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Unless you have HubSpot's AI-powered marketing tools to help you do all that and more. Get started at HubSpot.com slash marketers. All right, welcome to Talkers Jericho. It is the part of Thunder and Rock and Roll and today it's all about Rock and Roll radio and Ronnie Radke. Ronnie is here from Fallen in Reverse making his talk as Jericho debuted. If you haven't seen the video for the new single Voices in my head, you got to check that out on YouTube.
Ronnie has a series of fights against himself. Did most of the stunt work himself as well on the video. It's very well done. He talks about that in this upcoming conversation. Ronnie and Fallen in Reverse are also wrapping up the Rock Zilla tour with Pop-A-Roch and Hollywood Undead. The last show is tonight August 31st in Nashville. Then Fallen in Reverse is doing a couple of festivals this fall. They'll be at Will Rock Fest September 24th in Illinois.
After shock and sacramento on October 7th, Ronnie is talking about touring fan interactions and he gets really candid about the two and a half years he spent in prison. He talks about what landed him there, what it was like to do the time. A heart it was to assimilate himself back into normal society after he got released.
He shares thoughts about his escape the fate bandmates abandoning him while he was in prison. He explains how he was able to put falling in Reverse together behind bars and write the songs that became their first album when he was released. You hear how he's eventually able to make a man's escape the fate and what his hard fought success with falling in Reverse means to him.
Great musical discussion with Ronnie Radke. Before we get to it, if you booked your cabin for Chris Jericho's Rock and Rest in Rager, at C-Four Leave Clover, still cabins left at Chris JerichoCrews.com. You can come now, vaccinated, unvaccinated, the rules of change. We welcome everybody. And we sit sail February 2nd. We're going to our own private island for the first time ever. Grand came in key. The talent lineup is stocked as well.
AEW will be on board. We got comedy, live music, paranormal experiences with Dave Schrader. So much going on. Come join the vacation of a lifetime. Book your cabin now at Chris JerichoCrews.com. Alright, let's get to Ronnie Radke and falling in Reverse right here right now on Talk Is Jericho. We were just saying I haven't seen Ronnie Radke since probably backstage in Atlanta maybe five years ago or so.
Yeah, you guys were touring with motionless and white. I think it was. Yeah, a lot has happened in that time frame. But it's cool to me because you guys got lots of cool stuff going on, including a really big tour. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's been crazy. Yeah, I can't believe that it's happening like this. It's insane tickets are crazy and all that stuff. So the excitement is unreal. It's a great bill. It's pop a road. It's falling in reverse. It's bad wolves. Hollywood and dead.
And these that's kind of the secret right now is doing the big package tours to get kind of the most for your buck, right? The biggest bang. Yeah, for sure. Is this the biggest tour that you guys have done? Yeah, it's the tour has been absolutely insane. I mean, it's been seven, eight thousand tickets arenas. The merch isn't saying the merch signifies how well the band is doing.
And I could tell you that I'm like, Oh, okay. So we're supposed to be here. I was a little nervous because we're going to all these Midwest places where pop the roadstripes. But we've never really played these places. And I was just like, well, this is probably just going to be, you know, pop a road to show
a little nervous. And then we go on stage and I'm like, Oh, wait, no, this is crazy. Oh my god. It's very, very sick. It's very cool. It's like, you know, dream any musician that starts a band dreams of walk onto an arena floor and the whole crowd is there to see you. That's just a dream that any musician will ever walk. You know what I mean? So totally living that dream for sure. So it's crazy.
Well, especially like you said, because it's like you see the tour poster and it's pop a roach and fall in reverse. It's like the two kind of co headlining at least the spots are the same. So I'm sure it's a little bit like you said a little nervous at first. Like, yeah, they're going to come see us too or that sort of a thing, right?
Oh, yeah, at first, the first couple of days, I was like, man, this is crazy. And then I was like, no, this is this is right where we're supposed to be. I don't know if you know pop roads, but they're so cool about everything. And that really helps a lot because they've been around, you know, sure helps a lot. There's no real ego. It's just more confidence and talent.
Yeah, I mean, so that really makes such a difference to like we've been on tours before with you know, I had lining band where the kind of new dickish so to speak. And it's like, what why? Why are we doing this right? Yeah, I don't know. I feel like when you get older as a musician, as successful musician, I all the successful musicians that are older, they're all so nice. Usually, I'm not going to name some mean ones.
But usually all the older ones like Corey Taylor, I've met, yes, or I know, I'm met, like I know, I'm, you know, personally, he's so nice. It's just like you reach a certain level and you just as hard to explain, I guess it's just the ego, I guess, you know, all the older musicians that have been around the block are just a lot cooler.
And I guess like that for almost anybody in show business like the bigger the star for the most part, the cooler they are, you know, like if you go on tour with Metallica or like with us, we did kiss or even we played a couple shows with iron maiden.
And then the top of the line, it's like everybody's cool, anything you need, you know, beer in the dressing room, signed from iron maiden. And like that's just, I think, because they know their place, they know they're freaking iron maiden in Metallica and kiss. There's nobody going to take our spot, right? Maybe some of the middle guys feel a little bit differently than that.
