[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign listeners, welcome back to the Troubled Men podcast. I am Renee Coleman, sitting once again in Snake and Jake's Christmas Club lounge in the heart of the Clempire with my co host, the original troubled man for troubled times and future mayor of New Orleans, Mr. Manny Chevrolet. Welcome, Manny.
[00:00:34] Speaker B: Yeah, well, maybe future sheriff.
[00:00:36] Speaker A: Maybe future sheriff.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: We need thinking of it.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: We need some fresh blood in there, man.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: Yeah, I've been trying to be mayor all this time. Maybe I should hit, you know, go a little lower.
[00:00:46] Speaker A: Parking up the wrong tree.
[00:00:47] Speaker B: Yeah, the sheriff man.
[00:00:48] Speaker A: Right? Well, you don't have as many eyes on you obviously to kind of do whatever you want over there.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: Your little fiefdom, our Sheriff Hudson is on the hot seat right now.
[00:00:57] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:00:58] Speaker B: Sheriff hot seat. They should call.
[00:01:00] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:01:01] Speaker B: She's an idiot. She had so much promise too. I remember when she got elected, we were like, hey, man.
Because we had Gusman, remember?
[00:01:09] Speaker A: Marlon Gusman ran it for many, many years. She was a monitor originally. Hudson for years and then. And was a critic and reformer or, you know, keeping an eye on him. And then she ran and unseated him and.
[00:01:25] Speaker B: Right.
[00:01:25] Speaker A: And the very next year when Mardi Gras came around, they. They caught him using the, the sheriff's office credit cards to rent a bunch of hotel rooms down downtown, you know, and all kind of inappropriate expenditures.
[00:01:39] Speaker B: Right off the bat, Jesus Green comes.
They all just start. Start disappointing.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: Didn't take long to start compromising those principles, huh?
[00:01:47] Speaker B: Yeah, her principles.
[00:01:48] Speaker A: And then, and then the, the, the. The incompetence, you know, the lack of accountability. It's crazy.
[00:01:55] Speaker B: Well, yeah, because I remember, I remember, remember Gusman when he was still sheriff that last year, they took the jail away from him.
Yeah, they took it away from. I'll never forget this interview he had. And he sounded like such a pussy. He was like, I just want my jail back.
Give me my jail back. I was like, it's your jail.
And remember when he ran it, there was guns in the cells. They had video of people doing drugs in his cells and all.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:28] Speaker B: And now he's an authority on how to run a jail, you know, because they keep interviewing him now. Now that.
[00:02:34] Speaker A: Oh, I haven't seen him interviewed for this.
[00:02:37] Speaker B: Oh, no. All weekend long, you know, and the thing that. It was. So the last two weeks I had to work on a Saturday, so I got Friday off.
And I love Bold and the Beautiful, you know that soap opera?
[00:02:54] Speaker A: Really?
[00:02:54] Speaker C: I love that Rich Forrester.
[00:02:56] Speaker B: Oh yeah. Ridge and Hope and car.
[00:02:58] Speaker A: Wow, okay. He had a nerve here with Our.
[00:03:00] Speaker B: Guest, Brooke Rich is a good guy, but he just can't make up his mind.
[00:03:06] Speaker C: Big jawline.
[00:03:07] Speaker B: Yeah, he does.
[00:03:08] Speaker A: You watch that? Same story, Dustin. Where I grew up, everybody watches at home.
[00:03:15] Speaker C: Young and Restless.
[00:03:17] Speaker B: Young and the Restless. I used to watch a lot, but now that I'm older, it's like an hour show. I can't deal with it for a whole hour. Yeah. But whereas Bold and the Beautiful is just an hour and it's just like. That's just enough. Yeah, that's just enough. It keeps me waiting for the next episode.
[00:03:33] Speaker A: Okay. You know, keeps your appetite. Whack.
[00:03:35] Speaker B: But I've been trying for years to produce a.
A one man show on the life of Eric Braden. Whose. Eric Braden is Victor Newman.
[00:03:47] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:03:48] Speaker B: Yeah. I've been trying for years to get this off the ground.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: I can't imagine why it's. Why it's not getting any interest.
[00:03:53] Speaker B: I can't get any money or back there.
[00:03:55] Speaker A: Relatability there.
[00:03:56] Speaker C: Still doing it, right?
[00:03:57] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. And did you know.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: Right on that mic.
[00:04:00] Speaker B: And did you know that those Palisades. He lost his house and those Palisades fire. Yeah. So he'll get back because that's what Victor Newman does.
[00:04:08] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:04:09] Speaker B: He' all about revenge.
[00:04:10] Speaker C: He just buys up the whole mountain.
[00:04:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:12] Speaker C: He'll just do it all kind of how he rolls.
[00:04:14] Speaker B: But anyway, so I had these last two Fridays off and two Fridays ago, what would happen? There was something big news story where they. Oh, the Pope. The Pope died or they reelected the new Pope.
[00:04:28] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:04:28] Speaker B: So they preempted Bold and the Beautiful. So I couldn't watch it. Son of a. I was so pissed off.
And then this last Friday, the jailbreak happens. So it's all 247 coverage.
[00:04:41] Speaker A: Right.
[00:04:41] Speaker B: And so I. I'm trying to catch.
[00:04:43] Speaker A: Up who gets screwed when the. When there's a jailbreak. Manny. Chevrolet.
[00:04:49] Speaker C: I mean, Friday is the best episode, right?
[00:04:51] Speaker B: Yeah. Because it's always the cliffhanger, right. They give you that little tease for next week.
[00:04:56] Speaker C: Man, you really are from la.
[00:04:58] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah. And you know where they have emboldened the beautiful?
[00:05:03] Speaker C: Where.
[00:05:03] Speaker B: What's the. What's their big company, their fashion company's name?
[00:05:07] Speaker C: Is it Jerbo or not something.
[00:05:09] Speaker B: No, that's Young and the Restless. It's something else. It's like two words.
[00:05:12] Speaker C: Been so long.
[00:05:13] Speaker B: But you know, they make. They make their industry.
They have these exterior shots, you know, of their. Of their offices. And you know what it is? It's basically CBS's studio where they Film, Price is Right.
All those game shows and stuff, they just. They make it look like, you know, whatever it's called Jabot or whatever. I don't know what it's called, but yeah, it's. It's crazy going. It's this prison and it's national news.
[00:05:38] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, look, I was sitting in the D.C. airport last Friday trying to get home. I had gone up there to play with the Iguanas and Sunny Landreth a couple of shows there, and it's supposed to be an easy flight, 6:40 in the evening. Well, we had that giant storm coming through the whole middle of the country. So we're stuck there watching the news keep cycling over and over. And we're sitting in the restaurant, the whole Iguanas band, and it's all over. The national news is the New Orleans jailbreak. And then now, you know, a few days later, they still have six of them at large.
[00:06:13] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:06:13] Speaker A: And I think they're across the street and they could be. I saw those guys. I gave. I gave them a second look. It could be at least three of them right over there. And so, you know, this. This break unveils a real problem there. So that's the Orleans Parish Jail. Now, is that different from Orleans Parish Prison, they used to call it? I don't know if that's right next door. Opp.
[00:06:36] Speaker B: Now this is OPSP or something.
[00:06:39] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:06:39] Speaker B: Orleans Parish Sheriff's Prison.
[00:06:41] Speaker A: Sheriff's Prison. Okay.
[00:06:42] Speaker B: They're the ones. I think it's the one in the same. Because they maybe got all that millions and millions of dollars.
[00:06:48] Speaker A: I thought they had the whole new facility. And you look at it, looks like it's 50 years old. And so one of the guys that escaped is a convicted murderer.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:06:57] Speaker A: A very dangerous guy, but he's there housed with other people who just awaiting trial.
[00:07:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:03] Speaker A: For, you know, so, you know, that's. That's a problem right there. If they had me in there on a, you know, some charge, you know, overnight, I could be sharing a cell with that guy.
[00:07:13] Speaker B: Right. Well, they're supposed to have. Because that was the first four, first floor quad. They should have the violent offenders apparently, on the top floor.
The first floor is for just, you know, you know, guys who.
[00:07:26] Speaker A: Right.
Or just got picked up on a, you know, waiting to bond out or something, you know, over the weekend.
[00:07:33] Speaker B: No, it' it's, you know. Well, it's typical, you know, I think it's just typical.
[00:07:36] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So. So as a result of these violent felons getting or getting on the loose.
Several assistant DAs have fled town, fled the state with their families. Because the people that prosecuted this guy, they're going to come looking for now afraid that, that he's on the loose and he might come. Come looking for.
[00:07:58] Speaker B: I don't know if these guys are like cartel types.
[00:08:00] Speaker A: I just think they're still. They just look at those.
[00:08:03] Speaker B: What are those two? Those, the two guys. One, two of the guys the next day were in. On Bourbon Street.
[00:08:09] Speaker A: Right, right. It's like walking around, walking around in hoodies.
[00:08:14] Speaker B: They caught him the same day. It's like. Real smart guy. Yeah, yeah, I guess he wanted a hurricane or Thirsty Man.
[00:08:20] Speaker A: He can't get a hand grenade in. In.
[00:08:22] Speaker B: Yeah. In prison. Well, I bet he could.
A real hand grenade probably. I don't know. But yeah, it's a joke and we'll see what happens. I'm now, you know, I'm at the point where it's what, day four or five that these guys are out. I'm pulling for them.
[00:08:37] Speaker A: Okay.
It's going full Luigi on him.
Run Joe, run.
[00:08:44] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, I'll set up a tick tock for them or whatever.
[00:08:49] Speaker A: GoFundMe only fans.
[00:08:52] Speaker B: Well, the one guy I feel bad for because I haven't, I don't know why they haven't caught him yet is the one guy who has tattoos on his face.
[00:08:59] Speaker A: There's only one that has tattoos on his.
