Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - EP 234: Victor Wooten + Ken Marino & David Wain (Wet Hot American Summer)

Episode Date: August 29, 2023

How did this pod get such a mighty calibre of guest all in one week?? First off, we got legendary comedic multi-hyphenate performers, David Wain & Ken Marino joining Andy & Nick to discuss their newly minted touring rock band: Middle Aged Dad Jam Band! And we get to listen in, all googly eyed as they discuss how their 8 hour jam sessions may have strained their marriages. But who's this on the Interview Hour? Oh, no big deal. Just one of the most prolific and innovative bass guitarists of all time: the luminary GOAT of the 4-strings: Mr. Victor Wooten!! Editorial Note: Victor's done for the bass world what Albert Einstein did for physics. He's a gift not just to the bassists of the world, but to anyone with sentience (and a will to groove to good music & deep pocket). Follow Vic and catch him and his brothers on the road in a town near you!  www.victorwooten.com Watch this episode streaming now!! Psyched to partner up with our buddies at Volume.com! Check out their roster of upcoming live events and on-demand shows to enrich that sweet life of yours. Call, leave a message, and tell us how you really feel: [phone]  Check out our new album!, L'Optimist on all platforms Follow us on Instagram @worldsavingpodcast For more information on Andy Frasco, the band and/or the blog, go to: AndyFrasco.com Check out our good friends that help us unwind and sleep easy while on the road and at home: dialedingummies.com Produced by Andy Frasco, Joe Angelhow, & Chris Lorentz Audio mix by Chris Lorentz Featuring: Shawn Eckels Andee Beats Avila Arno Bakker

One, two, three. low. Pretty low. Hoping folks will join us for a show. For a show. I added five names to the list. They did show up, not my single fist. Buckle up, baby, this is gonna blow. If you can't draw a crowd, draw a dick. If you can't draw a crowd, draw a dick. Not too many in the crowd. Everybody get your sharpies out

Can't draw a crowd, draw a dick There's too much space between us So I was forced to draw a penis You can't draw a crowd, draw a dick And this is the World Famous Podcast, let's go! Boom! Alright, and we're back. Andy Frasco's World Famous Podcast. Let's go. Boom. All right. And we're back.

Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast. I'm Andy Frasco. This is my co-host wearing his drug dealer sunglasses once again during a two o'clock fucking afternoon. He says he's in Panama City, so I figured. We got a very special guest. First off, we have Victor Wooten on the show. Victor Wooten on the show for our interview.

And we thought, this is unbelievable. We have David Wayne and Ken Marino. Boys, gentlemen, how are we doing? Good to see you, sir. Sir, we are doing great. Yes, sir. So if you aren't familiar with David and Ken's work, David, he directed some amazing films,

Wet Hot American, Summer, Wanderlust, Role Models. Ken is an amazing comedian, amazing actor. This is awesome. And a great director, Ken Marino. Ken, what have you directed? I directed two movies, one called How to Be a Latin Lover and another one called

Dog Days. You do it all. I could tell you guys saw both of them. I love them. I want to watch them now. We're going to put them on after this. This is the reason why you're on the show. You guys are in a band.

This is exciting. Middle-aged dad jam band. This isaged dads we're also frustrated want to be rock stars and we like singing and dancing and karaoke and playing instruments and stuff and I did play in bands here and there growing up as a drummer but never with too much seriousness and then sort of coming out of the pandemic and, you know, with work gone and off, we just started getting together in the garage with our other friends and jamming out and having such a good time with it. And as we posted some of the clips on Instagram, people started being like, this is so great.

Do a show. We want to come see it. And little by little, it evolved into kind of a real band. And now we're touring all over the country, and we have this growing group of people that are involved and guest stars in every city. And it's a real blast. And it seems to be a pretty joyous, fun project. And it's just very shamelessly an evening of all

great cover songs of all different genres spanning kind of the 60s, 70s, 80s mostly. So you're taking poker night on the road. Something like that. And having everyone join up with us. I saw you had Weird Al guest with you at one of your LA shows.

That had to be pretty fun to do. He's like the ultimate musical comedian, right? Yeah. Exactly. That was a bucket list moment. Yeah, I love his stuff. It's very fascinating. You want to be rock stars,

but be in a jam band. They want it all. They're famous comedic actors, directors, and now they want arms. It's not technically... It's not a jam band in the sense of like that we jam on endlessly. It's more just like we jam

and we do old fun songs. It's definitely a jam band playlist. I saw the playlist. It's a lot of great covers. How far are you going with this rock star world? Are you doing cocaine? Are there hookers? What's going on?

Are you bringing the whole environment to Cervantes? Yes, but because... I was going to say... Well, no, we are doing cocaine. We're not doing cocaine. We're doing hookers who do cocaine. Yes. Just because our hearts at our age...

The middle-aged dad part. ...are strong enough to deal with the cocaine or the hookers. So we just, we leave it to the hookers to do the cocaine. The Cervantes rider we have says hookers and then blow for the hookers. I'm a huge fan of you. What do you think are the parallels between directing a film and being a band leader? To me, they're very similar. I feel like the, I mean, I feel like what's,

for better or worse, there's a huge continuum from everything that we've done. Ken and I both have, since we were in college, doing the state, do projects where we wear multiple hats and we're just doing a million different things. You know, we're writing and producing and acting and promoting and building props and running the camera and kind of piecing everything together in a fun guerrilla style, low budget way to create something that's fun for an audience. And this band is exactly that.

It's no different than so much of what we've done in that way. How do you like singing, Ken? I love it. You know, it's very cathartic it's uh it's wonderful and i mean you know the the best part about it is i get to just hang out with my buddies and uh and and and and sing songs for hours upon hours so it's uh it's it's a wonderful thing like we will i think the way i got the uh got the singing gig is, you know, David was doing these jams in his garage, you know, pretty weekly. And I would just come as soon as they started and I wouldn't leave until they were done.

And so I put in the hours. It's basically how every guy knows. So what's fun about a lot of these shows is people come up and they're like, you know, we came to check it out because we're fans of what you guys have done, you know, movies and TV shows. And then we're like, but wow, shit,

Marino can sing. And it's like kind of the bonus. The bonus is that the band sounds pretty damn good. And so, and then we do like fun little jokes and stick in between too. So it's sort of an all encompassing. When did you realize Ken could sing? I can make a joke, but he's always been a good singer like you know he was he i've had i met him uh we we met first year of freshman year in college at nyu extract we met we david we met

first day of college yeah exactly incredible um we we did very much so and yeah we and and i think within on that first day we felt like we i think you know had some simpatico uh vibe between us and um he said that first day when we met in the dormitory at nyu he's like can i just take you aside and show you how my voice range like you. And so I took him aside. We went into a sound booth. Four hours later. Well, about eight hours. We put in a full day's work.

