Ricky Biagiola-CMT Didn't Silence His Beat

Ricky Biagiola: 0:00

mentally you might have someone might have to accept the fact that it's not coming back. Try to keep it from getting any weaker. Unfortunately, that's the best you can do. But that person would have to do that. Otherwise, you sit on the couch, and it's all over.

Chris Ouellette: 0:22

Hello, everyone, this is Chris and Lizzo.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 0:25

We are a brother sister team.

Chris Ouellette: 0:27

That's right. And on behalf of the Charcot Marie Tooth Association, aka CMTA, we are an agile

Elizabeth Ouellette: 0:35

and agile from coast to coast. I'm in California and Chris is in Vermont.

Chris Ouellette: 0:41

That's right. And this is another episode of our podcasts named what, Lizzo

Elizabeth Ouellette: 0:46

CMT for me CMT the number for me.

Chris Ouellette: 0:49

That's right CMT, for me, a community focused podcast dedicated to those with CMT, giving them a voice in the community to share their stories, good or bad successes, challenges, and much, much more.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 1:03

Chris talking about the community. I'm so grateful to our CMT community for reaching out sharing the stories, having fun with the podcast, the caliber of people we've had, and we've met on this show is just incredible CMT, such a challenging disease. But these folks we've interviewed these past few years, see these challenges as stepping stones to a better life. Wouldn't you agree, Chris? Dude, I'm talking to you. I'm talking about the they're using the stepping stones to about Hey, Chris, what are you doing?

Chris Ouellette: 1:35

Just playing drums? Do you remember? I'm accomplished drummer? I never remember my snare. I sold out shows

Elizabeth Ouellette: 1:41

accomplished drummer together when I thought about you.

Chris Ouellette: 1:44

Oh, yeah, I was in the marching band in fifth grade. You didn't do drum? Oh, yeah. Did

Elizabeth Ouellette: 1:49

you Did forgot trombone or something? I don't know. I don't know.

Chris Ouellette: 1:53

I play all sorts of musical instruments. I'm really good. Awesome. Here.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 1:57

This guy Ricky play his drums Take it away, Ricky you? Well, you're gonna have a lot in common with our guest today. Ricky big Hola. He's a drummer. I know. It's a cool name. Yes, it is. I like you know if I'm saying it, right. Yeah, Gio LA. And he's a drummer of a very well known group, the outsiders who swell over a million copies of their 1966 song. Time won't let me.

Chris Ouellette: 2:46

Well, folks go and look up that song. We are excited to have you, Ricky, thanks so much for coming on our podcast. How you doing?

Ricky Biagiola: 2:54

I'm just fine. Thank you for having me.

Chris Ouellette: 2:56

You got it? Of course. So Ricky,

Elizabeth Ouellette: 2:59

I think you've reformed this trip. So that was a 1966 hit. So I mean, I saw you I don't know it was a black and white video on YouTube. And you're up there. He doesn't even look at your black glasses. And you're just like,

Chris Ouellette: 3:11

Yeah, cool.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 3:12

Yeah, you looked really cool. And then the drummer was so cute. And there was a dude with the drum and his hair just kind of bottled over into his head. Do you know what I'm talking about? Where were you when that was filmed?

Ricky Biagiola: 3:24

How it was filmed. You have to be almost a senior citizen to remember this. That was a television show called Shindig, which was at the same time as another similar show called Whole blue. So that would have been in the middle of 60s. I don't even remember the vocation. I was probably in New York.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 3:43

That's exciting. It was really cool watching that. And so now you're reforming this band with different people calling it The Outsiders also, right.

Ricky Biagiola: 3:51

In 2017. I got a call from a promoter in Indiana. That set asked me if I was interested in reforming the outsiders because he himself had some interest in presenting, I guess they would call it a Heritage Group. But at the time, there was none. I had been playing all along locally, here in Cleveland in Ohio, because of the interests that he expressed. I put together a new outsiders band after 56 years. Wow. Unfortunately, three of the original members have passed away. Just myself and Bill, the guitar players left somewhere in Tennessee. We stay in touch by phone, but I don't even know where he is exactly. He's kind of a recluse. He has a little cabin in the forest somewhere. But he prefers it that way. But again, he's the only one left and we do keep in touch. Like I said the other three members have passed and I remember them well. And we were friends.

