Trying to “Make A Living” and creating a modern rock song that matters with John Allen of Stone Horses

Our lifer pal John Allen of Stone Horses returns to East Baltimore here with Nestor at Pizza John’s in Essex to discuss his new single, “Make A Living,” which is getting rock radio airplay and putting the band back on stage locally throughout the spring and summer. And, of course, there’s the Child’s Play reunion and tribute to late singer and guitarist Brian Jack on May 30th at Reckless Shepherd Brewery in Columbia.

John Allen discussed the new Stone Horses single “Make A Living” and its success on 16 U.S. radio stations. The band is promoting the song through a radio promotion company and free shows, including one in Ocean City on May 9th. They aim to secure a national tour and are targeting festivals and tours with established bands. Allen also mentioned Child’s Play’s tribute to Brian Jack on May 30th, featuring original members and his son. The conversation highlighted the challenges of independent music promotion and the importance of fan engagement through streaming and playlist creation.

• [ ] Hire/engage a radio promotion company and use their station relationships to promote the new single ‘Make a Living’ to radio stations
• [ ] Email and speak with booking agents daily and submit Stone Horses for national tours to secure opening slots or festival appearances
• [ ] Promote the new single online and build the band’s online presence (streaming, playlists, favorites/follows) to increase discovery and streaming traction
• [ ] Organize and produce the Child’s Play tribute set for May 30 in Columbia, including starting the set with a tribute video and coordinating lineup (Jason Heiser on drums, Nick on guitar, Phil Wise on bass, Mick McAuley and Larry for additional songs), and prepare the setlist (including requested covers)
• [ ] Promote the new single ‘Make a Living’ specifically to South American markets (Brazil, Chile, Argentina) given strong regional demand for this rock style
• [ ] Parse the backlog of recorded material and plan subsequent releases (sequence and timing to be determined) to maintain speed and productivity in new releases

Stone Horses’ New Single and Upcoming Shows

• Nestor Aparicio welcomes John Allen to discuss the new Stone Horses single “Make A Living” and upcoming shows.
• John Allen mentions an upcoming show on May 9th at Beach Bar in Ocean City, featuring drink specials.
• Nestor Aparicio and John Allen discuss the song “Make A Living,” with Nestor expressing his enjoyment of the track.
• John Allen talks about the song’s success on various radio stations across the United States.

Challenges of Promoting Music Independently

• Nestor Aparicio questions how an independent band like Stone Horses can gain radio play and success.
• John Allen explains the use of a radio promotion company to help get the song on different stations.
• They discuss the challenges of maintaining relationships in the radio industry and the impact of technology on music promotion.
• John Allen mentions the importance of online presence and social media promotion for the band.

Regional Touring and National Tour Aspirations

• John Allen talks about the band’s regional touring strategy, including free shows for radio stations.
• They discuss the goal of becoming a national touring band and the challenges of gaining notice as an independent band.
• John Allen mentions the band’s efforts to get on tours with established acts like STP and Buckcherry.
• Nestor Aparicio and John Allen discuss the difficulty of getting major agents and record deals compared to getting radio play.

The Creation and Impact of “Make A Living”

• John Allen shares the inspiration behind the song “Make A Living,” including the economic struggles people face.
• Nestor Aparicio and John Allen discuss the song’s significance and its personal connection to John Allen’s life.
• John Allen talks about the collaborative process with his songwriting partner, Mitch Allen, and the development of the song’s chorus.
• They discuss the importance of feedback from others in refining the song and the impact of live performances on the song’s evolution.

Consumer Engagement and Support for Stone Horses

• Nestor Aparicio asks how fans can support Stone Horses and consume the new single.
• John Allen explains the importance of streaming the song on platforms like Spotify and liking it to help the algorithm.
• They discuss the significance of creating playlists and sharing the song on social media.
• John Allen emphasizes the need for fans to download and follow the band to show their support.

The Role of Collaboration and Feedback in Music Creation

• John Allen discusses the importance of collaboration in the music creation process.
• They talk about the challenges of producing music quickly in the modern era and the impact of AI on the industry.
• John Allen shares his experiences of seeking feedback from others to refine his songs.
• Nestor Aparicio and John Allen discuss the balance between being a solo artist and seeking input from others.

Child’s Play Tribute to Brian Jack

• John Allen announces a Child’s Play tribute show on May 30th in Columbia to honor Brian Jack.
• They discuss the lineup for the show, including Jason Heiser on drums, Nick on guitar, Phil Wise on bass, and Nick’s son, Mick McAuley, on guitar.
• John Allen mentions the inclusion of Larry, who co-founded the band with Brian Jack, to perform songs from that era.
• They discuss the significance of the tribute show and the impact of Brian Jack’s legacy on the music community.