This was 1987, I think. I think you had a podcast where you did a lot of singing. Yeah. I would bring different people onto my podcast and sing for them in 87. Right. First podcast. What's the repertoire like, boys? I would bring different people onto my podcast and sing for them in 87. The first podcast. What's the repertoire like, boys, for this thing, for people who are coming blind?

We sing songs from every decade. The 60s, the 70s, and the 80s. So all of every... You know, we do some decade, the 60s, the 70s, and the 80s. We do some movie soundtrack stuff. We do stuff from our own movies. So if you're a fan of role models and Wet Hot American Summer, we do music from that. And Joe Cocker and Violin Femmes and Bruce Springsteen, it's a wide gamut. How do your wives and your family

feel about you adding another project to your belt? Like, hey guys, I know the Rider Strikes going on. We have some family time. Actually, fuck that family. We're going on tour with our band. We're starting a jam band. How's that relationship? I will say

in the beginning, my wife was like oh that's fine i'm like yeah i'm gonna go play with the band and then like when i would call up like six hours later at the same day she's like where are you i'm like we're still jamming she's like oh jesus so this is what it's gonna be eight hour jam sessions oh my god every week what about she was she was supportive in the beginning And she's still supportive But now she's like She doesn't need to hear all the details anymore And in my case

My 15 year old son is in the band I'm subbing for this Are there groupies For these shows? Is it a groupie type of show? Are you getting pussy on the road? They put dad in the title too Oh yeah

But we have a staffer type of show? Like, you getting pussy on the road? Like, what's going on? No, they put dad in the title too. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. True, respect. Yeah, but I have a, we have a staffer that, I have a staffer that goes through the crowd and sees who the hot women are and taps them on the shoulder and gives them a backstage pass. Oh, nice. And then they do a little lineup and I pick the one that I want for that evening.

Oh, that's good. That's good. The Frasco method. Just for the record, that was a joke. If my wife was listening, and she isn't. Have you ever tried writing original music? In this band, I'm not interested. I think we're never going to outright Keith Richards.

And so I feel like... I loved diving deep into the great American songbook in a way. And I love... I actually, from a creative point of view, has been so fulfilling as this guy who sort of casually played drums during my life, but to go deep and really learn from the greats by trying to imitate them and understand and just getting a sense of how much i don't know and how much i can still learn in the past couple years i've learned so much about drums that i've never realized was there and it's just endlessly interesting to me and fun dave is so good at the drums and it's it's it's so much fun like each week he like he'll come back and break down a song you know and really want to kind of nail it exactly

how you know it's done on the album and uh it's just fun to watch how passionate he is about it whereas i i like to do just my takes on uh songs which means i don't want to learn how it's really done and you're you're showing your age said album. Now everything's on CD. Oh my God, you're right. Everything's CD now. You know who else does, who kind of makes things very separate between his music and his comedy is Tim Heidecker. He writes great songs.

Yeah, well, he's a real great musician and a great comedian, obviously. And yeah, his tour is really fun. Although, if you have a choice in a given night, you should come to ours. Yeah. I heard you guys are a little better. I heard he's great,

but you guys are a little bit better. So that's what I heard. It's like the tiniest bit better. Yeah. But better. Oh man. Well, I'm very excited about this.

Guys go check out tomorrow. It's a, it's happening. It's a little bit better than Cervantes middle-aged dad jam band. I'm excited. And's happening. Cervantes, middle-aged dad jam band. I'm excited. And you got Nick Gerlach, the best saxophone player in the city. I can't wait for that.

I got one question, not on the music side, but on your other career. How hard is it to stay funny? That is a really good question. I have often thought about that question because you look around at some of your heroes and you're like oh they're not funny anymore so far i am still so fucking funny i think i think this since since what since way back when we were doing the state the you know our sort of uh mantra was like as long as we're making each other laugh, that's all that matters.

And then if other people give a shit or think it's funny, great. So I live by that, which is like, as long as I'm having fun with the people around me, my friends, my coworkers, and I'm having a good time and they're laughing and we're, you know, we're all laughing. That's, that's all I care about. And then if it's for anybody else to kind of decide whether we're still funny or not. I agree. But I think that that's always been the secret sauce from day one with the state is that there's a certain inclusiveness and a certain, we're all having fun and let's have fun together quality to the vibe and i i think that's always it's true i've also tried to i've i've kept it real by making sure systematically never to make a lot of money so i don't get too much in a bubble of wealth you don't want to get too rich

that's always been your thing right yeah that's right david's always been like david's been davis had these big, big opportunities where they were going to throw a ton of money at him. He's like, no. No, fuck that. I want to be good. Then I won't be into... That's right.

I want to continue to be funny. I want to stay real on the streets. Yeah. Doing my own laundry at the laundromat. This is jazz. Hence why you're in a jam band. Yeah. Now you're playing Cervantes on a Tuesday.

Well, David, Ken, thanks for sharing the time. Can't wait to see the show. I'm going. I'm coming with bells on. Are you bringing Todd? Awesome. Yeah, I'm bringing Todd Glass. Todd, we're doing... We're actually competing with you. We're doing our live podcast with Ophelia on Wednesday, but I'm bringing

Todd on Tuesday, and then we're both going to our first Phish concert. I'm going to... The show's Wednesday. No, Tuesday is the Cervantes. Wednesday is State. You say he's bringing Todd to the Cervantes show. I'm bringing Todd to the Cervantes show. 30th and 31st.

Oh my God, you're totally right. Is this part of the funny stuff? You actually just scared the shit out of me there for a second. I had it totally wrong. I thought we had another day in there to get ready, but I guess we don't. No, it's the next day. Well, good luck, boys. Go kill them out there and

keep the dream alive and I can't wait to see what's going on over there. Remember, we take requests. Our mantra in our band is whenever Andy calls, we come. I love it. Well, guys, enjoy the day.

Go keep kicking ass out there, and we'll see you tomorrow. Thanks, guys. Later. I don't think it's too early for me to say this, but I love you. I love you, too. I love you, too. The jury's out for me, but yes. Later, guys.

Have a good one. All right. Victor Woon, up next. Let's do it. All right. We had so much fun. Let's do it. All right. We had so much fun with Ken and Dan opening the show that I forgot to talk about our sponsors. Dialed in Gummies. Yes.

Look at that. Look at that sign, baby. Dialed in Gummies. The best edibles in the land. If you're in Denver, Colorado, go grab yourself some Dialed in Gummies. You might as well. I know all these Red Rock shows, especially this is the best time to go to Red Rocks in the fall. Go grab yourself

some Dialed In Gummies. And if you want some world-saving podcast gummies, me and Nick are running separately against each other for the mayor of Indianapolis, baby. Let's go. Frasco's gonna win this thing, though. We're gonna win it. Team Frasco's gonna beat

that sarcastic motherfucker's ass so grab some dialed in gummies and if you want to watch this video this interview with Victor Woon is amazing go on volume.com and watch it look at the intention he has

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Ladies and gentlemen, we have Victor Wooten on the show. Chris, play some Victor Wooten. God damn. We have Victor Woon on the show. Chris, play some Victor Woon. God damn. He's promoting. He's going back on tour with his brothers.