Chris Ouellette: 4:52

Yeah, no, that's great. It's so cool that you continue to play drums as well and you start playing drums maybe around the age of 14 or so. No 12 or 14?

Ricky Biagiola: 5:01

Well, at 14, that was probably the first job I played that we got paid. Oh, I started taking lessons at 11. I took lessons for a couple of years from the same gentleman. And that's where I'd met a couple of guitar students that were a year older than I was. So they would be in, they would have been in the ninth grade, I would have been in the seventh grade. But that's when that started, got together. Probably at my mother's house like it I like it always was. And we learned, I don't know, three or four songs. And we I think we went to play somewhere nobody sang. So we playing this same three or four songs over and over for about an hour and a half.

Chris Ouellette: 5:42

And what attracted you to the drums? And not like guitar or something? Like, what was the connection there?

Ricky Biagiola: 5:48

Well, it's hard to say I had an early like for music. And a lot of that was very, it was very, I would say that right about that time, which would put us in the late 50s. Rock and roll music started to become popular on the radio. And there was always a rhythm thing, a beat that I felt connected, you attracted to tried to copy? My dad and my mom, they're very supportive in sending me to the local music school to take lessons and Oh, cool.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 6:21

So your dad died at a very young age. Right? You were like, 11? That's correct. Gosh, that's, that's tragic, that you and your mom talk about it. And you decided to move on. And how was that?

Ricky Biagiola: 6:35

No, I'm sorry to say at that young age, I didn't realize the impact that was going to come shortly after I kind of just carried on. My mother eventually sold. My father's hair salon. Oh, and we moved closer to my mother brothers, my uncles. Okay. And not that they were so supportive either. But it was better to be close to, from my mother to be close to her family. When she needed a hand. Of course, they would help her out. But yeah, that's it. We can probably we talked about that before. Not that it's the story of my life. But my mother and four brothers came from Italy. Their parents passed away when they were young, and they got sent back to Italy to an orphanage. And they grew up in the orphanage until they were old enough to come to the US all kinds of history stories. Two of my mother's brothers could not come back to the US as as hard as she tried to contact the State Department because they were forced to serve in Mussolini's army. And as a result, they were not able to come to the US as immigrants. So two brothers came, two brothers stayed and my mother was able to be here. So anyways, it's a crazy story, though.

Chris Ouellette: 7:56

It is to the two brothers ever make it to the US. And after they served in the military,

Ricky Biagiola: 8:02

they passed away in Italy. The two brothers here, served in the American army when they became old enough, so my mother was the oldest of the siblings. Yeah. She came in 1948. My dad came a year earlier. Yeah.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 8:17

First, can you imagine picking up your family and moving to a no, no, not at all? No, I just can't

Chris Ouellette: 8:23

speak the language. Where do you Yeah, what support? Pretty impressive

Elizabeth Ouellette: 8:27

started us a beauty salon. Your mother was a seamstress? Yeah. Wow. And he turned out okay.

Chris Ouellette: 8:34

Yeah. All right. Okay. Tell us a little bit about your CMT. What type of CMT Do you have?

Ricky Biagiola: 8:43

I was diagnosed in 2016, by Dr. Shai at the University of Iowa as type two F two F prior to that, I guess it was called a motor neuropathy with conduction block.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 8:58

Yes. So this is what they said, which I don't even know what this means. He was diagnosed at the Cleveland Clinic with multifocal neuropathy with conduction block, whatever that means. Yeah. What is that? I don't know. Nothing.

