Episode 22 - John Bohlinger

0:00 Well, we've done it again, Jared. We've lured another unsuspecting victim into this hole, into the layer. Yeah, I love the layer. John Bollinger, welcome to this place. Hey, Tyler, Jared, Thanks, man. I love being here with you guys. Thank you brother. It's seriously, I feel like I already, I feel like I already know you because I've been watching you on YouTube doing your rig rundowns, which maybe people will recognize you from, but we'll get to some of those stories. First off, I just wanted to know how's it going? I'm I'm with an old friend and a new friend. We got guitars in our hands.

0:38 Yeah, we're in 615. That's right. Going to probably do some music. Yes, man. I think it makes me appreciate being with people and playing music live and seeing live music. Yeah, last two sessions I did several, you know, I do a lot of times I do sessions where it's it's like 10 songwriters and we'll do, we'll blow down 12 songs from, you know, start at 10 done at midnight or one like like blow them through.

1:04 But on the last two I've done, there have been a bunch of like these AI, you know, Sonos songs. And I say, yeah, do that. Well, it's funny you bring that up because I was just before you showed up, a friend of mine. I was like, hey, Jared, I'm making a record, maybe you could guess on it or whatever.

1:22 He sent me the demos and they're all AI. And the scary part was they were, I played them for Tyler and Tyler was like, Yep. I was like pretty tasty. Pretty tasty and there's some weirdness where like I felt as if like he must have typed certain things in. I sound like a caveman slide like Derek Trucks.

1:43 And I was like cool little. Chris Stapleton run on the vocal, Yeah. Right. It's wild, the Times. You know, I, I so I write this column for PG the Backpage of it. And a little while ago I wrote about what it was like, I don't know, like the the I was looking at my I've got a like you. I have a 52 Les Paul and thinking this is a guitar that is what 70 73? 7374. 74 years old, you know, and I was thinking about what is Les Fall going to be like in 74 years because it will obviously be here in 74 years.

2:24 It's not going anywhere. Yeah. And I asked three different. I asked Grok Perplexity and ChatGPT, and they all sort of agreed that in the Future Music will be more more virtual where people will say give me a solo, give me a Les Paul sound like Jimmy Page and playing to the style of Jeff Beck or whatever. And that's what.

2:48 Put a whammy bar on a Les Paul and. Yeah, exactly. But that's that's where they think it's going to, which makes scene music happen in real life just that much more important because people are going to just crave authenticity. I know it's funny to say, but like I'm sitting here and I know you and you know, the, the, the career that you've had and the things you've done.

3:12 I'm looking at your guitar and I realized that all of those marks were put on there by you. You know, even simple things like that of playing music. It's like, I love relic guitar. I think all that stuff's super cool, but it's like the human aspect of this is just, I don't know, it's I feel like it's just too powerful that it sure, there's going to be phases of it, right? AI will take over and things will happen, but you can't beat. And also the fact for me, like I make more mistakes than I do, you know, and it's like the mistakes kind of make the. You know what though, Jared?

3:43 That's what I love about your plane, because you take chances and you go for shit and save. Players are boring. I mean, they're just not interesting, you know? And, and, and to have guys that like, go for it and try and do it, like Jeff Beck famously told Clapton, try and play something you've never played before. And man, and, and you know the thing about you, you're so damn good.

4:07 You always stick to landing, it sounds. Think about, you know, any great guitar player, they can kind of fall down the stairs in the middle of it all if you end in the right spot, right? Right. You know, it's kind of a great thing about all instruments and especially guitar, because it feels like you can always get right there there. Yeah.

4:25 And it's a it's a joy. Yeah, it is. It is a joy. And it's like Miles Davis said a long time ago. He said don't fear mistakes. There are none, right? And I, I kind of hold that as a mantra, not just in music, but in life. Like that's a great one, man. Yeah, like, like, like I spent a long time, you know, early in my career, like wondering if I'm in the right place or I'd be doing something different and second guessing myself and, and worried I'm doing the wrong thing.