Exactly. As I've gotten older, you know, and I've been doing this for a really long time. I've noticed myself kind of be a little more grateful when I'm on stage. I've got much to prove when it comes to being aggressive or I don't know, it's different for sure. I understand why when you get older and you're doing well, you just kind of take it all in and you, because it could be much worse.
You could be like 45 years old, 50 years old, playing at a dive bar and there's like, you do like $40 in merch. That's right. That's right. So there's a lot to be grateful for for sure. You appreciated the older you get to just how rare it is to get to the spot. I think when you're younger, you just say, well, of course, I'm headlining an arena. Why wouldn't I be?
Yeah. And then you like, David, you're off said once here today gone later today, you can be gone that quickly, right? Very true. Yeah. I'm just glad that I did well early on. I'm glad it didn't do this well right now. I was like 24 because I don't think I would have appreciated it as much as I do right now for sure. Right. Like a thousand caps, 2000 was super exciting, you know, to do like 8,000 and it's like a hockey arena right now for me personally.
I just look out there and I really appreciate it instead of just letting it go by and getting hammered and like forgetting about it kind of thing. It's interesting because I remember even years ago, my niece was obsessed with Ronnie Radke. Oh my gosh, it was probably maybe 10 years ago. You've always had a great relationship with the fans right out of the gate. I mean, even back with escape, the fate now, obviously with falling in reverse.
What is your relationship with the fans and why has there always been such a great connection for you? I don't know about a great connection. I feel like that's cool that she was like that. Hopefully she's still like that. Yeah, I don't know. I didn't always have a great connection. I was a dickhead, I guess. Not a dickhead, but I would just be more honest. People film me when I'm eating. I'll be really rude to them. I just, some things that just cannot stand.
I feel like you're a human and you're going through it. People should understand that. I've been called an asshole. I was talking about it, actually. I just try to be as honest as I can with the fans and with myself. I just don't like seeing, I see a lot of musicians on Twitter. I'm like, that's not who you are, dude. That's not who you are behind this very diplomatic. That kind of crap is so fake to me. I just try to be very candid with the fans and honest.
It comes across as mean. Most people appreciate it, I think. I'm not always perfect to the fans, but I don't know why they like me. I literally don't know. I said it on stage. Why do you like me? I don't understand. Now everybody has a phone. Like you said, people are filming. I get it all the time or someone's. I want to take a picture, just ask the filming, I'm just standing in an airport or standing at a restaurant. It really does kind of.
I can see you. You're not a spy. At least try and hide it a little bit or something, but it's just like, I hate when they hide it. I just don't like it. I think it's so rude. Just come up to me and be brave and get your answer. Don't be rude. I'm not an animal in a cage. I just don't have the balls to come up to me. I understand. But you don't have the balls. You're not doing this kind of pretend like we can all see you.
I'm sure with you because you're literally world renowned and everybody knows who you are. You've been doing this for so long. Like me, you could see it before it happens. You're like, hey, fan. You're like, you're like, they're getting a phone out. They're like, no, they're not like, you have to film right now. They're about to film right now. You already just, you know, you know it. Yeah. So it's rude.
And if anybody's out there and they're listening to this, I appreciate just when you just walk up and you say, hey, I really appreciate your music. And if you have the time, I love to take a picture. It's not. It's cool. That's it. And then nine times out of 10, you'll do it, right? I guess not a big deal. Yeah. But you're filming me eating macaroni salad. You go for it. I got shit all my face. It's like, come on guys. Yeah. Really? At least let me know. Yeah.
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You know, it's cool to see like one of the things I think has really built the band over the last few years is is having that presence on on rock radio, which I never realized how important rock radio is in 2020-21-22 until we started getting played on rock radio. Did you feel the same because you just recently had your first number one just a couple years ago? Yeah, dude, I'm so appreciative.
Man, I always wanted to be a radio rock band, but I didn't I didn't have the wherewithal. I didn't have the capacity. I just wanted to be very artistic and do whatever I wanted to do. And then we broke the song. I wrote the song popular monster. That was not intended for radio. So that's what's so cool about how natural that happened. They played that on radio and that went to number one and then went platinum and that is not a radio song.
But I guess now it is that the format is different is changing, but I can't believe that happened. You know, the bridge is like full time and it's like death metal screen. Right, right. And like this ain't going to go on the radio. This is too weird. You know, I even said that to my engineer and we were like, yeah, let's just make it cool. And it went to number one. But before I would do songs for the fans and I wasn't thinking about rock radio. Now I'm thinking about both.
And I really appreciate it. And I've seen we go from 2000 cap rooms to 8,000 cap rooms within a matter of two or three years. I've had two number one hit singles. Third one is going as like top 10 right now. So you got a cup. I love your song that I don't know if it's new. It's newer that the crazy one. Oh, saying saying. Yeah. Thank you. It's dope.
Well, once again, like you said, we had a couple songs that were hits. We never got to number one yet because that's another thing people don't realize to get to the top 20 is hard. To get to the top 10 is very hard to get anywhere past that. That's when all the real chess games coming because there is so much that has to go into having a number one song.
I don't know if people realize a hard that is to get it. I mean, it is very hard. Yeah, because then you got like muse red hot chili peppers dropping songs. You got all these bands that immediately go to number one because they've been around for so long and they're so huge. So you got to battle them. It's hard and the radio people have to like it and have to spin it more times. Yeah, it's just a whole thing for sure.
