Multi-talented musician and guitarist Mat Dauzat joins Nestor from ” the other L.A.” to discuss his amazing work with Seal, his intorduction to the daughter of Ozzy Osbourne and life on the road with his wife, Heather, and primary focus of Dauzat St. Marie. Oh, and of course there’s a Baltimore to Ruston connection…
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
seal, band, trevor, playing, heather, tour, casey, night, years, call, wife, put, music, love, audition, song, guitar player, gig, stage, shows
SPEAKERS
Mat Dauzat, Nestor J. Aparicio
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:01
What home we are W and S T tasks Baltimore and Baltimore positive we are positively taking the show back out on the road, I promise that I have not had my last crabcake even though where my family sure we’re gonna be doing fadeless Friday’s live live radio from two of the five during Oriole home games. I will be joined down at the den at the stadium by Luke Jones, who’s at the Art ballpark reporter and this is gonna be a fun one I’ll be giving away lottery scratch offs or friends or window nation, Jiffy Lube, all that will be with us as usual. But I’ve been stalking this guy for almost a year to have him on the program. And it’s always a little tougher with musicians, especially when they don’t have handlers. Because like, I met this guy, honestly. So I’m gonna give the whole background and how I met this guy. And we’re gonna have a good time today, because I’ve waited about eight months to have him on the program. I took my wife to the airport last May to what jet off with her sister she and her sister have been climbing mountains and seeing things and traveling Europe and having fun. And on that particular night I love the anthem in DC and I said I’m driving my wife to the airport like Tuesday afternoon was a beautiful spring day. I love the music of seal I had seen seal at Pier six many years ago. And I love to listen to seals music all the time. Always have in the minute I heard crazy on straight on through killer straight on through Dancehall, so almost 30 years of that 25 years of that at least. And I went to the concert, and I went all alone. And I was expecting to love the concert because I love the music. But I was blown away literally blown away. And I’ve seen Oh several 1000 concerts as a music critic. And that night I put a post up and said, I saw the best concert I’ve seen in years and years and I go to 50 6080 shows a year depending on what year and I said I was just blown away by how great seal was from the minute he had the stage his band. Trevor Horn Video Killed the Radio Star The Buggles the whole night. And I was so moved by it. I put it on the internet. And my friend Casey Willett, my longtime football insider said to guitar player in the band. I went to high school with him. He’s gonna love that you love the show. And the next thing you know, I became a pen pals with the guy and I’m just trying to get the pronunciation of Dosanjh right but Matt doze off who was in a band with his wife, who has ties to Pat Benatar and ties to Ozzy Osbourne daughter, not to television show but the daughter and also has ties to Rick Springfield as well was out on the road with seal and Casey Well, it’s childhood friend. And it’s a pleasure to have you on and the only reason I guess you’re here is I put up how much I love the show. And then I drove to Philly the next night and saw it again, made my wife go to New York and see you guys at the Beacon Theater. And if seal ever puts the project back together. It was just it was beautiful. So thank you for coming on. And thank you for making beautiful music brother.
Mat Dauzat 02:58
Thanks for having me.
Nestor J. Aparicio 03:01
Did you come from like, Wait, tell me that. Casey, will it let’s start with that because that’s more interesting than anything. Because when I think of Casey Casey first off as a patriot and a guy that served in the military was part of 911 in the Pentagon and covered the football team for a number of years for me for a half a decade at least and then worked at Big Island baseball, but like he’s been the reason Janna you’re you’re Ruston, Louisiana you Jones right?
Mat Dauzat 03:27
Yeah, we’re here from a very small town. It’s a college town. North Central Louisiana. Yeah, no, Casey. Yes. It’s where kids haven’t seen him in a while and he’s kind of in your area. We see him I’ve seen him once or twice maybe on those that St. Marie tours. But yeah, that’s That’s it. We were Louisiana. My wife Heather is from South Louisiana. So it’s different. Casey and I are way north. We’re like 30 minutes south of Arkansas. She is like 45 minutes south of New Orleans. So different
Nestor J. Aparicio 03:59
worlds this conversation and it had to do with coonass and stuff with Brandon Stokely is another guy from the northwest, you know, he’s ragin Cajun, and that there’s like, there’s three languages that they speak in the state of Louisiana, you know, and you know, like, and one kind of add to Fe which I enjoy immensely. So you are a studio musician with a wife that you have beautiful music that you write together. And you went up on stage with seal and I’ve known a lot of working musicians and artists all total a couple of weeks ago, which was a band full of and Steely Dan, these bands that were put together are full of these magical musicians that you strive to be a part of that you become someone in demand when seal says I need a guitar player. How about that guy named Matt? Let’s Let’s bring him out. I think he could sing and play.
