Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - EP 188: Ron Artis II

Episode Date: September 13, 2022

We come to you with BREAKING NEWS: Andy Frasco injures himself whilst enjoying a cruise... [redacted editorial comment] Therefore it is by Constitutional Right, that Nicholas Gerlach shall inheret the WSP reigns on this: his virgin cruise through the gnarliest podcast waves. But more importantly, we got Hawaii's own, Ron Artis II on the Interview Hour!? Stay cool and take care not to burn yourself while impressing your friends with sick absynthe tricks this week. Follow us on Instagram @worldsavingpodcast For more information on Andy Frasco, the band and/or the blog, go to: AndyFrasco.com Check out Andy's new song, "Puff Break (Believe That)" on iTunes, Spotify  Don't miss out on something unmissable: ronartisii.com Produced by Andy Frasco Joe Angelhow Chris Lorentz Audio mix by Chris Lorentz Featuring: Arno Bakker

Nick Nicky what's up bud it's frasco oh what a fucking week dude just got back from europe i was uh drinking absinthe because i was in europe i'm like well mine's fucking well and uh you know they lighted on fire and shit well there was winds and fucking the flame blew up my fucking leg and I have fucking second degree burns. God, I'm such a fucking idiot sometimes. I think I need to go to the hospital. It's like bleeding and I feel, it looks like I have a monkey pox. Everyone's fucking look at me and I'm late to my flight. So I'm going to do the opening segment. Talk about our sponsors, Repsy, Dialed and Gummies. And don't make me look like a fucking idiot, okay?

Actually, you shouldn't even, don't even send this voicemail. Just disregard this voicemail. Ah, fuck, I miss you. JK, I said idiot that's my girlfriend calling andy frasco an idiot that's the first time she's ever been on the podcast and hopefully it'll be the last because i don't want andy asking her questions about my sex life because she will answer them anyway as you heard on the opening uh voicemail andy hurt himself on the cruise i will put that at number two or number one and least surprising things to happen this year wow andy hurt himself at a party uh he didn't hurt himself jumping off a piano or crowd surfing he hurt himself on a free virgin cruise he was invited to help sponsor and of course he found

a way to almost burn down the entire boat, I'm assuming, but instead of burning down the boat, he just burned his entire leg. Uh, he's not really going to the hospital folks. He'll be okay. He'll still be able to do his little dances on stage that entertain you so much. Um, while Andy was, you know, enjoying another lavish vacation, I was here in Denver, uh, during Labor Day weekend, another fish weekend, mind blowing. They sold out four nights. I played an after party.

Thanks to everyone who came to the purple party. I talked to a couple of you afterwards. I love hanging out with all my fans and they all tell me how much they love me on the podcast and how I should be the host and how it should be called Nick Gerlach's world-saving podcast. And I'm not just saying that because I'm doing the opening solo this week and Andy can't do anything to stop me. He literally won't even be able to edit this. I don't know. He's in some airport again. Don't worry. He'll probably complain about it on next week's episode. Anyway, yeah, Denver was great. I can't believe it. We sold out Live for Live Music. Both after parties were sold out. You guys are insane. How much money do you have? Are you rich? Are your parents rich? What do you

guys do for a living? Can you give me a stock tip or something? How do you afford to go to all these fish shows and go to my expensive after parties? Crazy. I had fun. I played in the horn section with James Casey, Gabe Mervin. The band was killing. Isaiah Sharkey was in it. That guy is one of the most insane guitar players I think I've ever heard in my entire life. It's like he's not a real person. If you don't know who he is, he is one of the guitar players with John Mayer. He also has his own band. Check him out. And then last weekend, you know, it's the weekend after Phish, and so I guess speaking to the fact

of how do you all pay for this, I guess it's by you know, taking the next weekend off. People were saying it was pretty dead, except for I did play one good gig this weekend. I played with Eddie Roberts. It was the Color Red four-year anniversary. Congrats to that label.

They're putting out a lot of good music. They have a cool vinyl club, too, if you want to join that. It was cool. It's cool. And then my best friend Sleepy was in town, and we did a gig over here at Yacht Club with Borum. Speaking of gigs, I know a lot of you musicians, and I know actually a comedian hit me up this week saying he wanted to learn more about refsy.com. If you are any kind of entertainer and you're looking for more work, hit them up. It's a literal win-win.

You don't have to pay them. It's just like a personal injury attorney, okay? If they don't get you money, you don't pay them. There's not this, they're not one of these weird scam booking agencies, you know, that's just going to take a fee from you up front, up front and never book anything with you. So you have nothing to lose. Sign up with them, put your band on there, whatever you do. I've been following their Instagram. It seems like they're doing a lot of like frat party type stuff. They're big in the South. So if you're trying to build your build, build a market or two down there, sign up. They want it. Let's say you already have

an agent too. This is crazy. Let's say you already have some agent, you know, that you're like way down their list. They have way more important people than you and they're not really getting you gigs. But so you sign up with the ref C2 to supplement. Maybe if they get you a gig that you pay your agent and not them, there's no double booking fee here. So, you know, just something to think about. Uh, speaking of gigs, I'm excited to announce that I'm going to be joining Andy Frasco and his UN brethren on the European leg of their tour here in a couple of days. Ernie can't make it. I'm going to be subbing for him. I'm not opening. Some people have been asking me if I'm going to be doing the opening. No, Europeans don't want to hear my dumb jam band

computer music. They have their whole different kind of electronic music over there. It's good. It's better. So I'm going to be doing that. That's going to be fun. I haven't been to Europe in a long time. I've been telling people about it here and they're all very weirdly, overly excited for me. And I think it's because here in America, a lot of people, musicians that those kinds of types of people, you know, America haters, they love Europe. Uh, but here's the thing. They only think about the good things that come from Europe, like, you know, free education. Their countries aren't constantly invading other countries for tax dollars, stuff like that. They never point out the things that are better in America than

Europe. Like, you know, we've learned that sometimes it's okay to put ice in your drinks. And, you know, air conditioned homes are a little more comfortable than the sweat box in Paris in July, you know, stuff like that. So I'm really excited to be holed up with no ice and no air conditioning, listening to the UN, uh, you know, snoring their ass off after drinking for 12 hours after their gig. So that's going to be fun. It's gonna be fun for someone like me who isn't a big drinker and isn't a great sleeper to begin with. Wow. Really looking forward to that. But you know what? What does help me sleep when I'm here in Denver? Unfortunately, I won't have them in Europe because obviously I'm not going to fly with gummies. I'm not the kind of person that takes

drugs on an airplane, hint, hint, but I do have them right now. And those are dialed in gummies, But I do have them right now, and those are dialed-in gummies. The best gummies in the world. I've been going to different dispensaries around town lately to pick up flour, you know, or maybe a cartridge for my hash pen. And I ask all of them, hey, have you heard of dialed-in gummies? And they all say, yep, we can barely keep them on the shelves. Because, number one, they feel amazing. They're the cleanest gummy on the market. Solventless, rosin gummies. I think they taste better than every other gummy I've had.

I like, they don't have the extra sugar coating on the outside like some of the other ones. So it's just a good, nice gummy. They help me sleep. That's one thing about them. I'll take two or three every night. Bam, I'm out. I stay asleep. I feel great in the morning. I'm not like groggy. Like some other edibles, you take them in the next morning. You feel a little groggy and they didn't wear off enough. Doesn't happen for me with Dialed In. They are the best gummies on the market. They have the best packaging. They're all strand specific. So if you have a certain strand of weed you like, check and see if they make a gummy for it. And on each one, there's a QR code on each package. You can see like where it came from, yada, yada, yada, who made it, all that.

