Our eternal rocker and Stone Horses pal John Allen returns to the Maryland Crab Cake Tour at 1623 Brewing in Eldersburg for a beer and some summer cheer, joining Nestor in a spirit chat about the heavy metal legacy of Ozzy Osbourne, forty years of Live Aid and still being preoccupied with 1985. (He co-wrote that song with Baltimore’s Mitch Allen, if you didn’t know that local music nugget!)
Nestor Aparicio and John Allen discuss their experiences at the 1623 Brewing in Eldersburg, highlighting their friendship and shared love for music. They reminisce about Live Aid, recalling specific bands and moments, such as Ozzy Osbourne’s performance and the impact of Sharon Osbourne’s management. Nestor shares his Live Aid review from 1985, expressing embarrassment over his youthful criticism. They also touch on John’s musical career, including his work with Child’s Play and Stone Horses, and discuss the evolving music industry, including the use of AI in production. The conversation concludes with plans for upcoming events and shows.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Live Aid, Oz Fest, John Allen, Child’s Play, Stone Horses, Maryland Lottery, Eldersburg, 1623 Brewing, Phil Weiser, Nickelback, Dorothy, Lizzie, Gore Verbinski, Charm City Devils, Jason Isbell.
SPEAKERS
John Allen, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, am 1570 task Baltimore. We are Baltimore, positive. We are drinking beer. It is the afternoon here. At least it’s not the morning, not Preakness morning around here, we are out in beautiful Carroll County. We are in Eldersburg. I had a girlfriend here 40 years ago. I texted her today because I’m out Eldersburg. I don’t come to Eldersburg much. Dante libertories got his joint around the corner. We are here at beautiful 1623 brewing I have imported Baltimore County and dundalks finest, John Allen, out to a sit in who lives in Howard County. I drove through Howard County to get to Carroll County so that I could have the milk stout here at 1623 this is a tasty beverage. We’re gonna have some crab dip here. No crab cakes here, although I did get invited to some crab cake places out here. This all brought to you by the Maryland lottery. I have these are the brand new tickets, John. I have the pressure lock, Whammy, Whammy, whammy. And we also have the lucky sevens doubler. I’ll be giving these out this week. Next week, we’ll be at Zeke’s coffee on Friday. We did deepest squales Last week we did cost us twice last week in Timonium, and I promised Mike McElveen, my old pal, that I would come at it. Turns out he’s got a whole Essex connection with your former bandmate, Phil Weiser, but child’s play is getting back together and doing what they do all the time. So I’ve circled a date on the calendar, and I hit you, because we’re real friends in the real world. You’re like, why do you want me on and I’m like,
John Allen 01:22
Dude, what do we have to talk about? But we, we get together and we, we talk for
Nestor Aparicio 01:26
hours. Yeah, we run out of things to talk about. We’re at your pool, and then, like, you come on the air. You’re like, so Jason isbo Last night, he made me well up. He was so unbelievable. I mean, we’re music people. I I hit you, I hit you. About Rod Stewart this
John Allen 01:38
week, hang on. Hang on. So you got to back up. Phil Mike has a connection with Phil, Phil Weiser. Phil Weiser, and you said former bandmate. He’s actually a real band. He’s in the fold again. He’s playing with us September 27 is it?
Nestor Aparicio 01:52
Let me get my calendar record. I’m too busy drinking. You bring me to a brewery, and then you’re going to ask me when you’re playing, it’s in my calendar. It’s in my calendar. Trying to promote is the 27th right? September? 27 Yes, seventh at the wrecker. It’s the weekend. Ocean City’s got all that stuff going on down there, so if you don’t want to deal with that, no, yeah, well, it’s okay. I mean, I’m supposed to be there Friday, but I ain’t going Saturday. All right, cool. Well, you went to the boardwalk thing with Leopard A couple weeks ago. You liked it? I
John Allen 02:23
did. I did. It was really impressive. It was a big it was like, I don’t know, almost 60,000 people there. It was a lot of people. There’s a lot of walking back and forth between the far stages, you know.
Nestor Aparicio 02:35
So who you saw leopard? It was like, how many bands? They
John Allen 02:39
sounded great. It was a lot of bands. I saw a little bit of Nickelback. I think I came home. I left, you know, at midway through their set. I’m pro Nickelback. No, I, you know, guys, he writes hits, right? I don’t like all the backlash and the and the Nickelback hate, you know, but yeah, so, great songs, period. Great songs, it Yeah. So, yeah, we saw a ton of bands. We saw Dorothy, I think she’s an, you know, a great up and coming act. She’s a great singer, great songs. She’s got a great live band, hailstorm. Everybody loves Lizzie, right? Oh, my God. They were unbelievable. They were sort of like the
Nestor Aparicio 03:27
modern Stevie Nicks of the rock kind of, kind of working in that direction of the next 23rd
John Allen 03:32
Yeah. But I mean, like, Lizzie is just a force, you know, to be reckoned with. I mean, the girl, woman, you know, she is a phenomenal singer, you know, and a phenomenal guitar player, and she does it all in heels, you know, like you’re watching, I was like, totally Gene Simmons, you know, it’s like, wow, you know, like, that’s incredible. And, and a lot of times it’s like, I see award shows. I’m jumping all over the place here. But the women, a lot of time, they out sing the guys, you know, they’re, they’re like, you know, like, you know, when I watch some of the like, not rock shows, but, but the, maybe the country award shows, you know, I see like, like, the women are spot on singers and watching Lizzie, I go, oh yeah. Like, well, she is, she is beyond, you know, I
Nestor Aparicio 04:28
