The Bobby Bones Show - Rock n Roll Resilience: A conversation with Ron Young-lead vocalist from the band Little Caesar

Episode Date: May 12, 2023

Takin' a walk with Ron Young. Ron has been the singer for Little Caesar for more than 35 years. He has also fronted bands like Manic Eden with Adrian Vandenberg, and a revitalized version of The Cruzados.Connect With Ron Young & Little CaesarWebsite: https://www.littlecaesar.netFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/LittleCaesarOfficialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/littlecaesarband About the Show *****Thank you so much for listening to the TAKIN’ A WALK PODCAST SHOW hosted by Buzz Knight!  Listen to more honest conversations with a compelling mix of guests ranging from musicians, authors, and insiders with their own stories. Get inspired, get motivated, and gain insights from honest conversations every week that can help you with your own journey. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and be part of this blessed family.Website: https://takinawalk.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/thebuzzknightLinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/buzzknightLinkfire: https://lnk.to/takinawalk Please consider subscribing, leaving a review, and sharing it with your friends and family!Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. Earners, what's up? Look, money is something we all deal with, but financial literacy is what helps turn income into real wealth. On each episode of the podcast, Earn Your Leisure, we break down the conversations you need to understand money, investing, and entrepreneurship.

From stocks and real estate to credit, business, and generational wealth, our goal is simple. Make financial literacy accessible for everyone. Because when you understand the system, you can start to build within it. Open your free IHard Radio app. Search Earn Your Leisure and listen now. How much you wait, Wanda?

Right now, I'm about 130. I'm at 183. We should race. No, I want to leave here with my original hip. On the podcast The Matchup with Alia, I pair prominent female athletes with unexpected guests. On a recent episode, I sat down with undisputed boxing champ, Coraes, and comedian Wanda Sykes to talk about Wanda's new movie Undercard, the art of trash talk, and what it really means to be ladylike. Open your free I-Hart Radio app.

Search the matchup with Alia and listen now. Brought to you by Novartis, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports Network. You know the famous author Roald Doll. He thought up Willie Wonka and the BFG. But did you know he was a spy? Neither did I. You can hear all about his wildlife story in the podcast, The Secret World of Roald Doll.

All episodes are out now. Was this before he wrote his stories? It must have been. What? Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you. I was a spy. Binge all 10 episodes of The Secret World of Role's.

doll. Now on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, gorgeous, it's Lala Kent. Host of Untraditionally Lala. My days of filling up cups at Sir may be over, but I'm still loving life in the valley. Life on the other side of the hill is giving grown-up vibes, but over here

on my podcast, Untraditionally Lala, I'm still that Lala you either love or love to hate. It's unruly, it's unruly, unawraid, it's untraditionally Lala. Listen to Untraditionally Lala on the IHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Buzz Night, the host of Taking a Walk, Music History on foot.

Follow us at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And definitely share the podcast with a friend. Feel free to leave a review as well. We'd appreciate it. Today we have the author of a recent book. You can't judge a book by its cover. He is musician Ron Young, the founder of the band, Little Caesar. He is an amazingly transparent storyteller about this era of hard rock and glam

metal. He's had a wild ride and he talks about it here on Taking a Walk. Well, Ron, thanks for being on Taking a Walk. It's really great to meet you, man. Thank you, thank you. It's nice to be here. Describe that first moment that you talk about in the book. You can't judge a book by its cover. hooked you on music? Oh, man. It was probably one of the first concerts I ever went to was Zeppelin. Song remains the same. I actually got to see one of those nights at Madison Square Garden.

And just the power and this, it wasn't even, you know, because they didn't have pyro and huge lights. You know, it was like a bunch of guys set up 20 feet, you know. They didn't have any of that stuff that bands later became dependent on. And just the sheer power of the music and what it did to just tens of thousands of people. And it was totally intoxicating. And it just stuck with me that it must just be so cool to get to do that, you know, as your way of life. You know, so it just always stuck with you.