We recorded this today, and we realized we had to bump this interview up because it is that fucking good. This guy is so optimistic. After I got off this interview, I wanted to jump through a fucking wall. He's the best bass player, I think, on planet Earth. How he talks about music, how his life, how his parents raised him. This whole interview is awesome. So I think you're going to really love this one. So ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the interview hour, Victor Woon.

Wow. Here he is. The legend himself, Victor Woon. How you doing? Appreciate that. Man. Life is good. How do you approach getting older and what's your take on age and growing? Well, I mean, we're lucky if we're aging, you know? Yeah, that's true.

Privilege. It's a privilege. It's something we should look forward to because we all want to do it. You know, a lot of the times we complain about things just because we can. But I do not complain about aging. That's something that I look forward to. And I know how fortunate I am to be able to do it. Not everybody gets this opportunity, so I'm going to take it as best as I can and do the most with it. How do you get people out of that daydream of being in their head of when they're dreading

getting older? Do you have mentors in your life who are dreading getting older and stuff? How do you get them out of that haze and have them actually just live life presently? Sure. Well, for one, I don't take it as it's my role to get them out of it. They have to do it. And the best way to do it is to live by example. Teach through example. Let people see what you're doing, let them talk about it. But then offer encouragement, let them know that that they are people are worthy. You're enough right where you are. And I think that what I do musically is I let people know that the world needs their voice.

You know, a lot of people just don, a lot of people, not everybody, but a lot of people don't feel like they have anything to offer. And they feel like, a lot of times we compare ourselves to other people. So a lot of us don't feel worthy. And I like to let people know, at least when I'm teaching, when I'm in that role at a college or at my own camps, or even with my kids kids is that you have something that the rest of the world doesn't have yeah you have the only fingerprint in the world that's in the not more than more than the world in the history of the world yeah in their history of humans your fingerprint has never been here which means you have something that no one else has

and the world deserves it you know you don't have to do anything with it but you can um you know so i just try to my main thing is to make people is to help people not make people but to help people know that they are worthy and they have something to offer the world is it hard to um teach people this philosophy when you know society always tells you that you're just a number it depends on the person yeah you know i i just do what i think is right for each situation but in the same way if you cook dinner you can't force a person to eat it yeah yeah you're right you're right you know you can cook the best meal but it's not up to you whether they eat it or not so i can give advice i you can cook the best meal, but it's not up to you whether they eat it or not.

So I can give advice. I give what I think is good advice, but it's up to the person to take it. And even if they take it, to do something with it. But it also doesn't mean that the advice I give is good for everybody. So I have to be aware of that also. I have to try to meet people where they are. Yeah. It's like, is it harder to give knowledge to your kids versus your students?

Well, the thing about with my kids, I'm with them every day, at least when they're growing up. So I can take my time. Right, right. A lot of the time when I have a student, that may be the only day that I see them. So sometimes it can be harder, but sometimes it can be easier. There's no rule that's always the same, that's right. But with my kids, I know them inside and out, even though they're individuals, and I have time to spend with them. But I also know that like right now, they're going to be off on their own right so my mom always said my mom would say you'll either raise your kids or wish you had and so my wife and

i did our best to get it right while we had them because now all of our kids all four of them are out of the house wow you know nowadays they'll probably only come back to visit. Really on their own. They're adults. The youngest is 18. The oldest is 25. They're on their own doing their lives. Hopefully, us parents did a good job starting

them on the right road. What was your relationship like with your parents? Was it good or was it like what you learned from how they taught you to how you could be a better parent for your kids? Well, all of the above. Yeah. You know, parents, good parents want you to be more than them. But my mom, I can't imagine a better parent teacher than my mom.

Really? Just unbelievable. And because I was the youngest, I didn't really get to see her raising kids. But as now that I'm a parent, I can look back and really recognize so many of the things that my mom and dad did for us five boys. And there were many of the things I just thought that's what they're supposed to do. That's what parents do because I was used to them doing it. Now that I'm a dad, I realized, wow, they went way beyond what they had to do to make it easier for us. And so I've learned a whole lot from that. But I was lucky enough to have just two of the best parents.

And I like to say that I had four extra parents in my brothers because I have four older brothers. Yeah, that's the thing. What was that relationship like? Because you guys all played music. Most of you played music or did everyone play music everyone so was there like a competitive nature was like i'm gonna i'm gonna be better than your asses or was it more like everyone was helping each other grow because your dad is like he's he's in it was he in air he was part of the air force right so discipline was very part of your family so like how was that you know the it's like i think of it like a running back like handing that knowledge off to the kids then the

kids could do whatever the hell they want with it so like did you guys like beat each other's ass like what was going on over there that's what a lot of people think because that seems to be the norm right right um you're five boys, you fight. People say, you're the youngest, you got picked on, you never got to eat food. But no, it was never like that. So cool. So you got to think of it this way.

Think of it like this. My dad was one of 14 kids. Holy shit, really? My mom was one of 13. The Air Force was not a big change for him, I guess. No, no, but you've got to think of what it was like for people of color in the 30s and 40s, 50s. Okay? You're all living, all 14 of my dad's family, all 13, living in the same house, you know, one or two rooms.

You can't fight each other. No. Right. The whole world seems to be fighting you. Right. Right. Right? My dad is in the military fighting for a country that wasn't fighting for him.

Yeah. So fighting your siblings, what sense does that make right and for whatever reason it seems to be the norm right that wasn't the norm that i grew up in did he teach you that or how did you guys or did it was just just always implanted in you? It was always implanted. It's sort of like you speak English, but no one taught you. Right. You just grew up around it. Right.

So you learned it. So no one had to sit me down and say, hey, we don't fight, blah, blah, blah. No. It's just the way it was. Right. So we grew up with that mentality. Now, my dad knew how to fight. He was in the army. He was in the he was in the Korean War. Right. He was at it, but he didn't let us do it. He made sure that we did not have to go the military route. Yeah. Not that the military route is bad. I think we need it and there's a place for it. Sure. But it wasn't for us five boys.