think that’s one thing. I think from the sports to the rock and roll side, by the way, John Allen here from Child’s Play and stone horses, we’re, we’re at a 1623, having some beer. So this could get really out of hand this afternoon. And I got friends coming by to talk about Live Aid and the 40th anniversary. I think the thing that originally reached me to you, other than our friendship, and we’re kind of together all the time, but was oz Fest and the Ozzie goodbye last weekend you, because you and I went to ac dc together, but apart about two months ago, we’re texting each other about how good it was, and then Ozzy, who obviously. Has some physical issues, right? And they put this event together, and I didn’t think, well, I should hop across the pond and go to that and go see oasis. And I’m not an oasis guy, but it looks interesting to me. It looks like something I might want to do. I might want to run up to New York with you and see it, just to say I saw it. But the Aussie ending last week, and Live Aid this week has made this show at 1623, a little bit more music oriented, but the Aussie thing came at me from nowhere into it was a weekend, it was gonna happen. And then I saw Sammy Hagar is gonna be there. And then I said, like, people from all over the world are coming there, Morello and like, all of this stuff. And then I saw the set list that day, and I’m like, Man generals gathered in the masses. You know, I’m thinking, I should have gone over there for that. I mean, that feels to be a Live Aid Zeppelin reunion in our lifetime. Some people say Live Aid, or you could say the second Woodstock that happened, where everybody gets sick. I think the show in LA with the Foo Fighters that Getty and Alex played two three years ago after Taylor died. There are these seminal shows, but the Aussie thing for the genre, yeah, it’s the Woodstock of metal, and there’ll never be another one like it in any other way. And I don’t even know what second place would be, right, like it was for the genre of music that you’ve called home in that rock space, Ozzie being sort of the living godfather of all that. It reminds me of when Ted Williams came out in 99 at the All Star game. Reminds me of whatever you would do to feet an athlete on the way out. I don’t know how rock stars got we did a pretty good job of white men a couple summers ago. I mean, you know what? I mean, that was sort of a legendary, awesome thing that you were part of, but the Ozzie thing we got it. That’s why that was it, yeah,
John Allen 06:47
yeah, yeah, no, it, you’re right. One of the things that that we used to talk about all the time, that used to not baffle us, but it was just it would, we would marvel at was Ozzy’s ability to keep turning on younger generations. He would bring in people along. Yeah, he would bring in new generations over and over and over again. And just so beloved, you know, and, and, yeah, it would have been, it would have been cool to go to Birmingham and and and and see that happen. You mentioned Led Zeppelin. There is a little Zeppelin connection there with with Sabbath. And Zeppelin being that John Bonham and Robert planter from that same area. So they were, they all knew one another. And there is sort of you know that that bond shares the
Nestor Aparicio 07:39
genius in this though, right? I mean, you from a rock star angle, where you had bands that made it bands didn’t make it. Good managers, bad managers. You’ve always been on the cusp of all of that, how you’re managed and how you’re produced. I mean, every time I hear Def Leppard or AC DC, I think of Mutt Lange, and I think they must have been well managed to some degree, despite bomb Scott’s issues and whatever. But like the notion that you would be so well managed, Ozzy was so well directed. And I don’t think it was Ozzy, right. Sharon was the mastermind, or there was a mastermind behind everything that happened, sort of after the dove and the bat and Black Sabbath and Ronnie James Dio which we’re going back 40 years in reality TV, oz fest. Let’s have our own label. No, let’s have our own tour. Let’s find younger band. All these things that he’s brought his whole lifetime with him really paid off last week. That was an amazing day, and I feel like a jerk for not going now,
John Allen 08:36
yeah, you know, yeah, you hit on something. But I mean, there, and that’s the thing, like, you never know the balance, but there has to be, there has to be talent first and foremost. So Ozzy had the talent right? And then Sharon just, it was a force to be reckoned with, and she brought that talent to the masses, even, you know, bigger, like you said, with the reality shows and whatnot, her, her story is interesting, too. Her father was Don Arden, who was arguably the godfather of music management and booking in England in the 60s. She came from it. She saw it firsthand, and she she was the son of a ball coach, right? Literally, yeah. So, yeah. So that’s
Nestor Aparicio 09:25
why I love having John. He’s such a research because you’ve, you’ve read, for being from Dundalk, you read a lot of books. You read about rock and roll. Yeah, you know about rock and roll the way I know about sports, but you respect mine. Use acknowledge you a lot of times. You’ll call me and ask me for things, and I’m like, dude, you’ve read the books on all of this, but we really are at a seminal time as I I’m gonna bring this out. I’m gonna do this right now because I want to promote what’s going on later, but I got to be really careful, because I got beer here and I’ve got never Billy here. These are my Live Aid tickets from like. This is 40 years ago. This week, right? This ticket here is probably like a $500 ticket. Is in really good shape. I’ve kept it bound forever. So I have my live eight tickets. This one’s a little bit more messed up. This must have been in the shower with me down on the field during Crosby Stills and Nash playing Southern Cross. So ticket, Tron. Ticket, Ron baby. That’s what I’m talking about here. So these are my mementos, and I have a Live Aid bumper sticker. And presciently enough, I saw Live Aid. So these are real. And then this is also the Philadelphia Daily News. I was a newspaper guy. They would re plate the front of their editions. This is the feed the world. This was to tell you where your seat is. It says a souvenir Guide To Live Aid, the drawing of John F Kennedy stadium will help you find your seat. There were no seats on the field, but the back here on what the Phillies did. Oh, owners, timing for sets up a strike. There have another strike, and the Braves are bad and fills are worse, and there’s Nolan Ryan so great, rich
John Allen 10:54
often. So what? Wait a second. There were no seats on the on the field. No, oh yeah. Well, that’s what I meant. I was GA on the floor. There were people down there.
Nestor Aparicio 11:05
I see was 10 reserve. Wn, I was in row 60. If you look at my live AC, I was under the second E and feed the world under the press box, about the 40 yard line. And I watched most of the show from there. I mean, I just, they were, it was, they were just wooden benches. I mean, it’s an old, 100 year old stadium. Then that’s why it’s gone. So all of this for Live Aid. But here’s the real cool part. This is where you come in. This is where my buddy John gets involved. My friends Richard and David are gonna, Abraham’s gonna be coming over. They are the guys from Pikesville that I used to camp out for concert tickets at Reisterstown Road Plaza in 8283 84 with with Ron West, our friend Ron we grew up with. And this is the choice magazine from August of 1985 with the Hooters on the cover. Motley Crew live a concert calendar kicks. I don’t, I don’t some of these obviously tears of fears and Hooters are big again.
