Come Fly with Mark Tremonti | Drinks With Johnny #130

right now if you said hey let's do a Crete tour when what's up everybody and welcome to drinks with Johnny I hope you guys are as excited as I am for today's guest I'm gonna sit down and get into it with Mark tremonte of creed Alter Bridge Tremonti the band and a very awesome project that I'm excited to talk to him about and that is uh Mark tremonte Singh Sinatra a very cool album and uh I think there's a pretty good story behind it I hope um and we're going to get into that and so much more I am very very excited for this episode but I'm not so excited about this shirt I don't know if we're gonna get into it or not but uh looks like Mark's ready to go so let's start the show hey how are you mark good yourself I'm doing well I'm doing well it's uh it's an early morning for me I think you are probably the earliest guest I've had on this show so far oh yeah you ready to drink yeah yeah I got my coffee ready to go man it's nine o'clock in the morning where are you at in the world right now I'm in Orlando um is that home base for you yes sir awesome man well we're already rolling so that you know we're uh we're we're gonna get right into it here tonight uh today this morning whatever see it's too early I don't even know what the [ __ ] I'm supposed to say um man I'm excited to have you here on the show I was just talking to uh your band mate and friend Miles Kennedy two days ago um already about this new record pawns and Kings for Ultra Bridge coming out but I mean you got so many other projects for us to talk about here today too um do you have like an ongoing like competition with miles or who could have more uh uh uh uh collaborations or or just you know uh thing uh jobs to do out there in the music world yeah we just love it man we just love going after it I think our our biggest competition was when we had nine months to put this record together putting in demos for the uh he put in two demos I put in two demos he put in three I'd put in three so we uh you know just uh we we love to work you know love doing what we do that's awesome man so uh one thing I wanted to go straight into was Mark Tremonti sings Sinatra uh I was listening to this uh I understand it was for some kind of uh the lp was kind of for charity of some kind is that is that right can you tell me a little bit about this project and that charity yeah so um so about three years ago I became obsessed with singing like Frank Sinatra and I just um went deep down the rabbit hole and uh I practiced it just like I did when I was a kid practicing the guitar I would study and um and I over the over a couple years I started feeling good about it but I didn't know what the hell I was going to do with it uh and then my daughter was diagnosed um before she was born with Down Syndrome so I had read all kinds of books uh about Frank Sinatra's life and how he was such a philanthropist and he had raised over a billion dollars for charity so I was like you know what I'm going to record a record of Frank Sinatra songs and um we partnered up with the national Down syndrome Society to do the record and we got the uh the approvals from the Sinatra state to use Frank Sinatra's name and likeness which was very hard to do because they've only done that for like Michael Buble and Tony Bennett so it was really hard to get that done and then on top of that we partnered up with Frank Sinatra's touring band that the surviving members of Frank Sinatra's band so I got to go in the studio with with the guys and record 14 tracks and um I'm you know for the for the drinks with Johnny show here I've got all my uh my Sinatra select Jack Daniels whoa yeah so this is uh I'm surrounded by Sinatra stuff these days but no we've um you know since the records come out we've we've raised three quarters of a million dollars so we're getting close to that million dollar Mark and uh awesome couldn't be happier about it wow that's that I mean that's such a cool so it's it's such a cool cause behind it I mean I was just listening to it didn't even realize that there was a cause behind it uh where can people go real quick just tell them where they could go if they if they want to listen to and donate uh to the cause there we'll put a little description down here and below yeah you just go to tremonising sinatra.com it should be all on there and you know on top of that I started this uh um this thing called take a chance for charity so for guys like you I would challenge you or anybody you know to do something that your fans would have no idea um would would not see coming in a million years something completely different than Rock something um it could be good it could be bad it could be funny it could be serious whatever it is whatever it is is different it's raising money for charity undertake a chance for charity and I I've got a bunch of friends lined up to do projects uh as we speak so hopefully it hopefully it takes off oh that's an awesome that's a great idea and I would love to be a part of it I mean I don't know off the top of my head what I would do for for anything there but yeah absolutely anything for charity man uh I would be a hundred percent on board um let's get back into the actual recording that though as you mentioned I was gonna ask how how the strings Arrangements the band was being recorded and stuff you already mentioned that some of the guy remaining guys uh uh who are still alive from Sinatra's band um where did you guys record the record this at how was the you know who who helped produce and mix this because I know getting a live band and together in a room uh you know can can have its challenges sometimes so how are you able to accomplish all that yeah so we recorded up in Chicago and um it there's a studio there's a couple Studios there that can that are suitable for the big band thing and um the one that we recorded at was um right across from the old caprini green before that you know after they had torn all that down in Chicago there's uh it's a great little Studio you'd never know it was there we had um 17 artists recording so it was uh everybody but the saxophones recorded because we couldn't fit everybody this was during covid right so we had the trumpets the trombones the drums the bass um piano and vocal going at one time and then the saxophones had to come in afterwards um but 15 out of 17 guys were original members of Sinatra's band and then two guys were um younger guys that kind of filled in and um actually the bass player most of the tracks uh was Julian Smith Mike Smith is Frank Sinatra's band leader his son who played with Lady Gaga on tour came in and cracked the base and he's he's just uh Top Notch and he's he's one of the guys that when we do shows like I have a show in next next week I have a show with the guys here in Orlando and um Mike Smith the band leader alto sax flies in um Carrie Deadman who did a lot of Frank Sinatra's arranging and in the later years he plays trumpet he travels with us Julian Smith on base um we we have uh Dan McIntyre uh Frank you know Frank Sinatra's touring guitar player who was actually my manager's guitar teacher growing up wow and that's how we made the introductions with those guys okay I was gonna ask how did you get I mean this is I mean your name and you're naming all these names and and and where they came from obviously very extensive and legendary there I was going to ask how this all how this all uh came to be yeah he um so when I called my manager and I said you know what I want to do something with the strength Sinatra stuff I've been working on I want to do this record for charity so I wanna start reaching out to some local musicians see if I can find some big band guys to team up with he's like no man we're gonna call the original guys my my teacher was Dan McIntyre um so he's scheduled a lunch with uh with Dan and Mike Smith and uh they sat down there and listened to him they're like all right can your uh can your guy sing you know and my uh my manager had never heard me sing that style of music he's like of course he can of course he just went for it yeah the age-old yeah like was it yeah of course actors say that they could do all the things just so they get the part right so oh yeah so they're like all right we're on board let's do uh let's do a couple songs to see if this is gonna work out so um I had said let's