4:52 Then I realized, oh man, it doesn't matter, you know, Yes, we'll recorrect. And you will be where you're supposed to be if you just, if your heart is pure and your, your eyes are open. Yeah, if your heart is pure and your your eyes are open and your ears are open, you'll kind of stick the landing. Yeah, I feel like everyone you're, you're everyone's friend, whether they know you or not because you have that personality.

5:14 That's just positive. You moved to Nashville, what, 30 years? 33 years ago. 30 years. Ago from Montana. From Montana, actually. Gosh, now it's 30. Four years ago because I just turned 61. You look great. Bro Yeah, well, you know I what's? Your workout routine. Man, well, I sleep in a VAT of oil valet and I breathe through a straw.

5:32 Excellent. You're like Christian Bale. Yeah, I do that. No, you know, actually I'm just, I don't know. I've, I mean like I, you know, I exercise and do I do a lot of yoga and play a lot of music and don't worry, the wonderful thing about premier guitars, I do get to meet all these incredible guitar players and real heroes of mine. And you see some of the older ones sort of, you know, see their bodies kind of lock up, you know, and where they can't do it anymore.

6:03 And it's because there's an athleticness to it, right? Yeah. However, the really great ones, it doesn't even matter because they might play slower, but they know the notes, you know? They can still coax out what they hear in their head because they've been doing it for so long. It's sort of exactly what we were talking about. There might be some fumbling here, but they always end in the place that they're comfortable and. Right, right.

6:30 And, you know, it's, it's, it's again, it's just, they are authentic players. They kind of pull a melody out of, I don't know, out of the universe or whatever. So when how long were you in Nashville before Premiere Guitar started? Because like I said, that was my introduction to you. That could have been maybe 12 years ago. Would that make sense?

6:50 The time, yeah. Yeah, that sounds about right. 10 years where I've been on YouTube and I was watching those videos of yours before that. I started writing for for Premier Guitar. I didn't even know they had a online presence because, you know, again, different age. I'm not really into computers and stuff so.

7:09 You are now. You're literally in them. Yeah, yeah. So I really wasn't, wasn't into that stuff. And, and I would started, I started writing a column just 'cause I sort of, I looked at it as kind of like crop rotation for my brain. All I did was play music and I thought I've got to do something else to, to, just to, to kind of heighten my focus 'cause if I don't, you know, it goes away. So I wrote some columns and wrote to like, and this is when you actually would, you know, write to somebody. And I, I wrote to, I think guitar player in Guitar World and Premiere guitar that just started and Premiere Guitar said, yeah, we like these columns. We'll put you on as a columnist.

7:56 So I did the column for, I don't know, like four or five years. And then they hit me up about doing this online gig. And at the time I had AI had a very lucrative music gig that I I did not like. I'm not going. To oh, OK, wait. A minute well, it was a it was a it was a lucrative gig and I needed to get out of it.

8:19 But at the time I was married and you know, wives like insurance and stuff like that, so. Right, right. Important life things, I guess, that don't always matter to guitar players. Where do I put life insurance on my board? Yeah. Yeah, right, right. Yeah, put it right. After this is the tone sucking pedal. Yeah, right.

8:42 So anyway, so they, they at the time, they were kind of gearing up a little bit and they had this big online thing that I again, didn't know about it and they wanted more of a, they had a host that for rig rundowns. It was a a woman. Yeah, I remember. Rebecca Dirks, what was her name? And I, I, I, like I said, never watched them, wasn't aware of it.

9:06 So but they, they said we can't, we, I think we need like a player to do this and ideally something that can play and write and then do our reviews and stuff like that. So they offered me the gig and, and I was able to quit this other gig and I've been here ever since. And the great thing about it premiere.

9:21 They've I've always been able to tour and and do whatever, so it works out really well. That's what was your first rig rundown, do you remember? Yes, I do. It was Doyle Van Frankenstein of the Misfits. Doyle, Wolfgang von Frankenstein. Yeah, and. That was the first one. Wow, God. It was so great because I didn't know what I was doing, you know, and, and the editor's time said, you know, ask questions about whatever.

