God Gave Rock and Roll to You (KISS) w Russ Ballard

Turn up the radio and sing along it's time for another Great Song. This is the Great Song Podcast. Season's greetings and welcome once again to the Great Song Podcast. I'm Rob Alley, J.P. Moser, and we're here to celebrate the greatest songs in modern music. We're going to tell you what makes them great, why we think they're awesome and why you should too.

J.P. how you doing today? Oh man. I am doing fantastic. So I always throw a fantastic out and try to segue it in. I got one. That's not here's how we'll figure out how we land. Okay. So I heard today that they are now making those goldfish crackers. You remember those little crackers as a kid that are larger by 50% specifically made for adults?

No. Now when you think like I want a good snack, do you think of man, those goldfish crackers tastes good? I don't ever think like, even as a kid, I don't think I was like, man, these tastes good. I think these are just like, here's a snack. Okay. So as a, as a fine connoisseur of snacking, here's what I find.

That if my kids are eating goldfish, I'm going to eat some goldfish. I'm grabbing a handful of gold for snack. Yeah. Do you do the same thing with like bag? If they, I don't know if you're the ones that did the cereal, like the Cheerios or bags of lucky charms you ever sit there or you just going in for?

I mean, obviously within reason I've never really turned down a snack, but what I'm saying is I'm not turning down goldfish. I don't know if I would just go by them because if I was to go buy goldfish, like mega size or something, they would be on the same aisle as Cheez-Its they would be right next to the cheese and cheese, cheese.

It's a winning, you know? And maybe even you remember cheese nips. Yes. Geez. I think I would take cheese nips over goldfish, although they're essentially the same thing.

I've never even, I've never even thought about it in that context, but yes, you're absolutely right. We are not talking about goldfish. That nickname I'm not moving on from cheese nibs are going to be excellent to each other. And we're going to party on dudes because we are in movie minds. We're knee deep in movie, and we are covering Bill and Ted's bogus journey. The KISS version. God gave rock and roll to you. Two, number two, here we go. Play the, love it, Rob. Let's rock out.

take your time.

all right, guys, I'm going to bring us back out of that because I'll just give you a little caveat on how we got into picking this song. So, first of all, God gave rock and roll to you killer song. And we have the songwriter of the original version. We have Russ Ballard from Argent on. So stick around.

You're going to love the interview with a songwriter, and we're going to talk about the Argent version, but Rob has been wanting to cover a KISS song for awhile. And I have debated doing maybe as a rivalry episode, but man, do we both love this song? And we thought, what better way to tie it in than to throw it into movie mind and talk about some bill and Ted's love I'm wearing a bill and Ted shirt, compliments of Jack Jack, Jack, man.

Thank you so much. I'm rocking it. It's a it's from the San Dimas high school rival high school of. From California. They're so great shirt. Great Jackson, us for t-shirts. I think he sent, he sent me some in like big dude size, and then he sent you a couple of wild stallions related one that says I think it says party on dudes or be excellent to each other.

It's so good. Oh no, I got the other one says San Dimas high school football rules. Yeah. Which is awesome. So good, huge bill. And Ted's fan. I watched a rewatched bill and Ted's bogus journey in preparation for this episode. Just because this, this song actually plays over the end credits, but the plot of, of bill and Ted's bogus journey involves a battle of the bands.

That's the central theme is they have. Play at this battle of the bands in order to further their quest to become the band that is going to bring about peace in the world. And they of course go through a bogus journey and the process in which they die and go to hell and then to heaven games against dad, come on, beat death.

And he joins the band. And anyway, I don't want to spoil anything, but if you haven't seen bogus journey by not seeing the newest one. Oh, it's so good. Face the music. Yes. Yes. I need to watch it. I think it's where you can watch it cheaper, but when it originally you came out, it was like 39 99 or something like that premium premium stuff.

And I was like, I like bill and Ted. Yeah. But not that much. It's really very good. Yeah. It's a great fish. I don't like I, I'm not a big fan of like sequels for sequels' sake. You know what I mean? But I know they worked on that one for a long time and it's actually a worthy sequel. It's very, it's pretty much it, but yeah.

Talk a little bit about the salt we'll we'll we'll jump right into this. Okay. So this is, this version is actually called gay God gave rock and roll to you to I right by KISS because KISS made some significant lyrical changes. And so this version from 1991 is bill and Ted's bogus journey. And the 1992 KISS album revenge.

The original version is by Russ Ballard, only the. Recorded by origin written by Russ Ballard. Correct. The KISS version is credited as Russ Ballard, Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, and Bob Ezrin, who was KISS's producer for the revenge album. So because they changed lyrics added lyrics to a significant degree.

So they actually got a songwriting credit for this version. The KISS version went to number 21 on the billboard us mainstream rock chart and went to number four in the UK. This was a top five hit in the UK and Switzerland, top number five in Ireland, number nine in Germany, top 20 several other places.

So it was actually a pretty significant single for them at a time, especially when. At this point, KISS was not the biggest band in the world anymore. This was on their way back toward a swing up in the like psycho circus era when they reunited with the original lineup. But you know, this was a this was while they were sons' makeup.

Shall we say in the, in the no-makeup era? Yeah. Well, they had faces, but no, yes. I said that wrong. The faceless pet now paintless faced. There you go. I was putting the less than the wrong, but anyway, paintless, face to KISS. There you go. Without ACE freely. Yeah, that's right. So and we'll talk about some of the other members because they are significant to the, the story behind them doing the song.

But I just want to. Genuinely, truly. I love everything about this song. Okay. And I am not, I am not the world's largest KISS fan. I don't own any KISS records. I love a couple of KISS songs. I love this song. I love rock and roll all night. And then there's some others that I rock with. You know what I mean?

That I'm like, whatever, you know, I'll turn it up fine. But I'm not like, you know, ah, KISS, you know what I mean? It's but however, this song. I get this song, dude. I love everything about it. The melody, the feel the gang vocals, the gangs for days. And you know what I love the idea of this song, rock and roll is a beautiful thing.

And to acknowledge that something beautiful came from God is right up my alley. So to speak like, yeah, man, God let you feel that, you know, like, come on. That's like, this is everything about my life. That is right. If this had a baseball reference in it, this will be everything, you know, this would be the only song.

You got God and rock and roll in baseball. I'm good with Bobby Cox on backing vocals. Yeah. So I just want to say that, like, this is not a song that we chose just because, you know, we, we got to Russ Ballard to interview him, but honest to goodness, I love adore this song. It makes me feel things in my heart, you know?

