TMP332 RICKY SEBASTIAN ON THE BLOCK

[00:00:15] Speaker A: Greetings troubled listeners. Welcome back to the Troubled Men podcast. I am Rene Coman, 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, Mr. Manny Chevrolet. Welcome, Manny. [00:00:32] Speaker B: Hey man. Good evening to you. [00:00:34] Speaker A: How are you? I'm good, I'm good. It's, it's, it's feels a little bit unusual doing the, the truncated intro there for the first time after so many had to attempts. Yes. So many successful previous podcast where I change things. Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:00:56] Speaker B: Maybe I'll just change my name. [00:00:58] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [00:00:59] Speaker B: You know, I don't know. All right, well, yeah, it's something new. [00:01:04] Speaker A: Right, right. [00:01:04] Speaker B: Something new for the new year. [00:01:06] Speaker A: Yes, yes. [00:01:07] Speaker B: You know. So what's going on, man? [00:01:09] Speaker A: Oh, not too much. I was away in, in Florida, down in Orlando with Susan Cowsill, her band the. Her brother John Cowsill who has been the drummer for the Beach Boys for about the past 25 years, and his wife Vicky Peterson from the Bangles. And we all had three days of frivolity with one show of music in the middle of it. So it was a lot of fellowship, a lot of drinking, a lot of cocktails, a lot of wine. And then we had the big house party and that was fun. I tell you, those Cowsls, man, it's nonstop bits. When they get a few of them together, they're. It was just a lot of joshing. Oh, but it was very fun. [00:01:57] Speaker B: I don't know. [00:01:57] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, what else? While I was there, I watched a couple of football games. I watched both of our teams. I watched the Saints game and I watched the Raiders game after that. Oh, and both of our teams are in terrible shape. [00:02:13] Speaker B: Yes. This was this past week. [00:02:15] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, the Saints, the Saints won. But I mean still, you know, the, the, the, the Raiders did not. [00:02:21] Speaker B: Well, you know, remember we've been talking about sports betting now being legal pretty much everywhere. [00:02:28] Speaker A: Right. [00:02:29] Speaker B: Well, the Raiders game ended in some controversy because they were down 24 to 14 with less than a minute to go and they were driving down the field and here's the deal. They were, they were getting seven and a half points. [00:02:48] Speaker A: Uh huh. [00:02:48] Speaker B: All right, so usually when you're desperate, you're trying to throw Hail Marys to get a quick touchdown and maybe get an onside kick. But with about 10, 15 seconds left, the Raiders decide to hit a. To take a field goal, which they make the field goal and it becomes 24 to 17. [00:03:10] Speaker C: Right. [00:03:10] Speaker B: So now there Are gamblers everywhere freaking out? Even the, I don't know if you were listening to the towers, the commentators, they were going, this is kind of weird, kind of fishy because, because now the Raiders, by taking the three, they're beating the spread, right. By half a point. [00:03:27] Speaker A: Uhhuh. [00:03:28] Speaker B: So you've got lots and lots and lots of people very angry. Very. And people who bet, you know, took the, took the Broncos to cover. [00:03:39] Speaker A: Uhhuh. [00:03:39] Speaker B: And they didn't cover. Now, if you took the Raiders, then you're a happy guy. [00:03:43] Speaker A: Right. [00:03:44] Speaker B: But it's just kind of suspicious. [00:03:46] Speaker A: Well, the people watching the room said, oh, they're just trying to cover the points, man. [00:03:50] Speaker B: Yeah, so. So they showed that game in Florida. [00:03:55] Speaker A: Well, he has like some kind of football package where they had every game. You know, it's like, I do. Okay, you have that. Yeah, yeah. So I got done with the Saints game. I was like, what's next? Oh, the Raiders. I'll watch that. [00:04:08] Speaker B: Yeah, they're, they're not good. [00:04:10] Speaker A: Yeah, it's tough, man. But, but, but as you said, it's Vegas, man. [00:04:14] Speaker B: It's all Vegas. [00:04:16] Speaker A: Vegas. [00:04:17] Speaker B: It's all Vegas who are. [00:04:20] Speaker C: Right. [00:04:20] Speaker B: The mobsters, the gangsters. They're the ones who are all winning. And the poor fans like us. We don't get anything right, you know? Anyway, it's a big day today. Also. I, I, I, I was informed that the group of yammering got together to celebrate one of their members. [00:04:42] Speaker A: I heard about that. Yes. [00:04:44] Speaker B: Two of their members, I think. [00:04:45] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:04:45] Speaker C: Right, right. [00:04:46] Speaker B: Some kind of a birthday. [00:04:48] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that's, that's a group that our wives belong to. [00:04:52] Speaker B: Yes, it's a group of yammering. [00:04:55] Speaker A: And it's not a, not a name that they made up for themselves, but something that you have utilized in the past. Yes. [00:05:01] Speaker B: Well, hey, if title fits, use it. [00:05:04] Speaker A: But yeah, apparently it was a, it was an all day affair. It was supposed to be just lunch, but. [00:05:11] Speaker B: Well, because women like to do lunch. That's a thing with women. They like to do lunch. [00:05:15] Speaker A: And then it grew. It grew. It became cookies afterwards at someone's house. Guessing there was probably some, some wine opened or something. [00:05:23] Speaker B: Sure. And the cocktail continued. It continued from the restaurant to someone's house. [00:05:29] Speaker A: Right. [00:05:30] Speaker B: And who knows, they might still be talking now, some of them. So that happened today. [00:05:34] Speaker A: Okay. [00:05:35] Speaker B: You know, they're excited about that. [00:05:37] Speaker A: Right, right. [00:05:38] Speaker B: Also, I don't know, you know, our, our government, our fearless leader is just trying to change things up constantly, make, to make people angry. Yes. In fact, you know, he Said that nursing will no longer be a degree. You know, it's just basically. Yeah. He's taken away people's degrees if they want to become nurses, basically. He says it's just going to be a hobby now for people. [00:06:04] Speaker A: I don't know, man. [00:06:05] Speaker B: Yeah, I, you know, I don't. I don't. That's kind of scary. [00:06:08] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:06:08] Speaker A: You know. [00:06:09] Speaker B: You know, I guess it's all about the payroll or something, maybe the insurance company. [00:06:14] Speaker A: I think it's really all about the cruelty. That seems to be the point of. Of many of their. Their dictates. It's, you know, it's like, well, what, why, What's. What's to be gained? It's like, oh, the cruelty. [00:06:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:26] Speaker B: Well, yeah, it's like when he shoots those boats off of Venezuela. [00:06:29] Speaker A: Right, right. [00:06:29] Speaker B: You can see that there's actually survivors clinging to the boat. Just get rid of them. What I don't understand is why are they blowing up these boats? They're blowing up the. The cargo which they say is drugs. [00:06:41] Speaker A: Right. [00:06:42] Speaker B: So any other administration would have just pulled them over and then kept the drugs to sell themselves. [00:06:47] Speaker A: Sure. [00:06:48] Speaker B: Right. [00:06:48] Speaker A: Like the way they usually do. [00:06:49] Speaker B: Yeah, but this guy's like, you know, he's making a lot of people angry by getting rid of those drugs. [00:06:55] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like those teams covering the spread. [00:06:58] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Are not covering. [00:07:00] Speaker C: Right, right. [00:07:01] Speaker B: But yeah, I don't understand, you know, like, go back all the way to, you know, fdr. They would just keep the drugs. [00:07:09] Speaker A: Sure. [00:07:09] Speaker B: They kept the booze. Right. And they just used it for the. Remember the CIA back in the 80s was busted for. They were dealing coke in LA. [00:07:18] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah. Freeway, Ricky Ross. [00:07:21] Speaker B: Yeah, they were dealing. So I don't understand. You know, they're all about money. They just want to make themselves more and more rich, keep the drugs. [00:07:28] Speaker A: Yeah, well, you know, actually, one of those guys that was involved in the Iran Contra thing, he just passed away a couple of weeks ago. Eugene Hasenfuss. It's a name you can't forget. [00:07:40] Speaker B: Who was another guy, the soldier who was. [00:07:44] Speaker A: Oliver North. [00:07:45] Speaker B: Oliver North. [00:07:46] Speaker A: And I saw that he. And. And the secretary that he had at the time just got married after many, many years, whatever her name was. They got married. Yeah. After all these years. [00:07:56] Speaker B: Did he go to jail? [00:07:58] Speaker C: He. [00:07:58] Speaker A: I think he might have done a little bit of time. Maybe. Maybe got pardoned. I can't really recall how that went down. [00:08:03] Speaker B: Well, that's it. Maybe we should get them on the show. [00:08:05] Speaker C: Ah, that's. [00:08:06] Speaker B: That's a good or Send him a wedding gift. [00:08:08] Speaker A: There you go. Well, speaking of wedding gifts, someone sent us a package here at the bar. This is the largest package we've ever received. In fact, it was, it was so large, people were saying more than one person asked, is it ticking? [00:08:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:08:22] Speaker A: And now. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's big. I, I, I've broken the seal on it here. [00:08:28] Speaker B: All right. [00:08:30] Speaker A: Yeah, we're gonna have the big reveal on the, on the, on the break. [00:08:33] Speaker B: Yeah, during the break. So, yeah, that's been going on, and they classifying that as nursing. And, and then, you know, we would talk. I think we talked about this last couple weeks. You know, all the. Christmas is back and the music is back. Well, it finally happened. [00:08:46] Speaker C: What? [00:08:47] Speaker B: I think I brought it up. I finally saw that commercial with a girl. The guy whistles, and a puppy comes over the hill. And then she whistles, and a big, huge truck comes over, comes bounding over. I saw it on Saturday, and I've been seeing it constantly. And. [00:09:03] Speaker A: Okay, I haven't seen it yet, but. [00:09:05] Speaker B: Oh, well, the only thing I can say is I hope these two actors get the residuals. And they didn't, they didn't go for a buyout. [00:09:11] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:09:11] Speaker B: Because, you know, you want. If they're gonna keep playing it, you got to keep making some money. [00:09:14] Speaker A: Sure, sure. [00:09:15] Speaker B: You know, I don't think those two have a career. [00:09:17] Speaker A: Yeah, probably not. But you don't really get the choice when, when they, when you pitch you a deal. The deal is the deal, and either. [00:09:23] Speaker B: You take it, your agent. Your agent will cut you the best deal that they can. [00:09:27] Speaker A: Right, right, right. [00:09:27] Speaker B: You know, speaking of agents, there's iced. [00:09:29] Speaker A: Agents down here all over the place. Yeah, I, Yeah, well, I've said just see him on tv. I haven't seen him. [00:09:35] Speaker B: I haven't seen him at all, anywhere in the city. But I told my daughter, I said, be careful because, you know, you're Hispanic, they just might look at you. And, and she said she's gonna start wearing her blonde wig. [00:09:50] Speaker A: Okay. [00:09:51] Speaker B: So. Okay. And I said, do you have one for me? But anyway, yeah, but also, there's some guy, some group of resistance. They're giving out orange whistles. [00:10:04] Speaker A: Okay. [00:10:05] Speaker B: Have you heard about this? [00:10:06] Speaker A: I've seen a bit of that. Yeah. Some organized counter protesters. [00:10:11] Speaker B: I know where to get these orange whistles. So if you want one, let me know. I'll get you a whistle. [00:10:15] Speaker A: Okay. You know, I'll let you know about that. [00:10:19] Speaker B: Yeah, so you never know. Yeah, yeah, because I don't know how to whistle. [00:10:23] Speaker A: That's what I was gonna ask you. Can't. I can't whistle either. [00:10:25] Speaker B: I can't whistle. I don't know how to. Never have been able to whistle. [00:10:28] Speaker A: Yeah, not. Not with my fingers or without. [00:10:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:10:32] Speaker A: I can scream. [00:10:33] Speaker B: Maybe that's something that's handed down. Maybe. You know, maybe like the ball gene, maybe. [00:10:37] Speaker A: Genetic. [00:10:37] Speaker B: Yeah, it could be genetic, the whistling. [00:10:40] Speaker A: You know, now we got a. Got a whole. Whole influx of. Of. [00:10:43] Speaker B: Well, this is the last week of school, okay. At the nearby campus here, the finals. A lot of people are done with finals already. They're either coming out to party or they're gonna go home. [00:10:55] Speaker A: These people look too old for to be in college. But who knows? Maybe it's parents Week. [00:11:00] Speaker C: I know. [00:11:00] Speaker A: Coming to pick up some of the kids. [00:11:01] Speaker B: Maybe. Maybe. [00:11:02] Speaker A: I don't know, maybe a faculty party or something. [00:11:06] Speaker B: I don't know. Yeah. Look at all these joints. [00:11:08] Speaker A: Joint. [00:11:08] Speaker B: I mean, I look like a bunch of losers if you ask me. [00:11:11] Speaker A: 25 people just showed up. [00:11:13] Speaker B: You know, it's easy. [00:11:16] Speaker C: All right. [00:11:17] Speaker B: Okay. Well, anyways, you know, I could go on and on. [00:11:23] Speaker A: Right, right. [00:11:25] Speaker B: Listen, also our friend, former guest, Steve pike, the photographer Pike. [00:11:33] Speaker A: The great Steve Pike. [00:11:34] Speaker B: Yeah. I was talking to him about a week ago. We were at the club and he said that he had just done a photo shoot for album cover for Freddie King. Who? [00:11:47] Speaker A: Little Freddie King? [00:11:48] Speaker B: Yeah, little Freddie King. And he met Wacko. [00:11:51] Speaker A: Wacko Wade? [00:11:52] Speaker B: Yes. Now, did we have Freddie on the show? [00:11:54] Speaker A: Not yet. [00:11:55] Speaker B: Okay. We had Wacko. [00:11:56] Speaker A: We had Wacko. And shortly after Wacko was on the show, Freddie had a bicycle accident that he was in the hospital for about two months recovering from. [00:12:05] Speaker B: And he's. [00:12:06] Speaker A: He's. He's out of the hospital now. He still has some mending to do before he starts playing gigs, but. But he's. He's on the upswing. [00:12:13] Speaker B: Yeah. So Steve was there, he met Freddy and he met Wacko, and he got the hell out of there. [00:12:19] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:12:19] Speaker B: So. [00:12:19] Speaker A: Yeah, well, we'll have to have. Wacko is going to bring Freddie over to the show. So maybe when the record comes out, we'll have Freddie. [00:12:27] Speaker B: Yeah, it's supposed to come talk about. [00:12:29] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that sounds. That's good. That's good. [00:12:31] Speaker B: One last thing, I guess. Unless you've got more. [00:12:34] Speaker A: No, you go ahead. [00:12:36] Speaker B: You know, the. It's awards. You know, the awards for all this shit starts coming out soon. Awards season, they call it. Well, the Golden Globes just had their awards announcements and they're a little bit more liberal. They're a little bit More. There's wider variety as opposed to the Oscars, you know. [00:12:54] Speaker C: Right. [00:12:55] Speaker B: In fact, this is the first year ever that the Golden Globes have a category for best podcasts. [00:13:03] Speaker A: Okay. [00:13:04] Speaker B: Best podcast. And we were not nominated once again. Well, this is the first time. [00:13:12] Speaker A: We'Ve been not nominated for so many other awards. [00:13:16] Speaker B: Are accused of so many other awards. But anyway, one person who did not make the cut was the number one podcaster, Joe Rogan. [00:13:25] Speaker A: That's. [00:13:25] Speaker B: He was not nominated. [00:13:26] Speaker A: He's excluded because they said we're not going to have political. [00:13:30] Speaker B: Right. So basically just nominated a bunch of podcasts with like C list actors. [00:13:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:13:35] Speaker B: You know, who basically have kind of, you know, they're so broke they have to do a podcast. Surely they'll get. [00:13:41] Speaker A: Well, it seems like you're doing something so. [00:13:43] Speaker B: Right. [00:13:44] Speaker A: Gives the illusion of activity. [00:13:46] Speaker B: Yeah. So that's it. That's kind of interesting that now the podcast has become. Now maybe the Oscars will do it. Or the Tonys. [00:13:54] Speaker A: Okay. [00:13:55] Speaker B: Or the Emmys. [00:13:56] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:13:56] Speaker A: I have the best Broadway podcast observed by the Tony Awards. Well, you know, it's always next year, man. That's what they say. [00:14:05] Speaker B: Well, there was this one guy, Bruce Valanche, the comedy writer. He's written a lot of jokes for the oscars the past 30, 40 years. He's got a podcast about movies and the actors who are no longer living. He just talks about movies with actors that are no longer living. [00:14:26] Speaker A: Okay. [00:14:26] Speaker B: Yeah. Which is a, you know, that's a big chunk there. You could do a lot. [00:14:29] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah. [00:14:30] Speaker B: And also movies with actors who should be dead. [00:14:33] Speaker A: Okay. [00:14:34] Speaker B: So that's another thing. [00:14:36] Speaker A: All right, well, that, that expand. Expands the. The field considerably there. [00:14:40] Speaker B: Exactly. Anyway. Whoa, it's getting crowded in here. [00:14:43] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's happening. [00:14:44] Speaker B: I hope we'll be able to get another drink. [00:14:46] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, I think we, they, they know our faces. We have. Have a certain amount of stroke in here. [00:14:51] Speaker B: All right, well, let's get to our guest because he's just been sitting here. [00:14:54] Speaker C: He's. [00:14:54] Speaker A: His patience. He's a patient man. He's a reflective man. He's, you know, he's. [00:15:00] Speaker B: Are you awake? [00:15:01] Speaker A: He's a man of substance. [00:15:03] Speaker C: Very much so. [00:15:04] Speaker A: Okay, very good. All right. Our guest we have today is a guy I've known since I'm 12 or 13 years old. He's a world renowned master drummer, composer and music instructor. Has played on over 300 albums during his career with artists from all around the world, including Herbie Mann, Gil Evans, Tanya Maria, Harry Belafonte. Blood, Sweat and Tears. Donald Harrison, George Porter, Jr. Emily Remler, Steve Mazachowski. [00:15:32] Speaker C: On and on and on. [00:15:34] Speaker A: He taught for many years at the Drummers Collective in New York City and also as the head percussion instructor at the University of New Orleans under Ellis Marsalis. And he's played with an astounding list of musical superstars, including Jocko Pastorius, Mike Stern, Les McCann, Dr. John Schofield, Bobby McFerrin, David Fathead Newman, on and on. He's currently teaching in New Orleans and playing with his own group, Cayenne, that he has, as well as some other groups. We're going to get into all that and much more. But without further ado, the great Mr. Ricky Sebastian. Welcome, Ricky. [00:16:12] Speaker C: What's up, fellas? Thanks for having me, man. [00:16:14] Speaker A: Yeah, man, thanks for coming on here. You know, I was. I would occasionally run into you at. At our. Ricky goes to our same grocery store. He shops at the same store that the Troubleman podcast use. And I would occasionally run into you there and I'd inquire, you know, just like, test the waters, as if you were ready to come on the podcast. And a couple of years ago, you're like, I don't know about right now, like, that's okay. I'll keep you on the back burner. And then I contacted you again. It turned out that you just, out of pure coincidence, just moved across the street from me. [00:16:48] Speaker C: Yep, that's right. Oh, and, you know, I just want. I've known you so long, I used to play with your dad. [00:16:55] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, you moved here, like, around 19. 