So when my older brothers found music, my parents made sure that they were able to keep music in their lives. So I like to say my older brothers, instead of beating me up, they held me up. Yeah. And they're doing that today. Who's your biggest role model as a brother? As a brother, they all are for different reasons. But I usually talk about Reggie, because most people know me as a musician. And it was my oldest brother, Reggie, who started teaching me when I was very young. My earliest memories was being about two years old

when he was teaching me. But when I was five years old, we were opening for war. Curtis Mayfield, we did Curtis Mayfield's Superfly Tour and all of that. So I owe a lot. I owe it to all my brothers. But it was really Reggie who hands-on taught me to play

and taught my three-year-old, my brother who's three years older than me, Joseph. He alsoon taught me to play and taught my three-year-old my brother who's three years older than me joseph yeah he also taught joseph how to play so think about this when i'm two joseph is five our teacher reggie was only 10 oh my god my oldest brother's only eight years older than me and so by the time i five, we're doing major concerts and tours. So, who raised you? If your dad was always working in the Air Force, who raised you through these

tours and stuff? Our parents. By the time I came along, my dad was about to retire. So, we did not do a gig without both parents there. Oh, wow. Wow. They were always there. Was there an advantage to having a 10-year-old teach

you when you were a kid? Maybe the message coming from another kid is received better in a way? Or is it because of your brother? I didn't know anything else. That's all I knew. When I was two, when I was five, I thought Reggie was a grown man. That's true.

That's so true. I didn't even think about it that way. Eight years older. I mean, shit. He might as well have a mortgage. I knew he wasn't my dad. He wasn't as old as my dad, but I didn't know he was eight years older than me.

Yeah. And when you're two and your brother's 10, he's a grown man. Yeah, he might as well be 30. Yeah. Right, right. So I can look back on it now but when i look back on it now i realize how much of a genius reggie was right think about it

think about a 10 year old boy has four younger brothers okay he's not beating them up okay he has the love the empathy the care the know-how the patience right that teaches little brothers right and they all turned out really really good absolutely to me that's how families are supposed to be and in my in my parents era families are supposed to be. And in my parents' era, that's how families had to be to survive. Again,

could not compete with each other when you're already competing with the rest of the world. So we were a family unit and we're still that same unit. I might clap to that. Victor, you're the man, dude. You're the man. I'm going to clap to that. Victor, you're the man, dude. I want to go see you.

You're the man. God. Okay, so I got a few more questions. We'll start talking about the music. So you started gigging at six or five. Was public education important to your family to have you taught that? Were you always on the road?

Give me some, what was your life when you're gigging and going to school? Tell me a little bit more about that. Yeah, yeah. My mom was all about education. I mean, all about it. She knew what we were facing as, and I just got to say it as it is, she knew what we were facing as five black boys born in the 50s and 60s yeah jesus christ if we did not know who we are the world might tell us oh no the world would tell you

and in most cases the world at that time would not tell you the truth about yourself so our parents wanted to make sure that we knew who we were and they saw where we were headed with our music we were already in front of the public almost from birth so my mom made sure that we could speak clearly she made sure that we learned how to type. We had to be good writers. And we had to get good grades. Be at the least. As soon as you started getting C's, okay, there was a talk that we had to have. What was the talk like?

What was she saying? Oh, that you're better than that. Yeah. And I that we had to have. What was the talk like? What was she saying? Oh, that you're better than that. Yeah. And I'm not going to have this. I'm not going to have you being less than you are. Wow. That's cool. I'm not taking that. And so until you get that C up, you got to wash dishes or you got to blah, blah, blah.

And it started right away. What about who is the rebellious? Who is the rebellious who is the rebellious brother like one like nah mom i'm getting to see none of them none none no no wouldn't have so i mean and if it was any of us it probably would have been me yeah yeah yeah but no no no we got we all got good grades you know minimum B. My brother Reggie wrote the alma mater for our high school that they still use today. Oh, my God. My mom, when she was in college or when she was in high school, I think she wrote her alma mater.

Yeah. You know, and my mom put herself back through college after, you know, we started getting a little older. She was all about education. I don't think my dad graduated high school. I don't think so. I think he went straight into the military, but yeah, we, we had to have good grades. So a typical day on a Friday or Saturday, especially a Friday would be for me to come home from school, do homework, then take a nap. And then we'd have a gig. A lot of times our gigs would be from 10,

a nap and then we'd have a gig a lot of times our gigs would be from 10 a 10 at night to 2 in the morning and we would take one break in the middle this is wild victor so who did you who inspired who like who taught you work ethic who was the one that likes this is how it should be like or just it was always implanted in you it didn't have to be taught it was led through example sick my parent my parents worked hard if something needed to be get done they did it i remember one time when uh red uh rudy joseph and i were getting bigger and rudy joseph and and and i shared a bedroom my whole youth and we're starting to get big now rudy's getting tall you know and we got three beds in the room my mom no we had one bed and then a bunk bed and my mom said y'all getting too big for this you need a triple bunk bed oh my god like three

so i remember coming home one day and my mom had bought a whole bunch of wood. And she was like, y'all stay out the bedroom. And you hear sawing and hammering. Oh, my God. And there's a triple bunk bed. Wow. She didn't have any plans. She had never made one before.

But they just did whatever had to be done. Yeah. But they just did whatever had to be done. My dad wanted to, you know, I could tell you stories and stories, but just whatever needed to be done, they would do it. That was the mentality they had from childhood. You know, you couldn't go to the store and buy this or that. You had to grow it. You couldn't, if you were sick, you had to know what plants were in your yard right you know all that kind of stuff you had to have hogs and cows and you know granddaddy my mom's dad they needed a house so he cut down the trees and built one you know no plants you just do it right so that's the mentality that i grew up with so when so with this mentality and you're talking about how like

your parents raised you that eventually you're going to deal with racism when was the first time you dealt with racism before i knew it was racism yeah like when do you remember the moment first moment i can remember being uh being in the car um actually i think i heard the story because i think fortunately um uh god or life or universe whatever you want to call it uh allowed me to sleep through this incident that i heard about afterwards but coming home late night from a gig when when a man a police officer pulled my dad over and put a gun to his head. You know how that story goes. My dad was smart. He didn't reach for his wallet when the policeman asked him to.

And fortunately, we made it home safely with dad alive. Wow. So at that time, I just hear about that. But I don't know the word racism. I'm literally probably five years old coming home from the gigs, maybe six. And I understood that. I can you know, I remember being able to look back. I can look back right now and see through high school and things like that where.

You know, to at the risk of sounding egotistical, you knew you were the best, but you didn't win the award. You knew that you should have been included, but you weren't. So I don't remember the youngest time I recognized racism, but I can remember many times where it was there. Yeah. You're like probably looking at the Partridge family and saying, yeah, fuck these guys. We're way better than y'all well it's not really that it's not really that i mean you you you see a lot of people that you you you know like i you know yeah i could play my instrument maybe better than that person but i i learned very on that everybody has an individual voice when you hear

someone talk you don't think oh man i can talk better than that guy ever right you know only when you learn a craft that you're not that good at that you start comparing yourself to other people yeah talking is natural for us music was natural and we didn't look at it as a competition but what what those shows like the Partridge family and all those shows, what it did is it gave you. I don't know if you want to call it hope, but we wanted to live in a neighborhood like that. Right. We wanted to be able to walk down the streets as freely as that. You know, we wanted that kind of much food on the table. We wanted, you know, it was like a higher standard that you kind of in the back of your mind dream for.

