The Bobby Bones Show - Takin' a Walk with Musician and Songwriter Jonny Polonsky-Music History

Episode Date: July 28, 2023

Jonny is an American songwriter, rock guitarist, singer, , multi-instrumentalist, and record producer.He was born in a suburb of Chicago, and he began his career writing, recording and self-releasing homemade cassettes as a teenager, under the name The Amazing Jonny Polonsky.He has had a variety of music experiences in his career most notably recording and or performing with Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond and Dixie Chicks.His new album on Loosegroove Records is called “Rise of the Rebel Angels.https://www.jonnypolonsky.com *****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.

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Johnny Polonski is a multi-instrumentalist, a singer-songwriter, and a record producer. He's worked with Johnny Cash, and he's been produced by Rick Rubin. His new release on Loose Groove Records is called The Rise of the Rebel Angels. We welcome Johnny Polonski on the next Take-in-A-W-Walk. Well, yakshy-mash, Johnny, thanks for being on Taking a Walk, albeit virtually. All right, thanks for having me. So congrats on the rise of the Rebel Angels, your eighth album. And it's amazing thinking that you already have your ninth album in the can already.

What's your creative process that leads to so much great work? Well, I mean, the first record I put out came out in the mid-90s, so eight, nine, that's not that many, really. But I just write a lot. I'll go through phases too. Sometimes I'm always kind of messing around with whether guitar or

keyboards or just kind of playing around with ideas or working on I'm always sort of tinkering in some way. Sometimes it's very full thrust where I'm really actively writing either just because I feel like it or because I have a project

that I'm working towards. I just like doing it. So I do it. You know what I mean? And it's something, I don't know, I've always just been drawn to writing songs and making music and it's still endlessly fascinating to me. It's sort of like that cliche of like the more you know, the more you realize how much you don't know. And it's just mysterious and fun and like, I mean, even if it's very, I mean, can be anything you want it to be. You know, it's like, um, and it's, what I do is basically just chords, melody, and words, you know what I mean? And with that simple, I don't need, it's not

really a formula. It's just three ingredients. Like, you can kind of do anything. And I love all sorts of music. Um, and I love, uh, well, I don't like being bored. You know, that, that's something that is a constant, um, I get frustrated very easily. Um, um, so, I'm always looking for ways to stay engaged. And I mean, just in life in general and in the music I make, just finding ways to just keep things going and keep getting better and keep getting better at the craft. And just learning from the people I have lots of heroes

and just people that really inspire me and, you know, continuously blow me away, whether they're alive or dead or friends or whatever, you got to do something. You know what I mean? Like, what are you going to do? Just like work your dumb job and pay your rent. You know what I mean?

Like, we're lucky people that get to make stuff. I mean, anybody can make stuff, really. You know what I mean? I just decided I'm going to do it, you know? Do you remember that first time you picked up a guitar? I don't remember the very first time, but I was in fourth grade and my teacher, Mr. Spangenberger

on Fridays used to bring out his acoustic guitar and he would play us leaving on a jet plane John Denver and who'd do like old folk songs, ear canal, stuff like that. And sometimes Beatle tunes.

And I was completely in love with the Beatles. Like ever since I was five, like long before I started playing, my parents had a pretty good record collection, pretty big record collection. And I gravitated towards the, remember those the red and blue, greatest hits of the Beatles that came out sometime in the 70s. Yeah, I was completely

enamored of the red one. I was totally obsessed. I brought it upstairs and had like my little portal record player. And that's all I did. It's like listen to she loves you over and over. And when Mr. Spangenberger started playing, I don't know. I don't even know if it was necessarily a light bulb going off my head. It was just sort of like, oh, like you can actually do this, you know? and so I wanted to learn how to play guitar and my hands were too small I was only I guess nine so he's suggested my parents

to get me a baritone ukulele which is the top four strings of the guitar and so they got me that and I just taught myself I just got a Mel Bay chord book and you know I borrowed Mr. Spangenberger's book of He had this awesome book of lyrics, like the chords written over it.

