don't know about the chakra discs.
Marc:Chakras are good, pal.
Marc:How's my back?
Marc:All right.
Marc:But I appreciate it.
Marc:And I was open to it.
Marc:And it was nice to have the cracking and the clacking and the rubbing and the smelly stuff.
Marc:We'll see.
Marc:Maybe a miracle happened.
Marc:I'm still in pain.
Marc:I worked out today, and that's that.
Marc:Hey, you know what?
Marc:Look, I'm no doctor, but if you're on this fucking carnivore diet or the keto diet or whatever, can you please do yourself a favor and check if you have heart disease in your fucking family?
Marc:Will you please?
Marc:It's like I understand some people's conception of cholesterol or whatever, but I went to a cardiologist.
Marc:I don't care what you think about pharmacology or pharmaceuticals.
Marc:or western medicine but if you have plaque in your fucking heart if you have a propensity to heart disease that you get plaque from eating fucking cholesterol check it out check it out before you're like this is a great diet I can eat all the bacon I want to I love this diet I ate half a pig and it took me a week but I don't eat anything else I just eat pig and egg yolks check it out
Marc:Cardiac disease is on the rise in fairly sophisticated cities.
Marc:And I got a hunch it's from a decade of meat driven diets.
Marc:I'm no doctor.
Marc:I'm not saying this with any credibility.
Marc:I just got a hunch.
Marc:I got a hunch.
Marc:If your diet includes eating all the bacon you want, just do yourself a favor.
Marc:Check if you have heart disease in your family.
Marc:Maybe get your cholesterol levels read.
Marc:And if you want to spend an extra few bucks, see if you got any gunk in your heart.
Marc:Before you have fucking crap out at 44 from heart disease.
Marc:Because your diet allowed you to eat raw meat every day.
Marc:Just be careful.
Marc:I might be talking out my ass.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:I know that my episode of Finding Your Roots was preempted by the impeachment in many places, but it was quite good.
Marc:I enjoyed it.
Marc:I enjoyed learning about Jeff Goldblum's family and Terry Gross's family, and I like what they chose to focus on about my family.
Marc:You can get the PBS app, which I just got, or just find it.
Marc:It was good.
Marc:So...
Marc:I got an email about this.
Marc:This is from Leslie.
Marc:She said, This Asian thanks you.
Marc:Hi, Mark.
Marc:Love you.
Marc:Love your podcast.
Marc:Saw you in Joker the other night.
Marc:You were great.
Marc:I was watching the movie with my son and husband.
Marc:I got so excited when he popped on the screen, you would have thought I just saw my brother acting with De Niro.
Marc:My son said, Mom's friend has a cameo in the movie.
Marc:Well, I listen to you twice a week, so in many ways you are like a friend and a brother.
Marc:Plus...
Marc:I was born in 1962, so I really can relate to much of what you say.
Marc:Speaking of relate dot dot dot, I really appreciated your honesty during your interview with Randall Park.
Marc:Randall spoke about what it's like to be Asian in America and how it can be a challenge at times if you are not Caucasian.
Marc:You very genuinely said that it was something you didn't really think about not being white.
Marc:It was refreshing to hear this being addressed.
Marc:I personally am a third generation Chinese American.
Marc:My grandparents came from China.
Marc:However, both my parents were born in California, as was I. Despite this fact, it would blow your mind what people ask me as a kid and even now as an adult.
Marc:Here is a sampling.
Marc:Do you eat every meal with chopsticks?
Marc:No.
Marc:When did you come to America?
Marc:The minute I was born.
Marc:Do you have rice every night?
Marc:No.
Marc:Can you help me with my math?
Marc:Hell no.
Marc:Do your grandparents live with you?
Marc:No.
Marc:Do yours?
Marc:Why don't you speak Chinese?
Marc:Same reason you don't.
Marc:Your mom makes spaghetti?
Marc:Yes, and it's good.
Marc:What do you do on Thanksgiving?
Marc:Eat turkey.
Marc:How many times have you gone back to China?
Marc:Never.
Marc:Why is your English so good?
Marc:I'm a Californian.
Marc:I think you get my drift here, and it may surprise you that in the year 2020, this is something I still contend with.
Marc:Interesting how Americans whose parents or grandparents were from Europe are often not asked such questions makes you think, right?
Marc:I can relate to a lot of what Randall Park had to say, and I have a feeling many of your listeners do, too.
Marc:Thanks for your great podcast.
Marc:I never miss an episode, and I am enlightened by each and every one.
Marc:You make my life better, and I'm grateful.
Marc:Have an awesome decade, fondly.
Marc:Leslie.
Marc:You're welcome, Leslie.
Marc:Thanks for sharing that that annoyance with me.
Marc:I appreciate it.
Marc:So look, folks.
Marc:Right now, I'm going to talk to Josh Klinghofer, who was until very recently the guitar player for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Marc:As I said, he's going on tour of Pearl Jam.
Marc:His solo project, Plural One, will open for Pearl Jam on their spring tour starting in March on the 18th.
Marc:Josh's solo album, To Be One With You, is available now wherever you get music, as is many of his other projects.
Marc:It was interesting, and he does tell me his side of what happened and about his relationship with John Frusciante and about the Peppers and about how he got started and about some other people who have been on this show.
Marc:But look...
Marc:I'll let him tell it.
Marc:This is me talking to Josh Klinghofer.
Marc:Are you there?
Marc:Let me see.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You're registering.
Marc:I see the wave things.
Marc:Probably not that loud.
Marc:Yeah, what is it with you guys?
Guest:Come on, you sing.
Guest:Yeah, I know, but... What?
Guest:Yeah, no, I still need to project more.
Guest:Oh, yeah?
Guest:Yeah, probably.
Marc:You're a lead guitar player.
Guest:You're not a bass player.
Guest:You should be out front.
Guest:Well, I was.
Guest:I was.
Guest:Have you heard?
Guest:Are you up to speed?
Guest:Up to speed?
Marc:Well, no.
Marc:I mean, yeah.
Marc:I heard that.
Marc:Yeah, I guess we've got to cover that.
Marc:People are freaked out.
Marc:Things are buzzing.
Marc:You're out of the chili peppers.
Marc:Yeah, and this was booked before that.
Marc:Before that.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And then someone like the day after we booked it.
Marc:you know, what's going on with the chili peppers, you know, for Shante's back, you got to interview him.
Marc:And I'm like, I got Josh coming.
Marc:So maybe we'll get some answers.
Marc:Because I just saw you guys at that benefit I host.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:At Flea's Music Conservatory.
Marc:A few of.
Marc:What happened?
Marc:Was this a, did you see, did you know it was happening?
Marc:No.
Marc:Not at all.
Marc:Come on, man.
Marc:No, complete surprise.
Guest:I mean, no, complete shock, but not a surprise, I guess.
Guest:But you're friends with John Prashanti, right?
Guest:I was.
Guest:We hadn't spoken much since I joined the band.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah, at all, really.
Guest:I hadn't spoken to him in 10 years or so until Flea got married in October.
Guest:We spoke briefly.
Marc:But wait, okay, so now, but you guys, maybe we should go back.
Marc:So you got blindsided by this thing?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And now you're out of the gig?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And you've got no explanations?
Guest:Well, I mean, it's pretty simple, and there's no animosity.
Guest:I mean, the explanation is that John would like to come back and has sort of rekindled a relationship with the band or with Flea musically for the last little while.
Marc:Behind your back.
Guest:I suppose.
Guest:They were jamming somewhere.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:But, yeah, the moment they told me, I said to them I wasn't surprised by this.
Guest:It sort of crossed my mind once or twice when I heard that John and Flea had hung out.
Guest:I didn't know they'd been playing or anything.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But the...
Guest:I just in that moment they told me I sort of had this great sort of wave of love for them and love for everything I was able to do with them.
Guest:And I sort of, you know, I put up a barrier between that feeling and anything that might come beyond that point or any change that my life might go through.
Marc:You stayed in the gratitude.
Guest:Yeah, and I hate sounding like that normally.
Guest:It's not easy for me to speak of all that stuff, but that's where I'm living.
Guest:And it feels really good.
Guest:Well, how long were you with them?
Guest:Ten years.
Guest:It was a perfect sort of decade.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It was like October of 2009 till December of...
Marc:So when you took the gig, I mean, we can go through the history of it because you did several records with Frusciante, right?
Marc:When he left.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:No, when he was in.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:So you did his solo projects when he was with the Peppers.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You did one studio record with them or two?
Marc:Two studio records.
Guest:Two and a half.
Guest:Two and a half.
Guest:Yeah, two.
Guest:And then I brought you one, actually.
Guest:There's a whole collection of extra stuff we did for the first record I made with them.
Marc:Well, I listened to some of your solo records.
Marc:I listened to Dot Hacker.
Marc:Work and Play, right?
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Those are great records.
Marc:Thank you.
Marc:And I listened to another record.
Marc:I can't... I'll figure out which one.
Marc:But, you know, you go back in this L.A.
Marc:scene for a long time.
Marc:But I just... I wonder... So when you joined the Peppers, was Frusciante... Did that strain your relationship?
Guest:Is that where... Yeah, kind of.