Mat Dauzat 04:48
Oh, it’s wild. Yeah, the story is wild. I’ve been a fan like you said it’s crazy. At first her crazy and Heather and I we were putting a band together in Ruston, Louisiana. No, she came up there for college. And we’re putting a rock band together. I just love crazy. I was like, man, we should really try to cover this song. And it never worked out. You know, we had musicians in the band, maybe they were too cool for that sort of thing or whatever, you know. And anyway, so she and I moved to Los Angeles 2002. My first thing that happened, like literally moved out on Friday, Monday was Labor Day, and Wednesday, I had an audition with Kelly Osbourne. And so Thursday, I was already like, on Osborne salary. I was I was actually on the TV show to you were saying not the TV show. I was. I was on the episodes of that as well. So yeah, my first my first shot here was Tonight Show with Jay Leno. And I was touring the world. And you know, Heather and I were putting a rock band together. We did so we got a deal hated that. Then we got we let that fall apart. And we got a song in the movie saw three that kind of launched us out pretty heavy touring. And she and I, we always write songs that and they’re not always appropriate for the rock band. So we kind of filed the songs away and then we’re like, you know, it’d be cool if we like form this duo more acoustic duo that would kind of tour in supplement of you know, the band tours right with tour in between, but it just took off are like one of our first gigs was with Rick Springfield, in Reno. And he heard us he was like, I absolutely love what you guys are doing. I absolutely love having you guys on my show warming up the crowd. It just was a great energy is like if you want to do any shows with me in the future. You know, he does a stripped down solo acoustic thing. If you want to do any shows in the in the future. He’s like, let me know your you’re on. I was like, How about let’s do all of these like, okay, cool. So we’ve been like jet setting with Rick for? I don’t know, since 2015. Maybe? We’ve been like, you know, we get a call from the managers. Okay, we got New Jersey, New York, whatever. Like it’s a lot of like weekend stuff. So we’d fly out with him we do shows and come back and then you know, in between Heather and I would do like performance videos for those that Sainte Marie. So when seal you know, they had this this is the 30th anniversary tour, right? If they’re if they’re celebrating his first two albums. He was like he was looking for a guitar player that could really sing. And so you know, Heather and I had this lock with the the harmonies. And he he came across one of our performance videos and he’s like, That’s my guy. So literally you
Nestor J. Aparicio 07:36
out of like a video of like, in the same way journey pick the singer from like, just a video, it wasn’t an inside audition you say that you went out to LA and you didn’t have a gig you didn’t have like you literally are the dude that put the guitar over your back kind of like Tom Petty kind of famously, your shot video on the way you went out to LA and said, We’re gonna figure out how to make this 20 years ago.
Mat Dauzat 07:56
Yeah, we had an I honestly, what happened is, you know, to tie Casey back in, you know, we had our band in Ruston, Louisiana, we started doing radius tours, and it grew outward. And we would play out here in LA. I don’t know, every few months, we were kids. We had we worked at a car dealership, you know, decent jobs, you know, it’s kind of love still living at home, we were just fine. Let’s go play money. Okay, you know. Anyway, so it was but it’s a college town. So the the one thing that plagued us was keeping band musicians together because, you know, people graduate and then they would go on to whatever their careers you know, music is a tough go, right. So like, our drummer was like, Hey, guys, I got this, this gig for like computer program is like, under 1000 a year like, you go, don’t don’t stay in this damn band. You know. It was hard to get. We were big enough to get interest for players to to be interested in joining our band, but not enough interest for them to move this small town, Louisiana.
Nestor J. Aparicio 08:56
And let’s be honest, now that we talked about 20 years ago, you’re you’re closer to my kids age than my age. From what I can tell I don’t have an age on you. But you’re definitely younger than me, you know, hanging around Casey and being. But when Napster came and the record companies fell apart, you kind of came in like a tough place where like, everybody had to earn their way and the Internet wasn’t ripe enough yet to kind of make a thing, right, like, yeah, you hit it a different place than in, in the era of my people my age, and like I talk about Child’s Play, and the people of my era, they got a record company, and Scott signed and went to New York and did like some of that just went away in it for a number of years. Right. That Avenue wasn’t the same avenues that were available in the late 80s, early 90s. They were gone by the time that happened for you. Yeah,
Mat Dauzat 09:46
we kind of hit it at at a wrong time. You know, we we missed the boat as far as that goes, as you’re saying. But I mean, with that opens up new opportunities and you know, we had to adapt, but we were not going anywhere. are where we were. We were we just couldn’t get musicians to move to a small town Louisiana to join the band. And that’s what we really would have liked to have done because it was it was a great hub, it was a great place to live, and we could tour in a radius and do well. But so, you know, I think what it was for me and Heather, it was when 911 happened. So, you know, saw the plants at the buildings saw immediate loss of life, right? And then you you kind of get introspective and like, wow, everything could go tomorrow. Are we really doing everything we can to, to follow this passion of ours or, or not? And we decided no, we’re not really we got to do something radical. We need to move to a big city. It was at that time was really either New York or LA. We had been playing la so we started to grow a following. We had like a network a little bit here. So it was a easier decision, right to just move out here. But no, we literally sold everything that didn’t make music. And we just packed it up in a van and we moved out here.
