It’s always music magic anytime John Allen rocks through local rock history with us. The Stone Horses leader and one-time Child’s Play drummer gives Nestor this year’s reunion plans for M3 at Merriweather Post Pavilion as part of the biggest hard rock lineup and kickoff of a rocking summer.
Nestor Aparicio interviews John Allen about his busy schedule with Stone Horses and Child’s Play. John discusses their recent tour with Steel Panther, covering seven or eight states, and the financial support from Live Nation’s “On the Road Again” program. He shares the challenges of touring, including fatigue and the less glamorous aspects of bus living. John also talks about the upcoming M3 festival at Merriweather, where a reunited Child’s Play will perform. He reflects on the evolution of the music industry and the importance of live performances. Nestor and John reminisce about their shared musical history and the impact of various bands on their careers.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
John Allen, Stone Horses, Child’s Play, M3 Festival, Merriweather, touring, Live Nation, Maryland Lottery, music industry, rock history, band dynamics, live performances, album releases, music critics, 80s rock.
SPEAKERS
8
Nestor Aparicio, John Allen
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 to ask for Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. We are positively here in beautiful Catonsville, right across from the fire department. We’re at it’s, it’s Beaumont, the Beaumont near Beaumont Avenue. Google it up. It’s beautiful place right across from State Fair in El Guapo. I’ve had a delicious lunch star. We had a little chicken pesto wrap. Kind of thing we’re doing the Maryland crab cake. Torts. All brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. This is a first ticket. This is ticket 00, Back to the Future, calling out the DeLorean. And top prize is $10,000 so I’m giving these away. Will be Wednesday at Cooper’s north in Timonium, about a racetrack and and then we’re going to be at Coco’s pub in laraville on the 30th and in White Marsh at red brick station, drinking some blueberry Ale on the seventh of May. My Kimo Sabe life, a friend of rock star buddy John Allen here playing m3 with David Lee Roth. Hey, hey, hey, look at all the people here tonight. Give that girl a backstage pass. Yeah. How are you? What stone horses on the road? Right back out and and then we got the child’s play thing happening here. You’re busy, basically,
John Allen 01:18
right? Yeah, yeah, pretty busy, yeah. We, did the stone horses a tour with Steel Panther before Christmas, right up to Christmas, basically Lottie
Nestor Aparicio 01:26
all over the East Coast, right? You were, like, in seven or eight states, so I have all the storm places, right?
8John Allen 01:30
Yeah, we, we went as far as into the Midwest, uh, Minneapolis and Milwaukee and Chicago and, yeah, Boston, all the House of Blues. Like, great, great venues, great Live Nation. I mean, a lot of people you know, Oh, wow. Some people you know, gripe about them. They they were so good to us because we were considered a baby band, and they had this program called on the road again, and they slid us an extra $1,500 almost every show that we did on that, every Live Nation show that we did was one of those shows, and it was a really nice surprise, you know, to help us out with gas and everything. And wound up, we were able to get a tour bus the second half of the tour. And it’s really saved me, because I was, I was exhausted, well, I
Nestor Aparicio 02:16
was gonna, just in a general sense, when a band gets that, you’re a youngish band, you’re a guy that’s been in a couple of bands. You’re trying to establish a band. There’s no more record companies you know, you’re trying to get played in internet places, and even, you know, heritage places like 98 rock or whatever, 100.7 to pick your song up or play you, or have you in the studio or talk about it. But then there’s the act of going out on the road. And 10 years ago. This is a long time ago in our age, but 10 years ago, I did 30 ballparks in 30 days. And, you know, relying on Southwest Airlines, relying on rental cars, relying on the games that actually happen in the weather, hotels. Back that’s a different kind of like what George Thurgood did 100 years ago, 50 states, 50 days, which was the inspiration for me to do it. Um, I did radio in certain cities, in certain ways, in my hotel room, and I organized it all for a month, and when I came home, I was so exhausted that I didn’t even go to the rush. Last shows ever that they ever did was that summer, I was just like, I’m home. I’m not going anywhere. And I love airplanes. I like I like traveling. I’m not a bitchy traveler. I’m not bitchy when the room’s not ready. I’m not bit you in the fly. I just I don’t bitch about that. I’m good. I feel like it’s one of the great modern things to see the world. But at this point to get on a tour bus and go around for any band that I ever see that does it that’s over the age of 40, just period, right? No matter how old you are, go, Go’s are out torn right now with Gina, right? But you get six, 810, 12 shows in, and it’s December, and you haven’t done it in a while in your case, right? You’re leading the band. You’re playing clubs. I can’t imagine, just the voice and the physical part, yeah, of being out on the road once you get the show, six, 810, do you get groovy? Or do you get fatigued? At this point, I started