9:48 So I had this kind of list of questions and he shows up in full, you know, Doyle makeup and he's just, he's like you. He's like this gigantic, muscular dude, you know, very intimidating, shirtless, you know, makeup shows up and I, Oh my. Gosh, yeah, that's so funny. Yeah, I got to go back and watch that.

10:05 One say we're going to overlay this if you're watching this podcast. Well, I asked him, you know, I asked him the questions and I got done and I like thought we should end. He goes, hey, well Sudeel, I got my makeup on, asked me some more shit. That's literally it. Yeah. That's like the dream. As an interviewer, I.

10:23 Think yeah, it really was. It was, it was great. So yeah, that was the first one and super fun and they've most of them have been super fun. What's the piece of gear, if one pops to mind, that has been the most impactful on you? It doesn't have to be like the craziest, most expensive thing. But like, is there a piece of gear you've seen in all these rundowns where you're like, oh. Tell her I'm I'm so easily swayed by things. It was a Boss tuner, wasn't?

10:51 It yeah, it's like a cut you could play. 2U32U3. The Wazza craft. Tell you how different this world is. When I when I moved to town all I had had a mandolin, a bass, a telecaster and a tuner and a PV amp. Nice. It wasn't even an inline tuner. It was like a cord, you know, plug in tuner gear was just not like.

11:15 Not like it is. No, it wasn't that big of a deal. And I mean, there were the dudes that had the big refrigerator racks, but they were pretty rare in Nashville. And most of us, I mean, like, OK, here's my pedal board. I got a delay and an OverDrive and a tuner and a battery. That looks like a hard drive that. It does, right?

11:34 It does, Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I'm strangely enough, I'm not a huge gear guy. I guess I did review something yesterday. It was the Earthquaker Devices Z Pre Q Pre. It was a collaboration between Earthquaker and Dr. Z Oh, cool. And it's just a tube. It's a tube preamp to make digital gear sound more like more like a like an amp, like something you want to plug into. Shots fired.

12:11 No offense. No, no. I'll take it. I'll take. It on behalf of the Digital Amp. I'll stand on that head. Come at me bro. You got tubes everywhere here. But it it sounded great and it was a great, like amp simulator. And I've got, I bought the POG when it first came out, the kidney bean. Oh, yeah, dude, POG.

12:34 And I've had a bunch of them since then and I've hated all of them. I mean, I'd like them. I'd like when I bought them and then I'd play them. Like, this is terrible. Yeah. I feel like so many pedals, I mean, and this is just, I guess a hot take, but I was talking to Amanda about it. So she's like, why do you see all these people and they have all these pedals and stuff? And I said, well, for the most part, you're going to click that pedal for 2% of your set, maybe 1% when you click on a POG or you click on Octavia or a, you know what I mean? A lot of and it's fun and I like it, but also like that's why I'm just so meat and potatoes because it's like I can just quasi get that, you know?

13:15 Got that thing that we that we did at Gifts Garage. You just showed up with a guitar. Can I plug this into a microwave? It should be fine. Well dude, on New Year's I went to Tahoe for a gig and the guys I was playing with. That looked cold, right? It was very. Cold, but the guys I was playing with, I said, hey, what do you need me to bring? And the guy goes, well, I have my my rack. I got a few Les Pauls and I was like, do you have an Ant? He's like, Yep, I got an old Mesa boogie. I was like, perfect.

13:40 So I show up, plug the Mesa straight into this Epiphone Joe Bonamassa Les Paul, right? Post it online and 1st off just so everyone knows, he did not put the strings on correctly. There was like a low E string for an A string. Those were swapped. Do you know that feeling where all of a sudden you're like, this is weird?

