Roger McNamee of Moonalice on No Simple Road

this episode of no simple road is dedicated in loving memory to our brother friend and past guest of the show David Adam Casakove. David was a pioneer in cannabis legalization here in Oregon fellow dead head brother and he will be sorely missed and I just want to say a couple words before we get started unto them from his eyes the veil of life has fallen may there be granted the accomplishment of their true wills whether they will absorption in the infinite or to be United with their chosen and preferred or to be in contemplation or to be at peace or the labor and heroism of incarnation on this planet or another or in any star or aught else unto them may there be granted the accomplishment of their wills you'll be missed David

Without further ado the no simple road crew gives you Roger MacNamee of Moon Alice

... has been around since two thousand and seven but it's been through four phases okay so first version we had a G. E. Smith who been Bob Dylan's band leader and also ran the Saturday Night Live yeah yeah and we had a Jack Cassidy from Jefferson Airplane and I do not in the original configuration and Pete Sears this lesson I were part of that along with my what a fan and shot by Jimmy Sanchez on drums and then cheer me just tried it to go to Thailand and G. got the gig to play with Roger Waters hello well he he was going to stadiums and so John Miller joined the band and we have a period of time we're playing as a quintet okay Dan my wife retires and we play as a quartet of John hello very slow speeds yours in me and then chasing Crosby joins a band in twenty fourteen I'm amazing about his face three and then in twenty nineteen were legally at this one day festival in San Francisco for the summer solstice and it's one of these things were every year you reproduce San Francisco music of fifty years earlier so we started twenty seventeen with a you know last summer of love thing okay and we got as many of the original artists to do their own songs as possible so Lester was there to do times come today right we had a %HESITATION David Freiberg to do %HESITATION pride of manage you know of others a bunch of other things we had young people from all these great bands like that it's a beautiful day we had to David and Linda will slam there to do to white bird in %HESITATION Norman at green bomb to do a spirit in the sky so we don't really really cool things right it was to do this for each year and in the twenty nineteen or else it around and the T. sisters were there to sing a Beatles song all well and Lester and don were there two times come today people get ready I don't or just shoot the shit just gone well what are you guys up to and it turned out the teaser just fired their looking H. and western deal more kind of between things and someone will get in goal when he seemed weak play gig together and see how girls and so we made one in Union Square San Francisco's this park it's just a city block right the middle of the downtown right just a gathering place in front of the St Francis hotel there's all these fancy shops around and we've been playing there once a month every summer for like six shows every summer in the coming to this thing and the bodies just goes bananas we have a blast and so we say Hey we're gonna lacking in Virginia like in a few weeks you want to come we got a couple shows in front of it we'll get on a bus and we'll we'll try to work together see how it goes well the locking things match only thirty sister twins had their birthday while we're on the road and it was this family thing you have to mention so Lester at that time is eighty in the peak district twins I think had the thirty third birthday we basically got three generations all and and it just it was magical how much fun it was so we go how but if we just like finish the year together and see how it goes well it went crazy to the point where booking agent is planning this monster twenty twenty twenty tour that was gonna be like large clubs small theaters you know I would wind up with seventy seventy five shows start at the very end of March %HESITATION all thank you yeah but chasing Crosby decides a negative for quarantine I'm just gonna hang with you guys because I'm in the middle of nowhere all by myself and I'd rather hang with you so we start doing it daily live stream and this goes on for four hundred twenty consecutive days %HESITATION it's Jesus in me and then as things open up we added people to two point one one else probably did ten of them but we did all these versions a Doobie decibel system and eight eight we just always while configurations every single day for a year and two months so you were never bored during quarantine no I mean forty was actually amazed right what wound up happening was that we went from being a review where we slapped three bands together and kind of alternated songs like like a songwriter circle right to we learned all this material it was everybody it was just brand new moon ousted was basically the style of the chambers brothers so psychedelic soul which is just this incredible is what you heard it at that %HESITATION okay schoolmates it's like church yes and and the thing is it big it combines can't what we were was a five piece champion right in your life killer vocals on top of it as you said apple two families so you have the family harmony with identical twins and they're slightly older sister which in their angelic he got Lester who is just the most soulful singer amber and dealing who's just an extraordinary soul singer and the five of the bland unbelievably and we get to play all this music but nobody else is too small man who else we basically you know psychedelic soul had this beautiful period from sixty eight to seventy one or seventy two but then slide to get into folk right right and you know then %HESITATION George came along with parliament Funkadelic it could get even more so right San Francisco went from being the home of kind of psychedelic soul bit mean for sure it almost funk right and so and even the chambers brothers moved to fox right and so we kind of look at and say well we're gonna just dial it back a little bit and do the second Aksel thing right up to the beginning fuck and that's gonna be our sweets we're going to find other stuff but nobody's planning so we're doing you're all I need to get by right which is Marvin Gaye right hand except we're doing it with two men and three women and berry slash on lead guitar and chasing cross Bianchi's Pete Sears on bass John Malone drops and so it just you know it takes it to a really interesting place yeah %HESITATION yeah definitely and in the original songs on monster hit but our version of it add something to it which is really cool well in seeing you on stage is a it's a spectacle yes it is right it's all total trip it is just so much going on so much energy coming from that stage when we played a local the baby so rustic all for generations so to the T. sisters had had Kobe's and so one of them is maybe seventeen months old the others maybe fourteen months old and the little girl or boy and they got their your protectors on right and they come on and they hang out on the stage and they walk around what what what just like just like the old pictures of the dead at Winterland with the kids spending on the stage this is precisely my point and nobody nobody did to imitate anything just turns out that one mom is in the band it's an afternoon show what are you gonna do the kids are gonna come up on stage and there's nothing and the point is it from an audience point you it's hello yes %HESITATION yeah it's great you know it's it's it's you know thank you because you have no idea what they're going to do well I'm Roger I just have to say what a beautiful thing to be able to have like you said at one point four generations everyone's having a good time no one's left out and it's a good soul funk music it's there it's feeding them and the thing is you know Lester is in so many ways the story of American rock music right right you grew up in in a huge family sharecropping farm in Mississippi I want to say that you had like seven brothers and four sisters something like them okay and you know huge family big one room thank you and his parents decide to get out of Dodge they went out to LA when he was like nine years old and the brothers started singing in church and you know they get signed to a label when they're in their late teens that's the very beginning when everything's happening right right so you know the right time is come today thinking like sixty six or something they recorded in sixty seven comes out sixty eight and it's a huge thing you know they start playing people get ready pretty much of the time it was written because Lester was super close to our main road and so you know they get going with that stand out and there isn't anybody who sounds like that %HESITATION no and while covered was going on the incredible quest love find the archival video from the Harlem culture festival nineteen sixty nine right which was six consecutive Sundays in a park in Arnold and it's the royalty of black music nineteen sixty nine right so it's Stevie Wonder when he's nineteen years old %HESITATION %HESITATION and if you haven't seen this thing it's on Hulu which led me to it yeah it's amazing it's just unbelievable raise my hand we get checks right you know it's Nina Simone it's B. B. king its slide at his absolute peak and you know but it opens the chambers brothers and then Leicester sings the song over the end credits and that happens almost finish all this attention focused and people are reminded that psychedelic soul suffering right so as we come back out you know we go he saw that movie this guy and %HESITATION and you know it's for all of us you know we could be a lot of different things as a band right we've got a skill but a lot of things but we have the privilege being able to play behind Lester chambers one of the N. N. D. U. N. you saying that it's a magic carpet ride all and no one we first are doing it was like last year's health was not good twenty younger every day all my god means whole experience of being in a working band again has been magical medicine medicine for the soul well I mean we always tell ourselves right that music is his medicine right it is healing and with a cluster you can clearly see it and you know the challenges that we have to be respectful of the fact that some are not yeah yes yes because it is really dangerous at the end we all want to be done with it but it's not done with us and so we've had to ask our fans to be patient with us while we find a way because you know nobody wants to be at the show where Schwester or Pete get sick in a way they can't recover right now absent that's respecting that's respecting them in the music and each other and it it is what it is we can do this for a long time everybody can stay healthy yes we think that's the that's the key thing and the we've been live streaming everything right so if you know the places we don't but we still get to see it right right No moon Alice dot com is an archive it's not a normal website it's got a landing page looks like a normal website but if you go in the archive you'll find any show we've ever played oh wow okay posters for every show right we've got you know we're now up to thirteen huh the next poster we number thirteen all right all I gotta ask you pretty cool well this is Jim very cool very cool what was the beginning of this journey for you not moon Alice music %HESITATION so I grew up in a huge family in upstate New York outside Albany okay a and I am much older brothers and sisters and it's a work that perfect H. for sixty me I was a kid right I turned twelve in nineteen sixty eight but they will work eight ten and twelve years old %HESITATION wow perfect the I'll never forget the Grateful Dead played in Troy New York I think in like nineteen sixty at everybody I mean you know they get in early and I'll never forget the story my brother John coming back from from college that his roommate who went on to become a very famous professional