Hi, my name is Mary Spender and welcome to Series 2, Episode 2 of Tchussdeck Talk. This series will consist of 10 interviews in total with some of my favourite musicians. So thank you very much for downloading and listening to the podcast wherever you may be. Remember, you can catch the full video interview on my YouTube channel too. This week, I chat to Rick Beato, who is a producer, multi-instrumentalist, an incredibly engaging music teacher with over 1 million subscribers on YouTube.
this whole series is brought to you by distrokid my favorite music distribution service which gets your music into online stores and streaming platforms and they've been a huge supporter of my channel and podcast there is a link in the show notes for you to get seven percent off your first year so let's get into the show So I saw you briefly at NAMM, but how was your NAMM? It was pretty good.
It's difficult, as you know, when you are on YouTube and people know who you are and they come up to you all the time. It's... It's hard to get around, but it's fun. And it's great seeing people like you that I only see once a year. And all of our YouTube friends, to me, that's the most fun part of it, being there with Rhett and Paul and Adam. Tim Pierce, all of my friends, all my YouTuber friends, Marty.
everybody brett it's great anyone you don't shout out now will just be offended well i'm just trying to think of i was just trying to think who else was there it was just so much fun hanging out in that community and actually being able to talk shop um but everyone's experience is so different it's just just kind of cool it was it was fun that name was that was great
Did you see any gear that you're thinking about acquiring? I saw a couple interesting things. I saw this modeling microphone that was interesting by Townsend Company. I saw the new Neural DSP. plug-in, but I didn't get to try it out. But I saw Tosin Abasi's. guitars, and I didn't get to play those because there were just so many people around. Tosin said, oh, come over and play. I said, no, I don't play. It's too much.
too much commotion to to go in there and play they're getting very popular everybody's got their their phones on to anyone that's playing everybody's filming everything so i know which is absolutely terrifying
I didn't really get to do as much playing as I hoped because it was all a bit overwhelming, as you know. But I did get to wander around with the Was It Air headphones just to get a bit of like... personal me time so that no one really no one could hear what I was doing because I realized like how little I played guitar in the run-up I just feel like you have to be prepared with certain tunes or licks or something when you're going into NAMM, just in case someone has their camera.
Yeah, everybody's got all the people that are really wanting to play. They're the ones that have everything worked out. They've been practicing for six months. Getting ready for NAMM. Yeah, they'll do this famous saying where it's like, oh, I don't practice, I just play. And you're like, yeah, but you've done some practice for this. We all know. We all know. Exactly.
Okay, so one of the themes that I'm really interested in talking about is education, obviously. And it sort of stems from... thing that happened when I was about seven years old and I was auditioning for a music school not not not a conservatory like a dedicated music school but they I was applying for a music scholarship in Salisbury and it was the Cathedral School so it was pretty tough going and I actually failed to get in the choir twice.
which was my first failure. Actually, I think I had musical failures before then, actually. We've all had them, Mary. Oh, I know, I know. But I started very young. And I remember, so my parents aren't musical. And I think they were just trying to navigate this world where I was really interested in it. I was showing a lot of gusto, I would say.
There was a moment where my dad, I'm probably going to get the story wrong, but my dad is a worrier. He worries about things. He'll hear something. He won't ask questions about it. Instead, he'll just worry about it and then tell me later. And I didn't get into the choir. and got the letter and everything sort of saying why and they were saying my voice was too low but I think it was actually
One, I just wasn't good enough, which is fair, and I wish they'd just said that too, but in terms of sight reading and all that sort of stuff. But also, I think... the the term obviously perfect pitch is like this elusive magical thing in in um to me in classical music because i'm not having and sort of being outdone by children who were the same age as me but did have perfect pitch and had musical parents.
So is there anything that you would recommend to parents that aren't musical, but their kids are showing some sign of it? how to get them into training when music programs all over the country, especially in the US, all over the world really, are being shut down because of... Well, I mean, ultimately, we're responsible for our kids' education, whether we need to... take matters into our own hands. I have three kids, and I, when my...