[00:09:01] Speaker B: Well, there's a couple that have them on their neck.
[00:09:02] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:09:03] Speaker B: But this guy has one on his forehead and both, both cheeks.
[00:09:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:07] Speaker B: And it's like if you can't recognize this guy.
[00:09:09] Speaker A: Right.
[00:09:10] Speaker B: You know, unless he's going around doing the pandemic mask.
[00:09:13] Speaker A: Could be, could be. But it's probably not. Probably not.
[00:09:16] Speaker B: I don't know. I mean apparently all four were still like in the city limits. I don't know if maybe one of these guys had a real plan to get out of the city state. I mean they had.
[00:09:26] Speaker A: They may be gone at this point.
[00:09:29] Speaker B: Head start.
[00:09:30] Speaker C: No, they don't do that.
[00:09:31] Speaker B: They had a large head start.
[00:09:32] Speaker A: Oh yeah, like eight hour head start.
[00:09:34] Speaker B: Yeah, eight hour head start, you know, anyway.
[00:09:38] Speaker A: But you know, keeping the brand out there, as Ray Nagan would say.
[00:09:42] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. But the greatest footage I thought was them running across the freeway.
[00:09:48] Speaker A: Yeah, the interstate.
One o' clock in the morning.
[00:09:51] Speaker B: I've had to do that once in my life and it wasn't for a jailbreak. It was just trying to get out of Mexico. Well, no, no, it was, it was on the, the, the 405 I think. And my car died in the center divider area. And it was like three in the morning. It was like three in the morning later. Okay, it was. But it's la, so there's still millions of cars out there at three in the morning. And I was like, well, I'm really close to my apartment.
[00:10:18] Speaker A: If I could just make it across those six lanes of traffic.
[00:10:21] Speaker B: And I had a bunch of stash on me. Okay, so it was like you were motivated here.
[00:10:26] Speaker A: Right?
[00:10:27] Speaker B: You know, sit here in this car and wait for this, for the highway patrol to say you need help.
[00:10:33] Speaker A: Right, right, right. Give you a once over.
[00:10:35] Speaker B: No. Yeah, the chips.
So I, I ran across the freeway.
[00:10:39] Speaker A: Okay, I could picture that. But you were doing some comedy running. You've always been a fun.
[00:10:43] Speaker B: Well, it was funny.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: Runner.
[00:10:45] Speaker B: It was like, what's that, that video game? Frogger. Frogger, something like that.
[00:10:51] Speaker A: You know, I could pict picture that.
[00:10:53] Speaker B: Yeah. But anyway, so that's, that's the big headline.
[00:10:56] Speaker A: That's what's going, you know, and it almost, it almost eclipsed. A real loss of the. In the New Orleans cultural vista or world is the loss of the passing of Al Garua.
[00:11:12] Speaker B: I don't know who that is.
[00:11:13] Speaker A: The Crawfish king.
[00:11:14] Speaker B: Oh, right.
The way to eat it.
[00:11:18] Speaker A: Well, he. Yes, yes. Of New Orleans. He was the guy. He. I mean, of course he was a great self mythologizer, but you know, all the best are.
But you know, he, the way he told the story is that before him everybody in New Orleans ate crabs. And now I remember when I was a kid, my grandparents and their neighbors, they would get boiled crabs and sit and eat them and they never ate crawfish. But, but he says he figured out how he could get crawfish cheap from, I don't know, maybe Lafayette or somewhere else and started promoting that and made it a thing here. But besides just having the seafood city and he had a whole ad campaign involving a jingle and very colorful guy.
He was in the music business and had the Scram label back in the 50s and 60s and worked with Alan Toussaint and all kind of people and. Actually, I'm not, I'm not sure exactly. You know, there's people that know more than me on this, but Al was definitely involved in the, the New Orleans R B scene and, and, and one time the iguanas played a private party that he was in attendance for and he was maybe kind of the, the guest of honor or something. We got to chit chat with him while they're waiting to introduce him and is very cool guy, and we actually talked him into doing a little bit of his jingle Seafood City, with the iguanas backing him up. So that was a.
[00:12:47] Speaker C: What is it about New Orleans and, like, these oddball celebrities?
[00:12:52] Speaker A: Well, you know, that's. That's. That's our stock and trade. We love that, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:12:56] Speaker B: How you get that in any town?
[00:12:58] Speaker A: That's true, that's true, that's true.
Right, right, right. But he was. He was one of the greats. And. And, you know, I was actually in contact with his great nephew, you know, his whatever, close relative with him, and I was for years trying to get him on the podcast as a guest. And I thought we might have had a shot maybe at one time, but, you know, he was, again, very old. He was in his 90s when he passed away, so couldn't ever make it happen. But anyway, shout out to the great Al Scramoza, man. Never be another.
[00:13:29] Speaker C: Speaking of celebrity, sorry, but I just saw a young picture of the duck lady the other day.
[00:13:35] Speaker A: Oh, Ruthie the duck lady. Yeah, yeah. Now, Manny, was that before your time here? Is that.
[00:13:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I think.
[00:13:41] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:13:41] Speaker B: But there was a duck lady in New York I knew in the 80s. Yeah, there was one in the 80s.
[00:13:46] Speaker A: Kind of a franchise deal.
[00:13:48] Speaker B: Yeah, that naked cowboy who started here in the French Quarter.
I remember seeing him in New York.
[00:13:59] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, he started here. I didn't realize that.
[00:14:01] Speaker B: Well, I remember the first time I ran for mayor.
Chris Rose, who still worked at the Times Picune, a good friend of Chris. He.
He wanted to interview me for a little video thing, like a. Back then, I guess it was just happening with the little vlogs or whatever they call them. This is in the early 2000s.
So Chris paid for me to have a. Drive a cab, get a cab to the French Quarter. And I did this interview with him, you know, because I was a candidate at the time. And during the interview, we were, like, on one corner, I don't know, Bourbon street, during an interview, the naked cowboy just comes up and starts serenading us during the interview.
And that's the first time I ever knew. Noticed this guy. And then, like, I saw him in New York, like, years later doing the same thing.
[00:14:53] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, he was pushing.
[00:14:54] Speaker B: He kind of looked like Fabio.
[00:14:55] Speaker A: Yes, he did.
[00:14:58] Speaker B: You know, but I guess their careers went the same way.
[00:15:01] Speaker A: Yeah, selling margarine.
[00:15:05] Speaker B: Yeah, well, Chris was on the show years ago.
[00:15:07] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:15:08] Speaker C: Chris Rose are good friends, but he disappeared, man. He went off.
[00:15:12] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:15:12] Speaker B: He's on the North Shore, so somewhere Something like that.
[00:15:15] Speaker A: I think he's in Florabama.
[00:15:17] Speaker B: Oh, he's even. He left that.
[00:15:19] Speaker A: And he's not even on the coast. He's in the interior somewhere.
[00:15:23] Speaker C: I can't even watch him anymore.
[00:15:24] Speaker A: Yeah, nobody can.
[00:15:25] Speaker B: You're probably better off.
[00:15:28] Speaker A: He's doing a. I don't know, something. He's hiding out, laying low, as they say.
[00:15:32] Speaker B: You know, there was other big news that happened. I saw.
I, you know, so apparently this famous climber from Norway or England or something like that, just last week he scaled Mount Everest for the 19th time.
It's like, who cares?
[00:15:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:56] Speaker B: You did it 18 times before. Why do you have to. Why don't you try scaling something else?
[00:16:00] Speaker A: Right. What's the difference between your wife or.
[00:16:02] Speaker B: Something, you know, that kind of thing.
[00:16:04] Speaker A: Empire State Building.
[00:16:05] Speaker B: Yeah. You know. You know, so I just. It was like on big national news and all the web, it was like, who cares?
[00:16:11] Speaker C: Come on.
[00:16:12] Speaker B: 19. You know, it's like, yeah, you, you know, get over it after three times, you know, or something. It's like, you know, it.
[00:16:18] Speaker A: Right. Move on.
[00:16:18] Speaker B: Yeah, move on.
[00:16:19] Speaker A: You know, I hear you, man.
[00:16:21] Speaker B: You know, it's like. And another thing, making news, which I thought was hilarious, is I guess our, our administration, our fearless leader, Donald Trump has bright. Brought, uh, he, he brought over, I guess, suppressed white South Africans to our country.
These people have been, you know, abused.
[00:16:43] Speaker A: And, you know, the Africaners.
[00:16:45] Speaker B: Yeah. And. But the funny thing is, and I saw the photos of all these people coming, these white South Africans are going to start a new life in America. Well, you know, you have just like back in World War II with the Japanese, people were settled in certain parts and, and the Vietnamese, when they came over, you know, they put them in certain parts of the country, the refugees and all these South Africans, apparently 30% are going to be moved to East St. Louis.
[00:17:17] Speaker A: It's an odd choice.
[00:17:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:19] Speaker A: Have you ever been to East St. Louis?
[00:17:20] Speaker B: Yeah, I have, yeah.
[00:17:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:21] Speaker B: I got a flat tire there once.
Yeah. And. And Then another, like 20% are going to Compton, California, so, you know, we'll see what happens. And I don't know about the other.
[00:17:33] Speaker A: Feel at home in both of those places?
[00:17:34] Speaker B: Well, I would think so, because they have their shanty kind of towns, right? Stuff like that.
[00:17:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:39] Speaker B: You know, tin roof shacks and stuff like that.
[00:17:43] Speaker A: Familiar environments.
[00:17:44] Speaker B: And apparently 8% are going to New Orleans East.
[00:17:47] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah, that checks out.
[00:17:49] Speaker B: Yeah. So Trump's a good guy.
[00:17:52] Speaker A: Okay. I think in this.
[00:17:54] Speaker B: He's helping his people out here.
[00:17:56] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:17:56] Speaker B: Yeah. But I just Thought that was hilarious. You know, they don't, I guess, think about the Trump administration. They don't seem to do their homework.
