How Trans-Siberian Orchestra Became a Global Phenomenon | Al Pitrelli | Ep 94

[Music] welcome to another edition of rick and bubba university the podcast uh this podcast of course is is stand-alone every week it's outside of the of the main show if you if you're not familiar with with the main show the rick and bubba show you can go to rickonbubba.com find all the different ways to grab all the different content that is available monday through friday and you know bubba this is just a something we set up we get to interview people that we really would would prefer to do a long form interview with which is the beauty of a podcast and and today uh we have a very interesting guest now i know for you today there'll be just a little bit of shame well i have a confession to make and i'll be honest with al about that and the shame that i bear because of it uh but al petrelli is with us uh he is uh one of the musical directors guitarist and uh and founding members of trans-siberian orchestra tso al welcome to rick and bubba university the podcast thank you so much gentlemen it's good to be here i hope everybody was safe and healthy and doing the best we can during these times you know it has been a difficult couple of years we've got what uh two guys vaccinated four of us that have had it so we we you know we've we've made a run at it here well i love respect uh well i'm glad you're okay too and and trying to you know i know last year you know nobody could tour and you know it was just uh difficult now we're trying to say look we got to have our lives back but we need to be as safe as possible and and we are excited that it's a balancing act it is the trans-siberian orchestra which i will tell you this al one of the coolest names ever created you know we all grew up loving the voice guy on the concerts and i've heard your guy the commercials that are put together that are fully produced with the you know the booming voice but when the guy sits down to read he must love the flow trans-siberian history just fun to say i mean it is just i mean i love saying it sometimes i just say it throughout my day i just love it listen you know my boss the gentleman who created this whole thing paul o'neil sat me down one day in the middle of uh recording the first record he goes i got the name of the band and i was like oh cool what is it he goes to trans-siberian orchestra and you know like when your dog looks at you and yeah yeah yeah i said dude you can call this anything you want you know it's awesome so the name stuck and it became a household name and a tradition for so many families and so many people across the country now globally i'm just proud to be part of it i'm i'm proud to be talking to you gentlemen about it this morning so and let me just get out of the way this is so uncomfortable this is uncomfortable for me al i have never seen y'all perform unbelievable and i am i'm i am ashamed because i hear so much about it everybody that that tells me about it they just go on and on and they go you don't know what you're missing i can't believe you and i every year i go i got to go this year and and when you guys come through it's always kind of in the december time frame and something's going on and i'm just embarrassed but i'm going to be honest about it well don't be dude listen life kicks in you take care of where you need to first and hopefully this year you know listen it's the return to live music okay i'm so glad that we're going back to the bjcc center okay it's the 25th anniversary so if you're going to come to a show this is the year to come and join us you know the thing you're going to love i like al because you've been to birmingham many times unlike bubba you know i don't have to live in shame because i've actually been yeah i don't think rick misses a year yeah i think i have to hear about it i'm gonna put a scarlet tso on bubba and he's gonna have to wear it until he has been but anyway um so i know how much you guys respect birmingham you've got a great relationship uh with birmingham there's been some really cool moments like when tommy shaw joined uh you know that just incredible uh but that you know they're redoing the entire arena so by the time you guys get here uh they're upgraded big time it will be upgraded uh and i think you're gonna love that well yeah it's funny because we played there in 19 and then they said that they're going to renovate the building over the course of 20 into 2021 and i said oh my god i'm going to miss birmingham for a year well everything changed that year so i'm just glad that you know you could have a brand new arena you guys deserve the best in that town i've been coming through town for 30 something years of love there i've watched the town grow up just like everything else uh you know to come back there after a year being away from this is going to be emotional and exciting and again to celebrate our 25th anniversary with you guys who have made us part of your community and your your tradition you know i couldn't be happier to do that well i'm gonna i'm gonna guess this answer because we're in the entertainment business and you know rarely in the entertainment business do you ever think that anything's going to last for any long period of time when when paul god rest his soul brought this up first of all is there anything to trans-siberian orchestra other than it sounds cool i mean but i mean is that was there anything meaning behind that is any more committing any more complicated than that i i think musically it's the most complicated thing i've ever been part of visually what our crew is able to do it's almost superhuman what these men are you know to put on that kind of production and at the center of the whole thing you know out of the big brain and genius that is paul o'neill wrote this beautiful frank capper-esque story called christmas even other stories so when you tie those three things together put the heading transformer and orchestra over it you know the fact that it's