And, you know, I just totally went to town. Like, I would do it for hours, like, hours. You know what I mean? Like, when you're a little kid and the kind of focus you have, when you've got just nothing, you know what I mean? Like, you're just living your life and going to school. So I was completely obsessed, and that was an incredible feeling. So I don't remember the first time I played a guitar.

I'm sure he let me, you know, sit down and mess around with it. But after I learned a few songs, I would get up and perform for the class to do, like, Duran Duran, stuff like that. But that was one thing, too. Like, it's sort of interesting in retrospect. Like, I didn't really buy that

many records growing up, but my mom would always buy me sheet music. Like, I would ask, you know, I would want the sheet music, which is kind of cool. Like, it was sort of strange to me, realizing, you know, years later, like, my record collection wasn't huge, really. Like,

at the start. But I wanted to do it. You know, like I watched, you know, tons of MTV. Like, radio was around, but I didn't really listen to radio so much. It was really, I was the, you know, the prime candidate for MTV generation. I was eight when it came out. That's all I did. I would, like, sit down in the basement and, like, I don't know.

I remember distinctly I would watch, like, six, eight hours of TV, like, every day. Like, I don't know how. I managed to fit that all in, like, and still go to school. Like, I watched so much TV growing up. I don't even own a TV now, but, like, I learned so much just from watching MTV and, you know, theme songs were great back then. I mean, I don't know how they are now, but, like, they're really good, you know, like, good times and the Jeffersons.

And, I mean, Quincy Jones wrote the theme to Sanford and Son, you know what I mean? God, welcome back Cotter, John Sebastian. incredible themes. So I learned I had a great guitar teacher too. This guy Jeff Jacobs, who I studied with for about two or three or four years maybe. And he taught me some theory,

and, you know, he was a huge influence, too. Like, he turned me on to Frank Zappa and the mothers of invention. And it was just, you know, and he would just kick my ass. Like, I never practiced. And he was just, like an older, you know, he was a teacher.

He was my teacher. And it was just somebody that, even though I really never practiced, like it was just, I learned a ton just from being around him and the few times I did practice, you know. But what was the question? Well, you grew up in an amazing area in Chicago, and you got to visit in your teen years,

some pretty amazing venues. Talk about what it was like being a teenager going to the metro or to the Riviera or the Aragon. What was that like? Incredible. I grew in Wilmet, which is two cities north of Chicago along the lake. There's Chicago, Evanston, or Eddie Vedder's from, and Wilmet. And one of the great things about Wilmet, is that it's the last stop on the, the L train, you know, the train, the subway, whatever. So I would, I mean, starting around 12

years old, I would go into Chicago. I'll tell my parents I was going to the library, but really I was I had this older friend named Cleo Patrick. That was his real name. I was, I was about 12. He was like 28, 29, something like that. And he was a Jimmy Hendricks eminator. I was completely obsessed with Jimmy Hendricks. And so I would go, I would take the train like two hours, like deep into the ghetto, like the worst part of Chicago is Jackson and Karloff, just like, uh, yeah, it's just like a really bad

section. Um, and we would just hang out in the basement and he had like a whole wall of vintage martial stacks and old stratacasters and fuzz pedals. That was incredible. And I saw do stuff like that. I would go to, I mean, not quite when I was 12, but like a little

older I would go to shows. Um, at the metro. I mean, I've, I've, I spent, like years at that club. I remember seeing the chili peppers in 1988. That was a mind-blower.

And I used to, I guess around 14 or so, I started going in the afternoon. Like I would show up for sound check. Not at the metro, but like a bigger place like the Riviera, I would just dress all, I would just dress in black anyway back then,

but like I would just dress in black because I noticed all the security guards dressed in black. So even though I was 14, like nobody questioned me. Like they just assumed I was like a short security guard or something. I would go to sound checks, and I'd start making tapes, and I would, you know, use it as an excuse to go backstage and meet people.