[00:18:03] Speaker A: No, no, they're not good with homework.
[00:18:07] Speaker B: That's a good idea. It's a good idea. Just do it.
[00:18:09] Speaker A: Yeah, no, even a good idea will be ruined by those guys. Oh, I'm not saying this is a good idea. I'm just saying even if something. If you thought, okay, well, that's, you know, like a broken clock is right twice a day. So here's one.
[00:18:23] Speaker B: They.
[00:18:23] Speaker A: They act. They accidentally got something right. Even then the incompetence and the cruelty is so high in both cases that it will fuck it up, you know, won't be able to poison the well anyway, that's. We try not to get too bound up on that.
Maybe just a little bit of related news. I don't know if you saw a Nottaway Plantation burned to the ground, their White Castle.
Never been there. I played there a number of times over the years. Different private parties or the most memorable. And I guess the last time I played there was for Todd Rundgren's 65th birthday convention that he really started off having, like, in Hawaii, and they had it every couple of years. And then they had one at Nottoway Plantation. And the Iguanas got hired by a friend of his to go and play for him.
And we wound up at this birthday party where Todd was sitting about right over there, like, about 12ft away, getting his birthday cake and getting some presents. And we're up there on stage, taking a break and standing watching them. And, you know, Joe Cabral, saxophone player in the Iguanas with me, I know he's all, I'm a big Todd Rundgren fan. He's also a big Todd Rundgren fan. Go. Going back many years, and after that little thing was over and everybody got up and walked away, and they were going to go prepare to see Todd play his new record, which was kind of a electronica record that he had at the time.
[00:19:55] Speaker C: Wait, he played there?
[00:19:56] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, he played there. He had a band that came in. He did a set after that thing.
It's maybe like five years ago. It was before the Pandemic. Wow. But so we're packing up and I'm looking at where Todd was sitting, and, like, there's his piece of cake sitting there.
So I go over and I get it, and I walk up to Joe Cabral and I go, would you like a bite of Todd's cake? And he goes, no, no, no. I'M good. And I've said, no, no, this isn't the cake. That was for Todd. This is Todd's piece of cake. Would you like a bite? And he goes, absolutely.
So we each took a couple of bites of Todd's cake and we felt somehow, I don't know how weird that.
[00:20:36] Speaker C: That event was over there.
[00:20:37] Speaker A: Yeah, it was. It was weird. Yeah. Yeah. And they had people camping out there like, you know, these Todd Rungren fans that go to these things.
[00:20:44] Speaker B: I think they should burn down all plantations.
[00:20:46] Speaker A: Well, there you go. That's a. That was not a. Not a unique sentiment.
[00:20:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:51] Speaker A: But, you know.
[00:20:53] Speaker B: Now, what was his band before he went solo? What was it? Utopia? What was it?
[00:20:58] Speaker A: Well, yeah, that was one of them. But there was one.
[00:21:02] Speaker B: Because I saw his band before he went solo at the roxy in the mid-70s.
What was that?
[00:21:10] Speaker A: Yeah, the something. Right.
[00:21:12] Speaker B: Yeah. I forget what they were.
[00:21:14] Speaker A: No, it was. It was.
[00:21:15] Speaker B: And it was.
[00:21:16] Speaker A: Because we'll have to look it up on the break, maybe. All right, Come back. Okay. Because the. The fans are yelling at us right now. We just can't hear them because it's.
[00:21:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I forget what they were.
[00:21:27] Speaker A: Well. Well, maybe we should get to our guest here.
[00:21:29] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:21:30] Speaker A: He's already involved here. He's got a. Got a lovely presence to him. He's a terrific artist. Kind of a hypnotic neo trance. Neo Southern gothic.
[00:21:42] Speaker B: Neo trans.
[00:21:43] Speaker A: Trans.
[00:21:44] Speaker B: Oh.
[00:21:47] Speaker A: Trans hop. I don't know.
[00:21:48] Speaker B: We gotta get into trans.
[00:21:49] Speaker A: Yeah. No, no, I heard him put that. Not that I know, anyway. Terrific songwriter, singer, guitarist, multi instrumentalist, producer, recording artist. His. His debut record was so Long and it landed him.
[00:22:04] Speaker B: No one listened to it.
[00:22:05] Speaker A: It was so Long. Now it's the title. It's so Long landed him on Atlantic Records up in New York and changed the. The direction of his life and his career. We're going to hear about all that and much more. But without further ado, the great Mr. Dustin Luke. Welcome, Dustin.
[00:22:21] Speaker C: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
[00:22:23] Speaker A: Yeah. I hope I didn't put you off with that. That initial, the. Some of those. Those adjectives beginning there.
[00:22:29] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I'm a musical mutt, so I don't.
[00:22:32] Speaker A: Okay, sure, Right.
[00:22:34] Speaker C: I know, but I've never heard that description is.
[00:22:36] Speaker A: Okay, I like it.
[00:22:37] Speaker C: I don't mind. All right, Just.
[00:22:38] Speaker A: Just free ball.
[00:22:39] Speaker B: Now, what is that last name? What is it again?
[00:22:42] Speaker C: Luke?
L, O, U, Q, U, E. And what is that?
[00:22:46] Speaker B: Is that French? Is Italian.
[00:22:47] Speaker C: Well, my grandparents, like where I grew up is real Cajun, but it's not Cajun like Lafayette. So musically, we didn't get this. The violins and the accordions. I mean, the fiddle and accordions and all. No, you got the spoons.
[00:23:02] Speaker B: Right.
[00:23:02] Speaker C: But we got the language. You know, like, my grandmother spoke broken English. Broken French. My Cajun grandmother.
[00:23:08] Speaker A: Anyway, my American grandmother spoke broken English. But anyway.
[00:23:15] Speaker C: No, but we were like 40 miles from here, so New Orleans was, like, very influential.
[00:23:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:23] Speaker A: What parish is that?
[00:23:24] Speaker C: St. James.
[00:23:25] Speaker A: St. James. Okay. Was that Grand Point, Louisiana?
[00:23:27] Speaker C: Yeah, my little town is called Grand Point. It's really a little blip.
[00:23:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:32] Speaker C: Perique Tobacco is kind of what we're known for.
[00:23:35] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
[00:23:36] Speaker C: It was, like, taught by the Choctaw Indians.
[00:23:38] Speaker A: Right.
[00:23:39] Speaker C: And all the people did that, like, coming up.
[00:23:41] Speaker A: They grew tobacco.
[00:23:43] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, it was. They made. It was hard. Hard work in the sun.
[00:23:47] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:23:48] Speaker C: July harvest. And it wasn't until the factories came on the river where people started, you know, doing that, getting better jobs.
[00:23:59] Speaker A: Now, are y' all kind of Creole?
[00:24:01] Speaker C: Not. Not.
[00:24:02] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:24:02] Speaker C: No, I'm not. But there are Creoles there, right?
[00:24:04] Speaker A: Right.
[00:24:05] Speaker C: I'm not Creole. I mean, I did a test recently and I was so pissed, I didn't.
[00:24:08] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:24:09] Speaker C: Have a drop.
[00:24:10] Speaker A: Because looking at you, everybody thinks it could. Could be easily. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:24:14] Speaker C: I mean, everybody thinks I'm right on, but I'm not.
[00:24:16] Speaker A: I know it's DNA tests.
I don't put full. Full faith in them. But anyway, so. So your family is. Is. Has been there in that. That region for a while. For as far as back as anybody can remember. Right?
[00:24:30] Speaker C: Yeah. Nobody's leaving.
[00:24:31] Speaker A: Right, of course.
[00:24:32] Speaker C: Except me.
[00:24:33] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, I'm sure they weren't thrilled about that, though. Right? But you went back. You still see them, right? You still see your family.
[00:24:40] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:24:41] Speaker A: Well, so take us back there. When you're first starting out, you're going to school in that area.
You have mom and dad, siblings.
[00:24:51] Speaker C: Yeah, So I have two brothers, and I'm in the middle. I have a sister.
[00:24:56] Speaker A: Musical family?
[00:24:57] Speaker C: No. I mean, my dad played a little guitar. He played. Played like Hank Williams. He knew a few chords. He would sing Butterbean. It's like this old folks.
It's great.
But everybody worked over there. They didn't really, like, take the art seriously at all, so I didn't come up with the arts. Like, none. Zero. So everything is sports, and that's what I did.
[00:25:24] Speaker B: And smoking.
[00:25:27] Speaker C: Tobacco, that was chewing it.
[00:25:30] Speaker B: Were they chewing it too?
[00:25:31] Speaker C: Well, Perique tobacco is like a pipe tobacco. It's really, really, really, really strong. Like, people that love pipe.
[00:25:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:39] Speaker C: Tobaccos, love perique.
[00:25:42] Speaker B: Yeah. My dad was so bright, he quit smoking and took up the pipe.
[00:25:46] Speaker C: There you go.
[00:25:46] Speaker B: I was just like, what's the point?
Two pack a day smoker. I'm gonna quit cigarettes. And then he starts smoking a pipe.
Yeah, yeah. He died of throat cancer.
[00:25:55] Speaker A: Oh, geez.
Yeah, you can't. Can't outsmart.
[00:25:59] Speaker B: Then he went on the real pipe, if you know what I mean.
[00:26:01] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:26:02] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:26:02] Speaker B: Well, why not? I encouraged him, sure.
[00:26:04] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. The end is near. May as well go out in a place of glory.
[00:26:09] Speaker B: Yeah, he does.
[00:26:09] Speaker A: Right on. Everybody does, you know, Were y' all working in the tobacco industry? Your family involved in farming, or fast forward?
[00:26:18] Speaker C: Like, maybe my dad. His generation came up with it. He was the youngest of 11, so all of his siblings came up that way.
[00:26:25] Speaker A: So you had still all his cousins from. He must have had a hundred cousins.