Guest:Yeah, I mean... But...
Guest:The thing was we had been friends and we were working together and when they decided after a long break that they wanted to carry on and he maintained that he was sort of done with it at that moment.
Guest:and they asked me to do it, I think he was just a little surprised that they were going to carry on without him, and then I was sort of talking to him as his friend about the fact that the band was carrying on, but they had asked me, so it was sort of a strange position I was holding.
Marc:Well, that's interesting that somehow you were the logical step.
Marc:I mean, you're a Strat guy.
Marc:They seem to like Strat guys in that position.
Guest:Yeah, well, I mean, I assume the role that I'm given.
Guest:Yeah?
Guest:Is that what it is?
Guest:I mean, I guess so.
Guest:I mean, I kind of, it's funny.
Guest:Like I figured, you know, I was trying not to have this conversation with my steering wheel.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Oh, right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But, um, yeah.
Guest:I mean, as a guitarist, I, I sort of became one all of a sudden when I started playing with Bob Forrest when I was younger.
Guest:I know.
Marc:Well, Bob was like, I've talked to Bob and you played in Bicycle Thief, which, you know, and I think he's great.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Bob's the greatest.
Marc:And so, but where'd you grow up?
Marc:Here, in the valley.
Marc:Right in the valley?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:My parents are from New York, New Jersey, but my sister and I are the only Californians.
Marc:Really?
Marc:Jersey?
Marc:Like what part of Jersey?
Guest:North Jersey.
Guest:They're both, my mom was born in Brooklyn, my dad in the Bronx, and they both moved to the respected, like the Rockland County, my dad and my mom moved to- Jewish guy?
Guest:North Jersey.
Guest:My dad is, my mom's Irish Catholic.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:He's half Jew, and the mom's an Irish Catholic.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So you didn't grow up with any of the Jew stuff?
Guest:No, you know, culturally.
Guest:Yeah, right.
Guest:Once in a while, I mean.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:But what'd your dad do?
Guest:Why did they move out here?
Guest:Film and TV.
Guest:He's in the sound department.
Guest:The sound guy?
Guest:Yeah, he, you know, boom, mostly, and when he first started.
Marc:He's a boom operator?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:He's the guy holding the... Yeah.
Marc:Oh, those guys are important.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:Gotta keep it out of the shot.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So there was, like, sound equipment at the house?
Guest:Yeah, a bit.
Guest:I mean, you know, he...
Guest:You know, it's kind of particular.
Guest:I mean, there was always that, the Nagra machine over there that looked great.
Marc:Sure, the Nagra.
Marc:None of that stuff's around anymore, man.
Guest:No, it's not.
Guest:No tapes.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And what did your mom do?
Guest:She didn't show business?
Guest:She, no, no, no.
Guest:She worked for AT&T until I was born and then sort of took a long, a long hiatus from working.
Guest:And then she got a job at my school.
Guest:Oh.
Guest:My high school.
Guest:Doing what?
Guest:The dean's office.
Guest:Which was, which was, which was fine because I wasn't in there that often, but I. You were not a bad kid?
Guest:No, no.
Guest:But I left anyway.
Guest:Maybe it hastened.
Marc:Do you have brothers and sisters?
Guest:I have a younger sister.
Guest:A younger sister?
Guest:Is she in the business?
Guest:No, no, no.
Marc:She does normal life?
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:Is she all right?
Guest:Yeah, she's great.
Guest:She helps me out.
Guest:Yeah?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:How?
Guest:How does she help me out?
Guest:Well, I'm on tour all the time, so she runs my life for me.
Marc:Oh, so that's good, because I thought about having my brother do that, just employing him to manage the personal assistantship.
Guest:Yeah, she manages my life.
Marc:Yeah, and then I thought, do I really want to deal with my brother that much?
Guest:Yeah, well, see, that's the thing.
Guest:Do I really want to deal with anyone else?
Guest:Well, that's nice.
Marc:Well, that's a nice, well, maybe it's different with a sister.
Marc:I have no problem with my brother, but my brother up in my business, you know, giving me, you know, like, I don't know.
Marc:It's just, I think we're good.
Marc:I think it would be strain, it would strain it.
Marc:Very possible.
Marc:And we'd end up fighting.
Guest:Yeah, very possible.
Marc:And then like, well, that's nice that you give her the job and that she helps you out.
Marc:So when, so you didn't finish high school?
Guest:No, I left, I guess it was the beginning of 11th grade.
Guest:I was 15.
Guest:I'm a younger birthday, so I was... You were 15?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And you drop out and your mom's in the dean's office and you're like, I'm done with high school?
Guest:Yeah, and that was a big problem.
Guest:Of course it's a big problem.
Guest:She may have snuck into the attendant's office and done something.
Guest:I'm not sure.
Guest:What do you mean?
Guest:You know, because we got a knock from a truant officer once and then never again.
Marc:Oh, so you didn't tell anybody you dropped out?
Guest:No, they sort of know if they don't see your name on the attendance records.
Guest:But I am not convinced that she didn't play a role in the truant officer not coming back a second time.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:So you just stopped going to school.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It was kind of the result of a weird attendance policy they had.
Guest:I didn't set to drop out and plan on it, but there was a whole sort of absence policy, and then one by one, the periods fell.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I slept later and later and later.
Guest:But your mom, but she knew you were at home.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, no, it was a very tense period.
Guest:I would just try and avoid them.
Marc:Like, you know, fuck you, parents, and like, were you all fucked up on drugs?
Guest:No, not at all.
Guest:That's when I learned how to play guitar, because I started as a drummer.
Guest:So you were all fucked up on guitar?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I started as a drummer.
Marc:Can you still do the drums pretty good?
Guest:Yeah, well, I don't know.
Guest:I mean, I play drums like a guitar player who barely plays drums.
Guest:Oh, okay.
Guest:So that's when you start playing guitar is when you drop out.
Guest:Yeah, and I just sort of stayed up all night, and then when I heard them waking up, I'd get in bed.
Marc:Really?
Guest:Yeah, and somehow I was able to get away.
Guest:And you just stayed in your room?
Guest:Yeah, most of the time.
Guest:And what was that first guitar?
Guest:It was a Strat.
Guest:It was a Sunburst Strat.
Guest:Really?
Guest:And I bought it from someone on the recycler directly opposite the high school I left.
Marc:A good one?
Guest:Like American one?
Guest:A Japanese one from the 80s that had a sort of funny Fender locking tremolo.
Guest:It was like a Fender's take on the 80s metal tremolo.
Marc:Huh.
Marc:So your first one is a sumber strat.
Guest:Yes, that I broke in a fight with my mother, slamming it on the ground, probably about school or something like that.
Guest:You don't remember?
Guest:It was actually about school.
Guest:I can't remember.
Guest:I sort of lashed back at her mother and it exploded.
Guest:Your grandmother?
Guest:Yeah, so in that moment.
Guest:In the house?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Volatile.
Guest:Yeah, and I thought the best course of action was to slam my guitar on a marble floor.
Guest:Broke.
Guest:went in a box for years and years and right after i joined the band i kind of came across and i thought oh take it to eric's guitar repair and uh he put it together and i used it all over the first chili pepper record and then when your first strat yeah and then brought back from the dead and then right after that i think it was on you know on the first tour i was doing with them the band was inducted into the hall of fame and that's where it is now
Guest:That guitar.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:The first one that you broke on the floor because you're mad at your grandma.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:She was mad at me.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Marc:And it's reconstructed.
Marc:So you're in the Hall of Fame.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But everybody in the Peppers is.
Marc:You just have- No.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:I don't think so, but I don't know.
Guest:Really?
Guest:That's how that works?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I'm not sure.
Marc:I'm not sure.
Marc:Sorry, buddy.
Marc:No.
Marc:Sounds like there's some points of contention here and there.
Marc:So when you're starting out, though, who are you listening to?
Marc:Because, I mean, you play in a sort of a way now.
Marc:I like the way you play because it's sort of, I don't know if you would call it psychedelic or ethereal or something.
Marc:It feels like you're trying to get somewhere out there with the playing.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Marc:That dude, what's his name, Greenwood from Radiohead, he does it.
Marc:I remember there's some older, some of the Robert Fripp solo shit kind of goes out there and there's some other kind of dudes that are kind of travelers with technology and effects and whatnot and just sort of sustain and stuff.
Marc:But it seems to be the world you want to occupy.
Guest:Yeah, well, I play like someone that didn't grow up playing guitar.
Guest:So, and when I started playing with Bob Forrest, it was, you know, he had just, I think he had less than a year sober, wanted to do music again.
Guest:I was the 17-year-old kid around the corner from his girlfriend's parents' house.
Guest:In the valley.
Guest:In the valley.
Marc:But you'd been playing, I thought you'd kind of locked in, you'd just started, oh, you were just started playing a couple years ago.
Guest:I was 17, yeah.
Guest:You know, I'd been playing in the bedroom, not going to school.
Marc:But who were your heroes at that point?
Guest:Like, who were you trying to... Well, I grew up like, you know, all the music I liked as a kid.
Guest:You know, it's starting from the Beatles and the Beach Boys.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then, you know, when I'm sort of eight, nine, it's the Guns N' Roses.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Motley Crue.
