[SPEAKER_01]: The Laurel Gary and Mark, classic conversations podcast with Laurel Edwards, Gary Claire and Mark Kahn.
[SPEAKER_06]: Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da
[SPEAKER_06]: Or, in fact, really.
[SPEAKER_08]: Hey, listen, I've got two bucks in my bag.
[SPEAKER_02]: Look, we have a really great show lined up for you.
[SPEAKER_02]: A huge international star, we'll be joining us to have a little bit of a chat, and a huge Australian star, as well, covering all those bases there.
[SPEAKER_08]: We have to talk to Gene Simmons.
[SPEAKER_08]: We absolutely adore this man who doesn't.
[SPEAKER_08]: There's not one person on this planet that doesn't like Gene Simmons of kiss, but we finally found it.
[SPEAKER_08]: It was the interview that we did with him
[SPEAKER_08]: talked about Angus Young being a very, very young lad, the Young guitarist of ACDC who they actually supported Kiss and a couple of shows and they went to dinner or lunch or something one day and what Angus ordered, you will be very, very surprised.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a really great interview.
[SPEAKER_02]: We loved playing that and it's an extended one as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: It runs around about nine minutes or so There's still a lot of stuff that we didn't actually get to play on our on air show But we get to play for it in the podcast, but that was the easy one to find the hardest was the other interview that we're doing in the show
[SPEAKER_08]: Absolutely, Russell Morris, what an absolute legend, been a very, very great friend of ours with Laurel Gary and Mark because Russell has never stopped touring.
[SPEAKER_08]: He's probably still got one of the greatest voices in Australia ever.
[SPEAKER_08]: I mean, he's a man guitar too incredible guitarist and had a pretty much a couple of bites of the cherry through each decade because he sort of did the the great 60s pop songs of, you know, and then the war songs with Rachel's coming home and all of those songs, but then he moved into some great pop hits in the 70s and 80s, but then of course in recent years went back to his roots, which is blues and roots.
[SPEAKER_02]: So what we've done with Russell Morris because we have so many interviews we've strung them all together and the show runs about 17 hours at this stage.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now look we've answered like them but we did have a lot to go through to try to find the interview that we want to play today.
[SPEAKER_08]: Absolutely we'll talk to Russell about how he tried to take on America and what happened there and also how he got a certain certificate from one
[SPEAKER_08]: Wally Lewis, the King of Rugby League.
[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, you got me.
[SPEAKER_08]: Interesting.
[SPEAKER_02]: Alright, but let's get to a couple of minutes.
[SPEAKER_08]: I'll say, but the way it was.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sorry.
[SPEAKER_02]: Gary's not even here at the moment.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's actually, can I suggest if we weren't wear name tags.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not looking at me and calling me Laurel.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, look, couple of housekeeping things.
[SPEAKER_02]: Our podcast, by the way, has an email address, and we would love to hear from you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe there was some interviews that you heard or that we might have that we could do in the future and we'd love to hear from you.
[SPEAKER_02]: That once again is the LGM show at gmail.com.
[SPEAKER_02]: That is the LGM show at gmail.com.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we would love to hear from you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's go around the tables and find out what we've been up to since we last chatted the other way.
[SPEAKER_08]: Well, I basically still been doing quite a lot of backyard work.
[SPEAKER_08]: You'd think that after that, it looks like something out of the block.
[SPEAKER_08]: Well, it doesn't, but I'd brace yourself, folks.
[SPEAKER_08]: Get ready for this.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yes, today.
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh.
[SPEAKER_08]: emptied the pond.
[SPEAKER_08]: Uh-huh.
[SPEAKER_02]: Empty for a pond.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sorry, you see.
[SPEAKER_02]: Is that a euphemous?
[SPEAKER_08]: No, it's not.
[SPEAKER_08]: Mark, everything I say is not a euphemism.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, all right.
[SPEAKER_08]: When we go fishing, okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: And we go, you know, pumping yabbies.
[SPEAKER_08]: Mark voices.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'd prefer to leave the pond for this thing in the morning.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if it's pumping Gabby's and Dean Pond, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_02]: Or I'll see you, Dean Pond.
[SPEAKER_08]: Basically, anyone who understands frog breeding, and I do like, well, when a daddy frog and a frog and a frog, we don't have to go into the details.
[SPEAKER_08]: You should have learned it at school in biology, but we have got the little backyard pond, and I do love me little frogies.
[SPEAKER_08]: I used to love the green tree frogs, but I still love, and they still breed and have the little tadpoles, no mark, not those tadpoles.
[SPEAKER_08]: They have the little tadpoles in the pond, but I've now got the little native pointy nose ones.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, that's nice.
[SPEAKER_08]: The little, uh, the Nokia for all.
[SPEAKER_08]: We call them a donk frog, because they don't croak.
[SPEAKER_08]: They just go, donk.
[SPEAKER_02]: Donk.
[SPEAKER_02]: Get rid of the, um, toad.
[SPEAKER_02]: eggs.
[SPEAKER_08]: We don't get toots.
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: Toads aren't good at climbing.
[SPEAKER_08]: Toads just hop along the ground, so they can't climb into the pond because it's got a high side on it.
[SPEAKER_08]: So no, we don't have a problem with toads, but so do.
[SPEAKER_06]: Toads don't go high.
[SPEAKER_06]: So why were they introduced to get the cane beetles that were on top of the cane?
[SPEAKER_06]: Isn't that sort of one of the major things you'd need to know?
[SPEAKER_08]: That is the reason why the whole bringing in came toads from overseas to take on the came beetle did not work because by the time they got them here and they started breeding like frogs do and toads do.
[SPEAKER_08]: they couldn't jump to grab the beetle.
[SPEAKER_02]: So for any international listeners that have tuned into our show, this is a really big deal for Queenslanders.
[SPEAKER_02]: It is happening in the past.
[SPEAKER_08]: It is huge.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's massive.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we get them at home.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I caught one just the other night, actually.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was out.
[SPEAKER_02]: I usually catch them.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know whether this is correct or not.
[SPEAKER_02]: I put them in a container and then freeze them.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, very different to what we did when we were kids.
[SPEAKER_08]: Not saying that that was the...
[SPEAKER_08]: Yes, we are doing a golf club swing incredibly inhumane, and we would never do that for you really need to fix your back Yeah, it's you stopping.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I think people have said that maybe freezing them is not those So I try to do it as humanely as I can but they are a pest here in this country, so we're allowed to give it
[SPEAKER_08]: and they do kill other native animals of course, but you do have to do this.