I was just telling someone this the other day. I went to Sonic Youth Soundcheck on the Dirty Tour in early 90s. I was much older by then. I was like 19 or 20, but I went backstage after the sound check and talked to Thurston more. I was like, can you get me on the list? He was like, why? You're already here. I was like, I know.

I need to go home and have dinner with my mom. And so I did. Like I left him and had dinner with my mom and came back for the show. And he put me on the list. A total gent. It was an incredible show. But yeah, I mean, Chicago, I don't know how it is so much now. I haven't been back in a while.

But growing up there was really incredible. The Riviera, the Aragon, which I ended up playing, opening for audio slave, like many years later, which was incredible. The Vic, I used to live, Kitty Corner from the Vic on Belmont. Yeah, great venues. There was a great time in music and the culture in general. But yeah, I was really lucky. Like if I had lived in a different city, even one city over, it would have been a lot harder to get into the city.

Well, I mean, there was still like the Amtrak, but that was because I lived a block from that too. That was just a lot more expensive. That was like eight bucks or I, I think each. way and the L's like, I think like $0.00 or something like that. You know, you almost created sort of an MBA program by accident with your crazy 411 calls that you used to make. Can you talk about some of those 411 calls? I love that story. Yeah. I mean, back when people had landlines and you'd call 411 directory information,

and you'd just say what city you wanted and give the person's name. That was more like I was around, I guess, 17 or 18. I was listening to Tom Waits, the album Franks Wildears, which I really loved. And I really fell in love with the guitar player, Mark Rebo. His playing was just incredible to me. It was just so creative and outlandish and really funny.

And I just had a feeling, And this is my insane teenage thinking, but I was like, I bet he's really nice and really smart and really funny. And he's got to live somewhere, right? And he's legendary now, but back then, you know, not so much early 90s. So I just called Full on One, and, you know, I think I'd just assumed he lived in New York or something. You know, back then, pre-internet, you didn't really have any information to anybody, especially if they were a little more obscure. And he was in the phone book, so I just called him up and made friends. You know, told him I was a teenager from Chicago, and I was a huge fan.

I would pepper him with questions, and he was real gracious and helpful and answer everything. And, you know, I'd started sending him tapes, and he loved him. And that was an incredible, too, just having the support and encouragement of somebody older than me who was way more experienced and someone I really looked up to and whose music I really loved. And, you know, in retrospect, like, I think it's natural if you're really serious about doing something to seek out a mentor. I wasn't intentionally doing that. And I wasn't, it did end up being networking, I guess. But I wasn't thinking about that at all.

It was just like, I love these people. Like, I want to know them. You know? Like when you're a kid and you think, because you know someone's music, you know them or that you want to know them. And a lot of times it does work out. that the art and the person are very similar. Sometimes not. But I have very few experiences where it went awry.

And, I mean, a lot of those people, some of them are, you know, are old dear friends now. Like, I was a huge Frank Zappa fan. I remember stealing a couple hundred bucks to my parents' stock drawers so I could buy a scalp first row center tickets for his last tour in Chicago. And a couple years later, I called Director of Yourself. for Scott Tunis, the bass player, just because I would watch the live video,

Does Humor Belonging Music, over and over again? Me and my brother would watch that. And he, you know, Scott out of everybody, for some reason, just seemed very extra vibrant and funny and just an incredible player. And I don't know. I was 18. I was like, I want to know that guy. So I called him up, and he's one of my oldest, dearest friends.

You know, we became great friends. And that's a thing, you know, it's like music really does bring people together, you know. I mean, these are like really ridiculous circumstances, but I don't know. I never understood right people. No one else really was doing that, you know? And now it's never been easier to reach people, but it's also never been harder to reach people. So all you have to do is just ignore an email. I think it's a fantastic story because it shows your passion for your work and it shows that you've got some balls.