So that I think even probably for a lot of us kids of color in those days seeing some of those shows uh gave us hope because the black tv shows when they first started happening it didn't show black people that way you gotta you know like fred sanford sanford and sons yeah or good times the jeffersons finally we're moving on up they're living in a penthouse jefferson they got to wear suits yeah you know so this was rare it wasn't until the huxtables with bill cosby that all of a sudden wow we can be a doctor we can have a nice family drive a nice car you know so we watched those shows as kids and i remember many of them i loved them you know andy griffith i love lucy i dream of genie you know loved all those shows but i think

in the back of our mind there was a kind of a hope and a wish that we could live like that also yeah and how hard was it to stay optimistic and have this idea of hope when you're dealing with all that stuff in the 60s yeah well i mean again for me i'm the youngest so a lot of what i was dealing with was just the way it was right you know it wasn't as bad as is as it might seem because it's just what is what i didn't know we were poor we were poor but i didn't really know until I got older and started to look back and say, oh, wow. Yeah. That's why mom wouldn't allow us boys to open the refrigerator without asking. Because she didn't want us to see that there was nothing in there.

Right, right. God, your mom's a saint. Your mom is a saint. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Mom and dad. your mom is a saint oh yeah absolutely mom and dad so a lot of the things i look back now on now that i can sit you know this this room right here is full of music gear you know in my house in the woods log cabin in the woods this is what my parents were striving for they knew they wouldn't have it yeah but one of their kids to grow up and be better, have it better than what they had.

And I'm trying to do the same for my kids. But sometimes in the risk of giving their kids and making sure they have everything they need, many kids, they don't learn how to work hard for it. Right. Right. Right. And so, to me, that's the real balance with my own kids is making it easy for them, but still wanting them to know hard work, hard balance. True saying. Well, I was just going to say to your question,

staying optimistic, my main optimistic thing, I didn't even know what the word meant, and I didn't look at it as i'm optimist right now but my hope our whole lives was for the five boys to continue the wooten brothers band yeah and that was going to be our if claim to fame or whatever we never could imagine not doing that. And still, when I was maybe 11th grade or 12th grade, with a bad record deal, when it started, for the first time in my life, the five of us weren't playing together all the time. Because of a bad record deal we did with Arista Records. Yeah, and explain that to the... Because you hear these horror stories

of these bad record deals through, like, George Porter and whatnot. Did you have the knowledge of the music industry, or were you just a musician? And that's why you think you got fucked on this deal. We were just young musicians, like a lot of people, who

get bad deals and don't know it. You just sign something. Fortunately, to encapsulate the whole story, fortunately, we went in with no money and we left with no money. Right. And that was pretty much all we lost, you know, physically. But what it did cause us to happen was the five boys for the first time in our lives weren't playing exclusively together. Right. What ended up happening is that we the short story is we were we we signed to a production deal with a great famous producer in the 80s. He was producing our record. He was also producing some early records for Kenny G.

And he was producing Whitney Houston's very first record so we were all around at the same time recording for Arista and looking back on it now I realized that our record was never supposed to get done never supposed to get finished it was a way for the producer to prolong over years our recording process while he was milking our budget and buying houses and cars and building a studio in his new estate in Connecticut and all this stuff. We've got not even four songs done, but we find out that we're over budget and we got to go back to the record label and get more money he's just where's our money you know right then when did you start realizing you're getting screwed how long did it take until you started realizing you're getting screwed i'm gonna guess a good year and a half or so yeah and to keep the story as short as possible what happened was when we were recording and then we find out that the producer says, hey, the record label needs me to put you guys on hold.

We have to stop recording because I have to finish my record. The record label needs me to finish my record. So he finishes his record for Arista. And then we go back in the studio just for a little bit. And then he says, you know what? We have to put you on hold again. Record label needs me to tour my record. Oh, Jesus.

We go home. But two of my brothers are on tour with the artists. So two are traveling around the world and we're happy for them. They're learning some amazing things. But three of us are back at home in virginia with with no band to play with so we have to find other things to do so once that tour finally happens and we're talking months half a year whatever finally we get back into the studio and the same thing happens oh you know we don't even have four tunes done but the guy says, okay, you know what?

The record label needs me to start my record again. I'm going to have to put you guys on hold. So we go on hold. We're back home again. But two of my brothers are doing some recording with them. Two of my brothers are actually on Whitney Houston's first record because it was all happening at the same time. So my two brothers that are up there there they're starting to catch on now and they say okay we're our records on hold and we're here recording his record he says they say

if we get put on hold again because now he's got to go on tour we're just going to disappear we're just we're gonna we're gonna know something's. And so that's what ended up happening. We you know, after we got put on hold so he could record his record, then later on in the year, he's like, OK, I got to put you guys on hold because, you know, the record label wants me to tour. So my my two brothers that were up there, they knew we all knew by that time, okay, this is a pattern. And they just got up early one morning, back when you can get a flight, you know, really easy. That's a desk, yeah. They just flew home and didn't tell anybody. Didn't tell anyone. They just disappeared.

Did you have a manager? No. Just your parents? Right, just our parents. So in the end, we had done some stuff with the great singer Stephanie Mills before all of this. And this big-time producer was Stephanie Mills' keyboard player. That's how we met him. But we ended up getting some help from Stephanie Mills' brother, who was managing her at the time. And we told him what's going on.

He knew the producer, and they helped us get that record done and get out of that deal. Right. So we were able to get some help. Overall, we didn't lose anything except the fact that the five of us weren't playing together, which was huge. But we learned a lot about business like we didn't lose any money you know or anything we didn't have any money so there was no money to lose we didn't make any money we don't own those songs arista records is out of business another company's bought their whole catalog so we don't even

know where our album is. Songs we wrote. Nothing came of that record. The time, though. But the thing is that we are still around. Arista Records doesn't even exist. The producer doesn't exist anymore. But we still do. So we look at it that way.

We have gained because of the whole situation. Yeah, which is beautiful. And now you're going back on tour with your brothers your brothers right absolutely we're finally finally doing it again we lost our brother rudy in 2010 he's our saxophone player and he had a heart attack in 2010 way too young i think he was only 52 and i'm 58 now he's six years older than me but he was only 52 when that happened and um it was sad time but the four of us aren't stopping and you know and you probably know i i met this banjo player named baylor flack yeah well over 30 years my brother it was my brother roy future man 30 years.

My brother, my brother, Roy future, man, my brother, Joseph, not long after I started playing with Bela, he got a gig with Steve Miller band as a keyboard player.

He's been doing that for over 30 years. And so we were able to find things and keep busy, but we've always longed to do what we're about to do. Right. Put out a, put out the real brothers band, the Wooten brothers. Uh, unfortunately, unfortunately without Rudy, but, Put out the real Brothers band, the Wooten Brothers. Unfortunately, without Rudy.

