Stone Temple Pilots

a way forward. We got into the connection between the Stone Temple Pilots and the Carpenters, which I guess wasn't a complete surprise for me, but went way way deeper than I would have imagined. I spoke with Robert and Eric on a rain Tuesday in early March. It was rainy in New York, not in l A, where they were, but it's definitely a day I remember clearly, because for one thing, it's the last time I was on the

subway in New York. By the next day, like a lot of you, I had started working from home where I'm recording this introduction, And these are strange times, and it's just about every other email you get tends to put it. I hope this finds you well. It's a time when everything seems to be up in the air,

and that goes double if you're touring musician. When I spoke with Robert and Eric, they were just about to start a tour of Australia alongside some other nineties rock radio heroes Bush and Live, but things were just beginning to shut down at that point, and so those tour dates had to be rescheduled for next year. While Stone Temple pilots hope that they're plans to tour the US this summer are going to hold, it's hard to say

what the future will bring. Most musicians make their living on the road, so most musicians are in a really difficult spot right now. I'm sure a lot of you guys are too, And this is a time when we really need to take care of each other, which means being careful, staying healthy, washing your hands like your soap has the winning ticket of a scratch off lottery hidden inside it. But it also means that if you're a music fan and you can swing it, maybe think about

supporting the music you love. However, you can me personally my band T shirt supply has been growing very steadily. Okay, so that's my public service announcement. Let's get back to Stone Temple Pilots and when they first emerged in and songs like Plush and Creep began to dominate the radio, the band was dismissed as grunge pppycats by the sort of rock purists who also initially dismissed Pearl Jam is

a major label Nirvana clone. I mean in I knew a guy who was absolutely obsessed with proving that Pearl Jam had been assembled boy band style by its label, and he was going to get to the bottom of the whole thing, which of course was not true. But here's the funny part. I was never really on the pro Nirvana anti Pearl Jam bandwagon. But you know who was Robert de Leo from Stone Temple Pilots, who once told Rolling Stone that until he saw Pearl Jam play

on Lollapalooza in two, he thought of them as fakes. Look, if you didn't live through the Grunge War, it must seem really confusing now, but the basic point is that nothing was real enough, and Pearl Jam wasn't real enough because they hadn't started on an indie label. Nirvana, even Nirvana wasn't real enough because they hadn't stayed on an indie label. And it didn't matter that some of these bands loved the same sort of music or had started

from the same sort of place. I mean, Robert de Leo and Scott Wiland met in Los Angeles after a gig by punk rock pioneers Black Flag, but back in the grunge wars, nothing past the authenticity test. Side note here. When Robert wrote Plush in nineteen nine and he first played it for Wiland, Wiland dismissed it as sounding too much like Boston. A side note to the side note is that Kurt Kobaine used to say that Smells like

Teen Spirit was him trying to sound like Boston. So you see what I mean about some of the stuff starting from the same place. One place that the arguments about authenticity never held any sway was on the radio. Radio was super hungry for heavy guitar and singers who knew how to howl right after Smells like Teen Spirit broken, and radio didn't care if the music was coming from

Seattle or the UK. In the case of Bush or Los Angeles, where Stone Temple Pilots came together in the late eighties when Robert's older brother Dean came up from San Diego to play some guitar with Wild Robert and Eric. After STP broke through on the radio, some doubters did have their minds changed the same way Robert did about Pearl Jam, which would be seeing the band live, where Wyland proved himself as one of the most kinetic performers

out there. The band's debut, Corps, went eight times platinum, their second album, Purple, went six times platinum, and Stone Temple Pilots became one of the biggest bands of the nineties. But Whyland also became one of the most troubled stars of the nineties. It was in and out of rehab over and over again as he battled the addiction that would eventually take his life in and sadly, that turned out to be the first of two tragic losses for

the band. After Whyland and STP had recorded six albums together and finally parted ways in Stone Temple Pilots started playing some shows and recording with Chester Bennington from Lincoln Park, and they continued to tour together until when Chester left to focus more on Lincoln Park and then sadly a couple of years later in Chester took his own life. Perdida, the title of the latest Stone Temple Pilots album, translates

from Spanish as the word loss. Its sound is quiet and it's introspective, and songs are really about romantic struggle and loneliness. But Robert told me that the album does also reflect the losses of Wyland and Chester. Well, you're definitely in there those two. You know, We're very fortunate to have shared moments, personal and musical moments with both

of them, you know, with Scott and Chester. M Perdita is Stone Temple Pilots second album with Jeff Gutt, who became the band's singer after STP launched online auditions for a new vocalist when Chester Bennington had left the band. Robert told me they probably went through fifteen thousands of missions. But the weird thing is that Jeff Gutt wasn't one of them. He had been a competitor on the X Factor in he comes from Michigan, and when Robert was playing a gig in Michigan one time with the l