had that longevity i i think it's based on that everybody in your community and around america and now globally relates so deeply to his story enjoys the music so much because it's it's really jean it's every genre of music and then when you go to the arena and you watch it there's a snowstorm there's pyro there's lasers there's moving trusses there's video screens you know how could you not fall in love with it it's it's over the top i will say this you know how sometimes there's always hyperbole or you you know we throw things around more than we should words like awesome and and all this unbelievable but i'm going to tell you something i went to see you know which i think if it's possible to see the the original show okay which is what i saw and and and and but the thing you can't do which is a compliment to everything you guys have put together in the vision that paul had and i know that that has now continued when someone says i didn't go nor have i ever been so tell me about it you you you can't do it i mean i i i always just say i can't there's no way that i can describe it that you would go oh i get an idea of what i'm going to experience it's a show yeah i'm going to use the word show it is a show you have to go and there is no other and i and i'm glad that there's been attempts to put it on you know a tv and record it no offense to those things they're wonderful you have to be in the arena it's a nice supplement if you want to but if you want to experience trans-siberian orchestra you have to get in the arena you got to get the full thing you got to feel the power of the orchestra you got to see the visual things that your your brain is going i'm trying to remember all this and try to see if i can't get you to explain it later but you won't be able to it is a audio visual extravaganza and i'm gonna tell you i know you good enough bubbo 27 years we've been doing this show you guys have done it 25 we've done it 27. i'm telling you this is your deal oh i know i know that's why i'm kind of mad at myself and i haven't been to you would love this and i would say that to anybody that's watching this podcast or listening to it if you've never been to see trans-siberian orchestra you need to get the tour dates if it's if it's anywhere near you and plan to go more than once uh but but but go and and so you you were at the very beginning and so when paul is laying this out to you are you thinking because i remember the first time i heard about it and somebody tried to explain it to me and i was like what is this trans-siberian orchestra and a friend of mine that's seen you guys multiple times and he said well it's it's almost like classical music and hard rock are coming at you at the same time it's an orchestra of rock and roll and classical but even the classical is rock and rollish and and and then think about the biggest concert tour visually you've ever seen and and then and then and then you then just when you think you've got it oh and by the way there's a story what yeah yeah oh yeah and every now and then there's actors on so i'm sorry what did you say and it's like and then finally you just give up so when it was being laid out to you the first time did you buy in immediately or you were like no now we're going to do what uh where where where'd this come from it's a little bit of both and first of all i love hanging out with you guys because i don't have to do any talking yeah just here you're trying to explain something that i've been trying to 25 years dude and i stumble every time so let's go back to the big a okay i've known paul o'neill since about 1985. um i was cutting my teeth as a guitar player in new york city he was well on his way to being a great producer songwriter the whole thing he just had it sewed up and we always said listen love to work together one day you fast forward 10 years it was uh early winter 95 he called me because i got this thing i'm working on and i could kind of use some help would you be interested in trying to play some guitar because he listened to a lot of guitar players uh there was just a certain something that was missing in this thing that he was working on i said dude i'll be right there i've been looking forward to working with you or for you for a while anyway i get to the studio um he puts the faders up to what was going to become christmas eve sarajevo 12 24. and again i i looked at him and i'm like what's with the christmas song and he kind of laughed you know those big blue eyes and he smiled and he says well it's not really a christmas song it's a soundtrack depicting events that took place on christmas eve during the bosnian war i said all right you got my attention what's up and he told me then this is historically true that uh during the war there was a cellist the classically trained cellist that used to go to the town square and play uh mozart in chopin and brahms and beethoven and boca roll the great composers work in protest to the bombing raids that were coming in and i said and right there the hair on my arm stood up because i said dude i was alice cooper's musical director and i played zagreb in belgrade in 1990 before the war i was in that town square i remember what it looked like smelled like you know i made some friends over there when we toured and a lot of them were unfortunately killed during the war i said just you know press go you know right now press record and he hit it and i immediately went [Music] and i started playing that we got and all the parts i put it goes that's it that's what i've been missing that completes my soundtrack now you know the listeners will understand the angst and the horror and the drama and the power that was going on during that moment in time and i high-fived him you know i was like dude this is awesome and what a beautiful piece of music little did i know that that little lightning strike and that spark not only kind of solidified our working relationship and our brotherhood but this is what was going to become