John Allen’s Musical Journey and Legacy

• Nestor Aparicio and John Allen reflect on John Allen’s musical journey and his contributions to various bands.
• They discuss the impact of Brian Jack’s art and his influence on the music community.
• John Allen shares memories of Brian Jack and his artistic talents, including his work as a visual artist.
• They discuss the importance of preserving Brian Jack’s legacy and the impact of his music on future generations.

Final Thoughts and Upcoming Shows

• Nestor Aparicio and John Allen wrap up the discussion, highlighting the band’s upcoming shows and the importance of fan support.
• They discuss the significance of the new single “Make A Living” and its potential impact on the band’s career.
• John Allen shares his excitement for the upcoming shows and the band’s efforts to connect with fans.
• They express gratitude to the Maryland Lottery and other sponsors for their support of the band’s activities.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Stone Horses, Make A Living, Child’s Play, Brian Jack, radio promotion, independent band, national tour, free shows, Ocean City, Hagerstown, AC/DC, Spotify, playlists, Maryland Lottery, music industry.

8

SPEAKERS

Speaker 1, John Allen, Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:00

Welcome home. We are W N, S T am 1570 tacit Baltimore. We’re Baltimore positive. We’re positively wrapping things up here at Pizza John’s. We’re wrapping it up because my pal John Allen has ordered a meat sauce pizza here. I got little bit of in my teeth right now, but I’m gonna get some more. We’re pizza John’s in Essex. All brought to my friends at the Maryland lottery. I have Maryland treasures scratch offs to give away, you were an artist once, John, this is a this was an art competition here, four different winners here, of horses and mollusks and the Bay Bridge and And Ocean City, where there’s a room where you’re playing a free show in Ocean City here soon, horses, right?

John Allen  00:37

Yeah, we got a show next Saturday, May the ninth. We’re doing an Early Show, like three to five, like happy hour, so there’ll be drink specials and all that stuff. And we’re gonna get crazy at beach barrels, you know, for for the beach down there, w, z, BH, 93 five. They’re playing the track. The new single make a living, which

Nestor Aparicio  00:58

8

I heard before the public

John Allen  01:00

heard, did your

Nestor Aparicio  01:01

car?

John Allen  01:01

I tried

8

Nestor Aparicio  01:02

driving around.

Nestor Aparicio  01:03

You

John Allen  01:03

tried it out on

Nestor Aparicio  01:04

8

you hear this. Turn this up. For me, I feel feel special. So the song feels like it’s doing well, I don’t like I love you. I know you we can talk about child’s play. I don’t understand modern. I don’t understand modern. You asked me though day, how to get my music and, you know, I got an iPod, you know, you know, like, like, listening to make a living, like, how do I get it to my MP threes? How do I like, like, all of that. The way I listen to music isn’t Spotify. I’m an old guy. I don’t understand what would make it successful, what would get it on the radio? I know 98 Rock has played it. I know other places have played it. I know you’re trying to get it played, but I also know you don’t have chrysalis records anymore, and an AR guy and a national tour, and you’re not getting on the AC, DC, South American leg, like The Pretty Reckless or whatever. But I don’t know what the track is to be in a rock and roll band, even though I love you and care about you and think, Well, I think the songs doing well, and I’m sharing other people sharing, listen to do it, and I know you’re playing a bunch of gigs. Just give me a little update on, like, how a band like stone horses will try to get that song out, and then you’ll call me in July and say, Hey, we’re on a tour in November, December, January, and,

John Allen  02:12

well, a guy like you,

Nestor Aparicio  02:13

what do I do?

John Allen  02:14

You get your cassette, and you pop it in that tape player, and you sit, I

8

Nestor Aparicio  02:18

don’t have a tape,

John Allen  02:19

and you sit by your radio, and you wait for, wait for not a rock to play, and then you hit,

Nestor Aparicio  02:26

Amelia shuts up before she starts playing the song, right? Like, literally,

John Allen  02:29

8

oh yeah. She won’t step on it. She won’t talk. She knows better, yeah, yeah. And there’s no, there’s no, she you can’t do a talk up on it because I there’s a vocal right from the get Yeah, I scream right at the beginning of the song, but yeah, so it’s doing well. Radio is picking it up all over. We’re on about like 16 stations across the United States right now, and

Nestor Aparicio  02:50

that is you emailing the people at the station and saying, no, no, no. I don’t know how this works. I have no idea.

John Allen  02:55

It’s a so we hire a radio promotion company that have, hopefully they have relationships with the stations that I don’t now, through the years, from like, you know, we were talking about Charm City devils earlier, through the success of that band, we had a hit with our remake of The Man of constant sorrow song. And so I’ve kept in contact with a lot of those radio people and and cultivated those relationships, and, and, but, but it’s tough, because everything is moving so fast nowadays. A lot of those people don’t have jobs anymore in radio, some of them are out of it, like completely. So, you know, those friends that you make, sometimes it’s sometimes they’re gone, and there are new people that you have to strike up, these, these relationships with, you know, from scratch. But so we’re doing that and, and you hope for online presence. You know, we’re promoting as much as we can online. We’re trying to figure all out that out the land. How do you want people to find you like, like, you

Nestor Aparicio  03:57

promote the song I heard it in your car. You tell me it was coming. You’re like, I’m working on it. You ditch me for a month, like, I gotta get this finished, and you get it out. And then you have a bunch of shows. And you’re obviously, you have a lane for this. You played the auto bar last week. You’re playing at Hagerstown. We talked about that.