John Allen 04:06
to get fatigued, honestly. I mean, it was, you know, it’s all about sleep and it’s all about being quiet, you know, like, and I’m a talker like you so, and people want to talk to you after the show. Yeah, and, and, unfortunately, I’ll, I’ll pound caffeine before the show to have energy for the show, and then, like, you come off stage, and you’re, you’re wide awake, you know, and it’s the middle of the night, you know. So I’m, I’m happy to, and you’re on a bus, I’m happy to talk to people at that point, yeah, well, then when you get on the bus, it’s a different story. I was actually able to sleep. It was a savior. But I will say that, you know, bus living is not as glamorous as you know, people think, especially the older you get. I mean, when you you’re, you know, 1819, 20 years old, it’s like, wow, this is great and but even then, it kind of the luster wears off rather quickly, especially if the, if the toilet, you know. Like, system backs up, and you start smelling the it smells like you’re driving around, or your guitar player too many onions in a 40 foot, you know, outhouse, basically, is what a tour bus is like. Sometimes, like we were just talking before air about Bon Jovi. When I was with SR 71 we did the Bon Jovi tour. Those guys did it a lot differently. They would set up a hub and say, like, if we were doing a bunch of Midwest dates, they would set up in a luxury hotel in Chicago, and then they would take their little g6 or whatever jet it was, and they would fly to the different locations.
Nestor Aparicio 05:37
8He either live in Las Vegas or Atlanta. I think he would fly to all the shows, right?
John Allen 05:42
I think Zeppelin were the first ones to do that. So it was like, we started the tour on the West Coast, and they set up in like, you know, San Jose or something, and and then we’re tour bus in it. There were a couple of shows out there in the west where those cities are really far apart. We just barely made it to the gigs. Like, you know, we got there like, I don’t know, 630 through the gear on stage and hit stage at seven o’clock for our 25 minute set, or 20 minutes, you
Nestor Aparicio 06:12
know, but drive 20 hours play 20 minutes. Oh, my god, yeah, great. Well, John Allen is here. We’re at a Beaumont. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery, and three is up. So give us status of stone horses. Give us status at Charm City. Give a status of, like, all of these, no, without Charm City, but a child’s play and putting this thing together. Because, like, Child’s Play plays, like, twice a year. But it’s not like hey, it’s Hey, Nick well, see at the show, you know, just be there. I mean, you, you this is a annual thing that you’re doing now to honor Brian, I think, to bring esses and Dundalk together, and everybody that loves Baltimore represent Baltimore. Yeah, yeah. Well, really is, I mean, now the kicks is gone. I got a good kick story for you, but now that it’s over, you feel some responsibility in doing this thing, and the m3 thing, like you become part of the furniture. And I know, I’ve known him a while. This was important to you to be on the m3 thing, right? Like, it went on for 20 years, like, then you’re like, I want to play that,
John Allen 07:08
right? It only took 13 years, 13 but no, yeah, it’s, it’s great. It’s, uh, you know, it’s an honor for for the band to be included on the, on the m3 on festival and on the stage. And we were on Saturday,
8Nestor Aparicio 07:24
people get there early to see you. I know I’ve been that guy a couple of times, right? Yeah,
John Allen 07:27
yeah, it’s great, because the first time we were on, we were on even earlier than we’re going to be on this Saturday. And, and, yeah, people got there early. So, yeah. So we get together and we rehearse the shows, you know, beforehand. I mean, we’re, you know, we’re not just showing up, we’re, we’re putting time in to kick off some, you know, knock the rust off and everything. No
Nestor Aparicio 07:48
offense to you, but it always shows with Nick, to me, yeah, when Nick plays, like, it’s very obvious he’s in a zone to playing, because he’s not out playing every day, right? Like, in a general sense, he has to pick the instrument back up. Get familiar with things. Get comfortable. I mean, I see this with Tommy combos band last week. Like, they’re a band from the 80s. They play twice or three times a year. Tommy’s like, it’s like, it’s like riding, you know, but they they sound check on the day of the show, they walk in, the day of the show, and they run the whole set. I watch him do it down at Dewey Beach. I don’t know how every band does it, but I think for fans to show up and say, jobs play, we’re here, you know, like, and it feels like effortless for you and for when we hear the songs. We know songs. But I’m like, It’s not effortless. I know you, and it’s not easy to do.
