My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 69 - LIBERTY DEVITTO, LONGTIME DRUMMER FOR BILLY JOEL

Episode Date: July 13, 2020

Robbie is joined by Clem right off the top to make some MASSIVE My Mom's Basement podcast announcements, Robbie then gives his thoughts on UFC 251 this past weekend, and then Glenny Balls joins the program to co-host an interview Liberty DeVitto, Billy Joel's longtime drummer for 30+ years who has a new book, 'Liberty: Life, Billy and the Pursuit of Happiness', out now. 3Chi: Use code BASEMENT at checkout to receive 5% off at 3Chi.com My Mom's Basement Merch: https://store.barstoolsports.com/products/my-moms-basement-tie-dye-hoodieYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/mymomsbasement

Hey My Mom's Basement listeners, you can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. We'll get into this interview with Liberty DeVito, Billy Joel's longtime drummer for 30 years. Me and Glennie did this earlier this week. It was a blast. We'll get into that later. We'll get into UFC 251 thoughts later. First, right off the bat, Clem, gotta make this announcement. People have been asking for merch for over a year since this pod was started. I've been a little hesitant.

I've been like, it's a tiny pod. I don't know how much merch will realistically sell. The podcast is called My Mom's Basement. I don't want to ask people to wear My Mom's Basement across their chest. So what did I do? I waited. I waited and I waited and I waited. We got this cult-like following.

We built it up. And now I finally figured out how to make merch without asking them to write my mom's basement on their chest. It's simple. It's sleek. We've got a new barstool design. We've got MMB on there. I love it, man. I told you. I hit you up off Twitter first and I said, I absolutely love it. And I don't know if this is a term that people say that barstool logo with the happy face and just the chill that thing's a vibe and i i fucking love it i love that little son of a bitch and like you said my mom's basement it's a little bit of a it's weird it's a niche podcast but there's a hundred niches so then it's like it's

its own giant podcast in its own right but i think it's kind of like a a subtle nod to uh to everyone that gets into it whether you're a diehard ufc person you're into the nerdy stuff that we're always talking about even the segments how it's like now glennie has his little thing here we all we all are on the couches the different couches carabas with the wrestling we all have a little niche in the basement it's just a happy place to be, which this day and age, man, I think you need a little happiness in your life. So my mom's basement with that logo and just the whole vibe of it, I think that's kind of what this world needs right now, to be honest with you.

I think the way you put it there is perfect. That's what we're going for. I'm inviting different people over, my different friends. We're sitting on the couch and we're talking about whatever we talk about in our inner friendship. With you, it's nerdy stuff obviously with glenny it's long island stuff bizarre stuff sometimes we're going to a six flag safari with dana white it's fighting it's different with everybody but nathan hurst was the designer of the logo he did the my mom's basement logo so if you're looking at it now on your podcast app that's the kind of schoolhouse rock

type style that we went for with the hoodie. We got a hoodie, a black t-shirt, and then a pocket tee. The pocket tee inspired by Tony Stark, some burgundy and gold colors. Shout out to Tony Stark for saving the universe. The hoodie, people were saying, listen, how could you put out a hoodie? It's 100 degrees out right now. Everybody needs a nice summer hoodie, a nice breezy boardwalk hoodie this one like clem said is a vibe it's got lime green on it it's got yellow it's got our nice little maybe podcast mascot we might call him i'm looking for names by the way some people said call him bart stool some people said milton the stoolie i thought immediately stoolie the stoolie but obviously that's the least inspired

name out there um what were some as soon as you said that i thought of stoolie i was like oh that's the least inspired name out there. What were some, as soon as you said that I thought of Stooley, I was like, Oh, it's Stooley. I'm like, wait, that's kind of, that's like a couple of different terms.