football player says George there's a new guy Qatar player do is first US tour we're gonna go see don't ask a question to shut the fuck up you Jimmy hat es gonna die yes %HESITATION my two older brothers both went to Woodstock right because when that far from where where we live and so that kind of stuff was around the house all the time I mean I used to listen to Alice's restaurant with my father every night listen %HESITATION country Joe and the fish feel like I'm fixin to die rag you know that kind of music my parents were my father really like these and so it was just you know for whatever reason was completely part of the scene so that was the beginning so I knew when I was twelve years old I was going to San Francisco %HESITATION and in nineteen seventy six and a girlfriend who was from the bay area and so we went out and moved to bear it seventy six and first thing I did was go to the poster map which was the the poster store %HESITATION in North Beach San Francisco and %HESITATION you know I wanted to learn about posters because I had a book they taught me about Stanley Nelson %HESITATION west Wales yeah Victor Moscoso Rick Griffin recreation yeah and and I that's what I I went to my first Grateful Dead show in nineteen seventy three that was the next question Watkins Glen you know look it up still the greatest set list I ever saw I think we all feel like well no but look at this one this one is I think okay I'm not saying it's the great sure you could ever have but for seventy three it's a really amazing setlist and they let you up well I was seventeen years old now with this I was lit up when Iraq read more lit up and %HESITATION it was it was a magical experience and you know it's the Grateful Dead the band and the Allman brothers tonight I got to see the band a bunch more times the all it's a lot more times but I saw the Grateful Dead a couple hundred more tabs and %HESITATION you know the yeah it was love at first sight I know the feeling and yeah and you know when you're when you're on the east coast it was a different experience when you're on the west coast yeah you know you had more availability particularly in the eighties right up by the eighties the Grateful Dead were they were just playing a lot more shows these coasting you know if you were sexually position in the northeast you could go to ten shows without having to sleep away from home yeah well I I had to take a month moment to find the set list because I was very curious yes okay so open with the Bertha beat it down the line brown eyed women Mexicali blues into a box of rain here comes sunshine %HESITATION looks like rain row Jimmy Jack straw deal and then %HESITATION playing in the band set closer and then we come to said to which is loose Lucy big river he's gone into truck in nobody's fault but mine el Paso China cat sunflower I know you rider Stella blue eyes of the world sugar magnolia and sing me back home they played their everything yeah okay so the only point I'm trying to make about that sat what is that it you know I'm seventeen years old the prototype of the wall of sound apple for it got really weird right right and why can school and they were doing the first experiment with time delay speakers you know huh right and it worked and I was perfectly positions when all looked and sounded great and you know it was it just it was a great introduction to a great scene and the incredible thing was that you know I want a couple hundred chosen I never went backstage I didn't know anybody in the band he's call Scott but then I moved to west coast permanently in ninety one and from that point forward things changed and after Jerry died the band was trying to figure out how to support it's very large frame because at sixty some odd employees were dependent to and ninety nine %HESITATION actually in in ninety eight I got a call could I help out sh and that was something else the call actually comes from this guy who was like a real estate promoters and I said look I I don't know who you are if Peter McQuaid from grateful that productions calls me I will talk to you I'm not just going to talk to you because you say you're working on a project for the anyway peer coaching situation it's got a real estate goes flat talked me sh anyway go in and meet with them and I hadn't met Bobby wants at some charity event but I had never been interested and I'm bored me and he asked me what I think and I go to I know nothing a real state but I can tell you something dead dot net the thing where you're doing commerce directly with your fans that is the future and every band's gonna want all you have to do is create a a version of it that allow other bands to service their fans the same and they will federation and so I spent three years working on that idea and you know I had two rules I would never be involved in anything that resulted in the sale of the fault okay national treasure that's a great if they ever disagreed about the strategy I was gonna walk away in the end they decide big big day got crosswise on the strategy no problem when I was first last and always right %HESITATION but that was an amazing experience right and then you know your roll the clock forward so bunch of incarnations are happening between you know and %HESITATION %HESITATION because of that when Bobby and Mickey the political Vance initially for Bill Clinton and for Al Gore and that sort Kerry and some of the politicians they would invite my old band find other posted to be there and while they were the front and so I guess we did probably ten or twelve shows with them oh man which I am deeply for Bill Clinton what when you press the United States congratulations on what hi to beyond that one right this one and we join you on stage and while I'm doing this right well here's about Grateful Dead so you want to meet me and so he goes through his contact it in the treasury department a woman named Cheryl Sandberg and name that would come back to play a role in my and it says I've got to find this guy and so she introduces me and one was on a roll back of course that leads to my investment fund elevation which leads to one else eventually playing a game with you too all statements Oakland that was that was in the in the version two areas we have more what year is this Roger I once it does twenty twelve okay okay just kind of getting a timeline yeah thanks so so I've had these wild musical adventures right and you know I mean what else is played several gigs with with your work how can it what jackass initially and then we get back to your mom a couple times like we backed them up when you're at lock which was a trip and so he's had us play at the ranch a whole bunch times while you course he's taught me a car I mean he you know he and Jerry were pretty much my idols musically we do a lot of other guitar players who influenced me but in terms of wanting to be a guitar player I thought I would share the Tatian blues right like everybody else and gone this is gonna take me my whole life to learn the song it turns out that was true but what do you think Roger the I've asked a lot of people's question N. M. I've asked myself this question for over thirty years Anna I just am curious what your take is in on it what was it about Jerry that made us feel like we were experiencing him singing to us so I have it let me tell you about my one personal encounter with Jerry which I thinking capsule it's the whole thing okay great it's nineteen seventy five I'm working for my school newspaper and the jury being it is coming to play in our town so I tell the editor I'm gonna go and do an interview of Jerry Garcia and right up the shop I persuade a cartoonist to make this really cool cartoon of jury that's going to go with the story so I go for soundcheck because I'm human soundcheck and shell so I actually get to watch a subject and this is the era of you know where the jury band so it's seventy five and while Nicky Hopkins is playing piano and Nikki in those days was a little worse for wear okay and the result with the soundcheck start way late and it ran really well and it's super obvious to me like soundcheck in forty five minutes before doors and so there's like no time and take this big Steve parish and jerk him off the stage and it came up to Steve yes I'm really sorry Roger we just we have to go eat dinner for just six so why just say hi Richard so here's the entire and this is verbatim my interview six right yes I go Hey he goes Hey that was the whole interview perfect I felt like I was in the presence of right and you know it what is that thing you're describing I mean I know exactly that and yeah I was at the show in Washington DC with Dylan was playing with %HESITATION Tom Petty in our precursor where sherry had the first you know when the diabetic coma the pre symptoms kick it and you know the world the show I want to see the second set was like twenty minutes he was in terrible shape and my brother came out of that show gone every show we go to no one we got as soon as the last one I think it was really interesting is that there were nights when Jerry didn't have that same but there were so many when he did that you kind of it kind of made the ones we didn't totally okay because it showed he was killed nine and you know like I was a telluride when he was having problems with the up with the altitude right there was like ten thousand feet and they get to the end of the show they're trying to do broke and he starts with the first instead of the bad intro so is he singing the wrong words on the wrong part of the stock and they had to stop and they do a restart to my knowledge the only time that ever happened %HESITATION %HESITATION and and we're all looking at each other gonna huh so this is like a year after the Tom Petty are gone everyone counts and %HESITATION right that's kinda chilling you know it's still seven years before the end oh my gosh it's it's still nothing happens right away I mean the we don't see the effects it's you know happen usually background and the thing is he was battling demons right yes you know and the thing is that's real life almost all of us have the battles were yeah and you know we're just trying to make the best I mean I would call that has really done is to create battles that we all have to fight I think that right before that we all have our own yeah it's interesting that we all share and I think I think trump did the same thing right you know my battle against Facebook is the same basic problem it's it's a thing that we all share mineral Preciado the same way we mineral feel strongly about but I think the thing that defines the moment that we live in now it's supposed to nineteen ninety five is that there are these huge issues yeah there were collectively face and when I turned my coping you know exactly what I mean yes abstract idea yeah no not at all we played four hundred twenty consecutive shows in your media reactions wow you interesting Cordy yeah very true yeah you know in the truth was if you watch those elections they started out on an iPhone right same the same with us after about a month we realize we're stuck doing this for a while sure we shipped up robotic camera which we you know we would normally take with us on the road and the robotic camera just sat there so that our video guy who lives in San Diego could put on the shelves Hollywood way up and you know we start putting through mixed board up with the beginning was first so primitive and you know Hey you know that's ugly it's yeah it's not a star that's how we started out with a win win March happened at you know we're like we're a live music podcast what what are we gonna do like kind like a band almost like we're totally turned into a great thing because all the sudden all the musicians were at home and they were bored and they were figuring things out themselves so what did you ever watch any of Richard Thompson's things no %HESITATION thing from home and I assume they're still wanna have a look around for a while but absolutely unbelievable I mean it's just I'm Richard Thompson but but it was so intimate in I mean you really had the impression he