1976 or something. You came here in a wave of other young monster musicians coming from the Lafayette area. Kind of. That's the impression I got. Like you. Scott Gudo was another one of them. [00:17:11] Speaker C: Yeah. And I actually moved here right out of Berkeley College of Music. [00:17:14] Speaker A: Okay. [00:17:15] Speaker C: All right. [00:17:15] Speaker A: Somehow in my mind, I associated, like, all y' all were kind of from south central Louisiana, and you got here about the same time, and so I. [00:17:25] Speaker C: It would appear to be that way. [00:17:27] Speaker A: Right. [00:17:27] Speaker C: Right. [00:17:27] Speaker A: Now, there was another saxophone player who. I can't remember what his name was. [00:17:31] Speaker C: Carl Landry. [00:17:32] Speaker A: I don't think it was him. But both you and Scott started playing with my father's band. [00:17:39] Speaker C: That's right. Yeah. [00:17:41] Speaker A: And that's. That's when I first met you. And. And, you know, I remember you being very kind to me. You'd let me hang around with you and Steve Mazikowski on the brakes, even though I was a little kid. [00:17:51] Speaker C: Did I do that? [00:17:52] Speaker A: You did. You Did. I'm not sure you were crazy about the idea, but I must have. You must have warmed to me. [00:18:03] Speaker C: They told me you were learning to play bass, and I have an affinity for bass players. [00:18:07] Speaker A: I was studying bass with Steve Mazikowski at the time. Yes. And, you know, would show up on any jazz gigs that I could get into, worm my way into. You were on many of those. You're playing at Tyler's all the time, playing with a whole bunch of different groups. It was a golden age. I want to get into all that. But let's go back a little bit, talk about your background before you got to New Orleans. So you grew up in. You are from like the Opelousas area. [00:18:37] Speaker C: I was born in Opelousas, but my parents moved out of there when I was about one year old and they moved to Gonzales. [00:18:46] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [00:18:47] Speaker C: It's about. It's between here and Baton Rouge. [00:18:50] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:18:51] Speaker C: It's grown tremendously. But the time when I was growing up there was basically just a little river rat town. [00:19:00] Speaker A: Okay. [00:19:00] Speaker C: But the thing about Gonzalez was they had two amazing band directors there, Carl Dilio and Carl Shakesnider. And they produced, you know, considering the size of the town, they produced quite a few musicians out of that little area. [00:19:21] Speaker A: Man, it's crazy what, what a band program at a. At a high school can do or middle school, high school can do as far as developing talent, identifying people, having a strong program. I know the guy in Baton Rouge, at Baton Rouge High had the same thing, like a million great players. [00:19:40] Speaker C: It's funny, I went there too. [00:19:41] Speaker A: Did you? [00:19:42] Speaker C: Yeah, later on, you know, but. [00:19:46] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:46] Speaker C: Yeah. Growing up in Gonzalez, I got. I started taking drum lessons at 8 years old and was in a Catholic school and started studying privately with Carl DiLeo. And the school was so poor that the first year that I started, 15 kids auditioned the first day, but they didn't have drums. We all had to play on fold out metal chairs. Just imagine 15 kids beating on metal chairs that don't know how to freaking play. What that sounded like. Well, fortunately, the second day when I went back, 10 of them had split because they found out they'd have to learn how to read music. [00:20:32] Speaker B: Ah. [00:20:33] Speaker C: So that, that, that did away with a good 10 of them. So it cut the noise down considerably, you know. [00:20:39] Speaker A: Okay. And increased the amount of attention that you were going to get as a student. [00:20:42] Speaker C: Absolutely. And then a year later, the school actually got drums. And for like the first week, I could hardly play the music, man. I wasn't used to playing the Drum. The way the drums are sounded and felt. The band director's like, what's up with you? You're the best one in my band. You're making all these mistakes. And he figured it out. Oh, you just. You're not used to playing a real drum. [00:21:06] Speaker A: Used to playing the chair. [00:21:07] Speaker B: Right. [00:21:08] Speaker C: It's like. It doesn't sound like the chair, man. You know? [00:21:11] Speaker B: Do you ever just to reminisce, go back and play chairs? [00:21:15] Speaker C: No, no, that. That was. That first year was enough. [00:21:19] Speaker A: Put that all behind you. Right on. [00:21:23] Speaker B: Now, what are the guitar players audition on? [00:21:26] Speaker C: This was a school band, like a middle school band. We didn't have any guitar players. [00:21:30] Speaker B: Okay. [00:21:31] Speaker C: It was all that traditional. Trumpets, trombones. What did they use for those marching drums? Oh, they had. [00:21:37] Speaker B: Oh, they had that. [00:21:38] Speaker C: They had that the first year. Yeah. Okay. The drummers got the raw end of the deal. [00:21:44] Speaker A: Yeah. Crazy. I think they would have at least had practice pads or something for you guys. But no. Metal chairs. [00:21:50] Speaker C: Metal chairs, man. [00:21:52] Speaker A: There's a line from. From the Elvis song about can't find a partner use a wooden chair, but I don't think that's related. [00:22:00] Speaker C: It's a little close, but. [00:22:02] Speaker A: Okay. [00:22:03] Speaker C: So, you know, in the sixth grade, I ended up. I call it being released from Catholic school and started going to public school. And, man, I felt like I'd been let out of jail or something. It was amazing. It was incredible. And Carl Shakesneider was the band director there, and he had heard about me from the other guy and he snatched me up for the junior high school band even though I wasn't in junior high school. So I got to get out of the sixth grade teacher's class every day. And this woman hated the fact she. She abhorred me, man. Because of that, she couldn't. She hated me, was always giving me thought. [00:22:52] Speaker A: You're. You're getting it. You're a privileged character. You're getting special treatment already. Now you got used to it, though. I'm sure you thought, oh, no, I deserved this. [00:23:00] Speaker C: Oh, I thought I deserved it. [00:23:01] Speaker A: Right. [00:23:02] Speaker C: But not the treatment I got. [00:23:03] Speaker A: Sure, sure. [00:23:04] Speaker C: No, one day before. Oh, she was, you know, anything that anybody did with her back turned to the class, she turned around and pointed me, you know, constantly sending me to the principal, the shit I didn't do or whatever. So one day before class started, I got there early and I had a bunch of those little tacks, you know, with the colored heads, different colored heads. So I went behind her desk and I put about 10 of them on her chair. [00:23:33] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:34] Speaker C: And then went and sat in the class and just waited and didn't tell anybody that I'd done it because I knew better. And I just wait, you know, everybody came and sat down, and I'm just waiting for her to sit down. And it was a poetic moment when she did. I never saw 50 something year old woman jump up out of chair so fast in my life. [00:24:00] Speaker B: Okay, did she blame you? [00:24:01] Speaker C: Of course, but she had no proof. But the whole class started laughing hysterically, you know, so, yeah, that was a victorious, glorious day. Right, right. [00:24:12] Speaker A: Sweet revenge. [00:24:13] Speaker C: But she never did find out, really, who did it because I never told anyone. [00:24:17] Speaker A: See, that's the thing, man. If you do something like that, don't tell even one person. [00:24:21] Speaker C: You can't. [00:24:21] Speaker A: No, no. [00:24:22] Speaker B: What was her name? Do you remember? [00:24:23] Speaker C: You know, I think I must have blocked it out for my psychological health. Right, right, right, right. [00:24:29] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, you got a friend here. [00:24:30] Speaker A: Yeah, we got a. We got a friend. A silent partner joining the proceedings. So. So you're playing. Playing snare drum at this point still. At some point, they start having like a jazz band or something where you're playing a kit. [00:24:46] Speaker C: Junior high school, they had a marching band. [00:24:48] Speaker A: Right. [00:24:48] Speaker C: And a concert band and actually had a small, like, string