A band the Hollywood Vampires. After the show, someone backstage told him he really needs to check this guy out. So he did, and that's how the Stone Temple Pilots ended up with a singer who grown up on their music when he was a teenager. Robert and Eric told me about how Jeff impressed them right off the bat. We talked about them recording in Eric's studio and out the ups and downs of life on the road. Here's what else they had to say. Robert, Joe, how are you? Man?

And Eric? Welcome to inside the studio. So Perdida is a little bit of a change of pace, or at least a change of volume. It's acoustic, and certainly that's always been part of your sound. I think a Pretty Penny from Purple, maybe sour Girl from number four, but but this time it's the whole album. So how did it happen? And why did it happen? So before we started, just have to say that I would really like to sleep on a pillow of your voice. I got a

great voice, man, It's very soothing. Well, I'm I'm happy to help in any way I can, fellas, although I also worry that you may have just told listeners that my voice will put them to sleep. Now you need to do some uh some therapy audio books that would it would work your voice. I am open to all are um. Sorry, what was the question now? So now we were talking about the new record pretty day and it's it's an all acoustic album, and of course acoustic has always been part of the flavor for you. But

how did it become a whole album and why? Well, I think when you UM write a song, it for me, it starts out acoustically. Most of the time. It's it's grabbing acoustic, and when you have a great one, it becomes your couch guitar and you sit there and it kind of is your therapist and girlfriend and whatever it may be, and it you have a choice at that

time to musically bring the song into another area. Um. With these songs, it just seemed like it was natural to kind of keep them in that that acoustic format, in that acoustic acoustic place. And I think when we started accumulating more of these songs, it just felt naturally to sonically keep them keep them there, you know. So that's that's really what it was. It wasn't a conscious effort, really, it was just kind of this is how these songs were feeling. And um, like I said, when we when

we got more and more of them together. Um, plus the sentiment of the songs, I think it was just we felt that it was that's where they should they should lay, they should be there in that place. And this is an introspective album, maybe a little darker when you're talking about the sentiments of the songs. Perdida literally

translates from Spanish to loss. I believe yes, um. And and so how did those particular songs which came first the sound of the songs or the ideas of the songs, Well, a lot of these songs for me came um when we were on tour in the wintertime in Canada and uh, you know, winter in Canada can be uh tough, and um, we were playing a lot of really cold window lists concrete uh, ice hockey arenas, and when you're sitting in an ice hockey arena and that kind of environment, um,

you know you better have something to do because it can get a little damaging when you're sitting there thinking about things and and the the what you have to do is a band really changes from the point when you're in your twenties too when you're older in your fifties, right, I mean, or what it's healthy to do. Let's put it that way. Yes, Um so I think the best thing at that moment being a musician is picking up an instrument and kind of getting out what you need

to get out. Um. There were a lot of songs that came to me during that time. Um of sitting there and having everyone around, you know, I'd have an idea and kind of send it to everyone and get Jeff Goot the singer involved, and UM sit down with him and start going through some music and melodies that I had, and um just piecing it together. It was actually really great watching, especially unlike the title track for Data, when Robert was pulling out that one putting it together.

He'd be whistling some of the lines saying, you know, this would be sound great as a violin, and then having the cords around it and all the counter melodies. It's really, uh, really natural and exciting. And since we were doing it every day in the dressing room, you could kind of really start to hear how great the vibe was going to be for this album. I know the changes you see, I'm lost suckles most strong and good stun me and the small cover. So you're thinking

about the arrangements even as you're just sitting around. You're you're in the back of these hockey rinks in Canada. It's Winnipeg. It's cold. No, it was really cold. I know I've been there. Yeah, it was it was you know, I always think about arrangements. I think arrangement is something that's kind of lost these days. You know. I hearkened back to the days of you know, um Mancini and um Bert back Rack and the people that really knew