[SPEAKER_08]: I know this is interesting conversation.
[SPEAKER_08]: You have to do it in winter because of course they all hibernate in winter.
[SPEAKER_06]: So what's your you've emptied this pond?
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm strangely fascinated
[SPEAKER_08]: I've got anything better to do.
[SPEAKER_06]: What do you do with the little froggees do you?
[SPEAKER_08]: They're not there.
[SPEAKER_08]: They're hybenating.
[SPEAKER_08]: The frogs are out.
[SPEAKER_06]: So they leave the pond.
[SPEAKER_08]: They leave the pond.
[SPEAKER_08]: And then they bury themselves in the ground.
[SPEAKER_08]: In a pretty mild Queensland winter.
[SPEAKER_08]: And then I've still got all this moss that's in the bottom of the pond.
[SPEAKER_08]: So it's the best time to clean it because there are no tadpoles.
[SPEAKER_08]: They don't like fruit.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's the term toad in hole.
[SPEAKER_02]: to the heart of that, it's, I look, in worrying about people hitting the 10 second mark to get to the James Simmons interview, Andy Gary, what have you been up to?
[SPEAKER_06]: Well, I've actually had a busy time this week.
[SPEAKER_06]: I had to go to a wedding.
[SPEAKER_06]: I MCed the wedding, then we were hosting the after-winning breakfast at our place, so my job was to make coffee for everyone and wash up.
[SPEAKER_06]: As usual, I don't think I said, they weren't doing it.
[SPEAKER_02]: They can't let you near too many people, you know, you offend them.
[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, no, trust me.
[SPEAKER_06]: I know that I do.
[SPEAKER_06]: Then I had a lovely doctor's appointment where they had to fix it.
[SPEAKER_06]: I have a very strong heart, ladies and gentlemen, and for those that were worried, and the first question I asked, has the liver and kidneys said, don't you think they're fine?
[SPEAKER_06]: I said, why are you a little true?
[SPEAKER_08]: You're doing like your red body.
[SPEAKER_06]: Punishment, I'll put that thing through.
[SPEAKER_06]: But my heart.
[SPEAKER_06]: He said, no, I don't understand all this, but the higher the number, the worse it is apparently.
[SPEAKER_06]: And he said, you've got you're on zero.
[SPEAKER_06]: And I went, oh, that's terribly said no.
[SPEAKER_06]: He said in 40 years of the doctoring, I've only had two people below zero.
[SPEAKER_06]: And you're on a zero, you've got the strongest out of it, the same.
[SPEAKER_08]: Unbelievable, and did you not have a certain family member that achieved something really wonderful this week?
[SPEAKER_08]: I saw you in a photo with your daughter holding a certificate.
[SPEAKER_08]: What is that?
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, thank you.
[SPEAKER_08]: That was yesterday.
[SPEAKER_08]: Don't remind you you've got a daughter in a son that a high school day.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know more about his life than he knows about your his own life.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I was getting to that line.
[SPEAKER_02]: Were you?
[SPEAKER_02]: Just one question quick really quick one when you were at the doctor surgery was it okay that you tore the car scoping right then and then.
[SPEAKER_02]: As he said, deliver what's fine.
[SPEAKER_02]: He brought out a couple of beakers and you're like, thank you.
[SPEAKER_06]: I'll drink to that.
[SPEAKER_06]: No, my daughter graduated from KET and we went to the graduation thing.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yesterday was at the casino.
[SPEAKER_06]: The star casino, and she got a little certificate and a little motorboard.
[SPEAKER_06]: Motorboard.
[SPEAKER_06]: I was going to say waterborne.
[SPEAKER_06]: I think there's a torch in my water body and yeah, so we all did that Lovely.
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm really really good.
[SPEAKER_08]: What is she trying to do now?
[SPEAKER_06]: It was the engineering thing, but it's like marketing and stuff like that.
[SPEAKER_06]: They've got these different time things.
[SPEAKER_06]: How wonderful
[SPEAKER_02]: So look, I've had a mate come up and he wasn't staying at our place, but my mate missed a see was was up in Brisbane He's daughter was doing some diving.
[SPEAKER_02]: She's a bit of a diver and so I've been catching up in it is scuba diving or diving of of platform diving off platform She ended up getting fifth in Australia in her age.
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, I asked him, you know, is it legal to, uh, grease the, the participant down in chicken grease?
[SPEAKER_02]: He said no because, uh, petroleum jelly is better to get into the water, less splash of heroin.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, they only do that if you're swimming the English channel.
[SPEAKER_06]: Surely actual divers don't need to have anything to do.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's nothing in the rule book about coding yourself in petroleum jelly and using them to dive Even after the event when you still do it Anyway, that was really good to catch up with him, but here's the funny thing and I don't know whether you guys find this when you catch up with a friend after a couple of hours You got nothing left to say it's like a ran through well I get up in the morning and have breakfast Especially at this age where it is groundhog day, but I did have a
[SPEAKER_06]: and especially at our level of employment.
[SPEAKER_06]: Not a lot to talk about.
[SPEAKER_08]: That is true.
[SPEAKER_08]: Did she be able to meet the legendary Melissa Wu, who you refer to as?
[SPEAKER_02]: Melissa Wu, who?
[SPEAKER_02]: Then she slapped me.
[SPEAKER_08]: Probably incorrect.
[SPEAKER_08]: Political incorrect.
[SPEAKER_06]: Do not encourage him.
[SPEAKER_02]: I would love to have some tiramisu with me, listen to me, again, probably stopping down that road.
[SPEAKER_02]: Alright, look, that's what we have been up to.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's get to the interview in just a moment.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to be talking to Gene Simmons and you're listening to Laurel Gary and Mike's classic conversation podcast.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Laurel Gary and Mark, classic conversations podcast.
[SPEAKER_01]: Get off the digital treadmill and run better digital with margin media.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, we've had some amazing conversations in our time working the lower Gary M. Markch, but no one bigger than Gene Simmons.
[SPEAKER_08]: And always an absolute delight as a kid, I was super scared of him.
[SPEAKER_06]: I think a lot of people were, so I was Peter Chris and he's fairly, and there's beside the point.
[SPEAKER_08]: I do remember the first time I went to see them and I was absolutely blown away by their professionalism and even more recently, like in the last five years, so I went to see them in Sydney and the whole time I had to keep pinching myself because yes, it's pantomime-ish, but then you have to forever think that this is one of the bands that has created pantomime
[SPEAKER_08]: create theatrics like Alice Cooper has done.