orchestra. So I started playing all these other classical percussion instruments. [00:24:59] Speaker A: Okay. [00:25:00] Speaker C: And When I was 14, my parents got me a snare drum. When I was 16, I got a drum set out of a pawn shop, and it didn't have a hi hat, okay. So for the next couple years, my left foot basically just sat on the floor and did nothing. [00:25:22] Speaker A: Okay. [00:25:23] Speaker C: But that's how I learned to play. Drum set. But I'll never forget, a friend of mine got a drum set when I was 14 for Christmas, and I couldn't wait to go over there and play it. I had this Grand Funk Railroad song in my head. Had knew the drum beat by heart and thought, well, the minute I sit down on his set, I'm gonna be able to play this song. Well, I was shocked when it that didn't happen. [00:25:51] Speaker A: Didn't come out. [00:25:51] Speaker C: My feet didn't know what to do, man, because all they'd ever done is march. So I guess I have one of those personalities where if something is harder than I expected it to be, it makes me want to just do it even more. [00:26:05] Speaker A: Right, right. [00:26:06] Speaker C: So I was like, no, I'm gonna get this man one sooner or later. So that was. That was the beginning of the end. [00:26:13] Speaker A: Nice tenacity, I think they call that. [00:26:15] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, that's a good Word. [00:26:16] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right on. So. So you already had the fire lit in you at that point now, at that tender age, did you already see your life as a musician unfolding out in front of you? [00:26:29] Speaker C: I did. I knew that's what I wanted to do already. [00:26:31] Speaker B: Nice. [00:26:33] Speaker C: Actually, that's true. I didn't doubt it. [00:26:36] Speaker A: Right. [00:26:36] Speaker C: I was. Because, I mean, when I started college, I met a lot of people my age that they still didn't know what they wanted to do with their life. You know, I'm like, man, I figured that out years ago. You know, My parents ended up moving to Baton Rouge. But before that happened, we put a little band together in Gonzalez called the Flame. And we all wore red shirts, white pants, red socks, black shoes. [00:27:06] Speaker B: What year is this? [00:27:07] Speaker C: This is like. This must have been about 71. Okay. 1970. 71. [00:27:14] Speaker B: And what. What kind of music is it? It was just garage music. [00:27:17] Speaker C: Yeah, like music. The kind of music was going on after the Beatles hit everything, you know? [00:27:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:27:23] Speaker C: And we won this talent show and beat out this other band much older than us. And this is the out thing. They. They had us perform. You know how when you pull up in one of these convenience stores to get gas and there's this big aluminum roof over it? [00:27:41] Speaker A: Right. [00:27:42] Speaker C: They had us go and play on top of this thing. [00:27:45] Speaker A: Oh, geez. [00:27:46] Speaker C: On Airline Highway. The store was on Airline highway and Burnside. [00:27:51] Speaker A: Uhhuh. [00:27:52] Speaker C: And the Flame is playing on top of this aluminum roof above the gas pump. [00:27:58] Speaker A: How'd you get up there, man? [00:28:00] Speaker C: A ladder. [00:28:01] Speaker A: A ladder. [00:28:02] Speaker B: It must have been much lower back then, because now they're really high up. [00:28:06] Speaker C: Well, it looked to a. [00:28:07] Speaker B: How did you get your gear? [00:28:08] Speaker C: 15 year old. It looked pretty damn hot. [00:28:10] Speaker B: You get your gear up there? [00:28:12] Speaker C: We had help. We had people that brought. Brought the drum set up and everything, but yeah, they just did weird stuff like that. [00:28:19] Speaker A: Yeah, they weren't concerned. Considered. Concerned with the liability in those years. [00:28:23] Speaker C: No. [00:28:23] Speaker A: People weren't so litigious back then. [00:28:25] Speaker C: No, not at all. I think that might have been a good thing. [00:28:29] Speaker A: Sure. [00:28:29] Speaker B: It's. You're out there and there's. The judges are on the ground watching the audience. [00:28:34] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:28:35] Speaker B: Now, how do they judge you? [00:28:36] Speaker C: Is it. No, no, we had already won. [00:28:38] Speaker B: Oh, you had already won. [00:28:39] Speaker A: That was your prize. [00:28:40] Speaker C: We got to play. [00:28:41] Speaker B: Had to play on the top of a gas. [00:28:45] Speaker C: Alongside all the traffic going down Airline Highway. [00:28:49] Speaker B: Could have been exciting. [00:28:50] Speaker C: And then we also played at the Jumbali Festival. It was like the biggest thing. [00:28:55] Speaker B: Okay. [00:28:56] Speaker C: Never hit Gonzalez. [00:28:57] Speaker A: Right, right. So you getting some visibility There. [00:29:01] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, man, we played a lot of Hendrix. [00:29:04] Speaker A: Oh, cool. [00:29:04] Speaker C: You know, we were playing stuff off. Are you experienced? Led Zeppelin. It was like, that was the acid rock time. [00:29:12] Speaker B: Sure, sure. [00:29:12] Speaker A: And the girls were coming around, obviously. [00:29:15] Speaker C: A lot of girls. [00:29:15] Speaker A: Oh yeah. [00:29:16] Speaker C: Nice. [00:29:19] Speaker A: That's a nice perk. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you, you then, you know, you graduate from high school, you go to college. [00:29:27] Speaker C: Well, here's where the shit gets really weird. A couple of friends of mine in this band we had and said, look, our parents have this. These friends coming over, we'd like to play for them. Can you and your parents come over? So we, we went over to this kids house for dinner and we played. And one of the guests was this conductor for this big circus. Emmett Kelly the clown. The sad face clown. He did like commercials for Kodak camera where he sweeped the spotlight off the stage. [00:30:04] Speaker B: I remember that. [00:30:05] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. I thought you might, might be old enough to remember that. [00:30:08] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:30:09] Speaker C: So this guy was blown away by me and offered me a job going on tour with Emmett Kelly Circus. [00:30:18] Speaker A: Wow. [00:30:19] Speaker C: And I'm 16 years old, I'm in high school, right. So to this day, I can't believe my parents actually let me go and do this. [00:30:30] Speaker A: They let you go and do it? [00:30:31] Speaker C: He had to sign legal guardian documents. Well, we did the two weeks with the circus. First time I was ever in New York City. This blew my mind. We played the Brooklyn Academy of Music. [00:30:45] Speaker B: Wow. [00:30:46] Speaker C: All these crazy venues, man. He had like Clarence the Crosslight lion on this circus and Gentle Ben the Bear. So when the circus ended, he said, look, I got this other show that's touring Mexico for three months called Holiday with Horses. And we're going to perform in nothing but bull rings all over Mexico. Would you like to do that? You'll have to drop out of high school. So I'm thinking my parents definitely won't let me do this shit. Yeah, they did. So on one condition. I had to take correspondence courses through lsu. [00:31:27] Speaker A: Okay. [00:31:28] Speaker C: Which I wanted to do. I didn't want to drop out and just not finish high school. But consider trying to get these courses through the mail in Mexico while you're on tour, you're not even in the same place all the time. [00:31:44] Speaker B: Right. [00:31:45] Speaker C: I don't know how we pull that off, but I did. Wow. I kept up with my. When I told them, the principal at Baton Rouge High, what I was about. [00:31:53] Speaker A: To do, it's like you literally joined the circus. I say that, you know, it's like my father told me to stay in school, but I had to go join the circus. But you literally joined the circus. [00:32:01] Speaker C: I literally did this shit, man. The principal, when he found out what I was going to do, he just looked at me and he said, sebastian, you will never graduate on time. And to this day, I don't know if he was pulling some reverse psychology or if he really believed that, but I remember walking out of his office thinking, yeah, you cocksucker. Yes, I will. [00:32:25] Speaker A: I'm gonna show you again that. That tenacity kicking in if it's the last thing I do. [00:32:31] Speaker C: I'm. [00:32:31] Speaker B: Congratulations. That was going on. [00:32:34] Speaker C: It was like. It was. It was a circus band. [00:32:37] Speaker B: Okay, so what. What. What's in a. Okay, you got your drums and what, a couple horns and. [00:32:42] Speaker C: Yeah, an organ. [00:32:43] Speaker B: An organ? Yeah. [00:32:45] Speaker C: His wife played organ and bass. [00:32:48] Speaker B: What's his name? [00:32:49] Speaker C: His name was Clement Tocca. [00:32:51] Speaker B: Okay. [00:32:52] Speaker C: And I found out years later that he was a very influential musician in New Orleans. And I. I didn't even. I didn't even know that. [00:33:00] Speaker A: Okay. [00:33:01] Speaker C: Yeah. His wife played organ and the bass pedal. Right. He played trumpet and there were a couple other horns. It was about five pieces. [00:33:11] Speaker B: But there was no other high schoolers. [00:33:12] Speaker C: Oh, no, no, Just me. [00:33:14] Speaker A: It was you and a bunch of adults traveling around. [00:33:17] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. And the horse show was even more of a trip, man. You know, that. That was an education that you could never get in school. [00:33:26] Speaker A: Sure. [00:33:26] Speaker C: You know, I was learning a second