WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 1396 - Eric McFadden

Episode Date: December 29, 2022

Guitarist and singer-songwriter Eric McFadden is a blast from Marc's past. They knew each other when they were teenagers growing up in Albuquerque, fostering their creative passions in art studios, record stores and guitar shops around town. After coming in brief contact with each other throughout the years, Eric and Marc finally sit down in the garage to talk about what happened when Eric left New Mexico, how he wound up working with George Clinton, Bernie Worrell, Eric Burdon from The Animals and others, as well as launching his own solo career.  Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can get anything you need with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get snowballs on Uber Eats. But meatballs and mozzarella balls, yes, we can deliver that. Uber Eats, get almost, almost anything. Order now. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details.

Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category,

and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. Lock the gates! Alright, let's do this. How are you, what the fuckers?

What the fuck, buddies? What the fuck, Knicks? What's happening? I'm Mark Maron. This is my podcast. Welcome to it. As we approach the end of another year, it's happening. I made it.

You guys made it. If you can hear this, you made it. We're almost at the finish line of another year. Now what? Now what? Now I guess we'll just see what happens with the area I used to hang around in when I was a kid. When I was a kid, I'm talking high school. I must have met Eric when I was in high school. He's this little guy, was running around.

Sometimes he had a guitar on a strap, no case, walking around. And he was a guitar guy. But I guess I met him, I must have been 16 or 17 he was probably 15 i don't maybe we cleared up in the conversation i don't remember but at that time when i was in high school when i was 15 i used to be a shift manager at a place called the posh bagel across the street from the university of new mexico when y Yale Park was there. Yale Park was the park on Central, Route 66. Next door to the Posh Bagel was a place called the Guitar Shop that had this weird kind of custom, rustic, but modern wooden front and had all these characters who worked in there. And I used to just sort of run around the block. I mean, not run. I mean,

the general store was around the corner, which was a head shop. Budget Tapes and Records was on one side and the guitar shop was on the other side. Natural Sound was down the street. There was a Dairy Queen. The Frontier was up the street. The Living Batch Bookstore was up the street. It was sort of my world. I was very excited to be this high school kid working in the college area with college kids, you know, and kind of living that life. Like, you know, I'm, you know, beyond my years type of deal. But I did have a nickname that was given to me by one of the guys who worked at the guitar shop. Not a great nickname, but this guy, Mike, Mike Wright, who Eric and I talk about, started calling me Bagel Boy.

He was kind of a dick. He probably still is a dick. I don't know. We discussed the possibilities of that. I think he's still in the racket, in the music racket. But I think he used to be in a band called Flyer that I used to go see play high school dances. But anyway, this whole conversation,

I ran into Eric years later, and I heard about Eric from Dino and he's been playing guitar as a solo act in bands with George Clinton's P-Funk All-Stars. He played behind Eric Burden Band later. He was in a band called Stockholm Syndrome. He's in a band now with Kate Vargas. syndrome. He's in a band now with Kate Vargas. Sergeant Splendor is the new project. But he and I had been in and out of touch a bit just texting. And I knew he wanted to be on the show, but I had to get up to speed on where he was at. And finally it happened. So this episode is one of those episodes where we're kind of reliving our childhood in albuquerque around the area that we grew up in which was a haven for music and arts i mean university of new mexico had one of the preeminent um photography departments art history departments there just felt like there was a lot going on and there was a lot of people involved but, but it could have been just the fact that I was a young guy in high school who had a lot of top tier artists, a lot of top tier photographers, certainly. Gus Blaisdell, the guy who ran the Living Back bookstore, was a top tier cultural critic and philosophy professor, art professor, film professor.

I mean, there was shit going on. And it was really what created my brain was hanging around, was really hanging around the university, starting at the Posh Bagel and then kind of moving through those worlds. And Eric was there as well doing music. And we were a couple of years apart, so we weren't really hanging around each other, but he holds a prominent place in my memory. So it was kind of exciting to catch up with him. And that's going to happen. You're going to hear it happen in real time in a way. It was real time for us. Obviously, we recorded it before, but you'll hear it happening as it did in real time for us. I guess I haven't really talked to you since the holidays. I hope you had some good holidays. I went to New Mexico. A few things happened that I didn't think would happen on either side of the trip.

Actually, it was all fairly surprising emotionally and otherwise. So I went out there last Thursday because I recorded this stuff for you guys that you heard on Monday with Courtney on the Thursday. And Kit was supposed to go to Chicago. And I was like, you're not going to get out. And if you do, it's going to be horrible. It's just not going to be fun. And I just, I was helping her get to Chicago. And I said, just come to New Mexico and hang out with me and my family. So that's what ended up happening, which was great. We had a great time. It was much better than certainly just me being there alone, because it's so much more interesting and sort of fun

to be in the position to be nostalgic by showing somebody else, somebody you're involved with, your past through geographical locations and stories. And she met my dad and my dad's wife and her whole family and my friend Dave. And it just made the trips so much nicer. And we had we had really a pretty, pretty great time. And I didn't know what it was going to be like with my dad as his his situation mentally. You know, he's got the the dementia a bit. So I don't know what I'm walking into, but I got to be honest with you, you know, despite the fact that his wife deals with whatever horrors this particular ailment brings, when I see him for the couple of days I'm there, I guess a lot of his energy goes into showing up for it. And and it was it was good. He was he was present. He was engaged.

He was he had memories of things and he still knows. It's really the day of short term stuff is going, but all the other stuff is intact. And if you ask him about medicine, it's right there. If you ask him about people he hates, it's right there. Resentments still still full of energy. uh it was quite it was quite nice and i you know i just thank god or whatever it is that i may thank in the present here uh for his wife rosie for for taking care of this man and uh being there for him but it was kind of, I don't know, the more I see them, the more my heart opens a bit more. And I'm just, it doesn't feel like a responsibility. I feel like I want to spend whatever time I can with my old man while he still remembers me. Because I had him laughing, man. I was busting his balls hard. And that's his favorite entertainment is me mocking him right to his face.

And it's certainly how I learned how to do. It's certainly what inspired me to do the craft that I now earn a living with. And not unlike many Christmases before, we go to his wife Rosie's family's house. And there's the whole big family. She had like 13 or 14 brothers and sisters. There's still like seven alive and their kids and grandkids and just a ton of food, red chili. Red chili! And it was good.

It was fun. There was a gift game, the swapping the gifts. I forget what it's called. I don't have a, you know, you bring a gift and then you get open one and then somebody can take it. I don't know what it is, but we did it with our whole family. And there was some prayers, some Jesusness. And I got to be honest with you, I don't mind the Jesusness.

I hadn't seen her son Martin in a while, and I don't think I'd ever met his wife or his kids. My dad's wife, Rosie, has a son a little younger than me. And though we come from different points of view, it was all Christmas and all nice, and it was all very human. And I'm glad that my father has this amazing family that really cares for him and respects him and loves him. It gets more touching, maybe, as I'm getting older and starting to drift a bit myself. But yeah, I don't mind the Jesus. It's a comforting groove sometimes to hear a prayer here and there.

I'm not saying I'm all in. I'm not saying I'm shopping around for something to uh hang my hopes on or my soul but uh didn't mind it the uh the son of god essence about and i lit the hanukkah candles with my father and he remembered the prayer all very nice it was all very nice and then i came home and here was the miracle his some fucking miracle man i flew out of burbank non-stop there's only like one or two non-stops from albuquerque to burbank and back and so coming back on monday i had a seven o'clock reservation at night because it was the only non-stop to burbank outside of like five in the morning uh on southwest and for some reason i'm like, I decided the day before, two days before I was

like, fuck it. You know, Kit was on American and she was flying out at 10 30. And I thought like, well, I guess I'm into LAX nonstop, but I would thought like, well, I'll just see you later. And then I thought like, fuck it, man. What am I going to do for seven hours? I'm done here. Why don't I just switch planes? So I got onto her plane and I kept the southwest ticket until I got to the airport till I was on the plane on the American flight back home uh then I canceled my my southwest reservation I got home and later that afternoon my southwest flight had been canceled like every other southwest flight I would have been in Albuquerque overnight and trying to get out probably renting a car and driving.

Who the fuck knows? But it was one of those rare things where I just didn't want to stay in town for another seven hours. The thought of it was so daunting and something I did not want to do badly enough that I changed my flight, willing to take the hit for the ticket. But it turns out it was fully refundable, and they canceled the fucking flight anyways. You know, every once in a while that shit in life happens where you're like, oh, yeah, man. Hell yeah.