[SPEAKER_08]: And a lot of it at the end of the day, you realise it comes from someone who is really quite conservative, he's not the crazy guy that you once thought he was.
[SPEAKER_02]: Was that the same show because I went and saw him in Sydney or kiss in Sydney unmasked of us?
[SPEAKER_02]: So they didn't have to make up on.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yet at the end of the show, they brought about 26 workers out on the stage and they took all their clothes off.
[SPEAKER_08]: No, this one was more recently when they had them, they put the makeup on again, thank goodness.
[SPEAKER_08]: But I did see them back in the day when we were doing the strip show.
[SPEAKER_06]: The audience is going, put it on!
[SPEAKER_08]: put it on.
[SPEAKER_08]: Well, I do remember the height.
[SPEAKER_08]: Remember around would have been the late 70s early early 80s, I think it was and they said okay, we're going to bring out the unmasked album.
[SPEAKER_08]: So we all went to our local record store.
[SPEAKER_08]: We all ordered it thinking we were going to get an album cover that had the band on there without their makeup on.
[SPEAKER_08]: When it arrived, what was it?
[SPEAKER_08]: It was a actual cartoon drawing of them with
[SPEAKER_08]: still a mask on, no makeup, but they had a bit of white, you know, like a normal, you know, a COVID mask on, and um, about what came with it was the comb, the comb, the plastic comb, was a limited edition comb.
[SPEAKER_08]: You can still get the money by for $4,000.
[SPEAKER_08]: Um, they're in.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I think you read that $4,000 in one of those other countries that is translated to $2.
[SPEAKER_08]: Well, it's actually a, it's actually the boot of Gene Simmons.
[SPEAKER_08]: It's the dragon and the teeth were the teeth at the time.
[SPEAKER_08]: So, I managed to get one of those and I've still got it at home, but black one is not.
[SPEAKER_08]: Sure, one of them would be nice.
[SPEAKER_06]: It's a collector's eye.
[SPEAKER_06]: I've not used for the Gene Simmons combed, does he have a polishing ring?
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what, you give Dean an idea and you'll have a run with it.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, let's get to our conversation with Gene Simmons from kiss.
[SPEAKER_06]: Successful bands having members doing a solar wreck.
[SPEAKER_06]: Well, that's not that out of the norm.
[SPEAKER_06]: But I can't think of any band that had every member put out a solar album at the same time except one.
[SPEAKER_06]: And that was kiss.
[SPEAKER_06]: 40 years ago, do you believe it was celebrating anniversary the release of the kiss solar albums?
[SPEAKER_06]: And we got the man who had the highest charting of them all,
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for giving me the clap.
[SPEAKER_00]: I appreciate it.
[SPEAKER_06]: Gene, I can't believe 40 years ago what was going through the heads of the band at that time when you said, Let's all do solo albums.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it wasn't as romantic as that.
[SPEAKER_00]: By 1978, a Israeli wanted to leave the band and do a solo career.
[SPEAKER_00]: And of course, I think it was chemicals and other stuff that made him delusional about that because I told him, have you taken either to stay in the band and have a solo career?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no, I've got to leave the band, no, I'm going to quote what they said.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I told him about this, he said, oh, God, I was so stupid.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said to me, you watch me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to sell 10 million records on my own.
[SPEAKER_00]: I said, we'll stay in the bed and you can still sell.
[SPEAKER_00]: That split was about to happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Ace was going to do a solar record.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then Peter, our drummer then said, well, I'm going to do a solar record too.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we all look to each other and say, well, so I'll do solar records.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's how it happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then management
[SPEAKER_00]: said, you know, we're all crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's put out our solar records and the same day at the same time.
[SPEAKER_00]: We all went, okay, and that's how it happened.
[SPEAKER_02]: Gene was the worry that you would be flooding the market with too much kiss essentially, or that people would collect them all, which a lot of people did.
[SPEAKER_00]: We didn't even think about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's really difficult to describe it because before people thought about words like marketing or branding,
[SPEAKER_00]: we didn't know what we were doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean now I make a living in corporate entities hire me and I tell them what they're doing wrong and blah, blah, blah.
[SPEAKER_00]: That includes Indicard, you know, the F1 version of America and Code Act Phil and then film companies on real estate companies.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we didn't know squad back then.
[SPEAKER_00]: We just did what we wanted to do.
[SPEAKER_06]: What was the competitiveness like in the band?
[SPEAKER_06]: I mean, as we've mentioned in the intro, you had the highest rating album.
[SPEAKER_06]: I scored the hit single.
[SPEAKER_06]: We are still walking around with the music charts going on.
[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, look who's a bit higher today, boys.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, when you're in the middle of a party, you're just not aware of anything other than the mayhem that's going on around you during that time, I'd started living with share.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the last thing I was looking at is, you know, the tribe numbers, I was trying to keep my face hidden from the paparazzi and all that stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's also the 40th year anniversary of, I guess, us coming out as a couple of people magazine.
[SPEAKER_00]: By the way, you should see me in real life.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm stunning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Only match by your modesty sir.
[SPEAKER_00]: Modesty is for losers.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I remember seeing as a kid cash is clay became Muhammad Ali.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I remember the first image was of a TV interview show when he's looking at the camera and just pounding his chest and pointing at the camera and putting his face forward.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, I am the greatest.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I thought to myself, who the hell does this guy think he is?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that is precisely the point.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who do you think you are?
[SPEAKER_00]: You're only going to get the respect you demand and being humble, damn humble.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just tell people who you are and what you believe in.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, Gina, moment ago, we were talking about the competitiveness in the band.
[SPEAKER_02]: We recently interviewed Paul Stanley, and I would love to get your reaction to what he had to say.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll play you a little bit.
[SPEAKER_02]: Take a listen to this.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_06]: Honestly, I don't see kiss with that you or Gene Simmons.
[SPEAKER_06]: I mean, that you two are irreplaceable.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I can see kiss with our chain.
[SPEAKER_07]: No.
[UNKNOWN]: No.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's right, of course.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, no.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd be just in the way hey, but Paul is right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Could kiss continue without either of us or without your truly sure it could.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because look, when ACDC first came out and we took him on the first North American tour because we loved the band.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I saw Angus and the guys in a small club in LA and I walked up to him literally
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't have fun teeth.
[SPEAKER_00]: He literally didn't have teeth in the front.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I invited him at one o'clock in the morning and sunset Boulevard to go to Mel's diner and I said, you can have whatever you want out.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you want to empty out the place before this meal is through you're going to agree to come out on tour with us because I love this little band you've got.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I invited the waitress to come over and she said, what will you have?