do Luck Be A Lady and the song is you and the band's like let's let's hold off the song as you let's do something a little more um familiar so we did that's life and Luck Be A Lady um so imagine imagine stepping in the studio with Frank Sinatra's guys for the very first time and the very first song you pick is pretty much led by the singer I'm not letting the band doesn't start that song it pretty much starts with they call you Lady Luck wow right so I had to be in there setting the rhythm of the song so Mike Smith draws me into this room full of all these legendary musicians is like all right sing the song you know so that was my first go at singing with these guys and I got it all on video I got it on my phone oh that's great so we have we recorded all that that stuff up there and uh I'd love to see that sometime okay oh yeah yeah absolutely that that moment I mean I am a I'm a pretty big Sinatra fan I'm pretty big uh just uh big band and jazz fan I have a I was talking to Miles about it actually the other day we have a I have a pretty extensive record collection I I got from my late grandfather and most of it's Jazz was the last Sinatra in there um one of the songs that I that I found a little different a little bit more of a deep cut I guess uh the wave that you that you guys chose to do and uh there's a great guitar solo in a jazzy guitar so did you play that or did you have one of the guys play that no I'm glad people wonder about that because it's it's killer guitar playing but that wasn't me um that was interesting I was like okay that's cool like he's kind of showing that he has like some of this Jazz background too so you had uh you had one of the guys doing that yeah I stuck strictly to vocals the whole thing okay cool yeah that's Dan McIntyre on on wave and uh he does some great guitar work in my way as well yeah which was an interesting take on my way as well uh I'm glad I'm glad you brought that up like the starting out with just the vocal and guitar for for what was it like an entire verse before the rest of the band comes in I thought was a it was a pretty good touch yeah so we sat um that was the very last the very last song we recorded so it was kind of a Bittersweet moment I uh I can hear it in the recording that this I was this is a life such a huge once in a lifetime kind of thing and um this is the last song we were recording so I was sad and you could kind of hear it in the uh in the song it was kind of a uh I wanted to keep going with it so anyways with that song I sat there with Dan McIntyre and um I said let's you know let's do this nylon string guitar thing um let's not bring in the Rhythm Section until the third verse let's just keep adding layers as we go so I sat there with him and he kept on comp and cop in the song on guitar I think he did three or four different ways and I was like wow that Way's really cool you know so it's so cool to see this this jazz guitar player be able to play it so differently so perfectly right out of the gate and uh so that was the first and only song we did on the record that was improvised you know we just sat there there were no charts it was just let's play the song Let's have it happen in the moment and uh almost like a rock band would do yeah that's amazing man um I don't want to get back to the wave there uh because it ties into the I think what you're talking about the beginning my question of where you found that you could sing this style of music and do it very well I will say like it sound I was like all right I'm gonna listen to this and let's see let's see what he's got you know kind of thing and all right he nailed it I mean it sounds it sounds phenomenal um in that style one of my one of the things that had me smiling and kind of I wanted to ask you about is that real low note in the wave that that yeah uh yeah that was that was uh that was interesting interpretation going down there and doing that uh what what brought that on that's um you know I went deep down the rabbit hole on Frank Sinatra's catalog and I tried to find every interview and everybody talking about whatever what he's done and to this day even even years and years after I became obsessed with with uh listening and learning everything I can about Frank Sinatra you still find new songs constantly um because he recorded 1500 songs about and um he was on all these live TV shows where he's saying so you know saying all night long so you'll never get to the end of what he's he's done so I remember reading this interview where somebody was talking about Frank Sinatra's vocal range and how he really loved to dig into his low his low registers and um they gave examples of a cottage for sale which still a cottage for sale it's not that low right um then what wave when I heard that I was like this and I heard um seriously Sinatra SiriusXM seriously Sinatra play that song a bunch and uh every time every time I heard that song I'm like I can picture Sean Connery with a martini on the beach you know 007 style about the hippest coolest song you know I've heard so I wanted to do that song we got it into the studio and uh you know we're messing around with maybe taking it up a half step or doing this and that I was we're all like no we got to do it the way Frank did it the the way the the instruments play in that key sounds way better than a half step up so we did it and um I figured I'd record the record put that song on up but never do that song live because that's that note's so hard to hit but the very first show we we did played that song and it it worked great I just got to eat the mic because yeah you can't sing that that oh that note too loud you just gotta eat the mic on it wow that's a great one was there a specific bike you were using to um in the studio when you're when you're doing this yeah you know I um that's another Quest I went on I was so Frank Sinatra used u-47s for the most part in his Capital Records years and all the most well-known songs and um so I tried to buy u47 and I was on with you know vintage King and everybody trying to find the best u-47s and I'd get all these warnings about you could buy a u-47 and it could be terrible these old capsules and whatnot could be shot you could spend 20 grand on a microphone it could be you got to hear it in person and there's I was just running out of time so I um I found this company called Wonder audio w w u n and um they had a u-47 that was rated really really highly by everybody who had heard it so I I bought that um Paul Reed Smith I had played him um luck be a lady and he got all excited about it he's like you know the best sounding capsule in the world right now the best closest u-47 capsule is by heiserman Audio so I bought a heiserman as well heiserman u-47 so then I got to Chicago I got my Wonder audio my heiserman and then we rented a vintage u47 from the local um uh Chicago music I don't know if it's a music change or what but uh okay we shot them all out and everybody in the room was like I like the uh the Wonder in the heiserman better than the the original so uh really so when you listen to the record um one of the songs that really sticks out as as the heiserman kind of tone is if you listen to um You Make Me Feel So Young the Christmas and the clarity of that that's the heiserman the Wonder audio is the bulk of the of the record oh okay and I actually used that Wonder audio u47 on on the pawns and Kings record for all my vocals for all your vocals on the on the Alter Bridge new record too yeah oh wow and I didn't think I didn't think that would work at all because um I don't think that type of mic is meant for a push aggressive vocal but it worked great that's incredible wow um before we get into that new record because obviously I want to go there too I want to there's a couple more things I want to get uh get through on this uh uh Mark tremonte does uh Sinatra project you have you said that you played some shows you get you I I I think I misunderstood you at the beginning um are you playing uh in Orlando you're playing with the Sinatra band is that yeah right okay cool so and how many shows have you guys done live and how often are you planning on doing that is that is it kind of like whenever you guys feel like it and you send out an email like hey are you guys free you want to come down and do this or how you guys are figuring out the shows um so the shows are tough to