Guest:What do you think of Slash as a guitar player?
Guest:He's one of my favorites.
Guest:Yeah?
Guest:I absolutely love him.
Guest:He's kind of like a monster on there, isn't he?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:How the fuck does he even find that shit?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's kind of crazy.
Marc:It is crazy.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, I mean, he was there.
Guest:Guns N' Roses got in the same year as the Chili Peppers to the Hall of Fame, so I was standing next to him.
Guest:Oh, really?
Marc:Did you talk to him?
Guest:No, not much.
Marc:He's a nice guy, man.
Guest:Yeah, no, I've only said hi to him.
Guest:Duff, I've become friendly with him.
Guest:He's an amazing guy.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So, okay, so you kind of know how to play guitar?
Marc:Well, you know, I'm just starting out.
Guest:I'm figuring out records by ear in the bedroom.
Guest:But then, yeah, through Bob Forrest and sort of- His girlfriend's parents lived around the corner?
Guest:Bob's girlfriend at the time's brother was one of my best friends still to this day.
Marc:Oh, okay.
Guest:And at the time, though, we're 17.
Guest:He's three years older than me.
Guest:So we just used to talk about music and smoke cigarettes.
Guest:Her brother or Bob?
Guest:The brother.
Marc:Oh, okay.
Guest:But then Bob wanted to put some together and I was the guy around the corner and I had- One year sober Bob Forrest.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And he was friends with the Peppers and all those guys.
Marc:He was in that world, right?
Marc:Yeah, in that world.
Marc:What was that world?
Marc:Who was that world at that time?
Marc:In the 80s?
Marc:Yeah, because I remember talking to Bob and I know that he was close to those guys to the point where-
Marc:They had done some work together even, right?
Guest:Yeah, I mean, you know, lived together, ran around town together.
Guest:Thelonious Monster, Chili Peppers, Fishbone, Jane's Addiction.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And all these bands.
Guest:And then, you know, born out of the... There was a kind of broader punk scene or whatever you want to call it.
Guest:A lot of heroin.
Guest:Yeah, a lot of everything.
Marc:Yeah, but were you aware of all that stuff going on at that time?
Guest:Yeah, not when I was really young, but, you know, the minute I...
Guest:I turned 11, I think, in 1991.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Started middle school.
Guest:And that's when, you know, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and that whole thing happened.
Guest:And that, for a person that age, was everything to me.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Because I thought, whoa, there's a scene of people playing in bands together.
Guest:And since then, or probably before that, all I ever wanted was to be in a band.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:And have, you know, play music with your friends that you love, you know?
Marc:Yeah, so Bob, so he just finds you?
Marc:What was that exchange?
Guest:Because that's a good record.
Guest:There's only one Bicycle Thief record, right?
Guest:Yeah, only one.
Guest:We've threatened to do another one for years and years, but now maybe we will.
Guest:Well, now I have a little more time.
Marc:You got some time.
Marc:And you're a Hall of Famer.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:You're a Hall of Famer with some time.
Marc:It's only uphill from here, buddy.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But, okay, so how does he approach you?
Marc:How does that happen?
Guest:He leaves a message on my answering machine and...
Guest:Yeah, I just remember going to get together, and he had a couple songs he had started to write, and we just started to play.
Guest:And it's sort of, now that I've known him for over 20 years, he just jumps in.
Guest:And I remember we had a show booked within a month, and it was billed as Thelonious Monster.
Guest:And time is making more sense to me now, because it wasn't that long after Thelonious was around, and he was newly sober.
Guest:So we played a show, me, him, and Dick's Denny from Thelonious Monster.
Guest:As Thelonious Monster?
Guest:I think that's what was on the bill, yeah, because there was no Bicycle Thief yet.
Guest:We hadn't written any songs together.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But, yeah, I remember thinking to myself that night, shit, I'm a guitar player now.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then that wasn't really something I would admit to until then.
Marc:He writes, like, I like his songs.
Marc:Right?
Marc:Yeah, he's incredible.
Marc:He's like a really good songwriter.
Marc:I don't know why he's not more known somehow.
Guest:Yeah, it'll happen.
Marc:Yeah, is it still?
Marc:Like that last record he did was sort of really dark and fucked up and that song about not being able to eat his favorite cereal anymore.
Guest:Yeah, that's on the Bicycle Thief album.
Marc:That one's on there?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Because he did an acoustic-y version of it on the last album.
Guest:Okay, yeah, yeah.
Guest:That's the one.
Guest:And John Frusciante does a solo on that album with me.
Guest:And that's sort of right after I had met him.
Marc:So Frusciante is...
Marc:Is he in the Peppers then?
Guest:When I met Bob and started playing with Bob and kind of joining the group of people, the greater group of people that have been around playing, John was not yet in the band.
Guest:He was just sort of reemerging from a dark period where he wasn't in the band.
Guest:But he had been in the band before?
Guest:Yeah, in 89, 88, 89, 90.
Guest:Right, and then he disappeared into a heroin hole?
Guest:Yeah, eventually.
Guest:Whatever.
Guest:Yeah, the void.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He left the band in 92.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then...
Guest:Yeah, so he rejoined the Chili Peppers a year or so after I started playing with Bob.
Guest:And yeah, I think maybe even before the Chili Pepper album, Californication, came out, John and I had started becoming friends, and he came and played that solo.
Guest:With Bob.
Guest:Yeah, we just started hanging out all the time.
Marc:And you were playing with Bob?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And he played the solo, and then you guys started hanging out?
Guest:Started hanging out.
Guest:I had become pretty obsessed with his first solo album.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Which was put out in 94.
Guest:Which one was that?
Guest:It's called Neandra Lades.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:Usually just a t-shirt.
Guest:It's kind of two things together.
Marc:Did he was so, you know, he was sort of, you liked the way he played.
Guest:I loved the way he played.
Guest:I loved the way he wrote songs.
Guest:I loved the way he sang.
Guest:That record just sort of, it's funny because I just, I came across something recently where he had said something that that album was never meant to be released.
Guest:So it's just, it was just sort of a demo or something.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:What about that record was so, like, incredible?
Guest:Well, just that.
Guest:I think it was just made for no one to hear.
Guest:It was sort of made for, you know, sort of a pure audience of himself or, you know, people he knew.
Marc:And what was it about the way he played that was, like, so fucking, like, compelling to you?
Marc:Because he was sort of a, like, he got out there.
Guest:Yeah, well, I mean, he just has an incredible inherent sort of sound that comes from his fingers.
Guest:It's wild, right?
Guest:But he's very skilled and very, you know, he's a student of the guitar.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And he knows how to, you know, he created a sound of his own.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Taking a lot from, you know, all the amazing guitar players.
Marc:But isn't weird how somebody can, like, take, like,
Marc:It doesn't matter how fast or what people know for them to have their own sound.
Marc:I was just talking about that to someone the other day, because we were talking about John Merrick, because I went to see Dead & Company, because my brother wanted to see him, so I got us hooked up.
Marc:And I don't know who he is as a guitar player, you know, but he's a great guitar player.
Marc:But I don't know exactly what his tone is or what his sound is.
Marc:But there are some people that are much less, they have much less virtuosity who I can identify immediately because of their tone and their feel.
Guest:Yeah, that's something I, you know, I, so I would say I play like someone who didn't grow up playing guitar and I just sort of figured it out as I went along and I always felt like I was playing ketchup.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And, and playing with Bob and, you know, just, I guess, influences coming out in my playing, but I'm trying to, let me.
Marc:No, I think you have a singular sound.
Marc:Are you saying that because there wasn't a lot of... A lot of people spend time mimicking people.
Guest:Yeah, or just learning actual finger exercises and scales and stuff.
Guest:Did you?
Guest:No, not at all.
Guest:I just played songs.
Guest:And then I played with Bob until I was probably about 20, 21.
Guest:On the road, how many records did he do?
Guest:We just did the one, but being friends with the Chili Peppers, we did two opening tours for them as the first of three.
Guest:One was with Foo Fighters, one was with Stone Temple Pilots.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah, just on that Californication tour when they were hitting it hard and going every corner of the country.
Guest:And you did like a lot of dates?
Guest:Yeah, we did two three-week legs.
Marc:So you're really getting your full immersion.
Guest:Full immersion, which is why when I ultimately joined later on, it was sort of, everything felt kind of natural.
Guest:I had known everyone in their touring family for years.
Marc:Right, you weren't a new entity.
Marc:I knew how it worked.
Marc:Right.
Marc:But that first spot, that's kind of a rough spot.
Marc:People are trickling in.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:No one gives a fuck.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But, you know, it's still, for me, I'm 20, 21, and I just...
Guest:I barely look out at the crowd anyway.
Guest:I know all that.
Guest:I know people are getting their beers and finding their seats.
Guest:But, you know, just that opportunity to do that.
Marc:And so the relationship with John, though, was he like showing you shit?
Guest:I wouldn't know.
Guest:I mean, not specifically showing me shit, but just through, you know, the relationship we were building as friends.
Guest:I mean, he was hugely influential just, you know, on many levels.
Guest:Is he older than you?