[SPEAKER_00]: And Angus said, uh,
[SPEAKER_00]: Hot dog, no bun with hot beans.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I remember Angus, well, up front teeth, turning on the hot dog on the corner of this mouth, if you see what I mean.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, bon Scott, the voice and, you know, just the heart and soul to all that of the band.
[SPEAKER_00]: AC DC cannot continue without bon Scott.
[SPEAKER_00]: Actually, they can.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can they do shows with axle?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, they can.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because rock and roll is not about rules.
[SPEAKER_00]: You make your own rules, you have to earn your own respect on that stage.
[SPEAKER_00]: Greatness is greatness.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't follow rules, don't be ordinary, be extraordinary.
[SPEAKER_06]: Now, this two of that you're doing, it's a solitude, but you've got you mentioned ace before, or ace is coming with you.
[SPEAKER_06]: We did have a chat to ace when he was out here with Alice Cooper.
[SPEAKER_06]: And I asked him about to kiss memorabilia, the pinball machines, the cards.
[SPEAKER_06]: You guys were amazing at that.
[SPEAKER_06]: And he said, no, no, don't talk to me.
[SPEAKER_06]: You need to talk to Jean.
[SPEAKER_06]: He's the guy that's got the lot.
[SPEAKER_06]: What kiss memorabilia do you have?
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, if you thought this would wear houses for, you can YouTube it.
[SPEAKER_00]: uh... jeans events remember to be a stop thousands of square feet of all about five thousand items everything from kiss condoms to kiss casket saturday the first of september you're playing the table here in brisman it is gene Simmons with ice-freely what can we expect the gen Simmons band can do what is camp which is to play obscure songs like uh... stuff off of the elder
[SPEAKER_00]: or a song called Sheesa European or charisma or all kinds of stuff that kiss won't play.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the other thing that we do is we actually have stairs that go from the stage right into the audience.
[SPEAKER_00]: And at various points in the show, I am right folks to come up on stage.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, unannounced unplanned so they can sing along with us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And at the end of the show, we invite as many as 100 people on that stage.
[SPEAKER_00]: So everybody can be in on the party.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can YouTube, and if anybody plays an instrument, you can wind up on stage playing with us without rehearsing, without anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can go on YouTube and plug in 13-year-old drummer plays with Gene Simmons band and you'll be blown away.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or you can type in 15-year-old girl guitar player.
[SPEAKER_00]: She blew the roof off of the joint.
[SPEAKER_06]: Before my time runs out, I'd like to ask you a question about a couple of songs that if you remember them.
[SPEAKER_06]: Coincidentally, they only hit number 47 in America, but here in Australia both songs hit number 4.
[SPEAKER_06]: They were huge hits here, sure know something, and Shandy now, I'm believe you weren't playing bass on Shandy.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not also.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nobody in the band played the guitars on almost human or warm machine that was me.
[SPEAKER_00]: So whenever people hear Jimmy Hendricks or the stones or the beetles, everybody thinks right.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the base player and that's the drummer and that's a guitar but that's not how it works.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whoever's got the right field is going to play that instrument.
[SPEAKER_00]: So literally we had Eric Carr in the band and we had a song called I Still Love You that was on creatures of the night.
[SPEAKER_00]: uh... that's not me on base that's our drummer air car and on a song called uh... uh... only you the beginning riff is played by air car so i can be on guitar or base i mean i can play some keyboard that's me on christine sixteen playing the keyboards no rules make it just just do what feels right
[SPEAKER_06]: Gene Simmons Australian tour dates, well, we just care about Brisbane right here, Saturday the 1st of September, it's at the Tivoli, which suggests you get your tickets now from ticket master.
[SPEAKER_06]: It has been an absolute pleasure.
[SPEAKER_06]: Gene Simmons, thank you so much.
[SPEAKER_06]: My pleasure.
[SPEAKER_02]: Gene Simmons is great, isn't he?
[SPEAKER_02]: He's a fun woman.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love that story about ACDC, Angus with No Teeth, while I'm hot dog.
[SPEAKER_02]: Get rid of the barn.
[SPEAKER_08]: You also forget that Angus, he didn't have a drink.
[SPEAKER_08]: He was a tea toilet, but you have a look at those old count down videos, especially the legendary one where they first went overseas from and count down with their at the airport and they were playing up, they're up on each other's shoulders and piggybacking around.
[SPEAKER_08]: And Angus is with the milkshake in the hand, apparently that was his drink of choice, but he smoke like a chimney.
[SPEAKER_08]: loved a couple was there a stage where they all got their teeth done because it must be in a stage where they've all gone all right we need to fix these two maybe some Hollywood people got involved as they got on it was very early in the piece that Bonne Scott you know because he had that big hole in the the teeth where he was missing a tooth in the front and Angus got his teeth done as well but now big difference with Bonne Scott that's good.
[SPEAKER_02]: Imagine Jean walking in a few years later, they should see him so well, giving the button, he can have to be the button and the sausage.
[SPEAKER_06]: Whenever I see, you know, those eating contests, what's his name, Johnny Joey?
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, whatever.
[SPEAKER_06]: The classic eat, and they dipping it in the ward on, I can't think it reminds me of Angus.
[SPEAKER_08]: No, yeah, it looked like it was really sad recently Aussie Osborne.
[SPEAKER_02]: Speak as tough for you, hasn't it?
[SPEAKER_08]: Very tough for you, from Black Sabbath.
[SPEAKER_08]: The Jeanne Simmons did say, uh, and on his social media, he said, before Aussie, there was no Aussie, you can't point to who it was that inspired Aussie to be who he is, which is a very point.
[SPEAKER_08]: A totally extraordinary individual.
[SPEAKER_08]: When you think about that, it sounds very deep, but it's just so true.
[SPEAKER_08]: That where did Aussie Osborne get his inspiration from?
[SPEAKER_08]: show on.
[SPEAKER_06]: It wasn't as if he grew up with Elvis or the Beatles or something where you can see that where it's going.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, he's an original.
[SPEAKER_08]: Well, that was the phenomenon.
[SPEAKER_06]: Phenomeness.
[SPEAKER_08]: And of the Beatles as well.
[SPEAKER_08]: I mean, who where did they draw their inspiration?
[SPEAKER_02]: It must be so hard nowadays because you're always going to be compared to someone who has come before you, but there was no one before these people.
[SPEAKER_08]: No, Paul Stanley of Kiss said, we've lost a legend from Black Sabbath to Blizzard and onwood Aussie has impacted countless bands and that will not end.