Plus, they just look cool. So get your dialed in gummies today if you can because they're selling out so fast at every dispensary that it's kind of hard these days. Oh, yeah. every dispensary that it's kind of hard these days. Oh, yeah. Another thing about Europe, zero Super Bowl championships, zero NBA championships, zero World Series rings. They're tied with the Detroit Lions and the Cleveland Browns for the amount of Super Bowls they have. That's embarrassing.

They don't have a Big Ten championship. They don't have an SEC championship. So come on. It's not that great of a place. You know what I mean? It's not so much better than America. Also, it's just a slap in the face to our founding fathers to like Europe more than the United States. Another thing that's a slap in the face to our founding fathers is people being very, very sad in America about the Queen of England dying. Now, listen, I'm pretty British,

actually. My mom was born there. So I'm fighting every urge in my body that's telling me care about the Queen dying, but I just can't. I didn't watch the crown like most of you. Some of you got weirdly attached to the Queen from that or something. Listen, another thing about this is why do we only care about the Queen of England? Like so many countries around the world have monarchs, but we're only focused on the one in England, which makes me think that we're still a little too connected to them. It's been over 200 years since we got our independence from them. Let's stop caring about the Queen so much. Obviously, I'm kidding.

It's sad that she died. She's a human being. You know, she died so young. She was just a kid. But let's dial back this Anglophile tendency we have. I think that's it for the opening this week. Thanks for putting up with me doing it solo. Me and Andy will be back on it. We'll be doing some episodes from Europe, so that'll be fun.

We'll have a lot to riff on. Andy will get to get a little more in-depth about almost burning off all of his flesh. I was thinking maybe if he wasn't so hairy, you know, Andy's a hairy guy. He's a lot of hair. He might not have burned so much, so maybe he should start shaving his legs. Also, Andy, you start shaving your body, you might lose a pound. I know how you really want to lose some weight. That's it for the pod opening this week, guys. Today on the interview, we have Ron Artest. You have probably heard of his dad. He's one of my favorite NBA players of all time.

I'm really looking forward to this interview, actually. I like when Andy interviews like athletes and stuff like that. Someone a little different than the musicians we've been having lately, which are also great, but it's just good to have a change of pace. So stick around, and I know you will because this is a great podcast, guys. Let's face it. We're making great content, so tell all your friends about it. Give us a review on Apple.

Bye. Learn to forgive what people say I found myself Looking into your eyes Is it true? Is it true? No one can tell me that it's over What's up, Ron? I'm stoked to be here, Andy. Dude, new friends.

I feel like it's going to be a thing, dude. Yeah, dude, man. I'm stoked to be here, Andy Dude, new friends I feel like it's going to be a thing, dude Yeah, dude, man I'm stoked to be out here We almost connected, what, two days ago in Denver But then I don't know what happened In the morning we ended up driving up to Fort Collins Before I got down here And we made it happen today

Perfect, let's do it I'm so curious about your life First I want to talk about You bring your family everywhere Yeah Tell me how important family is to talk about, you bring your family everywhere. Tell me how important family is to you. Man, family is at my core. Sometimes it's seen as a cliche for people who grew up in Hawaii, but family really is everything. It's like, it's your life. And

there's a lot of musicians and artists and people who come out of Hawaii and then they start touring and traveling. And then the whole idea is like is like oh man we want this person everywhere to kind of get this vibe and and the first thing that happens is you get separated from family you get separated from home you get separated that whole thing and then it's like that person's vibe changes down the road totally it's like why are why why aren't you like what you were doing before he's like well I haven't been doing what I was doing before so like how am I supposed to be what you were feeling before? So yeah, man, for me,

it's like, my family balances me. It's like, if I'm left alone too long, man, I just, my brain just goes out of control. I can,

I can forget to eat and I just be creative doing whatever. But it's like, family balances me. What do you, what do you think about that makes you don't like the thoughts you think about when you're alone?

Oh, man. I don't not like the thoughts. I mean, I just, it's like when you love doing something like music, right? You love doing it. You can do it all the time. And so what I'll do, it's like I'll want to dig into an idea of a song. I want to dig into this. Then I'll come up with creative weird ideas for a project and I'll just go one

after the next, after the next, after the next. And there's nothing to kind of pull me out of it. And what I mean is like, I appreciate the balance of having something to interpret, having something that affects your music to look out and find a way to put that through.

It's like stepping back from the canvas gives you such a wider view. Yeah. So it's like, and, the canvas gives you such a wider view. Yeah. So it's like, and it also keeps you humble, right? Because like so many people enjoy what you do and they want to tell you what they think you are to them. And it's like, oh man, that's awesome.

It's great to hear. But then your kid comes up, it's like, yo, I need to change my diaper. Yeah. So it's perfect because it's like everything in life is a balance. The ups, the downs, the lows, the greats, the whatever. And just kind of keeping that reality close to you

and what you love around you is just that much more wholesome. Yeah, it's beautiful, man. Thanks. Were you raised in Hawaii? Yeah, I was born in Burbank, California. We moved to Hawaii when I was four. So Hawaii is all I've known. I didn't really travel anywhere until I think I was about 24. So I was four. So Hawaii is all I've known. I didn't really travel anywhere

until I think I was about 24. So I was like 20 years in Hawaii. Then my pops passed away in 2010, which was a major thing for me and my whole family. How hard was that? Dude, man. Yeah, we took it pretty hard. Yeah, my mom is still Finding her way through it

I can only imagine you know your life partner of 30 years Just one moment to the next Completely unexpected My dad had a heart attack And it was just Yeah man I'm one of 11 kids Holy shit Really?

11 kids bro Oh my god like did you have like a with that many kids i i could be totally wrong with this analogy but did you ever have like abandonment we did we had oh no abandonment i thought you were gonna say family band oh yeah that too i'm gonna talk about that but no abandonment issues not so much man you really had own time or anything own that you had as your own like as soon as you put it down you walk away you come back like some three other kids got it so one thing that it really held was like we're all really overly competitive when it comes to sports or games or

all that stuff because if you lost you had to wait in line for a long time oh my god so imagine being like at the bottom of the heap of like 11 kids and he's like oh but i want to play mario he's like man you just lost you could you wait we're coming back in 45 minutes so how many years apart were each kid oh man like um it's a 20 year span um my older sister uh is a year older than me and i guess the youngest is, yeah, 20 years younger than that. So, oh, man, trying to do the math on ages right now is breaking my brain. I'm 30 something. I'm born 86. Yeah, 35.

Thanks. Wow, you're good at numbers. Yeah. Yeah. So 35 and then like the youngest is probably what? Meet me there. Meet me halfway. So 20 years man 16

16 wow yeah that's my youngest sister 16 so you talk about this competitiveness did it hand off into music did any of your siblings

do music or were you the only one yeah a lot of us did music there's some of us I mean you're asking the oldest brother so I mean

a couple of them would disagree but I was like some of them don't believe in practice they wouldn't be over us on day one yeah

and then you know and then there's some that take it too seriously like in a good way but it's like um i got a sister who plays is a mad keyboard player i got a brother who a lot of people know about now his name's thunderstorm great songwriter player singer guitarist he's great uh got my brother stevan he moved up to canada he used to play with me all the time he's just a mean drummer like animalistically good it's he's just dope and he plays guitar and a bunch of other instruments too and then um my brother victor moved down to la he does it it's like and then it's kind of like all artistic stuff like my two or three of my sisters are into visual arts really. Oh, wow. One of my brothers is into dancing.