Lucked out. Dodged a fucking bullet. Right? So listen, Eric McFadden is here. You can go to ericmcfadden.com for tickets and info to his upcoming performances. You can tune in to his live stream that he has there every Monday live from the red couch with Kate Vargas. And this is me catching up with a guy who I kind of grew up with, or at least we grew up on the same few blocks. You can get anything you need with Uber Eats.

Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get snowballs on Uber Eats, but meatballs and mozzarella balls, yes, we can deliver that. Uber Eats, get almost, almost anything. Order now. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details.

Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category, and what the term dignified consumption actually

means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. I got a million pedals over there. You can have some. People were sending me pedals, but I don't even know how to use them. I just now, I'm fucking 59 years old, and I've been playing the same pentatonic blues shit my whole life, and I just now started the open G thing. Hey, see?

It's a whole new world. It's never too late to fucking do it or learn a new trick. That's the fifth thing. That's pretty fucking good. The fifth thing. Out of the four things

I know how to do, now I got that. Do you play with open G? Yeah, sometimes. Yeah, I like it. You do? Yeah. I didn't start doing that shit

until, you know, way later either. Really? Out of necessity. I remember it was embarrassing because sometimes you have those moments where you're like, oh yeah, I know a pretty good amount of stuff

from the guitar. I made a living out of it. I played with this guy and that guy. And then one day, somebody stumps you. And then I remember, you know, Keb Moe. Yeah. So Keb Moe.

I've talked to him. Yeah, he's great. We're friends. We've been friends a while. You know, one day he's playing in New Orleans. He's like, come sit in. I'm like, all right. He says, pick up that. And it's like, it's an open's an open g you just play some i'm like fuck and i'm like i

don't play i don't i've never played in open g so he really fucked me because he's playing like uh those blues there's a slide blues thing yeah right like all that muddy shit's open g so how'd that go that first time with it was it was horrifying because i had no idea what to do so i had to get up there and pretend i knew what was going on and just find the notes on the guitar in front of people. That was your first open G experience? Yeah. Oh, my God. Well, that's pretty bold to not be like,

let me just tune it regular. Is that all right? Can I just tune it? Yeah, I don't think it was time. I think it was just like you were on the stage. Where was that, New Orleans? Yeah. And you were just kind of hanging out watching them?

Yeah, well, we had gotten beignets or something and then went to his gig yeah yeah but you like i mean like i'm trying to think like the last time i actually saw you as in the human flex like i hear from you occasionally and i remember dean brought you up and like i know that kid but i know that kid like i remember that kid when he was a kid like i can't like i'm trying to think the last time i saw you is it like frontier restaurant albuquerque new mexico and you said you were playing guitar and i you know i didn't really believe it and i because i remember and then he started wearing the the hendrix headband you were running around you must have been like 16 yeah right yeah and running around with your fro and your hendrix headband. Right. And you're hanging around with Eric Hollinger.

Hollinger. Hollinger. Holy shit, yeah. Whose father was a doctor. That's right. Who my father knew. Exactly. And Hollinger was a very good friend of mine.

He's a bassist and a guitarist. He was a bassist. But he played bass in my band Angry Babies way back. Was that like when you were in high school? Yeah, well, we started right after, like, pretty much like end of high, like we were 18 years old. Because I remember that kid from a boat trip. school we yeah well we started right after like pretty much like end of height like we were 18 years old because i remember that kid from a boat trip like him and his family and my family went on uh like elephant butte or coachity or something i think his family had a boat is that right yeah

so there was a little connection there so eric hollinger eric hollinger i knew when he was a little kid because his father joe hollinger was a doctor. Right, exactly. I think his mom was Swedish or something. No? Yeah. Sadly, his mom had died of a brain aneurysm when he was in his teens, and that really messed him up. That was hard on him. Is he around? No.

He passed away recently. He had gotten in a car accident many years ago, which caused some severe brain damage, and he was pretty incapacitated. Oh, my God. It was a really tragic story. In fact, I went to see him in the hospital shortly after. In Albuquerque? It was on his way from, he had moved to Arizona. He was moving back to Albuquerque,

but he got in this accident. Yeah. And that was really just, that was a rough one. That's terrible. I went and saw him in the hospital. It was one of the first times, it was the first time I'd ever been confronted with that kind of thing, you know?

Yeah. Something like that. Like he was not conscious? Yeah, he was just not, he was conscious, but he wasn't there. He was very, very damaged. That's so fucking heavy, man. But that was the first band, but like,

I'm trying to, like, you grew up in Albuquerque? I grew up there, you know, but I wasn't born there. Like, we moved when I was seven so when i got when i was seven years old we went out there both your folks uh yeah from new york yeah yeah so you were there when you were seven because i think i'm just trying to think how because like those days get kind of hazy to me but i know that i was hanging around at frontier starting like you know i used to work at the Posh Bagel. Oh, yeah. I loved the Posh Bagel. That was right next to the guitar shop where I hung out every day after school. Right.

So that must have been then. Yeah. Like, I wonder what happened. You remember Mike Wright? He's around. I just saw him a couple, in fact, he sat in with me at a show about a year and a half ago. How's his chops?

Great, man. He still, he still, he still got it. Really? Yeah. And then they're like like because I used to hang around the guitar shop but I remember because I like I could never really play but I got good guitars and I always wanted to be part of the guitar thing so I always had them do work on my guitars right yeah so I remember my first guitar was a Telecaster it must have been 1976 or 77 probably. That was my second guitar. The first one was like a Les Paul Deluxe

copycat. Yeah, but that Telecaster. But I remember I brought it to them and I had like Fritz Domler, right? I had him repaint it. It was a beautiful cream color. It wasn't the yellow, TV yellow, but it was like a cream color. So I had him paint a candy apple red, put a gold DiMarzio pick guard on it, and two fucking DiMarzio humbuckers. I ruined it. Yeah, basically destroyed everything it was.

The integrity of the... You didn't know better. What are you going to do? No, and then I got an Explorer body and had them painted over there, and I stuck the Fender neck on it, and I took the, I don't know. Frankenstein, just to have them do stuff. Yeah, but I couldn't play. That was the saddest thing.

I was spending all this time over there, and I never could really play. But you remember those other guys? You remember Bill? Wait. Bill Pogue? Oh, God. The guy who owned the place? Yeah, Bill.

Oh, my God. They called me the kid, and then there was Brian. Brian, the bass player. Yeah. Yeah, he worked the counter, and Bill owned the place. Yeah, Bill owned the place. And then there was Brian. Brian, the bass player. Yeah. Yeah, he worked the counter and Bill owned the place. Yeah, Bill owned the place. And Dave. Dave Stang.

Dave Stang, man. He was the old telly guy. Yeah. And then there was Jerry. Jerry Robrand. Jerry Robrand, yeah. That fucking car dealer. That's right.

Him and his big poodle haircut. Hey, man. You had a poodle haircut. How you doing, buddy? Did he do like the Jeff Baxter mustache for a while. Hey, man. You had a poodle haircut and like that. How you doing, buddy? Did he do like the Jeff Baxter mustache for a while? Yeah, man. Yeah.

But then I went, it was so funny because I knew him when I was growing up and then when my parents, you know, I went to the Toyota dealer to pick up a car

before I went to college and he just told it to us. He was a car dealer. He really was a car dealer. He really got into car dealing. Oh, my God. I just remember being, they called me the kid, Brian.

They called me Bagel Boy. Bagel Boy. Oh, shit. I remember kid, Brian. They called me Bagel Boy. Bagel Boy. Oh, shit. I remember now. Yeah. Yeah. Posh Bagel Guitar Shop right there. And then they would sometimes, I'd love getting stuff from the Posh Bagel or the Sandwich Shop on the left.

Oh, yeah. Was that the old Greek place or whatever? I forgot what that was called, but they'd always get the kids something. Because I'd hang out all day, but I'd polish the guitars, take out the trash. Oh, really? I'd earn my keep around there, and then they'd grab me lunch. Well, yeah. Well, I remember it had that kind of a groovy, kind of wooden front.

It was clearly a place built in the 70s, and with somebody's vision. It must have been Bill's. But I don't remember him being able to play anything. He was kind of a drunky, hard dude. Oh, yeah. Right? Oh, but Steve Mays. I had Oh yeah. Right? Oh but Steve Mays I had to remember that

and say that. Steve Mays. But um Which one was he? He was a guitar teacher there and he's a great guy that we did a tribute to him recently.