Okay. Let's talk about let's first. Let's talk about the opening to the songs. Okay. We, we joked about it. It is very grandiose. And it's all over the place. Like honestly, I get lost in the intro to the song, so here's, I'm going to read it to you and see if you can make any sense of what's going on here.

Musically. I think the Argent version, which I'll play. Is a little more easy to lead your ear through the way they voiced certain things. Or they have some, some light melody going on leading to some of these chords. But I get lost in these chords trying to just hear what the crap key are we in right now?

You know what I mean? It's all over the place. So it starts out E a minor D G minor C sharp, F sharp, minor F sharp major B minor. It's a pattern of jumping from one major chord to a, to a minor chord, a fourth above it is kind of the pattern, but it's jumping all over the place. So EA minor, then we go down DG, minor.

Okay. That's a whole step down. That's that pattern shift that whole step down then down a half-step C sharp to F sharp minor then F sharp major B minor. Okay. So it's the same move. It's just a different place. F sharp. That's right. Then we go eat a meal. Okay. So that's one major, one for Medicare major then, and I think that's where the drums kick in.

And then it goes C sharp major F sharp, minor one, four F sharp, major B minor again, E a major F sharp major B major one for major. Yes. G sharp C sharp minor. That's a 1 49. And then the F sharp, which is where they finally land. So the key and the chorus song isn't because, because the F sharp becomes the

blah, blah, blah. And that's when you get, and maybe that's one of the things that makes the course feel so good. There's so much tension going on at the beginning of it, because you're like, I don't know where the beginning of the phrase is. I don't have a clue what key we're in. So when you finally get that big Bob, Bob, your ear just goes, you know what I mean?

Like finally, let's listen to this all through one more time. I'll lift out. Does F major and B flat major fail in this song. Come on. We were right next door. Show me some that we're right there. Either place or F sharp. Oh my gosh. All right. One more time. Here's that?

Hey Mani done a D C sharp F sharp, minor, short major C minor back to the east, a major drums.

it feels like you have ground to stand on. That's just crazy, dude. Hey, that's nuts. But that melody is said, Hey, we're this song's gonna be in B. Our first court is going to be an eighth. Yeah, I'm here. I got it. They're like, well, the we're throwing in a monitor right after that. It's like, huh, where are we going?

Yeah. To try and make those chords make sense in relation to be, forget it. You're not going to do it. And songs and be in our force court is going to be a G monitor. You good with that?

Yeah. So anyway, it's, it's wild, but then it gives you this beautiful grand melody and that, that is equally beautiful plate and song. And then you get these, the gang vocals coming in. I did that just hit me, which we may have done before he dropped this. We got to get a bunch of people to just gang vocal this song and post it and we'll just get them all over.

Just sit this here. And we'll just gang booklet gather in groups, Masco, throw it in. And we're just going to freak in just everybody's saying it really one of those large video things. Now the, so there's an alternate intro in the movie because the movie seamlessly goes from the ending scene with the battle of the bands with bill and Ted and their band, which at this point consists of the princesses from the first movie the, the rope, the good robots that they made to combat the bad robot versions of them.

And then the alien scientists named station who made the robots. Oh, and also the grim Reaper who plays upright bass. So it's like all over the place. And they're playing this intro, which is actually by Steve Vai. Steve Vai does all the air guitar stuff that they play throughout the, the second movie.

And. And then he also performs this intro, which goes seamlessly from the ending scene into the chorus of the KISS version, as the credits roll. Let me, let you hear that. Now I'm going to pull it, pull this up.

George Carlin looking on proudly.

Now we've got kind of both playing over each other. One's going to fade out the other phage.

now we're fully in nevermind hearing Steve Vai shred over that. And so that plays, you're seeing people all around the world tune into this battle of the bands and then, yeah. So it's, it's great. Love that so much. Let's talk a little bit about the Argent version. It was released in 1973. It went to number 18 in the UK.

It did chart in the U S but not very high. It went to one 14 on billboard. But let me play you a little bit of the origin version because it has some chords that are slightly different and a decidedly, seventies feel still amazing. It just has one thing that I really like about it. It has a lot of chords.

How do I put this? It has a lot of chords over their own flat seven. So like, or chords, like, that's a weird way to say it you'll hear it, but like, if you were in, see, it's got a lot of like C over B flat, flat over F kind of stuff, or like, you know what I mean? So several of those, or like a flat six over flat seven, those kinds of moves are, are really cool.

So let's check this out, but basically the same intro, but I feel like it leads because they they're adding some new.

Nice seventies, Oregon in there really prominent.

here's your first . That's a flat six over flat seven chord instead of walking up, because version goes flat seven, a flat six flat 71 real big here. They're just going to go plus seven

Here's what I mean? Yeah. It's this far away from sounding like a jug band song. You know what I mean? Like if this far from Mungo, Jerry, the prog rock, this St. Court

it's like the chords is just a little different than the KISS version. That's great though. That's like a one major nine

and the lyrics in this first verse is very, very different. There's also a couple extra beats in there anyway, but I love both both versions. That's the Argent version for sure. you will notice the Oregon being prominent because that is rod Argent on keyboards and Oregon. That's it. And a little more on Argent.

Actually, their biggest hit was called hold your head. And you probably know it. You may not know it by the title, but you probably know the song. Let's play a little bit of hold your head up. We got to get, let's see. No, I need the single version. The original version is six minutes long and it feels like a U2 song at the beginning.

Right? You can definitely hear some YouTube in here.

I mean, Amman.

If you don't know this at this point, you'll know the chorus

feels great.

that's dude, come on. That's grateful. Do you want to meet these bands? Yes. Okay. Let's meet them. Let's play it at least once or twice here. Hey, let's meet the man. It's time to meet the man. Hey, mama was beat the man.

All right. So I've got both bands to be met, so I don't know where we want to start. Let's start with the KISS band and then we'll go to the Argent band. So we're going to meet the band that played on the, the KISS one that we started with. Okay. Paul Stanley vocals, rhythm guitar Hitman. The 18th, greatest of the hundred metal vocalists of all time.

Wow. His right ear was misshapen and he couldn't hear till he had surgery in 1982. So he couldn't even hear out of his right ear. No kidding. Yeah. Paul Stanley born Stanley Burt Eisen changed his name to Paul after Paul McCartney and Paul Rogers. Wow. Those are two pretty good. And he's the star child in KISS?

The one-star over the right eye. That is Paul Stanley on vocals and bass, Gene Simmons worked odd jobs, including selling trading comic books, which is kinda neat. Probably the longest tongue in rock and roll music, I would say. He can speak German, English, Hungarian, Hebrew, and Japanese. No kidding.