put together because it's a 17-piece band and the um you know when it's a rock band you throw four guys on stage and some amps and a drum set and you're you're fine but with this it's you know you don't want to talk the business side of music because it kind of sours it but it's expensive to put on one of these shows so we gotta think we can talk about it here we go into all the weeds that you that you're comfortable with going that's where we'll go yeah yeah so we did the first show um at my uh in Orlando at um at this little theater in town that we had people come from all over the world to see it and um it uh it was great I mean it was it was such a it's such a rush playing in front of these this band and this this quality of musicians and it reminded me of being back in the studio and um so I wanted to there was no rehearsals for this stuff you don't get to rehearse you just throw this the music on a stand and you go for it so I had never saying this album in its entirety live before and I didn't know which songs were going to go well live or not so my my friend John Earhart um has this great big backyard and he's and he's worked in production his whole life and set up this awesome PA and set up the stage in his backyard so we could bring in the band a day early and just do a rehearsal run through and just by doing that rehearsal run through I'm like all right we're gonna do wave live we're gonna do every every one of these songs live so we did that night we just invited friends over for like a a charitable dinner where we sold some stuff to raise money and um and then we did the show the next night um which was the official first show and everybody got dressed up in suits and you know you see you see all these fans that you see at your meet and greets around the world wearing black you know shirts with skulls on them now they're wearing ties you know which was great um Everybody enjoyed getting dressed up except for one of you know one of my buds who uh who's a fan came up he's like you'll never see me dressed like this again but he still did it for the for the cause so oh yeah get on you bro absolutely so uh so my next show is next week actually and um I'm lucky enough that locally we have the Dr Phillips Performing Arts Center and they had this world renowned Audi audiologist or whatever it is that dials in these feeders and it's got ranked the number one best-sounding room in the world oh [ __ ] so they just opened it up this I think six months ago and um one of the gentlemen who donated a bunch of money to get it to get part of this Theater built is retiring and asked if we would play his retirement party so we're playing this show with some crazy Heavy Hitters like the like the mayor you know and all these people are coming out to this show and it's cool about the Sinatra thing is you know people ask when I go to these charity events and you have like a country band plan or you have a big band plan or something they're like why don't you get your bands to play these these events like well it doesn't it doesn't fit it doesn't fit no it doesn't fit at all so um for the first time I got a band that that can do all these events so um that's cool I didn't think about it that way that that makes perfect sense because you're right like when those well I don't know if you guys have ever done any Creator Alter Bridge or even your uh Tremonti stuff um have you ever done any of the conventions or anything like that that's like one of those more sterile environments with uh with yeah any of those bands back in the Creed days we did uh ah we did some weird stuff we did a I remember one show in particular it was when Blockbuster Video was huge yes bless your video throwback I love it that's how old that's how old I am so Blockbuster no no that's how classic you are it's how classic you are Mark oh man no it's uh I loved Blockbuster when it was when I was thriving man I was just I was just next to the one that's it's now a Massage Envy by me yeah and I was like I was just like I was picking up some food next there and I was like I looked over I was like man I used to I used to go in there a couple times a week it was fun to walk around and find your video W we'll get back I'm totally digressing right now but if uh have you seen the last Blockbuster um no I wanna I wanna watch it because that was a huge part of uh like I said like no me and my wife first got together every single night we'd go to Blockbuster and get a movie right I mean that's what you did it was it was fun walking around and you might split up for a second and go into the different genres come back with a couple different you know options and you got to figure it out you know get to know the manager let them know when that new release that's that's always sold out it's back in stock right all right tell me when Top Guns comes back in see now you're aging yourself that's right that's right that's right but anyways yeah so so uh I think we went off on a tangent about Blockbuster there but yeah this was back when you were so in that era Creed is going to do one of these uh more steroids like a corporate a corporate a corporate like corporate gigs you know so Blockbuster was putting on this event and um they had all their Blockbuster people from around the country come and they had all the money in the world to hire all the current bands so it was um look at this lineup you had Lynyrd Skynyrd headlining which was killer um you had uh Backstreet Boys wow um and you had to see a lot of crossover from those two at least I mean I could see that Skynyrd I can't see too much of uh Backstreet Boys Skynyrd yeah the Backstreet Boys Skynyrd fan base I don't think overlaps too much I don't know and it was a weird thing you know imagine you're stepping off or I can't remember if we were before or after Backstreet Boys but uh imagine you got your your guitars on and whatnot and then you walk past these guys in their track suits you know doing doing their thing and everybody was friendly and nice enough and we had a we had a great time and uh but yeah those we also did something that was really cool back in the day called the um the blind date I don't know if you're familiar with those I think it was like the Miller Genuine Draft blind date and they would um they would take advantages they used to run commercials on TV for those right yeah I mean those were huge they they would take a band that played Arenas and they would they would pretty much pay them what they would normally make on a normal gig but they would throw you in a House of Blues or something or a small venue so I do remember these I do remember seeing that I've never been to anyone or anything like that but I do remember seeing uh the advertisements for those they're super cool because imagine you're you're you go into this venue and there's a big drape in front of the in front of the stage and then all of a sudden Stone Temple Pilot starts playing like oh wow you know you don't know it could have been you too it could have been the Rolling Stones it could have been whoever oh we did one of those that was a lot of fun see that sounds more fun I mean back to like the the more corporate thing is like like we were talking about you don't have you go in with a with a Creed or or an altar bridge and it's people are are relaxing they're sitting down and you're like we've in eventually did one and I don't think we'll ever do one again but it was a friend we were in the is in the gaming world we did nightmare in front of all these people literally in uh in like what do you call those the the recliners they literally have like these nice recliners and they're just watching us and we're like it was our first and only time we've ever done anything like that you don't have that energy that you get from oh yeah being on a rock stage so can you can you uh empathize with that at all that stuff's the worst you know it's um you know sometimes you just it's part of the business you have to do those kind of things every now and then you know it's uh um by doing um TV performances or whatever else that might be uncomfortable and not quite your thing but you got to do them to promote the band um those are my least favorite things to do but they're sometimes the most beneficial have you guys did you guys ever do uh Saturday Night Live um yeah yeah okay I I've never never done that um can you