John Allen 08:34
8Yeah, I mean, you know, like, we don’t play that much, and we hadn’t done it for a long time, especially right before Brian passed, we weren’t playing hardly at all. We hardly did any. We had done some reunion shows, and it sort of ran its course. And we we we stopped, and now Nick and I, you know, we’re doing Charm City devils. So we were, we were still playing, but I wasn’t playing drums, you know, on the m3 show, I’ll sing for the first half since, you know, since Brian passed, and then the second, Larry, yeah, and then the second, second half, we bring Larry Hinshaw out, the original singer for child’s play.
Nestor Aparicio 09:14
Such history with these guys. Man, it’s a beautiful thing. It really is. It is
John Allen 09:18
we get together and we, you know, talk about the the old days and the old clubs. And you know what? That
Nestor Aparicio 09:23
transcends to people like me that were in your orbit, in your space at that point. And I damn well forgot I brought these for Chad weaseling because I had, I have your, your liner notes you thanked me on the child’s play line. Or No, nice when Jack Dean, you know I’m, I’m not the first one, even though it’s Aparicio with the A but I’m among the people that you thanked back in the day. So I don’t know how many people still alive, or all of us we would try to get together, but I think this is sort of a homecoming. It’s a bit of a hammer Jack’s reunion, really. I mean, that’s what m3 right? I mean, and it’s something you’ve attended, it’s something you’ve gone to. As a fan, and I saw something. So I’ve known John longer than he wants to admit that I’ve known him. But back we were kids, he came to school one day and he said, there’s this great band, man, they’re on MTV. They’re unbelievable. They’re called now, look, it’s ACC, E, P, T, but it’s not, except it’s a set, and they got this drummer, and he’s like, double piece. But you told me all this back when we were kids. You’re on a bill with them this week,
8John Allen 10:27
right? We are. I don’t remember this instance that yet
Nestor Aparicio 10:31
you introduced me to so many rock bands. You were the reason that I saw Def Leppard doing, you know, let it go and high and dry and that you were like first on that, but except was a band I only knew about because of you, and I remember seeing their album in Highland town right behind the Saxon albums and all the other hard metal is, as John Steadman would say, but you don’t remember this. I
John Allen 10:56
don’t remember telling you about it, but I remember buying that first. It was balls to the wall. No, it was restless and wild. Was my first accept record, and it was great. The cover were two flying vs like, balanced together, and they were in flames against a black background. You don’t remember
Nestor Aparicio 11:13
8introducing me to this. I don’t you know I was moved by this, because before you got here, I went through, I’m like, who’s on m3 All right, we got to Sebastian Bucha and do except, I bet John doesn’t remember that he told me about, don’t
John Allen 11:26
know. Don’t know, you know. And it changed me to say this, but I didn’t discover Metallica or or Raven until Doug Bennett, there you go. Doug introduced everybody. He was, he was, he was in, he was in our homeroom, and he brought in the cassettes, and he said, Here, check this out. And then he handed me the Metallica cassette and the Raven because he
Nestor Aparicio 11:50
saw your hair, and he knew that’s so beautiful that you mentioned Doug Bennett, you just dropped it. You know, Doug was one of best friends. I think of him all the time because he was such a music head. Yeah, every time I hear Depeche Mode, every time I hear the cure, those bands that were but he was also, you know, his family, he helped me develop my musical taste as a friend for, you know, all of our childhood, because he did the same thing for me that he did for you. Did
John Allen 12:16
he grow up in Colgate? He grew up in Berkshire, okay, Eastwood,
8Nestor Aparicio 12:20
Colgate, Berkshire. You got to be east side to know. But he was a guy. He was my roommate for a while, but I have so many moments with him where he walked in the door with the album of Def Leppard, not the one that took him five years to get when the drummer lost his arm. Was the album hysteria, hysteria. Thank you. He brought hysteria in, and I remember him putting it on an album. We roommates at time. He’s like, listen to this Mutt Lang, every song on this album’s gonna be hit, every song. And I think women was the first really, maybe was the first single. Or, I mean, maybe. And I’m like, I don’t hear it dog, you know, I don’t, I don’t, I don’t. This might kill their career. It took them five years. Their drummers got one arm. What do I know? Right? Well, what do I know? Well, right?
