This recent gathering of old music tickets, artifacts and memories would not be complete without reaching to the guy Nestor met as a 14-year old camping out for concert tickets at the old Hecht’s at Reistertown Road Plaza. Our old Live Aid and lifer pal Richard Abrahams brings the rock and roll music memory bank to State Fare in Catonsville on the Maryland Crab Tour, adding huge contributions with tales of U2, The Alarm and The Smithereens to our 28 bands of significance as we count ’em down. Oh, and that time we camped out at The Spectrum for Rush tickets in the dead of winter of 1984…
The segment established a 28-act music retrospective built around Nestor and Richard’s decades of concert memories and friendships.
Retrospective Focus
- Nestor is counting down 28 major artists across the next 14 weeks, followed by additional front-row, backstage, and interview stories during his 35th radio year.
- The discussion centered on concert-ticket campouts, early club shows, major festivals, and memorable encounters with artists.
Key Memories
- Richard introduced Nestor to The Alarm; Nestor identified Mike Peters and The Alarm at Hammerjacks in 1989 as his greatest concert experience.
- They revisited shared experiences involving U2, Pink Floyd, The Smithereens, Rush, Genesis, David Bowie, and the 1986 Amnesty concert.
Sponsorship Notes
- The segment has a new Rosedale Bank sponsor, with promotion beginning the following week.
- Richard also described Freedom Car, a Baltimore concierge driving service supporting airport, hospital, school, and social-service transportation.
- Promote Rosedale Bank as the new segment sponsor beginning next week, using the correct company name rather than Rosedale Federal. (@Nestor Aparicio)
- Arrange for Bud Becker to appear at Fishmongers next month and invite Richard back for the discussion. (@Nestor Aparicio)
- Write the John Mayer feature for the anniversary countdown this weekend, placing John Mayer at number 27. (@Nestor Aparicio)
Anniversary Format
- Nestor described the 28th-anniversary music programming plan and the upcoming 28-artist countdown.
- The broader series will include stories from more than 3,000 concerts and Nestor’s 35th year on the radio.
Concert History
- Nestor and Richard traced their friendship to camping out for Billy Joel tickets in the 1980s.
- They discussed ticket lines, low ticket prices, first-row goals, and travel for concerts in Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia, and New York.
Defining Performances
- Richard named Pink Floyd as his greatest concert experience and recalled seeing U2 in a small club.
- Nestor highlighted The Alarm at Hammerjacks as his most significant concert and described how Richard introduced him to the band.
Shared Stories
- The conversation covered Amnesty ’86, David Bowie interviews, The Smithereens’ Towson Center show, requested songs, crab cakes, and backstage memorabilia.
Current Work
- Richard discussed his work with Freedom Car and described his 1967 Corvette Stingray.
- Nestor previewed future segments on artists including John Mayer, The Firm, and other acts in the countdown.
Nestor Aparicio 0:00
Welcome home. We are WNST AM 15 70,000, Baltimore. We’re Baltimore positive. Richard Abrams just took my Maryland lottery ticket, so he knows he’s he’s got number 92. I guess that’s a hellodynada. I guess I have number 93. It is brought to you by the Baltimore Ravens scratch off tickets from the Maryland Lottery. Have the Kiss Face Bird. I also have the kiss story somewhere. I have a Grace Feely story here. This will be a rock and roll segment. It’s our 28th anniversary. We have new sponsors for this segment. Rosedale Bank has stepped up, and Richard, beginning next week, I’m going to be promoting Rosedale Bank, and they were Rosedale Federal for for 100 years. I’m gonna get fined and docked $1 every time I say Rosedale Federal for the first 100 times, and after that we’re gonna go to $5 a fine. So I’m making that clear with Kevin Benson. We’re gonna be at Pizza Johns right in the heart of Rosedale Bank area, not Rosedale Federal, but we’ll be you’ll be hearing the ads and you’ll be seeing the sponsorship, and we’re very very proud of that. We love local sponsors, local people. We just had Casper Wells on from Heller KoC’s. Zach Dermer was here. Who turns out? Is he really your cousin, Richard?
Richard Abrahams 1:07
Yes,
Nestor Aparicio 1:09
he really is your cousin.
8
Richard Abrahams 1:10
He’s related to Dad.
Nestor Aparicio 1:11
Okay, so Dad, one of Dad’s Dad’s first. He’s
Richard Abrahams 1:14
Dad’s first cousin.
Nestor Aparicio 1:15
Dad’s first cousins are sponsoring WNSD Bundle. There you go. Isn’t that effing great?
Richard Abrahams 1:20
It’s a small world. It’s small tomorrow. They
Nestor Aparicio 1:21
are the comfort guys. Richard has been keeping me comfortable or uncomfortable for 45 years. Richard and I met, and you can correct me if I’m wrong. And because I had Ace on last week, Ron West from the band The Cultivated and the Durand Band, you could check it out. We had him at Costas. Ace and I met in 1979, We met in seventh grade. He was Kevin X’s best friend, and I became Kevin’s friend. And Idzy, who was the bass player in Child’s Play, we were all John Allen. We were all together at Hollaberg in 1979. All right, in 1981 or I would say 82, 82, Ario Speedwagon was playing to Capitol Center after High infidelity, and our MTV had been a thing, and it was summer, and the tickets went on sale. And I, I think I’m right about this. I said to Ace and Ace’s mother, “Hey, we can’t go to the heck company at Golden Ring. It’s too crowded. There’s too many people to go there. Why don’t we get the phone book out and figure out where there’s a heck company somewhere where there can’t be any rock and roll fans, someplace really far away, and we identified Reisterstown Road Plaza not for any. I don’t think there was any ethnic, sociological. It just was a long way from where we lived, and it felt like a place where maybe we’d have a shot to not be 100th in line, and maybe we could be fifth in line. So we went out the night before and decided we were going to camp out for concert tickets, and we were the only ones that sat out in front of that heck company on that particular. Now, in the morning, seven in the morning, some people started showing up, and by 10 o’clock, there were 50 people in line to get RESP wagon tickets, and then after that, we camped out for Journey, and then after that, we so on and on and on. Sticks, sticks on the Kilroy was here tour. That show was June of ’83. Sometime in 1983, I met you. So I had been camping out in Reisterstown. I did the Who on the ’82 tour out there. I remember being out there. Remember, guy had a British Union Jack jacket that camped out, and I met you for Billy Joel, as I remember it. It was probably in September, October, of 1984.
Richard Abrahams 3:29
It was probably around September, and then the show was the following year.
8Nestor Aparicio 3:33
The show was in January, right? Right?
Richard Abrahams 3:35
Right? Exactly.
Nestor Aparicio 3:36
And that was the Innocent Man tour. And I met you camping out for Billy Joel. I’m right. It was Billy Joel. Wasn’t the Who? Yeah. Because I was questioning that. It
Richard Abrahams 3:42
was Billy Joel,
Nestor Aparicio 3:43
and I remember like that morning you were like you you you took me to your parents’ house. We were in line and like I don’t know. After we
Richard Abrahams 3:50
got our tickets, we wanted so. I met your mother. So right, my mom, and she’s like, “I’ll make you guys breakfast.