I mean I I wasn't expecting to ask you about that but like what what what's that I'm a huge Saturday Night Live fan I recorded every Saturday these days I don't stay up late enough five-year-old kid uh that uh you know I I have to record it and watch it with my wife later on but I've always loved the performances over the years I think that that's one of those things where like we're talking about maybe not our your favorite Vibe um of performance but definitely an iconic cool thing to do what was that like for you guys that was that was really cool we um when we got there um Billy Bob Thornton was the host oh [ __ ] so he kind of came in and came and introduced himself and uh what movie was he promoting there's usually the hostess I think this this was after Sling Blade okay um but uh so they said you guys are gonna do um a song and then if we have time you can do another song and I forget what what single we were on that we had played but it wasn't half as fun as I think we were going to play bullets at the end of the song which was one of our heaviest songs and um I just remember watching through the show and going please let us have enough time because that's such a fun song to play and on TV it's you know um it would be a lot of fun and finally I said all right you guys are back on get up there so we got to do two songs so you did bullets and what else did you do um I'm trying to figure out what era this was I can't remember what the first song would have been um to be honest with you I'd have to look it back up well we don't have to look it up that's what people are YouTube can just let us know right down below yeah exactly and then I remember one of the coolest Parts was at the end of the show they bring everybody on stage and they're playing a Goodbye music and all the actors and comedians come up there the classic and the classic hugs I remember oh yeah Jimmy Fallon was one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet you know got them got to spend some time just talking with him for a minute and then uh Will Ferrell was on the show because he was so good like early 2000s cast is that late late night yeah is that what we're looking at so imagine that man Jimmy Fallon and Will Ferrell both on there um Brad I pretty much told Will Ferrell you're the funniest man alive and he was he hey thanks yeah yo wait I was expecting a funny comment back yeah thanks beat it kid that's incredible man I I love hearing that um uh real quick uh not to go too much on this uh Sinatra stuff but I do want to ask uh uh I'll talk about Sinatra all all week long let's do it that's perfect because that's I mean I I'm I'm a I'm a huge fan as well but you did mention that uh with the charity and your daughter uh being diagnosed with Down syndrome and I know you gotta you got therapy that you're going to with her how old is she now she's 18 months 18 months okay and is she your only child or he's my third I've got I've got a 17 year old a 13 year old two boys and now my my first daughter okay and we actually fly to New York tomorrow for the Buddy Walk Up in uh New York which is uh the big net the Down Syndrome society's uh big fundraiser up in Manhattan oh wow okay that's that's a great thing I didn't I didn't but raising awareness to at least one guy right now because I don't know about any of that stuff that's that's pretty cool yeah and there's also a Gala in um in March that in up in New York that we're actually going to perform at with the Sinatra guys so that's another thing okay cool cool no I mean maybe maybe a couple of songs certainly not a not too many off of the new record though pawns and Kings definitely is a is a heavier record um as I said we were talking to Miles about it I I wanted to ask you uh more about it too when I listened to this record what I what the great songs great songwriting vocals Are Awesome every you know uh what a lot of what you expect from you guys uh but in this era right now where a lot of the bands in the in the Rock World seem to be kind of put through the conveyor belt of sound these days in a lot of respects I it was a breath of fresh air to kind of hear some more natural tones specifically from like the drums and stuff and I was wondering if you had any insight to you know working with your guys's producer on that that was really a conscious effort between the band or was that just his style uh we specifically said on this record that we wanted a record that was way more stripped down we wanted to sound like a rock band in the studio not not a modern programmed you know where there's a violin pad under everything and there's a piano key boosting everything um because all that stuff works for certain songs but in the end there's only so many frequencies and so much space on a record and when you can strip all that away the guitarist can breathe so much more and the drums can um breathe that much more and and we specifically say on the drums please don't sample every you know don't sample the Jones let them be what they they record it right you may go into the mixer instead of saying hey oh yeah let's throw a sample on the snare on the kick oh you might as well throw some samples on the Toms too like let's just completely negate what we did for three weeks in a studio just getting here from town yeah no every every snarish hit should sound unique you know every Kick Drum should sound unique if you say you say you record one great take that has you know a lot of key moments but there's a weird Rim shot in there okay replace that with another snare head but other than that keep it keep it legit not not all you know any kid can get on GarageBand and create some excellent sounding thing that just sounds like a computer we don't want that we want it to sound like like the band so we stripped everything back production wise and um you know I think the last record we did we you know I um were inspired by kind of the synthwave thing where you hear um the the old school sense and the Cool vibe from the 80s thing and um we just did that once and now we're back doing our original things trip everything away is just making the band well it sounds great there's a great song as a uh I love sin after sin was one that popped out to me on the record uh uh Kevin sent me the uh stuff uh about a month ago so I was I've I've had the pleasure before these uh people at home of hearing the whole thing not just the four songs you guys have released at this point and then I always forget the name of the last song the last song uh pawns and Kings the title track right why do I keep forgetting that one uh any at any rate another great song and uh I was surprised that the last song on the record would be one that's released before the actual release date for the for the album um and I know that Miles said that he brought that one in it wasn't even sure it was going to make the record and then you guys alter bridgeified it and uh it came to life um it's a longer song Last Song you know that's usually considered a spot for your deep tracks your your Progressive song and it's one of the one of the singles before the release can you talk to me a little bit about that yeah you know I think I think that song just kind of is a good snapshot of what this record is all about um and it's I I hate being I don't want to be the band that ever considers before writing an album about singles we need a single we need a single that's uh I think I gave up on that about 10 years ago because we would you know you have in the back your mind we need a song that's under four minutes long that that hits the chorus quick and it you know it's the radio format thing you know back when we thought that way you do it and you 'd edit your song down for radio and then all of a sudden you got a number 16 single at active Rock and it's like I I just it's not worth it I just want to completely do what it is that we do and not have to think about any kind of Conformity and and um that song like I said it it it's kind of the vibe of the record I think this a lot of people said oh this is your this is one of your heavier records or your heaviest record I think it's more of a dense record there's a lot going on there's um um there's a lot of information on this record I remember when I gave the record to my brother and I and it had 10 tracks he's like dude you can't put out 10 track records your fans wait three