John Allen 13:05
It didn’t if I didn’t know this, but, like going back and watching documentaries, it didn’t really start to take off until the release portion. Sugar,
Nestor Aparicio 13:14
yeah, right. And it was probably eight or nine. I mean, that made my third single, or something like that. It
John Allen 13:18
8was second, but, but still. I mean, yeah, they went deep on that record. There were a lot of singles, almost every song on that record. But he
Nestor Aparicio 13:26
said it the first time he laid the needle on the album. And I, you know, 40 years later, I’m still like the fact that you mentioned him, he should have worked in the music businessman. That would have been his place, you know, yeah. But he handed you metallic on cassette for the first time. Yeah, yeah. Had that change your life.
John Allen 13:40
Not well. I’m really bad at predicting the future, you know, and whatever, I came from a real like deep purple. I like Def Leppard, like you said, I guess more commercial at that time. And I remember you were priest is priest as well. I really liked the four horsemen. And there were two songs back to back, was four horsemen and another, and those were my favorite tracks off the record. But a lot of it I thought was too heavy, you know. And I actually gravitated more towards the Raven record. Never buy stock tips, you know, according to to me, you know, like I was telling the story the other day. Same thing with Guns and Roses. So I was in LA when that record came out, and it was everywhere. And they were just a huge buzz band in Los Angeles, and it was like, they’re gonna be huge. They’re gonna be huge. I came back to the East Coast, went to the wreck, store, bought the record. I listened to it, you know, I mean, it came out in August of 87 that album took a while to break. Yeah, and I listened to it, I remember, and I was like, this is really cool, man, too bad they’re not gonna be huge. Little do we know? It took a year and a half, two years and bam, you know, it’s just an amazing, amazing band, amazing record. What
Nestor Aparicio 14:57
was your gate with and deep purple? You would say. That’s the Gen, that’s the middle. So for me, you know, there was kiss, it was kiss. And then Aerosmith, those are my two bands, and then Van Halen. And you were instrumental in the Van Halen thing. You were, you were one of the kids that had tickets to the 8081, you went to those shows. And I don’t say I didn’t get Van Halen. I sort of got, it was really hard ticket to go to that show, but I got onto that a little bit more. Like, have you seen juniors, grades? You know, like, I wasn’t necessarily, you really got me 7778 Yeah, I was a little later to that. I think, I think that was more, yeah, I just wasn’t on that early. But I was on something early as a music critic, because you mentioned Raven or Metallica, who’s gonna make it, or whatever. I was on live, early the band live, and I saw Tommy Conwell and the young Rumblers up at the chameleon Club, which is now the village in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. And I was in there one time, and looked around like I was here one time, and it was like a lifetime ago. And I went to the bathroom, and the place has all of the old flyers mounted to the wall, you know, like, it’s like wallpaper. And I went up, and I’m looking for live. And there it is, December 29 1991 you know, it’s the flyer. I took a picture of it while I was there. And I’m like, time and space. And I was with Mark Messina. He’s like, did they play here on the way up or on the way down. And I said they were kind of like there. When they played it, they were like, this huge band that was playing a Christmas show at home, because they were all home for Christmas, and they it was like, it was that it was like the poison show at hammer jacks. That was sort of the infamous they were on a big, big tour. We’re playing one night, one club, because they knew somebody or they did it on the way up. But I think about those bands that make it versus not make it. Do you have any elixir for why that happens, or why it happened?
8John Allen 16:50
Hey, man, if I, if I knew, you know, I’d be be a millionaire many times over. No, I, you know, I don’t. There’s so many things that I think can go wrong from the from the very inception of, like, you know, you’ve got a kernel of a song idea to you present it to the band, and some, you know, the band can mess it up, and then, if they don’t mess it up, the producer, right? If the producer doesn’t mess it up, maybe the mixer will mess it up, or maybe the master guy will mess it up, and then, then the record, you turn it into the label, and then, oh my gosh, you know, like, maybe the, maybe the label will get it, maybe they won’t. Or
Nestor Aparicio 17:28
it’s like Billy Joel turnstiles, where they just turn everything up a half a step, and he hears it for the first time, and he’s like, Oh my god, they recorded at the wrong speed. Like, literally, that’s a true story for him. Oh, yeah. Whereas Roy sounds like that. You know, he’s flying. They sped it off, yeah, yeah. And he found it out in the final master. So, I mean, you hear these horror stories about bands getting ripped off and all that, but just the art form of Guns and Roses having an album that sat there for eight months before it broke, and it might not have broke, and then other, I don’t mean the modern era, the American Idol era, and discovering bands and artists and why certain bands, but, but the business has changed. You’ve seen the business change three or four times during from chrysalis as a kid to where you are now, touring with Live Nation, giving you bonus money to stay out on the road and play, right?