[00:26:29] Speaker C: I have so many relatives. Yeah.
So I don't even know them all, you know, but, you know, his generation, he was the youngest. So the factories had come, so the trends changed. They started.
He and his brothers were really good machinists in the factories and Fast forward. My dad, you know, in the 80s, quit the machine, the factories, and started his own machine shop and did really well. And it allowed me to go to college.
So it was like a big deal for me to be able to get the hell out.
[00:27:05] Speaker A: Right. So where'd you wind up going to college?
[00:27:07] Speaker C: So I played football, believe it or not. Two years at McNesseee State. And when I quit that, you know, it was like, what you did over there. You played sports? Played baseball, basketball.
[00:27:18] Speaker A: I spent a couple of summers at McNee State.
The summer summer camp program we lived in, in those dorms there.
[00:27:26] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:27:26] Speaker A: So I'm very familiar with Lake Charles.
[00:27:28] Speaker C: Like sports?
[00:27:29] Speaker A: No, no, it was like kind of a school camp.
[00:27:32] Speaker C: Okay. Yeah. I didn't know anything about Lake Charles. I was there for two years, and then I went to Mississippi, Mississippi State. And that's where I discovered a talent for music. I had never touched an instrument.
[00:27:44] Speaker A: Now, how did that come about? We.
[00:27:47] Speaker C: We ended up going to New York, a group of us.
And I hate to say it, Manny might make fun of me, but it was like a modeling kind of thing. Sorry, Manny. I know everybody moves to LA to make it, and they're pretty and all.
[00:28:01] Speaker B: That, but they do it to New York, too.
[00:28:02] Speaker C: But it was. It was kind of a thing that I was looking for any opportunity I could, you know?
[00:28:08] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:28:08] Speaker C: So I ended up up there, and I'm in a hotel lobby, and this guy's playing the piano. It was so beautiful.
And for whatever reason, I'm like, I have to freaking do this. I want to learn how to play, you know?
[00:28:20] Speaker B: Was it Liberace?
[00:28:23] Speaker C: I don't think he had a pinky ring.
[00:28:25] Speaker B: Oh, okay.
[00:28:26] Speaker C: No, I don't think about it.
[00:28:27] Speaker B: You got a cock ring.
[00:28:30] Speaker C: It was.
[00:28:30] Speaker A: But you didn't get to know him that well, though. Okay. All right.
[00:28:35] Speaker C: No, but anyway, I came back to make Mississippi State, and I was begging them to let me in a class, and they were like, no, we're full, we're full. And I went there every day. I don't know what the hell was wrong with me. I was possessed. And it was just a beginner class. Like a group class.
[00:28:52] Speaker A: Like piano class?
[00:28:54] Speaker C: Yeah, like a balloon.
[00:28:56] Speaker A: Right, right.
[00:28:57] Speaker C: You know, so that was my. My entrance into music.
[00:29:01] Speaker A: So they did. They finally let you in?
[00:29:03] Speaker C: They let me in.
[00:29:03] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
And so you started fooling around with playing keyboards.
[00:29:08] Speaker C: Yeah, I just understood, like, what the notes were on the page. I mean, it was a long work in progress.
[00:29:13] Speaker A: Sure, sure.
[00:29:14] Speaker C: But I was in the piano lab every night, and, like, there were piano majors playing Bach and Beethoven.
[00:29:20] Speaker A: Right.
[00:29:21] Speaker C: And I was just tinkering, you know?
[00:29:23] Speaker A: Right. But you were in that million.
You were in the. That environment. Yes.
[00:29:27] Speaker C: The feeling.
The feeling was amazing. Like, just playing on the black keys.
[00:29:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:33] Speaker C: You know what I mean? It was. It was like something hit me.
[00:29:36] Speaker A: It excited you.
[00:29:37] Speaker C: It was unbelievable. I was fine. Like, I didn't need anybody. I did it every night.
[00:29:42] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:29:43] Speaker C: So sorry, Manny.
[00:29:44] Speaker B: No, no, no, no.
[00:29:46] Speaker A: So. And you're saying you. So. So that was your first trip up to New York, but then somehow you wind up getting back to New York now.
[00:29:53] Speaker C: So after college, I always wanted to live in New Orleans, you know, growing up 40 miles away.
And I lived actually on Hillary was my first place.
[00:30:02] Speaker A: Okay. Right here in this neighborhood.
[00:30:03] Speaker C: Yeah, in this neighborhood. Like, when I drove here, I'm like, oh, God. This is my old stomping ground.
[00:30:07] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:30:08] Speaker C: And then Maple street, before I moved to New York, so I was kind of in this. This area.
[00:30:14] Speaker A: Yeah, you're right. Right in. Right here in the university area.
[00:30:18] Speaker C: And I had a grand piano like, I got for college. I had, like, progressed.
And, you know, I was playing classical, but very beginner. Like, I could play a four page piece of music, but it was very hard. I had to memorize everything.
[00:30:32] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:30:33] Speaker C: I was only two, three years into.
[00:30:34] Speaker A: Sure, sure.
[00:30:36] Speaker C: But I started fooling around with guitar.
[00:30:39] Speaker B: And so how did you pay Your rent, though.
[00:30:41] Speaker C: Oh, I was working, man.
[00:30:43] Speaker B: Yeah. You're working.
[00:30:43] Speaker C: I was working, yeah.
[00:30:44] Speaker B: Selling cigarettes?
[00:30:46] Speaker C: No, my family. My dad started a business, and I was working for them here in New Orleans. Doing sales? Yes. I worked along the river, all the factories on the river. I was. I was doing sales, but music was just my. It was for me. I wasn't trying to make it. I didn't care about all that.
[00:31:04] Speaker A: Right, right.
[00:31:04] Speaker C: But in the meantime, I got, like, as an actor, believe it or not, through modeling. Sorry, Manny.
[00:31:11] Speaker A: So why do you keep apologizing from la?
[00:31:13] Speaker C: Everybody moves to LA to make it. And I know you probably like saying, oh, here's another one.
[00:31:18] Speaker A: He's not judgmental like that.
[00:31:20] Speaker C: Oh, Manny.
[00:31:21] Speaker A: No, he's mocking. He's not judgmental. There's a difference.
He really doesn't care that much.
[00:31:28] Speaker C: But through that.
[00:31:29] Speaker B: Don't forget your name after an hour.
[00:31:30] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
He's not that invested.
But. But, well. So you were successful at modeling?
[00:31:38] Speaker C: Well, what happened was I got commercials.
Where?
[00:31:42] Speaker A: In New Orleans?
[00:31:43] Speaker C: Yes. Dude, I got a thick Cajun accent.
[00:31:45] Speaker B: Is this in the 70s or what year?
[00:31:47] Speaker C: No, it's.
[00:31:49] Speaker B: Oh, the 90s. How old are you?
[00:31:51] Speaker C: 53.
[00:31:52] Speaker B: Oh, okay. Yeah, okay. So the 90s, you were getting.
[00:31:54] Speaker C: Yeah, in the 90s I was getting jobs. And I'm like, what the hell? Like, getting decent paychecks. And that led me. I'm like, well, I love music, but I'm not a musician.
Not even close. Okay, I have talent, but I couldn't write songs at the time, so I was just getting commercials, and I started getting curious about the theater. I'm like, well, maybe I could learn something. Maybe I could fake. You could fake it in acting easier than you can in music, I think.
[00:32:24] Speaker A: I don't know.
[00:32:25] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, definitely.
[00:32:26] Speaker C: So that was my thing. I was like, that was my plan. And then that led me. Somebody told me about Stella Adler in New York, and this kind of person I am like, I. I need to know what I'm doing. I want to be an artist. You know what I mean? I really. That was. I wanted it so bad to just. To have something. Like, my dad had machine work, and he was awesome at it. He loved it.
[00:32:51] Speaker A: A purpose.
[00:32:52] Speaker C: A purpose.
[00:32:53] Speaker A: Yes. Yes.
[00:32:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:32:54] Speaker C: And I had a lot of tragedy coming up, so I was looking for something to do with my dad's success. Like, I'm not gonna buy a bigger house than him.
I'm, like, saving money. I'm like, I need to do something else.
[00:33:06] Speaker B: What trash. You said tragedy.
[00:33:08] Speaker C: What tragedy was happening Lots of tragedy.
[00:33:11] Speaker B: Your modeling career was over, is that it?
[00:33:13] Speaker C: No, no, I never really had a model modeling career. No, just growing up.
[00:33:18] Speaker B: So when you did modeling here in New Orleans, were they, what, catalogs or something like that?
[00:33:22] Speaker C: Yeah, I did some catalog stuff, but it ended up being most underwear.
[00:33:26] Speaker B: Underwear model.
Calvin Klein.
[00:33:31] Speaker C: I'm just kidding. That was Mark Warlboro.
[00:33:33] Speaker B: Sears and Roebuck.
[00:33:34] Speaker C: Sears and Roebuck.
Anyway, but.
[00:33:37] Speaker A: So you wound up getting into Stella Adler.
[00:33:41] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:33:42] Speaker A: School.
[00:33:43] Speaker C: Well, when I was living here on Maple Street, I was saving a lot of money.
[00:33:46] Speaker A: Conservatory. Sorry.
[00:33:47] Speaker C: Conservatory, Yeah, I was saving a lot of money and trying to give myself the best chance I could when I moved to New York, because I knew it was gonna be expensive, right? And I just faked my way into Stella Adler and just.
I didn't know how to audition, you know.
[00:34:04] Speaker A: They just liked you.
[00:34:05] Speaker C: They liked me. And I'm like, I'm gonna do the summer program and they're gonna invite me into the two year program that I wanted.
[00:34:12] Speaker B: You didn't.
[00:34:12] Speaker C: And I worked my ass off.
[00:34:13] Speaker B: You didn't have to like do a scene or anything like that?