Well, then you had this other moment, too, that you talk about in the book. Let's just call it the hanky-panky moment. Can you talk about that? Yes, yes. Yes, that's also where I got to see the intoxication of this. I was like six years old, and I was living in this big apartment complex in Queens, New York. and they had this big pool party and there was some just local cover band

that was set up. Now, you know, the pools in New York City in these big, you know, apartment complexes would have a thousand people come there on a Saturday and just sit around the pool and it was an Olympic-sized pool. And so this band is playing and when they were taking a break, I was like, I would love to see.

sing, you know, and they're like, you know, laugh, laugh, laugh. And they're like, what song does you know? And I was like, my baby does the hanky-panky, which I had no idea at six years old with such a sexually charged song. And they thought it would be absolutely hysterical for a six-year-old to get up there and sing panky-panky. And I did terribly, of course. It doesn't matter. Just hearing a six-year-old singing, you know, my baby does the hanky, panky, you know, and it's like the irony was lost on me, but all these people were laughing and clapping and cheering and it really got it under my skin. You know, I was told, I was never a musician, but I'm, you know, got stuck on the music business and the radio business, got it in my my blood. I don't remember this, but I was told in church at two years old, I sang this song by

Sabian called Turn Me Loose, that I don't even remember that song. But apparently, there I was in church singing it. Well, you see, it's, it is intoxicated. I'm telling you. So I was a Mets fan. I grew up in Stanford, Connecticut, and you were in that backyard of shape. Stadium. Should we sing a version of the meets the mess theme and see if we can really turn everybody off? You know, I only remember like the first couple of lines, but yes, I was totally in the backyard. I was living in a place called Lafrax City where literally you could walk over to the world,

you know, where Shea Stadium was, which was over by the World's Fair Pavilion. And so I used to go in games all the time. you know, my brother would take me or occasionally I'd go with my dad. And this is when the Mets were in the toilet. I mean, these guys were down in the basement, new team. You know, there was maybe 5,000, 4,000 people in the whole stadium. You know, and then over the years, over the next four or five years, they started to become the miracle Mets, you know.

But I knew all the players and, you know, everything about them. And, you know, it was really a huge part of my childhood sort of, you know, entertainment. This was courtesy men's games. And I think you described in the book this amazing story about Banner Day at Shea Stadium. And I think I might have been at that Banner Day because I went to a few Banner Days. Can you tell that story? Yeah, it's, it's 1966. And the Mets, you know, trying to get people out to the park did this thing called Bounder Day,

where they invited all the fans down on the field to parade around with banners and compete. And, you know, they had like three or four prizes. And, you know, at this point, the grand prize was we won. And the grand prize was a black and, and the grand prize was a black and, and white, Admiral Black and White television, a case of tuna fish, you know, as we call it in New York, tuna fish, you know, can tuna. And this was all they could afford. You know, once they became world champions, you know, it's like a trip to Hawaii, you know, I think years later they'd giving away cars and stuff like that. No, we got a black and white TV. But begrudgingly,

my brother brought me down there. He wanted to go. My mom made him take me to the game. game and he came up with this, you know, clever little way of, you know, dressing us up at six years old. And next thing, you know, we're getting pulled into the dugout by these famous ballplayers, Jerry Groder, Ron Slovoda, Tom Siever, you know, so I got to meet all my heroes. And I had no idea, you know, what this was. And yeah, next thing, you know, we're, like, we made it into the yearbook. You know, they invited us on television because, you know, I guess it was quite the novel concept for a couple of six-year-olds to win Banner Day in New York, you know. And you described, you know, that moment and certainly, you know, the hanky-panky moment, your moment of fame with the New York Post and being on the cover with Mayor Lindsay and.

Yeah, yeah, no, and I was on Candy Camera, too. They came to my nursery school, and they picked me and a few other kids to be in a candy camera. So here I am, six years old. I've already been on the cover of a major, you know, U.S. newspaper. I've been on Candy Camera. I've been on a show called Wonderama, which is regional at the time. You know, so here I am six years old. I already had these brushes with fame and notoriety.

And yeah, definitely very addictive. You know, no doubt about that to get, you know, this is, remember, this is before social media, the internet, you know, so I think there's something in the human personality about having attention, you know, wanting to be on TikTok or on Twitter or, you know, and even back then, very much, you know, proving the point that people all want to be, have their 15 minutes of fame. But it was this odd paradox going on in your life because you had this horrible home life that was going on. And you were, you know, cowering at many instances in that environment. But yet you had that addiction to entertaining people.