So somebody, somebody did Stu Lee, like first and last name. Yeah. So we'll have to do like a crowdsourced thing for that. But that little guy is an awesome logo and he's going to be like the podcast mascot. I said,

I could already picture a Halloween shirt where he's dressed up as a skeleton, a Christmas logo and he's going to be like the podcast mascot i said i could already picture a halloween shirt where he's dressed up as a skeleton a christmas shirt where he's got some christmas lights draped around him so i think he's here to stay i mean we've we waxed poetic about the logo that nathan made for the podcast as is so then and the thing is i think that could have worked on a shirt disney would have come down with a hammer so quickly on us for like seven different parts of that shirt that this is probably the next best thing. And I think he absolutely, I didn't even know. So I just found that out myself.

I didn't know he made this logo. Oh yeah. It kind of checks out. He gets the vibe of the whole podcast too, which I think everyone who listens, which I always say, this podcast is the perfect podcast to subscribe to because it comes out. And, hey, if you're not an MMA person, you just delete it and go to the next one. But, like, the stuff that you hit in each niche goes, like, it just hits, like, the need of what that person wants with the humor

and, like, the thoroughness of it, too. And I think that's pretty crazy that you hit all those random things. Even the goddamn drummer for Billy Joel'sel's uh i mean what a fucking i mean that's like i'm sure going to turn in 70 next month too it's it's like we're getting people of all ages down in the basement the basement is like the most welcoming place at varsity you come down here your family you may be having some three chi everyone just kind of relaxing vibing on the couch together wearing their new merch it's a fucking beautiful place to be man well clem that was the perfect transition go buy your merch store.barstool sports.com directly supports the podcast we i love you if you do i'll shout out some people that already bought it at the end of

the podcast here perfect transition though three chi is our new presenting sponsor for the first time in this podcast history we we have a presenting sponsor. Now people listening might say, I don't know what that means. You've had sponsors every week. Sponsors, you know, come and go week to week. 3Chi has pretty much signed up for the long haul because they've liked the results that they've seen from the show. And I'll tell you what, our listeners have liked the results they've seen from 3Chi.

I have received so many DMs from people that have bought this stuff that have said, listen, I didn't know if you were shilling this. I didn't know if it was really going to work or not. And oh my God, it sent me to the fucking moon. I don't know how this stuff is legal, basically. It is legal though. It's 100% legal, made from hemp. This is Delta 8 THC, not the regular Delta 9 that you'll find in marijuana or any regular cannabis product. They've created this new industry. They're not the, at the front of the industry. They invented the industry. Clem, this stuff, I told you the first night, I thought it was CBD when they initially sent it to me. I misread the situation. I gave, I took a couple, I gave a couple to my mom. I said, it's CBD. It's like taking a vitamin. It's fun stuff.

It's not. See, it's Delta-8-THC. And we found that out about an hour later when Mama Fox turned to me and Clem, the look in her eyes, she was just gone, glazed over. And she said, Rab, I feel really stoned. And I was like, oh, shit. I immediately looked up Delta-8- THC, and I educated myself. A lot of experts say that it's about two-thirds as strong as regular THC. I find that it's pretty comparable.

It takes away some of the laziness, some of the paranoia and anxiety that the regular Delta-9 THC would have for someone like me. It makes it more clear-headed. It's good stuff though like i said 100 hemp derived they've got different uh different things they've got vapes gummies tinctures oils they've got all different things you can make homemade edibles with them too maybe i gotta get some of that stuff get mama fox to make some like edible cupcakes or something i don't know what she could whip up but that that would be delicious. So kind of going back to what we said with the different niches too, I wasn't sure about how

this whole three cheat, I haven't had any of it yet. Right. And then I saw when Bob Fox is here promoting it on the side, I'm like, all right, this is, this is the legit shit right here. That's kind of what you've been coming. I get, look at, look no further than the logo on the t-shirt of what goes down in the, my mom Basement. So 3C is as good as you said, and Mama Fox approved, even though it was in a different universe than where she thought she was going. And I'm so happy you did the voice, too, baby. I'm so happy you did the Mama Fox voice. Now I know that I can get down with the 3C. They're not a presenting sponsor on Pop Hops, but they are a presenter.