the trans-siberian orchestra this is literally that was went to 95 so 26 years ago is when this little thing just happened it's changed everybody all right well we're talking to al patrelli uh music director and one of the founding members of trans-siberian orchestra we're going to dive in and and learn as much as we can today when rick and bob university the podcast continues all right so albertrelli is with us with trans-siberian orchestra um we we heard how this began i i can i think we all go back and we do the i remember when yeah uh and and i remember the first time that i heard this this this this production of course i didn't know about what it was really called i thought to myself that's the coolest rendition of carol of the bells i've ever heard in my entire life and i and i don't know what to do with it um but but you know and and i and i thought um you know because even my brother who you know we hate to say he's not a huge fan of christmas music which you know you think you know and you know he is he's a bit of an ebenezer scrooge when it comes to christmas music and uh and and and but he loves his rock and roll and i said when you hear this when you hear this you think you don't want to hear carol of the bells again and and i said but listen to this and of course it was just this take on this classic riff that just blows our mind i mean and and hearing how it started that's really cool al let me ask you this when you guys do a performance it is a big show and you've played all over the world but are there some big shows that stand out in your mind where you went wow this is this is surreal even for me um yeah one in particular would be the first show that we ever did in 1999 and you got to understand that we had started recording um these records in 96 we put two records out chris is even all the stories in 96 and the christmas attic in in 98 i think it was when it was released so basically we were becoming like the steely day on the christmas you're just making records boring and it's like this is kind of cool you know selling a couple million copies i'm like dude dude i'm having the time of my life and somebody dared paul to do a show in 99 and and i said to him i go how are we ever going to go out on school you had like 10 singers on this right you got a children's choir you got an orchestra yeah he goes we'll figure it out all right i'm in so we rehearsed we pretty much you know we're winging it in rehearsal okay there's a narrative we need music under the narration uh instead of the children's part we're gonna have a gospel rendition of that song we were just putting it together it was coming together so easy which is always a good sign anyway we're rehearsing the rehearsal rehearsing and opening night is at the tower theater in philadelphia and it had sold out in like i think a half an hour so we were stoked you know a couple thousand people there i don't know who these people are gonna be but they're they're going to be there we're going to be there this is going to be something and the house lights went down and the curtain came up and i looked in the audience and i immediately had half a heart attack because in front of me is these this beautiful older couple you know pair pair grandparents whatever you know those like crochet ring gear sweaters gorgeous i mean i look but next to them was a dude in a slayer hoodie and i was like oh we're we're dead you know i didn't turn up down i just put my head down and played every note in the correct order and at the end of that show they gave us such a standing ovation that a couple of us walked off the front of the stage and started shaking people's hands and hugging because we were so moved by the reaction and you know that will always forever be in my mind as the sheer terror that was running through my brain until we finished the show al i've got to ask you because i remember even on the show rick we we played a news story about one of your performances and i can't remember exactly what year it was 2012 13 somewhere in there it's been several years ago but it was at the brandenburg gate in germany uh-huh one million people on new year's eve yeah that's why i remember it being a huge cro just a sea of people did you say one million one million people were at the brandenburg gates that's their big celebration for new year's eve and it was not that it's funny but we finished our show uh i think in dallas texas on the 30th and it was immediately you get onto a jet and fly to germany you know and i think i don't know if you gain eight hours you lose that's an easy trio yeah yeah we showed up and you know fortunately you know i wear these things and without them i can't see two feet in front of me so when i got on stage you know i i really can't see that much but you can see a million people because it just went on from berlin halfway to munich was like i've never seen anything like that in my life and the band performed we've accomplished so much 25 years went by in literally a half a heartbeat you know i mean time just flies gentlemen and you all know you know it's our most precious commodity and the older i'm getting more i'm like trying to hang on to every moment of it because if i keep looking in the rearview mirror you know 59 years of my life behind me now yeah but what what paul o'neill and the o'neill family and this organization organization excuse me he's accomplished in 25 years is is remarkable you know it's like watching one of my children grow up from infancy to young adulthood and then becoming a senator or something extraordinary it this has exceeded every one of my expectations and sometimes the only time i really kind of like deal with it is when like when i'm with you guys like you were just talking about it other than i'm constantly looking forward like how can we make this better how are we going to make this tour more important how are we going to make that note sound better but every so often i get to look over my shoulder and go god