[00:34:16] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, I did. You know, some knockoff Brando, Southern New Orleans kind of thing, you know. That's all I could do, you know, at the time.
And they ate it up and they like let me in.
[00:34:28] Speaker A: They ate it up.
[00:34:29] Speaker C: But when I got in that two year program, like you had like these old school acting teachers. They were like. This one was the most intimidating woman. She smoked the whole class and she was around during Brando. When Brando was there, you know, everybody was scared of her, man.
[00:34:46] Speaker B: Maureen Stapleton.
[00:34:49] Speaker C: Alice Winston.
[00:34:50] Speaker B: Oh, Alice Winston.
[00:34:52] Speaker C: She's passed.
[00:34:52] Speaker B: She smoked Camels though.
[00:34:57] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah, I get it.
[00:34:58] Speaker C: They would just kind of do it tastes good.
[00:35:00] Speaker A: Like a cigarette.
[00:35:02] Speaker C: She were waiting for the ass to fall.
[00:35:04] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. I know people like that makes you nervous.
[00:35:07] Speaker C: Yeah. But super intimidating. But the woman liked me. She was hard on me. And there was people like that that like told me I was an artist. You know what I mean? You know how it is, man. You're coming up, right?
[00:35:19] Speaker B: Right.
[00:35:20] Speaker C: Don't know. You're just you.
[00:35:21] Speaker A: Right, right. And you have people that have obvious they've seen a million things for them to go, you know, you have a lot of work to do, but you could do.
[00:35:30] Speaker C: Got something. She would hug me. Like right in front of the Public Theater. Right in front of Joe's.
Joe's Pub.
[00:35:38] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:35:38] Speaker C: She would, like after we got in a fight in class or something, she.
[00:35:41] Speaker B: Would hug me, you know, did you sleep with her?
[00:35:45] Speaker C: She was a little. She was up there.
[00:35:47] Speaker B: So did you get an agent and all that and get photos?
[00:35:51] Speaker C: I had an agent here, but not in New York.
[00:35:53] Speaker B: York, yeah.
[00:35:53] Speaker C: So what happened in New York is I was buying music equipment when I was in acting school. I had a four track, and then computer recording was coming up, you know.
[00:36:04] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:36:04] Speaker C: So I was taking classes at New School too, to, like, learn more.
[00:36:10] Speaker A: Okay. And like home.
[00:36:12] Speaker C: Home recording, that was a whole new thing. You know, you didn't need a record deal anymore to make a record.
[00:36:18] Speaker A: Right.
[00:36:19] Speaker C: And I wasn't a musician.
And then my buddy from here, from Lafayette, I met him in New Orleans, Donovan Guidry, he moved up there. He's a big hip hop head. He loved making beats. And he did something for me. Like, he gave me confidence, you know, to think that I can actually do this, you know, he would knock on my door on Maple street here and hear me sing, and it wouldn't. I wasn't a ham, you know, I wasn't, like, trying to sing for anybody. I'm just doing this for my.
[00:36:49] Speaker A: Right.
[00:36:50] Speaker C: My own.
And he was the one that was like, man, you could do something if you come up with your own thing, you know? So eventually, years later, he comes to New York and we set out to make a record.
[00:37:01] Speaker B: Where did you live in New York?
[00:37:03] Speaker C: I started in Chelsea for a little bit, then the East Village and then Williamsburg, because everybody was moving there at the time. In the late 90s, it was cheap.
[00:37:13] Speaker A: Still cheap. Yeah. Yeah. That's before it got all hipstered out.
[00:37:15] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:37:15] Speaker C: Well, it was hipsters. I mean, it was. A lot of people want to be cool, you know?
[00:37:19] Speaker A: Right, sure. Everybody wants to be cool.
Well, now, as far as, like, your. Your friend, you know, saying, yes, you could do something like this and. And recognizing kind of where you're coming from as a. As an artist, even a fledgling artist now. We met when we played this, the first Clash Day show a couple of years ago, Chicky Wawa. And then you played the second year as well. Now, on that first year, we had all kind of people, like, I don't know, 20 different artists, and you did two songs, and one of them was just by yourself and just very direct. And after the rehearsals were people that knew each other were just kind of talking about how different things had gone. And. And more than one person said, I really like that Luke guy, man.
[00:38:08] Speaker C: Oh, really?
[00:38:09] Speaker A: Yeah. It's like, wow, he's. I was like, yeah, no shit, man. He's really cool.
[00:38:12] Speaker C: Really?
[00:38:13] Speaker A: Well, just because you have like, you're saying you don't push it. Just it's, it's a very calming to hear you because it's. You don't have a contrived thing.
[00:38:25] Speaker C: No, you're.
[00:38:26] Speaker A: That you're shoving down people, man.
[00:38:27] Speaker C: I met somebody recently and they were like, what is your actual. And I was offended.
I'm like, I don't have an act.
But no, it's. But thanks for saying that because like I've always wanted to be accepted into the New Orleans music community. I mean, I'm not a New Orleans musician really. You know what I mean? I mean I grew up right there, but to me, when I think of New Orleans and music is driving here at 15 or 16 to go to the little clubs to hear the new wave and.
[00:38:58] Speaker A: Okay, so it's right.
[00:39:00] Speaker C: New Orleans music proper like Irma Thomas and Fats Domino. That's the kind of stuff I grew up with. Like all the older people listen to that stuff growing up.
But when I think of New Orleans music, it's like the stuff like the Smiths and all this other stuff that I was discovering in the clubs.
[00:39:18] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:39:19] Speaker C: That to me and being in the corner quarter and like having all these new experiences for the first time, that is New Orleans to me.
[00:39:27] Speaker A: Right.
[00:39:28] Speaker C: So.
[00:39:28] Speaker A: So, so you get up there in New York and. And you, you start experimenting with all this loop based music and you start meeting some sympathetic collaborators up there and.
[00:39:40] Speaker C: And yeah, I mean, I, you know, you learn like, you try to like go find people to help you.
[00:39:48] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:39:48] Speaker C: I love dub music a lot and I just. We didn't know what the hell we were doing, you know, but we had great work ethic. You know, talking about the perique tobacco people.
[00:39:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:59] Speaker C: Working in the field like it was grueling and those people have like a work ethic like out of this world. And I guess I have it too. And I just applied it to music, you know.
[00:40:10] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:40:10] Speaker C: So I didn't care that I wasn't a musician. I knew I was going to play the work in and I read the manuals and.
[00:40:18] Speaker A: But so you're experimenting with writing songs, songwriting. You'd already been singing and I wanted.
[00:40:23] Speaker C: To make like modern Louisiana music with loops and trip hop. I love Massive Attack, I love portis head, that 94 record, dummy. I love that stuff.
[00:40:34] Speaker A: Now listening to. To some. Some of your records.
Yeah. You know, there certain.
Like that, that kind of Cold machine vibe combined with very passionate kind of folky vocals. You know, it's like. Did you see like the eno and Bowie records as foundational kind of stuff, you know?
[00:40:58] Speaker C: Land. Wow.
Lanwa's huge influence on me.
[00:41:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:41:02] Speaker C: And, you know, YouTube. I used to like you two.
I had let them go, you know what I mean?
[00:41:08] Speaker A: What about craft work? You ever get into craft work? Right on, Manny saw craft work a couple about a month ago.
[00:41:14] Speaker B: Let me ask you something. You were taking classes at Stella Adler.
Now, was there anyone in your classes who became, you know, a working actor? Famous?
[00:41:24] Speaker C: Yeah. Not huge, but, yeah, it was.
[00:41:27] Speaker B: You can't remember their names.
[00:41:28] Speaker C: I mean, there's a guy, Billy Hayes, he just came seeing.
[00:41:31] Speaker B: I know Billy Hayes.
[00:41:32] Speaker C: No, you don't.
[00:41:32] Speaker B: Well, I know I don't know him.
[00:41:34] Speaker A: No, you know, but, yeah, I know who he is. Yeah.
[00:41:37] Speaker C: But he.
He got.
[00:41:40] Speaker B: He was in Midnight Express, I think.
[00:41:42] Speaker C: I don't know. I mean, he came see me, like, last year. He had a role with a Louisiana accent. It was like, just north of the interstate, like, naked. Ish. And he needed the accent. I'm like, it's not Cajun, man. It's more Southern, you know? So he came, spent some time consulting.
[00:41:59] Speaker A: Right on.
[00:42:00] Speaker C: But there's some others that did. Well.
[00:42:02] Speaker A: Nice, nice.
[00:42:02] Speaker C: Not super huge, right?
[00:42:04] Speaker A: Well, I'm fascinated by the story, and this is a great time, I think, looking at the drinks and the clock. Manny.
[00:42:11] Speaker B: Yeah. We need to take a break. The troubled nation knows the drill. We'll be right back.
[00:42:23] Speaker D: And it was a love in me I hope that one day soon we'll get it right Mountains are wondering.
[00:42:40] Speaker C: Brothers.
[00:42:40] Speaker D: And sisters in the fight nation's gone inside Talking pants and turn it off Trying to feel my head I'm the medicine man I'm the medicine man Tell me weaknesses and we'll get by.
[00:43:23] Speaker C: And.
[00:43:23] Speaker D: Have some mercy it's for you to know these lessons that try there's opportunity Cause you and I don't think the flower.
[00:43:54] Speaker A: And we're back. Back with Mr. Manny Chevrolet. I am Renee Coleman, back with our guest, Mr. Dustin Luke. Now, Dustin, I know you are a longtime listener of the podcast, and I was actually going to ask you, do you feel like you've fallen through the. The looking glass to. To actually be on the podcast as many times as you've listened to it? Is this a little bit.
[00:44:16] Speaker C: It's odd actually getting on stage with you and hearing your speaking voice. It's like, oh, that was weird on the podcast.