So it's like my parents were really heavy on this like, find out who you are, introduce that person to us, and try not to let yourself be put in a box. Yeah. Like society is all about boxes. Right. What's the point of being in a box? There's no point. You don't need to be in a box. Like people want point of being in a box there's no point you you

don't need to be in a box like people want to put you in a box so it's so they can be lazy i'm just gonna say they want to be lazy because then they can generalize like they're like they're see you coming up and it's like all right this is similar to that that's similar to that okay and he's in this box he's like well i don't even know that box. Like, what are you going to shove me in that box for? Right, right. You know what I mean? I don't even know that box. It is like... Why are we so quickly to judge? Oh, man.

It's this human, animalistic, human nature thing. I think it's like, a lot of it's like security, safety, you know, fear. Or a lot of it's like, how can I get something? And some of it's just... And this is all my assumptions, you know fear or or a lot of it's like how can i get something and some of it's just and this is all my assumptions you know but it's just like some of it's just like i want to know where i'm getting into where i'm going how to how to help this person how to defend myself from this person how to do it it's like it's an animalistic thing which i think we always forget essentially we're animals right you know we get so mental about stuff that we forget about the feeling we forget about instincts and it's just like um I don't

know man it goes back to taking the microscope out of your hand and like yeah look bigger picture bigger picture is beautiful man yeah bigger picture is beautiful it's like crazy story we're on the tour we're on the tour now with G love and we went down a little town called rocky mount virginia and we was like oh man interesting town we would google google it because we didn't know much about it and i looked online man and i found some very hurtful things written about that town they were like branded as like a racist town all this stuff about it and. And I was like, whoa, man, should I like be here? Get out of the show? We show up to the venue in this little town

and some of the warmest souls you ever meet, man. Like they cooked this whole spread, hung out, hung out with me and my kids. Dude, it was like the warmest welcome ever. But if we had just judged this whole town based on somebody's instagram perception of this town you never give these people a chance that's the danger of generalizing yeah it's true i mean and it was crazy because it's like i can't wait to go back there it was amazing yeah why do

we it's like it's it is fascinating it's like and it's even worse in music yeah i mean i'm guilty of that yeah you know you hear some pop song coming i'm like yo nope i'm like no how important is music to you oh man um i really wouldn't know how to separate music from from my life yeah it's it's always been there i started piano or keys when I was real young, guitar at about 13, and then singing at 22. And all through that, it's just like music was everywhere. My dad played piano. That's where I learned.

And my mom was a singer. It just, music was all the ways around. There's music playing on vinyl or CDs, or once the internet came out, we were grabbing stuff off LimeWire and all that stuff. And just, man, music was everywhere all the time. And is this the reason, like, who made the whole family like join a band? Well, man, so just imagine this, like, growing up, our living room had a grand piano,

had a stack of keyboards. My dad like had a home studio in every house we lived in. Wow. And it was like, anytime you can go over there, turn the keyboard on and just mess around, do whatever. And then I'll never forget.

I think I was about 12. No, because I want to, I must've been about, yeah, I must've been about 14 14 We got our first like Full drum set Cause my dad was also

A muralist Like an artist painter And so he painted this Thing With like This amazing drummer Chuck James And he's from Hawaii

And so We did a trade And he hooked us up With these two drum sets So I'll never forget man Once we set that up In our living room We could not get enough.

But every 45 minutes, someone would call the cops. No way. Dude, we got to know all of them, man. And they would just come over and they'd be like, yeah, he's home. Yeah, she's home. And I was like, okay, all right.

Yeah, you can't tell us where or who, but like he said, yeah, they're home. I was like, okay right yeah you can't tell us where or who but like he said yeah they're home i was like okay we'll stop yeah so we wait but man it was like it was just all around you the whole time and that's that's one thing that i want to kind of pass on to my kids it's like when they're born you don't know who they are yeah it's like we get this perception it's like i need my kid to graduate this i need my kid to get this i need my kid to be this person be successful i don't know what their idea of success is going to be. Yeah.

You know what I mean? Yeah. It's boxes, right? Totally. It's like, I want to see who they are and have them introduce that person to me. And maybe it helps find that out

by having all these things around them. Like I have instruments there. I can have like all these drawing supplies there. I can have like access to dance there and see what they gravitate towards. And then we like, we can just try to help them by giving them the tools to supplies there. I can have like access to dance there and see what they gravitate towards. And then we like, we can just try to help them by giving them the tools to go there.

I mean, it's kind of the basis. It is the same philosophy that you were upraised by, by your parents saying like, hey, we're going to find out who you are before we say you're going to play fucking baseball. Or you're going to go and play bass, you know? But it is hard.

Like my daughter sings with me and it's like, once you see them gravitating towards something you do and you're going to go and play bass, you know? But it is hard. Like, my daughter sings with me and it's like, once you see him gravitating towards something you do and you're passionate about, it's like, oh yes. Let's go.

And then you're like, oh hey, I need to dial back, make sure I don't get too excited too soon. But it's like, I'm stoked, man,

just to see these little people growing up around me. It's just like, it's a reminder because as a parent, you start learning that you learn so much from your kid.

When you, we think like, oh, we're here to guide them, teach them all this stuff. But it's really a two-way street. Yeah. Because kids keep you honest, man. Totally. Like they see the randomest stuff in the most randomest times. What was the harshest thing one of your kids told you? One of them told me I couldn't dance.

I can neither confirm nor deny the accuracy of that but uh yeah i just love the honesty the other one told me like that yeah my my songs aren't as good as uh baby shark that's the thing though yeah it's a thing they'll keep you humble they keep you humble it's like oh man i really dig this song oh it's nice dad that's a nice song can we listen to coco melon and baby shark now can we listen to like and it is i was like all right cool all right you ever think about like you know i should just write a kid's record and bank out do it man if i had written baby shark oh my god you'd be having 10 more kids i probably would hate myself a little bit but you know but it, but it's, it's a catchy song, you know? You know,

I, I, that's the thing I love about collaboration though, you know, is like, you end up doing music you never thought of. You know, it's like, I have music styles that I love doing and I always gravitate towards.

And it just, I feel like internally I thrive in that. Yeah. And then you collaborate with somebody who's like, man, I never would have thought about trying that out. And then you find a new side of music you love. You ever had a collaboration where you're going into the songwriter

and you're like, ah, this ain't going to work. And all of a sudden, you guys wrote an amazing song. Yeah, I don't want to name the person because I don't want them knowing that I was like, when we first started doing it, I was like, where is this where is this going and then you're like oh oh all right yeah i never doubted you yeah what changes the mindset when you're just open-minded about everybody again we were talking about comfort right like everybody has their own way of approaching something it's like i like to approach it with like it's either the melody the words or some kind of chord changes or rhythm one of those four

things will hit me first yeah and that's kind of what spirals into a song being born i can't control of what happens first and then i have some friends that that like to sit with a notepad for a few days. Yeah. And I'm just like, bro, that's going to take an eternity. Like we're going to drop dead before you get a verse. Like you're critiquing every idea you put down.

And I'm like, oh, whoa, what the heck? That sounds so good. You know what I mean? It's like everybody has their own method. Yeah. And it's like, don't hate on it or judge it. You know, that's their way of getting where they got to get. Right. And it's like, don't hate on it or judge it. You know, that's their way of getting where they got to get. Right.