has been a great run how in the world do you set up enough gear so one million people now you guys are powerful and and when i say they're powerful they're not loud like oh no that that's annoying i don't know if bob hall's got that many speakers i mean that's a lot of power uh but but obviously you did it but did it require more than normal or did it was it was whatever you guys normally use sufficient no it was all supplied there i mean and again there's a kind of my job is to run the ban musically okay i have the great privilege of being surrounded by some of the best department heads and crew guys and tech guys on god's earth so i never once questioned what's gonna you know just tell me where to plug in boys hand me the keys i'm gonna do my thing then i'm gonna hand you the keys back and i can see it see you later you know you gotta understand that our crew most of them have been with us for the better part of 20 years remember we started in 1999 was the first show one box truck two buses and a fog machine is all we had yeah we were the coolest thing then dude you know and the trajectory we've grown up over the years to the point where the crew has 30 days to set up for the first show we get into production rehearsals about a month before the downbeat of opening night 30 days and they're rehearsing the show just like we're rehearsing the show they even rehearsed how to back the trucks into the arena in a specific order they got it down to a science because they got six hours to set up for the second show you know a lot of these cities it's two shows a day so they got it down we could not ever in a million years do our job without i think we have about 85 guys on our crow so al is is it just one crew you don't have two that can one go in front of it y'all do it with one crew which is amazing that's it i got my buses my trucks my crew my band go that way you know every day you know they'll have it torn down by midnight and you will drive 400 miles they'll start setting it up at six o'clock in the morning and again they are amazing so you you probably mentioned the number in that but say that one more time when you talk about band crew performers all the lights and things that go along with that promotional what when we say tso how many people is that total that has to go from venue to venue well remember that you got caught up into two bands in 2000 so any number that i give you just in your head double okay 99 we did seven or eight cities in 2000 promoters all over the country wanted shows we could physically not go from boston to seattle to texas to birmingham it was not going to happen so paul nails pointed to me goes you go that way rest go this way and we'll figure it out again something unprecedented but i just look i'm in coach put you know we're good anyway so when i finished in 2019 uh the last show was at the allstate arena in chicago and i i said goodbye to everybody in the band and the crew um there's 85 people on our crew 17 people in the band a six piece orchestra 21 tractor trailers and 12 buses that's just for my band not to mention again double that for the east coast bunch it's grown up from a really great musical art form into this extraordinarily huge production well yeah because that was what i was and i'm going to use this analogy and i do think it fits so really because i learned that early on from my friend that was obsessed with you guys he said well now look at when you go to this show tonight we may get this band or that band i'm like what are you talking about he said well it's just like ringling brothers and barnum and bailey circus or the globetrotters there's there's the red team and there's the blue team you know when the circus was still on the road and i said so they have two completely unique independent set up of this exact same show and he said absolutely that even makes it crazier and and so and so each one has its own music director right there's two of you so there's two music directors so so who is the music director of the east coast bunch now a gentleman named derek whelan an incredibly gifted piano player uh he's got his master's degree from juilliard uh he's like one of those guys he's so good it's scary though yeah and derek got involved he was actually in the band with me um starting i think back in 2004 2005 and i heard this guy play piano i'm like okay come over here you know i got you and we toured together for about eight years and um when the original md on the other coast bob kinkel uh decided that you know it's you want to just stay home whatever the circumstances were uh it made perfect sense to have derek go over there and run that because you know we've been working together for so long we want the bands to sound as identical as two bands can sound given you know the chemistry of live music but the funny thing is that when we go to um the mid-america center which is in uh just uh over the river from uh omaha nebraska in council bluffs iowa both bands set up one at one end of the arena one at the other end of the arena and on alternate days we'll take the big stage like i'll be on the big stage of my band like running the pyro hits the laser stuff moving trusses the other band will be in like a locker room rehearsing like the nickel dime parts of the music and then the next day we'll swap back out so for 30 days it's just back and forth making sure that we're as identical as identical wow so that is the dividing line right yeah across the equator don't come on don't go well uh we'll come back and we'll continue because i want to talk about this 25th anniversary uh in this tour and and how many places we're going uh and and what we can expect uh when we go out to catch this tour so stay with us we'll come back more with al petrelli of tso when ricky bubba university the podcast continues so bubba you and i have uh have been you know at this uh quite a while and uh we we've had products uh that have come and they have gone and some have really resonated with the audience