John Allen 18:16
I mean, like, you know, from my experience, like, it always seemed like the bands that got signed by the President of the label or somebody very high up, were the priorities. That’s what we were always under the impression that, you know, there were bands that were signed that were going to be the priority bands, and then there were bands that, you know, God knows why. You know, they got a deal, maybe because somebody at the label really liked them. But then, you know, maybe they turned in a record that was just undeniable. I don’t know the Guns N Roses story. I know their ANR guy, you know, signed them. And I think they just, they went out there and they, they really just killed people on the road like they were. I saw them here at hammer jacks, and they were phenomenal. And they also started to impress. Where they were, like they were the bad boys of rock and roll. Every story that I read and Spin magazine was about them, you know, having fights or whatever,
Nestor Aparicio 19:11
8like Ozzy biting the head off the bat, right? Literally, yeah, and show business, baby
John Allen 19:15
and and they had a great record. They had a fantastic, undeniable record. So, you know, that’s, that’s the elixir, right? All that, I mean, Child’s Play. We were signed originally by the President of the record label. We thought, man, we got it made, and we were in the studio here in Baltimore, recording our debut album. When we got word that they fired the president. We’re like, oh, you know. And then our manager was like, thought we were priority, right? Our manager was like, Don’t worry about it. The Vice President, Jeff Aldrich, he loves the band too, so we’re fine. Two months later, they fired him
Nestor Aparicio 19:56
too. Did I meet him on the boat that night? Was he on The Love Boat? You. Oh, he was gone
John Allen 20:00
by then. So we were like, okay, great, you know. So that happens a lot with bands. They become orphans, you know, at labels, you know, sometimes it’s the president, the vice president, sometimes it’s the guy that signed you, the A and R guy. So it’s a miracle that anybody has success in music business.
8Nestor Aparicio 20:20
Think about poison with you, because they opened for you at the seagull right when they were kids on it.
John Allen 20:25
While it was an IT WAS A all ages show, they had, they already had a record deal. We did not. They had their record deal. And they were really smart, man, they came around, they got a Winnebago, and they went across the United States, and they opened for every band that was already kind of making it a level that was doing well in each market. So in in Maryland, boy, that’s smart, right? Really smart. They opened for kicks. They opened for rathschild, they opened for us, and it was really smart. And they went out and they had these, these flyers. We had never seen a band do this before, and had all their tour dates on it.
Nestor Aparicio 20:57
And Philly, they opened for Cinderella. And in Boston, they open for whatever the right, whatever those
John Allen 21:01
8bands were, probably, and they had their phone number, you know, hotline number, on there, and they had a mailing address that you could, you know, write to them. And they had their ish together. And they really did, they went out and they, that’s interesting.
Nestor Aparicio 21:12
I’ve never talked about this because I, I’ve often wondered, like, why did they make it, not you they did songs, talk to me. They had great songs. They had a guitar player that they had some flash and, you know, I mean, Brett Michaels is still Brett Michaels for that. So, I mean, I’m not denying them, but they were no different than you at one point, right? I mean, like all of those bands in the 80s, they
John Allen 21:31
went to LA you know, that helped, I think, a lot. They, they, they said goodbye to Pennsylvania, and they went to Los Angeles, and they, they were in the thick of it when, when you know it happened, if you want to call Hair Metal started to on, it’s a sunset, right? And, you know, and they were, they work hard, man. I, you know, I gotta give them kudos like that. After that first record, they came back with, ain’t nothing but a good time. That song is a smash, right? You know, I, when I heard it, I was like, okay, all right, they’re partying. Cheers to you. Yeah. And I like it. It was, you know, respect, you know. But
Nestor Aparicio 22:08
40 years later, you still turn it up. Yeah. It’s a great, great tune.