Guest:Yeah, he's nine years older than me.
Guest:When he joined the Chili Peppers, he was sort of the 10-year-younger-than-them group, and I'm the 10-year-younger-than-him group, or nine years.
Guest:I'm 18 years younger than the other Chili Peppers.
Marc:Are you?
Marc:So they're a little older than me?
Marc:I'm 56, so they're in that zone.
Guest:Yeah, they were born in 62, 61.
Guest:63, oh yeah.
Guest:I'm 79.
Guest:Wow.
Marc:So how does it evolve though?
Marc:So you tour with them, and then you go out and do your own thing?
Guest:Well, my own thing, so having the dream of always being in a band and sort of starting the thing with Bob, but it wasn't a band so much.
Guest:It was he and I, and then we got a couple guys to help play it live.
Guest:But when I stopped playing with Bob, that would have been the moment to...
Guest:start something, something like that.
Guest:And that was right at the beginning of my 20s.
Guest:And I just sort of spent my whole 20s touring with other bands, amazing bands.
Guest:Chili Peppers were on tour.
Guest:I had a suspended driver's license.
Guest:And Frusciante was living at the Chateau Marmont.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But he wasn't checking out because it would have been too much of, you know, to come back and find somewhere new.
Guest:So I stayed there for two and a half weeks and recorded basically an album there.
Marc:With him?
Guest:No, on my own.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because I had nowhere to go.
Marc:At the Chateau?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because I had nowhere to go.
Guest:I just had my cassette eight track and no license.
Guest:So I stayed up, you know, just recording all night and just...
Guest:Made basically a record, but no one ever heard it.
Guest:And then at the end of that stay there, Gibby Haynes had called Bob maybe and called John and said, we need a guy, we need a guitar player who can also play drums.
Guest:So I went out with the- With the Butthole Surfers?
Guest:Yeah, for a month and a half.
Guest:That must have been crazy.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:I have no sense of what those dudes are like other than the music, which is its own thing.
Marc:Were they touring on a record?
Marc:Was it Haraway to Stephen?
Guest:No, no, no, way after that.
Guest:It was touring on a record that was called Weird Revolution, I think.
Marc:I guess Haraway to Stephen is something that came out when I was younger.
Marc:Yeah, this was a... That was like their biggest record or something.
Marc:They had done a bunch of weirdo records, and then Haraway to Stephen was sort of like...
Guest:Well, then they had the massive hit in the early 90s called Pepper.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I toured on the record after that.
Guest:Oh, Pepper, right.
Guest:That wasn't on Hairway to Steven?
Guest:No, no, no.
Guest:That was on Electric Larry Land.
Marc:Electric Larry Land.
Marc:If I remember right.
Marc:Oh, I can't remember the song now, the Pepper song.
Marc:What was the chorus of it?
Marc:I don't know.
Guest:I don't mind the sun sometimes.
Marc:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:That was a good song.
Guest:Yeah, it was great.
Guest:I think I still have the backing track CD backup in my guitar case.
Marc:There were some real psychedelic weirdos, right?
Guest:Yeah, not so much when I was touring with them.
Guest:What were they?
Marc:Just old timers out to making a buck?
Guest:Well, you know.
Guest:What?
Guest:I mean, you know, yeah, some version of that.
Guest:I think they were, you know, they hadn't been a band in a while, so they got back together, made a record.
Guest:They were sort of, you know, I don't know.
Marc:How many of them were there when you were touring?
Guest:Well, it was Gibby, Paul, King, and then they had a bass player at the time who wasn't an original band.
Marc:And did you have to learn the shit?
Guest:I learned the shit.
Guest:I learned the set.
Guest:We played the same set.
Guest:It was an enormously efficient rehearsal schedule.
Guest:We would get together at 12.30 p.m., play the set once, break, come back at 8 p.m., do it again.
Guest:And so I got on a schedule.
Guest:I was living in a Days Inn in Austin, and I would stay up late watching TV, playing guitar, practicing, doing whatever, and I'd wake up pretty much 12.15, get up,
Guest:Go to the place.
Guest:Get to the car.
Guest:They pick me up.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I did that September 11th, 2001.
Guest:Walked downstairs.
Guest:Good morning, guys.
Guest:You know, drinking coffee.
Guest:And they look back at me and they're like, do you know what's, what?
Guest:And they said, you don't know.
Guest:The Trade Center is gone.
Guest:Pentagon, you don't know.
Guest:So that's how I had to go to rehearsal and do a whole hour and a half rehearsal until I could see what was going on.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then I went back to my hotel and basically saw the birth of the news ticker and was in Texas for a month.
Guest:Wow.
Marc:So you guys had a play that day?
Marc:We rehearsed, yeah.
Guest:It's funny.
Guest:I think we did go back that night and rehearsed, yeah.
Guest:Did you have to drum?
Guest:I did stand-up double drums because King played drums, but I kind of did what they had to do.
Guest:in the 80s.
Marc:And now when you're doing that, so that's your next gig after Forest was you got pulled into the Butthole Surfers reunion tour.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And yet you wanted to start your own thing.
Marc:So what happened to that thing you made at the Chateau?
Guest:Nothing.
Guest:I remember the bass player of that Buttholes tour kind of compressed it and quote unquote mastered it the day before we left.
Guest:And I just listened to it on my own.
Guest:I gave it to a friend or two.
Guest:And that's it.
Guest:It still lives in a couple of iPods.
Guest:You don't have it?
Guest:Oh, I have it.
Guest:No, I just re-recorded one of the songs, actually.
Guest:There's still a couple songs on it that I love, but I mean, so developing as a songwriter or as a front man, I mean, I went from being a kid drummer to someone who's barely considering themselves a guitar player to now wondering, do I start a band?
Guest:Do I sing?
Guest:But then I basically lived my dream throughout my 20s with other bands, you know, kind of
Marc:Well, what was the next one?
Marc:What was after the Butthole Surfer tour?
Marc:The 9-11 Butthole Surfer.
Guest:Then after that, I did some stuff around town.
Guest:I was really a big fan of John Bryan at the time.
Guest:I used to go to Largo all the time.
Guest:Oh, yeah?
Marc:And he threw a friend of his- That's a different world than the- It's sort of weird, the LA worlds of music.
Marc:That's definitely not the chili pepper world.
Guest:No, not at all.
Marc:But it is its own world.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know how that happened, this playing with John Bryan happened because after I'd stopped playing with Bob in The Bicycle Thief, we actually had our record re-released in some funny way.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And there was a record release party at the Viper Room and Bob had asked me to do it because a sort of
Guest:older wallflowers the counting crows type band was assembled for him that he didn't know just put together and he said come on would you do it I mean it's these guys I don't know some of the guys from those bands right so I said sure sure I know the songs and we had a brief fight you know that we mended pretty quickly so I came and I did it and I didn't bring a case and I you know brought my guitar in off the street jumped on played and left
Guest:And the drummer that night was a guy named Dan McCarroll, who I used to see play with John Bryan all the time at Largo, week after week.
Guest:So a year after that Bicycle Thief show at the Viper Room, I got a call from him saying, hey, remember me?
Guest:I played with you a year ago, Viper Room.
Guest:I'm friends with John Bryan.
Guest:We're doing this rock band residency at Spaceland.
Guest:Because he did the weekly Largo thing, but they had asked him if he would do a...
Guest:or a band version, kind of play his songs, but with other guys, or like a rock fan.
Guest:And I was shocked.
Guest:And I was like, I'm not going to go be the second guitarist.
Guest:He was one of my favorites.
Guest:He's an incredible player.
Guest:And everything in my being told me to say, oh, thank you.
Guest:But I didn't.
Guest:And that's kind of how I've just lived all.
Marc:But what'd you learn from working with John?
Marc:Because he's sort of a notorious genius guy.
Guest:Yeah, I mean, I just sort of... And he was playing guitar, not piano?
Guest:He was playing both, but mostly guitar, because that was the point, to just be a rock band, guitar-based rock band.
Guest:So we would trade solos, and I'm obviously nowhere near the guitar player he is, but I think he liked in me that I had gone to see him at Largo so many times.
Guest:I knew his songs by watching him, and his record wasn't out yet.
Guest:So when we got together to rehearse the day before the first show or something, I'm playing all his songs from watching him.
Guest:Oh, you knew him.
Guest:So I think it touched him in that way.
Guest:We became friends.
Guest:That was 2002.
Guest:Are you still friends with him?
Guest:I haven't talked to him in a while.
Guest:I just saw him at Argo.
Marc:I did a show at Argo a month or so ago.
Guest:I don't think I've seen John play at the New Largo, if that tells you how long it's been.
Marc:He played piano on a thing.
Marc:It was a Judd Apatow show.
Marc:I was not part of that whole scene.
Marc:I'd come into New York back then.
Marc:I'd come in from New York.
Marc:I moved here in 2008.
Marc:to the second time, but I was not part of that whole music trip.
Marc:It was like Amy Mann and John Bryan and Fiona Apple and Ben Montinch sometimes, right?
Guest:Is that the crew?
Guest:Yeah, Elliot Smith a lot at that time.
Marc:Elliot Smith at that time, right.
Guest:Did you play with that guy?