others you know didn't and some somewhere in between but raycon uh in these earbuds it's interesting that we're talking on this podcast about uh incredible music uh you you look it's such a waste for somebody to go to all the the effort for this this recording to sound so incredible and then you're playing it through something inferior uh but i know a lot of times when it comes to earbuds and and we're all using these now uh if you don't have earbuds you're nothing oh yeah yeah you can't go out for a walk without them but but what happens is you think well yeah i'd like to have the quality of that but wow the price and then some of them look odd you know hanging out of your ears and all that but with raycon these earbuds are about half the price of some of the brands out there uh they also are much more discreet uh they they have um really cool colors and and i like that they have multiple gel tips because some of our ears are different shaped uh so they not only look better they feel better and of course they sound better than ever and they've got that improved rubber oil look and feel which you know was really really comfortable in your ear and they've got three new sound profiles too to make sure that you're listening to the sound that you like the best it's got just the right amount of bass you know in the the pure mode there and and it's it's for podcast listening blues instrumental balance mode would be for podcast listening but then more like trans-siberian orchestra more of a heavier rock sound and then their base mode is you know kind of like you like hip-hop and reggae and things like that you literally can change what your earbuds to to be customized to what you're listening to so if you'd like to get yours right now it's got a 45 uh a day happiness guarantee if you don't love them they'll replace them or give your money back go to buy recon dot com slash rick bubba pod for 15 off that's on top of their great price so that's byracon.com rickbubbapod for an additional 15 off byraycon.com rick bubba pod so we uh had the pleasure today on rick and bubba university podcast to talk to al patrelle music director and uh and founding member of trans siberian orchestra uh just like uh you know 2020 is a year that uh my goodness uh and uh no tour uh people we we felt so isolated we we really struggled trying to find something to do we didn't know what we were dealing with and and we were kind of just figuring it all out but but great news the 25th anniversary year trans-siberian orchestra will be on full tour uh and now i know there's a lot of excitement that goes with this so let's talk about you don't have to give us the whole you know set or whatever but i'm going out i love trans siberian orchestra or i'm bubba and i'm finally going in to see this i'm coming into to the arena in my city uh where you guys are playing uh what am i going to get uh what what what is the show going to feature well first of all it's going to be the excitement and the energy of the return of live music i think is the first thing that everybody's going to sense walking into an arena all right uh historically every show i have the opportunity to kind of chat with the audience and i always ask you know how many folks have seen us for the first time and and i'd say you know a good 30 maybe 40 percent you know we'll kind of cheer and scream and i'll get a good sense of like okay there's all the newbies and then i always ask you know and how where's all my what i consider my repeat offenders guys who've been coming back year after year and it's overwhelming so the balance 60 70 percent of the people have been coming back all these years so anybody who's never been to a show is immediately going to be kind of in the middle of this energy that it's it's almost incomprehensible about how much these people love the transformation orchestrated made this part of the holiday tradition that's the first thing as far as musically goes it covers almost every genre of music there's everything from the great works from the the great composers you know mozart and beethoven and and greg and liszt you have gospel music you've got choir music you've got almost a broadway theatrical presentation with the narration you know our narrator is bringing paul o'neill's poetry to life and explaining the story to the audience as these characters unfurl their their uh their tales on stage uh as far as production goes you know this is like trying to explain what does a lightning storm look like in person you know i've been programming for years dude like you said earlier you could watch all the youtubes you want you could watch it on your phone your computer we could talk unless you're in the middle of a lightning storm in person you don't get the impact of the magnitude of it the biggest rock and roll production ever puts together in an arena so when you wrap that up all together visually sonically it's over the top but at the center of this whole thing is paul o'neill's beautifully written story christmas eve and other stories and that's what i think really cemented the deal with everybody because everybody relates to this story everybody misses somebody especially around christmas all right there's always an empty excuse me an empty chair at the dining room table especially after 2020 oh yeah and all the horror magic loss that we've all suffered you know uh everybody in the audience relates to paul o'neill's characters and story because again we all miss somebody and for the first time in maybe a year you're gonna be amongst 15 or 16 000 other people and realize that you're not alone in your thoughts and in your pain everybody's you know my cancer doesn't make your cancer any better or worse but just sometimes knowing that everybody is in the same head and everybody knows what that feels like makes just a little bit more palatable and al you guys too not only one of the top tickets ever far as live shows you guys give back too and i i i thought those numbers were very