8John Allen 22:11
I mean, you know, it reminds me of all the stuff that I grew up loving. I love falling angels, you
Nestor Aparicio 22:17
know, like all those songs. Don’t want to hear my I am old enough now that I don’t really need to hear like, I love Bon Jovi. We were talking about that earlier. You open for Bon Jovi for for a whole tour. But I don’t really want to hear dead and alive or or living on a prayer. I’m more about like, without love, or like, you know, raise your hands, or, you know, the off tracks to me all these years later, because I’ve been in the radio thing. I don’t put those. They’re not part of my play mix. I just get those when I’m out. I’m gonna hear living on a prayer today, whether I want to or not, or you give love a bad name. But I just think the depth of those catalogs in the 80s for me going down and saying I like not the hits as much, and I think that that gives depth to the band as much as a hit would all these years later. Well,
John Allen 23:05
yeah, I mean, we grew up in an era where, you know, you listen to a record, you listen to the whole album. You know, sometimes you pull more, read to rock, you dropped a needle on it, and you were like, Okay, I get, I love the single. That’s why I bought the record. And I don’t really get the what’s going on the rest of it. And you had to, like, you listen to it a few times, and you started to understand where the artist was coming from. You started to get the band, you know? And I, you know, unfortunately, that doesn’t really happen, you know, it’s
Nestor Aparicio 23:32
8over, yeah, well, when I was the music critic during your era, like 86 to 92 I told the story earlier in a week, because we said, Who likes going out and getting mail? I’m like, I love getting mail on cane street back in the 80s, because all the record companies would send me first albums and then CDs to the door. So I would Doug Bennett was living with me. He’d get the boxes I come home, he’d be opening my boxes, spinning, hey, this sounds good. New metallic is good, or whatever. But I did at that point in my life. Take it so seriously that when the CD would come, even if it’s pretty boy, Floyd, right, didn’t matter. It was black crows were another band. I’ll never forget getting that black crow CD, because it was a CD, and I dropped it in and I heard the first three chords of twice as hard. And I’m like, What is this? Rod? Stewart, Aerosmith, stonesy thing going on, and then you listen to the whole album. And for me, as the music critic, I would give it 45 minutes. If I got a new piece, I would listen to the new Genesis album, the new rush album, hold your fire, things I didn’t even like, and would just give it that first spin. I don’t know that I did that as a kid. Maybe I brought foreign or for home and dropped it down and played it, you know, as your journey escape when I was a kid and dropped it on the turntable, or even rush, like listening to red bar cheddar, listening to the moving pictures, but I didn’t listen in the 80s. It changed me for what all of you were trying to do and saying it’s a. Body of Work listen to it all the way through. And as a music critic for six years, I listened to everything, and it was first, it was like eating like that jerk that eats the pizza and takes one bite and throws it away and says it’s good or it’s bad. I thought that way about the albums. I gotta give it one spin through. No, I mean, not against depth of listening to it and before I judge it, but just to get a vibe on it, I would have to listen to the whole thing. Guess my point is, I wasn’t like track one, track three, track five, no, no, the whole way through, because that’s the way the bands wanted it presented. It was your art. That’s how I looked at it.
John Allen 25:31
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I it’s definitely a lost art to to not be able to do that. Now, for you don’t
Nestor Aparicio 25:37
think that way. Do you like as a music you’re trying to put a song out, right? You’re trying to drop a single. Well,
John Allen 25:43
I’m, I don’t always like what I do is, is I, I come up with an idea, and I, I try to make that song as good as it possibly can be. And I’ll work it, and sometimes maybe overwork it, whatever. But for for a couple of weeks, you know, I’ll hone that idea, and it’s always with the thought that I’m trying to make the song as good as possible. And one of the my approaches, and it’s probably not the right one, is that I always come from a live background, like, is it gonna like, is this song gonna rock live? You know? Like, because
8Nestor Aparicio 26:19
I’m not making it for you’re making it to sing it on a stage, right? That’s
John Allen 26:24
kind of, that’s where I come from, and for good or for bad, you know, that’s, that’s how you don’t think, like a studio guy, yeah, I don’t think, you know, and maybe I might go back later and, like, train change the arrangement to go, like, Okay, so for radio, we got to get to the vocal quicker, you know, like, maybe, maybe we can swap something out, but this would
Nestor Aparicio 26:44
be good. So on the stretch out on stage. Make it, make it different on stage. Yeah, we
John Allen 26:47
8don’t really stretch out, but, but actually, you know, with stone horses, we do have the musicianship now that in this band that can do that. And it’s, it’s, it’s really cool. You know, how
Nestor Aparicio 27:01
long has the band been stable for you, with the same guys?