Me and Tim Pearson Mikey Wright a couple years ago and his daughter Lily Pearson Really? Steve Mays Yeah?

I don't know if I remember him too much. But you know he was taught in the back? Yeah he taught in the back so he wouldn't have been out in front guys. But do you remember like you know they had that fritz domler guitar framed yeah like it was like this matt like this piece of furniture that was all

shiny in that back room you know yeah that's right holy shit man but i just remember mikey being a smart-ass dick and you know he he was like a little punk kid you know he was like too cool at that time but he could play man do you remember his band what was it called traveler i remember him being because i was younger than him a few years right well you're right you're like how old are you um i just turned 57 a week and a half right so i just turned 59 yeah so we were about two or three grades apart i graduated highland 81 right and i would have graduated 84 if i hadn't gone to new y York and then got expelled for fighting, yeah.

What? Yeah, that's another thing that happened. But I was defending myself. I wasn't a guy that wanted to fight. In New York?

Yeah. This was in Syracuse, New York though. So you got expelled from Highland for getting in a fight in New York? No, no,

that's pretty good. They're really on top of shit. We had moved to New York, to Syracuse, and then I was doing my senior year there, and then I got expelled for defending myself against some asshole kid that was trying to fight me. This just so happens, the principal caught it when I was grabbing the guy.

Yeah, oh, right. So you look like the guilty one? Yeah. But I'm trying to think so oh so you remember all that man i mean like that posh bagel posh eddie yeah oh wow he died this is some um ancient um history here yeah man i mean around the corner the general store the general store t-shirts and your pipes and bongs underground comics that's where i got my black sabbath t-shirts of course the stuff. That guy's name was Mitch.

Mitch. Mitchell, yeah. He was kind of a goofy dude. And then there was Paul over at Natural Sound. Yeah, I loved Natural Sound. Right? He was kind of a dick too,

but he had pretty good records. Everybody was kind of a dick then. Well, I mean, record store owners, that was like a used record store shot. You kind of had to be. That was part of the criteria.

It's so weird. The only record I remember buying there was Lee Michael' Fifth, which has a, do you know what I mean? I just saw her yesterday. Oh, yeah. I just saw her, nothing to say.

Do you know what I mean? That's that guy. Oh, yeah, you bought that record there. I bought that there, yeah. It's the only song on the record, really. I mean, he did a cover of Lee Dorsey's Yeah Yeah. What did I buy there? They had all the new shit.

I bought, you know what? I got there, I got three records I can remember yeah I got Tom Petty's Damn the Torpedoes oh yeah I got Jimi Hendrix

Band of Gypsies used it's the best record and Derek and the Dominoes used really yeah and that changed your life

yeah I was 11 years old I got all those records Band of Gypsies is fucking the best record ever

fucking it I mean come come on. Right? Power of Soul, Machine Gun. What are you going to, how are you going to? But just like, just all stripped down. Like, you know, I like Axis as Love and I like Electric Ladyland. But it's like, but that Band of Gypsies is like a fucking blues operation.

Yeah. Right? And it's raw. It's just like live just in you. And I mean, there's some real deep stuff going on. Yeah, that is just... What is that? That's Power of Love.

When he comes in at the beginning, you know... That opening lick. Right. That's beautiful stuff. One time I timed that lick perfectly. Like I used to like when I was on an airplane, like when we were about to take off, I put that on power 11,

just so like I could try to time that opening riff like right when the plane was like. I'm going to try that on the flight to New Mexico tomorrow. You should, dude. Yeah. It's the best. One time I nailed it. Go ahead. So like I remember you running around

and in my memory, you used to actually carry your guitar around out of the case. Is that possible? That did happen for a little while yeah because early i didn't have it like you're just ready to play when you're eating like sitting at frontier you had the guitar like ready to go i got i was a little obsessed with that thing for a while i mean i guess i still am but the thing is at that time it was really the thing i found that kind of uh was like made things okay i was like wow i have this now and i I do this and I really just want to do this

all the time so I just what felt the guitar was that thing the first first thing I got was just a nylon string just some pieces yeah yeah classical yeah yeah classical but then I saved up my dad had my dad had a 12 string ovation which I also would mess around on. With a curved back? Yeah, the curved back one. Really? Way back. Your dad played?

Yeah, my dad played guitar. You know, he's a great goldsmith by trade, but he was in bands when he was young, and he played. He showed me some Beatles and cream. So he's a jeweler? Yeah. Still? Yeah. And Taos?

Yeah, Taos. No shit. Him and my mom are out there. What's your mom do? And Taos. Yeah, Taos. No shit. Him and my mom are out there.

What's your mom do? My mom, she's done a lot of different things, but she for a while was helping design this stuff and touring on the road. They used to travel doing all these shows. For the gold? And she had a store out there. For the jewelry? Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. And she's awesome. She does all kinds of stuff. So some real hippie shit? Well, it's beyond that. It's more like high-end stuff. So some real hippie shit? Well, it's beyond that. It's more like high, it's real like high-end stuff, you know. But I mean like your upbringing? Because I just associate like he's making jewelry, he's living in Taos.

Yeah, it was kind of like we're pretty liberal and we're pretty hippie in a lot of ways. Yeah. But just also very, in some ways, very structured. Oh, yeah. Well, that's good. And conservative. Not like we weren't, you know, I didn't sit there and smoke weed with my folks. No?

Yeah. But they had a great record collection. They had all the stuff, you know. That's where I got most of my stuff. Everything. They had Dylan in there. The Stones and the Beatles. I heard on some of your records, there's like, you know, there's one record where I'm like, oh, this is like

on that Gypsy record you made. Oh, yeah. Which one was that? Well, there's one called, is it all acoustic kind of? Yeah, but it was definitely kind of like, it felt kind of Leonard Cohen-y, a little Dylan-y. Oh, yeah, yeah. I like that stuff. Probably Double Moon or Train to Salvation. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Let's Die Forever Together. Yeah, yeah. I was drinking. Anyway. There was some. You've been up and down, huh? Yeah, yeah. I was drinking. There was some. You've been up and down, huh? Yeah, there's been some of that, but it's up these days. That's good.

So let's try to pick up from where I left you. I guess the last time I saw you is probably when I left for college. What? I'm going to tell you. I did run into you in the airport, but between then, that's how we exchanged numbers. But the last time I saw you in Albuquerque, I remember it very clearly. You do? Yeah.

Why, did I do something shitty? No, it was actually... I know that's automatically where we go. I must have done something terrible. No, but it was at the Frontier, of course. It was at the Frontier, yeah. And we're sitting there, and I remember the booth. It's when you walk in.

Yeah. The front door is on the left. Yeah. By where the video games were. Yeah, yeah. No more of the video games. Yeah, that's gone. Yeah, yeah.

So the first or second booth on the left. Yeah, we're sitting there, and you were telling me, I'm going to L.A. I remember you specifically telling me, I'm out of here. I'm going to L.A. You picked up a newspaper, and you were just riffing on it. Yeah. You kind of took the headline, and you said some shit. Yeah, yeah. And you're like, hey, I'm out of here. I'm going to LA. You picked up a newspaper and you were just riffing on it. Yeah. You kind of took the headline and you said some shit. Yeah.

I'm like, yeah, that's good. And I just remember, yeah, that's funny. That's good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that must have been after I graduated college and I came back. You might have been. You must have been there. Right.

Yeah. And I was kind of like, you know, I was a little fucking full of the beans. Yeah. So I was going to go to LA to be a comic. That must have been that summer. You were telling me that exact thing. I'm go to la to be a comic that must have been that summer telling me that exact thing i'm going to la to be a comic yeah and that must have been like uh yeah like 80 81 82 like 86 87 something like that might have been about right yeah so so like in the but like how what's what's the musical history because you're one of these guys

where it's like you know i you know i have obviously i have friends who know you musicians know you and you know you've been at it a long time, and you've made a living at it, but you're still fucking out there hammering away. Yeah, it's still grinding. Grinding, yeah. And a lot of that, which I'm grateful to even have, you know, even having a career in this.

I mean, that's... So it started with Eric, and the first band was what? Because I remember, like, I listened to your records the past few days, you know, and, like, because I remember like, because like I listened to your records the past few days, you know, and like you definitely like figured out all the styles,

but I remember when you were first starting which like you were, you know, kind of, you know, like you're just like excited and you're playing

just a very, you were playing leads all the time, but you didn't have a groove yet. You know, I was like kind of like just spazzing.