how to arrange music. Um and and I'm sure you know, I'm sure they had um ideas in mind when they started writing their music, you know. And and uh, yeah, arrangement is is still important. It's uh, it's still something that I value in music. You know, of all the references I was prepared for you to pull out, I don't think Henry Mancini or Bert back Crack were the ones that that you were going to come with. UM. But that's really interesting because this is a different kind

of record. It It froze back, maybe to a seventies moment, but those those guys aren't seventies rockers. Yeah, but part of luckily we grew up in such a great period in music in the seventies, so we're just like sponges picking up and see any backrock. I mean, the list goes on and on of what you heard from AM Radio two, what great album tracks and stuff that was on TV, stuff that was available. It was. It really

kind of steeped into our d n A. Yeah. I think anyone that gets into music, uh through the sixties and seventies, there's a moment there where you're going to relate to something that you hear. I think one of my first relations was listening, you know, being curious enough at like five or six to listen to the records that were around. I had older parents which were both gone now there were Ella Fitzgerald, you know, forty eights hanging around, and there were you know, I mentioned Mancini.

I think one of the most comforting things for me still is to hear Andy Williams sing uh Moon River. I mean, it's it's a beautiful song, um and it's it's one of those songs that it comforts me and reminds me of my childhood and putting on those records for the first time. The first time I heard Brian Wilson's falsetto, I mean it. I was hooked. I was hooked from those forty five My first concert was the Carpenters, and many people contributed to the Carpenters music back Iraq

included Paul Williams. You know, great great writers of the time, um and their music. For me, it holds true still, you know. Let's linger on this for just a second. Your first concert was the seventies. You grew up in New Jersey, I did. It was at the Garden State Arts Center in nineteen seventy one. I was five years old, so obviously you're five. Your parents are taking you to

the show. I assume were you there because they wanted to go, or were you asking to go see the Carpenters at five or no. I I went along and uh in that going along, I completely digested and got what was going on. It was the Carpenters with an orchestra, and you know it was it was a moment where, like I said, I just it clicked, you know, it clicked in Let's move forward a little bit. When did you start making your own musical decisions? When did you

pick up a guitar? Well, uh, Dean is five years older than me, so he was the one that kind of got his first guitar. Remember the guitar. It was a very cheap, maybe twenty dollar United guitar. It was the brand. And I think he learned he was learning um when he was about I would say about ten eleven, he was learning. I think the first song he learned was Roger Miller. It was King of the Road. Um.

So I got kind of fascinated with what he was doing. Obviously, you know, as a younger brother, you look at your older brother and goes, looks cool. I want to try that. But the only thing was he wasn't too cool with me trying as a guitar. So I had to sneak my my my guitar passion. And when he was gone, I would, you know, kind of hear him coming in the door and have to put the guitar under the

bed again. But that's so funny because my brother, my brother was three years older, and I would have to listen to his records the same way mm hm, because otherwise, you know, hell to pay. Don't listen to my records punk right, right? Hands off Dark Side of the Moon, but hands off dar I kind of heightened my passion that I wasn't allowed to do that. It almost has

that forbidden feeling. You have to sneak in the in that sense that nobody's telling you it's the Devil's music, but it's still a little bit forbidden, right, Yes, So there was a lot of um just kind of being a good center back then, listening to as many things as I could get my hands on, and through the generations. I'm the youngest in the family. Mind. Dean's mom had married four times, so I had a lot of half and step brothers, and I would kind of go around this.

We had an English, old English tutor house, and I would go into, you know, Dean's room and he'd be listening to the Houses of the Holy, and I'd go up into my one sister's room and she was listening to t for the Tillerman, you know, Cat Stevens. And then i'd go into my other half brother's room and

he'd be listened to Crosby Skills, Nash and Young. And I'd go down to my mom's room and she'd be listening to John Denver or you know, it was all these all these things that were kind of melding together

for me sonically. But we have come to reference points that actually do bring us back to this record when you mentioned Houses of the Holy Tief of the Tillerman, Like, now we're in the realm of seventies music that comes together to form some of the glen of acoustic and psychedelic that I think you guys have gotten on his help. But I think that's always been there. I think it

was just more concentrated this time. I think once we started kind of getting the songs together, it was kind of a focus of keeping them in that, like I said, in that intimate space, and uh, it fits the you know, the feeling of the song and the feeling of the lyric. So it's really about, you know, what makes the singer.