Yeah. He fell in love with Diana Ross while dating. How about that he didn't date diner. Did they? I don't think they dated. He was like, yeah. I fell in love with her. Right. Ain't here. Lead guitar on this track also bass also in grand funk railroad Bruce Kulick. His brother was in Meatloaf's touring band and, and they both cured with meatloaf following the release of the first album.

Okay. So him and his brother, both here with meatloaf on drums and backing vocals, Eric Singer, he plays the role of the cat man, which was originally Peter Chris's character. Also played with Lita Ford, black Sabbath, Brian May Alice Cooper among others. And we'll talk a little bit more about that as drummer one on.

I'll also on drums we'll say Eric Carr. He plays drums on car jam 1981, backing vocals on God, gave rock and roll to you. Eric Carr, the drummer was actually in the band video, but was battling heart cancer. So actually couldn't play on the track. So Eric Singer did but they put him in the video with a big wig and his hair.

It all fallen out. They put him in a big wig. So really cool. I thought that they got him still in there. So both of you. I'm not on this album or track, but if we're talking KISS, I got to talk a little bit about ACE freely, because it would feel weird to not talk about KISS without talking about ACE freely.

He's got an awesome custom Gibson, Les Paul, that emits smoke from the humbuckers and lights that match the tempo of the song, which I think is, is really neat. Not on this album and track it all, but also got to talk about Peter, Chris, who was the original drummer responsible for placing the ad and the east coast edition of rolling stone that simply red rock and roll drummer, looking for original group doing soft and hard music.

Peter Brooklyn, Paul and Gene answered, and they added ACE and the rest is history wrote the, he wrote the ballad Beth for KISS. So yeah, so which is arguably their biggest probably their biggest song anyway. So yeah, so that is the KISS band. Yeah. I don't know if we want to play the jingle. And what's that we'll meet Argent.

So the original was recorded by Argent, who we've talked about. Rod Argent on keyboards, backing vocals, and lead vocals. Bob Henry on drums, Russ Ballard, who we're going to hang out with at the end guitar lead vocalist wrote the song Jim Rockford on bass and backing vocal. Basis really prominent in the mix.

John Verity on guitar and lead vocals and also John Grimaldi on guitars. Lots of guitars in there. Yeah. So yeah, that's the, that is that version. I did not do a meet the band version on the Petra version. Even though that is, and that is the version that I knew first and the one that I liked and grew up on.

So was from of the three of the three. That's definitely the one I know the best. Definitely the one I know the most. Is it your favorite man? That's tough. It's tough to say because it's heartstrings. It's what I know it's familiarity. And I just recently have started listening to the KISS version more, mainly a lot in preparation for this, but it probably, and they have actually two versions of it.

They have one on their first album and then they had one on beat the system, which that's probably my favorite because I just got to say. The guitar on the cancer version, their version is the least, my least favorite of the three, because of, if nothing else, the rhythm that they sing on the chorus is different.

They want to play a little bit of syncopate it. Yeah, let's do this. And then I'll, I'll tell you what I don't like about it

a little more straight ahead.

I don't like the rhythm.

Syncopated dude, come on.

yeah, I mean, his vocals are undeniable, but I, you know, it's not, that's not my version. Put it in the souls of everyone gave rock and roll to everyone. Okay. What's in that, it says both in the, in the other versions to put it in the soul of everyone and and gave rock and roll to everyone, say, God gave rock and roll to everyone.

They never say that in the Petra version. Okay. Funny. So a little more on, on the KISS version and, and band here. The kid's version is not only a reworking of the origin track, but it's actually, it's special in that it's a tribute to then KISS drummer, Eric. Who was at the time dealing with the heart cancer that ultimately killed him, like it was, it was the last KISS song to feature Eric Carr.

He didn't play it on it, as you said, but he did provide some background vocals. He died three months after this was released as a single, so like it was the last, his last piece of music. And although he was too ill to play drums on the track, he is featured on backing vocals during the, the kind of break at the end.

Let me play you because this is actually one of my favorite parts of the song and it was cool to read that it was actually Eric Carr. When they break it down after the guitar solo, it's got some alternate chords in there. Where, so it's a straight ahead. Walk down. Boom. God gave rock one seven row.

Do you six, but it in the five roll to you for right. Well, what they do here at the end involves a, a four sharp diminished chord. God gave rock and

that's Eric Carr doing the high back. Okay. So one more time. God gave rock and

I love great laid vocals. Beautiful. And then of course, they go back to rock and rock and pause. Flourish. There we go. Alright. So yeah, really nice. A really nice touch there. Kind of a really a tender touch. You know what I mean from kids, which is what you subtlety is not really what KISSes now for painted face.

A nice moment for that. This the single was also the first to feature Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley sharing lead vocals. Since the song I from 1980 ones, music from the elder, that was pretty cool. A little more on KISS. Let's talk some KISS. Here we go. I'm gonna try not recover ground that you already covered.

By the way I literally made the font of their band named bigger in my notes because that's what KISS is. They are larger than life superhero figures who breathe fire and spit blood and set off explosives. My uncle has seen them so many times in concert and says it's without a doubt, the best show you'll ever see.

And he's been, he's been to tons of rock and roll shows. He has a huge KISS fan, but he's like, there is no show that is better. And he's like, it's, it's everything. I believe it. If that's, you know what I mean? If just from a pure showmanship standpoint, I'm not sure anybody does it better than KISS. Just it's like a.

It's a spectacle. It is a spectacle. Yes, that is absolutely perfect. KISS is sold more than 75 million albums worldwide, including 21 million selling albums and 30 gold album. More than any other us band. His has more gold albums than any other band in us history. I did that for one of the bass player episodes, where we talked about the wealthiest bass players five, and I remember Gene Simmons was in the top five and that makes it sort of that they have 14 platinum or multi-platinum albums in the U S alone, but they have 21 albums that have sold a million copies or more worldwide.

It's crazy. It's wild. Salespeople by pretty much 21. Yeah. A rock and roll hall of fame, class of 2014. A lot of people, they were actually the first band to have somebody protest on their behalf at the rock and roll hall of fame. Oh yeah. Because they were eligible years earlier and people were like, what?

Yes, exactly. What is taking so long to get to the hall of fame? Let's see. They, according to MTV are the ninth greatest metal band of all time. That's according to MTV. So, you know, I got that list. Let's go to this list. I love list. All right. This is the greatest heavy metal bands of all time. According to MTV's panel of experts.