Spazzing, yeah. I hadn't figured out like there wasn't a voice, there wasn't a sense of real like, it was like kind of like just spazzing spazzing yeah i hadn't figured out like uh there wasn't a voice there wasn't a sense right right right it was just kind of like input a lot of input learning stuff wanting to do you know yeah so the first band was what well i mean the first like touring band that made no in albuquerque like yeah the fuck off that was albu that was angry babies i mean i did stuff before that i probably don't that i really probably wouldn't even want to remember do you remember some of those cats that were around in albuquerque yeah i mean remember steve larue steve larue of course he killed himself oh shit

really sorry he was one of the first things that i did like he had me record on something i'd never done session it was like my first session he was a weird intense dude he was a weird guy smart dude yeah he was doing all he turned me on to so much shit you know budget records budget records budget i like to go on in there those guys would always turn me on to stuff yeah because there was that couple there that they were into like r&b so like they used to like they gave me my first bunch of records they had all these promos oh yeah that they didn't play in the store oh wow and i took them really and in that box was Elvis Costello's

first record. This year's model? Yeah. Yeah. And Nighthawks. That's where I heard it. I heard that album at Budget.

Really? Yeah. And Nighthawks at the Diner, the Tom Waits Live. I remember those two. Wow. And then there was

a guy there. You remember the couple I'm talking about? Yeah. Black dude and that little white lady named Ellen. I remember very well

because I used to go in there all the time. He like a smooth dude that dude yeah yeah and she was like this aggravated little redhead and then and then there was that guy jim jim reagan oh is he the guy that always said cat i know this cat yeah because he was all into the soul shit he took me to his house and made me all these fucking cassettes of all the old soul shit. Oh, yeah. And then LaRue was turning me on to Brian Eno, The Residents. That was his thing. Fred Frith. Yeah, the weird shit.

John Hassel. He would take my guitar part and then loop it or do something like make it backwards. So you were tied in with those guys, David Clemmer? Yeah. Because Clemmer sent me all this shit after LaRue died because I'd run into Clemmer somewhere.

Because LaRue just, he just, it was only in the past couple years. Wow. And he sent me all this shit that, you know, they had, you know, like stuff. What was it, Lash LaRue? Lash LaRue, that was the Philistines. The Philistines. Wow. I found that record, dude.

See, this is like, that's the stuff, man. That was the, that whole era. I was like 10 to 14, 15 at that time. Right, and you thought those guys were going to do it, man. Yeah, they were supposed to do it. The Philistines, I auditioned for them once, and I only knew like two songs. They came over to my house, and they were really kind of snotty,

and all I could do was play Chuck Berry. And they're like, I don't think you're right for the band. Well, I tried, though. Hey, but that says something that you got to. I must have been in my teens, too. Yeah, but I just couldn't. That's wild. So the Philistines, right, and Steve LaRue,

like a band called Jungle Red with a guy named Greg. Then they only played like twice a year. I just remember because they played at this party. They bring up a lot of stuff. Right, man. I had this old fucking Ibanez Westpaw copy that my brother used to play, and Steve borrowed it, and he taped a baby doll's arm to it right man i had this old fucking ibanez west paul copy that my brother was used to playing steve borrowed it and he tied a he taped a baby doll's arm to it and just hit it with a stick or something

it's like total art shit jungle red oh i love it that's that sounds about right yeah there's all those freaks used to hang out there man at frontier joel peter whitkin oh that's right yeah and you know what? I got turned on. Do you remember the artist R.K. Sloan? Yeah. Because he became, I was a fan of his, and I wanted him to do my cover, but then I met him, and he loved the band,

and we ended up being friends. I ended up moving in with him, right? Right. And he knew Joel Peter Witkin. He had all this shit in his house. Really? Because Joel Peter started in Albuquerque, but then there were all the people in that zone,

in that area that posed in those weirdo pictures. Like, there was this whole freak show art scene there. Yeah, yeah. Like,

some guy named Neo Boy. Yeah, there was all kinds of people. Ray Abeda. Do you remember Ray Abeda? He was a painter. absolutely. Yeah,

all that stuff is like. Judson, do you remember Judson Frondorf? Was Judson the singer also? No, Judson, maybe he did sing. Judson, though, he was like a real art guy, but then he started a band called

Cracks in the Sidewalk. Maybe, maybe. Big guy, weird looking dude. Yes, that's him. Yeah, he's still doing painting. He used to work at the Posh Bagel with me. So this is kind of weird, putting all this stuff together. And do you remember the Broadway Elks? Oh, yeah. Right? Yeah, definitely. Those guys were good. Frank McCullough's kid. mccullough frank jr was it mike frank mccullough was his

father who was a painter and then his son played guitar right and the other guy's name was fernando or something they used to play kind of that oh no it was armando armando right right and they used to play that kind of like rockabilly-ish uh old rock In fact, I remember Armando for a while was dating Paula Blanchard then, but Paula O'Rourke, who became my wife later and played with, you know, and she moved to Athens, Georgia for a while. Yeah. And she was, so this is like a connection, Louis, Louis Armando. Yeah, that's right. We go by Louis sometimes. Yeah. I remember going down to that El Madrid. Yeah. The El Madrid. Yeah. The El Madrid.

This is amazing you're bringing all this stuff up because it's leading to one thing, and I haven't even thought about this stuff for years. Yeah, I mean, you've got to put it together sometimes. I remember you let me sit in with him once. That's wild. And it didn't feel great, but I felt all right about it. So, all right, so you're playing in the Angry what? Angry Babies.

That was a thing that happened for a while. We did it well in Albuquerque. We kind of did a New Mexico thing, and we eventually made a record. We toured around and did the whole thing and got some opportunities that we, of course, sabotaged. That's something I like. The Mutts. Oh, yeah.

Chris. Chris Dracup. The Mutts. I thought they were going to go. Didn't everyone thought they were going to go, right? They were supposed to be the thing, too. Right. Yeah. We were were supposed to be the thing too right yeah

we were all we were all gonna be the thing yeah Bow Wow Records Bow Wow fuck yeah Garrett Watley

speaking of my ex Paula bass player yeah she and Garrett moved to Albuquerque together from like Boston or something

he worked at Bow Wow Records that was his thing and he would do all the shows down there yeah and Paula played in a band called Murder of Crows for a while.

Yeah. I used to love my Bow Wow Records T-shirt. Oh, yeah. I wish I had. Remember with the dots? Yeah, I wish I still had that. Right. All right, so you sabotaged.

What did you sabotage? Did you have a real deal? Well, we just had like, you know, we were doing our thing, but then we got like offers for a European tour. then for a really like you guys records you have records We had a couple records. Yeah, and Then Beavis and butthead yeah found us and wanted really because but we didn't have management and one of us is bipolar I'm an I was an alcoholic. Yeah, you know how that goes. Yeah, yeah But you have records.

What was the name of the band? Angry what? Angry Babies. Angry Babies. But I made a point of not letting anyone put them up on live. They're still around? The records? The records, yeah.

There's some copies. I think I found a couple CDs and cassettes. And you've put the kibosh on putting that into the world? I found them in bargain bins in like Austin and otherettes. And you've put the kibosh on putting that into the world? I found them in bargain bins in like Austin and other places. I'm like, hey, that was me. I can buy me for two bucks. Yeah, sure. I see my books always end up there.

Yeah. So you were drunk and you had a bipolar guy? Yeah, you know, it was all a mess. And then my drummer was strung out in pharmaceuticals because he had carpal tunnel we were a mess we got we just fell apart yeah but then what happened is uh i started this other band liar in albuquerque then we all went to san francisco and that was kind of that that's what paula did when did you get married uh we got married in 2000 or no i mean 97. oh we went to san francisco she was in the band? Yeah, bass player. She had introduced me to a lot of cool folks.

She used to hang out with like the REM, B-52s, West Britannic, Athens, Georgia. Oh, Athens people, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so she kind of introduced me to some of those folks. Yeah, yeah. So Liars go to San Francisco. Yeah. What year is that?

And that was 95 that everybody ended up there and we kind of became kind of a thing in San Francisco. When did I end up there? I was there. Oh, yeah? Sure, man. I mean, I was there, like, wasn't I? You might have been.