I love it, you know? Yeah, I was just in love with music and really enamored of these musicians. And I just wanted to know them and learn from them, you know. Tell me what your experience was like at the Berkeley School of Music in Boston. I mean, Berkeley, I just went to, let's see. Okay, so I graduated high school. I went to a semester of Northern Illinois in DeKalb, Illinois. And I just slept most of the time because I had mom.

and I also was completely uninterested in school. And that was right when Nirvana hit. And I was just, you know, it was just a really incredible time. And that's really when I went into overdrive, which is like calling people up and sending them my tapes and was, you know, recording a ton and just very fertile, creative period. And after a semester, I quit and joined this band called White Fat Farm, which is an incredible band. They were a lot older than me.

Well, at the time, I was 18. They were like mid-20s, late-20s. I learned so much from being in that band. I mean, no one's ever heard of them. It's like they never released any music, but incredible songs. And just this guy, Mike Smith, who's the singer and songwriter,

I mean, I would still be writing songs and playing guitar, obviously, if I hadn't been involved with them. but he's been as influential on me as anybody, John Lennon or Jimmy Hendricks or whoever. I did that for about seven months and quit. And I was just sort of floating around and my aunt from Boston came to visit. I was just sort of aimless not knowing what to do with myself. And she suggested going to Berkeley, which I really had no interest in. But by that point, I'd been a band with David Bowie and Reese Cabrells and the Sales Brothers.

I knew Reeves Gros lived in Boston. I think we might have already been friends by then. I forget he was another person that was a huge early supporter. I called him up and it was just, you know, we would send him tapes and same thing as Rebo. Just like, you know, ask him a thousand questions and he would answer everything and just very, very supportive of what I was doing. So I was like, yeah, I'll go to Boston.

You know, I had no intention of really, I didn't care about the school. I just wanted to be close to Reeves. So that's what I did. So I went there a couple semesters And I went to classes and everything But I really Apparently they've put a lot of money into it

And it's supposed to be a good school now But it was a dump when I was there I had a guitar teacher who suggested I quit So I really didn't care Like my and my roommate had left So I had this huge dorm all to myself And all I did was smoke weed And listen to pavement

And my bloody Valentine Record on my four track And hang out with my friends and I hooked up with Reeves. He was really, really great. Just took me around and introduced me to everybody in his circles. I had a community, and I started playing with other people. And, yeah, that was a great time.

Yeah. So the school, you know, I really didn't learn much of anything from Berkeley, but I had a good time. So you did the infamous iPhone demos. and do you think now if you did those iPhone demos that because of technology changing with the phone, they would have been much different at all? I mean, you know, when you're a kid, especially like you just use whatever you have at your disposal, you know, sometimes I wonder what it would be like being a teenager now.

It's got to be so bewildering. Like there's just endless choices of everything and so much craziness in the world more than ever. But yeah, I mean, I feel really lucky that all I had was a cassette four track and a broken mic from

Radio Shack and a, you know, a handful of instruments at home. And, you know, limitations forced you to use your imagination and to when you have, you know, there's nothing wrong with technology. Like every tool is just a tool.

So it's great. And I've got Pro Tools now on my computer. And, you know, I've got a program that's got quite literally, I think, like 10,000 sounds or something like that. So it's amazing to have all that at your disposal. But it's, it was really great for me, especially learning how to make things work with very few options. So I don't know. I like both, but I do miss. I'm always kind of trying to.

get back to the state of mind of when I was just starting out. And, you know, my mindset back then was just, I'm just messing around, like I'm just trying stuff. I think that's a great way to approach things. When you don't take things too seriously, then you can really do anything. You can go anywhere and you're not bound to any style or any kind of anything, you know, especially like once it's easy, like once you start putting stuff out in the world to pay too much attention to how people might perceive you or what you've done in the past. It might have gotten a good reaction or whatever. Because none of it matters really. I mean, it's great. Like, I put stuff out because I want to reach people. And I love when I do, when they respond positively, you know,

the point is just me doing my thing. And regardless of like how people respond, you know, sometimes they like it, because they don't. But all that really matters is just me living my life and just like doing what I want to do, which sounds overly simplistic, but can be very difficult to really pull off sometimes. Would your take on artificial intelligence now in and around recording music? It's interesting. I've listened to a few of those tracks. It's kind of funny, you know, hearing whatever, like John Lennon singing an oasis song or something like that. I don't know. It would be interesting to see what happens with it. I don't have any, I mean, people are, Some people are freaking out about it the same way people freaked out about drum machines. Like they're going to replace drummers.