It was a strange paradox. Yeah, you know, psychologically, you know, I think it's, you know, when you grow up in a household with an alcoholic, you know, who is a drama queen and wants all the attention, you know, and all you're trying to do is stay below the radar because you don't want all the fallout that comes with that. And then you kind of get out into the world and there's these ways of getting the attention. you know, definitely something truly psychological going on in that whole sort of situation. Definitely a lot of relief and a lot of, you know, sanctuary, so speak. And on this podcast, we talk frequently about the power of what music does for people in challenging times, whether it be physical, emotional, mental, music really was a saving grace for you, wasn't it?

Oh, without a doubt. It was an escape mechanism. It was a fantasy mechanism. You know, being able to close my eyes. I mean, music takes you places. You know, and it paints these sonic pictures, and it tells these sonic stories. And, you know, when you're young and impressionable,

and these things that move you to feel these emotions, it becomes incredibly powerful. And, you know, everybody has songs that have been woven into the fabric of their lives, you know. You could play a song from high school, and you all of a sudden are taken back to the memories. You know, and so music has these sort of time markers in your life. and it's such a powerful psychological tool.

And I think it's one of the things that makes music, you know, just incredibly powerful and vital to people's lives. So the band Little Caesar, I would say the band Little Caesar is also this paradox, this paradox of success and then this breakdown of the whole, system all in one. Why do you think it was so complicated?

It was complicated between, it was a combination of battles of enormous egos and just, you know, when everything that could possibly go wrong, goes wrong in like a one month period, in a business that doesn't have a lot of patience, you know and then you combine you combine adversity with a bunch of people who are trying to protect their success you know column keep their batting average up so to speak you put all to get that

together and it's the perfect storm for a meteoric rise and then a meteoric fall and that's what happened to us you know unfortunately you know for for us guys in the band And it's, you know, this is our life. We're not just a commodity. We weren't just a, you know, a name on a roster. So it was a really complicated whirlwind kind of thing that just kind of steamrollers. You know, the Geffen years, as I'm reading that, and I knew some of the characters from that period of time, and they were always very gracious to me,

people like Marco Babineau as an example. But that era, the way you describe it as I'm reading this, if it were a movie, it almost reminds me of part Mob Goodfellas, part three stooges. Oh, totally. Yeah, yeah. No, that's a great description. Yeah, you know, you have these larger-than-life characters

like John Colladner, like Marco, Babinom like David Giffin, like Jimmy Ivy, like Bob Rock, all involved in one project. And, you know, the little spats and the battles of the egos and the, you know, these are guys that they considered themselves rock stars in their own realm in what they did. And they had professional rivalries and they had little power struggles. And when you put them all involved in one project, more likely than not, you're going to get turmoil more than you're going to get alignment. And that's exactly what wound up happened. And they liked to get it to arguments with each other.

Oh, God, they lived for it. I mean, you know, Jimmy Irving would love to get into it with David Geffin. You know, John Kaladner would love to get into it with, you know, Eddie Rosenblatt. and Marco Babineau and all of these guys, you know, they're, they got to be where they are because they have these enormous personalities. Egos is as big as any rock star. The classic example is John Kaladner, who on every record puts his name twice. John Kaladner, John Kaladner.

That was his hook, you know, to brand himself, who walks around in this white linen suit with this long brownish hair and John Leninglasses like he's some sort of spiritual son guru and, you know, he's got this weird kind of voice, you know, and meanwhile, it's like we go into his office and I brought him, I remember when I brought him a shirt, our first little Caesar shirt. And I go in and I give him the shirt and I'm like, here, here's our first shirt. Oh, wait, hold on a second. Let me return the favor. And he opens up his closet, and he's got four of his own t-shirt designs.

He's got his own merch, right? I mean, and it's four times as large as our selection of merch. And I just, it dawned on me that these guys are, there as much characters as any bandits, you know? And then you talk about the amazing Gene Simmons and what you learned from being around that character. What did you learn from Mr. Simmons? Oh, so many things. I mean, Gene is one of those guys that everybody has a love-hate relationship.

You know, he's very outspoken. He's very opinionated. He's very caustic. He's very confrontational. He's also inside a sweet guy. There's a nice father and husband, and he tries to be helpful to people. But on the other side of the court, he will turn around and snuff you like a candle just because it suits his ego, you know? And so to be around a character like that and to watch him, I mean, literally, every day on tour, he's holding court.