Nestor J. Aparicio 11:08
I hear that for so many people. Yeah, gene is shocked from the Go Go’s is a Dundalk person, my friend. She said 1978 I put it on a pickup truck went out to LA, you know, what a punk band and that way, you know, that’s the way to do it. You know?
Mat Dauzat 11:20
Yeah, it’s I couldn’t recommend it to everybody at all right. It’s a terrible idea. It was it was difficult. But I we had. So again, we were playing shows out here. So we were building a following. We were building a network we were building at least a stepping stone to a pathway to success. I got the through last shows I got the attention of band Limp Biscuit was the band aid. At the time, I had like short, spiky hair, I played the Paul Reed Smith guitars jumping all over the stage, you know, being crazy rock guy. And they some of those guys came out to one of our shows at the Whisky before we moved here. And when they their guitar player quit the band they did they started doing a search for a guitar player. And they hired a local guy who kind of puts all the bands together out here he is like the guy and found me somehow in Louisiana. Like, hey, the band would like you to come out and audition. And so I wasn’t really into it. I was you know, that, you know, dumb kids like, I have a ban you I don’t you know, I’m no traitor. I already have a ban, you know, but Heather and my dad were like, really, this is an opportunity. You You go do this, you know, like, okay, whatever. It’s a free trip to LA. flew me out. Something happened with management and they screwed up scheduling the pin. They gave the band the weekend off. So the band just scattered like cockroaches. They were all over, you know, doing their thing. So I didn’t even I didn’t even audition. Flew back. You know, flew me back home. They were apologetic. They’re like, We’ll fly you back out. And I was like, yeah, man I wasn’t into at first. I’m really don’t I don’t want to do that. But the guy that they hired to find me the talent scout guy couldn’t understand that LA abbreviation for Louisiana wasn’t la abbreviation for Los Angeles. He was calling me like, almost on a weekly basis. He was you were in LA. He did. And so he kept calling me. You know, how did I get home?
Nestor J. Aparicio 13:19
You had a weird Area code 504 something right?
Mat Dauzat 13:23
So he would call and it would be like, hey, you know Nine Inch Nails is looking for a guitar player. Can you pick up the CD at SR which is like the rehearsal place in Hollywood because the CD at SR on Wednesday auditions on Friday. And I will call him back. I don’t know I don’t live there. I can’t do that. But he never quite got it. I will keep getting these calls. Finally hidden I moved out. And the day that I you know, I was still we’re still in boxes. I call them as like, Hey, Barry. I’m here now. You know, whatever. You have all come audition because like the guy had literally called me so many times. I just like no, I can’t do it. I can do this since he’s like, a cool. We got Kelly Osbourne on Wednesday. I was like, great. I’ll be there. I left the house is like you know,
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:12
hard to find a guitar player in LA met
Mat Dauzat 14:16
with this. So this was a cattle this is a cattle call like it were a bunch. And it was being filmed for the Osborne. So I had never auditioned for anything in my whole life. And here I am auditioning for Kelly Osbourne. And I’ve got like MTV cameras in my face. Like as I’m trying to, like perform. This is like the weirdest thing ever. And I was just like, Yeah, I’m not gonna get this gig. I mean, this isn’t my gig, but like, at least I can show Barry what I can do. And we can get FaceTime or whatever. And that was it. I did my thing. And Sharon was like, that’s your guy. And so literally Yeah, that was it. Like Jay Leno was the first show my first show here in LA and that night flew to La I’m going to go on like a three month tour with Robin Williams. I don’t know you may not he’s not that well known here but like he’s pop God over there. He was like in the boyband. And so like we did three months of shows with him and I think the average attendance at those shows that 75,000 people, so, you know, the top was 155,000 people we play to in Dublin, we did Knebworth we were we broke Guinness Book of World Records, Knebworth we did sold out three nights, 366,000 people six months
Nestor J. Aparicio 15:34
earlier in Ruston, Louisiana in trying to bought our band basically. Right.