[SPEAKER_08]: Kiss was humbled to be an opening band for Sabbath in the mid 70s through the decades of no near Aussie has always been a kind and very funny soul fly high now.
[SPEAKER_06]: Just imagine following kiss there.
[SPEAKER_06]: No, I know that would have been in their early days and probably all the pirate techniques weren't there.
[SPEAKER_06]: But still, following kiss.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, and you talk about generations that absolutely loved these bands.
[SPEAKER_08]: And that's why their music is timeless.
[SPEAKER_08]: And their influence on younger people.
[SPEAKER_08]: I mean, Gene Simmons, if there's something that makes him cry so that it's looking out into the audience and seeing a grown man with a five year old up on their shoulders, enjoying the music and that to him means so much more.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the reason he cries is because he knows exactly how much those people are going to be spending at the merch store when they walk out.
[SPEAKER_08]: And he's got a brand new generation coming through.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's going.
[SPEAKER_08]: It's been money.
[SPEAKER_08]: It doesn't miss it all.
[SPEAKER_08]: But I know my son Clay is a huge Ozzy Osbourne fan.
[SPEAKER_08]: He was very, very upset when Ozzy passed away and he's actually quite a good singer Clay.
[SPEAKER_08]: You wouldn't know that.
[SPEAKER_08]: I mean, I know he does radio.
[SPEAKER_06]: But he takes a long time for the voice to come out of the beard.
[SPEAKER_08]: But when we did our family shows, Clay sits there on guitar and does Black Sabbath's changes.
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, it's changed.
[SPEAKER_08]: And it's a beautiful, beautiful ballad.
[SPEAKER_08]: No, who does that?
[SPEAKER_08]: He's on Black Sabbath's.
[SPEAKER_08]: What else he was born since that?
[SPEAKER_08]: And he said, mum, you'd be surprised.
[SPEAKER_08]: And his beautiful music and his poetry.
[SPEAKER_08]: And so when he passed away, Clay and his mates who are equally big fans of Black Sabbath,
[SPEAKER_08]: They decided they were going to have their tribute, Ozzy Osbourne, so they got it together and mates shed and a mate that works in construction, so they hooked up the harness up over the rough.
[SPEAKER_02]: This has got danger written all over.
[SPEAKER_08]: They went and got a smoke machine, hide a smoke machine for the night, they set it all up in the shed.
[SPEAKER_08]: So as clay is swinging through the shed, wearing his long black trench coat, Aussie Osbourne glasses, microphone in hand, singing Aussie Osbourne songs with the smoke machine going.
[SPEAKER_08]: It was filmed, but he was filmed, and it was all done to pay tribute to Ozzy Osbourne, but I said, Clay, how fantastic how did you stay up there, he said, well, Mom, he said, I had to actually anchor it down myself, the ropes.
[SPEAKER_08]: He said, because my mates were laughing so hard, he said, I didn't want to break my back if they let go.
[SPEAKER_06]: And to make it even more Aussie or authentic, while he was up there, he went up into the ceiling of the garage and bit the head off a pink bag.
[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, really?
[SPEAKER_06]: A little bit of an insulation joke there, ladies and gentlemen.
[SPEAKER_02]: By the way, is that a ring to it?
[SPEAKER_02]: If anyone wants to find that video, just Google idiot Australian guy.
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, dude, it's these days.
[SPEAKER_08]: You could have just sat there and drank a bottle of rum or something in tribute.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, we have spoken about Aussie Osborne to true legend, and also we've been listening to Gene Simmons and another true legend coming up in just a moment, we're going to be doing an Australian legend.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, it's almost hard because we have so many interviews.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, he, he is the real thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Laurel Gary and Mark Classic Conversations podcast powered by SAE University College Lead is in Creative Media and Technology.
[SPEAKER_08]: Well, I was special guest in the studio.
[SPEAKER_08]: He has already heard my story that at 8 years of age I used to sit there in front of the speaker with Explosive hit 73 playing and wings of an eagle playing and I would sit there and look at the picture of him and go oh he's so lucky
[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, I didn't even have the little cheesecloth, yeah, I remember the album come out was open It's a singing and the voice was in flight.
[SPEAKER_08]: Well, he does have an angelic voice and he's gone on to be one of our absolute finest singer songwriters in Australia Russell
[SPEAKER_05]: Guys, lovely to be with you, and I don't look like that anymore, unfortunately no.
[SPEAKER_05]: Don't end the cheesecloth shirt.
[SPEAKER_05]: No, I've got tons of cheesecloths, I wear them around the house just for my own special enjoyment.
[SPEAKER_08]: Well the main thing is Russell, at the same time back in 1973, around that era.
[SPEAKER_08]: There are a lot of other, you know, nice looking people that didn't go on to do anything because they just didn't have the talent that you had.
[SPEAKER_08]: It's been an amazing career for you.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, it has been a very good career, but I, and this is not, this is not false modesty.
[SPEAKER_05]: The music business, you really need 60% luck.
[SPEAKER_05]: You've got to have luck.
[SPEAKER_05]: If you don't have luck, you don't have anything.
[SPEAKER_05]: You can have a bit of talent to go with it, but you've got to have the right doors open at the right time and sometimes they're mostly closed.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I've been exceedingly lucky.
[SPEAKER_06]: Well I suppose you had that luck in the early years in Australia, your Molly's producing Johnny Young's right in the great song for you, then of course you go over to America and the luck didn't seem to come your way there.
[SPEAKER_05]: Now it didn't, it's like going into a big supermarket, it's really hard, you're on the bottom shelf and you're trying to be noticed and some of my friends were lucky, they did it really well, Rick Springfield killed them, you know.
[SPEAKER_05]: And also Steve Kipner and other friend of mine became a very big songwriter over there, but mostly people we tended to go over there in the early days and sort of bash our heads against the wall.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's changing a lot now.
[SPEAKER_05]: I had a step, was the green card a problem for you?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes, it was.
[SPEAKER_05]: It was a problem.
[SPEAKER_05]: I finally got it, but then my stepfather had a heart attack, so I came home.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, when that happened.
[SPEAKER_08]: There was a period of incredible hits after hits, and of course, like in most careers, you'll talk to Darrell Bray, Thwater, any of these people, there is a bit of a low, and there was a bit of a low, and then we saw you play at the, it wouldn't have been the countdown spectacular that was on it at the Entertainment Center.
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, I know.
[SPEAKER_05]: That was a long way to the top.