He had a couch that the crew would bring out and put into the middle, like we were doing a lot of outdoor sheds. So outdoor venues. So they would bring this sort of leatherette couch out into the middle of catering. And he'd come and hold court like he was the queen of Shiva or job in the hut, depending on the way he saw him. You know, and he would just sit there and comment on women, how they were dressed. what they look like, what guys were doing, what guys were saying. He'd call people over, have them sit down next to him. It was astounding to watch.

And this is how he entertained himself. It's almost surreal. Oh, it totally was. I mean, because we're like, look at this guy. He's, I mean, seriously, you couldn't have written a character in a movie, any, any, deeper than this guy was. And yet on the other side of the coin, he used to come back backstage every night after our set.

And he would give us like a coach at half time. He would come back and he'd critique, okay, tonight, this song was a little too fast. You guys are moving around on stage too much. Slow down. You know, you have to be more exaggerated than your movements. Wear different clothing. I mean, and he, he, you know, he's. He was vicious in his commentary, you know.

He pulled no punches. But the reality is, is that 80, 90% of the time he was right on the money. I mean, this is a guy that has been doing arena shows. You know, this is like our tent show on tour. And this guy has done this thing like four, five, six hundred times. So how could you not take his input as being gospel, you know? So on one hand, he used to drive as crazy because there were some things that we really disagreed about. And then on the other hand, we were really grateful that he was taking the time to coach us the way he was, you know.

And come on, a genius of merchandising, I mean, to kiss coffin, right? Oh, no, this guy invented. I mean, seriously, I mean, the Beatles did merch, but they took, Gene took it to a level that, you know, was. unsurpassed. I mean, I don't think there's one thing on this planet that hasn't been made once with the KISS logo on it and sold. Like you say, a coffin, there's probably a toilet. You know, I mean, it's absolutely incredible, the amount of things that they stuck the

KISS logo on and sold. And you had this other surreal moment that was almost like. an example of a Wharton School of Business Moment with Big Al from the Salem Hells Angels in Salem, Massachusetts speaking to Stephen Tyler from Aerosmith

about a little situation. Can you tell a little bit of that story? Yeah, we did the show for the Hells Angels up in Boston and we got thrown out of our hotel because we were misbehaving. It was us and Junkyard. We were playing together up there. And we got thrown out of the hotel, so Al's like, okay, come stay at my house.

So I'm staying at Al's house. Now, I'll be Al as the president of the Salem chapter in the Hells Angels. And I am not very comfortable, you know, because here I am, you know, with this rather large man with all of these sort of unscrupulous characters coming in and out of the house. And Al gets a phone call. while I'm there about a problem that they're having, that Aerosmith came out with a new T-shirt design for their next tour that looked very, how should I say, suspiciously similar to the Hells Angels logo,

the red and white letters, the lettering that they used for Aerosmith in Boston, Massachusetts, in Rockers. And I was like, you know, so listening to Al, get all of this information, from some of the other members. He's doing this due diligence, so speak.

And he's making notes on a notepad. And then he's like, okay, I got one left more phone call to make. And he dials the phone. And he's like, Stephen, yeah, big out. Yeah, yeah, I'm good. I'm good. Yeah, okay. So listen, word as it is that you've got a new T-shirt design

that looks just like our logo. And he's like, well, listen. and make as many excuses as you want. But let me tell you, that logo is trademarked, the colors, the red and white, and that. He lists this whole long thing, like he's a lawyer in court. Not when I see you, I'm going to break your face,

or you guys are going to, you know, you're going to fall off the pier. And no threat whatsoever. purely methodical legal jargon like he was some seasoned between with threats of injunctions threats of trademark infringement and he hangs up the phone and he's like

okay well got that taken care of there's going to be a whole warehouse and t-shirts that will never see the light of day and I was completely blown away by the masterful not emotional, no threats whatsoever, other than using the tools of the legal system, which had been used against gentlemen like this a million times,

who has now turned the tables and who has gotten on the phone with someone who knows a thing or two about the music business and completely decimated them on a legal standpoint to do a verbal cease and desist. And it was beautiful. It was beautiful to watch and listen to it. Oh, I love it.

So you had an almost moment involving the red hot chili peppers as well. And it was this moment in time where Flea was in some harm's way in terms of what he was doing. It was Anthony. That was in Farms Way. Okay, sorry. Yes. So Anthony, this is 1986. I'm living in Los Angeles.