And then now I heart radio they have to get involved and they won't even look at it until you get into the top 10, which is a whole other thing. Because actually right now your song voices in my head is what's right behind our song I still burn. We're kind of neck and neck and we've been going up the charts together. Which is always cool to see. Yeah, it's cool to see. Yeah, I love that.
Are you in numbers type of guy do you follow that 100% yeah, I'm very competitive in a healthy way. Yeah, I love that people like always not about being competitive. Okay, why do they make number one billboard number one. That's right. You don't want to be number one. Okay, well then if you're not competitive, you shouldn't strive to be number one. So right, I love that. I want to be number one because it's what makes you successful in a sense of gaining more fans and stuff.
So yeah, I like care all about that stuff. I'm reading all of it. You know, do you do the same like at night every night with the numbers on on the shows like how many tickets for sold and your merch numbers and let's stuff. Comparing and them and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah, I want to get to you like that. Yeah, but that doesn't surprise me, man, because I'm the same way I find that people kind of that you get the artists.
Oh, I just want to play guitar and that's great. I'm an artist too. I'm also a businessman and I'm I'm I'm I like to analyze and kind of see like why is this market down? Why is this one up? All that stuff counts. Yeah, it does. I think more when you make songs that are topical. I mean, dude, like your song that song that I love.
Same. Yeah, it's so good. It's just it. It's bottom line. It's good period. People don't realize if it's just a good song how far that will take you. Right. It's just a good song. There's nothing else to explain about it. Does it take you a long time to write these songs? You spend a lot of time on every single detail. They kind of just fall out depending.
No, dude, I rewrite the chorus by like five or six times. My trick is I'll write the chorus. I'm like, and then that day I'll be so stoked and condensed and then wake up in the morning and play it. And you know how you when you listen to music in the morning, it's just a different feeling or it sounds better in the morning. And then six days later, if I wake up and I'm like, this is a hit. Then I know six days later, if I wake up, I'm like, I don't know, man, this is.
I don't know. And that's when I know I got to change it. So I agree with you got to sleep on a few years ago. I was. I've worked with bullet from a Valentine and Matt called me up and he was like, we're writing a song a day and recording it that night. I think this is the album is called Temper Temper and I was like, man, that's, that's balls.
You dude. Yeah, you're right. Record that night. And that's it. Like you have to in my opinion, spend time with it. Like you said, and everything you come up with first is genius. Right. And then you come back the next day and it's like, I don't know what that about that good. Yeah. Actually, people don't realize how hard it is to be in the studio.
People think you just go in the studio and you make a cool song. No, no, you got to be really talented, broad and hard working to make consecutive really good songs all the time. That's why I appreciate these bands that put out really good songs all the time. It's really it's not easy to just whip a song together, especially in this climate where everything has a sound really good mix really good.
Because you know, everybody's just getting good from their apartments. You know, right. Good call. Right. Yeah. Let's talk about the videos that you guys have done because I watched zombified and obviously popular monster was a great one. And then voices in my head. Like they're very kind of has a little bit of a vibe that Spencer does with ice nine kills. You could tell he's putting a lot of time into creating these little stories, but very high effects and all that sort of stuff.
Are you kind of behind the concepts of those? Yeah, I'm the reason they're there for sure. So I've from my escape the fate to now. I've always had crazy videos where they're just so outrageous. Just this past six years with started with the song called losing my mind. Right.
I started creating bigger songs and bigger stories and it's kind of they link together. And eventually we've gotten to this point. Yeah, where's this outrageous. You know, zombified is insane. I can't believe they're listening to me. I'm like, I want I want a bunch of zombies in a big city. You know, that's expensive. Right. Then I want you opposed to come. Imagine me explaining to the stuff. They're like, what? And then they talk about all the zombies. And then we think everything's cool.
And then we jump into a monster's mouth and then all right. Okay. You know, though it turned out very good. But so how are you able to do those because obviously there's a lot of effects in that and a lot of CGI and a lot sort of a thing. I just it's cost money. Yeah, right. A lot of it. People would like like to save that money for to live and stuff. And I would give all that money. I'll give my car away for that video. That video of cars come and go.
That video is going to be forever. So it's way more important. It's an investment in my eyes. So what I met this thing. I mean, I've always been a proponent. If you got to spend money to make money. Yeah, especially if you want to go to the top, like you got to spend that money.
I mean, I look at kiss. How much they're spending even to this day with costumes and production and everything like that. I mean, it really does make a difference. People look at that. Yeah, for sure. Do you do the same thing when you're when you do your shows. Do you have a lot of production. A lot of lights. I'm obsessed with lasers lights and video back walls. Oh, yeah.
I'm not really like the guy in a costume come out or not. Yeah, right. Right. Right. Some people like that. It's interesting. But I'm more of like the digital cyberpunk, like a EDM festival. I like the like the electronic side of it. Like to make it look futuristic. Most things. Oh, wow. Okay. That makes sense though. Yeah. Do you spend a lot of time like designing the actual lights? Or do you work with designers or how do you figure it out?
I want the lasers and then they I leave to the professionals on that side. I'm not very hands on what I want on the creative side and then they'll just make it and I'll get the approval. They'll get the approval from me and then it looks insane.