Nestor Aparicio 3:54
People in Dundalk don’t invite strangers back to their house for breakfast, and I just thought, who is this guy? Mother loved you. Your mother
8Richard Abrahams 4:02
loved me. Yeah, my dad is like, “Oh my God, who’s this? I was
Nestor Aparicio 4:05
like the the the you know the kid from Dundalk that they took in over in Pikesville. But dude, I love you, man. How you been? It’s good to see you, man.
Richard Abrahams 4:11
I’m doing all right. I was gonna let people
Nestor Aparicio 4:12
know who you are and why you’re here because when I start talking about 28 years and 28 concerts, a lot of these bands that are in the top 28, which is what I’m doing. So the way I’m doing this is the next 14 weeks, I’m doing my 28 major acts, and then my 35th year on the radio begins December, and then all of next year I’m going to be sprinkling in the front row seats, the backstage, the stories beyond this week. Kiss John Mayer, AC/DC, Paul Rogers, and then I’m going to count down to Led Zeppelin and David. You know we’re going to do that. But then there’s, I’ve seen over 3000 concerts, Richard. So like there aren’t just 28 bands or just 28. Billy Joel is one of them, but Genesis isn’t, and Journey isn’t, and Ario Speedwagon isn’t, and Depends. Mode isn’t, and there’s all of these bands that we have seen in our life, and I think what brings me more joy as I turn 58 in two weeks. It’s not football and it’s not baseball, even though I sit here and talk about that professionally, and I’ve dedicated my life to doing this kind of work.
Richard Abrahams 5:15
Your passion was music,
Nestor Aparicio 5:16
rock and roll. That Rush concert on the 25th next month is what I’m looking forward to. Now, that’s the next big thing on my thing is the next time I get together with Getty and Alex for me, and that’s no different than you and me in 1981, 82, because you and I went to when I met Getty Lee, you were next to me, man.
Richard Abrahams 5:31
Yep, certainly was.
8Nestor Aparicio 5:33
So where? How do you remember this stuff? How do you remember meeting me? Because I know you wanted like totally embarrassing again.
Richard Abrahams 5:38
There was no internet back in the ’80s, so the way we got tickets was to sleep out, and it got to the point where I was sleeping out for so many concerts because if I was first in line, I was right up front. It was really. I have all
Nestor Aparicio 5:52
the ticket subs from like the first row, second row, because when you slept that all night, you usually did pretty well. You always ended up
Richard Abrahams 5:58
in the first 10 rows. Yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 5:59
yeah. You wanted to be in the first row, but but you were close.
Richard Abrahams 6:02
Exactly, exactly, and and and now
Nestor Aparicio 6:03
you pay $1,000 for that.
8Richard Abrahams 6:05
And the tickets were like six bucks to go to a Cap Center show. It’s you know. Do you not have a favorite
Nestor Aparicio 6:10
show? Do like if I said to you, I do. Well, so it’s interesting you pulled this up because it’s very. I was talking about. We’re going to talk about this in a minute because this band is in my top 28. They’re coming in a couple of weeks, and anybody that knows me knows my relationship with Mike Peters and the Alarm. And you were-you literally are the reason that I love the Alarm. You were-you brought the Alarm to me, so you are fully responsible for that part of my life. But a friend of mine this summer, yoga friend, said to me that she went to a concert. She was the best concert she’d ever seen this summer, and she said to me, “What’s the best concert you had ever seen? And I’m like, “But I
Richard Abrahams 6:49
see I categorize that. Let me explain. There are festivals where you have a lot of bands. That doesn’t count as a single concert. I want to get when I’m going to see a concert. It is one band. They’re going through the catalog, playing greatest hits and some new stuff, you know, and that’s that’s a concert. Okay, okay, I don’t count Amnesty or Live Aid as a concert. It’s much more than that. You’re there for a reason. It’s not just and we did an hour
Nestor Aparicio 7:11
Live Aid last year. Good that you wanted to. He went to London. I went to Philly. You can go check it out at Baltimore. Right.
Richard Abrahams 7:15
And and we went to Amnesty. You and I together. That’s just that’s a story we have. Yeah, I got the headline for that. But go ahead. I’ll find that. Well, at any rate, the single greatest concert that I’ve seen.
Nestor Aparicio 7:26
I can’t wait to hear this. Okay, has
Richard Abrahams 7:28
got to be without question Pink Floyd.
8Speaker 1 7:31
Wow! And
Richard Abrahams 7:32
the reason Pink Floyd-they’re not my
Nestor Aparicio 7:33
28, by the way. Well, okay, that’s a great example to see them. Yeah.
Richard Abrahams 7:38
Okay, one, it was the length of the show, the amount of music that was played, okay, the visual sensation of the show. Which
Nestor Aparicio 7:46
one? The stadium shows when they did the sound around? Is that the one you’re talking about? RFK, that that era.
Richard Abrahams 7:51
Well, I saw it at JFK years back.
Nestor Aparicio 7:55
What tour are we talking about? 8182, 84.
8Richard Abrahams 7:58
Like from like
Nestor Aparicio 8:00
all those years, you liked them all. Exactly. You have a show, a specific show. Floyd’s the band. I love. I mean,
Richard Abrahams 8:07
obviously, Roger Waters wasn’t with him during Division Bell, which was unbelievable. You know, I mean, that kind of stuff just blows me away. But the other kind of shows that that absolutely blew me away was to see bands that became huge in clubs before they broke, which was amazing. I’ll give you an example of one that just happened a couple years back. You know Greta Van Fleet?
Nestor Aparicio 8:28
Sure.
Richard Abrahams 8:28
I saw them. They had a gig at the Auto Bar, at the Auto Bar, and they had just broken. And there were people, I mean, lined down through Hamden trying to get into that show. Not at them at
Nestor Aparicio 8:40
all. So well, if you’re
Richard Abrahams 8:42
a Zeppelin fan, I am
8Nestor Aparicio 8:43
a Zeppelin fan. Okay, but I like Zeppelin. I don’t like. But I’m not. I’m not
Richard Abrahams 8:47
using that as like, oh, it’s one of my greatest shows ever. But how about you too in a club? Okay. Now I was with a buddy of mine from high school. We went down to see a man called the Slicky Boys, and they were one of my favorite bands out of Wheaton, Maryland. Was it
Nestor Aparicio 9:02
the Bayou?
Richard Abrahams 9:03
The Bayou.
Nestor Aparicio 9:04
You two open for the Slicky Boys?
Richard Abrahams 9:05
No, the Slicky. Right, the u2 open for the Slickeys. Okay, and then a few months later, March they came back, and then the Slickeys opened for you too. They swapped positions, but the night that I went to
Nestor Aparicio 9:20
81, something like that. Yeah, exactly 8080. Yep. Yeah. Okay. No.
8Richard Abrahams 9:23
Yeah. It was boy.