92, 93. I was living, like, you know, I was living on South Van Ness on, like, 23rd. Really? Yeah, and then I moved to the Panhandle on Clayton Street. Wow, I lived in the Panhandle for a lot of that time. Yeah. Because I was doing comedy, but I was going back and forth to New York. And I think that was like...

Yeah. Because I was in the competition in, I think, like, 92 and 93, I think, in the comedy competition. So we're just missing each other. But I wasn't doing much music. Wow. Yeah. We would have barely just missed each other by a year or two. Oh, really?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that would have been, yeah, because I got there in 94. You playing at Slim's and shit? We were playing at Slim's in the Paradise. Yeah. Great American Music Hall. Oh, yeah. The Night Break.

Liars. Bottom of the Hill. Yeah. And you guys were happening? We got pretty happy. We won the BAM Music Awards. Yeah. We started playing bigger and bigger shows, opening up for cool people.

Going on tour. Yeah. Who did we open for there? Who? Well, Cake. We sit on a lot of shows with Cake. We do stuff with my drummer, Paulo Baldi, who's in line. Yeah.

Ended up joining Cake for 13 years also. Really? And Les Claypool. So I played with Les. You know, Paulo joined Les Claypool's band. Paulo did? With Les, yeah. As a bass player?

A drummer. Oh, you're a drummer. Paulo, the drummer. Paulo. So you played with Les? Yeah. That must have been a schooling. And he still does the Claypool Lennon experience.

No, I talked to Sean. Oh, yeah, yeah, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's all right, man. Yeah, he's all right. I like him. So were you writing all the songs for Liars? Yeah. And singing? Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's all right, man. Yeah, he's all right. I like him. So, like, were you writing all the songs for Liars? Yeah.

And singing? Yeah, yeah. And so what happened? Well, we were supposed to be this, everyone was like, oh, the newest shoe in for success, getting written up all the things. Yeah. Everybody's Liar This, Liar That. Yeah.

Playing bigger places. Everything looks great. Right. As it goes. Yeah. And then, of course course it all disintegrates because and that you know i think part of that is uh my friend told me i had a fear of success for one yeah and i could not understand what the hell he meant by that although now in retrospect

i understand a lot about myself do you understand that thing because like some people say fear of success and fear of failure is the same thing and i can't quite put it all together i don't like because when people say like are you do you do you, do you still stay, do you stay miserable just so you could be a comic? And it's like, who would do that on purpose? It's like, if you have a fear of success, it's not like you're thinking about that. No, no. How do you identify that?

And how do you think, how can you sit there and say to yourself, I don't want to be successful? No, it's like, it's, it's something deeper than that. And people throw that around. Like, it's something you can go like, oh, thanks. I'll just stop that then. Yeah. The fuck is a fear of success? Maybe it's like it's it's something deeper than that and people throw that around like it's something you can go like oh thanks i'll just stop that then yeah the fuck is a fear of success maybe it's an insecurity i don't know but i think it's just something it has something to do with something that's not so easily definable i mean you can't just say yeah but it's like you know the truth is though if if all things line up for you you know you're you're and you're ready to go you're gonna go yeah of course but if all things line up for you and you're ready to go, you're going to go. Yeah, of course. But if all things line up for you and you're not ready to go,

you're not going to be ready to go. And that might not all be on you. Sometimes it's almost karmic or something. Not karmic, but you can't explain it. The thing is, you're right, because it's not that I don't. There are things that could have happened that didn't. And if they had happened, I might be dead now. That's right.

That's the weird thing. They weren't supposed to happen. Right. So how did it all fall apart? Part of it, lack of commitment on a couple band members. Like they didn't want to go all the way in. You have to sacrifice things to do this stuff. What do you mean?

They had jobs? Yeah. You can't have that. You know? You just can't be going around trying to have a job and being, you know, anyway, that's part of it. And then I had a kind of twisted sense of loyalty to people. You know, I mean, I think some of my issues, things that I've tried to kind of delve into and work on in recent years, like my people-pleasing stuff, whatever. whatever things that that where i would to my own detriment right uh sort of do things in order to pacify or please other people yeah work things out or compromise in ways that were not you get

dragged down in their in their uh in their uh spiral of whatever exactly trying to and then there was my own stuff too my own you know the boozy yeah the addiction stuff and my own what was the what was your thing so So how fucked up were you? I mean, if you're still worrying about other people and trying to keep a band together, and you weren't the one that was. Well, I was actually sober then during those years. During the liars?

Not like programmed sober. I mean, I did some meetings and stuff. Oh, but you got clean. But I wasn't, yeah, but I was, I got four years, I had like four years. And it was a pretty good run. And then when things started to fall apart with the band and me and Paula split up. Do you have kids? Lost the house, no.

Oh, you had a house? Yeah, we had a house in San Francisco. Where at? Right there on Lyon between Grove and McAllister. So right, Panhandle. Yeah, right. Nice, 1988 Victorian. Beautiful place. 1888 Victorian or 1988?

Like old? Yeah, really nice spot. And we used to have a real hub. And you owned it? Yeah. Oh, shit. We had a lot of great times there. People would come through.

George Clinton would come hang out. And Mike Mills, whatever. It would just be like a really cool hub. Yeah, yeah. So it was kind of the jam house? Yeah. How'd you meet George Clinton? Because you played with him.

Was that before The Liars or after? No, that was after. That was after, right after that band, right at the time that band broke up and Paul and I split up. So you lose the house, you're boozing again. Right after that, I kind of started doing it, yeah. But then George Clinton, through my friend, I had met him through my friend Gina Hall, boozing again uh right right after that i kind of started doing it yeah and then um but then george clinton through my friend i had met him through my friend gina hall who uh a few years

before yeah and you know we'd so we'd met and i'd seen shows and i sat in with him but then one day he's like get on the bus man i'm like what yeah were you worried about you i think you and george had a sense like he could he could kind of read and like uh so you were lost with you yeah just like well you know you should just you should just get on the bus where do i send the checks you know and uh and uh next thing i knew without without warning i'm in i'm in p fun you know and it's just like you know lige curry the bass player i'm i'm under him and he's like george, kind of tells lies, you can't watch out for Eric,

just show him what the hell's up. Yeah. Because I'm entering this whole thing that's this ongoing. This traveling circus. Yeah, it's a traveling circus, a legacy, these guys have been doing this together for 30 years, at the time. Who was in the band from the original P-Funk?

At that time, when I joined the band, of course, George, and then there was uh um billy bass like the first actual band member in funkadelic you know yeah uh with george yeah so he was there right oh wow um it's like blackberg blackbird mcknight yeah kid funkadelic himself michael hampton right yeah he was in the band there um and then some guys that were pretty long term even if they weren't on the first few albums you know so you're you're kind of like shattered yeah personally and you're on the bus with with p-funk yeah and you know so at that point what kind of music were the

liars doing really liar was more of a rock more of a rock band with a violin, right? So they had Marisa. You liked that shit, huh? That kind of gypsy. Yeah, I was into that stuff. But it was like Americana. At the same time, I'd become obsessed with Hank Williams and Johnny Cash and all this stuff. Oh, so country thread.

Country edge with this middle, like this sort of like gypsy thing and this sort of like edgy rock with remnants of my punk rock back you know so it was kind of this uh it had a it was a kind of a cool sound and it kind of took off there people you know i thought it was a unique sound you know and do you make a record with the liars yeah we make two albums and uh anything uh anything happened i mean you know it was just some local record deals you know total file records you know and then uh you know it's like we were kind of a big deal around the bay yeah but then you know and touring and maybe had a few good spots but nothing happened because we we didn't have the right management we didn't have the right bet you know we didn't do anything right i mean i didn't

really have a great business yeah sense who does and um i just didn't know how to follow through and make the things happen. You know, we had, you know, Sir Don Was came to a show when he was all into it

and we had record labels call, but I couldn't, I also had this attitude. I mean, I had a real thing about, you know, you know,

that, fuck, I do, you know, this whole thing. I'm not the next Lenny Crabb and everybody always wants to package you

and put you in this. Oh, right, right, right. Or put you in, pigeonhole you and put you in this place. I'm me. I'm put you in a pigeonhole and put you in this place. I'm me. I'm like, I'm unique. I'm Eric McFadden.

I'm not Lenny Kravitz. I'm not this guy. Don't put me in a box. Yeah, and you know, it's like. Lenny Kravitz don't have a violin in his band. Yeah, so who do you think you're talking to, man? Yeah. So, you know, but things, I don't know.