[UNKNOWN]: Sorry.
[SPEAKER_08]: then we saw you in long way to the top and you absolutely blew everyone off the stage and then came a bit of a resurgence from that.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah that that was also a bit of luck because there was a resurgence happening but I was only resurgence for all the stuff and I was working with Darrell Cotton and Jim Kees and unfortunately both of them got seriously ill.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I was still working with Jim Darrellard already passed away, and which was a complete surprise, because he always looked the most healthiest guy, never drank, he never smoked, he walked every day.
[SPEAKER_05]: So, that's why I drink and something like that.
[SPEAKER_05]: Anyway, and then Jim was sick, so I was also working with Brian Cadd, and Brian Cadd decided to just go to America and live there.
[SPEAKER_05]: And the bass player in the band, Mitch can said, you really should think about doing something.
[SPEAKER_05]: Otherwise you're not going to be, you'll be working by yourself again.
[SPEAKER_05]: You've got to get an album done.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I said, well, I wanted to do this blow-salt and I've written some songs.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I wrote some songs with Jimmy K's, one of the songs which is the best probably song on the album.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I didn't think it would be successful.
[SPEAKER_05]: know it, blues has never been in the charts.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I thought I'll just do something at least I'll be able to do some blues festivals.
[SPEAKER_05]: I feel more at home seeing that because that's what I started doing and then the album just went through the roof.
[SPEAKER_06]: What do you think was the reason why did this blues album suddenly take off?
[SPEAKER_05]: Like a game.
[SPEAKER_05]: I, the first song I'd written was Black Dog Blues, and that was just a generic blues song.
[SPEAKER_05]: I went to Sydney, I was sitting
[SPEAKER_05]: looking at the newspaper and there's a photograph of a guy called Thomas Archer, called Shark Mouth.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I thought, wow, what a great photo.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I took it home.
[SPEAKER_05]: And one Sunday afternoon, rainy Sunday, Sunday afternoon, Melbourne, I'm looking at it.
[SPEAKER_05]: And it virtually spoke to me and said, right as song about me, tell people I lived.
[SPEAKER_05]: Tell people I was alive and I scared the bejesus out of everyone and I wrote that song I'm once I wrote it.
[SPEAKER_05]: This is the luck.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, once I wrote a neon light went off in my head I thought if I'm getting to do a blues album
[SPEAKER_05]: I can't write about Mississippi or New Orleans.
[SPEAKER_05]: I didn't live there.
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't feel it.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's not even my butt.
[SPEAKER_05]: I've got to write about the back streets where I grew up.
[SPEAKER_05]: So that's how that came about.
[SPEAKER_05]: And then I started to write about Squeezie Taylor, who grew up in Richmond and gangsters and gamblers and things like that.
[SPEAKER_05]: And because I thought the blues genre was around, that music was around, I couldn't do it as a disco.
[SPEAKER_05]: Get your meds in, and disco music wasn't around then, so the music
[SPEAKER_05]: uh... was was a great fit for the genre was like a hand in a glove because it was around at that time so i thought okay this this will work so not thinking that it would sell low and
[SPEAKER_08]: But it raced straight up the charts.
[SPEAKER_08]: It was a really fantastic chart success.
[SPEAKER_08]: Then you went in our era award for that.
[SPEAKER_08]: And it continues to have success.
[SPEAKER_08]: Do you think that the fact that Australia was going through that time of like underbelly was on TV, we were really getting invested in the dirty dark past of Australia?
[SPEAKER_05]: Maybe, yes, I think that was it, but also your husband put his hand up and says it was a hit because he played the solo on the song.
[SPEAKER_05]: I thought he was going to do it.
[SPEAKER_05]: He's told everybody, I was me that got his hit.
[SPEAKER_08]: I do remember the trick that they played on.
[SPEAKER_08]: I thought that was a little sad.
[SPEAKER_05]: What was the trick?
[SPEAKER_05]: He was funny.
[SPEAKER_05]: Because Troy, as a good mate, so I, he said, listen, can I have a shot at the solos?
[SPEAKER_05]: And I said, this is not love you to, you know, it'd be great.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I send him that the tracks, he does the solos, send them down to the studio.
[SPEAKER_05]: So the guys in the studio ring up, and they said, oh, Troy, solos have arrived and they said, what do they like?
[SPEAKER_05]: And they said, unbelievable, just fantastic.
[SPEAKER_05]: You're going to love them.
[SPEAKER_05]: I said, yeah, sure.
[SPEAKER_05]: 100% sure this couldn't be better so me not having heard the tracks ring Troy and go fantastic mate you've done a great job thanks a million it's just great yeah if you don't like them just just throw them aside and I said no no they're great they're going on I get to the studio and in the meantime the engineer who's a guitar player of some sort decides to put a solo on there but like a metal solo
[SPEAKER_05]: And they say, here it is, listen to this, you know, and they play it back, and I just, I just sat there with them.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, and I said, you guys, series, they said, what are you talking about?
[SPEAKER_04]: It's unbelievable, and I said, it's a new area.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's it, that's the, that's, that doesn't fit the, and I'm thinking, how am I going to tell joy?
[SPEAKER_02]: Did they get you before you made another phone call this early?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, they did, they got me.
[SPEAKER_05]: They said, and then they started laughing, and I thought, oh, thank you.
[SPEAKER_06]: I don't know if Troy was on the 2nd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3rd or 3
[SPEAKER_05]: No, they sort of at first it was really hard because they only wanted to hear the old stuff.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I would tell a story about what these songs were about and who I'd written them about and what part of I was trading history they fell into and they became engaged and that really really helped.
[SPEAKER_05]: And then I decided to do a trilogy because there were so many other stories that I wanted to write about and that's what I did.
[SPEAKER_08]: And what I love is that yes, okay, you know, sweet sweet love is very very different to something of shark mouth or or all the new album, but when I saw you recently at a day on the green man I'm in the whole set is just fabulous things seem to just come together.
[SPEAKER_08]: It's probably the fact that they are all your songs, but you know, and nothing stands out as being oh wow, that's really
[SPEAKER_08]: Left of Santa, you're still able to keep it as Russell Morris.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, they do, to me, strange enough, they stand out a little bit.
[SPEAKER_05]: Even the new song, because I've just done a new album, which is not blues.
[SPEAKER_05]: I did that with Bernard Fanning and Nick to there.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I thought if I did one more blues album, people would go really another blues album.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I like to keep people guessing.
[SPEAKER_05]: To me, music is an exploration.