John Allen 12:03
Reptile house was a Baltimore band. I
Nestor Aparicio 12:05
had this in my clips, and Mike McKell, that’ll be here later to talk about W, B, L, and Chris Thomas and Phil Weiser and all these connections. Here’s the old 98 rock ad on the back. Okay, Baltimore for Baltimore. This is Sheffield studios. This was Baltimore, for Baltimore, singing some version of We Are the World. The Keith brewers got to be in there, right? I mean, it’s probably in there. I’m in there somewhere. You’re in there, yeah, you did this? Yeah,
John Allen 12:33
I did that. Hold on, where you’re in this picture, probably in the back. What is that I should be sitting on the floor? Come on, because I’m so short, you know, like the school pictures, they always put those shorties. I see Brian with the hat on there. Yes, Brian, right there. Yeah. Welcome home. It was for this for
Nestor Aparicio 12:52
the May of 84 representing types of different musics. Home is where the help is. Inspirational song you sang on songs writers. John Palumbo, I know him. Yep, I didn’t even, wow. I didn’t even know this thought is pulled at a second. I didn’t look at it. What I was looking at was I found this, and I remembered the Live Aid thing over the weekend. And I’m like, I wrote a really, really awful review for this magazine, for Jamie Russell. Do you remember this magazine? I do choice, Yes, last maybe years. I think the David Russell and Jamie Allen were the Madeline scarpola wrote a whole bunch of stuff, right? And my name is your Nestor
John Allen 13:29
Adam Prager. He he produced some Child’s Play demos, actually, okay? He was the one that basically facilitated us getting the record deal with chrysalis. So photographer Joe trout, he wound up going to go, man, I’m drawing a blank. Now. This is Eric’s magazine.
Nestor Aparicio 13:47
Okay, so the things in here rocks my guitar exchange the new Gerards with bands. But here’s the Ravens played there on the 10th of August. So I looked through Hooters story Madeline, scarpola, I’m looking for my stupid review, which is really terrible. I mean, I read I was 16 years old, John, I would say kids kicks, itching for more as a kick story here see Madeline wrote about kicks. So this is one of the Early incarnations. What did you review? I did live eight. Okay, I wrote a review of Live Aid. It’s the summer of 1985 I’m 16 years old, and here is my live and it’s terrible. Please don’t read it. It’s very embarrassing. I sort of panned things I shouldn’t have, and said all sorts of stupid things. But the wild part about the Live Aid piece is I pull this up, I don’t even want to bend it, because it’s so pristine and important to me, and I’m sure, very valuable on the internet for this reason, the new desert lounge, oh, geez, remodeled to rock with the grand opening party with Child’s Play September 13 and 14th, 1985 there it is, and the child’s play ad is on the same page as my you saw it on TV. But what was. Aid really like. So this is my on the cuff review. It’s 2830 inches of copy.
John Allen 15:09
And we used to call the desert lounge, the deserted lounge. Sounds like you have great memories? Yeah, it was. It was appropriately named like there was Tumbleweed rolling across the dance floor. No one went there. Everybody went to network up the road.
Nestor Aparicio 15:23
So I will make fun of myself when David and Richard here, because they’re going to say, What do you remember? And I’m like, What did I write? What did I write? That was stupid. I haven’t read it yet because I started to read it, and it was probably like a song that you like. You don’t like rat race, do you? You really don’t like rat race. Be honest with
John Allen 15:42
me, I don’t like, I don’t, well, we actually have been playing it, but I don’t like how it turned out sonically. Now that I’ve got more experience in the in the studio, I would, there’s a bunch of things that I would do differently. So
Nestor Aparicio 15:56
you’re a little cringy if you saw the video, come on right now on the big screen, you would you be super proud of it, lean into it, or a little like it could be better. And this is your
John Allen 16:06
personality, your the video. The video is fine, okay, and you know, it’s, it was interesting. The the guy who directed it wound up going on to having, he had a huge career, still going strong, Gore Verbinski, he, he he was doing videos and then let the bottom dropped out of, you know, the music business. And who
Nestor Aparicio 16:28
else did he do when you were bragging about gore? Did my video. He did the warrant. He did something else.