13:58 AG. Was AB so he had two B strings. He was just if something broke he'd change it right? So I'm playing the guitar and I was like damn this thing sounds pretty good. Post it online, hundreds of comments and people going dude what? What is that because the headstock wasn't in there? Like is it like a 54? You know, like.

14:16 What's that camo? Burst. I was like, bro, it's got 2B strings, a low E for an A, it's an Epiphone plugged in through a Mesa that I didn't even think worked and it sounded good. It's like sometimes you just roll with it. It's like getting in a car and it's like, I don't know what's in it, but I'm going to drive it and I'm going to. I'm going to tear it up, yeah.

14:36 Yeah. Why'd you bring this guitar with you, by the way? I've never seen Oh. OK, Tommy, got to check this. You guys got to check this out. This is my this is it's not my best guitar, but it's my favorite guitar. It makes sense. So it was a prototype of what Joe Glaser designed it with Gibson. It's the Music City Les Paul.

14:56 And when Joe is designing it, he gave a couple prototypes of some B Bender and players in town. They're like, he said. Yeah, let me know what you. Think so. You were AB Bender guy. Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, as a, as a steel player, you know, as a pedal steel, you just, I can't help. That's just what I like.

15:12 Yeah. The heart wants what it wants. So, but he he he gave this thing to test drive. And I, I think if I left it alone, it might be valuable someday. But I, I did not, I, I changed it. It had P 90s that just did not sound great and they were very loud so I put in. Are those mini buckers? Yeah, these mini buckers, that's a Dimarzio and I think this is a Seymour Duncan and I took some wood out right there, like it a little more ergonomic and a little there. Oh.

15:46 Dude, that's awesome. And then took out some wood right here and, and these are all like ideas. I thought, hey, they should do this. Of course they they didn't, you know, they didn't care, but but the good thing is they jacked it up so much that they will never want it back. Yeah. Oh yeah, that's yours now. It's.

16:05 Torn. Torn up? That's it's like a Black Star amp I just painted all over it. What's the the story behind this thing? Well, you know, it's it's. Said you had to. Plug it in. We had something else set up for you. Like, Well, in honor of Jared, we got to. Well, yeah, we're the Black. Yeah, the Black Star situation. Well, I heard.

16:20 Jared on this Black Star, like, Oh my God, fantastic. And so I talked to those guys, but I wanted like to find the lightest thing they made, and that thing is so light. I choose my gear by weight. Everything is weight. Weight. That's been the greatest learning of the most rigged rundowns of all time.

16:39 It's like, well, how much does it weigh? Yeah, yeah. Exactly. Exactly. But I again, in keeping with the, you know, with the paint it and Jack it up so they don't want it back. I paint it all over. That now dude does did this thing have like I'm getting nerdy but was the finish. Like, no, it was, yeah, it was.

16:56 It was just a it was. They were the ones that released actually had a Maple Fingerboard and I think just a just a clear coat. I think it's ash. I don't know. Did this have the pinstriping or did you have? That no. Oh no, no. These are just a guy named Shane 6. It looks awesome. Yeah, he did. He's the cousin of John 5.

17:16 Are you? No dude, that's it's Nikki's older brother. He's. 6 Never mind. He is very clever. You just thought you just interviewed John 5. Actually, did I see that? He is so when he opened with how high the moon? Yep, and just killed it man. Dude, I remember when we would be on tour, he would be on sound checking, you know, and he would sit up there and the band at this point, he had like a trio in the band. He would just start playing like old jazz standards or like, or like songs from Hee Haw and stuff. And the band was like expected to play along. But but also his sound check, you know, it'd be like, oh, John's going to be on sound check from three to four, be like 3 to 5:15.

17:57 And I'd be looking at, I'd be like, can we get our stuff on stage? The Doors are going to. Open. Yeah, right, right, right. You'll do your play, you do your sound check. It's while while you play. Yeah, yeah, it's the plug and pray so with. Plug and pray. The B Bender stuff. Oh. Yeah, yeah. So, so Joe, Joe built it with his Bender. And I just, I mean, they're just so much fun, man. I mean, once you, once you have it, you can't help it. And they're, they're just super fun. It's and it's also great for like slide stuff. It's like it's like you have a a an alternative tuning without having to tune.