It was just, I think I was really depressed. When you're told by everybody around, and it looks like you're going to be the big thing, and it doesn't happen. You know, it's crushing in a way. It's more than just ego. It's just your whole soul and your whole being. Yeah, because you don't have any control over it. And all of a sudden, you're out.

Yeah. And you're on the bus with George Clinton. Yeah. And then you're on the bus with George Clinton. Well, you know what? I don't have to think about much. The hotels are paid. With George Clinton? Yeah, and then you're on a bus with George Clinton. Well, you know what? I don't have to think about much. The hotels are paid.

I like that he probably was sort of trying to help you out. Yeah, I think he was just like, you need some direction. You got to do something. And, you know, he really got into my, I was playing mandolin. I remember at a recording session, he came. He asked me to, he called me on the phone. I remember getting the call. I said, George Clinton's calling me on the phone?

Yeah. Okay, wow. And you're playing mandolin for P-Funk? Well, he was like, yeah, first, because he had heard me, you know,

we'd known each other right before this and I had sat in with him, right? So we kind of had a, but he invited me to, he wanted to go into the studio.

Went into the studio with his mandolin because he heard me playing this thing. He got really excited. He's like, what is that? I'm like,

I don't know, just a riff. He's like, let's get those mics on because he heard me playing this thing he got really excited what is that i'm like i don't know just the riff it's like let's get those mics on so we started playing this thing and and then he decides hey i'm gonna do i'm gonna sing gypsy woman over that you know the song and i'm do my own version but using that riff of yours yeah ended up on this album and then uh you know so i ended up being the first and only mandolin player in P-Funk. And I would run it through the wah-wah pedal and the Q-tron and a distortion box and all this. And then eventually I was kind of playing like guitar half the time. How long were you with him? I guess about four years.

Really? But then I rejoined the band in 2016 for a European tour. He asked me to come back to do that. How long was that? That was like maybe a month-long tour, and then we did a few shows in the States. So you had to learn all the classics? Yeah, all the stuff, all the hits, all the classics.

And then George, he played on a couple of my records. He made an appearance on a couple of my albums as well. How's he doing? He's doing great, man. He's doing, because he got clean, he cleaned up like 10 12 years ago yeah and uh was Bootsy ever around yeah I mean Bootsy came to a couple shows but he wasn't in the band at the time but then but Bernie Worrell joined the band again for a little while

and him and I became really close he's great and he ended up joining touring with me and my band for a while as really yeah we really hit it off man and he was just a brilliant wonderful guy so with my eric mcfadden trio with the greatest stand-up bass player in the world james whiten yeah no we would do that who is is you james whiten and bernie uh and bernie and no drummer and paul obaldi uh sometimes sometimes jeff cohen sometimes i didn't listen to those ones what kind of was that like what what was the the drive of that that that was my favorite i think of the albums i've put out in the past the air the trio stuff was my favorite yeah it was white you know and that was like uh pretty high charged uh stuff live it was really exciting what was it funk no it was more like it was rock yeah it was a rock man

but you know it got funky at times but it was a rock man you know because i listened to like what i listened to the other day? The blues record. Oh, that Pain by Numbers? Yeah, yeah. That was live in the studio. Tab Benoit produced it and played a little. Pain by Numbers.

Yeah. I thought that was good. Oh, yeah. Oh, good. I'm glad you like it. Okay, that one was coming straight out of the toxic hellfire relationship I'd been in before. Oh, that's when that happens. I love it.

People throw the word narcissist around pretty loosely sometimes, but I think it applies pretty good. To her? Yeah. But I don't want to get into any bashing. You sure it wasn't borderline personality? No, actually, you know what? Thank you.

That's actually more what I believe actually was the case, especially from reading up on it quite a bit after that. Yeah, that's a rough ride, dude. I've been on that one. It was a very difficult ride. It was agonizing, and it was hard to get out. And the day that I got, I had to actually escape. And the day that I left, I flew to New Orleans

and started that record and some of the songs on it. You had to escape? Yeah. Because guys like you, and I have it too, where if you have any people pleaser in you, which I don't necessarily think I did until I got into that relationship. You don't realize how codependent you are until someone manipulates you. Yeah, yeah.

This was like, I was like, wow, I learned a lot about myself through that. That's right. Stuff I wouldn't ever want to have been. Well, see, just the weird thing is, is like all of a sudden you don't feel like you have any choices. Yeah. And it's like, why is that happening know because you would think and like if you saw that happening to someone else or if somebody told you you were gonna be your friends aren't

gonna tell you you'd be like no they're not gonna tell you after you're out and they're like we knew it was bad news like well where the you just let me uh yeah because they don't think you'll listen and they're probably right yeah they're either that or they don't want to like alienate you or getting right right right what are you saying about my you know yeah fuck you man yeah well you're not my friend anymore so that's a so that's pure blues album yeah it sure was and it was uh i'm really glad you know could be the worst it may have been a dark period which it was it was a very dark period but uh but like really now i've got kind of the best situation i mean a better situation than i could have imagined because now i'm with this you know brilliant uh compassionate intelligent creative human being that is beyond what i could have ever

expected kate kate vargas yeah who's you know just a brilliant musician you know we started the thing together yeah pandemic when we were locked down sergeant sergeant splendor oh yeah i watched a video that's good yeah oh yeah It's hard to define what it is, but it's good. Yeah, it is. What do you call it? It's got a mix of dance and a mix of...

Yeah, it's hard to say. It depends on the song. Like, we just did a second album, which is kind of different than that first one. I mean, some people in the reviews were saying, like, this alt-funk desert roots

was one thing. Sometimes it's like this... It's kind of... Like, Kate comes from a thing where she's very like, she's kind of coined, somebody coined junkyard folk, but she's got, she's very much from the school of, like Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen. She loves Nina Simone.

Yeah. You know, it's like, and her stuff is just really brilliant lyrics and really kind of edgy, but funky. Yeah, yeah. And so we kind of, it's her thing with my rock brilliant lyrics and really kind of edgy but funky. Yeah, yeah. And so we kind of, it's her thing with my rock and punk and blues background. But this thing's more,

it's just kind of, who knows what it is. You having fun? Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, well, see, I think that's sort of what I noticed with a lot of the work is that you're kind of an explorer

and you're in a business where they want you to be in a box. Yeah, you're right, exactly. You know what I mean? That's always kind of the thing. What are you, man? They want to know and they want to know now be in a box. Yeah, you're right. Exactly. You know what I mean? That's always kind of- What are you, man? They want to know.

They want to know now. That's been my problem since the 90s. They've been asking that. So, you know. Well, yeah. Same with comedy. Like, you know, I was angry and they're all like, you're the cranky guy. I'm like, no, I'm actually really angry and I have no control over it.

So talk to me in 15 years. Yeah, we'll see how it's going then. It takes time. But after the first run with Clinton, where do you end up? In another rock outfit? Well, I was doing that alongside the Eric McFadden Trio or EMT. Okay, so how many records did you put out with them? We did three.

Yeah. And I'm really proud of those. I like those records. You know, there's records that I wished I could have done better or hadn't done at all, but I think. So, what are the names of the rock and roll trio records? The first one is Diamonds to Cold. Yeah, yeah.

And then Joy of Suffering. Yeah. And then Delicate Thing. Okay. Yeah. Those are all with the trio. Yeah. And so, there's different drummers, and they're all great drummers. Right. But James Wh Those are all with the trio. Yeah. And so there's different drummers

and they're all great drummers. Right. But James Whiten is always on the bass. He's an extraordinary. I just interviewed Ron Carter. Oh, wow. Talk about bass.

Yeah. There's a guy. Right. You've got some great people on there. I try to listen once in a while too. But it's hard to pick.

I'm like, fuck, who should I listen to? Sure. Ron Carter was interesting. Yeah. He's like the guy. I might have to check that one out. Yeah, yeah. Sweet guy. Smart. He's hard to pick. I'm like, fuck, who should I, you know. Sure. Ron Cutter was interesting. Yeah. He's like the guy. I might have to check that one out.

Yeah, yeah, sweet guy, smart. You know, he's all there too. Yeah. So these other ones though, like Let's Die Forever, Together. You know, I like a lot of- But that's not a trio record. No, it's not.

That's just sort of it. That one's more, a little more low key. It's like cellos, accordions, acoustic guitar, upright bass. Holy shit. You know, a little more of that tip. And what happens, where are you at with management and stuff, and with labels now?