Nestor Aparicio 9:26
Boy. Boy. Right. Okay.
Richard Abrahams 9:27
Okay. They played stuff like you know 11 o’clock TikTok. I
Nestor Aparicio 9:30
will follow.
Richard Abrahams 9:31
I will follow was one of the songs out of control. Out of control. Which I mean, it’s it’s early early stuff. And when when Bono had blonde hair, okay, and you know they played it. I didn’t know you saw you
Nestor Aparicio 9:44
two at the Bayou.
Richard Abrahams 9:45
Yeah, that’s a long, long time. I saw fun or anything. But here’s how once they were, I was a huge band. I was supposed to go down with a bunch of friends, and the night we went down, it’s typical December weather. We had one of those ice storms.
8Nestor Aparicio 9:57
Sure.
Richard Abrahams 9:58
Okay, it was raining the whole time. Apparently, don’t go. And I said, I’m going with my friend Mike. Whatever. We went down, and we saw something. I mean, maybe there were 60 people in the club that night. It was nothing.
Nestor Aparicio 10:06
I saw Smashing Pumpkins. I’ve seen that in the club too. I saw them at at Max’s on Broadway with about 10 people. Right. Like Ron Furman and I’ve told that story. I ran into Billy Corgan. It was like a moment in The Shining and like the bar scene, I was at the Rolling Stones concert at United Center in 1998, and during the encore, I was trying to get out of there. Satisfaction was being played, and I was just trying to get out of the building. It was brand new building at the time too, United Center, and I went to the bathroom, big big ass hockey room, hockey bathroom, and I walk in. The only other guy in there was Billy Corgan, and he’s pissing two stalls down from me.
Richard Abrahams 10:44
Proper space, and I
Nestor Aparicio 10:45
look over at him. I’m like, “Are you a pumpkin? And he looked at me, and he said, “Yeah, I am. I said, “I thought that was you pumpkin. I said, “You’re gonna think this is weird. And we were like, literally doing doing number one, and I said to him, “I was at your show at Max’s on Broadway on Valentine’s Night, 1991. I saw you play there. He’s like, “Well, you must have been the only one. So it was so poorly attended that he remembered. I saw live. I put the ticket up. I saw live play the ballroom over at UMBC. Were you with me at UMBC when when Mike Mike Peters played
Richard Abrahams 11:22
yeah
Nestor Aparicio 11:23
okay I saw because I turned
8Richard Abrahams 11:25
you on to the alarm me being a YouTube fan I’m like you’re gonna love the alarm
Nestor Aparicio 11:29
open for you two Red Rocks and
Richard Abrahams 11:31
I’ll tell you how crazy YouTube came about at a time for me before MTV started so we weren’t seeing European bands but at the time in the late ’70s, early ’80s, what was the prevalent music we were hearing on the radio was really disco music or danceable music. Rock and roll left,
Nestor Aparicio 11:48
yeah.
Richard Abrahams 11:49
And where did he? And then guess what? We had a second British invasion because when MTV came out, all of a sudden these bands out of Europe were being thrown in our face. Elvis
Nestor Aparicio 11:56
Costello, the Pretenders. They they’re
Richard Abrahams 11:58
an American band. They made it coming from Great Britain, so we’re seeing this. The youth of America’s got this new thing on cable called MTV, and we’re seeing rock and roll come about. And it was like the first time I saw you two, I remember coming home that night early in the morning and going into my parents’ basement, and I made this mural, and I with magic markers on the wall that said you two rocks the world. He was a very
8Nestor Aparicio 12:23
passionate rock and roll fan, Richard.
Richard Abrahams 12:25
I’m like this is in line and
Nestor Aparicio 12:28
spending the whole night to get tickets for concerts because he loved it as much as I loved it. Like literally,
Richard Abrahams 12:32
I love the stuff, but it was something that I knew that I was passionate about. Did you see the
Nestor Aparicio 12:37
Pretenders at Painter’s Mill?
Richard Abrahams 12:38
Yes,
Nestor Aparicio 12:39
I did not go to the. I’ve seen the police there too. The
8Richard Abrahams 12:42
police. See, but I’ve oldered you. What year were you born? I’m 61. So you’re born in 65.
Nestor Aparicio 12:48
I’m born in late 68. So I knew you were. I got a few years jump. I
Richard Abrahams 12:51
got a few years jump. You got three
Nestor Aparicio 12:52
years on me, and in those three years, I saw a lot of concerts, but they were more like Rush at the Capitol Center or Sticks or bigger bands, the up and coming bands and like the bands and bars because I wasn’t old enough, right? I couldn’t see Adam and the Ants at at Coast to Coast because I couldn’t get in, right? Literally, right? I couldn’t see Saxon at Coast to Coast. I couldn’t get into those bars. And then Hammerjacks happened, and at some point, Bud Becker’s going to do the show. And I talked to Bud this week because Buds are great. Buds is one of the all-time great people. You
Richard Abrahams 13:25
was a big mentor to me. Yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 13:26
me me as well. When
Richard Abrahams 13:27
I was promoting, I should have had
8Nestor Aparicio 13:29
Bud come out and
Richard Abrahams 13:30
I would have loved to. All right, I’m
Nestor Aparicio 13:31
gonna have Bud out over Fishmongers next month, and you come back. Okay, and we’ll talk to Bud. Bud was the person who booked all the bands at Hammer Jacks. He was the voice of Hammerjacks. Yeah, the Amber Jacks rules the street. That was him on 98 rock. So all of those pictures of me backstage with the Crows and all that-it’s because of Bud Backer. And and and Bud was the tour manager for Kiss, Aerosmith, Seals and Croft. He toured in the 70s, all that. I mean, just new Cameron Crowe, all of that stuff. And your alarm thing for me is fascinating because they became a seminal band for me. They are a top-I don’t know-they’re in the top 25, but they’re-they’re-they’re coming in the next couple weeks. I mean, so are the Bodine and some of the other bands, Smitherines, another one of my bands. But the alarm when this young lady asked me what was the best concert I saw, because she saw Death Cap for Cutie and thought was greatest thing ever, and said to me, “What’s the best concert you’ve ever seen? And and she didn’t really know I was a music critic. She just knew I liked concerts. She didn’t know that I had been to 3000. When anybody has ever asked me point blank, “What’s the best concert you ever saw? I will tell them it was this night here.
Richard Abrahams 14:38
The alarm.
Nestor Aparicio 14:38
Mike Peters in the alarm at Hammerjacks was the best concert I’ve that I can now I’ve seen I’ve seen them all big concert stadiums I have had Garth Brooks sing to me with 10 people I have heard Brian Adams through all of these I’ve sat in the front row the back row I was at Live Aid all of this stuff but there’s something about. That night, I think it was the Raw Tour, so it was like the tour they were just making it, and there was just something about I saw rock and roll that night in 1988, 89, and it says a spectacular concert. This is my review of it, December 7th, 1989, and I didn’t know this existed. I was wondering which because the owner played there like three times. I wasn’t sure. What sets singer Mike Peters apart from most of his peers is the passion. Much let’s use that word passion with you. Much like you two’s Bono, who inevitably he has been and probably always will be compared with Peters. Sometimes soft, sometimes growling tenor gets you right in the gut. If you haven’t heard of this magnificent performer, the unquestioned leader, the Welsh band, the alarm, you will soon. How about that?