You know, it's always been that for me. It is writing a song that the singer can really relate to and really you're really trying to make the lyric and the vocal the most prominent beautiful thing it can be. I think Jeff did it, you know, really achieved that on this record. Yeah, I think what he achieved was wonderful.

And going back to that, what was nice is as we started hearing more songs being written by Robert and Jane for this record, it was nice knowing that the whole record was going to be in that acoustic, slide electric kind of vibe. Whereas when you were mentioned before songs like Sour Girl and Pretty Penny, you know there used to be one song on an album. We just kind of jump into this this type of vibe. So it really was comforting going into doing a whole record

with with all those avenges being open. It's interesting you call it comforting because I was wondering when the music is quieter, does it feel like more of a risk? Is their sense of being more exposed either emotionally your musically you can't hide behind the volume. No, I think it's mostly the sentiment of the vocal that really is pulling your pants down, so to speak. I think on one point, it's songs about a lot of relationships, relationships

that have failed, relationships that are missed. And it's an age old anecdote or story, isn't it. But I think it's a it keeps on getting told differently, and um, you know, I think there's songs that people can relate to in that because it's such a common bond with us as humans. So and we said the title track is is Spanish for loss. You mentioned the age old story. One way of telling that story might be boy meets girl, boy loses girl. A lot of these songs seem to

revolve around that. But at the same time, choosing that as the album title, the dark mood of the songs, you must have known people would associate it with the losses you've endured as a band. You know, Scott Wiland's death, Chester Bennington's suicide. Yeah, well, um, you know, I think they're in there. They're in there, but it was more of an uh an immediate uh personal not that it hasn't been personal. It's been very personal with the loss of two singers. Um, but it's set that a day

to day thing in life, of failing and losing. And but yeah, they're definitely in there, those two. You know, we're very fortunate to have shared moments, personal and musical moments with both of them, you know, with Scott Anchester obviously, and yet also a sense of loss with both of those performers. Quite staggering. How difficult was it? Was there ever a moment when you stopped and said, do we

go on? Of course, you know, especially when when you first hear the heartbreaking news, grief is always gonna have just such a number of emotions attached to it, and you know, we've been through a lot of them, especially over the last thirty years we've been together. I mean, we're closer with each other than we are kind of with our own families. You know, from growing up. I

spent more time together, that's for sure. And uh, like Robert sub we've had some really we've been lucky enough to have some really great moments with Chester and Scott that were musically friends you know, and comrades and everything involved. It was really, uh, it's really been a great journey. Yes, Scott had a great understanding of where we come from musically,

he grew up with different things. He was a little younger, but you know, when he really wanted to sing, like really sing, he he was in chorus when he was younger. He would really have this great kind of male Karen Carpenter thing about him. Yeah, he loved the Carpenters loved it. He would do that really well. It's kind of amazing how even speaking of Karen Carpenter how Scott could mimic

that soulful tone in her voice. I mean, and that's one thing a lot of singers have a hard time trying to emulate naturally, is they might probably hit the notes, are the inflections, but he really could get in there and get the feel of what some of those great hits that she had together. So the decision to keep going, UM, just tell me a little about that and and about connecting with Jeff, Well, we went through quite a process

to um get to this point. And I think what Eric was saying before, We've gone through a lot of processes to get two points, not all positive constructive points, but UM, we kind of looked at this is a chance to uh continue writing what we doing. What we do do the best is writing UM and finding someone who we could share that with and they could you know, beer sonic mouthpiece, your creative mouthpiece. And Jeff he gets it,

he gets where we're coming from. I think this. I think presenting him with these songs on this record, for me, it was it was it was a true test to see where he would be at with with these kind of songs thrown out of him. You know, you either get it or you don't you know, there's a lot of jazz influence in there, and not everyone has that

ear for that. But yeah, he handled it well. He had to look gread just everything that gets thrown at him, speaking about Jeff, every everything gets thrown at him, he has something for it. He doesn't sit there and say, oh'll come back tomorrow and let me digest these chords. He doesn't shy away from that. He'll just jump right in and usually in the nine tile of what his main ideas are, end up going forward with the rest the song. It's really great. I asked you a little

bit about first connecting with him. You took a somewhat unusual route to that because you held open auditions at one point before you guys had connected with him, right, we we did. We have the three of us, Dean and Eric and I went through, uh, probably fifteen thousand submissions and we kind of gave everyone worldwide a chance to um, you know, have their have their place in the sun for for a minute. And of course in

jeff situation, he didn't send a recording. It was just that strikes me as the funniest thing about this because it was it was more of the natural connection the way that guys connect in bands. Right, Yeah, we just gave it a try, and you know, it's uh, it's um. It was interesting to see what people had to offer. There's a good reel there of out takes, all right, not naming names, but what was the kind of craziest thing you heard in those many submissions. It wasn't anything crazy.