Right now we're doing, the last record is on Terminus Records, great guy, just guy, Jeff Ransford, Atlanta. Terminus, yeah, yeah, I've heard of that. And this new album, though, we've got a friend starting a new label, a guy that we really believe in, and he's awesome and has some... This is you and Kate? Yeah, the new album. What's the name of the band?

Sergeant Splendor. Okay. Yeah, so we just did an album with Paulo Baldi on drums and Michael Urbano. Well, so, but after, how do you, like, you know, so what are you doing out there, man? I mean, it's like, do you do a lot of studio work i've been doing some studio work yeah i've been also getting in there and doing that i just uh like who you're playing with like as far as studio work which is like you know like how

are you making a living just hammering it out on the road there's been so much different stuff you know there's been some session work i've got yeah that's what i mean where you get to just send some tracks and i'm doing this this. Speaking of the latest thing, it's actually a Bernie Worrell kind of album. He's passed, but he's got his wife and in conjunction with some other people are putting this thing out. So I'm going to be on that.

It's going to be Leo Nocentelli, Stevie Wonder, Tony, and all kinds of cool people. But we do a lot of the session stuff, do a lot of road work. But I've also, I get hired. So I'm always doing my thing, but often I'll jump off, do Anders Osborn or Eric Burden and the Animals. Wait, when did you tour with Eric Burden and the Animals? The first, 2005 to 2007, then I rejoined 2013 area.

How the fuck does that happen? Like, how are you the guy that you know Eric Burden decides. Actually that that happened from so much. What's he like 90? How old is that guy? He's like right now about 81. Okay 81. And you know Wally I was telling you about. I'm a friend of Wally

Ingram. So you know him and I were on tour with and Paula was playing bass with us for a... Paula, your ex-wife? Yeah. This is well after we've split up, but we're still friends. Okay.

And we were playing together, and one of the shows is in Joshua Tree, and at the time, you know, Eric was living there. Wally's got a place there. And Eric came to the gig. Yeah. And he was loving the show, and he was like, man, this is cool. And it was the 35th anniversary of Jimi Hendrix's death. So we made Eric Burden come up and sing a Hendrix tune.

How'd that go? It was great. It was amazing. He can still belt it out? He's killing it. Really? When I was touring with him, he was great. He was still hitting that high A in House of the Rising Sun.

Really? He's doing great. Yeah. And two weeks later after that gig, I get an email asking if we'd be his new band. He basically hired me, Wally, and Paula all at once just to be the band. And then his old buddy, Red Young, on keyboards still. So we went out and toured all over the place, Europe, the States, this and that.

When you go on tour with Burden, like how many dates are you doing? Well, we would hit it pretty hard. You know, we'd stay out and just do. a bus yeah on a bus yeah so the european dates you know be pretty um is that good bread yeah i mean it was better than i was used to making you know it was consistent i mean i think part of it was i didn't have to book hotels i didn't have to book gigs and p-funk too was pretty consistent yeah so it's like uh it's good money in a sense but it's not so it's like i i make that much money at my gigs most yeah you know right but i think the thing is i'm not having to take any risk and i'm not having to do take handle logistics you

just get on the bus and they got a road manager yeah so it's kind of it's a lot less stress and a lot less pressure and uh and it's a great experience you know you get to play with these guys hear their stories yeah yeah and so i i really like doing it i like being a side do you learn tricks on the guitar well they always challenge you to do something different because everything everybody has different uh demands whether it's kev mousing playing open g or whether it's eric burns they learn to play slide or you know is that how you learn yeah because i didn't play slide and he's like what When you play that, that's open. What do you use?

Open G? Well, it depends. With Burden, I would have one guitar. I had this old Gibson arch top that I would keep tuned sometimes to an open G or an open E or something. Yeah. But sometimes I just play it in the standard tuning. What songs did he use for slide on? At that time that I first started playing with him, he had a record out called Soul of a Man.

Oh. And there's a lot of Slide playing on that album. So the old Animal stuff we were doing, not so much. What'd you do? Like, it's my life and all. Yeah, we did that one. Yeah, we did. House of the Rising Sun?

Of course, House of the Rising Sun. Had to do it. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood. Oh, yeah, Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood. Don't Bring me down. Yeah. We do a little bit of war stuff, spill the wine, sometimes Tobacco Road.

Spill the wine. Yeah, it was cool, yeah. And I really enjoyed doing that. Who taught you on the road, though? How do you know Jackson Browne so well? Well, my friend Pat McDonald, he's one of my closest and oldest friends, and he was in a band called Timbuk3 in the 80s.

I remember Timbuk3. Future's so bright, I got to wear shades, right? I remember Timbuk3 was on tour, and the last show was in Albuquerque or something. But Pat had stayed in Albuquerque, and he was actually at the Dingo Bar in Albuquerque and he was at he was actually at the dingo bar in Albuquerque and he and at the night the night that uh my Paula's band Paula Wright band was playing murder yeah doing a reunion right summer of 95 and

so I meet Pat there that my friend Miguel who owns the dingo introduces me to Pat and we kind of talked blah blah blah a month later liars on tour playing in austin and who's opening solo pat mcdonald right okay yeah so we all really he loves the band we all love him whatever we go to his place yeah go to the studio record a couple tracks yeah and then um that just turns it then he comes to san francisco ends up staying with us every time we just develop a friendship yeah like fast forward him and I are, Paul and I go to Spain, stay with him. We end up having a, I go to Spain regularly. We start touring and so forth.

We start the Legendary Sons of Crack Daniels, which was our little side thing. And he starts. So that's kind of, oh, so this is where it goes. In Barcelona one time yeah i had met jackson through uh pat jackson let me and paul stay at his place yeah in barcelona and jackson's got a place in barcelona yeah quite a cool little spot and um and then after that we just kind of you know we'd come to the gigs here and there. We just started talking. Yeah, yeah. And it's good. It's been like 20 years now, right?

But he also was part of the Steelbridge Song Fest that Pat founded at the festival. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Him and Jackson, they bought, and Wally are all investors in the Holiday Music Motel in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. Yeah. Where these festivals were founded. It's so funny. It's like a million different things.

I know. It's all these things connecting these strange ways. So that's kind of how Jackson is linked through basically Wally and Pat. When Kate and I made her album, the latest Kate Vargas album, we were supposed to record it in New York, and then the pandemic hit. We ended up going to Malibu after a few months to stay with friends. Her producer, it turns out,

moves 20 minutes away from New York. We do a record, but she doesn't have her guitar, right? Because it's in New York. Who, Kate? Kate, right. So Jackson loans Kate one of his because he's the only guy

that's got a cool old Gibson similar to, comparable to Kate's. Did you give her one of those FJNs, one of those weird ones with the flamenco pick guards with the fat neck? Have you seen those? No. I have one of those and he buys all of them. There's only a couple of people that play and they're kind of hard to find.

They only met him for a few years. Oh, yeah. Yeah. No, it was just more like an old late 60s Gibson kind of thing. J45 or something? Yeah. Like she had a, what's hers? A B60. Was it acoustic? something? Yeah, like she had a, what's hers, a B-60, I got it.

Was it acoustic? Yeah, acoustic, yeah. So he lent it to her? So he lent it to her and it was like this, everything coming together. We couldn't make the record because we're in Malibu

and the producer's in New York, but then he moves to. Down the street? Down the street. And you go record in Jackson's? And then Jackson's there and he's got the guitar. In Long Beach?

Did you go record at his place? No, we did it at the Charles Newman's place, her producer. Oh, isn't like Jackson's place that's just on the west side? Yeah. Is it Santa Monica or somewhere? It's a great spot.

That's where we got the guitar. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's nice over there. Yeah. I'd like to do some recording. I never actually recorded in this place before. No? No.

But you talk to him? Yeah. You guys are still pals? Yeah, just two days ago he told me, I said, I'm coming to talk to Mark. I just listened to your interview. Yeah. He said to say hello, so.

He's all right. Yeah, he's great. It's so weird, man, these cats who, you know, like that everybody knows because of like a few huge records and a few great songs. Yeah, yeah. They just never, they're just like,

they're dug in to your brain. You cannot get away from, I mean, just like, those are like, you know. And that Jesse, Jesse at Davis. Wow, that solo on Dr. My Eyes. Come on. Get out of here. He told me it was one thing. He just knocked it out.