language. [00:33:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:29] Speaker C: From Mexican people, not from a teacher. [00:33:33] Speaker A: Right. [00:33:34] Speaker C: Going all these cities in Mexico and just, you know, stuff you would. A kid that age would normally see in a geography book, you know, so it was really pretty incredible. Yeah. [00:33:48] Speaker A: Man, what a. What a formative. [00:33:49] Speaker B: Did you lose your virginity on that tour? [00:33:52] Speaker C: How did you know? I was hoping they had one of the. They had highly trained horses on this show, and one of the. The riders was a female and she had her daughter with her on the tour. And we became quite close. [00:34:09] Speaker A: Oh, very nice. [00:34:10] Speaker B: What was her name? [00:34:12] Speaker C: I don't remember her name. [00:34:14] Speaker B: Remember? [00:34:15] Speaker C: You think I would that good mists of time. We did get caught making out one night in this church, this chapel. And we didn't know what was in there because the lights were out. And then when they turned the lights on, it was like this statue of Jesus and another statue of the Virgin Mary and all this Catholic stuff in there. It just freaked us both out. We ran out of there, man. And another episode. There was a bull in his pen, and I was trying to show off, I guess. So I jump over the fence into this pen. I don't Know what I was thinking? The bull turns around and does one of these, starts pawing the dirt, puts his head down and starts running right at me. And I freaked out, man. And just as I jumped up to try to catch the top of the fence, he hit it and the whole thing shook. I thought I was going to fall back in, but I made it over all right. Close. Close call. [00:35:24] Speaker A: I like the excitement here, though. [00:35:26] Speaker C: So I got back from that tour, and they wouldn't let me back in high school. They said I'd missed too much. [00:35:31] Speaker A: Yeah, well, you'd seen the other side. They didn't want you to infect the rest of the population with all of your worldly. [00:35:36] Speaker C: Right, Right. [00:35:37] Speaker A: Knowledge. [00:35:39] Speaker C: So I stayed home the rest of the 11th grade and just practiced drums every day. [00:35:43] Speaker A: Okay. [00:35:45] Speaker C: And went to a different high school in the 12th grade and graduated at 17. [00:35:50] Speaker A: All right. [00:35:50] Speaker C: On middle finger to that principal. [00:35:54] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Crazy, man. Now, now, did you usually. [00:35:58] Speaker B: Very, very, you know, public school principals, our vice principals, they're just very bitter people. [00:36:05] Speaker C: He came. He came off that way. It's almost like he was envious or. Or even jealous. [00:36:12] Speaker B: Sure. [00:36:13] Speaker C: Having the opportunity to do something like this at 16. [00:36:17] Speaker A: Right. [00:36:17] Speaker C: And get paid well for it and. [00:36:19] Speaker A: Go have all this fun and adventure and shedding. [00:36:21] Speaker B: Lose your virginity. [00:36:24] Speaker C: And keep up with school. Theoretically. Yeah. [00:36:27] Speaker A: You know, and get all this time behind the kit and all. [00:36:30] Speaker B: My high school, and I graduated high school in 81. I just remember a few. Couple years later, there was this vice principal. His name was Mason. Some vice principal Mason. Just a very, very mean guy. Very mean guy. And then I remember after I graduated in 81, about two years later, this is in Los Angeles, I go into a football game at the Coliseum, and I'm parking my car. I don't want to pay, you know, 20, 30 bucks to park. Park. So I'm trying to find some place to park close enough to walk, and I find a. A space which is nearest next to a school, and I'm walking, you know, to the game, and I see Principal Mason, our vice principal Mason, and he's got. He's open the gates. [00:37:22] Speaker C: He was probably worse because he was just a lowly vice principal. [00:37:24] Speaker B: Yeah, maybe that, but he was. He. I guess he got keys to this school. He opened the gates, and he was selling parking in the school. [00:37:34] Speaker C: Wow. [00:37:35] Speaker B: Some kind of side gig or something. And I looked at him, I go, hey, Vice Principal Mason, remember me? He's like, looking at me like, you're all the same, you fucking punks. You know, you're all the fucking same. I go, what? What's wrong? It doesn't pay. Your vice principal doesn't pay as well. You got to sell parking spaces. And then he just got really angry at me, you know, Just fuck off, punk. You know, Said Raiders. [00:38:03] Speaker C: High school in general, man. I mean, look, I didn't go to high school with black people until I was in the 9th grade in Gonzales. And there were riots all year. They had picket lines around the fence of the school. They wouldn't let the milk and the food trucks in to bring food for our lunches. They had a common. [00:38:28] Speaker B: They were feeding black people, huh? They were feeding the black people. [00:38:31] Speaker C: They didn't. Well, they didn't want black people going to school with their kids, man. So they had this common area outside where we'd all go after lunch, just hang out before class start. And these big fights would break out there, and the principal would run out in its common area with a pistol, shooting it up in the air. Break it up. Break it up. [00:38:53] Speaker A: Pow. Pow. [00:38:54] Speaker C: I mean, you can't make this up. [00:38:56] Speaker A: Yosemite Sam out there, man, it was crazy. [00:38:59] Speaker C: And then in Baton in the next year, in Baton rouge, in the 11th, in the 10th grade, the. The SWAT team would come out, you know, with. Right. In riot gear. [00:39:09] Speaker A: Oh, Jesus. [00:39:10] Speaker C: And I had learned my lesson by then. I was driving my dad's truck. I just go to get in his truck and drive home. [00:39:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:16] Speaker C: And then, you know, come back the next day. [00:39:18] Speaker A: It was a volatile period in America. [00:39:20] Speaker C: It was. [00:39:21] Speaker A: Yeah, man. [00:39:22] Speaker C: People don't remember, particularly in the South. [00:39:24] Speaker A: Sure. [00:39:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:39:25] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:39:25] Speaker A: Shit was hitting the fan many, many ways. I'm loving this story, Ricky, but this is a good time, Manny. [00:39:33] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. We're gonna take a break. And the troubled nation knows the drill. And so we'll be right back. [00:40:32] Speaker C: Sa. [00:41:10] Speaker A: And we're back. Back with Mr. Manny Chevrolet. I am Renee Coleman, back with our guest, Mr. Ricky Sebastian. Now, as I promoed before the show, at the top of the show, we did. We do have some mail at the bar. It's the largest package we've ever received. [00:41:25] Speaker B: Oh, and it's gift wrap. [00:41:27] Speaker A: Gift wrap. So on the outside, it was a, you know, U.S. postal, like a cardboard box all taped up, and it comes. It's addressed to troubled Men Podcast, care of Snake and Jake's Christmas Club Lounge, 1612 Oak Street, New Orleans, 70118. And it comes from our good buddy in. In Mississippi. I'm guessing that this is from Eddie V. Our long time. [00:41:52] Speaker B: It's not from that maroon Out. [00:41:54] Speaker A: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. So. So it's. It's inside is a gift wrapped package. Maybe should take a photograph of this gift wrap. [00:42:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:05] Speaker C: And you said it's not ticking, right? [00:42:07] Speaker A: Well, I don't know. We're gonna find out. Here, let's see. [00:42:10] Speaker B: All right, you got the flash on there? Yeah. Get a good angle. Get a couple so we can put them on the. On the. The site there. And it's. The gift wrapped is beautiful blue, like royal blue with snowflakes. Blue and white snowflakes everywhere. [00:42:28] Speaker C: And. [00:42:31] Speaker B: He'S opening it. And he's gonna open it. Oh. [00:42:39] Speaker A: Oh, look at this. [00:42:40] Speaker B: What is it? More loose change? It's another. [00:42:47] Speaker A: Another package. [00:42:48] Speaker B: It's another box. [00:42:50] Speaker A: Oh, I love this guy. [00:42:51] Speaker B: And it's gift wrap too. It's a smaller box and it's got animated avocados with a pink background. And I wish I had some chips because I would make some guacamole right now. You're hungry. [00:43:05] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:43:06] Speaker B: And this is very cute paper. [00:43:08] Speaker A: Like. [00:43:08] Speaker B: Yeah, very. Yes. Went through a lot of work to disappoint us. [00:43:15] Speaker A: You know, that. That Eddie V, man, he's got a good sense of humor. [00:43:20] Speaker B: Okay, now. Oh. Now it's an Amazon box that needs to be open, so have to get. [00:43:28] Speaker A: The razor blade knife out. [00:43:30] Speaker B: Yeah, there you go. Drum roll, please. If there's a smaller box, man, I'm just gonna go take a leak. [00:43:36] Speaker C: It's kind of. [00:43:36] Speaker A: Kind of a. The Russian nesting doll thing. [00:43:39] Speaker B: Yeah, there we go. There we go. There's another box. Is there another box? There's another box now in this Amazon box that is smaller. Just a little bit smaller with gift wrapped of old Saint Nick who looks like he's happy Jack. And we've got to take a picture of this one now, too. Boy. We're taking up a lot of your air time, Ricky, you know, but let's see if there's another box in here. Yeah. Christmas has come early to someone. [00:44:22] Speaker A: It's like one of those Carson bits, you know, and they didn't quite work. Work it out in. [00:44:27] Speaker