John Allen 16:33
He didn’t. I don’t think he did any, any rock videos that you would know. But cut to few years later, I’m laying in bed watching the Academy Awards, and the he there was this nomination for Best Film or something, and I hear a nominee, Gore Verbinski, and I was like, What? I’m like, That dude, he directed her video. What happened for the Mexican he did. He was the director for that big independent film with Anna James, guy from sopranos, and Brad Pitt and all. And I was, I was like, floored, but he wound up doing the Caribbean, Pirates of the Caribbean,
Nestor Aparicio 17:18
as I was when I found out 1985 writers, M Allen, J Allen, and I’m like, you know John Allen is here. It’s all brought to our friends at the at the Maryland lottery. So, so I’m cringy about the Live Aid thing, but I
John Allen 17:32
What about other reviews that you’ve done back in those days? Well, I remember one for Van Halen. I think where you were really, really sticking it to David Lee Roth for his, all his extracurriculars on the on the record, no screams. And
Nestor Aparicio 17:48
I stuck at the David Lee Roth because I saw him play with Cinderella down at the arena, and I panned him. That’s what it was I was at that we didn’t invite me to club, Dave either, so that at that point in my life, I was a little upset about all that. But, yeah, well, you saw them. You were part of a bill with David Lee Roth,
John Allen 18:04
yeah, m3 this past spring. Yeah, it was, it was great to see a guy out there plying the boards at 70, whatever he is. Well, you know,
Nestor Aparicio 18:14
people criticize that, and they, you know, whatever it was, everybody
John Allen 18:18
wants to see the performers as they were when they were 20 Cal Ripken
Nestor Aparicio 18:22
in 1995 that’s why I got video. He can’t do that either, right? When Ozzy can’t do it either. And I think that’s what made the bring it back to the oz fest a couple weeks ago, these incredible 40 years ago, the live a thing happened, and everyone had a story about it this weekend. Every band that’s still alive had remembers everything. Thomas Dolby sat with me and told me he was the band conductor for Bowie. So you asked me about things that made me cringe a little bit. The day that David Bowie died, I my wife had just survived, and she was still in peril. She was really struggling. It was only 2016 January, 16. I found the audio, and I listened to it, and I listened to his voice with me and it, you can listen to it on Baltimore positive, and it’s a 20 year old version of me talking about 10 machine. And he was coming through, but I had panned his Sound and Vision tour the year before. Bowie leaves audience, Boo for Bowie was the headline. I didn’t write the headline, Bowie leaves audience flat. And it was this picture him, and it was a review. It was a front page review of David Bowie. Now I’m 20 years old when I write it for the sun, for the sun, evening sun. So he came around a sound division tour. Probably was a summer 89 and by 91 he was doing 10 machine. So 91 he comes around. And I, I asked for an interview with the great David Bowie. I knew the publicist. She set it up, and the call comes in. You can listen to it. It’s so funny. It’s Hello. I’ve got a collect call from Mr. David Bowie. Will you accept? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. More like this. Hello, love. It’s David Bowie. Yeah. So he he knew I panned him, yeah, and all of the 30 men, it took the day he died for me to read, to listen to it and realize he was speaking to a music critic who panned him. And I said to him in the conversation, very awkwardly, in my own way, because it wasn’t made for radio. I wasn’t a radio guy at all. Just interview, I said to him, I said, Well, I was, you know, I was, I don’t know if you know, but like when you came through two years ago, you seem bored with your material. He says, Well, I was, I was bored. I was, you were correct. So this is what he says to me, and I’m thinking to myself, do I cringe? I cringe now, because that concert, that 89 Sound and Vision tour, was the greatest hits. He took the guitar player. Give me the name. He goes around all the time. He was with rungot A couple years ago, his famous guitar player, not Reeves Gabriel, the one before him, not Ronson. I’m trying to think of who was. Anyway, I shook his hand at ramsta two years ago. Either way, he Adrian blue. Adrian blue went out with him. So is Adrian blues vision of the Bowie catalog, okay? And I have the Tokyo Dome pro shot of it. I’ve watched that thing 1000 times on a rip DVD, and I love that show, right? But in 1989 the night I went to Merryweather, I thought it felt a little it felt like he was going through the motions.
John Allen 21:30
How they admitted to me that how long had they been on tour at that point,
Nestor Aparicio 21:34
I don’t know. I don’t know vision tour that’s I’ve seen. It was his greatest tits tour was all of his songs that happen,
John Allen 21:41
especially when, when guys are at the end of a very long tour, and they’ve got four or five days left, and they’re getting ready to go home to England, and
Nestor Aparicio 21:51
they’re they’re like, I’m done playing fashion. I’m done playing
John Allen 21:54
whatever. I don’t know about him but, but I’ve seen it happen with other acts rolling through Baltimore, and I don’t know if it’s because Baltimore is considered a, you know, third time through the United States market, you know, smaller market, and they are just like, Okay, this is mop up duty, and we’re gonna play the civic center. And it was my first time seeing this band. And the singer just did not give a crap, you know, he was like, I don’t know if he was drunk. I don’t know if he was or but he was just over it. And he said, from from the stage, he said, we’ve got three days before we go home to England, and I just want to be done. Yeah, I was very disappointed. But then the next year, or the next tour, they blew me away. He was phenomenal. Beginning of the tour at the cap center right in DC, you know, outside of DC. So we’re all human, you know, everybody, yeah, good
Nestor Aparicio 22:47
night. Did you go on stage one night with diarrhea? Did you go on stage one night completely hungover? Not remember? Well, I’m just thinking like, I mean, you’re in town and, yeah, you’re at the agora, and you’re playing in Cleveland, and you gotta play. I mean, that’s that. So this is a wall my dad would say, from, don’t you don’t get a scratch. Yeah, I don’t get a scratch.
John Allen 23:04
Well. So, like, you know, being a drummer, you didn’t, you know, it’s okay. It doesn’t matter, you know, like, if you’re sick or whatever, unless you’re really deathly ill, you can still play. But now that I’m a singer, a different game. It’s a different ball game. And we had, we Charm City devils. We had success with mana, constant sorrow. We were working the second single or starting to and we had, we had been on the road since April of 2012 with little breaks, maybe a week home or two weeks home, and we were rolling all the way up through the end of the year. And we, I started to get sick, and we were supposed to jump on this.