But I will tell you this. The world doesn't know it yet, but we found some music that we forgot about. We forgot about it. It's a very amazing story how we found this music. Tell us. very amazing story how we found this music tell us but there's a couple albums worth of music that have rudy on it recorded in the late 70s and early 80s uh-huh two whole different projects that that people are going to get to hear in the near future so we're going to be releasing new music and old music yeah and it's going to blow you i can't wait what about um do you ever what about relist like when you first saw those tapes?

Like, re-listened to it? Did you ever, like, were any of them, like, cringeworthy? Like, did you, like, ooh, everything was great. Everything. I've been a badass forever. I mean, because that's hopefully we're better musicians now,

but we were so good at that time. I think I'm just being honest. I was maybe in the seventh or eighth grade. You know, we were all teenagers. And it's so good. And mainly because we really get to hear Rudy, who was playing lines, running lines with two saxes and harmonies and unisons. Just amazing. And it was such a shock to find

this stuff that we had forgotten about. And so we're excited about the old stuff and the new stuff. Do you think if that whole debacle with the record label didn't go down, do you think you would have never met Fleck?

Do you think you guys would still have been the Wound Brothers now? It's hard to say you know what if you never know how life is going to work things out

I think that Bela and I would have met at some point because he's such an amazing musician and I get a chance to meet I've gotten a chance to meet a lot of amazing musicians. So I don't know. I don't think we would have had these 30-plus years together. No.

But would we have met and played music together? I think so. I think the world would have steered us in the same direction at some point. But I'm pretty sure it would have played out differently. Did you always think you're a badass or did you always felt like you, there was always room to grow like in life and like, everyone's telling you you're so good, Victor,

how did you like not absorb that as a sponge and feel like, yeah, I'm a badass. Like I don't need to learn anymore. Yeah. I mean, a lot of us, I think a lot of us do think that way,

but I learned I had good parents. Yeah. And I had six parents, my four brothers and my mom and dad. Right. As well as my aunts and uncles. I'm telling you, if you grow up the right way, I hate to say the right way, but if you grow up the way I did, I won't call that the right way. Right. But I wouldn't change it right don't you don't compare yourself to others as good or bad or better or

worse yeah but but there there is something more that you're striving for that you see in other people if you think about uh uh let's say you have a little brother right and let's say you can dunk a basketball but your little brother can't would you stop dunking the ball no because i dunk harder little brother go back i'll say it again i said i dunk harder absolutely yeah you would dunk harder because it's showing the little brother what his possibilities are yeah right so it wasn't yeah the older brother's better yeah but it should be because he's showing you potential so that's the way we look at it. Right. It wasn't that Larry Graham, Stanley Clark, Jocko Pistorius was better, even though they were.

And in many cases still are. But it showed me possibility. So when I hear Jocko, I recognize, even as a kid, that's his voice. It's not my voice. And even if I learn to say the same words that Jocko said on his bass, it's going to sound like me. I was lucky enough to learn that. My mom had a saying that said, you are better than no one, My mom had a saying that said, you are better than no one, but no one is better than you. That's great. So we all have our own voice. And I look at those people as big brothers.

Stanley's my big brother. Marcus, Jocko, Larry Graham. I've got so many big brothers that I look up to still. But as good as they are, they don't have my voice. And I don't have it. God, Victor, you are... I'm in love with you, bro. You are the man. And I want to talk

about inspiration. You talk about the idea of inspiration through Martin Luther King. Have you ever had a point in your life where you felt like you've kind of lost the inspiration, maybe through a death, maybe through a heartbreak? What was the biggest part of your life that you felt like you lost your inspiration? I can remember it one time. And I'm very lucky that I can only remember one.

Because I always knew that life was bigger than where my mind was at that moment you know life music is uh one of my good friends anthony wellington in excuse me in talking about music and i'm going to equate it to life also but he said music learning music is like counting to infinity. So he says, it doesn't matter how far you count, you never get any closer to the end. Yeah. But to add to that, you do get further from the beginning. And that's a cool thing.

You can look back and see how far you've come, but you can never see how far you're going to go. Yeah. So I've always been optimist optimistic i always knew there was more than where i was but where i wanted to go never diminished where i was right i don't look down on myself right now because I'm not there. I use where I am now to get there. But I do remember one time, and it was right around that record label time, where the five of us are not playing together. I don't see it. Probably my first time realizing, okay, my career now may not be the five brothers. Yeah.

You know, and I'm living at home. I'm either 11th or 12th grade or maybe even graduated by now. I don't remember living at home with my parents. I'm not contributing money wise. And there's no gigs. And I can remember feeling really, really down. And a good friend of mine had gotten a job at some big department store where he could unload trucks. They drive in a bunch of refrigerators or

whatever, and he would help unload the box. And I'm like, you know, I'm strong. I can go do that. That's not what I want to do. So I start walking up to the store to to get an application. And I can remember the corner I was that I can remember the two streets and I can see exactly where I was. And I'm waiting to cross the street and a public bus stops and then goes by a city bus where people get on, you know, to catch a ride. And in the back of that bus, there was a white man in a white shirt with black hair. As the bus went by, waved at me just as the bus went by. And that's all it was. He waved at me. My bus was going from my right to the left. And I say that's what it was, all it was, but it wasn't all it was. Something about that wave reached deep inside of me. I don't know why or what it was. I'm just glad it was. And it changed my whole inside. And I don't know if I did it physically or not,

but my whole being stood up straighter and I felt stronger. And I knew that know if I did it physically or not, but my whole being stood up straighter. And I felt stronger. And I knew that there was something more than where my attitude was at that moment. And I felt good. And I turned around and went back home. And I haven't felt that way since. So I can't tell you what it was. All I can tell you is what it did for me. And so I will never hesitate to wave at someone or say something kind because you never know what it's going to do.

But it totally changed my whole life at that moment. And I literally attribute a part of where I am today because of that one wave. It's crazy. That is unbelievable. And you think that's because of being present, not being internal with your thought of going through that darkness of going through whatever you're going through in the record label part? Andy, I take zero credit for whatever happened today.

So crazy. I take zero credit for it. Wow. You know, it was like, I don't know what it was. You know, we talk about angels. We talk about, you know, all this kind of, I don't know who that was. I don't know if that person knows who he was. I don't know if that person was really there.

Who knows? All I know is what happened to me. And I do maybe take credit for turning around and walking back home right maybe but i don't know if i even thought about that i don't remember that i just remember the feeling of being lifted up from someone waving at me yeah who i didn't know yeah sometimes it's all fueled me for the rest of my life so far As I want to be that for someone else Yeah And you never know when it's going to be

You can do your best to help someone And it may not be what that person needs But you might just wave at a stranger And all of a sudden Boom, their life has changed You know, Mike My God What if he's waving at someone behind him Boom. Their life has changed. Oh my... My guy! What if he's waving at someone behind him?