Two kids went into elementary school. Dylan was in kindergarten, or was in first grade, and Lennon was in kindergarten. I got on the school board at the school that they went to, and I did that for three years, and I ran the academic committee. So that was the way that I got involved with... making sure that my kids' education, that I had as much say in their education as possible. So... Not everybody is as ambitious as that may be.
My wife said to me, we need to get more involved in school this year. And I said, you mean I do? She said, yeah. So you really did. I did. So I did. And it was really instructive. The school that they went to was a language immersion school. And I'd never been on a school board before. I was a college professor in my 20s, music professor. People talk about school boards being really political, but this was great. The people were incredibly nice, and it was a great experience.
So this is a charter school, and in Georgia, we don't have particularly high taxation at the state level. You know, the schools may not be as good as other places in the north that have higher taxes and they can pay teachers more. That's a generalization, but there's a lot of great charter schools here. And that was a charter school, which are typically done by lottery.
But you're ultimately responsible for your kids' education, whether you have to homeschool them, get extra tutoring, get them into a charter school. Like I said, charter schools are public schools, so they're funded by the state here in the United States. And you just have to... Put in the time and the work to do that for your kids, I think. That's my philosophy. So you've got to do it yourself. You can't rely on other people to educate your kids. Luckily, my parents were pretty...
They fought my corner quite a few times. That's what I'll say. In terms of music, do you think there's anything specific that people can get involved in? I think that all kids should take music lessons beginning when they're about four years old. Typically, kids that develop perfect pitch invariably have early music training beginning typically around four years of age. The note labeling. I mean, this first actual perfect pitch where you can identify a note instantly.
Only babies can develop that, but you can have it and not develop the labeling part of it. And the labeling typically comes through experience and being able to associate the sounds with... particular actual note if I you know you're You know that, oh, that's a G, and that only comes from labeling that note as a child, as a baby, really, or as a young child, and typically through taking lessons. So that was kind of a long answer to that. No it's good.
this is a long-form piece of content um um yeah i i worried my dad he didn't when i think i said something to him in retaliation one time where i was like i don't have perfect He thought that that meant I was going to be a bad musician. which luckily, hopefully, is not true and obviously is not necessary for people to... flourishing music careers.
How about sort of teenagers or adults who are sort of starting to take... ownership of their own education or you know any age really in terms of music like navigating the online space and just knowing where to start obviously choosing an instrument help choosing a type of music but do you think there are it's sort of
It's quite difficult to sort of focus where to begin now with everything being put out. I think, yeah, I think it's very difficult now as opposed to when I was a child, there was no internet and... And music was a fun recreational thing, especially for teenagers, people that wanted to play in bands. Really a great, great experience. I picked up the guitar. I loved the sound of the guitar. I wanted to take lessons. My friends that were musicians wanted to do it.
Now kids are really bombarded with things like video games, and it's more difficult for them to focus on learning an instrument, I think. And I think it's, I think the kids, I think it's a really important thing to have, especially people that, you know, teenagers that play in groups, whatever kind of group it is, that work together with other people and you learn how to.
interact with people in a business setting, if you will. I mean, that's kind of what being in a band is or something or doing a, you know, recording a project that's kind of like being running a business. Actually, you get together and rehearse. You make decisions like a corporation would or whatever. It's really great.
uh for kids to do that i remember i played in cover bands when i first started playing guitar and okay here's our set list the drummer was the one that told everybody here's the songs we're gonna learn Go home and learn them. Come back to practice. It's like, this is your job this week. You go do it. You listen to the songs. You're playing it wrong. What are you talking about? I'm playing it right. That is a great experience for kids, I think, for anybody.
So, it's important. But as far as what genre of music to play, I mean, just whatever... You know, whatever people are interested in, whatever kind of music you're passionate about, I think. Yeah, I think that's really valuable and I sort of... even now get overwhelmed with where I should be going, where I should be self-educating, or even where to actually find someone to help me with the certain things that I want to be learning and improving. being in a band.