Ricky Biagiola: 9:13

Has the doctors here are not specialists? No, of course not. And you're levens I had the fortunate connection to get to the University of Iowa to go through the testing there. That didn't come until way later after I had been. How can I put it? I wouldn't say suffering from CNT but I had contracted the weakness and all that way years before probably I'm gonna go back to 1998 is when it started to seriously cause me

Elizabeth Ouellette: 9:45

so you were an athlete. How did you like were you thinking like, Oh my God, what's going on with my body? Or did you say, oh, what's going on my body? I don't care. I'll just keep going.

Ricky Biagiola: 9:55

No, I was bothered. I was troubled because I was after playing music for so many years. And then the time came when I was unable to support my family by playing music. I had looked for work, and I did not pursue an education back then. So I did construction work. That was the easiest way for me to make a living. And of course, having a weakness and a balance issue and trying to do construction work and be on ladders and things. It was tough. And no, I didn't know what was happening. I neurologists here were sympathetic, but couldn't pinpoint anything, or recommend anything. So let's just make your life adjustment, whatever it takes. And we'll see you again in six months, we can see if it gets any worse or not.

Chris Ouellette: 10:46

So your comment just so it's clear, it's so you did you have a dream to like you reference support your family through music, like was that years, one of the dreams that you really wanted to be a musician to support your family, but then the CMT actually made that challenging for you.

Ricky Biagiola: 11:04

Actually, I liked having a family, I had a family at 20 years old. Music was as important as it was to me at that time, it was more important to figure out a way to support them. I always played I always managed to have somebody contact me or my own friends around town, after the outsiders sort of disbanded and lost popularity as groups do. I worked full time and I played, it was tough, because, again, I didn't really have any higher education. So it was just a typical blue collar guy from Cleveland.

Chris Ouellette: 11:39

Tell us a little bit about to F and maybe Alyssa, you have some insight there. How is that different than one A and I mean, it's progressive. What do we find in terms of the population differences and is to a pretty rare is that rare?

Ricky Biagiola: 11:53

It's a lot less common that you mentioned, one, eight, and one. My heart goes out to some of the folks that post on the CMT chat on a forum. They hurt, their feet hurt, they have pain, they can't sleep, they have breathing issues. I don't know how I ended up being blessed enough that my type two f does not cause me any pain. I have muscle loss, I have muscle atrophy, legs and forearms in my hands. That's why I wear gloves most of the time. I'm blessed that it doesn't hurt. And I feel so bad for people that say I fell down because my knees folded and my leg gave out or whatever. But it's not as common as most of the others. And I'm fortunate that way, I have the sensory part of it. Okay, I can feel I get cold easily as you can imagine hands and feet. There's so many odd variations of this. I don't know how there's subtypes make you dizzy trying to figure it out. How many twos or threes are our

Elizabeth Ouellette: 13:03

XO it's interesting, Ricky that you we think of CMT as a motor sensory disorder. But it's really great to know that some people don't have that sensory dysfunction. So you can feel and you're not losing sensation, you have pain, but it's a fully motor dysfunction where it affects your muscles and walking and movement, right and your hands and atrophy. I read that it was autosomal dominant, meaning that someone could pass it on to you and you have the compat or you could pass it on to your kids like a 5050 chance is that what you were told in? Do you know if anybody in your family having CMT, from your background or your kids or

Ricky Biagiola: 13:47

I would be heartbroken if any of my children started to display symptoms? Fortunately, they have not. And beyond that, I don't know if it would go. I guess it would skip a generation if it decided to. My daughter is 54 years old and her children we mentioned that to before. They're very athletic, and they don't show any symptoms at all. losses. My second wife bless her. We've been very for 41 years and fires symptoms in my family. No, I'm the only one. Even when we traveled back to Italy to visit my mother's family, their cousins, nephews. There's no one really displays any type of there's no conditions. It just happened to pick on me. So I'm grateful for that. And here in the US, I have two cousins left and they are fine. They don't show any weakness either.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 14:48

I wanted to go back to something you said because a lot of people think that CMT can skip generations but it doesn't. And people think that because it might be just a mild case and people don't think that that person hasn't don't get diagnosed, then it shows up worse in the next generation. So there's no rhyme or reason that next generation is affected, more or less. But it doesn't skip generations. So that's a really interesting thing to tell people, because people think that all the time,

Ricky Biagiola: 15:19

I'm glad to know. And after all, this time having it I didn't never a friend heard that when I do that. So I'm grateful again, they're not showing any signs. That's great.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 15:27

Have you ever had discussions with your wife, Lois about? What if my kids had it? Or have they asked you about it your children? Like, Why are your hands like that? Right legs like that?