And it's like, may not be mine, may not be, you know, but it's awesome. And then collaboration just blows your mind. Do you feel the same way, like, as a parent with your wife? Yeah, we grew up completely different. So my wife grew up in Germany. Where? What part? Erfurt.

So it's in the state of Tötingen. So it's right in central Germany. And years ago when she was a younger kid, it was East Germany. So the wall, you couldn't travel. You could not. You couldn't go out. You couldn't do anything.

And there was, man, just the level of resilience and stuff and respect to have for her and her family is like through the roof because it's like, I grew up on the other side of the planet in Hawaii where, you know, we take it one day at a time. We're on island time. You know, we're a crazy artistic family and we're just, we come up with a crazy idea for the day and that morning and we're going to

pursue it. You know, maybe we fall flat on our faces. Maybe we come up with something cool. And man, it's like, I forgot your question completely, but I'm just, because I just started thinking about my wife. No, just thinking about, just like you're talking about collaboration music. It feels like it runs parallel with your collaboration through parenting. Yeah. So I grew up where, you know, if we said the wrong thing to my mom, my dad would just like kick your butt.

Yeah. I grew up where, you know, if we said the wrong thing to my mom, my dad would just like kick your butt. Yeah. And I never understood that until I was in the hospital watching my wife give birth to our baby. And I'm like, oh, yeah, my mom did all that for me. Like as a teenager, you don't check your words before they come out of your mouth, man. I mean. Were you a rebel when you were a kid? I was.

So I think it was like three different phases, three different phases through childhood. Like when I was really young, they said I was really nice, happy kid. And then I learned to all of a sudden question anybody who thought they knew something. Were you religious?

Yeah. Yeah. We all, yeah. So the funniest thing I did with my grandma was, I guess my parents went on a date. My grandma was at the house. She's like, I think I was like three or something.

She's like, little Ronnie, when I come up to your room, it better be clean. And I thought, grandma, didn't nobody tell you to come up here? I was that kid. Grandma, chill out. Chill out downstairs, grandma. I never said that again to her, though. She'd whoop your ass. Oh, man Chill out downstairs, grandma. I never said that again to her, though. She whoop your ass?

Oh, man. My grandma, man. She was the most lovely, lovely lady, man. But she really knew how to just, she's like, I'm going to teach you how to respect because I love you. I want you to love people around you, respect them, and you got to know what line's not the cross. And dude, she was barely five foot, humble, soft speaking soul, but she could wield a switch. Why did your family move to Hawaii at four? So it was interesting thing.

My dad was a military brat. My mom was a military brat. And they ended up being in California where my dad was in the music business. He played with Shalimar. He worked with Motown when the new motown came to like california no way so my dad was in all that and then something happened he got out he met my mom they fell in love he moved down to fresno to be around my grandma my mom's side and then my dad got a project offer i think it was through sears because he would do like custom airbrush artwork

on clothing and so he was working with sears out of fresno area and they were like man we want you to try out one of our other stores because he would like tell you buy anything in the store i'll customize it for you right so he was moving merchandise so they're like let's move you to another store he's like well this gotta be like your toughest store man where's your best store they're like oh i'm awani he's like where's that he's like hawaii's like i gotta call my wife and see he's like yo honey just say yes and so he called my mom i was like yeah and so he's like all right cool yeah we go but we gotta go check it out first so the story went they went to hawaii for a week checked it out came back loaded everything up we never looked back really yeah what did they see in

Hawaii that they didn't see in California one of the visuals that my dad told me was like at that time I think that we were four kids it's like my brother Stevan was the baby I think my mom was pregnant with my second sister and when they got to Hawaii it's like this huge this moment that he saw he was walking down the beach with my, and it was this huge Samoan guy. Like, there's a lot of Polynesians in Hawaii, man. Right. And he's like, this guy walking by, six foot, 300-something, serious, ripped muscle. And my dad, like, looked at the guy, no smile.

This guy's like... And then, out of nowhere He just breaks into this really big smile Because this guy This like three-year-old daughter Sitting on his shoulder He just looked at it All of a sudden goes from being

You think that's Oh this dude's in war mode Yeah To like the softest smile Like And you could see in that instant Hawaii is all about family Yeah

And all about respect Like in the first moment Of meeting somebody In your exchange, you can say hello to literally nearly anyone in Hawaii and they're going to give it back. And it's like that energy there, like he wasn't seeing in California and the business and music business and

like the art business is there. It was about who do you know? What can you do? Where do you go? What awards you got? How famous are you? And Hawaii was about who's your family? Do you respect people? How do you treat people people how do you treat auntie at the store how do you treat uncle at the car

repair shop how do you treat people that was the value so when they moved us there man my parent my dad he never left hawaii ever up until he passed away yeah he's like hawaii was it so did with that with that philosophy how hard is it to like, listen to some of these like bullshitters in the music industry and not be like, you know, this ain't genuine at all, but I need to get there.

You talked about, you talked about not judging, man. So yeah, you know, well, I did, I,

I, you know, with music for me, it's like, um, I was, I was raised on an interesting philosophy. It's like, there's only two types of music.

Once you get to the professional level of like knowing your chords, how to stand in tune, tune your instrument up and all that stuff. There's only two types of music. There's good music and there's bad music. And good as it comes in the form of, is it there to help people? Like, is it there to maybe help people navigate the pains, the heartbreak, or whatever you've been through? Is it there to help them have a better life? Or is it there to make their life worse?

And like, unfortunately, there's a lot of music out there that wants to make people's lives worse. And it's like, you know, if you do this, if you get this, if you beat these kind of people down or whatever, then you'll beat somebody in the streets. It's like, man, come on come on like that's not it i mean like a lot of my favorite jazz heroes every rock heroes they all died from like dabbling in all the stuff they should have maybe walked away from yeah but it's just like played over and over and over i mean i had a close friend of mine my age our oldest daughter's same age, and he was dealing with it, man. And one day he just thought life wasn't worth living anymore.

And that crushed me thinking that when I first heard it, thinking it was like an awful joke somebody was telling me. And I was like, no, no way, man. Not Jim. Like, I just saw him two weeks ago. And he was doing great. And yeah, man. how hard is that you know like how hard is it to see like someone not being able to communicate with you over someone who's so genuine about it dude he's he is one of the most genuine people you would meet like you would talk he's great guitar player great dad have all the time in the

world for you if you told him something was wrong with you you had a problem you're trying to all the time in the world and then come to realize

he was struggling and maybe didn't want to put that on other people didn't want to mention it didn't want to bring it up didn't want to like bring the mood down it was kind of

struggling in silence and that where they hurt me because then I was thinking like man was I not a good friend maybe I should have asked him one more time like how are you really doing yeah so it's like those kind of things hit you like when my dad passed away from his heart attack it was like it took

me about i didn't realize it but i went five years without touching a keyboard nothing now like i would just keyboard. Keyboard. Because that's what he played. That's what we played together all the time. Oh, man. I wasn't conscious. It wasn't a conscious decision. It wasn't anything.

It wasn't like to five, six years down the road, I was like, oh, yeah, hey, I think my wife was like, you know, you haven't touched your piano in X amount of years. You haven't touched your keyboard. You haven't brought one on the road. Yeah. And I was like,

I don't think that was a conscious choice. You know what I mean? Yeah. And then it was like, cause it hurt too much to even play it. Yeah. It's like, I was, it wasn't until like,

I think six years after my dad had passed, I was talking to a friend who had just lost his dad, like two weeks before this conversation. And he was like, yo, does it get better? Does the pain get better? And only thing I could think of in that moment was when you make a relationship with someone

and they're living, it's like, you know, we're sitting right here, we're chilling. You connect like this, you talk, you change energy, you change eye contact, whatever. When that person's gone, that pain you feel is the making space to live in you. Say that again. I'm going to try to understand that. When they're gone, the pain you feel is the making space to live in you. Oh my God. Can't rush that.