Nestor Aparicio 23:47
You hadn’t been a singer before. This is like your early being out on the road, doing it every night, right? And, well,
John Allen 23:54
by this point, I died. I didn’t start singing until about 2008 or nine. This is 12. You said, right, this is 12. So I’ve got a few years under my belt and, but, man, like, like, so we had come home for in between one of these legs, and Jason got sick, and we were, we were still roughing it. We were in a van with a trailer, and I said, Okay, well, you’re sick. You get in the back, I’m gonna sit in the front. And then slowly, the sickness moved through the van. You know, Anthony and Victor Carrera, they got it first, and then finally got to me, and we had to wind up canceling a whole leg of the tour in December with a band that’s management was our radio department at our record label that we had just signed with. So we pissed off that that band’s management, and, in turn, pissed off our record label, because I couldn’t even talk. There was nothing like we were playing the stone pony was the last. Show that I did on that run. And we’re, we were playing with hinder and non point. And I went to do sound check, and I went to sing, you know, the man of consciousness are, and it was like, like nothing came out. And there’s nothing worse, man, when you’re a singer and you can’t, you can’t do it,
Nestor Aparicio 25:16
it’s why I don’t shake hands with people. I haven’t had a sore throat in 15 years since my wife got sick? Yeah, I’m a fist bumper. I had sore throats, sore throat and radio. Forget it. Yeah, it’s terrible. Nobody wants to listen to it. It’s I sound, I sound like you get in the car. You listen to me. I sound like I’m dying. I don’t want to do that, but, but it’s a very real thing. I mean, I think for any band that has to cancel and, you know, illness, we had COVID through, you know, the two years of that where, I mean, I saw so many disjointed bands. I mean, I saw Springsteen without Steve, without Steve, one night without Nils and without, you know, members of the band. I saw John Mayer show up at Madison Square Garden, literally, three weeks into, into the tour, and 21 walks out on stage and says, All right, folks, I’ve got an acoustic guitar tonight. I’m in Madison Square Garden. I don’t disappoint anybody, but my band’s all sick. They all have COVID, and I’m just going to do what I do. And then quest love showed up at 945 like, showed up literally in an Uber because they were in New York and walked onto the stage, and they wound up doing like, 10 Songs, nice, because quest love could do it. Yeah, I did, you know vultures and a bunch of stuff. But, like, I saw Pearl Jam without the drummer. What you up for that gig? No, but Matt Cameron got COVID, and Eddie Vedder, they’re in Oakland. Two nights in Oakland, and they had already. Can’t I’d had that ticket for a year and a half through COVID. I’m in Oakland. They didn’t cancel. They Eddie vedder’s daughter’s favorite band was a band in Marin County. It was a kid with a drummer or Marin County, Marin or Marin. Marin Marin. Okay, Marin Marin. Let that marinate in this solver, pronunciation, 1617, year old kid that was a drummer and his daughter’s favorite band, and they came in and they just did the greatest hits.
John Allen 27:07
Well, you know the story about Keith Moon? No, he, I think he did so many pills in this before this one huge show, probably like a stadium gig in the 70s. And he fell off the back of the stool and was out cold, and they couldn’t wake him up. And Pete Townson was like, is there anybody in the audience that can can play our songs? Some guy raised his hand, came up, and he played the show.
Nestor Aparicio 27:38
And that’s that. It’s funny. You would mention that, because I have my belt buckle today. You ready? This is my belt buckle? Oh, wow, yeah. This is Roger, yeah. I’m not gonna let me hear me look at my crotch. But I brought this, made me do it. Underwear. Underwear. Continue. Underwear. Yeah. So this is, this is my Roger Daltrey belt buckle. And actually wore this for Richard Abraham. She’s gonna be my guest in the last hour my live in France. So Richard and David, we used to camp out for concert tickets. And they were who guys. So they big, big, who people. And I befriended Richard and David. They were the first two Jewish friends I ever had, being a Dundalk kid, 1981 I’m like, 1213, and we became just great. I mean, I was in their kitchen. Their mother would make me breakfast. And we would camp out for concert tickets all the time.
John Allen 28:26
And that was a great place to camp out because there were no lines. There were no lines, like, if you went
Nestor Aparicio 28:31
to golden ring mall first road. David Bowie on that,
John Allen 28:35
seriously, we would go to, we’d show up at Golden Ring mall, and there would be, like,
Nestor Aparicio 28:40
found it down into two levels of parking, right?
John Allen 28:43
Every 500 hippie, you know, metal heads, Earth dogs all lined up. And I was like, Ooh, well, Richard and David, we’re not getting good tickets.
Nestor Aparicio 28:52
40 years later, they went to Live Aid in London, and I went to Live Aid in Philly, and they have, David passed out, got thrown over the barricade, met Elton, John and George Michael, got like, all these great stories. So they’re gonna be here later. We’re gonna tell some live age stories. My best live age stories. You asked me if I’ve written anything else that is cringe worthy, or things that make me cringe all these years later, I’m incredibly proud of almost everything I’ve done publicly on radio for 27 years here at the station, it’ll be 35 years in December that I’ve been on the air, or 34 years. But my writing as a younger person, I was 16 years old when I wrote this, right? Anything I wrote when I was 16 makes me cringe now, right? Like, even some of the reviews and some of that stuff when I was 1819, 20, man, 56, now, so it’s like, there’s a point in all that. And I showed it to my wife. She’s like, you shouldn’t crunch. Be proud that, like you did this. And I’m like, I’m so unproud of it that I can’t read it. I haven’t read it yet. Yeah, I literally haven’t. I’m gonna read it when. Richard, David, get here because I want to, they’re gonna tell me about London, and they’re gonna say, what was Philly like? And I’m like, Well, I wrote this thing when I got back the day after I got back. So this is what I thought then, and what time would tell us that we’ve all lived 40 years, right? And we got our ticket stubs to prove and all that,
John Allen 30:16
but, but memory is maybe rose colored the the experience more. You think a
Nestor Aparicio 30:21
thing I remember the most about that day was in the morning, Jeff, my stepbrother, and my then mother, my child, Michelle Barry’s mother. It was summer of 85 I had three tickets. Only asked me how I got three. I don’t even know how I got the tickets. I think I went to ticket Ron, and like, you could get a ticket, because it was like there were 100,000 tickets, and there was no online, you know, I went and got tickets. So I wound up with these tickets, thinking this was going to be a big deal. And then the lineup kept changing. As you remember, we graduated six weeks before that. So this is a big summer, July of 85 you were so big. You guys were playing the new desert in I mean, that’s how