At school, I was the drummer, so I was the one dictating. It was a dictatorship, most definitely. And I made a few firings by the age of 15. I think I fired two drummers. There you go. That's a big part of it, Marius, is that... You have to do stuff like that. Invariably, you end up firing your best friends and things, and it's always a bad scene. It's always bad. Luckily, I'm still very close friends with them.
uh someone i was in a in a band with but i left the band i knew that i wanted to fire all of them so i just went and started started my own Oh, God. I took it way too seriously. It's a great real-world experience, though, because the idea of firing people, that happens in bands. It actually does. Yeah, it really does.
Yeah. People quit. People get fired. You know, they can't cut it. They don't show up to practice, whatever. And it's like running a business. If one of your employees isn't showing up to work. Get rid of them. Yeah, absolutely. If you don't turn up to rehearsal on time, then you're going to get the sound. That's right. Or if you can't chip in on the rehearsal space, you know. Oh, yeah. It's actually pretty funny in terms of community, in terms of what I feel like.
youtubers are building um obviously within their own audiences but in terms of the NAMM environment or getting to collaborate with people. All around the world, what I'm realizing is that the best way to learn new stuff is to watch the people I admire and their content and what they're, you know, they're my new educator. So I get to be educated by my friends now, which is really, really cool. And then obviously those YouTubers feel like friends to their whole audience.
Yeah, I think I was feeling a little bit maybe like people could be potentially closed off, but actually with the internet, they're more able to access. you know, quicker than ever. and different ideas and obviously if those ideas are controversial people will find out about it. If it's wrong, people will most definitely tell you in the comments. Of course they will. It's all really interesting.
Did you expect this to be how you'd be spending your time? No. What did you think you'd be doing? I thought I'd just continue to produce bands and... And that fateful day when Rhett came in after he had been interning here for five years. You should start a YouTube channel. The interesting thing was, I thought a lot about the things that he told me to do when I first started it. He told me channels to watch. And none of them were music channels. They were all science channels, things like that.
Or Casey Neistat vlogging. Photography channel, science channel, Smarter Every Day, Veritasium. a lot of videos like that Vsauce and I once I saw how videos were made I was fascinating because it really influenced the early videos that I did. I was influenced by... I did more vlog-oriented videos at the beginning. Now my videos are more straight teaching for the most part, but always trying to tell a story. That's really... I think that's the key to doing well on YouTube.
I think it's more interesting to people when you tell stories. Yeah, I totally agree. I think it's interesting that you say that about other types of channels because that's how I... suddenly realized oh wait is there a music community because i was watching casey neistat's vlogs every day um
when he was really, really super consistent for like the first 400 days at 8 a.m. New York time. It was 1 p.m. UK time and I was on my lunch break in my data entry finance job and I'd watch his videos and just be like, oh my god, I really... That was when he had maybe half a million subscribers, which is crazy when you think about where you've got to now. Yeah, I think, um...
I guess that's almost the dilemma with YouTube. You have to learn how to make videos if you want to talk about music or if you want to talk about anything on YouTube. You have to be able to tell a story. it's almost more important to be able to do that and communicate. and actually even being able to play an instrument now. You know, I thought when I would watch KC, and I saw he had millions of subscribers, and I kept thinking to myself,
he must get so nervous before he hits the publish button because it's going to go out to all these people. And one video he said that, that he, he hits the pub or he said something like, I hit the publish button like everyone else. And then if your channel does well, you get 50,000, 100,000 subscribers or more, then you realize that.
You don't think about those things. It's just kind of a, you just do your thing. And I just keep making videos as if I've got a few thousand people that watch them. I don't really, I don't think about. there's a large group of larger group of people that are interested that's interesting because i i i do think about it well i don't think about the number i just think about um i get the sort of like butterfly. It's a bit like walking on stage or something.
you know it's not going to hurt you you know if you've done a good job with the video and actually spent time on it which i'm only just starting to do now now that i can you know the last year has been the first time i've actually been full-time and able to spend days rather than just an evening on a video. But I still get a flutter of nerves. But then when a video does do well... it's strange because it's like it's yes I did my job I'm glad this reached people but then it's almost like a
It's kind of like an empty feeling at the same time because you're like, well, just got to do the next one. You know, when I look back at how many videos I've made and it's over 700. And every time I start a video, Mary, I think It takes so long to make a video. I don't know why I still always think the same thing. I dread starting. Once I start, it's fine. But I dread sitting down and doing that first shot and importing it into the computer.