They've done some stuff with We Gotta Believe as well. So they're clearly all in on the barstool world. And if Bob Fox, he's here, you know, no offense to Dave Portnoy, the way he takes his hits. Bob Fox says it's good. That's all I need to hear now. And not only do they have, like, the tinctures, they have the gummies and stuff like that,

so all the different walks of life during these crazy times, and it takes out the paranoia and the laziness it's kind of like that's the kind of stuff i need right now it's perfect it's literally perfect and i'm telling you it works i even get the dms on the side from the stoolies that go are you being serious does it really work and some i've just sent like the screenshots of what my mom sent me after she took them like the next morning. And I'm like, listen, you can't fake this. This is a real text message I received from my mother. So if you want to get this stuff, go to 3chi.com. That is 3chi.com. You must be 21 or older to purchase. And this is federally legal, but some states don't allow it. I looked into it. It's kind of

a weird thing. So you could go to their website, see where it's legal, see if it's legal for you. You use the code basement at checkout and you'll get 5% off your order. So go do that. Clem, I appreciate you joining for the announcements at the top of the show. It's a huge day for the podcast. You have been with me through a lot of it. I would say most of it. So I thought it was only fit to have you. I appreciate you joining. Now we're going to get into a little UFC 251. Conor versus Khabib. That was the biggest pay-per-view of all time. So considering this was in that same echelon, would I say it was, did it live up to the hype? Did it not live up to the hype? Did it surpass the hype? I would say it was somewhere in between not living up to the hype and living up to the hype. The fights themselves were pretty good up until the main event.

We'll get to that later, obviously. But we had Amanda Rebos versus Paige Van Zandt kicking off the pay-per-view. I thought Paige Van Zandt's odds were pretty disrespectful. The odds for this fight looked like the odds for a prime Ronda Rousey fight. And I was like, that's fucking crazy. Paige Van Zandt is tough as nails. Maybe she's not going to win this fight. She could hang in there. God, I was wrong. Amanda Rebos made quick work of her in the first round with an armbar submission like a Ronda Rousey

fight, really. She is going to be a massive star. She had a great post-fight interview afterwards. She's a savage. So the card rolled on with two more women in a strawweight contest. Jessica Andrade versus Rose Navajunas, two. The rematch, the first one was for the strawweight title. And if you remember correctly, Rose had the round of her career in the first round. Looked fucking phenomenal. Her footwork was perfect. Her striking was perfect. The way she was sticking the jab was perfect.

Everything was flawless until the second round where jessica androge got a hold of her picked her up and slammed her on her head immediately knocking her unconscious and you know the title would then go to jessica androge she then lost it to wiley zhang but this was the rematch and it was one of my favorite fights of the night it surpassed all the hype for me uh rose won via decision in the end her eye was blown up the size of a fucking mouse underneath dana white posted an awesome picture of her afterwards where she was all bloody and bruised but just like still smiling and it's a thug rose phenomenal fight this one was in the evening's next bout we got our title fights kicked off so this was the first of three it was

the bantamweight bout uh for the the vacant bantamweight championship peter yan versus jose aldo another one that was a phenomenal fight this one was just plagued by a bad referee stoppage in the end just back and forth back and forth back and forth we were doing a live stream so i wasn't watching as closely as i generally will be and i didn't know who was ahead so leading into the fifth i was like man this could be two two i thought it was three one peter i was like this could be two two and then he dropped jose and started pouring on some grounded pound shots that went on way longer than they needed to i mean it was chris weidman luke rockhold ufc 194 levels of unnecessary punishment taken and especially a guy that's been around as long as Jose Aldo,

it just made it so tough to see. So he eventually did get the stoppage finish Piotr Jan did, and he is the new bad-than-weight champ. So I really hope we get him versus Aljamain Sterling in the near future. I think that matchup is fucking awesome, and I don't want to wait much longer for it because I'm already itching for it. The next bout, the co-main event for the evening,