18:34 We should jam something with A. Is there a particular key that works better? Is B the key for AB Bender? Because that doesn't make sense to. Me, because whatever you do, don't go to B Nice. Yeah, yeah. You know anything, but I don't know anything but, say, a flat. Not a flat E flat. Anything but E flat. Hey, I love a.

19:55 There's some guitars that are almost like a like a stray puppy that comes up and licks your hand. And you're like, you're mine, Yeah. That's this is, yeah. The heart wants it at heart what it wants. Yeah, that thing's awesome. Yeah, it's great and it's it's light feel this thing guys, it's like a very reasonable oh, that's.

20:16 Super. Light, very reasonable weight. So that was kind of disappointed. Oh do. You mind if I do? You mind if I set? Just give it? I don't think I've ever really tried to. Try that thing. You know what 1 Once you once you do, you will you will pull down on the strap of every guitar you pick up for the rest of your life.

20:34 All right, so it's going to be the best. Hey be face. He's like this. Oh yeah, he's surprised. He's surprised every time. I was like wow. OK, so I can't do one of these this is this actually make my posture better? It will. It will. Yeah, yeah, tell your, your your posture looks pretty good though.

21:11 OK, Looking good bro, Looking good. Send it over that way. We love passing our guest guitars. Around on this podcast, absolutely. Yeah, that's half the fun. That that that guitar looks like a toy on you, dude. You got to put a Bender in that thing next. Yes. Oh, that's yeah. Could you imagine though, back in the day, who it was?

21:45 Well, who was the guy that was the big B Bender? The dude from the the. Well, Clarence White. Clarence White And then The Who was the other guy? Was he from the Birds? Yeah. Yeah, Clarence White. Yeah. And could you imagine seeing this for the first time and you're like. Yeah. You're like, how did you do that?

22:05 Yeah. Dude that is awesome. That's inspiration just built into the guitar. Literally, it really is. So yeah, I don't know. I When you're out of ideas, pull down on the. You're added ideas. Gouge out the back of your guitar and put a bee Bender in it, Yeah. Right, right. What could possibly go wrong?

22:23 Do. You so you were pedal steel before guitar or? No, no. When I OK, so I I had this gig, there was a show on NBC called Nashville Star and I was a bandleader for that for for all six seasons. It was really fun. It's great because like Miranda Lambert came from that Kacey Musgraves, Chris Young. So we had we had very cool.

22:47 Yeah, it was some really good artists. But in putting the band together for it every year, they the network really wanted young, beautiful people, which is what not surprising. And it was very difficult to find a young, beautiful steel player because it's an old. They're all old and ugly. Exactly.

23:08 They're all old. And ugly Steel players. We're joking, Steve. They're they're they've. Seen some things to be able to RIP those licks out, you know? And it's it's a those. Licks don't come for free. Right. It's a sedentary instrument and it's kind of an old man weird instrument. So I thought, God, you know, if I learn steel, that will extend the life of my career quite a bit.

23:31 And it's one of the few times in life I've been right because it really did, you know, because at one point, like when I got, when I started like MD ING a lot of TV shows, I was replacing the old Gray haired dude before me. But now that I'm the Gray haired dude. You go you're father time now I just. I'm just going to replace yourself. It's.

23:53 Fine, well, but now I get the seal slot because they only it's only it's I mean, there's there's some young dudes. So wait. You've done some like stuff for TV shows then too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That explains your your kind of great hosting persona in the rig rundowns. TV stuff I fell into in my 30s, you know, and I've, I've, like, I've, I've been the music director on the CMT Awards for like 16-17 years, something like that. That is awesome.

24:21 And, and, and once you get in that slot, you get more calls because there's only it's such a specialized skill set, not, and it's really about just getting arrangements that that cut well on TV and are kind of exciting and being able to being able to condense a very deep track down to six players and sound like that. So that's, that's the basics of it. And there's no, there's no real, there's no hosting or talking to anybody because you're just very music. But you do have to interact with you're. In that that biz.