And I think to myself, I can't believe that I've made this many videos. Every time I upload one, it's such a relief to be done with it. And you realize how much work is involved. How many videos have you made? Do you know how many? Definitely not as many as you. I think it's over maybe 250, maybe. Yeah, it's... If you think back to the work involved in every one of those, though, it's mind-boggling. I remember when I watched...
I used to like to watch people that were doing their YouTube burnout videos. Those were some of my favorites. I remember because I always loved to hear how, you know, Superwoman or Andrew Wong when he did his YouTuber burnout video and when they would talk about how much time it takes to make a video, it always made me feel good. Because I would say to myself, exactly, I know that feeling. And how hard it is. And it always made me feel better that other people felt the same way that I did.
YouTuber burnout is definitely a thing, but... But it's a lot of work, but it's very fun. I love doing it. I definitely agree. Burnout is definitely a thing, but it just... It's not unique to YouTubers. No. so you know everyone reaches that point in their jobs whether it's a day job or whether it's a career and they just go what the hell am i doing because the rewards you dream up in your head change or just aren't anywhere close.
Um, So I've been, and I was sort of facing it with that in terms of my procrastination level. that reaches sky high when I have a deadline. I will do everything. Suddenly my house will be really, really clean. My laundry will be done. The dishes will be washed. Then I'll start doing admin bits and bobs that don't need to be done and not urgent. I'll find every excuse to not make the video.
But then it's about sort of coming up with ways, one, to be alone with the work. So don't think about all the other stuff. And I guess it's sort of... better when you have something like maybe a slightly longer term project overarching everything. that you kind of learn that patience where you're like, well, no one's going to do this for me unless I put all my energy behind it. Like no one's ringing me in the morning saying, where are you at 9am? Which used to happen because I...
missed my you know first meeting or sleep in late or something awful when I was 20 and uh in jobs at university but um I just think When you're alone with it and you realise how much you actually love making videos and don't worry about all the other stuff, it becomes a lot easier.
um and it's why i wanted to restart tuesday talks in this way because i was just like i miss talking to people like I enjoy making videos by myself and I enjoy telling stories that way about a certain piece of gear or something like that but really the whole foundation of my channel was having a conversation with someone feeling inspired by them and motivated just to keep on keeping on because everyone is feeling exactly the same way.
So, yeah. Also, I do have the sort of weekly reminder. My mum is a nurse in the NHS over here. And, you know, I get to make YouTube videos. It's just like, it's just incredible. I don't, and actually learning when someone, I know so many people have family members in the NHS or working as nurses, doctors or. anything which is just a difficult job mentally not just creatively I know that they actually see the importance of what we're doing.
in a way too. So that's quite nice to remind myself that I'm not just doing something whimsical and ethereal and idiotic. It's like it means something. to somebody even if you're just sort of inspiring someone to pick up their guitar or or listen to a new record or something like that it's just making their life a little bit brighter I mean, I'm lucky because I've got rat that lives 25 minutes from here, 20 minutes away.
We go out and have lunch together once a week. He comes over and makes a video at least once a week with me. and Dave Onorato, you know, the three of us, or I have my old assistant, Ken, come in. He's been in a bunch of videos. My buddy Jack, who's a drummer, or Les Hall, who plays bass and piano and everything else. I mean, I've got all these friends that have been in multiple videos of mine. And...
And that's, you know, it's always something different. I always got something on the horizon like that and get to work with players. um with other musicians to do this and that that's been a fun thing with the channel retained kind of what my music production life was like where it was always musicians coming in and playing different things and different projects. That's been really fun. I'm fortunate to have people that are like Rhett that's a YouTuber that we work together on stuff.
That's been cool. So that it's not... as isolated of an existence. That does actually lead me on to a Patreon question while we're sort of talking about it because... Chris asks, do you think solo artists musicians who do it all themselves will be the standard way of creating music in the future, or if regular band setups will start to reoccur. It seems hard for people on social media to form bands.