Alexander Volkanovsky defended his UFC featherweight championship against Max Holloway, successfully defended it. This was another one where it was a phenomenal fight, like the last fight, plagued by what happened at the end of it. When Alexander Volkanovsky got the split decision victory, Twitter pretty much lit up with robbery talk. I don't know if this was a robbery. I understand it was a close fight but i definitely scored it for max i had him winning three to two had max winning probably the first three rounds maybe and then volkanovsky

stepped it up at uh four and five maybe volkanovsky three and five i don't remember quite quite well i'll have to rewatch it but i did think max once it was fucking heartbreaking because i also kind of thought he won the first fight so now he's down 2-0 against volkanovski in what could result in a trilogy right because who wouldn't watch a third fight between those three but brutal fight to get told you lost if you're max holloway at the end of that one so i really thought he he regained that featherweight championship shout out to both of those guys for putting on a hell of a fight, though. And then in the main event, the most anticipated fight of the night, the fight that six days ago when Jorge Masvidal stepped in,

and this was originally Kamaru Usman versus Gilbert Burns. I think people were, hardcore MMA fans were looking forward to it, but outside of that, I don't think, I don't even think it got into the mainstream, the casual fan zeitgeist. This obviously did. Street Jesus, Jorge Masvidal, Game Bread, stepping in on six days notice was the main story of the week.

And unfortunately, this fight fucking stunk. It was sort of what a lot of hardcore MMA fans thought it would be, right? And it's Kamaru Usman taking advantage of that six-day short notice fight time, the cardio not being up to speed for Jorge Masvidal, and just grapple fucking him. He grapple fucked him and grapple fucked him and grapple fucked him. Push him against the fence, he would go for a takedown, it would sort of get stuffed, or maybe he would sort of get it,

and then they would wind up clinched against the fence. Kamaru Usman laying in foot stomp after foot stomp after foot stomp would sort of get it and then they would wind up clinched against the fence kamaru who's been laying in foot stomp after foot stomp after foot stomp into jorge miles at all it must have been the most foot stomps in ufc title fight history maybe ufc history in just one fight um and it was that for five rounds it was felt almost like a khabib fight or a mayweather fight in that every every time they separated from the clinch and Jorge started throwing, you went, Oh, here we go. And you got a burst of energy, adrenaline, and you went, it only takes one. He could do this. Come on, here we go. But then he would

just immediately clinch back up and you went on all the air is taken out of your sails, all the winds taken out of your sails. So there you had it. That was UFC two 51 for me. I think next you do Jorge Masvidal versus Nate Diaz, possibly Conor McGregor versus Nate Diaz, though, because they were chirping each other on Twitter too, right? I don't know if you saw that. I think you do Jorge Masvidal versus Nate Diaz. If not, you could do Jorge Masvidal versus Colby Covington.

The built-in rivalry is there. I don't know anyone who wouldn't watch that fight either. Both have lost to Kamaru Usman in the past 12 months. As far as Kamaru goes, he's got two options, I would think. He's got Gilbert Burns, who I think Dana White said is next, but he's also got Leon Edwards, who, again, there's a little inner rival rebuilt in there. I think they've got some beef. So I would watch any of those fights. We got Calvin Cater, friend of the program, fighting on Wednesday. Go send him support. Go send him some support on Twitter, Instagram. Let him know Barstool's behind him. The Stoolies are behind him. Of course, he's the New England cartel's finest. So I'm looking forward to that as well. myself and Gleneth Ball's interview with Liberty DeVito, Billy Joel's drummer for over 30 years. The longtime drummer for Billy Joel, Liberty DeVito. How's it going?

It's going well. I'm glad to be here. As a matter of fact, with this quarantine, I'm glad to be anywhere these days. Yeah, just doing anything. You just said you're in Brooklyn. How has the quarantine been for you? Oh, it's been pretty crazy. You know, I live in an apartment with 64 other families. And so no drums are here. I have to go to my mother-in-law's basement and in order to play my drums, because that's where a lot of them are stashed. Oh, man. Are you still itching? Like if you go a week without playing the drums, are you like, I got to get behind a kit? Oh, my God. You know, I'm not the kind of

guy that sits down and does solos and learns new rudiments and stuff like that. I'm like a songwriter's drummer. I need to play with other people. And because I can't get together with other people, it's just driving me crazy. How many times can I play to a record? You know, it's not. I mean, you've got some iconic ones to play along to and you write about them all. You've got a new book coming out. Why don't you tell us a little bit about this book? It details your entire career as Willie Joel's drummer. You mean this book right here? Oh, look at that.