And that's like even like with the voices in my head video, we're basically fighting yourself. All different versions of yourself. That was that was a great idea. That was hard work for sure. In what way? I mean, doing stunts. There's two parts where I'm not doing the stunts. But that's me doing all the fighting and all the like flying in the air and stuff on the road.
I had the bruises and I was fasting. So I looked really good. So I was fasting on top of that. You know how camera adds 10 pounds and I had to do like 13 hour days, three days and for three days. Right. Filming just a music. You know, a three minute and 10 second music video was hard. Burn all those calories and fight. It was crazy for sure. But you're fighting yourself. Yeah. A bunch of means like.
So it was like a kind of stunt double type of thing and you would just kind of fill in the blanks later. Yeah, the stunt team was so cool. Man, they taught me a bunch of stuff. They told me they're like, you picked it up so well. And usually we'd be doing more stunts for you. And it's surprising that you were able to do it. I was like, it's my first time ever doing anything like this. So.
And once again, you're in great shape, which is, you know, it's it's very important as well as a lead singer to be in that shape. But you got to spend a lot of time training to decide which is that help you kill some time on the road. I work out every day with one day off, but I'm just grateful my band does too. It was just me to be a little bit harder.
You know, until I just don't drink, I think drinking, you know, I stopped drinking a long time ago. I would use a drink and trash stuff and be fun. And, you know, it's a little more boring, but drinking I would not work out. Right. When you're when you're 38 or you like, when you get past a certain age, the hangovers are like three days long. Yeah, I can't do it. So that's helped. So being sober is definitely helping me go to the gym. What was the catalyst for you to stop drinking?
How bad you feel. Yeah, I'm like, I cannot. This is outrageous. You know, I just wake up and feel awful like anxiety sometimes get panic attacks and it just started not being worth it to me. You know, it was fun, but no, it's hard enough to be on the road. And also too, it's hard when you're a singer. That's the worst part because when you're a guitar player, you know, and you go get up and stay up all night.
I mean, you can kind of hang hide behind your guitar. When you're a singer, you know, and you go out and you're. Yeah, it is talking loudly over the music and all that of the stuff, etc, etc, etc.
It's a job, man. It does. Yeah, you got to take care of yourself for sure. When you're 25, it's cool. You do whatever you want, but when you're like headed to 40 and you're like singing like screaming death metal notes and singing and rapping and you have to run around like not to stand still. Yeah, you got to figure it out. So.
I'm Jennifer and I'm Angela Kinsey. We are best friends and together we have the podcast office ladies where we rewatched every single episode of the office with insane behind the scenes stories, hilarious guests and lots of laughs. And the next week's Steve is my squirrel in the studio every Wednesday will be sharing even more exclusive stories from the office and our friendship with brand new guests and we'll be digging into our mailbag to answer your questions and comments.
So join us for brand new office ladies 6.0 episodes every Wednesday plus on Mondays we are taking a second drink. You can revisit all the office ladies rewatch episodes every Monday with new bonus tidbits before every episode. Well, we can't wait to see you there follow and listen to office ladies on the free Odyssey app and wherever you get your podcasts. So you got a cool project coming out. You're assuming it's your first book is it's not a biography. Yeah, it's got some weird stuff.
Well, let's talk about that because I've written a few books. It's not the easiest thing to do, but it's also a pretty cathartic experience. Yeah, the books called I can explain. It's I named it that because it's really funny to me because I got in so much trouble and have a bad reputation and but people love me, but I get a lot of crap online and stuff like that.
It was a perfect I can explain kind of it's a perfect name for me and it's just explains you know me going to prison and me getting out going to prison addicted to drugs getting sober, dealing with post-traumatic stress from prison stuff like that. Early life, you know, it's interesting man. I mean that that's because you've had quite the story and you've told a million times, but when you mentioned being in prison addicted to drugs while you're actually in jail.
Yeah, county jail you don't go straight to prison, but you're a county hell and they send you to prison. Yeah, I went to county jail addicted to opiates. So opiates are really fun, but they are not fun if you don't have them. You feel really bad, you feel awful.
And when I say really fun, I'm not glorifying them so if anybody's watching having a hard time that's not what I'm saying. They're fun while they last it, you know, they're not worth it, they have kill you, you know, but they're not fun with drawing in jail because you don't you don't get all the benefits of withdrawing in your bed. It was awful. Just put it like that. Did you have to go get like treatment to try and kick it or did it take a long time to to get over that?
It's not too weak, but they don't care about you. They don't care. You tell me you're withdrawing and they give you like this. I don't know what it was. It just makes you sweep, but it did not help. Right. I swear right when I was feeling well enough to like not lay down. I went to a court in jail and they're like, you're going to prison. God my gosh. I felt good enough to this and now I'm going to prison. I'm like, oh my God. Yeah. So I took a razor and I shaved.
I had long hair. I shaved my hair because I thought, you know, get raped and you know and stuff like that. Like the movies, but that's not what happens. It's not like that. It's completely not like that. Maybe like 1992 or something, but it wasn't like that. So I went into a prison with the worst hair gettos. Really funny. Well, dude, once again, you did, I think, two and a half years. I did 72 hours, a couple of years ago.