[00:44:24] Speaker A: That was weird. That's funny. Anyway, as a longtime listener, you know that we are a listener supported operation, and to that end, we have a couple of links in the show notes of every show and the Facebook pages. It's a Venmo link and a PayPal link and our beloved listeners will. Will support us through those. Those. Those channels help defray costs. Buy us cocktails. And someone bought us a. A cocktail. Only one cocktail.
[00:44:53] Speaker C: Only one.
[00:44:54] Speaker A: Only one and only yours. Only. Only. Only a cocktail here at Snake and Jake's Christmas Club Lounge. But shout out to Brian Hudson. Every little bit helps.
Thank you, Brian.
[00:45:05] Speaker B: And all related to the sheriff.
[00:45:07] Speaker A: It's spelled differently, but who knows the. The. That whole sheriff, that whole parish prison, they don't seem like good spellers.
[00:45:15] Speaker B: So anyway, two easy.
[00:45:19] Speaker A: Right. Right.
Too easy to.
But also Adam, a fellow named Adam bought a T shirt. So those T shirts are live again. So if any for the next two weeks, if anybody wants a T shirt quicker than normal, jump on that that troubled menswear link in the show notes and you can get yourself a T shirt of any size and several different colors, men's and women's sizes.
Also, follow us on social media, Facebook, Instagram and rate review and subscribe to the the podcast wherever you're listening to it now. Give us five stars. Helps us a lot. Cost you nothing. The. The Hawaiian Big Island Jazz and Blues Festival is coming right up right around the corner. Man. Manny will be happy. I'll be gone. I'll miss a week. But that's going to be a terrific show out there at the Maunakea Resort Hotel. We have the Iguanas, Lynn Drury, Charlie Halloran, Camille Boudoin from the Radiators, Sunpie Barnes, Wayne Tupes, you know the on and on and on. I'm leaving someone out, but. But just look it up there. Great. Kenny, Mark, you're leaving out.
[00:46:28] Speaker B: The EMTs will be picking up all the old people after 10.
[00:46:31] Speaker A: Sure. And perhaps me as well. Yeah, but I'll be going out there. I'm gonna maybe take another stab at snorkeling. Maybe my last one. We'll see.
Fingers crossed, Manny. Anyway, yes, you can find all the. All the Iguanas dates on the link
[email protected] and. Or the Renee Coleman Facebook page. Oh, also, yes, the Patreon page. But anyway, listen to another show. You can get all the plugs back to our guest, the great Dustin Luke. Now professionally, you go by Luke now.
[00:47:04] Speaker C: I just released records on the last.
[00:47:07] Speaker A: Right, right, right, right.
[00:47:08] Speaker C: And that was just because, you know, when we were like researching to do music and we wanted to do Louisiana music, Jamaican music was huge for us on 3rd street in the East Village, they had a Jamaican record shop.
And it was amazing how many artists there. I mean, from ska to reggae. I mean, there was so much so that we started up. We wanted to start our own label. We were doing this with our own money.
I mean, I know Atlantic Records came, right.
[00:47:42] Speaker A: But initially record.
[00:47:44] Speaker C: Yeah, you put the whole thing is us. We did it. And, but that's why we use my last name. It was just. I didn't want to do the. Something with that.
[00:47:54] Speaker A: Right, right.
[00:47:56] Speaker C: Well, use my last name. It'll be.
[00:47:58] Speaker A: Sounds enough like a band as opposed.
[00:48:00] Speaker C: To talk about it. Talk about Louisiana, talk about culture.
[00:48:04] Speaker B: It was dub music.
[00:48:05] Speaker C: No, I mean, dub was like.
It was an ingredient.
[00:48:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:48:11] Speaker C: The bass and maybe some delays and. But it wasn't dub music, you know.
[00:48:17] Speaker A: But it's this very cool music. And, and so this was.
You were successful. You, you had. People responded to it. Yeah.
[00:48:24] Speaker C: So we, I mean, I, I, till this day, I can't believe we did it in three years.
Because, like, in the three years, we were like, so fried and tired and like, we gotta finish this. It's been three years.
But neither one of us were musicians, okay. And we made that record in three years. And Atlantic signed us, you know, like.
[00:48:48] Speaker A: Right.
[00:48:50] Speaker C: I could play a little bit, but not really that much. You know what I mean?
[00:48:53] Speaker A: So when you get signed by Atlantic and that's the situation you're in, what happens then?
You go on tour, Describe your experience. So that was still. When there's still plenty of money in the music business. They still had CDs, were buying CDs. So they.
[00:49:12] Speaker C: So we, we finished the record and we made a bunch of handmade copies and we just kind of sent it all over the place. And the next thing you know, we had a following and turn. Pirano and I hadn't played a live show.
I've never played live. And I just made a record. But that's why I got into music, because I love records.
[00:49:32] Speaker B: So what would you describe your music as?
[00:49:34] Speaker C: I mean, I mean, I'm all over the place now, so now. But then I started kind of trip hop, but then I became an actual musician and can play the guitar now. So it's kind of got a folk. Everything has a folk thing, but new wave kind of came in there. Like, I remembered my new wave love, so that kind of came in. But I don't know, I'm all over the place.
[00:49:57] Speaker B: It's a new wave. Like Wham.
[00:49:59] Speaker C: No, more like New Order, Joy Division.
[00:50:04] Speaker A: Smiths, Cure, Depeche Mode.
[00:50:08] Speaker C: Depeche I love Depeche Mode, but, I.
[00:50:10] Speaker B: Mean, my sound is all the gay leading bands. Right.
[00:50:12] Speaker C: I don't care. Yeah, whatever.
[00:50:14] Speaker A: Just sounds that way.
[00:50:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:50:16] Speaker C: No, I mean, I love that music era because of. They were using new technology, the 808 and the synthesizer.
I love that.
[00:50:25] Speaker A: Particularly people that did it in a way where it retains these. Well, you know, listening to your music again, just in terms of, like, visual art, I always think of, like, when serialism and collage really made it from the art world successfully into the pop music arena. And for me, that's like, in a very successful way. It's like Beck and Beastie Boys and guys like that. And I think you have a lot of those same impulses.
[00:50:58] Speaker C: Thank you, man.
[00:50:59] Speaker A: Where it's, you know, this collage aspect.
[00:51:02] Speaker C: It was very collage, very cubist.
[00:51:04] Speaker A: Right.
[00:51:05] Speaker C: You know, that's kind of, to me, felt like that, you know, like, just.
[00:51:08] Speaker A: Right.
[00:51:09] Speaker C: Because, I mean, on that first record, we used, like, Rebirth brass band break beats. And at the time, like, we loved drum and bass and all that stuff, but we didn't want to do drum and bass.
[00:51:19] Speaker A: Right.
[00:51:19] Speaker C: We wanted some Louisiana, so we would, like, sample that stuff, layer it in there. It was fun, you know.
[00:51:25] Speaker A: Right.
[00:51:26] Speaker C: I mean, a lot of happy accidents.
[00:51:28] Speaker A: Well, when. And music is so joyous, too be involved in. When it's play, you know, it's not work, it's play, you know? Even if it's hard.
[00:51:39] Speaker C: Even if it's hard, man.
[00:51:40] Speaker A: You know? But you know what I mean? You know what I'm saying? You always retain the sense of play about it, you know? Like, you're saying it was fun. It was just fun to do this. That's what I.
[00:51:48] Speaker C: But I. It was very hard anyway.
[00:51:51] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:51:51] Speaker C: I was insecure. Like, it's. It was hard.
[00:51:55] Speaker A: Well, so. So let's move a little quicker here. So. So you make this record, you get signed to Atlantic. Then what does Atlantic do with you? That's what I'm saying. They put you out on the road, you're opening for bands.
[00:52:07] Speaker C: We had our own label, and I never liked this label at all. But I didn't know. I was innocent. I didn't know much about labels, really. I should have paid attention.
And we signed to this label and my manager, who I trusted, you know, Lava Atlantic. I didn't like anything on that label.
[00:52:27] Speaker A: No.
[00:52:28] Speaker C: But they agreed to put our imprint on the.
[00:52:32] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:52:33] Speaker C: So I'm like, okay, we got major muscle.
It's gonna look, like, independent.
But the thing I messed up on, like, they used house PR.
And I would have to go up there, 27th floor.
Everybody's talking to my forehead, you know, thinking, I'm gonna be famous. You know, they're thinking, I'm gonna be famous. That's how they're treating me.
[00:52:57] Speaker A: And how did that make you feel? You could. You feel it right off the bat. You felt objectified?
[00:53:01] Speaker C: Terrible.
[00:53:02] Speaker A: Felt like a piece of meat.
[00:53:03] Speaker C: Yes. And I didn't like it. And then, you know, they would release, like, these bullshit T shirts and just everything after we let it go became cheap. Yeah, everything.
You know, I'd be in the PR room. I'd have to go in there all day, and people would call me and interview me. And I would hear the PR person, you know, talking about Kid Rock. I mean, she'd be calling, like, the Fader magazine, which I loved back in the day. I'm like, yeah, like Fader. And she would fucking mention that guy. And I'm like.
[00:53:40] Speaker A: Like, in the same breath as you.
[00:53:41] Speaker C: All doors were being closed on me.
[00:53:43] Speaker A: Like, come, like mentioned Kid Rock in relation to you is something that. If you like Kid Rock, check this guy Luke out.
[00:53:52] Speaker C: So.
[00:53:53] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:53:53] Speaker C: Eventually. I'll fast forward it for you.
[00:53:55] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:53:56] Speaker C: I did well in film through them because they had a great film department and they got my music in a lot of films.
[00:54:03] Speaker A: So you got a lot of sync stuff.
[00:54:04] Speaker C: A lot of sync.
[00:54:05] Speaker A: So what. What kind of what. Where. Where did your music show?
[00:54:09] Speaker C: In C. The Blue. Like, summer blockbuster. Like Paul. Whatever. That guy that died in.