It was just very amateur. It was amateur, you know, and I don't think people realize what it takes, you know, I think I think that whole well, my mom said him great. I mean, you see a lot of this just in YouTube in general, where people aren't that funny and they're trying to be funny or they're not that talented, but they are told, all right, get off my YouTube channel, guys. But you know, hey, everyone everyone tried, and i'd say

of them believed it. So there was nothing completely out of left field, like I'm a grandma, but I love your music and uh, here's my shot. One of my favorite was one guy sent in a version of plush but he just played on piano. I thought it was great because he obviously wasn't trying to be a singer, but he just threw it in there, and it was really a nice break to hear amongst the thousands of

singers in a row to go through. I think the thing was is on video people were very confident, but the ones we chose to come and actually perform with us when they got there, they were a wreck. When they really got physically on stage with the band, I think it would turn into a different thing. And that's my point is like kind of put your big boy pants on, you know. Whereas Jeff, having been on X Factor, had already been through that process, so maybe he can

walk into that moment having faced those fears already. Not only that, he grew up in Detroit and Detroit is not a very forgiving town, so he was playing around there and really knowing what what failure was about, and what's uh, you know, not being able to uh move on with music and doubting and all these things that

go along with deciding to be a musician. You know. Um, you're saying he'd already ducked his share of beer cans in Hamtram the Detroit reference, he just got nerves of steel man, I actually thinking about I've never seen him get nervous. He just kind of looks at you're like, all right, you ready to go? You know it. Someone said something to me one time when they criticized him after seeing us, and he said, you know, that guy's got big balls, And I said, you know, um, yeah,

that's what you have to have. You have to have big balls to go out there and do that to be a rock singer. Yes, that's that's that's kind of job qualification number two or three, maybe two and three. Yeah. So he proved that, and I think, um, you know with this record that he proved another thing to us that he can um share and express the sentiments of these songs. You know. So you produced this album yourselves, working in Eric's studio Bomb Shelter Studios, and you've recorded

there before. Tell me about this spot, how did how did it get that name? Originally I had a spot in downtown Los Angeles, was that wonderful six thousand square foot facility, and then just over the years I just wanted to bring it, bring it home because it was starting to get to be a pain to go through traffic to get there. So having all the equipment in

the home studio really helped. Because it's a lot of vintage gear that I've collected since the nineties, and Robert has a really fantastic studio as well, the same type of vintage gear. So between the two of us we have everything you need for a world class studio. And uh, it's a lot easier recording and making our own schedule and in our own houses. Then it is necessarily driving collectively somewhere else and being on the clock. So to say.

We've done our last four records actually at my place and Eric's, so it's it's been very very convenient, very nice. It's nice when everyone has to go to you. You can stay home and everyone has to come to you. That's a nice feeling. And you did your first five albums with Brendan O'Brien. So what's the difference between working with a great set of outside years and and working producing your yourselves. Well, I think a lot of that is is being a good listener and and watching what Brendan.

You know, I feel I feel very, very fortunate to have made records with Brendan O'Brien. Brendan was a great teacher. He was one of simplicity. I think the whole thing there was, you know, it takes an idiot to complicate, a genius to simplify, and I think Brendan was genius is simplifying. Can you give me an example of that. How how did that work? Well, you know, you'd go out there and you go, what what Mike should be used, and he goes, just use the closest one, and just yeah,

that's great where it's at. And there was bleed and there was talk, and there was things in the recording when you go back and listen to them, and it was recorded kind of like it used to be recorded back in the sixties that you know, there's bleed and and you know Phil Specters stuff and all that, all that kind of charm that goes along with the music. So the spontaneous over the perfect. Yes, spontaneity was a big part of Lessons from Brenda. It was playing live.

It was in some cases with Purple and a couple of other records where there was literally a a p A set up in the tracking room, so you're you're hearing bleed from the p A and you know that was once a part of a charm of a recording, you know, back back in the day. And uh, you know, we've always been been big fans of a vintage stuff and and old recordings, and I think Brendan was there too.