Richard Abrahams 15:51
That’s
Nestor Aparicio 15:51
what I wrote in 1989. Give me love, give me hope, give me strength, give me someone to live for. Whoo! Here’s my review of his smoking hot. The greatest concert I ever saw was with this guy at Hammer Jackson, 1989, The Alarm.
8Richard Abrahams 16:05
I’ll tell you a cool story about the Alarm. My Alarm story years back in college, I heard on DC 101 that the Alarm was going to be playing in DC. I’m like, and I said to my roommates and my buddy, says, “Come on, man, let’s go down to see the alarm. Just get in the car and go down. And this is the night of the show, so we drive down to Catholic University, and we get there and we go up to get our tickets. It’s a general mission show in a you know in an auditorium, and they said, “Can we see your student IDs? And I pull out my Towson ID, and they’re like, “Sorry, can’t sell you tickets. This is only for Catholic Universe. I said it was a
Nestor Aparicio 16:43
closed shop. It was a
Richard Abrahams 16:44
closed. Which I said, are you kidding me? I said, then why would DC 101 announce the show on the air, and all these people they’re turning people away? So everybody’s all right. Come on, let’s just go to Georgetown. I said, I’m not done. You know me well enough. You’re gonna get in. I’m not done. I’m gonna be thrown
Nestor Aparicio 16:59
out of the Who concert at the vet too. But that’s another story. We’ll save that for next time. Anyways,
Richard Abrahams 17:03
so I go over behind the auditorium. The tour bus is there. I knock on the door. I said, “Who’s in charge here? I said, “Let me. I said, let me explain something to you. I said, “I drove
Nestor Aparicio 17:14
from Baltimore. I said, “It took on
Richard Abrahams 17:16
a Friday night. I drove down here. It took us an hour. I hear about a future rock and roll. I said we drove all the way from Baltimore to see the show. It was announced on the radio. I said they’re not letting us buy tickets, and I’m looking for a make the
8Nestor Aparicio 17:28
stand. Damn it!
Richard Abrahams 17:29
So I guess it was their road manager. I don’t remember his name.
Nestor Aparicio 17:33
British guy from Welsh, and
Richard Abrahams 17:35
he’s
Nestor Aparicio 17:35
come on, bro. And the
Richard Abrahams 17:36
band is on the bus, and they hear this. He goes back onto the bus. He’s give me a minute, and he comes back and he gives me my brother, my two buddies. I went down there with backstage passes and all access passes. You’re with us tonight, and right then and there, I fell in love with this band. They did an amazing performance, and
Nestor Aparicio 17:58
and then you said to me, “I said you got to see, got to see this band.
8Richard Abrahams 18:01
Got to see. Well, you
Nestor Aparicio 18:02
changed my life with the alarm, dude. Because Mike, Mike, Mike Peter’s such a special man. We lost him last year. I watched his funeral online and I sobbed all. I mean, it blew me up when he died. It blew me up. You just
Richard Abrahams 18:13
recently sent me a picture of me and him back backstage at some show or whatever. He was in D.C. We
Nestor Aparicio 18:19
saw him in D.C. in D.C. Yeah,
Richard Abrahams 18:21
but again, this was the music that created the tapstreet to my life. Yeah, if you if you don’t know about the
Nestor Aparicio 18:27
alarm or Mike Peters or Love Hope Strength, they do the kind of work my wife that saved my wife’s life in swabbing for the bone marrow registry. He battled leukemia 10 times in his life. We lost him last year, and I’ll get I’ll get goofy if I start to talk. So I brought all these clips out here. Richard Abrahams is our guest. So I brought to you by friends at the Maryland Lottery. We have the Raven scratch-offs. We’re here at State Fair in Catonsville. It is our 28th anniversary at WNST. And instead of doing crab cakes or oysters or food, I decided to do my next passion, which is music. And I have all of these stories. And I don’t think a lot of people know about like my crazy past of Bon Jovi planning surprises and dude, I rip so many legendary artists. What’s that headline say?
Richard Abrahams 19:12
Buford Bowie’s flat concert. Boo was that the Merriweather show? That
8Nestor Aparicio 19:15
was the Merwe Weather sound. I love I
Richard Abrahams 19:17
love that because he was undressed. He was wasn’t dressed in anything, but he just came out in the black suit. He looked great. Let me let me let me be fooled with
Nestor Aparicio 19:25
this, okay? Because Bowie’s going to be way up the list. You’re not going to hear about Bowie till Christmas time around here, but I ripped Bowie in July of 1990 on the front page that said “boo” for Bowie’s bad concert. The next year, he formed a metal band called Tin Machine. Yeah, Tin Machine, which was great. Reeves Grebal is a guitar player. Reeves’s wife at that time was the publicist for Robert Plant. When you and I met Robert Plant at the backstage door, when he signed you and your brother’s obelisk, the
Richard Abrahams 19:54
obelisk, right from from
Nestor Aparicio 19:56
the cover of the Presence album. When we were backstage, the woman that met. That took those to get autographed was Reeves Gabriele’s wife at the time, Sarah. They no longer. So Reeves is now the guitar player for The Cure. He is the Cure. He’s Robert Smith’s guy, Reeves Gabriele. So the the the Bowie thing happened the next year. He was playing, trying to think of the name of the place that Tin Machine played. The Capitol Ballrooms that sound right in D.C. It was an old, it was an old roller ring. Is that right on
Richard Abrahams 20:30
Charles Street?
Nestor Aparicio 20:31
Okay,
8Richard Abrahams 20:32
and the smithereens actually got to play there. I put them there. It was
Nestor Aparicio 20:37
a weird little place. It was an it was
Richard Abrahams 20:40
upstairs. You had to walk through it, ground floor, and you went upstairs. They had a place.
Nestor Aparicio 20:44
So, so Bowie played this place with a tin machine the next year. Yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 20:47
and
Richard Abrahams 20:48
Godfrey’s famous ball. He’s
Nestor Aparicio 20:49
coming through, and the publicist, and it wasn’t Sarah. It was somebody else. Publicist said, “I can get you interview with David Bowie. Great. Bowie called, and he absolutely, from the minute he got on the phone, knew that I ripped it, and I mentioned it in the. You can go listen to it in the interview, and he agreed with me. I said I saw your tour last year, and it felt like some of the material, like you were bored with it. He said I was love, I was. That’s why I’m doing this, and he almost agreed with me panning him. Now let me fast forward this. 1520 years ago, when the DVD thing happened and big screen TVs in my living room, and I could bring concerts home. Right, all the old concerts on DVD. I got a bootleg on the internet of
8Richard Abrahams 21:34
that show.