[SPEAKER_05]: If I really had a passion for recording Palkas, I would do Palkas if I really loved them, you know, but I've got to really, and I tried to do the best I can at the time, a lot of times my audience go, what, what, what, what, why did you do an album like the other one, you know?
[SPEAKER_05]: I say because I can't keep walking that same rut.
[SPEAKER_05]: I can't walk in that trench for everybody.
[SPEAKER_05]: I've got to find a new trench.
[SPEAKER_06]: Now that you're mentioned at Sweet Sweet Love with Piano Accordion would be fun.
[SPEAKER_06]: And that'd be a nice thing, really.
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay, so how would you describe this album?
[SPEAKER_08]: Then Bernard Fanning, I mean, as co-producer of...
[SPEAKER_08]: He's got a wonderful pop sensibility, but yet he's able to keep it gritty and raw as well.
[SPEAKER_05]: that's virtually what we've tried to do.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, because the songs I moved to Queensland, and I live up in Queensland, and all of a sudden started writing the album.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I guess it's just Queensland that sort of the way I felt up here.
[SPEAKER_05]: And it was just a completely different feeling.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I met Bernard Nick de Dyer, who was co-producer.
[SPEAKER_05]: and worked with them and loved working with them, who knows what people, it's like you serve up a meal and you're just, you do your best, you cook the best you can and you hope everyone's going to sit down and go, gee that's really, that's lovely, I really enjoyed that or you don't want them to just sort of go mm-hmm.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, that's nice.
[SPEAKER_06]: You can tell you, God there's not enough salt.
[SPEAKER_06]: You can tell you're a victorian.
[SPEAKER_06]: I just love the way you still refer to it as up in Queensland.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, I'm here today, actually.
[SPEAKER_05]: This is one of the reasons why you've got me in.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm proposing that we build a wall.
[SPEAKER_05]: Along the border of New South Wales and Victorians just stop any more coming up here, because I think people like me ruin the state And you've got we really now that I've become a Queensland and we have to work again to this.
[SPEAKER_02]: I can't wait to hear the new album from Russell Trump
[SPEAKER_05]: that fatal on the front of the elders that's outside the studio where we're recorded the man that owns the land and the property I've been as an art collector and that was one of his pieces of art and it's a part man part eagle's look a gargoyle it's like a gargoyle sitting there with the sort of legs open sitting on a rock yeah
[SPEAKER_08]: I did must admit when I first saw the album cover, I was sitting there looking at it thinking, is that an actual person or is it was steel or metal?
[SPEAKER_08]: What is it?
[SPEAKER_08]: But it's really quite fascinating, quite ball and ease.
[SPEAKER_05]: And yes, yeah, it's a fascinating thing, but originally this is great.
[SPEAKER_05]: There's a track on the album called Fat Man in the Priest.
[SPEAKER_05]: And that was my original title for the album, and I had two friends up here, I had a photo of them on the front of the cover, and the record company said, we don't think that's a very good idea.
[SPEAKER_08]: In that preceding stuff.
[SPEAKER_02]: Are you trying to tell me my art?
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I'm doing it.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, yeah, it's sort of a case of tubular fels.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I thought, okay, okay fair enough.
[SPEAKER_08]: So here in great reviews of this too, Trevor Smith, very well-known voiceover man from around Australia knows a good album and he was absolutely seeing its praises on the weekend.
[SPEAKER_08]: Russell Morris, it's called Black and Blue Heart.
[SPEAKER_08]: Thanks so much for dropping by this.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's a pleasure now that I'm in town, you know, and leaving here.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, you're an official Queenslander says, while he Lewis?
[SPEAKER_05]: While he Lewis gave me a, when I came up, he gave me a certificate.
[SPEAKER_06]: Well, it doesn't get better than that.
[SPEAKER_05]: No, from the King of Queensland, this is to certify that Russell Morris is a Queensland citizen.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yes, I can.
[SPEAKER_05]: And so, and while he Lewis.
[SPEAKER_08]: Well, if Wallace is so, we agree.
[SPEAKER_05]: I know, it doesn't work with speeding for him so much.
[SPEAKER_06]: Will you ever King of Moon?
[SPEAKER_05]: No, no, it's never King of Moon, but no.
[SPEAKER_06]: I just thought it could have been one King of Moon.
[SPEAKER_05]: It wasn't sure if you got King of Moon.
[SPEAKER_05]: It was King of Pop, though.
[SPEAKER_06]: There we go.
[SPEAKER_08]: That's even bigger.
[SPEAKER_08]: And also playing at the Triford on Saturday 11.
[SPEAKER_08]: With very special guest Ash Grummord.
[SPEAKER_08]: That's going to be a great show.
[SPEAKER_08]: I love that venue too.
[SPEAKER_08]: The Triford isn't a fantastic.
[SPEAKER_05]: I've never been there.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's wonderful.
[SPEAKER_08]: It's wonderful.
[SPEAKER_08]: Craft hang it.
[SPEAKER_05]: I like that.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's great.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's a post-have good sound as well.
[SPEAKER_08]: Those sticks are fantastic.
[SPEAKER_08]: Russell, thank you so much for dropping by.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's a pleasure.
[SPEAKER_05]: Pleasure to see you all.
[SPEAKER_02]: Chetting there to Russell Morris, Laurel Gary, and Mark, classic conversations that we're doing at the moment.
[SPEAKER_08]: Love his voice, love his voice.
[SPEAKER_08]: And I must admit, so surprised at my 40th birthday party.
[SPEAKER_08]: You know, we went around, putting up the little balloons.
[SPEAKER_08]: It was at the little boat, the little sailing club down on the end on at the Blimbe Hub of Blimbe on the river there.
[SPEAKER_08]: And you know, we're setting up the bar,
[SPEAKER_08]: rates of beer and wine from the local bottle, and you've got some for other people as well.
[SPEAKER_08]: I was out there, I was very generous that night, very generous, and I couldn't believe it when I looked up on stage and there was Russell Morris about to play with Troy's band, he'd organised the whole thing, and the legend himself said, no, Troy, I won't take money, but
[SPEAKER_08]: There is a really nice guitar that you play.
[SPEAKER_08]: Is there any jazz and drawers in, made it to us?
[SPEAKER_02]: Isn't that a musician's trade, just they just swap guitars around that, don't worry about money.
[SPEAKER_02]: Look, that led us to another classic conversation with Russell Morris.
[SPEAKER_02]: This time over the phone, so let's take a listen to it.