Mat Dauzat 15:40
That’s it. Yeah. So you know it. It sounds it seems like an overnight success. But there was like, so much work that went into that. And I always say that, like you’re ready to go. It’s an overnight success. It’s like yeah, but I mean, I promise you, you can show 10 years of hard work to get to that overnight success. Always there’s a story behind it. It’s not like I literally just on a whim, we moved out to California and I got this audition and that’s not how it happened. But
Nestor J. Aparicio 16:05
it is our is our guest. The band is dough, Zach Sainte Marie, they are actually playing up in Redding and a couple of weeks with Rick Springfield. And with Arispe we’re gonna have friends who chase Rick around, so there’ll be there. I may be off in Florida that week during the spring training things I may have to see you on the side with the with the wife when you’re doing like, the next tour through with Pat Benatar or Rick or whatever you’re doing? Because I know. I saw Pat Benatar and Neil last year and what they do. I don’t equate it to what you do, but it feels a little similar to some degree. You’re nodding your head, would you say? Yeah, like if I say it’s equal. It’s a little, you know, you’ll like my wife and I put your songs on two weeks ago. And she saw that your wife has had a battle as well. My wife’s a two time leukemia survivor. She’s like, you’re meant to have this guy on the show. This is like great music. I like this band. You know, you’re watching your videos. So it is amazing in the modern world. You click a button and I can learn about you instantly. Yeah,
Mat Dauzat 17:01
yeah. That’s cool. Yeah, but yeah, you know, Pat and Neil are more a duo then a lot of people realize it till because, you know, until recent years, it was just Pat Benatar. Right and she’s just like a solo pop artists but like, it’s always been Pat O’Neill. He He’s the guitar force and writer and all that stuff. And so obviously,
Nestor J. Aparicio 17:22
I still gotta do they still do it? They’re
Mat Dauzat 17:24
great, man. Absolutely. And Pat and Heather have this big voice for like, little little people. But like this monster voice. And so yeah, I mean, there’s there’s definitely similarities. Pat was so good to us on that tour. I mean, we’d be heading out would be we’re always at the merch table after you know, we’re trying to sling merch man make that money. Right? So we’re at the merch table shaking hands or whatever. And you know, Pat, between whatever song every night and it would never fail. She’s like, how about that those that Sainte Marie, how awesome are they whatever. And we could hear that and you would see people flocking down to come buy merch from us. And we were selling like two or 300 CDs every night on that tour. Like, wow, that’s amazing that that was a really good to work for us. That’s where also scared us a little bit in a good way because we were doing with Rick it was always acoustic shows. And we’re primarily acoustic duo, right. And so we’re opening rigs, solo acoustic shows, and those, those have always been awesome. And then this opportunity came up with Rick and Pat. But those are both full bands. This is now rock band and we’re still stepping out there with an acoustic and we’re just two people. And we just we step out on stage we start blasting into an acapella piece is how we like to start the show, which is really cool. Because you’ve got like, you know, three 4000 people and there’s like a lot of noise, a lot of chatter, and we start doing this acapella piece and literally, right? All the noise comes down. It’s like, okay, we got this, this is cool. But it’s scary to do that. Because like, again, we’re just two little people with acoustic guitar behind it’s just like massive production. And you know, Neil’s Guitar Rig is massive, you know, and so we’re like, is this gonna work? You know, it really works it like big time people are like, wow, you know, cuz it’s it’s pretty ballsy. And we like doing stuff like that. That scares us a little bit.
Nestor J. Aparicio 19:17
Well, you know, John Mayer went out and did an acoustic thing and had an opening act every night to play the piano was very Billy Joel ish. And I’m like, there’s appropriate music for everything. And I guess it’s time in a season to be in Kelly Osborne’s band or to audition for like, but the variety of music and songwriting and sort of the pop sensibility but growing up in a small town where country was coming at your rap was coming things are coming at you in different ways. Seal let’s get back to SEO because that’s how I found you do that those that is our as our guest, they find them it’s da u z at St. Marie, find them out on the internet, find them out on YouTube. Go listen, this guy comes to me because he’s Casey Well, it’s a childhood friend and they went to high school together. Casey said you were the only guy that was nice to him when his family moved there. So you know, he said, You guys were great became friends, you know?