And it's just another tool. Hopefully they won't replace humans on the planet. But other than that, I don't really have much of an opinion on AI. It's still such early days. I mean, I check it out every once in a while. But I'm not overly obsessed with technology. Like, I never have been. Like, I love guitars and, you know, I have enough knowledge.

with computers and Pro Tools to do what I need to do, but I'm not like a Pro Tools whiz, and I'm not a programming whiz. I just know enough to do what I want to do, and sometimes not even that much, you know. So I'm not, you know, technology is interesting, but after a certain point, I don't really care. Your first moment you met Johnny Cash

and that ultimately worked with him, tell me about that experience. I never met him. I had the opportunity to meet him. I went to a cash show at the Pantages Theater in L.A. Beck was opening. That was an incredible experience. I was just out in L.A. visiting.

I wasn't living there yet. But I was already on American on the label. And Rick came up to me and asked if I wanted to meet Johnny Cash. I was really drunk. And I fooled she said no. Like, you know, internally I was like, oh, I can't meet Johnny Cash. I'm too drunk, you know. Which is where you.

ridiculous, like thinking that, you know, Johnny Cash is going to judge you for being too drunk. It's like thinking that Lemmy's going to judge you for being too high on speed or something. So I really wish I would have met him, but I didn't. But I ended up playing, like, years later, like, 2020, I guess 20 years ago almost, 2004, 2005. I was living in L.A. And I had reconnected with Rick. Rick Rubin. he asked me to play on there was a i think like 60 unreleased songs in various forms of uh completion

it was me and smoky hormel who's a great guitar player and bass player he's played back in tom waits and um mike and benmont from tom putting the heartbreakers and it's a great guitar player named matt sweeney um all of us were in rick's basement which was converted to a studio And for about, I guess, two weeks before Christmas and two weeks after Christmas, we just plowed through about 60 songs. That was an incredible experience. You know, I mean, just playing with those players alone was really amazing. It's just so easy. That was one of the things that was so surprising, I guess.

Well, I'm not so surprising, but like a pleasant surprise. It's like, wow, it's just like so easy to play with these people. You know, it's just very, everyone's just so good, and there's no egos, and people just do it. You know what I mean? There's no stumbling over doubt or trepidation or anything like that. It's just playing music. And a lot of those songs never got released either. A bunch did, so I'm on, I think it's American 4 and 5, which is maybe like 20 songs or 25 songs.

But yeah, there's a bunch that's still unreleased. That was an amazing experience. That was surreal. I mean, I grew up listening to Johnny Cash. You know, I remember driving around Womet, you know, just like listening to the Sun recordings. And I played on the last song he ever wrote, like the 409. Or is the 309.

I always forget there was a Beach Boy song, the 309, 409. The 309, that's the Johnny Cash song. 4.09 is the Beach Boy song. You must have learned a lot from Rick Rubin in your time with him. What did he teach you about sort of looking inward? I learned a ton from being around Rick. For me, the most obvious things that come to mind are just, you know, when making a record, just surrounding yourself with the right people.

He just hires, I mean, there's a lot of great musicians in a world. There's a lot of people that can do it. It's just about hiring the right people for the particular project. And he's just really good at, it's like a casting director. Like, you know, it's just like you get the right people for the part. And it's pretty smooth sailing. Like, he doesn't really say much because he hires the right people that kind of know what to do. But when something needs to be said, he's very clear and direct and, you know, exactly what he means.