Just like you said, you are, you could be a hot shot outside. You go in. I don't care if it's for an hour or 10 years. But instantly that is the reality check of all reality checks ever. Yeah. How was that for you to kind of click your mind into that? Because like you said, you that's two and a half years and you're in a very successful band. Escape the fate at the time.
It took you destroyed me. You know, I just tried anybody that band and your band's going up and then you get everything taken away. It's all your fault. It's my fault. Yeah. I could never do that. I would kill myself. People would say that all the time. I'll never go to prison. Now you go and you'll survive the human brain is crazy. What it endures you go to jail the first 72 hours. It's awful.
By the way, county jail is way worse than prison. Yeah. It's way worse like the food. Yeah. That's where I was county jail. Right. That's where you go first. Right. It was terrible. Prison is more dangerous. You know, in a sense of like people don't care. They have life. They'll kill you. I mean, it's a game.
But county jail is disgustingly dirty. Yeah. And the food. I mean, it's it's worse. Did you ever get the baloney sandwich in a plastic bag with a cookie on top that tastes like baloney sandwich? Oh, yeah. That's a connection will always have you want a baloney sandwich cookie? Anyone? Yeah. Oh my gosh. Oh, it's great. I didn't know that. I didn't know that county was worse than actual prison. I didn't. I wasn't aware of that.
Counties where people stay for a little bit. Yeah. Oh, it's worse. And prison is where they live. So the foods are a little bit better. The food's better. Period. The feeling's different. It's way more dangerous and it's traumatizing and post-traumatic stress. Yeah. I got, you know, it's like a soldier going to war and coming home. The same part of the brain because you're in like a war zone. The biggest scariest guys in there are terrified.
The terrified. Everybody's scared in there because you know, you're looking around. You don't know what's going to happen. Right. Makes you kind of paranoid for real. When you said you had PTSD, is that just because of that feeling of always having to watch your back and all that sort of thing? Yeah. Yeah. So you're in there. I was in a prison riot. I wasn't in it, but I was in the middle of it. It was the serenios versus the blacks and the whites had to lay down. It couldn't be involved.
But there was like a guard. He had a shotgun from this thing and he would shoot. It's called bird shots. He had salt in it. So it wasn't lethal. And that was loud. And there's just a lot of moments that are very warlike and scary. So then you go from that and then they're like, all right, good luck. And then you go outside and everything's so big. You're so used to like being confined and small in the same colors. And then they let everything super colorful.
Everything's far away. It seems everything's like super far away. You know, you have to make decisions. And there you don't make they make the decisions for you. You have like a couple decisions you can make and everything else is they tell you when to eat. They tell you what you're going to eat. They tell you when you're you know, and then now of sudden you have to make all these decisions after being institutionalized for years.
So it's stressful. It's very traumatic. I want to therapy for two times a week or two years. I can see that. I can totally see that. It's like the, I mean, it's not the same. But the Shawshank redemption where the dude gets out and he wants to get back in because his whole life has been like you said living within this system. And now you're on your own, right? Yeah, I was in there between happiness. Thankfully it wasn't 10. Yeah, because I feel like we just certain point.
After you've been in there so long that you want to go back. I never wanted to go back. Yeah. I remember walking into a subway for the first time. Yeah. And they're like, what do you want? I just had a complete meltdown. Oh, wow. There was just so many things. I was like, I. I don't know. And I just had to start trembling and I had to leave and stuff. My friends had to order for me. It was wild.
It makes sense though, man. It's admirable. You went through that. But it's also admirable to me that you were able to start falling in reverse while you were in prison. How the hell did you do that? Yeah, so I would this, you know, I play. That's how I made a lot of my songs. All the songs, you know, couldn't sing really loud. I didn't want to annoy people.
So I had to like kind of whisper it. So I had to get my voice back when I got out. I was like doing this, doing this instead of like melting. Right. Right. I had to read, learn all that. That didn't take too long. I wrote all the songs like that. Like a. Dan at, and at singing the guitar parts and stuff. It was I had a lot all the time in the world. So I just write the lyrics.
Thankfully, I know how to write songs and I people in my head. I'm so thankful for that because a lot of people, they don't have that capacity. You know, so I was very grateful for that. Were you able to remember because you couldn't record on anything, right? Oh, I mean, I was doing it every day over and over. Gotcha. You know, you do that every day for two and a half years.
You're going to remember, you know, so did you put together a lineup as well or did you just have this idea of here's the songs and I'll find guys to play with. There's someone that was helped me help me that was out there, but he started getting a lot of attention. I feel like that went to his head. So he didn't understand how to take that.
But he started just letting people join the band. I was like, in pretty right. It was weird. But yeah, there was one guy named Jackie. He's very good solos and stuff. And it kind of formulated in like that. And I got out and I was so oh my God, man, I couldn't go in public must have been a nightmare being in band where man couldn't do anything because of your mental state. Yeah, I was aggressive too. I could help it. I was super aggressive. Just hindsight is 20 20. I'll just tell you that. Sure.
Did you know like you said you're in for two and a half years? Did you know like, okay, I'm getting out on, you know, May 12th or was it kind of like you had to go for probation or how did that work? I went for probation. They didn't let me out on probation. Thankfully, I'm glad they didn't got you because they wouldn't let me leave.