8

John Allen  04:13

We have a bunch of dates that we put on ourselves. We’re doing a bunch of free shows for radio stations. Like, in it, we’ve got one. It’s not announced yet, but Roanoke, we’re gonna do one. We’ve got the one down at the beach. You know, in Ocean City, there probably will be one in Atlantic City in the future. We’re talking

Nestor Aparicio  04:31

this makes you a regional band as Stone Horse.

Nestor Aparicio  04:33

Well, you

Nestor Aparicio  04:34

8

in that way.

John Allen  04:35

Well, you got to build out somewhere. We’re hoping to catch on to, you know, we’re, I’m busy every day emailing and talking to agents and trying our agent is is submitting us for tours right now, so we’re hoping to get on to a national tour sooner rather than later. But you know, it’s, it’s like you said, it’s hard for an independent band like ours to to get, you know, the get the notice. You know.

Nestor Aparicio  05:00

Are you open for STP down at the right? So you get on that, but you’re trying to get on an STP or a buck cheered bands that are, like, you’re multiple, right?

John Allen  05:08

Yeah, correct. I

8

Speaker 1  05:09

see,

Nestor Aparicio  05:09

I don’t even know the lane, like the breaking Benjamins and those kinds of bands that’s, that’s the lane, right? Kind of, sort of, like, you want to get on a on one of those kinds of tours, all right?

John Allen  05:19

Right? Or fest, festival and festivals as well, you know. And it’s funny, in my experience throughout the years, it’s been harder to get a big time agent than it is to get a record deal. Even when we had a record deal, Child’s Play, you know, back in the day we were on chrysalis, we couldn’t get a sniff from, you know, one of the major, major agencies. We wound up with a boutique agency who now has grown, and they’re, they’ve done quite well for themselves, but they were called pinnacle, still called pinnacle, and they do great now. They have Rob Zombie, and they have Lizzie Hale. They have hail storm, you know. So they’ve grown, and they’ve they become one of the major players now, but, yeah, so it’s, it’s, you know, it’s tough. It’s kind of like that actor agent thing, like, you can’t, you can’t get a movie without an agent, but you can’t, you know, get

Nestor Aparicio  06:13

8

an agent without a movie,

John Allen  06:14

right, right? Okay, so it’s kind of like that. And it’s, you know, it’s, it’s, you know, it’s not easy. And you know, kind of goes back to, you know, the whole thing about this song, make a living. It’s like, you know, I still haven’t figured it all out. And all these years I’ve been doing it, it’s just like, how, how the hell can I, can I make a living at this, what I’m doing? And it’s, you know, and it speaks to, I guess, the times that we’re in right now with, with how bad, you know, the economy and gas prices are and all that. So

Nestor Aparicio  06:42

when did you start the song? When did it hit

John Allen  06:45

you? I started it last year, and I still was thinking, you know, like this, you know, because we were coming out of the tail end of covid, and we, you know, luckily, we had, kind of, we had been shielded from the real economic catastrophe that all the economists were were predicting, still are right. And now, you know, so, you know, I was thinking about that, and I was thinking about my situation, and I was thinking about just, you know, guys that we grew up with, and people that I still know, like, you know, they’re still out there, you know, just trying to to, you know, get by and, and to think about people who are struggling even more than that, it makes me, makes me think of, you know, about their situations and, and I wanted to write about it.

8

Nestor Aparicio  07:33

I’ve talked to, I had a couple politicians are talking about poverty right here in Baltimore County, yeah, just in a general sense of, like, how hard it is to make a living. And so when do you know you have the genesis of the song? Because, I mean, I know you’re really excited about this song. I like, I’ve just known you my whole life, and I’m like, this is where you are right now. You put your life into everything you’re Hey, I’m right here. Pete’s John’s right now, and I’m doing a grab cake tour, and I’m as into this as I was ever into writing a book on Purple Rain or anything I’ve ever done. You want to be very passionate about what you’re doing, but I feel like you feel like you’re on to that. This is really strong track for you that, yeah, and you write a lot of songs, but I don’t know what makes one feel like the one you want to get behind.