John Allen 27:04
So this lineup has been together since last summer, with my original guitar player coming back into the fold. Okay? So, yeah, we have a phenomenal bass player playing with us right now, Dylan house and Teddy Merrill and guitar, just like this whiz kid that I met when he was, like, 16 or 17. He was with school rock, and they opened for Charm City devils at sound stage. And he had this big head of hair. And I was like, I was like, That kid’s got something on stage and not, you know, and then he wound up filling in for both Nick and then Victor on the last Charm City Devil’s tour, like one of them couldn’t make the first half, and then the other one couldn’t make the second half, so he filled in for each guy. Yeah. So anyway, so those are my, those are kind of my approaches to to writing songs and and you’re talking about, you know, listening to a whole record. I’ll never forget when I was gifted draw the line. Aerosmith, okay, 79 that sounds about right, right. And, and, you know, I didn’t know from anything the first song, the title cut, it’s like a drop tune song, open tuning for Joe to do the slide guitar part on it. And it’s already kind of got this kind of drunk kind of feel. Well, my record was warped. So it was, really,
Nestor Aparicio 28:32
did you leave it on the, on the on the heater? Remember, we had used to have the, I
8John Allen 28:36
didn’t discover that until I had, I had mob rules by Sabbath, and it was also warped. I want that and
Nestor Aparicio 28:44
Ronnie James Dio sound warped. It was warped.
John Allen 28:49
Ronnie James Dio could never sound bad, so no matter, warped, not warped, he was fantastic. I accidentally left it on the turntable, which was right underneath my bedroom windows. I my room face the sun the south. So one I left it on the turntable for like a week. One summer, flattened the thing out. Man, it was, it was perfect. After that week, I put the needle on. I was a surprise. I had no idea. I was like,
Nestor Aparicio 29:13
8Oh, I saw that. Mob rules. John Alex, we’ve did it all together. John Alex, here from stone horses and threes getting going at Merriweather next week. They are kicking off Saturday. David Lee, Ross Sebastian Bucha, by the way, in this restaurant here, Donnie McCaffrey, who will be here a little later on, whose grandfather was a Super Bowl five head coach for the Colson won the Super Bowl. I came in about three months ago because my wife and I, we sit right with chadson. You just sit right over there. Because I stand when I eat. I’m like, oh, when I’m like, a horse, Stone Horse. He said to me the other night, Sebastian Bach walked in here and sat at that table with his band and eight steaks, and he’s like, I said to him, how did you find out about it? She’s like, I’ll be over at the airport. We. Google and said, You guys had the best you’re the best restaurant in the area. So we came over and he said, was really quiet here. Weren’t a lot of people here that night. He said he sat over there. Couldn’t have been the best. He was the best guy ever. So when Donnie comes, Sebastian Bach has dined here in the last six months, so he’s playing, I don’t know anything about him, other than when they open Skid Row open for Bon Jovi. He just used F bombs on stage a lot. That’s remember that he was very, very effed up at that point, but he has had this incredible longevity. We talk about people of that era and mp three or m3 mp 3m, three to open up. There’s another guy there. They had a band of that era that did some good things, but not Bon Jovi things, but still good enough, like Twisted Sister last year, D Snyder, that people don’t forget this stuff. And box a working musician to this day
John Allen 30:47
is, yeah, I mean, Skid Row. I mean, think about, like, how many they had, a lot of hits, you know, like that first
Nestor Aparicio 30:51
record had, well, I remember you was, it’s, you know, an eternal song. Oh, it’s incredible.
John Allen 30:56
And then, and then the second record as well. So, yeah, so, so Sebastian kicks off the Friday night at m3 and then maybe
8Nestor Aparicio 31:04
he’ll be in for dinner here Thursday. Maybe, I don’t, you know, I know he knows where this is. He’ll come back. Yeah, absolutely.