You've got the cover right there. You look like a badass on that cover, Liberty. Well, to be honest with you, I am a closet badass, but I try to be nice to people. When they write me on Facebook, hey, can you do this for me? My first thought is like, you know what? Piss off. But it's like, oh, okay, I'll be nice to you.

The book is 15 years of writing. And I started when me and Billy separated. And at the same time, I also separated from my second wife. So there was a bit of anger going on in the book originally, like really angry stuff. But the older I got, the more I kind of rounded out the edges because hopefully I got more mature with age, you know. And I kind of tried to look at things the the way billy had to see them you know billy his name was on the marquee he was signed to the label we were hired by billy hence the movie hired gun that i did before the book came out so um i tried to look at it from his point of view

you know why did he get rid of certain guys in the band why did he want to use somebody else besides phil ramone you know at the time it was like you're gonna use somebody else besides phil ramone you're insane and then i realized he changes all the time he likes uh like uh the stranger album it's kind of like a lot of pop stuff on there and stuff and then the 52nd street was kind of jazzy and then uh glass houses was just the band you know, just the guys in the band. No people over there, no studio musicians. And then Nylon Curtin was a tip of the hat to the Beatles, you know. So he liked to change a lot.

And after 30 years, I was the only thing that he didn't change. So, you know, it was my time. You're talking about The Stranger as if it's just like, oh yeah, that album I recorded with Phil. The Stranger is one of the greatest albums of all time. So that's crazy to hear you talk about like that. Probably number one for being straight. You like that one, huh?

Oh yeah. I mean, I mean, it's classic. Like I'm from Long Island. Are you from Long Island? Grew up in Seaford, Long Island. Yes, I do. Okay, Seaford. I'm from like Malvern, Rockville Center area.

So yeah, it's a pretty big deal around here. We like it a lot. Yeah. Stranger. I mean, best album ever, number one. Long Island was our crowd, you know, Long Island. And then we went worldwide. That's the thing though, it always freaks me out.

Like whenever I see random people bring up like Billy Joel or the band that aren't from Long Island, I always forget that like that you exist outside of Long Island. Like a few years ago, I saw like the Kansas City Royals did a Billy Joel bobblehead night and I was like, what the fuck is that? It's like,

what are you doing at the Royals? Yeah, it's pretty crazy. I did an interview with some guy. I forget where he was, but in another state and he was like, yeah, we're doing Billy Joel day. I'm like, yeah,

could you announce that we're doing Billy Joel day on this day? You know, it's like, where are you? When you joined Billy, when you joined up with him right before Turnstiles, was he already, how, how big was he in relation to, you know, how big he got after the stranger?

Well, he had a cult following. When I first started with him, he had Piano Man and street life serenado those two two albums were out and also cold spring harbor which came out before piano man so he had a cult following you know uh college kids they they liked him and stuff like that and then uh when we did turnstiles we kind of did that college tour which was which was really cool. I mean, you know, you can't get laid in college. But then we did The Stranger, yeah. And The Stranger put us over the top.

The most hated song on the album, Just The Way You Are, is the one that put us over the top. So, but if it wasn't for The Stranger and 52nd Street street i don't think anybody be singing piano man today you know because it was just that kind of you know low profile hit yeah propelled it i guess like the it became a bigger hit afterwards and i want to talk about some of the

hits and like your style of drumming is so interesting because my older brother is a drummer lifelong drummer and i even sent him some stuff of yours yesterday and he's obviously he's familiar with it but i was like how would i describe this to liberty if i were to ask him about say this section of this song or this section of this song and so many of it my brother was saying well it's a little bit of this it's a little bit of swing a little bit of samba a little bit of jazz where does your influence mainly come from as a drummer because it sounds like it's all over the map it's funny first of all i want to i want to just say that you're talking to a drummer who played on one of the top five albums ever ever and also barely made it i never took lessons by the way and barely made it out of high school and has written a book now i i i i am the american dream you know yeah must be nice to say but as far as uh uh where my stuff