John Allen  08:12

Yeah. I mean, you know, they’re all different. I used to be very protective, and I used to think like, you know, you know this song, and I was like my baby, and I don’t really think about them in that way anymore. I know that, like, when I’m working on something, I’m very close to it, and I have high expectations for it, and I want it, you know, I want it to be great, and I want people to hear it, and, you know, maybe removed several months down the road, you go, oh yeah, it’s, it’s not as great as I thought it was, or whatever. But this one how it started. It was just me plugging a guitar in and having a killer, huge guitar tone, you know, like, like an AC DC on steroids, type of vibe. And the the music just came out very quickly. The verses came out very quickly. Lyrically. I was struggling over the chorus for a while. He didn’t have much of a chorus. And I talked to my old songwriting partner, Mitch Allen, out in LA

Nestor Aparicio  09:10

genius,

John Allen  09:10

8

yeah. And I sent it to him, and I said, What do you think? And he was like, I think you should, you know, come up with a line and just kind of repeat that, you know, a bunch. And so I did that, sent that to him. And he was like, hear this? And he kind of just, you know, scat, it like a melody for the second part of the chorus, which to me is takes it to another level, you know, and, and, boom, you know, it was done. And I thought, Okay, now we’ve got something here. We’ve got a we’ve got an anthem for every working man and every working you know. Woman out there, John

Nestor Aparicio  09:44

Al’s been my friend all my life. His band is stone horses. The song is, make a living. It’s so i You didn’t answer. The original question was, how do you want people to consume this spot? I mean, like, literally, download it. How can people that love you or love your bands or sup. Support you, because I’m wondering, as your friend, I’m like, or even as the guy with the radio station, like, how do people How do you want them to consume? What’s the most helpful thing that the most listeners can do? Most

John Allen  10:10

helpful thing that they can do is to, is to download the song. So if you’re on Spotify, right? You go on Spotify. You listen to the song. If you like it, you hit that little heart. That means you your favorite it.

Nestor Aparicio  10:24

That helps the algorithm, right? Yeah, that is true exactly.

8

John Allen  10:26

You download the song to

Nestor Aparicio  10:28

make sure you like it. Okay, you like it, all right?

John Allen  10:30

You like it. You follow the band. And then you also create playlists. And you doubt that’s when you download the song, you

Nestor Aparicio  10:37

8

add it to your play,

John Allen  10:38

you add it to your playlists, make 100 playlists, put us in there with your favorite artists or whatever, and

Nestor Aparicio  10:46

yeah,

Nestor Aparicio  10:46

and that

8

John Allen  10:46

helps, that helps out a lot. Thanks for telling

Nestor Aparicio  10:49

me that. Because I really didn’t, yeah, I didn’t equate the like. I don’t even equate that with my own business. I get accused of being clickbait, which is hilarious. I don’t think about getting clicked on. I think about creating the best shit I can create, right? And if it gets clicked on, great, but I’m here that’s, that’s how put that on my group, my tombstone. I just tried to create the best thing I could create on any given day. If AI creates it for me and helps me with it. I you know, you know why. And this is where you and I could get sideways artists on AI or collaborators. You just told me, in all of your narcissism, is your rock star at the at the hour of your need, you’re still reaching to another human. You’re still reaching a bitch. You we’re all I like to think the same thing, like my writings, mine. I’m not gonna let anyone see it. I wasn’t even gonna I was gonna puja you and Phil that I actually wrote that curatorial thing, even though I didn’t, but because it did it better than I could do it, or did it in my style, with my clone, in the way I would write it. But I think that there’s a narcissism about anyone that creates art to say, this is all mine, it’s W, N, S T’s all mine, and this is my thing. And what do you think of it? We all want to like have a little piece of what do you think of it, or check it when it’s done. Lately, I’ve been in your car, and you’ve been much more. What do you think of this? You’ve never done that. And all these years I’ve known you like there is a point for you that, despite being the rock star and you write it yourself, there is that feedback you want from different people to hone it well, better. Well,

John Allen  12:17

one of the things about that, like, I was telling you, it’s it’s a strange thing. I can listen to a song idea over and over hundreds of times, but as soon as I play it for somebody, it gives me a different perspective. I don’t know what switch gets hit when that happens, but I’ve played songs in front of people, other people than yourself, and I’ve gone, oh, yeah, this is not, this is not where it should be. You know, this is not as good as I thought it was on this part or that part, or maybe over talking

Nestor Aparicio  12:55

8

it out with your wife or so. It just helps me to talk it out with you. It just helps me to have you here and see what your body does and see what,

John Allen  13:02

yeah, I just don’t, I don’t know what it is, because it’s like, I remember one of the first times it struck me like that. I was playing something for either a record company guy or a radio station guy, and I’m sitting in the room and I’m going, oh, oh shit, you know. Yeah, this isn’t, you know, so it’s more for me, kind of and and it’s almost, I don’t want to disparage you or any it’s, it’s not as much about your feedback or your reaction. It’s, it’s how I feel about presenting it. And I don’t know what it is within myself that gives me, allows me to step outside of myself. Because while I’m working on something, I have all these thoughts of the potential of the song. I don’t really see it for what it is, I guess. And when, as soon as I played something for you or for somebody else, I actually look at it at face value, because it’s the first time you’re hearing it, well, you put it on. We were in a car coming back from