Ricky Biagiola: 15:38

You know what, Liz, my son is an RN. My daughter, like I said, is a hairdresser. She's 54 years old. She said, You know what? She said, if I start to feel it, she says, We'll deal with it. There

Elizabeth Ouellette: 15:50

you go.

Ricky Biagiola: 15:51

My kids are strong minded. And my son, especially being a healthcare in the healthcare field, he says, yeah, he says, different. Now. My son is different mother as low as his son with me. My daughter is my ex wife's daughter. So neither one of them is displaying. So almost had no part in this. So it's just me. But no, there's no apprehension, there's none of that.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 16:16

Well, they got that from you that great attitude.

Chris Ouellette: 16:19

That's what I think. So if my math is correct, it sounded like you started to kind of have symptoms or ankle related issues in 1990. I think that's what you said. So you were already married to Lois at that time, right? Because you've been married 40 years. So tell us a little bit about that journey? What type of role did she play for you as you were starting to feel the symptoms? And or once you finally came to the diagnosis by Shah, what what type of role did Lois play for you? And was that important as you navigated through this?

Ricky Biagiola: 16:55

Well, first, of course, I have to say, she couldn't be more supportive, but she's creative minded as well. So at the time, for that first five years, 1988, I was a meter reader for the electric company, which had me walking miles and miles a day, gosh, winter time, summer time, residential neighborhoods, industrial neighborhoods, all that. I say, I twisted my ankle today, I stepped on a small stone and my ankle went like this. So she says, Well, okay, why don't you try higher work boots. I said, Yes, that's a good idea. So it happened a little more frequently, I went to the high work boots, then that still wasn't supportive enough to keep my ankle from rolling. If I stepped on something, she said, maybe try wrapping your ankles with ace bandages around the bottom of the foot around the ankle. Lois worked at the hospital. She's been there for two years, same hospital, my son works here and University Hospital. But anyways, she always came up with an idea. And even now, I really rely on her for a little bit of innovativeness, a little bit about how to be I know you can't do this way, because of the way your hands are the way your feet are. Why don't we try this? Yeah, she gets it and unblessed.

Chris Ouellette: 18:13

So she's very solution oriented? Guy. Yeah. Well, that must have been great and continues to be great having that relationship, right where you can bounce for someone to get their input.

Ricky Biagiola: 18:26

Yeah, it is great with her. My my working career was not so great. Because I couldn't I chose a worst occupation that to have what I have and try and function as a construction worker, I was just awful. I was always the guy that lifts so the guy that needs help carrying the ladder, and that caused me issues, year after year. So

Chris Ouellette: 18:48

how did that make you feel? How did that make you feel when you're in the work environment? And oh, hey, help Ricky with the ladder? Or did people poke fun at you? Or were they Well, how'd you feel in that environment?

Ricky Biagiola: 19:01

So it was awful. I imagined I had union jobs, not to get into all that sort of thing. But I was okay with the power company. I was okay walking to read meters, we got promoted to residential installations, which is the pipe on the house and the meter electric meter, but it also involved climbing wooden poles 30 or 35 feet and stringing the wire from the house to the pole. So anyway, I was able to do that. That would have been a career job quite honestly, except that conglomerate electrical conglomerate merged with this power company here. And they soft it to lay off the field workers kept their own and laid off the the Cleveland field worker so I had to find another job. I went to electricians union was okay for a while but when you have a union job like that, and I mentioned that before to Here I am 52 years old. I'm starting a new line of work even though I was familiar with the outdoor part that I wasn't familiar with, I had to learn the indoor part of that, which is fuse boxes, plugs, switches breakers. Yeah, I know all about all this. Yeah. So anyway,

Chris Ouellette: 20:15

20 4am 22, whatever it takes nivel

Ricky Biagiola: 20:19

2221,

Chris Ouellette: 20:21

whatever, doesn't matter.