John Allen 30:59
big desert lounge, desert lounge. Come on, everywhere. Where was that, by the way, what is that? Now, it’s like a contractor. What is what was it? What do you mean? Where was it? It’s Pasadena. It’s mountain road. So it wasn’t the Capricorn. It was mountain the other side of town. Okay, so, but it not, did it become network? No, it was a different kind of network was, was Rivera Beach, okay? And the further, if you went further down, wasn’t it? Sandbar before that. It was something else before that too. Like Vinnie had this great business model, like Vinnie Valentine, yeah. Like, once the club kind of got a little tired, he would shut it down for a month and rehab it and rebrand it, basically, Rumble Fish that, yeah, well, first, I think it was so it was network, and then it was ale gators, and then it had another then date, Daytona, Daytonas. I knew it had another name, so, yeah, so, like, it was, you know, pretty smart. He would inject new life into the club, like every seven or eight years, same management, new branding, yeah, something like that. The term didn’t even exist then rebranding. Well, my life, a memory of
Nestor Aparicio 32:06
all of it is, I have the DVD and up, you know, six CDs. And obviously the Zeppelin, they didn’t like anything about that. They didn’t want it out. I don’t remember that poorly. And I remember it vividly being there. I remember lots of parts of it. You and I went to see simple minds together with our wives three weeks ago. Three weeks ago. And you’re like, you ever seen Simple Minds? I’m like, no. Never seen them. They played Live Aid. Oh, sorry, I saw Ozzy. Ever seen a couple Ozzy played live in Philadelphia, right? With Black Sabbath early in the day, with Tommy, the whole deal, right? So I saw Black Sabbath, I guess. I mean, I saw him, so I hadn’t thought about that, but during the day, that day, Madonna was the biggest deal. Madonna was the biggest star in the world, right? She played a four in the afternoon in a green jacket. Come on. Come on. So seeing Madonna that day, I was really looking forward to that and Led Zeppelin. I mean, see, seeing that reunion was a big do you
John Allen 32:56
remember what the what the reaction was of the crowd when Zeppelin played reverent
Nestor Aparicio 33:01
man, and it was a Philadelphia rock crowd at JFK stadium. Well,
John Allen 33:05
because I asked, because that book that I always talk about, about Zeppelin, that that I read and reread, and royalty, it was royalty, yeah, literally. And they talks about that, the writer says, how everyone stopped, you know, everybody backstage,
Nestor Aparicio 33:20
everyone was waiting for LED. Zepp, yeah, I would agree with that wholeheartedly. The thing I remember the most, and it’s not on the DVD, somehow, the song is missing Crosby Stills in Nash, who I saw Crosby Stills, and Nash I’d seen Crosby’s, you know, so seeing that sort of act Neil Young played that day, I was in the showers they had erected on the 1520 yard line in the back of the end. Mr. They had, you know, like barrack showers that missed it. Yeah. And I was up at the 50 yard line on the broad on the Broad Street side, on the stage right side. And I saw the misters. And I walked down there whenever Crosby Stills in ash play, maybe 1112, in the morning, because I was stinky and it was hot. And what it was getting hot, and I went down, and all I remember is being in the showers when they were singing Southern Cross. You know, you have a moment you asked me, What I remember that day. I remember being in that shower during Southern Cross, and I remember Madonna, and, you know, I remember like Rob Halford with the motorcycle coming up on stage. It’s unbelievable, like when you think about the cars played the cars played drive. I mean, so there were so many bands. What is Live Aid and 40 freaking years ago, dude, 40 years ago. You don’t remember anything about the new desert lounge gig. Do you
John Allen 34:41
not that one? No, like, little bits of pieces of like, I remember playing certain songs. I remember we played there for New Year’s one year, and the girl I was seeing came down, and we jumped in the car and we, she had to meet friends at hammer jacks. Okay? And hammer jacks. Stayed open like all night long. Find a friend
Nestor Aparicio 35:02
in hammer jacks. We didn’t have, well, we didn’t have beepers,
John Allen 35:05
right, right? Well, in addition, it was like Pasadena was fogged in, and I had no clue how to get shoe hammer Jacks from where we were, we went up on Richie highway. They didn’t build 97 yet. No, and we were driving north on Richie, I knew that much, and we finally made it to hammer jacks. But it was pretty cleared out by then. But it was like, three or four in the morning, you know, and somebody found, like, $100 bill on the ground, like, you know, I don’t know. I don’t remember if she ever found her friends or not. I guess she did. It’d be like saying, Hey, I’m gonna be in Ocean City this week, and hope you find me. Yeah? Well, that was our senior week, right? Yeah, just walk
Nestor Aparicio 35:40
up and down the boardwalk. Do you run into who you need? But we’re in a different era. John Allen is here. He is obviously with Charles Child’s Play as well as stone horses. What’s the horses doing? What do
John Allen 35:49
you got happening? Working on music I was recording. I was in his
Nestor Aparicio 35:53
basement last week, and you’re freaking deaf, dude. I sat in your thing, and it just it blows me away. What modern musicians and artists do now, like your software, your television screen. It’s probably like people thinking I’m still doing, am radio and I show up and I set up and I do this. I’m like, It’s not kind of like that anymore, right? So it’s just different
John Allen 36:15
than No, totally Yeah. Kids are making, yeah. Kids are making, you know, records in their bedrooms. Now, I’ve got a lot of old school stuff. I’ve got a lot of analog tube gear, you know, preamps and old school things. You get
Nestor Aparicio 36:28
better sounds out of that. Is there anything you can do? Ai wise, to make it sound like a high hat the way you wanted to? Or no,
John Allen 36:35
there are a lot of drum programs out there that I don’t know how to use them, but they’re, you know how to use sticks. There’s good stuff. Yeah, there’s good stuff out there that people were using. But, yeah, no, I years ago, Mitch said to me, he’s like, I asked him something about making a guitar cabinet. He was like, why are you still Mike guitar cabinets? Man, he’s like, use these different plugins and whatever. He’s got those la tricks well. And I think that he’s thinking, these are song demos or whatever that I’m creating, but I start recording with the thought process that see in a game, right? Yeah, if I get it, if it sounds great, I’m just gonna have it mixed by someone, or I’m gonna mix it and, you know, it’s gonna wind up out, you know. So you