Counting down from 10 number 10 Motley crew. I said it with the Laos in it. I'm going to guess number nine, KISS KISS. Good job. Number eight, actually, a lot of uhmmm lots in this list. Number eight is Motherhead number seven is ACDC number six is Slayer number five, Penn Tara newer group, a number four, iron maiden, number three, Metallica.

Number two, Judas priest. Number one, I'm going to guess it there are, you said metallic already poisoned. Are they going to no, no heavy metals crew made the thing. So I was like, oh yeah, totally. Ah, man, Slayer, I'll give you some honorable mentions. Why think Alison Shane's anthrax faith? No more. Who's bass player appeared in a bill and Ted's bogus journey as the head of the, like, what is it?

The faith, the faith, no more Institute for It's black Sabbath. Yeah. What'd I say that the faith, no more Institute for something in theology. It's like a, I can't remember. Anyway. All right. So that is the MTV top 10 greatest heavy metal bands of all time. KISS is also listed as by VH1 as the 10th grade, 10th grade.

Just hard rock artists of all time. So they're going metal and hard rock category. So this hard rock. So here's that list. Number 10 is KISS number 11, by the way, just, just eating out of the top 10 as Aerosmith. Okay. So yeah. So number nine, guns and roses. Number eight, the who? Number seven, the mighty van Halen.

Number six, Nirvana. Number five, Metallica number four, ACDC number three, Jimi. A band that Jimi Hendrix Hendrix experience number, and this is just artists. So greatest, hard rock artists number two, black Sabbath, number one, think hard rock, but not heavy metal on Jovi. Jon Bon Jovi. No, I don't know.

I'm just thinking of the Harrison in that list. Yeah. Classic classic classic Zeplin led Zepplin is the answer we were looking for and they were the third greatest metal and hard rock live band of all time as crowned by loud wire magazine. That top five is. ACDC KISS queen an iron maiden. Number one, according to loud wire iron maiden can play my eye.

It's not going to get in because they're so evil looking on the cover. Like I couldn't listen to them, so I couldn't bring them home. But one of my buddies, his name's Andy Wotton Barker shout out to Wadi is the biggest iron maid fan I've ever met. He's like, he knows everything by them. He plays bass and he tries to, you know, and that's tough people who were in the iron maiden, like live and breathe.

It it's like, it feels weird. He's, you know, he's. He plays bass in a church. So he's pretty clean cut for the most part. And then you walk in his basement and it's all there. It's like, where am I stepped into like a dungeon? It just looks evil. He's got bases hanging on the wall. Warlocks locks and like freaking yeah, that's great people.

People who are real like Ironman, maiden, like heads are obsessed. It's like people who listen to our show, you know what I mean? Like, yeah. People that's right. If you're a patron of the show, we understand. If you walk into your basement, you've just got pictures of me in J.P. all over your walls. Ring tone is the meet the band jingle.

Yeah. Let's see. All right. The original lineup of KISS, as you said, it's not KISSes funny because they are characters, right? So there it's, it's not In addition to being, you know, Paul, Jean ACE and Pedro, they were the star child, the demon, the spaceman and the cat man. And so they had these like characters, it's almost like, it's almost like.

You know a show of the movie franchise where you have characters that could be played by different actors if somebody bowels out so that eventually they brought back the spaceman character, they brought back the cat man character, even though it wasn't ACE and it wasn't Peter. And so that's, you know, they're continued to use those.

Now. There are also periods that would like Vinny Vincent, where Vinnie Vincent was like an Egyptian warrior and he had a little different face paint. And then Eric Eric Singer or no, I'm sorry. Eric Carr was the Fox. But then they, then they unpainted and then, then when they repainted it was the original makeup again.

They have some absolutely. Ludicrous merchandise KISSes, the most widely merchandised band of all time. There's no question. I don't think he's anybody even comes close to the amount of different kinds of merchandise. Gene Simmons will say yes to anything. It's basically like Jean, I have this idea for some KISS Merck and he's like, will it pay me a dollar?

Absolutely. Yes. Sign me up for it. Don't care. Right? These are the guys. Who donated their own blood to be poured into the comic books, the KISS comic books by Marvel in the seventies. I mean anything to get the band out there, right. They will do. So I found a list of some of the most ridiculous, official KISS Merck that Gene Simmons actually signed off on.

Okay. Number one, and this is on like a ranking site, you know what I mean? Where people just vote things up and down. So it's not like in super order, it's just order of what people like. Number one is KISS, air guitar, strings. It's nothing, it's nothing little thing. It's got a, it's got a label this as KISS, air guitar strings, and then just a little package that has nothing in it that you can see.

Let's see, KISS super spicy chili, tomato meat buns. These are in Japan. And they're like scorched on the top. Anyway, number three is a KISS casket. That's casket with a K and it's literally just a tricked out. You know, it's got KISSed stuff all over it and it's on this big Chrome carrier KISS casket that costs about three grand.

When it came out in 2001. I wonder why you think there's people out there in the KISS caskets? Definitely. Well, let's see a KISS themed. Hello, kitty Testament in there. Like that that's right. Like life savings, whatever I want that. That's right. KISS themed. Hello, kitty toilet paper. Let's see, this is maybe my favorite of this list so far.

I haven't gone down the whole list, but KISS condoms. There were different ones. There was tongue lubricated that had jeans face on the right. There were studied Paul and love gun protection. Let's see. I still like the air guitar strings. That's my favorite. It's so good. There's KISS meets Archie comics, a KISS, scratch and win lottery tickets, KISS, crunch cereal.

Let's see. There's all sorts of beauty products, Snuggies cornhole boards. They've had, I mean, pin ball, lunchboxes, of course, all kinds of, you know, all kinds of just insane merchandise. As a matter of fact, they even had a pro. I don't know about this. Okay. I knew about this because I watched WCW world championship wrestling in the nineties and they shut down in the early two thousands got, got bought out by WWE.

But in the late nineties, there was an officially licensed character in that promotion called the demon who wrestled in full Gene Simmons gimmick. Okay. Now of course it wasn't Gene Simmons. He was a trained pro wrestler. Okay. And originally his first two appearances were by a guy named Brian Adams.

Funny enough, Brian Adams who you may know if you're a wrestling fan, you may know as crush. He was also had a couple other gimmicks, but a lot of people know him as crushed, but he never actually. In ring to wrestle as the character, the guy who show and shit just showed up for his, when they announced the character, he played the character.

But when, when he actually started to wrestle, this guy didn't want to do it. He's like, I'm, you know what? I'm not going to do this. Find somebody else. And so they got a guy whose name was Dale Torborg. Does that name ring any bells to you? All right. His dad's name might because his dad was MLB player and manager.