comes from you know when we go in the studio with billy uh when i first learned how to play i used to practice the records all the time because I didn't take lessons. And I practiced the records. And as I was playing along, I didn't know where I was in the song. So I learned the lyrics of the song. That's how I followed along. And I took that same attitude into the studio with Billy because I learned as I was following, like, the Beatles and I was singing along with the song, I was like, Hey, you know, when this, when Paul stopped singing, and that's when Ringo does his fills or,

or when he does a fill to take the band into a more exciting place, like the chorus or the bridge or something like that. And I took that into the studio when I went in with anybody and especially with Billy, because he was a great lyricist. And I would, the other guys would get a chord chart a chart and they would have to learn the chords and the positions and stuff like that and I would get Billy's lyrics because I want to know what is being said in the song you know because that will dictate what I'm going to play and most of the stuff like, you know, like you said, samba and all that kind of crap and stuff like that. It's like, Rosalind in his eyes is me, a rock drummer, his interpretation of a Latin beat.

It's really not a Latin beat. It's my interpretation of a Latin beat. That sounds Latin to me, you know. So I just made it up. And it's funny, when we left cuba it became uh in 1979 we played in cuba when we left there it became a an american latin beat and it was taught in schools unbelievable people are teaching the beat that you just like came up with just hey this might sound cool and now it's like lesson one the beat he came up with in that day like even uh

zanzibar i sent the money that's one of my favorites and it's got that cool jazz breakdown with like the stand-up bass sounds like it's just so different and it keeps the album so fresh when you listen to them one after another like you said it's like everyone really does have a different sound and it goes to show you why billy hasn't had to write music in so long right right well you know the jazz thing is a funny thing because uh when billy came in with just the song and we did the demo of it it didn't have the line i got a jazz guitar so when he finally got that line it was like whoa we could do a jazz solo here, you know? So at the end, it fades out because my arm was killing me. That was the jazz, you know? But after that, me and Doug Stegmaier kept getting calls from all these jazz guys to play on their record. It was insane. I'd walk in and they'd hand me a

chart with this music on it. And I would tell Doug, oh my God, what am I going to do? And Doug would look at it because he could read music. He goes, it's not that hard. Just watch me. We faked our way through a million of them. You know, I got to ask, you just mentioned about playing in Cuba in 1979. Were there any similarities, or just talking about this

in general, playing in the USSR and the Soviet Union? You were there for that, right? Yes. I mean, how was that? It was amazing. Well, the USSR and the Soviet Union. You were there for that, right? Yes. I mean, how was that? It was amazing. Well, the USSR, Cuba felt more communist than the USSR did. Yeah, I mean, I didn't even know you went to Cuba. That's crazy.

Like 1979. Yeah. Well, we went over with a, it was an exchange thing between Columbia Records, CBS Records, and the Cuban government. Well, 150 of us went over with a uh it was an exchange thing between uh columbia records cbs records and the cuban government well 150 of us went over there uh it was uh it was uh like billy joel weather report uh tito puente went uh stephen stills bonnie bramlett you know rita coolidge a whole bunch of people that were on the label and uh we played five nights at the Karl Marx Theater in Havana, Cuba. And it was really cool because every time an American band went on,

then a Cuban band would go on, American band, Cuban band, for five nights. I remember I got quoted in the New York Times. What I said when I got on the bus was, if I hear one more conga drum, I'm going to go fucking nuts. But what the New York Times wrote was, if I hear Liberty DeVito or Billy Joel's band said, if I hear one more conga drum, I'm going to run amok. It's like when they play Goodfellas on like cable television and they can't include the curse words. Yeah, the airplane version. But I mean, yeah, the whole Russia thing is crazy. I mean, I think of that,