Ricky Biagiola: 20:23

Anyway, I was easily disposed up whenever it got to be an issue. Well, you know what, we're paying this guy the same as we pay the guy that's 30 years old and 62. And real strong, we'll find a way to send him back, we have to lay him off. So my working career as an electrician in the Union was very sporadic. And I managed when Lois was working again at the time at the hospital. So he carried as much load as I did. When I got to where I could get out and retire as early as I could. Yeah, I had to do it. I had to do it, because it just wasn't. And when you asked how I felt, I felt shitty. Forgive me. Yeah.

Chris Ouellette: 21:00

It's hard for me to imagine. And then I'm thinking about you with Lois, right? Because that can really shatter your confidence, I would imagine. And nice, probably having her around, be that positive person to lean on, when those times are tough.

Ricky Biagiola: 21:14

That's exactly right. She's a good supporter. And all through this, in spite of the little the balance issues and the muscle weakness, I was still able to play the drums. So I at least I had, at the time, when they beat a career musician ended and I had to start working. I still managed to play we played on the weekends and not terribly frequently, but a couple of times a month, sometimes three times, that sort of backed me up, it backed up my brain is to know that I wasn't going to be completely invalid. I got some terrible diagnosis is over the years from doctors here.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 21:52

Like what like what would they say to you? This is like part of the story of a lot of people CMT. They're given these like, horrible outcomes or futures. And people fall into that when it's not even true.

Ricky Biagiola: 22:04

Yeah, well, it's things like well, I don't think you're going to end up in a wheelchair, or, at first, I thought you had Lou Gehrig's disease, not to disparage the physicians here in Cleveland. As well, there were no specialists here for CMT. I searched out the head of the the neurological department, and again, a nice guy. And we did the tests. We did all the tests, it came up multifocal motor neuropathy with conduction, black because of that, but unlike so many others, again, I'm blessed not to have pain. But you can see I can't willfully straighten my fingers. I can't willfully move my ankles or toes. They're there. I could move them with my hands, right. But I can't look, I could stare at my feet all day. And they would never move. If I tried. My heart goes out to people that actually are hurting. I'm sorry, I don't want to get emotional. But anyway, my best to all the folks that post on that forum on the chat. In fact, someone posted that, how do you handle something or other or my family thinks I'm faking? Or because there's so many ridiculous, these people, these poor people, some of them, they don't have the support system, they don't have people that care about them enough to be helpful and loving breaks my heart

Chris Ouellette: 23:33

from the emotional standpoint, you actually have such a big heart, you do. You're very emotional caring about other individuals. And I guess it's a nice attribute that you have there in terms of your feeling towards others. very heartwarming. So,

Elizabeth Ouellette: 23:46

so Ricky, when coworkers were giving a hard time, was there anything in your mind that kept you going, instead of falling back into depression? Like, what would you tell the kids today that are just like struggling in they can't do this or that and they're being pulled out of this? Or that? How did you keep strong? Or what kept you strong to keep going and to get where you are today?