Guest:I'm trying to remember if I ever shared the stage, because after I met and became friends with John, I would try and, you know, any time I could.
Guest:At the original Largo.
Guest:Yeah, I would go up and play drums a little bit or play some guitar, and I feel like there was some Elliot crossover.
Marc:And was there comics around then?
Marc:I don't remember.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:The comedians, like Zach and Paul F. Tompkins.
Guest:Yeah, Zach.
Guest:That's the first time I saw Zach.
Guest:I saw Paul all the time.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Greg Barron.
Marc:Yeah, Greg Barron.
Marc:I don't know what's up with him.
Marc:I haven't seen him in a while.
Guest:He did something with Bob Forrest a while ago, a podcast.
Guest:Probably.
Marc:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Marc:That's probably right.
Marc:Okay, so there you did it again.
Marc:So you're hanging out with John Bryan, but when's the next recording stuff that you did?
Guest:Well, I didn't do a ton of recording from that point on.
Guest:After John, I mean, maybe through people I met there, I got a call from Beck.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:In 2003, I went on tour with Beck.
Guest:And now at this point, I'd really done Bicycle Thief Touring and Butthole Surfers Touring.
Guest:And now I'm going on tour with Beck.
Guest:And that's another step up in sort of venue size.
Guest:You're playing with Beck.
Guest:Playing guitar in Beck's band.
Guest:Which tour?
Guest:It was kind of the third iteration of the sea change period.
Guest:I think he went out with Flaming Lips first.
Guest:Then he went out with just Smokey Hormel, who's an amazing guitar player.
Guest:And he was the last person to play guitar with him at that point.
Guest:So I'm like,
Guest:I'm feeling smoky shoes what the fuck I can't do this and but I went and you know I got that and that band at the time was I mean it was an amazing band I mean I'm not putting myself into it but Jay Bellarose played drums Steve McDonald played bass Greg Kirsten
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Keyboard player.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And we all got on incredibly well.
Guest:And I'm only 22 or 23, and I'm hanging out with all these older people, which I've always sort of done.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And even though I look young, I'm just sort of in and amongst all these incredible people.
Guest:And I'm living my dream.
Marc:It's the dream, playing with Beck in the big rooms.
Guest:Yeah, playing music with people you like.
Marc:Now, I have to assume that you're picking up things.
Marc:This is part of the evolution of your sound.
Marc:I mean, because how big is the pedal board at that point?
Guest:It usually was just as big as it had to be to do what I was doing.
Marc:Now it's pretty big, right?
Guest:It is big, yeah.
Guest:But if you look at, you know, when I joined the Chili Peppers, John's was pretty big when he left.
Guest:So I was kind of doing what I, you know, I was covering my bases.
Guest:I have such a aversion to any of the modern things.
Guest:jiggery-pokery that you can do with live, you know, like amp modelers or MIDI effects or anything.
Guest:What do they do?
Guest:What, those things?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, they allow you to have lots of sounds with very little gear.
Marc:Oh, you like to have the thing that does the one thing.
Guest:Yeah, and, you know, tap dance all over it and smash it and, you know, unplug the power and look at your guitar tech and watch them come out and try and fix it in front of a lot of people.
Guest:Yeah, I've seen you do that.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:You get pretty athletic with the pedal board.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Okay, so after Beck, then you're playing with John?
Guest:Yeah, in that period, yeah.
Guest:We had started making records together.
Guest:We would hang out anytime he was off.
Guest:How'd you not get fucked up on drugs?
Guest:Well, none of those people were at that time.
Marc:They were all sober.
Guest:Yeah, and also, you know, I...
Guest:I had my period a little later.
Guest:Oh, you did?
Guest:But not that bad.
Guest:And I mean, like, you know, doing heroin and doing that kind of stuff.
Guest:I mean, it's funny the stories we tell ourself about what's acceptable and what's not.
Marc:So you just did heroin socially.
Guest:Well, not that.
Guest:No, I never went there.
Guest:But, you know, it's just it felt a little ridiculous to be younger, see what happens.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And go, that's good for me.
Guest:But having said that, other things.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:You dive right in.
Marc:But you were able, I guess by certainly having a relationship with Bob and seeing the destruction it reaped on, those bands, that scene got kind of leveled with that shit.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:But everybody got sober, man.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, the ones who, yeah.
Guest:The ones who were alive?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So you're playing with John and you're doing his trippy records.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, well, we were hanging out all the time, kind of listening to records, practicing vocal harmonies, and just kind of being friends, and we decided to make a record together, and it sort of turned into his solo album, Shadows Collide With People, because that was the group of songs he had written at that time.
Guest:We started, and I was playing drums, and we had done a lot of demos, and...
Guest:It was the first time I'd ever really recorded drums in a proper studio situation.
Guest:And it was so much for me to handle.
Guest:I barely play drums anymore at this point.
Guest:So we called Chad in, Chad Smith, to the rescue.
Guest:And then this freed me up to play bass.
Guest:And then all of a sudden we were tracking as a three-piece.
Guest:And that's how that record came about, the Shadows Collider with People album.
Guest:And we had a great time doing that.
Guest:How good are you on bass?
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I can do it.
Marc:You can do it?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But it wasn't your instrument.
Guest:Well, no, it wasn't my instrument, but I love playing bass.
Guest:And the next touring gig that I had was initially sold to me as I would be the bass player.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And it was with PJ Harvey.
Guest:And I get a call from her, another answering machine message.
Guest:How'd she find you?
Guest:She found me through Vincent Gallo.
Marc:Did you hang out with Vince?
Marc:Did you play?
Guest:Yeah, I played with him.
Guest:And that was through Frusciante.
Guest:They'd become friends.
Guest:They worked together.
Guest:Him and Gallow?
Guest:Yeah, he did a video with John for a song.
Marc:Like, Gallow was this guy that was just around all the time and was like, you know, he was this sort of barometer of some sort of cool.
Marc:But I never really knew what he did, really.
Guest:Well, he does lots of stuff.
Guest:I know.
Marc:He makes movies.
Marc:He makes music.
Marc:He dresses a certain way.
Marc:He looks like he does...
Guest:He had been asked to do a couple gigs in Japan where he has a particularly strong following.
Guest:So he put a little band together and it was myself and Carla Azar.
Guest:Has she been in?
Guest:No.
Guest:She was in a band called Autolux.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Played with Jack White recently.
Guest:But yeah, the three of us.
Guest:I think I had met Carla around that time.
Guest:It was great.
Guest:And we did four shows in Japan.
Guest:It was like touring with the Beatles sort of.
Guest:Really?
Guest:People banging on the cars.
Guest:Yeah, Vincent's really big over there.
Marc:And that was just another side project you did.
Marc:You went to Japan with Gallo.
Guest:Yeah, and then I did it again a year later.
Guest:We did the Fuji Festival.
Guest:But yeah, Vincent gave Polly my number, and she left a message.
Guest:And the original plan was she had started playing again as a three-piece, which I had seen her do when I was out with Beck.
Guest:We played back-to-back at a festival in France.
Guest:And that was her original, you know, first two records are three-piece.
Guest:Dry.
Guest:Her on guitar.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:Yeah, and it was the original drummer Rob Ellis and Mick Harvey from the Bad Seeds on bass.
Guest:So she calls me and says, I want to go out as a trio again.
Guest:Mick has a commitment to the Bad Seeds.
Guest:Would you play bass?
Guest:And I was, yes, I will.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So we started a friendship, and I was going to play bass, and then over the course of the next maybe four, five, six months, she had seen The Fall play, and at the time The Fall had a bass player called Ding, and she decided that he was a great bass player, and she didn't want to play guitar, so I got moved to guitar, which was fine.
Guest:So I played guitar, and then I actually wound up playing double drums.
Marc:See, she just pulled the bass player from The Fall?
Marc:Pulled him, yeah, straight out of the fall.
Marc:Yeah, he quit that band?
Marc:That band's gone through a lot of people.
Guest:They go through, yeah, I don't know if he officially had to quit.
Guest:I think he just sort of stepped aside.
Guest:He actually maintained a great relationship with Marky Smith until the end, which was rare.
Marc:Yeah, oh, really?
Guest:Yeah, just to kind of, especially to leave the band.
Marc:Are you a fall fan?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I don't know a lot about them, but I'm playing catch up with a lot of those bands, but I've been getting a lot of their records, and I can see how it would integrate into your trip.
Guest:I had through that, my then bandmate, I got to sit in the room and hang out with Mark in the background and just sort of hope he didn't focus in on me and say, what the fuck is this?
Guest:But he didn't?
Guest:He didn't.
Guest:In fact, he talked about me once, referred to me as the American, and I was sitting across the room and he didn't know it was me.
Marc:So did you record with PJ or no?
Guest:No, it was just touring.
Guest:How many dates?
Guest:A lot of dates?
Guest:Yeah, I mean, at the time it felt really long, but it was actually only, you know, over the course of a year.
Guest:I think we started rehearsing in March, April, and then we were done by December.
Guest:And what album was she touring?
Guest:What was it?
Guest:It was called Uh-Huh-Her.
Guest:Mm.
Guest:04.
Guest:Yeah.