Jeff Torborg. Do you remember Jeff? Torborg vaguely. He was a catcher. He caught Nolan Ryan's first no-hitter bill singer's no-hitter and Sandy Kofax his perfect game. Got three big games. He managed the Chicago white Sox and Mets when we were kids and he was a broadcaster after that, his son, Dale, AKA, the demon is now the strength and conditioning coach for the white socks, little MLB tie.

In that time we love baseball. That's right. KISS started a three year world. Retirement from touring tour that is set to end in 2022, and obviously got slowed down by, you know, the pandemic and touring, but it's supposed to wrap up in 2022. Let's see. Okay. Gosh, I've got so much. I know I've got a little more, I don't have a ton more KISS was formed out of a band that Gene and Paul were in called wicked Lester who signed and recorded one album with epic records in the early seventies.

You could actually listen to it on its it streams now, epic Leicester. It's not great. It sounds like it sounds like a garage band recording and whatever it's I don't recommend let's see. Other notes, the KISS traditional logo designed by Paul Stanley by hand, I say by hand, he designed it by hand, not with the aid of like a program or anything.

You know what I mean? He did it with a Sharpie and a ruler. But if you look at it, this is one of those things you can't really unsee once. I, so I hope you're ready for this KISS fans. The, the KISS logo has to kind of lightning bolt shaped SS. You know what I mean? They're like crooked like that. But they're actually not parallel with each other.

So like one has a slightly different angle to it than the other. They meet up at the top of the bottom. But one the way they, the way they just sit, one is just a little crooked from the other. And so if that drives you crazy, I'm sorry, but I did warn you certain countries use a different logo for the band because the SS in the.

Has a similar look to the SS symbol that the Nazis used. It's very similar. I mean, it's almost, it's almost identical. And of course Paul and Jean are both Jewish and they both say there was never any intent, nothing intentional there, but in in Germany Israel, several other countries in that region where that would be a very sensitive logo.

They use an alternate KISS logo. That's a little more rounded four on the SS and the Eye of the same. Obviously they played Germany cause jeans, bigs German. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. How about this is, this is incredible. How about the KISS solo records? Their first round of solo records, they dropped four solo records all on the same day.

And if you, if you look at them, they're all, they're all KISS branded albums, but it's like KISS. And then it just has like a Peter Chris's face on the front. You know what I mean? Like, and it's done very cool. They look very cool. They dropped them all on the same day. And coincidentally, the only top 40 single from any of the solo records was ACE Raley's cover of a song called New York groove written by.

Russ Ballard, come on. Here we go. Let's see a little more from a Wikipedia. This is going to, I don't know whether I believe this or not. Okay. And my heart doesn't believe this. Okay. But according to Gene Simmons stated in his autobiography, which by the way is called KISS and makeup. It's come on. That's brilliant, brilliant KISS and makeup.

He said in his autobiography KISSing makeup, that van Halen founder, Eddie van Halen was eager to replace ACE Fraley as lead guitarist. I heard somebody say that. So maybe I read it. Here's a little context. Gene Simmons, and of course Jean was foundational early in van Halen's career. He financed and produced their first demo tape.

And you could find those demos, just search for van Halen, Gene Simmons demos. You can get them down here. That's got some of their early material. So obviously that part is true ties there. But Jean and Eddie's brother, Alan. Convinced Eddy to remain with van Halen, allegedly. Okay. Eddie was willing to break up van Halen do detentions at the time between himself and lead vocalist.

David Lee Roth, who ultimately left the band in 85. If that happens, we don't get the same Hagar years, which makes me sad. And, and we're huge KISS fan, right? I mean, massive KISS fans. Other notable guitarists who auditioned to replace Wolfgang, I'm playing, I'm playing a freakin guitar with lights and smoke coming out the yeah.

All kinds of things. But apparently other notable guitarists who auditioned to replace ACE, Fraley included punky, Meadows of angel, Doug Aldrich of Whitesnake and DEO Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi. And, and I'll tell you who, this, this could have been a perfect fit for KISS man. He's kicking pigs all over the place.

He would fit right in Haywood, musically. He would've been too much, too much for anybody be like, calm down, quit spinning. He's like, they're like, dude, stop playing this. This is Beth. They're like, you know what I mean? Stop playing. You don't even, you're not even on this song. And he's like feedback and all of the, yeah, that's awesome.

Anyway, but he would've fit character-wise he definitely would've fit. Absolutely. Let's see. Okay. A nice KISS moment in the movie. This is spinal tap. There are several things in that movie that make me think KISS. I don't know that they are based on KISS. You know, I know there's some there's, there is definitely a KISS story of KISS getting either lost or trapped under the stage, you know, but I think that actually happened after spinal tap came out.

Yeah, I know. Right. But there is a moment.

Say there's a moment though, where the band is having quite a bit of the drabs and lead singer David St. Hubbins girlfriend has designed some face makeup for them that obviously has to be a rib on KISS. And the makeup is very KISS fashioned and they're like sitting at a diner and she's handing out these sketches, you know what I mean?

And they're based on like Zodiac signs. So their keyboard player Viv Savage has like a yin yang Libra thing. Nigel is a goat for, as a Capricorn, Derek smalls is a crab and and David gets a lion face. But they, I just, the funny it's, there's nothing, there's this line isn't funny, but the way they say it is so funny because he just hands in this and he goes, here's your crab face?

And it's, I dunno, too funny. All right. Let's see, I got step the genius. Oh gosh. Let's do something to Gene Simmons. Jake genius. The genius. Genius. Genius. Genius. All right. We're going to play stump. The genius bill and Ted a dish. Oh, let's go. Rob's getting, let's kill this kill. I'm going to ACE freely then.

Oh, I love it. Here we go. According to Ted, who is Noah's wife? Joan of arc. Joan of arc. Nailed it. One for one inclu. Who, who gets the Reaper. Okay. I was like, wait, when they're playing against the raper. Who was the killer? Okay. Death says it's Colonel mustard, right? But it's actually professor plum.

That's correct. Sorry. Did you lose? It was professor plumbing. They thought it was a Colonel mustard in the cellar with the candlestick. What was the name of the teacher that assigned the project of the historical figures? Do you want multiple choice? No. Hold on Mr. Ryan, Mr. Rock. Bam. What was the name of the sporting goods store that Gingiss con tears apart?

It is hold on. It's oh, wow. That's great, man. That was a toughie. All right. Number five and final Robins killed this. Kill this. What was Bill's new mom's name? Bill's new moms. So in, so, okay. So backstory is there, her name is Missy. Missy. Missy is one of the great running jokes throughout the series. So in, in the, in the first movie she's just like she's three years older than them barely older than them.