[00:54:15] Speaker B: Paul Rubins. Paul Peewee Herman?
[00:54:18] Speaker C: No, no, the one in the back of the theater.
[00:54:21] Speaker B: Well, yeah, well, Paul.
[00:54:22] Speaker C: He's alone in the back of the.
[00:54:24] Speaker A: I don't give him a hard time, but.
No, no, Paul Schrader. I don't know.
[00:54:29] Speaker C: I don't remember. He died, but. Jessica Albo.
[00:54:32] Speaker B: Paul Lynn.
[00:54:33] Speaker A: Paul Lynn. Center Square.
[00:54:35] Speaker C: I don't know. He did those Fast and Furious movies.
[00:54:39] Speaker B: Oh, he died in his car.
[00:54:40] Speaker C: He died? Yeah.
[00:54:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:54:42] Speaker C: Anyway. Driving Disturbia. Shia LaBeouf. You know.
[00:54:46] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:54:47] Speaker C: Veronica Mars, you know, stuff.
[00:54:50] Speaker A: Yeah, no, it's.
[00:54:51] Speaker C: That's in syndication now, and it's so.
[00:54:54] Speaker A: So.
[00:54:54] Speaker B: Still getting checks?
[00:54:55] Speaker A: You still getting some. Some. No. Are you still getting some. Some checks? All right, well, that's cool.
[00:54:59] Speaker C: It's not great, but know. It's all right.
[00:55:01] Speaker A: Yeah, no, it's.
Well, so. Well, you must have felt good about that. About that.
[00:55:07] Speaker C: Felt like. Well, that was the thing that was. That told me I.
I was a songwriter.
[00:55:13] Speaker A: Right.
[00:55:13] Speaker C: Because you don't ever believe it. You know, that was the weird. Mind if I could Say the critics, when they would write nice stuff about.
[00:55:23] Speaker A: You, just like really imposter syndrome.
[00:55:26] Speaker C: Oh, it took me 20 years to like the White Stripes because they were saying nice stuff about the White Stripes too. And I'm like, they say this shit about everybody, you know. So it took me a long time to appreciate a lot of bands because I just thought, like, people just talking shit.
[00:55:43] Speaker A: Well, they, they. You just can't pay attention to what they say. I mean, they're saying, decide for yourself.
[00:55:47] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:55:48] Speaker A: But anyway, so, so the Atlantic Records deal, it has some good sides, but. But you realize, well, these people are just shooting for the next quarter.
[00:56:02] Speaker C: Well, the industry was dead. So I was on the road and they were telling me, I'm not selling records. And there was no. I would go into the record shops. No record on the shelf, didn't have the record there. I mean, they weren't doing their part, you know.
[00:56:15] Speaker A: Right, right.
[00:56:15] Speaker C: And then meanwhile, they got me on a tour bus. They stripped me down to an acoustic guitar, which I made a produced record. I had a band that I needed cuz I wasn't really.
[00:56:26] Speaker A: Were you opening for somebody?
[00:56:27] Speaker C: Yeah, I was always opening for people.
[00:56:29] Speaker A: Anybody of note?
[00:56:31] Speaker C: Ah, man. From G Love, Donovan Franken, R. Jack Johnson.
[00:56:36] Speaker A: Well, those are all cool opening spots.
[00:56:38] Speaker B: Those.
[00:56:38] Speaker C: I mean, I got to play with steel.
[00:56:39] Speaker A: Those are all great, great opening spots. But it, but at the, the time.
[00:56:45] Speaker C: Of the music business, well, the business was tanking.
[00:56:49] Speaker A: Right, right.
[00:56:49] Speaker C: And they were proceeding. The Atlantic is an old shaggy carpet.
[00:56:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:56:55] Speaker C: And they were like, keep doing the.
[00:56:57] Speaker A: Same thing that we've been doing. It worked. It worked in the 60s.
[00:57:01] Speaker C: Yeah, they were, they were gone as if, like, things were the same. And I, I saw the writing on the wall. I'm like, I'm feeling terrible. I'm like, I just wanted to be.
I wanted to like, disappear for 20 years so everybody would forget. And that's kind of what you get here. I'm sitting here now.
[00:57:20] Speaker A: Okay. This is the resurgence now.
[00:57:22] Speaker C: I mean, I'm not even resurging. Like, it's just like.
[00:57:26] Speaker A: No, I don't even know.
Yeah, yeah, I know. So keep in mind where you are. Speaking of which, here, let me give you the Troubled Men podcast stickers. I know you have some already, but let me present.
[00:57:36] Speaker C: Dude, I was thinking, coming here, I'm like, what the hell am I going to talk about? Because I'm not really, like, ambitious and I'm not really on the scene. I'm not gigging that much.
I am, you know, I definitely make records. But I mean, even that, I don't even want to make another record. I'm like, who's going to pay for this shit?
[00:57:56] Speaker A: Right, Right, right.
[00:57:57] Speaker C: I'm not giving away. So that's kind of what you get with me. Like, fast forward through all that.
I'm suspicious on the industry, like, how to proceed.
[00:58:07] Speaker A: You're dubious about the functionality of the music business.
[00:58:11] Speaker C: Think about it as a business, but.
[00:58:13] Speaker A: You'Re not dubious about the importance of music.
[00:58:18] Speaker C: No, I mean, it's very important to me. And that was like, the thing that kept me in place. Yeah. That kept me in the hotel and I wouldn't show up to the shows, and that's how I got dropped. Okay, well, yeah, because I'm like, man, I need. This is for me. Like, I'm not doing this shit to be famous. Like, it's for me. Like. And if I keep going and they keep putting me on a billboard like they're doing, and it doesn't feel right, then it's not right.
[00:58:52] Speaker A: It's corrosive for your soul.
[00:58:53] Speaker C: It was, man.
[00:58:55] Speaker B: Well, so do you owe the Music Atlanta any money?
[00:58:58] Speaker C: Yeah, owe them some money.
[00:58:59] Speaker A: Yeah. Because they can't recoup that unless you sell my record, bro.
[00:59:02] Speaker B: Because, I mean, basically these music labels are like the Mob.
[00:59:07] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:59:07] Speaker B: They sign you, they give you a big advance, and then you spend your whole career paying it back.
[00:59:12] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:59:12] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:59:13] Speaker B: And that's it. You're still paying them back?
[00:59:15] Speaker A: Well, no, because he's off the label. He doesn't have to pay him. They don't. It's not an actual loan that they. That's. That's secured against your future earnings, only your future earnings with them.
So once you're dropped, you're, you know, they can't. They can't collect any more money from you, so you are free. So at that point, you. Now you. That's. That. That's not the end of your recording career. In fact, you. You hook up with a bunch of New York downtown luminaries like Nell's Clowns, like, all that. We're moving on because podcast is Fast Forward.
[00:59:51] Speaker C: Right after that, I. I went. I hit the road with my laptop and said it. I'm just gonna make whatever I can from Jamaica to Toronto to Paris to. But you know, and then.
[01:00:01] Speaker A: Well, yeah, so you make a second record that's kind of international record. What was that?
[01:00:08] Speaker C: It's called Luke the Drifter.
[01:00:10] Speaker A: Yeah, Luke the Drifter.
[01:00:11] Speaker C: And it's like very like. Well, I was in a Freak folk kind of all my friends Were like freak folk in my neighborhood. They were huge stars. Like, David Byrne was coming get them and Devendra Bernhardt. Coco Rosie was another sister duo. They're huge in Paris. But anyway, so the freak folk thing was kind of in there. So anyway, I don't know.
[01:00:34] Speaker A: Talking about the downtown scene, John Thorne.
[01:00:38] Speaker C: The Getting Factory, my manager, when I was had a manager before I stopped showing up to my shows and everybody left me, was this woman named Liz Penta and she managed Mark Rebo Modeski, Martin Wood.
Now she manages Nel's Natalie Merchant.
[01:01:00] Speaker A: He's so great. Nels is awesome.
[01:01:01] Speaker C: Nels is awesome, man. He's just so nice. So I'll tell you the story with Nels. So I'm living in.
Fast forward to 2010. I'm living in Saint Rock, restoring houses because I love restoring houses in New Orleans. In New Orleans?
[01:01:15] Speaker A: Saint Rock, Yeah, my ancestral home. You know, both my grandparents are buried at Saint Rock Cemetery. Oh, I talk about it too much. Sorry.
[01:01:23] Speaker C: Every time I bring up Saint Rock, somebody would have a story.
But I loved it. Like, everybody was moving here from la, New York, and. And I'm thinking like, man, a music scene, a new music scene. Not a music scene, a new. Something new's happening and you're up in.
[01:01:39] Speaker A: New York, then you come back here to. Yeah, okay.
[01:01:42] Speaker C: Yeah. And I was like trying to, you know, I wanted to own property in, you know, New York, you know, it's too late. Yeah, it's too late.
So that was exciting. I could make records. I started making a record called Campo Santo here. Just like, just keep on making records. And I was working a job with my family. They asked me again, you want to come work? I'm like, yeah, I'll work. Because I'm making music, selling three songs a year to film.
So I worked with them. But I would drive over the lake every day, 6:30.
And then one day, Oz was playing Nels. I didn't know who Nels was. I didn't know Wilco's music either, you know, but they're playing this music, this jazz master. I love the jazz master guitar. A lot of music that uses that.
And I called him, like, who is this playing? They're like, Nils Klein.
Then I would go on a YouTube rampage. Like, just pedals, you know, what is he using all that stuff? But the guy I've been working with, Danny Bloom in Woodstock, you know, he knows everybody. And he's like, man, I want the Nels wedding.
So midway through that record, I'm like, man, let's let's call Nels and went up there and it was a surreal thing because he comes in with the pedals in a bag.
[01:03:07] Speaker A: Just a shopping bag or a shopping bag.
I like it.