Yeah.
Guest:But we toured a lot.
Guest:It's funny that it was only 10 months or so.
Guest:We went to Australia twice.
Guest:We were playing a lot.
Guest:Do you keep in touch with these people?
Guest:Some of them.
Guest:It's weird, right?
Guest:I guess you get older.
Guest:Yeah, I keep in touch with most of the people in that band.
Guest:My guitar tech that I met on that tour came with me to the Chili Peppers.
Marc:So like a guitar tech, is that like he's your guy?
Guest:Well, yeah, I mean, he and I just became great friends on that PJ Harvey tour.
Guest:I was the only American, and at the time I was obsessed with England and all things English, and I was just trying to survive in this sea of Englishness.
Guest:And, you know, they sort of accepted me and gave me an honorary, you know.
Guest:What, British badge?
Guest:Yeah, whatever that means.
Guest:They knighted you?
Guest:I was sufficiently aware of the right humor and music that I got in.
Guest:But, yeah, I'm in touch with most people from...
Marc:Well, that's good.
Marc:You don't have any enemies?
Marc:No, I don't think so.
Marc:That's good.
Marc:So outside of the Chili Peppers and those Frusciante records, you've done the Dot Hacker records and the Puro One records?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, because I was just touring, and that was the thing.
Guest:I was getting, after the PJ Harvey tour, I did some, like 2005, I tried to start a band with a guy here in LA that I'd known for a while that didn't take off.
Guest:And then
Guest:I was just sort of hanging around.
Guest:I toured with that band Gnarls Barkley.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because I'm friends with Brian Burton, Danger Mouse Brian.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I did a record with him and Martina Topley Bird.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:Who sang with Tricky.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I remember Tricky.
Guest:What happened to that guy?
Guest:He's around.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And Martina, she's on his first couple records, and she's got one of the greatest voices.
Guest:And she was making a solo record, and it was pretty much just Danger Mouse, Brian, myself, and her.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then when they went to put the Gnarles Barkley live band together...
Guest:It happened pretty quickly, I think.
Guest:And the guitarist who wound up touring, who's become one of my closest friends, Clint Walsh, he had a prior engagement, so he couldn't do the first show, something like that.
Guest:So Brian asked me to fill in.
Guest:So I hung out, went to rehearsal, made the trip to Scotland we played, four songs.
Guest:So we, you know, crazy, played crazy live for the first time in the UK.
Guest:It was the biggest song of that year.
Guest:And then, you know, went home like, thanks.
Guest:That was fun.
Guest:That was a huge crowd.
Guest:It was.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It was a BBC thing.
Guest:So then, but that was it still, you know, kind of, I'm not sure what I'm doing at this point.
Guest:And then I started playing with Sparks.
Guest:Do you know that band?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:They're an LA band though, right?
Guest:They're old guys now.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:They've been around a while that they, you know, they have an amazing career and they,
Marc:I never understood their music.
Guest:Well, it's changed a lot.
Marc:I know.
Marc:I've got a bunch of their records because they're a project of mine.
Marc:I have a bunch of records downstairs.
Marc:And I know there's certain people that they're a unique thing that have a very specific audience.
Marc:And I have the records and I try every once in a while, but somehow my brain doesn't know where to put it.
Guest:Well, they have a lot of different periods, and that was what was interesting about them.
Guest:They have different kinds of fans in different countries because they had hits in England in the 70s, France in the 80s, Germany in the 90s.
Guest:In Russia, they're this crazy cult band because Ron wore his mustache a little close to another... Yeah, hitler mustache.
Guest:So I think for that reason alone, they were put on this...
Guest:blacklist in Russia.
Guest:So because of that, all the sort of against the grain people sought out Sparks.
Guest:So when Sparks, when I played with them in Russia in February of 06, it was, again, not like the Beatles, but there were people that were like,
Marc:Do they like the music or just the mustache?
Guest:Well, the mustache is gone now, but I think they like the music, too.
Guest:What's your favorite Sparks record?
Guest:Propaganda, maybe?
Guest:But I like a lot of them, because then they have a record from the late 70s called Number One in Heaven that they did with Giorgio Moroder, which is all synthesizers and disco soundings.
Guest:It sounds like Donna Summers and that stuff.
Guest:And then...
Marc:Maybe I have a hard time with bands that do that.
Marc:I don't know if that's true.
Guest:Well, the thing was they were never a band band.
Guest:They had bands at times, but it was always pretty much just the brothers, Ron and Russell.
Guest:They're probably working right now.
Guest:They work harder than most people, and they're just always going.
Guest:When they first started and they had the massive hit, this town ain't big enough for the both of us in England, they had a rock band.
Guest:I think Queen opened for them.
Guest:It was like they had a thing and somehow had this massive hit that if we would play it in England now, it's like people playing Smells Like Teen Spirit or something.
Marc:And you went out with them for a while?
Guest:I went out with them.
Guest:Yeah, well, it was funny because I went out with them because I had become really good friends with Steve McDonald from Red Cross.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And he was in the Beck band with me.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And then he said, you know, come on, do this tour with me.
Marc:Red Cross, that's a good band.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I'm on tour with Sparks.
Guest:We're in London on a layover on our way to Russia.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I go see my friend Brian, Danger Mouse Brian.
Guest:And I had become chummy with some of the guys when I did the fill-in a few months before.
Guest:And the keyboard player whispers in my ear, you know, I
Guest:I left the band today.
Guest:I don't do it anymore.
Guest:And then 10 minutes later, Brian says, yeah, the keyboard, you know, my name.
Guest:He said, left the band today.
Guest:So I think there was an open bar that night and I said, I'll do it.
Guest:And I remember flying.
Guest:We flew to Russia the next morning.
Guest:I remember walking around.
Guest:It was crazy.
Guest:The World Cup was going on and I'm in St.
Guest:Petersburg.
Guest:But you don't play keyboard, do you?
Guest:So yeah, so I told myself that when I asked myself what I had said the night before.
Guest:So I figured it out.
Guest:And the guy who had done it prior to me was an incredible player.
Guest:So you just figured out the riffs for the songs.
Guest:I mean, I know how to play keyboards enough.
Guest:I know how to play chords, and I actually write on piano a lot these days.
Guest:But, you know, I'm not a keyboard.
Guest:Right, I get it.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:So you're doing all this stuff, and you're still kind of hanging out with John.
Marc:And so how does the...
Marc:I guess we're getting close to the Peppers, aren't we?
Guest:We're getting close.
Guest:We're getting close.
Guest:Yeah, because Gnarls Barkley is what led to.
Guest:So Gnarls, being maybe through label, whatever, they start opening for the Chili Peppers in the Stadium Arcadium period.
Guest:And this is great for me because I'm friends with them and I know their tour, everyone on it.
Guest:So everyone's hanging out.
Guest:Yeah, so I'm in there.
Guest:And how did that happen?
Guest:There was a cancellation because of a snowstorm.
Guest:So there was a makeup show on one of the legs and Narls decided at the last minute not to go down to Mexico.
Guest:But because I'm friends with the Chili Peppers, I was like, you guys are crazy.
Guest:Mexico City is the greatest place to play.
Guest:is it fuck you guys yeah i'm gonna go with them i just you know it's the best so i just to hang out yeah so i go and i hadn't seen john in a while or um because i'd been on tour and stuff so we hung out it was fun played then they had to make up the show in oklahoma city that had been snowed at the beginning but narles isn't here anymore so they had another person open the show but i'm hanging out nothing to do so i play on stage with them and
Guest:Because at the time on the Stadium Arcadium album, there was lots of extra guitar, lots of overdubs John was doing.
Guest:So there were songs that they couldn't really play because there was too much to cover for him alone.
Guest:So I played a song or two that night, a song I think.
Guest:And yeah, on the flight home from that, I think that was the first time I had flown in to Van Nuys Airport, which is right where I grew up.
Guest:Private plane?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So on the plane home, someone had come up with the idea, maybe Chad, to ask me to come out on the rest of the tour because it was fun.
Guest:Maybe my demeanor lightened the...
Guest:in the mood a bit, I don't know.
Guest:But yeah, and then I was able to- So you did that?
Guest:To cover the extra guitar parts, do some background vocals, play some keys.
Guest:So yeah, so that's 2007.
Guest:So I went out with them the rest of their tour, 07 through the end of it.
Guest:And after they finished that tour, they had a very clear two-year hiatus.
Guest:And they said to everyone that works with them, don't even, don't talk to us.
Guest:Really?
Guest:We're shutting it down for two years.
Guest:And they honored that.
Guest:They did, yeah.
Guest:Flea went to music school.
Guest:Anthony was a new dad at the time.
Guest:John was always making music.
Guest:Chad started another band.
Guest:He went on a whole tour in that period.
Guest:So yeah, two years, nothing.
Guest:And then as that two-year period came to a close, the other guys were like,
Guest:All right.
Guest:And John still wasn't up for getting back in and doing it.
Guest:Because he was into his own shit?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And he was, again, he's one of the most amazing, he has one of the most amazing work ethics and he's incredible like that.
Guest:So yeah, he was doing tons of great music, but they weren't done and they wanted to keep going.