Would I go near record companies? Well, you don't need record companies, as you see from YouTube. YouTube is the only social media platform, if it even is one. I'm not even sure it is. But where they go out and find your audience for you. I mean, in a sense, Instagram does through hashtags, but it's not the same thing. YouTube actually matches people.
who have the same interests that look up the same topics as what you make in your videos. If you're doing original music, though, that's trickier, because typically the only way to get your music out to a big audience... You can through YouTube, but you can't really do it through making videos of your music. You have to have your channel be about something beyond what your band is. Getting playlisted on Spotify or Apple Music is still incredibly important.
And record labels control that for the most part. It's really difficult. It can be done. You know, it can be done. So to answer that question... Would I go near record labels? Well, every big artist that you see on the Grammys or wherever, they're all on major record labels still, for the most part. Not Chance the Rapper, I guess, but there are exceptions.
Generally, people, even if they have success on their own, they eventually go to majors because there are doors that they can open because they're big corporations that you just can't.
you know there's not nothing you can do about it i am i am fully aware of the power they hold um and in terms of like going near record companies if you want to be a music youtuber then you just don't need to but yeah it's it is strange that record labels are they've turned themselves around and You know, they are actually signing people who already have audiences.
it's like do you become if you have no other option you kind of have to jump on these platforms whether it's YouTube or whether it's Instagram but what you were saying about YouTube is really really interesting and it's something I've never thought about it is the only one that does search for your audience for you. Yes. YouTube is your publicist, basically. They go out and connect you with your audience.
And no other platform does that. I mean, how do you do that on Instagram, really? Well, you put in hashtags, but the hashtags are pretty random. People that follow hashtags. I don't follow any hashtags. I just don't. I mean, occasionally I'll click on a video, on the suggested videos that are there, if I see something interesting. I mean, you never hear them, so you'll see a bunch of stuff, and it's all music stuff for me. That's all I watch. They know that, at least.
They don't serve me up any... cat videos or anything. My kids watch plenty of cat videos. They get a lot of them in their feed. But, yeah, YouTube is, I don't know, I'll ask you, Mary, is YouTube a social media platform? I would say no. I'd say no. It doesn't feel like it. It has people, so it's social in that aspect. And the way we talk to our audiences is quite social.
No. I just, no, I don't think it is. It's like a TV. It's like watching TV. It's a network, yeah. It's a network, yeah. Yeah, and I actually think... that's what's getting so interesting about it is that it is if you if you start to think of it as a tv and how you want to program certain series and certain things like that, I think it's only going to get more sophisticated from their end too, because they're going to want to compete with other streaming platforms.
yeah they're user generated content as well as obviously working with networks and and featuring sort of the guys with you know money behind them and slightly more sort of power in the traditional sense.
it's just gonna get it's gonna get really really interesting and I think their power is letting people upload what they want and let them reach their audiences and they're trying to make it work you know when people are complaining about the algorithm or whatever you're like well it's part of the game maybe it would be a network head that would say that your TV series idea sucked. And it's like...
That's kind of what it's doing when your video absolutely flops. Their algorithm tells you when your content's not good, you know. It's much easier to blame it on the algorithm than it is on a person. you know you don't want to annoy too much like the algorithm at least can't hear you bad-mouthing it i never think you know people talk about the algorithm all the time and i did a talk at berkeley last week up in boston and uh
People were asking me about that, about the algorithm. And I said, you know, the algorithm, I don't really think about that. You know, if you make a good video, typically it does really well. And if you don't make a good video, it doesn't do that well. I mean, sometimes I've made videos that I think are good and they don't do that well.