B: In rehearsal. Yeah, yeah. And dress. They didn't work it out in dress rehearsal. Oh, my God. Is that another fox? What's that? [00:44:38] Speaker A: No, no, no, no, no. We need to say that. [00:44:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:44:42] Speaker C: For. [00:44:42] Speaker B: For evidence in case something blows up. Oh. Okay. Now this wrapping paper is the map. Looks like the map of the North Pole there. It's blue. It looks like the whole. [00:44:58] Speaker A: The whole globe on here. [00:45:00] Speaker B: The nerve of that chick. Wants to take our wrapping paper. [00:45:03] Speaker A: You Know, people see something, they want to get involved. [00:45:05] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay, so if there is, it's another. [00:45:11] Speaker A: So, so cheeky. [00:45:13] Speaker B: Oh, God. Who is this from? We think it's from Eddie V. Eddie V. Oh, yeah. Flow would miss. Yeah, it's definitely Eddie V. Okay. That's kind of cool. Wrapping paper. I like that. That's kind of cool. [00:45:31] Speaker A: Very curated. It's. [00:45:34] Speaker B: We got to get him on the show. If he's ever in New Orleans. Come on. [00:45:37] Speaker A: He comes into New Orleans. I think he'd like to be on the show. Come on, Eddie. [00:45:43] Speaker B: With Renee. One more time. No. [00:45:45] Speaker A: All right, now it's finally an envelope. [00:45:47] Speaker B: It's an envelope. It says off. No. [00:45:53] Speaker A: Better luck next time. [00:45:56] Speaker B: Okay. All right, you got it. Oh, what's this? It's a card. It's a beautiful card from Eddie V. [00:46:05] Speaker A: Eddie V. Happy holidays to the greatest podcast recorded in Snake. And Jake's. Looking forward to a great 2026. Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah. Here's to another round of drinks. [00:46:18] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you, Eddie. [00:46:20] Speaker A: And no money, but we love the effort there. We love the. We love the. The. The shtick there, but they want to. [00:46:28] Speaker C: Know what it is. [00:46:31] Speaker A: It's. It's nothing. It's just a card. It's a card inside of five. A card inside of five boxes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:46:38] Speaker B: It's a Happy New Year's card inside of five, six different boxes all wrapped. [00:46:42] Speaker A: We love. We love you, Eddie. Thank you so much. You really get the spirit of the show. [00:46:48] Speaker B: Okay. [00:46:49] Speaker A: I swear, people are like, the girl was trying to take the wrapping paper. They're all. What do you call? [00:46:54] Speaker C: Vultures? [00:46:55] Speaker A: Vultures. That's the word I'm looking for. You know, you can send support to the bar in the form of cash or. Or check or, you know, we have the. The Venmo and PayPal links in the show, notes of every show. We have the Patreon page with our patrons supporting us week in, week out. And we have the links with the for the Troubled Men podcast. T shirts there. Follow us on social media, Instagram, Facebook, and rate. Review and subscribe to the podcast wherever you're listening to it. Give us five stars. Cost you. Nothing helps us a lot. And, yeah, you know, find all my dates on the Internet. [00:47:32] Speaker B: The postage on that must have been. [00:47:35] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah, no, the postage was more there. Well, there's nothing in it except air. But, yeah, the postage was. Was considerable. But again, I do love the. The investment of thought, of care, of love, of intellect, and the sense of humor that's Overriding it all. [00:47:53] Speaker B: It reminds me that for my mom's, like, 70th grade birthday, I, I, I gave her a bag of marbles and a card saying, you've lost them, love. [00:48:05] Speaker C: There you go. [00:48:06] Speaker A: I think it's right in that same spirit. [00:48:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:48:08] Speaker A: All right, well, enough of that. Back to our guest, Mr. Ricky Sebastian. So, Ricky, we, we. In the first 40 minutes of the show, we'd made it up to 11th grade, so let's speed forward a little quicker. And so you graduate, maybe you go to college for a bit in South Louisiana, but then you make it to Berklee College of Music. [00:48:31] Speaker C: Can I ask you guys a question first? [00:48:33] Speaker A: You may. [00:48:34] Speaker C: Why is this called the Troubled Men Podcast? [00:48:37] Speaker A: Well, for a number of reasons, Manny is the original troubled man for troubled times. You know, when he ran for mayor the first time, that was his slogan, and it stopped. [00:48:48] Speaker B: So it became variations of that slogan, went on free of reelection and, you know, still troubled after all these years. [00:48:54] Speaker C: Don't change your name to Manny Ford, please. And Chevrolet's better. [00:49:00] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Manny and I wrote. Wrote his. The movie based on this whole subject. And then when I wanted to start this podcast, I thought, who better than Manny Chevrolet, the original troubled man? [00:49:13] Speaker C: Okay. I was just curious. [00:49:15] Speaker A: Yeah, it all. It all flowed from there. You know, it's. It's one of these natural kind of things that just all seems right, Ricky, I hear you. [00:49:24] Speaker C: All right, so. [00:49:26] Speaker A: So anyway, back to you. So. So you, you, you. So how do you. How do you envision Berkeley College of Music? How do you get in there? [00:49:35] Speaker C: Well, I made it out of high school, obviously. And then. Right. I had a. A full scholarship to go to what was called USL back then in Lafayette, University of Southwest Louisiana. Only problem was, they had no one there that could teach me how to play. Drum set. [00:49:55] Speaker B: Drum what? [00:49:55] Speaker C: Drum set. So the band director gave me a room, put all my equipment in to practice, a key to the music. Bill, he said, connor, you come in here any time of night. Practice gave me all these drum books. [00:50:11] Speaker A: Because it was all like, concert band, orchestral. [00:50:14] Speaker C: Yeah. And they had a stage band, they called it, but there was no improvisation at all. It was all reading. So I ended up forming a band with some other students, and I actually learned more playing in that group than I did in college. So at the end of the year, I was like, I've had it with this. I need to go somewhere where there's somebody that can teach me. Right. So I ended up going to Berkeley. [00:50:42] Speaker A: Now, you'd heard about Berkeley? [00:50:44] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. I'd been hearing about it for quite. [00:50:46] Speaker A: A while because at that time, most colleges did not offer a degree or even a jazz program. Loyal, I don't think, had a jazz program. [00:50:56] Speaker C: They didn't have one college in New Orleans at that time that had jazz program. [00:51:00] Speaker A: Right. [00:51:00] Speaker C: Not one. [00:51:01] Speaker B: Right. [00:51:02] Speaker C: So it was. Berkeley was like the Harvard of music, of jazz schools, you know? Right. So I ended up going there on a partial scholarship, and, man, it was the best decision I ever made. Yeah. I had three phenomenal drum set teachers. I learned jazz harmony there, arranging. [00:51:25] Speaker A: You. [00:51:25] Speaker C: Know, I started playing, studying classical piano at usl, but that went into, like, jazz piano at Berkeley. So it was just a great experience. Several students I met there ended up being lifelong peers. Most of us ended up moving to New York at some point. [00:51:44] Speaker A: Okay. [00:51:45] Speaker B: And your parents let you go, too? [00:51:47] Speaker C: Well, they couldn't stop me from going. [00:51:49] Speaker A: Yeah. He'd already been in the circus in Mexico. Stop. From going to Boston. [00:51:53] Speaker C: This is like some legit for them. Oh, he's finally doing something that makes sense, you know? [00:51:59] Speaker B: So you never asked your parents why. [00:52:02] Speaker A: Why'd they let you do it? [00:52:03] Speaker C: Well, they were. They were going through a divorce, for one. [00:52:06] Speaker A: Okay. [00:52:07] Speaker B: So they. None of them wanted you on the weekends. [00:52:09] Speaker C: Right. They. I don't know. You know, but I. I think that they may have let me do this. Even if they weren't going through the war. They could. They could see. [00:52:19] Speaker A: See it in your eyes. [00:52:20] Speaker C: They know. They were aware of the talent that I had. They've been told I was a child prodigy for years, and they knew that's what I wanted to do. So. Yeah. [00:52:30] Speaker A: Why stand in your way? [00:52:31] Speaker C: Right. So, yeah, when I got out of Berkeley, I only went there for a year. [00:52:35] Speaker A: Now, did you run into Mazikowski and Emily Remler when you were up there? [00:52:40] Speaker C: No, I didn't meet them until I. I moved to New Orleans. Right. Out of Berkeley. [00:52:43] Speaker A: Okay. [00:52:44] Speaker C: I was 20. Let's see. I was 19 years old. [00:52:50] Speaker B: Wow. [00:52:51] Speaker C: And that same year, I started playing on the dreaded Bourbon Street. Okay. Gotta work, man. I was new in town. Sure. Didn't know any. Almost nobody, you know, but that's. That's when I met Steve and Emily. [00:53:06] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [00:53:08] Speaker C: But I did two years on Bourbon Street. [00:53:11] Speaker B: Oh, all right. [00:53:12] Speaker C: And that was enough. [00:53:13] Speaker A: Yeah, sure. But then you start meeting all these jazz. [00:53:19] Speaker C: By that time, I had met quite a few jazz players. Steve, Emily. I was hanging out at the School of Lou and Charlie's Jazz Club in Trinity. Sure, right. And I met Ellis Marcellus there. Walter