And just all my time. I was supposed to get on on my birthday. And they're so disgustingly mean in there that they might release date was my birthday. They let me out the next day. Oh, yeah. Wow. Yeah. Dude, I remember when I once again, I'm not comparing because this is just my own little experience. I had a piece of paper and I was writing by the hour like one, two, three, four, five, you know, six and when I got to that 72 hour, I was like, if I would have had to stay for another hour,
I would have lost my can mind because I was counting one, two, three, four, 59, 60, it's 72 hours. Can I get out now? Can I get out now? Like I was just so like, yeah, that extra day must have felt like an eternity for you. It was wild. You know, that feeling, you know, when they, because they asked for, you know, they're releasing you, you get dopamine, like it, it's indescribable. I'm talking about they rolled up and they open the loud door.
They're like, come on, you're like, what do you mean? Come on, you're, let me go. And they're like, yeah, you just whole thing floods your body. And then right before you get released, they probably put you in this room. And then there's the door that opens outside. And then the other door closes.
And then that door opens and it's outside. You walk out and you're like, for you, since you were in there and you're traumatized, you know, in a sense, you're probably like, yeah, you know, I'm going to crack your barrel. Yeah, it's probably incredible. I already know. Yeah, I want to jail and they let me out like 24 hours, 36 hours. I've done that too. I know that yeah, incredible. Get now.
So when you got out, just now you're talking about you've got some songs that you've written in your head and on the desk. Yeah, was it hard to get a new record deal where you kind of like untouchable or were they waiting for Ronnie ride key to get out.
They're waiting. Yeah, they were scared. I was going to wait like a month or two to see if I was going to go straight to drugs and I didn't right way to traumatize the two drugs. Yeah, right. No way. Yeah, drink beer because I thought it would help my anxiety. It helped, but it's made it worse every morning. You know, but yeah, it was the same label that I went in with.
We just kind of immediately went. I went to Ford and made my first album. It was a huge album too. Drugging these you was very big. It's big. Yeah, yeah, for the time for the time it did well. Yeah, you made it with with Elvis too, right with Mike basket. Yeah, yeah.
How was he working with knowing what you had just gone through? Was he a guy that you had known before? I know he's the reason I got signed because he did my first demo and he did my skate the fake album too. Gotcha, gotcha. My demo sound is so good back then. So the label is like, who the hell did this? The sounds all the other demos sound like crap and all the fans. And this one sounded like high produced.
The label was instantly interested. So we knew him in Vegas. We did a lot of stuff. Never mind. Actually, we did a lot of we had a lot of fun. We did. We had a lot of fun to share, but that was a long time ago. But yeah, he understood it was still hard. I was very, oh man, I was so messed up. I was so messed up. You're not a prison and making an album. You know, I had to stay in a little hotel. I was comfortable inside a hotel. I didn't want to leave.
Because it was a smaller room maybe. You're in smaller room. I just had so much anxiety dude around people people making nervous. They're like, their facial expressions would make me nervous. I'm completely not like that anymore. Like I could be in large groups. I can have conversations with anybody now, but not in. I had full meltdowns. I couldn't be with more than one person at a time. There's two people in the room. It made me feel very crazy. Really? Yeah. Yeah.
It's social anxiety, insane, man, which is interesting because you're the frontman of a rock and roll band, which means when you're on stage, you've got to be the party host and the focus of the of everyone's attention. Yeah, that was fine. It was because it was loud. I was protected by how loud it was. It was usually when it got really quiet because in prison, if it got really quiet, something really bad was going to happen.
You could tell because it would get really quiet. Is it me? It was happening right now. I was so and so is going to be like, oh, okay. And I'm like, are you telling me the truth right now? Yeah. For reals, you don't know. Is someone going to do something when it gets really quiet in there? The energy changes. So I think I relate that with when I got out, if it got really quiet, the room got really quiet. I'm looking around, especially when people know I went to prison and they just meet me.
They're not very loud or like themselves, they're kind of shy or they get quiet and they don't realize that was bad. So it sucked for sure. Did you have a lot of fans support when you were in jail? Did they send you letters or did you have an email that you could access or anything like that? I got thousands of letters for sure. The cops, the CEOs hated that because they have to check every letter. I know I got probably more than that.
They probably threw away a lot of letters. I get some from Czech Republic, Russia, Germany, every day, every single day. They have to read it too. I don't think they read most of them. Security risk. You don't know what they're sending, what they're saying. So technically they're supposed to read all of the letters before they give you them. They're going to check to make sure someone's trying to send you a file or something like that. How important were those letters to you at that time?
Was the one of the most important things? Yeah, one of the most important things in the entire world because that's all I had. I mean I had a TV. I could watch TV. I had friends I could call, but the letters were just the last sign of hope for any type of career and identity and music. That identity that I identified in music for sure. So all the people that sent me that really helped me a lot mentally for sure.
Oh, absolutely. I can see that. How long did it take for you to kind of, I guess, forgive your other band for letting you go or firing you whatever was when you were gone? Have you made a man with them now? I love them. I do. Okay, that's great. Yeah. They're like brothers because we were in high school together. Yeah. I've known since we were like 15, 16. But the moment I forgave them was when I walked on stage knowing they just played before me.