That's a great solo, man. My dad would sometimes bring that solo up. It's like that solo in Dr. My Eyes. I got those Jesse at Davis solo records. There's like, that solo and Dr. Maya. I got those Jesse Davis solo records. There's like two. Oh, yeah. And they're great. And also, when you did the acoustic ACDC record, was that just for fun?

Did you think it would sell? What's the idea there? Because I've heard people do acoustic versions of ACDC songs, but you did the whole record, basically. Yeah, yeah. And what was the angle? You just wanted to do it for fun? Well, it was fun. I wanted to do it, but it wasn't even my idea.

Here's the thing. There's this French label, Bad Reputation. Okay. And I've been working with them off and on for years, and they've put out some of these albums, like Devil Moon and a few of these. I'm doing one for them now. But he loves the idea.

I did a tribute album like 12 years ago. He said, would you just do a covers album? I'm like, yeah, why not? It's fun. Yeah, sure. So we did everything from The Clash to Dylan to Stones, whatever, you know. Yeah.

And then he wanted me to do a rock. He says, it has to be. I want you to do a cover album, but just all one band, but somebody that's like a well-known, really well-known, legendary rock band that's not at all known for acoustic stuff. Like it can't be Zeppelin

because they did a lot of acoustic, something that's so not acoustic. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it, yeah. So HCDC is what we came up with. Yeah. And I'm like, I love that.

Sure. A big part of my childhood. How the fuck did that wake up with. Yeah. And I'm like, I love that. Sure. A big part of my childhood. How the fuck did I get that lick I'm beating around the bush? Like, I can't figure that out. Is it easy? Oh, man. Is it easy? It's not easy.

See, that's the thing. Easy is relative to your skin. Well, dude, like, I just, like, you know, like, I was listening to Can't You Hear Me Knockin'. Yeah. And there was, like, and there's a turnaround on that when he goes to the open g and there's a riff like like and it was like like when i listened to a recording of it isolated i'm like how is he doing that but then when you get onto the open g thing it's like it's right there yeah yeah but like beating around the bush i think at different points in my life i've tried to

it's so fast and you play it on the acoustic record even faster than Angus is playing it. Yeah, because I really wanted to have that sort of like... Where's that coming from? That's probably me, because I'm always... No, this time it's not. I don't know what's going on. Oh, shit, it's my phone. Oh, there, see?

It's my dad calling from New Mexico. All right. Say hi to Dad. Yeah, he won't remember. So... I wanted to have that real like hooting and stuff. I know. So you were jamming it faster.

You did like country it up. Yeah. So you grassed it up, beating around the bush. Yeah, I had to do that. You know, I had to do that. But you had to work that riff out. It was hard, right? You know what?

I had that riff from way back. Oh, because you'd learned it when you were a kid? I've been playing that one since I was a kid. Oh, really? Yeah. That's such a great one that no one, there's a couple of d like that one being around the bush is like great that's from highway to hell i think yeah and then uh but there's some ones that like like that people don't really know or play like gone shooting yeah like i can't even

figure out that riff and it's like three goddamn notes i'm bad at figuring shit out when that's why i got to start just being you know not being ashamed just go to youtube and fucking find it yeah just do it or i can or you and i can just work on after this we can you know gun shooting i don't know i've never played it but we could learn it's easy man i'll figure it out you don't have to give me guitar lesson but then you did alice cooper one too right yeah that was also the same label so we did that and that was alice cooper covers yeah but he actually did almost all his songs are pretty songs i know isn't that kind Alice Cooper one too, right? Yeah, that was also the same label. So we did that. And that was... Alice Cooper covers. Yeah.

But he actually did almost all his songs are pretty songs. I know. Isn't that kind of crazy? Yeah, because like he was like best friends with Bernie Taupin. Yeah, right.

And they used to write songs together. Like he'd do this like rock and roll theater thing and have a couple of big rock songs. But they were all ballads

and pretty songs. Yeah, chord changes and stuff. Oh, dude. Like Only Women Bleed. I mean, what the fuck is that? That's Alice Cooper's song. Yeah, crazy, right?

People think of him as this like, oh, he's just some crazy shock rocker metal guy, but like he's actually like far more than that. I mean, that hardly defines him at all. Yeah, no, it's just that's his clown, that's his circus act. Yeah, exactly. Underneath it, he's just a song guy.

So where do you go from here, man? So you've got all these records out, but the new project that you're kind of excited about is Sergeant Splendor with Kate, right? Yeah, Kate Vargas and I are doing that. And we're really, you know, next year, a lot of touring coming up. We're doing some festivals, you know,

Bottle Rock and Jocelyn Tree. You got a fan base? Do I? Yeah. I got a fan base. I mean, it's not like, you know, Van Halen or Madonna. No, of course. Yeah, me neither.

Yeah. But you can sell a few tickets? Yeah, but we can get, you know, people will come. We have enough of a fan base to have a career. And Kate's got her fans. I got mine. Great. And so hopefully we can combine them and, you know.

And keep making new kinds of music. Keep making stuff, you know. That's the thing. It's like we got, I mean, that's what I like to do yeah i'm not gonna stop doing that well i mean i think that's sort of what you like you know the reason you keep going is it seems that you enjoy you know constantly creating new stuff that's not you know hinging to anything specific you're you're free to do that whether it's a career you want to have in terms of financially or notoriety, you can do whatever the fuck you want. Yeah, and I like that idea.

I like doing whatever the fuck I want. I mean, everybody ideally wants to do that, right? Yeah. Ultimately. Yeah, yeah. But we make sacrifices and compromises for other reasons, you know. Yeah.

Either people are willing to sell a little bit of their soul for a little bit of this or that. Sure, sure. And I'm not saying I'm above that entirely. He's putting that out there, folks. He's willing to sell a little bit of his soul. Just a little.

Not much. If the price is right. Right. But maybe like, you know, if an instrumental track under a commercial would be okay. Yeah. Thanks, Mark. That's kind of what I'm getting at. 17 to like 25% of my soul. No more than that. Yeah, that's it. That's all I can afford. Well, it was great seeing you, Mark. That's kind of what I'm getting at. 17 to like 25% of my soul.

No more than that. Yeah, that's it. That's all I can afford. Well, it was great seeing you, man. It was great talking to you. Yeah, it was a real pleasure, Mark. I'm glad. I appreciate you inviting me down here to have a chat.

You feel good? You feel like it was thorough? We think you did all right? It's never thorough. There's so much more to talk about all the time. What do we got? What did we miss? No, no.

There's, you know. All right. Maybe I'll make you show me some licks. Yeah. That was Eric McFadden. Well, that was fun catching up, right? Learning about a guy I knew when we were kids. You can go to ericmcfadden.com

to get up to speed on all his upcoming shows. And it's also where you can watch his Monday night show live from the red couch with Kate Vargas. And look, hang out for a second, will you? It's winter and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get snowballs on Uber Eats. But meatballs, mozzarella balls, and arancini balls? Yes, we deliver those. Moose? No. But moose head? Yes.

Because that's alcohol, and we deliver that too. Along with your favorite restaurant food, groceries, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details.

Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly.

This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. For full Marin subscribers, we've got another archive deep dive where Brendan and I pick an episode out of the archives and get into all the details, the backstory and the stuff that's happened since. This week, it's episode 161 with Joe Rogan. You guys, you and your writing team wrote a show, an episode of Marin for IFC that involved Joe. In fact, the title of the script was the Joe Rogan experience. And he was supposed to play himself. He had agreed to play himself. Red Band had agreed to come on as like the sidekick. And then I think he saw the script and he bailed which was interesting because you then changed the script to uh cm punk and colt cabana the wrestlers yeah and it didn't change much so it was it's interesting that he had such a problem with how he was portrayed in it where you know i remember him saying like this makes me look like a bully it didn't really and we took everything in that script from things he actually said it was you know there was it was a guy who was kind of spinning the yarns you know the there was a

little bit of conspiracy in there a little bit of aliens you know the stuff that joe talks about or did at that time but we literally almost took all of it verbatim and he said this makes me look like a clown and i'm like you said all of that. Ask Mark Anything episode. Next week on the show, we've got Ben Foster on Monday and Colin Hanks on Thursday. I am digging this sound. I've used it the past three shows. This is a big old 335 plugged into a little old 1953 Deluxe, cranked up, basically. And I think it's where I'm at.

It's definitely where I'm at right now, whatever the fuck this tone is. Thank you. Thank you. guitar solo Boomer lives. Monkey. La Fonda. Cat angels everywhere.