24:59 Yeah, in that biz. Having to your small talk game is, you know, an undefeated, you know, being able to. I'm just imagining, not that we've made any small talk, but you, you, you pick up ways to communicate with people. We've got to be able to roll with everybody too, yeah. Yeah, Well, that is, that is kind of you say, but I, I, I, I never watch rig rundowns just because I can't stand to hear myself talk. Really.

25:24 Yeah. Yeah, I really do. I in reviews, I'll listen just to see if the plane's OK and then if I see something I hate it. Like, OK, stop. Dude, not, not to bring it up like in a bad way, but like, was there one rig rundown that you were like nervous for? Oh, lots of them. Like that you were like, I can't believe I'm actually going to be hanging with so and so. Lots of them.

25:48 I mean, lots of them. Because God, these are like, you know, they're the greatest guitar players. Yeah, they're the best of the best. Yeah, yeah. And that's why we did you twice, buddy. You ran down that rig twice. Yeah, yeah. And your rig. And it was basically plug into this amp and I'm going to show you some. Unclimatic rig rundowns ever.

26:09 Yeah, you got a guitar? The first one I think you had. I think you had your your epiphone signature. And I have my red Les Paul. Yeah, now we're on the boat, on the Bonomassa boat. That was your rig. I don't even know if he had a pedal. I remember too when. Jared doesn't like a lot of stress in his life. Dude, I try and keep it low stress, boys. Yeah, even when I come here and Tyler's got everything set up, I'm so happy.

26:32 And he's like, I always look down and I'm like, wow, look at the candy. I put a new little bowl of candy out every time. What's that? Give it a shot man. Should I give it? A little taste. I have proof. That's pretty good. I love the Jared. The Jared bendable board is just dirt. Dirtier, dirtiest, filthy talking.

27:24 About I think we're on episode 21 now, so I'm really figuring out my friend over here. Well, it's funny because even Tyler like we'll be when we did, we did like a song in an hour and it was super fun. And I remember like we like came up with a tone for my solo and I was like, Yep, just turn that up more gain. I was like, oh, there's plate reverb, Put that on and I was like, God, I love that sound.

27:42 And Tyler didn't even like, he's like, Yep, I, I know that's, that's. That's that sound you'd like dipping into. What is that? When somebody designs someone else's closet and they're like, oh, this is what you need. This is is that like a product production characteristics. The sound you like. The old Internet thing, it's it, you know, for for my generation is Internet famous is not famous doesn't mean anything.

28:06 It has no it is so it has no currency with. Your your day-to-day. With my group. But but I do love that I've discovered so many amazing musicians. Oh my God. And I love that, that it does away with the gatekeepers, you know, like indeed, anybody with a borrowed guitar and a phone can. Can do their thing and.

28:33 And and, and gain a following and, and man, I've learned, I've learned so much. Like growing up in Montana as a kid, it was there were so few musicians. And like when you'd see some, when I'd see somebody with the guitar, it's like a big deal. And I have to like ride my bike home. And don't forget it.

28:51 Don't forget trying. To ride, that's pretty good. Yeah, The whole time I was thinking, OK, it's kind of like AD shape, only you move it up the neck. That's so funny. Greg Cox said the same thing. He would like Sprint home after his guitar lesson to try and remember and like make sure he had all his chords.

29:06 We're of the same same vintage and of the same frozen N Yeah, exactly as are you. Yeah, same. Wisconsin. Yeah. Yeah, that's so Wildman because like I think about that even now and I think we're about the same age, but I learned everything off CDs. It was CDs and tab books and that's what I listen to. I go to Walmart and buy all the Best of the Blues CDs and stuff. So I didn't really learn anything off YouTube or any of that because like at my parents house like the computer was like it.