Payton. [00:53:36] Speaker A: Nicholas Payton's dad, he was one of my teachers. [00:53:38] Speaker C: Right. Henry Butler, James Black, Earl Turbington, Willie T. I mean, this is like the royalty of New Orleans jazz musicians at that time. And these guys, even though it was still highly segregated here, and I was right out of college. College, and I was this skinny white kid. They. They saw the talent I had and they took me under their wing and they started teaching me things, man. Just telling me things, you know. Right. And I started. I remember the first night I heard Henry Butler, I was just blown away. He was playing with a guy named Lenny McDaniel. You. [00:54:19] Speaker A: I'm sure I remember. Yeah. Bass player. Then he played guitar and singer. [00:54:23] Speaker C: So on a break, I went up and introduce myself to Henry and we started talking and I was so excited. I said, look, if you let me go home and get my drums, I'll come back and play for nothing. And he said, okay. [00:54:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:54:37] Speaker C: And that was the beginning of a lifelong musical relationship. So, yeah, that was really my training ground right when I was 19, 20 years old. [00:54:50] Speaker A: So is that about the time that I started meeting you? Maybe after you've been there here a couple of years. You started after you met Steve. That's how you. [00:54:57] Speaker C: Yeah, probably three got in. Four years into my. [00:54:59] Speaker A: Into my father's orbit. And now. So that. That brings me up to. I don't know how many years have transpired. [00:55:08] Speaker B: It's. [00:55:09] Speaker A: The time is so compressed when you think about it back then, you know. [00:55:12] Speaker C: Well, let's face it, there was a lot of drugs and alcohol and free. And free love. It was pre aids and it was him. [00:55:20] Speaker B: Right. [00:55:20] Speaker C: Hippies were still ruling, man. Right, right. Pretty crazy times. Yeah. And I also. That's when I met George Porter and Zig and. [00:55:29] Speaker B: Right. [00:55:30] Speaker C: Started playing with George Porter and this guy from the Bahamas, Exuma. [00:55:34] Speaker A: Exuma. I remember he was. Yeah. A reggae artist. [00:55:37] Speaker C: Yeah. I learned all about reggae from him. Bobby McFerrin moved here and lived. Lived here for two years. [00:55:42] Speaker A: That's right. [00:55:43] Speaker C: Had a gig at the Steady gig at the old Absinthe House with him and Tony degrati and a couple of musicians from New York City that came down there were a lot of excite. And then I met Lee Harris Little Queenie and. [00:55:58] Speaker A: And. And so by this time I'm now in. In first few years of high school and. And I remember when. When you and Lee had. And were in the. The Ron CIA and Jazz Poetry Group, which became one of my favorite bands to. To go see. [00:56:18] Speaker C: That was a groundbreaking group, man. Incredible. Nobody was doing anything like that at the time. [00:56:24] Speaker A: No. What a band. You, Lee Harris, Ramsay McLean, John Magni, Charles Neville. [00:56:30] Speaker C: Yeah. And Ron Cio. [00:56:32] Speaker A: Ron Cio it. Yeah, yeah. [00:56:34] Speaker C: And I listen to that record now, and it's. It blows me away, man. How great. Everybody played on that. We were like, 19, 20 years old, you know, And. [00:56:44] Speaker A: And not only, like, the prepared material, the. The songs that y' all had, but you would go do a. A performance, and Ron would just start making stuff up. He. He'd get ideas from the crowd, you. [00:56:56] Speaker C: Know, and we were playing a lot of free jazz at that point with Ramsey, you know. [00:56:59] Speaker B: Right. [00:57:00] Speaker C: And then Lee and I became an item, and we ended up getting a house together and started playing at Tyler's on a regular basis. Right. And hiring all kinds of other side people, you know? Yeah. [00:57:12] Speaker A: Now, I was going and seeing all those gigs at Tyler's. That was. And that was a hotbed of activity. [00:57:18] Speaker C: Matter of fact, the first jazz gig that wenton and Branford Marcellus ever did was with me, and I. The bass player's name was Alvin. I don't remember his last name. Was at Tyler's. [00:57:33] Speaker A: Okay. [00:57:33] Speaker C: And they were still teenagers. I was maybe 21, you know. [00:57:37] Speaker A: Right. [00:57:38] Speaker C: I saw Branford a week ago. We were talking about that, man. [00:57:43] Speaker A: Yeah, man. Formative times, man. It's so, so rich. I mean, God. I mean, that's when Tyler is like, literally. Literally seven nights a week. They had great bands every night. [00:57:54] Speaker C: Right. You know, and the cheapest oysters in town. Yeah. From what I remember, the inventors of barbecue shrimp. [00:58:03] Speaker A: Okay. I'm not sure about that, but. Sure, let's say that's true. I think it might have been Pascal's Manali that invented. [00:58:11] Speaker C: That's the first place I ever had them. [00:58:13] Speaker A: Sure, sure, sure. You're playing all these bands, and you wind up staying in New Orleans for. [00:58:18] Speaker C: About seven years, I guess. [00:58:20] Speaker B: Right. [00:58:20] Speaker C: I ended up joining Gay Mouth Browns band and touring with him. [00:58:25] Speaker B: Wow. Yeah. [00:58:26] Speaker C: For three of those years. And after I got out of his. [00:58:31] Speaker B: Group. [00:58:33] Speaker C: I stayed here a couple of more years. But at that time, at that point, I'd pretty much played with everybody you could play with here, except. Except probably Alan Toussaint. And why that never happened, I don't really know, but because I played with a lot of people that were working with him, you know, Dr. John and George Porter, Charles Neville. So I started feeling like kind of in a creative rut. And most of my idols at that point lived in New York City or on the East Coast. So I decided. Well, I thought if I ever Want to work with these people. Miles Davis was on the top of the list. Okay, I got to go where they live, right? I said, that's the only way that's ever going to happen. So that became my plan. And I ended up taking this awful, steady gig in Lafayette at this dive motel. And I was quite sure the guy that was running a bar was a pimp and had a whorehouse going on, but I never really found out for sure. But playing this awful top 40 gig for nine months just to save money to move to New York. [00:59:45] Speaker A: Okay. And the tenacity comes in. [00:59:49] Speaker C: Yeah, man. You know, you decide you. You have a goal. You do what it takes. Do what it takes, achieve that goal. At this point, weather report was out. Jocko Pastorius was the rave. And I just. This guy was, like, became one of my idols. I. I dreamed of someday playing with Miles Davis, and him, yeah, was, like, the top of my list. [01:00:12] Speaker A: This is the early 80s. 82, 83. [01:00:16] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. So after a year in Lafayette, I'd saved enough money, and I basically. So I. I found someone to stay with for three months in a law artist loft in Tribeca in lower Manhattan. Sold everything I had except my drums, my suitcase, and my. My clothes, and moved to New York. I figured, well, I got to go. At least try. I think I'm good enough, but I got to go, at least try. And I, I. In six months, if I'm not good enough enough, I can always come back. [01:00:52] Speaker A: Sure. [01:00:54] Speaker C: Yeah. I ended up staying 17 years, right? [01:00:58] Speaker A: It worked out. [01:00:59] Speaker C: Yeah, it worked out okay. I mean, I'm not gonna say it was easy. [01:01:02] Speaker A: Well, no, New York is not easy. [01:01:04] Speaker C: New York, man, it will test you. And I met a lot of musicians around my age. When I first got there, that six months later, they were gone. [01:01:15] Speaker A: Sure. [01:01:15] Speaker C: Sure, they didn't. And either they weren't good enough musically, or they just didn't have the type of person, because there's more to it than just your ability and talent on your instrument. You know, it's a lot of your personality, how well you get along with people. There's a lot of other factors that go into it. So, you know, a couple of these other guys I knew were really good for their ASOs. I always wonder, why couldn't they hang? You know, it's obviously not their playing, but there was something. Some other aspect of their humanness that. [01:01:54] Speaker B: Maybe they were just jerks sometimes. [01:01:56] Speaker C: That's. That's the case. [01:01:57] Speaker A: Could be. Or lack the drive. They didn't have the commitment to put up with. What it would take to. [01:02:05] Speaker B: It was also the 80s, so there's probably crack was around. [01:02:08] Speaker C: No, not quite. [01:02:09] Speaker B: No. [01:02:09] Speaker C: It was just a lot of blow, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:02:12] Speaker B: I remember when I was living in New York in 86, there's crack everywhere. [01:02:17] Speaker A: It wasn't quite then. It wasn't quite 86. [01:02:19] Speaker C: This is a little before that. But that was another reason I was glad to get out of here was all the blow. [01:02:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:02:26] Speaker C: Then I got to New York, and it might have been worse there. [01:02:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:02:30] Speaker C: I'm like, well, I didn't escape this at all, you know. [01:02:34] Speaker B: You like the blow, huh? [01:02:36] Speaker C: I did during that period, me and damn near everybody I knew in New Orleans liked it. It's like, yeah. From what I understand, the DEA shut down south Southern Florida from it coming through there. [01:02:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:02:50] Speaker C: In the late 70s. And then all of a sudden, it was all coming