What if he's actually waving at the guy behind you and he changed your whole life on accident? That would be amazing. Absolutely. Who cares? Either way, you got the same result. I mean, that was going to go... I mean, the main reason... I mean, there's multiple reasons

why I wanted you on this show, but your book changed my life, Victor, and how I, how I view music. And I want, that was my first question. I think you already answered it, but maybe you could, uh, you know, give, you know, dive a little bit deeper on this. Like, like, what did you learn about life that helped you make the parallel between life and how you approach music? Sure.

Life is who we are. Okay? But as human beings, we get to do things. Yeah. But my parents and my brothers made it clear to me that you do things from the origin or from the standpoint of who you are. So, okay, my brothers chose music. Now, they were really good in sports. They were really good at football.

They played for the high school team. But in high school, Friday night is football game night. Friday night is also gig night. Yeah. Right. Gigs paying money. Yeah. Right.

So if there's a gig night on a football night, you know where we're going to be. You're making that money. Exactly. Exactly. But mom realized, okay, you three boys, Reggie, Roy, and, you're hurting your football team because three of the best players aren't there. So you got to make a choice. It's going to be sports or music. And they chose music. Now, our parents now understand this. Our parents, as both parents, mom was just more vocal about it they didn't care what we did

not first they cared about who we were as people because if they knew that if they could cultivate five good boys five good humans it wouldn't matter what we did whatever field we chose it would be done from the standpoint of a good human being yeah so that was first so we could have chose anything sports i loved magic i wanted to be in a circus as a kid all of that i've seen you levitate actually can you still levitate i could still do it at funk fest in 06 i was backstage and you were playing with Umphreys or something. You were sitting in. And you came off stage and you levitated. And I'll never forget that moment.

Oh, you were there for that. I remember that. Yeah, remember in Indiana? Yes. Yeah. Oh, man, I remember that. Yeah. Yeah, I have an interesting story about that, too, that I feel a little guilty about.

About levitating? I did that for this woman. i did it for a woman who was a little high or probably you know intoxicated yeah she just burst into tears and and and she hugged me it's like i've waited my whole life to see something like this and blah blah blah and and i wanted to tell her hey look it's just a trick. Yeah, right, right. I'm not really that. But you can't break the magic code. You can't break the magician's code. If you just saw you play bass like that and then levitate, I'd believe it.

Yeah. I go back to this parallel, too, when you're talking about connectivity. So here's the thing. Here's the thing. talking about you know connectivity so here's the thing here's the thing um if you become basically you don't have to become anything because you're already doing it you're going to do what you do from the place of where you are in life yeah that's why they say when it rains it pours if you're having a bad day you're going to see everything bad and everything's going to be bad because that's where you are right in your mentality

right if you have a camera with a dirty lens it's going to take dirty pictures okay it doesn't matter if you clean the subject that you're trying to take a picture of right if the lens is dirty it's going to come out dirty you got to clean your lens and that's what my parents was making sure that we did is that we knew who we were from the inside out. And at that point, it doesn't matter what you choose to do. You're going to be successful and it's going to make the world better. That's who you are on the inside. So for me, music is the same as sports.

It's the same as science. It's the same as sports. It's the same as science. It's the same as any other art. It's just a way of expressing myself. It's a way that I express myself, one of the best ways that I express myself. And hopefully, it makes the world better when I do it. Yeah. And hopefully it makes the world better when I do it. Yeah.

So what I found in the 90s is I read a book called The Tracker by Tom Brown Jr. of Tom as a little boy and he met this 83 year old Indian Native American Apache medicine man who started teaching him about nature and the outdoors and the spirit world and it changed Tom Brown's life Tom Brown now in his 70s mid to late 70s he's teaching all the stuff that he learned as a kid but the book was the story of the student and the uh and and his teacher so i read this book and i said if this is a real guy who's teaching this i gotta find him and i did and for about 10 years i i went and took a bunch of classes from him and when i took my very first class and you have to remember i'm a person who never spent the night outdoors i never camped you know none of that stuff no time for that you've been gigging exactly yeah you can't camp on the weekend so anyway i'm sitting in tom's class and he's talking

about trees and nature and animal tracking making fires with sticks he has a thing he calls inner vision and wide angle vision all this cool stuff but in my head i'm saying this man's teaching music he calls it something else but this is music and then to myself i said and better yet this is the way music should be taught right we're told that here's a scale or here's your technique go sit in a room and practice it over and over tom brown would show us something on the board and then we would go out and do it yeah he didn't say practice it he said let's go out and put in our time let's put he called it dirt time let's get dirty let's get in the dirt and do this yeah but in music we're told to practice

it not do it so imagine learning this a language and your parents teach you a word and send you into a room and tell you to say that word over and over. Or here's the alphabet, but only say them seven letters at a time over and over. You would realize you'd be in your 20s and 30s and you still can't talk. Right, right, right. Yeah, true. That's true. 30s and you still can't talk right right yeah that's true yeah so i i was like man i i want to use this stuff to to to help musicians and i started doing it and it worked and so i started doing a lot of workshops and clinics because in the early 90s my first class was 91 with this man tom brown jr this is right at the the pinnacle of the

fleck tones starting out we were doing like the tonight show i think five times three of them with johnny carson arsenio hall show conan we were doing we were we had a whole special on vh1 we opened for chicago take six you know fleck tones were doing it the horde tour we opened for chicago take six you know fleck tones were doing the horde tour we opened for the grateful dead cherry garcia band and started showing up in the magazines a lot and people started asking me to do workshops so i'm sharing this crazy stuff i had new ways of looking at music and sharing it with people basically it was through nature and and i'll say one thing i'll try to stop and you can tell i like to talk no i love it you keep going you keep going yeah just just imagine if you have a little if you meet a little child or it's your own child

and you sit them down at a piano at two or three years old or five even and they just start playing music yeah or let's say you you you know you would say wow you're you're a you're natural at this you're a natural or let's say you see a little five-year-old or you know you got a five-year-old daughter or son you take them on a tennis court give them a racket and you hit the ball over the net and for the first time they just slam it back over the net, low over the net, make you run. You go, what do you call them? You call them a natural. Yeah. Right.

But this is what I learned, what I realized studying with Tom Brown Jr. When we see the nature in person, we call them a natural. Uh-huh. What we are seeing is their nature nature's doesn't have to try like a beaver doesn't have to practice right chewing down trees and building a dam it just does it right a squirrel doesn't have to read a book to learn how to make a nest yeah a bird is not singing to win a gram. They're just being natural. And when you recognize that naturalness in a person, you call them that, unnatural.

So it hit me sitting in this classroom in the woods, our process for learning music is so unnatural. Oh my God. You're so unnatural. Oh, my God. You're so true. Right? And that's why, for one, 80% of the people who start quit. Right. And the rest, it takes decades before, if ever, you ever feel natural doing it. Right?