years between albums you need more songs and then when you heard it he's like all right 10 tracks is fine these these songs are there's a lot of information here 10 tracks after three years you guys your fans are nice it's uh six years and uh you know however many checks we decided to release next year hey man well one of these days we gotta do Avenged Alter Bridge tour I would love that man I would absolutely love that after getting to know you guys a little bit now um I don't know how we haven't crossed paths more um some of those festivals or if we have you know it could be I mean we're on at different times and blah blah blah different stages or whatever so we haven't actually uh properly met before today so um but yeah I would absolutely love that um in some facets I think that'd be that'd be very cool absolutely man um speaking on uh on touring and stuff you guys have have announced for Alter Bridge with the release on October 14th everybody um you guys got some uh some tours coming up um some pretty big ones in starting in January I think I saw right we start in November in the first and then okay gotcha yeah yeah so we go to um last week in October we fly to Europe for rehearsals and then uh we go from November 1st through November 12th and then I Stay in London we're playing the O2 in London with Alter Bridge and then we're I'm going to stay there for two days off and then do a Sinatra show at the O2 at the Indigo theater oh [ __ ] that's awesome that's gonna be so cool to have those two projects running uh you know and be able to do those two different things at the same time while you're out there just as a as a as a fellow musician and someone like I'm just like that would be really cool just be able to stay in one place and do two completely different things that's that's right oh yeah so as I'm warming up for Alter Bridge I'll be flow me you know singing Sinatra you're gonna throw that in you guys are gonna throw that in and the Ultra Bridge stuff a little bit you know you know what they um on the last Germany tour um I was such a fool to I went through the almost the entire tour without mentioning it to the crowd and finally I'm like this is the perfect audience to tell about the project so I would say you know to get serious for a minute I did this record raising money for charity check it out please and this and that when I'd step off stage our front of the house engineer would play one of the songs from the record and then people would would hear it and go support it um but as far as performing it I don't want to water it down I want it to be legit um if anything I would you know Tanner my my bass player and Tremonti he he does gigs constantly he does some Sinatra stuff every now and then he does more like uh um different versions of it but I'd sit down with an acoustic guitar and do that but not rocked out it's not that's not what that's not oh definitely and I wasn't even suggesting that I just like give given the the fan base I mean even as you said it uh when you guys were walking off stage that that Parting Gift there is is a good way of doing it too but it's like in between songs just you know hit a couple of those notes for them let them know what's up oh yeah where the where the Sinatra shirt yeah like man I I can't tell you how much fun I have doing that stuff so yeah it's got to be so liberating to do that man I'm I'm I'm envious of that that's such a cool project I really I really really excited for you on that one you know what's fun on it too is you can um like I went I went on vacation with my wife and uh we're down and uh to down at this this beach bar and this guy was playing guitar and one of my friends goes up there and tells him to call me up there and we did you know we did my way and uh New York New York you know at this little beach little beach bar so it's it's cool because you can I Love karaoke and some Sinatra too that's uh hell yeah I mean well like you said you'd been studying him for years before we even really put this project together like how long how long is years like if you like how many years are we talking here and when did you realize man I could actually pull this off or was it kind of like oh I think I could pull this off so that's why I'm gonna try or was it like I'm just gonna see you know you know I mean there's a chicken or the air basically on that so so I guess years and years ago I at Christmas parties you know the karaoke mic would come out I'm talking I don't know 10 years ago I'd sing and be like you know this feels good on my voice it feels like my a natural voice and I'd sing Bing Crosby or Dean Martin or Sinatra whatever it was and it just felt like yeah this is nice and then years later I came across uh I went on YouTube and I just couldn't fall asleep and I came across the song as you because it I think it was recorded in 43 or 44. it was a young Frank Sinatra almost shy playing in this Auditorium and uh absolutely killed it you know he's like the shy kid next door getting on stage and as soon as he sings it's just you're like that's why he became so famous it was just his voice was incredible and I was like you know what I want to sing like that I want to practice this just like as a guitar player you hear something like I remember watching the um Crossroads movie and seeing oh yeah Ralph Macchio and Steve I going at it I'm like I want to learn that so I'd sit down and playing all that stuff and it's just like hearing Sinatra sing I'm like all right I gotta sit down there's way more to it than just memorizing the melody and singing Back the lyrics it's a matter of like really picking apart every breath he takes and every vibrato he makes in every pronunciation and every little tiny bit of it and um so I was like all right I'm gonna dive in like I dived in on the guitar and uh about two years into that uh is when I was like you know what I feel good about this I've um you know you work on it you get better every day at it and uh at that point I didn't know what I was going to do and then that's when the diagnosis came in and I was like all right that's that's the reason I was obsessed you know there's sometimes there's reasons for for everything and uh the Stars just align way too much for uh it was just uh it was all kind of a I don't want to be that guy but it just seemed like I'm meant to be kind of scenario no you could be that guy I mean there's a there's a lot of different beliefs on that obviously but I I I I I don't think it's necessarily a religious thing for me but I do believe that that things just kind of fall in place the way that they were supposed to for a lot of different reasons or it may just be because that's the way that's just the way the universe just keeps going around you know what I mean and like yeah the trickle down is where it happens here and it's always going to happen there you know what I mean yeah um something as simple as that and I know other people have their own beliefs in that as well but yes I mean a lot of times I think if we really look at it even the fact that uh you know the two of us are in successful projects and successful bands and be able to do the things that we that we do we're incredibly fortunate and lucky you know like we worked hard but absolutely you know uh uh what is it luck is the residue of the ready or whatever it may be you know and you work on that but there's an incredible amount of luck involved in that as well right oh absolutely right place right time right worth that work ethic and uh yeah I mean if if we just started today I don't know if we would have the same success it's a different world so right so I'm sorry but I I wanted to point out to people listening and watching at home there too that it is a very fortunate thing and things do happen for a reason and try not to get yourself down about everything um but uh uh I think we're talking more about how that was serendipitous or or for the moment when you heard that your daughter was diagnosed with uh Down syndrome right yeah and then you know um when I mentioned all right I want to do this project because of this my manager goes yeah my guitar teacher played Frank Sinatra that's one of those like uh that's another that's just another sign I gotta do this right right um and then you know this was definitely a mountain to climb to get this record done was a lot of work it was um so my