Mat Dauzat 20:09
Yeah, absolutely. That is great. Well, growing up there, he did the
Nestor J. Aparicio 20:15
sports thing for us here. And, you know, he immediately gave me this relationship with you, based on seal. And I would say the seal thing for me kind of came on as I was a music critic from 8586, to about 92 started really full into sports radio, but I’ve always had musicians on, I’ve always had friendships, still, friends with guys in the Smithereens and the alarm from 40 years ago, when I made their friendships, and have kept them all these years later in need, not even through sports. But like, I would say, the seal thing for me comes very honestly, because I’ve always loved the music. He doesn’t make a whole lot of music, the marriage, the Heidi and the sort of the larger than life personalities, not like a touring guy who’s out all the time with a band, this part where your phone rings, and it’s sealed, and you’ve been out with other bands and done other things. And obviously, with your wife and the duo that you’ve done, give me the soup to nuts on how that happens. And now I found you on stage that night because you said seal identified me but that doesn’t mean you go run around the world with sealer that it actually bonds in works. And you guys have done Good Morning America as a duo with you’re very comfortable with your wife that it wasn’t even a band piece. And he bragged about you and Trevor bragged about you and the next day, I’m Facebooking with you, but I don’t know a lot about you. You must be one hell of a talent, obviously, that you could go out and play the phonebook. If you had enough time to go out be anybody’s guitar player if you needed to be.
Mat Dauzat 21:40
I’ve been at it for a while. But like yeah, seal, a seal. He is a deep diver on YouTube. So I guarantee you he did his homework on me. But he definitely found me through performance videos with those that Sainte Marie. Literally I got heads up from the manager. He’s like, hey, feels about to FaceTime call you in 10 minutes. I’m like, Okay, I called up Heather. She was out shopping and doing some errands and stuff and Heather’s a, she’s a firecracker. She’s like loud. She’s always coming in the house. Yelling so you’ll never guess what happened. Whatever it is, she’s caged into like, they’re, they’re really animated. And so I was like, Hey, don’t come in the house. You know, screaming some crazy shit. I’m gonna be on a FaceTime call with seal. And she’s like, seal and like, yeah, seal. She’s like, okay, so
Nestor J. Aparicio 22:36
that weirdo right, the day you get there, meet Sharon Osbourne, you’re in a band meets Jen Atlanta. Like, that’s where it’ll start a feud everyday. It’s not that exciting or you know, like, but when you get calls from people you’ve never met, and they say, come audition or hey, I want to meet you or write a song when that happens when you’re this foreign, right?
Mat Dauzat 22:57
This is unique in that there was zero audition. He called me up, we chatted for about 30 minutes. He said, Hey, and I’ve got this 30th anniversary tour coming up. I really want to have top notch players I want to have, and I really want to have as much of the backing vocals live as possible. mistake I’ve been checking you out. I love what those that Sainte Marie does. I love what Heather does. I do not think I could ever do what Heather does he was he’s a big fan. And he said what you have is beautiful. And I want that for this. Would you? Would you join my band for this? You know, 30th anniversary tour? I think? Absolutely. He’s like, Oh, I’m so relieved to hear you say that. And I’m like, What do you mean? What other answer was there?
Nestor J. Aparicio 23:48
You know, so you get a call. You don’t like you had no rehearsal? You know, do you listen to any of the music around because I do like I heard fly like an eagle seals version of fly like in the wise markets last week just walking through the island. I’m like, you notice these things? It’s not his song Steve Miller, you know, whatever. But like his music is sort of ubiquitous in different ways that you wouldn’t know Kiss from a Rose you would know prefer the dying probably if you were a music fan at all. But like fast change you might not know you know, like the depth of the album’s or bring it on, which I know I always gauge it by my wife who loves music, but she didn’t know. All she knew the hits or whatever. Yeah, where are you when you’re 10 minutes out on sale of like, Can I play your music? Do I like your music? Can this work? That’s a fine thing. Because you guys look like you’ve been together forever that night. And I think it may have been your 10th show together or something right?
Mat Dauzat 24:43
I think yeah, we he and I have a chemistry immediately. But no, I didn’t have time to go do any deep diving. I just assumed, you know, I’ll be able to figure it out. You know, you’ve said yes. And then you figure it out. Right? I did not know how difficult how challenging that would be I was I didn’t know, obviously a new crazy a new Kiss from a Rose. There’s some songs on there that are really difficult were really hard to figure out too because the guitar player that was used at the time, had some had to had some really weird style. He had some really weird tunings. So it was kind of difficult to figure out. But I think so I said yes to the 30th anniversary, and I had, like, I had time to learn before we were into rehearsals ahead. I had plenty of time. But then I got a separate calls like, Hey, by the way, we’re gonna go do these private gigs in, I think one was in El Gula, Saudi Arabia, and the other was in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. And I had not met you in person until I met him on stage. By the way, that was my first See, I
Nestor J. Aparicio 25:58
knew this story, I knew this is gonna get good. Because I knew you weren’t chumps for life. And there’s always that first moment, there’s that level of trust in any band. And to pull it off, like beautifully, like I, you know, I see shows all the time from bands that had been together from they were good. I see bands that don’t like each other, you know, it genuinely looked like you guys were pulling things off. And I saw you amongst each other on stage. And I saw you anthem. And I don’t know how far you were in at that point, you were a couple of weeks into the tour, what it felt like you were it was an all star band sort of pulling it together. And there was a level of these are good songs. This is well produced as an album, but really hard to pull off live. Because when Trevor put that stuff together 30 years ago, it was meant to be a dancehall kind of thing. Really live performance. Right? Yeah.