Nestor Aparicio 21:35
Thanks, Bob Hagen. Of no, of that tour that wasn’t. It was pro shot. It was pro shot at the Tokyo Dome, so it’s a dome show. It’s big, you know, but it’s shot by Japanese high-end equipment in 1989, right? Summer of ’89, and I have that show, and I have watched that show 1000 times, and I adore it. And it was the same exact show,
Richard Abrahams 21:57
right? That we saw him. Same exact
Nestor Aparicio 21:58
show. If Bowie were alive, and I could tell him or tell him on. I’d be like, “I love that show now. I didn’t love it that night at Merriweather that night as the critic. I was 24. I didn’t like it, and I ripped it. And a year later, he called me and was-he could not have been cooler to me. He talked about spirituality and living and dying. He he said all of these really poignant things to me, and the day he died, which was 10 years ago this year, he died in he died in January of 16.
Richard Abrahams 22:27
Ironically, looks behind you.
Nestor Aparicio 22:28
Oh,
Richard Abrahams 22:30
he’s looking right at you.
8Nestor Aparicio 22:31
Oh my God, you didn’t
Richard Abrahams 22:32
realize that?
Nestor Aparicio 22:33
No, I got to take a selfie. Hold on here. Oh my God, this is crazy. I’m getting that with you. No, hold on, this is crazy. We got to do this. David’s
Richard Abrahams 22:41
right behind you. Hold
Nestor Aparicio 22:42
on, man. We got it. We got to take a selfie with David. This is David Bowie right behind me. Look at this.
Richard Abrahams 22:47
There you go. Hold
Nestor Aparicio 22:48
on. I do three second delay on this because I am. I ripped David Bowie, and he’s looking. And he’s looking right now. How apropos is that? He’s looking over my shoulder.
8Richard Abrahams 22:57
There you go.
Nestor Aparicio 22:57
There we go. All right. So I have this history with David Bowie and with these artists and all of these old interviews, but when these stories come back to me and someone asks me the best concert ever, so I don’t think I’ve touched that that alarm review until you sat here, and it’s amazing that we touched all this music together and all these people together. But what do you remember about the shows with me? Because I asked you to bring chicken stubs, and you said you brought.
Richard Abrahams 23:24
I brought one really cool thing. All right, let’s let’s because this this will definitely incite you, okay. But before I pull this out, the Amnesty show, which we were talking about, I have a picture of you in your underwear
Nestor Aparicio 23:39
that night. But I’m like, go ahead.
Richard Abrahams 23:40
Okay, well, with that, I remember you had a wedding to go to, and it was for your family. You got a big, and it’s grand. There was a big argument with your family, whatever. David. Well, I had a lot of
Nestor Aparicio 23:51
rednecks in my family. I’m not gonna. You know this, David. Dave
Richard Abrahams 23:54
and I. You left us at the hotel, and the next day we were to drive to New Jersey to go see that Amnesty show, and it was what the police and it was 1986. Right, right, Gabriel. But I reviewed it.
8Nestor Aparicio 24:08
Peter Gabriel, the police, Joan Baez. Joe Baez was the YouTube. Yeah, you too. It was an amazing
Richard Abrahams 24:14
lineup. But and the next day, Bob
Nestor Aparicio 24:17
Geldof too. By the way, there it is, right there. There’s my review. Okay,
Richard Abrahams 24:20
so and David and I, while you were at the wedding, we ended up going to a restaurant. It was a Chinese restaurant, as I recall, underground that had a river flowing through it. I’m not joking. And when we got back to the hotel, you were still at the wedding, so David and I grabbed a bottle of mezcal, started drinking mezcal. They
Nestor Aparicio 24:39
were rocked by the time, and that’s why how you got that
Richard Abrahams 24:41
picture because we were quite ripped up by the time you got back from the wedding, and then, then then the craziness ensued. All
Nestor Aparicio 24:48
right, so you were wondering who was on the the the the docket in 1986, Jackson Brown, Brian Adams, Brian Adams played that show. Oh my God, Peter Gabriel, you two, and Stan. The highlight of the show came when you two took to the stage for a very partisan crowd. Singer Bono Vox, I gave his last name, didn’t even have to sing. His 60,000 adoring fans had no problem feeding him the words. When he did sing, his voice clear and well rested was superb. Another fan favorite and show closer was the reunion of the police. Playing their second show together in three years, the trio rode through Roxanne, message in a bottle, and every breath you take with amazing accuracy. Sting’s vocals too were crystal clear. The highlight of the early afternoon was a five-song set by the pride of Philadelphia, the Hooters. Their get-up and dance tools included “Day by Day, “Where Do the Children Grow, and “All of You Zombies. All you zombies. Other highlights: Browns for America, Lives in the Balance, Gabriel’s whole new set, including Shock the Monkey and Sledgehammer, Adams’ whole new set, including Straight from the Heart with Crowd Help and Summer 69, and Howard Jones played one song, No One Is to Blame.
8Richard Abrahams 25:55
Yep,
Nestor Aparicio 25:55
I ripped Yoko Ono, and that’s pretty much it, Bob Geldof. There you go, 1986. 40 years ago, this there’s
Richard Abrahams 26:03
yours. Let me show you mine. All right, go. What do you got? Okay, you’re gonna get blown away by this. I
Nestor Aparicio 26:07
probably am gonna get. You do lots of things to blow me away, Richard. Oh, give me that. I have my backstage pass from this, dude. I have my backstage pass from this. So, one of my other top 28 bands, and somewhere there’s some smithereens. I’m still friends with the guys in the smithereens. Jim’s done the Dennis did the show this year. Jim did the show last year. I’m going to chase down Mike, and we’ve lost Pat. I met the Smitherines in 1986 at Hammerjacks on the Especially for You tour. Their publicists, they were on Capitol Records, and their publicist hit me and said, “I got this great rock band out of Jersey. What kind of ah? They kind of like the Who. They’re kind of rock. They love the Beatles. They’re good guys. Pat’s a great guy. The publicist always say Pat’s a great guy. He’s gonna love to talk to you. Blood Roses was out, right? So I interviewed Pat, and Pat talked to me, and he’s like, “Aparicio, you must be baseball. You need to meet my bass player, and Mike. So I met Mike, and Mike and I fell in right away. We became friends like sports instantly,
Nestor Aparicio 27:12
instantly, and every time, and and you know they were
Richard Abrahams 27:16
what? He was a Mets fan, honey. They
Nestor Aparicio 27:17
were my Stillwater. Yeah, they were my Stillwater. Definitely a Mets fan,
8Richard Abrahams 27:20
yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 27:21
and he was friends with Jack McDowell, the pitcher. He was friends with a lot of baseball players too, like Eddie Lee. Like he loved baseball, but he was involved. He also loved the New York Rangers, loved hockey. Mike loved sports. Mike loved sports, so I became their guy. And when that when they had out, they became this huge band. A girl like you came on the third album, second album. I remember Green Thoughts landed. You and I were close. My buddy Hell’s Fountain, all my buddies, we’d all go down to Hammer Jackson, see them. And a couple years later, on the blow-up tour, about the fourth album, you decided to get into the music promotion business, and you brought them to the Towson Center. I’m gonna let you tell the story because I don’t really. I think you, Bud Becker, was involved in that maybe in some way.