But I think ultimately they'll find an audience. Sometimes I'll make something, and then a couple weeks after it comes out, it'll out of nowhere just pick up or something. I've had that with videos that have been on... on my channel for years like suddenly one of them will get recommended and that's where even if it doesn't hit straight away and blow up it's all about having a library of material. having a back catalogue that will just sit there and the views will never go down.
unless they're fake which they're not so it will always start building and that's where I found with my video on the anechoic chamber, it blew up and it was my first video to really do really, really well. But it didn't go over a million until... almost six months later maybe maybe more um so it's just like just just let it do its thing and just
be alone with the work because that, that is definitely the part that you cannot control at all. I, you know, a lot, a lot of videos I was looking today. Um, I had a video go over a million that I did probably eight months ago or so. today and then I was looking and I had nine other videos or something like that that are over 900,000 that are you know eventually it'll take months
to go over a million, but I have a bunch of videos over a million. I don't know, 30 videos, something like that, over a million views. some of the things A lot of these, when you do a lot of videos, you don't you don't ever go back and look at them or how they do or anything you never see the comments and then occasionally you'll sort by by views and you'll look and say oh that one's close to a million or that oh that had two million or whatever and
And ones that I know did not do well when they first came out. They just didn't. So I don't think too much about it when I put the things out. Like I said, sometimes if you do long videos, I typically do long videos and people... have to spend the time, you know, they have to set aside 25 minutes or whatever to watch a video, something like that. I don't know
I got way off topic there, sorry. It's just about just continue to upload because eventually... those videos will be seen it doesn't matter whether or not they go over a million it's like even a hundred thousand views it's just so many people and really by this point you know that people aren't really re-watching videos over and over and you don't have the time to watch your own videos over and over. So they'll eventually, you know, that's 100,000 individuals.
So if you imagine that in a stadium for every video, let alone a million people. Yeah, it's exciting. I think it's exciting. And especially the fact that we're talking about three years ago and how much smaller everyone's channels were. And just sort of tech developments and cameras getting better and the platform getting better. Who knows what will be in another three years? Yeah, things that happened in the last eight months or so that when you would upload a 4K video...
Even four months ago, you'd have to wait for an hour or two hours until it rendered in 4K. It'd be at a lower quality first. Now they have that worked out to where it's instantaneously in 4K. YouTube keeps improving the platform, which is great. I think that that's been a really positive thing. I don't complain about YouTube at all. I don't know anyone at YouTube. And... You know, I think the platform's amazing. I'm really, really psyched to be part of it.
I watch YouTube all the time anyways. Anytime I want to learn anything, I go to YouTube. Every day. What do I want to learn about? It's always, you know, cameras, lights, whatever it is, you know. yeah i mean i'm i'm so happy with the platform like again i also get questions or it's just like are you worried about this and it's like well
YouTube is definitely here to stay. Like, you look at the infrastructure, it's got Google behind it. Is anyone ever worried about Google disappearing? Absolutely not. Everyone knows how mammoth they are. And they're clever, you know, they're smart. Even if things do change, it doesn't matter. The more worrying thing is us making good content that still relates to our audience.
Or, you know, making sure we can still keep making videos. That's the more worrying aspect of YouTube channels or anyone. anyway i digress as well but i i have a few prepped questions because um so uh i kind of want to i want to switch this one up a bit and sort of say music but also book as well so which album or artist have you recommended to your friends and family the most I typically don't recommend things. I have six siblings.
And the only sibling I recommend things to is my younger brother, John. He's a really good guitar player, so I'm constantly sending him. people off instagram or youtube that i find and he always says art you know i already follow them every one of them i already oh come on i already follow them Or he says something like, oh, they're a way better player than you are. That's his stock response and everything. And I always laugh. I think it's great.
constantly every day we're sending each other videos so I found my brother John has found so many people for me to check out so that's a that's a real big thing in our family and my my next older brother Ray as well he's He's always kind of been on the cutting edge and kept up with new music and will send me YouTubers, Instagrammers, things like that. Or tell me what I should be making videos on. That's the other thing. Or how come you didn't say this on this video or that on that video?
So that's cool. It's kind of in reverse in my family. They always recommend things to me. In terms of, do you read often? Do you have time to read? I read every day. What kind of things do you read? I typically read... I read politics every day. I never talk about politics, but I read about politics. All day. Every day. I mean, I spend an inordinate amount of time on politics, hours a day. I read about politics and current events constantly.