manager's next Duty was all right get the band guys together now Mike Smith was like all right you got us we're going to record with you but you got to get permission from the family to do this and that's that's next to impossible so my manager calls up you know the gentleman who runs the Sinatra State and uh immediately like no you can't do it you can't nope well you get 100 calls a week of people wanting to do Frank Sinatra projects nope they keep it all very they protect it understandably um right you know one of the most famous entertainers of all time you got to keep that Legacy airtights I was surprised I do know a little bit about that in the sense that we were doing we were mixing Hail to the King I believe it was or I'm sorry we're doing the strings for Hail to the King in capital in the capital uh B building across the hall was uh I I'm I'm sorry I don't remember his name he was the older gentleman that was working on a Sinatra one of the last things Sinatra ever sang uh in capital it might have been it might have been um I think it's Hank senacola yes that sounds familiar yeah right so he was over in the in the in the city Nexus and we were just kind of walking back and hey what's going on over here like why does that sound like Sinatra and what what's going on over there and uh he invited us in to listen to the project he was listening or he was working on and uh I'm not sure if it ever got released but you told us this is literally the last thing that Sinatra ever sang and uh what I'm trying to do is you know clean it up polish it up and get it to release but then we got to take it to the family and see if we even get that approval as well so I have no idea if it was released but even someone who's has the Masters and is in the Capitol building was was uh finding a little bit of difficulty on that oh yeah you know and you're you're in such a historic room that if you went down in the basement there they have the uh um patelli mic that Frank Sinatra sang um right so um Charles spignone who who runs runs their business side of things said if you um if you want to record out of Capital Records I can I can probably make that happen I can get you to sing on Frank's mic put you on his stool give you a bottle of Jack Daniels and set you all up for that session and uh it was during covets we couldn't get out there yes there you go next time I'm in I'm in La I'm definitely gonna go see that microphone well when you do hit me up because I I'm gonna I'm gonna tag along I think oh yeah I don't remember if we made it down to the basement or not now now that I think about it we've we've done a we've done strings and Arrangements there for several of our records uh in that in that capital B buildings uh and I don't know if it's a basement or a storage room or what but it's definitely a definitely got some some history for sure yeah I mean yeah as you said there's that building in general like it's got oh yeah so much history um I digress a little bit though I just keep keep going into that there but uh uh it's it's uh I think you heard it's it's actually my uh 10th anniversary and I think those were the flowers that were being delivered oh wow congrats thank you thank you um uh and I heard you are those your dogs in the background yes they're they bark at the landscapers they don't like the Landscapes I don't blame them like you know every time I'm trying to do this podcast landscapers are around I'm like I'm gonna have to I'm gonna have to put the gates on that afterwards you know oh yeah clean that up and post oh yeah but um I wanted to uh ask you a little bit about uh Creed because I had uh Shane told who has the lead singer syndrome podcast um on the show earlier this year and he had Scott on and I guess they he had asked the question and it was kind of entertaining the ideas of of you guys kind of coming back together to do some shows or something like that is there any truth to that or have am I really late on that news as well uh it's it's always something that's floated around you know it's um for us it just it's just a matter of being the right opportunity and the right time because it's right now if you said hey let's do a Cree tour when I've got Alter Bridge tour starting in November all the way through next year right so it just has to be a window that makes sense for everybody because we all work way too hard on these records to to put a four-month Gap in the middle of the promotion of it you know and um you know on a Creed tour it could be a it could be a 30-day short run or whatnot and uh but still you know people don't understand people are like hey why don't you have Creed do this one-off um at this thing it's like you can't you can't have a band not play for 13 years and then do a show without a week's rehearsal and then a whole team putting together the production and all the team there's a lot that goes into it so [Music] throw my base on my back and just fly out there and that's how that that's how it gets done yeah you know in this day and age you know that's that's the one thing where I've always been against the digital modeling amplifiers and all that stuff but um you know if you're doing fly dates and you're going to you know Jakarta or something you know that's the only time I'll use like a Kemper or um an axifax or something that's that's made touring easier because you could bring a um you know your little USB port with all your settings on it and rent the local kempers plug it in and you know some I just wouldn't play somebody else's guitars yeah you still got it yeah that that's true that's true and you get and you know it's not like you're I imagine uh I haven't seen your rig but I imagine it's a vault with several guitars in it it's not just like oh I got this one guitar and I use it for everything one of my biggest one of my biggest problems as a songwriter is I use alternate tunings a lot just to keep things interesting and um for each alternate tune and you got to have a backup guitar so absolutely um you know one guitar could back up three guitars if you're lucky if it's pretty similar but um I usually take about eight guitars on tour for myself and miles takes it up about the same okay so that's reasonable that seems reasonable I'm thinking in my head I'm like how many bases do I have I have at least eight I don't I actually don't know yeah maybe it's more than that but I got five string setups too so yeah so it's about it's about eight that sounds it's reasonable it's reasonable people yeah you gotta you gotta get from one song to The you don't want to sit up there and put a new tune before everybody that's not you know it's cool if you're like a jam band or a blues band just kind of chilling but when you're doing you know the big [Music] I'm also like too lazy for that I would just be like ah it's close enough let's go yeah yeah and in the moment you got your adrenaline going and you definitely wouldn't tune it no exactly sound perfect but anyways uh I I do like the uh the ax effects and stuff like that for that reason I mean I haven't I don't know about you guys but I haven't had a cabinet on stage in years um just because it's even with the the heads that I was using the gaming Kruger or the dark glass I didn't need it on the stage like we're we have in-ears so I'm listening to everything on the inners and then just trusting not even trusting but talking to the front of the house and going hey what what's going to make it easiest and best sounding for you out here because I've got ears and it doesn't matter like whatever is going to make it sound great out there do you still use cabs on on stage when you can and stuff or I I use a cab but now I um I was the oldest school guy in the band for sure I was the last one to end here is the last one to to do try anything different from just super loud my rig used to be massive on stage but now I use one head one cabinet the cabinet is um I have another ISO box with a 112 in it that that carries the load so I can turn the amp down as low as I want from the house gets the direct sync signal and um because I don't want to be the only guy on stage that you hear I don't want to hear just drums and a loud guitar because a lot of times you're playing um a feeder where first couple hundred people just hear your guitar and nothing else you know so I so I've got an onion ears have the one little ISO box to carry