The Chili Fepa's just, you know, they were just a local band that was signed to a record deal. I think this is now, this is the coming up on the Uplift Mofo Party Plan record, which is the record that really made him explode. And the band had gotten really tired of Anthony's antics, his drug antics. And he was a mess at the time. And, you know, at the time,

Palal was also in the band. He subsequently wound up overdosing and dying from heroin. But anyway, they kicked Anthony out of the band, and just they had figured that there was no Anthony was going to get himself together. He tried a million times. So I went in and we started to work together and write songs together and rehearse together.

We started actually, we did demos of the whole record of everything that I wrote, because I had written a whole set of melodies and lyrics for all of those songs. And we demoed them all and then the next thing I know I get a phone call from police saying that Anthony was out of rehab

and he was doing great and, you know, that he was coming back into the band. It was great because the way he put it was, this is not about business, this is about family. You know, me and Anthony are family. We grew up together. We've had each other's bad.

He didn't need to explain any further to me. I totally understood it and I totally respected it. You know, he totally did the right thing. And then obviously years later, the band has evolved and Anthony's singing is evolved and his performances of evolved.

It was just that band without Anthony just wouldn't be as successful or who they are. But yeah, one of those almost, another almost famous moment, you know. So I read the book.

and I think about the fact of so many trials, tribulations, great moments, lousy moments, and so many learnings. So in closing and thinking about that for maybe a musician that is, you know, challenged, trying to work their way up that's listening to this podcast, what are some lessons that you would pass on that you learn the hard way? Well, always be true to yourself and to your music. You really believe in something. Stick to your guns. Don't let some attorney or manager or record company guy or any of those people

steer you off of your path musically. The reality is that any of these people that come to you to try to do business, with you, were attracted to you because of your music. Never let them forget that. Now, there's always other things from a business side or a marketing side, all those things you can be flexible in. But you've got to be true to yourself musically. Because first of all, that's the only way you're going to like who looks back in the mirror

every morning because you stay true to your art and to who you are. And just stay persistent. stay, you know, creative, stay prolific. Don't keep reworking the same song, ideas over and over and over again. Just keep writing song or keep trying to play with as many people that you can because each person that you play with will teach you something, you'll learn something from them. Sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a bad way. Sometimes you know, sometimes you learn what you don't want to be, which can be as helpful

as knowing what you do want to be. Never equate commercial success with talent. There's a lot of really untalented people that become really famous and rich, and there's some incredibly talented players that you've never heard of. So one thing has nothing to do with the other. Great advice. And a great book, a great read. You can't judge a book by its cover. Transparency about everything and must have been therapeutic for you. was totally yeah yeah yeah but like drinking too much and throwing up you know it's very 30 you thanks Ron for being on taking a walk my pleasure Buzz thank you so much taking a walk with buzz night is available on Spotify Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts earners what's up look

money is something we all deal with but financial literacy is what helps turn income into real wealth On each episode of the podcast, Earn Your Leisure, we break down the conversations you need to understand money, investing, and entrepreneurship. From stocks and real estate to credit, business, and generational wealth, our goal is simple. Make financial literacy accessible for everyone. Because when you understand the system, you can start to build within it. Open your free I-Hard Radio app. Search Earn Your Leisure and listen now. How much you wait, Wanda?

Right now, I'm about 130. I'm at 183. We should race. No, I want to leave here with my mom. original hips. On the podcast, the matchup with Alia, I pair prominent female athletes with unexpected guests. On a recent episode, I sat down with undisputed boxing

champ, Coraes, and comedian Wanda Sykes to talk about Wanda's new movie, Undercard, the art of trash talk and what it really means to be ladylike. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search the matchup with the Leia and listen now. Brought to you by Novartis, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports Network.

You know the famous author Roald Dahl. He thought up Willie Wonka and the BFG. But did you know he was a spy? Neither did I. You can hear all about his wildlife story in the podcast, The Secret World of Roll Doll. All episodes are out now. Was this before he wrote his stories? It must have been.

What? Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you, the guy was a spy. Binge all 10 episodes of The Secret World of Rolled Doll. Now on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, gorgeous. It's Lala Kent. Host of Untraditionally Lala. My days of filling up cups at Sir.

may be over, but I'm still loving life in the valley. Live on the other side of the hill is giving grown-up vibes, but over here on my podcast, Untraditionally Lala, I'm still that Lala you either love or love to hate. It's unruly, it's unafraid, it's untraditionally Lala. Listen to Untraditionally Lala on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.