Ricky Biagiola: 24:09

Well, my responsibilities as a father and as a husband came first. So whatever I had to deal with at work, of course, I would bring it home and I would, I would speak to Lois about it. But it's easy for me to say, you young folks out there you you got to find the courage. You have to find a little spiritual spirit, a little faith, they can hear that every day. And it's not really going to, it's not going to be helpful. It's helpful to me. That's how I was I managed to find the heart and the courage to carry on. It was my work. Like I said, my working career was very disappointing. And it wasn't for my lack of attitude, or personality. I mean, I would hear everybody likes you. You're a nice guy but you're not able to keep up. So I'm going to have to lay you off. That was unfortunately, the last 10 years of my life before I retired. That was what I had to deal with. Before that I could manage well enough that my my CMT had it stopped progressing, okay, for a good long while, and I was able to deal with it. Like I said, being working outdoors, part of a two man crew, I wasn't in a on a construction site, a building or a housing development where people would be all over would be seeing me I was with one guy, one guy was understanding enough, I really my advice is only my advice as a non healthcare person, not a physician, not a nurse. Only that, that's one of the hardest things I would say is to find the strength in your own mind, in your own heart to accept the fact that goes the stairs over there. No, really, I gotta go around this way. Because I know my limitations, or not to just sit down and say, I can't go any farther because I can't get to where I need to be without help from somebody or something. So that's all here. And that's all how much courage you have. Not a, I don't know if you call me a tough guy or a fighter, but I think I have enough inner strength to deal with it. And even though I'm in Yeah, now I've had it for 40 years. But for somebody that is realizing it's going to it's a progressively weakening thing. And they have that to look forward to, that's tough to find the mental strength to accept that and make your life adjustments it is it's like, Chris, we talked about that life adjustments. My hands are weak. So I wear gloves, I use a cane inside my house. Because at any given time, if I'm not holding on to one thing, I don't have good balance. So whether it's a wall or a kitchen cabinet, or a doorknob or whatever, we have a little place we have a little two bedroom condominium and, and I could get around and know where things are. But yeah, it's it's consciousness, knowing that maneuvering during the day, what it's going to take what you can see ahead of you to prepare, there's a dip in the parking lot. I'm gonna go around that so I don't have to walk through it. When I'm outdoors. I used to that like crutches. One is not enough. So I can avoid curbs if I have to walk a little farther. Instead of trying to step up a curb I can you find the ramp that goes up and re our railing are all that yeah, it yet awareness comes back to the mental thing. It's certainly it's challenging. And there are some days when he couldn't be more discouraging, been still drying breath. You have people that care about you. And

Elizabeth Ouellette: 28:02

that's thank you for that. Yeah.

Chris Ouellette: 28:04

I was wondering as well, just thinking, going back to drumming and drums. What role has playing the drums played in your life? You talked to some folks about music and that takes them to another place or helps him deal with certain things. And I'm curious how you feel when you're playing the drums. And maybe it's just not drums, but music in general. Right? What role does that play in your life or has played in your life. From an

Ricky Biagiola: 28:30

early age, it was the serious interest of mine, I was blessed with the talent to look to learn and copy what I might hear, try to reproduce it as I heard it authentically from people that performed in the first place. If I heard something I really liked, I will try it. My parents indulge me I had a set of drums at age 12 and real ones and I spent a lot of time copying the people that I admired. That's a good way to put it. I've always had ever since that ever since then, I've always played in one form or another. I hope I'm not coming off as a person with an ego because I absolutely do not have an ego. I have confidence. Chris here in town in Cleveland, from my history with the outsiders, being a part of a national act wasn't my act, but I was part of a national act. A lot of people know me by reputation, if not the fact that we're friends. And that's why I was always able to play here in town. And now more recently we're able to we're able to travel again, we're able to do concerts and tours. We have one coming up on the Saturday before Halloween on the 28th in Columbus, Ohio. But it was an interest of mine. I was blessed with a talent to accompany the interest and it played a big part in my personal confidence I guess. Later on what I was lacking in physical strength. And even today, I have enough common sense to figure things out, I have enough heart and support around me to figure out how something has to be done. Whether it's how should we finance this thing we need? How do we pay for this car? Do we go to this bank? Or do we go to the credit union. So that's all those are all things that are up to me as part of a person's career. Common sense is a don't buy that you won't be able to pay for it next year, and you can have four more years to pay. So it's been an adult being responsible. And I said, I was always responsible, my family keep first, and I love my children and my grandchildren. And everybody's doing well. And it's very heartwarming to hear that we were there example, from there to carry on with their own families.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 30:54

And do you think this drama helped your legs and your hands not atrophy as quickly or as fast it kept long?