impressive too do you want to talk a little bit about that yeah well listen i appreciate you bringing that up and you know um this is all paul o'neill the o'neill family um one dollar from every ticket sold from the jump since 99 has gone back into the community um we're privileged and honored that you guys invite us back every year and that you've embraced us as part of your tradition the least we could do uh is try to you know help and give back a little bit to the community you know this is paul o'neill and the o'neill family brothers you know they're the most generous loving caring uh people i've ever had the privilege of knowing and working for when you know when paul and i when i first started with paul we'd be walking through new york city either to the studio from the studio to the subway to dinner whatever we were doing and every time i turned around he'd be reaching into spock and handed somebody or 10 or 20. and he looked at me and he goes look it's not going to change my life this money you know i'm not going to notice it but it could change this person's day and if i change their day maybe i could change that tomorrow and nudge them in a better trajectory and a dollar at a time is showing the time the song of the time that the o'neills have tried to change the world i think they're doing quite a job i mean it's just amazing to see what it's amounted to and how many people uh how many people's lives have been positively affected by them and share that number of what y'all have given back to date uh well i i think it's over 16 million dollars over the past 20 years or so wow that's it listen little bits add up you know you know levels in the details you know it doesn't have to be some over-the-top donation i mean it's you know if you just maintain the consistency of what you're doing it will make a difference over a period of time so i i know that we were looking into the tour and you and the things that those of us that have been before we're not going to be disappointed uh those that those yeah those that have never been there man that's a great feeling to be blown away because everything uh there is uh is is going to be new to them but but say that i've been going multiple times i was looking at some of the things about the tour there will be some some new things that will be added even even discussion of even some new songs you're certainly going to pull from the two albums that we all know so well uh because then you know everybody's disappointed if that doesn't happen but are you going to drop drop in what do you mean when i see there's going to be some new stuff dropped in you don't have to give it away but you can talk to it well yeah no musically i'm just going to tell y'all you know there's going to be some songs we've never played before you know the front of the show is always like our introduction like welcoming everybody you know to the tour uh we wanted to make the intro extra special this year considering like we weren't around last year you know we want to set the tone for the rest of the evening uh the centerpiece of the show again is our christmas eve and all the stories top to bottom to nuts with the narration and the back half of the shows when we get to have some fun and again bring out some songs we've never done before as well visually i'd be lying to you guys if i if i told you what to expect because i won't know until i get to omaha in a couple weeks but i can tell you this every year it's always been different every year it's always gotten bigger uh this past year all department heads our crew chiefs everybody's literally been home out of work just like me you know in their pajamas but they've been like kind of doodling on their laptops or their ipads whatever coming up but all sorts of zany ideas so i can't wait to see what they've come up with for all of us this year yeah i was just thinking about that and you just confirmed that these people have gotten something that you know we didn't want it to happen this way but their creative minds have been given something they normally don't have a tremendous amount of time so there's no telling what you're going to see when you go to rehearsals brothers i have no idea but whatever it is it's going to be over the top as usual you know and again you know the guys the men and women on our crew love this thing as much as i do you know everybody you know on the stage i mean on stage under the stage behind the stage you know everybody has been dying to just get back to work because we've all most of us been together like 20 something years now you know and this was taken away from us uh you know when you love something this much and it's taken from you once you get it back you know you love it that much deeper and you cherish it that much more so i promise you the energy across the board is going to be ridiculous and again i i turn into a 15 year old every time i walk into the arena for the first time let's do all this stuff that is the most awesome thing ever yeah that that that's how you know i hate to use the christmas analogy but that's like a little kid going waking up on christmas morning and seeing what everybody's got out there yeah and every morning i get to do it every day you know for about 45 days twice a day you know because listen our first show is gonna be i think november 17th okay everybody's gonna have a perfect first show that day but when i get to see you guys not too long after it's your first show might be my 10th but it's going to be your first show of the 2021 season that means it makes it my first show all over again so i kind of like live groundhog day for a couple months awesome we'll come back and we'll we'll wrap up the podcast and spend one more segment talking to al petrelli uh exciting news trans siberian orchestra the 25th anniversary tour is scheduled and they will start rehearsing here in a couple weeks and then it'll kick off on somewhere around november the 17th you can get all that information by going to