was right there in your role well I think the whole experience did something for us to in that room not that live streaming wasn't a viable source for entertainment prior but once quarantine happened we were all there that was our live music fix N. I think you're probably the one of the few people that we spoke into the can give like a educated answer to this question is like that intersection of technology in music and where you think it's going to show what was wild about currently was that we know of at least four people who saw all four hundred twenty shots whoa while we know of now they didn't see all of the necessary live but they saw them all kind of within a day right because that that we would leave them up right and there are at least another six fifty people who saw between two hundred fifty and three hundred fifty I mean it became a debt you don't think we it was a thing you're describing with that sense of community community really big change was when we figured out we could add chat to the to the moon Alice website because we were so mad at Facebook we decide we're going to go off of Facebook we had a chat in order to let people commute and it changed everything yeah because that was the big advantage being on Facebook with the people could chapel there watching right and and %HESITATION and so you know we went through the whole stop hate for profit and getting off of Facebook what was the straw that broke the camel's back with a clear you know I was involved in Facebook in it's very early days since I was five mark Zuckerberg when he was twenty two years old for three years after that so this is in the pre history of the company and in twenty sixteen you know I had been stopping vault in two thousand nine so seven years later okay I'm %HESITATION just on Facebook because you know I used to live and I started to notice hate speech targeting Hillary Clinton coming out of Facebook groups that were notionally associate with Bernie Sanders but what was weird about it was that people were spending money to promote this hate speech about why would somebody do that that's really weird and then I saw what a couple months later Ruban Facebook was using the add tools to collect personal identifying information about anyone with expressed an interest in black lives matter and they were selling that information to police departments so people get harassed and then breaks it happens in June of twenty sixteen and that was when I realized oh my god you can use the ad tools Facebook undermine Alexion and so I got a lot of information I went to mark Zuckerberg show Sam Bergen October of twenty sixteen so ten days before the US election and I sent them a memo and I said I think there's something about the culture this is Paul and the algorithms of Facebook that are allowing bad actors undermine democracy and violate the civil rights of innocent people and I'm gone I don't think you want to be doing shit yeah that's definitely this is like what happened at Johnson Johnson I do put poison bottles of Tylenol in Chicago and killed a few people it's like you're supposed to stop everything %HESITATION yeah yeah yeah I mean a recall and my thought was what I had once been there meant I wasn't expecting to roll over but I was expecting to which take it seriously and I spent months banking but the Texas so I became an activist in and so by the time code came along I've been an axis one tablet Europe band your choice you cannot run a band in America today with or a podcast right you just can't do it and you know I took myself off him but you can't take the pan off it just we have four thousand fans on Facebook and we're incredibly highly engaged and so you know we were stuck with that and but what we didn't do with this one stop pay for profit happened in after George Ford's murder sh we joined the small rebellion took place that and stopped broadcasting on Facebook %HESITATION okay and it was I mean it I was particularly well received but it was like people actually understood when we went on explaining it and Leicester dealing one on and they did a thing that we left on our home page for over a year where they described what it was like to be black in America hello with the George white because we have a mostly white audience we thought you know maybe you will understand this the way we do if you understand it from the same sources we understand from right and so you know that got everybody totally support and that you know that was like B. two and %HESITATION and you know it worked out great and you know it's this is the world we live in technology has someone much influence our culture right okay thanks that our music you cannot escape the questions can you find a way to coaches what we're doing now yes we are using technology to establish the relationships and maintain relationships that we would normally do with a seventy five two hundred twenty five show your touring schedule right and to do that and that's a bunch of so for the first time we've record with we got signed to a label called network in Vancouver %HESITATION congratulations thank you last year and we have now released the first seven songs the first EP were working our way through to the second EP and building audiences on Spotify on apple music on Amazon all the other platforms and we're asking her fans to humorous saw us and to embrace streaming for now because if we're successful stream it's gonna make a huge difference to what we can and you know most people have some streaming service and so what we're saying is Hey look we're gonna put stuff up there and if you don't mind the game with us and you know we'll keep streaming shows for free we're just asking you to streamer music on the services ten people been doing that and so we're going from a tiny base what we're building the things were supposed to do and it takes a while it'll take us at least another year to get real scale but that's okay well I mean what does that look like as far as the I know that it's four twenty somewhere has like how many million downloads direct work point six million but that was from our website right you know that was that was obviously the card that's hard to reproduce right the rock and roll hall of fame has a place in its archive for that song because no other band never had more than a hundred thousand how how did that is that it just blew what if that's a testament to cannabis look a bunch of things converge we found a we created an ad in the early days of Facebook which we left up for four years %HESITATION okay the ad %HESITATION was essentially grandfathered because it it it it simplify the process of the downloading really dramatically and so people got this song varies and %HESITATION we left it up for a lot and Steve yeah but the thing that happened was each year around April first the downloads with spike and so we would do half a million downloads in the month of April each year and then you do another half million over the course of the rest of the year that really is a testimony to cannabis ticket yeah well in technology to this band's first gig was a medical marijuana benefit you call it San Francisco in two thousand and seven when I will tell you the politics of legalized cannabis we're not the same as they are today and it would you know with us the merman %HESITATION and Jeff Lydia pense and cold blood it was wild and %HESITATION yes so this band was incubated yes while the medical marijuana liberation movement and so we wrote this song and in fact I mean the thing we we we don't make a big deal out of spite and wrote the song with Bonnie and and you know it it's like this little unknown thing about it that it has some while Roger he used Sir are %HESITATION an indignant and an inspiration well I'm certainly weird for real man like and in the best kind of way to ask your you know a lot of people would if you say the word like a dead head word musician they think you know a guy second nature sort of a balloon with dreadlocks or you know whatever but that's because they don't now right one of the things so went the day the jury died was also the day that Netscape the guys who did the first popular web browser I remember it it went public in one of the highest profile initial public offerings in America and because of my job in Silicon Valley John Markoff the technology portion your times calls me up to do to get a quote about the IPL we spend thirty seconds on that niggas okay now let's talk about Jerry an hour talking about Jerry we are everywhere John Markoff New York times tech reporter par excellence I grew up in the bay area was a huge as though he wants to bring the story in here I get quality alongside the governor of Massachusetts Bob Dylan yeah well %HESITATION the senior senator from Vermont Nancy Pelosi right I'm gonna save the first six or seven times yeah I meant to close it it was backstage at either some Grateful Dead related thing post Jerry or UT you too thanks what lay into that kind of music and all that's the thing the dead the dead at a mostly white audience right well I it was very independent of career and economic straps yes in a while and then it %HESITATION say who blocked it the jury gets guitar right you know owner of a football team and data you know there it always had tweet one of the things that I figured out because I work in the vessel you know I would when I was back east I'd like to go shows it St mass is quicker right there's a brand new box set coming out of a bunch of shows in the early eighties and masses worker and those were incredible shots early bring here's were great here so yeah and I've always wondered what %HESITATION sitting up front and it turned out that the front five rows were always whichever investment bank was doing business with the guys who owned Madison Square Garden some years would be Morristown senior beach goals such if you want to set up close we had a noticeably in respect now you know I was nearly popular enough to acquire okay you know qualify for that right but when he pleaded MSG the front five rows were really rich people what %HESITATION not because we're picking not because they were paying that way was because they're paying some other way yeah yeah find me a scene shows in Vegas where people would get tickets from their hosts exactly okay and and the thing is that's kind of the way it works right right right if you went on either side of it like you know if you go to the spectrum or to Hartford or new haven or Albany Boston or caps center in DC area %HESITATION we told everybody gotta catch syndicate have always politicians the cap center was my first when I my first show was in February of eighty nine in ninety and ninety one I went on tour and memory ready not yet I was for sure at the LA forum February twelfth nineteen eighty nine they opened with feel like a stranger and I was done %HESITATION but I went on tour and the cap was the first east coast show I ever saw we drove this seventy one school bus across the country to make it to the cap center October okay so so caption was great right if for folks who never been there so it's a basketball hockey read right right what they figured out before anybody else did the concerts were gonna be huge deal and that the bathrooms in work yeah they didn't have enough ladies rooms so they invented something called big jock and each end on one end of the lease from the other is a men's room they have they built this extra giant room outside the bank it was nothing but toilets and I want to say what was it fifty urinals in the men's one I have no idea how many stalls when is what the result was the cap center was I mean as long as you're willing to walk to your gender bathrooms you had you know a place we didn't have to stand in line which is pretty fucking unique yeah my favorite driving story nineteen eighty airplane actor at the the place on Long Island %HESITATION in Uniondale a we live in a way that the next in the FIA yeah I can't think of the name of it right now I'm I'm trying to get it to but the so I'm going from kinetic it down there and I'm driving the van that might be induced to move its gear around