You feel natural when you first start start but then your parents give you lessons and the naturalness goes away and most people quit and many of us never never regain that naturalness i like to try to teach from that natural standpoint standpoint which i call nature which is why all my camps are out in nature right and i have nature instructors make reminding you of your naturalness and we bring who you are naturally to the instrument and all of a sudden you love the way you sound it's fucking beautiful do you think the parallel of that with life like do you think like how life teaches you how to like how they think you should be living life ruins the naturalness of actually finding happiness like we're just wait we're just showing people's happiness through what someone else is telling

us like kind of the same thing this is the parallel right absolutely and i don't think that's never been more true than now right right our view of life is what's being told to us here. Right. Right. Even more than television now. It's here. Yeah. Right.

This is our guide to what life is supposed to be. That's sad. You know, I got to record this little 30-second dance. Right. And hopefully I get enough people to like me. Right. That's not natural. It's false.

You know, so never more than right now. What you said is so true. But what I like to do at my own camps is to remind people of who they are so that they fall in love with themselves again. Yeah. Like you did when you were a baby. How hard is it to do that? It would be harder, I think, if I you have other people that are doing it also. If you're out at the beach with your friend and there's a 15-foot cliff and 10 of them jump off into the water and they come out okay, you're probably going to do it.

Yeah, right. But if you're by yourself, you probably never talk yourself into doing it. So why don't we do more group therapy? I was just going to say it sounds like group therapy. Why don't we do more group therapy than individual therapy? It's so silly to be chastised with a single one-on-one conversation versus... It feels like gossip. Yeah, it feels like, why don't we just all do this together?

Absolutely. And in a sense, that's what our camps are. Now, I would never say that on a website because most people wouldn't come. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I'm just so thankful that I exist during a time where Victor Wooten is on planet Earth. I appreciate this, Victor.

You're very kind. Really, man. Thank you so much for that So, I mean Nick, do you have any questions for Victor? I think we covered everything Oh my god I got one last question

Okay, so like With all this work Like you gigging on the weekends And going to school during the day And having your brothers Did you have any friends? Growing up? Did you like have like Did you have any friends growing up? Did you learn

how to be intimate with people and stuff? It seems like you're just always working on stuff with your family, like being with your family. How'd you meet your wife? How'd you meet your wife? That's a good question. All good questions. It would seem like that, but a day is long.

A day is long. So even Okay, a day is long. So even though I have to come home, especially on a Friday, I'd have to come home from school, do homework, and go to sleep. Now, Friday, if we had a gig, I probably didn't see many of my friends after school. It was homework, sleep. But I had a very normal life, played ball on the streets all the time. Cool. And my brothers always allowed me to play with them. You know, I was never treated as the little kid, not by my brothers, maybe by some of their friends, but not by my brothers. They were playing street ball. I was playing, too. Cool.

So they always included me. And so, yeah, you know, and I went to public school. So I had friends. I remember moving to Virginia. And for the whole first year when we moved to the house that we stayed in. And I realized I had moved right next door to my best friend, Tony Owen. Tony. Shout out. We didn't even know it until one morning we both came out the house at the same time. And so I checked. What are you doing? Tony? And we both jumped up in the air.

So, yeah, I still keep in touch with a lot of my best friends. I had young girlfriends and the whole bit i was a regular regular kid cool that's cool but my upbringing i realized my what was happening in the house was a lot different than than most people man this is unbelievable i want to go shed now yeah i'm ready to jump through a wall right now victor you are pumping me up right now i'm ready to get my horn out. Victor Woon, this has been so inspiring. Thank you so much for being on the show.

I know Nick is a big fan of you, and I'm a big fan of you. And I always end this podcast normally with this one last thing, and it's what do you want to be remembered by when it's all said and done? You know, I really want people to remember me how they choose to. Hopefully, I appear differently to everybody. I do hope it's a good appearance. Of course, we want people to think good. And, you know, there might be some young bass players who remember me as a great bass player. There might be some closer friends who remember me as a good person.

Hopefully my kids will know me as a good dad, my wife as a good husband, my dog and however way she wants. But I don't I don't even attempt to want to lay claim to how you think about me. What's mostly important is how I think of myself at the end of my life. That's what it comes down to, and that's where too many of us fail. And I have to be even careful of calling it failing because I don't know that we can fail at life. But I want to think highly of myself. That's the only thoughts I have control over. What you think about me deals with you, not me. You'll think about me in a way that you see.

And it may have nothing to do with who I really am. So I have no control over that. But I want to go out of here knowing myself, loving myself, and thankful for the experience I have and looking forward to whatever's next. So if you left tomorrow, do you feel like you could do that? I do. I love it. Thank you so much. We can't like you could do that? I do. I love it. Thank you so much. We can't wait.

I'm going to that tour with all the brothers. This is going to be such a special monumental time. And I know a lot of people are going to be rooting you on too. I'm going. And this is just a dream come true for you to be on the show. So thank you so much for being here. Thank you. Thank you both.

I have a question for you all since we're talking about music. If you could fill in the blank and we say music is blank. Give me three words each that music is what? You want to start?

I got to think about this. Don't even think long. Therapy, love and uh presence necessary therapy's good i'm gonna put therapy too and food food oh yeah i like that there's a thing about that is nobody said that music was theory notes all right yeah slapping rhythm and we all played instruments but none of us named an instrument yeah so in my mind those beautiful words that you just said that's what we should be teaching that's also what we should be expressing and thinking about when we play. Right. But we've been taught to think techniques, think scales, notes, think of an instrument, which we all know is not music.

Right. Those are just tools that allow us to express those beautiful words right because of the way we teach we are so far removed from those words that we're fighting our way back so i think it's like the same thing with life like people are teaching us how to die versus teaching us how to live bingo sound like my mom right now People are teaching us how to die versus teaching us how to live. Bingo. Sound like my mom right now.

That's an honor. Well, that's an honor. And Victor, anytime you want to be on the show and talk about life, love, and everything wooden, I'm in, bud. Yeah. We should get the brothers in here one time. Let's do all of them. Are you guys playing Denver?

Are you guys doing Denver on this tour? I believe we are. I know. I'm sure we're playing Denver. I just don't know when. You guys too. Everybody has to go to Denver. Hopefully we get to meet each other in person. I'm in Nashville a bunch, but I can't wait to hug you, bud, because you are

a special force, bud. I want to see you levitating. Hugs reserved for you guys. Well, have a great day, Victor. Enjoy your little see you levitate again. Hugs reserved for you guys. Well, have a great day, Victor. Enjoy your little cabin. Make some music. Keep inspiring.

And I can't wait to see what the Wooten Brothers have to offer on those stages. Absolutely. Have a good one, Victor. Later. Thank you. That was beautiful.

Thank you, Victor. You tuned in to the World's Health 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.

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