John Allen 31:09
But yes. And then Saturday is, you know, us and the lineup, like you said, it was David Lee Roth headlining, except Are you gonna meet the guys and
Nestor Aparicio 31:16
accept and tell them how much you loved them when you were a kid? Is it still at the same drummer that you loved, or No, I don’t know. I
John Allen 31:22
8think, I think it is, well, you should go give that guy love. I
Nestor Aparicio 31:25
know you should. You should tell him that you I know this to be true. You don’t remember it. I remember it. No, I you remember everything
John Allen 31:32
that first record with it, not first record restless and wild, the first record I purchased with the double kick drum. And the double kick drone. There it is, the first song. I was blown away. I didn’t know what the hell that was like. And yeah, so yeah, it was a big deal. I’m glad
Nestor Aparicio 31:50
it reminded you of that, because that would be something in life. And you would have said to me at that point in our lives that you would one day have your band open first. You would be like, yeah, yeah. You would accept that life. You think that’s good, right? Well, Chad’s here. He is a agent to the stars. And Josh Jacobs, he’s headed to the NFL Draft next week in Green Bay. Take a jacket, and John Allen is your mom. Sit together because he’s a Hagerstown, Hagerstown for with rock and roll. But for both of you, I’ll be out and with this. And begin with this, I went to see Tommy Conwell and the young Rumblers at the chameleon club in in Lancaster the other night, and Mark machine and I were in back quiet room catching up, because we’re old farts talking about his brother and pitching in life and all that. And the band’s coming on, we’re like, let’s go out. We’re gonna we go down the into the pit. And it was a little bit like a VFW club. They had like a sunken disco thing on the floor on a stage. We go down to the front, and we’re there. One minute Tommy comes out. Here I come, you know, and we look up and there’s a dude right in front of Tommy. I Video This wearing a kick shirt. All I looked at for two and a half hours of Tommy playing was this dude in the front with a kick shirt, with his arms up. All we saw was kicks and Tommy calm well, all night. So there’s a Hagerstown guy over there. You talk to Whiteman lately? How’s he doing? Has his retirement? I
8John Allen 33:07
haven’t talked to him lately. I ain’t retired. I watched him. So our last guitar player, Justin parks. His dad owns a record store up there in Hagerstown, and he does a podcast, and Steve was on it a few weeks ago. What’s he doing? Telling stories. He’s enjoying his retirement. What’s he doing? Well,
Nestor Aparicio 33:27
they should come back. Shake their ass for me next week. We do. You know, if you can shake your ass hair off, how’s he look younger? He looks good.
John Allen 33:35
He looks good. Well, you know, I love Steve. I do too. Man, I
Nestor Aparicio 33:39
8need Steve. I need you today. Man, I’ve been doing too much talking. I did beer and bots last night. Like,
John Allen 33:43
did you take vocal lessons from him? Me,
Nestor Aparicio 33:45
me, me, me, me, me. He thinks that. Yes, of course. He taught me that. Why would I do that? Why would I do something so stupid the old pigeon sing down here in the diaphragm. You gotta warm up. You got to warm up your voice. I’m warming my voice up when I sing. You think I just go out there and sing like this?
John Allen 34:04
Well, maybe, maybe he’s doing vocal lesson,
8Nestor Aparicio 34:07
dude, I’m I’m hurting. I went into a room talking all night, and then emceed this thing where, like, I didn’t have any monitor. I’m screaming into the mic. Don’t realize it. And then I I heard my own self this morning on my radio station, and Luke and I were talking about the game last night. Hey, I sound like it smoked like a pack or three before I went on the air. I don’t like that. I’m not gonna talk over the weekend. I’m gonna pretend I’m in a band riding around the Midwest stone horses. He is John Allen. They are Charm City devils. They are set SR 71 and they will be child’s play. And did I forget a band?
John Allen 34:37
No, is there one more? Think you got them all. You
Nestor Aparicio 34:41
were never an honor among thieves. You were never with bitch, even though you were with Mitch, yeah, but that was SR 71 Yep. And then there was Charm City devils. I got that one, yep. And now stone horses, yep, that’s it, sorta Yeah. You were Gina shots man for five minutes too. Go. Go’s are doing their thing. Next month we saw. Her, but both of us have interacted with her, so rock and roll is alive. It’s not dead. MPV m3, why don’t quite keep on? Mp three, why don’t MP Why do I what I say that I know better. It’s a Merryweather post pavilion. That’s what it is. MPP m3, we’re at BOMA. We’re giving away these Back to the Future, $10,000 I hope, one day, I hope somebody wins more than the 100 bucks, but I’m gonna be doing that next week. We’ll be at Cooper’s north in Timonium, and then we’re gonna be on the 30th at Coco’s pub, and then on the seventh in White Marsh at the Red Brick station. We’re coming back. Chad weeks is gonna be here. We’re gonna do nothing but heavy metal in the next segment, yes, and and then we’re gonna do NFL Draft. And also, former Councilman quirk is going to be here talking about money and tariffs and Donald Trump. I’ll hide my head in my soul. Back for more from Catonsville, worth of Beaumont. We are Baltimore, positive. Stay with us. You.