and so it's an empty Econoline vans so there's no seats except for the front to okay and it's raining which doesn't really do it justice it's raining at the rate of about one inch an hour generating I gotta it is calming down like nobody's business and at the end of the show I'm with eighteen other people were in the back of them and they're all chip in their brackets out drive home without any help in this ridiculous stop poor because in those days for whatever reason no matter what because I didn't drink at all it was a state designated track and I'm driving this it must be at least a fifteen year old really beating up Catalan is always people sitting in the back and they are not helping at all I can't see I mean it's literally sheets of water on when she does it does well email you should be fine and and the thing is that's how to were always what I mean you shared what I'm gonna share one with you so we're at shoreline same school bus that you're gonna this said be ninety ninety one okay the ninety shows the chore lied that they put out the amount of set that yeah yeah those are fine good stuff man so everybody's tripping the but when we got there the brakes on the bus weren't working very well this is a thirty five foot blue international school bus seventy one international school so we leave after the show we're all out of our minds and we're gonna go up to San Francisco and we have a friend that has a place where we could park the bus overnight and I first time ever driving the school bus in San Francisco and it was when they were doing construction on the one no one and you had to go get off the one on one to get in and go through the city and then get back on the freeway and I get off the freeway and go to hit the brakes and they go to the floor all the way down and not in the bus isn't stopping and so I have another guy named Erin Erin Erin and he's sitting on a tool box next to me by the driver's seat I'm driving and I would go pull it and he would pull the emergency brake in the Basra governor Herbert and we can stop the stop sign next one well it the same we made it I I tried to stop short of that experience but yeah that was the thing right I mean I got to see the dead and I don't know probably twenty five or three different states in the United States right got him a lot of different settings and data %HESITATION you know it was it was amazing thing and then to get to know them later on than to spend ten years with big Steve parish in my own house you know M. seeing our shows and him working on the pattern that became his SiriusXM show and up %HESITATION you know that whole thing allowed you know that that put a beautiful %HESITATION exclamation point in my years being hacked along I mean you know will give an example so when fairly well comes along %HESITATION I'm initially very suspicious because I just didn't think was possible we captured the scene how do you get all the old folks to come back it just didn't seem like right particular joint Chicago but peach Piro who put on very close friend my call I don't think this gonna work you know you everybody come to Chicago they gonna buy their tickets from Ticketmaster missile subgroups Griego's well what if I did a couple shows my bearing I go great and what if you sold the tickets through mail order yes that's a really good idea let's do that so he goes organizes to really shows in Santa Clara and he buys out Ticketmaster so the dead console the ticket so now all of a sudden the old guard all can be either it was so good right now we have a gig we're playing at Sweetwater the first night as the you know opening act to the live stream of the show and so we didn't get to go first we want the second and it was matchpool power yeah bill Walton concept across I need to meet me there thank god you're kidding I'm gonna go to a Grateful Dead showing hello all okay our top at some bills got all these things for all of us and we're going and hanging out in the friends and family section at sample on the floor right members giant football arena it's just opened up and they don't yet have the rules for concerts I think it might be the first for second concert there so it's like zero security I mean everything was a piece of cake they parked everybody on a golf course right next to it it could be easier okay everything since then it's been a nightmare but that should it was classic Grateful Dead thing everything worked out great and we get and John Kasich check do our own our battery slash up leave while Scott law we're all there together so I'm really watching the show with five guys who make their living %HESITATION marks right now we're sitting there together and and you know %HESITATION it it's unbelievable and mountain girl comes up to me because I I can know her from rex foundations of things and she goes you gotta get big Steve to come up I'm going excuse you gotta bring Chicago thank god he is not he's called historical goes Roger you have to do it we'll we'll we'll we'll make it work for you so Steve do something so this is this is Saturday night the shows the following Friday were also playing in at Sweetwater took for the opening of the Chicago one so we can only go for the Saturday and Sunday and we don't have tickets we don't how terms so one girl hard Mickey's wife and the ones that will take care of all of you we have tickets wristbands passes everything you just need a hotel in your place so we're a little good at getting going to the car I'm getting your playing reservation and hotels incredibly we can get the Hilton which is one of the really close to the tells yeah we get everything from big city and we drank in Chicago and there's a guy with a massive nitrous tank and giant black balloons little with in the front of the hotel big Steve gets the next one on the way in and he's like definitely aka the first the Saturday he won't go we're going Steve you've got to go she got your seat on the stage it's ready to go you're gonna be the star of the show you gotta come and so the next day we drag him through the state I mean look we track him and he he got I have never gone in the front way %HESITATION all Carol and my uncle they come out with cheapest in the previous to the stadium and we literally sneak in through the school locked up saying that a big part of how the cure when in behind the stage because Steve will not go in with the ticket we get in there and and %HESITATION Robbie Taylor meets us by the stage take Steve on there and legally they brought a chair that's like the cherry would have sat in and they parked it turns into %HESITATION your stage and we go out to our place and of course in other shows were we were there was more spiritual thing and I I after after the first ten company show in Albany New York I hate I hate done a live stream of the second set and they sold ten thousand tickets for the New York shows like over the next twenty four hours while those shows went from not sold out sold out and I don't know how much my video help that but it wasn't zero because it got me got shared everywhere and so they invited me to come to New York and so on the second one from the stage because they realize that last year was gonna do and I'm just doing optimal space right right now this page has he's the first to get in touch hello it should be you know we start out by doing actual HA gives us a tour of the stage each person's position sugar gear and all that stuff before the concert begins in all this going out and you know and %HESITATION and the thing about it that was so amazing what is that right I can see where the John Mayer is so into this too so we'll prepare and and we're goes you know I always feel terrible for track because one of the guys in the band in motor hers one guys against all of it as an encore which is completely right we're just going to say for a while by far the barrels what many say but the rest of us were sitting there going we really want to go right it kind of so it is like the beginning of something that was both of those things were fine yeah and but the difference was that Tracy had to learn a hundred songs and he had like eight or ten hours rehearsal I think which is not enough and and so he was basically went in and you know there were some software that was pretty obvious but I such magical guitar player you know he he carried it off that does shows made me I was in you see behind us the best thing right here I was never officially until fairly well those shows made me fall in love with Trey I was like oh my god and the thing is it's fish is a different bank go totally but it's a real thing and it was really easy to understand why people love it I'm much more into the electric focusing of the Grateful Dead but but I totally get why people love fish and you know totally respect their scene right and a lot of shows they got it going on man that's for sure yes you can and you know but the thing that was so interesting about this was that you know I went to a couple dead and company %HESITATION Herschel's and I mean I heard John may hear you that last little bit of playing in the band you know right for because my bum bum back into the last chorus mmhm you know there should be coming out of the soul in the process thank I probably heard him run that one phrase twenty five times in a row had it absolutely right to have the tone perfect it's a scholar is a is a scholar he is deeply committed and so respectful I mean that's the thing right and what they're doing right now is so good to end this senseless you look at them I mean she's there was a second set the other night K. R. I was looking at just going oh my god this is incredible and you know the great thing about Dan company at risk I have much respect as any song can shop anywhere in the set you know that's true yeah right if you didn't get deal at the end of the first set you weren't going to get right right right in the middle of the second set and it was like well that's cool right right and and you know it used to be a birth that was either first treat never heard it and right in Hey but through the rules away yeah and and that's important I mean that's that's this music is about throwing the rules away exactly exactly and and you know things were always helpful sometimes get decoupled now right and sometimes it's a good thing that's how we end up with new shit yeah locate a place Scarlett without playing fire yeah right for sure you know it it's %HESITATION you know it it that's that's all cool thanks yes you know who else has had this long thing around that world because John Malone was the drummer using the other ones right right and %HESITATION he was in for Phil Lesh and friends what the queue which is kind of the canonical version of that right and all the early versions of the ones with you know with dragon and all that stuff is so good you know and then buries last played down in king Fisher originally intended selection friends and now he plays with Bob we are in India wolf brothers %HESITATION the Sears was a neighbor and close friend of Gerry played a lot of shows to Jr %HESITATION you know and so Jason Crosby still place fill me right now is that what Jack's brown but you know includes all too and so there's that stuff is pretty deeply in our thanks so in our repertoire you know we do our own arrangements of several Grateful Dead songs and once we do a really surprising to people right because we do bird saw but it's the T. sisters sing and you just never heard of perverts off like this because the harmonies are so perfect we do I think of of version of uncle John's band I'm really proud of we do a version of attics I caused again if you got those kind of vocals the F. those harmonies you know and don't chambers this killer hard to handle okay you know and it's it's like the music lives on and it lives on I mean whether hundreds and hundreds of dead tree trimming skull and roses it's like you know SO fun hoping somebody would keep track of set list of the whole thing so you could see Wilson yeah great Saturday I heard Casey Jones was was Russian Casey Johnson trucking with the two sides it showed up the