29:37 Wasn't that was in the living room and it was for like I don't even. Windows 98 and it was like my sister on chat. Room I played minesweeper and stuff, you know, it was important for solitaire and other things, but not for going to MX tabs dot until much later. But what was your sort of influences when you started really getting serious on guitar?

29:58 Clapton loved, loved Clapton loved. I had a my brother. I have a very cool older kind of hippie brother that that had all these great records. So Skynyrd loved, loved Skynyrd. I saw Eric Clapton in 1980, but when he's back, when he's still drinking, you know, OK, yeah, different, different sort of yeah, yeah.

30:21 And he had, at the time he had Albert Lee in his band. Cool. And I think that he may have, I think EC may have over imbibed a bit that day because he had, he had he had Albert Lee open up and like play like like 5 songs. And God, he was so good at just. Yeah, I did. I've always been in the country music.

30:42 But when I heard him him play. It just it. All clicked man, I thought, oh shit, that's what I want to do. And then I went down that rabbit hole and and then bee benders. He had bee benders and telly stuff and, and this kind of hot, you know, chicken pick and stuff. So that Clapton led me to to his side, man.

31:06 And that kind of, you know, became my North Star, I guess for for a while. And then, like we were talking about earlier, you, you you kind of stumble into your own style through mistakes. Yeah. Your finger. Your finger doesn't go where you want it to. It's like, oh, that's kind of cool. Yeah, well, you practice, you play out all the time. Yeah.

31:30 On Broadway, Yeah. What's your main gig? Kind of. I see you at Layla's. Yeah, pretty frequently when you're posting. I do. I do kind of all of them. And sometimes they'll be like pedal steel gigs one night and and guitar gigs sometimes mandolin stuff, you know? So yeah. And you just got like 500 songs in your bank. You can I mean, because that's a lot of songs to be able to be confident.

31:55 I've sat in, but I'm like, give me the exact songs we're playing because I don't want, you know, it's a it's a big contentious when I don't play the correct heart solo or. Something. Oh yeah, well, trust me, I never play anything correct and. Even better. Yeah, yeah. Well, you know anybody can play songs, you know, right? This is true.

32:15 Yeah. But to be thrown in the fire and just kind of figure it out on the go, that is that's like, I mean, that's like our Sudoku, right? That is exactly that keeps the cognitive decline at Bay. I was out one night. My mom came to visit Nashville, and this was maybe a year or two ago. John and I was like, oh, she goes, I want to go watch music.

32:37 I was like, all right, well, let's like. Have I got the place for you? I was. Like, let's go to Broadway or whatever. And I remember we parked the car and the first thing I saw was John tuning up a pedal steel. And I was like, John, you're like, what are you doing? I was like, are you about to play? And I was like, Mom, this is where we're going. We're going to see this music.

32:55 But all I can say is I watched him do his thing with with the band you were playing with and it was so cool to watch you like in real time. It's not your first time around the block, so you're able to like roll with whatever they throw and you were you were doing it, take a solo, you're like, Yep, got it. It was awesome.

33:11 You know, man, I remember that. I remember seeing your mom and it remind me of my mom. And she used to come to Nashville and that was like her. I mean, she was the one that would stay at the gig to the last note. Oh, yeah. You know like like could not get enough. It's so cool. Yeah, that's that's really sweet switch guitars.

33:30 These are good guitars. Go, go, go. Do we switch seats or do we just stay in the same seat? No, we keep. Them good. I love it all right. You got a little grid on there. We got different rigs. OK, you've got, you've got whatever this is all right. Should we switch again? Yeah, I think we need to. You know what, dude?

35:23 I went all with Stevie on it. Oh. Shit, I loved it. That's the first time I have seen you with a strap. With a strap dude when I was a kid. When I was a kid. I love stevia, was my first. Oh God, yeah. Yeah, there you go. Come on. Come on. Let's try a different group this time just for fungus in the corner there I'm.