trans-siberian.com we'll be back with al petrelli when rick and bubba university the podcast continues all right so bubba um you and i are all about looking for a a product uh maybe based on the way we see the world because sometimes we're you know using other products we're like man i don't necessarily disagree with the way this company does that or the way they see that but man i don't have any other option uh so unless and a better option or an equal option comes along i'm stuck where i'm stuck well what do you do well when it comes to your your cellular service um you know if you're if you're not pleased with where you are and you think maybe there's not an option out there because you don't want to lose service you know like we've even said with you and i and you know we never want to try to get somebody to use a product out of guilt we need to move to another product because the other product has merit uh and patriot mobile has really really uh done a great job of offering you know another way for you to get your cellular service and maybe you're more you know you're the it's the only american christian conservative wireless provider they offer broad nationwide coverage in fact and this is the part that you may not know they use the same towers as all the major carriers so uh the service is not going to be reduced patriot mobile has plans to fit any budget and their 100 us-based customer support team provides exceptional customer support now more importantly uh patriot mobile shares um you know maybe the points of views and they believe in religious freedom and constitutional rights and and you know the their veteran and first responder uh hero program is fantastic so go to patriotmobile.com rickbubba or you can call them at 972 patriot you get free activation by the way with the offer code rick bubba they always have special discounts as i said for veterans and first responders and and they also and this is for the multi-line account so support a company that that may maybe you look here and say i don't want a reduction in my service but there's some things uh that i'm not comfortable with with the company that i'm using now i wish i had another option well maybe this is it so go to patriotmobile.com rickbubba that's patriotmobile.com rick bubba all right we're talking with al petrelli uh with trans-siberian orchestra al you as a musical director in the vision of of paul o'neill so you've told us the the enormity of trans-siberian orchestra uh we know that there's two bands that that that have to be filled to cover all thank goodness all the demand on on this uh this product yeah so but but who does i'm just thinking to myself i mean you know i've seen many many musical uh documentaries and we're in the entertainment business and there's the you know if i'm gonna be on the road with somebody uh you know they may be super talented but if they're they're if they're if they don't really fit what we're doing it doesn't mean they're not talented enough what are you guys looking for what are some of the things when you say all right i'm putting together the band for the show that we're going to be doing uh what are the type of things you're looking for and of course you're fine to get because like i remember when i saw you guys uh i think during the time the music director that's doing the east coast now he was playing uh piano and keyboard and i'd love the thing that he did with the charlie brown christmas and all that that's always very good oh my god i love that yeah yeah that's a blast but but what do you like when because there's a lot of great guitar players there there's a lot of great musicians there's a lot of great singers uh but what are you guys looking for when you're putting together a show well first obviously you have to be able to you got to be able to play and you have to be able to play any particular style authentically so not too many people can go from playing a chopin piece uh to a dr john style piano strider piano piece you know there's not that many uh guitar players same thing you've got to be able to kind of be comfortable in any genre and play it authentically so that's the first thing equally as important to that is you have to be completely selfless because this is not going to be about you you know this is about bringing paul o'neill's story to life it's not being edward van halen you know wrestling edward saul it's not about being in like a a traditional rock and roll band where everybody's a rock star this has nothing to do with it you're part of an ensemble it's like but you're building a house you know the band is the foundation for this beautiful dwelling that's upon the foundation if there's any crack in the foundation when the foundation's not intact the house is gonna fall down all right my job is to make sure that everybody in that band understands you'll have your moment to shine that's fine the rest of the time you're in a supportive role for the singer the song and especially paul o'neill's story because that's what people have fallen in love with and you have to be okay with like a certain level of anonymity on stage and i'm living proof of this i was doing opening night in 2007 come running across the stage with my arm in the air in the middle of the good guitar solo jumped like a 25 year old landed like a 45 year old and broke my leg and snapped my acl in the middle of the show and finish the guitar song sat down and played of course as it should be but the rest of the show and the audience kind of looked at me like that's a little weird i mean alex having such a you know introspective moment sitting down funnel you know it looks like he's almost in pain he really must be feeling the song so anyway you know the lights go down and the crew like what happened boston like i don't get me out of here i'm screaming this thing that hurt anyway they put me on a bar stool down off the stage and i did the rest of the show there and with about within about two or three songs the audience