most I don't know cats under the stars that was ours now yeah hi you know the point here is that that the scene lives on a lot of work ever %HESITATION err yep it and you know I think for any of us who were there certainly by the late seventies you realize there was something going on that was gonna last a lot yeah died it wasn't at all clear was going to happen with it but remember both dark star orchestra in cubensis we're already playing Grateful Dead tribute forgery all right you know it in some ways those bands we seem more authentic for a while then the official press one right it it really did start something with fairly well though Roger like I feel like I feel like whatever was conjured whatever energy was brought in on that day or those days was released out N. it started a a renaissance that is the current jam band scene well let me issue whether this happened to you I ran into in a Santa Clara I probably ran into for thirty or forty people that I had not seen since my last ditch I had a different experience I ran into a bunch of heads that I had met because of fare thee well okay yeah well that's cool too yeah for me it was it was wild all these people I hadn't seen since they were union family reunion it was a reunion and that was the thing that it least in my experience was not part of further into debt press that that they had actually a much younger audience which in retrospect was a great thing right right same with dead and company they brought a two hundred new people it right and you know of any went fairly well and honest to god sent a clear on the floor the average age I was probably pretty close to it well okay because it was you know because it went through Grateful Dead sickening yeah yeah anybody was in the database got the first cut yeah I I I stressed I'm true beautiful envelope and did the whole thing and stressed and waited and check the mail and yeah I was one of the few people in our whole friend circle that actually got tickets to the show and they got his M. envelope in the Chicago museum of natural history how they have that whole display or the field museum and we was weeping we're like turn your envelope did all my god in the M. man I got to say to the one thing from the fairly well I think we all felt that because I because I was as if the about going to Chicago iffy about what it was gonna be like everything and that feeling Chicago rolled out the red carpet first of all okay it was great it made it so hospitable all the pizza places did this our hotel here playing red dead over the PA in the water in the basement the employees all have height I grateful grateful what and then like they they lit up all the buildings they had the the laser shows on the building but shows I've been to a bunch of shows in Chicago and including at Soldier Field I mean Soldier Field is you know those old speaking of stadiums right that most teams you know there is something special like JFK in in Philadelphia and in the Rose Bowl and and you know concerts in those places just sound great yep %HESITATION yeah they're made Watson stadium in in in Eugene is amazing that we have that's the best I can with any shorter so the one last thing to live with me I think all of us that were there is walking out that night when seventy five thousand people are pouring out into the park and into the city here and chanting yeah not fade away like chess champion and then you have the drummers out there in the tunnels and I mean it hurt she just like the good old yes that's with me I was right I think you know just to get it and still it got weird in ninety four right you know St Louis and all that the weird stuff that happened in ninety four right or that you know you could bring as many people as you want to Grateful Dead show and never have a problem no no I never saw one act of violence I never saw any thing that bad a well that that's what we already asked me to explain why veggie burritos and I said it's really simple they don't spoil oil totally and the grit deadheads are looking out for that the other heads right we're not going to sell you something that's gonna make you sick yeah right this is everybody it makes so much sense but if you don't know the Grateful Dead senior appreciate why that matters well and this is one thing I was drive in a home today and I thought about this there's Grateful Dead and and people giving away tickets that is one of the only bands I've ever heard of the actual people give away tickets so that a friend or a partner or whoever can come don't pay me back just here's a ticket where I was because I was handed a ticket in Philadelphia in the front row so it looks good you got a miracle the front row tickets come again I only sat in the front row twice in one one of them was a miracle the other was a fluke all you have to lose quite a lot so I'm thinking that your little lucky you knew my full biography I've got plenty of things to compensate okay Roger I think it's feel better give us at least one I just I want I wrote I wrote a book about this which will tell you I've had serious health problems in my life at all no no it's it's it's amazing then you want I try very hard to you know live well so that the yeah we just have such a good energy about you Roger thank you you're just jovial like you're even here and excited well the thing is you sausage gold rushes I'm I'm in a band of really positive people right yeah our whole mantra is from the chambers brothers song love peace and happiness all right on we're all on a journey in this is such a difficult time there's so many things that are less than we would like them to be somewhere in order that we would like to and you know work depended on each other absolutely none of this is strong enough to get through this and so the thing you can do with music nothing we can do with one else is to set an example to go and sit there and say look this is a way to do it maybe like a music may be adult but look at what we're trying to do here so we just played Oregon country fair I wear my mask the whole time why did I do that I didn't have any singing parts and I wanted to signal to the audience you know what I'm playing with two people were needing cop number right next to one I'm gonna wear masks so you know that I'm looking out from taking care of my family with the men and and and the thing is it's not in a position on me I don't feel like it's a problem I think it's important and I think it's worth it and you know we try to be super open with her fans we we we take their opinions constantly about whether we should do this with that yet what's been really interesting is that we said well we really don't think we can play indoors the reaction was uniformly we're with you and you know it's hard to be a band but we can't plead or stop light is your friend California yeah sure the weather's right AT it's heart and but the reality is you know Lester chambers and Pete Sears their national treasure M. S. keep them healthy and alive yeah madam I need babies and their treasures to most of the crew and their treasures and so you know it's like we don't wanna play indoors because we don't want our audience tickets yeah I don't know if this is true in Portland but in San Francisco every indoor show super spreader effect right now and it's like where did you recently go %HESITATION haven't heard a lot up here but all the shows we go to it's it's it's not nobody's wearing masks and doors problems SO in concert and we were getting into the musician world it's like everybody sick all the time and we got a place you said early we we all got to figure out a way to it we because none of us want this to go away again we got to figure out a way to sustain it and to keep the trick I think is a script to look out for each other right now me and recognize that actually this thing is really service they don't really know what the long term effects are now now right and clearly some people are getting this long version of covert that's a huge problem and you know my basic point is you know we're here to bring people together right on your love peace and happiness and right now that also means love peace and happiness and taking care of our neighbors M. S. I'm with you a hundred percent of the time thing okay fine conscious and kind and that's we cannot share it do be is something in our particular tribe team is a serious setback fortunately we live in California where supply is not a problem yeah wait you know a lot of people who can prove their rolling skills because they were units of as yet it's weird that that that that because I was always been at thing and our community of that always ritual where however now you go by your pad I I've I've managed to dispensaries up here and everybody just smokes their own I go buy a pack of joints and you hand those out but here you go and smoke a joint handed out to ten people everybody's got their own but it takes a different experience but also equally valid right yeah and also respectful and kind and thoughtful right and you know as you said to our fans you know we've shared our last do and you know okay yeah but the music keep look a lot less light up twenty joints and smoke out every hello well well that's what happens if there's so much more smoke it shows because you're not lighten up that %HESITATION hit that ball impasse and everybody's got their own shit now and it's just so it's as bellows yeah it's cool to see how far you're taking the care you're onstage family April it's cool it's cool to see just period you know it we're at that phase it's not just the onstage families all well I guess both our fans are you know have a large number of we have a larger fans who are in our age demographic so many of them are vulnerable to and %HESITATION and so we're just trying to be respectful yeah thank you it is it's like now what I would encourage any please listen this is the just recognize it look everybody gets to make their own choices based the choices were making and if I feel like I'm join the truck you know like a god bless you right and it's it's you know it's there's no other rules of the respect each other and be nice I am happy with what you just said I'm making my choices you're making your choices let's respect each other for our choices and love each other regardless yeah if we could put all of that things would be a lot smoother right now Roger and we have a band that's a cross section of America right right your wife were old and young were male and female right all in this one and we truly are a family love each other and it really is obviously our planet show yeah it is right it's super obvious and the funny thing is we're we've all been playing for a really long time because I've never actually been a band like this before you know and and we're not quite sure how it happened but that's the other beautiful thing right it's like you go back and listen to the recording and you go up bristlecone on you know I don't fight anybody's listeners just if you go to one else dot com scroll down part way you'll see there's some featured shows check a couple of minutes what are some of your favorites like two two of your favorites on there so you're okay played it yeah let me let me let me open it up and I'm just gonna look and see what's there because I don't want to give you one it's not like really easy to find %HESITATION okay I think that the C. I love that he looked I know this makes me happy because I I I love asking that and then going back and watching what you had either fun playing or what you thought was great so there is a show from Sweetwater from February it was ours yeah we tried indoor before what well we had a brief more work that's a magical magical show I really really like that one okay and %HESITATION the redwood mountain faire which is June fifth of this year that's a really good one okay but you know it it's it's like they're all good yeah we I know we know it's it's not listed there but if you go to the archive the one I'd really recommend to people is the hog farm hide away which was months ago and so this is at the heart for writing %HESITATION we did get a