No. Can't make sense of it. No. Can't. It just, it has to happen. Yeah. It's like forcing mourning. Yeah.

It's like they're demanding that space. They're going to be there with you. Yeah. And it's like, I didn't understand any of that until having to go through it myself. Yeah. And that's why I try to be late to judge on someone. I don't know what your journey is. Yeah.

I don't know what baggage you're carrying. And so many of us put on this mask of happiness. Yeah. You know what I mean? Oh, 100%. If I was having a bad day, someone would ask me like, Hey, Ron, how you doing? many of us put on this mask of happiness yeah you know what i mean it's like if someone if i was having a bad day someone would ask me like hey ron how you doing auto like autopilot would say oh i'm doing good man how are you yeah autopilot yeah and i've got a couple friends who are like

all right cool good to hear you're doing good now how are you really doing yeah and that second one you're just like you know what it's like oh okay wow we should get coffee you know why are we so afraid to tell people how we feel well it could be a layer of things right so socially you know you get so many more opportunities to you

if you're the life of the party if you're this resilient non-dimmable light power energetic person you get invited so many things if you're down like crying at a party people's like oh man like what's going on like yo hey get him an uber or something like like you know what i mean but and it like there's such a thing as oversharing yeah oh totally especially in the wrong set in the wrong environment yeah wrong environment i mean i'm a dad right so a lot of my oversharing

is like you know having kids stories and getting pooped on and all this stuff and some guys are like yo dude i'm 20 no kids don't want to hear it i'm like i'm like oh okay i guess me sharing that story means you won't have kids for another four years got it you know but it's like it's like this there's power in vulnerability there is power in vulnerability and it's like um like i know we all have those friends who are just like honest to a fault yeah i've got one his name is drew i love him and if you hear this podcast drew this is a shout out to you he's in bellingham oh cool he's like seven foot like washington he's washington right and we we laugh so hard man because there's like a group in hawaii of like guys you don't mess with and he was completely clueless and having

this exchange with this guy and this guy was getting pretty intense yeah and his wife has a sense of like sensing when things go south right and she's like drew drew and he's like oh what do you mean like he's like i don't think anybody else is laughing he needs that he's standing in front of these guys who like ready to go to war and he and he told like the head guy there he's like it's like you're a legend in your own head buddy it's like all this stuff you're telling me about, it's like you're a legend in your own head, buddy. It's like all this stuff you're telling me about you. It's like you're a legend in your own head. And they're like,

did you just say that to my face? And he's like, oh, where I'm from, we don't talk behind people's back. That's a backbiter. Nobody likes them. If you think something's interesting, you got a guy, you just tell him,

dude, the whole thing deescalated because they could just feel this guy was genuine. He had no clue to the yeah and he was just talking and it was just hilarious and i was just like man i envy people like that yeah it's like it's like do you have like a get by free pass like in your back pocket all the time because you like you never get like knocked out yes but it's like it's funny because it's like we worry it's like i've got to hide this side of me because if people don't like it my world is over but it's like then something happens where you don't have control and somebody sees all of you and you feel relieved yeah and it's like

hey stay there remember how that feels growing that because like if you were growing in a night if you were a beautiful plant growing in a planter before now you've got a whole forest yeah now you're out of control now you're growing because you're not you don't put the boundaries on you anymore yeah you're you allow yourself to be honest be vulnerable be transparent and like if you see the bull crap coming, say it. Yeah. The longer we wait,

the more we let it fester. Yeah. And it's like, before you know it, man, the curtains closed, life's over. Yeah.

I had this longstanding theory, theory for a while. And last night we were playing Fort Collins. One guy came over to merch table. We were chatting. He was a trauma nurse. And he was talking about one of the songs we did. And he's like,

you know what? You never hear when people are on their deathbed. And I was like, what? He's like, they never say I spent too much time with my family. Right. He said,

they never say, man, I need another, I need to get another raise, more money, better car. He's like, they never say that

all we see in that vulnerable moment when they see a glimpse of this could be the end i need to call my mom and make things right yeah i need to call this friend i i need to spend more time with family i can't i have so many things to make right closure closure and he's like what about living your whole life like that yeah what about before we lay our head down at night every night before going to bed what if i was just like all right what was off today let me just call him up and just even if i'm not waiting for them to apologize to me just clear your end yeah because like grudges dude that's weight we're carrying in our own bag right we don't have time for weight nobody has time for that. You don't need to be burning up your energy the whole time thinking about it.

That's the dude that cut me off. Yeah. Like, I mean, you talk about weight, you know, and, uh,

you know, let's go back to that piano. Like when, you know, not playing piano feels like a big, heavy weight on you. When did, what was the moment when you first wrote that,

that song on that piano after that six year? I wonder what, what song it was i gotta ask my wife what song it was i would say i wish you knew so hold on let me do the math actually so it was 2010 of this 2016 shoot what song did i write wasn't world of theater i know i did that song World of Theater right after but I think the heaviest song right after was actually written on a guitar

I wrote a song To My Dad and that's what it's called To Dad and it's basically like this letter you never got a chance to write and so it's kind of like

getting a lot off my heart getting a lot off my chest and I mean one of the hardest moments for me like for everybody it's different the of the hardest moments for me, like for everybody, it's different the moment of mourning. But for me, my dad and I were so close that the moments that unexpectedly hurt me after he was gone was like when something would go amazingly great. I'd want to turn around and tell him. And that's when the pain

would start. Like, because you can't tell him? and that's when the pain would start. Oh. Like, because you can't tell him? Can't. Like, I dialed his number a couple times. You know, you turn around, you look, it's like. Like, just like, oh man, that's heavy, man. That's the moments.

Those are the moments that would hurt. It's like the moment I met my wife, the moment we got married, first birth of my kid. You know, I told my, funny story, I i told my parents that i told my dad and my grandma they both had completely different same response i told him i was never gonna get married i didn't need a distraction yeah i how old are you when you said that dude i was 22 20 21 22 and you're like you're still in hawaii this is still in Hawaii the last couple of years before my dad passed. And I was like,

the first conversation was with my grandma. And I was like, I don't need the distraction, man. I want to focus so hard on music. It's like, I could spend my whole life diving into studying music

and never scratch the surface. It's like so much. My grandma cuts me off and she's like, excuse me are you saying your grandmother's a distraction young man i was like oh no and she's like wow your grandma's great with words and she's like is your mother a distraction young man and i'm like no ma'am no that's not what i'm saying ma'am no she's like i was like

all right cool i was like how can i get out of it? I was like, okay, if I meet the right woman, I will respect her and marry her if I meet the right, if there's a person out there for me, you know? And same conversation with my dad, it was a lot shorter. My dad was just like, oh, you can want, you can say whatever you want, man. You don't really have a choice when that person's in your, when you come across that person, you don't really have a choice.

You just, you're not going to think. And the conversation was over. Oh my God. He was just like, yeah, you can say whatever you want. You can go focus where all of a sudden you're just going to be like, wait, wait, who's that? Yeah. This is it, man.