is kinda like oh okay we're back to the show you gotta be cool with that and if you wanna be downstage in the spotlight all the time this is not going to be your home save yourself the anxiety save the headaches go good luck with whatever you want to do in this ensemble this is your role you have a supportive foundation style role to make sure that paul's story is alive and well and comes true every day so are most of the people in the uh how many what's the turnover uh does it say very very no hardly ever i mean maybe once every couple years somebody will uh move on to something else or you know some of the gals decide they want to start families or something like that but this band i mean the band itself has been intact for probably since the jump i mean uh again you know when derek left to be the md on the east coast band uh we ended up getting vitale capri and on that keyboard position and you know he ain't going anywhere you know i listen my ex-wife is the other piano player you know we love this man we were mad we started working together in cso and then we got divorced and we're still band mates and best friends you know we love what we do you know it would take a lot it would take what happened last year to kind of you know thwart our efforts if you will al i've got to know because in a production this big and and the schedule i just can't imagine uh because you all get so much done in a in a pretty quick amount of time what is your average day look like tell us what an average day once the tour starts looks like for you uh usually you know it's it's up pretty early you know if i have um you know some press to do like you guys and i are talking today uh you know there's some tv station appearances or radio things you know i want to get up and i want to kind of you know work out for an hour have about 11 cups of coffee so i can just be on the verge of an anxiety attack you know you know get to the venue by i don't know 10 a.m give or take figure out if there's anything we have to fix from like the previous night show and you know anything happened that we want to address uh if not just kind of chill for a little while you know for a three o'clock show soundcheck is usually around maybe one o'clock 1 30. make sure everything's tuned up right you know whatever the crew needs from us to do to again if there's anything to fix and then it's like you know downbeat at three o'clock get off stage at 5 30 you know kind of towel off for a couple minutes catch your breath and do that do it again at 7 30 or 8 o'clock you know finish the show by let's say 11 uh historically there's always been a pretty big meet and greet and autograph line that we'll do get on the bus by midnight pedal down go you know repeat yeah so you guys are doing a rock show really the way a broadway yeah uh actor would work with multiple shows in one day yeah yeah and to be honest with you when they first kind of sprung this on us i think in 2001 or 2002 they said listen and we sold out i i'm not sure if it was at colorado springs or salt lake city uh maybe even both simultaneously but they said the show sold out and the promoter wants to know can you do another show at three o'clock in the afternoon i'm like what ask me that one more time slowly you want us to do a rock show it's three in the afternoon and then another one at eight o'clock sure count me in i just the sound of a rock show at 3 p.m yeah i know because i can't stand sitting around all day you know it's like i just want to put the guitar around my neck and get to it and if i have to wait until eight o'clock at night i'm just sitting like that's the worst time of my life it's just like i love to play everybody in this organization wants to do what we do so when they implemented that and now i'd say most days are double show days it's the greatest thing ever because we don't have time to do anything other than like wake up brush your teeth get dressed let's hit this real love it and twice a day awesome well it's been fascinating talking to you al and thank you for taking the time to be with us and and you're right we're all we're all wanting to get back to some normalcy uh and the holiday season and a trans-siberian orchestra show is gonna feel pretty good uh after what we all went through last year i hope so and i'm looking forward to it i want to thank both you guys for having me today it's a privilege to finally talk to you guys and i've really enjoyed our conversation um i i can't wait to get back to it um for all the reasons it's going to be extremely emotional um live music is coming back tsl is coming back it's our 25th anniversary and and again guys thank you for the love and the support please stay safe for my best your families and just know that we're coming home in a couple months and i cannot wait to look everybody in the eyes as i stand down stage center and just thank everyone for being there we miss all of you we love all of you so much so we're looking forward to it yeah god bless you al thanks al petrelli a trans siberian orchestra find the tour dates when they'll be near you transsiberian.com and you can find all the details and then get your tickets and make plans to be with them when they come to your town and thanks to all of you for being with us on this edition of rick and bubba university the podcast [Music] this is the rick and bubba show watch more at blazetv.com rick and bubba [Music] bubba

Channel: Rick & Bubba

Views: 1,145

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: rick, bubba, rick and bubba, rick & bubba, rick bubba live, rick and bubba live, rick & bubba live, rick and bubba show, rick & bubba show, rick bubba show, burgess, bussey, radio, alabama, TSO, trans-siberian orchestra, trans-siberian orchestra christmas canon, tso carol of the bells, al pitrelli, al pitrelli megadeth, carol of the bells, rock christmas music, rock christmas songs

Id: _MEG_hC4N1g

Length: 45min 59sec (2759 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 18 2021