35:45 Going to tip the amp. There we go. Dude, I can't do the bee Bender because everything I want to do, I just want to keep going. It's awesome. Hey, OK, so tell me about that crazy ring thing you've oh. Yeah, explain the ring. Have you ever explained the ring? It's the back of the ring dude. All I do is I think remember Skynyrd when they play like free bird. Hell yeah, Right, Right.

37:50 The first time I saw it though, it was Stevie Ray. Anyone look up? I I swear and like I couldn't sleep at night when I was a kid. It was Austin City Limits Riviera Paradise 1989. Stevie Ray is playing and at the end of the song, he's he does like that right? And the band's holding the E and it was like the most beautiful Remember I saw that and I, I started to hear the Skinner thing and I was like, that's how about like Les Paul and all those old school dudes. Yeah, like tape and.

38:38 Oh yeah, yeah. And I just started to do it. It's I love. It it's cool. Did slide come before or after the B Bender for you? Oh, before, yeah, before. And that was just like, like playing clubs when I was a kid. Great thing about like Montana when I was a kid is the drinking age was 19 and if you were 12, you looked, you know, you looked 19.

39:01 You're good enough. You could. So you so you could play clubs, you know, very early. So I played clubs a lot and, and just started, you know, when you're playing a four hour gig as a child, you kind of experiment. So there'd be all these shot glasses up on stage and, and began, you know, playing with shots. Yeah, you're like, all right, let's see what? That is, yeah, that's OK.

39:22 Absolutely. So what's on the horizon for you? You literally just put out another rig rundown yesterday. So more rig rundowns, more jamming on Broadway. More, more, more, more. You know, I've got a cool thing. There's a long time buddy of mine, Eric Ritchie is doing this show that is a Route 66. It's it's like 10 celebrities in in in great classic American cars driving route 66. So it's going to be from from Chicago all the way to Lai guess or or Vegas.

40:04 So we're. There's going to be a house band and we're going to film shows along the way. And man, actually, dude, that's cool. That would be a cool thing for you dude. Let me, let me know I got a car. I'm ready. Yeah, you know, and I, I. This podcast is really paying off bro dude. Let's go. I hit a bottom Moss when I first heard of it.

40:23 I was like, man, I think this could be your fag. It's cars and there's going to be some guitars. It's really cool. Yeah, he said. Yeah, it sounds cool, but I I didn't hear again. He's got stuff. He may have one or two things on. He's got stuff, but I'll keep you posted. So that's that's a cool thing that's coming up this year. That'll be a lot of fun.

40:42 That's awesome. Yeah. And we did. He's a a guy, Eric's a guy that was producing this James Burton kind of documentary. Oh, cool series. We did a thing in London a few years ago with, with some before last with James and like all these great guitar players. So it's going to be it's going to I think I think this show will bat will will bumper into a final Vegas performance with with James Burton.

41:12 So wow, that's that's on the horizon. So that'll be fun. And other than that, yeah, just premier guitar and and more less glamorous gigs. They're all glamorous if you love guitar. You say as long as this is in my hands, not your guitar, but as long as this is in my hands on honestly, I'm having a great day. Right, right.

41:34 Players only love you when they're playing, that's true. As as the great Stevie Nicks. World this is. No, that that's awesome, man Well, I'm I'm such a fan of you and I know Tyler is and I feel like I feel like the Guitar World is a fan of you. I think that you're a beacon of light and we. All support this this business with what we put out and you've been putting out such awesome stuff and just making everyone love guitar and that's what I love to do So I've tried to follow in your footsteps without even realizing it, man huge influence I I.

42:07 Feel so moved by 6361, yeah. You're 61. I hope when I'm 61 I look half as good as you. Do. Oh God, are you kidding? Yeah, you're going to look like that. I'll take it. Right there and. It's all good, Tyler Will. I imagine you'll probably look like that given given how how you know, medical advancements and all that. Right, I should live to be about 220 or something. You're going to get like your blood transfusions and like. Sleep in a VAT of oil.

42:38 Exactly. Yeah, again, I'm going to take your advice.