Mat Dauzat 26:47
And it’s so incredibly crafted. There’s so many guitar tones and guitar parts, I had to really dive in and what was cool, you know, Trevor gave me the multitrack. So I’ve got multitrack with these records, so I can like, listen to soloed out parts, right? Which is really cool. Because now because I’m also a producer. So now I’m getting to study this the master class and from the master right now I get to hear all this stuff. You know, so that helped out a lot. But, you know, I had the tour on that tour with like, I think I had like, I don’t know, 14 guitars, which sounds crazy. But that’s because each each guitar had a very specific Sonic purpose. I program like the like the effects, all the guitar tones, everything it took me I don’t know, a month and a half of really dialing in. Because I really wanted this this is the 30th anniversary, right? I wanted everything to sound perfect. Just like the record maybe rocked up a little bit right for just for the live show. But I want it to be true to those albums. So I I went in and in a very academic way and dissected I dialed in tones as perfectly as I could. So that was a great exercise. Now those private shows that was a different thing. So those shows, had a lot of these, you know, steel did a jazz standards record right? And so about, I would say maybe 60% of the setlist was these jazz standards. I don’t do that. Do you see a lot of like young guitar players playing jazz standards? No you don’t they’re all dudes because it takes a lifetime of doing this to be to get that good and these guys can like read you know, they’re reading their either sheet music or charts or whatever it is they do and they’re just these things changes weird chords that change every couple of beats. Remember Neil
Nestor J. Aparicio 28:46
saying that he went back and had to relearn how to play drums because he wanted to learn to play a different way and you get older things change as well but it’s the hardest thing in the world to do is to learn how to play right
Mat Dauzat 28:56
freak me out freak me out. I had no business doing it but like so and then Heather recognized it too. This is real so it was just like I also got invited to audition for Ozzy Osbourne whenever they got rid of Zakk Wylde back in whatever that time was. And so at that time it was it was the same deal right out I was when I was younger guys like huge Zakk Wylde fan just you know and I so I was a student Randy Browns fan too. Yes, but I just love Yes, I think maybe too young for that right. And so I was huge Zakk Wylde and so I just love it, but at some point, I guess I got to a point is like man, I’m never going to be as good as Zakk Wylde. So I’m going to focus on songwriting riff writing and this and that so it just kind of stopped all the shredder II stuff and it’s like, not really you know, whatever. And then years later I get this call and like she calls is like, you know, wants you to come shred. So like A good right I can do it right. But if you’re not doing it every day, it’s hard. You gotta jump back in. And then I also, over the years, just chatting with Ozzy, I knew that when Ozzy hears his songs, he hears them the way that that Randy played them. So I knew, you know, if I wanted to get that gig, go now study Randy, go back, and, you know, go that route. And so I really studied that. Literally, I was playing 1214 Sometimes 16 hours a day, sitting watching YouTube videos. Heather’s putting plates of food in my face, you got to eat, you know, I’m just I bled the whole thing, you know. And I had a few weeks to do that went in, and that was awesome. It was really great playing with Ozzy in the band. And, you know, I remember I played crazy train with him the first time he turned to me, he’s like, I haven’t heard my song played like that. And however many since whatever year you’re not, I don’t remember. I was just like, Ah,
Nestor J. Aparicio 31:04
that’s a beautiful might be the greatest thing ever. Anybody ever said. Yeah, that’s a tough fiver.
Mat Dauzat 31:13
Oh, was amazing. Obviously, that went a different way that you know. And great, that’s, that’s fine. But this I like and what happened was sealed to this. But now it’s just Anders. Right. And so now I’m having to really, like, dive into this art form that’s totally different than what I’m used to. And same deal playing 1214 hours a day has
Nestor J. Aparicio 31:37
I have confidence in your mat, seal,
Mat Dauzat 31:39
seal just he likes to be put in those situations. You know, see, it was good friends with David Bowie. And I think Bowie told him something to the effect that if you’re in a comfortable place, maybe you’re not in the best place comfortable is maybe not the best place to be right you might want to be in positions that challenge you a bit more than that. And so seal had told me before he likes when something may not go right on stage, you know, or the fear that there could be a train wreck he likes he thrives in those moments.