He shared that sentiment with us. And after we made these records with Brennan, we we've we've been making these records with um a gentleman by the name of Ryan Williams. And Ryan actually uh started working with us as Brendan's assistant engineer on our third record, Tiny Music. So we've worked with Ryan Williams since he learned from Brendan. So it's like we get the best of both worlds. We get the what we what we learned from Brendan and what he learned, and we put that together. And I

think some times, being your own producers, it's challenging. You have to leave ego out when you're criticizing yours and other people's art. And Uh, you know, I think we've got a good way of doing that and moved on like that. Thank you for the Maori's Cabby the time, I said, and move never want to do things. I know, but that mom was wrong. Stay with me to the mone and please be Eric. You you said Bomb Shelter started as a six thousand square foot space. Were you

recording other bands there? Was it originally like, hey, I'm opening a studio. Yeah, it was right around uh two thousand that I found just you know, found some commercial property in downtown Los Angeles. And then uh we had back then a lot of bands coming through every every couple of weeks. And then luckily the Henry Rawlins Show came in and wanted to do the music portion through the studio. So that was a lot of fun having

two bands a day coming through. And one of my favorite memories of that was I had Slayer coming in the morning. They came in around noon, played four songs, and then Amy Mann came in later that day with an acoustic guitar. Was the contrast. It was really wonderful. It is the very definition of Yin and yang. Yeah,

and it was. It was nice. It's just kind of what the space was built for, just a multi purpose everything everything goes kind of place, and uh and I just worked out to be a really great creative space for a lot of years. And did you guys get to record there before you as it were brought it all back home. Yeah, we did our self titled record there, first self titled record. Yes, you've used that title twice.

We ran out of titles. Well, let's talk about the second self titled record, which is also your first record with Jeff. What was that like? You said he could handle anything you were throwing at him. So how did that album come together and what did it feel like. We started writing some songs, um, getting into ideas with Chester before he left the band. Um, and uh, you know we had that spark of kind of wanting to make a record. UM. So when when Jeff came in,

we actually did we we did that at my place. Yeah, we had probably four songs already recorded, maybe more. Yeah, we we Uh, we had Jeff come in for the first day. The first day he came in, he he just started singing, just started singing over stuff and it was it was appealing, it was working. Um. So that's where that kind of started from. And we just we're like, all right, let's let's make a record, keep going, keep

writing more and more. So then we after he didn't the initial one or two auditions, then he started singing on some of the studio stuff we had recorded. Then uh, we started just writing with them and that just continued to go on very smoothly. And so these these four songs that you had in the can already. They became the first songs you recorded for that record. Yeah. Luckily for us for that situation, even even with Scott back in the day, we we'd be able to record a

whole song without any vocals. I mean we're talking a Silver Gun Superman's one off the Purple album. There was no vocals on that, and even had the guitar solo, it had nine out of ten of the overdubs and then Scott would just come in, Okay, I got a melody, and then go back and write the lyrics and just throw them down. So so we're not shy to be able to put a song together and record it knowing how to arrange it in everything, when a vocalist can grab ahold of it, here's all the parts for you.

And that's kind of what Jeff got presented with and he just nailed it. And I'm not sure everybody understands this, but you know, when you're writing that song, you don't always have the melody in mind. This is one of the things a great vocalist does is understand where that song is going enough in his own head to put that melody on top that that's often the part that as a listener, we identify with first, Yeah, yeah, that's great.

How that works. I mean a lot of times it can just look a lot of the songs from this new album per Data, Robert would have melodies already, just be whistling them and playing on a crucial guitar, so you kind of knew where the song was going. Whereas taking songs like Silver and Superman, like I said in the past, we just presented as a band and kind of going it in and go okay. I hope he comes up with something great for it. Sure enough, he

would be outstanding, you know the final product. Just before Perdida was released in February, you had a theater tour scheduled. You had to cancel. Jeff had a herniated disk. What happened? How's he feeling now? He's feeling good. His back is feeling great. It's just a scarred tissue and a few things that they had to move to uh to get to the surgery. But he said he's been doing every day. He's getting better and better, so he'll be he'll be at a hundred percent in no time. Would we classify

this as a work related injury? Is it the rigors? Of being a front man that that that through that disc out of whack or was it something else. I think he's had that for quite a while. Things had back problems for a while. I think most people that have back problems are something that's genetic or yeah that this is worn down to it might be a genetic thing. Um. So many people after that came out we had to