You know, you don't really have that choice. No. And that's true. Me and my wife, we were married a year after, a year to the day that we met. Yeah. What did you see that you heard

your grandmother saying or your dad saying? Nothing. There was no like, this is the moment. There was none of that. It was like, I was, what, five months after losing my dad, trying to navigate my family business. Were you dating her right when your dad died?

No, no, we hadn't met. They never met each other. Oh, man. And what's crazy is, she said some of the same stuff that my dad would say. And that was like otherworldly when that happened. Do you believe in the handoff? I haven't heard that. The handoff of just like when someone passes,

someone comes into your life, basically handing off the same knowledge, but like in a different. Well, she's definitely miles ahead of me. Yeah. Like I think that's a guy girl thing in general though yeah women are way smarter than us man i mean me and my brothers we should have been seeing the grim reaper so many times throughout teenage years you almost had any near-death

experiences like what was the craziest thing okay so growing up my my my dad always told me he like sat me down was like ron like everybody's born with something. Everybody's born without something. You were born without common sense. Are you serious? Yeah, he would just dab black and white. He'd be like, so you were born without common sense. Let's talk about what that means.

I love it. So I think- He knew that at a young age. He knew it. And he just added to it. Every so many years, he would remind me. I think it didn't help

that at nine years old doing Christmas party, I jumped out the second story window with a cape. Oh my God. Because you wanted to be Batman?

Yeah, I thought I was... Or Superman? Yeah, I landed right on my dad's work van. And everybody was in the living room right in front of the big window.

And I land on the work van, roll off side land on the pavement smack and uh my mom was screaming my baby my dad just was laughing so hard he just i never forget that he was like fell over laughing so hard he's like please tell me you didn't do what i think you did please tell me you didn't do that was this after the conversation? I think that was kind of what cemented it. And then I was like, um, I think it was about 18, 19.

And we were in Haleiwa and I was doing like some construction stuff with my dad. I'd learned to do a bunch of handyman stuff. And we were doing like this shingle. Cause like in Hawaii, like a lot of local homes, you can like fix your own stuff yeah don't need to hire anybody and so I learned how to do roofing stuff and I'm up there taking

off these metal shingles and gonna put the new ones on and it was like the three stooges man I'm up there doing it my parents are right under me in the in the house like working on some stuff and all of a sudden out of nowhere I come crashing through the ceiling drill gun in my hand i didn't mean all the screws all around me all the tools everything hit the ground right and my dad looks at me and he's just sits his airbrush down and says ron did you unscrew the roof while you were sitting on it you're like i was like i i don't even think i answered the question i just think i sat there it was like i just sat there it was like a moment where you're just like oh that just happened yeah i've still got all 10 of my fingers yeah i'm right here there's like the saw right there on the ground you could have died. Dude, so many things could have gone wrong. I was just like,

yeah, so I had a lot of moments like that. But then I laughed because I was like, alright, you know, everybody's wagging on me about not having common sense. I was like, why would God not give me common sense? Yeah. And everybody's like, well, I don't know. I was like,

but what if you walk into a room and there's a stack of a thousand books from the floor to the ceiling and you're supposed to get the 40th book out of that stack. They're stacked on top of each other. How are you going to do it? And everybody's like, oh, I would do this.

You know, I started top, take them all off. I do this, I do this. I get a tool, I do this. I said, I just go in and grab the 40th book and pull it out. And so many times in my life, I can't take credit for any of it. I've done just that. And things have worked out.

Yeah. What about, so with music too? Yeah, man, it's like, like trusting a record. Have you ever had a record deal?

No, I never had a record deal. No, no, man. I just been like, I've spent my last dime on so many projects. My wife and I just been like,

all right, we're going to go in on this. And, um, even like this tour we're on now, it's like, it's a big investment. We brought the whole crew out.

We're going, it's like, man, this is what we believe in. We're going to do it. We're going to pull the stops out. And there is absolutely no reason why it should work out sometimes. Yeah.

But then I came across a couple of friends who told me something and they were complete different industries. And there's like if you have a safety net you will use it yeah if you have a plan B you will use it

yeah just man we are instinctively survivalistic beings if you have this course and you're gonna go on it

and follow it and you're gonna find a way through it you're gonna solve it right but if the whole time you're thinking I can fall back on my trust and you're going to find a way through it, you're going to solve it. Right. But if the whole time you're thinking, I can fall back on my trust fund. You're never going to.

I can fall back on my insurance. I can go back to that job, that degree I got, any moment I want. You're not going to push through the storm. Right. The other thing is like me and my wife have this saying is preparation and faith. It's like if you're driving from here

and you're going to go out to Aspen and like Siri's telling you the road, the route, and then all of a sudden it starts raining, it gets foggy, you're not going to be Siri. You don't know what you're driving from here and you're going to go out to Aspen and like Siri's telling you the road, the route, and then all of a sudden starts raining, gets foggy. You're not going to be Siri. You don't know what you're doing and turn around and go back home. No.

Why don't you trust your intuition as much as you trust Siri? Yeah. It's like, I'm going to go and do this. I'm, and he's going to go on to start this project. I'm going to go. And then as soon as you say that you start to go out and make it a reality,

everything goes wrong. Right. And everybody tells you, man, it's a go out and make it a reality. Everything goes wrong. Right. And everybody tells you, man, it's a good idea. Good intention, Andy. But like, go back to what you know. Yeah. But then you take one more step and the fog dissipates. Right.

So it's about being not scared of the failing or falling. Yeah. Yeah. And knowing that there's a bigger purpose in your path. Just keep going. Like, just why not? Why not? If you believe in it, you believe it's the right thing to do,

and more important than that, if you believe it could help somebody else, dude, give it a shot. Might as well. Might as well. Because like I said, once the curtain closes on life and it's it, we see the end, we're going to think like, why didn't I just construct that 40 foot flamingo for no reason?

Like, oh my God. So maybe the lack of common sense is what makes you a saint. Makes me sane? Makes you a saint in a way with your words and how you live life. Something like that too. I just jumped in a van when I was 19.

Didn't know anything. I had Craigslist every musician. I would just drive in my van by myself. And for the first four years, I would just Craigslist in every town until I found a band. And I didn't know what to do. I just knew that there was no backup plan. I think when we take the backup plan out,

you're totally spot on that. You take the training wheels off and you just go down the hill. Dude, I like that idea. You just got in a band in 19 and was like, I'm going to go. Yeah, I didn't even know how to play an instrument. You didn't?

No, I just knew I could entertain people with a mic. You know what I said about you? Because I'd never seen you live, right? And I'd seen some clips when you go out and look and I was like, oh, cool, man. The dude's grooving. He's tearing up those keys.

And then when you sat in, like, the other night with Gene, you sung, I was like, man. Only thing I could think of was, like, same thing I said about Alan Stone. I was like, it's like he swallowed an old black grandma. I'll clap. Thank you. I'm honored, dude.

Thank you, man. I was like, you, like, you belted into that verse. I was like, what? Like, belted into that verse. I was like, what? Like, what? Dude, I appreciate that. Dude, that hit home. That felt good. Like, me and the whole crew, we're all like,

me and the whole crew, we're looking, and I was like, whoa, dude. That guy is, I said the same thing about Alan Stone, because like, you close your eyes, you see old grandma fanning herself at church when Alan Stone is singing you know

he's unbelievable you've toured with him? no man I did I did one show with him in Squaw Valley I don't I think they changed

the name of Squaw Valley in California yeah Tahoe yeah it was like Krasno had put together this super group thing

and you know Kras? yeah Kras is insane that's your dog? yeah I got a funny story about Krasno I can together this super group thing. You know Kras? Yeah, Kras is insane. That's your dog? Yeah, I got a funny story about Krasno. I can't wait. That's one of my close friends. Yeah, dude.