And in the, in the first movie Bill's parents had gotten divorced and his bill I'm sorry. Yes, yes. Bills. Yes. Bill's dad married, Missy. And they're like, and of course she likes she's in their room and whatever, and they're like Gaga overheard, you know what I mean? And. And Ted's like your step-mom's cute dude.

You know, it's like shut up Ted. And he's like, you remember when she was a senior and we were friends shut up, Ted, you know what I mean? It's a whole thing. And then in bill and Ted's bogus journey, we find that Missy has divorced Bill's dad and married Ted's dad. And so they go through the, the reverse of the whole thing and then spoiler alert.

I don't want to spoil anything major, but in the, in built head face the music, the third movie, the opening scene is at a wedding and it's the wedding of Missy and deacon. Ted's little brother, Missy is marrying deacon. And it's disgusting actually, but great job. Holy cow, Rob, come on. I knew I had that one bill and Ted.

It's specially excellent adventure, but obviously bogus journey by, you know, by association is one of the foundational movies for who I am, bill and Ted and Wayne's world are on equal footing for me as far as like how much of my humor and just the way they look, the way those movies Revere music has always been important to me.

You know what I mean? So I, I knew I had that. Let's see. Okay. One last note on. Every now. And then when you listen to a song enough, you'll find some sort of edit in there that you never caught before. You know what I mean? You can hear things like wearing yeah. Punch in. So they'll do these things for those unfamiliar, with the term where you're you know, instead of playing a whole track again, you know, I messed up, I got to play the whole thing again.

Let's say, well, let me punch you in. And so they'll say, all right, I'll start you in the, you know, at the beginning of the course and you'll play a line and then they punch you out and it just drops in this one little thing it's extremely easy to do in the digital era. It was not exactly as easy to do on the Roland V studio.

That's yes. Or in the, in the analog for that on tape. Yes. Yeah, exactly. So you had to time it just, right. And obviously it's easiest to do when there's a space. If you've got a space before this lead line, then you can just drop in that one line, no harm, no foul. But if you've got a thing that you're like, man, I really want to be able to keep this one part, but punch in, in the middle of a phrase, either on an instrument or a vocal it's tougher.

Yeah. And so, but you're like, man, you really nailed that thing, but let's try and punch in that second part. So I found a punch. Okay. And it's actually one of my favorite parts of the song. There's an end part of this thing where Paul Stanley starts sort of like sermonizing almost. He's like given the pep talk at the end, he's like, come on people.

You know what I mean? It's like, that's where it is. Okay. This may one of my favorite Paul Stanley moments. All right. So let me, let me give you the.

first of all, I was like, oh, I wasn't sure. I didn't know. Paul could do that. I didn't know that Paul had that in him. So I love that line, but this is another one of those things. You're not going to be able to unhear this once I play this again and point out. Okay. So once he hits the first piece of vibrato rock and roll, there's a little cut right there.

If you're listening, you'll catch it. Okay. You'll hear the voice change and it's not a natural vibrato. Cut this. My friends.

you hear it? There's a little flutter. I didn't hear it. Just a little flutter before that first.

that very first flutter. You hear that? I will go to my grave believing that is a punch in it's too unnatural to be a, as smooth as the rest of that vibrato is I think what they're like, dude, you nailed that one, but maybe he's saying it flat or they're like, what if you did a little flourish at the end and took it down?

Cause it's crushed, whatever it is, it's crushed. And I'm glad that I'm glad that you. Yeah. Tied those both in together. Okay, man, this has been an end. We get to interview the artists that wrote it. Let's go get it's great. So we're just getting ramped up. That's right. It's it's, it's like an excellent adventure, you know, Robin JPS, epic podcast adventure.

Okay. We're going to talk to Russ Ballard and we'll be back at the end to tuck you in. But in the meantime, Stop what you're doing right now. I see you doctor. I know you're scrubbed up your mid surgery. You got to stop. Okay. I know you're playing it's in the, or it is important thing that you know what the guys he'll be fine.

I know you've got opened up. My mom's a retired nurse. It's okay. We'll be okay. Okay. Gail told us he'll be all right. Just leave it and go to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter right now. Follow us at Great Song pod. You'll be glad you did. I promise be part of the Facebook group. It is called great songs and the great people who love them greatly.

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Do all that stuff right now, then you can scrub back in, get back to your surgery, see that didn't take long at all. He's fine. Jeez. We're gonna talk to Russ Ballard. We'll see you again in a second. This is the Great Song podcast, ladies and gentlemen, as promised we are here with Russ Ballard. The writer of God gave rock and roll to you and many other great tracks, so much other stuff, Argent, all the things it's.

We're so excited to have you. Thank you so much, Russ, for joining us today on the Great Song podcast. Thanks for inviting me guys. Absolutely. We're so excited to to talk to you about not only God gave rock and roll to you, but, but so much of your other career stuff, but I do want to start with with God, gave rock and roll to you since that's what our episode is focused on.

Can you kind of tell us how the track came to be the inspiration and, and sort of the writing of it? I wrote the song in 19 70, 73. Which is a long time ago, but it was a strange one. It happened, it happened when, after I had a bit of, it's a strange thing we'd been working really hard. God was with Arjun at the time and touring the states and stuff, but not really having any time off, you know, any moments I had off I was, I was writing.

So I was always working. So I was, but really it's not work. Is it? You know, you can only be doing things, you know, so I mean, sometimes I would play we moved the car would turn up and pick me up to take me, take the band to a show with the playing and Manchester here, which is like three hours away. And we would finish at midnight and get back three in the morning.

I'd be up at seven writing until two, the next day when the car would pick me up and say it to Bournemouth, or take me to Dover or take me to. And I did this for two years, you know, just solidly two years, seven days a week. Wow. The gigs weren't always seven days a week, but if I had a day off, I would be writing all day, you know, us get home at three in the morning, four in the morning or whatever, and I'd be up at seven and I'd be writing till the, you know, right the way through.

So I had a bit of one of those low times, you know, when you're sort of, they call it emotional, obviously emotionally exhausted. And so it was a bit of a rough time, you know, and then I kept riding through it, you know very close friend of mine is Nick Kinsey, a guy who's no longer with us, but he just married.

He was, he was about 20, it was about 28 or 27. He married a girl who was a year old and they met at university and and they married and stuff. And He said to me one day, you know, cows, cows, very ill, you know, she got cancer, all of those things. So you're kidding. What's 28 years of age, you know, he said, yeah, I said, but she's okay at the moment.