[SPEAKER_08]: She were excited about this, the APA Good Times, to, uh, with four legends of the music industry Leo Sayer Joe Camelieri, Richard Clapton, and our good mate, Russell Marshall, hey!
[SPEAKER_03]: Hey!
[SPEAKER_03]: How are we?
[SPEAKER_03]: Good morning!
[SPEAKER_08]: Very, very well.
[SPEAKER_08]: Russell, who is the prankster among you, or is it all four?
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, no, it's it's Leo.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's like that, you know, that little creature, when you used to watch those cartoons or popcorn, that thing that I strayed in, that's my name, every one of the things that you used to wear around everywhere, that's Leo, or some people confusing with Richard Simmons to which he ate.
[SPEAKER_08]: Well, we haven't seen him in a singlet and little tiny shorts with the cut-up sides, but yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: I have every night after the show.
[SPEAKER_08]: Erasal, is it a lot of fun?
[SPEAKER_03]: It's really good.
[SPEAKER_03]: I've never met strangely enough all the time I've been in music business, I've never met Richard Clapton.
[UNKNOWN]: Oh!
[SPEAKER_03]: What?
[SPEAKER_03]: Joe and I are really good friends, but I've never met Richard Clapton and I've really already wanted to meet a great fellow, he's a very funny man.
[SPEAKER_08]: Talking about people that we wouldn't assume that you, uh, you still see, but you do is uh, Rick Springfield.
[SPEAKER_03]: Actually, when the zoo broke up, he played guitar with me for a little while.
[SPEAKER_08]: We had a talk to him this week about your relationship and the fact that you've now got him on your new album, Van Demonsland.
[SPEAKER_03]: He, uh, he loved the first album, and he said to me, listen, if this is a shot of playing, I would love a shot, and I said, we'll
[SPEAKER_03]: Rehears blues and roots, he said, well, you know, me, I'd played that years ago, you know, so, and he said, that's what I'm doing at the moment.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I go out and do a solo show just by myself with a national guitar.
[SPEAKER_08]: He's a great guitar player.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, actually, well, as initially, he was just just a guitar player in a band, originally in a band up in Queens, so I called the Wiki whack, and then he became the zoots guitar player.
[SPEAKER_06]: Speaking of your new album, Van Damen's Land, you're getting as regular as one direction.
[SPEAKER_06]: You are hot on the charts.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, that's unbelievable.
[SPEAKER_03]: I saw John, I saw him the other day and I said, John, I'm changing the name.
[SPEAKER_03]: He said to what?
[SPEAKER_03]: I said to whispering Russ.
[SPEAKER_08]: Russell, it's not as if you go away anywhere, I mean you're still there producing really great music and still singing as great as ever, you know, writing good songs, but is it a case of if you're hanging there long enough and you come up with the great product it cuts through?
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like a forest gump, you know, like you never know what chocolate you'll get and it's almost akin to going down to a big lake with a thousand fishermen.
[SPEAKER_03]: Center around the edges, putting a worm on your hook and throwing it in and most of the time you'll never catch anything.
[SPEAKER_03]: And every now and then you can be incredibly pleasantly surprised.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, because I didn't do this as a commercial venture.
[SPEAKER_03]: I just thought it was a personal thing to me to do a historical album.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so on about roots and blues and with roots and blues, I didn't expect it to be what it was.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so it was totally unexpected, but very pleasant.
[SPEAKER_06]: Are you finding a totally new audience are now coming to see Russell Morris?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, 50% of them are different now.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so it's pretty good.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's lovely to do that and not that I didn't mind playing the old hits because I still laid them, I still liked them, but it's lovely to be able to get up there and play songs that people are really clamoring to hear now and yelling out for, which is great.
[SPEAKER_02]: Speaking about your new founding success, is it going to cost lower a lot more to have you at a 50th year?
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, I will be there.
[SPEAKER_03]: She knows that.
[SPEAKER_08]: I think the feed might have to go up.
[SPEAKER_08]: What do you double it?
[SPEAKER_08]: It might have to go up from 2 zeros to 3 zeros this time.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'll be always nothing for you, you know.
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, I love you.
[SPEAKER_08]: I love you.
[SPEAKER_08]: Russell, we can't wait for this.
[SPEAKER_08]: This is the APA Good Times tour.
[SPEAKER_08]: We get to see it Thursday night at the Brisbane concert hall at QPAC, the 15th of May.
[SPEAKER_08]: It's going to be a lot of fun.
[SPEAKER_08]: tickets available at QPAC.com.
[SPEAKER_08]: Dot A U, E's our favorite.
[SPEAKER_08]: Russell Morris, thanks for your time.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you, everyone, and have a good day.
[SPEAKER_02]: or a treat, a double conversation there with Russell Morris.
[SPEAKER_08]: I love following him to on social media because he's quite often outcattaching flathead because, you know, he lives around the Gold Coast.
[SPEAKER_08]: And, you know, he's been discussing, well, I'm just gonna go for a fish, comes back with the meat along flathead.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, decent sized.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, look, that was a great classic conversations that we've just gone through as I said, Gene Simmons and Russell Morris there, but it's time to wind things up.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to mention quickly again, if you'd like to email us the LGM show at gmail.com, the LGM show at gmail.com will get to some of your letters soon.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know a lot of people have been piling them in.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, we won't read out criticism.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, no, no.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll edit those out.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's the end of the letter segment there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, it had those out for your gentile ego, so that look also coming up next week with very, very excited.
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, I remember going roller skating in the late 70s at Skateway, Mount Gravatt, and every time I think of you was the song, the babies, and John White wasn't incredible singer performer.
[SPEAKER_08]: And we'll be revisiting that classic conversation with John White because he's still out touring.
[SPEAKER_06]: during America around America and his shows and and also why I sort of crashed tackled him outside of men's toilet and why he's terrified to go to the toilet ever again he said he said to have all the look also on the show and actor Timothy Spall will be joining us are you would have say English actor so many shows but there's a great little story he told sort of at the end of the interview and what yeah so we're repeating
[SPEAKER_08]: We were quite mesmerised by that, yeah, a star of the wonderful Australian film getting square to one of my absolute favorites, filmed on the Gold Coast by the way.
[SPEAKER_02]: Alright, that's it for us.
[SPEAKER_02]: Time to say, see you later.
[SPEAKER_02]: Have a great day.
[SPEAKER_02]: Loss, we always end off with your last word.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, I like this one.
[SPEAKER_08]: The mind is like water.
[SPEAKER_08]: When it's turbulent, it's difficult to see.
[SPEAKER_01]: When it's calm, everything becomes clear.