I mean, my friends always joke around, like the two people that ended the cold war, Billy Joel and Rocky. So like, that's a huge deal. Like mid eighties in the Soviet union is just terrifying. It was insane. You know, it was so insane. It was like, we did a couple of gigs in England. And then we flew over to Moscow. And I'm on the plane. I'm on the Lufthansa that took us to Moscow. And I'm thinking like, oh my God, we're on a plane. It's the only bite of Germans. Okay, we beat them in World War II now we're going on the other side of that wall that everybody is like freaked out about and wait a minute my name's Liberty and I'm going to this place called Russia you know it's crazy Bob have you ever seen the documentary about that

no I haven't like there's there's this whole thing they show I think I think Billy had like a freak out on stage because the Russians, they would be like scared to dance when the lights were on. They'd flash the lights on, they would just like stay pat. Is that true? Oh my God. Yeah, well, the police would, the soldiers would actually push them down in their chairs again

because they weren't supposed to stand up. But the lights would go on because it was being filmed and we needed more light to film the show. But the lights would go on because it was being filmed and we needed more light to film the show. But when Billy figured out, you know, you had to be a member of the party, the Communist Party, to get the tickets in the beginning. But he figured out that there were people way in the back that wanted to hear the music. So he made an announcement. He said, look, this is what we do in America. If you think it's loud now, it could get louder. We should go in the back if it's too loud for you. And while you're back there, give those kids back their tickets. So once they came forward, it was like all over.

Wow. What a moment. People like having officers like pushing kids down in their chair. Like that's literally a caricature of what you hear when people talk like communist russia they'll push you down in your chair at a concert like oh really real deal yeah did your fear subside when you were on stage like actually jamming to the songs like could you ever get that out of your mind or was it just like this is the craziest most surreal concert i'm ever playing oh you know it was insane all the way all the way you know especially when the soldiers were pushing the kids down in the seats you look at them and then we look at each other like whoa what's going on here you know but by the end of the tour we did three nights in Moscow three nights in Leningrad which is no longer now it's St. Petersburg again and by the end of the the shows they would shows, the soldiers were dancing on the stage, throwing their hats off the stage.

How could you not? We're talking about the jams right here. Some of us came home with soldiers uniforms. Speaking of all this Russia stuff, so this is an extracurricular question, but let's say you're playing a show that night in Moscow. Are you allowed to go out after and do a little post-show party in Russia? How does that work in the middle of the Cold War? Well, we kind of partied in the hotel. When we went over there, they told us we had to stick to our guide. We weren't allowed to take pictures of monuments, of government buildings, railroads we weren't allowed to take pictures of like uh monuments of of government buildings railroads

we weren't allowed to take pictures of uh or we got stuff as a matter of fact i if you saw the documentary of of us there's christy brinkley took a video of me actually it said stay on this side of the line and i keep crossing over to the other side it's just like i only this side of the line. And I keep crossing over to the other side of the line. It's just like I only take one of the buffet. Yeah. It was crazy. It was crazy. You can't take pictures of railways?

Huh? I'm saying it's crazy. You can't take pictures of railways or anything. Well, they probably thought we were going to sell them to the Army. They thought you were spies, yeah. Where does that rank among the most memorable live shows you ever played? Is that a top five? Like, what is, you have one show you look back on,

and you're like, it never got better than that. Well, there's one show that has to go on the top of the list, and it's not because it was a great show. It was during the River of Dreams tour. We had, when you walked in to the arena you didn't see anything on the stage except like maybe um nothing there was just carpeting on the stage because the monitors now were under the stage facing up so you could stand on the monitor that's how you heard yourself play so the drums were down below and the piano was down below. And when we start the first song, the drums come up, you know,

like this big, big deal, you know? Oh yeah. One night it was spinal tap all the way. The drums did not come up. Oh no. Down there, wailing away. The road crew is underneath me trying to push this this thing up into the air to the main stage and billy's just playing you know holding the guitar

looking at me laughing it was hilarious so that was very when somebody says what's the most memorable uh thing you've done that is definitely one of them. In the show, you're a Broadway drummer under with the orchestra. The riser just wouldn't pop up. The guys are trying to push me up and it was so loud under there. It was insane. It was really

crazy. Speaking of marable moments outside of Billy, of course, I'm sure you guys have played with guests on stage or whatnot. Is there any guest in that's like your favorite it's been out there well their reaction you know sometimes it's like you know we got these metal guys i always said that that you know billy joel was was was uh metal too you know but we were aluminum foil but we were metal but um you know like when uh when um, what's his name from Guns N' Roses? Slash?