Nestor J. Aparicio 32:17
Is that why he was walking on chairs out in the 15 throw every single night with a pitch pipe and trying to figure out like even hearing how he could sound in a room to see how great he could be because dude, I pushing the limit suit I’ve seen a lot of shit bro up in my life. I have been onstage as offstage as in pitch thrown around like all of that. I watched him do it three times out in the crowd. And it from you on stage watching your faces. You had no idea where it was going right literally.
Mat Dauzat 32:49
And he is he likes to throw visual cues to us. So I always have to keep a line of sight with seal and I remember like the the first show like I said and we had no rehearsal zero I never I hadn’t met the guy zero rehearsal right now we’re playing difficult material we bust out into I think it was probably bring it on and he goes out into the crowd and so the on those shows we don’t have our I don’t think we had our own light lighting designer I think you’re relying on house lights which were beautiful. Everything was great but when seal would go beyond where the lights are shining under hangs and a lot of these theaters so you’re not see seal. So if I can’t see his eyes, and I know that, like we’re freeform jamming, there’s no there’s no there’s no tape, right so I’m relying on seeing seal Look at me. And okay now and I know we’re in the final sequence. We’re doing this. I can’t see seal seals beyond the lights but seal would have no idea of that, by the way, because he can see me just fine. He doesn’t know I can’t see him. I don’t know how we pull it off. We did. It was great. It was you know, our first shows were beautiful. I did that second show and got off stage. They put me in a jet hurry me off went to Trevor’s house, whom I had not met. And stay with Trevor for a while working on this 30th anniversary.
Nestor J. Aparicio 34:24
He’s a legend, right? I’m not gonna hold you all night. You got to say some bad Trevor. Yeah, you know,
Mat Dauzat 34:29
absolute legend. You know, I don’t know how if people the people that know him here are in love with his work. And just like he he kind of created the sound of the 80s Right. Just legendary I whenever I first I knew his name, and I knew generally what he did, but I went on, I think all music right. And I was like trying to look at his credits. And so I was scrolling and scrolling. And eventually I was like, I can’t I’m adding this to my If I was no into it the credits it’s insane. And then for him to go out
Nestor J. Aparicio 35:06
on the road and do this at this point in his life was co when he as a shoot it like I saw the Buggles up on the like literally I was out in front of the anthem that night. I saw the bubbles and I’m like, the buckles have never toured and Trevor like what and I for totally forgot the Trevor was behind seal. I didn’t equate I equate Trevor more with yes in that era than I do with seal necessarily, because He seals not like an active artists in that way where he’s putting bands out putting music out and touring every year for 30 years, right? He wasn’t an artist to see Trevor Horn up on stage and you guys doing the Buggles thing and wearing those funny shirts, best version of the Buggles. And I started with the joke, and I’m like, What is this and I but he is a legend and that the DC show that night, all the British people were yelling his name and I got in on it. I was upfront. And he got embarrassed and seal at the start. Because we were everybody was catcall. And Trevor because nobody’s seen him on a stage. Right? It’s
Mat Dauzat 36:07
yeah, that’s amazing. You know, it’s it was it was the absolute perfect band, right. So on stage, right, is all like, Oh, gee, seal personnel. You’ve got Trevor who produces records has been with seal I mean, kind of, you know, from the beginning, right. So Trevor is our musical director. He’s playing bass. Fantastic bass player holding it down. That’s, that’s beautiful. You’ve got Earl who played on a lot of the records on drums. Just an amazing player. And, you know, so it, it’s, you know, it’s great. And so stage left, we’re all kind of the newcomers, right. The new guys we’ve got, you know, LaTonya who you said you saw Steely Dan. She’s in Steely Dan, that’s her main gig, but she’s singing backups. Like, Everett behind me. Percussion backing vocals, we steal him from Bon Jovi. That’s Bon Jovi’s guy. And yeah, I mean, it’s just, and then obviously, Jamie on keys, Jamie. Jamie was huge on all those records. I mean, he did. I mean, he definitely shaped the sound. And he was with seal for a long, long time to and hadn’t been in a while because he was actually used with Mayor John Mayer, and My Chemical Romance, which is an interesting pairing for me. But that’s, that’s fantastic. So yeah, it just all came together. We were
Nestor J. Aparicio 37:35
born in co2, by the way, just a
Mat Dauzat 37:39
little differently, right. And then Trevor was just like, hey, you know, you, they said the Buggles is going to be opening and Trevor just kind of had us be his band for that we were the Buggles as well, which I’ve never done double duty like that. It was awesome. That set was very challenging, as musically challenging. It was awesome. I mean, it’s so amazing to be able to play these iconic songs. But as a guitar player is something like that. First of all, we come out with two tribes, right? Frankie Goes to Hollywood. I had not heard this song before. But I mean, honestly, it’s like coming out playing a Metallica riff. I mean, that’s what it is. It’s like a million notes. Right? We come out, just right out the gate. Trevor said, every night, it was just kind of like driving a train ride off a cliff, you never know what’s gonna happen. And it always it came out fine. But it was it’s pretty ballsy to come out with that one that, you know, that’s a probably technically the most challenging song of the whole night. And I loved it. I mean, it was it was beautiful. And then, you know, playing all those hits. It’s amazing. And then Trevor also had a lot of fans at these shows, as you saw, right. We didn’t know what to expect. I mean, I knew he had some fans, but usually the whole front row was all Trevor Horn fans. And, you know, being able to tour with a legend like that, it’s it was amazing. And then obviously, we’re playing with the headliners seal and it’s on the 30th anniversary. You know, it doesn’t get any better than that and tell you that?