Speaker 2 28:00
Bud, Bud was. I’m gonna hold this up. If anybody was
Nestor Aparicio 28:02
at the Towson Center on October 21st, 1991, this was Richard’s show and Exposure Promotions. I still have the backstage pass. You actually had a press conference with us at the Towson Center. With
Richard Abrahams 28:14
WBAL, they sponsored 90 of Rock, and we were doing benefit shows for Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and we raised a lot of money for them for you know doing concerts. It’s great that you can do something you’re passionate about, and you’re paying it forward with it. But that’s something that my father, thank God, supported. He put up the guarantee money to bring that. It was God bless
Nestor Aparicio 28:37
Dan. Come on.
Richard Abrahams 28:38
Yeah, it was it was bringing you know the music that we were listening. God, what a year long this is! This is
8Nestor Aparicio 28:43
so beautiful, dude. Can I tell you what I remember about this night? Two things. It involves crab cakes. All right, you ready? That’s right. The crab cakes. That’s right. Crab cakes. Okay. My memory’s so crazy. 35. I can’t remember what the hell I did for dinner last night, but 35 years ago, october 25. So this night, I this is an important story because it involves crab cakes and it involves something really kind of cool too, which will be part of my 35th anniversary because I’m gonna I’m gonna write about special things that happened in shows like two and a half years ago I was in Lake Tahoe seeing Brian Adams and my wife wasn’t with me it was the week that the Ravens played in the championship game against Kansas City, they lost. So it was that week. I went out to the West Coast to see Brian Adams to see some old friends, including the man who Scott Labar, who’s the longtime editor of the Sacramento Bee, who was the reason I interviewed rock stars. So I was going to give him some love and give him a hug because I hadn’t seen him 35 years. So I went out to Tahoe and I’m in the second row for Brian Adams in this brand new building, and Brian Adams does this thing where he takes requests at the end of the show, and he looked at me and said, “What do you want to hear? And I said, “The only one, and he played it for me, and like I have it on video, and it’s like it’s crazy when an artist takes your weird request, plays it, right? That’s pretty cool. So the first time in my life that happened was at the Lyric. On the Jackson Brown album after 1988 or 8988, 89. He played the lyric
Richard Abrahams 30:09
right
Nestor Aparicio 30:10
at the. I was in like row M. I was with Molly Dunham, my boss at the at the paper, and her husband Dave, who attended attended the real Woodstock. Molly’s husband Dave went to Woodstock. I did a college paper on that, by the way. I rush the stage at the lyric, and I’m in the front row at the lyric. And Jackson Brown looks down at me and says, “What do you want to hear? And I said, “Somebody’s baby. Turned around and played somebody’s baby for me. On this particular night in 1991, about four years after Jackson Brown took my request. The only other time that I can remember, other than Brian Adams, and I have to think about whether anybody has ever really taken my request. Because I
Richard Abrahams 30:48
requested one song for this show, and you’re and it’s a Smithereen song, which was one of my favorite songs of theirs.
Nestor Aparicio 30:54
I was in the fifth row for this show in the middle. You got me the tickets, and I was standing on my chair, which the ushers at the Towson Center probably didn’t like at the time, and for whatever reason, I just kept yelling at Pat, and Pat knew me clearly very well. I had been on; they were my Stillwater, and I’m yelling, “Beauty and sadness, beauty and sadness, and Pat got tired of it, and Pat finally said to Jimmy, “We’re gonna play Beauty and Sadness for him. Just play it.
Richard Abrahams 31:24
All right.
Nestor Aparicio 31:25
We played it. They played it, and Jimmy was annoyed. And after the show, I’m backstage with you, and Jimmy is eating the biggest crab cake I’d ever seen in my life, and he’s like, “Damn, it’s the greatest crab cake I got him the best
8Richard Abrahams 31:41
at the time.
Nestor Aparicio 31:42
I no question. Still talk about that crab cake. He’s eating that crab, and you had a tin of them. There was a backstage catering,
Richard Abrahams 31:49
right? It
Nestor Aparicio 31:51
was Angelina’s crab cake.
Richard Abrahams 31:52
That’s Angelina. There you go. Just
Nestor Aparicio 31:54
just give it to you. It’s Angelina crab cakes. So he’s eating Angelina crab cake, and I said to him, “I’m like, you’re mad at me, aren’t you? He’s like, it just wasn’t the right. It wasn’t the right environment. It wasn’t the right show. I don’t, you know. I mean, I love that you love the song, but we didn’t, you know. It just it wasn’t the right crap. But we played him fine. But I requested beauty and sadness that night. So when I think of this show, I think of you. I think of me. I think of your dad. I think of the show. But I think I requested beauty and sadness. This night they played it, and then they later regretted it, which a lot of people regret me after. And it’s funny if you look at
Richard Abrahams 32:26
this that almost all these sponsors are gone now. Record tape traders, WHFS, City Paper. They’re all gone. If
8Nestor Aparicio 32:32
you would have said in 1991, 35 years later, we’d be sitting here doing this, and there would be no City Paper, right? There would be no HFS, and there would be no Record tape traders,
Richard Abrahams 32:41
which where we got tickets from, but yeah, that’s crazy.
Nestor Aparicio 32:44
Ticketmaster Hex, that’s where we met. That’s
Richard Abrahams 32:46
right. Well, anyways, that’s a good circle. But the the one song that I requested was a song that you and I saw them play at the Bayou when we saw them years back at the bottom. Don’t want to
Nestor Aparicio 32:55
lose you.
Richard Abrahams 32:56
Nope.
Nestor Aparicio 32:57
Oh, oh, oh, oh, alone at midnight.
8Richard Abrahams 33:01
Nope. Nope. It is a rare song. They they didn’t play a White
Nestor Aparicio 33:04
Castle Blues. All right, there he is. White Castle Blues. The White Castle
Richard Abrahams 33:07
Blues, and I love that song. So I got a smithereen story to tell
Nestor Aparicio 33:11
you. You know, Jimmy’s wife Betty passed away of cancer about right around the time my my wife battled, and she died. And afterward, they did a benefit for the Betty Babjack Memorial Fund, and it was especially for you. I have the shirt; I wear it a lot. And we went up, and it was in the Hungarian Community Club that Jimmy’s family. It was a little little VFW hall, like literally. In I don’t know the name of the town, but it’s near. It’s
Richard Abrahams 33:42
in Jersey.
Nestor Aparicio 33:42
It’s it’s Elizabeth, one of the little towns. Often it was right next to 90, right next under the turnpike. So it’s right just to the west of the turnpike. You know, by Matuchin and Edison, that area. And I went up that night, and Mike rejoined the band that night. Pat, I think you told me this. Pat had real was having real real bad problems at that time in his life. He couldn’t lift his arms, and he had been in the hospital all day, and they were worried about him getting. He was diabetic, like my wife.