Do you read any fiction? I mean, I know politics can be fiction sometimes. Yeah, I read politics. I don't really have a lot of time to read. I wish that I did with three little kids. My days start at 5.30 a.m., getting up with my kids, my wife and kids, and making breakfast and lunch for them and driving my two girls to school. And that's two hours, three hours before I even get down to the studio.
working on stuff so I have very long days so I typically will do the reading that I do or current events and it's always in the evenings So, but I, but it's really, but I, constantly am on Twitter, I watch TV, I read I follow a lot of writers and mainly keep up with current events. So it's important to be an engaged citizen.
At least it's important to me. I think that's good and that I guess kind of feeds into your video process in terms of talking about music and what's current and and how it works and all that sort of stuff but um okay second question if you had if you could have a drink with any musician dead or alive who would it be and what would you ask them Probably Paul McCartney.
And I would ask Paul how they wrote, when they had time to write all these amazing songs in such a short... window of time essentially from really 64 to 70. you know 100 200 songs that they wrote that were 99 of them were phenomenally great songs and it just it blows my mind that When did they do this? They were uber famous. How could they focus on doing this? And I've always been fascinated by that. So, yeah. I mean, it's just, I...
I always obsess about that. I know hard is to write a song, let alone write. So many phenomenally great songs. And I mean, I would say the same thing if I met Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and Pete Townsend and all the old school rockers that I grew up listening to. uh that are still alive there's not you know there you know we're losing them every day and and um but of the ones that are still living.
There's many things I'd like to ask them, and that's why I try to do as many interviews on my channel as possible, especially with... with musicians that I really respect. Tell me about your favorite piece of music gear or piece of tech so it doesn't actually have to be musical and the story behind it. My favorite piece of music tech is this right here. I guess it's not really...
music tech, but it's this. This is my 1957 Gibson Country and Western acoustic. It's really the only acoustic I have. I have a classical that I've had since 1977. But I bought this guitar in 1999. I used it on a record in 1998. that a mixer and producer named Kevin Shirley, who's a fantastic engineer and producer, he does all Joe Bonamassa. on Aerosmith Records. A lot of people, he's South African.
He heard this, he mixed a record of mine years ago, probably in 99, and he said, that is the best sounding acoustic I've ever heard on a record. Is that your guitar? And I said, no, it's the guy that owns the studio that we recorded in. He said you should buy that guitar. I said, my buddy Jimmy owned it. He owned the studio that one of my old bands recorded at.
kept asking him come on jimmy you want to sell me that guitar will you sell me that no no i'm never going to sell that guitar never going to sell it you know every every few months i'd call him up so I was signed to a major label back in 98, 99, and they gave us a budget because we were doing a lot of radio. And they gave us a budget of $3,000, me and the singer of my band, to buy acoustic guitar.
And we didn't have any budget for anything like that. I couldn't afford $3,000 on a guitar. And I said, Jimmy, I got $3,000. Let me buy that guitar. And he needed the money then, and he sold it. So, um... I've recorded this on countless albums and my biggest video that I have on my channel, the top 20 acoustic guitar intros of all time I did on this guitar. And this is definitely my favorite piece of music gear in the studio where there's a lot of gear.
But this is, without a doubt, no question, my favorite piece of gear. With a great story behind it. That's very cool. Thank you. um okay final question if you could give your younger self a word of musical advice what would it be do whatever I that is what I like about you I feel you know You get to a certain point with musicians of any age, like some of my friends are already talking about their teenage years being their heyday.
When really you don't want that to happen at all. You want to be living in the present at all times and like being able to, you know, every bad decision you ever made makes up your story now. So that's very cool. Thank you. Yeah, I wouldn't change a thing. That's a perfect way to end. I appreciate it, Mary. Thanks for coming on. Thanks for your time. Absolutely. My pleasure. It's great to be with you.
Rick is a truly fascinating guy so I hope you enjoyed our conversation. Make sure you subscribe to his channel and check out all his videos but also take a moment to find out more about the sponsor of this series. More than 250,000 artists rely on DistroKid to distribute their music, including myself. If you're wanting to have your music available on Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music and Tidal, amongst many more stores,
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