Nestor Aparicio  14:00

Hagerstown, and you cranked it up and it was dark, and I’m in your car. You’re not, like, looking at me to see if I’m tapping my toe clearly not singing along. I’m just trying to, like vibe at like, I Scott in the car and the new Buck cherry songs on, or the new band X, how do you know what band it is? Do I like it or do I not? Right? There’s a whole internet thing where they play old songs. People have never heard them, and they’re like, thumbs up. I’ve never heard Bohemian Rhapsody. Do I like it or not, you know? And would it still be a good song? And my wife watches American Idol all the time, right? So I get to see this kid from Bel Air and a girl from Frederick. My wife loves that. She loves tryouts. She loves that the voice, she loves all those kind of shows. And I watch it, and I always think like good or bad. And my wife loves doing this with me. We’re watching the finals American Idol. I’m like, six of them into it. I’m like, none of these are any good. And sometimes they’re like, Oh my God, that’s great. That’s great. And you find yourself that’s, I think that’s the beauty of American Idol is saying, thumbs up, thumbs down. Do I like it? Do I not but for you to do that to me intimately in a car as an artist. You are looking for some sort of feedback in some way that I always think, like, well, what good am I? He’s the guy making the music, you know. But I do like bouncing things off of people,

John Allen  15:11

yeah.

8

Nestor Aparicio  15:11

But I do think that people would say, well, you make your own thing all the time. What do you care about my feedback for? That’s why I was asking you about it. Because, like, when do you know it’s done? Yeah, when do you know? And my wife said same thing, if you’re writing a column, how do you know it’s done? I don’t know. When you feel it. Thing, when you feel it? You know?

John Allen  15:29

Well, the song was already out. It was already streaming, speaking to that. And I’m here. I’m listening to it.

Nestor Aparicio  15:36

You want to change it already?

John Allen  15:38

8

I don’t want to change it. But I’ve heard, I heard a counter melody musically underneath the chorus. Now I and I was like, crap. I, you know, I could have played the guitar. I could have done this counter, you know, Melody, you know, ascending melody, or just descending melody. But, yeah, I was like, Okay, some point you got to say it’s, it’s, it’s finished. Yeah, it’s finished. And, you know, with speaking to what you said about, you know, reaching out to Mitch, it’s more of a case for me now it’s like, if I’m, you know, little stuck or, you know, I just want to make it the best it can be at this point. And I the way the world is moving so quickly, it’s like, you’ve got to keep producing, you know, material. It’s not like the old days. You could take a year and a half or whatever between records. You know, it’s already been a year since our last record, and I have a backlog of material, but it’s not out yet, you know. So we’ll start parsing that stuff out, you know, further down the road. But, but, yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s about speed and productivity. Now, you know, and maybe the AI thing is,

Nestor Aparicio  16:50

Tom

Nestor Aparicio  16:50

shows waiting to get Boston too done, right, right? You know, yeah, Def Leppard trying to get this theory done. Now, they got to get the out. We got to get music.

John Allen  16:58

Yeah, it seems like those days are probably gone right but, but they you can’t argue with the success and the and the quality.

8

Nestor Aparicio  17:05

Here’s my thing, like, back in the day, you would have been hanging out to get the right producer. You had a producer. We’ve talked about your child’s play albums when we promote child’s play. By the way, John Allen is here from stone horses and child’s play. They’re playing on the 30th down in Columbia as child’s play. Stone Horse is doing a whole bunch of stuff. You can find them, including the new song,

John Allen  17:25

stone horses. Music, calm, very

Nestor Aparicio  17:27

fair enough. So this notion that, like you’re doing this alone in your house with your own equipment, you have no manager saying, Well, I like your I like the brown glass is not the blue ones, and your hair is blonde now, but you probably should put a color in it, because that’s what the kids are doing. Like, whatever it is, whatever the opinions are, there is a point where even when you’re alone, you call mission say, Hey, man, I need an opinion on this. But you don’t want somebody barking over your shoulder and saying, like, when you’re signed to a record company or when you have Mr. Big managing you, well, we should move the band in this direction, or whatever. You’ve dealt with all of that, and all the bands you were in, you weren’t even the band leader in one of the band you’re in, right? So you’re an employee at that point. You’ve worked in all of that. There is something very liberating about being narcissistic and alone and working on your own art and all that. But even when you do that, you do call in recon, there’s a point, you know, I think that’s that’s the most interesting part about anyone that creates art, is that at the end of the day, even if you’re the most solo, solo, solo person, I’m sure, Justin Bieber in the underwear thing, he did a couple he tried that out on somebody. That’s not the first, you know, something, you want an audience of some kind to give you feedback before you take it to the street, I’ll say, right?

John Allen  18:42

8

Well, yeah, but I also like to collaborate too. So it’s a lot of times when I’m just writing by myself, it’s because there’s no one else around. You know, it happens. I

Nestor Aparicio  18:52

prefer a partner.