lock of grand strand the exact and so %HESITATION that was a truly truly magical show on it I I need to get it put on to the featured show list so it's easier to find but you can there's a little bar below it where you can just put an end to adopt fireman Roger I I know that you're a busy guy and I appreciate you giving us this is a great and thank you so much right usually you guys should get Lester and the last we love to see you and actually I'm I'm gonna stop recording I want to ask you have tell you a secret what I I just wanna wait wait wait according to say I use one as a right also Roger thank you and I now see like I mean you're out there you there's a lot of articles you've written books you've done a Ted talk you're very sensible I'd now see sitting down for an hour with you you're very fun and engaging to talk to you and it is great to see your child like exuberance over the fall of what moon Alice has gone through it but common what it what it is now you were were all music nerds and they get to see that side of you being the music nerd that we all love cool super cool man thank you thank you also poster nerd %HESITATION so you yeah we got we got a closet full of du bois's over there that you would just freak out yeah well so so you know we did a thing called hate street art center which is up arts center and museum devoted to San Francisco's rock poster art and so we we have we really do believe in the posters and what else is it set the next one will be number thirteen hundred of them are so cool I feel like I need to go and just purchased that thirteen hundred one here are your books of all the posters which you can get away with we've got a small stack from a friend yeah yeah we got a few well you know on our four twenty show every year we we have an open call us we usually get back twenty or twenty one posters each year %HESITATION on that particular show he likes to get high thank you hi yeah I'd like to get high me too well I can enjoy a game behind element behind the low we got you covered in if you're in the Portland area defined premium cannabis has you covered you should go out to Hillsboro or force Grove and get yourself some of the dope is dope you ever smoked oh that's right yeah and if you swing on through the Hillsborough location Monday through Friday at the on their work and this apple that's where I work and I will personally tender but to get you seated with every need to go home get feeling good we've got one of my favorite products which is bath salts from my does your your new and advanced most relaxing bath in the world so if you're out in our area come visit Hillsborough forced growth make sure to say you are a listener of no simple road yeah because they will like shoot off fireworks and throw balloons clowns yeah %HESITATION they really get out you'll get you'll get ten percent off your purchase you'll get a free T. shirt what and then when you come back in anywhere that T. shirt that we have them on top of the ten percent you get fifteen percent every time you come in and we'll play hooky up this mother extra goodies to allow check that out right on you guys everybody out there with me good to find premium cannabis go to Hillsborough go to forest Grove you go to Hillsborough and you can say Hey apple from noticeable road tended my but it's cool but check it out Darwin is ready he's born ready he is not born ready to you know is the opposite of ordinary Americans born ready to eat treats that have a signature that's what he's waiting for he's such a good boy now we podcast because he knows will get praise afterwards his weights based upon like okay is it over so yeah you made it you're you're at the back and now what's happening we hope you enjoyed that interview with Roger thank you so much for hanging in there and listening to what we had to say that so so here we are Hey Hey this is what we're saying you know what it's been a I'm scared they're going crazy a lot of joking but I'm totally not instead on strange trip let's just say that then I guess lastly weeks has been a lot I I will go up this morning and make you know like when you you're not sure if you're getting sick or not like you wake up in your heads kind of foggy and you're not right and they get you I went into the kitchen and I was like okay coffee's gonna fix that's for sure coffee's gonna fix this and coffee didn't fix this and then I was that usually affects root for both thermo specially in the morning and then in that sphere Vicks vaporub I literally was standing in the bathroom frozen this morning just like staring at the wall going I don't know what to do I don't I don't feel right like I felt like I had a fifty pound bag of sand on my back and thank you I take a shower now do I just say screw it and go to work thirty who do I do and I I in the shower okay it's a lease still the shower I woke up yes I did I did wash that fifty pound bag all know the fifties now you better came with me through the shower into work when I walked into work this morning my boss is like what's wrong with you though yeah today's been a rough day in a rough couple one eight year you're still adjusting to the way which I don't blame man after get a work at home for over two years and then you got to return to the office setting that's the shock there it's a bit of a shock it's not just that it is for no reason it's actually less productive it makes no they're like well you only have to come back three days a week and you only have to come in five hours a day and then work the rest of the day from home which we all know once you leave work even if you're going home to work you're not really going home to work to be honest I mean these so what they did in effect to say you can work five hours three days a week I mean that's cool but it's just we need to really build building it's just the silliest thing ever but the I don't I was trying to like figure it out to them like okay there's a lot going on like you guys heard last week we moved our son out of the house and you know that's a huge change that's going on that I am still integrating what that means and what it feels like and it's hard and it's sad and it's exciting and all that stuff but then at the end of the show last week we Mel and I figured out that we could end up going to tab on sun %HESITATION yeah that's right you all heard about the bike that didn't realize we were record yeah so that was like our little like hi scream cone at the end of the day yeah but what was in front of that was Friday morning melon I woke up we got in the car at like eight o'clock in the morning seven thirty we took our time actually and we drove to California the long way well not the long I take that back the scenic route yes took the scenic route we went to a meeting at the meeting Jesus Christ we did not go to me went to a wedding it was a meeting of people but all the way all congregate or UPS will see what I mean we went home girl brook the brook and Ketan Mehta congradulations they are working right now Richard Hanks Helen letter that's right Chanticleer have a baby for life but %HESITATION but yeah so congratulations to the newly wed couple they are right now vacationing in kabo kabo Ronnie Mooney and so we drove down Friday stayed Friday night Saturday went to the wedding after the wedding went back went to sleep got up at four thirty in the morning on Sunday and pedal to the metal back to Portland where %HESITATION the speed limit pedal to the metal in fact went to tap danced all night and then it was a long long trip that's all I gotta say can we stay in the grosses hotel ever hello yeah it was pretty and it was pretty bad Ross is grass back there was okay was engrossed like there was bugs gross but at least you could see with our eyes may be microscopically but there was D. A. N. G. there was if you're in weird odors there was the door don't close there was oatmeal with open no closed lids gross blue lake it was lame yeah V. I. N. oranges in the fruit in the morning I I knew it was serious when you guys called me what was it Saturday that was Saturday morning and and it's funny because err errand sometimes your balances and exaggerates the Latin times and then he got he's all hold on he put it on speaker phone and I'm I'm like Mel was it that bad Melle Mel likes sometimes can sugar coat things make him sell themselves like you know it wasn't me yeah I would say it was bad what she couldn't come up with anything it was like yeah I was like was that the do do hotel is like yes if your listeners know simple road you've listened to the like the beginning of no simple road you know that I was homeless and stuff like I've eaten out of a garbage can I've slept in an abandoned building in under stair well I can handle some shit but this was fucking gross is that enough you wrote a bad review yesterday and you don't take the time to really know none of none of the three of us really take time to be like it's just like okay I won't go there yeah Erin no idea let's see Sam doing write a bad review to not like not like rude but like this is what I was issued a warning be aware yeah the where condition you're you're coming because this is the sad part we get there and I was kind of happy because we finally got to our location we just dropped off some stuff for the wedding that we you know at Brooks hotel her hotel was cute so I was expecting something adorable and like I walk into the lobby the lobby and it's cute they like had redecorated they've got like all these fun little trinkets and gift shop in like it's quiet to the lights are down except for the counter and it just it's actually really quite charming but then the dentist she's like oh your rooms on the side of the building you can park on the side and I don't know when she said side side side side I was like I said I was still happy because we were there were frigging exhausted at ten thirty at night D. going back to the room it smells like fabulous it smelled it smelled so weird like it was clean visibly but it smelled like cheap cleaning products and stuffy nous en the three so there was two beds the two queen beds and I you know I'm trying to be funny and like making jokes out there and about the bed didn't hanging up my clothes in the closet but they still kind of have that uncomfortable shoulders to my ears he'll end bed like I thought it was going to collapse in the floor oh my god as I was with you when I said I was like taking my time washing my face and brushing my teeth because I didn't wanna lay in the bed and later when I finally get it turned when they finally did it it was I thought it was gonna be a fight like in the cartoons when there's like the wood that is stretches and then just one more thing and you see all the fabrics of the wood stretcher brake that's the sound it made I and I couldn't I was like I don't know okay well maybe it's just this bad so I went and I sat on the other one and the other one was worse and then I was like okay you know what you tired it's been a long day just just getting bad man and I go to pull the the comforter back and the comforter was you know the stuff they use it's white and it's like fibers and then use it to stuff pillows yeah if you took that stuff and put it in a hydraulic press and made a blanket out of the red states that I'm not joking that's what the comforter was with like hairs and make shit like weird stuff in it that was the comfort okay yes %HESITATION that look on your face that was how I felt I think okay so I'm like okay fuck it I'm just going to brush my teeth and get better go brush my teeth yup based on my beard I go over and grab a tell and the towel is gray bro thank and I'm not saying that they the towels were great a match the decor they were once widely they were they actually looked like pink I ended up like salmon %HESITATION wiping my mouth on my shirt I was I am not %HESITATION I'm not showering here I and as I said before I've slept under stairwells I've eaten potato chips out of garbage cans a lot of things that I want to so I ended up sleeping in my sweats and a hoodie in the bed like kind on top of everything and I wake