He's very articulate. And especially for a non-musician, like, I think he plays a little guitar, but like, He's basically a non-musician, but he's way more articulate when it comes to talking about music or arrangements than almost every musician I've ever played with. I also used to, I was the guitar tech for audio slave for a couple years, and I was around when, that's how Rick and I reconnected because he was producing their second record, and I had become their guitar tech. So I was there, you know, every day when he would be in pre-production with them. So that was really interesting, watching him dissect the songs and obviously they're great songwriters anyway, great band. But he would just make suggestions to see, just to mess around and experiment and see if they couldn't make it better if they tried this or this, move this here, maybe try a bridge, maybe take away a bridge, you know, all these little suggestions. I guess that's it, really.

It's just surrounding yourself with the right people and just communicating yourself with the right people and just communication. communicating very directly and there's never, he's a really nice person. You know what I mean? Like you never get a, there's not a shred of like dictator vod or anything like that. But he's very much in control. Like he's kind of carries this weight of like he's the man. But he's not arrogant, you know. So it's nice to, that's what you want.

You want to, you know, in that kind of situation, like you want to feel like somebody's steering the ship. even if we're all like a part of it and contributing. You've had such a fascinating group of people that you've, you've been around through your career. I think of, you know, Frank Black and Pete Yorne and, you know, just this incredibly, you know, diverse group. Is there somebody that you've recently discovered that's of a more vintage, nature that you just got turned on to,

and is there someone, conversely, brand new that you've just gotten turned on to? This is great Japanese guitar player. He's dead now. Takashi Teraiuchi, it's amazing surf guitar player. Great. I mean, like, tons of albums.

Like, they're all on Spotify, and they're all in Japanese, so I have no idea what the titles are. But excellent guitar player and really creative and just strange, wonderful. And as far as contemporary bands, I recently fell in love with Fiddler. I love this band Fiddler. They've got a bunch of records,

just a great, really energetic, fun, kind of agro-punk band, very melodic, from San Diego, I believe. I like them a lot. So when you think of the beauty of live performance, And you're going to be, you just recently, you know, did the show in Brooklyn, and I know you've got other shows going on. Does the electricity of live performance ever change in a different way for you? I mean, it's always different depending on the venue and the crowd and whatever.

Like, I mean, you mean in terms of like now versus a few decades ago? Yeah. Oh, not really. I mean, maybe I'm more confident now. or just less full of doubt, which I guess is the same thing. You know what I mean? It's like you just go up and do it.

You know what I mean? I'm not in a jaded way. It's just like I still get nervous sometimes, but I think it's a good thing. It's really just sort of getting charged up. And I mean, nervous might even be the wrong word. I get nervous if I feel like my voice isn't up to par or if the band doesn't know if I don't have confidence in the band.

or whatever, but I'm playing with really good players right now, and I feel really good. Switch to go up and do it. You know, that's it, really. So, yeah, I really enjoy it. I love playing live. I really want to get on tour. That's the ideal.

It's just so expensive, you know, it's really expensive to tour. And there's obviously got to be a demand, or unless you're getting on, like, a tour with a bigger act. So that's the quest right now. It's just trying to get on the road. How did you get so comfortable in front of a camera? Aren't we all in front of a camera now? Yeah, that's true.

That's just life. I don't know. I mean, I'm not. I mean, right now it's not a big deal, but in general, like, in general, like, they're very unnatural situations. But, yeah, I mean, cameras are everywhere now. So when you think about the ninth album coming out, it's going to come out. It's later in the fall, right?

Either the fall or early next year, one of the two. And do you feel it takes a different turn than your previous work? Yeah, there's a lot of guest stars on it. There's a bunch of guest drummers, and there's an orchestra on two tunes, which I'd never done before. It's got some of my favorite musicians of all time that are playing on it, which is sort of, and I didn't mean for it to happen. It just kind of ended up that way.

You know, it's a little more succinct and focused in a way than this most recent record. One's not like better or worse, or, you know, it's just a different thing. Yeah, I'm excited for the next one to come out. I'm writing for the 10th one. You know what I mean? Like, I'm excited for all of them.