Nestor Aparicio 37:20
know they’re functional musician. Is that what you’d say at
John Allen 37:24
this point? Yeah, depending on your opinion, you’re
Nestor Aparicio 37:27
not farting around. You’re making stuff that you want people to hear. Yeah, it’s not a hobby, right? No. I mean, they want to talk sports. I’m like, grab a mic, because I’m not gonna sit here, yeah, and give you my thoughts on the Oriole pitching for the eighth time today. Yeah, I did that when I took phone calls. I’ll do it once, and I’ll put it out. It’s gonna be the same opinion, eight different times. Yeah, you know, eight different ways. Yeah, same thing with you. Like, if you got a sound you want, get what you
John Allen 37:51
want. Yeah, yeah. And I, you know, I love it and it, I’m playing a lot more guitar now. So
Nestor Aparicio 37:56
I told Gina shock you didn’t know how to play the guitar, so you were really offended. I’m sorry, man. I think of you as like a drummer. I don’t think I was offended you played a piano. I tried see. I don’t know this. What else Don’t you know about you? When I
John Allen 38:09
was playing with Gina playing guitar, I really wasn’t playing a whole lot. Then I’m playing a lot more. Now I’m playing live. So yeah, in addition to the high frequencies that I lost with all the drums, all the cymbals and such. Now I’m working on losing my mid range too with the guitars really loud. So, you know, I won’t have any hearing left, but, but, yeah, so I’m, I think the older I get, the more I feel like I’ve got, you know, got to continue to learn, you know, to increase skills. So I’m getting, I’m
Nestor Aparicio 38:41
working on AI all summer, just because I’m a writer and like doing the work I do. Just, how can it, how can it assist me, right? Help me, right? Instead of fighting it, work with it,
John Allen 38:49
right? So, like our bass player for child’s play, Phil, he, he has a, you know, a real, you know, he’s in in the tech world. He’s, you know, he works for Paramount, and he’s using a AI a lot now, and, yeah, I’m hoping to glean some some some knowledge from him. Yeah, but I will say he tried to send us all a group email the other day, and it’s in it didn’t really work. I didn’t understand what he was saying. He told, AI, I need to reply. So it was a hallucination, and it said, I need to reply to these guys, because we’re trying to schedule rehearsals, right? So I was like, um, well, what does this mean? I had to write him back. Like, is, are these dates that dates you’re available? Rain farts, apparently, yeah, you know, it’ll it’ll get better, as you know, as as it evolves. Well, I’m gonna try
Nestor Aparicio 39:40
Yes. When are you playing? 27th just September 27
John Allen 39:47
we’re about to announce a stone horses date. It’s in the western part of the state, and they’ll probably be a Baltimore show soon, because I’m working on music. I’m hoping to get another release out soon. So yeah, but. The Yeah, I mean, and you playing
Nestor Aparicio 40:02
that kicks gig out there at the at the casino, you doing that the lake, or, you know what? Kicks always play the
John Allen 40:07
Oh yeah, rocky cat, right office, right off of 70, yeah, 60, yeah. That’s good gig. That would be great.
Nestor Aparicio 40:16
Whiteman, so he’s doing my gig now. He’s doing talk show now, yeah, he’s,
John Allen 40:19
yeah, the podcast, podcast. It’s great because he, he, you know, I think the chains are off, you know, he doesn’t have to worry about getting a gig. Yeah, yeah. So he’s like, he’s super honest on this thing. And I love it. I love watching it. I love, you know, love the story.
Nestor Aparicio 40:38
I’m finally reading, getting these book. Oh yeah, yeah. I mean, I’m gonna get to Rick emmett’s book before it’s all over with. But it’s
John Allen 40:43
all over. But so the author that wrote that Zeppelin book I keep talking about. It’s called when giants walk the earth, pimps. This book, the authors. His name’s Mick walls, I’m reading a Jimi Hendrix.
Nestor Aparicio 40:54
Why don’t we get right Mick walls, on the show, and you and I can talk to him. You should. He’s He’s fantastic. Anybody wants to hear more John on the show, email me Nestor Baltimore positive.com I got pulled with him, and I know his wife too. John Allen is here. We’re at 1623, brewing. I knew if you added beer to John and I this could get good. It’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. Have fresh ease to give away. I actually have a handful of these. Back to the futures that I’m still getting rid of here today, I’ll also be on Friday morning at Zeke’s coffee. So stop by in the morning. Press Your Luck and lucky. Sevens double. Which one you want? Because you get one. You’re lucky sevens. You’re lucky sevens. There you go. John Allen here from stone horses and child’s play. And I’m gonna, you know, I gotta get McKellen in here at some point, because we’re gonna do the Phil white before I get him in. I’m just gonna have you do the thing on the air that we somehow did backstage at Merriweather, at Simple Minds, with your wife and you there, because I had to ask you this important question, and I want to ask it on the air. Nobody knows this about you. So anybody knows John? John was a writer in the song 1985 I did not know that and embarrassed myself when I sat with John in Cleveland, like 15 years to be playing X Games. What was that thing out there? Oh, gravity game. Gravity Games. You and I went to a Ravens game, and he and I are sitting in ravens game. I’m like, John heard this new song. It’s called 1985 really dig it. I wrote that man. And I’m like, what so now, every time I hear it, when I heard she heard she was going to shake her ass on the hood of white snakes car, which is a line I use for my wife all the time. You know, she was actually out washing the car because of bird shit all over our car, and she had the thing at I said, Are you going to shake your ass on the hood of white snakes car? So that has become, it’s not an iconic phrase, but it is for me.
John Allen 42:41
Mitchell would be very happy you
Nestor Aparicio 42:43
did not write. I did not write. I wanted you to write that line. God, you’re from Dundalk,
John Allen 42:47
no, I think that was, he’s not even from dundal I think that was, yeah, that was Mitchell’s line. He
Nestor Aparicio 42:51
recovered. It was a great follow on Twitter too, by the way, he’s got, he is, yeah,
John Allen 42:55
he, I don’t know where he finds his stuff, but it’s, but it’s great. Yeah, it’s inspiring. Yeah, there are some funny people out there. Man on, on, on the interweb, speaking of inspiring, we were talking before he went on air, about Jason Isbell last night. Oh, right. Okay, so he’s got a local guy from Columbia dairy. Okay, yeah. So he’s played on a bunch of stone horses stuff. He’s, he’s Jason’s keyboard player, and they were just fantastic last night. Such a good band, such such great people.