Oh, for reals never get it. Walked on stage and I knew I was like, yeah, it's fine now. Was it a festival or were you guys touring together or what they were opening for me on a tour? Oh, wow. Yeah. I must have been huge to put that together. Yeah. It took a lot of their egos to be set aside. You know. Now is you know, I see them on festivals and we're at the top on the top line, which is hard to do.
It takes years to get to the very top. You have your right kiss or ghost. I'm like, does my name even deserve to be up here? It feels so crazy. I'm like, that name looks weird up there. But I'm not dissing them. I'm just being rough. They're really small and at the bottom. I'm like, God, God, Lord. That could have been me.
Right. So it is what it is, man. That's how the world works sometimes. And it makes me grateful. I'm just very grateful, very grateful for being myself, staying true to myself and having the capacity to write songs that people like. Yeah. And I kind of disagree with you. I once again, I'm not just saying this because you're here. Like I said, I go back to my niece when she was younger. She was all about Ronnie Radke.
If you were still in Escape the Fate or whether you're in, you know, Joe Pukin, the chunky bits, I think you would have gotten to the next level just because it's you. You have that connection, man. It is what it is. Yeah. And you know, I think part of it is always never being too confident or thinking you have all on the bag. Yeah. I have people always running out into the crowd and making sure there's a lot of people there still. How do you mean?
I'm worried that people aren't going to show up still. Oh, I see. I'm like, bro, are there a lot of people? I'm constantly asking you before you hit the stage. I'm the same way. I get my sound guy every night. Can you take a picture from the front of house and let me see what it looks like? I got to know. Yeah, because if you're too confident, it's kind of hurt a lot worse. Yeah. When there's people don't show up or something. So, and my crew will be like, bro, they're here to see you, dude.
I'm like, yeah, but are there a lot like what is it look like? Look at it. Every day, every show, every single show. It's like a groundhog day. You know, I'm the same way though. Like obviously our band is a fraction of as big as yours. But it's like, if I'm always nervous, like if no one shows up, that's on me. Like it's my fault.
And at first, it hurts. It hurts. And you know, you have to get on stage and weather the storm. Like if it's a thousand cap room and you're like, there's only 200 people in there. I mean, I guess that's cool. You know, people like, that's cool. It's cool. You know, you're not for you. If you're staying on stage, you're just like, yeah.
It doesn't bother you. No, and you know, you still got to perform and entertain the people that show up. You know what I mean? So it's a lot easier to play a sold out gig than it is to play a 20 or 30% full one. That's for sure. For sure.
I was peved for you during the lockdown. Like I mean, obviously for all of us, it sucked. But did that affect you? Or did you use it to write new music? Or what did you do with it? I wrote popular monster in the lockdown. No, there you go. And I exploded on Twitch. On Twitch, I was the number two most subscribed channel in the world. Oh wow. Number one had 60,000 subscribers. And I was number two. I had 40,000. And that was subscriptions or $5 a piece. And that's monthly.
She's the least man. Yeah. It was insane. It was insane. And I just remember, and I was a musician. I was the only musician ever to do that. And I was proud of that because like we were in a pandemic, man. So it was just very proud of being the number two most subscribed channel because all these gamers and stuff like that.
But it was really crazy. And there's a lot of people that picked it up. And it was on new sites. And I think with that and the mix of popular monster, it just really helps my imaging career. A lot of fans kind of tanked during the pandemic. And that's another reason why I'm grateful because I got bigger than I ever got. Maybe because of the pandemic. Maybe. Yeah.
I don't know. You had to take advantage of it. You know what I mean? That's what I did rather than making excuses. I just thought of try to do new things to stay creative and stay. You know, entertaining people, right? Yeah, it worked. I thrives in the pandemic. When people ask me, I 100% thrives. What did you do on Twitch? Did you play video games or would you do?
I did some insane stuff. Dude, I made my whole house a green room or green screen. Yeah. And I made like, there was like scenes where I would switch. There was like eight monitors. I was like, doc from back to the future. Like, oh, man. Like it was, I became so obsessed with streaming because there was nothing to do. I was like, well, I can probably make a scene and make it look like this.
And it was just me standing in all these different video game worlds, I guess. It was crazy. It held me a lot because a lot of the fans came over and they would just watch me every day. And they said, you help me get through the pandemic, you know what I mean? Yeah. It was like Mario World. And it was, you know, I'm like, yeah, doing all these weird things.
Because most people just go into it and play video games, right? Yeah. I play video games after I did that. But you were the actual video game. Yeah. I was like 40,000 subs a month. That's $5 per month. That's not bad. We're being pandemic. We're being stuck at home. It's not bad at all, man. Oh, it's not as we start to wind down, man.
What have been some of your favorite tours that you've done with Fong and In Reverse? Some of the bands that you've toured with pop roasts this tour right now is my by far of my top favorite because they're so nice. And so sweet, Holly, when I'm dead and bowels are all there's no bullshit. It's just cool. Right. And then I would say, man, there's so many favorite bands that tour with Holy Hell.
Any big ones that you that you grew up kind of admiring? No, we've always had lined and I've always wanted to open for big bands and trying to remember. It's going to come to me after we hang up. Who was it that you liked when you were that if you were opening for somebody? Who would you like? My chemical romance. Oh, yeah. That's one of my favorites. I mean, I played shows with under those this this hardcore band. Like of course, yeah.