up at two thirty in the morning and the Bosphorus light from the hallway outside is blaring through the window and it's like eighty five degrees in the room and I was like that's fucking it to me coming here now it was bad but then you guys got over that yeah and you went to wonder I saved us I I was like I'm making a judgment call and I we're leaving and I found another spot it was wonderful is great and we had a great time yep and that's the and we set our friends from having the same fear is our our friends that we're also going to the wedding word at the same hotel we call they hadn't gotten there yet and we call them we're like changes right now man you know you want to come here come up with some excuse I mean I got into an accident I hope we heard that your place is gross we knew it anyway the whole food thing there was nasty to yet or not can talk anymore if you guys get yeah yeah yeah the plane not tried again grateful I'm grateful that we had a place to sleep at ten thirty at night we were exhausted from driving all day and I we just wanted to get past that part in our lives not really ever talked about it this one that we got it out it was a funny story I appreciated tire yeah exactly what I said to mo when we left there I was like well at least we have a cool story to tell now I'll tell you what though men in my life I've been I've driven all up and down California I've driven all up and down the coast but I had never been to the redwoods and I have never been to the coast of southern Oregon I've never seen any of that and so when we left we decided to take the scenic way down to this weird the wedding was done humble N. we drove through the coast of southern Oregon like from Florence down an arm down in the humble and through the redwoods at I had heard people talk about the redwoods before and and everybody that I've ever talked and talked to about the redwoods always is like oh my god you you won't believe it when you see it the trees are so big into my mind I'm like the other trees I live in Oregon like I've seen big trees before I have never seen anything like that before in my life now it is the craziest display of nature N. yeah pictures anything do it no justice until you stand by one of those treats even driving its prehistoric can't even driving you really do need to get out we do unfortunately we couldn't do it because we were busy driving but while yeah the expanse and the width and the curse of these massive trunks it was it's a wonder it's like looking at lake you know melting Helen or like whales jumping out yeah the other giants what is said that they'd be here so big that they create their own atmos our atmosphere weather system yeah that was like one of the first things I said the mail as we were driving we early Sunday morning as the it's like a wine D. road and we roll down the windows and I was like it even smells a different here like in the the forest has a I can't even explain it if you've never seen the redwoods and you have the opportunity go do it it's one of those things it's like a life experiencing like those there's an energy and vibe in that forest that's like ancient you can steal the wait ancient nature of that place it's a lot it's a very alive even out on the ocean side those huge like a haystack rock %HESITATION that you know those big stones it stick out like driving down the coast of Oregon those huge stones sticking out of the %HESITATION the ocean it was like this incredible feeling of big lake gargantuan nature like the earth protecting you on both sides even though it is kind of scary because it's the wind expose that whole dry lake and there's construction and shit it was a little not really in a couple point there is a couple places right in the wake of the wetlands are sweaty the one one's old and stuff's love soften it down Arlene yeah but that drive men like the drive down was the most beautiful country I have ever seen like every minute was a new oh my god look at that Mel was like looking at magazines in the car for collages are well I I was dealing with some really traumatic shit too I had some moms stuff going on it was really and it's still going on and I'm just gonna mention that and then that's it but I was trying to lighten my own spirits by looking at photos in doing something lighthearted and so I was not focused on nature so much an errands like every few moments look look look look look look and it was really cool to see you so excited for one because usually just driving not too focused on the range but it was cool everything really fun drive was the most exciting thing I've ever seen that's considered the most beautiful coastline in the world well not even the like the yeah the coast to but like the S. from the five to the coast at going across oh my god dude like that I think it's the encore river that's through there he was every around every turn is the most majestic Vista you've ever seen in your life and the next one is better than the one before it and keeps topping and males looking at magazines image and like look look look look at it there's birds over to look at the look at the ocean over them I couldn't be like I'd be crying the whole time I think if you just like looking at beautiful nature at all sad and frustrated and like anyone talk about a little I mean not really I mean you guys can talk about it and I can add my two cents in but I don't feel like talking about it because it's exhausting that's why yeah it's it's well so being in a courteous to my mom at the rate we are you know like we told you guys last week we are son moved out and that's a huge mmhm life changed for us for the house for us as parents the the whole thing like the whole empty nest is real that's they made that term up because that's a real thing that people go through and and you know the two of us Sir having to learn what that feels like and figure it out and deal with the heartache of it and the happiness of it and all that and then on top of that my mom got hospitalized lake the night before so we move Simon out and then we sent it to Tuesday night that happens my mom gets hospitalized Nexen days Simon it goes away then Thursday we're trying to figure out what's going on with my mom because I was kind of like paying attention the Simon out of commission and then it just like kind of escalated my mom's out she's fine it's just been really hectic trying to talk to a lake the facility that just nobody's got answers there like the left arm isn't talking to the right so nobody knows what's going on and it was just is like all these like really heavy at life some happenings in the same week all at once and then only in the same week and then yesterday it was wedding moving out a son moving out empty nest and then mom the concert %HESITATION yes ray that concert was the medicine counterweights the medicine that's really how I feel like I kinda didn't wanna go because we've been driving and I was tired but I definitely wanted to go do this tire yeah we're just tired and then so get ready take showers get ready go and it was the best thing that could've ever happened we you had a black we were to say the early to mail a male in the parking lot like let us know give a little precursor she's like I'm glad I'm here I'm glad we're here I'm not feeling the most sociable so if I'm not quite myself tonight don't you know don't like basically like don't don't bug me don't give me shit I may not be a sociable flash forward to little while later and found yeah yeah well it's an all over I want to go down on the floor we wave and it was all it was like so bad you know ninety six brings out this sadness in you and I just didn't want to be I don't want to be do you can you can you can I don't want to aid having fun with tap on stage now those musicians all together seeing it seeing Jennifer Hart's work up there I walked in and saw her beautiful figure she had a dope one piece outfit with the red belt and her glasses and her hair looks so beautiful and then seeing James Casey right next to her with his frigging smile on and his hat and like Reagan Russ Nablus resident Natalie was hidden from my view I know you were there but I saw a couple times but unfortunately like to where I was standing we guys block but they are all three of them are incredible and then the entire group is amazing yeah that and the edge field is such a cool place to see show it's so comfortable it's so like deals good yeah it does feel good there yeah even though even when it's also that this didn't sell out surprisingly but we went there with Billy strings even with Billy strings was sold out there was still room you can go walk down the floor whenever you wanted it's outdoors it's got like a Grove garden of trees up above to Jerry and I hate yeah there's awesome like bost was A. like copper bronze or something of Jerry down there it's it's a magical place McMenamins like does things right I mean just being there to is really helping me get out of my you know everything because honestly if something has happened it's already in the past so just move on and that's what I've been trying to myself except the specific situation it's been continuous yeah this thing has ended yeah this is it it's been continuous so it's been really challenging in the midst of everything and then said calls in the middle of every thing and not the next thing was said is planning on going to Florida to do you know you take a Jasper to see his grandma and they're gonna spend some time together and she was going to jet off to New York and meet Adam because swims touring is going to be this cute the whole thing and then hurricane or III her yeah Ian you know shows up as she was supposed to leave yesterday in reality and made landfall today yeah out a right decision was made yeah and I have a friend in Florida I love you Sasha hope you're being safe she her house is boarded up and she was like texting me back and forth I told Abbas initially good decision she's like her mom got evacuated the she's like it's it's in the middle of everything as of right now is over like two million people with no power yes there %HESITATION and then Sunday night and finish %HESITATION okay so the just the last thing is that I have to emergency fly out to LA so yeah to go hello Casper I want anyone to know the birds I'm not complaining but it's just been so if you don't notice my normal like everybody I love you and I still love you I still feel like that is just like everybody I love you guys are at also the cold saying that like the all the like with your mom there there's it's coming to a resolution and a good one and yes for everybody in the family yes no it this is like the most honestly lake this is my dream come true solution it literally is I'm very grateful for everything but it's just like the after you run a marathon you take a minute to catch your breath and to kind of like get that ain't you know adrenaline down in you know to kind of chill out you like did this incredible feat of like emotional hurdles in Tamanna and jumps in hoops and so sometimes it takes a moment to like come back down via Mars via childbirth like there's a lot of pain but at the end of it you have this beautiful baby that's there but it was definitely not like this like I don't want to come apocrine nursery and all that bullshit I think that it's it's just you know guys you've been with us long enough you've been with us through Syd's birth you've been with us like to so many different things and like it's unlike no simple road to not talk about our life like what's going on what's going on and plus you guys kind of feel it because you guys can hear it in our voices and stuff like that so I just want you to know that I appreciate being able to like vent this out and there's some really sweet hearts they always reach out on the back end and I always appreciate it so thank you for that and if you feel like you want to do that I'm totally down with that you don't have to wonder I'm always down for sweet gesture or words I'm super romantic that way but yeah I am I am I am good it's just like you guys all caught us in the midst of like a time