And I want to put them out and have as many people hear them as possible. But I'm always, like, looking forward to the, the next one. It never goes fast enough either. I wish, you know, like in the 60s, you know, I mean, Beatles, Jimi Hendricks, people would release two or three records a year, you know? I wish we could do that now.

I mean, we can, but it's just like, it's, uh, you can do whatever you want, really, especially these days. It's not just about releasing music. I've been releasing music for the last 10 years on my own, but it's also trying to reach people and there's, it just takes time to, you know,

getting a song license in a movie or TV show or something like that or getting on a tour, you know, to really like build and get some kind of momentum. Well, I guess it's really more career stuff than, you know, it's all interrelated. But it's, to me, it's really just about reaching as many people as I can. There's a part of me that just wants to release music all the time, regardless of anything. Well, I don't want to just release stuff in a vacuum. Like, I've done that, and it's just sort of depressing. I mean, it's always great.

I love what I do, and I'm always excited about what I put out. I don't put anything out unless I'm really excited about it. But, you know, you want to reach people, too. And doing it on my own, it's expensive, man. I mean, it's expensive anyway, but now it's expensive for somebody else who's not me. So that's a good thing. What are some causes that are important to you? Making the planet habitable, you know, the homeless problem is,

ridiculous. I used to live in L.A. It was like a, I think it was like 40 or 50,000 people, almost in L.A., which is completely insane. I mean, it's insane anywhere that exists, but there's quite a bit in New York. And I just dropped something off. It's the Bowery mission. But yeah, I mean, there's a lot of things that

serve attention, but those are the two that really spring to mind for me. What advice would you give to somebody listening to this that's a musician just in the early stages of their career? Just play what you want to play, play what you want to hear. Like, never stop being the listener or the fan, the audience, you know, because you're the first audience member. You know, it should be music that you actually want to listen to, which sounds strange, but like that's a common thing to, for one reason or another, to name. make music for reasons other than just because you love it, especially once you start getting a little feedback from people,

just make the music that you want to hear. Plus it'll be way more personal that way, and that's going to be what people will respond to when there's something genuine, when you can, you know, even non-musicians, everybody, anyone can tell, like, when there's a real palpable sense of joy or a sense of discovery or, you know what I mean? like you can just tell when somebody's doing it

for real or whether they're just, you know, it might be very good or a well-made product or whatever, but you can tell when there's like no real genuine enthusiasm or I can't anyway. I feel like people can, whether they realize it or not. So just do what you really want to do,

you know, because you love it, not because you're trying to get something out of it. Thanks for the music that you bring to us. It's raw. It's authentic. Obviously, it's something that brings you joy, but it brings us joy. And thanks for everything that you bridge together through all your musical influence.

I absolutely love that as well, Johnny. Oh, thanks, Buzz. I appreciate the kind words. Thank you, man. Thank you for being on taking a walk. Thank you for having me. Taking a walk with Buzz Night is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

When a group of women discover they've all dated the same. name prolific con artist. They take matters into their own hands. I vowed. I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves. We always say that, trust your girlfriends.

Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2023, Bachelor star Clayton Eckerd was accused of fathering twins. But the pregnancy, appeared to be a hoax. You doctored this particular test twice, Ms. Owens, correct? I doctored the test once.

It took an army of internet detectives to uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Greg Gillespie and Michael Rancini. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trapped. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences.

Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Vodam. My next guest, it's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot.

But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat, Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck.

Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of IHeart Media, and I'm kicking off a brand new season of my podcast, Math and Magic, stories from the Frontiers of Marketing. Math and Magic takes you behind the scenes of the biggest businesses and industries while sharing insights from the smartest minds in marketing. Coming up this seasonal Math and Magic, CEO of Liquid. death Mike Cessario. People think that creative ideas are like these lightbulb moments that happen when you're in the shower. It's really like a stone sculpture. You're constantly just chipping away and refining. Take to Interactive CEO Strauss Selnick and our own chief business officer, Lisa Coffey. Listen to Math and Magic on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.