[01:03:12] Speaker C: It wasn't a fancy pedal board. It was just a shopping bag bag. And I'm like, oh, he brought that one. He brought that one. He brought that one. But anyway, we've become good friends and we play sometimes together.
But yeah, multiple. Like some of my other guys, like Josh Werner is more of a peer from Williamsburg Bass.
You know, I was reading books on Lee Scratch Perry when I was in Brooklyn, stuff super in the dub. And he was talking about early New Orleans R B, Shirley and Lee.
[01:03:48] Speaker A: Right.
[01:03:49] Speaker C: Come on, baby, let the good times roll.
[01:03:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:03:51] Speaker C: And he was saying how, like, the.
[01:03:53] Speaker A: Dumb guys were listening to that.
[01:03:55] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And he was like, it would come across the waves compressed, like, in the bass would be like, right, right. So that's how they made the music.
[01:04:04] Speaker A: You know, WWL communication.
[01:04:07] Speaker C: I. When I heard that piece of information, I was well on my way to making new music with.
With that. But Josh ended up playing with Lee Scratch Perry, my buddy. So it's like everything came crashing in.
[01:04:24] Speaker A: Right, right.
[01:04:24] Speaker C: And producing a record with Lee Scratchberry.
[01:04:27] Speaker A: So it's amazing when. When all these small impulses coalesce into.
[01:04:32] Speaker C: Unbelievable.
[01:04:33] Speaker A: Into all these connections, man.
[01:04:35] Speaker C: Yeah. And I still feel like the little tiny grand point guy. And I'm. I'm.
I feel better about my music ability.
You know, I just do what I do.
[01:04:44] Speaker A: But, yeah, yeah, that's all any of us can do. You know, at this point, you're. You're back in New Orleans. We're kind of on the downslope of the podcast. We want to catch up to the contemporary scene here. You're back then when you came back down, you kind of decided, okay, this is going to be a DIY project operation. I'm going to play music live. I'm going to make records with my own hands. Go ahead.
[01:05:06] Speaker C: For a few records. Well, I. I kind of existed as, like, if you make a great record, something will happen. Because that's what happened to me the first time.
[01:05:15] Speaker A: Right.
[01:05:16] Speaker C: Like, I'm just gonna keep making good records. Like, something will happen. Things changed. And then I started a new website again, and people started writing me, and I would answer them myself, and people would be like, I can't believe you wrote me back. Yeah, well, you wrote me.
[01:05:32] Speaker A: Right, right.
[01:05:33] Speaker C: And so I got the idea to.
And I was playing like, I wanted to be in my community so bad. So I would play like anywhere. I would play like Saint Rock Tavern. I didn't care. And I was like trying to make myself tough and play solo. Like I was playing solo all of a sudden.
No production whatsoever. Nothing, Nothing. Just.
And my wife, who I was dating at the time, she's like, baby, there's a lot of people that love your music and they're never coming to St. Claude Avenue to see, you know, Right. I'm like, okay. So we started, we did a show in her backyard and then I started answering emails like people all over the country, when you come into my town, when you come into my. When you come in.
And then I write this book, this one huge girl wrote a book about doing house shows.
And I just like sucked it up and I'm like, okay, I'm gonna do this. And I bought a touring van, camper van that I could live in. Because you know, when you tour as a band, you don't see any city you go into, you just boom.
[01:06:43] Speaker A: And the curtain, just the highway and the hotel and open.
[01:06:47] Speaker C: There you are, you know. And I wanted to rethink how I going to do this live music.
[01:06:54] Speaker A: Okay. You know, because you know, Luke, as I'm sure you understood non verbally, at the end of this life, you're dead. And that's the only one you get. So if you wind up just grinding it out your whole life, that's kind.
[01:07:09] Speaker C: Of what's going to happen.
[01:07:10] Speaker A: It's over.
[01:07:11] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:07:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:07:11] Speaker A: So now you go. Go on.
[01:07:13] Speaker C: No. So I just started doing that and humbled myself and played in somebody's living room. And then the next year it would be in a barn.
And then all of a sudden and I'm doing my own sound. I don't have to deal with that sound guy who, who's pissed at you because you get the tour.
You know how that goes.
[01:07:33] Speaker A: He's mad when you show up.
[01:07:34] Speaker C: Mad, he's mad.
[01:07:37] Speaker A: They're not all mad, but some of them are.
[01:07:39] Speaker C: Some of them are mad.
[01:07:40] Speaker A: And this is right at the same time as clubs are suffering. It's harder, it's harder for bands, regional bands to tour, so they don't go to the clubs. The clubs are starting to fail. It's. It's actually. There's kind of a sea change in the business where these house concerts are coming to the fore. And I know there's people who play nothing but those things. And they might play 150 dates a year at those and they make, they do very well. And they're always booked but so you tapped into that early.
[01:08:13] Speaker C: Yeah, early on.
And I felt bad about it or embarrassed about it for a while until I, like, would read about an indie musician whose label is waiting to release their record, and they would do that to make some money. In the meantime, I'm like, okay, well, that guy. I love this guy. He's doing it, then I'm okay. Yeah.
So I just got over it. And then we become, like, really good friends.
[01:08:36] Speaker B: It's all fine. Unless you're the neighbor.
[01:08:40] Speaker C: It's not, like, loud, though. It's like you talk.
[01:08:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:08:43] Speaker C: Solo duo. Yeah.
[01:08:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I know. I have dealt with it. I live in the Jazz Fest neighborhood, and I dealt with it.
It's all right until you're the neighbor.
[01:08:53] Speaker C: Yeah, well, we usually invite the neighbor.
[01:08:57] Speaker A: There you go.
[01:08:57] Speaker C: That's the number one rule.
[01:08:59] Speaker B: There you go. What if the neighbor doesn't like it?
[01:09:02] Speaker C: Well, we'll bake them a cake.
[01:09:04] Speaker B: You're gonna bake a cake?
[01:09:06] Speaker C: I mean, somebody will.
[01:09:08] Speaker A: All right, so. So you have your wife, who winds up being a very accomplished classical piano player and good singer.
[01:09:16] Speaker C: I mean, so.
[01:09:17] Speaker A: So you guys, like, start operating as a. As a duo, and you have a terrific act. I played one gig with you where we. We did a. A couple of sets at Chicky Wawa. We had Eric Bolivar on. On. On drums. And Papa Molly on. On that set. And you and your wife and I had a blast playing your music. And this is it.
[01:09:39] Speaker C: I thought maybe you were bored. I couldn't. Couldn't tell. I'm like, man, this guy played with Big Star. He doesn't give a shit.
[01:09:46] Speaker A: I didn't play with Big Star. I played with Alex Chilton.
[01:09:48] Speaker C: Whoa. Alex Chilton. You know?
[01:09:50] Speaker A: But no, no, no, no. I just like to play, man. I would play something that's interesting and. No, no, I dig your music, man. I wouldn't.
[01:09:58] Speaker C: It's like I'm playing drum beats for this guy. He doesn't want to hear electronic beats.
[01:10:02] Speaker A: No, look, as with you, every time I play, I'm present, right there. We're doing this like it's the most important thing that we're ever going to do.
[01:10:12] Speaker C: That's the same way I am. I don't care if I'm playing in a living room. Are aware.
[01:10:17] Speaker A: If you don't treat it like that, you should not be doing this. Not for you.
[01:10:21] Speaker C: It's true.
[01:10:23] Speaker A: So you guys continue to do this. I'm guessing that you have a full schedule this summer or plan?
[01:10:29] Speaker C: Really full. Like, I'm. I'm kind of Dragging my feet this year.
[01:10:32] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:10:32] Speaker C: I am. I mean, we're going to do an east coast tour. I don't know. I'm just overwhelmed, man, just with the noise in the world.
[01:10:39] Speaker A: It's tough.
[01:10:40] Speaker C: I'm really having a hard time.
[01:10:42] Speaker A: But yeah, you know, just take a deep breath and push it all out of your mind. Just go back to the music.
[01:10:47] Speaker C: I need to. I need to grind it out.
[01:10:49] Speaker A: But, man, you don't have to grind it out. You know, it's supposed to be, you know, supposed to be.
[01:10:54] Speaker C: Supposed to be flow. Yeah. Yeah, it's supposed to be a flow.
[01:10:57] Speaker A: Okay, well, I think we're kind of reaching that point.
[01:11:01] Speaker B: How many times? Yes.
[01:11:02] Speaker A: Okay, well, Luke, he's done with me. Thank you so much for. For coming down and. And glad we were able to get you on everybody. Check out Dustin Luke's records under Luke. I'll put a link in the show notes to his band camp page, and I'll have a couple of tracks in the. In the. In the podcast you'll be able to hear. So thank you so much.
[01:11:25] Speaker B: Thank you.
[01:11:26] Speaker A: And as always on the Troublemen podcast, we like to say trouble never ends.
[01:11:30] Speaker B: But the struggle continues. Good night.
[01:11:33] Speaker A: Good night.
[01:11:34] Speaker C: Good night.
[01:11:36] Speaker D: In the morning I rise.
[01:11:41] Speaker A: And I.
[01:11:42] Speaker D: Wake from a dream they said peace on always come come from belly.
[01:11:58] Speaker A: Little.
[01:11:58] Speaker D: Won'T let me pride in the machine they said things aren't always what what they may see Happiness is only lesson all we need is in the present time we know finally we finally will have something to rattle Won't you let me love in this time I know we have always been going the arrows and on all the thoughts in between they don't let far we know.
[01:13:56] Speaker C: The.
[01:13:57] Speaker D: One time they need let my go down and then came the rain.
[01:14:28] Speaker C: Of.
[01:14:28] Speaker D: A new lesson A brand new world finally we'll have something to wow.
[01:14:46] Speaker B: Find.
[01:14:46] Speaker D: A believe me there something to rise Won't you let me love Won't you let me love Won't you let me love.