the load so the front of the house can have that nice even mix of everything um if I want to take my in-ear out I have the cabinet up there in case I need it okay okay so that makes sense you know everyone's got a everyone has their own way of getting it getting it done on stage that's why I was curious on that and then uh getting back to I think we were talking about uh potential Creed stuff and why you know you're simply explaining what uh I already know but a lot of people might not understand is that you need time for this stuff it's not like you're just gonna throw the band together after you know x amount of years however long it's been since you guys have played together and just go do these one-offs right yeah yeah like yesterday I started putting together a set list for Alter Bridge um to present to the guys like hey I think these are the songs we have to play and this is a second tier of songs we can keep changing every night but relearning some of these songs um it's like starting over you know when I go play with Germany I know those songs backwards and forwards right now now I have to forget those and go into the ultra bridge mode and relearn all that stuff I you know when I do uh guitar clinics on tour and people are like hey play this teach me this solo I'm like I gotta relearn that soul I don't play it live right now so I can't I have at this point I've recorded 17 albums and I can't I can't remember all that stuff [ __ ] you know there's there's no way yeah that's a that's a lot of records and yeah especially when you're talking guitar sales specific guitar shows maybe I might be able to remember a chord change or something like that but you're gonna ask me to remember all the licks in the guitar so like that's that shit's not gonna happen no I only know what if I'm playing it that night I know it otherwise I gotta I gotta relearn it yeah I I'm the yeah same way like when we're when we're putting a set list together like I like to do a little of the rehearsing myself uh at the studio relearning the songs and then we'll get together for like a week or so before that this time around it's probably gonna be longer than that because we haven't played a show and six years now so it's gonna be a little while but is that right yeah I think so I someone could correct me I'm sure but I think it's been something like six years I think we got off the road in 2018. oh so it would be four years five years come in 2023. gotcha that's too long man it's too long you're telling me but the good the good part is though I have a five-year-old son over that time I've been able to just be home with him so the silver line of of you know the horror horrible things that happen you know the with the pandemic and stuff and not downplaying that for those that were extremely affected luckily I wasn't first hand affected by anything necessarily um so we just kind of took it as a silver lining of like all right we all have young families yeah let's let's get to know our children a little bit better before we hit the road again you know same with me man I had my my one-year-old daughter that I got to spend pretty much her whole life with I remember when when I went on the first tour uh the first couple weeks were around home so I got the hover around Orlando and then when we left for three weeks I hadn't seen her in three weeks and I came home and she stranger dangered me I went to hold her and she's like who is this guy that was horrible oh that doesn't yeah you know that doesn't feel good that's that's enough but the next day she was great that's fantastic well um if you don't mind me asking what kind of therapy do um do you have with her I I'm not familiar with the with what that would be so she goes to therapy every day of the week she has um speech therapy occupational therapy um Physical Therapy she does talk tools um you know because we really want to focus on her communication because a lot of children with Down Syndrome have have um tough time um pronunciating things so she has all these different this person flies in from Atlanta um I think once a month to kind of reassess how she's doing and then we go to this other therapist that does the day-to-day stuff and uh you know she's I think children with with Down Syndrome are like six months behind kids without Down syndrome when it comes to crawling and and walking and everything else she's uh like I said she's 18 months she's crawling and she's I mean she's cutest thing in the world she she'll communicate with you but um you know she's just we try to stay ahead of it as much as we can and we're right now you know like I said we've raised all this money for the national Down syndrome society and we're trying to figure out um where some of that money is going to go and we're um there's a lot of exciting you know I spoke with uh Dr Raj at Advent Health here in Orlando and I told him our story like my daughter had to have open heart surgery um she had to get a few other procedures done um but she's tough kid she gets right through it but anyways um I'd spoken to Dr Raj about a family with a child with down cinnamon it's not something to be afraid of but it's a lot of responsibility and if you don't stay on top of things your child could kind of fall behind and there's there needs to be programs set up where you can go to one place and have all your therapies and house that's not the case in most places in most cases right so we have to drive sometimes an hour in One Direction 45 minutes in another direction to go to all these therapies and if you're a nine to five mother uh or father it's it's hard to stay on top of that so when I spoke to Dr Raj he had did a he had wanted a follow-up meeting with me and my wife and gave us a tour of his hospital and said we've like you've inspired me to set up a Down syndrome Center through Advent Health there isn't one here and we want to do that because of you know we were inspired by what you guys have been through and what you know what you guys can bring to the table with what you think families need so it'd be great to have you know this this like I said this early Frank Sinatra Obsession turned into something that develops you know a center for kids with Down Syndrome to have all their therapies in-house all their all their medical all their doctors you know they said when a kid comes in you spend 15 minutes with a doctor and you're on to the next patient but here you'd spend an hour hour and a half you'd see every therapist you see every doctor you'd make sure you're on top of everything um they'd know all the ins and outs of what a child with Down Syndrome needs and and uh it wouldn't be a guessing game it'd be like the easy guide to how to raise a child with Down Syndrome I think that would be you know obviously that's a great cause and it's awesome that you're able to help out with that because that does sound like something that would be something very helpful right and uh I know uh I have friends I have a friend that has a rare uh really rare disease not not down syndromes it's something different causes seizures and stuff and then another one that um has a daughter with autism um and I I bring that up just to just ask the question of like I know that there's uh where they lie on the spectrums of these different diseases or different uh uh abnormalities uh Abner I can't even say the word uh abnormalities uh where is your daughter on that and if you're for people who don't know like if you stay on those things that you're talking about get it all in one building and other other parents who have children uh with Down syndrome and stuff uh with these therapies they can they can hopefully get to a a better quality of life um later on correct yeah so you know people have explained to me you know because I'm learning new stuff every day and um people like people the different spectrum of of folks with Down Syndrome it changes just as much as as people without Down syndrome you have people that are way different in any regard health-wise um uh Down syndrome or not but as far as the difference therapies can make it's huge you know if you if um you know say you didn't have insurance and you're just afraid to put your child in any program because you just can't afford it you know when I spoke to Dr Raj she's I said what happens if you have a child that can't afford treatment he's like we won't turn