cancel the tour. I mean so many people came out to me and said, I've had the same thing, and well that's really uh, back back is not it's not. It's not pleasant now very mysterious too. They don't always you don't always know what's going on. But man, I still look forward to, uh revisiting that and rescheduling the

tour because the rehearsals were sounding so incredible. So you were going to go out and do the acoustic thing in these intimate theater gigs, right, yes, Yeah, and we're gonna have a few extra players as well, so, um, just to hit all the different guitar over dubs and extra vocals and keyboards and strings and everything else. Um, for not only the songs off this record, but quite a few other catalog songs that we've never really been able to to play live and the idea is to

reschedule those dates, uh for sometime in the future. Yes, absolutely, so you you do have a tour coming up, I think, so let's linker here for a second. It's a little bit of a concern right now for anybody anywhere. We're talking about the coronavirus, but for a rock band on tour a different kind of concern. Well, I think, um, it's always tough doing so much traveling. I've gotten really ill on the past two tours we've done. We've done in one of South America. I think we're on ten

planes in twelve days. Yeah, everybody got a little little aile in South America, but that's probably food related, right. And then the heat wave of last summer in Europe, they were definitely weren't prepared for that and having having the flu through that, and uh, yeah, it's a concern, I think, um as as we get older, it's it's definitely a concern. It's a concern to keep ourselves as

healthy as possible. But when you're in public places and you're traveling and you're doing all that, this this Australian thing coming up is going to be, you know, flying on days of shows and ideally like to have a day off on the day you're traveling, but it's unfortunately isn't working out that way, So you just do the best you can to stay healthy. I don't really know is the is the coronavirus hype? Is it? Is it real? Is it as bad as they say it is? Is

it spreading? I mean, I mean places are shutting down, so we don't really have any control over what may happen. So I just gotta kind of hang in there and see what's gonna happen. You gotta be careful and we we now have to make hand sanitizer or drug of choice. Yes, and high five with your feet yes, Okay, I thought

of that all right. So, UM, I do want to go back to something I was saying earlier when when I got the album in January, I was taking a few notes as I was listening, and I really did right down Jethro fucking Tall and I bet you know which song I'm talking about? Which one? Now? I didn't know the time Dean wrote that, And um, I don't know if that was by accident or it's hard to hear flute in the context of a rock album and not think tall that's I think that's all. I mean, well,

he did it well. I think the flute was just um, you know decision I had for someone to come in and uh play on some songs and and you know, it sounded so good it's like, well, let's try it on this song too. I mean that's how you know a good player of a of a different instrument is uh is pretty infectious. I wrote a song called Years, and I really enjoy Paul Desmond as a sax player, and I really wrote that outro of Years for someone

to his name is Chris Speed. Chris Uh did a beautiful solo on the end of that saxophone you mentioned. There is that jazzy feel to some of this, and it does have a stretched out, relaxed quality to it. It. It reminds me of of that seventies jazz rock fusion thing that kind of went away for a minute. It did, but we we all are. It all comes back because it was great. We all we all appreciate it and uh, you know it's part of what we grew up on

back in the seventies. That's when you know your real friends, because when you put on a general giant record. Half the room will leave and the half that stays there, those are your true friends. It was funny because I just I have a friend who is in his thirties, and uh, like, have you ever heard this record? He's like, no,

have you heard of this record? No? So we we drove around in my car, went old school, drove around in my car, and I just cranked up some seventies fusion for him and he was like, man, I never knew. So it was just passing on. That's trying to keep it alive. Fell was. We talked a little bit about the decision to keep going. What do you want to do?

What's next? You've done this acoustic album, when you're thinking about what you want to accomplish next, more records, more touring, since were just this record that was a different flavor from some of the stuff previously. I don't know, it's it's I'm curious to see how the next record is gonna sound. If it's gonna be the loudest thing we've ever done, or if it's going to be a mixture of the last couple of records, if it's gonna be

a whole new direction. I don't really know yet. And Robert, if you had to guess, you know, UM, be happy, huh, be happy and enjoy life, and um, I think music will fall hello after that. I think life is the greatest, uh, you know, a thing to write about. And um, who knows what life is going to be uh in months or years or you just never know. I think that's what's going to really dictate what's going to be next musically. Well, Robert, Eric, thank you so much for being here. Thank you, thank you,

pleasure Man, thank you. Inside the Studio is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, check out the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.