I'll tell you right after. So we were doing this jam. He put a super group together. And a friend of mine was doing a festival. And so she told me I was going to play with the super group. And I got there. And I saw who the group was. And I was like, oh, yo.

You know, they had George Porter Jr. on bass. They had Swatkin on keys. Alan Stone was on vocals. Krasno was on guitar. I think it was Dan, one of Krasno's friends was on guitar, second guitar. Danny Mayer? Yes, Danny Mayer. Dude, man.

Killer. So smooth. And that group was there. And I was like, I sat down on a couple of rehearsals and talk about like getting like imposter syndrome. I was like,

dude, I just want to listen. I just, you know. So I jammed with them in a jam and then I just watched them on the show.

And then the last day of the festival, we all jammed on the Sunday jam together, which was really cool. My Krasno story was we were playing the Wanderlust Festival

in Hawaii. Yeah. And they, like, had this name, Eric Krasno, like, really big on the bill. Like, they had

Alan Stone. I knew who he was. They had all these other guys in the head. I was like, who's that Krasno guy, man? Like, I never heard of him. Like, I couldn't Google

anything about him. I couldn't see anything anywhere. I was like, he's right up there on the bill. I wonder what he sounds like. And so, we're playing right before Alan Stone. So, he's right up there on the bill. I wonder what he sounds like. And so we're playing right before Alan Stone.

So they're sound checking while we're unloading our stuff and this guitar starts wailing. I was like, whoa, the heck is that? Such a unique sound, man. Dude,

lyrical. Yeah. Lyrical playing. Yeah. And like, he's a listener. Yeah. And so,

and then he came down and then we did our sound check and he came over and he was hanging out. I was like, oh, cool, man. Hey, man, I'm Ron. What's your name? And he's like, oh, I'm Krasnow. I was like, oh, you're that guy that I couldn't find nothing about.

Right. And then we did like a jam at the end of the night, man. And dude, we had so much fun. It's like, it's fun when you like meet a guitar player who's not egotistical. Right. And they're really good. Yeah. And it's like tears were shed.

Like while we're like up like, tears were shed. Like, while we're like, up there, everybody's playing, everybody's doing the exchanges, the push and pull of the song and the melody. It's like,

there's no words for those moments. No. It's like, those moments like, tear up a little bit. It's amazing, man. Who gave you your first break in Hawaii? Like,

how'd you get? Dude, so, man, so, Hawaii, Hawaii is interesting. You know, like Donovan Frankenreiter?

Yeah, I've met him through friends. I've never actually like shook his hand yet. He's a Hawaii cat. Yeah, he's really awesome. I met a bunch of people out there. But like Hawaii, if you go to Hawaii, just go to like almost any jam. Yeah. Any backyard birthday party where there's guitars or ukuleles around,

your mind's going to be blown. I bet, dude. Dude, I'm just telling you. We got Paula Fuga, Mike Love, John Cruz that a lot of people know about

but then you have a lot of people that less people know about that are just insane. Yeah. Insane. And hearts of gold, man. They're just so humble. Yeah.

And so when I was out there, John Cruz,uga like even my gloves like gave us a lot of support They were like hey, man, you know come sit into this show do this so more people go to hear you and see you and one of the gigs was my first time meeting G love and I opened up for him for a New Year's gig at Turtle Bay and we used to have a club there called surfer bar and I opened up for him for a New Year's gig at Turtle Bay. And we used to have a club there called Surfer Bar. And I opened up for him solo and it went good. He dug it.

So next year he came back. He was like, oh, I get, yeah, Ron can open up again. So this time I brought my band out. And it's like, sometimes when a band were open for somebody and like, I've had once where the headliner like, like chewed us out because I guess. You're just too dope. You're just too dope, Ron. We pulled out all the stops because i guess it's too dope you're just too dope we pull out all the stops and we're going right so we pull out all the stops and g was

touring solo he was doing solo in hawaii and so we open up and we pull out all the stops man he came backstage shouting he was like what the hell? Where have y'all been hiding? Like, you need to get, like, you need, that's, you guys got to come out with me. And then we jammed together in his set. And I was like, man, what a cool compliment. Like, I'm glad he dug it. And then two weeks later, my agent calls me. He's like, dude, like, did you love, agent just called me.

He wants you to go out for three months. And like, he took us in a bunch of these cities. Let's go, dude. He wants you to go out for three months. And like, he took us in a bunch of these cities. Let's go, dude. I'm going to clap it up. That is an American dream right there, bro. So he took us in these cities we had never played before, let alone as a band.

So we did like, I think we started in like Minneapolis. Yeah. First Ave, like Prince's room. And we went from there all the way across To the coast East Coast All the way down to Florida All the way across Down to Texas And then the next leg

We did like The whole West Coast Yeah And dude It was never the same For us in the States Like more and more people Wanted to hear the music

They wanted to see where we are These festivals Were calling up and stuff And I was like All along the way It's like being A support band And I'm sure When you started out You saw this, it's like being a support band.

And I'm sure when you started out, you saw this too. It's like being as an opener. Like the headliner's like, all right, here, that's your timeline. You get there, you do this, whatever. Here's 200 bucks. Yeah, yeah. You know, we don't care about how you got to get there. Yeah, just get there. Squeezing your minivan.

Yeah, good luck. Good luck out there. Yeah. So we did, that's what we did, right? We jumped in a minivan tour and we're like going out. But then he would be like yo so where are you guys staying tonight and we're like oh you know we're we're gonna see after we sell some merch if we can grab a hotel right he's like you know we have two hotel

rooms we're probably gonna head out in the bus tonight here here's the keys to our hotel room you guys just crash there man and take it easy you like pace yourself pace yourself he keeps and then the whole thing you said that yeah he's like pace yourself, pace yourself. He keeps on saying, and then the whole thing. Did you say that? Yeah, he was like pace yourself because the funny thing was, right, I grew up in Hawaii. Yeah.

The weather there, sunny, humid. Yeah, no problem. All year. Yeah. All of a sudden, I'm in northeast,

dry, cold weather. My voice is trying to crack after the third night because we're not sleeping. We're driving all day and it's dry. And I was like, and he's like, man, what are you doing?

Like, where's your humidifier? Where's your, I was like, my what? Like, he's like, humidifier. Man, you don't have a humidifier. And I was like, no, I don't need a humidifier. He's like, dude, you're not going to have a voice after the fifth show. If you don't get eight hours of sleep and get a humidifier. He was saying this?

Dude, he was on us the whole time. He was on us the whole time and he just kept checking in. And then he had Chris was his tour manager's time. And he was looking out for us the whole time, too. He's like, yo, we think there's going to be a storm coming through here. So if you can't make that gig, there's no issue. Just hop on the next one. And they're just looking out for us the whole time.

And the other guy was Jack Johnson.son yeah oh you opened for jack so we're we got a tour coming up with jack johnson later this year let's go but dude we're stoked about that dude let's go it's like it's moving man i love it dude in hawaii dude we did this show with jack and we opened for him me and my brother thunder we were doing acoustic duo and Jack was like, man, I really dig your music. What are you doing next? What's your next project?

Right. And we're like, oh man, we're going to do our first studio album. So we've been like doing all these little gigs and saving up. We got half the budget to hire the engineer and the other half we're doing to get a studio.