Metallica. What am I saying? Dude, we played this festival just recently with Metallica. Rockville. I think it's yeah, welcome to rockville in the Jacksonville, right? Daytona. We're Daytona. Yeah, absolutely insane. Dude, we went on stage, got off stage, mud being went on stage and then Metallica. Now is it? I was the end of the thing. So we got to be on that same stage.
So it was ridiculous. I mean, it's Metallica. Right. It's awesome, man. No, man, that's cool to see it. I was going to ask me for it too. I mentioned a couple of times, but people bagging on you in social media and that sort of thing. You I noticed that you recently took a break from all that. Is that important to do that? Would you suggest to people to do that once in a while? I think they should do that all the time. The internet, the internet ruined the world, I think.
It did a lot of good things for me and I'm grateful for that. But I think too much of a good thing is a bad thing. It's right. I feel like it's ruined people's perspective, especially when you're young and impressionable. I think it's a way of saying whatever you want. Growing up like that is not good. I'm glad that I went outside, rode my bike and I got hurt and got fist fights with the neighborhood kids.
And you know, I was rugged and I was a little boy and I did things outside. I don't know. I was gotten trouble and did not sat in my room all day and mean to celebrities. Oh my God. It's ridiculous. I don't understand that. But I've gained thicker skin for being on the internet for so long, absorbing the, you know, the A-commerce don't, they don't affect me anymore.
But I took a break because the band got bigger and I have a big mouth and I just literally get so much trouble man saying, I will say stuff that people, you're not supposed to say for sure. I will say it on here and we're going to keep it cool on here, but you know, I have strong opinions on things. So I'm not political, but I've certain things going on right now. I just do not agree with.
So, yeah, I'm not a very political guy. I'm not red or blue or anything like that, but I disagree with some things. It's also hard sometimes too. Like I said, you have to have a thick skin, especially when you're singing a wrestler or an actor or whatever it may be. But people just mean, you really wish I would die. Like you're really putting that out. I wish you would die. Like I just really come on. Yeah, really?
Yeah, I hate the most is when somebody does die and then you got people like, well, you guys are sad that he died. Yeah. In 1985, he like, I'd rested for this. It's kind of messed up guys. That kind of stuff. He bothers me. He's probably Brian died. That's why I mean by the internet ruining people or ruining the world in that sense. You got to learn how to navigate through it.
Do you ever give advice to people like do people contact you that have been in jail or in jail? Now you're kind of almost a role model for a lot of people as much as you might not like to admit that, but I can see that happening. Yeah. There's a lot of messages. Like I've been sober for this long. How do you, you know, some musicians too that have been canceled.
Like how did you do it? Like how do you deal with this? How are you still okay? How are you still not canceled? And I always tell them. Did you apologize? I'm like, yeah, I'm like, that's why why are you apologizing? You're going to apologize for the person you worked 10 years ago right now to a girl named Susie and Kansas that's 17 years old. Thank you. They can go. They can go themselves. I'm not apologizing. I already did my time. Like I'm not a bad person. You're not going to make.
How is a bad person? I wouldn't be supported by all these legends that I looked up to. You know, I wouldn't have a band. They would all lead me if I was this kind of person. Right. They don't realize that. Like your favorite band or my friends, dude. You know, do them just spouting off. You know, yeah. Now that makes sense, dude. That makes sense. And you're right. You're totally right. And that's why yeah.
Last few things for you. You got a new EP coming out very quickly. Some new music. Why not a full record? I just like to really just focus all my energy on one song at a time because it's done so well for me. When bands do full albums, details get lost. Right. You have like three good songs, right? And you push those songs. And then you have a rest of the album. Album could be amazing. Your role in Dice or you could lose the details as you're going along.
And you put like your filler tracks or your least favorite tracks is like number eight. I don't want any of those. I want them all to be like, holy shit. This is good. This is good. This is good. This is good. Kind of thing. So that's what I'm doing now. It's kind of the way of the world now. You know, even for us, we put a record out in May, but it already had two or three singles released prior to that over the previous two years, even.
Yeah. So it's more about the single and the song coming out and focusing on just one. Oh, yeah. That would be my word of advice to any bands, long time bands or new bands starting out. Just put all your energy into each song. Worry about that song and not the album. That's my opinion. That personal opinion. No, you're not wrong, dude. You're not wrong. What's your favorite song to play live?
Favorite song would be for the crowd reaction. Right now it's either the voices in my head because they go absolutely insane. Stomachified or popular monster. They go so crazy for all those. As some old songs, they go crazy for. But it just feels good because the energy, you know, you release your first album and most bands have to play that single off the first album last for their rest of their career.
Right. Not me. Have to keep playing my next song. That's big. That's huge. That's a dream for any band. I tell that I stay on stage. You guys all realize that I just played my hit single from my first record and I still have four more songs to go and they go crazy. Don't understand what that means to me. And all musicians that are in that position is incredible.
Dude, it's been great talking to you, man. Awesome. Finally get a chance to connect and I respect all you've been through and all the work that you've been doing and congrats on everything. Thank you so much, man. Appreciate you. We'll see you down the road somewhere for sure. Right on man. I'll see you later.