Richard Abrahams 34:12
That’s right. And that’s
8Nestor Aparicio 34:13
my wife and Pat had in common. So that night we were backstage in the like a little. It was like a church almost, like a little food hall, and I took my final picture with Pat that night. And last thing I ever said to Pat, I got up on him that night. He’s wearing his little Campagnoli hat. I had a picture of me, him, and Jimmy that night. And I went up to him, and my wife had never seen the band together. She had seen Severo. She knew I knew the band and all that. I went up to him and he wasn’t feeling well. And he loves me, you know. I went up to him and I said to him, “I drove a 188 fucking miles for this show. This better be good. And he laughed at me, and we took a picture together. And
Richard Abrahams 35:00
he was at what?
Nestor Aparicio 35:01
And they were great. And they’re all great. But when the show ended, at the end of the show, at the end of the end of the show, they took a break, and a team from White Castle came in, and brought 500 White Castle cheeseburgers.
Richard Abrahams 35:15
That was their thing.
Nestor Aparicio 35:16
And we all ate burgers at 11 o’clock.
Richard Abrahams 35:18
Even sliders,
Nestor Aparicio 35:19
yeah. And they are in the White Castle Hall of Fame. Did you know that for the White Castle? Oh, and they should be. They are. They wrote the Smitthe Marines are in the White Castle Hall of Fame. They wrote this. They are the White Castle Blues. So, man, thanks for that story. But they had never told that story, man. That’s a good. Well, and
8Richard Abrahams 35:33
that’s what this program was all about: was bringing back these old stories that you and I have shared for 40 plus years. None
Nestor Aparicio 35:40
better than the Smitherines, dude. Thank you for this. Take this home. Put this back on the wall, man. That’s where it came
Richard Abrahams 35:45
from. And Masaro,
Nestor Aparicio 35:47
Steichen, Denisio, and Babjack.
Richard Abrahams 35:50
That’s all of them.
Nestor Aparicio 35:51
Cheers, cheers. Richard Abrahams is my pal. He’s been my pal for 45 years now. We met in a parking lot camping out for Billy Joel tickets at the Heck Company at Reisterstown Road Plaza, we’re telling stories of 28 years of being on the radio. 28. Billy Joel is in the top 28. I’m trying to think of the bands I associate with you because I did look up my list of the bands in the top 28 that you and I are associated with. It’s
Richard Abrahams 36:14
a lot.
8Nestor Aparicio 36:15
I mean, I
Richard Abrahams 36:16
mean, we haven’t even talked about Rush and sleeping out that night in Philly to get tickets to see them at the Spectrum, and it was so cold out. Every time we would get out of the car to go to the bathroom, we would just freeze. We
Nestor Aparicio 36:28
slept at the Spectrum, right? We slept at the Spectrum to get tickets. We did this
Richard Abrahams 36:31
right, and we were in the hearse. In the wait, in the hearse, okay. We were huddled up in there. We were
Nestor Aparicio 36:37
in my Caprice classic stage,
Richard Abrahams 36:40
and guess what? The
Nestor Aparicio 36:41
black one. And then we had the Olympics.
8Richard Abrahams 36:42
The trials were there that night. You had all the all the trucks were there, and we’re in that park lot. Nobody’s there, and we know we’re first in line to get those tickets to go see them play to Rush to see Rush play.
Nestor Aparicio 36:52
We camped out of the unit from you and me,
Richard Abrahams 36:54
right?
Nestor Aparicio 36:55
God, I don’t remember that, Rich. I do now, but I didn’t a minute ago.
Richard Abrahams 36:58
Right, going to see Bowie and Phil. I mean, we drove to Philly many times to go see shows.
Nestor Aparicio 37:02
You and I saw Genesis together. We saw New together. We saw Rush together. You were never. You were never a Van Halen poison. You you you were more of that. But you were more, you were more into
Richard Abrahams 37:15
the new music coming up. New
8Nestor Aparicio 37:16
music. But I loved old music. Yeah, but I loved. But you weren’t a poison guy, though. You weren’t, you know, you weren’t a kiss guy, right? No, right, right. So you came from a past man.
Nestor Aparicio 37:27
You, you were more on the Zeppelin Floyd. But you
Richard Abrahams 37:32
were younger, and younger kids were getting into music, were in a kiss. I, me being a couple years older, you were
Nestor Aparicio 37:37
more into Peter Frampton or Steve Miller, right? At that point, right. That’s four years makes a lot, lot of difference. It did
Richard Abrahams 37:43
make a lot of difference back in the day. In those age, but now I love it all. Richard Abrams,
Nestor Aparicio 37:48
tell me what you sell cars, don’t you? What do you do? We work in a car. You’re you’re a car guy. You’re a car nut. Well,
Richard Abrahams 37:53
I’m I’m gonna give a plug here at the company. I work. You love
8Nestor Aparicio 37:56
cars. You’ve always loved cars. I’m
Richard Abrahams 37:58
passionate about that too. The red bar cheddar
Nestor Aparicio 37:59
thing.
Richard Abrahams 38:00
Well, me being passionate about people, I work for a company now called Freedom Car. They’re a 35-year-old company out of Baltimore. A husband and wife got to get you in light, man.
Nestor Aparicio 38:10
You’re in a dark light, but go ahead. Yeah, but Mark Mark
Richard Abrahams 38:13
and Robin, who are the owners of the company, started this company 35 years ago. They are a concierge driving service for people that you know, for people like you and I, but also people that have lost their independence and freedom, and that’s why they’re called Freedom Car. So we’ll pick up people at the hospital. We will take them to airports. We will. We worked with the Maryland Department of Social Services, taking foster kids to and from school and back to the hospital. I love that, Richard. But that’s what you know. Mark Thistle and Robin Lyles do with their company. But for 35 years, they’re Freedom Car. Freedom Car. Look it up. FreeCar. There’s a org. What do we have? We find yeah. FreedomCar.net.
Nestor Aparicio 38:51
FreedomCar.net. FreedomCar.net. That’s right. All right.
8Richard Abrahams 38:54
So I just started working for them. I meet interesting people. So my mom was
Nestor Aparicio 38:57
in her 90s at the time, and I can’t run her someplace. You take care of. That’s exactly different than Uber. That’s like it’s real care. Pick them up. The
Richard Abrahams 39:04
cool thing about the company is their cars are no older than three years. They’re washed and vacuumed. They get courteous drivers wherever they take them. And with that being said, they really do provide a service by you know by getting somebody from A to B without any stress, and especially in today’s traffic. Every time
Nestor Aparicio 39:23
I ordered a taxi in South America, I wish I had a freed car. Not a taxi,
Richard Abrahams 39:27
not an Uber, not a Lyft, not a limousine company. It’s right in between. It’s a niche service, and it’s a very unique concept that it’s been thriving for 35 years and keeps growing. So Freedacar.net,
Nestor Aparicio 39:38
and that’s it. All right, Richard Abrams is here. I didn’t. It would be have to do with cars. You sold cars. You worked on cars. You drive cars. You drive fast. You ever done one of those 200 mile an hour things? It seems like something you do. I’ve driven fast before,
Richard Abrahams 39:51
but I only on real roads. But at this point, at being at 61, I don’t need to kill myself. I’ve tried that before when I was younger.