Ricky Biagiola: 31:01

I don't think so. I see again, on the CMT chat, most often, people that are in the healthcare field, or that are aware of it, say, you got to keep have to keep moving. Last night, go to the YMCA twice a week, as a routine. I cannot as hard as I try. I can't build up any muscle tissue. If I decide I get frustrated some day and I use too much weight, or I use too many I do something too hard or too long. I pay for it the next day. So that frustration of saying I'm going to do this until it starts to help me. It doesn't help my particular condition. I only hope to maintain that I try to keep myself from getting any weaker. Mentally you might have someone might have to accept the fact that it's not coming back. Try to keep it from getting any weaker. Unfortunately, that's the best you can do. But that person would have to do that. Otherwise, you sit on the couch, and it's all over.

Chris Ouellette: 32:03

Right? Well, it's so great. You continue to play drums and you've you're forming this new band and you got a lot going on. It's

Elizabeth Ouellette: 32:10

I like this dude, I like him. I like him a lot, Chris, for some weird and funky questions.

Chris Ouellette: 32:18

Definitely. As we're kind of wrapping up here, Ricky. I didn't think of one though. I'm just thinking now it's this isn't a crazy one. But what's your favorite Italian dish? Boy?

Ricky Biagiola: 32:27

You put me on the spot, Chris. Okay. So I'm not going to wring my hands. But three years ago, I was diagnosed with celiac disease, which is allergy to gluten to wheat products that contain wheat flour, right? So guess what? I spent my whole I was aged 70 Now 75. So I said to the doctor, how do I get this at age 70 When I spent my whole life eating spaghetti and pizza, my mother. My mother used to make her own dough and punch it in the bowl and make pizzas. Band the band people would come over to rehearse at my mother's house. She always made pizzas and she made now I had to give all that up. Ah, guys, the gluten free anything is so awful. That you'd be better off eating

Chris Ouellette: 33:24

the cardboard. Yeah, exactly. A little salt on that bag and eat that. Yeah,

Ricky Biagiola: 33:29

but my I miss all that I every now and then I'll have gluten free rigatoni or something. It's okay. It's the past that stuff. And it's disappointing you but it's like wearing Yeah, but it still looks like it's supposed to look like I actually have been able to follow it strictly gluten free diet and any of the people listening to the podcast or on the chat if you do your main your personal maintenance, if you can, you have some form of insurance, where you're able to afford to keep up your health. Please keep up your health. Don't be a tough guy. Don't say I'm not going or don't be afraid because you might hear something that's going to alarm you in the future. If you want to be around and you have people that care that you can manage to do it. Please do here. You get your oil change in your car. You buy tires, you might as well take care of yourself to

Elizabeth Ouellette: 34:25

go. That's right. Love that attitude. Yeah. So I have a question for you, Ricky, you were in the construction field. Why are manhole covers round? Look at him. Look at me.

Unknown: 34:38

Why do you think?

Ricky Biagiola: 34:40

Good question. Okay, I would think it would make more sense that well, some of them are square. They are Yeah, some of them are square because they put the ladder on one side and it won't slide. When they go down. Some of them have ladders built in once you get onto the street there. Those iron rungs. I don't know I never worked on I never worked underground was always up in the air.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 35:01

But those of us who don't even know that about underground, the ladders and then this and that, and

Ricky Biagiola: 35:06

a lot of the high voltage feeds to buildings in the city are underground to keep them from damage. They're unsightly. They're huge cables like this. So they're down some parts, some crews and the electric company would work on them down underneath the street. But anyway, I don't know why they're around.

Chris Ouellette: 35:28

Okay, I'm gonna tell you easy to manufacture and install round covers for round manholes. Superior compression resistance. Oh my God. See, portability? Carrier Safety Assurance. Well, there you go. They won't fall through the hole. Okay. I got another one here. This one. Ricky. This one might be tough. And I don't know. So if you could only choose one song to play every time you walked into a room for the rest of your life. What would it be?