Nestor J. Aparicio 39:09
Well. It was a pleasure having you on the program. I want to give you a chance to promote your your main act, which is coming to our neck of the woods with not close but 100 being less than 100 My friends going you love REO Speedwagon. And I do I love Kevin Cronin. And I say that out loud that all this stuff shows up on my timeline, which is just fine with me. And Rick Springfield as well. You know, Rick did a crazy thing like two summers ago is that in Ocean City, Maryland, and he got up and jammed with a band on a stage and like got viral. Everybody around here. So hey, Rick Springfield’s in Ocean City champion songs with you know, with people we know. You’re going out for a little piece. We
Mat Dauzat 39:45
know why that happened. Go ahead. So the reason that happened is good. We were on tour with him. That was on the Pat Benatar tour. Right. So we were playing
Nestor J. Aparicio 39:54
Delaware shed maybe? Yeah.
Mat Dauzat 39:58
Where were we? I don’t Remember. So what happened is I don’t know if it was recovered, I think it was Pat was soundchecking. And they had, they’re checking the kick drum, right? And it was so loud that a large piece of the ceiling fell down. It fell on Neil’s grand piano, and some of his guitar rig and stuff. And so they had to cancel the show entirely. And, you know, Rick was like, well, we got nothing to do. So they just went to the local bar, they’re whipping up having fun. Of course, Rick is. He’s, he’s, he’s an old school performer, man, he knows when to hang it up, and he’ll get up and jam with anybody because he’s the real deal. And so yeah, that’s that’s what happened. They were just hanging out, you know, having some drinks and Rick went up and did his thing and I guess people got it on video, but that’s because we lost the gig because they had to cancel it because of the ceiling bill. Well,
Nestor J. Aparicio 40:54
I’m glad that I hope this one doesn’t fall on you guys and running anywhere else you are when you come back through we’ll get your proper crabcakes so Look, man, when we eat those crawfish down there and stuff, we’re steaming stuff up you’re doing it up right but you put your bring your Cajun and all that up here and we’ll get on with our Chesapeake Bay thing. Thank you for hours of crabcakes well for making this happen I know you’ve been working musician trying to get yourself ready to get out on the road with your wife I would highly recommend if you don’t know the music of DOS at Murray Sainte Marie de A uz at Sainte Marie, you can find it out on YouTube anywhere great music is played and and Matt who was a childhood friend of Casey Willett who will has been kind enough to bless me with a little bit of time. Thanks for giving me the background of the story. I will say this those were beautiful evenings of music that you were a part of we seal and if he puts the thing back together again, I hope you’re a part of it and I hope I’m sitting there and I live long enough to go jam and dance for an evening with you guys all right,
Mat Dauzat 41:51
we’ll do it again on the 40th anniversary.
Nestor J. Aparicio 41:55
Oh wait that long Come on now. Don’t make me wait nine years yeah, let
Mat Dauzat 41:59
me I’m in talk to the boss I’m in whenever I’m sure get him on
Nestor J. Aparicio 42:02
the phone. Tell him I need to get him back out here. Tell Trevor he needs to put this thing back together. We all have still energy Thank you very much. Matt dose is easily defined. He’s he’s even on Casey’s Facebook page, my Facebook page as well. Get Atlas has some good tunes and a very, very versatile and gifted musician for coming on with us. We’re gonna be doing a Maryland crabcake toward downtown and fadeless I’ve been wearing my favorite shirt. We’re gonna be doing live on Fridays when the Orioles are home. And we’re doing a whole bunch of things with Marilyn crabcake to around here as I breathe in and get my sea legs back for new ownership for football offseason. And for spring springing here in Baltimore. I’m Nestor. We are WNS da and 1570, Towson Baltimore. And we never stop talking Baltimore positive