John Allen  18:53

Yeah, my guitar player is not there. I really love the collaborative process when I’m playing with somebody who inspires me, somebody that comes up with a guitar riff that is incredible, you know. And there’s been so many instances in the last like few years where I’ve had these great guitar players come up with stuff, and I’m like, Oh, crap. Now my job is to not mess this germ of an idea up, like the lyric and the melody have to be complimentary to what this guy came up with on guitar, you know. And that’s the other thing about music there. There are so many steps along the way where it can get all effed up, you know, from you starting the song, writing it to the recording process of not getting the right sounds, to the mixing process, to the mastering process. I’ve

Nestor Aparicio  19:49

read books from musicians, and it really is a get inside your head in the same way that Kobe May is trying to figure ahead at baseball right now, right? Like, to some degree, you know, you have the skill to do it. You know? Now it’s got to get out of. You to some degree, and creating music is just something that’s beyond the scope for me. Like, I’m a writer. If you sit, come over my house right now, help me write a song, I wouldn’t even know where to start, right? Like, it’s just a different, a completely different process, and I don’t understand your process that three in the morning you wake up with a melody in your head. You got to get it out. You run you leave your wife in bed, and you run downstairs, and you try to get it out, speak it out, sing it out, bang it out, play it out, whatever it is. I understand that. That’s the way most musicians work, right? It’s very inspiration. You go to the bathroom here, pizza John’s to come out and have a song because, and you’re always sort of looking for that, the way comedians are always looking for Yeah, a hook, right?

8

John Allen  20:36

Yeah, no. It’s true. And I used to feel like the only time the real inspiration came was, like severe depression, like when there was a breakup and there

Nestor Aparicio  20:46

drunk or high to right? Yeah, there’s that rock star thing, like my bottle, right? You know, like your song from 40 years ago, that there was a thought when you were a kid that like, I’m better, I’m looser.

John Allen  20:59

Well, that wasn’t written under the any influence at all. I was, I think I was driving in a car, and I came up with a lyric, and I

Nestor Aparicio  21:07

8

it’s your song, I know

John Allen  21:08

that, and I should, yeah, and I

Nestor Aparicio  21:10

saw Brian wrote, I didn’t

Nestor Aparicio  21:11

know.

8

John Allen  21:11

No, no, he didn’t know. He just, he just elevated with his great vocal. You know, he

Nestor Aparicio  21:17

sings it so well that I think

Nestor Aparicio  21:18

it’s,

John Allen  21:18

8

Oh, yeah. Well, Kenny

Nestor Aparicio  21:19

Lee has been singing for 50 years. They were all Neil

John Allen  21:21

songs, right, right, yeah, well, but, but, but, I have to give credit to Nick, like I sang the lyric to him, or showed him the lyrics. I don’t remember now, but I have this memory of being at the practice space getting ready to rehearse and and, you know, showing it to him, and he just started playing the opening riff to it, and and then that, from there, it went to, you know, had the chorus, and then from that, the no more part just kind of came together, just like magic, you know, like there’s a there’s a process sometimes with with music, that it’s just out there, and it just kind of happens,

Nestor Aparicio  21:58

I’m

8

Nestor Aparicio  21:58

with my girl the other night, I thought that was Brian. I heard Brian in that June the whole time,

John Allen  22:02

yeah, yeah.

Nestor Aparicio  22:04

1985 I got, I’m gonna leave with this. Didn’t you get, like, a gold something, something the band’s playing end of the summer. They’re playing for soup, yeah,

John Allen  22:14

8

yeah, no. They’re touring all the time. They they still have a huge fan base here and in England, and that’s the plaque that, what

Nestor Aparicio  22:22

did you get? What’s your plaque?

John Allen  22:23

It was a platinum plaque for, for the UK, I think, yeah, for two times platinum or one time platinum. We’re approaching three times platinum here in the United States, for the for their album that that that song was on. Yeah,

Nestor Aparicio  22:38

ever I have a lot of white snake in my iPod, okay? I love white snake. I just, I

8

John Allen  22:43

love David cover

Nestor Aparicio  22:43

that. I love David. I think we’ve talked about this

John Allen  22:47

purple Yeah,

Nestor Aparicio  22:49

8

I have. I like white snake more now than I even did 20 or 30 years. And I loved in the store tonight, and I loved slow and easy and all that. But now when I listen to it, I’m like, they’re, they’re among the better of that genre. Yeah, like, 40 years later, when I look at the songs and the body of work and all that. But, you know, I, you know, well,

John Allen  23:06

then that was an amazing marriage of of a singer and a guitar player, John Sykes, who just passed away. He was the guy that that wrote all those songs off the really, you know, well, it was two records that that, the first one with, I guess, slow and easy on it. That was their ascent, sure. And then the next record, I was following David Coverdale, because I was a huge Deep Purple fan. And when he had white snake, I remember I had ready and willingness. This record the K Mart right in your neighborhood that I purchased it