And so I went on holiday at the time. I remember coming back feeling bad on holiday, actually. And I'm sort of thinking about Nick and these problems with his wife and stuff. When I got back, I thought I must phone Nick TRC. How she is. I must phone. Nick got a phone next to the there she isn't. I got back from holiday in Spain from Spain.

And I found a studio where I used to do my demos in Barnett and I, as an American guy called Richie gold, used to be the tape operator there, you know? And he said I said to him, can I speak Richie, Richie gold? His name was, I said, kind of speak to Nick. He said oh, next not here. Haven't you heard? No.

Is it a funeral? I don't know. It was the weirdest thing. It was the weirdest thing. So I said, you know I said, well, get into phone me when it comes back, I've got to speak to him, you know? And I said, anything I can do now, he Peter's very depressed. He said, he said, oh, come on, have a drink for us.

Come have a drink tonight at the pub. So I went I went to the pub and able to just staring to space. I just crashed. And I wrote, I wrote, I wrote a song called I don't believe in miracles, which was a hit here actually for in Blundstone. It was the singer in the zombies, but it wasn't here. And he still uses it in a show tonight, but I, it was one of those things that came from the heart, you know I don't believe in miracles, but I felt you might show your face.

I happened to grace to tell me where you are. And I believe I was your game, your bull. If you threw me up, then I would fall. And so you've won again. You win them all. I believe I'd run to you if you should call, but I don't believe in miracles. I don't believe in miracles, but I thought you might show your face out the grace, tell me where you are.

But I believe that somewhere there's someone who's going to light the way when things go wrong. The bullet that shot me down was from your gum. The words that turned me round were from yourself, but it's one of those. And people will say, it's manners in the studio. They were saying to me, you can't, you can't come in.

I don't believe in miracles. I said, yeah, no, no, I can. I can. But I, I said it can't be, I do believe in America is because it's, it's, it's from the heart. You know, this is how I feel. And so, but every verse I tried to make trying to make the diverse is kind of positive or the last verse I tried to make positive.

I don't believe in miracles. I don't believe in miracles. I believe that somewhere that someone is going to work like the way when things go wrong, you know, the bullet that showed me the house from Uganda was telling me, man, it's kind of, for me, it's spiritual. It's very much a spiritual kind of song. And so I wrote that and I had this depression, it went on, it went on for about nine months altogether.

You know, it's really, really it's all the way through it. I was with Arjun two red America, seven a week to start in a depression. You know, I felt best when I was on the stage. You know, when I was on the stage, I was fine. It's coming off the stage and you had this these feelings and stuff. It was probably very strange.

And you know, after that nine months I started to come out of it and it was just wonderful. It is not being reborn, but you know, when. You hear people say, God does touch me or whatever they say that kind of got us touch my heart, or they say, or I've been reborn or, you know, I'm I'm reincarnated or whatever, you know, but it, it was a definite thing.

I felt so amazing. It was like being a kid again, you know, after having this depression and I I sat at the piano and I just wanted to put down how I felt when I wrote go, go rock and roll. But I, the first, first I wrote the KISS changed, changed, but my first, first it wouldn't have worked in America anyway, but it was lovely.

Fred, love your friend and love your neighbor. Love your life and love your neighbor. Now it's never too late to change your mind. Don't step on snails. Don't climb in trees. Love cliff, Richard, but please don't take, but God gave rock and roll to you. Do you have rock and roll, but all the other words that they use or not use it, that's all my that's all my stuff.

In fact case changed, the first person made that first better because it suited America nine didn't suit America at all, but it's how I fell. But the thing about if you want to be a singer or play with a man, you got to sweat or you don't get far because it's never too late to work nine to five. And if you're young, then you'll never be old music and make your dreams unfold, how good it feels to be alive.

So, you know, it's just my mother was quiet. I mean, my mother could quote anything. I'm not particularly religious, to be honest. Although, you know, I, I felt, I feel pretty spiritual, but my mother was very, she could quote anything from the Bible. She always, she had a phrase for every, every occasion.

You know, she used to say things like, you know, Well, God got you to you. God gave him when I was a kid, you know, God gave you that. God gave you that gave you that. And I think it's, it's sunk into my psyche, but that's how I came to write the song initially. And we recorded and we had a, we had a hit with it here after hold your head up.

It was a hit. And then it was it was 1985. Obviously I was in the states. Actually. I was waiting to go into a record label if I can tell you how KISS came to record it. We're going to ask anyway. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Obviously I was going to a few record labels. I forget why I was there actually, but this guy will pass me.

I'm just waiting to go in to see an INR man. And this guy will pass me this familiar curly hair and sort of a. Dragged by jeans and baseball, baseball boots and Baila. Yeah. And it was English and he said, it's not your Harrison from Blondie. And he was working there. He said, you know, he said, we're collating songs for a movie.

He said, did you see bill? And Ted's excellent adventures, which I didn't see except, but we are doing a follow-up, which is gonna be called I think his bogus journey. And he said I've told them, and they're very keen that your song, God gave rock and roll do it would be great for the movie.

It'd be perfect. So I said, well, yeah, if you want to use it, it's fine by me. You know? And so they were trying, they parent announced a few different bands and try it out. But, but when KISS came along, they said, oh, we're doing, we want to show you the first first, because you know that wouldn't so America.

So yeah, that's what happened. Wow. Oh, I love that. Yeah. You've written, you've written a lot of stuff for a lot of people, so that has all sorts of things. Really? Three dog night. Bleier hot chocolate. I mean, head east and rainbow did, since you've been gone. Yeah, yeah. Quite a resume or quite quite a CV that you have.

You know, let's see, I gotta ask this because you are of course, Russ Ballard, but you also happen to be Russell Glen Ballard. How often do you have to explain to people that there is another Glenn Ballard who is American, who is also in the music industry, who is also very important? Is there ever any confusion between, between you and Glenn Ballard?

Well, I had John on the second name. He was what it was here. American guy in the now heads up hits a record, acquire a big record company or publishing company. And he was a writer, John. He wrote enough wind and fire song with a couple of other guys, but he also wrote save saving the best for last. Do you remember that you I think so.

Vanessa Williams and he, there were three guys on that too. And he, he turned up in my house and we were riding together when, just before all the Vanessa Williams song came out, funnily enough. And he told me I had written this song and he played it to my stuff's beautiful tune. And he, he was he was chatting to me and suddenly he said yeah, no, but that's Ross, Bella.

That's Ross Ballard. You're talking about Ross. Bella said, I said, I'm Ross Butler.