8Nestor Aparicio 39:59
Favorite car? I mean, I know you had like a car. What, like, what’s your favorite car? I’m an
Richard Abrahams 40:04
equal opportunity high performance lover, but I think one of my favorite cars is still the classic Corvette Stingray. It’s just what
Nestor Aparicio 40:10
year?
Richard Abrahams 40:12
Well, one I own. I have a 1967, and it’s you know little dimple
Nestor Aparicio 40:16
on there. Is it ragtop or is it hard to? It’s a
Richard Abrahams 40:18
convertible.
Nestor Aparicio 40:19
Nice
8Richard Abrahams 40:20
with side pipes, and but it’s Next 81
Nestor Aparicio 40:23
degree day, you come out. We’ll crank up red barchetta, and we’ll go somewhere we can drive really fast, like 70 West. We’ll go back to Frederick and get some pastries.
Richard Abrahams 40:32
That sounds perfect.
Nestor Aparicio 40:33
Richard Abrams has been my friend for 45 years. I love him dearly, and your brother too. Tell him I said hello. I only bring him in on special occasions because we got to tell old rock and roll stories, and I mean, dude, I could talk football and baseball with you forever because you love the Orioles, you love the Ravens. I’m a homer. He is big time. Been at all the big games, PSLs, all that good stuff. But he’s been my friend for 45 years, and I honor that and respect that. We have so much rock and roll to go through that it’s going to take me a year and a half. Whether so on the way over today, I didn’t want to listen to myself. I didn’t want to listen to the 100.7s got freak show stuff going on now. So I had no place other than 98.5 out of Hanover. I’d get good rock and roll. So I brought my iPod today. My old school plugs in. I have an iPod, and on it, I just this morning I woke up and there was something about you and me together that I wanted to listen to something and I’m working on this series. So number 28 was Kiss. I wrote that last week. This weekend I’m writing John Mayer, number 27. John Mayer’s the only modern artist on my 28 list. Like modern, all the rest of it’s more older. Not all of it’s 1975. It’s got to resonate, but there’s some REM and some Pearl Jam. There’s modern stuff in there. But John Mayer is the next, and John Mayer came to me like you brought the alarm to me. My son brought John Mayer to me, and like anything that your son brings to you when your son’s a teenager, like I ain’t listening to that shit. And then John Mayer grew on me over the last 25 years, and John Mayer is a primary fundamental part of my music collection. But he’s going to come in at number 27 because there are 26 other artists that just got there first. And
Richard Abrahams 42:11
he played with one with the dead with one of your bands. One of my bands because I the dead and the Floyd’s were your thing, and so the kisses and the poison. Right.
Nestor Aparicio 42:18
So this is one thing we certainly can find the middle ground on is that in 1984 there was a supergroup put together with Jimmy Page, Paul Rogers, the firm, the firm, Tony Franklin, and Chris Slade, and when I was working at the News Americas, this is April of 1985, 41 years ago, I was getting a lot of really big interviews, you know. I had done Kiss, I had done Rush, I had done Ario, Speedwagon, Haul and Oates, Chicago. Jimmy Page called my house in Dundalk, and I talked to Jimmy Page for 20 minutes, and I did this story on the firm in April 28, 1985. Band takes a page from history, and I see Jimmy Page’s quotes here. So on the way over today, I listened to the firm’s first album,
Richard Abrahams 43:07
radioactive and yeah. I don’t
8Nestor Aparicio 43:09
have a lot of regret in life, Richard. I um, I met Paul Rogers on the way to see the alarm in New York City in 1990, maybe 91, my buddy Hell’s and I took a train to New York to see David Letterman tape. The Rembrandts, who I just interviewed, were the musical artists. They got me onto the Letterman show because they were the musical artist. They gave me two tickets.
Richard Abrahams 43:35
Right. It
Nestor Aparicio 43:36
was Fig Newton night on the Letterman show, and it was George Foreman and Evander Holyfield had just fought, and Foreman was the guest on the show, and Holifield showed up. So special night. They taped that at six at night, right? We went to Penn Station and took the train up to New Haven to see the alarm that night. But that afternoon, we got to New York early, and I befriended a young PR person named Maria Malta, who was the Atlantic Records PR person, and she worked in the building right on Bryant Square where HBO was, the Avenue of the Americas in New York, and I went up to her highfalutin Atlantic Records office because we were pen pals on the phone and I met her at Hammerjacks once or whatever, but she’s like, “Ah, you’re in New York. You come see me. Come to the office. I like we’ll show you around. So I went. I took the elevator up. She’s like, “I have Paul Rogers and I have Kenny Jones signing autographs up here. So I went in and and they were in a room just signing stuff. They were like a conference room. It’s like,
Speaker 3 44:43
hi, how are you? And
Nestor Aparicio 44:44
Paul Rodgers met me, took picture, you know, the whole deal, right? So, I don’t think much of Paul Rodgers, bad company. I’ve sang every bad company song there is to sing. I love the firm.
Richard Abrahams 44:53
Kenny Jones was the hill.
Nestor Aparicio 44:54
Yeah. So, 2008, the Super Bowl is. In Phoenix, Nils Lofgren has a super band because he’s in Scottsdale. was a charity thing for John Madden’s players and Mike Ditka for the old players, and he put a super band together. He put a super band together, and Paul Rogers was a singer. And I’m on Radio Row on Friday afternoon, and my wife has known me 23 and a half years. She will tell you that she has seen me dine with celebrities, hang in their homes, all of that. There’s only one time in my life I’ve been starstruck, like literally starstruck. It was Paul Rogers. I looked across the room and I saw him, and I just started and grabbed him. I grabbed him and I said, “You need to do my radio show. You need to do it. I I know who you are. You have to come sit with me. I’ll be right over.
8Richard Abrahams 45:45
Cool. And here I am sitting with you. Truth Forrester was sitting
Nestor Aparicio 45:48
doing live radio, and he took one look at me. I’m like, out of that chair. Get Paul Rogers is sitting down, and we’re going now. So Paul Rogers sat with me, and my one of my big regrets as I listened today was that I didn’t sing with it. When he sat down with me, I should have said that made him sing like closer, like a weird song. You know, I should have said feeling good, even though it gives me fever. So you know, like I would have. But he was so nice to me, Paul Rogers. I want to
Richard Abrahams 46:16
thank you very much for having me. I want to share some old memories. Appreciate you, man. Love you, brother. Richard’s got to go. He’s on
Nestor Aparicio 46:21
behalf of Freedom Car. I’m on behalf of the Maryland Lottery, GBMC, and State Fair. Stay with us. We’re Baltimore positive. Be more dumb rock and roll stories ahead.