through. [01:02:53] Speaker A: New Orleans moved west. Yeah. In New York, you do wind up playing a lot with the Jocko. [01:03:02] Speaker C: Yeah, I met. I met Jocko about two months after I'd arrived because two. Two good friends of mine were playing with him. Kenwood Denard on drums and Delmar Brown on keyboards. So they were on tour in Europe when I got there. As soon as they came back, Delmar called me back, said, come to be playing out on this outdoor concert. I got passes for you. Come on out. [01:03:26] Speaker B: Nice. [01:03:27] Speaker C: And that night. That night, I met Jocko after the concert. And about a year later, he came in one night, and I was playing with Mike Stern. Oh, man. And he said. He sat in. Jocko sat in, and in the middle of one song, he turned around and looked at me, said, ricky, you playing your ass off, man. So he took a break, and I'm at the bar, and he walks up, gets a beer, and he says, what are you doing Friday night? And I kind of felt this something coming on, you know, I thought, I need to try to be cool with this. I was, like, feeling super excited, right? So I was like, I don't know why I got a gig here Friday night. You want to do it? So I'm, like, looking around. He's kind of rubbing my chin. Like I'm thinking about it, you know, Inside, I'm going, did this just happen? This guy? So I said, well, how much does it pay? And he. He's, like, taking it back. And he looks at me like, you ballsy little 80 bucks. And I hesitate, and, like, I'm thinking about the money. And I said, yeah, I'll do it, man. I guess I'll do it. Yeah. All right, be here at 8 o'. Clock. I walk out the club and I get on the sidewalk. I start jumping up and down, screaming on top of my. I can't fucking believe this is happening. [01:04:56] Speaker A: You know, the thing that you had in your head has now become manifest. [01:05:01] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. So that Friday, the band was him, me, Jerry Gonzalez from Fort Apache Band on trumpet and congas and Jerry's brother Andy playing upright bass. Okay. So I was like, okay, you got a bit. You hired a bass player. All he did was play melodies and solos all night. He never played bass. Wow. And I sure wish I had a recording of that, man. Sure. [01:05:27] Speaker A: No kidding. [01:05:29] Speaker C: So that was the beginning of a bunch of gigs with him over the next few years until he basically crashed and burned, you know. [01:05:37] Speaker B: Right. [01:05:38] Speaker A: You know, I'm sure you don't remember this, but I was up in New York playing with the Panther Burns, and we ran into you and Jocko. We just heard the news that. That he had passed away. And I couldn't believe. And I knew that you had played with him. [01:05:53] Speaker C: Right. [01:05:53] Speaker A: And. And so then we were walking in the same direction. So I'm me and George, the Max and somebody else are walking with you in New York as we're talking about Jocko. [01:06:04] Speaker C: Wow, man. I don't remember that. That was a. That was such an intense time. Me and one of the horn players that played with him, Alex Foster, who's been the saxophone player for the Saturday Night Live band for like 30 years. Right. We decided to collaborate with this movie maker from Italy and produce two new night benefit for Jocko's children at the Lone Star Cafe. And we had Pat Matheny, Will Lee, all these stars, man. That Jocko's dad came up and sang. Kenwood Denard was there, Ronnie, all these people that had been playing with Jocko for years. And we did two nights there and record. Raised $25,000. [01:06:58] Speaker A: Wow. [01:06:59] Speaker C: For his children. That was filmed. Those two nights are filmed. [01:07:05] Speaker A: Wow. At some point you start teaching at the Drummers Collective. [01:07:10] Speaker C: Yeah. There. One of the owners saw me play with Dr. John and approached me after the concert and said, would you like to come do a master class for On New Orleans drumming? And I'm like 20 something years old. Like, well, I never did anything like that before. Sure, why not? You know? So I went and gave this master class and it was packed. They said, why don't you do another one? I did a second one and then they had. They said, dude, what would you like to be on a faculty? Yeah, I'm like Well, I'm kind of starting to travel a lot, but, yeah, if you're cool with that. It said no. Everybody here that teaches here tours, you know, but that's totally fine. So I did that for 13 years. [01:07:54] Speaker A: And, you know, we had. We've had the great Doug Beload as a guest on this show several times. And in. In every episode, he will discuss his time when he sold everything to go up to New York to study with Ricky Sebastian at the Drummers Collective. And I thought, that's so weird. I mean, y' all are from probably about 60 miles away from each other, but you gotta go up to New York to study with him. [01:08:19] Speaker C: Yeah. But I'll tell you one thing about New York City. It will test you, man, and it will make you the best that you can be, because it pushes you. Look, Dave's always. Other drummers around my age waiting around great players, waiting to take my gig. So. So when I was home off the road, I'd be practicing four or five hours every day. Really? Yeah. And you know, when you putting that much time into it, you keep. Your level gets very, very high. [01:08:52] Speaker A: Sure, sure. [01:08:53] Speaker C: And you got it. Once you get it up there, you got to keep doing that to keep it up. [01:08:58] Speaker A: Right, right. Because you don't want to see it slip. [01:08:59] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:09:00] Speaker A: You can't. Couldn't live. Couldn't live like that. [01:09:02] Speaker C: Right, right. [01:09:03] Speaker A: I hear you, Ricky. This is. You're one of these people that we might have. Have to have a part two, because you have so many good stories. [01:09:09] Speaker B: But let me ask you a question before we sign off, because we're gonna kind of end this real soon. [01:09:13] Speaker C: Okay. [01:09:14] Speaker B: It said that you played with Blood, Sweat and Tears. [01:09:17] Speaker C: That was my first big gig after I got to. [01:09:20] Speaker B: Who was the singer for that? [01:09:21] Speaker C: David Clayton Thomas. [01:09:23] Speaker B: That's his name. [01:09:24] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:09:24] Speaker A: But he was still back playing with Blood, Sweat and Tears when. When you were in the band. [01:09:29] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:09:29] Speaker B: Right. Yeah, that's the name. I couldn't think of the name. But thank you. Thank you for being here. [01:09:35] Speaker C: Well, thanks for asking me. [01:09:37] Speaker A: And, and. And just before we sign off, I want to talk about, you know, all of Ricky's stuff. You know, you've. You've written several instruction books that are available. [01:09:46] Speaker C: Independence on the Drum Set is one. [01:09:48] Speaker A: Of them that's available on Hal Leonard. [01:09:51] Speaker C: And I just published a new one. [01:09:53] Speaker A: It's called Mastering Rhythm and Phrasing and Music that's available on Amazon.com and I'll put the links to. To both of those books in there. And you're still teaching plenty of private lessons and zoom lessons. [01:10:05] Speaker C: And I'm at the Heritage School of Music and Uno still. And. [01:10:09] Speaker A: And. And you have your YouTube channel where you have all kind of drum lessons up on there. Rick. I'll put the link to that there. [01:10:16] Speaker C: And. [01:10:18] Speaker A: And you have. I know you have a. Actually a Jocko trip tribute gig coming out that. That this podcast is not going to be out in time for, but it's just. [01:10:26] Speaker C: Right. [01:10:27] Speaker A: Two days from now. [01:10:27] Speaker C: Yeah, we do it every. Every December, me and Pat Casey. [01:10:30] Speaker A: Nice. And y' all did basically the same kind of thing at Jazz Fest a. [01:10:35] Speaker C: Couple of years ago. [01:10:36] Speaker B: Right, right, right. [01:10:38] Speaker A: And. And also, you're. [01:10:40] Speaker C: You're. [01:10:40] Speaker A: You're bringing out Cayenne again. [01:10:42] Speaker C: Yep. Yeah, it's a great band. We just did a major show at the Jazz Inheritance Center. [01:10:47] Speaker A: Nice. [01:10:48] Speaker C: A couple of weeks ago. And that's. That's recorded. That's on. On their way on their YouTube channel. Yeah. [01:10:56] Speaker A: Well, Ricky, you know, it's. You're in such good form here. You're. You're. [01:11:00] Speaker C: You. [01:11:00] Speaker A: You have the. The youth of. Of, you know, that eternal youthful spark. [01:11:06] Speaker C: Going to the gym has a lot to do with that, man. [01:11:09] Speaker A: Okay, I'm gonna take your word for that, because one of the only things I agree with Donald Trump about is that exercise is bad for you, so. [01:11:17] Speaker C: Oh, wow. Hopefully that's the only thing. [01:11:20] Speaker A: No, that is. I just. It's not for me, but. But that's great because it's. [01:11:25] Speaker B: It's. [01:11:26] Speaker A: You look terrific. You sound terrific. [01:11:28] Speaker C: Well, loving what you do doesn't hurt. [01:11:30] Speaker A: You know, it. That is everything, really. [01:11:32] Speaker C: Yeah, it is, man. [01:11:34] Speaker A: Well, man, Ricky, thank you so much for coming on. [01:11:36] Speaker C: And we will, we will, we will on, guys. [01:11:38] Speaker A: We will pick this up again, man. [01:11:40] Speaker C: All right, buddy. [01:11:41] Speaker A: And as always on the Trouble Men podcast, we like to say, trouble never. [01:11:45] Speaker B: Ends, but the struggle continues. Ricky, good night. [01:11:50] Speaker A: Good night. [01:13:21] Speaker B: It. [01:13:46] Speaker A: Sam. It. It.