Sorry, sorry. I'll make sure he said to me it's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. I'm aware. I mean, he did the Wilson Phillips things. They did that a mountain in the middle. He's done a lie to get one of my favorite. He did my, one of my favorite albums actually jagged little pill. Ah, there we go. Good. What's it like to play an Abbey road studios?

I saw that you you played in Abbey road. I've been going there since I was 15. That's odd. Hey, that's great. First session. And they went, I did my first session in that 15 Kino 15 bef well, before the Beatles, before they came out. Yeah. Number two with no way paramount because somebody had told Nori parent who, before George Martin, he wants the biggest producer from Abbey road.

You know, some EMR that they had John Burgess there, George . They had Molly Ridley on all these different staff producers. And so I was going in there. So we've been going in all the time. We'd make same as the Beatles. The whole is threading in the dreamers, all those signs EMI we used to make. I was in the roulettes you see with that on the fate?

And we did, we used to do three. We do two songs in three hours. So the Beatles fit the same sessions. They used to do any, you could work from 10 till one, and the next section briefed from two till five. And then then it will go right from seven till 10. And that would be finished every day. It was like that.

But you do two songs in three hours and you had a 20 minute tea break in between. You got a cup of tea, you know, you, you do the east side. And then John Burgess, we used to produce, produce us. And John would say, sure, I have a cup of tea, but yeah, but we didn't really want to, we just wanted to play, but we'd go downstairs.

But, you know, this is how records were made, nice to sell like 50,000 a day in those days, you know, just amazing. But now you make four minutes of music. It takes five or six days. Let's talk about Argent for a moment. I want to cause a lot of our American audience may not be familiar. We have a lot of UK listeners as well, but a lot of our American audience may not be as familiar.

If you had to point to one Argent album or one track even to get a new listener started with Argent, where would you point them?

I liked, I mean, we did lie on the first album. That was the night I really liked. I thought that was quite a good first when it's a good demo for three dog night. Anyway, my favorite album was indeed, indeed in deep. I thought it was really good. I had God gave rock and roll to you on it as well, but it had we were together then we'd done about, I don't know, we've done about five or six tours of six or seven tools of American.

And we was really tight then, you know, and that, that would be my choice. Okay. There you go. Straight from Russ Ballard, go in deep on Arjun and get your Argent collection started. Yeah. Talk a little bit about the holy guitar that you have. The the holy guitar. I picked it up. Studio took it out, was okay.

This dude sitting there now, I would've gone and showed it to you actually, but it was in the studio. Yeah, well that was a 1965 Stratocaster black Stratocaster. My friend bought this thing, you know, and he was playing, he was playing it and I said to him, ah, he said, I want to sell this. He wasn't really a guitar player.

He was a written guitar player, but he was in unit four plus two. Do you remember that now? I know, I know it from research. I'm not familiar with the band, but a song called concrete and clay was a great, you played on that as well. Funnily enough. And he I said, I'll buy it from you. I, how much do you want for like 200 pounds or something?

So I said, yeah, I'll have it all for you. And at the time, I don't know if you remember, but it was very fashionable that you used to see shares like in, in venues, in halls. And they had round holes in them and, you know, cause it made them lighter and they were metal and were holy. And I said, I like guitar like that, you know, just holds, you know, make the guitar really light to, you know, and so I tried to change it around, had my friend cut it around for me.

He worked at he he was at college at the Royal Royal academy. One academy of art and I said was, my oldest friend is still around. I said, Jim, can you let's can you cut some holes in it? And you know, and then I had new pops in there. New. New knobs, you know, parts of things. And I put a Gibson humbucker in on there and add a hole in the, in the stock at the top.

But, but I threw it up on stage one day and it crashed on the front, along the next split. So we had a new net, but it's a telecast and that goes on there now. So it looks even stranger, but that's how that happened. Yeah. You've kind of invented the Franken Strat before Eddie van Halen almost he's famous for his.

So that was 1969, but I did mine. Wow. That's, that's really fascinating. I loved your 84 solo album voices and your 2020 project. It's good to be here vocally. I really liked my awakening and it was nice to see the revisit of a New York groove, which probably most know from, from freely, but so good. So I will tell everybody to check, check, check out that and check out the the voices of Russ Ballard podcast.

So you listened to that. J.P. I did. I checked out the 2020 project. I really liked. I really liked my awakening vocally, I think is good. And, and I really liked the, the revisit of, of New York grieve. I thought that was good. There's a, there's one question that we ask everybody. So you're on tour either.

America and the states or, or in your part of the world, and you go into a gas station over at what would be your gas station, snack, food of choice, and why you're trying to think of it. I'll tell you mine. I would get a candy bar over here. We have called three Musketeers bar. Cause it's the most ounces.

They're all about the same price, but my mom would say you could have any candy bar you want, so I'd get a three Musketeers candy bar. What is your gas station? Snack. Food of choice. Yeah, I'd have to be vegan because I'm vegan. So it'd be probably pretty difficult. I'd probably have something like a.

Well, you have a cold, what do you call crisps in the states? Oh, chips, potato chips, bag chips. I'd probably be a plane without anything in the, you know, something like that. Probably. I wouldn't have a candy bar because they have mail. I've been a big vegetarian for 40, 40, over 40 years. Wow. I've been vegan for 20.

Wow. So you were, you were vegan before. It was cool. Yeah. Yeah. Years and years ago I was feeding and actually I was vegetarian festival in 68. When Arjun started, I was, I was, I was vegetarian. And then I think that, you know that's why I lost a lot of weight as well as property in the first place. It's probably why I crashed and didn't have a very good diet in being on the road and not really eating that much and not sleeping as well.

So yeah, but life is good. And it's a great process, even if it's great, especially during, especially doing music every day. I love it. Hard to complain. You're a rockstar, you're a legend, done all kinds of stuff. So we have enjoyed getting to talk with you. Thank you so much for your time. Hope you had a good job.

Yeah, it's brilliant. Yeah, it's great. Yeah. And it's nice to have that Southern hospitality. Well, you're always welcome. If you ever come to Tennessee, look us up. We'll we'll go grab some food and, and hang out with you. Thanks a lot. All the best take care of. This is the Great Song Podcast, ladies and gentlemen, that was Russ Ballard who wrote this beautiful song that has blessed the world, brought about world peace and all the things that bill and Ted hoped it would do.

And we have covered it for you here in long form. God gave rock and roll to you. Take, take version one, version two, whatever. Yeah, whichever version you prefer. Movie month continues. We'll be back next week with a classic for the eighties kids among us. And you guys are going to love it as movie month continues another Great Song coming next week until then I'm Rob.

J.P. go listen to some music.