We're super stoked. He's like, I know, scratch that man, use my studio. In Hawaii. In Hawaii. And we were like,

are you serious? And he's like, he's like yeah just you know call this person and and work out the schedule and get in there so we work with milan bartosa on our first album out of hawaii and dude man it was just like one of those moments was like whoa yeah and all these people just like have your back I think that's the thing that hit they wouldn't let us give anything in return it's like oh man let me do something just like no man somebody opened the door for me somebody helped me out somebody did this

this is my opportunity to see something in somebody that I respect and I want to help out these steps made big differences for us being able to get out. And it was like, these steps made big differences for us. Being able to get out, do what we love doing, and just go. Yeah, and it's like, you're trusting the universe with not having a backup plan,

and the universe is responding to that. Yeah, yeah, backup plan. Yeah, no, I don't have a say with that. Let's go, baby. I'll clap to that too, Ron. Damn. Yeah, man, I love it, man. I love doing music and doing it

with people I love. And I'm sure like the same thing with your crew. It's like being surrounded with people you love and being able to do something you love. It's like, man, what compares to that? No. Hence why you have your whole family here. Dude, man. Like, yeah. Yeah, man. Have my kids and everybody. And now my daughter just started singing with me every once in a while. I watched that at Brooklyn Bowl. It's so, it's gotta be so heartwarming. Dude, it is, man. It's so cool.

And it's just like picking life one step at a time and hopefully leave something behind that makes somebody smile or get through something that they're struggling with. You know, what? And that comes back to my idea of success. Like a lot of people, like when it comes,

especially when it comes to like the music business, they're like, what's your five-year plan? Like, what's your idea of success? You ready to get a Grammy? You ready to the music business, they're like, what's your five-year plan? What's your idea of success? You ready to get a Grammy? You ready to do this? And I'm like, yeah, that'd be kind of cool, but that's not my idea of success. If I can lay my head down on my deathbed at the end of my life

and think I helped one human get through something, heal, and love their life, that's success. Ron, this has been so refreshing, dude. Thanks, man. I'm honored that you took the time on your busy schedule to have this conversation because I don't think, not only do I need this conversation, but I think everyone needs this conversation.

So stay optimistic. I'm so proud of you, bro. I'm so proud of you. We got to be homies. This is just the beginning. Yeah, dude, it's the beginning, man. I don't know, you might get too famous for me after the Jack tour, man. Come on, man. You know, I was thinking when I heard you sing that blues thing the other night,

I was like, man, what's it going to take to get Andy on my next album? Let's go. What's it going to take to get Ron on my next album? A phone call, apparently. Have we just become best friends, dude? Let's go. Let's go. I'm down, man. Ron, thanks for being on the show.

I know you're busy. I got one more question for you. Drop it. You started talking about it. I want you to get a little deeper in it. When it's all said and done, what do you want to be remembered by? Hmm.

I want to... You know, I'd like to say that, like, hey, this guy discovered saver fencing at 34 years old, fell in love with it and won like a championship medal. You're into fencing. Oh yeah. You love it. What do you love about it?

It's, it's like been pushing me to this next level of like having to look inwardly and tune yourself. It's like chess in motion. So I've been doing it since past Easter, picked it up during the pandemic. And I got like three tournaments happening in April when we get back home off the tour.

And yeah, the goal, man, is just get, get good at it and compete. It's like, I've been, I've been loving it,

man. I've been loving it. And in all seriousness, yeah, I love somebody be like what the heck happened like how did he I don't know

how did he how did he man he changed after this G Love tour man he just loves fencing but yeah but no man I just want to

I hope to be a reminder to people that I wasn't on this planet to teach anyone anything yeah I'm just here to remind people remind people the power of love and importance of it and and just the power and being vulnerable and transparent just where that goes

we all get hurt man it's it's inevitable we're on this planet it's like a classroom with like all your best friends and and unfortunately all the bullies too yeah but just as a reminder that man you're worth it and so is that person that hates you and that maybe you hate a little bit they're worth it yeah and just get through it man thank you for yeah thank you for your love bombs my man thanks man and maybe i'll take a little note on my tombstone that the world's greatest FIFA player, too. Let's go. I'll take it. I'm NBA 2K, so we'll meet in the middle somewhere.

We'll meet in the middle somewhere. Yeah. You like football? Yeah, I like football. You play Madden? I play, no, like soccer. Soccer? Soccer, football?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, my wife's from Germany, so. Yeah. Yeah. She's a. A Bayern?

What was her? Well, no, more the national team yeah um they have a club team in effort but they weren't like on the yeah like the elite level with the other guys but they're really good me man i i've been liking liverpool liverpool's killer yeah they've been killer the last couple years yeah i'm glad they've been doing really good so i've been like following them it's the oddest way that i found out about them did you ever see that um that i think it was called formula 51 that movie with samuel jackson i think that's the first place i heard of the liverpool football team oh my god and so it's like after i kind of looked him up and

i was kind of like oh dude that's pretty cool uh so i started looking up the liverpool team i was like oh man they they fight yeah go for real what do you want out of a team like having that much heart so it's like yeah well that's the thing about life

is having heart yeah no matter what you do fight for something if you're not passionate about it if you don't believe in it why are you wasting

your blood sweat and tears right because a check ain't worth it no no man yeah this last two crazy years taught anybody anything is how important it

is to have human connection right 100 and see people smile yeah or cry yeah it's just it's human connection is important that's one thing i miss is not you know i've been having to do all these interviews during zoom and it's yeah it's different when oh man you're telling me bro we're breathing together like i did so many concerts where you're like in front of this like phone and it's like, you're at a concert, there's a bunch of people there, bring the energy. And I'm just like, I'm sitting in my room with like the doors all closed. It's like literally no one.

You're too, yeah, you're too, you're too present. Pretending that there's 10,000 people behind that computer. It was kind of hard, but it's like, man, I'm so glad. It's like you get this new breath of fresh air to say like, oh, man, people are pretty rad. And we're pretty dumb too. But overall, we're pretty lovely. Perfect.

Ron, thanks for being on the show. Thanks, man. Enjoy Boulder, man. All those hippies out there, they're going to love you, bro. Yeah, dude. It Boulder, man. All those hippies out there, they're going to love you, bro. Yeah, dude. It's going to be wild. Next time I'll tell you about my first experience ever going there. Yeah, you got to come on the show again.

We played Boulder with D-Love and it was St. Paddy's Day. Oh, my God. That's a story in itself. I'll tell you next time. This ain't the last time, brother. All right, bro. Have a good one, Ron. Thanks, Andy.

That was great. You tuned in to the World Selfaving Podcast with Andy Fresco. Thank you for listening to this episode. Produced by Andy Fresco, Joe Angelo and Chris Lawrence. We need you to help us save the world and spread the word. Please subscribe, rate the show, give us those crazy stars. iTunes, Spotify, wherever you're picking this shit up. Follow us on Instagram at World S saving podcast for more info and updates.

Fresco's blogs and tour dates you'll find at andyfresco.com. And check our socials to see what's up next. Might be a video dance party, a showcase concert, that crazy shit show, or whatever springs to Andy's wicked brain. And after a year of keeping clean and playing safe, the band is back on tour. We thank our brand new talent booker, Mara Davis. We thank this week's guest, our co-host, and all the fringy frenzies that help make this show great. Thank you all.

And thank you for listening. Be your best, be safe, and we will be back next week.