Guest:And
Guest:I was there.
Guest:So that's when that started.
Guest:And that was 09.
Guest:July 20th is when Flea asked me.
Guest:They were still kind of tying up some vacations and stuff.
Guest:And October, right after I turned 30, is when we played for the first time.
Guest:And it was crazy.
Guest:In a rehearsal space?
Guest:Yeah, in the alley, out in the valley.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Which is where they had written Blood Sugar, I think.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Yeah, it was amazing.
Guest:All of a sudden, I'm in this band.
Marc:Were you putting together a touring set?
Guest:No, I joined as a full-time member and a writer.
Marc:Right, so they were working on new material.
Guest:Yeah, because they were shut down for two years.
Guest:Yeah, so it was new album time.
Guest:I hadn't been playing guitar much.
Guest:I'd been doing keyboards and Gnarls Barkley.
Guest:I was writing songs on piano.
Guest:I was messing around with synthesizers, playing drums, playing guitar.
Marc:Had you done any of your own solo albums yet?
Guest:Nothing released, no.
Guest:I had home recordings.
Guest:No, no.
Guest:In the time the Chili Peppers were in their two-year break, I had sworn off touring with other people because that was an amazing experience.
Guest:But that's when I was...
Guest:hitting it like that i'm in these amazing touring situations and i'm surrounded by incredible people all the time but i'm kind of miserable yeah and i'm and why is that because i'm you know i've always wanted to be in my own band or have my own songs and do that and i'm hiding in these other people's projects and but like i said i was sort of living the dream i'm kind of doing bigger and bigger venues yeah yeah but but do you feel like no one really knows who you are
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And which is, you know, that's a funny thing because I don't know how much of that I care about.
Guest:I just, I want to do, I want to write songs and I want to play, I want to have a band.
Guest:I've wanted it since I was a kid.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But I'm starting to realize more and more and more that I'm hiding from taking that responsibility.
Guest:And I'm sort of, you know, it's a lot easier to tour with other people.
Guest:Sure.
Marc:It's not on you.
Guest:But I'm, you know, I'm literally saying.
Guest:You just got to do your part.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I'm literally saying like, this is killing me.
Guest:I got to stop.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And that and, uh, and, um,
Marc:So it's your dark period.
Guest:Yeah, you know, but still kind of getting it done and playing and doing these tours and making friends and making lasting friendships.
Guest:But that's when I put Dot Hacker together and I swore that this is, you know, finally I'm going to do my band.
Guest:I'm going to stop being a, you know, stop being scared.
Guest:I'm going to write songs.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And Clint Walsh from Narls' touring band, Eric Gardner from Narls' second touring band.
Guest:and a bass player named Jonathan Hischke that I had met through some friends.
Guest:I convinced him to move to LA.
Guest:We started Dot Hacker and that was, you know, and it was only, we named it that because we needed a name because my friend who I met Bob Forrest through, whose sister dated Bob, he was booking the Troubadour.
Guest:He gave us a show there.
Guest:Dot Hacker was Eric, the drummer's grandma.
Guest:Dot Hacker was her name?
Guest:Dorothy Hacker, yeah.
Guest:So, you know, everyone was sort of, you know, is that our name?
Guest:And then somehow it just stuck.
Guest:I like calling it the dots.
Guest:But I'm still sort of figuring out how to be a singer and a front person and write songs.
Guest:I'd sort of come out of being in the shadows.
Marc:Do you have a following with that band?
Marc:I mean, are people getting on board?
Guest:There's a couple, especially, well, so that band was basically put on hold because shortly after I started working.
Guest:You got the Peppers.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But I was able to, and because of the opportunities that Chili Peppers brought to me, I was able to sort of keep that band going the whole time.
Guest:And every time we had a couple months off, I was able to do another Dot Hacker album.
Guest:We didn't get to tour it.
Guest:We played a couple little tours.
Guest:We opened for Blonde Redhead once.
Guest:We went to Japan for two shows.
Guest:But we weren't able to be a band.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So, yeah, that was, but I mean, you know, through being in the Chili Peppers, people have heard it.
Guest:Not a ton of people.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But that's the funny thing.
Guest:It's like, you know, again, though.
Guest:I like your label.
Guest:Oh, yeah, they're great.
Guest:Yeah, and that O-R-G.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, Andrew.
Guest:He's the savior.
Marc:Like, yeah, they sent me a bunch of stuff when they sent me your stuff, but they have a very eclectic sort of reissue taste.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, they do great.
Marc:And they do a really good job with them.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Like their nice heavy vinyl sounds like the mix is really good on all this old shit.
Marc:They're using the real shit.
Marc:Yeah, they know what they're doing.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And that was a funny thing because we had made the first Dodd Hacker album two years before I think it came out.
Guest:And then Steve McDonald again, who I was friends with, he was working at- The Red Cross guy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He was working at Warner Brothers at the time.
Guest:He played it for a guy down the hall who was at ORG.
Guest:The guy, Andrew, who runs ORG now, was kind of assisting this guy, Jeff.
Guest:And Jeff liked the record.
Guest:He knew that I was in the Chili Peppers now, and he knew that if anything happened with the record, it was all in-house, more or less, because they were based out of Warner Brothers building.
Guest:So they decided to put the record out.
Guest:We didn't think Dot Hacker's album would ever come out or there'd be any life for it.
Guest:I'm in the Chili Peppers now.
Guest:So then that first album, which I brought for you.
Marc:Which one?
Marc:Let me see it.
Marc:This one.
Marc:The first Dot Hacker record?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:This came out, you know, right as I sort of, right as I. This is the first one.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And that's right as I, you know, the first Chili Pepper album I did came out.
Guest:Yeah, I think I got a later one.
Guest:I don't know if he sent me this one.
Guest:Yeah, here.
Guest:I brought you all of them.
Guest:This is my whole catalog.
Guest:Thanks, buddy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And this is your Chili Pepper record.
Guest:The Getaway.
Guest:Well, the two of them there.
Guest:These two.
Guest:Actually, those last three.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:These last three.
Guest:Those are the two records that are official records and the one in the middle is the collection of extra songs.
Marc:Well, thanks, man.
Marc:So working with those guys, I mean, being in that band because you were in that band, did you feel that you were able to sort of carve out your own trip?
Marc:I mean, they've had several guitarists, but did you feel like, you know, you were able to leave your mark on that guy, that band?
Guest:I hope so.
Marc:Because when I noticed when you play with them, only the couple of few songs I saw you do, and they were songs generally that you didn't record with them, but you sound like yourself.
Guest:That's good, yeah.
Guest:I mean, that's the thing I was sort of unaware of the whole time.
Guest:I learned, I never read the internet anyway, but the beginning, the first tour I did with them, I'm sure there was lots of people talking about, comparing me to John and all this.
Guest:And, you know, I think I spent probably far too much time thinking about that.
Guest:And, you know, I did all these tours in my 20s and never able to really develop my own style and play other people's stuff.
Guest:But I play like I play and, you know, I learn from who I learn from or, you know, I learn by playing along to what I learn to play along to.
Guest:So there's got to be, you know, a style there.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:And, yeah, I think...
Guest:But again, now I'm in the Chili Peppers.
Guest:I'm playing the songs that have been recorded and famous the world over.
Guest:So I'm trying to be respectful, but I can't help but just be me.
Guest:So hopefully, if this change, John coming back and me leaving had happened...
Guest:five years ago, half my time in, it probably would have destroyed me.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Because it would have confirmed all the things that my mind loves to tell me, that I suck and I'm worthless and all those things.
Guest:But I think now I've done two... We were over a year into writing another album.
Guest:So I've done a lot of writing with them.
Marc:So there's work that hasn't been recorded yet?
Guest:Yeah, that's just going to go away, I guess.
Guest:Wow.
Marc:So they liked writing with you.
Marc:Obviously, you guys were doing stuff.
Guest:Yeah, I think it's a funny thing.
Guest:I think it was all positive.
Guest:It comes down to the history.
Guest:It's a funny position to be in to be the person that for a second could think that John
Guest:you know, doesn't like, oh, I should be there.
Guest:You know, it's absolutely John's place to be in that band.
Guest:So that's why I'm happy for him.
Guest:I'm happy that he's back with them.
Marc:And also there has to be some element of like, so you think that the intent is to do a new record with John?
Guest:Yeah, I think that's the thing.
Guest:No matter what, John and Flea specifically had a musical language and a connection that was made when John was 17, 18.
Guest:Flea was, I don't even think he was 30 yet.
Guest:Hillel had just died.
Guest:The band hadn't had any major success.
Guest:They're very different people, and it's a very different time.
Guest:And when I joined, it's 2009.
Guest:It's a different time.
Guest:And I think, you know, everyone in the band, you know, I couldn't be more grateful for how open they were to me on so many levels.
Guest:I mean, that's why there's that B-Sides album for the first because I brought in a lifetime where the song ideas.
Guest:And we went wild.
Guest:We recorded 50 songs and there was a...
Guest:25, 30 more that didn't get finished.
Guest:It was crazy.
Guest:And it was a great, they were very open to me, very trusting.
Guest:I think there was a lot of, you know, a lot of my work or my writing at the time got sort of pushed aside.