Nestor Aparicio  23:41

blue light special,

John Allen  23:42

and I loved, you know, that record. But he had that English thing going where he was always changing guitar players and and, and the rest of the band was like a never ending carousel, you know, with like him and rainbow and all those guys. And they were all like, almost interchangeable, until John Sykes paired with him, and and then they just wrote those, those two amazing albums, and, and then, you know, they blew up. She

8

Nestor Aparicio  24:06

was gonna shake her ass on the hood of white snakes car. I love that. John Allen is here. He is my life for PAL. He is a stone horses and Charm City devils and SR 71 and we’ll be putting Child’s Play back together again later on the month, they’re gonna be playing down in Columbia as a tribute to Brian Jack. Where did Brian grew up on the other side of Mesa Avenue, right more toward EVT. No,

John Allen  24:29

he’s right here. I didn’t

Nestor Aparicio  24:30

know that.

John Allen  24:31

8

Yeah, right down. You said it earlier, Marlboro road.

Nestor Aparicio  24:35

So he grew up by the seagull. Always from that name.

John Allen  24:38

Used to ride his bike down there.

Nestor Aparicio  24:40

I didn’t know that. I always saw him on the other side of Essex. I didn’t

8

John Allen  24:44

know that.

Nestor Aparicio  24:44

I’m glad you set that straight. Who’s in the band now, Nick’s boy going to be with you guys playing that guy. What’s give me the whole lowdown on the for people that haven’t seen a child’s play reunion.

John Allen  24:55

So we kind of do a little kind of mishmash of things, right? So when we start. Start the set. You

Nestor Aparicio  25:01

8

have a video tribute to that, right, too?

John Allen  25:03

Yeah. So we’ll start off the set, and we will have Jason Heiser on drums taking my place back there, and I’ll, I’ll do my best to to honor Brian by singing out front. And then, you know, Nick of course, on guitar. Phil wise, or original bass player on bass, and to fill in the for the other guitar slot, Nick’s son, Mick, McAuley

Nestor Aparicio  25:28

and Shawn coming out. What are we doing here?

John Allen  25:29

Okay, yeah, sorry. And then we bring Larry out, who started the band with Brian, and he’ll do a bunch of songs that he wrote. And, you know, in the in that era.

8

Nestor Aparicio  25:42

Cover, right?

John Allen  25:42

We’ll do some ACDC. I just got a request for down payment blues from my my buddy two beer Tom. And so we’re, we’re probably gonna pull that one out and, and, yeah, it should be a good time.

Nestor Aparicio  25:55

I saw AC DC. You were there with your wife down in DC a couple summers ago. I saw them in Santiago, Chile, six weeks ago.

John Allen  26:04

8

Yeah.

Nestor Aparicio  26:05

And to see how big your brand of rock and roll, the tattoo 80s, Guns and Roses, Metallica wing of not the Rolling Stones are you too, which is also big in South America, but anything that’s in the Motorhead, Pantera, Guns and Roses, Pantheon, it’s unbelievable. Rush is torn down there in the fall. I saw chips enough a couple weeks ago, and I got back and he said I went down there with Adler. Man. Oh my god. We played they love that music down there. So they’re really seeing ACDC in South America was other worldly.

John Allen  26:42

Yeah, well,

Nestor Aparicio  26:43

it was on fire.

8

John Allen  26:44

So we’re trying to promote as much as we can to like Brazil and, you know, Chile and Argentina, such, because of that and and like the new single, that’s where we are promoting it, because it’s, it’s in that wheelhouse, it’s in that AC, DC, kind of, I’ve heard people say that it reminds them of child’s play, but so I do, it’s mine, it’s my it’s where I come from. So it’s, it’s real, you know,

Nestor Aparicio  27:11

make a living.

John Allen  27:12

It’s not AI.

Nestor Aparicio  27:15

8

But I would say AI can make it better. But John Allen is here. He is getting the band at together. If you’re down at the beach next week, they’ll be playing at Ocean City, free show Roanoke, coming soon. What else am I missing? Anything? I get everything in there.

John Allen  27:29

We got Hagerstown and on May 29 and night before the child’s play show. Yeah. So, so we got may

Nestor Aparicio  27:36

not

Nestor Aparicio  27:36

rest up. You got work to do, dude,

8

John Allen  27:38

I know I got a lot of stuff. Listen

Nestor Aparicio  27:39

next time you play the auto bar. I need one of those, those matinees. I need one of those 536, clock shows,

John Allen  27:44

right? You done, go home. You’re, you know,

Nestor Aparicio  27:48

8

go to bed sometimes. But I do like a free show. 90 Iraq is supporting the new single. Make a living. You can like it, you can share it. You can download it. You can throw John a note. Let him know that you dig it as well. Thank you. And we are here in Essex, Maryland, home of Brian Jack, within walking distance, and Phil wiser. And Phil wiser, of course. Who now has I put my belt buckle back on, but I’m wearing my Pacifica belt buckle. At some point, I’ll get John to sell me one of his Aerosmith ones or something like that. We’re signing off for pizza, John. It’s all brought to you by friends at the Maryland lottery, but when you’re the artist guy, we when you’re the artist guy, which one you took? The Ocean City one? Okay, they really are you being the artist guy. You are too. You might ponies from Assateague as well as the Blackwater motif. And of course, the bay bridges, as opposed to the Key Bridge to Ryan,

John Allen  28:37

was a phenomenal artist by the way,

Nestor Aparicio  28:40

better than you?