Ricky Biagiola: 36:01

It's actually a classic rock song from the early 70s. Ran out of love by Golden earring. The band I believe that they were from Sweden. It got popular here right about that time. It's not really a dancing song. It's not really a

Chris Ouellette: 36:17

What's the TOS? What's the tune? You said? It's radar. Love. I know. That's Oh, radar. Love.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 36:23

Our love. That's right. Ah, is there a reason you liked that song? Why do you love that's got it?

Ricky Biagiola: 36:30

It's got a challenging drum part.

Chris Ouellette: 36:31

Okay, cool.

Ricky Biagiola: 36:35

That's part of our that's part of our set.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 36:38

Kind of go listen to these guys. Ya know?

Chris Ouellette: 36:40

Yeah. And if you ever need me to fill in for the vocals, just let me know if like your singer can't make it. I can swim in there. Bail you guys out.

Ricky Biagiola: 36:49

Thank you to be able to afford to get you down from brah.

Chris Ouellette: 36:53

Yeah, come for free. Ricky come for free.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 36:56

So don't let him talk drums though. He'll be using his spoons. And I don't know about Yeah. So we're gonna wrap it up. I could talk to you all day.

Chris Ouellette: 37:05

I know. But thank you so much for being on our show. Really appreciate it. I hope you had fun.

Ricky Biagiola: 37:10

I did. I enjoyed talking to you both. It was very pleasant and humorous. And I hope I didn't get too emotional.

Chris Ouellette: 37:18

You were perfectly just be yourself. That's what it's all about is awesome. So Alyssa, if someone wants to follow us on social media, where do they go?

Elizabeth Ouellette: 37:26

Well, we have a Facebook and Instagram page CMT for me podcast, and our official website is www dot pod page.com backslash CMT for me and find out more info on CMPA usa.org backslash or forward slash, I don't know, it's just a slash, whatever. Its forward slash, dude. I don't know what the difference goes like. This is for whatever, whatever can't just go

Chris Ouellette: 37:52

right. Okay, to our listeners, do you have a good story? Would you like to tell your story on our CMP from the podcast, either write to us at info at CMTA usa.org and pitch your idea or go to our new website, www dot pod page.com. Forward slash CMT for me.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 38:14

Also, don't forget to leave us a review a stellar review so we can reach more folks and people get to know about us. And one way to leave a review is to go to Apple podcasts. Or leave a review wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Chris Ouellette: 38:27

Okay, I thought you're gonna say pod page. That's like the hardest word to say page. I know. So many places to listen to our podcast Lizzo you can listen this podcast CMT, for me on Apple podcasts, Spotify Buzzsprout and write a review as reference and share these episodes with your friends.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 38:46

You can find out more about the outsiders here. The Outsiders USA live.com. Is that right?

Ricky Biagiola: 38:54

And yeah, we woke up we welcome the visits real quick, if I might plug that yeah, we have some video there, some promotional video. Still pictures from our last concert. We have some merchandise as usual. And if anybody is interested, there's a big article about the outsiders on Wikipedia that started from the very beginning and carried up pretty much up to current about the former members that had come and had gone and that suit each other and this is quite a story. It's www dot the outsiders USA live.com

Chris Ouellette: 39:28

Right on. Ben said better

Elizabeth Ouellette: 39:31

I should have let him just do the whole I know.

Ricky Biagiola: 39:34

You asked us alive or USA live however you want to say got it.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 39:39

Well, thanks so much. And we are going to play his song. Here

Chris Ouellette: 39:43

we go right now.

Ricky Biagiola: 39:46

Call back to you. So you thought a crow got to you saw your picture the other day in the fryer how things change we will look

Unknown: 40:19

at Overwatch shall shine and pray to everything that you do and to

Elizabeth Ouellette: 40:43

thank you so much for coming yeah

Chris Ouellette: 40:44

Ricky was awesome