Guest:And as someone who was trying to write and trying to, you know, do my part, I remember it felt a little funny.
Guest:I was sort of like, oh, okay, I thought I was doing good work.
Guest:It's over there.
Guest:You know, and, yeah, I think everyone, you know, Flea, the language that he and I were always trying to, you know, I think he was trying as hard as possible.
Guest:But, you know, you'll never, I'll never be able to compete or contend with the history that he and John have, you know.
Guest:And, yeah.
Marc:Interesting.
Marc:But you definitely had, you could read each other on stage.
Marc:I mean, you knew what was up.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, you know, like I said, if this had happened five years ago, I think it would have been hard for me just temporarily to weigh that against what they had.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But now with double that amount of time, 10 years, two tours and almost three albums of writing, I'm really proud of what I did with them.
Guest:And I feel like we did create something.
Guest:And we did, you know, and aside from the music, just on a personal level with the guys individually as friends, with everyone in the touring family, you know, I feel like I brought something to the whole.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:And, you know, I'm really proud of that.
Guest:Well, that's great, man.
Guest:And, you know, it shows me the growth.
Guest:I tell you, like, I know for sure if this happened five years ago.
Guest:You would have just fallen into yourself.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:And it's also, it's not acrimonious, and you have things you want to do.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:No, I mean, yeah.
Marc:And, you know, you're going to keep all your friends.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know what I mean?
Guest:Yeah, Flea and I had lunch a couple days after.
Guest:You know, he said, this has never happened before.
Guest:They've never made a change, a member change, unless there was a tragedy or a, you know, just a really dark situation or something.
Guest:Yeah, but everything is great.
Marc:How did they tell you?
Marc:Did they all sit down with you?
Guest:Yeah, I came over.
Guest:It was really sweet.
Guest:I rode my bike over because Flea's living really close to me at the moment.
Guest:Yeah, they just said, we'll get right to it.
Guest:We've decided to ask John to come back to the band.
Guest:And I just sort of sat there quiet for a second and I said...
Guest:I'm not surprised.
Guest:And I guess the only thing I could think to say was I wish I could have done something with you guys musically or creatively that would have made this an absolute impossibility.
Guest:But then again, like I said, that's next to impossible.
Marc:Why'd you say that you're not surprised?
Guest:Well, just because I had known that John had reached out to Anthony not too long ago.
Guest:It crossed my mind.
Marc:He saw
Marc:He was on the periphery.
Guest:Yeah, and I hadn't spoken to him, but I saw him at Flea's wedding.
Guest:He looked like he was in a really great place.
Guest:If he's playing guitar again, I think there was a long period where he didn't have much of a relationship with the guitar.
Guest:Really?
Guest:What was he playing, keyboards?
Guest:Lots of synthesizers and programming, and he makes electronic music, and he got incredible at doing that.
Guest:Yeah, I mean, from what I had heard from people, he had sort of put the guitar down for a while.
Guest:That's back.
Guest:He's back, yeah.
Guest:So, yeah, I mean, I... Well, I'm glad you're okay with it, man.
Guest:Yeah, no, I'll have little moments where, at the end of the day, as funny as it could be in that band sometimes and as difficult as writing was sometimes, there's nothing like... And John said this to me when I joined.
Guest:He said, there's nothing like waking up in the morning and coming up with an idea and going and playing it with your friends in a couple hours.
Guest:And that's true.
Guest:Like I said, when I was 10 or 11, I wanted to be in a band.
Guest:I wanted to play music with friends, and I still want to do that.
Guest:Well, you can.
Guest:Yeah, well, hopefully, yeah, yeah.
Marc:So what's the plan?
Marc:You're going to get the Dot Hacker guys together?
Guest:Well, yeah, maybe.
Marc:I mean, this is pretty fresh news.
Guest:It's fresh news, and it's the first time I've had nothing on my calendar since I was a teenager.
Guest:But you're not freaking out.
Guest:No, not yet, no.
Guest:And yeah, no.
Guest:Because I have an amazing workspace.
Guest:Where, at your house?
Guest:No, I have a, I don't call it a studio because I don't really record myself except on little cassette eight tracks.
Guest:It's just a warehouse with tons of stuff.
Marc:And you rent it?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:That's interesting.
Marc:So it's just you or is it a space?
Guest:Yeah, it's just me.
Guest:I have a friend who does kind of furniture and all kinds of art.
Guest:Yeah, she's got a store out front and a workshop in the back.
Marc:I want to get a space.
Marc:I want to play more with people, man.
Marc:Oh, come over.
Marc:Yeah, I don't know, man.
Marc:How do you decide?
Marc:What effects do you lean on the most?
Marc:What pedals?
Guest:Oh, I don't know.
Guest:I mean, there's so much now.
Guest:Yeah, I think I have a reputation for having a big pedal board.
Guest:But I love the most just playing clean, you know, and sort of... Yeah, the Strat plays clean.
Guest:It's the best.
Guest:You have a ton of things you can do with just the tone knobs.
Guest:You can, huh?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And I got that weird little 57 Fender Deluxe over there.
Guest:Yeah, beautiful.
Guest:What do you play through, though, with the end?
Guest:I think I have one of those.
Guest:You do?
Guest:I'm not sure if it's the same exact year.
Guest:Mine might be a year after.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:They're good when you crank them all the way up, huh?
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:Get all dirty.
Guest:Yeah, it's incredible.
Guest:If that's what you want.
Guest:Yeah, I have too much stuff, actually.
Guest:I'm probably going to have to, you know.
Marc:But you play Firebirds, too?
Guest:I have one, yeah.
Guest:Just one?
Guest:Yep, have one.
Guest:Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
Guest:I have a bunch.
Guest:I have a couple, but yeah, I've not.
Guest:Let's see.
Guest:I have three Firebirds.
Guest:You like them?
Guest:I do, yeah.
Guest:The Firebird 7.
Guest:Polly Harvey played that on the tour that I did with her, and I would play it for a couple songs, and I sort of fell in love with it there.
Marc:What's the sound like?
Marc:Is it a humbucker or it's a weird single coil?
Guest:There are those Gibson mini humbuckers, yeah.
Guest:And I have a Les Paul in it with a Firebird pickup, which is what Neil Young and then Daniel Amois, I think he based one of his guitars on Neil's, where you put the mini humbucker in the bridge position.
Guest:Yeah, so you kind of have two really disparate tones.
Guest:Like between the humbucker and the mini humbucker?
Marc:Between the, yeah.
Marc:I thought that Neil played those P90s.
Guest:Yeah, so it's a P90 in the neck and a Firebird in the bridge with a Bigsby.
Marc:Wow, that's what that black Neil Young guitar that fucked up deluxe?
Guest:Yeah, it's a gold top.
Guest:I know, yeah.
Guest:It's a 53 gold top painted black, yeah.
Guest:And Lenoir has a 53 that he left gold, but I did some playing with him.
Guest:For what?
Guest:Just through friends.
Guest:The guy I was trying to start a band with right after the PJ Harvey tour, he was good friends with Lenoir.
Guest:And we just kind of would go over to his house and play for fun.
Guest:And then he had some dates.
Guest:He's got a lot of toys, right?
Guest:A lot of toys, yeah.
Guest:And I did some shows up in Canada with him, which is great.
Guest:And his engineer at the time became a really good friend.
Guest:And he's the one that recorded that first Dot Hacker album.
Marc:Oh, okay.
Marc:Didn't Lenoir do something with some weird techno dude?
Marc:Yeah, Venetian Snares.
Guest:Yeah, I listened to that.
Guest:Who also makes music with Vershante.
Marc:Oh, Venetian Snares.
Marc:He's a Vershante collaborator?
Marc:Yep.
Marc:I tried to listen to that album.
Marc:I dug it.
Marc:I got into it.
Marc:I didn't know how many times I could listen to it.
Marc:The Lenoir.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:I heard it once.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So, all right then, man.
Marc:So, your folks now, are they okay with your life?
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:They are, yeah.
Guest:Now they are, for sure.
Marc:Yeah?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And y'all get along?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And did you, when you put your guitar back together that you broke in front of your mom?
Guest:Well, they were at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
Guest:They couldn't believe it.
Marc:So they knew it was that guitar?
Marc:She knew it was a Wendy Brooke?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, that's nice.
Marc:You got full circle and they're happy.
Marc:Absolutely full circle, yeah.
Marc:Good talking to you, man.
Marc:Thank you.
Marc:Thanks for having me over.
Marc:Yeah, thanks for the records.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:There you go, folks.
Marc:Josh Klinghofer, former guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, going on tour with Pearl Jam.
Marc:He's going to play with those guys a bit, but his solo project, Plural One, will open the show for them on their tour starting March 18th.
Marc:Many of his solo projects are available wherever you get music.
Marc:The solo album To Be One With You is there as well.
Marc:And I don't feel like playing guitar today.
Marc:I had a guitarist on.
Marc:Makes me insecure.
Marc:I'm also tired.
Marc:But you can go to WTFPod.com slash tour for all of my tour dates.
Marc:And go to PodSwag.com slash WTF for 50% off WTF merch right now.
Marc:Boomer lives!
so