John Allen  28:41

Oh, yeah, I think so better

8

Nestor Aparicio  28:42

than Rodney Baker. Not that good.

John Allen  28:45

Yeah. I mean, like, I don’t want to say better, or, you know, worse or whatever, because super talented. So much so I didn’t know Brian. I didn’t know anything about child’s play. It might have been before Child’s Play existed, but I was sitting in art class at Dundalk Senior High, and my art teacher went to the seniors show that was at Essex Community College, and videoed pieces of art that he thought were were really strong. And I don’t remember any of the other pieces of art, except for one. It was a series of faces cast in plaster. And the first one was a guy, you know, just eyes closed. He had kind of bumps on his forehead. The next one, he’s wincing in pain, and the bumps are kind of look like they’re kind of popping open. More

Nestor Aparicio  29:33

pronounced, like,

John Allen  29:34

8

more pronounced,

Nestor Aparicio  29:35

okay.

John Allen  29:35

The next one, they’re they’re bursting open. There’s, like, four of them. And the next one, you can see, it’s a hand coming out of the guy’s forehead and and so

Nestor Aparicio  29:47

this was a hand reaching.

8

John Allen  29:49

This was a hand coming through the head and the and the face is just agonizing, right, in pain. And, you know, it always stuck with me. Cut to a year or. Or so into me playing with with child’s play. I’m at his parents house. I’m up in his his bedroom, which was over the garage. You know, I’d walked up these stairs, I would turn to the leave, and I’m walking down the stairs, and there’s the, there’s the piece hanging over the staircase. I was like, Oh my God, dude, I’m like,

Nestor Aparicio  30:20

I saw that an exhibit,

John Allen  30:21

I saw this, and it blew me away. I had no idea that you did this, and he so then he, like, showed me all these other pieces that he had done. He had, actually, I was talking to his mother recently. He had a full scholarship to the Maryland Art Institute. Wow, yeah, I had no idea. So, yeah, he was incredibly gifted person. You know, just a charismatic you know, fantastic voice, just you know, fantastic guitar player. You know, unbelievable artist.

Nestor Aparicio  30:50

8

I performed with Brian Jack one time. I told

John Allen  30:52

you that

Nestor Aparicio  30:53

he jumped on stage with me and Ace and Paul Romania, and did Rebel Yell with us at the end of the night at the stone cellar in

John Allen  31:01

one of his favorites, man, Billy Idol. He loved Billy Idol.

8

Nestor Aparicio  31:04

He literally,

John Allen  31:05

he did.

Nestor Aparicio  31:05

He said, what song you guys know? I’m, you know, and Paul is worried about giving him a guitar, you know, because you need a guitar. And he saw our set. Lee’s like, when he do rebel, y’all, I’m like, first saw the Encore. I’m gonna do Rebel Yell with you. I’m like, Brian Jack’s gonna get up shake his ass in the middle of the show.

John Allen  31:21

8

Yeah,

Nestor Aparicio  31:21

you know, he was a little inebriated, he was a little rape, but he was fantastic

John Allen  31:25

the end of the night. It was a great night. It was, was an encore, right?

Nestor Aparicio  31:29

It was a Saturday night in Ellicott City. I’ll never forget it.

8

John Allen  31:32

You know,

Nestor Aparicio  31:32

we love Brian. I know you love Brian. Everybody love Brian. 30th. Get down to Columbia and support them. Reckless. What’s it? Reckless?

John Allen  31:39

Shepard.

Nestor Aparicio  31:40

8

Reckless Shepard, boy, that’s like saying foreign. I tell these guys, farming and dirty. 410, 367777, is far in a Durham, our friends at GBMC and the Maryland lottery. And of course, you know you remember phone numbers, especially from from Dundalk, 410-687-7733, I’ve been dialing that number. It leads right here to Pizza John’s. You can get yourself a works pizza. Get yourself a cheesesteak after this GBMC blood report, I’ve been getting double Provolone on my cheesesteaks. I want to this. One want to do is my concession

John Allen  32:12

so you got thick chunks of floating around in your veins. I’m

Nestor Aparicio  32:18

too healthy for that, too sexy for all that. All right, my thanks everybody here at Pizza John’s, including Terry and Brett and everybody making it happen to Michelle, we’re signing off from the homeland of Brian Jack and Child’s Play at Pizza John’s in Essex, back for more. And Phil, wiser back for more. Right after this put me in Hall of Fame. Phil, please. You.