Nestor Aparicio 43:26
Love them. Sports writers, specifically, all the guys I know who cover the NFL and cover sports really loved I got to get into this, right? I’m missing out. It’s other Jason. It’s really good. I’m so not good with new music, dude. I’m just such an old fart. I’m sorry. You know,
John Allen 43:40
I’m there with you. You know, it’s, it’s, we are inundated with new music now, and it almost it, you know, it acts the opposite way. It’s like, harder to find stuff now than than it was
Nestor Aparicio 43:54
younger me. You got to seek it out, unless you’re Spotify. You know, whatever listener and you and I got into a fight about a year, maybe we’re going to Marcus King, like, a year and a half ago, when 100.7 completely F their format up, and they were playing, like, metallic and Red Hat chili peppers every song. And I’m like, What is this? And you’re like, Dude, you can’t play Kansas and Boston sticks forever. And I’m like, want to
John Allen 44:18
bet. Well, you know, the criteria for classic rock, I think, is 20 or or 25 years old, right? So, yeah, you just said live a was 40 years ago, bro. I mean, like, you know that stuff, Guns and Roses, it’s classic rock now, whether you like it or not, you know, I love an old Metallica is classic rock now, whether you like it or not.
Nestor Aparicio 44:40
Every word in your song that you wrote that’s an iconic song in 1985 you mentioned not a big fan of Limp Bizkit. You know what I mean? I’m not a big fan of Limp Bizkit, right? What are the other words I mean, because, because the song I could be the I’m the husband of the woman that shook her ass on the hood of white snakes
John Allen 44:58
call, well, so. What’s interesting is that we wrote our sr 71 version, right, and we put it out in Japan. The guy that put that deal together for the Japan release, he was managing the producer who was working on the Bowling for Soup record, and he came to us about a month after our release came out, and said, Hey, Bowling for suit really needs a first single for this record. And I was thinking 1985 would be good for them. What do you guys think? And me and Mitch were talking about, and I said that might lead to another domestic record deal for us. Who knows that never materialized, but why?
Nestor Aparicio 45:42
As you get older, you’d rather be a writer than a rock star, right? I mean, most people,
John Allen 45:46
you can sit home and not have to worry about the, you know, the hassle of touring. I Michael
Nestor Aparicio 45:53
Bolton was writing hits forever, then went out and decided to shake his ass, right? It was,
John Allen 45:57
yeah, but I, you know, I’ve got this, you know, hole in my soul that I need that instant gratification. But anyway, back to this. What I was saying is, was once Bowling for Soup, got a hold of it. There were a few lines that they changed, and I think that that’s one of them, and the Ozzie becoming, you know, an actor. When did Ozzie? We didn’t write that. That was Jared Riddick. What’s
Nestor Aparicio 46:23
your favorite line in the song? Do you have one?
John Allen 46:26
It’s such a great song to Prozac a day.
Nestor Aparicio 46:29
That was yours. Well, I’m trying to figure out what you wrote.
John Allen 46:33
I don’t know. We sat around the kitchen table and kind of spit balled on the second verse. So there’s, a, there’s lines in there that your wife takes credit for. One of the lines, yeah, she didn’t, she didn’t get the credit on, on the, you know, on the, on the album, label, but, but, yeah, but she was because she was in love with George Michael, right? George Michael, yeah, so there’s a line about that in, in our version, okay, yeah, the hand on a member of Duran. Duran that was put in by the guys balling for soup. So I think that replaced the the dude. I gotta listen
Nestor Aparicio 47:09
to your version. All right, that’s my homework. John Allen is here. We’re drinking beer. We’re at 1623, brewing. We were in the heart of Eldersburg, where I had a girlfriend in 1987 I didn’t even know her. Eldersburg, I want to tell that story later, because it’s the only thing. When I come to Eldersburg, I think of Dante libertory, and I think of my girlfriend in 1987 and I think of Mike McKelvin from 1623 brewing. We’re out here having some beer. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery. Also our friends at curio wellness putting us out on the road. My 27th anniversary of wnst is August 3. It’s also my mother’s birthday, my cat’s birthday, and we’re gonna kick off 27 of my favorite things to eat in Baltimore. So some of those. John has actually dined with me on 27 Yeah, we’re doing the show in a lot of different places. Next month, some of my favorite places in town. We’re back at Beaumont. I’m gonna feature their fried lobster tail, which is unbelievable. But some of this isn’t Bucha. Some of this is like a snowball, cookies, a piece of pie, pretzels,
John Allen 48:06
it’s snowball. Joe, used to come through your neighborhood, oh, man, if you got the lucky cup. Now, yeah, you know what I’m talking about, Snowball. Joe,
Nestor Aparicio 48:15
yeah, yeah. You know it’s the benefits of growing up in Dundalk are great, but even better, the benefits of growing up in Essex. Mike mcelvin gonna come in here. He’s gonna talk about Phil Weiser. Also got some Brian Jack stories. I’m gonna break a Brian Jack story out that I didn’t know until in recent times that I will share with you as well. Then I don’t think I’ve shared on the air. So John Allen is here. We’re always keeping the spirit of Brian Jack alive. Charm City devils doing it at the end of September down in South did I say,
John Allen 48:41
Yeah, you got the venue wrong and you got the band wrong. We not played sound sheets where you play no wrecker, the wrecker. Child’s Play at the wrecker, everybody
Nestor Aparicio 48:53
for like three hours the other night, he’s gonna shoot me.
John Allen 48:56
So hey, when you talk a lot, you’re gonna make mistakes. You know, we’re all human, like we were saying about I don’t make noise. No,
Nestor Aparicio 49:03
I made an error. Error. All right. Back for more. Word 1620 it’s because I’m drinking beer. It’s your fault. Back for more. We’re Baltimore positive. You.