anybody away you know because this is all uh um driven driven by by donations and whatnot we'll handle all the kids but if you have a child that doesn't do these Therapies they're gonna fall they're gonna they're gonna fall behind in one in in ways and you don't want to you know when you have a child you have your five-year-old son imagine him not getting all of the things that he was um reaching all his full potential you know uh you want to do everything you can and and um it definitely makes a big difference we've seen the difference firsthand of um the things we've done along the way you see it you see it every week yeah and I think I think uh uh part of part of that is I guess kind of a blessing is you get to celebrate those smaller moments too right like uh something that I I spoke to somebody else who uh who was talking about their child with epilepsy and it's like that that help that uh impedes some of their progress as well and um but you get to every little thing is an accomplishment is like a big celebration like like oh yeah even bigger you know what I mean like uh I I don't know how how else to describe it but it's just it you take the time to celebrate what other people take for granted and it's uh oriented you know and not granted like the stone granted and it and it um and it truly puts things into perspective right oh absolutely it's uh she she becomes she became the center of all of our world you know her her older brother is absolutely adore her every every time she says a new word like just yesterday I was my son had was sitting around when I was sitting there with my daughter I'm like all right say uh say this say that do this do that and he was just amazed about all the new things she was doing you know I'm like just simple things like uh say Bow Wow Wow Wow you know and my son's like what she can do that you know so every little thing is such like you said such a huge achievement and um you know like recently she had to get um she had a lung tie and a tongue tie and a lip tie so the dentist had to laser her her lip and then under her tongue okay because her she couldn't pronounce her tongue couldn't move around as much so since she got that done she's saying all kinds of new things she's doing all kinds of things she does this when she's not happy she sounds like a little Chewbacca now because she's just this thing with her that he wasn't doing yeah she wasn't doing that before but uh but yeah every little achievement is is amazing and um it also helps that we had a child so far different than our older kids that our older kids can enjoy the baby and be part they're almost like uncles now right yeah that's a big gap in age there right yeah man um well I'm Gonna Let You Go I know you gotta I know you want to spend time getting to the therapy there real quick but I want to get back to the Ultra Bridge tour I think we yeah we digress like we always do here on the show but we're talking about coming up in November starting in Europe um and then uh walk me through the the rest of the you said you got like a year year and a half already figured out for Alter Bridge right yeah we go um we go out in the states in January February I believe and then uh take a three week break do another four or five week run in the states then after that I believe we're going to go to Europe for I don't know if it's been announced but we always try to hit all the big festivals in Europe and then um promoters have told my manager that um they want to maybe do another third U.S run of this tour um I want to specifically get to uh Greece um on this this record cycle I want to get to Israel Brad have you been to either of those places I've been to Greece with Tremonti and we're we're playing with Iron Maiden and it was right off the bat first time the crowds seen the band first time we've been there it was one of the best shows we've ever done I mean it's like 65 000 people just and the Maiden fans were that receptive that's that's it was a good thing that's incredible well we did a tour we did a tour um supporting Maiden with Tremonti over in Europe and that was uh yeah it was one of those things where like I hope this goes good because it doesn't it's gonna be stadiums and Arenas full of angry people but it went I think as long as you play a a tight energetic show um the maiden fans will dig it don't don't pull out don't pull out the ballots no no no no no we did a maiden tour in Europe years ago and uh I asked the question because it took took about three solid shows before we started to win that crowd over because especially in Europe I think you get a test that at least the first four or five rows are the same a lot of the same faces you'll see for that entire summer or that entire European trip right oh yeah oh yeah it was you know it was it was it was definitely a cool tour to have and I remember when we um when I went to the dressing room there was a big bucket of Iron Maiden beers and it was said to our friends in Germany welcome to the tour we're glad to have you and all that took a picture of that sweet dudes man love those oh yeah absolutely you got a picture of that I'm sorry I didn't mean to cut you off there oh no yeah I took a picture of that for the archives I actually have um I'm a pinball guy so I've got two Iron Maiden pinball machines upstairs oh right on right on yeah you're a pinball guy like you like to collect the machines or you're a pinball guy like I am a pinball wizard I you know get out now I'm uh I collect machines and I I you know I don't I don't think I'm a great pinball player but I'll I'll beat all my friends you know because I because I have I have pinball machines but when I when I hang out with you know when I go up to the stern Factory or the Jersey Jack Factory and I play you know these world champions they absolutely Crush you yeah well you haven't spent the time like you did with guitar and learning how to sing like Sinatra as you have on the pinball machine yet well well yeah what what speaking of the pinball thing I'm uh I've got two secret projects in the pinball world that are coming out in the next year or two that I'm a part of uh that I'm really excited about so my my pinball love and my music Love are coming together so yeah thanks a lot and can you talk about it now or you want to hold that hold that off until it's a little closer to release No I you have to sign ndas to do to work on these projects because because pinball they don't they only announce like right before pinball machine comes out and they like to keep it just like us with our records you don't want to leak the songs early right yeah okay totally makes sense I understand I understand um yeah so cool uh I think that's pretty much it I mean for now um love to stay in touch with you man and uh continue our conversations there is is a lot more we could get into obviously um you know we're just kind of scratching the surface for this first chat and uh but um yeah go uh have a great rest of your day hope therapy goes well man it's been a pleasure appreciate getting to know you and uh talk a little bit of music with you man awesome thanks man all right man cheers that's going to do it for this week's episode of drinks with Johnny thanks to mark for being on the show and thanks for not bringing up this shirt by the way Mark I don't know if you did that on purpose but I had to wear this shirt on a bet that I made with Matt money Smith a couple weeks ago whatever it was this is the first episode I'm recording I had to wear a Chargers shirt I'm actually a Raiders fan I made sure to wear my Raiders hat as well so that uh whatever I don't have to hear all about it I'm gonna go uh burn this shirt now and we'll see you next time cheers foreign

Channel: Drinks With Johnny

Views: 16,299

Keywords: drinks with johnny, johnny christ, avenged sevenfold, a7x, podcast, new, episode, unreleased, mark tremonti, creed, alter bridge, scott stapp, music video, official, full, pawns and kings, edge, theme song, higher, my sacrifice, tremonti sings frank sinatra, come fly away, my way, myles kennedy, bullets, one last breath, with arms wide open, nickelback, 3 doors down, interview, down syndrome, metalingus, blackbird, shinedown, open your eyes, watch over you, in loving memory, another heart

Id: U7xVjxkU_R4

Length: 68min 2sec (4082 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 25 2022