where it's in the happening not over yeah Conan there is one and whole home for we get to wear because Sunday night show because that was their week my will mind easy in a nutshell right now and I can say this now %HESITATION but knows I work at the five premium cannabis and we've made the decision our our all our management laughter moved back to Arkansas which is unbearably kind of our general manager count everything we got a new manager who's awesome our my our owner is very involved now and we've made the decision and we also had a farm in a processing facility that like we're our own buds and to process all our own cartridges waxes like everything it it's a struggle doing all those things we've made this decision we're shutting down the farm the processing so that has been I got that I'm not a new title but more money and more recognition and everything's going good but it's been a lot of work and stress actually I mean not not Nestle bad stretch just a lot of things to get the pieces in a row so much today that I like busted a blood vessel in my R. it just happened it it my dad gets it something that happens but mine is is been working working working working working and and that's why Sunday night for these two to get back in time for us all to go to tab edge field as no simple road and get some love and life and music was the most incredible thing of the week that's my week does work my butt off and having fun with it and things are getting better and then just to celebrate Sunday night it was such an awesome all right there yes the basing it and I just before you roll over apple you really deserve all the accolades and the notice that you're getting because you have been working your ass off really hard the entire time you work for for him chapter four and half years ever not worked hard and now you're just working harder and for him to be directly able to see that because like pizza you know we used to work for the same company like our boss is always busy so he he didn't have to do is I do a good job but he didn't see I did have time to notice it he just knew it because things were and efficiently but it's cool to see you getting the recognition that you deserve at this time because it's well deserved yes thank you you're welcome and then Sunday also what you were gonna well Sunday before we headed to the show well we need to share with everybody well that's a that's a that's all one of the no simple road family passed away and %HESITATION he episode eighty six episode eighty six David Adam cast echo is a past guest of the show and a friend of ours mmhm him and his girl Christine we would see them at every show and and %HESITATION I got the news Saturday or Sunday morning the passed away Saturday night and %HESITATION I just want to send my condolences out to to Christine N. to his friends and family and let them know that we have them in our thoughts and that we love them and %HESITATION you know he was a amazing pioneer in the cannabis reform world D. is was integral in Oregon becoming a legal state and no we had him on the show early on in a it's a sad thing what happened was accidental fentanyl poisoning is what actually happened our you heard yeah I heard more so you know everybody out there just earful mmhm in a tester stuff things are weird and %HESITATION that's just how it is there any way we really encourage you to go back to that listen to that episode to to to get to know David %HESITATION this is that the CD is kind of a champion of the show a a me he really allowed us and then he came on he came over this was one that we did it this one of A. kind of the first ones that we did an in person yes I'm a lady came over he brought his to his jacket is G. one G. I. A. was %HESITATION he was a touring had like through the you know of any sport yeah the seventies on and it's one of those jackets you see from like the seventy is that there's no longer any gene material lab it's just like patches holding it together and like so much history is beautiful N. A. and we would see him and Kristin that earlier steam Christine sorry at at like almost every show what we just saw him two weeks ago I saw Matt %HESITATION Thielen friends we went gave a big hug in the parking lot there talk about house excited they were to be a tab Sunday night so when we headed out to tab we you know we decide it was on this thing it's like we dance for David tonight and we celebrate for David two nine and and what a night it was man what a night yeah it's a it's a trip to I don't know everybody always says that when somebody passes away there like I just saw the movie hello Bob you know what I mean like just because you saw them and no guarantee that you're gonna see them again but the trip when that happens and especially when it's somebody that's part of your Rep I mean it's a sad thing and you know I like I said our hearts go out and our thoughts are with you guys in the nose and throat family wants to do a little moment of silence for Davide cast called with us that would be so rad let's do it right now ready yeah thank you my brother has a lan may the four winds blow you safely home yeah so it's it's some so here is a look in the ride is there any more reasons that we need to do that we've had a rough couple hopefully I mean look here's the truth of it the bottom line it's Wednesday night right now right N. no simple roads episodes come out on Friday and there's no like I don't get in trouble if if an episode doesn't come out Friday morning nobody calls me and says anything we don't have to put an episode out but I know that a lot of you're looking forward to it and I know that like it's part of your week and so I feel an obligation to that and like I love you guys and want to continue to put the show out even though even when we're having a hard time there even when things are tough for weird and like it's Wednesday night right now and and %HESITATION I usually we usually record on Wednesdays and then %HESITATION I edit Thursday to go out Friday morning get everything ready and it goes up Friday morning and night tonight man I was up on the porch we're getting ready to come down here and I was just like my god I do not feel like doing this tonight thank doing the shop tour bus commercial and the defined day and like having to just be on right now I don't know if I can do it and %HESITATION I'm glad that we did it though I really am I it it helps it help it livens ASALA you you were you look like you're ready to go to sleep and you got life back in your color during that said it does help it is really is there a few days yeah yeah that's what's the matter it's medicine for us it's therapeutic because I was feeling like that too like all right it's not like ever that I don't want to it's just months sometimes I really feel like my mood is gonna show up too much and I don't want to and we will see each other more we bit bit bit you know I know we don't want to bring it to you if we're not into it and like you know assessed it doesn't have anything to do with not being into it it's like it emotionally right now I am spent which makes it hard to be into it but I still I'm still in the you know simple road a hundred percent it's just like I don't have a I don't have anything in the tank to give you know name yeah yeah that's what I'm saying it's it really is therapy it really is it's a it it sounds corny to eight I guess that could sound really corny but to me he could hardly walk crowd got it %HESITATION thing I got to tell you about yeah about that I love corny shit Cardi should I love corn each year you say this is gonna sound corny it's like fuck yeah bring it on good morning we were driving this is in Oregon there was like a farm stand on the side of the road and it was a hand painted sign instead it was huge red sweep across on for sale all right I so while back I had texted Mel we called like seltzer we caught fizzy water and I had texted her at the grocery she was working at the store and as a can you bring home some fizzy water but it auto corrected Fawzi well her so from then on it's been we've got some faulty water sounds better laws when we passed the crown sinus well that's profits crown from now on that file I will wish it would've been with you guys I wouldn't like we have to stop and it's wrong I the people who were selling street on sweet Jesus can we turn around it'll just take a few minutes we were trying to get to tab we couldn't do it good to have gone the way of our great now we'll never know about half hour later like we all know but just like with the funny as shit it's almost as funny as Hale stand instead of hail Satan I was like wait until spring it fells stand anyway hello yeah while it's crony well that's a hell of a week LA that I like I like the sweet cross in the head on a sweet note yeah while it could be as a recipe for sweet girl that reads it out then well if if the internet explorer that's where you go will only ship from yeah man it thank you guys for for hanging out with Dustin and listening to us talk about our stuff in you know I what else are we gonna do the show I'm not gonna I wanted to say thank you to everybody who's reached out to us after the Nathaniel episode %HESITATION %HESITATION serially sweet messages thank you so much for listening first of all and thank you for letting us know what it means to you that yeah it means the world to us to hear it yep N. we can't wait to see you all at at shows when they start happening again next summer and we're looking forward to little I'm fall and winter hiatus Green Day one what we're going to be hit local shows where his October fifteenth we're gonna go see %HESITATION poly with mix and fourteen the fourteen and then the next day we're seeing Terry there is middle finger that sound any gene and then %HESITATION what is there another one until November we have green sky bluegrass %HESITATION no no we're gonna see swim October twenty six at the wonder ballroom and they're gonna be with crooked colours and %HESITATION yeah and then green sorry November mmhm and then I don't know it's after the %HESITATION you know what is after that no I do not Mel and I officially scored a Mexico pay package for fish Mexico yes we did and we are going medical Mexico bound we're gonna go to your Mexican cousin again yep yeah so we're doing it and I'm super stoked and %HESITATION so if you want to celebrate our twenty fifth anniversary my guys it really is our twenty fifth anniversary guys we're gonna be there either the day before our anniversary or on our anniversary to twenty eighth so I'm not sure how long the running is the twenty seventh okay so we were we were celebrating our anniversary there so you know you wanna come celebrate your anniversary with us down in Mexico fish's playing our anniversary party it's pretty dope I'm just saying there should be others got an extra package they want it just gives me apple would be thrilled yeah it off your hands remember everybody we will be back next week with two more lively added more stuff and things too and we're gonna lick our wounds this week and they were gonna come back next week and is one of the bright things lotus today %HESITATION waking up today the rain has returned to Portland and the rain it was a beautiful day to wake up to see the streets wet and the smell all that pressuring and Patrick corr right yes yes it it's amazing I love this time of year yeah me too man it's this is the best %HESITATION I just want to say one more thing %HESITATION if any of you I'm listen or not listen but if any of you are our Instagram friends followers whatever I did a but cast called mom and me astrology I was there %HESITATION person for the libra season and it is the second to most recent episodes to go back it's Melanie Sheaffer %HESITATION it was a super cute fun interview about libra so check it out %HESITATION prosper all innate with my friends my homies Kate and Mary at mommy astrology yeah listen to Mel she knows stuff no yeah so we'll be back next week more stuff and things remember smile at a stranger each your cron background the third we love you guys these thank you