Slash, yeah. Slash, when he came up and played Shameless with us, he played great. He played great. And he just turned around after the song and came up to the drum rise and just slapped my hand and go, wow, dude, you rock. Like, you don't expect it from those kinds of guys. Totally. Yeah. And now, now we would hire a gun. You know, I played with all those guys,

which is named just Jason from a five finger death punch, you know, and, and Phil X who now plays with Bon Jovi, but he's, he's kind of a metal guy too. And, and when they say, wow, that was really cool. That was great. It's like, yeah, yeah, cool. That's really cool. You know, cause everybody thinks I play Billy Joel and I play soft to play. No man, slam it. No, totally. Yeah. Like even I listened to all the records from turnstiles on yesterday,

just in preparation for the interview. And the whole time I was like, he's hitting fucking hard. Like for like seventies records, you were hitting so hard, like absolutely. And it's cool to get that recognition from, like you said, metal guys, like current metal guys, current guys from other genres, just the recognition, I guess. Yeah. When we first went into the studio with Phil Ramone, the engineer was, you know, because Phil was an engineer before he was a producer, so the engineer at the time was trying to get a sound on me, and he was like, I can't get a sound

on this guy, he hits so hard, Phil had to push him out of the way and said, get out of the way. And Phil had to get the sound. It was really cool to be able to do that. I used to pop the rim of my snare drum. You know, you do rim shots and the head popped through because the rim would push down so much. Oh, my God, yeah. In the middle of a take, that was a drag.

And how did you guys record, like's say this stranger were you guys doing it piece by piece or are you playing live in a room together oh you're so current no we didn't do it by piece we uh we're in a room together uh billy was over there i was over here doug was over there the guitar players were standing over there. I was over here. Doug was over there. The guitar players were sitting over there. Ready, set, go. Billy's same lead at the same time. Which is, it literally breaks my brain to even try to comprehend, like, the talent required to do something like that. How many takes would it take for you guys, let's say, just on average back in the day to lock down a song like Just The Way You Are?

Well, don't forget we billy would come in with the song uh that we would do a song one day and then uh he would try a song that he's got an idea and if it swung with the band he would go home and finish it so when he came in with that finished song uh we would play it down when we started to record it if it took more than eight takes, we'd be like, you know what? Maybe we should save it for tomorrow. You know, it was more about getting the energy.

Not getting the parts right, because we'd already made the parts up, but it was getting the energy for the song, the right thing. So Ramon would sit down behind the console, and then he'd get up if it got better and then he'd start dancing if we started dancing then we knew it was a take it's so funny for me to hear i'm a very amateur bass player i'm in a very amateur band through like our company if we go into the studio to record a song we do it nine takes we're like we might be the next legends of rock yeah i think uh the song 52nd Street on a 52nd Street album,

the thing that's at the end, that was one take. It was like, let's do this. Okay, let's do it. Yeah. Unbelievable. And, you know, speaking of the stranger just there, my favorite song of stranger is only the good die young. And I went to ask you guys when I always read when it came out,

how like the Catholic church, I'm Catholic. So I could say that the Catholic church was like going crazy about the lyrics did you guys actually care about that or you just kind of threw it to the side whatever well to be honest with you the song was bombing you know falling off the charts it's a jam too what do you mean it's a jam too i don't know how yeah it was it was dying and uh uh that's when the catholic church they said uh you know we're banning this you know and uh when you tell somebody it's a teenager a young person you can't do something they immediately do it so the song just took off went back to the jaws again and billy always says like you know he puts a little bit more in the collection oh man it's so funny. Like we said, Liberty's got the book coming out. The

forward is written by Billy. I'm excited to read it. I really am. There's got to be tons of stories through decades of rock and roll. One of the most iconic drummers of all time. This has been a pleasure talking to you, an honor. Thank you for joining the show.